Increased security in the U.S. has forced terrorist groups to target Americans overseas instead.
“The enemy is going to find an easier way. They’re gonna find softer targets, they’re gonna find ways that they can hurt us and it may not be bringing it to America in hijacked airplanes. It may be doing things when we’re not looking, in places that are vulnerable and every embassy is vulnerable if you think about it,” said Smullen.
The government has also issued a global travel warning for all Americans overseas. It will remain active until at least August 31st.
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
Tax Reform Unlikely Before 2015
… at the earliest due to the House rules limiting chairmanship of committees to three terms and impending retirement of Sen. Carl Levin.
This means the current chairman of the powerful Ways and Means committee, Dave Camp (Mich-R) is on his way out because he will soon hit the term limit although the battle for that quite coveted appointment has already begun, and because Camp is rumored to be making a run for Levin’s soon to be vacated Senate seat, he likely won’t be focusing on reforming much of anything anyway.
There is a whole lot of politics in play according to this article in The Fiscal Times, but the bottom line is that if American citizens abroad are hoping for an overhaul of the convoluted US tax code, and possibly relief from the tax on earned income worldwide in the form of a residence based tax, they shouldn’t look for that any time in the near future.
Congress hasn’t bothered with a comprehension refit of the US tax code since 1986, and there are more than a few issues that need attending to, but for the time being, they appear to have lost momentum and are allowing themselves to be more concerned with the titles and positions coming up for grabs than they are with Americans in or out of homeland.
Where is the US ambassador to Canada?
According to the Vancouver Sun, the US has yet to appoint a new ambassador to Canada and it’s not likely that one will be sent north from the country of exceptionalism anytime soon either.
The most recent ambassador was David Jacobson, a former Obama fundraiser, whose qualifications for the job basically boiled down to having raised a significant amount of cash for Pres. Obama’s war chest.
However, he finished his four-year term in June and has gone on to other deserved rewards for his toadyism (currently he is the vice-chairman of BMO Financial Group), leaving Canada ambassador-less as it heads into the murky waters of trying to maintain sovereignty in the face of a super-power neighbor that views it as a 51st state.
Ambassador positions are appointed and in the US are purchased via one’s fund-raising abilities for the winning POTUS candidate.
In 1975, former POTUS Richard Nixon testified before a grand jury about the practice of “selling” ambassador positions to the highest bidder, aka “fundraiser”, and said that it was a common practice, but that he tried to also appoint those who were qualified for the job as well. He also said that this was what he assumed most presidents did and went on to cite an example from the Truman era:
“Perle Mesta wasn’t sent to Luxembourg because she had big bosoms,” Nixon said of the Harry S. Truman appointee. “Perle Mesta went to Luxembourg because she made a good contribution. But I may say she was a very good ambassador
It was rumored that the Canadian position was slotted for Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late Pres. John F. Kennedy, but she held out for Japan.
So who will our next ambassador be?
Well, Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue and inspiration for boss from hell in the novel, The Devil Wears Prada, could be heading our way now that London and Paris are off the table. But odds are better that the Ottawa residence of the American ambassador will be sans ambassador for the immediate future.
Does the US State Department feel that Canada doesn’t need any special handling? That we are “sympatico” on all fronts? Or maybe this is just another rap on the knuckles for Ottawa, which has been curiously stubborn about giving into the White House of late and indeed, seems to be thumbing its nose a bit with talk of joint military exercises with China and declining to provide any material support in Syria.
Given that we are currently eight months, and counting, since the FATCA IGA signing was “imminent” with multiple signs from Obama that he is not going to consent to the KeystoneXL and the disinclination of the Canadian government to give in on allowing American police to run amuck within Canadian borders, one can only speculate about this latest development. And whether it is good or bad for Canada really depends on which side of the border the beholder is standing on.
NSA Sings This Land Was Made For You And Me
Welcome to the Homeland, Mexico and Canada!
The Atlantic Wire reports on the head-scratching and ultimately face-palming presentation made by the NSA to a Senate Judiciary Meeting a couple of days ago.
Besides being informed that North America* is now just one, big, happy and trendy turquoise family, we learn of “9 threats involving U.S. Persons or Facilities Overseas” (lower left corner of the picture). Does “involving” mean that we so-called U.S. Persons are under threat, or that we are a threat or, maybe, both simultaneously? Perhaps the NSA can explain since they seem to know more about us than we do. Hey, at least we finally got our name on the map.
*and Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Cuba, the West Indies and, um, Greenland.
“Conservative” National Post: U.S. police officers on Canadian soil must answer to our laws
Notably National Post columnists Matt Gurney the author of the above piece has been in favor of enhanced US Canadian law enforcement cooperation(see below) but says the latest US demands are “too much”
From the land of the free to the @BarackObama #Orwellian #PRISM security state
#EdwardSnowden granted refugee status in Russia, leaves airport http://t.co/TlpPHYj0xj – Guess he has more rights in Russia than in the US
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) August 1, 2013
#Manning verdict leaves 4 big issues http://t.co/69k1jQqUgr – Has the @barackobama land of the free become an #orwellian security state?
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) August 1, 2013
What’s up in the “Land of the free and the home of the brave”?
The above two tweets reference articles in today’s Globe. Note the following from the second article:
Obama’s record on whistleblowing
Since taking office less than six years ago, Mr. Obama has pursued more espionage charges against government employees than all other past presidents combined. It was therefore unsurprising that when Mr. Manning pleaded guilty earlier this year to several lesser offences that would have brought him about 20 years of imprisonment, the government refused to bargain and opted instead to prosecute the most serious charges.
By throwing the book at, and making an example of Mr. Manning, Ed Snowden and all other alleged whistleblowers, the U.S. administration clearly hopes to send an intimidating chill throughout the civil service, and in so doing reduce the incidence of leaking.
Is this strategy, in combination with the imposition of curbs on civil liberties and constitutional rights, transforming the erstwhile land of the free into a something disturbingly Orwellian – a national security state? Not an insignificant query.
This is a good article and provides good opportunity for comment and discussion.
@TD_Canada begins #FATCA Hunt and embraces role as #IRS deputy – #expatriation anyone?
We have one more indication of FATCA causing problems for U.S. citizens in Canada. The first involved a bank account with the Royal Bank. In this case the RRSP account of a Canadian resident was frozen because she was suspected to be a U.S. person. We now have more indications of trouble …
What follows is a comment that appeared on July 9. It is significant because it demonstrates how serious the hunt for “U.S. persons” will become. Look around they are everywhere. Who knows, maybe one of them can be your retirement plan.
US Wants Its Police in Canada and to Have Them Exempt from Canadian Law
Toronto Star, 31 July 2013:
“The United States wants its police officers to be exempt from Canadian law if they agree to take part in a highly touted cross-border policing initiative, an internal RCMP memo says. … The debate over whose laws would apply to U.S. officers working in Canada raises important questions of sovereignty and police accountability, says the briefing note prepared for RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.”
Does this have implications for anyone who winds up in trouble/penalties over tax issues? Is Canada a sovereign country or is Canada the 51st State? Some people call that country on our southern border the United States of Arrogance (I picked up that appropriate term from Blaze) What could be more arrogant than wanting to be exempt from a country’s law, and use your own country’s law, when you are in their country?
In 1812, the US attempted to invade us in a concrete physical way. Didn’t work. Two hundred years later, they are attempting to invade us in an invisible way, little-by-little, and impose their law on us and they have the arrogance to think that Americans should be exempt from our law when they’re in our country. We are not the 51st State, we are not a US colony, and we are not a US police protectorate.
Thanks to Lora and Schubert for discovering this news, which can be read at:
And for further details and discussion on this programme also see Noble Dreamer’s post on this topic from last summer.
The particular development in today’s news is that they’re trying to get exempted from Canadian law whilst in Canada. This programme sounded problematic to begin with, and this implementation-of-US-law-in-Canada proposal sounds more similar to an occupying force than a partnership.
Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s RIGHTS WATCH CONFERENCE in Toronto September 20-21, 2013
I just noticed this while looking at FB timeline. Perhaps of interest to those who live in the area.
Each year the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s RightsWatch Conference brings together a wide variety of stakeholders and community members, including academics, public officials, lawyers, students and interested members of the public for an intimate conference. This year CCLA is pleased to partner with Ryerson University’s Office of the Vice President, Research and Innovation, the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre, and the Ryerson Law Research Centre to present Civil Liberties and Democracy in the Digital Age: Privacy, Media and Free Expression. There will be a series of discussions on the impact that new technologies and modes of communication have on legal and societal understandings of privacy, freedom of expression and the media. We are planning panels on surveillance, anonymity and expression in ‘public’ space, freedom of the press and the citizen journalist, the application of constitutional guarantees of privacy to new communications technologies, access to information and ‘open’ government, and privacy and expression in the private sector.
Join us Friday, September 20, 2013 for an evening keynote and reception, and Saturday, September 21, 2013 for a full-day conference.
Notes From the June 15th Meeting in Toronto -“Traumatized by the IRS & the US Reaching into Canada?”
I have received an okay to publish these notes from the Speaker of Part 2 of the meeting that was held in Toronto on June 15. I apologize that they are not in narrative form; I don’t have total memory of all that was said nor did I understand everything that was said and I fear giving the wrong impression if I were to attempt to elaborate. Hopefully, the general sense is correct. I wanted to do them as a separate post so that more might see them; it seems less people will benefit if they were buried as comments only. Many ideas were remembered by commentors on the original post but there are some important ideas that need to come out. The Speaker did an excellent job outlining and organizing a lot of information that many will need as they try to figure out what to do about their own situation. Also, I did not take any notes on the first session as it was my understanding that it was to be completely private and I thought it would be inappropriate for me to do so.