US says ex-intel official defected to Iran, revealed secrets
A former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran despite warnings from the FBI has been charged with revealing classified information to the Tehran government, including the code name and secret mission of a Pentagon program, prosecutors said Wednesday. The Justice Department also accused Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, of betraying former colleagues in the U.S. intelligence community by feeding details about their personal and professional lives to Iran. Four hackers linked to the Iranian government, charged in the same indictment, used that information to target the intelligence workers online, prosecutors said. Witt had been on the FBI’s radar at least a year before she defected after she attended an Iranian conference and appeared in anti-American videos. She was warned about her activities, but reassured agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran. She was not arrested. “Once a holder of a top secret security clearance, Monica Witt actively sought opportunities to undermine the United States and support the government of Iran — a country which poses a serious threat to our national security,” said FBI executive assistant director Jay Tabb, the bureau’s top national security official. Tabb said “she provided information that could cause serious damage to national security,” though he did not provide specifics. Witt remains at large in Iran, as do the four hackers, who prosecutors say were acting on behalf of the government-linked Iranian Revolutionary Guard, prosecutors said. That group has been designated by the U.S. government as promoting terrorism. The hackers, using imposter Facebook personas, then targeted those same officials and were even able at one point to join a private Facebook group composed primarily of retired government workers, the indictment says. The hackers sent the targets messages and emails that purported to be legitimate but instead contained malicious software that, if opened, would have given them access to the officials’ computer and network. The Texas native served in the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in Farsi — the predominant language of Iran — and was deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She then found work as a Defense Department contractor. She defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards. She was a Defense Department contractor at the time. The Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned the New Horizon Organization, which sponsored the conferences Witt attended. American officials say the conferences, which promote Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories, serve as a platform for Iran to recruit and collect intelligence. Witt first traveled to a “Hollywoodism” conference in 2012, when she appeared in Iranian television videos in which she identified herself as a former U.S. service member with. She was warned that May by FBI agents that she was a potential target for recruitment by Iranian intelligence. “She chose not to heed our warning that travel to Iran could potentially make her susceptible to recruitment,” Tabb said. “She continued to travel.” She attended the same conference the following year and was hired by an unnamed individual to assist in the filming of an anti-American propaganda commercial. Given free housing and computer equipment, she went to work for the Iranians, turning over information about a classified Defense Department program and assembling into “target packages” research she conducted into the family lives, locations and missions of former colleagues. The indictment includes snippets of dialogue between Witt and the person who recruited her her, identified only as Individual 1. In 2012, for instance, the person wrote her, “should i thank the sec of defense…u were well trained. Witt replied with a smiley emoticon, “LOL thank the sec of defense? For me? Well, I loved the work, and I am endeavoring to put the training I received to good use instead of evil. ?? Thanks for giving me the opportunity,” according to the indictment. Using a typed smiley-face, she later told the same, unnamed person, “If all else fails, I just may go public with a program and do like Snowden.” That’s a reference to Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who leaked classified U.S. information. “Our intelligence professionals swear an oath to protect our country, and we trust them to uphold their oath. With good reason,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division. “But every great while, one of these trusted people fails us.” Officials would not elaborate on why the indictment was brought six years after her detection, except to say that they had to move classified intelligence into an unclassified format to be used in a pending criminal proceeding. The Justice Department officials would not say whether Witt’s prosecution was connected to an American-born Iranian television anchorwoman who was recently released after being detained by the FBI as a material witness in an undisclosed U.S. case. Marzieh Hashemi works for the Press TV network’s English-language service. She has not been charged with any crimes. Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed. Republished with permission from the Associated Press
FEMA Chief, former Alabama leader, Brock Long resigns
Former Director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) and current Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Brock Long announced his resignation on Wednesday. “It has been a great honor to serve our country as @fema Administrator for the past two years. While this has been the opportunity of the lifetime, it is time for me to go home to my family,” Long tweeted. It has been a great honor to serve our country as @fema Administrator for the past two years. While this has been the opportunity of the lifetime, it is time for me to go home to my family. You can read my full announcement here: https://t.co/2HXa7tQtV8 — Brock Long (@FEMA_Brock) February 13, 2019 Long’s resignation comes month after an internal investigation by the DHS inspector general (IG) found that he used government vehicles without proper authorization. He did not lose his job over it. Long served at the helm of the AEMA from 2008 to 2011, where he worked on the Yellowhammer State’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and numerous other natural disasters. As Director, he served as the State Coordinating Officer for 14 disasters, including eight presidentially-declared events. Prior to that he was a FEMA Regional Hurricane Program Manager from 2001 to 2006. Deputy Administrator Pete Gaynor will now serve as acting head of the agency. This story is breaking.
Terri Sewell introduces two bills to improve rural access to health care
Democrat and Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell reached across the aisle last week to her Republican colleague Nebraska 3rd District U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith to introduce two bills to improve rural access to health care. H.R. 1041: the Critical Access Hospital Relief Act H.R. 1041 will repeal Medicare’s 96-hour rule, which requires physicians to certify at the time of admission their intent to discharge or transfer the patient to another hospital within four days. Many deem this an “arbitrary” requirement that risks depriving patients in rural areas of the critical care necessary to save lives, which is why the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has addressed the 96-hour rule through rule-making, but H.R. 1041 would codify it into law and ensure the issue is address permanently. “We know that access to good primary care results in people living longer, healthier lives, but in many communities across the country, including many in Alabama’s 7th District, medical professional shortages threaten access to quality health care,” Sewell explained. “Our Medicare payment policies must eliminate barriers that stand in the way of our ability to attract qualified medical talent to rural and underserved areas, such as physician assistants.” Sewell continued, “Every American should be able to receive the care they need, regardless of where they live, but the 96-hour rule disproportionately threatens access to health care for Americans living in rural areas, like my constituents serviced by Choctaw General Critical Access Hospital, and severely affects Critical Access Hospitals’ ability to operate.” H.R. 1052: the Physician Assistant Direct Payment Act H.R. 1052 will allow physician assistants to be directly compensated by Medicare in order to expand their role as medical providers in underserved communities. At present, physician assistants are the only providers allowed to bill Medicare for services rendered, but required to have their payments routed through a third party such as a physician or hospital. “Rural Americans are frequently left out of the debate in Washington and it’s imperative we continue to fight for their best interests,” Smith added. “The repeal of Medicare’s 96-hour rule and allowing physician assistants to be paid directly by Medicare are two great examples of ensuring rural Americans receive better care.” Rural hospitals close in Alabama Sewell introduced her bill just days before news broke that the Georgiana Medical Center in Georgiana, Ala. will be closing on March 31 due to the rising costs of health care. It will be the state’s 13th hospital to close in eight years, and the seventh rural hospital among those to close. According to Danne Howard, Policy Director at the Alabama Hospitals Association, about 88 percent of the state’s rural hospitals are operating “in the red” and aren’t currently receiving reimbursements that can cover the cost of delivering care.
Alabama set record with 2018 holiday sales
The Alabama Retail Association said final figures from the confirm that 2018 holiday sales in Alabama set a record and topped $12 billion for the first time. According to the Revenue Department, shoppers in the state spent nearly $12.07 billion, up 2.66 percent from 2017. The numbers were just shy of the Alabama Retail Association’s prediction of $12.2 billion. The National Retail Federation’s preliminary numbers show a 4.6 percent growth in holiday sales nationally. The Alabama Retail Association said the state’s early adoption of tax policy related to online sales helped boost sales figures during the holiday season. A U.S. Supreme Court decision and a state tax rule broadened the collection of online taxes starting Oct. 1. For the holiday season, those sales brought an additional $12 million dollars in tax revenue into the state compared to 2017. The sales reflected in Alabama’s simplified sellers use tax jumped 72.27 percent, or $154.5 million, in November and December 2018, from $213.8 million to $368.3 million. Alabama holiday sales for the almost 1,000 simplified sellers represent just 3.05 percent of total holiday sales in the state. The Alabama Revenue Department reports sales tax collections on general merchandise, restaurant and other food service, automobiles, machinery and vending. Republished with permission from Alabama NewsCenter
Senate backs major public lands, conservation bill
The Senate on Tuesday approved a major public lands bill that revives a popular conservation program, adds 1.3 million acres of new wilderness, expands several national parks and creates five new national monuments. The measure, the largest public lands bill considered by Congress in a decade, combines more than 100 separate bills that designate more than 350 miles of river as wild and scenic, add 2,600 miles of new federal trails and create nearly 700,000 acres of new recreation and conservation areas. The bill also withdraws 370,000 acres in Montana and Washington state from mineral development. The Senate approved the bill, 92-8, sending it to the House. Lawmakers from both parties said the bill’s most important provision was to permanently reauthorize the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which supports conservation and outdoor recreation projects across the country. The program expired last fall after Congress could not agree on language to extend it. “The Land and Water Conservation Fund has been a pre-eminent program for access to public lands” for more than 50 years, said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington. The program has supported more than 42,000 state and local projects throughout the U.S. since its creation in 1964. The hodgepodge bill offered something for nearly everyone, with projects stretching across the country. Even so, the bill was derailed last year after Republican Sen. Mike Lee objected, saying he wanted to exempt his home state of Utah from a law that allows the president to designate federal lands as a national monument protected from development. Lee’s objection during a heated Senate debate in December forced lawmakers to start over in the new Congress, culminating in Tuesday’s Senate vote. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican who clashed with Lee on the Senate floor, said the vote caps four years of work to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund and protect public lands. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican-Alaska, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the bill enhances use of public lands and water, while promoting conservation and sporting activities such as hunting and fishing. The bill includes provisions sponsored by more than half of the senators, Murkowski said, applauding a “very, very collaborative” process. She and other senators called the Land and Water Conservation Fund one of the most popular and effective programs Congress has ever created. The program uses federal royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling to fund conservation and public recreation projects around the country. The fund is authorized to collect $900 million a year but generally receives less than half that amount from Congress. “This victory was a long time in the making, and it is the result of the steadfast efforts of many who care deeply about America’s natural treasures,” said Sen Richard Burr, Republican-N.C. “Protecting this program is the right thing to do for our children, grandchildren and countless generations so that they may come to enjoy the great American outdoors as we have.” The bill creates three new national monuments to be administered by the National Park Service and two others overseen by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, respectively. The three park service monuments are the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Mississippi and the Mill Springs and Camp Nelson national monuments in Kentucky. The Evers site was the home of the slain civil rights leader, while Mill Springs commemorates a Civil War battlefield. Camp Nelson was used as Union Army hospital and recruiting center during the Civil War. President Donald Trump proclaimed Camp Nelson a national monument last year, but the bill gives it permanent, congressionally approved protection. The bill also designates the former Saint Francis Dam site in California as a national memorial and monument. The dam outside Los Angeles collapsed in 1928, killing 431 people in one of the largest tragedies in California history. “While this monument will serve as a reminder of the consequences of a failure of infrastructure, it offers a lesson going forward,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, Democrat-Calif. The bill also sets aside 850 acres in central Utah as the Jurassic National Monument, designed to enhance the area’s “paleontological, scientific, educational and recreational resources.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press
