Pentagon Chief Hagel Stepping Down Under Pressure

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Under pressure from President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel submitted his resignation Monday amid White House concerns about his effectiveness and broader criticism from outside about the administration’s Middle East crisis management.

The president said he and Hagel had determined it was an “appropriate time for him to complete his service.”

Hagel, a former Republican senator, never broke through the White House’s notably insular national security team. Officials privately griped about his ability to publicly communicate administration policy and more recently questioned whether he had the capacity to oversee new military campaigns against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Hagel is the first high-level member of Obama’s national security team to step down in the wake of both a disastrous midterm election for the president’s party and persistent criticism about the administration’s policies in the Middle East and elsewhere. It’s unclear whether Hagel’s forced resignation signals the start of a broader shake-up of the president’s team; White House officials said it was possible there could be more departures.

Among the leading contenders to replace Hagel is Michele Flournoy, who served as the Pentagon’s policy chief for the first three years of Obama’s presidency. Flournoy, who would be the first woman to head the Pentagon, is now chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security, a think tank that she co-founded.

Read more from this story HERE.

Watch Pres. Obama Fumble Easy Question on Precedent

/3 Comments/in , /by

2014-11-04T180254Z_1_LYNXMPEAA30RU_RTROPTP_4_USA-OBAMA-e1415383590145President Obama completely fumbles when George Stephanopolous asks him how he’d respond if a future president takes the same action on taxes that Obama has taken on immigration. Incredibly, Obama responds as if he’d never heard or thought of this argument before, stumbling blindly along immigration talking points without answering the actual question.

Stephanopolous asked: “How do you respond to the argument, a future president comes in and wants lower taxes. Doesn’t happen. Congress won’t do it; so he says ‘I’m not going to prosecute those who don’t pay capital gains tax.’”

“The truth of the matter is George,” said the President, haltingly, “The reason that we, have to do.. uhm prosecutorial discretion in immigration, is that we know, that we – are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time…” Obama then pivoted to immigration talking points, without addressing the original question.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mysterious Malware Performs 'Stealthy Surveillance'

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

A highly sophisticated piece of malware began quietly spying on governments and businesses in 2008, according to security specialist Symantec, which warns that the complex code was likely the handiwork of a nation state.

In a note released on Sunday, Symantec Security Response described the Regin malware as a “top-tier espionage tool,” which enables “stealthy surveillance.”

Regin is what is known as a backdoor Trojan, which lets an attacker gain access, or send commands to, a compromised computer. Like the mysterious Stuxnetworm which crippled Iran’s nuclear production in 2010, Regin loads onto a targeted computer in stages – it can also be customized to specific targets.

“Its capabilities and the level of resources behind Regin indicate that it is one of the main cyberespionage tools used by a nation state,” explained Symantec. The malware, it added “has been used in systematic data collection or intelligence gathering campaigns.”

While fear of a cyber attack on critical U.S. infrastructure is high at the moment, Regin appears to be a bigger worry for foreign powers. The Russian Federation accounts for 28% of Regin “infections,” according to Symantec, closely followed by Saudi Arabia. Other countries experiencing Regin infections include Mexico, Ireland, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Belgium, Austria and Pakistan.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: American People Want 'New Car Smell'

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

President Barack Obama says voters want a “new car smell” in the 2016 White House race and that Hillary Rodham Clinton would be “a great president.”

But would Clinton pass that particular smell test?

In a nationally televised interview broadcast Sunday, Obama seemed to suggest that any Democrat other than him would provide the turn of the page that he says voters are interested in. He acknowledged the “dings” to his own political standing during nearly six years of sometimes bruising battles with Congress and said Americans will want something new.

“They want to drive something off the lot that doesn’t have as much mileage as me,” Obama said in the interview with ABC’s “This Week,” which was taped Friday in Las Vegas following a public appearance there by the president.

He said a number of possible Democratic candidates would make “terrific presidents,” but Hillary Clinton is the only one he mentioned by name. He said she would be a “formidable candidate” and make “a great president” if she decides to run a second time.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Cost of Changing The Law 'Willy Nilly': $2 Trillion

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

President Barack Obama’s amnesty for four million illegal immigrants will cost Americans about $2 trillion, or roughly $40 billion a year for the next five decades.

The cost of Obama’s generosity is equivalent to 30 cents extra for every gallon of gas bought by Americans.

Or a $10 monthly fee added to every cellphone.

Or a $22,000 tax on every American graduate’s four-year college degree.

The $2 trillion cost is driven by the federal government’s support for all poor people, says Robert Rector, a budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Rector explained that, on average, the illegal immigrants benefiting from the amnesty have a 10th grade education.

Read more from this story HERE.

12-Year-Old Boy with Fake Gun Shot, Killed by Ohio Police Officer

/2 Comments/in , /by

policetapelogoA boy brandishing a replica gun died Sunday after being shot by a Cleveland police officer responding to a 911 call about a person waving a gun in a park.

Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said the officer fired twice after the boy pulled the fake weapon — which was lacking the orange safety indicator usually on the muzzle — from his waistband.

The boy, who was 12, did not make any verbal threats toward the officer or point the gun, but reached into his waistband and grabbed it after being told to raise his hands, Tomba said.

“That’s when the officer fired,” he said.

The shooting happened Saturday after officers responded to reports of a male with a gun. A man who called 911 told dispatchers that the boy was at a recreation center pointing a pistol that was “probably fake” and scaring everyone.

Read more from this story HERE.

New York City Awarded Ebola Clean-Up Contract to Con Man

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / LM Otero

Photo Credit: AP / LM Otero

New York City paid a con man who defrauded distressed homeowners out of millions of dollars during the housing crisis nearly $50,000 dollars to decontaminate the apartment of its first Ebola patient, BuzzFeed News is reporting.

The city awarded Sal Pane and his Bio-Recovery the emergency contract to disinfect Dr. Craig Spencer’s Harlem apartment after the physician was diagnosed with the deadly disease in October.

But Pane’s clean-up truck bore permit numbers that belonged to a dead man, Buzzfeed said Thursday in a lengthy report. The website said the dead man’s grieving sister was duped by Pane into selling him the truck and the company’s name.

The dead man, Ron Gospodarski, ran a reputable company that had years of experience cleaning up anthrax sites and other danger zones. Buzzfeed said its investigation showed that at the height of the Ebola scare in New York, Pane went on TV claiming that experience as his own.

“Twenty-seven years” of experience he told one radio station. “Not my first rodeo.” Buzzfeed said that 27 years ago Pane was 4 years old.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kansas Secretary of State to File Suit Against King Obama's Executive Amnesty

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

TONGANOXIE, KAN. – [Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach] has devoted his career to an immigration fight he always believed would be incremental. First he sued states for offering in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants. Then he wrote tough immigration enforcement laws for Arizona and Alabama. Then he counseled Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on the legality of using the National Guard to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. He has been playing the long game, hoping to build a consensus case against amnesty over the course of his career . . .

People are enraged. They ask about the possibilities of impeachment or arresting the president for treason, and Kobach shakes his head. “Then what can we do?” one man asks.

Kobach says he has spent the last week considering that question, and he can think of only two options. “Congress could vote to defund parts of the government,” he says, but his friends in Congress tell him that is unlikely. The other option is a lawsuit filed by states and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents against the federal government. “That one’s on me,” he says. He tells the group he has already begun drafting a suit as the lead attorney, with plans to file it in early December. Texas is interested in being a plaintiff. So are a few other states. . .

“What bothers me most is the constitutionality of this,” he tells one Republican lawmaker over the phone, the day after Obama’s [amnesty] announcement. Kobach is working on the lawsuit, 40 or 50 pages already written. “We have a clear violation here of Article 2, Section 3,” he says. . .

The key to his lawsuit is finding the right plaintiffs, he says, so he has spent the last weeks compiling a list of more than a dozen ICE agents who he says are eager to file suit. They were hired and trained to enforce the country’s immigration laws, and now, he says, they believe that the president is essentially asking them to break those laws. Kobach also wants at least one state to be a plaintiff, likely Texas and possibly others. States are “lining up to sue this time,” he says. He could file one lawsuit on behalf of several states, which he thinks might have the best chance of reaching the Supreme Court. Or he could file individual lawsuits, one for each state, and force the issue into several federal court districts.

Read more from this story HERE.

In Kenya Attack, Terrorists Killed Those Who Could Not Answer Questions on Islam

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Al-Shabaab terrorists who killed 28 people on a bus in northern Kenya selected their victims by quizzing passenger to determine if they were Muslims, then shot dead those who were unable to answer satisfactorily, officials and eyewitnesses said Sunday.

After firing at and shooting a rocket-propelled grenade at the Nairobi-bound vehicle to stop it, the terrorists ordered the 59 passengers, many of them school teachers and health workers heading home for the Christmas holidays, to alight and began to question them.

“They asked how many times I pray in a day, asked me to recite a Qur’an verse and also greeted one in Islamic,” one of the survivors of the Saturday pre-dawn attack told Kenya’s Daily Nation. “If one failed to answer these questions, then you’d be asked to lie on a muddy patch of the road facing down.”

Identification cards and mobile phones belonging to non-Muslims were confiscated. Muslim passengers were told to return to the bus before those lying on the road were shot.

“They blew off their heads. Just like that,” the passenger was quoted as saying. Afterwards, the gunmen had fired their weapons in the air “in jubilation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mexico and Central America Thank Obama for Amnesty Decree

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The presidents of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, the leading source countries of illegal immigrants in the United States, hailed Obama’s executive decree to stop the deportation of many of their compatriots.

Obama’s unilateral measures will shield nearly five million illegal immigrant from U.S. immigration laws by granting them work permits, Social Security numbers, and deportation reprieves.

In administering the president’s overhaul of America’s immigration laws, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will prioritize the removal of certain serious criminal aliens.

Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are the top four countries where the majority of illegal aliens in the United States originate, according to the latest DHS estimate of the unauthorized immigrant population living in the U.S. The DHS data is consistent with most recent estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

About 73 percent of the estimated 11.4 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. were born in Mexico (6.7 million), El Salvador (690,000), Guatemala (560,000), and Honduras (360,000), DHS data shows.

Read more from this story HERE.