Saturday, May 18, 2013

Obama Unveils Assault on Gun Rights

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Using young children as cheap propaganda props, President Obama unveiled his deeply controversial anti-gun proposals on Wednesday amid a series of false claims about having public opinion on his side. Among the most extreme, aside from some two dozen executive decrees he signed, was the announcement that the administration would push for an even more draconian so-called “Assault Weapons Ban” purporting to criminalize popular semi-automatic firearms. Restrictions on magazine capacity as well as mandatory “universal background checks” that could obliterate gun shows and private firearm sales are also at the top of the agenda. 

Analysts on all sides of the issue said the package was the most aggressive assault on the Second Amendment in decades. However, with resistance building nationwide — state governments, sheriffs, police chiefs, and more are all vowing to protect gun rights in their jurisdictions — Obama’s attack may end up falling flat. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives is unlikely to budge, at this point at least. And in the Senate, RINOs and even some Democrats have already spoken out against the administration’s unconstitutional schemes. At least two Republican congressmen are now openly talking about impeachment.

Ironically, perhaps, Obama acknowledged the fact that rights are endowed by the Creator and cannot be legitimately removed by governments, as the Founding Fathers observed in the Declaration of Independence. However, he said it even while openly detailing assorted unconstitutional plots to infringe on Americans’ unalienable right to keep and bear arms, dismissing fears of tyrannical government and attacking the sincerity of his political opponents. He also implied that the Second Amendment was responsible for violations of other rights, such as the right to life.

The president claimed, falsely according to recent polls, that most of the public supports his controversial schemes — not that majority opinion would justify unconstitutional violations of the people’s rights. Acknowledging that much of his assault on gun rights would be hard to get through Congress, however, Obama vowed to use "whatever weight this office holds" to ram it through anyway — perhaps ObamaCare style, where Democrat lawmakers simply ignored the Constitution and defied public opinion.

While his own daughters have heavily armed, taxpayer-funded Secret Service protection, Obama urged the American people to join his crusade to further restrict the Second Amendment for civilians under the guise of protecting children. The president and anti-gun politicians in Washington, of course, will continue to be protected by heavily armed forces carrying large-capacity magazines and fully automatic weapons that are already virtually impossible to get for average citizens.

The people, however, must make do with less firepower, according to Obama. A propaganda pamphlet outlining the president’s plan posted on the White House website insists that it is all “to protect our children” — assuming, of course, that they are already born and do not live in one of the myriad countries suffering from his non-stop mass-murdering drone attacks.

"This is our first task as a society — keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged. And their voices should compel us to change," Obama claimed as the cameras moved between children and parents standing in the room, relying on a popular but deceptive argument historically exploited by those pushing dangerous or unpopular ideas — protecting kids. "I will put everything I've got into this … but the only way we can change is if the American people demand it."

At the top of the president’s list is making sure that Americans who wish to buy or sell firearms — even in private sales at gun shows or transfers among friends — must jump through hoops and navigate D.C. red tape to perform full federal background checks. While criminals almost always buy their guns on the black market anyway, Obama’s plan says mandating universal background checks is “the single most important thing we can do to prevent gun violence.”

Aside from the inherent problems with asking permission to exercise an unalienable right and the bureaucratic nightmare such a scheme would create — not to mention the costs and the risk of criminalizing otherwise innocent people — critics worry that the federal government will use the data to keep an unlawful firearm registry that would eventually be used for confiscation. Gun shows, as they exist today, would essentially become history. Even if Congress refuses to adopt the scheme, Obama is ordering the ATF to prod people into doing it anyway.    

Using “executive orders,” the president is also beefing up the background-check system, ordering state governments to turn over more information on citizens to be placed in a central database. Private healthcare records, for example, which many people assumed were protected by law, will be among the data vacuumed up by the federal government under Obama’s plan. Also included in the “executive action” package are improved “incentives” to state governments in an effort to gather more information about citizens for federal databases.

Incredibly, disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder, who was caught trafficking guns to Mexican drug cartels under “Fast and Furious,” will be charged with reviewing rules purporting to determine which Americans may own guns. The Justice Department chief, of course, was caught on video in 1995 proposing a tax-funded campaign to, in his words, “brainwash” the American people against guns. Official e-mails from Fast and Furious also revealed that bloodshed resulting from the administration’s gun-running plot, which was uncovered thanks to brave whistleblowers, would be used to advance more infringements on gun rights.

Obama’s plan would also seek to ban what he calls “military-style assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines,” propaganda terms used by the president and other anti-gun zealots to demonize popular semi-automatic weapons and standard-capacity magazines owned by millions of law-abiding Americans. The scheme would criminalize possession or transfer of armor-piercing ammunition for civilians, too, so if criminals wear bullet proof vests, they will have little to fear from their prey — even if the victims are armed. Sen. Diane Feinstein's (D-Calif.) ban legislation would unconstitutionally require national gun registration complete with fingerprints, historically a precursor to confiscation.
The administration is demanding that Congress appropriate $4 billion for police as well, noting that economic problems have resulted in decreased funding at the state and local level. The proposal would essentially confiscate more money from taxpayers or borrow the funds from others, route it through Washington, then hand it back out with strings attached to local law enforcement, which is supposed to be independent of the federal government and accountable to the community — not Obama. State and local law enforcement have been some of the fiercest centers of resistance to federal attacks on gun rights. More federal funding for schools is also being sought to deal with "gun violence."

In all, the president offered a total of 23 “executive orders” dealing with everything from “mental health” to mandating more tax-funded "research" on “gun violence.” One of the orders that has received quite a bit of media attention declares that the deeply unpopular ObamaCare statute allows doctors to interrogate their patients about whether or not they have guns at home — and to report their findings to the government despite doctor-patient confidentiality.

Predictably, much of the slavishly pro-Obama establishment media, already widely mistrusted among Americans in part because of the shameless attacks on gun rights masquerading as “news,” jumped aboard the presidential anti-gun bandwagon. Over the last month, much of the press has been using emotional appeals and outright falsehoods to push gun control, but activists say the establishment talking heads are mostly talking to themselves and that politicians who support further infringements will suffer the consequences at the ballot box. 

Billionaire George Soros-funded groups like MoveOn.org are also in full attack mode, deploying paid “community organizers” and propaganda blitzes to help push Obama’s radical anti-gun agenda. “We have to go big,” the far-left outfit said in an e-mail to supporters celebrating "the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations." The administration has already vowed to try to get as much “public pressure” behind its agenda as possible while fracturing the opposition, so analysts say this is likely just the beginning of that anti-liberty assault.

Gun rights activists, however, are standing firm, saying Congress must reject any and all gun control. Groups like the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, and others are all united against the proposed schemes, and lawmakers are already considering action to block the lawless executive orders. Second Amendment advocates and opponents both argue that all of the pieces of the agenda are simply part of an incremental attack on gun rights eventually aiming to fully disarm all Americans.

“This is a game the anti-gun zealots have played before: They threaten to kill the Second Amendment, and then negotiate their way back to ‘merely’ eviscerating it,” Gun Owners of America said in an e-mail to supporters asking them to contact their elected officials. “The only way that America’s gun owners are going to have peace over the next decade is to stop all gun control — as we did after Columbine — and then defeat compromising legislators running for reelection in 2014.”

While prospects for passage in Congress at the moment appear slim, according to analysts, supporters of the Second Amendment are urging concerned citizens to flood their representatives with calls and letters demanding that they obey their oath of office. Obama has big plans and big money to ram his agenda down the American people’s throats, so if the right to keep and bear arms is to survive, activists say the time to get involved is now.
Photo of President Barack Obama signing gun-control executive orders: AP Images

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at anewman@thenewamerican.com.

Related articles:

As Obama’s Anti-gun Agenda Emerges, Republican Threatens Impeachment
Wyoming Bill Would Nullify Obama Gun Control, Jail Feds
Obama Executive Orders on Guns Would Spark Mass Resistance
Police Chief Seeks Nullification of Unconstitutional Gun Control
Obama Task Force Plotting Extreme Assault on Gun Rights
Obama Administration Intends to Increase Limits on Gun Ownership
Critics Slam Sen. Feinstein’s “Assault Weapons” Ban, Gun Registry
Gun-free Zones Called "Magnets for Mass Shooters"
Media “Talking to Itself” on Gun Control
Gun Sales, NRA Memberships Boost After Conn. School Shooting
State vs. Federal: The Nullification Movement

Is The DHS Secretly Buying Prisons and Preparing for Martial Law?

I had a gentleman contact me yesterday. He was obviously distraught. He said he had a message that needed to get out to the American people and he thought maybe I could help because of my following. The information he imparted was beyond frightening. He claims to have friends who are with the DHS and they have been warning him of DHS developments and potential agendas for some time.
So how do I know that my source is accurate? I do not. Here is what I can tell you. I can tell you that this man gave me a genuine feeling that he was telling the truth “as he knows it.” Why? Because I asked him some questions and he did not immediately answer me. His response to me was that he was having lunch with his source today and wanted to know what he should ask. That doesn’t sound like a conspiracy theorist to me. That sounds like a guy who knows things that he shouldn’t and is trying to help. That is my take.
His friend? I don’t know. There is no doubt that some people with important jobs tend to want to think that they are “in the loop” with everything that their superiors are doing. That is a possibility. I can not judge these statements as fact, I am laying them out as a potential scenario. I feel that this information is too important to withhold.
If it’s not true then at least people will be prepared for the worst. This will be a sloppy piece of reporting that is not without holes. I am not a journalist. I am not even a paid blogger. I claim no political party. What am I? I am a concerned American and it is my belief that this information was imparted to me by two other concerned Americans and I have to believe there is some fact in these claims. You can take it all for what it’s worth, but my suggestion is to prepare.
Even if this article proves to be full of holes, there is no doubt that other signs are there. We are seeing reports from other DHS insiders and news sources all over the internet.
  • They are warning us of martial law being reality by late 2013.
  • They warn us of FEMA camps and a conspiracy to devalue and collapse the dollar.
  • We have seen a preponderance of evidence to support that our own President has ties to the communist party.
  • We have seen our military and our Southern defenses weakened.
  • We have seen extreme efforts to strip us of our 2nd amendment rights.
  • We have seen multiple accounts come from DHS purchases that are facts. 7,000 AR-15s and hundreds of thousands of rounds of hollow points have been purchased.
We have reason to believe that there are things already in play, but we continue to try to piece this puzzle together. Preparation is not crazy my friends, it is prudent at this point. From this point on, everything you will read is second-hand information coming from a DHS employee. You will have to decide whether or not you want to believe it.
I WAS TOLD THAT AR-15 TRAINING FOR “DOMESTIC URBAN CLOSE COMBAT SITUATIONS” WILL BEGIN AT THE END OF THIS MONTH…
ar15OK, we all know about the ammo and “assault rifle” purchases so this seems logical to me. It seems like it is probably credible. But the word I am getting is that it is an extremely large number of agents who are to be trained, not just a few “specialists.” It seems to be everyone who works at this particular extension of the DHS. I can’t get into too many details because I promised my source to protect his identity. The more details I give, the more likely the leak is to be traced to him.
If this training is beginning should we be surprised? With Blackhawks buzzing through major metropolitan areas blackhawkdoes it seem far-fetched that there is a true sense of urgency to train government personnel? For those of you who have not heard, it’s not just helicopters. Last year there were tanks and heavily armored urban combat vehicles running through the streets of St. Louis, MO. They are preparing for something big that will happen on American soil in my opinion.
I WAS TOLD THAT “ALL OF HIS FELLOW AGENTS” HAVE BEEN SENT IN TO GET LICENSED TO DRIVE THE BIG DHS BUSES…
Why would this be a concern? Wouldn’t that seem to be normal? Well maybe yes and maybe no. The information that has been imparted to me is that DHS regularly uses “contracted civilian” drivers and this is being seen as a move to prepare all agents for the “Mass Rallies” that are coming. They are being prepared to drive across state lines, in large numbers. “Mass Rallies” is a term being used to describe the raids that will be taking place. It seems to be no secret within the ranks of the DHS that this will be happening. I did not get the chance to ask the question I should have asked. Will it be gun owners? Perceived terrorists? Illegal aliens? I honestly don’t know but I know that there is too much evidence piling up for me to doubt that something is coming.
I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT THE DHS HAS BEEN SECRETLY BUYING PRISONS AND THE FIRST DHS PRISON WILL BE OPENING IN TEXAS…
This is where it gets a little strange. This is what I wanted my friend to gather more information on today, and he was able to get a little before he says that his DHS friend “shut down.” Maybe he didn’t know and maybe he was afraid that he had already revealed too much. It’s all conjecture at this point.
His source says that all of these prisons are built in a configuration of a “residential detention center,” complete with things like playgrounds for children.  How odd?
This piece of information seems to be a little bit like the “FEMA Camp” theory but not quite. These are actual prisons, according to the source.  The claim is that a private company built these prisons and mysteriously decided not to use them. The plan was always to use them for DHS but the private company was a cover. I can find no evidence of that claim being supported. I looked all over the internet and couldn’t find a large number of private prisons which are not being occupied. So either this is false, or I just didn’t dig deep enough,  but I did find this interesting tidbit which may be related:
http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2011-07-28/bill-clayton-detention-center-under-new-ownership-after-auction#.URA8XR1QT3U
The article above talks about Bill Clayton Detention Center being purchased at auction by an “undisclosed” bidder. Could this be the site of our “First DHS Prison?” It would seem to potentially fit the description and the fact that the buyer did not disclose their identity makes me wonder.
As I already stated I could not find evidence of a large number of private prisons being empty, but I did find a very large number of municipal and state prisons that fit the bill. One has already sold to the federal government and negotiations seem to be in place for more.
If you do a quick look up on Google for “prison remains empty” you will find prisons all over the country that were built and remain empty due to budget failures, but I find no evidence that most have been sold. New York is trying to sell 7 of its prisons. Thompson Prison in Illinois sold to the federal government. That is a fact. Obama claimed the prison would house terrorists before backing off of the claim. What terrorists was he speaking of? We have to go back to the “Westpoint Think Tank” studies to realize he could have been talking about conservative Americans.
tammsIllinois is also trying to sell Tamms State Prison to the federal goverment. New ultra-high-dollar prison facilities in New Hampshire, Texas, Colorado and Virginia remain empty.
One has to wonder what might happen to these facilities. There is no doubt that there is a current infrastructure for the federal government to step in and house tens of thousands of new inmates. There are large and small vacant prisons all over the country. Many would easily be converted to the “Residential Detainment” centers that our source speaks of.
If the federal government or the specific branch of the DHS were to buy these prisons, how would they do so and keep it out of the public eye? This is an imperfect scenario that needs more research. Dummy corporations have been used before. It should also be noted that DHS currently rents beds from prisons all over the country so buying a prison, or multiple prisons, would not seem to be out of their jurisdiction, if the money was somehow in their budget. 
It should also be noted that CCA has applied once again ccain 2013 for the REIT status which they previously lost. CCA has long been targeted by conspiracy theorists due to the large number of high-profile banks and political contributors that buy their stock. The REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Status would allow them once again to have two separate companies involved in their privatized prison operations. As before, one company would operate the prisons while the other company owned the prisons.
There is a whole can of worms opened here and admittedly I wasn’t able to even scratch the surface in less than 24 hours.
SO WHY AM I PRINTING THIS BEFORE I HAVE ALL OF THE FACTS???
For starters I may never have all the facts and if this stuff is coming soon I can not wait. One part-time blogger of above average intelligence is going to be hard pressed to crack this code. My source claims he knows another former DHS agent who is retired from “Customs” and that this former agent has been warning him for two years that something big is coming. This is not an uncommon story. We have heard it before.
I never wanted to be an award winning journalist. I want you to understand where I am coming from in all of this. As I warned you earlier this story is still full of holes. So why am I printing it? Because I am a good judge of character and my friend is not lying to me. Are his friends lying to him? I don’t think so but I can’t say that for certain.
I am printing this because with all of the other evidence we are seeing, I am telling all Patriots that it is time to prepare. I believe this will come before the end of 2013. There is too much urgency being displayed on all fronts and sometimes the actions of our government will tell us what their words will not. Whether or not the claims made by this second party source are true or false, if you are not already preparing then you may be in for a rude awakening.
ml22Do not surrender your guns. Those guns are the only thing keeping us free. We have a government that has been proven to be infiltrated by communists and radicals. We have a government that is unresponsive to the call of the Conservative Constitution-Loving God-Fearing American Patriot, and if you are not preparing then you are in trouble. That is my opinion.
I expect this country to be under full Martial Law by the end of 2014 but I expect to see things start to unravel by the end of 2013. Today’s information is simply new information that has not been seen before. I guess if I considered myself a “journalist” I would say it was a DCC exclusive. I’m not a journalist. I’m a Patriot! I don’t care about imperfections in this story. It won’t keep me from printing it. I will keep shouting the warning calls to my fellow Patriots, because plenty of evidence is mounting. Something is going to happen. We all know it. We all feel it. We are not stupid.
If you would like to see more information on this topic you might check out an article that Chad Miller shared with us a little over a month ago.  It’s an interview with an anonymous DHS agent which is much more in depth than this article.

Are There Truly Designs In Motion By Malevolent Entities To Bring Down And Destroy The United States Of America As We Know It??

If you can add anything to the cause please post it in the comments. We are in this together. We need to share the information we have.
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Report: Reid Preps Rule Change to Break Filibuster

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is reportedly getting ready to use the so-called "nuclear option" to change the Senate rules so that 60 votes are no longer needed to break a filibuster. 

According to the Washington Post, President Barack Obama will support Reid's efforts if Republicans in the Senate continue to block upcoming nominations.
“If Senator Reid decides to do something on nominations, the president has said he’ll be there to support him,” a Democratic aide told the Post. "This would take away the right to filibuster on nominations... All executive branch and judicial nominations would be subject to majority votes. He would not do it on legislative items.”
Reid reportedly has said he could not trigger the "nuclear option" last year because "old bull" Democrats would not go along with it. If Reid goes for the nuclear option, some Democrats have reportedly expressed that it could potentially kill immigration reform. 
In the past, Reid has said he was willing to "change the rules with a simple majority" and he would do that "if necessary."
Operation Gladio is undisputed historical fact. Gladio was part of a post-World War II program set up by the CIA and NATO supposedly to thwart future Soviet/communist invasions or influence in Italy and Western Europe. In fact, it became a state-sponsored right-wing terrorist network, involved in false flag operations and the subversion of democracy.
The existence of Gladio was confirmed and admitted by the Italian government in 1990, after a judge, Felice Casson, discovered the network in the course of his investigations into right-wing terrorism. Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti admitted Gladio’s existence but tried to minimize its significance.
The main function of the Gladio-style groups, in the absence of Soviet invasion, seems to have been to discredit left-wing groups and politicians through the use of “the strategy of tension,” including false-flag terrorism. The strategy of tension is a concept for control and manipulation of public opinion through the use of fear, propaganda, agents provacateurs, terrorism, etc. The aim was to instill fear into the populace while framing communist and left-wing political opponents for terrorist atrocities.

Resources

Gladio and its “stay-behind” networks may be one of the most historically “accepted” or “confirmed” examples of false-flag terrorism. The documentation, the resolutions, confessions, and convictions all confirm that Gladio is much more than the media or government would have you believe—a mere “conspiracy theory.” See the State Department’s special site dedicated to dismissing “conspiracy theories,” including their page on Gladio.
Truth movers should take advantage of Gladio and the stay-behind networks as a confirmed precedent of the US and western governments participating in ruthless terrorist attacks against their own people in order instill fear, control the population, and frame left-wing political opponents. People who believe that such things do not or cannot happen should be forcefully made aware of such examples as Operation Gladio.

Evidence

  • The August 2, 1980 bombing of the Bologna train station which killed 85 people, is widely recognized as a Gladio operation. While it was initially blamed on the communist “Red Brigades,” eventually, right-wing and fascists elements were discoverd to be the culprits. Two Italian secret service agents and Licio Gelli, the head of the infamous P2 Masonic lodge, were convicted in connection to the bombing. 1
  • “The makings of the bomb… came from an arsenal used by Gladio… according to a parliamentary commission on terrorism… The suggested link with the Bologna massacre is potentially the most serious of all the accusations levelled against Gladio, and comes just two days after the Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, cleared Gladio’s name in a speech to parliament, saying that the secret army did not drift from its formal Nato military brief” The Guardian January 16, 1991 1
  • 1969: “In Italy, the Piazza Fontana massacre in Milan kills 16 and injures and maims 80 [….] during a trial of rightwing extremists General Giandelio Maletti, former head of Italian counterintelligence, alleges that the massacre had been carried out by the Italian stay-behind army and rightwing terrorists on the orders of the US secret service CIA in order to discredit Italian Communists.” 10
  • 1985: “In Belgium, a secret army attacks and shoots shoppers in supermarkets randomly in the Brabant county killing 28 and leaving many wounded. Investigations link the terror to a conspiracy among the Belgian stay-behind SDRA8, the Belgian Gendarmerie SDRA6, the Belgian right-wing group WNP and the Pentagon secret service DIA.” 10
  • According to Vincenzo Vinciguerra, a far-right terrorist linked to Gladio and currently serving a life-sentence for the car bomb murder of 3 policement, “The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security. This is the political logic that lies behind all the massacres and the bombings which remain unpunished, because the state cannot convict itself or declare itself responsible for what happened.” 6
  • Vinciguerra also made this statement to The Guardian, “The terrorist line was followed by camouflaged people, people belonging to the security apparatus, or those linked to the state apparatus through rapport or collaboration. I say that every single outrage that followed from 1969 fitted into a single, organised matrix… Avanguardia Nazionale, like Ordine Nuovo (the main right-wing terrorist group active during the 1970s), were being mobilised into the battle as part of an anti-communist strategy originating not with organisations deviant from the institutions of power, but from within the state itself, and specifically from within the ambit of the state’s relations within the Atlantic Alliance.” 1
  • In 1990, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Gladio. The resolution requested full investigations and a total dismantlement of the paramilitary structures involved—neither of which have come to pass.
  • Similar Gladio-like operations have been discovered across Europe, including France, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Switzerland…

Testimony of Kumar C. Kibble, Deputy Director, Office of Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, "Law Enforcement Responses to Mexican Drug Cartels"

Release Date: 
March 17, 2009
Dirksen Senate Office Building
(Remarks as Prepared)
Chairman Durbin, Chairwoman Feinstein, Ranking Member Graham and Ranking Member Grassley, and distinguished Members of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee and the Caucus on International Narcotics Control:
On behalf of Secretary Napolitano and Acting Assistant Secretary Torres, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to discuss U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) efforts to combat cross-border smuggling organizations and the violence related to their enterprises. ICE has the most expansive investigative authority and largest force of investigators in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and we protect national security and uphold public safety by targeting transnational criminal networks and terrorist organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities at our borders. Recognizing that partnerships are essential, ICE works closely across agency and international boundaries with our law enforcement partners at the foreign, federal, tribal, state and local level creating a transparent border and united front to disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations.
ICE’s expertise in combating smuggling organizations that exploit vulnerabilities in the sea, air, and land environments has proven essential in countering the bi-lateral smuggling of narcotics, illicit money, and other dangerous goods, people, and materials that threaten the well-being of the United States. Our law enforcement presence extends beyond our borders. ICE has agents in attaché offices in embassies and consulates worldwide. I am proud of these agents who work with their foreign counterparts to combat crime that originates overseas but may eventually cross the Nation's borders.
Let me share with you an example of the mutual security benefits we continue to derive through our partnerships with Mexican law enforcement agencies such as Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP). In August 2008, ICE agents provided confidential information to SSP through our Assistant Attaché in Hermosillo, Mexico about a residence allegedly used to store weapons and narcotics and which was believed to be a safe house for security personnel (“hit men”) for the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes drug trafficking organization (DTO) operating in Nogales, Sonora. SSP executed a search warrant at this residence that resulted in six arrests, the seizure of police uniforms, a large amount of U.S. currency, 12 weapons, and four stolen U.S. vehicles. The six people arrested are suspected of being involved in two separate crimes: first, an armed confrontation on August 5, 2008, in Nogales, Sonora where a civilian was injured after a grenade was detonated during a shootout between two DTOs, and second, the murder of two Mexican nationals whose bodies were found with threatening messages from rival narcotics traffickers.
DHS recognizes that southbound weapons smuggling is a grave concern amid the growing violence along our border with Mexico. This violence requires a comprehensive, bilateral effort and on January 30, 2009, Secretary Napolitano responded by issuing a Border Security Action Directive which focused the wide-ranging authorities of the Department on the rampant violence along our southern border. The Secretary emphasized the necessity of a broad, multi-agency response to attack the flow of weapons and money that continues to fuel the violence. ICE contributes to that fight through two principal bilateral initiatives: Operation Firewall to address bulk cash smuggling; and Operation Armas Cruzadas, to detect, disrupt and dismantle weapons smuggling networks. Particularly in Armas Cruzadas, ICE-led Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BESTs) function as critical enablers in coordinating a comprehensive, multi-agency approach to fighting weapons smuggling. These DHS task forces include important partners such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and other foreign, federal, state and local task force officers. When it comes to countering the illicit weapons trade in particular, we closely coordinate our efforts with ATF, as they possess long-standing expertise in gun trafficking investigations and in engagement with Federal Firearms Licensees.

Armas Cruzadas

The rampant border violence along the United States/Mexico border is a direct result of criminal organizations attempting to exert their control over not only the democratically elected officials of the Mexican government but also rival criminal organizations. For instance, many of the instruments of this violence are weapons smuggled from the United States into Mexico.
Criminal organizations commonly use straw purchasers with clean criminal histories to purchase firearms and turn them over to smugglers. The challenge in countering the smuggling activity is compounded by the reliance on the technique called “ant trafficking,” where small numbers of weapons are smuggled through multiple ports-of-entry, on a continued basis.
In June 2008, ICE formally launched Operation Armas Cruzadas to combat transnational criminal networks smuggling weapons into Mexico from the United States. As part of this initiative, the United States and the Government of Mexico (GoM) synchronize bilateral interdiction, investigation and intelligence-sharing activities to identify, disrupt, and dismantle these networks engaged in weapons smuggling. Key components of Armas Cruzadas include training for BEST task force officers and our partners in ICE’s long-standing authorities under the Arms Export Control Act, as well as newly-acquired export authority under Title 18, United States Code, Section 554 (Smuggling goods from the United States). This statute augments the broad arsenal of cross-border criminal authorities available to ICE investigators, and is particularly useful in targeting weapons smuggling. Another important Armas Cruzadas component is industry outreach, including presentations to groups involved in the manufacture, sale, or shipment of firearms and ammunition along the southwest border. This industry outreach includes a collaborative initiative between ICE and Mexico’s Procuraduria General de La Republica (PGR) prosecutors to produce bilingual posters identifying potential penalties for weapons smugglers under U.S. export and Mexican gun trafficking laws. The posters solicit the public for information related to these schemes, and are displayed in shops and agencies in the border region, including ports-of-entry. The Government of Mexico has also distributed these posters within Mexico.
In addition to outreach, more rapid exchange of information is essential to success in confronting the southbound weapons flow. Armas Cruzadas strengthens bilateral communication through deployment of ICE Border Liaisons to sustain cooperative working relationships with foreign and domestic government entities; and also through a Weapons Virtual Task Force, comprised of a virtual online community where U.S. and Mexican investigators can share intelligence and communicate in a secure environment. In order to more seamlessly investigate the networks that span our common border, BESTs, ICE attaché offices, a U.S.-vetted GoM Arms Trafficking Group, and the Border Violence Intelligence Cell exchange cross-border weapons-related intelligence. The Border Violence Intelligence Cell, housed at the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), along with the ATF weapons desk, serves as ICE’s central point for analyzing all-source intelligence and trends in firearms smuggling. In December of last year, this cell, in conjunction with DHS intelligence components, produced a strategic assessment of southbound weapons smuggling that guided increased weapons investigation and interdiction operations along the Southwest Border.
Let me share an example of how ICE partners with others, such as ATF and local investigators, in combating weapons smuggling. ICE, ATF, and the San Antonio Police Department initiated an investigation of Ernesto Tornel Olvera-Garza of Monterrey, Mexico who first began trafficking in hunting rifles in June 2005. During the course of the investigation, agents learned that between 2006 and the time of his arrest in October 2007, he trafficked in high-powered, high-capacity handguns and assault rifles. Since his temporary visa did not allow him to legally buy guns in the United States, Mr. Olvera-Garza instead paid people in the United States to buy guns for him and lied about who the guns were for. Mr. Olvera-Garza organized and led the gun-smuggling conspiracy, which included at least nine “straw purchasers” who purchased firearms on his behalf. More than 50 weapons were purchased and smuggled to Mexico as part of this ring. One of Mr. Olvera-Garza's smuggled pistols was recovered in Mexico after it was used in a running gun battle where two Mexican soldiers were killed. Mr. Olvera-Garza has pleaded guilty and is pending sentencing.
Since the initiation of Operations Armas Cruzadas, DHS has seized 420 weapons, 110,894 rounds of ammunition and arrested 104 individuals on criminal charges, resulting in 58 criminal indictments and 42 convictions to date.

Operation Firewall

Another, and one of the most effective methods to deal with violent, transnational criminal organizations is to attack the criminal proceeds that fund their operations. ICE targets those individuals and organizations exploiting vulnerabilities in financial systems to launder illicit proceeds and pursue the financial component of every cross-border criminal investigation. The combination of successful financial investigations, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting requirements, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance efforts by traditional and non-traditional financial institutions has forced criminal organizations to seek other means to transport illicit funds across our borders. As we have hardened these formal financial systems, the smuggling of bulk currency out of the United States, especially along the Southwest Border, has continued to rise. ICE, as the investigative agency with jurisdiction over all border crimes, can investigate bulk cash smuggling (BCS) crimes, which are predicated on the failure to file a Currency and Monetary Instrument Report (CMIR).
The ICE Office of Investigations (OI), along with the ICE Office of International Affairs (OIA) and CBP, coordinates with our state, local, and foreign partners on BCS operations. These operations disrupt the flow of bulk cash that can be used by terrorist groups, drug traffickers, and other criminal organizations. ICE, in concert with CBP, also provides money laundering training and BCS interdiction equipment to our law enforcement partners in the United States and abroad.
ICE has a number of initiatives to address BCS. Operation Firewall focuses on the threat of BCS via commercial and private passenger vehicles, commercial airline shipments, airline passengers, and pedestrians. Since 2005, Operation Firewall efforts have been enhanced to include jump team surge operations targeting the movement of bulk cash destined for the southwest border for smuggling into Mexico. ICE and CBP have conducted various Operation Firewall operations with Mexican customs and the ICE-trained Mexican Money Laundering Vetted Unit. Many Operation Firewall seizures result in criminal investigations to identify the source of the funds and the responsible organizations.
ICE’s experience in conducting international money laundering investigations has identified numerous smuggling routes and methodologies used by criminal organizations to launder illicit proceeds. This experience enables ICE, CBP, and our domestic and international partners to concentrate resources. Initially, Firewall operations in Mexico focused on the targeting of commercial flights from Mexico City to Central and South America. In 2008, based on our experience, we expanded Mexico Firewall operations to target shipments in containers departing from the seaport of Manzanillo and the airports of Tuluca, Mexicali, Cancun, and Guadalajara. Throughout operations in Mexico, ICE and CBP personnel have trained our Mexican law enforcement partners on passenger analysis and investigative techniques proven effective in the United States.
Operation Firewall produced immediate results. On the first day of operations in 2005 at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, Mexican authorities seized $7.8 million en route to Cali, Colombia concealed inside deep fryers, rotisseries, and voltage regulators. Other notable seizures include $7.3 million seized inside rolls of fabric and plastic and $4.7 million concealed inside air conditioning equipment and metal piping destined for Colombia. Since its inception, Operation Firewall has resulted in the seizure of over $178 million including over $62 million seized overseas, and 416 arrests.
On June 26, 2008, Rafael Ravelo, a member of a Mexican based narcotics trafficking organization, was sentenced to 126 months of incarceration and the forfeiture of $1,147,000. This sentence was the result of the ICE-led Operation Doughboy, an investigation that was initiated prior to Operation Firewall, based on a bulk cash smuggling interdiction. This joint U.S./Mexico investigation involved the monitoring of 18 phone lines of the heads of a Mexican narcotics trafficking organization and began when ICE agents in 2003 successfully linked a $149,000 bulk cash seizure by the Texas Department of Public Safety to the narcotics trafficking organization.

Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST)

As I mentioned before, the principal investigative platform for both Operations Armas Cruzadas and Firewall are the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BESTs). These task forces were specifically created to address border violence.
In July 2005, in response to increased violence in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and Laredo, Texas, ICE, CBP and other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including Mexican agencies, expanded the ongoing Border Crimes Initiative by creating an international, multi-agency initiative, Operation Black Jack. This initiative used the respective authorities and resources of its members to dismantle cross-border criminal organizations. In its first six months, its target-driven focus led to the dismantling of a murder/kidnapping cell operating on both sides of the border, including the seizure of high-powered fully automatic weapons and live grenades; the components to make over 100 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), such as pipe bombs and grenades; and over $1 million in U.S. currency.
Based on the success of Operation Black Jack, DHS established the first BEST in Laredo, Texas in January 2006. Since that time, we have established 12 BESTs: eight on the Southwest Border; two on the Northern Border; and two at seaports. BEST participants include: ICE (as the lead agency); CBP; ATF; the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the U.S. Coast Guard; the U.S. Attorney’s Office; and other federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement.
The BESTs are arrayed along the Southwest Border in high-threat smuggling corridors in: Arizona – Tucson (March 2006), Phoenix (March 2008), and Yuma (March 2008); Texas – El Paso (October 2006) and Rio Grande Valley (March 2007); and California – San Diego (November 2006) and Imperial Valley (June 2008). In early 2008, the first Northern Border BESTs initiated operations in Blaine, Washington (February 2008) and Buffalo, New York (March 2008). Each BEST concentrates on the prevalent threat in its geographic area, including: cross-border violence; weapons smuggling and trafficking; illegal drug and other contraband smuggling; money laundering and bulk cash smuggling; human smuggling and trafficking; transnational criminal gangs; and tunnel detection. Recently, we established BESTs at the seaports of Los Angeles, California (October 2008), and Miami, Florida (November 2008) to focus on maritime threats including the importation of contraband; commercial fraud; cargo theft; unlawful exportation of controlled commodities and munitions; stolen property; alien smuggling; and exportation of illicit proceeds. These BESTs will target internal conspiracies of corrupt transportation employees who participate in the smuggling of contraband and humans. Crucial to our success is the cooperation of our international partners. At BESTs on the Southwest Border, we have the participation of the Mexican law enforcement agency, SSP. On the Northern Border and in the northern BESTs, we have Canadian law enforcement agencies such as the Canada Border Services Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Niagara Regional Police Service, and the Toronto Metropolitan Police Service. In addition, we have the participation of the Argentinean customs agency at our Miami BEST. Through the interaction and coordination of all the member agencies, BESTs provide for immediate and international enhanced information sharing on border violence due to geographic proximity to the U.S. borders.
Through BESTs, we have dismantled arms trafficking, bulk-cash, alien and narcotics smuggling organizations and their hostage-taking and murder/kidnapping cells in the United States and Mexico. Since July 2005, the BESTs have been responsible for 2,034 criminal arrests, 2,796 administrative arrests, 885 indictments, and 734 convictions. In addition, BESTs have seized approximately 7,704 pounds of cocaine, 159,832 pounds of marijuana, 558 pounds of methamphetamine, 39 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, 1,023 pounds of ecstasy, 213 pounds of heroin, 97 pounds of hashish, 22 pounds of opium, 515 weapons, 745 vehicles, six properties, and $22.7 million in U.S. currency and monetary instruments.
I would like to share a few of our successes with you: the discovery and repatriation by the El Paso BEST of one of Mexico’s top ten most wanted fugitives; the arrest by the Laredo BEST of a weapons trafficker supplying cartels with assault rifles used to murder Mexican police officer Navarro Rincon and others; the arrest by the Laredo BEST of a member of the Mexican Mafia in possession of approximately 897 pounds of smuggled marijuana after he attempted to run over a Texas Department of Public Safety officer; and the arrest by the LA Seaport BEST of an arms trafficker and seizure of 38 military style weapons.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ICE is committed to stemming the cross-border criminal activity and associated violence through the deployment of the BESTs, Operation Armas Cruzadas, and Operation Firewall. Partnering with others, we are using a broad range of authorities, including the most sophisticated investigative tools available, such as certified undercover operations and electronic surveillance operations, to disrupt and dismantle these networks.
I thank the Subcommittee and the Caucus Members for their support of ICE, CBP, DHS and our law enforcement mission. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time.

IRS sued for seizing 60 million medical records

A healthcare provider has sued the Internal Revenue Service and 15 of its agents, charging they wrongfully seized 60 million medical records from 10 million Americans.
The name of the provider is not yet known, United Press International said. But Courthouse News Service said the suit claims the agency violated the Fourth Amendment in 2011, when agents executed a search warrant for financial data on one employee – and that led to the seizure of information on 10 million, including state judges.
The search warrant did not specify that the IRS could take medical information, UPI said. And information technology officials warned the IRS about the potential to violate medical privacy laws before agents executed the warrant, the complaint said, as reported by UPI.
“Despite knowing that these medical records were not within the scope of the warrant, defendants threatened to ‘rip’ the servers containing the medical data out of the building if IT personnel would not voluntarily hand them over,” the complaint states, UPI reported.
 The suit also says IRS agents seized workers’ phones and telephone data – more violations of the warrant, UPI reported.
 The complaint alleges the IRS was “invasive and unlawful” and stole access to intimate medical records that included patients’ treatment plans and therapies, UPI said.
 The suit seeks $25,000 in compensatory damages, per violation. The records’ seizure could impact up to one in 25 Americans, UPI said.

Benghazi attack followed deep cuts in State Department security budget

Investigators looking for lessons from the fatal terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi might want to start on Capitol Hill, where Congress slashed spending on diplomatic security and U.S. embassy construction over the past two years.
Since 2010, Congress cut $296 million from the State Department’s spending request for embassy security and construction, with additional cuts in other State Department security accounts, according to an analysis by a former appropriations committee staffer.
Rep. Michael Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made clear Wednesday that congressional staff will be looking into the attack, in addition to a probe by the State Department’s inspector general and another State Department investigation required by federal law.
The cuts to the embassy construction, security and maintenance budget was almost 10 percent of the entire appropriation for that account over those two years, said Scott Lilly, now a scholar at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
“Anytime we cut that account back, we are putting people’s lives at risk, people who are serving the country” in dangerous places abroad, said Mr. Lilly.
The cuts mean that “a lot of places you’d intended to secure better, you don’t reach” this year, he added.
He said he did not know whether the cuts had impacted security at the Benghazi consulate that was stormed on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by heavily armed Islamic extremists, who burned down the building and killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
A State Department official told The Washington Times that there was no impact on security in Benghazi from the cuts.
Since 1999, the official said, the department has spent $13 billion on 94 new secure diplomatic facilities “and security upgrades to existing properties that have moved more than 27,000 people into safer, more secure facilities.”
The cuts were the latest in a series of squeezes on State Department spending. Congress has appropriated less money for the department than requested in every year since Fiscal 2007, according to budget figures.
“During both the latter years of the Bush presidency and throughout the Obama presidency, the administration has recommended boosting spending on foreign aid and [State Department] foreign operations, including security, and Congress has always cut it back,” said Philip J. Crowley, a former State Department spokesman.
“There is simply not a constituency on the Hill to increase spending on diplomacy and development. Resources do matter.” said Mr. Crowley, now a fellow at the George Washington University Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.
“Getting the budget request cut is pretty standard for the State Department,” added James Dobbins, a former career diplomat who was a special envoy to a series of global troubled spots under former President Bill Clinton and former President George W. Bush.
But he noted that the State Department has gotten “billions and billions over the years” to rebuild, move and fortify missions around the world since two 1983 suicide truck bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Beirut.
Following those attacks, a special commission was established by the secretary of state to examine security measures at U.S. embassies. The Inman commission report in 1985 recommended standards for diplomatic facilities like narrower windows, blast-proof walls and “setback” — a distance between the public street and the buildings sufficient to protect the occupants from truck bombs.
“The architecture it required was fortress-like,” according to former State Department counter-terrorism adviser Michael B. Kraft.
He said the standards imposed a “security premium” on embassy construction and refurbishment that added about 10-15 percent to the cost.
Dozens of diplomatic facilities have had security upgraded, often moving to the suburbs to acquire the large plots of land necessary to provide embassy compounds with setback, according to Mr. Dobbins.
He is skeptical that budget cuts might have affected the outcome of the deadly events in Benghazi, noting that up to 100 extremists with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and mortars had stormed the compound.
“There are some levels of attack for which no reasonable precautions can prepare,” he said, adding that “any reasonable security presence” would likely have been overwhelmed by the gunmen.
Former Ambassador Charles Ray, who left the foreign service recently, said that he had “on multiple occasions dealt with [situations] … where security upgrades were warranted by conditions on the ground but unfunded.” He did not comment directly on the Benghazi attack.
The separate investigations by Congress and the State Department inspector-general will proceed along with a legally required probe by a specially convened Accountability Review Board. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appointed career diplomat Thomas Pickering to lead the review board investigation.
On Wednesday, Mr. Rogers said he is not concerned by the possibility of three different probes.
“Another set of eyes is a good thing,” he said, “It’s something we’re going to have to get to the bottom of. I think we’ll have to do our own investigation, we being Congress.”
“Seeing this confusion or lack of concern or at least lack of candor in the details [about the attack] that we had is very, very concerning,” he added.
Initially, when approached by lawmakers last week, State Department Inspector General Harold W. Geisel appeared to balk at the idea of a separate inquiry by his office.
“In view of … our desire not to interfere with investigations by other law enforcement entities or the Department of State, we will offer our support and assistance as needed,” he wrote to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Independent, and Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican.
Over the weekend, the senators expressed their dissatisfaction with his position.
“We think there ought to be two investigations,” Mr. Lieberman told C-SPAN.
He noted that the inspector-general at Department of Homeland Security investigated allegations of sexual misbehavior by Secret Service agents in Columbia, even as the secret service was carrying out its own probe.
“If it was justified in the case of Secret Service agents consorting with prostitutes in Cartagena, it’s certainly justified in Benghazi where four Americans were killed,” Mr. Lieberman said.
“I hope [the inspector general will] go forward with his own investigation.”
Mr. Geisel’s office is developing a “scope of work” plan for an inquiry, which would “address the senators’ concerns,” said spokesman Douglas Welty.
“We are trying to do the most efficient and effective investigation, but … there might be some duplication [of the Accountability Review Board probe] to ensure independence and oversight.” said Mr. Welty.
Mr. Kraft, who retired in 2004 and recently wrote the first unclassified guide to the organizational structure of the U.S. counter-terrorism effort, questioned the need for multiple investigations at this time.
“It takes time for the FBI, the intelligence community and the State Department accountability board to get the facts and determine who did it — especially in a difficult environment like Libya,” he said.
” I hope that the multiple investigations focus on different aspects and do not trip over each other or divert the guys on the ground from doing their digging.”
Judith Yaphe, a research fellow at the National Defense University and a former CIA counter-terrorism analyst, saying different agencies were often at “cross-purposes” when investigating terror attacks,
“We tend to fall over each other out there,” she said.
“History repeats itself,” she added. “Those lessons that needed to be learned [from previous attacks] — the mistakes we made, the problems we have — they haven’t changed.”
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Who In The Obama Administration Is Going To Jail?

 

 

Who In The Obama Administration Is Going To Jail?

ALL OF THE ABOVE

OBAMASCANDALS 467x1024 Who in the Obama Administration is Going to Jail?
It hasn’t been a very good week for the Obama administration. In fact, I’ve never seen the sharks circling as they are today… particularly about the IRS abuse scandal.
You see, Congress is serious about this one. They have five years of pent-up frustration over Obama’s Teflon-like ability to shirk responsibility; and now that he’s on the defensive, they’re going to make sure the law is enforced. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, asked, “Who’s going to jail over this scandal?”
Yet somehow Obama and his team seem to not understand the gravity of the charges leveled against them. Or perhaps they’re simply in denial. They’ve clearly lost control of the news cycle, and even Obama’s own people are starting to look out for themselves.
Not even the most committed Obama followers want to do jail time for him.
The IRS Scandal in Review
So far, Mr. Boehner and the media have mostly focused on the delay/rejection of tax-exempt status for Tea Party and conservative advocacy groups.
We see this clearly in Boehner’s comments: “Someone made a conscious decision to harass and to hold up these requests for tax-exempt status… I think we need to know who they are and whether they violated the law. Clearly, someone violated the law.”
But my sources on Capitol Hill tell me the investigation has moved from this first violation onto even more significant breaches of IRS statute.
It seems that, under Obama, the IRS has leaked specific information from tax returns and IRS applications of conservative organizations to the media and liberal advocacy organizations.
We know this because of a report from the news organization, ProPublica, which received the illegal information. An article released on May 13 states: “The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.”
And if that wasn’t enough, House investigators have also heard about another major felony committed by someone at the IRS.
John Eastman, Chairman of the Board of the anti-same-sex-marriage group The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), reported, “A year ago, someone at the IRS illegally disclosed the confidential portions of its tax return to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the leading organization on the other side of NOM in the war over the definition of marriage. At the time, HRC was headed by someone who had just been named national co-Chair of the Obama for President campaign.”
The bottom line is this: Releasing confidential tax returns is a felony, and the review of confidential tax returns is also a felony.
The HRC reviewed the illicit tax returns and, after acknowledging the document was illegally received, placed it on their website. Soon afterward, the information appeared on the Huffington Post and in other news outlets.
Eastman tried repeatedly to get the attention of authorities. He said:
We asked the IRS and the Department of Justice for an investigation more than a year ago. An investigation was had, but they refuse to let us know who was responsible. We then filed several freedom of information act requests to get to the truth, beginning last August. But NOM’s requests have largely been stonewalled. That latest non-response response is priceless. The identity of the perpetrator, the person responsible for illegally disclosing NOM’s tax returns, is ‘confidential’ information protected from disclosure by the very same law that this individual violated.
Big Problems
Despite their nonchalance, Obama’s team actually has more to worry about than just Congress. The FBI is also looking into the IRS’s criminal activities under the Obama administration.
It’s been a busy – and shocking – week on Capitol Hill. We’ll stay on top of this scandal as the story progresses, and we’ll use our inside sources to bring you the big news before it breaks in the mainstream media.

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission.

Diminishing Benghazi

| May 7, 2013 | 0 Comments

Image Source: Tarpon.WordPress
According to Gregory Hicks, The U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens’s Deputy,

“a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa.”

Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the Deputy Coordinator for Operations in the agency’s Counter-terrorism Bureau charged that “then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide effectively tried to cut the department’s own counter-terrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making.”

He further claims that his account of the Benghazi terror attack:

“was suppressed by the official investigative panel that Clinton convened to review the episode, the Accountability Review Board (ARB). Thompson’s lawyer, Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, has further alleged that his client has been subjected to threats and intimidation by as-yet-unnamed superiors at State, in advance of his cooperation with Congress.”

Damage control tomarginalize Hicks and Thompson iswell underway.

The Diminishing of Benghazi

The diminishing of Benghazi has been occurring ever since the avoidable terror attack took place in Libya on 9/11. Anyone who has been paying attention can see that the bad behavior before, during, and after the murderous rampage that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods was the result of one thing:

Politics.

The crime scene was not secured, which allowed journalists and others to remove (and destroy) evidence, CNN National Security Analyst Fran Townsend stated that the FBI took so long to get to the scene, due in part, to “infighting.” She said,

“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.”

A team, known as the “Commander’s In-extremis Force,” was designed specifically for quick reaction to unforeseen emergencies and wasan hour away. However,

…confusion about what was happening on the ground in Benghazi—and State Department concerns about violating Libyan sovereignty—made a military rescue mission impractical, the officials say.

Ironically, anyone who dares to seek answers has been accused of “politicizing” the terror attack.
The real “politicizing” was done when the Obama Administration immediately started pointing fingers…in the strangest places, spurred on by the lapdogs of the mainstream media, who also leaked out some ridiculous theories.

In the days and weeks following the terror attack, President Obama famously referred to the brutal killings as “not optimal” and as “bumps in the road.” Hillary Clinton, along with President Obama, initially blamed an anti-Muslim YouTube trailer for spurring on the “spontaneous protests” that got out of control and resulted in the terror attack on the consulate in Benghazi.

On “This Week” on 16-Sept-2012 as well as several other news programs, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice stated,
“Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo…[where] a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated.”
The desperate blame game included fingers pointed to:

  • Mitt Romney: Obama’s deputy campaign manager,Stephanie Cutter said that Benghazi “is only an issue because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are making it one.”


“its just a fact, that the President has fought for, and put forward funding for our diplomatic personnel and Embassies around the world, and “others” have had their budget priorities, to reduce that funding by way of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires…that’s just a fact”.

And:

“When it comes to funding, this president makes sure that diplomatic security is adequately funded, make sure that that funding is restored when efforts on Capitol Hill are made, principally by House Republicans, including Congressman Ryan to slash it in order to cut taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent in this country.”

  • The GOP: In one example of many, House Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi attempted to lay the blame for the September 11 terror attack in Benghazi on House Republicans while speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. She also blamed Republicans for lax security at the consulate that was burned in the attack.

  • YouTube Video: a relentless, repeated notion that a “spontaneous protest” spurred on by a YouTube video was falsely blamedweeks after the attack.

Vice President Joe Biden, during the VP Debate, stated, in regard tosecurity at Benghazi:
“Well, we weren’t told they wanted more security again. We did not know they wanted more security again. And by the way, at the time we were told exactly — we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view. That’s why I said, we will get to the bottom of this.
When White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about Vice President Joe Biden’s statement on additional security requests by Benghazi staff at a press conference, Carney blamed Republicans in general, and Congressman Paul Ryan in particular, for “politicizing” the issue to make President Obama look bad.
Even worse, he blamed Republicans for denying funding for U.S. embassy security. This oft repeated statement about Embassy funding is a strawman. Requests for extra security were not denied to Benghazi because of lack of funding. Obama Campaign Senior Advisor David Axelrod made a similar comment onCNN, He said,
“One thing we shouldn’t do, however, Soledad, is what Paul Ryan and the Republicans in Congress have suggested, which is to cut back on funding for the security of these facilities.”
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Charlene Lambtestified in October that the size of the attack — and not the money — was the issue. Asked if there was any budget consideration that led her not to increase the security force, she said: “No.”

She added: “This was an unprecedented attack in size.” Asked again about budget issues, Lamb said: “Sir, if it’s a volatile situation, we will move assets to cover that.”

When asked about Lamb’s testimony, Hillary Clinton stated that “the review board that examined the Libya attack found budget issues have played a role.” This author cries foul.

Image Source:Heritage.org

The Heritage Foundation notes that

“…total funds for Worldwide Security Protection for FY 2012 are estimated to be $94 million higher than in FY 2011, while Embassy Security, Construction and Maintenance is estimated to be $61 million less than FY 2011. Together, there is a net increase.”

By the way, right around the time that security was being denied to the officials in Libya, other U.S. embassies were given funds for creating “green” initiatives, as reported by theWashington Times. Also, it should be noted that despite the fake charge, “the overall securitybudget has more than doubled since fiscal 2004.”

Before they were supposed to testify on their roles in Benghazi,Tavern Keepers reported that Former CIA DirectorDavid Petraeus, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton EACH had excuses why they could not testify.

In what should have been anexplosive revelation, Charles Woods, the father of slain Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, described Hillary Clinton’s reaction to him on the Lars Larson radio show. He said that Mrs. Clinton explained that they were going to prosecute the man who made the video. This, despite the fact that Americans now know that White House officialswere aware that the terrorist attack had nothing to do with the YouTube Video, the “Innocence of Muslims,” a lie that persisted for weeks.

It is still not known who originated the “YouTube Video” meme.

In June, the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was bombed. The event was barely reported in the mainstream media. There were increasingly desperate requests for assistance, which were ignored and not provided. Eric Nordstrom, a former Regional Security Officer, testified that requests for additional security in Libya were ordered not to be made for what he described as “political reasons.”

The Mainstream Media:

  • New York Times White House correspondentHelene Cooper referred to the attack on Benghazi as “peripheral to what’s going on right now.”
  • Time Magazine’sJoe Klein on “Meet the Press” said, “This business about the…Libya consulate has been like the October mirage — it really isn’t an issue.”
  • MSNBC’sMartin Bashir: “…in many ways this Republican ticket are responsible for a reduction in security at consulates and embassies throughout the world and yet now they’re hammering the president and this administration for what has been, let’s be frank, a terrible tragedy.”
  • CNN’sSoledad O’Brien furiously tried to blame lack of embassy funding for the attack.
  • Then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that due to the lack of “real-time information,” he opted not to send help to the officials under attack at the Benghazi Consulate on September 11, as he did not want to “deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.”
So,
  • despite the fact that it was September 11th in a highly unstable country in the middle east,
  • despite that the Benghazi Consulate was bombed in June (with flyers left at the scene declaring that more attacks would follow),
  • despite the repeated requests for assistance (requests made even before the June bombing) that were ignored by the State Department,
  • despite the fact that security was actually reduced, and
  • despite the fact that the Red Cross and the British Consulate came under attack and had already fled Libya,
Panetta told the world that the intelligence community had no clue what was going on in Benghazi and they allowed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty to be attacked by al Qaeda-friendly militants.
CBS’s Sharyl Attkisson is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter who has been covering the Benghazi story. It seems as though Attkisson is paying for her crime of being a journalist and daring to challenge the Obama Administration, just likeBob Woodward did.

She noted,

“I went after many things in the Bush Administration and a lot of reporters joined me in those efforts when there were things to be asked in the Bush Administration. With the Obama Administration sometimes I feel like it’s uh, I’m alone with a few other journalists and I can’t say why that is, I don’t know”

And the diminishing continues…..