Obama Administration Defends Collecting Verizon Phone Data

Obama Officials Are 'Criminalising Journalism', Says Republican Senator
THE INDEPENDENT: Administration’s efforts to trace leaks called ‘heavy-handed’ after private emails seized

The Obama administration has been accused of criminalising the press, as US lawmakers called for an independent investigator to look into the way the Justice Department conducts cases involving reporters.

President Barack Obama is facing widespread criticism for the aggressive way in which his government investigates leaks, after it emerged that officials had secretly seized phone records from the Associated Press and monitored personal emails of the Fox News reporter James Rosen.

Mr Obama last week directed his Attorney General, Eric Holder, to review the Justice Department’s procedures. Mr Holder is due to report back in July – but his position as the head of the department at the centre of the controversy has led lawmakers to question whether he is the right person to lead the review.

“This would be a good time for a special counsel or independent counsel… This is clearly an overreach,” the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News. Referring to a case in which the Justice Department obtained the Fox reporter’s private emails, he added: “We’re beginning to criminalise journalism, and I think that should worry us all.” » | Nikhil Kumar | New York | Sunday, May 26, 2013

Benghazi, IRS, AP Scandals -- Will Buck Ever Stop With Obama?

'Obama Ignoring Link Between Radical Islam and Terrorism'
ARUTZ SHEVA: The Obama administration is ignoring the link between radical Islam and terrorism, asserts chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee

The Obama administration is ignoring the link between radical Islam and terrorism, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday. » | Arutz Sheva staff | Friday, May 10, 2013

House Speaker Demands More Information on Benghazi

REUTERS.COM: (Reuters) - The Republican leader of the House of Representatives on Thursday added to the push for more information about last year's deadly assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, demanding the White House order the State Department to release emails about the attack.

Keeping up pressure on the Obama administration a day after a high-profile congressional hearing on the September 11, 2012, attack, House Speaker John Boehner said the public should have access to emails about who the State Department believed was behind it and the administration's early public comments that it stemmed from spontaneous demonstrations.

"Last November, the president said he was 'happy to cooperate in any way Congress wants,'" Boehner told a news conference. "This is his chance." » | Patricia Zengerle | Washington | Thursday, May 09, 2013

Highlights from House Hearing on Benghazi
Congress hears testimony on attacks

Official: We Knew Benghazi Was a Terrorist Attack "From the Get-go"

Obama's 'Snubbing' of Margaret Thatcher's Funeral Criticized
THE CHRISTIAN POST: President Barack Obama's decision not to attend or dispatch high-ranking members of his administration to the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday was criticized in the United States as well as the United Kingdom.

Given that the White House sent an official delegation to the funeral of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, a "tyrannical socialist dictator," Obama's treatment of the funeral of the "Iron Lady" was an "amazing snub," said the website of the Tea Party News Network. » | Anugrah Kumar , Christian Post Contributor | Thursday, April 18, 2013

US Withdraws Support for Syrian Opposition
Hillary Clinton said the Syrian National Council could "no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition."

The Obama administration has said it would push for a major shake-up in Syria's opposition leadership, dismissing the Syrian National Council.

The US wants the opposition to rally wider support and resist attempts by extremists to hijack the revolution against the Assad regime.

Speaking to reporters in Croatia's capital, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the administration was suggesting names and organisations that should feature prominently in any new rebel leadership that emerges from talks starting next week in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

She dismissed the Syrian National Council, a Paris-based group of regime opponents who have lived in exile for decades, saying its leadership days are over, even if it could still play a role. The council was viewed with suspicion by rebels who stayed in Syria and fought the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but have in many instances not been inside Syria for 20, 30 or 40 years," Clinton said. "There has to be a representation of those who are on the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom. And there needs to be an opposition leadership structure that is dedicated to representing and protecting all Syrians."

Federal Appeals Court Rules Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional

LOS ANGELES TIMES: WASHINGTON -- The U.S. appeals court in Boston became the first such court to strike down as unconstitutional the federal Defense of Marriage Act, ruling Thursday that it unfairly denies equal benefits to legally married same-sex couples.

The ruling is a victory for gay-rights advocates and the Obama administration, which had refused to defend that part of the 1996 law.

The decision sets the stage for a ruling next year by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the law that limits federal recognition of marriage to the union of a man and a woman.

The Boston-based judges stressed their decision did not establish a national right to gay marriage. That issue remains a matter for the states, they said.

But in states such as Massachusetts, where gays and lesbians can legally marry, the federal government cannot deny these couples the right to file a joint federal tax return or to receive a survivor's benefit under the Social Security Act, the appeals court said.

The court's opinion said there are more than 100,000 legally married gay and lesbian couples in the half-dozen states that have legalized same-sex marriages.

Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 to prevent same-sex marriages in one state from being legally recognized by all states. Usually, a couple's marriage in one state is recognized as valid in all states. However, the federal law said no state "shall be required to give effect" to a "relationship between persons of the same sex." Moreover, it said that under federal law, a marriage "means only the legal union between one man and one woman."

The case decided Thursday dealt only with this latter provision involving federal law and benefits. » | David G. Savage | Thursday, May 31, 2012

Obama Administration Is Infiltrated by, and Cooperating with, Radical Islamists throughout the World and in the USA
LIBERTY NEWS ONLINE: A note from Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson: Please take the time to read this very important story written by a courageous Egyptian liberal intellectual about the Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood lobbies in Washington and the Obama Administration's secret collaboration with these pro-terrorist, anti-Western, anti-women, anti-American and anti-Semitic organizations. This is one of the most important articles I have read in years.

It was just revealed two days ago that FBI Director Mueller secretly met on February 8 at FBI headquarters with a coalition of groups including various Islamist and militant Arabic groups who in the past have defended Hamas and Hizballah and have also issued blatantly anti-Semitic statements. At this meeting, the FBI revealed that it had removed more than 1000 presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that was [sic] deemed "offensive."

The FBI did not reveal what criteria was used to determine why material was considered "offensive" but knowledgeable law enforcement sources have told the IPT that it was these radical groups who made that determination. Moreover, numerous FBI agents have confirmed that from now on, FBI headquarters has banned all FBI offices from inviting any counter-terrorist specialists who are considered "anti-Islam" by Muslim Brotherhood front groups. » | Essam Abdallah* | Tuesday, February 21, 2012

* Dr. Essam Abdallah is an Egyptian liberal intellectual who teaches at Ain Shams University and writes for the leading Arab liberal publication Elaph.

This article also appears here.

Huffington Comments on Failures of Administration
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Arianna Huffington tells WSJ's Jerry Seib and Alan Murray that the Obama Administration's big flaw was to underestimate the extent of the economic devastation on Main Street. The answer to a solution, she says, is to stop seeing everything as a left/right division.

Obama Presidency 'Hobbled by Discord' According to Book
THE GUARDIAN: Extracts from Obama's Wars portray president anxious to pull US troops out of Afghanistan and at odds with senior advisers

Barack Obama's presidency is hobbled by discord, according to a new book, Obama's Wars. Photograph: The Guardian
The Obama presidency is hobbled by discord and mutual contempt among its senior policy-makers and top generals according to a new book which is likely to damage the administration in November's congressional elections and undermine its efforts in Afghanistan.

The book, Obama's Wars, by the veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward, is out on Monday, but extracts published overnight by the Washington Post and the New York Times make it clear that it will hurt the administration in the runup to mid-term elections, in which Democrats are already struggling and in which they are expected to lose control of the House of Representatives.

The book also portrays a president anxious to pull US troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, and at odds with his military commanders and some senior advisers, who openly question whether his strategy will work. It is likely to be read as evidence that the attempt to divide the Taliban is having more success dividing Washington. >>> Julian Borger | Wednesday, September 22, 2010

White House Blunder Over Oval Office Carpet Quote
THE TELEGRAPH: White House planners have mistakenly attributed a quotation to Martin Luther King in the new Oval Office carpet but the original author was in fact a now-forgotten 19th century activist.

Though President Barack Obama would no doubt admire the record of Theodore Parker, a Boston preacher and campaigner against slavery, his aides included the quote in the carpet to honour Dr King.

Among a series of quotes woven into the edge of the new beige carpet are the words: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." >>> | Sunday, September 05, 2010

The Obama Presidency Increasingly Resembles a Modern-day Ancien Régime: Extravagant and Out of Touch with the American People
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – NILE GARDINER: What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.

It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain, which has prompted a New York Post columnist Andrea Tantaros to dub the First Lady a contemporary Marie Antoinette. As The Telegraph reports, while the Obamas are covering their own vacation expenses such as accommodation, the trip may cost US taxpayers as much as $375,000 in terms of secret service security and flight costs on Air Force Two.

The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions. >>> Nile Gardiner | Saturday, August 07, 2010

Michelle Obama’s super-glitzy holiday with Sasha in Marbella is probably costing the American taxpayer at least one million dollars. Any estimates which are less than this are risible.

To any person with sound judgement, this is an incredible sum to spend on a holiday in these austere times, especially for someone in public office. The average American is hurting, and hurting badly. How sensible is it, then, for the Prez, or his wife, to go on such an extravagant trip abroad? The fact that it can be done doesn’t mean that it should be done.

Excuse me for asking, but what was the purpose of the trip? Was it to take Sasha on a nice short break? If it was, then Obama and Michelle are guilty of giving their children false values. As the leader of a nation which is broke, and in deep depression, neither he nor his wife should spend taxpayers’ money as though there’s no tomorrow; because at this rate, there really will be no tomorrow!

In times of severe economic hardship, people in public office should show solidarity with the people that put them into office: They need to suffer a little too. That way, they gain in support and respect. The way that the Obamas are doing things, all they do is lose in popularity and increase people’s contempt for them. Obama will surely pay a heavy price at the next election. – © Mark

Related >>>

Islamic Infiltration

Islamic Infiltration - Part 2 from Morgan Wright on Vimeo.

HT: Always On Watch >>>

États-Unis : Le directeur du Budget d'Obama va quitter ses fonctions
Peter Orszag, directeur du Budget de l'administration Obama, a notamnent oeuvré pour le plan de relance économique et la réforme du système de santé. Photo: Le Point
LE POINT: Le directeur du Budget de la Maison-Blanche, Peter Orszag, quitte l'administration du président Barack Obama, a annoncé, lundi soir, le Washington Post, citant un proche du responsable, et soulignant qu'il s'agit du premier départ d'un membre de l'équipe présidentielle. Selon le journal, Peter Orszag, un économiste âgé de 41 ans, quitterait ses fonctions dans les prochaines semaines. >>> AFP | Mardi 22 Juin 2010

Islam and the Politically Correct White House
TOWNHALL.COM: Most Americans are sympathetic to public references to Islam and to Muslims that do not offend patriotic American Muslims or affix to the Islamic religion the rantings of al-Qaeda. But sensitivity to the need to be civil to Muslims doesn’t—or shouldn’t—obviate the need for intellectual honesty when discussing or analyzing America’s Islamist political foes.

At a recent briefing to scholars and reporters at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, went into contortions to avoid admitting what seems commonsense to most Americans: there is a connection between some parts of Islamic thought and the repeated assertions of Osama bin Laden and his supporters and sympathizers that they are waging “jihad” against the United States. Brennan said the religious views of America’s Islamist terrorist adversaries shouldn’t even be discussed. Yet to accept that view would be like asking the State Department to examine the views of Adolf Hitler during Word War II and avoid mentioning his hatred of the Jews.

Brennan said the White House and State Department were avoiding reference to “jihadists” even though terrorist adversaries of the United States often call themselves exactly that. He said that jihad was “a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself and one’s community.” True, this is the “greater jihad,” as defined by Mohammed himself—but it is not the whole meaning of jihad at all. In fact, serious and respected scholars of Islam such as Professor Bernard Lewis assert that by far the largest proportion of Islamic historical references to jihad refer to what is called the “lesser jihad”—the duty of Muslims to wage war on non-Muslims in order to subdue all countries and communities for Allah.

The Quran, Islam’s holy book, is quite explicit about this. Surah 9, for example, the “surah of the sword,” explicitly calls on Muslims to “fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and his Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the book [i.e,. Jews and Christians] until they pay the tax in acknowledgement of superiority and they are in a state of subjection” (Surah 9:29). Just in case readers didn’t get that message, Surah 2:216 says “jihad is enjoined for you, though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know” (Surah 2:216).

Brennan claimed that the extremists were victims of “political, economic, and social forces,” and that they should not be described in “religious terms.” But if America’s Islamist opponents describe themselves in religious terms, why shouldn’t we take seriously what they are saying? Read on and comment>>> David Aikman | Wednesday, June 09, 2010

New York Trial for Alleged 9/11 Mastermind
TIMES ONLINE: Five Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have masterminded the September 11 attacks are to be taken to the United States to stand trial in a civilian court in New York, an Obama Administration official said today.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices will be brought on to US soil for trial as part of President Obama’s pledge to close down the detention centre in Cuba.

The Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to officially announce the decision today.

Mr Obama initially planned to close Guantanamo by January 22 next year but the Administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

The high profile trial will be an enormous legal and political test for Mr Obama’s approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks the administration will face criticism from those who believe that it should have been held in a military court The case is also likely to force the federal court system to confront a host of controversial legal issues surrounding the President Bush-era counter terrorism programmes that started after the 2001 attacks. >>> Nico Hines | Friday, November 13, 2009

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