Lawmakers Accuse Obama Prosecutors Of Lying About Espionage Probe At NASA

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Photo Credit: AP

Congressional leaders are challenging a U.S. Attorney’s denial that the Justice Department shut down a federal espionage investigation involving the illegal transfer of U.S. space defense weapons technology to foreign countries, including China, The Washington Examiner has learned.

Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California, also denied that she had ever requested authority to prosecute anybody as a result of the espionage investigation.

But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA, and Representatives Lamar Smith, R-TX, and Frank Wolf, R-VA, say Haag’s denials don’t square with evidence they’ve reviewed and they wonder if Justice Department or White House officials interfered with a potentially explosive espionage investigation or if “politics played a role in the prosecutorial decisions made in this case.”

“Your statement conflicts factually with information we received from federal law enforcement,” Wolf, Smith and Grassley said in letters sent today to Haag and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco questioning the abrupt end to an FBI national security investigation and grand jury probe.

At the center of the controversy is cancellation of a national security probe once led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Fry. Frustrating attempts by foreign powers to steal U.S. space weapons technology have long been priorities for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and NASA’s Inspector General.

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Al Qaeda Calls For Jihadists To Kill Ex-Leaders Clinton, Bush, Blair

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Photo Credit: Ron EdmondsThe latest edition of al Qaeda’s English-language online magazine Inspire urges readers to become “lone wolf” jihadists focused on assassinating current and former leaders of Western countries.

“It is easy,” an al Qaeda “consultant” writes of killing the U.S. or French president.

“These people have many weak points, especially during parties, ceremonies and election campaigns.”

In the article titled “You ask, we answer,” the consultant says that “individual mujahids” or holy warriors, who are daunted by the task of killing current world leaders should consider murdering their predecessors.

“If you think you are unable,” the consultant writes “then you have easy targets like [former U.S. Presidents George W.] Bush [and] Bill Clinton, [and former U.S. Secretaries of State] Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, … [as well as former French President Nicholas] Sarkozy and [former British Prime Minister] Tony Blair. “It is now easy to reach these guys, especially since they aren’t in office anymore.”

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Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Already Released, According To Report

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Thousands of illegal immigrants ticketed for deportation have been released from federal detention centers in recent weeks, according to a report that came out even as the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano denied any involvement in the policy.

Plans to release illegal immigrants in anticipation of looming budget cuts were announced earlier this week, but the report by The Associated Press detailed the policy had already taken effect and on a much larger scale. Citing federal documents, the agency said more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation had been released from immigration jails and plans exist to release 3,000 more people by the end of the month.

The newly disclosed figures are significantly higher than what the Obama administration acknowledged this week as a “few hundred” who were released without the White House’s direct knowledge. And on Friday, Napolitano, whose agency oversaw the move, said the decision to release illegal immigrants was made “in the field,” and without her knowledge.

Republicans in Congress, already critical of the plan to release illegal immigrants, demanded details, including the number of illegal immigrants released and the nature of any criminal charges they were facing as part of the deportation process.

“Simply blaming budget reductions as a means to turn a blind eye toward the national security of the American people is a dangerous plan, and one that calls into question the department’s preparations for sequestration,” wrote two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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CPAC Turns Away Pamela Gellar

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Photo Credit: breitbart For the last four years, Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com and the American Freedom Defense Initiative have held events at CPAC featuring guests she invites to discuss the influence of Islamism on America. But this year, the American Conservative Union (ACU) has no room for Geller or her message.

In 2009, she brought Geert Wilders, who is the head of the third largest party in the Netherlands and has spoken out against the Islamization of his country.

In 2010 she held an event that her organization, The American Freedom Defense Initiative, hosted, titled “Jihad: The Political Third Rail”, with speakers like Allen West, Wafa Sultan, Simon Deng, Anders Gravers, and Steve Coughlin. In 2011, she hosted an event discussing the Ground Zero Mosque with 9/11 families. In 2012, the event was titled “Islamic Law in America.”

In years past, the events were standing room only thanks to their popularity, but that apparently was not enough to counter pressure brought to bear from somewhere to exclude Geller’s message.

Geller and her coworkers recently won a court battle allowing them to post ads that countered the #Myjihad ad campaign that posited that jihad was a peaceful word. Yet despite the law’s defense of her rights, the ACU will not stand up for her against critics.

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Beretta Exec Likens Gun Ban to Book Ban

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Photo Credit: APBeretta USA, one of the nation’s largest firearms manufacturers, compared a Maryland gun-control bill to a book ban Friday and warned it may consider leaving the state if the legislation passes.

Beretta general counsel Jeffrey Reh said Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Firearm Safety Act of 2013 is “tantamount to a legislative effort to ban certain books” during testimony before the Maryland House Judiciary Committee.

“That might seem like a provocative statement but the parallels are apt,” Reh said, according to testimony obtained by the Free Beacon. “The possession and use of firearms and printed materials are both protected by the Constitution. Both rights come from the only legislation in U.S. history that was voted on and approved directly by the citizens of our country.”

“One might suggest that books do not kill and that the current legislation is sought for beneficial reasons,” Reh continued. “In fact, the misuse of books—say, the Bible or the Koran—have led to tragedy, and efforts to ban certain books—for example, Huckleberry Finn—have also come from allegedly ‘beneficial’ intent.”

The Maryland Senate passed O’Malley’s contentious bill late Thursday night. The bill moved Friday to the House of Delegates where thousands of supporters and opponents flooded the Capitol to watch events unfold.

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U.S. To Instigate Insurgency in Lebanon?

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Photo Credit: WNDA delegation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards arrived in Lebanon to oversee the reinforcement of Hezbollah positions throughout South Lebanon amid Iranian concerns the U.S. and other nations are seeking to arm Christian and Druze opposition groups there, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The security officials told WND the U.S., France and Saudi Arabia held serious discussions in recent days about possibly arming Lebanese groups to act against the Hezbollah-Iran axis in Lebanon.

If confirmed, any such arming could expand the growing insurgency in Syria to neighboring Lebanon, a country that has been devastated by civil wars on multiple occasions.

Iran’s reported reinforcement of Hezbollah comes as the U.S. earlier this week pledged $60 million in food rations and medical supplies to the Free Syrian Army. It marked the first time that the Obama administration publicly committed itself to sending aid to the armed factions battling President Bashar al-Assad.

A major issue is the inclusion of jihadists, including al-Qaida, among the ranks of the Free Syrian Army and other Syrian opposition groups.

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DePaul Punishes Student Who Exposed Vandals Of Memorial For Aborted Babies

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Back in January, on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a group of 13 students destroyed a makeshift memorial for aborted babies on the main campus of DePaul University. The display — 500 pink and blue flags — was set up by DePaul’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom. (RELATED: Abortion display destroyed on campus)

Senior Kristopher Del Campo, who chairs the DePaul YAF chapter, contacted public safety officials after pro-abortion thugs tore the flags from the ground and threw them in trash cans around campus.

About a week later, as The Daily Caller reported, Kevin Connolly, an investigator for DePaul’s public safety department, produced a brief report listing the names of 13 students who flatly admitted to wrecking the display. The reports said the vandals “had seen anti-abortion posters around campus earlier in the day that they found offensive.” (RELATED: Students admit vandalizing display)

DePaul’s assistant dean of students, Domonic Rollins, provided Del Campo a copy of the report. The national website for Young Americans for Freedom then published it online.

Take a wild guess which student the nation’s largest Catholic school has now singled out for punishment.

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Too High To Drive? Marijuana-Friendly Colorado Debates Blood-Level Limits.

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Photo Credit: Washington PostWhen is someone too stoned to drive? The answer, it turns out, has been anything but si mple in Colorado, which last fall became one of the first states in the country to legalize marijuana.

Prosecutors and some lawmakers have long pushed for laws that would set a strict blood-level limit for THC, the key ingredient in cannabis. A driver over the limit would be deemed guilty of driving under the influence, just as with alcohol.

Such legislation has failed several times in recent years in the face of fierce opposition from marijuana advocates and defense lawyers, who claim a one-size-fits-all standard doesn’t work for marijuana because it affects the body differently than alcohol.

On both sides, passions run high.

“I haven’t had a car accident since I was 18, and I’ve had marijuana in my system for most of that time,” said Paul Saurini, 39, one of numerous weed activists, or “wactivists,” who spoke out against setting a firm blood-level limit during a public hearing in the state capital this week.

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Iowa Radio Host Steve Deace Eyes Senate Run

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Photo Credit: APIowa radio host Steve Deace will look seriously at running for Senate if conservative Rep. Steve King passes.

The nationally-syndicated commentator, who fashions himself a “conservative blowtorch,” put Karl Rove and Republican Gov. Terry Branstad on notice Thursday that no establishment-favored candidate will skate to the nomination – a warning that heightens the possibility of a bloody primary in a state the GOP must win in any realistic scenario to take the Senate next year.

“I think that it’s Steve King time to take the next step,” Deace told POLITICO. “Him running is sort of necessary to show that Karl Rove cannot pick our candidate. If King decides not to run, then I think it’s very important that someone who actually shares the principles that have made King so popular with conservatives across Iowa runs for that seat.”

“That would not be anyone attached to Terry Branstad or Karl Rove,” he added. The comments are part of the continuing blowback directed at American Crossroads after the group’s president compared King to failed Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin a month ago.

“It’s far too early to comment on a field that doesn’t even exist yet,” said Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio. After Rep. Tom Latham announced he would not run for the seat opened by Democratic incumbent Tom Harkin’s retirement, Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey told POLITICO Thursday that he, too, is considering a run.

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Obama Pardons 17, Including Man With Firearms Charges

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photo credit: A.A.President Obama on Friday pardoned 17 people around the country, including a Georgia man whose offense was possession of an unregistered firearm.

Larry Wayne Thornton of Forsyth, Georgia, faced four years of probation until Obama’s pardon.

The pardon has the potential to come under scrutiny, as Democrats and Obama himself have called for stricter gun-control laws in the wake of last year’s elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. In response to that shooting, Democrats have called for a range of options, including reinstating an assault weapons ban, and forcing all firearms purchasers to undergo background checks.

Obama also pardoned Lynn Marie Stanek of Oregon, who was charged with using a communications facility to distribute cocaine. She faced six months in jail and five years of probation.

Michael John Petri of South Dakota was also pardoned; he was convicted of possession of cocaine with an intent to distribute it.

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