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Politics, Video

Sharyl Attkisson interviewed James Mitchell, a former Air Force psychologist-turned CIA interrogator and now known as man who waterboarded 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Mitchell, who also gave a thorough interview with Megyn Kelly last week, said he and other CIA agents “had to do our duty.”

A Democrat-led Senate panel headed up by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) released the report on enhanced interrogation despite dire warnings from lawmakers and intel officials. These warnings, which were even echoed by some within the Obama administration, who contended the findings would “endanger the lives of Americans” all over the world.

“We had to do our duty,” he told Attkisson of the enhanced interrogation techniques used on terror suspects. “We were trying to save American lives. The point is that we had just been hit after 9/11 in an attack where they tried to decapitate us.”

Former CIA Directors George J. Tenet, Porter J. Goss and Michael V. Hayden, and former CIA Deputy Directors John E. McLaughlin, Albert M. Calland and Stephen R. Kappes, penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal claiming, in fact, the program did work and provided plenty detailed accounts of actionable intelligence gathering to prove it.

“Our view on this is shared by the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Republican minority, both of which are releasing rebuttals to the majority’s report,” the three former CIA heads wrote. “Both critiques are clear-eyed, fact-based assessments that challenge the majority’s contentions in a nonpartisan way.”

Mithcell also pushed back on the idea that enhanced interrogations didn’t provide vital intelligence, and slammed the Senate report for misleading the American people on the facts of the program.

“Feinstein is trying to re-write history,” he said of the Intelligence Committee chairwoman. “In my view, what she’s done is gone back into 6 million pages worth of information, cherry-picked it, put together some kind of prosecutorial brief, and then released it—in essence putting a jihad or some sort of contract out on me and [John Bruce Jessen].”

According to recent polls, including a PPD Poll, Americans support the use of enhanced interrogation over Feinstein’s moral high ground.

Sharyl Attkisson interviewed James Mitchell, a former

Economy

(REUTERS)

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve said that their regional survey of factory activity slowed significantly in December from growth seen in November. The mid-atlantic manufacturing report comes just days after the New York Fed’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey released Monday showed New York manufacturing business activity shrank for the first time in nearly two years.

The Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey showed general activity, new orders, shipments, and employment all were significantly lower than the prior month. The survey’s broadest measure of manufacturing conditions — the diffusion index of current activity — fell sharply by 16 points, down to 24.5 in December from a reading of 40.8 in November.

Wall Street expected a shallower decline to 27.

“The new orders and current shipments indexes also weakened significantly,” the Philadelphia Fed said in a statement. “The demand for manufactured goods, as measured by the current new orders index, decreased 20 points, from a reading of 35.7 last month to 15.7 this month. Shipments also fell, with its index falling 16 points to 16.1.”

Firms surveyed suggested a significant deterioration in the labor market compared with the month of November (see Chart 2), as the current employment index fell by 15 points and the percentage of firms reporting an increase in employees fell from 29 percent in November to 17 percent in December. On the bright side, the percentage of firms reporting a longer workweek was greater than the percentage reporting a shorter workweek (20 percent versus 14 percent). However, the workweek index as a whole decreased by nearly 2 points, to 6.2.

Firms also reported only a modest increase in prices, as the prices paid index dropped 3 points to 14.0 in December and the majority of firms said that input prices were unchanged.

“The December Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey suggests a slower pace of expansion of the region’s manufacturing sector but general optimism about the future,” the Philadelphia Fed said in their summary statement. “Firms were less optimistic about employment increases over the next six months, however, and concerns about rising health-care costs continue to be reported.”

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve said that their

Entertainment

Actor_Steve_Carrell

Steve Carell arrives with his wife Nancy Carell for the Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) (AP2011)

New Regency has decided not to produce a paranoid thriller starring Steve Carell, which they planned to set in North Korea. The company’s decision came after a group of North Korean-backed hackers calling themselves the Guardians of Peace threatened a 9/11-style attack on theaters showing “The Interview,” which centers on an assassination attempt against dictator Kim Jong-un.

Unsurprisingly, the dictatorial regime has denied involvement, but did praise the hackers.

New Regency announced the project in October with plans for director Gore Verbinski to start shooting in the month of March. The untitled film was the first in a multiyear deal between Verbinski’s Blind Wink and New Regency.

Steve Conrad, the writer of the film starring Ben Stiller, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” was in the middle of writing the screenplay.

Sony hacking scandal fall out - New

US

waco-police-weatherman-shot

Law enforcement officers blocked off sections of Bruceville-Eddy while searching for a suspect who shot KCEN-TV meteorologist Patrick Crawford three times Wednesday morning. (Photo: Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune)

Authorities were searching for a gunman after a TV weatherman was shot multiple times during an altercation Wednesday in the parking lot outside KCEN-TV’s studio.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says the shooting occurred around 9:15 a.m. at the studio on Interstate 35, which is located near Bruceville-Eddy, or roughly 75 miles north of Austin. As of now, police say they have no motive and it is unclear if the shooter has any ties to the station.

The station website reports the suspect briefly exchanged words with on-air TV meteorologist Patrick Crawford, then pulled out a handgun and shot him approximately 13 times. Crawford backed his car away from the shooter and drove up to a highway construction crew that promptly called 911. According to the station’s news director Jim Hice, Crawford was wounded in the shoulder and the abdomen.

The shooter was described as a white male in his 30s, and police say he fled the scene. WacoTrib.com reported that Crawford was stable and resting after undergoing surgery. Trooper D.L. Wilson said law enforcement was constructing a forensic map of the scene and said it was still not clear if Crawford knew the suspect.

Officials stopped a man who tried to flee when confronted by police during the search, the paper reported. But the man was ruled out as a suspect and was reportedly running due to outstanding warrants.

Police were taking precaution and schools in the districted were in lockdown during the hunt. Employees at the station were not allowed to leave until the evening.

A manhunt is on for a gunman

Economy

The number of weekly jobless claims for unemployment benefits, which measures the number of Americans applying for the first-time, unexpectedly fell last week.

First-time claims for state unemployment benefits dipped by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000 for the week ended Dec. 13, according to a report released by the Labor Department Thursday.

The report came a day after the Federal Reserve’s policy making committee — the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC), announced they’ve decided to keep the vague phrase “considerable time” as their benchmark for keeping interest rates next to zero. Wall Street jumped after the announcement, as news of fast and loose money giving investors more opportunity to inflate equity prices send indexes higher.

Meanwhile, economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims increasing to 295,000 last week, but the prior week’s data was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. These kind of revisions have become a trend, as the initial reports overestimate the labor market improvements.

Still, the four-week moving average of claims, which is considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fall by a slight 750 to 298,750.

Last week’s data covered the period during which the government surveyed employers for December’s nonfarm payrolls. The four-week average of claims rose by 11,000 between the November and December survey periods, suggesting a step back in job growth after payrolls surged by 321,000 last month. However, December payrolls are still expected to come in above 200,000.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing last week’s claims data.

The report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid fell by 147,000 to 2.37 million in the week ended Dec. 6.

The number of weekly jobless claims for

Politics, Video

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday night in an interview that President Obama “betrayed, betrayed” the Cuban people making a deal with Raul Castro, the communist dictator of Cuba. Rubio, a Cuban American, said the decision is just the latest in a “pattern of ridiculous foreign policy decisions.”

President Obama announced Wednesday that his administration will take steps toward normalizing full diplomatic relations with Cuba and even opening an embassy. The president’s remarks on Cuba underscore his push to end the 1960s-era Cuban embargo, which was instituted in a bipartisan fashion, and come after American hostage Alan Gross was released from a prison in Cuba as part of a prisoner swap.

“I think it stinks, I think it’s wrong, and I am deeply disappointed in the president,” Sen. Bob Menedez (D-NJ), the outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman said. “And to hear that this has been in the works for over a year, without any consultations, is deeply upsetting.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday night

Economy

fed announcement

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, an inflation dove by ideology, holds press conference.

BREAKING & DEVELOPING: 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.

Wall Street jumped after the announcement, as news of fast and loose money giving investors more opportunity to inflate equity prices send indexes higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 257 points, or 1.5 percent to 17329, while the S&P 500 increased 34 points, or 1.72 percent to 2006. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq jumped 67 points, or 1.48 percent to 4615. All 10 S&P 500 sectors were in the green.

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.”

The FOMC policy-makers met on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and held a 2 P.M. ET Wednesday, during which Fed Chair Janet Yellen announced the Fed is inclined to be patient. Yellen said the central bank will continue to closely monitor economic data as it prepares to raise rates.

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 fell 0.3 percent last month, which is the largest decline since December 2008, after a flat reading in October.

However, the report has done nothing to change views at the Federal Reserve, which will not likely start raising interest rates in mid-2015. The Federal Reserve has set a target of 2 percent for inflation, but it tracks an index that is currently measuring even lower than the CPI.

Following a 2-day policy-making meeting, the Federal

Politics, Video

 

President Obama announced his administration will take steps toward normalizing full diplomatic relations with Cuba and even opening an embassy. The president’s remarks on Cuba underscore his push to end the 1960s-era Cuban embargo, which was instituted in a bipartisan fashion, and come after American hostage Alan Gross was released from a prison in Cuba as part of a prisoner swap.

“We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result,” Obama said. “It does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse.”

The prisoner exchange resulted in the release of Mr. Gross, but also paid a hefty price — three convicted Cuban spies. Below is a watered down list of actions the president will immediately take on Cuba via WhiteHouse.gov:

EDITOR’S NOTE: In no way does the editorial board at People’s Pundit Daily, nor do any other members of our staff, endorse the insinuations made by the policy outline below. It is the White House’s outline verbatim, not ours.

Re-establish diplomatic relations
Our diplomatic relations with Cuba were severed in January of 1961. The President is immediately reopening discussions with Cuba and working to re-establish an embassy in Havana in the next coming months. The U.S. will work with Cuba on matters of mutual concern that advance U.S. national interests, such as migration, counternarcotics, environmental protection, and trafficking in persons, among other issues.

More effectively empower the Cuban people by adjusting regulations
The President is taking steps to improve travel and remittance policies that will further increase people-to-people contact, support civil society in Cuba, and enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people.

Facilitate an expansion of travel to Cuba
With expanded travel, Americans will be able to help support the growth of civil society in Cuba more easily, and provide business training for private Cuban businesses and small farmers. Americans will also be able to provide other support for the growth of Cuba’s nascent private sector.

General licenses will be made available for all authorized travelers in 12 existing categories:

1. Family visits

2. Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations

3. Journalistic activity

4. Professional research and professional meetings

5. Educational activities

6. Religious activities

7. Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions

8. Support for the Cuban people

9. Humanitarian projects

10. Activities of private foundations, research, or educational institutions

11. Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials

12. Certain export transactions that may be considered for authorization under existing regulations and guidelines

Authorize expanded sales and exports of certain goods and services from the U.S. to Cuba
The expansion will seek to empower the nascent Cuban private sector and make it easier for Cuban citizens to have access to certain lower-priced goods to improve their living standards and gain greater economic independence from the state.

Authorize American citizens to import additional goods from Cuba
Licensed U.S. travelers to Cuba will be authorized to import $400 worth of goods from Cuba, of which no more than $100 can consist of tobacco products and alcohol combined.

Initiate new efforts to increase Cubans’ access to communications
and their ability to communicate freely
Cuba has an Internet penetration of about five percent – one of the lowest rates in the world. The cost of telecommunications in Cuba is exorbitantly high, while the services offered are extremely limited. Now, telecommunications providers will be allowed to establish the necessary mechanisms, including infrastructure, in Cuba to provide commercial telecommunications and internet services.

Learn more about the steps President Obama is taking to improve U.S. and Cuban relations here.

The president’s remarks on Cuba underscore his

World

obama-castro-handshake-relations

US President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, South Africa, during a memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela on Tuesday Dec. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/SABC Pool)

BREAKING & DEVELOPING: U.S. officials say the Obama administration plans to start talks with Cuba on normalizing full diplomatic relations and even opening an embassy. The president’s push to end the 1960s-era Cuban embargo, which was instituted in a bipartisan fashion, comes after American hostage Alan Gross was released from a prison in Cuba as part of a prisoner swap.

President Obama will hold a press conference around 12:00 P.M. ET to also discuss the release of Mr. Gross, who was released after five years in Cuban prison. Cuban President Raul Castro, the brother to the infamous socialist dictator Fidel Castro, will also hold a press conference at the same time.

In exchange for Mr. Gross’ freedom, three Cuban spies were released to the custody of the Cuban government.The release of Mr. Gross, who returned in relatively poor health and lost a dramatic amount of weight, follows years of desperate appeals by Gross, his family, and what many considered to be a lack of attention from the White House. Those closest to the family say that the administration only became responsive to the situation in recent months.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a son of a Castro-era Cuban immigrant, said the agreement includes normalizing banking and trade ties with Cuba. However, it does not help to achieve progress in Cuba and is against U.S. national security interests.

“This is going to do absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba,” Sen. Rubio said. “It’s absurd, and it’s part of a long record of coddling dictators by this administration.”

Rubio also said that the three spies will “receive a heroes welcome” from the unfriendly dictatorial regime, and that “Barack Obama is the worst negotiator since at least Jimmy Carter, if not in history.” Rubio said he is pushing “a foreign policy that is truly naive at best, and at worst poses a truly dangerous threat to the future of this country.”

Meanwhile, the outrage over the White House’s decision to make such a trade and open up U.S.-Cuban relations is bipartisan.

“President Obama’s actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government,” Sen. Bob Menedez (D-NJ), the outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman said in a statement. “Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent. It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips. I fear that today’s actions will put at risk the thousands of Americans that work overseas to support civil society, advocate for access to information, provide humanitarian services, and promote democratic reforms.”

Sen. Menendez, a Hispanic Democrat, echoed Rubio’s sentiment that the president unilaterally concedes to demands from dictatorial regimes without getting any concessions that further U.S. interests in return.

“This asymmetrical trade will invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people,” Menedez added. “Let us all remind ourselves that an untold number of ordinary people yearning for democracy remain imprisoned by the exact same tormentors that have punished Alan Gross and they, along with all Cubans, deserve a free and liberated Cuba.”

Lifting the embargo on Cuba will take an act of Congress, specifically from the Senate, which is set to transfer power to Republicans following their historic midterm victory. According to Sen. Rubio, the votes aren’t there to lift the ban.

U.S. officials say the Obama administration plans

Economy

Sony_Pictures_Entertainment

File photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment corporate offices. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

The Sony Pictures Entertainment (NYSE:SNE) hacking scandal continued to unfold Tuesday, as hackers calling themselves the “Guardians of Peace” released a promised set of emails. The latest included an ominous message threatening 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 as well. The company is the fourth largest cinema chain in the nation behind Regal, AMC, and Cinemark, none of whom commented on their plans for “The Interview” showings.

The emails will be published despite lawyers for the company telling certain news organizations on Sunday to stop publishing email correspondences stolen by the North Korean-backed hackers. In one exchange, producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal made a series of racial jokes about President Barack Obama.

The email message was sent to reporters with links to peer-to-peer sites, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and contained Part 1 of the group’s “Christmas Gift,” which it promised in previous messages on Saturday and Sunday.

Variety reported that the contents of the files are unknown, although the files are called “Michael Lynton,” a reference to the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The Sony Pictures Entertainment (NYSE:SNE) hacking scandal

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