America's Afghan Whistleblower John Sopko

More heat comes down on the desperate, dying Obama administration and the "mainstream media" lapdogs that aided and abetted unbridled taxpayer theft

BBC VIA GLOBAL RESEARCH
09/28/2013

As a young lawyer in the 1980s, John Sopko made a name for himself fighting the mafia in Cleveland, Ohio. 

 

 

John Sopko, Special Inspector General 

Now he is taking a similarly fearless approach to uncovering fraud and mismanagement in the US aid effort in Afghanistan.

Since taking office as the United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) last year, 61-year-old Mr. Sopko has been making headlines with his unusually outspoken criticism of how US taxpayers' money is being spent.

In July alone, his office fired off eight separate reports highlighting concerns in a range of areas, from shoddy school construction and fraud by local contractors, to the failings of a new justice training programme.

"You've got to kick the tyres," he says in a typically forthright quote in his latest report. "You've got to verify that the money you gave to buy fuel bought the fuel."

 

BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars simply handed over to Afghans

In his offices on the outskirts of Washington, Mr Sopko has a big map of Afghanistan to help him keep track of where his inspectors are working.

His staff of 180 people includes 50 on the ground in Afghanistan. So far they have carried out checks in 23 of the country's 34 provinces.

His official website hosts a hotline for reporting fraud online. Afghans can also call a local number to register complaints in the main languages of Afghanistan.

And they do: the system has led to a number of investigations, arrests and prosecutions. 

 

 

Criminal Contractors Gone Wild

In September, a US state department employee pleaded guilty to receiving an illegal gratuity of $30,000 (£18,000) from a public official in Afghanistan. He was charged after Sigar received a tip-off on its hotline.

Mr Sopko is blunt about the scale of the waste his team has uncovered.

A recent case on his books involves a $34m military command centre, which he says the US army went ahead and built in Helmand even though they knew it would not be needed after the 2014 international troop withdrawal.

"Once you start a plan… it's very difficult to stop," he tells the BBC. "What we're going to do is to find out why they continued, even though the commanding general there specially told them a year before… don't build it, I won't use it, I won't need it." 

 

 

Government Contractors Pay $7.5 Million After Turning Afghan Compound Into A Obscene Booze-Fueled Frat House

 

Another even more troubling case under investigation by Mr Sopko's team is the apparent theft of $1m from contracts to install protection systems against roadside bombs, the explosive devices favoured by the Taliban.

Afghan sub-contractors billed the US for blocking at least 250 drainage holes under highways where roadside bombs tend to be placed, but the job was either improperly done or not completed at all. 

 

 

Employees of security contractor ArmorGroup North America, which in 2011 settled a federal lawsuit charging it submitted false claims for payment, and that it knew employees were visiting brothels in Afghanistan. The company continued to work in Afghanistan until July 2012

 

"It's not just money being stolen from contract," Mr Sopko says. "Fraud kills. In this case, poor contracting led to the deaths of a number of individuals."

The US Defence Department told the BBC that it takes Mr Sopko's investigations very seriously, saying "the matter regarding the facility in Helmand Province remains under investigation".

The statement also pointed out that it was US military personnel themselves who first noticed problems with contractors installing roadside bomb defence systems and alerted the inspectors.

Few success stories

Mr Sopko's work has lead him to some sobering conclusions about the impact of reconstruction work in Afghanistan so far. 

 

 

Booze, Drugs, and Hookers: Hundreds of Offenses by the Afghan Contractors Uncovered - Dynacorp:   This is where U.S. taxpayer money was spent

"We are so concerned about the lack of successes that I actually sent a letter to the secretary of state, to the secretary of defence and the head of [US international aid agency] USAid a number of months ago and said, give me your 10 most successful programmes. So we can learn from them," he told the BBC.

"They haven't been able to answer that question. So we're still looking for some successes."

It's clear that Mr Sopko's relentless barrage of criticism is not always what the US military top brass want to hear. 

 

 

Bush/Cheney, Obama shadow army

As he himself admits in his latest quarterly audit, 43 of the recommendations he made to the military for new measures to prevent insurgent groups getting access to US government grants were rejected outright.

"I am deeply troubled that the US military can pursue, attack and even kill terrorists and their supporters," he writes in the report, "but that some in the US government believe we cannot prevent these same people from receiving a government contract."

But the thick skin and determination that helped Mr Sopko pursue the feared crime boss James Licavoli back in Cleveland seem to be standing him in good stead.

By no means all of his recommendations go unheeded.

In August his office said they had managed to freeze the bank accounts of an Afghan trucking contractor accused of defrauding the US out of more than $77m.

Investigations into the case are continuing.

"I think we're getting the message across and some of the policy-makers are taking our advice very seriously," he says.

"We are slowly turning that ship of reconstruction around so that it will be done better, faster and more safely not only for our taxpayers but for our troops and civilians working in Afghanistan."

Sina Alinejad contributed to this report.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Happy Anniversary Afghanistan : Operation Enduring Misery Shambles Into Its 13th Year

Bush/Cheney, Obama will be held accountable for all deaths in this illegal war that has bankrupted America through brazen corporate theft and military treason

COUNTER PUNCH
By Mike Whitney
10/09/2013

October 7 marked the 12th anniversary of the Afghanistan War, but you wouldn’t know it by reading the papers. In fact, “America’s longest war” has become so unpopular that both the media and the Obama administration have done everything in their power to sweep the whole matter under the rug hoping that people just forget about it. But it’s hard to forget about it when US troops keep getting blown up like they did on Sunday. Just look at this from CBS News:

A bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, American and Afghan officials said. They were the latest casualties in a 12-year conflict that shows no signs of slowing down despite a drawdown in foreign forces.” (“Four U.S. troops killed in south Afghanistan”, CBS News).

And it’s hard to forget about it when Obama keeps killing Afghan kids that are out playing tag or walking the dog. Take a look at this from Saturday’s Al Jazzera:

“At least five civilians, including three children, were killed overnight in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan after they went hunting for birds with air guns, local officials said Saturday…. They were targeted and killed by a foreign forces airstrike,” said Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, a provincial police spokesman….”(“Afghan civilians reportedly killed in NATO airstrike”, Al Jazeera).

War criminals Blair, Bush attempt to sanitize themselves

And it’s hard to forget about it when Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, keeps blasting NATO in the media, like he did on Monday. Here’s what he said:

“On the security front the entire NATO exercise was one that caused Afghanistan a lot of suffering, a lot of loss of life, and no gains,” Karzai noted, elaborating on comments from his spokesman yesterday.

Karzai went on to say that NATO and the US had repeatedly launched operations in express opposition to his government’s wishes, notably night raids, and was clearly willing to violate Afghan sovereignty whenever it suits them.” (“Karzai Rejects US Security Pact, Says NATO Causing ‘Great Suffering’”, antiwar.com)

From the beginning no sane country wanted any part of this

Karzai might be a puppet, but he did the right thing by criticizing the drone attacks and defending the nation’s sovereignty. Even so, the issues here go way beyond Karzai or US casualties or even the death of innocent children. The problem is the war itself and the ongoing US occupation. It was a bad idea from the very beginning, and it is a bad idea today. War is too blunt an instrument to fight terrorism, that should be obvious by now. The American people were duped into believing that invading Afghanistan was an appropriate response for the attacks on 9-11, but it never was. It was always a stupid, wasteful, bloody idea without merit.

Afghan active duty military, Veterans have been abandoned

The war in Afghanistan has never made any sense. From the bombing of Mazar-i-Sharif in November, 2001 to the droning of children chasing birds in 2013; it’s been one homicidal debacle after the other. On top of that, none of the strategic objectives have been achieved. The warlords and Taliban still control much of the countryside, the reconstruction effort has been a complete farce, women are no safer today than they were when the invasion was first launched, and the central government is a comical Potemkin regime riddled with corruption and incompetence. Oh yeah, and the dirt-poor country now produces 90 percent of the world’s opium. The only area of commerce in which post-invasion Afghanistan excels is the production of illicit narcotics. Is it any wonder why the American people are sick of the whole damn thing and want to get out now?

And then there’s the people who have to pay for the conflict, like the soldiers who carry the scars for the rest of their lives, and oftentimes kill themselves to escape the relentless mental darkness that war creates.

The AP reports that U.S. military suicides have surged to the highest level ever recorded:

“Pentagon figures obtained Monday by The Associated Press show that the 349 suicides among active-duty troops last year were up from 301 the year before and exceeded the Pentagon’s own internal projection of 325. . . . Last year’s total is the highest since the Pentagon began closely tracking suicides in 2001. It exceeds the 295 Americans who died in Afghanistan last year, by the AP’s count.” (“U.S. Military Suicides Exceed Combat Deaths”, The Buzz)

American wars have precipitated an epidemic of suicides in the military. These costs don’t appear on the Pentagon’s balance sheet, but they’re devastating just the same. Politicians in the US always talk about US combat troops with the greatest respect, but when these same soldiers return from active duty they are treated like garbage and can’t even get the help they need for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other brain-related trauma. (Like Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI) It’s a disgrace.

Then there’s the Afghan people, whose suffering is even greater than the troops. More than 200,000 civilians have been killed in the war despite the fact that the US “doesn’t do body counts.” Also, according to Malalai Joya, former member of the Afghan Parliament and author of the book “A Woman Among Warlords”, the US occupation has made matters worse because there is “more bloodshed, more crimes, more human rights violations, more looting of our resources and changing of our country into Mafia state … Around two million Afghans are addicted (to opium), most of them are women and children … And according to UNIFEM, Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be a woman.” (“Imperialism & Fundamentalism Have Joined Hands”: Malalai Joya on 12 Years of U.S.-Led Afghan War, Malalai Joya, Democracy Now!)

So all the talk about liberating women was pure gibberish, just like the nonsense about establishing a “western-style democracy”. US war planners wanted to establish forward-bases in Eurasia to contain Russia and China, to be a main player in oil and natural gas extraction, and to spread US hegemony to this century’s most dynamic “growth center”. To that end, the US plans to maintain a significant presence in Afghanistan, including large numbers of combat forces, lethal high-tech weaponry, intel operatives, private contractors, and at least 4 military bases presumably on oil transit lines. The US is not leaving Afghanistan. It’s merely abandoning the pretense that its motives are altruistic.

But whatever the motives might have been, it’s irrelevant now. The war is lost and the American people know it. Check this out from the Huffington Post:

“Nearly 12 years after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan, two-thirds of Americans think that the war was not worth the cost, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday….. The amount of those who think the war hasn’t been worth it, 67 percent, is a new high for ABC polls, and slightly exceeds those who thought the Iraq war was not worth it in April 2007.” (“Afghan War Poll Finds That Two-Thirds Say That It Wasn’t Worth The Cost”, Huffington Post)

So there’s less public support for Afghanistan now, then there was for Iraq in 2007? Amazing. No wonder the media has stopped reporting the news.

And don’t kid yourself; this is Obama’s war now. He supported it from the very beginning and, more important, he’s got more blood on his hands than even George Bush. As analyst Nolan Finley notes, “Of the 2,144 Americans who have died in Afghanistan, 1,575, or 73 percent, were killed on Obama’s watch.”

It’s his job to get us out of this mess. Fast. In that regard, he may want to follow the advice of the New York Times who summed it up like this in 2012 editorial:

“After more than a decade of having American blood spilled in Afghanistan…it is time for United States forces to leave … The United States will not achieve even President Obama’s narrowing goals, and prolonging the war will only do more harm.

…the idea of fully realizing broader democratic and security aims simply grows more elusive … More fighting will not consolidate the modest gains made by this war, and there seems little chance of guaranteeing that the Taliban do not come back in…"

Post-American Afghanistan is likely to be more presentable than North Korea, less presentable than Iraq and perhaps about the same as Vietnam. But it fits the same pattern of damaging stalemate. We need to exit as soon as we safely can. America’s global interests suffer when it is mired in unwinnable wars in distant regions.” (“Time to Pack Up”, New York Times)

It’s time to end the killing, Mr. President. Do not shrug your duty. End the war today.

MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. Whitney’s story on declining wages for working class Americans appears in the June issue of CounterPunch magazine. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Watchdog Group Issues Damning Report On Obama Administration War On Journalists And Whistleblowers

Obama and his murdering CIA will ultimately be prosecuted for the deaths of dozens of journalists and whistleblowers, along with the "mainstream media" scum that attempted to cover up their crimes

WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE
By Thomas Gaist
14 October 2013

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued 30-page report October 10, titled “The Obama Administration and the Press,” describing the punitive treatment meted out by the administration against critics and whistleblowers. It details policies enacted by the administration which block access to government sources by journalists and describes the intimidating effect of the NSA surveillance programs on possible sources.

The report also covers the “manipulative use of administration-controlled media to circumvent scrutiny by the press” under the Open Government Initiative launched by the administration.

According to Leonard Downie Jr., professor of journalism at Arizona State University, and co-author of the report with Sara Rafsky, “The administration’s war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post ’s investigation of Watergate. The 30 experienced Washington journalists at a variety of news organizations whom I interviewed for this report could not remember any precedent.”

Journalists now bearing arms and will retaliate using deadly force

Downie’s report contains testimony from numerous figures in the media establishment, most of whom offered severe criticisms of the administration’s handling of press relations. Margaret Sullivan, public editor at the New York Times, described the administration’s policies as based on “unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press.”

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a reporter for the Washington Post and member of the CPJ, spoke about the “chilling effect created across government on matters that are less sensitive but certainly in the public interest… It serves to shield and obscure the business of government from necessary accountability.”

Ellen Weiss, who heads E.W. Scripps Washington bureau, affirmed that “the Obama administration is far worse than the Bush administration” in its treatment of those who expose wrongdoing by government agencies.

Fraud "MSM" hacks assisting Obama, CIA will face retribution

Frank Senso, previously the Washington bureau chief for CNN, said that the Obama administration has been “squeezing the flow of information at several pressure points.” Regarding Obama’s Open Government Initiative, Senso said that the administration sees social media as a means “to end run the news media completely.”

Bob Schieffer of CBS told Downie that the Obama administration’s policies are the culmination of decades of development, with each successive administration covering its activities in a thicker blanket of secrecy than the last. “When I’m asked what is the most manipulative and secretive administration I’ve covered, I always say it’s the one in office now,” he said. “Every administration learns from the previous administration. They become more secretive and put tighter clamps on information. This administration exercises more control than George W. Bush’s did, and his before that.”

NSA scum will be hunted down and exterminated worldwide

Summing up a sentiment attributed by Downie to numerous reporters with whom he spoke, Josh Meyer of Quartz said, “In the Obama administration, there is across-the-board hostility to the media.” Speaking for Politico, Josh Gerstein said of the administration, “If the story is basically one that they don’t want to come out, they won’t even give you the basic facts.”

Downie’s report exposes the “Insider Threat Program” (ITP) being put into place by the Obama administration. In essence, the ITP requires government employees to spy on their colleagues in order to protect against future leaks of classified material like that carried out by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. According to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Government Secrecy Project, the program has “created internal surveillance, heightened a degree of paranoia in government and made people conscious of contacts with the public, advocates, and the press.”

The report also documents the use of government-controlled web sites and social media by the administration in its efforts to shape public perceptions without having to enlist the aid of the press corps. Upon gaining the presidency, Obama oversaw the establishment of the “Open Government Initiative,” which was supposed to make more information available to the public through the establishment of state-run web sites and social media.

As Downie writes in the report, however, “The government websites turned out to be part of a strategy, honed during Obama’s presidential campaign, to use the Internet to dispense to the public large amounts of favorable information and images generated by his administration, while limiting its exposure to probing by the press.” Politico described the Open Government Initiative as reflecting a “new technique” based on the creation of web content. “They are obsessed with taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and every other social media forum, not just for campaigning, but governing,” he said.

The Downie report comes as the latest in a series of exposures of the deeply anti-democratic policies of the Obama administration. Last May, for instance, the Justice Department admitted to spying on at least 20 telephone lines used by the Associated Press to communicate with sources, in violation of First Amendment protection of freedom of the press. AP President Gary Pruitt subsequently said that, “The chilling effect is not just at AP, it’s happening at other news organizations as well. Journalists from other news organizations have personally told me it has intimidated sources from speaking to them.”

In response to the revelations about AP spying, President Obama stated, tellingly, “free press, free expression and the open flow of information help hold me accountable … and help our democracy function.” As the Downie report makes clear, though, the Obama administration has failed miserably to abide by even this—grossly mutilated—conception of democratic rights.

Building on the achievements of past administrations, Obama has taken massive strides in freezing and closing down the flow of information. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama denounced the “excessive secrecy” of the Bush administration. Since taking office, however, Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers using the 1917 Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined.

As class tensions intensify to the breaking point in the US, the public’s access to truthful information becomes ever more threatening to the capitalist elite, and systematic deception, state propaganda, and suppression of free speech become necessary instruments of rule.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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WAYNE MADSEN : GOP 'Playing With Fire' As Default Looming

Illiterate redneck GOP Congress criminals can kiss their asses goodbye in the next election

PRESS TV
By Wayne Madsen
09/14/2013

An American investigative journalist says congressional Republicans are “playing with fire” as they are trying to block a bill that would allow authorities to borrow more.

"Disabled Veterans benefits?  HA HA!  Have a drink....."

“The Tea Party Republicans are playing a game of Russian roulette with the entire US economy, with US government,” Wayne Madsen, investigative journalist, author, and syndicated columnist to Press TV on Monday.

“These people are really anarchists from the Right wing, extreme right wing. So, as long as they’re being listened to and they are holding hostage Speaker of the House John Boehner … we may see the US come close to a default on its credits,” he said.

Madsen said the two-week long government shutdown “has (even) resulted in China and other countries warning the US not to play with this kind of fire.”

 

Spastic, drunken U.S. traitors Boner, War Criminal Bush, McCain

Leaders at World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings on Sunday warned that the United States must raise its debt ceiling and reopen its government or risk “massive disruption the world over,” as Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, put it.

The federal government shutdown has forced the Obama administration to close down many operations since the start of October.

Madsen warned that a possible default would make the situation worse.

“President Obama may have to declare a national economic emergency,” he said. “These (Republicans) are people you can’t negotiate with.”

GOP drunken pederast Paul Ryan

On September 30, the two houses in Congress failed to agree to keep funding the government in the new fiscal year, which began on October 1. The ongoing dispute between the two major parties in Capitol Hill is now pushing the country toward another financial crisis, with default looming as soon as Thursday if lawmakers fail to raise the current $16.7 trillion debt limit.

AN/ARA 

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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Veterans Storm World War II Monument To Protest Government Shutdown And Possible Loss Of Benefits After Veterans Affairs Warned Checks Would Stop Nov 1

Obama, Congress criminals have finally managed to awaken, piss off the sleeping giant

DAILY MAIL VIA AP
By Ryan Gorman
10/13/2013

As the government shutdown enters a third week, a group of veterans and tea party groups protested their anger by storming the World War II memorial in Washington, DC.

 

 

U.S. Veterans taking no more crap from Obama, Congress

The protest Sunday started at the World War II memorial before moving to the National Mall and eventually winding up outside the White House.

'Tear down these walls,' the crowd chanted. Protesters also sang 'God bless America' and other patriotic songs as they entered the memorial plaza.

The memorial has become a political symbol in the bitter fight between Democrats and Republicans over who is at fault since the shutdown began. Earlier rallies have focused on allowing access for World War II veterans visiting from across the country with the Honor Flight Network.

A protest by truckers converged with a rally by a group called the Million Vet March at the World War II Memorial. Participants cut the links between metal barriers at the National Park Service site and pushed them aside.

 

 

Obama, Congress criminals have abandoned disabled Veterans

Jeff Thompkins of New York told WRC-TV he was there because people fight and died for the freedom to visit public spaces and to protest.

'Our constitutional rights are being taken away,' Thompkins said. 'People made the ultimate sacrifice, and they should be open to the public, open to everyone to come down here and see this.

This is ridiculous. This is not just and not fair. It’s just not fair.'

Jim Weller of Allentown, Pennsylvania came to the protest to 'stand up for me rights'. 

 

 

'My father was a World War II veteran, shot down in the Philippines in 1945, and for them to shut down this memorial is absurd,' Mr Weller said.

Fellow-protester Cindy Good wanted this to be a message to lawmakers in Congress.

'They need to listen to the American People,' she said. 'And try to work together in Congress to get this whole thing worked out.'

The rally then made its way towards the White House, according to NBC Washington.

Protesters carried barricades, likely from the monument, to the front gates of the White House, as shown on security footage.

 

 

Obama wants Veteran witnesses/victims of his illegal wars to die

The demonstration was soon broken up by police, and most protesters boarded buses out of the area.

Almost 60 per cent of Utahans responding to a Brigham Young University poll this past week said they want Sen. Lee to compromise, even if it means funding Obamacare. His approval rating has dropped from 71 per cent in June to only 57 per cent, the poll added.

 

Protester Melissa Mather called the memorial's closure 'a slap in the face to all Americans' and she believes that President Obama and all the lawmakers should resign.

'I just want to take them all and shake them,' the Havre de Grade, Maryland-resident said.

Don Armstrong, a veteran who served in Somalia, KOsovo, Iraq and Afghanistan drove to the rally from West Virginia. He attended the protest because he relies on veterans benefits and is afraid disability payments will soon stop.

 

 

'I'm not a Democrat or Republic or anything like that,' he said. 'I blame them all.'

Last week, Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told Congress that benefits would end on November 1 if the shutdown was still going on.

Republican leaders attended the event Sunday and turned it into a platform to speak their position.

Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee and Governor Sarah Palin attended the event. Mr Cruz said President Barack Obama is using veterans as pawns in the shutdown.

 

 

One of the most outspoken tea party-backed politicians in the beltway, Sen. Lee led the charge to defund or delay funding to Obamacare that is widely credited with causing the shutdown.

With only four days left until the federal government runs out of money, Washington has been brought to its knees. Running the risk of defaulting on massive debt, and unable to pay federal employees, Congress has an all-time low single-digit approval rating.

 

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

 

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