State Department Spokeswoman: ‘We Have Determined That We Do Not Need to Make a Determination’ on Egypt (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told Matt Lee of the Associated Press Tuesday that the U.S. had “determined that we do not need to make a determination” over whether or not the ousting of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt was a coup.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) called it a coup Tuesday, but the Obama administration has deliberately avoided using the word:

LEE: In response to the first question about Senator McCain’s comments, you gave — you said, our position has not changed, as you just did with Morsi. On McCain’s comments, though, our position has not changed — then you said the U.S. government has stated what our position is. Could you remind us all of what your position actually is? Because as I recall, your position was that you don’t have a position, and that’s not quite — is that correct?

PSAKI: Matt, I think you know our position, which is that –

LEE: I — tell me.

PSAKI: There was a determination made that we need to — not need to make a designation.

LEE: So then — so your position is that you do not have a position, correct?..

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Texas Man Shoots His Abductors

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: SkleyAuthorities say a Houston-area man turned the tables on two bank robbery suspects who had abducted him and his wife by pulling a gun on the unsuspecting duo and shooting them both, killing one of them.

The suspects apparently knew that the woman worked at the First National Bank of Eagle Lake in Columbus, and they abducted her and her husband at gunpoint at their residence north of the city on Thursday and drove them back to the bank, Columbus County Sheriff’s Sgt. Andrew Weido told Houston television station KHOU.

The suspects forced the woman to taken an undisclosed amount of money from the bank, then forced the husband to drive them in his truck down Highway 71, Weido said. It was then that the husband grabbed a gun that was in the truck and fired at the suspects, he said.

Officers who responded to a 911 call found both suspects lying on the ground near the truck suffering from gunshot wounds.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: NSA Collects ‘Word for Word’ Every Domestic Communication, Say Former Analysts

/4 Comments/in , /by

PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff talks to two former National Security Agency analysts about what made them reveal information about the NSA’s surveillance programs.

William Binney and Russell Tice were working for the National Security Agency as analysts when they learned about its wiretapping program — the controversial post-9/11 program in which the NSA collected phone and Internet activity without getting warrants first for the purpose of hunting down terrorists.

They disagreed with the agency’s tactics and the program’s scope.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill Kristol: A year ago Obama Said al-Qaida is on the Run, and Now WE are on the Run (+video)

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APWeekly Standard editor Bill Kristol remarked on Sunday that President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign rhetoric on foreign policy stood in stark contrast to the turmoil in the Middle East stirred by threats from al-Qaida, pointing out that the U.S. closed 22 embassies throughout the Muslim world.

“Four years ago President Obama gave a much heralded speech as outreach to the Muslim world,” Kristol said. “And now, four years later we are closing embassies throughout the Muslim world. A year ago, the president said al-Qaida is on the run. And now we seem to be on the run.”

“I’m not criticizing the decision to close the embassies. That’s probably the right thing to do for the sake of trying to save American lives and others, but it’s a terrible thing,” he added. “That you know, just a year ago boasting al-Qaida is on the run and Osama bin Laden is dead.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Longtime Psychology Professor Killed Family 46 Years Ago, Skated on Insanity Defense

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Sun TimesA psychology professor at Downstate Millikin University killed his parents and sister 46 years ago when he was a teenager, a revelation that has jolted the bucolic liberal arts college that has employed him for nearly three decades and sparked calls for his resignation.

Described as “an older hippie,” James St. James landed a top teaching award at the small college in Decatur and chairs its psychology department, but he kept the dark secret from his past from Millikin’s administrators and the central Illinois city in which he has lived.

Reached Thursday at his Decatur home — its front porch cluttered with plants, patio furniture and a stack of newspapers — St. James, 61, declined to comment.

“The university has issued a statement and that will, that will have to do,” he said.

Not until the publication of an investigation by a Texas newspaper did it become known that he was at Millikin after shooting his parents and teenage sister to death in Texas in 1967. St. James avoided prison time after being found insane at the time of the slayings.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Responding to New Challenger, Lindsey Graham Vows to be Like Ronald Reagan

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APSen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who’s up for election to a third term next year, talked about his conservative credentials Sunday, one day after he got another challenger from the right in the 2014 Republican primary for his seat.

“I will continue to be Lindsey Graham, a solid fiscal and social conservative who wants to solve problems. I think that’s the future of the Republican Party,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”…

“I’m going to keep being a social and fiscal conservative that focuses on our national security, takes care of interests at home, like the Port of Charleston, working with my state officials, and be a conservative like Ronald Reagan who will sit down with a Tip O’Neill to solve Americans’ problems,” Graham told Candy Crowley, CNN’s chief political correspondent.

Read more from this story HERE.

There Is “a Stench to this”: Citizens Livid After Saudi’s First Degree Murder Charge Dismissed

/2 Comments/in , /by

Charges against a Saudi national accused of paying his roommate to kill a Warrensburg bar owner were dropped Friday after information from a critical witness changed, leaving the state with insufficient evidence to prosecute him.

Ziyad Abid was briefly taken into custody Friday by immigration officials then released on his own recognizance hours after Johnson County prosecutors dismissed all charges.

Abid, 24, had been jailed since Sept. 5 on first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges. His case gained national attention when Circuit Judge Michael Wagner refused to release him after the Saudia Arabian government posted $2 million bail.

Abid was arrested after his roommate, Reginald Singletary Jr., told investigators that he killed bar owner Blaine Whitworth last September, and that Abid had paid him to do it.

Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook set bond at $2 million in November — along with a number of other conditions — but said she was concerned Abid was a flight risk. She also expressed concerns that Abid would be deported because his student visa had lapsed when he could not attend classes at the University of Central Missouri.

Read more from this story HERE.

Walt Disney Conspired With Population Control Zealots in 1968 by Producing this Video

/5 Comments/in , /by

Thanks to a Facebook post by Rey Flores I became aware of this video created by Walt Disney in 1968. Incredible….

The Disney film was part of the Sierra Club/Ehrlich campaign that had a lot of support from Western power elites. How Disney allowed itself to be co-opted into producing this propaganda piece for the Rockefeller’s notorious Population Council is undoubtedly quite an interesting story.

video:

Read more from this story HERE.

Source: Terrorists Behind “Most Specific, Credible” Embassy Threat in Years (+video)

/12 Comments/in , /by

By CBS

The terror threat prompting the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates Sunday is the most specific, credible threat information in years, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports.

Intelligence officers have reporting from a reliable source that a major plot is under way and that the team to carry it out has been selected and is in place, Miller reports.

The threat information has been described as the most specific and credible since the foiled plot to blow up British planes en route to the United States in 2006, Miller reports. The specificity ends there.

What authorities don’t have is the date, the timing or the target of the attack, which is why they have taken such an approach to warning potential targets, Miller reports.

The threat has prompted the U.S. to issue a global travel alert to all Americans for the first time since the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Read more from this story HERE.

________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: APPeter King: Plot ‘Most Specific I’ve Seen’

By Breanna Edwards

Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence [RINO] Rep. Peter King confirmed on Friday that “something serious is being planned,” prompting the shutdown of 21 U.S. embassies across the world.

“There’s very little doubt, if any, that something serious is being planned,” the New York Republican told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on a phone call in “The Situation Room.” “I’ve been getting briefed fairly regularly over the last seven or eight years at least and also pretty heavily before then and this is the most specific I’ve seen.”

“It is not just trying to connect the dots. That is very specific information about the fact that there is a plot, that attacks are planned, but again it’s not certain as to where,” he added.

King said that the information had been developing for a while, but remained tight-lipped about any possible sources and other details, mostly reiterating known information.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Out for Blood’: 1 dead, 11 Injured After Car Plows Through LA Boardwalk ‘With Intent’ (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APBy Dave Urbanski. One person is dead, KNBC-TV reports, and 11 others are injured after a driver of a car—reportedly “out for blood”—plowed into people walking along a crowded Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles Saturday.

Detectives have detained a possible suspect and a vehicle of interest, Lt. Andrew Neiman of the Los Angeles Police Department told KNBC.

Witnesses said the car, a dark-colored sedan, had “moved purposefully along the boardwalk,” striking pedestrians, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the fire department, the New York Times reports. KTLA-TV adds Humphrey describing the vehicle traveling as fast as 20 m.p.h. along the boardwalk.

KCAL-TV reports witness saying the driver hit the pedestrians on purpose:

Read more from this story HERE.

_________________________________________________________

Police: Venice Beach Boardwalk driver ‘bent on doing evil’

By Alan Duke. A man who sped down Venice Beach’s crowded boardwalk Saturday evening looked like he wanted “to create mayhem and massacre a lot of people,” a witness said.

One woman was killed, and a Los Angeles County coroner’s office spokeswoman identified her as Alice Gruppioni, 32, of Italy. Her husband told police they were on their honeymoon, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Nathan Campbell, 38, was charged with murder after he turned himself in to police hours after the incident, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Rosario Herrera said Sunday. Campbell is being held on $1 million bond, she said.

“There no indication that he knew anybody that he hit,” LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith said. “It looks like this guy wanted to run over a bunch of people. One guy bent on doing evil.”

Of the dozen people injured, one victim was critically hurt and two others suffered serious injuries, officials said. Read more from this story HERE.