Prison worker reportedly admits smuggling power tools to escaped killers

A prison worker has admitted to investigators that she provided vital assistance to two convicted killers who escaped a maximum-security prison in upstate New York last weekend, according to a published report.
The Albany Times-Union reported late Thursday that 51-year-old Joyce Mitchell told New York State Police that she gave Richard Matt and David Sweat access to a cell phone and smuggled power tools into Clinton Correctional Facility, where she worked as a supervisor in the prison's tailoring shop. The Associated Press, citing a person close to the case, reported that Mitchell had agreed to be the getaway driver for the two men, but failed to show up.
Mitchell's confession was reported on the same day that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed that state law would come down hard on any prison system employee who crosses the line with inmates.
"If you do it, you will be convicted, and then you'll be on the other side of the prison that you've been policing, and that is not a pleasant place to be," Cuomo said. The governor also said investigators are "talking to several people who may have facilitated the escape."
Mitchell has not been charged in connection with the escape, but the Times-Union, citing a law enforcement official briefed on the case, reported that authorities expected to charge her with multiple crimes.
The paper also reported that Mitchell had been investigated in recent months by the state corrections department's inspector general after a fellow prison worker complained that she had gotten too close to Sweat and Matt. That investigation did not result in any discipline. Prison employees and correction officers are prohibited from having relationships with inmates or performing favors for them.

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There was no sign of Sweat and Mitchell early Friday, but law enforcement sources told the Times-Union that they believed the men were contained in an area near the prison, between the towns of Dannemora and Plattsburgh. The Associated Press source said the fact that Mitchell failed to pick the men up as promised was the main reason the investigation had been focused on an area so close to the prison.
The Times-Union also reported that the search for the men had been beset by internal strife between federal marshals and State Police officials. The cause of the quarrelling was not disclosed in the report.
Earlier Thursday, bloodhounds had picked up the men's scent heading east from Dannemora after forest rangers who stopped at a convenience store late Wednesday discovered a trail leading to an area of the woods where the grass had been matted down. Authorities, including the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, descended on the town of Cadyville.
Law enforcement officers walking an arm's length apart were conducting a grid search through a cordoned-off area consisting of mud, woods, thick underbrush and several houses, Sheriff David Favro said. He said there had been no reports of stolen or abandoned vehicles, break-ins or abductions.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of Matt's 76-year-old former boss, whose body was found in pieces in a river.
Matt and an accomplice stuffed William Rickerson in a car trunk in his pajamas and drove around with him for 27 hours because he wouldn't tell them the location of large sums of money he was believed to have.
According to testimony, Matt bent back the elderly man's fingers until they broke and later snapped Rickerson's neck with his bare hands.
After the killing, Matt fled to Mexico, where he killed a man outside a bar.
Sweat was doing life without parole for his part in the 2002 killing of sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarsia, who was shot 15 times and run over after discovering Sweat and two accomplices transferring stolen guns between vehicles.

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‘Wishful Thinking’: Obama’s ex-military intel chief blasts Iran talks in scathing testimony

A former top military intelligence official under President Obama on Wednesday blasted the administration's pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran, calling it a "placeholder" based on "wishful thinking."
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered pointed and detailed criticism of the Iran deal framework -- as well as the U.S. response to the violence in Iraq and Syria.
"It is clear that the nuclear deal is not a permanent fix but merely a placeholder," he told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.
In written and delivered testimony, he said the 10-year timeframe on parts of the deal "only [makes] sense" if the U.S. thinks a "wider reconciliation" with Iran is possible. He called this "wishful thinking," adding that "regime change" is the best way to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Flynn also asserted that Iran has "every intention" of building a nuclear weapon, and their desire to destroy Israel is "very real."
"Iran has not once (not once) contributed to the greater good of the security of the region," he said, noting their fighters "killed or maimed thousands of Americans and Iraqis" in Iraq.
The administration is working alongside five other world powers to try and strike a nuclear deal -- which would aim to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief -- by the end of the month. But Flynn said Iran already has made it clear they will put limits on inspections, making for "incomplete verification." Plus he said it's "unreasonable" to believe international sanctions could be resumed once lifted.
He also echoed concerns of some other analysts in saying the "perceived acceptance" of Iran's program will likely "touch off a dangerous domino effect in the region" as Saudi Arabia and other nations seek nuclear capability.
As for the rising threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Flynn voiced concern that the U.S. is not keeping up with the crisis. He said there is "absolutely no end in sight," and "no clear U.S. policy" for dealing with it.

Iran satellite launches tied to ballistic missile program, UN experts say

EXCLUSIVE: Iran has launched a space satellite using  technology that could “contribute to” the development of a ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons, according to a United Nations-appointed panel of experts monitoring the issue.
Tehran intends to launch more such satellites,  the panel said.
The most recent  launch came last February 15, the experts noted, adding that the Iranian government has already announced plans to conduct three additional satellite launches before March 2016.
The vehicle used in the February launch—from a military base in northern Iran-- was based on a “space launch vehicle” that is  variant of Iran’s Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which has a range of about 1,000 miles. The Shahab-3 is one of two Iranian missiles that the experts say  “are believed to be potentially capable of delivery of nuclear weapons.”
The experts noted that the future satellites will be boosted aloft “from more powerful launchers and on the back of bigger carriers.”
Iran’s missile development—peaceful or not-- is one of the murkier and more contentious  issues surrounding the ongoing negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the world’s major powers—precisely because ballistic missiles have been shunted to the side of a  potential deal centered on nuclear enrichment activities that the Obama Administration is pushing hard to conclude by June 30.
U.N. Security Council resolutions that have sanctioned Iran for its nuclear weapons development have also banned Iranian work on ballistic missile programs that could deliver the weapons. But missiles were not mentioned in the interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers struck last November, which has so far unfrozen billions in Iranian assets and which is supposed to be turned into a final agreement by June 30.
Last year, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called  any Western expectations that Iran would restrain its missile development program “stupid and idiotic,” and called for the country to mass produce such weapons.
Even so, a 7-member U.N. expert panel which is monitoring Iran’s behavior on the proliferation issue while negotiations continue noted in its June 1, 2015 report that Iran’s officials and news media “have not been reporting any new ballistic missile developments” such as the “unveiling or testing of new types of ballistic missiles,” or tests of medium-range missiles it is already known to possess.
Satellite  launches, however,  are another matter. The experts noted that the February 15 satellite payload weighed 110 lbs. and was designed for “collecting imagery.” It was only a limited success:  the satellite fell back into the earth’s atmosphere after just 23 days, even though it was apparently intended to stay aloft for 18 months.
CLICK HERE FOR THE EXPERT REPORT
Nonetheless, the experts added, it was Iran’s first satellite launch since two failures in 2012. They also observed cryptically that “the details of this case present similarities with the launch of another satellite by a Safir space launch vehicle in 2011” and  analyzed in one of their  previous reports.
And according to that earlier document, a majority of the expert panel concluded that “the satellite launch was related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons,” and the Safir satellite launch vehicle itself “made use of ballistic missile technology.”
Both of those actions, the majority concluded in 2012, were violations of U.N. sanctions resolutions that explicitly forbade any Iranian activity “related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.”

Bill Clinton contradicts Hillary on email claims

Bill Clinton appeared Wednesday to contradict his wife's claims about their personal email use, saying he's only sent two emails in his life -- despite Hillary Clinton saying some of the private messages on her personal server were from her and her husband.
The former president addressed his very sparing email use at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Denver.
He said the "only time" he got on the Internet was to do "two emails" and order Christmas presents.
"Otherwise I found people said embarrassing things on emails. I didn't want to be one of them," Clinton said, to laughter.
The statement echoes what a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal in March -- that the ex-president had only sent two emails in his life, one to U.S. troops and the other to astronaut John Glenn.  
Yet, when Hillary Clinton held a press conference in March explaining her personal email use, she said her private server "contains personal communications from my husband and me."
The now-Democratic presidential candidate gave this detail in asserting that she would not turn over her personal server for examination -- as Republican lawmakers have requested.
Her office, though, has turned over thousands of pages of emails to the State Department, which has started to release some of them.

Al Qaeda leaders say group near collapse amid rise of ISIS, report claims

Two of Al Qaeda's spiritual leaders have said that the terror organization is barely functioning after losing money and manpower to the rapidly rising Islamic State group, according to a published report.
According to the Guardian, Abu Qatada and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi have described Al Qaeda as being without "organizational structure." Maqdisi says that Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri is isolated from his top lieutenants, saying "He operates solely based on the allegiance ... There is only communication channels and loyalty."
Qatada, who was deported to Jordan from Britain in 2013 to face terrorism charges, also acknowledges that ISIS has gotten the better of Al Qaeda in the propaganda wars as well as those fought on the battlefield.
The Guardian report traces the beginning of Al Qaeda's downfall to the ascension of Zawahiri as Al Qaeda's leader following the death of Usama bin Laden in May 2011. While bin Laden and Zawahiri had been forced to move in secret in the remote mountain regions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, hundreds of thousands of militants had flocked to the new battlefields in Syria and Iraq.
"What is leadership," asks Dr. Munif Samara, an Al Qaeda associate quoted in the report, "if your leader is in Afghanistan and your soldiers are in Iraq?"
In April 2013, the report claims, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who had been chosen as the leader of what was then called the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in 2010 without bin Laden's consent, announced that ISI and the Syrian rebel group the Nusra Front would merge to form ISIS. In response, Zawahiri ordered Beghdadi to restrict his operations to Iraq and said that Nusra Front commander Muhammad al-Joulani would lead Al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.

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According to the report, Baghdadi rebuffed Zawahiri's decision, launching his own campaign of terror with the help of escaped prisoners from Iraqi jails and a massive influx of foreign fighters who had come to Syria to join the civil conflict aimed at overthrowing Bashar al-Assad.
The following summer, ISIS overran large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, including the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, as the Iraqi army fled. It now has a global network of affiliates that stretches from Afghanistan to West Africa, and they have set about making their presence known through their own brand of terror.
Last week, an Afghan Army corps spokesman told The New York Times that 10 Taliban fighters had been beheaded by ISIS fighters. Meanwhile, in eastern Libya, militants linked to Al Qaeda there declared holy war — or jihad — on the local ISIS affiliate after one of their senior leaders was killed Wednesday by masked gunmen. That sparked an hours-long battle in the coastal city of Darna that left 11 people dead on both sides.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda's standing and finances continue to suffer. A former Al Qaeda member-turned-British intelligence agent tells the Guardian that at one point last year, the group was in such desperate straits that it had to sell its laptops and cars to buy food and pay rent.

US Embassy in Jakarta moves Fourth of July celebration to June to accommodate Muslims

The United States Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia celebrated Independence Day a month early -- to accommodate the country's Muslim population.
It seems the Fourth of July is right smack in the middle of Ramadan this year so the embassy decided to move America’s birthday to the Fourth of June.
“We are celebrating a month early to respect the holy month of Ramadan,” Ambassador Robert Blake told a gathering at the embassy.  
It sounds like every day is April Fool's Day at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. I wouldn’t be surprised if they observe Good Friday on a Tuesday.I suppose that Muslims would be too busy with their fasting and prayers to enjoy an all-beef frank and fireworks.  
And as the Obama administration constantly reminds us -- we simply cannot offend Islamic sensibilities.
The State Department downplayed the change during a June 9 press briefing by pointing out that official Fourth of June celebrations are not meant for the average American living in Jakarta.
“These are not events for the American citizen population that’s resident there,” spokesman Jeff Rathke told a reporter. “It’s not like a picnic you have with your family and friends when you’re back here in the U.S. These are official events that are – the purpose of which is to represent the United States to the host nation and to the host government.”
That explanation did not set well with Jim Hanson, the executive director for the Center for Security Policy on June 10.
“I think the problem is we have become overly sensitive to Islamic sensibilities,” he told Fox & Friends. “Ramadan is a time when most Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Well, if we wanted to be courteous, we could've just held the celebration at night. You know what else is great after sunset, fireworks?”
Mr. Hanson has a point. Sparklers aren’t nearly as fun during daylight hours.
Ambassador Blake told the Fourth of June gathering that their event was all the more meaningful because the “rights we celebrate are not America’s alone.”
You know what else is all the more meaningful? Celebrating America’s birthday on the right day – instead of getting into a dither over offending Muslims.
It’s really hard to mess up an Independence Day celebration – but the embassy staff even managed to get the theme wrong.
Instead of celebrating freedom, they celebrated green energy – complete with biodegradable balloons and something called “low-carbon sustainable food.” I think that’s government code for inedible food.
“The last time I checked July Fourth wasn't about green energy, it was about self-evident truths, that all men are created equal,” Hanson told Fox & Friends.
There you have it, America. Nothing says freedom quite like promoting green energy development. Because as we all know – our forefathers fought the British so that we might be able to compost and drive a Chevy Volt.

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Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleads not guilty in hush money case

Dennis Hastert appeared in court Tuesday for the first time since he was indicted, pleading not guilty to charges that he violated banking rules and lied to the FBI in a scheme to pay $3.5 million in hush money to conceal misconduct from his days as a high school teacher.
Defense attorney Thomas C. Green entered the pleas on Hastert's behalf.
The 73-year-old Republican has not spoken publicly about the accusations that emerged two weeks ago and raised questions about possible sexual abuse by a man who was once second in the line of succession to the presidency.
The politician-turned-lobbyist stepped before Judge Thomas M. Durkin on charges that he broke federal banking laws by withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and lying about the money when questioned.
A crush of reporters, photographers and TV cameras began gathering at dawn to ensure they did not miss Hastert if he arrived early for his arraignment. A long line also formed early outside the 14th-floor courtroom, and an overflow room was set aside for those unable to get in.
Green, who is based in Washington, has represented clients in the Watergate, Iran-Contra and Whitewater cases. Chicago attorney John Gallo is also on Hastert's defense team. Steven Block is the lead U.S. prosecutor.
It was unclear whether prosecutors might shed more light on the secret Hastert allegedly sought to conceal by paying the person the indictment refers to as "Individual A." Prosecutors typically provide an overview of charges at arraignments and sometimes disclose new details.
A person familiar with the allegations told The Associated Press the payments were intended to conceal claims Hastert sexually molested someone decades ago. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Defendants in most cases enter not guilty pleas at arraignments, though their lawyers will sometimes tell judges they are holding plea talks with the U.S. attorney's office. Authorities never arrested Hastert, but the judge is expected to set a bail amount.
Prosecutors have not said if they will ask Durkin to recuse himself after election records showed he donated $500 to the "Hastert for Congress" campaign in 2002, and $1,000 in 2004. The arraignment would give them the chance to make that request.
If convicted, Hastert faces a maximum five-year prison term on each of the two counts.
The indictment says Hastert agreed in 2010 to pay Individual A $3.5 million to "compensate for and conceal (Hastert's) prior misconduct" against that person. It says he paid $1.7 million before federal agents began scrutinizing the transactions.
He allegedly started by withdrawing $50,000 at a time and changed course when automatic bank transaction reports flagged those withdrawals. The indictment says Hastert then began taking cash out in increments of less than $10,000 to skirt reporting rules, which are primarily meant to thwart money laundering by underworld figures.
It's not illegal to withdraw large amounts in cash. But it's against the law to stagger withdraws with the intent of dodging reporting requirements.
Hastert follows a well-trodden path of other Illinois politicians who have walked through the revolving doors at Chicago's federal courthouse. Several recent Illinois governors, Chicago aldermen and other public figures have entered pleas in the same building. Among the most recent was former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, and former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican. Both men were eventually convicted on corruption charges.

Court upholds key parts of Texas' strict anti-abortion law

 

AUSTIN, Texas –  A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Texas' strict abortion restrictions that could soon leave only seven abortion clinics open in a state of 27 million people.
The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows Texas to enforce Republican-backed restrictions that require abortion clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, a checklist that includes rules on minimum room sizes, staffing levels and air ventilation systems. The restrictions, approved in 2013, are among the toughest in the nation.
Owners of traditional abortion clinics, which resemble doctor's offices more than hospitals, say they would be forced to close because the new rules demand millions of dollars in upgrades they can't afford. That would mark the second large wave of closures in as many years in Texas, which had 41 abortion clinics in 2012, before other new restrictions took effect that require doctor admitting privileges.
"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale," said Nancy Northrop, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "We now look to the Justices to stop the sham laws that are shutting clinics down and placing countless women at risk of serious harm."
Texas will be able to start enforcing the restrictions in about three weeks unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to halt the decision, said Stephanie Toti, an attorney for the center. Only seven abortion facilities in Texas, including four operated by Planned Parenthood, meet the more robust requirements.
Abortion-rights groups said they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which temporarily sidelined the law last year.
If the law takes effect, some women in the state would live hundreds of miles away from a Texas abortion provider. But that argument didn't sway the three-judge panel making the decision for the New Orleans-based appeals court, which is considered one of the most conservative in the nation. The judges noted that a New Mexico abortion clinic was just across the Texas border, and said clinic owners in Texas failed to prove that a "large fraction" of women would be burdened.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office argued before the appeals court in January, praised Tuesday's ruling.
"Abortion practitioners should have no right to operate their businesses from sub-standard facilities and with doctors who lack admitting privileges at a hospital," Paxton said.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and other conservatives say the standards protect women's health. But abortion-rights supports say the law is a thinly veiled attempt to block access to abortions in Texas, which has been the site of one of the nation's largest abortion fights for two years. Toti said roughly a half-dozen other states require similar standards for abortion clinics, but unlike in those states, the Texas law doesn't allow clinics to be grandfathered or seek waivers.
About 18 abortion clinics are currently open in Texas, though the number fluctuates depending on whether a facility has a doctor with hospital admitting privileges.
Under the new restrictions, the only remaining abortion facilities in Texas would be in major cities. One exception would be a Whole Woman's Health clinic in McAllen, near the Texas-Mexico border, which the 5th Circuit exempted from some restrictions — but Toti said even those exemptions are so limited that it may not be practical to keep that clinic open.
For women in El Paso, the closest abortion provider in Texas would require a 1,200-mile round trip to San Antonio, or they would have to cross state lines. The appeals court found that option suitable, noting that a clinic was just across the border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
"Although the nearest abortion facility in Texas is 550 miles away from El Paso, there is evidence that women in El Paso can travel the short distance to Santa Teresa to obtain an abortion and, indeed, the evidence is that many did just that," the court wrote.
Attorneys for the state also dismissed opponents' arguments about women being burdened by fewer abortion facilities, saying that nearly 9 in 10 women in Texas would still live within 150 miles of a provider.
The restrictions are the same ones that Democrat Wendy Davis temporarily blocked with a 13-hour filibuster in the Texas Legislature in 2013, which attracted national attention and propelled her to an unsuccessful run for governor.