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Current Admin Used Gestapo-Type Tactics

Mike

Well-known member
No surprise here. WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The chief watchdog overseeing the Environmental Protection Agency is accusing agency officials of obstructing investigations by refusing to cooperate, using bully tactics to silence lower-level workers and, in at least one instance, threatening an agent.

EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. made the allegations in a letter sent this week to Sen. David Vitter, R-La. The senator earlier had questioned both the objectivity of the IG office and whether EPA officials had interfered with investigations -- specifically asking about the case of John Beale, a former high-ranking official who was sentenced in December to 32 months in prison for bilking taxpayers of nearly $1 million by pretending to be a CIA agent.

The IG's office formally exposed the Beale fraud last year, but revealed to Vitter that, in this and other cases, its agents ran into resistance and even "intimidation" from the EPA ranks.

"Over the past 12 months, there have been several EPA officials who have taken action to prevent [the Office of Investigations] from conducting investigations or have attempted to obstruct investigations through intimidation," Elkins wrote.

In the Beale probe, Elkins confirmed that a staff attorney refused to be interviewed on a related audit following Beale's prosecution. Elkins wrote that auditors found indications she may have been aware of concerns about Beale's pay months earlier than she let on.

Separately, Elkins said an official in the agency's Office of Homeland Security approached one of their agents "in a threatening manner" during an investigation, preventing the agent from doing her job. The same official allegedly "issued non-disclosure agreements to EPA employees that prevented these employees from cooperating."

The case was apparently reported to the Justice Department, but it was never prosecuted, according to the letter.

Elkins said that yet another employee in the same office also refused to cooperate in an IG probe, and pulled the same move -- issuing non-disclosure agreements to employees to prevent them from cooperating as well.

It's unclear whether these other instances had anything to do with the IG's investigation into the Beale matter. Vitter's office said they suspect they are related at least in part, but are still working on their own investigations.

"We are starting to see proof of what we had already suspected -- John Beale's time and attendance fraud was the tip of the iceberg at the EPA," Vitter said in a statement. "The whole agency seems to be in complete disarray, which is exactly why we need to have a full [Environment and Public Works] Committee hearing on the fraud surrounding this case and other prevalent problems."

Vitter is the top Republican on that committee, which has been digging into how Beale was allowed to get away with his deception for so many years. Previously released documents have shown that some agency employees had suspicions about Beale for a long time, yet he kept receiving improper bonuses until 2013. Those bonuses totaled about $500,000.

Vitter had also raised concerns about the IG office's independence. But Elkins defended its work and its findings. He stood by a claim that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy was the first senior official to report Beale. And he refuted claims that it viewed Beale's supposed CIA status as a human resources issue. The letter noted that other agency officials discussed the controversy in that context, but said "OIG was not part of these discussions."
 

Tam

Well-known member
This says it ALL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAU28t5Ya0


The only thing the guy has said that I totally agree with. :wink:
 

Tam

Well-known member
Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, said today on the House floor that survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements:

"On Tuesday I raised the question of why none of the Benghazi survivors, whether State Department, CIA, or private security contract employees have testified publicly before Congress," said Wolf.

"According to trusted sources that have contacted my office, many if not all of the survivors of the Benghazi attacks along with others at the Department of Defense, the CIA have been asked or directed to sign additional non-disclosure agreements about their involvement in the Benghazi attacks. Some of these new NDAs, as they call them, I have been told were signed as recently as this summer."

Wolf continued: "It is worth noting that the Marine Corps Times yesterday reported that the Marine colonel whose task force was responsible for special operations in northern and western Africa at the time of the attack is still on active duty despite claims that he retired. And therefore could not be forced to testify before Congress.

"If these reports are accurate, this would be a stunning revelation to any member of Congress, any member of Congress that finds this out and also more importantly to the American people. It also raises serious concerns about the priority of the administration's efforts to silence those with knowledge of the Benghazi attack in response

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAU28t5Ya0
 

Tam

Well-known member
Disgraced IRS official Lois Lerner insists she'll take the Fifth in ANOTHER congressional hearing – unless she gets immunity (or a judge orders her to talk)

Former IRS exempt organizations chief was forced into retirement after revealing a scheme to target right-wing groups with extra scrutiny
Tax-exempt groups are forbidden from electioneering, and the IRS says it wants to rein in abuses of groups applying for income tax exemptions
But the vast majority of the groups it targeted beginning in 2009 were tea party organizations and other conservative applicants
The House Oversight Committee will call her back as a witness on March 5, but her lawyer says she's still not talking

She pleaded the Fifth Amendment in a 2013 hearing but the committee ruled that she forfeited the privilege by giving an opening statement

PUBLISHED: 16:35 GMT, 26 February 2014 | UPDATED: 22:52 GMT, 26 February 2014


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAU28t5Ya0
 

Tam

Well-known member
The White House has invoked executive privilege over documents at the center of the stand-off between Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigating the Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAU28t5Ya0
 

Tam

Well-known member
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday said that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has been as harmful to American intelligence gather capabilities as leaker Edward Snowden.

“That Clapper is lying to Congress is probably more injurious to our intelligent capabilities than anything Snowden did,” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Clapper has damaged the credibility of the entire intelligence apparatus and I’m not sure what to believe anymore when they come to Congress.”

Paul also said he believes Clapper would need to resign to restore confidence in the intelligence community.

“I don’t know how you can have someone in charge over intelligence who has known to lie in a public forum to Congress, to lie without repercussions,” he added. “If the intelligence community says we’re not spying on Americans and they are, and then they say we’re not collecting any data, it’s hard to have confidence in them.”

When asked about the prospect of raising criminal charges against Clapper, Paul said that both Snowden and Clapper broke the law.

“I think the law is the law; they both broke the law and that one shouldn’t get off scot-free,” Paul said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypAU28t5Ya0
 

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