Underground Stories 06-17-14

Indiana Dem official sentenced to prison for '08 ballot fraud in Obama-Clinton primary

As Hillary Clinton prepares for a possible presidential run in 2016, it appears that she could have knocked then-candidate Barack Obama off the 2008 primary ballot in Indiana.
If anyone, including her campaign, had challenged the names and signatures on the presidential petitions that put Obama on the ballot, election fraud would have been detected during the race.
But at the time, no one did.
On Monday, there was some closure to the case, though, as the four defendants who were convicted or pleaded guilty in the state's presidential petition fraud scandal were sentenced. Only one received prison time for the illegal scheme that touched the race for the White House.
"If there is a victim here, it is probably the Democratic Party," said St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha. "The defendants who were saying, 'I was just following orders,' or 'I was just doing my duty,' that's no excuse. Through history a lot of evil has been done by those saying they were just following orders."   
The plot successfully faked names and signatures on both the Obama and Clinton presidential petitions that were used to place the candidates on the ballot. So many names were forged -- an estimated 200 or more -- that prosecutor Stanley Levco said that had the fraud been caught during the primary, "the worst that would have happened, is maybe Barack Obama wouldn't have been on the ballot for the primary."
"I think that Obama would still have been elected president, no matter what," he said.

Total US debt soars to nearly $60 trn, foreshadows new recession

America - its government, businesses, and people - are nearly $60 trillion in debt, according to the latest economic data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. And private debt - not government borrowing - is the biggest reason for the huge deficit.
Total US debt at the end of the first quarter of 2014, on March 31 totaled almost $59.4 trillion - up nearly $500 billion from the end of the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the data. Total debt (the combination of government, business, mortgage, and consumer debt) was $2.2 trillion 40 years ago.
“In 50 short years, debt has gone from being a luxury for a few to a convenience for many to an addiction for most to a disease for all,” James Butler wrote in an Independent Voters Network (IVN) op-ed. “It is a virus that has spread to every aspect of our economy, from a consumer using a credit card to buy a $0.75 candy bar in a vending machine to a government borrowing $17 trillion to keep the lights on.”

 New emails show IRS targeting of Tea Party groups followed demands by Obama, congressional Democrats

Former Internal Revenue Service executive Lois Lerner launched the federal tax agency's program targeting Tea Party and conservative non-profits in 2010 because “we won't be able to stay out of this -- we need a plan.”
Lerner’s comment came in an Aug. 31, 2010, email to IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Commissioner Sarah Hall Ingram. That email was referring specifically to a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee against Americans for Prosperity.
The previously undisclosed Lerner email was cited in a new report released Monday by the majority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has been investigating the IRS scandal for more than a year.
Lerner was held in contempt of Congress earlier this year after twice refusing to answer questions from committee members about her role in the scandal.
Americans for Prosperity had been repeatedly singled out by President Obama and congressional Democrats following a controversial Jan. 21, 2010, Supreme Court decision as one of many “shadowy groups with harmless sounding names” that were “spending virtually unlimited amounts of funds” opposing the chief executive's policies.
The High Court overruled federal campaign finance law restrictions on political speech by individuals, groups and corporations, holding that the First Amendment “has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office.”
The report said that “in almost daily campaign stops in the run-up to the 2010 midterm election, the president loudly and repeatedly criticized the Citizens United decision and emphasized that the decision, in his mind, largely benefited Republican candidates.”

Clintons hide wealth to avoid taxes

Bill and Hillary Clinton have long supported an estate tax to prevent the U.S. from being dominated by inherited wealth. That doesn’t mean they want to pay it.
To reduce the tax pinch, the Clintons are using financial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S. households in wealth. These moves, common among multimillionaires, will help shield some of their estate from the tax that now tops out at 40 percent of assets upon death.
The Clintons created residence trusts in 2010 and shifted ownership of their New York house into them in 2011, according to federal financial disclosures and local property records.

ISIS moving seized US tanks, Humvees to Syria

Syrian and Iraqi terrorist forces obtained significant numbers of tanks, trucks, and U.S.-origin Humvees in recent military operations in Iraq and those arms are being shipped to al Qaeda rebels in Syria, according to U.S. officials.
U.S. intelligence agencies reported this week that photos of the equipment transfers were posted online by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, the ultra-violent terror group that broke away from al Qaeda but shares its goals and philosophy.
Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Speaks confirmed the weapons transfers and expressed concerns about the captured arms.
“We’re aware of reports of some equipment—namely Humvees—and the pictures that have been posted online,” Speaks said in an email. “We are certainly concerned about these reports and are consulting with the Iraqi government to obtain solid confirmation on what assets may have fallen into ISIL’s hands.”
Speaks added that the loss of the equipment to the terrorist group is “really a matter for the Iraqi government to speak to publicly” because “it is their equipment.”
Exact numbers of captured arms and equipment are not known. The insurgents raided all the arms depots and vehicles belonging to Iraq’s Second Division, based in Mosul, which included a motorized brigade and several infantry brigades.
A defense official warned that ISIL claims that they have captured advanced weaponry, such as Blackhawk helicopters, are suspect.

Benghazi attack suspect captured, en route to US

A suspected terrorist linked to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack that killed four Americans has been captured inside Libya by U.S. forces and currently is en route to the United States, Fox News has learned. 

Sources told Fox News that the suspect, Ansar al-Sharia commander Ahmed Abu Khattala, was captured Sunday during a joint U.S. military and law enforcement operation, and will face prosecution in the United States. 
President Obama signed off on the mission on Friday night, Fox News is told. Khattala was captured south of Benghazi by U.S. special operators and is on his way to the U.S. aboard a Navy ship. 
Khattala was long thought to be one of the ringleaders of the deadly attack, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died. He had openly granted media interviews since the 2012 attack, but until now evaded capture. 
The capture marks the first time the United States has caught one of the suspects in the 2012 assault. 
"He didn't know what hit him," one source told Fox News of the capture. According to sources, there was no firefight -- a small Special Forces team with one FBI agent took part in the mission. 
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby confirmed the capture in a brief statement late Tuesday morning, calling Khattala a "key figure in the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi." 
Kirby said: "There were no civilian casualties related to this operation, and all U.S. personnel involved in the operation have safely departed Libya."

Gas transit pipeline explodes in E. Ukraine

An explosion has struck a pipeline in the central Ukrainian Poltava region. Witnesses say flames from the blast are up to 200 meter high.
“The explosion occurred at about 14:45 local time in a field,” the local police press-service said in a statement. Due to the “flame and the high temperatures,” it was “impossible to get closer to the epicenter.”
The “Brotherhood” natural gas pipeline (Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod) is about one kilometer away from the nearest settlement. No injuries have been reported from the blast. Fire fighting crews have been deployed to the scene.
The blaze, which according to the Interior Ministry towered 100 meters high, was put out by “between 4 and 5 pm.”

Russian navy welcomes most-advanced nuclear-powered attack sub

The Russian Navy has officially accepted K-560 Severodvinsk, the most advanced nuclear-powered multipurpose submarine Russia has ever produced.

Severodvinsk is the lead of the Yasen-class submarines, which are to become the backbone of the Russian Navy’s conventional submarine force. It was laid down back in 1993, but budgetary restrictions stemming from the post-Soviet transition caused a long delay in its construction. K-560 was launched in 2010 and had been undergoing sea trials since September 2011.
The flag raising ceremony of the Russian Navy on K-560 took place on Tuesday in Severodvinsk, the city after which the submarine was named. It is to move to its new base in the Northern Fleet by year’s end and will remain in service for at least 30 years, Navy Commander Admiral Victor Chirkov told the crew of the submarine.
Yasen-class submarines are the successors to older Russian attack submarines like the Akula-class, on which it is based, and a counterpart to US nuclear-powered Seawulf and Virginia class submarines.
One of the most interesting features of the design is a large spherical sonar system, which occupies its entire bow. This required that torpedo tubes were slanted and placed behind the main control compartment.

Second US guided-missile destroyer arrives in Europe

The USS Ross, the second of four US Navy destroyers considered to be the cornerstone of NATO’s European missile defense shield, has arrived at the Spanish naval port of Rota. Russia considers the system to be a direct threat to its security.
The USS Ross joins the USS Donald Cook at Rota. The pair will be joined by two more Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, all of which are fitted with the Aegis weapon and radar system. The USS Porter and USS Carney will round out the quartet of the anti-missile vessels in the US 6th Fleet at Rota in southern Spain.
“On the global and regional stage, we are allies, and we share a common interest in maintaining a Europe that is safe, secure and prosperous. We work closely together with the NATO Alliance, with other partners across the region, and nation to nation as well,” said Vice Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of the US 6th Fleet, upon the arrival of the USS Ross.
The deployment of the four destroyers as part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach is a centerpiece of the European missile defense shield, which will also include interceptor batteries in Poland and Romania, radar in Turkey, and a command center at Ramstein in Germany, a US Air Force base.
The four destroyers will also take part in other maritime security operations, NATO deployments and training exercises, the US Defense Department has said.
The USS Donald Cook arrived at Rota in February, marking a major milestone for the missile defense project.
“For the first time, a ship of the United States Navy equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile-defense system is permanently based in Europe,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the time. “The arrival of the USS Donald Cook marks a step forward for NATO, for European security, and for transatlantic cooperation.”
The US military claims its interest in the Mediterranean has increased in recent years because of conflicts and instability across the Middle East and North Africa.

Iraq's Biggest Oil Refinery Shut Down, Foreign Staff Evacuated

Iraq's biggest oil refinery, Baiji, has been shut down and its foreign staff evacuated, refinery officials said on Tuesday, adding that local staff remain in place and the military is still in control of the facility.

Militants from al Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized Iraq's second-biggest city of Mosul last week and other Sunni armed groups have advanced into the town of Baiji and surrounded its refinery.
The refinery shut down overnight, the sources said.
Baiji is one of three oil refineries in Iraq and only processes oil from the north. The other two are located in Baghdad and the south and are firmly under government control and operational.
"Due to the recent attacks of militants by mortars, the refinery administration decided to evacuate foreign workers for their safety and also to completely shut down production units to avoid extensive damage that could result," a chief engineer at the refinery said on condition of anonymity.
He said that there is sufficient gas oil, gasoline and kerosene to supply more than a month of domestic demand.

Iraq Interrogation Reveals ISIS Has $2 Billion in Financing

The interrogation of a trusted messenger for the insurgent Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, led Iraqi commanders to a treasure trove of information on the terror group and its staggering $2 billion in finances, the British newspaper the Guardian reports.

"He said to us, 'You don't realize what you have done,'" an intelligence official quoted the courier as saying two days before Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, fell to ISIS, according to the Guardian. "Then he said: 'Mosul will be an inferno this week.'"

The information – unlocked with 160 computer flash sticks – included names of fighters and commanders, code words, initials of sources inside ministries, phone numbers, emails and an extraordinary accounting of its rich war bank.

"We were all amazed, and so were the Americans," the official told the Guardian. "None of us had known most of this information."

"Before Mosul, their total cash and assets were $875 million," the official added.

"Afterwards, with the money they robbed from banks and the value of the military supplies they looted, they could add another $1.5 billion to that."

CIA and others were still analyzing the computer data when ISIS stormed through northern and central Iraq, seizing Mosul and Tikrit and threatening Kirkuk as three divisions of Iraqi soldiers fled.

On Sunday, ISIS published photographs apparently showing its massacre of captured Iraqi soldiers.

According to the Guardian, the revealed ISIS secrets included the meticulous process by which the terrorists chose their leaders – all veterans of the insurgency against U.S. forces nearly a decade ago.

"They had itemized everything," the source said, "down to the smallest detail."

Officials were also stunned by the group's financial acumen. It raked in cash from the oilfields of eastern Syria – which ISIS commandeered in late 2012, though it has since sold some of those fields back to the Syrian regime – and from smuggling raw materials and priceless artifacts from archaeological digs.

In less than three years, the extremists morphed from a ragtag band of militants into the most cash-rich terror group in the world.