Saving the Children

By David Westin

I spent yesterday touring the fifth largest city in Jordan. It’s named Zaatari, its population is over 120,000, most of the people who live there are children, and it was founded less than ten months ago. It’s a Syrian refugee camp.

What’s going on in the desert just south of the Syrian/Jordanian border would break your heart, if its overwhelming scope didn’t numb you first. The size of the need is too great to comprehend in full. And these 120,000 people are only a fraction of the Syrian refugees spread throughout northern Jordan — not to speak of those in Lebanon and Turkey and even in Iraq. More pour in every day.

Zaatari is a city with no sidewalks or trees or parks. It’s covered instead with dirt and gravel without a tree or bush in sight under a sun that has already grown hot in May. Row after row of tents are packed in more closely than they’re supposed to be because families and even villages want to be close. There is no running water and no regular electricity (other than what some people take through jury-rigged splices into the lines running to outdoor lights set high up on poles through much of the camp). Cooking is done (or supposed to be done) in centralized cooking areas using propane gas. Cinder block latrines are scattered through the camp. And the children are everywhere.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Westin’s column on the Huffington Post

Urgent: Explanation on how/why Lerner could be recalled

Per Pergram-Capitol Hill

I spoke at length with House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) off-camera (would not come on camera) about the hearing and the question as to recalling Lois Lerner.

Issa points out that he RECESSED the hearing…he did not ADJOURN the hearing.

There is a BIG parliamentary difference. If you recess the hearing…the hearing is still ongoing. If you adjourn the hearing, it’s done. Issa would have to issue another subpoena for Lerner…and chances are, she might comport herself a lot differently than she did yesterday.

Go back to the GSA hearing with Jeff Neely, the GSA executive who threw the lavish party in Las Vegas.

Once Issa swore him in…Neely immediately repeated a rote mantra, invoking his 5th Amendment rights to every question Issa asked. He said nothing else and never deviated. Issa finally dismissed him.

In this case, Lerner was sworn-in…then read an opening statement where she declared she did nothing wrong….THEN leaned on the Fifth Amendment when Issa asked questions…hence the protest from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).

So….Issa tells me off-camer that “I had a script to allow her to take the Fifth”….meaning he was expecting a similar exchange to what he had in April, 2012 with Neely. She didn’t do that.

Issa:

I think that testimony was germane.

Issa:

You can’t puit the genie back in the bottle.

Issa:

Everything she said under oath is subject to perjury.

Hence, she is technically still under subpoena…but has not been recalled yet…but very well could. And Issa said as much yesterday.

Chad Pergram

Senior Producer for Capitol Hill

FOX News

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE in The Examiner  (by Charlie Spiering)

From Oversight Committee spokesman

 ’After consulting with counsel, Chairman Issa has concluded that Ms. Lerner’s 5th amendment assertion is no longer valid. She remains under subpoena, the Committee is looking at recalling her for testimony.’

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Nick Kalman

Producer, Fox News Channel

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