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World

ebola-death-toll

Health workers push a gurney with a dead body at a Red Cross facility in the town of Koidu, Kono district in Eastern Sierra Leone December 19, 2014. (Photo: REUTERS/BAZ RATNER)

The Ebola death toll from the three worst-affected countries in West Africa has risen to 7,373 among 19,031 cases known to date there, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

The latest data posted on the WHO website shows nearly 500 new deaths from the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone accounts for the most cases, 8,759, juxtaposed to 7,819 for Liberia. But Sierra Leone’s death toll of 2,477 is far less than 3,346 recorded in Liberia, leading some experts to question the credibility of the figures reported by Freetown.

Sierra Leone’s government this week launched a major operation to contain the epidemic in West Africa’s worst-hit country.

“This is a medical war my country is fighting and I believe that the only way to stop this disease is for us, health practitioners, to come on board. We need to identify all sick people and take them out of the community as soon as possible,” said medical student Stephen Kamara.

President Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that travel between all parts of the country had been restricted as part of “Operation Western Area Surge,” which was launched this week by the Government of Sierra Leone, supported by World Health Organization (WHO) and many other partners to intensify efforts to curb the spread of Ebola disease in urban and rural areas surrounding Freetown.

“We are ready to give support to the teams who are investigating the cases. This includes providing hands-on support when they have challenges and difficult issues to solve,” says Dr Fikru Abebe, WHO epidemiologist involved in providing support to the teams on the ground.

Sierra Leone’s leading doctor, Victor Willoughby, died of Ebola on Thursday, hours after the arrival in the country of an experimental drug that could have been used to treat him, the government’s chief medical officer said. Now, public gatherings are to be strictly controlled in the run-up to Christmas.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday praised health care workers fighting the Ebola virus as he paid his first visit to Liberia and Sierra Leone following the outbreak.

The Ebola death toll from the three

Video, World

mastermind-pakistan-school-attack

Umar Mansoor appeared in a video (below) posted Thursday on a website used by the terror network trying to justify the Dec. 16 attack at a military school in Peshawar Pakistan.

A 36-year-old father of three and volleyball enthusiast — now the most hated man in Pakistan — was ID’d as the mastermind of this week’s horrific attack on a school that left more than 130 children dead.

Umar Mansoor appeared in a video (below) posted Thursday on a website used by the terror network trying to justify the Dec. 16 attack at an army school in Peshawar. The Pakistan Taliban say the attack, during which children were executed and at least one was teacher burned alive, was revenge for previous attacks by the Pakistani army.

“[The school was] preparing those generals, brigadiers and majors who killed and arrested so many fighters,” he says on the video, which identifies him by name.

“If our women and children die as martyrs, your children will not escape,” he said. “We will fight against you in such a style that you attack us and we will take revenge on innocents.”

However, if the attack was meant to shake the school and country, it has failed. Instead, the nation is angry, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to bring the killers to justice.

“If we continue with our commitment of ending terrorism, keep incidents like the Peshawar tragedy alive in our minds, then the jihad this country is fighting will continue,” Sharif said. “We should not forget how these young children were fired at and killed. There cannot be a bigger tragedy than this.”

http://youtu.be/Xo2X1dqRctk

Sharif and Pakistan’s military leaders vowed to crush Islamist militancy, particularly in the western region near Afghanistan. The military said Thursday that attacks in several regions — including the Khyber tribal area, which borders North Waziristan — had killed 77 militants.

The attacks were condemned by the Afghanistan Taliban, but Pakistan’s Taliban spokesman Mohammed Umar Khorasanin said the assault at Army Public School was “a revenge attack” for the army’s offensive.

“We targeted the school because the army targets our families,” he said in a statement. “We want them to feel our pain.”

Reuters interviewed a half-dozen Pakistani Taliban members, who all confirmed the mastermind was Mansoor. Four said he is close to Mullah Fazlullah, the terrorist who ordered the attack on schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived and won a Nobel Peace Prize.

“He strictly follows the principles of jihad,” one source said of Mansoor. “He is strict in principles, but very kind to his juniors. He is popular among the juniors because of his bravery and boldness.”

Mansoor got a high school education in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad, according to two Taliban members said. He reportedly studied in a madrassa, a religious school, following high school.

“Umar Mansoor had a tough mind from a very young age, he was always in fights with other boys,” said one Taliban member.

Mansoor’s nickname is “nary,” a word in the Pashto language meaning “slim,” and he is the father of two daughters and a son, sources told Reuters.

“(Mansoor) likes to play volleyball,” said one of the Taliban members. “He is a good volleyball player. Wherever he shifts his office, he puts a volleyball net up.”

The Taliban video describes him as the “amir”, or leader, of Peshawar and nearby Darra Adam Khel. Mansoor deeply opposes talks with the government, the commanders said.

Umar Mansoor appeared in a video (below)

Politics, Video

Speaking at his final 2014 year-end press conference, President Obama addressed the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment (NYSE:SNE), race relations, his decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the challenges of the upcoming year.

The president said he thinks Sony “made a mistake” in choosing not to release “The Interview” in the wake of the hacking attack, which he and the FBI publicly blamed on North Korea Friday. He vowing that the U.S. “will respond.”

“Sony is a corporation,” Obama said. “It suffered significant damage that threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake.”

However, Obama offered little as far as any specifics on what the White House plan to retaliate against North Korea might entail.

“When I came into office I stood up a cyber security inter-agency team to look at everything we could do at the government level to prevent these kinds of attacks,” the president said. “We’ve been coordinating with the private sector, but a lot more needs to be done. We’re not even close to where we need to be.”

But, as Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity pointed out earlier Friday, the Obama administration has been reluctant to define in no uncertain terms what constitutes a cyberattack, whether it is an act of war and, if so, what the consequences of such an attack will be. Rep. Meehan notes that the House bill dealing with cybersecurity has passed both houses of Congress and has awaited President Obama’s signature for quite some time.

“A lack of consequences for when nation states carry out cyberattacks has only emboldened these adversaries to do more harm,” Meehan said in a statement Friday. “The attack on Sony shows the dire need to upgrade our cyber defenses.”

Sony took harsh criticism from numerous actors and members of the Hollywood elite for its decision to cancel the release under 9/11-style threats, including Judd Apatow, the producer of the movie, who tweeted Wednesday that he thought it was “disgraceful,”

Obama, echoing White House Press Secretary John Ernest, said the U.S. will respond “proportionally” in a “place and time and manner” of their choosing. He also called for improvements in cybersecurity in the private and public sectors, despite the bill that has been waiting on his signature.

The president held his last major press conference of the year following a whirlwind of major developments affecting U.S. security, foreign policy, race relations and the economy. In response to a question regarding the task force on race relations he put together following the grand jury decisions of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, he said he wasn’t afraid to go ahead with policy changes based on recommendations from those selected.

“The task force that I formed is supposed to report back to me in 90 days,” Obama said. “My intention is to, as soon as I get those recommendations, to start implementing them.”

A report by USA Today published on Wednesday found that Obama has issued more presidential memoranda than any U.S. president in history. He’s issued 198 memoranda, which are similar to the 195 executive orders he signed, but president’s are required when signing executive orders to cite the law they’re either addressing or basing the order on, but with memoranda Obama does not.

Earlier in the week, Obama announced a push to normalize relations with Cuba following the release of American Alan Gross from Cuban custody after five years, in exchange for three Cuban spies. Obama was met with heavy criticism for that decision from many Cuban-Americans, as well as lawmakers of both parties.

Cuban-American Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menedez (D-NJ), the outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, both slammed the president’s policy as naive and filled with fallacy logic.

However, on Friday, Obama claimed he has no illusions about the nature of the Castro regime.

“This is still a regime that represses its people,” he said.

Yet, he defended his decision, saying that nothing has changed after 50 years of the same policy and claimed Cuba will be “open to the world” in ways it hasn’t been before.

His State Department plans to open an embassy in Havana for the first time in decades, though Sen. Rubio said the upcoming Congress will do what they can to block the president’s push, including withholding funding for the embassy.

Obama said the debate over whether to lift the embargo on Cuba would be a “healthy debate” next year.

Obama and his family plan to leave next for their annual holiday vacation in Hawaii. He’s due back in Washington in early January.

The president faces big obstacles on Capitol Hill next year, when Republicans will take over the Senate and return with a bigger majority in the House. Foreign policy problems also persist in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine.

Obama said Friday he thinks there are “real opportunities” next year to “get things done.”

“I’m energized,” Obama said. “My presidency is entering the fourth quarter. Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. and I’m looking forward to it.

Speaking at his final year-end press conference,

US

north-korea-sony-hackers-the-interview

WASHINGTON –  The FBI Friday officially blamed North Korea for the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment (NYSE:SNE), but there is mounting pressure on the White House to take tough action in response.

“The FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” the FBI said in a statement on Friday.

The FBI statement was expected earlier this week, though PPD reported the link to the dictatorial regime last week, but it was ultimately delayed until Friday. According to various sources, the government had to first get their security ducks in a row by notifying various firms that may be impacted by the activity and subsequent public fingering of Pyongyang.

The bureau’s investigation, which involved multiple agencies and included a technical analysis of the malware used in the attack, found the malware “revealed links to other malware that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed.”

Investigators uncovered a “significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea,” specifically various IP addresses with “known North Korean infrastructure” that communicated with IP addresses “hardcoded” into the malware used by the Sony hackers.

The FBI said they have seen the “tools” used in the attack before, citing a North Korea-led attack against South Korean banks and media outlets last year.

“We are deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there,” the FBI said in its statement. “Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States. Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart.

“North Korea’s actions were intended to inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves. Such acts of intimidation fall outside the bounds of acceptable state behavior. The FBI takes seriously any attempt — whether through cyber-enabled means, threats of violence, or otherwise — to undermine the economic and social prosperity of our citizens.”

When asked at Thursday’s White House press conference what the Obama administration intends to do about the unprecedented attack – which along with 9/11-style threats by the “Guardians of Peace” hackers led Sony to cancel the release of “The Interview” – White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said there are a “range of options.”

“We need a proportional response,” he said.

However, Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, said the response should be sever, but also include the U.S. finally addressing a new world battlefield by building up our cyberdefense capabilities.

“A lack of consequences for when nation states carry out cyberattacks has only emboldened these adversaries to do more harm,” Meehan said in a statement. “The attack on Sony shows the dire need to upgrade our cyber defenses.”

But the Obama administration has been reluctant to define in no uncertain terms what constitutes a cyberattack, whether it is an act of war and, if so, what the consequences of such an attack will be. Rep. Meehan notes that the House bill dealing with cybersecurity has passed both houses of Congress and has awaited President Obama’s signature for quite some time.

The FBI’s statement did not implicate another country, specifically the longtime ally of North Korea, China. Yet, an intelligence source told Fox News that “the evidence points to North Korea as the main player but with support from an outside party.”

Officials told PPD this week that the only countries with such capabilities are Iran, China and Russia.

Meanwhile, Ernest cautioned the U.S. should be “mindful of the fact that sophisticated actors, when they carry out actions like this, are oftentimes … seeking to provoke a response from the United States of America. They may believe that a response from us in one fashion or another would be advantageous to them.”

The FBI Friday officially blamed North Korea

World

Mideast-Israeli-soldier- Palestinians

An Israeli officer was injured by a stone from Palestinian protesters following a prayer for Palestinian Cabinet minister Ziad Abu Ain, who collapsed shortly after a protest on Dec. 10 in the West Bank village of Turmus Aya, as they clash with the troops near the village outside of Ramallah, Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. Clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces at a West Bank military checkpoint near Turmus Aya, where Abu Ain collapsed and later died en route to hospital. Palestinian and Israeli pathologists subsequently disagreed over the cause of Abu Ain’s death. The Palestinian expert said the cause of death was a “blow,” while his Israeli colleague said Abu Ain died of a heart attack. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) (The Associated Press)

JERUSALEM –  The Israeli military confirmed a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on Friday, in the first such attack since September. Officials say the projectile — that set off air raid sirens in the Eshkol region — landed in an open field, causing no injuries or damage.

Israel fought a 50-day war just this past summer with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza. In repeated violations of previously agreed upon cease-fires, Hamas launched thousands of rockets and mortars deep into Israel, which responded by carried out an aerial campaign and a ground invasion first aimed at “ending Hamas rockets once and for all,” but expanded in scope when a vast and sophisticated network of terror tunnels dug from Gaza under Israel were discovered.

Examinations of the structures found Hamas was using the very concrete supplied by Egypt, Israel, the U.S., and the U.N. for the construction of schools and infrastructure. In the end, the war left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials, while the Israelis lost 66 soldiers and six civilians. If not for the Iron Dome missile defense system, the death toll would have been much higher among the Israeli military and civilian populations.

Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli forces Friday at a West Bank military checkpoint and also near the village of Turmus Aya, but no injuries reported. The village was the site of a Palestinian-Israeli scuffle earlier this month during which Palestinian Cabinet minister Ziad Abu Ain collapsed. He later died en route to hospital.

Of course, Palestinian and Israeli pathologists disagreed over the cause of Abu Ain’s death. The Palestinian expert said the cause of death was a “blow,” while his Israeli colleague said Abu Ain died of a heart attack.

Meanwhile, Egyptian officials are still weighing whether to build a wall along their border with Gaza as they continue to destroy terror tunnels Hamas uses to conduct attacks and kidnappings. The plan was advanced in late October after a horrific terrorist attack in northern Sinai resulted in the death of 33 Egyptian soldiers.

On another note, the Israeli military on Friday relaxed travel restrictions for Palestinian Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in observance of the Christmas holiday season, stating it granted 700 permits for those living in Gaza to travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Israel said it was also allowing West Bank Christians to travel to Israel, claiming they approved 500 of them to visit their families in the Gaza Strip, subject of course to security checks.

The army also said it would also expand the working hours at military checkpoints to allow pilgrims from around the world faster access to the West Bank city of Bethlehem during Christmas.

The Israeli military confirmed a rocket was

Economy

MN-Fed-Narayana-Kocherlakota

Narayana Kocherlakota, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, speaks at the ninth annual Carroll School of Management Finance Conference at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts June 5, 2014. (Photo: : REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER)

Narayana Kocherlakota, the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Friday that the Fed is creating “unacceptable” downside risks to U.S. inflation by signaling it will gradually end it bond-buying, money-printing monetary stimulus policy next year, despite allegedly low inflation.

Kocherlakota said in a statement, which is now posted on the regional Fed bank’s website, that the U.S. central bank should have pledged to keep rates near zero until the inflation outlook improves. He added that the central bank should also have signaled its willingness to restart its controversial bond-buying program if that pledge does not work to bring inflation expectations back to the Fed’s 2-percent target.

Following its two-day policy meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) renewed its vow to hold rates low “for a considerable time,” despite speculation by many economists that the phrase would be taken out. The Fed decided to end its bond-buying program known as quantitative easing in October, and most analysts have interpreted the “considerable period” to end in mid-2015. Fed policy-makers have sent signals to the markets that the phrase could be replaced with an even more vague single-term — “patience.”

Still, the U.S. central bank said it would be “patient” as it decides the time to raise borrowing costs, but Fed Chair Janet Yellen left the door open to a rate hike as soon as April. Yellen said she expects a recent decline in market-based inflation expectations to be temporary, and suggested that the Fed could raise rates next year even if inflation remains below the Fed’s 2-percent target.

Kocherlakota dissented from the decision during what was his last vote on the FOMC before he steps down from his post in early 2016. Kocherlakota began his term in 2009 as a one of the Fed’s most ardent inflation-fighting hawks, but now he is one of its most vocal policy doves.

On Friday he said the Fed was putting the United States at risk of a growth-sapping drop in inflation. The Labor Department said Wednesday that U.S. consumer prices saw their biggest drop in nearly six years in the month of November, fueled by falling gasoline prices. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 0.3 percent, which is the largest decline since December 2008 after a flat reading in October.

However, the Federal Reserve has set a target of 2 percent for inflation, and it tracks an index that is currently measuring even lower than the CPI.

“In my assessment, the [Fed’s] failure to respond to weak inflation runs the risk of creating a harmful downward slide in inflation and longer-term inflation expectations of the kind that we have seen in Japan and Europe,” Kocherlakota said. “I see this risk to the credibility of the inflation target as unacceptable, given how hard it would be for the (Fed) to respond successfully if this eventuality did indeed materialize.”

Kocherlakota said a decline in market-based inflation expectations has kept the Fed from asserting the stability of long-run inflation expectations, a bedrock of sound central banking, for three straight meetings.

“Earlier this week, I informed the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis that I do not intend to seek reappointment to a new term as president of the Bank after my current term ends on February 29, 2016,” Kocherlakota said in a statement on Dec. 12, 2014.

“I became president of the Minneapolis Bank in October 2009 so that I could be of service to my country in an economic emergency,” he added. “I have been honored to play a role in shaping the response to that dire situation. While challenges lie ahead for the Federal Reserve System, the state of crisis has passed, and I have decided not to continue my service into a new term.”

The chairman of the Minneapolis Fed’s board of directors, expressed his appreciation for Kocherlakota’s service.

“The board of directors thanks Narayana for his outstanding leadership and for his many contributions to the Bank and to the Federal Reserve System,” Chairman Randy Hogan said in a statement after the announcement. “Among those contributions, his focus on improving communication between the Bank and its constituents is a key legacy of his tenure and will serve as a guide for years to come. We look forward to working with him throughout the remainder of his term, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Narayana Kocherlakota, the president and CEO of

Politics

koskinen_hearing_irs

File Photo: On July 23, 2014, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on the IRS targeting scandal. (Photo: AP)

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is claiming modest budget cuts are forcing them to consider a short-term shutdown and delaying tax refunds next year. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen laid out cost-cutting details Thursday, including a plan to cut taxpayer services, fraud prevention and enforcement.

“Everybody’s return will get processed,” Koskinen told reporters. “But people have gotten very used to being able to file their return and quickly getting a refund. This year we may not have the resources, the people to provide refunds as quickly as we have in the past.”

Koskinen said that the agency is prioritizing the implementation of President Obama’s deeply unpopular health care law, better known as ObamaCare, over taxpayer refunds and fraud enforcement. This is the first year taxpaying Americans will have to disclose whether they have health insurance or not. While the IRS has issued the majority of tax refunds within 21 days in past years, Koskinen said he couldn’t estimate how long they might be delayed in the upcoming filing season that begins in just a few short weeks.

Congress cut the IRS’s giant $10.9 billion budget by a meager $346 million for the budget year that ends in September 2015, which is $1.2 billion less than the agency received in 2010. The agency has suffered the budget-cutting wrath of congressional Republicans for targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status for political reasons.

“In some ways, these budget cuts are really a tax cut for tax cheats,” Koskinen said. “Because to the extent we have fewer people to audit and enforce the tax code, that means some people cutting corners on their taxes or not complying are going to get away with it, and that is a decision that Congress has made.”

Koskinen also said the IRS is imposing a hiring freeze, though they have already hired a small army to implement ObamaCare, and is also eliminating nearly all employee opportunities for overtime.

Nevertheless, Koskinen claimed the filing season would start on time next month, yet he refused to say when the agency would announce the date. Each year, millions of taxpayers file their returns in the first few weeks of the filing season hoping to get a refund as fast as possible, which averaged roughly $2,800.

However, critics say cutting fraud prevention services will not only exacerbate the agency’s problems, but is the exact opposite of the action needed to solve a large part of its financial problem.

According to a study from the Center for Immigration Studies, which was written by CIS fellow David North, the IRS shelled out $4.2 billion alone for what is known as the “additional child tax credit” in 2010 to those using an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN). According to the agency’s own internal report, ITINs are usually indicative of an illegal immigrant, which has served as a bastion for fraud in recent years via the ACTC.

The “additional child tax credit” was initially enacted to help out those who make too little to qualify for the full child tax credit and is refundable even if a “taxpayer” doesn’t owe income tax. According to the IRS, illegal immigrant workers’ use of the tax credit has skyrocketed from 796,000 filers in 2005 to 1.5 million in 2008, and increased to 2.3 million in 2010.

IRS investigators uncovered one address in Atlanta where 23,994 ITIN-related tax refunds were paid out, including 8,393 refunds deposited to a single bank account. Mr. North also said the IRS must begin to look for filings where an ITIN filer claimed no dependents the prior year, but four or five dependents the next year.

In Frankford, Delaware, a town of only 862, Mr. North found one address where 627 ITINs were registered. Similarly, in Parksley, Virginia, Mr. North found a single address where 100 ITINs were registered, yet the town has just 847 residents.

The IRS refused to comment on these findings.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is claiming

Politics

benghazi-clinton-obama

Newly released documents obtained by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch show the State Department’s handing of the Benghazi security situation was incompetent, at best. The September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya resulted in the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The documents were obtained through a court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v U.S. Department of State (No. 13-00243)), and show State Department officials completely bungled a $783,284.79 security contract with U.K.-based Blue Mountain Group (BMG), a group that did not have a license to operate in Libya at the time of the attack due to a business dispute with its partner in Libya, XPAND Corporation.

“These documents took years to see the light of day and show the Obama administration had a security emergency on the day of the Benghazi terrorist attack,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “And the documents indicate the administration specifically withheld this pertinent information from both Congress and the American people. It seems an odd coincidence the Middle East firm providing security for the Benghazi facility desperately wanted out two days before the terrorist attack.”

Despite recognizing the “emergency situation” at the Benghazi diplomatic outpost, when notified of the dispute by BMG on June 6, 2012, State Department Contracting Officer Jan Visintainer didn’t respond for over a month and, when he did, Visintainer took a hands-off approach to say the least.

On July 10, 2012, Visintainer responded by telling the company that the department, “is not required to mediate any disagreements between the two parties of the Blue Mountain Libya partnership,” and further stated the obvious, which was that “it is in the best interests of both of the 50/50 partners to resolve their differences and successfully complete this contract.”

But the security firms, for reasons not yet completely understood, didn’t “resolve their differences” and the situation further spun out of control.

An agreement dated August 20, 2012, outlined the decision by Blue Mountain Group and XPAND Corporation to dissolve their partnership. Yet, it wasn’t until September 9, 2012 – which was just two days before the Benghazi terrorist attack – that an unidentified partner at the law firm representing XPAND wrote to Visintainer explaining that they, “hereby bar and prohibit BMUK [Blue Mountain U.K.] from utilizing such license.”

“I have never experienced anything like this in business before,” wrote an unnamed BMG official to Visintainer in response to XPAND’s letter. “The agreement was signed and we were to operate under the [Blue Mountain Libya] license and confirmation of this was due through from [sic] the partners. However, they have had a change of mind and now this. I will call you very shortly.”

The email was dated the morning of the September 11 attacks, and by that point it was already too late.

Despite repeated requests for a comment, the State Department has refused to explain to PPD why the security contract was even awarded to BMG in the first place. After a week of research, PPD cannot find a single government contract previously awarded to the firm, and considering the documents show State Department officials had other options, it appears unexplainable repeated requests for additional security from Ambassador Chris Stevens went unanswered or flat-out denied.

According to an email dated February 1, 2012, State Department contractor Neil Kern named two other security firms bidding on the contract, including Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions. Torres is not only a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, which according to federal regulation should have enjoyed a preference advantage over BMG, but a well-experienced and capable security firm. They have nearly $70 million in won contracts with the State Department under their belt, including contracts to provide security guard services in Pakistan, Iraq, and Jordan.

The new documents come as a new FOX Poll shows — by a 58-38 percent margin — voters want Congress to continue investigating the Obama administration, who 6 in 10 say are covering up on Benghazi (60 percent). That includes nearly 4 in 10 Democrats who say Congress should continue digging into Benghazi (38 percent), which in total, is more than twice the number that believes the White House is being “open and transparent” (28 percent).

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) seemed content with the already-established committees investigating Benghazi until Judicial Watch released emails showing a senior White House advisor played a direct and pivotal role in prepping former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice for her now-infamous Sunday show appearances.

Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Department of State (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-00951)), and obtained more than 100 pages of documents, many of which contained information and emails that the White House either intentionally hid from Congress or excessively redacted in order to conceal the information we now know.

That was the final blow for Speaker Boehner.

The Republican-controlled House voted 232-186 on May 8 to establish a select committee on Benghazi, which will be headed up by former prosecutor-turned Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), marking the official launch of a serious congressional investigation into the administration’s coverup of the Benghazi attack.

Newly released documents obtained by watchdog Judicial

Entertainment

the_interview_movie

The premiere of Seth Rogen and James Franco’s comedy “The Interview” in New York was canceled after the Sony hackers threatened a 9/11-style attack on theaters showing the film. Now, the film will not be showing anywhere.

Hollywood took to Twitter Wednesday and Thursday to slam the decision by Sony Pictures Entertainment (NYSE:SNE) to cancel the release of the movie “The Interview” starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Judd Apatow, the producer of the movie, tweeted Wednesday that he thought it was “disgraceful,” then asked the obvious question Hollywood will almost assuredly have to ask itself again in the future.

Apatow had been vocal via Twitter since the ominous threat from the hackers became public, but has been relentless since the decision was announced.

“I am not going to let a terrorist threat shut down freedom of speech,” Apatow tweeted. “I am going to The Interview.”

In a message emailed to media, which included the latest leaks of employee emails, the North Korean-backed hackers who call themselves “Guardians of Peace” threatened an “11th of September”-style attack on movie theaters showing an upcoming film “The Interview” starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, which is a comedy that pokes fun at North Korea’s communist dictatorship.

As a result, the Georgia-based Carmike Cinemas, which operates 278 theaters across the country, canceled showings of the movie in its theaters following Sony’s decision to cancel the New York premiere. The company is the fourth largest cinema chain in the nation behind Regal, AMC, and Cinemark, all of whom will now not be showing “The Interview.”

Apatow retweeted several celebrities weighing in on the developments, including comedian and actor Steve Carell, who now has become the latest to be impacted by the fallout.

https://twitter.com/SteveCarell/status/545360994923323392

New Regency has decided not to produce a paranoid thriller starring Steve Carell, which they planned to set in North Korea.

Actor Rob Lowe even had a brief exchange with the former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Lowe

The former speaker followed up his tweet with another that characterized the Sony decision as a “dangerous precedent,” tweeting that this was the first real cyberwar test American has faced and the U.S. lost.

The actor retweeted Gingrich’s 140-characters or less comment, along with over 4,170 other twitter users.

Hollywood took to Twitter Wednesday and Thursday

People's Pundit Daily
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