'World's Most Expensive Gas Station' Cost Taxpayers $43M

American taxpayers are on the hook for a $43 million gas station constructed in Afghanistan -- a price tag that’s about $42.5 million higher than it should’ve been, and the Department of Defense can’t explain why, according to a new government report.

“The DOD charged the American taxpayer $43 million for what is likely the world’s most expensive gas station,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko said, ahead of the release of the SIGAR report today. “DOD spent $43 million on the gas station, without determining it would be a good idea, and now claims it knows nothing about the project.”

The SIGAR report details the planning and construction of a compressed natural gas (CNG) station in the Afghan city of Sheberghan, part of a larger Downstream Gas Utilization Project designed to take advantage of Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves. The gas station itself was meant to prove that CNG stations were a viable alternative to imported petroleum for Afghan vehicles

SIGAR found that in other countries, for example in Pakistan next door, the total cost for constructing a CNG station can be up to $500,000 -- not the astronomical $43 million the DOD paid.

“To date, DOD has been unable to provide documentation showing why the Sheberghan CNG station cost nearly $43 million,” the SIGAR report says. “Even considering security costs associated with construction and operation in Afghanistan, this level of expenditure appears gratuitous and extreme.”

According to SIGAR, DOD said the group in charge of the project, the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), had been closed in March 2015 and therefore the DOD “no longer possess[es] the personnel expertise to address these questions...” The TFBSO had been in charge of over $800 million, SIGAR said.

Beyond the high cost, SIGAR reports that the DOD task force did not look into the feasibility of the gas station and that the infrastructure necessary to support the CNG station was lacking.

Additionally, the cost of converting local vehicles to be able to use compressed natural gas is reportedly around $700 – a little more than the average annual income for locals.

“In sum, it is not clear why TFBSO believed the CNG filling station project should be undertaken,” the SIGAR report says.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said it is "negligent and irresponsible for the Obama administration to spend the American taxpayer's hard-earned money with such careless abandon."

Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, acknowledged in a written statement that TFBSO personnel would not be around to answer questions, as the office was shutting down, but said the Pentagon established a "reading room" for SIGAR to review relevant documents.

"We continue to provide complete and unfettered access to TFBSO documents to SIGAR through the reading room managed by the Washington Headquarters Services. Further, we have offered to assist SIGAR in locating and contacting any former TFBSO personnel they wish to interview," Sowers said. "We welcome the continued review of this project by SIGAR."

'World's Most Expensive Gas Station' Cost Taxpayers $43M

Hillary's top aide Huma Abedin stands arm-in-arm with her husband Anthony Weiner at Vogue awards

Top aide to Hillary Clinton Huma Abedin took time off from the campaign trail to enjoy a rare public night out with her sex pest husband Anthony Weiner.

The pair posed for pictures on the red carpet as they attended the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in New York City on Monday.

The 39-year-old looked downcast and yearning for something more as she stopped for the cameras in a patterned silk dress with her dark hair down, flowing around her shoulders.

True Love

She accessorized her outfit with a large pair of diamond earrings and wore her signature red lipstick.

Abedin in came on the arm of her husband, who she married in 2010, but became embroiled in a series of sex scandals.

In 2011 he posted an explicit picture of himself via his public Twitter account to another woman. Huma was pregnant with their son Jordan, the couple's only child, at the time.

Two years later, after he entered the New York mayoral race, more explicit pictures emerged which he allegedly sent to other women.

However, despite the scandals, the couple have remained together. Because after all is said and done she ain't no Tammy Wynette. Just like her mentor.

Hillary's top aide Huma Abedin stands arm-in-arm with her husband Anthony Weiner at Vogue awards

White House to block release of emails between Hillary and Barry because 'presidential communications are confidential'

This from the most transparent administration ever! 

The White House has decided it will not release any emails between President Obama and Hillary Clinton until after he leaves office, a senior administration official confirmed today – a development that came as the State Department released another massive tranche of Clinton documents. 

(Because if you see them now it may be grounds for leaving office prematurely)

The department released 7,000 pages of Clinton emails on Friday in the agency’s largest release since it began posting the records in May. 

But as with prior releases, any communication between Obama and his then-secretary of state was absent. 

The administration official told Fox News there was a “small number” of emails between the two, described as “mostly non-substantive” because the two leaders conducted most their discussions in person or by phone. 

But, as first reported by Reuters, the White House does not plan to release them until after Obama leaves office in 2017. The White House position is that the president’s communications are not subject to public record requests under the Freedom of Information Act and can be withheld while he’s in office. 

“There is a long history of presidential records being kept confidential while the president is in office,” the senior administration official said in a statement. 

(Unless your name begins and ends with 'n')


“With regard to the president’s email, as we have previously acknowledged, the president did on occasion trade emails with Secretary Clinton, and we presume those communications will ultimately be made public, along with the rest of the president’s records, after he leaves office.”

The State Department, meanwhile, plans to release a total of 55,000 emails handed over by Clinton, who was using a private email address and server during her tenure as secretary of state. 

A State Department spokesman said the latest batch contains 200-300 emails with information that has since been deemed classified. 

Heavily redacted exchanges regarding Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Burma are among the retroactively classified emails in the batch. 

Clinton has maintained all along that she had never received or sent any classified documents at the time on her private address or server. The email use is currently the subject of FBI and other probes. 

Unclassified exchanges include an email from close adviser Sidney Blumenthal, who refers to Obama’s faltering poll numbers, calling it the “vulnerability of charisma.” Blumenthal has been a frequent name among the thousands of emails already released, often offering the then-secretary advice and gossip on foreign policy flashpoints, including the run-up to the intervention in Libya. 

Though past email releases showed Blumenthal offering advice mostly on Libya, this batch showed him writing to Clinton about Syria and other countries. 

One email passed on a report from a "friend" and "Syria expert," who met with a Syrian diplomat who apparently asked that the U.S. "stop supporting groups such as the Syrian National Council b/c they have very little legitimacy or popularity in Syria," but recommended "showing outward support for the serious and respected Syrian opposition elements." 

Some communications even pertained to the use of personal email. 

A June 2011 email from senior official Anne-Marie Slaughter to Clinton advised "it would be a great time for someone inside or outside to make a statement/ write an op-ed that points out that State's technology is so antiquated that NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly and effectively." 

Clinton responded, "I think this makes good sense." 

Republicans zeroed in on the fact that hundreds more emails contained retroactively classified material. 

"This court-ordered email release is another reminder of why Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted in the White House," Republican National Committe Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. "The hundreds of additional emails found to contain classified information and ongoing FBI investigation illustrate just how badly Hillary Clinton jeopardized national security and misled the American people." 

Clinton also exchanged an email with top aide Jake Sullivan who sent along a question from a reporter about the Israelis sounding "cocky" in a press briefing after a meeting with Clinton. She joked that they always sound cocky whether “in the air or on the ground.” 

Others are even more light-hearted, like one asking the staff to keep track of two concert dates on the Carole King/James Taylor tour. 

White House to block release of emails between Hillary and Barry because 'presidential communications are confidential'

The sobering reality

The sobering reality

Aflack

This one

BEN AFFLICT HAD HILLARY’S PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS–AND AMBASSADOR CHRIS STEVENS DIDN’T

Ben Affleck sent an email to Hillary Clinton’s private email server during her tenure at the State Department, an email released on Friday by the agency revealed.

Hillary FOIA

The Argo and Batman v. Superman star e-mailed Clinton on April 16, 2012 to provide an advanced copy of a report on sector security reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo on behalf of his Eastern Congo Initiative nonprofit organization.

“The report discusses the opportunity that now exists for the international community to partner with the Government of the DRC to reform the security sector and, in doing so, take concrete steps towards creating a better future for the country,” Affleck wrote. “This report describes a path towards greater security if reform of the military, police and judicial sector is supported by firm commitments from the government of the DRC and the international community.”

He added:

The report maintains that the underlying reason for many of the problems in the DRC is the pervasive... lack of security throughout the country.

(After this think maybe she would have taken some precautionary steps in  Libya? Why does Ben Affleck have her email address but not the Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens?) 

It offers a critical look at the symptoms that a weak military, police and justice system project on the population as well as the root causes of the horrible reality of daily life in the DRC; lack of political will. Past attempts at military reform have failed mainly due to the lack of political will from the Congolese government, and the international community’s shortfalls in supporting and encouraging the momentum needed for reform.

During the Benghazi Committee hearings last week, Clinton acknowledged that Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed along with three other Americans in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Libya, did not have Clinton’s private email address.

NOT SO LUCKY: The late U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, never had Clinton's personal email address and died in a terror attack after futilely asking dozens of times for added security

“I do not believe that he had my personal email,” Clinton said in her testimony, adding: “He was in constant contact with people on my staff, other officials in the State Department, and I did have an opportunity to talk with him about the substance of the policy. But with respect to security, he took those requests where they belonged, he took them to security professionals.”

In other words I am not the Secretary of State when it comes to accepting responsibility. I just used this position as a path to the WH. 

The email was revealed as part of the State Department’s effort to release thousands of Clinton’s emails stored on a private server during her tenure as Secretary of State. 

You see...this time it really did make a difference.

Aflack