[JudicialWatch] Illustrating how government hides information from the American public, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch used a fake name to conduct official Department of Justice (DOJ) business in agency emails obtained by Judicial Watch. As the nation's chief law enforcement officer Lynch, Barack Obama's second attorney general, skirted public-records laws by using the alias Elizabeth Carlisle in emails she sent from her official DOJ account. In the records provided to Judicial Watch, the DOJ explains it as necessary to "protect her security and privacy and enable her to conduct Department business efficiently via email."
This begs the question of how many other government officials use fake names and whether those aliases are searched when agencies process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Besides Lynch, we have only discovered the use of such aliases among government operatives to conduct official business at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Obama's EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, famously used the alias Richard Windsor in a government email account to conduct official business and communicate with staff. Jackson even took required EPA computer training under the fake identity with the handle Windsor.Richard@epa.gov. She eventually resigned over the scandal, which brought to light the agency's violations of federal open-records laws.
In Lynch's case, Judicial Watch requested the records as part of an investigation into the Obama administration's involvement in a United Nation's international law enforcement coalition called Strong Cities Network (SCN). The purported mission of the global coalition was to build social cohesion and community resilience to counter violent extremism. The DOJ masterminded the agreement and Americans found out about the U.S.'s participation when Lynch announced it during a U.N. speech on September 29, 2015. Lynch referred to SCN as a "truly groundbreaking endeavor" and assured the notoriously corrupt world body that the Obama administration was deeply committed to the new initiative. "The government of the United States is fully invested in this collaborative approach and we have seen the value of empowering local communities by promoting initiatives they design and lead themselves," Lynch said.
Following the Attorney General's fiery U.N. delivery, a New York newspaper reported that the city was joining a new global, terror-busting network to combat homegrown extremism. Civil rights groups quickly denounced the U.S. participation, expressing concerns about law enforcement abuses against Muslims. In a letter to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio 22 civil rights groups warned that other programs created to counter violent extremism stigmatized "Muslim communities as suspicious and in need of special monitoring." The anti-terror initiatives have also made "the relationship between Muslims and schools and social service providers into security-based engagements," the letter states. SCN assures however, that "violent extremism and prevention efforts should not be associated with any particular religion, nationality or ethnic group." In a statement the DOJ also guaranteed that the SCN will safeguard the rights of local citizens and communities. The State Department also put its weight behind SCN.
In its mission to educate the public about the operations and activities of government, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request with the DOJ on October 15, 2015 for documents related to SCN. Specifically, Judicial Watch asked for legal opinions and analysis prepared by the DOJ relating to the U.S. involvement in the program, documents that form the foundation for the decision for the country to participate in SCN, all international agreements and related records involving the commitment of U.S. resources or personnel to SCN and records of communication between officials in the Office of the Attorney General relating to the initiative. The DOJ claimed to have no records related to the SCN and billed Judicial Watch a startling $50,000 to conduct the search that didn't produce a single file.
Though the DOJ recently furnished the documents with Lynch's fake name, the records were part of Judicial Watch's original 2015 FOIA request. The records also show that then Assistant Attorney General John Carlin touted SCN at an event sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an extremist leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization. A year later Carlin would launch the Michael Flynn counterintelligence investigation and seek the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant now in question.
#4
This begs the question of how many other government officials use fake names and whether those aliases are searched when agencies process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Probably a good many. I suspect this is one of the reason the Clinton investigation stalled and went nowhere. Digging further might have revealed Obama's previously unknown aliases.
#7
Congress should pass a law making it a crime to knowingly conduct official business using a non-government email address. At a minimum the penalty should be termination without pension or any other benefits.
#1
Hope was a graduate of SMU in Dallas. You almost have to be a Valedictorian or top of your class to get into that school. Not some leftist activist loser who claims to be part Cherokee.
Bringing in really smart young people into a business to mentor prevents older, set in their ways people from ignoring your wisdom and instead applying theirs.
Hope the Donald finds a smart young achiever to replace her and others, stay away from congress critters and establishment, activist, political swamp creatures.
#6
SMU is one of the last bastions of excellence in higher education that is not polluted by the critical theory/let's give communism another go crowd.
[Right Scoop] After saying he’s not going to run for re-election, it appears that Trey Gowdy entered the IDGAF stage of his career as he opens an investigation into Ben Carson.
The press has been relishing reports that Carson might have overspent in his position as HUD secretary, and now Gowdy is going to look into it:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Wednesday sent a request to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson for information related to his purchase of a $31,000 dining set for his office.
Gowdy’s request, which featured three categories of documents related to Carson’s expensive taxpayer-funded redesign, was issued "to help the [Oversight] Committee determine whether HUD adhered to the applicable spending limitations while redecorating your office."
In addition to the revelation of the dining set, which was purchased last December while HUD cut their homeless assistance budget, The Guardian reported that Carson intends to spend an additional $165,000 on a "lounge set" for his office.
You can read the five page letter to Carson from Gowdy here.
Well there you go. Apparently HUD secretary work isn’t brain surgery ‐ it’s much harder!
[SanDiegoUnionTribune] The California bullet train will take longer to build and cost more than previously estimated under a soon-to-be-released business plan, but plans to begin the project by linking the Bay Area to the Central Valley remain intact, according to the rail authority's new chief executive, Brian Kelly.
Kelly, who took over leadership of the project Feb. 1, said in a wide-ranging interview that he plans to make transparent the challenges facing the project in an effort to bolster confidence that it can still be successfully executed. The rail authority will issue its 2018 business plan with the new cost estimates March 9.
Kelly did not disclose the new price tag for completing the entire Los Angeles to San Francisco system, but he made clear that the $64-billion estimate from the 2016 business plan will change.
Since the earlier estimate was unveiled, the state has confronted extended delays in buying land for a 119-mile segment in the Central Valley, encountered higher costs to build safety barriers where its tracks will run close to freight lines, sustained higher costs to move underground utilities and agreed to pay claims to construction firms whose work was delayed.
The problems led to a disclosure last month that the 119 miles will cost $10.6 billion, up from the original estimate of about $6 billion. When that was unveiled at a rail authority board just days after Kelly took over, the authority did not say whether it would impact the total system price.
"There will be a cost increase," Kelly said. "You cannot have that cost increase in the Central Valley without affecting the overall program cost."
The new estimate will be given in a range of costs, reflecting "too many unknowns to be specific," he added.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
$89 million a mile. Who says California isn’t leading the nation
....in corruption and stupidity! YCMTSU.
Take two hours to get from the central valley to the Bay Area? Have to take shuttle buses from the end of the line into town? Have to pay $200 or $300 one way for a ticket? When you can fly from Ontario, Long Beach, Los Angeles or Burbank for $300 round trip?
The only way this think becomes viable economically is for California to ban commuter flights between LA and SFO...of course given the mind set of these guys, banning plastic straws and grocery bags, they might try it.
Who voted for this damn thing? Oops I forgot about the 5,000,000 illegals and dead that will vote for anything Democratic.
Talk about a scandal. I wonder who is benefiting and what the end game is on this?
#10
The way to do this properly would have been to build it above the California Aquaduct where they don't have to buy the land and deal with environmental reports.
I suspect the test areas in central california are being built on land owned by Democrat relatives and such.
once the first high speed trains from Bakersfield to Fresno start and ridership is only 30% of what was forecast, it may end the obsession with is essentially a 19th century technology on steroids
of course it will cost $10B to do this but that may save the rest of the country hundreds of billions
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/01/2018 11:53 Comments ||
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#13
but that may save the rest of the country hundreds of billions
You are of course assuming pols learn from history. Sadly the only thing they may learn is 'My Husband/Wife can make millions on this contract!'.
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
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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.