5 Times The Obama Admin Leaked Crucial National Security Information

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Photo Credit: RedFlagNewsThis is not the first time the Obama administration has compromised national security with leaks, either purposeful or inadvertent.

SEAL Team Six. After the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Obama administration steadfastly refused to say which element of the US military had participated in the assault. Until Vice President Joe Biden decided to talk about it on national television, that is. Speaking at Washington’s Ritz Carlton Hotel in the days after the Bin Laden kill, Biden stated, “Admiral James Stavridis is the real deal. He can tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALs and what they did last Saturday… I was in absolute awe of the capacity and the dedication of the entire team, both the intelligence community, the CIA, the SEALs.”

This put a target on the backs of the SEALs. That target came with consequences, when a SEAL team helicopter was downed in Afghanistan, killing 17.

Al Qaeda Tapes. On August 3, 2013, the Obama administration closed 22 embassies around the world based on intelligence supposedly received about potential al Qaeda attacks. That drew blowback thanks to the juxtaposition of the closings with news of the National Security Agency surveillance of Americans. Then, on August 7, 2013, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast reported that the Obama administration had taped a conference call with al Qaeda and revealed details of that call – details that CNN had not released after a “request from an Obama administration official not to publish or broadcast additional details because of the sensitivity of the information.”

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After IG Report Confirms VA Horrors, Carney Says There Will Be Accountability “If” Allegations Are True

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Photo Credit: TownHallBy Katie Pavlich.

Less than 24 hours after a preliminary Veterans Affairs Inspector General report showed that not only was there widespread misconduct and excruciatingly long wait times at hospitals for veterans, but that the problem is worse than first reported, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Obama will wait for a broader review before making any further personnel decisions about the VA, specifically when it comes to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. Shinseki has been asked to resign by Republicans, Democrats and a number of veterans groups, including the American Legion.

“I’m not going to speculate about personnel [at the VA],” Carney said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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VFW Calls For Immediate Firings At VA

By Debra Heine.

Following Wednesday’s release of the preliminary report by the VA Office of the Inspector General, the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) called on General Shinseki to immediately fire everyone who “knowingly gamed the reporting system.” Included among those the VFW says should be held accountable are those “in senior leadership who should have known but didn’t, or knew but didn’t care.”

“We call on VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to immediately fire every employee and supervisor who knowingly gamed the reporting system,” demanded William A. Thien, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. “The VA is entrusted with the care and treatment of our nation’s heroes, and there are people in Phoenix and possibly elsewhere who failed miserably, and quite possibly, criminally,” he said. “There are no second chances when you deal with people’s lives, and that includes everyone in senior leadership who should have known but didn’t, or knew but didn’t care.”

“Military veterans are used to waiting in lines, but no veteran should ever have to wait for timely access to care for their wounds, illnesses and injuries, said Thien. “In light of the interim report, I want to make it clear to Secretary Shinseki that he needs to move immediately to terminate the employment of those bearing any responsibility for this travesty. And if the final IG report confirms willful negligence, then those responsible need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Anything less will not be tolerated by the VFW.”

This represents a change in stance from Saturday, when the leadership of the VFW torched Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) for writing an open letter that was critical of unnamed veterans groups because they had not yet called for new leadership at the VA.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Emails Track How VA Officials Conspired to Manipulate Wait Times

By Melissa Clyne.

Despite years of repeated complaints and evidence showing patient wait-time fraud at the Central Texas VA, the inspector general never held anyone accountable and even bestowed the Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence Award on the facility, The Daily Beast reports.

A Texas whistleblower provided the publication with emails and internal memos detailing “how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system” by doing things like entering the next available appointment date instead of a patient’s desired appointment date into the computer system, according to The Daily Beast, which was often a difference of weeks and months.

Fifty percent of VA executives’ “field bonus” pay hinged on wait times, according to the whistleblower.

This “low-risk, high-reward form of cheating” was pervasive throughout the VA, the whistleblower said, yet the outcome of a 2011 inspector general investigation that found “significant delays” and “widespread manipulation” of appointments didn’t result in disciplinary action against any VA officials.

“Every doctor, nurse, and clerk in the hospital knows it’s true, but the VA’s investigative team wasn’t able to find any evidence,” the whistleblower said. “They didn’t interview any of us or really try to find out what was going on. This was reported in 2011 and it’s still not fixed today.”

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New Study: Obamacare Will Actually INCREASE the Number of Uninsured

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Photo Credit: IJ Review A new study was released which shows that Obamacare will both increase the cost of health insurance and increase the number of uninsured.

From Conservative Hideout:

Nationally, we estimate an initial decrease in the uninsured with greater use of the private health insurance subsidies, but over time health plan prices are likely to increase faster than the value of the insurance subsidy. As a result of the declining purchasing power of the insurance subsidy, the implementation of the qualified health plan requirements and the end of the reinsurance and risk corridor programs we estimate a significant reduction in the private insurance market in 2017 with steady declines continuing for the rest of the decade.

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Boston Globe, LA Times Declare Obama Incompetent (+video)

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Photo Credit: APThe scandal at the Veteran’s Administration is rocking the Obama regime and may yet be one of the worst scandals of the Obama era. Already two major newspapers are starting to accuse the Obama administration of utter incompetence.

In fact, a lack of “competence” is exactly how columnist for the Boston Globe Jeff Jacoby put it May 25.

Jacoby points out that Obama ran on the claim that he would be the perfect manager because he would put all the right sort of intellectual, liberal managers in place while he ran herd on them all. As he first vied for president in 2008, Obama got the endorsement of most voters because of his promise of competence.

Voters – encouraged by newspaper endorsements that saw in Obama’s campaign “a marvel of sound management” (The Boston Globe) and backed him because he “offered more competence than drama” (Los Angeles Times) – ate it up. An astonishing 76 percent of respondents in a CNN/ORC poll shortly after the 2008 election agreed that Obama could “manage the government effectively.”

However, as Jacoby painfully points out, today’s reality stands in stark contrast to the fantasy Obama candidate in 2008. With the latest strike of the VA scandal against him, “Five years of Obama’s presidency have certainly shattered that delusion,” Jacoby wrote.

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White House Hid Obama’s Lunch With Hillary From Reporters

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Photo Credit: White House / Pete SouzaThe White House apparently tried to keep President Barack Obama’s lunch with Hillary Clinton Thursday under wraps.

Obama’s public schedule did not include the meal, but word got out after a photo was posted on People Magazine’s official Twitter account. The picture showed Clinton with People’s Washington bureau chief, Sandra Westfall. An accompanying message referenced the lunch.

“PEOPLE’s @sswestfall chats w/@HillaryClinton before her @WhiteHouse lunch. Hope she wasn’t late for @barackobama!” the tweet said.

People quickly deleted the tweet. It was reposted again a little over an hour later.

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Evidence of Reverse Discrimination Was So ‘Overwhelming’ That a Jury Awarded the Victim More Than $1 Million

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Photo Credit: Village of FreeportA New York police officer was awarded $1.35 million dollars this week after he successfully sued the village of Freeport, alleging he was passed over for a promotion because of his race.

A Long Island jury sided with Lt. Christopher Barrella after he claimed that then-Mayor Andrew Hardwick overlooked him to become chief of police so that he could name a Hispanic candidate to the position instead.

“I am very gratified that the jury ruled that I deserved to be chief of police. Throughout this entire process, I have tried to maintain a positive attitude and do my best for the department and the village of Freeport and will continue to do so,” Barrella said in a statement. “It has been a long and trying process, but I always had faith that if we could present our case to a jury of my peers they would see that I was discriminated against.”

His legal team, comprised of Amanda M. Fugazy and Adam C. Weiss, said that “racial discrimination against white employees is just as unlawful as discrimination black, Hispanic or Asian employees.”

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Obama Signals Significant Shift in US Foreign Policy at West Point Commencement

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Photo Credit: AP

President Obama, in a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, signaled a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy — one that pulls back from what he described as “military adventures” while wielding American power in other ways.

The president described the new American foreign policy as one of “collective action” and restraint, deploying unilateral U.S. military force only when the American people are threatened. He outlined the approach a day after announcing his plan for gradually drawing down the U.S. force in Afghanistan once the war formally ends later this year.

“The landscape has changed,” Obama told the graduating class at West Point on Wednesday, citing the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The president took on what he described as “interventionists” from both parties, and said that while “isolationism” is not an option, “U.S. military action cannot be the only — or even primary — component of our leadership in every instance.”

The president advised that crises around the world that don’t directly threaten Americans be met first with non-military options: diplomacy, sanctions and “collective action.”

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EPA To Unilaterally Push Cap And Trade On Carbon Emissions

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Photo Credit: dantekgeekDespite being soundly rejected a few years ago, cap-and-trade will get its U.S. encore but not in Congress. The Obama administration will likely use its executive power to unilaterally impose carbon dioxide emissions trading systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil regulations for existing U.S. power plants early next month. For months, onlookers have speculating about what could be included in the EPA’s rule for existing power plants.

But over the past few days it has become clear that the Obama administration will use the EPA to push cap-and-trade systems and other anti-fossil fuel policies on U.S. states. Administration insiders have told news outlets that cap-and-trade will likely be one of the options the EPA gives states to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

The Wall Street Journal reported the EPA’s proposal will “include a cap-and-trade component where a limit is set on emissions and companies can trade allowances or credits for emissions” to meet new federal rules. The journal added that power plant “operators could trade emissions credits or use other offsets in the power sector, such as renewable energy or energy-efficiency programs, to meet the target.”

The plan is being sold as a “flexible” one. By allowing states a menu of policy options to meet federal mandates, the standards will ostensibly meet the unique needs of each individual state. But the stark reality behind the proposal is that it will be a boon for states that have already imposed cap-and-trade systems — which are overwhelmingly Democratic states.

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Family: V.A. Cops Stomped On Veteran’s Head, Killing Him

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan ErnstBy Chuck Ross.

The family of a 65 year-old veteran claims that VA police stomped on the veterans head and neck, causing him to suffer a stroke and die several weeks later, a new lawsuit alleges.

On May 25, 2011, Jonathan Montano was waiting several hours to undergo dialysis treatment at the Loma Linda VA facility when he grew frustrated, reports Courthouse News Service.

With an IV still in his arm, Montano made his way towards the hospital exit, saying that he would get treatment at the Long Beach VA facility instead.

Norma Montano, the veteran’s wife of 44 years, left the hospital to retrieve the couple’s car.

But VA police wouldn’t let Montano leave, the lawsuit alleges.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APTexas VA Run Like a ‘Crime Syndicate,’ Whistleblower Says

By Jacob Siegel.

Last week, President Obama pledged to address allegations of corruption and dangerous inefficiencies in the veterans’ health-care system. But before the president could deliver on his pledge, the scandal has spread even further. New whistleblower testimony and internal documents implicate an award-winning VA hospital in Texas in widespread wrongdoing—and what appears to be systemic fraud.

Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most comprehensive accounts yet of how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system. It shows not only how they manipulated hospital wait lists but why—to cover up the weeks and months veterans spent waiting for needed medical care. If those lag times had been revealed, it would have threatened the executives’ bonus pay.

What’s worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years, even after it was repeatedly reported to local and national VA authorities. That indicates a new troubling angle to the VA scandal: that the much touted investigations may be incapable of finding violations that are hiding in plain sight.

“For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate,” a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. “People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up.”

“I see it in the executives’ eyes,” the whistleblower added. “They are worried.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Waves of Immigrant Minors Present Crisis for Obama, Congress

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / JOSE LUIS GONZALEZTens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents or relatives are flooding across the southern U.S. border illegally, forcing the Obama administration and Congress to grapple with both a humanitarian crisis and a budget dilemma.

An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Washington is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing and transportation once they are taken into custody.

The flow is expected to grow. The number of unaccompanied, undocumented immigrants who are under 18 will likely double in 2015 to nearly 130,000 and cost U.S. taxpayers $2 billion, up from $868 million this year, according to administration estimates.

The shortage of housing for these children, some as young as 3, has already become so acute that an emergency shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has been opened and can accommodate 1,000 of them, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in an interview with Reuters.

The issue is an added source of tension between Democrats and Republicans, who disagree on how to rewrite immigration laws. With comprehensive legislation stalled, President Barack Obama is looking at small, administrative steps he could take, which might be announced this summer. No details have been outlined but immigration groups are pressing him to take steps to keep families with children together.

Read more from this story HERE.