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November 3, 2015

That FARA Way Look

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: , — Bill @ 11:52 am

MSS-China-CRIThe US Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are looking at California businessman James Su’s company, G&E Studio Inc. to determine if the company is violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

Su’s company is in West Covina, CA, just east of Los Angeles.  Federal law prohibits foreign governments or their representatives from holding a station license for a U.S. broadcast station.   Su’s company does not own any radio stations, however it leases two 50,000 watt “blowtorch” stations, one that blankets the Washington, DC, area from suburban Virginia and one in Philadelphia.   Additionally, his company provides nearly all the program content to stations in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Portland, Las Vegas, Dallas/TJ, northern California, and Hawaii.  The program content is produced in his West Covina studio and by China Radio International, the Chi-Com state run radio system.

Su and his company are being scrutinized by DoJ because the FARA requires that anyone inside the US seeking to influence American policy or public opinion on behalf of a foreign government or group must register with the US DoJ as a foreign agent.  Neither Su nor his companies are registered as Chi-Com agents.  Su contends he is not violating US law because his and the CRI programs are run on radio stations his company leases but does not own.

For a very detailed examination of CRI’s operations, see the Reuters November 2, 2015, article headlined Exposed — China’s covert global radio network airs China-friendly news across Washington, and the world.

4 Comments

  1. Sounds like our local URD … they really lease our money, thus we have no voice regarding its’ use because our Legislature gave our money away according to detailed financial agreements. State law prohibits some URD uses, however, our Legislature is scrutinizing the activity of local URDS to determine if the money is being funneled into appropriate activity like propaganda and brainwashing.

    Comment by Stebbijo — November 4, 2015 @ 6:41 pm

  2. Stebbijo,

    In a broad sense, I agree. However, I don’t have much confidence at all in the Idaho Legislature’s willingness or ability to even consider the possibility that public money is being used inappropriately or unlawfully by any URAs and certainly not the LCDC/ignite cda. And even if it found that some URA’s like LCDC/ignite cda were using money illegally, the only thing the Legislature could do is amend the law to correct the particular defect. But I doubt it would. Once the flow of “free money” starts, it’s nearly impossible to stem it.

    Comment by Bill — November 4, 2015 @ 6:50 pm

  3. I agree, we live in Commie Idaho , they don’t want the ability to consider anything, everything they do is hype … the arrogance that a voter initiative would be repealed, partially on the argument that our newbie elected, would be subjected to cunning lobbyists is beyond pathetic. Maybe our Legislature should start looking at those laws and tweak some badly needed reform … oh, that’s right, I forgot, I live in Commie Idaho.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/02/us/idaho-legislature-repeals-term-limit-law-undoing-voter-approved-measure.html

    Also, just an after note on your previous post/comment where you reflected upon Cassia County violating open meeting laws and the “cure” our great ones have put in place … I read that the neighboring prosecutor is from Jerome County and he is doing the “curing”. It really is entrenched, kind of like Bonner County investigating Kootenai County. However it makes sense, our Supreme Court Justice is from Jerome County … had or has a law firm there.

    https://www.isc.idaho.gov/main/burdick

    Commie Idaho … that is where I live.

    Comment by Stebbijo — November 4, 2015 @ 7:39 pm

  4. Stebbijo,

    I’ll speculate that because it was Cassia County Commissioners who came to an agreement ahead of time to violate the Idaho Open Meeting Act and then acted in furtherance of the agreement to violate the Idaho Open Meeting Act, the Cassia County Prosecuting Attorney declared he had a conflict (his office provides legal counsel to the Board of County Commissioners) and asked the Jerome County Prosecuting Attorney to determine if the Idaho Open Meeting Act was violated. From I.C. §74-208(5):

    In the event that there is reason to believe that a violation of the provisions of this act has been committed by members of a board of county commissioners or, for any other reason a county prosecuting attorney is deemed disqualified from proceeding to enforce this act, the prosecuting attorney or board of county commissioners shall seek to have a special prosecutor appointed for that purpose as provided in section 31-2603, Idaho Code.

    I worded that the way I did, because even in Idaho if two or more persons agree to commit a crime or an offense prohibited by law and one or more of them commit an act to further the crime or offense, each party to the agreement can be found guilty of a separate offense of criminal conspiracy. Since the illegal agreement and action to accomplish it were separate and distinct from the violation of the Idaho Open Meeting Act, the Cassia County Prosecuting Attorney should be the one prosecuting or declining to prosecute his own county commissioners for the separate alleged offense, conspiracy. To conclude otherwise is to suggest that a county prosecuting attorney in Idaho could never charge a fellow county elected official with any criminal offense or infraction simply because the county prosecuting attorney has provided legal counsel to his fellow county elected official. To the extent that creates a conflict prohibited by the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct, it would be up to the Legislature to redefine the duties of the Prosecuting Attorney to remove the circumstances creating the purported conflict.

    Comment by Bill — November 5, 2015 @ 7:08 am

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