Top Staff Left Clinton Foundation Over “Unpleasant” Chelsea Clinton

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Chelsea Clinton is so unpleasant to colleagues, she’s causing high turnover at the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, sources say.

Several top staffers have left the foundation since Chelsea came onBoard as vice chairman in 2011.

“A lot of people left because she was there. A lot of people left because she didn’t want them there,” an insider told me. “She is very difficult.”

Onetime CEO Bruce Lindsey was pushed upstairs to the position of chairman of the board two years ago, so that Chelsea could bring in her McKinsey colleague Eric Braverman.

“He [Braverman] was her boy, but he tried to hire his own communications professional and actually tried to run the place. He didn’t understand that that wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing,” said my source. “He was pushed out.” (Read more from “Top Staff Left Clinton Foundation Over Chelsea” HERE)

Dems Put Americans at Risk, Push to Extend Afghan Visas

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Once again, liberals in Washington are pursuing a dyslexic approach to national security and immigration. Instead of focusing on homeland security, they are continuing to center their attention on nation building in Afghanistan. Ironically, the continued engagement in Afghanistan is leading to more immigration from this volatile region – the very security risk that serves as the impetus for engaging in military operations there in the first place.

As Conservative Review pointed out last year, tens of thousands of refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan have been admitted over the past decade. The lack of proper vetting has led to numerous cases where refugees immigrated to the U.S. only to be outed as terrorists or potential security risks. Now, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) has inserted a provision into the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2016 (NDAA) – the very bill that reauthorizes much of our continued presence in Afghanistan – which would extend the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program and allow 3,000 more immigrants into the country from this hotbed of Islamic terror.

The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program, just like its Iraqi counterpart, provides green cards to Afghanis who work for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. They can come over with their families under this process if they meet certain qualifications. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to provide this status to those natives who help the U.S. in foreign wars because they often need protection as a result of their work with the military. But as American citizens have witnessed over the past decade, the rampant spread of radical jihad throughout the Middle East has made it arduous to distinguish friend from foe in the region.

From 2007-2014, the U.S. government has admitted 16,380 translators, interpreters, and contractors from Iraq through this program and 13,015 from Afghanistan [See Congressional Research Service for more information]. These numbers do not include the amount of refugees that have been given green cards because the Special Immigrant Visas are counted as employment-based immigration. Roughly 15,000-20,000 refugees have emigrated here from Iraq each year. With ISIS’s cyber Jihad successfully penetrating so many Muslim communities, especially those who hail from the Middle East, why should the U.S. welcome such needless risk and continue to admit thousands more? It’s important to remember that each interpreter or contractor can bring in an unlimited number of family members. It is very conceivable to have an honest interpreter who has children that are being swept up in the growing Jihadist fervor.

Where is the common sense?

There have been numerous tragedies of our brave soldiers killed in Afghanistan at the prime of their lives because they were double crossed by an Afghani contractor or interpreter. One such “green-on-blue” attack killed U.S. Major General Harold Green in 2014, the highest-ranking casualty in a theater of war since Vietnam. Attacks from supposedly friendly Afghanis accounted for 15% of coalition soldier deaths in 2012.

Last week, an individual who immigrated here in 2009 through the Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa program was arrested near Dallas for travelling to Syria and attempting to join ISIS. According to the New York Times, Bilal Abood served as a translator for the U.S. military in Iraq and has since become a naturalized citizen. Now he faces, at most, up to eight years in prison. On top of that, thanks to the refusal of Congress to bring up Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) Expatriate Terror Act, Abood will keep his citizenship.

This story comes on the heels of an endless stream of American Muslims caught fighting for ISIS or engaging in other activities for terrorist organizations. Just last week, federal officials arrested an entire Lebanese Muslim family in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – yes, in the heartland of America – for allegedly smuggling weapons into Lebanon that were likely headed to Hezbollah.

Think about the dyslexic policies that have been pursued since 9/11. In response to the horrible terror attack that was rooted in imprudent immigration policies, our military was dispatched to engage in endless operations in Afghanistan and Iraq…only to bring in more security risks through immigration from some of the most dangerous parts of the world.

The entire purpose of passing a defense authorization bill is to keep this great nation safe. At the very minimum, this bill should not make security matters worse. If nobody offers an amendment to strip out this Afghani immigration provision, conservative members should have no qualms about voting down this year’s NDAA. (See “Dems Put Americans at Risk, Push to Extend Afghan Visas” HERE)

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Feds Say That Banned Researcher Commandeered a United Airlines Jet

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Photo Credit: Wired A security researcher kicked off a United Airlines flight last month after tweeting about security vulnerabilities in its system had previously taken control of an airplane and caused it to briefly fly sideways, according to an application for a search warrant filed by an FBI agent.

Chris Roberts, a security researcher with One World Labs, told the FBI agent during an interview in February that he had hacked the in-flight entertainment system, or IFE, on an airplane and overwrote code on the plane’s Thrust Management Computer while aboard the flight. He was able to issue a climb command and make the plane briefly change course, the document states.

“He stated that he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights,” FBI Special Agent Mark Hurley wrote in his warrant application (.pdf). “He also stated that he used Vortex software after comprising/exploiting or ‘hacking’ the airplane’s networks. He used the software to monitor traffic from the cockpit system.”

Hurley filed the search warrant application last month after Roberts was removed from a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Syracuse, New York, because he published a facetious tweet suggesting he might hack into the plane’s network. Upon landing in Syracuse, two FBI agents and two local police officers escorted him from the plane and interrogated him for several hours. They also seized two laptop computers and several hard drives and USB sticks. Although the agents did not have a warrant when they seized the devices, they told Roberts a warrant was pending.

A media outlet in Canada obtained the application for the warrant today and published it online. (Read more from “Feds Say That Banned Researcher Commandeered a Plane” HERE)

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Clinton Foundation Donors Include Newsmax, Fox News Personalities, Many Other “Conservatives,” Media Groups

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Photo Credit: Politico By Josh Gerstein, Tarini Parti, Hadas Gold and Dylan Byers. NBC Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting and Thomson Reuters are among more than a dozen media organizations that have made charitable contributions to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, the foundation’s records show.

The donations, which range from the low-thousands to the millions, provide a picture of the media industry’s ties to the Clinton Foundation at a time when one of its most notable personalities, George Stephanopoulos, is under scrutiny for not disclosing his own $75,000 contribution when reporting on the foundation.

The list also includes mass media groups like Comcast, Time Warner and Viacom, as well a few notable individuals, including Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate and largest shareholder of The New York Times Company, and James Murdoch, the chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox. Both Slim and Murdoch have given between $1 million to $5 million, respectively. (Read more from “Clinton Foundation Donors Include Dozens of Media Organizations, Individuals” HERE)
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Listing of Some of the So-Called Conservatives, Groups that Donated to the Clinton Foundation

By ERIC HANANOKI

• Newsmax Media, Inc. The media company, which has billed itself as operating the “#1 Conservative Site in the Nation,” has made donations to the Clinton Foundation of between $100,001 to $250,000 and between $1,000,001 to $5,000,000.
• Donald J. Trump. Trump, a perennial-potential Republican presidential candidate, donated between $100,001 to $250,000 to the foundation.
• Richard M. Scaife. The late Scaife, who published the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, was described as “one of America’s leading funders of conservative causes.” He donated between $250,001 to $500,000 to the foundation.
• News Corporation Foundation. The foundation for News Corp., which is headed by Rupert Murdoch and was formerly the parent company of Fox News, donated between $500,001 to $1,000,000 to the foundation.
• James R. Murdoch. Murdoch, the co-chief operating officer of Fox News parent company 21st Century Fox and son of Rupert Murdoch, donated between $1,000,001 to $5,000,000.

High-Profile Republicans Have Supported The Clinton Foundation’s Efforts

Many Republican Party-affiliated individuals have attended and supported Clinton Foundation-affiliated events, including the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meetings. They include former first lady Laura Bush, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, Republican billionaire T. Boone Pickens, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Bush Treasury secretary Hank Paulson, and former first daughter Barbara Bush. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Closest Adviser to Hillary Clinton is a “Brazenly Dishonest Cover-up Specialist”

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Photo Credit: NY Post If Congress really wants to get to the bottom of Hillary Clinton’s missing Benghazi and pay-to-play emails, it should call her consigliere Cheryl D. Mills to testify — under oath, and under the klieg lights.

. . . Mills, who served as the former secretary of state’s chief of staff and counselor, knows where the bodies are buried. After all, Hillary tasked her with “identifying and preserving all emails that could potentially be federal records.”

. . . Since the 1990s, Mills has been at Hillary’s side — first as a White House lawyer, then as her closest and most loyal adviser at the State Department, and now as a key member of the Clinton Foundation board, which is under fire for raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from dubious foreign sources in alleged influence-peddling deals.

The job of damage control has fallen to Mills through a parade of scandals. Her lack of cooperation is legendary. In fact, she’s been officially accused of both perjury and obstruction of justice.

Sworn affidavits, depositions and court rulings, as well as congressional reports and testimony, paint a picture of, to put it charitably, a brazenly dishonest cover-up specialist. (Read more from “Closest Adviser to Hillary Clinton is a Brazenly Dishonest Cover-up Specialist” HERE)

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Asian Groups File Lawsuit Against Harvard For Discriminatory Racial Quotas

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By FoxNews.com. An alliance of Asian American groups filed a federal complaint Friday against Harvard University, claiming that the school and other Ivy League institutions are using racial quotas to admit students other than high-scoring Asians.

More than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pakistani groups came together for the complaint, which was filed with the civil rights offices at the Justice and Education departments. The groups are calling for an investigation and say these schools need to stop using racial quotas or racial balancing in admission.

“We are seeking equal treatment regardless of race,” said Chunyan Li, a professor and civil rights activist, who said they’d rather universities use income rather than race in affirmative action policies. . .

The federal suits say that Harvard and UNC rely on race-based affirmative action policies that impact admissions of high-achieving white and Asian American students. The Harvard lawsuit also alleges that the institution specifically curbs the number of Asian Americans it admits each year.

Yukong Zhao, who organized the groups for Friday’s complaint, challenged Harvard to open its admission books to prove that Asians were not purposefully being put at a disadvantage. “We want to help this country move forward,” Zhao said. (Read more from the story about discriminatory racial quotas HERE)

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Asian Groups: Feds Should Step In and Change Harvard’s Admissions Process

By Camille Cava. A coalition of Asian-American organizations says the federal government should step in to change Harvard’s approach to admissions, accusing the university of racial discrimination.

In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education and the Justice Department on Friday, the coalition of more than 60 groups claims that the university unfairly holds Asian-American applicants to a higher standard. Asian-Americans have the lowest acceptance rates at Harvard University and other elite universities, the complaint alleges, despite having some of the highest test scores and overall academic achievement.

“People from all over the world came to America for equal opportunities. We are trying to bring those principles back to America,” said Yukong Zhao, a Chinese-American author who helped organize the coalition. “This isn’t just about discrimination and race. It is about justice for everyone, including (people of) all races, and social and economic statuses.” (Read more from this CNN article about discriminatory racial quotas HERE)

Ted Cruz Becoming a Hit Among Wall Street Donors

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Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, a Tea Party favorite and leading figure in the 2013 government shutdown that rattled investors, isn’t the kind of politician who usually wins a lot of friends among Wall Street campaign donors.

The freshman Republican senator from Texas has none of the moderate tendencies that financiers often prefer in presidential candidates. Cruz relishes his image as an anti-establishment figure and boasts of his aversion to compromise. He has vowed to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and repeal President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare plan, commonly known as Obamacare.

Despite the uncompromising rhetoric, Cruz is winning praise from some potential Wall Street donors, including bankers and hedge fund managers, who told Reuters there is more to him than the conservative firebrand of the campaign trail. He has been courting financiers in their homes in New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, they said.

But the praise does not appear to be translating into cash donations – at least so far. Some potential donors on Wall Street said they had doubts about whether Cruz can win the 2016 election, when he would likely face off against Hillary Clinton.

A spokesman for Cruz said his campaign was happy with its initial fundraising effort and believed that the senator appealed to a wide range of people. (Read more from “Ted Cruz Becoming a Hit Among Wall Street Donors” HERE)

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Waco Police: Several Killed in Biker Gangs’ Shootout [+video]

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Police said at least nine people were dead and others wounded after a fight between rival motorcycle gangs at a Texas restaurant turned into a shootout Sunday afternoon.

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton told CBS affiliate KWTX the gunfire began shortly after noon Sunday at the Twin Peaks restaurant, located in the Central Texas Market Place on Interstate 35.

KWTX reported eight bikers were killed at the restaurant and one other person died at a hospital. At least 18 people were hurt, according to Swanton, none of them police or bystanders.

Police initially said three gangs were involved, but later said factions from at least five gangs took part in the melee.

Swanton said the fight quickly escalated from fists and feet to chains, clubs and knives before the shooting began. He described it as “one of the most violent scenes I’ve seen in my 34 years as a police officer in Waco.” (Read more from “Waco Police: Several Killed in Biker Gangs’ Shootout” HERE)

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1 Dead, Several Injured in Osprey Hard-Landing at Bellows [+videos]

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Photo Credit: Star Advertiser One Marine died and several were injured in an MV-22 Osprey aircraft hard-landing incident Sunday morning at Bellows Air Force Station.

At least twelve of 22 Marines onboard were injured in a “hard-landing mishap,” which occurred at about 11 a.m. when the aircraft from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, was conducting training, said Capt. Alex Lim, a spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Forces Pacific.

Military, police, fire and Emergency Medical Service personnel are responding to the scene at Bellows station in the Waimanalo area. The injured Marines were transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Residents in the Kailua, Keolu Hills and Enchanted Lake areas reported seeing plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the Bellows area. Bellows is used as a training area for Marines.

The Osprey was not participating in an exercise connected to the U.S. Pacific Command Amphibious Leaders Symposium. (Read more from “1 Dead, Several Injured in Osprey Hard-Landing at Bellows” HERE)

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Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Sentenced to Death

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tsarnaevA federal jury Friday sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death, the final chapter to a brutal, emotionally exhausting trial that brought forth indelible images of an unspeakable crime.

There was no visible reaction from Tsarnaev, 21. Several survivors and relatives of victims dabbed tears in the quiet courtroom.

Bill and Denise Richard, parents of the bombing’s littlest victim, 8-year-old Martin, looked on stoically from the second row. They were against the death penalty.

The verdict marked the first time in the post-9/11 era that federal prosecutors have won the death penalty in a terrorism case.

Tsarnaev could be sent to death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, but his final destination will not be known until after the judge formally sentences him in court. No sentencing date has been set. (Read more from “Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Sentenced to Death” HERE)