WH, Feinstein make clear US won't negotiate with ISIS over hostages, interfere with Japan

Top Washington Democrats said Sunday that the U.S. won’t try to meddle in a potential hostage-prisoner exchange between the Islamic State and Japan but suggested that compromising with the ruthless extremist group is a step in the wrong direction.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told Fox News that the negotiations are “obviously” between both sides and involve Jordan, where a female prisoner is being held in connection with a series of 2005 terror bombings, but she still doesn’t like the idea.
“I'm not for it candidly,” said Feinstein, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s top Democrat and former chairwoman.
Her comments follow a video released Saturday apparently by Islamic State with the message that the group executed Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer fascinated by war, and wants the release of the female prisoner to spare the life of the other Japanese hostage, 47-year-old journalist Kenji Goto.
Earlier Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on “Fox News Sunday” also made clear that the decision was Japan’s and stated the U.S. policy of not negotiating with terror groups over hostages.
“The policies are well set: The U.S. doesn't pay ransoms and will not do prisoner swaps. We will not discuss what the Japanese should do,” he said. “We are not going to advise Japan.”
McDonough also argued “cash fuels future kidnappings.”
President Obama has spoken out about the apparent killing.
“The United States strongly condemns the brutal murder,” he said Saturday in a statement. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally Japan.”
Feinstein also argued that Islamic State, which has executed dozens of hostages in recent months, including three Americans, is asking for the release of Sajida al Rishawi -- the prisoner connected with the 2005 bombings at several Jordanian hotels in which 57 people were killed.
The explosive carried by al Rishawi’s husband detonated, but hers did not. Al Rishawi reportedly has also confessed to taking part in the attacks, allegedly orchestrated by al Qaeda.
“The prisoner that they want is a very high-level woman who participated in what was a devastating bombing,” Feinstein said.  
She also said that Congress can do little to stop the hostage taking that often includes online videos of the victims getting beheaded.
“That's very difficult to do unless you want to take anyone and everyone out of the country,” Feinstein said. “I think we're trying to combat it. We've got air missions attacking ISIL. … The battle against ISIL has been joined [by other nations]. The question that's going to come is how much will the United States put into that battle.”

America's first offshore wind project dealt major setback after utilities bolt

An ambitious and controversial push to erect America's first offshore wind farm has been dealt what some call a potentially "fatal" blow after two utility companies pulled out of commitments to buy energy from the lagging operation. 
The $2.6 billion Cape Wind project, a private operation benefiting from millions in federal subsidies, is attempting to pioneer offshore wind energy in pursuit of an eco-friendly, sustainable energy supply. Wind turbines would be installed off the coast of Massachusetts' Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound. 
But Cape Wind is now in limbo after utility companies terminated huge purchase agreements. They pulled out after the project failed to meet two requirements by Dec. 31: to secure financing and begin construction. 
The wind farm was relying on NSTAR and National Grid to purchase a combined 77.5 percent of its offshore wind power. 
But Greg Sullivan, a former inspector general of Massachusetts who now works at the Pioneer Institute in Boston, said Cape Wind was struggling to find a buyer for the rest of the energy. 
"And because they couldn't do that, they had to let the deadline slip with the utility companies. And they walked," Sullivan said. "And I would be very doubtful they would come back." 
Doug Pizzi, spokesman for the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters, said he is "very concerned" about the future of the project.
"That's certainly a setback for Cape Wind. It sounds like a major one," he said. "But I don't know if that kills the project or if that's something they can overcome." 
Cape Wind argues the deadline to secure funding should be extended, saying the project was overwhelmed by lawsuits, wasting time needed to meet the requirements. 
Pizzi agreed. "If you have to fight something in court for ten years ... it's going to take a lot more time to break even and/or become profitable," he said. 
In a statement issued to Fox News, National Grid said it was "disappointed" in Cape Wind. NSTAR also faulted Cape Wind for missing "critical milestones" and choosing not to pursue financial measures that could have extended the deadline. 
NSTAR, in a statement, said strict deadlines are in place to protect the consumer from high-priced energy due to lack of supply. Sullivan added that with falling gas prices, "the contract began to look worse day by day" for the utility companies. 
Critics of the project with the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound called the utilities' decision "good news" for ratepayers. "The decision by NStar and National Grid to end their contracts with Cape Wind is a fatal or near-fatal blow to this expensive and outdated project," the group said in a statement. 
Still, Pizzi said Cape Wind isn't America's only hope for offshore wind, touting a federal auction to take place next week that would lease portions of the Atlantic Ocean to potential offshore wind farms. "That potentially could just set off a chain reaction of positive things for wind power offshore," Pizzi said, noting, "Obviously that's something that's going to take some time." 
But Susan Tierney, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy who has worked with Cape Wind officials, predicted a slowdown for the nascent industry. 
"It may give a lift to opponents who feel emboldened to keep pounding on things and it may chill some developers who might otherwise really want to do it," she said in an interview with Watchdog.org. 
Cape Wind officials did not respond to a request from Fox News for comment.

Christie launches PAC in significant step toward White House run

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has taken a major step toward a run for president in 2016, forming a political action committee that will allow him to raise money for a possible White House bid. 
The creation of the committee, called Leadership Matters for America, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal early Monday. It also allows Christie to begin to hire staffers, build the foundations of a campaign operation and travel across the country as he weighs a final decision on a run.
The move comes one month after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he he was launching a similar organization, which kicked off an aggressive race to lock down donors and may have drawn 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney into the race.
The PAC's staffers will include Matt Mowers, a former Christie aide, who is stepping down from his job as executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party at the end of the month.  Christie is named as its honorary chairman.
"We believe there's a void right now in leadership throughout the country," Christie's chief political adviser Mike DuHaime told The Journal. "We aim to support candidates who are willing to take on tough problems and make tough decisions."
A mission statement on the organization's website echoes themes that Christie has focused in recent speeches, including remarks on Saturday in Iowa in front of conservative activists.
"America has been a nation that has always controlled events and yet today events control us. Why? Because leadership matters," the mission statement reads. "It matters if we want to restore America's role in the world, find the political will to take on the entrenched special interests that continually stand in the way of fundamental change, reform entitlement spending at every level of government, and ensure that every child, no matter their zip code, has access to a quality education."
Christie, a former federal prosecutor who passed up the opportunity to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012, turned quickly toward laying the groundwork for a 2016 campaign after winning a second gubernatorial term in the heavily Democratic Garden State in 2013.
In the past several months, he has held meetings to court donors, convened late-night briefing sessions on foreign policy and made repeated visits to early-voting states, including in Iowa over the weekend, where he vaguely referred to himself as "a candidate."
He takes his next step into the race with several advantages, among them having recently completed a banner year of fundraising as chair of the Republican Governors Association. The group raised more than $100 million on Christie's watch and helped Republican candidates win a series of unexpected races, including the nominally Democratic states of Maryland and Illinois.
Serving as RGA chief also gave Christie the opportunity to travel across the country and build relationships with donors and activists. He is also one of his party's most talented retail politicians, reveling in the kind of one-on-one interaction that voters in the crucial early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire demand.
But Christie also has challenges to overcome, including the still-pending federal investigation into accusations that former staff members and appointees created traffic jams as political payback against the Democratic mayor of a New York suburb by blocking access lanes to the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan.
He's also dogged by questions about the economy of New Jersey, including several recent downgrades of the state's credit rating and sluggish job growth. Christie is also viewed with distrust in certain conservative circles, while other question whether his brash persona and habit of confrontation will play well outside his home state.
While Christie has told supporters to "relax" about the timing of his entry into the race, he has faced mounting pressure to get started after Bush -- whose support and donor base significantly overlaps with Christie's -- said he would "actively explore" a run.
Christie's campaign is likely to focus on many of the themes he's spent years developing in New Jersey, including a pitch that he can expand the Republican Party's tent by appealing to independent, women and minority voters.

Insult Cartoon

'Repeal every word': Potential GOP 2016 rivals hammer ObamaCare, IRS at Iowa summit

DES MOINES, Iowa –  Conservative heavyweights joined with up-and-comers in hammering President Obama Saturday over everything from the health care law to his immigration policies as they played to a sold-out Iowa crowd in what amounted to the opening bell of the Republican presidential campaign.
They spoke at the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, held in the first-in-the-nation caucus state at a time when big-name Republicans are getting close to announcing whether they’ll seek the presidency.
While nobody at the summit has definitively declared a 2016 bid, nearly a dozen of the summit’s speakers are flirting with one. Testing their message on the conservative Iowa crowd, they took a hard line in their prescriptions for the country.
“The most important tax reform we can do is abolish the IRS,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told the fired-up audience.
The firebrand senator compared the EPA to a locust and got a huge reaction when he demanded to “repeal every word of ObamaCare.”
Sarah Palin, too, after telling reporters she’s thinking about a 2016 run, laced her speech with snappy one-liners as she lit into the current president.
Of Obama, she said: “America, he’s just not that into you.” The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee also knocked the idea of a Hillary Clinton run.
“Hey Iowa, can anyone stop Hillary? To borrow a phrase, yes, we can!” she said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry – who was interrupted by immigration protesters – helped closed out the daylong event. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum spoke earlier. 
Christie also was interrupted by a protester in the crowd. Unlike Perry, who kept talking through it, Christie couldn’t resist. “Don’t they know I am from New Jersey? This stuff doesn’t bother me one bit,” he said. He went on to dismiss the notion he’s too blunt for Iowa.
“If that was the case, why would you keep inviting me back and why would I keep coming back?” he asked, to applause.
The summit, which included a packed schedule of speeches back-to-back, served as the unofficial kickoff to the 2016 Republican presidential race.
It included big names like Cruz and Christie, but also some rising stars, like Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who has reinvented himself as an outspoken conservative and won an enthusiastic following in the process.
Drawing some of the biggest applause of the day, Carson took on the thorny subject of immigration, saying fixing the country's immigration issues should rest on Congress' shoulders and not the president's – in a dig at Obama’s executive actions.
Carson, who has been flirting with the idea of a 2016 presidential run, told the crowd the next president should "make it their goal to seal the border within a year."
He said part of the problem is that the United States is too attractive to illegal immigrants.
"We have to reverse the magnet," he said. "We should not be employing illegal immigrants. Do we have the ability to seal the border? Yes. We don't have the will."
Carson suggested adopting a guest-worker program similar to the one Canada has and said anyone applying for guest-worker employment should do so while in another country. 
Carson also took on the Affordable Care Act and said "even if it worked, I would oppose it."
Carson warned the crowd that health care should not be put in the hands of the government and said ObamaCare fundamentally changes America.
Donald Trump, too, told a revved-up audience he'd build an impenetrable wall to keep illegal immigrants out. “I’m Trump. I build things,” he said, while saying he’s “seriously thinking” of running for president.
Freshman Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who gave the GOP response to the State of the Union address, also had tough words for the president’s record on fighting terrorism. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore told the crowd he was “ashamed” of that record and said the president should have gone to Paris to join the unity rally after the attacks in that city this month.
The summit was sponsored by Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King and Citizens United.
King, in his opening remarks, called for abolishing the IRS and going after Obama’s “executive overreach,” while largely sidestepping the broader immigration issue.
King, known for controversial statements on immigration, recently called a 21-year-old illegal immigrant who was Michelle Obama’s guest at the State of the Union address “a deportable.” He told an Iowa radio station Friday he was being “kind and gentle” with that description.
The incident became quick fodder for Democrats eager to cast Republicans attending as “extreme” on immigration. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in a press conference across the street from the summit in Des Moines, called it an “extremist ring-kissing summit masquerading as a political forum.”
King, though, did not fuel the immigration fire in his opening remarks. Instead, he focused on the future and said the next president of the United States must “restore that separation of powers.”
He also took a jab at those in his party who declined to attend. (2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul were among those not in attendance.)
“Do you believe that the next president of the United States is going to be speaking from this stage to you today?” he asked, to applause. “As do I.”
King said he wants Americans to elect a new president who is ready to sign legislation that will “rip ObamaCare out by the roots.” He also told the crowd he has penned a 40-word bill to make ObamaCare “as if it had never been enacted.”

Immigration protesters arrested at Iowa summit, Christie spars with one

Two protesters were arrested Saturday after they interrupted speeches by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at the Iowa Freedom Summit.
The summit was a gathering of high-profile conservatives, many of them weighing a 2016 presidential bid, in Des Moines.
The first interruption was during Perry’s speech. Marco Malagon, a Texas resident who came to the country illegally when he was young and benefited from the Obama administration’s “dreamer” reprieve, shouted: “Governor, do you stand with King, or do you stand with us and our families? Do you think I’m deportable?” A dozen other protesters stood up with signs that read, “DEPORTABLE?”
The signs were in reference to the event’s organizer, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and a tweet he sent out during the State of the Union speech where he referred to a guest of Michelle Obama as “a deportable.”
“We are here today sending a message to the GOP presidential candidates, like Perry, that if they are serious about 2016, they need to stay as far as possible from Steve King and his hateful actions towards us,” Malagon told reporters.
He and Cesar Vargas, who interrupted Christie, were arrested.
While Perry did not acknowledge any of the protesters, Christie wisecracked back.
“Don’t they know I am from New Jersey? This stuff doesn’t bother me one bit,” he said.
Vargas told reporters that immigration is a “central issue” for Republicans.
“Events like the Freedom Summit further illustrate how out of touch the Republican Party is with the growing Latino and immigrant population in the United States. Do they really want to deport me and my mother?" Vargas asked.

Palin rips Michael Moore, PETA at Iowa summit

DES MOINES, Iowa –  Sarah Palin had choice words Saturday for director Michael Moore following his criticism of the movie “American Sniper” and its subject, the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.
At the Iowa Freedom Summit, a gathering of high-profile conservatives in Des Moines, she said the director deserved the backlash he got.
The former Alaska governor recently posed for a photo with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer who held up a sign that read, “F--- you Michael Moore.” Palin, chuckling, told the Iowa audience that “what the poster said is what the rest of us are thinking.”
The sign was in response to a tweet in which Moore called snipers cowards: “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. “
Since then, Moore clarified his comments on his Facebook page and said his comment was in reference to snipers, but that he was not specifically commenting on the film “American Sniper.”
Palin also took PETA to task for recent criticism against her for posting a picture of her son stepping on the family’s dog to reach the kitchen sink.
“The usual suspects, they just went loco,” Palin said. “Barking their tired old death threats against us. And I’m thinking, get in line!”
She referred to the organization as “a bunch of weasels” and joked that at least her son Trig did not eat the family dog.

Japan PM left 'speechless' after video claims hostage dead

Japan's prime minister said Sunday he was "speechless" after an online video purportedly showed an Islamic State militant killing one of the two Japanese hostages.
Shinzo Abe told Japanese broadcaster NHK the government is still reviewing the video, but it was likely authentic. Abe offered his condolences to the family and friends of 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa, who was taken hostage in Syria last year.
Abe did not comment about the message in the latest video that demanded a prisoner exchange for the other hostage, journalist Kenji Goto.
"I am left speechless," he said, stressing he wants Goto released unharmed. "We strongly and totally criticize such acts."
Yukawa's father, Shoichi, said he hoped "deep in his heart" that the news of his son's killing was not true.
"If I am ever reunited with him, I just want to give him a big hug," he told a small group of journalists invited into his house.
President Obama condemned the "brutal murder." He said in a statement that the United States stands by Japan and calling for Goto's release.
The U.S. National Security Council said it has seen the video and that the intelligence community is working to confirm its authenticity.
“The United States strongly condemns (Islamic State’s) actions, and we call for the immediate release of all the remaining hostages,” said agency spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
The CIA also has confirmed it is aware of the video and is reviewing it.
The video message claims one hostage has been killed and demands a prisoner exchange for the other.
The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the message, which varied greatly from previous videos released by Islamic State, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.
Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the audio was still being studied, but there was no reason to deny the authenticity of the video.
One militant on the Islamic State-affiliated website warned that Saturday's new message was fake, while another said that the message was intended only to go to the Japanese journalist's family.
A third militant on the website noted that the video was not issued by al-Furqan, which is one of the media arms of the Islamic State group and has issued past videos involving hostages and beheadings. Saturday's message did not bear al-Furqan's logo.
The militants on the website post comments using pseudonyms, so their identities could not be independently confirmed by the AP. However, their confusion over the video matched that of Japanese officials and outside observers.