US Army Veteran Allegedly Joined Al Qaeda, Charged With Using “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (+video)

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U.S. Army veteran Eric Harroun of Phoenix has been charged with conspiring with an al Qaeda group to wage war against the Syrian regime. Harroun, 30, was charged Thursday in federal court in northern Virginia with plotting to use a rocket-propelled grenade – considered a weapon of mass destruction – outside the U.S., an offense which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the Justice Department.

MailOnline has previously reported that Harroun has been engaged in military action in Syria, fighting alongside rebel forces against the Syrian government.

The FBI began investigating Harroun after videos and photos were posted online of him fighting in Syria, posing with weapons and boasting of killing members of the Syrian regime. In one post, he claims credit for downing a Syrian helicopter.

Prosecutors say Harroun has also been fighting with the al-Nusrah Front, which is commonly known as al Qaeda in Iraq. According to the State Department, al-Nusrah has claimed responsibility for roughly 600 terrorist attacks in Syria.

Harroun returned to the U.S. on Wednesday after several interviews with FBI investigators in Turkey, where they grilled him about his dealings with al-Nusrah, according to a nine-page criminal complaint.

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Obama Unveils Yet Another Measure to Jack Gasoline Prices and Kill The Economy

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The White House is planning to unveil a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that aims to clean up gasoline and automobile emissions, a plan officials say will lead to cleaner air but also higher gas prices.

The so-called Tier 3 standards would reduce sulfur in gasoline by more than 60 percent and reduce nitrogen oxides by 80 percent, by expanding across the country a standard already in place in California. It would go into effect in 2017.

The oil industry, Republicans and some Democrats have pressed the EPA to delay the rule, saying it would be unwise to impose such a standard while many are still struggling in a bad economy. An oil industry study says the rule could increase gasoline prices by 6 to 9 cents per gallon.

The EPA says the potential increase in gas prices would be slight, estimating the rules could increase gas prices by less than a penny per gallon and add $130 to the cost of a vehicle in 2025. Additionally, the agency argues the plan will yield billions of dollars in health benefits by slashing smog- and soot-forming pollution come 2030.

For states, the regulation will make it easier to comply with health-based standards for the main ingredient in smog and soot. For auto makers, the regulation allows them to sell the same autos in all 50 states.

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Saudi Arabia Beheads Man For Sodomy, Murder

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Saudi authorities have beheaded a murderer and crucified his body after he killed and raped a Pakistani national. The kingdom’s interior ministry announced the execution, stating that the man had murdered and sodomised another male. Both actions are punishable by death.

‘The Yemeni citizen Mohammed Rashad Khairi Hussain killed a Pakistani, Pashteh Sayed Khan, after he committed sodomy with him,’ said a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Hussain was also convicted of robbery and carrying out a series of attacks. The execution, in the southern city of Jizan, was followed by crucifixion, a punishment used by the ultra-conservative country for serious crimes.

Saudi Arabia have been criticised in the international community for their harsh punishments, including executions by beheading and firing squad. There have been 28 people beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year.

In 2012, they executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, while the US-based Human Rights Watch put the number at 69. The oil-rich kingdom follows a strict implementation of Islamic law, or Shariah, under which people convicted of murder, rape or armed robbery can be executed, usually by sword.

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Rand Paul to Obama: “Call Me If Any of Your Reforms Would Have Saved Those Kids at Sandy Hook” (+video)

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“I think it’s a mistake for either side to politicize this. The president uses them as a backdrop and drama for getting some kind of political will. But, my question to the president is, ‘Call me if any of your reforms would have saved those kids at Sandy Hook.” If anything he’s proposing would have changed the outcome I’ll listen to him.”

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Pope Francis Washes Feet Of Incarcerated Juveniles

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Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of a dozen inmates at a juvenile detention center in a Holy Thursday ritual that he celebrated for years as archbishop and is continuing now that he is pope. Two of the 12 were young women, a remarkable choice given that the rite re-enacts Jesus’ washing of the feet of his male disciples.

The Mass was held in the Casal del Marmo facility in Rome, where 46 young men and women currently are detained. Many of them are Gypsies or North African migrants, and the 12 selected for the foot-washing rite included Orthodox and Muslim detainees as well, news reports said.

Because the inmates were mostly minors — the facility houses inmates aged 14-to-21 — the Vatican and Italian Justice Ministry limited media access inside. But Vatican Radio carried the Mass live, and Francis told the detainees that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion in a gesture of love and service.

“This is a symbol, it is a sign — washing your feet means I am at your service,” Francis told the youngsters. “Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service.”

Later, the Vatican released a limited video of the ritual, showing Francis washing black feet, white feet, male feet, female feet and even a foot with tattoos. Kneeling on the stone floor as the 12 youngsters sat above him, the 76-year-old Francis poured water from a silver chalice over each foot, dried it with a simple cotton towel and then bent over to kiss each one.

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Florida Lawmakers Advance Bill to Allow Arming School Employees

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Public and private school principals could designate teachers and other school employees who would carry concealed weapons on campus at all times in an effort to make schools safer, under legislation that won approval Wednesday from a Florida House committee.

It gives principals the option to designate one or several school employees to carry concealed weapons. The designee would be required to complete the same training that bank and courthouse security guards complete in addition to the statewide firearms training. Principals could also decline the concealed weapons option altogether.

Proponents of the bill argued that since the state can’t afford to put a school resource officer on every campus, the gun legislation is a commonsense alternative.

“I want my children safe and in our overwhelming desire to protect our children with gun free zones we have inadvertently made them the ideal sterile target for a madman and the unwillingness of people to confront that reality is unacceptable,” said the bill’s co-sponsor Rep. Dennis Baxley. But several lawmakers expressed reservations about placing more guns on school campuses.

The bill would allow no one to carry a gun on campus, except the principal’s designee who has completed the proper training. That person would be required to carry the firearm on them at all times. The principal will determine whether to tell parents who that person is. Several lawmakers expressed concern that local school boards should not be kept in the dark about whether schools in their districts are armed.

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Pew: Majority of Americans Oppose Citizenship For Illegal Immigrants

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According to a new Pew Research poll, a majority of Americans, 55 percent, oppose granting citizenship to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. An even bigger majority, however, 71 percent, believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country legally…

Perhaps most surprisingly, no demographic is more supportive of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants than blacks. In fact, at 52 percent, blacks are the only demographic of which a majority supports granting illegal immigrants citizenship. Only 49 percent of Hispanics, 48 percent of Democrats, and 47 percent of college graduates back citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Republican, 38 percent, and whites without a college degree, also 38 percent, are the least supportive of citizenship benefits for illegal immigrants.

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DC Cardinal McCarrick: Church Will Push For Immigration, Gun Safety

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A U.S. cardinal said he expects Catholic Church leaders to intensify efforts on behalf of a new immigration law and gun control measures as congressional legislation on the issues move forward.

Many undocumented immigrants are “family people” who “came to make a contribution to American society,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired Catholic prelate of the nation’s capital, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” which airs this weekend.

The nation’s Catholic bishops will back up their endorsement of a path to legal status for such immigrants with more action once legislation is introduced, he added. “I’m hoping that when we get a bill, you’ll see how active they’ll be,” McCarrick said.

While the Catholic Church hierarchy has clashed with President Barack Obama over abortion rights and his health-care law’s mandate for contraception coverage, the nation’s bishops are allied with him on his stance for an immigration overhaul and gun control legislation.

A group of bipartisan senators is almost finished drafting immigration legislation to be introduced the week of April 8. In the aftermath of Newtown, Connecticut, shootings that killed 20 schoolchildren in December, lawmakers are at odds over new regulations of firearms and ammunition, while some push for more stringent background checks for gun-buyers.

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Senators: ‘Far-Left’ Group Pushes EPA To Implement Cap-And-Trade Without Congressional Approval

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Republican senators urged the Environmental Protection Agency not to participate in a “sue-and-settle” arrangement with a law school policy institute that is trying to require the agency to develop rules implementing cap-and-trade, even though Congress refused to pass the law.

“In a recent rulemaking petition, the Institute for Policy Integrity (the Institute) seeks to compel EPA rules under three separate sections of the Clean Air Act,” Marten Law’s Dustin Till explains in a post. “The Institute first argues that Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, a never-before-used provision addressing international air pollution, requires EPA to order all 50 states to modify their state-level implementation plans to address greenhouse gas emissions.”

Four senators attacked the idea today in a letter to EPA assistant administrator Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s nominee to lead the agency.

“The potential negative impact in this case is that it threatens to expand environmental regulation beyond original intent of the law and could have detrimental effects on the livelihoods of our fellow Americans that are not always understood by academia,” wrote Sen. David Vitter, R-La., Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Wyo., and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., in a letter today.

“When the price of transportation fuels increases for any reason, it is those with limited resources and fixed incomes whose livelihoods are most impacted by this added financial burden,” they added. “In recent years, we have consistently heard the term “environmental justice” as a reason for promulgating certain agency actions. We believe there also needs to be a measure of “economic justice” to ensure that Agency actions are not overly regressive and lack consideration for economic harm visited upon the very citizens these environmental laws are intended to protect.”

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Palin Reloads For 2014 Elections With SarahPac Video

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In a sign of how active Sarah Palin intends to be in influencing the 2014 elections, SarahPAC, Sarah Palin’s Political Action Committee, released a video on Wednesday meant to ignite independents, conservatives, and Tea Partiers for the 2014 midterm elections. These voters propelled Republican candidates in the historic 2010 midterm elections that saw Republicans take back the House of Representatives on the backs of Tea Party voters.

Titled “Loaded for Bear,” the video shows footage and headlines from mainstream media outlets like Politico referring to Palin as a “kingmaker” and conservative outlets like Fox News acknowledging how successfully Palin has used her star-power to help elect conservative candidates to office.

The video also features Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praising Palin for her fearlessness and being instrumental in electing senators such as Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, Jeff Flake, Deb Fischer, Cruz and governors like Nikki Haley of South Carolina.

In 2012, former South Carolina Senator and current president of the Heritage Foundation Jim DeMint said Palin’s endorsement “has more influence in primaries than any other endorsement right now.”

“Sarah Palin picks winners,” Cruz says in the video.

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