TPM
Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark
conspiracies, the investigation determined that there was no
intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed
opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly
shipping arms from Libya to Syria.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, intelligence about who
carried it out and why was contradictory, the report found. That led
Susan Rice, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to inaccurately
assert that the attack had evolved from a protest, when in fact there
had been no protest. But it was intelligence analysts, not political
appointees, who made the wrong call, the committee found. The report did
not conclude that Rice or any other government official acted in bad
faith or intentionally misled the American people.
The House Intelligence Committee report was released with little
fanfare on the Friday before Thanksgiving week. Many of its findings
echo those of six previous investigations by various congressional
committees and a State Department panel. The eighth Benghazi
investigation is being carried out by a House Select Committee appointed
in May.
The attacks in Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens,
foreign service officer Sean Smith, and two CIA contractors, Tyrone S.
Woods and Glen Doherty. A Libyan extremist, Ahmed Abu Khatalla, is
facing trial on murder charges after he was captured in Libya and taken
to the U.S.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Republicans criticized the Obama
administration and its then-secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton,
who is expected to run for president in 2016. People in and out of
government have alleged that a CIA response team was ordered to "stand
down" after the State Department compound came under attack, that a
military rescue was nixed, that officials intentionally downplayed the
role of al-Qaida figures in the attack, and that Stevens and the CIA
were involved in a secret operation to spirit weapons out of Libya and
into the hands of Syrian rebels. None of that is true, according to the
House Intelligence Committee report.
"We spent thousands of hours asking questions, poring over documents,
reviewing intelligence assessments, reading cables and emails, and held
a total of 20 committee events and hearings," said Rep. Mike Rogers,
R-Mich., the committee's chairman, and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of
Maryland, the ranking Democrat, in a joint statement.
"We conducted detailed interviews with senior intelligence officials
from Benghazi and Tripoli as well as eight security personnel on the
ground in Benghazi that night. Based on the testimony and the documents
we reviewed, we concluded that all the CIA officers in Benghazi were
heroes. Their actions saved lives," they said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who serves on the
intelligence panel and the Benghazi select committee, said, "It's my
hope that this report will put to rest many of the questions that have
been asked and answered yet again, and that the Benghazi Select
Committee will accept these findings and instead focus its attention on
the State Department's progress in securing our facilities around the
world and standing up our fast response capabilities."
Some of the harshest charges have been leveled at Rice, now Obama's
national security adviser, who represented the Obama administration on
Sunday talk shows the weekend after the attack. Rice repeated talking
points that wrongly described a protest over a video deemed offensive to
Muslims.
But Rice's comments were based on faulty intelligence from multiple
agencies, according to the report. Analysts received 21 reports that a
protest occurred in Benghazi, the report said —14 from the Open Source
Center, which reviews news reports; one from the CIA; two from the
Defense Department; and four from the National Security Agency.
In the years since, some participants in the attack have said they
were motivated by the video. The attackers were a mix of extremists and
hangers on, the investigation found.
"To this day," the report said, "significant intelligence gaps
regarding the identities, affiliations and motivations of the attackers
remain."
Friday, November 21, 2014
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Tommy Chong defines ‘stupidity’ for Fox: ‘Opposing universal health care based on rumors and lies’
RAW STORY
Medical marijuana advocate Tommy Chong on Wednesday told four Fox News hosts their current obsession with an MIT economist over his comments about President Barack Obama’s health care law was similar to the network’s coverage of Benghazi.
On Wednesday’s edition of Out Numbered, host Sandra Smith argued that the videos of Jonathan Gruber saying that lawmakers relied on the “stupidity” of voters to pass health care reform were relevant because “they’re not 6- and 8-years-old to the American people.”
“But to me, it’s just another attack on Obamacare from another angle,” Chong observed. “Sounds like Benghazi all over again.”
“Well, no,” co-host Andrea Tantaros disagreed. “It’s an attack on the American people for how — quote — stupid — we are.”
“Did I remember a guy named, what, Mitt Romney said something about 47 percent?” Chong asked.
“Stay on topic, Tommy,” Tantaros demanded. “Is it okay to lie and get away with it?”
“It’s called politics,” Chong explained. “Of course.”
“I think it deserves to be asked — an open-ended question — why do you think Jonathan Gruber said that this administration preyed on the stupidity of the America people to pass this health care law?” Smith wondered.
“I think you have to define what stupidity means,” Chong replied. “If you are opposing universal health care based on rumors and lies then that is a stupid way to be.”
A PunditFact analysis published on Tuesday found that Fox News had mentioned Gruber at least 779 times since the story broke on Nov. 10. MSNBC had mentioned him 79 times, and he was referenced on CNN just 27 times....................................
Medical marijuana advocate Tommy Chong on Wednesday told four Fox News hosts their current obsession with an MIT economist over his comments about President Barack Obama’s health care law was similar to the network’s coverage of Benghazi.
On Wednesday’s edition of Out Numbered, host Sandra Smith argued that the videos of Jonathan Gruber saying that lawmakers relied on the “stupidity” of voters to pass health care reform were relevant because “they’re not 6- and 8-years-old to the American people.”
“But to me, it’s just another attack on Obamacare from another angle,” Chong observed. “Sounds like Benghazi all over again.”
“Well, no,” co-host Andrea Tantaros disagreed. “It’s an attack on the American people for how — quote — stupid — we are.”
“Did I remember a guy named, what, Mitt Romney said something about 47 percent?” Chong asked.
“Stay on topic, Tommy,” Tantaros demanded. “Is it okay to lie and get away with it?”
“It’s called politics,” Chong explained. “Of course.”
“I think it deserves to be asked — an open-ended question — why do you think Jonathan Gruber said that this administration preyed on the stupidity of the America people to pass this health care law?” Smith wondered.
“I think you have to define what stupidity means,” Chong replied. “If you are opposing universal health care based on rumors and lies then that is a stupid way to be.”
A PunditFact analysis published on Tuesday found that Fox News had mentioned Gruber at least 779 times since the story broke on Nov. 10. MSNBC had mentioned him 79 times, and he was referenced on CNN just 27 times....................................
This One Police Department Shot 92 Dogs in Three Years. One of the Officers Has Killed 25 By Himself
Buffalo, NY — A high profile case of
Buffalo police killing a man’s dog while looking for non-existent drugs,
has led to a Freedom of Information request revealing some sadistic
figures.
On June 3, 2013 Buffalo police raided a man’s home to look for crack cocaine. He was not there, nor was the crack.
The home belonged to Iraqi war veteran, Adam Arroyo and his 2-year-old pit bull Cindy.
Upon breaking down the door to Arroyo’s home, officers encountered Cindy, who was barely 50 pounds, and shot and killed her. They were at the wrong apartment.
Sadly, “Police Kill Dog” is not an uncommon segment of headlines across the nation. It happens so often that it has its own category on the The Free Thought Project’s website as well as many other media outlets.
This disturbing trend led to WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, filing a Freedom of Information Act request for use of force incidents within the Buffalo police department only. What they found was shocking.
According to use of force reports requested by WGRZ-TV under the Freedom of Information Law, Buffalo Police shot 92 dogs from Jan. 1, 2011 through Sept. 2014. Seventy-three of those dogs died. Nineteen survived.
To provide a comparison, Buffalo’s numbers more than triple the amount of dog shooting incidents involving police in Cincinnati, a municipality of similar size.
“The numbers are what the numbers are,” Buffalo Police Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said in an interview with WGRZ. “Certainly, no officer takes any satisfaction in having to dispatch a dog.”
Perhaps an even more disturbing reality is that nearly 30 percent of these dog shootings in Buffalo were carried out by one man. The unidentified officer has shot 26 dogs, killing 25 of them, in just the last three years.
The New York City Police Department produces an annual discharge report, publishing its most recent version in 2012. According to those reports, the NYPD shot 72 dogs in 2011 and 2012, but fewer than 30 percent of those cases (21) resulted in fatalities.
That means that in the years 2011-2012 alone, this cop has killed as many dogs as the entire NYPD!
Many of these dogs are shot during the execution of no-knock search warrants, many of which are served in an attempt to stop people from putting something in their own body which makes them happy.
“It’s a small percentage of the number of total search warrants executed or actions taken by police,” Richards said, downplaying this mass killing. He then noted that the department has carried out 357 search warrant raids this year, most of which are in the relentless pursuit of the state’s immoral war on drugs.
Dogs are startled when something as simple as the doorbell is pressed. Of course the smashing down of a door, coupled with the screaming and noise of a half-dozen heavily armed men will cause a dog to react in a negative way.
When asked if the Buffalo police have undergone any special training in regards to dealing with dogs, or the handling of dogs in a non-lethal manner, Chief Richards said, “It has not come to that point in Buffalo that we’ve implemented any of those other techniques.”
Apparently killing a dog every other week in the department is just dandy and they see no problem with it, or reason to seek out training to deal with such a high rate of puppycide.
Buffalo is hardly an isolated incident either. In Southwest Florida, the News-Press discovered 111 instances of dog shootings among multiple agencies between 2009 and 2012, representing about 37 per year. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Police shot approximately 90 dogs per year between 2008 and 2013.
Earlier this month we reported the story of a SWAT team responding a dispute between two neighbors and then shooting a small dog as it ran away from them.
Some of these officers really do seem to get a thrill out of shooting animals.
Last month we broke the story of the sickening video uploaded to facebook of a Cleburne Texas Police officer calling a small dog towards him and then shooting it.
Since the horrific incident in Cleburne they have actually taken proactive measures to try and prevent further dog killings. The city of Cleburne has enlisted the services of Jim Osorio, the author of “Surviving the Canine Encounter” and an instructor for Canine Encounters Law Enforcement Training, who will teach officers in Cleburne non-lethal methods for controlling dogs in the line of duty.
Something has to be done, and at least Celburne is taking action. However, the real action that would need to be taken would be to drastically reduce the instance of no-knock search warrants. According to an ACLU report 62 percent of SWAT raids are searches for drugs.
If we want to end puppycide, we have to end the drug war, the two are not mutually exclusive.
On June 3, 2013 Buffalo police raided a man’s home to look for crack cocaine. He was not there, nor was the crack.
The home belonged to Iraqi war veteran, Adam Arroyo and his 2-year-old pit bull Cindy.
Upon breaking down the door to Arroyo’s home, officers encountered Cindy, who was barely 50 pounds, and shot and killed her. They were at the wrong apartment.
Sadly, “Police Kill Dog” is not an uncommon segment of headlines across the nation. It happens so often that it has its own category on the The Free Thought Project’s website as well as many other media outlets.
This disturbing trend led to WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, filing a Freedom of Information Act request for use of force incidents within the Buffalo police department only. What they found was shocking.
According to use of force reports requested by WGRZ-TV under the Freedom of Information Law, Buffalo Police shot 92 dogs from Jan. 1, 2011 through Sept. 2014. Seventy-three of those dogs died. Nineteen survived.
To provide a comparison, Buffalo’s numbers more than triple the amount of dog shooting incidents involving police in Cincinnati, a municipality of similar size.
“The numbers are what the numbers are,” Buffalo Police Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said in an interview with WGRZ. “Certainly, no officer takes any satisfaction in having to dispatch a dog.”
Perhaps an even more disturbing reality is that nearly 30 percent of these dog shootings in Buffalo were carried out by one man. The unidentified officer has shot 26 dogs, killing 25 of them, in just the last three years.
The New York City Police Department produces an annual discharge report, publishing its most recent version in 2012. According to those reports, the NYPD shot 72 dogs in 2011 and 2012, but fewer than 30 percent of those cases (21) resulted in fatalities.
That means that in the years 2011-2012 alone, this cop has killed as many dogs as the entire NYPD!
Many of these dogs are shot during the execution of no-knock search warrants, many of which are served in an attempt to stop people from putting something in their own body which makes them happy.
“It’s a small percentage of the number of total search warrants executed or actions taken by police,” Richards said, downplaying this mass killing. He then noted that the department has carried out 357 search warrant raids this year, most of which are in the relentless pursuit of the state’s immoral war on drugs.
Dogs are startled when something as simple as the doorbell is pressed. Of course the smashing down of a door, coupled with the screaming and noise of a half-dozen heavily armed men will cause a dog to react in a negative way.
When asked if the Buffalo police have undergone any special training in regards to dealing with dogs, or the handling of dogs in a non-lethal manner, Chief Richards said, “It has not come to that point in Buffalo that we’ve implemented any of those other techniques.”
Apparently killing a dog every other week in the department is just dandy and they see no problem with it, or reason to seek out training to deal with such a high rate of puppycide.
Buffalo is hardly an isolated incident either. In Southwest Florida, the News-Press discovered 111 instances of dog shootings among multiple agencies between 2009 and 2012, representing about 37 per year. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Police shot approximately 90 dogs per year between 2008 and 2013.
Earlier this month we reported the story of a SWAT team responding a dispute between two neighbors and then shooting a small dog as it ran away from them.
Some of these officers really do seem to get a thrill out of shooting animals.
Last month we broke the story of the sickening video uploaded to facebook of a Cleburne Texas Police officer calling a small dog towards him and then shooting it.
Since the horrific incident in Cleburne they have actually taken proactive measures to try and prevent further dog killings. The city of Cleburne has enlisted the services of Jim Osorio, the author of “Surviving the Canine Encounter” and an instructor for Canine Encounters Law Enforcement Training, who will teach officers in Cleburne non-lethal methods for controlling dogs in the line of duty.
Something has to be done, and at least Celburne is taking action. However, the real action that would need to be taken would be to drastically reduce the instance of no-knock search warrants. According to an ACLU report 62 percent of SWAT raids are searches for drugs.
If we want to end puppycide, we have to end the drug war, the two are not mutually exclusive.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Afghanistan Veteran on Food Stamps Writes Letter to ‘Caring’ Conservatives
Some people measure a society's condition by the lifestyles of the rich and famous - and those people are usually the rich and famous. For the rest of humanity, a society's success is measured by the living conditions of the poorest. And who exactly the "poorest" are. This letter, posted on September 19th by a combat…
Sunday, November 09, 2014
Thursday, November 06, 2014
Bernie Sanders tells our new GOP overlords: Work for the middle class, not just the rich who ‘control’ you
RAW STORY
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday advised Republicans not to use their newly-won control of Congress to only serve the wealthy donors that had financed their campaigns.
“The American people are extremely dissatisfied for good reasons at the state of the economy,” Sanders told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. “The middle class continues to collapse. That’s been a 30-year collapse. The gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider. Real unemployment is close to 12 percent.”
According to the self-described socialist, the Republicans won big in Tuesday’s midterms because they were able to blame President Barack Obama for the country’s problems.
“What they also managed to do — and a brilliant political strategy — is not tell us what their agenda is,” he explained. “All over the country in conservative states, people said let’s raise the minimum wage to, at least, a living wage. What’s the Republican position on that? They’re against that.”
“Is the Republican Party going to do what the American people want?” Sanders asked. “The American people do not want more tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. Is the Republican Party going to poison the well by going forward at a time of massive wealth and income inequality, giving more tax breaks to people who don’t need it?”
The senator agreed that bipartisan legislation on things like immigration reform was the “preferable route” to executive action if Republicans were willing to work with the president.
“But let’s not turn our backs on the middle class of this country and ignore the enormous economic problems they’re facing,” he said. “Let’s not simply work for the rich and the big campaign contributors who control the United States Congress. If we can do that, and respond to the needs and the pain of the American people, you know what, I think you’ll suddenly find Congress is regarded a lot more favorably.”
Sanders said that he was seriously thinking about a 2016 presidential run, but he wanted to be sure that his supporters were ready to take on powerful conservative donors like the Koch brothers.
“I am giving thought to running,” he explained. “But for me and the nature of the campaign that I’d be running, I’ve got to get a lot of input from people all over this country. We haven’t made that final decision yet.”
“When you take on the billionaire class and you take on the Koch brothers and Wall Street and the drug companies and all these guys, you don’t do that haphazardly, you’ve got to really think it through,” Sanders added. “And I just want to know whether there is grassroots support in this country for an agenda that is going speak to the needs of working families and the middle class, prepared to take on the big money interests. And I’ve got to determine that, and we’re not there yet with that determination.”
“The American people today are very demoralized. One of the takeaways of this last campaign is that in my state, by the way, and all over this country, the vast majority of people didn’t vote. Young people don’t vote, low income working people don’t vote. They’re disgusted, they’ve given up on the political process. Is it possible to bring those people back in so they stand up and fight for their rights and take on the big money interests? I don’t know the answer to that.”...........
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday advised Republicans not to use their newly-won control of Congress to only serve the wealthy donors that had financed their campaigns.
“The American people are extremely dissatisfied for good reasons at the state of the economy,” Sanders told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. “The middle class continues to collapse. That’s been a 30-year collapse. The gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider. Real unemployment is close to 12 percent.”
According to the self-described socialist, the Republicans won big in Tuesday’s midterms because they were able to blame President Barack Obama for the country’s problems.
“What they also managed to do — and a brilliant political strategy — is not tell us what their agenda is,” he explained. “All over the country in conservative states, people said let’s raise the minimum wage to, at least, a living wage. What’s the Republican position on that? They’re against that.”
“Is the Republican Party going to do what the American people want?” Sanders asked. “The American people do not want more tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. Is the Republican Party going to poison the well by going forward at a time of massive wealth and income inequality, giving more tax breaks to people who don’t need it?”
The senator agreed that bipartisan legislation on things like immigration reform was the “preferable route” to executive action if Republicans were willing to work with the president.
“But let’s not turn our backs on the middle class of this country and ignore the enormous economic problems they’re facing,” he said. “Let’s not simply work for the rich and the big campaign contributors who control the United States Congress. If we can do that, and respond to the needs and the pain of the American people, you know what, I think you’ll suddenly find Congress is regarded a lot more favorably.”
Sanders said that he was seriously thinking about a 2016 presidential run, but he wanted to be sure that his supporters were ready to take on powerful conservative donors like the Koch brothers.
“I am giving thought to running,” he explained. “But for me and the nature of the campaign that I’d be running, I’ve got to get a lot of input from people all over this country. We haven’t made that final decision yet.”
“When you take on the billionaire class and you take on the Koch brothers and Wall Street and the drug companies and all these guys, you don’t do that haphazardly, you’ve got to really think it through,” Sanders added. “And I just want to know whether there is grassroots support in this country for an agenda that is going speak to the needs of working families and the middle class, prepared to take on the big money interests. And I’ve got to determine that, and we’re not there yet with that determination.”
“The American people today are very demoralized. One of the takeaways of this last campaign is that in my state, by the way, and all over this country, the vast majority of people didn’t vote. Young people don’t vote, low income working people don’t vote. They’re disgusted, they’ve given up on the political process. Is it possible to bring those people back in so they stand up and fight for their rights and take on the big money interests? I don’t know the answer to that.”...........
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
Uriah Heep - Wizard
"The Wizard" is a single from rock band Uriah Heep's 1972 album Demons & Wizards and was the first single to be lifted from the album. It was composed by Mark Clarke and Ken Hensley.[1]
It is a gentle, semi-acoustic ballad whose lyrics deal with a man
wandering until he meets "the Wizard of a thousand kings", a possible
reference to the druid Merlin, to Gandalf, to an angel or even God. This song is the first Uriah Heep single which had a music video.........
