Category Archives: DOJ, DC and inside the Beltway

FBI Director Comey: The Ferguson Effect

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FBI Director James Comey has visited several law enforcement agencies across the country to determine the ‘chill’ by law enforcement. The White House pushed back hard as did Amnesty International. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former White House Chief of Staff even declared his police force in Chicago is in the fetal position.

The FBI keeps the statistics….

FBI chief again says Ferguson having chilling effect on law enforcement

WaPo: CHICAGO — Twice in recent days, FBI Director James B. Comey has stepped to a podium here and asserted that police across the nation are reluctant to aggressively enforce the law in the post-Ferguson era of smartphones and YouTube.

And twice his comments have drawn disagreement and derision from a host of sources, including civil rights activists, law enforcement officials and, on Monday, the White House.

“The available evidence at this point does not support the notion that law enforcement officers around the country are shying away from fulfilling their responsibilities,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday during a news briefing in Washington. “The evidence that we’ve seen so far doesn’t support the contention that law enforcement officials are somehow shirking their responsibility.”

Comey, nonetheless, stayed the course, telling thousands of police officials gathered here for a conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police that a violent crime wave is gripping the nation’s major cities. And he suggested that police officers themselves are in part to blame, made gun shy by the prospect of getting caught on the next video of alleged police brutality.

The “age of viral videos” has fundamentally altered U.S. policing, Comey said Monday in a speech virtually identical to one he delivered last week at the University of Chicago Law School.

His comments have been interpreted as giving credence to the notion of a “Ferguson effect” — the theory that riots and racial unrest in places such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, where police were accused of killing civilians, has prompted police officers to become more restrained. That, in turn, has theoretically resulted in an uptick in violent crime, as criminals become emboldened.

Comey acknowledged Monday that he has little evidence to support the theory.

“The question is, are these kinds of things changing police behavior around the country? The honest answer is: I don’t know for sure whether that’s the case,” he said, adding that “I do have a strong sense” that it’s true.

It’s “the one theory that to my mind and to my common sense, does explain” rising rates of urban violence in 2015.

Coming from the nation’s top law enforcement official, the remarks have landed like a bombshell in criminal justice circles, offending people across the political spectrum. Civil rights groups and activists have taken deep exception to the idea that crime rates might be linked to protests against police brutality.

Amnesty International USA executive director Steven Hawkins called Comey’s comments “outrageous” and “unsubstantiated.”

Policing groups, meanwhile, have been equally infuriated by the assertion that their officers have been somehow derelict in their duties, frightened by teenagers with cellphone cameras.

“Time and time again [Comey] generalizes about a segment of the population that he knows nothing about,” said James O. Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. “He has never been a police officer.”

Comey is “like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz,” Pasco said. “He wanders around pretending to be smart and then at the end they give him a diploma and he thinks he’s a genius. They swear him in as the director of the FBI and all of a sudden he’s an expert on what police officers are thinking.”

The speeches have also put Comey at odds with the White House, as President Obama is eager to take credit for lowering the crime rate.

As Comey was preparing to deliver his address Friday, Obama was hosting a criminal-justice forum at the White House, where he celebrated “incredible, historic reductions in crime over the last 20 years.”

“I know that there’s been some talk in the press about spikes that are happening this year relative to last year. I’ve asked my team to look very carefully at it — Attorney General Lynch has pulled together a task force — and it does look like there are a handful of cities where we’re seeing higher-than-normal spikes,” Obama said at the time. However, he added, “across the 93 or 95 top cities, it’s very hard to distinguish anything statistically meaningful.”

In his speech Monday, Comey also urged law enforcement leaders to stop engaging in an us-vs.- them tug of war with protesters from Black Lives Matter, the group that sprung up in the wake of the August 2014 shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

Instead, Comey said, police chiefs should use the budding protest movement as a window into the minds of those they are charged with protecting.

“There is a line of law enforcement and a line of communities we serve, especially communities of color,” Comey said. “Each time somebody interprets ‘hashtag Black Lives Matter’ as anti-law enforcement, one line moves away. And each time someone interprets ‘hashtag police lives matter’ as anti-black, the other line moves away.”

Comey’s comments come weeks after he held a closed-door session with 100 city leaders and law enforcement officials from across the nation. At that meeting, many — including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) — reported that police morale was sinking in their towns amid ongoing scrutiny.

“We have allowed our police department to get fetal, and it is having a direct consequence,” Emanuel declared during the meeting. “They have pulled back from the ability to interdict . . . they don’t want to be a news story themselves, they don’t want their career ended early, and it’s having an impact.”

Comey said such feedback has served as inspiration for his recent speeches, in which he declared that violent crime rates are being inflated by a “a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year.”

“That wind is surely changing behavior,” Comey said, later adding: “We need to figure out what’s happening and deal with it now. I refuse to wait . . . these aren’t data points, these are lives.”

Govt Warns: Raise Your Shield

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When one considers all the major hacking events including the Office of Personnel Management, this is truly a warning.

Sounds like they are telling us we are on our own but the advise is good and must be heeded.

NEWS RELEASE

National Counterintelligence and Security Center
Releases Social Media Deception Awareness Videos

Videos are second in a series released in the wake of the OPM records breach
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                      
ODNI News Release No. 21-15
October 23, 2015

Today the ODNI’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center released the second in a four-part series of videos from its “Know the Risk—Raise Your Shield” campaign.

The latest campaign videos focus on social media deception, and are intended to help build public awareness of the inherent dangers that the use of social media—Facebook, Twitter, etc.—could present when appropriate protective measures are not taken.  There are two videos: a shorter attention-grabber and a second longer video which provides details about social media deception, how government officials or the public can recognize threats and what steps can be taken to minimize the risk of being deceived.

“The information the social media deception videos and overall campaign convey will increase individuals’ awareness of the dangers in cyberspace and provide common-sense tools to protect themselves from bad actors, be they criminals or foreign intelligence entities,” said NCSC Director Bill Evanina.

The NCSC launched the campaign last month in the wake of the Office of Personnel Management records breach to help those individuals, government or otherwise, whose personal information has been compromised.  The launch videos focused on “Spear Phishing Attacks,” while the final sets of videos—to be released in November and December, respectively—will focus on human targeting and awareness for travelers.  Each release contains a 30-45-second overview video and a more in-depth two minute video.

The NCSC provides effective leadership and support to the counterintelligence and security activities of the U.S. Intelligence Community, the U.S. government, and U.S. private sector entities who are at risk of intelligence collection or attack by foreign adversaries.

Democrat Donor for Obama and Julian Castro Charged with Fraud

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Who checks the backgrounds of these people and where the money really comes from? Of course, rhetorical but this is a constant verse in Washington DC, just look at Hillary ad Bill’s history on donors.

Imagine the cost to BP over the oil spill lawsuits and how many are going to give the money back? Heh….

Obama fundraiser, Julian Castro patron indicted on fraud charges

Carney at WashingtonExaminer: Multimillion-dollar Democratic donor and Obama fundraiser Mikal Watts was indicted on fraud charges this week. Federal prosecutors say his class-action suit against BP after the oil spill was built in part on phony clients.

Watts’ attorney said the charges “are related to allegations that Watts committed fraud or forgery when he claimed to represent 44,000 clients in litigation against BP PLC,” as the Associated Press puts it.

Watts, according to FEC records, has given $2.3 million to Democratic causes and candidates over the years, including nearly $90,000 to Barack Obama. He also bundled at least $500,000 for Obama and hosted multiple fundraisers in his San Antonio mansion for Obama.

He has his own basketball gym on his property, and in 2012, he held a $35,800-a-plate fundraiser there, in a nod to the president’s “love of basketball,” as Watts put it. In 2008, he was on Obama’s National Finance Committee.

Watts has visited the Obama White House three times, according to visitor logs.

Obama, since 2010, has fought to change the law that limits some of BP’s liability — a policy change that would directly profit plaintiffs’ lawyers suing BP.

Watts was also the primary patron for Democratic rising star Julian Castro, having made possible Castro’s first mayoral run in San Antonio by paying the budding politician a “referral fee” of at least 1 million dollars, as my colleague Byron York wrote in a piece on Castro last year.

Now, for a note on media bias:

The Washington Post’s only story on Watts’ indictment is an AP story, running under the headline “Defense Attorney: Texas Lawyer Indicted Over Oil Spill Fraud.” The words “Obama,” “Democrat,” “Castro” and “fundraiser” never appear in the piece.

The Post’s 2013 story on BP’s accusations against Watts also omitted his prominent role in the Democratic world.

The New York Times’ headline: “Indictment Ties Lawyer to Fraud on BP Spill.” The first paragraph describes him only as “a prominent Texas lawyer.” In the final paragraph, the Times notes, “In addition to his reputation as an intimidating plaintiff’s lawyer, Mr. Watts is a high-profile fund-raiser for Democrats at the local, state and national levels. In July 2012, he hosted a $35,800-a-plate event for President Obama inside a gymnasium on the grounds of his home.”

When the Times first reported on Watts’ potential sketchiness in 2011, they totally omitted that he was a prominent Democratic donor and fundraiser.

What would happen if Watts were a Republican fundraiser? It turns out we have some clues.

Timothy Durham was a Republican fundraiser and donor who had given about $800,000 to Republicans. In 2011, federal prosecutors indicted him “on suspicion of operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of $200 million,” as the Washington Post put it.

“A Republican Fund-Raiser is Indicted in a Ponzi Scheme,” blared The New York Times headline.

The lead: “A prominent Republican fund-raiser was charged Wednesday …” The second paragraph began, “The fund-raiser, Timothy Durham, 48, was arrested early in the morning …” Later in the piece, “Mr. Durham donated more than $800,000 to the Republican Party and candidates in Indiana, including almost $200,000 to Gov. Mitch Daniels.”

The Post item mentioning Durham’s indictment described Durham as “a GOP donor and former chief executive of National Lampoon …”

So a Democratic donor directly tied to the president and the single biggest Democratic “rising star” gets his political activity mostly ignored, while a Republican donor who gave half as much gets his politics in the headlines.

Trial lawyers were the top industry giving to House and Senate candidates in the 2014 election, so this story also exemplifies the trends in campaign finance.

As I’ve written many times before, big money gets a lot more media scrutiny on one side of the aisle than it does on the other.

Iran Defying Iran Deal, WH and Kerry Still Trust ‘Em

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Iran holds 4 Americans in their prisons, while the Obama administration says the track for talks to have them released was separate from the Iran talks. Yet, it must be know, the United States actually holds several Iranians in our prisons and one such detainee Iran wants back badly.

Iran wants it both ways as noted with this scientist they demand to be released.

An Iranian-American engineer has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for sending sensitive U.S. military documents to his native Iran.

U.S. prosecutors say Mozaffar Khazaee, who had worked as an employee of U.S. defense contractors, stole and shared with Iran information on U.S. military jet engine programs over the span of several years.

Khazaee, a 61-year-old dual citizen, was arrested in January 2014 as he tried to leave the United States with sensitive military documents in his luggage.

A swap is likely part of the obscure talks with John Kerry and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif.

The matter of the PMD’s (Possible Military Dimension) sites are still in dispute and Iran declares they are defying the JPOA by stating they will not remove the uranium stockpile. They will also not repurpose the heavy water reactor, both of which are stipulations of the JPOA.

“Any action regarding Arak and dispatching uranium abroad … will take place after the PMD file is closed,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani.

The letter, published on Khamenei’s website, approved implementation of a nuclear deal agreed with world powers in July, subject to certain conditions.

Meanwhile, the waivers are being signed to lift selected sanctions against Iran, demonstrating the White House, the State Department and the National Security Councils as well as those Democrats in Congress have not said a single word about the contraventions of the P5+1 Iran agreement.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States approved conditional sanctions waivers for Iran on Sunday, though it cautioned they will not take effect until Tehran has curbed its nuclear program as required under a historic nuclear deal reached in Vienna on July 14.

“I hereby direct you to take all necessary steps to give effect to the U.S. commitments with respect to sanctions described in (the Iran deal),” U.S. President Barack Obama said in a memo to the secretaries of state, treasury, commerce and energy released by the White House press office.

Several senior U.S. officials, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said actual implementation of the deal was still at least two months away. In addition to Washington’s conditional orders to suspend U.S. nuclear-related sanctions, U.S. officials said the United States, China and Iran were re-emphasizing their commitment to the redesign and reconstruction of the Arak research reactor so that it does not produce plutonium.

The fate of the Arak reactor was one of the toughest sticking points in the nearly two years of negotiations that led to the July agreement.

Other steps Iran must take include reducing the number of uranium-enrichment centrifuges it has in operation, cutting its enriched uranium stocks and answering U.N. questions about past activities that the West suspects were linked to work on nuclear weapons.

Kerry noted that the IAEA had already said Iran had met its obligation to provide answers and access to the agency.

The Democrats, the White House and the State Department have a real talent for ignoring threats, facts and actions when it comes to reality.

It is beyond dispute that each item in question for Iran and the JPOA, Iran is rupturing the agreement and Barack Obama is ignoring the infractions. Perhaps someone should begin to ask Hillary about the JPOA since it was her State Department that deployed Jake Sullivan to open the Iran doors to these talks…what is she thinking now?

Charlie Rangel and the Hillary Benghazi ‘AFTER’ party

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Cold, shameful and frankly disgusting. Exactly is playing politics when the State Department along with the White House decided to let perhaps up to 60 people perish in Benghazi, as four people actually did…

Charlie Rangel the Troll:

Charlie Rangel explains how he trolled the Benghazi committee

Veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., raised eyebrows on Thursday when he sat down on the dais in the room where the House Benghazi committee was hearing testimony from Hillary Clinton.

Rangel’s move was curious since he’s not a member of the committee. The Democrat, who is currently the second longest serving member of the House of Representatives, also sat on the Republican side of the dais.

In an interview with Yahoo News on Thursday, Rangel suggested he didn’t feel the need to take the committee seriously. He noted that the hearing was taking place in a room normally used by the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Rangel serves on Ways and Means and was the chairman until 2010, when he stepped down after being censured for ethics violations.

“I sat up there today, and there was some comment made by some members I understood as to why they had to sit on the floor and I was sitting on the dais so-called with the committee … I never gave it any thought. That’s my Ways and Means room. You know?” Rangel explained. “It just makes sense. I went in the door I normally go in, I went in the committee I go in, and I sat in a vacant chair about three seats away from the last member so I wouldn’t get confused with them.”

Many Democrats have described the Republican-led committee as a partisan effort to target Clinton, who is running for president. The committee was established to investigate the 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton was secretary of state at the time of the attack.

Rangel described the committee as nakedly “political.”

“I never thought that a committee, Democrat or Republican, would be set up to do political work,” he said.

He argued the use of a committee for partisan purposes could undermine the “credibility of committees in the future.”

“If you lose confidence in the investigative committees in the House, it is sad really,” Rangel said.

Rangel sees the committee as just one way the current crop of Republicans is having a damaging effect. He cited the conservative effort that ousted GOP House Speaker John Boehner earlier this month and the budget battles that have continually created the threat of a government shutdown as other instances where Republicans are causing harm.

“If you take a look at the party, you find people that the more that they demonstrate that they are willing to take down the party, the Congress, the president, and their country, the more popular they are back home,” Rangel said, adding, “They’re competing as to who could be more radical.”

Rangel, who has said his current term will be his last after over four decades in the House, said he’s not happy about the current state of the GOP in Congress even though it’s been plagued by infighting.

“I’m angry because I can’t be happy about what the Republicans are doing because they’re not just doing it to themselves, they’re doing it to the institutions I love,” he explained.

Rangel framed his decision to sit with the Benghazi committee as a mixture of his feeling of ownership over the Ways and Means room and his disrespect for the hearing.

“I’ve been going to that room for 40 years, the same door, walking up the same three steps and finding an empty seat,” he said.  “And then people are saying, ‘You sat on the Republican side’ … There’s no Republican side when I go to that room. I mean, when we’re having a hearing, of course, there’s Democrat and Republican, but you’re having a circus.”

Rangel also recalled the fact that Clinton had some early experience with congressional investigations. She was apparently his intern when he was on the House Judiciary Committee that investigated President Richard Nixon in 1974 following the Watergate scandal. According to Rangel, he realized their connection when he visited the White House shortly after Clinton’s husband, President Bill Clinton, was elected. More here.

The Hillary Benghazi After Party at her House:

HILLARY: MY TEAM AND I HAD ‘GREAT’ TIME AT MY HOUSE AFTER BENGHAZI HEARING
Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that she and her team had a “great” time “eating Indian food, and drinking wine and beer” at her house after her testimony before the Benghazi Select Committee in an interview broadcast on Friday’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.

When asked what she did after the hearing, Hillary said, “Well, I had my whole team come over to my house, and we sat around eating Indian food, and drinking wine and beer. That’s what we did. … We were all talking about sports, TV shows. It was great, just to have that chance to, number one thank them, because they did a terrific job, kind of being there behind me, and getting me ready, and then just talk about what we’re going to do next.”

Hillary added, regarding her testimony, “The point is, what are we going to do both honor the people that we lost, and try to make sure this doesn’t happen again”