Let’s Get Serious about Cells in America

Posted on January 14, 2015January 14, 2015 by Denise Simon

This report was published by the Counter-Terrorism Center in 2008. Given the toll-free super highway since 2009 by the Obama administration, the prediction is it is much worse. The report below has citations listed at the bottom. The FBI/DHS are not going to address the truth and neither is the DoJ or the White House, it is time we take what we can and learn, then take action with lawmakers. If you don’t think this is serious then know what happened just today (Jan. 14). Ohio Man Arrested for Alleged ISIS-Inspired Attack on US Capitol The FBI has arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies.

Christopher Lee Cornell -– also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah -– was arrested earlier today on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official.

Government documents say the FBI first noticed Cornell after he voiced support for violent “jihad” on a Twitter account.

Further investigation revealed his intent to attack the U.S. Capitol, and he planned to detonate pipe bombs there and open fire on any employees and officials after the bombs went off, according to government documents.

The FBI and Department of Homeland security issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies across the country, notifying them of the case.

“The alleged activities of Cornell highlight the continued interest of US-based violent extremists to support designated foreign terrorist organizations overseas, such as ISIL, by committing terrorist acts in the United States,” the bulletin read. “Terrorist group members and supporters will almost certainly continue to use social media platforms to disseminate English language violent extremist messages.”

Evaluating the Terrorist Threat Posed by African-American Muslim Groups

May 15, 2008

Author(s): Christopher Heffelfinger

The FBI introduction to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) file on Clarence Smith—aka Clarence 13X—reads only, “Smith was the leader of the ‘Five Percenters,’ a notorious Harlem street gang. He was shot to death in 1969” [1]. Yet, as a lyrical sample from Lord Jamar (a prominent Five Percenter and hip-hop artist) reads in his Greatest Story Never Told, “Allah [Clarence Smith] was assassinated in 1969, that case was never solved. His movement survived him, today it’s known as the Nation of Gods and Earths” [2]. The Five Percenters are just one facet of indigenous Muslim evolution in the United States; others, like Jama`at al-Fuqara’, retain ties to Pakistan and are ideological affiliates of militant Salafist groups such as al-Qa`ida. This article will examine trends among three predominantly African-American Islamic movements, at least one of which should be considered a domestic terrorism concern for the United States. It also serves to provide counter-terrorism professionals with knowledge enabling them to differentiate terrorist threats from more benign religious groups.

The Five Percent Nation

Clarence 13X was initially a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and attended its Temple Number Seven in Harlem, where Malcolm X preached from 1960 to 1963 [3]. One rumor claims that he left the NOI because he questioned the divinity of Wallace Fard, the founder of the NOI who claimed to bring divine inspiration to Elijah Muhammad. Clarence 13X split with the NOI in 1963 [4]. He adopted the name “Allah” and set to the streets of Harlem to educate fellow black Americans on the Supreme Mathematics, the Supreme Alphabet and the tenets of his movement, which claimed that 85% of men are easily misled, 10% understand some truth but use it for their own benefit, and five percent are enlightened divine beings [5]. Under Clarence 13X, or Allah, the Five Percenters (also called the Five Percent Nation) established a headquarters in Harlem—the Allah School in Mecca—in 1966 [6]. Today, the movement includes Busta Rhymes, members of Wu Tang Clan, Jus Allah and many other high-profile hip-hop artists.

The FOIA FBI file on Clarence Smith reveals some of the details pertaining to their concern over his activities:

“…letterhead memorandums to the Bureau dated 6/2/65, 6/9/65 and 7/9/65, all captioned ‘DISTURBANCE BY GROUP CALLED “FIVE PERCENTERS,” HARLEM, NEW YORK CITY, 5/31/65; RACIAL MATTERS,’ which contained subject under the name CLARENCE 13X SMITH aka ‘Allah,’ and which further reflected that subject was the recognized leader of the ‘Five Percenters.’

“It is noted that records of the Bureau of Special Services, (BSS), New York City Police Department, (NYCPD), reflects subject’s true name as CLARENCE SMITH JOWERS and as CLARENCE SMITH JOWARS, however, for uniformity, subject’s true last name will be carried as JOWARS until such time as investigation determines the true spelling of subject’s last name.

“CLARENCE SMITH JOWARS, aka Clarence 13X, a Negro male, born 2/21/28 in Virginia, city not known, NYCPD # B 612230, resided in Apartment 5E, 21 West 112^th St., NYC, from August, 1954, through January, 1964. Subject has Social Security Number 228-28-0034. Subject served in the US Army under the name CLARENCE SMITH JOWARS or CLARENCE SMITH from 10/29/52, through 10/29/54, and had Army Serial Number 51207085. Subject had the rank of Private First Class, served in Korea, and was last assigned to Company ‘F,’ 39^th Infantry, Ft. Dix, New Jersey” [7].

The final assignment is peculiar, for coincidence if no other reason. Ft. Dix was the site of the foiled plot by six young Muslim men arrested in 2007 for planning to essentially embark on a shooting spree within the base and kill as many U.S. servicemen as possible [8]. The case is still awaiting trial. Ft. Dix is significant to African-American history, as in 1969 “there were rebellions at the military prisons of Fort Dix, Fort Jackson, three times at Fort Riley, Camp Pendleton, and others. At Fort Dix, one of the prisoner demands was: ‘Free Huey P. Newton, the New York Panther 21, the Presidio 27, and all political prisoners!’” [9]

Toward the end of Clarence Smith’s FBI File, it reads:

“On 11/16/65, [REDACTED] BSS, NYCPD, advised SA that on 11/16/65, subject […] appeared in New York State Supreme Court, NYC, and was found ‘unable to understand the charges against him.’ Subject was remanded to the custody of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene for an indefinite confinement” [10].

He was assassinated in 1969 in a case that remains unsolved. Curiously, the latter pages of Clarence Smith’s FBI file read: “Subject is a Negro male, born 2/21/28 or 2/22/28, at Danville, Virginia” [11]. At one of Jama`at al-Fuqara’s (Community of the Impoverished, JF) compounds, called “Red House” [12], 24 members of the compound were convicted of firearms violations [13]. Red House sits about 66 miles from Danville, VA, Clarence Smith’s birthplace. The locations of JF’s compounds often appear laden with symbolism, but it is not yet known if the proximity of this compound to Danville has any larger significance.

What relevance do the Five Percenters have to terrorism? There is no material link between the Five Percent Nation (nor fringe groups like the Seas of David) and terrorism, but they are on a graduating spectrum in terms of radicalization. To the extreme of the Five Percent Nation is the highly militant Jama`at al-Fuqara’ that strongly rejects the tenets of the Nation of Gods and Earths [14], and instead adheres to a Salafist Islam akin to that of al-Qa`ida. Members may move toward the more militant and austere Islam of JF if they feel the Five Percenters are ineffective at effecting societal change, or if they can be convinced that their doctrine is blasphemous per Salafist norms.

Jama`at al-Fuqara’

The Salafist Jama`at al-Fuqara’ is a much more potentially threatening group. It could have as many as 30 compounds in the United States and Canada, with affiliates in the Caribbean. At these compounds, members engage in tactical training exercises and weapons training, and explosives caches have been uncovered in at least one instance. Islamberg, in Hancock, NY, is considered to be JF’s headquarters. Paul Williams, who did extensive study on the group, states,

“Though primarily based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Fuqra has operational headquarters in New York and openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in hamaats or compounds, such as Islamberg, where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority” [15].

Although JF is estimated to be 95% African-American, it is not purely an Afro-nationalist movement in the United States. Its ties to overseas militant Salafist trends clearly run much deeper. Sometime in the late 1990s, Jama`at al-Fuqara’ changed its name to the “Muslims of America” and still operates as such.

It is possible there is some resonance in ideas between followers of the Five Percent Nation and followers of Jama`at al-Fuqara’. George Johnson, Jr., a retired serviceman, security analyst and African-American, said,

“I have never personally known an admitted member of Al-Furqara’. However, some of my Black Muslim friends and relatives who belong to various other Afro-centric and mainstream Islamic sects (NOI, Ansar Allah, 5 per centers, Bilalians, etc.) express some of the same doctrines and beliefs and are sympathetic to Al-Fuqara’s ideas” [16].

Yet, JF’s ideology is drastically different than that of NOI, the Five Percenters, or Seas of David. It was founded by a Pakistani cleric, Shaykh Mubarak `Ali Gilani, in Brooklyn in 1980, when he first visited the United States [17]. Shaykh Gilani’s guiding principle is to “purify” the Islamic umma through violence. One retired intelligence official with expertise on militant Islam explained in September 2007,

“At one point they ran private security firms in NYC and in Karachi, Pakistan. Their spiritual leader was Pir Sayed Gilani who lives in Pakistan, and arranged training for U.S. Fuqra members in the Pakistan camps of the Kashmiri insurgents; some American Fuqra members actually fought in Kashmir against Indian forces. Intelligence shows that Gilani is connected to Pakistan’s ISI and al-Qaeda; the WSJ’s Daniel Pearl was on his way to interview Gilani when he was kidnapped” [18].

A number of JF members have fought overseas, including in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir, Bosnia and Lebanon. Others in the highly secretive group were affiliated with the Kifah Refugee Center, also known as the Brooklyn Jihad Office [19]. One member, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, an African-American Muslim convert, was convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks in 1993. He provided weapons training to fellow members at the Brooklyn Jihad Office, including El Sayyid Nosair who used that training to assassinate Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990. According to Hampton-El’s testimony, he had a meeting at the Saudi Embassy in December 1992 where Jamaican-born, Muslim scholar Bilal Phillips gave him the names of U.S. servicemen ready to finish their tours of duty. He was to recruit the men as volunteer mujahidin and paramilitary trainers for an Usama bin Ladin-sponsored insurgency in Bosnia [20].

Bilal Phillips provides more material linkages between these African-American Muslims (typically converts) and militant Salafism. Phillips’ biography on his website reads, “Bilal, who had read Malcolm X’s autobiography, visited one of the temples of the Black Muslims. Though impressed by their organization and the fact that their women dressed modestly, he found their ideology useless” [21]. He seems to have turned toward a much more austere form of Islam. There is still much more to be unraveled pertaining to Bilal Phillips and his connections to Salafist clerics in Saudi Arabia and around the Islamic world.

Seas of David/Liberty City Seven

A more recent manifestation of non-Salafist militancy is the case of the Seas of David, or Liberty City Seven. On April 16, a jury was hung in the case against the “Liberty City Seven,” who were charged with planning an attack on Chicago’s Sears Tower following a 2006 FBI raid on their warehouse and temple in Liberty City, a poor suburb of Miami [22]. This was the second trial against the group; the first ended in acquittal for one man while the jury was deadlocked over counts against the other six.

The group had no firearms, no explosives and no links to a terrorist group when they were arrested. Its leader reportedly roamed the neighborhood in a bathrobe, toting a wooden walking stick [23]. The Liberty City Seven subscribed to teachings that blended Christianity and Islam; the Seas of David, the obscure organized group of which the seven were members, developed teachings partially derived from those of the Moorish Science Temple of America, according to Narseal Batiste, the group’s alleged leader [24].

Where They Are Today

Critical for intelligence and law enforcement officials is the ability to distinguish non-violent, pietistic or spiritualist movements from Salafist-inspired ones that advocate or practice militancy. Today, the Five Percent Nation is largely leaderless, with various teachers propagating the beliefs of Clarence 13X and poses no serious terrorist threat, although gang activity and criminality is a concern. The Seas of David will, in all likelihood, dissipate and pose no further threat. Such movements, however, may serve at times as a gateway to more conservative—sometimes militant—Salafist groups, such as Jama`at al-Fuqara’. The Jama`at al-Fuqara’/Muslims of America deserves a more comprehensive treatment, as the group is clearly one of the most glaring domestic terrorism concerns for the United States.

Christopher Heffelfinger is a researcher and consultant for the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy. He contributed to the Militant Ideology Atlas, the CTC Harmony project, and the continuing CTC-FBI education collaborative at West Point. Prior to that, Mr. Heffelfinger edited two volumes on terrorism (Unmasking Terrorism, with forewords by Michael Scheuer and Gen.William Odom), and also served as editor of the weekly Terrorism Focus. He is a fluent Arabic reader and speaker, having spent time in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Mr. Heffelfinger lived in Sana`a, Yemen in 2000, and attended the same language school as John Walker Lindh. He also lived and studied with the Naqshbandi Tariqat, where he studied with native speakers refuting militant Salafist ideology through Islamic source texts.

Notes

[1] FBI File #100-444636, available at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/smith.htm.

[2] One site that includes the lyrics from the Greatest Story Never Told is www.lyricstime.com/lord-jamar-greatest-story-never-told-lyrics.html.

[3] Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 101-103.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Mattias Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996), p. 225.

[6] Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five Percenters (Oxford: One World Publications, 2007).

[7] FBI File #100-444636, available at http://foia.fbi.gov/smith/smith1.pdf.

[8] See Troy Graham, “Man who Supplied Guns in Alleged Fort Dix Terror Plot Sentenced to 20 Months,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 2008.

[9] “Black GIs, Rebellion and the Fall of the Flag,” Revolutionary Worker #994, February 14, 1999.

[10] FBI File #100-444636.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ironically, Red House shares the name of the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. The building was stormed by Jamaat al-Muslimin, an Afro-Caribbean Islamist movement, in July 1990. The group took hostages, including the prime minister, and announced that they had overthrown the government. See Ken I. Boodhoo, “Islamic Fundamentalism in the Caribbean,” LACC Publications Occasional Papers Series, Florida International University, Dialogue #135, 1992.

[13] Paul L. Williams, “Springtime in Islamberg: Radical Muslim Paramilitary Compound Flourishes in Upper New York State,” Canada Free Press, May 11, 2007.

[14] The Nation of Gods and Earths is the current name of the Five Percenters movement.

[15] Williams, “Springtime in Islamberg: Radical Muslim Paramilitary Compound Flourishes in Upper New York State.”

[16] Personal interview, George Johnson, September 14, 2007.

[17] For more information, see the South Asia Terrorism Portal file on Jama`at al-Fuqara’, located at www.satp.org.

[18] Personal interview, unnamed retired intelligence official, September 2007.

[19] “United States: The Jamaat al-Fuqra Threat,” Stratfor.com, June 3, 2005.

[20] J.M. Berger, “Al Qaeda Recruited Gulf War Vets in 1992, Effort Linked To Saudi Gov’t,” Intelwire.com, January 6, 2004.

[21] For more information on Bilal Phillips, see his official website at www.bilalphilips.com.

[22] Justin Rood and Vic Walter, “Second Terror Mistrial Hurts Bush Administration, Critics Say Hung Jury Leads to Second Mistrial in ‘Liberty City Seven’ Case,” ABC News, April 16, 2008.

[23] Ibid.

[24] “Indictment: Suspects Wanted to ‘Kill All the Devils We Can,’” CNN, June 24, 2006. ***

Let’s look at more. It is time this information gets headlined for the sake of national security. Informant: Islamic Compounds in America are Training for Jihad by Martin Mawyer, November 2012

In Hancock, NY an Islamic community that sits on 80 acres of land has decided to form its own government. They call their community: The Town of Islamberg. They have their own mayor, deputy mayor and five town council members. None of them are elected, of course.

They even boast that their “town” provides departments of education, medical, finance and land development services.

This Islamic compound has truly become a city-state. Though not recognized as a legitimate township by the City of Hancock, this Islamic community nevertheless enforces its own laws on the “citizens” within its borders. They do so by using the iron fist of Sharia law.

I interviewed a member of this camp, which sits deep in the Catskills Mountains of upstate New York. The Islamic group that has established this camp is part a network known as Muslims of the Americas (MOA), which has documented links to Al Qaeda.

MOA has established similar villages in nearly three-dozen locations nationwide, with other prominent camps found in Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, California and Tennessee.

The man I interviewed, Ali Aziz, painted a shocking picture of what life is like to live inside these camps and how many of their members engage in terrorist training activities. Aziz, an Egyptian Muslim, worked as an undercover informant for eight years for the New York Police Department (NYPD). During that time, he lived on MOA camps and worked closely with MOA leadership, all the time supplying the NYPD with information about illegal activity on the camps—including guerilla combat training.

Aziz was drawn into the life of an informant after police arrested him years ago on a passport violation. Aziz was fluent in both English and Arabic, and he had been an Olympic Judo athlete.

“I knew the martial arts,” he said, “which (MOA) liked. I could teach them Arabic. I could teach them how to read the Quran.” He was welcome with open arms by MOA members and its leaders.

I have visited the outside of the Hancock compound a couple times and flown over it once. It’s typical of virtually every other MOA camp. It’s in a heavily wooded area off the beaten path, with mostly battered trailers and homes and a couple of newly constructed buildings thrown into the mix. It has dirt roads lined with old cars, new cars and junk cars. Wooded debris, discarded scrapings and demolished buildings can be seen throughout the area, giving it an unsightly appearance from above.

It has its own graveyard, similar to those found on other camps. And the property has a couple of small lakes which have been used as “open areas” to shoot their weapons across. Not surprisingly, Hancock also has a guard shack to intercept unwanted visitors.

By all accounts, Hancock—which now calls itself “The Town of Islamberg”—is the camp that houses the leaders of MOA and makes decisions for the rest of the camps throughout the United States.

Aziz provided this shocking information: MOA has created a secret jihadist army, similar to a guerilla-trained militia, that is ready to attack American citizens “at one word” from their leader, Sheikh Gilani.

One of the main purposes of the camps is to provide guerilla training for the young men—and in some cases the women—to be prepared for jihad. A videotape that I obtained exclusively shows MOA members being trained on the Hancock camp, shooting guns, pretending to attack with knives, practicing slitting throats, and strangling victims. This chilling video is proof that MOA compounds have been used to train Islamic terrorists for combat.

Aziz confirmed that the camps have stockpiles of illegal weapons.

Aziz also confirmed what my research had already shown: That the MOA’s policy was to encourage members to collect as much public assistance as possible, and the more children they had the more assistance they received, much of which is returned to Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.

Aziz explained that the residents of the MOA believe that their top leader, Sheikh Gilani, is able to travel through space and time, and that he spies on them at all times. This fear helps keep them from disobeying the strict laws of MOA and the “town” leaders.

“They think Gilani will turn them into a monkey,” he said.

MOA members are to follow Gilani’s orders blindly and without questioning. Gilani teaches his followers that “jihad” is their purpose in life. Aziz confirms that four generations of MOA members have been brought up on these camps—taught from birth to distrust Americans and to prepare for jihad. The young men are trained to be criminals. Aziz calls them “modern warrior slaves.”

For some in the MOA camps, they’ve never known any other life, said Aziz. Their schooling, where there is schooling, is laughable, possibly even criminal. In the York, South Carolina, MOA compound children are taught in a storage shed. Local authorities are fearful of even discussing how these children are taught and what they are being taught.

The most vulnerable and emotionally abused on the camps are women. “They are insecure,” Aziz said of the women. “They don’t know anything. They don’t know about the outside world. They depend on everything from a man.”

Many of the women are forced into polygamous marriages at very early ages, marriages that take place inside the camps. Aziz calls them “silent” weddings. Though such “silent” weddings are standard throughout all the villages, not all marriages are illegal.

More than 90 percent of the women are on state benefits, Aziz claims, with a portion of this money going back to Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan. “They have so many kids,” he said of the women. “Eight kids. Nine kids. They have to raise them and they don’t have a lot.”

Not a lot of money. Not a lot of housing. Frequent brutality from their husbands. And a lot of kids. That’s a woman’s fate on the camps.

Because of their seclusion, lack of education, forced marriages, fear of beatings, dependency on men and their religious slavery to Sheikh Gilani and his male lieutenants, women in the camps are stripped of any independent desire to flee. “After four generations,” Aziz said, “they are living in their comfort zone.”

Discipline on the camps is ruthless, and is executed as both punishment and to intimidate followers from ever leaving.

“This is one thing I want you to really believe,” Aziz told me in one of his most distressed moments during the interview. “If somebody breaks a command, you could be tied to a tree and hit with sticks. This is crazy.”

Members are beaten for such violations as cursing, disobedience to the leaders, lying, using birth control or even watching programs on TV they’re not supposed to watch.

“Sometimes they do a crime,” Aziz said, explaining that a “crime” is doing something forbidden by Sheikh Gilani. “Sometimes they do a crime like that and they lash you. I gave the NYPD some tapes of evidence of kids getting beat, women tied to trees, stuff like that. That put me in a bad situation because I exposed these abuses.”

“I saw a 50-year-old woman tied to a tree and getting beaten … This is what I think is the biggest disgrace, the abuse. The only thing is, nobody on the camps says anything. Of course they’re afraid.”

“Some people are there because they’re scared,” Aziz said. “They don’t know what to do. They have their children there. They’re scared of the wrath of Gilani. … They are so controlled, so brainwashed. It’s crazy.”

Welfare fraud is rampant. Aziz said that children on the Hancock compound learn at an early age that it’s OK to commit crimes against non-Muslims and engage in scams. “A lot of them do welfare fraud. They do all kind of scams.”

Drug dealing is also common and is used as a source of income for MOA. “The drug money goes back to Gilani,” Aziz said, referring to their terrorist leader who rules them from Pakistan.

“I gave the NYPD enough information to shut the camps down,” he said.

That evidence included: The sexual abuse of women. The physical abuse of children. The failure to educate girls. Such criminal activity as drug running, welfare fraud and illegal weapons. And worse.

Ali said, “I would get into trouble if I told you everything I was providing the NYPD. It would violate my immunity. I was providing information to the NYPD about people who committed some very serious crimes. I’m talking about…” And then he stopped and asked, “What is worse crime you can commit?”

Ali never answered that open-ended question, riffed with imaginative answers. But he left no question about the goal of MOA and their city-states that they are forming across America.

“The ultimate purpose,” Ali said, “is to be ready when the time is right.”

“You walk up to them and ask them, ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘I want to fight for Gilani.’ That’s what they want,” Ali said. “It’s not good.”

Martin Mawyer is the Founder and President of Christian Action Network, a non-profit public advocacy and education group based in Lynchburg, Virginia. He began his career as a freelance journalist and has authored several books, including “Silent Shame,” “The Pro-Family Contract With America,” “Pathways to Success,” and his most recent, “Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America.” He has produced a number of documentary films, including Homegrown Jihad, Islam Rising, Sacrificed Survivors and America’s Islamic Threat. Mawyer has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Larry King Live, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, NBC’s Today Show, Entertainment Tonight and Fox and Friends. His latest book, “Twilight in America,” co-authored by Patti A. Pierucci, details the activities of Islamic terrorist training camps scattered throughout the United States. It can be purchased atTwilightInAmerica.com, or Amazon.com in book or Kindle version.

– See more at: http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/2012/11/16/informant-islamic-compounds-in-america-are-training-for-jihad/#sthash.vMBft3Qd.dpuf

Hat Tip to Boehner on Obama, Immigration

Posted on January 14, 2015January 14, 2015 by Denise Simon

‘Enough is enough!’: Boehner fills House chamber with high drama as he lashes out against Obama in high-stakes immigration battle – and throws his own words back in his face

John Boehner created the first live-action high drama on the House floor Wednesday, staking out a no-compromise position on blocking Barack Obama’s sweeping immigration plan and reading aloud 22 examples of the president’s past claims that he lacked the authority to put it into action.

Obama outlined the plan on Nov. 20, promising to mainstream 5 million or more illegal immigrants by guaranteeing – without input from Congress – that they won’t be deported during his time in office.

Angering Democrats, the House speaker spoke during a floor debate to defend an amendment to the Homeland Security Department’s budget bill that would forbid the cabinet agency from spending any money to implement it.

Boehner openly mocked Obama for what he said was an effort to evade the U.S. Constitution, throwing in his face his past claims that he wasn’t a ‘king’ or an ’emperor.’

The Constitution explicitly gives Congress the power to control America’s immigration policies.

IN YOUR FACE: Boehner took Obama to the woodshed on Wednesday over immigration, reading aloud nearly two dozen Obama quotations that indicate the White House can’t act unilaterally

NO COMPROMISE: Boehner didn’t buy what the president was selling on Tuesday during a high-stakes White House meeting with all of Congress’s top leaders

”To think that the president of the United States studied constitutional law!’ he boomed. ‘He didn’t just learn constitutional law. He taught it himself.’

‘Enough is enough!’

The move came less than 24 hours after Boehner and other Capitol Hill leaders met with Obama in the White House to air their differences over legislation that would likely make up the bulk of congressional business for in the coming months.

On Wednesday, Boehner was in no mood to compromise.

Obama’s unilateral move, he said, is an ‘executive overreach … an affront to the rule of law and to the Constitution itself.’

‘What we are dealing with here is a president who has ignored the people, ignored the Constitution, and even his own past statements,’ he said.

‘In fact, on at least 22 occasions he has said he does not have the authority to do what he did.’

And then Boehner read them. The video is here and don’t miss it.

Obama, he recalled, told an El Paso, Texas audience in May 2011 that immigrants’-rights activists ‘wish I could just bypass Congress and change the law myself. But that’s not how a democracy works.’

The president also insisted in an October 2010 interview with the Spanish-language Univision TV network that ‘I am president; I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. … I can’t just make the laws up by myself.’

In an online Q-and-A session held in September 2011, Obama told viewers: ‘We live in a democracy. You have to pass bills through the legislature, and then I can sign it.’

He doubled down in a February 2013 Google+ ‘hangout’ video livestream, saying he was limited in his authority because ‘I’m the president of the United States; I’m not the emperor of the United States.’

Democrats demanded a roll-call vote on the amendment following Boehner’s litany, after hammering Republicans for being ‘anti-immigrant’ and ‘heartless.’

The amendment passed by a vote of 237 to 190.

Another amendment aimed at ending the president’s ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ (DACA) program also passed, 218-209.

DACA is a 2012 program that gives sanctuary to illegal immigrants who weer brought to the U.S> as children.

The overall DHS funding bill also passed, by a 236-191 margin.

Matt Wolking, a communications advisor to the speaker, told DailyMail.com that Obama has ‘said over and over that he did not have the authority to do what he eventually did. So his unilateral action sets a very troubling precedent, and not just on immigration. That’s what the Speaker wanted to drive home.’

But New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney insisted that the ‘Take Care clause’ in the Constitution – which demands that the president ‘shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ – gives Obama the power to decide which illegal immigrants are deported and which are allowed to stay.

She accused the GOP of ‘play[ing] politics with the security and safety of America.’

Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee went further, calling the Republican amendment ‘a full-force assault on immigrants’ and described it as ‘Homeland Security being held hostage.’

‘A FULL-FORCE ASSAULT ON IMMIGRANTS’: Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee slammed the GOP’s plan, arguing that they were trying to hold the Homeland Security budget ‘hostage

SHOWDOWN: Boehner and House Republicans aim to force Obama into a take-it-or-leave-it veto position on the Homeland Security Department’s budget for the rest of the year

The tension will reach its climax in coming weeks when a Homeland Security budget reaches Obama’s desk.

The White House has a veto of any plan that hamstrings him on immigration, and most Democrats will support him.

That sets up the possibility of a Homeland Security ‘shutdown’ after its funding runs out on February 27.

Democrats claim a shutdown would jeopardize national security in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, an attack for which al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility on Wednesday.

But if the last partial shutdown is any indication, critical agencies and services wouldn’t be affected.

The budget bill, including the amendment, still has to go through the U.S. Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised the new Democratic minority that they will be permitted to propose their own amendments.

Any differences between the resulting House and Senate bills will have to be ironed out in a conference committee – a uniquely American device that puts leaders from both parties and both houses in the same room to resolve them.

Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder’s Replacement?

Posted on January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 by Denise Simon

Nothing is needed more than to replace the activist U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. But be careful what you ask for. Loretta Lynch has been visiting the halls of Congress for the normal pre-confirmation hearing interviews and there are some in Congress that are already voicing concerns. Those concerns have cause.

On the heels of the death of Eric Garners in New York after his arrest by the New York Police Department, Lynch visited the Garner family to discuss the federal prosecution. Additionally of note, it was Lynch’s office that indicted Congressman Michael Grimm of Staten Island over an IRS matter, when other congressmen such as Charlie Rangel got a pass.

So when it comes to the hearing for her confirmation, the questions posed to Lynch will be carefully crafted to determine her approach to enforcing the law will be a departure from that of Eric Holder’s. Here is a clue as to the reasons for concern.

Eric Holder’s Replacement
A Senate Judiciary Committee member says she may be even worse.

By Ryan Lovelace

David Vitter believes that Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s attorney-general nominee, might be even more dangerous than Eric Holder, the man she will replace if confirmed. The Louisiana senator met privately with Lynch this week in his capacity as a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He tells NRO that Lynch, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is quieter and more restrained than Holder, which he worries will deflect attention from some of the Justice Department’s more outrageous actions and policies.

Vitter’s warning about Lynch should not be taken lightly. While he previously said that Holder has directly attacked his state more than any other attorney general has, Vitter thinks Lynch may pose an even greater threat. In their extensive one-on-one meeting, Vitter says, Lynch would not answer several of his questions about her position on the president’s executive action on immigration. His Republican colleagues have refrained from raising questions about her nomination, which has puzzled him, given the intense debate the executive action is inspiring in the Capitol. “I mean, she would say nothing; if I asked her if the sky was blue, I don’t think she would have committed to it in the meeting,” Vitter says. “I found her responses in the conversation about executive amnesty not just frustrating . . . but sort of unbelievable.”

Vitter says that when he asked Lynch directly about her legal assessment of the president’s executive action, she made a vague statement suggesting that Obama was within his legal rights when he exercised prosecutorial discretion to defer or delay the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. But when Vitter pressed her about the legality of producing new documents and work permits to satisfy the action, which he says has no basis in law, she clammed up.

Conservative watchdogs have also recognized Lynch’s potential to maintain or expand many of the most troubling policies begun under Holder. Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, says that while Republicans should be slow to confirm any of President Obama’s nominees so long as he persists with executive action on immigration, Lynch is a particularly ill-chosen candidate. “What’s not realized is that Lynch is kind of Eric Holder’s hand-picked successor,” Flaherty tells NRO. “I expect her to be an activist just like Holder.” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, agrees and says Lynch’s time as an adviser to Holder has shown that she does not think he has done anything wrong. “I think she will be an Eric Holder mini-me,” von Spakovsky says. “They don’t need another Eric Holder clone running the Justice Department.”

With that in mind, conservatives in the Senate will look to use Lynch’s confirmation hearing as leverage to fight the president’s executive action on immigration. But Vitter says he’s not sure how many Republicans on the Judiciary Committee will support his effort to block Lynch’s nomination. He gets the sense that opposition to the president’s executive action is waning among his Republican colleagues as a result of pressure from the party’s leaders, and he’s none too pleased about it. “I think it’s really stupid, quite frankly, and being particularly gutless when you look at the American people’s position on this,” Vitter says. “It’s an important place to take a stand because this is a key nomination in the middle of this issue.”

Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley is sympathetic to Vitter’s desire to quash the executive action on immigration, but he may not agree with his method. Grassley spokeswoman Beth Levine says the senator had a pleasant conversation with Lynch when the two met last month, and he’s reserving judgment until Lynch has the opportunity to come before the committee.

Republicans’ chances of blocking Lynch’s confirmation will depend upon her performance before the Judiciary Committee. “You’ve got to get her to say something absolutely outrageous during the hearings, because most people don’t follow this stuff that closely,” GOP strategist Ford O’Connell tells NRO. “You cannot just go in there and go, ‘I can’t stand you, the Obama administration stinks.’” O’Connell says that if Republicans appear to be picking on an African-American woman and using her confirmation hearing to voice their grievances with the Obama administration, then public opinion could quickly turn against them. He adds that he thinks Republicans will ultimately cut a deal with the White House and confirm her. Republicans should use Lynch’s confirmation hearing, he suggests, to fight the executive action, since they probably won’t be able to extract much from the White House in return for approving her nomination.

Vitter, who is running to replace Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal later this year, is champing at the bit to oppose Lynch’s nomination. He says he has proposed blocking the nomination partly as an alternative to fighting over whether to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, which is largely responsible for the implementation of the president’s executive action. DHS funding is scheduled to run out at the end of February, after a deal cut in December excluded the department from longer-term appropriations that fund the rest of the federal government. Vitter says he still supports legislation to withhold funding for the president’s executive action, but he thinks many of his Republican colleagues are “scared to death” of even talking about defunding any portion of the federal government.

Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, another tireless opponent of the president’s executive action on the Judiciary Committee, is a likely ally in Vitter’s effort to block Lynch’s nomination. “No senator should vote to confirm anyone to this position who does not firmly reject the president’s planned executive amnesty — or any other scheme to circumvent our nation’s immigration laws — and who does not pledge to serve the laws and people of the United States,” Sessions told Breitbart in September. Republican Judiciary Committee members Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have pledged to give Lynch a fair hearing, but have also said she must answer questions about whether or not the president’s executive action was constitutional and legal.

Lynch did not answer requests for comment made to her U.S. Attorney’s office in New York. Grassley’s spokeswoman says the chairman is planning on scheduling the hearing for the end of this month or early February. Lynch’s confirmation will be the first key battleground over executive action for the Republican-led Senate, which rode to victory in November partly on the strength of their opposition to amnesty. Republican senators’ approach to Lynch’s hearing could determine whether they have any chance of slowing the president’s executive action, which makes their relative silence on her nomination all the more deafening.

More U.S. Paid Fraud and Collusion in Afghanistan

Posted on January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 by Denise Simon

If you still think the government does anything right, then read on and learn. What is worse, paying for something or rather in this issue paying for someone(s) that don’t even exist is actually worse. Don’t fret though it is all the way over there, Afghanistan. Just consider, well spent money being provided to wounded U.S. soliders in Afghanistan rather than for a staff that does not exist.

U.S. Official: America Paying Salaries of Afghan Cops That Don’t Exist

Scant oversight over payments to Afghan Police causes alarmThe United States continues to pay more than $300 million annually to the Afghan National Police (ANP), and some of that money is going to officers who do not actually exist, according to government officials who warn that fraud and a lack of oversight are causing U.S. taxpayer dollars to be wasted on the force.

The United States continues to pay the salaries of ANP officers despite a lack of supervision over the funds and the fact that fraud is rampant among the force, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

A U.S. government official familiar with the issue further confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that American tax dollars are in fact being paid to Afghan police officers who do not actually exist.

The ongoing payments have led SIGAR to warn that “despite 13 years and several billions of dollars in salary assistance to the Afghan government for the ANP, there is still no assurance that personnel and payroll data are accurate,” according to its audit.

U.S. officials have confirmed to SIGAR that despite evidence of fraud and mismanagement “they accepted, without question,” all personnel totals offered by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior (MOI), which is not subject to independent oversight by the United States.

Over the years, officials have discovered inflated police rosters listing more officers for payments than actually work for the force, payments being made to “more police personnel than are authorized,” and some officers receiving inflated salaries, according to SIGAR.

The problems have only grown in recent years and, if not fixed, could become more of an issue for the United States as it fully withdraws from Afghanistan, according to SIGAR’s report, which details widespread problems in the way the Afghan and U.S. governments track the ANP and assign salaries.

“There is a significant risk that a large portion of the more than $300 million in annual U.S. government funding for ANP salaries will be wasted or abused,” SIGAR warned.

“As U.S. and coalition forces continue to draw down and transfer security responsibility to the Afghan government by the end of 2014, the U.S. government will have increasingly limited visibility over ANP data collection processes,” SIGAR wrote. “As a result, the U.S. government will become even more reliant on the [Afghan Interior Ministry’s] ability to verify the accuracy of the personnel and payroll data it collects.”

ANP identification cards, which were created to avoid this exact type of fraud, are being abused, according to SIGAR, which reported that there are “almost twice as many” of these cards in circulation as there are active police officers.

Other mechanisms meant to track the number of ANP personnel also have failed. These include integrated computer systems that are supposed to accurately identify police officers.

“Although all entities involved—the U.S. and Afghan governments as well as the international community—have been working to develop effective ANP personnel and payroll processes, those processes continue to exhibit extensive internal control deficiencies,” the audit states.

“The ANP’s process for collecting attendance data, which forms the basis of all ANP personnel and payroll data, has weak controls and limited oversight,” SIGAR concluded. “Both systems contain thousands of personnel records with incorrect or missing identification numbers.”

Obama’s Proposed Cyber Legislation

Posted on January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 by Denise Simon

Be careful where this proposed legislation may lead. In the recent hack attacks that have been broadcasted in the media including Staples, Target and Sony, most recently CENTCOM had two social media sites hit. The hackers of the CENTCOM sites were not Islamic State but rather, sympathizers of the terror group located in Maryland as determined by the IP addresses.

Additional items are likely to be part of the proposed legislation that included in the text below giving broader and more sweeping access to the FBI and the NSA.

In order to add protectional layers of security to key internet providers, it is likely users may be forced to give up certain protections most especially encryption. The White House posted the proposed legislation.

SECURING CYBERSPACE – President Obama Announces New Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal and Other Cybersecurity Efforts

“In this interconnected, digital world, there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyber assaults both in the private sector and the public sector. Now, our first order of business is making sure that we do everything to harden sites and prevent those kinds of attacks from taking place…But even as we get better, the hackers are going to get better, too. Some of them are going to be state actors; some of them are going to be non-state actors. All of them are going to be sophisticated and many of them can do some damage.

This is part of the reason why it’s going to be so important for Congress to work with us and get an actual bill passed that allows for the kind of information-sharing we need. Because if we don’t put in place the kind of architecture that can prevent these attacks from taking place, this is not just going to be affecting movies, this is going to be affecting our entire economy in ways that are extraordinarily significant.”

– President Obama, December 19, 2014.

Since the start of his Administration, when he issued the Cyberspace Policy Review — the first top-to-bottom, Administration-wide review of cybersecurity — President Obama has led efforts to better prepare our government, our economy, and our nation as a whole for the growing cyber threats we face.

That’s why in 2011 he issued his Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal, calling on Congress to take urgent action to give the private sector and government the tools they need to combat cyber threats at home and abroad. It’s why he issued the International Strategy for Cyberspace to make clear to nations abroad the foreign policy priority cybersecurity issues have become. And when Congress failed to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, the Administration pressed forward, issuing an Executive Order to protect critical infrastructure by establishing baseline cybersecurity standards that we developed collaboratively with industry.

Today, at a time when public and private networks are facing an unprecedented threat from rogue hackers as well as organized crime and even state actors, the President is unveiling the next steps in his plan to defend the nation’s systems. These include a new legislative proposal, building on important work in Congress, to solve the challenges of information sharing that can cripple response to a cyberattack. They also include revisions to those provisions of our 2011 legislative proposal on which Congress has yet to take action, and along with them, the President is extending an invitation to work in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to advance this urgent priority for the American people.

Specifically, today’s announcements include:

Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal

Enabling Cybersecurity Information Sharing: The Administration’s updated proposal promotes better cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and government, and it enhances collaboration and information sharing amongst the private sector. Specifically, the proposal encourages the private sector to share appropriate cyber threat information with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), which will then share it in as close to real-time as practicable with relevant federal agencies and with private sector-developed and operated Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs) by providing targeted liability protection for companies that share information with these entities.

The legislation also encourages the formation of these private-sector led Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations. The Administration’s proposal would also safeguard Americans’ personal privacy by requiring private entities to comply with certain privacy restrictions such as removing unnecessary personal information and taking measures to protect any personal information that must be shared in order to qualify for liability protection. The proposal further requires the Department of Homeland Security and the Attorney General, in consultation with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and others, to develop receipt, retention, use, and disclosure guidelines for the federal government. Finally, the Administration intends this proposal to complement and not to limit existing effective relationships between government and the private sector. These existing relationships between law enforcement and other federal agencies are critical to the cybersecurity mission.

Modernizing Law Enforcement Authorities to Combat Cyber Crime: Law enforcement must have appropriate tools to investigate, disrupt and prosecute cyber crime. The Administration’s proposal contains provisions that would allow for the prosecution of the sale of botnets, would criminalize the overseas sale of stolen U.S. financial information like credit card and bank account numbers, would expand federal law enforcement authority to deter the sale of spyware used to stalk or commit ID theft, and would give courts the authority to shut down botnets engaged in distributed denial of service attacks and other criminal activity. It also reaffirms important components of 2011 proposals to update the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a key piece of law used to prosecute organized crime, so that it applies to cybercrimes, clarifies the penalties for computer crimes, and makes sure these penalties are in line with other similar non-cyber crimes. Finally, the proposal modernizes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by ensuring that insignificant conduct does not fall within the scope of the statute, while making clear that it can be used to prosecute insiders who abuse their ability to access information to use it for their own purposes.

National Data Breach Reporting: As announced yesterday, the Administration has also updated its proposal on security breach reporting. State laws have helped consumers protect themselves against identity theft while also encouraging business to improve cybersecurity, helping to stem the tide of identity theft. These laws require businesses that have suffered an intrusion to notify consumers if consumers’ personal information has been compromised. The Administration’s updated proposal helps business and consumers by simplifying and standardizing the existing patchwork of 46 state laws (plus the District of Columbia and several territories) that contain these requirements into one federal statute, and puts in place a single clear and timely notice requirement to ensure that companies notify their employees and customers about security breaches.

White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection

On February 13, 2015, the White House will host a Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University, to help shape public and private sector efforts to protect American consumers and companies from growing threats to consumers and commercial networks.

The Summit will bring together major stakeholders on cybersecurity and consumer financial protection issues – including senior leaders from the White House and across the federal government; CEOs from a wide range of industries including the financial services industry, technology and communications companies; computer security companies and the retail industry; as well as law enforcement officials, consumer advocates, technical experts, and students. Topics at the Summit will include increasing public-private partnerships and cybersecurity information sharing, creating and promoting improved cybersecurity practices and technologies, and improving adoption and use of more secure payment technologies.

The Summit is also the next step in the President’s BuySecure Initiative, which was launched in November 2014, and will help advance national efforts the government has led over the last two years with executive orders on consumer financial protection and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. Through keynote speeches, panel discussions, and small group workshops, participants will build on efforts in the public and private sectors to further improve cybersecurity practices at a wide range of companies.

Grants to Historically Black Colleges for Cybersecurity Education

As the President stated in Executive Order 13532, “Promoting Excellence, Innovation, and Sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” in February 2010, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have made historic and ongoing contributions to the general welfare and prosperity of our country. Established by visionary leaders, America’s HBCUs, for over 150 years, have produced many of the Nation’s leaders in business, government, academia, and the military, and have provided generations of American men and women with hope and educational opportunity. Recognizing that HBCUs serve as engines of opportunity, innovation, and economic growth, Vice President Biden will travel to Norfolk, VA on Thursday to announce that the Department of Energy will provide $25 million in grants over the next five years to support a cybersecurity education consortium consisting of 13 HBCUs and two national labs.

This program, part of the President’s jobs-driven training initiative, will help to fill the growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals in the U.S. job market at the same time that it helps to grow the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula for HBCUs. The participating schools include two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and research institutions in seven states, plus the Virgin Islands.