Questions swirl over how small aircraft able to land on Capitol lawn without being shot down

WASHINGTON –  Questions are swirling about how a postal worker from Florida managed to land a small gyrocopter Wednesday on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol without being shot out of the sky by authorities.
Mailman Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.
“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violence inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his website, the democracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat -- it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There's no need to worry -- I'm just delivering the mail."
House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the pilot landed on his own, but that had he made it much closer to the Capitol authorities were prepared to shoot him down.
"Had it gotten any closer to the speaker's balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn't. It landed right in front," McCaul said.

More on this...

• Gyrocopter lands near US Capitol

Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said Wednesday night that media reports earlier in the day claiming the Secret Service Tampa Field Office had been alerted to the flight in advance were not true.
"The subject involved in today's incident had come to the attention of the USSS approximately one and a half years ago," Leary said. "On October 4, 2013, the Secret Service obtained information from a concerned citizen about an individual purporting their desire to land a single manned aircraft on the grounds of the United States Capitol or the White House." He added a complete investigation was conducted at the time.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot had not been in contact with air traffic controllers and the FAA didn't authorize him to enter restricted airspace.
Airspace security rules that cover the Capitol and the District of Columbia prohibit private aircraft flights without prior coordination and permission. Violators can face civil and criminal penalties.
A law enforcement official told Fox News Wednesday night that the pilot has not yet been formally charged. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is currently reviewing the incident for possible charges.
The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the situation.
Witnesses said the craft approached the Capitol from the west, flying low over the National Mall and the Capitol reflecting pool across the street from the building. It barely cleared a row of trees and a statue of Gen. Ulysses Grant. The gyrocopter landed hard and bounced and the pilot was quickly arrested.
The open-air aircraft sported a U.S. Postal Service logo.
One witness told The Associated Press that when the aircraft landed, police with rifles yelled at the pilot not to move, and told bystanders to run, with their heads down.
About two hours after the landing, police said a bomb squad had cleared the aircraft, and that authorities would be moving it to a secure location.
The incident once again thrusts Washington’s airspace into the spotlight. In January,a quadcopter drone crashed onto the White House grounds, sparking calls for tighter security.
A gyrocopter resembles a small helicopter. However, unlike a helicopter, a gyrocopter’s blades are not powered, with the aircraft relying instead on an engine-powered propeller to provide thrust. Often used as recreational aircraft, gyrocopters have also been deployed in law enforcement.

ISIS operating base few miles from Texas border, group warns

Islamic State fighters are operating training bases near the U.S. southern border and are being aided by violent drug cartels to smuggle terrorists into states like Texas, a report published Tuesday by a watchdog group claims.
The Judicial Watch report, which cited an unnamed Mexican Army officer and a Mexican police inspector, raises new fears that the fight with ISIS is closer to the U.S. than previously thought.
The report identified the locations of the two bases, and said one is as close as 8 miles from Texas in a town west of Juarez. Mexican authorities found possible evidence -- plans written in Arabic and Urdu -- last week in the town of "Anapra," the sources said. These sources told the watchdog that "coyotes" who work for drug cartels assist in smuggling terrorists between Fort Hancock, Texas, and other undisclosed locations.
The U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an inquiry from FoxNews.com to confirm the report. But the Mexican border has long been seen as a potential vulnerability.
FoxNews.com reported last summer that social media chatter shows ISIS is aware of the porous border, and are “expressing an increased interest” in crossing over to carry out a terrorist attack.

Clinton Foundation to keep accepting donations from foreign governments

The Clinton Foundation said late Wednesday that it will continue to accept donations from foreign governments during Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, despite concerns that such gifts will create a conflict of interest for the Democratic front-runner.
The foundation's board said that donations directly to the foundation would only be allowed from six governments — Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. However, other governments could continue to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a subsidiary program that encourages donors to match contributions from others to tackle international problems without direct donations to the charity.
The foundation also said it would stop holding CGI meetings abroad after a final session planned for Morocco in May. According to the Wall Street Journal, ministers from any government would be allowed to attend and appear on panels at CGI meetings and those governments would be permitted to pay attendance fees of $20,000.
Ethics experts had called on the foundation to stop accepting all foreign donations for the duration of Clinton's presidential campaign.
The Journal also reported that the Morocco conference had been funded by a $1 million gift from a Moroccan state-owned phosphate export company. The paper also reported that a second planned CGI meeting scheduled for June in Athens had been canceled.
Clinton, who resigned from the foundation's board last week, has faced mounting criticism over the charity's ties to foreign governments. Her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination referred questions from the Associated Press about the board's decision to the foundation.
The foundation also will begin disclosing its donors every quarter instead of annually — an answer to long-standing criticism that the foundation's once-a-year lists made it difficult to view shifts and trends in the charity's funding. Former President Bill Clinton and other foundation officials have long defended the charity's transparency, but the new move signaled sensitivity to those concerns, particularly as his wife begins her race for the White House.
Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian said that under the new disclosure policy, "the Clinton Foundation is reinforcing its commitment to accountability while protecting programs that are improving the lives of millions of people around the world." But he also insisted that the old annual disclosure policy went "above and beyond what's required by voluntarily disclosing our more than 300,000 donors on our website for anyone to see."
An Associated Press analysis of Clinton Foundation donations between 2001 and 2015 showed governments and agencies from 16 nations previously gave direct grants of between $55 million and $130 million. Those governments include the six nations that will be allowed to continue donating. The remaining 10 are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Kuwait, Italy, Brunei, Taiwan and the Dominican Republic.
Hillary Clinton had previously agreed with the Obama administration to limit new foreign donations to the foundation while she served as secretary of state, but at least six nations that previously contributed still donated to the charity during her four-year stint. In one case, the foundation failed to notify the State Department about a donation from the government of Algeria.
Critics targeted the foundation's reliance on funding from several Middle Eastern governments that suppress dissent and women's rights — concerns that Clinton focused on during her stint as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.
The revised list of direct donors is not without controversy. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, which has already given the foundation between $250,000 and $500,000, has also pushed for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which environmental critics say could spread carbon emissions. President Barack Obama has yet to decide on the project, which would span several U.S. states, but he has already vetoed one bill aimed at swiftly approving the plan.
Foundation officials said the charity is not involved in that issue at all and has a "strong program" aimed at curbing reducing carbon emissions.

E-Mails and Ideas Cartoon

Former British diplomat claims Clinton oversaw 'dysfunctional' mission in Iraq

Emma Sky

A former British diplomat has claimed that Hillary Clinton oversaw a "dysfunctional" U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq during her tenure as Secretary of State in a book due to be published next month.
Britain's Daily Telegraph reported late Tuesday that Emma Sky, a former political adviser to U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno, writes that Clinton's choice as the Obama administration's first ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, had "lacked regional experience and was miscast in the role in Baghdad. In fact, he had not wanted the job," but was persuaded to accept it by Clinton. Sky writes that Odierno told her that Clinton had admitted as much when she met the general in Washington in early 2010.
Sky continues that Hill's main focus while ambassador appeared to be monitoring the activities of the U.S. military, as opposed to engaging with Iraqi leaders or his fellow diplomats. In fact, Sky claims that Hill repeatedly "made clear how much he disliked Iraq and Iraqis." She also says that Hill tried to get the fortified embassy to look more like a "normal" U.S. diplomatic mission, a task which apparently required importing rolls of sod "on which the ambassador could play lacrosse".
Sky's book, called "The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq," covers her seven years in Iraq beginning in 2003. Her thesis is that the hasty U.S. withdraw overseen by President Obama thrust then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki into the arms of Iran and exacerbated sectarian tensions that boosted support for what she calls "extreme sectarian actors, including the Islamic State, [who turned] local grievances over poor governance into proxy wars."
Clinton is not the only member of the administration whom Sky criticizes in her book, which was excerpted in Politico Magazine last week. Vice President Joe Biden is also described as making "totally inappropriate" comments during a meeting with members of the Iraqiya coalition following Iraq's disputed 2010 parliamentary elections.
Sky describes Biden as "clearly irritated" with her attempts to explain Iraq's kaleidoscopic political landscape and the ongoing tension between secularists and Islamists. Biden, according to Sky responded "Look, I know these people. My grandfather was Irish and hated the British. It’s like in the Balkans. They all grow up hating each other."
Biden made a similar observation when meeting with members of the multi-religious, multi-ethnic Iraqiya coalition. Ultimately, Sky says, Biden and Hill fell into place alongside Iran and backed al-Maliki to remain as Prime Minister. This was all carried out with the tacit approval of Obama, whose "only interest in Iraq, it appeared, was ending the war."

DEA chief tells House committee she can't fire agents involved in sex parties

WASHINGTON –  With the Secret Service still smarting from its 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, another federal law agency is in hot water over an even more salacious sex scandal - in the same country.
The Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michelle Leonhart, Tuesday faced a grueling three-hour inquisition from the House Oversight Committee over an Inspector General's report that found DEA agents in Bogota, Colombia engaged in "sex parties" with prostitutes and that the parties were paid for by the very drug cartels the DEA was sent to fight.
"This behavior is not acceptable," Leonhart said in her opening statement. "It is my hope that the additional training and guidance we have provided to all personnel - particularly those stationed overseas - will prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.”
Her contrition did little to calm members of either party, who were incensed - not only at the infraction itself -  but also at the weak discipline meted out to the still unnamed participants - a maximum of a two-week suspension.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., asked Leonhart, "Do you have any idea how absurd all of that sounds to an ordinary human being?"  Leonhart repeatedly explained that a maze of civil service system protections for government workers prevents her from firing federal employees.
A furious Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., accused Leonhart of looking the other way.
"That's what's happening in your agency! You're protecting the people who solicited prostitutes who had 15 to 20 sex parties, went through this whole operation, and used taxpayer money to do it."
The Department of Justice Inspector General's report, released last month, found that corrupt local police officers in Bogota "arranged” the "sex parties" with prostitutes funded by the local drug cartels for the DEA agents at their government-leased quarters, over a period of several years.
The report found that "although some of the DEA agents participating in these parties denied it, the information in the case file suggested they should have known the prostitutes in attendance were paid with cartel funds." 
It also claimed that local police protected the DEA agents’ property, including weapons, computers and smart phones, while the parties were ongoing. None of the devices was believed to have been compromised.
Under tough questioning from Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., Leonhart also denied knowing whether any of the prostitutes were underage. "I don't know that," she said.
The response prompted a frustrated Gowdy to shout back, "You have to work with agents over whom you can't discipline and have no control. And you have no control over their security clearance. What the hell do you get to do?”
The report said the behavior exposed agents to possible coercion, extortion, and blackmail.
Lynch told Leonhart he wants the unnamed agents involved to be "named and shamed."  And another, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., asked her, “Do you think you’re the right person for this job?

Senate approves bill changing how Medicare pays doctors

The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation permanently overhauling how Medicare pays physicians late Tuesday in a rare show of near-unanimity from Congress.
The legislation headed off a 21 percent cut in doctors' Medicare fees that would have taken effect Wednesday, when the government planned to begin processing physicians' claims reflecting that reduction. The bill also provides billions of extra dollars for health care programs for children and low-income families, including additional money for community health centers.
Working into the evening, the Senate approved the measure 92-8 less than three weeks after the House passed it by a lopsided 392-37.
The bill's passage brought statements of praise from both President Obama and Republican congressional leaders.
"It's a milestone for physicians, and for the seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicare for their health care needs," Obama said in a statement before later adding "I will be proud to sign it into law."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said approval of the bill was "another reminder of a new Republican Congress that's back to work. And while no bill will ever be perfect, this legislation is a sensible compromise with wide bipartisan support; we look forward to the President following through on his commitment to sign it."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who crafted the compromise bill with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the reform's passage "a big deal."
"For the first time in nearly two decades - and without raising taxes - Congress has come together in a bipartisan way to pass meaningful entitlement reform," Boehner added. "And while much more must be done to rein in unsustainable entitlement spending, this agreement represents an important step in the right direction."
Top Democrats in Congress also expressed support for the legislation.
"Tonight is a milestone for the Medicare program, a lifeline for millions of people," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The bill's chief feature was its annulling of a 1997 law aimed at slowing the growth of Medicare that has repeatedly threatened deep cuts in reimbursements to physicians and led to threats by doctors to stop treating the program's beneficiaries. Congress has blocked 17 reductions since 2003, an exercise that invites intense lobbying and difficult choices about finding budget savings that both parties detested.
Instead, the measure would create a new payment system with financial incentives for physicians to bill Medicare patients for their overall care, not individual office visits.
While Democrats touted the legislation's added funds for children and the poor, Republicans were claiming victory in changes the bill makes in Medicare that would have a long-term though modest impact on the huge program's finances.
However, conservatives were unhappy that two-thirds of the bill's $214 billion, 10-year costs were financed by simply making federal deficits even bigger, while liberals wanted added money for children and women's programs.
While $141 billion of the measure's costs over the decade would come from added federal red ink, about $35 billion would come from Medicare beneficiaries, mostly by raising the medical and prescription drug premiums paid by some upper-income recipients starting in 2018. Though the affected beneficiaries already pay higher premiums than lower-earning people, Congress seldom increases costs on seniors, fearing retribution come the next Election Day from older voters.
The bill would raise another $37 billion by cutting Medicare reimbursements to hospitals and other providers.
Before passage, senators rejected six amendments, three from each party, that were all but sure to lose but let lawmakers demonstrate their disapproval of provisions they opposed.
A Democratic proposal to extend the two years of extra money the measure provided for the popular Children's Health Insurance Program to four years lost on a 50-50 vote -- short of the 60 votes needed to prevail. By 58-42, the chamber rejected an effort by conservatives to force Congress to find enough savings to pay for the entire measure without increasing federal red ink.
Senators also faced conflicting pressures from lobbying groups.
The American Medical Association and other providers' organizations were urging lawmakers to pass the bill. AARP, the senior citizens' lobby, wanted legislators to back an amendment ending Medicare's annual coverage limits for therapy but stopped short of urging the bill's defeat without that change.
Conservative groups including the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America pressed lawmakers to support the GOP amendment -- which lost -- to require Congress to pay for the entire bill.
The 21 percent cut in doctors' fees technically took effect April 1. Citing federal law, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped processing those claims two weeks ago -- in effect giving lawmakers time to complete the legislation. The agency processes around 4 million Medicare payments for doctors daily.

Congress first asked Hillary Clinton about personal email use in 2012, letter shows

Hillary Clinton ignored questions from congressional investigators in December 2012 about her use of a personal e-mail account while secretary of state.
The latest revelation comes days after Clinton announced her candidacy for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. The announcement followed weeks of questions for Clinton about her use of a personal e-mail account housed on a sever set up in her New York home to conduct all official business as America's top diplomat.
Fox News has obtained a copy of a letter dated Dec. 13, 2012 that was sent from then-House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to Cabinet secretaries, including Clinton, inquiring about their e-mail habits. The committee was conducting an investigation into the Obama administration handled the use of personal e-mail by its officials.
The letter contained eight questions related to officials' use of personal e-mail accounts. The very first question asked by Issa was "Have you or any senior agency official ever used a personal email account to conduct official business? If so, please identify the account used." Subsequent questions asked about whether "alias e-mail" accounts and text messages were used to conduct official business.
The fourth question asked for written documentation of agency archiving and record-keeping procedures as they related to the use of non-official e-mail accounts, while the fifth question asked, "Does the agency require employees to certify on a periodic basis or at the end of their employment with the agency they have turned over any communications involving official business that they have sent or received using nonofficial accounts?"
Clinton's last day as Secretary of State was Feb. 1, 2013, seven weeks after the date of Issa's letter, which requested a response by Jan. 7, 2013 at the latest.  The New York Times reports that Issa's committee did not receive any response from the State Department until March 27, and even that amounted to a recounting of the department's e-mail policy. The Times reported that the State Department's letter said that employees using personal accounts "should make it clear that his or her personal e-mail is not being used for official business."
Clinton's use of a personal e-mail account, first reported last month by The New York Times, enabled her to shield most of her messages from scrutiny by members of Congress and the media. She has previously said she used one account for convenience because she did not want to go to the trouble of carrying more than one electronic device.
Last month, the House select committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, subpoenaed all of Clinton's personal emails. They received no response. So far, Clinton has turned over 55,000 pages of her emails, 300 of which are related to Benghazi.