Boots on the Ground 073014

U.S. underestimating threat of chemical terror attack, report says

WASHINGTON -- The government is underestimating the threat of a chemical attack on America's densely populated cities and has failed to inspect virtually all of the chemical facilities that it considers particularly vulnerable to terrorists, congressional investigators say.
The yearlong investigation by Republican staff on the Senate Homeland Security Committee paints a portrait of inspection delays, government errors in risk assessment and industry loopholes in a $595 million terror prevention program passed by Congress in 2006. A copy of the investigators' report was obtained by The Associated Press.
Coming a year after a massive explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant, the report points to threats from the release of toxic and flammable chemicals.
Roughly half of the 4,011 high-risk facilities on the Homeland Security Department watch list are in 10 states: California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey.
Committee investigators have indicated that larger metropolitan regions such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia might be more vulnerable to a chemical attack. The report notes that rural accidents like the West, Texas, plant explosion "pale in comparison with the consequences of releasing large quantities of toxic gas into a densely populated city."
The findings were expected to be discussed Wednesday at a meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The U.S. effort is "a broken program that is not making us measurably safer against the threat of a terrorist attack," states the report commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
It said widespread problems have left many of the nation's riskiest chemical facilities "effectively unregulated."
The report relies in part on internal DHS documents, including a terror program assessment completed late last year that hasn't been released, and a federal database of higher-risk facilities. The study was shared with the committee's Democratic chairman, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, who concurred with the main findings.

Lois Lerner Called Conservatives ‘Assholes,’ Fantasized About Working At Obama Group

New emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday provide more evidence that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner is not fond of conservatives.
“So we don’t need to worry about teRroists [sic]. It’s our own crazies that will take us down,” Lerner wrote in a Nov. 9, 2012 email exchange with an IRS colleague.
Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp revealed the emails in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.
Lerner’s disdain for the right is central to an investigation into whether she targeted conservative groups who were seeking tax-exempt status. Republicans have accused the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations division of possible criminal wrongdoing in targeting the groups.
“This email shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” Camp wrote.
“This new evidence clearly demonstrates why Ms. Lerner not only targeted conservatives, but denied such groups their rights to due process and equal protection under the law.”
Camp claims that the emails “build on ample evidence” that Lerner used her official position “to improperly influence agency action against only conservative organizations.”
The Michigan Republican pointed out that Lerner subjected the conservative Crossroads GPS to an audit and personally denied their application for tax-exempt status.
Lerner’s email mocking conservative “crazies” came at the end of an exchange with an unnamed colleague.
“Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP. The US is through; too many foreigners sucking the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food, and prepare for the end. The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to,” wrote Lerner’s correspondent.
Related:Emails reveal Lois Lerner hates conservatives, claimed they would 'take us down'

ISIS Makes Inroads in Terror Plagued Kashmir, India

While UN is mulling over including the fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) to a list of war crimes suspects in Syria, security forces fighting militancy in India have a new worry at hand.
The flags and banners of ISIS and Al Qaeda have made their debut in the terror plagued Kashmir.
Yesterday, after offering Eid prayers at Eidgah, people started shouting anti-Israel and Pro-Palestine slogans to protest the Israeli aggression on Gaza. The call for 30 minute post-namaz protests was given by Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Reportedly, masked men surfaced in the sensitive old city and waved black flags and banners of ISIS and Al Qaeda with Kalima (the first basic fundamental of Islam) inscribed on them. Some men even used the flags as masks to hide their faces even as other men watched from the lanes and bylanes.

Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, after the Eid prayers, called upon the youth to raise anti-Israel and pro-Palestine slogans. The worrying factor was the waving of ISIS and Al Qaeda flags by masked men.

US, Foreign Elites Pay Greens To Push EPA Policies

Environmental organizations are often portrayed as homegrown groups fighting back against the tide of corporate boogeymen like Big Business or Big Oil. But this is not the case, according to a new congressional report.
A report by Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee says environmentalists are being backed by “an elite group of left-wing millionaires and billionaires.”
This “Billionaire’s Club” funnels money to environmental groups who then lobby on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency to help promote its agenda, in return, getting access to generous tax write-offs and federal funding.
“This report proves that the Obama EPA has been deliberately staffed at the highest levels with far-left environmental activists who have worked hand-in-glove with their former colleagues,” reads the committee’s report. “The green-revolving door at EPA has become a valuable asset for the far-left and their wealthy donors. In addition to providing insider access to important policy decisions, it appears activists now at EPA also funnel government money through grants to their former employers and colleagues.”
“The evidence provided in this report highlights the lengths the far-left environmental movement goes to hide sources of funding and to disguise their actions – bought and paid for by millionaires and billionaires – as charitable acts in service of their fellow man,” the report adds.
But the U.S. environmental movement is not just getting money from domestic wealthy interests — the Senate report found that a major source of “green” funding is coming from a foreign company with “undisclosed donors.”
“Even more unsettling, a dominant organization in this movement is Sea Change Foundation, a private California foundation, which relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed donors,” according to the report. “In turn, Sea Change funnels tens of millions of dollars to other large but discreet foundations and prominent environmental activists who strive to control both policy and politics.”
According to the report, the Sea Change Foundation gets funding from a Bermuda-based company called Klein Ltd, which appears to only exist on paper, according to the Senate report. In 2010, $13 million in donations from Klein Ltd. made up nearly half of the Sea Change Foundation’s funding that year. In 2011, $10 million in Klein Ltd. donations made up 33 percent of Sea Change’s funding. Klein Ltd. is one of only two sources of funding for Sea Change.
“As a practical matter, an overseas company contributing tens of millions to organizations dedicated to abolishing the use of affordable fossil fuels is highly
problematic. This is only compounded by the fact it is deliberately and completely lacking in transparency,” reads the Senate report.
According to the report, liberal organizations like the “Environmental Grantmakers Association, the Democracy Alliance, and the Divest/Invest movement” act as facilitators between wealthy elites and environmentalists.These groups funnel money to liberal activists who then go out and lobby, often on behalf of the EPA itself, to push the agenda of their wealthy donors.

Hamas invites Hezbollah to join in fighting against Israel

Hamas wants Hezbollah to join the now three-week-old conflict with Israel, the deputy political bureau chief of the Palestinian Islamist organization reportedly said on Wednesday.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, who serves as Khaled Mashaal’s top deputy and who is currently based in Cairo, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday that the organization hoped that the Lebanese Shi’ite group would engage Israel from the north.
“We hope the Lebanese front will open and together we will fight against this formation [Israel],” Abu Marzouk told RIA Novosti.
“There’s no arguing that Lebanese resistance could mean a lot,” Abu Marzouk said.
Last week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to support "the resistance in Gaza in any way necessary" in its fight against the IDF.
Nasrallah made the statements in a phone call with Mashaal and the leader of Islamic Jihad Ramadan Salah.
The Hezbollah chief commended the militants waging war against Israel in Gaza and their conduct on the battlefield, and sources claimed that Nasrallah believes in the terror organizations' "resistance capabilities."
Nasrallah and Salah discussed maintaining diplomatic ties in the "battle the Palestinian resistance is facing."

Mideast protesters must obey our laws

With the carnage in Gaza and Israel showing no signs of letting up anytime soon, now is a good time to remind ourselves of what constitutes legal - and illegal - protest in Canada.
It's a simple distinction.
Demonstrators on either side of the conflict have a right to protest, to yell, to offend and to confront one another - verbally.
That's protected by free speech.
But free speech isn't an unlimited right.
No one has the right to promote hatred, to advocate or engage in violence, or to damage or deface property.
Again, it's a simple distinction.

• FATAH: In Gaza war, follow the money

A sign saying "Stop the killing in Gaza by Israel" is free speech. A sign saying "Kill the Jews" is not.
A sign saying "End Hamas Terrorism" is free speech. A sign saying "Death to Muslims" is not.
No one has the right to assault anyone, for any reason, or to scrawl racist messages on mosques, synagogues or anywhere else.
Those are crimes and we expect the police to charge anyone committing them appropriately.
Finally, there's the issue of good judgment and common sense.
In other words, the grey area where, just because one has the right to do something, doesn't mean he or she should do it.

Jimmy Fallon Warns How Dangerous A Joe Biden Presidency Would Be

Jimmy Fallon, great educator of late night America, has thoughtfully explained just how awful a Joe Biden presidency could be.
Because Biden is a potential candidate in 2016, Fallon’s insight should be taken very seriously.
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This Multi-Million Dollar Scandal Is So Big That It Could Destroy The Clintons For Good

Already facing a number of setbacks in her fledgling campaign for the 2016 Democrat presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton is now at the center of a new scandal. According to recently released documents from the Department of State, Bill Clinton used his wife’s position as secretary of state to secure numerous lucrative speaking engagements around the globe.

As the Washington Examiner reports, a Judicial Watch investigation is now looking into the unethical nature of such an arrangement and the Obama administration’s perceived complicity in allowing it to continue.
“These documents are a bombshell,” said Tom Fitton, the organization’s president, “and show how the Clintons turned the State Department into a racket to line their own pockets.”
In total, the Washington Examiner indicatedthat  Clinton delivered 215 speeches abroad, taking in a staggering $48 million during his wife’s term as secretary of state.
“That former President Clinton trotted the globe collecting huge speaking fees while his wife presided over U.S. foreign policy is an outrage,” Fitton asserted.

Ventura passage to be cut from book
 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Publisher HarperCollins says it will remove a passage from best-seller "American Sniper" that sparked former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's defamation lawsuit against book author Chris Kyle.

A federal jury in St. Paul awarded Ventura $1.8 million in damages on Tuesday, finding that a section of the book defamed Ventura.

Kyle, a former Navy SEAL regarded as the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history, wrote that he decked Ventura at a California bar in 2006 after Ventura made offensive comments about SEALs. Ventura testified the confrontation never happened.

HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the passage will be removed.

Kyle was slain at a Texas gun range last year.

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