Sorry for no weekend newsbites, folks - busy, busy, busy!
Today is a new day, however! Just a quick look at the Drudge headlines...
(*UMM-HMM*)
(*UMM-HMM*)
(*UMM-HMM*)
...yep, the "fundamental transformation of Amerika is proceeding apace!
Let's see...
DOJ Targets Fox Reporter...
DOJ Leaked Documents to Smear Fast and Furious Whistleblower...
Chief IRS Counsel Bailed Jeremiah Wright's Church Out of IRS Probe...
Well... time to get newsbiting, I guess!
7 comments:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-peek-into-a-justice-department-leak-probe/2013/05/19/0bc473de-be5e-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html
When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material. They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit.
* FIRST... SOMETHING TELLS ME THAT WE'RE GONNA FIND OUT THE "CLASSIFIED INFO" WAS NOTHING MORE THAN THE SAME SORT OF ANALYSIS FOUND VIA PUBLIC SOURCES. (WE'LL SEE...)
They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.
* DID THEY ALSO OBTAIN A SEARCH WARRANT FOR THE LEAKER'S PERSONAL E-MAILS...??? (IN OTHER WORDS... WHY THE FOCUS ON THE REPORTER...?)
The case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, the government adviser, and James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, bears striking similarities to a sweeping leaks investigation disclosed last week in which federal investigators obtained records over two months of more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the Associated Press.
Court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist — and raise the question of how often journalists have been investigated as closely as Rosen was in 2010.
“The latest events show an expansion of this law enforcement technique,” said attorney Abbe Lowell, who is defending Kim on federal charges filed in 2010 that he disclosed national defense information. A trial is possible as soon as 2014. “Individual reporters or small time periods have turned into 20 [telephone] lines and months of records with no obvious attempt to be targeted or narrow.”
* LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT... THE FEDS CHARGED KIM IN 2010... IT'S NOW 2013... AND A TRIAL "AS SOON AS" 2014 - NEXT YEAR - IS ONLY A POSSIBILITY...?!?!
* FOLKS... THIS IS INSANITY!
The Kim case began in June 2009, when Rosen reported that U.S. intelligence officials were warning that North Korea was likely to respond to United Nations sanctions with more nuclear tests. The CIA had learned the information, Rosen wrote, from sources inside North Korea.
* OH! 2009! (THIS GETS BETTER AND BETTER, HUH?!)
* SO... THIS IS WHAT SUPPOSEDLY QUALIFIES AS "CLASSIFIED" INFO? I COULD HAVE TOLD ROSEN THIS IN 2009! AS FOR THIS BUSINESS OF "SOURCES INSIDE NORTH KOREA," WHETHER IT'S TRUE OR NOT IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE MAIN PARTY HURT BY SUCH DISCLOSURE IS NORTH KOREA ITSELF BECAUSE EITHER IT'S TRUE - OR IT'S DELIBERATE MISINFORMATION - BUT IN EITHER CASE IT CAUSES CHAOS WITHIN NORTH KOREA AS THEIR COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE PEOPLE GO NUTS LOOKING FOR TRAITOR WHO MAY OR MAY NOT EXIST!
* FOLKS... UNLESS KIM AND ROSEN WERE NAMING NAMES OF INTELLIGENCE SOURCES... OUR SPIES... I DON'T SEE THE BIG DEAL.
Privacy protections limit searching or seizing a reporter’s work, but not when there is evidence that the journalist broke the law against unauthorized leaks. A federal judge signed off on the search warrant — agreeing that there was probable cause that Rosen was a co-conspirator. ... However, it remains an open question whether it’s ever illegal, given the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom, for a reporter to solicit information. No reporter, including Rosen, has been prosecuted for doing so.
* FOLKS... READ THE FULL THREE PAGE ARTICLE. MY FEELING IS THAT HAD HOLDER WORKED FOR NIXON... WOODWARD AND BERNSTEIN WOULD HAVE ENDED UP IN JAIL.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/20/DOJ-Inspector-General-confirms-US-Attorney-DOJ-headquarters-leaked-documents-to-smear-Fast-and-Furious-whistleblower
The Department of Justice Inspector General published a new report Monday that confirms former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked a document intended to smear Operation Fast and Furious scandal whistleblower John Dodson.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The DOJ IG said it found “Burke’s conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney.”
“We are referring to OPR our finding that Burke violated Department policy in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to a member of the media for a determination of whether Burke’s conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for the state bars in which Burke is a member,” the IG wrote.
Burke resigned from his post as U.S. Attorney over the incident in August 2011, the first major Department of Justice official to leave his or her post in the Fast and Furious scandal. He said after the fact, in interviews with congressional investigators, that he now views leaking the document as a “mistake.”
In addition to Burke’s involvement in leaking the document, emails the IG uncovered show senior officials at the Department of Justice discussed smearing Dodson. One of those was Tracy Schmaler, the Director of the Department’s Office of Public Affairs, who resigned her position at the DOJ after emails uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed that she worked with leftwing advocacy group Media Matters for America to smear whistleblowers and members of Congress and the media who sought to investigate DOJ scandals under Attorney General Eric Holder.
(*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* FOLKS... HERE'S THE ACTUAL GOVERNMENT REPORT: http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/s1305.pdf
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/05/senior-wh-staff-knew-of-irs-investigation-did-not-164378.html
Senior White House staff knew of the ongoing investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative groups ahead of the release of a report from a Treasury Department inspector general, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday, but held off on informing the president to wait for a final report.
* AND SO THEY'LL BE FIRED...? (*SMIRK*) NO. OF COURSE NOT. FOLKS... FIRST OF ALL DOES ANYONE BELIEVE THAT NO ONE WOULD TELL OBAMA... OR HOLDER... OR MICHELLE... ABOUT AN IMPENDING RELEASE OF INFO LIKE THIS? I DON'T. BUT IF THEY DIDN'T... THEN THAT'S ON OBAMA! IF THEY DIDN'T IT'S BECAUSE OBAMA RUNS A WHITE HOUSE WHERE THE GOLDEN RULE ISN'T PURSUIT OF HONOR, INTEGRITY, AND GOOD GOVERNMENT, BUT RATHER "CYA" AND "PLAUSIBLE DENIABLITY" FOR OBAMA AT ALL COSTS. THINK ABOUT IT...
With the knowledge of an investigation, the White House held to a "cardinal rule" that it should not get involved in an external investigation, Carney said during his daily briefing. "No one in this building intervened in an ongoing independent investigation or did anything that could be seen as intervening," he said.
* NOTICE HOW POLITICO JUST MOVED THE GOAL POSTS? FIRST PARAGRAPH... WE'RE TALKING ABOUT WHAT OBAMA SUPPOSED "DIDN'T KNOW." (BUT OBVIOUSLY SHOULD HAVE!) SECOND PARAGRAPH... NOW THE FOCUS IS SHIFTED TO "INVOLVEMENT" AND THEN "INTERVENING" - NEITHER OF WHICH HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE "AWARENESS" ISSUE... BUT... SUCH BAIT AND SWITCH MIGHT (HOPEFULLY, FROM POLITICO'S PERSPECTIVE) LEAVE READERS THINKING "IGNORANCE IS BLISS" AND ACTUALLY APPLAUDING OBAMA FOR... er... SUPPOSEDLY STAYING IGNORANT!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/20/union-chief-immigration-bill-dangerous/
The Senate’s immigration bill will raise national security risks and the Obama administration will do little more than “rubber-stamp” illegal immigrants into the program, endangering Americans, says Kenneth Palinkas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents officers and staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...
His statement goes well beyond the current debate, portraying an agency intent on approving as many illegal immigrants as possible. “The culture at USCIS encourages all applications to be approved, discouraging proper investigation into red flags and discouraging the denial of any applications,” his remarks say. “USCIS has been turned into an ‘approval machine.’”
The union becomes the second key Homeland Security Department labor group to oppose the bill.
Mr. Palinkas says the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators who wrote the Senate bill never talked to the USCIS and that the legislation is riddled with special-interest loopholes and shirks security checks. “The legislation was written with special interests — producing a bill that makes the current system worse, not better,” Mr. Palinkas‘ remarks say. The bill “will damage public safety and national security and should be opposed by lawmakers.”
That was the same complaint made by Chris Crane, chief of the union representing agents and officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mr. Crane has said the Senate bill would hurt ICE agents’ ability to enforce the law.
Their warnings could carry weight with lawmakers worried about a repeat of the amnesty in 1986, when hundreds of thousands of immigrants defrauded the system. All sides say they want to avoid the same scenario.
Chief among the USCIS union’s worries is the way the administration has handled President Obama’s non-deportation policy for “Dreamers” — illegal immigrants who arrived as children and who the Obama administration has said should not be deported. Last year, Mr. Obama announced a policy titled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that grants a two-year stay of deportation and work permits. The latest statistics show that the administration is approving almost every application it receives: 99.2% of all applications decided through the end of April, according to numbers released Friday.
Mr. Palinkas said the reason so many deferred action applicants are being approved is because the Obama administration has determined that they don’t need in-person interviews, which “virtually guarantees widespread fraud and places public safety at risk.”
The crux of the [proposed "Gang of Eight" Immigration "Reform"] bill gives quick legal status to illegal immigrants but withholds the full path to citizenship until the Homeland Security Department spends more on border security, puts an electronic verification system for workers into place and creates a working entry-exit system to check visitors as they come and go at airports and seaports.
* FOLKS... THE COURTS WILL QUICKLY OVERTURN ANY SUCH LIMITS UNDER THE GROUNDS THAT THEY EFFECTIVELY CREATE CONSTITUTIONALLY IMPERMISSIBLE SECOND-CLASS CITIZENSHIP. (ASK ANY CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR...!)
The ICE and USCIS union objections could become a problem for the AFL-CIO, which enthusiastically embraced the bill this year.
* OF COURSE THE UNION BIG SHOTS WANT THE BILL; THEY ENVISION MONEY AND POWER THROUGH NEW MEMBERS. BUT WHAT OF THE RANK AND FILE UNION MEMBERS? DO THEY WANT TO BE COMPETING WITH THESE "NEW AMERICANS" WHEN CLEARLY THERE AREN'T ENOUGH GOOD JOBS TO GO AROUND FOR "OLD AMERICANS?"
Mr. Crane has accused the AFL-CIO of “threatening” those who disagreed with its stance.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/19/Immigration-officers-Obama-policy-to-call-illegal-immigrants-customers-funnel-them-through-approval-machine
* READ THIS IN CONTEXT WITH (AS A COMPANION PIECE TO) THE PREVIOUS NEWSBITE CONCERNING THE OBAMA/GANG OF EIGHT AMNESTY BILL!
Palinkas argues that the current political leadership at his agency holds the belief that USCIS's role is not to serve America or Americans; rather, he claims, they believe that USCIS is supposed to serve the illegal immigrants and the immigration lawyers who come through the doors of the agency on a regular basis.
“The attitude of USCIS management is not that the Agency serves the American public or the laws of the United States, or public safety and national security, but instead that the agency serves illegal aliens and the attorneys which represent them,” Palinkas said. “While we believe in treating all people with respect, we are concerned that this agency tasked with such a vital security mission is too greatly influenced by special interest groups — to the point that it no longer properly performs its mission.”
Palinkas also notes that under the current law and system, USCIS reports a 99.5%...
* THE PREVIOUS NEWSBITE REPORTED 99.2%... NOT SURE WHICH NUMBER IS CORRECT; LET'S JUST ALL IT 99%!
...approval rating for illegal immigrants seeking legal residency inside the United States. He said that high percentage began with President Obama’s and Secretary Napolitano’s new “deferred action” policy unveiled last summer.
In addition, over the past year, Palinkas said USCIS has waived more than $200 million in fees from illegal immigrants seeking legal status.
* ONE... MORE... TIME...
[O]ver the past year, Palinkas said USCIS has waived more than $200 million in fees from illegal immigrants seeking legal status.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
“A new USCIS computer system to screen applications known as ‘Transformation’ has proven to be a disaster as the agency has spent upwards of $2 billion for a system that would eventually allow an alien - now referred to as a ‘customer’ under current USCIS policy - to upload their own information via the internet for adjudication purposes,” Palinkas said. “To date, only one form can be accepted into the program that has been in the making for close to 10 years.”
Palinkas also notes that the Gang of Eight bill does nothing to fix the failures under the current administration for different agencies to coordinate, or de-conflict, on cases involving specific illegal immigrants. “USCIS has created an almost insurmountable bureaucracy which often prevents USCIS adjudications officers from contacting and coordinating with ICE agents and officers in cases that should have their involvement,” Palinkas wrote. “USCIS officers are pressured to approve visa applications for many individuals ICE agents have determined should be placed into deportation proceedings.”
Yet another issue the bill does not address, Palinkas notes, is a “secretive panel” that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano created that often denies immigration law officers’ requests to enforce the law. “USCIS officers who identify illegal aliens that, in accordance with law should be placed into immigration removal proceedings before a federal judge, are prevented from exercising their authority and responsibility to issue Notices To Appear (NTAs),” Palinkas claims.
“In the rare case that an officer attempts to issue an NTA, it must first be approved by a secretive panel created under DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, which often denies the officer’s request," Palinkas explains. "Illegal aliens are then permitted to remain in the United States as USCIS officers are not able to take action or contact ICE agents for assistance.”
* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-hackers-who-breached-google-gained-access-to-sensitive-data-us-officials-say/2013/05/20/51330428-be34-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_print.html
Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials.
* SO MUCH FOR HOMELAND SECURITY. SO MUCH FOR TRILLIONS SPENT ON NATIONAL "DEFENSE" AND OUR MYRIAD "INTELLIGENCE" SERVICES. WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS? WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP? (THE ANSWER, I FEAR, IS "NOWHERE.")
It’s unclear how much the hackers were able to discover. but former U.S. officials familiar with the breach said the Chinese stood to gain valuable intelligence.
Last month, a senior Microsoft official suggested that Chinese hackers had targeted the company’s servers about the same time that Google’s system was compromised. The official said Microsoft concluded that whoever was behind the breach was seeking to identify accounts that had been tagged for surveillance by U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies.
The U.S. government has been concerned about Chinese hacking since at least the early 2000s, when network intrusions were discovered at U.S. energy labs and defense contractors. The FBI has for years led a national security investigation into Chinese cyberespionage, some of which has been linked to the Chinese military. The Chinese, according to government, academic and industry analysts, have stolen massive volumes of data from companies in sectors including defense, technology, aerospace, and oil and gas. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, has referred to the theft of proprietary data as the “greatest transfer of wealth in history.”
* AND YET...??? (AND YET THE OLIGARCHS PROFIT OF FINANCIAL DEALINGS WITH CHINA AND DAMN THE LONG TERM INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!)
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-19/news/chi-police-arrest-5-after-large-group-converges-on-gold-coast-20130518_1_members-heavy-police-presence-michigan-avenue
Eleven juveniles and one adult were arrested last night after a large group converged near the Gold Coast and were blocking traffic, police said.
* IF 11 "JUVENILES" AND 1 ADULT WERE ARRESTED... HOW BIG WAS THIS... er... "LARGE GROUP?"
The people were arrested and charges were pending, said Chicago Police News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti.
The youths were part of a group that had caused a "minor disturbance" in the area, Ursitti said. She said the group members were not being violent and there were no reported injuries.
* UH-HUH... "MINOR" DISTURBANCE... BUT 12 PEOPLE ARRESTED...
* NO VIOLENCE... BUT 12 PEOPLE ARRESTED...
The group was made up of several dozen members who roamed from Michigan Avenue west on Chicago Avenue to LaSalle Street and witnesses said they were between the ages of 14 and 19 years old.
* SEVERAL DOZEN...? THREE DOZEN...? (THAT WOULD BE 36... AND THAT WOULD MEAN ONE-THIRD WERE ARRESTED...)
Paula Bishop, 49, who was visiting from Michigan to attend her son's graduation from the Moody Bible Institute said at about 7:45 p.m. saw the group walking by. “They were cursing, being obnoxious,” said Bishop.
* HMM... ANYTHING... er... "DISTINCTIVE" ABOUT THIS... er... "GROUP?" ANY... er... COMMONALITIES BESIDES "YOUTH?"
A heavy police presence flooded the area on bicycles and on foot. Ursitti could not say how many police officers were dispatched to the area.
When police arrived, members of the group began to disperse, Bishop said.
* "GROUP." I LIKE THAT. WHAT KIND OF "GROUP?" WERE THEY A BAND? A SPORTS TEAM? A BOY SCOUT OR GIRL SCOUT TROOP? CHESS CLUB...???
Her son, Jake Bishop, 22, said he saw members of the group running in a circle on LaSalle Street blocking traffic. When the police arrived the group members dispersed. “They all converged on LaSalle,” said Jake Bishop.
Police were trying to get the group members to leave the area and were ushering members of the group onto the Red Line subway trains.
* WHY "RED LINE" SUBWAY TRAINS? IS THIS A HINT...? WHERE DO THESE RED LINE SUBWAY TRAINS GO - TO THE AFFLUENT SUBURBS... WHITELANDIA...???
A police officer told the group, "Chicago is closed. Time to go home."
* NAH... NO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS RUN AMOK HERE! AS ALWAYS THE PRESS IS REPORTING THE FULL STORY... ALL THE DETAILS... PLACING EVERYTHING IN CONTEXT...
(*SNICKER*)
Post a Comment