……………………..Click on image above to view report.
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Tag Archives: Report
Benghazigate Congressional Report: Obama Inc. Lied About Video, Hillary Knew About Inadequate Security
24 AprThe response of Obama Inc. and its defenders to the Benghazi attack has generally been some variation of, “Who could have known?”, “We didn’t know” and “How could we have known.”
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Their claim that they practiced due diligence only to fall victim to an unexpected set of events never held much water. Benghazi was a danger zone and everyone knew it. The issue wasn’t a movie trailer, but the aftermath of a botched war that left Islamist militias in control of entire cities.
Now the Congressional report on Benghazigate tears apart some of the biggest claims.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
An ongoing Congressional investigation across five House Committees concerning the events surrounding the September 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya has made several determinations to date, including:
• Reductions of security levels prior to the attacks in Benghazi were approved at the highest levels of the State Department, up to and including Secretary Clinton. This fact contradicts her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on January 23, 2013.
• In the days following the attacks, White House and senior State Department officials altered accurate talking points drafted by the Intelligence Community in order to protect the State Department.
• Contrary to Administration rhetoric, the talking points were not edited to protect classified information. Concern for classified information is never mentioned in email traffic among senior Administration officials.
This is, as noted, still preliminary but it finds enough deceptions to justify a more in depth investigation.
First the report makes a clear case that Hillary Clinton knew the situation in Benghazi and chose to weaken security while far larges sums of money were being wasted by the State Department elsewhere.
Repeated requests for additional security were denied at the highest levels of the State Department. For example, an April 2012 State Department cable bearing Secretary Hillary Clinton’s signature acknowledged then-Ambassador Cretz’s formal request for additional security assets but ordered the withdrawal of security elements to proceed as planned.
• The attacks were not the result of a failure by the Intelligence Community (IC) to recognize or communicate the threat. The IC collected considerable information about the threats in the region, and disseminated regular assessments to senior U.S. officials warning of the deteriorating security environment in Benghazi, which included threats to American interests, facilities, and personnel.
And also notes
In addition, the April 2012 cable from Secretary Clinton recommended that the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the U.S. Mission in Libya conduct a “joint reassessment of the number of DS agents requested for Benghazi.” This prompted one frustrated Embassy Tripoli employee to remark to her colleagues that it “looks like no movement on the full complement of [five DS] personnel for Benghazi, but rather a reassessment to bring the numbers lower.”
Furthermore it points to a lack of preparation by the White House and its incompetent centralized national security framework.
The President, as Commander-in-Chief, failed to proactively anticipate the significance of September 11 and provide the Department of Defense with the authority to launch offensive operations beyond self-defense. Defense Department assets were correctly positioned for the general threat across the region, but the assets were not authorized at an alert posture to launch offensive operations beyond self-defense, and were provided no notice to defend diplomatic facilities.
The report addresses the fumbled cover-up and incompetent response in the aftermath of the attacks.
After the Attacks:
• The Administration willfully perpetuated a deliberately misleading and incomplete narrative that the attacks evolved from a political demonstration caused by a YouTube video. U.S. officials on the ground reported – and video evidence confirms – that demonstrations outside the Benghazi Mission did not occur and that the incident began with an armed attack on the facility. Senior Administration officials knowingly minimized the role played by al-Qa’ida-affiliated entities and other associated groups in the attacks, and decided to exclude from the discussion the previous attempts by extremists to attack U.S. persons or facilities in Libya.
• Administration officials crafted and continued to rely on incomplete and misleading talking points. Specifically, after a White House Deputies Meeting on Saturday, September 15, 2012, the Administration altered the talking points to remove references to the likely participation of Islamic extremists in the attacks. The Administration also removed references to the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya, including information about at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi.
Senior State Department officials requested – and the White House approved – that the details of the threats, specifics of the previous attacks, and previous warnings be removed to insulate the Department from criticism that it ignored the threat environment in Benghazi.
• Evidence rebuts Administration claims that the talking points were modified to protect classified information or to protect an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Email exchanges during the interagency process do not reveal any concern with protecting classified information. Additionally, the Bureau itself approved a version of the talking points with significantly more information about the attacks and previous threats than the version that the State Department requested. Thus, the claim that the State Department’s edits were made solely to protect that investigation is not credible.
• The Administration’s decision to respond to the Benghazi attacks with an FBI investigation, rather than military or other intelligence resources, contributed to the government’s lack of candor about the nature of the attack.
• Responding to the attacks with an FBI investigation significantly delayed U.S. access to key witnesses and evidence and undermined the government’s ability to bring those responsible for the attacks to justice in a timely manner.
The report includes a timeline of events and of the administration’s narrative and slams Obama’s determination to treat the attacks as criminal attacks, rather than acts of war.
Without significant progress in finding and questioning suspects, it appears that the decision to proceed with an FBI investigation – presumably with the intention of obtaining a criminal indictment in U.S. courts – was ill-advised. For instance, the United States responded to the attacks against U.S. embassies in Africa in the 1990s and against the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 with criminal investigations. On their own, those investigations failed to bring many of those responsible to justice and likely encouraged further terrorist activity. This approach is not the most effective method of responding to terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in foreign countries.
It was only after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when the United States responded to terrorism with military force, that the government successfully brought some of the perpetrators of those attacks and the previous attacks to justice. The Department of Defense offered to provide a U.S. military security team to accompany the FBI team. This option was not pursued. Terrorists are not deterred by criminal investigations. Because members of terrorist organizations that attack U.S. interests around the world are conducting more than a crime, they must be responded to accordingly to be thwarted.
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Disturbing Report: Veterans Are Receiving Letters From VA Prohibiting The Ownership Or Purchase Of Firearms
22 Feb
How would you feel if you received a letter from the U.S. Government informing you that because of a physical or mental condition that the government says you have it is proposing to rule that you are incompetent to handle your own financial affairs? Suppose that letter also stated that the government is going to appoint a stranger to handle your affairs for you at your expense? That would certainly be scary enough but it gets worse.
What if that letter also stated: “A determination of incompetency will prohibit you from purchasing, possessing, receiving, or transporting a firearm or ammunition. If you knowingly violate any of these prohibitions, you may be fined, imprisoned, or both pursuant to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, Pub.L.No. 103-159, as implemented at 18, United States Code 924(a)(2).”?
That makes is sound like something right from a documentary on a tyrannical dictatorship somewhere in the world. Yet, as I write this I have a copy of such a letter right in front of me. It is being sent by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of America’s heroes. In my capacity as Executive Director of the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) I have been contacted by some of these veterans and the stories I am getting are appalling.
The letter provides no specifics on the reasons for the proposed finding of incompetency; just that is based on a determination by someone in the VA. In every state in the United States no one can be declared incompetent to administer their own affairs without due process of law and that usually requires a judicial hearing with evidence being offered to prove to a judge that the person is indeed incompetent. This is a requirement of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that states that no person shall “…be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law…”.
Obviously, the Department of Veterans Affairs can’t be bothered by such impediments as the Constitution, particularly since they are clearly pushing to fulfill one of Obama’s main goals, the disarming of the American people. Janet Napolitano has already warned law enforcement that some of the most dangerous among us are America’s heroes, our veterans, and now according to this letter from the VA they can be prohibited from buying or even possessing a firearm because of a physical or mental disability.
Think about it, the men and women who have laid their lives on the line to defend us and our Constitution are now having their own Constitutional rights denied. There are no clear criteria for the VA to declare a veteran incompetent. It can be the loss of a limb in combat, a head injury, a diagnosis of PTSD, or even a soldier just telling someone at the VA that he or she is depressed over the loss of a buddy in combat. In none of these situations has the person been found to be a danger to themselves or others. If that was the case than all of the Americans who have suffered from PTSD following the loss of a loved one or from being in a car accident would also have to be disqualified from owning firearms. It would also mean that everyone who has ever been depressed for any reason should be disarmed. In fact, many of the veterans being deprived of their rights have no idea why it is happening.
The answer seems to be it is simply because they are veterans. At the USJF we intend to find the truth by filing a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Veterans Affairs to force them to disclose the criteria they are using to place veterans on the background check list that keeps them from exercising their Second Amendment rights. Then we will take whatever legal steps are necessary to protect our American warriors.
The reality is that Obama will not get all of the gun control measures he wants through Congress, and they wouldn’t be enough for him anyway. He wants a totally disarmed America so there will be no resistance to his plans to rob us of our nation. That means we have to ask who will be next. If you are receiving a Social Security check will you get one of these letters? Will the government declare that you are incompetent because of your age and therefore banned from firearm ownership. It certainly fits in with the philosophy and plans of the Obama administration. It is also certain that our military veterans don’t deserve this and neither do any other Americans.
Written By Constitutional Attorney Michael Connelly, J.D. – Executive Director, United States Justice Foundation
Click on the images below to enlarge them.
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Report: Hagel Said Israel Headed Toward Apartheid, Netanyahu A ‘Radical’
19 FebReport: Hagel Said Israel Headed Toward Apartheid, Netanyahu A ‘Radical’ – Washington Free Beacon
Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel said Israel is on its way to becoming an apartheid state during an April 9, 2010, appearance at Rutgers University, according to a contemporaneous account by an attendee.
Hagel also accused Israel of violating U.N. resolutions, called for U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas to be included in any peace negotiations, and described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “radical,” according to the source.
Kenneth Wagner, who attended the 2010 speech while a Rutgers University law student, provided the Washington Free Beacon with an email he sent during the event to a contact at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The email is time-stamped April 9, 2010, at 11:37 AM.
“I am sitting in a lecture by Chuck Hagel at Rutgers,” Wagner wrote in the email. “He basically said that Israel has violated every UN resolution since 1967, that Israel has violated its agreements with the quartet, that it was risking becoming an apartheid state if it didn’t allow the Palestinians to form a state. He said that the settlements were getting close to the point where a contiguous Palestinian state would be impossible.”
“He said that he [thought] that Netanyahu was a radical and that even [former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi] Livni, who was hard nosed thought he was too radical and so wouldn’t join in a coalition [government] with him… He said that Hamas has to be brought in to any peace negotiation,” Wagner wrote.
AIPAC had no comment.
Wagner said the remarks were made during the Q&A session. The speech took place at the Rutgers School of Law in Newark.
Wagner, a pro-Israel activist, reiterated the account in an interview with the Free Beacon and called Hagel’s comments “pretty shocking.”
“I was very surprised at his attitude because I had been listening to politicians speak about the situation in the Middle East and the U.S. Israel relationship for about two decades,” Wagner told the Free Beacon. “And it was probably the most negative thing I’d ever heard anybody in elected office say.”
The news of the comments given during the 2010 speech comes at a time when the embattled secretary of defense nominee has been forced to respond to a report that he called the State Department an adjunct of the Israeli foreign ministry during the Q&A portion of a 2007 speech at Rutgers.
The Free Beacon reported Thursday on a contemporaneous account of another speech then-Senator Hagel gave at Rutgers in 2007. The report, written by Hagel supporter and political consultant George Ajjan, claimed Hagel had described the U.S. Department of State as an extension of the Israeli government.
Sens. Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte on Friday sent a letter to Hagel requesting an explanation of the alleged comments. The Anti-Defamation League also called on Hagel to explain, and the American Jewish Committee said, “Further Senate deliberation is called for before any final vote is taken.”
Hagel has disavowed the remarks and says he does not recall making them.
“I do not recall making any such statement, or ever making any similar statement,” he wrote in a reply letter to Graham and Ayotte on February 16. “I completely disavow the content of the alleged statement attributed to me.”
According to one of the 2007 event’s organizers, Hooshang Amirahmadi, who is currently running for president of Iran, Ajjan’s account of the 2007 speech is “complete nonsense.”
Amirahmadi told the Free Beacon that some of his “very good Jewish colleagues who are very pro-Israel” did not appear offended at any point during the speech.
The Daily Caller reported on Monday that Amirahmadi accepted funding grants from the Alavi Foundation, which federal law enforcement officials have called a front group for the Iranian regime.
Amirahmadi is also the head of the American Iranian Council, which awarded Hagel an expensive clock in 2002.
Another attendee at the 2007 speech, Rutgers Professor Charles Häberl said he is “certain” Hagel did not say the State Department was an adjunct of the Israeli government, BuzzFeed reported today.
When the Free Beacon contacted Häberl about the 2007 speech last Thursday, he said he was not the best person to talk to about the event.
“Have you been in touch with Hooshang Amirahmadi?” Häberl wrote in an email. “He’s the one who organized the event, and he would be the best situated to talk about it. At the time, I was just a lecturer.”
Meanwhile, Ajjan stood by his account and said he is the only person who has provided a written report from the time.
“If somebody comes out with a transcript and those words aren’t uttered, I’d be the first one to say, ‘My apologies. I wrote something down that was wrong – I misheard it, or I misreported it,’ if that’s the case,” Ajjan told the Washington Free Beacon.
“I’m a conscientious person,” Ajjan said. “When I was blogging at that time, I did my best to record things accurately… there’s no way that I would pick a phrase like ‘adjunct of the Israeli foreign ministry.’ That’s a pretty odd combination of words to use. I wouldn’t have just pulled those out of thin air.”
When asked about Häberl disputing his account, Ajjan said he wants to make it clear he is not trying to undermine Hagel’s confirmation or the Rutgers event. He said he is still a supporter of Hagel.
“I suppose [Häberl] thinks that I’m somehow trying to disparage Chuck Hagel or cast a dark shadow over his confirmation hearings. That’s not the case at all. And I certainly don’t wish to besmirch the people who organized the event,” said Ajjan. “I very much enjoyed the event, I appreciate the people who organized it.”
The Free Beacon is working to obtain transcript and video of Hagel’s comments during the question and answer sessions at Rutgers in both 2007 and 2010, and is continuing to speak to others who attended both events.
A representative for Hagel did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
$2B Spent Annually For Medicaid Emergencies, Largely For Illegal Alien Baby Deliveries
16 FebEven though federal law largely bars illegal immigrants from obtaining Medicaid coverage, the program annually pays out more than $2 billion in free emergency coverage that mostly goes to illegal immigrants, according to Kaiser Health News.
The vast majority of the total emergency care reimbursements cover delivering babies, Kaiser reports.
Based on a Kaiser data analysis of the states believed to have the greatest populations of illegal immigrants – including California, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Illinois and Florida – more than 100,000 people annually receive emergency care that is reimbursed by Medicaid.
California, Kaiser’s analysis showed, receives approximately half of the annual $2 billion Medicaid expenditure category.
That category of Medicaid also covers some homeless people and legal immigrants who have been in the country less than five years – and are therefore mostly ineligible for Medicaid, according to Kaiser.
“We can’t turn them away,” Joanne Aquilina, the chief financial officer of Bethesda Healthcare System in Boynton Beach, Fla., told Kaiser.
Nearly one-third of Bethesda Hospital East’s annual 2,900 births are paid for by emergency Medicaid funding.
According to a 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association report, an analysis of claims reimbursed by Emergency Medicaid over a four-year period in North Carolina revealed that 99 percent of the 48,391 individual cases went toward services for illegal immigrants.
Kaiser reports that hospitals generally realize when patients are illegal immigrants, even though they do not explicitly ask them their status, because they do not possess a Social Security Number, birth certificate or other documents.
“We gather information to qualify patients for something and through that process, if you really hit a dead end, you know they are illegal,” Steve Short, the chief financial officer at Tampa General Hospital, told Kaiser.
Are Obama voters stupid?
4 JanLet me put it this way. They KNEW about the high unemployment numbers, especially among minorities, and young voters, yet, they voted for Obama anyway. I would say that is, if not stupid, at least unwise
Obama supporters continue to suffer the most in the latest jobs report. Blacks, Hispanics and young adults suffer the most under this administration.
The national unemployment rate is 7.8% (not counting the millions who dropped out of the market.)
The Herald Online reported:
- The overall unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds for December 2012 is 11.5 percent (NSA).
- The unemployment rate for 18-29 year old African-Americans for December 2012 is22.1 percent (NSA); the unemployment rate for 18-29 year old Hispanics for December 2012 is 12.2 percent (NSA); and the unemployment rate for 18–29 year old women for December 2012 is 10.4 percent (NSA).
- The declining labor force participation rate has created an additional 1.7 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.
- If the labor force participation rate were factored into the 18-29 unemployment calculations, the actual Millennial unemployment rate would rise to 16.3 percent (NSA).
Simply unbelievable
Report: Island Ownership Dispute Could Lead To War Between China, Japan
28 DecReport: Island Ownership Dispute Could Lead To War Between China, Japan – Big Peace
The Senkakus Islands off the coast of Japan have become a point of contention that may draw the U.S and Japan into war with China in 2013.
According to reports, the islands are claimed by both Japan and China – China calls them the Diaoyu Islands – and the tensions over them are so great that Japan’s incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has suspended the stationing of Japanese officials on the islands in order to stave off further conflict.
While there has been no explicit explanation for the focus on the islands, it is believed China has seized on them as a way to push back against growing U.S. involvement in Asia. To this end, China’s goal may be to drive a wedge between Tokyo and the Obama administration and get the U.S. to pressure Tokyo into giving up claim to the islands.
There seems to be an underlying belief on China’s part that if they keep pushing, the U.S. will eventually buckle and ask Japan to join them in capitulating.
And while a spectator to these events may be surprised at the audaciousness of China, others believe China is simply using the leverage they’ve created by nurturing an economic environment that makes it difficult for the U.S. to buck Beijing.
Suffice it to say, the tensions are multifaceted.
As of right now, America wants to hold to the power it enjoys in Asia, Japan doesn’t want to appear like a pushover to China, and China doesn’t want to give an inch to either country. It seems the only thing these three divergent views have in common is war.
Syria Regime ‘Mixing Chemicals To Make Sarin Gas’: Report
4 DecSyria Regime ‘Mixing Chemicals To Make Sarin Gas’: Report – London Telegraph
The White House issued a stark warning that it feared President Bashar al-Assad might be turning to his arsenal of chemical weapons as a report emerged claiming the regime has already begun mixing the chemicals to make deadly sarin gas.
On a day of turmoil in which a high-ranking Assad spokesman defected, and the United Nations announced it was withdrawing all non-essential personnel in Syria, American defence officials confirmed that activity had been reported at the regime’s known chemical sites, including movements of weapons components.
Although previous activity has been reported, it was seen then as the regime seeking to secure stocks against possible rebel attack.
This time, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, went further. “We are concerned that an increasingly beleaguered regime may be considering the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people,” he said.
This evening, AFP news agency quoted an unnamed US official who claimed the regime has already begun mixing the chemicals that can be used to make deadly sarin gas.
“We’ve picked up several indications which lead us to believe that they’re combining chemical precursors,” AFP quoted the official as saying, adding that the operation was apparently aimed at making sarin.
Sarin, used in two terrorist attacks in Japan in the 1990s, is a man-made nerve agent which can cause convulsions, respiratory failure and death.
The Syrian regime has never overtly admitted having chemical weapons, though it is believed by western analysts to have the biggest stocks in the Middle East. It has also denied it would ever use chemical weapons against its own people, a denial it reiterated yesterday.
“Syria confirms repeatedly it will never, under any circumstances, use chemical weapons against its own people, if such weapons exist,” an official said.
But Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, responded to growing alarm, including from Syria’s neighbour Turkey, over the chemical weapons reports by saying that this would change America’s policy towards the war.
“We have made our views very clear: this is a red line for the United States,” she said. “I’m not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people, but suffice it to say, we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.”
In a further sign of impending chaos, the United Nations announced that non-essential foreign staff were being withdrawn from the country and trips outside Damascus halted. “The security situation has become extremely difficult, including in Damascus,” Radhouane Nouicer, the regional humanitarian coordinator, said.
The European Union also announced that its delegation in Damascus was reducing activities to a minimum level due to security concerns.
The United States and its western allies have refused to back the rebels militarily or answer requests to impose a no-fly zone. But they are getting closer to allow arms supplies, with the European Union due to review its arms embargo in three months.
Nato is also today likely to approve stationing Patriot missile interceptors on the Turkish border with Syria, a response to Turkish conerns that the Assad regime might turn to ballistic missiles, perhaps tipped with chemical weapons, to deploy against the rebels. It wants to be able to shoot down any missiles that cross its own borders, deliberately or accidentally.
There are signs of desperation inside the regime as it fails to dislodge rebels from the southern suburbs of its own capital, Damascus.
Syria’s air force has been bombing rebel-held districts, but it has been unable to fully secure the airport and airport road. Although the airport reopened at the weekend, an Egyptair plane from Cairo was turned back on Monday afternoon after being informed security was not assured.
The secretary-general of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, said in an interview with AFP news agency yesterday that he thought the Assad regime could collapse “at any time”.
“Facts on the ground indicate very clearly now that the Syrian opposition is gaining, politically and militarily,” he said. “Every day they are gaining something.”
In a sign of internal weaknes, Jihad Makdessi, the chief foreign ministry spokesman, was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights to have defected and boarded a plane for London from Beirut airport.
He was earlier said by a Lebanese television station close to Hizbollah to have been sacked for deviating in his statements from government policy. Mr Makdessi was previously the press secretary at Syria’s London embassy, and has been one of the main defenders of the regime not only on television but on social media such as Twitter.
Report: Petraeus Agrees To Testify Before Congressional Committees About Libya Attacks
14 NovReport: Petraeus Agrees To Testify Before Congressional Committees About Libya Attacks – The Blaze
Former CIA Director David Petraeus has agreed to voluntarily testify before the House and Senate intelligence committees about the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Fox News reported Wednesday morning.
Petraeus had been slated to testify Thursday before his abrupt resignation last week, after which Acting CIA Director Michael Morell was expected to take his place.
It was not immediately clear when Petraeus would give his testimony. He resigned from his post Friday after admitting to an extramarital affair.
The CIA has come under sharp scrutiny in the wake of the Sept. 11 Benghazi terror attacks that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told CNN on Tuesday she believed Petraeus would ultimately testify.
“I believe he will. I think he’s a responsible person and I believe he will come,” Feinstein said.
Some lawmakers had threatened to subpoena Petraeus if he did not come voluntarily.
“I hope we don’t have to subpoena a four-star general and the former CIA director, I hope he would come voluntarily, but if he won’t he will be subpoenaed and none of what has happened [with the resignation] is a defense to a subpoena,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on Fox News.
Report: Radical Islamists Made ‘Hundreds Of Visits’ To Obama White House
30 OctReport: Radical Islamists Made ‘Hundreds Of Visits’ To Obama White House – World Tribune
President Barack Obama has provided what was termed unprecedented access to supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Hamas, a report said.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism asserted that Obama invited scores of Islamists to the White House during his current term despite their connection to counter-insurgency investigations by the FBI and Justice Department. In a report, IPT said the Islamists made hundreds of visits to the White House and might have influenced the Obama administration’s policy on Al Qaida.
“A year-long investigation by the Investigative Project on Terrorism has found that scores of known radical Islamists made hundreds of visits to the Obama White House, meeting with top administration officials,” the report said. “Court documents and other records have identified many of these visitors as belonging to groups serving as fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other Islamic militant organizations.”
The report, titled “A Red Carpet for Radicals at the White House,” said the Islamists represented organizations designated by the Justice Department “unindicted co-conspirators in terrorist trials.” Other visitors were said to be linked with groups that obstructed CI investigations by ordering followers not to cooperate with the FBI and state law enforcement.
Authors Steve Emerson and John Rossomando said the Council on American-Islamic Relations as having the greatest access to the White House. Representatives of CAIR, cited as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest insurgency money-laundering case in U.S. history, visited the White House at least 20 times since Obama entered office in 2009. Several of the representatives were said to have expressed support for Al Qaida, Hamas and Hizbullah.
“Despite the president’s public proclamations that he is standing strong against terrorism, the White House logs demonstrate that he has legitimized the very same groups that espouse radical Islamic terrorism,” the report, dated Oct. 21, said.
A leading Islamist visitor was identified as Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR’s office in Los Angeles. The report said Ayloush met Obama’s secret liason with CAIR, Paul Monteiro, while the White House failed to list other visits.
“IPT has learned that the White House logs curiously have omitted Ayloush’s three meetings with two other senior White House officials,” the report said.
The report identified the Muslim Public Affairs Council as securing the closest working relationship with Obama. Fifteen council executives were said to have been welcomed by the White House, with MPAC director Salam Al Marayati invited six times between September 2009 and July 2011.
The council’s Washington director, Haris Tarin, visited the White House 24 times in slightly more than two years. The report said the meetings with Tarin, a leading critic of the FBI surveillance of Muslims, took place as the White House drafted two papers on the threat of violent extremism in the United States.
“White House visitor logs show that top U.S. policy-makers are soliciting and receiving advice from people who, at best, view the war on terrorism as an unchecked war on Muslims,” the report said. “These persons’ perspectives and preferred policies handcuff law enforcement and weaken our resolve when it comes to confronting terrorism.”
Second ‘Fast & Furious’ Report Flays Management At Department Of Justice
30 OctSecond ‘Fast & Furious’ Report Flays Management At Department Of Justice – The Hill
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued their second report on a failed federal gun-tracking operation, detailing an internal management breakdown within the Justice Department.
The 104-page report released on Monday criticizes senior DOJ officials for not being aware of – and not taking steps to stop – the flawed “gun-walking” tactics used in “Operation Fast and Furious” that allowed nearly 2,000 guns to be sold to criminals.
“Though many senior Department officials were keenly aware of Fast and Furious, no one questioned the operation,” states the report, titled “Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation.”
“The criminal division asked no questions. The office of the deputy attorney general asked no questions. No one ordered that Fast and Furious be shut down. Instead, senior Department officials let it continue to grow.”
Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, investigated the DOJ and the flawed operation for 18 months, and successfully led a Republican vote to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to give the panel internal agency documents and communications.
The report issued a series of eight recommendations that detail ways in which the DOJ should reform its internal policies to prevent a similar breakdown in communication in the future. Issa criticized the DOJ for not taking more steps to fire or take other administrative action towards the agency officials who were responsible for the operation.
“The report discloses widespread management failures within the hierarchy of the Justice Department,” said Issa in a statement. “The Justice Department has yet to evaluate these management issues and implement structural changes to prevent another disaster like Operation Fast and Furious from occurring. Furthermore, the Justice Department has taken limited action against these negligent managers.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the oversight panel’s ranking member, slammed the report on Monday, saying it lacked merit and was ill-timed with the impending landfall of Hurricane Sandy Monday evening.
“It is a shame that, on a day of national emergency, Chairman Issa is rehashing this issue by directly contradicting the inspector general, who already settled this issue definitively,” Cummings said in a statement. “There is a reason Chairman Issa has not subjected even a single one of his reports this Congress to a vote of the committee, and that is because they would not withstand even the most basic scrutiny.”
A DOJ official, speaking on background, rejected the report’s conclusions, while stressing Holder’s initial call for an inspector general investigation and immediate implementation of internal reforms to prevent similar failures in the future. The DOJ official also emphasized that it was Holder who stopped the “gun walking” tactics that began in 2006 under then-President George W. Bush.
An administration official, speaking on background, criticized Issa for conducting a politically biased investigation.
“Another pathetic attempt by Issa to try to politicize this matter without regard for, or command of, the facts,” the official said.
Last month the DOJ’s inspector general (IG) issued its own 471-page report that found that four high-ranking DOJ officials, including Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, knew enough about the dangers of the operation that they should have raised concerns with their immediate superiors.
Weinstein immediately resigned after the IG’s report was released, but Breuer remains in his office, provoking a number of Republicans, including Grassley, to call for him to step down.
“Officials in the Justice Department saw any number of warnings and some even had the gunwalking information right in front of them, yet nothing was done to stop it,” said Grassley in a statement on Monday.
“Countless people may be murdered with these weapons, yet the attorney general appears to be letting his employees slide by with little to no accountability.” Grassley said.
The Republican report issued Monday states: “The department… failed to enforce the law, to ensure public safety, to provide leadership, to halt the operation, and to hold accountable those responsible for their conduct in conjunction with this deadly and disastrous operation.
“To restore the nation’s confidence in it, the Justice Department must take corrective action immediately.”
Neither the Republican report nor the IG investigation directly faulted Holder for the failures that led up to Fast and Furious, despite more than 100 GOP lawmakers calling for his resignation.
The DOJ points to a number of reforms that Holder has directed into place since the controversial tactics of Fast and Furious were first exposed at the beginning of 2011.
The ATF moved in July, 2011 to provide a stricter oversight procedure that requires agents to give officials at ATF headquarters “specific information about all significant, ongoing investigations on a monthly basis.”
The new protocol also establishes “specific criteria under which an investigation will become a monitored case, including all investigations of complex schemes in which more than 50 firearms have been straw purchased.”
Issa and Grassley issued a previous report on Fast and Furious in July that focused on the involvement of the U.S. attorney’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which oversaw the legal and on-the-ground details, respectively.
The second report recommended DOJ “institute clear, written guidelines to outline the appropriate use of cooperating gun dealers during law enforcement investigations. The department must scrutinize investigations that involve cooperating gun dealers much more closely.”
The report also recommends that agency leadership should “foster a culture of accountability within the Department by taking responsibility and accepting consequences for their own lack of initiative and failures.”
Issa and Grassley are expected to issue a third report on Fast and Furious, which is set to “address the unprecedented obstruction of the investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself” and “can only be prepared after the Justice Department fulfills its obligations to cooperate with the Congress and produce documents.”
That report may be delayed as Issa’s panel continues to battle Holder for roughly 90,000 agency documents that it has been denied, but which the IG received in its investigation. The outcome of the contempt case currently underway in federal court will likely determine Issa’s lebel of access to many of those documents.
Report: Welfare Government’s Single Largest Budget Item In FY 2011 At Approximately $1.03 Trillion
18 OctThe government spent approximately $1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone – a price tag that makes welfare that year the government’s largest expenditure, according to new data released by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.
The total sum taxpayers spent on federal welfare programs was derived from a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on federal welfare spending – which topped out at $745.84 billion for fiscal year 2011 – combined with an analysis from the Republican Senate Budget Committee staff of state spending on federal welfare programs (based on “The Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government Finance”), which reached $282.7 billion in fiscal year 2011.
The data excludes spending on Social Security, Medicare, means-tested health care for veterans without service-connected disabilities, and the means-tested veterans pension program.
According to the CRS report, which focused solely on federal spending for federal welfare programs, spending on federal welfare programs increased $563.413 billion in fiscal year 2008 to $745.84 billion in fiscal year 2011 – a 32 percent increase.
Further, spending on the 10 largest federal welfare programs has doubled as a share of the federal budget in the last 30 years: In inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Republican staff on the Senate Budget Committee, the amount spent on these programs has increased 378 percent in that 30 year time frame.
CRS reports that food assistance programs – the third largest welfare category behind health and cash assistance – experienced the greatest increase in spending, with 71 percent more spending in 2011 than in 2008. The agency explained that this spending increase was largely due to the growth in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps.
CRS further noted that the largest expenditure category, health, was 37 percent higher in fiscal year 2011 than fiscal year 2008. In that same period, cash aid increased 12 percent, education assistance increased 57 percent, housing and development assistance increased 2 percent, social services increased 3 percent, employment and training remained the same (though fluctuated in intervening years), and energy assistance was 67 percent higher in fiscal year 2011 than fiscal year 2008.
The total federal spending on federal welfare programs vastly outpaced fiscal year 2011 spending on such federal expenditures as non-war defense ($540 billion), Social Security ($725 billion), Medicare ($480 billion), and departments such as Justice ($30.5 billion), Transportation ($77.3 billion) and Education ($65.486 billion) – a fact that alarmed the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who requested the report from CRS.
“These astounding figures demonstrate that the United States spends more on federal welfare than any other program in the federal budget,” Sessions wrote The Daily Caller in an email. “It is time to restore – not retreat from – the moral principles of the 1996 welfare reform. Such reforms, combined with measures to promote growth, will help both the recipient and the Treasury.”
When state spending on federal welfare programs – specifically Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program – was thrown into the mix, the amount spent on federal welfare increased 28 percent, from $798.813 billion in fiscal year 2008 to $1.028.54 trillion in fiscal year 2011.
“No longer should we measure compassion by how much money the government spends, but by how many people we help to rise out of poverty,” Sessions continued. “Welfare assistance should be seen as temporary whenever possible, and the goal must be to help more of our fellow citizens attain gainful employment and financial independence. This is about more than rescuing our finances. It’s about creating a more optimistic future for millions of struggling Americans.”
With food assistance spending increasing the most out of every category, Sessions, who has been sounding the alarm on the expanding food stamp rolls, noted that the Obama administration has allowed for the food stamp increase through misleading promotion and a disregard for self-reliance.
“The administration ludicrously argues that every five dollars in food stamp spending results in nearly 10 dollars in economic benefit. They insist that communities ‘lose out’ when more people don’t sign up for benefits,” Sessions noted. “[The United States Department of Agriculture] even awarded a recruitment worker for overcoming people’s ‘mountain pride.’ Is this a hopeful vision for the future? Do these priorities make our country stronger and our economy more secure?”
Report: FBI Still Hasn’t Arrived In Benghazi To Begin Investigation Into Consulate Attack
27 Sep
Sheer incompetence.
(CNN) – More than two weeks after four Americans – including the U.S. ambassador to Libya – were killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, FBI agents have not yet been granted access to investigate in the eastern Libyan city, and the crime scene has not been secured, sources said.
“They’ve gotten as far as Tripoli now, but they’ve never gotten to Benghazi,” CNN National Security Analyst Fran Townsend said Wednesday, citing senior law enforcement officials.
Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that an FBI team had reached Libya earlier in the week.
“In fairness to the secretary, it may be that she wanted to be coy about where they were in Libya for security concerns. That’s understandable. But the fact is, it’s not clear they’ve been in Libya for very long,” Townsend said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°.”
“They had difficulty, and we understand there was some bureaucratic infighting between the FBI and Justice Department on the one hand, and the State Department on the other, and so it took them longer than they would have liked to get into country. They’ve now gotten there. But they still are unable to get permission to go to Benghazi.”
FBI agents have made a request through the U.S. State Department for the crime scene to be secured, Townsend said, but that has not happened.
Report: Journalists Using Fake Names To Buy Obama Merchandise
7 SepReport: Journalists Using Fake Names To Buy Obama Merchandise – Big Journalism
Several journalists have reportedly used fake names to buy Obama campaign merchandise inside media-only areas of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC.
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Politicker author Hunter Walker recounts that a seller at a souvenir stand revealed the practice when he declined her offer to buy Obama merchandise. He reminded her that buying anything would amount to a campaign donation, but she responded, “Have you ever thought of making up a fake name? That’s what the other guys do.”
Walker notes Obama’s official website warns shoppers that any merchandise bought is treated as a campaign donation. “The only way to receive items from the 2012 store is by contributing through the official store site at store.barackobama.com,” it reads.
ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos recently told a reporter he believed there is no “liberal bias” in the media during a brief interview at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL.
Weeks earlier, Jake Tapper, also at ABC News, asserted “the media helped tip the scales” for Barack Obama in the 2008 election – that “it wasn’t always the fairest coverage.”
Report: Obama Spends More Time On Golf Than Economy
20 JulReport: Obama Spends More Time On Golf Than Economy – Big Government
An eye-opening new report by the Government Accountability Institute reveals that President Barack Obama averages just eight minutes more a week on economic meetings than the average dog owner spends walking their dog.
When it was recently reported that Mr. Obama had played his 100th round of golf, the president said that playing golf was “the only time that for six hours, I’m outside.” Therefore, by his own estimate, the president has spent 600 hours playing golf, as compared to just 412 hours in economic meetings of any kind throughout his presidency.
“You should know that keeping the economy growing and making sure jobs are available is the first thing I think about when I wake up every morning,” Mr. Obama said in 2011 to an audience of UPS workers. “It’s the last thing I think about when I go to bed each night.”
But just how little time Mr. Obama has spent working on the economy can be seen in the data contained in the Government Accountability Institute’s analysis:
* Throughout the first 1,257 days of his presidency, Mr. Obama has spent just 412 hours in economic meetings or briefings of any kind
* In 2012, so far Obama has spent just 24 total hours in economic meetings of any kind
* Assuming a six day, 10-hour workweek, Obama has spent less than 4 percent of his total time in economic meetings or briefings of any kind
* There were 773 days (72 percent), excluding Sundays, in which he had no economic meetings
* Mr. Obama has spent an average of 138 minutes a week in economic meetings. According to a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, new dog owners spent an average of 130 minutes a week walking their dogs
The study, which was based upon the president’s official schedule, practically bent over backwards to include anything even remotely akin to an economic meeting. For example, “Obama meets with Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum” was tallied as an economic meeting. Also included was, “Obama meets with Cabinet secretaries,” which may or may not have dealt with economic issues, counted as well.
Still, with Americans suffering in the worst economy since the Great Depression, Mr. Obama’s time spent in economic meetings came in shockingly low.
Chagas Disease, An Incurable Infection, Called The ‘New AIDS Of The Americas’: Report
29 MayExperts have dubbed it the “new AIDS of the Americas.”
A parasitic infection called Chagas Disease has similarities to the early spread of HIV, according to research published recently in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Like AIDS, Chagas is hard to detect and has a long incubation period before symptoms emerge, the study said, according to the New York Times.
As many as 8 million people are infected in the Western Hemisphere, mainly in Bolivia, Mexico, Colombia and Central America, as well as some 30,000 people in the U.S., the newspaper reported. Chagas infects people in areas of poverty, and most U.S. cases are found in immigrants.
Because Chagas is often left untreated, it spreads easily, either genetically or through blood transfusion. If caught early, it can be treated with intense medication, but the drugs are scarce in poor countries and very little money is invested in searching for new treatments, the paper said.
Chagas is usually transmitted from the bite of blood-sucking insects that release a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi into the victim’s bloodstream. The parasite can eventually make its way to the heart, where it can live and multiply.
Infections often stay dormant for years, and then emerge as heart arrhythmias and heart failure. About a quarter of victims develop enlarged heart or intestines that can lead to sudden death if they burst, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New research suggests Chagas may have led to the death of Charles Darwin – one of the great medical mysteries.
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine believe Darwin suffered from three different illnesses, including a Chagas infection contracted on a voyage to the Andes in South America, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
Darwin wrote in his diary that he was bitten by a “great wingless black bug” during the trip in 1835. He died 47 years later of heart failure.
Report: Saints’ General Manager Eavesdropped On Opposing Coaches
23 AprReport: Saints’ Loomis Eavesdropped On Opposing Coaches – USA Today
Another day brings another allegation of un-Saintly behavior in New Orleans.
According to sources cited by ESPN’s Outside the Lines, soon-to-be suspended Saints GM Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome suite that enabled him to eavesdrop on opposing coaches. The device was apparently installed to allow a listener to monitor the New Orleans coaching staff but was allegedly altered to allow Loomis audio access to visiting teams during three seasons spanning 2002-2004.
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The Saints were 25-23 under former head coach Jim Haslett during the period of time in question (12-12 at home) and did not make the playoffs in any of those seasons. ESPN’s story indicates the bugging equipment was rigged at some point during the 2002 campaign, Loomis’ first with the club.
If the report is true, Loomis may not have only broken NFL rules but could also be in hot water with federal law enforcement for violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act which prohibits electronic eavesdropping. There is a five-year federal statute of limitations (and a six-year statute per Louisiana state law) to prosecute an ECPA violation – the audio device in question was apparently disabled around the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005 – yet Loomis could also be targeted by lawsuits from aggrieved parties.
“This report is 1,000% false,” Saints spokesman Greg Bensel told WWLTV in New Orleans. “Completely inaccurate. We asked ESPN to provide us evidence to support their allegations, and they refused. The team and Mickey are seeking all legal recourse regarding these false allegations.”
The NFL was apparently unaware of the accusations prior to ESPN airing its story.
ESPN could not ascertain whether Loomis actually utilized the device to overhear communications by other teams or whether he passed on advantageous information to the Saints staff.
“That would be a stupendous advantage if you had that,” said former Saints defensive coordinator Rick Venturi. “That’s shocking.
“I can tell you if we did it, nobody told me about it… Nobody ever helped me during a game.”
Loomis is already scheduled to be suspended the first eight games of the upcoming 2012 season for failing to disclose and shut down the team’s infamous bounty program. It remains to be seen if he could face further discipline if the new allegations have merit.
The Saints’ bounty scandal has already cost the team head coach Sean Payton for the entire season and assistant/interim coach Joe Vitt for six games. The team was fined $500,000 and two second-round picks, though the 2013 selection could be downgraded pending cooperation from the club in the ongoing investigation. No players have been suspended yet, though those could come at any time.
The Patriots were docked a first-round draft pick and $250,000 while coach Bill Belichick was hit with a $500,000 fine for videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive signals in the infamous Spygate case of 2007.
Hitler Had Lovechild Who Fought Against Nazis: Report
27 FebHitler Had Lovechild Who Fought Against Nazis: Report – New York Post
Intriguing evidence that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler may have fathered a child with a young French girl while fighting in World War I has been published in France.
Material from both France and Germany including paintings, photos and German army records apparently add weight to Jean-Marie Loret’s claim that he was the son of the Nazi dictator, Le Point magazine reported.
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Loret never met his father and died in 1985 – but he did serve in the French Army then the Resistance, fighting occupying Nazi forces during World War II.
Loret’s story, published in the magazine, is that he was conceived by Hitler and 16-year-old French girl Charlotte Lobjoie on a night out as the then-ordinary soldier took a break from the trenches in June 1917. Lobjoie apparently met Hitler when she saw him engaging in his hobby of drawing.
Lobjoie never spoke about her only son’s father, and ended up giving the boy away for adoption in the 1930s to the wealthy Loret family. Just before her death in 1955, Lobjoie told Loret of his father’s infamous identity.
Loret began to investigate, reportedly discovering he has the same blood type as Hitler, while the magazine noted photos of the pair are similar, as are their handwriting samples. Paintings signed by Hitler were found in Lobjoie’s attic after her death and a portrait by the tyrant found in Germany reportedly looks like the French woman.
In addition, while Hitler never recognized the boy, he kept in contact with Lobjoie and sent money, which was delivered to her home by German soldiers during the World War II occupation.
Loret – who fathered a number of his own children over more than one marriage – once said of finding out the news of his identity, “In order not to get depressed, I worked non-stop, never took a holiday, and had no hobbies. For 20 years I didn’t even go to the cinema.”
Le Point interviewed Loret’s attorney for the report, who said the man had been “lost” and burdened by his secret.
Loret eventually wrote a book about his story shortly before his death, but it was not widely noticed. His claims have been disputed by some historians – and the widely accepted narrative is that Hitler died childless, by his own hand and with his wife of just two days, Eva Braun, as the Russians closed in on his Berlin bunker in late April 1945.
Report: Treasury Writes Off Billions In TARP Loans, Watchdog Discovers More Fraud
27 JanReport: Treasury Writes Off Billions In TARP Loans, Watchdog Discovers More Fraud – The Blaze
U.S. taxpayers are still owed nearly $133 billion that companies haven’t repaid from the financial bailout, according to a quarterly Special Inspector General Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) report. The report also states that as of December 31, 2011, the Treasury has “written off $4.2 billion and realized losses of $7.8 billion that the taxpayer will never get back,“ and that it ”predicts losses on other TARP investments.”
But perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, some programs were designed as a “Government subsidy with no return to taxpayers,” according to the report.
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Of the $700 billion Congress authorized for the bailout of financial companies and automakers, also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), approximately $413 billion has been lent. Of the $413 billion, the government has allegedly recovered about $318 billion, or about 77 percent of it, according to the Associated Press.
However, although 77 percent sounds pretty good, keep in mind that the TARP bailouts, which were launched at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008, will continue to exist for years.
According to SIGTARP report:
TARP programs that support the housing market and certain securities markets are scheduled to last until as late as 2017, and Treasury can spend an additional $51 billion on these programs during those years.
“TARP is not over,” Christy Romero, the acting special inspector general for the $700 billion bailout, said in a recent statement.
But perhaps even more troubling than the prospect of the continuation of the bailouts or the massive amounts of taxpayer dollars being “written off” is the fact that SIGTARP continues to uncover TARP-related fraud.
In fact, because the mainstream media has kept itself busy reporting that a large chunk of the TARP money has been returned, it has failed to report that the known instances of TARP-related fraud has increased since SIGTRAP’s January 2011 report.
Consider the following:
Jan. 2011: “As of December 31, 2010, SIGTARP had 142 ongoing criminal and civil investigations…”
Jan. 2012: “As of December 31, 2011, SIGTARP had more than 150 ongoing criminal and civil investigations…”
Jan. 2011: There were “criminal convictions of 13 defendants for fraud”
Jan. 2012: There were “criminal convictions of 31 defendants, of whom 22 have been sentenced to prison (others are awaiting sentencing)”
Jan. 2011: SIGTARP reported “civil or criminal actions against 45 individuals to date, including 22 senior officers (Chief Executive Officers, owners, founders, or senior executives)”
Jan. 2012: SIGTARP reported “criminal actions against 61 individuals, including 45 senior officers (CEOs, owners, founders, or senior executives) of their organizations)
Jan. 2011: There were 12 “civil cases naming… corporate entities as defendants”
Jan. 2012: There were 18 “civil cases naming… corporate or other legal entities as defendants…”
Now, to be clear, SIGTARP reports are released quarterly and the above is an annual comparison. However, whether it’s a matter of 4 or 12 months, the increase in known TARP fraud is still troublesome. And while it’s laudable that SIGTARP has prosecuted and convicted a good number of these financial thieves, it is unsettling to see that that number continues to grow with each report.
It would seem that FBI Director Robert Mueller was correct when he predicted that TARP fraud would become the “next wave of financial fraud cases.”
But before we get lost in these numbers, let’s revisit that part about companies who have yet to repay their debts. Who still owes?
“Among the largest bailed-out companies, American International Group Inc. [AIG] still owes taxpayers around $50 billion, General Motors Co. owes about $25 billion and Ally Financial Inc. about $12 billion,” the AP reports.
General Motors Co. still owes about $25 billion? That’s odd. It seems that just yesterday someone was touting the Detroit auto manufacturer as the very model of economic success.
Where does that put us? Billions of taxpayer dollars “written off” and increases in TARP fraud. Is there any other bad news in the SIGTARP report?
Actually, there is.
“Treasury bailed out companies in the form of loans. It converted its loans to some of the biggest recipients into common shares in those companies,” the AP reports. “Those shares are now trading below Treasury’s break-even prices.”
What does this mean?
“For Treasury to sell its stock in the largest recipients at the price where taxpayers would break even – $28.73 a share for AIG, $53.98 for GM – it could take years,” the AP reports.
Considering that AIG’s shares closed Thursday at $25.14 and GM ended at $24.72 (Ally isn’t publicly traded), the AP is probably correct.
“We’ll continue to balance the important goals of exiting our investments as soon as practicable and maximizing value for taxpayers,” Treasury spokesman Matt Anderson said.
While that’s supposed to sound reassuring, the bottom line is still this: billions of dollars have been “written off” by the Treasury, SIGTARP is uncovering more cases of TARP-related fraud, and it could take years for the Treasury to offload the stock from the biggest bailout recipients.
darcprynce
Dave C
Gatordoug
