C.I.A. Collects Global Data on Transfers of Money

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Shannon Stapleton/ReutersThe Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law that the National Security Agency uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current and former government officials.

The C.I.A. financial records program, which the officials said was authorized by provisions in the Patriot Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, offers evidence that the extent of government data collection programs is not fully known and that the national debate over privacy and security may be incomplete.

Some details of the C.I.A. program were not clear. But it was confirmed by several current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is classified.

The data does not include purely domestic transfers or bank-to-bank transactions, several officials said. Another, while not acknowledging the program, suggested that the surveillance court had imposed rules withholding the identities of any Americans from the data the C.I.A. sees, requiring a tie to a terrorist organization before a search may be run, and mandating that the data be discarded after a certain number of years. The court has imposed several similar rules on the N.S.A. call logs program.

Several officials also said more than one other bulk collection program has yet to come to light.

Read more from this story HERE.

Five Jaw-Dropping Quotes from the Catastrophically Awful Obamacare Press Conference

/10 Comments/in , /by

President Obama had three goals coming into yesterday’s press conference: First, to shift responsibility for the Obamacare fiasco onto insurers by saddling them with mid-implementation changes. Second, to quell Democratic panic on Capitol Hill. And third, to nudge the media toward turning the page on his healthcare debacle. He accomplished none of these things. Indeed, he made things worse — sinking his presidency to a new nadir. A few jaw-dropping quotes:

(1) “What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Really, Mr. President? You’re “discovering” this minor detail three years after you forced through a massive, unpopular overhaul of the entire system? This statement is a breathtaking admission of abject dereliction and incompetence. ABC News’ Rick Klein also notes that the administration’s long-time talking points assured skeptical consumers that Obamacare would be easy to buy. That’s what all of the “just like Expedia!” comparisons were about. Now, with millions getting booted from their plans, with a horribly broken website exacerbating the pain, Obama suddenly sees the light. A disgrace.

2) “What we’re essentially saying is the Affordable Care Act is not going to be the factor in what happens with folks in the individual market.” Points for candor, I guess. Here the president explicitly spells out the motivation behind his so-called “fix” — which even liberal wonks and industry experts are admitting are unworkable and will make the law’s problems worse. The goal is not to repair the damage; the goal is to scapegoat someone else for the Obamacare wreckage that awaits. Insurance companies are the new villains. Insurers, who’ve been in bed with Obama on this law from the beginning, aren’t going to take the demonization lying down. Obama is decreeing a 13th-hour disruption that they cannot comply with at this stage, and that will throw their finances into chaos. They will, in turn, hike premiums even more next year. This is the death spiral, ladies and gentlemen. And Obama will try to stand to the side and point at his former Obamacare partners as the culprits. It’s shameful. And I suspect it won’t work. His credibility is in the tank.

Read more from this story HERE.

State Insurance Regulators ‘Concerned’ about Obama’s Proposed Health Care Fix

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: ThinkstockAt a Thursday press conference, President Obama, in attempt to calm the backlash from millions of Americans losing their insurance coverage, announced that insurers would no longer be bound by the requirements of his health care law for plans currently in effect.

He said that now the issue would be up to insurers and state regulators.

But Jim Donelon, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the organization representing state insurance commissioners), said that state regulators are “concerned” about Obama’s announcement and aren’t clear on how it could be workable.

Here is the full statement from Donelon, emailed through a NAIC spokesman:

We share the President’s and Congress’ concerns about policy cancellations and issues including gaps in coverage that may result from them, and fully understand the anxiety of the residents of our states who have received these notices. This anxiety is especially heightened given the issues with the federal exchange.

Read more from this story HERE.

Health Law Rollout’s Stumbles Draw Parallels to Bush’s Hurricane Katrina Response

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York TimesBarack Obama won the presidency by exploiting a political environment that devoured George W. Bush in a second term plagued by sinking credibility, failed legislative battles, fractured world relations and revolts inside his own party.

President Obama is now threatened by a similar toxic mix. The disastrous rollout of his health care law not only threatens the rest of his agenda but also raises questions about his competence in the same way that the Bush administration’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina undermined any semblance of Republican efficiency.

But unlike Mr. Bush, who faced confrontational but occasionally cooperative Democrats, Mr. Obama is battling a Republican opposition that has refused to open the door to any legislative fixes to the health care law and has blocked him at virtually every turn. A contrite-sounding Mr. Obama repeatedly blamed himself on Thursday for the failed health care rollout, which he acknowledged had thrust difficult burdens on his political allies and hurt Americans’ trust in him.

“It’s legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general,” Mr. Obama said. The president did not admit to misleading people about whether they could keep their insurance, but again expressed regret that his assurances turned out to be wrong.

“To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear,” Mr. Obama said as he announced changes intended to allow some people to keep their insurance.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ben Stein: Obama Making ‘Annihilation’ of Jews Possible

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Murray State/flickrCommentator Ben Stein said on Thursday that President Barack Obama’s “deeply naïve” premise that Iran would suddenly end its nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of sanctions that have crippled its economy for five years would make the “annihilation” of Jews possible.

“Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” Stein said in The American Spectator. “The Iranians in the recent past have pledged to destroy the Jewish people in the Middle East.

“Some of their leaders have boasted that if Iran gets nuclear weapons, Iran will have ‘a holocaust in an afternoon’ by rocketing a few nuclear weapons into Israel,” Stein added. “Naturally, the Israelis are desperately worried.”

A round of talks between Iran and world powers in Geneva fell short of an expected deal on Sunday after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius objected, saying the terms of a preliminary agreement were too easy on Tehran.

The deal would not have required Iran, for instance, to close any of its 18,000 uranium centrifuges or its heavy water reactor in Arak, which would serve as a source of plutonium when it starts operations in about two years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans’ Personal Data Shared with CIA, IRS, Others in Security Probe

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: MELINA YINGLING AND DANNY DOUGHERTY — MCTU.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people – along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions – to nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Although the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven, authorities hoped to find government employees or applicants who might have tried to use them to lie during the tests required for security clearances. Officials with multiple agencies confirmed that they’d checked the names in their databases and planned to retain the list in case any of those named take polygraphs for federal jobs or criminal investigations.

It turned out, however, that many people on the list worked outside the federal government and lived across the country. Among the people whose personal details were collected were nurses, firefighters, police officers and private attorneys, McClatchy learned. Also included: a psychologist, a cancer researcher and employees of Rite Aid, Paramount Pictures, the American Red Cross and Georgetown University.

Moreover, many of them had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and didn’t receive the one-on-one training that investigators had suspected. In one case, a Washington lawyer was listed even though he’d never contacted the instructors. Dozens of others had wanted to pass a polygraph not for a job, but for a personal reason: The test was demanded by spouses who suspected infidelity.

Read more from this story HERE.

Printed Plastic Guns a Growing Worry for Law Enforcement

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Federal law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned about the public-safety threats posed by plastic handguns made with 3-D printers because they can potentially slip past metal detectors and are capable of firing lethal rounds.

At a media briefing Wednesday, senior officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they had built and tested the Liberator, a printed handgun designed by Defense Distributed, a Texas organization. Cody Wilson, its co-founder, is a former law student leading a campaign for do-it-yourself firearms.

In one test, ATF officials fired eight rounds from the Liberator. Other tests and simulations showed that the weapon was capable of firing with enough power to injure vital organs.

The Liberator’s designs were downloaded more than 100,000 times in just two days before federal officials demanded their removal in May. The risk, officials said, is not that street criminals will use printed weapons in their day-to-day operations. Rather, ATF officials are concerned about individuals slipping plastic guns past metal detectors and into schools, sporting events or government offices.

Depending on the sensitivity of a metal detector, a bullet might not be enough to set it off. Only X-ray machines could spot the handgun itself, and in many public places they aren’t available.

Read more from this story HERE.

One-Hundred and Fifty Years Later Paper Retracts Editorial Dismissing Lincoln’s “Silly Remarks” at Gettysburg

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Matt ZenceySeven score and ten years ago, the forefathers of this media institution brought forth to its audience a judgment so flawed, so tainted by hubris, so lacking in the perspective history would bring, that it cannot remain unaddressed in our archives.

We write today in reconsideration of “The Gettysburg Address,” delivered by then-President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the greatest conflict seen on American soil. Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time, called President Lincoln’s words “silly remarks,” deserving “a veil of oblivion,” apparently believing it an indifferent and altogether ordinary message, unremarkable in eloquence and uninspiring in its brevity.

In the fullness of time, we have come to a different conclusion. No mere utterance, then or now, could do justice to the soaring heights of language Mr. Lincoln reached that day…

Read more from this story HERE.

Anti-Gun Toll Free Tip Line Rewards Citizens for Turning in Family to Police

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Mario Tama/GettyIf you have a phone, and you are aware that your neighbor, your friend, or even your family member is a gun owner, you can now single-handedly launch an investigation into their activities by using a new toll free “tip line.”

The tip line was set up in New York State by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as an outgrowth of the infamous SAFE Act, reports David Codrea, who quoted from a news item published in The Niagara Falls Reporter.

The new law was initiated in response to the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. New York now has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.

Cuomo’s tip line encourages and rewards citizens who spy on fellow citizens by offering a $500 reward if an arrest is made as a result of information provided on the tip line.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rep. Trey Gowdy: Are You Going to Believe What Obama Tells You?

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APPresident Obama announced an Obamacare “fix,” but who will believe him, a conservative Republican asked ahead of the president’s appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday.

“Are you going to believe what he tells you at 11:30 this morning?” Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked during a Thursday morning interview on Fox News.

“Twenty-seven different times he told you, you and I would never be having this conversation, because if you liked your insurance you could keep it. And for those who weren’t paying attention, he said ‘period.'”…

Gowdy said Obama is seeking a “political remedy” — “because his dream of retaking the House has now turned into the nightmare of, he may lose the Senate — because half of the people that he works for don’t believe what comes out of his mouth.”

Read more from this story HERE.