Rand Paul: Obama Didn’t Convince Me

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rand-paul9326Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, said President Barack Obama “didn’t quite convince me” on the need to launch a military strike on Syria in his Tuesday night speech.

But Paul said Obama did make a compelling case that Syrian President Bashar Assad is guilty of killing almost 1,500 civilians with poison gas last month.

“If Assad is responsible he deserves death for this,” Paul told Fox News Channel after the Tuesday night speech. “But the president’s plan is to leave Assad alone,” Paul said on a later CNN appearance.

Paul said he thinks Assad will not be held accountable for the chemical weapons attack. And even if the diplomatic solution Russia is trying to broker goes through, Assad still will be left in office, he added.

Though the video images of children dead and dying showed a clear atrocity, Paul said he couldn’t support U.S. action unless there was a compelling American interest…

Read more from this story HERE.

Man Charged with Knowingly Transmitting HIV Claims 300 Partners

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A Missouri man who claims to have had sexual relations with as many as 300 people since being diagnosed with HIV has pleaded not guilty to infecting another man with the virus.

David Mangum entered the plea after being charged with recklessly infecting another with HIV, which in Missouri — where sentences for such crimes are among the nation’s harshest — carries up to life in prison. His attorney didn’t return messages seeking comment.

According to Fox2Now.com, Mangum, 37, of Dexter, Mo. was arrested last week after a former lover tested positive for the virus and turned Mangum in to the police. The victim, identified in court documents as D.B., met Mangum on Craigslist in October 2012. D.B. says he questioned Mangum about having any diseases and he told him ‘no.’ The Associated Press reports that Mangum admitted to a roommate that he had been HIV-positive since 2003.

Court documents allege that the 36-year-old Mangum told detectives in Dexter, a small town in southeast Missouri, that he had unprotected sex with as many as 300 partners since being diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS. Up to 60 of those contacts allegedly occurred after he moved to Missouri two years ago from Dallas, where he has convictions for prostitution, indecent exposure and public lewdness.

Many of his trysts stemmed from Craigslist ads, he told investigators, and he would meet up with men at parks, truck stops and other remote locations. Police believe many were truckers or others passing through the region, and because Mangum had little information about many of the men, investigators are concerned about finding potential victims, Dexter police detective Cory Mills said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Successfully Lobby Murkowski to Change Vote on “Explosive” ATF Nominee

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By Meredith Shiner. Democrats and their allies lobbied Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for more than an hour Wednesday to change her vote on the nominee to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the pressure worked.

Murkowski flipped and voted to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be the ATF’s new director. With her vote change, Murkowski both averted a filibuster, and perhaps more importantly, staved off Democratic threats to end the minority’s ability to filibuster executive branch nominees. Just weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed away from using the “nuclear option” after a number of Republicans, including Murkowski, began voting to beat back filibuster attempts led by their own party.

That tentative agreement was imperiled Wednesday by the struggle to get 60 votes for Jones. Murkowski originally voted “no,” but after conferring with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, John McCain, R-Ariz., Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Reid, among others, the Alaska Republican switched to “yes.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Minnesota’s B. Todd Jones is an explosive choice to lead ATF

By Kevin Diaz. The choice of Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made him the face of a national anti-violence agenda growing from the shock of the schoolhouse shooting massacre in Connecticut…

To Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the panel, Jones has a lot to answer for. Grassley has tried unsuccessfully to force Jones to testify about Fast and Furious, a troubled ATF gun-tracking operation on the Mexican border that Jones was brought in to clean up. Grassley also sought to tie Jones to a controversial Justice Department deal to drop two whistleblower cases against St. Paul as a means of averting a civil rights showdown before the Supreme Court over the city’s rental code enforcement…

The criticisms have become personal as well. Republicans have delved into anonymous complaints from lawyers in the Minneapolis U.S. attorney’s office who accuse Jones of an overbearing “militaristic” management style that has fostered a “climate of fear.” An internal ATF video warning of “consequences” for those who go outside of the chain of command was interpreted by some critics as a threat against potential whistleblowers.

Also “disturbing,” Grassley said, was a letter from Donald Oswald, a former head of the Minneapolis FBI office, accusing Jones of “poor leadership” and an “atrocious professional reputation”…

Since 2006, when the agency split off from the U.S. Treasury Department, the gun lobby has objected to every ATF nominee, including the choice of former President George W. Bush. In that sense, some analysts say Jones is as much a symbol as the active head of the ATF. Read more from this story HERE.

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Senate preserves fragile filibuster deal after Murkowski switches her vote to OK ATF nominee

By Susan Ferrechio. The Senate appears to have narrowly avoided blowing up a recent agreement on filibustering executive branch nominees by securing the 60 votes needed to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“It was close,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said after convincing Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to switch her vote to support Jones. ”The fact that we have this good spirit of bipartisanship to move these nominations forward is what guided us here.”

The Senate advanced Jones’ nomination later Wednesday by a 60-40 vote after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., flew back to Washington to add her “yes” to the tally. The Senate later formally confirmed him, 53-42 making Jones the first person in seven years to be confirmed by the Senate to fill the ATF position.

The deal to approve Jones nearly fell through earlier in the day, which would have not only left the job vacant but torpedoed a deal struck earlier this month between Democrats and Republicans to move forward on executive branch nominees. Jones was not specifically included in the deal but if the GOP had blocked him Wednesday, it would have re-ignited a years-long fight over the minority’s increasing use of the filibuster and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to change the 60 vote threshold to block a filibuster on executive branch nominees to 51 votes.

The vote on Jones was so close, Democrats held it open for hours to accommodate Heitkamp. She cast the 60th vote. Read more from this story HERE.

Army’s Giant Surveillance Blimp to Start Tracking Objects in DC Region

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While Congress debates the merits of spending tens of millions of dollars to add missile interceptors on the East Coast while increasing the number already in place out West, a long-running developmental Army radar system is packing up and heading for Maryland.

From May 4 to June 14, Raytheon’s JLENS, or Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, was put through its paces by about 100 soldiers during user assessment tests out in Utah, but the company announced today that the 74-foot-high tethered airship is now headed to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland for a more ambitious operational assessment run by the US Northern Command.

The soldiers who were trained up to use the system in Utah will make the trip with the airship, but since JLENS will be running on a 24/7 basis once on the East Coast—and tracking anything that flies, drives, or floats near the National Capital Region—more soldiers will be trained to operate it before the assessments kick off in 2014.

Read more from this story HERE.

Big Sis’ Shockingly Dirty Secrets Go Public

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Photo Credit: Center for American ProgressDemocrats and Republicans largely heaped praise upon Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after she announced she would resign her post later in the year, but a longtime constitutional attorney says there is not much to applaud – especially for anyone concerned about preserving freedom and limiting government intrusion in their lives.

“What the Department of Homeland Security became under Janet Napolitano is this monstrous surveillance and very intimidating group,” said Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead, a constitutional attorney for the past 40 years and author of “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State.”

“I think originally there were some good intentions with the Department of Homeland Security, but what happened under President Obama is that it accelerated rapidly,” Whitehead told WND. “I criticized George Bush’s policies. Under President Obama, we’re zooming.”

Whitehead said the Napolitano legacy of reducing freedom is evident across the board, starting in early 2009 when the department issued a report listing returning soldiers as one of the greatest threats to American security.

“Another program Napolitano set up is Operation Vigilant Eagle, which is a surveillance system done on all returning veterans from overseas, where they watch Facebook posts, text messages, emails of returning veterans to see if they’re going to be disgruntled,” Whitehead said. “There are quite a few disgruntled veterans. In fact, one that we helped just filed a major lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Deploying Drones Around U.S.

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Photo Credit: WNDBy Steve Peacock. The deployment of federal drones in and around U.S. shores represents one of the Obama administration’s next steps in the nation’s expanded use of unmanned aircraft systems for surveillance purposes.

The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, or ONMS, recently acquired Puma UAS – a type of drone that the U.S. Navy also uses – for operations off the coast of Los Angeles.

ONMS now is enlisting contractor support in expanding UAS use in California, Hawaii, Florida, and Washington state. Vendors experienced in working with law enforcement and military personnel are needed for this endeavor, according to a solicitation that WND located through routine database research.

The Puma drones – which are small enough to launch by hand – will be used by ONMS to enforce federal regulations, the document says.

The ONMS drone project will focus on Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary located northwest of LA. However, the contractor also will assist Puma UAS operations at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Midway in Hawaii, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Washington. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: LA TimesJudge torn over lawsuit in drone strike that killed Americans

By Michael Doyle. Courts cannot second-guess drone strikes that kill U.S. citizens overseas, an Obama administration lawyer argued Friday.

A Republican-appointed judge sounded dubious about the expansive claim, saying she was “really troubled” by assertions that courts are completely shut out of the drone strike debate. But for other legal reasons, the judge also sounded hesitant about a lawsuit targeted at top military and intelligence officials for violating the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens blown up in foreign lands.

“There are instances where wrongs are done, but for one reason or another they cannot be remedied in a civil suit,” U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing a family member, have sued former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other former officials over the two separate drone strikes that killed three U.S. citizens in Yemen. The Obama administration wants the lawsuit dismissed.

The lawsuit is the latest challenge to the administration’s secretive war-fighting practices that have mobilized skeptics on both the right and the left. ERad more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: U.S. Air ForceU.S. military drone surveillance is expanding to hot spots beyond declared combat zones

By Craig Whitlock. The steel-gray U.S. Air Force Predator drone plunged from the sky, shattering on mountainous terrain near the Iraq-Turkey border. For Kurdish guerrillas hiding nearby, it was an unexpected gift from the propaganda gods.

Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, filmed the charred wreckage on Sept. 18 and posted a video on YouTube. A narrator bragged unconvincingly that the group had shot down the drone. But for anyone who might doubt that the flying robot was really American, the video zoomed in on mangled parts stamped in English and bearing the label of the manufacturer, San Diego-based General Atomics.

For a brief moment, the crash drew back the curtain on Operation Nomad Shadow, a secretive U.S. military surveillance program. Since November 2011, the U.S. Air Force has been flying unarmed drones from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey in an attempt to suppress a long-simmering regional conflict. The camera-equipped Predators hover above the rugged border with Iraq and beam high-resolution imagery to the Turkish armed forces, helping them pursue PKK rebels as they slip back and forth across the mountains.

As the Obama administration dials back the number of drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, the U.S. military is shifting its huge fleet of unmanned aircraft to other hot spots around the world. This next phase of drone warfare is focused more on spying than killing and will extend the Pentagon’s robust surveillance networks far beyond traditional, declared combat zones.

Over the past decade, the Pentagon has amassed more than 400 Predators, Reapers, Hunters, Gray Eagles and other high-altitude drones that have revolutionized counterterrorism operations. Some of the unmanned aircraft will return home with U.S. troops when they leave Afghanistan. But many of the drones will redeploy to fresh frontiers, where they will spy on a melange of armed groups, drug runners, pirates and other targets that worry U.S. officials. Read more from this story HERE.

Pentagon Admits that Key Marine Colonel Missing from Benghazi isn’t actually Retired; Will Now Allow Him to Testify

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Many of Restoring Liberty’s readers likely remember the article from earlier this month concerning congressional efforts to locate a Marine colonel, George Bristol, who was in a key position in the chain of command of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) on the night Ambassador Stevens was murdered. The Marine officer is one of the several witnesses who have gone missing from Benghazi since that fateful day.

In response to congressional inquiries, Pentagon spokesman Major Robert Firman characterized COL Bristol as “retired” and stated that the Department of Defense “cannot compel retired members to testify before Congress. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, confirmed that DoD had said the Marine colonel was “retired and they can’t reach out to him.”

Turns out the Pentagon was not telling the truth. The colonel has several weeks until his retirement and is still under the Pentagon’s control. See the last story below.

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Pentagon does about-face on key Benghazi witness, makes Marine colonel available to talk to Congress

By David Martosko. The U.S. Department of Defense has agreed to make available to Congress a Marine Corps colonel who was in command of U.S. Special Forces in Northern Africa on the night armed terrorists staged a military-style assault on an American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

A series of requests for Marine Col. George Bristol’s testimony from Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, both Republicans, had fallen on deaf ears until Friday. The Pentagon had claimed that since Bristol had retired, it ‘cannot compel’ him to tell congressional panels what he knows about the Benghazi attack.

Chaffetz said on July 9 that the Defense Department was ‘not willing to pass along any sort of information’ related to Bristol’s whereabouts.

Now Air Force Maj. Robert Firman has confirmed to MailOnline that due to an ‘administrative error,’ Bristol was mistakenly classified as a retired officer despite his current active-duty status.

‘The Department of Defense has fully cooperated with congressional requests to understand the attacks on the Benghazi compound,’ Firman said. ‘Col. George Bristol, USMC, will be available to meet with House and Senate members and their staffs.’ Read more from this story HERE.

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Despite Pentagon claims, Marine colonel sought in Benghazi investigation not yet retired

By Dan Lamothe. When insurgents attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, last fall, Col. George Bristol held a key post in the region. As commander of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara, he was in a position to know what options the U.S. had to protect Americans under fire.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the Sept. 11 attacks, sparking national outcry and a congressional investigation examining the lack of protection. Several U.S. officials have testified before Congress since — but not Bristol, a salty Marine whose task force was responsible for special operations in northern and western Africa.

Defense Department officials have told members of Congress that Bristol cannot be forced to testify because he retired after stepping down during a March change of command ceremony, according to several media reports. The Pentagon reinforced that point of view to Marine Corps Times on Tuesday.

“Col. Bristol was not invited by Congress to testify before he retired,” said Air Force Maj. Robert Firman, a spokesman with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “The DoD has cooperated fully with Congress and the Accountability Review Board since the beginning of this investigation, and we will continue to do so.”

That isn’t the case, however. While Bristol is preparing for retirement, he is on active duty through the end of July, said Maj. Shawn Haney, a Marine spokeswoman, on Wednesday. He will be placed on the inactive list on Aug. 1, she said. That contradicts statements that Pentagon officials have issued to both Congress and the media. Read more from this story HERE.

Photographs of Bloodied Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Climbing Out of Boat Leaked; Police Photographer Suspended

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: dramatic new pictures of Boston suspect’s capture

By Ed Pilkington. He is standing with a bright red bead from a sniper’s laser trained directly in the middle of his forehead, his nose bloodied and his blood-stained hand raised in apparent surrender. Around him are the shredded shrouds of the boat in which he made his last stand.

According to the photographer who took the haunting picture, this is the real face of terrorism, not the “glamourised” image of the surviving suspect of the Boston marathon bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, that appears on the cover of next month’s Rolling Stone magazine. The photograph was taken by Sergeant Sean Murphy, a tactical photographer with the Massachusetts state police, who accompanied Swat teams as they apprehended Tsarnaev in Watertown in April following one of the largest manhunts in US history.

Murphy released a sequence of his official pictures to Boston magazine as an expression of his anger towards Rolling Stone’s depiction of the bombing suspect. The release was unauthorised and Murphy was relieved of his duties on Thursday night, pending an investigation.

The move adds to the billowing controversy surrounding Rolling Stone‘s choice of cover image that has Tsarnaev staring straight out at the reader, his dark curls framing his face above the headline ‘The Bomber’. Read more from this story HERE.

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Bloodied and bruised at the moment of surrender: Dramatic new pictures emerge of the moment ‘Boston bomber’ climbed from the boat where he had been hiding as a sniper took aim at his head

By David McCormack, James Nye and Helen Pow. Dramatic new images have been released showing alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev bruised and bloodied with his hands in the air as he emerges from his final hiding place.

Cornered by police, the photos show the 19-year-old in a blood-splattered black jumper, with hands stained red and a sniper’s laser aimed directly at his forehead.

The sobering pictures were released by Sergeant Sean Murphy, a tactical photographer with the Massachusetts state police, in a bid to show the real face of terrorism in reaction to the ‘glamorized‘ image of Tsarnaev that graces the cover of Rolling Stone magazine’s controversial new issue.

The officer has now been suspended over his decision to leak the photos, and will find out next week whether or not he will be allowed to keep his job.

Murphy accompanied the Swat teams as they descended on a boat in the backyard of a Watertown home, where Tsarnaev sought refuge following one of the biggest manhunts in U.S. history. Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin Proposes Article V Constitutional Convention, Intended as End-Run Around Federal Tyranny

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[On his radio show this week, Mark] Levin previewed an argument under Article Five of the United States Constitution which expresses how the Constitution can be changed through the amendment process by using the traditional passage of a proposed amendment by two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate; then on to the several states for ratification. Once three-fourths of the states have ratified the proposed amendment, the approved Amendment becomes part of our United States Constitution.

What Levin also said was that the States could also propose a convention to add a specific amendment or reject a current amendment by calling an Amendment Convention. This convention would have no bearing on the existing framework of the Constitution, but would only affect the addition or subtraction of an amendment at hand.

Levin reported that under Article V of the Constitution, two-thirds of the several states could form a convention on their own through actions initiated through their own state legislatures. Once an amendment is successfully proposed, it could be ratified by approval of three-fourths of the legislatures of the several states, and then imparted into the Constitution.

The Founders placed this alternative method of amending the Constitution as an end-around the possible tyranny of an all-powerful federal government. The Founders knew the federal leviathan could never be completely trusted with policing itself and therefore gave ultimate authority to the states to make changes when they deemed it necessary.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Zimmerman Verdict Means War” and Other Fallout from the Not Guilty Verdict

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Photo Credit: WNDNew Black Panthers: Zimmerman Verdict Means ‘War’

By Aaron Klein. The George Zimmerman verdict is a declaration of war that only the devil can applaud, according to the Twitter feed for the New Black Panther Party.

The Twitter account, managed by the group’s national chairman, Malik Zulu Shabazz, further urged followers to “take to the streets [and] stay there.”

“Were at war,” Shabbazz Tweeted. “Its (sic) silly and immoral to call for peace when war has been declared.”

The NBPP slammed what it called the “white mans (sic) justice system,” claiming the courts base their law on “the white is right theory.”

“Only a devil would applaud that verdict. Only natural born devil. By applauding that verdict you in fact admit that you are a devil,” wrote Shabbazz. Read more from this story HERE.

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$10,000 Offered for Zimmerman’s Head

By Drew Zahn. Now that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty in the murder trial of black teenager Trayvon Martin, threats that some may take “justice” – or vengeance as the case may be – into their own hands become cause for concern.

New York Giants footballer Victor Cruz, for example, tweeted after the verdict was announced, “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year before the hood catches up to him.”

Atlanta Falcons footballer Roddy White followed up with a similar tweet, “All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.”

Though both players later apologized, the tweets reflect upon the words of black activist Mikhail Muhammad, who claimed last year he had professional athletes’ and celebrities’ financial backing in putting a $10,000 bounty on Zimmerman’s head.

While distributing “wanted dead or alive” posters at a press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., Muhammad, the southern regional director of the New Black Panther Party, stated, “The heat is on [Zimmerman]. He’s never going to be able to sleep peacefully. The family of George Zimmerman must understand, a life for a life, a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. If you kill my damn baby, we’re going to kill your damn baby.” Read more from this story HERE.

See the NBPP tweet stream for yourself below:

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Photo Credit: Getty Images‘No justice, no peace’: pro-Trayvon MArtin protesters clash with police in NYC, LA.

By Jason Howerton. Demonstrations erupted across the United States ranging from dozens to hundreds – in support of the family of Trayvon Martin. Protesters marched against the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of the unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman claims he shot Martin in self-defense after being physically attacked.

At New York City’s Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan, congregants wore hooded sweatshirts – as the 17-year-old Martin did the night he was shot.

And in Manhattan’s Union Square, hundreds of people gathered to voice their passions over the verdict, hoisting placards with images of Martin. Protesters shouted a number of chants demanding “justice” for Trayvon Martin.

The chants in NYC included, “No justice, no peace,” “What do you want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” and “Trayvon! Trayvon! Trayvon!” Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Occupy Oakland/TwitterProtesters in Oakland burn flag, smash windows over Zimmerman verdict

By Joe Newby. Protesters in Oakland angry over the not guilty verdict in the Zimmerman case went on a rampage, smashing windows, starting small fires and burned a U.S. flag at a local area McDonald’s, The Blaze reported Sunday.

The protests attracted anywhere from a few dozen to a couple hundred people, Madeleine Morgenstern said. Police said protests continued into the early hours on Sunday.

Some in the crowd broke windows on businesses and started small fires in the streets.

The Oakland Tribune said some of the windows in its downtown office were smashed and video from a helicopter show people attempting to start fires in the street. Others can be seen spray painting anti-police graffiti.

Vandals smashed windows at Dogwood Restaurant located at Telegraph and 17th St. in Oakland, ABC7 reporter John Alston said in a tweet. He later said windows were smashed in an Oakland Sears store. Read more from this story HERE.