U.S. SUES WELLS FARGO FOR ALLEGED MORTGAGE FRAUD

The federal government has sued Wells Fargo Bank in New York, blaming the nation’s largest originator of home mortgages for thousands of loan defaults over the last decade.

A civil mortgage fraud lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday seeks to recover hundreds of millions of dollars that the Federal Housing Administration, which insured the loans, had to pay out after borrowers defaulted.

The lawsuit charges San Francisco-based Wells Fargo with falsely certifying that its loans met the standards necessary to be eligible for government insurance. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the bank’s plan to reward employees for the number of loans they approved “was an accelerant to a fire already burning.”

This marks the fifth lawsuit that the government has brought against major lenders over mortgage practices.

Wells Fargo & Co. has denied the allegations and is promising a vigorous defense.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LEADER CALLS FOR ‘HOLY JIHAD’ TO TAKE JERUSALEM FROM ISRAEL

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide – the group’s highest ranking official — is calling on the Muslim world to carry out “holy jihad” against Israel and capture Jerusalem. Mohammed Badie’s remarks were reported Thursday by AFP:

“Jerusalem is Islamic … and nobody is entitled to make concessions” on the Holy City, said Sheikh Mohammed Badie in his weekly message to supporters.

“The jihad for the recovery of Jerusalem is a duty for all Muslims,” he said, stressing that the liberation of the Holy City “will not be done through negotiations or at the United Nations.”

Badie said that because “the Zionists only understand force,” Muslims should sidestep any efforts at negotiation with Israel. The Times of Israel provided more quotes from the Muslim Brotherhood leader’s anti-Jewish message [emphasis added]:

Egypt’s foremost Muslim Brotherhood official called on the Arab world Thursday to replace negotiations with Israel with “holy Jihad,” claiming that if Jews are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount they will destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and supplant it with the third temple. […]

“The time has come for the Islamic nation to unite around one man for the sake of Jerusalem and Palestine,” Badie said. “The Jews have dominated the land, spread corruption on earth, spilled the blood of believers and in their actions profaned holy places, including their own.”

“Zionists only understand the language of force and will not relent without duress,” Badie continued. “This will only happen through holy Jihad, high sacrifices and all forms of resistance. The day they realize we will march this path and raise the banner of Jihad for the sake of God, is the day they will relent and stop their tyranny.”

NBC‘S MATT LAUER CAN’T CONTAIN DISGUST WITH ROBERT GIBBS OVER BIG BIRD AD: ‘IDEAS AND SOLUTIONS’ OR JUST TRYING TO ‘GET ATTENTION’?

You know the fallout behind a campaign move is bad when the morning mainstream media is even expressing disgust. And that‘s exactly what NBC’s Matt Lauer did on the “Today” show on Wednesday morning with Obama campaign representative Robert Gibbs over the Obama-approved Big Bird ad.

The ad, which mocks Mitt Romney for going after PBS funding, has become a laughing stock among both conservatives and liberals who have skewered it as beneath the campaign of a sitting president. And on Wednesday, Lauer made it a little personal by adding his thoughts in an interview with Gibbs.

“I have to be honest with you, I personally was a bit surprised that the campaign released this Big Bird ad yesterday,” Lauer said. “I mean, is that the kind of political ad that a campaign releases when it feels it has ideas and solutions on its side, or is that the kind of political ad a campaign releases when it simply wants to get attention?”

Gibbs responded by twisting Romney’s position, saying the governor wants to end “Downton Abbey” and “go to war” with Sesame Street instead of holding Wall Street accountable. “And, look, we can’t have a president who does that.”

Lauer’s disgust, however, was obvious.

“And I find it hard to believe I’m asking this question here this morning, but will the campaign take Bird Bird out of its ads?” he asked with a smirk.

MULTIPLE TWITTER USERS THREATEN TO ASSASSINATE MITT ROMNEY: ‘SHOOT HIM DEAD’ (UPDATED)

The race to the White House can be ugly and cruel, an inconvenient truth that rears its ugly head in U.S. politics every four years. Unfortunately, there will always be those who reserve pure, unadulterated hatred for anyone they disagree with.

Nothing displays that fact more clearly than the dozens of horrific death threats made against GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney via Twitter, which were uncovered Sunday night. South Carolina attorney Todd Kincannon, who is also the former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party, took notice of the intense hatred coming from the left and directed the threatening messages to the Secret Service and FBI’s official Twitter accounts. Here are a few of the tweets:

RT @sistertoldjah: @SecretService RT @iAmBenjisLady: If Romney wins Ima Shoot his ass Its Gonna Be another JFK insident

cc: @SecretService MT @Haunter_: Romney is trying to ban tampons. Omg. I'm not even kidding, someone go with me so we can shoot him dead.

I crash that fucking airplane that that faggot nigga Romney, stab Mrs. Romney in her GOD DAMN esophagus. & won’t stop until the cops come in

Hannah freed following arrest in pipeline protest

TYLER, Texas (AP) -- Actress Daryl Hannah has been released from a Texas jail following her arrest as she protested an oil pipeline designed to bring crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The Tyler Morning Telegraph reported (bit.ly/QMlAo1) Saturday that Hannah was freed on $2,500 bond Thursday night, but faces criminal trespass charges. Her release came hours after being arrested in Winnsboro, about 100 miles east of Dallas.

Hannah and 78-year-old Eleanor Fairchild were arrested after blocking heavy equipment in an attempt to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline through Fairchild's land. Fairchild was released on a personal recognizance bond.

Hannah has long opposed TransCanada's construction of the $7 billion pipeline, which is designed to transport heavy tar-sands crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Texas' Gulf Coast refineries. Known for roles in dozens of movies, including "Splash" and "Kill Bill," Hannah also was arrested in August 2011 while protesting the pipeline in Washington.

Her manager, Paul Bassis, said Hannah was meeting with Fairchild when they found out the equipment was operating on the Fairchild's 90 acres.

"When people engage in civil disobedience, it's a last resort," Bassis told the Telegraph. "They do it after local, state and federal agencies fail, after the courts fail, after everything else has failed."

TransCanada said in a statement Thursday that it's "unfortunate Ms. Hannah and other out-of-state activists have chosen to break the law by illegally trespassing on private property."

Pipeline opponents argue the project is unsafe because it would be carrying heavy, acidic crude oil that could more easily corrode a metal pipe, which would lead to a spill. They also say refining the oil would further contaminate the air in a region that has long struggled with pollution.

TransCanada says its pipeline would be the safest ever built, and that the crude is no dirtier than oil currently arriving from Venezuela or parts of California.
The company began construction of that portion of the pipeline this summer after receiving the necessary permits. Some Texas landowners, joined by activists, have tried through various protests to stop or slow down construction.
Fairchild complained to the newspaper about the "pushy, bullying" tactics used by TransCanada to take her land by eminent domain. She said she never signed a land agreement with the company.
"I don't think there is an even playing field for the landowners and the pipeline company," she told the Telegraph. "Most people can't fight these big companies so they take what they want."
When given the opportunity to go home and avoid arrest, Fairchild said she did not want to abandon her friend, Hannah.
"I am not a pro at protesting, but I think it makes more of a statement to be arrested," she told the newspaper. "They need to know landowners like me are being trampled."

IRAN FREES CHRISTIAN PASTOR, SENDS HIS LAWYER TO COUNTRY‘S ’MOST DANGEROUS’ PRISON

 Youcef Nadarkhani, a former Muslim turned Christian convert who had been imprisoned since 2009 for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. Both the pastor and his supporters breathed a sigh of relief when he was released from prison in early September, however, the victory turned out to be bittersweet when the attorney responsible for Nadarkhani’s release was, in turn, imprisoned.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, the human rights attorney who represented Pastor Youcef is now slated to serve a hefty prison sentence in what reports indicate is one of Iran’s most dangerous prisons. Dadkhah had represented other religious and political prisoners and been convicted previously for such “crimes.”

Dadkhah, who has represented Nadarkhani and who is known as a prominent human rights advocate, has allegedly been sentenced to nine years in prison for “acting against national security.” [...]

As The Blaze has reported for months, Nadarkhani’s charges were waged over his conversion from Islam to Christianity. Dadkhah’s sentencing, it seems, has resulted from his defense of the pastor and others who were detained following Iran’s disputed 2009 elections. In addition to his alleged prison sentence, the lawyer has reportedly been banned from teaching in Iranian universities and from practicing law for the next 10 years.

The beleaguered attorney’s imprisonment has also sparked outrage within the human rights movements, particularly with Amnesty International. “Iranian human rights defender and lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah must be immediately and unconditionally released,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Amnesty asserts that Dadkhah “is the fourth member of the CHRD to have been imprisoned in the last 18 months,“ and that ”he should never have been put on trial for his legitimate human rights activities — the Iranian authorities must overturn his conviction and sentence and release him immediately and unconditionally.”  Amnesty is also calling on the authorities to “ensure he is protected from torture or other ill-treatment” as well as be provided with an attorney of his choosing. In Iranian prisons however, especially where those charged with apostasy are concerned, torture — particularly at Evin Prison, where Dadkhah is being held — seems par for the course.

Saeed Pourheydar, an Iranian journalist and blogger who worked for “reformist newspapers,” told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) that he was arrested twice, once in 2010 and then again 2011, and that he was held as a political prisoner in Evin’s Ward 240. According to reports, Dadkah is being held in Ward 350. In a blogpost for ICHRI, Pourheydar wrote of the torture he endured during his time at Evin:

 Many of my prisoner friends inside Evin’s Ward 350, who had prior experience in solitary cells inside Wards 209, 240, and IRGC’s Ward 2-A, had been exposed to some type of psychological, mental, or physical torture. During my time in Ward 350, I was able to talk to 19 friends who had been tortured. Most of the torture took place inside the ward affiliated with the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), and depending on what the security forces decided for the prisoner, the type and intensity of the torture differed. [...] During the talks I had with my friends, they gave me a complete description of what they went through in solitary cells. The stories I heard about the horrible psychological and physical torture provided me with new insight about how brutally the regime treats its political prisoners.

Beatings, urinating on the prisoner’s head and face, hanging the prisoner by his feet, flogging, using electric shockers, hitting sensitive spots on one’s body, and one case of horrible rape using glue, were parts of the physical torture my friends told me about. Fake executions, insults and degradation, arrests of family members, threats of arresting and raping the prisoner’s wife or daughter, threatening the prisoner with the death sentence, forcing the prisoner to take psychedelics, etc., were only a small part of the psychological and mental tortures used inside the Islamic Republic prisons that these 19 prisoners experienced. Though the number of prisoners who were tortured was far more than this number, when I was inside Ward 250, I was only able to talk to 19 individuals, some of whom were unfortunately executed later and some others who continue to serve their time there.

Regardless of what ward Dadkhah is in currently, it is clear that his life and well-being are in grave jeopardy. While human rights activists and people of goodwill around the world are speaking out and navigating diplomatic channels to advocate for his release, the record of success in such instances may not favor the embattled attorney.

Ironically, the one Islamic country that is actually seeing a decline in Islam and a push among its people — particularly within its dissident movement — towards Western values, is Iran. But while a hardline Islamic regime led by the Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad still exists, the odds are stacked decidedly against political prisoners in the country.

DEALERSHIP ACCIDENTALLY SELLS VA. MAN AN SUV FOR $5K LESS THAN IT COSTS — THEN TELLS POLICE HE STOLE IT AND HAS HIM ARRESTED

A Virginia man is suing a Chevrolet dealership after it accidentally sold him a car for $5,600 less than it cost — and then accused him of stealing it and had him arrested, the Virginian-Pilotreported.

According to the lawsuit, Danny Sawyer, 40, purchased a black Chevrolet Traverse from Priority Chevrolet in May but returned the next morning to exchange it for a blue one. A sales manager agreed to the trade but did not say how much more the blue SUV would cost — something the dealership disputes. Still, Sawyer signed a new contract with a sales price of about $34,000 when it should have been around $39,000.

One week later, Sawyer returned home to dozens of voice messages and a letter from the dealership. The sales manager said he made a mistake and sold the car for too little, and asked Sawyer to return and sign a new, correct contract. According to the lawsuit, Sawyer refused. When he didn’t return, the dealership continued to try to contact him before finally going to the police to report the SUV had been stolen. On June 15, three police officers arrested Sawyer in front of his Chesapeake, Va. home. He was released on bond after spending four hours in jail.

Priority Chevrolet President Dennis Ellmer apologized Wednesday for Sawyer’s arrest and said the dealership “definitely made a mistake” — first with the incorrect contract and then in going to the police.

“I owe Mr. Sawyer a big apology,” Ellmer told the Virginian-Pilot. “It is my plan to let him keep the $5,600 and to make Mr. Sawyer right. I can’t tell you how I plan to fix it, but it is my intention to make it right.”

Rebecca Colaw, Sawyer’s attorney, told the newspaper her client appreciates Ellmer taking responsibility but said “an apology is not enough.”

Sawyer has filed two lawsuits accusing the dealership of malicious prosecution, slander and defamation, among others, and is seeking $2.2 million in damages, plus attorney fees.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Nancy Parr told the Virginian-Pilot her office dropped all charges against Sawyer due to insufficient evidence.