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Posted by Andrew Branca on May 01, 2015 183 Comments
The announcement today by Maryland state's attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby of numerous charges brought against the six officers purportedly involved in the death of Freddie Gray is rich in political theater and shockingly lacking in evidence of criminal malfeasance. The full press conference video is at our prior post. A solid foundation for this having been a partisan political, rather than reasoned legal, decision is laid out succinctly by the counsel for the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police who noted:

While I have the utmost respect for you and your office, I have very deep concerns about the many conflicts of interest presented by your office conducting an investigation in this case . . . . These conflicts include your personal and professional relationship with Gray family attorney, William Murphy and the lead prosecutor’s connections with members of the local media. . . . Most importantly, it is clear that your husband's political future will be directly impacted, for better or worse, by the outcome of your investigation. . . . In order to avoid any appearance of impropriety or a violation of the Professional Rules of Professional Responsibility, I ask that you appoint a Special Prosecutor to determine whether or not any charges should be filed.

Gray family lawyer William Murphy is reported by the Baltimore Sun newspaper to have contributed $5,000 to Prosecutor Mosby's political campaign. Prosecutor Mosby's husband, a city council member, has been prominently present at the riots, and commenting on them in a manner suggesting that the acts of violence are understandable:

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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 01, 2015 1 Comment
Wednesday we shared the heartwarming story of how Governor Perry and Marcus Luttrell forged a relationship that transcends politics. It's easily one of my favorite stories as of late. Gov. Perry’s relationship with Luttrell is one markedly different from the overplayed politician parades soldier for political expediency schtick. Following the Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, Luttrell found himself struggling to recover from substantial physical, mental, and emotional trauma. That's when Luttrell reached out to Governor Perry. Their relationship blossomed into a story of love, sacrifice, redemption, and hope. WARNING: You might want to grab the tissues before clicking the 'play' button.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 01, 2015 1 Comment
Rasmea Odeh was convicted in Israel in 1970 of the 1969 supermarket bombing that killed two students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.   The evidence of Rasmea's guilt was overwhelming, as we documented.  Rasmea was released in a prisoner exchange in 1979, and eventually made her way to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. [caption id="attachment_115293" align="alignnone" width="600"]Rasmea Odeh Protest Vigil DePaul 2-3-2015 Student Holding Photos [Vigil Remembering Victims of Rasmea Odeh, DePaul University 2-3-2015][/caption] Rasmea flat-out lied on her immigration and naturalization papers, when she denied that she ever had been convicted or incarcerated. Rasmea was prosecuted in federal Court in Detroit for immigration fraud by prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade. Rasmea's excuses for lying were lacking any credibility, and the jury took only 2 hours to convict her. Rasmea was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered deported after that. As we have reported before, Rasmea has been turned into a hero of the anti-Israel activist community, based in large part on her claim that the Israeli conviction was based on a confession extracted after 25 days of sexual torture. In fact, the documentary evidence shows Rasmea confessed just one day after arrest, was implicated by others as the mastermind, and the conviction was supported by other evidence, such as bomb-making material found in her bedroom.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 01, 2015 74 Comments
The NY Times reports:
Baltimore prosecutors, in an unexpected announcement, said Friday they had probable cause to file homicide, manslaughter and misconduct charges against police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, who died after sustaining a spinal cord injury while in police custody. In a news conference, the state’s attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby, described repeated mistreatment of Mr. Gray. Time and again, she said, police officers mistreated him, arresting him without grounds and violating police procedure by putting him in handcuffs and leg restraints in the van without putting a seatbelt him. Ms. Mosby also said the officers had repeatedly failed to seek medical attention for Mr. Gray after he was injured. By the time he was removed from the van, she said, “Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all.” The death, Ms. Mosby said, is believed to be the result of an injury Mr. Gray sustained while riding in the van without a seatbelt.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 01, 2015 9 Comments
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has announced his bid for the Democratic nomination in 2016 and the left couldn't be happier about it. After all, who needs a socialist in disguise like Elizabeth Warren when you can have a candidate who openly identifies as one? Sanders has come out swinging at Hillary Clinton and some far left publications are making legitimate points about his candidacy. Patrick Caldwell of Mother Jones:
Bernie Sanders Has Already Taken More Press Questions Than Hillary Clinton Unlike Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders didn't use a splashy, big-budget video to announce his campaign. Instead, the Vermont senator opted for a series of one-on-one television interviews Wednesday followed by a low-key launch event outside the US Capitol Thursday morning. "I believe that in a democracy, what elections are about are serious debates over serious issues," he said Thursday. "Not political gossip, not making campaigns into soap operas. This is not the Red Sox vs. the Yankees, this is the debate over major issues facing the American people."
Watch Sanders talk about his challenge to Hillary Clinton in the clip below: Progressives are fired up.

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Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 01, 2015 13 Comments
Amid all the violence and chaos on the streets of Baltimore, I thought I would check on the status of the chaos and violence in Libya. The last time we reported about the region, Egypt's commandos were striking ISIS, its air force was bombing terror strongholds, and its President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was calling for a United Nations resolution mandating an international coalition to intervene. As one might have projected, the UN response has been less than robust. So, Egypt is planning another operation.
Egypt reportedly is preparing a large-scale ground and air assault along the Libyan border to oust the Islamic State group from eastern Libya. DebkaFile, quoting military and intelligence sources, said naval and marine forces are assembling at Egypt's Mediterranean ports for a possible assault on Derna, the militants' provincial capital. DebkaFile noted the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, represents an unacceptable threat to Egypt, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been warned extremists already have penetrated some Egyptian towns and military units. ISIS fighters are being smuggled through the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt from Syria and Iraq by drug rings, DebkaFile said.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 01, 2015 54 Comments
There appears to be much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over the claim that Freddie Gray's arrest itself was unlawful, thus tainting every aspect of subsequent police conduct, thus murder!11!11! The thinking, as near as I can understand it, is as follows:

(1) Freddie Gray did no more than merely make eye contact with police officers, and then flee. (At this point the police did not know that Gray possessed a knife, whether legal or not.)

(2) On this basis the police initiated a pursuit and stop of Gray.

(2) This police conduct fails to meet the standard of probable cause necessary for an arrest to be Constitutiona, making the arrest unlawful

(4) Even if Gray's knife is indeed unlawful it must be suppressed as evidence because it is the fruit of the tainted tree of the unlawful arrest, as the police did not know of the knife when they initiated their interaction with Gray.

(5) ????

(6) The police in custody of Gray murdered him.

Sadly, this conception of the events in this case and the conclusion drawn merely reflects a rather profound ignorance of what the Constitution permits in terms of police interaction with the public.

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 30, 2015 21 Comments
When Al Sharpton is in front of an MSNBC camera, it's an adventure watching him try to read from the teleprompter ("Resist we much!"). However, when he's in front of other cameras, grandstanding, he does very well. Earlier, Sharpton had a run in with Fox News reporter Leland Vittert. Vittert was doing this odd thing called "journalism" and was attempting to question Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake when Sharpton decided to play palace guard: Sharpton of course, knew it was Fox News and as such, he knew millions were watching... unlike his show on MSNBC. But hey, at least Sharpton is punching up, right?

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 30, 2015 15 Comments
Earlier today, President Obama visited D.C.'s Anacostia neighborhood where he spoke to grade school students at a public library. According to CNN, Obama unveiled a two-part plan to encourage reading in lower-income areas. "The first part of President's plan is to give young people better digital access to books," CNN reports. The second part of the plan is the ConnectED Library Challenge. ConnectED's goal is to put, "a library card in every child's hand to ensure they have access to not only books, but public internet." "The event was moderated by a sixth grader from Salisbury, Maryland, who asked questions submitted by students across the country, some of whom were watching the event on a livestream in their classrooms," reports CNN. While Obama was discussing the difficulty of speech writing (though if he mentioned he has a staff of speech writers, it's not contained in this clip), the frustration of writer's block, and how terrible first drafts can be, this brave youngster said what we have all wanted to say:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 30, 2015 13 Comments
Update: Bowdoin College students overwhelmingly reject Israel boycott ---------------- The Bowdoin College Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group may obtain sufficient signatures on a Petition to send a referendum endorsing the full academic and cultural boycott of Israel to a vote by the full student body. This is not a mere "divestment" resolution.  In calling on the full student body to endorse the complete boycott of Israel, the referendum appears to be taking an unpredecented move among college anti-Israel initiatives, which normally are narrowly tailored. It is a resolution, much like that passed by the American Studies Association, that would cut all academic and cultural ties with all Israeli Universities and any Israeli scholar or student acting on behalf of or through those universities.  The ASA boycott was condemned as a violation of academic freedom by over 250 University Presidents (including Bowdoin's) and several major academic groups, such as the American Association of University Professors. Whether SJP will obtain sufficient signatures is a matter currently under dispute. As of last night, SJP was claiming that it reached the required number at the time it closed the Petition. Bowdoin SJP Announcement Enough Signatures According to the Bowdoin Orient student newspaper 360 signatures were needed, but the online petition as of this writing shows only 351 signatures.  I am told that in a new development this afternoon, the number of signatures needed was raised to 383, as there has been a miscalculation of the total number of students.

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 30, 2015 6 Comments
Peter Schweizer's "Clinton Cash" has the Democratic Party---and Hillary Clinton's campaign team---really nervous. The book has shone a spotlight on Hillary's time as Secretary of State, and on the connection between deals presented to the state department by foreign interests (government and business) and donations made to the Clinton Foundation. Schweizer has said several times his role as an author was to establish a pattern of behavior by Bill and Hillary Clinton as it related to donations made to the Clinton Foundation, and paid speaking gigs for Bill that often topped $500,000 apiece. Critics however, have lashed out at Schweizer and his book, claiming it is nothing but a political hack job due to the lack of a "smoking gun." There is no evidence of any quid pro quo, so therefore, the book is just partisan mudslinging. Schweizer is quick to point out that he is an author, not a prosecutor, and his job was merely to report on what he believed was a pattern of behavior. He said it is up to those with subpoena power to look into the issue further and determine if there was any criminal behavior. That being said, the "smoking gun" argument doesn't really pass the sniff test, because there are plenty of politicians who have been indicted and/or convicted of crimes without the presence of a "smoking gun." Here are just a few:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 30, 2015 3 Comments
An unlikely alliance between a top Democrat, and a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has cast a trip line in front of the House's "running start" on the appropriations process. Last night, House Republicans delayed a vote on the first spending bill of the new session. The bill would have provided the funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and is usually the easiest appropriation to pass. A series of amendments from Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), however, threatened to derail an agreement made by House and Senate negotiators to reconcile both chambers' spending plans prior to a vote. The amendments address a budgetary loophole involving the sequester (remember that whole thing?) and the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund. Mulvaney's amendment seeks to block the Pentagon from using $532 billion from the OCO to fund overseas military construction projects at bases in Italy, Poland, Bahrain, Niger, Djibouti and Oman. Note: the OCO is not subject to the sequester caps passed in 2011. The budget the House was poised to pass would have appropriated $90 billion dollars from the OCO fund to the Pentagon; because that $90 billion comes from the OCO, it's not subject to the sequester, either, even though the appropriations bill slapped another label on it.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 30, 2015 4 Comments
Earlier this week, I wrote on reports that the Nigerian military had managed to rescue hundreds of women and girls from now-defunct Boko Haram camps in northeastern Nigeria. Good news like that doesn't come along every day---but maybe today is just a good week for hope, because almost 200 more women and children have been rescued in the Sambisa Forest area. The 200 "Chibok" girls of #BringBackOurGirls fame do not appear to be among those rescued, but reports have not yet confirmed that. More from CNN:
"We are still working to verify the actual number of the rescued hostages, but I can say they include around 60 women and 100 children," said army spokesman Sani Usman. A female hostage and a soldier were killed during the rescue operation at Sambisa Forest, a base for the Islamist extremists. Troops are moving into other parts of the forest and have destroyed nine militant camps, the spokesman said. "Many of those kidnapped have undergone psychological trauma and indoctrination," he said.
This is huge, for a variety of reasons.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 30, 2015 34 Comments
This is a follow up to our post, Mom Sets #BaltimoreRiots Son Straight. The two sat down for an interview with ABC News:
The teenage boy publicly shamed when his mom smacked him around at the Baltimore riots this week said he knows she "really cares about me." A video shows Michael Singleton being dragged from the protests and whacked by his mother, Toya Graham, after she saw him on television and recognized a key piece of clothing. "What caught my eye was his sweatpants," she told ABC News. "Even though he had on all black, I knew those sweatpants he had on, they had a stripe on the side of it and then his eye contact met mine. And I knew that was my son." Though he was visibly annoyed and tried brushing off his mom in the video that has now gone viral, the 16-year-old recognizes that she was just looking out for him. "I’m like, 'Oh man! What is my momma doing down here?'" Michael told ABC News, laughing while thinking back to the moment his mom nabbed him Monday afternoon. "All my friends know my mother. Every time they see her they’re like, 'Toya coming.' Oh, yeah she’s coming. Everybody better get straight," he said. He added: “I understand how much my mother really cares about me. I just got to try to do better.”

Posted by Amy Miller on April 30, 2015 14 Comments
Last time we saw Lois Lerner, she was breathing a sigh of relief upon hearing the news that the DOJ had declined to pursue contempt charges after her refusal to testify before a House committee. At the time, this may have seemed like a huge win, but in context, a contempt charge was and probably remains the least of Lerner's problems. Just months before learning she was in the clear, Lerner got buried beneath a damning pile of recovered e-mails showing a very, very paranoid Lois Lerner. The evidence gained from those e-mails suggests a group of officials bent on suppressing the free speech of their political enemies, and screams "cover up." Just think---what if there were even more e-mails out there containing even more damning evidence?! Ask, and you shall receive. An inspector general investigating IRS misconduct has unearthed additional e-mails, and turned them over to Congress. Via Fox News [emphasis mine]:
“This underscores that our investigation into IRS abuse is far from over,” a House Ways and Means Committee spokesman said Wednesday. “The committee will thoroughly review these new emails as part of our ongoing efforts to find out exactly what happened and provide accountability."

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 30, 2015 23 Comments
According to a new report from FOX News which is sure to generate controversy, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave an order for police to stand down during the riots which decimated the city this week:
Source: Baltimore mayor ordered police to stand down Despite a firm denial by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a senior law enforcement source charges that she gave an order for police to stand down as riots broke out Monday night, raising more questions about whether some of the violence and looting could have been prevented. The source, who is involved in the enforcement efforts, confirmed to Fox News there was a direct order from the mayor to her police chief Monday night, effectively tying the hands of officers as they were pelted with rocks and bottles. Asked directly if the mayor was the one who gave that order, the source said: "You are God damn right it was." The claim follows criticism of the mayor for, over the weekend, saying they were giving space to those who "wished to destroy."
Bill Hemmer of FOX News asked the mayor to comment but she denied the claim. Watch:

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 30, 2015 71 Comments
One of the most remarkable aspects of the death of Freddie Gray is how little is publicly known about the physiological cause of death, and the lack of evidence behind all the speculation. The autopsy will not be released, according to police, but will be handed over to state prosecutors. There is a report in The Washington Post that Gray tried to injure himself in the police van, but that is far from certain at this point. This naturally complicates reasoned analysis of the events, and provides fertile ground for false, politically-motivated narratives that lead to violence, rioting, looting and arson. Let's take a step back, examine the claims and narratives that have been promulgated to date, and consider whether there exists even a hypothetical scenario in which the death of Freddie Gray is the result of events not involving police malice.

Assumed for Purposes of Discussion: Gray’s Arrest Was Lawful

There is no dispute that Freddie Gray was arrested on the street by the Baltimore police department. Some claim that the arrest was committed without adequate probable cause. This is, of course, possible. Given Gray’s extensive criminal record, familiarity to local law enforcement, objectively suspicious behavior—-flight upon spotting the patrol officers—-and a police claim that he was in possession of an illegal (in Maryland), spring-assisted opening knife, it’s at least equally possible that the police had probable cause.
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