[Breitbart] WASHINGTON D.C. -- A giant defense firm may be passing off another company’s equipment as its own, which could have played a role in a potentially corrupt U.S. arms sale to Kenya that the State Department approved on the Obama administration’s last day in office.
Breitbart News has obtained photos of L-3 Technologies using marketing materials at a recent international defense conference featuring a small plane produced by IOMAX USA, Inc., a small, disabled-veteran owned company based in North Carolina. Look Geoffrey, that's our bloody Archangel! Quick Sid, get a few close ups.
The photos show an L-3 banner and poster at their booth at the 2017 International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in February featuring IOMAX’s "Archangel" aircraft -- an armed crop-duster-like aircraft used by U.S. partner militaries for border patrol, surveillance, and close air support.
L-3 passing off the aircraft as its own could potentially explain how it got exclusive approval for a lucrative $418 million contract to produce 14 such planes for the Kenya Defense Forces, despite never having produced the planes before and IOMAX’s ability to produce them for much cheaper. Yes, we cut a few corners, but aren't our contract graphics people simply amazing.
Breitbart News provided a photo of the banner to L-3 and requested clarification.
"L-3 has declined to respond to your inquiry," a spokeswoman said. Banner? What Banner ?
How L-3 was able to get the contract has come under congressional investigation. How about a Justice Department 'look see ?'
The State Department approved and privately notified Congress on January 19 about the sale, which would fulfill Kenya’s request to buy the planes and other services for missions against terrorist group al-Shabaab.
An IOMAX representative said the company was never given the chance to compete for the contract and did not hear about it until after it was publicly announced on January 23. Didn't learn of the contract until after the award (as planned). Then we contacted Steve Bannon. The rest is history.
Under the contract, Kenya would spend $364.4 million on the aircraft and $53.6 million on other services. The IOMAX representative said it could produce the planes for $237 million -- about $127.4 million less than L-3. We here in Kenya don't mind paying the extra $54 million dollars to L-3. We are confident it will go for a good cause.
A group of five North Carolina GOP lawmakers, led by Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), sent a letter last week requesting a non-partisan government investigation into the matter.
"Our offices have been recently made aware of potential irregularities in the Foreign Military Sales acquisition process. Specifically, the existence of sole-source requests and a possible lack of due diligence by Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) Security Assistance Officers. It appears that more congressional oversight is warranted," said the Feb. 23 letter to the Government Accountability Office.
"It is our understanding that this contract may have been awarded to L-3 based on false assumptions made by DSCA that L-3 manufactures a weaponized manned ISR platform that fulfills the requirement submitted by the Government of Kenya to DSCA," it added.
Lawmakers suspect, although they do not have evidence, that Air Force acquisition officials, working with the State Department on the contract, unfairly steered it to L-3. No demo, no flight testing, no bidding competition, simply sign here.
A State Department official, in an email obtained by Breitbart News, said Kenya had specifically requested L-3 produce the aircraft after "extensive market research," but acknowledged not possessing the research. Similarly, an Air Force official in an email obtained by Breitbart News acknowledged not being provided the research.
The Democrat giving the response to President Trump’s congressional address on Tuesday inexplicably called himself a Republican during his response.
“I’m a proud Democrat, but first and foremost, I’m a proud Republican, and Democrat, and mostly, American,” former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said in a telecast from a diner in his home state.
It was not clear why Beshear called himself a “proud Republican,” but the small group of supporters surrounding him did not seem to balk as he flip-flopped affiliations.
Beshear served two terms as Kentucky governor and one as lieutenant governor, in addition to four years as the state’s attorney general and six in its legislature — all as a Democrat.
[Cape News] Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane has defended her decision to splurge more than R60 000 of taxpayers’ money treating prisoners to a KFC meal.
This after she was photographed dishing out heaps of KFC’s Streetwise Twos to offenders at Leeuwkop Prison in Midrand on Wednesday. The photographs, which were posted on Facebook, sent social media into a tailspin, with many criticising the decision, while others welcomed it.
Yesterday, Nkosi-Malobane said she had visited the prison as part of her department’s Get Out and Stay Out (Goso) programme, which had been running for the past two years.
h/t Instapundit
[DailyMail] Barack Obama is turning his new home in the posh Kalorama section of the nation's capital - just two miles away from the White House - into the nerve center of the mounting insurgency against his successor, President Donald J. Trump.
Obama's goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment.
And Obama is being aided in his political crusade by his longtime consigliere, Valerie Jarrett, who has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion with the former president and Michelle Obama, long time best friends.
#2
First she lived rent-free in the White House so she could be on hand for consultation any time of the day or night, now she is living rent-free in the private Obama residence? A decidedly odd menage.
#6
"Obama's goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment."
If successful, it could "trigger" the end of The Republic. Rather large "End Game." Doubt BHO and Company understand the resources and determined capabilities of those who feel they have nothing left to lose.
#9
ValJar had a Secret Service detail during the Obama years, unique among the history of Presidential Advisors. She lived in the White House and was a daily and evening companion of the First Couple. Her synchophantic connection to Champ allowed her vast influence and her connections to Iran and their surrogates are reflected on the minions she inserted in the NSC and CIA. Now she is again inside the protected bubble of Obama and his security detail. Makes me wonder if this is to degrade surveillance of her activities by American services? She is a foreign agent by any standard in my opinion and one wonders how long it will take for that to be revealed by Sessions.
#10
The Kalorama house, which the Obama's are renting from Joe Lockhart, who was Bill Clinton's press secretary, is still being refurbished and redecorated by Michelle.
'Michelle and Valerie have changed their minds many times over about colors, carpets, wall paper, furnishing and art,' said the source.
Shouldn't that be in People Magazine, or Entertainment Tonight?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2017 11:39 Comments ||
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#11
She is a foreign agent by any standard in my opinion and one wonders how long it will take for that to be revealed by Sessions.
Quite likely one of the reasons why they're now going after Sessions with this Russian bull crap and they'll keep going after him with any little thing they can, real or imaginary.
But, hey, if Baraq had two wives wouldn't that be OK in sharia? Isn't he allowed up to four?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/02/2017 12:20 Comments ||
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#12
But, hey, if Baraq had two wives wouldn't that be OK in sharia? Isn't he allowed up to four?
#19
Yes, well we can all dream of many nice things - so, so many nice things. Let's do - and nothing else.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/02/2017 17:47 Comments ||
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#20
Leaving aside the weirdness of it all for a moment...
What a great target for SIGINT, both foreign and domestic. Anyone for a nice game of TEMPEST?
The Justice Department confirmed late Wednesday that Sessions had contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak but said those were as part of his work as a senator rather than as a key backer of Trump's presidential bid. Sessions testified during his Senate confirmation hearing Jan. 10 that he had no contacts with Russian officials. Them durn Rooshians was everywhere! No wonder Hillary lost the election!
The revelation prompted top Democrats in Congress to call for his ouster. "After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. Did her lips move, or was the statement issued before she read it?
A Sessions spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, rejected accusations that he had misled lawmakers. "Last year, the senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors," she said. "He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign - not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee." Yeah, yeah - that's the same Trumpian story line that other Russian stooge gave - whatshisname? - Michael Flynn, yeah!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2017 07:41 ||
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#1
Still no word from the press regarding Obama's (or his surrogates) pre-2008 contacts with the Chinese.
Then again in 2012.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/02/2017 8:27 Comments ||
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#2
I confess! I spoke to a Russian consulate member who stopped at our garage sale in 1983.
#6
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
Attributed (maybe wrongly) to Cardinal Richelieu.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/02/2017 14:33 Comments ||
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#7
He was in contact with Russian military authorities wanting to gain knowledge of how in the Hell does someone win clear and kick ass so fast over a vast area and control it as his troops cannot seem to ever achieve what Russian forces have done in a fraction of the time just saying!
Then-US Senator Jeff Sessions spoke twice last year with Russia's ambassador, encounters he did not disclose when asked during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general about possible contacts between Trump's campaign and Russian officials, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing Justice Department officials.
One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that took place in September in the senator's office, at the height of what US intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the US presidential race, the Post reported.
#1
g(r)om beat me by one minute, because I was too busy being clever with my comments.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/02/2017 7:51 Comments ||
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#2
Sessions talked to a Russian ambassador. Would a sitting Senator not have the legal right to talk with a Russian ambo? I recall when Nancy Pelosi traveled to Syria to visit with Assad while George W. was POTUS. Is there a double standard going on here?
#3
During a town hall with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on CNN Wednesday evening, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said that if Sessions had spoken with the Russian ambassador, “then for sure you need a special prosecutor.”
At what point can we consider McCain and Graham (D)? Quote comes from here.
#4
Question..... can Trump go to his head of CIA and request he release all this evidence that the NYT and WP sources claim they have? Or maybe as the new director he doesn't know who he can trust?
I'm beginning to hope Trump and Brannon are as mean as they have been painted. Time for some street fighting.
[Free Beacon] The Congressional Black Caucus PAC (CBC PAC) spends lavishly on upscale resorts and hotels, catering at exclusive restaurants, and on fundraising and Broadway tickets, according to a review of campaign finance records.
The CBC PAC, which is the fundraising arm of the Congressional Black Caucus, puts far more money towards administrative and fundraising purposes than it donates to candidates, the intended purpose of the political action committee.
The CBC PAC claims its mission is to increase "the number of African Americans in the U.S. Congress"
...but only if they're Democrats. AA Republicans are icky...
and to "support non-Black candidates that champion our interests, and promote African American participation in the political process-with an emphasis on young voters,"
Semi-disclosure - he's a former client who pissed me off too many times, so I cut him loose. I IM'd someone on Facebook this afternoon, and he responded - 'I hope he gets hit by a car and becomes a parapalegic'. So there you have it from the CPA crowd fully aware of his (scumbag) financial background.
By the way, he did not invent e-mail.
[Boston.com] In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the prospective field of 2018 Republican challengers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren added another name: Shiva Ayyadurai.
The 53-year-old Cambridge resident and self-described inventor of email publicly announced his plans to run against the Massachusetts Democrat in a tweet at 4:23 a.m. Saturday.
Progressives begin push to primary red-state Senate Dems for being too Trump-friendly
This new progressive project, called "We Will Replace You," could just as easily be called "Operation Cutting Off Our Noses to Spite Our Faces." According to The Hill, the frustration from the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party will take aim at Senate Democrats they deem to be too cooperative with the Donald Trump administration. They plan to challenge those Democratic incumbents in primaries next year as punishment for straying from "the resistance":
"We fundamentally reject the assumption that Democrats can only win in red states by pandering to racists and big bankers," said Claire Sandberg, a co-founder of the progressive political action committee We Will Replace You.
"The way we beat Trumpism and take back Congress and statehouses is offering a coherent vision of our own to put people back to work. … We don't need to completely compromise our own values and principles."
We Will Replace You is the most visible effort gearing up to back primary challenges from the left. Spearheaded by a group of progressives, including two former senior staffers on Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, the group's website includes a warning for Democrats looking to avoid a competitive primary race.
"Do everything you can to Resist Trump, or we will replace you with someone who will," the group's statement reads.
Well, that's quite a choice ‐ either lose a general election or lose a primary. The progressives at WWRY argue that Democrats can retain these seats through a purity campaign that will turn out like-minded voters enough to beat Republicans in these states. Progressives tried that strategy in at least one winnable state in 2016, the Senate election in Wisconsin, with disastrous results. Rather than look for a fresh face that might appeal to a changing electorate, they hauled Russ Feingold out of mothballs to run as a true progressive against incumbent Republican Ron Johnson. As they now argue, progressives figured that a presidential-turnout model and a "pure" candidate would provide more than enough turnout lift to win the seat back. Not only did they miscalculate on the turnout model, they also miscalculated on the attractiveness of progressivism in Wisconsin ‐ a state that had been turning red ever since Johnson and Scott Walker first won in 2010.
Pelosi to Democrats: Treat Trump voters like a friend whose boyfriend is a jerk
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is telling her rank-and-file members that she is confident a good portion of President Donald Trump's voters will eventually turn on him -- and Democrats just have to wait it out.
She's using a colorful analogy to make her point -- comparing Trump to a friend's boyfriend who is a "jerk."
"The way I told my members: It's like telling your friend the guy she's dating is a jerk. You can't tell her that. She has to find out for herself. You can give her clues and then eventually one thing will lead to another, she'll come to her conclusion. But if you tell her right up front, you'll lose a friend. So we're not interested in losing any friends. Let them find out," Pelosi recounted during a small briefing for reporters in her Capitol suite Tuesday.
A return to civility? That would be nice.
"They made a judgment and they're not willing to walk away from their own judgment," she said.
Pelosi did, however, make a sweeping judgment about educated women who voted for Trump rather than Hillary Clinton.
"White educated women who voted against Hillary? They voted with their husbands on taxes and they always have," declared Pelosi.
Clinton got 51% of white educated women. Trump got 44%.
Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, blasted Pelosi's comments Tuesday evening,
"Leave it to a San Francisco liberal to belittle and condescend to the 63 million voters who called for real change last November," Gorman said. "Pelosi's comments underscore just how hard it'll be for this out-of-touch party to compete across the country in 2018."
Pelosi also discussed the first White House meeting that she and other lawmakers had with the President after he was inaugurated, when he insisted that millions of votes were fraudulent and Pelosi told him he was wrong.
Beyond that widely reported incident, Pelosi said Trump worked very hard in the meeting to charm lawmakers, especially Democrats, though she conceded Trump worked harder on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer because he probably knows she is a "lost cause."
"He uses the charm offensive -- which is offensive, very offensive," said Pelosi. Instead of trying to engage people and convince them of the worthiness of their ideas, they go full hostile on all those that don't agree or tow the party line hard enough. Usually when a authoritarian group does this, it is the last dying spasm before it collapses. The current demoncrat party can't die soon enough. I just hope it is replaced with something somewhat sane.
#1
Toe the line. As in, putting your toe on a line.
The Democrats will always be around. They have a stranglehold on local politics in cities like Chicago, Detroit, Houston and aren't going anywhere. They won't be able to compete for the presidency, though. That's the best we can hope for.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
03/02/2017 1:24 Comments ||
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#2
Toe the line. As in, putting your toe on a line.
#3
You inherit the mistake of not going after all the Lefties when the wall collapsed and their utopia crumbled before us. That's over a generation ago. You now get to do it all over again because they insured the present one would never know of its abject failure that offered nothing but power and hate and suffering.
George Bush I has much to answer for, not using his time in history and his political capital to completely defund the left in government, education, and foundations after the wall came down.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/02/2017 5:32 Comments ||
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#5
no mo uro
The Berlin Wall came down when GHW Bush was Prez.
He had a Democrat dominated Senate (they averaged about 60%) and a slightly less Democrat dominated House (about 55%).
It would not have been possible to do many of the things you would have wanted.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/02/2017 8:07 Comments ||
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#7
Pelosi also discussed the first White House meeting that she and other lawmakers had with the President after he was inaugurated, when he insisted that millions of votes were fraudulent and Pelosi told him he was wrong.
Then she won't mind an independent audit of California's voter registration rolls?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/02/2017 11:18 Comments ||
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#8
Silly Abu - there's no need to waste taxpayer money for that!
This is how they roll. Put up an offensive tweet, let it marinate, and then delete the account before they're called to answer for their offensive stupidity. Twitter accounts are free, easy to obtain, and easy to dump.
Last night, during President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress, we saw what may be the most emotional moment in the history of Presidential speeches.
Trump paid tribute and honored Carryn Owens, the widow of Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens. Ryan Owens was killed in Yemen last month during anti-terrorism raids. And the applause inside the House was overwhelming.
As Trump said, "Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity." He added that Ryan "laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom -- we will never forget him."
The standing ovation lasted more than 120 seconds. However, some Democrat leaders refused to stand.
On Twitter, Dan Grilo, who worked for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on their presidential campaigns, slammed Owens and called her an "idiot."
Here is the Tweet, which went viral before Grilo deleted his entire Twitter account: Research indicates: Dan Grilo: Chief Operating Officer of Liberty Advisor Group.
As of Wednesday morning, Grilo’s profile page on the site had been deleted, and the company later confirmed that an employee had sent what they called "an offensive and inappropriate tweet" regarding the Gold Star family.
In a statement, the company said that while the message was from his personal account, "his comments were inconsistent with the Company's values."
"Regardless of whether the comments in the tweet were intended to cause the hurt and anger that they ultimately generated, they were unacceptable to us, and the individual who issued the tweet is no longer affiliated with Liberty," the statement said.
And he looked so businesslike in his business-suited Twitter picture, too. I do look forward to the day when politics is not omnipresent. Hopefully Mr. Grilo has learnt that particular lesson.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/02/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Democrat giving the response to President Trump’s congressional address on Tuesday inexplicably called himself a Republican during his response.
[Free Beacon] The Congressional Black Caucus PAC (CBC PAC) spends lavishly on upscale resorts and hotels, catering at exclusive restaurants, and on fundraising and Broadway tickets, according to a review of campaign finance records.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is telling her rank-and-file members that she is confident a good portion of President Donald Trump's voters will eventually turn on him -- and Democrats just have to wait it out.
