President Obama’s once seemingly unstoppable march toward re-election hit what he might call “bumps in the road” in Benghazi, Libya,
late on Sept. 11, 2012. It might be more accurate to describe the
effect of the well-planned and -executed, military-style attack on a
diplomatic facility there as the political equivalent of a devastating
improvised explosive device on the myth of the unassailability of the
Obama record as commander in chief.
Thanks to intrepid investigative reporting — notably by Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge at Fox News, Aaron Klein at WND.com and Clare Lopez
at RadicalIslam.org — and information developed by congressional
investigators, the mystery is beginning to unravel with regard to what
happened that night and the reason for the subsequent, clumsy official
cover-up now known as Benghazigate.
The evidence suggests that the
Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating,
enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant
in much of the Middle East. Starting in March 2011, when American
diplomat J. Christopher Stevens was designated the liaison to the “opposition” in Libya, the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
Once Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown, Stevens was appointed ambassador to the new Libya run by Mr. Belhadj
and his friends. Not surprisingly, one of the most important priorities
for someone in that position would be to try to find and secure the
immense amount of armaments that had been cached by the dictator around
the country and systematically looted during and after the revolution.
One of the places in Libya most awash with such weapons in the most dangerous of hands is Benghazi. It now appears that Stevens
was there — on a particularly risky day, with no security to speak of
and despite now copiously documented concerns about his own safety and
that of his subordinates — for another priority mission: sending arms
recovered from the former regime’s stocks to the “opposition” in Syria. As in Libya, the insurgents are known to include al Qaeda and other Shariah-supremacist groups, including none other than Abdelhakim Belhadj.
Fox
News has chronicled how the Al Entisar, a Libyan-flagged vessel
carrying 400 tons of cargo, docked on Sept. 6 in the Turkish port of
Iskenderun. It reportedly supplied both humanitarian assistance and arms
— including deadly SA-7 man-portable surface-to-air missiles —
apparently destined for Islamists, again including al Qaeda elements, in Syria.
What
cries out for further investigation — and debate in the remaining days
of this presidential election — is whether this shipment was part of a
larger covert Obama effort to transfer weapons to our enemies that could
make the Iran-Contra scandal, to say nothing of Operation Fast and Furious, pale by comparison.
Investigative journalist Aaron Klein
has reported that the “consulate in Benghazi” actually was no such
thing. He observes that although administration officials have done
nothing to correct that oft-repeated characterization of the facility
where the murderous attack on Stevens and his colleagues was launched, they call it a “mission.” What Mr. Klein
describes as a “shabby, nondescript building” that lacked any “major
public security presence” was, according to an unnamed Middle Eastern
security official, “routinely used by Stevens
and others to coordinate with the Turkish, Saudi and Qatari governments
on supporting the insurgencies in the Middle East, most prominently the
rebels opposing Assad’s regime in Syria.”
We know that Stevens‘
last official act was to hold such a meeting with an unidentified
“Turkish diplomat.” Presumably, the conversation involved additional
arms shipments to al Qaeda and its allies in Syria. It also may have involved getting more jihadi fighters there. After all, Mr. Klein
reported last month that, according to sources in Egyptian security,
our ambassador was playing a “central role in recruiting jihadists to
fight Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.”
It gets worse. Last week, Center for Security Policy senior fellow and former career CIA officer Clare Lopez
observed that there were two large warehouse-type buildings associated
with the so-called “consulate” whose purpose has yet to be disclosed. As
their contents were raided in the course of the attack, we may never
know for sure whether they housed — and were known by the local jihadis
to house — arms, perhaps administered by the two former Navy SEALs
killed along with Stevens.
What
we do know is that the New York Times — one of the most slavishly
pro-Obama publications in the country — reported in an Oct. 14 article,
“Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to
supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar Assad are
going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular
opposition groups that the West wants to bolster.”
In short, it
seems President Obama has been engaged in gun-walking on a massive
scale. The effect has been to equip America’s enemies to wage jihad not
only against regimes it once claimed were our friends, but inevitably
against us and our allies as well. That would explain his
administration’s desperate and now failing bid to mislead the voters
through the serial deflections of Benghazigate.
Frank J.
Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy
(SecureFreedom.org), a columnist for The Washington Times and host of
Secure Freedom Radio on WRC-AM (1260).
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Documents: Sen. Klobuchar took Ponzi schemer’s campaign contributions, didn’t prosecute
Documents obtained by The Daily Caller show that U.S. Senator Amy
Klobuchar helped keep a multibillion-dollar Ponzi schemer out of prison
in the late 1990s when she was the County Attorney in Hennepin County,
Minnesota.
That financial criminal, Tom Petters, presided over companies whose employees gave Klobuchar $8,500 for her re-election campaign, and would later contribute more than $120,000 toward her U.S. Senate run.
One of those companies’ vice presidents was Ted Mondale, a former state senator and son of former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. Before taking office as Hennepin County Attorney, Klobuchar was a partner at the Minneapolis law firm of Dorsey & Whitney, where Walter Mondale has practiced law since 1987.
Perhaps because of the lure of Petters’ campaign cash or his deep connection to Minnesota Democratic politics, Klobuchar used the power of her office in 1999 to ensure Petters was not charged with financial crimes. And despite significant evidence against him, she cleared the way for Petters to build his multibillion-dollar illegal empire by prosecuting only his early co-conspirators.
One of those co-conspirators, Richard Hettler, told The Daily Caller that Klobuchar was aware of what Petters was doing, yet willingly accepted campaign donations from Petters’ company and its employees.
“She took Ponzi money to get elected,” he insisted.
Years later, after Klobuchar won a seat in the U.S. Senate and left Minnesota, a federal prosecutor would win convictions against Petters for 10 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, five counts of money laundering, and one count each of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
That financial criminal, Tom Petters, presided over companies whose employees gave Klobuchar $8,500 for her re-election campaign, and would later contribute more than $120,000 toward her U.S. Senate run.
One of those companies’ vice presidents was Ted Mondale, a former state senator and son of former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. Before taking office as Hennepin County Attorney, Klobuchar was a partner at the Minneapolis law firm of Dorsey & Whitney, where Walter Mondale has practiced law since 1987.
Perhaps because of the lure of Petters’ campaign cash or his deep connection to Minnesota Democratic politics, Klobuchar used the power of her office in 1999 to ensure Petters was not charged with financial crimes. And despite significant evidence against him, she cleared the way for Petters to build his multibillion-dollar illegal empire by prosecuting only his early co-conspirators.
One of those co-conspirators, Richard Hettler, told The Daily Caller that Klobuchar was aware of what Petters was doing, yet willingly accepted campaign donations from Petters’ company and its employees.
“She took Ponzi money to get elected,” he insisted.
Years later, after Klobuchar won a seat in the U.S. Senate and left Minnesota, a federal prosecutor would win convictions against Petters for 10 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, five counts of money laundering, and one count each of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Fluke pushes early voting in Reno
Sandra Fluke, the woman at the center of a media firestorm earlier
this year after Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut,” spoke Saturday in
front of about 10 people at the Sak ‘N Save in north Reno.
The speech was part of a daylong effort by Democrats to get Northern Nevadans to the polls on the first day of early voting.
“I’m trying to do everything I can for an election that I feel is very important. I have a unique opportunity for how I get to do that,” said Fluke, who is coming off recent campaign trips to Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida as a surrogate for Democratic President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.
Fluke emerged on the national spotlight in February when she was denied to speak before the U.S. House committee on Oversight and Government Reform on whether insurance plans should have a mandate to cover contraceptives. She eventually spoke to House Democrats.
Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” and “prostitute” on his show based on her comments on contraception for women. He later apologized, saying it was an “attempt to be humorous.”
Fluke doesn’t take the jabs too seriously. When asked about her previous year and how people have treated her in the press, Fluke smiled and laughed.
“It’s been not quite the 2012 that I’ve expected,” she said.
Fluke has embraced the spotlight, though. She spoke at the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina and has enjoyed talks with people on the campaign trail — especially those concerning women’s issues.
“A lot of women come to me and tell me stories individually about their lives about what access to healthcare has meant to them; what the Affordable Care Act is going to mean to them,” she said. “A lot of young people tell me how important it was to stay on their parents plan until they were 26. Folks tell me what a difference it made to be able to rely on Planned Parenthood when they needed it and what it would mean if Mr. Romney gets his way to defund Planned Parenthood.”
Fluke also spoke in Carson City on Saturday.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20121020/NEWS19/310200053/Fluke-takes-center-stage-Reno
The speech was part of a daylong effort by Democrats to get Northern Nevadans to the polls on the first day of early voting.
“I’m trying to do everything I can for an election that I feel is very important. I have a unique opportunity for how I get to do that,” said Fluke, who is coming off recent campaign trips to Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida as a surrogate for Democratic President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.
Fluke emerged on the national spotlight in February when she was denied to speak before the U.S. House committee on Oversight and Government Reform on whether insurance plans should have a mandate to cover contraceptives. She eventually spoke to House Democrats.
Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” and “prostitute” on his show based on her comments on contraception for women. He later apologized, saying it was an “attempt to be humorous.”
Fluke doesn’t take the jabs too seriously. When asked about her previous year and how people have treated her in the press, Fluke smiled and laughed.
“It’s been not quite the 2012 that I’ve expected,” she said.
Fluke has embraced the spotlight, though. She spoke at the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina and has enjoyed talks with people on the campaign trail — especially those concerning women’s issues.
“A lot of women come to me and tell me stories individually about their lives about what access to healthcare has meant to them; what the Affordable Care Act is going to mean to them,” she said. “A lot of young people tell me how important it was to stay on their parents plan until they were 26. Folks tell me what a difference it made to be able to rely on Planned Parenthood when they needed it and what it would mean if Mr. Romney gets his way to defund Planned Parenthood.”
Fluke also spoke in Carson City on Saturday.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20121020/NEWS19/310200053/Fluke-takes-center-stage-Reno
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Hollywood Republicans feeling more comfortable expressing their political views, insiders say By Hollie McKay Pop Tarts Published October 17, 2012 FoxNews.com
LOS ANGELES – Who said Hollywood is a liberal's paradise?
Last week, Lindsay Lohan and Stacy Dash surprisingly came out in support of Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, joining an “out and proud” group GOP-leaning Hollywood players like Scott Baio, Jon Voight, Clint Eastwood, Jerry Bruckheimer, Kelsey Grammer, Adam Sandler, Gary Sinise, Patricia Heaton, Bruce Willis, Gene Simmons, Stephen Baldwin, Joe Perry, James Caan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to more than a few.
“A large number of celebrities are coming forward and declaring their support for a new administration,” publicist Angie Meyer told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “For the first time in a long time, conservatives in Hollywood are resisting the bullying from the left. They are ready to speak their minds.”
OpenSecrets.org lists Romney campaign donations coming from the likes of Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns, country singer John Rich, and former Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio chief Harry Sloan, while the candidate's victory fund has been upped by Jerry Bruckheimer and Scott Baio.
Three Romney fund raisers have also taken place in the Hollywood vicinity this election cycle, compared to zero Hollywood fund raisers in 2008 for GOP candidate John McCain.
Registered Republican Scott Baio (you may know him as Chachi), said the GOP community isn’t as small as many assume it to be.
“The people who believe are much quieter about it,” Baio told us in an interview last week.
Except for Kelsey Grammer.
In 2008, Grammer told us in an interview for his film “Swing Vote” that while he has his own devout “political views,” he didn’t think “it was important to share.” Cut to four years later and the “Boss” star is all about sharing his stance. “Romney would make a terrific president. I think he’d be very good at it,” he enthused in a recent interview. “He’s a clear thinker. He’s a kind man, and he makes a lot of sense.”
The Hollywood Congress of Republicans, a grass-roots organization affiliated with the California Republican Party, was formed in 2001. It boasts a website promoting regular meetings and mixers with the “intent on bringing people together socially and professionally to help transform the political landscape of the entertainment industry in Hollywood.” The site also features an extensive list of “recommended” Hollywood personalities listed as being “right” including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jessica Simpson, Marie Osmond, Robert Duvall, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sammy Hagar and Jean-Claude Van Damme, among many others.
“It seems that more conservatives in Hollywood are ‘coming out.’ Whether it is ‘more acceptable’ (to be a conservative in Hollywood) remains to be seen. There is a real threat of losing work in the conservative Hollywood community,” explained the organization's president Mell Flynn. “The ever tolerant Hollywood left isn't really too tolerant at all. I personally think politics should be left out of the work place. If I am on set and others start speaking negatively about conservatives, I will jump in and defend them. I refuse to let the left get away with their spin and lies. More conservatives in Hollywood need to come out, there is power in numbers.”
Yet as Flynn pointed out, the consequences of standing up for Republicans in Hollywood can sting. Most recently, Stacey Dash’s tweet expressing her Romney voting intention became fodder for extremely intense press coverage, debate and backlash, including vicious, racially-charged attacks from Obama supporters.
“I have even more respect for Stacey’s brave statement supporting Romney. Given the outrageously cruel reaction to her tweet, I don’t expect many more celebrity endorsements. That’s very sad indeed,” noted Los Angeles-based comedian and radio host Moxie Cathedra. “An admission of being a conservative or libertarian is not quite career suicide, but you are guaranteed to lose some so-called friends who will be far less likely to bring you into their projects.”
Cathedra said a very successful friend of hers in the film and television business, who at some point had “liked” Chick-fil-A on Facebook, came under fire when it was revealed that the owner of the fast food chain made donations to anti-gay marriage groups. “[My Friend] was harassed by liberal Hollywood industry colleagues until he removed that ‘like,’ but he did add that he still eats there and loves the food,” she said.
Film producer and marketing expert Mark Joseph, a self-proclaimed registered independent, says that despite more Republicans' increased ease expressing their political views, the majority of Tinseltown conservatives still prefer to keep their lips sealed.
“Liberals feel the freedom to be more outspoken about their beliefs whereas conservatives tend to keep their beliefs to themselves for fear of backlash," Joseph said. "My general rule in any election year is that I can tell who the conservatives are because they’re the ones who aren’t saying anything about either candidate. With each person who steps out for the GOP, whether it’s Clint Eastwood or Stacey Dash or Lindsay Lohan, whatever stigma there is, is lessoned.”
Last week, Lindsay Lohan and Stacy Dash surprisingly came out in support of Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, joining an “out and proud” group GOP-leaning Hollywood players like Scott Baio, Jon Voight, Clint Eastwood, Jerry Bruckheimer, Kelsey Grammer, Adam Sandler, Gary Sinise, Patricia Heaton, Bruce Willis, Gene Simmons, Stephen Baldwin, Joe Perry, James Caan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to more than a few.
“A large number of celebrities are coming forward and declaring their support for a new administration,” publicist Angie Meyer told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “For the first time in a long time, conservatives in Hollywood are resisting the bullying from the left. They are ready to speak their minds.”
OpenSecrets.org lists Romney campaign donations coming from the likes of Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns, country singer John Rich, and former Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio chief Harry Sloan, while the candidate's victory fund has been upped by Jerry Bruckheimer and Scott Baio.
Three Romney fund raisers have also taken place in the Hollywood vicinity this election cycle, compared to zero Hollywood fund raisers in 2008 for GOP candidate John McCain.
Registered Republican Scott Baio (you may know him as Chachi), said the GOP community isn’t as small as many assume it to be.
“The people who believe are much quieter about it,” Baio told us in an interview last week.
Except for Kelsey Grammer.
In 2008, Grammer told us in an interview for his film “Swing Vote” that while he has his own devout “political views,” he didn’t think “it was important to share.” Cut to four years later and the “Boss” star is all about sharing his stance. “Romney would make a terrific president. I think he’d be very good at it,” he enthused in a recent interview. “He’s a clear thinker. He’s a kind man, and he makes a lot of sense.”
The Hollywood Congress of Republicans, a grass-roots organization affiliated with the California Republican Party, was formed in 2001. It boasts a website promoting regular meetings and mixers with the “intent on bringing people together socially and professionally to help transform the political landscape of the entertainment industry in Hollywood.” The site also features an extensive list of “recommended” Hollywood personalities listed as being “right” including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jessica Simpson, Marie Osmond, Robert Duvall, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sammy Hagar and Jean-Claude Van Damme, among many others.
“It seems that more conservatives in Hollywood are ‘coming out.’ Whether it is ‘more acceptable’ (to be a conservative in Hollywood) remains to be seen. There is a real threat of losing work in the conservative Hollywood community,” explained the organization's president Mell Flynn. “The ever tolerant Hollywood left isn't really too tolerant at all. I personally think politics should be left out of the work place. If I am on set and others start speaking negatively about conservatives, I will jump in and defend them. I refuse to let the left get away with their spin and lies. More conservatives in Hollywood need to come out, there is power in numbers.”
Yet as Flynn pointed out, the consequences of standing up for Republicans in Hollywood can sting. Most recently, Stacey Dash’s tweet expressing her Romney voting intention became fodder for extremely intense press coverage, debate and backlash, including vicious, racially-charged attacks from Obama supporters.
“I have even more respect for Stacey’s brave statement supporting Romney. Given the outrageously cruel reaction to her tweet, I don’t expect many more celebrity endorsements. That’s very sad indeed,” noted Los Angeles-based comedian and radio host Moxie Cathedra. “An admission of being a conservative or libertarian is not quite career suicide, but you are guaranteed to lose some so-called friends who will be far less likely to bring you into their projects.”
Cathedra said a very successful friend of hers in the film and television business, who at some point had “liked” Chick-fil-A on Facebook, came under fire when it was revealed that the owner of the fast food chain made donations to anti-gay marriage groups. “[My Friend] was harassed by liberal Hollywood industry colleagues until he removed that ‘like,’ but he did add that he still eats there and loves the food,” she said.
Film producer and marketing expert Mark Joseph, a self-proclaimed registered independent, says that despite more Republicans' increased ease expressing their political views, the majority of Tinseltown conservatives still prefer to keep their lips sealed.
“Liberals feel the freedom to be more outspoken about their beliefs whereas conservatives tend to keep their beliefs to themselves for fear of backlash," Joseph said. "My general rule in any election year is that I can tell who the conservatives are because they’re the ones who aren’t saying anything about either candidate. With each person who steps out for the GOP, whether it’s Clint Eastwood or Stacey Dash or Lindsay Lohan, whatever stigma there is, is lessoned.”
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