President Donald Trump

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

President Donald Trump continues to stir up controversy via Twitter.

On Sunday, he accused the late Sen. John McCain in a tweet of working with the Democrats during the 2016 presidential election by giving the Christopher Steele dossier to the FBI and media to help sink his campaign,  the Washington Times reports.

Several reports say McCain didn’t hand over the dossier to the FBI until after the 2016 election.  It was circulated to the media through one of McCain’s aides, David Kramer, after the election, the Times reports.

Trump has denied the allegations contained in the controversial document.

So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) “last in his class” (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election. He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual). Even the Fake News refused this garbage!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019

Steve Neavling

The FBI’s Phoenix office is handling the criminal investigation of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Arizona Republic reports.

FBI Director James Comey said the Phoenix office is handling the case because the allegations began at the VA in Phoenix.

At least 18 Arizona veterans waiting for care in the Phoenix VA Health Care System have died. The staff also is accused of manipulating patient-wait times to receive financial bonuses.

Today the Senate is considering whether to support legislation that would allow veterans to seek care outside of the VA system.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said in a statement that they are taking the matter seriously.

“To restore veterans’ trust and confidence in the VA, individual employees must be held accountable. The FBI’s investigation is a positive signal; but, wherever the evidence shows that crimes have been committed, they must follow through and prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law.”

Already, the new Homeland Security secretary and Sen. John McCain have gotten off on the wrong foot, the Arizona Republic reports.

After missing the Senate’s 57-37 vote to confirm Jeh Johnson, McCain said he would have voted against the nomination. 

Johnson was tapped by President Obama to replace Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who left in September to take a university position.

McCain said he’s frustrated with Johnson’s refusal to explain the metric behind measuring the effectiveness of border security.

“My question to him was, ‘When you are the secretary, will you give me that information?’ ” McCain said Thursday. “And he refused to say that he would, which is really very unusual.”

Steve Neavling

Sen. John McCain, who is taking the lead on immigration reforms, said the Border Patrol doesn’t need an additional 20,000 agents, Politic365 reports.

What it needs, McCain said, is “use of technology that has been developed where we can survey the border more effectively.”

McCain spoke at an AFL-CIO immigration forum Wednesday.

The Senate in late June approved an immigration bill amendment that cost $40 billion, largely to hire the 20,000 agents.

It’s unclear whether McCain will be able to convince his colleagues that the bill is overkill.

istock photo

Last month, when the Senate passed an amendment to its immigration-reform bill that included $46 billion to beef up border security, Sen. John McCain declared: “We’ll be the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall!” He didn’t know the half of it.

Since then, documents released as part of a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation have revealed that the Department of Homeland Security has been preparing to fly armed drones along the border.

A long-term-planning document prepared by the department’s Customs and Border Patrol service, which is using Predator drones for surveillance along the border, would authorize the use of “ nonlethal weapons designed to immobilize” targets of interest.

That gets scarier when you thumb through some of the other newly released documents, which reveal that the Border Patrol plans to more than double its drone fleet over the next three years, to 24, and make them more easily available to other government agencies.

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Bill Maher Claims U.S. Has Too Many Border Patrol Agents
• Feds Consider Weaponizing Domestic Drones to ‘Immobilize’ Targets
• FBI Nominee Comey Likely to Face Tough Questions from Senate
• Ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh Warns of Cyber Threats
• Cuba Offers Asylum to NSA Leaker in Latest Twist

John McCain/gov photo

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain (R-Az) wrote Thursday in a Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post that he opposed torture, and said it just isn’t true that waterboarding lead authorities to the trusted courier of the Osama bin Laden.

“Much of this debate is a definitional one: whether any or all of these methods constitute torture. I believe some of them do, especially waterboarding, which is a mock execution and thus an exquisite form of torture. As such, they are prohibited by American laws and values, and I oppose them.

As for the courier, he stated:

“Former attorney general Michael Mukasey recently claimed that ‘the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information — including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.’” That is false.”

“I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.”

He also stated that he was against anyone being prosecuted for using any of the methods he opposes.

To read full column click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Man Who Took Gun into Pa. School Gets Prison (AP)
• Teardown of FBI Tracking Device Shows GPS and Long Lasting Battery (EWeek.com)
• A Lot of Money Promised to Blago For Senate Seat (Chicago Sun-Times)
• 2 Men Arrested in NY Terror Plot (AP)
• Wiretaps Key in Ex-Hedge fund Giant (AP)
• Sensenbrenner and Conyers Clash Over Plans to Extend Patriot Act Provisions  (Main Justice)
• TSA Defends Frisking of Baby at KC Airport (AP)
• Critics Call for Az Sheriff to Resign and be Indicted (AP)
• Former Ill. Cop’s Sentence Reduced to 375 Years (AP)
• Fed Judge Keeps Segregated Country Club Membership (AP)
• Fed Judge Denies Mistrial for ex-Gov. Blago (AP)

This certainly can’t be the only potential presidential  election violation that has gone unnoticed up until now. But will the feds uncover more?

John McCain/gov photo

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is probing whether Ronald Demicheli improperly taped a video criticizing 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain in an office at the National Energy Technology Laboratory near Pittsburgh, said Ward Morrow, a lawyer for the American Federation of Government Employees.

Demicheli is president of the union’s Local 1916, which represents employees at the Energy Department lab and nearby research facilities of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

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