Category Archives: government fraud spending collusion

DHS Holds Employee as a Hostage

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Visa Program for Wealthy Foreigners Has Serious Security Challenges, Homeland Whistleblower Says

 

A senior federal agent became the first insider Wednesday to publicly expose what she said were serious national security concerns surrounding a controversial immigration program that has been providing Green Cards to wealthy foreigners.

Senior Special Agent Taylor Johnson said her Homeland Security investigation uncovered visa applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan and Malaysia who had been approved in as little as 16 days, even though their applications “lacked basic necessary law enforcement” screening.

“During the course of my investigation it became very clear that the EB-5 program has serious security challenges,” she said.

Her findings echo those reported in a series of stories this year by ABC News about the controversial program that gives wealthy foreigners the chance to turn a $500,000 investment into a U.S. Green Card – reports that were based on extensive interviews with five other whistleblowers.

The ABC News investigation uncovered records showing foreign applicants had successfully obtained EB-5 visas despite allegations of fraud, money laundering, forgery, and other crimes against them. In one case, an Iranian business man was able to gain recertification to participate in the program even as he was under active investigation for smuggling.

The program, known by the visa designation EB-5, is designed to create thousands of jobs by offering temporary residency and eventually Green Cards to foreigners who agree to invest more than $500,000 in approved American ventures. The two-part ABC News investigation found, however, that the program had become a magnet for those seeking to sidestep the scrutiny of the traditional immigration process.

Johnson came forward Wednesday as part of a U.S. Senate Hearing that was convened to bring attention to the plight of federal officials who have tried to report wrongdoing in their agencies, only to face retaliation for stepping forward. Johnson said she was sent an unmistakable message by senior Homeland Security officials when she began to report them up the chain of command – back off.

“After disclosing gross mismanagement, waste and fraud that threatened the general public’s safety, National Security Risks and public corruption surrounding an EB-5 project, I was subjected to a significant amount of harassment and retaliation,” Johnson said.

“I was removed from the investigation, a shoddy follow-up review was conducted and then in 2013, ultimately, the investigation was shut down,” she told senators.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. But in earlier statements to ABC News, senior officials said they had already begun work on improving the EB-5 program to better insulate it from exploitation by foreign agents and criminals. They said they were hampered in their efforts by a lack of legal authority to crack down on the so-called “regional centers” — largely unregulated businesses that have sprung up to pair foreign investors with U.S. based projects that have the potential to create jobs.

Following the ABC News investigation, an internal investigation by the Inspector General was published which revealed evidence of political meddling in the program, also relying heavily on whistleblowers from inside Homeland Security. Senior members of the U.S. Senate last week proposed legislation aimed at better protecting the EB-5 program from abuse.

As all of the internal problems with the little-known immigration program have surfaced, however, none of the whistleblowers had stepped forward to talk in public. Those interviewed by ABC News expressed strong concerns that they would face retaliation if they spoke out. Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth expressed a similar concern when he testified on the issue before the House Homeland Security Committee in March.

“Being a whistleblower is seen to be hazardous,” Roth said.

WH Ignoring Iran’s $6Billion for Syria Iraq Terror

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John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Tony Blinken, Tom Donilon, Samantha Power, Valerie Jarrett and Barack Obama are but part of the team that knew and ignored the billions for years that Iran used to support Bashir al Assad’s terror in Syria and later Iraq. The Obama regime has been gifting Iran money by lifting sanctions for the sake of humanitarian purposes in Iran when the money was not used for that but rather to support the Assad tyrannical power in Syria. Sanction waivers under the Obama regime regarding Iran have been common since the Iranian nuclear talks began.

Now the question is will this White House and State Department come clean and walk away from the P5+1 Iranian nuclear talks? This betrayal is historic.

Iran Spends Billions to Prop Up Assad

By Eli Lake
Iran is spending billions of dollars a year to prop up the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to the U.N.’s envoy to Syria and other outside experts. These estimates are far higher than what the Barack Obama administration, busy negotiating a nuclear deal with the Tehran government, has implied Iran spends on its policy to destabilize the Middle East.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told me that the envoy estimates Iran spends $6 billion annually on Assad’s government. Other experts I spoke to put the number even higher. Nadim Shehadi, the director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University, said his research shows that Iran spent between $14 and $15 billion in military and economic aid to the Damascus regime in 2012 and 2013, even though Iran’s banks and businesses were cut off from the international financial system.

Such figures undermine recent claims from Obama and his top officials suggesting that Iran spends a relative pittance to challenge U.S. interests and allies in the region. While the administration has never disclosed its own estimates on how much Iran spends to back Syria and other allies in the Middle East, Obama himself has played down the financial dimension of the regime’s support.

“The great danger that the region has faced from Iran is not because they have so much money. Their budget — their military budget is $15 billion compared to $150 billion for the Gulf States,” he said in an interview last week with Israel’s Channel 2.

But experts see it another way. The Christian Science Monitor last month reported that de Mistura told a think tank in Washington that Iran was spending three times its official military budget–$35 billion annually–to support Assad in Syria. When asked about that earlier event, Jessy Chahine, the spokeswoman for de Mistura, e-mailed me: “The Special Envoy has estimated Iran spends $6 billion annually on supporting the Assad regime in Syria. So it’s $6 billion not $35 billion.”

Either way, that figure is significant. Many members of Congress and close U.S. regional allies have raised concerns that Iran will see a windfall of cash as a condition of any nuclear deal it signs this summer. Obama himself has said there is at least $150 billion worth of Iranian money being held in overseas banks as part of the crippling sanctions. If Iran spends billions of its limited resources today to support its proxies in the Middle East, it would follow that it will spend even more once sanctions are lifted.

The Obama administration disagrees. It says the amount Iran spends on mischief in the region is so low that any future sanctions relief will not make a difference in its behavior. Speaking at a conference this weekend sponsored by the Jerusalem Post, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that even as Iran’s economy has suffered from sanctions in recent years, it has been able to maintain its “small” level of assistance to terrorists and other proxies. “The unfortunate truth remains that the cost of this support is sufficiently small, that we will need to remain vigilant with or without a nuclear deal to use our other tools to deter the funding of terror and regional destabilization,” he said.

Shehadi and other experts acknowledged that their figures were estimates, because the Tehran regime does not publicize budgets for its Revolutionary Guard Corps or the full subsidies it provides to allies. Nonetheless, Shehadi says, Iranian support to Syria today is substantial, especially when factoring in the line of credit, oil subsidies and other kinds of economic assistance Iran provides the Syrian regime.

Steven Heydemann, who was the vice president for applied research on conflict at the U.S. Institute of Peace until last month, told me earlier this year that the value of Iranian oil transfers, lines of credit, military personnel costs and subsidies for weapons for the Syrian government was likely between $3.5 and $4 billion annually. He said that did not factor in how much Iran spent on supporting Hezbollah and other militias fighting Assad’s opponents in Syria. Heydamann said he estimated the total support from Iran for Assad would be between $15 and $20 billion annually.

A Pentagon report released last week was quite clear about what Iran hopes to achieve with its spending: “Iran has not substantively changed its national security and military strategies over the past year. However, Tehran has adjusted its approach to achieve its enduring objectives, by increasing its diplomatic outreach and decreasing its bellicose rhetoric.” The report says Iran’s strategy is intended to preserve its Islamic system of governance, protect it from outside threats, attain economic prosperity and “establish Iran as the dominant regional power.”

If Iran ends up accepting a deal on its nuclear program, it will see an infusion of cash to pursue that regional agenda. Shehadi said this fits a pattern for dictatorships in the Middle East: they preoccupy the international community with proliferation issues while, behind the scene, they continue to commit atrocities.

“In the early 1990s, Saddam Hussein was massacring his people and we were worried about the weapons inspectors,” Shehadi said. “Bashar al-Assad did that too. He kept us busy with chemical weapons when he massacred his people. Iran is keeping us busy with a nuclear deal and we are giving them carte blanche in Syria and the region.”

 

Baltimore Infected With Gang Members, BGF

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14 alleged gang members indicted on racketeering charges

BALTIMORE (AP) — Local and federal authorities announced indictments against 14 men they say are members of a notoriously vicious gang known for violence, drug trafficking and witness intimidation both on Baltimore’s streets and in its jails.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday announced indictments against more the men they say are members of the Black Guerilla Family, a gang so brutal it is considered “the FBI’s number one violent gang target in the city of Baltimore,” said Stephen Vogt, FBI special agent in charge in Baltimore, on Thursday.

In the indictment, the alleged gang members are charged with conspiracy and racketeering. The indictment says those charged are responsible for drug trafficking, intimidating witnesses, drug overdoses that resulted in three deaths, two attempted murders and two murders, including one in which a teenage gang member was fatally shot.

The document describes the Black Guerilla Family as a meticulously organized criminal enterprise with a code of conduct so strict violating it is punishable by essay assignments, fines, beatings, stabbings and sometimes murder.

The gang garnered international media attention in 2013 after a sweeping federal indictment charged 44 inmates and prison guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center with participating in a widespread drug and cellphone smuggling operation.

Timothy Michael Gray, who federal officials say was the gang’s citywide commander until 2013, collected cash from members who oversaw the gang’s operations in Baltimore. Under his watch, the indictment alleges, Marshall Spence murdered a teenage gang member, then threatened a juvenile who had witnessed the crime. In a subsequent phone conversation with other gang members, the indictment says, Spence then discussed murdering witnesses.

“That’s what we’re facing on the street,” Rosenstein said at a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s important for us to intervene in these gang disputes and take the perpetrators off the streets and eliminate the opportunity for retaliation that we’ve seen fuel some of the violence we’ve seen over the last six weeks.”

The indictments are the result of an 18-month investigation, Vogt said, that demanded a strong partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement. On Wednesday Vogt praised Police Commissioner Anthony Batts for his patience and willingness to dedicate resources to such a “slow-moving” probe.

But over the past six weeks the bloodiest period in Baltimore in decades, with 42 murders in the month of May and 13 so far in June_the city’s arrest rate has plummeted, leaving Batts to defend a police force critics say have abandoned their posts in the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods following unrest and rioting prompted by the death of Freddie Gray.

“These police officers have gone through trauma,” Batts said, adding that he has taken a group of officers from the Western District, where Gray was arrested and the majority of violence erupted during the April 27 riots, off the streets this week so they could participate in team-building exercises, retraining and education. “My guys are going out there, getting into officer-involved shootings and taking guns of the streets.

“My officers have an ethical obligation to the babies, to the kids, to the mothers, to the weak ones out there to protect this city as a whole and keep their jobs going in that direction,” Batts said. “We are providing them with insight, we are providing them with counseling, we are providing them with opportunities to share what they need to do, but at the end of the day we get paid to get the job done.” ***

From the FBI in 2013:

BALTIMORE—A federal grand jury returned a racketeering indictment charging 25 individuals, including 13 correctional officers with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, for conspiring to run operations of the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) gang inside correctional facilities. All 25 defendants also are charged with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute drugs, and 20 of the defendants are charged with money laundering conspiracy.

The indictment and a detailed affidavit were unsealed today upon the arrests of the defendants and the execution of 15 search warrants. Approximately 170 agents and officers assisted in today’s arrests and search warrants. The indictment was returned on April 2, 2013. One defendant was killed in a robbery several hours before the indictment was filed. The defendants are identified at the conclusion of this press release.

The indictment arose from the efforts of the Maryland Prison Task Force, a group of local, state, and federal stakeholders that met regularly for more than two years and generated recommendations to reform prison procedures.

The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts; Secretary Gary D. Maynard of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services; and Chief Mark A. Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

U.S. Attorney Rosenstein also recognized the efforts of the other members of the Maryland Prison Task Force in this investigation and prosecution, including: Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein; Colonel Marcus L. Brown, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; United States Marshal Johnny Hughes; Special Agent in Charge Karl C. Colder of the Drug Enforcement Administration-Washington Field Division; Tom Carr, Director of the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; and Dave Engel, Executive Director of the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center.

“Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates, in violation of the first principle of prison management,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Preventing prison corruption requires intensive screening at prison entrances and punishment for employees who consort with inmates or bring cell phones and drugs into correctional facilities.”

“This investigation revealed the pervasive nature of prison corruption in Baltimore City’s Detention Centers,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt. “Such corruption causes the FBI to divert crucial investigative resources away from addressing violence on the streets of Baltimore. In this case, the inmates literally took over ‘the asylum,’ and the detention centers became safe havens for the BGF. Such a situation cannot be tolerated. Law enforcement should not have to concern itself with criminal subjects who have already been arrested and relegated to detention centers.”

“Ninety-nine percent of our correctional officers do their jobs with integrity, honesty, and respect,” said Secretary Gary Maynard of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. “Today’s indictment, along with those in the past, show that our department will not stand idly by and let a few bad actors affect the security of our institutions. Nor will we allow them to impugn the reputation of the men and women who come to work every day and go about their jobs honorably. Those who would break the law should know we will always work tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to root out corruption.”

“Today’s multi-jurisdictional takedown of suspected BGF gang members and orchestrators who infiltrated the criminal justice system is another example of the Baltimore Police Department’s relentless focus on targeting the malignant gang organizations that plague our communities,” said Police Commissioner Anthony Batts. “Thanks to the hard working detectives, federal agents, and prosecutors who worked behind the scenes to build these cases. Our continued pledge to the people of Baltimore is that we will leverage the full capacity of our state and federal partnerships to identify those responsible for violence and bring them to justice.”

The 10 men and 15 women charged in the indictment are alleged to be members or associates of the BGF, a gang active in prisons throughout the United States. According to the indictment, BGF has been the dominant gang at the Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC) and in several connected facilities, especially the Baltimore Central Booking Intake Center, the Women’s Detention Center (which houses many men), and in the Jail Industries Building. The indictment alleges that since at least 2009, BGF members and associates in BCDC and related prison facilities engaged in criminal activities, including drug trafficking, robbery, assault, extortion, bribery, witness retaliation, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.

BGF members and associates allegedly bribed correctional officers at BCDC and related prison facilities to smuggle drugs, cell phones, and other contraband. Correctional officers arranged favored treatment and privileges for imprisoned BGF gang members, and officers thwarted interdiction and law enforcement efforts against BGF inmates. BGF members and associates allegedly had long-term sexual relationships with several correctional officers and impregnated them.

BGF leaders allegedly used contraband cell phones to order contraband. Co-conspirators delivered contraband to corrupt correctional officers who smuggled the items into the prisons. Correctional officers often arranged payment for the contraband. Some gang dues and drug profits were used to support activities of BGF street organizations outside the prisons.

The charging documents allege that correctional officers were able to bring contraband directly into the prisons through the main entrances. Inside the prisons, BGF was able to control contraband smuggling because BGF gang members were designated as “working men.” Working men are inmates who are paid to assist management and are free to move about the facility.

Green Dot cash debit cards were allegedly used by inmates to pay BGF for smuggled contraband and used by BGF to transfer criminal proceeds. Luxury automobiles were among the purchases made by BGF with Green Dot cards.

According to the indictment, members, and associates followed directions from the ranking BGF members in BCDC, especially inmate Tavon White. On January, 5, 2013, White explained in a phone call:

“This is my jail. You understand that? I’m dead serious….I make every final call in this jail…and nothing go past me, everything come to me….Any of my brothers that deal with anybody, it’s gonna come to me. You see what I am saying? Everything come to me. Everything. Before a mother-f—— hit a n—— in the mouth, guess what they do, they gotta run it through me. I tell them whether it’s a go ahead, and they can do it or whether they hold back. Before a mother-f—— stab somebody, they gotta run it through me….Anything that get done must go through me. ”

Tavon White summarized his position in a conversation with correctional officer Adrena Rice on February 11, 2013:

“I told them worker men that they had to step down off the worker men spots or they was getting hit….I hold the highest seat you can get….My word is law…so if I told any mother-f—— body they had to do this, hit a police, do this, kill a mother-f——, do anything, it got to get done. Period.”

White allegedly used contraband cell phones to discuss BGF activities inside BCDC, such as the collection of fees and taxes, to request information about inmates, to hear grievances from other BGF inmates, and to coordinate his contraband smuggling operation. White and other gang members developed sexual relationships with officers in order to gain influence over them.

White allegedly had long-term sexual relationships inside BCDC with four correctional officers—Jennifer Owens, Katera Stevenson, Chania Brooks, and Tiffany Linder—impregnating each of the four officers at least once. Owens had “Tavon” tattooed on her neck and Stevenson had “Tavon” tattooed on her wrist. All four officers allegedly help smuggle contraband into BCDC and related facilities. White allegedly gave Owens a diamond ring and provided luxury automobiles to Owens, Stevenson, and Brooks. The indictment includes many overt acts in furtherance of the racketeering enterprise. For example, in November 2012, correctional officer Jasmin Jones allegedly stood guard outside a closet in BCDC so that correctional officer Kimberly Dennis and inmate Derius Duncan could have sex. Corrupt officers also warned BGF inmates about law enforcement operations. For example, Brooks and Linder allegedly notified White when they learned about upcoming canine scans and jail cell searches. The affidavit specifies two occasions in which warning calls to White were intercepted: December 21, 2012 (from Brooks) and January 6, 2013 (from Linder). White then used his cell phone to spread the word to other inmates.

On January 6, 2013, White allegedly said:

“I just got a message (from Officer Tiffany Linder) saying that they was going to pull a shake down (prison search) tonight. Let me call all these dudes in my phone and let them know.”

The U.S. Attorney expressed appreciation to Secretary Maynard and select members of his senior staff who confidentially arranged for 30 trusted correctional officers from outside Baltimore to join with federal agents and conduct surprise searches of BGF members and their jail cells on February 14, 2013, resulting in the discovery of important evidence.

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of $500,000 and other proceeds of the enterprise, including luxury automobiles.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the racketeering and drug conspiracies, as well as for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Stevenson, Yarborough, and Pinder each also face five years in prison for possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

The defendants are expected to have initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this afternoon.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Baltimore Police Department, the Prince George’s County Police Department and Maryland Prison Task Force, Baltimore City Assistant State’s Attorneys Kevin Wilson, and Katie O’Hara for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Robert R. Harding and Ayn B. Ducao, who are prosecuting this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.

The following defendants are charged in the indictment unsealed today:

Inmates:

  • Tavon White, a/k/a Bulldog and Tay, age 36, of Baltimore
  • Jamar Anderson, a/k/a Hammer and Hamma Head, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Derius Duncan, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Steven Loney, a/k/a Stevie, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Jermaine McFadden, a/k/a Maine, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Kenneth Parham, age 23, of Baltimore
  • Joseph Young, a/k/a Monster, age 30, of Baltimore

Correctional officers:

  • Antonia Allison, age 27, of Baltimore
  • Ebonee Braswell, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Chania Brooks, age 27, of Baltimore
  • Kimberly Dennis, age 26, of Baltimore
  • Jasmin Jones, a/k/a J.J., age 24, of Baltimore
  • Taryn Kirkland, age 23, of Baltimore
  • Katrina LaPrade, a/k/a Katrina Lyons, age 31, of Baltimore
  • Tiffany Linder, age 27, of Baltimore
  • Vivian Matthews, age 25, of Essex, Maryland
  • Jennifer Owens, a/k/a O and J.O., age 31, of Randallstown
  • Adrena Rice, age 25, of Baltimore
  • Katera Stevenson, a/k/a KK, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Jasmine Thornton, a/k/a J.T., age 26, of Glen Burnie

Outside suppliers:

  • Tyesha Mayo, age 29, of Baltimore
  • Teshawn Pinder, age 24, of Baltimore
  • Tyrone Thompson, a/k/a Henry, age 36, of Baltimore
  • Ralph Timmons, Jr., a/k/a Boosa, age 34, of Baltimore (deceased)

James Yarborough, a/k/a J.Y., age 26, of Baltimore.

 

 

 

 

 

EPA to Destroy the Entire Transportation Industry

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The White House climate change, greenhouse emissions and clean air act is about to be completely out of control. The question is where is the Congress and where are you? Remember Barack Obama said in his commencement speech that climate change was the top threat to national security.

Washington (CNN)The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it will propose a declaration that says carbon emissions from commercial planes contribute to climate change and hurt human health.

EPA also said it was working with the International Civil Aviation Organization, which includes 191 member states, to develop carbon dioxide standards for planes that would impact airlines in the U.S. and across the world.

“The EPA administrator is proposing to find that (greenhouse gas) emissions from certain classes of engines used primarily in commercial aircraft contribute to the air pollution that causes climate change and endangers public health and welfare,” the agency said in a statement, announcing an Aug. 11 hearing on the proposal and a 60-day window for the public to weigh in.

The move was the first step towards regulating air pollution from commercial airlines, but the ICAO standards aren’t expected to be adopted until early 2016. The earliest the EPA would be able to put out a notice of new standards would be in 2017, after President Barack Obama is out of office, and a final rule wouldn’t go into effect until at least 2018.

The future regulation would apply to commercial aircraft and business jets, but not military aircraft, which the EPA does not have jurisdiction over.

Wednesday’s announcement is the latest in a series of moves from the Obama administration geared at combating climate change, which Obama has characterized as an immediate national security threat.

*** WSJ: The Obama administration is planning a series of actions this summer to rein in greenhouse-gas emissions from wide swaths of the economy, including trucks, airplanes and power plants, kicking into high gear an ambitious climate agenda that the president sees as key to his legacy.

And in August, the agency will complete a suite of three regulations lowering carbon from the nation’s power plants—the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate-change agenda.

The proposals represent the biggest climate push by the administration since 2009, when the House passed a national cap-and-trade system proposed by the White House aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

Anticipating the rules, some of which have been telegraphed in advance, opponents of Mr. Obama’s regulatory efforts are moving to block them. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), is urging governors across the country to defy the EPA by not submitting plans to comply with its rule cutting power-plant emissions.

Nearly all Republicans and some Democrats representing states dependent on fossil fuels say the Obama administration is going beyond the boundary of the law and usurping the role of Congress by imposing regulations that amount to a national energy tax driven by ideological considerations.

“The Administration seems determined to double down on the type of deeply regressive regulatory policy we’ve already seen it try to impose on lower-and-middle-class families in every state,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement. “These Obama administration regulations share several things in common with the upcoming directives: they seem motivated more by ideology than science, and they’re likely to negatively affect the economy and hurt both the cost and reliability of energy for hard-working American families and small-business owners.”

Two factors are driving the timing of the push this summer. The administration wants to complete it ahead of December’s United Nations summit on climate change, where world leaders will meet in Paris to decide whether to agree on a global accord to cut carbon emissions. The EPA’s regulatory agenda represents nearly everything Mr. Obama is set to offer world leaders on what the U.S. is doing to address climate change.

Secondly, once the EPA rules on emissions by power plants become final, states will have a year to submit plans while lawsuits challenging the rule are expected to be heard by the courts. The administration wants to make sure that its officials can oversee as much of these two developments as possible instead of relying on the next president, especially if it is one of the GOP White House candidates who have expressed opposition to the EPA’s climate agenda altogether.

 

Hillary’s State Dept: Prostitution and Drug Ring

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Shall we start with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who solicited minors and prostitutes?

And the cover-up? A detailed summary is here along with a 36 page report.

Hillary cant play stupid on this one…if she would even get close to media, some would perhaps ask her some epic questions. There is no spin on this, read on to learn why. There are two whistleblowers with the ‘goods’.

State Department Inspector General officials edited out passages of a high-profile report in 2013 that could have embarrassed Hillary Clinton just days before she quit President Obama’s Cabinet.

The officials excised details of a cover up of misconduct by Clinton’s security team.

The edits raise concerns that investigators were subjected to “undue influence” from agency officials.

The Washington Examiner obtained earlier drafts of the report which differ markedly from the final version. References to specific cases in which high-level State officials intervened and descriptions of the extent and frequency of those interventions appear in several early drafts but were later eliminated.

The unexplained gaps in the final version, and the removal of passages that would have damaged the State Department, call into question the independence of Harold Geisel, who was State’s temporary inspector general throughout Clinton’s four years at the head of the department. More detail here.

*** Yet in 2013, it was common knowledge around the agency and in the media.

The US state department failed to fully investigate allegations against its officials involving prostitution, a drug ring and assault, media report.

A leaked internal document obtained by CBS News said staff protecting ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regularly solicited sex workers.

The reports also allege a drug ring may have provided narcotics to state department contractors in Iraq.

But it is suggested officials may have tried to cover up the misconduct.

According to CBS, a draft copy of a state department inspector general’s report alleges eight specific examples of improper behaviour by US officials.

‘Criminal behavior’

Some allegations were suppressed, according to CBS, such as an investigation into an unnamed ambassador who was said to be visiting prostitutes in a public park.

The document cites allegations that the envoy “routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children”.

It went on to say that the ambassador’s security team and other colleagues “were well aware of the behavior”, according to the reports.

CBS reports that attempts to look into the allegations were stopped in their tracks.

According to the broadcaster, the copy of the draft report said: “Hindering such cases calls into question the integrity of the investigative process, can result in counterintelligence vulnerabilities and can allow criminal behavior to continue.”

CNN also reports that the inspector general found an attempt to investigate claims that a drug ring near the US embassy in Baghdad was supplying illegal substances to state department security contractors was stopped.

It was also alleged that a state department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” against foreign nationals hired as embassy guards. The same person was accused of similar attacks during previous foreign postings, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, members of Mrs Clinton’s security detail solicited prostitutes on official trips, a problem the leaked report is said to have described as “endemic”.

Aurelia Fedenisn, who was an investigator with the state department’s inspector general, told CBS: “We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases.”

The inspector general’s office has reportedly asked external law enforcement experts to look at the way the state department handles complaints of serious misconduct by its senior staff.

Findings are expected later in the summer.

State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We take allegations of misconduct seriously and we investigate thoroughly.

“All cases mentioned in the CBS report were thoroughly investigated and under investigation, and the department continues to take action.”

*** Enter the real details of key Wikileaks cables. Hillary got the goods on everyone, including her own staff. Cheryl Mills, who actually has power of attorney for both Clintons likely has an interesting file stored on that pesky server.

What makes Clinton’s sleuthing unique is the paper trail that documents her spying-on-their-diplomats-with-our-diplomat orders, a paper trail that is now being splashed around the world on the Web and printed in top newspapers. No matter what sort of noises Clinton makes about how the disclosures are “an attack on America” and “the international community,” as she did today, she’s become the issue. She’ll never be an effective negotiator with diplomats who refuse to forgive her exuberances, and even foreign diplomats who do forgive her will still regard her as the symbol of an overreaching United States. Diplomacy is about face, and the only way for other nations to save face will be to give them Clinton’s scalp.

How embarrassing are the WikiLeaks leaks? A secret cable from April 2009 that went out under Clinton’s name instructed State Department officials to collect the “biometric data,” including “fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans,” of African leaders. Another secret cable directed American diplomats posted around the world, including the United Nations, to obtain passwords, personal encryption keys, credit card numbers, frequent flyer account numbers, and other data connected to diplomats. As the Guardian puts it, the cables “reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network.”

Additionally, Clinton’s State Department specifically targeted United Nations officials and diplomats posted to the United Nations. Among the targeted were Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and permanent security-council representatives from China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, as this secret cable from July 2009 lays out. The State Department also sought biometric information on North Korean diplomats, security-council permanent representatives, “key UN officials,” and other diplomats at the United Nations.

Of course, U.S. diplomats have always collected information, no matter where posted. And, as the New York Times reports today, the United States has routinely placed intelligence officers abroad under the diplomatic cover of a State Department posting. But the price of a diplomat (or undercover intelligence officer) overstepping to engage in what the host nation considers to be spying has always been expulsion or, as illustrated earlier this month in Norway, a demand that the U.S. ambassador explain the “spying.”

As the Times and other publications report, international treaties make the United Nations a spy-free zone—or at least they’re supposed to make it spy-free. “In one 2004 episode, a British official revealed that the United States and Britain eavesdropped on Secretary General Kofi Annan in the weeks before the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” the Times reports. Anne Applebaum writes in Slate today that nobody should be honestly horrified at the image of the United States spying in the United Nations. Nobody in the diplomatic community is. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to take advantage of the moment to demand retribution that will shame the high-and-mighty United States.

There is no way that the new WikiLeaks leaks don’t leave Hillary Clinton holding the smoking gun. The time for her departure may come next week or next month, but sooner or later, the weakened and humiliated secretary of state will have to pay.

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