[American Spectator]
Federal Bureau of Investigation will recommend that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Hillary Clinton and various of her aides, and soon. The evidence consists of materials that the Bureau has gathered in the course of its months-long investigation of Mrs. Clinton's personal server. The recommendations will come very soon.
The charges will consist of some of the following:
1. Improper disclosure or retention of classified information.
2. Destruction of government records.
3. Lying to federal agents.
4. Lying under oath.
5. Obstruction of justice.
All the counts are familiar to those of us who have followed the Clintons for a quarter of a century, but, as one source familiar with the FBI's investigation told me, the evidence has now reached a "critical mass."
There are those who have told me that the FBI has been engaged in a ruse. And that the Bureau will report it has come across nothing criminal. Then the whole imbroglio is expected to blow over.
But such cynics are in the minority. Most sources have told me the investigation is genuine, serious, and all but completed. One told me that it was completed two months ago. The Bureau has put together a case that as one source put it "is locked up. It is solid."
In the past, as FBI agent I.C. Smith wrote in his book Inside: A Top G-Man Exposes Spies, Lies, and Bureaucratic Bungling Inside the FBI, the Clintons have benefited from a few corrupt agents, usually in Arkansas. But that was years ago, and in Arkansas. This is the FBI in Washington, at the top where there are plenty of utterly professional law enforcement officials. They believe truth matters and so does the pursuit of justice. "They have been building a case that is unassailable," one source told me. "It is beyond the case against Petraeus.... It is about the violation of federal statutes."
The only question now is will the recommendations come this month or within sixty days. Politicians with the presidential itch such as Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry hope the FBI's recommendations will come in a week or so to allow them to get into the race. Other observers say the decision will come later. "The FBI," said one source, "does not care about politics." Whether it comes tomorrow or in sixty days, Justice Department policies mandate making such decisions as far in advance of elections as possible. If there are conflicting winds blowing in the Bureau or DOJ, they must avoid the appearance of being motivated by partisan politics.
Yet such is the gravity of the charges and the consequences of neglecting them that they cannot be ignored. If they are ignored, people familiar with the investigation say, it will be impossible to prosecute future defendants being charged with the mishandling of classified information. Said Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney, "The intelligence community will not stand for that. They will fight for indictment and they are already in the process of gearing themselves to basically revolt if [the Attorney General] refuses to bring charges." FBI Director James Comey has reportedly said he will resign if the Bureau's recommendations for charges are ignored.
One source familiar with the case said the indictments will begin with the "small fish" starting with Bryan Pagliano, the keeper of Hillary's server, and move on to the Big Enchilada, Hillary. Whatever happens, seasoned political players have claimed Hillary will continue in the race for Democratic nomination. Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean, was overheard in the Green Room at Fox saying Hillary will run to the end.
Avert your gaze. Forgive me if I appear a bit skeptical.
#1
A lawless president and a Congress too impotent to do anything about it. Mitch, prove that you can do more than take up space. How do you want history to remember you?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/03/2016 15:05 Comments ||
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#2
It is inevitable that Hilla the Hun will get away with it.
What I'm interested in is how this process unrolls given the primaries and ultimately the general election.
The biggest industries in the U.S. - government, IT, entertainment, education, finance/investing/banking - will do and pay whatever it takes to put her in the White House.
We have the worst robber baron class in U.S. history.
It will take the Republicans running a perfect campaign to even have a chance of beating Hillary Clinton. That is how degraded the U.S. has become.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/03/2016 20:16 Comments ||
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#7
Question to those who know: How late can a new candidate get into the race?
I mean, Super Tuesday is less than a month away. How late could Biden or Kerry get in?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/03/2016 20:48 Comments ||
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#8
I'll lay odds there's documentation prepared for such a contingency.
#9
There must be. After all, a candidate could die before election time.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/03/2016 21:54 Comments ||
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#10
How late can a new candidate get into the race?
In theory, as I recall, a new candidate could step up at the party convention. The convention delegates are supposed to vote for the candidate who won their states in the various primaries (or proportionally, if that's how their state chose to go), but after the first vote they can do whatever they want -- and if their candidate died or otherwise stepped down, those delegates can choose not to vote as their candidate would have preferred.
The view from ThinkProgress.org.
Sen. Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucus with about 28 percent of caucusgoers’ votes, edging out Donald Trump by 4 percentage points. His fellow senator, Marco Rubio, received 23 percent.
Cruz was hammered in Iowa for his stance against ethanol subsidies, a major boon to the corn-heavy state, but also netted endorsements from prominent Iowa conservatives like Bob Vander Plaats, an anti-LGBT activist who heads the Iowan organization The FAMiLY Leader.
Though Trump has grabbed headlines for his racist and bombastic rhetoric, the senator from Texas holds some of the most extreme policy ideas in the race. Here are some of the key policies Iowa Republicans have endorsed with their ballots tonight: Bombastic, I guess. Racist? When? Or is any Republican racist by definition? Name one who isn't.
Women’s Health ... is mistakenly conflated with forcible expulsion of fetuses from the womb. If a woman has not had an abortion she can't be healthy.
Cruz is staunchly anti-abortion and has worked in Texas to make it harder for women to receive abortions. As solicitor general of the state, he defended a federal law that bans partial birth abortion. He has helped lead the Senate crusade to defund Planned Parenthood and he has also said that one of the first things he will do in office is launch a federal investigation into the women’s health organization.
Immigration
The son of a Cuban immigrant, Cruz frequently talks about the need to secure the border and end sanctuary cities. Opponents have targeted him for once supporting “amnesty,” but Cruz has never and still does not support a path to citizenship for the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. And he does not think the United States should accept any Syrian refugees.
Terrorism
Cruz has called for “carpet bombing” and “saturation bombing” regions of Iraq and Syria controlled by ISIS — a tactic that would be a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. After November’s terrorist attack in Paris, he called for conducting airstrikes with less concern for civilian casualties.
Obamacare
Cruz, who grabbed headlines with his 21-hour “filibuster” to try to defund Obamacare in 2013, loves to say that he will repeal “every last word of Obamacare.” But he doesn’t like to talk about what he would do when millions of Americans lose their coverage. Instead, he repeats the false claim that Obamacare has raised premiums and caused millions to lose their part-time jobs. If Cruz were to be elected president, millions of Americans would lose their health insurance — and he doesn’t have a plan to stop it.
Climate Change
Cruz is the worst denier of all the climate change-denying Republican candidates. He refuses to agree with the 97 percent of climate scientists who agree that the planet is warming, instead choosing to cite discredited satellite data. Cruz has also introduced legislation that would expand oil and gas drilling, approve the Keystone XL pipeline, prevent the federal government from regulating fracking, and curtail EPA regulations.
Gun Control
Cruz has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. He frequently holds Second Amendment rallies and speaks about how you can only “stop bad guys by using our guns.” And he loves to spread the conspiracy theory that the government is trying to take away people’s guns. In Congress, he has helped to lead the defense of gun rights and helped to vote down gun legislation year after year.
LGBT Rights
Cruz is campaigning on a promise of ignoring or overturning the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Cruz has also spoken out strongly against granting equal rights to transgender people, and has opposed laws that would protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination. He has received endorsements from several anti-LGBT religious organizations.
#1
Perhaps, but Cruz can't change anything without the support of the bunch of clowns we the people elect. Including ALL of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senators.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/03/2016 13:22 Comments ||
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[Times Live] After 26 years South Africa is more divided than ever before. Pikers! We've accomplished record 'division' in less than two presidential terms.
This was the view expressed by former president FW de Klerk at a conference held in Cape Town today to commemorate the 26th anniversary of his speech that initiated South Africa's transition into democracy.
"Racism is too much a part of the narrative of political leaders. Politicians including Jacob Zuma must avoid utterances that feed racism which is divisive." His advice to the president was to focus on nation building and develop a "peaceful, positive and constructive co- existence". Obviously de Klerk does not understand crisis politics and inequality.
"The overwhelming majority of South Africans are not racist," said De Klerk. An 'overwhelming majority' is made irrelevant by racist congressional caucus law makers.
He said there was no hierarchy of racism in SA, but that the ANC was "guilty of imposing such a hierarchy".
The conference tackles the topic of multiculturalism in South Africa, with renowned struggle icons such as Mathews Phosa, Rhoda Kadalie and former Justice Albie Sachs, engaging on the topic.
[Telegraph] The oil major reported its worst loss in more than 20 years in the wake of the oil price collapse, but expects the market to 'rebalance' by the year end.
BP expects to emerge from the oil market collapse by the end of 2016 even as the severe downturn in the oil market has left the energy giant nursing its worst annual loss in at least 20 years.
In 2015, the oil major posted an annual loss of $5.2bn, compared to the $8.1bn profit the oil major recorded in the previous year, and will be forced to slash thousands of jobs on top of those already announced.
The worse than expected financial results drove a share price sell off of over 8pc on Tuesday, driving BP's stock to levels almost 25pc lower on the year at 334 pence per share.
But chief executive Bob Dudley said the market will begin to "rebalance" by third or fourth quarter to allow oil prices to correct to levels between $50-$60 per barrel by the end of the year.
#6
They haven't suspended performance bonuses. Our rig brought a well in way before scheduled, meaning they saved alot of money. No reason not to share some of that money with the people who made it happen.
#7
At the current rate of real inflation, this should only take about eighteen months.
The value of the oil doesn't go up, the value of the dollar goes down.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/03/2016 20:22 Comments ||
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#8
Yep, they're 'creating' money faster than the drillers can find crude.
[DAWN] THE government has comprehensively fumbled with its plans for PIA. Invoking the Essential Services Act of 1952 to break the strike of PIA unions against the proposed privatisation plan appeared to be an act of sheer panic. But the subsequent festivities between striking workers and security officials at the airport, resulting in the tragic death of two employees, have turned the plans into a fiasco. It must also be mentioned that the reported resort to gun sex at an airport by the security agencies, where there are aircraft circling overhead, is beyond stupidity -- it is downright dangerous and those responsible must be made aware of this. Beyond the follies of the moment, the entire episode has turned a delicate matter into an open contest of wills of the sort that is usually won by the party with more grit, which in this case would be the unions.
The signs of mismanagement were there all along. Nobody was sure who was overseeing the exercise to find a 'strategic investor' for the airline. Was it the aviation adviser or the privatisation minister? Frequent and, apparently often unwanted, input from the finance minister didn't help things either. All felt free to give all sorts of commitments publicly, including reassurances to the workers that nobody would lose his or her job in the process. When the ordinance to convert the airline into a corporation was defeated in the Senate, we had three different committees in the National Assembly overseeing the affairs of PIA. When the Supreme Court restrained the aviation adviser from taking any independent decisions, he gave his resignation to the prime minister which the latter did not accept, creating further confusion about the role of the adviser. As the government hurtled towards the end-December deadline it had set for itself, matters appeared to be spinning out of control. In response, it leaned on the law-enforcement agencies to get a grip on things as protests spilled out onto the streets. The result is that two people are now dead, the union has gained two 'deaders' to rally around, and is now stronger than ever before. So much for the best-laid plans.
Nobody should doubt that PIA is in grave difficulty, with accumulated losses having risen to Rs300bn, an amount that is almost equal to the circular debt in the power sector. Few also doubt that the situation can be credibly improved without some sort of game-changing intervention that injects private-sector energies into the management of the airline. But the manner in which the government has pursued this ambitious goal is clumsy and smacks of haste and hubris. The PML-N has never been famous for its ability to bring people together, to reach out to adversaries and carve a consensus around a highly contested goal. The way in which they have dealt with the restructuring of PIA only reinforces this perception.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] WHO is Uzair Jan Baloch? A pawn in the political chess game or a powerful mafia don with strong political connections? While his association with the PPP appears to be irrefutable, there are also some reports of his links with influential political figures from other political parties as well as the intelligence agencies.
A leader of the so-called Lyari-based Peoples Amn Committee ... Peoples' Peace Committee is a group of brown turbans tied to the Pakn People's Party and based in Blood-soaked Karachi. It was founded by an infamous gangster, Rehman Dakait in 2008. It is accused of being involved in organized crime and gang wars. After Rehman departed this vale of tears in 2009, leadership of the group was taken over by Uzair Baloch, who is probably associated with the Tataglias or the Barzini clan. The Amn Committee was banned in Pakistain in 2011, which means precisely squat.... , Baloch is implicated in dozens of murder and other criminal cases. He oversaw charities, but also allegedly ran drug and extortion rackets. He was a key leader of the Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gang war that left hundreds of people dead and turned that impoverished neighbourhood of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... into a veritable battleground. The story of Uzair Baloch seems right out of a Bollywood crime thriller.
His reported arrest from the outskirts of Karachi by the Rangers last week after his mysterious disappearance from Dubai where he was detained almost a year ago gives currency to all kinds of conspiracy theories. No one takes the Rangers' version seriously. It seems quite plausible that he has been in the custody of the security agencies for the past several months. Then why the arrest announcement now? It gives an intriguing twist to the whole saga.
Unsurprisingly, the news of Uzair Baloch's arrest has come as the noose around some top PPP leaders is being tightened. That gives some credence to the speculation that he may be used as an approver against them. Some reports suggest that he has already been talking.
What is most interesting, however, is that several joint investigation teams are being formed to question him on the 2007 Karsaz kaboom targeting Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... 's welcome procession and also the murder of the former prime minister's bodyguards following her liquidation a few months later. Surely the scope of the investigation against Uzair Baloch is being extended beyond the already pending murder and other criminal charges against him.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[11122 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
