Conservative Blogger
Friday, September 9, 2016
Obama administration shuts down one prison camp at Guantanamo Bay
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| Biden expects Gitmo to close before Obama ends presidency |
A military official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that the site known as Camp 5 will be closed, with parts of it turned into a medical clinic to "improve operations."
“Camp V at Joint Task Force Guantanamo has been closed as a detention facility and repurposed into another function and the detainees consolidated," spokesman Capt. John Filostrat said in a statement.
The development, first reported by The Miami Herald, is part of President Obama’s promise to close the detention center -- an effort that continues to face fierce resistance in Congress.
Camp 5 is where problematic prisoners were sent, including those who went on hunger strikes as well as war criminals. They reportedly will be "consolidated" into another section known as Camp 6.
Filostrat told the Herald the rest are in a secret site called Camp 7. This is where 15 CIA captives -- including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and his accused accomplices -- are being held.
Filostrat said troops started to move detainees from Camp 5 on Aug. 19 – a week after the Pentagon said it had sent 15 detainees to the United Arab Emirates as part of Obama’s plan to shrink the prison population.
The total detainee population is now at 61, and the administration plans to continue transferring out additional prisoners -- though Congress has blocked transfers to the U.S, complicating the goal of shuttering the camp by the end of Obama's presidency.
Meanwhile, the staff of nearly 2,000 U.S. troops and civilians is being cut by 400 soldiers by the end of the year, the Herald reported. They are doing this by canceling upcoming deployments.
Camp 5 was built more than a decade ago for about $17 million. Its around-the-clock security surveillance was modeled after a state prison in Bunker Hill, Ind. The site itself has had its share of headlines. Two prisoners committed suicide by hanging there in 2007 and one by drug overdose in 2012. In 2013, more than 100 detainees launched a mass hunger strike.
Obama reiterated at a news conference in Laos this week that he thinks the prison is unnecessary, costs too much and serves as a recruitment tool for terrorists.
Suspected serial rapist who allegedly tried to burn victims alive was deported 5 times, police say
AUSTIN, TEXAS - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a man accused of serial rape in the Austin area was deported five times before his most recent arrest in August.
Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales faces six charges including aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping.
Police said Coria-Gonzalez admitted he had picked up prostitutes and beat them out of anger. He is currently being held without bond on an immigration detainer.
“There’s bad, really bad people, who want to do us real harm who are coming at us from all different directions: north, south, east and west,” said immigration specialist Thomas Esparza, Jr.
If the allegations against him are true, Nicodemo Coria-Gonzalez illegally immigrated to the United States six times and then sexually abused several women.
“If that guy came back, he came back to do us ill, but there's not that many people who are able to come back that often and that successfully. That's the kind of person that even immigration lawyers are going to say, ‘You know, he should be prosecuted,’” said Esparza.
In August, Coria-Gonzalez was arrested after a woman told police he tried to set her on fire. While investigating, officers realized he had sexually assaulted several women in a secluded area off Ferguson Lane.
Investigators also learned Coria-Gonzalez had previous charges that convinced U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport him five times.
“Five times deported and he's still here? What did he do the first time to get himself deported? And why didn't he learn after the second or the third or the fourth time? But already five times? And he's still back? He's a determined son of a gun, but at some point the dance is over and so, unfortunately, the dance is going to be over for him and he's going to be in jail,” Esparza said.
ICE said Coria-Gonzales was previously convicted of criminal charges including three charges of driving while intoxicated.
After each conviction he was extradited to Mexico. That never kept him from illegally crossing the border back into the United States.
“Every time you commit that offense the range of punishment gets higher and higher, but that's not enough to deter some people who really want to be here no matter what. And so if the punishment doesn't deter them, I don't know what will,” said Esparza.
Coria-Gonzalez is now considered an ICE enforcement priority.
Police believe there may be more victims that are afraid to come forward. They encourage them and anyone with information about these crimes to call the Austin Police Department.
Clinton email had 'multiple' classified markings, challenging her claim to FBI
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| Why obstruction charge for Clinton could hinge on timing |
A government source told Fox News that virtually every paragraph in one mail contained so-called portion markings used exclusively for classification purposes. These classified codes are found on the left-hand side and reflect the classification of the intelligence contained in each paragraph.
The Clinton email has one paragraph marked "C" for "confidential," which is the lowest level of classification. And the source said "multiple paragraphs (on the same email) are marked, SBU," which means "sensitive but unclassified."
Both codes are there so the reader knows what is classified intelligence.
"It's not possible, not even plausible, it's an alphabetical listing. The explanation makes no sense," the government source said, referring to Clinton's statement to the FBI in her July 2 interview.
In FBI investigation notes released Friday, agents wrote that Clinton, when asked what the “C” marking meant, “stated she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order."
But the source said the appearance of other classified codes on the email further undercut that claim.
A second government source who has also reviewed the FBI file said none of the handful of emails with classified markings contain "A, B or other letters" to support Clinton’s “alphabetical” answer, adding the "A, B, C..SBU does not fly."
Fox News first reported in June that at least one of the Clinton emails was marked classified, conflicting with her public statements.
In an interview with Fox's Sean Hannity, the head of Wikileaks Julian Assange also challenged Clinton's statement to the FBI.
"Hillary Clinton says she can't remember what a ‘C’ in brackets stands for. Everyone in positions of government and in Wikileaks knows it stands for classified, ‘confidential,’” Assange said. He said Wikileaks has already released thousands of cables showing Clinton’s signature with (C) next to it.
Clinton has said in the past that many of the cables carry an electronic signature and that she did not personally write or review all of them.
The FBI file also reveals that from the beginning of Hillary Clinton's term in 2009 as secretary of state, the department installed secure rooms, known as "SCIFs" for her official use at both of her residences in Washington, D.C., and in Chappaqua, N.Y.
These Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities contain secure communications equipment authorized to be used to conduct official government business including the reading of sensitive and classified materials.
Instead, Clinton chose to use a variety of 13 mobile devices like Blackberrys as well as iPads for checking emails sent to her clintonemail.com address. The FBI said none of the mobile devices could be accounted for by Clinton's attorneys.
According to the highly redacted FBI documents released Friday, Clinton told the agents "that she did not have a computer of any kind in the SCIFs in her residences." However, Clinton's statement conflicts directly with accounts from three close aides, including Huma Abedin and Justin Cooper, who told the FBI there were "personally owned desktop computers in the SCIFs in Whitehaven and Chappaqua." The third name in the released documents is redacted
Howard Krongard, former State Department inspector general, told Fox News in email that, "If Abedin, Cooper and (Redacted) are correct, I do not know how you can have personally-owned non-approved desktop computers in a SCIF. That would be like inviting the outside world into your SCIF."
In addition, Abedin told the bureau "the SCIF door at the Whiteaven residence (DC) was not always locked." nor the SCIF in Chappaqa always "secured."
Cooper, who was in charge of the upgraded server installation in Chappaqua and Whitehaven, was identified as the staffer tasked to destroy Clinton's Blackberrys with a hammer.
Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills also requested an Internet-connected, stand-alone computer that she could access from her desk at the State Department. No such computer was ever set up. But what was inside her home SCIFs is under new scrutiny.
The FBI director said in July, three days after agents interviewed Clinton, the evidence showed potential violations of criminal statutes, but he did not recommend pursuing charges.
"In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts," he said.
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.
DOJ reportedly granted immunity to computer expert who deleted Clinton emails
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| Did the FBI botch the Clinton email investigation? |
The Department of Justice reportedly gave immunity to a computer expert who deleted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails during its investigation into her private email server despite being ordered by Congress to keep them.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the Justice Department’s immunity deal with Paul Combetta likely means that Republican lawmakers’ calls for federal authorities to investigate his deletions will go unheard.
The top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, had asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clinton, her lawyers or Combetta obstructed justice when the emails were deleted in March 2015.
The FBI said when Clinton’s team called Platte River Networks – the Denver-based IT company where Combetta worked – in March 2015, Combetta said he realized he didn’t follow a December 2014 directive from Clinton’s lawyers to have the emails deleted. He then used BleachBit to delete the messages in the days after the meeting with her lawyers.
The Times, citing the FBI’s notes, reported that Combetta initially told the agency in February that he didn’t recall deleting the emails, but changed his story in May.
In February, he told federal investigators he didn’t remember seeing an order from the Benghazi investigation committee, which Cheryl Mills had sent to Platte River Networks, to keep the emails.
However, in the May interview, he said at the time he deleted the emails “he was aware of the existence of the preservation request and the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton’s email data” on the Platte River network.
Combetta is the second person to be given immunity in the investigation into Clinton’s private email server. IT specialist Bryan Pagliano, who was a staff member on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, was given immunity in exchange for answers into how he was able to setup Clinton’s “homebrew” server that was setup at her Chappaqua, N.Y. residence around the time she started working at the State Department.
The FBI described the deletions in its notes of its investigation into Clinton’s account that was released last week. Though Combetta’s name has been redacted, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation identified the Combetta as the specialist who received immunity and deleted Clinton’s emails to The New York Times.
Brian Fallon, a Clinton campaign spokesman, told The Times that the deleted emails had already been investigated by the FBI before its decision to close the case.
“As the FBI report notes, neither Hillary Clinton nor her attorneys had knowledge of the Platte River Network employee’s actions. It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton’s and Platte River’s attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request,” Fallon told the newspaper.
The House Oversight Committee had badgered the Justice Department to investigate whether Clinton had lied to Congress about her email account testimony given last October.
Lawmakers have also asked Platte River Networks officials and Combetta to appear at a hearing before the committee on Tuesday about how the email was setup and how exactly the messages were deleted.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Taking page from Trump? UK building 'big new wall' to stop illegal immigrants
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| Sept. 6, 2016: Migrants walk in the northern area of the camp called the "Jungle" in Calais, France. |
Robert Goodwill, minister of state for immigration, announced the plan for a wall in Calais, France, at a Home Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, saying it would be in addition to an already existing fence.
“We’re going to start building this big new wall very soon,” Goodwill said. “We’ve done the fence, now we’re doing a wall.”
The proposal is far smaller in scope than the kind of U.S.-Mexico wall Trump is demanding.
A Home Office spokeswoman told FoxNews.com the four-meter-high wall (about 13 feet) would be built along both sides of a one-kilometer (.6 mile) stretch of the main road into the Calais port. The office estimates it will be done by the end of the year.
Calais is a common point for migrants trying to enter the U.K. illegally. It is the narrowest point of the English Channel and has the most ferry crossings to England as well as being an access point to the Eurotunnel – the rail system that goes underneath the channel. The wall is intended to protect the road from migrants who frequently try to intercept vehicles approaching the port and jump on board.
Though the wall is significantly smaller than what Trump has proposed – and would protect a road rather than an entire border -- it weaves into Trump’s narrative that walls work and are a vital part of a comprehensive immigration policy.
Proponents of Trump’s plan have noted the success of other countries in building a border wall. The most commonly cited example is Israel, which built a wall along the West Bank that it says has been effective in reducing the threat of terrorism. Trump has cited Israel’s wall as justification for his own plan.
"You ask Israel whether or not a wall works," Trump told a New Hampshire crowd last year.
The migrant crisis in Calais has been a frequent issue of tension between the U.K. and France, with many in the U.K. concerned the French do not do enough to keep migrants from passing through.
In 2003, France, Belgium and the U.K. established “juxtaposed controls” – an arrangement by which British officials conduct immigration checks before passengers board the train or ferry from Calais, to prevent illegal immigrants from being able to lodge an asylum application on arrival in the U.K. Some French politicians have called for the arrangement to be undone.
The British government, meanwhile, has been pushing for stronger controls in Calais. A Home Office Committee report said the U.K. and France had invested in “additional fencing and floodlighting, CCTV, and infra-red detection technology.”
However, the report said the situation remained a “threat to UK security,” and noted the most common nationalities of migrants at Calais are Syrian, Eritrean, Sudanese, Iranian and Iraqi. It also found that between 5,000 and 7,000 migrants live in camps surrounding the area.
Bob Dane, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform -- which advocates for stricter immigration controls -- welcomed the U.K. move but warned that more needs to be done.
“Border fences are not only visible, physical symbols that proclaim a country’s sovereignty and right to maintain a rule of law, but they also slow the flow of unauthorized entry. That said, Britain, just like the United States, must understand that unless the incentives for illegal entry are eliminated, border barriers will be breached,” Dane told FoxNews.com
Dane said Trump's immigration plan could offer guidance for Europe. “In his speech the other night, Trump moved beyond just building the fence and addressed the broader push-and-pull factors. Britain, and really all of Europe, will need to similarly take this holistic approach if it ever intends to mitigate the impact of mass migration,” he said.
The wall comes as new Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May sets her sights on cracking down on immigration in light of the British vote to leave the European Union in June. Goodwill told the committee the government wants to reduce immigration to “tens of thousands” of people “as soon as we possibly can.”
Trump's wall plan remains controversial. A CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday found only 41 percent of voters back a wall across the southern border.
BIAS ALERT: Media dismisses military brass backing Trump
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| Boykin, (l.), and Bell, (r.), were among the former generals signing on for Trump. |
Trump, who on Wednesday delivered a major policy speech on the state of the U.S. military, was touted in the letter as a commander in chief capable of dealing with “enemies of this country [who] have been emboldened” by weakness in Washington.
“ … we support Donald Trump and his commitment to rebuild our military, to secure our borders, to defeat our Islamic supremacist adversaries and restore law and order domestically,” read the letter. “We urge our fellow Americans to do the same.”
The Washington Post immediately combed through the lengthy roster of signatories and noted that one, retired Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, was reprimanded for disclosing classified information in a 2008 memoir, “Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom.” Boykin also happens to be the co-founder and former commander of the elite Delta Force, and carried out missions in Iran, North Korea, Somalia and Colombia during his storied career.
He angered Muslims around the world in 2003 when, giving a speech about his hunt for a Somali warlord, said, “I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
Related Image
Trump was looking to bolster his image as a capable commander-in-chief.
(The Associated Press)
The list of generals and admirals was put together by Army Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow, a Holocaust survivor, and Rear Adm. Charles Williams of the Navy.
The Daily Beast also searched the list for anyone with a black mark on his stripes. In a story headlined “The Disgraced and Little-Known Generals Backing Donald Trump,” the outlet reported that four were present during a massive 1991 scandal in which more than 100 Navy and Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted 90 people at the 35th Annual Tailhook Association Symposium in Las Vegas. None of the signatories were charged, although one later served as a Navy lawyer in the case.
“To be sure, scores of the signatories had exemplary military records and continue to work in public service,” the Daily Beast article seemed to grudgingly acknowledge. “There are Vietnam veterans, three four-star generals and an admiral, as well as key commanders in the U.S. war in Iraq.”
The Washington Post even sought to drive a wedge between Trump and his military backers by noting that retired four-star Army Gen. Burwell Bell III was once a top NATO commander, and then noting that Trump has questioned NATO’s usefulness.
Three other four-star generals supporting Trump “all retired more than 20 years ago,” the Post wrote.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper scored a Tuesday night interview with retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who dismissed the names on Trump’s list.
"I didn't recognize many of those names as being there in the fight with me over the last 16 years," Hertling said. "There aren't a whole lot of names in the fight against Al Qaeda or several of the other forces."
The media was not the only party to seemingly scoff at Trump’s flag officer support.
“Compare where Trump is with where both Romney and McCain were,” Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the November presidential race, told Fox News. “They had between 300 and 500. I am doing better than any Democrat. He is doing worse than recent Republicans.”
For his part, Trump thanked the military brass for supporting him.
“I thank each of them for their service and their confidence in me to serve as commander in chief,” Trump said in a statement. “Keeping our nation safe and leading our armed forces is the most important responsibility of the presidency.”
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