Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Discuss political news items / current events.
msfreeh
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http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-will-pr ... cs/200541/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Will Prosecute You For Your Politics
By Sean Nevins | January 8, 2015



Rasmieh Yousef OdehRasmieh Yousef Odeh, 67, center, gestures toward her supporters outside federal court in Detroit, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014.
WASHINGTON — On Dec. 11, Rasmea Yousef Odeh, 67, an American citizen originally from Lifta, Palestine, was released on bond after spending five weeks in jail at Port Huron, Michigan. She was imprisoned and awaiting sentencing after being convicted on Nov. 10 of lying on her naturalization form to become a U.S. citizen. Sentencing for her crime will take place in March.
While it may seem like the arms of the U.S. Department of Justice have done wonders by meticulously combing through immigration docu

msfreeh
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link de jour


http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/31/ ... -la-times/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/01/op ... ciety.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... in-capital" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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http://digwithin.net/2015/07/31/underst ... ment-20786" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Understanding Oil Qaeda
Posted on July 31, 2015 by Kevin Ryan

In The Al Qaeda Network: A New Framework For DefiningThe Enemy,
Katherine Zimmerman of the American Enterprise Institute describes the
terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda. Zimmerman is seen as a
leading expert on the Al Qaeda network, having testified about it to
Congress and written about it for The Washington Post, the Weekly
Standard, and the Huffington Post.

Al Qaeda region 2In her analysis, Zimmerman identified the
geographical locations of the groups said to be within the Al Qaeda
network. These locations outline an area encompassing parts of
Northern Africa and all of the Middle East. This region, in which the
entire Al Qaeda network is based, represents about 15% of the total
land on planet earth.

What is special about this land that might lead its inhabitants to a
life of terrorism? Some, including Zimmerman, say that this region
correlates to the land of Islam and that therefore the correlation is
simply an indication that Muslims are prone to terrorism.

However, the known distribution of the world’s population of Muslims
does not support that contention. According to the Pew Research
Center, only about 55% of the world’s Muslims live inside the Al Qaeda
network region.

The other possibility is that, since the area is rich in untapped
resources, powerful people have used claims of terrorism as a pretext
to invade. That possibility is definitely supported by evidence. For
example, ten years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. officials
began openly admitting that the war in Iraq was motivated by the
desire to seize oil. U.S. military leaders including General John
Abizaid, head of the U.S. military in Iraq, and Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel have said that the war was about oil. Even former Federal
Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted it.

Geographical correlation also supports this possibility much better.
When the region outlined by Zimmerman’s Al Qaeda network is
superimposed on a map of oil reserves by country, over 70% of the
world’s oil reserves fall within the same area.

If one considers only oil reserves that are not yet fully within the
control of the world’s superpowers (the U.S., Russia, China, and the
E.U.), about 90% of what is left is within Zimmerman’s region. Only
Venezuela, with 6.5% of the remaining oil, stands out. It is therefore
not surprising that the U. ...

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http://m.providencejournal.com/article/ ... /150909671" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Posted Sep 6, 2015 at 12:01 AM

"Freedom of Speech: Mightier Than the Sword," by David Shipler. Knopf. 311 pages.

Every American loves freedom of speech. That is, until someone offends your sensibilities, “endangers” your children, expresses a political opinion you find abhorrent, or blows the whistle on wrongdoing in security agencies that are supposed to protect us. Pulitzer Prize-winner David K. Shipler has written a vibrant analysis of our ambivalent relationship with the single most important right we have under the U.S. Constitution. After all, if we can’t talk about what’s wrong with the country, what will be right with it?
A 22-year veteran of The New York Times and the author of six previous books, Shipler writes with crisp, concise earnestness as he illustrates the conflicts that constipate the national discourse today. In defense of their liberties, conservatives rail against government interference but object to certain kinds of speech on moral or political

msfreeh
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2 reads


1.


http://www.army.mil/article/155563/Army ... _Soldiers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


2.

Frederic Whitehurst interview April 15 1997 - YouTube

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jJzX2f-Yw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Feb 26, 2013 · Frederic Whitehurst discusses the FBI crime lab scandal National Whistleblower Center.
FBI Crime Lab Supervisor Dr. Fred Whitehurst & OKC ... - YouTube

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X4gYtqzV97Q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Jan 02, 2008 · Excerpts of whistle blower Dr.Fred Whitehurst speaks to his fraudulently altered lab reports and the problem with the ammonium nitrate evidence allegedly ...


Testimony of Frederic Whitehurst, FBI Lab Whistleblower
public-action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum/death/tscr/...
Frederic Whitehurst, FBI Lab Whistleblower Testifying at the World Trade Center Bombing Trial August 14, 1995 (Dr. Frederic Whitehurst's efforts to expose scientific ...

msfreeh
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Oregon college shooting is 994th mass gun attack in US in three years

Umpqua community college shooting is an event that is becoming almost ‘routine’ says Barack Obama

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... ng-routine" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Priest alleged to have pulled gun on boy because he was a Dallas Cowboys fan

Kevin Carter alleged to have pointed musket at eight-year-old after he said he would support New York Giants’ rivals


http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/o ... owboys-fan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Scott and Jill Kelley's legal case persists long after the Gen. David Petraeus scandal



Saturday, October 10, 2015 11:04am


http://home.tampabay.com/news/courts/ci ... id/2249199" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Scott and Jill Kelley sued the federal government in June 2013. A judge dismissed all but one of the couple's 14 allegations: that government officials violated the couple's privacy rights by leaking Jill Kelley's name and hostile emails the couple received from an anonymous sender, later revealed to be Paula Broadwell, who was having an affair with Gen. David Petraeus. [Times (2009)]
Natalie Khawam, left, Gen. David Petraeus, Scott and Jill Kelley and Holly Petraeus watch the Gasparilla parade from the Kelleys' Bayshore Boulevard lawn. The Kelleys became friends of the general and his wife. [Times (2010)]
Gen. Davis Petraeus, left, shakes hands with Paula Broadwell, co-author of "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus." Angered by Jill Kelley's rapport with Petraeus and other top military brass at MacDill Air Force Base, Broadwell in 2012 sent anonymous emails to Marine Gen. John Allen and others that disparaged Kelley. She also sent emails to Scott Kelley accusing his wife of having an affair. [Associated Press (2011)]
FBI Special Agent Frederick Humphries II said in a deposition obtained by CNN that his bosses displayed animosity toward Jill Kelley, marginalized her as a victim and regarded her as a "femme fatale."
Scott and Jill Kelley sued the federal government in June 2013. A judge dismissed all but one of the couple's 14 allegations: that government officials violated the couple's privacy rights by leaking Jill Kelley's name and hostile emails the couple received from an anonymous sender, later revealed to be Paula Broadwell, who was having an affair with Gen. David Petraeus. [Times (2009)]
Natalie Khawam, left, Gen. David Petraeus, Scott and Jill Kelley and Holly Petraeus watch the Gasparilla parade from the Kelleys' Bayshore Boulevard lawn. The Kelleys became friends of the general and his wife. [Times (2010)]
Gen. Davis Petraeus, left, shakes hands with Paula Broadwell, co-author of "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus." Angered by Jill Kelley's rapport with Petraeus and other top military brass at MacDill Air Force Base, Broadwell in 2012 sent anonymous emails to Marine Gen. John Allen and others that disparaged Kelley. She also sent emails to Scott Kelley accusing his wife of having an affair. [Associated Press (2011)]
FBI Special Agent Frederick Humphries II said in a deposition obtained by CNN that his bosses displayed animosity toward Jill Kelley, marginalized her as a victim and regarded her as a "femme fatale."
Scott and Jill Kelley sued the federal government in June 2013. A judge dismissed all but one of the couple's 14 allegations: that government officials violated the couple's privacy rights by leaking Jill Kelley's name and hostile emails the couple received from an anonymous sender, later revealed to be Paula Broadwell, who was having an affair with Gen. David Petraeus. [Times (2009)]

A federal judge has called Jill and Scott Kelley's lawsuit against the federal government "thin on facts." A top legal expert calls the complaint "sloppy" and far from conclusive.
Related News/Archive

Scott and Jill Kelley to seek reporters' testimony in Petraeus-related lawsuit


Yet two years after it was filed, the lawsuit steadily advances for the South Tampa socialite and her physician husband who played supporting roles in a saga that exposed then-CIA director David Petraeus' affair with biographer Paula Broadwell.

The paparazzi has long since moved on to other scandals, but the Kelleys' suit persists, fueled by the testimony of several current and former high ranking officials — such as U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — and an FBI agent who vouched for Jill Kelley.

The case is proceeding on a single allegation against that FBI and Department of Defense: that government officials violated the couple's privacy rights by leaking Jill Kelley's name and hostile emails the couple received from an anonymous sender, later revealed to be Broadwell.

That means the lawsuit hinges on who in the government said what and to whom. Attorneys for both sides are interviewing witnesses and preparing for a possible trial. At least some kind of victory for the Kelleys appears plausible, experts say.

"They may not be the most attractive plaintiffs in the world, but there's a certain moral appeal to the argument that this kind of humiliation just shouldn't happen," said Bob Weisberg, a Stanford University professor and expert in privacy law. "Unless some files accidentally fell out of a drawer when the wind blew, somebody did something wrong at some point."

• • •

Filed in June 2013, the Kelleys' lawsuit claims the couple was victimized twice: once by Broadwell and again by government officials who leaked inaccurate and derogatory information about the couple.

A judge dismissed all but one of the Kelleys' 14 allegations. The remaining claim cites the U.S. Privacy Act, which requires federal officials to protect the identity and personal information of witnesses.

"The dissemination of private information to the media presents considerable risk of negative consequences for the individuals involved," said Mary Anne Franks, a University of Miami School of Law professor who specializes in privacy law. "The Kelleys do seem to have suffered significantly due to the government's handling of their information."

Angered by Jill Kelley's rapport with Petraeus and other top military brass at MacDill Air Force Base, Broadwell in 2012 sent anonymous emails to Marine Gen. John Allen and others that disparaged Kelley. She also sent emails to Scott Kelley accusing his wife of having an affair.

The suit claims the Kelleys gave the FBI permission to access one of Scott Kelley's emails, but the FBI accessed others anyway.

After Petraeus' resignation, stories by the Associated Press and other outlets quoted unnamed government officials who identified Jill Kelley. A Washington Post editor contacted Kelley and said he had seen some of the harassing emails.

News reports also cited anonymous government sources saying Jill Kelley engaged in suggestive communications with Allen and that officials were investigating possible adultery between the two. Kelley denied an inappropriate relationship with Allen, who was cleared of wrongdoing.

Petraeus later pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information. Broadwell was not charged.

Claiming emotional trauma, damaged reputations and financial harm, the Kelleys seek unspecified monetary damages and a formal apology, among other demands.

The FBI has denied the allegations. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment. The Kelleys' Washington attorney, Alan C. Raul, did not return messages.

U.S. Judge District Judge Amy Jackson Berman called the complaint "thin on facts" but cited media accounts as enough evidence to allow the case to proceed to the discovery phase.

That's a low legal bar to clear, said Weisberg, the Stanford professor who called the complaint a sloppy, "kitchen sink" approach.

"There are some facts offered to suggest someone in the government leaked stuff and there was no good reason for it," he said. "The question is, do (the Kelleys) have enough evidence to prove there were illegal disclosures."

• • •

As they depose witnesses, some with big names and titles, the Kelleys' attorneys hope to gather that evidence.

At least one witness — the FBI agent Jill Kelley first contacted about the emails — has given their case a boost.

Special Agent Frederick Humphries II said in a deposition obtained by CNN that his bosses displayed animosity toward Jill Kelley, marginalized her as a victim and regarded her as a "femme fatale." Humphries said he believed someone at FBI headquarters leaked Kelley's name in what "seemed to be a purposeful attempt to discredit both Mrs. Kelley and myself."

"(The Kelleys') lawyers have to prove intentional and willful conduct on the part of the government, and certainly (Humphries) helps show intent on the part of the FBI, " said Bruce Jacob, dean emeritus and professor at Stetson University College of Law.

Franks, the Miami law professor, said the evidence paints a particularly troubling picture of Jill Kelley's "plight."

"She was a victim of threats and harassment who was turned into the object of lurid speculation and ridicule after she reported h

msfreeh
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http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Federal officer arrested after fatal shooting of boyfriend in Chula Vista
Fatal shooting


October 18 2015



A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer has been arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting her boyfriend in their apartment in Chula Vista.
Tony PerryContact Reporter

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was arrested Saturday on suspicion of fatally shooting her boyfriend in their apartment in Chula Vista.

Melissa Hayes-Spencer, 30, was arrested after a daylong investigation into the early

msfreeh
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Nearly 40% of homeless youths are LGBT, and I'm currently one of them
Noah Brown

It’s hard to tell I’m homeless, because I manage to find a couch to sleep on nightly. But I am, and I’m hiding in plain sight
Teenage boy sleeping on a couch at home
A disproportionate number of homeless youth are LGBT. Photograph: Eric Audras/Getty Images/Onoky

Thursday 22 October 2015 07.15 EDT
Last modified on Thursday 22 October 2015 08.21 EDT


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ne-of-them" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Plaintiff seeks $600,000 from MPD over ‘unlawful’ 2013 arrest

| October 16, 2015

http://lagniappemobile.com/plaintiff-se ... 13-arrest/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A Mobile man has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city, its police chief, and an officer of the Mobile Police Department for a 2013 arrest he claims was unwarranted. Khzemar James, 39, is seeking a jury trial and at least $600,000 in damages after a November 2013 traffic stop led to his arrest for carrying a pistol without a permit.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court Oct. 15 (embedded below), James claimed he was stopped by officer Kevin Kelley at around 9:45 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2013, near the intersection of Kennedy and Adams streets in the Campground neighborhood just west of downtown. James, whom the complaint identifies as a Marine Corps veteran, alleges he presented a valid pistol permit to officer Kelley while also informing the officer of the location of a pistol within his vehicle, but Kelley confiscated both and arrested James for carrying a pistol without a permit.

Two days later, the Mobile County District Attorney’s office issued a motion ordering James released from custody, stating that “insufficient facts exist which will afford a reasonable expectation of conviction” and noting the office would not pursue his prosecution.

In April 2014, James notified the city of his intent to sue, claiming the costs and time of his imprisonment, as well as the publishing of his mugshot in a periodical routinely distributed in many gas stations and convenience stores in Mobile, constituted “physical discomfort, inconvenience, mental suffering, defamation, violations of my civil rights and deprivation of my liberty.”

The complaint filed this week incl

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http://ufos-disclosure.blogspot.com/201 ... ct-et.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Fort Campbell Officials Live Up to Negative Expectations in Response to Freedom of Information Act Request

http://www.bobmccarty.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Two weeks after I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Army officials at Fort Campbell, Ky., I received a response today that shows officials at the home of the vaunted 101st Airborne Division lived up to my negative expectations.

The reply to my FOIA request lived up to my low expectations for the Army.

Shown above, the response letter from Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Officer Valerie M. Florez contained the following paragraph:

The US Army does not have jurisdiction and does not control prosecutions in Hopkinsville or Christian County, Kentucky Courts where [name of Major Martin’s accuser redacted] is facing charges. Perhaps Hopkinsville or Christian County courts may be able to assist you in contacting the correct party or [name of Major Martin’s accuser redacted]‘s attorneys. Any documents or correspondence from or between the military attorneys mentioned are part of an ongoing case involving Major Martin (US vs Martin). Any of this correspondence is exempt from release and would be withheld under Freedom of Information Act Exemption Five, attorney-work product and/or attorney-client privilege.

The letter from Ms. Florez — and particularly the paragraph above — runs 180 degrees counter to what I included in my Oct. 12 FOIA request, the “meat” of which appears below:

To Whom It May Concern:

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (5 USC, and Public Law 106-554), I would like to request copies of the following documents from the Staff Judge Advocate at Fort Campbell, Ky:

Any and all print and/or electronic communications — including, but not limited to handwritten and computer-generated notes, letters, email messages and text messages — between any individual(s) assigned to the Staff Judge Advocate staff at Fort Campbell, Kentucky — including but not limited to Major Jacob D. Bashore, Captain James P. Garrett, Major Jenny S. Whyte-Schlack — and any civilian attorney(s) and/or their associates representing accused bigamist [name of Major Martin’s accuser redacted] in legal matters in Christian County, Ky.


Please do not attempt to avoid fulfillment of this request by contending that the items requested are not releasable because they concern

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Clambake" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/n ... -with-fear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Patricia Cornwell: 'I grew up with fear'
The Guardian-
She had an affair with the wife of an FBI undercover agent who, when he found out, kidnapped his wife's priest, strapped a fake bomb belt to him, and threatened ...

msfreeh
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http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sunday, November 8, 2015
Oregon County Passes Initiative Allowing Sheriff to Void Gun Control Laws If He Thinks They’re Unconstitutional
Coos County residents smoothly approved the Second Amendment Preservation Ordinance Tuesday with more than 60 percent voting for its passage. The ordinance bars public employees from using county funds to enforce any laws the sheriff deems unconstitutional. It also prohibits enforcement of Oregon’s recent law requiring background checks on private gun transfers, including transactions between friends. County employees who violate the measure could face a $2,000 fine.

msfreeh
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Maine closes border after bomb detonated at CMP building

Maine Terrorist Back In State .Picariello Guilty Of 78 Bombing .
news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19930811&id...
Convicted terrorist Richard Pi cariello of Portland, who pleaded guilty in 1978 to bombing Central Maine Power Co. offices in Augus ta and robbing an Orono ...


Wisconsin closes border after bomb detonated in Madison


Sterling Hall bombing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hall_bombing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sterling Hall is a centrally located building on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The bomb, set off at 3:42 am on August 24, 1970, was intended to ...



New York closes borders after bomb goes off on Wall Street

Wall Street bombing
Blast
The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 pm on September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The blast killed 30 people immediately, and another eight died later of wounds sustained in the blast. Wikipedia



Alabama closes its borders after Christians set off bomb in Black Church


6th Street Baptist Church bombing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Stre ... ch_bombing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Jump to The Birmingham Campaign and the 16th Street Baptist Church - Main article: Birmingham campaign ... during the 1963 Birmingham campaign's ...
‎Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. - ‎Robert Edward Chambliss - ‎Bobby Frank Cherry



Florida closes borders after FBI sets off bomb under bed of civil rights activist

Harry T. Moore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_T._Moore" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Moores were the first NAACP members to be murdered for civil rights activism; .... a bomb went off beneath the house of Moore and his wife in Mims, Florida.



United States close borders after Unabomber sets off bombs after being given LSD
by US Government


Unabomber Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles ...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Unabomber.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Unabomber or Unabomer , name given by the FBI to the elusive perpetrator of a series of bombings (1975-95) in the United States that killed 3...

msfreeh
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eBay scammer steals identity of special agent investigating him
He might get 20 years to boast about that one


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/18 ... gent_oops/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

18 Nov 2015 at 15:01,




A cybercriminal who ran a mere eBay scam became a more significant collar for the US Department of Justice after he successfully stole the identity of the special agent investigating him.

Rohit Jawa, 25, has pleaded guilty to eight counts of wire fraud, and one count of stealing a special agent's identity which he then used to fraudulently gain access to privileged law enforcement databases – from which he stole the personal identifying information of multiple victims.

According to court documents, Jawa's mischief began in January 2013. He controlled "a set of at least 19 eBay and 18 PayPal accounts ... engaged in a scheme to defraud eBay buyers and eBay's third-party parcel insurance company".

Investigating these fraudulent accounts, agents from the United States Postal Service's Office of the Inspector General (USPS OIG) obtained search warrants to dig into the email addresses. These were hosted by 1&!1 Mail and Media, a provider which lets users register multiple addresses under a single account.

The agents found "numerous conversations where buyers reported to the seller that they had not received a purchased item, despite Postal Service tracking history showing the item had been delivered."

In the case of insured parcels, the seller would file a claim with eBay's third-party insurance company, using the tracking history as evidence the Postal Service had lost the parcel – or it had been stolen. For uninsured parcels, the seller would use the tracking history to prove to eBay he had shipped the purchased item to the buyer, causing eBay to decide disputes in his favour.

Other messages in those accounts contained Postal Service tracking numbers for parcels the seller had sent, supposedly using eBay-generated Postal Service shipping labels, but which the buyer claimed to have never received despite Postal Service tracking history showing the parcel had been delivered.

As customers on eBay/PayPal are only provided with the five-digit ZIP code of where a package was delivered, if a shipping label address is changed to a different address within the same ZIP code, this creates a tracking history that makes it appear as if the Postal Service has delivered the package to the expected destination, rather than an unrelated address within that local area.

Agents found irregularities comparing the destination addresses eBay provided to the Postal Service, with the addresses on the labels as seen by the Postal Service's mail processing equipment.

"A seller can then use this legitimate-looking tracking history to convince eBay, a buyer, or an insurance company that he sent the purchased item to the buyer, when he actually mailed an empty box to a random address in the same ZIP code to generate tracking history," the agents said.

Special Agent John Watson stated in his affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, that in his "training and experience, this kind of manipulation of a shipping label is a strong indication of fraud."

OpSec 101
Identity theft

A victim of this fraud scheme complained to the Postal Service about his missing parcel. His complaint eventually reached a USPS OIG special agent, who began looking into it as an incident of mail theft by a Postal Service employee.

Corresponding with the seller via one of the 1&1 email addresses, the agent requested additional information about the missing parcel – doing so quite explicitly as a special agent, not suspecting any criminality on the part of the seller.

Jawa, the seller, then requested the agent provide him with a copy of his credentials as verification of his identity, which the OIG agent did.

Two days later after receiving this information, the FBI received a request using the special agent's identity with a secondary email address registered to 1&1.

This was for an account with Law Enforcement Online, a web portal which provides access to criminal intelligence and other highly privileged information for law enforcement officials. A day later, someone purporting to be the special agent phoned FBI tech support and successfully obtained a temporary username and password for that account.

Using the @leo.gov email which came with the LEO account, Jawa then corresponded with several police forces requesting accounts be made for him on their internal services. Although he was only successful in one instance, he

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http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... l-movement" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Harvard 'black tape' vandalism brings law school's controversial past to fore

Tape placed over portraits of tenured black faculty comes after ‘art-action’ by black students attempting to draw attention to school seal’s slavery roots
The Harvard Law School’s seal is derived from the crest of Isaac Royall Jr, a wealthy and ruthless slaveholder whose endowment founded the school.
The Harvard Law School’s seal is derived from the crest of Isaac Royall Jr, a wealthy and ruthless slaveholder whose endowment founded the school. Photograph: Chitose Suzuki/AP





Saturday 21 November 2015 07.00 EST
Last modified on Saturday 21 November 2015 16.45 EST



Derecka Purnell was one of the first Harvard law students to see the black tape placed over about six portraits of Harvard Law School’s tenured black faculty Wednesday morning. “I was surprised to see it ...” Purnell said, before reconsidering: “Actually, I wasn’t surprised at all.”

The incident comes at a moment when, nationwide, college students are demanding action against the entrenched white supremacy and racism they say still pervades campus life. Even at elite liberal universities such as Harvard – places where some might believe that racist symbols and behavior are a relic of the past – these discussions and protests persist.

And it’s working. In response to student demands, administrators at Princeton University announced Friday that they would consider renaming a dormitory currently named for former US president Woodrow Wilson, based on his well-documented racist views.

At Harvard, the tape that was pasted across the faces of black professors appears to have been taken from an “art-action” in which student activists placed black gaffer tape over the law school seal in several locations of the school’s main hub, Wasserstein hall. The action was carried out by members of the campus group Royall Must Fall (RMF) and was intended to draw attention to the seal’s history as the family crest of the wealthy and ruthless slaveholder Isaac Royall Jr.
The Harvard Law School seal.
The Harvard Law School seal. Photograph: Wikimedia

Royall, whose endowment founded the law school in 1817, gained his immense wealth by way of his family’s Antigua plantation, where in the mid-1730s “seventy-seven enslaved people were burned alive, six were hanged, and five were broken on the wheel” in retaliation for a slave uprising, according to an open letter from RMF to the school’s dean, Martha Minow. The school adopted his family crest in 1936 as a part of a fundraising campaign.

Alexander Clayborne, a spokesperson for RMF, told the Guardian that the art-action was meant to be educational. “It was purely meant to call attention to the fact that the Harvard seal is the seal of a slaver and should be removed.”

He called the response of taking that tape and placing it on the faces of black professors “an act of blatant racial intimidation”.

“I think it’s part and parcel of the backlash that black students have seen around the country,” Clayborne said, referencing threats like those made against black students at the University of Missouri and Howard University last week.

Clayborne said that while the campus protest movements around the country have catalyzed RMF’s efforts, they drew their inspiration from student protests in South Africa which successfully organized to force the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes from the University of Cape Town campus. Rhodes was one of the architects of South African apartheid and the Royall Must Fall movement is part of a larger effort to decolonize the campus.

Eve Ewing, a doctoral candidate at Harvard’s school of education said that the incident had meaning for black students throughout Harvard’s campus, not just at the law school. “The act of putting the tape over the crest is a symbolic act that’s meant to say the legacy of slavery is not going to encompass what we want this institution to stand for.

“To take that tape and say, ‘Actually, we’re going to erase the legacy of important scholars who have paved the way for black scholars in higher ed’ makes it even more insulting.”

This is not the first time controversy has bubbled up around Royall’s legacy at the school. In 2003, when now supreme court justice Elena Kagan was named dean of Harvard Law School, she declined the endowed Royall professorship and instead chose a new chair in the name of Charles Hamilton Houston, the first black American on the Harvard Law Review.

Dr Ronald Sullivan, one of the black professors whose face was vandalized by the tape, said: “I’ve learned more

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Post by msfreeh »

from: Meryl Nass MD



http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Editorial: Federal corruption watchdogs are being denied access to necessary information/ LA Times

See the blog post below this one (from the NYT) on how Inspector Generals from over 70 federal agencies have been (illegally) (and continue to be) denied information by the agencies they are supposed to oversee. This thwarts the Inspector Generals from doing their jobs to root out corruption and mismanagement. This denial of information is supported at the highest levels (i.e., by the White House). The Inspector General system, placing independent watchdogs in executive branch agencies, was instituted by Congress in 1978 as a check and balance to executive branch power.

Now, a month later, the LA Times has editorialized about this huge problem to our democracy. They suggest that Congress fix it during the next session. I think a lawsuit might speed things along, since the executive branch is not complying with the Inspector Generals Act:

Since Congress created the first inspectors general for federal agencies in 1978, these in-house watchdogs have proved their worth again and again. Inspectors general have investigated the CIA's inhumane “enhanced interrogation methods,” revealed abuses in the FBI's acquisition of telephone and other records, and documented the selective enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service of regulations governing political spending by tax-exempt groups.

Given the nature of their mission, it is not terribly surprising to learn from inspectors general for several federal agencies that their work is being hampered by the unwillingness of the officials they monitor to provide some necessary information — despite the fact that the Inspector General Act requires that inspectors general have access to “all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations or other material” necessary to do their job.

The Justice Department has come under particular — and deserved — criticism for stymieing the work of its inspector general. Beginning in 2010, FBI lawyers argued that some records couldn't be shared because of protections in federal law. In July, the department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the inspector general could be denied access to some information in three categories: the contents of wiretaps, grand jury proceedings and credit information.
The author of that opinion, Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Karl R. Thompson, concluded that the Inspector General Act's requirement that inspectors general have access to “all records” must be qualified in light of the provisions of the federal Wiretap Act, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and Section 626 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. His opinion said that the department could provide the inspector general with information protected by these laws for “many, but not all” of its investigations.

That isn't good enough for Michael E. Horowitz, the department's inspector general, who said that without greater access “our office's ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired.” But the problem isn't confined to the Justice Department. In a letter to congressional leaders, the council representing inspectors general from throughout the government warned that the Office of Legal Counsel's opinion “represents a potentially serious challenge to the authority of every inspector general and our collective ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently and in a timely manner.”

In fairness to the Justice Department, laws must be read in conjunction with others. And, legal interpretation aside, it's important to protect the privacy of personal information, including financial records and the products of electronic surveillance, which can capture private conversations of innocent people. But in such sensitive situations, information can be provided to inspectors general with the understanding that it will be redacted in any public report.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said that the department would support legislation to clarify Congress' intent. Fortunately, there is a bipartisan effort in Congress to make it clear that, irrespective of other laws, inspectors general are entitled to “all records” necessary for them to perform their vital function. Enacting such a law must be a priority when Congress returns to work.

Posted by Meryl Nass, M.D. at 1:13 PM 0 comments

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2511843" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



range County, Calif., sheriff’s deputy loses AR-15 rifle after putting loaded gun on patrol car trunk, driving off

Wednesday, January 27, 2016, 8:21 PM



An Orange County, Calif., sheriff's deputy lost his AR-15 rifle after putting the gun, in its case, on the trunk of his patrol car and driving off. Cops say the missing weapon looks like this one. Handout
An Orange County, Calif., sheriff's deputy lost his AR-15 rifle after putting the gun, in its case, on the trunk of his patrol car and driving off. Cops say the missing weapon looks like this one.

Whoops.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department in California

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Post by msfreeh »

We broke the record yesterday for the
hottest month in August for Maine's
largest city Portland Maine



http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/22/n ... 5-degrees/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Portland and Bangor set heat records as Northeast US bakes — Portland — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine
Bangor Daily News › 2011/07/22 › portl...
Jul 22, 2011 - PORTLAND, Maine — The temperature soared to 100 degrees ... 31, 2016 Last update: 11:55 a.m. ... James Maxim didn't expect the scorching heat as he and ... reached 108, the highest temperature ever recorded in the city.

msfreeh
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Posts: 7684

Re: Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Post by msfreeh »

Link du jour


http://boydownthelane.com/2016/12/28/pressing-matters/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/p ... -1.2932946" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2933475" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;






http://www.latimes.com/local/california ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LOCAL CALIFORNIA
L.A. sheriff's deputies disciplined after horrific torture death of 8-year-old boy


It was the worst case of child abuse that local officials had ever seen.

The death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez became a grim symbol of the failure of Los Angeles County’s child welfare system, prompting criminal charges against four social workers and far-reaching reforms of how authorities oversee abused and neglected children. Gabriel’s mother and her boyfriend were charged with his murder.


But far less public scrutiny has been given to the role of L.A. County sheriff’s deputies who investigated Gabriel’s situation in the months before his 2013 death.

A Times review of grand jury testimony, child welfare records and recently filed court documents shows that deputies visited Gabriel’s home multiple times during the eight months prosecutors say he was being tortured and beaten. But the deputies found no signs of abuse and did not file paperwork that





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2933221" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEE IT: North Carolina cop slams high school student to ground
: Tuesday, January 3, 2017, 3:54 PM





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/p ... -1.2933151" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




Philadelphia PD investigating officer fight video
BY BRETT BODNER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, January 3, 2017, 2:58 PM


Police are looking into a video that shows allegedly shows a female police officer fighting a teenage girl.
Police in Philadelphia are looking into a disturbing video that appears to show an officer fighting a teenage girl




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2933113" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



NAACP protesters arrested for occupying Jeff Sessions' office
BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN JASON SILVERSTEIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Tuesday, January 3, 2017, 8:21 PM



http://ticklethewire.com/2017/01/03/ame ... bi-agents/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Americann University Removes Controversial Statue of Man Convicted of Killing FBI Agents



American University is removing a controversial statue of a Native American activist who was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1977.

The decision to remove the statue of Leonard Peltier came after the president of the FBI agents association urged the university to take down the work of art because it was offensive.

Many Native Americans believe Peltier was wrongly convicted and sentenced to two life terms.

The university released the following statement:

“American University strongly supports the mission of museums to present thought provoking art to inform and educate. Within the AU Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, we have hosted numerous







http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... w-deemed-/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



FBI Won’t Follow Nevada’s New Gun Control Law, Saying It’s Unenforceable



A voter-approved measure in Nevada to require more gun background checks isn’t enforceable, says the FBI and Nevada’s attorney general.

Under the measure, which was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1, gun transactions between private citizens must involve federal screenings through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

But according to the Washington Times, the FBI won’t conduct the checks.

In a letter to state officials, the FBI said the state is tasked with background checks and the ballot initiative’s approval “cannot dictate how federal resources are applied.”

The measure prohibits the state from conducting the background checks involving private sales.

“It is manifestly unjust to criminally penalize someone for failing to perform an act that is impossible to perform,” Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a Republican





http://www.readingeagle.com/news/articl ... =mobileart" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Daily Planner: January 4
Reading Eagle
"Suicide Bombers Today," talk by Ron Loose, Alvernia University professor and retired FBI agent, 7 p.m., West Lawn-Wyomissing Hills Library, 101 Woodside ...





http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/tri ... -1.2934729" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEE IT: Trio of NYPD cops beats Bronx man as he lies on ground
BY THOMAS TRACY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Wednesday, January 4, 2017, 4:24 PM






http://whowhatwhy.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


CATEGORIES: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
JANUARY 3, 2017 | KLAUS MARRE
Trump’s FEC Filings Reveal Ominous Patterns
If Donald Trump runs his administration the way he ran his campaign, expect a lot of subterfuge and large sums of money finding its way into his own pocket.


CATEGORIES: EARTH
JANUARY 2, 2017 | KLAUS MARRE
Youth Activists Want Tillerson Deposed on Suppression of Climate Change Facts
Activists suing to force the federal government to fight climate change want ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson (now Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State) to reveal when the fossil fuel industry knew of its effect on global warming — and what it did to hide it.





http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/c ... ding-probe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US prosecutors identify FBI agent accused of leaking insider trading ...
Las Vegas Review-Journal-
NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday identified the FBI agent who they say admitted to leaking information to reporters about an ...

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3165148


Former FBI Director James Comey spotted at musical in first public outing since being fired
BY ELIZABETH ELIZALDE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, May 14, 2017, 6:09 PM

Former FBI Director James Comey made his first public appearance since getting fired by President Trump by attending a musical on Saturday.

Comey and his wife, Patrice, enjoyed the matinee performance of “Fun Home” — a musical about a lesbian cartoonist who explores her sexuality and struggles with the suicide of her gay father – at the National Theater in Washington, D.C. The coming-of-age musical won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: Archaeologists discover conceal carry permit for Jesus

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... my-j-curry


The long read
What is a black professor in America allowed to say?

Thursday 3 August 2017 01.00 EDT

One Thursday morning in May, Tommy J Curry walked through the offices of the philosophy department at Texas A&M University with a police officer at his side and violence on his mind. The threats had started a few days earlier. “Since you said white people need to be killed I’m in fear of my life,” one person had written via email. “The next time I see you on campus I might just have to pre-emptively defend myself you dumb fat nigger. You are done.” Curry didn’t know if that person was lurking on the university grounds. But Texas is a gun-friendly state, and Texas A&M is a gun-friendly campus, and he took the threat seriously.


Lose yourself in a great story: Sign up for the long read email
Read more
Curry supports the right to bear arms. It was part of how he ended up in this situation. In 2012 he had appeared on a satellite radio show and delivered a five-minute talk on how uneasy white people are with the idea of black people talking about owning guns and using them to combat racist forces. When a recording of the talk resurfaced in May, people thought the tenured professor was telling black people to kill white people. This idea swept through conservative media and into the fever swamps of Reddit forums and racist message boards. The threats followed.

Anonymous bigots weren’t the only ones making Curry feel unwanted. Michael K Young, the president of Texas A&M, had called the professor’s comments “disturbing” and contrary to the values of the university. Curry was taken aback. His remarks on the radio were not a regrettable slip of the tongue. They were part of why the university had hired him.

A police officer met Curry inside his academic building and rode with him in the elevator to the philosophy department, on the third floor. In a hallway, the professor pointed to photos of his graduate students so the police officer would know who was supposed to be there. The officer told him to keep an eye out for unfamiliar faces. Curry picked up his mail. There were a few angry letters, and also an envelope marked with a Texas A&M logo. He put the hate mail into a folder and carried the whole bundle downstairs. Back in the car with his wife, he opened the university envelope. Inside was a copy of a letter from a campus official that he had received a few days earlier by email – before his inbox was flooded with racist messages.



http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2017/ ... ead-at-74/

http://www.rense.com/general96/deadmicro.html

JFK Assassination Plot Author Jim Marrs Dead At 73



Read more: http://woai.iheart.com/content/2017-08- ... z4oi9lDqPx



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3380570

Nebraska state patrol accused of forcing women to have vaginal, rectal exams by male doctor before getting hired


Thursday, August 3, 2017, 8:53 AM





http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jam ... et-n788876

NEWS AUG 2 2017, 11:43 AM ET
James Comey, Ex-FBI Chief, Has a Book Deal; Publication Set for Next Spring




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3379260

First African-American woman set to live long-term at International Space Station



Wednesday, August 2, 2017, 9:43 PM





Link du jour

http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/g ... -above-95f



http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/ne ... -1.3380567


https://skepticalscience.com/undergroun ... -ghgs.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/ne ... -1.3381207

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sXrT_xhEEjc


http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/ne ... -1.3381104

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ie-sanders






https://skepticalscience.com/human-infl ... ughts.html


Study finds human influence in the Amazon's third 1-in-100 year drought since 2005

Posted on 3 August 2017 by John Abraham
If you are like me, you picture the Amazon region as an ever lush, wet, tropical region filled with numerous plant and animal species. Who would imagine the Amazon experiencing drought? I mean sure, if we think of drought as “less water than usual,” then any place could have a drought. But what I tend to envision with respect to drought is truly dry.

People who work in this field have a more advanced understanding than I do about drought, how and why it occurs, its frequency and severity, and the impact on natural and human worlds. This recognition brings us to a very interesting paper recently published in Scientific Reports, entitled Unprecedented drought over tropical South America in 2016: significantly under-predicted by tropical SST[sea surface temperature]. So, what did this paper show?

Well, the Amazon region does encounter periodic droughts. There was one in 2005, another in 2010, both of which were 100-year events, and the most recent one in 2015-2016. The authors of this study, Amir Erfanian, Guiling Wang, and Lori Fomenko, all from the University of Connecticut, measured drought in three ways. They quantified the precipitation deficits and water storage on the ground. They also used two different vegetation measures of drought. The results showed that the most recent drought was unprecedented in severity. The video below shows a brief visual overview of the findings of this paper:


But the authors really wanted to know why the drought occurred in the first place and why it was so severe. Droughts in the Amazon region are mainly driven by surface water temperatures in the neighboring oceans, particularly in the El Niño/La Niña region. So, the authors looked at the relationship between changes in precipitation and sea surface temperatures in tropical oceans. They found that warmer than usual water in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was the main driver for the reduced rainfall during the three extreme droughts in the past decade.

The authors also found that the water temperatures alone could not adequately explain the size and severity of the 2015-2016 drought. This suggests that there are other factors involved as well. To be clear, the authors found that the relationship between water temperatures and drought worked well for prior droughts (the 2005 and 2010 droughts as well as 1983 and 1998 droughts, also El Niño years) but fell apart in 2015-2016. That is, using the relationship, the predicted 2015-2016 drought should not have been nearly as severe or as large as it was. The paper also reports that the 2015-2016 drought clearly exceeded that of the 100-year events in 2005 and 2010. So, in approximately one decade, this zone has had three 100-year events. Quite astonishing.

So why was SST unable to explain the 2015-2016 drought, like it had for past events? Part of it has to do with land-use changes. That is, human changes to the land surface such as deforestation. Another part is related to warming from greenhouse gases. It is clear that land-use changes can affect drought. As farmers deforest, for instance, they convert woodlands and forests into agricultural land. This changes not only the darkness (reflectivity) of the land, but it also impacts the transfer of water to and from the atmosphere (evapotranspiration).

One might ask how warming affects droughts. As air temperatures increase, air is able to evaporate water more rapidly and dry out surfaces. At the same time, air can contain more water vapor so that when rain does occur, it is more often in heavy downpours. These two changes underlie what is referred to as an accelerated hydrological cycle. Simply put, man-made warming is accelerating the movement of water through the ecosystem, which can cause drought even if precipitation does not decrease. Warming also causes changes in the large-scale patterns of air motion (atmospheric circulation) that reduces rainfall in this region.





http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-l ... story.html


Politics
Trump's Cabinet seeks spiritual guidance from minister with a dim view of female politicians





https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... als-rights


Vegan activists force California butcher to hang animal rights sign in window
The Local Butcher Shop, a small business focused on sustainable meat, says deal struck in order to end months of protest amounts to ‘ethical extortion’






http://ticklethewire.com/2017/08/03/sec ... lf-course/

Secret Service to Test Drone to Protect Trump at His Golf Course

drone-1142182_960_720By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

As the Secret Service looks for new ways to protect President Trump while he is vacationing at his New Jersey golf club, the agency will test a security drone.

Reuters reports that the Secret Service plans to test a small tethered unmanned aircraft system this month while the president is visiting the Trump National Golf Club in





https://theintercept.com/2017/08/02/tre ... vestigate/

Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin goes over notes while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. Mnuchin built his reputation and his fortune as a savvy Wall Street investor but critics charge that he profited from thousands of home foreclosures as the chief of a sub-prime mortgage lender during the housing



TREASURY SECRETARY STEVE MNUCHIN ALLEGEDLY LIED UNDER OATH. WILL THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATE
David Dayen
August 2 2017, 2:56 p.m.

A WATCHDOG ORGANIZATION has asked the Justice Department to investigate Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for allegedly making repeated false statements to Congress about the conduct of OneWest Bank, where he served as CEO and later chair between 2009 and 2015.

In the letter, the Campaign for Accountability writes, “Even today, Americans have a right to expect that those who seek and hold top government positions will not lie to their elected representatives and that if they do, the consequences will be swift and severe.”

On three separate occasions, both in written testimony and in live hearings, Mnuchin has denied that OneWest engaged in robosigning of foreclosure documents, when copious evidence exists to the contrary. Most recently, Mnuchin appears to have lied about robosigning while under oath last week in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., confronted Mnuchin with the 2009 deposition of Erica Johnson-Seck, a OneWest vice president who admitted that her team of eight employees robosigned 6,000 affidavits a week attesting to verifying mortgage files while spending “not more than 30 seconds” reviewing the underlying material. Mnuchin replied defiantly, “I don’t think you know what robosigning is,” insisting there is no legal definition, and denied that there was any robosigning at OneWest, “for the record.”

Previously, in written answers for the record to Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., in January, in conjunction with his confirmation hearings, Mnuchin stated “OneWest did not ‘robo-sign’ documents,” and then when given a chance to clean up his answer, he maintained his denial. In fact, despite his claim last week that “robosigning is not a legal term,” Mnuchin provided such a definition to Casey, saying it referred to “(a) a signer of a foreclosure affidavit attested to facts that were not verified to be accurate; or (b) a signer of a foreclosure affidavit represented himself or herself to be someone else.”

Johnson-Seck admitted to both things. She attested to facts in foreclosure cases without verifying them in any way; in response to the question “Is it true that you don’t read each document before signing it,” she replied “That’s true.” She also represented herself as having the authority to sign documents for at least seven different financial institutions. In fact, the late Brooklyn judge Arthur Schack once threw out a OneWest foreclosure because Johnson-Seck had both assigned a mortgage to Deutsche Bank and executed an affidavit on behalf of Deutsche Bank, appearing as multiple officers in the same case.

In addition, the Columbus Dispatch found frequent instances of robosigning in Franklin County, Ohio, including three cases in 2010 where “a judge dismissed OneWest foreclosure proceedings specifically based on inaccurate robosignings.” A Reuters investigation in 2011 also alleged that OneWest issued “foreclosure documents of questionable validity.”

And a report assembled by the Florida attorney general’s office in 2010 includes a mortgage assignment signed by a representative of “IndyMac Bank,” OneWest’s predecessor, and dated July 2010, well after IndyMac closed down. The assignment was clearly “robosigned” by an employee claiming to work for IndyMac when it would have been impossible for them to do so.

None of this is surprising because it was the standard practice of every bank engaged in foreclosure operations at that time. For some reason, the campaign claims, Mnuchin doesn’t want to admit to a practice that most banks have acknowledged and paid billions of dollars in fines for.

“Sec. Mnuchin’s dissembling was shameful enough when he served as a CEO,” the Campaign for Accountability writes, “but once he began repeating this obvious untruth to Congress, Sec. Mnuchin crossed the line into potentially criminal conduct.” Indeed, it is a federal crime to commit perjury or make a “false or misleading statement” to Congress.

The Justice Department is, of course, highly unlikely to investigate Mnuchin’s statements. This is especially the case given the questionable assertions made to Congress by its leader, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that he had not met with any representatives of Russia during the Trump campaign.

Nevertheless, the Campaign for Accountability raised the complaint because of the principle of the rule of law. In the letter they cite federal Judge Barrington Parker, who in 1977 fined CIA Director Richard Helms and gave him a suspended prison term for lying to Congress about CIA operations in Chile. “Public officials at every level, whatever their




http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html


Attorney general threatens to punish Stockton and San Bernardino as 'sanctuary cities'

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