Underground stories 080114

Federal Judge Orders Release of “Fast and Furious” Documents

The plague of scandals besieging the White House under President Barack Obama shows no sign of letting up. His complicity in the illegal immigration crisis, his knowledge of IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups, and his authorization of an illegal arms-dealing program by the Secretary of State in Libya have all been credibly alleged in recent months.
Increasingly, even liberals and Democrats have begun to turn on the president over these issues, his unconstitutional power grabs that threaten the very rule of American law, and his betrayal of America’s greatest ally in the middle east, Israel.
Now, after over a year of legal wrangling, another such scandal threatens to resurface and add to calls for the impeachment of the president, Attorney General Eric Holder, or both.
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Canadian PM Stephen Harper blames Hamas for deaths in Gaza and Israel

Obama Administration Bizarrely Silent on Plight of Iraqi Christians

Something extraordinary is happening in Iraq, and it seems no one is wiling to talk about. Radical extremists have completely purged the city of Mosul of its Christian population — a minority group that lived there for nearly 2,000 years.
Considering the rampant instability that unfolded following the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq, I find it bizarre that the Obama administration has stayed so silent in the wake of the extreme violence against Christians in Iraq.
The increasing violence perpetrated by ISIS has turned Iraq into Hell on Earth for its Christian citizens, while the Obama Administration’s lack of action in Syria has permitted a regrouping of jihadist forces against Christians.
Ephrem Joseph III Younan, the leader of the Syriac Catholic Church is pleading with “the civilized world” to take action to stop what he described as “religious genocide,” reports The Blaze.
“We are so saddened that the civilized world doesn’t really care,” Younan said. “Surely there are other dramatic problems — wars around us in the Middle East… Gaza or Syria but here it’s … genocide … just because they are Christians.”
Dr. Timothy Stanley wrote in an op-ed for the Telegraph that “this is war crime that, strangely, no one seems to want to talk about.”
Stanleys called out the West for Staying Bizarrely Silent on Plight of Iraqi Christians. The historian said that it took mere weeks for an ancient culture to be entirely wiped out, calling the infractions against Christians “a war crime that, strangely, no one seems to want to talk about.”
“Invading Iraq, creating chaos and then pulling out has not benefitted those left behind. Despite being responsible for the upheaval, he said that the West has opted not to speak out about the death, destruction and murder befalling Iraqi Christians,” Stanley said.
You have to wonder, why is the Obama administration so silent on this genocide?

 

Sheila Jackson Lee falsely claims Dems never tried to impeach George Bush

While speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, the Texas Democrat once dubbed the "Congressional boss from Hell," falsely claimed Democrats never tried to impeach George W. Bush. There's only one problem, as Jeff Dunetz noted at Yid with Lid. Not only did Democrats try to impeach Bush, Jackson Lee sponsored the measure.
"I ask my colleagues to oppose this resolution for it is in fact a veiled attempt at impeachment and it undermines the law that allows a president to do his job," she said, speaking against a GOP resolution authorizing a lawsuit against President Obama. "A historical fact: President Bush pushed this nation into a war it had little to do with apprehending terrorists. We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush, because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority."
But, Dunetz noted, former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced H.Res.1258, a measure intended to impeach Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors in June 2008. The 167-page measure was sponsored by 11 Democrats -- Barbara Lee of California, Robert Wexler of Florida, Lynn Woolsey of California, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Maurice Hinchey of New York, Sam Farr of California, Ed Towns of New York, Jim McDermott of Washington, Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Bob Filner of California, the disgraced former mayor of San Diego. Listed last, but certainly not least, is Sheila Jackson Lee.
Dunetz wondered if Jackson Lee was either "lying or too stupid to remember" that she had sponsored the bill. After all, she once claimed the Constitution is 400 years old.

House UNANIMOUSLY Stands Up for Israel Against Hamas

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip to destroy the tunnel networks that Hamas uses to smuggle weapons throughout the region has largely met with success. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has lost dozens of soldiers, but the militant Palestinians have lost many more. Some tunnels have been destroyed and weapons seized, although there is still much work to be done to make Israel’s civilians safe from terrorist rocket attacks.
The propaganda war has been more mixed, with the media’s liberal bias especially evident on the subject of civilian casualties. News reports often fail to mention the lengths that the IDF takes to warn Palestinian civilians prior to attacks or the efforts that terror groups like Hamas take to encourage civilians to ignore those warnings, willingly sacrificing civilian lives for their propaganda efforts.
Sometimes, however, the truth comes out, as it has recently according to reports from journalist and author Brigitte Gabriel. Although President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have been applying diplomatic pressure in support of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the House just “unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution” that condemns Hamas and expresses support for Israel.

Obama refuses to arm Ukraine 

The U.S. and the European Union did something marginally positive yesterday, toughening sanctions against Russia by widening the list of Russian banks who will have their access to American capital restricted, while also blocking technology sales to Russian oil companies.
It's better than the weak sauce that was previously announced, but it doesn't solve the immediate problem, which is that Ukraine is under seige and needs muscle and firepower to defend itself. That is not going to come from the U.S., because Barack Obama doesn't want it to look like we're in a new Cold War. After all, he very specifically told Mitt Romney the Cold War is over! And in Obama's mind, the way he wants to see the world must be the way the world is:
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, William Galston lays out the problems with refusing to arm Ukraine:

The New York Times reported July 26 that the Pentagon and intelligence agencies are developing plans to provide the Ukrainian government with the specific locations of surface-to-air missiles controlled by the separatist forces backed by the Russians, which would enable Kiev to target them accurately. But this proposal reportedly faces an uncertain fate. The reason, an unnamed senior official told the paper: "The debate is over how much to help Ukraine without provoking Russia."
Provoking Russia? The country that seized and annexed the Crimea? The country that is inciting civil war? The country that provided the missiles that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17? We're worried about provoking the country that is threatening the peace of Europe?
All this should have a familiar ring. Many officials in the departments of State and Defense and the intelligence agencies long supported arming the Syrian rebels. Robert Ford, our brave and principled ambassador to Syria, resigned his post in February because he could no longer in good conscience support the Obama administration's refusal to do so. While the White House dithered, the moderate Syrian opposition lost ground both to President Bashar Assad's forces and Islamist extremists.

All of eastern Ukraine, and perhaps all of Ukraine eventually, will be in jeopardy if the west doesn't equip it to fight back against Putin's aggression. As Galston demonstrates, the idea that the Russians would restraint themselves but for "provocation" by the U.S. and the West is the product of left-wing fantasy about how and why nations operate on the geopolitical stage.
Obama might have learned something from Romney's explanation about the difference between a national security threat and a geopolitical foe. Russia doesn't do anything because we provoke them and they get mad. International power is not exercised because of emotional hissy fits (except maybe by Obama). It is exercised because rational actors assess their strategic interests and the opportunity to pursue them. Putin wants to control Ukraine and he has made an assessment that he won't have to pay much of a price for seizing it. That's not because we "provoked" him. It's because he has no fear of anything we might do. In other words, he's pretty confident we won't do much of anything.

HealthCare.gov has already cost $840 million

HealthCare.gov, the federal health-exchange website plagued with glitches at its launch, has already cost $840 million to build, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of two task orders and one contract related to building the system.

The cost overruns were incurred through a combination of inconsistent oversight and constantly changing requirements, according to testimony prepared by GAO's Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management, William Woods, who is scheduled to testify before a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee Thursday.

"We found that CMS undertook the development of HealthCare.gov and its related systems without effective planning or oversight practices, despite facing a number of challenges that increased both the level of risk and the need for effective oversight," Woods will say. "According to [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] program and contracting officials, the task of developing a first-of-its-kind federal marketplace was a complex effort that was exacerbated by compressed time frames and changing requirements."
The testimony notes over $200 million in cost overruns from September 2011 to February 2014, when the estimated costs for the federal marketplace jumped from $56 million to more than $209 million and the cost of the data hub went from $30 million to almost $85 million.

• Full coverage: The Affordable Care Act
• 6 key Obamacare dates to watch for in 2014

CMS only withheld $267,000 in requested fees, or about 2 percent of the contract, from CGI Federal.

White House threatens to veto $659M House border bill

The White House threatened Wednesday to veto the $659 million border bill crafted by House Republicans, calling it an insufficient bill that places “arbitrary and unrealistic demands” on the nation’s immigration system.
In a statement of administration policy, the White House said advisers would recommend President Obama veto the bill if it reached his desk.

The administration slammed the GOP bill as “patchwork legislation,” saying it provides insufficient resources and forces harmful policy changes, according to the statement.“H.R. 5230 could make the situation worse, not better,” the administration said.
The White House used the veto threat to blast House Republicans for failing to take up a comprehensive immigration reform measure, and argued their border bill would undercut protections for migrant children while setting arbitrary timelines for processing immigration cases that could lead to backlogs.
The veto threat came just hours before the House and Senate were set to hold dueling votes on competing border packages, on the next to last day of legislative work before a five-week August recess.
In the Senate, Democrats are having a hard time mustering enough support to overcome an expected GOP filibuster for their $3.5 billion spending bill, which includes $2.7 billion for the border and additional funds to address wildfires out West and to bolster Israel’s “Iron Dome” rocket defense. That bill cleared one procedural hurdle Wednesday, but is not expected to advance any further.
The House Republican bill is much more limited, and does not provide funding for Israel or the $615 million requested by the president to fight wildfires, which the White House noted in its veo threat.
The bill “fails to provide the necessary resources for the Department of Agriculture to address imminent wildfire suppression and rehabilitation needs without resorting to damaging transfers from other critical forest health and fire preparedness priorities,” the statement said.
The White House also criticized a provision that would waive environmental restrictions near the border for Customs and Border Protection activities.
“We can assure you that this bill would make the problem worse,” said principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz. "It would do so because children would be deported without due process and undercut public safety by shifting resources away from deporting criminals."
GOP leaders are still working to line up support for their border bill, as the vast majority of House Democrats are expected to oppose it.
Some conservatives are balking at sending the president any new funding for the border, leaving GOP leaders with very little margin for error when it comes to rounding up votes.

Benghazi Select Committee to Meet With Victims' Families This Week

Members of the House's Select Committee on Benghazi will meet this week with family members of the four Americans who were killed at the Libyan embassy two years ago, members of the committee told National Journal.

The meeting will be the first between members of the select committee, which was formed in May, and victims' families. The families have appeared before Congress in the past, having testified before the House Oversight Committee just a year after the initial attacks.
The committee will not be releasing the schedule for the meeting out of respect for the families and their privacy, said ranking member Elijah Cummings of Maryland.
"It's an important conversation because I think it will help us to refocus on the fact that there are people who lost their loved ones. And if they have questions that are still out there, I think we want to know what those questions are," Cummings said.
The meeting comes just days before members leave Washington for their five-week August recess.
"While it may not be the easiest conversation, I look forward to it because I also think it's important that we let them know that we truly care and that they are not forgotten," Cummings added.
"Members of the Select Committee are meeting privately this week with family members of the Americans killed in the Benghazi attacks so we could hear from them directly," a spokesman for committee chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said in a statement. "In order to respect their privacy, the Committee will have no further statement on these meetings."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters in May that two of the families had reached out to members of the House and urged them not to open another investigation into the matter. Nonetheless, Cummings said that all four families would be present.

JW Forces Release of Clinton State Department Conflict of Interest Docs

Documents Detail Road Map of over 200 Conflict-of-Interest Rulings that led to $48 Million in Income for Clinton Entities

(Washington, DC)—Judicial Watch announced today the release of more than 200 conflict-of-interest reviews by State Department ethics advisers of proposed Bill Clinton speaking and consulting engagements during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. The documents were obtained as result of a federal court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the State Department on May 28, 2013 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-00772)). The lawsuit is ongoing.
June 2011 documents show that the State Department approved a consulting arrangement with a company, Teneo Strategy, led by controversial Clinton Foundation adviser Doug Band. The Clintons ended the deal after only eight months, as criticism mounted over Teneo’s ties to the failed investment firm, MF Global.
Mr. Clinton’s office proposed 215 speeches around the globe. And 215 times, the State Department stated that it had “no objection.”
Mr. Clinton’s speeches included appearances in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Central America, Europe, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, India and the Cayman Islands. Sponsors of the speeches included some of the world’s largest financial institutions—Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, American Express and others—as well as major players in technology, energy, health care and media. Other speech sponsors included a car dealership, casino groups, hotel operators, retailers, real estate brokers, a Panamanian air cargo company and a sushi restaurant.
“These documents are a bombshell and show how the Clintons turned the State Department into a racket to line their own pockets,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “How the Obama State Department waived hundreds of ethical conflicts that allowed the Clintons and their businesses to accept money from foreign entities and corporations seeking influence boggles the mind. That former President Clinton trotted the globe collecting huge speaking fees while his wife presided over U.S. foreign policy is an outrage. No wonder it took a court order to get these documents. One can’t imagine what foreign policy issues were mishandled as top State Department officials spent so much time facilitating the Clinton money machine.”
Under established protocols of the State Department, and supplemented by a December 2008 Memorandum of Understandingbetween the Clinton Foundation and Obama Presidential Transition Team, a designated ethics official from the State Department’s legal office was assigned to review any “potential or actual conflict of interest” for Mrs. Clinton while she served as secretary of state. Copies of all decisions were sent to a top adviser to Secretary Clinton, Cheryl Mills, who served as counselor and chief of staff at the Department of State.
The Washington Examiner published a report today on the documents by Judicial Watch Chief Investigative Reporter Micah Morrison and Examiner Senior Watchdog Reporter Luke Rosiak. Morrison and Rosiak note that Mr. Clinton “earned $48 million while his wife presided over U.S. foreign policy, raising questions about whether the Clintons fulfilled ethics agreements related to the Clinton Foundation during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.”
According to the State Department documents:

• Mr. Clinton spoke before a UBS Wealth Management audience in Chicago in April, 2012. The State Department document notes that attendees would be “approximately 300-400 ultra-high net worth clients, prospective clients, and UBS Financial Advisers.”

• Mr. Clinton spoke to an event hosted by Wells Fargo in San Francisco in October, 2011. The State Department document notes that the event is “being held for Wells Fargo Private Bank and Wells Fargo Family Wealth Group clients, which are clients that have at least $5 million and $50 million in assets respectively.”

• At a “mutually agreeable date” in April 2010, Mr. Clinton was due to speak at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. “This would be a private speech of up to 350 friends and patrons on Mohegan Sun,” the State Department document noted. “The event will not be open to the public. The event will not be publicly advertised.”

• For a speech in Moscow in June 2010 sponsored by the investment bank Renaissance Capital, Mr. Clinton would address the theme of “Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States: Going Global.” The document notes that “Renaissance Capital is an investment bank focused on the emerging markets of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and sub-Saharan Africa.”

• At the Ritz Carlton in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Mr. Clinton spoke at a March 2011 ticketed event targeting “the business community in Grand Cayman.”

The potential for conflicts of interest between Hillary Clinton’s role as Secretary of State and Bill Clinton’s international ventures grew increasingly controversial in late 2008 when the former president released a list of donors to his library and foundation in what he termed “a deal between” Obama “and Hillary.” According to an AP wire story, “Saudi Arabia gave $10 million to $25 million to the foundation. Other government donors include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman …” CNN at the time warned that Clinton’s “complicated global business interests could present future conflicts of interest that result in unneeded headaches for the incoming commander-in-chief.”
The controversy deepened further when it was revealed that among those vetting Mrs. Clinton for the job of Secretary of State was Bill Clinton’s former deputy White House counsel Cheryl Mills, a longtime Clinton family confidant, who, the Washington Postwrote in 1999 “endeared herself to the Clintons with her never-back-down, share-nothing, don’t-give-an-inch approach …” After clearing Mrs. Clinton for the DOS job, Mills was named the incoming Secretary’s Chief of Staff. Ms. Mills was a featured speaker at Bill Clinton’s 2012 Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting.
In an April 28, 2008, ruling relating to Ms. Mills conduct as a White House official in responding to concerns about lost White House email records, Judge Royce C. Lamberth called Cheryl Mills’ participation in the matter “loathsome.” He further stated Mills was responsible for “the most critical error made in this entire fiasco… Mills’ actions were totally inadequate to address the problem.” Ms. Mills is currently on the Board of Directors of BlackRock, a leading investment firm. BlackRock is run by Larry Fink who reportedly wanted to be Treasury Secretary for Barack Obama and now, according to another report, is “angling for the job” in a Hillary Clinton administration.

Charge: 'Clintons turned the State Department into a racket to line their own pockets'

Bill and Hillary Clinton are coming under fire today after State Department documents showed that officials rubber-stamped the former president’s expansive and sometimes high-priced overseas speaking engagements while his wife was in charge of foreign policy with many of those nations.
“These documents are a bombshell and show how the Clintons turned the State Department into a racket to line their own pockets,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Judicial Watch and the Washington Examiner teamed to seek and publish those documents today.
“How the Obama State Department waived hundreds of ethical conflicts that allowed the Clintons and their businesses to accept money from foreign entities and corporations seeking influence boggles the mind,” said Fitton, adding, “That former President Clinton trotted the globe collecting huge speaking fees while his wife presided over U.S. foreign policy is an outrage."
The Examiner reported that the former president gave 215 speeches and earned $48 million while Hillary Clinton was at State.
The joint investigation also found Foggy Bottom didn’t object to a single proposed speech.
The duo’s income has become an issue in her burgeoning presidential campaign. They have a net worth of an estimated $80 million, with much of their bank account built on speech fees collected by Bill Clinton from venues around the world.

Report: White House To Release $34 Billion In New Regulations After Mid-Terms

In 2012, the Obama administration was heavily criticized for delaying major regulations until after the presidential election. A new report by regulatory watchdogs found that the White House may once again be delaying major regulations that are expected to cost a total of $34 billion.
The American Action Forum (AAF) reports that the White house is set to release 15 major regulations, totaling $32 billion in costs, until after the midterm elections. A significant amount of these regulatory costs come from energy and environment regulations emanating from the Environmental Protection Agency, according to AAF.
The most extensive regulation set to be released after the elections is the EPA’s ground-level ozone standard. The regulation does not currently have a price tag associated with it, but when the rule was previously vetoed by the White House in 2011 its cost was put at $90 billion.
The EPA is also expected to finalize its rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants by January. This rule would ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they use carbon capture technology. The coal industry and Republicans argue this rule would force the shutdown of more coal plants and coal mines.
“Many of these regulations are controversial, including the GHG [greenhouse gas] rule, and have spent years in the courts and the rulemaking process,” said AAF’s regulatory policy director Sam Batkins, the report’s author. “Regardless of possible motive, if this schedule remains in place, there will be no shortage of major regulations issued immediately after Election Day.”