Agents Shocked as Cartel Boss Involved in Torture Death of DEA Colleague Slips Away

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Photo Credit; Reuters

Photo Credit; Reuters

Mexican and U.S. authorities are scrambling to find a 60-year-old former drug lord — who was behind the brutal killing of an American agent nearly two decades ago — following his recent, and unexpected, release from a Mexican prison.

Rafael Caro Quintero walked out of Jalisco State prison shortly after midnight on Aug. 9 — a free man on a legal technicality, a decision which drew international condemnation and which the White House warns could lead to the release of other drug criminals in Mexico.

Security guards were assigned to follow Quintero after his release, but the former cartel boss was able to shake them after only 10 minutes, a source familiar with the events told FoxNews.com.

As both governments now try to figure out a way to re-apprehend and detain Quintero, outrage continues to build in the U.S., with current and former federal drug agents vowing to seek justice. The turn of events already threatens to deeply damage ties between the U.S. and Mexico. Attorney General Eric Holder has contacted his Mexican counterparts about the release, the Justice Department confirmed to FoxNews.com this week.

The case of Quintero, for U.S. agents, is personal. Quintero spent the last 28 years locked up for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of American DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He was originally sentenced to spend 40 years behind bars.

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NYT, Twitter and HuffPo Attacked by Syrian Electronic Army

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By Danny Yadron, Shira Ovide and William Launder.

A pro-Syrian government group appeared to attack more than 10 websites, including Twitter, the New York TimesNYT -2.93% and HuffingtonPost.com, said security researchers citing digital evidence.

The attacks by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, come as the U.S. is considering action against Syria. In the past, the group has taken action against media organizations and websites it believes are sympathetic to Syrian rebels.

The websites, including the Huffington Post’s U.K. website, appeared to be compromised Tuesday by the group, said a security researcher who had seen digital evidence. HuffingtonPost confirmed the attack and said there was a “minimal disruption of service.”

The hackers, meantime, repeatedly claimed they had taken over Twitter’s Internet address, though they appeared to be unsuccessful.

The social media site never appeared to lose service. (The hackers used their own Twitter account to claim they had hacked the social-media website.)

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Photo Credit: Adam Jeffery

Photo Credit: Adam Jeffery

New York Times website likely taken down by malicious attack

By Eamon Javers and Cadie Thompson.

The New York Times said its website has been taken down, in what was likely an external malicious attack Tuesday.

Eileen Murphy, VP of corporate communications, initially reported the outage via Twitter.

While the Times was down, Twitter also experienced some hiccups on its website. A Twitter account for the group of hackers called the Syrian Electronic Army claimed that it had attacked the social media website and changed the ownership listing of Twitter’s domain name registration.The same account later posted to Twitter that it had also taken over the registrations for the Times website and for the Huffington Post UK domain.

Twitter told CNBC that it was investigating the issue.

Twitter later issued a status update saying that its Domain Name System (DNS) provider had “experienced an issue in which it appears DNS records for various organizations were modified, including one of Twitter’s domains used for image serving, twimg.com.” As a result, “Viewing of images and photos was sporadically impacted.”

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Speaking Truth to Power About Obama

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Barack ObamaIt’s getting so that you have to be a true believer in the mainstream media not to notice that Barack Obama’s presidency is floundering. His signature legislative accomplishment Obamacare is a disaster and his foreign policy has belly-flopped. And now, we may be at the brink of highly unpopular military engagement in Syria with no prospect of an outcome that would be beneficial to the United States.

It’s so bad that important writers on our side are not mincing so many words anymore. As the first black president, Obama enjoyed a halo in the media that lasted for most of his first term. When tea parties sprang up in opposition to his policies, the media establishment immediately labeled them racist, in effect enforcing a taboo on criticism of the first black president.

But Obama’s race-driven immunity is wearing off, and respected and knowledgeable writers are being frank about what a historic disaster Obama has been as president. The low information voters remain blissfully ignorant, of course, lulled into believing Obama is competent and his critics racist.

Michael Barone, who is widely respected beyond conservative circles compiles a breathtaking list of Obama’s historic incompetence on IBD:

Evidence of the astonishing incompetence of the Obama administration continues to roll in…

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Fort Hood Shooting: Suspect Rests his Case Without Testifying at Sentencing

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood decided not to call witnesses or testify Tuesday during his trial’s penalty phase, which is his last chance to plead for his life before the jury begins deliberating whether to sentence him to death.

Major Nidal Hasan rested his case without submitting any evidence to counter the emotional testimony from victims’ relatives, who prosecutors hope convince jurors to hand down a rare military death sentence. The same jury convicted Hasan last week for the attack, which also wounded more than 30 people at the Texas military base.

The judge dismissed jurors after Hasan declined to put up a defense. But she then asked Hasan more than two dozen questions in rapid fire, affirming that he knew what he was doing. His answers were succinct and just as rapid.

“It is my personal decision,” he said. “It is free and voluntary.”

The judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, then read him several court opinions to back up her decision not to introduce evidence in Hasan’s favor on her own.

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US Envoy to Travel to North Korea to Seek Release of Detained American Missionary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A U.S. envoy will travel to North Korea later this week to try and secure the release of an American missionary sentenced to 15 years hard labor in the country earlier this year.

The State Department says in a statement Bob King, who is special envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, will travel to North Korea on a humanitarian mission Aug. 30 to request freedom and a pardon for 45-year-old Kenneth Bae.

“Ambassador King will request the DPRK pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment,” the statement said.

Bae, a tour operator and Christian missionary, was arrested in November and accused of subversion. In April, North Korea’s Supreme Court convicted him of committing hostile acts against the country and sentenced him to 15 years hard labor.

Bae was recently hospitalized and reportedly has lost 50 pounds since he was sentenced. While King’s visit is a humanitarian mission, it could help improve relations severely strained by Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

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Facebook Report: Governments Asked for Data on 38,000 Users this Year

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Government agencies around the world demanded access to the information of over 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, and more than half the orders came from the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

Facebook’s first “global government requests report” covers the first six months of 2013, ending 30 June. It comes as the social network giant and its peers are coming under intense scrutiny following revelations about their co-operation with the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of US and foreign citizens.

“Transparency and trust are core values at Facebook. We strive to embody them in all aspects of our services, including our approach to responding to government data requests,” Colin Stretch, Facebook general counsel, said in a blogpost. “We want to make sure that the people who use our service understand the nature and extent of the requests we receive and the strict policies and processes we have in place to handle them.”

US authorities made 11,000-12,000 requests for information on 20,000-21,000 individuals over the six months. The company complied in 79% of cases. Facebook said it had to give a range for the US figures in order to give an indication of “all criminal and national security requests to the maximum extent permitted by law”.

The figures released by Facebook give no detail on the types of requests received or of what type of information the company handed over. Facebook, along with Google and others, is currently pressing Congress to be allowed to give greater detail the number of requests it receives from the US authorities. The NSA has the the authority to demand data about communications with non-US citizens without specific warrants and gags companies from disclosing even the most basic details of those cases.

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U.S. Faces Mid-October Deadline to Raise Debt Limit

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debtBut there’s no guarantee — mainly because of partisan disagreement about whether to continue the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester that are slicing defense and domestic agency budgets.

Republicans favor restoring funding to the Pentagon while cutting domestic programs even more deeply. But Democrats want to roll back the automatic defense and non-defense cuts — in part through alternative spending reductions and tax increases on the wealthy.

Although Democrats say they are happy to debate how to fund the government, they add that they won’t negotiate over the separate issue of the debt ceiling.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Republicans ought not put the nation’s creditworthiness at risk by demanding concessions in return for raising the debt limit.

“I don’t think the American public is going to stand for playing with what remains an economic weapon,” he said. “Playing around with the debt ceiling will create unnecessary economic harm.”

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Boehner Warns Against Shutting U.S. Government over ‘Obamacare’

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner warned rank-and-file Republicans in a conference call on Thursday against using the threat of a government shutdown to stop the implementation of Obamacare, according to people on the call.

On the call, Boehner reminded Republicans of the political backlash their party suffered when the government shut down in 1995-1996, according to one person on the call.

Another participant in the call, Oklahoma Representative Tom Cole, said the speaker’s main message was that he and other leaders were still committed to killing President Barack Obama’s signature health care law but that they did not want a government shutdown.

A House Republican aide, however, emphasized that no final decision has been made on whether to pursue a strategy advocated by some in the party of denying funds for Obamacare.

Republicans agree strongly on their opposition to Obamacare, viewing the law as a burden to businesses that will cost jobs.

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On Hill, Deep Skepticism about Syria Entanglement

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Despite mounting evidence that President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his people, many members of Congress still don’t see a role for the United States military in Syria.

A raft of Republican and Democratic lawmakers — including those directly involved in intelligence oversight — think the U.S. would be wise to take a pass on military intervention in the war-torn country.

Their line of thinking goes like this: Sending in U.S. troops now is too late, too dangerous, too pricey and not guaranteed to be successful. And a bombing campaign won’t do enough. There’s also the fear that the U.S. does not know who would lead Syria if Assad falls.

“Syria is too far gone to pick sides,” said Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee who taught at West Point. “The rebels are infiltrated with Al Qaeda. Assad has joined the ranks of history’s most evil despots in what he’s willing to do to stay in power. And Russia won’t help us find a solution because relations [between Washington and Moscow] are as bad as they have been in 30 years. I don’t see a way forward, but U.S. boots on the ground is out of the question in my opinion.”

Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, the No. 2 Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that the situation in Syria is “as complicated as it could be” but added that military intervention in Syria could “have unintended consequences that could, in fact, make the situation worse.”

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From Architects to Lobbyists: Obamacare Designers Stand to Profit Handsomely from Bill

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photo credit: glyn lowe photoworks

photo credit: glyn lowe photoworks

Previously, they worked behind the scenes to help shape the Affordable Care Act. Today, they roam the streets of the nation’s capital as consultants and lobbyists.

And now this elite group of Washington insiders stands to profit handsomely from the full implementation of Obamacare, President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law.

“More than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers who worked on the healthcare law have set up shop on K Street since 2010,” The Hill reports.

Many Washington lobbying firms, including Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, The Glover Park Group, Alston & Bird, BGR Group, and Akin Gump, have scooped up former Obamacare insiders. This, as the Hill report notes, puts the firms “in a prime position to land coveted clients.”

“When [Vice President] Biden leaned over [during the signing of the healthcare law] and said to [President] Obama, ‘This is a big f’n deal,’ ” Ivan Adler, a headhunter at the McCormick Group, said in the report, “he was right.”

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