FBI Director: Americans Fighting With ISIS 'Entitled' to Come Back

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Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez MonsivaisBy Susan Jones.

FBI Director James Comey told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that “a dozen or so” Americans are fighting with terrorists in Syria; “yes,” he knows who they are; and they are “entitled to come back” unless their passport is revoked; and if they do come back, they will be tracked.

Asked if he know who “each and every one” of the Americans are, Comey said, “of that dozen or so, I do.”

Comey said he expects some of these Americans to return to the United States: “Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport’s revoked, is entitled to come back. So, someone who’s fought with ISIL, with an American passport wants to come back, we will track them very carefully.”

Here’s the exchange between Pelley and Comey:

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Photo Credit: Diocese of Kafanchan, NigeriaCatholic Bishop: Fight ‘Satanist-Driven Islamic Organizations’

By Lauretta Brown.

“Christians must do everything within their powers to protect their lives from being snuffed off by Satanist-driven Islamic organizations,” Bishop Joseph Bagobiri, the Roman Catholic head of Nigeria’s Kafanchan Diocese, said Sunday, according to Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper.

Bishop Bagobiri also noted, according to the Vanguard, that Christians have a “grave duty” to use “moderate and proportionate force” to defend their families against Islamic groups such as Boko Haram, which is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians since 2009.

Boko Haram became internationally known after it staged a mass kidnapping of more than 250 Nigerian schoolgirls in April. Only one has reportedly escaped in nearly five months.

Not fighting back is a “gross act of irresponsibility,” the bishop said at a Sunday reception, pointing out that “Christian communities that observe absolute pacifism have all ceased to exist.”

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Neighbors Of Ebola Patient Feel ‘Discriminated Against’

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Photo Credit: CELLOU BINANI / AFP / GettyBy CBSDFW.COM

Residents in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood of Dallas are living near the epicenter of the Ebola scare in North Texas. Now, they say they’re facing a different challenge — discrimination.

Thomas Duncan stayed at an apartment in the community before being diagnosed with Ebola and admitted into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for treatment.

Dallas City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates says that she met with over 30 community leaders on Monday, trying to assess the needs of the residents. Most are concerned about the possible stigma of living near the apartment building.

“Unfortunately, they are feeling discriminated against,” said Gates. “We still have some that have been turned away from jobs. Some that have been turned away at retail locations. We’re getting them in touch with legal aid and any resources necessary.”

Gates believes that educating the public is the only way to reverse the stigma.

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Photo Credit: Courtney Perry / McClatchyEbola scare: Flight attendants told to be careful with bodily fluids

By Hugo Martin.

As health officials continue to monitor passengers who flew on two planes with an Ebola-infected flier, a flight attendants union has urged its members to be extra cautious handling bodily fluids.

The Assn. of Flight Attendants warned its 60,000 members on 19 airlines to be on the lookout for passengers exhibiting symptoms of Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa.

“Persons infected with the Ebola virus may exhibit symptoms such as a high fever, severe headache, nausea and/or abdominal pain,” the notice on the union’s Web page says. “If you observe these symptoms, report any concerns of a potentially infectious passenger to the captain and follow the reporting procedures as outlined by your airline.”

“Additionally, all bodily fluids should be treated as if they are known to be contagious.”

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Photo Credit: Leon Neal / AFP‘In 1976 I discovered Ebola – now I fear an unimaginable tragedy’

By Rafaela von Bredow and Veronika Hackenbroch.

Professor Piot, as a young scientist in Antwerp, you were part of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. How did it happen?

I still remember exactly. One day in September, a pilot from Sabena Airlines brought us a shiny blue Thermos and a letter from a doctor in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire. In the Thermos, he wrote, there was a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had recently fallen ill from a mysterious sickness in Yambuku, a remote village in the northern part of the country. He asked us to test the sample for yellow fever.

These days, Ebola may only be researched in high-security laboratories. How did you protect yourself back then?

We had no idea how dangerous the virus was. And there were no high-security labs in Belgium. We just wore our white lab coats and protective gloves. When we opened the Thermos, the ice inside had largely melted and one of the vials had broken. Blood and glass shards were floating in the ice water. We fished the other, intact, test tube out of the slop and began examining the blood for pathogens, using the methods that were standard at the time.

But the yellow fever virus apparently had nothing to do with the nun’s illness.

No. And the tests for Lassa fever and typhoid were also negative. What, then, could it be? Our hopes were dependent on being able to isolate the virus from the sample. To do so, we injected it into mice and other lab animals. At first nothing happened for several days. We thought that perhaps the pathogen had been damaged from insufficient refrigeration in the Thermos. But then one animal after the next began to die. We began to realise that the sample contained something quite deadly.

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Columbus Day Will Now Be Indigenous Peoples' Day in Seattle

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Photo Credit: APThe Seattle City Council is replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the city.

The resolution that passed unanimously Monday celebrates the contributions and culture of Native Americans and the indigenous community in Seattle on the second Monday in October, the same day as the federally recognized Columbus Day.

Tribal members and other supporters say the move recognizes the rich history of people who have inhabited the area for centuries.

“This action will allow us to bring into current present day our valuable and rich history, and it’s there for future generations to learn,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula, who is also president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

“Nobody discovered Seattle, Washington,” she said to a round of applause.

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Colorado AG Orders County Clerks To Recognize Gay Marriage

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerBy Greg Campbell.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers ordered Colorado’s county clerks to be prepared to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday.

His statement came just hours after news that the Supreme Court would not hear cases from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Suthers is a Republican who has defended the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Gay couples in Colorado will be eligible for marriage licenses in all 64 counties as soon as the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals lifts its stay, something that’s expected to happen soon now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear cases on same-sex marriage from five states. This refusal to take up appeals essentially legalizes gay marriage in those states.

Federal appeals courts had ruled that bans against same-sex marriage in those states were unconstitutional, but the courts instituted stays in their decisions pending a ruling from the high court.

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Photo Credit: dallasvoice.comGay Dallas judge won’t conduct marriages because they ‘can’t be performed for me’

By Anna Waugh.

Out lesbian Dallas County Judge Tonya Parker touted her refusal to conduct marriage ceremonies in her courtroom on Tuesday night.

“I have the power, of course, to perform marriage ceremonies,” Parker said. “I don’t.”

The mention of her decision to not perform marriage ceremonies came while the 116th Civil District Court judge addressed the audience at the monthly meeting of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, of which Parker is a member. While Parker highlighted her progress in her first year as judge in what had been “the worst district court at the courthouse” with more old pending cases than the other 12 district courts, she also spoke about the importance of having an LGBT person on the bench.

Parker is the first LGBT person elected judge in Dallas County and is believed to be the first openly LGBT African-American elected official in the state’s history. As such, Parker said she takes into account the importance of her position to make members of the LGBT community feel comfortable and equal in her courtroom by “going out of my way to do things that other people might not do because they are not who I am.”

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States That Voted Against Gay Marriage Now Have It Forced Upon Them

By Katrina Trinko.

This isn’t OK.

The Supreme Court’s decision today to not hear any of the cases on same-sex marriage means, as my colleague Ryan T. Anderson writes, that “lower court rulings that struck down state marriage laws now will go into effect, forcing the redefinition of marriage in [Indiana, Wisconsin, Virginia, Oklahoma and Utah] and potentially in other states in the 4th, 7th, and 10th circuits.”

That shouldn’t be acceptable—regardless of your position on same-sex marriage.

Voters in 31 states voted to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Liberal California voted for that in 2008, and so did red Texas in 2005. From 1998 to 2012—not say, from 1870 to 1890, or some other long-gone time period—34 states voted on defining marriage as being between a man and a woman—and only three voted against it.

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School Bans Christian Club… Again

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Photo Credit: John RaneyEducators at Ward Melville High School are either woefully ignorant of the U.S. Constitution or they really don’t like Christian teenagers.

For the second year in a row, the Long Island, New York high school has denied students the right to form a Christian club.

“I feel like they have something against me and my faith,” 17-year-old John Raney told me. “I feel marginalized.”

John is the founder of Students United in Faith, a service-oriented Christian club. Nearly 20 young people wanted to join the club – but the school said no.

“I wanted to start the club because I thought it would provide a safe space for Christians to meet and talk about their faith,” he said.

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Feds: Illinois Teen Sought to Join Islamic State

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Photo Credit: AP Photo / Sun-Times Media, Al PodgorskiBy Associated Press.

A 19-year-old American left a letter expressing disgust with Western society before trying to board an international flight in Chicago, the first step in his plan to sneak into Syria to join the Islamic State group, according to a federal criminal complaint released Monday.

Mohammed Hamzah Khan, who lived with his parents in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, was arrested Saturday at O’Hare International Airport trying to board a plane on the first leg of connecting flights to Turkey, which borders Syria. He is charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group, which carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

Investigators said Khan left a three-page, handwritten letter in his bedroom for his parents that expressed anger over his U.S. taxes being used to kill his “Muslim brothers and sisters,” an apparent reference to a bombing campaign against Islamic State militants.

“We are all witness that the western societies are getting more immoral day by day,” he wrote, then signed letter, “Your loving son,” according to court documents.

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Photo Credit: AFPWHY ISIS AND HAMAS WEAR MASKS

By SHMULEY BOTEACH.

The biblical story of Saul teaches us a powerful lesson regarding the individual’s moral choice and what that choice may lead to.

In ancient Israel, as the era of the judges was ending, it came time for the Israelites to finally have a king. Saul was God’s first choice. He had the strength and support necessary to protect the Israelites and, under God’s command, once and for all destroy the threats and specter of death that the Israelites had lived under for centuries. And yet when it came to the key battle with the sworn enemy of the Israelites – the nation of Amalek – Saul thought he would be more compassionate than God Himself, ignoring His command by sparing the life of the Amalekite king Agag – the Bin Laden of his time.

Later on in his life, Saul wrongly believed that a young shepherd named David was a challenge to his throne and pursued him with his army. Mistakenly convinced that a village of priests had aided David’s escape, Saul in a fit of paranoia massacred the village.

That’s quite a moral shift.

How did such a promising young man who was hand-picked by God end up going down such a wicked path? The Talmud offers this famous response: “Those who are kind when they should be cruel will end up being cruel when they should be kind.”

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FBI: Militants May Be Working on Plan to Strike US

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An al-Qaida cell in Syria that was targeted in American military airstrikes last month could still be working on a plan to attack the United States or its allies and is “looking to do it very, very soon,” the head of the FBI says.

“Given our visibility we know they’re serious people, bent on destruction,” FBI Director James Comey said.

The Khorasan Group, a small but battle-hardened band of al-Qaida veterans from Afghanistan and Pakistan, was the target of U.S. strikes near Aleppo, Syria.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Comey said the militants were “working and, you know, may still be working on an effort to attack the United States or our allies, and looking to do it very, very soon.”

Senior U.S. officials have not said whether the group’s plots have been disrupted.

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One in Three Jobs Will Be Taken by Software or Robots by 2025

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Photo Credit: ThinkstockGartner sees things like robots and drones replacing a third of all workers by 2025, and whether you want to believe it or not, is entirely your business.

This is Gartner being provocative, as it is typically is, at the start of its major U.S. conference, the Symposium/ITxpo.

Take drones, for instance.

“One day, a drone may be your eyes and ears,” said Peter Sondergaard, Gartner’s research director. In five years, drones will be a standard part of operations in many industries, used in agriculture, geographical surveys and oil and gas pipeline inspections.

“Drones are just one of many kinds of emerging technologies that extend well beyond the traditional information technology world — these are smart machines,” said Sondergaard.

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Feds Won't Impose Travel Ban to Ebola-Ravaged Areas Because it "Could Impede Efforts by Aid Workers"

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Photo Credit: AP / Tanya BindraTop government health officials say they are opposed to placing a ban on travelers from Ebola-infected countries, warning that shutting down borders could impede efforts by aid workers to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

The idea of a ban gained currency this past week after the nation’s first case was diagnosed in Dallas. Proponents have argued that it would help ensure public safety.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that a travel embargo on West African countries that are struggling with Ebola would make it much harder for them to control the virus.

“You isolate them, you can cause unrest in the country,” Fauci told “Fox News Sunday.” ”It’s conceivable that governments could fall if you just isolate them completely.”

British Airways and some other airlines have suspended flights from those countries, and overall traffic to and from the affected areas has dropped.

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Growing Number of Jails Across Country Releasing Illegals…

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Photo Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles TimesMore jails refuse to hold inmates for federal immigration authorities

Emboldened by recent court rulings, more and more counties and cities across the country are refusing to jail inmates extra days to give federal authorities time to deport them.

In most jails until recently, inmates booked on criminal charges and suspected of being in the country illegally were often held for an additional 48 hours at the behest of federal immigration officials.

These “holds” created a pipeline for the deportation of thousands of people from the United States in the last decade. Now, that enforcement tool is crumbling.

Although some localities started limiting the number of immigration holds a few years ago, the trend of completely ignoring the requests gathered steam this spring after a series of federal court rulings determined that the immigration holds are not mandatory and that local agencies should not be compelled to follow them.

“I think there’s momentum,” said Kate Desormeau, an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney who has helped litigate immigration hold cases. “The more localities recognize that they don’t have to do this — and that it doesn’t make sense for them to do this — makes it easier for other localities sitting on the sidelines to say they’re going to stop treating ICE detainers like warrants.”

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