Obamacare website Cartoon

Docs show security concerns, no 'authorization to operate' for ObamaCare website

The federal ObamaCare website was launched in 2013 despite federal officials’ security concerns, according to documents recently acquired by Judicial Watch.  
On Sept. 21, 2013, 10 days before the site went live, two high-ranking Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials discussed 17 “moderate” security issues and two “high” security issues, according to Department of Health and Human Services documents acquired by the watchdog group.
The 1,000 pages of documents reveal that two CMS officials -- information security officer Tom Schankweiler and deputy chief information officer Henry Chao -- resolved both of the high-security issues but apparently left 14 of the moderate ones unresolved.
Emails also show that a separate security check found 17 “high” security issues, prompting Chao to ask, “What are we actually signing off on?”
Schankweiler responded that the numerous security issues resulted in CMS security officer Teresa Fryer refusing to authorize the website, healthcare.org, to operate, according to the documents, which were acquired through a court-ordered response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
And roughly six weeks after the launch, George Linares, the acting chief technology officer of CMS, told colleagues that the site was still running without an “ATO,” or Authorization to Operate, the documents show.
“Operating without an ATO is a serious issue and it represents a high risk to the agency,” he wrote.
“No wonder it took a federal court order to force out these new ObamaCare scandal documents,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “The Obama administration is prosecuting private companies for the same security lapses it knowingly allowed with its own Healthcare.gov.”
The website was built to accommodate Americans shopping for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. However, the site launched amid glitches and other technical difficulties that resulted in it responding slowly and at times crashing.
The 1,000 pages of documents included emails, studies, memoranda and slide presentations from January 1, 2012 to the present.
The documents also show that on the day before the website launch, Blue Canopy, a contractor that was testing the security, reported that a problem related to receiving messages “would cause the service to crash.”

White House: US 'in touch' with Iraqi officials over kidnapped Americans

The White House said Tuesday the U.S. was "in touch" with Iraqi officials over the American contractors reported kidnapped from an apartment in Baghdad over the weekend.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest wouldn't elaborate. State Department spokesman John Kirby added, "without getting into details, I can tell you, the picture is becoming a little bit more clear in terms of what might have happened here. And we're working, again, very hard to try to resolve this."
An Iranian-backed militia is suspected of kidnapping the three men, a U.S. official tells Fox News.
The State Department and FBI are leading the investigation. Speaking to The Washington Post, a police major general described the building as a brothel, but other officials denied it.
Witnesses said men in uniform carried out the kidnapping in broad daylight Saturday, 100 yards from a police station.
"Gunmen in military uniforms came in five or six SUVs, they entered the building and then left almost immediately," said Mohammad Jabar, 35, who runs a shop down the street from the three-story apartment building where the Americans had been invited by their Iraqi interpreter.
"A few hours later we heard that three foreigners had been kidnapped by these gunmen," Jaber said.
The three were abducted in Dora, a mixed neighborhood that is home to both Shiites and Sunnis. However, they were then taken to Sadr City, a vast and densely populated Shiite district to the east, and there "all communication ceased," an Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
A similar scene unfolded in September, when masked men in military uniforms abducted 18 Turkish workers from a construction site in a Shiite neighborhood. A hostage video later showed the men standing before a banner that read "Death Squads" and "Oh, Hussein," a Shiite religious slogan. The workers were released later that month.
In December, gunmen driving SUVs raided a remote camp for falconry hunting in Iraq's overwhelmingly Shiite south, kidnapping 26 Qataris, who are still being held. Iraq's Interior Ministry said at the time that the abduction was "to achieve political and media goals," without providing further details.
Baghdad authorities said in a statement that the three Americans were kidnapped from a "suspicious apartment" without elaborating, and have provided no other details.
The kidnapping of the Americans comes at a time of deteriorating security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. Last week two Iraqi journalists were killed within sight of a police checkpoint in Diyala province north of Baghdad.
The scale and sophistication of the recent kidnappings of foreigners suggest those responsible are operating with some degree of impunity, said Nathaniel Rabkin, managing editor of Inside Iraqi Politics, a political risk assessment newsletter.
"You kidnap 26 Qataris out in the desert, that's not like four or five yahoos out in the south. ... That's a pretty well-run operation. It must be some relatively established group that did it," he said.
The only groups operating in Iraq with those capabilities, Rabkin said, are the country's powerful Shiite militias.
Shiite militias have played a key role in battling the Islamic State group, filling a vacuum left by the collapse of the Iraqi security forces in the summer of 2014 and proving to be some of the most effective anti-IS forces on the ground in Iraq.
The government-allied militias are now officially sanctioned and known as the Popular Mobilization Committees. But many trace their roots to the armed groups that battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion and kidnapped and killed Sunnis at the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007. Rights groups have accused them of kidnapping and in some cases killing Sunni civilians since they rearmed in 2014, charges denied by militia leaders.
Although the militias are fighting on the same side as the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, many remain staunchly anti-American. When the Pentagon announced an increase in the number of U.S. special forces in Iraq last month, the spokesman for one militia vowed to attack them.
"Any such American force will become a primary target for our group. We fought them before and we are ready to resume fighting," said Jafar Hussaini, spokesman for the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, one of the most powerful Shiite militias.

Liberal media slams film on Benghazi attack (Don't want to see or hear the Truth)

Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a fantastic film, no less excellent for its surprisingly subtle political commentary. Far better than any direct attack ad, this film blasts President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while telling a compelling story of terror and heroism.
Cinekatz reviewer Vivek Subramanyam declared that “Michael Bay was born to make this movie.” Despite its hyperbole, this statement captures the combination of the action director behind “Transformers” and the tragic but thrilling tale of the September 11, 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
The film, based on the Mitchell Zuckoff book 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, tells the story of six ex-military security contractors working for a secret CIA base near the diplomatic compound which housed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The movie shows how difficult it was for these men to tell friend from foe -- were the native Libyans on their side, or waiting for the perfect moment to kill them?
A nail-biter from start to finish, 13 Hours shows events in what seems like real time, jumping from location to location. The film has a purposefully disorienting feel, heightened by ominous music and stunning cinematography -- each shot captures incredible detail of a city at war with itself.
The movie is surprisingly funny despite the grave circumstances. (One commando asks another: “You’re going to fight the Holy War in your shorts? Strong move.”) The acting mostly takes a backseat to the action, but John Krasinski (Navy SEAL Jack Silva) and James Badge Dale (Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods) nail their characters' courage. Woods’ disobeyal of direct orders (“None of you have to go, but we are the only hope they have”) is powerful.

Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump's presidential bid

Former vice-presidential nominee and governor of Alaska Sarah Palin made her first foray into the 2016 presidential race Tuesday by announcing she is endorsing Donald Trump. 
"I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States of America," Palin said in a statement from the Trump campaign announcing the endorsement.
She later appeared alongside Trump at a campaign event at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa
“You’re putting relationships on the line for this country because you’re willing to make America great again,” she said at the rally. “I am here because like you, I know it’s now or never.”
“I’m in it to win it because we believe in America,” she added.
Trump told supporters he was “greatly honored” to receive Palin’s support.
“She’s the woman that from day one I said I needed to get her support,” he said.
Palin, who became a symbol of the Tea Party movement following the 2008 presidential election, is the highest-profile backer for a Republican contender so far in the race.
In her endorsement speech, Palin praised Trump for bringing up controversial issues to create “a good, heated primary,” while taking aim at what she called “establishment candidates” in the race.
“They’ve been wearing political correctness kind of like a suicide vest,” she said.
The endorsement comes less than two weeks ahead of the critical lead-off Iowa caucus, where Trump is locked in a dead heat with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
In the statement announcing the endorsement, Trump's campaign described Palin as a conservative who "helped launch the careers of several key future leaders of the Republican Party and conservative movement." The statement also quoted Cruz as once saying he "would not be in the United States Senate were it not for Gov. Sarah Palin...She can pick winners."
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Tuesday, Cruz responded to Palin's endorsement of Trump, saying "regardless of what Sarah intends to do in 2016, I will remain a big, big fan of Sarah Palin."
Trump's national political director Michael Glassner previously worked with Palin, who was a virtual newcomer to the national political arena when McCain named her as his running mate.
Palin is expected to join Trump on Wednesday for campaign events in Norwalk, Iowa and Tulsa, Okla.
“Even with a record number of candidates and internal calls to become more inclusive as a party, Donald Trump and Sarah Palin remain two of the GOP’s most influential leaders," Mark Paustenbach, Democratic National Committee Press secretary, said in a statement responding to the endorsement.
"Their divisive rhetoric is now peddled by everyone from Ted Cruz to Marco Rubio.  Americans deserve better than what Trump and Palin have to offer, but it seems like the other Republican candidates would rather follow in their footsteps,” the statement continued.
Palin's endorsement was not the only one Trump received Tuesday. While campaigning at Iowa's John Wayne Birthplace Museum, he received an endorsement from the western film actor’s daughter, Aissa Wayne.
Wayne said the country needs a strong and courageous leader like her father, and that he would be offering his endorsement if he were still alive.
Trump said he was a big fan of Wayne and that the actor represented strength and power — which, he said, the American people are looking for.