Evacuation Prep Indicts Obama's Benghazi Failure

 Posted 06:55 PM ET

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Benghazi: The administration deploys an assault ship with 1,000 Marines to Libya after ordering Americans to leave as the country implodes. Where was this ship on Sept. 11, 2012? Where was the president?
The families of the Benghazi dead must be cursing and scratching their heads at the sight of the amphibious assault ship Bataan, with about 1,000 Marines aboard, sailing into the Mediterranean Sea to assist in evacuating Americans if the current round of deadly fighting in Libya worsens.
Suddenly the administration is paying attention to the warning signs of a crisis of its own making and issuing concerns about security that were absent when four Americans died begging for help from an indifferent administration and a president who was resting prior to yet another fundraising trip.
Based on escalating security concerns, the U.S. State Department recommended Tuesday that Americans in Libya "depart immediately." In addition to the Bataan and its helicopters, America also has 250 available Marines, seven Osprey combat aircraft and three refueling planes in Sigonella, Italy, AFP reported.
Three years after President Obama supported the move to topple and kill longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has descended into armed chaos, and there isn't even a YouTube video to blame this time.
Forces led by renegade Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter is waging a battle against Islamists, including Ansar al-Sharia, the prime terrorist group involved in the premeditated and well planned terrorist attack on our Benghazi compound two years ago.
Mohamed Zahawi, the head of Libya's Ansar al-Sharia militant group in Benghazi, has warned against any U.S. interference in the nation's escalating conflict.
"We remind America, if they intervene, of their defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, because they would face in Libya something much worse," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Libya was supposed to be the first fruit of an Arab spring supported by an administration that had profusely apologized for past U.S. interventions and bullying.
Our Benghazi mission was supposed to have become a full-fledged diplomatic post, an example of the tranquility that Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had brought to the region.
Ambassador Christopher Stevens was in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, the day he died in the terrorist attack, because Clinton ordered him there.
Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 official in Libya at the time of the strike that killed Stevens, Ty Woods, Glen Doherty and Sean Smith, has testified that Stevens wanted to have the Benghazi complex upgraded to a permanent constituent post so Clinton could make the announcement in her planned triumphant visit to Libya before the end of 2012.

OBAMA NEEDS TO BE CHARGED WITH MURDER

  

Family: V.A. Cops Stomped On Veteran’s Head, Killing Him

10:23 PM 05/27/2014

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Chuck Ross

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The family of a 65 year-old veteran claims that VA police stomped on the veterans head and neck, causing him to suffer a stroke and die several weeks later, a new lawsuit alleges.
On May 25, 2011, Jonathan Montano was waiting several hours to undergo dialysis treatment at the Loma Linda VA facility when he grew frustrated, reports Courthouse News Service.
With an IV still in his arm, Montano made his way towards the hospital exit, saying that he would get treatment at the Long Beach VA facility instead.
Norma Montano, the veteran’s wife of 44 years, left the hospital to retrieve the couple’s car.
But VA police wouldn’t let Montano leave, the lawsuit alleges.
“The summoned VA Police Department police officers then stopped Jonathan Montano from leaving the VA Hospital in Loma Linda, by tackling him to the floor, slamming his head on the floor, and kneeing and stomping on his neck, and otherwise brutalizing and restraining him,” reads the lawsuit, according to Courthouse News.
“This kneeing and stomping on his neck by the VA Police Department police officers caused the dissection of his carotid artery, that resulted in immediate (or very soon thereafter) blood clotting, which resulted in [his] suffering a stroke. Moreover, the brutalization of Jonathan Montano resulted in him suffering other serious physical injuries, and associated physical, mental and emotional pain, suffering and distress.”
When Mrs. Montano came back into the hospital to find her husband, she was told that her husband had suffered a stroke.
But, she claims, hospital staff initially said Montano suffered the stroke after a fall — an “untrue statement,” the suit alleges.
“Later on, one of the nurses at the VA Hospital in Loma Linda took Norma Montano aside, and told her that her husband didn’t fall, but was slammed to the ground by the VA Police, that Norma Montano was being lied to, and that it wasn’t right what the VA Police did to Jonathan Montano,” the suit alleges.
Montano died several weeks after the stroke, on June 11, 2011.
With the lawsuit, the widow Montano and her children are seeking damages for wrongful death, assault and battery, false imprisonment, and negligence, the Courthouse News Service reports.
The suit comes as the Veterans Administration is embroiled in a wide-ranging scandal involving the alleged mistreatment of veterans at hospitals across the country. In those cases, hospitals have allegedly forced veterans to wait longer for treatment by placing them on secret waiting lists.
Montano’s case is not tied to the current scandal, his wife claims. Rather, it is a case of police brutality.
(h/t Raw Story)
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Tags: Jonathan Montano, VA, VA scandal

Why Obama's Afghanistan Withdrawal Has Bill Kristol So Upset: 'I Find It Sickening'

Rob Bluey

May 28, 2014 at 1:45 pm

(53)

Bill Kristol is no fan of President Obama’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. He made it quite clear on CNN’s “Crossfire” during a heated argument with The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart.
“We have sacrified blood and treasure in that country,” Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, said. “President Obama sent tens of thousands of troops there and now he is making their sacrifice in vain. I find it sickening.”
An argument ensued with the liberal Beinart, who said Obama’s greatest failure as president was deploying more troops to Afghanistan.
“We don’t have enough money in this country to pay people who are unemployed unemployment benefits, according to the Republican Party,” Beinart argued. “And yet we can continue to afford tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan when we see what’s happening to those troops when they come back.”
Kristol’s responded, “That’s pathetic. You’re talking about the veterans as victims. That’s disgusting.”
Kristol called Obama’s announcement to withdraw nearly all U.S. troops—except for 9,800 to provide training and do counterterrorism work— “unbelievably irresponsible.”
“Presidents are supposed to lead,” Kristol said. “To announce ahead of time you’re going to zero troops—except for the troops guarding the embassy at the end of 2016—is beyond irresponsible. It’s totally crazy. You’re telling them we’re getting out.”

Posted in Front Page, Security [slideshow_deploy]

VA Investigation Confirms Phoenix Abuses, Whistleblower Describes 'Crime Syndicate' Attitude

Guy Benson | May 28, 2014

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An initial investigation by the VA's Inspector General confirms sordid allegations of rampant records manipulation designed to hide chronic failures within the Phoenix-based system, as originally reported by CNN. A snippet from the report:

To date, our work has substantiated serious conditions at the Phoenix HCS. We identified about 1,400 veterans who did not have a primary care appointment but were appropriately included on the Phoenix HCS’ EWLs [electronic wait lists]. However, we identified an additional 1,700 veterans who were waiting for a primary care appointment but were not on the EWL. Until that happens, the reported wait time for these veterans has not started. Most importantly, these veterans were and continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost in Phoenix HCS’s convoluted scheduling process. As a result, these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment. A direct consequence of not appropriately placing veterans on EWLs is that the Phoenix HCS leadership significantly understated the time new patients waited for their primary care appointment in their FY 2013 performance appraisal accomplishments,which is one of the factors considered for awards and salary increases.

That's a total of 3,100 Phoenix-area veterans in limbo, more than half of whom were off the books. And don't miss that last sentence, which affirms that at least part of the motive behind this scheme was financial. Bureaucrats were more interested in protecting their pay increases and performance bonuses than protecting the veterans in their care. That appalling reality isn't a new revelation, but it's still arresting to see it described in black and white, from the government's own watchdog. As you're by now well aware, Phoenix wasn't an isolated "bad apple" event. Abuses along the same lines are under investigation at dozens of VA facilities, with allegations surfacing from coast to coast. Back to the Phoenix report:

To review the new patient wait times for primary care in FY 2013, we reviewed a statistical sample of 226 Phoenix HCS appointments. VA national data, which was reported by Phoenix HCS, showed these 226 veterans waited on average 24 days for their first primary care appointment and only 43 percent waited more than 14 days. However, our review showed these 226 veterans waited on average 115 days for their first primary care appointment with approximately 84 percent waiting more than 14 days. At this time, we believe that most of the waiting time discrepancies occurred because of delays between the veteran’s requested appointment date and the date the appointment was created. However, we found that in at least 25 percent of the 226 appointments reviewed, evidence, in veterans’ medical records, indicates that these veterans received some level of care in the Phoenix HCS, such as treatment in the emergency room, walk in clinics, or mental health clinics.

A New York Times reporter boils the key numbers down:

Phoenix VA said 43% of 226-vet sample had to wait more than 14 days for appointment. IG found real number was 84%.
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) May 28, 2014

And therein lies the heart of the scandal. The "official" data produced by this local system -- which was deliberately and thoroughly cooked -- showed an average wait time of less than a month, with a majority of patients obtaining an appointment within two weeks. In reality, the average wait time was nearly four months, with the vast majority of patients being forced to wait longer than the target range of two weeks. The discrepancy, the report states, is mostly due to the practice of concealing the true date an appointment request was filed. Another important takeaway, as flagged by Allahpundit: "The IG also took care to note that, of the 42 VA facilities where his teams are now gathering evidence, none received advance notice that they were coming. Why? Because he’s worried about 'the risk of destruction of evidence, manipulation of data, and coaching staff on how to respond to our interview questions.'" A frantic after-the-fact cover up isn't a hypothetical concern; a whistleblower in New Mexico recently told the Daily Beast that evidence destruction was already underway at his facility in Albuquerque. The same reporter published a damning follow-up story today:

Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most comprehensive accounts yet of how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system. It shows not only how they manipulated hospital wait lists but why—to cover up the weeks and months veterans spent waiting for needed medical care. If those lag times had been revealed, it would have threatened the executives’ bonus pay. What’s worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years, even after it was repeatedly reported to local and national VA authorities. That indicates a new troubling angle to the VA scandal: that the much touted investigations may be incapable of finding violations that are hiding in plain sight. “For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate,” a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. “People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up.” “I see it in the executives’ eyes,” the whistleblower added. “They are worried.”

That is precisely why the administration's "we're investigating" posture is so inadequate in this case. The misconduct at play has been routinely reported, at both the local and national levels, resulting in...nothing. We've been beating that drum for days. The dots were glowing bright red, dating back to at least the 2008 presidential transition, yet they were not connected. At some point, that becomes willful inaction, and it's a failure that isn't going to be rectified by more investigations. Sure, the heightened scrutiny may finally induce some action this time around, but what happens to the people who were alerted to these problems for years, and didn't respond? All of this is just too much for a growing number of members on Capitol Hill. Sen. John McCain had been holding off on calling for Sec. Shinseki's resignation. No more:



I'll leave you with Hot Air's soon-to-be latest addition, Noah Rothman, flaying inevitable "Voxplanation" of the VA scandal -- which focuses on criticizing Republicans, naturally.

UPDATE - The dam is creaking. A prominent Democratic Senate nominee and a sitting Senate Democrat have decided to cut and run from Shinseki. (Hagan just piled on, too). They won't be the last ones to do so. Also, oof:

Please, somebody make sure the president reads the papers tomorrow http://t.co/GirSCRJyRa
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) May 28, 2014

Va. Dem. suggests killing Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, Ann Coulter on Twitter any one whos wants to kill him come over here kill me 1st

Va. Dem. suggests killing Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, Ann Coulter on Twitter

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May 28, 2014

On Tuesday, Mike Dickinson, the Virginia Democrat who wants the House seat currently held by Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., despite not being on the ballot, issued a tweet suggesting that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and columnist Ann Coulter be killed.
"Another day, another (expletive deleted), Marry, Kill. @nikkihaley @AnnCoulter and @SenTedCruz it's all fun and games (sic). Who would pick (sic)? This one is easy," he tweeted.
The tweet didn't sit too well with some, who took Dickinson to task for appearing to threaten elected officials.
"[D]ude, did you just threaten the life of a sitting US Senator?" one person asked.
"Mikey thinks he is above the law since he is 'progressive,'" another person added.
This is the second time Dickinson has engaged in the Twitter game where players are given a list of well-known people and then asked to state whether they would have sex, marry or kill the person. In mid-May, Dickinson issued a similar tweet listing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
"Picking between @GOPLeader Eric cantor & tea @DaveBratVA7th is like a (expletive deleted), Marry, Kill between @michellemalkin @ehasselbeck & @SarahPalinUSA," he tweeted.
According to Urban Dictionary, the game "is not intended for literal thoughts," but it's beginning to appear that Dickinson really has fantasies of murdering conservatives, given the nature of his tweets. On Monday, for example, he issued tweets fantasizing about being part of the Civil War while calling members of the Tea Party "traitors" and "terrorists."
In other tweets, he expressed a desire to "eradicate" the Tea Party and those who watch Fox News, while soliciting support from those who want to see him "decimate" Christians. Dickinson, however, claims his offensive tweets are simply intended to "tweak" conservatives.
"In sports it's called you punk someone. I punk all my haters everyday. I play you for fools. You actually take time and reply lol," he tweeted.
So says the man who once threatened an elected GOP state delegate, suggested supporters violate the law by calling police to harass members of the Tea Party and posted pictures of license plates of Tea Party members for identification and harassment. Now, he appears to be suggesting that certain elected officials be murdered.
One Twitter user summed up Dickinson's short, hate-filled messages: "You just need attention, you're like a dog that chews shoes, only people love dogs."

Suggested by the author

Did Va. Dem. Mike Dickinson suggest killing Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin?

Virginia Democrat pines for Civil War, calls Tea Party 'terrorists,' 'traitors'

Va. Dem. threatens GOP delegate on Twitter: 'I am coming after you'

Va. DMV to investigate possible illegal activity by Dem. Mike Dickinson

Va. Dem. to supporters: Break the law, use police to harass Tea Party members

Arrogant Muslims Kick All Americans Out Of This Country

“The Department of State warns U.S. citizens..."

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B. Christopher Agee — May 28, 2014

As a select committee in the U.S. House attempts to find the truth about the 2012 terror attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. citizens in that nation are being urged this week to leave immediately amid security threats.
The State Department issued a warning Tuesday evening for all Americans who remained in Libya following a U.S. Marines mission to help Americans evacuate.

“The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all travel to Libya and recommends that U.S. citizens currently in Libya depart immediately,” the statement explained. “The security situation in Libya remains unpredictable and unstable. The Libyan government has not been able to adequately build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution.”
The agency explained a number of threats by “various groups” have been made against Americans in the nation, noting its capability to offer protection or emergency services at this time is “very limited.”
Staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Libya’s capital city of Tripoli has been pared down significantly as a result of the ongoing threats, the statement indicated.
As for those citizens targeting Americans, the State Department indicated many have access to powerful military equipment and weaponry, including some devices that can effectively attack aircraft.
Coinciding with the evacuation warning is an ongoing battle waged by Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter against Islamic operatives and supporters in the region. Though many of the nation’s officials and military personnel support Hifter’s mission and are backing him as a political leader, he has earned the wrath of those in the Islamic militias he is targeting.
A number of these radicals – including members of Ansar al-Shariah – are fighting back against the military leader, whom they conclude is acting on America’s behalf. The group, which has ties to terror organization Al Qaeda, has been linked to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/americans-evacuated-islamic-country/#UYyeKyJZHmG3vx4b.99

BREAKING NEWS: STATE DEPARTMENT TO AMERICANS IN LIBYA.. ..."MAY DAY MAY DAY.... GET OUT WHEN YOU CAN. Al QAEDA IS ALIVE.. AND THEY ARE WANTING TO KICK OBAMA & JOE BIDEN AND HILLARY'S BUTT(S)!"

BREAKING NEWS:
STATE DEPARTMENT TO AMERICANS IN LIBYA.. ..."MAY DAY MAY DAY.... GET OUT WHEN YOU CAN. Al QAEDA IS ALIVE.. AND THEY ARE WANTING TO KICK OBAMA & JOE BIDEN AND HILLARY'S BUTT(S)!"
As a select committee in the U.S. House attempts to find the truth about the 2012 terror attack that left four Americans dead in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. citizens in that nation are being urged this week to leave immediately amid security threats.
The State Department issued a warning Tuesday evening for all Americans who remained in Libya following a U.S. Marines mission to help Americans evacuate.
“The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all travel to Libya and recommends that U.S. citizens currently in Libya depart immediately,” the statement explained. “The security situation in Libya remains unpredictable and unstable. The Libyan government has not been able to adequately build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution.”
The agency explained a number of threats by “various groups” have been made against Americans in the nation, noting its capability to offer protection or emergency services at this time is “very limited.”
Staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Libya’s capital city of Tripoli has been pared down significantly as a result of the ongoing threats, the statement indicated.
As for those citizens targeting Americans, the State Department indicated many have access to powerful military equipment and weaponry, including some devices that can effectively attack aircraft.
Coinciding with the evacuation warning is an ongoing battle waged by Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter against Islamic operatives and supporters in the region. Though many of the nation’s officials and military personnel support Hifter’s mission and are backing him as a political leader, he has earned the wrath of those in the Islamic militias he is targeting.
A number of these radicals – including members of Ansar al-Shariah – are fighting back against the military leader, whom they conclude is acting on America’s behalf. The group, which has ties to terror organization Al Qaeda, has been linked to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.