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 | March 2, 2015 |
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| ISIS LATEST |
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AP: Activists Say ISIS Releases 19 Syrian Christians
The Islamic State group released at least 19 Christians on Sunday who were among the more than 220 people the militants took captive in northeastern Syria last week, activists and a local leader said. The news provided a modicum of relief to a Christian Assyrian community that has been devastated by the abductions, which saw Islamic State fighters haul off entire families from a string of villages along the Khabur River in Hassakeh province. But fears remain over the fate of the hundreds still held captive. Bashir Saedi, a senior official in the Assyrian Democratic Organization, said the 16 men and three women arrived safely Sunday at the Church of the Virgin Mary in the city of Hassakeh. He said the 19 — all of them from the village of Tal Ghoran — had traveled by bus from the Islamic State-held town of Shaddadeh south of Hassakeh. Read more..
NBC News: Iraq Launches Offensive On ISIS North Of Baghdad
Iraq's army and Shi'ite militia have launched a long-awaited offensive against ISIS in Salahuddin province, a stronghold of the radical Islamist fighters north of Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Sunday. The ultra-radical fighters control several strongholds in the mainly Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin, including Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein. They also hold other towns on the Tigris river north of the government-held city of Samarra, which Abadi visited on Sunday. "The prime minister and armed forces chief ... announce the start of the security campaign to liberate Salahuddin," a statement issued by Abadi's office said as he met military leaders in the province, where thousands of troops and militia have gathered for battle. Read more..
USA Today: Man Known As 'Jihadi John' Once Considered Suicide
Two conflicting profiles are emerging for Mohammed Emwazi, the recently revealed identity of Islamic State butcher "Jihadi John." Emwazi, before leaving for Syria to join the militant group, claimed he was an innocent victim of British security persecution. He sent e-mails to the London-based publication Mail on Sunday in 2010 and 2011 saying he contemplated suicide due to the intense harassment. "I'll take as many pills as I can so that I will sleep for ever," he warned in e-mails to Mail security editor Robert Verkaik. Emwazi, now infamous in the West for horrifying videos featuring footage of him beheading hostages, then referred to himself as an innocent "dead man walking" and complained that he was constantly under surveillance. Read more..
NBC News: ISIS Girls: Video Reportedly Shows 3 British Teens Believed to Have Crossed Into Syria
Turkish media on Sunday weekend said it obtained security footage of three British girls — who authorities believe traveled to Syria to join ISIS — at a bus station in Istanbul less than 24 hours after they disappeared. Turkish television station, A Haber news, said the three girls in the video — dressed in heavy coats and carrying backpacks — taken at the Bayrampasa bus station, near Turkey's border with Syria, are Amira Abase, 15, Shamima Begum, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16. The girls ran away from their U.K. homes on Feb. 17, and London authorities said they have reason to believe the teens were on their way to Syria to join ISIS. They were spotted the same day boarding a flight out of London's Gatwick Airport to Turkey, and the footage reportedly taken at the train station shows the girls spent 18 hours in the station between Feb. 17 and Feb. 18. London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Feb. 24 that the girls had likely crossed into Syria. Read more..
BuzzFeed: ISIS Threatens Twitter Founder And Employees Over Blocked Accounts
ISIS supporters on Sunday called on jihadists around the world to kill Twitter employees because of the company’s frequent blocking of their social media accounts. “Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you,” reads an online post addressed to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and shared by ISIS supporters. The post, whose authorship is unclear, was accompanied by a digitally altered image of Dorsey in the cross sights of a gun. Twitter, as well as YouTube, often move quickly to delete posts and suspend accounts that disseminate ISIS videos showing the gruesome executions of hostages. ... A spokesman for Twitter, Jim Prosser, told BuzzFeed News: “Our security team is investigating the veracity of these threats with relevant law enforcement officials.” Read more..
WSJ: U.S.-Backed Rebel Group In Syria Disbands
The first Western-backed rebel group to receive sophisticated U.S. weaponry dissolved itself after months of clashes with the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front fighting in Syria’s multi-sided war. The development offered a new example of the Western-backed rebel groups and moderate Islamist rebels being wedged out in the war while extremist groups such as Nusra Front and Islamic State and the regime hold or gain ground. Harakat Hazm, mostly based in northern Syria, was the first rebel group to receive American-made antitank TOW missiles last year in what was seen at the time as a harbinger of more military aid for the moderate opposition fighting President Bashar al-Assad. But rebels said that the military aid was erratic and never sufficient to match the might of Mr. Assad’s military, while at the same time marking these groups by Islamist groups in the opposition as American stooges. Read more..
The Hill: U.S. Boots Needed To Defeat ISIS, Boehner Says
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Sunday said there will have to be U.S. boots on the ground overseas in the mission to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “Somebody’s boots have to be on the ground,” Boehner said in a live interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We have some 3,000 boots on the ground today. Let’s not suggest that we don’t.” While Boehner said military commanders, and not Congress, should decide whether to increase the U.S. force in the Middle East, he also said, “We’re going to have to have some people in there, providing advice, and those are boots on the ground.” Boehner said it’s important for “America to speak with one voice” on foreign policy issues and when international threats arise. Read more..
NY Daily News: Dakota Johnson's 'Saturday Night Live' ISIS Parody Of Toyota Camry Commercial Sparks Controversy
The skit, which opens with "50 Shades of Grey" star Dakota Johnson saying goodbye to her dad at what appears to be an airport, lampoons a recent commercial for Toyota Camry. In that ad, a dad recalls his daughter’s life and bids her a tearful farewell as she joins the military. The SNL sketch follows the same trajectory, until Johnson’s ride arrives. A pick-up truck bearing the Islamic State’s black flag and carrying three armed insurgents pulls up. “You be careful, OK?” the dad tells his daughter. “Dad, it’s just ISIS,” Johnson replies, giving her old man a wink. Read more..
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| NETANYAHU VISIT |
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NBC News/WSJ Poll: Nearly Half Of Voters Disapprove Of GOP’s Netanyahu Invite
Nearly half of American voters think that Republican lawmakers should not have invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress without first notifying President Barack Obama, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey finds. Some 48% of registered voters said they disapproved of inviting another leader to speak without first checking with the president, while 30% said congressional Republicans should have done so. Just over a fifth said they didn’t know enough to say. Read more..
NPR: Kerry Tries To Calm Tensions Over Netanyahu Visit
Secretary of State John Kerry, apparently hoping to patch a rift sparked by GOP lawmakers' decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress without first consulting the White House, says the administration doesn't want the speech to become a political football. "The prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. And we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history," Kerry said on ABC's This Week, adding, "We don't want to see this turned into some great political football." That's a step back from comments made last week by National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who said Netanyahu's planned address before Congress on Tuesday would be "destructive to the fabric of U.S.-Israeli ties."Read more..
NOTE: Netanyahu arrived in the United States on Sunday afternoon.
Huffington Post: Dianne Feinstein: Benjamin Netanyahu 'Arrogant' For Claiming To Speak For All Jews
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Sunday that it was "arrogant" for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to presume to speak for all Jews on a potential nuclear deal between the United States and Iran. Netanyahu has defended his upcoming speech to Congress on Iran in part by saying that he feels like he is an "emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, of the entire Jewish people." During an appearance on CNN's "State of The Union," Feinstein, who is Jewish, dismissed the suggestion that Netanyahu spoke on her behalf. "No, he doesn't speak for me on this," she said. "I think it's a rather arrogant statement. I think the Jewish community is like any other community, there are different points of view. I think that arrogance does not befit Israel, candidly. I think Israel is a nation that needs to be protected, that needs to stand free, that hopefully can work constructively with Palestinians to have a side-by-side state and to put an end to the bitterness that has plagued this whole area." Read more..
BuzzFeed: 180 Israeli Security Officials Tell Netanyahu That Speaking To Congress Is A Mistake
An alliance of 180 of Israel’s top former military and intelligence officials are criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to speak to Congress, in a rare public stance against the Israeli leader. Just hours after Netanyahu boarded a plane bound for Washington, the group of former generals and intelligence heads held a press conference in Tel Aviv where they stated that Netanyahu’s policies and upcoming speech to Congress were doing irreparable harm to U.S.-Israel relations and would do nothing to stop Iran’s nuclear program. “When the Israeli prime minister argues that his speech will stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, he is not only misleading Israel – he is actually strengthening Iran,” said Gen. (Res). Amnon Reshef, head of the group, Commanders for Israel’s Security, and former head of Israel’s armored corps. Read more..
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| POLITICAL NEWS |
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Politico: Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll, With Scott Walker Right Behind
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won the presidential straw poll at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference — his third such victory in a row. But Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came in a strong second, reflecting a rising popularity among the GOP grassroots. Paul earned 25.7 percent of the vote and Walker took 21.4 percent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a favorite of the GOP establishment and donor class but not so much of the conservative base, finished fifth with 8 percent, results showed.Read more..
WSJ: Hillary Clinton Seen Launching Presidential Bid In April
Hillary Clinton and her close advisers are telling Democratic donors that she will enter the presidential race sooner than expected, likely in April, a move that would allay uncertainties within her party and allow her to rev up fundraising. Clinton aides have spoken of the earlier timetable in private meetings, according to people engaged in recent discussions about the presumed Democratic front-runner’s emerging 2016 campaign. Many within her camp have advocated her staying out of the fray until the summer. Jumping in sooner would help the Democratic field take shape, reassuring party leaders and donors that the former first lady, senator and secretary of state is running. A super PAC loyal to Mrs. Clinton has faced hesitation from donors who don’t want to make big pledges until she is a candidate. Such concerns would evaporate after she announces. Read more..
CBS News: Scott Walker On Immigration: 'My View Has Changed'
Now that he's gearing up for a possible presidential campaign,Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is already walking back beliefs he held just two years ago, on the flashpoint subject that has Congressional Republicans -- including the party's leadership -- in knots. "My view has changed. I'm flat out saying it," Walker said Sunday in a Fox News interview, addressing progressive immigration policies that he once favored. "Candidates can say that." Walker was responding to a grainy Wausau Daily Herald video from two years ago showing the young governor, shirt sleeves rolled up, answering a pointed question about a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants. "Can you envision a world where with the right penalties and waiting periods and meet the requirements, where those people can get citizenship?" a reporter asks off-screen. In the clip, the governor responds simply: "Sure, yes. I mean, I think it makes sense." Read more..
Reuters: Jeb Bush Will Refuse To Sign Tax Pledges: Spokeswoman
Jeb Bush will not sign any "no new taxes" pledges or any other pledges if he decides to seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, a spokeswoman said on Saturday. The statement from Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell was in response to an appeal from anti-tax champion Grover Norquist for Bush to sign his Taxpayers Protection Pledge, in which candidates agree to oppose tax increases. "If Governor Bush decides to move forward, he will not sign any pledges circulated by lobbying groups," Campbell said in a statement. "His record on tax cuts is clear. He didn't raise taxes." Read more..
Politico: John Boehner Concedes House A 'Rambunctious Place'
House Speaker John Boehner insisted on Sunday there’s no rift among House Republicans, even though some members of his own party - in an embarrassing defeat for his leadership - rejected a three-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security. “The Senate refused to pass their own bill, Sen. [Mitch] McConnell tried for almost a month to get the Senate to act, but four times Senate Democrats blocked the ability to even debate the bill,” the Ohio Republican said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So, I thought that a three-week agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security was ample time to have a Senate-House conference, which we asked for Friday night, and more time for the courts to make a decision.” But that three-week bill was defeated Friday before the House and Senate both approved one-week stopgap spending measures. Read more..
The Hill: House Majority Whip: 'No Deal' On 'Clean' DHS Funding Bill
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Sunday rejected rumors that GOP leaders struck a deal with Democratic leaders to bring a “clean” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill to the floor for a vote this week. “There is no such deal and there’s no such bill,” Scalise said on “Fox News Sunday." “On Friday, there was a bill on the House floor to pass a clean funding bill. We rejected that because we said we’re fighting the president on what he’s doing illegally on immigration.” Just before the House voted on a bill late Friday to fund DHS for one week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) encouraged the rest of her caucus to vote for the measure and said in a letter, “Your vote tonight will assure that we will vote for full funding next week.” Read more..
Huffington Post: Kevin McCarthy Wants Senate Republicans To Get Rid Of The Filibuster
The No. 2 Republican in the House said on Sunday that the Senate should exercise the "nuclear option" and get rid of the filibuster to resolve the standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Senate Democrats have used the filibuster to block legislation that would have funded the DHS while defunding President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration. Even though Republicans opposed getting rid of the filibuster when Democrats controlled the Senate, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the party should do so now. "I don’t think going nuclear when you have 57 percent of the Senate voted for the Collins amendment that would take away the president's action," McCarthy said on NBC's "Meet The Press," referring to the amendment introduced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would not fund the president's recently announced executive actions on immigration, but would leave in place the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Read more..
ABC News: Republicans Blocking DHS Funding Are 'Delusional,' Rep. Peter King Says
House Homeland Security Committee member Rep. Peter King today called some members of his Republican caucus "self-righteous and delusional" for opposing a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security. "I said the other night, when I was at the Republican meeting, that they are self-righteous and delusional," King said on "This Week" of the Republican contingent holding up the bill because of their opposition to President Obama's executive action on immigration. "We're talking about maybe 40 or 50 people at most, out of a caucus of 247, out of a Congress of 435. We cannot allow such a small group to be dominating and controlling what happens in the United States Congress, especially at a time when we're confronting terrorism," the New York Republican told ABC News' Martha Raddatz. Read more..
Politico: Eric Braverman Tried to Change the Clinton Foundation. Then He Quit.
In December, the board of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation approved a salary of more than $395,000, plus bonus, for its Yale-educated CEO, Eric Braverman, while voting to extend his board term through 2017, according to sources familiar with the arrangement. Braverman, who had worked with Chelsea Clinton at the prestigious McKinsey & Company consultancy, had been brought in with the former first daughter’s support to help impose McKinsey-like management rigor to a foundation that had grown into a $2 billion charitable powerhouse. But last month, only weeks after the board's show of support and just a year-and-a-half after Braverman arrived, he abruptly resigned, and sources tell Politico his exit stemmed partly from a power struggle inside the foundation between and among the coterie of Clinton loyalists who have surrounded the former president for decades and who helped start and run the foundation. Some, including the president’s old Arkansas lawyer Bruce Lindsey, who preceded Braverman as CEO, raised concerns directly to Bill Clinton about the reforms implemented by Braverman, according to sources, and felt themselves marginalized by the growing influence of Chelsea Clinton and the new CEO she had helped recruit. Read more..
NYT: Martin O’Malley, In Veiled Jab At Hillary Clinton, Derides Politics Of ‘Triangulation’
Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who is likely to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, took a veiled shot at a potential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech in South Carolina on Saturday, criticizing the politics of “triangulation” that have historically been associated with the Clintons. “The most fundamental power of our party and our country is the power of our moral principles,” Mr. O’Malley said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by an aide. In words that echoed those of Senator Barack Obama when he battled Mrs. Clinton in 2007 for the Democratic nomination, Mr. O’Malley added: “Triangulation is not a strategy that will move America forward. History celebrates profiles in courage, not profiles in convenience.” Read more..
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| MARCH MOURNING RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER DRAWS THOUSANDS & OTHER STORIES FOR THIS MONDAY MORNING... |
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AP: Thousands March In Moscow To Mourn Slain Boris Nemtsov
For the tens of thousands bearing flowers and tying black ribbons to railings in honor of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the solemn march through the Moscow drizzle on Sunday was a time for silence, not slogans. The marchers occasionally broke into chants of "Russia without Putin," or "Say no to war," but often the only sound was the steady thwack of police helicopters overhead or the hum of police boats patrolling the shores of the Moscow River. While the killing of Nemtsov has shaken the Russian opposition, which sees the Kremlin as responsible, it is unclear whether his death will be enough to invigorate the beleaguered movement. Despite the Ukraine conflict and Russia's economic crisis, support for President Vladimir Putin has been above 80 percent in the past year.Read more..
NPR: Avalanches Kill Nearly 250 In Afghanistan
Massive avalanches in a valley not far from the Afghan capital have reportedly killed nearly 200 people, adding to a total of almost 250 deaths from the worst such snow slides in three decades in the country's mountainous northeast. Rescue workers using bulldozers worked to clear roads to the Panjshir Valley area just northeast of Kabul — an area where villagers have been cut off for almost a week. Gov. Abdul Rahman Kabiri, the acting governor of Panjshir province, said a total 196 people had been killed and dozens more injured in the deadly avalanches. Hundreds of homes have been damaged and destroyed, he said, according to The Wall Street Journal. Some 50 others were killed in avalanches elsewhere. Read more..
BuzzFeed: Ebola Survivor Nina Pham To Sue Employer For Failing To Protect Her From The Virus
Ebola survivor Nina Pham is reportedly planning on filing a lawsuit against the parent company of the Dallas hospital where she contracted the deadly virus while working as a nurse. In an exclusive interview with the Dallas Morning News, Pham accused Texas Health Resources of failing to provide a safe work environment and then exploiting her for its own gain as she fought for her life. “(Texas Health Resources) used Nina as a PR pawn,” her lawyer Charla Aldous told the Dallas Morning News. Pham was working as a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas when she began treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who became the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.Read more..
Reuters: North Korea Fires Two Short-Range Missiles Off Coast
North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, the South Korean military said, a move seen as a protest against annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States that were due to start hours later. The missiles hit the sea early on Monday morning after traveling for about 490 km (305 miles), according to South Korea's defense ministry. The firing came on the day when the U.S.-South Korean military exercises were scheduled to begin. The secretive North denounces the drills as a preparation for war. Read more..
AP: Venezuela To Shrink US Embassy Staff, Require Tourist Visas
Venezuela will shrink the size of the U.S. Embassy staff, limit the activities of U.S. diplomats and require American citizens to apply for visas if they want to come bask on the beach. Speaking before a crowd that rallied to protest imperialism, President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that "gringo" meddling had forced him to adopt the series of restrictive measures, which include requiring U.S. diplomats to seek approval from the Foreign Ministry for meetings they conduct here. Maduro said he was imposing the new tourist visa requirement for national security reasons, saying that in recent days authorities had detained several U.S. citizens who he alleged were involved in espionage, including an American pilot. Read more..
WSJ: Task Force Calls for More Police Body Cameras
A presidential task force on policing is calling for increased use of body cameras and other technology, and expanded efforts to connect officers with neighborhoods, among a list of proposals aimed at building trust between law enforcement and communities. The recommendations will form the heart of the White House’s response to the recent police killings of unarmed citizens, including last year’s fatal shooting of an African-American teenager in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo. At the time, President Barack Obama said the incident in Ferguson had laid bare “a simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color.” Read more..
NYT: News Corp. Set To Rehire Rebekah Brooks, Acquitted Executive
Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings in Britain, acquitted last year on charges related to the phone hacking scandal, is likely to return to News Corporation to focus on new avenues for digital and social media, people familiar with the company’s plans said. Ms. Brooks will probably take an executive role in which she will seek ways to expand News Corporation’s digital endeavors, particularly user-generated and social media. That will include working with Storyful, a company that monitors social media for newsworthy material, which was acquired in 2013. Read more..
Huffington Post: LAPD Caught On Video Shooting Homeless Man To Death
Los Angeles police fatally shot a homeless man on Sunday in a disturbing encounter that was caught on video. According to the Los Angeles Times, the man, whom witnesses called "Africa," was pronounced dead at the hospital. The incident, which occurred downtown in the city's Skid Row area, was captured on video and uploaded to Facebook. The video shows a confrontation in which the homeless man appears to throw a punch at police as officers try to contain him. One officer drops his nightstick, which a woman picks up off the ground. Two officers push her to the ground to restrain her. Meanwhile, several officers fight the man to the ground. At least one officer can be heard repeatedly shouting, "Drop the gun," after which five gunshots can be heard. One witness, Yolanda Young, told CBS2 that the altercation occurred over an argument in a tent. Read more..
AP: New Round Of Snow Could Push Boston To Season Record
After cold and snow that set February records, southern New England entered March with another round that could push Boston over its 20-year-old snowfall record. With 102 inches, Boston needs 5.7 more to break the 1995-1996 record of 107.6. Snowfall of 4 to 6 inches was expected by early Monday across the area, with up to 8 inches in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Less snow is expected in northern Massachusetts and New York state, and on Cape Cod. Read more..
Huffington Post: Kanye West Reveals Upcoming Album Title, 'So Help Me God'
The 37-year-old announced Saturday that his new album, which has yet to get a release date, will be titled "So Help Me God." West tweeted the title along with a photo that is thought to be a 13th century monastic symbol for the Virgin Mary, according to Rolling Stone. In an interview with Power 105 on Feb. 20, the "Bound 2" rapper told the radio station that the album is "80 percent" done, adding, "I'm trying to get it finished. I'm trying to get it to the people as soon as possible." He also hinted that the album will drop as a surprise instead of having a traditional release. Read more..
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