While Attorney General Eric Holder may have recused himself in the Associated Press probe he did approve the search warrant for a Fox News reporter’s emails. The information was revealed yesterday as President Obama spoke on his administration’s support for press freedom.

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.

Though Rosen was named a “co-conspirator” the Justice Department is not pursuing a case against him which seems to mean they may have misled the judge about their intentions in order to gain access to the information knowing they were not going to pursue a case.

Rosen, who has not been charged in the case, was nonetheless the target of a search warrant that enabled Justice Department investigators to secretly seize his private emails after an FBI agent said he had “asked, solicited and encouraged … (a source) to disclose sensitive United States internal documents and intelligence information.”

Not surprisingly the media is outraged. The violation of their privacy is not only unconstitutional but is a threat to journalism itself. Without the ability to provide protection for sources general, let alone investigative, journalism is impossible.

Attorney General Holder has yet to offer an explanation for his actions.

Long time, no see.

International Developments

❖ “Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused Iran’s leaders of incompetence and ignorance”.

❖ “Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the UN’s atomic agency says”.

❖ “Suicide bombers have struck a military camp and a French-run uranium mine” in Niger. At least 19 killed, 18 of them soldiers.

❖ “Britain to be physically removed from Europe”. ;)

International Finance

❖ Two points of light?  “Chile’s Recent Lead Negotiator on Trans-Pacific Partnership Warns It Could Be a ‘Threat to Our Countries’”.   There’s also concern in Japan.

❖ Ireland’s a wee bit uncomfortable with Apple’s disclosure of its Irish tax breaks.  Ireland’s Finance Minister pointed to the 150,000 Irish jobs generated by the Apple tax arrangement.  Prime Minister Enda Kenny called for a “new international consensus on tax regimes for multinationals” as he headed out the door to a EU meeting.

❖ “Shrinking eurozone output suggests recession in second quarter”.  France and Germany “still in contraction territory.”

❖ Stockholm suburbs ablaze  again due to “unrest sparked by long-term youth unemployment as poverty spreads.”

Money Matters USA

❖ “[D]esperate actions by desperate people fighting a rigged economic system and their own government’s implication in the policies that support it.”  Do-not-miss article by DDay on job action by fast food workers and federal minimum wage employees, homeowners’ protest in front of the DOJ, etc.

❖ Damage “caused by the relentless corporate drive for profits” is obvious.  ‘Multinationals’ = “No Allegiance to Anyone”, plus “Making the World Pay for Them”; includes a dirty quote from Larry Summers.

❖ Average CEO pay went from a record $9.6m in 2011 to $9.7m in 2012.  “Health care and media CEOs enjoyed the highest pay, while utility CEOs had the lowest”.  Oh, and 60% of CEOs got a raise last year.

❖ The West, TX fertilizer plant explosion last month “highlights the failing of a U.S. federal law intended to save lives during chemical accidents”.

Politics, USA

❖ Medea Benjamin of Code Pink interrupted President Obama today as he gave his counterterroism speech.  Video.

❖  Do the “new classified policy guidance” on drone killings from President Obama almost constitute an ACLU victory?

❖ Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY):  “My Colleagues Just Voted to Arm the Allies of al Qaeda.”

❖ President Obama standing on principle in the AP documents seizure.

❖ “Lack of cooperation” characterized IRS officials’ response to Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA)’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and  the Treasury Department Inspector General’s investigation. The IRS is now conducting an internal investigation, and the Justice Department a criminal one.  Update:  Internal emails “indicate . . . that the agency’s targeting of conservative groups was designed by low-level employees in the Cincinnati office”–who were supervised by somebody, right? Update:  Lois Lerner placed on administrative leave.

❖ Jon Stewart upends both the IRS and Apple matters.

❖ The House voted 241-175 to  declare that a presidential permit was not needed to approve the Canada-to-Nebraska leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline.”  This legislative wonderment is not expected to succeed in the Senate.  Update: “House supporters of KXL received $56m from fossil fuel industry.

❖ Booga-Booga.  Senators Harry “Leader” Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are “sniping” at each other over the “nuclear option”.

❖ Oh, joy.  WI Gov. Scott Walker (R)’s visiting IA next week and being coy as to why.

❖ SC Gov. Nikki Haley has appointed “a white supremacist to her steering committee.”

Health, Homelessness & Hunger

❖ “More than 100 leukemia experts from around the world have signed an opinion piece objecting to the high prices of cancer drugs.

❖ Amazing: 3-D printing for an infant’s airway tube.

❖ IA Gov. Terry Branstad (R) and the IA legislature have agreed that the state will accept federal funding for expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

❖ UnitedHealth, Aetna and Cigna aren’t participating in CA’s “new health insurance market”; Kaiser, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield are participating.

The War on Women

❖ How utterly stupid:  Barbara Listing of MI’s Right to Life has compared rape to a car accident and thinks women who fear rape should purchase their own insurance to cover abortions in such instances. Video of her actually saying this.

❖ Army Sergeant at the Military Academy at West Pointtook “inappropriate photos and videos of women” and is now under arrest. There was a year-long delay in formally charging the sergeant.

❖ “Oklahoma Senate Votes To Defund Planned Parenthood Two Days After Tornado”.

❖ WI Republicans have a bunch of bills “aimed at regulating abortion services, restricting insurance coverage for abortions and birth control and bolstering constitutional protections for religious groups and activities.”

❖ Is this the future in the USA?  Gender-specific torture?

Education Directions

❖ Amazing stuff about Rahmbo’s Chicago school closures.  E.g., 48% of Crispus Attucks elementary school students are homeless. The school is now scheduled for its second move in five years, this time for a merger with another school which also has many homeless students.

❖ 9-year-old socks it to Rahmbo!

Planet Earth News

❖ The UK’s Prince Charles has called for a war on animal poachers.  Sure beats the one on drugs.  Update: World Wildlife Fund intends to deploy drones (Africa or  Asia) in an effort to counter poaching.

❖ 71-27, the vote by which the US Senate rejected a amendment allowing “states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.”

❖ “Russia to evacuate Arctic station over melting ice”.

❖ 10 US cities that will be hardest hit by global warming.

Latin America

❖ The conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity has been overturned.  A US photographer/Pulitzer Prize winner who was in Guatemala during those years of terror reflects.

❖ Argentina has charged three “former Ford Motor Co. executives . . . with crimes against humanity for allegedly targeting Argentine union workers for kidnapping and torture after the country’s 1976 military coup.”

Mixed Bag

❖ A “supermassive galaxy ten times the size of the Milky Way”.

❖ How tornadoes form.

Break Time 

❖ Flight through Monument Valley

American Citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki was killed by a drone strike in Yemen solely on the authority of President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki never received a trial, was never indicted, nor given any opportunity to address the allegations against him. But today during President Obama’s extensive terrorism speech Mr. Al-Awlaki finally received his trial, a show trial.

President Obama proclaimed to the world:

I’ve insisted on strong oversight of all lethal action. After I took office, my Administration began briefing all strikes outside of Iraq and Afghanistan to the appropriate committees of Congress. Let me repeat that – not only did Congress authorize the use of force, it is briefed on every strike that America takes. That includes the one instance when we targeted an American citizen: Anwar Awlaki, the chief of external operations for AQAP.

The Congressional authorization part is a little too cute. Obama is referencing the authorization of the use of military force of 2001 a law passed in the immediate aftermath (3 days) of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. That would be ten years before the Al-Awlaki killing. The second part, that Congress was “briefed”, is pretty meaningless. Not only did Congress not pass any enabling legislation they also do not have the authority to deny someone their constitutional rights.

Obama went on to present his case for firing missiles at the American.

But when a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against America – and is actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens; and when neither the United States, nor our partners are in a position to capture him before he carries out a plot – his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be protected from a swat team

That’s who Anwar Awlaki was – he was continuously trying to kill people. He helped oversee the 2010 plot to detonate explosive devices on two U.S. bound cargo planes. He was involved in planning to blow up an airliner in 2009. When Farouk Abdulmutallab – the Christmas Day bomber – went to Yemen in 2009, Awlaki hosted him, approved his suicide operation, and helped him tape a martyrdom video to be shown after the attack. His last instructions were to blow up the airplane when it was over American soil. I would have detained and prosecuted Awlaki if we captured him before he carried out a plot. But we couldn’t. And as President, I would have been derelict in my duty had I not authorized the strike that took out Awlaki.

Those are some damning charges. But are they true? We’ll never know beyond a reasonable doubt of course but let’s examine the propaganda.

1. “Anwar Awlaki, the chief of external operations for AQAP”

There is no such title in AQAP as “chief of external operations” though it appears the wording was used today to comply with Attorney General Holder’s standard in the OLC Memos for targeted killing – a “senior operational leader” of Al-Qaeda.

2. “That’s who Anwar Awlaki was – he was continuously trying to kill people. He helped oversee the 2010 plot to detonate explosive devices on two U.S. bound cargo planes. He was involved in planning to blow up an airliner in 2009.”

The evidence is never provided for cargo planes and the evidence provided for the 2009 bombing involves Al-Awalki “approving” the operation and helping the underwear bomber make a video.

This evidence is not only not substantiated or offered for analysis by the public but by itself it’s pretty weak. Not a smoking gun by any stretch of the imagination.

Al-Awalki was, according to him and others, a spiritual teacher not an operative let alone a commander who “approved” missions and since when is helping someone make a last will and testament video a criminal act let alone one that justifies the suspension of due process?

3. “I would have detained and prosecuted Awlaki if we captured him before he carried out a plot. But we couldn’t.”

So why wasn’t Al-Awlaki indicted? The inability to apprehend someone does not invalidate the indictment process.

President Obama drew the analogy to a Swat Team killing a suspect but in those cases the Swat Team is acting as law enforcement – called in by police in the furtherance of a legal process such as an arrest. The Obama Administration went through no codified legal process and the AUMF of 2001 offers no justification for killing U.S. citizens or denying them due process. Obama followed no established legal process.

Furthermore, Al-Awalki was by no means a mysterious figure to the American government he had even met with DoD officials in the Pentagon after 9/11 to advise the government on issues relating to Islam and terrorism. Al-Awalki was also a guest preacher of the Congressional Muslim Staff Association. Al-Awalki had also been through the US legal system a number of times for passport fraud and solicitation of prostitution, he knew people and he knew the system.

Perhaps if he were formally charged, as an American citizen should be, he may have decided to engage the legal system and we would have an actual factual basis to go on rather than unsubstantiated assertions by Obama. None of that happened. Instead an American citizen was killed by the word of one unaccountable man, President Obama.

It is rather obvious now why President Obama waited until after Al-Awlaki was dead to present his case against him to the public, it is considerably unconvincing. The need to put a check on executive power has never been greater.

President Obama speaks at the National Defense University on his terrorism policies. The speech comes in the wake of official acknowledgement that the Obama Administration has killed at least 4 American citizens without due process.

Expected topics: Drones, Gitmo, Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, Civil Liberties

Obama and Penny Pritzker

President Obama’s nomination of Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary was already problematic. Pritkzer is the epitome of the 1% – obscenely rich off of inherited wealth, hostile to workers, and someone who has advanced in politics by giving people money. She was a major campaign contributor and fundraiser for Obama which clearly played a role in her being nominated for Commerce Secretary and would have likely lead to her having been nominated sooner for a post if not for her involvement in a protracted labor dispute.

And also like many of the plutocrats in America Pritzker has a lot of tax abnormalities involving offshore accounts. But now Prtizker is under fire for providing a false financial disclosure statement which she has since amended.

Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker inadvertently understated a portion of her income by at least $80 million in a disclosure form required for her nomination to be U.S. Commerce secretary and has amended the document.

Forms released online last night by the Office of Government Ethics show that Pritzker earned additional income for consulting work on hundreds of trusts, including family trusts, beyond what she disclosed last week. The omission, discovered by Pritzker’s financial advisers, was due to a clerical error, said Susan Anderson, the nominee’s spokeswoman

Not surprisingly Pritzker makes a nice chunk of change “consulting” with other 1%ers.

Documents released last week show Pritzker received $32.2 million for a decade’s worth of consulting on the restructuring of domestic trusts. The filings released yesterday show she earned at least $80 million for that work, according to Bloomberg’s compilation of the data. The revised total is in addition to the amount reported last week, according to Anderson.

Pritzker, whose family founded Hyatt Hotels Corp, is scheduled to testify on her nomination before the Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow. She disclosed last week that she earned $54 million in consulting fees last year for a similar restructuring of trusts based in the Bahamas, also over 10 years. The Bahamas’ income wasn’t changed in the amended disclosure document.

Just what we need in a Commerce Secretary, someone who knows how to help companies offshore their profits to avoid tax liabilities.

Pritzker is being strongly opposed by unions for her actions on the board of directors of her inherited business, Hyatt Hotels. Workers claim the company had unsafe labor practices and are upset by a lack of wages. The Hyatt Hotel union has protested her nomination as organized labor more generally sees this pick as anti-union.

The amended disclosure was offered just in time for Pritkzer’s nomination hearing today before the Senate, 11:00am ET live on C-SPAN 3.

Yesterday Lois Lerner, the head of the Exempt Organizations division of the IRS, took the Fifth Amendment at the House Oversight Committee hearing allowing her to refuse to testify on grounds that she would possibly incriminate herself. However, Lerner also gave a statement proclaiming her innocence.

That statement, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, invalidated Lerner’s use of Fifth Amendment protections.

Lois Lerner might win the legal battle but she’s prolonging the political war.

Instead of simply taking the scorn of lawmakers for a day, repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination, and then moving on, she chose defiance. And her bravado has prompted House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to say she has waived her constitutional right to not comment.

There is considerable dispute on the legal question of whether or not Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights by offering an opening statement that directly addressed the concerns of the hearing.  It would not be allowed in a court room, but she wasn’t in a court room.

Chairman Issa still believes Lerner tried to have it both ways and in doing so nullified her right against self-incrimination.

“When I asked her her questions from the very beginning, I did so so she could assert her rights prior to any statement,” Issa told POLITICO. “She chose not to do so — so she waived.”

Lerner shocked the committee room in the opening moments of Wednesday’s hearing by delivering an opening statement denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government service.

Lerner is likely to be forced back into the hearing room and might possibly face a contempt charge if she continues to assert Fifth Amendment rights. Though a court may invalidate the contempt charge. The ranking Democrat on the committee Elijah Cummings said he did not believe she waived her Fifth Amendment rights with the opening statement denying wrongdoing.

Chairman Issa never adjourned the hearing – it is technically in recess – which means Issa will not have to issue new subpoenas to bring Lerner back to testify.

Foreclosure Protester Arrested At DOJ

As Occupy Our Homes demonstrates at the Department of Justice the fraudclosure crisis continues unabated.

A Florida family man who not only made his mortgage payments on time but made payments early faces foreclosure by Wells Fargo. The explanation for initiating the foreclosure proceedings by Wells Fargo is nothing short of amazing and offers a sad commentary on how little has changed despite the 2008 financial crisis and supposed reforms like Dodd-Frank.

Etienne Syldor said he’s worked his whole life for a home in Orlando for his wife and three children.

Syldor is an immigrant from Haiti and a bus driver at Walt Disney World. At times, he said he has worked multiple jobs to make sure he never missed a mortgage payment.

Last year, Wells Fargo offered him mortgage modification, and he was told if he made four monthly payments during a trial period, the modification would be permanent.

So far so good. Family man working multiple jobs to make sure he is paying his bills – personal responsibility and all that jazz. Court records confirm that Syldor made his payments.

Then something funny happened. Despite the payments Wells Fargo began foreclosure proceedings on Syldor. Not surprisingly this made no sense to Syldor who, thankfully, hired an attorney and contacted a news station.

Wells Fargo’s statement to the news station is one for the ages.

Wells Fargo, bank representative Veronica Clemons sent a statement:

“For some loans, completing trial payments is a significant step toward a permanent modification; however, in this instance, the loan was part of a mortgage-backed security and in a protected pool, with specific payment guidelines. We are working with Mr. Syldor to explain the guidelines and explore options that may help.”

The bank told Eyewitness News Syldor didn’t follow the modification guidelines because he paid early and sometimes his payments were sent one on top of the other

Oh the absurdist world of MBS. Because Wells Fargo sold Mr. Syldor one of these chopped up and reassembled frankenloans it didn’t matter that the bank was getting paid – usually the goal of loaning money – what mattered was that the arcane calculus of the derivative was not being complied with. And since Syldor was so happy to have a home for his family and was able to cobble together the cash from working multiple jobs he rushed to pay his mortgage to keep his home. His reward? Foreclosure proceedings that would have put him and his family on the street.

It’s 2013 and we are still dealing with this nonsense.

Photo by Occupy Wall Street via Twitter.

Lois Lerner, the head of the Exempt Organizations division of the IRS, just took the fifth amendment at the House Government Oversight Committee refusing to testify on the grounds that she might incriminate herself.

Despite taking the fifth, Learner protested her innocence of any wrongdoing.

“I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

Lerner was then excused from the hearing. Her future at the IRS is unclear.

The Exempt Organizations division of the IRS is tasked with evaluating whether organizations qualify for tax exempt status such as the Section 501(c)(4) status which groups targeted in the IRS Scandal were seeking.

Questions remain what further consequences, if any, persons in the IRS will face in response to the scandal.

Lawmakers pressing for more heads to roll at the Internal Revenue Service are going to be disappointed.

“Why weren’t more people fired?” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) demanded at a hearing Tuesday on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, channeling the frustration of his colleagues.

In fact, it appears that no one has been formally reprimanded and a spokesperson for the union representing IRS workers said it hasn’t been called to help any employees yet. Most employees involved in the targeting program are covered by protections for federal workers that could drag out the termination process.

No matter how many “heads roll” at the IRS the damage to the public trust has been done. The only question left is how many people knew about the targeting and whether it was a result of policy-making from above or rogue elements in the IRS.

The Associated Press were not the only ones to have their phone records seized by the government as it was revealed Tuesday that Fox News had their phone records seized as part of the Obama Administration’s war on whistleblowers. After being labeled a “co-conspirator” Fox News reporter James Rosen was targeted for doing basic journalism.

The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, on October 13, 2011…

Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, has seized records associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number.

It had been previously reported that Rosen’s personal emails on his gmail account were seized as part of the investigation.

The New York Times condemned the actions of the Obama Justice Department Tuesday as endangering the freedom of the press.

With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news…

The Rosen case follows other signs that the administration has gone overboard in its zeal to find and muzzle insiders. The Associated Press revealed last week that the government had secretly seized two months’ worth of records for telephones used by the agency’s staff, partly to determine the source of a leak about a report involving a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen. At least two other major leak investigations are continuing. Six current and former administration officials have been indicted under the old Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press and public…

Obama administration officials often talk about the balance between protecting secrets and protecting the constitutional rights of a free press. Accusing a reporter of being a “co-conspirator,” on top of other zealous and secretive investigations, shows a heavy tilt toward secrecy and insufficient concern about a free press.

The attack by the Obama Administration on basic journalistic practices could have long lasting impact on the American media, particularly the labeling of a journalist talking to a source of information as “co-conspiracy” in a crime. Even more astounding is the hyper-vigilance being shown against minor leaks of information to journalists when compared to the Justice Department’s blase attitude towards crime on Wall Street which brought actual instability to the country in 2008 or, rather, is a genuine threat to National Security.

Not to mention the White House leaks information to the press constantly. Was Isikoff a co-conspirator? Or is this attack on journalism about something else?

Members of one of Occupy Wall Street’s offshoots, Occupy Our Homes, were arrested Monday and Tuesday demonstrating outside the headquarters of the Department of Justice in Washington.

According to Washington police the protesters attempted to enter the building.

About 100 protesters with groups called the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes marched on the building about 2 p.m. Some set up tents on the lawn and sidewalk while others ran up to the building’s Constitution Avenue entrance.

According to D.C. police, 17 people were arrested. Ann C. Wilcox, an attorney who represents protesters, said several were tased during the scuffle. A D.C. police spokeswoman said D.C. police were not involved in the tasing. Federal law enforcement officials on the scene declined comment.

During the arrest tasers were used on protester Carmen Pittman who was arrested outside the Department of Justice.

Part of the reason for the protest at DOJ, according to activists, is to demonstrate strong opposition to comments Attorney General Eric Holder made regarding his inability to prosecute Wall Street banks due to the risks such a prosecution brings to the financial system. These statements were later characterized as Holder in effect saying some banks were Too Big To Jail and therefore corruption by Wall Street would continue indefinitely with the tacit sanction of the government.

Occupiers also cited the unjust fraudulent foreclosure settlement and continual foreclosures as grievances that led to the protest. The miniscule amount of money the banks paid is not only seen as comically inefficient at making victims whole but extremely ineffective in deterring future crimes. The banks escaped justice thanks to the Justice Department.

The Occupy Our Homes protest at DOJ is part of the Wall Street Accountability Week of Action.