Furious Veteran Montel Williams UNLOADS On Obama Over VA Scandal

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An absolutely livid Montel Williams, who served 22 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy, savaged the government, the Obama administration and the American people over the unfolding Veterans Administration scandal, accusing us all of violating our promise to care for those who swore to protect us.

The well-known talk show host and (less well-known) veterans’ advocate appeared on Fox News with Neil Cavuto on Wednesday to vent his anger over recent revelations surrounding the treatment of America’s sick veterans by the VA.

An inspector general report released Wednesday confirmed that at a Phoenix-area VA office, thousands of veterans waited months for much-needed appointments with specialists.

More egregiously (and criminally), 1,700 veterans were kept off the appointment wait-list in order to meet federal criteria for referrals. And many VA whistleblowers are alleging the problems are not confined to Phoenix alone.

Williams was incensed. “I am angry, my friend,” he told Cavuto. “I’m angry because, you know, we made a promise. When I stood with my hand up proudly, I said, ‘I do solemnly swear and affirm to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and I will bear true faith –.’ I went through my oath.”

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American Said To Have Carried Out Suicide Bombing In Syria (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeAbu Hurayra Al-Amriki Performed a martydom operation in Idlib, Jabal Al-Arba’een. May Allah accept him pic.twitter.com/MeewywKqDD

— أبو سليمان المهاجر (@abusulayman321) May 27, 2014

U.S. officials are investigating claims circulated on social media sites that an American fighting with Syria’s rebels helped carry out a suicide truck bombing in the war-torn country over the weekend.

Al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked rebel group, announced via Twitter the “martyrdom” of Abu Hurayra al-Amriki (Abu Hurayra the American), releasing what it said was a photo of the bomber as well as a video of the attack.

If true, it would be the first time in Syria’s civil war that an American recruit participated in a suicide attack, according to Laith Alkhouri, a senior analyst with Flashpoint Global Partners, which monitors militant websites for government and private clients, who is quoted by Haaretz.

In the video, bearded men can be seen loading artillery shells onto a large truck. Later, what is described as a government-controlled building is suddenly consumed in a massive explosion. A voice on the video is heard yelling “Allahu Akbar!”

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Libyan Warplanes Strike Islamist Militias in Benghazi

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORIBy Reuters.

Libyan warplanes bombed militia bases in Benghazi on Wednesday as part of a renegade former general’s campaign to purge the chaotic North African state of Islamist militants, witnesses and officials said.

Two jets attacked a base belonging to the February 17 brigade, one of the Islamist-leaning armed groups operating in Benghazi, and an Ansar al-Sharia militant base in the west of the city, a Reuters witness and an air force official said.

The attacks are part of a campaign by irregular forces loyal to former Libyan army general Khalifa Haftar who earlier this month launched operations against Islamist militants he says the weak central government has failed to control.

“Our forces are bombing the February 17 battalion base and Ansar al-Sharia base in Quarsha,” Mohamed Hejazi, a spokesman for Haftar, told Reuters.

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Photo Credit: APAmericans Urged to Leave Libya After Group Linked to Benghazi Attack Threatens U.S.

By Patrick Goodenough.

The State Department on Tuesday warned American citizens not to travel to Libya and urged those there to leave immediately.

The embassy in Tripoli has not been evacuated, although the administration began positioning military assets in Sicily last week to carry out a potential emergency extraction if deemed necessary. The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan moved into the Mediterranean Sea.

“This is a portion of a special purpose Marine Air-Guard task force crisis response that’s moved to a naval air station in Sicily,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a briefing. “This positioning was done in the event these resources are needed in the future.”

“We continue to review the situation and address embassy security needs,” Psaki said.

The travel warning said the staffing at the embassy has been limited, “due to security concerns,” and that the mission could offer only “very limited emergency services to U.S. citizens.”

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Will Nigeria’s Kidnapped Girls Eventually Lead To Obama Losing Control Of The Narrative On Islam?

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Photo Credit: Western Journalism The very best ambush is always the one that traps its victim even before he recognizes he has been trapped. For instance, anacondas squeeze the life out of their victims before they know what the deadly snake is doing.

In the past few weeks, the “snake” of recognition has moved closer to Barack Obama. It may wrap itself around his boney body and compel him to make a decision about recognizing the danger of Islam, something he doesn’t want to do.

The first coil of the snake ironically came from Hollywood’s gay community, the members of which are reliable Obama cheerleaders. Recently, homosexuals rallied in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel to protest the fact that its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, had instituted Sharia Law in his country. They did not intend to damage their leader, but that is how their actions might play out.

It seems Hollywood’s gays have discovered that Sharia Law requires the execution of homosexuals, and this was quite a shock to these “fabulous” people. Some are rethinking this “Religion of Peace” thingy.

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Harper: Is It the Bilderberg Conference – Or Conspiracy?

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Photo Credit: independent.co.ukConspiracy theorists may chuckle when they learn a debate entitled “Does Privacy Exist?” is to feature at this year’s Bilderberg conference, the notoriously secretive gathering of the world’s most powerful bankers, politicians and business people.

There may be a further shaking of heads when they discover one of the participants at the heavily fortified, five-star Marriott Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark, will be Keith Alexander, the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), which was embarrassed by the mass-surveillance revelations leaked by Edward Snowden. In fairness to the Bilderberg, the organisers of this year’s conference – which starts on Thursday – have made efforts to be more transparent by publishing a list of all the prime ministers, chief executives and military chiefs in attendance, as well as the topics up for discussion.

Chancellor George Osborne and his Labour counterpart, Ed Balls, are among the hand-picked group of British politicians who will visit Copenhagen to hob-nob with the global elite behind closed doors.

Other guests from the political sphere include the former “Third Man” of New Labour, Lord Mandelson, the current International Development Secretary, Justine Greening, and the veteran American foreign policy expert, Henry Kissinger.

Billionaire captains of industry who landed invitations include the heads of Shell, BP, Airbus, HSBC, Saab, AXA, Google, and Linkedin. They will sit alongside key global powerbrokers such as Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, and senior officials from the European Central Bank.

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The Military Is Building Brain Chips to Treat PTSD

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Photo Credit: DefenseOneHow well can you predict your next mood swing? How well can anyone? It’s an existential dilemma for many of us but for the military, the ability to treat anxiety, depression, memory loss and the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder has become one of the most important battles of the post-war period.

Now the Pentagon is developing a new, innovative brain chip to treat PTSD in soldiers and veterans that could bring sweeping new changes to the way depression and anxiety is treated for millions of Americans.

With $12 million (and the potential for $26 million more if benchmarks are met), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, wants to reach deep into your brain’s soft tissue to record, predict and possibly treat anxiety, depression and other maladies of mood and mind. Teams from the University of California at San Francisco, Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Medtronic will use the money to create a cybernetic implant with electrodes extending into the brain. The military hopes to have a prototype within 5 years and then plans to seek FDA approval.

DARPA’s Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies, or SUBNETs, program draws from almost a decade of research in treating disorders such as Parkinson’s disease via a technique called deep brain stimulation. Low doses of electricity are sent deep into the brain in somewhat the same way that a defibrillator sends electricity to jumpstart a heart after cardiac arrest.

While it sounds high-tech, it’s a crude example of what’s possible with future brain-machine interaction and cybernetic implants in the decades ahead.

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Poof, the Magic Settlements!

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Photo Credit: Jewish Policy CenterWhen Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah/Palestinian Authority (PA) signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas, a recognized terrorist group that calls in its Charter for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, the State Department’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, observed, “It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist.”

Despite the obvious truth of this statement, Secretary of State John Kerry blamed Israel. As he told the Congress, “700 settlement units were announced in Jerusalem. And poof! That was sort of the moment.”

Again the claim is that “magical” settlements can “magically” destroy a major peace negotiation. Somehow, the PA promoting hatred and violence, not arresting terrorists, allying itself with Hamas, refusing to accept Israel as a Jewish state are not the destroyers of peace – it is the announcement of the construction of Jewish homes within the boundaries of settlements that existed when Oslo began. Specifically, in Gilo, a southern Jerusalem neighborhood of 40,000, which would remain part of Israel under any conceivable peace agreement.

Apparently, an alleged Palestinian desire for peace and statehood alongside Israel magically evaporated – poof! – at that moment.

Yet, if Palestinians’ urgent objective was to end settlements, they could do no better than rapidly negotiating with Israel the establishment of a Palestinian state from which they could exclude Jews. But this is precisely what they won’t do, because the price is acceptance of the Jewish state of Israel and an end of claims and conflict with it.

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Maya Angelou: ‘God Loves Me’ – ‘That’s Why I Am Who I Am’

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Photo Credit: APBy Michael W. Chapman.

Celebrated author and poet Maya Angelou, who died on Wednesday at age 86, said in an interview last year that after studying at the Unity church, she came to fully realize that “God loves me,” that God made the physical world and human beings, and that this is why she, Angelou, exists and she is “amazed at it and grateful for it.”

Angelou (1928-2014), who experienced a very difficult childhood, which included sexual abuse and rape by her mother’s boyfriend, wrote seven autobiographical works, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She also wrote numerous volumes of poetry, several children’s books and eight plays. She was a liberal Democrat who recited a poem at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993, and she campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries. Angelou eventually supported Barack Obama.

In a May 12, 2013 interview on the Oprah Winfrey program, “SuperSoulSunday,” Angelou discussed her spiritual beliefs, explaining she had started an online course at Unity church and it helped her to better understand God’s love.

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Photo Credit: AP / Mary AltafferMaya Angelou, Celebrated Poet and Author, Dies

By Hillel Italie.

Maya Angelou’s story awed millions. A childhood victim of rape, she broke through silence and shame to tell her tale in one of the most widely read memoirs of the 20th century. A black woman born into poverty and segregation, she recited the most popular presidential inaugural poem in history.

“I’m not modest,” she told The Associated Press in 2013. “I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned behavior. But I do pray for humility, because humility comes from the inside out.”

Angelou, a renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, died Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86.

“She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace,” said her son, Guy B. Johnson.

Tall and regal, with a deep, majestic voice, she was unforgettable whether encountered in person, through sound or the printed word. She was an actress, singer and dancer in the 1950s and 1960s and made a brave and sensational debut as an author in 1969 with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which became standard (and occasionally censored) reading and made Angelou one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream literary success.

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The Founding Fathers Would Have Protected Your Smartphone

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Photo Credit: Politico Privacy is a core American value. For 235 years, the Fourth Amendment has protected us from unwarranted searches of our personal belongings. All the while, technology has been changing where and how we keep those belongings. On April 29, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in two cases, Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie. At question is whether the police can search the contents of a phone without a warrant during an arrest. At stake is whether technological advancements have rendered one of our most treasured civil liberties obsolete.

Today, many Americans keep their entire lives on their phones: family photos, emails, calendar appointments, Internet searches and even location history. Considered separately, each of these categories can reveal very private information. Taken together, they can present a pretty good picture of who you are, what you do, where you go, what you read and what you write. What protection does the Constitution offer them from suspicionless search by the government?

The Fourth Amendment grants to the people the right to be “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” It did not find its way into the Constitution by accident. It was, rather, a specific response to a principal grievance of colonial Americans under British rule — namely, the use of the “general warrant” whereby the crown gave officials almost unfettered authority to search colonial homes, rifle through papers and scour personal belongings.

As the Constitutional Accountability Center explains in its friend-of-the-court brief in Riley and Wurie, “Stated simply, the Framers wanted to strip the government of the arbitrary power to rifle through a person’s belongings in the hope of finding something incriminating.”

There can be little doubt that the modern smartphone is today’s equivalent of our Founders’ “papers and effects.”

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WH to Probe Outing of CIA Station Chief

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Photo Credit: Standard CompliantThe White House has asked President Obama’s top lawyer to investigate the inadvertent disclosure of the CIA’s top spy in Afghanistan during the president’s trip to Kabul over the weekend.

“The chief of staff has asked the White House counsel, Neil Eggleston, to look into what happened and report back to him with recommendations on how the Administration can improve processes and make sure something like this does not happen again,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Tuesday.

The officer’s name was mistakenly included in a list of 15 individuals attending a briefing with Obama during his visit to Bagram Airfield on Sunday. It was provided to the press traveling with the president.

The name was then forwarded by Washington Post journalist Scott Wilson, who was serving as the print pool reporter, to an email distribution list for thousands of journalists maintained by the White House.

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