Free Republic

Rep. Darrell Issa, Chair of the House Oversight Committee, recently informed the IRS that the committee's investigation has revealed that senior IRS officials were using their private emails to transmit confidential tax information. The investigation was sparked by the agency's alleged targeting of conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. "[W]e have uncovered a troubling pattern of IRS officials sending official documents to non-official email accounts as well as the use of non-official email accounts to conduct official business," the September 30th letter to acting IRS Commissioner Dan Werfil reads. "In some instances, IRS officials have sent taxpayer protected information to non-official...

Senior Internal Revenue Service officials—including one at the heart of the IRS “targeting” scandal—violated agency policies and possibly federal records laws by using private email to send confidential taxpayer information, the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in a letter. In a Sept. 30 letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel obtained by the Free Beacon, Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa (R., Calif.) said an investigation revealed a “troubling pattern” of at least four top IRS officials using their private email addresses to relay confidential tax information. “This not only raises the prospect of violations of the Federal...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday blasted Congressional Republicans for their “wrong-headed” budget brinksmanship he said led to a partial government shutdown, while maintaining that city services are still immune to the impasse in Washington. “It’s time for the Republican leaders in Congress to step up, provide leadership and tell a small minority in their party to stop trying to hold the country hostage to their ideology,” Emanuel told reporters at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday. As the first federal shutdown in nearly 18 years entered its second day, Emanuel said city services are still unaffected by the shutdown,...

Ms Miriam Carey, a well mannered dental hygienist from Stamford Connecticut, may have been just touring Washington D.C near the Capitol Building when she surprisingly got caught in the midst of hundreds of Obama "Barrycades" which have been installed at a multitude  of places around D.C. and other federal properties - "because of the government shutdown," allegedly. Washington D.C. had been increasingly blocking off streets close to the residence of the Director of Barrycades, President Barack Obama, even before the shutdown. A city that was once a joy  to tour and view now looks more like Islamabad with all...

Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Admiral Mike Mullen said that the direction given to Special Operations Command Africa commander Lt. Col Gibson was to "hold in place" on the night of the attacks. SNIP Mullen also said that U.S. aircraft were not at the ready while the attack was ongoing. He claimed there was a "physics problem" in addition to a "time and distance problem" that prevented the United States from providing immediate air cover.

The leaders of the Administrative Review Board that investigated the attacks on US facilities in Benghazi, Libya, appeared before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Thursday, and offered testimony that further undermined the already-tattered credibility of their own probe. In descriptions that emphasized their friendly, even collaborative dealings with the top State Department officials who were ostensibly among the subjects of their investigation, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen defended their work and shrugged off criticism from Republicans on the panel. But the substance of the responses from Pickering and Mullen, respectively chairman and vice chairman of the...

I thought the biggest scandal to come from the shooting today would be the fact that the Pentagon didn’t run a full background check on this guy when he was re-hired as a contractor in July. All they did, which is apparently standard practice, was check to make sure his security clearance from 2007 was still intact. No interviews with family members, co-workers, or employers; if there had been, maybe someone would have tipped them to the fact of his mental problems. But no, that’s not the biggest scandal if this BBC report is right. This … can’t possibly be...

The Weekly Standard offers a glum assessment of Obama’s fiasco in Syria: “With the Russian proposal on Syrian chemical weapons, the United States is being escorted out of the Middle East.” Reset with Russia was originally a strategic priority for the Obama administration because it saw Moscow as the key to getting Iran to come to the negotiating table. Putin, from the White House’s perspective, was destined for the role of junior partner. Now Putin has turned “Reset” upside down. By helping Obama out of a jam with Syria, Putin has made himself the senior partner to whom the White House is...

A powerful blast on the main street in the Libyan city of Benghazi early Wednesday damaged a foreign ministry building and a branch of the Central Bank of Libya, an eyewitness said. The explosion comes on the anniversary of the September 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Eyewitness and Benghazi resident Sami Berriwen told CNN he saw no casualties as a result of the blast in the eastern city, which occurred at about 7 a.m. (1 a.m. ET.) Berriwen, a university student, said that if the blast had happened...

Obama promised justice. He promised that the killers would be “held accountable.” One year later, those promises have not been kept.

Susan Rice Will Brief Congress on Syria on Anniversary of Benghazi September 8, 2013 - 2:36 PM By Terence P. Jeffrey (CNSNews.com) - Susan Rice, who falsely told the nation that the terrorist attacks in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012 had developed out of a spontaneous demonstration against a YouTube video, will mark the one year anniversary of those attacks by briefing Congress to make the administration's case for authorizing President Barack Obama to use military force in Syria. The administration has decided to make Rice a key point person for pushing military intervention in Syria. On Monday, Rice will...

Hicks – who had a brief phone conversation only hours before with Stevens before the line went dead — was informed of his death by Libya’s prime minister. snip Hicks said he doesn’t understand why more military resources were not sent to Benghazi after he notified State Department officials in Washington that the consulate was under attack. “I don’t know exactly what was available…And I still don’t quite understand why…they couldn’t fly aircraft over to Benghazi,” he said. “When I was a kid, I grew up watching western movies… the cavalry always came,” Hicks said in an interview taped Friday...

Barack Obama is, without question, the most embarrassing president of my lifetime — and that is saying something, since my life so far has encompassed 12 presidencies, some of which have brought a lot of embarrassment to the nation. Even Richard Nixon, with his Watergate scandal, Jimmy Carter, with his malaise, and Bill Clinton, with his lewd behavior in the Oval Office, could not top this president for pure, unadulterated disgrace. Of course, in Obama’s case, it is not a matter of personal scandal like it was for Clinton. By telling the world a year ago that he was drawing...

WILMINGTON, Del. (CBS) — Neighbors near Kosciuszko Park in Wilmington expressed anger and outrage Friday, after learning the details of a brutal gang-rape that happened in the park Thursday. Police say two women, ages 32 and 24, were reportedly attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of 10 to 12 black male juveniles in Kosciuszko Park at about 6:54 p.m. Thursday. According to police, the suspects, who range in age from 12 to 17-years-old, remain on the loose. The victims were transported to Christiana Hospital for treatment. Wilmington police increased patrols Friday in the park which is located in the...

President Barack Obama pledged he’d appoint “outside experts” to review the country’s surveillance practices, but he’s since tapped largely insiders for the key posts. The group, formed to examine the policies and procedures at the National Security Agency as it tracks terrorism suspects’ digital communications, is composed mostly of Washington types, many with connections to the very intelligence establishment they’re now tasked with scrutinizing in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks. There’s Michael Morell, a CIA veteran who once led the agency on an interim basis; Richard Clarke, a top counter-terrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations; and Cass...

The National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted some of their officers misused the agency’s massive spying powers to keep tabs on their love interests, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday night. NSA employees reportedly dubbed the practice with its very own spy label: LOVEINT. U.S. officials said some of the violations included overseas communications, but claimed the practice was “very rare,” according to the WSJ. Officials reportedly said all employees involved were appropriately disciplined. The incidents were often self-reported, revealed while the officers took polygraph tests during routine security clearance renewals, according to the WSJ. “NSA has zero tolerance...

Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings told his neighbor that he was afraid to drive his Mercedes because he believed it had been tampered with, according to a LA Weekly report.

More than 40,000 defendants may be affected by the alleged drug tampering of “rogue” chemist Annie Dookhan, a sign the state’s massive drug lab scandal grew beyond initial estimates, according to the near year-long work of the lawyer tasked with determining the scope of the state-shaking saga... Meier found that the actual list of defendants affected grew to 40,323. Of those, 10,000 were in prison, or parole or probation and had been previously convicted of a drug offense in Superior Court. More than 300 state prison inmates have been released, and prosecutors have opted to dismiss or drop more than...

Maj. Nidal Hasan appears to be stoically slouching toward martyrdom at his court-martial – instead of using the trial as a soapbox to spout jihadist ideology, as have others in a similar position. Inside a heavily fortified compound at Fort Hood, Texas, a court-martial expected to take months is moving quickly ahead of schedule. The Army psychiatrist, accused of murdering 13 fellow soldiers and injuring more than 30 in an attack on Nov. 5, 2009, has remained cool, collected, and businesslike, even amid riveting and horrific testimony. To be sure, he could still let loose invective on the courtroom, particularly...

Casey James Fury simply didn't want to be at work, and in the process cost the Navy nearly a half-billion dollars and one attack submarine. Fury admitted to setting fire to the USS Miami, a nuclear sub, in May 2012 while it was in dry dock. Fury also admitted to starting a second fire at the dry dock three weeks later, according to federal court documents. In both cases, he told investigators that he started the fires because he was having extreme anxiety and was trying to get out of work, according to federal documents. On Tuesday, the Navy announced...