Marine jailed in Mexico receives order to report to USMC superiors

Sgt. Maj. M.E. Sprague (Idiot)

Sgt. Tahmooressi & Mother Jill

             It might be the first order U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi doesn't obey.
The mother of the reservist, who is being held in a Mexican jail after mistakenly crossing the border with registered guns, told FoxNews.com her son just got an "Order to Muster" letter from the Marines telling Tahmooressi to report to the 4th Civil Affairs Group in Hialeah, Fla., on June 14. Although a Marine spokeswoman later told FoxNews.com that the corps is aware of Tahmooressi's current circumstances and does not expect him to report, failure typically can result in "other than honorable discharge" and affect Veterans Administration benefits.

"You are among the elite citizens of our nation who, if needed, are ready to answer the call to defend our freedom.,"- Letter from USMC to Marine jailed in Mexico

"You are among the elite citizens of our nation who, if needed, are ready to answer the call to defend our freedom," reads the May 9 order written by Sgt. Maj. M.E. Sprague, which also reminds the recipient that, "Once a Marine, always a Marine."
Jill Tahmooressi said the letter was the latest painful reminder of her son's plight despite service to his country that includes two tours of duty in Afghanistan resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder. Tahmooressi was arrested March 31, after accidentally driving into Mexico with three legally purchased weapons in his truck.
A Marine Corps spokesman told FoxNews.com reservists on Individual Ready Reserve, as Tahmooressi is, are contractually required to attend the one-day session to have their physical readiness evaluated should they be recalled to active duty. The letter does not represent a call-up to active duty.
Jill Tahmooressi, who has been able to speak to her son by telephone, said she did not know if the Marines sent the letter mistakenly, or did not know of his situation.
"I haven't called the Marines about this," she said.
Maj. Tamarra Jones, a Marine Force Reserves spokeswoman, said the corps is fully aware of Tahmooressi's situation and has been following it closely.
"This is an exceptional circumstance and Sgt. Tahmooressi won't be penalized for not attending this meeting," Jones told FoxNews.com.
Tahmooressi, who joined the military in 2008, was a .50 caliber gunner in the top position of a Humvee, according to his mother. His bravery in combat earned him a battlefield promotion to sergeant.
The fearful mom hopes her son's training and bravery will sustain him through his current ordeal. Tahmooressi attempted an escape from a notorious state-run jail in Tijuana shortly after his arrest. He has since been transferred to a federal penitentiary in Tecate, Mexico. 
His first court hearing is scheduled for May 28, but will likely not result in any decision. The arresting Mexican border officials are slated to make a statement to the judge, who holds Tahmooressi's fate in his hands alone. There are no jury trials in Mexico.
Meanwhile, a petition drive has been launched to spur President Obama's intervention in the case. In order for the White House to automatically look into the case, 100,000 signatures must be gathered by May 31. As of Tuesday, there are about 30,000 signatures attached to the petition.

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In-laws Bill and Hillary Clinton can't swing Pennsylvania House race for Margolies

Bill and Hillary Clinton can fundraise and stump for old friends like few others, but their political touch was not enough Tuesday to help an in-law win back her old House seat. 
Marjorie Margolies, whose son Marc Mezvinsky is married to Clinton daughter Chelsea, lost the Democratic primary for an open House seat in Pennsylvania representing eastern Philadelphia and its more affluent Montgomery County suburb. 
Early returns showed state Rep. Brendan Boyle winning the race, according to The Associated Press, virtually assuring him of becoming the successor to Democratic Rep. Allyson Schwartz. Boyle was the only one of the four candidates in the race from Philadelphia.
Former President Clinton headlined an April fundraiser in Philadelphia for Margolies that reportedly raised roughly $200,000. And the former first lady, who is eyeing a potential 2016 presidential run, appeared at a May 15 fundraiser for her in New York.
The fundraiser was at the New York City home of Lynn Forester de Rothschild with tickets costing $1,000 to $5,000 a person.
Though the families are connected through their children’s July 2010 marriage, the Clinton-Margolies political relationship dates back to 1993. That's when Margolies cast a deciding vote on a Clinton budget that included a tax increase on upper-income Americans, including many in the congresswoman’s then-Republican-leaning 13th congressional district.
Margolies lost in her bid for a second term in the 1994 GOP wave election, which prompted some people to say the Clintons owe her one.
“I want to get one thing out of the way; I would be here if her son was not my son-in-law,” the former president said at the April fundraiser, according to The New York Times.
He also donated the maximum $2,600 and was featured in a video ad for Margolies.
Margolies' son could not directly participate in the campaign because he runs a hedge fund and her daughter-in-law was not allowed to because she is a special correspondent for NBC News.
Margolies, 71, also lost a 1998 bid for lieutenant governor and dropped out of her 2000 Senate campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

VA health care inquiry expands as House prepares bill to enhance secretary's authority

The Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General's Office said late Tuesday that 26 facilities were being investigated nationwide over allegations of manipulated waiting times and other issues. 
The disclosure comes as the House of Representatives prepares to vote Wednesday on a bill that would give VA Secretary Eric Shinseki greater authority to fire or demote senior executives. 
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, sponsored the measure, saying VA officials who have presided over mismanagement or negligence are more likely to receive bonuses or glowing performance reviews than any sort of punishment.
The VA's "widespread and systemic lack of accountability is exacerbating all of its most pressing problems," including revelations that the department maintained secret waiting lists to cover up long delays in patient appointments and a mounting toll of preventable deaths of veterans, Miller said.
Miller accused the VA of a "well-documented reluctance to ensure its leaders are held accountable for mistakes" and said Congress has an obligation to "give the VA secretary the authority he needs to fix things. That's what my bill would do."
Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said the White House shares the goals of the House bill — to ensure accountability at the VA — but was concerned about some of the details.
Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation this week to ensure that internal probes by the VA's Office of Medical Inspector are released to Congress and the public "so the full scope of the VA's dysfunction cannot be disguised."
Moran noted that a VA nurse in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was put on leave this month for allegedly telling employees to falsify appointment records. The action came after an email about possible wait-list manipulation at the Cheyenne hospital was leaked to the media.
But Moran said the Cheyenne center was already the subject of a December 2013 report by Office of the Medical Inspector. That report apparently substantiated claims of improper scheduling practices, but it's unclear if action taken at the Cheyenne center was based on the medical inspector's findings, Moran said.
"Because OMI reports are not available to the public and have not been previously released to Congress, it is impossible to know whether the VA has taken action to implement the OMI's recommendations for improvement in each case," Moran said.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors is scheduled to travel to Phoenix Thursday to meet with staff at the VA office where the crisis began after allegations of delayed care that may have led to patient deaths and a cover-up by top administrators.
A former clinic director said that as many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting treatment at the Phoenix hospital and that staff, at the instruction of administrators, kept a secret list of patients waiting for appointments to hide delays in care.
Investigators probing the claims say they have so far not linked any patient deaths in Phoenix to delayed care.
The current director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, Sharon Helman, has been placed on leave indefinitely while the VA's inspector general investigates the claims raised by several former VA employees.
Shinseki and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met with the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday to discuss how the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments can improve interactions between their health records systems. The two Cabinet members said in a joint statement that the meeting was productive and said both men share the same goal: to improve health outcomes of active-duty military, veterans and beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, two Republican senators introduced legislation to prohibit payment of bonuses to employees at the Veterans Health Administration through next year. Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Deb Fischer of Nebraska said the VA should focus its spending on fixing problems at the agency, "not rewarding employees entrenched in a failing bureaucracy." Burr is the senior Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and Fischer is on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The House passed a bill in February that would eliminate performance bonuses for the department's senior executive staff through 2018.
Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, also called on Obama to back off plans to nominate Jeffrey Murawsky to replace the VA's undersecretary for health care, Robert Petzel, who has stepped down. Murawsky, a career VA administrator, directly supervised Helman from 2010 to 2012.
The White House has said Obama remains confident in Shinseki's leadership and is standing behind Murawsky's nomination.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

China summons US envoy, warns that cyberspying charges could harm ties

China has warned the U.S. that it is jeopardizing its military ties with Beijing and demanded that Washington withdraw an indictment brought by the Justice Department against five Chinese military officials accused of hacking into U.S. companies to steal trade secrets. 
The state-run Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday that Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang summoned Ambassador Max Baucus on Monday night to make a formal complaint about the charges. 
A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry Monday night said the charges were based on "fabricated facts" and would jeopardize China-U.S. "cooperation and mutual trust."
"China is steadfast in upholding cybersecurity," said the statement, which was read again Tuesday on state television's midday news broadcast. "The Chinese government, the Chinese military and their relevant personnel have never engaged or participated in cyber-theft of trade secrets. The U.S. accusation against Chinese personnel is purely ungrounded and absurd."
"The Chinese government and Chinese military as well as relevant personnel have never engaged and never participated in so-called cyber theft of trade secrets," said a foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, at a news briefing Tuesday. "What the United States should do now is withdraw its indictment."
In its statement, the Defense Ministry repeated the charges, but added that the U.S. accusations would send a chill through gradually warming relations between their two militaries.
"Up to now, relations between the China-U.S. militaries had been development well overall," the ministry said. "The U.S., by this action, betrays its commitment to building healthy, stable, reliable military-to-military relations and causes serious damage to mutual trust between the sides."
The charges are the biggest challenge to relations since a meeting last summer between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Sunnylands, California.
Ties already were under strain due to conflicts over what Washington says are provocative Chinese moves to assert claims over disputed areas of the East and South China Seas. Beijing complains the Obama administration's effort to shift foreign policy emphasis toward Asia and expand its military presence in the region is emboldening Japan and other neighbors and fueling tension.
China's response marks an escalation in a dispute over U.S. claims that the Chinese military is illegally helping the country's massive state industries.
China has already strongly denounced the charges and says it is suspending cooperation with the U.S. in a joint cybersecurity working group. The group was formed last year in the wake of allegations of Chinese military involvement in online commercial espionage. China has denied those allegations as well. 
The case against the defendants, who have never set foot in the United States, was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder Monday in Washington. When asked whether there was any hope the Chinese government would hand over the officials, Holder said only the "intention" is for the defendants to face the charges in a U.S. court, and he hopes to have Chinese government cooperation.
But the Chinese government immediately signaled it would not cooperate, claiming the accusations were made up and warning the case would damage U.S.-China relations.
According to Reuters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang urged "immediate rectification."
The highly touted indictment appears to serve more to shed light on the growing problem of cyber-espionage than to guarantee any of the defendants will have their day in a Pittsburgh, Pa., federal court, where the case is being brought.
U.S. prosecutors described the alleged crimes as "21st century burglary."
The indictment accused the Chinese officials of targeting the U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar products industries. The alleged victims include major U.S. firms like Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric and U.S. Steel Corp.
Holder said the hackers were targeting a total of six American companies, stealing information deemed useful to companies in China, including state-owned firms. He stressed that the alleged hacking is far different than the type of intelligence gathering conducted by governments around the world, in that this involved cyber-espionage for the sheer purpose of gaining the commercial upper hand against U.S. businesses.
"This is a tactic that the United States government categorically denounces," Holder said. "This case should serve as a wake-up call to the seriousness of the ongoing cyberthreat."
The charges were described as the first such case brought against state actors. The specific charges relate to cyber-espionage and theft of trade secrets.
John Carlin, recently installed as head of the Justice's National Security Division, had identified the prosecution of state-sponsored cyberthreats as a goal for the Obama administration.
"For the first time, we are exposing the faces and names behind the keyboards in Shanghai used to steal from American businesses," he said Monday, accusing the Chinese officials of "stealing the fruits of our labor."
The other victims listed include Allegheny Technologies, United Steelworkers Union, and SolarWorld.
U.S. officials have accused China's army and China-based hackers of launching attacks on American industrial and military targets, often to steal secrets or intellectual property. China has said that it faces a major threat from hackers, and the country's military is believed to be among the biggest targets of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.
Last September, President Obama discussed cybersecurity issues on the sidelines of a summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
White House spokesman Ben Rhodes said at the time that Obama had addressed concerns about cyber threats emanating from China. He said Obama told Xi the U.S. sees it not through the prism of security, but out of concern over theft of trade secrets.
In late March, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel revealed that the Pentagon planned to more than triple its cybersecurity staff in the next few years to defend against Internet attacks that threaten national security.
Hagel's comments at the National Security Agency headquarters in suburban Washington came as he prepared to visit China.
"Our nation's reliance on cyberspace outpaces our cybersecurity," Hagel said at the time. "Our nation confronts the proliferation of destructive malware and a new reality of steady, ongoing and aggressive efforts to probe, access or disrupt public and private networks, and the industrial control systems that manage our water, and our energy and our food supplies."

Secretive Soros-backed group looking to spend nearly $40M in 2014

A secretive dark money group backed by George Soros and other liberal mega-donors is looking to steer nearly $40 million to left-wing groups in 2014 to support high-profile political and policy efforts, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. 
The documents reveal for the first time the Democracy Alliance's full portfolio of supported organizations, a large network of powerful liberal groups looking to win key electoral and legislative victories. 
The Democracy Alliance connects major Democratic donors with some of the largest and most influential liberal activist groups in the country. Previous beneficiaries, such as the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for America, are set to get millions more in 2014. 
The list also reveals DA support for newer organizations, such as Organizing for Action, the advocacy group that succeeded President Barack Obama's reelection campaign. That group has received official sanction from the White House, and operates websites and social media accounts branded with the president's name. 
In all, the document reveals, the Democracy Alliance hopes to provide $39.3 million to 20 organizations this year. If it meets those fundraising targets, it will likely be responsible for one out of every five dollars in those groups' 2014 budgets. 
Alliance-supported organizations will spend more than $175 million in 2014, according to budget projections contained in the document. 
The Democracy Alliance is highly secretive in all of its operations. The donors it solicits and the organization to which it directs their financial support are prohibited from speaking publicly about its operations. 
Security was tight at its recent conference in Chicago where reporters from the Free Beacon and Politico were rebuffed by attendees who would not answer questions about their involvement with the group. 
The Free Beacon obtained and recently published a list of new Alliance "partners" -- individuals and organizations that must pay $30,000 in dues and contribute at least $200,000 to DA-aligned groups each year -- providing previously unreported details on its financial backing. 
Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon.

VA inspector general's office was reportedly told of wait lists months before scandal broke

The office of the Veterans Administration's Inspector General had launched an investigation into claims that the VA's Albuquerque hospital was hiding the length of time patients were made to wait for treatment months before a similar scandal was made public at the VA's Phoenix facility, according to a published report. 
The Albuquerque Journal reported Friday that the Inspector General's office had started an inquiry after receiving complaints from employees that wait times were being falsified by officials. However, the paper said that the status of the investigation was unclear. 
On Sunday, The Daily Beast, citing an unnamed doctor at the Albuquerque VA hospital, reported that patients faced an eight-month wait to get ultrasounds of their hearts, and a four-month wait to see a cardiologist, with some dying before they could receive the results of their examinations. 
The report said that there was no proof that veterans had actually died waiting for treatment, as was allegedly the case at the hospital in Phoenix where lists were also kept. However, the doctor told the website that officials are trying to hide any evidence of a waiting list's existence. The steps being taken reportedly include removing or renaming databases.
"When everyone found out the [inspector general] was doing the audit, the word I heard was 'make sure nothing is left out in the open,'" the VA doctor told The Daily Beast. "And that ranged from make sure there's no food out to make sure there’s no information out in the open."
The reports of secret waiting lists have led to an investigation by the VA's inspector general and the resignation Friday of Dr. Robert Petzel, the VA's undersecretary for health. However, critics have said that the Obama administration's response has not been strong enough, due in part to the fact that Petzel was already planning to retire.

Plan to name Lake Tahoe cove after Mark Twain scrapped after tribe complains

RENO, Nev. –  A state panel has effectively killed a bid to name a Lake Tahoe cove for Mark Twain, citing opposition from a tribe that says he held racist views on Native Americans.
The Nevada State Board on Geographic Names this week voted to indefinitely table the request after hearing opposition from the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, whose ancestral homeland includes Lake Tahoe.
Supporters had sought to name a scenic cove on the lake's northeast shore for Samuel Clemens, Twain's real name.
But Darrel Cruz, head of the tribe's cultural resource department, said Twain was undeserving of the honor because of derogatory comments about the Washoe and other tribes in his writings.
Among other things, he cited Twain's opposition to the naming of the lake as Tahoe, which is derived from the Washoe word "da ow" for lake.
Cruz also objected to a Twain quote about Lake Tahoe: "People say that Tahoe means 'Silver Lake' — 'Limpid Water' — 'Falling Leaf.' Bosh! It means grasshopper soup, the favorite dish of the digger tribe — and of the Pi-utes as well."
Cruz said Washoes dislike being referred to as the "digger tribe," a derogatory term applied to some tribes in the West who dug roots for food. Other tribes ate grasshoppers.
"Samuel Clemens had racist views on the native people of this country and has captured those views in his literature," Cruz wrote in a letter to the board. "Therefore, we cannot support the notion of giving a place name in Lake Tahoe to Samuel Clemens."
But James Hulse, history professor emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno, said it's irrelevant whether Twain's writings were insulting to Native Americans.
The cove should be named for Twain because he praised Tahoe's beauty while visiting the lake in 1861-1862, and he became one of America's most beloved authors after assuming his pen name as a Nevada newspaper reporter around the same time, Hulse said.
"In his early days, (Twain's) ironic-comic mode was insulting to everyone, including governors, legislators, mine bosses and journalistic colleagues," he told the board. "He learned and overcame his prejudices far better than most of his contemporaries and successors."
Thomas Quirk, an English professor emeritus at the University of Missouri and leading Twain scholar, said the author eventually overcame his racism against blacks. But Quirk said he has found no evidence that he significantly changed his views on American Indians.
Twain did not embrace the idea of idolizing what he called the "noble red man," Quirk said, and poked fun at writer James Fenimore Cooper for doing so.
"When it comes to African Americans, he was ahead of his time substantially," he said. "When it comes to Native Americans, his record is not very good. If he were alive today, he would sing a different tune."
Board member Robert Stewart, who initiated the plan to name the cove for Clemens, said it's unlikely it would resurface.
He said he dropped his support of it, even though he learned about a later letter Twain wrote objecting to the treatment of tribes in Arizona and New Mexico.
"I have a great deal of respect for the Washoe Tribe. And if their cultural committee is unhappy with naming the cove for Mark Twain, I'm not going to fight them," Stewart said. "We need to show sensitivity to the tribe."
Stewart said he still believes the cove near Incline Village is where Twain camped and accidentally started a wildfire while preparing to cook dinner in September 1861. But David Antonucci, a civil engineer from Homewood, California, maintains Twain camped on the California side of the lake.
It's the second time the bid to name the cove for Twain failed. In 2011, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names rejected the request after the U.S. Forest Service said Twain's influence on the Sierra Nevada lake was minimal and other historical figures were more deserving of the honor.
Supporters sought to honor him because there is no geographic feature in the state named for Twain, whose book "Roughing It" put Nevada on the map.