Video: Benghazi Whistleblower: I’ve Been ‘Punished’ for Speaking Out

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punishedGregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya who testified before Congress about the 9/11 attacks on an American diplomatic facility earlier this year, believes he has been “punished” for speaking out about the Obama administration’s response the night of the attack. He said he believes at least two of the Americans lost that night could have been saved if the United States had responded in time.

“I don’t know why I was punished,” Hicks said in an interview with ABC’s This Week. “I don’t know why I was shunted aside, put in a closet if you will.”

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Horrific Spree of Mass Rape and Terror in Tampa Hits a Pivot Point when a Woman of Faith Does One Bold Thing (+videos)

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Photo Credit: WTVJ-TV

Photo Credit: WTVJ-TV

Police say Charlie “Chris” Bates had just finished raping four women at gunpoint after tying up the four men who were with them in a Tampa, Fla. apartment.

Bates then found what he thought was his next victim, a woman sitting on her porch at another apartment complex.

Police say Bates forced the woman inside her unit, made her undress and kiss him, and was about to rape her, according to the Tampa Tribune.

Then she did something amazingly bold and faithful: She began praying.

And she recited John 3:16 from the Bible, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

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NRA Joins ACLU Lawsuit, Claims NSA Starting ‘Gun Registry’ (Video)

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NRAThe National Rifle Association joined the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit on Wednesday to end the government’s massive phone record collection program.

In a brief filed in federal court, the NRA argues that the National Security Agency’s database of phone records amounts to a “national gun registry.”

“It would be absurd to think that the Congress would adopt and maintain a web of statutes intended to protect against the creation of a national gun registry, while simultaneously authorizing the FBI and the NSA to gather records that could effectively create just such a registry,” the group writes.

After leaks by Edward Snowden, the NSA acknowledged that it collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls. The data include phone numbers, call times and call durations, but not the contents of the conversations. The NSA says it only “queries” the database a limited number of times for specific national security reasons.

The NSA argues that Congress authorized the phone data surveillance with Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows for the collection of business records “relevant” to terrorism.

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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Posts Obamacare Rates (+video)

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Photo Credit: altheadlines

Photo Credit: altheadlines

North Carolinians got their first look Thursday at the potential cost of getting health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act – more commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina posted proposed premiums on its website Thursday morning. Rates range from a low of $145 to a high of $947 per month depending on the age of the customer and the level of coverage wanted.

“Health reform is complicated, and it affects everyone differently. We want to help North Carolina consumers understand how they will be affected and provide information to support them in making the best decision for their personal situation,” said Barbara Morales Burke of BCBSNC in a news release.

Blue Cross said it plans to offer 26 different coverage plans.

The N.C. Department of Insurance has given health insurers until the beginning of October to post rate information. Nationally, starting Oct. 1, those who don’t have health care coverage on the job can go to online insurance markets – also called exchanges – in their states to shop for a private plan and find out if they qualify for a tax credit. An estimated 4 out 5 consumers in the new markets will be eligible for some level of tax credit.

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Senate-Crafted Syria Resolution Riddled with Loopholes for Obama (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Senators on Wednesday tried to write a tight resolution authorizing President Obama to strike Syria under very specific circumstances, but analysts and lawmakers said the language still has plenty of holes the White House could use to expand military action well beyond what Congress appears to intend.

“Wiggle room? Plenty of that,” said Louis Fisher, scholar in residence at the Constitution Project and former long-time expert for the Congressional Research Service on separation of powers issues.

Writing the actual language to empower and constrain Mr. Obama is proving to be a difficult task, with the key authors being pulled in various directions.

Some of the drafters’ colleagues want to give the president broad latitude for ongoing strikes that not only target Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons, but also aids the rebels seeking to overthrow him. Other lawmakers, though, want the most limited of action — a strike designed only to make sure the Assad regime can’t deploy its chemical weapons again.

The resolution drafted by Sens. Robert Menendez and Bob Corker, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, grants Mr. Obama power “to use the armed forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in a limited and tailored manner against legitimate military targets in Syria” — but only in relation to that nation’s weapons of mass destruction.

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County Clerk Refuses to Follow Judge’s Order to Issue Marriage License to Lesbian Couple (+video)

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

New Mexico state law takes no definitive stance on gay marriage, and while multiple counties have started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, one county clerk is refusing to do so even in the face of a judge’s order.

Sharon Shover, who serves in Los Alamos county, this week refused to follow a judge’s order to give a marriage license to two women. Shover, a Republican, is publicly standing up to the order, saying she believes the decision to change the definition of marriage should be made by the state’s Supreme Court or by the legislature, The Albuquerque Journal reported.

Shover’s move comes after First Judicial District Judge Sheri Raphaelson ordered her to issue the permit to the couple, Janet Newton and Maria Thibodeau. If the clerk refused, the justice said she would need to show up in court to argue why such an allowance was denied. Standing firm, Shover is slated to appear Wednesday to make her case.

Albuquerque’s KOB-TV has more:

“Piecemeal litigation in courts across New Mexico is not good governance. County clerks need a comprehensive and clear answer from the state of New Mexico addressing this issue,” Shover said in a statement. “We all need to be issuing the same marriage license and following the same laws.”

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President Obama: America’s Credibility on the Line in Syria (+video)

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

President Barack Obama warned Wednesday that the international community’s credibility — though not his — is at risk if there’s no response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, though he expects Congress to agree to take military action against Bashar Assad’s regime.

“My credibility is not on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line,” Obama said at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden. “And America and Congress’s credibility is on the line.”

Obama’s comments came during a joint appearance with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, ahead of his brief trip to the G20 summit in Russia, where he’s expected to continue pushing for international support for intervention in Syria, even with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who remains allied with Assad.

The president deflected attention from his own role in potential action against Syria as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel headed into a second day of public and private consultations on Capitol Hill, including an open hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Obama said he is confident that Congress will authorize military involvement — and despite some vocal opposition, there were signs Wednesday that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will pass a Syria resolution.

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Ted Cruz: US is Not ‘Al-Qaeda’s Air Force’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz distilled the current debate over possible military action in Syria to its essential dilemma. While Syrian President Bashar Assad is certainly a ruthless dictator, the forces aligned against him are dominated by jihadis and elements of terrorist organizations. Cruz noted that Americans didn’t enlist in the military to “serve as Al-Qaeda’s Air Force.”

“We certainly don’t have a dog in the fight,” Cruz said, calling it a civil war in Syria. “We should be focused on defending the United States of America. That’s why young men and women sign up to join the military, not to, as you know, serve as Al Qaeda’s air force.”

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Mastermind Behind Benghazi Attack Trained In The U.S. (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

It is has been widely reported in Egyptian media that one of the leaders in the attack against the Benghazi consulate on September 11, 2012 was Mohsen Al-Azazi.

According to Ahmed Moussa, a former high ranking intelligence official with the Egyptian government and several other sources, Al-Azazi’s passport was found in the house of Khairat Al-Shater, the Number Two man in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy, now under house arrest in Egypt by the Egyptian military.

But according to an ongoing Egyptian investigation by Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution, Muslim Brotherhood second-in-command Khairat Al-Shater was just tangentially involved in the attack on the Benghazi consulate. The actual mastermind of the attack was a man by the name of Tarek Taha Abu Al-Azm, now in the custody of the Egyptian military.

In what is reminiscent of the attack on the World Trade Center towers and Pentagon on 9/11, where some of the hijackers reportedly received flight training on U.S. military installations, per Egyptian investigators, Al-Azm, the mastermind of the attack on the Benghazi consulate, took military courses at a U.S. Air Force base.

Per Muslim Brotherhood researcher Walid Shoebat, citing multiple Arabic news sources, Al-Azm is a seasoned jet fighter pilot and a former Major in the Egyptian Air Force.

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Rand Paul Says “50/50” Chance House Will Authorize Force in Syria; Senate a “Rubber Stamp”

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syria-assad

A leading skeptic of U.S. intervention in conflicts abroad said Sunday that he believes there is only a “50/50” chance that the GOP-controlled House will vote to authorize the use of U.S military force in the Syria.

“I think it’s at least 50/50 whether the House will vote down involvement in the Syrian war,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“I think the Senate will rubber stamp what [Obama] wants but I think the House will be a much closer vote,” he added. “And there are a lot of questions we have to ask.”

Paul, a staunch defender of civil liberties who has battled against members of his own party over the government’s use of drones and NSA data collection programs, said he believes it’s a “mistake” to get involved in a civil war in Syria that could escalate “out of control.”

But he praised President Barack Obama’s announcement Saturday that he will seek congressional authority for military intervention in the civil war-torn country.

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Kerry says Congress won’t turn its back on the Syrian people

By Mackenzie Weinger.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said he “can’t contemplate” that Congress would not authorize military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and therefore “turn its back on” the United States’ allies in the region and “on innocent Syrian people who have been slaughtered by this gas.”

Host Chris Wallace asked Kerry on “Fox News Sunday” what would happen if Congress refused to give its authorization for military action in Syria, and Kerry replied that he does not believe that will happen.

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