American News Broadcasting

San Bernardino Shooter Passed DHS Counterterrorism Vetting

by Joel Gehrke

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) want President Obama to release the immigration records of the San Bernardino shooters, arguing they should play a key role in the coming debate over funding the Syrian refugee resettlement& program.

Their request comes as CBS reports that one of the shooting suspects passed the Department of Homeland Security’s “counterterrorism screening as part of her vetting” for a visa.

Federal officials maintain that they have a rigorous and effective screening process in place for people from countries such as Syria that have significant jihadist movements, making the immigration records of the San Bernardino shooters a potentially significant piece of the debate over refugee policy.

“We are dealing with an enemy that has shown it is not only capable of bypassing U.S. screening, but of recruiting and radicalizing Muslim migrants after their entry to the United States,” Cruz and Sessions wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The letter reiterates the lawmakers’ longstanding request for the immigration records of twelve other terror suspects, which the Obama administration has failed to release even as the debate over the Syrian refugee crisis has heated up.

“Congress is days away from consideration of an omnibus year-end funding bill that would set the U.S. on an autopilot path to approve green cards, asylum, and refugee status to approximately 170,000 migrants from Muslim countries during the next year,” Cruz and Sessions wrote.

“The security task involved is immense, and Congress must have the requested information if lawmakers are to act as responsible stewards of American immigration policy.”

BREAKING: New fact about shooter’s wife leaves NO DOUBT about motive for massacre

Written by Michelle Jesse, Associate Editor

In the wake of Wednesday’s massacre in San Bernardino that killed 14 and injured 21, President Obama and liberals everywhere have gone to new lengths twisting themselves into pretzels to deny that Wednesday’s massacre in San Bernardino was motivated by Islamic terrorism — despite mounting evidence pointing squarely to just that.

But the latest fact to emerge about one of the shooters can leave no doubt.
Via Fox News:

The mysterious Pakistani woman who with her husband gunned down 14 Wednesday at a Southern California holiday party reportedly pledged her allegiance to ISIS before the massacre, according to a government source, in what appears to be concrete evidence that the rampage was at least inspired, if not directed, by the terrorist group.

Tashfeen Malik is believed to have posted her pledge to ISIS leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on or around the time of the attack, in which she and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, stormed a San Bernardino party for his co-workers before escaping.

The Daily Mail reports that this pledge was done during Wednesday’s attack. Either way, it is very telling. She wasn’t declaring some grievance against her husband’s workplace, apparently.

14 people killed in shooting at San Bernardino social services facility

By ABC7.com staff

Updated 2 mins ago

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) --

Police said up to 14 people were killed when one or more gunmen opened fire at a San Bernardino social services facility on Wednesday.

The shooting took place at the Inland Regional Center, a nonprofit that works with individuals with developmental disabilities, at 1365 S. Waterman Avenue. The complex is comprised of three buildings. Sgt. Vicki Cervantes with San Bernardino police said the shooting occurred during some type of scheduled event at the facility.

In addition to the fatalities, San Bernardino police Chief Jarrod Burguan said up to 14 people were injured.

Inland Regional Center employee Brandon Hunt told Eyewitness News that he believes the shooting took place in the building with the facility's main auditorium, where a banquet of some sort was being held. He said the auditorium is regularly rented out to outside agencies. Hunt said approximately 550 people typically work at the facility at any given day.

Investigators were searching the building and have yet to clear it. Police said there were reports of one to three shooters involved, and they were described to be wearing ski masks.

A source confirmed to Eyewitness News that there were three shooters armed with rifles, and there were no suspects in custody. Riverside police said they are helping other agencies look for male suspects in a black SUV, possibly a GMC Yukon.

The suspects are heavily armed and were possibly wearing body armor, according to Cervantes.

Shortly before noon, dozens of people were seen exiting the building with their hands up. Cervantes said police are taking them to a secure location. She said police are not aware of any other active scenes.Loma Linda University Medical Center said the hospital's emergency room is in disaster mode and is expecting an influx of patients. The exact number of patients was not immediately available.

Patton State Hospital officials said the facility is "in crisis" but did not specify how many victims they were expecting.

San Bernardino County officials said six patients were being treated at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.

San Bernardino Unified School District officials said more than 70 schools are on lockdown as a precaution.

Marcos Aguilera's wife was in the building when the gunfire erupted. He said a shooter entered the building next to his wife's office and opened fire.

"They locked themselves in her office. They seen bodies on the floor," Aguilera said, adding that his wife saw ambulances taking people out of the building on stretchers.

Aguilera said his wife was able to get out of the building unharmed.

Terry Pettit said he received a text message from his daughter, telling him that gunmen were in her building and that she and some co-workers were hiding. She said there were 10 to 20 people were shot.

MORE: Father receives text message from daughter during San Bernardino mass shooting

Terry Pettit said he received a text message from his daughter, telling him that gunmen were in her building and that she and some co-workers were hiding.

Multiple agencies were working together on scene. FBI and ATF agents were responding to the scene to assist local authorities.

The regional center in Alhambra is closing as a precaution, a client of the facility told Eyewitness News.

There are 21 regional centers across California with more than 40 offices throughout the state.

The White House said President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation.

DEVELOPING: We will add more details to this report as they become available.

1st large-scale exercise set in military air training area

The Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. — Military airplanes are taking to the skies this week for the first large-scale exercise in a training area over the Northern Plains.

The exercise in the 35,000-square-mile Powder River Training Complex is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. Bombers, fighter jets and refueling tankers will be practicing maneuvers in the airspace over the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming.

After years of consideration, the Federal Aviation Administration in March approved quadrupling the training airspace, making it the largest over the continental U.S. Advocates say it will boost military training while reducing costs, but some people in the region worry about disruptions to towns, ranches and civilian flights.

This week’s exercise won’t involve supersonic speeds, so it will be less noisy, Master Sgt. John Barton, a spokesman for Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, told The Bismarck Tribune.

There will be little to notice from the ground other than jet contrails, he said.

“If they’re straight, those are from commercial jets. If it’s us, the contrails will be orbital,” Barton said.

The exercises are scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon both days. Regional airports have been alerted that the military will take control of the airspace during those hours, but it might not affect local air traffic because of the short time span and the altitude of the exercise — between 12,000 feet and 26,000 feet, Barton said.

The training will involve F-16 fighter jets, E3 AWACS surveillance and command jets, KC-135 refueling tankers, RC-135 intelligence-gathering planes, and B-1 and B-52 bombers. The military did not disclose the total number of planes involved.

Obama’s Motorcade for Climate Change Talks Costing $784,825

BY: Elizabeth Harrington
Car service, hotels, and accommodations for the president and other administration officials to attend climate change talks in Paris are costing taxpayers nearly $2 million, according to government contracts.

The COP21 meeting of global leaders, which President Obama said is a “powerful rebuke” to terrorists, began on Monday. Representatives from 195 countries traveled to Paris, burning 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide for the United Nations conference that is seeking to reduce global emissions.

The tab for Obama’s motorcade alone totals $784,825. The State Department issued a $407,868 contract to Biribin Limousines, an international chauffeur service, for vehicles for the president’s security detail.

“No Sustainability Included,” the document states under a section for contract clauses.
Numerous other contracts for passenger vehicle rentals, including $9,042 for accompanying press, totaled $376,957.

Taxpayers were also billed $100,216 to book hotel accommodations for the president’s stay. Hotel rooms and cell phones for the U.S. Secret Service traveling with the president cost $16,642 and $4,034, respectively.

A number of cabinet secretaries are also in Paris for the United Nations conference, including IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, whose car service tab is $5,400.

Secretary of State John Kerry’s car service totaled $76,435, with three separate contracts worth $38,684, $15,789, and $21,962.

Car service for Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is costing $19,080, and two contracts worth $10,153 and $10,737 were issued for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s chauffeur service.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is also attending the conference, with hotel accommodations at the Tuileries Finances in Paris costing $36,091, and her car service totaling $13,903.

In all, costs associated with the climate change summit totaled $1,805,282.

The spending included $51,337 to rent a hangar for Marine One for the duration of the trip, $4,744 to rent office equipment, $12,478 for a hotel suite for a control room, and $7,239 hotels for the United States Agency for International Development.

The government also paid Decoral, an interior design agency running accommodations for COP21, $486,989 and $134,778.

Spending on the conference dates back to August, when the government paid $9,576 to rent a meeting room.

President Obama’s goals he proposed for the conference are estimated to cost up to $45 billion per year and would reduce global temperatures by less than two-tenths of one degree.

Emanuel Fires McCarthy As Chicago Police Superintendent

CHICAGO (CBS) — Saying public confidence in the Police Department “has been shaken and eroded” in the wake of the Laquan McDonald controversy, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday that Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is out as the city’s top cop.

The mayor said he and McCarthy began discussing the future of the department on Sunday, and on Tuesday morning, he asked for the superintendent’s resignation. First Deputy Supt. John Escalante will serve as acting superintendent while the Chicago Police Board conducts a national search for a permanent replacement for McCarthy.

McCarthy’s ouster comes a week after Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in the October 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Hours after Van Dyke was charged, Emanuel and McCarthy released police dashboard camera video of Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times.

The high-profile shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer sparked several days of protests across the city, including a Black Friday march that shut down several stores on the Magnificent Mile.

“The public trust in the leadership of the department has been shaken and eroded,” Emanuel said Tuesday at City Hall, as he announced the formation of a task force to review police accountability, oversight, and training.

Just hours before the mayor’s formal announcement of the task force, McCarthy did a series of TV and radio interviews about the McDonald shooting and the mayor’s task force plan, and appeared to have grown weary of questions about his future with the department, declining to comment on a Chicago Sun-Times editorial calling for him to be fired.

The mayor said McCarthy has been an “excellent leader of our police department over the past 4 ½ years,” but said “now is the time for fresh eyes and new leadership to confront the challenges the department and our community and our city are facing as we go forward.”

“Our goal, as I would say to you, is to build the trust and confidence with the public, and at this point and this juncture for the city – given what we’re working on – he has become an issue, rather than dealing with the issue, and a distraction,” he added.

Emanuel and McCarthy have been under fire for the past week, with activists, protesters, religious leaders, and multiple elected officials – including the City Council Black Caucus, several Latino aldermen, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle – demanding McCarthy resign or be fired for his handling of the McDonald case.

Preckwinkle was especially harsh in her criticism of McCarthy on Monday, noting that the morning after McDonald’s death, the Police Department issued a statement that he had lunged at police with a knife. However, the video of the shooting showed McDonald was walking away from officers when he was shot, and was not lunging or making any sudden moves.

“Either they did not have the video cam recording in their possession, and therefore made the statement without full knowledge of the facts; or they had the facts, and they deliberately distorted the facts to make it look like the shooting was justified. I think that’s disgraceful,” Preckwinkle said.

Rev. Michael Pfleger, who has been one of the loudest voices to call for McCarthy’s resignation, said he’s glad the superintendent was removed, but he said the problem is deeper than one man.

“Removing McCarthy as the head of the department is not going to solve the core problem. This is a department that needs a total transformation,” Pfleger said. “We need a federal prosecutor that subpoenas everybody to find out who knew what and when; and anybody – anybody, from the top to the bottom – that knew hand helped this cover-up needs to go.”

McCarthy had repeatedly said he had no plans to step down over the McDonald case, and as recently as last week said he had the mayor’s full support; but he was called into the mayor’s office Tuesday morning, and left around 8:45 a.m., with a “sour” look on his face, sources said.

Earlier, he had been making the rounds on local TV morning shows to discuss the McDonald case, but canceled further interviews after leaving the mayor’s office.

The mayor said McCarthy’s removal as superintendent was just one of several steps he has made in an effort to restore public trust in the department, including an increase in the number of police body cameras used by the department, and Tuesday’s announcement of a police accountability task force.

Emanuel said the task force would help make sure “we are effectively policing the police.”

The task force will be co-chaired by five “respected leaders in criminal justice,” including three former federal prosecutors, a former top city and state police official, and a former Cook County Public Defender.

• Sergio Acosta, a former federal prosecutor and current a partner at Chicago-based Hinshaw & Culbertson;
• Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, also a federal prosecutor;
• Former Illinois State Police Director and former Chicago Deputy Police Supt. Hiram Grau;
• Chicago Police Board president Lori Lightfoot, a partner at Chicago-based Mayer Brown, a former federal prosecutor, and former head of the Police Department’s now-defunct Office of Professional Standards;
• University of Chicago law professor Randolph Stone, director of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project Clinic, and a former Cook County Public Defender.

Chicago native and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who once led the civil rights division of the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton, will serve as a “senior advisor” to the task force.

“These six Chicagoans know, like I know, that the vast majority of our officers are committed to the committed to the communities they serve; but they also know, as I do, that any case of excessive force or abuse of authority undermines the entire force, and the trust we must build with every community in the city,” Emanuel said.

The panel will present a report to the mayor and the City Council by the end of March next year.

Murdoch unloads on Kerry, Obama, the left

Getty

By Blake Hounshell

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, in a discursive speech Monday evening, blasted Secretary of State John Kerry and attacked the left for creating an “identity crisis” that he charged has undermined American strength and fostered terrorism around the world.

And he drew a connection between U.S. foreign policy and domestic culture, arguing that “in recent years, there has been far too much institutionalization of grievance and victimhood.”

The Australian-born media mogul, a naturalized U.S. citizen, also touched on the Republican presidential primary, which he said “has articulated a deep distaste for the slow descent of our country.”

“Before delivering my modest message,” Murdoch joked at the outset of his address accepting the Hudson Institute's Global Leadership Award, “I feel obliged to alert college students, progressive academics and all other deeply sensitive souls that these words may contain phrases and ideas that challenge your prejudices — in other words, I formally declare this room an ‘unsafe space.’”

After a few words of praise for former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who had just introduced him to the hawkish think-tank crowd, Murdoch quickly pivoted to a sweeping indictment of U.S. foreign policy under Barack Obama, though he did not mention the president by name.

“For a U.S. secretary of state to suggest that Islamic terrorists had a ‘rationale’ in slaughtering journalists is one of the low points of recent Western diplomacy and it is indicative of a serious malaise,” Murdoch said, referring to Kerry’s recent mangled attempt to draw a distinction between the assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the more recent Paris attacks. “For America to be embarrassed by its exceptionalism is itself exceptional and absolutely unacceptable.”

(Kerry quickly walked back those comments, remarking the next day that “such atrocities can never be rationalized, and we can never allow them to be rationalized.”)

Murdoch also laid out a mission for the next U.S. president, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

“For America to have a sense of direction, two conditions are essential: A U.S. leader must understand, be proud of and assert the American personality,” he said, noting that Kissinger had offered a forthright defense of American exceptionalism in his book “World Order.”

“An identity crisis is not a starting point for any journey; and secondly, there must be clear goals informed by values and by a realization of the extraordinary potential of its people,” Murdoch continued.

He then offered a brief tour of 20th century diplomatic and military history, hailing the U.S. role in defeating Japan during World War II and standing up to North Korea — fortitude he said the United States had lost in recent years in favor of a culture of self-obsession.

“The left seemed to be happy for the incarceration of millions, whether in Vietnam under Ho or in China under Mao,” he said. “Why agonize over inhumanity when you could blithely celebrate yourself?”

Praising Kissinger’s role in nudging China toward a market economy, which he called “a modern miracle” that had lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, Murdoch said, “this fundamental, irrefutable truth must be denied by those who despise America and detest economic freedom.”

“The soft left,” he added, “cannot countenance that remarkable human success.”

In a seeming digression, Murdoch also weighed in on the U.S. domestic debate over hydraulic fracturing, which he said “has become a litmus test of principle.”

“Those governments that forbid fracking are the flat-earth fraternity, yes, including New York state,” he said. “They believe that the Earth revolves around them.”

Environmentalists fail to recognize the need for oil and gas to remain the dominant sources of energy, he charged. “To deny that reality is to condemn the most vulnerable to the indignity of poverty for the sake of an ideology -- that being the ideology of self. The triumph of the me over the needs of the many.”

Liberal “self-indulgence” had hobbled America’s sense of moral purpose, Murdoch suggested, asking: “How can we in this room be content with poverty, intellectual or economic, and how can we be content with a world defined by the ideologies of those who seek to please and appease?”

“We are here not to apologize for America, but to celebrate America,” he concluded. “We are here to reflect upon the world as it might have been without America — a much, much lesser world.”