Obama announces IRS leader's ouster after conservatives targeted

President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday to hold accountable those at the Internal Revenue Service involved in the targeting of conservative groups applying for federal tax-exempt status, beginning with the resignation of the agency's acting commissioner who was aware of the practice.

In a brief statement delivered to reporters at the East Room of the White House, the president announced that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had requested -- and accepted -- the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller.

The president said the "misconduct" detailed in the IRS Inspector General's report released Tuesday over the singling out of conservative groups is "inexcusable."
"Americans have a right to be angry about, and I'm angry about it," Obama said.

"It should not matter what political stripe you're from. The fact of the matter is, the IRS has to operate with absolute integrity."

According to the report, Miller was aware of the agency's targeting of conservative groups while serving as deputy IRS commissioner in early 2012 and did not tell Congress about it.

Obama pledged to work "hand in hand" with Congress as it investigates, and he vowed new safeguards will be put in place at the IRS so that "this doesn't happen again."

In an internal message to IRS employees obtained by CNN, Miller said he would be stepping down as commissioner in early June.

"This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency," Miller wrote.

"I believe the Service will benefit from having a new Acting Commissioner in place during this challenging period."

White House releases 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails

The White House released more than 100 pages of e-mails on Wednesday in a bid to quell critics who say President Barack Obama and his aides played politics with national security following the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

The exchanges detailing discussions between top Obama administration officials from multiple agencies suggest the CIA took the lead in developing talking points to describe the attack last September 11 that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Read All The Emails Here !

Can Saudi Arabia's first anti-domestic violence advert make a difference?

Saudi Arabia's King Khalid Foundation ran the country's first anti-domestic abuse ad in national newspapers on April 17 and 18, 2013. The campaign, titled 'No More Abuse', is timed to promote pending legislaton to criminalize domestic abuse.

I, too, am an abduction survivor - Alicia Kozakiewicz

(CNN) -- The amazing escape of three Cleveland women -- Amanda Berry, Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, and Michelle Knight -- exploded into the media amid sordid back stories of their captivity and gave life yet again to my own dark memories of captivity and despair.
At age 13, I, too, became the helpless victim of a sexually depraved monster, a vicious Internet predator who actively groomed me. Luring me from my home, he abducted me to Virginia where I was held captive in his basement dungeon.

For days, I was raped, beaten and tortured, and like an animal, chained to the floor by a locking dog collar. My abductor shared my degradation via streaming video, boasting online about the young girl he had taken to be his sex slave.

It was this very brazenness that would lead to my rescue, as one recipient of the live broadcast, afraid of his own involvement in the crime, scoured the newspaper and found my National Center for Missing and Exploited Children missing person flier. Seeing that my family and the FBI were searching for me, he used a pay phone to contact authorities.

This led the FBI to where I was being imprisoned. The chain was cut from my neck; I was set free and gifted with a second chance at life. Had that call not been made, or had the investigation taken only a bit longer, the monster would have most likely murdered me. Sadly, 74% of stranger-abducted children will be killed within the first three hours.

http://www.aliciaproject.org/