Marines, UK combat troops give key command post to Afghan military, as mission draws to close

The last Marines unit in Afghanistan officially concluded its mission on Sunday, handing over to the Afghan military the sprawling U.S. military base known as Camp Leatherneck.
The event included the U.S. flag being lowered and folded and occurred at the same time British combat troops officially closed Camp Bastion, which also is in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, Fox News confirmed.
The camp has been the center of U.K. operations in Afghanistan since 2006.
The ceremonies marked the end of operations for the Southwest Regional Command -- a U.S. and U.K. coalition operating under NATO's International Security Assistance Force.  
They also end an important chapter in the 13-year Afghan campaign, which started after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The joint base once had roughly 40,000 people working there. The province was once a stronghold of the terror-related Taliban group.
U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain has helped give Afghanistan "the best possible chance of a stable future." However, he acknowledged to the BBC that there is "no guarantee that Afghanistan is going to be stable and safe."
Meanwhile, Brigadier Rob Thomson, senior U.K. officer in Helmand, said Afghan National Security Forces are "more than ready" to assume responsibility for the country's security.
Britain plans to withdraw its final combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and is planning to give Afghan forces control of a base in Kandahar, the country's second most populous city.
Military advisers and trainers are expected to stay in Kabul, the capital. 
Some Americans have been critical of the Obama administration’s decision to also remove all combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, amid concerns about whether the Afghan forces are ready, considering the hundred of U.S. lives lost in the war on terror.
Fallon said Britain's commitment to support Afghanistan will continue "through institutional development, the Afghan National Army Officer Academy, and development aid."
Britain suffered 453 fatalities during the campaign. The vast majority of the fatalities happened in Helmand province.

Female victim in Washington state school shooting has died, hospital says

A 14-year-old girl shot by a student gunman at a Washington state high school Friday has died, hospital officials said late Sunday. 
Officials at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett identified the victim as Gia Soriano, a freshman at Marysville-Pilchuk High School, about 30 miles north of Seattle. Her death brings the total number of victims from Friday's shooting to three, including gunman Jaylen Fryberg. The other victim, also a girl, has not been publicly identified. 
At a news conference, Dr. Joanne Roberts read a statement from Soriano's family.
"We are devastated by this senseless tragedy. Gia is our beautiful daughter, and words cannot express how much we will miss her," the statement said.
Roberts said Soriano's family was donating her organs for transplant.
Three other student victims remained hospitalized Sunday, with two in critical condition and another in serious condition. 
Earlier Sunday, parents and students gathered in a gymnasium at the school for a community meeting, with speakers urging support and prayers and tribal members playing drums and singing songs. Fryberg was from a prominent Tulalip Indian tribes family.
Young people hugged each other and cried and speakers urged people to come together during the gathering Sunday.
"We just have to reach for that human spirit right now," said Deborah Parker, a member of the Tulalip Indian tribes.
"Our legs are still wobbly," said Tony Hatch, a cousin of one of the injured students. "We're really damaged right now."
Of the wounded students, only 14-year-old Nate Hatch showed improvement, though he remained in serious condition in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Fifteen-year-old Andrew Fryberg also remained in critical condition in intensive care. Both are cousins of Jaylen Fryberg.
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit remained in critical condition in intensive care at Providence Regional Medical Center.
Fryberg died in the attack after a first-year teacher intervened. It's unclear if he intentionally killed himself or if the gun went off in a struggle with a teacher.
The makeshift memorial on a chain link fence by the school, which will be closed this week, kept growing Sunday. Balloons honoring the victims and the shooter adorn the fence along with flowers, stuffed toys and signs.
Meanwhile, the close-knit community on the nearby Tulalip Indian reservation struggled with the news that the shooter was a popular teenager from one of their more well-known families.
A tribal guidance counsellor said no one knows what motivated Fryberg.
"We can't answer that question," said Matt Remle, who has an office at the high school. "But we try to make sense of the senselessness."
In the nearby community of Oso, where a mudslide this spring killed dozens, people planned to gather to write condolence letters and cards.
Remele said he knew Fryberg and the other students well.
"My office has been a comfort space for Native students," he said. "Many will come by and have lunch there, including the kids involved in the shooting."
They all were "really happy, smiling kids," Remle said. "They were a polite group. A lot of the kids from the freshman class were close-knit. Loving.
"These were not kids who were isolated," he said. "They had some amazing families, and have amazing families."
These factors make the shooting that much more difficult to deal with, "Maybe it would be easier if we knew the answer," Remle said. "But we may never know."

Army Green Berets reportedly criticize performance of Afghan army troops

Elite Army troops have disparaged the fighting capability of Afghan troops to military investigators probing the deaths of five soldiers in a friendly fire incident earlier this year, according to a published report. 
The Washington Times claims that several Green Berets have described how Afghan soldiers have refused to fight and hidden among trees and behind rocks when coming under fire. The criticisms came to light on the same day that the last unit of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan concluded its combat mission, handing the base known as Camp Leatherneck to Afghan troops.
The comments by the Green Berets were made to investigators from U.S. Central Command during discussions of an incident from this past June, when five U.S. soldiers and an Afghan sergeant were killed when a B-1 bomber mistakenly dropped two bombs on their position during a battle against Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan.
Among the other complaints against Afghan soldiers the Times reports as being mentioned in the investigative file are inability to fight at night and inability to take the lead in clearing villages controlled by the Taliban. The paper also reports that the Green Beret team leader, a captain, claimed that the Afghan National Army (ANA) had provided fewer troops than requested for the June mission, adding that this was not the first time that had happened. 
After the deadly bombing, the Times reports, a Green Beret instructed Afghan soldiers to set up a perimeter, only for them to hide behind a rock. 
The reported experiences of the Green Berets stand in stark contrast to claims made by the Pentagon that Afghan forces will be ready to take the lead in the fight against the Taliban after the departure of most U.S. troops by the end of this year. The Defense Department's most recent Afghanistan progress report, released in April of this year, states that the ANA "made impressive progress, and maintained its tactical overmatch over the insurgency."
Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of the International Security Assistance Force told reporters Oct. 2 that the ANA had "taken on the security mission from last June of ‘13. They had it mostly entirely by themselves for the summer of ‘14. I think they've done very well, supporting both the [Afghan presidential election] and through some of the major events."
However, the report also said that Afghan forces had not been able to last more than several days in the field.

New York gov Cuomo loosens Ebola quarantine restrictions after criticism

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced late Sunday that he had loosened some of the restrictions in a mandatory 21-day Ebola quarantine that he had ordered along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this past Friday. 
Under the revised guidelines, medical professionals who have had contact with Ebola patients will be quarantined at home and receive twice-daily monitoring if they have no symptoms. Family members will be allowed to stay, and friends may visit with the approval of health officials. The state will also pay for any lost compensation, if they are not paid by a volunteer organization.
The new guidelines come after White House officials and health experts strongly criticized the mandatory quarantine, which was put in place in response to the infection of a New York City doctor, Craig Spencer. Cuomo had originally criticized Dr. Spencer for not obeying a 21-day voluntary quarantine. But on Sunday, he called the health care workers "heroes" and said his administration would encourage more medical workers to volunteer to fight Ebola.
The mandatory quarantine came in for more criticism after a Maine nurse returning from Sierra Leone criticized her treatment as the first person to be quarantined under New Jersey's new policy, saying that she was treated "like a criminal." Kaci Hickox has tested negative for Ebola in a preliminary evaluation. 
Hickox has access to a computer, her cellphone, magazines and newspapers and has been allowed to have takeout food, New Jersey Health Department officials told The Associated Press.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Hickox a "returning hero" and charged that she was "treated with disrespect" when she was put into quarantine. He said that she was interrogated repeatedly and things were not explained well to her.
Christie issued a statement Sunday that also stressed that home confinement would be used for New Jersey residents and others when possible.
"The protocol is clear that a New Jersey resident with no symptoms, but who has come into contact with someone with Ebola, such as a health care provider, would be subject to a mandatory quarantine order and quarantined at home. Non-residents would be transported to their homes if feasible and, if not, quarantined in New Jersey," said a statement from Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts.
Earlier Sunday the White House expressed concern about what it called the "unintended consequences" of the mandatory quarantine, telling Fox News that the Obama administration is working on new federal guidelines on returning health-care workers exposed to Ebola, realizing the concern among Americans about a potential outbreak on U.S. soil.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said early Sunday that the 21-day quarantines originally imposed in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York can have the "unintended consequence" of discouraging health care workers from volunteering, particularly in the West African countries, where an estimated 4,500 people have so far this year died from Ebola.
"We do not want to put them in a position where it makes it very, very uncomfortable for them to even volunteer," he told “Fox News Sunday."
Christie told Fox News that he has “great respect” for Fauci but defended his decision to impose the quarantine, saying he has an obligation to protect residents amid Centers for Disease Control guidelines that remain a “moving target.”
"Imagine that you're the person in charge of public health for people of a large, densely populated state … and these protocols continue to move and change,” Christie said. “It was my conclusion we need to do this to protect the public health of people of New Jersey. (New York) Governor Cuomo agreed. And now, (Chicago) Mayor Emanuel agrees. And I think the CDC eventually will come around to our point of view on this."
Officials at New York City's Bellevue Hospital Center said Sunday that Spencer was in serious but stable condition, was looking better than he did the day before, and tolerated a plasma treatment well.
The World Health Organization said more than 10,000 people have been infected with Ebola in the outbreak that came to light last March, and nearly half of them have died, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Hillary Clinton: Corporations and businesses don’t create jobs

At a Democratic rally in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton’s attempt to attack “trickle-down economics,” resulted in a spectacularly odd statement.
Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.”
She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” the former Secretary of State said.
Clinton’s comment will likely be used frequently to attack her as another big-government Democrat. She is seen by many as already running for president in 2016.

NY governor admits Ebola policy could be unenforceable

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted Saturday that the 21-day Ebola quarantine policy for health care workers returning from West Africa could be unenforceable. 
The New York Daily News reported that the Democrat acknowledged that several contingencies had not yet been worked out by officials, including what would happen if someone refused to be quarantined or even where they would spend their time during the watch period. 
"Could you have a hostile person who doesn’t want to be quarantined?" Cuomo said during a campaign appearance in the New York City borough of Queens Saturday. "I suppose you could. But that hasn’t been the case yet." The governor added that officials had not determined whether those refusing to be quarantined could face arrest or prosecution, saying "It's nothing that we've discussed, no." When asked by the News where the quarantined people would be held, Cuomo even seemed unclear on that point, saying "Some people could be quarantined in a hospital if they wanted to be."
On Friday, Cuomo and his New Jersey counterpart, Chris Christie, imposed a mandatory quarantine of 21 days — the incubation period of the deadly virus — on travelers who have had contact with Ebola patients in the countries ravaged by Ebola — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. A similar measure was announced in Illinois, where officials say such travelers could be quarantined at home.
Doctors Without Borders executive director Sophie Delaunay complained Saturday about the "notable lack of clarity" from state officials about the quarantine policies, and an American Civil Liberties Union official in New Jersey said the state must provide more information on how it determined that mandatory quarantines were necessary.
"Coercive measures like mandatory quarantine of people exhibiting no symptoms of Ebola and when not medically necessary raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers," said Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
Health officials in all three states with quarantine policies did not return messages from The Associated Press seeking details about enforcement Saturday. 
Meanwhile, Kaci Hickox, the first traveler quarantined under Ebola watches in New Jersey and New York, wrote the first-person account for the Dallas Morning News, which was posted on the paper's website Saturday. Her preliminary tests for Ebola came back negative.
"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," Hickox wrote of her quarantine. "I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine"
"One after another, people asked me questions," Hickox continued. "Some introduced themselves, some didn’t. One man who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal ... The U.S. must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity."
Doctors Without Borders said Hickox has not been issued an order of quarantine specifying how long she must be isolated and is being kept in an unheated tent. It urged the "fair and reasonable treatment" of health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak.
"We are attempting to clarify the details of the protocols with each state's departments of health to gain a full understanding of their requirements and implications," Delaunay said in a statement.
Christie, campaigning Saturday in Iowa for a fellow Republican, said he sympathizes for Hickox but said he has to do what he can to ensure public health safety.
"My heart goes out to her," the governor said, while also noting that state and local health officials would make sure quarantine rules are enforced. He said the New Jersey State Police won't be involved.
The quarantine measures were announced after a New York physician, Craig Spencer, working for Doctors Without Borders returned from Guinea was admitted to Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital Center earlier this week to be treated for Ebola.
A senior White House official said Saturday that how to treat health care workers returning from the affected West African countries continues to be discussed at meetings on Ebola as the administration continues to take a "careful look" at its policies.

YouTube, Beware: Election-spending regulator sets sights on political Internet videos

Politically themed YouTube videos could be the next target of federal regulators.
The top Democrat on the Federal Election Commission strongly suggested Friday that regulators look at extending their authority to election-themed Internet videos – an area that for years has been largely hands-off for the government.
The statement from Vice Chairwoman Ann Ravel, who is in line to take over the commission next year, prompted Republicans to warn that such a move could threaten the growth and freedom of the Internet itself.
“I have been warning that my Democratic colleagues were moving to regulate media generally and the Internet specifically for almost a year now,” Chairman Lee Goodman told FoxNews.com. “And today’s statement from Vice Chair Ravel confirms my warnings.”
At issue was a case considered by the FEC – the chief campaign-finance regulator – in September involving a group that ran pro-coal videos critical of Democrats in 2012. The group initially was accused of failing to report the cost of the videos and of failing to include the routine “disclaimers.”
But the group maintained that since they were only run on YouTube, they were exempt.
The case ended in a split, 3-3 decision at the FEC and was dismissed. But the vote itself aired a striking divide: despite a decision clearing the organization by the general counsel, Democrats voted to pursue an investigation anyway while Republicans voted to drop it.
Ravel was blunt in her written statement Friday explaining her side’s vote. She scolded Republicans for arguing rules that would apply to TV ads should not apply to web videos.
“As a matter of policy, this simply does not make sense,” she said.
She said, rather, a “re-examination” of the FEC approach to the Internet is “long overdue” and complained the commission has “turned a blind eye” to the Internet’s influence in politics.
“Since its inception, this effort to protect individual bloggers and online commentators has been stretched to cover slickly-produced ads aired solely on the Internet but paid for by the same organizations and the same large contributors as the actual ads aired on TV,” she said. Ravel vowed to “bring together” people from “across the spectrum” next year to look at the issue.
This set off alarm bells.
GOP members of the commission cite an “Internet exemption” dating back to 2006 that spares free web videos from FEC regulations. In other words, anyone who posts a politically themed video for free only to YouTube can – for now -- do so without including a disclaimer or reporting the costs.
“The FEC’s approach to free speech on the Internet should be hands-off,” Goodman said, urging the public to go to the FEC website to comment on the issue.
A statement from Goodman and his GOP colleagues on the commission likewise warned about the implications of the 3-3 decision, and a “desire to retreat” from “important protections for online political speech.”
This, they wrote, would be a “shift in course that could threaten the continued development of the Internet’s virtual free marketplace of political ideas and democratic debate.”
This is hardly the first warning from Goodman and his colleagues about the direction of the current FEC. He previously has warned that officials at the agency want to start regulating the media, and might even try to regulate book publishers. Democrats on the commission have called those allegations “overheated” and overblown.

As Virginia Senate race tightens, GOP’s Gillespie confident about upsetting Warner

Republican Ed Gillespie is making a tight race out of his ambitious plan to defeat Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, slicing deep into the incumbent’s lead in the final days to re-emerge as a player in the GOP set piece to take the Senate.
By some accounts, Gillespie, a former Bush White House staffer and Republican National Committee chairman, has already done his job by forcing Democrats and their supporters to keep spending money on an expected victory, instead of on the handful of other Senate races that they desperately need to retain control of the upper chamber.
But with 10 days to go before Election Day, Gillespie, who according to a recent poll has cut the lead to single digits, feels confident about winning and is in no mood to declare a moral victory for what Washington war room strategists refer to as “expanding the playing field.”
“I’ve always said this is a winnable,” Gillespie told FoxNews.com on Thursday, as he campaigned through the state’s voter-rich Virginia Beach-Hampton Roads region. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I also knew it was possible. We have incredible energy right now… We’re going to win.”
Gillespie -- a first-time candidate and high-powered lobbyist before the campaign -- entered the race trailing by at least 20 percentage points and with considerably less money, one lead he couldn’t close despite his Washington establishment connections.
Warner, a former Virginia governor and wealthy telecommunication entrepreneur before joining Congress, has consistently out-fundraised Gillespie and now has roughly $8 million in available cash, compared to roughly $2 million for Gillespie.
That disparity became apparent last week when the Gillespie campaign temporarily cancelled and reduced the amount of money it had planned to spend on TV ads.
The super PAC of former Virginia GOP Gov. Jim Gilmore jumped in with $86,000 for TV and radio ads in support of Gillespie.
But the Warner campaign meanwhile continued to bombard the airwaves with ads about Gillespie previously lobbying for Enron -- the energy conglomerate forced into bankruptcy in 2001 by an accounting scheme that also resulted to 21 people either pleading guilty or being found guilty of related crimes.
Lauren Bell, a dean and political science professor at Virginia’s Randolph-Macon College, thinks Gillespie entered the race believing he could knock off an incumbent and still does.
“I cannot image somebody of Ed Gillespie’s stature, with his credentials, would just take one for the team,” she said.
Warner has spent $4.4 million on ads, and the liberal Virginia Progress PAC has spent another $2 million.
Gillespie has spent $3.5 million on ads with a mere $260,000 more coming from outside groups, according to the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Gillespie has also done most of the heavy lifting with so little outside money, which likely hurt his race but allowed Washington Republicans and pro-GOP political action committees to spend on the tight races in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina.
The Warner campaign could not be reached Saturday for comment. 
Republicans need to win a net total of six seats to take control of the Senate and appear headed to at least win Democratic-held seats in South Dakota and West Virginia.
Bell thinks Gillespie has a shot at winning, pointing to Dave Brat's stunning Virginia GOP primary win this summer over House Minority Leader Eric Canton despite having a huge fundraising disadvantage.
“It seems unlikely that Gillespie will be able to come back,” Bell said. “But I don’t think it’s impossible… Before the Brat primary I would have said no way.”
She also argues that Gillespie could win in similar fashion to Brat, a fellow Randolph Macon professor, by entering the race with lower polls numbers but benefiting from low voter turnout, a major concern for Democrats in November.
Gillespie, like other Republican challengers this election cycle, appears to have found success in trying to tie Warner, known as a centrist, to President Obama’s agenda.
However, the race could now be even tighter, following revelations in mid-October about Warner allegedly discussing a federal judgeship for a supporter in an effort to keep her father from quitting the state Senate and giving Republicans the majority.
Bell said the allegation, largely overlooked by the national media, is a big deal among Virginia voters, though no public polls have been released since it surfaced.
“It’s a big issue,” Gillespie said. “It’s deeply troubling that Mark Warner would play politics with an appointment to a federal bench. Something happened to Mark Warner on his way to Capitol Hill.”