Friday, December 25, 2015
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Black Lives Matter protesters blocked from Mall of America as some stores close
Police officers blocked protesters from entering the Mall of America Wednesday during a planned demonstration by the activist group Black Lives Matter at the shopping hub.
Officers and security guards formed a line outside the mall, extending into a nearby parking garage. A crowd was heard chanting, "We shut it down." The number of protesters who'd arrived was unclear.
More than a dozen stores at the nation's largest mall closed beforehand. Some are near the mall's rotunda, a central gathering point at the massive retail center in suburban Minneapolis.
A message projected on an indoor monitor read, "This demonstration is not authorized and is in clear violation of Mall of America policies."
The protest two days before Christmas was aimed at drawing attention to the police shooting last month of a black Minneapolis man, Jamar Clark. The 24-year-old died the day after he was shot by police responding to an assault complaint.
A similar demonstration last December drew hundreds of demonstrators angry over the absence of charges following the police killings of unarmed black men in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri. Dozens of people were arrested.
The privately owned mall said another demonstration would mean lost sales. The massive retail center houses an amusement park and more than 500 shops spread across four floors, attracting shoppers from around the globe.
The mall sought a court order blocking the planned protest. A judge on Tuesday barred three organizers from attending the demonstration, but said she doesn't have the power to block unidentified protesters associated with Black Lives Matter -- or the movement as a whole -- from showing up.
"Our number one priority is the safety of everybody out at the Mall of America today," Bloomington Police Deputy Chief Denis Otterness said.
Gov. Mark Dayton said he sympathizes with protesters' concerns, but he stressed that the mall is private property.
Kandace Montgomery, one of three organizers barred by the judge's order, said the group wasn't deterred by the ban. She declined to say if she or her fellow organizers still planned to go to the mall, but she said she expected at least 700 people to show up -- including some who were prepared to be arrested.
On one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Montgomery said the retail mecca was the perfect venue for their demonstration to pressure authorities involved in the investigation of Clark's death to release video footage.
"When you disrupt their flow of capital ... they actually start paying attention," she said. "That's the only way that they'll hear us."
Watchdog says secret US, Cuba programs pose plenty of problems
Once-secret U.S. government programs in Cuba that included a Twitter-like messaging service and an HIV-prevention workshop contained inadequate monitoring, conflicts of interest and questions of legal responsibility for those involved, according to an agency watchdog report this week.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversaw the now-defunct "Cuban Twitter" program and other efforts, also didn't have a policy in place to protect sensitive work from subversion by Cuban intelligence officials, the report stated. ZunZuneo, as the text-messaging program was called, was among several of the agency's Cuban civil-society programs designed to bring about democratic change.
The USAID inspector general's report follows a months-long investigation by The Associated Press last year into concealed U.S. government work on the island. Those disclosures revealed how one of those companies — working under USAID's supervision — developed ZunZuneo, staged an HIV-prevention workshop to recruit activists in Cuba and infiltrated the nation's hip-hop community.
The report also faulted conflicts of interest, including how family members received grant awards. In one case, an operations manager for Creative Associates International — a Washington-based firm central to the efforts — looked to a family member's technical company, Nimesa, for consulting.
"Government agencies are subject to public scrutiny," the report stated. "As a government agency, USAID should not tolerate, much less approve, awards that constitute conflicts of interest. Such conflicts, which in ZunZuneo amounted to nepotism, increased the program's vulnerability to fraud, waste and abuse."
The programs run by Creative received sharp criticism from some U.S. lawmakers, who called them "reckless," ''boneheaded" and "downright irresponsible." The AP found Cuban artists swept up in the program were detained or interrogated by Cuban authorities, and a secret U.S. hip-hop operation backfired after Cuban authorities found that an independent music festival — one of the largest on the island — was really backed by the Obama administration.
The inspector general's probe found some program documents were missing, including emails sent and received outside of government accounts or on a secure-messaging service called Hushmail. The report found officials also lost messages when USAID employees switched email providers, and the agency's IT staff said "it would be time-consuming to retrieve them."
"As a result," the inspector general found, "we may be missing relevant communications." The AP had previously obtained thousands of pages of documents, including some of those messages, as part of its investigation.
The report also found USAID shifted its approach in Cuba following the December 2009 arrest of agency contractor and U.S. citizen Alan Gross, who was accused of bringing in illegal technology by the Cuban government. Gross was released from prison in December 2014.
USAID spokesman Ben Edwards said in a statement the agency has already completed several recommendations from the report, with the remaining to be finished by March 2016. The 89-page report contained 16 recommendations to improve accountability and prevent conflicts of interest.
US officials secretly communicated with Assad regime for years, report says
Assad |
U.S. and Arab officials say the White House secretly communicated for years with members of the Syrian regime in an effort to end the country's ongoing civil war and get President Bashar al-Assad to step down, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday the Obama administration’s effort to communicate with Damascus was extremely limited. Sometimes, senior U.S. and Syrian officials would speak directly to each other; other times, they would speak through intermediaries such as Russia and Iran.
Assad also tried to reach out to the U.S. to entice them to join what he described as Syria’s fight against terrorism, according to the paper.
As anti-Assad demonstrations mushroomed into civil war in 2011, U.S. intelligence began to identify possible replacements for Assad, according to former U.S. and European officials.
“The White House’s policy in 2011 was to get to the point of a transition in Syria by finding cracks in the regime and offering incentives for people to abandon Assad,” a former senior U.S. official told the Journal.
According to the paper, The secret contacts between U.S. and Syrian officials may have hampered the effort to get Assad to step down and ultimately detracted from the fight against ISIS. By 2012, the Obama administration’s plan to get Assad to step down failed and the U.S. moved to support the rebels.
The Obama administration's effort to apply political and military pressure on Assad's regime often hit a wall, according to a former U.S. ambassador to Syria.
“This is a regime that is very supple politically. They’re very smart,” said Robert Ford, former U.S. ambassador to Damascus. “They’re always testing for weaknesses and pushing the envelope.”
As the fighting intensified, the White House issued warnings through Assad’s allies – Russia and Iran – to not use chemical weapons on a large scale, according to U.S. officials. Despite the warnings and the now-infamous red line drawn by President Barack Obama, chemical attacks in August 2013 killed nearly 1,500 people, according to the Journal.
Despite the regime's defiance, the lines of communication between Washington and Damascus reportedly have remained open. The Journal reported that Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson has talked with Syrian deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad at least twice about the fate of five Americans who are missing or detained in Syria.
Washington's point man to talk with Assad is often Khaled Ahmad, an Assad confidante. Then-Ambassador Ford and Ahmad planned to meet in Geneva, Switzerland ahead of planned peace talks there in 2013. At the time, Ford told Ahmad the U.S. was still seeking a political transition that would allow Assad to step down.
Ahmad, in turn, told Ford the U.S. should help Syria fight extremism. And as ISIS rose to power in Syria and Iraq, Assad found himself with more leverage in negotiations with the West.
The Journal reported as the U.S. expanded airstrikes against ISIS in Syria in 2014, U.S. officials told Syrian forces to stay away from U.S. warplanes.
Now, when Washington wants to notify Damascus where it’s placed U.S.-backed Syrian rebels to fight ISIS, Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations calls upon a deputy to talk to Syrian envoy Bashar Jaafari, officials said.
The White House insists the heads-ups to Syria doesn’t mean the sides are collaborating together. However, not everyone views them that way
“The regime was re-legitimized,” Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian journalist who until 2013 ran the Damascus bureau for pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat told the Wall Street Journal. “Any communication with the U.S.—even the perception of it—gives them the upper hand.”
Earlier this year, former White House official Steve Simon met with Assad and Ahmad in Damascus. Officials familiar with the meetings insisted the meeting wasn’t scheduled on behalf of the U.S., according to the paper. Simon himself also said he planned the meeting without any help from the administration.
The Journal reports Simon outlined plans for Assad to step down and to start making Syria look better in the eyes of the global community.
Assad is reportedly more open to local cease-fires, but insists the focus of the war turn to fighting ISIS.
#NotMiAbuela: Clinton compares herself to Latina grandmas, Twitter responds with outrage
A GIF-filled campaign post aimed at winning over Latino voters has backfired and instead is drawing the ire of many social media users for purportedly playing up ethnic stereotypes.
The campaign's "7 ways Hillary Clinton is just like your abuela" (the Spanish word for grandmother), which came on the same day Clinton's daughter Chelsea announced she is pregnant with what will be Clinton's second grandchild, was quickly derided by many online users as using vague stereotypes, basic Spanish vocabulary and even a photo of the candidate with singer Marc Anthony to show she is in touch with a younger generation.
"It's no secret that Hillary is loving her role as grandma," the campaign post says. "And she was thrilled to learn that next summer, her granddaughter Charlotte will have a sibling to play with."
The post then goes on to make numerous uses of the word respeto (Spanish for respect) paired with numerous GIFs, including one where she goes after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by saying she had one word for him: "Basta! Enough!" The post ends with "Everybody loves abuela—even this guy," which shows a picture of Clinton alongside Anthony.
The post was quickly met with derision. Twitter users expressed their outrage using the hashtag #NotMiAbuela or #NotMyAbuela.
Activist Marisol Ramos tweeted: "Hilary is #NotMiAbuela #NotMyAbuela because I was separated by mine by many miles, and a militarized border."
Another Twitter user, Laura Cristal Magaña, wrote: "Abuela couldn't visit me in USA because she didn't have ‘papers;' #NotMyAbuela #notmiabuela."
Back in October, Clinton also played up her "abuela" status – and used the same photo of her and Anthony – in another post called "6 cosas que no sabÃas sobre Hillary Clinton" — or, "6 things you didn't know about Hillary Clinton."
Despite the post, Hillary Clinton is still popular among Hispanics. A recent poll shows 62 percent of Latino voters view her favorably, according to a impreMedia and Latino Decisions poll. Republican Jeb Bush pulled in 42 percent, and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump garnered 15 percent.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Evangelist Franklin Graham slams, quits GOP
Evangelist Franklin Graham announced Tuesday he is leaving the Republican Party over the GOP-led spending bill passed last week, calling it “wasteful” and likening funding of Planned Parenthood to Nazi concentration camps.
“Shame on the Republicans and the Democrats for passing such a wasteful spending bill last week,” he said. “And to top it off, funding Planned Parenthood!”
Graham, who had previously slammed both political parties, let his frustration flow on a Facebook posting.
“Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!,” he wrote. “That should’ve been all that was needed to turn off the faucet for their funding. Nothing was done to trim this 2,000 page, $1.1 trillion budget.”
Graham, who has supported GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump as well as embraced his controversial call to ban Muslims from the U.S., said he’s lost faith in the political system.
“I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America,” he wrote. “Unless more godly men and women get in this process and change this wicked system, our country is in for trouble.”
Outcry in UK after Muslim family claims US officials stopped them from boarding flight to Los Angeles
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British Prime Minister David Cameron |
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been asked to intervene in the case of a Muslim family who allege they were prevented by U.S. officials from boarding a flight to Los Angeles earlier this month.
Mohammad Tariq Mahmood told The Guardian that his party of 11 people, including nine children, had been granted authorization to travel ahead of their planned Dec. 15 flight to Los Angeles from London's Gatwick Airport.
However, he said he was approached by U.S. Homeland Security officials in the departure lounge and informed that the group's authorization to travel on the flight had been canceled. Mahmood said the officials did not give any further explanation.
"It's because of the attacks on America," Mahmood told the Guardian. "They think every Muslim poses a threat."
The Department of Homeland Security has not made any public comment on the case.
Mahmood said the family had planned to visit relatives in Southern California and visit Disneyland and Universal Studios. He added that the airline, Norwegian Air, had refused to refund the cost of the trip, which totaled more than $13,000.
Stella Creasy, the Member of Parliament for the family's constituency in northeast London, claimed in a letter to Cameron that a lack of information from US authorities about why they were prevented from travelling is fuelling resentment within British Muslim communities.
"It is not just the family themselves who are livid," Creasy wrote. "The vacuum created by a refusal to provide any context for these decisions is fuelling resentment and debate."
A Downing Street spokesman told Sky News that Cameron"would consider the issues raised and respond in due course."
A spokesman for the U.K.'s Home Office, the rough equivalent of the Homeland Security Department added: "It would be the airline that would stop passengers travelling rather than the border force."
State Department chides cardinal over gay slurs against US ambassador
The State Department weighed in Tuesday on an escalating war of words between the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic and a cardinal who has leveled gay slurs against him -- telling FoxNews.com the fight "does underscore" the importance of pushing human rights causes.
U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic James “Wally” Brewster, who is openly gay and married, has been mocked over his sexual orientation by Cardinal Archbishop Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez for more than two years.
It got so heated that earlier this month, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent a letter to Pope Francis asking him to intervene in the verbal attacks.
“Even before Ambassador Brewster’s arrival in Santo Domingo in 2013, Cardinal Rodriguez launched a personal attack against him with public statements quoted in the popular press,” Durbin’s letter said. "The Cardinal used the hateful slur ‘faggot,’ which he continues to use to this day."
Durbin added, "In a recent interview Cardinal Rodriguez again described the ambassador as a ‘faggot’ and falsely claimed the ambassador was setting out to promote ‘faggotry’ in the Dominican Republic."
The cardinal reportedly also said Brewster should “focus on housework, since he’s the wife to a man.”
A State Department official on Tuesday defended Brewster's work in a statement to FoxNews.com:
“Ambassador Brewster, like all U.S. ambassadors, advances this [human rights] policy along with many other aspects of our bilateral relationship. That there may be those opposed to the promotion of human rights in various societies around the world is not surprising, but it does underscore why this work is so important.”
In the past, the same cardinal has organized a “Black Monday” protest against Brewster where people were asked to show their opposition to Brewster by tying black ribbons on their cars.
The State Department told FoxNews.com that U.S. policy is “dedicated to eliminating barriers to equality, fighting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and engaging LGBTI communities around the world.”
While the Dominican Republic’s criminal code does not explicitly prohibit homosexuality, it is a staunchly Catholic country.
Brewster’s appointment has been a point of contention from the start. High-profile Catholic Church leaders said assigning an openly gay man to the post was seen as a lack of respect from the Obama administration.
"He has not considered the particularities of our people. The United States is trying to impose on us marriage between gays and lesbians as well as adoption by these couples," Father Luis Rosario, director of youth ministries for the church, told CNN in 2013.
The ambassador has also riled DR officials by voicing concerns about corruption on the island – and even accusing police officers of threatening U.S. investors, Fox News Latino reported.
For Durbin, who is close friends with Brewster and a devout Catholic, enough is enough. He wants Pope Francis to step in and make the anti-gay slurs stop.
Durbin says while the Catholic church’s teachings on gay marriage are well known, he points out in his letter that “the church also teaches us to show tolerance for those with different sexual orientations.”
“The intolerant public statements of Cardinal Rodriguez are inconsistent with that clearly stated value,” Durbin wrote.
It is unclear whether the Vatican has responded to Durbin’s letter. Calls and emails to Durbin’s office for comment were not returned.
Washington Post pulls cartoon depicting Ted Cruz's daughters as trained monkeys
The Washington Post removed an editorial cartoon from its website late Tuesday that depicted Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz's young daughters as trained monkeys.
As of midnight Wednesday, the webpage where the cartoon by Ann Telnaes had been shown was replaced by a note from the Post's editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt.
"It’s generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it," Hiatt wrote. "I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted in this case, but I do not agree."
Politico reported the cartoon was in response to an online ad released by Cruz's campaign that depicted him reading politics-related Christmas stories to his daughters, 7-year-old Caroline and 4-year-old Catherine. Telnaes herself referenced the ad on Twitter earlier Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, the Texas senator criticized the Post on Twitter over the cartoon, which depicted him as an organ grinder dressed in a Santa Claus costume while two similarly-clad monkeys danced on leashes in front of him. The cartoon was captioned, "Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props."
Cruz was backed in his criticism by Republican rival and fellow Senator Marco Rubio, himself a father of four.
Telnaes, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2001, had no immediate comment on the cartoon being pulled, but posted a link on Twitter late Tuesday to an article titled "Organ Grinders and Their Monkeys Once Entertained on DC Sidewalks"
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Baby Jesus, "Merry Christmas" banner removed from VA hospital
A manger and a banner reading “Merry Christmas” were removed from a public area of a VA hospital in Texas after someone complained about “overly religious and offensive” decorations.
“They ruined our decorations,” Vietnam veteran Ethel Holloway told television station KENS. “They threw them out.”
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Holloway said she had been putting up decorations at the Audi Murphy VA Hospital for 33 years – without any problems. This year, her yuletide banner turned out to be problematic.
“They literally took pieces from the middle of a whole train set, because the middle said ‘Merry Christmas,’” helper Grace Martinez told the television station.
The South Texas Veterans Health Care System admits they removed not only Holloway’s “Merry Christmas” banner, but also a manger along with a “specific scripture decoration.”
“During the removal of a manger and specific scripture decoration, a Merry Christmas decoration was accidentally removed and damaged,” read a statement from the VA to Fox News. “The remaining decorations were removed by the decoration donor and her representatives.”
The VA hospital said they have offered to reimburse her for the damaged decorations.
“We acknowledge that the corrective action should have been to display the faith-specific holiday decoration along with multiple religious faith symbols,” the statement read. “We are currently ensuring that our staff are educated and aware of the national policy and how it relates to decorations throughout the facility.”
So the VA destroys a brave veteran’s Christmas decorations – and their response is “oops – our bad”?
“The faith specific symbols were displayed in a public area without other specific religious symbols being included,” their statement read.
I’d like to know what happened to the manger scene and the other “overly religious and offensive” decorations.
Were they returned to donors? Were they stored in a closet? Were they tossed to the curb?
The VA hospital told me they have no idea what became of Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus. There was no room for them in the inn or apparently the Audie Murphy VA Hospital.
It’s not the first time the VA has tried to cleanse its hospitals of Christmas cheer.
A VA hospital in Salem, Virginia banned Christmas greetings, “religious” carols, and Christmas trees from all public areas earlier this year.
After hospital employees staged a revolt, the VA relented and agreed to allow Christmas trees – provided the trees were accompanied by symbols of Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.
However, hospital employees are still prohibited from wishing veterans a “Merry Christmas” or playing “religious” Christmas music – even in their personal work space, according to The Becket Fund.
“I like ‘Jingle Bells’ as much as the next person, but the government can’t ban ‘religious’ Christmas carols any more than it can ban ugly sweaters or egg nog,” said Kristina Arriaga, executive director of The Becket Fund.
The Becket Fund, a religious liberty advocacy group, recently awarded the Sale VA hospital its “Ebenezer Award” “for the most ridiculous affront to the Christmas and Hanukkah seasons.”
“Our veterans stare down the most hostile threats to freedom the world has ever known,” Arriaga said in a statement. “But I’m pretty sure the words ‘Merry Christmas’ are not one of them.”
Amen, ma’am.
I reached out to the VA hospital one last time to find out what was so “overly offensive” about the manger scene. I’m still waiting on a reply.
But I suspect it had something to do with a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.
Trump brands Hillary Clinton a 'liar' over ISIS recruitment video claim
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rounded on Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton Monday, calling her a "liar" over her claim that the ISIS terror group used videos of his comments about Muslims to recruit militants.
"She's a liar!" Trump told more than 6,000 people at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also said Clinton was "crooked" and "not a president."
Trump also resorted to crude language to discuss Clinton's 2008 loss in the Iowa caucuses to Barack Obama, who went on to win the Democratic nomination and the White House.
"She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost," said Trump, who also mocked Clinton for returning late to Saturday's Democratic debate following a commercial break. "I thought she quit, I thought she gave up," Trump joked.
During Saturday's debate, Clinton said Trump had become ISIS' "best recruiter" adding, "They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists."
There was no evidence to back the claim, and a spokeswoman later said, "She didn't have a particular video in mind."
Still, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon, asked Monday by MSNBC if Clinton would apologize to Trump, insisted, "Hell no."
Trump argued at Grand Rapids' DeltaPlex Arena that he is the last person Clinton wants to run against in a general election.
"Ask Jeb Bush if he enjoys running against me," he said of the former Florida governor who has been struggling to gain traction despite a massive early fundraising advantage.
"Ask Lindsey Graham, did he enjoy running against Trump?" he said of the South Carolina senator who on Monday announced his departure from the race.
Trump also defended the kind words he's been exchanging with Russian President Vladimir Putin, brushing off criticism that he has been too kind to the Russian president.
"That's, like, a good thing, not a bad thing," he insisted. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could get along, like, with people?"
And he made clear that he is opposed to the killing of journalists, after appearing to brush off concerns about Putin's record on a Sunday morning news show.
"I don't like that, I'm totally against that," said Trump. "By the way, I hate some of these people ... and some of them are such lying, disgusting people, it's true. But I would never kill. And anybody that does I think would be despicable."
Iranian hackers gained access to suburban NYC dam in 2013, report says
Iranian computer hackers accessed the control system of a small dam outside of New York City two years ago, raising red flags throughout the U.S. government, according to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Homeland Security believes the hackers infiltrated the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, N.Y. through a cellular modem. According to the Journal, investigators believe that hackers never actually took control of the dam itself, but merely probed the system.
Neither the White House nor DHS would comment specifically on the alleged incident when contacted by Fox News.
But DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee said in a statement: “The Department of Homeland Security continues to coordinate national efforts to strengthen the security and resilience of critical infrastructure, working with our federal and industry partners across the country to raise awareness about evolving threats and promote measures to reduce risks to systems we all rely on.”
The reported dam incident comes amid attacks by hackers linked to Iran’s government against the websites of U.S. banks and illustrates a prime concern of American officials: how to protect vulnerable American infrastructure from cyberattacks.
According to the Journal, the Department of Homeland Security was notified of 295 industrial-control-system hacking incidents over the 12 months ending Sept. 30. Over the previous 12 months, the number was 245.
Initially, intelligence analysts feared the hackers were targeting another dam: The Arthur R. Bowman Dam in Oregon, a 245-foot-tall earthen structure that irrigates local agriculture and prevents flooding near the town of Prineville, approximately 150 miles southeast of Portland. That belief prompted investigators to notify the White House that Iran had escalted its cyberwar with the United States.
The 22-foot-high Bowman Avenue Dam, built in 1941 for flood control, is described as "very, very small" by the manager of the nearby town of Rye, but its infiltration represents a fear among U.S. officials that government-backed hackers were more capable than first thought, and could inflict real-world damage.
Republicans blast Kerry for suggesting Iran could skirt new visa rules
Republicans on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to his Iranian counterpart that the administration could help the country get around new visa restrictions passed by Congress.
“Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement to FoxNews.com.
At issue are tightened security requirements for America’s visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the U.S. without visas. Under changes in the newly signed spending bill, people from those countries who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in the past five years must now obtain visas to enter the U.S.
Top Tehran officials, however, complained the changes violate the terms of the nuclear deal, which says the U.S. and other world powers will refrain from any policy intended to adversely affect normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.
Kerry responded to these concerns in a Dec. 19 letter to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif -- and suggested the administration could simply bypass the rules for Iran.
“I am also confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the Administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our [nuclear deal] commitments, and that we will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran,” he said.
Kerry’s letter to Zarif assured that the U.S. would “adhere to the full measure of our commitments.” As for changes to the visa program, Kerry floated several alternative options for easing any impact on Iran – including waiving the new requirements.
“To this end, we have a number of potential tools available to us, including multiple entry ten-year business visas, programs for expediting business visas, and the waiver authority provided under the new legislation,” he wrote.
The legislation indeed includes a provision allowing the Homeland Security secretary to waive the requirements if the secretary determines this “is in the law enforcement or national security interests of the United States.”
But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., voiced concern on Monday that Kerry was proposing a “blanket” waiver to accommodate Iran’s complaints. He said that is not Congress’ intent.
“Contrary to what the Secretary of State seems to be saying to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, it was not and has never been Congress’s intent to allow the Administration to grant a blanket waiver to travellers from Iran in order to facilitate the implementation of the Iran deal,” he said in a statement.
McCarthy said the point of the legislation was to strengthen security and “keep the American people safe from terrorism and from foreign travelers who potentially pose a threat to our homeland.”
Kerry’s assurances also raised concerns that the U.S. may be backing down to Iran’s complaints while at the same time reluctant to punish Tehran for its own potential violations.
“Instead of undermining Congressional intent regarding the visa waiver program, the White House should instead focus on Iran’s repeated violations of the U.N. Security Council's bans on missile tests,” McCarthy said. “Iran’s unwillingness to follow these international agreements should be a red flag that the Iran nuclear deal isn’t worth the paper it is written on.”
Omri Ceren, with the Washington, D.C.-based Israel Project, also told The Washington Free Beacon, “According to the Obama administration’s latest interpretation, the nuclear deal allows Iran to test ballistic missiles in violation of international law, but does not allow Congress to prevent terrorists from coming into the United States.”
The same article noted that the State Department official in charge of implementing the nuclear agreement warned Congress last week that the new visa rules “could have a very negative impact on the deal.”
Indeed, Kerry’s letter came as top-ranking Iranian officials accused the U.S. of flouting the nuclear agreement.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that the change “contradicts” the nuclear deal.
"Definitely, this law adversely affects economic, cultural, scientific and tourism relations,” Araghchi was quoted by state TV as saying.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani made similar comments.
Asked about Kerry’s assurances at Monday’s daily briefing, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the secretary made clear they would “implement this new legislation so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran.”
Kirby said the law would be followed, but there are a “number of potential tools” to ensure this does not violate the nuclear deal. As for the DHS waiver authority, he said it’s too soon to say “if and when” that might be used.
The Kerry letter initially was obtained and published by the National Iranian American Council.
The State Department confirmed the document’s authenticity on Monday.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Fiorina slams Clinton, calls Trump a 'Christmas present' for Dems
Republican presidential candidate Carly Florina slammed rival Hillary Clinton on Sunday, saying the Democratic front-runner has “gotten every single foreign policy challenge wrong.”
Fiorina, who appeared on "Fox News Sunday," also took a shot at GOP candidate Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump is a big Christmas gift wrapped up under the tree” for the Clinton campaign.
“She desperately hopes she runs against Donald Trump,” Fiorina said. “I, however, am the lump of coal in Mrs. Clinton’s stocking and she desperately hopes she does not run against me.”
“She can beat Donald Trump,” Fiorina said. “Donald Trump cannot beat Hillary Clinton. I think it’s very clear.”
Fiorina, once a breakout star of the GOP who fought her way from the low-polling undercard debates to the primetime stage, has been having trouble in the past few weeks maintaining her momentum.
During last week's fifth Republican debate, Fiorina came under fire after she said she would bring back the “warrior class” to fight the Islamic State and claimed several high-ranking generals had left the military because they didn’t agree with President Obama’s political policies.
Gen. Jack Keane, a Fox News contributor and one of the generals she said quit, actually retired before Obama took office. Fiorina also said Gens. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal resigned because they disagreed with the administration; but, in fact, Petreaus’ retirement came following revelations he shared classified information with his alleged mistress and biographer while McChrystal called it quits after he was quoted criticizing Obama in a “Rolling Stone” article.
Fiorina was also pressed by host Chris Wallace about a digital ad paid for by a super PAC supporting Fiorina that links her to Margaret “Iron Lady” Thatcher, the first female prime minister of Britain.
“Mrs. Fiorina, respectfully, isn’t that a little over the top?” the anchor asked.
“Many people have commented on the comparison and I’m flattered by it, frankly,” she said. “Margaret Thatcher was a great leader for her nation at a pivotal and perilous time.”
When asked by Wallace about her stagnant poll numbers, Fiorina said she was “happy” with her position and that she is where she wants to be.
She quipped, “People make up their minds late, and if the polls at this stage and in earlier states were true we would have had President Howard Dean, President Rudy Giuliani, and by the way, we would have already had President Hillary Clinton.”
Top Democrat says Obama too slow in fight against ISIS
A top Democrat on Sunday criticized the pace of the Obama administration’s war against the Islamic State, saying the U.S. needs to “change the dynamic on the ground.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a top Democrat who has been critical of the administration’s policy, said he supports creating a no-fly or buffer zone -- “something that can end the refugee flows, something that can give space and time to train up forces to take on ISIS.”
President Obama has rejected implementing a no-fly zone near Syria, arguing that it would draw the U.S. into the regional conflict even more.
“I do think the administration ought to re-examine the idea of establishing safe zones,” Schiff reiterated on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think they ought to put that front and center in the U.N. negotiation, because I do think it has the potential of really changing the battlefield conditions and they have been stalemated for too long.”
Schiff also defended Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s comments Saturday night that the U.S. is “where we need to be” in the fight against ISIS.
“Well, this was in the context of do we go after [Syrian President Bashar] Assad or do we go after ISIS; can we do both? And her answer was basically we need to do both, and now for the first time we have a political process at the United Nations that ought to bring an end to both,” he said.
During the interview, Schiff said he supported a policy that would use social media as part of a visa screening process.
“If someone is brought in for an interview, for example, and is asked about their views on things, but as posted things that are completely contrary to the interview, frankly, I have much more faith in what they posted than what they say in the course of an interview,” he said.
Paul slams Congress over trillion-dollar spending bill he claims no one read
A fired-up Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday he voted against the massive $1.1 trillion spending bill because not only was it rushed through Congress -- but no one had a chance to read it.
“It was over a trillion dollars, it was all lumped together, 2,242 pages, nobody read it, so frankly my biggest complaint is that I have no idea what kind of things they stuck in that bill in the middle of the night,” Paul, R-Ky., said on “The Cats Roundtable,” a New York-based radio talk show.
“I voted against it because I won’t vote for these enormous bills that no one has a chance to read,” the GOP White House hopeful said.
On Friday, President Obama signed the legislation into law. The final version pairs two gigantic bills: a $1.14 trillion government spending measure that will fund every Cabinet agency through September 2016, as well as a $680 billion tax package which extends dozens of breaks and making some permanent.
Republicans and Democrats joined to approve the spending bill on a resounding 316-113 vote in the House, a day after passing the tax bill. The unexpectedly large margin was a victory for new House Speaker Paul Ryan, who saw a majority of his GOP lawmakers back the legislation.
Not long after, the Senate voted 65-33 to send the entire package to Obama's desk.
Paul said Sunday passing such large spending measures without thorough examination is “part of the reason why government is broke.”
He said the blame fell on every lawmaker’s shoulder.
“Once again this came not at the behest of just the Democrats,” he said on AM-970. “It came at the behest of right-wing Republicans who want military spending and left-wing Democrats who want welfare spending, and that’s the first little secret.”
Paul also called out specific spending habits of both parties.
“You have people on the right who want unlimited military spending and then you’ve got people on the left who want unlimited welfare spending and the dirty little secret in Washington is that they come together… there’s an unholy alliance and in that unholy alliance everybody gets money and the taxpayer gets stuck with the bill,” he said.
If he were president, Paul said he would keep “government so small you can barely see it.”
Ryan on Sunday dismissed criticism of the $1.1 trillion spending bill that passed Friday, saying that Republican leaders fought hard for compromise.
“Let me first say, this is a divided government and in divided government you don’t get everything you want,” Ryan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We advanced our priorities and principles. Not every one of them, but many of them. And then we’re going to pick up next year where we left off and keep going for more.”
Ryan, who acknowledged that both Democrats and Republicans employ divisive political tactics, said the cycle could be broken by “offering a vision, by offering solutions and focusing on what they do to make people’s lives better. And to appeal to what unified us as a country, as a people.”
Ryan also criticized GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for a short-term ban on Muslim immigration and said he trusted Republican voters “to pick a nominee that can take us all the way to win the White House so we can fix this country.”
Rubio calls out Trump on Putin, takes on Cruz, immigration
White House hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio pushed back Sunday on Donald Trump saying the GOP frontrunner shouldn’t be flaunting praise he gets from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“He’s jailed and murdered journalists, political opponents,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Rubio said that while the U.S. has to “deal with (Putin)” from a “geopolitical, realistic level,” the Russian president “is not someone who is going to go down in history as a great leader.”
Last week, many Republican candidates spoke out against Trump after he embraced Putin as a world leader he would get along with and respected. Putin praised Trump during his annual address calling him “bright and talented.”
“He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country,” Trump said during a telephone interview Friday on MSNBC.
Rubio also spoke out Sunday against Republican rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Rubio and Cruz have been locked in a heated debate over their immigration records in Congress. Cruz accused Rubio of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants while Rubio said Cruz hasn’t been truthful about his past support for legalization.
Rubio also called out other inconsistences with Cruz’s past including his position on a free-trade agreement.
"We have some differences on some issues. And we should discuss those, like national security, for example. But when you run by telling everybody you're the only purist in the field, you're the only one that's always consistent conservative, well, I think then your record is going to have a light shown on it,” Rubio said.
Sunday, December 20, 2015
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