Iraq Inks Deal to Pave Way for US Return

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Photo Credit: Getty ImageBy Kristina Wong and Justin Sink.

The Obama administration secured two diplomatic concessions from Iraq’s government on Monday: an immunity deal for U.S. special operations forces and a commitment from Iraq’s prime minister to begin forming a new government.

The immunity agreement paves the way for 300 special operations forces to begin training and advising Iraq’s army, which has repeatedly folded in the face of a charge by the radical Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that has taken over a territory stretching across both countries.

The president has said the soldiers will assist Iraqi forces staring down the rapidly advancing Sunni Muslim group, which over the weekend captured a pair of pivotal border crossings with Syria and Jordan.
Officials say the advisers will also play a crucial role in improving American intelligence in the region, were the president to decide at some point to authorize military action.

Separately, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had agreed Monday to begin the process of forming a new national government by July 1.

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Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski / Getty ImagesU.S. and Iraq agree on immunity for American troops

By Andrew Tilghman.

The U.S. and Iraqi government have hammered out a controversial deal granting U.S. troops some immunity from prosecution in the fledgling Iraqi court system, clearing the way for up to 300 special operators to begin deploying to Iraq, a defense official said Monday.

President Obama last week said he would send up to 300 military advisers into Iraq to collect intelligence and assist the Iraqi security forces in their fight against extremist militias aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, an al-Qaida offshoot.

But those deployment plans stalled temporarily amid negotiations between Washington and Baghdad over who gets legal jurisdiction in the event of alleged misconduct by a U.S. service member, a defense official said.

The U.S. troops deploying to Iraq will be armed and authorized to use lethal force in self-defense. U.S. officials want to ensure that any alleged misconduct by American service members would be handled under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

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One in Four Americans Has No Emergency Savings

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Photo Credit: AFPTwenty-six percent of Americans have no emergency savings, according to a report by Bankrate.com. Over the past four years, there has been little to no progress when it comes to Americans’ saving capacity.

Even those who manage to save aren’t putting away enough. As many as two-thirds of people in the U.S. don’t have the recommended six months of expenses saved. The percentage of people with savings enough to cover at least three months shrank to 40 % in 2014, compared with 45%, a year earlier.

Despite Americans being more secure in their jobs and more comfortable with their debt since the recession ended, their savings capacity remains weak even among those with highest-income household. Only 46% of those with annual income of $75,000 or above have enough savings to cover six months of expenses.

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Book: Hillary Has Bad Heart

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Photo Credit: Drudge Report A new provocative work by bestselling author Ed Klein claims Hillary Clinton’s health problems are much more severe than she has publicly revealed!

“She had managed to keep her medical history secret out of fear that, should it become public, it would disqualify her from becoming president,” writes Klein in BLOOD FEUD.

BLOOD FEUD hits the street this week [it ranked #89 on AMAZON Sunday afternoon.]

Page 193: The true story of what happened to Hillary, which is being recounted in these pages for the first time, was radically different from Reines’s version.

To begin with, Hillary fainted while she was working in her seventh-floor office at the State Department, not at home, as Reines told the media. She was treated at the State Department’s infirmary and then, at her own insistence, taken to Whitehaven to recover. However, as soon as Bill appeared on the scene and was able to assess Hillary’s condition for himself, he ordered that she be immediately flown to New York–Presbyterian Hospital in the Fort Washington section of Manhattan. When Reines subsequently released a statement confirming that Hillary was being treated at the hospital over the New Year’s holiday, it naturally intensified speculation about the seriousness of her medical condition.

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FBI Says 168 Children Rescued in Crackdown on Sex Trafficking

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesNearly 170 victims of child sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported missing, were rescued in the last week as part of an annual nationwide crackdown, the FBI said Monday.

Besides the 168 children rescued from the sex trade, 281 pimps were arrested during the same period on state and federal charges.

“These are not faraway kids in faraway lands,” FBI Director James Comey said in announcing the annual enforcement push known as Operation Cross Country. Instead, he added, “These are America’s children.”

This is the eighth such week-long operation, which this year unfolded in 106 cities. The FBI says nearly 3,600 children have so far been recovered from the street.

“I hate that we have to do this work — hate it,” Comey said. “I love the people who’ve devoted their lives to doing this work. There is no more meaningful work that the FBI participates in than rescuing children.”

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Save the American Economy. Have a Baby. Make it Three.

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Photo Credit: iStockI know it sounds creepy to suggest that Uncle Sam ought to bribe women to have more babies. It has the whiff of something that chest-baring ultra-nationalist Vladimir Putin would do. More future patriots from Russian mothers for Mother Russia!

Most Americans would probably say nosy technocrats have no business trying to engineer some socially desirable family size, either bigger or smaller. And they would be right.

But what if Washington has already inadvertently instituted its own version of China’s awful one-child policy? After all, American families are having fewer children than they want. Surveys show a steady, four-decade preference for 2.6 kids. But today’s actual number is something more like 2.0.

Why the gap? Parents point to pocketbook issues. When asked by Gallup why they aren’t having more kids, 65 percent of respondents mentioned “not having enough money or the cost of raising a child.” Another 11 percent blamed the state of the economy or the paucity of jobs in the U.S. You can at least partially blame government for that, at least to the extent that bad policy slows economic growth and makes education and health care less affordable.

But there is another way government may hinder family formation. Considerable academic research suggests social insurance programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, reduce fertility rates in advanced economies. Thanks to these government-funded safety nets, parents have less incentive to produce kids to care for them in old age.

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Another VA Medical Center Scandal

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Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force / Senior Airman Daniel HughesA failure to scan outsourced medical records has caused an approximate three- to five-month backlog at the Memphis Veteran Administration Medical Center, The Daily Caller has learned.

TheDC was exclusively given a photo snapped of the medical records room on June 12, 2014. In the photo, hundreds of unprocessed medical records sit idly, causing delays of up to five months.

According to a whistle-blower who wished to remain anonymous because they are still employed by the Memphis VA Medical Center, the medical records room is for entering test results and other medical data that occurs after a patient is outsourced for medical tests or procedures.

A recent audit by the VA found the Memphis VA Medical Center had an average wait time for the initial appointment of fifty days, which flagged this facility for extra inspections.

The medical records shown in the photo are generated when the VA refers a patient to another hospital for further medical procedures. Medical tests like colonoscopies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and X-rays, are among the tests that can be performed by an outside hospital, said the whistle-blower.

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Christian Held in Sudan is Free: Let’s Bring Meriam Ibrahim Home to US Now

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Photo Credit: APMeriam Ibrahim — the Sudanese Christian sentenced to die for her faith — is free, but she’s not out of danger.

Monday, her attorney confirmed that she’s been released from Sudanese prison, where’d she’d been sentenced to death for the “crime” of apostasy – of allegedly converting from Islam to Christianity.

Sudan also sentenced her to received 100 lashes, a brutal flogging, because it deemed her marriage to an American invalid – denying her even the most basic autonomy over her actions. (According to reports, the Sudanese government will no longer subject her to the floggings.)

It’s time to bring Meriam and her family home, to the United States, where they can worship without fear and she can raise her children in safety.

Even worse, she was imprisoned with her two young children, American children. Meriam is married to an American, and her children are Americans. They shared her cell and thus shared the dreadful conditions suffered by “apostates” in Sudan.

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Seattle Woman Sees Drone Peeping Into Her Apartment Window

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Photo Credit: PIERRE ANDRIEU / AFP / Getty ImagesSeattle Police are investigating a report of a drone peeping into a woman’s apartment window.

Police were called to the downtown Seattle apartment complex on Sunday morning after she spied an unmanned aerial vehicle hovering outside the building. The woman said she was concerned the drone was looking into her apartment.

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‘We Have a Problem with You, and You Have a Problem Maintaining Your Credibility’: House Republicans Slam IRS Commissioner as They Subpoena a White House Lawyer in ‘Missing Emails’ Case

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Photo Credit: APRepublicans dropped a hammer on IRS Commissioner John Koskinen during a testy hearing covering the disappearance of emails tied to the agency’s tea party targeting scandal.

The emails, covering the period January 2009 to April 2011, belonged to embattled former official Lois Lerner and could shed light on whether an expansive scheme to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny was guided by members of Congress or administration officials outside the IRS.

‘The committee requested all of Lois Lerner’s emails over a year ago,’ said House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa. ‘And we subpoenaed the emails in August 2013 and again in February 2014. … You worked to cover up the fact they were missing and only came forward to fess up on a Friday afternoon after you had been caught red-handed.’

‘You personally did not cause the targeting,’ he told Koskinen, referring to the tea party scandal. ‘You personally did not destroy the emails. But by your actions and your deception, you now own this scandal.’

‘We have a problem with you,’ Issa sniped at the front end of a three-hour, 36-minute ordeal, ‘and you have a problem maintaining your credibility.’

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Isis Hoodies and T-Shirts For Sale Online As Islamist ‘Brand’ Goes Global

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Photo Credit: IBTimesIts social media savvy has made Isis a “terror brand” to rival al-Qaida, with supporters worldwide following the brutal exploits of the Islamist group through its Twitter updates or even downloading the group’s own app.

Now supporters can show their loyalty to the group by sporting a T-shirt or hoodie emblazoned with the group’s black and white jihadist logo, after the items went on sale on Facebook.

The T-shirts, which are being sold on Indonesia-based websites, cost as little as $7 to $13, and have been on sale for several months, reports Vocativ.

With more than 9,000 likes on Facebook, retailer Zirah Moslem on its website calls itself a purveyor of “Islamic style” and sells clothing that promotes a range of Islamist groups.

In one design, emblazoned with the slogan “Mujahideen Around the World/ United We Stand”, figures wearing keffiyeh and brandishing weapons pose like characters on a Hollywood movie poster.

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