Menendez’s alleged Dominican prostitution spree coincided with crusade against prostitution in Cuba

  

Despite allegations that Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez had sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic on several occasions in recent years, he has been a persistent critic of the Cuban regime for economic conditions that have led to widespread prostitution among young people.

“The average Cuban worker lives on an income of less than $1 a day,” Menendez said during a March 2, 2009 Senate floor speech, arguing that the communist Cuban dictatorship’s policies caused nationwide poverty.

“This poverty has an enormous cost,” the son of Cuban emigres to the U.S. explained. “The widespread desperation of families has forced far too many young girls and boys into becoming sex workers, even though defenders of the Revolution constantly cite the elimination of prostitution as one of its supposed accomplishments.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/01/menendezs-alleged-dominican-prostitution-spree-coincided-with-crusade-against-prostitution-in-cuba/#ixzz2Jenxq7DM

Dominican Prostitute: Senator Bob Menendez (D) ‘Likes the Youngest and Newest Girls’

   CREW -- Spanish email from Menendez accuser by  

nation

In a little-noticed email published online Wednesday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a young Dominican woman wrote nine months ago that she slept with 59-year-old New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez at a series of sex parties organized by Dr. Salomon Melgen, a longtime Menendez campaign donor.

“That Senator also likes the youngest and newest girls,” the woman wrote on April 21, 2002, according to an English translation provided to The Daily Caller by a native Spanish speaker.

“In the beginning he seemed so serious, because he never spoke to anyone, but he is just like the others and has just about the same tastes as the doctor, very refined. I think they were taking us more often to get us checked [medically] because of him.”

Read the full story at the daily caller >>

Menendez Admits Flying to Dominican Republic on Donor's Private Plane

breitbart
Matthew Boyle

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez has denied soliciting prostitutes in the Dominican Republic but admitted he traveled at least three times on a donor’s private plane to and from the country. 

The statement comes on the heels of an FBI raid on wealthy ophthalmologist Dr. Salomon Melgen’s Miami office late Tuesday evening and internal FBI emails showing the bureau is investigating the Senator’s alleged solicitation of allegedly underage prostitutes in the Dominican.

“Dr. Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of Senator Menendez for many years,” Menendez’s office said in a Wednesday statement, according to the Washington Post. “Senator Menendez has traveled on Dr. Melgen’s plane on three occasions, all of which have been paid for and reported appropriately. Any allegations of engaging with prostitutes are manufactured by a politically-motivated right-wing blog and are false.”

When the story first broke, National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) executive director Rob Jesmer called on Menendez to release all his travel records. He has not done that, and his spokeswoman Tricia Enright did not immediately respond to a Breitbart News request for the travel records. 

Jesmer said the allegations against Menendez are “very serious and deserve examination.”

“Fortunately, there is a simple way for Senator Menendez to begin addressing these questions, and that is by releasing his schedule and travel records related to Easter Week of this year, as well as the other dates in question,” Jesmer said.

This reporter broke the story while writing for The Daily Caller last year and interviewed two Dominican Republic women in November who claimed Menendez paid them for sex around Easter-time last year. The encounter apparently took place at Casa de Campo, a posh 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. Each woman told this reporter that Menendez had agreed to pay them $500 for sex but only paid them $100.

Judge Napolitano: Menendez May Be Removed From Senate

Sen. Bob Menendez's sex scandal expands

Read on wnd >>

US Senators Call for Cuba's Immediate Release of Alan Gross

SenatorMikulski 

Capitol Hill Cubans

Senators Cardin, Moran and Mikulski Call for Cuba's Immediate Release of Alan Gross

Resolution introduced on 3rd Anniversary of Alan Gross’ arrest in Havana

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have introduced a resolution calling on Cuba to immediately and unconditionally release Marylander Alan Gross. The resolution, introduced on the 3rd Anniversary of Mr. Gross’ arrest in Havana, Cuba, is co-sponsored by 29 of their Senate colleagues including Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). It also urges the Cuban government to address Mr. Gross’ medical issues. When passed, it will mark the first time Congress has taken the step of passing a resolution condemning Mr. Gross’ arrest and calling for his release. Sens. Cardin, Moran and Mikulski held a joint press conference with Judy Gross, the wife of Alan Gross, this morning to discuss the resolution.

“Year after year, the Cuban Government continues to demonstrate why bilateral relations between our two countries remain frozen,” Sen. Cardin said. “Alan Gross should no longer be forced to suffer the consequences of political gamesmanship. Enough is enough. Alan should be immediately and unconditionally released so he can return home for medical treatment and to support his family. The health and humanitarian needs of he and his family are paramount,”

“The Senate’s passage of this resolution will send a loud and clear message to Cuba: it is past time for Alan Gross to come home,” Sen. Moran said. “For more than a decade, I have worked to open Cuban markets to American agriculture. This year, however, I stepped back from these efforts because the Cuban government has a responsibility to cooperate with the United States on the unjust detention of Alan Gross. The path to improved America-Cuba relations has always been difficult, but it is that much more difficult and unlikely until Cuba releases Alan Gross.”

“It’s long past time Alan Gross be immediately and unconditionally released from his imprisonment in Cuba,” Sen. Mikulski said. “For three years he and his family have suffered from these bogus charges and a sham trial. And for three years the Cuban government has ignored basic human rights and has shown they are not serious about building a relationship with the United States. I want Alan and Judy Gross to know that they are not in this fight alone. I will continue to do all I can so Alan can come home to Maryland and his family.”

Alan Gross was arrested on December 3, 2009, and after a two-day trial, was given a 15-year prison sentence by Cuban authorities for facilitating communications between Cuba’s Jewish community and the rest of the world. Mr. Gross was in Cuba working as a sub-contractor for the United States Agency for International Development, helping a small, peaceful, non-dissident community. He was doing the type of work he had done his whole career in international development – helping others in need.

A 63-year-old husband and father, Mr. Gross has lost more than 100 pounds since his arrest and suffers from severe degenerative arthritis that affects his mobility, as well as other health problems. The Cuban Government has denied requests by Mr. Gross for an independent medical examination by a doctor of his choosing. Members of his family have also faced serious illnesses during this time.

Carta de los senadores a Raul Castro [Alan Gross]

By Chris Simmons

September 24, 2012

President Raúl Castro

Republic of Cuba

c/o Cuban Interests Section

2630 16^th Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

Dear President Castro:

We are writing to express our serious and ongoing concern regarding the detention of Alan Gross, an American citizen, and to urge you to release him from prison on humanitarian grounds. As you are aware, Mr. Gross was a U.S.-government subcontractor who was arrested on December 3, 2009. He was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison for alleged “actions against the independence or territorial integrity of the state.”

Since his arrest, Mr. Gross has lost 105 pounds (47.63 kg). He has degenerative arthritis and a mass behind his shoulder, which he fears may become permanent. He also suffers from mental anguish because of separation from his family, several of whom have serious medical conditions. Specifically, his daughter has been diagnosed and is being treated for breast cancer. And his 90-year-old mother, to whom he is exceptionally close, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in February 2011. Her condition continues to deteriorate and they both fear they will be unable to see each other again.

Members of the Senate have traveled to your country, written to you and your dignitaries, and employed other creative means to encourage Mr. Gross’s release. Yet these attempts thus far have been futile, and Mr. Gross’s ongoing detention in your country presents a major obstacle to any further actions to improve our bilateral relations.

We very much hope that you will take our concerns seriously. As we approach the three-year anniversary of Alan’s imprisonment, we call on you to take action and grant him the belated release his situation warrants.

Sincerely,

Led by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jerry Moran (R-KS),  the letter was also signed by Richard Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Al Franken (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Begich (D-AK), Dean Heller (R-NV), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Robert P. Casey (D-PA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), John F. Kerry (D-MA), Thomas R. Carper (D-DE), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mark Warner (D-VA), John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Coburn (R-OK), John Boozman (R-AR), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY), Dan Coats (R-IN), Mark L. Pryor (D-AR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

Cuba Trade Proponents in Senate Pressure Castro Over Jailing of US Citizen

by Chris Simmons

By Erik Wasson – The Hill

Two Senate advocates for increased trade with Cuba have backed off their efforts in light of the detention of a U.S. citizen by the Fidel Castro regime.

Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had been leading a congressional push to “reset” relations with Cuba and increase trade and travel ties, but have halted that advocacy over the Alan Gross case.

Gross, 63, was given a 15-year prison sentence for alleged spying and is reportedly frail. The State Department has called repeatedly for Cuba to release him.

“I have tried to change the trading relationship with Cuba. I am taking a hiatus from that effort. I am no longer willing to do that,” Moran said.  “I hope that this will put pressure on Cuba to release him,” he said.

Moran and Durbin had faced opposition from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla), who has thwarted changes to Cuba policy since becoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2011. Despite the lack of action in the House, Moran and Durbin persisted last year in trying to increase agricultural exports to Cuba.

U.S. companies have been permitted to ship food and medicine to Cuba since 2000, but Treasury Department regulations have inhibited trade by making the payments for those goods more complicated.  Moran last year inserted an amendment into a draft 2012 Financial Services Appropriations bill that would have allowed Cuban buyers to make direct cash payments to U.S. financial institutions in order to ease agricultural trade. Farm lobbyists supported the language.

The Kansas senator also supported language that would end a restriction that forces buyers to pay for goods before they leave U.S. ports, rather than when receiving the goods.  Both provisions were stripped out of the final 2012 omnibus appropriations package that was enacted into law, however.

Moran this week said he is no longer pushing for the trade changes, and aides said neither provision is in the bill that passed out of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday.  Durbin, the spending “cardinal” in charge of the Treasury budget, said that he supports Moran’s decision despite being an advocate of using trade to open up closed societies.  Durbin said he’s “always voted with [Moran] to expand trade,” but a visit with Gross in prison this spring convinced him that more needs to be done to free him.

In 2010, the House Agriculture Committee under now-ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) attempted to pass a wide-ranging Cuba trade bill.  Asked Friday about the Gross case, Peterson said he still wants stronger trade ties.  “I’m still for opening trade with Cuba,” he said through a spokesperson.

Gen. David Petraeus orders an investigation into claims that a top Army official instructed a military team to manipulate visiting U.S. dignitaries using 'psychological operations' so they would approve more resources for the Afghanistan war. 

Full story

Petraeus Orders Probe Over Psy-Ops

Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators

From Rollingstone Magazine

Sen. John McCain walks with Lt. Gen. William Caldwell at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 6, 2009.

Senior Airman Brian Ybarbo/U.S. Air Force (Homepage image: AP)

By Michael Hastings

The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
The Runaway General: The Rolling Stone Profile of Stanley McChrystal That Changed History
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as "information operations" at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.
"My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. "I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line."
King David's War: How Gen. Petraeus Is Doubling Down on a Failed Strategy
The list of targeted visitors was long, according to interviews with members of the IO team and internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.
The incident offers an indication of just how desperate the U.S. command in Afghanistan is to spin American civilian leaders into supporting an increasingly unpopular war. According to the Defense Department’s own definition, psy-ops – the use of propaganda and psychological tactics to influence emotions and behaviors – are supposed to be used exclusively on "hostile foreign groups." Federal law forbids the military from practicing psy-ops on Americans, and each defense authorization bill comes with a "propaganda rider" that also prohibits such manipulation. "Everyone in the psy-ops, intel, and IO community knows you’re not supposed to target Americans," says a veteran member of another psy-ops team who has run operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It’s what you learn on day one."
The Insurgent's Tale: A Soldier Reconsiders Jihad
When Holmes and his four-man team arrived in Afghanistan in November 2009, their mission was to assess the effects of U.S. propaganda on the Taliban and the local Afghan population. But the following month, Holmes began receiving orders from Caldwell’s staff to direct his expertise on a new target: visiting Americans. At first, the orders were administered verbally. According to Holmes, who attended at least a dozen meetings with Caldwell to discuss the operation, the general wanted the IO unit to do the kind of seemingly innocuous work usually delegated to the two dozen members of his public affairs staff: compiling detailed profiles of the VIPs, including their voting records, their likes and dislikes, and their "hot-button issues." In one email to Holmes, Caldwell’s staff also wanted to know how to shape the general’s presentations to the visiting dignitaries, and how best to "refine our messaging."
Congressional delegations – known in military jargon as CODELs – are no strangers to spin. U.S. lawmakers routinely take trips to the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they receive carefully orchestrated briefings and visit local markets before posing for souvenir photos in helmets and flak jackets. Informally, the trips are a way for generals to lobby congressmen and provide first-hand updates on the war. But what Caldwell was looking for was more than the usual background briefings on senators. According to Holmes, the general wanted the IO team to provide a "deeper analysis of pressure points we could use to leverage the delegation for more funds." The general’s chief of staff also asked Holmes how Caldwell could secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers without their knowledge. "How do we get these guys to give us more people?" he demanded. "What do I have to plant inside their heads?"