Free Republic

The Monty Python defense. My goodness. Joltin' Joe Lieberman announces a Senate Homeland Security investigation on F&F "inter-ageny miscommunication" and the head of Border Patrol runs away the very same day. Folks, just received this statement by email: Statement from Alan D. Bersin, Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Earlier today, I notified the President of my intent to resign as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection effective Dec. 30. I have expressed my deep gratitude and appreciation to President Obama and Secretary Napolitano for the opportunity to have led such an exceptional organization and for the confidence they...

Penn State rebuffs CNN request for records on 1998 Sandusky investigationBy Greg Botelho, CNN updated 12:38 AM EST, Mon December 19, 2011 (CNN) -- Penn State has rejected a CNN public records request for a copy of a 1998 campus police report tied to sexual misconduct allegations made against then-assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, a lawyer for the school told CNN. Amy Elizabeth McCall, an assistant general counsel, asserted in a letter to CNN that Penn State is "a state-related institution" and not a "state school" like some in other states, and therefore does not have the same public records...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional investigators said Monday that four House members received VIP discounted loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp., the lender whose subprime mortgages was largely responsible for the nation's foreclosure crisis. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, declined to name the four but wrote the House Ethics Committee that it should investigate the lawmakers. Issa, in a letter dated Friday and released Monday, said there could be additional lawmakers who received discounted loans. The most favored customers of Countrywide were known as "Friends of Angelo," who were given discounts in...

The House Agriculture Committee is questioning former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine on the bankruptcy of the financial firm and a dispute over $1.2 billion in missing funds. According to the Committee's website, the purpose of the hearing is "to examine the facts and circumstances that led up to the bankruptcy, and the efforts underway to recover customer funds and return them to their rightful owners." The former Senator and New Jersey governor is at the center of a dispute over $1.2 billion in missing customer funds. The trading firm’s bankruptcy is the 8th largest in the nation's history.

New internal White House emails reveal that a scathing critique of Energy Secretary Steven Chu by a former Obama political advisor led to an extensive internal discussion about failures of the president's Energy Department at the highest levels of his administration. The February 25, 2011 email that sparked the deliberations landed on West Wing desks just as the solar energy firm Solyndra was starting to show outward signs of financial trouble. It was sent by Dan Carol, a former Obama campaign staffer and clean energy advocate who was described by Obama's then-Chief of Staff Pete Rouse as someone whose views...

(CNSNews.com) – A day after newly released e-mails surfaced regarding an Obama donor’s role in asking for a second Solyndra loan, the White House agreed to provide subpoenaed material to the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- but not without a jab. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the House probe into the $535-million federal loan to the solar panel firm "partisan." Solyndra is now bankrupt and under FBI investigation. “We have been enormously cooperative with legitimate oversight. In this investigation alone we’ve turned over 85,000 pages of documents,” Carney told reporters Thursday. “We will continue to cooperate with...

Solyndra is being investigated by the FBI, but that may just be the tip of the shovel-ready iceberg. The Department of Energy is investigating more than 100 potential instances of criminal abuse of stimulus loan monies, according to the department’s Office of Inspector General. In prepared testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman said his office has launched more than 100 probes into possible criminal activities related to the 2009 stimulus funds behind the loans.

The System of Checks and Balances is designed to restrain abuse of power by another branch of the US Federal Government. The Legislative Branch may start investigations, especially against the Executive Branch. Why has the Legislation Branch not used their power of Checks and Balances by by investigating Obama? What more is needed than a Spendaholic-in-Chief, who is afraid to meet with Congressional Leaders and attends pep rallies instead, who has destroyed over 4 TRILLION dollars in less that 3 years, who signed the un-Constitutional obama"care" bill into law, etc. etc.? Clearly the Executive Branch has abused its power! What...

A three-year government investigation has found no wrongdoing by Bush-era Pentagon officials when they gave war briefings to retired military analysts who served as TV and radio commentators. The probe by the Pentagon inspector general was a response to a 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning article in the New York Times that implied the former military officers, some of whom worked for or were defense contractors, received financial favors in return for their commentary and that they were tools in a propaganda campaign. Sources familiar with the IG’s final report said it will say officials broke no rules or laws when they...

Almost immediately after the Justice Department announced a shake-up of the officials who oversaw ATF’s ill-begotten “Operation Fast and Furious,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) signaled they wouldn’t let the reassignment of acting ATF director Kenneth Melson slow down their investigation of the questionable program. Two days later, they’ve already made good on that promise. Today, they sent a letter to Ann Scheel, the acting attorney general in Phoenix, basically putting the Arizona district office on notice and demanding e-mails, memos, notes and other documents from six top officials, including Scheel and ousted former U.S. Attorney...

On Thursday the House Energy and Commerce Committee ramped up its ongoing investigation of the federal government’s $535 million loan to Solyndra, a solar energy company that recently announced it will file for bankruptcy. In a letter to the White House, committee Chairman Fred Upton and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns requested a scheduled briefing on the matter by no later than September 12 and asked for all documents related to the loan guarantee between Solyndra and the White House. In 2009, Solyndra was the recipient of a half-billion-dollar loan through the Department of Energy, funded by stimulus...

NoisyRoom by: AJ of NoisyRoom.net & Arlen Williams contributors: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton & Ann Barnhardt   An investigation of President Obama and his administration must commence immediately. Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, author and self-described Liberal Democrat Marxist Muslim who campaigned for Barack Obama, revealed the identity of Obama’s White House appointees who have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (see Muslim Brotherhood in our White House – Vetting Obama). Obama’s appointees could access sensitive military and National Defense information while in our White House, to include military missions that were planned for SEAL Team Six. Important questions surround...

New details about Operation Fast and Furious cast doubt on the ability of the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General to conduct an “independent” and fair investigation, congressional Republican investigators say. The information comes via a letter Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday. In it, they question a request from Holder for a transcript from a meeting they held in secret on July 4th with Ken Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

FULLERTON, Calif. (KTLA) -- Fullerton's city council has voted to hire a police watchdog to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of mentally-ill homeless man, Kelly Thomas, after a violent confrontation with six officers. Council members voted 4-1 Tuesday night to hire Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, at upwards of $230 an hour. Gennaco said he would immediately begin his investigation into the entire department -- not just Thomas' death -- to see if there's any corruption. The decision came after a heated meeting involving enraged community members who booed, heckled and...

A shock investigation of possible insider trading at Standard & Poor's has reportedly begun, with the country still reeling from the rating agency's historic downgrade of U.S. debt. Authorities want to know who had prior knowledge of the decision, which sparked a wild week of trading on Wall Street that saw breathtaking losses and rapid rises. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has oversight of credit rating firms, has started asking preliminary questions, the Financial Times reported. However, the regulator is not aware of a leak from an S&P insider,

The Congressional Research Service recently released another in a series of “Gun Control Legislation” reports by William J. Krouse, Specialist in Domestic Security and Crime Policy. While the entire report is an invaluable guide for understanding the scope and nature of related firearms control issues being considered by Congress, the report references a recommendation of particular interest to those following the “Project Gunwalker” (Operation Fast and Furious) story. From page 30 of the report (page 34 in the pdf file): As called for originally by Senator Grassley, the House Appropriations Committee included report language in the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations...

A cryptic code sent by the Zodiac killer on November 8, 1969 to San Francisco Chronicle has baffled authorities for decades, until now. Now a 27-year-old man is claiming he cracked this code as well as the identity of the Zodiac killer, who murdered at least seven people in the late 60s. Corey Starliper of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, was intrigued by the case after watching a 2007 movie "Zodiac" about the killings. He claims to have spent nine hours working on cracking the code. "I found it exciting, that I was actually able to get into his head when nobody had...

  Just 12 days after 49 congressmen requested an official inquiry into Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s (left) involvement with the Patient Protection and Affordable Act (PPACA, aka ObamaCare) during her tenure as U.S. Solicitor General, the House Judiciary Committee has complied. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) sent a July 6 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for “relevant documents and witness interviews in order to properly understand” Kagan’s role with regard to the legislation itself and related litigation.Perhaps the committee will have better luck in wresting those documents from the Justice Department’s clutches than private organizations have...

MINNEAPOLIS – When Meredith Aby met with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2006, she asked what it would take to get them to stop fighting. Jess Sundin did the same during her trip to Colombia 11 years ago. They returned and openly wrote and spoke about their experiences, while criticizing the U.S. government’s involvement in that country. FBI documents recently found by the anti-war activists suggest the trips may have started an investigation into apparent connections between local activists and radical groups in Colombia and the Middle East. One document says the probe expanded to include...

A sheriff's deputy in Pulaski County, Ill., has been arrested today and charged with 20 counts of felony including unlawful sale of firearms. Tara M. Kern, 38, of Villa Ridge, a deputy sheriff in Pulaski County, was charged with two counts of official misconduct, 16 counts of the unlawful sale of firearms and two counts of obstructing justice, according to a statement released today by special prosecutor Tyler R. Edmonds, the state's attorney for Union County. According to the press release, "Kern is alleged to have provided firearms to her husband, William A. Kern, a convicted felon, during the years...