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Benghazi Cover-Up Was More to Protect Hillary than Obama

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Photo Credit: Bebeto Matthews / AP

Photo Credit: Bebeto Matthews / AP

By Ernest Istook.

A deeply politicized CIA acted more to protect the secretary of state than the president when it falsified its Benghazi talking points, according to Halle Dale, the Heritage Foundation’s senior fellow for public diplomacy.

At this week’s extraordinary public hearing by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell acknowledged being the ultimate editor of the CIA’s infamous talking points memo about the murders of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

The memo’s false claims became the Obama administration’s official version, broadcast by former U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice on national television as she spread the false message that the deaths resulted from a protest gone bad rather than a terrorist attack.

As a guest on my talk radio show Thursday on The Washington Times Radio Network, Ms. Dale said: “What we learned … is that the CIA is a deeply politicized agency.”

And protecting Hillary Clinton seemed a higher priority than protecting Barack Obama.

Read more from this story HERE.

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LIGNET Got Benghazi Right; Why Didn’t the CIA?

By Fred Fleitz.

In May 2011, I was asked by Christopher Ruddy, Newsmax Media’s President and CEO, to start a commercial intelligence analysis and forecasting service. It was an exciting project and a great opportunity after 25 years working in the national security field.

This project became known as the Langley Intelligence Group Network (LIGNET). Working with other intelligence and national security experts, we launched this project in the fall of 2011. LIGNET produces analysis in the style of the President’s Daily Brief, the classified memo that the U.S. Intelligence Community brings to the president every morning containing analysis of major security issues affecting this country.

Of the over 2,400 analyses we’ve posted since the launch of LIGNET, our work on one subject stands out: the September 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

I’m compelled to speak out about this after watching the testimony of former CIA acting Director Michael Morell before the House Intelligence Committee this week. Morell is in hot water because of controversial CIA-drafted talking points that said the attacks on the Benghazi consulate were the result of demonstrations over an anti-Muslim video and not a terrorist attack. These talking points, which were coordinated through several government agencies, were submitted to the White House and Congress on Sept. 15, 2012.

The talking points were politically convenient for the Obama administration in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election and were used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to deny that the attacks on the consulate were related to terrorism during five Sunday morning talk show appearances on Sept. 16, 2012.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Love Letter to Barack Obama

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Photo Credit: IJ Review

Photo Credit: IJ Review

April Fool’s!

President Obama gets a lot of undeserved criticism from conservatives. He’s a well-intentioned guy who is doing the best he can, and I think it’s time I came clean about something that I’ve been hiding for a long time: I love the president. Here’s a love letter that best reflects how I feel.

Barack, I love that you always follow through with your promises. Like closing Guantanamo Bay, ending extraordinary rendition, terminating the “war on terror,” not using drones to kill innocent women and children, and not unconstitutionally carrying out wars on foreign nations like Libya. Even your “kill list” is pretty bad*ss.

I love how you respond to foreign policy crises with skill and aplomb: like your “flexibility” with Russia, for example. I love how you schmooze with dictators and take selfies at funerals. It’s just fantastic how everyone loves America now that you’re in charge.

I love how you play lots and lots of rounds of golf, are off doing more important things when our diplomats and troops are in harm’s way, run guns to Mexican drug cartels and fail to track them, leak intel secrets before the election, claim credit for the SEALs’ killing of bin laden and then declare Al Qaeda all but dead.

I love how you use the word “I” repeatedly, can’t give a speech without a teleprompter, make a big deal out of your NCAA brackets, go on niche comedy shows and hobnob with celebrities when you should be doing other things, skip out on intel briefings and jobs council meetings for months on end… I love it all. And I love you.

Read more from this story HERE.

Top Senate Republican Says Obama ‘Disarmed America’

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Photo Credit: AFP / Getty Images / Mandel Ngan

Photo Credit: AFP / Getty Images / Mandel Ngan

The ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the Obama administration has left the United States vulnerable to a growing list of enemies.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced a resolution Thursday to put Moldova on the U.S.’s radar, arguing that it’s another country now vulnerable to Russian aggression. Inhofe told TheBlaze he hopes it will send a message that the former Soviet state, located between Russia, Turkey and European Union, is not up for grabs. He admitted, however, there is little the U.S. can do militarily to stop Moscow’s aggression if President Vladimir Putin chooses to move forward.

“Here’s the problem, our military leaders admit we are weakened to the point that we cannot do one longterm contingency plan,” Inhofe told TheBlaze after Thursday’s hearing on the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2015. “What do you think is going through the minds of potential adversaries out there? Our enemies don’t fear us, our friends don’t trust us — this is what the Obama administration has done. We have a direct interest in that part of the world. While Obama disarmed America, [our enemies] have been expanding in every area.”

The resolution also stresses that a “stable Europe is a key priority for the United States, and this can only be achieved if the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected,” Inhofe said.

Russia currently has 40,000 troops on the Ukrainian eastern border and roughly 1,200 near the Moldova border. U.S. intelligence officials access that there is a strong possibility that Putin is also preparing to move those troops toward Moldova in the near future, much like he did in last month’s annexation of Crimea.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: Republicans’ Message is Like “Groundhog Day,” But Not Funny (+video)

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

It was officially billed as a speech to promote raising the minimum wage, but President Obama’s trip to the University of Michigan Wednesday had all the hallmarks of a campaign pitch – one that the nation will likely hear several more times as the midterm elections approach.

There was a laundry list of achievements (economic recovery, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, signing 7.1 million people up for health care), a recitation of the rest of the Democratic agenda (paycheck fairness, expanding college affordability) and a nod to the local restaurant (Zingerman’s Deli, an Ann Arbor institution) where the president enjoyed a Reuben that he regretted splitting with his adviser, Valerie Jarrett.

Most importantly for any campaign speech, it included a takedown of his opponent’s agenda. Democrats began to distill that message when Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., released a GOP budget this week full of spending cuts to help balance the budget in 10 years.

“Just yesterday Republicans in Congress put forward a budget for the country that I believe would shrink opportunity for your generation,” Mr. Obama said, arguing that their plan would start with a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of less fortunate members of society. In particular, he highlighted cuts to the Pell Grant program and a repeal of the health care law, which would jeopardize the ability of young people to stay on their parents’ insurance.

Read more from this story HERE.

Support ‘Gays’ In Ranks Or Quit, Military Chiefs Told (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A video reveals that President Obama told the nation’s top military commanders to support his agenda of “gays” in the ranks – or find another job.

The stunning revelation comes in a video that was obtained by Buzzfeed under a Freedom of Information Act request and posted online.

The chief of the nation’s Coast Guard, Adm. Robert Papp, says in the video, “We were called into the Oval Office and President Obama looked all five service chiefs in the eye and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Papp continued, “I cannot divulge everything he said to us, that’s private communications within the Oval Office, but if we didn’t agree with it – if any of us didn’t agree with it – we all had the opportunity to resign our commissions and go do other things.”

The issue was Obama’s abandonment of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that allowed homosexual soldiers as long as they kept their proclivities to themselves. Now the military promotes open homosexuality in the ranks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s NSA Overhaul Requires Phone Carriers to Store More Data

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / JIM URQUHART

Photo Credit: REUTERS / JIM URQUHART

President Barack Obama’s plan for overhauling the National Security Agency’s phone surveillance program could force carriers to collect and store customer data that they are not now legally obliged to keep, according to U.S. officials.

One complication arises from the popularity of flat-rate or unlimited calling plans, which are used by the vast majority of Americans.

While the Federal Communications Commission requires phone companies to retain for 18 months records on “toll” or long-distance calls, the rule’s application is vague for subscribers of unlimited phone plans because they do not get billed for individual calls.

That could change if the Obama administration pushes through with a proposal to require carriers – instead of the NSA – to collect and store phone metadata, which includes dialed numbers and call lengths but not the content of conversations. Under the administration’s proposal, the phone companies would be required to turn over the data to the NSA in response to a court-approved government request.

U.S. officials said the carriers might be forced to create new mechanisms to ensure that metadata from flat-rate subscribers could be monitored. They said these issues will require further discussion between the White House, Congress and industry.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pro-Abortion Obama: ‘Every Child Should Have Every Chance in Life’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Barack Obama – the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood Federation of America – issued a proclamation on Monday marking National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

“In the United States of America, every child should have every chance in life, every chance at happiness, and every chance at success,” Obama said in the proclamation.

In March 2003, then-Illinois’ State Senator Obama chaired the committee that considered the Born-Alive Infants Protection bill (SB 1082), which he voted to kill.

According to the National Right to Life Committee, the state legislation that Obama voted against is almost identical to the federal legislation that protects children who survive an abortion that became law in 2002.

Read more from this story HERE.

Just When You Thought Obama Had Damaged The Economy Enough…

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Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Photo Credit: Western Journalism

In an op-ed for the Las Vegas Sun, President Obama gave his argument for supporting the proposed minimum wage increase, which would increase the federal minimum wage rate by nearly 40% from the current rate of $7.25/hr to $10.10/hr.

In the article, the President made claims that are false. According to him, a full-time employee making $7.25/hr would be living in poverty. By the federal government’s own poverty threshold, a single person household working 40 hours a week at minimum wage is making nearly 20% more than the poverty threshold.

Second is the effects that this would have on education. A teacher in Mississippi who graduated with a bachelor’s degree will be earning an insignificant 15% more than an unskilled employee working as a drive-thru clerk or Quik Stop cashier. With this law, there will be convicted rapists and even murderers (there are thousands of convicted rapists and murderers released from prison each year), many of whom have no skill at all, earning nearly as much as the people who educate our children. While it is true that most minimum-wage workers are not convicted felons, it is a fact, however unpleasant it may be, that a vast majority of them are unskilled workers.

What incentive is there for someone to go to college? The average bachelor’s degree costs a student over $30,000 and four years of their lives. The only way people are going to get out of poverty is to become a skilled worker rather than an unskilled one, and that is done through education, not minimum wage increases. This legislation removes the incentive to go to college. If all someone had to do to raise a family is flip burgers or wash dishes, those jobs would be in much higher demand. But there’s a reason employers don’t want to pay unskilled workers wages as high as skilled workers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Is George Orwell Working in the White House?

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Photo Credit: American Thinker

Photo Credit: American Thinker

You have to wonder sometimes if one of the multitude of “special advisors” to Barack Obama has a George Orwell fetish. All of us have read hundreds of blog articles and thousands of comments made in passing by co-workers, family, friends and the occasional total stranger that allude to the Obama administration and it’s resemblance to George Orwell’s seminal work, 1984.

There have even been references to Orwell’s 1984 in columns published in the normally slavishly supportive main stream media, which are always easy to identify since the White House normally describes them as “hit pieces.”

Orwellian descriptions of totalitarianism and control of the media via the Ministry of Truth are rampant in the book, but they are becoming more and more obvious in the actual workings of the Obama administration and throughout the Democrat Party.

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s denial that he ever said that citizen complaints about Obamacare were merely lies and Obama’s assertion that he never drew a “red line.” Or Kathleen Sebelius’s claim that she never said that the sign-up goal for Obamacare was seven million people are perfect examples of how the Democrats are brazenly following the apparent policy of Orwell’s “Party” in 1984 to reverse reality from what it actually was to what they want it to be.

Apparently not content with trying to have life imitate art in the form of 1984, Obama’s minions are now pushing further change under the guise of what they are calling “income inequality.” In common parlance this might also be referred to as income redistribution. In a turn of phrase that even those whose only education has been provided by the unionized teachers in the public school system of the United States, it might also be described as the Robin Hood Maneuver – Rob the Rich and Give (at least some of it) to the Poor.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Talked to Saudi King For More Than Two Hours – But Not About Human Rights

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Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Obama did not raise human rights concerns during his meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, an administration official confirmed after the two leaders talked for more than two hours.

“The focus of the meeting was strategic and regional topics,” said the official, briefing reporters on background about Friday’s talks at the king’s desert encampment north-west of Riyadh. Asked again specifically whether human rights had come up, the official replied, “No.”

Asked further whether Obama had raised the Saudis’ decision to deny a visa to a Jewish member of the White House press corps wanting to cover the visit, the official, said “I don’t believe it came up in the meeting.”

The official pointed out that national security advisor Susan Rice had brought up the visa denial issue with Saudi officials earlier, and “they certainly know our views and our objection to the way in which that situation was handled.”

Obama’s meeting with Abdullah came a day after the president said he told Pope Francis that “it is central to U.S. foreign policy that we protect the interests of religious minorities around the world.”

Read more from this story HERE.