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There are over 1.5 million people in U.S. prisons today and with that all those people not only cost big dollars, they don’t and anything to the economic or financial engine. There is chatter at the Department of Justice to re-tool criminal sentencing and perhaps that is a good debate. Yet, discussions should also include the foreign nationals in our prisons that need to be incarcerated in home countries.
Meanwhile, when it comes to second chances, each case and individual is different for sure, so can a political action committee be the solution?
Now, for the first time, a super PAC is being masterminded from behind bars.
Adam Savader this week formed Second Chance PAC — it may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections — even though Savader himself can’t vote. That’s because Savader is serving a 30-month sentence in federal prison for cyberstalking and extortion after pleadingguilty in November 2013 to the crimes.
A budding political activist who attended The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Savader had previously volunteered for the 2012 presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
Around the same time, Savader was hacking into women’s email accounts, stealing nude photos of them and threatening to publish the pictures unless they sent more, according to court filings.
Several campaign finance lawyers, normally a tough bunch to surprise, said this appears to be the first super PAC set up by a jailbird.
“That’s a new one,” Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer at law firm Akerman LLP, told the Center for Public Integrity. “I’ve seen former convicted people come out of prison and run for Congress again, but never saw someone set up a committee while in prison.”
“This is a first,” said Michael Toner, a former Federal Election Commission chairman who’s now a lawyer at Wiley Rein. “I haven’t recalled this. It really does show you how omnipresent super PACs are today.”
Paperwork for Second Chance PAC lists Savader as the group’s treasurer, custodian of records and “founder / director.” It also notes the PAC doesn’t have a bank account and hasn’t yet raised money.
Second Chance PAC uses the address of a post office box in Great Neck, N.Y., which is also the address used by a municipal credit analysis company called Savader Asset Advisors, LLC.
Perry Leardi, the company’s representative of sales, confirmed the company’s chief executive officer, Mitchell Savader, is Adam Savader’s father. But Leardi said he knew nothing about Adam Savader’s super PAC.
Mitchell Savader did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Update, 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, June 30, 2015: Mitchell Savader explained by phone Tuesday evening that he helped his son set up the super PAC.
“My son has a deep belief that people who have done something wrong” should have “a true second chance,” Mitchell Savader said.
He said the point of the super PAC is to help influence legislation that would support people who have spent time in prison and are trying to start over.
The paperwork was filed just to establish the group and allow it to secure its name and email address, Mitchell Savader said. He said the group won’t engage in fundraising until after his son is released.
At that point, he said, his son plans to finish college and will work on the super PAC as a side project.)
The super PAC’s paperwork arrived at the Federal Election Commission in an envelope return addressed to Adam Savader at “Federal Correctional Institution” in New Jersey.
The Bureau of Prison’s inmate search lists Adam Savader as an inmate in Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute, a low-security prison in New Jersey.
“We have people who set up super PACs going to prison over it, but this guy is getting out in front of it,” said Kenneth Gross, the head of the political law practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
It isn’t clear whether prison rules specifically address inmates forming political committees, and the Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to questions.
Forming a super PAC isn’t inherently difficult. Fill out and submit several pages of paperwork, mail them to the FEC, and voilá, you’re on your way.
Operating a successful super PAC is another matter: Only a small fraction of the roughly 1,000 federally registered super PACs that today exist have raised significant amounts of money, and many haven’t raised any money at all.
Savader doesn’t indicate in his super PAC paperwork what candidates or causes the committee intends to support. The FEC doesn’t require such detail, either.
Michael Soshnick, Savader’s defense attorney at the time of his guilty plea, could not immediately be reached for comment by the Center for Public Integrity.
The judge overseeing the case acknowledged Savader had mental health issues, but that they weren’t excuses for his crimes.
According to a Politicostory about Savader’s sentencing, the judge agreed that working on Gingrich’s campaign was his “breaking point.”
Savader’s scheduled release date is July 27, 2016 — the week after Republicans are slated to formally nominate a presidential candidate.
The Obama administration still hasn’t fully rescinded the 2,000 three-year amnesties it wrongly issued four months ago in violation of a court order, government lawyers recently admitted in court, spurring a stern response from the judge who said the matter must be cleaned up by the end of July — or else.
It’s the latest black eye for President Obama’s amnesty policy and the immigration agency charged with carrying it out. The agency bungled the rollout, issuing three-year amnesties even while assuring the judge it had stopped all action hours after a Feb. 16 injunction.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for overseeing the amnesty, said it’s trying to round up all of the permits, sending out two-year amnesties and pleading with the illegal immigrants to return the three-year cards.
But they are having trouble getting some of the lucky recipients to send them back.
“USCIS is carefully tracking the returns of the three-year EAD cards, and many have been returned within weeks,” the agency said in a statement to The Washington Times. “USCIS continues to take steps to collect the remaining three-year EAD cards.”
The agency didn’t answer specific questions about how many remain outstanding, nor about what methods will be used to claw back the ones that folks refuse to return.
The three-year deportation amnesty was part of Mr. Obama’s November 2014 announcement when he proposed granting a three-year tentative deportation amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. It was to be a massive expansion, in both eligibility and duration, of his 2012 amnesty, which granted two-year amnesty to so-called Dreamers.
Judge Andrew S. Hanen blocked the expansion in February, issuing an injunction that remains in place even as the administration appeals it to a higher court. The next hearing on that appeal is due July 10.
But Judge Hanen was shocked to learn that USCIS issued the 2,000 three-year amnesties even after he’d issued his injunction.
“I expect you to resolve the 2,000; I’m shocked that you haven’t,” Judge Hanen told the Justice Department at a hearing last week, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “If they’re not resolved by July 31, I’m going to have to figure out what action to take.”
Homeland Security says it’s changed the duration of the work permits from three years to two years in its computer systems, but getting the cards returned from the illegal immigrants themselves is tougher.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the lawsuit challenging the amnesty and who won the February injunction against the policy, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the outstanding permits.
Josh Blackman, an assistant professor at the South Texas College of Law, who has filed briefs in the case opposing the Obama administration’s claims, said he believes the administration is trying to comply in good faith with Judge Hanen’s order, but USCIS’s difficulties show how difficult managing the full amnesty would be.
“The entire nature of this case was that agents were given a free rein to approve as many applications as possible. DHS can’t keep track of its own agents and who’s being approved for deferrals and work authorization,” he said.
Mr. Obama announced the policy in order to circumvent Congress, which is moving the other direction away from legalization and toward a crackdown on most illegal immigrants. Read much more here if you dare.
Don’t go away mad just yet….sure there is more and Jeh Johnson is quietly very busy.
The Obama administration has begun a profound shift in its enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, aiming to hasten the integration of long-term illegal immigrants into society rather than targeting them for deportation, according to documents and federal officials.
In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has taken steps to ensure that the majority of America’s 11.3 million undocumented immigrants can stay in this country, with agents narrowing enforcement efforts to three groups of illegal migrants: convicted criminals, terrorism threats or those who recently crossed the border.
While public attention has been focused on the court fight over President Obama’s highly publicized executive action on immigration, DHS has with little fanfare been training thousands of immigration agents nationwide to carry out new policies on everyday enforcement.
The legal battle centers on the constitutionality of a program that would officially shield up to 5 million eligible illegal immigrants from deportation, mainly parents of children who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. A federal judge put the program, known by the acronym DAPA, on hold in February after 26 states sued.
The new policies direct agents to focus on the three priority groups and leave virtually everyone else alone. Demographic data shows that the typical undocumented immigrant has lived in the United States for a decade or more and has established strong community ties.
While the new measures do not grant illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, their day-to-day lives could be changed in countless ways. Now, for instance, undocumented migrants say they are so afraid to interact with police, for fear of being deported, that they won’t report crimes and often limit their driving to avoid possible traffic stops. The new policies, if carried out on the ground, could dispel such fears, advocates for immigrants say.
Deportations, for example, are dropping. The Obama administration is on pace to remove 229,000 people from the country this year, a 27 percent fall from last year and nearly 50 percent less than the all-time high in 2012.
Fewer people are also in the pipeline for deportation. The number of occupied beds at immigration detention facilities, which house people arrested for immigration violations, have dropped nearly 20 percent this year.
And on Johnson’s orders, officials are reviewing the entire immigrant detainee population — and each of the 400,000 cases in the nation’s clogged immigration courts — to weed out those who don’t meet the new priorities. About 3,000 people have been released from custody or had their immigration cases dropped, DHS officials said. There is more found here.
Now you can channel your anger where it needs to go, the White House, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
Today on CBS: “Thousands of law enforcement officers in New York will spend July 4 trying to prevent a terror attack that could come from supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller called it one of their biggest operations ever.
“I think if you look at history, they’re looking at big events, they’re looking at symbolic dates. They’re looking at military, police, intelligence,” Miller said Thursday on “CBS This Morning.”
PlayVideo
CBS This Morning
FBI and Homeland Security warn of potential July 4th terror attacks
Federal authorities are urging local law enforcement to step up security and be vigilant ahead of the holiday weekend. CBS News senior security c…
CBS News senior security contributor Mike Morell said Monday the FBI and Department of Homeland Security’s warning of a potential July 4 attack is “nothing routine.” ”
• ISIS is dead set on attacking America and its allies. With the recent attacks in France and against tourists in Tunisia, ISIS has now been linked to 47 terrorist plots or attacks against the West, including 11 inside the United States. The rate of ISIS terror plots against the West has more than doubled in 2015 (19 plots in all of 2014; 28 already this year).
• The number of post-9/11 jihadi terror plots in the United States has surged. There have been more U.S.-based terror plots or attacks in the first half of 2015 (a total of 24) than in any full year since 9/11. Overall, homegrown jihadi plots have tripled in just the past five years (from 36 plots/attacks in June 2010 to 118 today).
• Islamist terrorists are getting better at recruiting Americans. Ten U.S.-based ISIS supporters have been arrested in the last month, bringing the total to 55 ISIS-inspired individuals arrested and charged in America (not including two who have been charged in absentia). ISIS followers have now been arrested in at least 19 states.
• Foreign fighters continue to pour into terrorist safe havens overseas—and represent a threat to the United States and its allies. More than 4,000 Westerners and 200+ Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to join Islamist terrorists in Syria, figures which have nearly doubled in the past year. Around 40 have already returned to the United States, according to authorities, one of which was arrested plotting a terrorist attack in Ohio.
• Islamist terror safe havens and franchises are proliferating rapidly, giving groups like ISIS and al Qaeda a base for operation and further expansion. Libya in particular has deteriorated quickly becoming a training ground for terror recruits. ISIS now has a direct presence, affiliates, or groups pledging support in at least 18 countries or territories, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories (Gaza), Pakistan, Philippines, Russia (North Caucasus region), Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
TERROR PLOTS AGAINST THE WEST
ISIS is not a regional phenomenon but a global menace whose targeting against the West has surged in 2015.
By the numbers
• Since early 2014, there have been 47 planned or executed ISIS-linked terror plots against Western targets, including 11 inside in the United States.1
• There have been more ISIS-linked plots against Western targets in the first half of this year (28) than in all of 2014 (19).2
Recent Developments
• June 27: ISIS recruiter and computer hacker Junaid Hussain attempted to enlist a trainee to target the Armed Forces Day parade in London, England, in a bombing attack. Hussain is suspected to have been in social media contact with at least one of the perpetrators of the May 2015 attack on a Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas.
• June 26: Yassine Salhi, 35, decapitated his employer and attempted to blow up an American chemical company’s factory near Lyon, France, before being subdued. He had previously been under French authorities’ scrutiny over his jihadist ties. Salhi maintained regular contact with and sent pictures of the decapitated body to a Syria-based French citizen reportedly fighting for and in contact with ISIS leaders.
• June 26: Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, attacked a public beach and luxury resort complex frequented by Western tourists in Sousse, Tunisia, killing 39 individuals. He was eventually shot by security 1 forces. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. Tunisian officials believe Rezgui attended the same terror training camp in Libya as the attackers who targeted the National Bardo Museum in Tunis in March. This figure is based on open-source data compiled by the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee.
2 This figure is based on open-source data compiled by the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee.
• June 23: ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al Adnani issued an aggressive call urging followers around the world to launch terror attacks and turn the month of Ramadan (June 17 – July 17) into a “calamity for the infidels…Shi’ites and apostate Muslims.” Adnani proclaimed that martyrdom during Ramadan would bring “tenfold” rewards to jihadists.
• June 19: Justin Nolan, a 19-year-old from Morganton, North Carolina, was arrested for plotting assassinations and a large terror attack on behalf of ISIS using a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. Nolan expressed his support for ISIS, acquired a gun silencer, desired to kill “as many as 1,000 people,” and planned to send footage of an attack to ISIS.
• June 17: Fareed Mumuni was arrested after attempting to stab FBI agents searching his home in connection with an investigation stemming from the arrest of Munther Saleh. Authorities believe Mumuni conspired with Saleh to construct a pressure-cooker bomb, similar to those used in the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Mumuni told federal investigators that he pledged allegiance to ISIS, planned to travel to ISIS-controlled territories to join the group, and intended to attack law enforcement officers if his efforts to join ISIS failed.
• June 16: Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem was indicted for providing weapons to Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi for use in May 2015 Garland, Texas attack. Kareem also traveled with Simpson and Soofi to a remote desert area near Phoenix to practice shooting. He was charged with conspiracy, making false statements and interstate transportation of firearms with intent to commit a felony. The indictment noted that the three men “and others known and unknown to the grand jury” plotted the attack.
• June 13: Munther Omar Saleh, a 20-year-old college student, was arrested after he and an unidentified co-conspirator ran towards an undercover law enforcement car near the Whitestone Bridge in New York. Saleh came under scrutiny after a Port Authority police officer saw him walking near the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey this past March. Saleh conducted online research on preparing explosive devices— including research on pressure cooker bombs and other weaponry— in the New York metropolitan area on behalf of ISIS. Saleh was active on Twitter and tweeted his concern that al Qaeda was becoming “too moderate” in 2014. He also espoused pro-ISIS sympathies online and endorsed the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France and the Garland, Texas shooting attack.
• June 2: Ussamah Abdullah Rahim of Roslindale, Massachusetts, was initially planning to behead an individual at some point in the future but advanced the timing of his plot and changed the target to law enforcement personnel. Rahim attacked Boston police officers and FBI agents who were attempting to question him before being neutralized. He was radicalized by ISIS and had been on authorities’ radar for several years. His nephew, David Wright, conspired with Rahim and was initially arrested for obstructing the investigation. A third associate, Nicholas Rovinski from Warwick, Rhode Island, also in contact with ISIS recruiters overseas, was arrested June 11th and charged as a co-conspirator.
HOMEGROWN ISLAMIST EXTREMISM
Homegrown terror has reached unprecedented levels as extremist groups work to infiltrate the United States and remotely recruit and radicalize Americans.
By the numbers
• Since September 11, 2001, there have been 118 U.S. terrorist cases involving homegrown violent jihadists. Over 80 percent of these cases, which include plotted attacks and attempts to join foreign terrorist organizations, have occurred or been discovered since 2009.3
• Authorities have arrested or charged at least 44 individuals in the United States this year – 57 since
2014 – in ISIS-related cases. The cases involve individuals: plotting attacks; attempting to travel to Syria; sending money, equipment and weapons to terrorists; falsifying statements to federal authorities; and failing to report a felony.4
• FBI Director James Comey has said authorities have hundreds of open investigations of potential ISIS-inspired extremists that cover all 56 of the bureau’s field offices in all 50 states. He stated there may be hundreds or thousands of Americans who are taking in recruitment propaganda over social media applications: “It’s like the devil sitting on their shoulders, saying ‘kill, kill, kill.’”
Recent Developments
• Ten ISIS supporters were arrested in the United States in June, including individuals listed in the previous section tied to ISIS-linked plots or attacks against the West, including David Wright (MA),
Nicholas Rovinski (RI), Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem (AZ), Akmal Zakirov (NY), Munther Omar Saleh (NY), and Fareed Mumuni (NY). Other arrestees include:
• June 29: Alaa Saadeh, a 23-year-old from West New York, New Jersey, was arrested in connection with his involvement with an ISIS-supporting cell in New York and New Jersey. Saadeh intended to travel to join ISIS and previously assisted his brother in going overseas for the same purpose.
• June 19: Amir Said Abdul Rahman al Ghazi (previously Robert McCollum), a 38-year-old from Sheffield Lake, Ohio, was arrested after pledging support to ISIS, attempting to persuade individuals to join ISIS, expressing a desire to launch terror attacks, attempting to purchase an AK-47, and selling marijuana. Ghazi expressed his radical views through social media tools, including Facebook,
Twitter, and Google+.
• June 18: Samuel Rahamin Topaz, a resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey was arrested for his intent to travel abroad to join ISIS in Syria and for providing material support to the terror group. Topaz was a friend and coconspirator of Munther Saleh, arrested June 13. The two watched ISIS propaganda 3 This figure is based on open-source data compiled by the Congressional Research Service and the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee. 4 This figure is based on open-source data compiled by the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee. videos online depicting beheadings and discussed their plans to fight with ISIS by transiting different countries to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.
• June 11: Ali Shukri Amin, 17, of Manassas, Virginia, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS after facilitating the travel of Reza Niknejad to Syria to join the group in January. Amin’s Twitter account, which at one time counted more than 4,000 followers, provided advice and encouragement to ISIS and its supporters, including instructions on how to use virtual currency Bitcoin to raise funds for the terror group.
FOREIGN FIGHTERS
Jihadists are flocking to overseas battlefields unabated, acquiring terror connections and capabilities and representing a near-term threat to their home countries, including the United States.
By the numbers
• More than 22,000 fighters from 100 countries have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join extremists—the largest convergence of Islamist terrorists in world history. The number of foreign fighters who have traveled to battlefields globally exceeds 25,000.
• Approximately 4,000 Western fighters have traveled to Syria and Iraq.5
• An estimated 550 Western women have traveled to the conflict zone.
• More than 200 Americans are estimated to have traveled – or attempted to travel – to Syria to fight.
This figure is up 33 percent from the beginning of 2015.
• Around 40 American fighters who traveled to Syria have returned to the United States as of March 2015.
• In addition to fighters joining Sunni extremist groups like ISIS and Jabhat al Nusrah in Syria, an estimated 5,000-7,000 Lebanese Hezbollah members and other Shi’a militants are fighting alongside the Bashar al Assad regime.
• A senior State Department official said almost all foreign fighters are still entering Syria through Turkey.
• France continues to be the top European source for fighters joining extremists in Syria (~1,200).
French authorities estimate that nearly 500 French fighters are currently in Syria and Iraq. The top overall source for foreign fighters is Tunisia (~ 3,000).
FOREIGN JIHADIST NETWORKS & SAFE HAVENS
5
National Counterterrorism Center Deputy Director John Mulligan, testimony before the House Homeland Security
Committee, June 3, 2015.
Islamist terror groups are carving our greater sanctuary across the Middle East. ISIS is accelerating its global expansion while al Qaeda deepens its roots in the region.
By the numbers
• ISIS now has a direct presence, affiliates, or groups pledging support in at least 18 countries or territories, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories (Gaza), Pakistan, Philippines, Russia (North Caucasus region), Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.6
• ISIS controls 11 cities in Iraq and 10 cities in Syria as of late June.7
Recent Developments
• ISIS lost control of Tel Abyad, Syria, to Syrian Kurdish and Free Syrian Army-linked forces. The border town had served as a key ISIS line of communication from Turkey to its northern Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. ISIS has been launching counter-attacks against the border town.
• ISIS has maintained control of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largely Sunni-populated Anbar province along the Syrian border, after seizing it in May. It is preparing to defend the area by digging trenches and emplacing improvised explosive devices, among other tactics.
• ISIS-affiliated militants have been consolidating control in and around Sirte, Libya. ISIS was recently pushed out of the coastal city of Darnah, which was at one point the top source of foreign fighters for al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), ISIS’s predecessor. An estimated 3,000 fighters in Libya are aligned with ISIS. ISIS has reportedly sent fighters in Libya funding and military trainers over the last several months. The terrorists who separately attacked the National Bardo Museum and a coastal resort in Tunisia this year reportedly attended training camps in Libya.
• ISIS formally accepted a pledge of allegiance from followers in Russia’s North Caucasus region. As many as 2,500 fighters from this region have joined extremists in Syria and Iraq.
• Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been forging alliances with and co-opting local Sunni tribes in southern Yemen since it defeated Yemeni security forces there in April. A recent prison break in Taiz, Yemen, reportedly freed more than 1,200 prisoners, including suspected AQAP militants.
• AQAP leader Nasir al Wuhayshi was killed in a targeted strike in Yemen. Wuhayshi served as deputy to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri and helped build AQAP following a 2006 prison break. AQAP military commander Qasim al Raymi has been named his successor.
6 Data compiled by the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee.
7
These figures are derived from assessments of territorial control conducted by the Institute for the Study of War.
• Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al Nusra, is a prominent force in the anti-Assad regime coalition – supported by Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia – that has captured Idlib and other areas in northern Syria since March.
• A cell of veteran al Qaeda operatives in Syria plotting external attacks (Khorasan Group) has maintained a presence in northwest Syria, where U.S. and coalition forces targeted buildings and training camps associated with it in May.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
ISIS aggressively exploits social media in order to recruit fighters, disseminate propaganda, and trigger attacks in the West.
• Since the beginning of this year, ISIS has pushed out more than 1,700 “products,” including videos, photographic reports, and magazines over social media.8
• There are an estimated 200,000 pro-ISIS messages posted on Twitter every day.
• ISIS released the 9th issue of its English-language magazine “Dabiq” in May. The articles praises the attackers who targeted the Garland, Texas, cartoon contest, exhorts followers to commit terrorist acts in the United States and other Western countries, and touts the “benefits” it offers people living in its territory.
The risk of Islamist terrorists exploiting refugee and migrant flows to travel freely remains high as underscored in a recent arrest.
• Italian authorities arrested Abdel Majid Touil, a 22-year-old Moroccan terror suspect who arrived in Italy on a migrant boat and spent several months there. Touil is suspected of being part of the terror network behind the March National Bardo Museum attack in Tunisia.
• ISIS-aligned militants have been taxing migrant boat smugglers and using them to transport militants, according to a Libyan government adviser citing conversations with smugglers. Reports in 2014 indicated that ISIS operatives had discussed using refugee flows into Europe as a “Trojan Horse” for its operatives. Italian officials have reportedly expressed concerns over terrorists’ potential exploitation of these flows.
The Obama Administration released additional detainees from Guantanamo Bay in June and is formulating a broader plan to shutter the facility.
• Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he is working with the White House on a closure plan for Guantanamo to be submitted to Congress.
8
National Counterterrorism Center Deputy Director John Mulligan, testimony before the House Homeland Security
Committee, June 3, 2015.
• The Defense Department announced it transferred six al Qaeda detainees – several who reportedly served as bodyguards for Osama bin Laden – from Guantanamo to Oman. Almost 30 percent of released detainees from Guantanamo are known or suspected to have returned to the battlefield.
• The travel ban on the “Taliban Five” – freed in exchange for now-charged Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl – will remain in place temporarily. Restrictions enforced by the Qatari government were set to expire on June 1, 2015, but will now be extended until negotiations involving the U.S., Qatar, and Afghanistan are concluded.
Per a joint statement from Senators McCain and Rand Paul: “Russia’s use of force in Ukraine is unfolding in clear violation of Russia’s own commitments to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. None of us should be under any illusion about what President Putin is capable of doing in Ukraine, especially now that he has requested, and the Russian Duma has approved, the deployment of Russian troops, not just in Crimea but in the country of Ukraine. In June of 2015, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter spoke to Ukraine not standing alone.
America’s new military strategy singles out states like China and Russia as aggressive and threatening to US security interests, while warning of growing technological challenges and worsening global stability.
A somber report released Wednesday by General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns of a “low but growing” probability of the US fighting a war with a major power, with “immense” consequences.
Russia has “repeatedly demonstrated that it does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbors and it is willing to use force to achieve its goals”, the 2015 National Military Strategy says.
“Russia’s military actions are undermining regional security directly and through proxy forces.”
It points to Russian troop presence in the Ukraine conflict, though Moscow denies it has deployed its military in eastern Ukraine to bolster a separatist insurgency.
…the time for such an attack may be drawing nearer.
Aerial footage finds smoking-gun evidence of Russian army involvement in the conflict. More war is inevitable.
Dnipro-1, one of Ukraine’s many pro-government volunteer regiments, today released a video compiling drone footage of a Russian military camp just south of the village of Sontsevo in the Donetsk region.
Two drone flights were made over the same area, two weeks apart. Over that time, the camp grew from a small collection of tents and engineering vehicles into a fully-fledged forward operating base (FOB), complete with tanks, communications equipment, personnel quarters and even new roads.
What makes this already impressive discovery even more startling is the location—less than 12 kilometers from the Ukrainian front-line settlements of Granitnoye and Novolaspa. This area, to the east of Volnovakha and the Donetsk-Mariupol highway, has seen a slow but steady intensification of violence over recent months, as well as a buildup of Russian troops and armor in separatist-held territory behind the front lines.
What’s significant about where this Russian FOB is located is that it’s sandwiched between (Ukrainian-held Volnovakha) and (separatist-held) Telmanovo, and would therefore play a lead role in any forthcoming Russian offensive on Mariupol, the port city on the Sea of Azov which also happens to the economic powerhouse in the Donetsk region. The separatists have nothing comparable to Mariupol in their possession and they want it, as Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, has stated repeatedly to journalists. Reinforcements from this FOB would allow separatists to mount a pincer maneuver to cut Ukrainian forces in Mariupol off from support from the north. I outlined such a plan at the beginning of this year and the evidence is now mounting that the Russians are indeed preparing for such a move.
Aerial footage finds smoking-gun evidence of Russian army involvement in the conflict. More war is inevitable.
Earlier this month, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe reported spotting large quantities of armor and troops in Komsomolskoye and Razdolnoye, which respectively lie 15 and 10 kilometers from the base found by Dnipro-1.
On June 17 our team at The Interpreter reported on evidence culled from social media that proved the presence of a training camp in Razdolnoye, equipped with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and Grad rocket launchers.
But today’s video shows something much greater in scale.
When Dnipro-1 first flew over the area on May 20, they filmed around 70 troops, several trucks and engineering vehicles and construction equipment. At least two T-72 tanks and a communications vehicle can also be seen.
Only 15 days later, on June 4, the regiment carried out another drone flight. Russian military engineers had moved fast, constructing a large base, complete with new roads, a parade square, and trenches covering an area of around a hectare. The roads are even lined with reflective markers.
We can now see at least nine T-72 tanks, one of which is equipped with mine-clearing gear, and several fuel bowsers, some of which are parked in protective dugouts. At least one communications vehicle and an anti-tank gun can also be seen. Tents for accommodation, meetings, and cooking are laid out across the camp. Structures have been erected to mask some of the tanks from being seen from ground level and the whole complex is sheltered by woods.
This is quite clearly a base intended for a large-scale future deployment, one that could be instrumental in an assault to the west toward Volnovakha.
Just this morning, the Ukrainian military reported that Russian-backed forces had shelled Granitnoye and Starognatovka, two of the nearest frontline towns to Sontsevo. This has been a regular occurrence, despite the “ceasefire” signed between both parties in Minsk last February, mere hours before the fall of Debaltsevo to the separatists. But June has seen an increase in the number of attacks and, the military command in Mariupol said today, the range.
For the first time since the second Minsk talks, the past month has heralded renewed attacks on Ukrainian positions on the Donetsk-Mariupol highway itself. Last night, the Ukrainians report, the frontline town of Novotroitskoye, just north of Volnovakha, was shelled.
It is in this context that the repeated assaults on Marinka, a southwestern suburb of Donetsk, should be evaluated. Pushing the Ukrainians back from the area southwest of Donetsk and off the highway would allow the Russians to isolate and pin down the defenders of Mariupol from the north, while their forces continue to press through Shirokino on the Azov coast.
The rapid development of this base suggests the time for such an attack may be drawing nearer.
The Secretary of the Veterans Administration admits failure, so how much longer do vets need to either suffer or die? Last year he said 1,000 VA employees face disciplinary action. Well, not really, he said he was considering action.
Call the Department of InJustice and get Loretta Lynch to open an investigation. What is worse, the Inspector General at the VA resigned as he has done nothing to blow the whistle on fraud and abuse.
Last week, Speaker Boehner took the VA to task for its “outright failure…to take care of our veterans,” citing a lack of accountability for the failures that continue to plague the VA – not a lack of funding. Here are a few recent examples that back that up:
Longer Wait Lists: “One year after an explosive Veterans Affairs scandal sparked national outrage, the number of veterans on wait lists to be treated for everything from Hepatitis C to post-traumatic stress is 50 percent higher than at the same time last year, according to VA data.” (The Washington Post)
Dangerous & Deplorable Conditions: “Workers at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center reported ‘3 large dead rats that fell through the kitchen ceiling’ at the hospital during renovation work Wednesday night, according to emails obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. … ‘I have…been made aware that there is a major roach problem in the kitchen and that some roaches have been found on patients’ trays,’ Ruisz wrote in an email Thursday to the Haley ‘enviro team,’ which handles pest control. Ruisz said she was told workers replacing a canteen ceiling two months ago ‘filled multiple buckets with roaches, dead rats and feces…Please let me know if there is an ongoing problem with this infestation and what is being done about it…‘We could possibly end up on the news, not to mention risk patient safety.’” (Tamba Bay Times)
Lapses in Medical Testing: “Two inspections released Thursday found nearly two dozen new problems at the Phoenix VA Health Care System and its outpatient clinics in Arizona. The most serious issues in the VA’s Office of Inspector General reports involve a lack of testing given to stroke patients, a lack of reporting potential complications prior to MRIs, a lack of diagnostic testing for those with positive alcohol screens and a lack of routine testing for HIV.” (Arizona Republic)
Unsafe Facilities, Canceled Appointments: “Nearly three months after the authorities issued a do not consume notice for the water at the Wilmington VA Clinic, the Veterans’ Affairs Administration still has no timeline on when the water problems will be fixed so the order can be lifted. Until the water is usable, patients in the GI, Urology and Dental departments are still having their appointments canceled. In some cases, veterans are having appointments rescheduled for a later date when the VA hope a the facility will be operational again. In other cases, patients are being referred to the VA clinic in Fayetteville as an alternative. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority ordered the clinic to stop consuming the water on March 23. … Still, a VA spokesman said they ‘don’t have a timeline’ on when the water issues will be fixed.” (WECT-TV6)
Mental Health Patients “Slipping Through the Cracks”: “Maine’s Veterans Affairs health care system mishandled referrals and appointment scheduling for mental health treatment, leaving some patients without requested care or waiting too long for visits, a government watchdog has found. … In some cases, staff closed out requests for referrals before patients actually received care, the investigation found. As a result, staff failed to follow up with some patients who canceled or failed to appear for scheduled visits for mental health treatment. … Interviewees acknowledged the mishandled referrals may leave some patients ‘slipping through the cracks,’ according to the report. One man in his 30s with post-traumatic stress disorder waited eight months for a visit with a therapist after his psychologist improperly documented a referral, investigators found.” (Bangor Daily News)
Last year, the House passed, and the president signed, legislation to increase accountability at the VA (H.R. 3230), but the agency has thus far failed to use the tools at its disposal to clean up this mess. It has been more than a year since the Phoenix VA scandal and the president, for his part, has failed to deliver on his promise to “do right by our veterans across the board.” We will continue working to hold the administration accountable but, as Speaker Boehner has made clear, only the president can change the culture from within.
– See more at: http://www.speaker.gov/general/outright-failure-ongoing-problems-underscore-lack-accountability-va#sthash.GP3Zw7NF.dpuf
