China’s Massive Hack of U.S. Employees an Inside Job

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Muslim Brotherhood Comes to the White House

breitbart

by Jordan Schachtel

The Obama White House has finally released the names of the fourteen Muslim “leaders” who met with the President this past week. Among the group — which included a comedian, along with a hijab-wearing basketball player and a handful of left wing activists — were a select few individuals with disturbingly close ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood.

As previously uncovered by Breitbart News, the White House confirmed that Azhar Azeez, President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was one of the Muslim leaders that met with President Obama. ISNA was founded in 1981 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial. Federal prosecutors have previously described how ISNA funneled its money to Palestinian terrorist group Hamas (via Investigative Project):

ISNA checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the HLF were often made payable to “the Palestinian Mujahadeen,” the original name for the HAMAS military wing. Govt. Exh. 1-174. From that ISNA/NAIT account, the HLF sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to HAMAS leader…

Azhar Azeez, President of the Islamic Society of North America-youtube

Azeez’s bio also reveals him as a founding member the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter. CAIR has also allegedly funneled money to Palestinian terror groups and was also started by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In October, 2014, Azeez signed a letter endorsing Sharia Islamic governance. Under the Sharia, non-Muslims are treated as second-class citizens. The Sharia also endorses the hudud punishments in the Koran and Hadiths, which state that apostasy from Islam is punishable by death.

Hoda Elshishtawy of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) was also in attendance at the Muslim leaders’ meeting with President Obama.

MPAC, just like CAIR and ISNA, was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group has written and often endorsed a paper rejecting the United States’s designation of Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations, and has insisted that the Jewish state of Israel be added as a state sponsor of terrorism. The group’s former president, Salam al-Marayati, has publicly encouraged officials to look at Israel as a suspect in the 9/11/01 attacks.

He has said that Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel should be seen as “legitimate resistance.” In a 1998 speech at the National Press Club, an MPAC senior official described the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah as one that fights for “American values.” In an MPAC-sponsored March 2009 protest to “Defend al-Aqsa Mosque and al-Quds,” participants could be heard chanting slogans encouraging Palestinians to wipe out Israel. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” demonstrators chanted.

Mohamed Majid, who serves as Imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), was also in attendance at the White House meeting with the President, and senior advisors Ben Rhodes and Valerie Jarrett.

In 2002, ADAMS was raided as part of a U.S. government initiative called “Operation Green Quest,” where federal agents suspected the group of supporting terrorist organizations. Government documents said that the ADAMS Center was “suspected of providing support to terrorists, money laundering, and tax evasion.”

Majid is also an official with the brotherhood-affiliated Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

He also signed the October 2014 letter, along with White House meeting attendee Azhar Azeez, insisting that Sharia law should be an acceptable political system worldwide.

It remains unclear why President Obama remains a stalwart believer that the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates should be treated as legitimate political entities, when history reveals the organization as one with radical goals. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Islamic cleric (and Hitler admirer) Hassan al-Banna after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The group seeks as its end-game to install a Sunni Islamic caliphate throughout the world. al-Banna said of his organization’s goals, “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” Both Former Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and ISIS “caliph” Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi were members of the Brotherhood. Its current spiritual leader, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, has a knack for bashing Jews and praising Nazis. The Muslim Brotherhood’s motto remains: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

U.S. Pays $3.2 Million to American Alan Gross Held Five Years by Cuba

NBC News.com

The U.S. government made a $3.2 million payment to Alan Gross, the American citizen freed by Cuba after five years in prison, a spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development confirmed.

Gross was working as a contractor for USAID through a company called Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) when he was detained in Cuba in 2009. According to his family, Gross was working to expand Internet access for Cuba's small Jewish community. In 2011 he was convicted of undermining Cuba and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was freed last week simultaneous to a prisoner swap and the announcement by President Obama that the U.S. would seek to normalize relations with Cuba.

The $3.2-million payment came as settlement of a larger contractual claim for $7 million filed by DAI against USAID for incurred expenses related to the arrest and incarceration of Gross. The settlement was finalized on Monday.

"The settlement avoids the cost, delay and risks of further proceedings, and does not constitute an admission of liability by either party," USAID said in a statement.

Valerie Jarrett, The Obama Whisperer

New Republic

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Noam Scheiber @noamscheiber

Even at this late date in the Obama presidency, there is no surer way to elicit paranoid whispers or armchair psychoanalysis from Democrats than to mention the name Valerie Jarrett. Party operatives, administration officials—they are shocked by her sheer longevity and marvel at her influence. When I asked a longtime source who left the Obama White House years ago for his impressions of Jarrett, he confessed that he was too fearful to speak with me, even off the record.

This is not as irrational as it sounds. Obama has said he consults Jarrett on every major decision, something current and former aides corroborate. “Her role since she has been at the White House is one of the broadest and most expansive roles that I think has ever existed in the West Wing,” says Anita Dunn, Obama’s former communications director. Broader, even, than the role of running the West Wing. This summer, the call to send Attorney General Eric Holder on a risky visit to Ferguson, Missouri, was made by exactly three people: Holder himself, the president, and Jarrett, who were vacationing together on Martha’s Vineyard. When I asked Holder if Denis McDonough, the chief of staff, was part of the conversation, he thought for a moment and said, “He was not there.” (Holder hastened to add that “someone had spoken to him.”)

Jarrett holds a key vote on Cabinet picks (she opposed Larry Summers at Treasury and was among the first Obama aides to come around on Hillary Clinton at State) and has an outsize say on ambassadorships and judgeships. She helps determine who gets invited to the First Lady’s Box for the State of the Union, who attends state dinners and bill-signing ceremonies, and who sits where at any of the above. She has placed friends and former employees in important positions across the administration—“you can be my person over there,” is a common refrain.

And Jarrett has been known to enjoy the perks of high office herself. When administration aides plan “bilats,” the term of art for meetings of two countries’ top officials, they realize that whatever size meeting they negotiate—nine by nine, eight by eight, etc.—our side will typically include one less foreign policy hand, because Jarrett has a standing seat at any table that includes the president.

Not surprisingly, all this influence has won Jarrett legions of detractors. They complain that she has too much control over who sees the president. That she skews his decision-making with her after-hours visits. That she is an incorrigible yes-woman. That she has, in effect, become the chief architect of his very prominent and occasionally suffocating bubble.

There is an element of truth to this critique. While aboard Air Force One at the end of the 2012 campaign, Jarrett turned to Obama and told him, “Mr. President, I don’t understand how you’re not getting eighty-five percent of the vote.” The other Obama aides in the cabin looked around in disbelief before concluding that she’d been earnest.

Still, Jarrett’s role is far more textured than this narrative would suggest. She has served as a teller of hard truths, urging Obama to clean up his initial remarks about Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates’s arrest in 2009, which, she worried, sounded disrespectful to police. She is an all-wise interpreter of the president’s thoughts. When the White House began taking flak for its man-cave sensibilities, senior officials consulted Jarrett to figure out where Obama stood. “The White House counsel Greg Craig stopped by,” recalls a former Jarrett aide. “He was like, ‘Hey, is the president worried about this?’” (He was.) Jarrett even plays the role of advance dining scout for the Obamas, locating restaurants discreet and exacting enough to serve the first family. (Fiola Mare in Georgetown has become a standby.)

So adept is Jarrett at catering to the president’s needs that Michelle Obama has, at least on one occasion, chafed at the portrayal of their relationship. Late in the 2008 campaign, Vogue published a long profile of Jarrett titled “Barack’s Rock.” According to a senior campaign aide, Michelle sniffed about the magazine bestowing a title that she considered hers.

Jarrett’s job may be nothing less than to reflect the most authentic version of Barack Obama back at himself. “My speculation has always been, when you are any president or Democratic nominee, at the pinnacle of American political power, you are necessarily surrounded by layer and layer of bureaucracy,” says a former White House aide. “You’re completely disconnected. For someone to come to you and say, ‘I am going to be the person who is your connection to the real you’ ... is very attractive.”

And Jarrett is, in turn, our connection to the real Barack Obama. A decade after his ascent, there is still a basic unknowability about him, a puzzling gap between his talents and the public’s enthusiasm for his years in office. No wonder Jarrett inspires such fevered theorizing. She is the closest we have to a human decoder ring—the only person who can solve the mystery of why this president has left so many feeling so unfulfilled.

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Nearly Two Thirds of 2013 Government Waste, Fraud Came from HHS

breitbart

By Edwin Mora 

The estimated amount of taxpayer-funded payments that the federal government doled out through fraud, waste, and errors slightly decreased in 2013 to $106 billion from $108 billion the previous year, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  

On Dec. 31, FederalTimes.com reported the estimated government-wide improper payments dollar figure for fiscal 2013, citing Frank Benenati, an OMB spokesman as the source.  

Benenati did not provide a breakdown of the 2013 payment errors by government program, saying that information would not be available for weeks, according to the FederalTimes.com article.  

However, an analysis of government financial data by Breitbart News found that the Department of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) was the primary driving force behind all federal payments considered improper in fiscal 2013. 

On Jan. 2, Breitbart News reported that HHS made an estimated $65.3 billion in payment errors that year. 

The HHS improper payments amounted to 62 percent of all government-wide payment errors in 2013.  

HHS was also the primary contributor to the estimated government-wide improper payments in 2012.  

The $64.8 billion in mistakenly disbursed funds by HHS that year made up 60 percent of the total $108 billion in erroneous payments. 

In an official blog post published in the afternoon on Friday, Dec.20, Beth Cobert, the OMB deputy director, touted that that the the improper payment rate had "declined to 3.53 percent in FY 2013 when factoring in Department of Defense commercial payments, compared to 3.74 percent in FY 2012 under the same accounting.” 

Cobert did not report the 2013 improper payments in dollar figures that day. The $106 billion in fiscal 2013 improper payments has not been officially published by OMB. 

Instead, Cobert focused on the rate, which refers to improper payments as a percentage of all government payments. 

Cobert mentioned that “agencies recovered more than $22 billion in overpayments through payment recapture audits and other methods in FY 2013.”  

She further added that in 2013, the Obama administration slashed improper payments for numerous major programs. 

Namely, “Medicaid, Medicare Advantage (Part C), Unemployment Insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP - Food Stamps), Pell Grants, and two Social Security programs – Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance.”   

Again, she did not mention any related dollar figures. 

The erroneous payment rate has fallen by more than a third from 5.42 in FY 2009 to 3.53 in FY 2013, according to the figures in the OMB blog post. 

It was not until recently that OMB included Pentagon payments to contractors in its improper payment estimates, reported FederatTimes.com. 

Furthermore, the article noted that OMB Controller Danny Werfel has said that “only about one-third of improper payments are generally recoverable."  

Although OMB has not released a breakdown of 2013 improper payments by individual federal agencies and programs, Breitbart News has been running a series focusing on exposing that information.   

So far, Breitbart News has reported 2013 improper payments for the following government entities: HHS ($65 billion); U.S Department of Agriculture ($6.2 billion); and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management ($353 million).  

White House Misses HealthCare.Gov Fix Deadline

breitbart

By John Nolte 

The Washington Post reports that the White House will announce Sunday that it has met its self-imposed deadline to fix the federal ObamaCare exchange known as HealthCare.gov. The Post also reports that, like everything else surrounding ObamaCare, this announcement is not even close to true.

The faulty $600 million site has been improved over the course of the last two months. Still, though, it can only handle 50,000 users at a time. Moreover, the site still loads slowly and the capacity for 50,000 users hasn't yet been fully tested.

Earlier this month, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration's goal was to make the site usable for 80% of users -- another moving of the goal posts since the White House announced November 30 as a target date.  

Other deadline misses include the HealthCare.gov program that allows small businesses to enroll online. This feature, known as SHOP, has been delayed until after the 2014 midterm elections. What hasn't been postponed, though, are the insurance policy cancellations already plaguing small business owners.

In order to re-insure their employees, business owners will now have to work through a broker or insurance agent. That is if the the increased costs and hassles surrounding ObamaCare don't result in small business owners deciding that insuring their employees just isn’t worth it. CBS News reported last week that this is already happening.

The Wall Street Journal reports that technical problems will still inhibit HealthCare.gov from verifying users' identities and the transmission of accurate enrollment data to insurance providers. The fallout of the latter problem won't be readily apparent until someone who has been told they are insured tries to visit a doctor or emergency room only to discover their insurer has no idea who they are.

Some crucial parts of HealthCare.gov are not even built yet, including the mechanism that pays your insurance carrier the part of your premium covered by the federal government -- the infamous subsidy.

Some reports claim that in order for ObamaCare to meet its March 30 enrollment goal of 7-plus million enrollees (this number is necessary to make the system financially viable), somewhere around 54,000 people must sign up daily. Currently, only around 7,000 enrollments are occurring daily.

Granted, this is a big improvement over last month's enrollment numbers, but two times zero is still zero. 

OBAMA'S NEW WORLD ORDER: Your Government Is Collapsing!!

19460cars

U.S. reports $9.7 billion loss on General Motors bailout

NBC News

conservativefiringline.com

DETROIT — The U.S. government has booked a loss of $9.7 billion on the nearly $50 billion bailout of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., according to a quarterly report to Congress on Tuesday.

In 2009, the U.S. Treasury extended $49.5 billion in loans to GM in exchange for $2.1 billion in preferred stock and a 60.8 percent equity stake. 

Treasury has since whittled down its stake in GM through a series of stock sales. Those sales have all taken place below the price Treasury needed to break even on its GM investment, resulting in the loss, according to Tuesday's report from the Special Inspector General overseeing the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. 

Treasury has sold its preferred stock and reduced its equity stake to 7.3 percent. Treasury owns 101.3 million GM shares as of Sept. 26, the most recent date available. 

The U.S. government has said it plans to sell its remaining GM shares by April 2014. Some analysts said Treasury could even unwind its position by year end. 

The exit of Treasury will eliminate the stigma of government ownership that has hovered over the automaker since the bailout, which prompted some critics to dub the company "Government Motors."

Berta Soler Meeting With Vice-President Biden

capitolhillcubans

Menendez Comments on Vice President Biden Meeting With Cuban Human Rights Activist Berta Soler

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement about Berta Soler’s meeting with Vice President Biden.

“Vice President Biden’s meeting with Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, is a truly historic act of support for human rights defenders in Cuba. Through their acts of peaceful protest, Berta and the Ladies in White have remained an unwavering beacon of hope for the restoration of justice, human rights and democracy in Cuba. I commend Vice President Biden for standing with Berta Soler and the Ladies in White, and I look forward to my meeting with her in Washington next week.”

Ladies in White Leader Meets Senior State Department Officials

capitolhillcubans

From the U.S. Department of State:

Today, Thursday, October 24th, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman met with the Damas de Blanco spokesperson Berta Soler to discuss the human rights situation in Cuba. The Under Secretary praised Ms. Soler for her leadership, and shared the Department’s deep concern over the Cuban Government’s continued suppression of peaceful activities carried out by Damas de Blanco and other independent civil society groups. The Under Secretary expressed solidarity with Damas de Blanco member Sonia Garro Alfonso, who continues to suffer reprisals for her advocacy on behalf of political prisoners and the Afro-Cuban community.

O'Really: What the heck happened in the gov't funding vote?

The New American Center: Why our nation isn’t as divided as we think

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“Just because Washington is polarized doesn’t mean America is,” says Robert Blizzard, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, the lead pollster for Mitt Romney in 2012. His firm co-created the survey with the Benenson Strategy Group, pollsters for President Obama, and the result is a nation in eight distinct segments: two on the far right ("The Righteous Right" and "The Talk Radio Heads"), two on the far left ("The Bleeding Hearts" and "The Gospel Left"), and four in the middle that represent nothing less than a new American center ("Minivan Moderates," "The MBA Middle," "The Pick-up Populists, and "The #WhateverMan.")

............

Pluralities believe that the political system is broken (49 percent), and the economy is bad (50 percent) and likely to stay that way a while (41 percent). Majorities fear another 9/11 or Boston-style bombing is likely (70 percent), and that their children’s lives will be more difficult than their own (62 percent), which are either stuck in place or getting worse (84 percent) — while the rich keep getting richer at the expense of everyone else (70 percent).   

The new American center has a socially progressive streak, supporting gay marriage (64 percent), the right to an abortion for any reason within the first trimester (63 percent), and legalized marijuana (52 percent). Women, workers and the marginal would also benefit if the center had its way, supporting paid sick leave (62 percent); paid maternity leave (70 percent); tax-subsidized childcare to help women return to work (57 percent); and a federal minimum wage hike to no less than $10 per hour (67 percent).

But the center leans rightward on the environment, capital punishment, and diversity programs. Majorities support offshore drilling (81 percent) and the death penalty (90 percent), and the end of affirmative action in hiring and education (57 percent). Most people in the center believe respect for minority rights has gone overboard, in general, harming the majority in the process (63 percent). And just one in four support immigration reforms that would provide a path to citizenship for those who came here illegally.

Keep reading on nbcpolitics >>

O'Reilly: United States government shutdown

Huma Abedin faces questions about dual jobs

Fox News

powip.com

Despite her husband being the butt of late-night jokes and water-cooler ridicule, Huma Abedin is standing by Anthony Weiner, and he, by her. "I love her,” Weiner said at a press conference Thursday. “She loves me. We have a son. Nothing else matters."

But Abedin is facing her own troubles -- less salacious than her husband's, but potentially more severe.

On June 13, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote her and Secretary of State John Kerry asking why Abedin, the deputy chief of staff at the State Department under former Secretary Hillary Clinton, was granted status as a "special government employee" after the birth of her son.

That  title allowed her to work from home as a part-time consultant to State, earning $135,000 as a government employee -- while also earning  $355,000 as a consultant for Teneo, where former President Bill Clinton is a board member.

Grassley wants to know who authorized Abedin's change in status, what effect that change had on her security clearances, and whether the department interacted with the companies with which Abedin consulted. 

"I am concerned that the 'special government employee' designation blurs the line between public and private sector employees, especially when employees receive full-time salaries for what appears to be part-time work," Grassley wrote to Abedin. 

Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a government ethics watchdog group, says Abedin's dual status raises serious questions.

"If this story pans out that Huma actually had access to inside information while serving as a government official but at the same time serving as a strategic consultant to a firm that actively trades in the stock market, this could be quite a problem, " he said.

Grassley's office late Thursday gave Fox News the written responses sent to him by the State Department and Abedin.

Abedin wrote that her consultancy was approved by State Department lawyers. She added that once approved, she "was not asked, nor did I provide, insights about the Department, my work with the Secretary, or any government information to which I may have had access."

The State Department said it uses special government employees routinely "to provide services and expertise that executive agencies require..."

But Grassley found the letters unresponsive. In a statement late Thursday, he said that neither "provided a single document that I requested."

"Putting up a stone wall raises a lot more questions about how the program is being used than it answers. I intend to pursue more complete answers to my questions," he said. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/26/huma-abedin-faces-employment-questions/#ixzz2aA1gPiby

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

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.

'No use for them': Racial comments resurface from Obama housing pick

Fox News

Racially charged comments made by President Obama's pick to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency are adding fuel to the fire of an already controversial nomination.
The president picked North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt on Wednesday to lead the agency, praising his understanding of the housing crisis which crippled the economy several years ago. If approved by the Senate, Watt would replace Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the FHFA. But getting the Senate to agree that Watt's the man for the job may be tough.
While lawmakers are raising early concerns about Watt's willingness to get tough on questionable lending practices, he also comes with a history of controversial remarks.
During an Oct. 14, 2005 hearing held by the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act, Watt reportedly said that a "substantial majority of white voters" would not vote for a black candidate under any circumstances.
Multiple attempts by FoxNews.com to obtain a transcript of the hearing from the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act were not successful. But a report at the time by CNSNews.com quoted Watt saying the Voting Rights Act should be expanded and have districts changed to factor in race-based voting and help minority candidates.
He acknowledged "some" white people would support a black candidate, but said voters who refuse should be "factored out."
"I've got no use for them in the democratic process," he reportedly said.
Watt also claimed that black voters -- unlike white voters -- don't have "an absolute commitment" to voting for a candidate based on race.
Three years later, Barack Obama would become the first black president, capturing 43 percent of the vote among white voters. That does not constitute a majority, but by comparison, 4 percent of black voters supported Sen. John McCain.
Calls to the Congressional Black Caucus, which Watt used to lead, and Watt's office were not returned.
In 2004, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader also accused Watt of "using an obscene racial epitaph" against him during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. According to an account at the time in The Hill, Nader said Watt called him, "just another arrogant white man, telling us what we can do. It's all about your ego, another (expletive) arrogant white man."
The comments allegedly came during a tense meeting Nader had with the Caucus on his run for the White House. At the meeting, group leaders allegedly told Nader his bid would defeat the common goal of beating then-President George W. Bush. Nader claims Watt made racist comments toward him and demanded an apology in a two-and-a-half page letter he wrote to the Caucus and released to the media. He did not get one.
The comments from Watt's past are only part of the problem, some lawmakers say.
Conservatives question Watt's record on housing finance and say he's too close to the Obama administration and the banking industry to make the critical calls needed to lead the agency.
If approved, as director of the FHFA Watt would be in charge of overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages. Because there is $5 trillion at stake, Watt's decisions would carry more weight over the housing sector and in turn the broader U.S. economy than those who previously held the position.
In the five years since the housing giants were bailed out with $187 billion in taxpayer money, they have managed to show signs of recovery. Freddie was hit with $94 billion in losses from 2007 to 2011 but earned back $11 billion last year. Even though Fannie and Freddie are on the mend, industry experts caution against putting a politician in place to oversee their fiscal health.
In the past, Watt has pushed for better access to mortgages for minority and low-income borrowers, but some say his inclusive record is exactly what should exclude him from consideration.
"I could not be more disappointed in this nomination. This gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house," Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said in a statement Wednesday. "The debate around his nomination will illuminate for all Americans why Fannie and Freddie failed so miserably."
Corker's comments echo the calls that other conservative lawmakers have made about the administration's rush to fill the top spot at the FHFA. Mark Calabria, a director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute and a former staffer on the Senate Banking Committee during the creation of the FHFA, said there was a bipartisan push to make sure a politician would not lead the government agency and that the post was created with a banking regulator in mind.
"We went out of our way to make sure this wasn't the outcome," Calabria told FoxNews.com Thursday.
Calabria believes the ideal candidate should have strong banking credentials and be able to stand up to political pressure which could result in bad lending practices and distort free-market dynamics.
Obama strongly endorsed Watt for the job Wednesday, saying he's helped protect consumers from the "reckless risk-taking" that triggered the financial crisis while also giving more Americans in low-income areas "access to affordable housing."
"Mel understands as well as anybody what caused the housing crisis. He knows what it's going to take to help responsible homeowners fully recover," Obama said. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/02/obama-pick-for-housing-post-comes-with-racial-political-controversy/#ixzz2SFUQfngz

Commerce nominee tangled in massive bank collapse that cost depositors millions

Bloomberg 

Fox News

By Judson Berger
President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary was embroiled in a massive bank failure more than a decade ago, in a collapse that cost depositors and federal insurers millions of dollars.
The 2001 collapse of Superior Bank FSB now appears likely to re-emerge, more than a decade later, as Commerce nominee Penny Pritzker prepares for a confirmation hearing and Republicans already draw attention to the bank implosion.
Pritzker's family, which founded Hyatt and is one of the wealthiest in the country, co-owned Superior Bank at the time of its collapse. The lawyer who represented depositors in the case told FoxNews.com on Thursday that the Pritzker family enjoyed a "special deal" while the "little guys" ended up "footing the bill."
"The message of our Cabinet members should be people who do the right thing," attorney Clint Krislov said Thursday. "And it should not be a message of, if you're very wealthy you get a special deal and you get to sit on the Cabinet, too."
Uninsured depositors at the Illinois bank are still owed roughly $10 million, according to federal records -- after a court challenge was rejected in 2007, those savings may never be recovered. The collapse also cost the FDIC, which insures banks, nearly $300 million.
The failure, according to federal regulators, was triggered by a pattern of risky lending.
The Office of Thrift Supervision took the rare step of shuttering the Hinsdale, Ill., bank on July 27, 2001. The office said at the time the bank "suffered as a result of its former high-risk business strategy," including "significant volumes of subprime" mortgage and auto loans.
What happened after the collapse, though, is what triggered the lawsuit involving Krislov.
The Pritzker family, as part of a settlement to shield itself from liability, agreed to pay $460 million to the federal government. But the family was subsequently able to claim part of a separate $125 million settlement from the bank's accounting firm.
Krislov said the family was first in line for the money, followed by the depositors.
"That is what is fundamentally troubling," he said. "They got a priority ahead of depositors while depositors were still short."
An FDIC representative, though, suggested to the Chicago Tribune in 2004 that the sheer size of the $460 million settlement justified the trade-off.
"If it means $30 million is turned over to the Pritzkers, I think it's hard to dispute that it's not advantageous for creditors of that failed institution," the spokesman said.
Pritzker's involvement with the bank's questionable lending practices is unclear. She served as chairwoman of the bank from 1991 to 1994, after her uncle Jay went in with another wealthy family to buy Superior in the late '80s.
Pritzker spokeswoman Susan Anderson stressed that Pritzker was not an officer or director at the time the bank failed.
"She left its board in 1994, seven years before the bank failed. During her tenure, the bank received clean audits and regulators gave it high marks," she said in an email to FoxNews.com, calling her record as a manager "extraordinary."
She also noted that despite the losses sustained by depositors, they did get 81 percent of their savings back, in addition to the $100,000 insured amount. "This is ... typical when a bank fails," she said.
The FDIC insures depositors for up to $100,000. In the case of Superior, those with accounts above that amount were still repaid part -- but not all -- of their uninsured savings.
Krislov said he wrote to Penny Pritzker after his clients lost their suit asking her to pay the remaining $10 million to the uninsured depositors.
"I just figured it was the right thing to do," he said, adding that he never heard back.
The Pritzker family also reportedly struck a deal in 2011 that allowed them to enjoy a discount off the $460 million settlement.
The history of the bank was glossed over in Thursday's announcement at the White House, though the Republican National Committee blasted out old news clippings from the saga.
Obama, during the nomination ceremony, cited Pritzker's "extraordinary experience."
"Penny is one of our countries' most distinguished business leaders. She's got more than 25 years of management experience in industries, including real estate, finance, and hospitality. She's built companies from the ground up," Obama said.
Pritzker is on the board with Hyatt Hotels Corp., which was co-founded by her dad. She's also chairwoman of Pritzker Realty Group. She previously served on Obama's jobs council, and helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president's 2008 and 2012 campaigns -- she held positions with both campaigns.
Pritzker is also one of the wealthiest people in the country. Forbes pegs her net worth at $1.85 billion, and lists her as the 277th wealthiest person in the U.S.
Krislov acknowledged the family has done some "very terrific things" in philanthropy, but said: "She would not be my first pick" for Commerce.
The White House did not return a request for comment. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/02/commerce-nominee-tangled-in-massive-bank-collapse-that-cost-depositors-millions/#ixzz2SFGb2OK6

Egyptian Magazine: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration

The Investigative Project on Terrorism

By John Rossomando 

An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy.
The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House "from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood."
The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers.
The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.
Alikhan is a founder of the World Islamic Organization, which the magazine identifies as a Brotherhood "subsidiary." It suggests that Alikhan was responsible for the "file of Islamic states" in the White House and that he provides the direct link between the Obama administration and the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.
Elibiary, who has endorsed the ideas of radical Muslim Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb, may have leaked secret materials contained in Department of Homeland Security databases, according to the magazine. He, however, denies having any connection with the Brotherhood.
Elibiary also played a role in defining the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy, and the magazine asserts that Elibiary wrote the speech Obama gave when he told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave power but offers no source or evidence for the claim.
According to Rose El-Youssef, Rashad Hussain maintained close ties with people and groups that it says comprise the Muslim Brotherhood network in America. This includes his participation in the June 2002 annual conference of the American Muslim Council, formerly headed by convicted terrorist financier Abdurahman Alamoudi.
He also participated in the organizing committee of the Critical Islamic Reflection along with important figures of the American Muslim Brotherhood such as Jamal Barzinji, Hisham al-Talib and Yaqub Mirza.
Regarding al-Marayati, who has been among the most influential Muslim American leaders in recent years, the magazine draws connections between MPAC in the international Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure.
Magid heads ISNA, which was founded by Brotherhood members, was appointed by Obama in 2011 as an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. The magazine says that has also given speeches and conferences on American Middle East policy at the State Department and offered advice to the FBI.
Rose El-Youssef says Patel maintains a close relationship with Hani Ramadan, the grandson of Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, and is a member of the Muslim Students Association, which it identifies as "a large Brotherhood organization."