Fort Hood Trial Turns Bizarre as Shooter Grills Witnesses (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Perry Chiaramonte

The trial of the Fort Hood gunman, who is acting as his own attorney, took a surreal turn as the former Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 in the November 2009 attack grilled witnesses — including his former boss in the military and a fellow Muslim who spoke to him the day of the shooting.

After a short opening statement in which ex-Army Maj. Nidal Hasan called himself a “mujahedeen,” admitted to the rampage and said “the dead bodies will show that war is an ugly thing,” Hasan cross-examined prosecution witnesses, including retired Lt. Col Ben Kirk Phillips, his former boss. When pressed by the defendant, Phillips acknowledged that his officer evaluation report had graded Hasan as “outstanding.”

But he declined to cross-examine one of his shooting victims, Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who provided the day’s most damning testimony.

Lunsford – who was shot seven times during the incident – described what happened that day, saying he first saw Hasan sitting in a chair, with his arms on his knees while looking at the floor.

He said Hasan then jumped up and ordered the one civilian in the room to leave before shouting, “Allahu akbar” and opening fire. Panic set in among the soldiers, who crowded toward a rear door, which was jammed.

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Three Forgotten Facts About the Fort Hood Massacre

By Michelle Malkin

Finally. Four years after Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Texas, and perpetrated the bloodiest massacre ever on an American military base, the self-confessed jihadist’s court martial proceedings began this week. Have you forgotten?

Americans obsessed over the O.J. Simpson, Casey Anthony and Jodi Arias trials. Gun-control lobbyists turned Newtown, Aurora and Tucson into national awareness-raising, fundraising and legislation-promoting campaigns. But where are the celebrity lobbyists and high-profile advocates for the victims of bloodthirsty Muslim vigilante Nidal Hasan?

The White House, which downplayed the terrorist mass murder as “workplace violence,” exacerbated national apathy for his evil acts. Our soldiers deserve better. Here are three facts you’ve probably forgotten — or never knew — about the Fort Hood terror spree.

–Fourteen victims fell on Nov. 5, 2009, not 13. Thirteen of our U.S. military personnel died in cold blood at the deployment center. But the death toll was actually 14. Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, was pregnant when Hasan shot her during the first round of gunfire. At a military Article 32 hearing in 2010 (analogous to a civilian grand jury hearing), a survivor of the Fort Hood shootings testified that Velez cried out, “My baby! My baby!”

In his opening statement on Tuesday, Hasan (acting as his own lawyer) apologized to his fellow jihadists for not destroying more innocent life.

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

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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?..

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Video: Texas Man Shoots His Abductors

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.”

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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:

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

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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.

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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.

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