Guardian Partners with New York Times Over Snowden GCHQ Files

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Guardian has struck a partnership with the New York Times which will give the US paper access to some of the sensitive cache of documents leaked by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The arrangement was made when the Guardian was faced with demands from the UK government to hand over the GCHQ files it had in its possession.

“In a climate of intense pressure from the UK government, the Guardian decided to bring in a US partner to work on the GCHQ documents provided by Edward Snowden. We are working in partnership with the NYT and others to continue reporting these stories,” the Guardian said in a statement.

Journalists in America are protected by the first amendment which guarantees free speech and in practice prevents the state seeking pre-publication injunctions or “prior restraint”.

It is intended that the collaboration with the New York Times will allow the Guardian to continue exposing mass surveillance by putting the Snowden documents on GCHQ beyond government reach. Snowden is aware of the arrangement.

Read more from this story HERE.

VA Paid $11K Bonus to Surgeon Who Left Op Room Before End of Surgery

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) paid an $11,189 performance pay bonus to a surgeon who left the operating room before a surgery was completed, leaving residents to continue the procedure without him, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on Friday.

The “[s]urgeon who was supervising residents left the operating room and medical center before the surgery was completed, allowing residents to continue the surgery without supervision until another surgeon was found to supervise the residents,” said the report.” The surgeon was suspended without pay for 14 calendar days.”

Despite this particular performance, the VA still gave the surgeon an extra $11,189 in pay.

This surgeon was not the only doctor the VA gave a performance pay bonus after they had engaged in poor performance.

–The VA paid a $7,500 performance pay bonus to a doctor who was reprimanded after refusing to see assigned patients in an emergency room because he or she (GAO does not specify the gender of the doctor) believed the patients had not been triaged appropriately by the emergency department nurse. The report says the physician was reprimanded, but nonetheless received the extra performance pay.

Read more from this story HERE.

Delta Warns ObamaCare Will Drive $100 Million Spike in Health Care Costs

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Delta Air Lines has issued an urgent warning about the impact of ObamaCare, claiming the law’s implementation will contribute to a roughly $100 million increase in health care costs next year alone.

The astonishing figure was included in a letter from Delta executive Robert Kight to officials in the Obama administration. The website RedState.com was the first to obtain and publish the letter earlier this week.

A representative with Delta confirmed the authenticity of the letter to FoxNews.com.

“Like many large companies, Delta faces significantly increased healthcare costs in 2014 and beyond,” the company said in a statement on Friday. “Delta will absorb the vast majority of those increased costs so that we can continue providing a high value, high quality health plan. Consistent with our culture, Delta will always keep the best interests of our people in mind in connection with the healthcare and other benefits we provide.”

In the original letter, Kight disputes the notion that the law — the biggest parts of which take effect at the start of 2014 — will mean “business as usual” for big employers. A combination of factors, he claimed, will “mean that the cost of providing health care to our employees will increase by nearly $100,000,000 next year.”

Read more from this story HERE.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Agrees to Resign

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Embattled San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has agreed to resign Aug. 30 after 17 allegations of sexual harassment.

But in public remarks at a City Council meeting Friday announcing his resignation, an emotional Filner claimed he was the victim of a “lynch mob” and “if given due process, I would be vindicated.”

The City Council voted 7-0 to accept a deal with Filner to end a political stalemate after 17 women, including a great-grandmother, identified themselves as targets of unwanted advances, including touching, forcible kisses and lurid comments.

Filner, 70, who has been in office just nine months, began his remarks by saying “I offer a deep apology. The city should not have been put through this. My own personal failures are responsible and I apologize to the city.”

Referring to the harassment allegations, he said, “To all the women that I’ve offended, I had no intention to be offensive, to violate any physical or emotional space.”

Read more from this story HERE.

NSA Paid Millions to Cover Prism Compliance Costs for Tech Companies

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency’s activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian.

The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred the costs to meet new certification demands in the wake of the ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court.

The October 2011 judgment, which was declassified on Wednesday by the Obama administration, found that the NSA’s inability to separate purely domestic communications from foreign traffic violated the fourth amendment.

While the ruling did not concern the Prism program directly, documents passed to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden describe the problems the decision created for the agency and the efforts required to bring operations into compliance. The material provides the first evidence of a financial relationship between the tech companies and the NSA.

The intelligence agency requires the Fisa court to sign annual “certifications” that provide the legal framework for surveillance operations. But in the wake of the court judgment these were only being renewed on a temporary basis while the agency worked on a solution to the processes that had been ruled illegal.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fort Hood Shooter Convicted on all Counts (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan was found guilty on all 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder Friday, making him eligible for the death penalty.

The sentencing phase of his trial was set to begin Monday.

A military jury deliberated for roughly one day before announcing the verdict.

Hasan sat emotionless, stroking his beard when the judge announced a verdict had been reached. He stood and looked at the juror panel president when the verdict was read, then turned and looked back down.

A few family members of the victims cried and hugged each other at the announcement, but there were no courtroom outbursts.

Read more from this story HERE.

Clinton Faces Rumblings From Her Left Ahead of 2016

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP/REUTERS

Photo Credit: AP/REUTERS

It’s good to be Hillary Clinton. She and her husband Bill are spending a few days with family this week at a six-bedroom beach-house in the Hamptons. Though staying coy about the possibility of a 2016 presidential run, she’s leading every poll of possible Democratic candidates.

Meanwhile, since leaving the secretary of State post, Clinton has been making public appearances, and headlines, on a regular basis.

But behind all the buzz, several liberal Democrats have begun dipping their toes in the 2016 Democratic primary pool — likely positioning for the chance to take on the Democratic powerhouse and tease at any weaknesses team Clinton might have.

The emergence of possible Clinton challengers began earlier this year when an investigation was revealed into whether government strings had been pulled inappropriately on behalf of a company owned by Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham — which was seeking visas for wealthy foreign investors.

It wasn’t long before Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a liberal Democrat who had been openly hinting about running, announced he would begin making speeches outlining his national vision and agenda.

Read more from this story HERE.

5 Bodies ID’d as Those of Kidnapped Mexican Youths

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

At least five of the bodies found this week in a shallow grave near Mexico City are those of teens who were kidnapped from a bar three months ago, Mexico’s attorney general said Friday.

The announcement appears to shed light on a crime that jolted the capital city: The kidnapping of 12 youths from an after-hours club during daylight on the morning of May 26.

Authorities on Thursday said they found a clandestine mass grave east of Mexico City. On Friday, the federal attorney general said the grave — a shallow grave covered by concrete at an eco park in a state neighboring Mexico City — contained 13 bodies.

Five of them were those of youths who’d been taken from the Mexico City club, the attorney general said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Team Involved in Tracking Benghazi Suspects Pulling Out, Sources Say

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Two weeks after the Obama administration announced charges against suspects in the Benghazi attack, a large portion of the U.S. team that hunted the suspects and trained Libyans to help capture or kill them is leaving Libya permanently.

Special operators in the region tell Fox News that while Benghazi targets have been identified for months, officials in Washington could “never pull the trigger.” In fact, one source insists that much of the information on Benghazi suspects had been passed along to the White House after being vetted by the Department of Defense and the State Department — and at least one recommendation for direct action on a Benghazi suspect was given to President Obama as recently as Aug. 7.

Meanwhile, months after video, photo and voice documentation on the Benghazi suspects was first presented to high-level military leaders, the State Department and ultimately the White House, prison breaks in the country have eroded security. U.S. special forces have now been relegated to a “villa,” a stopover for the operators before they’re shipped out of the country entirely.

“We put American special operations in harm’s way to develop a picture of these suspects and to seek justice and instead of acting, we stalled. We just let it slip and pass us by and now it’s going to be much more difficult,” one source said, citing 1,200 prisoners escaping two weeks ago. “It’s already blowing up. Daily assassinations, bi-weekly prison escapes, we waited way too long.”

The latest development raises questions about when the attackers will be brought to justice in the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last September.

Read more from this story HERE.

9th Circuit Blasts Montana Buckaroo Rifle Plan

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

The famously left-leaning 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against the federal government over its gun restrictions, ruling the plaintiffs failed to state a claim.

The expected decision now clears the way for a battle that could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court over state sovereignty, alleged regulatory overreach, the right to self-defense and even the compact under which Montana became a state.

“This was about as good of a ruling as we could have expected from the Ninth Circuit. We must get to the U.S. Supreme Court to accomplish our goal of overturning 70 years of flawed Supreme Court rulings on the Interstate Commerce Clause,” said Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.

“We knew that the Ninth Circuit couldn’t help us with that. Only the Supreme Court can overturn Supreme Court precedent. However, now that the standing question is resolved in our favor, we have the green light to appeal to the Supreme Court.”

The appeals court said although Marbut holds standing to challenge the federal regulation of weapons made, sold and kept inside a state’s borders, the case didn’t state a claim, so it should be dismissed.

Read more from this story HERE.