TOP-SECRET MEMOMAGEDDON: Too Late for Damage Control?
Posted: January 29, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Government agency, Hillary Clinton, Jeh Johnson, National Terrorism Advisory System, Pantsuit Report, San Bernardino, United States, United States Department of Homeland Security, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Leave a commentCatherine Herridge, Pamela K. Browne report: The intelligence community has deemed some of Hillary Clinton’s emails “too damaging” to national security to release under any circumstances, according to a
U.S. government official close to the ongoing review. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.
The determination was first reported by Fox News, hours before the State Department formally announced Friday that seven email chains, found in 22 documents, will be withheld “in full” because they, in fact, contain “Top Secret” information.
The State Department, when first contacted by Fox News about withholding such emails Friday morning, did not dispute the reporting – but did not comment in detail. After a version of this report was first published, the Obama administration confirmed to the Associated Press that the seven email chains would be withheld. The department has since confirmed those details publicly.
The decision to withhold the documents in full, and not provide even a partial release with redactions, further undercuts claims by the State Department and the Clinton campaign that none of the intelligence in the emails was classified when it hit Clinton’s personal server.
Fox News is told the emails include intelligence from “special access programs,” or SAP, which is considered beyond “Top Secret.” A Jan. 14 letter, first reported by Fox News, from intelligence community Inspector General Charles McCullough III notified senior intelligence and foreign relations committee leaders that “several dozen emails containing classified information” were determined to be “at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, AND TOP SECRET/SAP levels.”
[Read the full story here, at Fox News]
The State Department is trying to finish its review and public release of thousands of Clinton emails, as the Democratic presidential primary contests get underway in early February. Read the rest of this entry »
Trey Gowdy Frustrated by Dem Stonewalling
Posted: September 3, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Classified information, Email address, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom of information laws by country, Gawker, Government agency, Hillary Clinton, The Washington Examiner, United States Department of Justice, United States Department of State 1 CommentRyan Lovelace reports: Two top Clinton aides, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan, will appear before the House Select Committee on Benghazi next month, but when will the committee interview several other top Obama administration officials and Clinton allies?
“What can I do to make the Department of State produce Jake Sullivan’s emails to me? I’ve asked. I’ve sent a subpoena. I don’t know what else I can do. I can’t send the FBI to get him.”
House Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., described how the committee intends to finish its work before the calendar year 2015 ends, in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner.
“I have a freshman in college who could go pull up all of her emails and have them printed off by this afternoon. I don’t know what takes so long, but it’s been months and months and months. And we still don’t have all the documents we’ve asked for.”
Gowdy discussed his desire to interview key Obama and Clinton operatives, including former State Department deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, State Department undersecretary for management Patrick Kennedy, and State Department chief of staff Jon Finer. He also indicated his frustration at the lack of information former State Department policy planning director Jake Sullivan has produced.
Sullivan now serves as a top foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Abedin is a top aide and confidant of Clinton, and Kennedy and Finer remain at the State Department.
Gowdy said he wants all of the documents relating to these individuals before interviewing them, but continues to face an uphill battle. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Kelsey Harkness: Emails Raise Questions About Bias in Sweet Cakes Ruling
Posted: June 2, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Administrative law judge, Advocacy group, Basic Rights Oregon, Brad Avakian, Government agency, Hans von Spakovsky, LGBT rights organization, Oregon, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Same-sex marriage 1 CommentKelsey Harkness writes:
…Communications between the agency, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the LGBT organization, Basic Rights Oregon, raise questions about potential bias in the state’s decision to charge the Kleins with discrimination for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.
In April, a judge for the agency recommended the Kleins be fined $135,000.
Communications obtained through a public records request show employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—which pursued the case against the Kleins—participating in phone calls, texting, and attending meetings with Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the state…(read more)
[VIDEO] How Courts Failed the Constitution
Posted: February 10, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Think Tank, U.S. News | Tags: Clark Neily, Government agency, Institute for Justice, Judge, Judicial activism, Judiciary, Reason.tv, Tyranny of the majority, YouTube 4 CommentsClark Neily on “Terms of Engagement”
“The judge will actually collaborate with the government in coming up with hypothetical justifications for a law in order to bend over backwards and uphold whatever the government is doing,” says Clark Neily, attorney at the Institute for Justice and author of the new book, Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government. “You don’t get a neutral arbiter.”
Neily sat down with Reason TV‘s Zach Weissmueller to discuss what Neily describes as an ongoing pattern of “judicial abdication” in America.
Neily’s book: Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government is available from Amazon
The judiciary, he says, was meant to stand as a bulwark against the tyranny of the majority, a defender of individual rights. Instead, it has become a mere enabler of legislators and government agencies.
Power Grid Down Drill To Be Conducted By US Government
Posted: August 29, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Canada, Counter-terrorism, Electric Power Research Institute, Electrical grid, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Government agency, Mexico, United States Leave a comment
Power grid vulnerabilities are finally garnering some attention by government officials.
An electrical grid joint drill simulation is being planned in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Thousands of utility workers, FBI agents, anti-terrorism experts, governmental agencies, and more than 150 private businesses are involved in the November power grid drill.
The downed power grid simulation will reportedly focus on both physical and cyber attacks. The antiquated electrical system in the United States has been one of the most neglected pieces of integral infrastructure.
The EMP Commission, created by Congress, released a report in 2008 calling for increased planning and testing, and a stockpiling of needed repair items.