Report Accuses Obama DHS of Witness Tampering and Attempted Document Theft
Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, March 31, 2011, 5:18 AM
More Hope and Change…
A key congressional committee accused the Obama Department of Homeland Security of non-cooperation, witness tampering and even attempted theft of committee documents. The report claims that DHS Attorney Reid Alan Cox attempted to leave a committee hearing room with the Committee’s exhibits in his bag.
FOX News reported:
A key congressional committee on oversight is accusing the Department of Homeland Security of non-cooperation, witness tampering and even attempted theft of committee documents.
The 152-page report comes on the eve of hearings on transparency about DHS by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The accusations were met with a swift condemnation from a DHS spokesman, who accused Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., of reaching conclusions before the hearing got under way.
”While the Committee’s report spends a good deal of space making allegations of politicization and obstruction, the facts simply do not support these claims. Ironically, the report itself is full of selective omissions and redactions that appear to have been made to support these allegations,” said DHS spokesman Amy Kudwa.
The Oversight Committee released the report on their website yesterday.
The report’s findings include:
Senior Political Appointees reviewed and approved responses.
By the end of September 2009, copies of all significant FOIA requests were required to be forwarded to the Secretary’s political staff for review. The career staff in the FOIA Office was not permitted to release responses to these requests without approval from political staff.Political appointees do not acknowledge the approval process.
Political appointees refused to acknowledge that approval from the Secretary’s political staff was required to release a response to a significant FOIA request as of September 29, 2009. Their position during transcribed interviews was that the policy was implemented for awareness purposes only. Documents show this position is indefensible.Political appointees conduct their own searches.
Documents and witness testimony show political appointees run weak and incomplete searches for their own documents. They were allowed to choose their own search terms despite lacking basic understanding of the statute.The Department abused the (b)(5) exception.
Original versions of documents that were heavily redacted before being released to the Associated Press show the Office of General Counsel relied on exception (b)(5) – normally meant to protect pre-decisional records– to prevent the release of embarrassing records.The Secretary’s political staff stopped using e-mail.
Political appointees stopped using e-mail to clear response packages in the second quarter of 2010. Instead, they contacted the career staff in the FOIA Office by telephone.The Secretary’s political staff marginalized and mismanaged the career FOIA staff.
The intrusion of the political staff into the FOIA process wasted the time and resources of the Privacy Office. The deterioration of the relationship between the Front Office and the FOIA Office was accelerated by constant changes to the significant FOIA response process. The constantly-evolving process and burdensome questions from the Secretary’s political staff delayed responses.The report also explains how lawyers of the Department’s Office of the General Counsel worked to obstruct the committee’s investigation. For example:
And here’s more on the attempted theft by DHS Attorney Reid Cox of committee documents.
After a witness interview on March 4, 2011, a Department lawyer attempted to remove Committee documents from the interview room. DHS Attorney Reid Cox attempted to leave the room with the Committee’s exhibits in his bag. Committee staff asked Cox if he had the exhibits in his bag, and he confirmed that he did. Cox was admonished by Republican and Democratic staff that he was not permitted to leave with the exhibits. Democratic staff advised Cox that the exhibits are Committee documents and as such, they are the property of the Committee and cannot be removed without permission. Cox explained that the Department disagreed with that position and he moved toward the door. Republican staff advised Cox to leave the exhibits and contact the Committee to discuss the matter. Cox had a counter-proposal: “How about I take the exhibits, and you call me?” While Cox ultimately left the documents, any attempt to steal Committee documents is a serious matter. If the motive for stealing Committee documents is to use them to conduct a forensic investigation to identify a Committee source, it creates an extremely sensitive situation.
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Published May 22, 2012 at 5:04 am - 81 Comments
Kenny Solomon commented:
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock……
Nudge.
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock……
Nudge.
Tool up…… It’s coming…… You know…… “It”.
Kenny Solomon
Israel Survival Updates
Medula Oblongata commented:
The Slogan-in-Chief has officially been changed from H&C to WTF.
Khan Krum commented:
Hey Kenny, did you see Beck’s show on Israel yesterday? Pretty scary stuff.
Valerie commented:
Why the hell would DHS Attorney Reid Cox bother trying to take exhibits? The solution to that problem is right down the hall, where they keep the photocopier. DHS has an attorney that doesn’t know what photocopiers are for? Is this person a senile fossil, or somebody only pretending to be an attorney?
DiscomBOBulated commented:
The sheer contempt and utter disdain for the rule of law is dispicable and will no longer be tolerated in the swamp known as Washington.
Long live The Tea Party. Come on 2012.
Valerie commented:
“If the motive for stealing Committee documents is to use them to conduct a forensic investigation to identify a Committee source, it creates an extremely sensitive situation.”
-I don’t accept this as an explanation. But if it is what happened, this jerk needs to be fired, now, today, for acting like an unethical dumbsh!t, two distinct disqualifying charges based on the same set of circumstances.
Can't wait till Nov. 2012 commented:
Why wasn’t Reid Cox ARRESTED!!!
Mark commented:
Most of DHS should be fired, certainly this Beltway Shyster and Janet Incompetano. It is another useless government bureaucracy and jobs for dimwits program.
RickZ commented:
Michele Bachmann’s ‘we have a thug government’ statement, no matter how much that statement is ridiculed by the progressives, was and remains true.
I think you misunderstand the reason for attempting to remove the documents. It was not so DHS had a copy, but that they could be destroyed. Cox went to the Sandy Burglar School of Document Retrieval, but apparently blew off the classes.
Wm T Sherman commented:
The pattern continues– the rule of law means nothing to this administration nor to the Democratic Party. Every wild thing the Bush Administration was falsely accused of, these bastards are actually doing.
Militant Conservative commented:
Master of disaster fingers are in there somewhere.
mercador commented:
I really believe this
Luk 12:2 For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
Oldpuppymax commented:
Look to see this HEAVILY covered on CNN!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
JimmyT commented:
What is it with the repubs that they don’t prosecute these people? I’m beginning to believe that ALL politicians think they’re above the law. Bambi issues illegal EO’s and the repubs do NOTHING to stop them. They can seek a stay from a federal judge to stop him and they don’t. WHY?
Ginger commented:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYvbFW_yNhw&feature=player_embedded
Come on Michelle Bachman…
“Obama’s Constitutional Eligibility Is Probably The Least Important Issue In The United States Right Now”
Ginger commented:
Jimmy
They have a lot of dirt on one another.
Ginger commented:
Can anyone check this out?
http://thedailypen.blogspot.com/2010/05/did-nvsd-rule-allow-hawaii-to-cover-up.html
Kenny Solomon commented:
To MC and all — Hi again.
Yes, I finally got my own site – enough was enough.
Click on my name above – the link should go there.
Personally, I’m doing good, but still sans-employment. Going to start my own thing soon – firearms instruction – started the process of getting NRA certification.
As for Mr. Beck….. Nice to see him finally wake up – a bit.
KLS
Freddy commented:
DHS Attorney Cox knew exactly why he wanted to remove those documents. While we do not have the details yet, and it may not have come up in that hearing, there is a reason he wanted to keep them.
I suspect those documents have ALREADY been altered in some way and they may be used in a perjury case at some point in the future.
Seems it is always the web of the cover-up that sends people to jail.
StrangernFiction commented:
Shocking!
Insufficiently Sensitive commented:
Hiding pertinent documents is a time-honored Democrat tactic. See Rodham, Hillary, getting reamed, long after the fact, for doing so during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
Radegunda commented:
RickZ #9, Michele Bachmann was not the first person who publicly used the word “thug” for this administration. A prominent commentator did so about a year ago. I think he was referring in part to the executive branch deciding which auto dealerships would be forcibly closed (in effect, robbing their owners).
L.E. Liesner commented:
The DHS has become a huge bureaucracy with a primary mission of further growth. It has nothing to do with the security of our nation anymore. Bureaucracies tend to corrupt and this one is no exception. Janet Napolitano like her boss in the White House has a problem with the truth, even if it is adventageous to her to tell it. These people have made the words “politician and criminal” synonymous.
StrangernFiction commented:
#18 March 31, 2011 at 10:37 am
Ginger commented:
Donald Trump is SCHOOLING the GOP on this issue, and he isn’t even much of a conservative. As evil as the ‘rats are, the DC GOP is equally pathetic.
How fricking hard is it to simply say, “I think he probably was born in Hawaii, but we have a right to see his long form BC; and he can remove all doubt by simply showing it.”
Bachmann isn’t nearly the fighter that many believe she is.
RickZ commented:
#23 Radegunda,
There’s a big difference between a commentator, no matter how prominent, calling the Administration ‘thug’ and a member of the House doing so on the floor of the House. One is lost in the babble of voices, the other is in the Congressional Record.
aprilnovember811 commented:
When are they going to realize that this is a Muslim Brotherhood/Weather Undergound White House? These people have no respect for law. Obama is in the White House. He is not a president but an illegal resident. Obama blew off the fact that he is not American born but Kenyan born, and probably still remains Indonesian.
Hire a special prosecutor. If I were Donald Trump, I’d hire my own investigators to get everything I could on Obama. Birthers, they knew nothing about Project Gunrunner, stealing documents, and this is only the stuff we know of. This man should have never gotten to the White House. All of the alphabet so called news organizations need to be held accountable for what they’ve done. I want CBS to go bankrupt so they can’t pay Katie Couric her big fat pension.
backhoe commented:
Kenny Solomon ?
I will promote your site where I hang out- best of luck, break a leg, as they say in show business.
retire05 commented:
What Attorney Cox has proven, beyond all doubt, is that those who wind up as part of the D.C. elite are quick to sell their souls. Cox worked for not one, but two conservative organizations, yet he is willing to break the law to protect his current bosses.
What kind of deals were cut with him? Threats to lay tremendous blame on him personally? Promises of a more tony position within the department and a higher pay scale? And the left decries the corruption of the Mubarak/Gdaffy regimes? Me thinks Murbarak/Gdaffy could learn a thing or two from Washington, D.C. insiders.
And what did these documents refer to? Was it Project Gunwalker, where the DoJ and DHS have been stonewalling Congressional hearings by refusing to produce documents of the ATF allowing guns to be placed in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels which lead to the death of Jaime Zapata and Border Patrol Agent Terry?
I remember how the left went after the Bush administration over a bunch of federal lawyers, yet, two men are dead due to a corrupt program put on steriods by this administration, and the left is mute.
Rob Crawford commented:
“Cox had a counter-proposal: “How about I take the exhibits, and you call me?””
How about Cox rot in prison?
Militant Conservative commented:
Kenny, good stuff. Saved to my favorites file.
Definately good move on the firearms gig. Do what you love to do.
I want to set up time this year to go to Gun Site in gunthersberg Alabama.
Google Tiger Mckee
powder is dry
LibertyAtStake commented:
“attempted theft of committee documents.”
Apparently a protege of Sandy Berger’s.
d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
Sara B commented:
These people are completely lawless. It really is frightening since no one is holding them accountable.
theBuckWheat commented:
When the little people (you know, the ones who must pay their taxes) do this, the Feds are more than happy to pile the entire weight of USC on them and put them behind bars for many years. The only thing that we can restore the law so it applies to office-holders too is to stop electing libtards, and even then it will take decades to repair this damage.
mike191 commented:
Liberty at stake : great reference to Sandy Berger.
Rock commented:
Geez, another day another WTF employee exhibits his true colors. As noted above if a Joe the Plumber type did this, he’d be in jail until Holder, and Big Sis could get him sent off to Gitmo. Yet this thief and thug walks out, presumably enjoys a laugh with his boss, hash out how Holder will bury the incident, enjoys a Cuban Cigar then goes home and beds someones wife. Typical criminal living off the tax payers dime. And Repuks bury their collective heads, yea I know its been cold in their neck of the woods, but a pair of ear muffs seem a better choice for keeping their ears warm rather than up their (o).
Kenny Solomon commented:
MC – Thanks Bro — Hey, I never got your e-mail…. I had to completely re-set my whole system and lost my mail software, etc. Let’s try it again – k ?
Backhoe – Thank you.
RickZ — God bless ya for pointing out that I should never EVER post in the morning before having at least one cup of coffee.
All fixed now and I replied to you at the page too.
bg commented:
++
surprise, shock, and Julian Assange, oh wait..
==
A. Patriot commented:
“Why the hell would DHS Attorney Reid Cox bother trying to take exhibits? The solution to that problem is right down the hall, where they keep the photocopier. DHS has an attorney that doesn’t know what photocopiers are for? Is this person a senile fossil, or somebody only pretending to be an attorney?”
This attorney is no amateur. Most photocopiers have an internal hard drive that saves a copy of every document printed including time and date. If he copies anything from the file, it can be traced right to him. If he just steals i, then who knows who got it.