Back to Basics

Continuing her full-court press for her boss’ immigration agenda — including the “gang of eight” immigration bill — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday visited New York City where she held a meeting with selected members of businesses and community groups in order to sell the proposed immigration reform, which the Obama administration is anxious to pass as part of President Barack Obama’s legacy, according to a former NYPD detective.

Retired detective and now a security supervisor Iris Aquino said that attendees believed the meeting with Napolitano would encourage constructive discussion. “Unfortunately, all those attending the highly-anticipated get together received a mere rehash of the talking points so often heard from Democrat and Republican supporters of amnesty,” said Aquino, a Hispanic New Yorker.

“Over the past few months, I have heard from many business leaders about how critical immigration is to businesses. We all recognize our current immigration system is broken — it isn’t working for businesses, workers, or our economy — and we all agree that it is time to fix it,” said Secretary Napolitano.

“We need a 21st century immigration system — one that helps businesses continue to grow our economy,” she added.

“I’m shocked…flabbergasted that not one attendee jumped up and reminded Napolitano about the already high number of unemployed American citizens,” said political strategist Mike Baker.

“The unemployment rate for legal American residents is hovering at about 7.6 percent in Obama’s fifth year as president. And he wants to have citizens compete with cheap labor for jobs? It’s a sham,” said an angry union construction worker, Dom Pagona, who claims illegal aliens have caused widespread unemployment in the construction industry.

During Napolitano’s meeting with leaders from the Big Apple’s businesses, the DHS chief discussed “the need for critical changes to the legal immigration in order to help business grow our economy by providing the skilled workers this country needs.”

Then Secretary Napolitano highlighted the Obama Administration’s “dedication of historic levels” of human and technological resources devoted to securing the Southwest border.

She told the participants that challenges will always remain, but that “every metric used to measure border security shows significant progress and improved quality of life in border communities.”

Commonsense immigration reform will build on this historic progress, enhancing border security, facilitating lawful trade and travel, reuniting families and promoting economic growth, she claimed.

However, the National Border Patrol Council has noted that President Obama’s 2014 budget request, which was submitted to Congress in April, proposes to cut Border Patrol agents’ overtime by $46 million from the current 2013 allocation. www.nbpc.net/index.php

“This proposal would guarantee that we would never again see [administratively uncontrollable overtime] AUO at the 25% level despite the fact that proper border security mandates this level of overtime,” said the NBPC Local 2544 officials.

The Border Patrol union also stated:

“When the President’s proposal is combined with the Budget Control Act of 2011 (“Sequestration”), the FY14 overtime cuts would jump – in the best case scenario – from $46 million to $65 million or – in the worst case scenario – to $90 million. A $65 million cut could decrease AUO to 15%, which would be disastrous on our personal family budgets and border security.

In spite of convincing evidence that the Syrians fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s government have possession of — and used — sarin gas, President Barack Obama has officially given the nod for the United States to provide Syrian rebels — including the Islamists who have infiltrated their ranks — with small arms through the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in an announcement on Saturday.

Hagel also mentioned that U.S. troops participating in military exercises with Jordan’s armed forces will allow fighter jets and a cache of Patriot missiles to remain in that Arab nation that borders Syria following the end of joint military exercises.

While President Barack Obama only consented to giving the rebels conventional small arms, Arizona’s Republican Sen. John McCain and other Congressional leaders are urging Obama to provide heavier arms and for the U.S. Air Force or Navy aircraft carrier planes to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria.

“The Pentagon made clear Saturday the detachment of missiles and F-16s was brought to Jordan as part an annual, multi-nation military exercise called Eager Lion and will remain there only at the request of the country leaders, when the exercise ends next week,” according to Fox News Channel stories on Sunday.

According to June 3 Examiner news story, a former police intelligence analyst said that despite the Obama Administration, lawmakers such as Sen. John McCain, and many U.S. news organizations ignoring the “trespasses of the Islamist-infiltrated Syrian rebel militia,” those who are closely following events unfolding in Syria are concerned over the use of WMD by the rebels.

In the Examiner news story earlier this month, it was reported that:

“Some American counterterrorism analysts believe President Barack Obama’s interest in capitalizing on the fear of chemical weapons is to encourage foreign intervention as occurred in Libya and Egypt. The goal is toppling the administration of President Bashar al-Assad and the Ba’ath Party by any means necessary.

“Over the course of the weekend, the SANA news agency reported that among the terrorists slain by the Assad forces were Khaled Othman, the leader of the so-called “Andan Oqla Battalion” terrorist group, Abdul-Min’em Dyab, the leader of the so-called “al-Mout Battalion” terrorist group, Abdul-Hadi Meznazi, the leader of the so-called “al-Ansar and al-Sharia ” terrorist group which is affiliated to Jabhet al-Nusra, Abdul-Rahman Barakat, the leader of the so-called “al-Tasleeh battalion” terrorist group, Mohammad al-Hara, Mohammad Sweif, Mustafa Ziad, Tareq Rahmoun and Khaled Ja’moor.

“On Monday, May 31, Turkish security forces also reported that they discovered a cylinder containing sarin gas when searching the homes of Syrian militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front who were previously detained, the Turkish media reported. The gas was reportedly going to be used in a bomb.

In what many security experts consider paradoxical, President Barack Obama is close to ordering weapons shipments to be sent to the al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels as a consequence of President Bashar al-Assad alleged use of chemical weapons against rebel forces, according to a counterterrorism source on Thursday.

“This is a development that is at once startling and comical,” said former military intelligence officer and police terrorism analyst Steve Moseret. “In fact, in the Middle East news media they are already reporting that Obama has okayed the transfer of weapons to the Syrian rebels.

“We [Americans] are at war with al-Qaeda and yet in order to help topple another Middle East dictator, the Obama administration is seriously considering arming al-Qaeda affiliates such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, al-Nusra Front and other Islamist groups who advocate an Islamic caliphate and the destruction of the United States and Israel,” notes Moseret.

According to Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting Ben Rhodes, President Obama often stated that any use by the Syrian regime of chemical weapons is the “red line” that could lead to more U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war.

“The President has been clear that the use of chemical weapons – or the transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups – is a red line for the United States,” said Rhodes in a press statement.

“President [Obama] has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has,” he said in his written statement.

“Any future action we take will be consistent with our national interest, and must advance our objectives, which include achieving a negotiated political settlement to establish an authority that can provide basic stability and administer state institutions; protecting the rights of all Syrians; securing unconventional and advanced conventional weapons; and countering terrorist activity,” Rhodes said.

However, in a June 3 Examiner news story, it was reported that:

“Israeli intelligence reported that Syrian army troops discovered two large canisters of the deadly WMD (weapon of mass destruction) sarin gas during an ambush of a rebel compound in the city of Hama on Sunday,” according to a counterterrorism and international law enforcement expert.

According to Sean McCallister, a former police intelligence analyst, despite the Obama Administration, lawmakers such as Sen. John McCain, and many U.S. news organizations ignoring the “trespasses of the Islamist-infiltrated Syrian rebel militia,” those who are closely following events unfolding in Syria are concerned over the use of WMD by the rebels.

The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the Islamist rebels of using chemical weapons during their attacks on pro-Assad towns northern Syria, according to McCallister.

“The back-and-forth accusations have caused many to ignore several international reports. When [Sen. John] McCain visited some of the Syrian rebels, it was as if he was totally unaware that a large percentage of the fighters were from al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQII), al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Nusra and others,” McCallister noted.

Rhodes said that the President intends to share evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Assad’s troops “with the international community” and the American people.

British government officials on Wednesday released an alert to their citizens traveling to the East African nation of Kenya in light of the increase in terrorist attacks, according to U.K. police intelligence analyst Stephen Corcoran.

The frequent outbreaks of violence especially grenade attacks have led to the British Foreign Service issuing this latest travel advisory to its citizens visiting certain nations in the Middle East, North Africa and other foreign destinations, Corcoran said.

However, the Kenyan travel advisory noted that 203,290 British nationals visited Kenya in 2011 and the majority of “visits were trouble-free.”

This latest travel advisory to President Barack Obama’s ancestral home comes in the wake of a grenade attack cities of Mombasa and Nairobi, which left at least 20 Kenyan citizens wounded, he reported.

According to the British Foreign Office, the threat emanates from Islamic terrorists allied with Somalia’s Al- Shabaab, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda.

The leaders of Al-Shabaab have made numerous threats against Kenya because of its military’s actions in war-torn Somalia. The British government warns that Muslim terrorists may target official buildings like government offices, businesses and police or military facilities. Attacks on hotels are also possible, according to Corcoran.

As has happened in the past, terrorists may attack targets frequented by foreigners such as hotels, night spots, restaurants, sports events, buses, shopping malls and other places of public assembly.

Al-Shabaab is also notorious for attacking Christian churches and schools run by religious organizations other than Islam.

In the Kenyan travel advisory, British officials warned citizens against all but essential travel to parts of Kenya and, at the moment, is warning British tourists to avoid areas in close proximity to Kenya’s border with Somalia.

The Foreign Office warned travelers about wandering into low-income areas of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, including “slum areas where attacks or violence are frequent.”

When President Barack Obama began stumping for his amnesty for illegal aliens and the so-called “gang of eight” reform bill on Tuesday, his Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano prepared the way with a telephone conference with sheriffs and police chiefs serving near the U.S.-Mexican border on Monday, according to officials with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) directorate.

But the majority of the time spent discussing her agenda items made no mention of security deficiencies, according to a participant.

Napolitano stated the purpose of the conference call was to personally discuss the need for commonsense reform to strengthen border security. But many believe her words to be empty since her department ended the federal program called 287G in last July. The program allowed local law enforcement agencies to take on the role of federal immigration officers, to demand people prove their citizenship status and start deportation proceedings.

“Instead of discussing the 287G program, Napolitano gave law enforcement executive talking points about the Obama administration’s so-called ‘historic gains’ achieved over the past four years. It was hogwash, plain and simple,” said Undersheriff Joseph L., who did not want his department named.

Napolitano boasted that “The administration has made increasing border security a clear priority, and the most important thing we can do to build on this historic progress is to pass commonsense immigration reform,” said Secretary Napolitano.

“Under this administration, we’ve put more boots on the border than any time in history, and deployed historic levels of technology. There is more we can do, and the bill under discussion in the Senate would invest billions of additional dollars into this already unprecedented effort, and assist in our efforts to focus enforcement resources on individuals who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety and other enforcement priorities,” she claims.

However, Napolitano failed to discuss the postponement of building a fence or of her canceling a contract for security devices that failed to function after paying $1 billion dollars, according to the Government Accountability Office.

According to an April 3 Examiner.com news story by Kimberly Dvorak, the cameras purchased for use on the U.S.-Mexican border were up-for-sale on Ebay.

“Secretary Napolitano spent most of the time addressing the nation’s broken immigration system. But she then said she wished to sustain the progress DHS, and its state and local partners, have made in the past four years,” said Undersheriff Joseph L.

“Secretary Napolitano claims the bill being debated in the Senate will strengthen security at our borders by investing in additional manpower, infrastructure, aviation assets, and it funds the procurement of proven, effective surveillance technology along the Southwest border. She must have thought she was speaking to a group of police academy recruits instead of professional cops, which she it wasn’t,” stated a former detective squad commander, Louis Wallner.

In January, President Obama announced his “key principles for commonsense immigration reform” that would invest in the ports of entry, and help officers and agents focus on public safety threats; make it harder for transnational criminal organizations to operate, while encouraging immigrants to pursue a pathway to earned citizenship; hold employers accountable and strengthen the integrity of the immigration system overall.

In response to the myriad statements made by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in support of the goal of President Barack Obama and lawmakers to further control firearms owned by law-abiding U.S. citizens, a well-known police adviser on firearms and the Second Amendment, spoke out on Sunday.

“Catholic bishops who support Obama’s anti-gun policies have been sucked into the administration’s attack on individual freedom,” John M. Snyder said from his office in Arlington, Va., on Sunday.

“The Obama attacks on religion and gun rights reflect the administration’s intolerance of individual freedom,” added Snyder, named the gun dean by the Human Events, and dean of gun lobbyists by the Washington Post and New York Times.

“Catholic bishops who foolishly support Obama’s gun control policies epitomize stupidity,” he stated. “The administration’s assault on religious freedom is despicable. Its mandate forcing people to act against their religious conscience in insurance payment for abortion is tyrannical.”

“Let us support firmly the Fortnight for Freedom initiated by U.S. Catholic bishops to reverse the administration’s mandate. The initiative is a two week program of prayer and activity culminating on the Fourth of July,” said Snyder, who serves on the advisory board for the National Association of Chiefs of Police and as chairman of public relations for the American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens.

Snyder laments the assault on religion and the assault on gun rights come from freedom haters.

“They believe the state is superior to individual freedom. They would force individuals to knuckle down to the state and ignore the right to life of the unborn. They would undermine gun rights so that individuals could not obtain and use firearms to defend and preserve post-natal life,” he said.

Snyder, himself a Roman Catholic, has warned the Church hierarchy that they shouldn’t be “sucked into attacks on freedom, as some of them have with their public support for restrictive gun control.”

“If Catholic bishops have any sense, they should realize that promotion of abortion and promotion of gun control are two sides of the attack on life,” Snyder continued. “People own guns to protect lives from criminal assault, and for other legitimate reasons. One hundred million Americans own 300 million rifles, shotguns and handguns. Citizens annually buy over 10 million firearms. Recent studies by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Pew Research Center reveal that firearm-related homicide decreases as private firearms ownership increases.”

Snyder noted that anti-gun propaganda and emotionally-charged media attention to high-profile murders allegedly create a false impression. The truth appears to support him in that relaxation of restrictions on gun carrying correlate with reductions in the rates of murder other violent crimes. Scholarly studies by Professor John Lott appear to confirm this.

Snyder said, “Bishops who say they support a right to life and endorse unreasonable restrictions on guns used to protect life render themselves subject to charges of rank hypocrisy. Unfortunately, they may raise suspicion about the church they supposedly serve and undermine evangelical efforts. They risk being characterized as ‘useful idiots’ for serving the enemies of freedom, right to life and right to defend life.”

Libya‘s Gen. Youssef al-Mangoush, the nation’s army chief of staff was forced to resign on Sunday following a battle between militia members and protesters that left more than ​25 Libyan civilians dead and upwards of 90 wounded in the streets of Benghazi on Saturday, according to a counterterrorism source in Israel who monitors Islamist groups in North African nations.

Gen. al-Mangoush turned over his letter of resignation to members of Libya’s congress on Sunday, according to Mordecai Asher, a former police intelligence analyst.

The deadly violence began when Benghazi protesters picketed outside in front of the barracks in which the one of the country’s militia, the Libya Shield Brigade, resides. The crowd of hundreds demanded that the militia be dissolved and that regular government troops provide security against the city’s numerous Islamist terrorists, Asher said in a phone conversation with Law Enforcement Examiner.

According to Middle East news media, the legitimate Libyan government continues to be hampered by several armed militias after almost two years of unrest in the aftermath of the execution of the nation’s notorious dictator, Col. Moamar Khadhafi, in 2011.

Gen. Mangoush’s second-in-command, Salem al-Gnaidy, was chosen serve as the Libyan military’s temporary army chief until a permanent commander is selected by the members of the General National Congress.

In addition to the shakeup within the army’s command structure, the congress is expected to appoint a special judge to investigate the militias, some of which are suspected of being fronts for terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, according to Asher.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s violence, the Libyan army claims it will takeover of all facilities used by the Libya Shield Brigade in Benghazi. The main Benghazi headquarters of the militia, where the protest first took place was commandeered by a Libyan special forces unit.

Last year, thousands of anti-militia protesters flooded the streets of Benghazi alleging that armed groups were responsible for the attack on the U.S. consulate located in their city in which four Americans were savagely killed, including the U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens.

According to former intelligence officer Carlo “Carl” DiGiovanni, the Libyan government suspects that President Barack Obama is not serious about capturing the terrorists who killed the four Americans.

“Many Libyans distrust Obama as much as most conservatives in the United States. They recognize him as a weak, conniving politician who is all talk but little action,” said DiGiovanni.

An anti-tax activist was arrested on Friday after a federal grand jury in Detroit, Mich., handed down an indictment against her on the charge of criminal contempt.

Doreen Hendrickson, a resident of Commerce Township, Mich., was arrested by Internal Revenue Service agents for failing to comply with a federal judge’s order to file amended tax returns.

Hendrickson and her husband, author and activist Peter Hendrickson, filed tax returns for 2002 and 2003 on which they claimed more than $20,000 in alleged fraudulent tax refunds.

The Michigan couple’s tax filings were based on Peter Hendrickson’s controversial book, Cracking the Code, in which he states that income taxes are unconstitutional and that “only federal, state and local government employees are liable for the payment of income taxes.”

“I know Pete’s theory have been discussed… many times. I read his Cracking the Code book and really believe he has the truth, but yet again the [criminal justice] system designed to protect us is so corrupt,” stated an editorial appearing in the Daily Paul.

In May 2007, as part of a lawsuit against the Hendricksons filed by the Treasury Department’s Tax Division, U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds in Detroit entered an injunction that prevents the Hendricksons from filing alleged fraudulent tax forms in the future.

In addition, Judge Edmunds told the Hendricksons that they must submit amended 2002 and 2003 returns to the IRS.

According to the indictment, Doreen Hendrickson violated Edmunds’ injunction by failing to file amended 2002 and 2003 tax returns and by filing another alleged false tax return for the year 2008 that was based on the information contained in her husband’s book.

In 2006, the U.S. government had also filed a civil action against Hendrickson and his wife, requesting a judgment against them for the erroneous refunds issued to them and an injunction requiring them to file correct tax returns.

When the IRS filed a civil action against Hendrickson and his wife for the erroneous refunds paid to them, the government also filed six similar suits against some of his followers.

“If only the IRS — an agency with corruption problems of its own — would be so eager to go after people such as former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Rep. Charles Rangel and other political leaders who’ve played loose and fancy-free with U.S. tax codes,” said Det. Sid Franes (NYPD-Ret.).

Almost simultaneously, President Barack Obama told the American people his anti-terrorism strategy is keeping Americans safe, including his NSA surveillance program, while Yemen‘s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi all but raised the white flag on Saturday during a meeting of his government’s civilian and military leaders.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is on the verge of taking control of Yemen’s southern cities and towns, according to a counterterrorism source in Israel. As a result, the top leader of the Yemen’s government on Saturday requested assistance from Western nations, said Jacob Moskowitz, a law enforcement veteran specializing in anti-terrorism and counter-narcotics.

In a statement during the national reconciliation program being held this weekend, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said, “Yemen can no longer bear further crises.”

President Hadi warned the United States, Israel, and the European Union nations that the current security crisis could very well assist the al-Qaeda terrorists in their to efforts to seize more territories from the Yemeni people.

“The heads of sedition and the culture of death and destruction have recently appeared in the southeastern province of Hadramout, but the heroes of our armed and security forces nipped the sedition and eliminated the heads of evil before they expand and repeat the scenario that took place in the province of Abyan,” Hadi was quoted as saying by the official Saba news agency.

“Our battle today with terrorism is crucial. We must wage it deservedly whatever the sacrifice may be,” Hadi said.

Yemen’s security forces last week defeated al-Qaeda members near the city of Ghayl Bawazir in Hadramout province. About a dozen fighters were killed from both sides, according to Moskowitz.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama all but announced victory in the fight against al-Qaeda. But then just hours later two gunmen wearing masks and riding motorbikes fired at Col. Ahmed Abdul-Razzak, the director of the military intelligence unit in the Hadramout province. Terrorists from the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) network assassinated Col. Abdul-Razzak on a main road near his home in the coastal town of Mukalla, according to Family Security Matters.

“The USA backs the decisions and all the measures taken by President Hadi to translate the political settlement’s steps into concrete action in accordance with the Gulf initiative and the UN resolutions,” President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism advisor,” John Brennan, has said in the past.

A disturbing amount of anger erupted when Americans discovered on Thursday morning that President Barack Obama’s National Security Agency was given the go-ahead to conduct electronic surveillance of tens of millions of American citizens who use telephones, cell phones and other communications devices.

According to Matthew Reece at the Examiner:

On June 5, the Guardian obtained a copy of a secret court order that requires telecommunications company Verizon to “produce to the National Security Agency (NSA) upon service of this Order, and continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this Order, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, an electronic copy of the following tangible things: all call detail records or “telephony metadata” created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.” The order was given to Verizon on April 25, and was set to expire on July 19.

According to Fox News Channel’s correspondent, Catherine Herridge, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) granted Attorney General Eric Holder unlimited authority to direct the FBI to obtain from Verizon electronic copies of all call detail records for communications between the United States and abroad or within the United States. FISA’s Judge Roger Vinson gave the FBI a judicial sanction to conduct a covert operation on behalf of the super-secret National Security Agency.

But this alleged overreach by President Obama’s minions is not the first case of alleged privacy abuse perpetrated by a president’s administration. George W. Bush was lambasted by many Americans — including Barack Obama — for conducting electronic surveillance using provisions of the controversial Patriot Act, according to the watchdog group Accuracy in Media. (Full disclosure: Jim Kouri conducted the study and wrote the news analysis for Accuracy in Media.)

Even more overreaching was President Bill Clinton’s Echelon Program which was implemented long before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda.

In arguably the most secretive and widespread electronic surveillance program ever created, the Clinton Administration and the National Security Agency employed a global spy system, code named Echelon, which monitored just about every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

The Echelon system was fairly simple in design: position intercept stations all over the world to capture all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications traffic, and then process this information through the massive computer capabilities of the NSA, including advanced voice recognition and optical character recognition programs. The system would look for code words or phrases (known as the Echelon Dictionary) that would prompt the computers to flag the message for recording and transcribing for future analysis, according to electronic surveillance expert Samuel Schlae, a former police detective.

“Intelligence analysts at each of the respective listening stations maintained separate keyword lists for them to analyze any conversation or document flagged by the system, which is then forwarded to the respective intelligence agency headquarters that requested the intercept,” according to Schlae.

But apart from directing their ears towards terrorists and rogue states, Echelon was also used for purposes well outside its original mission. This regular domestic surveillance targeted American civilians, according to intelligence expert Patrick Poole.