CATHOLIC FASCISM
Croatia attorney general steps down for being Freemason

ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatian Attorney General Drazen Jelenic stepped down on Wednesday following pressure from top officials after he publicly acknowledged being a Freemason.

“That membership of a legal association did not influence my job in any way, but the recent insinuations in public related to my membership have made my further work in the current role impossible,” Jelenic said in a statement.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had said the government would sack Jelenic unless he resigned.

“There is nothing illegal here. However, this created an unusual circumstance which makes his position (as attorney general) difficult,” Plenkovic said.

Jelenic became attorney general in 2018. Some officials of the ruling conservative HDZ party said he should have made clear he was a Freemason before taking office.

Jelenic said in an interview this week that he had become a Freemason after an invitation by a friend and that he understood the invitation was recognition of his professional qualities.

The website of one of Croatia’s Freemason lodges says it is an association which gathers people of honor who discuss various moral and philosophical issues and work for the benefit of their community.

IT IS CALLED A CREED AND IS A HUMAN RIGHT

Reporting by Igor Ilic; editing by Nick Macfie

SPECIAL REPORTS

'Hit with a truck' - How Iran's missiles inflicted brain injury on U.S. troops

Phil Stewart, Idrees AliFEBRUARY 20, 2020 

(Reuters) - In the wee hours of Jan. 8, Tehran retaliated over the U.S. killing of Iran’s most powerful general by bombarding the al-Asad air base in Iraq.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. soldiers inspect the site where an Iranian missile hit at Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province, Iraq January 13, 2020. REUTERS/John Davison

Among the 2,000 troops stationed there was U.S. Army Specialist Kimo Keltz, who recalls hearing a missile whistling through the sky as he lay on the deck of a guard tower. The explosion lifted his body - in full armor - an inch or two off the floor.

Keltz says he thought he had escaped with little more than a mild headache. Initial assessments around the base found no serious injuries or deaths from the attack. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, “All is well!”

The next day was different.

“My head kinda felt like I got hit with a truck,” Keltz told Reuters in an interview from al-Asad air base in Iraq’s western Anbar desert. “My stomach was grinding.”

Keltz, who said he had concussion symptoms for days, is among 109 soldiers diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries in the wake of last month’s attack, a figure that has steadily risen as more troops report symptoms and get medical screening.

Reuters interviewed more than a dozen officials and soldiers and spoke with brain-injury specialists to assemble the most comprehensive account so far of the nature of the soldiers’ injuries and how they sustained them.

The slowly rising casualty count underscores the difficulty in detecting and treating what has become one of the most common injuries in the U.S. military during two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. troops face roadside bombs, rockets and mortars.

More than a week after the attack, on Jan. 16, Defense Secretary Mark Esper was made aware that soldiers had suffered brain injuries from the missiles, the Pentagon said. That day, the Pentagon reported that an unspecified number of troops were treated for concussive symptoms and 11 were flown to Kuwait and Germany for higher-level care.

On Jan. 22, Trump said that he “heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things,” prompting criticism from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and a U.S. veterans group that the president was underplaying the casualties from the attack.

“I think it was unfortunate to use those words,” said Republican Representative Richard Hudson, who represents Fayetteville, North Carolina, home to Fort Bragg that includes the Army’s Special Operations Command.

The White House declined to comment for this story.

A DIFFERENT CLASS OF WOUNDS

The U.S. military has long treated brain injuries as a different class of wounds that do not require rapid reporting up the chain of command, unlike incidents threatening life, limb or eyesight.


Since 2000, nearly 414,000 service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, according to Pentagon data. The number is likely higher because the Pentagon only counts as one injury cases where a soldier suffers brain trauma in multiple incidents.

U.S. troops operating drone flights appeared to have suffered the most brain injuries during the attack on al-Asad, said Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Garland, who was on the base at the time. Many worked near the air strip, he said. Like Specialist Keltz, who was manning a guard tower, the drone pilots had been assigned to watch for a possible ground attack.

“Those drone pilots, they’re the ones that took the brunt of the TBI cases,” said Garland, who as commander of Task Force Jazeera oversees more than 400 soldiers.

The number of troops diagnosed with brain injury from last month’s attack was expected to stabilize near the current count, one U.S. official said. Less than 10 were now being monitored with possible TBI symptoms, the official said.

The total U.S. military count, however, excludes civilian contractors on the base at the time, many of whom have since departed.

Some U.S. troops also suffered from anxiety-related symptoms after the attack, including sleeplessness and, in at least one case, a sustained high heart rate, according to interviews with soldiers and officials. However, they could not provide a specific number.

The Pentagon categorizes brain injuries as mild, moderate, severe or penetrating. The vast majority of injuries are classified as mild, as were all of the injuries reported from al-Asad.

STANDING GUARD

Garland, the commander, said he was taken aback when he learned of U.S. intelligence indicating that Iranian missiles would strike within hours. He immediately found a base map and started sizing up the best options to shelter his troops.

He recalled old bunkers on the base built during the era of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2003. But the bunkers wouldn’t hold everyone. Some would need to disperse, taking cover in armored vehicles driven away from targets.

Others in Garland’s unit — including Specialist Keltz —would need to stand guard to watch for additional attacks beyond the expected missiles.

Keltz said he and a fellow soldier were already manning a tower when First Sergeant Larry Jackson came to them, explaining the intelligence and giving them their orders.

“What I need you boys to do is to lay down on the ground when the impacts happen - and then I need you to jump right back up and man those guns,” Jackson said in an interview, recounting his instructions to Keltz and other soldiers at the base.

As the Iranian missiles streaked through the night sky toward the base, their engines glowed orange - like the ends of lit cigarettes, Garland said. The glow was all that Garland could see in the darkness before scrambling back into a bunker.

Then came the blasts. At least eleven missiles struck the base, destroying housing units made from shipping containers and other facilities.

“Every explosion I heard, I was thinking, OK, that’s a number of people that have just lost their lives,” he said.

But initial checks after the attack showed nobody was killed or obviously injured, despite massive devastation to the base. Word got back to Washington. Just before 6 a.m. in Baghdad, Trump tweeted an update: “Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good!”

FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS

On the ground at al-Asad, U.S. Army Major Robert Hales, a doctor who is deployed to al-Asad, defended the initial reports of no injuries.

“Everyone here did not have any outward physical injuries,” he said in an interview. “There were no lacerations. There’s no shrapnel wounds.”

Such “silent” injuries take time to manifest, he said.

Injury figures kept climbing in the weeks after the attack. What began as at least 11 cases grew to 34 about a week later.

On Jan. 22, Trump made his controversial comment, referring to the injuries as “headaches.” The Veterans of Foreign Wars demanded an apology for Trump’s “misguided remarks”.

A week later, on Jan. 28, the toll of brain injuries climbed to 50. In early February, Reuters was the first to report that the count had surpassed 100.

The brain injuries sustained in the Iranian missile attack are fundamentally different than those that have typically resulted from past attacks, brain-trauma specialists said.

That’s because the al-Asad bombing was more intense than typical quick-hit, single-explosion attacks: The explosions came in waves and lasted more than an hour.

When a roadside bomb goes off in Afghanistan, head wounds are often visible. In insurgent bomb blasts, shrapnel or other flying debris can cause brain injuries upon impact. But the damage from large pressure waves from a major blast - like the ones at al-Asad that Specialist Keltz felt - often take more time to diagnose.

Marilyn Kraus, director of the Traumatic Brain Injury program and concussion clinic at George Washington University, said troops may minimize or underreport their symptoms initially. Others may not show symptoms until much later in part because their injuries are initially masked by the adrenaline rush that comes with combat.

“Some of these things can fall into the cracks initially,” said Kraus, who previously served as medical director of the Traumatic Brain Injury Consult Section at the Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.


In the short term, mild traumatic brain injury can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and confusion, while longer-term effects can include chronic headaches, mood changes and dizziness, Kraus said. Repeated head injuries can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain degeneration disorder that some researchers have linked to suicidal thoughts, substance misuse and depression, she said.

Hales, the Army doctor, cited research within the past six months showing in animal models that signs of damage to the brain can increase in the weeks after a blast. At al-Asad, soldiers started showing symptoms such as headaches or a “foggy feeling” days after the attack, Hales said. The symptoms often persisted.

“That’s the reason why you saw a huge delay” in identifying the injuries, he said. “That prompted us to re-screen pretty much the whole population of al-Asad.”

Stewart and Ali reported from Washington. Editing by Brian Thevenot and Jason Szep

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MOUNT MERAPI, INDONESIA

Research team maps out transition from petroleum to wood in chemical production

FORWARD TO THE PAST
A team of bioengineers and economics from KU Leuven in Belgium has mapped out how wood could replace petroleum in the chemical industry.

According to the researchers, who considered both technological requirements and financial viability, the transition from petroleum to biofuel (in the form of wood) would lead to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Currently, plastics, cleaning agents and building materials are usually made from chemical components derived from petroleum instead of renewable materials. The researchers have now fully mapped out the process by which wood can be transformed into chemicals that can be used in a range of products.

Moreover, although petroleum is currently cheaper to use as a raw material, the team have calculated that it is financially viable to build and operate a biorefinery that converts wood into chemical building blocks.

To extract chemicals from wood, it is first divided into a solid paper pulp and a liquid lignin oil. The pulp can be used to produce second generation biofuels, while the lignin oil can be further processed to manufacture chemical building blocks.

"In the paper industry, lignin is seen as a residual product and usually burned,” explained Professor Bert Sels of the Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems. “That's a pity, since just like petroleum, it can have many high quality uses if it can be properly separated from wood and the right chemical building blocks are extracted."

The new study, which has been published in the journal Science, is an important milestone in the team's research. "What's so special about this study is that we calculated the economic viability of a switch from petroleum to wood," Sels continued.

To create a realistic scenario, the researchers teamed up with a Belgian-Japanese ink company, as certain compounds from lignin can be used to produce ink. The calculations indicate that a chemical plant that uses wood as a raw material can be profitable after a few years.

Due to the shrinking paper industry, there is currently a surplus of wood in Europe. The team is currently collaborating with waste processors and landscape managers to use prunings and other waste wood for their research.

The environmental impact of using wood is also reduced compared to petroleum, as chemical compounds made from wood emit fewer CO2 emissions. Products made from wood derivatives are also able to store CO2, in the same way trees can.

The team will now scale up the production process, with the first test phase already underway. The ultimate goal is to create a wood biorefinery in Belgium. Meanwhile, the researchers are in conversation with various business partners who can process the cellulose pulp and lignin oil in a variety of products.

Bert Lagrain, sustainable chemistry innovation manager, added: "The chemical sector emits a lot of CO2 globally. A serious change is needed to achieve a carbon neutral chemistry. By scaling up our research project, we hope to get the industry on board."

INEOS, UPM Biofuels to produce renewable plastic from wood-based residue

INEOS and UPM Biofuels have announced a long-term agreement to supply a renewable raw material for bio-attributed polymers to be produced at INEOS’ facility in Köln, Germany.

As per the agreement, INEOS will use UPM BioVerno, a sustainable raw material from renewable residue of wood pulp processing, to produce bio-attributed polyolefins. These materials will be used in a range of products, including plastic food packaging and pipes.

According to the companies, applications will also include BIOVYN, the world’s first commercially available bio-attributed PVC, which is produced by INEOS business INOVYN.

Each step in the production process has been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). The process begins with UPM Biofuels converting the wood-based residue (crude tall oil) into hydrocarbons, through to production of the final polymer.

The result of UPM Biofuels’ production is a bio-based cracker feedstock that does not compete with food production. By replacing fossil based raw materials with UPM BioVerno in its cracker, INEOS products will contribute to a significant reduction in carbon emissions.

“The collaboration with INEOS is a great step forward in the bio-economy,” commented Maiju Helin, head of sustainability and market development at UPM Biofuels. “UPM BioVerno products now help to reduce climate and environmental impacts in an even broader range of applications. INEOS’ and UPM Biofuels’ commitment to RSB certification creates a strong common ground to build on.”

Rob Ingram, CEO of INEOS Olefins & Polymers Europe North, added: “The agreement supports INEOS plans to make plastic from renewable raw materials, which contribute to a significant reduction in carbon emissions.

"We are pleased to be working with UPM Biofuels. They place fundamental importance on commitment to innovation and resource efficiency as well as social and environmental responsibility. This partnership in combination with RSB certification gives customers the confidence that they are choosing a high quality, sustainable product."

Food Systems

Can you swallow the idea of lab-grown meat?

The notion of ‘growing’ a steak in a test tube sounds like science fiction. But our food habits change

Journalist: Gillian Tett

This month I met Joshua March, a young British entrepreneur who dreams of disrupting our idea of “meat”. Specifically, he is working with biochemist Jess Krieger to cultivate animal flesh in laboratories for mass consumption.

Yes, you read that right. Since time immemorial, humans have thought of “meat” as something natural, an animal that ran around before it was killed and cooked. But Krieger has spent the past six years working at Kent State University in Ohio, growing individual chunks of meat in a lab.

They have now created a start-up, Artemys Foods, to mass-produce their wares. “We’re on a mission to empower humanity to eat sustainably,” March told me over a breakfast of avocado toast and old-fashioned natural bacon in New York.

“We believe the only way to change how the majority of people are eating meat is to be able to give them real meat — without the negative consequences caused by growing actual animals, whether impact to the environment or animal welfare.”

Krieger adds: “Plant-based meat gets some of the way [to remove meat from the diet] . . . but it will never be able to fully replicate the sensory experience of eating a really great piece of meat. [This technology] creates this, with the same or better nutrition. Eventually, eating meat from actual animals will be seen as an archaic practice only carried out by a minority.”

Artemys is not the first to experiment with cultivated meat. In 2013, the world’s first lab-grown burger, created from cow cells by a scientist at Maastricht University, was eaten at a news conference in London. Mosa Meat, the company created in the wake of that project, recently received investment from a US venture capital fund to help bring the product to market.

The question for all entrepreneurs in this area is whether consumers can swallow the idea. When I originally heard about lab-grown meat, my first thought was “yuck”. The idea of “growing” a steak or chicken leg in a test tube sounds like a scene from science fiction, not haute cuisine. But, on reflection, I realised that my reaction was also somewhat odd or, at least, inconsistent.

Many of us already consume ultra-processed or modified foods that could be considered “unnatural”, such as packet soups, reconstituted meat products or sweets like bubblegum. If you look at how our attitudes towards food have already changed, it is clear that they are grounded in culture more than nature.

Half a century ago, it was assumed that it made sense to use as much science as possible in food. In the 1950s, some considered white bread and other processed foods to be superior to the unrefined variants.

Later, frozen ready meals were seen as sophisticated. Indeed, when scientists created genetically modified crops, this was hailed by many as a brilliant “green revolution”, since it promised to raise agricultural yields.

But then came the backlash. Since the turn of the century, a trend for more natural, organic food has grown, with consumer protests in Europe against GM food. More recently, vegetarian and vegan diets have become popular, not just due to health and animal welfare concerns, but also because scientists have noted the contribution of livestock to global carbon emissions.

Companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have developed plant-based alternatives that are fast gaining traction. Indeed, the trend is so strong that even traditional meat businesses, such as Tyson Foods, are getting involved. 

At this week’s World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos (buzzing with chatter about plant-based start-ups), the organisers told local catering services that “protein must be served in reasonable portions” of 120g-140g. One day of the conference has been designated entirely meat free.

There is an irony here: even as plant-based alternatives to meat become trendy, they are arguably making food less “natural” and less “organic”. Impossible’s non-meat “burger”, for instance, uses complex chemical processes involving yeast to replicate the molecules found in meat.

What is peculiar — if not contradictory — is that the rocketing sales of these meat-like products somehow reinforces the idea that consuming “meat” or a pretend version of it is inevitable for humans; which, of course, is something the vegan movement was created to contest.

Given all this, I no longer think cultivating “real” meat in a lab is weird. Admittedly, it won’t be easy for some consumers to accept, particularly if they’ve spent the past decade buying organic. “A vocal minority of people in the west are still concerned about [genetically modified food],” admits Krieger.

However, as she points out, attitudes are shifting. “We now have a generation of consumers who have grown up with technology infusing all areas of their life [and] younger generations especially are concerned about how the foods they eat contribute to climate change.”

Of course, nobody knows whether Artemys can actually commercialise these bold ideas — or see off the numerous other start-ups looking to ride this “green” wave.

The key point is this: given that our attitudes towards food have already fluctuated in the past half century, there is no reason to think they will not alter significantly again. What seems utterly weird one day has a strange habit of becoming so normal that we never notice how our cultural assumptions have changed.

AnalysisFinancial services

‘Monstrous’ run for green stocks stokes bubble fears

Inflows into ESG funds are driving up stock prices for companies with green credentials

Thomson Reuters faces freelancer backlash over UK tax changes

Dozens of TV journalists and producers threaten to quit media group

Thomson Reuters' office in Canary Wharf, London. Freelancers at the media group claim that if they are transferred on to the payroll from April, their pay will fall © Reuters

Mark Di Stefano and Emma Agyemang in London FEBRUARY 18 2020

Dozens of freelance workers at Thomson Reuters are threatening to leave the media group unless it guarantees their pay will not fall due to a government crackdown on tax avoidance.

Changes to the off-payroll working rules, known as IR35, will come into force on April 6 in order to tackle what HM Revenue & Customs calls “disguised employment”.

The reforms will require all medium and large companies to assess the employment status of any contractors they hire who use limited companies. Companies and their recruitment agencies will be liable for any unpaid income tax and national insurance contributions if they wrongly classify workers as self-employed.

The media sector, along with other industries that rely heavily on freelance labour, has been scrambling to respond to the complex rule change.

Contractors at Thomson Reuters said the group had yet to tell individuals whether they would be transferred to the payroll after April and have demanded assurances in a letter sent to management last month and seen by the Financial Times.

The freelancers claim that, if they are transferred, their pay will fall. “If deemed inside IR35, freelance workers in Reuters’ TV newsroom are expected to lose at least 45 per cent of their gross pay,” the letter said. “As it stands, we will no longer be able to afford to continue our work at Reuters. We must now make a choice between affording our homes and bills, or continuing to freelance at Reuters.”

The freelancers’ group said the 45 per cent figure was inclusive of 20 per cent income tax, 12 per cent employees’ national insurance contributions and 13.8 per cent employers’ national insurance contributions. In limited companies, contractors pay themselves through a combination of salary and dividends, paying tax at a corporate rate which is lower.

The letter, which was signed by 30 freelance television journalists and producers, sought explicit guarantees from management that freelancers would not have to pay employers’ NI if they are told to join the payroll.

It also demanded that, if deemed an employee, Thomson Reuters pay holiday pay and pension contributions for affected workers on top of their day rate. Alternatively, the contractors said they would accept a 35 per cent increase in the day rate to offset the extra costs of joining the payroll.

“[This] could make a huge difference to the impending walkout and loss of vital newsroom workforce, which would heavily impact the quality and quantity of stories which Reuters’ clients receive,” the letter said.

One veteran freelancer who works for Thomson Reuters said workers felt humiliated by a lack of communication with management.

“Thomson Reuters has never wanted to take responsibility for its freelancers,” they said. “All we’re being offered is . . . a big question mark.”

Recommended

UK tax

Tax experts slam ‘railroading’ into law of freelance reforms

Thomson Reuters declined to comment on its plans, or confirm how many freelancers were going to be affected by the changes to IR35.

“Reuters is required to comply with IR35 legislation and is working with staff to ensure this is done in a collaborative and fair way,” a spokesperson said.

Dave Chaplin, chief executive of the ContractorCalculator advice website and a campaigner against the IR35 reforms, said the case was an example of freelancers engaging in collective bargaining.

“It appears the contractors at Reuters have teamed up and are engaging in collective bargaining to pre-emptively push back against any anticipated attempt by Reuters to push their new tax bill of employers’ national insurance on to them by way of a renegotiated reduction in rates.”

Tony Lennon, freelance and research officer for Bectu, the union which represents workers in the arts and entertainment sector, said that confusion about the IR35 reforms was “endemic” in the creative industries with employers “panicking and making blanket judgments” in order to “make the problem go away”.

https://www.ft.com/content/e2427c26-4f3e-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

Tesla gets court approval to clear forest for German Gigafactory

BERLIN (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) got approval from a German court on Thursday to continue to cut down forest near the capital Berlin to build its first European car and battery factory, in a defeat for local environmental activists.

The court said in a statement it had rejected urgent applications to stop the land being cleared of trees from several environmental groups, adding its ruling was final. It had temporarily halted the tree felling earlier this month.

The U.S. electric carmaker announced plans last November to build a Gigafactory in Gruenheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg that surrounds Berlin, a decision that was initially lauded as a vote of confidence in Germany.

However, local and national lawmakers were caught out by the strength of opposition to the Gigafactory, with hundreds of demonstrators protesting over what they say is the threat it poses to local wildlife and water supplies.

Lawmakers from Germany’s pro-business Christian Democrat and Free Democrat parties had warned that the legal battle waged against the Gigafactory would inflict serious damage on Germany’s image as a place to do business.

Thyssenkrupp nears full sale of $17 billion elevator division: sources

FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp (TKAG.DE) is nearing a full sale of its elevator division, three people familiar with the matter said, adding that this would secure the highest valuation of about 16 billion euros ($17.3 billion) to help the company pay down debt.

The sale, potentially Europe’s biggest private equity transaction in 13 years, is entering its final stretch, with two buyout consortia in a neck-and-neck race to acquire the world’s fourth-largest lift maker.

Under the deal, Thyssenkrupp would likely sell all of the division, Elevator Technology, to realise the highest valuation, the people said. The 16 billion euros is roughly the same as the combined total of the group’s net debt - which soared in the last quarter - and pension liabilities.

There is a small chance the group could retain a minority stake in the business, the people said, adding the likelihood of that happening had decreased in recent weeks.

Thyssenkrupp declined to comment.

Shares in Thyssenkrupp rose as much as 1.4% on the news before trading down 0.7% at 1548 GMT.

The company, a steel-to-submarines conglomerate, said this week it would either sell a majority stake or all of the unit. Labour representatives, as well as the group’s top shareholder, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach foundation, have argued in favour of keeping a stake.

“Of course it would be profitable for the company to keep a stake,” Ursula Gather, who heads the foundation’s board of trustees and also sits on Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

‘REGRETTABLE’

Gather said many factors had to be taken into account as part of the deal. “But again, the decision lies with the management board,” she said, adding there had to be a fast decision on how proceeds would be spent, including on how cash could be provided to the group’s steel business.

Any private equity sale would likely see the elevator division being loaded up with debt, lowering the chance it will have enough room to pay dividends or pass on huge amounts of cash, the people said, making a stake less attractive.

Thyssenkrupp said this week it was focusing on talks with two consortia: Blackstone (BX.N), Carlyle (CG.O) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board; and Advent and Cinven [CINV.UL].

Sources have previously said the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Germany’s RAG foundation were part of the Advent/Cinven tie-up, which sources said submitted a bid just shy of the roughly 16 billion euros offered by its rival consortium.

Finland’s Kone (KNEBV.HE), which had made a bid of more than 17 billion euros, dropped out.

“From a shareholder view it is of course regrettable that the highest bid won’t be successful but apparently Thyssenkrupp has no time to lose,” said Michael Muders, fund manager at Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder.

“The price is still attractive.”

Bidders have until next week to make final changes to their binding bids submitted this month, one of the people said. Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board is scheduled to meet on Feb. 27 and could make a decision, sources have previously said.

Thyssenkrupp, which is keeping open the option of listing the elevator unit, aims to wrap up the process in February but talks could delay the process to March, one of the people said.

AP Exclusive: Agency memo contradicts Greyhound on bus raids

THEY LEFT WESTERN CANADA FOR THE PROFITABLE MEXICAN BORDER ROUTES

1 of 6

FILE - In this May 28, 2014, file photo, migrants are released from ICE custody at a Greyhound bus station in Phoenix. A Customs and Border Protection memo dated Jan. 28, 2020, obtained by The Associated Press confirms that bus companies such as Greyhound do not have to allow Border Patrol agents on board to conduct routine checks for illegal immigrants, despite the company's insistence that it has no choice but to do so. (Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic via AP, File)


SEATTLE (AP) — A Customs and Border Protection memo obtained by The Associated Press confirms that bus companies such as Greyhound do not have to allow Border Patrol agents on board to conduct routine checks for immigrants in the country illegally, which is contrary to the company’s long insistence that it has no choice but to do so.

Greyhound, the nation’s largest bus carrier, has said it does not like the agents coming on board, but it has nevertheless permitted them, claiming federal law demanded it. When provided with the memo by the AP, the company declined to say whether it would change that practice.

Greyhound has faced pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrant rights activists and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson to stop allowing sweeps on buses within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of an international border or coastline.


They say the practice is intimidating and discriminatory and has become more common under President Donald Trump. Border Patrol arrests videotaped by other passengers have sparked criticism, and Greyhound faces a lawsuit in California alleging that it violated consumer protection laws by facilitating raids.

Some other bus companies, including Jefferson Lines, which operates in 14 states, and MTRWestern, which operates in the Pacific Northwest, have made clear that they do not consent to agents boarding buses.

The memo obtained by the AP was dated Jan. 28, addressed to all chief patrol agents and signed by then-Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost just before she retired. It confirms the legal position that Greyhound’s critics have taken: that the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prevents agents from boarding buses and questioning passengers without a warrant or the consent of the company.

“When transportation checks occur on a bus at non-checkpoint locations, the agent must demonstrate that he or she gained access to the bus with the consent of the company’s owner or one of the company’s employees,” the memo states. An agent’s actions while on the bus “would not cause a reasonable person to believe that he or she is unable to terminate the encounter with the agent.”

Border Patrol officials have previously said agents do seek the consent of the bus driver before boarding and questioning passengers. Bill Kingsford, the operations officer for the Border Patrol’s Spokane, Washington, sector, said Thursday that before the memo he had never seen that policy in writing.

In response to criticism over the past two years, Greyhound has said that it does not support or “consent” to the bus searches, but that federal law left it no choice. The company said the immigration sweeps make for delays, missed buses and unhappy customers.


Greyhound’s parent company, FirstGroup PLC, said last summer: “We are required by federal law to comply with the requests of federal agents. To suggest we have lawful choice in the matter is tendentious and false.”

Greyhound said that it appreciated the Border Patrol “clarifying” its policy. “We were unaware of USBP’s memo clarifying their practices regarding transportation and bus check operations,” the company said. “We are pleased there appears to be greater context about these practices as we have publicly stated we do not consent to these searches and maintain that position.”

The statement said it would continue to request guidance from the Border Patrol. “Our goal is to ensure that our passengers and drivers feel safe and secure when riding with us, and we’ll continue to make that our top priority.”

Advocates said the memo could give them additional leverage.

“This puts the pressure on Greyhound,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. “Are you going to stand up and protect your customers or are you going to collaborate with the government and turn over your passengers to the Border Patrol?”

ACLU chapters in 10 states — California, Washington, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Michigan, Florida, Maine, Texas and Arizona — wrote to Greyhound in 2018 to express their concern with passengers being pulled off buses and arrested. In several cases, they said, it appeared passengers had been singled out and questioned based on having dark skin or foreign accents.

The Border Patrol denies that, saying all passengers are questioned.

“Greyhound must take a firm stance — issue a public statement, add signage to buses and stations, train and empower employees, etc. — to make it abundantly clear that the company as a whole does not consent to these searches,” said Andrea Flores, deputy director of policy at the ACLU’s Equality Division.

Washington’s state’s Democratic attorney general has threatened legal action, saying that Greyhound’s acquiescence to the Border Patrol causes travel delays as well as alarm and confusion for patrons — in potential violation of state consumer protection law. He asked Greyhound last year to take several steps, including posting stickers on its buses notifying the Border Patrol that it does not consent to searches, but the company has so far declined to do so.

Other bus companies contacted by the attorney general’s office have placed stickers on their doors noting that the company does not consent to searches or have given drivers placards to hand to agents explaining the refusal.

“This memo is consistent with what my office has been saying all along to Greyhound,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Greyhound continues to demonstrate indifference to the legal rights of its customers. If Greyhound refuses to recognize their legal obligations, then we will be forced to take action.”

Under then-President Barack Obama, Customs and Border Protection in late 2011 began cutting back on so-called “transportation checks,” especially along the U.S.-Canada border, amid criticism that it amounted to racial profiling. The agency told agents to keep away from bus and train stations entirely unless they had “actionable intelligence” about someone who had recently entered the country illegally. It also said such operations had to be cleared with Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration returned authority to the chief agents in each Border Patrol sector to approve the operations, and they have been on the rise, the agency says.

In a statement, the CBP said that “enforcement operations” are routine at transportation hubs and “are performed consistent with law and in direct support of immediate border enforcement efforts.”

“The U.S. Border Patrol conducts regular outreach with transportation companies to foster good working relationships,” the statement said.

The agency has especially faced criticism for conducting the checks on buses far from the border. In Spokane, just under 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Canada, arrests at the city’s bus depot rose from 35 in 2017 to 84 last year, according to data obtained by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights. Bus routes there run east and west and don’t cross the border.

Among those detained in Spokane last year was Portland, Oregon, comedian Mohanad Elshieky, who was removed from a Greyhound bus as he returned home from a performance. Elshieky, a Libyan citizen who was granted asylum in the U.S., said he was detained for 20 minutes, even though he had two forms of identification showing that he was in the country legally.

Elshieky’s attorneys sued the government for false arrest in a federal lawsuit Friday. At the time of the detention, CBP said Elshieky should have been carrying different identification to prove his immigration status. The agency said it does not comment on pending litigation.