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Three men were charged in an indictment returned Nov. 27 for their roles in a scheme to defraud U.S. Military contracts in Afghanistan, engaging in illegal commerce in Iran, and laundering money internationally. Their conduct was in connection to two multi-million dollar contracts to provide supplies and logistical support to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. and Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko made the announcement. Abul...

Following WH meeting today: DAG Rod Rosenstein has canceled a speech scheduled for Thursday in San Francisco, the Aspen Institute says. Rosenstein was scheduled to speak to the organization’s cybersecurity summit. The institute says it wasn’t given a reason for the cancelation

Constitution for the Newstates of America PREAMBLESo that we may join in common endeavors, welcome the future in good order, and create an adequate and self-repairing government - we, the people, do establish the Newstates of America, herein provided to be ours, and do ordain this Constitution whose supreme law it shall be until the time prescribed for it shall have run.ARTICLE I Rights and ResponsibilitiesA. Rights  SECTION 1. Freedom of expression, of communication, of movement, of assembly, or of petition shall not be abridged except in declared emergency.  SECTION 2. Access to information possessed by governmental agencies shall not...

On February 29, 2016, New York Times reporters Amy Chozick and Patrick Healy provided an insider analysis of the Clinton team's plan to defeat Donald Trump. Citing interviews with "more than two dozen" Clinton insiders, including several who spoke directly to Bill Clinton, the article reported on a series of emergency meetings Clinton supporters convened to respond to Donald Trump's February 20 victory in South Carolina and his February 23 win in Nevada. The article reported that Bill Clinton and others argued against those inclined to underestimate Trump "that Mr. Trump clearly had a keen sense of the electorate’s mood...

The soon-to-be White House chief strategist laid out a global vision in a rare 2014 talk, one where he said racism in the far right gets “washed out” and called Vladimir Putin a kleptocrat. BuzzFeed News publishes the complete transcript for the first time.

Defending the Obama Administration’s geopolitical record, the secretary of state laid out a vision of an America that is globalist, engaged, and deeply interventionist. ___ Amid tumult in world affairs, with a deadly attack on an airport in Istanbul, Turkey, EU countries grappling with Britain’s impending exit, and an ongoing war against ISIS, Secretary of State John Kerry sought to reassure an Aspen audience Tuesday that “the world is not witnessing global gridlock. We are not frozen in a nightmare. Where we are engaged with a clear strategy, using our power thoughtfully, we are making progress, most places.” There are...

Trump's name-calling must end: Nikki Haley - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Tuesday came down hard on Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, saying that the real estate mogul has gone too far with his personal attacks on political rivals, including him calling US Senator Lindsey Graham an "idiot" during a rally. "It's wrong," Haley said Tuesday during a Republican governors forum at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado. Haley added that though Trump is a supporter and friend, she said, "he's creating a very combative tone. Every day I feel like I'm hearing Mr. Trump attack another person personally."...

Forget the roses and chocolate for Valentines Day. Giving new meaning to the concept of romance, just four weeks after returning from 17 days in Oahu the president headed to California for a weekend of golf and his wife and two daughters, for the fourth year in a row, headed to Aspen for a ski weekend. Recently, shortly after Americans witnessed a Jordanian pilot burned alive by ISIS, Obama flew to Rancho Mirage, but all was quiet on the Michelle ski-trip front. Judging from the lack of press, one would think that for the first time while hubby duffs around...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg reportedly argued Friday that guns need to be kept out of the hands of minorities in order to keep them alive. While speaking at the Aspen Institute, Mr. Bloomberg, 72, said 95 percent of murders fall into a specific category: a male minority between the ages of 15 and 25, The Aspen Times reported. Cities need to get guns out of this group’s hands and keep them alive, the former three-term mayor said, according to The Times. “These kids think they’re going to get killed anyway because all their friends are getting killed,” Mr....

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the...

Andy Stern wasn’t kidding when he publicly stated the most famous rallying cry of Communism:[1] Stern professed, “Workers of the World Unite? It’s not just a slogan anymore.” Snip SIGA Technologies, Inc. is a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to combat bio-warfare pathogens and it was announced on June 21, 2010 that Andy Stern is joining SIGA’s Board of Directors. But wait, it gets even better… SIGA is also a Federal contractor for the government. For a list of SIGA’s contracts with the Federal government, go to: http://www.usaspending.gov/search?query=&searchtype=JTdFZnElM0Q…. SNIP Without question, Andy Stern’s new position at SIGA...

Rep. Paul Ryan is meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. Let's hope they give his ideas a fair hearing. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) is scheduled to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday to discuss his plans to address poverty and his March 12 comments in a radio interview about a "tailspin of culture" in our inner cities where "generations of men [are] not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work." Mr. Ryan's statement sparked liberal accusations of racism. Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) called it "a thinly veiled racial attack" that...

Mission Creep: DHS Agency Abandons Fighting Terrorism, Shifts to Hiring Police, Taking Over AmericaA new white paper presented to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence carves out an ‘evolving mission’ for Homeland Security that moves away from fighting terrorism and towards growing a vast domestic intelligence apparatus that would expand integration with local/state agencies and private-public partnerships already underway via regional fusion centers. Crafted by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group, co-chaired by former DHS chief Michael Chertoff and composed of a who’s who of national security figures, the report outlines a total mission creep, as the title “Homeland...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The developer of an Islamic cultural center that opened Wednesday evening near the site of the terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center says the biggest error on the project was not involving the families of 9/11 victims from the start. People crowded into the center, where a small orchestra played traditional Middle Eastern instruments and a photo exhibit of New York children of different ethnicities lined the walls. The enthusiasm at the opening belied its troubled beginnings. snip He called opposition to the center - which prompted one of the most virulent national discussions...

The backers of the controversial “Ground Zero Mosque” have won a court fight clearing the way for them to build the mosque and community center complex two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terror attack. In a decision on Friday that was made public today, New York State Supreme Justice Paul Feinman dismissed a lawsuit by former firefighter Timothy Brown who argued that New York City was wrong to allow the destruction of a 150-year-old building to make way for the Islamic center. The ex-firefighter who was among those who responded to the terror attack on the World Trade...

Did the Aspen know about Schiller's problems when they agreed to hire him? I noticed that the web cam date for the O'Keefe video at the restaurant was shot on 2-22-11 and that the Aspen Institute's announcement of Schiller's move from NPR was dated 3-3-11. So was the Aspen Institute aware of the video when they hired him? And if they were, does the Aspen Institute endorse Schiller's point of view regarding Conservatives, Tea Party members, Jews, and so on?

The NPR executive caught on video bashing the Tea Party and saying that NPR didn’t need federal funding will not be heading to the Aspen Institute. Ron Schiller had been scheduled to start his new position as direct of the Aspen Institute Arts Program and Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence April 1, according to a glowing press release distributed last week. But now Aspen Institute communications director Jim Spiegelman says that Schiller will not be working there. “Ron Schiller has informed us that, in light of the controversy surrounding his recent statements, he does not feel that it’s in the best interests of...

That, from the new statement from NPR's Dana Rehm, is the shoe that took all day to drop. The entire statement, which also clarifies that Schiller decided to leave before the sting occurred:The comments contained in the video released today are contrary to everything we stand for, and we completely disavow the views expressed. NPR is fair and open minded about the people we cover. Our reporting reflects those values every single day – in the civility of our programming, the range of opinions we reflect and the diversity of stories we tell. The assertion that NPR and public radio...

A Wisconsinite is reminded he is in Madison, when, looking for a parking place, his car rolls by a lot with a sign that states, "Private Parking; Violators Subject to Karma." I did find a space, parked, participated, even found my car again, and write to you in a coffee shop in town - well, a Panera Bread, but complete with be-bop on the PA. No beret and goatee combos to be seen, though, at least not at a chain store shop, circa 2011. I'll use this space to click off a quick reflections, please pardon the first person voice....

I'm writing this article in defense of everyone who gets or shares information over the internet. On December 21st of this year the FCC will be voting on net neutrality. When I first started researching the subject I thought it was an OK idea, not something that would harm people, but as I dug father I began to see the real danger. If you look at this subject with an open mind you'll see that it's actually a Socialist agenda to control what we see and create absolutely no competition.