Update:
On a daily basis the evidence mounts of rule by gangster government.
The latest evidence? A Freedom Of Information Act release reveals that
Lois Lerner, DoJ discussed criminal prosecution of tax-exempt applicants.
A corrupt Department of Justice which is a nest for injustice. An executive branch of government whose agencies and departments wield power to oppress the citizenry. There are constitutional remedies as we detail below.
A corrupt Department of Justice which is a nest for injustice. An executive branch of government whose agencies and departments wield power to oppress the citizenry. There are constitutional remedies as we detail below.
Judicial Watch is the organization that got the e-mails. This is their press release:
May 9, 2013, email reveals IRS plans to meet
with Department of Justice over whether to prosecute groups that “lied”
about plans for political activity
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released a new batch of internal IRS documents
revealing that former IRS official Lois Lerner communicated with the
Department of Justice (DOJ) about whether it was possible to criminally
prosecute certain tax-exempt entities. The documents were obtained as a
result of an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuit
filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the agency
refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013.The newly released IRS documents contain an email exchange between Lerner and Nikole C. Flax, then-Chief of Staff to then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller discussing plans to work with the DOJ to prosecute nonprofit groups that “lied” (Lerner’s quotation marks) about political activities. The exchange includes the following:
- May 8, 2013: Lerner to Flax
I got a call today from Richard Pilger
Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ … He wanted to know who at IRS
the DOJ folk s [sic] could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the
hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about
applicants who “lied” on their 1024s –saying they weren’t planning on
doing political activity, and then turning around and making large
visible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond,
but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are
impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS
programs.
I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS…
- May 9, 2013: Flax to Lerner
I think we should do it – also need to
include CI [Criminal Investigation Division], which we can help
coordinate. Also, we need to reach out to FEC. Does it make sense to
consider including them in this or keep it separate?
Lerner then “handed off”
scheduling the issue to Senior Technical Adviser, Attorney Nancy Marks,
who was then supposed to set up the meeting with the DOJ. Lerner also
decided that it would be DOJ’s decision as to whether representatives
from the Federal Election Commission would attend.Democratic Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had held a hearing on April 9 during which, “in questioning the witnesses from DOJ and IRS, Whitehouse asked why they have not prosecuted 501(c)(4) groups that have seemingly made false statements about their political activities.” Lerner described the impetus for this hearing in a March 27, 2013, email to top IRS staff:
As I mentioned yesterday — there are
several groups of folks from the FEC world that are pushing tax fraud
prosecution for c4s who report they are not conducting political
activity when they are (or these folks think they are). One is my
ex-boss Larry Noble (former General Counsel at the FEC), who is now
president of Americans for Campaign Reform. This is their latest push to
shut these down. One IRS prosecution would make an impact and they
wouldn’t feel so comfortable doing the stuff.
So, don’t be fooled about how this is being articulated – it is ALL about 501(c)(4) orgs and political activity
But in an email sent a few minutes earlier, Lerner acknowledged prosecutions would evidently be at odds with the law:
Whether there was a false statement or
fraud regarding an [sic] description of an alleged political expenditure
that doesn’t say vote for or vote against is not realistic under
current law. Everyone is looking for a magic bullet or scapegoat — there
isn’t one. The law in this area is just hard.
The documents also include email exchanges showing that before Lerner’s May 10, 2013, speech to the American Bar Association blaming “low-level” employees in Cincinnati for targeting tax-exempt organizations, the IRS Exempt Organizations division was scrambling to defuse the emerging targeting scandal:- May 1, 2013: After receiving an email from an assistant showing that 501(c)(4) applications had increased from 1591 in 2010 to 3398 in 2012 , Lerner wrote back, “Looks to me like 2010-2012 doubled too. Oh well – thanks.”
- May 2, 2013: Discussing an upcoming conference call with approximately 100 congressional staffers on May 22, Lerner cautions aides, “Need to be careful not to mention sequester/furlough unless asked although can allude to budget and resources restraints.”
- May 2, 2013: In response to an email reminding her about the upcoming conference call with congressional staffers, Lerner responded, “Arrgh – I just saw it. Sharon [White] could skate, but Cindy [Thomas] is the person who could answer that stuff. We need to give them some type of language in the event that type of question comes up” [apparently in reference to earlier email referencing “sensitive issues”].
- May 10, 2013: In an email to an aide responding to a request for information from a Washington Post reporter, Lerner admits that she “can’t confirm that there was anyone on the other side of the political spectrum” who had been targeted by the IRS. She then adds that “The one with the names used were only know [sic] because they have been very loud in the press.”
- May 10, 2013: An email from former Cincinnati program manager Cindy Thomas excoriates Lerner for her comments blaming “low-level” employees in its Cincinnati office for targeting tax-exempt organizations that had “Tea Party” or “Patriots” in their names during the 2012 election. Highlighting the words “low-level workers” in bold-face type each of the seven times she used it in short, pungent email, Thomas asked, “How am I supposed to keep the low-level workers motivated when the public believes they are nothing more than low-level workers and now will have no respect for how they are working cases?” Lerner’s response nearly an hour later was a terse, “I will be back shortly and give you a call.”
- May 15, 2013: In an email from an aide to Lerner, the aide specifically mentions “Tea Party Organizations, the “Tea Party movement,” and “Tea Party Patriots” as organizations targeted by the IRS.
Lerner, who headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status, refused to testify at a May 2013 hearing before Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) House Oversight Committee, demanding immunity concerning her role in the targeting scandal. Lerner retired from the IRS with full benefits on September 23 after an internal investigation found she was guilty of “neglect of duties” and was going to call for her ouster, according to news reports. On April 9, 2014, the Ways and Means Committee referred Lois Lerner to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. On April 10, 2014, the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress.
“These new emails show that the day before she broke the news of the IRS scandal, Lois Lerner was talking to a top Obama Justice Department official about whether the DOJ could prosecute the very same organizations that the IRS had already improperly targeted,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The IRS emails show Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is now implicated and conflicted in the IRS scandal. No wonder we had to sue in federal court to get these documents.”
I can't believe this and can't believe that there's not outrage over this.
Hopefully, it's building.
It's amazing in all the hearings about the IRS since last May, not one official has ever told the Congress that Eric Holder was contacted regarding prosecuting 501 (c) groups.
"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Starting in the US where there's been a conviction. City News Service reports the El Cajon murder trial reached a verdict today with the jury "finding Kassim Alhimidi, 49, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, a mother of five." As we noted April 1st, Shaima's murder was briefly important to gas bags in March 2012 when they thought she was murdered by someone who hated her because she was Muslim or because she was Iraqi or both. When it turned out it was her husband? They ran from her and never looked back. Uprising Radio, US Socialist Worker, Democracy Now . . . all of them cared when it was a 'hate crime' by a stranger. When Shaima's murder became another in a long line of women killed by 'loved ones' in the US, they didn't have any interest.
Dominic Garcia
Victim's family says guilty verdict is the least that could have been
done. say in Iraq if you kill someone, you should be killed @CBS8
Tony Perry (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Al-Himidi did not testify during the trial. He wept openly at times and followed the proceeding with the help of an Arabic translator. He screamed when the jury's verdict was read. He faces up to life in prison when sentenced." Kristina Davis and Dana Littlefield (San Diego Union-Tribune) offer, "Kassim Alhimidi shook his head and wagged his finger repeatedly when he heard the verdict: first-degree murder. He put his head down on the desk in front of him several times and appeared to be praying." R. Stickney and Monica Garske (NBC San Diego -- link is text and video) note, "As the defendant cried out in Arabic 'not guilty,' his mother-in-law flailed her arms, screaming 'you killed my daughter,' while his two teenage sons chose opposing sides." Kassim Alhimidi is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Moving to another topic popular on Twitter . . .
Blogs of War
Meltem Arıkan
Shahram Aghamir: Last month the Iraqi Cabinet approved a new personal status legislation called the Ja'fari law which is named after the sixth Shi'ite Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq who established a school of jurisprudence in Medina in the 8th century. This legislation has created an uproar among Iraqi women's rights and the civil rights community. If approved, the Ja'fari law will abolish the current Personal Status Law 188 which is considered one of the most progressive in the Arab world. The new law will roll back the rights of women in marriage, divorce and child custody as well as inheritance. It will lower the age of marriage for girls from 18 to 9 and boys to 15. Who has initially proposed the law and what are the implications of this law for Iraqi women? Malihe spoke with Iraqi women's rights activist Basma al-Khateeb who volunteers with Iraq's 1st Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Shadow Report Coalition as an expert and a trainer.
Basma al-Khateeb: Actually, the Minister of Justice by the end of October declared that they have a committee -- expert committee -- and they have finished drafting the Ja'fari law. It consists of 256 articles and he's going to present it to the Cabinet by the next session. He says that they've been working on for the past two years.
Malihe Razazan: Back in 2004, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim who died in 2009, he was in exile in Iran for 20 years before the invasion, and after the occupation of Iraq, he worked very closely with the Americans. His party worked to pass Decision 137 issue by interim governing council to abolish the Personal Status Law Number 188 which was passed in 1959 --
Basma al-Kahteeb: That was actually the first thing that he -- that he issued, this Resolution 137 -- as if Iraq had no problems. This was the only rule that he came up with. And we had demonstrations and we managed to defeat that. They withdrew it.
Malihe Razazan: Yeah, because there was a huge backlash against it.
Basma al-Khateeb: But this is historical. His father, Muhsin al-Hakim, back in 1959, when the civil Personal Status Law was issued, the religious institutes led by Muhsin al-Hakim back then, his father, refused this Personal Status Law because it will take all the authority from the cleric.
Malihe Razazan: In matters regarding women's divorce, child custody, inheritance it will be left to civil courts.
Basma al-Khateeb: Yes. And this is how our judicial system and lawyers and colleges and scholars all -- I mean, we're talking about sixty years that all our institutions -- judicial, court, everything -- is built on it. This -- going back just to abolish all of this -- this law --the formal law, the Personal Status Law that's still active now. It doesn't go to clerics, only the judge rules. This current law puts another council that is in control of judges of courts. It just turns everything into chaos. Every lawyer has to study all these religious and cleric institution and legal issues. It doesn't mean that we have one court. It means that we have more than 20 courts because each Ayatollah is different in examination with the other. Havilah? Even though they're Sh'itie, they're different from the Sadr group, they're different from Sistani interpretation which means multi courts.
Raheem Salman, Ahmed Rasheed, Isabel Coles and Andrew Roche (Reuters) explore the topic and note:
Proponents of the Ja'afari Law say many families marry off daughters underage anyway, particularly in the rural south, so the bill would protect young brides by codifying their status.
"The law does not make the marriage of underage girls obligatory," said Shi'ite women's rights activist Thabat al-Unaibi, adding she would not let her own two daughters marry until they were old enough to have finished their studies.
"Why all the fuss over this issue?"
And supporters have been the winners. Hajer Naili (Women's eNews) notes:
Haider Ala Hamoudi, a law professor at the University of Pittsburg who advised the 2009 Constitutional Review Committee of the Iraqi legislature on behalf of the United States Embassy in Baghdad, has analyzed the text.
In a phone interview he called it sloppily drafted and poorly organized. "I just dismiss it as publicity to garner votes."
In a March 31 article in the Jurist, Hamoudi lays out the obstacles to transforming religious texts into actual laws and calls the text something of a "political stunt." In the article he quotes Ayatollah al- Bashir Najif, a leading Shiite, as criticizing the bill as "rife with flights of fancy in legal and juristic formulations that render it impossible that a jurist would find it acceptable."
Really? We're going to predict what's going to happen in an election when anything can happen?
And if it's being used "to garner votes," might some push hard for it to pass the Parliament after the election?
I have no idea what's going to happen with the bill.
But it does have supporters and it is being sold. It's being normalized.
And this is happening not just with the bill and the attempt to kill off the Personal Status Law Number 188. This is part of a larger war. Dropping back to January 27, 2012 snapshot:
We bring that up because Nouri did finally find a woman and named her to be Minister of the State for Women's Affairs. The woman is Dr. Ibtihal al-Zaidi. And Al Mada reports the lovely doesn't believe in equality stating equality "harms women" but she's happy to offer government dictates on what women should be wearing. No, she's not a minister. She's many things including words we won't use here but she's not friend to women and that's why Nouri picked her. A real woman fighting for other women? Nouri can't handle that. A simpering idiot who states that women should only act after their husband's consent? That gender traitor gets a ministry. She's currently at work devising a uniform for Iraqi women.
Let's to back to Wednesday's broadcast of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa.
Basma al-Khateeb: It lowers the marriage age for girls to 9 --
Malihe Razazan: From 18.
Basma al-Khateeb: -- 15 for boys, it's 18 for both [currently] marriage. Only in very, very special cases it's 15 with the consent of the judge under the current law. But for this Ja'fari law it lowers the age to 9. And wives must seek permission from their husbands before leaving the house. If I am a doctor or a minister or a lawyer, I cannot go out without permission from my husband, go out of the house. Muslim men would be prohibited from marrying non-Muslim women. Granting husbands legal rights to have sex with their wives without their consent. Granting custody to the father of any child over two-years-old in the case of divorce which is not the case that we have now with the current law.
Note the similarities between the law and the position, two years ago, of the Minister of Women's Affairs.
Nouri picked that idiot for a reason.
This is not happening by accident.
Bit by bit, this gets pushed over and over. And every time it does the appropriate response is world wide condemnation. Short of that? It's not just being normalized within Iraq, it's being normalized outside of Iraq via silence.
Girls below the age of nine can be married with the consent of their
"But it's still a danger because it's there, the draft is there."
also them they're still lobbying to pass it
As Mark Taliano (Troy Media) observes, "'Freedom' and 'democracy' are still cloaking, tacitly or overtly, mass murder and genocide in Iraq at this moment." And that's certainly clear as Nouri terrorizes the citizens of Anbar. His War Crimes are many but include the non-stop bombing of residential neighborhoods in Falluja. Yesterday's snapshot noted how common these bombings were. The military's bombing of the residential neighborhoods continues. NINA reports, "A source at the Fallujah General Hospital told the reporter of the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA / five people, including a woman, were killed and 11 others wounded, including two children, in the renewed shelling and mortar to most of Fallujah today." Qatar News Agency covers the killing of civilians here.
This is a War Crime. Nouri's committing War Crimes with weapons the US government provides him with.
Ann submitted a question to Gwen Ifill's live 'chat' (it's not) at PBS' The NewsHour today:
Which, by the way, is what Ann's question to Gwen Ifill was about (see previous entry "Ann's question on Iraq just got 'answered'").
12:34
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12:34
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So Ann raises specific issues and gets an 'answer' where Gwen basically says, 'Watch The NewsHour!'
It's a funny kind of chat with Gwen playing Amway salesperson.
But credit to Ann for raising the issue during the 'chat.'
Turning to other violence . . .
Bombings?
National Iraqi News Agency reports Joint Operations Command declared they killed 54 suspects in Falluja, a Balad Ruz suicide bomber took his own life and the life of 1 Iraqi soldier, Nouri's military used helicopters to kill 4 suspects in Ramadi, a Jurf al-Sakar roadside bombing left four Iraqi soldiers injured, a Tikrit roadside bombing left three police members injured, a Baghdad car bombing left 5 people dead and nineteen injured, and, west of Mosul in Addayya Village, an attack on an Iraqi military base killed 12 soldiers and left ten more injured.
In addition, Xinhua reports:
Also in Salahudin province, gunmen blew up a crude oil pipeline in al-Fatha area in east of the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, causing large quantity of oil spill into the nearby Tigris River, a provincial police source said.
The pipeline carries crude oil produced from Ajil Oilfield in east of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, to the refinery in Baiji. A huge fire occurred at the scene, while the oil leak caused pollution in Tigris river that forces many water facilities to stop working in the cities to the south of the leak, the source added.
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Horrible scenes from Tikrit, oil pipeline bombed which overspills into the Tigris River. 2 of 3
#Iraq pic.twitter.com/Dgt5zMkPhO
Baghdad Invest
Shootings?
National Iraqi News Agency reports Joint Operations Command declared they killed 54 suspects in Falluja, 1 Shabak was shot dead in Mosul, another Shabak was shot dead in Mosul -- Hussein Badran who was the city's director of parks and forests, a Raibia secondary school was stormed and its director shot dead, and, west of Mosul in Addayya Village, an attack on an Iraqi military base killed 12 soldiers and left ten more injured.
Corpses?
Alsumaria notes the corpses of 5 men and 1 women (all shot) were found dumped in the Euphrates River to the north of Babylon,
Elections are supposed to take place April 30th, parliamentary elections. Al-Shorfa reports, "Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on Thursday (April 17th) said it has doubled the number of international observers who will monitor the next parliamentary elections." Kirk Sowell (Gulf News) notes
The other key Al Maliki rival are the Sadrists, most of whom are
running under the name Ahrar Bloc (Freemen Bloc). Ahrar recently voted
in a new governing board following Muqtada Al Sadr’s announcement that
he was withdrawing from politics. It remains unclear as to what impact
Sadr’s withdrawal will have.
There are several third-tier coalitions which should get a handful of
seats; some of them are entirely Shiite while others are
cross-sectarian. They are about evenly divided between factions which
are pro and anti-Al Maliki, and should only have an impact if Al
Maliki’s margin of victory is relatively narrow.
The primary Sunni Arab bloc is Speaker Nujaifi’s Mutahidun. It contains
a majority of the Sunni factions in the 2010 opposition Iraqiya
coalition nominally headed by former interim Prime Minister Eyad Allawi,
plus the largest Sunni Turkoman group, the Iraqi Turkoman FrontIts
political programme mainly consists of decentralisation, potentially
forming new autonomous regions, and the defence of Sunni identity in the
face of the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.
While Mutahidun’s public rhetoric is focused on pillorying the Al
Maliki government, Nujaifi is informally allied with the main Kurdish
party, the Kurdistani Democratic Party (KDP), due to his
pro-decentralisation stance, ties to Turkey and the need for Kurds, who
are predominately Sunni, to balance the Shiites.
Sowell also points out that there are 142 political parties competing and twelve of those are part of Nouri's State of Law coalition (which lost in 2010 to Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya. Harith Hasan (Al-Monitor) notes Iraqiya has fragmented since 2010:
Five main coalitions will compete to win Sunni votes, but we cannot rule out surprise results that might be achieved by small or local parties. Three of these five coalitions, in fact, represent fragments of the Iraqiya List, which is no longer present in the elections. The Mutahidoun bloc, led by parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, is the first of these coalitions. It consists of 13 parties and is seeking to appear as the biggest Sunni force after the elections. The second coalition is the Arabiya led by Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, and includes nine parties. Third, there is the Nationalist Coalition, led by Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister who was the leader of the Iraqiya List.
The Nationalist is one of the rare blocs that includes Sunni and Shiite members. Moreover, it is participating in the elections in all Arabic-speaking provinces. However, this coalition has poor chances because of intense sectarian polarization and Allawi’s loss of a large part of his traditional constituency, partly due to the emergence of a new liberal list called the Civil Democratic Alliance.
Al Mada notes Allawi stated today the US backed Nouri (gave him the post of prime minister for a second term) because the US just wanted out of Iraq and he notes their influence is very small in Iraq and in the Middle East -- he points to the failure of (John Kerry's) efforts with regard to Palestine, he points to the Taliban increasing in Afghanistan as the US prepares to leave, he points to Somalia and Sudan. National Iraqi News Agency reports:
The independent MP of the coalition of Kurdish blocs, Mahmoud Othman confirmed " the possibility of establishing a new alliance comprises Barzani , Allawi, al-Hakim, al-Sadr and al-Nujaifi to form the next government ," ruling out holding a session for the House of Representatives before the parliamentary elections ."
Mustafa al-Kadhimi (Al-Monitor) notes the parties are offering no platforms or programs as they seek elected office:
The Iraqi political forces competing in the elections justify the absence of real programs by asserting that Iraq remains in transition, so there are real differences over the basis of the political process — such as the constitution, government formation, the decision-making process and the relationship between the central government and the provinces and the regions. They claim that this reality forces them to take positions on these particular issues, rather than presenting political programs. For example, some campaigns are sloganeering on amending the constitution, while others' slogans invoke government formation by the political majority, decentralization and the war on terror.
Being in a transitional phase and disagreeing over political fundamentals do not, however, justify lacking an economic or development program or taking positions on such issues as housing, health, education, human development, and human rights and freedoms. To be fair, a few political forces such as the Supreme Islamic Council have presented detailed programs, but the problem is then that the Iraqi voter is faced with a choice between a detailed program and lots of attractive slogans.
They may not have programs or proposals, but, in Basra, they have food. Saleem al-Wazzan (Niqash) reports:
“Some candidates believe that the easiest way to convince
voters, or to silence critics, is by filling their mouths with food,”
Kathem Zayer, a primary school teacher in Basra, told NIQASH. “The same
thing happens when there are provincial elections – there’s clearly a
direct relationship between elections and banquets. Today special meals
are the best way of enhancing a candidate’s image, and of burnishing the
image of the party behind them.”
And during this round of campaigning it seems that
banquets are more popular than ever, replacing the usual distribution of
other gifts like blankets and food. Banqueting also seems to have
replaced campaign promises, for things like government jobs or better
services. That’s because nobody believes these promises anymore. But
they can still dine out.
In the province of Basra, south of Baghdad, there are more
than 750 candidates competing. Prominent parties in the area, which has
a mostly Shiite Muslim population, include the State of Law list led by
current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is himself a Shiite Muslim
as well as the list led by the Shiite Muslim-oriented Islamic Supreme
Council of Iraq and the Ahrar list, which is tied to the Sadrist
movement, also Shiite Muslim. Also noteworthy in Basra is the Wataniya
party, which is led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and which is
trying to set itself apart as being secular and non-denominational.
By rights Basra should be one of Iraq’s wealthiest cities –
it is the site of a major port and some of Iraq’s biggest oil fields
are located in the surrounding province. But somehow this wealth has not
had any effect on the lives of many ordinary people who live here – the
poverty level in Iraq sits at around 22 percent but some recent estimates suggest that it’s higher in Basra. They say that just over a third of the population in Basra live in poverty.
iraq
the los angeles times
tony perry
qassim abdul-zahra
womens enews
hajer naili
national iraq news agency
asharq al-awsat
all iraq news
reuters
ahmed rasheed
isabel coles
raheem salman
qatar news agency
gwen ifill
pbs
the newshour
