More taxes mean more central planning

CNBC, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PROF. RIP NEW YORK TIMES OVER PRO-TAX EDITORIAL: EITHER DISHONEST OR THEY DON’T GET ECONOMICS

The New York Times editorial board on Saturday published an article claiming Republican lawmakers’ love of pro-austerity policies has inhibited economic growth.

On the other hand, the op-ed argues, the Obama administration is “doing better” by “adding new taxes and investments”:

Republicans have insisted on austerity for ideological and political reasons. The administration has done better by adding new taxes and investments to the cuts, but the reductions are still deep and damaging.

CNBC’s Joe Kernan and Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan were not impressed with article’s reasoning, saying on Monday that its authors are either willfully dishonest or simply ignorant of economic principles.

The part about adding new taxes “was dishonest or the people writing it don’t understand economics,” said Kernan.

“Now, I have gone in and looked at the New York Times editorial board,” he added. “I found one person that does have an economics degree, Terry Tang. [...] Anyway, we have a Harvard professor. And I talked to you a little bit. But how do you characterize that statement?”

“I don’t understand it. They might want to rewrite that sentence,” said Kaplan.

The Harvard Business School professor continued, explaining that the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates have shielded us from feeling the full effects of the national debt.

“My fear is this,” he said. “This deficit doesn’t feel that bad and this amount of debt doesn’t feel that bad because interest rates are so low.”

“Imagine if we had, quote, unquote normal interest rates, 5 percent, 6 percent, 10-year, we would be taking much tougher action [on the national debt],” he added. “And we shouldn’t wait for that.”

The Left is always upset by the truth

THE PRO-GUN BILLBOARD IN COLO. THAT HAS SOME RESIDENTS UPSET

GREELEY, Colo. (TheBlaze/AP) — Two billboards in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument are causing a stir with some residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive.

The billboards in this northern Colorado city show three men dressed in traditional Native American attire and the words “Turn in your arms. The government will take care of you.”

This April 26, 2013, photo shows a billboard in Greeley, Colo. in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument. The two billboards are causing a stir with some residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive. Credit: AP

Matt Wells, an account executive with Lamar Advertising in Denver, said Monday a group of local residents purchased the space.

“They have asked to remain anonymous,” he said.

He also refused to disclose the cost, but said the billboards are only appearing in the Greeley area. Wells said he has not received any complaints so far.

“I think it’s a little bit extreme, of course, but I think people are really worried about their gun rights and what liberties are going to be taken away,” Wells told the Greeley Tribune (http://tinyurl.com/cdtkgj2 ).

Greeley resident Kerri Salazar, who is of Native American descent, said she was livid when she learned about it. She said she doesn’t have a problem with the gun rights message, but she’s offended the Native American people were singled out, apparently without their consent.

“I think we all get that (Second Amendment) message. What I don’t understand is how an organization can post something like that and not think about the ripple effect that it’s gonna have through the community,” she said.

Irene Vernon, a Colorado State University professor and chairwoman of the ethnic studies department, said the message on the billboard is taking a narrow view of a much more complicated history of the Native American plight. She said it’s not as if Native Americans just gave up their guns and wound up on reservations.

“It wasn’t just about our guns,” said Vernon, a Native American.

Greeley resident Maureen Brucker, who has worked with Native American organizations and who frequents the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota as an honorary family member, said she thinks the billboards are making light of atrocities the federal government committed against Native Americans.

She said the billboard brings to her mind one of the most horrendous examples of that, the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890. Historical accounts say the 7th Cavalry had detained a band of Native Americans and asked them to give up their weapons. Troops began firing after a shot rang out. Death toll estimates of Native American men, women and children range from 150 to 300.

Brucker said she thinks those who put up the billboards should come forward and to discuss their viewpoints.

“I thought it was pretty cowardly that someone would put something like that up and spend the money for a billboard but didn’t have the courage to put their name on it,” she said.

“I was disgusted. I was disgusted,” Brucker added to KUSA-TV.

The madness of the left. This is from the same nutter who proposed the "Homeless Rights Bill" I referred to some posts ago.

California Bill Would Allow Students to Use Bathrooms 'Consistent with His or Her Gender Identity'

A proposed law introduced in the California State legislature would allow public  school children to use bathrooms designated for members of the opposite sex, if that students' "gender identity" differed from the students biological sex.

Assembly Bill 1266, introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who represents a section of the city of San Francisco would:

"...require that a pupil be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's record."

While the bill does not specifically mention restrooms, restrooms and locker rooms are generally considered to be part of the "facilities" in schools throughout the country.

The bill would apparently also require that biological males be permitted to try out for, and play on, girls' sports teams if they identify themselves as females.

The Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense group that champions traditional causes has set up a website opposing the so called "bathroom bill."

The website, Gender Insanity.com warns against the bill with a statement that reads:

" Picture this ... your 7 year-old daughter comes home from school in tears. You ask her what's wrong and she says she's afraid to go to the bathroom at school because a boy comes in while she's there. Outraged, you call the school to demand an explanation. You're told that your daughter is telling the truth, but because the boy says he wants to be a girl, their hands are tied. "It's the law."

The bill was amended in Assembly on April 25th, 2013.

Why? For a lawsuit or terrorism?

Woman Arrested at SJ Starbucks for Potential Orange Juice Poisoning

A 50-year-old woman was arrested Monday night after police say she removed two bottles of orange juice from a bag - which they say were filled with rubbing alcohol - and placed them on the shelf with other refrigerated items at a Starbucks in San Jose.

San Jose Police Sgt. Jason Dwyer took Ramineh Behbehanian of San Jose into custody on an attempted murder charge because the orange juice contained what police said were lethal quantities of isopropyl alcohol.

Authorities are still not sure why she would have allegedly mixed rubbing alcohol with some orange juice in the afternoon, left the bottles in the refrigerated section alongside some yogurt and milk, and left the Snell Avenue store about 3:30 p.m.

Customers spotted her putting the bottles in the refrigerator and noticed a toxic smell. The woman left, but someone got her license plate.

The San Jose Fire Department responded to the scene, retrieved the bottles and tested the contents with hazardous materials equipment.

It turned out, the bottles were filled with orange juice and rubbing alcohol.

On Tuesday morning, customer Brent Breyer said he was a little "apprehensive" about what happened at his usual Starbucks. He said he often brings his young daughter, who routinely grabs for items in the refrigerated section.

Police were able to track her down at her home. Why she allegedly did it is unclear.

A Starbucks spokesperson told NBC Bay Area that the company destroyed all the other juices in the Snell Avenue store out of an abundance of caution and had all other stores in Bay Area check their juice seals.  All checked out OK.

The open minded socialists of France

'Au revoir' to English, demands French PM

Iran ups the ante

Escalation: Iranian Drones Over Israel

Posted By P. David Hornik On April 30, 2013 @ 12:40 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 11 Comments

On Thursday an Israeli warplane shot a drone into the Mediterranean just west of the Haifa shoreline. The drone came from Lebanon, and Israeli media immediately reported that it was sent by Hizballah—even though the prime minister and the IDF spokesman, in their public statements on the incident, made no such claim.
Amos Harel, military analyst for Haaretz, reports that the reason for that omission is probably that it wasn’t Hizballah that sent the plane but, rather, Iran—specifically its Revolutionary Guards contingent in Lebanon.
The UK’s Telegraph reports that “according to Syrian rebels and Israeli intelligence, Tehran has poured Revolutionary Guard soldiers into Syria and Lebanon to support its Shiite allies.” The Revolutionary Guards are also believed to have been behind another drone sent from Lebanon in October. That one entered Israeli airspace and was shot down not far from Israel’s nuclear plant in the Negev.
The Telegraph quotes a “Western diplomat” saying: “The Israeli military command doesn’t treat drones launched from Lebanon lightly, since their goal may be not only taking pictures, but also an assassination of senior officials, military or political.” In fact, at the time Thursday’s drone was spotted, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was flying across northern Israel, and his helicopter had to be grounded until the drone was downed.
What was the drone’s mission? Probably not to hit Netanyahu, since that would be an open act of war and Iran, with its elections upcoming in June and its nuclear program probably not quite yet at the finish line, wouldn’t seek that outcome at this point. Harel speculates that “Iran wished to openly demonstrate its potential ability to damage essential facilities in Israel.”
Some believe those “essential facilities” were, in this instance, Israel’s new natural-gas fields in the Mediterranean. Harel claims the drone’s route suggests otherwise.
In any case, despite ongoing “options on the table” talk from Washington and “Israel has the right to defend itself” talk from Jerusalem, it’s clear that the situation is getting worse rather than better. One would have to imagine Al Qaeda drones flying over the U.S. or along its coast—except that Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization while Iran is a country, and Israel is much smaller than the U.S. (one-ninth the size of Nebraska, as Nebraskan defense secretary Chuck Hagel was informed in Israel last week).
If the situation is bad now, with Iran encamped on Israel’s border and able to send drones toward or even into its territory, clearly it would be a lot worse if Iran had nuclear bombs. And indeed top Israeli security experts have been sounding the alarm.
Last week it was former chief of military intelligence Amos Yadlin saying that “for all intents and purposes, Iran has crossed Israel’s red line…in the summer, Iran will be a month or two away from deciding about a bomb.”
And on Monday Ephraim Asculai, a researcher at the think tank Yadlin now heads, the Institute for National Security Studies, wrote that:

Iran has been steadily increasing its efforts to advance its nuclear program. It has established an impressive infrastructure and has produced enough 3.5 percent-enriched uranium, and some 20% enriched uranium, to suffice, if further enriched, for the production of several nuclear explosive devices within a relatively short time.

Also on Monday Uri Heitner, an astute columnist for Israel Hayom, had this to say:

Just as Assad used his chemical weapons, the Iranian regime could use nuclear weapons. Diplomacy and sanctions have played out. Now, only a military operation can prevent it. If Israel is left without an option, it will be forced to do it alone, but we can still hope we don’t reach this point.
During his visit to Israel, Obama promised that Iran will never possess a nuclear weapon. Those in his inner circle keep saying that the president is not bluffing. The time has come to put an end to Iran’s game of buying time and to act.

The other alternative is to keep playing games with sanctions and—even more wretchedly—“diplomacy” and court disaster.

Wow... they took the gold, silver and bronze

Detroit Takes Top Spots On List Of Most Dangerous Neighborhoods In America

DETROIT (WWJ) - It’s a clean sweep for Detroit, but nothing to be proud of, as the city takes the top three spots on a list of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America.

The study by NeighborhoodScout.com analyzed FBI statistics from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies to pinpoint neighborhoods across the country with the highest predicted rates of violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Researchers drilled down deep into cities and towns to find specific census tract areas that had the highest rates of homicide, forcible rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault.

PHOTO TOUR: Detroit — Home Of America’s Most Dangerous Neighborhoods

According to the study, the area east of the Barton-McFarland community in zip code 48204 is the most dangerous neighborhood in America.

The study said the chances of becoming a victim of violent crime in this west side community over the course of a year are one in seven. According to NeighborhoodScout, one of the more devastating events in this neighborhood over the past year was the closure of the public library — where children took remedial reading and math classes and adults used public computers to apply for jobs.

Sharing similar statistics is the Islandview community in the 48207 zip code on the city’s east side, which ranks as the second most dangerous neighborhood on the list.

It’s in this neighborhood where, according to the study, housing costs have gone down so dramatically that a 3,300 square-foot property sold for just $800 — down from $70,000 in 2002. The study said the chances of becoming a victim of violent crime in this community over the course of a year are one in seven.

Coming in as the third most dangerous neighborhood in the country is the area between Ravendale and LaSalle College Park in zip codes 48213 and 48205.

The study said the chances of becoming a victim of violent crime in this east side neighborhood are one in eight. About 40 percent of the households here have four or more cars — more cars per household than in 96 percent of the country, according to NeighborhoodScout. The vacancy rate in this neighborhood is also about 30 percent.

(Continue for link to survey…)

The growing threat to Israel

Escalation: Iranian Drones Over Israel

Posted By P. David Hornik 

On Thursday an Israeli warplane shot a drone into the Mediterranean just west of the Haifa shoreline. The drone came from Lebanon, and Israeli media immediately reported that it was sent by Hizballah—even though the prime minister and the IDF spokesman, in their public statements on the incident, made no such claim.

Amos Harel, military analyst for Haaretz, reports that the reason for that omission is probably that it wasn’t Hizballah that sent the plane but, rather, Iran—specifically its Revolutionary Guards contingent in Lebanon.
The UK’s Telegraph reports that “according to Syrian rebels and Israeli intelligence, Tehran has poured Revolutionary Guard soldiers into Syria and Lebanon to support its Shiite allies.” The Revolutionary Guards are also believed to have been behind another drone sent from Lebanon in October. That one entered Israeli airspace and was shot down not far from Israel’s nuclear plant in the Negev.
The Telegraph quotes a “Western diplomat” saying: “The Israeli military command doesn’t treat drones launched from Lebanon lightly, since their goal may be not only taking pictures, but also an assassination of senior officials, military or political.” In fact, at the time Thursday’s drone was spotted, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was flying across northern Israel, and his helicopter had to be grounded until the drone was downed.
What was the drone’s mission? Probably not to hit Netanyahu, since that would be an open act of war and Iran, with its elections upcoming in June and its nuclear program probably not quite yet at the finish line, wouldn’t seek that outcome at this point. Harel speculates that “Iran wished to openly demonstrate its potential ability to damage essential facilities in Israel.”
Some believe those “essential facilities” were, in this instance, Israel’s new natural-gas fields in the Mediterranean. Harel claims the drone’s route suggests otherwise.
In any case, despite ongoing “options on the table” talk from Washington and “Israel has the right to defend itself” talk from Jerusalem, it’s clear that the situation is getting worse rather than better. One would have to imagine Al Qaeda drones flying over the U.S. or along its coast—except that Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization while Iran is a country, and Israel is much smaller than the U.S. (one-ninth the size of Nebraska, as Nebraskan defense secretary Chuck Hagel was informed in Israel last week).
If the situation is bad now, with Iran encamped on Israel’s border and able to send drones toward or even into its territory, clearly it would be a lot worse if Iran had nuclear bombs. And indeed top Israeli security experts have been sounding the alarm.
Last week it was former chief of military intelligence Amos Yadlin saying that “for all intents and purposes, Iran has crossed Israel’s red line…in the summer, Iran will be a month or two away from deciding about a bomb.”
And on Monday Ephraim Asculai, a researcher at the think tank Yadlin now heads, the Institute for National Security Studies, wrote that:

Iran has been steadily increasing its efforts to advance its nuclear program. It has established an impressive infrastructure and has produced enough 3.5 percent-enriched uranium, and some 20% enriched uranium, to suffice, if further enriched, for the production of several nuclear explosive devices within a relatively short time.

Also on Monday Uri Heitner, an astute columnist for Israel Hayom, had this to say:

Just as Assad used his chemical weapons, the Iranian regime could use nuclear weapons. Diplomacy and sanctions have played out. Now, only a military operation can prevent it. If Israel is left without an option, it will be forced to do it alone, but we can still hope we don’t reach this point.
During his visit to Israel, Obama promised that Iran will never possess a nuclear weapon. Those in his inner circle keep saying that the president is not bluffing. The time has come to put an end to Iran’s game of buying time and to act.

The other alternative is to keep playing games with sanctions and—even more wretchedly—“diplomacy” and court disaster.

Leeches are poisonous when ingested

Tsarnaev family received $100G in benefits

The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section 8 housing from 2002 to 2012, the Herald has learned.

“The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning,” said a person with knowledge of documents handed over to a legislative committee today.

The state has handed over more than 500 documents to the 11-member House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which today met for the first time and plans to call in officials from the Department of Transitional Assistance to testify.

“I can assure members of the public that this committee will actively review every single piece of information we can find because clearly the public has a substantial right to know what benefits, if any, this family or individuals accused of some horrific crimes were receiving,” said state Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick), the committee’s chairman.

Linsky’s committee has requested documents from the DTA, the state’s Medicaid director and Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz. But so far the committee has not released the records publicly, citing a privilege the DTA is asserting under state law.

Transitional assistance officials also told the Herald tonight that the agency was conducting its own investigation into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s family ever notified the DTA about his extended trip to Russia, and has since expanded its probe to include a full history of the benefits received by the entire Tsarnaev family.

More On:

This is going to make the liberals crazy

New Poll Finds CNN Far Less Believable Cable Channel Than Fox News

For the left skirting the law is no big deal

Videos, court fight fuel surging debate on abortion

Defense Attorney: Prosecution of Gosnell is 'Elitist, Racist'

Gosnell's abortion atrocities no 'aberration': Column

Red Ken speaks. Taking the space normally occupied by George Galloway

Former London mayor blames the U.S. for Boston bombing attack

The former mayor of London took to Press TV, an Iranian state-run network, recently to express his disdain for the Bush White House and his assurance that the Boston Marathon bombings were brought upon the United States because of its injustices abroad.

"Very often, people get incredibly angry about injustices that they see," Ken Livingstone said Friday, according to a transcript by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a nonprofit. "They would have been reading about the torture at Guantanamo Bay, at Baghram airbase. They would have read stuff about how, I think it is 54 different countries secretly collaborated with America for this rendition — people being snatched off streets taken to be tortured, because the Bush regime believed that they were all potential terrorists.

"There was such ignorance in the Bush White House about Islam and about the history of so many disputes that exist in the Middle East. People get angry — they lash out," he continued. "... It's the whole squalid intervention that has disfigured the record of the Western democracies. I think this fuels the anger of the young men, who — as we saw in Boston — went out, and, out of anger and demand for revenge, claimed lives in the West."

Only certain intolerance is acceptable

CMU Parade Controversy Over Naked Woman, Dressed As Pope

Do you believe Janet Napolitano?

GAO Now Investigating DHS Ammo Purchases

The Government Accountability Office tells Whispers it is now investigating large ammunition purchases made by the Department of Homeland Security. Chuck Young, a spokesman for GAO, says the investigation of the purchases is "just getting underway."

[MORE: DHS Denies Ammo Purchases Aimed at Civilians]

The congressional investigative agency is jumping into the fray just as legislation was introduced in both the Senate and the House to restrict the purchase of ammo by some government agencies (except the Department of Defense). The AMMO Act, introduced Friday, would prevent agencies from buying more ammunition if "stockpiles" are greater than what they were in previous administrations.

Donelle Harder, a spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who introduced the legislation in the Senate, tells Whispers the bill would also require GAO to share the findings of its report on DHS purchases with Congress.

[READ: McCain, Schumer Say Gun Control Is Coming Back]

Officials at DHS have denied to both Whispers and lawmakers that it is stockpiling ammunition. The Associated Press reported in February that DHS wanted to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, but DHS officials testified last week it was only planning to buy up to 750 million.

How much is enough?

Government Seeks to Fine Companies for Not Complying With Wiretap Orders

Open borders anyone?

Fewer See Better Life North of the Border, but 35% Would Migrate

U.S. Image Rebounds in Mexico

Gun running seems to be one ofObama's favorite techniques

BENGHAZIGATE: Obama’s Secret Gun-Running Program

Katie Kieffer 

• 
  

Liberals don’t want honest Americans like you to have guns. Liberals just want to arm foreign rebels in crapshoot attempts to “end global violence.” But liberals feign ignorance when the rebels they arm end up being criminals who kill innocent Americans like the late U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.

Why did Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans die in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012? We now know that President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA Director David Petraeus were likely behind a mishandled gun-trafficking program that ended up arming the radical jihadist rebels who stormed the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya on that fateful day.

Our CIA is still playing the role of vetting which Syrian rebel groups will obtain arms including machine guns, ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenades. While Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are directly purchasing the weaponry, the Obama administration is aiding the Arab governments in shopping for these arms and transferring them from Libya, to Turkey, and finally into Syria.

Unfortunately the CIA has “vetted” shady intermediaries (including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood) and shady recipients of thousands of tons worth of military equipment and millions of rounds of ammo. Consequently, weapons have fallen into the wrong hands. In the case of Benghazi, anti-tank weapons appear to have landed in the hands of terrorists.

Now, Clinton is denying even knowing about the program, although the evidence indicates it was largely her idea. Of course everything happened under Obama’s watch and the buck stops with him. The story of Obama’s gun-running program in Benghazi is long and multifarious, so I will break down the timeline for you:

May 26, 2012: Stevens arrives in Tripoli, the capitol city of Libya and sets up camp at the U.S. embassy.

Last summer, Clinton first proposed a plan to then-CIA Director David Petraeus to partner on a gun-trafficking program to arm the Syrian resistance and “vet the rebel groups, and train fighters who would be supplied with weapons,” according to The New York Times.

June of 2012: The New York Times reports that the CIA is operating a secret arms transfer program that sounds exactly like the plan Clinton developed with Petraeus. Suddenly, there is: “…an influx of weapons and ammunition to the rebels.”

September 5, 2012: A Libyan ship called Al Entisar (“The Victory”) docks in the Turkish port of Iskenderun, carrying 400 tons of cargo including many weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS) destined for Syrian rebels 35 miles away from Iskenderun. The ship’s captain told the Times of London that the Muslim Brotherhood and the free Syrian Army broke into a fight over the arms.

September 10, 2012: Stevens arrives in Benghazi, Libya, the location of the U.S. consulate. About a mile away from the consulate, is the CIA annex. Stevens planned to stay at the consulate for five days. His visit was supposed to be secret, but Libya-based extremists somehow learned of his arrival.

September 11, 2012: Stevens has an unusual meeting with Turkish diplomat Consul General Ali Sait Akin. Fox News reported that the meeting was “…to negotiate a weapons transfer, an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier” that Stevens was in Libya to specifically control a situation: “…where the action was regarding the rising Islamic extremists who were trying to get their hands on weapons that were flowing freely in Libya…”

9:40 p.m. (Libya time): Libyan rebels launched and organized an armed attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

10:04 p.m. CIA base chief at the nearby CIA annex calls for help including 50-caliber machine guns and vehicles from the Libyan intelligence, the 17 February Brigade and other Libyan militias. After 24 minutes of calls and no response, the CIA base chief takes a small team of seven people to the consulate. They were too late to save Stevens, but were able to save some State Department personnel.

11:56 p.m. CIA officers and the State Department members are seeking safety back at the CIA annex. There, rebels attack them with rocket-propelled grenades. Fighting continues on until 5:26 a.m.

6:00 a.m. Libyan forces suddenly arrive to “aid” the American team with 50 vehicles.

It is odd that the annex was attacked with same sort of weapons on the Libyan ship and that Stevens was reportedly in Benghazi to manage some sort of arms transfer.

Sen. Rand Paul said on Aaron Klein Radio: “First of all with regard to Benghazi, I think it’s important [to determine more about the apparent gun-running program] because it may have something to do with why the compound was attacked. If we were involved with shipping guns to Turkey, there was a report that a ship left from Libya towards Turkey and that there were arms on it in the week preceding this [attack]; there were reports that our ambassador was meeting with the Turkish attaché, so I think with regards to figuring out what happened at Benghazi, it’s very important to know whether or not the CIA annex had anything to do with facilitating guns being sent to Turkey and ultimately to Syria. With regard to arming the rebels, just this week in the armed services committee, General Dempsey, the [Chairman of the] Joint Chiefs of Staff said that we were no longer able to distinguish who the good guys were from the bad guys and that sounds pretty worrisome if we are actually arming people who in the end may be enemies of America…enemies of Israel… enemies maybe of the Christians who live within Syria...sending arms to a rebel force to that may include Al-Nusra and other radical jihadists.”

Here’s my concern: Obama’s gun-running program failed to properly vet the rebels. Clinton most likely launched the gun program, expected Stevens to oversee it and then her weapons likely landed in the hands of al-Qaida affiliates who killed Stevens and three other Americans. This is a tragic failure of foreign policy and diplomacy under Obama’s watch.