Explaining the Confusing Sunni-Shia Sectarian Wars and America’s National Interest [+video]

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Enemy Belief System

Islam is divided into two primary sects. They are the Sunnis that constitute 80-85% of the 1.6 billion Islamic followers worldwide and the Shia that comprise 10-13% of the other adherents. There are additional component factions of Islam such as the Sufi, Druze, Alawi, Alevi, and Ahmadiyya that make up the remainder of the “umma,” or Islamic world community. But the Islamic contingents that are in active war with the U.S. and Western Civilization are the Sunni Salafi Wahhabis and the Shia Khomeinist Twelvers.

These two strains of Islam comprise an Islamic enemy that is dedicated to overthrowing the U.S. Constitution and replacing it with Islamic Sharia law. These Muslim sects both believe Islamic scripture mandates that Islamic Sharia theocratic-jurisprudence must supersede all man-conceived, secular-governmental-legal systems (i.e., democracy, communism, fascism, monarchy) because the Islamic Sharia-religious-legal system is based on divinely-revealed canons. Therefore, it cannot be subordinate to any human-conceptualized legal codes. So, according to Islamic scripture, no other legal system can coexist in the same physical territory at the same time with Islamic Sharia.

In order to install Sharia theocratic-jurisprudence in non-Muslim lands, Muslims are conducting “jihad” religious war. If and when the jihadist “soldiers of Allah” succeed in their jihadist conquest, the non-Muslims have only one of three options: 1) convert to Islam; 2) surrender and agree to be part of Islamic Sharia-ruled society as second class citizens with only limited rights by acknowledging the superiority of Islam through paying annual “jizya” – that is, mafia-like “extortion-protection money,” or 3) resist and fight to the death.

Islamic jihad is the “forever war” because Muhammad declared he had been ordered by the Islamic god Allah to fight until all non-Muslims declare their allegiance to Allah and Muhammad: “I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” The recitation pledge that Muhammad demanded of non-Muslims is the Islamic creed or oath of belief (“Shahada”) signifying religious conversion to Islam: “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” (The Islamic “Shahada” is comparable to the Christian “Nicene Creed” and the Jewish “Shema Yisrael.”) Muhammad is considered by Muslims to be the “perfect man” that all Muslims are exhorted to emulate, so Muslims are enjoined in this declaration to fight like Muhammad until the worldwide victory of Islam is achieved. One of the “forever war” Quranic injunctions that Muhammad was encapsulating with his never-ending war declaration is contained in Sura 8:39: “And fight them [non-Muslims] until there is no fitna [disbelief, or the disorder that results from unbelief in Islam] and (until) the religion, all of it, is for Allah.”

So, to summarize, the United States Government is confronted by Islamic enemies from both the Sunni and Shia sects. These Islamic sects are in fact existential adversaries of the U.S. Constitution and advocates of the Islamic Sharia in its place; hence Islamic Sharia religious-political doctrine is a nemesis of the very idea of the liberties, freedoms, and separation of church and state embodied in the U.S. Constitution and U.S. legal system. Furthermore, Islamic scripture calls for Muslims to wage war without end until they succeed in Islamizing the entire world. The strategy of jihad warfare is that, once Sharia jurisprudence is instituted as the law of the land, all obstacles (human, legal, and cultural) to making Islam the sole, dominant religion can be systematically removed.

Enemy Divisions

However, besides conducting the jihadist war on the U.S., the Sunni Salafi Wahhabis and Shia Khomeinist Twelvers are engaged in an Islamic sectarian religious civil war to convince the umma that theirs is the ascendant Islamic jihadist sect to follow. This same competition between Sunni and Shia has been continuous in various forms and intensities since the death of Mohammed in the 7th century. These sects have cooperated in the past 1400 years in waging jihad against the “infidel” West, so the West should not be surprised should they do it in the future, but at this time the Sunni Salafist Wahhabis and Shia Khomeinist Twelvers are so fanatically committed to destroying each other that the twofold Islamic threat facing the U.S. currently must be understood within that sectarian existential paradigm.

Furthermore, the battlefield has yet another complicating factor in order that the conflict be accurately understood. It is that the Sunni Salafi Wahhabi force component is divided further into three subdivisions competing to be recognized as the preeminent Sunni leadership. Among the warring sub-sects is al-Qaeda along with multiple al-Qaeda-allegiant groups around the world in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Sinai, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Somalia, and Europe. Opposing al-Qaeda for the mantel of Sunni leadership is the Islamic State and its numerous Islamic State-allegiant groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sinai, Indonesia, Philippines, and Europe. The third Sunni contender for power is more nebulous and operates in a covert, psychological warfare and seditious mode, which make it a very difficult-to-counter, shadowy threat. This seditious Sunni entity is the Muslim Brotherhood anchored in the U.S., Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Gaza, and Europe. While the Muslim Brotherhood is not the same type of armed kinetic threat as al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, it is as great or greater threat because they are now very successfully carrying out subversive preparation of the operational battlespace on the U.S. domestic front by silencing criticism with “Islamophobia.”

Dispelling a Myth

There is one additional point that requires clarification to understand the complex, multifaceted, simultaneous war within Islam and against the U.S. and the rest of the non-Muslim world. That point is the fact that Islam is a creed based on firm scriptural doctrine contained in the Quran (reputedly the verbatim words of the Allah god), the Hadiths (collections of the reports of the teachings, deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), and the Sira (biography of Muhammad). These three doctrinal sources are together referred to as the Sunna, which is the basis for Islamic Sharia canonical law prescribing both religious and secular duties and retributive penalties for lawbreaking. That the Sunna and Sharia are the doctrinal foundation of Islam negates the contention that, because not all Muslims are jihadists or accept the violent jihadist injunctions, Islam is “moderate.” It does not matter how individuals or even groups of Muslims believe or interpret Islamic scripture, what matters is what is recorded in the Sunna and Sharia. Individuals and groups come and go, but the Sunna and Sharia are unchanging. Moderate Islam is a mythical deception. There may be moderate individual Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. Sharia-allegiant Muslims, Sunni and Shia, are committed to the fundamental Islamic organizing principle – spreading Islam through spreading the Sharia. It is those Sunni and Shia Sharia-allegiant Muslims that should be the focus of U.S. security concerns.

The On-going War Accross Jihadistan

At present there are tri-cornered conflicts occurring in Iraq-Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya. And of course those clashes don’t include the Islamic jihadist insurgencies in Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand to name some of the better known. But the hostilities of immediate concern to the U.S. are the ones in Iraq-Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya.

In the Iraq-Syria struggle the U.S. is providing combat air support to the Iranian dominated Shia Government of Iraq, thus putting the U.S. on the Shia Khomeinist Twelver side against the Sunni Islamic State Salafist Wahhabis. In Afghanistan the U.S. is fighting the Taliban, which is the stalking horse of the al-Qaeda Sunni Salafist Wahhabis, while the Islamic State Sunni Salafist Wahhabis are also in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, U.S., and the Shia Khomeinist Twelvers. In Yemen the U.S. is aligned with Sunni Saudi Arabia in their war against the Shia Houthis, the surrogate for the Iranian Shia Khomeinist Twelvers. The paradox from the U.S. point of view is that oil-rich Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia are the clandestine financial backers of the Islamic State Sunni Salafist Wahhabis that the U.S. is fighting in Iraq-Syria. In Libya al-Qaeda Sunni Salafist Wahhabis are vying with Islamic State Sunni Salafist Wahhabis for supremacy of the U.S.-created political and social morass. The U.S. is primarily a helpless spectator to this internecine Libyan Sunni blood-letting. In the U.S. itself the Muslim Brotherhood has managed to purge FBI and U.S. military training materials of accurate jihad information and counter-jihad tactics by convincing the White House that these things were politically incorrect Islamophobia.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

The U.S. is aligned against itself. In the Iraq-Syria theater the U.S. is actively assisting the Shia against the Sunnis. In Yemen the U.S. is supporting the Sunni side against the Shia. In Afghanistan the U.S. is aligned with a Sunni government against the Sunni Taliban surrogate of the al-Qaeda Sunni Salafist Wahhabis. In Libya the situation is spinning out of control as the two Sunni components battle, while the U.S. is a paralyzed observer. In the U.S. the Obama regime has opened many channels to the Muslim Brotherhood in order to receive its guidance for countering Islamic jihad. And finally the Obama regime says it is on the verge of concluding a treaty with the Iranian Shia Khomeinist Twelvers that guarantees they acquire nuclear weapons, according to the treaty in a decade or sooner by cheating.

Obvious Conclusions

The first obvious conclusion is that the Obama regime has absolutely no coherent strategy to repel the Islamic enemy.

The second obvious conclusion is that the U.S. has dual Islamic enemies that are Sunni and Shia Sharia-allegiant Muslims.
The third obvious conclusion is that the Muslim Brotherhood and its various front organizations operating in the U.S. are covert agents of Islamic jihad and must be exposed as such and be removed from all positions of government policy influence.

The fourth obvious conclusion that any treaty that puts nuclear weapons in the possession of Shia Khomeinist Twelvers is absolute insanity and needs to be stopped.

The fifth obvious conclusion is that the U.S. desperately needs to finally stop dealing with Islamic jihad by employing tactical crisis management solutions and adopt a comprehensive strategy which is based on the reality that the U.S. loses regardless who triumphs in the Islamic religious sectarian war: Islamic State Sunni Salafist Wahhabis, al-Qaeda Sunni Salafist Wahhabis, Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, or Shia Khomeinist Twelvers. The U.S. has no allies that share our values in any of these Islamic groups. In fact, each of these Islamic groups is dedicated to replacing the U.S. Constitution with the Islamic Sharia jurisprudence. They are all existential enemies. (See “Analyzing the Sunni-Shia Religious Sectarian War From the U.S. Standpoint”, originally posted HERE)

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Senior NATO Officer: West Will Likely Be at War this Summer, Lucky if it’s not Nuclear

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Photo Credit: AP Is the world going mad? Military posturing is quietly reaching new extremes in Europe, the Mediterranean and the South China Sea. And the provocative bluster has just reached new heights.

The source was anonymous. But the mouthpiece has a measure of credibility. High profile military analyst and former US Naval War College lecturer John Schindler tweeted last week: “Said a senior NATO (non-US) GOFO to me today: ‘We’ll probably be at war this summer. If we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear.’ Let that sink in” . . .

The warning comes as Europe engages in some of its biggest ever war games — right on Russia’s front door. It’s a deliberate ploy, intended to remind Moscow of the consequences of its duplicitous invasion of Ukraine.

Half a world away, the “w” word was mentioned again yesterday. This time in an editorial by a Chinese state controlled paper. Said the Global Times: “If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea.”

It came as China’s government effectively declared a “no fly zone” over the disputed waterway after warning the US over its “provocative” aerial reconnaissance of several islands. (Read more from “The ‘War’ Word Is Being Increasingly Heard as Europe, Russia, China and the United States Adopt Provocative Postures” HERE)

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Faith Crimes: Christian Persecution in Obama’s America‏

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In a nation uniquely founded upon the Judeo/Christian ethic and “Freedom of Religion”, Americans have been witnessing committed Christians being persecuted in their own country. Over the last six-plus years, there have been rapidly expanding attempts to marginalize, demonize, and criminalize the free practice of the Christian faith in the US Armed Forces and in the United States in general. Why? Since the 1930s, the Christian religion has been viewed by the far left and Communists as the enemy that must be destroyed, and they are finally making progress toward their joint goal.

It actually started in the early nineteenth century when the far left, atheists, and Communists declared “moral authority dead”, and worked diligently to sabotage the family unit (the nation’s founding principles were supported by millions of religious family units), eliminate traditional marriage, and demonize core Christian religious beliefs. In the 1960s, the far left gained the support of birth control advocates, the proponents of the sexual revolution, and the support of radical gay rights advocates to help them marginalize Christian religious teachings that were providing the faith upon which family values rested. Despite the aggressiveness of the far left to sabotage family values and religious faith during a five decade period, Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George WH Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H. Bush used the moral authority of the US Presidency to beat back the attempt to break up the family unit, eliminate traditional marriages, and denigrate Christian religious teachings.

Unfortunately, the current occupant of the Oval Office has taken an opposite approach. He has empowered the far left, atheists, and Communists to the extent that they have finally achieved their 80-year goal of destabilizing, marginalizing, demonizing, and legally attacking their greatest enemy, the free exercise of the Christian faith by Americans. The far left, atheists, and Communists have been supported in their sabotage of the family unit and Christian values by not only the Obama administration, but also by the activist homosexual movement, representing less than 2 % of the population.

Now that activist judges are increasingly overturning laws passed by super-majorities of voters, the legal definition of marriage is rapidly changing in a number of states, and the floodgates have been opened, allowing the demonization of core Christian religious beliefs. Christians who don’t believe in what the 2% gay population in the nation believe in, are called bigots by the left-of-center liberal media establishment and by radical gay rights activists. The attempt to fundamentally transform the American family, as well as Christian beliefs, has taken on new speed and new dimensions, with the strong but stealthy support of the occupant in the Oval Office.

Assaults on Christian religious beliefs have been met with weak-kneed responses by religious leaders in the Protestant, Episcopalian, and Catholic denominations, and by the majority of members of Congress who have remained silent for over six years while the assault on Christian beliefs has gained momentum.

Obama, by forcing the US military to become the first major military force in the world to become openly homosexual, has negatively affected the morale, unit cohesiveness, and the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US Armed Forces. In just one year, 11,000 straight male members of the US military have been sexually assaulted by openly gay men who are now being recruited to join the US Armed Forces.

Christians who, because of their core religious beliefs, do not believe in or support same sex marriage or abortion have been persecuted, demonized, and aggressively intimidated by radical gay activists who make repeated false claims of bigotry. Christian business owners, for simply refusing to support same sex marriages on religious grounds, have had radical gay rights activists attempt to criminalize them for their religious beliefs, and file destructive law suits against them. Of course, we haven’t seen these same radical gay rights activists have the courage to try to force Muslim business owners to support same sex marriages. Why? They realize there would be an explosion of open hostility in response.
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The following article entitled “Faith Crimes” goes into more detail about how Christians practicing their sincerely held religious beliefs are being persecuted in Obama’s America.

[Listen to this interview with the foregoing article’s author on The Joe Miller Show]

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FAITH CRIMES: How courageous Christians practicing their religion are being persecuted in Obama’s America

By WND. The rising persecution of Christians worldwide is, of course, one of today’s most heart-wrenching and consequential trends, with daily reports of Christian believers being murdered, tortured, kidnapped, raped or sold into slavery.

But there is another story of growing Christian persecution, which – if not as terrible in scale and severity – is even more inexplicable. That is the rapidly expanding marginalization, demonization and criminalization of the free practice of the Christian faith in the United States of America – a nation uniquely founded upon religious liberty. . .

While Christian persecution around the world is perpetrated primarily by Muslims and communists, in America the persecution is driven by a seemingly odd and improbable source: homosexuality, and the influential activist movement that has grown up around it.

Today, that movement has become the spear-tip with which the far left is finally achieving its longtime goal of attacking, intimidating – indeed, legally prohibiting – the free exercise of religion in America.

Legislation currently sweeping the country outlaws counseling help for minors who want to overcome unwanted same-sex attractions; decrees that boys and young men must be allowed to use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms if they claim to identify with the opposite sex (and vice versa); mandates pro-homosexual indoctrination of children as young as five; requires the integration of open homosexuals into the military; forces same-sex marriage on the nation; and, perhaps most disturbingly, criminalizes Christian businesspeople for simply opposing homosexuality or same-sex marriage on moral and religious grounds. Should the Supreme Court mandate homosexual marriage throughout the nation, say experts, the persecution will increase exponentially.

“Many thought same-sex marriage would be the crowning achievement of the gay rights juggernaut,” says Whistleblower Editor David Kupelian. “But then, suddenly, the focus shifted to ‘transgender rights,’ with Time magazine’s ‘Transgender Tipping Point’ issue announcing ‘America’s next civil rights frontier’ and Vice President Joe Biden declaring transgender discrimination ‘the civil rights issue of our time.'”

Adds Kupelian: “The secret of this never-ending, always-expanding revolutionary movement is that it has the full support of the far left. Not because the left particularly loves people who are homosexual, bisexual and transgender for themselves, but because finally the left has found its weapon, with which – as it has dreamed of doing for decades – it can effectively attack, marginalize, demonize and criminalize its greatest enemy: the Christian religion.” (Read more about Christian persecution in America HERE)

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Brain Implant That Decodes Intention Will Let Us Probe Free Will

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Imagine a world where you think of something and it happens. For instance, what if the moment you realise you want a cup of tea, the kettle starts boiling?

That reality is on the cards, now that a brain implant has been developed that can decode a person’s intentions. It has already allowed a man paralysed from the neck down to control a robotic arm with unprecedented fluidity.

But the implications go far beyond prosthetics. By placing an implant in the area of the brain responsible for intentions, scientists are investigating whether brain activity can give away future decisions – before a person is even aware of making them. Such a result may even alter our understanding of free will . . .

“These are exciting times,” says Pedro Lopes, who works at the human-computer interaction lab at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. “These developments give us a glimpse of an exciting future where devices will understand our intentions as a means of adapting to our plans.”

The implant was designed for Erik Sorto, who was left unable to move his limbs after a spinal cord injury 12 years ago. The idea was to give him the ability to move a stand-alone robotic arm by recording the activity in his posterior parietal cortex – a part of the brain used in planning movements. (Read more from “Brain Implant That Decodes Intention Will Let Us Probe Free Will” HERE)

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San Andreas Ready to Blow – in Theaters AND in Real Life

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Admit it, there’s nothing more fun than sitting in a dark theatre, munching on a bucket of buttery popcorn, and watching the Earth get demolished. In the latest round of catastrophic flicks, California is destroyed as the famous San Andreas Fault unleashes unimaginable (and unrealistic) devastation across the state.

The new film, San Andreas, depicts the rupture of an unknown fault near the Hoover Dam in Nevada, which gets the destructive ball rolling by setting off powerful earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault. And although earthquakes are nothing new to Californians, and pose serious threats along the famous fault, Hollywood has once again thrown caution (and science) to the wind in order to feed our catastrophic needs.

The San Andreas Fault is a very real hazard. At almost 800 miles long, the fault marks the boundary where the North American plate meets the Pacific plate. And it’s the movement of these plates against each other that causes the powerful quakes characteristic to the region.

A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the inevitability of just such a quake, which is predicted to hit within the next couple of decades.

“The new likelihoods are due to the inclusion of possible multi-fault ruptures, where earthquakes are no longer confined to separate, individual faults, but can occasionally rupture multiple faults simultaneously,” lead author of the study and USGS scientist, Ned Field says. “This is a significant advancement in terms of representing a broader range of earthquakes throughout California’s complex fault system.” (Read more from “San Andreas Ready to Blow – in Theaters and in Real Life” HERE)

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Killer Robots Will Leave Humans ‘Utterly Defenseless’ Warns Professor

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Photo Credit: WarnerKiller robots which are being developed by the US military ‘will leave humans utterly defenceless‘, an academic has warned.

Two programmes commissioned by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are seeking to create drones which can track and kill targets even when out of contact with their handlers.

Writing in the journal Nature, Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkley, said the research could breach the Geneva Convention and leave humanity in the hands of amoral machines.

“Autonomous weapons systems select and engage targets without human intervention; they become lethal when those targets include humans,” he said.

“Existing AI and robotics components can provide physical platforms, perception, motor control, navigation, mapping, tactical decision-making and long-term planning. They just need to be combined. (Read more from “Killer Robots Will Leave Humans ‘Utterly Defenceless’ Warns Professor” HERE)

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After Secret Service Seized $115,000, North Carolina Man Continues Fight for ‘Justice’

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Photo Credit: Marla Bednar On the morning of Sept. 25, 2014, Tom Bednar was sitting in the bedroom of the Raleigh, N.C., home he shared with his wife, Marla, and two sons when Marla entered the room crying.

She had just looked at the bank account for their three-decade old business, Marla Enterprises, to find it empty. Now, Capital Bank was requesting close to $18,000 to cover the outstanding checks the couple had written.

After transferring money to straighten out their finances with the bank, the Bednars learned just what had happened with the $115,018.01 they had in their bank account: The United States Secret Service seized the money . . .

After months of litigation against the United States government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen West moved to dismiss the case earlier this month, meaning the Bednars will get their money back.

However, the government refused to cover the Bednars’ $25,000 in legal fees, which the couple is entitled to under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. Though the fight to get their $115,000 back is now over, the family is continuing to push to have their expenses covered. (Read more from “After Secret Service Seized $115,000, North Carolina Man Continues Fight for ‘Justice'” HERE)

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Pentagon: Military Mistakenly Shipped Live Anthrax Samples to as many as 9 States

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it is investigating what the Pentagon called an inadvertent shipment of live anthrax spores to at least one, and perhaps as many as nine, laboratories that expected to receive dead spores.

“At this time we do not suspect any risk to the general public,” CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said.

A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said the suspected live anthrax samples were shipped from Dugway Proving Ground, an Army facility in Utah, using a commercial delivery service.

Warren said the government has confirmed one recipient, a laboratory in Maryland, received live spores. It is suspected, but not yet confirmed, that anthrax sent to labs in as many as eight other states also contained live spores, he said.

“There is no known risk to the general public, and there are no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection in potentially exposed lab workers,” Warren said. (Read more from “Pentagon: Military Mistakenly Shipped Live Anthrax Samples to 9 States” HERE)

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Exasperated White House Pushes Senate to Pass Surveillance Reform Bill

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By Dustin Volz. An exasperated White House on Tuesday ratcheted up pressure on the Senate to pass surveillance-reform legislation before intelligence tools considered crucial to national security expire at the end of the month—while appearing to throw a direct barb at Sen. Rand Paul for gumming up the process.

Though he didn’t call out Paul by name, White House press secretary Josh Earnest seemed to accuse the Kentucky senator of using the debate over the Patriot Act’s sunsetting spying powers to bolster his presidential campaign.

“At some point, the political ambitions of individual members of the United States Senate are going to have to come second to the national security of the United States,” Earnest said.

Earnest’s comments come after the Senate failed to forge a path forward on dealing with the June 1 sunset of the Patriot Act’s spy provisions following a late-night round of votes Friday night into Saturday morning. Those authorities include the controversial Section 215, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of U.S. call data.

House-passed reform legislation known as the USA Freedom Act, which would effectively end the NSA’s phone dragnet, failed to advance Saturday, coming three votes short of the 60 necessary to clear a procedural hurdle. A bill to extend the provisions unchanged also failed. (Read more from “Exasperated White House Pushes Senate to Pass Surveillance Reform Bill” HERE)

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Obama Claims Bill is Necessary to Keep Nation “Safe and Secure”

Photo Credit: APBy Erica Werner. President Barack Obama called on the Senate Tuesday to extend key Patriot Act provisions before they expire five days from now, including the government’s ability to search Americans’ phone records.

“This needs to get done,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s necessary to keep the American people safe and secure.”

But with the May 31 deadline fast approaching, there was scant evidence Tuesday of a search for a deal on Capitol Hill. The House and Senate stood in recess for the week, and a House GOP leadership aide said there were no talks happening between the two chambers. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, because the aide was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record.

The Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day break early Saturday after a chaotic late-night session during which senators failed to pass a White House-backed House bill reforming the phone collection program. Attempts by GOP leaders to extend current law also repeatedly fell short, amid objections from presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and others.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling the Senate back into session on Sunday, May 31, just hours before the midnight deadline, but it’s not clear lawmakers will have any new solution. (Read more from “Obama Urges Senate to Renew Phone-Records Program” HERE)

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Bristol Palin Addresses ‘Elephant-In-The-Room,’ Opens up About Wedding That Didn’t Happen

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Photo Credit: Bristol Palin By Oliver Darcy. Bristol Palin turned to her blog Tuesday to address the “elephant-in-the-room” and open up to fans about her wedding to Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer that was suddenly called off.

“I feel like I need to address the elephant-in-the-room on this blog, since you guys have been with me through thick and thin. When I first got engaged, you were the first ones I wanted to tell,” wrote Bristol, daughter of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

“I guess you have seen by now that the wedding — that was supposed to happen last weekend — was called off,” she continued. “I’m sure you’ve seen this has been all over the media, but this is a painful time for family and friends and I would just really appreciate your prayers.” (Read more from “Bristol Palin Addresses ‘Elephant-In-The-Room,’ Opens up About Wedding That Didn’t Happen” HERE)

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Examiner Reports Bristol Palin Fiancé Dakota Meyer Already Married

By Victoria Miller. Bristol Palin and her fiancé Dakota Meyer made headlines for their recent engagement, but a new report reveals that the war hero has already been married. On Friday, Radar Online posted a marriage certificate that reveals Meyer was married to a Michigan woman. The official document shows Meyer and Cassandra Wain were married in Campbellsville, Kentucky, on May 20, 2008. It’s unclear if the two are now officially divorced because information about the marriage is sealed. While it’s impossible to determine the current status of the union, the news of Meyer’s first wife is a surprise.

In March, Palin announced her engagement to Meyer, a former U.S. Marine who received the U.S. Medal of Honor in 2011, making him the third living recipient of the award since Vietnam. Bristol’s mom, Sarah Palin, posted a lengthy message about her daughter’s engagement to Meyer on Facebook, revealing that her family is honored to welcome the war hero into their clan. Descriving her future son-in-law as an “American hero,” the onetime vice-presidential candidate said Meyer is a kind man who loves both Bristol and her young son, Tripp. (Read more from this story HERE)

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