How High Does the IRS Scandal Go?

The scandal involving IRS targeting of conservative groups continues to reach new levels, with bombshells being revealed nearly daily. Last week, the American Center for Law and Justice filed the first of many lawsuits against the federal government for the IRS’s actions. Their evidence included letters from IRS officials dated May 6, 2013, demanding to see course and reading materials, book purchases, planned activities and any contracts or other agreements. Even though Administration officials said the tactics ended in early 2012, IRS demand requests continue to be sent to conservative groups – and none have been rescinded as of yet.

Just today, Congressional testimony by tea party targets of the IRS included evidence that IRS demands came from offices and higher level managers all over the country, including its headquarters in Washington DC. At this point, there are at least 88 different IRS employees that can be directly linked to the politically motivated targeting.

One tea party group explained that they submitted their form and $850 fee to the IRS in October 2010, and the check was cashed seven days later. It wasn’t until May of 2012 that the group received an IRS demand for several pages of questions to answer, and the group’s response was required within three weeks or it would automatically be denied. In other words, the IRS may take 474 days to respond, but you must act within 21.

Meanwhile, analyses of tax exempt requests by liberal groups show that none were scrutinized in any way, and were often approved in weeks or days. Malik Obama’s Barak H Obama Foundation was personally approved by disgraced IRS official Lois Lerner in just two weeks, and was given retroactive status back to 2008. Lerner told Congressional investigators that she did nothing wrong – and then pleaded the fifth and refused to answer their questions. Groups like Voto Latino, the Ruckus Society (which advocates violent confrontation as part of the Occupy movement), and the New World Foundation all state in their website descriptions an overt political activism, and had no problems with their filings.

As of now there are five separate investigations into the IRS’s actions, including inquiries by the FBI, the House Ways & Means Government Oversight Committee, the House Oversight Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and new IRS Head Danny Werfel. And though a Quinnipiac University poll showed that 76% of Americans want a special prosecutor assigned to investigate the IRS, the White House continues to say they will not look at that option.

Much of the evidence points to at least some involvement by White House officials. The Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) lost its tax exempt status because it failed to file annual reports for several years, as required by law. CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation’s terror-financing case, and the Justice Department lists the organization as a front group for terrorist organization Hamas. In addition, several CAIR officials have been convicted of terror related charges and some have been deported. Despite that ongoing history, CAIR met with White House officials last year, and somehow the IRS quietly restored CAIR’s tax exempt status.

To further implicate White House involvement, the Daily Caller analyzed White House visitor’s logs and discovered that IRS Head Douglas Shulman met with WH officials 157 times. This is far and away more visits than even Obama’s most trusted Cabinet members, and nearly three times the number of visits by either Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Attorney General Eric Holder. In stark contrast, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson visited the White House just once in the four years he oversaw the Agency for President Bush.

Wall Street Journal editor Kimberly Strassel made a prescient connection about the 2008 Obama campaign tactics of intimidation by requesting Justice Department and Federal Elections Commission inquiries into opposing groups - and the IRS tactics of the last couple years. Obama’s campaign counsel Bob Bauer was the chief strategist and was responsible for much of the investigation demands. Bauer was also Obama’s White House counsel during the years that the IRS developed the strategy to target his opposition. It all just fits too well.

Obama Administration Scandals Continue To Grow

 With Congressional whistleblowers opening Pandora’s box regarding the Benghazi attack, and the IRS scandal just beginning to show its true tentacles, the Obama Administration could have used some positive press last week.

Instead, the Justice Department’s all-out assault on journalists (and the AP in particular) came to light, adding a third major scandal for Administration officials to juggle. And if Obama thought that a friendly press would help him navigate the Benghazi and IRS fiascoes, the attack by Justice officials on investigative journalism was not going to do him any favors. In fact, the initial reports on the massive AP wiretapping show that reporters from many news organizations consider this to be the worst scandal of them all.

As the scope of the IRS scandal continues to grow, the audacity of their actions is stunning. IRS officials held up hundreds of tax-exempt status applications for conservative and Tea Party groups, just as the Presidential election was ramping up. They required applicants to provide confidential donor lists, reading lists, materials handed out at meetings, and membership information.

In some cases, this confidential data was forwarded on by the IRS to Democratic groups and Obama campaign operatives. Besides the fact that liberal group ProPublica received confidential data from the IRS on 31 conservative groups, the National Organization for Marriage says their donor list was passed on to the Human Rights Campaign. The HRC then publicized the data in an attempt to embarrass donors to NOM, claiming they were an anti-gay organization. Included in this list of donors was Mitt Romney, who was subjected to hit-piece articles for supporting NOM. All of this happened at the same time Joseph Solmonese, (HRC’s President) was appointed to be co-chair of Obama’s re-election campaign.

It’s not hard to connect the dots. IRS employees harassed and delayed conservative groups in the run-up to the Presidential election, limiting their ability to perform grassroots activities. Then the IRS passed along confidential data to sources sympathetic to President Obama, allowing them to use it to disparage Obama’s enemies. The IRS’s actions were so indefensible that the LA Times has found that IRS official Lois Lerner plans on invoking the fifth amendment against self-incrimination in her testimony before Congress today.

The Justice Department scandal is revealing new information daily, and is proving to be a bitter pill for media pundits who have (for the most part) advocated for the Obama Administration. It began with revelations that Justice subpoenas obtained detailed phone records for nine separate AP offices, where over 100 reporters worked. They also seized information on five reporters’ cellphones, several home phones, and two fax lines.

Justice officials have refused thus far to reveal their reasons for obtaining the records, but many assume it involves the leaking of information on a foiled terror plot in Yemen. On CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said the secret subpoenas were "so sweeping, so secretively, so abusively and harasssingly … overbroad, that it constitutes … an unconstitutional act."

As reporters dug in to the AP story, it was further revealed the FOX News correspondent James Rosen was also singled out for Justice scrutiny. In fact, Justice officials claimed Rosen was a “co-conspirator in a criminal leak case”, and that was the reason to subpoena his phone records and emails. This was an attempt to criminalize the investigative reporting of Rosen, as he discussed US policy with State Department advisor Stephen Kim.

It’s no secret that Obama’s Justice Department has gone after leaks vigorously, prosecuting more individuals under the 1917 Espionage Act than all other administrations combined. But their obsession crossed the line with their investigations of the AP, Rosen, and others yet to be revealed.

All three of the scandals reveal an Administration that believes they are better than everyone else, and plays by its own set of rules. Those individuals that oppose them or cross them in any way, will find the entire weight of the massive federal government (and all its powers) being brought down upon them. President Nixon only contemplated using federal agencies like the IRS against his enemies – Obama has gone ahead and done it.

Hillary Clinton: “What difference does it make?”

As the cracks continue to appear in the stonewalling by Obama Administration officials, the truth over Benghazi is beginning to rear its ugly head. According to reports from Fox News, several whistleblowers are scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, and present damning evidence against Administration officials.

One account will be given by Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Hicks has argued that military backup could have prevented the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and the three other Americans killed in the prolonged attack. According to Hicks, even something as simple as a flyover by US jets could have spooked the attackers, and kept them from eventually launching a mortar round attack on the CIA Annex. Since the attack lasted for over seven hours, response teams were available at Sigonella Air Base, (just 480 miles away), as well as Tripoli Air Base.

A military response team in Tripoli scheduled to provide rescue and defense capabilities to the Benghazi Embassy was scrapped at the last minute and told to stand down. This came as a surprise to everyone on the ground in Libya, including CIA military operatives who were stationed at the CIA Annex near the Embassy. They requested backup and permission to provide assistance, and were twice told to stand down. Tyrone Woods and two other operatives ignored the stand down order, and went to help the Embassy. Woods and Navy SEAL Glen Doherty were eventually killed in the mortar attack seven hours after the attack began.

Hicks further suggested that the Libyan government expected a request from the US to use their airspace for a combat or rescue mission, and he claimed the Libyans “were as surprised as we were” that US military did not arrive to back up the mission.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta famously said in an October press briefing that “the basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on”. If that was truly the US stance, no Black Ops or Special Forces would ever be deployed into a hostile situation – since they would be unaware of the potential harm.

Another person scheduled to testify is Mark Thompson, a counter terrorism official. He claims that Hillary Clinton and a key aide (Patrick Kennedy) cut the State Department’s counter-terrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision making that night. Thompson believes that Clinton and Administration officials were more concerned about how the attack would be characterized, than how to keep the attack from claiming American lives.

While Thompson and Hicks prepare to offer testimony, Administration officials are in damage control mode. State Dept. officials and White House spokesman Jay Carney continued to point to the Accountability Review Board’s investigation, which faulted leadership and management deficiencies in two State Dept. offices that allowed Benghazi to be vulnerable. That report is now under review by the Inspector General, according to Fox News. Glaring omissions in the review process,(including the decision not to interview Hillary Clinton), have made the report look more like a cover-up itself.

As more information is uncovered about what really happened on 9/11, Hillary Clinton’s actions in particular, come into question.. In a fiery exchange with Senator Ron Johnson, Clinton famously argued: “What difference does it make?”

The difference is that Libyan officials, US personnel in Benghazi, and most of America knew this was a terrorist attack with Al Qaida affiliates involved. Initial analyses from US intelligence and counter-terrorism sources classified the event as a terrorist attack, and Administration officials consciously changed it. Obama had just announced that Al Qaida was on the run, and the Benghazi storyline would hurt him politically in the upcoming election.

Political implications were more important that night and dictated how the Administration reacted, and four lives were lost. Adding intrigue, President Obama has refused to say where he was that night, when he left Panetta and Clinton to make his decisions.

And finally, the Administration stonewalling and cover-up begs a certain resemblance to the Nixon Watergate cover-up, except that the media refuses to do its job. While the media sharks did everything they could to get the truth out of the Nixon Administration, they are painfully silent over the Benghazi cover-up (as they are regarding Fast and Furious). Just yesterday, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell proclaimed the upcoming testimony as a Republican attempt to sully the reputation of the “perceived Democratic front runner” for the White House in 2016. We’ll see how Hillary Clinton looks after the truth comes out.

Media Circus Embarrasses Itself

The last two weeks brought shame to the mainstream media, as several high profile stories were either reported without supporting facts, or not reported on at all.

The best example was the absolutely disgraceful performance by media pundits over the Boston Marathon bombing. In the hours after the attack, reporters and anchors were ignoring their need for evidence in order to scoop each other. The New York Post claimed that ten people were killed, and AP sources reported that a Saudi “suspect” was in custody just hours after the bombs exploded. The Boston Globe, CNN, and others ran with the story, even while the Boston Police denied the reports.

The “suspect” story gained so much traction that Special Agent Greg Comcowich blasted the media for reporting rumors and innuendo without supporting evidence. “Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made.” He added: “ these reports cause unintended consequences”, and the media needed to verify information through “official channels”.

The New York Post further embarrassed itself with the front page headline “Bag Men – Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon”. The huge photo emblazoned on the front page showed two spectators with backpacks – who turned out to be Salah Eddin Barhoum and his friend Yassine Zaime. Both are high school track athletes that came to the marathon to run behind the official race, but accidentally ended up at the finish line.

Barhoum was so concerned about the story that he went to a nearby police station to explain why he was there. He received threats and accusations on his social media page from around the country and his father feared for his family’s safety.

Other commentary proved just as inaccurate. CNN’s Peter Bergen discussed the bombing on air with Jake Tapper, and said it reminded him of the Oklahoma City bombing. He said it brought to mind other “right wing” activities, implying that the attack may have conservative origins due to occurring on Tax Day.

All the while this story was being botched, there was little to no reporting on the bugging of Senator Mitch McConnell’s office by a left-wing PAC. The group suspected of the crime – Progressive Kentucky, had been in meetings at the White House back on December 5^th, and had since gone into overdrive attacking McConnell. The omission in reporting is all the more appalling when compared to the media frenzy associated with a similar event in Watergate.

Also completely out of the news is the horrific case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, and his “house of horrors” abortion clinic in Philadelphia. The details from testimony given at the ongoing trial would be sensational newsmaking, were they not associated with the taboo subject of abortion.

But not to be outdone, Reuters News did publish the premature obituary of George Soros last Thursday. This came as a real shock to Soros, who was apparently alive at the time.

The feeding frenzy in Boston was no different from other major stories that the media botched, in its zeal for a scoop. News outlets were quick to report the wrong suspect in the Sandy Hook shooting, along with the “fact” that the shooter’s mother was a teacher at the school involved when she wasn’t (providing a potential motive). With so much competition in media today, it seems the old axiom of “Trust but Verify” has gone out the window.

Much of today’s media is more concerned with being first, than being right. But the damage done by wrong information affects the general public and their trust in news organizations. Yesterday’s hacking of the AP Twitter account to plant the fake “White House explosion” story did not help either. As the story was sent out, the Stock Market plunged in response. Luckily, it recovered after the truth was learned.

Reporters and anchors need to be more cognizant of their sourcing to avoid the circus of mistakes that is plaguing the industry. They also must remember that omissions in reporting can reveal the bias that they are supposed to set aside. With competition and new media entering the fray daily, I hold little hope that this advice will be taken.