CLG: FBI warns of possible Islamic State-inspired attacks in U.S.

 News Updates from CLG
24 December 2016

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Previous editions: Donald Trump Is Poised to Win Electoral College

 

FBI warns of possible Islamic State-inspired attacks in U.S. | 23 Dec 2016 | U.S. federal authorities cautioned local law enforcement on Friday to be aware that supporters of Islamic State have been calling for their sympathizers to attack holiday gatherings in the United States, including churches, a law enforcement official said. The warning, issued in a bulletin to local law enforcement, said there were no known specific, credible threats. The notice from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security was issued out of an abundance of caution after a publicly available list of U.S. churches was published on pro-Islamic State websites.

 

Brussels Terror Alert: Bomb squad swoops in after EXPLOSIVE DEVICE discovered| 23 Dec 2016 | A Brussels street is on lockdown after an explosive device was found and surrounded by bomb squad. Officers were alerted to the suspicious package found near the Turkish Federation of Belgium building in Schaerbeek. The bag, discovered in Rue Josaphat, sparked a mass police response as a robot was been drafted in to assess the item. Brussels media reported authorities have announced it was indeed an explosive device, despite appearing to be an ordinary shopping bag.

 

Melbourne terrorist plot: Seven held over alleged 'explosive' Christmas Day attack plan | 23 Dec 2016 | Police have disrupted a terrorist plot to detonate improvised explosive devices at locations in central Melbourne, possibly on Christmas Day, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says. Seven people were arrested overnight at properties in Flemington, Meadow Heights and Dallas in Melbourne over the alleged plot, which police said was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews described the plot as an "act of evil", while Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police had seized "the makings of an improvised explosive device".

 

7,000 terrorist suspects on loose in Germany - former MI6 chief | 22 Dec 2016 | Thousands of terrorism suspects are on the loose in Germany and there is no way to track them down, says the former head of counterterrorism for MI6, Richard Barrett. His intervention comes as it was revealed the Berlin truck attack suspect Anis Amri was known to security services and police as a criminal with proven extremist leanings. Barrett said Amri was just one of hundreds of "really extreme potential terrorists on the books" in Germany. "In addition to that though, if you include all the Lander (local regions) in Germany, they have about 7,000 live cases," he told the Daily Mail.

 

Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri killed in Milan | 23 Dec 2016 | The Berlin market attacker, Anis Amri, has been shot dead by police in Milan. The Tunisian criminal fired on police who asked him for ID during a routine patrol in the Sesto San Giovanni area in the early hours of Friday. German authorities say fingerprints they provided have confirmed the dead man is Amri. They are trying to find out if he had accomplices.

 

Berlin truck terror suspect and the curious matter of ID papers left behind | 21 Dec 2016 | Today, WhoWhatWhy has seen heavy traffic coming from Google searches that point to a story we ran almost two years ago. Why the sudden interest? It took us only a moment to discover the connection: We had written about the odd phenomenon of terrorists repeatedly leaving ID papers behind at the scene. And now, with the Berlin truck attack, we see yet another such example. We also see that, in a pattern we have previously reported on with other terror incidents, the suspect was already known to authorities -- had even been in custody, but was released.

 

Germany had monitored Berlin truck attack suspect for months --Amri is suspected in the attack that left 12 people dead and 48 injured Monday evening in Berlin. | 21 Dec 2016 | German officials had deemed the Tunisian man being sought in a manhunt across Europe a threat long before a truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin -- and even kept him under covert surveillance for six months this year before halting the operation. [?!?] Now the international manhunt for Anis Amri -- considered the prime suspect in Monday's deadly rampage -- is raising questions about how closely German authorities are monitoring the hundreds of known Islamic extremists in the country.

 

Tunisian suspect in Berlin Christmas market attack faced past German terror probe, official says | 21 Dec 2016 | The prime suspect sought in the deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market - a 24-year old Tunisian migrant - was the subject of a terrorism probe in Germany earlier this year and was not deported even though his asylum bid was rejected, a senior official said Wednesday. The suspect - who went by numerous aliases but was identified by German authorities as Anis Amri - became the subject of a national manhunt after investigators discovered a wallet with his identity documents [?!?] in the truck used in Monday's attack that left 12 dead, two law enforcement officials told The Washington Post.

 

Blunders that let Berlin Christmas terror suspect go free | 22 Dec 2016 | A string of security blunders left a failed Tunisian asylum seeker free to carry out the Berlin Christmas market massacre, it was feared last night. German security services face difficult questions after it emerged that Anis Amris, a lifelong criminal, should have been deported months ago. The 24-year-old...was under the surveillance of German intelligence for several months following his arrival in the country in 2015. He had been arrested three times this year and his asylum application was rejected, but deportation papers were never served and he disappeared. The Tunisian radical was known to be a supporter of Islamic State and to have received weapons training.

 

Berlin Truck Attack Puts U.S. Cities on High Alert --Nearly 2,000 specially trained officers were deployed at holiday markets around New York City Tuesday | 20 Dec 2016 | Specially trained officers were deployed at holiday markets throughout New York City and officials in other U.S. cities prepared similar measures following a deadly truck attack in Berlin. Nearly 2,000 New York Police Department officers "equipped with an additional level of training, heavy vests and long guns" were on guard around the city on Tuesday, said a spokesman for the NYPD. Police departments in Boston, Baltimore and Chicago said they were taking additional precautions [such as 'blocking vehicles'] as well, particularly around outdoor holiday events.

 

Berlin terror attack: at least nine dead, 50 injured as truck ploughs into crowd at Christmas market | 19 Dec 2016 | Germany was the victim of a suspected terrorist attack last night after a lorry ploughed into a busy Christmas market in Berlin. At least nine people were killed and more than 50 were injured after the vehicle mounted the pavement. A man was arrested on suspicion of being the driver of the truck. Police said and were investigating whether he was the same man earlier seen fleeing from the scene of the attack on foot.

 

Obama to dismantle defunct registry of Arab, Muslim men | 22 Dec 2016 | President Barack Obama's administration on Thursday said it was dismantling a dormant national registry program which mostly targeted Arab and Muslim men visiting from countries with active terrorist groups. Obama first froze the National Security Entry-Exit Registration Systems in 2011 by removing from the program all countries listed as having active terror groups. But the program's primary structure was left intact.

 

UN demands end to Israeli settlements after US abstains | 24 Dec 2016 | The UN Security Council demanded that Israel halt settlements in Palestinian territory, after the United States refrained from vetoing a resolution condemning its closest Middle East ally. In a rare and momentous step, the United States instead abstained, enabling the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy. Applause broke out in the chamber after the text was passed with support from all remaining members of the 15-member council.

 

US abstains as UN demands end to Israeli settlements --The resolution passed with 14 votes in favor and the US's abstention | 23 Dec 2016 | The United States on Friday allowed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction to be adopted, defying extraordinary pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in alliance with President-elect Donald Trump. The Security Council approved the resolution with 14 votes, with the US abstaining.

 

Turning Point in Syria as Assad Regains All of Aleppo | 22 Dec 2016 | The evacuation of civilians and fighters from the last rebel-held part of Aleppo concluded on Thursday after long delays because of frigid weather, putting all of Syria's industrial capital back in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's forces for the first time since 2012. The last buses carrying residents from eastern Aleppo left the city late Thursday night, according to the Syrian state news agency. Tens of thousands of people have been removed from eastern Aleppo since Dec. 15.

 

Russia, Iran and Turkey Meet for Syria Talks, Excluding U.S. | 20 Dec 2016 | Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow on Tuesday to work toward a political accord to end Syria's nearly six-year war, leaving the United States on the sidelines as the countries sought to drive the conflict in ways that serve their interests. Secretary of State John Kerry was not invited. Nor was the United Nations consulted.

 

Russian diplomat 'found dead from gunshot wounds at home just hours after ambassador killed at art exhibition' | 20 Dec 2016 | A Russian diplomat has been found dead from gunshot wounds at his home, it is reported. Petr Polshikov, 56, was discovered with a bullet injury to his head at his flat in Moscow's Balaklavsky Prospekt, according to local media. The alleged shooting came just hours after the news broke of the assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov. Karlov was killed by his police protection officer who screamed "Allahu Akbar" and "Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria." [Yeah, and *don't forget* the funding of the 'moderate Syrian rebels' aka ISIS and Al-Nusra Front by Obama.]

 

Russia qualifies assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey as terrorist attack | 19 Dec 2016 | Russia qualifies the killing of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov as a terrorist attack, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. "We qualify the events as a terrorist attack, we stay in contact with Turkish officials who have pledged that a through all-round investigation will be carried out. The assassinators will be punished. Today this issue will be brought up at the UN Security Council," she said.

 

Gunman kills Russian ambassador to Turkey during Ankara exhibition | 20 Dec 2016 | The Russian ambassador to Turkey has been shot dead in an attack at an Ankara art gallery by a gunman shouting "Don't forget Aleppo". The ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was several minutes into a speech at an embassy-sponsored photo exhibition in the Turkish capital when a man wearing a suit and tie opened fire.

 

Iranian reportedly murders family of girl who spurned him | 22 Dec 2016 | A young Iranian man murdered 10 members of a family with an assault rifle after his proposal of marriage to a daughter was rejected, the Mehr news agency reported Thursday. He had asked for her hand in the village of Jahan Abad in Kerman province in the southeast. When she shunned him, he left, returned with a Kalashnikov rifle and opened fire.

 

British 'conspiracy' theorist who was found dead on a sofa in Poland was investigating an alleged US Army pedophilia ring just before his death --Friends claimed he died in an apartment after he 'vomited a black liquid' | 17 Oct 2016 | A British man who traveled to Poland to give a lecture on conspiracy theories and was found dead in his Warsaw apartment was conducting an investigation into alleged pedophilia that took place in a US Army-run facility in San Francisco nearly 30 years ago. Max Spiers, a 39-year-old father of two, was found dead on a sofa in Poland, where he had gone to give a talk about conspiracy theories and UFOs. Prior to his death, Spiers texted his mother to say 'If anything happens to me, investigate' just days before his mysterious death. He was ruled to have died from natural causes despite no post-mortem examination being carried out on his body...Now it has emerged that Spiers was inquiring about allegations of widespread sexual abuse against children that was committed at a military base in California by employees acting under the influence of a satanic cult.

 

Fukushima nuclear clean-up, compensation costs nearly double previous estimate at $250 billion - TEPCO | 17 Dec 2016 | The total cost of decommissioning the stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima and providing c-mpensation to victims has nearly doubled, with a new estimate placing the c-st at 250 billion. Five and a half years after the nuclear disaster, the painstaking work of cleaning up the radioactive disaster zone is progressing very slowly. Workers on the site have just finished a two-year project to remove a temporary building that was encasing the number 1 reactor.

 

4 More Officials Charged With Felonies in Flint Water Crisis Debacle --Thus far, 13 state and local officials have been charged in connection with the Flint water crisis, including the four charged today. | 20 Dec 2016 | Today the Michigan attorney general filed felony charges against four former officials, including two emergency managers for Flint, Michigan, over their alleged roles in the water crisis in the city. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged the four officials with multiple felonies, including conspiracy to commit false pretenses and false pretenses over their roles in the crisis. Each of those charges carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

 

Erie hospital to pay, rehire ex-workers who refused flu shots --Saint Vincent settles federal lawsuit filed by workers who claimed religious discrimination. | 22 Dec 2016 | (PA) Saint Vincent Hospital has agreed to rehire six former employees it fired after they refused to get flu shots in late 2013 and early 2014 due to their religious beliefs. The Erie hospital also will provide about 300,000 in back p-y and compensatory damages to the employees as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of the workers by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September. A consent decree that ended the case and detailed the settlement terms was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Erie. [Awesome!]

 

Accused killer of UPS driver believes he assassinated Trump | 21 Dec 2016 | A 38-year-old man charged with killing a seasonal UPS driver in a Wal-Mart parking lot has been ordered to undergo a mental evaluation after telling a judge he believed he killed President-elect Donald Trump. Justin Barkley of Dryden appeared in Tompkins County Court on Monday to be arraigned for the murder of 52-year-old William Schumacher, who was shot shortly before 1 a.m. on Dec. 8 outside a Wal-Mart in Ithaca.

 

Mississippi church member charged in 'Vote Trump' arson | 21 Dec 2016 | A Mississippi man arrested in the burning of an African-American church that was spray-painted with the words "Vote Trump" is a member of the congregation, the church's bishop said. Andrew McClinton, 45, of Leland, Mississippi, was charged Wednesday with first degree arson of a place of worship, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. McClinton is African-American.

 

Ivanka Trump and her family are rushed off JetBlue plane and transferred to private jet in San Francisco layover after they were accosted by crazed Brooklyn lawyer | 22 Dec 2016 | After being accosted while boarding a JetBlue flight Thursday morning, Ivanka Trump and her family made sure they didn't have the same experience exiting the plane that landed in San Francisco this afternoon. The 35-year-old, her husband Jared Kushner and their three children, were escorted by Secret Service officers off the commercial plane before any other passengers to be ushered into waiting SUVs that drove them nearby to board a private jet that will fly them to their final destination which is Hawaii, TMZ reported. The private jet was apparently pre-scheduled and not a reaction to the incident that took place earlier on Thursday at JFK where she was accosted by a man who said her 'father is ruining the country.'

 

Screaming Brooklyn lawyer chases down Ivanka Trump and yells at her | 22 Dec 2016 | A Brooklyn lawyer confronted Ivanka Trump and said her father is 'ruining this country' while she was on a plane with her children. Dan Goldstein and his Hillary supporter husband Matthew Lasner were thrown off of the JetBlue flight from New York to San Francisco on Thursday when they accosted the future first daughter and started shouting at her...Just an hour prior to that Lasner wrote on Twitter: 'Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil'

 

Putin says only Russia knew Trump would win | 23 Dec 2016 | Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Donald Trump for understanding the mood of American voters, claimed that only Russia knew the businessman would win the election -- and blamed Democrats for being sore losers. "The losing side always tries to pass the buck," Putin said at his year-end press conference Friday in Moscow. "They need to learn to lose with dignity." Putin insisted that the Motherland didn't meddle in the US election -- even though President Obama said the Russians interfered..."Who knows if they were even hackers? Maybe they were lying on the sofa or the bed," he shrugged -- but added that the hacks "showed the truth."

 

Donald Trump Secures Electoral College Win, With Few Surprises | 19 Dec 2016 | Donald J. Trump will be the next president of the United States. That's been the case since Nov. 8, when Trump won 306 electoral votes, despite losing the national popular vote to Hillary Clinton...And on Monday, the result was ratified by Electoral College voters, who gathered in state capitols across the United States to formally vote for president. Trump secured 304 electoral votes - two fewer than he earned in November, according to the Associated Press, which tracked results from capitol to capitol. That was despite a pitched effort by some on the left who wrote letters to Trump electors trying to persuade them to switch their votes or not vote at all and keep Trump short of the 270 needed Not only did it not happen, but more electors tried to defect from Hillary Clinton Monday than from Trump, by a count of seven to two, as of Monday afternoon.

 

Donald Trump Completes Final Lap, Electoral College, to White House | 19 Dec 2016 | Republican electors in Texas vaulted Mr. Trump past the 270 mark, granting him all but two of their 38 ballots in a ceremony in the State Capitol in Austin. In the House chamber, where the electors met, the vote was greeted with a standing ovation by citizens and Republican officials who had come to witness the event...Normally a political footnote, the electoral vote acquired an unexpected element of drama this winter after Mr. Trump's upset of Hillary Clinton, who received 2.86 million more popular votes but won in states that totaled only 232 electoral votes. The states Mr. Trump won held 306 electoral votes.

 

Trump taps RNC's Spicer for White House spokesman | 22 Dec 2016 | The Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer will serve as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's press secretary in the White House when he takes office next month, Trump announced on Thursday. To round out his communications team, the president-elect appointed loyalists from his upstart presidential campaign. Hope Hicks, Trump's sole spokeswoman when he began what was considered a long shot candidacy in June 2015, will be director of strategic communications. Jason Miller was appointed director of communications and Dan Scavino was named director of social media.

 

Kellyanne Conway will join Trump in the White House | 22 Dec 2016 | Donald Trump has named his media-savvy campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, to advise him in the White House in the role of counselor, his transition team announced early Thursday morning. The move comes after Conway sought to put to rest speculation that she would continue to serve as the public face of the Trump team. But the new job is sure to keep her profile high. Conway will "will work with senior leadership to effectively message and execute the administration's legislative priorities and actions," according to a statement from the Trump transition team.

 

City offering workers therapy to cope with Trump-induced stress | 12 Dec 2016 | New York City is offering its municipal workforce counseling services and other support for dealing with election-year stress brought on by Donald Trump's election. In a Dec. 1 email, the de Blasio administration pointed to mental health resources that are available to workers who are "feeling distressed or vulnerable following the election results."

 

Deplorable NYU Professor Wins Victory Over SJWs | 21 Dec 2016 | Michael Rectenwald, [CLG founder and] a professor of liberal studies at New York University who describes himself as a lifelong left-liberal, took to Twitter not long ago to express his disgust with political correctness, safe spaces, and SJW intimidation. You can imagine the response from those tolerant lovers of diversity. But he had the last laugh.

 

Michael Rectenwald Interview | 19 Dec 2016 | This week, I interview NYU professor [CLG Founder] Michael Rectenwald about political correctness, Halloween, and "holiday" parties. You can follow him on twitter @antipcnyuprof or get his book Nineteenth-Century British Secularism.

 

CA lawmaker takes aim at campus speech restrictions | 20 Dec 2016 | With the recent tide of censorship and free speech restrictions sweeping colleges across the country, one California lawmaker has had enough. In a press release Monday, recently-elected California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley called for more intellectual diversity and discourse in the face of increased speech restrictions at California universities. "California's universities are a world-class asset," he observed. "If they are to fulfill their full potential as centers of innovation and academic excellence, we must encourage a diversity of ideas and ensure differing viewpoints are protected." [Bravo!]

 

The desperate Trek: Mexico's border cities are getting overwhelmed with migrants | 22 Dec 2016 | In a surge Mexican officials are calling unprecedented, some 15,000 migrants from outside Latin America passed through Baja California this year -- nearly five times the number seen in 2015. More than a third of the detainees being held in California immigration holding centers in September were from outside Latin America, U.S. officials say. As they traverse a circuitous and dangerous path up the spine of South America, Central America and Mexico, they have strained resources along the route and presented new challenges for securing America’s southern border.

 

North Carolina: Vote to repeal 'bathroom bill' stalled by constant recesses | 21 Dec 2016 | North Carolina lawmakers gathered Wednesday to vote on repealing the state's controversial "bathroom bill." House Bill 2, signed into law in March, bans people from using public bathrooms that don't correspond to their biological sex as listed on their birth certificates...After a series of recesses, legislators discussed a bill that may anger Democrats and leaders in the city of Charlotte, which just repealed an anti-discrimination city ordinance as part of a deal with the legislature.

 

Repeal of North Carolina transgender bathroom law discussed | 19 Dec 2016 | North Carolina's governor-elect said on Monday a deal could soon see the repeal of a law limiting bathroom access for transgender people, following nine months of economic boycotts and protests over the legislation, which rights groups called discriminatory. Under the law adopted in March, North Carolina was the first U.S. state to ban transgender people from using government-run restrooms that match their gender identity.

 

Obama grants clemency to 231 inmates in one-day record | 19 Dec 2016 | President Obama on Monday granted clemency to 231 federal inmates, the most in a single day by any president in U.S. history. Obama commuted the prison sentences of 153 people and pardoned 78 others, a sign he is ramping up his use of clemency power during his final weeks in office.

 

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