Government Executive - Authors - Alexander Abad-Santos

Republicans Love Darrell Issa as Much as They Love the IRS (Not Much)

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 11:22:28 -0400

After 10 months of investigating the IRS on what was supposed to be a bullet-proof charge that the organization was unfairly targeting Tea Party-backed organizations, Republicans have soured on the probe. And Rep. Darrell Issa, the brawn behind the investigation, has been left holding the bag.

"[It] was a distraction, but we’ll get back on track. Issa made a mistake, he said as much, and I would hope to learn from that," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican congressman who has his sights set on Issa's job as House Oversight Committee chair, told Politico. Chaffetz is in campaign mode — strip away that veneer and he's saying that he could do much better than Issa is at the moment. “[T]here is a lot of meat on this issue with the IRS, this is not some made-up sensational headline he is trying to grab," Chaffetz added — again pointing out Issa's ineptitude.

Republicans like Chaffetz are in a curious position. Some 10 months ago, they promised that the organizations that support them were targets of the IRS and President Obama. They promised that the evidence and scandal had legs. Now, almost a year later, their results have been disappointing. But, in order to save a bit of face, they have to still find a bit of fault with the IRS or risk disappointing the constituents they riled up a year ago. That's why you have responses like Chaffetz's.

Dennis Rodman Might Have Broken International Sanctions

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 10:33:58 -0500

Dennis Rodman can't catch a break. On top of an abysmal trip to North Korea which ended with him taking a direct flight to rehab, Dennis Rodman is now the subject of a U.S. Treasury Department investigation because of gifts he gave to Kim Jong-un.

Showering a North Korean dictator with gifts not only looks bad paper, it's possibly against the law, as it could be a violation of American and United Nations sanctions against the nation and its people. Rodman reportedly brought many gifts with him in honor of Kim's 31st birthday ranging from suits, to a fur coat, to bottles of Jameson, to an expensive handbag. Those gifts allegedly costs upwards of $10,000 and experts believe those gifts could be seen as violations of U.N. sanctions.

Beyonce Draws Fire for Song Sampling Challenger Disaster Audio

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 09:44:57 -0500

A song on Beyoncé's celebrated new album samples audio from the space shuttle Challenger explosion, and it isn't going over entirely well.

"Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," were the words NASA officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched the space shuttle Challenger crumple into a fiery mess in 1986. Those words are also on "XO," one of Beyoncé's newest and arguably her best song.

"We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO'," June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee told ABC News. "The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends," she added.

While Beyoncé and her producers thought using Nesbitt's description of a human tragedy fine for pop music consumption, Scobee Rodgers and other Challenger family members believe that the usage of the clip is not unlike sampling something from 9/11. To them, Nesbitt's audio should, for the most part, be untouchable. "The choice is little different than taking Walter Cronkite's words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune," Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee told ABC.

George Bush Shows Hillary Clinton His Paintings on Air Force One

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 09:48:26 -0500

President Obama, former President George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton all shared a 16-hour flight on Air Force One to South Africa on Monday and at one wonderful point in the air, the former president went full dad and showed off his now-famous paintings to some very important people.

The picture was snapped by White House photographer Pete Souza and shows Clinton, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Attorney General Eric Holder, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett gathered around Bush and a tablet displaying his paintings. Clearly Susan Rice has the biggest reaction (in the photo) and looks like the kind of person you want to have around when you have good news to tell.

It was one of those rare times that a president, two former presidents (Bill was along for the ride too), and a possible future president/former first lady/former Secretary of State all shared the same plane. When we had heard Bush, Obama, and Clinton were all sharing a flight, people were curious (and had jokes lined up) as to what all those giant statesmen and women who have more or less been running our country for the past 21 years would do on the long flight over the Atlantic. Now we know they just show off pictures on their iPads like everyone else.

Maybe Bush showing off his paintings was the tip of the iceberg? After all, this couldn't last for more than seven minutes (Bush doesn't have that many paintings). Maybe there was a presidential version of "never have I ever" or truth or dare? Inside jokes? There have to have been inside jokes. Clearly Pete Souza must post more pictures.

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Veteran Injured Saving Woman Who Jumped from Upper Deck at Oakland Coliseum

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:53:47 -0500

On Sunday, a 61-year-old man saved the life of a woman who decided to jump off the third deck of the Oakland Coliseum after the Raiders game. In an attempt to catch her, the life-long Raiders fan suffered serious injuries.

"He saved her life quite honestly, at his own expense ... This guy 100 percent saved her life. She'd be dead now," Sgt. J.D. Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office told the Associated Press. "The injured man was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but was conscious and talking and is expected to survive," the AP added.The man and woman involved haven't been identified yet.

The incident occurred right after Oakland's 23-19 loss to the Tennessee Titans when, for a unknown reason, a woman jumped from the stadium's third level in section 301. NBC Bay Area reports that people in the lower decks, including her life-saver, pleaded with her not to jump but she did anyway. It's not known for certain if this was a suicide attempt, but the section the woman leapt from was closed off during the game, and the seats covered with a tarp.

Gigantic Cargo Plane Mistakes Tiny Airport for Air Force Base

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 14:13:33 -0500

Thanks to a 12-mile mistake, one of the biggest planes in the world is stuck in the middle of Kansas. The pilots of a 747 Dreamlifter cargo plane landed at an airport with a runway that is 3,000 feet too short for the enormous plane to take off again. The pilots thought they were landing at McConnell Air Force Base, but for some reason landed at Wichita's Jabara airport.

Apparently neither the airport personnel, nor the pilots thought landing one of the biggest cargo planes in the world at an airport with 12 gates and seven airlines was a bit off. "Jabara has no control tower and normally doesn't handle jumbo jets," CNN reported.

While the plane landed safely, getting it up in the air is a different story. Because the plane is so big, it needs a lot of room to build up speed and take off (which is why they wanted to land at an Air Force base). The Dreamlifter needs a runway 9,199 feet long to take off, reported KWCH. Jabara 's runway is just 6,101 feet.

Border Patrol Is Keeping Its Policy of Shooting People Who Throw Rocks

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:25:44 -0500

Despite a government-commissioned internal review that recommended ending the practice of shooting people who throw rocks and bottles at agents, the Border Patrol has decided to leave its policy on the use of deadly force unchanged. "Just to say that you shouldn't shoot at rock-throwers or vehicles for us, in our environment, was very problematic and could potentially put Border Patrol agents in danger," Border Patrol Chief Mike Fisher told the AP.

Border Patrol agents have killed 20 people over the last three years. Eight of those deaths, a little less than half, were in rock-throwing incidents with Border Patrol agents, the AP reports. The death of Anastasio Hernandez in May 2010 spurred members of Congress to investigate whether Border Patrol was using excessive force. Now, after a year-long review from the The Police Executive Research Forum, Border Patrol has decided to ignore their recommendation — a ban on using deadly force against rock-throwing.

"You don't want to just start shooting indiscriminately at a vehicle and try to blow out tires like they do on TV, but our environment is totally different," Fisher said. "When you look at that environment, that workspace, I think our agents show a great deal of restraint when it comes to use of deadly force."

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Cemetery Won't Let Soldier Have a SpongeBob Gravestone

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:02:31 -0400

If you serve this country, as the late Army Sgt. Kimberly Walker did in Iraq for two tours, shouldn't you be allowed to have whatever gravestone you want — even if it is SpongeBob Squarepants? That's the question at the center of a battle at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Walker was buried at Spring Grove on October 10 — she did not die in combat, she was allegedly killed by her boyfriend.

Walker, who was 28 when she died, loved SpongeBob (she watched it growing up), and her family, according to CNN, got the all-clear from the cemetery and spent $26,000 on two 6-foot-tall, 7,000-lb. SpongeBob gravestones. One was dressed in Walker's uniform, the other was dressed in her twin sister's Navy uniform. The monuments were removed a day later, because the cemetery's owner said it didn't fit within the guidelines. The cemetery's president told CNN:

"The family chose a design with the guidance of a Spring Grove employee who unfortunately made an error in judgment. The monument does not fit within Spring Grove Cemetery guidelines, was not approved by senior management and cannot remain here."

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Against the Dollar Coin

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 11:29:16 -0400

In the halls of Congress, a measure is being pushed by four senators that could well ruin American lives. Called the COINS Act, it allegedly aims to save the government money by replacing dollar bills with dollar coins.

The bipartisan bill is actually called the Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS; get it?) Act. Introduced in June, it is sponsored by Senators Tom Harkin, John McCain, Michael Enzi, and Tom Coburn, who mostly represent "states with mining and metal-processing interests," writes Johns Hopkins professor Steve H. Hanke in an Op-Ed arguing against this foolish idea in today's Wall Street Journal.

Aside from their states' own interest, the senators are pushing this misguided bill because they say it will save the government money in the long run: some $13.8 billion over the next 30 years reported CNN. John McCain even says it will help strippers earn bigger tips. Granted, that's an important consideration. However, overall, Hanke explains that the idea of a dollar coin is terrible.

We agree. Here's why:

No One Likes Dollar Coins

"Oh man, let me trade you my dollar for that cool Sacagawea dollar coin you have," is a sentence that has never been uttered in human history. At my local post office, I once saw a woman wince, whisper something under her breath, and her body crumple into a slouch when the stamp machine spat out a dollar coin. When similar legislature was introduced in 2011, a poll from Lincoln Park Strategies found that 76 percent of Americans "strongly opposed" the idea of the dollar coin. Hanke points out that "The Federal Reserve already holds over a billion-dollars worth of $1 coins in storage due to the fact that people simply don't want to use them." You hear that, Mr. McCain?

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

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Your Guide to Being Funny at the Office

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:00:00 -0400

Making your way in the gnarly world of office politics is tough. From avoiding land mines like fish-based lunches to mastering the art of the email signature, the day in the life of the average American office worker is rife with trivial challenges that could have tremendous repercussions, such as not being invited to Friday drinks — or, who knows, something worse.

Among the trickiest of arts is office humor, a topic today's The Wall Street Journal examines in all its intricacies. Because while we all want a laugh on a Tuesday afternoon, many are hesitant to try a joke that could fall flat with one's colleagues and lead to awkward silences or lawsuits.

"If you are funny and putting yourself out there, making yourself vulnerable, and people don't respond? That hurts," an office jokester told The Journal's Sue Shellenbarger. "[T]he office can be a comedic minefield. Making colleagues laugh takes timing, self-confidence—and the ability to rebound from a blooper," Shellenbarger explains.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

Image via Elnur/Shutterstock.com

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If You Don't Want the Government to Spy on You, Move to Montana

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 11:42:33 -0400

Behold the Montana legislature, whose last prominent achievement allowed Montanans to eat their own roadkill. Overshadowed by that bill this past term was little old House Bill 603, a measure that requires the government to obtain a probable cause warrant before spying on you through your cell phone or laptop. HB 603 was signed into law this past Spring, effectively making Montana the first state to have an anti-spy law long before anyone heard of Edward Snowden. To be clear, HB 603 passed the state Senate overwhelmingly by a vote of 96-4 in April and was signed into law on May 6. That's almost one month to the day when we first found out about the NSA's secret order to collect phone records from Verizon, which has since ballooned into a world-wide scandal and chase. "The NSA reports hadn’t even come out at that time," said one of the law's supporters to thenews website The Daily Interlake.

That we didn't find out about the extensive NSA spying and Edward Snowden until June, is probably the reason HB 603 passed without much fanfare in the spring. At the time, the law might have seemed extraneous, or even paranoid. But knowing what we know now, the law seems prophetic (not unlike the way Shia LaBeouf warned us about spying back in 2008) and is getting some new-found attention. The law is pretty straightforward—the government can't spy on Montanans through their electronic devices unless they obtain a warrant.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

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You Are Going to Pay $100 Million for Obama's Trip to Africa

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:47:51 -0400

The Obamas' trip later this month to Africa could cost taxpayers in the vicinity of $100 million because of massive presidential vacation resources -- hundreds of Secret Service agents, 14 bulletproof limos, and much, much more -- but there is more important outrage to be had: Despite all the money we're spending for the first family to visit South Africa, Tanzania, and Senegal, we're not even going to get another awesome picture of a president on safari!

The details of President Obama's trip arrive today from The Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura, who got their hands on a confidential document outlining the massive resources to outfit and protect the president and his family during their eight-day trip that begins June 28. The vacation, according to the Post, will require at least one Navy aircraft carrier, a rotating shift of fighter jets, plus military cargo planes, three truck-loads of bulleproof glass (just for the hotel-room windows), and all those limos and security guys. The Secret Service detail could balloon the cost beyond the $60-$100 million that other presidential Africa trips have totaled.

If the reaction at Sasha and Malia's expensive spring break trip earlier this year is any indication, there's no doubt people are going to be upset about those numbers. But President Obama's travels to Africa are just like those of the two presidents before him: Bill Clinton went in 1998, and George W. Bush went with his family in 2003 and again in 2008. Clinton's trip cost the government around $42.8 million, according to the Government Accountability Office, and the Post doesn't mention how much Bush's trips cost.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Ambassador's Prostitute Excuse Won't Help State's Coverup Case

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:35:02 -0400

The tabloid favorite amongst the brewing new State Department investigations isn't the alleged Baghdad drug-ring cover-up, or the alleged Honduras killings cover-up, or even the alleged cover-up of Hillary Clinton's security detail for an "endemic" solicitation of prostitutes. No, the sexiest of the Foggy Bottom probes — all of which State officials are trying to explain away — has to do with the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, who "routinely ditched" his own bodyguards to "solicit sexual favors" himself, including from minors. And now Mr. Ambassador is calling his prostitution allegations "baseless" because... he lives in "a beautiful park in Brussels."

Indeed, after CBS News' John Miller uncovered an October memo (and subsequent watered down drafts from the Inspector General's office) detailing the multiple State investigations on Monday, Ambassador Howard Gutman was outed by the New York Post a day later, forcing not only the White House and one of his State bosses to speak out, but forcing Gutman, who is married and has been in his post for four years, to issue this strange denial (emphasis ours):

I am angered and saddened by the baseless allegations that have appeared in the press and to watch the four years I have proudly served in Belgium smeared is devastating. I live on a beautiful park in Brussels that you walk through to get to many locations and at no point have I ever engaged in any improper activity.

Gutman probably could have stopped after the first sentence of his statement. His neighborhood park is Brussels's Parc Royal Warandepark, where some of the alleged solicitations and ditching of security took place, as the New York Daily News reported.

Read more at Atlantic Wire.

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Surviving Suspect in Boston Bombing Is Walking, Talking and Claiming He's Innocent

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:39:02 -0400

The surviving Boston bombing suspect -- the one who was captured near his boat-side confession, who entered the hospital in critical condition only to speak a single word at his bedside hearing, then offered early excuses in the ongoing investigation before being transferred to a prison hospital -- has recovered enough to move about and speak freely, enough so that he's calling his mother to proclaim his and his brother's total innocence.

The Associated Press interviewed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, on Thursday afternoon, and she recalled a recent conversation with her son: "He didn't hold back his emotions either, as if he were screaming to the whole world: What is this? What's happening?" The younger Tsarnaev, it appears, is very confused: "I could just feel that he was being driven crazy by the unfairness that happened to us, that they killed our innocent Tamerlan," said the mother, who has been as frequently reliable of a source for media check-ins on the secret investigation as she has been an unreliable parent and arbiter of honesty. She has maintained that both of her sons are innocent since Dzhokhar's identification and subsequent capture.

The game of telephone with the press aside, word Dzhokhar's amnesic confusion doesn't exactly fit into previous reports regarding his knowledge about the case. Late last month Tsarnaev had enough wits about him to stop talking about the bombing after he was read his Miranda rights.Regardless of guilt or innocence, that clearly signals that the 19-year-old terrorism suspect knew the stakes of his interrogation -- and the careful wording to come.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Why Did the FBI Kill Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Accomplice-to-Be if He Was Unarmed?

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Thu, 30 May 2013 11:00:00 -0400

Law enforcement officials are walking their claims of self-defense all the way back a week after the shooting of Ibragim Todashev — the 27-year-old man who was about to officially confess to a triple murder in Massachusetts and finger Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev while he was at it — in his Orlando home by an FBI agent.

The Washington Post and Orlando's NBC affiliate both now report that Todashev was unarmed and alone in a room with the single FBI agent when he was killed early on the morning of May 22, two evolving details that continue to raise questions about why investigators used lethal force against a man who may not have posed a lethal threat but who definitely had key information on Tsarnaev.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Benghazi Whistleblowers Set to Testify on Capitol Hill

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:40:45 -0400

Mark I. Thompson, the acting deputy assistant for operations in the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, will testify on Wednesday that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton willfully blocked out his department's involvement on the night of the September 11 Benghazi attacks — and that he has been threatened and intimidated by unnamed State Department officials about saying as much in public, and that al-Qaeda was involved all along. The scoop comes from sources close to the congressional investigation speaking to Fox News, two days ahead of testimony by Thompson and two other whistleblower witnesses before Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Fox's sources characterize Thompson has having "concluded on Sept. 11 that Clinton and Kennedy tried to cut the counterterrorism bureau out of the loop as they and other Obama administration officials weighed how to respond to — and characterize — the Benghazi attacks."

That charge would seem to suggest that the State Department's actions that night last summer came straight from the top and allegedly without input from Thompson's Counterterrorism Security Group at Foggy Bottom. As CBS News reports, we know that the Obama administration "did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource, the Counterterrorism Security Group." And since a certain segment of Issa's Washington is (still) looking back and (still) trying to figure out what went wrong when the American diplomatic mission was attacked, one of the big questions heading into Wednesday's hearing is whether or not CSG involvement would have made a difference. As The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin insists, the two other witnesses — a regional State Department security officer in Libya and a former department deputy chair of the mission — could send the affair "into a whole different level of scandal."

But remember that this is very much an after-the-fact whistleblower affair, to the point where President Obama refuses to really acknowledge a string of Fox reports about the testimony during his press conference last week. And Thompson's claims about willful ignorance at the top levels of the State Department will not go without questioning. According to a National Security Council spokesman who spoke on the record with CBS, Thompson's group was involved: "From the moment the president was briefed on the Benghazi attack, the response effort was handled by the most senior national security officials in governments. Members of the CSG were of course involved in these meetings and discussions to support their bosses," the spokesperson, Tommy Vietor, told CBS. The network also spoke to a source in CSG who didn't exactly rebuke Vietor's claim but did say that only the top officials in the executive branch were convened about the matter — and that their top counterterrorism experts were not active decision makers.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Saturn's Hurricane Is a Super Storm on Steroids, Even for the Solar System

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:06:00 -0400

Now that we've got our first good look at it, let's put the mega storm on top of the sixth rock from the sun into some perspective: According to NASA, the eye of Saturn's massive hurricane is about 1,250 miles wide — approximately the distance between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City. That's about "20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth," and the wind speed from the outer edge of this storm, making planet-fall around Saturn's north pole, is being clocked at 330 mph. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which gives us the categorical 1-5 labels we use to measure hurricanes on this planet, clocks a Category 5 storm as those with winds higher than 157 mph — and says that kind of storm can leave towns and cities in ruin, uninhabitable for weeks or months, as the 174 mph Hurricane Katrina winds demonstrated. For Saturn's storm, which has been brewing since before Katrina, try almost doubling that.

The first photos to emerge in close-up and in decent enough light to make your jaw drop were actually shot in November by NASA's Cassini space craft. But this thing has actually been tracked for years, and it's actually big in the context of the larger solar system, too: The "disturbance generated the largest stratospheric thermal anomalies ever detected on Saturn," and that kind of meteorological space force was even bigger than Jupiter's famous "red spot" — or at least it was larger than that massive planetary stormat one point, reports National Geographic . Scientists aren't sure exactly when the Saturn hurricane started, though they believe it's been spinning at Saturn's north pole some time, as the Cassini orbiter first spotted the makings of a vortex in 2004 — we just had to wait a few years for a better view. Unlike Earth's storms, Saturn's hurricane didn't drift; it's been spinning in place on the planet's north pole this whole time.

"The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon," NASA reports . And while it's completely stunning and hypnotizing to Earth-bound humans, the storm is actually providing valuable information to scientists at NASA, who are hoping to see if it tells them anything about storms here on hearth. "Although there is no body of water close to these clouds high in Saturn's atmosphere, learning how these Saturnian storms use water vapor could tell scientists more about how terrestrial hurricanes are generated and sustained," reads the NASA release.

Here's one more shot of the storm:

America's Allies Are Pushing Obama to a Red Line on Syrian Chemical Weapons

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:58:29 -0400

Last month at a meeting in Israel, President Obama defined his "game changer" on American involvement in the Syrian civil war as Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against his people. Today in Israel, a major Israeli military intelligence official said that Assad had done just that. With British and French officials appearing to believe the same, is the game about to change? "To the best of our professional understanding, the regime used lethal chemical weapons against the militants in a series of incidents over the past months, including the relatively famous incident of March 19," Gen. Itai Brun, the head of research and analysis in Israeli military intelligence, told reporters at a security conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. "Shrunken pupils, foaming at the mouth and other signs indicate, in our view, that lethal chemical weapons were used."

March 19, of course, was that rare moment when both the Syrian regime and Syrian opposition actually agreed on something: that chemical weapons were used in an attack in Aleppo. The only thing they didn't agree on was who used them. This set off a flurry of diplomatic scrambling on a thin (if vague) red line, from Republicans calling for ground troops to President Obama calling the use of chemical weapons a "game changer" the very next day, despite his insistance that he remained "deeply skeptical of any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons." Now Brun, a longtime military intelligence operative, is trying to change the game — at least rhetorically, and even chemically: According to CBS News, Brun says the highly lethal nerve agent sarin was turned against the Syrian people.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

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Police Confirm Two Explosions and Casualties at Boston Marathon

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:41:18 -0400

Multiple outlets and law enforcement officials are reporting what a horrific looking scene makes clear, even as a frenzy searching for more potential explosive devices and survivors continues: The headquarters at the Boston Marathon have been locked down after at least two bombs went off near the downtown finish line mid-Monday afternoon. Boston Police confirmed at least two dead and 23 injuries (law enforcement officials told the New York Post that the explosions may have left at least 12 casualties), while there were gruesome images from the street to makeshift tents and Boston hospitals of lost limbs, hair on fire, children with severe burns, and worse. Boston police and marathon officials have confirmed that there were at least two explosions, but did not characterize them, as the marathon did, as "bombs." No one was saying who or what might be responsible. A Boston Globe photographer reported that he heard but did not see the third explosion, and Boston police were scrambling to contain the scene. "There were two booms heard from near the finish line inside the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel," reports the AP. And there are reports that another device has been found and will be detonated:

The Boston Marathon is tracking runners here.

Check back for updates and read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Sasha and Malia's Spring Break Will Not Ruin the Republic

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:10:40 -0400

Sasha and Malia's trip to the Bahamas or Idaho or wherever they are is expensive, lavish, and depending on who you ask perhaps a bit wasteful—just like Bush daughters' trip to Argentina and the Carters, Fords, and Eisenhowers' trips to Europe, or any other First Family member moves with a full retinue of security.

But let's listen to Rep. Steve King's latest rant about why the Obama daughters' spring break trip is different, or at least outraging. You may remember King as the guy who sort of sided with Todd Akin, stating in August that he never heard of girls getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest. King is not exactly a fiscal authority guru. The Republican Study Committee, which he is a part of, saw its proposed budget voted down by a vote of 104-132 this past week, with 118 fellow Republicans voting against it. Still, this was the tack King took while speaking on a local Iowa radio show Wednesday about Sasha and Malia's trip while other Americans are not (audio below):

You’re right on the president. He needs to show some austerity himself. Instead he wanted to tell America how bad it was going to be. […] We’ve got the president doing these things. He sent the daughters to spring break in Mexico a year ago. That was at our expense, too. And now to the Bahamas at one of the most expensive places there. That is the wrong image to be coming out of the White House.

King isn't stating the full truth. Sasha and Malia's spring break was not a White House photo-op. Indeed, the only media intent on covering it has been conservative outlets with an ax to grind, because most media organizations agree to not cover the private lives of Presidential children. The supposedly wasteful spending meme was kicked off by Breitbart.com, which had earlier reported the girls were in the Bahamas, but now points to a (now removed) Idaho TV report that said they claimed they were skiing. It doesn't really matter: either way, their point is that while the president's family is wastefully spending American money, real Americans can't tour the White House because of the sequester.

But here's how presidential vacations work: presidents pay for their vacations, taxpayers pay for security like Secret Service protection, just as they do if the President stays home at the White House. In 2009, the Obama family vacationed in Martha's Vineyard and rented a home that cost $35,000 a week which, according to NBC News, they paid for. This is the way it goes for President Obama, has gone for past presidents, and will go for every American president.

Read the rest on The Atlantic Wire.

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Analysis: The U.S. Flew B-2 Bombers Over Korea Because It Can

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:16:33 -0400

So we know North Korea has a habit of puffing its chest and it feels like Kim Jong-Un's country declares the annihilation of its enemies seemingly every other day now. But with the U.S. announcing that they're practicing stealth bombing runs over the Korean peninsula, it's a sign that the U.S. is taking those threats seriously.

"The two B-2 Spirit bombers made a nonstop round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.," reportsThe New York Times's Choe Sang-Hun. "It was the first time the U.S. military publicly confirmed a B-2 mission over the Korean Peninsula." According to reports the B-2s flew over South Korea's west coast.

Obviously, the test run demonstrates that the U.S. has the capability of flying that far without actually crossing into North Korea and it appears to be meant to send a message that the U.S. is willing to defend South Korea against the North. There's also probably some historical symbolism thrown in. Hun adds, "After suffering from the American carpet-bombing during the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea remains particularly sensitive about U.S. bombers."

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

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Jill Kelley finally speaks about Petraeus, Broadwell, and blackmail

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:57:07 -0500

In her first interview since the bottom of the David Petreaus scandal fell out, the "other other woman" Jill Kelley told The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz that Paula Broadwell is one scary cyberbully; that those 30,000 e-mails with General John Allen were more like hundreds; and that she's sorta like ... Nancy Kerrigan.

The whole thing is pretty fascinating really, in part because we know so much about this woman, her email habits, and stuff like her mounting foreclosure, but we never really heard from this woman about the stuff we know. So what does she have to say?

Well, she spills the beans on Broadwell's e-mails:

Kelley says she was “terrified” late last summer when he told her about the email. In that note and the barrage that followed, “there was blackmail, extortion, threats,” Kelley told me in her first interview since the David Petraeus scandal erupted, breaking a silence of nearly three months.

From that account, you could see why Broadwell was being investigated for cyberstalking (the investigation was eventually dropped). And Kelley also takes the air out of the "30,000" emails with her other pen pal, General John Allen.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

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President Obama stumbles over the oath of office again

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:59:08 -0500

In 2009 Chief Justice John Roberts flipped some very important words in President Obama's swearing-in. Four years later, it appears the two still haven't figured out how to do get this tradition quite right.

Click here to read more on the big "oops" moment from The Atlantic Wire.

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U.S. Air Force swoops in on Algeria plant as terrorists demand hostage swap

Alexander Abad-Santos, The Wire — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:55:02 -0500

The Algerian hostage situation is about as serious as its details are hazy, but as it enters its third day reports are emerging that the U.S. Air Force "is in the process of evacuating Americans and other individuals." Algerian state television reported this morning that Thursday's suspect mission by Algeria's military freed 650 hostages — 573 of them Algerian — and that "over half" of the 132 foreign workers held hostage have been freed. That leaves some 60 unaccounted for, with a Mauritanian news siteclaiming that the militant group behind the attack on a BP gas facility wants to swap two Americans for jailed terror figures.

The foreign reports, like those on the first and second days of the hostage situation, remain unconfirmed, but the well-placed sources of CNN's Barbara Starr tell her that, a day after the U.S. sent a surveillance drone, help is on the way, with Algerian special forces helping on the ground:

The U.S. Air Force is in the process of evacuating Americans and other individuals who were involved in the hostage incident at a gas plant in Algeria, a U.S. defense official tells CNN's Barbara Starr. The C-130 is taking the evacuees to Europe, the source said. About 10 to 20 evacuees were expected to be on the flight, according to the source.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

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Report: State believes Assad used chemical weapons on Syrian people

Alexander Abad-Santos, CityLab — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 -0500

In a leak that could signal a crossing of President Obama's "red line" on the increasingly deadly conflict in Syria, the State Department has investigated and concluded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his military forces used poison gas in a deadly attack on the city of Homs last month, Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin reported Tuesday evening. Rogin, whose State sources are rarely questioned on the Foggy Bottom beat, got his his scoop from classified department cables:

The cable, signed by the U.S. consul general in Istanbul, Scott Frederic Kilner, and sent to State Department headquarters in Washington last week, outlined the results of the consulate's investigation into reports from inside Syria that chemical weapons had been used in the city of Homs on Dec. 23.

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An Obama administration official who reviewed the document, which was classified at the "secret" level, detailed its contents to The Cable. "We can't definitely say 100 percent, but Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15 was used in Homs on Dec. 23," the official said.

That December 23 date is significant, because on Christmas Eve there were hazy reports from Syrian rebels that "poisonous materials" had been dropped on the Western city of Homs, near the Lebanese border. This State Department cable — and Rogin's reporting that the chemical was not Agent 15 or tear gas but definitely a chemical weapon — would seem to lend more credibility to those claims.

But big picture-wise, the chemical attack is very significant — President Obama has specifically said that the use of chemical and biological weapons would cross his "red line" in the region and perhaps affect American policy and involvement in the country. Obama stated on August 20:

We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.

Earlier Tuesday, Syrian rebels blamed Assad military jets for bombing Aleppo University, where upwards of 80 were feared dead.

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