THREAT MATRIX 2012 #1

From the article:

Internal communications provided to The Daily indicate that the new leadership seemed to fundamentally clash with career agency employees over when to afford the benefit of the doubt, culminating in a whistle-blower investigation into a senior appointee and, ultimately, the agency-wide inspector general inquiry that produced the report.

“We recognize their right to interpret things as liberally as possible, but you still have to follow the law,” said one high-ranking official who was unhappy with the current push.

At least five agency veterans seen as being too tough on applicants were either demoted, or given the choice between a demotion or a relocation from Southern California — where their families were — to San Francisco and Nebraska, according to sources and letters of reassignment provided to The Daily.

Those kind of threats have caused lower-level employees to fall in line, sources said.

“People are afraid,” said one longtime manager, who requested anonymity for fear of being fired. “Integrity only carries people so far because they’ve got to pay the rent.”

A rank-and-file officer who was not involved in the investigation claimed he was demoted to working on less technical cases because he had a high denial rate. “They don’t reprimand you, they just move you,” he said.

“They attempted to basically get me to come into line and approve a bunch of cases. And I just wouldn’t compromise myself because the approvals they ordered, they weren’t in line with the laws,” said the officer.
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This is chilling.
Friend of mine truly believes we have had a coup d’état.

Nope. See. This:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2828217/posts

Probe reveals feds pressuring agents to rush immigrant visas – even if fraud is feared
The Daily ^ | January 3, 2012 | Sarah Ryley

Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2012 3:49:20 PM by OddLane

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily.

A 40-page report, drafted by the Office of Inspector General in September but not publicly released, details the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security.

One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against their will.”

The report does not call out any particular officials and indicates that the agency has had a problem with valuing quantity over quality since at least the 1980s.
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was what I read.
Then got angry about wnd suddenly discovering jamat al fuqra which we have documented here for three years as if it is their exclusive when I know stuff has been taken from these threads and the hard work of Freepers who pored over miles of research never, ever given credit.
They do the same to New Zeal and it ticks me off no end.
/end rant.

From the Daily article, the paragraph that irked me most was this one:

Snip: One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against their will.”

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IMHO here's perversion of the Constitution by a liberal judge (illegal aliens are NOT citizens and unless they have a work visa should be deported, not rewarded with drivers licenses):

Judge blocks NM governor on immigrant driver licenses

Snip: Governor Susana Martinez's administration last month ordered the state to reverify the physical residency of foreign nationals who hold New Mexico driver's licenses in order to get or keep their licenses. But District Court Judge Sarah Singleton in Santa Fe issued a temporary restraining order blocking the program, arguing in a brief ruling that "irreparable injury" would occur from "constitutional deprivations to the applicants."

On and on and on it goes....

Crosspost

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2828278/posts

GOLDMAN SACHS SUBMITS: ISSUES ISLAMIC BOND PROGRAM AS CONFORMING TO SHARIA LAW
Atlas Shrugged ^ | 1/3/12 | Pamela Geller

Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2012 6:18:29 PM by RnMomof7

Why should my taxpayer dollars be used to advance sharia finance? Goldman Sachs, one of the largest recipients of Obama’s redistribution of taxpayer money, is going Islamic. Many of Obama’s cabinet and appointed czars are directly connected to Goldman Sachs.

The Muslim Brotherhood is dictating Obama’s foreign policy, and now its financial policy as well.

Sharia finance prohibits investments in whole American sectors — tobacco, pork, alcohol and some forms of entertainment. Further, 2.5% must go to zakat (Islamic charity aka jihad). I do not want my money going to advance jihad and starve American business.

Where is the separation of mosque and state?

We need hearings on taxpayer dollars being used to fund Islamic finance (thereby funding jihad and prohibition on whole American business sectors).

Goldman Defends Islamic Bond Program as Conforming to Sharia Law Advisor One Firm counters charges that funds could be used for purposes unlawful under Islamic rules A program begun by Goldman Sachs in October to offer a $2 billion sukuk that conforms to sharia law has been defended by an advisor to the firm. The program, registered with the Irish Stock Exchange and issued through a Cayman Islands-registered special purpose vehicle, Global Sukuk Co Ltd., was undertaken to issue a sukuk (Islamic bond program) based on murabaha, a cost-plus-profit arrangement that is compliant with Islamic law.

However, according to a Reuters report, there have been criticisms of the program from some analysts, who say Goldman might use the proceeds to lend money to clients who would have to pay interest; that would be against Islamic law. Other assertions are that the issue might not trade at par value on the Irish exchange, which also is a violation of sharia law.

If either charge is true, it could have detrimental effects on other financial institutions that might want to enter the field of Islamic finance, which has been largely unaffected by the turmoil in other markets and offers an opportunity for Western banks to raise money from its billions in investment funds. Islamic law, though, forbids the charging of interest and making money through pure speculation.

In May HSBC’s Middle East unit Amanah became the first Western bank to issue a sukuk, with a $500 million Islamic bond that will mature in five years. French bank Crédit Agricole is also considering either issuing an Islamic bond or creating a broader sukuk program that could spawn several issues.

So is yet another Inspector General going to bite the obamadust?

Unlikely with an election coming up in November. It's all about perceived image until then.

Ipad passport scan gets man across US border

Snip: The anecdote is troubling because a scanned copy of a passport "is not a secure document," said MP Brian Masse.

"That could be altered, and could also lead to some precedents that would jeopardize [border] security," said Masse, NDP critic for US-Canada border relations.

Three North Koreans killed while trying to flee to China

The three poor farmers were crossing the Yalu River. Witnesses on the Chinese border say they saw border guards carrying away the bodies. Surveillance measures enhanced after the death of Kim Jong Il: the new regime wants to give a message of severity.

France toughens citizenship gauntlet

Snip: Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has just thrown up some tough new hurdles for would-be French citizens, requiring them to pass a difficult language test (foreigners will need to speak French at the level of a French 15-year-old) and swear allegiance to "French values," the Los Angeles Times reports. The new rules, which went into effect on Jan. 1, also forbid the new citizens from claiming “allegiance to another country while on French soil,” though dual nationality is still permitted.

Only six women fined since France's veil ban enforced

Snip: Controversy surrounded the law. Muslim leaders, most of them opposed to burkas, say the it stigmatises all followers of Islam.

Mr Gueant said police cited a total of 237 women but only six were convicted. He expressed surprise that nearly a quarter of the women police questioned had converted to Islam.

Meanwhile back at the white hut:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2828275/posts

Taliban leaders held at Guantánamo Bay to be released in peace talks deal
guardian.co.uk ^ | 1/3/12 | Julian Borger, and Jon Boone

Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2012 6:14:04 PM by ColdOne

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents’ agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned.

According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan.

More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody of another country, possibly Qatar.

The releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday’s announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations “with the international community” – the most significant political breakthrough in ten years of the Afghan conflict.

The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal.

“To take this step, the [Obama] administration have to have sufficient confidence that the Taliban are going to reciprocate,”
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Another gratuitous slap at our dead and wounded. The man is virtually dripping with the blood of Americans killed since he has been president. There is no forgiveness for murder.

Without mentioning the release of Taliban leaders (abysmal decision - just more of the pro-Muslim agenda), this article adds to what most Americans see as what's come out of the white hut:

Obama's record won't help him in November

Jan. 02--WASHINGTON -- While the Republican presidential primaries mean a lot, the record of this incumbent president will influence the election more. After nearly three years in office, President Obama's regime offers more questions than answers in the bid for a second term.

Here is a baker's dozen of reasons why some who voted for him in 2008, like me, might be less willing to do so this time:

1. Whiffs of corruption: The White House backed a solar-cell maker named Solyndra with a $535 million loan guarantee. Its major investor was an Obama donor named George Kaiser. It failed. Now, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., wants a probe into a $433 million no-bid contract for a smallpox vaccine by Siga Technologies. Two major players in Siga are Obama donor Ron Perlman and Andrew Stein, the former head of the Service Employees International Union, a major force in Obama's 2008 victory.

2. Gutlessness: There is no record yet of a single criminal prosecution brought by the Obama administration against anyone involved in the lying, cheating and shameless manipulation by wealthy brokers that helped sink the economy. At the same time, Obama is milking millions in campaign cash from Wall Street.

3. Snubbing the cities: The metros of the blue states, where most of the struggling black and Hispanic households are, got nothing from this administration but charm. No federal investment programs like those of the Johnson, Nixon and Carter administrations were seriously proposed by Obama. Yet Obama counts on these same minority communities to help carry him across the line once more.

4. Evading civil rights: Electronic surveillance of Americans is stronger now than after enactment of the first Patriot Act. Obama recently signed a defense bill that gives the military the power to indefinitely detain anyone suspected of being a supporter of al-Qaida, the Taliban or "associated forces."

5. Warfare: Expanding use of killer and surveillance drones worldwide without explanation, without specific congressional authorization. Ditto on Obama's intervention in Libya, and permission for civilian authorities to use them to spy in the states.

6. Gutting health care: After promising Americans near universal health care, Obama let lobbyists for the insurance and pharmaceutical industries diminish his program by killing the public option and negotiated drug buys. Obama has granted at least 1,400 waivers to companies and unions under a shroud of secrecy. The law contains unfunded Medicaid mandates that could cost New Yorkers $1 billion a year.

7. Flip-flops: On closing Guantanamo Bay, and trying Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the confessed 9/11 plotter, in New York City. It's 10 years and four months later and Mohammad still hasn't been tried.

8. Economy: After squandering $900 billion on Stimulus I, largely on one-year subsidies to local government unions, Obama let the Republicans bully him into continuing the Bush tax cuts. He has officially denied six times that Communist China subsidizes its exports with currency games.

9. Environment: The Sierra Club says the government is weighing a rule permitting logging in the Redwood National Forest.

10.Nullification: Obama's refusal to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation in Philadelphia in 2008.

11. Culture: The administration is considering a rule defining a religious hospital as one whose staff is of one religion that serves only adherents of that religion.

12. Fast and Furious: The continuing coverup of the Justice Department program to release 2,200 deadly weapons into the United States and Mexico, one of which killed a Border Patrol agent in 2010.

13. Iraq: Leaving without a friendly regime in place, and refusing for political purposes to give our brave troops a welcome-home parade.

We do this for you and for ourselves (to see if we can put the pieces together because the media sure as heck refuses to do it). Thanks for your reading support. It means a lot to those of us posting here.

Panetta to unveil defense cuts this week

Snips:
……make it clear that the Pentagon will not maintain the ability to fight two sustained ground wars at once. "Instead, he will say that the military will be large enough to fight and win one major conflict, while also being able to 'spoil' a second adversary's ambitions in another part of the world while conducting a number of other smaller operations, like providing disaster relief or enforcing a no-flight zone."

LeT raises new all-women terror outfit for Kashmir with 21 girls

How Neo-Nazi terror cell gave authorities the slip

A secret report on the neo-Nazi terror cell which allegedly killed at least 10 people reveals a series of serious mistakes by Germany's law enforcement agencies. The authorities had the group under surveillance and could have stopped the murder spree before it even began, if they had only acted.

British voice behind a call to arms for Somalia's Islamic terrorists

Video reports of al-Shabaab battles with Somali forces feature jihadist with London accent

Metastasis of Al-qaeda? Pan-African terrorism

Snips:
The full name of Boko Haram is jama'atu ahlis sunna lidda'awati wal-jihad. It means People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad.

The shortened version of its name as Boko Haram in the Housa dialect means "Western Education Is Sin". It has been campaigning against Western and Christian education and for the enforcement of Sharia in a country where Christians and animists are in a majority in the South. It was responsible for more than 450 killings in Nigeria in 2011.

Offshoot of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb declares war on France

Snip: The last part of the video was concerned with the ideology of the group and its ambitions, particularly "to impose sharia (Islamic law) across the whole of west Africa." Young black fighters were shown calling for "pure and tough" Islam……. Twelve Europeans, including six French nationals, are currently held hostage in the Sahel.

Play the Taliban ringtones or you die! Travellers face death if insurgents don't hear their messages on mobile phones

Snip: Afghans face death if they do not have mobile phones playing defiant Taliban ringtones and messages, it emerged today They are being forced to show their loyalty to the insurgents at clandestine checkpoints by producing the chants romantising the war with the West.

China wants to set up bases in Pakistan, reveals intelligence report

China might be allowed to use Pakistan's military facilities, a secret intelligence report accessed by Headlines Today has revealed. The intelligence report has set alarm bells ringing in the government circles. Moreover, all this is being done without any public announcement.

China has been keen on building military bases in federally administered tribal areas (FATA) in the northwest region of Pakistan. In the last few months there have been several high level meetings of Pakistani and Chinese officials.

Posting this as a fantastic reference thread from 2009.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2388394/posts

Seeking Freepers for Jihadi Training Camp Observation and Information
Free Republic Jihadi Intel Thread ^ | 17 Nov. 2009 | Candor7

Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 2:29:10 PM by Candor7

We need an observation network of Jihadi Training Camps in the USA. Our government has now classified terrorist acts as crimes. That invokes the right of citizen self defence agaist crimes. To defend ourselves we need information on threat, which our government, including Homeland Security, no longer provides to the people.

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If anyone reading TM could please do me a favor, it would be very much appreciated. When you see a thread that meets any of the catagories I posted:

shaddowars
threatmatrix
culturewars
borderwars
honduras
gunrunner

PLEASE tag them with the appropriate keyword. MuchThanks.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2828618/posts

Obama’s Next Horror: Overtures to Egypt’s Jihadists Reverse Longtime U.S. Policy
Atlas Shrugs ^ | 1/4/12 | Pamela Geller

Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 1:21:02 PM by Nachum

Obama has recruited the annihilationist leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sheik Qaradawi, to negotiate with the heinous Taliban. That’s like FDR reaching out to Hitler. Today the NY Times is reporting that the Obama administration has begun to reverse decades of US policy as it “seeks to forge closer ties with an organization once viewed as irreconcilably opposed to United States interests.” What US interests? Freedom and human rights. Individual rights, equal rights under the law, freedom to worship, freedom of speech, freedom from genocide, Jew-hatred, and misogyny ....... this is unbelievable. If given a second term, Obama might offer to manufacture the ovens and sell it here as a jobs bill.

The administration’s overtures — including high-level meetings in recent weeks — constitute a historic shift in a foreign policy held by successive American administrations that steadfastly supported the autocratic government of President Hosni Mubarak in part out of concern for the Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology and historic ties to militants.

DF opines, “It’s rare that I link to the New York Times, but that story is worth reading today if only between the lines. Undeterred by the colossal failure of his Iran “engagement” policy, Obama is doubling down on another radical Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, adding that to the Taliban in Afghanistan. I doubt the NYT’s editors wanted the piece to read this way, but even they can’t hide the fact that it’s becoming clearer to everyone (but liberals) that Obama is leading America on a dangerous path - and in November we must take our country back.”

Overtures to Egypt’s Islamists Reverse Longtime U.S. Policy NY Times

CAIRO — With the Muslim Brotherhood pulling within reach of an outright majority in Egypt’s new Parliament, the Obama administration has begun to

Ir looks like obama is deliberately trying to provoke a Constitutional crisis. Why?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2828635/posts

Obama bypasses Senate, installs new consumer chief
Associated Press ^ | 1-4-12 | BEN FELLER and JIM KUHNHENN

Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 2:07:27 PM by Justaham

President Barack Obama says he won’t take “no” as an answer from Republicans, so he’s going around them to appoint the head of a new consumer protection agency. Obama says Republicans would just keep holding Richard Cordray’s nomination hostage—and the president says that’s inexcusable and wrong.

He says Cordray must be in place in order for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to start helping consumers deal with unscrupulous mortgage companies, dishonest payday lenders, and others.

Obama announced the appointment of Cordray during a stop Wednesday in Ohio, where Cordray once served as attorney general.

Republicans are outraged but Obama says he has an obligation to act when Congress refuses to.

The recess appointment means Cordray stands to serve for at least the next two years.

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