State Department - possible cover-ups, halted investigations

Here we go again with the scandal of the week.

"State Department memo reveals possible cover-ups, halted investigations

(CBS News) CBS News has uncovered documents that show the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks.

CBS News' John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General's memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off.

The memo obtained by CBS News cited eight specific examples. Among them

1) Allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut "engaged in sexual assaults" on foreign nationals

2) Members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security detail "engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries"

3) Details about an "underground drug ring" was operating near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and supplied State Department security contractors with drugs.

4) State Department were told to stop investigating the case of a U.S. Ambassador was suspected of patronizing prostitutes in a public park.

(see the whole article at...)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162- ... stigations

And the beat goes on...

I'm going to take a different direction on my comments about this newly revealed scandal. I don't care anymore if this crap existed/started under the Obama administration, the Bush administration or it's just the fault of some low-level employees of the State Department. What I am concerned about is the fact that this crap even exists.

Our government, federal, state and local have become a kleptocracy of political elites and civil service employees. The "Occupy Wall Street" folks have pointed out what they see as a traditional plutocracy of the 1% versus the rest of us... the 99%. What the "Occupy Wall Street" adherents need to do is join forces with the rest our citizens and rally against this rule of kleptocracy that has infected the agencies and people who run this country.

There is no fine line separating the plutocracy and the kleptocracy that exists. Big money and big politics are sleeping in the same beds. And that leaving us the job of cleaning up the sheets. I'm tired of this. Left, right, conservative, liberal, progressives, greens... it doesn't matter anymore... if they are in a public office, or run a large company, greed, avarice and moral corruption follows.

It's every man for themselves. If they have the ability to take, they do. If they have the resources to gain power and prestige... they do. And don't tell me that if we vote for the right man or woman, or if this or that party is in the majority... don't tell me that's going to solve the problem... because no one joins the political elite or climbs the corporate ladder unless the powers to be wants them too.

This is not Obama's problem. This is not the GOP's problem. This is our problem. And I don't know what to do about it. No one should have any fantasies of taking up arms, romantic overtures of storming the Bastille... because while we weren't looking... they put a impenetrable system in place... and it's not ours to take back anymore.

Our only hope is they "eat" their own... it crumbles from the inside. And you can guess who will be left to pick up the pieces. It's a fact of history. Welcome to the "Rise and Fall of Western Civilization."

(P.S. NSA... if you are reading this... my name is Walter L. Newton... Google that... you'll have no problems finding the right door to knock on).

Seems our honorable Senator Udall, admitted he had full knowledge of the NSA ACTIVITIES.....BUT COULD NOT DIVULGE THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL INTRUSIONS BECAUSE OF "NATIONAL SECURITY"......what ??......what ??......LAST TIME I CHECKED HE SWORE TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND NOT POLICE STATE "LAWS"......HITLER AND STALIN (AND PUTIN) HAD (HAVE) LOTS OF JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS THAT IMPLEMENT "LAWS"......We the citizens depend on our elected Congressmen to protect us......He failed.


.UDALL SHOULD RESIGN.

So did Hillary only find out about this by reading the news after she resigned? Maybe she should have been looking at her own employees instead of flying off to Togo.

Agree with you both......We The People are the problem......we allowed our selves to be divided, and we were conquered. The only thing that surprises me about all this is that people seem surprised......we traded our freedom for security, and maybe some thought we would get them back when we were secure....fools, there is no real security and never will be....living with risk is freedom, living free from risk (now there's an oxymoron for ya) is a promise that can NEVER be achieved......I would be outraged at it all if I wasn't so pessimistic about our ability to change the course in government and in corporate America......they took what we have given them and run with it. Ain't no way to close that Pandora's box easily......

As much as I appreciate the support above... what I feel (what...? Conservatives don't "feel") is the most important of my points is the fact I really believe there is NOTHING we can do about it at the present moment. I feel (there's that word again) that the best we can do is take care of ourselves, finding our "comfort zone" and wait for it to crumble from within.

Instead of trying to "close that Pandora's box," I think I'll spend the rest of my days listening to Pandora.

How many times have I said it on this board?

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL........... (Ted Flynn was right)

As sure as night follows day........Big government = big problems. Huge over-reaches in the name of safety and security have brought an end to individual privacy.

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: As much as I appreciate the support above... what I feel (what...? Conservatives don't "feel") is the most important of my points is the fact I really believe there is NOTHING we can do about it at the present moment. I feel (there's that word again) that the best we can do is take care of ourselves, finding our "comfort zone" and wait for it to crumble from within.

Instead of trying to "close that Pandora's box," I think I'll spend the rest of my days listening to Pandora.

As you said, the beat goes on.


http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/decline.html


The Cycle of Nations

In his book The End of Christendom, Malcolm Muggeridge makes this powerful observation. He says:

I conclude that civilizations, like every other human creation, wax and wane. By the nature of the case there can never be a lasting civilization anymore than there can be a lasting spring or lasting happiness in an individual life or a lasting stability in a society. It's in the nature of man and of all that he constructs to perish, and it must ever be so. The world is full of the debris of past civilizations and others are known to have existed which have not left any debris behind them but have just disappeared.
He goes on to say that

...whatever their ideology may be, from the Garden of Eden onwards such dreams of lasting felicity have cropped up and no doubt always will. But the realization is impossible for the simple reason that a fallen creature like man though capable of conceiving perfection and aspiring after it, is in himself and in his works forever imperfect. Thus he is fated to exist in the no man's land between the perfection he can conceive and the imperfection that characterizes his own nature and everything he does.

Nations rise and nations fall. Every nation has followed this progression from bondage to bondage."...

"The price of APATHY is to be ruled by evil men".....Plato.....the American collective has been APATHETIC for a very long time. It is
NOW coming back upon us....JMO

OmniScience wrote: How many times have I said it on this board?

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL........... (Ted Flynn was right)

As sure as night follows day........Big government = big problems. Huge over-reaches in the name of safety and security have brought an end to individual privacy.

I agree there is a control problem here but not necessarily due to bad intent - I think it's the same way a parent wants to protect a child. Politicians seem to think they have all the answers and if they think something is good for us, it's more important to fix a problem than it is to be transparent about the methods - even if those methods invade privacy. What worries me is the fact that the president doesn't seem to know what's going on around him in many cases until he sees it in the news. That's when you know government has gotten to big and out of control. If government agencies start heading in their own chosen directions without leadership from the top, it won't end well for us.