Administration's Intel Apparatus Speaks 'Untruths' in Bulk Domestic Spying Investigation

  Obama's National Security Agency has been caught in a few  "UNTRUTHS". Just like the Dear Leader Barack, lying to the American people will be done without hesitation or accountability. Deflecting from the issue of illegal bulk spying on the American people and Obama's hypocrisy, the justifications used by the Administration to defend the domestic spying programs are also 'untruths'

  Obama Campaigns against spying on the American People

Germany backs away from claims NSA program thwarted five attacks

 Excerpt from McClatchy:

BERLIN — German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is backing off his earlier assertion that the Obama administration’s NSA monitoring of Internet accounts had prevented five terror attacks in Germany, raising questions about other claims concerning the value of the massive monitoring programs revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Friedrich had made the assertion about the number of attacks that the NSA programs – which scoop up records from cellphone and Internet accounts – had helped to avert after a brief visit to the United States last week. But on Tuesday, he told a German parliamentary panel, “It is relatively difficult to count the number of terror attacks that didn’t occur.” And on Wednesday, he was publically referring to just two foiled attacks, at least one and possibly both of which appeared to have little to do with the NSA’s surveillance programs.

  Senator Leahy Asks NSA About Spying Program Successes

NSA Claim of Thwarted NYSE Plot Contradicted by Court Documents

 Excerpt from ABC:

Court documents and FBI field reports reviewed by ABC News undercut and contradict the dramatic testimony from senior counter-terrorism officials that the National Security Agency's surveillance programs thwarted an attack by al Qaeda on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to an FBI interview with an imprisoned al Qaeda figure involved in the plot, "there was no further operational planning of that target" after surveillance found the four streets around the exchange building "were blocked off from vehicular traffic."
The FBI document was filed last month in federal court in New York as part of the government sentencing memorandum for one of the alleged plotters, Sabirhan Hasanoff, who is to be sentenced next week.  

But the FBI deputy director, Sean Joyce, provided Congress with a different version of events Tuesday as he cited the stock exchange plot as one of more than 50 "terror events" that had been disrupted with the help of the NSA's secret surveillance programs.

Previous Untruthful Statements by the NSA on Domestic Spying


Director of National Intelligence Clapper LIES to Congress

ANDREA MITCHELL:

Senator Wyden made quite a lot out of your exchange with him last March during the hearings. Can you explain what you meant when you said that there was not data collection on millions of Americans?
JAMES CLAPPER:

First-- as I said, I have great respect for Senator Wyden. I thought, though in retrospect, I was asked-- "When are you going to start-- stop beating your wife" kind of question, which is meaning not-- answerable necessarily by a simple yes or no. So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no.

NBC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: TRANSCRIPT OF ANDREA MITCHELL’S INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE JAMES CLAPPER


 NSA whistleblowers: Obama administration misleading on surveillance programs


 Queried Away: FBI's Mueller Testifies on the Capacity to Spy on Americans


 Other Blogs:
 FISA Court (FISC) - Oversight or Rubber Stamp?

State Department Determined to NOT Determine Egypt a Coup

Obama Administration Won't Label Toppling of Egypt's Morsi a Coup

The State Department on Friday said it will not label the overthrow of Egypt's democratically-elected government a coup, arguing the law does not require it to make a formal determination.

Administration officials notified lawmakers Thursday of the decision, which will allow about $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt to continue uninterrupted.
“The law does not require us to make a formal determination – that is a review that we have undergone – as to whether a coup took place, and it is not in our national interest to make such a determination,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “We have determined we are not going to make a determination.”

   
State Dept. Briefing - Egypt Part 1

She vehemently denied that the administration was skirting the law with its apparently unprecedented choice to avoid a decision.“Given that our legal team was an important part of this process, certainly, I would refute any notions that we were flouting the law,” Psaki said.

U.S. law requires that aid be cut off if the military overthrows a democratically elected government, but the administration wants to be able to continue sending aid to the Arab World's most populous country despite the toppling of Egypt President Mohamed Morsi.
After their briefing Thursday, several lawmakers demanded that Obama make a determination.

   
State Dept. Briefing - Egypt Part2

“My feeling is we should look and make a determination, is what took place a coup,” Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns. “In the event that it should be necessary, it would be very easy to pass a law to give a waiver."
A growing number of senators have called for President Obama to label Egypt a coup, but to seek a congressional waiver so the United States can continue providing foreign aid to the country. The State Department however indicated that it has no intention of revisiting the issue.
“Certainly, abiding by our legal obligations is always a priority to the United States and always something we're focused on. But there is a greater context here in terms of our national security interests, in terms of the millions of people who've expressed their grievances in Egypt,” Psaki said

Obama administration won't label toppling of Egypt's Morsi a coup

 

House Sets Limits on U.S. Military Involvement in Syria

On voice votes, House Sets limits on U.S. Military Involvement in Syria

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/07/24/5026692/on-voice-votes-house-sets-limits.html#storylink=cpy

By William Douglas and Hannah Allam

McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — With little argument, the House of Representatives approved measures Wednesday that would prevent the Obama administration from spending money on U.S. military operations in Syria without consulting Congress and would forbid funding U.S. military or paramilitary operations in Egypt.
The measures, part of the House’s $598 billion defense bill, were supposed to be contentious issues exposing bipartisan rifts between interventionists who want to give Obama a free hand in dealing with the civil war in Syria and unrest in Egypt and war-weary lawmakers concerned that U.S. troops will be dragged into more military actions.
But both amendments were approved on voice votes with only scant dissent.
On Syria, lawmakers passed an amendment by Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., that would forbid any military action in Syria if it violates the War Powers Resolution – which requires the president to consult Congress before committing U.S. forces to battle or placing them in situations where hostilities are imminent.
The Radel amendment does not address the contentious issue of providing weapons to the Syrian rebels, whose campaign to topple President Bashar Assad is made up of as many as 1,200 largely independent groups, including some that are openly affiliated with al Qaida. Congressional intelligence committees recently signed off on an Obama administration proposal to have the CIA funnel unspecified arms and training to rebels aligned with the moderate Supreme Military Council, led by a defected Syrian general, Salim Idriss.

But the wording of the amendment would apply to setting up a no-fly zone or using U.S. ships to launch attacks on sites in Syria, and the debate showed that deeper military involvement in Syria is opposed by an unusual House coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats.
“I believe without a shadow of a doubt this is one of the most insane policies that borders on madness – the United States to give funding, training and arms most likely to al Qaida in Syria doesn’t make any sense,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. “This is absolute madness.”
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., agreed, calling the situation in Syria “chaotic.”
“Distinguishing between the good rebels and the bad rebels is impossible,” Welch said on the House floor. “The notion that we can have a micromanaged approach and pick the good guys, and arm them, and not have any reasonable . . . expectation that the arms will get into bad hands I think is naive.”
Welch added that Congress has the responsibility to weigh in before U.S. troops are sent into harm’s way.
“We have a job to do under the Constitution,” he said.
The Obama administration last month notified Congress under the War Powers Resolution that a detachment of 700 U.S. troops who’d been participating in war games in Jordan would remain in that country “until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.” The detachment includes Patriot anti-missile systems and fighter aircraft, the White House notification said.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/07/24/5026692/on-voice-votes-house-sets-limits.html#storylink=cpy

 Read More:
House sets limits on U.S. military involvement in Syria

Democrats Threaten Nuclear Hypocrisy with Filibuster Rule Change in Senate

Dems vs. GOP: Leaders nuke it out in fight over voting rule change 

 By Ramsey Cox - 07/11/13 10:38 AM ET

Senate leaders exchanged fire on Thursday as Democrats headed behind closed doors to make a decision on whether to trigger the "nuclear option."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday warned the "nuclear option" would be the "end of the Senate" and accused Democrats of creating a "phony crisis" to move through President Obama's nominees.

Changing Senate rules through a majority vote "would violate every protection of minority rights that have defined the United States Senate for as long as anyone can remember," McConnell said.

“This Pandora’s Box, once opened, will be utilized again and again by future majorities — and it will make the meaningful consensus-building that has served our nation so well a relic of the past," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

  
 Democrats in 2005 on the 'nuclear option'

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans have broken their promise, made earlier this year, to work with Democrats on Obama’s second-term Cabinet nominees. 

“Republicans have turned advise and consent into deny and obstruct,” Reid said. “This gridlock is not only bad for the Senate, it’s bad for the country.”
Reid said he planned to file cloture on some of Obama’s nominees later Thursday, setting up a final showdown next week. 

Liberal groups and labor unions are pushing Reid to change Senate rules on presidential appointments, arguing a limit on the use of the filibuster is needed to counter Republican obstruction.

Reid and McConnell spar.

Harry Reid- No nuclear option as long as he is the leader.

 
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is the problem in the Senate.

Senate Republicans say the move would trigger a meltdown in relations and trample the rights of the minority.

The issue is coming to a head on Thursday at a meeting of Senate Democrats where they plan to make a decision about whether to "go nuclear."
Republicans on Thursday seemed to make an attempt to lower the temperature and dissuade Reid from changing the rules.

McConnell said Republicans would not prevent two of Obama’s nominations — Environmental Protection Agency nominee Gina McCarthy and Labor Department nominee Tom Perez — from moving forward.  

“Both of these highly controversial nominees already have enough votes to clear a 60-vote hurdle,” McConnell said.

And Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) suggested to Reid that the parties hold a joint caucus lunch next week to try and resolve their differences.

Read the rest at 'The Hill"
Dems vs. GOP: Leaders nuke it out in fight over voting rule change

Read more:
Harry Reid as Minority Leader Opposes filling the amendment tree 

Tyranny in the United States Senate

Mexican police Chief Killed with Rifle 'Lost' in Fast & Furious Gun Walking

Mexican police chief killed with Rifle 'Lost' in Fast & Furious Gun Walking 

by RICHARD A. SERRANO | Tribune Washington Bureau - Posted on Friday, July 5, 2013

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/05/195906/mexican-police-chief-killed-with.html#.UdiTiqzJyHM#storylink=cpy

WASHINGTON — A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF's Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico.
 

Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded.

Local authorities said eight suspects in their 20s and 30s were arrested after police seized them nearby with a cache of weapons - rifles, grenades, handguns, helmets, bulletproof vests, uniforms and special communications equipment. The area is a hot zone for rival drug gangs, with members of three cartels fighting over turf in the region.

A semi-automatic WASR rifle, the firearm that killed the chief, was traced back to the Lone Wolf Trading Company, a gun store in Glendale, Ariz. The notation on the Department of Justice trace records said the WASR was used in a "HOMICIDE � WILLFUL � KILL �PUB OFF �GUN" �ATF code for "Homicide, Willful Killing of a Public Official, Gun."

Hundreds of firearms were lost in the Fast and Furious operation. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed illegal purchasers to buy the firearms at the Lone Wolf store in the Phoenix suburb and other gun shops in hopes of tracing them to Mexican cartel leaders.
The WASR used in Jalisco was purchased on Feb. 22, 2010, about three months into the Fast and Furious operation, by 26-year-old Jacob A. Montelongo of Phoenix. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy, making false statements and smuggling goods from the United States and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

 

Court records show Montelongo personally obtained at least 109 firearms during Fast and Furious. How the WASR ended up in the state of Jalisco, which is deep in central Mexico and includes the country's second-largest metropolis, Guadalajara, remained unclear.

After the shooting in Jalisco, local officials said some of the suspects confessed to two other shootouts in the area, including one that left seven people dead, all part of the continuing feud by rival cartel members.

The ATF declined to discuss the matter; officials said they are still compiling an inventory of all the lost firearms for a complete account of the Fast and Furious operation.

Instead of being tracked, almost all the weapons were lost as they flooded across the border into Mexico. In all, some 211 people were killed or wounded by Fast and Furious weapons in Mexico, according to Mexican authorities. And on this side of the border, a Fast and Furious weapon was found at the Arizona scene where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was slain in 2010.

Terry's slaying set off a number of investigations in Washington into Fast and Furious. It led to the firing or demotion of many ATF officials, including the agency's acting director, who stepped down. It ultimately prompted the GOP-controlled House to vote Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over a number of Fast and Furious records sought by the House Oversight Committee.

 

Mexican police chief killed with rifle lost in ATF gun-tracking program 

New Link for ATF Story- Original link fails.
Previous Fast and Furious Blogs
 Fast and Furious - Democrats Deny, Disinform & Delay