Author Topic: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken  (Read 218674 times)

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2053 on: June 13, 2014, 06:20:08 AM »
A targeting memo sent to the State Department by the Defense Department’s Africa Command two days after the Benghazi attack listed 11 suspects with ties to Al Qaeda and other groups, counter-terrorism and congressional sources confirmed to Fox News.

This is significant because it arrived two days before then-UN ambassador Susan Rice appeared on television shows blaming the assault on an inflammatory video. It also came nearly a day before presidential aide Ben Rhodes sent an email also suggesting the video – and not a policy failure – was to blame for the Sep, 11, 2012 attack that claimed four American lives.










The memo, which was referred to in passing during recent congressional testimony, was drawn up by the Defense Department's Africa command, known as Africom, and was sent to the State Department as the best available intelligence in the early morning hours of September 14, 2012.

It included the names of 11 suspects, four connected to the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa known as AQIM, and seven connected to Ansar al-Sharia, a group with ties to the terrorist network.

"They knew from the get-go that Al Qaeda was involved in the attack so the idea that the Obama administration didn't know that early on or they suspected it was something else entirely basically is willful blindness,"said counter-terrorism analyst Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

"You have to look at the facts and what the intelligence says and that intelligence was clear that known Al Qaeda personalities were involved in this attack."

In her new book, “Hard Choices,” then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the administration made new information available as soon as it was received.

"Every step of the way, whenever something new was learned, it was quickly shared with Congress and the American people,” she wrote. “There is a difference between getting something wrong, and committing wrong."

While the contents of the email are stamped classified, an attachment including a flow chart showing the relationship among the suspects, is not classified, according to a leading Republican on the House Government Oversight Committee who has seen the memo and wants the administration to release it.

"This is a document from military intelligence widely distributed to the State Department, the White House, the Pentagon, the intelligence community,"said Rep.Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

"This was not buried in the bowels of some email chain. This was a widely distributed document. It demonstrated that Ansar al-Sharia and specifically Al Qaeda were involved in this attack. It should have been something that was put out immediately, not nearly two years after the fact."

The memo was among some 3,000 documents recently released by the State Department to the oversight committee. With the House Speaker establishing a select committee to investigate Benghazi, all documents from the relevant House committee investigations were handed over.

Asked about the memo, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she was not familiar with it, adding "We described the perpetrators as terrorists from the beginning, we've discussed this fact over and over again of course from the podium and again that hasn't changed."

But a review of the State Department transcripts in the first week after the attack shows then-spokeswoman Victoria Nuland resisted the terrorism description, instead telling reporters on Sep.17, 2012 that the government was still investigating.

Asked by a reporter if the administration regarded the attack as “an act of terrorism,” Nuland replied, "I don’t think we know enough. I don’t think we know enough. And we’re going to continue to assess… We’re going to have a full investigation now, and then we’ll be in a better position to put labels on things, okay?"



Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2054 on: June 13, 2014, 06:50:05 PM »
IRS: So… Our Computer Crashed And Erased All Of Lois Lerner’s Emails
The Daily Caller ^ | 13 Jun 2014 | Patrick Howley
Posted on June 13, 2014 at 8:53:53 PM EDT by mandaladon

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed Friday that it cannot produce Lois Lerner’s emails to and from the White House and other administration departments due to a supposed computer crash.

The IRS previously agreed to hand over all of the ex-IRS official’s emails from 2009 to 2011 to the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Dave Camp. But the IRS claimed Friday that it has Lerner’s emails to and from other IRS officials but it cannot produce emails to and from the Treasury and Justice Departments, the Federal Election Commission, or Democratic offices.

The IRS’ computer crash may go down in history next to the eighteen and a half minute gap in the Watergate tapes, which was supposedly caused by a mistake by Richard Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods.

“The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to Congressional inquiries,” Camp said in a statement. “There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General.”

“Just a short time ago, Commissioner Koskinen promised to produce all Lerner documents,” Camp continued. “It appears now that was an empty promise.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2056 on: June 24, 2014, 08:43:19 AM »
Fun fact: Guess where the current IRS commissioner used to work
Washington Examiner ^ | 6/24/14 | T. Becket Adams
Posted on June 24, 2014 11:37:26 AM EDT by Nachum

Current IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified Friday on the scandal involving the targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

And although the hearing was filled with many memorable and tense moments, particularly between the commissioner and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., one detail that went unmentioned Friday is Koskinen's former employer.

In case you didn't know, the man who currently heads the IRS was at one point with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., known more commonly as Freddie Mac.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2057 on: June 24, 2014, 02:36:20 PM »


IRS Admits Wrongdoing, to Pay $50,000 in Leaking of Marriage Group’s Tax Return

 Ken McIntyre  / @KenMac55 / June 24, 2014 / 57 comments
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Two years after activists for same-sex marriage obtained the confidential tax return and donor list of a national group opposed to redefining marriage, the Internal Revenue Service has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to settle the resulting lawsuit.

The Daily Signal has learned that, under a consent judgment today, the IRS agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage as a result of the unlawful release of the confidential information to a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, that is NOM’s chief political rival.

“Congress made the disclosure of confidential tax return information a serious matter for a reason,” NOM Chairman John D. Eastman told The Daily Signal. “We’re delighted that the IRS has now been held accountable for the illegal disclosure of our list of major donors from our tax return.”

The Daily Signal is seeking comment on the settlement  from the IRS and Justice Department.

Update: At 5:28 p.m, IRS spokesman Bruce I. Friedland emailed: “Privacy law, specifically Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, prohibits us from commenting.”

In his order entered this morning, District Judge James C. Cacheris granted the settlement of NOM’s suit against the IRS, which was represented by the Department of Justice.

>>> Commentary: Why We March for Marriage

In February 2012, the Human Rights Campaign posted on its web site NOM’s 2008 tax return and the names and contact information of the marriage group’s major donors, including soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. That information then was published by the Huffington Post and other liberal-leaning news sites.

HRC’s president at the time, Joe Solmonese, was tapped that same month as a national co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

Eastman said an investigation in the civil lawsuit determined that someone gave NOM’s tax return and list of major donors to Boston-based gay rights activist Matthew Meisel. Email correspondence from Meisel revealed that he told a colleague of “a conduit” to obtain the marriage group’s confidential information.

Testifying under oath in a deposition as part of the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Meisel invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and declined to disclose the identity of his “conduit.”

To get at that fact, Eastman said, the National Organization for Marriage  has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to grant immunity from prosecution to Meisel.

The $50,000 to be paid by the IRS represents actual damages NOM incurred responding to the illegal disclosure, not punitive damages,  since the marriage group was unable to prove disclosure of the confidential records was deliberate after Meisel took the Fifth.

Meisel provided the marriage group’s tax data to the Human Rights Campaign, documents found as part of the investigation show. HRC is among organizations and activists advocating same-sex marriage that routinely describe NOM as a “hate group” or “anti-gay” for making the case for preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

>>> Commentary:  The Bullies’ America

“We urge other groups that have suffered similar problems with the IRS to keep pressing until they, too, are fully vindicated,” Eastman said.

Eastman was referring to ongoing congressional probes and lawsuits over IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status.

In a draft press release on the settlement and admission by the IRS of wrongdoing, Eastman said:


It has been a long and arduous process to hold the IRS accountable for their illegal release of our confidential tax return and donor list, which was ultimately given to our chief political rival by the recipient. In the beginning, the government claimed that the IRS had done nothing wrong and that NOM itself must have released our confidential information. Thanks to a lot of hard work, we’ve forced the IRS to admit that they in fact were the ones to break the law and wrongfully released this confidential information.

Eastman, a lawyer and law professor, also is a member of the ActRight Legal Foundation team that brought the lawsuit against the federal government and the IRS on NOM’s behalf in October 2013. He said at the time that the Human Rights Campaign removed “redaction layers” from the electronic documents showing they originated at the IRS.

In May 2012, Eastman and NOM President Brian Brown asked the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute the case. Eastman appeared last June before the House Committee on Ways and Means to testify about the illegal disclosure o the marriage group’s donors.

Unauthorized disclosure of confidential tax information is a felony offense that can result in five years in prison, but the Department of Justice did not bring criminal charges.

“We urge the Congress to explore this issue with the appropriate government officials,” Eastman said. “It’s imperative that all those who have engaged in corrupt practices and illegal acts in the IRS be identified and held accountable.”

>>> Watch Recap of March for Marriage

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2058 on: June 27, 2014, 12:50:26 PM »
Obama Is Not Finished
Townhall.com ^  | June 27, 2014 | David Limbaugh

Posted on ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2014‎ ‎2‎:‎45‎:‎34‎ ‎PM by Kaslin

More and more people are finally coming to the realization that President Obama is presiding over America's decline, though there are differences of opinion as to whether he's deliberately or even directly causing it.

You have to admit that it's outright bizarre and alarming that people are even having this discussion, yet many of us have been warning about it for years now. It is gratifying that others -- albeit belatedly -- are waking up.

There are two separate issues: Is Obama trying to bring America down, and is his presidency falling apart (and what does that mean)?

As for the first, many get hung up on the semantics of whether Obama is trying to destroy America. Few are willing to believe anything so sinister of a twice-elected president. It's an easier sell to say that he doesn't believe in American exceptionalism or decries the very idea of nationalism and prefers to consider us all citizens of the world. He believes that capitalism yields unfair results, which leads him to desire a redistribution of our resources within the United States -- and from the United States to the rest of the world. So he is pursuing an agenda that will bring America into line with the rest of the world, which is to say, he is making us weaker and less prosperous.

I also happen to believe he has a grudge against America and wants to bring us down to size. But in his bizarro world, that's not destroying America; it's making it fairer and more just.

Concerning the second issue -- whether Obama's presidency is falling apart -- it's important that we are clear on what we mean by this. Most seem to agree that Obama's honeymoon with the American people has degenerated into serious marital difficulties, as evidenced by his nose dive in approval polls. Some consider this data, along with his multitudinous scandals, and conclude, "His presidency is imploding."

I believe that's correct only in the limited sense that he has lost the good will to accomplish much more of his agenda through proper constitutional channels. But I don't believe that it means he will be unable to accomplish anything for the remainder of this term. He has already proved that he is fully able and willing to act unilaterally on a wide range of issues, both domestic and foreign, with or without constitutional authority or congressional approval.

He wasn't just bluffing when he smugly declared, "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone." He was expressing his frustration with his political opponents' sometimes refusal to roll over to his dictates and his resolve to circumvent them every time he gets a chance.

This was nothing new. He and his advisers had said many times that he intended to liberally use executive orders and other tricks to advance his agenda at every opportunity. He's also made clear his willingness to act lawlessly and encouraged his administrative agencies to do likewise. Nor will anything deter his enabling Democrats in Congress to assist and provide him cover every chance they get. Just watch the congressional hearings involving the Internal Revenue Service scandal if you want to understand how national Democrats invariably place their party's interests above those of the nation -- and above the law.

As for his propensity for lawless unilateral action, remember when he admitted he didn't have the authority to pass the DREAM Act on his own and then two weeks later went ahead and issued an executive order implementing important provisions of it? Everyone has watched his whimsical, arbitrary and capricious granting of Obamacare exemptions. He intervened militarily in Libya without even consulting Congress, much less obtaining its approval. His Environmental Protection Agency, doing his bidding, has issued far-reaching emissions standards. The IRS was fulfilling his aims in criminally targeting conservative groups for punitive treatment under the tax code. His subordinates Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice were carrying out his direct orders in falsely blaming an Internet video for the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Oh, yes, and he abused his recess appointment power to appoint a National Labor Relations Board president when the Senate wasn't in recess, for which the Supreme Court surprisingly slapped his hand. I could continue.

So if you choose to believe that Obama's presidency is imploding, I hope you understand that this doesn't mean he no longer represents a threat to America as founded or is impotent to do any further damage.

It's silly to write this all off with a wave of a hand, saying, "This is America. One man can't do that much damage." If you don't believe enormous damage has already been done in the past six years, we are on different planets. Look at the latest quarterly economic report, which shows a 2.9 percent shrinkage in the gross domestic product, with no end in sight. The number of people on food stamps and dependent on other government programs. The labor participation rate. The debt. The explosive costs and abominable failures of Obamacare. The state of the Middle East and the explosive rise in Islamic jihad.

Regardless of whether Obama has the political clout to pass major legislation now or in the remaining 2 1/2 years, his executive powers alone -- including those he has usurped -- are enough to keep us on this downward spiral. Even without any further executive power usurpations, we are already on autopilot to spend ourselves into bankruptcy.

Whatever you do, people, please don't get complacent.

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2059 on: June 27, 2014, 12:52:19 PM »
Obama: GOP Pushing 'Phony Scandals' to Gin Up the Base
Fox News Insider ^  | June 27, 2014 | Staff

Posted on ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2014‎ ‎3‎:‎20‎:‎50‎ ‎PM by lbryce

Amid the IRS scandal, the VA mismanagement, and other D.C. scandals, President Obama declared Thursday that government is not the problem and once again accused Republicans of trying to promote "phony scandals" for political gain.

O'Reilly: 'President Obama Is Basically MIA'

FLASHBACK: Obama Tells O'Reilly 'Not a Smidgen of Corruption' at IRS

At a town hall in Minnesota (clip above), Obama admitted screw-ups and "bone-headed" actions within the federal government.

"Are there some federal workers who do bone-headed things? Absolutely," he said, recalling former Defense Secretary Robert Gates once telling him "at any given moment, on any given day, somebody in the federal government is screwing up."

"They're phony scandals that are generated. It's all geared towards the next election or ginning up a base -- it's not on the level. And that must feel frustrating, and it makes people cynical and it makes people turned off from the idea that anything can get done," said Obama, though it was not clear which specific scandal he was talking about.


(Excerpt) Read more at foxnewsinsider.com ...


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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2069 on: August 08, 2014, 08:22:42 AM »

« on: Today at 08:21:55 AM »
Reply with quoteQuote 


http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/07/obama-official-deleted-obamacare-emails-sought-by-congress/#!


The administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deleted some of her emails and may not be able to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the flawed Obamacare rollout, CMS has warned Congress.

Marilyn Tavenner, who was appointed by President Obama to take over CMS within the Department of Health and human Services in 2013 — prior to the Obamacare rollout — deleted some of her emails and did not save hard copies as the Federal Records Act requires her to do, MSNBC reported Thursday.

Though Tavenner’s computer did not crash like ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer allegedly did, Tavenner may be unable to cooperate with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenas.

“During her entire tenure at CMS, Ms. Tavenner’s CMS email address, which is accessible to both colleagues and the public, has been subject to write-in campaigns involving thousands of emails from the public,” according to a letter CMS sent Wednesday to the National Archives and Records Administration. “Therefore, she receives an extremely high volume of emails that she manages daily. To keep an orderly email box and to stay within the agency’s email system capacity limits, the Administrator generally copied or forwarded emails to immediate staff for retention and retrieval, and did not maintain her own copies.”

CMS noted that this practice of not keeping emails “continued until November 2013,” just one month after the Obamacare website launched.

“It is possible that some emails may not be available to HHS,” the letter stated.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/07/obama-official-deleted-obamacare-emails-sought-by-congress/#ixzz39oYIOGcJ

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2070 on: August 08, 2014, 08:37:14 AM »
ttp://www.nationalreview.com/corner/384912/congress-isnt-alone-struggling-obtain-obamacare-records-jillian-kay-melchior?

Congress Isn’t Alone in Struggling to Obtain Obamacare Records

As news breaks about the Department of Health and Human Services’ missing HealthCare.gov e-mails, it’s pertinent to note how difficult it has been to obtain records in general about Obamacare, as I’ve learned personally over the past many months.

In Nevada, National Review had to sue the state health exchange before we were able to obtain records about how many Obamacare navigators had criminal backgrounds, despite the fact that they were handling consumers’ private information. (As it turned out, at least eight did.)

We faced similar struggles in California, where the health exchange employed some twisted logic to explain why it could not release the full records regarding navigators’ criminal backgrounds:

“All of these documents are nondisclosable because ‘the public interest served by not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record,’” a lawyer for the insurance exchange wrote, citing California Government Code §6255. “Disclosing the names and criminal records of individuals applying to assist in Covered California’s push to enroll vast numbers in health insurance by March 31, 2014, is likely to discourage participation in this critical program and thus harm the people of California.”

In the end, we discovered that at least 43 convicted criminals were working as Obamacare navigators in California, including individuals who had committed serious financial crimes.

And those are the states where we even managed to get an answer. Though the state-by-state back-and-forth is a long story, we were denied public records even after appeal in the District of Columbia, and we’ve struggled to get clear answers elsewhere, too.

In Hawaii, the legislators saw it fit to totally exempt the health exchange from the state’s sunshine laws, creating what one reporter described to me as “a huge accountability problem.”

It’s not just records dealing with navigators, either. We recently filed several requests looking into the tech security of the state and federal health exchanges, and coaxing them to produce records has already proven difficult.

Then again, there’s a lot for the government to be embarrassed about. The limited records we have managed to obtain have revealed that a Romanian hacker was able to gain access to a Vermont health exchange development server for an entire month before detection; that a federal audit found “high and critical issues” in the New Mexico health exchange; and that Covered California had potentially jeopardized the personal information of at least 378 Obamacare enrollees.


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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2072 on: August 13, 2014, 03:37:46 AM »
Skip to comments.

Obama Administration Loosens Ban on Lobbyists in Government
NY TIMES ^ | 8/12/14 | Julie H Davis
Posted on August 13, 2014 at 6:16:12 AM EDT by SoFloFreeper

The Obama administration on Tuesday rolled back part of its ban on lobbyists serving in government, narrowing one of the president’s signature policies in the face of a legal challenge.

Under a new rule, registered lobbyists whom Mr. Obama had previously barred from serving on government advisory boards may now participate if they are representing companies or groups and not acting on their own behalf.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2073 on: September 10, 2014, 05:15:38 AM »



















































































































































































































































Topics: Syria Labor force Susan Rice Harry Reid


September 10, 2014


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Watchdog: Accountability
IG says Justice Department caused 'significant delays' in investigations

 By Mark Tapscott  | September 9, 2014 | 1:41 pm



Topics: Watchdog FBI Terrorism Inspectors General Waste and Fraud Accountability Justice Department Law Law Enforcement
 


Photo - Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that "a number of our reviews have been significantly impeded" by a lack of access to crucial documents. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty images)
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told the House Committee on Oversight and...

Department of Justice senior officials have barred or delayed the inspector general there from gaining access to documents crucial to high-visibility investigations.

"The FBI and some other department components ... have refused our requests for various types of documents. As a result, a number of our reviews have been significantly impeded," IG Michael Horowitz told the House Committee on the Judiciary Tuesday.

Horowitz said DOJ officials caused "significant delays in gaining access to important documents" in the IG's review of Operation Fast and Furious.

Operation Fast and Furious was a DOJ program that allowed gun-running into Mexico in an effort to generate evidence to be used against drug cartels.
   


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U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 with one of an estimated 1,400 guns shipped to Mexico as a result of the program.

Horowitz also said FBI objections delayed an investigation of DOJ's use of the federal material witness statute in international terrorism, as well as an investigation of the FBI's use of national security letters.

The Inspector General Act of 1978 grants IGs "access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations or other material" within a federal department or agency.

Horowitz said he appreciated efforts by Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole to intervene on behalf of IG requests.

But Horowitz said having to rely upon DOJ's senior leaders to gain access to documents Congress clearly intends to be given to IGs on request is inconsistent with the law.

In addition, such dependence "compromises our independence. The IG Act expressly provides that an independent inspector general should decide whether documents are relevant to an IG's work; however, the current process at the department instead places that decision and authority in the leadership of the agency that is being subjected to our oversight."

Having to seek permission to gain access to documents also "results in delays to our audits and reviews, consumes an inordinate amount of OIG staff time and my time, as well as time from the attorney general's and deputy attorney general's busy schedules."

Horowitz' testimony came in a hearing by the committee concerning a recent letter to Congress signed by Horowitz and 46 other IGs describing multiple instances of obstruction by executive branch officials.

In an apparent allusion to the Justice Department's bungled prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens, Horowitz noted that Holder's policy also requires IG investigators to ask for documents concerning allegations of official misconduct by government lawyers.

No such limits are placed, however, on DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, which also investigates such allegations.

"This disparate treatment ... is unjustifiable and results in the department being less willing to provide materials to the IG, presumably because the IG is statutorily independent, while OPR is not," Horowitz said.

Two prosecutors in the 2008 case against Stevens failed to turn over to defense lawyers exculpatory evidence concerning allegations that the then-Alaska senator benefitted personally from his relationship with an oil company.

The prosecutors were disciplined but not fired following an investigation by the OPR. Stevens, who lost his re-election effort because of the case, died in a plane crash two years later.

Horowitz called on Congress to grant specific authority to his office to investigate allegations of misconduct by government attorneys.

Legislation now pending — the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2014 — would grant that authority, he noted.

The bill was endorsed earlier this year by the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan non-profit that investigates waste and fraud in government.

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Re: Obama: Corruption, Deception, Dishonesty, Deceit and Promises Broken
« Reply #2074 on: October 13, 2014, 11:46:53 AM »


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Obama’s ‘blizzard of lies’






 


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By Marc A. Thiessen  October 13 at 11:12 AM


In 1996, the late, great New York Times columnist William Safire published a column, “Blizzard of lies,” in which he laid out a series of falsehoods by Hillary Rodham Clinton and declared “Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady — a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation — is a congenital liar.”

Today, Americans of all political stripes are coming to a similar, sad realization about our president. A recent Fox News poll asked Americans “How often does Barack Obama lie to the country on important matters?” Thirty-seven percent said “most of the time,” 24 percent said “some of the time,” and 20 percent said “only now and then.” Just 15% said “never.”

Think about that: 81 percent of Americans believe that Obama lies to them at least “now and then” on “important matters.”

That is simply stunning.

These Americans are right. The latest evidence came when The Post revealed that on Friday, April 20, 2012, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan came to White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler with a specific, credible allegation of misconduct by a member of the White House advance team in Cartegena, Colombia.


According to The Post, he informed Ruemmler that there was evidence that Jonathan Dach registered a prostitute into his room at the Hilton Cartagena Hotel shortly after midnight on April 4. That is specific. And he told Ruemmler that Secret Service agents on the ground had information suggesting the same. That is credible.

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Yet three days later, on Monday, April 24, then-presidential press secretary Jay Carney told the American people from the White House podium: “There have been no specific, credible allegations of misconduct by anyone on the White House advance team.”

Carney’s statement was flat untrue.

Carney further declared that “out of due diligence, the White House counsel’s office has conducted a review of the White House advance team and . . . came to the conclusion that there’s no indication that any member of the White House advance team engaged in any improper conduct or behavior.”

Really? Between Friday and Monday they examined all the evidence, interviewed all the witnesses and confirmed that those allegations were completely untrue? Did that weekend review include the actual copies of the Hilton hotel records, which, The Post reported, showed that a prostitute had registered into Dach’s room at 12:02 a.m. April 4? The records even included a photocopy of a woman’s ID card.

So why did Carney tell the American people there were “no specific, credible allegations” when he knew there were? And why did he say that the White House initiated its own investigation “out of due diligence” when he knew it was in response to evidence brought forward by the Secret Service?

Because there is a culture of deceit in the Obama White House — a serial willingness to say things that are untrue to protect the president.


Think about some of the falsehoods this White House has told the country:

They told Americans that no one at the White House edited the Benghazi talking points to blame the attack on an Internet video — until it came out that Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes had urged Susan Rice “to underscore that these protests are rooted in and Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”

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The president repeatedly told Americans that no one would lose his or her doctor or health-care plan — until it later emerged that White House policy advisers had urged him to drop the line but “were overruled by political aides.”

Obama told Americans that there was “not even a smidgen” of corruption at the Internal Revenue Service (while the investigation was still underway) — but then it was revealed that there had been a spontaneous combustion of hard drives among IRS officials under investigation.

Add to that White House spokesman Josh Earnest’s false claim that Obama “wasn’t specifically referring to” Islamic State when he called them JV terrorists . . . or Obama’s false assertion that the sequester was “not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed” . . . or his false claim that “7 million Americans . . . have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion.”

The list goes on and on.

One falsehood can be a mistake. Two are troubling. But three, four, five or more in a row? That is a pattern of deceit. Or, in the immortal words of William Safire, a “blizzard of lies.”

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