Underground Stories 072413

America tries fighter jet diplomacy in Egypt

On July 11, the United States delivered its clearest message that it had made its peace with the military takeover in Egypt. Barely a week after President Mohammed Morsy was forced from office and three days after the army fired on pro-Morsy protesters, killing 54 of them, White House officials approved the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian military.
Now, Washington is making a U-turn. The Pentagon confirmed today that that the delivery of the fighter jets would be delayed due to the "current situation" in Cairo. "We do not believe it is appropriate to move forward at this time with the delivery of F-16s," said Defense Department spokesman George Little.
An anonymous Pentagon official went even further, telling the New York Times that the move was meant as "an inside fastball to the military." The official also warned that trying to "break the neck of the Brotherhood is not going to be good for Egypt or for the region."
So what does the U.S. government know about Egyptian politics today that it didn't know on July 11? One major red flag came today: Gen. Abdel-Fatah al-Sissi, the defense minister and commander of the armed forces, delivered a speech calling for mass demonstrations on Friday "to give me the mandate and order that I confront violence and potential terrorism."
Since Morsy's fall, Egypt has been the victim of a number of terrorist attacks: A device exploded in the city of city of Mansoura on Tuesday night, killing one soldier, while a string of attacks on Monday claimed the lives of six Egyptians. But there is near-universal support within Egypt for cracking down on the extremists who conduct such attacks -- leading to speculation that Sissi is actually asking for permission to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood. Since the military takeover, anti-Morsy figures have increasingly used such language to tar their political opponents: Just today, the spokesman for interim President Adly Mansour announced, "Egypt has begun a war on terrorism."
Ironically, just as the new Egyptian government appropriates the language of U.S. politics, the Pentagon is getting cold feet about the direction that Cairo is heading in.

Dozens killed in Spain train derailment

A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured.

Authorities did not immediately release casualty figures.
But a photographer at the scene said he saw dozens of what appeared to be dead bodies being extracted from the wreck by emergency workers. Spanish National TV showed footage of what appeared to be several bodies covered by blankets alongside the tracks next to the damaged train wagons. El Pais reported there were at least 35 dead.
The photographer, Xabier Martinez, told The Associated Press that he also spoke to two injured train passengers who said they felt a strong vibration before the derailing.
The accident occurred on high-speed tracks near the train station in Santiago de Compostola, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of El Ferrol. Rescue workers were seen in the television images caring for people still inside some of the wagons.
The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe company, was headed to El Ferrol from Madrid.

Activists: Syria government rocket attack kills 15 Palestinian refugees

AMMAN - Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad killed at least 15 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in a rocket attack on a rebel-held refugee camp on the southern edge of Damascus on Wednesday, opposition activists said.
Palestinian militia from the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) as well as Syrian army and intelligence troops have been surrounding the camp for months.
On Saturday they launched a ground infantry assault backed by tanks and multiple rocket launchers to capture the camp but were being met by stiff resistance, opposition sources said.
"The rockets hit a residential and shopping area way behind the front line. The victims were civilians," activist Rami al-Sayyed from the Syrian Media Center opposition monitoring group, said from the area, adding that 45 people were wounded.
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Obama used and sold cocaine while in college?  

We reported allegations that Barack Obama used cocaine while a student at Occidental College and that he could have been, according to gay conservative blogger Kevin DuJan, been using cocaine September 11, 2012, the night Benghazi burned. We also reported a variety of other related allegations about sex, lies, cocaine, and murder. These stories have also been subject of alleged censorship.
The added element to this story is, that allegedly, he not only supposedly USED cocaine while attending Occidental College, but he allegedly SOLD the stuff. Imagine that, if the media had reported in 2008 that Obama had once been a drug dealer, there is no way he would have remained a viable candidate after that revelation. It's one thing to have bimbo-eruptions like Bill Clinton did, but I doubt we'll ever knowingly elect a former drug dealer as president. But the mainstream media ignored this allegation as they ignored many others.
Read more here...

Senators are promised 50 years of secrecy for tax reform proposals 

The Senate's top tax-writers have promised their colleagues 50 years worth of secrecy in exchange for suggestions on what deductions and credits to preserve in tax reform.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), assured lawmakers that any submission they receive will be kept under lock and key by the committee and the National Archives until the end of 2064.

Deeming the submissions confidential, the Senate’s top tax-writers have said only certain staff members — 10 in all — will get to review a senator’s written suggestions. Each submission will also be given its own ID number and be kept on both password-protected servers, with printed versions kept in locked safes.The promise of confidentiality was revealed just two days before the deadline for senators to participate in the Finance Committee’s “blank slate” process, which puts the onus on lawmakers to argue for what credits and deductions should be preserved in a streamlined tax code.

Is Obama Committing Treason?

I have been trying to remember a president that someone did not want to impeach. An effort was made to impeach Andrew Johnson but failed by one vote. Nixon resigned when he was informed that he would face impeachment for the Watergate scandal. Bill Clinton faced impeachment, but even Republicans did not want to vote for it, fearing the blowback and the prospect that Al Gore, his Vice President, would replace him.

The general feeling of anger and impotence that opponents of Obama feel will gin up renewed efforts to impeach him with some believing he has engaged in treasonous acts. It will not succeed, nor will Obama’s new insistence that all the scandals emerging from his administration are “phony.” But is it treason?

The Constitution is quite clear about treason. It is consists “only in levying war against” the United States “or in adhering to their enemies.” There is no evidence that the President has engaged in either of these activities although one can, by inference, conclude that he has by action or inaction aided the nation’s enemies.

The failure, as Commander-in-Chief, to send military assistance to the U.S. Ambassador in Libya when informed he was under attack and then concocting a false story about the reason for the attack surely raises some questions, but does it rise to the definition of treason?

GM Bailout: Taxpayers Still $18.1 Billion in the Hole

General Motors stock would have to sell for $95.51 per share for taxpayers to break even on bailing out the company, according to a government watchdog’s report released Wednesday.
That price is about three times what GM shares are selling for now, even after a 25 percent increase in the price so far this year.
“There’s no question that Treasury, the taxpayers, are going to lose money on the GM investment,” Special Inspector General Christy Romero, author of the July quarterly report to Congress, said in an interview.
GM needed the $49.5 billion bailout to survive its trip through bankruptcy restructuring in 2009. Since emerging from bankruptcy, the restructured company has piled up $17.2 billion in profits. In exchange for the bailout, the government got 61 percent of GM’s stock. It cut that to 33 percent in GM’s November 2010 initial public offering.
The government has gradually been selling off the rest of the stock, with the goal of exiting the investment by April of next year. As of June 6, it still owned 189 million shares, or about 14 percent of the company, according to the report.
Taxpayers are still $18.1 billion in the hole on the $49.5 billion bailout, including interest and dividends, according to the report.
If the government sells its remaining shares of GM for the current stock price of $36.61, it would get just over $6.9 billion, meaning taxpayers would lose about $11.2 billion on the bailout.

'SCANDAL GREATER THAN BENGHAZI': Congress to Probe Crash that Killed SEAL Team 6 Members...

Congress has launched an investigation of the helicopter crash that killed 30 Americans in Afghanistan, including members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 unit, The Hill has learned.

The victims’ families say the Pentagon hasn’t provided answers to their many questions about the deadly attack, which took place on Aug. 6, 2011, three months after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by Team 6 forces.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on National Security, told The Hill, “We’re going to dive into this.”
Chaffetz said he met with the victims’ families about a month ago in what he described as an “emotional” gathering. He is poised to send questions to the Pentagon and may hold hearings on the matter.
Charlie Strange, whose son Michael was among those killed, said he asked President Obama two years ago at Dover Air Force Base to fully investigate. The death toll in the crash was the largest of any single incident for the U.S. military during the Afghanistan war.
Obama praised Michael’s service to Strange, who responded, “I don’t need to know about my son. I need to know what happened to my son.”
The president promised he would investigate, Strange said, but he never heard back from the White House. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has provided him and others with incomplete and contradictory information, he said.
Administration leaks that emerged after the bin Laden raid prompted members of Team 6 to worry about their safety. 
For example, Michael Strange told his father he was working on a will before he returned to Afghanistan in the summer of 2011, his father said.

IRS Plot Now DIRECTLY Links To President Obama – “The meeting that shouldn’t have ever happen”

It is now clear to anyone with an IQ over eighty that the order to illegally target Teaparty groups to help Obama win the 2012 presidential election came from Barack Obama himself.
I just don’t see how he can squirm his way out of this one; I think it is time to start talking about impeachment.
But if you agree that this needs to happen, I hope you don’t expect The Speaker of the House John Boehner to be of any help, because he has done nothing but betray the conservative movement. He has gone out of his way, and taken every opportunity to protect Obama and the rest of the commies who have taken over our government.
Here is his latest jaw dropping stab in the back.
Tuesday, a group of lawmakers unrolled a SIXTY FOOT LONG PETITION in front of House, with the signatures of VETERANS who want a ‘Select Committee’ to investigate Obama’s Benghazi cover-up. Boehner is all that is needed to form this committee that would get to the bottom of the Benghazi lies, but he is refusing give the go ahead – ignoring the will of the people who gave him the speaker-ship.
Sorry, Obama is involved in so many scandals that I forget what I am bitching about – back to him being busted directing the IRS:
(Bob Owens) – The President’s defenders keep attempting to poo-poo the significance of the three-year ATF/EPA/FBI/IRS/OSHA, etc plot against Tea Party groups, first attempting to minimize it, then attempting to claim liberal groups were harassed as well, then spinning it as an isolated incident, without links to Washington. That final lie was destroyed when Obama political appointee IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins was fingered as part of the plot.
Now Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog drops another bombshell: Wilkins met directly with Obama in the White House just two days before the plot kicked off in a meeting that “shouldn’t ever happen.”

Israel Angered by U.S. Leaks of Submarine Missile Attack on Syria

Israeli government officials voiced anger at U.S. press leaks traced to the Pentagon following the July 5 Israeli missile attack on the Syrian port of Latakia that destroyed a shipment of Russian-made anti-ship missiles, according to U.S. officials.
Senior Pentagon officials, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter who is currently visiting Israel, discussed the leaks during meetings with Israeli officials this week. The Israelis argued in private meetings and other exchanges that the disclosures could lead to Syrian counterattacks against Israel and should have been coordinated first with the Israeli government.
Pentagon press secretary George Little declined to comment when asked if Carter discussed the leaks in meetings with Israeli officials on Monday.
The Israeli military attack was unusual because it involved a submarine-launched cruise missile strike on the Syrian city of Latakia, a major port.
The covert attack destroyed a stockpile of what was believed to be 50 new Russian-made anti-ship missiles called the Yakhont that U.S. officials said could be used against ships that will provide arms in the future to Syrian rebels.
According to U.S. officials, the Israeli government censored domestic press reports about the attack over concerns that any public discussion might prompt Syrian counterattacks against the Jewish state.

Obama 'pushed boycott of Jerusalem, biblical territories'

Israeli diplomats warn of crisis over controversial EU move 

JERUSALEM – A European Union boycott of financial dealings with Jews in the biblical West Bank, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem was fully coordinated with the Obama administration, a senior Palestinian negotiator told WND.
“Without the U.S. support, the EU wouldn’t have taken such measures,” the negotiator said.

On Friday, the EU published guidelines forbidding its 28 members from having any financial dealings with what it calls Jewish settlements or territories that have been “occupied” by Israel since 1967.
The preface to the guidelines states “the EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over … the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem … and does not consider them to be part of Israel’s territory, irrespective of their legal status under domestic law.”
“Only Israeli entities having their place of establishment within Israel’s pre-1967 borders will be considered eligible as final recipients” of funding such as “grants, prizes and financial instruments.”
A high-ranking Israeli foreign ministry official told Agence France-Presse on Friday that Israel met the ambassadors of Britain and France, and Germany’s deputy ambassador to convey a message that the boycott will cause a serious crisis in diplomatic relations.

Obama's Economic Speech Falls Flat On Wall Street 

Wednesday proved to be a rather lackluster day on Wall Street, with stocks finishing the trading session mostly lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated from record highs, dropping 26-points on the day. The Nasdaq Composite managed to scratch out a fractional gain, up 0.33-points. And the S&P 500 ended the trading session down 6.5-points.

Those lackluster results followed mixed earnings, great news on new home sales, and President Obama's much hyped economic speech that offered little in the way of new economic policies, but was heave on class-warfare campaign-style rhetoric.

AT&T and Caterpillar's earnings weighed on the blue chip index today. Caterpillar led declines, falling 2.6% after missing revenue and earnings targets, and cutting its full-year outlook.

The Nasdaq Composite managed to finish fractionally higher thanks to a strong performance by its largest single component Apple. Apple's stock jumped 5% after exceeding Wall Street expectations. Improved outlook on its margins also led BMO Capital to upgrade the iPhone maker to "outperform".

A pair of stellar reports on the U.S. economy seemingly went unnoticed by investors.
The Commerce Department reported that new home sales jumped to a more than five year high. New home sales in June rose a stronger than expected 8.3% in June, to an annual rate of 497,000.

Manufacturing activity in July climbed to a four-month high. Markit's index of U.S. manufacturing rose to 53.2 in July. The stronger than expected reading followed solid improvement in new orders and employment.

Europe's private economy also improved. Eurozone manufacturing and services improving markedly in July, lifting the private sector economy back into an expansion mode.

However, a report on Chinese manufacturing proved to not be nearly as good. HSBC reported that its gauge of manufacturing in China for the month of July fell to an 11-month low.