http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325230/Emails-David-Petraeus-objected-O...

'Frankly, I'd just as soon not use this': Emails show the then CIA-chief David Petraeus objected to Obama administration's version of Benghazi terror attack events
The White House on Wednesday released 100 pages of emails detailing discussion inside the administration over last year's deadly attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya
Among the details, the documents show that then-CIA Director David Petraeus objected to the final version that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used five days after the assault
The handwritten note came from Petraeus' deputy. On it, Mike Morell scratched out items eliminated from the CIA's early drafts, including mentions of al-Qaeda
After receiving Morell's edited version, Petraeus wrote: 'Frankly, I'd just as soon not use this'
By JAMES NYE
PUBLISHED: 23:34 GMT, 15 May 2013 | UPDATED: 15:37 GMT, 16 May 2013



The then CIA-Director David Petraeus strongly objected to the Obama administration's version of events of the terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, newly released emails reveal.
Petraeus, who was forced to resign in disgrace in November after an extra-marital affair became public, wanted to see more detail made available, including a warning issued from the CIA about plans for an embassy attack.
The documents give a glimpse into the administration's message control as officials carefully debated via email which details U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice should highlight when she went on talk shows five days later to discuss the September 11 assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The White House on Wednesday released 99 pages of emails and a single page of hand-written notes made by Petraeus’ deputy, Mike Morell, after a meeting at the White House the day before U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice began giving interviews to the media based on the agreed 'talking points.'


Cairo Cable: Then CIA director David Petraeus objected strongly to some of the wording of the White House approved talking points surrounding the terror attack on Benghazi
On that page, Morell scratched out from the CIA’s early drafts of talking points mentions of al-Qaeda, the experience of fighters in Libya, Islamic extremists and a warning to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on the eve of the attacks of calls for a demonstration.
'No mention of the cable to Cairo, either?' Petraeus wrote after receiving Morell’s edited version, developed after an intense back-and-forth among Obama administration officials.
'Frankly, I’d just as soon not use this, then.'
Senior administration officials told reporters Wednesday that Morell made the changes to the talking points because of his own concerns that they could prejudge an FBI investigation into who was responsible for the September 11th, 2012, attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/catholic-church-like-mafia-and-drug-cartels-lawyer-...

Catholic Church like mafia and drug cartels - lawyer
Published: 9:04PM Friday May 17, 2013 Source: AAP



Catholic Church officials have been likened to the mafia, outlaw motorcycle gangs and drug cartels by a legal activist.

Lawyer and lobbyist Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen said the church, currently at the centre of an Australian Royal Commission into the handling of child sex abuse complaints, saw itself as above the law and resisted governmental responses to child sex abuse.

Keon-Cohen, the president of community lobby group COIN (Commission of Inquiry Now), said the church's own mechanisms for investigating abuse, such as Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response, were insufficient and objectionable.

"They seek to replace due process of civil and criminal law, while not being open for public scrutiny and accountability," he told a legal conference in Victoria.

Keon-Cohen said the church's refusal to recognise assault as a crime first and not merely a sin amounted to it putting Catholic doctrine before the law of the land.

"(This) places these officials ... in the same smelly bed as outlaw motorcycle gangs, the mafia, drug cartels and people smugglers," he said in a speech at the Australian Lawyers Alliance Victorian State Conference on Friday.

The church says it is committed to co-operation, openness, full disclosure and justice for victims and survivors and established the Truth, Justice and Healing Council (TJHC) to co-ordinate its response to the royal commission.

TJHC chief executive Francis Sullivan said the royal commission was an opportunity for the church to explain the way it had treated victims and survivors, to acknowledge past wrongs and failures and to find ways to work towards justice and healing.

"Since the mid-1990s the church has put in place new procedures designed to prevent sexual abuse and to ensure past victims and survivors are treated with dignity and respect," he said in a statement.

"The church has made a commitment to comply fully with the Royal Commission, with its requirements and processes."

In his speech, Keon-Cohen also said wealthy organisations should help pay for the Royal Commission where it could be proven they were responsible for offences.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse had already cost $A22 million by April and was expected to run long past its current deadline of December 2015, Keon-Cohen said.

He estimated it could cost "in the order of $A500 million", based on the reported $A50 million bill for the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

In Tuesday's budget the federal government allocated $A434.1 million over four years for the wide-reaching inquiry.

The Royal Commission should explore whether organisations it was investigating could help cover the cost, Keon-Cohen said.

"I suggest that the (inquiry) be required to examine a further source of funds, i.e. wealthy organisations found, on the evidence, to have substantially contributed, due to their derelict practices, to the sexual abuse scandal," Keon-Cohen said.

Such contributions should reflect their assets and "degree of culpability", he said.

Institutional cover-ups of the primary crime constituted a second level of abuse, Keon-Cohen said.

"Such callous disregard for the victim's plight ... amounts to not merely rank hypocrisy, but a second round of abuse," he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/sex-abuse-arrests-leaves-tv-industry-wondering-whos-...

Sex abuse arrests leaves TV industry wondering who's next
Date
May 20, 2013




Nick Miller
EUROPE CORRESPONDENT
View more articles from Nick Miller




Fallen hero: Jimmy Savile sports his OBE after his investiture at Buckingham Palace in 1972. Photo: Getty Images
It's not even a year since Rolf Harris was on stage at the Royal Festival Hall accepting British television's highest honour, a BAFTA Fellowship.
''I'm a very lucky man,'' Harris said, after a standing ovation.
The mood was very different at last week's BAFTA TV award ceremony.
''Time to crack on,'' said host Graham Norton after his introductory spiel. ''We want to finish before any of our nominees or presenters get unavoidably detained.'' Cue nervous laughter in the audience.
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Britain's shellshocked TV industry has spent the past six months asking ''who's next?'' as Operation Yewtree has trawled through hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse against high-profile figures.
So far 12 people have been arrested, of whom 10 have been publicly identified. More are expected.
In this climate even the most innocent joke sounds like an innuendo. ''I just got felt up by a Dalek!'' joked a starlet on the BAFTA red carpet. Please no, not the Daleks too.
On October 3 ITV screened the documentary Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, outlining allegations of sexual abuse against the late children's TV presenter.
The next day London's Metropolitan Police said they would look into the claims. Within days they were chasing 120 lines of inquiry, as allegations flooded into a hotline.
The full story, revealed in Yewtree's report Giving Victims a Voice in January, was shocking. Over six decades Savile had abused adults and children, including a boy aged eight. There were 214 crimes across the country including 34 counts of rape - and there were more allegations where the victim had not made a formal report. Most of his victims were under 16. Savile found his victims at hospitals, in schools and at the BBC. He had been one of the most prolific sex offenders in the country's history, yet his crimes had never been prosecuted.
The investigation threw up many other names apart from Savile's. January's report said about 600 people had come forward with allegations, 150 involving someone other than Savile.
''It would be naive to view this case as the isolated behaviour of an individual rogue celebrity,'' the report said. ''The 1960s and 1970s [the peak offending period] … was an age of different social attitudes.'' But, attitudes notwithstanding, abuse ''was as illegal then as it is now''.
The arrests began less than a month after the documentary had screened. The first was former '70s pop star Gary Glitter, now on bail pending further inquiries into allegations of rape, which he strongly denies. He has not been charged.
It is important to emphasise that arrests do not imply guilt. Most of those arrested by Yewtree have not been charged.
All have denied the allegations.
Days later came the second arrest: comedian Freddie Starr. DJ Dave Lee Travis was also arrested. Rolf Harris was interviewed, then arrested on suspicion of sexual offences. Comedian Jim Davidson complained over a ''silly'' celebrity witch-hunt - and was arrested a few months later.
Publicist to the stars Max Clifford was arrested, and then last month charged with 11 counts of indecent assault against seven teenagers over three decades. He says the allegations are false and has vowed to clear his name. He was the second person to be charged by Yewtree, after David Smith, a former BBC driver.
There are some signs of a backlash against Yewtree. ''Whatever happened to the cautious anonymity of 'a man is helping police with their inquiries'?'' asked Libby Purves in The Times. ''Even in cases when flight or further danger is vanishingly unlikely, arrest is starting to look like the default option, taken before any serious investigation has begun.''
But Operation Yewtree rolls on. In January, the Daily Star reported ''one of the world's biggest music stars'' was on a list of seven famous men yet to be interviewed by police. ''Also on the list is a serving national politician, three entertainers and two members of the same '60s band.''
A week ago the Daily Mirror said police had been inundated with calls in recent weeks and ''at least five more household names will be investigated'' including ''two singers, a pair of TV personalities and a comedian''.
In an article in the London Review of Books, author Andrew O'Hagan said paedophilia was Britain's ''chosen national nightmare'' that had thrived ''in our premier entertainment labyrinths''.
''There's something creepy about British light entertainment and there always has been,'' he said.
''Those of us who grew up on it liked its oddness without quite understanding how creepy it was … And then we wake up one day, in 2012, and wonder why so many of them turned out to be deviants and weirdos.''
Last year the old BBC TV Centre closed its doors for the last time. ''The stories that building could tell,'' Norton said at the BAFTAS last week.
There was a punchline to the joke, but no one needed to hear it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10068991/Nigel-Evans-parliamentary-offi...

Nigel Evans' parliamentary offices raided over sexual assault allegations
Police investigating allegations of rape and sexual assault against Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans have raided his offices in the Houses of Parliament.

By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent3:31PM BST 20 May 2013

On Sunday detectives seized "parliamentary material" from Mr Evans' Westminster offices after being granted a warrant by a judge at Preston Crown Court.
The Attorney General and the Solicitor General were informed about the searches and concluded that there were "no lawful grounds" to oppose them.
Both the Serjeant at Arms and the Speaker's Counsel were present when Mr Evans' parliamentary offices were searched.
The raid by detectives came after a third man came forward with allegations that he was sexually assaulted by Mr Evans.
The man, who is in his 20s, is understood to have given a statement to Lancashire Police in which he alleges he was attacked by the 55-year-old Conservative MP in the House of Commons two years ago.



Mr Evans was arrested at his home in the village of Pendleton in Lancashire on May 4 over allegations that he sexually assaulted one man and raped another.
He was questioned by Lancashire Police for more than 12 hours before being released on bail until June 19.
Mr Evans, who was elected in 1992, vehemently denied the claims, describing them as “completely false”. He said he knew both men socially and described his “incredulity” that such allegations should be made.
It is understood the new claim was made following the publicity generated following the arrest.
John Bercow, the House of Commons Speaker, said: "I should remind Members, as did my predecessor in 2008, that the precincts of Parliament are not a haven from the law.
"In accordance with the Protocol issued by my predecessor on 8 December 2008 on the execution of search warrants within the precincts of the House of Commons, I considered the warrant personally and was advised by Officers of the House that there were no lawful grounds on which it would be proper to refuse its execution.
"In addition, as provided for in paragraph 6 of the Protocol, I consulted the Attorney General and the Solicitor General who concurred in this advice. I am very grateful to them. The Clerk of the House was kept fully informed throughout, and also concurred.
"The Serjeant at Arms and Speaker’s Counsel were present when the search was conducted. Undertakings have been given by the police officers as to the handling of any Parliamentary material until such time as any issue of privilege is resolved.
"The investigation is continuing and it would not be right to comment further. I will not take questions on my statement."
A spokesman for Lancashire Police confirmed that searches had been conducted at offices in Westminster.
Police have already raided his constituency office.

http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2013/05/two-new-benghazi-whistleblowers-come-f...

Two New Benghazi Whistleblowers Come Forward, Reveal Why Ambassador Stevens Was in Libya

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 19:10



News is breaking that could be devastating to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It seems that Ambassador Chris Stevens trip to Libya may have been a planned buyback of Stinger Missiles from Al Qaeda linked terrorists. These missiles were originally issued to these Al Qaeda groups by the State Department according to the whistleblowers. PJ Media is reporting:

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon.

These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law.

According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel.

Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.

Hillary Clinton still wanted to proceed because, in part, as one of the diplomats said, she wanted “to overthrow Gaddafi on the cheap.”

This left Stevens in the position of having to clean up the scandalous enterprise when it became clear that the “insurgents” actually were al-Qaeda – indeed, in the view of one of the diplomats, the same group that attacked the consulate and ended up killing Stevens.

To read the full story at PJ Media, click here…

The Kingdom of God is at hand...its all I see, Jesus said you must be born again to escape the evil in this world...

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/23/305090/drone-use-legal-effective-just-ob...

Friday May 24, 201308:26 PM GMT

Drone use legal, effective, just: Obama



US President Barack Obama has defended his administration's use of drones as legal, effective, and just.


“We are at war with an organization that right now would kill as many Americans as they could if we did not stop them first. So this is a just war,” Obama said in a major policy speech at Washington's National Defense University on Thursday.

“Our nation is still threatened by terrorists," he pointed out, noting that "We must recognize however, that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11,” he said.

The US president claimed the strikes have been effective in targeting militants and have made the United States a safer country.

Obama outlined the legal guidelines surrounding the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to wage war in distant lands.

“I don’t not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any U.S. citizen…Nor should any president deploy armed drones over US soil. But when a US citizen goes abroad to wage war against American and is actively plotting to kill US citizens…his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down an innocent crowd should be protected from a swat team,” he said.

On Wednesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder admitted for the first time that four US citizens were murdered in assassination drone attacks conducted by the CIA in Pakistan and Yemen since 2011.

In a letter to Congressional leaders, Holder said that the US government had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.

“The decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki was lawful, it was considered, and it was just,” Holder wrote, claiming that Anwar al-Awlaki was the inspiration for several plots against the United States.

The letter also said that the US had killed three other US citizens: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike; Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman, who was also killed in Yemen in October 2011; and Jude Kenan Mohammad, who was reportedly killed in November of the same year in a strike in Pakistan.

In February 2013, a number of US lawmakers expressed concern about Obama's use of assassination drones to kill US citizens overseas and the secrecy in legal justifications for the targeted killings.

"The same president who opposes the detention of foreign terrorists, who opposes the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on foreign terrorists, and who attempted to bring foreign terrorists to trial in New York City is now personally approving the killing of Americans," House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte said.