IRS tea party scandal unlikely to fade as Congress plans investigations

The IRS has apologized for targeting tea party groups. But that hasn?t satisfied critics pushing for congressional investigations, and they're still waiting for President Obama to speak out.

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / May 12, 2013

The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington. The agency has apologized for targeting tea party groups for special scrutiny of their tax status. Lawmakers promise investigative hearings.

Susan Walsh/AP

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Conspiracy theories aside, there?s no evidence that the Obama White House had anything to do with Internal Revenue Service bureaucrats targeting tea party-type organizations for special tax scrutiny.

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That?s despite new information that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting such groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by the Associated Press that seems to contradict public statements by the IRS commissioner.

Still, as Time political columnist Joe Klein writes this weekend, ?the absence of scandal is not the presence of competence.?

?Yet again, we have an example of Democrats simply not managing the government properly and with discipline,? Klein writes. ?This is just poisonous at a time of skepticism about the efficacy of government?. [Obama?s] unwillingness to concentrate ? and I mean concentrate obsessively ? on making sure that government is managed efficiently will be part of his legacy.?

?
So far, the White House response seems a bit anemic, a bit hands-off. On Saturday, press secretary Jay Carney said the President believes government agencies should be staffed with "the very best public servants with the highest levels of integrity.?

The President ?is concerned that the conduct of a small number of Internal Revenue Service employees may have fallen short of that standard,? Carney said.

Given what?s been revealed in the inspector general?s report, such statements likely will not quell the criticism.

?It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review,? US Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine said on CNN?s ?State of the Union? Sunday.

?The president needs to make crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable in America,? she said. ?I think that it's very disappointing that the president hasn't personally condemned this and spoken out.?

As first reported by the AP, in June, 2011, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/195ou3MlG5U/IRS-tea-party-scandal-unlikely-to-fade-as-Congress-plans-investigations

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Egypt Christian teacher's detention extended

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) ? Egyptian prosecutors extended the detention Saturday of a Coptic Christian teacher held over accusations of blasphemy of Islam and proselytizing Christianity, security officials said.

In another southern Egyptian city, security officials said a Coptic man stabbed his wife for converting to Islam and for trying to see their son afterward.

Both incidents highlight the rise in sectarian tension in Egypt over the past two years, brought on in part by deterioration in police powers since the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The country's Christian minority has long complained of discrimination. Some ultraconservative Muslim groups, allegedly emboldened by Islamist electoral gains since Mubarak's fall, have lately been accused of inciting violence against the Christians, who make up around 10 percent of the country's 90 million people.

Officials say 24-year-old teacher Dimiana Abdel-Nour will be held for another 15 days in a southern village near the famed city of Luxor where she taught history and geography. The defendant, who has denied the charges, went on hunger strike earlier this week and was sent to a local hospital.

Amnesty International called on Egyptian authorities to release the school teacher. Some of her students say she showed contempt while talking about Islam in class last month and insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

Amnesty's Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said it was "outrageous that a teacher finds herself behind bars for teaching a class," adding that if Abdel-Nour had made a "professional mistake or deviated from the curriculum, an internal review would have sufficed."

Often in Egypt, tensions between Muslims and Christian are sparked by inter-religious love affairs or conversions.

In the stabbing case, police officials said Romany Amir stabbed his wife Saturday in Assiut while she was trying to visit her son at school. The wife had converted to Islam four months ago and had been separated from her husband since then. He is under arrest.

The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to media.

___

Associated Press writer Mamdouh Thabet contributed reporting from Assiut, Egypt.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-christian-teachers-detention-extended-165339974.html

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Offshore 3D Printed Gun Blueprint Protector Kim Dotcom Reportedly Deleting Files [Updated]

3D printed guns are reportedly even too scary for the infamous free-information hacker, Kim Dotcom. After the U.S. State Department demanded that the designer of the world’s first fully printable gun?remove the files from his network, New Zealand-based Dotcom committed to keeping them safely online in his offshore legal safehaven. “I think it’s a serious threat to the security of the community. I think?it’s scary that people can print 3D guns that can’t even be detected by?metal detectors. This should concern everybody,” said Dotcom, according to a statement emailed to us by a spokesman. According to New Zealand’s Newstalk ZB website, “The plans were available on Dotcom’s Mega website, but the New Zealand-based entrepreneur asked his staff to delete the public files. Dotcom says he thinks they are a serious threat to security of the community.” We have reached out to Dotcom and will update readers with more information as we receive it. Last week, Texas law school graduate Cody Wilson made global headlines for freely distributing digital blueprints for manufacturing a lethal weapon with a 3D printer. In a mere week, Senator Chuck Schumer called for immediate regulation and the blueprints themselves had been downloaded over 100,000 times. Because of Dotcom’s commitment to guarding them against U.S. interference, it was questionable whether any government entity could prevent them from being distributed. Dotcom is an entrepreneur and hacker, who became famous for a massive police raid of his Megaupload site that housed pirated entertainment content. He seemed like a natural ally in the fight for radical open information. Now that even he’s abandoned 3D weapons, perhaps there is some information that the Internet and government can collaboratively reject. Updated with quote from Dotcom

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/J2j9FsmqhN4/

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Prince Harry in Colo for wounded vet Warrior Games

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) ? Britain's Prince Harry is meeting with wounded service members competing in the Paralympic-style Warrior Games in Colorado.

The veteran combat helicopter pilot, wearing brown camouflage and boots, chatted with individual athletes on the United Kingdom team in Colorado Springs on Saturday morning.

He plans to attend the opening ceremonies and watch volleyball. He'll also watch a cycling competition Sunday.

Harry has deployed to Afghanistan twice with the British Army, once as a forward air controller and once as a helicopter co-pilot and gunner.

A spokesman says he's attending the Colorado games because he believes the wounded deserve recognition.

The Warrior Games run through Thursday. About 260 athletes are expected.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prince-harry-colo-wounded-vet-warrior-games-160652067.html

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Bears, glaciers: Show pits man against Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? Dallas Seavey knows what it's like to mush across the wilds of Alaska. Now it remains to be seen how he survives being dropped off in the middle of that wilderness and navigates his way out without the help of a dog team.

Seavey, 26, who became the youngest Iditarod champion ever when he won the 1,000-mile sled dog race across Alaska last year, is among eight mushers or outdoor adventurers featured in the latest reality show set in Alaska.

"Ultimate Survival Alaska" premieres Sunday (10 p.m. EST) on the National Geographic Channel.

"We took eight of the toughest outdoorsmen in Alaska and actually did something that was true to the nature of National Geographic," Seavey said. "Anybody who appreciates the outdoors is going to enjoy the show."

In each episode, the eight participants are taken by plane or helicopter to a different part of Alaska. They must find their way to a pre-arranged landing zone within three days, fighting the harshest elements the state puts in their way, from bears, mountains and raging rivers to guiding their way along a glacier. Spoiler alert: It's not easy.

In the first episode, titled "Arctic Hell," the men are dropped off in the Brooks Range, in northern Alaska above the Arctic Circle, and must make their way almost 50 miles on foot to Takahula Lake.

The men break off into three teams, with brothers Dallas and Tyrell Seavey choosing to take a barren ridgeline to the lake. Mountain guide Willi Prittie, musher Brent Sass and explorer Tyler Johnson decide to travel the high mountain route only to find wolves blocking part of their path.

Mountain guide Marty Raney and his son, survival expert Matt, along with wilderness guide Austin Manelick choose the most direct route, through a river valley, but have to contend with the swift-moving river and swamps.

All eight outdoorsmen are expected to live off the land for any food beyond the two pounds of rice and beans they carry.

Manelick, 24, supplemented his diet by eating a live wood frog. "I wish I could find some more," he said, and so might viewers after his next culinary choice ? snarfing down cranberries he picked out of bear scat.

"A little bit tart," he says.

Future episodes will have the men competing in two teams and building rafts to take down the mighty Yukon River, the nation's third longest river. Another episode has the men rappelling down a cliff on a summit in the snow-capped Tordrillo Mountains, then traveling eight miles over the Triumvirate Glacier.

The series was filmed over two and a half months last fall in 10 locations in the vast state.

For Tyrell Seavey, 28, the series was a chance for him to reconnect with his younger brother. A decade ago, they dreamed of doing things like this but couldn't because they had to spend two- to three hours a day cleaning up after the dogs at their home in Seward, Alaska. Their father, Mitch Seavey, won the Iditarod in 2004 and this year became the sport's oldest champion at the age of 53.

"As Alaskans, we sure talk about doing all this stuff, but who does all these things, visits all these places?" Tyrell Seavey said.

Both Dallas Seavey and Sass, a Minnesota native who was the Iditarod rookie of the year in 2012, said their experiences from the race helped prepare them for the survival challenge.

"The sleep deprivation, pain tolerance we endure and the constant problem solving we do during the race was a great prep for the show," Sass said in an email to The Associated Press.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bears-glaciers-show-pits-man-against-alaska-155516951.html

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Egypt says Libyan and Iraqi oil to arrive next month

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said it expected crude oil imports to start arriving next month after Libya and Iraq agreed to make shipments to help Cairo weather an economic crisis.

More than two years of political turmoil since an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak have hammered Egypt's economy. Foreign currency reserves, used to pay for food and fuel under subsidy programmes that make up about a quarter of the budget, have fallen to critically low levels.

Egypt's oil ministry said in a statement on Tuesday measures would be implemented to rein in an energy crisis, including "the arrival of the Libyan and then Iraqi crude oil shipments next month".

Some areas have experienced sporadic power outages, and fuel shortages have also led to queues at many filling stations over the past few months.

The economic crisis has pushed Egypt to seek easy payment terms from suppliers by cutting diplomatic deals that leverage the country's strategic importance.

Iraq said during a visit by Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Kandil to Baghdad in March that it had agreed to supply Egypt with 4 million barrels of oil per month.

Last month, Libya said it would supply Egypt with $1.2 billion worth of crude oil at world prices but on interest-free credit for a year.

The Islamist-led government of President Mohamed Mursi is trying to negotiate a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Economists expect reforms of the country's fuel subsidy programme to be included in any deal.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-says-libyan-iraqi-oil-arrive-next-month-125039547.html

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Diplomat: Special forces stopped from going to Benghazi

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Four members of Army special forces ready to head to Benghazi, Libya, after the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission had ended were told not to go, according to a former top diplomat.

Gregory Hicks also argued in an interview with Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that if the U.S. military had flown aircraft over the Benghazi facility after it came under siege it might have prevented the second attack on the CIA annex that killed two CIA security officers.

Excerpts of the interview with the former deputy chief in Libya were released Monday in advance of Hicks' testimony on Wednesday before the panel.

The Sept. 11, 2012, assault killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Nearly eight months later, Republicans insist that the Obama administration is guilty of a cover-up of the events despite a scathing independent report that faulted the State Department for inadequate security at the diplomatic mission.

Hicks' comments and the hearing are likely to revive the politically charged debate in which GOP lawmakers and outside groups have faulted former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible presidential candidate in 2016.

After the first word of the attack in Benghazi, a seven-member security team, including two military personnel, flew from Tripoli to Benghazi. Upon their arrival, they learned that Stevens was missing and the situation had calmed after the first attack, according to a Pentagon timeline released last year.

Meanwhile, a second team was preparing to leave on a Libyan C-130 cargo plane from Tripoli to Benghazi when Hicks said he learned from the Libyan prime minister that Stevens was dead. The Libyan military agreed to transport additional personnel as reinforcements to Benghazi on its cargo plane, but Hicks complained the special forces were told not to make the trip.

"They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it," Hicks told GOP committee staff. Pressed on why, he said, "I guess they just didn't have the right authority from the right level."

Defense officials said Monday that four members of Army special forces were in Tripoli on Sept. 11, 2012, as part of a regular training mission. The officials said they were trying to track down information about the Libyan cargo plane and could not verify whether or not the special forces were told not to get on the plane.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said it is normal procedure for U.S. service members to get permission to fly on another country's military aircraft.

That flight left Tripoli after the second attack on the CIA annex that killed two security officers ? Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

Hicks also contended that if the U.S. military has scrambled jet fighters after the first attack that it would have prevented the mortar attack on the CIA annex around 5:15 a.m.

"I believe the Libyans would have split. They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them," Hicks said, according to the excerpts.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other military leaders have said there wasn't enough time for the military to respond as the events in Benghazi occurred too quickly ? a point reinforced by the Pentagon on Monday.

"The fact of the matter remains, as we have repeatedly indicated, that U.S. military forces could not have arrived in time to mount a rescue of those Americans who were killed and injured that night," said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

At the State Department on Monday, spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the committee's work appeared to have political aims rather than ensuring the protection of U.S. diplomats serving overseas.

"It certainly seems so, so far," he replied when asked if the department believed the investigation to be driven by partisan politics. "I mean, this is not sort of a collaborative process where the committee is working directly with us and trying to establish facts that would help as we look to keep our people safe overseas in a very complex environment."

Democrats on the committee said Monday they have been excluded from the investigation.

Ventrell said the department had not seen the full transcript of Hicks' statements to committee investigators and could not comment until it had or until after his testimony on Wednesday. At the same time, he insisted that the department was not blocking any employee from appearing before Congress or intimidating them into silence.

"We understand this testimony's going to go forward, and we want people to go and tell the truth," he told reporters. "But in terms of the full context of these remarks or these sort of accusations, we don't have the full context, so it's hard for us to respond."

Ventrell also pushed back against allegations from congressional Republicans and their surrogates that the independent panel appointed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had not conducted a comprehensive or credible investigation into the Benghazi incident and were somehow involved in a cover-up.

He noted that the independent panel, called the Accountability Review Board, had produced a harshly critical report, blaming systematic leadership and management failures at senior levels of the State Department for the inadequate security at the Benghazi compound.

Meanwhile the co-chairs of the review board, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former senior diplomat Thomas Pickering, released a statement rejecting claims that their panel had been denied access to key witnesses or had conducted anything less than a thorough and impartial probe.

"From the beginning of the ARB process, we had unfettered access to everyone and everything including all the documentation we needed," the two men said. "Our marching orders were to get to the bottom of what happened, and that's what we did."

Meanwhile, the former head of the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, Daniel Benjamin, denied allegations that his office had been cut out of the loop in the discussions and decision-making processes in the aftermath of the attack.

"This charge is simply untrue," he said. "At no time did I feel that the bureau was in any way being left out of deliberations that it should have been part of."

____

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/diplomat-us-team-stopped-going-benghazi-212327859.html

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