Conservative Blogger
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Feds have 6.5M Social Security numbers for people 112 years old, and up
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has 6.5 million Social Security numbers for people 112 years old and up on file, allowing for "thousands of instances of potential identity theft" or fraud, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) warns.
Even though there are only roughly 35 people aged 112 years or older living worldwide, the SSA has millions of active SSNs for supercentenarians on its Numident, which can be used by others to receive benefits.
"In September 2013, a New York resident, believed to be the world's oldest living man, died at age 112," the OIG said in a report released last week. "According to the Gerontology Research Group, as of October 2013, only 35 known living individuals worldwide had reached age 112."
"We matched the 6.5 million SSNs against SSA's [Earnings Suspense File] ESF and E-Verify systems and identified thousands of instances of potential identity theft or other fraud," they said.
Nearly 70,000 of those SSNs were used to report $3.1 billion in wages between 2006 and 2011.
"One SSN appeared on 613 different suspended wage reports, and 194 additional SSNs appeared on at least 50 suspended wage reports that SSA received during this 6-year period," the OIG said. "Individuals can commit various types of fraud against the government by reporting earnings under deceased individuals' SSNs."
As of September 2014, the SSA was still issuing benefit payments to 266 people who were using a SSN that said they were born before June 16, 1901.
NAACP battles Latino groups over push to open public schools for non-English speakers
WASHINGTON – A plan that would dedicate two public high schools in suburban Washington to immigrants and second-generation students struggling with English is pitting black and Hispanic communities -– usually allies -- against one another.
The Prince George’s County, Md., chapter of the NAACP is strongly opposing the plan -- which would take effect next school year, and cover about 800 students having English language difficulties -- claiming it will pull resources from other students and unfairly redistribute them to Hispanic students. Some critics go so far as to compare the plan to segregation.
“It’s a slap in the face,” Bob Ross, president of the Prince George’s County branch of the NAACP, told FoxNews.com.
Ross believes the proposal to open two new schools violates the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ruled separate schools for black and white students violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“It risks turning Prince George’s County into a segregated school system,” Ross said, adding that he realizes the need for better education in the county but believes it should not come at the cost of existing students.
Latino advocacy group CASA de Maryland sees it differently. The group, which has pushed for the schools, argues that it’s not a violation of the Constitution because the schools are not mandatory and are being built to provide options to immigrants
“If we are saying all [English-language-learning] students must go to these schools, that’s one thing. But we are not,” Tehani Collazo, senior director of schools and community engagement at CASA, told FoxNews.com.
Collazo said Ross’ comments that the schools would take away opportunities from some students and reward others doesn’t add up.
“We see these students as Prince George’s County students,” she said. “They are eligible for an education. The charge that funds are being taken away is a false charge because they are all of our students. They deserve access – full access – to a quality education.”
Kevin Maxwell, CEO of Prince George’s County Public Schools which are moving ahead with the school plans later this year, agrees.
“Like the many that already exist across the country, the International Schools are schools of choice,” he said in a written statement to FoxNews.com. “They are built on an innovative and proven model that will help support the needs of our most struggling group of learners – English Language Learners.”
He added that the schools focus “on providing opportunity for all of our students no matter their country of origin, race, creed or status.”
The schools are expected to open with 100 9th graders and make room for another 100 students each year until the schools hit their capacity of 400 students each. The CASA International School at Largo High will operate as a school within a school. The Langley Park school, about a 20-minute drive from Largo, will likely operate as a standalone.
The schools will be funded in part by a $3 million Carnegie Corporation grant. The rest will come from the state and local funding.
Despite the intense controversy, the facilities are not unprecedented. The schools themselves will be fashioned like other CASA-Internationals Community Schools currently operating in New York and California.
In New York, 64 percent of students at the CASA schools graduated in four years, compared with 45 percent of similar students with language barriers in other city schools, the organization said.
The move highlights tensions in Prince George’s County between the community’s black and Hispanic populations. According to the most recent U.S. Census data, blacks make up 65.1 percent of the county’s population while Hispanics make up 16.2 percent.
A recent study by CASA – used in their pitch for the two new high schools -- found that 82 percent of students living in the Langley Park school district are at risk of dropping out of high school. The Latino and immigrant advocacy group says there are “serious challenges” with education in the area and argues that opening these schools would help lower attrition rates.
Ross said his organization was initially notified after an angry parent of a public school student brought it to his attention. He also believes that if the schools are allowed to operate it will create an even bigger rift in the community between the two groups and blames CASA for fueling the tension.
“We don’t want to fight,” Ross said. “You’re causing a black-brown fight in the community and the fact is, we need programs to be inclusive for all our children.”
Despite the pushback, both schools are on schedule to open their doors in a few months. Ross says he’s not giving up.
“Everybody has dreams. You are living the American dream,” Ross said of the CASA organization. “What’s wrong with pushing to secure it for everyone?”
The next step for the NAACP is a March 26 meeting with Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III. Calls to Baker’s office for comment were not returned.
Ross also says the chapter will “go into community action mode” which he describes as organizing rallies and demonstrations.
Hill Republicans blast Clinton's email explanation
Republican leaders expressed incredulity Tuesday at Hillary Clinton's explanation regarding her use of a personal email account during her tenure as secretary of state, with one GOP congressman calling her remarks "not plausible."
In making her first public comments since the scandal broke last week, Clinton, a potential candidate for the presidency in 2016, acknowledged that it "would have been better" to have used an official government account -- but said she used the personal one as a "matter of convenience."
She also briefly addressed her use of a private email server, but said it contains personal communications between her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and vowed to keep it private.
Clinton made her remarks Tuesday afternoon at the United Nations following an event on women's empowerment.
But if Clinton's goal was to calm the controversy, she was apparently unsuccessful.
"If she had an ounce of respect for the American people, she would have apologized for putting our national security at risk for 'convenience,'" Priebus said. "She would've agreed to hand over her secret server to an independent arbiter. And she would’ve reassured the nation that her influence is not for sale to foreign governments. She did none of that."
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the press conference "raised more questions than it answered."
“Secretary Clinton didn’t hand over her emails out of the goodness of her heart – she was forced to by smart, determined, and effective oversight by the House Select Committee on Benghazi," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. "The American people deserve the truth.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., head of the House Benghazi committee seeking her emails, also said there were unanswered questions, and said Clinton would be called to appear before the committee to discuss her role on the night of the 2012 attack and her use of a personal email account while serving as secretary of state.
"If possible, I have more questions now than I did this time yesterday," Gowdy told Greta Van Susteren Tuesday on "On the Record."
"I have no interest in her yoga routine. Trust me," Gowdy said, a reference to one of Clinton's descriptions about the contents of her personal emails. "I have no interest in that. But I have every interest in public record, whether it's related to Libya or not, and I have no interest in her personal attorney determining what is a public record and what is not a public record."
Gowdy said he wants to see Clinton turn her server over to a third-party arbiter who can determine which docments should be public and which should remain private.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., called Clinton's explanation's "not plausible."
"Her statement did little to answer the many legitimate questions about the mishandling of these emails, including the security risks involved with her use of a non-government server for official communications," Issa said in a statement. "She also did not explain why she believed she had the right, for two years, and over the course of multiple investigations, to keep these e-mails from Congress, from the press, and from the American people."
And Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he and other committee members would continue to investigate whether Clinton violated the Federal Records Act.
But Democratic Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings said he hoped the House Select Committee on Benghazi would turn its attention back to the attacks "instead of attempting to impact the 2016 presidential campaign."
"If Republicans still want additional assurances that all official government records have been produced, they can follow standard practice and ask this secretary -- and previous secretaries -- to sign certifications under oath," he said in a statement.
Grim new ISIS video appears to show child executing alleged Mossad spy
A baby-faced executioner who looks to be no older than 12 appears to kill an Israeli Arab who confesses to being a Mossad spy in the latest stomach-turning video released by ISIS.
The 13-minute clip was released via Twitter Tuesday evening, and shows a seated man identified by his family as 19-year-old Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam calmly confessing to having been recruited by the Jewish State's spy agency, even stating how much he was paid.
Musallam, from East Jerusalem, is believed to be the alleged Mossad spy ISIS claimed last month to be holding, and who was interviewed in the terror organization's February edition of its online magazine, Dabiq.
In the interview, Musallam says he was enlisted into the Mossad by a Jewish neighbor who worked as a police officer.
“The use of a child executioner is significant because ISIS is demonstrating the “growing” Caliphate and that they are raising their next generation of warriors now.”- Veryan Khan, Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium"He came one day and asked me to work with Israeli intelligence," Musallam said in the interview. "I told him I would think about it, and then went and asked my father and brother what they thought. They both encouraged me to do it and told me that it was a very good job. They told me there was a lot of money in it, and that you could advance to higher positions. I knew at that point that they themselves were working as spies."
According to Musallam, the Mossad wanted him to infiltrate ISIS and provide information about the location of weapons, bases and the names of Palestinians fighting with the terror group.
Musallam says on the video he was caught because he "began acting in a manner that was not typical of a muhajir despite the training (he) had received from the Mossad."
Musallam's father told Haaretz his son was not a spy and had joined ISIS willingly several months ago. Experts have speculated Musallam may have tried to flee the group and was accused of spying and executed as punishment.
One of the most frightening aspects of the video, according to Veryan Khan, editorial director of the Florida-based Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, is the threat at the end made against specific Mossad agents, which in addition to providing their names in English and Arabic on a “hit list,” also lists their home addresses and maps of their locations.
A similar threat was issued against Jordanian pilots in a video of Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, being burned alive, which was released in February.
While the Mossad are notable targets, ISIS makes an international appeal in the video, Khan said.
“In this video, ISIS appeals to the Palestine people saying ‘we haven’t forgotten your plight’ and issues a call to French speaking fighters, saying ‘Your voice is powerful within the state, and your foreign fighters hold key glamorous positions.’ To the English speaking audience, they seek potential recruits and political leaders. To Israel, they say “You are not safe, we know who you are and where you live.”
Related Image
It's
the second time a child has been shown executing an ISIS captive in a
video released by the sick terror organization. (Screengrab)
Near the end of the video, a man speaking in French issues threats against Jews in France, before the boy moves in front of the kneeling hostage and shoots him in the forehead with a pistol.
The boy, who shouts "Allahu Akbar," then shoots Musallem four more times as he lies on the ground.
In January, ISIS released a video in which a young Kazakh boy was shown executing two Russian men accused of spying.
“Since 2015, Islamic State has been pushing hard its “cub” training program and we’ve seen a significant up tick in ‘graduation’ photo journals, training facilities and one other foreign fighter child executioner,” Khan said. “The use of a child executioner is significant because ISIS is demonstrating the “growing” Caliphate and that they are raising their next generation of warriors now.”
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