Muslim leaders pray at Auschwitz during a Holocaust awareness visit | The Raw Story

Muslim leaders from across the globe knelt in prayer for the Holocaust dead at the Auschwitz’s notorious Wall of Death on Wednesday, in an emotional visit to the Nazi German death camp in southern Poland.

Imams from Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States offered traditional Muslim “salat” prayers facing south towards their holy city of Mecca, shoes removed, during a Holocaust awareness visit to the site.

Thousands of Auschwitz prisoners perished at the wall, which is grey and still riddled with bullet holes. It is a stone’s throw from the infamous wrought iron “Arbeit macht frei” (Work makes you free) gate at the camp’s entrance......

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Muslim leaders pray at Auschwitz during a Holocaust awareness visit | The Raw Story

BBC News - Hezbollah 'perpetuating Assad's campaign of terror'

 

Hezbollah has denied sending any fighters into Syria

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the militant Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah and Iran are helping perpetuate President Bashar al-Assad's "campaign of terror" in Syria.

Mr Kerry said thousands of Hezbollah fighters were contributing significantly to the violence.

He added that Iran was actively supporting Hezbollah's involvement.

FULL ARTICLE HERE: BBC News - Hezbollah 'perpetuating Assad's campaign of terror'

Paris supports labeling Hezbollah over Assad ties | The Times of Israel

Hezbollah fighters in their military uniform, foreground, carry the coffin of Hezbollah fighter Hassan Faisal Shuker, 18, who was killed in a battle against Syrian rebels in the Syrian town of Qusair on Monday May 20 (photo credit: AP)

France’s foreign minister said Wednesday that Paris will join a number of other European countries in calling for Hezbollah to be blacklisted by the EU as a terror group. 

Israel has long pressed France to make the move, though Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the designation was in response to the Lebanese group’s backing of the Syrian regime............

FULL ARTICLE: Paris supports labeling Hezbollah over Assad ties | The Times of Israel

White House Reporter Chuck Todd: Obama Wants to 'Criminalize Journalism'

 

NBC’s chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd said on Wednesday that the Obama Administration’s seizure of reporters’ emails and phone records is evidence that “they want to criminalize journalism.” 

Todd, who made his comments on MSNBC's Morning Joe, said that if President George Bush and Dick Cheney had engaged in spying on and seizing journalists’ private emails and phone records, “candidate Obama would be unloading.”

Todd said individuals he now talks to are “quite uncomfortable having conversations on the phone. Maybe that’s the intent.”...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Chuck Todd: Obama Wants to 'Criminalize Journalism'

Friends of Syria demands withdrawal of Hezbollah, Iran fighters - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Diplomats pose after their Friends of Syria alliance meeting in Amman, May 22, 2013. (Reuters)

Nations gathering at the Friends of Syria meeting called for an immediate withdrawal of fighters belonging to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran from Syria, the bloc said in a statement after a conference in Amman.

The alliance described their armed presence in the country as a threat to regional stability, Reuters said.

The bloc also said any transitional government in Syria being proposed as a core of a U.S. and Russian peace initiative must have authority over the army and the executive, which are now in President Bashar Assad's hands.

The meeting of 11 Western and Arab nations, as well as Turkey, which constitute the core group of the alliance, also warned of “severe consequences” if use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces is confirmed........


FULL ARTICLE: Friends of Syria demands withdrawal of Hezbollah, Iran fighters - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

NY TIMES HAMMERS OBAMA ADMIN: Another Chilling Leak Investigation - NYTimes.com

With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible “co-conspirator” in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.

FULL EDITORIAL HERE: Another Chilling Leak Investigation - NYTimes.com

THE ASSAULT ON THE PRESS DEEPENS: The Justice Department and Fox News's Phone Records : The New Yorker

The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, on October 13, 2011. Kim is a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, has seized records associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number (the last four numbers are redacted).

In all, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has seized records associated with over thirty different phone numbers. In the filing that included the new information, the last four digits of each telephone line targeted by the Obama Administration are redacted. Two of the numbers begin with area code 202 and the exchange 456, which, according to current and former Administration officials, are used exclusively by the White House. (The phone number for the White House switchboard is (202) 456-1414.)

At least five other numbers targeted by the government include the area code 202 and the exchange 824. The phone number for the Fox News Washington bureau, which is publicly available, is (202) 824-0001. Rosen’s work phone number at Fox News begins with the same area code and exchange..........

FULL ARTICLE: The Justice Department and Fox News's Phone Records : The New Yorker

A Bit of Churchill? Hague's arms warning to Syria: Foreign Secretary says Britain will arm rebels unless Assad comes to negotiating table | Mail Online

Foreign Secretary William Hague told MPs said he wanted to increase support to 'moderates' fighting to bring down President Assad

 
William Hague issued an ultimatum to Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad yesterday, warning Britain will arm the rebels seeking to oust him unless he comes to the negotiating table.

The Foreign Secretary said there’s a ‘compelling case’ for changing the European Union arms embargo on Syria next week to allow weapons to go to moderate rebel groups.
He said ‘no option’ would be off limits if the Assad regime refuses to co-operate with plans for a peace conference in Geneva.

Mr Hague said no decision has been made yet. But he argued the West has a ‘moral’ duty to help those friendly to the outside world while Russia and Iran arm the regime and Arab states funnel weapons to Al Qaeda supporters.

Mr Hague said: ‘People who are maybe described as rebels but are actually men, women and children sitting in their communities suffering virtually every kind of weapon that man has ever created being dropped on them while the world denies them the means to defend themselves.’ 

Mr Hague will join the French in an attempt  to loosen the embargo at a meeting in Brussels next Monday, but if other EU countries don’t agree it will lapse at the end of the month.

He said changing the embargo is ‘essential’ to force the Syrian regime to negotiate.

‘The United Kingdom and France are strongly of the view that changes to the embargo are not separate from the diplomatic work but essential to it,’ Mr Hague said............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Hague's arms warning to Syria: Foreign Secretary says Britain will arm rebels unless Assad comes to negotiating table | Mail Online

Syria 'Enforced Disappearances': Government Holding Thousands In Secret, Say Rights Groups

Syria 'Enforced Disappearances': Government Holding Thousands In Secret, Say Rights Groups

Inspector General Report: DOJ Leaked Docs to Smear Fast & Furious Whistleblower

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General published a new report Monday that confirms former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked a document intended to smear Operation Fast and Furious scandal whistleblower John Dodson.

The DOJ IG said it found “Burke’s conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney.”

“We are referring to OPR our finding that Burke violated Department policy in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to a member of the media for a determination of whether Burke’s conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for the state bars in which Burke is a member,” the IG wrote.

FULL ARTICLE: Report: DOJ Leaked Docs to Smear Fast & Furious Whistleblower, Says IG

Nasrallah ‘killer of Syrian people’ as tensions in Lebanon rise - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

The FSA says Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is "a killer of the Syrian people." (File photo: AFP)

The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) held Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah personally responsible for the situation in the Syrian border town of Qusayr, as sectarian tension was on the rise in neighboring Lebanon.

“We announced that Hassan Nasrallah will be held personally responsible for the current situation because he in person is meeting with all of [his fighters] before they head to Qusayr,” FSA spokesperson Louay Almokdad told Al Arabiya English. “We are today calling Nasrallah a killer of the Syrian people.”.......

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Nasrallah ‘killer of Syrian people’ as tensions in Lebanon rise - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

DEBUNKING ANTI-ISRAELI SLANDER: Pro-Palestinian ads misrepresent apartheid | Anonymous | Op Eds | San Francisco Examiner

By: Rev. Dr. Kenneth Meshoe

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I was deeply disturbed to learn about the posters in The City accusing Israel of apartheid. As a black South African who lived under apartheid, this system was implemented in South Africa to subjugate people of color and deny them a variety of their rights. In my view, Israel cannot be compared to apartheid in South Africa. Those who make the accusation expose their ignorance of what apartheid really is.

Apartheid was a legal system of segregation and oppression based on skin color, with a very small white minority dominating over the vast majority of people of color...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Pro-Palestinian ads misrepresent apartheid | Anonymous | Op Eds | San Francisco Examiner

Responding to the Washington Post on Benghazi | The Weekly Standard

The Washington Post editorial board is quite upset with “Republicans and conservative media obsessed” with the “phony” issue of the administration’s misleading public explanation of the nature of the attacks in Benghazi. In a lengthy editorial, the Post makes a haughtier and more condescending version of a complaint we’ve heard from others. So it’s worth a response.

The piece begins with a complaint that critics charged that “Susan E. Rice ‘willfully or incompetently misled the American public’ when she appeared on news programs Sept. 16 and described the attackers as having emerged from a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Muslim video.” That argument is wrong, the Post avers, because “it was established that Ms. Rice was simply repeating talking points prepared by the intelligence community.”

That’s incorrect, and for an editorial devoted to much harrumphing that “actual facts don’t seem to matter much to the scandal mongers,” it’s an inauspicious start...............

FULL ARTICLE: Responding to the Washington Post on Benghazi | The Weekly Standard

Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers - YouTube

Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013. https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/16/s...

Local opposition leaders with the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts should safeguard potential evidence of torture and arbitrary detention in security forces centers in opposition-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said.

LINK: Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers - YouTube

LOSING TO ASSAD AND COMPANY: Muddled Israeli-US policies on Assad set stage for Golan offensive against Israel

Four days after a “senior Israeli official” warned Assad through The New York Times of Wednesday, May 15 that he risks forfeiting power if he retaliates for Israeli attacks on weapons supplies to terrorists, “Israeli officials” were telling the London Times of Saturday, May 18 something quite different: “An intact, but weakened, Assad regime would be preferable,” they said. “Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if… extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there.”

The night before this report, Fox News aired footage appearing to show Israeli commandos inside Syria racing back on foot to Israeli territory.

Without going into whether the two sets of “Israeli officials” were one and the same, their utterances are clearly making Israel’s policy-makers and defense leaders look muddled and uncertain – or, worse, unable to think clearly – about how to cope with the menace building up on the Syrian Golan. This could take the form of a Syrian war of attrition and/or a Hizballah offensive against Upper and Western Galilee...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Muddled Israeli-US policies on Assad set stage for Golan offensive against Israel

Syrian rebels: Dozens hurt in chemical weapons attack in Damascus | The Times of Israel

A victim of an alleged chemical attack in Jobar, Syria, in April. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons-laced mortars in a Damascus neighborhood Saturday, injuring dozens, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed.

Dozens of people were being treated for respiratory difficulties following the attack, according to reports carried by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel.

The channel also reiterated reports by the BBC Thursday that chemical weapons were used in Saraqib in Idlib province on April 29. Two helicopters dropped devices on the town, which is located southwest of Aleppo, as it came under bombardment from regime forces, the report said..........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syrian rebels: Dozens hurt in chemical weapons attack in Damascus | The Times of Israel

GREAT SONG HONORING OUR TROOPS: When Freedom Rings by Perry Nunley- YouTube

Perry Nunley hits a home-run with this  song!

LINK: When Freedom Rings - YouTube

Jason Stearns' Congo Siasa: What next in Kampala?

Friday, May 17, 2013

What next in Kampala?

News in the Congo has been surprisingly M23-deficient in the past few days. A group of Mai-Mai attacked Beni yesterday, killing several Congolese army officers (although their commander Hilaire has links well- to the M23); Kinshasa prepares for the visit of the United Nations Secretary-General and the head of the World Bank next week; and the country awaits a new head of the election commission (Appollinaire Malu Malu is the favorite, but his Catholic church seems opposed)...............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Congo Siasa: What next in Kampala?

'Afghanistan: Worth the Cost' - Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen - YouTube

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen delivered a speech at the joint meeting of the North Atlantic Council and NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Luxembourg

LINK: 'Afghanistan: Worth the Cost' - Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen - YouTube

Krauthammer on White House Wordplay | National Review Online

 Note to the GOP re Benghazi: Stop calling it Watergate, Iran Contra, bigger than both, etc. First, it might well be, but we don’t know. History will judge. Second, overhyping will only diminish the importance of the scandal if it doesn’t meet presidency-breaking standards. Third, focusing on the political effects simply plays into the hands of Democrats desperately claiming that this is nothing but partisan politics. 

Let the facts speak for themselves. They are damning enough. Let Gregory Hicks, the honorable, apolitical second-in-command that night in Libya, movingly and grippingly demolish the president’s Benghazi mantra that “what I have always tried to do is just get all the facts” and “every piece of information that we got, as we got it, we laid it out for the American people.”...............

FULL ARTICLE:  White House Wordplay | National Review Online

BBC News - Syria crisis: Refugee total now more than 1.5m - UNHCR

Agencies say they do not have the resources to cope with the number of refugees 

The UN's refugee agency has said that more than 1.5 million people have fled the conflict in Syria.

Most have fled to Jordan and Lebanon, but not have all been registered yet, meaning the true total is likely to be far higher, according to the UNHCR.

The situation inside Syria has deteriorated dramatically over the past four months, according to the agency.

The UN estimates that 80,000 people have died in the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

It says some 4.25 million have been displaced within the country.........

FULL ARTICLE: BBC News - Syria crisis: Refugee total now more than 1.5m - UNHCR

Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers | Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.

Local opposition leaders with the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts should safeguard potential evidence of torture and arbitrary detention in security forces centers in opposition-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said.

“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Those in control of Raqqa need to safeguard the materials in these facilities so the truth can be told and those responsible held accountable.”

In the State Security facility, Human Rights Watch researchers observed on the ground floor and in the basement, rooms that appeared to be detention cells.Among the documents were what appeared to be lists of security force members who had worked there. Human Rights Watch researchers also saw a “bsat al-reeh” torture device in the facility, which former detainees have said has been used to immobilize and severely stretch or bend limbs...................

FULL ARTICLE: Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers | Human Rights Watch

Unmoved by Israel, Russia will send top air-defense system to Assad | The Times of Israel

Undeterred by pleas and warnings from Israel, Russia made clear on Thursday that it will go ahead with its planned delivery of a highly sophisticated air-defense system to Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in an emergency face-to-face meeting on Tuesday that Moscow’s sale of the S-300 missile defense system to Assad could push the Middle East into war.........................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: PUTIN SHAFTS ISRAEL: Unmoved by Israel, Russia will send top air-defense system to Assad | The Times of Israel

BBC News - Syria conflict: BBC shown 'signs of chemical attack'

The BBC has been shown evidence apparently corroborating reports of a chemical attack in Syria last month.

A BBC correspondent who visited the northern town of Saraqeb was told by eyewitnesses that government helicopters had dropped at least two devices containing poisonous gas...........

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO: BBC News - Syria conflict: BBC shown 'signs of chemical attack'

Russia building up missile defenses while seeking to limit U.S. defenses | Washington Free Beacon

Russia is engaged in a major buildup of both nuclear and conventional missile defense systems at the same time Moscow is seeking legal limits on U.S. missile defenses, according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military is developing and deploying an array of new and modernized anti-missile interceptors that are part of a strategic doctrine that calls for defending against what Moscow believes to be an increasing threat posed by offensive ballistic missiles, said U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports.

New systems monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies under development or in the deployment phase include an advanced S-500 missile defense system currently being built in addition to the already available, and very capable, S-400 and S-300 defenses........

FULL ARTICLE: Russia building up missile defenses while seeking to limit U.S. defenses | Washington Free Beacon

Scottish Universities Hotbeds of Anti-Jewish Sentiment :: Gatestone Institute

The greatest problem to tackling anti-Jewish incitement is the denial that there is any such problem. The facts, as we have seen, tell a rather different story.

A charity ball organized by the University of St. Andrew's Jewish Society, guarded by plain-clothes police officers, was held in secret last week after threats were made against staff at the original venue. The increasing security and secrecy surrounding this annual student event is an illustration of the sentiments aimed at Jewish students in Scotland.

The ball was originally supposed to be held at the Golf Hotel in St. Andrews, a small University town on the east coast of Scotland. After a campaign organized by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a number of threats were directed at the hotel's staff, and a number of violent comments were posted on social media, with one protester writing: "Friday we send them into hell."...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: ANTI-SEMITISM ALIVE AND WELL IN SCOTLAND: Scottish Universities Hotbeds of Anti-Jewish Sentiment :: Gatestone Institute

Famous Pentagon Papers Lawyer: Obama Crosses Line on First Amendment Rights

James Goodale, third from left, and other lawyers representing The New York Times, arrive at the Supreme Court in Washington in 1971 to argue against Justice Department suits to stop The New York Times and The Washington Post from publishing uncensored articles on the secret Pentagon history of the Vietnam War.

James Goodale, the man who successfully fought President Richard Nixon's attempts to stop The New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers, says President Barack Obama has been even more aggressive in trying to stop journalists from reporting leaks.
 
Goodale, also known as the "father of reporters' privilege" and author of a new book titled "Fighting for the Press," says Obama is censoring the media by using an illegitimate justification of national security concerns, according to The New York Observer.
 
He noted the Obama administration has indicted six leakers compared to Nixon's one, showing an aggressiveness borne out this week by reports of the FBI seizing the office and home phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors in an effort to stop a leak.
 
The Observer also reported that Goodale believes a grand jury has already secretly indicted Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks and publisher of the Afghan War Logs. Goodale is working to convince journalists that regardless of their opinions about Assange, his situation sets a dangerous precedent which he is committed to resisting...........


FULL ARTICLE HERE: Pentagon Papers Lawyer: Obama Crosses Line on First Amendment Rights

INTERNATIONAL - UN condemns Syrian government, backs role of opposition in transition talks

Bashar Ja'afari, Syria's Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks before a vote on Syria at the UN General Assembly on May 15. AFP photo 

The UN General Assembly on May 15 condemned the Syrian government's "escalation" of the country's war and backed the role of the opposition coalition in transition talks.

But Russia, Syria's key diplomatic ally, fiercely opposed the resolution and branded it a potential obstacle to plans to hold peace negotiations in Geneva next month.

Only 107 countries in the 193 member assembly backed the text, down from 133 when the last Syria vote was held in August.

The United States, Britain and France joined Arab countries in supporting the resolution, drawn up by Qatar and other Arab states, which expressed "outrage at the rapidly increasing death toll." The number of Syrians estimated to have did in the conflict is now estimated at more than 80,000 by Syrian activists...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: INTERNATIONAL - UN condemns Syrian government, backs role of opposition in transition talks

IRS Guilty of 'Thuggish Abuse of Power,' McConnell Says - ABC News

LINK: IRS Guilty of 'Thuggish Abuse of Power,' McConnell Says - ABC News

Treasury IG Releases Report on IRS Targeting of Tea Party, Conservative Groups

 

by Joel B. Pollak 14 May 2013

 

The Inspector General of the U.S. Treasury has released its 54-page report on the targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

Earlier Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice would be opening a criminal probe into the IRS scandal, though the White House declined to condemn the IRS action, despite expressions of outrage by President Barack Obama...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Treasury IG Releases Report on IRS Targeting of Tea Party, Conservative Groups

IT GETS WORSE: REPORT: Obama IRS Went After “America’s Pastor” Billy Graham - The Ulsterman Report

(Was it advertisements like this that landed Billy Graham an Obama IRS audit?)

The man known as America’s pastor was among those targeted by the Internal Revenue Service after the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ran newspaper advertisements promoting traditional marriage and biblical values.

“I am bringing this to your attention because I believe that someone in the Administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us,” wrote Franklin Graham in a letter to President Obama. “This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.’”

…Graham said on Sept. 6, 2012 they received notification that the IRS would audit their taxes.

FULL ARTICLE: REPORT: Obama IRS Went After “America’s Pastor” Billy Graham - The Ulsterman Report

NGO revised toll: 94,000 dead in Syria conflict - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

A Free Syrian Army fighter reacts as he carries the body of a fellow fighter after he was killed by a sniper loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Khan al-Assal area. (Reuters)

More than 94,000 people have been killed in more than two years of conflict in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a newly-revised toll on Tuesday.

The watchdog group said it revised the toll -- just two days after it announced a tally of 82,257 dead -- after receiving new information from regime-controlled Alawite areas of the Sunni-majority country.

“Based on this information, the number of martyrs and dead killed since the beginning of the Syrian revolution is more than 94,000,” it said in a statement. 

The group said it had received new figures from areas including Tartus and Latakia -- strongholds on the Mediterranean coast of the Alawite minority to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs..........


FULL ARTICLE: NGO revised toll: 94,000 dead in Syria conflict - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Condemnation Of DOJ's AP Probe Continues; Carl Bernstein Calls It 'Inexcusable' (VIDEO)

The Obama administration woke up on Tuesday to another morning of scorching criticism about the Justice Department's decision to secretly obtain months of Associated Press phone records. The DOJ tracked the incoming and outgoing calls on more than 20 AP phone lines, as well as the home, office and cell phone lines for six individual journalists involved in writing a national security-related story about Yemen that the Obama administration did not want them to write. The operation has been roundly condemned by journalists and press freedom groups. That condemnation continued on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Reporters Without Borders called the probe an "extremely grave violation of freedom of   information.”

 
NBC News' Michael Isikoff quoted a whistleblower advocate who made the dreaded comparison to Richard Nixon: (continued)..............  
FULL ARTICLE HERE: Condemnation Of DOJ's AP Probe Continues; Carl Bernstein Calls It 'Inexcusable' (VIDEO)