US reportedly fears Iran-Saudi Arabia rift will set back ISIS fight

The Obama administration and its Western allies have been left scrambling to smooth over a rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran that erupted over the weekend after the Saudis executed a prominent Shiite cleric.
On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced that his country had severed diplomatic ties with Iran and gave Iranian diplomatic personnel 48 hours to leave his country. All Saudi diplomatic personnel in Iran have been called home after mobs attacked the kingdom's embassy in Tehran, as well as a consulate.
According to The Washington Post, the Obama administration fears that the escalating dispute could negatively affect the ongoing fight against the ISIS terror group, as well as the effort to bring Syria's ongoing civil war to a peaceful conclusion.
At least one U.S. official blamed the Saudi government for stoking tensions by executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a central figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012.
"This is a dangerous game [the Saudis] are playing," the official told the Post. "There are larger repercussions than just the reaction to these executions."
That drew an angry response from a Saudi official, who told the Post, "Tehran has thumbed its nose at the West again and again, continuing to sponsor terrorism and launch ballistic missiles and no one is doing anything about it."
"Every time the Iranians do something, the United States backs off," the official added, according to the Post. "The Saudis are actually doing something."
The executions illustrate Saudi Arabia's new aggressiveness under King Salman. During his reign, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen and staunchly opposed the nuclear deal world powers struck with Iran this past summer.
It also represents just the latest turmoil in the two countries' long-rocky relationship, which saw diplomatic ties between them severed from 1988 to 1991.
On Sunday, al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the Iranian regime has "a long record of violations of foreign diplomatic missions," dating back to the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, and such incidents constitute "a flagrant violation of all international agreements," according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
He said Iran's "hostile policy" was aimed "at destabilizing the region's security," accusing Tehran of smuggling weapons and explosives and planting terrorist cells in the kingdom and other countries in the region. He vowed that Saudi Arabia will not allow Iran "to undermine our security."
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Saudi Arabia on Sunday of "divine revenge" over al-Nimr's death, but also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists."
At least 40 people were arrested Sunday after a protest outside the Saudi Embassy quickly grew violent as demonstrators threw stones and gasoline bombs at the embassy, setting part of the building ablaze
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Sunday the Obama administration was aware of the Saudis' severing of ties with Tehran. "We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," Kirby said.
In recent months, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and others have spent significant time trying to bring both countries to the negotiating table and they both sat together at talks aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the civil war. Last month, Saudi Arabia convened a meeting of Syrian opposition figures that was designed to create a delegation to attend peace talks with the Syrian government that are supposed to begin later this month.
Earlier Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by phone and urged Tehran to "defuse the tensions and protect the Saudi diplomats," according to a statement.

Armed protesters at national wildlife refuge say government force would risk lives

Armed protesters occupying a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon—including three sons of a Nevada rancher who battled with the government in 2014—warned Sunday that any use of force by law enforcement agencies would be “putting lives at risk.”
Hours into the occupation by activists and militiamen a spokesman for the group told reporters that there has been no contact with the FBI or other government law enforcement since the occupation began Saturday night.
“They should be constitutional,” said spokesman Ammon Bundy, referring to the government. He is a son of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who clashed with the feds two years ago.

Ammon Bundy said if the government did use force to retake the Malheur National Wildlife refuge “they would be putting lives at risk.”
Earlier, the protesters vowed to occupy the refuge for “as long as it takes,” as state and federal officials on Sunday sought to defuse the situation.
The protestors have said they stormed the federal land in a remote area near Burns, some 280 miles southeast of Portland, to protest the prosecution of a father and son facing jail time on an arson charge for burning 130 acres of land.
Dwight Hammond Jr., 73, and his 46-year-old son, Steven, have claimed that they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. However, prosecutors said the fires were set to cover up poaching.

Buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are seen near Burns, Ore., Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Protesters are occupying the refuge to object to a prison sentence for local ranchers for burning federal land. (AP Photo/Rebecca Boone)

The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served jail time — the father three months, the son one year. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each.
Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison Monday as ordered by the judge.
The decision generated controversy and is part of a decades-long dispute between some Westerners and the federal government over the use of public lands. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the "Sagebrush Rebellion," a move by Western states like Nevada to increase local control over federal land. Critics of the push for more local control have said the federal government should administer the public lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreation.

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On Sunday, militia members decked out in camouflage and warm winter gear and holding guns and walkie talkies guarded the entrance. They allowed some news reporters through for interviews with members of the Bundy family. Pickup trucks blocked the entrance and were pulled out of the way to let select cars through.
Supplies were seen Sunday being delivered to the refuge area, which is remote even by rural Oregon standards. The wildlife refuge sits in a wide snow-covered valley rimmed by distant mountains. A high lookout tower sits over the refuge headquarters buildings, which has several stone buildings and garages.
At a news conference at the refuge, Ammon Bundy renewed a call for other "patriots" to come join the occupation.
"We are asking people to come because we need to be united and have a strong defense," he said.
But Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said the protesters were no patriots.

"These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States," Ward said in a statement. "We are currently working jointly with several organizations to make sure the citizens of Harney County are safe and this issue is resolved as quickly and peaceful as possible."
Ward earlier told people to stay away from the building as authorities worked to defuse the situation, the Oregonian reported.
"A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation," Ward said in a statement.
On his Facebook page Ammon Bundy said “this is not a time to stand down. It’s a time to stand up and come to Harney County.”
"(asterisk)(asterisk)ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED," he wrote.
In an interview with The Associated Press at the wildlife refuge Sunday, Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy's brother, said the protesters' ultimate goal is to turn the land over to local authorities so people can use it free of federal oversight.

They want to "restore the rights to people so they can use the land and resources" for ranching, logging, mining and recreation.

Ryan Bundy says the federal government has been "tromping on people's rights and privileges and properties and livelihoods."

"I understand the land needs to be used wisely, but that's what we as stewards need to do. A rancher is going to take care of his own ranch," Ryan Bundy said.
The refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It had been closed and unoccupied over the holiday weekend, according to the Oregonian.
One of the occupiers, Blaine Cooper, told KTVZ-TV likened the occupation to what is done about bullies in school: “You have to put him in his place.”
"Now, I'm not going to be best friends with the BLM," he said. "The point is, until that line is drawn, that we have had enough of this tyranny and you are going to leave us alone, it will not change. This is the power of America, right here. ... This could be a hope that spreads through the whole United States,” Cooper added.
Cliven Bundy told Oregon Public Broadcasting on Saturday night that he was not involved in the takeover.
He said his sons felt obligated to intervene on behalf of the Hammonds.
"That's not exactly what I thought should happen, but I didn't know what to do," he said. "You know, if the Hammonds wouldn't stand, if the sheriff didn't stand, then, you know, the people had to do something. And I guess this is what they did decide to do. I wasn't in on that."
He said Ammon told him the protesters were there for the long run.
“I guess they figured they're going to be there for whatever time it takes and I don't know what that means," the father said. "I asked him, 'Well how long can ya, how long you going to stand out there?' He just told me it was for long term."
The Oregonian, citing government sources, reported the militiamen had planned to occupy a closed fire station near Frenchglen. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management sends its crews there during the fire season.

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Russia reportedly names US as threat to national security for first time

Russia has named the U.S. as one of the threats to its national security in a new assessment signed by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to a published report.
Reuters reported the document, “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation,” replaces the 2009 version endorsed by former President Dmitry Medvedev, which didn’t mention the U.S. or NATO. Russia continues to increase its role in solving global conflicts, which has caused some reaction from the West, according to the document.
It is the first time Russia has officially named the U.S. a national security threat, according to Reuters.
Russia claims its heightened global reach has caused “counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs.” The document claims that Western pressures will likely lead to increased “political, economical, military and informational pressure” on Russia.
Relations between Moscow and the West became to deteriorate stemming from Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Western nations have repeatedly accused Russia of funding insurgents in Ukraine despite Moscow’s denials.
Russia’s security document accuses the U.S. and EU of supporting an “anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine,” which has deepened the rift between Moscow and the West.
The U.S. and European Union have imposed sanctions against Russian companies and businessmen. Russia, in turn, clamped down on food imported from EU countries.
The expansion of NATO also concerns Russia. The document also said the U.S. has expanded its military biological labs in neighboring countries.
According to Reuters, the document fails to mention anything on Russia’s ongoing airstrikes in Syria, which has aided the Bashar al-Assad regime in the embattled nation. Assad, a Russian ally, has received military support from Russia in its civil war against U.S.-backed rebels and the Islamic State.

Fiorina's tweet for Iowa over alma mater Stanford in football matchup brings social media backlash

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Carly Fiorina’s tweet rooting for the University of Iowa in the Rose Bowl over alma mater Stanford University resulted in a flurry of online backlash about the GOP presidential candidate appearing to pander to voters in the first-in-the-nation balloting state.
“Love my alma mater, but rooting for a Hawkeyes win today #RoseBowl,” Fiorina tweeted hours before the start of Iowa's 41-16 loss to Stanford.
The Iowa vote is on February 1, with Fiorina polling at roughly 2 percent and not expected to have a top-three finish behind leader Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
As of Saturday afternoon, Fiornia’s post was retweeted 923 times and had 982 “likes,” thought the overwhelming majority of response tweets essentially disliked her post.
“You threw your alma mater under the bus and they made you look foolish. Think it'll get you 10 votes in Iowa?” posted @stevepond.
Even Republicans called out Fiorina, who in 1976  earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford.
“Why would you root for the Hawkeyes? This is insulting to voters in Iowa (and everywhere.)” Michigan GOP Rep. Justin Amash tweeted on Friday.
Amash at the same time tweeted support for alma mater University of Michigan in its Citrus Bowl matchup with the University of Florida. The Michigan Wolverines won 41-7.
“#GoBlue! Congrats, @umichfootball and @CoachJim4UM, on an awesome season!” he tweeted.

BP finds 31 immigrants in Texas apartment, other 10 hidden behind truck's fake wall

U.S. Border Patrol agents say they found 31 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally hiding in a single apartment in a small town on the Texas-Mexico border.
The Border Patrol said Wednesday that those arrested included immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Agents also arrested a Mexican woman they say was the caretaker of the apartment.
Also Wednesday, the Border Patrol said 10 undocumented immigrants were hidden behind a fake wall inside a commercial truck at a checkpoint in Falfurrias, about 90 miles north of the border. Agents arrested the driver, who was not identified.
Border crossings of children and family members in particular have spiked in recent months. Experts blame gang violence in Central America for driving citizens north at numbers that are approaching last summer's surge.

House GOP: First task sending White House bill repealing ObamaCare, defunding Planned Parenthood

Congressional Republicans are vowing that the first action upon returning to Capitol Hill will be to send a bill to President Obama that repeals his health care law and defunds Planned Parenthood.
“We were sent to Congress to fight for the American people,” Missouri GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler said Saturday. “They do not want their healthcare dictated to them by Washington. And they don't want their tax dollars going to abortion providers. … If the president didn't hear the people's voices earlier, hopefully, he will through this bill.”
Such efforts by the GOP-run Congress suggest that Washington politics and policy will undoubtedly be influenced by the 2016 presidential race.
All of the GOP White House candidates back repealing ObamaCare, as the president meanwhile plans next week to tighten gun control, a position backed by all three Democratic presidential candidates.
Obama will no doubt veto the repeal-and-defund bill, which the Senate already passed under special rules that protect it from Democratic obstruction.
However, Republicans have also lined up a veto-override vote for Jan. 22, when anti-abortion activists hold their annual march in Washington to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion.
The House did not include defunding Planned Parenthood in the roughly $1.1 trillion tax-and-spending bill passed by members before they left for holiday break, which in part resulted in the Rev. Franklin Graham leaving the Republican Party and potentially taking the evangelical vote with him.
House Republican said they didn’t want the Planned Parenthood issue muddling the tax-and-spending bill but vowed to address the issue in January.
Recently appointed House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told conservative talk host Bill Bennett over the holidays, “You're going to see us put a bill on the president's desk going after ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood so we'll finally get a bill on his desk to veto."
Despite dozens of past votes to repeal the health law in full or in part, Republicans never before have succeeded in sending a full repeal bill to the White House.
They insist that doing so will fulfill promises to their constituents while highlighting the clear choice facing voters in the November presidential election.
The Democrats running for president would keep ObamaCare in place.
Hartzler says the bill also places a moratorium on taxpayer funding to abortion providers and redirects the money to community health centers, which she says serve eight times more women patients than Planned Parenthood and provide more comprehensive care.
In the Senate, which reconvenes a week later than the House, early action will include a vote on a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who is running for president, for an "audit" of the Federal Reserve. Democrats are likely to block it. But like the health repeal bill in the House, the vote will answer conservative demands in an election year.
Also expected early in the Senate's year is legislation dealing with Syrian refugees, following House passage of a bill clamping down on the refugee program. Conservatives were angry when the year ended without the bill advancing. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky promised a vote, though without specifying whether it would be the House bill or something else.
The House Benghazi committee will continue its investigation of the attacks that killed four Americans in Libya in 2012, with an interview of former CIA Director David Petraeus on Jan. 6. That comes amid new Democratic accusations of political motives aimed at Hillary Clinton after the committee chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. for president.
Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of state at the time of the Benghazi attacks.
The bold agenda promised by Ryan after succeeding former Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, as speaker last fall will begin to take shape at a House-Senate GOP retreat this month in Baltimore. Thus far Ryan has pledged efforts to overhaul the tax system and offer a Republican alternative to the health overhaul.
In the Senate, McConnell's primary focus is protecting the handful of vulnerable Republican senators whose seats are at risk as Democrats fight to regain the Senate majority they lost a year ago.
That means weighing the political risks and benefits of every potential vote to endangered incumbents in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
That could determine whether McConnell allows criminal justice overhaul legislation -- the one issue cited by Obama and lawmakers of both parties as ripe for compromise -- to come to the floor.
McConnell already has suggested that prospects for approval of Obama's long-sought Asia trade pact are dim, and the senator has ruled out major tax overhaul legislation as long as Obama is president.
McConnell could try to put his thumb on the scales of the presidential race with two GOP senators having emerged as leading contenders.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been a thorn in McConnell's side, once calling the GOP leader a liar, and has frosty relations with his fellow senators. Rubio is on good terms with fellow lawmakers and has been endorsed by several of them. McConnell could schedule debate on an issue with the potential to favor Rubio politically over Cruz, such as National Security Agency wiretapping authority.
But McConnell insists he is staying out of it.
"We all have a big stake in having a nominee for president who can win, and that means carrying purple states, and I'm sure pulling for a nominee who can do that," McConnell said.

Obama's plan to tighten gun laws sets up rematch with powerful gun rights group NRA

The National Rifle Association, the country’s most influential gun-rights supporter, is challenging President Obama’s new plan to use his presidential powers to tighten firearms laws, calling it a “political stunt” that fails to increase public safety.
Obama said this weekend that he’ll meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss his “options” toward curbing gun violence, after ordering his White House team several months ago to identify “new actions” that he can take.
The president also said that he’s taking action because Congress has failed to act. He is expected to use so-called executive orders to tighten federal laws -- with a focus on small-scale firearms sellers and background checks for gun buyers, according to Politico.
"President Obama failed to pass his anti-gun agenda though Congress because the majority of Americans oppose more gun-control,” NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said in response late Saturday. “Now he is doing what he always does when he doesn’t get his way, which is defy the will of the people and issue an executive order.”
Obama said Friday that Congress has “done nothing” and declared that he has “unfinished business.”
“I get too many letters from parents and teachers and kids to sit around and do nothing,” he said in a weekly address from Hawaii, from which he’ll return next week after a two-week family vacation.
The anticipated changes would require the small-scale gun sellers to submit background checks for potential buyers but such changes are not expected to completely close the so-called “gun show loophole,” which allows for firearm purchases at such venues without a check.
Obama on Friday pointed out that his new plan follows the third anniversary of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, in Newtown, Conn., in which a deranged gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
However, the Obama-driven effort to tighten gun laws in the aftermath of the massacre failed to get enough support for passage from Senate Democrats and Republicans.
“All across America, survivors of gun violence and those who lost a child, a parent, a spouse to gun violence are forced to mark such awful anniversaries every single day,” Obama said. “Yet Congress still hasn’t done anything to prevent what happened to them from happening to other families.”
The president’s course of action will purportedly follow recommendations from Everytown, the gun-control nonprofit led by billionaire, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Obama's action will also result in a rematch with the NRA, the group that led the successful attempt to defeat Obama’s post-Sandy Hook efforts.
“Three years ago, a bipartisan, commonsense bill would have required background checks for virtually everyone who buys a gun,” Obama said Friday. “This policy was supported by some 90 percent of the American people. It was supported by a majority of NRA households. But the gun lobby mobilized against it. And the Senate blocked it.”
Baker on Saturday said Obama’s renewed effort is “nothing more than a political stunt to appease anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg and will do nothing to increase public safety.”
Existing law states those who sell guns with the “principal objective of livelihood and profit” have to get a dealer’s license through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That means they also have to conduct a background check on buyers no matter where they sell, including online or at a gun show.
In 2014, the ATF proposed that federal officials be notified about lost firearms, but the gun industry successfully argued that voluntary reporting was sufficient.