Statement by Secretary Johnson on Increased Influx of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children at the Border

Release Date: 

June 2, 2014

For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
As I have seen firsthand and stated repeatedly, addressing the rising flow of unaccompanied children crossing our southwest border is an important priority of this Administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It requires a whole of government coordinated and sustained response.
On the recommendation of myself and others, the President has today directed an inter-agency Unified Coordination Group to address the situation, pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and other authorities. I am appointing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate as the Federal Coordinating Official. In this role, Administrator Fugate will, subject to my oversight, direction and guidance, lead and coordinate Federal response efforts to ensure that Federal agencies are unified in providing relief to the affected children. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will maintain primary responsibility for border security operations at and between ports of entry and, working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), provide for the proper care of unaccompanied children when they are temporarily in DHS custody. DHS will continue to coordinate closely with the Departments of Health and Human Services, State, Defense, the General Services Administration and other agencies, to ensure a coordinated and rapid government-wide response in the short-term and to undertake broader, longer-term reforms to address the root cause behind these recent migration trends.
This designation builds on the authorization I made on May 12 to establish a “Level IV” condition of readiness -- the highest level of contingency planning within DHS. U.S. Border Patrol Deputy Chief Vitiello, as part of this authorization, will continue to lead DHS personnel reassigned to assist in processing and caring for unaccompanied children. We will also continue to work closely with the governments of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to counter this recent surge in migrant children.
We must, and we will, address this situation.

Leaked Data Shows 10-Fold Increase In Obama’s Asylum Approvals

12:50 PM 07/14/2014

 

 

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Neil Munro

White House Correspondent

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The number of foreigners who successfully filed asylum claims in the United States almost tripled from 2012 to 2013, up to 30,393.
That’s 10 times the number from 2008, when President Barack Obama was elected, and it is evidence his immigration officials are agreeing that many people in the growing wave of Central American migrants face a “credible fear” of harm if they are returned. Official approval allows the migrants to file for asylum in immigration court, where judges will approve or reject the asylum request.
If you came illegally to the U.S. seeking asylum in 2013, you had better than a four-in-five chance of successfully filing an asylum claim. That’s up from a three-in-five chance in 2008.
The migrants include mothers with children, and youths who have been brought north by their parents who are living illegally in the United States. Roughly 240,000 migrants — parents, youths and children — are expected to cross the border by the end of September.
The total includes 57,525 unaccompanied youths and children, from October 2013 to June 30, 2014, according to DHS. Because of a 2008 law, unaccompanied youths from countries other than Mexico and Canada don’t have to pass the “credible fear” hurdle, but can directly file asylum cases in immigration courts.
Legislators urged more care in granting asylum after the media reported that the father of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, successfully applied for asylum in 2002.
The internal federal data from the Department of Homeland Security was provided to The Daily Caller by a source.
It shows that officials endorsed 3,097 asylum requests in the year up to Sept. 30, 2008 — dubbed fiscal year 2008 — to people who said they faced a “credible fear” of persecution if they were repatriated.
Obama took office in January 2009, and officials approved 3,411 “credible fear” approvals in the next 12 months, up to the end of September in 2009.
Officials approved another 6,293 in the next 12 months, and another 9,423 in the next 12 months, ending September 2011.
In fiscal year 2012, ending September 2012, Obama’s officials approved 10,838 claims, before tripling the score to 30,393 in 2013.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of would-be migrants — including many “unaccompanied minors” — from Central America began flooding over the southern border.
Many of the youths — roughly half claimed to be aged between 14 and 17 — and the children claimed asylum. Once their asylum claims were submitted, they were subsequently transported by federal agencies to their parents living illegally in the United States. The youths and children are also automatically enrolled in a variety of welfare, education and medical programs, and some receive free legal advice from taxpayer-funded attorneys.
Tens of thousands of adults with children also crossed the border and many claimed “credible fear” of persecution by criminal gangs in their home countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Some parts of those countries are afflicted by gangs, some of which included many former illegal immigrants who were deported from the United States.
Once their “credible fear” claims are endorsed by administration officials, the adults can file for asylum.
The 30,393 “credible fear” approvals in fiscal 2013, ending in Sept. 30, 2013, likely included many of the 2011 and 2012 border-crossers. Few 2013 border-crossers would have their claims adjudicated quickly enough, unless they’re being rubber-stamped by Obama’s officials.
However, the DHS data shows that “credible fear” claims are being approved at a higher rate by Obamas deputies.
The approval rate jumped from 64 percent in 2008 to 84 percent in 2013.
The number of people claiming “credible fear” grew slowly from 118,457 in 2008 to 123,180 in 2011. But it lept up to 183,681 in 2012, indicating a huge number of asylum requests, most likely from the southern border-crossers.
The data does not show the number of people who claimed credible fear in 2013.
When a person make a “credible fear” plea for asylum, the claim is initially checked by police in the Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Those agencies gave provision approval to 13,880 claims in 2012, but 38,035 claims in 2013. Immigration officials then rejected 1,187 claims of those claims in 2012, and 2,587 claims in 2013.
The data does not say how many of the rejected claimants were repatriated.
According to the Los Angeles Times, only 1,669 immigrants younger than 18 were rejected in 2013. That’s down from 8.143 in 2008.
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Saudi Arabia to transfer aid of $39 million to Gaza Strip victims

AFP

Published:  07.14.14, 09:43 / Israel News

Saudi Arabia Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf announced Monday an emergency aid of 200 million riyals ($ 39 million) to Gaza Strip victims following IDF attacks in the area, reported Saudi news agency SPA.

Al-Assaf said that the money will be transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent organizationin Gaza in order "to cover most of the more urgent needs in medical equipment supply.

Obama’s Pro-Jihad Government Signs Agreement For $11 billion Arms Sale To Qatar

Obama’s Pro-Jihad Government Signs Agreement For $11 billion Arms Sale To Qatar

Home  »  Politics  »  Obama’s Pro-Jihad Government Signs Agreement For $11 billion Arms Sale To Qatar

Jul 14, 2014 No Comments ›› Niki Monroe
(Reuters) - The United States signed an agreement with Qatar on Monday to sell the Gulf Arab ally Apache attack helicopters and Patriot and Javelin air-defense systems valued at $11 billion.
“Today’s signing ceremony underscores the strong partnership between the United States and Qatar in the area of security and defense and will help improve our bilateral cooperation across a range of military operations,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.
The agreement was signed at the Pentagon by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Qatar’s defense minister, Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah.
It was the biggest U.S. arms sale so far this year, according to media reports.
Hagel visited Qatar in December when he and al-Attiyah signed a 10-year Defense Cooperation Agreement to govern interaction between U.S. and Qatari forces and enable the continued assignment of American troops to installations in the area, including the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base.
“This is a critically important relationship in the region,” said Kirby. “And the secretary is pleased to be able to continue to make it stronger.”
Qatar is holding for a year five Taliban prisoners released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive in Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

BURIED STORY EXPOSED: Dead Children Have Been Washing Up On Shores Of Rio Grande

BURIED STORY EXPOSED: Dead Children Have Been Washing Up On Shores Of Rio Grande

Home  »  Immigration  »  BURIED STORY EXPOSED: Dead Children Have Been Washing Up On Shores Of Rio Grande

Jul 14, 2014 No Comments ›› Chuck Biscuits

This is why Obama wouldn’t go to the border. He knew this was going on and knew this would come out and didn’t want pictures of himself at the border later associated with this story once it came out. And did Fox “bury the lede” because notorious amnesty shills Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes actually support this invasion?


Excerpted from The Gateway Pundit: A Fox News exclusive report this morning by Jana Winter inexplicably buried the lede.
Winter reports that several dead children have been discovered “washed up along the riverbank” of the Rio Grande, but fails to note that there have been no reports by the Obama administration on this.
This indicates a pattern of covering up dead illegal alien kids by the Obama administration.
From Jana Winter’s report:
“The life jackets helped many make it across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, the Mexican city across the water from Mission, just west of McAllen. Sources say they come over on rafts ferried by the so-called “coyotes,” the human smugglers whose means of transport are rendered useless whenever discovered by the Border Patrol. Many don’t make it across the river; multiple sources became emotional when recounting their discoveries of small, lifeless bodies washed up along the riverbank.” Read the whole thing

BIS chief warns debt mountain puts global economy into worse state than before 2008 crash

Published time: July 14, 2014 15:21

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Jaime Caruana.(Reuters / Ruben Sprich)

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China, Crisis, Economy

​The global economy is more vulnerable than it was just before Lehman Brothers collapsed says the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the international finance watchdog, citing even higher debt ratios and emerging market involvement.
Jaime Caruana, head of the BIS, warned that nobody invested in stocks seems prepared for the idea that at some point central banks will begin raising interest rates again, in an interview with the DailyTelegraph.
As most major central banks including the UK, US and Japan are holding rates at around zero percent, banks get accustomed to ‘easy money’ and ignore the risk of monetary tightening. That is boosting stocks, because there is no point in investors keeping their money in savings accounts at such low returns.
“Markets seem to be considering only a very narrow spectrum of potential outcomes. They have become convinced that monetary conditions will remain easy for a very long time, and may be taking more assurance than central banks wish to give,” Caruana said.
As most major central banks including the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve are holding rates at around zero percent investors leave savings accounts due to insignificant returns. That boosts a looming "irrational" stock bubble Caruana said, without specifying when the bubble will burst.
Since 2008 the emerging markets have gained around $2 trillion in foreign currency debt, becoming a way bigger player than they were during the East Asia crisis of the late 1990s.
“The ramifications would be particularly serious if China, home to an outsize financial boom, were to falter," the BIS said.

Rep. Bridenstine finally gets tour of Ft Sill and says what he learned is horrific

Posted on Jul 14, 2014 at 11:38 AM in Politics | Leave a Comment

By The Right Scoop

Rep. Bridenstine finally got a tour of Ft Sill over the weekend where many unaccompanied minors are being held and the stories he heard from the people working there as well as the children were horrific.
He said the children that actually make it across the border are the lucky ones. There are some that start the journey but never make it.
Bridenstine pointed out that the illegals within the US are in many cases the ones paying coyotes to bring these unaccompanied minors across the border. But in some cases where the coyotes aren’t paid or the wrong one is paid, these children can be subject to forced labor, prostitution, or even sold into the slave trade.
He also mentioned mass graves in northern Mexico where some have been killed.
Bridenstine said he learned that many of these minors are being released in the US to other illegals and not to American citizens.
There’s more. Watch:
Rep. Bridenstine finally gets tour of Ft Sill and says what he learned is horrific http://therightscoop.com/rep-bridenstine-finally-gets-tour-of-ft-sill-and-says-what-he-learned-is-horrific/

Thousands have fled northern Gaza after Israel warned residents to leave the area to avoid airstrikes

Thousands have fled northern Gaza after Israel warned residents to leave the area to avoid airstrikes. At least 167 people, mostly civilians, have already died as a result of Operation Protective Edge, which entered its sixth day on Sunday.
Follow RT's live updates on Israel's Operation Protective Edge
Israel dropped leaflets in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, located near the border with Israel, urging residents to leave the region by midday Sunday and warning of airstrikes on Hamas sites.
 Residents of the town, which has a population of 70,000, were told via the leaflets and telephone calls that “those who fail to comply with the instructions to leave immediately will endanger their lives and the lives of their families.”
At least 167 Palestinians – most of them civilians, including about 30 children – have died as a result of airstrikes since Israel's Operation Protective Edge began on Tuesday, Gaza's Health Ministry reported. More than 1,100 others have been injured.

A wounded Palestinian, who hospital officials said was injured in an Israeli air strike, is wheeled into a hospital in Gaza City July 12, 2014. (Reuters / Mohammed Salem)
A wounded Palestinian, who hospital officials said was injured in an Israeli air strike, is wheeled into a hospital in Gaza City July 12, 2014. (Reuters / Mohammed Salem)

 Israel will "strike with might" in the Beit Lahiya area late on Sunday, a senior Israeli military officer told reporters earlier on Sunday, Reuters reported. The officer did not specify whether the offensive will expand from airstrikes to the ground.
“The enemy [Hamas] has built rocket infrastructure in-between the houses [in Beit Lahiya]," the Israeli officer said. "[Hamas] wants to trap me into an attack and into hurting civilians."
 The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) issued an emergency warning in all five areas of the Gaza Strip on Sunday due to the “dramatic escalation in violence over the past few days and the massive assault on Gaza.”
Over the past 24 hours, UNRWA has opened a number of its schools as emergency shelters for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), the organization said on its website. Five shelters have been open in Gaza since 8 a.m. local time, and 2,000 people have already sought refuge.
 According to the organization, 45 Palestinians have been killed and 131 others injured over the past 24 hours.

A Palestinian woman gestures as she stands behind a missile which witnesses said was fired by Israeli aircraft, at a shack belonging to Bedouins in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2014. (Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
A Palestinian woman gestures as she stands behind a missile which witnesses said was fired by Israeli aircraft, at a shack belonging to Bedouins in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2014. (Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
 Meanwhile, Gaza's Interior Ministry dismissed Israel's warnings on Hamas radio, calling them “psychological warfare” and urging people to stay in their homes. This is the first time that Israel has dropped leaflets warming residents of upcoming airstrikes. Previously, the IDF used a “knock on the roof” technique – a warning shot fired at a house so that occupants could leave the premises before the building was destroyed.
Read more: Israeli 'knock on the roof' bombing technique caught on film (VIDEO)
According to Israel, more than 800 rockets have been fired by Hamas since the offensive began on Tuesday. Most of them have been intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. No Israeli deaths have been reported.
 On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed international calls for a ceasefire while defending his country's offensive in Gaza during appearances on US television.
 He urged Americans to imagine that their cities from the East Coast to Colorado were under the threat of rocket attack, with only 60 to 90 seconds to reach a bomb shelter. “That's what we're experiencing right now, as we speak,” he told CBS' 'Face the Nation' program.
 Netanyahu refused to discuss a ceasefire or give a timeline for Israel's operation in Gaza. When asked if a ground invasion was imminent, he said his country would use any means necessary to accomplish its goal of degrading Hamas' rocket-launching capability in order to restore security for Israeli civilians.
"Whether we're at the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning I'm not going to tell you that right now - because we face a very, very brutal terrorist enemy," he said on 'Fox News Sunday.' "

Source: http://rt.com/news/172484-civilians-flee-gaza-israel/

German probe turns to typewriters to avoid NSA

By Julian Hattem - 07/14/14 05:33 PM EDT

Germany's parliamentary committee investigating the National Security Agency is mulling using manual typewriters to make sure American agents don’t snoop on its work.
Patrick Sensburg, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party who is leading the panel, told a German broadcaster on Monday that the committee needed to do all it can to secure its work from spies’ prying eyes.
"In fact, we already have [a typewriter], and it’s even a non-electronic typewriter," he said, according to a translation from Ars Technica.

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“Unlike other inquiry committees, we are investigating an ongoing situation. Intelligence activities are still going on, they are happening,” he added, according to the English-language outlet The Local.“And of course we have to keep our internal communication secure, send encrypted emails, use encrypted telephones and other things, which I'm not going to say here of course."
U.S. surveillance of German government agencies and top officials has created a rift between the two countries since last year's revelations that the NSA had been listening in on Merkel’s cellphone conversations.
More recently, one German agent was arrested for handing information to the CIA about the parliament’s inquiry into the NSA. That action caused the government to ask the CIA station chief to leave the country last week.
Over the weekend, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that two members of parliament had also had their phones compromised.
In an interview this weekend, Merkel said it was “not that easy to convince the Americans” to change the way their intelligence operations work.
If German officials do decide to use typewriters for their work, they would not be the only ones.
Russian agents reportedly spent thousands on old-fashioned typewriters in recent months to avoid leaks. 

Tags: Angela Merkel, Patrick Sensburg, National Security Agency, Ger

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, former POW in Afghanistan, takes new Army post

By Nancy A. Youssef

McClatchy Washington BureauJuly 14, 2014 

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In this image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad Website, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl sits in a vehicle guarded by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. UNCREDITED — AP

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WASHINGTON — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive for five years in Afghanistan until he was traded May 31 for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo, has completed his U.S. military-led reintegration treatment and has been assigned to an Army unit in Texas to continue his military service.
Senior Pentagon officials told McClatchy that Bergdahl, who was promoted from private first class to sergeant during his captivity, took up his new military job Monday at U.S. Army North headquarters at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Houston. The posting will allow him to remain near the military doctors who’ve treated him through his reintegration process at San Antonio Military Medical Center.
He is likely to receive some leave time during his new posting, the officials said.
Bergdahl’s new assignment _ a desk job with the military command responsible for activities in the United States _ will be his first opportunity to work alongside his fellow soldiers, some of whom have accused him of desertion, claiming that he left his post in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009 and that troops died searching for him after he was taken prisoner. His trade for the five Taliban, who had been in Guantanamo for more than a decade, also brought angry denunciations from some members of Congress who opposed their release.
By now, Bergdahl likely is aware of the controversy that swirled around his release, though details of how he was introduced to events that took place during his captivity have not yet emerged. He has been in an outpatient program at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Houston since June 22 and has been seen at restaurants and shops around San Antonio, often accompanied by members of his medical team, who specialize in helping prisoners of war reintegrate into society.
Doctors treating him have said they allowed him to pick where to go on such trips to help him regain confidence in making his own decisions after years of life as a Taliban hostage.
As part of his reintegration, Bergdahl has spoken to other soldiers about his experiences while a Taliban prisoner, but the U.S. military has not provided any details of the circumstances behind his capture, citing an ongoing investigation led by Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl.
Bergdahl has not yet been interviewed by Dahl. Doctors who treated Bergdahl, citing patient confidentiality, have not shared with Dahl the contents of their conversations with Bergdahl.
The military has not said what role Bergdahl’s parents, who led the public campaign for his release, have played in his treatment. In the early weeks after his release, the military said he had not spoken to his parents. It was unclear if that was because he was not ready to speak to them or had chosen not to.
According to a 2012 Rolling Stone piece, Berghdal sent an email to his parents in the days before his capture expressing his disdain and disillusionment with his military commanders, saying he longer believed in the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.
“The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting,” the Hailey, Idaho, native wrote his family, according to the Rolling Stone piece.

BI investigated Reid along with Whittemore in 2008

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Nevada power broker Harvey Whittemore, left, and longtime friend Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, right, were investigated by the FBI in 2008.

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By JEFF GERMAN
AND FRANCIS MCCABE
© 2013 LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Federal prosecutors have disclosed a 2008 FBI investigation of indicted Nevada power broker Harvey Whittemore and longtime friend Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The investigation, conducted by the FBI’s Washington field office, was sparked by media reports about Reid’s role in helping Whittemore’s Coyote Springs master- planned community north of Las Vegas clear government hurdles. It did not result in criminal charges against either man.
Whittemore’s defense lawyers want a federal judge to allow testimony about the investigation at his federal trial next month on charges of unlawfully funneling $138,000 in campaign contributions to Reid in 2007. Prosecutors have said the Nevada Democrat was unaware of the alleged scheme.
Defense lawyers, led by Dominic Gentile and Vincent Savarese, argued in court papers filed this week that the 2008 investigation shows Whittemore had no criminal intent to make illegal campaign contributions.
Whittemore, 59, was once a top Nevada legislative lobbyist. He was indicted last June on four felony charges, including making excessive contributions and lying to the FBI and the Federal Election Commission. His trial is set for May 14 before Senior U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks in Reno.
The indictment alleges Whittemore met with Reid in February 2007 and agreed to raise $150,000 for him by a March 31 campaign finance deadline.
Whittemore unlawfully used family members and associates as conduits for contributions to the senator’s campaign and then reimbursed them, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors originally disclosed the 2008 investigation in papers filed under seal in the current case and later provided a copy to Whittemore’s lawyers, who made them public in defense motions on Monday.
The Review-Journal obtained copies of the documents from the federal court’s electronic docket Tuesday morning, but later in the day, they were removed after prosecutors objected. The defense motions were later re-posted, without the government papers disclosing the 2008 investigation.
papers now sealed
Those papers, co-signed by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre and Eric Olshan, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, now are sealed.
Late Tuesday, the prosecutors filed a motion seeking to seal the defense motions in their entirety, a move defense lawyers plan to oppose. Prosecutors contend the defense motions refer to “sensitive, nonpublic investigative information concerning a now-concluded matter.”
According to a copy of the sealed government papers obtained by the Review-Journal, FBI agents in 2008 reviewed media reports, searched public records for federal campaign contributions Whittemore made to Reid and checked bank records for Reid’s federal campaign committee obtained under subpoena. Agents also interviewed two Nevada officials.
Whittemore’s lawyers say it’s significant that the investigators failed to find any evidence that Whittemore had violated federal campaign finance law.
“Evidence that the government was aware of the campaign contributions at issue in this case, but still found no evidence of a crime, supports (Whittemore’s) defense that he had no criminal intent,” the lawyers wrote.
But prosecutors said in court papers that investigators in 2008 didn’t have crucial information that emerged several years later.
“The government was unaware of the existence of any evidence regarding the defendant’s alleged Federal Election Campaign Act violations until attorney Richard Wright provided such evidence to the FBI’s Las Vegas Division in November 2011,” prosecutors wrote.
Wright represented Whittemore’s former business partners in the Coyote Springs project.
The development was to feature 160,000 homes on 43,000 acres and a Jack Nicklaus Signature-designed golf course about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas, straddling Clark and Lincoln counties on U.S. Highway 93.
The development had to overcome several obstacles, including county water issues and federal land issues.
In 2004, Reid and other members of Nevada’s congressional delegation pushed through a lands bill that moved a utility corridor away from Whittemore’s land, among other provisions favorable to the developer.
Reid’s son Leif, an attorney, represented Whittemore on the Coyote Springs project.
Coyote Springs’ development has since stalled because of the housing crash and economic recession.
Whittemore’s lawyers described media reports about Reid’s dealings with Whittemore related to Coyote Springs as “fallacious.”
A spokeswoman for Reid said the senator is not commenting.
Intimidation alleged
In a separate motion, Whittemore’s attorneys alleged that FBI agents intimidated witnesses in the case.
The lawyers asked Hicks to allow them to pursue those allegations at trial.
One witness, Michael Hillerby, an executive who worked under Whittemore and contributed to Reid in March 2007, was threatened by agents with criminal prosecution, the lawyers contend.
“Agents told him that what he had done with regard to the contribution (he had made) could open him up to legal culpability, including jail time,” the lawyers said.
They added that Hillerby’s testimony, and possibly the testimony of other witnesses, was “influenced or otherwise colored by the fear of personal criminal prosecution thereby engendered so as to conform to the perceived expectations of responsible government agents.”
Prosecutors will get a chance to respond in writing to the defense motions.
Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the Nevada U.S. Attorneys office, said she could not comment on matters still in litigation.
Earlier this year an ongoing civil lawsuit over Coyote Springs and other developments was settled between Whittemore and his former business partners, California construction moguls Thomas and Albert Seeno.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Last year the Seenos sued Whittemore, accusing him of embezzling and misappropriating more than $40 million from the business venture to support a lavish lifestyle, including spending millions on private jet flights, home improvement projects and entertainment.
Whittemore, who denied the allegations, once was considered the most powerful legislative lobbyist in Nevada and one of the nation’s top gaming attorneys. He represented the Nevada Resort Association, an organization of the state’s top casinos, individual casinos and 100 businesses. He also worked as managing partner for Lionel, Sawyer and Collins’ Reno office for many years.
Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this report. Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow@JGermanRJ. Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.

Stephen Harper accuses Hamas of using human shields, urges world leaders to side with Israel

Canadian Press | July 13, 2014 3:36 PM ET
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MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty ImagesPalestinians stand looking at smoke billowing from a nearby building hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on July 13, 2014. Israel harshened its campaign against Gaza, warning Palestinians in the north to flee after marines mounted a ground attack, as diplomatic efforts to halt the bloodshed intensified.

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Terrorists are deliberately placing people in the path of an Israeli offensive aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Israel’s quandary

One of the biggest dangers Israel faces as it cracks down on the Hamas terror group is that it could be too successful.
Hamas is convinced it has everything to play for and little to lose in an escalating battle with the Jewish state. Its government in Gaza is bankrupt, increasingly isolated and friendless, and at risk of being seen as impotent. A war against Israel will burnish its “resistance” credentials and gain it support at home and in some foreign quarters.
So with more than 700 rockets already fired from Gaza, Israel can only expect more in the coming days. Even a ground invasion targeting terrorist commanders, command and control structures, tunnels and weapons is unlikely to produce an immediate ceasefire.
Read more …

Harper says there is evidence that Hamas, listed by Canada as a terrorist organization, is using human shields in its attempts to stave off the Israeli offensive.
“The indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there is no justification,” Harper said in a statement issued Sunday.
“It is evident that Hamas is deliberately using human shields to further terror in the region.”
Harper also called on other world leaders to rally behind Israel as it tries to prevent rockets being fired from Gaza into its territory.
Silence, he suggested, would only embolden Israel’s attackers.
“Failure by the international community to condemn these reprehensible actions would encourage these terrorists to continue their appalling actions,” Harper said.
“Canada calls on its allies and partners to recognize that these terrorist acts are unacceptable and that solidarity with Israel is the best way of stopping the conflict.”
Harper’s statements came as Israel briefly deployed ground troops inside the Gaza Strip.
Israel had earlier warned northern Gaza residents to evacuate their homes as the six-day offensive that has killed more than 160 Palestinians was widened.
The United Nations Security Council and others have called for a ceasefire but the attacks have only escalated as Israel masses tanks and soldiers at Gaza’s borders.

Related

• Israel sends troops into Gaza for first time to destroy rocket-launcher as army gets ready for ground offensive
• Daniel Pipes: Hamas knows it will lose a military battle, but hopes it will win public support
• Israel orders residents of northern Gaza Strip to leave ‘for their own safety’

Israel widened its range of Gaza bombing targets Saturday to include civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties. One strike hit a centre for the disabled, killing two patients and wounding four people. In a second attack, an Israeli warplane flattened the home of Gaza police chief Taysir al-Batsh and damaged a nearby mosque as evening prayers ended, killing at least 18 people. Fifty were wounded, including al-Batsh himself.
Harper urged the Palestinian government to disarm Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups operating in Gaza.
But despite forming a government with Hamas’ backing last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ influence in Gaza is minimal.

THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty ImagesSmoke billows from a building hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, on July 13, 2014.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas called on U.N. Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon to provide “international protection” for the Palestinian people.
“The situation has become unbearable — hundreds of martyrs and thousands of wounded and huge destruction,” Abbas said.
Early Sunday, Israeli troops launched a brief raid into northern Gaza to destroy what the military described as a rocket-launching site.
The military said the incursion left four soldiers slightly wounded.
Northern Gaza is home to at least 100,000 people.

Ilia Yefimovich/Getty ImagesIsraeli artillery smoke can be seen on July 13, 2014 at the Israeli-Gaza border.

Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesA family organizes themselves after crossing into Israel from Gaza at the Erez crossing point during evacuations on the sixth day of Israel's operation 'Protective Edge' on July 13, 2014 in Erez, Israel. Hundreds of foreigners fled Gaza today as Israel asked people to evacuate northern Gaza, in preparation of further possible operations.

AP Photo/Hatem MoussaPalestinian mourners carry the bodies of members of the Al-Batsh family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they walk past the family's damaged houses, during a funeral procession in Gaza City, Sunday, July 13, 2014.

AP Photo/Lefteris PitarakisIsraeli soldiers, backdropped by the national flag, sit on their armored personnel carrier as they clean their weapons, at a staging area on the Israel Gaza border on Sunday, July 13, 2014.

REPORT: FBI investigated Harry Reid in 2008; Papers made public now secreted, sealed...

AP

(Las Vegas Review-Journal) - The Review-Journal obtained copies of the documents from the federal court’s electronic docket Tuesday morning, but later in the day, they were removed after prosecutors objected. The defense motions were later re-posted, without the government papers disclosing the 2008 investigation.

Papers Now Sealed

Those papers, co-signed by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre and Eric Olshan, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, now are sealed.
Late Tuesday, the prosecutors filed a motion seeking to seal the defense motions in their entirety, a move defense lawyers plan to oppose. Prosecutors contend the defense motions refer to “sensitive, nonpublic investigative information concerning a now-concluded matter.”

According to a copy of the sealed government papers obtained by the Review-Journal, FBI agents in 2008 reviewed media reports, searched public records for federal campaign contributions Whittemore made to Reid and checked bank records for Reid’s federal campaign committee obtained under subpoena. Agents also interviewed two Nevada officials. Read more via Las Vegas Review-Journal...

Israeli airstrikes kill 40 Palestinians in 24 hours

Israeli airstrikes kill 40 Palestinians in 24 hours

Smoke billows from a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 14, 2014.

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Some 40 more Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.

This comes after Israeli warplanes targeted several residential areas of the besieged enclave.
Palestinian officials say at least three people including a woman were killed on the seventh day of Israeli airstrikes on Monday. Two of the victims died of injuries sustained in the air raids on Sunday.
The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment to 175. Latest figures show over 1,270 others have been also injured in the ongoing Israeli assaults.
Gazan homes, mosques and schools are also being targeted by the Israeli army operations. According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, more than three-quarters of the victims are civilians.
Meanwhile, the Arab League is urging the international community to end Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The League's foreign ministers are due to hold a meeting on the crisis later on Monday.
The Arab League has affirmed the necessity of urgent actions to end the Israeli aggression and provide protection for the Palestinians.
In another development on Monday, people across the world have voiced their anger over Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In Paris, police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who threw projectiles at officers. Thousands of people attended another rally in the French city of Lille. Protesters described the Israeli raids as disproportionate and against the civilian population.
The demonstrators said Israel must be boycotted over its "racist behavior."
Similar protests were held near the White House in Washington DC, in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, as well as in Indian capital, New Delhi, and the Indian-administered Kashmir.
JR/AB/SS

Global Jihad: Muslims Protest in Asia, Australia, India, Egypt, etc., in support of Hamas

Death Marches 2014 Islamic Jew hatred Israel: The Jihad Against the Jews Palestinian Lies and Myths: Jihad and Jew hatred

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Photo: Anti-Israel Protest in Egypt

Indonesian Muslim protesters burn an Israeli flag during a rally against Israel on Gaza in Surabaya (Yahoo)
Photo: 1000s of Tunisians stage pro-Hamas protest

Oslo: More support for terror
Kashmir: Students in support of pro-Hamas protest
Karachi: Muslims in support of Hamas terror
Muslim protests across the world against the Jewish people in support of jihadists
These genocide attacks on pro-Israel rallys are not new;
Death marches 2012
Death marches Worldwide 2009
Any time freedom lovers stand in solidarity with the Jewish state, they risk assault.
“Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are genocide cries for the destruction of Israel.
Leftist lapdog Green party senator Lee Rhiannon accused Israel of exactly what Hamas was doing.

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Pro-Palestinians protest in Asia to support Gaza
3,000 people march in Sydney, accuse Israel of targeting civilians in airstrikes
By AFP July 13, 2014
Read more: Pro-Palestinians protest in Asia to support Gaza | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/pro-palestinians-protest-in-asia-to-support-gaza/#ixzz37PTQikI5
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook
Thousands of protesters from Australia to India rallied to voice their support for Palestinians on Sunday, as Israel mounted a ground assault in Gaza against Hamas rocket fire and the death toll from air strikes climbed.
In Sydney an estimated 3,000 people demonstrated outside the city’s Town Hall to condemn the military offensive, shouting “Free, free Palestine; free, free Gaza” and holding signs declaring “Shame Israel Shame.”
“Israel is targeting the civilians of Gaza with these bombings, and that is shameful and that is what we condemn,” Greens party senator Lee Rhiannon told the crowd.
Israel began Operation Protective Edge before dawn on Tuesday in an attempt to halt cross-border rocket fire by Palestinian terror groups.
As Israel’s air campaign in the Gaza Strip entered its sixth day, the overall death toll rose to 165 with more than 1,000 injured and the UN Security Council called on both sides to declare a ceasefire.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, about 500 people marched in the capital Jakarta shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and carrying Palestinian flags and posters of children killed in the offensive.
“This is a show of solidarity for our Muslim brothers and sisters in Gaza who are being oppressed by Israeli occupiers. We Indonesian Muslims share their suffering and pain,” activist Adityo Nugroho told AFP.
In Hong Kong organizers of a pro-Palestinian rally said about 300 people, mostly from the city’s Muslim community took part.
Some held up banners depicting the Israeli flag with the star of David replaced by a swastika, as protesters marched through the streets in the sweltering heat.
“We came to support our sisters and brothers in Gaza and our request is that they stop the killing of innocent children women in men in Gaza,” 21-year-old restaurant manager Kashi Anjum told AFP.
In the Indian capital New Delhi about 100 protesters, mainly students, gathered outside Israel’s embassy carrying placards stating “We are with you Gaza” and “Say no to Zionist
genocide”.

Protests were also held in Tokyo and Malaysia on Friday.

Shocker: U.S. Weapons Showing Up in the Hands of Terrrorists

Katie Pavlich | Jul 12, 2013

When President Obama announced a few weeks ago that the United States would be sending arms to the Syrian "rebels," the majority of Americans let out a disappointing sigh and many warned weapons intended for good would end up in the wrong, violent hands. Turns out, those warnings were correct. Weapons sent to the Middle East by the U.S. are now in the hands of Hezbollah, the largest terrorist organization in world with direct connections to Iran.

U.S. and Western weapons have been reaching Iranian-backed Shiite militias fighting to keep Bashar Assad's forces in power in Syria.

Analysts say it's unclear if the weapons were captured, stolen or bought on the black market in Syria, Turkey, Iraq or Libya. Propaganda photographs from Shiite militias posted on dozens of websites and Facebook pages show the weapons were acquired in new condition, said Phillip Smyth, an analyst for Jihadology.net, a site affiliated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Many of the weapons are things the militias "shouldn't really have their hands on," Smyth said. Iranians love to show "they have weapons and systems that are very close to the Americans."

The ability of Assad's allies to obtain U.S. weapons is one of many reasons the United States should not supply Syrian rebels with weapons, which President Obama said he would start to do last month, said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., former chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

There's no doubt these weapons will be used to attack Israel.

A recent Rasmussen Poll shows an overwhelming majority of Americans want the U.S. to stay out of Syria and the Washington Post editorial board predicts Obama's policies on the country will fail.

Obama’s feckless Syria policy is likely to fail

A decision to intervene in a foreign war, even in a small way, ought to be the subject of a direct presidential address to the country and an open debate in Congress. Yet the news that the United States would, after more than two years of dithering, finally provide direct military aid to rebels came in a conference call with reporters by White House aide Ben Rhodes on June 13. While letting the world know about it, Mr. Obama chose to designate his action as covert, stifling public discussion and restricting details on the arms supplies to members of the congressional intelligence committees. In some of his most extensive public comments on Syria since then, in an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose on June 17, Mr. Obama spent much of his time arguing the case against intervention, insisting that “we have to not rush into one more war in the Middle East.”

Did Israel Collude With ISIS to Justify Gaza Attack?

Obama’s “Peace” Partners Fatah Joins Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Rocket Attacks on Israel #savages

Israel: The Jihad Against the Jews Palestinian Lies and Myths: Jihad and Jew hatred

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Obama’s peace partners. Obama’s State Department was only just lauding Fatah today (watch here).
Monstrous. The man and his mission.
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Fatah Joins Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Rocket Attacks on Israel Algemeiner, July 11, 2014
JNS.org - Terrorist groups affiliated with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party claim that they have joined the rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza.

According to the Gatestone Institute, Fatah has several hundred militiamen in the Gaza Strip who belong to various armed terrorist groups. Some of these terrorists formerly belong to the PA’s security forces and still receive salaries from the PA—which is funded by Western governments, including the U.S.

“This blessed operation came as an answer to the enemy’s repeated crimes against our defenseless people,” the Fatah-affiliated Abdul Qader Husseini Battalions said in a statement on its Facebook page, the Times of Israel reported.

A photo of two members of the Husseini Battlions preparing to launch a rocket at Israel was also posted on Fatah’s Facebook page.
Another Fatah-affiliated group called Jaish al-Asifah (Army of the Storm) claims that it has fired 35 rockets at Israel.

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Netanyahu Calls Out Team Obama And Says Israel Will Never Give Up The West Bank

NTEB News Desk | July 11, 2014 | 112 Comments

Citing John Kerry by name, PM says he knows best about keeping Israel safe, and won’t allow West Bank to become ‘another 20 Gazas’

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” Isaiah 62:1
On the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strong and sternly open rebuke to John Kerry, Barack Obama, and any one else who would seek to pressure Israel to relinquish control over the West Bank.

“At present we have a problem with the territory called Gaza,” the prime minister said. But he noted that the West Bank is 20 times the size of Gaza, and vowed that he was not prepared “to create another 20 Gazas” in the West Bank.

“I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan” — a reference to the Jordan Valley and the West Bank — as Kerry had urged during a US-led peace effort that collapsed in April.
Citing by name both Kerry and the US security adviser Gen. John Allen, who was charged by the secretary of state to draw up security proposals that the US argued could enable Israel to withdraw from most of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu said passionately, “I told John Kerry and General Allen, the Americans’ expert: We live here, I live here, I know what we need to ensure the security of Israel’s people.”

“Adjacent territory has huge importance,” Netanyahu said, and could be used by terrorists to dig tunnels and to fire rockets. The closer terrorists can get to Israel’s borders, he said, the more rockets they fire — as the current conflict was proving.

IDF: Hamas wants cease-fire; we've destroyed 3,000 rockets

Yoav Zitun

Published:  07.14.14, 18:38 / Israel News

A senior military source said that, "There are many signs that Hamas wants a cease-fire along the lines of the agreement signed after Pillar of Defense. Out of 9,000 rockets that were in the Gaza Strip we've destroyed 3,000 and we'll keep attacking."
He added that, "The IDF hasn't attacked dozens of rocket launching pits that hold hundreds of rockets because of the danger of hitting civilians." According to him, some 180 Palestinians have been killed in the operation, half of which were terrorists.

Deserter? Traitor? Bowe Bergdahl Returns to Active Duty without Court Martial

July 14, 2014 By TPNN Staff Writer

 

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Bowe Bergdahl smiling with Taliban terrorist

Described by his former platoon members as ‘at best a deserter and at worst a traitor,’ Bowe Bergdahl is headed back to active duty in the Army. He wandered from his post in the cover of night back in 2009 and went in search of the Taliban. Prior to abandoning his post, Bergdahl left a note seemingly abandoning his American citizenship and denouncing America and the role it was playing in the war. He was with the Taliban for five years after.


Some say he was held captive, others believe he became part of the Taliban group while in supposed captivity. In fact, his platoon members stated that Taliban attacks on them became more strategic after Bergdahl’s disappearance. Although Barack Obama had known since 2010 that Bergdahl was a deserter, he still exchanged five top Taliban leaders, previously detained at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release Now, the man whose father praised Allah on Twitter and in the Rose Garden press conference with Obama, who has also had pictures surface of him smiling with Taliban terrorists, is going to once again go into the Army after 6 weeks in outpatient therapy and counseling at a San Antonio, Texas base.
Rather than face a court martial, Bergdahl will work at the Army’s North headquarters at Fort Sam Houston. He will receive a position and duties commensurate with his rank of sergeant, despite the fact that the circumstances surrounding his disappearance are still under investigation.

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