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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Thomas Lambert Cranmer: Re: Corruption of Public Officials: The Clinton Family, Foundation & Affiliates, and State Department Employees

Amicus Brief Supporting FBI’s Quest in Identifying Corrupt Public Officials

Dear Director Comey:

The FBI’s recent radio ads asked public assistance in identifying public corruption. This amicus brief is in response to your request, based on my experience as a State Department employee with a top secret clearance and decades of work in corrupt countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. Therefore, I am alarmed by the steady decline of integrity among U.S. government and public official.

I studied law at Yale, Columbia, and New York University, but I am not a practicing lawyer. I worked as an international planner and a treasurer in Mobil Oil Corporation, a manager in the State Department, with a Top Secret clearance, and an international consultant, evaluating legal issues, studying corruption, proposing remedies and negotiating solutions. I am a fellow at the American Center for Democracy.

My letter is based on publicly available sources concerning what I believe to be one of the most astounding corruption cases involving a politician who wishes to lead my beloved country.

I understand that a large number of your agents are carrying out a criminal investigation of these cases, and I hope my enclosed analysis would help your efforts.

Public statements by federal government officials, and journalists indicate that either they do not understand, or refuse to acknowledge that serious laws were broken, not just a bunch of silly rules.

But the Rasmussen Report on a February 3, 2016, survey of 1,000 likely voters showed 81% “strongly believe the federal government is crooked.” Gallup reported on September 19, 2015, in a survey of 1,000 adults, 75% “perceived corruption as widespread in the country’s government.” In 2007, 67% responded the same way.

The U.S. international reputation is similarly appalling. Freedom House listed the U.S. as being perceived by 75% of respondents as one of the most corrupt countries of the world. Only 12 countries of the world were regarded as worse.

Transparency International (TI) says on their website that 72% of people surveyed believe the U.S. government’s efforts to fight corruption are ineffective. Other TI ratings for the U.S. are:

– 16th for corruption index out of 168 countries in 2015;

– 10th in bribe payers’ index out of 28 countries in 2011;

– 5% reported paying a bribe in 2010;

– 86th percentile in control of corruption;

– 5th in financial secrecy index out of 71 countries.

These perceptions are most disturbing. I hope you and the DOJ would not further this corrupt image by allowing political pressure to cover up and obfuscate the facts of your investigations. Our law enforcement agencies must show that politically powerful famous current and former officials are treated as ordinary citizens when they break the law. A failure to indict and prosecute the Clintons and their enterprise will encourage more corruption and the disclosure of more classified information, further endangering the U.S.

You have the reputation of being honest, competent and diligent, and I hope you will soon refer recommendations and backup research for criminal prosecution of the Clintons and their staff to the DOJ. That would ameliorate the decline in the public’s respect for the rule of law. If the DOJ refuses to impanel a grand jury or to prosecute, I hope you and many FBI agents resign in protest. The integrity of the U.S. government and America’s national security are at stake.

The House strikes a blow against political correctness By Rick Moran

There is no better example of leftist doublespeak than referring to illegal aliens as “undocumented workers” or, as the Library of Congress was proposing, “noncitizens.”

In a rare show of defiance, the House voted to order the Library to continue using the term “illegal alien” – just as it appears in the law.

Washington Times:

The library earlier this had proposed changing, saying that despite being used in law, the term had “become pejorative” and needed to be axed. Instead the library said it would use “noncitizen” to refer to illegal immigrants, and “unauthorized immigration” to refer to the broader issue.

Republicans revolted against the change, and demanded in the annual legislative branch funding bill that the library use terms that reflect federal law. The code repeatedly refers to foreigners as aliens, including those here both legally and illegally, so that would force the library to maintain the term “illegal alien.”

Democrats balked and forced a vote, but the GOP prevailed on a 237-170 party-line vote.

“The words ‘illegal alien’ will be retired. This will change, whether it’s now or six months from now or 10 years from now,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, Texas Democrat. “The question for all of us is whether we today will do the right thing or whether a few years from now will apologize.”

June 1944: The summer when a 15-year-old played ball By Silvio Canto, Jr.

Most Americans were consumed with World War II in June 1944. It started with D-Day and the daily reports of Allied forces marching into France. It was personal for most families, because every street had one or two young men fighting in Europe or the Pacific.

The baseball season went on, as President Roosevelt desired. However, the teams had to get very creative to fill their rosters. They could not rely on Latin players as they do today, and African Americans could not play anyway. I should add that a lot of Cuban young men served in World War II in support of U.S. forces.

On June 10, 1944, the Cincinnati Reds gave the ball to Joe Nuxall, and history was made:

In 1942, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt wrote to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to ask that baseball continue even though the United States was going to war:

“I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.”

Uh-Oh: Newly Released Email Was Marked Classified When It Hit Clinton’s Server By Debra Heine

Hillary Clinton has claimed from the very beginning of the email scandal that nothing she sent or received was marked classified at the time. As recently as Wednesday of this week, she told Fox News’ Bret Baier, “nothing that I sent or received was marked classified. And nothing has been demonstrated to contradict that. So it is the fact. It was the fact when I first said it. It is the fact that I’m saying it now.”

Unfortunately for Hillary, the State Department today released an email from 2012 that totally contradicts her “fact.” According to Catherine Herridge at Fox News, the email carries “a classified code known as a ‘portion marking’ – and that marking was on the email when it was sent directly to Clinton’s account.” (Not retroactively, as the Clinton camp likes to claim.)

The “C” – which means it was marked classified at the confidential level – is in the left-hand-margin and relates to an April 2012 phone call with Malawi’s first female president, Joyce Banda, who took power after the death of President Mutharika in 2012.

“(C) Purpose of Call: to offer condolences on the passing of President Mukharika and congratulate President Banda on her recent swearing in.”

Everything after that was fully redacted before it was publicly released by the State Department — a sign that the information was classified at the time and dealt with sensitive government deliberations.

A US government source said there are other Clinton emails with classified markings, or marked classified, beyond the April 2012 document.

A January 2014 federal government training manual, called “Marking Classified National Security Information,” provides a step-by-step guide for reviewing classified information, and allocating classified codes or “portion markings.”

“This system requires that standard markings be applied to classified information…Markings shall be uniformly and conspicuously applied to leave no doubt about the classified status of the information, the level of protection required, and the duration of classification.”

It adds, “A portion is ordinarily defined as a paragraph, but also includes subjects, titles, graphics, tables, charts, bullet statements, sub-paragraphs, classified signature blocks, bullets and other portions within slide presentations, and the like.”

“Portion markings consist of the letters “(U)” for Unclassified, “(C)” for Confidential, “(S)” for Secret, and “(TS)” for Top Secret.”

As has been pointed out too many times to count, whether an email is marked “classified” or not is completely irrelevant because it was her responsibility to ascertain whether the information shared through her private email server was classified. But Hillary kept using the excuse and will probably continue to do so because it’s all she’s got. CONTINUE AT SITE

Hillary’s Unsecured Emails Talked About DRONE STRIKES by Deborah Heine

The focus of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information is a series of emails between American diplomats in Pakistan and Washington about drone strikes, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. These emails are among the 22 top secret emails deemed too sensitive to ever be revealed to the American public.

Via Reuters:

The 2011 and 2012 emails were sent via the “low side” — government slang for a computer system for unclassified matters — as part of a secret arrangement that gave the State Department more of a voice in whether a CIA drone strike went ahead, according to congressional and law enforcement officials briefed on the FBI probe, the Journal said.

Some of the emails were then forwarded by Clinton’s aides to her personal email account, which routed them to a server she kept at her home in suburban New York when she was secretary of state, the officials said, according to the newspaper.

A day after she assumed office in 2009, Clinton signed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement that indicated it was her responsibility to ascertain whether information shared through her private email server was classified.

Most importantly, the agreement indicated that she understood there are criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure” of classified information. CONTINUE AT SITE

American ISIS Fighter Says Life in Mosul is ‘Really, Really Bad’ By Tyler O’Neil

Mohamed Khweis, a non-descript Virginian who sporadically attended mosque, briefly joined the Islamic State (ISIS) but surrendered himself to Kurdish forces in March, saying he was glad to escape the radical Islamist terrorist group. He was flown back to the United States early Thursday morning to face trial. Charges have not yet been made public.

“My message to the American people is — the life in Mosul, it’s really, really bad,” Khweis told Kurdistan 24 News. “The people who control Mosul don’t represent a religion. Daesh [the Arabic name for ISIS] does not represent a religion. I don’t see them as good Muslims.”

Khweis told Kurdistan 24 the story of his brief flirtation with the terrorist organization. “I attended a mosque in America, but not that often … I left the States in the middle of December 2015 and went to Europe. I first went to the UK,” the man said.

He went from London to Amsterdam, and finally to Turkey. There, he met an Iraqi woman whose sister was married to an ISIS fighter. The two smuggled themselves to Syria and then to Mosul, a major city under control of the Islamic State. They arrived in Mosul on January 16.

Once in ISIS terroritory, Khweis was stripped of identification and was given the nickname “Abu Omar.” He lived with 70 foreign fighters in one house before being taken to Mosul.

Despite Khweis’ declaration that Islamic State militants are not good Muslims, they made him attend religion classes all day. “Our daily life was basically prayer, eating, and learning about the religion for eight hours,” he said.

Khweis did not agree with the teachings, however. “I didn’t complete the whole Sharia [the Islamic law]. I didn’t agree with their ideology. That’s when I wanted to escape.”

But his disagreements went beyond religion. “It is not like Western countries,” Khweis explained. “It is very strict and no smoking there. There are a lot of foreign fighters walking around with weapons, and many are from Central and South Asia.”

Khweis spent about a month in Mosul, and “found it very, very hard to live there. I decided to return home.” He found a friend who promised to take him to Turkey, but he could not go all the way. He crossed the Kurdish lines and contacted the Peshmerga forces. CONTINUE AT SITE

San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association appears to have a strong ‘pro-Mexico’ agenda By Sierra Rayne

According to FactCheck.org, “it’s not accurate to call the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association ‘very pro-Mexico’ or ‘very strongly pro-Mexican.'”

The same article claims that Donald Trump’s comments that U.S. district judge Gonzalo Curiel is a “member of a club or society very strongly pro-Mexican” are “an inaccurate description of a group for Latino lawyers and law students in San Diego.”

To clarify, membership in the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association also includes judges, in addition to lawyers and law students, and one could reasonably argue that not only is it inappropriate, but it also potentially runs contrary to federal statues and the common law for sitting judges to be members of such activist organizations.

Luis Osuna, president of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, is quoted as saying “[w]e have no pro-Mexico agenda.”

That doesn’t appear to be what the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association’s social media feed shows.

On February 3, 2015, the organization tweeted, “Are you a member of House of Mexico? You can learn more about their great work below: http://fb.me/76CDut6Au.”

The House of Mexico, whose home page is the link the association tweeted, has a self-stated mission “to share, celebrate, educate and promote the rich art, culture, and history of Mexico.”

Then, on September 2, 2015, the organization tweeted, “SDLRLA supports House of Mexico San Diego” with an link to a Change.org petition to “Tell House of Pacific Relations that Mexico needs a stand-alone house in Balboa Park.” According to this petition being promoted by the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association:

The continued attacks on Mexico and Mexicans must end. We say, “Basta! Enough!” Mexico deserves its own house in a prominent location.

If this doesn’t reflect a “pro-Mexico agenda” by the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, it will interesting to hear what does.

American Charged With Aiding Islamic State Man accused of joining, then quitting group By Kate O’Keeffe

The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed charges against an American who had allegedly traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State terror group.

While federal prosecutors have been steadily charging people for helping Islamic State from the U.S., there are far fewer cases involving Americans who have allegedly traveled to the Middle East to join the group, become disenchanted, and returned.

Mohamad Jamal Khweis, a 26-year-old who last lived in Alexandria, Va., left the U.S. in December 2015 to join Islamic State, alleged the May 11 complaint, which charged him with providing material support to the terror group.

He lived in Islamic State safe houses in Syria and Iraq, told the terror group he would be willing to become a suicide bomber, and participated in Islamic State-directed religious training for nearly a month before leaving the group’s territory and surrendering in March to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, the complaint alleges.

It wasn’t immediately known who Mr. Khweis’s attorney is. A U.S. relative of Mr. Khweis had earlier called him “a very respectful and quiet young man” who had “nothing to do” with Islamic State.

Mr. Khweis will have an initial appearance at the federal courthouse in Alexandria on Thursday afternoon, the Justice Department said.

Though Islamic State’s social media presence remains powerful, the number of Americans traveling to the Middle East to fight alongside the terror group has been dropping, James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told reporters in May at FBI headquarters.

Since August, one American a month has traveled or attempted to travel to the Middle East to join the group, compared with about six to 10 a month in the preceding year and a half, Mr. Comey said. CONTINUE AT SITE

Trump, the Judiciary and Identity Politics Making an issue of Judge Curiel’s ethnicity was squalid—and the other side of a coin that liberals have played for years. Michael Mukasey

Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana to parents of Mexican origin and belongs to an association of lawyers of Mexican origin, is sitting on a case in the Southern District of California that charges fraud against Trump University. Donald Trump in recent days has attracted much attention by suggesting that Judge Curiel should be disqualified for bias because the judge’s rulings are adverse to Mr. Trump and because, in campaigning for the presidency, the candidate has criticized Mexicans and proposed building a wall on the southwest U.S. border.

Mr. Trump’s claim against Judge Curiel is both baseless and squalid, but some in the chorus of critics are not themselves entirely without fault.

First, let’s dispose of the recusal question. Two statutes bear on recusal of a federal judge; neither remotely supports Mr. Trump’s argument. One, and part of the other, treat recusal for bias in fact. To justify such a finding, the complainant must show that a judge has a financial interest in a case, or that the judge has a relationship with parties or lawyers in it. Sworn evidence of the judge’s personal bias or prejudice is another justification for recusal. No evidence of such bias—indeed no evidence at all—has been submitted to the court by Mr. Trump or his lawyers.
The remaining provision requires a judge to disqualify himself “in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The provision doesn’t require a formal motion, but directs the judge to act, if necessary, on his own, as he would if he had a financial interest of which he was aware.

There is case law on what circumstances suggest that a judge’s impartiality “might reasonably be questioned”—the key word of course being “reasonably.” A judge is enjoined to weigh the importance of public confidence in the courts against the distinct possibility that someone questioning his impartiality might simply be seeking to avoid anticipated adverse consequences of his presiding over the case.

That is, parties shouldn’t use recusal as a device to judge-shop. Because the job of a judge is to rule, and rulings necessarily favor one party or the other, adverse rulings—even a disproportionate number—generally are not considered evidence of partiality.

Race, religion and even gender have been used as suggested bases for “reasonably” questioning a judge’s impartiality. Thus black judges, particularly those with professional histories before they took the bench that included civil-rights work, have been asked to recuse themselves in civil-rights cases. A female judge in the Southern District of New York in 1975 was challenged in a sex-discrimination case, as was a Mormon judge in a 1984 case that allegedly involved the “theocratic power structure of Utah.” These challenges were rejected. CONTINUE AT SITE

Michael Cutler Moment: Obama’s Refugees, Illegal Aliens and the Tsunami of Deadly Diseases in America

This special edition of The Glazov Gang presents The Michael Cutler Moment with Michael Cutler, a former Senior INS Special Agent.http://jamieglazov.com/2016/06/09/michael-cutler-moment-obamas-refugees-illegal-aliens-and-the-tsunami-of-deadly-diseases-in-america/

Mr. Cutler discussed Obama’s Refugees, Illegal Aliens and the Tsunami of Deadly Diseases in America, unveiling the lethal violation of the nation’s most basic public health protocols.

Don’t miss it!

And make sure to watch The Michael Cutler Moment: Obama’s Pathway to the “Borderless World,” in which Mr. Cutler unveiled how the Radical-in-Chief is opening America to Islamic terrorists and transnational criminals.