WASHINGTON – Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the
Libyan militant charged in the 2012 Benghazi attacks, is in federal law
enforcement custody and could face a judge as early as Saturday,
authorities said. Khatallah is being held at a federal courthouse in D.C. amid tight
security, Department of Justice spokesman William Miller said. He was flown to Washington by helicopter shortly after sunrise from a
navy warship, where he had been held since his capture nearly two weeks
ago. Khatallah is accused of being involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack
in Libya that led to the deaths of former U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens,
information officer Sean Smith, and former navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and
Glen Doherty. Stevens, 52, was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979. There’s a possibility that Khatallah could face a federal judge
Saturday afternoon for an initial court appearance at which the
government would outline the charges against him. He almost certainly would remain in detention while the Justice Department seeks a federal grand jury indictment against him. U.S. Special Forces captured Khatallah during a nighttime raid in
Libya June 15-16, marking the first breakthrough in the investigation of
the Benghazi attacks. A newly unsealed criminal complaint accuses Khatallah of killing a
person during an attack on a federal facility, a crime punishable by
death; providing federal support to terrorists resulting in death; and
using a firearm in a crime of violence. U.S. authorities have said they are looking to identify and capture additional co-conspirators. Khatallah, a prominent figure in Benghazi's circles of extremists who
was popular among young radicals, acknowledged in an interview with The
Associated Press in January that he was present during the storming of
the U.S. mission in Benghazi. But he denied involvement in the attack,
saying he was trying to organize a rescue of trapped people. Prosecuting Khatallah will be a test of the Obama administration’s
commitment to try suspected terrorists in the American criminal justice
system even as Republicans in Congress call for Khatallah and others to
be held at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Khatallah is one of just a few cases in which the administration has
captured a suspected terrorist overseas and interrogated him for
intelligence purposes before bringing him to federal court to face
charges.
Sen. Thad Cochran's GOP primary victory, thanks in part to black
Mississippians who turned out to vote for him, exemplifies a new math
that politicians of all persuasions may be forced to learn as this
country's voting population slowly changes complexion. Cochran's campaign courted black voters, perceiving their unhappiness
with his Tea Party-supported opponent, Chris McDaniel, and his
anti-government rhetoric and scathing criticisms of President Obama.
Blacks responded by turning out to help give Cochran an almost
7,000-vote win. The use of Mississippi's open primary to further their
agenda showed political maturity by black voters and debunked a
longstanding belief that they obediently vote Democratic and not
according to their own interests. They turned out for a primary runoff with no Democratic candidate
involved. And they voted Republican even though the smart play for the
Democrats would have been to usher McDaniel to victory and create a more
winnable contest for Democrat Travis Childers in November. "I think that Thad Cochran is a shot across the bow to be felt for a
long time," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was the first minority
presidential candidate to win a statewide primary or caucus in 1984 and
1988. "You cannot win in the new South or win in national elections with
all-white primaries. This is a new America today." Tests of this assertion are coming next month in Alabama and Georgia,
also Southern states with large minority populations and open
primaries. The Mississippi race may be a harbinger of more strategic
voting for minority voters, especially African Americans, said D'Andra
Orey, a political science professor at Jackson State University in
Jackson, Mississippi. "This is not a one-time situation," Orey said. "Blacks do recognize
their power in the vote, and in this particular case, blacks saw that
they could actually defeat or be a strong influence ... in defeating
McDaniel." In Mississippi, which is 38 percent black and on track to become the
country's first majority-black state, some black voters said they
planned to support Cochran, a six-term incumbent, again in November.
Others said they would keep their options open in November or vote for
the Democrat, even though they considered Cochran a better choice than
McDaniel in the red state. "I just think that McDaniel did as much for the Cochran turnout in
the black community as Cochran people did," said Democratic Rep. Bennie
Thompson, Mississippi's sole black congressman. Agitating minority voters may soon prove politically risky anywhere
in the nation: The numbers of black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American
voters are growing not only in presidential election years but in
off-cycle elections as well, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In presidential election years, the percentage of black voters
eclipsed the percentage of whites for the first time in 2012, when 66.2
percent of blacks voted, compared to 64.1 percent of non-Hispanics
whites and about 48 percent of Hispanics and Asians. The number of African-American and other minority voters has also
been increasing during off-cycle, non-presidential elections. For
example, in the 2010 congressional and statewide elections, 47.8 percent
of non-Hispanic whites, 40.7 percent of blacks, 21.3 percent of Asians
and 20.5 percent of Hispanics voted. But the only groups to increase their numbers were blacks and
Hispanics, who voted at 38.6 percent and 19.3 percent respectively in
2006 congressional and statewide elections. The white and Asian
participation rate dropped during that same time period from 50.5
percent and 21.8 percent. And black participation in off-year elections has been steadily
increasing since 1994, when it was 37.1 percent. In 1998, it 39.6
percent, in 2002 39.7 percent and a slight dip in 2006 at 38.6 percent.
No other group showed a similar increase. Black voting increased during the Mississippi GOP primary. Statewide
turnout increased by almost 70,000 votes over the June 3 primary, with
turnout in majority-black counties growing by 43 percent, while in
counties where blacks are less than a majority, it grew 17 percent. Carol M. Swain, a law and political science professor at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, doubted those voters would become Republicans
but said they could become swing voters in some races. "I believe they
may have purchased some influence with the Republican establishment that
could benefit blacks in the long run," Swain said. Democrats, in return, plan to address more African American issues in
upcoming campaign, but they have been warned not to take those votes
for granted. At a recent meeting with black journalists and advocates,
several U.S. senators were warned that some black voters had noticed
that Democrats had no problem talking about veterans' issues, women's
issues or LBGT issues, but seemed hesitant to talk about and address
black issues on the Senate floor. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he could understand how "off-putting" it
could be that Democrats "are all about equality and all about the big
tent, but we're talking about other folks and not us," a loyal voting
base. "I hadn't really thought about our strong advocacy on these diversity
issues actually could have an undercurrent of 'We must not be that
important because you're not talking about us the same way,'" Kaine
said. Recognition of that can only be a good thing for minority voters, Swain said. "The positive thing to come out of this is that more white candidates
and incumbents will campaign among black voters, and maybe they will
deliver more," she said.
Bailey: A Democrat wants someone else to take care of all their problems. A Republican believes in taking care of the problem themselves. Simple answer to the question about why stupid lazy people like bigger government.
A political storm has erupted in Washington state involving a
whistleblower who claims she was retaliated against after raising
concerns about ObamaCare's implementation. Patricia Petersen, a hearings officer in the state's Office of the
Insurance Commissioner (OIC), filed a whistleblower complaint alleging
coercion and corruption in the OIC, which is tasked with implementing
the Affordable Care Act. She said Chief Deputy James Odiorne threatened
her job if she didn’t rule the way Commissioner Mike Kreidler -- a
supporter of the law -- wanted. "If a judge is told by a party to decide his cases in a certain way,
or one party can threaten the judge’s job if the case is not decided in
that party’s favor, then this central pillar of our democratic society
is corroded,” Petersen said at a recent hearing called by the Senate Law
and Justice Committee. One of the cases before Petersen involved Seattle Children’s
Hospital, the premiere pediatric care facility in the Pacific Northwest.
The hospital was kept out of the state health care exchange by
Kreidler, who deemed Seattle Children’s care too expensive. Kreidler, speaking to Fox News in October 2013, said: “You’re going
to find that their business plan needs to be altered in order to really
be competitive in the marketplace, so they’re offering services at the
most reasonable price.” But after Petersen granted Seattle Children’s Hospital a hearing to
appeal Kreidler’s decision, Odiorne wrote this in a job
evaluation: “Since your orders are legally the acts of the Commissioner,
they must be orders that he supports.” Republican lawmakers cried foul. “She has to be completely independent,” said Republican state Sen.
Randi Becker. “She has to be able to make her decisions, her rulings,
based upon law, not upon somebody’s desire.” Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley, a Democrat, denied Petersen’s
request for whistleblower status. Kelley wrote, “There are other avenues
available for addressing your assertion.” Petersen was then placed on paid leave and became the subject of an
investigation for mailing a copy of her original complaint to an
attorney who represents Seattle Children’s Hospital. She claims the "ex
parte" communication was an inadvertent mistake. But several Democrats say Petersen is wrong about her independence.
She is a 28-year employee in the OIC and, according to some, is
Kreidler’s designee. “It’s his work,” said Democratic state Sen. Adam Kline. “She is
sitting at his desk when this happens. And she is emphatically not an
independent judge.” The OIC website seems to contradict that claim. In the section on
appealing the commissioner’s rulings, the department writes,
“Administrative hearings are legal proceedings to review the
commissioner’s action before an impartial judge.” It later states, “The
decision of the Chief Presiding Officer becomes the final decision of
the agency and is not subject to review by the Commissioner or any
member of his staff.” Paul Guppy, a senior policy analyst for the Washington Policy Center,
a libertarian-leaning think tank, said the scandal is driven by support
for a law that won’t work on its own to lower the cost of health care. “As the Affordable Care Act is pushed in Washington state, more and
more of these contradictions emerge, and this case is just one of them,”
Guppy said. The insurance commissioner declined Fox News' request for an
interview, saying the office was conducting its own independent
personnel investigation. The lawyer doing the probe was selected by his
office. Dan Springer joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in August 2001 as a Seattle-based correspondent.
Mexican military officials are apologizing for firing from a chopper
at two U.S. Border Patrol agents early Thursday, but one lawmaker says
the incident draws a disturbing contrast with the case of Andrew
Tahmooressi, the U.S. Marine sergeant whose apology for accidentally
crossing the border hasn't spared him a legal nightmare. Mexican authorities were conducting a drug interdiction operation on
the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation, which straddles the border, when they
strayed into U.S. air space and fired at the agents, who were not
injured. The reservation is a hotbed for drug smuggling, and authorities
from both governments have conducted operations on it.
"It's ironic that Mexico says it acted accidentally in this
case, and they ask we accept an apology, when they refuse to acknowledge
an authentic mistake on Andrew's part."- Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
"Early [Thursday] morning, a Mexican law enforcement helicopter
crossed approximately 100 yards north into Arizona nearly eight miles
southwest of the Village of San Miguel on the Tohono O'odham Indian
Nation while on a drug interdiction operation near the border," U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Michael Friel said. "Two shots were
fired from the helicopter but no injuries or damage to U.S. property
were reported. The incident is currently under investigation." Art del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol union's Tucson local,
said Mexican officials contacted U.S. authorities to apologize for the
incident. While no one is claiming the incident was intentional, it brought to
mind for some another accidental border crossing. Tahmooressi was
arrested at the Tijuana Port of Entry March 31 after mistakenly crossing
into Mexico, where he immediately told officials he had three
registered guns in his pickup truck. But instead of letting him turn
around, Mexican security officials charged him with possession of
weapons and ammunition. He faces up to 10 years in prison if he is
convicted. "It's ironic that Mexico says it acted accidentally in this case, and
they ask we accept an apology, when they refuse to acknowledge an
authentic mistake on Andrew's part," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a
former Marine who has championed Tahmooressi's cause. "There are
mistakes and there are excuses. Andrew's actions were the result of
wrong turn, a simple mistake. Mexico is just making an excuse and no
different than the border incursion that are too regular, U.S. officials
should approach this incident with absolute seriousness." Shawn Moran, a Border Patrol agent and vice president of the Border
Patrol Council, said mistakes that put his colleagues in peril are not
easily dismissed. "This is not the first incident where Mexican military/law
enforcement has crossed the border and fired at our agents," Moran said.
"It is a legitimate concern of ours and makes us wonder who we can
trust on the south side."
An industry group is claiming the IRS should have kept full records
of its apparent destruction of ex-official Lois Lerner's hard drive,
saying "the notion that these emails just magically vanished makes no
sense whatsoever." The latest to weigh in on the lost emails controversy is the head of
the International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers.
Group president Barbara Rembiesa released a statement on Thursday
questioning recent testimony by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who told
Congress last Friday that Lerner's hard drive was "recycled and
destroyed" after it crashed in 2011. She claimed that a certified "IT asset destruction" team should have been brought in to document and complete that process. "If this was done, there would be records. If this was not done, this
is the smoking gun that proves the drive or drives were destroyed
improperly -- or not at all," she said. Rembiesa adds her voice to a growing list of industry experts dubious
about agency claims that Lerner's emails disappeared after a hard-drive
crash in 2011. Lerner is the former head of the Exempt Organizations division, and
is at the heart of the controversy over agency targeting of Tea Party
groups. After the IRS revealed earlier this month that many of her
emails from 2009 to 2011 were gone, outraged Republicans arranged a
rapid-fire string of hearings on the matter -- and on the sidelines, some computer experts backed up their suspicions. The IRS, though, insists this was simply a case of a routine computer
failure -- one of thousands across the federal government. Koskinen
testified on the matter twice since last week, stressing that despite
the computer problems, the agency was able to recover 67,000 Lerner
emails, including 24,000 from other accounts, from January 2009 to May
2013. "It's not unusual for computers anywhere to fail, especially at the
IRS in light of the aged equipment IRS employees often have to use,"
Koskinen testified Monday, claiming over 2,000 agency workers had
hard-drive crashes so far this year. Last Friday, he told the House Ways and Means Committee that he
understands Lerner's hard drive was physically destroyed after
technicians were unable to recover data from it in 2011. At that hearing, Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., suggested that the
government might have a tracking system of sorts. Koskinen said he
wasn't aware of whether hard drives have "identifiers," but said: "If
they have serial numbers, you're welcome to them." Apparently not satisfied with the response, Camp and Rep. Charles
Boustany, R-La., blasted out a new round of requests on Friday to
various branches of the Obama administration asking for details on how
they learned of the crash and information from the IRS on the effort to
retrieve data from agency computers. They requested the serial numbers
of all failed devices and documents on efforts to recover the data. "We still can't get straight answers from the IRS or this
administration about the circumstances of the destroyed IRS emails,"
they said in a statement. Meanwhile, Republican calls on Capitol Hill for a special prosecutor to probe the IRS were getting louder. "All this garbage about, they have old computers is ridiculous. They
have the best software. The best hardware," Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas,
said. Gohmert says money should be offered to get to the bottom of the
missing emails -- $1 million to recover them, and $500,000 for
information on who destroyed them. "We know those emails are out there. We know they can be found," he said. "We just need people to help find them." Koskinen, though, claimed there was no crime involved. In Minnesota on Thursday, President Obama referred to recent
controversies as "phony scandals," suggesting they are all about
politics. "It's all geared towards the next election or ginning up a base," he
said. "It's not on the level. And that must feel frustrating, and it
makes people cynical."
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service isn’t the only government agency dealing with missing emails or faulty hard drives.
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy on
Wednesday cited a similar cyber snafu during a House Oversight Committee
hearing.
“Another missing hard drive?” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, asked McCarthy.
She responded, “We are having trouble acquiring the data.”
Wednesday’s hearing was called in response to allegations of rampant
employee misconduct as well as a pattern of obstruction of oversight
efforts by the committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., threatened to hold the EPA in contempt
of Congress over subpoenaed documents he claimed her agency was
purposely withholding.
“You have not complied with the subpoena,” Issa charged. “I’m
informing you today that it is my intention to hold the Environmental
Protection Agency in contempt.”
The EPA is being accused of slow-walking several requests by the
House committee to provide lawmakers with documents involving alleged
employee misconduct on a number of thorny issues, including conflicts
among the EPA, the Office of Inspector General and agency management as
well as the EPA’s action related to the veto of the controversial Pebble
Mine project in Alaska.
Lawmakers at the hearing wanted McCarthy to address lost emails from a
hard-drive crash at the agency that wiped out some emails from former
employee Philip North to his bosses at the EPA over the controversial
Alaska mine project.
Complicating matters, North has gone off the proverbial grid, making
it difficult for lawmakers to issue a subpoena for him to testify.
Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., asked McCarthy if she knew where North was.
“No sir, I don’t know that,” she responded.
Bentivolio pressed McCarthy about claims North’s hard drive crashed, making some of his emails unavailable.
McCarthy said the EPA has submitted all the documents it has been able to find and will “continue the search.”
“There are some gaps, but we have submitted significant amounts,” McCarthy said.
Emails from North, now retired, recently surfaced that seemed to show
the Alaska-based biologist tried to get the Pebble Mine project killed
as far back as 2008.
Those emails -- and memos indicating government officials worked
early on with tribal leaders and environmental groups to oppose the
venture -- raised questions about the agency's claims that when it
ultimately vetoed the gold-and-copper mine project, it did so based on
scientific evidence.
Emails from North’s account show that he “appeared to have played a
key role in the EPA’s decision to pursue a veto,” Caitlin Carroll, a
spokeswoman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,
told FoxNews.com.
When he was still reachable, North was asked multiple times to come
in and talk to lawmakers about the project. He offered up a list of
complications that prevented him from meeting with the government,
including a pre-planned, one-year boat ride around the world with his
school-aged children.
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows asked McCarthy whether North had
backed up his emails and suggested there might be a violation of federal
record-keeping rules.
McCarthy said she notified the National Archives of the matter Tuesday, adding, “I am still hoping we recover all the emails.”
The Internal Revenue Service has been at the center of a controversy
over allegations that it unfairly targeted conservative groups applying
for tax-exempt status. On Tuesday, the nation’s top archivist told
Congress that the agency did not follow the law when it failed to report
the loss of records belonging to former IRS official Lois Lerner.
In June 2011, Lerner’s computer crashed, taking with it records that
were sought in the investigation. The IRS said it tried to recover the
lost data but ultimately could not.
Separately, the EPA is under pressure to discuss and provide
documentation on John Beale – the former EPA official who fooled his
bosses into believing he worked for the CIA. Beale was accused of being
deeply involved in crafting costly environmental standards that still
are having an impact today -- though he came into the job with little,
if any, environmental experience.
Issa issued a subpoena in November for documents over a five-year
period as part of an inquiry into whether the White House meddled with
how the agency responded to congressional requests.
Issa said his requests had been ignored and told McCarthy he will
start the process of holding the agency in contempt if the documents are
not provided. The White House has the option to declare executive
privilege though they have yet to do so.
McCarthy told the committee that her staff was still working to
provide the information it requested but did add there was an ongoing
criminal investigation against Beale.
She also said that her staff shared documents with the committee in
private that show the White House did not interfere with the agency.
“You know we’ve worked hard to recognize the interests of this
committee in ensuring that there is no White House interference in the
work between us and delivering documents that you required,” she said.
“We have provided an accommodation which we have actually shared with
your staff this morning, and we’re working to make sure that that
matches your needs so that we can avoid the institutional problems with
the requests that you made, and hopefully move on to continue our work
together,” McCarthy added.
Congressional investigators have uncovered emails showing ex-IRS
official Lois Lerner targeted a sitting Republican senator for a
proposed internal audit, a discovery one GOP lawmaker called
"shocking." The emails were published late Wednesday
by the House Ways and Means Committee and pertain to the woman at the
heart of the scandal over IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. The emails appear to show Lerner mistakenly received an invitation intended for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in 2012. The event organizer, whose name is not disclosed, apparently offered
to pay for Grassley's wife to attend the event, which caught Lerner's
attention. The December 2012 emails show that in response, Lerner
suggested to an IRS colleague that the case be referred for an audit. "Looked like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife. Perhaps we should refer to Exam?" she wrote. Her colleague, though, pushed back on the idea, saying an offer to
pay for his wife is "not prohibited on its face." There is no indication
from the emails that Lerner pursued the issue any further. Republicans pointed to the exchange as yet another example of Lerner
using her position in the Exempt Organizations unit to apply scrutiny to
conservatives. "We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but
the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless
IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States Senator is
shocking," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in
a statement. "At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights." Grassley said in a statement that this kind of incident fuels
concerns people have about "political targeting" at the highest levels.
"It's very troubling that a simple clerical mix-up could get a taxpayer
immediately referred for an IRS exam without any due diligence from
agency officials," the senator said. The IRS, in response to the publication of the emails, said in a
statement that it could not comment on "any specific situation" due to
taxpayer confidentiality issues. But the agency added: "As a general matter, the IRS has checks and
balances in place to ensure the fairness and integrity of the audit
process. Audits cannot be initiated solely by personal requests or
suggestions by any one individual inside the IRS." The emails come at a sensitive time in the IRS targeting
investigation. Congressional Republicans are furious after learning
earlier this month that a trove of Lerner emails have disappeared,
apparently after a 2011 hard drive crash. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has been called to testify twice on Capitol Hill since last week on the lost emails. Camp said in his statement: "We may never know the full extent of the
abuse since the IRS conveniently lost two years of Lerner emails, not
to mention those of other key figures in this scandal." Grassley, incidentally, is a member of the Senate Finance Committee
-- which is one of the congressional panels investigating the IRS over
the targeting scandal. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., told Fox News that the revelation that
Lerner tried to scrutinize Grassley over an invitation is another
example of the administration using the agency as a "political tool, as a
weapon." Fox News is told that Grassley did not end up attending the speaking
engagement in question, which was supposed to be in the spring of 2013. As for how Lerner got the invite intended for Grassley, a source said it was only a "weird coincidence." Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
