Sources: IRS official won't plead fifth at hearing on scandal

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  May 14, 2013: A general view of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Building in Washington.Reuters

Steven Miller, the embattled acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has assured congressional investigators he will cooperate fully with lawmakers in upcoming Capitol Hill hearings on the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups, and will not exercise his constitutional right to refuse to answer questions on the grounds that doing so may incriminate him in the ongoing FBI probe, Fox News has learned. 

Rather, sources say, Miller has agreed to provide his best testimony on the sudden swirl of allegations surrounding last week’s disclosure that the IRS had systematically singled out conservative-leaning groups for delays in their applications for tax-exempt status. Miller was reportedly made aware of the practice, which commenced early in 2010, as early as March 2012, but shortly thereafter assured lawmakers the IRS was not engaged in such targeting.

Congressional investigators have sought an informal deposition with Miller in advance of Friday’s hearing by the House Ways and Means Committee, but believe it unlikely Miller will grant such a session, sources said.

In addition to determining who was ultimately responsible for initiating the practice – culpability the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration failed to assign in his report on the subject, issued Tuesday – Capitol Hill investigators are said to be examining two other critical aspects to the scandal.

These include the dissemination of privileged tax data amassed during the targeting exercise to the left-leaning news outlet ProPublica; and allegations that conservatives listed by the targeted groups as donors were in turn singled out for adverse treatment by IRS.

The alleged improper conduct toward those donors would have been performed by a different office at IRS, sources said, than that which was responsible for the slow-walking of the conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status.

Both initiatives, Capitol Hill staffers told Fox News, could suggest a greater level of coordination on the overall project among – or even beyond – IRS management echelons.

Key congressional aides do not rule out the possibility that the targeting was conceived and executed by “rogue” elements in middle-management positions within IRS. But the bureaucratic culture within the agency is said to place an exceedingly high premium on compliance with orders from above – to the point of securing them, often in writing, when they are absent – and accordingly not one that would foster the emergence of so rigorous and enduring a targeting system without some measure of management supervision.

The IG report concluded that organizations with the words “Tea Party,” “Patriots” or “9/12” in their titles faced special treatment by IRS in their applications for tax-exempt status, including the agency’s application of “inappropriate criteria” to trigger reviews and other dilatory actions towards the applications.

While Miller will face more intense scrutiny, J. Russell George, the inspector general for IRS’ Tax Administration division, whose office released Tuesday’s damning intra-agency report, will also be confronted with tough questions, sources said. Capitol Hill staffers told Fox News they regard George’s report as “watered down” and are eager to ask him why his probe failed to fix ultimate responsibility for the targeting, and why he didn’t raise alarms about the practice sooner.

An IRS spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking comment for this article.

James Rosen

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Top agency official was first told of flagging in 2012, IRS says

Published May 13, 2013

Associated Press

WASHINGTON –  The Internal Revenue Service says acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller was first informed in May 2012 that tea party groups were inappropriately targeted for scrutiny.

A month later he wrote a member of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without mentioning the controversy.

Over the past year, numerous lawmakers raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed. Each time the agency responded without mentioning that groups had been targeted. Miller provided some of those responses.

The agency apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status. In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.

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Student arrested in Boston bombings case entered US without visa, official says

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WASHINGTON –  One of three college students arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings case was allowed to return to the United States from Kazakhstan in January despite not having a valid student visa, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Authorities charged the student -- a friend and classmate of one of the men accused of setting off the deadly explosions -- with helping after the attacks to remove a laptop and backpack from the bombing suspect's dormitory room before the FBI searched it.

The government acknowledged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was unaware that the student was no longer in school when he was let back into the United States.

The disclosure was another instance of possible lapses by the federal government in the months before the Boston bombings. The Obama administration earlier this week announced an internal review of how U.S. intelligence agencies shared sensitive information and whether the government could have disrupted the attack. Republicans in Congress have promised oversight hearings starting next week.

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a bombing suspect, including Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend and classmate of Tsarnaev's at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Tazhayakov left the U.S. in December and returned Jan. 20. But in early January, his student-visa status was terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university, the official told the AP.

The law enforcement official said information about Tazhayakov's status was in the Homeland Security Department's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, called SEVIS, when Tazhayakov arrived in New York in January.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss details of Tazhayakov's immigration history.

DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said when Tazhayakov arrived on Jan. 20, Customs and Border Protection officials had not been notified that he was no longer a student.

"DHS has recently reformed the student visa system to ensure that CBP is provided with real time updates on all relevant student visa information," Boogaard said. "At the time of re-entry there was no derogatory information that suggested this individual posed a national security or public safety threat."

Tazhayakov and another student from Kazakhstan, Dias Kadyrbayev, were detained last month on immigration charges. They were arrested on federal criminal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Robel Phillipos, 19, was also arrested and charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation.

Questions about Tazhayakov's immigration status came up Wednesday during an immigration hearing in Boston when a judge questioned how he was able to return to the U.S. in January. A lawyer for Tazhayakov said he had re-enrolled in the university with a different major after returning to the country.

International students who aren't enrolled or are dismissed from a college or university generally have 30 days to rectify their status and re-enroll as long as they are already in the United States.

Lawmakers have questioned information sharing among U.S. law enforcement before the bombings. In 2011, Russian officials notified the FBI and CIA that they were concerned about now-deceased bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In early 2012 Homeland security was alerted of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's travel to and from Russia -- information that was shared with Boston's joint terrorism task force. But the FBI investigation into him had closed and therefore he didn't warrant additional scrutiny, officials have said.

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Six official US Air Force cyberweapons may codify digital war

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  July 20, 2010: Lt William Liggett works at the Air Force Space Command Network Operations & Security Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.REUTERS/Rick Wilking

The U.S. Air Force’s Space Command center has officially designated six cyberweapons in its digital arsenal, an senior officer said Monday -- opening the door to a codified definition of cyberwar.

Lieutenant General John Hyten, vice commander of Space Command, said the new designations would help the military to fund the rapidly changing theater of war, according to Reuters.

“What is a cyberweapon? Does it kill? Does it destroy? Does it hurt human beings?'

- Mischel Kwon, former director of US-CERT

Hyten did not offer any details on what the weapons were, whether “cyberbombs” like the Stuxnet virus that temporarily disabled Iran’s nuclear power ambitions or something more mundane, like well trained cyber soldiers or digital tools that might facilitate attacks on electronic, real-world weapons.

But the very act of acknowledging such weapons has dramatic implications, said Mischel Kwon, former director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and former Chief IT security technologist at the Department of Justice.

“What is a cyberweapon? Does it kill? Does it destroy? Does it hurt human beings? Is there life at risk because of the use of this?” Kwon told FoxNews.com.

“If we’re going to call [these capabilities] weapons, are we going to have to revisit treaties? And rethink how they fit in the context of international negotiations? It opens a lot of discussions that have needed to take place, because we don’t have a way of talking about things that happen and align them with plain English language in the physical world.”

 Hyten’s comments -- given at a cyber conference held in conjunction with the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs -- were meant to underscore the challenges of funding cyber in a difficult budgetary period; Hyten said the Air Force planned to expand its cyber workforce of about 6,000 by 1,200 people, including 900 military personnel.

He said it took the Air Force decades to explain the central importance of space-based assets for warfare, but did not have time to wait with cybersecurity, according to Reuters.

"We have to do this quickly. We cannot wait. If we just let decades go by, the threat will pass us screaming by," he said.

But Hyten’s statements are also a window into the shadowy world of cyberwar, something all countries engage in but few are willing to publicly acknowledge or discuss, the U.S. included, Kwon told FoxNews.com.

“The veil is being lifted,” said Kwon, who now heads security consultancy Mischel Kwon & Associates. “We tend to call everything cyberwar -- even cybercrime and hacktivism. And espionage. And it’s been very difficult to define what is cyberwar.”

When the U.S. is officially at war, a specific definition and set of terms is applied, she noted.

“Does that same definition apply to cyber or is there another well-crafted set of words we need to define cyberwar?”

“The discussion is just beginning,” she said.

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More than a dozen injured in Kansas City gas blast, fire, official says

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –  A massive fire triggered by a gas explosion engulfed an entire block of an upscale Kansas City shopping district and injured more than a dozen people, a city official said Tuesday evening.

City Manager Troy Schulte said he did not know of anyone being reported missing and had not heard of any fatalities.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, but Schulte said it is believed that an accident involving a utility contractor may have caused the blast.

Fox4KC.com reports that witnesses said the explosion was like an earthquake. The station said there were reports of blown-out windows and minor damage inside apartments near the blast.

Kansas City Fire Chief Paul Berardi said late Tuesday that cadaver dogs were searching the smoldering remains of a restaurant that burned to the ground following the explosion and blaze.

Berardi said the search for possible victims could take hours and that he expected his crews to be at the scene through the night.

While officials have said they have no reports of fatalities, Berardi noted, "I would always fear there are fatalities in a scene like this."

Initially Kansas City police had said the blast had been caused by a car crashing into a gas main. Fire and city officials later said they were not aware of a crash being involved in the blast. Other witnesses noted street signs in the area indicated utility work was being done in the area, and a worker at a restaurant destroyed in the fire said the facility was being renovated at the time.

Mayor Sly James was at the scene after the blast, praising the work of first responders.

"The first thing we need to be concerned about is the people that are injured," James said.

Police Sgt. Tony Sanders said the manager of JJ's restaurant was unable to account for three people, but it was unclear whether they were caught in the blaze or had left earlier. Later on Tuesday evening, Jim Ligon, a JJ's bartender, said they were still waiting to hear from one co-worker, whom he declined to name.

The University of Kansas Hospital was treating six people injured in the blast, said spokesman Bob Hallinan. He said one person was in critical condition, two were in serious condition and two others were expected to be released. He said all of those injuries were traumatic, such as broken bones, rather than burns or smoke inhalation. The final patient there was a burn victim who was transferred from Truman Medical Center, Hallinan said.

Dr. Marc Larsen, medical director of the emergency room at St. Luke's Hospital, which is near the scene of the fire, said they had treated eight people, six of whom were walk-ins with minor injuries. He said two males were in critical condition and would be kept overnight. He said one had extensive burns and another had facial trauma.

A phone message left Tuesday seeking comment from Missouri Gas Energy was not immediately returned.

Ligon, a bartender who has worked at JJ's restaurant for five years, wasn't working Tuesday night but said he started getting texts and calls from co-workers minutes after the explosion.

He said the incident happened during the peak of weekday happy hour, when there is typically anywhere from 15 to 45 people in the bar area as well as three to five tables of diners at the restaurant.

"JJ's has a small staff, a family feel," said Ligon, 45, of Kansas City, Missouri. "You see the same 100 people all the time -- a bar and restaurant for regulars. We're just really hoping we come out of here OK in terms of injuries."

The shopping area was established in 1922 by J.C. Nichols. Based on the architecture of Seville, Spain, it includes retail, restaurants, apartments and offices.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox4KC.com.

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