Megyn & Donald Cartoon

Pentagon watchdog probing whether anti-ISIS campaign analysis altered

The Defense Department's inspector general is investigating whether intelligence reports about the progress of the U.S.-led coalition's campaign against ISIS in Iraq have been "skewed" to be more optimistic.

The New York Times first reported that at least one civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told authorities that officials at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) were improperly reworking intelligence assessments prepared for policymakers, including President Obama.
A senior military official confirmed to Fox News that an IG investigation has been initiated into the allegation.
The Times report did not say when the assessments were allegedly altered, nor did it say who may have been responsible. Officials told the paper the investigation was focused on whether military officials had changed the conclusions of draft intelligence reports during a review before passing them on.
Under federal law, intelligence officials can bring claims of wrongdoing to the intelligence community's inspector general. U.S. officials told the paper that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees were advised of the claims within the past several weeks, as is required if officials find the claims credible. At that point, The Times reports, the Pentagon's inspector general decided to look into the matter.
Government rules state that intelligence assessments "must not be distorted" by agendas or policy views. However, The Times reports that legitimate differences of opinion are both common and encouraged among national security officials.

More on this...

• New concerns ISIS threat at home is stronger than ever

• Were U.S.-trained rebels betrayed by an ally?

Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick S. Ryder said in a statement Wednesday that they welcome the IG's "independent oversight."
"While we cannot comment on ongoing investigations, we can speak to the process and about the valued contributions of the Intelligence Community (IC)," he said, adding that intelligence community members typically are able to comment on draft security assessments. "However," he said, "it is ultimately up to the primary agency or organization whether or not they incorporate any recommended changes or additions. Further, the multi-source nature of our assessment process purposely guards against any single report or opinion unduly influencing leaders and decision-makers."
The DIA is one of many intelligence agencies that has produced assessments about the progress of the Iraq campaign. According to The Times, analysts from one agency may make suggestions about another agency's draft analyses, but it is up to the authoring agency to decide whether to adopt those suggestions.
The U.S. began launching airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq in August 2014, and did the same in Syria the following month. Last month, however, U.S. intelligence concluded that the terror group was not fundamentally weaker than it was when the aerial campaign began. Officials said that while intervention by the U.S.-led coalition had prevented the collapse of the Iraqi government and resulted in the rollback of some gains made by ISIS in the summer of 2014, the extremist group remained a well-funded army able to replenish its ranks with foreign jihadis as quickly as the U.S. can eliminate them. The intelligence assessment also found that ISIS had expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.
However, earlier that month, retired Army Gen. John Allen, the White House's top envoy to other nations in the anti-ISIS coalition, told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum  that ISIS had been "checked strategically, operationally, and by and large, tactically," adding, more bluntly, "ISIS is losing."

Trump’s Planned Parenthood hedge brings risks, rewards

TRUMP’S PLANNED PARENTHOOD HEDGE BRINGS RISKS, REWARDS

One front of the ongoing feud between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush has been the question of defunding Planned Parenthood. In the wake of jarring videos of the group’s leaders discussing the value of the bodies of aborted babies, the issue has been intense among Republican voters.

Bush defunded the group in 2001 as governor of Florida and has been increasingly adamant about the need to do so nationally. Trump has said that that Bush is “terrible” about women’s health issues. The New York billionaire quickly backed off his initial support for cutting off all of the more than $500 million the group gets from federal taxpayers each year.

Trump’s position that the group “has to stop with the abortions” but provides other worthwhile services could yield long-term political benefits.

Poll results from Quinnipiac University today say that stout majorities in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania oppose efforts to cut off federal funds. That’s a help if he is facing a likely Democratic nominee who strongly supports and is supported by Planned Parenthood.

But Trump’s stance poses some serious primary problems for the GOP frontrunner. Drill down on the data from Quinnipiac and you see just how much. While 52 percent of Ohio voters overall oppose defunding the group, just 23 percent of Republicans agree. It’s 24 percent in Florida and 30 percent in Ohio.

This is a huge issue on the right. Sen. Ted Cruz hosted a conference call Tuesday with what he said were 100,000 faith leaders about shutting down the abortion provider. And other candidates have taken similarly aggressive stances. Trump’s hedging on Planned Parenthood may be good politics for the general election but poses serious peril for the primary.

‘We’re left to the wolves’: Videos allegedly show Memphis VA leaving disabled vets unattended

Video footage allegedly showing veterans -- many of whom are quadriplegics or paraplegics -- being left unattended at a Memphis Veterans Affairs hospital during staff meetings is reviving concerns about how VA hospitals treat American servicemembers. 

The videos, first reported by Communities Digital News (CDN) and said to be filmed at the Memphis VA Medical Center, show patients being left alone for about 30-45 minutes each evening during a staff meeting attended by all hospital staff, whistleblower and former Memphis VA employee Sean Higgins told FoxNews.com.
Higgins said the videos, filmed by a close friend of his, show a breach of hospital policy, which dictates that even during meetings, there should be a nurse at the nurse’s station. He said the videos all show the spinal injury ward, which contains quadriplegics and paraplegics.
“If there was an emergency, we’re screwed,” the unnamed patient filming the video says, as he films various empty hospital corridors.
Another video also shows the ward during a staff meeting, apparently empty, with the patient saying: “Once again, we’re left to the wolves.”
“Not a soul in sight,” he says.
Another video appears to show a nurse in a spinal injury ward not wearing the appropriate gown or gloves while treating a patient.
"You have a video there of a nurse in an isolation word, she’s feeding him and she takes a bite out of that cake," Higgins said. "As hospital policy, if his food was too hot she's not even allowed to blow on it."
The VA has been trying to overhaul its treatment of claims and patients after last year's scandal over patient wait-times. The VA said Monday it has cut down its disability claims long-term backlog to under 100,000 -- from over 600,000.
But complaints keep surfacing at the local level.
"The fact that they're videotaping this is indicative of clearly they don't have a good relationship with the staff," Pete Hegseth, of Concerned Veterans for America, told Fox News regarding the videos. "The Memphis hospital has been cited for some of the longest wait times, poor care, and yet administrators have continued to receive bonuses."
The videos, filmed in July of this year, did not come as a surprise to Higgins. He claimed that after the videos were uploaded to YouTube, a hospital official went to the patient's bedside, accompanied by police, and told the veteran it’s against policy to film in the hospital.
“She was more concerned that the guy violated hospital policy, than what he was filming,” Higgins said.
The Memphis VA did not respond to FoxNews.com's request for comment. A spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs defended the hospital's policies:
“Caring for our Veterans is our highest priority. Often times when staff are working at the bedside with patients, it might appear that no one is at the nurses’ station.  We have technology in all patient wards in the spinal cord injury unit, which includes the assistive call button at the bedside for patient use to alert staff if the need for assistance arises. Activating the call button triggers a sound alert throughout the spinal cord unit and a light over the patient’s doorway. Nursing staff in rooms caring for patients are nearby and are able to respond to calls for assistance.  At no time should our Veterans be left unattended or without access to trained medical staff.”
Higgins is a well-known whistleblower and has been involved in exposing a number of alleged problems within the Memphis VA center. In 2014, he met with VA Secretary Robert McDonald and discussed the problems and scandals plaguing the VA, MyFoxMemphis reported.
“I don’t do it for notoriety,” Higgins told FoxNews.com. “I’m a veteran, that could be me one day.”

Clinton addresses Biden 2016 buzz, says he 'should have the space' to decide

Hillary Clinton addressed the speculation over a possible entry by Vice President Biden into the 2016 race, saying he should be given the space to make the best decision for him and his family but she would press on with her campaign regardless.
“He should have the space and the opportunity to decide what he wants to do,” Clinton said in a press conference in Iowa Wednesday. “I’m going to be running for president regardless.”
The comments are among the first by the 2016 Democratic front-runner regarding the vice president’s potential entry into the party's presidential primary.
Clinton said she has a “great deal of admiration and affection” for Biden and noted they have worked together in the Senate, during the Clinton administration and in President Obama’s first term when Clinton served as secretary of state.
“I just want the vice president to decide to do what’s right for him and his family,” Clinton said. "I don’t think it’s useful to be behind the scenes asking this or saying that. I’ve done none of that.”
Clinton said she understood it would be a hard decision for the 72-year-old to run, especially considering the death of his son Beau in May after a long fight with brain cancer.
“I was at his son’s funeral, and I cannot even imagine the grief and the heartbreak. Joe has had more terrible events than most people can even contemplate, losing his first wife, losing his first daughter, now losing his son,” Clinton said.
“But I’m just going to continue with my campaign, I’m going to do what I believe I should be doing and he will have to decide what he should be doing,” she said, adding that she expected it to be a competitive race.
Rumors have intensified in recent weeks about a potential Biden 2016 run. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest left the door open to President Obama even endorsing a candidate in the primary.
"He's going to collect all the information that he needs to make a decision," Earnest said when asked about a potential Biden bid for the White House.
Earnest reiterated that Obama believes picking Biden as his running mate was his smartest political decision. But he also said Obama has a deep appreciation for Clinton's service as secretary of state.
Without tipping his hand as to whether Obama was encouraging Biden to enter, Earnest said the VP was well-positioned to make the decision himself, as a two-time presidential candidate who's been on the Obama ticket twice.
"You could make the case that there's probably no one in American politics today who has a better understanding of exactly what is required to mount a successful national presidential campaign," Earnest said.

Biden Cartoon

Hot and Heavy: What the media’s flirtation with Biden is missing

The press is suddenly showing the love for Joe Biden—but may be painting a misleading picture in the process.

Most of the stories on the vice president weighing a late-in-the-game challenge to Hillary Clinton have an undertone of excitement, because the media want a contest and not a coronation.
Journalists are casting Biden as the anti-Hillary, the authentic pol who’s got the very shot-and-a-beer qualities that she lacks.
Nearly all seasoned political reporters have known Biden for decades—I first covered him as the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman in the 1980s—and they genuinely like him. Whatever his political shortcomings, he’s a warm and backslapping guy. So the temptation to contrast him with the cautious Clinton, who’s been wary of the press since her husband started running in 1991, may be too great to resist.
But one reason that Biden scores so well on trustworthy questions in the polls is precisely that he hasn’t been a candidate since 2008.
Sure, he gets criticized for what he says and does as VP, but he’s not the subject of regular political attacks and investigative reporting.
That would change the moment he jumped into the presidential race. And only a few journalists, in capturing the current snapshot, have made that clear.
The chatter surrounding Biden’s flirtation, if that’s the right word, has been amplified by the media. In fact, it’s become obvious that the Biden folks are cleverly orchestrating this boomlet to build interest in his potential candidacy.
The initial trial balloon seemed generated mainly by people around the former Delaware senator, but it soon became clear that the veep’s office was authorizing many of these leaks—particularly when Maureen Dowd reported in intimate detail conversations between Biden and his late son Beau, who wanted him to run.
Then came stories over the weekend that Biden is gaming out what it would take in terms of fundraising and early-state strategies. And this Wall Street Journal report on Sunday reverberated around the world as quickly as the stock market plunge:
“Vice President Joe Biden, who has long been considering a presidential bid, is increasingly leaning toward entering the race if it is still possible he can knit together a competitive campaign at this late date, people familiar with the matter said.”
Yet that was followed immediately by these caveats:
“Mr. Biden still could opt to sit out the 2016 race, and he is weighing multiple political, financial and family considerations before making a final decision. But conversations about the possibility were a prominent feature of an August stay in South Carolina and his home in Delaware last week, these people said. A surprise weekend trip to Washington to meet with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), a darling of the party’s liberal wing, represented a pivot from potential to likely candidate, one Biden supporter said.”

So he’s leaning toward running, but might not. What Biden is doing, in other words, is gearing up his machinery so he’ll have the option to run if he decides to jump in.
Some cautionary notes, from ABC’s Rick Klein:
“We know Biden would bring name recognition, deep experience, and a zeal for running that couldn't be matched. We also know that he's 0-2 in presidential races already, and that his own worst enemy tends to speak for himself -- literally.”
The Washington Post’s Daily 202: “Many observers think he’s already too late. Recent history has not been kind to late-entry candidates (Rick Perry, August 2011; Fred Thompson, early September 2007; Wesley Clark, mid-September 2003). None of them, however, were a sitting vice president with universal name recognition. So, we wait for Biden.”
The Huffington Post is practically trying to draft him, with Howard Fineman and two colleagues doing a listicle titled “YOLO: 11 Reasons Why Biden Should Jump In Already.”
Number 8 is kinda self-referential: “THE MEDIA WILL LOVE IT.
“You know, at least until you either get yourself into trouble…or emerge as the frontrunner.”

Obviously, Hillary’s email debacle and sinking polls have created a sizable vacuum, so Biden may take another month to assess whether she’s weathering the storm.
Reality check: The Real Clear Politics average puts Clinton at 49 percent, Bernie Sanders at 25 and Biden at 12.
If he became a candidate, would Biden run as the man to carry on Barack Obama’s third term? Would Biden, who’d take office at 74, pledge to serve one term? How would he distinguish his agenda from Hillary’s? Would he be willing to attack her?
For now the vice president, still grieving for his son, has a difficult and very personal decision to make. And no amount of media boosterism will change the fact that this would be a very tough race for him to win.

Ailes calls on Trump to apologize for 'unprovoked attack' on Megyn Kelly

Unprovoked Attack??

Fox News CEO and Chairman Roger Ailes on Tuesday called for Donald Trump to apologize for his "unprovoked attack" against host Megyn Kelly, after the Republican presidential candidate made a series of disparaging comments about "The Kelly File" host on Twitter the previous evening. 

"Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should," Ailes said in a statement. "We have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied by anyone and we're certainly not going to start now."
Trump targeted Kelly after she asked him a number of tough questions during a Fox News-hosted debate by GOP presidential candidates on Aug. 6. A series of subsequent remarks by Trump led to a clear-the-air conversation with Ailes, and the candidate has since made a number of appearances on Fox News programs.
But Trump renewed his attacks on Monday night, during Kelly's show. In a series of tweets, Trump criticized Kelly's handling of an interview segment on her show, claimed her just-concluded and long-planned summer vacation with her family was in fact unscheduled, and retweeted a tweet referring to her as a "bimbo."
Trump issued a response later Tuesday afternoon, saying "I totally disagree with the Fox statement." Trump also repeated his claims that Kelly's questioning of him during the debate "was very unfair."
Some of Kelly's Fox colleagues also came to her defense on Tuesday. Bret Baier, who moderated the debate with Kelly and Chris Wallace, tweeted that "this needs to stop." Brian Kilmeade said on "Fox & Friends" that Trump's comments bothered him personally.
"We are all friends with Donald Trump, but he is totally out of bounds reigniting that fight," Kilmeade said. "I don't know if he's trying to get ratings out of that or poll numbers, but he's not going to be successful."
Fox News' Sean Hannity also tweeted: "My friend @realDonaldTrump has captured the imagination of many. Focus on Hillary, Putin, border, jobs, Iran China & leave @megynkelly alone."
The full Ailes statement reads as follows:
"Donald Trump's surprise and unprovoked attack on Megyn Kelly during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is disturbing. Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at FOX News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise. I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump's verbal assaults. Her questioning of Mr. Trump at the debate was tough but fair, and I fully support her as she continues to ask the probing and challenging questions that all presidential candidates may find difficult to answer. Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should. We have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied by anyone and we're certainly not going to start now. All of our journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way that has made FOX News Channel the number one news network in the industry."