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May 2, 2013 State Department's Benghazi review panel under investigation, Fox News confirms James Rosen The State Department's Office of Inspector General is investigating the special internal panel that probed the Benghazi terror attack for the State Department, Fox News has confirmed. The IG's office is said by well-placed sources to be seeking to determine whether the Accountability Review Board, or ARB -- led by former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen -- failed to interview key witnesses who had asked to provide their accounts of the Benghazi attacks to...

In a case that’s rocked the beleaguered Department of Homeland Security (DHS), two officials assigned to crackdown on corruption at the agency have been indicted for ordering the falsification of records—including active criminal probes—to obstruct an investigation into crooked federal agents. The case comes out of Texas and it is quite serious. A special agent in charge of DHS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), Eugenio Pedraza, directed agents to engage in a scheme to falsify documents in open criminal investigative case files, including numerous probes in which DHS employees were suspected of participating in the illegal smuggling of undocumented aliens...

As with its rush to declare Eric Holder “cleared” upon release of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s report, major media outlets are unquestioningly accepting Department of Homeland Security OIG conclusions from its long-awaited “Fast and Furious” report, strategically pre-released last Thursday to the Los Angeles Times. “[T]he report determined that top Department of Homeland Security officials in Washington did not learn about Fast and Furious until [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry was shot to death in December 2010 and two of the 1,430 lost firearms were found at the scene of his murder,” The Times dutifully accepted,...

Misuse of the FHA Preforeclosure Sale Program may have cost the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over a billion dollars for claims that did not meet program according to an audit released this week by the HUD's Region 7 Office of Inspector General (OIG). OIG initiated the audit after noticing significant deficiencies in borrower qualifications during an audit of program claims at one large lender. The Preforeclosure Sale Program allows borrowers in default due to an adverse an unavoidable financial situation to sell their home at fair market value and use the proceeds to pay off an FHA-guaranteed...

“I was invited to speak with two investigators from the Office of Inspector General regarding the gunwalking scandal and general abuses of the ATF and DOJ,” Mike Detty, a central figure in Operation Wide Receiver due to his work as a confidential informant has told Gun Rights Examiner. “Eager to help I met with them and also provided all copies of recordings, journal entries, photos etc. I was determined to see justice done.” “Imagine how surprised I was when one of the investigators informed me that my materials had all been turned over to Laura Gwinn at DOJ-one of the...

Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars received information this evening that three of the prime Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives players in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal have been relieved of duties. William Hoover, ATF's Deputy Director during Fast and Furious, who was recently reassigned as Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, Assistant Director in Charge of Field Operations Mark Chait, likewise reassigned as head of the Baltimore Field Office, and Deputy Assistant Director of Field Operations William McMahon have reportedly been sidelined pending the outcome of the anticipated report from the Office...

“He [a federal agent] had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there.”--Anthony Wright, victim of a Dept. of Education SWAT team raid The militarization of American police--no doubt a blowback effect of the military empire--has become an unfortunate part of American life. In fact, it says something about our reliance on the military that federal agencies having nothing whatsoever to do with national defense now see the need for their own paramilitary units. Among those federal agencies laying claim to their own law enforcement divisions are the State Department, Department of Education, Department...

A California man who initially claimed to a local television station that he was roughed up by "SWAT team" members who allegedly battered down his front door to execute a search warrant related to his estranged wife's unpaid student loans was targeted due to an ongoing probe into alleged financial aid fraud. Local law enforcement officials have thus far not commented on the Stockton man's claim to ABC News 10/KXTV that he was grabbed by the neck and placed in handcuffs in back of a patrol car for six hours as his three children looked on during execution of the...

"Kenneth Wright does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 a.m. on Tuesday."

Via JWF and Reason, we now present this instructional video from the Department of Education. Now that the government has for all practical pruposes nationalized the student-loan industry, the DoE would like to educate recipients on new loan-collection processes. The banks used to send bill collectors and file claims in court, but the Obama administration doesn’t like those kind of harsh private-sector measures to retrieve lost capital. Instead, they’ll send a SWAT team to kick in your door and frighten your children — even if you don’t live with them anymore: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Kenneth Wright does...

Complete title: Investigations Find ‘Unprecedented’ Political Review of FOIA Requests by Homeland Security Department Washington (CNSNews.com) – A political review of open records requests smacks of “Nixonian” tactics by the Department of Homeland Security, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Thursday. Two investigations found that Freedom of Information Act requests sent to the DHS were reviewed by Obama administration political appointees. “Through the course of an eight-month investigation, the committee has learned that political staff under the DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano have corrupted the agency’s FOIA compliance procedures, exerted unlawful political pressure, on FOIA compliance...

Will Obamacare Go Up In Flames Too?- By: Larry Walker, Jr. -"You've got a lot of private companies who do very well competing against the government -- UPS and FedEx are doing a lot better than the Post Office." ~ Barack Obama (Aug. 2009)According to an article posted on federalnewsradio.com, on June 28, 2010, the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General (OIG) discovered that the Postal Service had made a $75 billion overpayment to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). However, the same problem had already been reported by the OIG back in April of 2004. Apparently nothing...

  The radical nationwide nonprofit network, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - better known as ACORN - has wound down operations in an effort at damage control. A new government report suggests more spin will be needed. On September 21 the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), released an evaluation (see pdf) of certain expenditures of ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC), one of the largest affiliates under the ACORN umbrella. The review concluded that the Chicago-based nonprofit had misspent a sizable portion of the roughly $3.25 million it received from...

(CNSNews.com) – Two Republican members of Congress are calling on the Justice Department to state in writing whether it will initiate a criminal investigation into an organization, formerly known as the ACORN Housing Corporation, after an investigation found the group engaged in poor accounting measures involving federal grant money.The organization, formerly affiliated with the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN, is currently called the Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA).The AHCOA used grant money designated for counseling to potential homebuyers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to pay the salaries of terminated employees...

Three senior Republican lawmakers are calling for an investigation on whether to fire a pair of top Amtrak executives in the wake of a report accusing the rail service of getting rid of its inspector general after he uncovered waste and abuse in the top reaches of the company. In a letter Thursday to Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the lawmakers accuse Amtrak Chairman Thomas Carper and General Counsel Eleanor Acheson of "unlawfully" interfering with the independence of the taxpayer-funded company's inspector general, who is charged with rooting out corruption and mismanagement. The letter cites a report released earlier...

Press Release: Office of Inspector General at DHS to Audit NSEERS at the Request of ADC and Other Major Organizations Washington, DC | November 19, 2009 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is pleased to announce that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be conducting an audit reviewing the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) in early January 2010. Implemented in the wake of September 11, 2001, NSEERS required non-immigrants from predominantly Arab and Muslim Countries to register at ports of entry and local immigration offices and complete fingerprints, photographs...

EYE ON OIG Office of Investigations (OI) Case Highlights Investigation: Racketeering Fugitive Apprehended in Missouri Our St. Louis Field Division investigated a bank fraud investigator's report that a man tried to open an account under the same name and identifiers as a bank customer in Florida. Our investigators determined the suspect, a fugitive on the run for 14 months, was using the identities of a fireman and a doctor from Florida. When approached by our agents, he fled and attempted a car-jacking, but was stopped by an OIG agent. He became violent and injured the agent before being subdued. A...

Official: Kerry failed to act on pre-9/11 tip 3rd agent to say he warned security lapses made Boston airport ripe for 'jihad' attack WASHINGTON - A third federal aviation-security agent, one still with the government, has stepped forward to say he also warned Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry about security lapses at Boston's Logan International Airport before the 9/11 hijackings there. Earlier this week, two former FAA agents said the Democratic presidential hopeful failed to take effective action after they gave him a prophetic warning that his home airport was vulnerable to multiple hijackings. Brian Sullivan, a retired special agent from...