Conservative Blogger
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Bill Clinton used personal 'LLC' as 'pass-through' for payments, sources say
The newly released financial files on Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's growing fortune omit a company with no apparent employees or assets that the former president has legally used to provide consulting and other services, but which demonstrates the complexity of the family's finances.
Because the company, WJC, LLC, has no financial assets, Hillary Clinton's campaign was not obligated to report its existence in her recent financial disclosure report, officials with Bill Clinton's private office and the Clinton campaign said. They were responding to questions by The Associated Press, which reviewed corporate documents.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide private details of the former president's finances on the record, said the entity was a "pass-through" company designed to channel payments to the former president.
Under federal ethics disclosure rules, declared candidates do not have to report assets worth less than $1,000. But the company's existence demonstrates the complexity of tracking the Clintons' finances as Hillary Clinton ramps up her presidential bid.
While Bill Clinton's lucrative speeches have provided the bulk of the couple's income, earning as much as $50 million during his wife's four-year term as secretary of state in the Obama administration, the former president has also sought to branch out into other business activities in recent years. Little is known about the exact nature and financial worth of Bill Clinton's non-speech business interests.
The identities of several U.S and foreign-based companies and foundations that Bill Clinton worked for have been disclosed in Hillary Clinton's recent financial report as well as in earlier reports during her stint as secretary of state.
Under federal disclosure rules for spouses' earned income, Hillary Clinton was only obligated to identify the source of her spouse's income and confirm that he received more than $1,000. As a result, the precise amounts of Bill Clinton's earned income from consulting have not been disclosed, and it's not known how much was routed through WJC, LLC.
WJC, LLC was set up in Delaware in 2008 and again in 2013 and in New York in 2009, according to documents obtained by The AP. The company did not appear among holdings in the Clintons' financial disclosure released last week or in previous Hillary Clinton disclosure reports between 2008 and 2013, when she resigned as secretary of state. Bill Clinton signed a document as its "authorizing person" in a corporate filing in Delaware in 2013.
A limited liability company is a commonly used business structure that provides tax advantages and limited legal protection for the assets of company owners and partners.
The purpose of Bill Clinton's U.S.-based company was not disclosed in any of the corporate filings in Delaware and New York, but State Department files recently reviewed by the AP show that WJC, LLC surfaced in emails from Bill Clinton's aides to the department's ethics officials.
In February 2009, Clinton's counselor, Douglas Band, asked State Department ethics officials to clear Bill Clinton's consulting work for three companies owned by influential Democratic party donors. Memos sent by Band proposed that Bill Clinton would provide "consulting services regarding geopolitical, economic and social trends affecting the entity and philanthropic opportunities" through the WJC, LLC entity.
State Department officials approved Bill Clinton's consulting work for longtime friend Steve Bing's Shangri-La Industries and another with Wasserman Investments, GP, a firm run by entertainment executive and Democratic party donor Casey Wasserman. The ethics officials turned down Bill Clinton's proposed work with a firm run by entertainment magnate and Democratic donor Haim Saban because of Saban's active role in Mideast political affairs.
WJC, LLC was also cited by Band in a June 2011 memo sent to State Department ethics officials asking for clearance to allow Bill Clinton to advise Band's international consulting company, Teneo Strategy LLC. Band's request said Teneo would use "consulting services provided by President Clinton through WJC, LLC." State Department officials approved the three-year contract between the two companies.
None of the proposals detailed how much Bill Clinton would be paid.
While Hillary Clinton's 2011 federal disclosure report did not mention WJC, LLC, it reported that Bill Clinton received "non-employee compensation over $1,000 from Teneo," but did not disclose a more precise amount. Federal disclosure rules require the spouses of filers to disclose the identity of any income sources over $1,000, but they do not have to provide exact figures.
Pass-through, or shell, companies became an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign when Republican candidate Mitt Romney disclosed a private equity entity worth $1.9 million despite failing to report the company on his previous federal disclosure. Romney aides said the company previously held no assets but then received the $1.9 million "true up" payment -- a catch-up payment to make up for private equity fees from defunct investment advisory businesses that had not been previously paid.
29 shot, 9 dead in bloody Memorial Day weekend in Baltimore
Life without Law and Order?
The city of Baltimore saw a bloody Memorial Day weekend, with a total of 29 people being shot, including nine who died, as the city scrambles to deal with its deadliest month since 1999.
The Baltimore Sun reported that one of those injured was a 9-year-old in West Baltimore who was shot in the leg Monday night. Another man nearby suffered a bullet graze to his head, police told the paper. Two victims in separate shootings suffered fatal gunshot wounds that pushed the number of homicides to 35 for May. A total of 108 have been killed in the city this year, The Sun reported.
WBAL-TV reports a man and woman were shot in a car around 12:30 a.m. Monday. Both were taken to the hospital where the man died. Officers responded to another report of a shooting around 1:43 a.m. Monday. A man died at the hospital. Another man was shot and killed Sunday afternoon. None of those shooting victims have been identified.
"The shootings and killings are all over the city. I don't think any part of the city is immune to this," William "Pete" Welch, a city councilman, told The Sun. "I’ve never seen anything like this."
The city, which has seen its population fall about 35 percent since the 1950s, has found itself in the forefront of the national debate on policing in minority communities after the case of Freddie Gray, whose death has led to the arrests of several Baltimore police officers.
Gray suffered a critical spinal injury April 12 after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him head-first into a van, prosecutors said. His pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored, it is alleged.
Some suggest police in the city, discouraged with the Gray indictments of six officers, may be staging a slowdown in protest, while others say the cops find themselves in a precarious position and may be hesitant to intervene in violent crimes.
"Of course it makes me scared," one resident in West Baltimore, who heard gunshots, told The Sun. "I started praying. I didn't move. ... The drugs have escalated in this block in the last six months. With this new drug element in the block — oh, Lord."
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Sunday met with the police commissioner to discuss the crime issue, The Sun reported. Her spokesman said, "She is confident that the steps being taken by the Police Department will quell this latest uptick in violence."
Marine court-martialed for refusing to remove Bible verse
A United States Marine was convicted at a court-martial for refusing to remove a Bible verse on her computer – a verse of Scripture the military determined “could easily be seen as contrary to good order and discipline.”
The plight of Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling seems unbelievable – a member of the Armed Forces criminally prosecuted for displaying a slightly altered passage of Scripture from the Old Testament: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”
Sterling, who represented herself at trial, was convicted February 1, 2014 in a court-martial at Camp Lejune, North Carolina after she refused to obey orders from a staff sergeant to remove the Bible verses from her desk.
She was found guilty of failing to go to her appointed place of duty, disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer, and four specifications of disobeying the lawful order of a noncommissioned officer.
As it now stands – Sterling is unemployed and looking for work. It’s a process made harder because of the bad conduct discharge from the military. Hopefully Liberty Institute will be able to restore this Christian Marine’s good name and expunge the charge.The Christian Marine was given a bad conduct discharge and a reduction in rank from lance corporal to private.
Both lower court and the appellate court ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act did not apply to her case because displaying a Bible verse does not constitute religious exercise.
However, a religious liberty law firm and a high-powered, former U.S. solicitor general have taken up her case and have filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
“If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo, or go to church on Sunday,” said Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry. “Restricting a Marine’s free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional.”
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Sterling wised up and finally got legal counsel. Now representing her are the Liberty Institute along with former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, also a law professor at Georgetown University.
Clement most recently won a Supreme Court victory on behalf of Hobby Lobby against the Affordable Care Act.
Liberty Institute and Clement plan to argue that the appellate court should have applied the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Sterling’s case – protecting her right to post Bible verses as a form of religious exercise.
According to the appellate court’s decision, they were not convinced “that displaying religious text at a shared government workstation would be protected even in a civilian federal workplace.”
They also considered the fact that Sterling’s desk was shared by other Marines.
“The implication is clear – the junior Marine sharing the desk and the other Marines coming to the desk for assistance would be exposed to biblical quotations in the military workplace,” the court declared. “It is not hard to imagine the divisive impact to good order and discipline that may result when a service member is compelled to work at a government desk festooned with religious quotations.”
Festooned with religious quotations?
Attorney Berry points out that other Marines were allowed to decorate their desks. However, the lower courts refused to allow that evidence to be admitted. And at the time of the incident – Sterling was not sharing a desk.
“This was a conflict between her and her supervisor,” he told me. “Her supervisor clearly said she did not like the tone of the Bible verses.”
Berry said the supervisor cursed at Sterling and ordered her to immediately remove the verses. She refused the order. The following day, she discovered the verses had been removed and thrown in the trash.
“Adding insult to injury, the government charged her with the crime of failing to obey a direct order because she did not remove the Bible verse,” Berry said.
According to court documents, the military maintains the “verbiage” – “No weapon formed against me shall prosper” could “easily been seen as contrary to good order and discipline.”
“Maintaining discipline and morale in the military work center could very well require that the work center remain relatively free of divisive or contentious issues such as personal beliefs, religion, politics, etc.”
Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser told me it was outrageous “that such a small strip of paper could so frighten a drill sergeant.”
“This is a very scary time when you are not allowed to have a very small printed Bible verse in your own personal workspace because it might offend other Marines,” Sasser told me. “Our Marines are trained to deal with some of the most hostile people on the planet. I don’t think they are afraid of tiny words on a tiny piece of paper.”
The Bible verse incident happened in May 2013. A few months later she was accused of failing to wear an appropriate uniform because of a medical condition.
Berry told me he believes the military was trumping up the charge sheet “to make it look that things were worse than they were.”
As it now stands – Sterling is unemployed and looking for work. It’s a process made harder because of the bad conduct discharge from the military.
Hopefully Liberty Institute will be able to restore this Christian Marine’s good name and expunge the charge.
Anything less could jeopardize the standing of every person of faith serving in the Armed Forces. Should that happen – God help us all.
Appeals court refuses to lift hold on Obama immigration action
A federal appeals court refused Tuesday to allow the implementation, for now, of President Obama's executive action that could shield from deportation as many as 5 million illegal immigrants.
The U.S. Justice Department had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's earlier decision temporarily halting the administration's plan. Hanen issued the temporary hold in February, after 26 states filed a lawsuit alleging Obama's action was unconstitutional.
Two out of the three judges on a court panel, though, voted Tuesday to deny the government's request, as the underlying case is argued.
White House Spokesperson Brandi Hoffine said after the ruling, "today, two judges of the Fifth Circuit chose to misinterpret the facts and the law in denying the government's request for a stay."
The majority opinion reasoned that lifting the temporary hold -- known in judicial parlance as issuing a "stay" -- could cause serious problems for states should they ultimately win their challenge. It said the states have shown that "issuance of the stay will substantially injure" them.
It continued: "A stay would enable DAPA beneficiaries to apply for driver's licenses and other benefits, and it would be difficult for the states to retract those benefits or recoup their costs even if they won on the merits. That is particularly true in light of the district court's findings regarding the large number of potential beneficiaries, including at least 500,000 in Texas alone."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised Tuesday's decision.
"The separation of powers and check and balances remain the law of the land, and this decision is a victory for those committed to preserving the rule of law in America," he said in a written statement.
The White House has said the program is intended to primarily help immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and those with children who are U.S. citizens.
It wasn't immediately clear if the government would appeal, either to the full appeals court in New Orleans or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The states suing to block the plan, led by Texas, argue that Obama acted outside his authority and that the changes would force them to invest more in law enforcement, health care and education.
The White House has repeated its position that the president has exclusive authority to enforce immigration laws and can adjust policies to fix a "broken immigration system." Fourteen states have sided with Obama in the case, and say the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs.
Justice Department lawyers sought a stay while they appealed the injunction. They argued that keeping the temporary hold interfered with the Homeland Security Department's ability to protect the U.S. and secure the nation's borders.
They also said immigration policy is a domain of the federal government, not the states.
But, in Tuesday's ruling, 5th Circuit judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Walker Elrod denied the stay, saying in an opinion written by Smith that the federal government lawyers are unlikely to succeed on the merits of that appeal. Judge Stephen Higginson dissented.
"The president's attempt to do this by himself, without a law passed by Congress and without any input from the states, is a remarkable violation of the U.S. Constitution and laws," Paxton said.
Obama announced the executive action in November, saying lack of action by Congress forced him to make sweeping changes to immigration rules on his own. Republicans said Obama overstepped his presidential authority.
The first of Obama's orders -- to expand a program that protects young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children -- was set to take effect Feb. 18. The other major part, extending deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for some years, had been scheduled to begin May 19.
Hanen issued his injunction believing that neither action had taken effect. But the Justice Department later told Hanen that more than 108,000 people had already received three-year reprieves from deportation as well as work permits. Hanen said the federal government had been "misleading," but he declined to sanction the government's attorneys.
The Justice Department has also asked the 5th Circuit to reverse Hanen's overall ruling that sided with the states. A decision on that appeal, which will be argued before the court in July, could take months.
Along with Texas, the states seeking to block Obama's action are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran marries longtime aide
JACKSON, Miss. – U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran — the Mississippi Republican whose 2014 primary campaign drew national attention over an aspiring blogger's photos of his bedridden wife — has married his longtime aide, his office said Monday.
The wedding to Kay Webber took place privately Saturday in Gulfport.
The senator's first wife, Rose Cochran, died in December at age 73 from dementia after living in a nursing home for 13 years.
Political blogger Clayton Kelly took pictures of a bedridden Rose Cochran in April 2014, and officials say he intended to use the images to advance allegations that the senator was having an inappropriate relationship with Webber. Cochran's aides said then that there was nothing improper about the senator's relationship with Webber.
Webber has worked for Cochran since 1981, and both are 77, spokesman Chris Gallegos said. Webber makes $165,000 a year working for the senator.
Kelly, of Pearl, faces charges of conspiracy, burglary and attempted burglary over the photograph. Kelly's lawyer questions whether any laws were broken.
Charges against three other men have been resolved.
Richard Sager, a Laurel teacher and coach who had been charged with conspiracy and tampering with evidence, entered a pretrial diversion program. His case won't be prosecuted if he successfully completes the program.
John Mary of Hattiesburg pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with investigators. Mary received no jail time and could have the conviction wiped from his record if he completes probation.
Ridgeland Attorney Mark Mayfield, who was charged with conspiracy, died by suicide in June, according to police.
The photograph controversy was only one part of a chaotic 2014 Republican primary in which Cochran was challenged by state Sen. Chris McDaniel, an Ellisville Republican. McDaniel led Cochran and one other Republican candidate in the June 3 primary. But Cochran rallied and defeated McDaniel by 7,667 votes in a runoff three weeks later, in part by making appeals to typically Democratic African-American voters.
McDaniel filed a lawsuit claiming the runoff results were tainted by voting irregularities. A circuit judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying it was filed too late. The state Supreme Court upheld the dismissal Oct. 24.
Cochran was first elected to the U.S. House in 1972 and won his first six-year term in the Senate in 1978.
He waited until 2013 to announce he was seeking re-election, weeks after McDaniel had entered the race and lined up financial support from groups that sought to unseat longtime Republicans.
Cochran cruised to victory in the general election with 60 percent of the vote.
ObamaCare fallout? Supreme Court ruling sets up potential Obama, GOP battle
The upcoming Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act could wipe out insurance for millions of people covered by the president’s health care plan, leaving states that didn't set up their own health care markets scrambling to subsidize coverage for those left uninsured.
Twenty-six of the 34 states that would be hardest hit by the ruling have GOP governors. Twenty-two of the 24 Senate seats that are up for re-election in 2016 are currently held by Republicans. What that means is that it’s the GOP – and not the White House –that’s working on damage control.
President Obama’s landmark legislation offers subsidized private insurance to those without access to it on the job. In the Supreme Court case, opponents of the law argue that its literal wording allows the government to subsidize coverage only in states that set up their own health insurance markets.
The justices will determine whether the law makes people in all 50 states eligible for federal tax subsidies -- or just those who live in states that created their own health insurance marketplaces. The question matters because about three dozen states opted against their own marketplace, or exchange, and instead rely on the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Healthcare.gov.
If the court rules against the Obama administration, insurance subsidies for people in those states would be in jeopardy.
If the court invalidates the subsidies in those states, the results would be “ugly,” former Kansas insurance commissioner Sandy Praeger told The Associated Press.
"People who are reasonably healthy would just drop coverage," she said. "Only the unhealthy would keep buying health care. It would really exacerbate the problem of the cost of health insurance."
Praeger, a Republican who retired this year, called it "a classic death spiral," using a term for market collapse.
In March, the Supreme Court appeared divided along ideological lines after hearing the challenge that, if struck down, could affect up to 8 million policy holders.
If the subsidies survive, the ACA will look like settled law to all but a few passionate opponents. However, if they are overturned, the shock could carry into next year’s elections.
Here are just a few of the potential consequences:
BAD TIMING
Around the time when the court announces its decision, insurers will be working to finalize premiums and plans for the coming year. Contracts with the government for 2016 health law coverage have to be signed by early fall. If the subsidies are overturned, insurers would have to tear up their projections about markets in more than half the states.
Populous states such as Texas, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia and Pennsylvania would be among those affected.
State lawmakers could mitigate the impact by setting up their own insurance markets, or exchanges. But that can't be done overnight.
States might try authorizing an exchange, and then contracting with the federal government to run it. But that sort of end-run might prompt lawsuits from opponents of the law.
In any case, most state legislatures will be out of session by the summer.
During arguments, Associate Justice Samuel Alito raised the possibility that the court might be able to delay the effective date of its decision. Even a delay through the end of this year wouldn't buy much time. Enrollment for 2016 health law plans is scheduled to start Nov. 1.
HOUSE OF CARDS
The health law was designed as a balancing act. Insurers can't turn people away because of health problems, but most healthy people are required to contribute to the insurance pool, and the government subsidizes most of the premium for low- to middle-income households.
Take away subsidies, and the other two parts become unstable.
The law's requirement to carry insurance, never popular, would probably become the biggest target for repeal.
"My guess is there would be overwhelming political support for the elimination of the individual mandate if people can't afford the premiums," said former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who was an influential Obama adviser on health care.
Insurers would demand relief from provisions of the law intended to limit premium increases, or they might drop out of the insurance exchanges.
STICKER SHOCK FOR SELF-PAY CUSTOMERS
Many people still buy individual health care policies directly from an insurance company, bypassing the law's markets and paying the full cost. They tend to be small-business owners, self-employed professionals and early retirees.
But even they would not escape the tumult in states losing subsidies.
The health law created one big insurance pool in each state, combining customers who purchase their policies directly with those who buy through the government market. If healthy people exit the insurance exchanges in droves, premiums for those buying directly would go up. Some may be unable to afford the higher cost.
"It would set off cascading events," said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "The individual market would empty out as premiums rise significantly."
REPUBLICANS TO THE RESCUE?
Leading congressional Republicans have been walking a fine line, opposing the law in the Supreme Court case while pledging to protect consumers if their side wins.
If the subsidies are overturned, Republicans will first try blaming Obama and the Democrats for writing flawed legislation and then trying to paper over problems with regulations. Then they'll move ahead with a patch to appease angry constituents.
A bill introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., would continue the subsidies for existing customers only on the federal exchange until September 2017. That would open a window for states to act, but it would ultimately leave the problem for the next president and Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is a co-sponsor.
Johnson's bill would repeal the requirements for individuals to have insurance and for larger employers to offer coverage to workers.
Obama is unlikely to accept any of those changes.
"The president is likely to veto whatever we would propose, because we don't have a willing partner," said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., leader of a GOP working group on health care.
Iraq announces counterattack against ISIS in Anbar province
Iraq's government announced Tuesday that its military had launched a counterattack aimed at driving the Islamic State terror group out of the western part of Anbar province just days after militants captured the city of Ramadi.
Iraqi state TV announced the start of the operation, which was backed by Sunni and Shiite paramilitary forces, but did not provide further details. The possibility of a large-scale counteroffensive has has sparked fears of potential sectarian violence in the Sunni province, long the scene of protests and criticism against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
The announcement of the attack came hours after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in an effort to smooth over comments made Sunday by Defense Secretary Ash Carter in which he accused Iraqi forces of showing "no will to fight" in Ramadi.
A White House statement on Monday describing Biden's call said the vice president welcomed an Iraqi decision to mobilize additional troops and "prepare for counterattack operations." Biden also pledged full U.S. support to "these and other Iraqi efforts to liberate territory from ISIL," the statement said, using an acronym for Islamic State, which is commonly known as ISIS.
Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for al-Abadi, had said Monday his government was surprised by Carter's comments.
"We should not judge the whole army based on one incident," al-Hadithi told The Associated Press.
The fall of Ramadi marked a major defeat for Iraqi forces, which had been making steady progress against the extremists over the past year with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.
Security forces and Sunni militiamen who had been battling the extremists in Ramadi for months collapsed as IS fighters overran the city. The militants gained not only new territory 70 miles west of Baghdad, but also large stocks of weapons abandoned by the government forces as they fled.
Meanwhile, Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani was quoted in an Iranian daily newspaper as saying that the U.S. didn't do a "damn thing" to stop the ISIS advance on Ramadi, adding that Iran and its allies are the only forces that can deal with the threat.
"Today, there is nobody in confrontation with (ISIS) except the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as nations who are next to Iran or supported by Iran," he said.
Authorities say 12 missing in Texas floods likely dead, 13 killed in Mexico tornado
Authorities in central Texas ended their search late Monday for 12 people missing after a vacation home where they were staying was swept away by a flash flood.
Trey Hatt, spokesman for the Hays County Emergency Operations Center, told reporters that rescue teams halted their search for survivors at nightfall Monday. He said "the search component is over," meaning that no more survivors are expected to be found in the flood debris. Hatt said recovery operations are expected to begin Tuesday.
Witnesses reported seeing the swollen Blanco River push the vacation house off its foundation and smash it into a bridge. Only pieces of the home have been found, Hays County Judge Bert Cobb told the Associated Press.
One person who was rescued from the home told workers that the other 12 inside were all connected to two families, Cobb said. KTBC reported that eight of the missing had traveled to the area from Corpus Christi.
The house was in Wimberley Valley, an area known for its bed-and-breakfast inns and weekend rental cottages approximately 30 miles southwest of Austin. In Bastrop County, southeast of the state capital, water from the Colorado River breached a dam at Bastrop State Park.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that emergency responders had been required to make several water rescues, all of which were successful. An exact number of rescues was not immediately made available, nor was it immediately clear whether there were any injuries.
The flooding is the result of storms that have been blamed for at least seven deaths over the long holiday weekend in the U.S., with three in Oklahoma and four in Texas. A man's body was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 26 feet in an hour and created huge piles of debris. Another man was confirmed dead Monday when a tornado destroyed four homes in a subdivision outside the city of Cameron, approximately 60 miles northeast of Austin. Milam County Judge Dave Barkemeyer told the Associated Press the man died when his mobile home was destroyed at about 4 p.m. local time Monday. Four other people were injured.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott flew over parts of the Blanco on Monday, a day after heavy rains pushed the river into surrounding neighborhoods. Abbott said the storms had "relentless tsunami-type power", and urged communities downstream to monitor flood levels and take the threat seriously. Abbott also added 24 counties to his disaster declaration, bringing the total to 37, most in the eastern half of the state.
Late Monday, the National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for southwest Harris County as the storm brought heavy rain to the Houston area. The weather service reported 5 to 7 inches had fallen there Monday night and an additional 2 to 4 inches were possible.
Authorities urged Houston residents to avoid all travel, and CenterPoint Energy reported that over 70,000 customers in the Houston area were without poewr. The Houston Rockets advised fans to remain in the arena following Game 4 of the NBA's Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors due to the severe weather in the area.
In Mexico, at least 13 people were killed when a tornado ripped through the city of Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, a city of 125,000 on the border with the U.S. Three infants were among those confirmed dead, while five others, including another infant, were unaccounted for.
Rescue workers dug through the rubble of damaged homes in a race to find victims. The twister hit a seven-block area shortly after daybreak Monday, around the time buses were preparing to take children to school.
Mayor Evaristo Perez Rivera said 300 people were being treated at local hospitals, and up to 200 homes had been completely destroyed.
"There's nothing standing, not walls, not roofs," said Edgar Gonzalez, a spokesman for the city government, describing some of the destroyed homes in a 1 square mile stretch.
Gonzalez said late Monday night that rescuers were looking for four members of a family who were believed missing, adding that there were still areas of rubble that remained to be searched.
Family members and neighbors gathered around a pickup truck where the bodies of a woman and two children were laid out in the truck's bed, covered with sheets. Two relatives reached down to touch the bodies, covered their eyes and wept.
Photos from the scene showed cars with their hoods torn off, resting upended against single-story houses. One car's frame was bent around the gate of a house. A bus was seen flipped and crumpled on a roadway.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Remembering the meaning of Memorial Day
It is Memorial Day 2015. In cemeteries across the country flags flutter, flowers grace the graves of the departed, and bugles sound the mournful notes of Taps. The crowds paying tribute, however, have grown sparse.
Begun as a way to honor Civil War dead, the commemoration was long called Decoration Day from the practice of decorating graves. The observance was held on May 30 no matter the day of the week. Since 1971, Memorial Day has been observed on the last Monday in May as the end of a federally mandated three-day weekend. Now firmly ingrained as the traditional start of the summer season, the solemn reasons behind the day have faded despite the continuing sacrifices of so many.
Seventy years ago, it was very different. Memorial Day 1945 marked an uneasy time of mixed emotions. There was celebration, remembrance, and dread. World War II in Europe was over by three weeks and no more battle casualties would join the rows of crosses planted from North Africa to the beaches of Normandy and across France into Germany. But the war in the Pacific still raged. Many Americans who had fought in Europe feared they would be going to the other side of the globe to continue the fight against Japan rather than back to the States for a victorious homecoming.
On this Memorial Day, we honor the sacrifices of prior generations. We honor the sacrifices of the men and women next door who have served or continue to serve our country. And we pledge never to forget the true meaning of Memorial Day.In the far Pacific, forces led by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz battled to wrap up the invasion of Okinawa, a long and bloody struggle that cost the lives of more than 12,000 American soldiers, sailors, and marines, including U.S. Tenth Army commander Simon Bolivar Buckner. In the southwest Pacific, having fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur sought to complete his occupation of the islands and plan the final assault against Japan.
In the Pacific that year, Memorial Day observances were particularly solemn. Fresh graves were decorated in cemeteries with names largely unknown a year earlier: Saipan, Peleliu, Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The question that could not yet be answered was how many more graves and cemeteries would be required to end the war. On Saipan, a special service was held for crews of B-29 bombers lost in the air war against Japan’s home islands. Their final resting places were unknown.
In the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt intended to pay a quiet visit to her husband Franklin’s fresh grave at Hyde Park, but found instead an overflowing crowd of well-wishers. Among the tributes to the fallen leader was a wreath sent by the current president, Harry Truman. It was laid on Roosevelt’s grave to honor the man who had led America longer than any other president and died within sight of victory.
Truman also sent a message to a “Salute to the GI’s of the United Nations” rally in Madison Square Garden. The new president emphasized the four essential human freedoms long articulated by Roosevelt: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The American Secretary of State and the Soviet Ambassador to the United States were in attendance. Each praised American-Soviet cooperation in the war and expressed hopes for a long-lasting peace.
In Chicago, an estimated 750,000 citizens turned out to cheer General Mark W. Clark, a veteran of the long, frustrating Italian campaign. Clark had made a surprise flight from Paris to Chicago to lead a parade down State Street to observances at Grant Park. Clark expected to receive orders momentarily to report to the Pacific.
On the West Coast, ports and shipyards continued to fill supply lines with men and materiel in anticipation of bitter and costly invasions to come. Yet, there was also the anticipation of hordes of returning servicemen. Newspapers warned veterans to be wary of scams that purported to offer college benefits.
In the tiny hamlet of Airmount west of New York City, Jesse Tompkins was one of the few Civil War veterans still living. Two weeks shy of 98, he spent the day at his home reading newspapers and listening to the radio. Quoted as saying he had seen enough parades, Tompkins would not live to see Japan’s surrender. Mercifully for all, it came later that summer.
On that Memorial Day seventy years ago—a day one newspaper called “a day of dedication”—there was indeed hope that battlefields would become relics of the past. Such has not been the case. No one foresaw then the places American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen, as well as coast guard personnel, firefighters, and law enforcement officers, would be required to make a stand. To the World War II names would be added Chosin Reservoir in Korea, Khe Sanh and Pleiku in Vietnam, Kirkuk in Iraq, the Korangal Valley of Afghanistan, the World Trade Center, and a thousand others at home and around the world.
On this Memorial Day, we honor the sacrifices of prior generations. We honor the sacrifices of the men and women next door who have served or continue to serve our country. And we pledge never to forget the true meaning of Memorial Day. We would not have the privilege of celebrating this day and honoring so many memories without the sacrifices of those who gave their last full measure of devotion.
California governor proposes amnesty program for those who cannot pay traffic debt
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Calling California's traffic court system a "hellhole of desperation" for the poor, Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing an amnesty program for residents who can't afford to pay off spiraling fines and penalties that have resulted in 4.8 million driver's license suspensions since 2006.
The push by the Democratic governor spotlights concern among lawmakers and court administrators that California's justice system is profiting off minorities and low-income residents. It's a civil rights issue that has prompted discussions between the Brown administration and the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the governor's spokesman, Evan Westrup.
It's not clear if the Justice Department has launched an inquiry into California's court system. The department did not return requests for comment. Westrup declined to provide details on the meetings with federal officials.
Under Brown's plan, drivers with lesser infractions would pay half of what they owe, and administrative fees would be slashed from $300 to $50.
Advocates for the poor have likened California's problem to the police and municipal court structure in Ferguson, Missouri, which was criticized by the Justice Department as a revenue-generating machine following last year's fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer.
"California has sadly become a pay-to-play court system," said Michael Herald, a legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty who helped write a scathing report released last month by civil rights groups on how Californians are getting caught in a cycle of debt and having their driver's licenses suspended as a result of costly traffic tickets and court penalties.
Traffic fines have been skyrocketing in California and courts have grown reliant on fees as a result of budget cuts during the recession.
Twenty years ago, the fine for running a red light was $103. Today, it costs as much as $490 as the state has established add-on fees to support everything from court construction to emergency medical air transportation. The cost can jump to over $800 once a person fails to pay or misses a traffic court appearance.
Civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have found that some traffic courts routinely deny people a hearing unless they pay the amount owed up front. The debt also has to be paid off in order for their licenses to be reinstated.
"Everyone is entitled to their day in court and that includes the poor," said Christine Sun, associate director of ACLU of Northern California.
On Monday, California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye directed the court system's policymaking body, the Judicial Council, to make clear that people do not have to pay off traffic court debts before they can get a hearing.
Since 2006, the state has suspended 4.8 million driver's licenses after motorists failed to pay or appear in court, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Of those, only about 83,000 licenses were reinstated.
Michael Armas, 31, of Oakland, said he has been unable to find a labor or construction job without his driver's license for the past year and a half because he hasn't paid minor citations such as driving while using a cellphone or an improperly displayed license plate. His tickets have spiraled into a $4,500 debt.
Armas, who is African-American and Portuguese, said he's caught in a no-win legal cycle that's hampering his efforts to win custody of his 11-year-old daughter.
"How do you expect to pay something when you have no job, and you can't get a job without your license?" Armas said.
Brown hopes to bring relief to the poor with the 18-month amnesty program that would start Oct. 1.
"It's a hellhole of desperation and I think this amnesty can be a very good thing to both bring in money, to give people a chance to kind of pay at a discount," Brown said last week.
Brown's proposal is similar to a bill by Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, which would restore a license if the driver agrees to a debt payment program based on a sliding scale. The poorest would pay as little as 20 percent of the fine.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, sent letters Tuesday to the Judicial Council and a nonpartisan analyst for ideas on changing the court fee structure.
Boston University prof at center of racist tweet flap was charged with felony ID theft in 2008
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Huckabee: NSA spying, Clinton's private emails making Americans 'more distrustful' of government
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee expressed his opposition Sunday to extending NSA phone-spying and suggested the program -- along with recent revelations like Hillary Clinton’s having used private email for official State Department communication -- has resulted in Americans’ unprecedented distrust of the Obama administration.
“The secrecy with which this government has operated and, specifically, Hillary Clinton using a private email server outside the bounds of normal State Department protocol is very troubling,” Huckabee told “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s never been a time in my lifetime where people are more distrustful of government.”
Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, is now the Democratic front-runner in the 2016 White House race.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, made his comments a day after the Senate failed to pass legislation to extend the section of post-9/11 Patriot Act that covers the National Security Agency’s bulk phone data collection program, which expires on June 1.
Huckabee said U.S. intelligence-gathers should “get a warrant” if they suspect an American of being involved in such activity as terrorism or spying, instead of the sweeping phone-data gathering, especially since it has been ineffective in thwarting a major terror plot.
“If this is so effective, why hasn’t it foiled potential terrorist plots?” he asked. “Not one [foiled plot] has been tied to the NSA’s collection of metadata. … It seems like we’re spending billions of dollars on the whiz-bang technology and not enough on human resources, which have proven to be the most effective way of stopping terrorism.”
“If you have probable cause … you go to a judge and get a warrant and then you can listen to his phone calls,” he said.
Huckabee also argued Americans are concerned about the Supreme Court now having too much authority because the high-court’s decisions become law without the checks and balances of the legislative and executive branches.
“One can’t overrule the other two,” he said. “We learned that in 9th grade civics. It’s a matter of balance of power.”
At least 3 dead, hundreds of homes destroyed as flash flooding sweeps through Texas, Oklahoma
A storm system dropped record amounts of rainfall across the southern Plains Sunday, causing flash floods in normally dry riverbeds, spawning tornadoes, destroying homes, and forcing at least 2,000 people to flee.
Two people were confirmed dead in Oklahoma. where a firefighter was swept to his death while trying to rescue people from high water and a woman in Tulsa died in a traffic-related crash. In Texas, a man's body was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 26 feet in just one hour and left piles of wreckage 20 feet high, authorities said.
In Wimberley, Texas, southwest of Austin, eight people were reported missing, including three children, according to KXAN.
"It looks pretty bad out there," said Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith, describing the destruction in Wimberley, part of a fast-growing corridor between Austin and San Antonio. "We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs," she said.
Between 350 and 400 homes were destroyed in Wimberley, many of them washed away, Smith said. In nearby San Marcos, flooding had damaged about 300 homes, she said. Kenneth Bell, the emergency management coordinator in San Marcos, said the damage in Hays County alone amounts to "millions of dollars."
Authorities also warned people to honor a night-time curfew and stay away from damaged areas, since more rain was on the way, threatening more floods with the ground saturated and waterways overflowing.
Rivers rose so fast that whole communities woke up Sunday morning surrounded by water. The Blanco crested above 40 feet, more than double its flood stage of 13 feet, swamping Interstate 35 and forcing parts of the busy north-south highway to close. Rescuers used pontoon boats and a helicopter to pull people out.
"I was thinking that we were all going to die," Josie Rodriguez told Fox San Antonio. "We were all crying, everyone was crying."
Dallas also faced severe flooding from the Trinity River, which was expected to crest near 40 feet Monday and lap at the foundations of an industrial park. The Red and Wichita rivers also rose far above flood stage.
Heather Ruiz returned from work early Sunday to ankle-deep water and a muddy couch inside her home in San Marcos. She wasn't sure what to do next. "Pick up the pieces and start all over I guess. Salvage what can be salvaged and replace what needs to be replaced," Ruiz said.
In northeast Oklahoma, Capt. Jason Farley was helping rescue people at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday when he was swept into a drainage ditch. The body of the 20-year veteran was recovered an hour and a half later, Claremore Fire Chief Sean Douglas said.
According to Fox 23, Farley was helping a rescue operation at a home during a girl's 5th birthday party. All of the attendees, which included children and one adult, were rescued through a window.
"He's our hero. That's for sure," the 5-year-old's grandfather Steven Darnell told Fox 23. "It could have been our grandkids or my daughter. I pray for his family and the other firefighters. They're like family to each other."
This May is already the wettest on record for several cities in the southern Plains states, with days still to go and more rain on the way. So far this year, Oklahoma City has recorded 27.37 inches of rain. Last year the state's capital got only 4.29 inches. It also set a new monthly rainfall total this weekend -- 18.2 inches through Saturday, beating the previous one of 14.5 in 2013.
Wichita Falls was so dry at one point that that it had to get Texas regulatory approval to recycle and treat its wastewater as drinking water dried up. By Sunday, the city reached a rainfall record, nearly 14 inches so far in May.
The reasons for the deluge include a prolonged warming of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, which generally results in cooler air, coupled with an active southern jet stream and plentiful moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, said Meteorologist Forrest Mitchell at National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma.
"It looks like the rainfall that we're getting now may actually officially end the drought," that has gripped the southern Plains states for years, Mitchell said, noting that moisture now reaches about two feet below the surface of the soil and many lakes and reservoirs are full.
About 1,000 people were evacuated in Central Texas, where rescuers pulled dozens of people from high water overnight.
Tami Mallow, 41, gathered her three cats at a shelter in San Marcos while her husband put furniture on cinderblocks, and retreated to the second floor with electronics and other valuables as the floodwaters entered.
"He told me there was 2 inches of mud," Mallow said. "I don't know what the cleanup process is going to be."
Five San Marcos police cars were washed away and a fire station is flooded, said Kristi Wyatt, a spokeswoman for San Marcos, which imposed a curfew starting at 9 p.m. Sunday.
A tornado briefly touched down in Houston, damaging rooftops, toppling trees, blowing out windows and sending at least two people to a hospital. The weather service said the tornado struck with winds of about 100 mph at around 6:30 a.m. Sunday. Fire officials said 10 apartments were heavily damaged and 40 others sustained lesser damage.
Some 50 miles north of the city, about 1,000 people were preparing to spend the night away from home. The Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management issued a mandatory evacuation order to more than 400 homes near an earthen dam at Lake Lewis that was at risk of failing due to the heavy rains.
Spokeswoman Miranda Hahs said the dam owned by Entergy Texas is holding, but that it was not clear when residents would be allowed to return home.
Colorado also was water-logged. A mandatory evacuation notice was issued Sunday for residents in the northeastern city of Sterling, and several counties planned to ask the governor for a disaster declaration.
The storm system pushed northeast into Iowa and Illinois on Sunday after it moved through parts of Colorado, central and North Texas and most of Oklahoma. New flash flood watches were issued Sunday for western Arkansas, Missouri and parts of Kansas, and tornado warnings were issued Sunday night for parts of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
ABC spokeswoman in Stephanopoulos flap worked in Clinton White House
The ABC News spokeswoman who slow-walked The Washington Free Beacon’s request for comment on George Stephanopoulos’ undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation also worked in the Clinton administration.
Heather Riley -- spokeswoman for ABC News programs “Good Morning America” and “This Week” -- worked in the White House press office from 1997 to 2000, according to her LinkedIn profile, and is a member of the Facebook group “(Bill) Clinton Administration Alumni.”
The Free Beacon, a conservative-leaning publication, contacted ABC News on the afternoon of May 13 to request comment on George Stephanopoulos’s previously undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation.
“I was just forwarded your email about George. I’m going to send you something,” Riley emailed later that night, according to The Free Beacon. “Want to make sure you get it in time.”
Riley later told the Free Beacon that she would deliver a statement by 7 a.m. the next morning. However, the statement did not arrive until 9:40 a.m., about 15 minutes after POLITICO published its “scoop” about the donations.
White House records show that Riley’s duties included serving as a press contact for then-first lady Hillary Clinton.
The company and its charitable foundation have donated $20,000 to $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation, records show. The Rodale family contributed at least $5,000 to Hillary Clinton’s campaigns from 2005 to 2008.
Stephanopoulos was part of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and held several top posts in the Clinton administration including spokesman and senior adviser.
Final votes on Patriot Act, trade deal bill set dramatic stage for Congress’ return
The Senate’s failure to extend the USA Patriot Act will bring the legislation on NSA phone-record collection and other key surveillance activities perilously close to expiring on June 1, forcing senators to return early from recess for a rare Sunday session.
The Senate vote was just one of two this weekend that set the stage for dramatic showdowns on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks and months.
The GOP-led upper chamber passed bipartisan legislation Friday night to strengthen President Obama's hand in global trade talks. However, the legislation must now pass the Republican-led House, with help from Democrats because some conservative members oppose the legislation.
Speaker John Boehner supports the measure and says Republicans will do their part to pass it.
Dozens of House Republicans oppose the legislation either out of ideological reasons or because they are loath to enhance Obama's authority, especially at their own expense.
Senate and now House Democrats are showing little inclination to support legislation that much of organized labor opposes.
Meanwhile, the National Security Agency is starting to winding down its bulk collection of domestic-calling records in preparation for the Senate voting again against the legislation, according to the Justice Department, which says the collection takes time to halt.
The Senate went into the early hours on Saturday morning to vote on the legislation before leaving Washington for Memorial Day recess.
By the time senators broke for the holiday, they had blocked a House-passed bill and several short-term extensions of the key provisions in the Patriot Act.
The main stumbling block was a House-passed provision to end the NSA collecting the phone-call metadata and instead have the records remain with telephone companies subject to a case-by-case review.
McConnell warned against allows the NSA and other key surveillance programs under the act to expire.
However, he and other key Republican senators oppose the House approach, backed by officials who argued it is the best way for the United States to keep valuable surveillance tools.
Fellow GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, also a 2016 presidential candidate, called the Senate's failure to allow the extension a victory for privacy rights.
"We should never give up our rights for a false sense of security," Paul said in a statement. "This is only the beginning -- the first step of many. I will continue to do all I can until this illegal government spying program is put to an end, once and for all."
The White House has pressured the Senate to back the House bill, which drew an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote last week and had the backing of GOP leaders, Democrats and the libertarian-leaning members.
But the Senate blocked the bill on a vote of 57-42, short of the 60-vote threshold to move ahead. That was immediately followed by rejection of a two-month extension to the existing programs. The vote was 54-45, again short of the 60-vote threshold.
McConnell repeatedly asked for an even shorter renewal of current law, ticking down days from June 8 to June 2. But Paul and other opponents of the post-Sept. 11 law objected each time.
At issue is a section of the Patriot Act, Section 215, used by the government to justify secretly collecting the "to and from" information about nearly every American landline telephone call. For technical and bureaucratic reasons, the program was not collecting a large chunk of mobile calling records, which made it less effective as fewer people continued to use landlines.
When former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the program in 2013, many Americans were outraged that NSA had their calling records. President Obama ultimately announced a plan similar to the USA Freedom Act and asked Congress to pass it. He said the plan would preserve the NSA's ability to hunt for domestic connections to international plots without having an intelligence agency hold millions of Americans' private records.
Since it gave the government extraordinary powers, Section 215 of the Patriot Act was designed to expire at midnight on May 31 unless Congress renews it.
Under the USA Freedom Act, the government would transition over six months to a system under which it queries the phone companies with known terrorists' numbers to get back a list of numbers that had been in touch with a terrorist number.
But if Section 215 expires without replacement, the government would lack the blanket authority to conduct those searches. There would be legal methods to hunt for connections in U.S. phone records to terrorists, said current and former U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. But those methods would not be applicable in every case.
Far less attention has been paid to two other surveillance authorities that expire as well. One makes it easier for the FBI to track "lone wolf" terrorism suspects who have no connection to a foreign power, and another allows the government to eavesdrop on suspects who continuously discard their cellphones in an effort to avoid surveillance.
Common enemy: Israel, Hamas face threat of ISIS in Gaza
HAIFA, Israel – Sworn enemies Israel and Hamas may have found the one thing that can unite them: The threat of ISIS taking over Gaza.
Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization which controls the Islamic enclave in Israel and which fought a vicious 50-day war against Israel last summer, is desperately trying to stop ISIS from gaining a foothold within its territory. In recent weeks, jihadi groups loyal to ISIS have exchanged gun and rocket fire with Hamas authorities, planted bombs in public buildings and threatened an all-out war with the Gaza government. Hamas reportedly blew up a mosque believed to be a base for ISIS loyalists and has detained significant numbers of suspects.
“In light of Hamas’ latest action, we renew our allegiance to [ISIS leader] Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and call on him to strengthen his influence, to open up a war in Palestine in order to unite together in a war against the Jews and their accomplices,” a group calling itself Supporters of the Islamic State in Jerusalem said in a statement last month after the mosque in the central Gaza section of Deir Al-Balah was destroyed.
“Hamas is brutal enough and determined enough to meet that challenge.”The statement demanded that Hamas release all ISIS loyalists and was followed days later by a bombing near Hamas' security headquarters.
- Yoram Schweitzer, Institute for National Security Studies
ISIS has now expanded beyond Iraq and Syria and into Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Somalia. Although Palestinian leaders refuse to publicly acknowledge an ISIS presence threat in Gaza, the group’s black flag is now often seen there.
“I know that people from Hamas have expressed more and more the concept of long-range ‘hudna’ [truce] with Israel,” regional terror expert Yoram Schweitzer of the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies told FoxNews.com. “Because of the dire straits in Gaza as a consequence of the last operation there, Hamas has to carry the burden of caring for the people and is considering pushing for a kind of hudna in return for Israeli concessions.”
Late last month senior Hamas official Ahmad Yousef told Ma’an, the Palestinian news agency, that European officials were acting as intermediaries with Israel, but that things would only begin “moving ahead” once the new Israeli government was sworn in. That swearing in ceremony took place last Thursday evening.
“As you can imagine, we are following developments within the Gaza Strip and also in the Sinai Peninsula very, very closely, and not only us, also the Egyptian authorities,” Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Office, told FoxNews.com.
Hamas is under pressure from the densely populated strip's 1.8 million residents to rebuild following the damaging 2014 conflict. Billions in pledges from Arab nations have failed to materialize and a lack of jobs and basic services continues to plague Gaza. Many smuggling tunnels from the Sinai Peninsula, once a source of black market goods, have been blown up or flooded by Egyptian forces who say they have been used by ISIS and its affiliates to mount attacks from within Gaza.
While Israel could conceivably work with Hamas to stop ISIS, Egypt likely sees little difference between the two terrorist groups.
“Egypt sees Hamas as part of the Muslim Brotherhood which they see as their venomous enemy,” says Schweitzer. “They see Hamas playing a significant role in the hardship Egypt is enduring from the Sinai and they know that Hamas enables people from these organizations to find refuge in Gaza. They see Hamas as somebody who needs to be removed from power.”
It is Israel which has thrown Hamas a lifeline by sending increasing amounts of food and goods through the border crossings to alleviate the chronic shortages in Gaza. Reports of Hamas mulling a five-year truce with Israel in return for an easing of the blockade on the enclave have been circulating and appeared in regional media. Indications that Turkey, a staunch supporter of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood has been acting as an intermediary, have not been denied by the Turks.
Some observers say, at least for now, Hamas is capable of putting down the threat from ISIS.
“I don’t think [ISIS or its affiliates] are a threat that Hamas cannot handle,” Schweitzer said. “Hamas is brutal enough and determined enough to meet that challenge.”
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