'He did nothing wrong': Florida principal ousted after defending Texas cop

A Florida high school principal, who defended the Texas police officer at the center of that infamous pool melee, has become the latest victim of radical speech police hell-bent on trying to silence public discourse.
Alberto Iber lost his job as the principal at North Miami Senior High School after he wrote a comment about the McKinney, Texas incident on the Miami Herald’s website.
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“He did nothing wrong,” Iber wrote. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”
Three sentences. Sixteen words. Sixty-two characters.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement on June 10 announcing that Mr. Iber had been removed from his position at the high school and reassigned to an administrative position.
The district said they require their employees to conduct themselves “in a manner that represents the school district’s core values.”

Superintendent Carvahlo sent a very chilling message to his employees – any opinion that is contrary to liberal ideology must be silenced. And those who dare to voice such an opinion in the public marketplace must be severely punished.

“Judgment is the currency of honesty,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho wrote in a statement. “Insensitivity – intentional or perceived – is both unacceptable and inconsistent with our policies, but more importantly with our expectation of common sense behavior that elevates the dignity and humanity of all, beginning with children.”
The district’s statement seems to borrow heavily from an ideology that suggests while Americans have free speech – there’s a price to pay for speaking out.
Mr. Iber addressed the firestorm of controversy and affirmed his support for the police in a statement that was released to the Miami Herald.
“I support law enforcement, and also the community and students that I serve as the proud principal of North Miami Senior High,” he wrote. “The comment I posted was simply made as the result of a short video that I watched and my personal opinion.”
He also said it was not his intention to upset people – and he regretted that his three-sentence message had become newsworthy.
He did not retract what he wrote nor did he apologize for what he wrote.
Local news organizations suggested the reason Iber’s opinion became newsworthy is because North Miami is a “diverse” neighborhood – meaning most of the residents are black.
“If you’re running a majority black school and you say a remark such as that people will not respect you,” a student told NBC News in Miami.
Councilman Alix Desulme, who identifies himself as a Haitian-American, was among those who condemned the former principal – and said he was “appalled.”
“For him to make such a comment is insensitive to the community,” he told the Miami Herald.
Are the councilman and the superintendent suggesting the principal had an obligation to condemn the Texas police officer? Would the principal still have a job had he done so?
Was Mr. Iber removed from his job because he defended a police officer or was he removed because he defended a white police officer?
The school district told me the superintendent would have no further comments on the matter. And his silence is damning.
Superintendent Carvahlo sent a very chilling message to his employees – any opinion that is contrary to liberal ideology must be silenced. And those who dare to voice such an opinion in the public marketplace must be severely punished.
While we may never know for sure if race was the motivating factor – it appears a good and decent educator was felled simply because he defended a white man.
As we say around the Fox News Corner of the World – I’ll just let you decide.

Mother of Washington state NAACP leader says daughter falsely claimed to be black

Controversy erupted around a local NAACP leader in Washington state Thursday after family members told a local newspaper that she had misrepresented herself as black. 
Rachel Dolezal is the head of the NAACP's chapter in Spokane and is also a part-time professor in the Africana Studies Program at Eastern Washington University. The Spokane Spokesman-Review says that Dolezal described her ethnicity as white, black, and American Indian in an application to be the volunteer chairwoman of the city's Police Ombudsman Commission, a position to which she was duly appointed.
But Dolezal's mother, Ruthanne, told the paper that the family's actual ancestry is Czech, Swedish, and German, along with some "faint traces" of Native American heritage.
"It's very sad that Rachel has not just been herself," Ruthanne Dolezal said. "Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable, and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody."
Ruthanne Dolezal said that her daughter began to "disguise herself" in the mid-2000s, after the family had adopted four African-American children.
Rachel Dolezal did not immediately respond to her mother's claim when contacted by the Spokesman-Review, first saying "I feel like I owe [the NAACP] executive committee conversation" about what she called a "multi-layered issue."
After being contacted again, Dolezal said, "That question is not as easy as it seems. There's a lot of complexities ... and I don’t know that everyone would understand that." Later, she said, "We're all from the African continent," an apparent reference to scientific studies tracing the origin of human life to east Africa.
According to the Spokesman-Review, members of other organizations that Dolezal has belonged to have raised questions about her ethnicity as well as hate crimes that she has reported.
A former board member of the Kootenai County (Idaho) Task Force on Human Relations, which employed Dolezal for three years as the education director for its Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, told the paper that he was concerned that she had been hired without proper vetting of her background.
Kurt Neumaier also told the paper that he was suspicious of several racially motivated incidents reported by Dolezal while she was in Coeur d'Alene. One specific incident he cited was the discovery of a swastika on the Human Rights Education Institute's door on a day when the organization's security cameras had been "mysteriously turned off".
"None of them passed the smell test," Neumaier said.
The Spokesman-Review also reported that Spokane police records for February and March of this year showed that a hate mail package Dolezal reported receiving at the NAACP's post office box did not bear a date stamp or barcode. Postal workers interviewed by police said it was highly unlikely that they had processed it and said it could only have been put there by someone with key.
Dolezal has denied putting the package in the post office box, and the paper reported that it has received several pieces of mail written in the same style that have been date-stamped and postmarked from Oakland, Calif.

Prison worker reportedly admits smuggling power tools to escaped killers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bill Clinton contradicts Hillary on email claims

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

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

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

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