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Rep. Gohmert: AG Holder Has Spent More Time 'Trying to Help Terrorists than Trying to Corral Them'

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore[Rep. Louie] Gohmert is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and is vice chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. He is flabbergasted by the Justice Department’s decision to formally charge and read Miranda rights to Tsarnaev while he was cooperating with the FBI. Tsarnaev stopped talking as soon as his rights were read to him.

“If they never gave the Miranda warnings ever, the result would be that anything that he said after he was taken into custody might be subject to being excluded from evidence at the trial. If a prosecutor could not prove this guy guilty of numerous crimes that would put him behind bars for the rest of his life, then they’re just not competent. So the concern was not about gathering evidence to use against him after he was picked up. The concern should have been to get more information about the threat against America,” Gohmert said.

“I guess with our attorney general having spent more time before being AG trying to help terrorists than trying to corral them, the first impulse was let’s get him to stop talking because they filed charges they didn’t have to file that quickly. Somebody made sure the judge shows up with lawyers and gives him his rights and shuts him up, while he is in the process of giving invaluable information. It is unbelievable. If it’s not bad enough that they bungled getting this guy picked up and his brother picked up and questioned before they blew up people in Boston, then now to get him to shut up when he has invaluable information potentially is just really egregious,” he said.

Gohmert said Attorney General Eric Holder had to know that issuing Tsarnaev his Miranda rights at that point would only result in the defendant ending his cooperation with interrogators. He said it’s just the latest head-scratcher from Holder and the Obama administration as a whole.

“Between the Department of Justice actions that resulted in people being killed in Fast & Furious, the result of this administration’s backing al-Qaida-backed rebels to run out Ghaddafi so that then they end up killing our people there and then the people being killed in Algeria. I mean, one after another we’ve had incidents where this administration has shown incompetence. So it seems to be a real pattern,” he said.

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U.S. Gives Big, Secret Push to Internet Surveillance

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Photo Credit: Getty Images Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws.

The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which the military monitored defense contractors’ Internet links. Since then, however, the program has been expanded by President Obama to cover all critical infrastructure sectors including energy, healthcare, and finance starting June 12.

“The Justice Department is helping private companies evade federal wiretap laws,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which obtained over 1,000 pages of internal government documents and provided them to CNET this week. “Alarm bells should be going off.”

Those documents show the National Security Agency and the Defense Department were deeply involved in pressing for the secret legal authorization, with NSA director Keith Alexander participating in some of the discussions personally. Despite initial reservations, including from industry participants, Justice Department attorneys eventually signed off on the project.

The Justice Department agreed to grant legal immunity to the participating network providers in the form of what participants in the confidential discussions refer to as “2511 letters,” a reference to the Wiretap Act codified at 18 USC 2511 in the federal statute books.

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Department of Justice Admits New Gun Laws Won't Slow Crime

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According to the Obama Administration and their allies in Congress, it is neither intelligent nor proper to judge all Muslims because of the acts of a few deranged terrorists.

Yet the Obama Administration and their allies in Congress, because of the acts of a few deranged gunmen, are judging all law abiding American gun owners. And, because of the acts of deranged gunmen, they are introducing legislation to do background checks on Americans in violation of provisions of the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.

Obama issued 23 Executive Orders to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to create a “Federal Background Check System.” Translation: Federal Gun Registration of all LEGAL gun owners. The emphasis is on the word “LEGAL”, since clearly criminals do not ever register their guns, or participate in any background checks related to the guns they illegally possess. More importantly, it is not the criminals who would take up arms against a tyrannical government, therefore, it is not the criminal element that the Obama Administration is truly concerned about — it’s the legal law abiding gun owners they are intent on disarming.

To support the Obama Administration’s goals of determining who all the law abiding gun owners are, Senator Patrick Leahy sponsored Senate Bill 443, referred to as the “Forced Gun Owner Registration Act of 2013”. Provisions in the bill will require background checks on law abiding gun owners and will determine where they have their guns stored. The bill also imposes harsh sentences for minor offenses (up to 15 years in prison).

Members of Congress should insist that if background checks are required for all law abiding American gun owners, the federal law enforcement agencies should start by finally doing a background check on Barrack Obama; he is the first resident of the Oval Office whose background and records are hidden from the view of all American voters. Currently, with what is available on his background, Barrack Obama would never pass the standard background check that every member of the US Armed Forces must have completed before they are sworn into the US Military.

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Captain Joseph R. John, a combat veteran, is a 1962 graduate of the United States Naval Academy who retired from the US Navy after a long and distinguished career. He currently is the President of the Combat Veterans Training Group and is the founder of the Combat Vets for Congress PAC.

Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Is ‘Rat’s Nest Of Unacceptable And Unprofessional Actions’

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Photo Credit: TheIRD

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) on Monday called for an outside independent panel to investigate the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Wolf, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, said a recent inspector general report raised numerous troubling instances of internal mismanagement that he said indicate the division “has become a rat’s nest of unacceptable and unprofessional actions.”

“One cannot read the report without concluding that the division has suffered systemic mismanagement,” said Wolf in his letter sent Monday. “It has become a rat’s nest of unacceptable and unprofessional actions, and even outright threats against career attorneys and systemic mismanagement.”

The DOJ’s inspector general found numerous examples of harassment in the department’s voting rights division, but determined it did not prioritize cases in a partisan manner under President Obama or former President George W. Bush.

The lengthy report found that the often divisive nature of the voting rights section’s work — including reviews of redistricting cases, voter ID laws and voter registration issues — resulted in instances of harassment within DOJ. Wolf acknowledged that the division’s problems were not isolated to Holder’s tenure as the department’s head, but said it was up to him to solve them.

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Obama Nominates Leading DOJ Opponent of Voter ID Laws As Labor Secretary

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Photo Credit: AP

New Labor Secretary nominee Thomas Perez was cited by both a federal judge and the Justice Department inspector general for giving incomplete testimony on the controversial handling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, but he took the lead in prosecuting federal lawsuits against state voter ID laws as head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

Further, Perez served as a top aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and was once disqualified from running for Maryland state attorney general.

President Barack Obama announced Perez for the cabinet post Monday morning in the East Room of the White House in front of an audience that included Attorney General Eric Holder, MSNBC commentator Al Sharpton and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Perez has been the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department since 2009 and before that served as the secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations from 2007 to 2009.

“As a civil rights attorney, a staffer for Sen. Ted Kennedy, a member of the Montgomery, Md., County Council, Tom fought for a level playing field where hard work and responsibility are rewarded and working families can get ahead,” Obama said in his announcement.

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Lawmakers Accuse Obama Prosecutors Of Lying About Espionage Probe At NASA

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Photo Credit: AP

Congressional leaders are challenging a U.S. Attorney’s denial that the Justice Department shut down a federal espionage investigation involving the illegal transfer of U.S. space defense weapons technology to foreign countries, including China, The Washington Examiner has learned.

Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California, also denied that she had ever requested authority to prosecute anybody as a result of the espionage investigation.

But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA, and Representatives Lamar Smith, R-TX, and Frank Wolf, R-VA, say Haag’s denials don’t square with evidence they’ve reviewed and they wonder if Justice Department or White House officials interfered with a potentially explosive espionage investigation or if “politics played a role in the prosecutorial decisions made in this case.”

“Your statement conflicts factually with information we received from federal law enforcement,” Wolf, Smith and Grassley said in letters sent today to Haag and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco questioning the abrupt end to an FBI national security investigation and grand jury probe.

At the center of the controversy is cancellation of a national security probe once led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Fry. Frustrating attempts by foreign powers to steal U.S. space weapons technology have long been priorities for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and NASA’s Inspector General.

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Busted: NRA Uses Justice Department Memo to Expose Obama on Guns

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Photo Credit: dok1 The National Rifle Association is using a Justice Department memo it obtained to argue in ads that the Obama administration believes its gun control plans won’t work unless the government seizes firearms and requires national gun registration — ideas the White House has not proposed and [purportedly] does not support.

The NRA’s assertion and its obtaining of the memo in the first place underscore the no-holds-barred battle under way as Washington’s fight over gun restrictions heats up.

The memo, under the name of one of the Justice Department’s leading crime researchers, critiques the effectiveness of gun control proposals, including some of President Barack Obama’s. A Justice Department official called the memo an unfinished review of gun violence research and said it does not represent administration policy.

The memo says requiring background checks for more gun purchases could help, but also could lead to more illicit weapons sales. It says banning assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines produced in the future but exempting those already owned by the public, as Obama has proposed, would have limited impact because people now own so many of those items. It also says that even total elimination of assault weapons would have little overall effect on gun killings because assault weapons account for a limited proportion of those crimes.

The nine-page document says the success of universal background checks would depend in part on “requiring gun registration,” and says gun buybacks would not be effective “unless massive and coupled with a ban.”

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Video: NRA Cites Obama Justice Dept. Memo Stating Registration, Gun Confiscation Necessary

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Photo Credit: Getty Images According to a short video produced by the NRA, a Justice Department memo says that an assault weapon ban would not be effective without mandatory gun confiscation and that universal background checks would only work with federal gun registration, Jim Hoft reported at the Gateway Pundit on Monday, citing a blog post at Guns Saves Lives.

“Make no mistake,” the blog post said, “an assault weapons ban of any kind, even with a grandfathering clause is a step towards gun confiscation.”

The post also says that universal background checks are “just the first step” in implementing federal gun registration, which will ultimately lead to confiscation.

Democrats in at least two states — Missouri and Minnesota — have already proposed legislation that if passed into law, would require law-abiding gun owners to surrender rifles, shotguns and pistols deemed to be “assault weapons.” A proposal being considered in Washington State would require local sheriffs to inspect the homes of those with “assault weapons” to ensure they are secure.

Advocates of gun control say they do not want to take guns away from hunters and sport shooters, but another post at Guns Save Lives provides quotes from prominent Democrats advocating confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens.

See video:

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Sen. Paul Threatens Hold On Brennan Over Armed Drone Strikes

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday threatened to hold John Brennan’s nomination for CIA director unless he receives more answers on the administration’s drone program.

“I have asked Mr. Brennan if he believed that the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and my question remains unanswered,” Paul said in a statement. “I will not allow a vote on this nomination until Mr. Brennan openly responds to the questions and concerns my colleagues and I share.

“These issues must be discussed openly so that the American people can understand what constraints exist on the government’s power to use lethal force against its citizens,” Paul continued. “Before confirming Mr. Brennan as the head of the CIA, it must be apparent that he understands and will honor the protections provided to every American by the Constitution.”

Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, faced a contentious confirmation hearing last week, as lawmakers pressed him on the legality of using armed drone strikes against suspected terrorists, in particular American citizens.

The increased congressional scrutiny followed the leak of a Justice Department (DOJ) memo laying out the circumstances in which the administration would authorize a deadly drone strike on a U.S. citizen.

Read more from this story HERE.

Unprecedented: Feds take over New Orleans Police Department. Would the Founders Approve?

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Taking aim at a long history of civil rights abuses, corruption and slipshod oversight within the New Orleans Police Department, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu unfurled a bevy of sweeping reforms Tuesday afternoon in the nation’s most expansive consent decree to date. The long-awaited agreement, to be overseen by an appointed monitor and U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, amounts to a 492-point, court-enforced action plan for overhauling NOPD policies and practices — from when officers can pull their weapons to the kind of data they track. The announcement at Gallier Hall on Tuesday afternoon featured Holder, Landrieu and other federal and city officials, including Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas and City Attorney Richard Cortizas.

It came after several months of detailed and sometimes testy negotiations over hot-button topics such as off-duty police details and the sheer financing of the reforms, all of which will fall to the city.

Landrieu estimated that putting the consent decree in motion will set the city back $11 million a year to start. Holder said the government would offer support by way of available federal grants and advice, but the city is on the hook for the full tab.

Still, Landrieu exuded pride in what amounts to an unprecedented local-federal pact, even though the far-reaching document is a response to a yawning breadth of problems that he said have plagued the NOPD for years.

The consent decree follows what Holder called “one of the most extensive investigations of a law enforcement agency ever conducted by the (Justice) department.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Kyle Taylor