Most powerful White House Obamacare official at center of IRS scandal
The White House official who exchanged confidential taxpayer information with the IRS is a longtime Obama advisor and progressive activist who is currently the most powerful official on Obamacare implementation within the White House.

Jeanne Lambrew, deputy assistant to the president for health policy, entered Obama-world in 2008 as a health-policy adviser to then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. She was subsequently named deputy director and then director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) now-defunct Office of Health Reform, where she reported directly to Kathleen Sebelius.

Lambrew’s current “deputy assistant to the president” position, while modest-sounding, gives her extensive and centralized power over the White House’s efforts to implement Obamacare....

IRS enforcement of ObamaCare law under fire
IRS ENFORCEMENT OF HEALTHCARE LAW UNDER FIRE AMID NEW DETAILS IN TARGETING SCANDAL

JOHN LAYFIELD: Does this surprise anybody that the IRS is being used as a political weapon by the Obama Administration. The IRS has been used as political weapon since J Edgar Hoover. Look what they have done, the targeting of certain conservative groups and sharing confidential information. This is only what we are finding out. Putting them in charge of ObamaCare is a horrible idea. Get rid of all these people and get them out of ObamaCare.

SASCHA BURNS: The information that Ingram provided to the White House did not go to political staff, it went to people who are overseeing the implementation of ObamaCare. Part of which, is the exemption for religious organizations for the contraception mandate. The information being shared is whether or not the organization is religiously affiliated or an actual organization. She did not provide any confidential information.

GARY B. SMITH: The problem is the way this Administration is enforcing ObamaCare. We have already seen the tone and vindictiveness with what we with closing National Parks. It was horrible and vindictive in order to get their way. The IRS is a scary organization whether that is all bluster or that is reality, people are scared of the IRS. I think it is going to be scary and vindictive for a lot of people so this Administration makes sure that are "right."...

Is the NSA Blackmailing Officials Into Supporting Snooping?
...Of course it’s natural, when people disagree with you, to at least briefly think, “they couldn’t possibly really believe that, there must be some outside power forcing them to take that position.” Mostly I do not believe that anything like that is now going on.

But I cannot be 100% sure, and therein lies the problem. The breadth of the NSA’s newly revealed capabilities makes the emergence of such suspicions in our society inevitable. Especially given that we are far, far away from having the kinds of oversight mechanisms in place that would provide ironclad assurance that these vast powers won’t be abused. And that highlights the highly corrosive nature of allowing the NSA such powers. Everyone has dark suspicions about their political opponents from time to time, and Americans are highly distrustful of government in general. When there is any opening at all for members of the public to suspect that officials from the legislative and judicial branches could be vulnerable to leverage from secretive agencies within the executive branch—and when those officials can even suspect they might be subject to leverage—that is a serious problem for our democracy....

NSA Whistleblower: NSA Spying On – and Blackmailing – Top Government Officials and Military Officers
...Okay. They went after–and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things–they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial. But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and law firms. All kinds of–heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House–their own people. They went after antiwar groups. They went after U.S. international–U.S. companies that that do international business, you know, business around the world. They went after U.S. banking firms and financial firms that do international business. They went after NGOs that–like the Red Cross, people like that that go overseas and do humanitarian work. They went after a few antiwar civil rights groups. So, you know, don’t tell me that there’s no abuse, because I’ve had this stuff in my hand and looked at it. And in some cases, I literally was involved in the technology that was going after this stuff. And you know, when I said to [former MSNBC show host Keith] Olbermann, I said, my particular thing is high tech and you know, what’s going on is the other thing, which is the dragnet. The dragnet is what Mark Klein is talking about, the terrestrial dragnet. Well my specialty is outer space. I deal with satellites, and everything that goes in and out of space. I did my spying via space. So that’s how I found out about this....

...FBI officers held a gun to Binney’s head as he stepped naked from the shower. He watched with his wife and youngest son as the FBI ransacked their home. Later Binney was separated from the rest of his family, and FBI officials pressured him to implicate one of the other complainants in criminal activity. During the raid, Binney attempted to report to FBI officials the crimes he had witnessed at NSA, in particular the NSA’s violation of the constitutional rights of all Americans. However, the FBI wasn’t interested in these disclosures. Instead, FBI officials seized Binney’s private computer, which to this day has not been returned despite the fact that he has not been charged with a crime....