ISIS Supporters Release Video With Exploding Eiffel Tower

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By Bridget Johnson. A new video posted online by ISIS supporters shows the Eiffel Tower exploding and crashing to the ground in stylized, video game animation.

The video begins with a river of blood pooling and dripping off a wooden table filled with stacks of American money, guns, knives and bullets.

It’s ripped from a video game, as betrayed by the name of a video game designer with a U.S. company carved in the wood of the animated table.

The video is titled “A message to the Western Kafir [Disbelievers] from the Supporters of the Caliphate.” It’s narrated in English and subtitled in Arabic, and was posted on YouTube and other file-sharing sites.

It included Defense Department footage related to strikes on the Islamic State and news footage of ISIS attacks. (Read more from “ISIS Supporters Release Video With Exploding Eiffel Tower” HERE)

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Belgium Fears Nuclear Plants Are Vulnerable

By Allisa J. Rubin and Milan Schreuer. As a dragnet aimed at Islamic State operatives spiraled across Brussels and into at least five European countries on Friday, the authorities were also focusing on a narrower but increasingly alarming threat: the vulnerability of Belgium’s nuclear installations.

The investigation into this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels has prompted worries that the Islamic State is seeking to attack, infiltrate or sabotage nuclear installations or obtain nuclear or radioactive material. This is especially worrying in a country with a history of security lapses at its nuclear facilities, a weak intelligence apparatus and a deeply rooted terrorist network.

On Friday, the authorities stripped security badges from several workers at one of two plants where all nonessential employees were sent home hours after the attacks at the Brussels airport and one of the city’s busiest subway stations three days earlier. Surveillance footage of a top official at another Belgian nuclear facility was discovered last year in the apartment of a suspected militant linked to the extremists who unleashed the horror in Paris in November. (Read more from “Belgium Fears Nuclear Plants Are Vulnerable” HERE)

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Hillary Wants to Reveal Area 51 Secrets

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Hillary Clinton says barring any national security risk, she would like to open up the government files on Area 51 to the public if she is elected president.

“I would like us to go into those files and hopefully make as much of that public as possible,” she told Jimmy Kimmel Thursday night on his late night ABC talk show. “If there’s nothing there, let’s tell people there’s nothing there.”

When Kimmel followed up by asking what she would do if she discovered there was actually something alarming in the files, Clinton replied: “Well, if there is something there, unless it’s a threat to national security, I think we ought to share it with the public.” (Read more from “Hillary Wants to Reveal Area 51 Secrets” HERE)

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Near Misses Between Drones and Airplanes on the Rise in US, Says FAA

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A report of drone sightings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shows that despite a new registration scheme, near misses between unmanned and piloted aircraft in American are on the rise. Sightings by pilots and airport officials have steadily increased from less than one a day in 2014, to over 3.5 between August 2015 and January this year, many of them from commercial passenger aircraft.

In the most serious incident, the pilot of an American Airlines jet last September had to swerve to avoid a drone. On September 13, flight 475 took off from Atlanta, Georgia en route to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was climbing to 3,500 ft when the pilot of the Airbus had to take evasive action to avoid a collision with an unidentified unmanned aerial system (UAS) or drone. The pilot told the FAA that he or she “just missed’ the drone.

In another incident in November, a helicopter leaving St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri encountered a black and grey drone 1,400 ft above a city centre park. The pilot of the air ambulance reported that he had to make a steep banking turn to avoid the UAS, passing it at less than 100 feet. There were no patients on board, and no reports of any injuries or damage.

In both cases, local law enforcement was notified but no arrests seem to have been made.

Of the 582 sightings of drones reported to the FAA between August and January, there were two other instances where pilots were forced to take evasive action. In October, a helicopter pilot approaching Miami airport had to swerve after a drone approached to within 150 feet. (Read more from “Near Misses Between Drones and Airplanes on the Rise in US, Says FAA” HERE)

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Feds Spend $6,000 Studying ‘History of French Lesbian Activism’

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The National Endowment for the Humanities released its latest round of projects, which includes studies of the “history of French lesbian activism,” and $20,000 for a new college course on “questions about neighborliness.”

The projects are part of $21.1 million in grants announced this week for the federal agency’s “Common Good” initiative.

Tamara Chaplin, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received a $6,000 summer stipend for her project “Postwar French Media, and the Struggle for Gay Rights.”

The project is described as a “book-length study of the history of French lesbian activism since World War II.”

Chaplin’s areas of study include contemporary France, the histories of gender and sexuality, feminist and critical theory, and queer studies. She previously contributed to the 2011 book Orgasm without Limits: May ’68 and the History of Sex Education in Modern France. (Read more from “Feds Spend $6,000 Studying ‘History of French Lesbian Activism'” HERE)

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Japan Executes Two Prisoners Amid Protests

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Human rights campaigners have condemned Japan’s use of the death penalty after two inmates were hanged, bringing the number of executions to 16 since the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, took office in late 2012.

The executions were carried out on Friday, just weeks before Japan is to host the G7 leaders summit: Japan and the US are the only two G7 nations that retain the death penalty, while European countries are among the most vocal critics of Japan’s secretive executions.

Yasutoshi Kamata, 75, was hanged in Osaka for the murders of five people – including a nine-year-old girl – between 1985 and 1994, according to Japanese media.

Junko Yoshida was convicted of killing two men in the late 1990s to obtain life insurance payments. The 56-year-old, who was executed in Fukuoka, is the first woman to be hanged in Japan since 2012.

Campaigners accused Japan of resisting the global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty in the mistaken belief that the punishment acts as a deterrent. (Read more from “Japan Executes Two Prisoners Amid Protests” HERE)

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Ben Carson Reveals the Crucial Advice He’s Giving Trump – It May Put Him Over the Top

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Former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has received criticism for his decision to endorse front-runner Donald Trump.

Carson asserts he has been able to convince Trump — at least in flashes — to act more presidential.

In a phone inverview Friday, Carson said, “I’ve had talks about being presidential, about toning it down a bit, appealing to a broader group of people. You did notice that he wasn’t nearly as caustic in the last debate. People appreciated that. It’s a matter of cultivating and capitalizing on that.”

Following an incident earlier this week, when Trump attacked Cruz for distributing a racy photo of Melania, Carson conceded Trump’s instincts could not be permanently contained.

This incident resulted in Trump retweeting an unfavorable photo of Heidi Cruz and his threat to “spill the beans.” Cruz responded, calling Trump a “sniveling coward” and saying he was going to beat Trump for the nomination.

Calling the incident a broader craving for public gladiatorial combat among politicians, Carson admitted to dealing with the same issues while he was in the race, saying, “We have all these serious things. Nobody wanted to hear that. We want to hear juicy stuff … Maybe it’s just human nature.” (Read more from “Ben Carson Reveals the Crucial Advice He’s Giving Trump – It May Put Him Over the Top” HERE)

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Now Members of GOP Establishment Saying They’re Open to Support Hillary If Trump Is the Nominee

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Members of the GOP foreign policy establishment are open to supporting Ted Cruz or even Hillary Clinton for president if that’s what it takes to prevent Donald Trump from becoming commander in chief.

In interviews with The Hill, prominent Republicans who signed a scathing open letter denouncing Trump said they aren’t wavering from their opposition to him.

“What’s happening is you have a lot of people who are desperate to get anybody in there other than Trump. … People are going to go for Cruz, because at the end of the day they think he’s considerably less bad than Trump,” said Eliot A. Cohen, a former adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) who also served in the George W. Bush administration.

Cohen, along with Bryan McGrath, organized an open letter opposing Trump that was signed by more than 120 members of the Republican foreign policy establishment. The letter declared that Trump is unfit to be president because his views of American power are “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle” . . .

Support among the group appears to be shifting to Cruz, especially now that the Texas senator has won endorsements from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). (Read more from “Now Members of GOP Establishment Saying They’re Open to Support Hillary If Trump Is the Nominee” HERE)

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Revealed: Something Sinister About Trump Critics in the GOP That Will SHOCK Many Republicans

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By Fred Maxwell. Some prominent Republicans may be willing to go to great lengths to ensure Donald Trump does not become the next Commander in Chief.

A letter crafted by Eliot A. Cohen, former adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio, and Bryan McGrath calls Trump unfit to be president due to his views of American power, which are referred to as “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle,” the Hill reports.

The letter was signed by over 120 members of the GOP foreign policy establishment.

The Hill reached out to 13 signers of the letter and were contacted by 11 of them.

Some members of the group appear to be showing support for Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been endorsed by FL. Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Speaking of Trump, McGrath calls him “a caricature of classless wealth.” He goes on to say, “Donald Trump is not a Republican, he is a caricature of the Ugly American.” (Read more from “Revealed: Something Sinister About Trump Critics in the GOP That Will SHOCK Many Republicans” HERE)

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Donald Trump Viewed More Unfavorably Than Congress, GOP

By AOL. The turbulence the Republican party is currently experiencing does not look like it’s going to end or even let up anytime soon. New polls report the party’s front-runner is the most unfavorable candidate among American voters.

A Bloomberg poll, conducted by Selzer & Co., released Tuesday reveals the one thing American voters disapprove of more than the Republican party and even Congress — Donald J. Trump.

According to the poll, 53 percent of Americans view Trump “very unfavorably.” That’s half of the United States, as opposed to only a third of voters who view Congress in the same light. (Read more from “Donald Trump Viewed More Unfavorably Than Congress, GOP” HERE)

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Giuliani Suggests Hillary ‘Founding Member of ISIS’

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Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, slammed Hillary Clinton during a recent Fox News broadcast, telling host Bill O’Reilly and the millions of watchers the former secretary of State is a big reason why ISIS exists.

“I mean, Hillary Clinton could be considered a founding member of ISIS,” he said, the Hill reported.

He said Clinton had ample opportunity to deal with the terror group during her State Department tenure, but she refused and will instead go down in history as “part of an administration that withdrew from Iraq,” he said.

“By being part of an administration that let Maliki run Iraq … into the ground,” Giuliani said, the Hill reported, “[she] forced the Shiites to make a choice, by not intervening in Syria in the proper time.”

O’Reilly suggested Clinton wasn’t really that culpable for the rise of ISIS because she never held the power to force President Obama to do something he didn’t want to do. But Giuliani said it’s such politicking that makes her a poor choice for president. (Read more from “Giuliani Suggests Hillary ‘Founding Member of ISIS'” HERE)

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FBI Counter-Terror Expert Sees Historic Islam Pivot

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The Muslim Brotherhood and its various offshoots have chosen 2016 as the year they will turn their focus away from the Middle East and toward the Western democracies seen as ripe for revolutionary activity, says a former FBI counter-terrorism specialist and Islam expert.

The revolutionary jihad movement that swept through the Middle East and North Africa as part of the “Arab Spring” is starting to take root in Europe with attacks already carried out on Paris and Brussels, said John Guandolo.

This movement will eventually spread to the United States, said Guandolo, a former Marine and instructor at the U.S. Army War College who now provides training to law enforcement agencies that want to learn more about the jihadist network in the U.S.

That network is operated, he said, by the International Muslim Brotherhood through its many front organizations. Among them are the Muslim-American Society, or MAS; Muslim Student Association, or MSA; Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR; Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA; and North American Islamic Trust, or NAIT.

Guandolo, author of the book “Raising a Jihadi Generation,” said the Muslim Brotherhood is teaming up with the Black Lives Matter movement to create violent events that will surprise many police agencies in cities across the U.S. (Read more from “FBI Counter-Terror Expert Sees Historic Islam Pivot” HERE)

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