In what has now become all too familiar, bit by bit, information emerges on yet another scandal. Some say this one could be Nixonian, but that may not be true. What is true though, is the totality of all the scandals. Currently most call three the ‘triumvirate’ or ‘trinity’ scandals but they are only the latest. In total, the picture is criminal.

We must avoid losing sight of the older scandals as the latest three emerge and the Obama Administration covers, ducks, obfuscates. And let’s not forget how many “I don’t know”, “I don’t recall”, “there’s an investigation” and other lame excuses repeated so often one could bet against the over/under in Vegas likely as to how many we will hear each time.

Always remember where Benghazi-gate’s roots emanate, ‘Extortion 17′, the deaths of many SEAL Team VI members in a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan in 2011. Then there is still Fast and Furious, Solyndra, HHS secretary Sebelius pressuring private entities to help fund PPACA, or  ObamaCare – illegally, circumventing Congress.

Anonymous Cincinnati IRS official: “Everything comes from the top.”

By Sean Higgins - Senior Editorial Writer - The Washington Examiner

A story in the Washington Post yesterday about the Internal Revenue Service’s Cincinnati office, which does most of the agency’s nonprofit auditing, clearly contradicted earlier reports that the agency’s targeting of Tea Party groups was the result of rogue agents.

Acting IRS commissioner Steve Miller at Friday’s hearing with the now familiar smirk and attitude.

The Post story anonymously quoted a staffer in Cincinnati as saying they only operate on directives from headquarters:

As could be expected, the folks in the determinations unit on Main Street have had trouble concentrating this week. Number crunchers, whose work is nonpolitical, don’t necessarily enjoy the spotlight, especially when the media and the public assume they’re engaged in partisan villainy.

“We’re not political,’’ said one determinations staffer in khakis as he left work late Tuesday afternoon. “We people on the local level are doing what we are supposed to do. . . . That’s why there are so many people here who are flustered. Everything comes from the top. We don’t have any authority to make those decisions without someone signing off on them. There has to be a directive.”

The staff member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said that the determinations unit is competent and without bias, that it grouped together conservative applications “for consistency’s sake” — so one application did not sail through while a similar one was held up in review. This consistency is paramount in the review of all applications, according to Ronald Ran, an estate-tax lawyer who worked for 37 years in the IRS’s Cincinnati office.

This pretty plainly contradicts the story coming out of the IRS that rogue agents in Cincinnati were responsible:

News of (acting IRS commissioner Steve) Miller’s resignation followed revelations that the IRS has identified two “rogue” employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office as being principally responsible for the “overly aggressive” handling of requests by conservative groups for tax-exempt status, a congressional source told CNN.

Miller said the staffers have already been disciplined, according to another source familiar with Miller’s discussions with congressional investigators. The second source said Miller emphasized that the problem with IRS handling of tax-exempt status for tea party groups was not limited to these two employees.

In related news, I also noted how the Post’s story on the Cincinnati office also appears to contradict what Miller told Congress this week about how many auditors the IRS has covering nonprofit groups. Miller said the figure was between 140-200, but the Post story puts the figure at 900. The Post doesn’t source the figure, but presumably that also came from people the reporters talked with in Cincinnati.

The post Unnamed IRS Employee says: “Everything comes from the top.” appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

The very people who accused the right so vehemently of the same  are actually the ones we allege committed the most harm to the civil rights of patriotic Americans and are now covering it up. Stay tuned, its all going to emerge and should make for a very bumpy ride for the White House. Ultimately, this is about abuse of power, voter and first amendment suppression, and the specter of what lays before us as the PPACA (Obamacare) is implemented.

We await the ‘perp-walks’ – rightfully so!

CLAIM – Obama campaign C0-Chair attacked Romney with leaked IRS documents

by MATTHEW BOYLE - Breitbart

One of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

NOM, a pro-traditional marriage organization, claims the IRS leaked their 2008 confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012. At that time, Joe Solmonese, a left-wing activist and Huffington Post contributor, was the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Solmonese was also a 2012 Obama campaign co-chairman.

Both the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and HRC described the leak as coming from a “whistleblower.” The Huffington Post used the document to write a story questioning former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s support for traditional marriage. The document showed Romney donated $10,000 to NOM. HRC went a step further than the Huffington Post in its criticism of Romney and accused him of using “racially divisive tactics” in a press release.

Solmonese, then still the HRC’s president, said in the release he felt Romney’s “funding of a hate-filled campaign designed to drive a wedge between Americans is beyond despicable.”

“Not only has Romney signed NOM’s radical marriage pledge, now we know he’s one of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these years,” Solmonese added.

Solmonese resigned his position at HRC the next day and took up a position as an Obama campaign co-chair. He had announced the then-pending resignation from HRC the previous autumn.

NOM announced Tuesday that it will sue the IRS for this alleged leak. Under immense political pressure, Attorney General Eric Holder launched a criminal investigation into the IRS’s actions. Congress will conduct ts own investigation.

In early April 2012, NOM published documents which it said showed this leaked confidential information did not come from a “whistleblower” but “came directly from the Internal Revenue Service and was provided to NOM’s political opponents, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).”

NOM discovered that when HRC published its confidential financial documents, it failed to conceal the source of the documents. “After software removed the layers obscuring the document, it is shown that the document came from the Internal Revenue Service,” NOM asserted in its April 2012 release.

“The top of each page says, ‘THIS IS A COPY OF A LIVE RETURN FROM SMIPS. OFFICIAL USE ONLY,’” the statement continues. “On each page of the return is stamped a document ID of ‘100560209.’ Only the IRS would have the Form 990 with ‘Official Use’ information.”

NOM president Brian Brown argued in that April 2012 release that the leak was made to benefit President Obama’s re-election campaign against Romney, his GOP challenger. “The American people are entitled to know how a confidential tax return containing private donor information filed exclusively with the Internal Revenue Service has been given to our political opponents whose leader also happens to be co-chairing President Obama’s reelection committee,” Brown said.

“It is shocking that a political ally of President Obama’s would come to possess and then publicly release a confidential tax return that came directly from the Internal Revenue Service,” he declared. “We demand to know who is responsible for this criminal act and what the Administration is going to do to get to the bottom of it.”

The post Did IRS leaks harm Romney Campaign – free speech? appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

Originally published at Townhall.com

Grief and politics don’t mix. When raw, aching grief and the dirtiest kind of politics meet, a hot volcano of pain and outrage erupts that is unstoppable. But it is necessary. It is the only way things might ever be clean again.

I am thinking of recent casket transfer ceremonies that have taken place at Dover Air Force Base, where senior administration officials have used the solemn occasions — Benghazi, the shoot-down of Extortion 17 — less to comfort grieving families than to lay blame; to establish a narrative; to lie.

Think of Sean Smith’s mother. Think of Tyrone Woods’ father. After the Obama administration’s hugs came the Obama administration’s stonewalling. They still don’t have answers about what happened to their children in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012.

We don’t either.

We still don’t know who in the U.S. government gave the order not to rescue Americans under fire for eight and a half hours, and how and why such an unconscionable order was given. We still don’t know who convinced senior White House officials to tell grieving parents meeting their children’s caskets that a video-maker, not jihad against the West, was to blame for the assault that took four American lives — or what the political motivation was.

This is a national disgrace.

But before Benghazi, there was Extortion 17, the call sign of a special operations mission in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011. Three months after the strike on Osama bin Laden, 30 Americans — including 15 from the bin Laden strike-team unit, Navy SEAL Team 6, and two other SEALs — were killed in the costliest single-day loss for the U.S. military in the Afghanistan war, and the largest SEAL loss ever. A “lucky shot” in the dark brought down the old CH-47 Chinook helicopter attempting to land them in the middle of an ongoing battle in Wardak Province. Or so the U.S. military claims. The families are not so sure.

Then again, they’re not sure about anything. The runaround, the lies, the callous disregard they have received at the hands of the government and military is similar to Benghazi, maybe worse.

“We go to Dover to see bodies, and we’re all in the hangar down there,” Charles Strange, father of slain SEAL Michael Strange, recalled last week before a rapt audience at the National Press Club, where several Extortion 17 families gathered to call on Congress to investigate. “And President Obama comes up to me and he says, ‘Mr. Strange’ — and he grabs me by the shoulders — ‘Michael changed the way America lives.’ I grabbed Mr. President by the shoulders and I said: ‘I don’t need to know about my son, I need to know what happened, Mr. President.’

Strange continued. “The Secret Service guys grabbed me. I’m crying. He went to give me a hug. I whispered in his ear: ‘Mr. President, Is there going to be an congressional inquiry?’ And Mr. President whispered in my ear — and I could feel his lips touch — and he said, ‘Mr. Strange, we’re going to look into this very, very, very deep.’ Well, I haven’t heard nothing.”

Nothing that makes sense, anyway. A military investigation led by then-Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Colt (since promoted to major general) tells us there was no “eye in the sky” that night. Why not? No forces had been sent in to prepare the area. Why not?

More sickening was the fact that rules of engagement prevented suppressive fire from being aimed at the tower firing on the Chinook. Billy Vaughn, father of slain SEAL Aaron Vaughn, recalled how a three-star admiral explained this breach to the grieving families: U.S. forces couldn’t fire back, the admiral said, because “we want to win hearts and minds.” As Mr. Strange later put it: “What about my heart? What about my mind?”

American hearts and minds don’t count with this U.S. government — and that is our national tragedy until we change the government.

What commander is responsible for assembling so many SEALs in one inadequate aircraft, for this particular landing site, for a mission many believe was in fact unnecessary? Extortion 17 took off three months after the strike on bin Laden, three months after the Obama administration blew SEAL Team 6’s cover in the bin Laden raid, three months after intelligence indicated the Taliban were out for revenge. “The chain of command” was responsible, the families were told. Who were they? No answer.

Why was there no gunship escort that night? What happened in the final minutes of Extortion 17? The black box was never recovered, the military insists. Really? What about the seven Afghan soldiers who joined the mission at the last minute, replacing Afghans previously scheduled to fly? No one knows the identities of this last-minute group, or why they flew that day. More troubling still, military investigators didn’t interview Afghan commanders to find out.

Why not? To win their “hearts and minds,” too? The word for that is “submission.” Such submission also explains the appalling inclusion of an imam at the casket transfer ceremony in Afghanistan — a ceremony preceding the transport of the dead bodies, American and Afghan, to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where they would finally be identified. (This makes families wonder whether American sons lay in caskets draped with the Afghan flag.) There, in the midst of an otherwise ecumenical ceremony (devoid of any mention of Jesus Christ), the imam invoked Allah, while establishing that Muslims reside in heaven and non-Muslims reside in hell.

Standard Islamic fare, to be sure, but this is the same supremacist basis of the jihad that killed the men of Extortion 17. No wonder the families are doubly outraged.

As should we all be. Congress must investigate Extortion 17 and find out exactly what happened, and who bears responsibility. It is the very least we can do for our people.

________________

Diana West’s new book is “American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character,” scheduled for release this month. She blogs at dianawest.net, and she can be contacted via dianawest@verizon.net.

The post Afghanistan’s Benghazi: The Shoot-Down of Extortion 17 appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

Another winner from the Holder Department of Justice. Feeling safer yet?

Terrorist Entered Witness Protection, Then Fled the United States

BY SPENCER ACKERMAN – Wired – The Danger Room

Should you ever be accused of terrorism, here’s what you should do: Snitch on your friends, demand to be placed under witness protection, then fly out of the country. According to a stunning report from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog, this is remarkably easy to do — and it’s actually happened.

Not one, but two suspected terrorists placed in the federal witness security (WITSEC) program have managed to elude the U.S. Marshals Service, even though their status as suspected terrorists meant the should have appeared on federal no-fly lists.

The Justice Department’s inspector general found that terrorists who snitch and enter witness protection can — and in some cases have — evaded federal no-fly lists. Photo: redjar/Flickr

“In July 2012, the USMS stated that it was unable to locate two former WITSEC participants identified as known or suspected terrorists,” according to the Justice Department’s inspector general (.pdf), “and that through its investigative efforts it has concluded that one individual was and the other individual was believed to be residing outside of the United States.”

Neither individual is identified, and it is not clear when they gave the feds the slip. Apparently, only two former terrorists entered witness protection in the last six years. Jake Tapper first reported this for CNN.

This amazing turn of events is part of what the inspector general termed “significant deficiencies” in how known or suspected terrorists are handled after they flip, testify on their former comrades and enter witness protection. The underlying problem is almost laughably absurd: Once the terrorists get new identities, those identities aren’t provided to the Transportation Security Agency for inclusion on the federal No-Fly List.

Accordingly, “it was possible for known or suspected terrorists to fly on commercial airplanes in or over the United States and evade one of the government’s primary means of identifying and tracking terrorists’ movements and actions,” the inspector general writes. Some individuals in witness protection “were on the TSA’s No Fly List yet were allowed to fly on commercial flights with WITSEC Program officials’ knowledge and approval.” This ain’t Henry Hill from Goodfellas pining for properly cooked Italian food after snitching.

The evasion of the No-Fly List for terrorists in witness protection wasn’t considered a problem until the inspector general brought it to the attention of law enforcement and homeland security officials, the report states. Before May 2012, there wasn’t even a process to share witness protection information on terrorists with the FBI. Without informing the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center about new terrorist identities, there’s no way the tracking databases like the No-Fly that feed off the Center’s information can know about them.

According to the inspector general, the Justice Department doesn’t even “definitively know” how many known or suspected terrorists are in witness protection. The public might be surprised to learn that there even is a witness-protection option for terrorist suspects. But the inspector general says its snitches have “provided invaluable and critical information and testimony” in cases ranging from the Oklahoma City bombing to the 2007 attempt to blow up jet fuel tanks at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The Justice Department doesn’t contest the watchdog’s alarming findings about the absconded terrorists. “[W]e agree that the suitability and monitoring requirements historically employed in administering the Program should be enhanced for terrorism-linked witnesses,” Armando Bonilla, a senior counsel to Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Bonilla said that the Marshals Service and the Justice Department Criminal Division’s Office of Enforcement Operations have now disclosed to the FBI and other agencies “the true and new identities and known aliases” of “all identified former known or suspected terrorists admitted into the WitSec Program.”

“The Government generally cannot choose its witnesses,” Bonilla notes.

Nor, apparently, can it always keep track of those witnesses after it gives them protection.

The post WITSEC – Terrorist protected by DOJ, gone! appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

By the way, she received over $103,000 in bonuses at her previous post that conducted the targeting.

IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office

By John Parkinson and Steven Portnoy – ABC News

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Sarah Hall Ingram – Ran ‘Tea Party’ targeting scheme, now PPACA – ‘Obamacare’

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.

“Fully repealing ObamaCare will help us build a stronger, healthier economy, and will clear the way for patient-centered reforms that lower health care costs and protect jobs,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”

Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.

“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated. “I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also reacted to the revelation late Thursday, stating the news was “stunning, just stunning.”

ABC News’ Abby D. Phillip contributed to this report. 

The post IRS ‘Targeting’ Commissioner now runs PPACA appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

We at SUA often wondered openly what happened to our movement – well its clear now – it was illegal voter suppression and first amendment suppression by the IRS. Tyranny is at hand already – and PPACA is on the way, led by the same woman who lead the illegal activity in the Cincinnati office of the IRS. Read the report here: IRS IG Report.

The “tip of the iceberg” is a gross understatement of this investigation. Remember, the IG’s Report is NOT the investigation, that was basically an internal audit, the House will be conducting the investigation, and the IG is not done yet either.

We have to double-down now while the iron is hot – but we must be smart about it. We must make sure this scandal gets a complete and total airing in the disinfecting light of the noon-time sun. To do that, SUA plans to be in the forefront of reporting and analyzing this and all the other scandals, but as always, it takes scarce resources and we rely upon you for those resources. Please consider a donation as you read MG Vallely’s letter posted below.

Dear SUA Members and Supporters,

Paul E. Vallely, MG US Army Ret.

Stand Up America US (SUA) was founded in 2005 because we were witnessing the decline of America; the dismantling of our Constitution, and the destruction of the very fabric of our society. Our mission has been to educate and inform the public, to uncover and expose wrong doing, to be stewards of fact and reason, and to help right our ship of state based upon constitutional conservatism. But we are being out-gunned, out-spent, out-organized, and over-run.

It is well known that since the Obama Administration has taken over, our diplomatic and military influence, power, reputation, and morale is in steep decline. Additionally, confidence in our government is now at an all-time low and undermines our system to the core. With so many scandals now under investigation, the people cannot rely on equal treatment under the law and the specter of tyranny is now more evident than ever, despite the President’s words at the commencement ceremony at Ohio State in which he said “They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.”

We now know that the IRS has operated from an ideological slant that belies the rule-of-law and this administration is also conducting a set of cover ups for many other scandals such as Benghazi, the AP/leaks phone records seizures, the ‘Extortion 17’ investigation, Fast and Furious, illegal NLRB appointments, the ‘Pigford’ law suit, Obama Care, the Syria debacle, and much more. It is now clear that the Obama Administration has been using federal agencies and selective enforcement of law as their own tool box for personal and political gain.

On many levels, our way of life has changed, maybe for good, especially when Obama has turned the CIA into his own hit squad with his personal “kill-list” while ignoring the clear danger signals and serious threats arising all over the world. As he leads from behind he sets America back – we cannot tolerate this any longer. “Red Lines” have been crossed!

He is blatantly hiding in plain sight, continually deflecting Americans’ focus, and extracting power to his own ends. His words and actions are meant to deceive and destroy, and he demagogues those who disagree. His never ending campaigning to raise taxes and strip us of our 2^nd Amendment rights goes on unchecked, and he continually avoids giving truthful answers on so many fronts. More staggering is that over seven months have passed since Benghazi and the President is still taking a pass and sticking to their talking points, obfuscation, deflections with a blatant disregard for honesty and critical leadership.

With your help, SUA can continue to help expose this tragic and blatant undermining of our military, our governmental system and our nation’s fabric and ethics. We have upcoming books, press conferences, videos and more that will shed light on the extortive and anti-American practices of the Obama Administration. Our military families need for your help, all of America needs your help!

Additionally SUA has added significant resources to ensure we stay at the cutting edge of intelligence gathering and analysis, both at home and abroad and we plan to add further quality components to our web site to help keep you informed. This has been financially taxing but it has added great value as SUA continues to influence lawmakers and policy makers.

We are thankful for the support we have received from so many generous sources over the years, both in funding and volunteerism, but sadly, our job is far from over and we have much more to do.

PLEASE HELP Stand Up America expose and stop these insidious deeds and decline. Thank you again for your support – please make a donation today by navigating to this link or click on the button.

MG Paul E. Vallely, US Army (Ret.)

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The “lead from behind” or “laissez-faire” stance that our government has taken over Syrian atrocities with red lines that are drawn but not backed up by action. We are a “paper tiger” to our enemies in their minds. Now the Russians have decided openly to re-supply the Assad Regime with missiles. This bold and open slap in the face of Israel and the USA may be taking place now because of the confusion in our country.

When our Commander-in-Chief has scandal after scandal to deal with, one must wonder if his mind and staff are able to apply the appropriate attention such moves demand. Despite this thought, the USS Kearsarge is in the area, and the crew welcomed a visit by Israeli officials off their coast and US officials have sent a stern message to the Russians as some Israelis openly warn others not to mess with Israel amongst all the confusion and fog of the Syrian civil war. - View the video of the Kearsarge visit below.

Mobile missile launchers drive down Tverskaya Street during rehearsals for the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow April 25, 2013. Photo by Reuters

Meanwhile as the Defense Department worries, the State Department says its a year old story reports Fox News; ask that question again, are these leaders able to devote the appropriate attention?

Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles to Aid Assad in Syria

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT – NY Times

WASHINGTON — Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday.

Russia has previously provided a version of the missiles, called Yakhonts, to Syria. But those delivered recently are outfitted with an advanced radar that makes them more effective, according to American officials who are familiar with classified intelligence reports and would only discuss the shipment on the basis of anonymity.

Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has used against opposition forces, the Yakhont antiship missile system provides the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter any effort by international forces to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.

“It enables the regime to deter foreign forces looking to supply the opposition from the sea, or from undertaking a more active role if a no-fly zone or shipping embargo were to be declared at some point,” said Nick Brown, editor in chief of IHS Jane’s International Defense Review. “It’s a real ship killer.”

Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior American intelligence official, said Syria’s strengthened arsenal would “tend to push Western or allied naval activity further off the coast” and was also “a signal of the Russian commitment to the Syrian government.”

The disclosure of the delivery comes as Russia and the United States are planning to convene an international conference that is aimed at ending the brutal conflict in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000. That conference is expected to be held in early June and to include representatives of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition.

Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly said that it is the United States’ hope to change Mr. Assad’s “calculations” about his ability to hold on to power so that he will allow negotiations for a political solution to the conflict. Mr. Kerry indicated that he had raised the issue of Russian arms deliveries to Syria during his recent visit to Moscow, but declined to provide details.

“I think we’ve made it crystal clear we would prefer that Russia was not supplying assistance,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”

American officials have been concerned that the flow of Russian and Iranian arms to Syria will buttress Mr. Assad’s apparent belief that he can prevail militarily.

“This weapons transfer is obviously disappointing and will set back efforts to promote the political transition that is in the best interests of the Syrian people and the region,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Thursday night. “There is now greater urgency for the U.S. to step up assistance to the moderate opposition forces who can lead Syria after Assad.”

Read the whole story here.

________________

U.S. warns Russian missiles may embolden Syria’s Assad, prolong conflict

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey calls shipment of anti-ship missiles ‘ill-timed and very unfortunate.’ Rights group says obtained evidence of arbitrary detention and torture by Assad’s forces.

By Reuters and DPA  - Haaretz

A Russian shipment of anti-ship missiles to Syria could embolden President Bashar Assad’s forces and prolong the conflict, the top U.S. military officer said on Friday. “It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering, so it’s ill-timed and very unfortunate,” General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon.

Dempsey said he was referring specifically to the anti-ship missiles sent by Russia. The missiles, called Yakhonts, are equipped with an advanced radar that renders them more effective, according to officials who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified intelligence information.

Also on Friday, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon voiced disappointment over Syria’s refusal to let UN inspectors enter the country to check reports about the use of chemical weapons. “It is deplorable that the team could not visit Syria to do an investigation on the ground,” Ban said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Russia supports the UN investigation, said Lavrov, expressing hope that an agreement between Damascus and the UN would be found, the Interfax news agency reported.

The United States, Britain and Israel have said there is evidence that sarin gas has been used in Syria. Russia, a key Syria ally, and the United States last week agreed to call for a peace conference to discuss an end to the 26-month conflict, which the UN refugee agency said Friday has sent at least 1.5 million Syrians fleeing the country.

Syria’s civil war will also be the focus of talks between Israeli officials and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle who arrived in Tel Aviv Friday. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch accused the Syrian government of arbitrarily detaining and torturing opponents in security buildings.

The New York-based group’s researchers found documents and evidence of the abuse when they visited the state security and military intelligence facilities in al-Raqqa in northern Syria late April after local armed opposition groups took control of the city.

“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” the group’s deputy Middle East director, Nadim Houry, said.

In addition, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia has dispatched a dozen or more warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Syria, as part of the European country’s newly aggressive stance that evidently seeks to deter the West and Israel from getting involved the crisis in Syria.

These reports come just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and asked him not to sell Syria anti-aircraft missiles.

The post Russia ships missiles to Syria – US ‘response’, Israeli ‘response’ appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

We need an “Obama declassification” – would be a lot more positive to America’s needs and security. Ask this, how do you think the world views us now?

Apparently Obama now has that ‘flexibility’ he told Medvedev, and thereby, Putin he would get after the re-election. Second terms get new honeymoons, this one is long over, and now the scandal times begin – thanks America, this is what a lot you voted for.

Mr. Obama, you can deflect, you can lie, and you can demagogue, but now even your friends in the main stream media are pissed – here it comes! But when it comes to your DOJ monitoring AP reporters while you declassify missile defense technology begs the question: “Where do your loyalties lie?”

Russian Topol M Missile

Open Secrets - Pentagon plans to share missile secrets with Russia opposed by Republicans

BY: Bill Gertz - Washington Free Beacon

The Pentagon held internal talks on declassifying sensitive missile defense technology that it plans to share with Russia as part of the Obama administration’s efforts to assuage Moscow’s opposition to European defenses.

Republicans in both the House and Senate plan to block any technology declassification for missile defense technology in the current defense authorization bill and other legislation. Legislative mark up on the authorization bill begins this week.

Critics say giving Russia classified data would undermine the effectiveness of missile defenses, which have cost taxpayers more than $100 billion since the 1980s.

Vice Adm. James Syring, director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA), disclosed during a congressional hearing Wednesday that the Obama administration has asked him about sharing sensitive missile defense data with Russia during talks over the past several years aimed at reaching a missile defense cooperation agreement.

“I have not been asked to declassify anything in terms of disclosing information to Russia,” Syring said under questioning from Rep. Mo Brooks (R., Ala.) at a House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

However, pressed for details, Syring revealed that there were discussions among senior policy officials, including Undersecretary of Defense for Policy James Miller, about “what is classified and what is not” in the context of data sharing with the Russians.

Syring said the discussions involved sensitive data to be used in talks with Moscow, including “the capability of the current missiles we’re building and the velocity of burn out.”

The Obama administration has sought to convince Russia’s government that its phased missile defense plan for Europe will not be used against a Russian missile attack against the United States. As part of that process, Pentagon and State Department officials in the past have tried to give sensitive data to the Russians that they hope would convince them some U.S. defenses do not have the capability to shoot down long-range missiles.

Missile defense specialists have said a missile’s velocity burnout rate is a key characteristic that can be used by states with offensive missiles to defeat the defenses.

Syring told the Senate Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces subcommittee on Thursday that he would not give up valuable technology to the Russians. “I will not cede the advantage of the United States to anybody,” he said.

Syring declined to elaborate on his comments a day earlier about internal discussions on technology declassification and deferred questions to Madelyn Creedon, assistant defense secretary for Global Strategic Affairs.

Creedon said there are no plans to share classified information with the Russians. She said “multiple discussions” were held in the Pentagon regarding how to protect classified data on missile defenses during talks in Moscow.

A Pentagon spokeswoman also sidestepped questions about Syring’s reference to discussions on declassifying data for sharing with the Russians.

The MDA “has not been asked to declassify data to give to Russia, nor has MDA declassified data to give to Russia,” Lt. Col. Monica Matoush said.

She did not respond when asked about the internal discussions on declassifying interceptor burn data and other missile defense capabilities mentioned by Syring.

Brooks said in an interview that he is committed to fighting any missile defense technology sharing with the Russians.

“The more information we share about this technology with any foreign power, the greater the likelihood that our enemies will develop countermeasures, with catastrophic consequences should anyone launch a missile strike against American,” Brooks said.

Brooks has introduced legislation that would ban the sharing of sensitive missile defense technology. If free-standing legislation does not pass, Republicans plan to add language to the annual defense authorization bill prohibiting the sharing of missile defense technology as has been done in the past several years, he said.

Protecting missile defenses and the technology used in them is becoming more important as a result of growing missile threats from both North Korea and Iran, Brooks said.

North Korea last month made unprecedented threats to fire nuclear-tipped long-range missiles at U.S. cities.

Current missile defenses are located on Aegis ships based in Asia and Europe, and at bases in California and Alaska. A ground-based interceptor base is also planned for the East Coast.

The Missile Defense Information Act of 2013, introduced by Brooks earlier this year, would prohibit the Pentagon from sharing missile defense technology, including hit-to-kill know-how, with Russia.

However, if the administration declassifies the technology, it could be shared with a foreign government.

“I know the White House is brazen, but it would be quite remarkable if they would in fact declassify technology that cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to develop,” Brooks said when asked about the technology declassification plans.

“And a technology that is unique in the world,” he added.

Both China and Russia are building missile defenses in response to U.S. missile defenses.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee, criticized the administration data-sharing plan.

“It’s appalling that the administration is considering further concessions—this time, classified information about our missile defenses—just to get Russia to agree to sit down and talk about further nuclear reductions,” Rogers told the Washington Free Beacon. “The administration must stop treating our missile defenses like something it can trade away.”

“If the administration would invest half as much time and effort in countering real threats, like Iran and North Korea, the American people could be a whole lot safer,” Rogers said.

Ed Timperlake, a Pentagon technology security official in the George W. Bush administration, also criticized the technology-sharing plan.

“In a world of very bad ideas that constantly go around in Washington, like the Clinton administration’s effort to limit defenses as part of ABM treaty demarcation, this initiative is truly pointless for the United States, and a huge boon to Russia,” he said. “It makes absolutely no strategic sense for our national security.”

Arms control advocates during the Clinton administration sought to restrict U.S. missile defenses in talks with the Russians, including limits on interceptor velocity, as a way to preserve the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned strategic defenses against nuclear missiles.

President George W. Bush withdrew from the treaty as one of his first acts as president. The withdrawal paved the way for the deployment of U.S. missile defenses.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) on Thursday joined House Republicans in opposing the missile defense technology-sharing plan.

“We will not provide Russia with sensitive info about our missile defense systems,” Kirk stated on Twitter.

Kirk said he is very concerned about the disclosures made by Syring because they raise questions about whether the data being considered for declassification would violate an agreement reached between Congress and the administration in 2011 that no interceptor velocity burnout data would be declassified unless it went through a rigorous security review and if it would benefit U.S. security and U.S. missile defenses.

Syring stated that his guidance to U.S. missile defense negotiators on not disclosing classified information to the Russians in missile defense talks “has been adhered to 100 percent.”

Brooks then said: “I’m not sure that you’re answering the question or maybe I’m not phrasing the question properly. Let me give it another crack. Have you had any discussions not about what information is classified or [un]classified, but, instead have you had any discussions about whether any classified information should become declassified with respect to our missile defense technology [and] Russia?”

“Yes sir, there has been a discussion on the capability of the current missiles we’re building and the velocity of burn out,” Syring said.

Then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher in 2011 offered to provide Moscow with data on the burnout rate for SM-3 interceptor missiles, the mainstay of sea-based defenses.

Republicans opposed that effort as well.

Paula A. DeSutter, assistant secretary of state for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation in the George W. Bush administration, said declassifying information about current and future U.S. missile defense systems and providing it to Russia is unwise.

“First, the cost to U.S. national security is very high because, particularly in light of Russia’s military trade with other nations, including Iran, it is absurd to believe that Russia will not provide the data to current and potential foes,” DeSutter said.

Provision of sensitive U.S. missile defense data would enable Russia and other states to design offensive ballistic missiles that could defeat U.S. defenses, she said, rendering U.S. defenses less effective and thus causing further U.S. investment that would be required to offset increasing ballistic missile threats as a result.

“Second, there is no benefit to doing so since, as we saw during protracted efforts during the Bush administration, no technical data, threat rationale, or policy arguments will ever persuade Russia to agree to U.S. deployment of missile defenses,” DeSutter said.

Additionally, the United States should develop and deploy “the best possible defense of the United States, our forces, and our allies against the threat of ballistic missiles carrying nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons and stop giving Russia veto power over U.S. national security requirements,” she said.

A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment.

The post Obama declassifies missile defense tech for Russians appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

Meanwhile this from the ACLU: Letter to Eric Holder from AP President Pruitt

FBI Documents Suggest Feds Read Emails Without a Warrant

By Nathan Freed Wessler

New documents from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content (you can see the documentshere).

Last month, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU received IRS documents indicating that the agency’s criminal investigative arm doesn’t always get a warrant to read Americans’ emails. Today we are releasing these additional documents from other federal law enforcement agencies, reinforcing the urgent need for Congress to protect our privacy by updating the laws that cover electronic communications.

Also from the RightScoop.com Darrell Issa is calling this a Constitutional question and challenge by the very agency that is sworn to uphold and enforce these very laws and the Constitution:

Click here for the video which will likely be available for embed later MUST SEE VIDEO

FILE – In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Justice Department has secretly obtained two months of telephone records of journalists for The Associated Press in what AP’s top executive says is an unprecedented intrusion into newsgathering. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

GOVT OBTAINS WIDE AP PHONE RECORDS IN PROBE

By MARK SHERMAN – From AP Big Story

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.

Here is the PDF of the letter: Letter to Eric Holder from AP President Pruitt

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of calls.

In all, the government seized the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices where phone records were targeted, on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.

The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.

In testimony in February, CIA Director John Brennan noted that the FBI had questioned him about whether he was AP’s source, which he denied. He called the release of the information to the media about the terror plot an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.”

Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and an office-wide shared fax line, is unusual.

In the letter notifying the AP received Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure, according to Pruitt’s letter and attorneys for the AP. The records were presumably obtained from phone companies earlier this year although the government letter did not explain that. None of the information provided by the government to the AP suggested the actual phone conversations were monitored.

Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012 story.

The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of providing classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined.

Justice Department published rules require that subpoenas of records from news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general but it was not known if that happened in this case. The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained though subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.

William Miller, a spokesman for Machen, said Monday that in general the U.S. attorney follows “all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations” but he would not address questions about the specifics of the AP records. “We do not comment on ongoing criminal investigations,” Miller said in an e-mail.

The Justice Department lays out strict rules for efforts to get phone records from news organizations. A subpoena can only be considered after “all reasonable attempts” have been made to get the same information from other sources, the rules say. It was unclear what other steps, in total, the Justice Department has taken to get information in the case.

A subpoena to the media must be “as narrowly drawn as possible” and “should be directed at relevant information regarding a limited subject matter and should cover a reasonably limited time period,” according to the rules.

The reason for these constraints, the department says, is to avoid actions that “might impair the news gathering function” because the government recognizes that “freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news.”

News organizations normally are notified in advance that the government wants phone records and enter into negotiations over the desired information. In this case, however, the government, in its letter to the AP, cited an exemption to those rules that holds that prior notification can be waived if such notice, in the exemption’s wording, might “pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation.”

It is unknown whether a judge or a grand jury signed off on the subpoenas.

The May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of the CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot occurred around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The plot was significant both because of its seriousness and also because the White House previously had told the public it had “no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the (May 2) anniversary of bin Laden’s death.”

The AP delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security. Once government officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP disclosed the plot because officials said it no longer endangered national security. The Obama administration, however, continued to request that the story be held until the administration could make an official announcement.

The May 7 story was written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman with contributions from reporters Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan and Alan Fram. They and their editor, Ted Bridis, were among the journalists whose April-May 2012 phone records were seized by the government.

Brennan talked about the AP story and investigation in written testimony to the Senate. “The irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made … when someone informed the Associated Press that the U.S. Government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. Government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it,” he said.

He also defended the White House’s plan to discuss the plot immediately afterward. “Once someone leaked information about interdiction of the IED and that the IED was actually in our possession, it was imperative to inform the American people consistent with Government policy that there was never any danger to the American people associated with this al-Qa’ida plot,” Brennan told senators.

The post DOJ ‘Black Ops’ on the Associated Press – Issa Interviewed appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.

Today it was revealed that the IRS has made an apology for a blatant example of this very thing. They targeted conservative tax-free organizations for “information gathering” investigations that were blatantly outside the purview of the 501 (c) 3 and 4 IRS tax code. Zero Hedge and the WaPo are posting the ‘Tweets’ about the math issue that addresses how prevalent the investigations were in comparison to investigations of all tax exempt groups.

This is doubly troubling when we take into account leftist organizations who blatantly skirted the laws where ignored because they supported the campaign.

The greatest example of this is the case of Media Matters and its collusion with the DoJ and their targeting of foes and non-supporters of Obama and the Democrats as reported by the Daily Caller who exposed their attacks. Yet, even with an uproar over why the IRS did not investigate them, it was never answered. Please read about the latest debacle here:

‘Mistakes Were Made’

By Kevin Williamson – National Review Online’s – “The Corner”

I kid you not: The IRS just released a statement on its improper harassment of conservative groups in the run-up to the 2012 election including the words: “mistakes were made.”

Here is the full statement:

Between 2010 and 2012, the IRS saw the number of applications for section 501(c)(4) status double.  As a result, local career employees in Cincinnati sought to centralize work and assign cases to designated employees in an effort to promote consistency and quality.  This approach has worked in other areas. However, the IRS recognizes we should have done a better job of handling the influx of advocacy applications.  While centralizing cases for consistency made sense, the way we initially centralized them did not.  Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale. We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system.  To date, more than half of the cases have been approved or withdrawn.  It is important to recognize that all centralized applications received the same, even-handed treatment, and the majority of cases centralized were not based on a specific name. In addition, new procedures also were implemented last year to ensure that these mistakes won’t be made in the future.  The IRS also stresses that our employees – all career civil servants — will continue to be guided by tax law and not partisan issues.

This is inconsistent with Lori Lerner’s statement:

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

If this was just a procedural goof, then what exactly is Lerner apologizing for? And if this was not “due to any political or partisan rationale,” then why were groups with the words “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names improperly flagged?

The IRS’s statement and Lerner’s apology do not comport. More to come.

Perhaps somebody could remind the House Republicans that they have a majority on the oversight subcommittee?

______________

More from the Editor – Meanwhile, the reaction to the astonishing admission was met with anger – the Tea Party and Patriot targets knew it was politically driven and they are not happy. Law makers where quick to respond as well and an investigation has been asked for and promised. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has been busy and it appears they have more to do. The Alinsky tactic of overwhelming your enemy is really making it difficult to even keep up with all the nefarious shenanigans of the Obama Administration.

Tea Party groups, Republicans slam IRS for flagging conservative groups

From Fox News

Tea Party leaders refused to accept an apology from the IRS Friday in which the agency acknowledged that it inappropriately flagged conservative groups for additional review during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

March 27: An estimated 9,000 Tea Party activists rallied in Searchlight, Nev., hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as the movement’s ‘Tea Party Express’ kicked off its 42-city, cross country rally. (FoxNews.com)
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/10/irs-apologizes-for-targeting-conservative-groups/#ixzz2Sv3PaTx1

Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said she wants to see resignations over what she called the “disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power.”

Republican lawmakers also seized on the acknowledgment, after having complained about the suspected harassment more than a year ago. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell called for a “government-wide review” to assure “these thuggish practices” are not in use elsewhere.

Reaction was swift and harsh after Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, acknowledged the issue at a conference Friday sponsored by the American Bar Association.

She confirmed that organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, she said.

“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate,” Lerner said. “The IRS would like to apologize for that.”

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The Associated Press that no high-level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out.

As conservatives condemned the IRS for the additional scrutiny, IRS officials after the conference tried to offer a fuller explanation of what happened.

The IRS put out a written statement saying protocol was changed at the Cincinnati office in response to the rising number of applications for 501(c)(4) groups. This classification grants tax-exempt status to social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

The agents tried to “centralize work” in response to the applications, the IRS said, leading to problems the agency claims have since been fixed.

“Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale. We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system,” the IRS said.

On a hastily arranged conference call Friday, Lerner said that the staffers who flagged those groups did so as “short-hand” to deal with the “great number” of cases in the system.

She acknowledged that some of the letters sent were “far too broad” and that asking for donors is “generally not what we do.”

“We made some mistakes, some people didn’t use good judgment,” she said, while claiming the reviews were not partisan.

During the conference earlier Friday, Lerner said the number of groups filing for the tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in the office in Cincinnati. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn’t the group’s primary activity, Lerner said.

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had “tea party” or “patriot” somewhere in their applications. Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups made available at the time, sought information about group members’ political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

Groups shared some of those forms with FoxNews.com back in February 2012, when the complaints first surfaced. In letters sent from IRS offices in Cincinnati, chapters including the Waco (Texas) Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council were asked to provide a list of donors, identify volunteers, financial support for and relationships with political candidates and parties, and even printed copies of their Facebook pages.

“Some of what they (the IRS) asked was reasonable, but there were some requests on there that were strange,” Toby Marie Walker, president of the Waco Tea Party, told FoxNews.com last year.

A dozen Republican senators wrote to the IRS in March 2012 expressing concerns about various accounts that the IRS inquiries were “perceived to be excessive.”

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.

“There’s absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people” who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

On Friday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he’s “glad” to see the IRS apologize but said it’s not good enough.

“We need to have ironclad guarantees from the IRS that it will adopt significant protocols to ensure this kind of harassment of groups that have a constitutional right to express their own views never happens again,” he said, adding that he would be discussing the matter with the IRS commissioner.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said “the fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable.”

The post Tax Exempt Status – IRS admits targeting Conservatives appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.