Feds Have Nearly 2000 Ongoing Investigations Into Stimulus Fund Fraud – Already Nearly 600 Convictions And Judgements Against Individuals And Companies

WASHINGTON, DC – The government’s chief spending watchdogs have already secured nearly 600 convictions and judgments against people and companies accused of misusing stimulus funds and have a whopping 1,900 investigations currently open into possible wrongdoing, officials say.

The wave of scrutiny more than three years after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress early in the Obama administration means the question of how money was managed early in the program is certain to extend well into the next year as many of the current investigations come to conclusion.

The Recovery Board charged with coordinating efforts among than inspectors generals at more than two dozen federal agencies that distributed stimulus money posted an item on its official blog last month claiming the total amount of money lost to fraud from the $840 billion stimulus program was a miniscule $11.1 million so far.

Vice President Joe Biden even made reference to the figure as he defended the stimulus program from attacks from Republican Rep. Paul Ryan during the vice presidential debate last Thursday. But that number only identifies money that is considered lost to fraud and does not include funds still under investigation or those recommended for reimbursement after audits identified misspending, officials said.

And a senior official familiar with the ongoing investigations by inspectors generals at federal agencies told the Washington Guardian the government expects the loss figure to balloon in coming months.

“These cases often take months or years, and we’ve got hundreds open right now across the government so that number is going to go up, probably by a large amount over the next 18 months,” the official said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the media.

Since the blog post a month ago that released the $11 million figure, several inspectors generals have announced new convictions, prosecutions or audits, a sign that some of the investigations are growing near decisions and actions.

For instance, the Energy Department inspector general reported last week it discovered the California energy commission collected two duplicate payments under a stimulus program that costs taxpayers $678,000 and and it recommended the money be repaid.

The Health and Human Services inspector general reported recently that a Louisiana group that received stimulus funds for Head Start programs for children had inappropriately spent nearly $1.2 million in federal funds to construct a new building that wasn’t approved by federal officials. The group is contesting the finding.

The Energy Department inspector general also warns in its most recent semiannual report that the Western Area Power Administration, which received $3.25 billion in borrowing authority to help build transmission lines under the stimulus law, is at risk of losing significant money on a transmission project for wind power in Montana that it funded.

“WAPA has significant financial exposure on the project … encountering significant delays and cost overruns,” the IG warned.

And a former superintendent of a Montana construction company was charged last month with making false statements regarding the quality of work his firm performed on federal bridge project in Idaho that was funded with $21.6 million in stimulus money. The company used “nonconforming anchor bolts” for parts of the construction, and tried to conceal it. The bolts had to be fixed, delaying the project.

The Recovery Board’s blog last month hinted at the scope of some of the alleged fraud currently being investigated by inspectors general at various agencies. “The 29 IGs with Recovery oversight responsibility have more than 1,900 investigations under way; convictions and judgments total 598,” it noted.

Many of the problems were uncovered by a special group of analysts charged specifically to look for irregularities in the massive stimulus program.

For instance, the analysts discovered that veterans seeking stimulus related benefits had claimed more than 16,000 dependents with Social Security numbers matching those of dead people, the blog noted

Separately, the same analysts found ore than 150 potential shell companies may have improperly received Recovery funds set aside for the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program.

And the analysts had identified more than 400 Recovery Act recipients of funds from 15 federal agencies had previously been terminated for default, most getting the money after falsely certifying they had not been terminated for default.

“We are continually helping agencies review sensitive procurement issues, including some with criminal potential sent to us by the Department of Justice and others in law enforcement,” the Recovery Board said in its blog post.

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Number Of Homeless Families In Washington DC Jumps 18%

WASHINGTON, DC — When Janice Coe, a homeless advocate in Loudoun County, learned through her prayer group that a young woman was sleeping in the New Carrollton Metro station with a toddler and a 2-month-old, she sprang into action.

Coe contacted the young woman and arranged for her to take the train to Virginia, where she put the little family up in a Comfort Suites hotel. Then Coe began calling shelters to see who could take them.

Despite several phone calls, she came up empty. Coe was shocked to learn that many of the local shelters that cater to families were full, including Good Shepherd Alliance, where Coe was once director of social services.

“I don’t know why nobody will take this girl in,” Coe said. “The baby still had a hospital bracelet on her wrist.”

In a region with seven of the 10 most affluent counties in the country, family homelessness is on the rise — straining services, filling shelters and forcing parents and their children to sleep in cars, parks, and bus and train stations. One mother recently bought $14 bus tickets to and from New York so she and her 2-year-old son would have a safe place to sleep — on the bus.

As cold weather descends on the region, the need will become increasingly acute, advocates say. That will be especially true in the District, where continued fallout from the recession and lack of affordable housing has contributed to an 18 percent increase in family homelessness this year over last.

The city has recently come under fire for turning away families seeking help as 118 overflow beds that were added last winter at D.C. General — the city’s main family homeless shelter — sit empty. A few places have recently opened up, but 500 families — some of whom are living with relatives or friends — are on a waiting list for housing.

“We’re hoping we can keep pace with those in the more dire situations,” said David A. Berns, director of the city’s Department of Human Services.

Berns said the city is trying to keep the overflow beds open for hypothermia season, which begins Nov. 1. The city is mandated by law to shelter its residents if the temperature falls below freezing. The agency does not have the money to operate the extra beds, Berns said.

D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who has been critical of the agency’s handling of the crisis, wonders why families are being denied help when the District has a $140 million budget surplus.

“Never did I imagine that beds would be kept vacant,” Graham said. “It’s very upsetting.”

Family homelessness around the Washington region has increased 23 percent since the recession began — though the total number of homeless people stayed fairly steady at around 11,800, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which did its annual “point-in-time” survey of the homeless in January. This included some 3,388 homeless children, the study showed.

“These families are the most desperate because they have young children and have nowhere to go,” said Nassim Moshiree, a lawyer for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Moshiree spent a good part of the day Friday trying to help a homeless mother of three who Thursday night slept with her children on the steps of a church in Northeast after unsuccessfully asking the city for help. After Moshiree intervened, the city found space for them late Friday.

“It’s a complete abomination,” said Antonia Fasanelli, executive director for the Homeless Persons Representation Project, a Maryland legal services and advocacy group based in Baltimore. She noted that in Baltimore — where homeless families from D.C. sometimes end up — three family shelters have been closed in the past five years, for a loss of about 100 shelter beds. “There is just not enough space.”

Throughout Maryland, Fasanelli said, 38 percent of homeless families are living on the streets. That’s the seventh-highest rate of unsheltered families in the country, according to a Department of Housing and Urban Development study on the homeless released in December.

At the Comfort Suites off Route 7 on Thursday, Helen Newsome, 25, fed her 2-year-old son, Cameron, an orange from the breakfast buffet as her infant daughter Isabella slept on the bed beside her.

Newsome said she became homeless this summer after she was evicted from her apartment in Prince George’s County. Since then, she and her children have slept most nights on a bench or the hard tile floor at the New Carrollton Metro, she said. Although she called several area shelters before she was evicted, she said she could never find one with room.

“I’m not asking for a whole room for myself, as long as I have someplace to sleep, somewhere soft,” Newsome said.

On Thursday, Coe took Newsome to the Loudoun County Department of Family Services, where a social worker helped her sign up for food stamps and other aid and said she would try and help her find a subsidized apartment. Finally, Newsome said she could see an end to her ordeal.

“They’re leaning on me,” she said, gesturing to her kids. “I’m their only hope. It’s okay. Everybody goes through something, some people worse than others.”

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Study Finds That 100 Largest US Public Pensions Underfunded By About $1.2 TRILLION

US – The largest 100 public pension funds have around $1.2 trillion of unfunded liabilities, about $300 billion above the nearly $900 billion they reported themselves, according to a new actuarial study to be released on Monday.

The pension systems reported a median funding level of 75.1 percent. The study by the actuarial firm Milliman, which used different ways to value assets and measure liabilities, finds an aggregate level of funding of 67.8 percent.

But Milliman, one of the world largest actuarial firms took a close look at U.S. public pension funding for the first time, and said the multibillion-dollar difference was good news.

Rebecca Sielman, the report’s author, said results should reassure the public that America’s public pensions in general are accurately reporting their funding shortfalls.

The difference between what public pensions across the United States have reported and what Milliman found wasn’t significant, Sielman said. She noted that a relatively small change in the way the figures are calculated could lead to seemingly outsized results because the funds are so large.

“The numbers really didn’t change that much,” she said. “It really didn’t move the needle.”

Both the pension funds’ reported results and Milliman’s findings fell within the range of previous estimates from other studies of the total size of the public pension shortfall in the United States.

With the study, Milliman, stepped into the debate about whether public pensions are underreporting the size of their liabilities.

That hot-button issue revolves around how much money public employers – and, by extension, taxpayers – will have to contribute to cover future payouts for member benefits. It is a key issue at a time of dwindling revenues and tighter budgets for states and local governments.

Pension funds get money from the returns on their assets and from members’ contributions. States and cities also pay into the funds, but their contributions are discounted based on how much money they think their investments will make over time.

The 100 funds Milliman studied used a median rate of return for their investments of 8 percent. But the recession slashed into the market, dropping actual median returns to just 3.2 percent for the last five years, according to data from Callan Associates.

The difference has prompted critics to claim that the funds are underreporting their unfunded liabilities, or the gap between what they’ve promised to pay retirees in the future and what they’ll actually have on hand to cover the benefits.

Critics have called for public pensions to reduce their assumed rates of return to as little as 5 percent or less, which would cause unfunded liabilities to soar and likely leave taxpayers having to cover the difference.

But without the change, critics say, future generations will be left to deal with a financial bomb.

FINDINGS WITHIN RANGE OF SIMILAR STUDIES

Other studies have tried to measure the overall size of the problem. The Pew Center on the States found that the shortfall is about $766 billion. Moody’s Investors Service said in July that the collective gap would be $2.2 trillion if funds used a 5.5 percent discount rate.

Milliman has studied the health of the 100 largest private pension funds for about a decade. But this is its first study of public plans, conducted specifically to determine whether the systems were using unrealistically high return-rate assumptions as the critics claimed.

“I thought that we would find fairly pervasive use of interest rates that are high relative to current market consensus about future investment returns, and we didn’t find that,” Sielman said.

The firm, which has done actuarial work for nearly all of the U.S. states in the past, examined each individual fund in the study, using market valuations instead of smoothed valuations to measure assets and recalibrating liabilities based on Milliman’s own benchmarks of expected long-term returns.

The firm found that the median discount rate should actually be 7.65 percent, rather than the 8 percent median rate the funds used in aggregate.

A third of the plans were using lower rates than they needed to, Milliman found, according to Sielman.

A small number of plans seriously underreported their liabilities because they use rates that are too high, Milliman found.

Milliman’s study did not name the specific plans that underreported their liabilities. Sielman said the firm was not releasing its results for individual plans.

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Feds Investigating Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr’s Finances After His Mental Meltdown – Son Of Media Whore Jesse Jackson

WASHINGTON, DC – The snowballing troubles of Jesse Jackson Jr. took a new turn Friday with the revelation that federal investigators have launched a probe into “suspicious activity” in the South Shore congessman’s finances.

Focusing on a completely new area of scrutiny for the son of the famed civil rights leader, the investigation is not related to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempted sale of a U.S. Senate seat, a scandal that has ensnared Jackson in the past, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Rather, the probe — based in the Washington, D.C., FBI field office —is focusing on “suspicious activity” involving the congressman’s finances related to his House seat and the possibility of inappropriate expenditures, the sources said.

The probe was active in the weeks prior to Jackson taking a leave from his U.S. House seat on June 10, a leave his office ultimately attributed to his need for treatment for bipolar disorder, the sources said.

It was unclear whether the investigation involved the congressman’s official House spending account or his campaign finance account. But one source said it was an account monitored by Congress.

All members of the U.S. House receive an allowance to operate offices in Washington and in their districts. The allowances for rank-and-file members ranged from $1.4 million to $2 million in 2010, according to the House website.

Jackson’s congressional spokesman Frank Watkins said he was unaware of any investigation, had no comment and had no immediate way to get a hold of the congressman.

One of Jackson’s attorney’s, Paul Langer, repeatedly said “no comment,” when asked whether Jackson was under investigation related to his finances.

When asked if he was still representing Jackson or if the congressman had retained another attorney, Langer said:

“I can’t even comment on that.”

News of the probe — first disclosed by the Sun-Times — comes as questions increasingly swirl around Jackson’s absence from not only his official duties in Washington, but the campaign trail as the Nov. 6 election nears.

Citing exhaustion, Jackson, 47, stopped working, according to his staff, on June 10. His staff did not make that known until two weeks later.

He went to a clinic in Arizona then to the Mayo Clinic, which released a statement saying he was being treated for a bipolar disorder. Jackson is up for re-election Nov. 6 but has not campaigned since he won the Democratic primary in March.

The Jacksons put their Washington, D.C., home on the market last month at a price of $2.5 million. A campaign spokesman said at the time that the home was put on the market to pay for mounting medical bills. They subsequently took it off the market, saying it was a security issue.

Jackson came under scrutiny after one of his campaign donors approached Blagojevich with a pay-to-play offer regarding the appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. Jackson has denied any wrongdoing, but that revelation sparked an investigation by a House ethics committee.

Jackson was first elected to Congress in 1995 and boasted of almost never missing a vote until he vanished from public view in June.

That’s when his office announced that he was taking off work to undergo medical treatment for “exhaustion.” Under pressure to reveal more details of his condition from even fellow politicians, Jackson’s office gradually dribbled out more extensive explanations over the course of the summer.

He finally surfaced nearly a month later when Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reported he was being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The clinic revealed Jackson was being treated for Bipolar II depression, “a treatable condition that affects parts of the brain controlling emotion, thought and drive and is most likely caused by a complex set of genetic and environmental factors.”

Jackson returned to his home in Washington, D.C., early last month, but he still has not returned to work. His wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th), recently said he may not return until after the November election, when he is up for another two-year term in the U.S. House.

“I can’t speak to when that’s going to happen or how that’s going to happen,” she said. “I can only say that I will continue to rely on [doctors’] expertise. I would only ask for patience.”

The couple has been loathe to speak to the media.

During a fund-raising event last month, Sandi Jackson called reporters waiting to speak to her outside “jackals.” She went to great lengths to avoid the media that night, waiting inside the darkened, otherwise empty restaurant until the last camera departed before she would exit.

The congressman once was among the more extroverted Chicago politicians, but he has been far more reclusive since his name was first linked to the scandal surrounding Blagojevich almost four years ago.

Jackson friend and campaign contributor Raghuveer Nayak told authorities he approached the then-governor with a lucrative fund-raising offer that could have led to Blagojevich’s appointment of Jackson to Obama’s old Senate seat.

Jackson has denied that version of events, and he was never charged with wrongdoing.

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Riots To Follow US Election In November? Obama Supporters Threatening To Riot If He Loses

WASHINGTON, DC – Will the most divisive campaign in modern American history culminate in massive riots in our major cities? Right now, supporters of Barack Obama and supporters of Mitt Romney are both pinning all of their hopes on a victory on November 6th. The race for the presidency is extremely tight, and obviously the side that loses is going to be extremely disappointed when the election results are finalized. But could this actually lead to violence? Could we actually see rioting in communities all over America? Well, the conditions are certainly ripe for it.

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Election Junk Mail Saves US Postal Service From Insolvency – Mountains Of Political Crap Gives Near Bankrupt USPS A Month Of Breathing Room

WASHINGTON, DC - The 2012 election season couldn’t have come at a better time for the U.S. Postal Service.

While still low on cash, the postal service has enough to avoid insolvency this month, thanks in large part to the mountains of political junk mail and the influx of Super PACs paying top postage rates.

Federal candidates, political parties and special interest groups are mailing out more fliers and postcards via the postal service in 2012 than in previous election cycles. Spending topped $28.9 million through the end of August, compared to $27.9 million for the entire election cycle in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The postal service is on track to surpass an original estimate of $285 million, which includes the haul from local races nationwide, said Cliff Rucker, vice president of USPS sales.

It’s still not enough to save the postal service. But it’s enough to get the agency past an October cash crunch that the postal service had warned about.

“Our liquidity situation remains serious,” USPS spokesman David Partenheimer said. “We do expect election mail and the current holiday mailing season to help us get through this month’s low point in our cash flow.”

Related: Postal Service increasing prices

The USPS has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. A key reason was a 2006 law that required the postal service to make annual payments of about $5.5 billion for 10 years to pay for future retiree health benefits.

The other big issue has been the dramatic drop in regular mail that most consumers use because the rise of technology has enabled electronic bill pay and instant communications like email, skype and texting.

In the three months that ended June 30, the agency reported net losses of $5.2 billion.

Congress has been grappling with different bills to save the postal service, but no consensus has emerged. None are expected before next year. By spring, the postal service could again face the threat of insolvency.

The election season has been a bright spot. Political consultants, who send direct mail, are predicting the 2012 political season to be the best yet for the postal service.

“It’s a presidential year, there’s more money in the system, there’s certainly more direct mail … than there was two years ago,” said Chris Cooper, managing director at SKD Knickerbocker, a political consulting firm that works with Democrats.

Roughly 15% of campaign spending goes toward political junk mail, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. If $2.5 billion is spent on the 2012 elections, as the the Center for Responsive Politics has estimated, it could push the tally as high as $375 million.

The postal service is more conservative. Spokeswoman Patricia Licata says the USPS is hoping to meet or top its political haul from 2010, which was about $338 million.

One major reason for the large haul is the influx of Super PACs, the independent groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash on campaigns. Many Super PACs are funded with cash from large corporations and small groups of wealthy individuals.

The Super PACs are also spending more because they don’t qualify for postal service discounts of about 8 cents to 12 cents apiece reserved for candidates and political parties. Those can add up.

Political groups also prefer direct mail, because they can “micro-target” certain geographic areas for specific, often negative, messages about opposing candidates.

“Much of the political mail is coming from the Super PACs, because you can send nastier messages about candidates with direct mail than you can in a television ad,” said Alan Robinson, a postal policy consultant with Direct Communications Group.

So far, Democrats are outspending Republicans using the postal service — $17.8 million vs $10.2 million — according to an analysis of campaign expenditures by the Center for Responsive Politics.

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Broke: Annual Social Security Increase May Be Lowest Since 1975 – Government Sees Different Inflation Levels Than People Who Actually Buy Food And Pay Bills

WASHINGTON, DC – Social Security recipients shouldn’t expect a big increase in monthly benefits come January.

Preliminary figures show the annual benefit boost will be between 1 percent and 2 percent, which would be among the lowest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

Monthly benefits for retired workers now average $1,237, meaning the typical retiree can expect a raise of between $12 and $24 a month.

The size of the increase will be made official Tuesday, when the government releases inflation figures for September. The announcement is unlikely to please a big block of voters — 56 million people get benefits — just three weeks before elections for president and Congress.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is tied to a government measure of inflation adopted by Congress in the 1970s. It shows that consumer prices have gone up by less than 2 percent in the past year.

“Basically, for the past 12 months, prices did not go up as rapidly as they did the year before,” said Polina Vlasenko, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, based in Great Barrington, Mass.

Federal Reserve Loses “Large Amount” Of Newly Designed $100 Bills – “Substantial” Number Of Bills Were Not Intended For Circulation Until 2013

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Unknown thieves stole a “large amount” of newly-designed $100 bills bound for a Federal Reserve facility in New Jersey on Thursday, the FBI said.

Frank Burton, Jr., spokesman for the FBI’s Philadelphia division, said the theft occurred at some point between when the shipment of bills landed at the Philadelphia airport on a commercial flight from Dallas at 10:20 Thursday morning, and when the shipment reached its New Jersey destination around 2:00 p.m., when the courier service transporting the bills reported some missing.

Burton declined to comment on the amount taken, but said it was substantial.

The missing bills carry a design that is not slated to reach circulation until 2013. They feature a large gold “100″ graphic on the back, and an orange box on the front with a faint image of the Liberty Bell.

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United Nations Seeks More Control Over Internet – Morons Seek To Have Websites Pay Network Operators Around The World

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer warned on Friday that a proposal to give a United Nations agency more control over the Internet is gaining momentum in other countries.

Proposals to expand the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) authority over the Internet could come up at a treaty conference in Dubai in December. European telecommunications companies are pushing a plan that would create new rules that would allow them to charge more to carry international traffic.

The proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association could force websites like Google, Facebook and Netflix to pay fees to network operators around the world.

Kramer said the idea of an international Internet fee is “gaining more interest in the African states and also in the Arab states.”

He said the United States delegation to the conference will have to redouble its efforts to convince other countries that the proposal would only stifle innovation and economic growth.

“We support efforts to grow broadband markets—not just divvying a static pie of revenue between operators and governments,” Kramer said in a speech in Washington hosted by the Telecommunications Industry Association.

Democrats and Republicans in the United States are united against proposals to increase international control of the Internet. Congress passed a non-binding resolution earlier this year urging the United States delegation to “promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet today.”

But Kramer warned that the United States is gaining a reputation of stubbornly opposing any changes to the ITU treaty. He said the United States will have to engage in negotiations with other countries to address their concerns.

He acknowledged that many countries are struggling to secure their networks from hackers and cybercriminals. He said the United States opposes international cybersecurity regulation but supports efforts to help poorer countries expand their ability to combat cyberthreats.

“The U.S. is open to dialogue in ways to make such cooperation more comprehensive, building on work by existing institutions,” he said.

Kramer explained that the United States will not have to sign on to any treaty that it objects to, but he warned that if a majority of countries at the Dubai conference adopt an overly regulatory treaty, it could reshape the open, international nature of the Internet.

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American Businessmen Afraid Of Obama – “…No Idea What Goofy Idea, What Crazy, Anti-Business Program This Administration Will Come Up With.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Steven Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, said on Monday that he was sitting on his thumbs with over a billion dollars tied up because he was unsure what government program the Obama administration would unveil next, and stressed that he was “afraid of the president.”

In an interview, Jon Ralston, host of Ralston Reports on NBC-affiliate KSNV MyNews3 in Nevada, asked Wynn: “You called him [Obama] a socialist. You called the president a socialist. And you used this memorable phrase that business leaders quote, ‘were sitting on their thumbs until he’s gone.’ But they’re not really. I mean, you’re not — you haven’t been doing that?”

“Yes I have,” Wynn said.

Ralston: “You haven’t done a thing? You haven’t –”

Wynn: “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Because I’m lucky, and I’m in business in Macau, I brought $100, or $150 or $200 million back and invested it in redoing the hotel [in Vegas] for $100 million, building new beach clubs and doing things like that and giving my employees cost of living increases, even when the place was losing money. Because I’m very lucky that we have a very conservative approach to business. We don’t believe that just because the economy jumps up and down that we should be bouncing our employees around. That’s no way to run a business.”

Ralston: “And you didn’t amass debt like a lot of the other companies did either, which helped, right?”

Wynn: “We were talking about the sitting on the thumbs remark, which I’m doing right now, which means keeping the bankroll in your pocket. I did what I had to protect my employees in Las Vegas and to protect my service levels from my existing customers. But you know that for the last 45 years I’ve always been in construction in Nevada.”

Wynn then explained that a pair of troubled business men in Vegas came up to him with a business proposal to renovate a property of theirs and turn it into a new hotel and they’d call it the Wynn Plaza. He was all for it but decided to scrap it because of uncertainty about what steps the federal government might take against businesses.

When asked what happened to the proposal, Wynn said he was unsure what President Obama would do next.

“I’m afraid of the president,” said Wynn. “I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, Jon, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.”

The hotel tycoon claimed that President Obama had attempted to put himself between him and his employees by resorting to class warfare, and said he cannot stand being the target of demagoguery from someone who doesn’t understand the economy or “hasn’t created any jobs.”

“The president is trying to put himself between me and my employees,” said Wynn. “By class warfare, by deprecating and calling a group that makes money ‘billionaires and millionaires who don’t pay their share.’ I gave 120 percent of my salary and bonus away last year to charities, as I do most years.”

He continued: “I can’t stand the idea of being demagogued, that is, put down by a president who has never created any jobs and who doesn’t even understand how the economy works.”

Earlier on the show, Wynn boasted of creating 250,000 jobs in Nevada, which he said was 250,000 more than the president had created.

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US Government Pissed Away $6 Million In Taxpayer Funds On Totally Worthless “Text Against Terror” Program In New Jersey – Another $300 Million And 9 Years Wasted On Useless “Fusion Centers” That Targeted Innocent Americans

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. government has blown nearly $6 million on an experimental “anti-terrorism” program in New Jersey that encourages the public to send tips via text message from their cellular phones.

Since it was launched in mid-2011, the federally-funded “Text Against Terror” project has produced no credible tips, according to a local newspaper report that reveals the feds have poured $5.8 million into the initiative. Police in New Jersey claim 307 tips have been texted so far and that includes people “testing the system.”

Of the 307 text messages, 71 “referred to something regarding homeland security,” according to the New Jersey police chief quoted in the story. The majority of the 71 texts were investigated, the chief says, and “eliminated as a cause for concern.” In other words, the costly program, funded with a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) public awareness grant, is a cash cow that’s accomplished nothing.

The taxpayer dollars have paid for advertising time on local radio and television as well as fliers and ads on buses and trains. Other expenses include reserving a domain for unlimited texting capability. In a “rare instance” when a tip has required a follow-up, the New Jersey police chief says a state Joint Terrorism Task Force is available to get the job done. It includes state police, New Jersey’s transit and port authority police and the FBI.

News of this disturbing waste of public funds for an ineffective homeland security program comes on the heels of a U.S. Senate report blasting a huge post-9/11 counterterrorism program that’s received north of $300 million but hasn’t provided any useful intelligence. Even scarier is that DHS has covered up the mess from both Congress and the public, according to the bi-partisan investigators who conducted the lengthy probe.

The inept domestic counterterrorism program features fusion centers that are supposed to share terrorism-related information between state, local and federal officials. But nine years and more than $300 million later, the national centers have failed to provide any valuable information, according to Senate investigators.

Instead they have forwarded “intelligence of uneven quality – oftentimes shoddy, rarely timely, sometimes endangering citizens’ civil liberties and Privacy Act protections, occasionally taken from already-published public sources, and more often than not unrelated to terrorism.” A review of more than a year of fusion center reports nationwide determined that they were irrelevant, useless or inappropriate.

None uncovered any terrorist threats nor did they contribute to the disruption of an active terrorist plot, the Senate report says. In fact, DHS officials acknowledged that the information produced by the fusion centers was “predominantly useless.” One branch chief actually said “a bunch of crap is coming through.” Evidently, the same thing applies to the costly New Jersey text experiment.

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US Abandons “CIA Base” In Libya After Public Disclosure Of Its Location By Dumbasses In US House Of Representatives Hearing – Previously Referred To As The “Safe House” That Was Attacked on 9/11/12 Along With US Embassy

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. intelligence efforts in Libya have suffered a significant setback due to the abandonment and exposure of a facility in Benghazi, Libya identified by a newspaper as a “CIA base” following a congressional hearing this week, according to U.S. government sources.

The intelligence post, located 1.2 miles from the U.S. mission that was targeted by militants in a September 11 attack, was evacuated of Americans after the assault that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Three other Americans died in the attacks on U.S.-occupied buildings, including two who were hit in a mortar blast at the secret compound.

The publication of satellite photos showing the site’s location and layout have made it difficult, if not impossible, for intelligence agencies to reoccupy the site, according to government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

ATF Special Agent, Whistleblower In Disgraced US Attorney Eric Holder’s Department’s Botched “Fast And Furious” Operation, Fired In Denny’s Parking Lot

WASHINGTON, DC – Special Agent Vince Cefalu has worked for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms for more than 25 years. On top of successfully placing dozens of hard criminals behind bars throughout his career, Cefalu has received promotions and consistently positive evaluations. When he started raising his voice about ATF corruption and illegal wiretapping in 2005, things changed. Tuesday evening, Cefalu was asked to meet Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Field Division Joseph Riehl at a Denny’s Restaurant near Lake Tahoe. When he arrived, he was served termination papers in the parking lot. Classy move. The exchange was secretly recorded by a confidential source. David Codrea has more:

US Secret Service Agent Aaron Francis Engler, From Obama’s Advance Security Team, Found Drunk And Passed Out On Miami Florida Sidewalk

MIAMI, FLORIDA — U.S. Secret Service agent Aaron Francis Engler was found early Friday morning passed out on the sidewalk near the intersection of Brickell Avenue and 7th after President Barack Obama had left South Florida.

According to the arrest report, Miami police officers were in the area on an unrelated call when they noticed Engler passed out. When the officers checked on the man he grew combative and started to fight with officers, according to the police report.

The officers then took Engler to the ground and handcuffed him. Once secured, sources said the officers went through Engler’s pockets and discovered his Secret Service identification.

Law enforcement sources told CBS4 Engler told police he was an agent out of Washington and was part of the advance team for the president’s visit on Thursday. Once the President left Miami, Engler said he went drinking and got very drunk, law enforcement sources said.

Engler wasn’t armed at the time he was arrested, but was upset because he was supposed to leave Miami on another assignment Friday morning, law enforcement sources said.

Engler was charged with two misdemeanors, disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence, and released on his own recognizance. He was turned over to the Secret Service Friday and was being taken back to Washington, DC.

It’s the latest black eye for the agency charged with protecting the life of the president. In April 2012, the agency was involved in a prostitution scandal in Colombia during the Summit of the Americas.

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Veteran Grapevine Texas Police Officer Phillip Woolery Arrested, Suspended, And Charged With Child Pornography After Raid At His Home

GRAPEVINE, TEXAS – A 17-year veteran of the Grapevine Police Department has been arrested on child pornography charges.

Authorities made the arrest, shortly after raiding the Crowley home of 46 year-old Phillip Woolery.

Former U.S. Attorney Matt Orwig says charges like these are serious, particularly for a member of law enforcement.

“It’s very serious anytime a police officer is arrested. And this is going to be a very serious offense,” he said. “Penalties for possession and transfer of child porn are very severe.”

Woolery is now on administrative leave.

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Clueless: Nutcase Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter Puts 100% Of Blame For Libyan Embassy Attack On…. Romney And Ryan – Doesn’t Mention Obama And Staffers Lies Connecting It To Anti-Islam Film

WASHINGTON, DC – Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said Thursday that the “entire reason” the terrorist attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans has “become the political topic it is” is because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan talk about the attack.

STEPHANIE CUTTER: In terms of the politicization of this — you know, we are here at a debate, and I hope we get to talk about the debate — but the entire reason this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It’s a big part of their stump speech. And it’s reckless and irresponsible what they’re doing.

BROOKE BALDWIN: But, Stephanie, this is national security. As we witnessed this revolution last year, we covered it–

CUTTER: It is absolutely national security–

BALDWIN: –it is absolutely pertinent. People in the American public absolutely have a right to get answers.

Cutter’s remarks drew immediate criticism from across the political spectrum. But the Obama spox quickly doubled down on Twitter, replying to a Buzzfeed researcher, “Romney has politicized Libya w/no plans of his own. POTUS’ priorities are getting facts & bringing terrorists to justice.”

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Head Of Yemen US Embassy Security Team Killed By Masked Gunmen On Motorcycles

YEMEN – Masked gunmen shot dead a Yemeni man on his way to work at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Thursday, a security source said, the latest in a wave of assassinations in the Arab state where Washington is battling al Qaeda militants.

The attackers on a motorcycle opened fire on a car carrying Qassem Aqlan – who headed an embassy security team – in the center of Yemen’s capital, the source told Reuters.

“This (assassination) operation has the fingerprints of al Qaeda which carried out similar operations before,” said the source who asked not to be named.

The Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other militant groups strengthened their grip on parts of the country during an uprising that ousted veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February.

There have been a number of assassinations attempts, some of them successful, on security officials and politicians since Yemen’s army drove Islamist fighters out of several southern towns earlier this year.

Washington, wary of the growing power of al Qaeda, has stepped up drone strikes on suspected militant positions, with the backing of Saleh’s successor, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Men armed with machine guns and rockets attacked a security checkpoint in Yemen’s southern city of al-Dalea late on Wednesday, injuring two policemen, a local official said on Thursday.

The attackers, whose affiliation was not immediately clear, fled the scene, the official said.

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Las Vegas Nevada TSA Agent Slapped Man’s Gentials As Punishment For Refusing To Enter X-Ray Machine

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – A frequent flier is speaking out about an incident in which a TSA agent allegedly slapped his testicles as punishment for opting out of the naked body scanner at a Nevada airport.
Steven deForest was flying out of Las Vegas when the incident occurred.

“A bulky young TSA agent came over to pat me down,” he told the Huffington Post. “He told me to turn around. He was using his command voice, barking orders. I told him that I wasn’t comfortable turning away from my luggage, which had already been screened, and wanted to keep it in my sight.”

According to deForest, the screener knelt down to begin the pat-down procedure before making a shocking move.

“As he raised his hands he was looking at me. Then he gave a quick flick and smacked me in one of my testicles,” deForest said.

The episode left deForest in a state of “humiliation, rage, and frustration,” according to the report.

DeForest believes the agent slapped his gentials as punishment for refusing to enter the backscatter x-ray machine. “I was deliberately assaulted by someone who knew that he could get away with it,” he stated.
While the motives of the TSA screener cannot be confirmed, other agents have already admitted to performing invasive pat downs in order to force air travelers to choose the body scanners instead.
TSA screeners described this goal to The Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg in 2010, when the enhanced pat downs were being implemented for the first time:

I asked [the screener] if he was looking forward to conducting the full-on pat-downs. “Nobody’s going to do it,” he said, “once they find out what we’re going to do.”
In other words, people, when faced with a choice, will inevitably choose the [body scanner] over molestation? “That’s what we’re hoping for. We’re trying to get everyone into the machine.”

“The obvious goal of the TSA is to make the pat-down embarrassing enough for the average passenger that the vast majority of people will choose high-tech humiliation over the low-tech [testicle] check,” Goldberg concluded. If deForest’s disturbing testimony is accurate, then Goldberg might just be right.

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South Carolina Voter ID Law Upheld By Fedral Appeals Court, But Not For THIS Election

WASHINGTON, DC – A panel of three federal judges upheld a South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification, but delayed enforcement until next year, in a decision announced Wednesday, less than a month before this year’s presidential election.

In a unanimous ruling, the judges said there was no discriminatory intent behind the law, ruling that it would not diminish African-Americans’ voting rights because people who face a “reasonable impediment” to getting an acceptable photo ID can still vote if they sign an affidavit.

The judge declined to let the law take effect immediately, “given the short time left before the 2012 elections and given the numerous steps necessary to properly implement the law … and ensure that the law would not have discriminatory” effects.

South Carolina voters who now lack the proper photo ID are disproportionately African-American, so proper and smooth functioning of the law “would be vital to avoid unlawfully racially discriminatory effects,” according to the decision, written by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “There is too much of a risk to African-American voters for us to roll the dice,” he said.

South Carolina is one of 16 states, mostly in the South, where election laws are subject to Justice Department approval under the federal Voting Rights Act because of a history of discrimination. South Carolina’s was the first law to be refused federal OK in nearly 20 years, which led state officials to challenge that decision in federal court.

The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature pushed the law through last year despite heavy opposition from African-American lawmakers. GOP Gov. Nikki Haley signed it last December.

Voter ID laws and other restrictions on voting became priority issues in mostly Republican legislatures and for governors after the 2008 elections. Opponents have described them as responses to the record turnouts of minorities and other Democratic-leaning constituencies that helped put Barack Obama, the first African-American president, in the White House.

Such laws have become a critical issue in this year’s election because of the tight presidential race between Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Supporters have pitched these laws as necessary to deter voter fraud, although very few cases of impersonation have been found.

Officials from South Carolina could not cite a single case of such fraud during the trial, but they said the law would help enhance public confidence in the election system and prevent other types of fraud.

South Carolina’s law requires voters to show a driver’s license or other photo identification issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, or a passport, military photo identification or a voter registration card with a photo.

The other judges in the case were Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court in Washington.

Kollar-Kotelly was appointed by President Bill Clinton. Bates and Kavanaugh were appointed by President George W. Bush.

The case number is 2012-203.

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Congressmen Press Army To Purchase Tanks That It Doesn’t Need – 2000 Parked In Nevada Collecting Dust And No New Purchases, Which Will Save Taxpayers Billions

HERLONG, CALIFORNIA – If you need an example of why it is hard to cut the budget in Washington look no further than this Army depot in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada range.

CNN was allowed rare access to what amounts to a parking lot for more than 2,000 M-1 Abrams tanks. Here, about an hour’s drive north of Reno, Nevada, the tanks have been collecting dust in the hot California desert because of a tiff between the Army and Congress.

The U.S. has more than enough combat tanks in the field to meet the nation’s defense needs – so there’s no sense in making repairs to these now, the Army’s chief of staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told Congress earlier this year.

If the Pentagon holds off repairing, refurbishing or making new tanks for three years until new technologies are developed, the Army says it can save taxpayers as much as $3 billion.

That may seem like a lot of money, but it’s a tiny sacrifice for a Defense Department that will cut $500 billion from its budget over the next decade and may be forced to cut a further $500 billion if a deficit cutting deal is not reached by Congress.

Why is this a big deal? For one, the U.S. hasn’t stopped producing tanks since before World War II, according to lawmakers.

Plus, from its point of view the Army would prefer to decide what it needs and doesn’t need to keep America strong while making tough economic cuts elsewhere.

“When a relatively conservative institution like the U.S. military, which doesn’t like to take risks because risks get people killed, says it has enough tanks, I think generally civilians should be inclined to believe them,” said Travis Sharp a fellow at the defense think tank, New American Security.

But guess which group of civilians isn’t inclined to agree with the generals on this point?

Congress.

To be exact, 173 House members – Democrats and Republicans – sent a letter April 20 to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, urging him to continue supporting their decision to produce more tanks.

That’s right. Lawmakers who frequently and loudly proclaim that presidents should listen to generals when it comes to battlefield decisions are refusing to take its own advice.

If the U.S. pauses tank production and refurbishment it will hurt the nation’s industrial economy, lawmakers say.

“The combat vehicle industrial base is a unique asset that consists of hundreds of public and private facilities across the United States,” the letter said. The outlook for selling Abrams tanks to other nations appears “stronger than prior years,” the letter said. But those sales would be “inadequate to sustain the industrial base and in some cases uncertain. In light of this, modest and continued Abrams production for the Army is necessary to protect the industrial base.”

Lima, Ohio, is a long way from this dusty tank parking lot. The tiny town in the eastern part of the Buckeye State is where defense manufacturing heavyweight General Dynamics makes these 60-plus-ton behemoths.

The tanks create 16,000 jobs and involve 882 suppliers, says Kendell Pease, the company’s vice-president of government relations and communications. That job figure includes ancillary positions like gas station workers who fill up employees’ cars coming and going to the plant.

Many of the suppliers for tank manufacturing are scattered around the country so the issue of stopping production or refurbishment becomes a parochial one: congressional representatives don’t want to kill any jobs in their districts, especially as the economy struggles during an election year.

“General Dynamics is not the industrial base,” Pease said. “It is small vendors.”

But General Dynamics certainly has a stake in the battle of the tanks and is making sure its investment is protected, according to research done by The Center for Public Integrity, a journalism watchdog group.

What its reporters found was General Dynamics campaign contributions given to lawmakers at key times, such as around congressional hearings, on whether or not to build more tanks.

“We aren’t saying there’s vote buying” said Aaron Metha, one of the report’s authors. “We are saying it’s true in pretty much all aspects of politics – but especially the defense industry. It’s almost impossible to separate out the money that is going into elections and the special interests. And what we found was the direct spike in the giving around certain important dates that were tied to votes.”

Pease said General Dynamics is bipartisan in its giving and there is nothing suspicious in the timing of its donations to members of the House and Senate. The giving is tied to when fundraisers are held in Washington – which is also when Congress is in session, he said.

Lawmakers that CNN interviewed denied that donations influenced their decisions to keep the tanks rolling.

Rep. Buck McKeon, a Republican from California and chairman of the House armed services committee, said he didn’t know General Dynamics had given him $56,000 in campaign contributions since 2009 until CNN asked him about it.

“You know, the Army has a job to do and we have a job to do,” McKeon said. “And they have tough choices because they’ve been having their budget cut.”

McKeon said he’s thinking about the long range view. “… If someone could guarantee us that we’ll never need tanks in the future, that would be good. I don’t see that guarantee.”

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PBS Tells Obama Campaign To Get “Big Bird” Of His TV Ads

WASHINGTON, DC – Big Bird, it seems, isn’t thrilled about his cameo in the presidential race.

The folks at Sesame Street are asking the Obama campaign to pull down a TV ad released Tuesday that mocks Mitt Romney for vowing to yank the subsidy to PBS.

At the presidential debate in Denver last week, Mr. Romney said he would end the subsidy in view of the nation’s fiscal troubles.

“I love Big Bird,” the Republican challenger said “… But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.”

Up went an ad by team Obama called “Big Bird’’ that suggests Mr. Romney is targeting children’s programming rather than legitimate threats to people’s economic interests.

The ad shows images of Bernie Madoff and others implicated in various financial and corporate scandals. A narrator then intones: “And the evil genius who towered over them?”

A silhouette of Big Bird flashes on screen.

“Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street,” the narrator said.

The ad is airing on national cable and broadcast TV, in time slots devoted to comedy shows, the Obama campaign said.

Sesame Street isn’t amused. Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization that produces and owns the show, issued a statement Tuesday saying “we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”

An Obama campaign spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said the campaign is “reviewing their concerns.”

A blog post on the Sesame Workshop website said that “Sesame Street would not exist were it not for PBS and its local stations, which is the distribution system for Big Bird and friends to reach all children across the United States, particularly the low income children who need us most.”

In response to the ad, the Romney campaign released a statement saying, “The choice in this election is becoming more clear each day. Four years ago, President Obama said that if you don’t have a record to run on, ‘you make a big election about small things.’ With 23 million people struggling for work, incomes falling and gas prices soaring, Americans deserve more from their president.”

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US Security Officer Asked State Department Twice For More Security At Libyan Embassy Before Terror Attack Killed US Ambassador And Three Other Americans – And Was Ignored

WASHINGTON, DC – A U.S. security officer twice asked his State Department superiors for more security agents for the American mission in Benghazi months before an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, but he got no response.

The officer, Eric Nordstrom, who was based in Tripoli until about two months before the September attack, said a State Department official, Charlene Lamb, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi “artificially low,” according to a memo summarizing his comments to a congressional committee that was obtained by Reuters.

Nordstrom also argued for more U.S. security in Libya by citing a chronology of over 200 security incidents there from militia gunfights to bomb attacks between June 2011 and July 2012. Forty-eight of the incidents were in Benghazi.

CEO’s eMail Warns Employees That He Will Have To Fire Some Amid Cutbacks If Obama Is Reelected And Raises Taxes

WASHINGTON, DC – David Siegel, the founder and CEO of real estate company Westgate Resorts on Monday threatened to fire some employees if Barack Obama is reelected and carries out his plan to raise taxes on the so-called rich.

The following are highlights from an email message sent by Siegel to his staff that was obtained and verified as authentic by Gawker:

Subject: Message from David Siegel
Date:Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:58:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: [David Siegel]
To: [All employees]

To All My Valued Employees,

As most of you know our company, Westgate Resorts, has continued to succeed in spite of a very dismal economy. There is no question that the economy has changed for the worse and we have not seen any improvement over the past four years. In spite of all of the challenges we have faced, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can’t tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn’t interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose. In fact, I encourage you to vote for whomever you think will serve your interests the best. [...]

Now, the economy is falling apart and people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits, but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the costs of running a business have gotten out of control, and let me tell you why: We are being taxed to death and the government thinks we don’t pay enough. We pay state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers compensation taxes and unemployment taxes. I even have to hire an entire department to manage all these taxes. The question I have is this: Who is really stimulating the economy? Is it the Government that wants to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not, or is it people like me who built a company out of his garage and directly employs over 7000 people and hosts over 3 million people per year with a great vacation?

Obviously, our present government believes that taking my money is the right economic stimulus for this country. The fact is, if I deducted 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, that’s what happens to me. [...]

Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate business, not kill it. However, the power brokers in Washington believe redistributing wealth is the essential driver of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change they want.

So where am I going with all this? It’s quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.

So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn’t? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the “1 percenters” are bad, I’m telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the “1%”; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.

You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

Signed, your boss,

David Siegel

For those unfamiliar with Siegel, he is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a real estate and timeshare company.

He and his wife were also the subject of the recent documentary “The Queen of Versailles” about their desire to build the largest home in America.

According to Gawker, they were worth over a billion dollars in 2007, but that could be less now as a result of the real estate bust.

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US Restaurant Conglomerate Prepares For Obamacare, Testing Scheme To Limit All Employees To 28 Hours Or Less Per Week, Avoiding “Affordable Care Act” By Screwing Employees Instead Of Getting Penalized By US Government

WASHINGTON, DC – In an experiment apparently aimed at keeping down the cost of health-care reform, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has stopped offering full-time schedules to many hourly workers in at least a few Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses.

Darden said the test is taking place in “a select number” of restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida, but would not give details. The company said there has been no decision made about expanding it.

In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are “just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the health care regulations and we simply do not have enough information to make any decisions at this time.”

Free Obama Phone Program Benefits Prominent Democratic Donor Who’s Wife Has Raised Lots Of Money For Obama – Cost To Taxpayers Last Year Was $1.6 BILLION

WASHINGTON, DC – A wireless company profiting from the so-called “Obama phone” giveaway program is run by a prominent Democratic donor whose wife has raised more than $1.5 million for the president since 2007.

Last week a video of a President Barack Obama supporter in Ohio claiming to have received a free phone from the president—“[Obama] gave us a phone!”—went viral, prompting media outlets to investigate.

Since 1985 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has operated a program called Lifeline, originally designed to provide free landline phone service for low-income individuals. The government subsidizes telecommunications firms providing the service, and those firms also pass on costs to customers via the “Universal Service Charge” on their phone bills.

The program expanded to include cell phones in 2008. That change has rapidly increased the cost to the federal government—$1.6 billion in 2011, up from $772 million in 2008. The number of Lifeline beneficiaries rose from 7.1 million to 12.5 million during the same period; cell phones account for roughly half of that 12.5 million.

One of the major providers of the free cell phones—3.8 million subscribers as of late 2011—is Miami-based TracFone Wireless, a company whose president and CEO, Frederick “F.J.” Pollak, has donated at least $156,500 to Democratic candidates and committees this cycle, including at least $50,000 to the Obama campaign.

Pollak’s wife, Abigail, is a campaign bundler for Obama who has raised more than $632,000 for the president this cycle, and more than $1.5 million since 2007. She has personally contributed more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2008.

The Pollaks hosted Obama at their Miami Beach home in June for a $40,000-per-plate fundraising dinner, and hosted a similar event with Michelle Obama in July 2008. The couple personally donated a combined $66,200 to Obama’s reelection effort that year.

Visitor logs indicate that Frederick and Abigail Pollak have visited the White House seven times. In 2009, the president appointed Abigail to serve on the “Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of the American Latino.”

TracFone, a direct financial beneficiary of the Lifeline program, receives $10 a month for each subscriber in the form of federal subsidies. The company can make an additional profit selling extra minutes to Lifeline subscribers who exceed their monthly allowance of 250 prepaid minutes.

TracFone and other wireless providers claim that revenue from selling additional minutes to Lifeline customers is low, but decline to publicly release such figures.

The program’s rapidly increasing costs have attracted the attention of Republicans and Democrats in Congress, and have prompted calls for reform. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.), for example, found that the program was “ripe for fraud.” In some cases, McCaskill noted in a December 2011 press release, the government was issuing multiple free phones to the same individuals.

“I remain troubled by the expansive potential for the program to be abused, especially since Americans contribute to the program through their monthly phone bills,” McCaskill, who is up for reelection, wrote in a formal letter to the FCC. “The current requirements to determine eligibility often do not require customer documentation for participation in Lifeline, which may result in individuals receiving phones who should not be.”

Rep. Tim Griffin (R., Ark.) has introduced legislation to restore the program to its originally intended purpose—providing landlines for use in emergencies—and stop the federal government from issuing free cell phones. Griffin told the Daily Caller he had heard reports of individuals receiving dozens of phones, some of which were of the expensive smartphone variety.

The FCC in response to such pressure announced in February 2012 to reform the program and “reduce the potential for fraud while cutting red tape for consumers and providers.”

TracFone, which did not return a request for comment, is the U.S. affiliate of America Movil, one of the largest phone service providers in Latin America.

America Movil is one of many business ventures controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, currently the world’s richest man, according to Forbes. Slim’s stake in the firm accounts for more than half of his $70 billion net worth.

Slim—who bailed out the New York Times and is often referred to as “Mexico’s Mr. Monopoly”—has visited the White House at least twice, according to visitor logs.

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Obama’s Reelection Campaign Is Falling Apart At The Seams: Hope And Change – Not So Much…

WASHINGTON, DC – A presidential reelection campaign needs three key elements: a defense of the incumbent’s record, a successful effort to define the opposition and a compelling vision of a second term.

President Obama may well celebrate a second term in Chicago next month, but the conventional wisdom underestimates the difficulty he faces, as his campaign has distinct problems with all three elements.

His defense of his record is exceptionally weak, his effort to define Mitt Romney is nearly exhausted, and his vision for the next four years — perhaps the most important — has been largely missing from his effort this year.

Backlog Of American Veteran’s Disability Claims Jumps 179% Since Obama Took Office

The backlog of veterans’ disability claims has jumped by 179 percent during President Barack Obama’s first term in office, reaching 883,949 outstanding claims, according to Veterans Administration (VA) statistics. (Click Oct. 1, 2012 link.)

The backlog of claims is at near-record highs, with 65.8 percent of claims being backlogged for 125 days or more.

The total claims include disability claims by veterans as well as from surviving spouses, children, or parents. As the VA explains, these claims are “based upon the effects of disabilities, diseases, or injuries incurred or aggravated during military service.” And the claims by spouses, children, or parents are based “upon the Veteran’s death due to service-related causes.” (Click Oct. 1, 2012 link.)

When Obama took office, there were approximately 390,000 outstanding claims, of which only 22 percent had been pending for more than 180 days.

That number had been falling during the second George W. Bush administration, despite the military being heavily engaged in two wars. At the beginning of Bush’s second term, the VA had about 480,000 outstanding claims, with only 21 percent backlogged for more than 180 days.

That number fell by almost 100,000 claims by the time Obama took office

In a speech to the American Legion in August, General Eric Shinseki, secretary of Veterans Affairs, said that the VA was working hard to try to process all the claims, noting that “no one is standing at parade rest.”

“The backlog is real, but no one is standing at parade rest,” he said. “This is a dynamic process, and as we pushed 2.9 million claims out the door, 3.5 million claims came in.”

Shinseki promised that his agency would end the backlog by 2015.

Shinseki said the VA had been carrying a backlog “for decades” and added that recent decisions to grant claims related to Gulf War Syndrome and Agent Orange exposure had increased the backlog.

“Three-and-a-half years ago, we were also still grappling with some unresolved issues from past wars — the Gulf War, over 20 years ago, and the Vietnam War, nearly 50 years ago now,” he said. “We didn’t take care of business when we should have decades ago, and some Veterans were dying without benefits.”

However, the backlog problem has more than doubled in the past two years alone. In January 2012, pending claims stood at about 880,000, with 64 percent backlogged for more than 125 days. That number was up approximately 116,000 over the previous year.

The claims are for veterans with some kind of service-related disability such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or some kind of physical disability caused by injury. Once processed and rated by the VA, veterans receive compensation to help offset the cost of their disability. However, so long as their claims are backlogged, they have no access to compensation.

The VA did not respond to CNSNews.com’s request for comment before this story was posted.

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Self-Confessed Illegal Immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas Arrested, Minnesota And Feds Let Him Go – Wetback Was Driving On Washington License That Had Been Canceled Due To Fraud

MINNESOTA – Jose Antonio Vargas, the writer and activist who went public last year with his status as an undocumented immigrant, was arrested for a driving infraction in Minnesota on Friday, but federal immigration authorities did not detain him or take any other action, officials said Saturday.

Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter who revealed his status in The New York Times Magazine and touched off a debate in the journalistic community, was initially pulled over by a state trooper for driving while wearing head phones, Eric Roeske, public information officer for the Minnesota state patrol, told POLITICO.

“He did produce a Washington driver’s license” after being pulled over, Roeske said. “When the trooper ran the license, it showed the status [of the license] was canceled. It also indicated there may have been fraudulent activity associated with the license. That’s why [it might have been] canceled. That triggered the trooper to look into that further and contact ICE (U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”

Mexico Sees Wave Of Immigrants As Wetbacks And Americans Either Choose Or Are Forced To Get Of Of The United States

MONTERREY, MEXICO - When Pete Navarro showed up three years ago in this industrial city a few hours’ drive from the border, he spoke barely a word of Spanish and hardly knew a soul.

The San Antonio resident, who went to Jay High School, lost his legal residency in December 2009 and was deported to his native Mexico. He hadn’t been there since he was a child, and the only people he knew were his aunt and her family. He left his parents and two children in San Antonio.

“So when I got here, my two cousins were my best friends, because they could speak English,” Navarro said.

Navarro, 33, has taken part in a historic migration. For the first time in decades, more people are moving from the U.S. to Mexico than are coming to the U.S. from Mexico, the Pew Hispanic Center reported in April. Some, like Navarro, are deported, but the vast majority came to Mexico voluntarily, according to the report.

It can be difficult for those who come voluntarily and involuntarily. Many struggle with the language, have trouble in Mexican schools and find it difficult to integrate into Mexican society.

But they also find opportunity, often thanks to the English they learned growing up north of the Rio Grande.

It took Navarro only a few days to find an industry waiting with open arms to accept workers from the wave of more than a million people who have moved from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years: call centers.

The Monterrey call center industry employs thousands, many of them English speakers who grew up in the U.S. The city, with a population of 1.14 million and with millions more in the metro area, primarily is a manufacturing center. But in the past decade, a burgeoning call center industry has cropped up, said Roberto Fuerte, executive director of the northeast Mexico chapter of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.

The phone operations provide a range of services and don’t all require top-flight English, so many are staffed by students from the area’s several universities, Fuerte said.

But the centers provide a landing place for English-speakers marching south.

“When that Pew study came out, it was interesting to see it in an academic format,” said Bill Colton, a Washington businessman and the president of a small Monterrey call center. “But it was in no way surprising to people here.”

Colton’s Global Telesourcing, where Navarro is one of about 300 employees, mostly hires people who spent their formative years in the U.S.

That means they speak excellent English, understand U.S. slang and are familiar with the products they’re selling, such as Internet, cable and cellphone services. Many have worked at Monterrey’s larger call centers, Colton said.

“Because the level of (sales) agent we’re able to attract in Mexico is much better than the same dollars we would be able to buy in the U.S., we’re a much better call center,” Colton said. “These guys you couldn’t attract to work at a call center in the U.S.”

No welcome mat

That’s certainly true of Navarro, who said he was making a better living as an auto mechanic, a skill he’d learned at St. Phillip’s College, before he was deported.

He’d recently divorced his wife and won custody of his children in 2009 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him at his South Side home and deported him over a pair of years-old marijuana possession charges. Now, he lives alone in Monterrey while his children remain in San Antonio with his parents.

“The fact that these guys came to my door one day, it changed my life,” Navarro said. “It flipped everything around.”

He likes working on cars, but in Mexico, it doesn’t pay nearly as well as the call center. Navarro said he made about $1,200 a week in San Antonio. Today, he makes about $500, a pretty sum in most parts of Mexico, but not in Monterrey, one of the most expensive cities in the country.

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Thousands Of American Lives And TRILLIONS Of Dollars Latter, US Lead War On Taliban Just Beginning – Taliban Mock America On 12th Anniversary Of War US Can Never Win

WASHINGTON, DC – America’s longest war entered its 12th year Sunday, with the anniversary marked by a Taliban statement claiming that NATO forces are “fleeing Afghanistan” in “humiliation and disgrace”.

The US led the invasion on October 7, 2001 to topple the Taliban government for harbouring Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The Taliban were quickly routed, but launched an insurgency that grew in strength over the years until NATO had some 130,000 troops from 50 countries defending the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

The troops have now begun pulling out and all foreign combat forces will be gone by the end of 2014 according to a withdrawal schedule agreed by the US and NATO.

“With the help of Allah, the valiant Afghans under the Jihadi leadership of Islamic Emirate defeated the military might and numerous strategies of America and NATO alliance,” the Taliban said in a statement Sunday.

“And now after eleven years of unceasing terror, tyranny, crimes and savagery, they are fleeing Afghanistan with such humiliation and disgrace that they are struggling to provide an explanation”.

A total of 3,199 NATO soldiers have been killed in the war, more than 2,000 of them Americans. Most deaths occurred in the past five years as Taliban attacks escalated, according to icasualties.com.

This year, official statistics showed that deaths in the Afghan security forces are running five times higher than those for NATO, as the Afghans take on increasing responsibilities before the Western withdrawal.

The US and NATO say Afghan forces will be capable of taking over the fight against the Taliban after 2014, but many analysts predict a bloody new multi-factional civil war.

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Requests To Obama Administration For Additional Security At Libyan Embassy Were Ignored Prior To Attack That Killed 4 And Resulted In America Abandoning The Site

WASHINGTON, DC – CBS News has learned that congressional investigators have issued a subpoena to a former top security official at the US mission in Libya. The official is Lt. Col. Andy Wood, a Utah National Guard Army Green Beret who headed up a Special Forces “Site Security Team” in Libya.

The subpoena compels Lt. Col. Wood to appear at a House Oversight Committee hearing next week that will examine security decisions leading up to the Sept. 11 Muslim extremist terror assault on the U.S. compound at Benghazi. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his colleagues were killed in the attack.

Lt. Col. Wood has told CBS News and congressional investigators that his 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force called a Mobile Security Deployment team left Libya in August, just one month before the Benghazi assault. Wood says that’s despite the fact that US officials in Libya wanted security increased, not decreased.

Wood says he met daily with Stevens and that security was a constant challenge. There were 13 threats or attacks on western diplomats and officials in Libya in the six months leading up to the September 11 attack.

A senior State Department official told CBS News that half of the 13 incidents before September 11 were fairly minor or routine in nature, and that the Benghazi attack was so lethal and overwhelming, that a diplomatic post would not be able to repel it.

Wood, whose team arrived in February, says he and fellow security officials were very worried about the chaos on the ground. He says they tried to communicate the danger to State Department officials in Washington, D.C., but that the officials denied requests to enhance security.

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US Intelligence Officials Angered By President Obama’s Efforts To Cover Up Al Qaeda Surge In Egypt And Libya

WASHINGTON, DC – Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.

Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

“The Iranian strategy is two-fold: upping the ante for the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against Iran and perceived cyber operations against Iran’s nuclear weapons program by conducting terror attacks on soft U.S. targets and cyber attacks against U.S. financial interests,” said one official, speaking confidentially.

Fatal Shooting Of Arizona US Border Patrol Agent And Wounding Of Another Said To Be “Friendly Fire”

ARIZONA – This week’s fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the wounding of another in Arizona was likely the result of friendly fire, the FBI said late Friday.

“While it is important to emphasize that the FBI’s investigation is actively continuing, there are strong preliminary indications that the death of United States Border Patrol Agent Nicholas J. Ivie, 30, and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents,” James Turgal, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division, said in a statement.

“At the appropriate time further information will be provided, but while the investigation continues it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time,” he said.

Earlier, a law enforcement official said investigators at the scene had not found shell casings except those believed to have been fired by the Border Patrol agents.

Investigators are awaiting results of ballistics tests, said the official, who was not authorized to speak for attribution about the investigation.

“We have much to learn and conclude from this incident, and I ask for the public’s patience and understanding during this difficult time,” Jeff Self, commander of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Arizona field joint command, told reporters late Friday.

He remembered Ivie for his character, kindness and loyalty.

“Agent Ivie gave the ultimate sacrifice and died serving his country. … He died in the line of duty and will be honored as such for his final act of service,” said Self.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to Arizona on Friday to express her condolences to the fallen agent’s family and to meet with local officials.

“This tragedy reminds us of the risks our men and women confront, the dangers they willingly undertake, while protecting our nation’s borders,” she said. “Together, we stand in solidarity with their families and friends, and pray for the continued safety of all who serve our country.”

Napolitano was in Arizona one day after Mexican authorities questioned two men in connection with the shooting near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Mexican army handed the two over to local authorities in Sonora and they were being detained near the American border, the Mexican attorney general’s office said Thursday. The two were in possession of drugs and guns when they were detained, said a source in the same office.

Ivie, a Provo, Utah, native who joined the Border Patrol in January 2008, is survived by his wife and two young children.

He was killed near a border station recently named for Brian Terry, whose 2010 death led to the public disclosure of the botched Fast and Furious gun-smuggling sting.

Ivie was the 14th agent killed in the line of duty since 2008, including three this year.

The agent who was wounded has not been identified. After the shooting, he was airlifted to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and later released.

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Ohio Business Owner Tells Obama: Business Is “Terrible Since You Got Here”

OHIO: An Ohio man at the market told President Obama that business has been “Terrible since you got here,” according to the White House pool report. Via the pool report:

Potus stopped to meet people waiting for him, where he did the requisite hand-shaking, high-fiving and the rare baby-holding before going on to chat with proprietors at Turczyk’s Meats and the adjoining Larry Vilstein’s, Christopher Bakery and Edward Badbuster & Son. He then asked the proprietor at Rolston Poultry how business was going. “Terrible since you got here,” the man said. Pool could not get close enough to the Rolston Poultry man to get his name or political affiliation. Potus didn’t appear amused by the sentiment.

New Hampshire Voter: “Obama Couldn’t Run A Lemonade Stand”

BERLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE – Mitt Romney is a part-time resident of this tiny state, and his fiscally conservative, socially moderate tenure as governor of neighboring Massachusetts once seemed a good match for New Hampshire’s independent and libertarian-leaning electorate.

Yet, Romney trails President Barack Obama in polls here, as he does in most other presidential battlegrounds, despite spending considerable time and money to lock up the state’s four Electoral College votes. Some New Hampshire voters say they are turned off by his shift to the right on issues like abortion, while others have absorbed the message from Obama campaign ads depicting Romney as a wealthy corporate titan who doesn’t understand the concerns of ordinary Americans.

“He’s just another rich, arrogant son of a gun,” said Norm Small, 61, a registered independent who runs a bowling alley in Berlin in northern New Hampshire. The town is home to many of the working-class white voters who have never embraced Obama, but interviews found many residents deeply skeptical of Romney’s fiscal policies and aura of privilege.

Small said he was offended by comments Romney made at a secretly videotaped Florida fundraiser suggesting that 47 percent of people see themselves as “victims” entitled to public assistance and unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives. The Obama campaign is running a tough new ad in New Hampshire drawing attention to those remarks.

“The people who are getting help probably really need it,” Small said. “Romney says 47 percent of people are living off the dole? He should realize that lot of them are struggling.”

Polls until recently had shown Romney giving strong chase to Obama in a state Obama carried by nearly 10 percentage points over Republican John McCain four years ago. But an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll released last week showed Obama leading Romney by 7 percentage points — 51 to 44 percent — among likely voters.

The Romney campaign’s TV advertising has dipped somewhat in the state in recent weeks but has been buoyed by ads from the super PAC American Crossroads. Aides downplayed the advertising drop, noting the state does not have an early voting program, meaning voters can be wooed through Election Day, Nov. 6.

“We are committed, we are focused, and we have a ground game that is extraordinarily strong,” Romney senior New Hampshire adviser Jim Merrill said. “This state is absolutely in play.”

Romney has made the state part of his identity; he formally announced his 2012 presidential candidacy at a New Hampshire farm and has spent many weekends at his vacation compound on Lake Winnipesaukee.

New Hampshire has not always been the most hospitable place for Obama. In the 2008 Democratic primary, voters snubbed him for rival Hillary Rodman Clinton just days after Obama routed the former first lady in Iowa’s kickoff caucuses.

Berlin resident David Viger says Obama’s tax and regulatory policies have hurt and in some cases shut down local businesses. The 61-year-old auto repair shop owner says he is eager to vote for Romney.

“Romney is a successful businessman. Obama is not,” Viger said. “Obama has no clue on how to run a business. Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand.”

New Hampshire is the smallest of the major battleground states. But both sides are acutely aware of its potential to alter the outcome if the national contest is tight.

They point to 2000, when Democrat Al Gore lost New Hampshire by just 7,000 votes to Republican George W. Bush. Had Gore prevailed in New Hampshire, he would have had the 270 votes needed to win the election and the famously disputed Florida vote would not have determined the race.

Romney still must convince voters here he’s still the pragmatic problem-solver they observed in Massachusetts.

“A fiscally conservative, socially libertarian message wins here,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics director Neil Levesque said. “The message is: ‘Stay away from me, stay away from my life, and, by the way, what’s going on with all the spending? … Washington is out of control.’”

Romney’s focus on jobs may not fully resonate in New Hampshire. The state’s unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in August is far lower than the 8.1 percent national average, blunting his effort to cast Obama as a poor steward of the economy.

Romney also faces a considerable gender gap — the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll found Obama leading Romney among women by 20 percentage points, 57-37 percent.

Manice Moser, 33, said she would vote for Obama chiefly based on his record on women’s issues. The stay-at-home mother of three said her vote was driven more by antipathy to Romney than excitement about the president.

“The most important thing is women’s rights. I have two daughters and they should be able to control their choices,” Moser said.

Romney was pro-abortion rights as Massachusetts governor but since has shifted his position to opposing abortion in most cases, a position more in line with the social conservatives who make up a large portion of the national Republican Party base. He has vowed to end federal aid to Planned Parenthood, a leading provider of abortion and contraception services.

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Federal Deficit For 2012 Budget Year $1.1 TRILLION – Fourth Straight Year Under Obama And Over $1 TRILLION

WASHINGTON, DC – A new estimate puts the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth straight year of trillion dollar deficits on President Barack Obama’s watch.

The result was a slight improvement from the 2011 deficit of $1.3 trillion.

Bogus “Hope” And “Change” Messages Don’t Work Anymore – Obama Campaign Switches To Attack Mode

WASHINGTON, DC – With its candidate having been swamped in the debate by an aggressive and articulate Gov. Mitt Romney, the Obama campaign is switching fully into attack mode, moving beyond earlier assaults on Romney’s business record and wealth toward a new drive to destroy his character.

Casting completely aside the Obama 2008 brand of a hopeful unifier, Obama’s operatives Thursday dived straight the jugular, working on multiple fronts to brand Romney a liar. The campaign, Obama aides made clear, would henceforth be conducted exclusively Chicago style.

In a vicious and personal assault rarely conducted at the highest level of U.S. politics, White House senior adviser David Plouffe repeatedly told reporters aboard Air Force One that Romney was “dishonest.” With the president of the United States in a cabin just a few steps away, his top adviser pushed out the new campaign theme that the man who had bested him in the debate Wednesday night is an untrustworthy scoundrel.

FBI Finally Shows Up At Abandoned Benghazi Libya Embassy Three Weeks After Attacks – Claimed It Was Too Dangerous Until Now, But Looters, Curiosity Seekers, And Reporters Had No Problems At Site

WASHINGTON, DC — Escorted by several dozen Special Operations forces, F.B.I. agents on Thursday entered the ruins of the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, as part of their investigation into the killings there of ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Security fears had kept the F.B.I. agents from traveling the 400 miles from the American Embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, to collect evidence at a crime scene that was trampled, looted and badly burned by militants more than three weeks ago. Administration officials said Thursday the delay was caused in part by the Libyan government, which they described as slow in granting approval for the mission.

The officials said the agents flew from Tripoli in a C-130 military transport plane and were then driven to the compound in armored cars. The officials did not say how many F.B.I. agents were involved or precisely how long they were on the ground. The Pentagon press secretary, George Little, would only say at a briefing that the agents and their military escorts were in Benghazi “for a number of hours” before returning to Tripoli.

The agents were specialists in evidence collection, according to law enforcement officials, and were there to sift through the wreckage and to determine in better detail how the attack unfolded. It is unclear how much can still be gleaned from the site, which a senior American law enforcement official has described as so badly “degraded” that linking evidence to the attackers will be difficult at best.

Already looters, curiosity seekers and reporters have been through the site, which is only protected by two private security guards hired by the compound’s Libyan owner, The Washington Post reported Thursday. On Wednesday, a Post reporter at the site discovered loosely secured sensitive documents about American operations in Libya, some of which were turned over to the State Department. Last month CNN discovered Mr. Stevens’s diary in the wreckage.

It is unclear if the F.B.I. investigators plan to return to the site, but Mr. Little hinted that they might. He offered few details about the military escort operation, adding, “We may need to replicate it in the future, and I wouldn’t want to tip off the wrong people.”

It appears that the F.B.I. spent little or no time interviewing residents in Benghazi. Typically they would spend weeks, rather than hours, at a crime scene as important to national security as this site. The F.B.I., which always investigates the deaths of American overseas under suspicious circumstances, has agents from its national security division and New York field office in Libya. They have been operating largely out of the American Embassy in Tripoli, now guarded by a force of 50 elite Marines trained to protect American diplomatic posts in crisis.

But even in Tripoli the investigation has been hobbled by the tenuous security in Libya after the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Late last month investigators were so fearful about the risks of taking some potential Libyan witnesses into the American Embassy that they resorted to questioning people in cars outside the embassy.

The agents are also operating without any help on the ground from the C.I.A., which had about a dozen intelligence operatives and contractors in Benghazi until the attacks, conducting surveillance and collecting information on militant groups in the city. They were among more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from Benghazi after the attack.

American counterterrorism officials and Benghazi residents are now focused on a local militant group, Ansar al-Shariah, as the main force behind the attack, which occurred on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

President Obama has vowed to bring the killers to justice, and the United States is now laying the groundwork for possible operations to kill or capture militants implicated in the attack. The options could include drone strikes, Special Operations raids and joint missions with the Libyan authorities. But the Libyan government opposes any unilateral American military operation in Libya against the attackers, and administration officials say no decisions have been made about attacking any potential targets.

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Obama Tries To Fight Back With BS After He Was Handed His Butt On A Plate At Debate – What’s He Smoking? Claims Romney Was An Imposter

LAKEWOOD, COLORADO – In his first public appearance after what was widely viewed as a lackluster debate performance against his Republican challenger, President Barack Obama was cheered Thursday at a morning rally by thousands of supporters, telling them he was shocked to meet a “guy who was playing Mitt Romney” on stage.

“When I got onto the stage, I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney,” he said.

“The real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year, promising $5 trillion in tax cuts to favor the wealthy,” he said. But on Wednesday, “he said, I don’t know anything about that,” Obama said. “The real Mitt Romney said we don’t need anymore teachers in our classrooms….but last night, he can’t get enough of them.”

Obama, speaking to a crowd of 10,000 at Sloan’s Lake here, addressed Wednesday’s debate at the University of Denver in a far more spirited attack on Romney than he leveled at the debate, repeatedly characterizing Romney’s performance as that of a candidate attempting to morph his political profile and step away from his former positions on issues such as taxes and education while refusing to provide details on billions of dollars he’d cut in programs.

“Thank goodness somebody is getting tough on Big Bird. We didn’t know Big Bird was driving the federal deficit but that’s what we heard last night,” Obama said, referring to Romney’s statement that he would cut funding for the public television, which is home of “Sesame Street.”

“I had to spend a lot of time last night trying to pin him down,” he said, noting that on the issue of tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs, Romney “said he doesn’t even know there are such laws.”

“It will be interesting to see what the guy who was playing Mitt Romney yesterday” will do on foreign policy, the subject of the last debate later this month in Florida, he said.

Thousands braved the cold, lining up at dawn around Sloan’s Lake in suburban Lakewood for the rally and appeared undeterred after most pundits panned Obama’s performance as lackluster and called Wednesday’s debate in favor of Romney. The GOP candidate delivered a much-needed bravura performance, appearing energetic and aggressive in contrast to Obama’s low-key, professorial approach.

Speakers and entertainers downplayed the debate reviews and put on a brave face, and several of them reprised the theme that Romney offered a new version of himself in an attempt to fool voters.
“Do you believe the new Mitt Romney?” asked former U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, using a refrain that pumped up the crowd, which shouted “No!” to his repeated observations about Romney’s debate promises to protect the middle class, education, and social programs. He lauded the president as telling “the truth” at the rally, as the crowd cheered.

“The choice couldn’t be more clear…that’s what you saw last night,” said Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall. “We’ve got 33 days left…we ignore the pundits,” Udall said. “What do they know?”

The upbeat crowd chanted “Fired up! Ready to Go!” and lustily sang along in the chill morning air with performer Will.I.Am, whose message came in songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“We have to go out and vote and inspire the ones who don’t believe to keep on believing,” he told them.

Pat Clark, 70, a retired accountant from Denver, was among the Obama supporters who expressed disappointment in the debate, its moderator –and the candidate, who she said should have gone on attack more.

“Jim Lehrer lost control,” she said, allowing Romney to take over and drive the issues.

But like many of the rallly, Clark said the debate didn’t change her mind — or her enthusiasm for Obama. ‘”He’ll come back,” she said.

Lynn Norrie, 70, a Denver nurse therapist, also said she was disappointed that the debate on domestic issues never included a question on immigration or women’s issues, like reproductive rights. “Cutting funding for Planned Parenthood? That’s the sharpest difference between them..it’s crystal clear,” she said.

Obama’s Denver rally marks the start of a new campaign swing and fundraising drive that will take him to California this week. He will be in San Francisco Monday for a two fundraisers, including one at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium expecrted to drawn big crowds.

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New Questions Arise Over New Zealand Government’s Illegal Spying – County’s CIA Equivalent Illegaly Spied On Behalf Of New Zealand And US Governments In Now-Doomed FILE SHARING Case

NEW ZEALAND – The slow-motion train wreck of the Megaupload investigation rumbles on, with a new report alleging Kim Dotcom’s Internet connection showed signs of interference earlier than New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau had admitted.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Dotcom’s ping times were under investigation by his ISP, Gen-I, as far back as November 2011. The GCSB has only admitted to tapping his connections between December and Dotcom’s arrest in January. In September, prime minister Key apologised1 for the illegal wiretaps.

The Herald report states that Dotcom’s Modern Warfare 3 ping went from 30 milliseconds to 180 milliseconds in November 2011, and a traceroute found three extra hops within New Zealand added to his path to the XBox server Dotcom used to play the game.

Dotcom was proud of his worldwide number-one ranking on the game, something which can at least in part be attributed to the fibre connection he installed to the mansion he occupied at Coatesville, near Auckland.

The internal GCSB investigation sparked by the illegal Dotcom taps revealed at least three other cases in which illegal snooping may have taken place.

Although the PM says the GCSB has given a fresh assurance that there was no spying on Dotcom prior to December, the allegation will shake any trust New Zealanders have in its spy agency, and both Labor and the Greens are calling for an independent inquiry into the agency.

It’s quite possible, of course, that the routing issues investigated by Gen-I had nothing to do with spying; however, if the GCSB was responsible for the extra 150 ms ping and three new route hops – both easily visible to the end user – the revelation would call into question not only its honesty, but its competence

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AARP Tries To Distance Their Organization From Obama After He Mentioned Them During Debate – Association Stands To Make Between $55 And $166 MILLION From Obamacare In 2014

WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama invoked AARP to defend his health care law last night, prompting the influential group to release a statement telling him not to do that again.

“While we respect the rights of each campaign to make its case to voters, AARP has never consented to the use of its name by any candidate or political campaign,” the group posted in a statement. “AARP is a nonpartisan organization and we do not endorse political candidates nor coordinate with any candidate or political party.”

Obama can perhaps be forgiven for thinking he could mention AARP given how they coordinated with him to pass Obamacare, which is a golden goose for the organization.

“Thanks to its cuts to Medicare Advantage, Obamacare is expected to expand the number of seniors buying “medigap” supplemental insurance plans,” The Washington Examiner explained in an editorial. “AARP controls 34 percent of the market for such plans. According to a 2011 House Ways and Means Committee report, AARP stands to make between $55 million and $166 million from Obamacare in 2014 alone.”

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US Begins To FLY Wetbacks Home To Mexico – Illegal Immigrants Previously Bussed To Mexican Border Towns, Now Thousands – Many Of Them Criminals, Will Be Flown In Luxury To Mexico City At US Taxpayer Expense

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. government began flying Mexican deportees home on Tuesday in a two-month experiment aimed at relieving Mexican border cities overwhelmed by large numbers of people ordered to leave the United States, some who fall prey to criminal gangs.

The flights will run twice a week from El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City until Nov. 29, at which time both governments will evaluate the results and decide whether to continue. The first flight left Tuesday with 131 Mexicans aboard.

The flights are not voluntary, unlike a previous effort from 2004 to 2011 to deport Mexicans arrested by the Border Patrol during Arizona’s deadly summer heat. The U.S. government will pay for the flights, and the Mexican government will pay to return people from Mexico City to their hometowns.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary said late Tuesday that more than 2,400 passengers will be flown to Mexico City during the next two months. Mexicans from the country’s northern border states are not eligible.

The experiment comes as Mexican cities along the U.S. border are grappling with large numbers of deportees who have no roots, few job prospects and sometimes limited Spanish. Many are deported to cities that are among the hardest hit by organized crime in Mexico, particularly across the border from Texas in the state of Tamaulipas.

“The newly repatriated, often with no means to return home, are susceptible to becoming part of criminal organizations as a means of survival,” Gustavo Mohar, Mexico’s interior undersecretary for population, migration and religious affairs, said in a statement released by ICE.

ICE Director John Morton said the flights “will better ensure that individuals repatriated to Mexico are removed in circumstances that are safe and controlled.”

ICE, which is managing the flights, said passengers will include Mexicans with criminal convictions in the United States and those who don’t have any. They will be taken from throughout the United States to a processing center in Chaparral, N.M., before being put on flights at El Paso International Airport.

President Barack Obama’s administration has made migrants with criminal convictions a top priority among the roughly 400,000 people of all nationalities who are deported each year. The Department of Homeland Security said nearly half of the 293,966 Mexicans deported in its last fiscal year had criminal convictions in the United States.

The policy has fueled concern in Mexican cities along the U.S. border that deportees are being victimized, turn to petty crime or are recruited by criminal gangs. In February, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Mexican Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire announced plans for a pilot program, which was to begin April 1, but negotiations delayed the start until Tuesday. Homeland Security officials said the time was needed considering the complexities and logistics of the effort.

The Border Patrol will not participate in the flights, which is called the Interior Repatriation Initiative, said ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas.

Under a previous effort, some Mexicans who were arrested by the Border Patrol in Arizona’s stifling summer heat were offered a free flight to Mexico City, but they could refuse. The Mexican Interior Repatriation Program flights carried 125,164 passengers at a cost of $90.6 million from 2004 to 2011, or an average of $724 for each passenger, according to ICE.

The flights became a key piece of Border Patrol enforcement in Arizona as the agency moved to end its decades-old, revolving-door policy of taking migrants to the nearest border crossing to try again hours later.

Doris Meissner, who headed the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in the 1990s, said the pilot program was an encouraging sign that that two governments are working together to address the large number of deportees in Mexico’s northern border cities.

“It makes it less likely these people will try to renter the U.S. … and it creates some chance that they are in an environment where they actually have some ties,” she said.

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Obama Takes A Beating At Debate: “Bewildered And Lost Without His Teleprompter, President Obama Flailed All Around The Debate Stage Last Night.” – Eviscerated By Romney

WASHINGTON, DC – Bewildered and lost without his teleprompter, President Obama flailed all around the debate stage last night. He was stuttering, nervous and petulant. It was like he had been called in front of the principal after goofing around for four years and blowing off all his homework.

Not since Jimmy Carter faced Ronald Reagan has the U.S. presidency been so embarrassingly represented in public. Actually, that’s an insult to Jimmy Carter.

The split screen was most devastating. Mitt Romney spoke forthrightly, with carefully studied facts and details at the ready. He looked right at the president and accused him of being miles out of his depth.

Mr. Obama? His eyes were glued to his lectern, looking guilty and angry and impatient with all the vagaries of Democracy. This debate was seriously chafing him.

What exactly was Mr. Obama’s strategy here? Did he figure with so many people unemployed in this abomination of an economy he should go for the sympathy vote? Like voters could relate to a guy who is just scared pantsless that he is about to lose his job?

In the middle of the blood-letting segment about jobs, Mr. Romney said good-naturedly: “This is fun.”

Almost pleading, Mr. Obama reached out to the moderator for a lifeline: “You may want to move onto another topic.”

When an unexpected noise went off behind him, Mr. Obama wheeled around to look as if to ask, “Time to go?”

Hopefully.

Turns out, it was the first honest thing we have heard from Mr. Obama’s campaign: The president really was absolutely terrible on the debate stage.

Maybe the next debate will be on something other than the economy that won’t be so bad for Mr. Obama. Perhaps they could hold a debate on street organizing.

Who knew anyone on the planet could make Mitt Romney look easy, relaxed, smooth and human?

But Mr. Romney was absolutely on fire Wednesday night. He had command of countless specifics from voters and business owners from all across country.

He explained complex issues clearly, concisely and with good humor. He was not angry. But he was direct and pointed.

“I’ve been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Romney said in the most devastating understatement of the night. “I maybe need to get a new accountant.”

Like a prosecutor in court, Mr. Romney went after Mr. Obama’s record and eviscerated him about the terrible economy and Mr. Obama’s belief in “trickle down government.”

Mr. Romney also came off as genuine by looking Mr. Obama in the eye with every criticism. He also looked moderator Jim Lehrer in the eye when he told him that if he became president he would cut funding to public broadcasting, possibly eliminating his job.

Mr. Obama weakly offered Mr. Lehrer: “You’ve done a great job.”

OK, that’s one vote for Mr. Obama in the sympathy strategy. Just 55 million votes to go.

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Sensitive Documents Left Behind As US Abandons US Embassy In Benghazi Libya

BENGHAZI, LIBYA — More than three weeks after attacks in this city killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, sensitive documents remained only loosely secured in the wreckage of the U.S. diplomatic post on Wednesday, offering visitors easy access to delicate information about American operations in Libya.

Documents detailing weapons collection efforts, emergency evacuation protocols, the full internal itinerary of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s trip and the personnel records of Libyans who were contracted to secure the post were among the items scattered across the floors of the looted compound when a Washington Post reporter and an interpreter visited Wednesday.

The discovery further complicates efforts by the Obama administration to respond to what has rapidly become a major foreign-policy issue just weeks before the election. Republicans have accused Obama of having left U.S. diplomatic compounds in Muslim-majority nations insufficiently protected on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and have questioned the security preparations ahead of assaults on embassies in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and Sudan. Capitol Hill critics have also pressed for an explanation for the slow pace of the investigation that has followed the attack in Benghazi.

Although the gates to the Benghazi compound were locked several days after the attacks, looters and curiosity-seekers were free to roam in the initial chaotic aftermath, and many documents may already have disappeared.

No government-provided security forces are guarding the compound, and Libyan investigators have visited just once, according to a member of the family who owns the compound and who allowed the journalists to enter Wednesday.

Two private security guards paid for by the compound’s Libyan owner are the only people watching over the sprawling site, which is composed of two adjoining villa complexes and protected in some places by a wall only eight feet high.

“Securing the site has obviously been a challenge,” Mark Toner, deputy spokesman at the State Department, said in response to questions about conditions at the Benghazi compound. “We had to evacuate all U.S. government personnel the night of the attack. After the attack, we requested help securing the site, and we continue to work with the Libyan government on this front.”

State Department officials were provided with copies of some of the documents found at the site. They did not request that the documents be withheld from publication.

None of the documents were marked classified, but this is not the first time that sensitive documents have been found by journalists in the charred wreckage of the compound. CNN discovered a copy of the ambassador’s journal last month and broadcast details from it, drawing an angry response from the State Department. Unlike the journal, all of the documents seen by The Post were official.

At least one document found amid the clutter indicates that Americans at the post were discussing the possibility of an attack in early September, just two days before the assault took place. The document is a memorandum dated Sept. 9 from the U.S. post’s security office to the 17th February Martyrs Brigade, the Libyan-government-sanctioned militia that was guarding the compound, making plans for a “quick reaction force,” or QRF, that would provide security.

“In the event of an attack on the U.S. Mission,” the document states, “QRF will request additional support from the 17th February Martyrs Brigade.”

Other documents detail — with names, photographs, phone numbers and other personal information — the Libyans contracted to provide security for the post from a British-based private firm, Blue Mountain. Some of those Libyans say they now fear for their lives, and the State Department has said it shares concerns about their safety.

“The guys with beards may endanger my life,” said one Libyan contractor, referring to the people who attacked the U.S. post. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, but his photograph, phone number, birthday, age, religion, English-language skills, Libyan national identity number, marital status, method of transport to work and first date of employment at the post were all listed in a document found at the site, along with similarly detailed information about 13 others and basic information about dozens more.

On Tuesday, two House Republicans sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton demanding more information about the assault on the Benghazi compound. The letter from Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (Utah) said Libyans working as private security personnel at the compound were warned by family members in the weeks before the attacks to quit their jobs because of rumors of an impending attack. The congressmen did not say where they had received the information.

Concerns about safety in Benghazi have confined a team of FBI investigators to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which is hundreds of miles away, and local security officials say they cannot guarantee that Americans would be safe here.

“We don’t have institutions,” said Col. Salah bin Omran, the newly appointed military head of Rafallah al-Sahati, a government-backed militia that is one of the main groups providing security in Benghazi. “The security for normal people is fine. But I don’t know. If the Americans come, I’m not sure they’ll be completely safe.”

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not comment Wednesday on the agents’ location. “We’re continuing with our investigation, and we have not commented on the specific location of our agents or resources,” Bresson said.

The delays may have significantly complicated efforts to interview or detain members of Ansar al-Sharia, the militant Islamist militia that the U.S. government suspects played an important role in the attack. Late last month, the militia’s compound was stormed by angry protesters, and its members have gone underground, taking their weapons with them after living openly in Benghazi for more than a week after the attack on the U.S. post.

Many of the Libyan contractors, as well as some members of the brigade once tasked with guarding the compound, say they have not been contacted by the Libyan or U.S. governments about their safety concerns. Some say they have tried to contact the Americans but have not received a response.

The Blue Mountain contractors were intended to complement the armed members of the militia. Both groups were present on the night of Sept. 11.

In the unsigned memorandum from the U.S. post to the militia, which appears to be a draft, guards “are required to acquire and maintain their own weapons and ammunition,” the document states.

The security presence appears to have been bare-bones, with three or more armed militia members on the compound any time the “principal officer” was present — either the head of the outpost or the ambassador. A somewhat larger group of unarmed contractors was also hired to guard the site but was not mentioned in the memorandum with the militia.

When the principal officer was not present, a single militia member was instructed to be at the front gate between 8 a.m. and midnight. Between midnight and 8 a.m., one militia member was scheduled to be on roving patrol. The militia members were supposed to work a minimum of eight hours a day and were to be paid a stipend of about $28 a day, a relatively standard wage. They were housed on the U.S. compound.

The memorandum tells the militia security force to summon more guards from its nearby base if the post is attacked, suggesting that the Americans there were concerned that the regular guard force would be inadequate in an emergency.

The itinerary of Stevens’s trip to Benghazi includes a near-full accounting of his planned movements during what was supposed to be a visit that lasted from Sept. 10 until Sept. 15. It includes names and phone numbers of Libyans who were scheduled to meet with him. Some of those Libyans have not made their contact with Stevens public and could be at risk if it were publicly known.

The meetings include briefings with U.S. officials, a private dinner with influential local leaders, and meetings with militia heads, businesspeople, civil society activists and educators. The highlight of the visit was the opening of the American Space, a center intended to serve as a hub for U.S. culture and education.

Several copies of the itinerary were scattered across multiple rooms of the compound. One appears to be a page from the ambassador’s personal copy; it was on the floor, next to a chair in the bedroom where he had been sleeping.

The compound still reeked of smoke Wednesday, and all of the buildings had been looted. Overturned furniture, broken glass and strewn documents were everywhere. Chandeliers lay on the floor. In kitchens, food was rotting.

But elsewhere on the compound, gardens were blooming and untouched. Guava trees were heavy with fruit; purple grapes were swelling on rows of vines. The newly hired security guards appeared to be living in a small room at the front gate, where a thin mattress lay on the floor, along with preparations for lunch.

Anne Gearan, Sari Horwitz and Ernesto Londoño in Washington and Ayman Alkekly in Benghazi contributed to this report.

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Billions Of American Tax Dollars Spent On Useless Department Of Homeland Security Program To Search For Terrorists That Immediately Refocused On Improperly Collecting Information About Innocent Americans

WASHINGTON, DC – A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone’s ability to control.

What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found.

The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts. The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting.

Disagreeing with the critical conclusions of the report, Homeland Security says it is outdated, inaccurate and too focused on information produced by the program, ignoring benefits to local governments from their involvement with federal intelligence officials.

Because of a convoluted grants process set up by Congress, Homeland Security officials don’t know how much they have spent in their decade-long effort to set up so-called fusion centers in every state. Government estimates range from less than $300 million to $1.4 billion in federal money, plus much more invested by state and local governments. Federal funding is pegged at about 20 percent to 30 percent.

Despite that, Congress is unlikely to pull the plug. That’s because, whether or not it stops terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local governments.

A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period and concluded that most had nothing to do with terrorism. The panel’s chairman is Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

“The subcommittee investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot,” the report said.

When fusion centers did address terrorism, they sometimes did so in ways that infringed on civil liberties. The centers have made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters and advocates of gun rights.

One fusion center cited in the Senate investigation wrote a report about a Muslim community group’s list of book recommendations. Others discussed American citizens speaking at mosques or talking to Muslim groups about parenting.

No evidence of criminal activity was contained in those reports. The government did not circulate them, but it kept them on government computers. The federal government is prohibited from storing information about First Amendment activities not related to crimes.

“It was not clear why, if DHS had determined that the reports were improper to disseminate, the reports were proper to store indefinitely,” the report said.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler called the report “out of date, inaccurate and misleading.” He said that it focused entirely on information being produced by fusion centers and did not consider the benefit the involved officials got receiving intelligence from the federal government.

The report is as much an indictment of Congress as it is the Homeland Security Department. In setting up the department, lawmakers wanted their states to decide what to spend the money on. Time and again, that setup has meant the federal government has no way to know how its security money is being spent.

Inside Homeland Security, officials have long known there were problems with the reports coming out of fusion centers, the report shows.

“You would have some guys, the information you’d see from them, you’d scratch your head and say, ‘What planet are you from?’” an unidentified Homeland Security official told Congress.

Until this year, the federal reports officers received five days of training and were never tested or graded afterward, the report said.

States have had criminal analysis centers for years. But the story of fusion centers began in the frenzied aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The 9/11 Commission urged better collaboration among government agencies. As officials realized that a terrorism tip was as likely to come from a local police officer as the CIA, fusion centers became a hot topic.

But putting people together to share intelligence proved complicated. Special phone and computer lines had to be installed. The people reading the reports needed background checks. Some information could only be read in secure areas, which meant construction projects.

All of that cost money.

Meanwhile, federal intelligence agencies were under orders from Congress to hire more analysts. That meant state and local agencies had to compete for smart counterterrorism thinkers. And federal training for local analysts wasn’t an early priority.

Though fusion centers receive money from the federal government, they are operated independently. Counterterrorism money started flowing to states in 2003. But it wasn’t until late 2007 that the Bush administration told states how to run the centers.

State officials soon realized there simply wasn’t that much local terrorism-related intelligence. Terrorist attacks didn’t happen often, but police faced drugs, guns and violent crime every day. Normal criminal information started moving through fusion centers.

Under federal law, that was fine. When lawmakers enacted recommendations of the 9/11 Commission in 2007, they allowed fusion centers to study “criminal or terrorist activity.” The law was co-sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman, the driving forces behind the creation of Homeland Security.

Five years later, Senate investigators found, terrorism is often a secondary focus.

“Many fusion centers lacked either the capability or stated objective of contributing meaningfully to the federal counterterrorism mission,” the Senate report said. “Many centers didn’t consider counterterrorism an explicit part of their mission, and federal officials said some were simply not concerned with doing counterterrorism work.”

When Janet Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary in 2009, the former Arizona governor embraced the idea that fusion centers should look beyond terrorism. Testifying before Congress that year, she distinguished fusion centers from the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces that are the leading investigative and analytical arms of the domestic counterterrorism effort.

“A JTTF is really focused on terrorism and terrorism-related investigations,” she said. “Fusion centers are almost everything else.”

Congress, including the committee that authored the report, supports that notion. And though the report recommends the Senate reconsider the amount of money it spends on fusion centers, that seems unlikely.

“Congress and two administrations have urged DHS to continue or even expand its support of fusion centers, without providing sufficient oversight to ensure the intelligence from fusion centers is commensurate with the level of federal investment,” the report said.

And following the release of the report, Homeland Security officials indicated their continued strong support for the program.

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Army’s Prosecution Of Fort Hood Killer Stalled Over His Beard – Time And Money Wasted As Army Insists The Filthy Muslim Shave Before Court Appearances

TEXAS – The beard that has stalled the court-martial of accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan will be discussed at a hearing next week, military officials said.

The October 11 hearing at the Army Court of Criminal Appeals was called to address his continued refusal to shave before court appearances, the Army said.

The military psychiatrist is accused of opening fire three years ago at the Texas Army post’s processing center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. The attack left 13 dead and 32 people wounded. Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down after police exchanged fire with him.

His court-martial tied to the shooting had been scheduled to start in August. But the Army Court of Criminal Appeals had delayed its start indefinitely to determine whether the suspect’s beard can be forcibly shaved during trial.

Army regulations prevent soldiers from wearing facial hair while in uniform. Hasan, who is still considered a soldier, is a practicing Muslim and maintains he has the right to wear the beard under U.S. laws protecting religious freedoms.

At an earlier hearing, Hasan spoke about his beard.

“Your honor, in the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim. I believe that my religion requires me to wear a beard,” he told a judge in August.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

A U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, he was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan before the killings in November 2009, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military.

Hasan had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Investigations tied to the Fort Hood shootings found he had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent radical Yemeni-American cleric killed by a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

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New High Definition Cameras Installed In UK Put Human Rights At Risk – Can Identify And Track Individuals From Half A Mile Away

UK – CCTV systems capable of identifying and tracking a person’s face from half a mile away are turning Britain into a Big Brother society, the UK’s first surveillance commissioner has warned.

New high-definition cameras are being rolled out across UK cities without public consultation into the intrusion they pose, Andrew Rennison told The Independent.

The increasing sophistication of surveillance technology is becoming so serious that Britain may be in breach of its own human rights laws, he said. There are already thought to be around 1.85 million CCTV cameras in the UK.

In a stark message to police forces and the Government, Mr Rennison predicted there will be a justifiable public outcry if facial recognition systems and HD cameras are allowed to proliferate on high streets, public transport and at entertainment venues. “The technology has overtaken our ability to regulate it,” he said.

“I’m convinced that if we don’t regulate it properly – ie, the technological ability to use millions of images we capture – there will be a huge public backlash. It is the Big Brother scenario playing out large. It’s the ability to pick out your face in a crowd from a camera which is probably half a mile away.”

Mr Rennison was named as the country’s first Surveillance Commissioner by the Home Office last month, having held the role on an interim basis since 2009. The former police officer said that disproportionate and invasive monitoring was of great concern as HD cameras are “popping up all over the place”.

“The rapid advancement of digital technology means that 16-megapixel HD cameras are now very affordable, so people are buying a camera with a huge optical and digital zoom power.

“A tiny camera in a dome with a 360-degree view can capture your face in the crowd, and there are now the algorithms that run in the background. I’ve seen the test reviews that show there’s a high success rate of picking out your face against a database of known faces.”

Research into automatic facial recognition being carried out by the Home Office has reached a 90 per cent success rate, he said, and it was “improving by the day”.

He said cameras are “storing all the images they record … and the capability is there to run your image against a database of wanted people.”

The anti-surveillance campaign group Big Brother Watch recently found that at least 51,600 CCTV cameras are being used by 428 local authorities – and that 100,000 are in use in schools, with as many as 200 using them inside toilets and changing rooms. More than a million cameras have also been installed on private land.

Mr Rennison is currently only responsible for technology employed in state-owned public places, covering less than 5 per cent of the cameras in the country.

But the Government intends to widen his remit to include schools and hospitals eventually, as well as shopping centres, whose cameras are private yet have effectively become “tools of the state”, according to Mr Rennison.

Mr Rennison – who is overseeing the introduction of the first official code of conduct for CCTV use and will report back to Parliament in April – added that the explosion of powerful surveillance technology could be in breach of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, which seeks to protect “private and family life”.

“I’d like the lawyers to help work our way through that and decide whether we remain Article 8 compliant in this country,” he said. “I don’t want the state to carry on and start pushing the boundaries. Let’s have a debate – if the public support it, then fine. If the public don’t support it, and we need to increase the regulation, then that’s what we need to do.”

Mr Rennison said most people have no idea how advanced the technology has become and of its power to intrude in their lives.

While automatic number-plate recognition systems are now used by every police force in the country remotely to track suspect vehicles’ movements, systems to identify people reminiscent of science fiction films are also becoming available.

“The biometric technology … has to be regulated to forensic standards – facial recognition, facial comparison, gait analysis – because that is a whole new area in forensic science.”

Case study: Mass surveillance scheme foiled by local resistance

An ill-fated plan by the West Midlands police to place several hundred CCTV cameras in part of Birmingham was scrapped in 2010 after a backlash from the local community which complained that the scheme was targeting the mainly Muslim local population.

Police insisted that the cameras were designed to cut local crime and told a community meeting that they provided an “exciting opportunity to track drug dealers selling crack, cocaine and heroin to your children”.

But the community leaders reacted angrily when it emerged that £3m funding came from a pot to combat terrorism. The case was highlighted by Andrew Rennison, the surveillance commissioner, as an example of where the system had not worked. Officials involved in the scheme accepted that they should have been more open about the source of funding for the cameras.

The furore over the cameras, which were installed without consultation, prompted a rapid about-turn by the force which initially put bags over the cameras to put them out of use.

The force confirmed yesterday that the cameras – which were also used to recognise car number plates – were later deployed to other forces for use in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

The case added to concerns about the effectiveness of CCTV cameras in detecting crime. A Freedom of Information request by The Daily Telegraph found in 2009 that the Metropolitan Police’s own research suggested that 1,000 CCTV cameras solved less than one crime per year.

The findings led to demands by the campaigning group Big Brother Watch for police forces and other public authorities to publish crime statistics showing the effectiveness of CCTV cameras and a reassessment of their role.

A report by Big Brother Watch this year found that there were at least 51,600 CCTV cameras controlled by more than 400 local authorities, costing hundreds of millions of pounds. It said Birmingham spent the most – £14m – on cameras with Westminster just behind with nearly £12m. It also found that five authorities had a total of more than 1,000 CCTV cameras.

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Stupidity In Action: Hundreds Of Millions Of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted On Department Of Homeland Security “Fusion” Centers That Spy On Americans – Shoddy, Useless, And Irrelevant Reports With No Contributions Towards Uncovering Or Preventing Terrorist Plots

WASHINGTON, DC – The Department of Homeland Security has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a network of 77 so-called “fusion” intelligence centers that have collected personal information on some U.S. citizens — including detailing the “reading habits” of American Muslims — while producing “shoddy” reports and making no contribution to thwarting any terrorist plots, a new Senate report states.

The “ fusion centers,” created under President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama, consist of special teams of federal , state and local officials collecting and analyzing intelligence on suspicious activities throughout the country. They have been hailed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as “one of the centerpieces” of the nation’s counterterrorism efforts.

But a bipartisan report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released Tuesday concludes that the centers “often produced irrelevant” and “useless” intelligence reports. “There were times when it was, ‘What a bunch of crap is coming through,’” one senior Homeland Security official is quoted as saying .

A spokesman for Napolitano immediately blasted the report as “out of date, inaccurate and misleading.” Another Homeland Security official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said the department has made improvements to the fusion centers and that the skills of officials working in them are “evolving and maturing.”

While dismissing the value of much of the fusion centers’ work, the Senate panel found evidence of what it called “troubling” reports by some centers that may have violated the civil liberties and privacy of U.S. citizens. The evidence cited in the report could fuel a continuing controversy over claims that the FBI and some local police departments, notably New York City’s, have spied on American Muslims without a justifiable law enforcement reason for doing so. Among the examples in the report:

One fusion center drafted a report on a list of reading suggestions prepared by a Muslim community group, titled “Ten Book Recommendations for Every Muslim.” The report noted that four of the authors were listed in a terrorism database, but a Homeland Security reviewer in Washington chastised the fusion center, saying, “We cannot report on books and other writings” simply because the authors are in a terrorism database. “The writings themselves are protected by the First Amendment unless you can establish that something in the writing indicates planning or advocates violent or other criminal activity.”
A fusion center in California prepared a report about a speaker at a Muslim center in Santa Cruz who was giving a daylong motivational talk—and a lecture on “positive parenting.” No link to terrorism was alleged.
Another fusion center drafted a report on a U.S. citizen speaking at a local mosque that speculated that — since the speaker had been listed in a terrorism data base — he may have been attempting “to conduct fundraising and recruiting” for a foreign terrorist group.

“The number of things that scare me about this report are almost too many to write into this (form),” a Homeland Security reviewer wrote after analyzing the report. The reviewer noted that “the nature of this event is constitutionally protected activity (public speaking, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion.)”

The Senate panel found 40 reports — including the three listed above — that were drafted at fusion centers by Homeland Security officials, then later “nixed” by officials in Washington after reviewers “raised concerns the documents potentially endangered the civil liberties or legal privacy protections of the U.S. persons they mentioned.”

Despite being scrapped, however, the Senate report concluded that “these reports should not have been drafted at all.” It also noted that the reports were stored at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a year or more after they had been canceled —a potential violation of the U.S. Privacy Act, which prohibits federal agencies from storing information on U.S. citizens’ First Amendment-protected activities if there is no valid reason to do so.

The report said the retention of these reports also appears to contradict Homeland Security’s own guidelines, which state that once a determination is made that a document should not be retained, “The U.S person identifying information is to be destroyed immediately.”

The investigation was led by the Republican staff of the subcommittee but the 107-page report was approved by chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich and ranking minority Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. It stated that much basic information about the fusion centers – including exactly how much they cost the federal government — was difficult to obtain. Although the fusion centers are overseen by Homeland Security, they are funded primarily through grants to local governments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Although Homeland Security “was unable to provide an accurate tally,” the panel estimated the federal dollars spent on the centers between 2003 and 2011 at between $289 million and $1.4 billion.

The panel’s criticism of the fusion centers was shared in part by Michael Leiter, the former director of the National National Counter-Terrorism Center and now an NBC analyst. “Since 9/11, the growth of state and local fusion centers has been exponential and regrettably in many instances it has produced an ill-planned mishmash rather than a true national system that is well-integrated with existing organizations like the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces,” Leiter wrote in an email when asked about the report.

In its response to the Senate panel , Homeland Security said that the canceled reports could still be retained “for administrative purposes such as audit and oversight.”

The report cited multiple examples of what it called fusion center reports that had little if any value to counterterrorism efforts.

One fusion center report cited described how a certain model car had folding rear seats to the trunk, a feature that it said could be useful to human traffickers. This prompted a Homeland Security reviewer to note that such folding rear seats are “featured on MANY different makes and model of vehicles” and “there is nothing of any intelligence value in this report.”

Another fusion center report, entitled “Possible Drug Smuggling Activity,” recounted the experiences of two state wildlife officials who spotted a pair of men in a bass boat “operating suspiciously” in the body of water off the U.S.-Mexico border. The report noted that the fishermen “avoided eye contact” and that their boat appeared to be low in the water, “as if it were laden with cargo” with high winds and choppy waters.

“The fact that some guys were hanging out in a boat where people normally do not fish MIGHT be an indicator of something abnormal, but does not reach the threshold of something we should be reporting,” a Homeland Security reviewer wrote, according to the Senate panel. “I … think that this should never have been nominated for production, nor passed through three reviews.”

In the Homeland Security Department’s response, spokesman Matt Chandler said the Senate subcommittee “refused to review relevant data, including important intelligence information pertinent to their findings.”

The senior Homeland Security official who spoke to NBC News said that, while the Senate panel reviewed fusion center reports from 2009 and 2010, a more recent June 2011 case in Seattle shows that a fusion center played a key role in helping to thwart a terrorist plot against a local U.S. military processing center.

Chandler added: “The (Senate) report fundamentally misunderstands the role of the federal government in supporting fusion centers and overlooks the significant benefits of this relationship to both state and local law enforcement and the federal government. Among other benefits, fusion centers play a key role by receiving classified and unclassified information from the federal government and assessing its local implications, helping law enforcement on the frontlines better protect their communities from all threats, whether it is terrorism or other criminal activities.”

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120,000 Student Records Exposed To The World As Anonymous Hacks World’s Top 100 Universities In Protest Against Cost Of Tuition And Falling Level Of Education

WASHINGOTN, DC – Hackers have attacked the world’s top 100 universities in a protest against tuition fees and what’s deemed to be a falling quality of education.

Anonymous-affiliated Team GhostShell dumped information from 120,000 user accounts and student records after raiding servers at institutions including Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge and Imperial College London. Universities in Moscow, Rome and Tokyo were also hit in a string of database breaches that spanned three continents.

The leaked data includes email addresses, passwords, the names of students and faculty members, event schedules, and information best kept private. The sensitive records, obtained in a campaign dubbed Project West Wind, were uploaded to the web and linked to from a lengthy manifesto published on Pastebin. Curiously, the miscreants chose to use trendy source-code vault GitHub to host a collection of the snaffled databases.

The hacking crew said many of the university systems it infiltrated were already riddled with malware, a claim that is unfortunately all too believable. The dumped files contain URLs to PHP-scripted pages on the targeted institutions’ websites, along with the contents of SQL tables, suggesting that SQL injection attacks were used to extract information from the systems.

GhostShell previously surfaced with the leak of documents and data lifted from government agencies, banks and consulting firms back in August.

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US And Other Western Forces May Admit Defeat And Retreat From Afghanistan As Taliban’s Recent Efforts Take Their Toll – TRILLIONS Of American Taxpayer Dollars Spent There Already

AFGHANISTAN – The retreat of western forces from Afghanistan could come sooner than expected, the head of Nato has said as he conceded that the recent Taliban strategy of “green on blue” killings had been successful in sapping morale.

In an interview with the Guardian Nato’s secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, responded to pressure for a faster withdrawal from Afghanistan by stating that the options were being studied and should be clear within three months.

“From now until the end of 2014 you may see adaptation of our presence. Our troops can redeploy, take on other tasks, or even withdraw, or we can reduce the number of foreign troops,” he said. “From now until the end of 2014 we will see announcements of redeployments, withdrawals or drawdown … If the security situation allows, I would not exclude the possibility that in certain areas you could accelerate the process.”