Underground stories 04-05-14

Meme says Barack Obama's acceptance of an 'Islamic order and gold medal' was 'unconstitutional'

In the run-up to President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, a reader sent us a Facebook meme that addressed a previous Obama visit to the kingdom.
The meme features a pair of photographs of Obama, in what appears to be a Saudi palace, receiving an elaborate medal and necklace over his head. The text says, "Unconstitutional!!! Accepting an Islamic order and gold medal, 2/2011."
The text of the meme goes on to quote the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
We wondered whether Obama had received an honor from the Saudis, and if so, whether his acceptance of an "Islamic order and gold medal" was "unconstitutional."
After a bit of digging, we discovered that the meme was referring to something that happened in June 2009 -- not February 2011, as the meme had said. It involved the awarding of the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit, which is considered Saudi Arabia’s highest honor. It’s named for the first monarch of Saudi Arabia, also known as Ibn Saud. (The Saudi Embassy didn’t return an inquiry for this article.)
We should also note here that, even though the meme has a distinct anti-Obama tone, President George W. Bush also received the same award in January 2008. After the award was placed around Bush's neck, the Associated Press reported, the president and King Abdullah "exchanged the region's traditional double kiss. ‘I am honored,’ Bush said."
So, partisans beware: Whatever truth we find for Obama, the same will go for Bush.
What does the Constitution say?
A look at the Constitution confirms that the meme correctly relays the passage, known as the "emoluments clause."
The framers included the clause because it signaled an end to hereditary leadership. Not only would the United States avoid granting titles of nobility itself, it would also prevent its leaders from accepting them from other countries.
Under the emoluments clause, the president clearly qualifies as a "person holding any Office of Profit or Trust." And in this case he certainly received something "from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
So the key question is this: Does the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit qualify under one or more of the following categories. Is it a present? An emolument? An office? A title?
We can quickly rule out "office." But the medallion is certainly a "present." Whether it’s an emolument (that is, a "gain from employment or position") or a title is a bit more up for grabs.

White House boasts 7 MILLION Obamacare enrollments, but secretive study shows just 858,000 newly insured Americans have paid up!

Press secretary Jay Carney will only say 'we're aggregating a lot of data' when asked how many enrollees have paid for coverage

Also dodges questions about damning study that showed very few Obamacare customers were uninsured before the law took effect

Percentages from a hush-hush RAND Corporation study suggest barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans have enrolled and paid premiums

President Obama will deliver a triumphant speech Tuesday afternoon following a panic-induced enrollment flood at the last minute

HHS Secretary Sebelius met a televised challenge Monday about 'unpopular' Obamacare with lengthy awkward silence

A triumphant White House press secretary Jay Carney stopped short of saying 'I told you so' on tuesday, but chided a sparse press corps in the briefing room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for ever doubting that the Obamacare system would enroll 7 million Americans.
'At midnight last night we surpassed everyone's expectations,' he boasted, 'at least everyone in this room.'
Carney announced an enrollment total of 7,041,000, not including stragglers who waited until march 31 to sign up on some state-based enrollment websites.
But while he took great pains to enphasize that the number would grow – saying 'we're still waiting on data from state exchanges' – he dodged tough questions about other statistics that reporters thought he should have had at the ready.
Those numbers included how many Americans have paid for their insurance policies, and are actually insured. Also, he had no answer to the thorny question of how few signups represented people who had no insurance before the Affordable Care Act took effect.
Numbers from one study, a RAND Corporation effort that has been kept under wraps, suggests that barely 858,000 previously uninsured Americans – nowhere near 7 million – paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by Monday night.

FBI, military hunt ex-Army recruit suspected of plotting ‘Ft. Hood-inspired jihad’

The FBI is searching for a recent Army recruit believed to be planning a "Fort Hood-inspired jihad against U.S. soldiers," FoxNews.com has learned.
The alert, whose legitimacy was confirmed by military and law enforcement officials, stated that a man identified as Booker had told friends of his "intention to commit jihad." Booker, who is also known as Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, was recruited by the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2014 and was scheduled to report for basic training on April 7. But he was discharged last week, apparently after law enforcement authorities learned of his alleged plan.
Both the FBI and the 902d Military Intelligence Group at Fort Leavenworth are involved in the hunt.
The alert, a copy of which was obtained by FoxNews.com, was sent out by the FBI's Kansas City Division on Friday and distributed through the U.S. Marine Corps. The portion obtained by FoxNews.com did not include Hassan's photo or age. It was also sent to the Kansas City Police Department, which could indicate authorities believe he may have remained in the area where he was recruited.
The alert is titled, “Planned Fort Hood-inspired Jihad against US Soldiers by Army Recruit” and was issued “to inform and protect officers who may encounter this individual or others exhibiting the same aspirations.” The source of the information contained in the alert was listed as “An FBI agent.”
According to the alert:
“On 20 March 2014, the Kansas City Division FBI became aware of an individual named BOOKER aka Muhammad Abdullah Hassan who had publicly stated his intention to commit jihad, bidding farewell to his friends and making comments indicating his jihad was imminent. BOOKER had been recruited by the US Army in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2014 and was scheduled to report for Basic Training on 7 April 2014. Kansas City Division Agents interviewed BOOKER on 20 March 2014.”
Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Ty Balzer confirmed the alert's legitimacy, but referred questions to the FBI. A spokeswoman with the Kansas City Division of the FBI -- the same division responsible for sending out the alert and who, according to the alert, spoke with Booker on March 20 -- said she did “not have any information to provide in regards to your inquiry.”
Law enforcement sources familiar with the alert said it appeared to suggest that there may be others in addition to Booker who also might have expressed similar intentions to commit jihad against U.S. military installations.
A military source said it appeared the bulletin was provided by the FBI, then distributed by the Marine Corps under the normal protocol of sharing any information relating to a potential threat to U.S. military installations or personnel.
A spokesman for the Kansas City recruiting station where Booker enlisted referred FoxNews.com’s questions to 902d Military Intelligence Group, which did not immediately return requests for comment.
The Fort Hood shooting, referenced in the alert, took place on Nov. 5, 2009. U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist who had become a radical Muslim while serving in the military, killed 13 people and injured dozens more inside the Texas Army base. Hasan, who represented himself at a military trial after clashing with his appointed attorneys, was sentenced to death in August.

Afghan policeman shoots dead AP reporter Niedringhaus

Two journalists working for the Associated Press news agency have been shot by a police commander in eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

One of the women, Anja Niedringhaus, died in the attack. Her colleague, Kathy Gannon, is reported to be stable.
The attack took place in the town of Khost near the border with Pakistan.
It comes as Afghanistan intensifies security ahead of presidential elections on Saturday, in response to threats of violence by the Taliban. 

The new president will succeed Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since the 2001 fall of the Taliban but is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

The BBC's Lyse Doucet in Kabul says the run-up to this historic poll has already been the bloodiest, and fears of electoral fraud are pronounced.
'Heartbroken' The two journalists had been travelling with a convoy of election workers - protected by Afghan security forces - delivering ballots from the centre of Khost to the district of Tani, on the outskirts.
They were in their own car with an interpreter and an AP freelancer, AP says.

U.S. Warns China Not To Attempt Crimea-Style Action In Asia

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - China should not doubt the U.S. commitment to defend its Asian allies and the prospect of economic retaliation should also discourage Beijing from using force to pursue territorial claims in Asia in the way Russia has in Crimea, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

Daniel Russel, President Barack Obama's diplomatic point man for East Asia, said it was difficult to determine what China's intentions might be, but Russia's annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among U.S. allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims.

"The net effect is to put more pressure on China to demonstrate that it remains committed to the peaceful resolution of the problems," Russel, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Russel said the retaliatory sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union and others should have a "chilling effect on anyone in China who might contemplate the Crimea annexation as a model."

This was especially so given the extent of China's economic interdependence with the United States and its Asia neighbors, Russel said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about Russel's comments, said he was confusing two different issues.

"No matter whether the Ukraine issue or the South China Sea issue, China has many times expressed its position. Why must this U.S. official mention the two issues in the same breath, and obstinately say these things about China?" Hong told a daily news briefing on Friday.

Russel added that while the United States did not take a position on rival territorial claims in East Asia, China should be in no doubt about Washington's resolve to defend its allies if necessary.

"The president of the United States and the Obama administration is firmly committed to honoring our defense commitments to our allies," he said.

Two drug tunnels, with rail systems, found at U.S.-Mexico border

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have uncovered two drug-smuggling tunnels underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, both surfacing in San Diego-area warehouses and equipped with rail systems for moving contraband, officials said on Friday.
The discovery led to the arrest of a 73-year-old woman accused of running one of the warehouses connected to a drug smuggling operation, according to a joint news release by four federal agencies.
The tunnels were discovered as part of a five-month investigation by the so-called San Diego Tunnel Task Force.
Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, which connects a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, with one in an industrial park in the border community of Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and is furnished with lighting, a crude rail system and wooden trusses.
The passageway is accessed via a 70-foot shaft secured by a cement cover and includes a pulley system on the U.S. side apparently intended to hoist contraband up into the warehouse.
The second tunnel was even more sophisticated, built with a multi-tiered electric rail system and an array of ventilation equipment.
"Here we are again, foiling cartel plans to sneak millions of dollars of illegal drugs through secret passageways that cost millions of dollars to build," U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement.
"Going underground is not a good business plan. We have promised to locate these super tunnels and keep powerful drug cartels from taking their business underground and out of sight, and once again, we have delivered on that promise," Duffy said.
The two tunnels are the sixth and seventh cross-border passageways discovered in the San Diego area in less than four years, according to the task force.
Since 2006, federal authorities have detected at least 80 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in California and Arizona, and seized some 100 tons of narcotics associated with them.

Health official detect first cases of mosquito-born chikungunya in Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic –  Health authorities in the Dominican Republic have reported the first outbreak of a mosquito-borne virus that has spread quickly in the Caribbean in the weeks since it was first detected in the region.
Health Minister Freddy Hidalgo says blood samples analyzed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first cases in the country of the virus known as chikungunya.
Health officials said Friday that 150-200 cases have been treated for symptoms since the first incidence was detected March 22. Most were in and around the town of Nigua, west of the capital.
Chikungunya is found mainly in Africa and Asia. It is rarely fatal but can cause fever, rash, fatigue and intense muscle and joint pain. The first Caribbean cases were detected in December in French St. Martin.

Russia Arrests 25 Ukrainians Suspected Of Attacks

MOSCOW, April 3 (Reuters) - Russia has detained 25 Ukrainians it suspected of preparing attacks in the southern and central part of the country, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement on Thursday.

The detained, who were reported as being members of ultra-nationalist movements, were planning attacks between March 14 and 17, it said, in Russia's Rostov, Volgograd, Tver, Orel, Belgorod, Kalmykia and Tatarstan regions.
The press service of the Ukrainian state security service (SBU) dismissed the report as "nonsense".
The announcement came hours after the SBU said that Russian security staff had been present at the SBU headquarters aiding previous authorities during anti-government protests in Kiev in which more than 100 people were killed.
Russian Rossiya state TV channel aired a video showing several detained young men, one of them admitting to being a member of an ultra-nationalist movement.
A website for the NTV channel reported, citing security services' data, that the detainees were assigned by the SBU to take pictures of Russia's military equipment near the Ukrainian border and to establish contacts with radicals inside Russia.
The hints of Russian involvement in Ukraine protests could further strain ties with the country's former Soviet master, which annexed the Crimea region after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's removal from power, in what has become the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.
The FSB denied any involvement in the Ukraine protests. Russia's RIA news agency quoted it as saying earlier in the day: "Let these statements be on the conscience of the Ukrainian Security Service."

Kerry hints Middle East peace talks are close to collapse as US reassesses role

US secretary of state John Kerry, who has made it a personal mission to breathe life into the long-stalled peace talks between Palestine and Israel, hinted on Friday that the negotiations are on the brink of collapse and said the Obama administration would reasses its participation in the process.
In the most pessimistic remarks since he launched the talks last July, Kerry told reporters it was “reality-check time” for all involved in the discussions. “It is regrettable that in the last few days both sides have taken steps that are not helpful and that's evident to everybody,” he told reporters in Morocco.
On Thursday, Israel scrapped the scheduled release of a group of Palestinian prisoners and called for the entire US-sponsored negotiations to be reviewed.
Kerry appeared to express frustration with the failure of both sides to make progress. “They say they want to continue,” he said of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. “But we are not going to sit there indefinitely. This is not an open-ended effort. It's reality-check time.”
Kerry conceded that pressing foreign policy crises in Ukraine and Syria, as well as ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, made it difficult to dedicate resources to a peace process which has failed make significant progress.
“Clearly we have an enormous amount on the plate,” he said. “There are limits to the amount of time and effort that the United States can spend if the parties themselves are unable to take constructive steps. We are going to evaluate very carefully exactly where this is and where it might possibly be able to go.”
The White House said later that talks had reached a crunch point but insisted they had not yet collapsed. Asked if the talks were over, deputy press secretary Josh Earnest replied: "No. What I would said is we have reached a place when the Israeli leaders and Palestinian leaders need to spend some time thinking."
While both sides had taken steps that were "unhelpful" and led to a "degradation of trust" he said it was now down to Israel and Palestine to make difficult decisions that could not be imposed from Washington. "We remain committed to the task because the stakes are so high," he said. "As long as they [negotiators] are willing to talk that is something that we are going to facilitate."
Kerry was scheduled to return to Washington on Friday after Israel cancelled the scheduled prisoner release. Israeli officials blamed Abbas, and his decision to restart his push for membership of 15 UN bodies for the move, which was itself a Palestinian response to delays and wrangling over the prisoners' release.
The announcement marked the abandonment of the two key confidence-building measures put in place eight months ago to smooth the path of renewed peace negotiations between the sides in search of a two-state solution.
Last year, the Palestinians agreed to suspend a campaign for unilateral recognition at the UN bodies in exchange for Israel's release of 104 prisoners who had been jailed before the Oslo peace process. The last and most controversial group had been scheduled for freedom last weekend but were never released  
Palestinians set new conditions for peace talks to continue 

Taleban step up their intimidation of female police on eve of election

The Taleban have published the names and addresses of hundreds of Afghanistan’s female police officers as part of an intimidation campaign before today’s presidential election.
A document obtained from the files of the country’s Ministry of Interior and published on the Taleban’s website listed the names, fathers’ names, locations and, in some cases, telephone numbers of women officers who will play a vital role in the poll to decide President Karzai’s replacement. A quarter of the country’s female officers were named.

Scrap Heap of War: Billions in equipment being left behind in Afghanistan

How much "stuff" is the United States military leaving behind as it withdraws from Afghanistan after 12 years of war? Try some $6 billion worth.
And much of it may yet end up in a junk pile.
That includes 850 MRAPS (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles which have been credited with saving countless lives from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on the road, but now will either be given to an allied country (as long as they pay the shipping costs) or for scrap on the Afghan market. 
This calculation is being done over and over, as U.S. military officials weigh what to bring home and what to leave in the battlefield. As Afghanistan heads into elections this weekend, U.S. forces are preparing for a total, or almost total, withdrawal by the end of the year. 
Ultimately, some 170 million pounds of vehicles, equipment and "white gear" -- that's all the non-military stuff that contractors have been using, like furniture, generators, chemical toilets, air conditioners, non-classified computers and more -- are being left behind. What they cannot, or will not, donate or sell to the Afghans or to allies is being destroyed so that it doesn't rot in place or fall into Taliban hands. Some reports indicate that most of the $6 billion worth of materiel will indeed be sold for scrap or thrown in the junkyard.
Pentagon officials would not confirm that, but consider this: in the month of February alone, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Disposition Services sold 34.7 million pounds of scrap from its own vehicles and equipment to local Afghan vendors, according to figures provided to FoxNews.com.
And in the past 12 months, the agency sold 387 million pounds of scrap, sending $46.5 million back to the U.S. Treasury. 
 

Tunisian PM visits White House, secures $500 million loan guarantee

 
WASHINGTON — Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa traveled to the U.S. this week seeking an economic boost to help stabilize his country’s fledgling democracy.
On Friday, during Jomaa’s first visit to the White House, he got it: President Barack Obama announced a new $500 million loan guarantee for Tunisia.
The U.S. previously provided a $485 million loan guarantee to the country in 2012.
America has a huge investment in making sure that Tunisia’s experiment is successful, Obama said.
“And we want nothing more than Tunisians to determine their own destiny, for the economic reforms to take place to allow Tunisia to be not just self-sufficient but thriving in the world economy,” he said.
Jomaa expressed pride in Tunisia’s progressive new constitution but acknowledged that Tunisians face serious obstacles on the path to reform. 

Romney's return to public life stokes speculation about potential 2016 run

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has sworn off running again for elected office, but Americans have certainly heard that one before.
Speculation that Romney might run again has largely been stoked by the reunion he planned to host last month in Park City, Utah, for members of his 2012 campaign and debate team and a string of recent public appearances.
He has appeared on TV news shows 12 times in the past six months. That’s essentially on pace with Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, who led all national politicians last year with 26 appearances over 12 months.
Romney has repeatedly said he won’t run again, saying infamously in the Netflix movie “Mitt” about a nominee who loses a White House bid: “They become a loser. It’s over.”
And a few weeks ago, he gave CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer a flat out “no.”
Still, no potential 2016 presidential candidate has yet to say whether he or she will run, including presumptive Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who up until last year also said she was done with public office.
“He very well could [run again,] but it doesn’t seem likely,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said of Romney. “You’ll likely find that he’ll be most effective using his political and business savvy on the outside, rather than the inside.”
One possible exception, Bonjean argues, is Romney getting a Cabinet post should Republicans win the White House in 2016. “He’d be a prime candidate for Treasury secretary,” he said.

Despite Support in Party, Democratic Governors Resist Legalizing Marijuana

LOS ANGELES — California voters strongly favor legalizing marijuana. The state Democratic Party adopted a platform last month urging California to follow Colorado and Washington in ending marijuana prohibition. The state’s lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, has called for legalizing the drug.

But not Gov. Jerry Brown. “I think we ought to kind of watch and see how things go in Colorado,” Mr. Brown, a Democrat, said curtly when asked the question as he was presenting his state budget this year.

At a time of rapidly evolving attitudes toward marijuana legalization — a slight majority of Americans now support legalizing the drug — Democratic governors across the country, Mr. Brown among them, find themselves uncomfortably at odds with their own base.

Even with Democrats and younger voters leading the wave of the pro-legalization shift, these governors are standing back, supporting much more limited medical-marijuana proposals or invoking the kind of law-and-order and public-health arguments more commonly heard from Republicans. While 17 more states — most of them leaning Democratic — have seen bills introduced this year to follow Colorado and Washington in approving recreational marijuana, no sitting governor or member of the Senate has offered a full-out endorsement of legalization. Only Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat in Vermont, which is struggling with a heroin problem, said he was open to the idea.

Democrats squawk as cracks form in immigration coalition

Immigration reform advocates are fond of citing broad support for their cause. But in fact the coalition behind the Senate Gang of Eight comprehensive reform bill is fragile and loosely cobbled together. How could Big Labor and the Chamber of Commerce and the tech world and Big Agriculture all unite behind one bill? Very tentatively.
It wouldn't take much to break the coalition apart. And if that happens, the effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform could blow up, not just for the moment, but for some time to come. And there are signs that is exactly what is occurring now.
Compete America is a group that calls itself the "leading advocate for reform of U.S. immigration policy for highly educated foreign professionals." Its members are some of the biggest names in the tech world: Amazon, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft and many others.
The companies, as well as other high-profile groups, like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us, have given millions to the cause of comprehensive immigration reform. The main reason is that they want an expansion of the H-1B visa program that allows high-skilled immigrants into the United States, thus expanding the labor pool for tech companies.
-