What we know about NSA leaker Edward Snowden

usnews

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The 29-year-old computer whiz who says he divulged details about National Security Agency's data-collecting programs has also revealed specifics of his life story, from an upbringing in North Carolina to a top-secret contract in Hawaii.
Speaking from a Hong Kong hotel that he reportedly has since left, Edward Snowden told The Guardian that he had enjoyed a "very comfortable life," but one marked by mounting disillusionment with what he views as government intrusion into the private lives of American citizens.
"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under," he said.
Here's some of what we know about the bespectacled self-proclaimed "spy" who is being called both a traitor and a hero:
Background: Born June 21, 1983, he grew up in Wilmington, N.C., but later moved to Ellicott City, Md., he told The Guardian. His mother, Wendy, is the chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology at the federal court in Baltimore, a court official told NBC News. His father, Lonnie, is a former Coast Guard officer who lives in Pennsylvania, the Allentown Morning Call reported. A neighbor said he has an older sister who is an attorney.
"He was a quiet guy, kept to himself. He always dressed nice, was clean cut. He just reminded me of a brainiac," said neighbor Joyce Kinsey. "I feel terrible for his family." In his interview with The Guardian, Edward Snowden said the only thing he feared from outing himself is the "harmful effects on my family."
Education: He did not complete high school. He told The Guardian that he studied computers at a community college and obtained a general equivalency degree. A spokesman for Anne Arundel Community College confirmed that a student with the same name and birth date took classes there, from 1999 to 2001 and again in 2004 and 2005.
Military service: He spent four months in the Army reserves, from May to September 2004 as a special forces recruit to a 14-week training course, the Army said. "He did not complete any training or receive any awards," an Army statement said. No other details were given, but Snowden told The Guardian he was discharged after breaking his legs in an accident.
Government work: His first job with the National Security Agency was as a security guard, and the next stop was an information-technology job with the CIA, which stationed him in Geneva in 2007, he claimed. He said he left the CIA in 2009 to work for private contractors, including Dell and Booz Allen. Through his job with Booz Allen, he was assigned to NSA offices in Japan and, more recently, Hawaii. Booz Allen said he has been an employee for about three months. He told reporters he made about $200,000 a year.

Anita Hofschneider / AP

A real estate sign stands in front of a home in Waipahu, Hawaii, Sunday, June 9, 2013, where Edward Snowden, source of disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, lived with his girlfriend until recently. A Hawaii real estate agent says Snowden and his girlfriend moved out of the home near Honolulu on May 1, leaving nothing behind.

Hawaii: He briefly lived in a 1,559-square-foot rented home on Oahu, where neighbors said he and his girlfriend, who has not been named, kept to themselves. "They just say, 'Hi' and 'Hello' in the morning," Angel Cunanan told NBC station KHNL. "He mentioned that he worked for the government." Local residents said the couple never really unpacked before they moved out May 1, after the owner decided to sell the house, the Associated Press reported.
Exit plan: When he decided to go to Hong Kong to await the fallout from the leaks, Snowden told the NSA that he was taking a leave for treatment of epilepsy, a condition he told The Guardian he was diagnosed with last year after seizures. He said he didn't give his girlfriend a specific reason, just saying he had to go away for a few weeks.
Politics: A public records search shows Snowden was a registered voter but did not declare a political party affiliation. Someone with the same name who lived in the same places and at one point worked for Dell made two $250 donations last year to libertarian-leaning GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Cloak-and-dagger: Snowden self-identifies as a spook. "I've been a spy almost all of my adult life," he told the Washington Post. In his communications with a reporter, he used a code name — "Verax," or truth-teller in Latin. He's worried he's being watched and puts a red hood over his head and laptop when he enters passwords, The Guardian reported.

Snowden's Steps To Protect His Privacy

Business Insider

Brian Jones 

via Shutterstock

Weeks ago, Edward Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency, left his home in Hawaii and checked into a hotel in Hong Kong.

The 29-year-old man responsible for one of the more notable intelligence leaks in American history then waited until he became one of the most wanted men in the world.

“We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week,” Snowden told the Guardian. “And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be.”

One would imagine that Snowden is intimately familiar with the capabilities of NSA, and what he has gotten himself into. The Guardian details some of the steps he takes to protect his privacy:

• In case of hidden cameras, he drapes a large red hood over his head and computer screen when he enters his passwords.
• He places pillows under the crack of his door to combat eavesdropping.
• He rarely ventures out in public. "I've left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay," Snowden said.

SEE ALSO:  Some Tricks To Keep The Government From Spying On You

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/snowdens-steps-to-protect-his-privacy-2013-6#ixzz2Vqj2unQ7

Documento: EEUU alertó a Castro sobre atentado de William Morgan

cafefuerte

www.newyorker.com

Por Miguel Fernández-Díaz

Está confirmado por documentos del Departamento de Estado: Washington alertó a las autoridades cubanas sobre un supuesto atentado que perpetraba el entonces Comandante William Alexander Morgan (1928-1961) contra el líder Fidel Castro Ruz meses después de tomar el poder.

www.toledoblade.com

La historia oficial cubana de 638 planes de atentado contra Fidel Castro corre desde diciembre de 1958 en la Sierra Maestra, con el agente del FBI Allen Robert Nye, hasta noviembre de 2000 en Panamá, con el agente CIA Luis Posada Carriles. En esa desproporcionada relación se cuentan hasta los que no fueron más allá de susurros o garabatos, pero suele pasarse por alto el más significativo: el complot de asesinato atribuido a Morgan, desertor de las fuerzas rebeldes.

Este episodio consta en el Volumen VI de la compilación Foreign Relations of the United States  (Relaciones Exteriores de los Estados Unidos), atesorada por la Oficina del Historiador del Departamento de Estado. El documento 348 revela que el embajador estadounidense Philip Bonsal avisó a Castro luego de que el FBI recibiera informe de que Morgan encabezaba una conspiración para matarlo.

El 2 de agosto de 1959, el Departamento de Estado comunicó la esencia del informe a Bonsal, quien al día siguiente respondió haber notificado al canciller cubano Raúl Roa y recibido su agradecimiento. Bonsal tachó a Morgan de "irresponsable y falto de principios", además de comentar que cualquier atentado contra Castro, incluso si fracasara, pondría en peligro la seguridad de los ciudadanos norteamericanos en Cuba.

El 4 de agosto, Roa contó a Bonsal por teléfono que el presidente Osvaldo Dorticós se había alarmado mucho. Bonsal recalcó que su gobierno no podía confirmar la veracidad del informe al FBI e incluso acotó que podría estar dirigido a sembrar "sospechas y disensos".

¿La CIA detrás de Morgan?

El reportaje en profundidad de David Grann sobre el "Comandante Yanqui", publicado por la The New Yorker, el pasado año, no aludió a esta peripecia diplomática entre La Habana y Washington, algo que sí recogió el historiador Enrique Ros en su obra El clandestinaje y la

www.latinamericanstudies.org

lucha armada contra Castro (Ediciones Universal, 2006). También sería traída a colación por Orlando Cruz Capote, investigador auxiliar del Instituto de Filosofía de la Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, en su artículo "La expedición dominicana-cubana a Santo Domingo en 1959" (Calibán, enero-febrero-marzo, 2009).

Cruz Capote recurrió a la mención para justificar que Morgan conspiraba con el dictador dominicano Rafael Leónidas Trujillo en contra de Castro y luego cambió de casaca al percatarse de que el G-2 iba a descubrir la "conspiración trujillista". El articulista alega que "Morgan ya era desde la lucha guerrillera cubana un agente de la CIA encubierto. La actividad de William Morgan es evidente si se lee un telegrama del Departamento de Estado enviado a su embajada en La Habana donde se da a conocer que éste está vinculado a alguna actividad contrarrevolucionaria al ser líder de un grupo que se proponía asesinar a Fidel Castro".

De esa manera, repica la tesis del general Fabián Escalante, ex jefe y actual historiador de la Seguridad del Estado, quien aseguró en su libro Cuba: la guerra secreta de la CIA (Editorial Capitán San Luis, 1993) que Morgan conspiraba ya contra Castro hacia febrero de 1959, bajo la supervisión del oficial de la CIA, Gerry Droller, alias Frank Bender.

revista

Pero Cruz Capote se abstiene de contar que el telegrama del Departamento de Estado no se quedó en la Embajada americana, sino que pasó al gobierno cubano para sentar el curioso caso de Washington alertando a Castro sobre un plan de atentado, ya fuera real o presunto.

En todo caso, Bonsal aportó una prueba concluyente de que detrás de Morgan no estaba la CIA, porque sirvió al “Comandante Yanqui” en bandeja de plata al líder cubano.

La saga inconclusa

www.cubacompanioni.net

Hacia febrero de 1958, Morgan se enroló en la guerrilla antibatistiana del Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray. Allí ascendió a comandante y para el 13 de agosto de 1959 se convertiría en héroe nacional por su papel decisivo en la desarticulación de la "conspiración trujillista", que terminó por con el fiasco en Trinidad, Las Villas, de la expedición área de exiliados cubanos organizada en República Dominicana.

Para el año siguiente, Morgan se reviraba contra Castro. Una versión circulante sobre "la traición de Bonsal" se refiere a este episodio del verano de 1960.

www.thecubanhistory.com

En su estudio William Morgan: Patriot or traitor? (2002), el periodista investigativo H.P. Albarelli Jr. narra que, poco antes de ser detenido Morgan, el embajador estadounidense comunicó “a escondidas” a Castro que el "Comandante Yanqui" organizaba en secreto una guerrilla para derrocarlo. Solo que Castro contaba desde el principio, entre los propios complotados, con el teniente Manuel Cisneros y el sargento Rubén Domínguez, quienes trabajaban para el G-2.

Morgan pasaría entonces por arresto y prisión, juicio y fusilamiento, pero su saga no concluyó en el Cementerio de Colón. Tras reclamar la viuda, Olga Goodwin, y acceder Castro en el 2002 a que se repatriaran a Estados Unidos los restos de Morgan, no fueron hallados en el osario adonde, según el registro oficial, habrían sido trasladados el 17 de abril de 1971.

Las gestiones para la repatriación de los restos de Morgan han seguido durante estos años, al tiempo que su leyenda se acrecienta a través de recientes artículos, libros y proyectos cinematográficos.

Pero los restos continúan perdidos.

MUST READ: A Warning For All Verizon Customers! Obama Regime Secretly Seizing Your Phone Records

Fox Nation

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

Read more at The Guardian

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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act, according to a highly classified court order disclosed on Wednesday night.

The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in April, directs a Verizon Communications subsidiary, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over “on an ongoing daily basis” to the National Security Agency all call logs “between the United States and abroad” or “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

Read more at The New York Times

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Thursday defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, calling such information "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats."

While defending the practice, a senior administration official did not confirm a newspaper report that the NSA has been collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top secret court order.

The order was granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25 and is good until July 19, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday. The order requires Verizon, one of the nation's largest telecommunications companies, on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.

The newspaper said the document, a copy of which it had obtained, shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens were being collected indiscriminately and in bulk, regardless of whether they were suspected of any wrongdoing.

The Associated Press could not authenticate the order because documents from the court are classified.

The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to publicly discuss classified matters.

Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said Wednesday the company had no comment. The NSA had no immediate comment.

Verizon Communications Inc. listed 121 million customers in its first-quarter earnings report this April — 98.9 million wireless customers, 11.7 million residential phone lines and about 10 million commercial lines. The court order didn't specify which type of phone customers' records were being tracked.

Under the terms of the order, the phone numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as are location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered, The Guardian said.

The administration official said, "On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone's telephone calls."

The broad, unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is unusual. FISA court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets. NSA warrantless wiretapping during the George W. Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks was very controversial.

The FISA court order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compelled Verizon to provide the NSA with electronic copies of "all call detail records or telephony metadata created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls," The Guardian said.

The law on which the order explicitly relies is the "business records" provision of the USA Patriot Act.

More at The Associated Press

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ACLU STATEMENT:

Massive NSA Phone Data-Mining Operation Revealed
ACLU Calls for End to Program, Disclosure of Program’s Scope, Congressional Investigation
NEW YORK – Using the Patriot Act, the U.S. government has been secretly tracking the calls of every Verizon Business Network Services customer – whom they talked to, from where, and for how long – for the past 41 days, according to a report published by The Guardian.
“From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming. It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents,” said Jameel Jaffer, American Civil Liberties Union deputy legal director. “It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.”
The program was put in place under the Patriot Act’s Section 215, a controversial provision that authorizes the government to seek secret court orders for the production of “any tangible thing” relevant to a foreign-intelligence or terrorism investigation. Recipients of Section 215 orders, such as telecommunications companies, are prohibited from disclosing that they gave the government their customers’ records.
“Now that this unconstitutional surveillance effort has been revealed, the government should end it and disclose its full scope, and Congress should initiate a full investigation,” said Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel with the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “This disclosure also highlights the growing gap between the public’s and the government’s understandings of the many sweeping surveillance authorities enacted by Congress. Since 9/11, the government has increasingly classified and concealed not just facts, but the law itself. Such extreme secrecy is inconsistent with our democratic values of open government and accountability.”
The first information about the government’s use of Section 215 was made public in response to Freedom of Information Act litigation filed by the ACLU 10 years ago. More recently, members of Congress have warned that the government has secretly interpreted Section 215 in a way that would shock Americans. In 2012, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) wrote, “When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they are going to be stunned and they are going to be angry.”
In May 2011, shortly before Section 215 was scheduled to expire, the ACLU filed a new FOIA request in an effort to learn more about the “secret interpretation” to which Sens. Wyden and Udall had referred. Congress reauthorized Section 215 without amendment until 2015, and for the last two years, the government has refused to describe its secret interpretation. Whether or not the program described by The Guardian reflects that “secret interpretation,” today’s disclosure confirms that the government has interpreted Section 215 extraordinarily broadly.
This disclosure is likely to have significant implications for the ACLU’s pending FOIA lawsuit. The Department of Justice is scheduled to file a brief in that case on June 13; the ACLU’s response is due on June 28, and oral argument is scheduled for July 11 in the Southern District of New York.
Click here for more information on the ACLU’s FOIA lawsuit requesting information on Patriot Act Section 21

EPA accused of singling out conservative groups, amid IRS scandal

Fox News

It's not just the IRS. 

A second federal agency is facing a probe and accusations of political bias over its alleged targeting of conservative groups. 

The allegations concern the Environmental Protection Agency, which is being accused of trying to charge conservative groups fees while largely exempting liberal groups. The fees applied to Freedom of Information Act requests -- allegedly, the EPA waived them for liberal groups far more often than it did for conservative ones. 

The allegations are under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is also holding hearings on the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups. 

"I don't think it is fair at all. It is not fair to the American taxpayer -- the American taxpayer should expect and demand that the EPA treats everyone equally in regard to these requests," said Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. "This cannot be tolerated. As we see more federal agencies with this kind of bias, it is and should be a concern for all of us." 

Research by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank, claims that the political bias is routine when it comes to deciding which groups are charged fees. Christopher Horner, senior fellow at CEI, said liberal groups have their fees for documents waived about 90 percent of the time, in contrast with conservative groups that it claims are denied fee waivers about 90 percent of the time. 

"The idea is to throw hurdles in our way," charged Horner, who says he decided to look into the fee structure after the EPA repeatedly turned down his group for waivers. 

"In 20 cases of ours, since the beginning of last year, we were expressly denied, or denied by them simply refusing to respond, in 18 out of 20 cases," said Horner, explaining that the batting percentage for fees waived in favor of liberal groups is overwhelming. 

"Earth Justice was batting 17 out of 19, the Sierra Club was the worst, at 70 percent granted, 11 out of 15. You add up some other groups and we found that 75 out of 82 groups granted, because these are the groups that the EPA has decided are the favored groups." 

The EPA has denied any favoritism. 

Acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe told the House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 16 that "our policy is to treat everybody the same," and the agency is considering pursuing an investigation. 

In a statement to Fox News, the EPA said: "The Office of Inspector General received from the Environmental Protection Agency the official request to look into this matter just over a week ago, so the request is currently under review by the OIG at this early stage." 

But Horner, who has studied federal government agency practices as the author of "The Liberal War on Transparency: Confessions of a Freedom of Information 'Criminal,'" says that charging fees or denying information requests is a underhanded method that government agencies use to try and stymie the free flow of information or political dissent. 

"This is no different than denying a group that you don't agree with ... whether you are the IRS or the EPA, their tax-exempt status," said Horner. 

"You're talking about essentially making or breaking them, or at a minimum, snuffing out their ability to pursue their objectives."
Murphy said treating groups differently is simply not right. 

"We are hoping that the acting administrator of the EPA can already send a message out to his people that this will not be tolerated," Murphy said. "It is wrong. Similar with the people with the IRS who testified that, 'well some of things may not be illegal,' they can still be wrong. People expect their government to not be acting in these ways, but to be fair and just and truthful in these informational quests and in their investigations." 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/04/epa-accused-singling-out-conservative-groups-amid-irs-scandal/#ixzz2VHfAItSw

Former IRS Chief's Wife Works for Leftist Campaign Finance Reform Group

breitbart

Doug Shulman [L]

On Friday, reports broke that Former IRS chief Doug Shulman’s wife works with a liberal lobbying group, Public Campaign, where she is the senior program advisor. Public Campaign is an “organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics.”

The goal of Public Campaign is to target political groups like the conservative non-profits at issue in the IRS scandal. The Campaign says it “is laying the foundation for reform by working with a broad range of organizations, including local community groups, around the country that are fighting for change and national organizations whose members are not fairly represented under the current campaign finance system.”

CEO of Public Campaign Nick Nyhart has offered words of support for the IRS’ targeting: “There are legitimate questions to be asked about political groups that are hiding behind a 501(c)4 status. It’s unfortunate a few bad apples at the IRS will make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias.”

Public Campaign gets its cash from labor unions like AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, and Move On.

Chief IRS Counsel Got Jeremiah Wright's Church out of IRS Probe Before Joining Agency

breitbart

By Matthew Boyle 

News reports from the time indicate the now-chief counsel of the IRS, William Wilkins, helped a church connected to President Barack Obama’s friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright get out of an IRS probe in 2008 while working as a private attorney.

“Lawyers from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have won the dismissal of an IRS case against United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's denomination,” The American Lawyer’s Zach Lowe wrote on May 22, 2008. 

The IRS initiated an investigation early this year after a speech by Obama at a 50th anniversary celebration of the church last June. It was a reference by Obama to his presidential candidacy in a talk otherwise focused on faith that caught the agency's attention. Tax laws prohibit non-profits--including churches--from engaging in political speech or promoting candidates. The IRS can withdraw an organization's tax-free status if the organization is found to violate the rule.

Lowe noted that Obama had been a “member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago--a UCC congregation--for more than 20 years. The church has been in the headlines for several months now as the congregation lead by the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright.”

William Wilkins, then a WilmerHale law firm partner, said, “We were so interested in the case we offered to do it pro bono."

Lowe wrote that Wilkins and other firm lawyers worked with the church’s national counsel, Donald Clark, and proved they had invited Obama to the event before he announced his candidacy for president. “Evidence presented in a letter sent to the IRS in late March pointed to ground rules the organization had established for Obama's visit; the church even cautioned churchgoers against engaging in any political activity,” Lowe wrote. “Had the IRS pursued the matter, it would have raised serious questions about the First Amendment's application to church activities, Wilkins says.”

When President Obama nominated Wilkins to be the IRS’s chief counsel on April 17, 2009, his White House cited Wilkins’ experience as an attorney on issues relating to tax-exempt status organization. “He has a broad tax practice that includes counseling nonprofit organizations, business entities, and investment funds on tax compliance, business transactions, and government investigations,” according to the White House release announcing Wilkins' nomination. 

Prior to joining WilmerHale, Wilkins was Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Committee on Finance. Wilkins joined the Democratic staff of the Committee in 1981 and served as tax counsel before becoming Staff Director and Chief Counsel in 1987.

In the release, which included the announcement of a second Treasury Department nominee, President Obama himself said he was "confident in the abilities of these two fine public servants as we work to turn our economy around and give American families the relief they need during these difficult times. Under the leadership of Secretary Geithner, they will work to serve the American people and bring their unique areas of expertise to the job as we work to put America on the path to prosperity."

Upon the resignation of Steven Miller, several news outlets have pointed out that Wilkins will likely become a public target of congressional investigators digging into the scandal surrounding the IRS’s targeting of conservative and Tea Party organizations.

Reuters wrote that GOP lawmakers’ aides said their bosses will soon “focus” on Wilkins as they “seek to determine whether the White House acted improperly.”

“Wilkins' office was made aware of the targeting of conservative groups as early as August 2011, according to the inspector general report,” Reuters wrote. “The report does not make clear whether Wilkins - who reports to the Treasury Department's general counsel - himself knew of the targeting in 2011, or when he first learned of it.”

“Another question is whether Wilkins, whose office employs about 1,600 lawyers, might have taken the matter elsewhere within the Obama administration,” Reuters added. “The IRS issued a statement saying Wilkins did not participate in the August 2011 meeting, which the agency said involved ‘staff attorneys several layers below Wilkins.’”

As Town Hall magazine highlighted recently, White House spokesman Jay Carney has already been pressured by reporters on Wilkins' role in this scandal. 

NYT: Obama Administration Knew of IRS Scandal 5 Months Before Election

breitbart

By John Nolte 

In no uncertain terms and with no hedging, The New York Times reports that the Obama administration was aware of the fact that the IRS was targeting Tea Party groups as far back as June of 2012. The Treasury Department's Inspector General confirmed that he told senior Treasury officials in June of 2012, a full five months before Election Day:

The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

We still don’t know for sure what the President knew or when he knew it, but this does confirm that the administration was aware of the fact that Obama's political enemies were under fire by the IRS and covered that fact up during an election year.

As Lisa Meyers of NBC News told "Morning Joe" today, "Imagine if we -- if you can -- what would have happened if this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different."

The first time President Obama was asked when he found out about the IRS scandal, he told the media that he learned of the news last Friday, the same way the rest of us did -- from the news media.

Thursday, a Bloomberg reporter asked the President when he or anyone else in the White House learned of the scandal. The President dodged the question.

With this latest news confirming when the Administration first learned of the IRS scandal,  we now know that, along with Benghazi and the unfurling Associated Press scandal, there were three scandals brewing and unfolding in the White House during an election year. But we are only now hearing about them -- six months after Barack Obama was safely re-elected.

This fact says as much about the failure of our lapdog national media as it does about President Obama. Why just this morning the Times itself dismissed the IRS scandal on its editorial page.

O'Reilly: Grilling the IRS

Letterman: 'I Don't Make Jokes About Obama Because I Don't Want FBI Tapping My Phone'

breitbart

DAVID LETTERMAN: Have you folks been paying attention to what's going on in Washington? Neither have I. It's crazy. In a matter of, like, six weeks, three big scandals, and it looks like President Obama and all his buddies in the White House may go to prison. Finally, some good news for the Romney campaign. Yes! It's about time. People always say this to me, they say, "Hey, Letterman," they say. "Why don't you make jokes about Obama?" And I say, “All right, I'll tell you why. Good question. Oh, you want to know why? Okay. I don't make jokes about him because I don't want the FBI tapping my phone, my phone. That's why.” 

Rubio: White House creating 'culture of intimidation'

Obama says he didn't 'know anything' about IRS targeting of conservative groups

Fox News

President Obama insisted Thursday that he knew nothing about the internal investigation into the IRS' practice of singling out conservative groups for special scrutiny before it was made public, a day after he sought to tamp down the controversy by announcing the resignation of the IRS chief. 

"I certainly did not know anything about the (inspector general) report" beforehand, Obama said Thursday, during a press conference alongside the Turkish prime minister. 

He reiterated that he found the agency's actions "unacceptable" and sought to fix the problem "the minute" he found out about it. 

Lawmakers were inquiring about the alleged targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS more than a year ago, but the White House claims they were not in the loop on the practice. Obama, seeking to swiftly address the controversy, announced Wednesday that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller would resign -- though Miller was apparently set to step down anyway. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/16/obama-to-meet-with-treasury-officials-over-irs-scandal/#ixzz2TTtFDOOl

In wake of scandal, Obama ousts IRS chief -- who was leaving anyway

Fox News

President Obama announced Wednesday that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller would resign in the wake of the agency scandal in which conservative groups were targeted -- though Miller was apparently set to step down anyway. 

An official close to Miller told Fox News, shortly after Obama's brief announcement, that the IRS chief was "set to resign the position of acting commission as of early June." He was planning to leave the IRS entirely a "couple of months later, regardless of the current controversy," the source said. 

These details were not mentioned by the president as he announced Wednesday evening Miller was resigning. Obama spoke following a meeting with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew  and other top department officials in which they reviewed a highly critical inspector general’s report on the practice. The report concluded poor management allowed agents to improperly target Tea Party and other groups for more than 18 months, starting in 2010.

Obama said Lew asked for the resignation and Miller agreed, after being on the job since November 2012.

“Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it,” Obama said from the White House. The president is expected to name a new acting commissioner later this week. 

Republicans, who along with Democrats have slammed the IRS for the practice, welcomed the resignation Wednesday but made clear they would continue to investigate and press for accountability. 

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said the resignation "is a necessary first step but more heads need to roll." 

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., reacting to the claim that Miller was leaving anyway, said it seemed like he was a "perfect scapegoat" for the administration. 

Miller’s resignation was part of three-step plan Obama outlined to fix the problem.

The other steps are to put in place the safeguards recommended in the IG report and to work with Congress as it investigates. 

“The good news is we can fix this,” Obama said. 

Miller became acting commissioner after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush.

The president has proceeded cautiously since the IRS controversy was made public Friday. While he initially said the accusations were "outrageous," he also said he wanted to wait until the report was released before addressing what should be done to hold accountable those responsible.

Obama said he would hold a press conference Thursday.

The report lays much of the blame on IRS supervisors in Washington who oversaw a group of specialists in Cincinnati who screened applications for tax-exempt status. It does not indicate that Washington initiated the targeting of conservative groups, but it does say a top supervisor in Washington did not adequately supervise agents in the field even after she learned the agents were acting improperly.

The Justice Department is also investigating the IRS targeting, as are three congressional committees.

Sources told Fox News that Miller will remain on the job "for a couple of weeks." 

The House Ways and Means Committee said after the announcement of Miller's resignation that he still will attend a hearing Friday.

And the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs sent a letter Wednesday afternoon to the IRS  requesting five employees named in the IG audit be made available for transcribed interviews by committee staff.

The Republican-led committee wants to start the interviews Monday.

The names and titles of the IRS employees requested are Holly Paz, a director; John Shafer, a manager; Gary Muthert, a screener; Liz Hofacre, a case coordinator; and Joseph Herr, a manager.

"The resignation of Steven Miller is a positive and important step as this agency struggles to try to regain the public’s trust," said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "A clean slate at the IRS with new leadership is imperative to fix this egregious encroachment on the lives of honest, hard-working Americans whose only sin was that they want to express their beliefs."

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney sidestepped a question about whether Obama still had confidence in Miller, saying he wouldn't discuss personnel matters. He said Obama has expressed his overall view that IRS personnel had acted inappropriately. 

"He wants to see that the actions taken, as revealed by the Treasury report, that are inappropriate, are met with consequences," Carney said. "He will make clear to Treasury Department leaders that he expects action." 

Carney said Obama wants the public to "understand and believe that the IRS applies our tax laws in a neutral and fair way to everyone."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/16/obama-to-meet-with-treasury-officials-over-irs-scandal/#ixzz2TTPQ7aqM

Boehner: "My question is who is going to jail over this scandal?” IRS disciplines 2 in probe into conservative targeting

usnews

By Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News

A senior official at the Internal Revenue Service has told congressional investigators that two IRS employees have been disciplined in relation to the special scrutiny applied to conservative groups, Congressional sources told NBC News on Wednesday.

The disciplined employees are from the IRS’s Cincinnati office, which was responsible at the time for reviewing the applications of groups that wanted tax exemption, the sources said.

An internal report faulted the IRS for using “inappropriate criteria” in the screening and for bad management. The disclosure has angered members of both parties in Congress, and President Barack Obama has said it was inexcusable. The Justice Department has opened an investigation.

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that prosecutors are looking at several different criminal statutes, including one that requires IRS employees to do their jobs without favoritism.

“The facts will take us wherever they take us,” Holder said.

He said that the investigation, while based in Washington, will be nationwide in scope and not limited to the offices that have been the subject of complaints so far.

IRS employees used to terms search as “Tea Party” and “Patriots” to determine which organizations would be allowed tax exemption under federal law. An IRS official has apologized, but lawmakers want to know who within the organization, and perhaps elsewhere in government, was aware of the screening.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, demanded earlier Wednesday: “My question isn’t who is going to resign. My question is who is going to jail over this scandal?”

A Filmmaker on Obama’s Enemies List?

NewZeal

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

The revelations about the IRS targeting voices opposed to Barack Obama’s political agenda came of no surprise to filmmaker Joel Gilbert. His private financial accounts were hacked into and the information used by a George Soros-linked journalist, Seth Rosenfeld, before the presidential election. Gilbert wants to know who provided Rosenfeld with his private bank records. Was it someone at the IRS? Or at the White House?

Gilbert directed the blockbuster film, “Dreams from My Real Father,” which was heavily criticized by the left before the November 2012 presidential election because of the Obama campaign’s fear it could alert voters to Obama’s communist connections and Marxist philosophy. The film featured evidence that Obama’s real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party USA operative who indoctrinated Obama into a Marxist ideology during his formative years in Hawaii.

Gilbert was interviewed extensively on radio and television, as well as by major newspapers such as The New York Times, which apparently feared the film would have an impact on the election outcome. His announcement of a promotional campaign to send millions of DVDs for free to various states was of major concern to Obama’s backers in the media.

We noted in our pre-election story, Last Minute Anti-Romney Dirty Tricks Target Filmmaker, that the invasion of Gilbert’s privacy seemed to be an attack on donors to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, since some of them had also contributed to the distribution of Gilbert’s film.

In addition to the scrutiny of his donors, Gilbert tells AIM that in early 2012, the IRS reopened his 2009 tax return, and simply denied all of his business expenses, even though they were well-documented. “My accountant said he had never seen anything like it in 30 years of experience with the IRS,” he told AIM. “To resolve the issue, my accountant met the IRS auditor in Los Angeles, and reported that she had a print-out of the home page of the “Dreams from My Real Father” official film website on her desk. Despite the resubmission of the 2009 expenses, the IRS has still not closed the case, and my accountant continues to meet with them every few months. The next meeting is set for May 19th.”

He says, “I believe I have been illegally targeted by the IRS because my films and interviews have run contrary to President Obama’s official narrative of who he is and what his policies really are for America. The fact that the IRS targeted me indicates they were afraid of me and the information in my film.”

It was in late October of 2012 that the scrutiny of his customers came to light. He says, “…unknown parties illegally acquired private company bank information, and it was passed on to left-wing journalist Seth Rosenfeld, who began targeting my customers who purchased large quantities of the “Dreams from My Real Father” DVD, as well as a limited partner.”

Rosenfeld works for the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), funded by the pro-Marxist billionaire George Soros. Accuracy in Media named the CIR as being among an extensive network of Soros-supported media organizations in our 2004 report, The Hidden Soros Agenda: Drugs, Money, the Media, and Political Power.

Rosenfeld denied that he engaged in any improper or illegal conduct.

But Gilbert says, “The bank information could only be accessed by the IRS or from my corporate bank account with a confidential user ID and password. On October 26th, Seth Rosenfeld called me directly and began citing bank deposit amounts that he purported to be bank wire transfers received in my company bank account, and asked what they were used for. I was so shocked that he claimed to have confidential bank information, I asked him to send an email and hung up, but no email was received.”

Gilbert goes on: “Next, Rosenfeld called a company limited partner on his private number and fraudulently introduced himself as being with the Romney campaign and asked for a donation. When the partner said he wasn’t interested, Rosenfeld admitted to being a reporter and began citing the partner’s confidential bank wiring history. The partner hung up. Next, Rosenfeld called the elderly mother of a customer who had purchased a large quantity of DVDs by check. Rosenfeld tricked the woman into giving out her son’s home phone number by pretending to be an old friend. When Rosenfeld called the customer, Rosenfeld cited the amount of the check, and asked about his political beliefs, and asked by name whether he knew others who made purchases from my company.”

Finally, Gilbert says a major buyer of DVDs was contacted by Rosenfeld on his private unlisted cell phone number. “Again, Rosenfeld cited the customer’s transfer amount to my company, asked what it was for, and asked him to detail his political opinions and any donations to Republican campaigns, including Romney’s,” he says. “Finally, Rosenfeld called my DVD replicator on her private number, but she hung up, as I had forewarned her that Rosenfeld’s campaign might be coming her way.”

“Dreams from My Real Father” was Gilbert’s most recent film on Obama. He also produced the 2010 award winning “Atomic Jihad: Ahmadinejad’s Coming War and Obama’s Politics of Defeat.”

Based on the evidence in his and other cases coming to light, Gilbert says he believes there is a “criminal conspiracy” that used the IRS “to target the First Amendment rights of Americans,” and that President Obama and other high-level officials should be targets of the investigation into the admitted wrongdoing.

Benghazi, IRS and AP Scandals Reveal Obama's Culture of Corruption

Fox Nation

By Peter Morici

News that the IRS targeted conservative groups for intense scrutiny is just one in a series of revelations pointing to a culture of expediency and intolerance in the Obama White House that corrupts this administration.

Consider the September slayings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other U.S. diplomats in Benghazi. If the attack were revealed to be undertaken by terrorists, it posed a grave embarrassment to the president’s anti-terrorism strategy—eight weeks before the election.

On September 12, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs wrote in an email, “The group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, is affiliated with Islamic terrorists.” 

Yet, just days later on the Sunday talk shows, UN Ambassador Susan Rice characterized the incident as the result of spontaneous street demonstrations inspired by an anti-Muhammad YouTube video.

Obama Care, having passed through the Senate on a slight-of-hand, has been contentious from the start, and the Congress has not appropriated as much funds as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would like to implement the law.

To do the work of HHS, she has sought large contributions from private health care companies to liberal non-profit groups. With health care so heavily regulated, it is hard to characterize these donations as voluntary.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/barack-obama/2013/05/14/benghazi-irs-and-ap-scandals-reveal-obamas-culture-corruption?cmpid=NL_foxnation#ixzz2TNrrtYTz

Surprise! IRS Boss Who Targeted Tea Party and Jewish Groups Investigated Anti-Clinton Groups in the 1990s | A Time For Choosing

A Time For Choosing

By Gary P Jackson

It seems we can never escape these evil Nazi sons-a-bitches! Yes, I used the “N” word, because these kind of tactics were used extensively by the Nazis to intimidate and take away the rights of their political opponents. Of course, Hitler wasn’t the only one who did this, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, and other Marxist tyrants did the same. Add Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to the list.

What gets me is people knew at the time Bill Clinton had the IRS attacking his opponents, and yet, when impeachment time came, this was never part of the Articles of Impeachment. Had it been, the Senate may have convicted and removed Slick Willy from office.

It’s not like there wasn’t a precedent for impeaching a president over this sort of evil. Another liberal president, Republican Richard Nixon, was about to be impeached for doing the exact same thing both Clinton and Obama have done, turning the IRS on political opponents.

This makes impeaching Obama a must.

By now you’ve heard all about the IRS targeting and harassing the Tea Party, and many Conservative groups as well as Jewish groups. The IRS even turned over confidential data to radical leftist groups so they could use it to destroy Obama’s opponents.

It started out with the corrupt media portraying this as “rogue agents in Ohio” but we quickly learned that this went all of the way to the top of the IRS, and several top leaders lied about knowing of these attacks, which have been going on since 2010.

Now we learn that this isn’t IRS boss Steven T. Miller’s first rodeo. In addition to doing Obama’s bidding, attacking Conservatives, Miller played a similar role during the Clinton years, attacking anti-Clinton groups.

Keep reading on A Time For Choosing >>

5 unanswered questions about the IRS targeting of conservative groups

usnews

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

Outrage intensified in Washington on Monday over the disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

President Barack Obama, at a White House appearance with the British prime minister, said that he wanted all the facts but used strong terms to condemn the reported conduct.

“I’ve got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it,” he said. “And we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this.”

The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration will release an audit report later this week. In the meantime, here are five big unanswered questions looming over the IRS.

How did this start and why?

In January 2010, a Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United touched off a flood of political spending, much of it classified under a section of tax law known as 501(c)4 that entitles certain “social welfare” groups to tax exemption.

Two months later, a special unit of the IRS in Cincinnati assigned to screen applications for 501(c)4 status began searching for groups with descriptions that included “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” according to a partial draft of the inspector general’s report obtained by NBC News.

Lois Lerner, head of the IRS division on tax-exempt organizations, said Friday that the targeting of conservative groups was “inappropriate” but “absolutely not” influenced by the White House. She also said that none of the targeted groups was denied tax-exempt status.

What has not been spelled out is who in the Cincinnati office decided to search for conservative groups and why.

At least one Tea Party group called on the administration Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the matter, which it called “un-American and Nixonesque.” One of the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon accused him of targeting political opponents for tax audits.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are determined to investigate.

“I just don’t buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Sunday on the CNN program “State of the Union.”

Who knew what, and when, higher in the IRS?

Lerner learned in June 2011 that agents had targeted groups with names including “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” according to the draft obtained by NBC News.

She “instructed that the criteria immediately be revised,” according to the draft. Ten months later, in March 2012, the IRS commissioner at the time, Douglas Shulman, testified to Congress that the IRS was not targeting tax-exempt groups based on their politics.

The IRS said over the weekend that senior executives were not aware of the targeting, but it remains unclear who knew what and when. Shulman, who left the agency last fall, has not spoken publicly about the scandal and did not answer a request for comment Monday from NBC News.

Members of Congress had sent letters to Shulman as early as June 2011 asking specifically about targeting of conservative groups, according to a House Ways and Means Committee summary obtained by NBC News.

The IRS responded at least six times but made no mention of targeting conservatives, according to the committee’s summary.

Will anyone be fired?

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Monday demanded the resignation of the head of the IRS. That is Steven Miller, who is serving as acting commissioner until Obama nominates a replacement.

The last commissioner was Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008, left the agency in November and has taken a position as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House speaker, told MSNBC on Monday that Obama should say “he’s going to fire everybody he can legally fire who’s been involved with this.”

How will the White House contain the political damage?

The IRS scandal presents a daunting political challenge for the White House, which is already being forced to defend its handling of the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, last September.

The furor over the IRS has come from both parties. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Monday the agency had committed an “outrageous abuse of power” and pledged a grilling.

“The IRS will now be the ones put under additional scrutiny,” he said.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia called it inexcusable, and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said the president “must immediately condemn this attack on our values and find those individuals in his administration who are responsible and fire them.”

How can this be prevented in the future?

Rubio, in his letter calling for the resignation of the IRS chief, called the behavior “seemingly unconstitutional and potentially criminal.”

But under existing law, the worst that can happen to an IRS agent who discriminates against taxpayers is getting fired, said Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who sits on the House Oversight Committee.

Turner introduced a bill Monday to increase the toughest penalty to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

“This is about protecting the rights of all Americans and their ability to freely express their political thoughts,” he said.

-------------------

Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News contributed to this report. Reuters and The Associated Press also contributed.

SCANDAL WIDENS: IRS Targeting Went Beyond Tea Party, Conservatives

Read on foxnews >>

House Republicans swiftly announce hearing on IRS targeting conservative groups

Fox News

The IRS acknowledging that it targeted conservative political groups during the 2012 election season has sparked bipartisan calls for investigation -- with House Republicans already saying they will hold a hearing on the issue.

House Majority Speaker Eric Cantor said Friday the Republican-led chamber would investigate the tax-collecting agency for flagging the groups for additional review to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status.

“The IRS cannot target or intimidate any individual or organization based on their political beliefs,” the Virginia Republican said.

Cantor’s comments were followed within minutes by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp saying he would hold a hearing.

The IRS on Friday apologized for targeting groups, but Camp, R-Mich., argued the agency had “repeatedly denied” such activity.

“The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing,” he said.

The committee has jurisdiction over IRS, but it remains unclear whether other House committees also will investigate the issue, in which roughly 300 groups were flagged.

Republicans were joined by a leading Senate Democrat in the call for congressional investigations.

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said members have already been looking into the IRS's failure to make sure tax-exempt groups engage only in social welfare activities -- not partisan politics.

“Today’s announcement by the IRS raises a second issue: whether the IRS, to the extent it has enforced its rules, has been impartial in doing so,” Levin said Friday. “Both issues require investigation.”

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, said that organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, she said.

"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate," Lerner said. "The IRS would like to apologize for that."

Republican lawmakers appeared vindicated in part by the announcement, after complaining about the suspected harassment more than a year ago.

A dozen Republican senators wrote to the IRS in March 2012 expressing concerns about various accounts that the agency inquiries were "perceived to be excessive."

However, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the agency was not targeting groups based on their political views.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, he told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Among Capitol Hill Republicans already raising further concerns or calls for investigations are California Rep. Darrell Issa, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky; Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

“The IRS’s political targeting of select groups based on their political leanings is reprehensible, and it should trouble every American to know that a federal government agency could abuse its power so outrageously,” Rubio said. “We need immediate congressional hearings.”

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. She said no high-level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out.

The IRS has put out a written statement saying protocol was changed at the Cincinnati office in response to the rising number of applications for so-called 501(c)(4) groups. This classification grants tax-exempt status to social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

The agents tried to "centralize work" in response to the applications, the IRS said, leading to problems the agency claims have since been fixed.  Lerner said the number of groups filing for the tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in the office in Cincinnati. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity, Lerner said.

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about one-fourth were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.