It is Friday and another huge news day with Al Hunt, Cokie Roberts, Chris Jansing,, Eugene Robinson, Bill Neely, Katie Tur, Michael Goldfarb, Greg Feith, Ayman Mohyeldin, Tom Costello, Anne Guerin, Chuck Todd, Mike Allen, James Woolsey, Dr. Ruth Wittersgreen, Michelle Caruso Cabreara are all on with Mika today. Joe is out this week.
Why did a 27/28 year old guy without any ties to terrorism or any criminal background take a plane to crash it onto a side of a mountain murdering 150 plus people? According to the Guardian, Germanwings crash: report that co-pilot Lubitz had suffered 'personal life crisis'. We have live updates of it at Sunset daily (www.Sunset-Daily.com) / Yahoo / Reuters. The New York Times reports that Investigators were scouring for clues on Friday to help solve the mystery of why Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old German co-pilot, apparently slammed Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountainside in the French Alps on purpose, killing all 150 on board. Prosecutors are examining several theories, including that the crash was a suicide or a mass murder.
We are really talking about how many people should always be in the cock pit. There is also a spotlight on the actual cockpit doors. The problem is that we made rules based on what went down on 9/11 in 2001 and that is contradictory to what went down this week with the Germanwings airline (and Lufthansa that did not have a rule where two people needed to be in the cockpit at all times).
As far as how to figure out of a pilot is depressed, that is a hard one since most people are not going to be forthcoming about their mental health and with their mental behavior. And,m then as far as his youth and lack of flight hours logged in, there is that issue of where do you get experience without having experience or maybe its visa versa but you know what i mean. Plus, with pilots, many never met. I have seen on flights a pilot introducing him or herself to the other ones. I have seen them shake hands before the flight takes off. It has been that way at least in the U.S. for decades now.
It seems that the investigators have found some evidence about Lubitz at his apartment. Police find 'clue' at home of Germanwings' co-pilot Andreas Lubitz and Officers testing items from his house near Dusseldorf they say could be a 'significant' discovery. German police say they may have made a “significant” discovery at the home ofAndreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who deliberately killed 149 passengers and crew by crashing an Airbus A320 in the French Alps. Officers searching Lubitz’s flat in Montabaur, on the outskirts of Dusseldorf, said they found something that may offer a “clue” as to what happened to the downed jet. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings airliner, competing in a Lufthansa marathon in 2013. They said the items had been taken away from the address for testing, but confirmed the find was not a suicide note.
An investigator carries bags with items that have been collected in the house of the family of Andreas Lubitz (AP)
Investigators carry boxes from the apartment of Andreas Lubitz in Duesseldorf (Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images)
A view of the interior cockpit of the crashed Germanwings A320 aircraft (EPA)
A part of the wreckage of the Airbus A320 is seen at the site of the crash (Emmanuel Foudrot/Reuters)
Andreas Lubitz competing in a Lufthansa marathon in 2013 (Wolfgang Nass/BILD)
On Thursday, the French prosecutor leading the investigation into the crash, citing the voice recordings on one of the plane’s black boxes, said the evidence gleaned so far appeared to suggest that Mr. Lubitz, an unassuming former flight attendant with a passion for flying, had locked the plane’s pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on its lethal descent. The crash claimed victims from more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Spain and the United States.
A photo taken from social media shows Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings jetliner that crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday.Andreas Lubitz, Who Loved to Fly, Ended Up on a Mysterious and Deadly Course. Relatives of the victims of Germanwings Flight 9525 on Thursday attended a tribute to their loved ones in Le Vernet, France. Flags, including that of the United States, were displayed representing the countries of origin of the victims.Fatal Descent of Germanwings Plane Was ‘Deliberate,’ French Authorities Say. A Germanwings Airbus took off at Duesseldorf International Airport on Tuesday.Have Recent Plane Crashes Affected Your Decision to Fly? As what had initially appeared to be a tragic accident prompted a sprawling criminal investigation, investigators began combing through Mr. Lubitz’s background, including whether he had a history of depression or psychological problems. Among the issues that are likely to come under scrutiny are his family background, whether he had financial troubles and his personal relationships.
Brice Robin, the chief Marseille prosecutor, said on Thursday the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A320 deliberately crashed the plane that killed himself and 149 others aboard in the French Alps. Investigators in the German city of Düsseldorf were sifting through the contents of two large moving boxes and two plastic bags of possible evidence removed from Mr. Lubitz’s apartment late Thursday, said Markus Niesczery, a police spokesman. He denied reports that significant clues had already been found, saying that investigators were still evaluating the items.
“The items need to be evaluated to determine whether they can give any indication of a possible motive,” Mr. Niesczery said. Prosecutors in Düsseldorf planned to hold a news conference around 12 p.m. to provide an update on their investigation. Carsten Spohr, the chief executive of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said on Thursday that Mr. Lubitz had passed the company’s health checks with “flying colors.”
“He was 100 percent flightworthy without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said.
But he said there had been an instance six years ago when Mr. Lubitz took a break from his training for several months. He said that if the reason was medical, German rules on privacy prevented the sharing of such information. Mr. Spohr said the revelation of Mr. Lubitz’s actions had left him stunned. Some international airlines responded to the tragedy by introducing new rules requiring that two crew members always be present in the cockpit, after the French prosecutor revealed that Mr. Lubitz had locked the plane’s pilot out of the cockpit before initiating the deadly descent. The airlines that said they were instituting a two-person rule in the cockpit included Air Canada, easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
All German airlines will introduce that requirement, the German aviation association said Friday. Thomas Winkelmann, the head of Germanwings, however, expressed doubt that such a rule would have prevented Tuesday’s crash. “I ask myself, when a person is so bent on committing a criminal act, whether that is preventable if for example a stewardess or steward is in the cockpit,” Mr. Winkelmann told the German public broadcaster ZDF on Thursday. Investigators are still trying to understand why the pilot left the cockpit, although most airlines allow it during noncritical phases of flight. There are no regulations requiring that a second crew member be present in the cockpit when one pilot leaves, usually for physiological reasons. The French prosecutor, Brice Robin, said it was reasonable to assume the pilot left the cockpit to use the toilet.
Members of a flight crew would typically use a fail-safe code to open the door if someone in the cockpit could not or would not let them in. The pilot would have known the code, Mr. Spohr said. However, the co-pilot could have activated a switch that prevents the door from opening for five minutes, or he could have found some other way to block the door, Mr. Spohr said. Mr. Robin said that the Germanwings flight had begun prosaically, with polite exchanges between the two pilots as the flight began its course from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf.
However, about a half-hour into the flight, he said that Mr. Lubitz appeared to have locked out the pilot of the plane and did not let him back in, prompting the pilot to demand access. Investigators, citing the plane’s voice recorder, said they could hear the sound of someone trying to break down the door. Mr. Robin said the plane’s voice recorder showed that Mr. Lubitz was breathing normally in the moments leading up to the crash, indicating that he had deliberately crashed the plane. Melissa Eddy contributed reporting from Düsseldorf, Germany, and Alison Smale from Berlin.
Another story happening around the world is what is happening in Yemen. CNN reports that Saudi-led coalition pounds Yemen with airstrikes a second day. A coalition of Middle Eastern forces pounded positions in Yemen from the air overnight in the second day of a campaign to bring a rebel group to its knees. At least 10 people died in the northwestern province of Saada, home to Abdul Malik Al Houthi, the supreme leader of Houthi Shiite insurgents, Houthi commanders said. More than a dozen more people were wounded, as 15 locations saw airstrikes.
What is going on here? Are we fighting ourselves or what? It is very confusing to me what is going on here and luckily for my brain, John Stewart feels the same way so whew. I am absolutely baffled about what is happening in Yemen. I am honestly baffled at what is happening through out the entire Middle East. I think Eugene Robinson is confused about it too. Maybe Ann Guerin can shed some light but she makes no bones about it being very complicated. Wasn't it so much easier when we dependent on its oil coming to us from those regions. I just do not get it but the military action also targeted a weapon storage site for the Houthis in the capital Sanaa, which the rebels overran in an offensive weeks ago. On Wednesday, Houthis captured parts of Yemen's second-largest city, Aden. At least six people died in clashes there on Thursday. The nations stepping into Yemen's civil war are predominantly Sunni Muslim, and they are working to rescue a government that has strong Sunni support.
I have to admit that I like being able to say the word Houthis (pronounced Hoochies) out loud now.
Mika says it great today because again, I thought it was me. We are with Iran in and against Iraq. We are against Iran in Yemen. And, we are with and against Iran in Syria.
Thats about right.
I think what Chris (Jansing) says is right in that we are trying to fight against ISIS. And, that we are fighting for a stable region in those areas. It is indeed confusing though because the Houthis are allied with majority Shiite Iran. Saudi Arabia, the largest contingent in the intervention dubbed al-Hazm Storm, considers the Houthis to be proxies for the Shiite government of Iran and fear another Shiite-dominated state in the region. "What they do not want is an Iranian-run state on their southern border," CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona said of the Saudis. The kingdom says Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who is out of the country, pleaded for military intervention in a letter.
"I ask you, based on the principle of self-defense in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, and on the basis of the Charter of the Arab League and the treaty of joint Arab defense, to provide instant support by all necessary means, including military intervention to protect Yemen and its people from continuous Houthi aggression," the letter, which was posted by Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry, read. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States commends the military action and is supporting it through intelligence sharing, targeting assistance and logistical support, a senior State Department official said. The other nations participating in the military action are the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt, a Saudi adviser has said.
The adviser included Pakistan, saying its military was offering naval support. But on Friday, that country's defense ministry said it had only vowed to defend Saudi Arabia, according to a local media report. Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have spoken about the possibility of sending in ground troops. Saudi Arabia has blockaded the Houthis, effectively cutting off their supply lines. By Thursday afternoon, the Saudis controlled Yemeni airspace, the adviser said, and the military threatened to destroy any naval ships trying to enter Yemeni ports. Supreme leader al-Houthi spoke live Thursday night in Yemen on al-Masirah TV, saying, "If any army try to invade our country, we will prove that Yemen will be a grave for those who invade us."
Iran denounced the military intervention. Marzieh Afkham, a spokeswoman for the country's Foreign Ministry, said the operation will throw an already complicated situation into further turmoil and disrupt chances at a peaceful resolution to Yemen's monthslong internal strife. It also won't help a region already facing terrorist threats from groups like ISIS and al Qaeda, she said. "This is a dangerous action against international responsibilities to respect countries' national sovereignty," Afkham said, according to a report in Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. At least one major player in Yemen besides the Houthis -- the General People's Congress, which is the party of longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh -- thinks the Saudis and their partners should stay out. The GPC says the airstrikes have already led to civilian casualties. The best way to stop the bloodshed is to bring everyone to the negotiating table, the group said.
Also, there was an arrest because someone was plotting with ISIS. Aurora cousins Hasan and Jonas Edmonds had been aspiring terrorists for months when they arrived at the Joliet Armory on Tuesday to scout out a brazen attack, federal authorities say. In the car, Hasan Edmonds, a specialist with the Illinois National Guard who had trained at the facility since 2011, talked with his cousin and an accomplice about where the soldiers might be stationed inside, which rooms to avoid and the firepower that would be required, according to prosecutors.
Hasan then went into the low brick building to pick up a military training schedule for his cousin, who was going to carry out the attack later wearing his cousin's uniform and carrying AK-47s and grenades, prosecutors said. If all went according to plan, the body count could reach 150. Illinois National Guard, FBI knew of Aurora man's plot against military. The Illinois National Guard and FBI worked together to track down two men from Aurora attempting to work with ISIS. What the cousins didn't know was that the accomplice was an undercover FBI informant. In fact, federal agents had been tracking them since late last year when Hasan exchanged Facebook messages with an agent posing as a militant about his desire to travel to the Middle East to join the militant group Islamic State.
The plot unraveled Wednesday evening as FBI agents arrested Hasan Edmonds, 22, at Midway Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Detroit and on to Cairo to join terrorist fighters overseas, prosecutors said. Two hours later, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his modest two-flat building in an Aurora subdivision. Both cousins were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge carrying up to 15 years in prison on conviction.
At their initial appearance Thursday afternoon at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the cousins were brought into U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan's courtroom shackled at the ankles and handcuffed. During the hearing, Jonas Edmonds was animated, yawning loudly, swiveling in a chair and tugging at his thick beard as his court-appointed attorney told the judge he would not ask for a bail hearing.
His cousin, who has a shaved head and wears glasses, was more subdued. Asked by the judge if he understood the charge, he first nodded his head silently. Told that he had to answer aloud, he said, "Yes," in a voice that was barely audible. A bond hearing for Hasan was set for Monday. Meanwhile, news of the charges shocked neighbors and left some acquaintances scratching their heads. A onetime stepmother to Hasan Edwards told the Tribune she was stunned to hear the allegations against the man whom she had raised. She described him as a good person who was drawn to the unity of the Islamic faith. "Something like this is hard to grasp," Felisha Allen said by phone from Louisiana. "Is it a dream? I don't even know what to believe."
2 Aurora men arrested after plotting to attack Illinois military base, fight with ISIS
2 Aurora men were arrested today after authorities discovered they were planning to attack an Illinois military base and fight with ISIS. Manchinique Bates, 23, who identified herself as Hasan's sister, said by phone Thursday that the FBI showed up Wednesday night at the family home in Aurora armed with a search warrant and removed computers. Bates repeatedly denied the allegations, saying her brother and cousin never spoke of any extreme beliefs.
"To be honest, we didn't know anything about my brother trying to travel across seas nor did we know about the supposed attacks my cousin was supposedly doing," Bates said. "… They don't go out seeking trouble. … Neither one of them come off as terrorists. They aren't terrorists." The cousins attended West Aurora High School, according to district spokesman Tony Martinez. Hasan Edmonds graduated in 2011. while Jonas Edmonds left school as a senior in 2004. Terrorists won't be happy until they take over the world. We won't be happy until we can take care of them! That same year, Jonas Edmonds and two others were charged in suburban Atlanta in the armed robbery of a McDonald's restaurant, court records show. He pleaded guilty in 2005 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Records show he was released in June 2010.
Court records show Hasan Edmonds' father, Lieukennye Edmonds, 46, is serving a prison sentence for failing to register as a sex offender stemming from a 1990s conviction for the attempted sexual assault of an Aurora woman. Hasan Edmonds, meanwhile, did not have a criminal record. Friends say he was a quiet student who ran track and excelled in physical education classes. A high school classmate said Edmonds had said he wanted to be on active duty. He said it "blew me out of the water" when he found out about Edmonds' arrest.
"He never said anything about crazy, radical ideas or anything like that," he said. "He was just a normal kid. He was never a troublemaker." The terrorist suspect's stepmother: 'Is it a dream? I don't know what to believe'. Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, a spokesman for the Illinois National Guard, said Edmonds joined the guard in August 2011 and was a supply specialist — responsible for ordering uniforms and other equipment — with the Joliet-based 634th Brigade Support Battalion. He last drilled with the guard for a weekend this month, Leighton said.
According to Leighton, federal authorities recently informed the guard that Edmonds was under investigation, leading them to take "discrete but concrete steps" to ensure he didn't have access to equipment or computers. Edmonds also was given different duties, he said.
According to the 33-page criminal complaint, the FBI began investigating Hasan Edmonds late last year when agents discovered that he and Jonas Edmonds allegedly had devised a plan for Hasan to travel overseas and use his military training to fight for Islamic State, also known as ISIS. In several online exchanges, Hasan Edmonds said that if he was unable to get to Syria he would stay in the U.S. and "fight and die here in the name of Allah," according to the charges. In a message Jan. 30, he told the undercover agent that the best way to beat the U.S. and its Army was to "break their will," according to the complaint.
"With the U.S., no matter how many you kill they will keep coming unless the soldiers and the American public no longer have the will to fight," Edmonds wrote, according to the complaint. "If we can break their spirits we will win." On Feb. 2, Hasan Edmonds contacted the undercover agent again and said his cousin was willing to carry out the attack on U.S. soil. "Honestly we would love to do something like the brother in Paris did," Hasan Edmonds allegedly wrote in a reference to the January terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine's headquarters in France in which 16 people were slain.
Last month, Jonas Edmonds began communicating online with another undercover operative who was posing as someone who could help the cousins in their quest to join Islamic State, according to the charges. The cousins met with that purported accomplice Monday to discuss the planned attack on the Joliet military facility, authorities said. According to the complaint, Jonas told the operative that after his cousin left for the Middle East, he planned to purchase weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, and then attack the base.
The charges brought against the Edmondses are the latest in a string of terrorism-related cases stemming from Chicago's suburbs, including Aurora. A sketch of Jonas Edmonds, left, and Hasan Edmonds at a federal court hearing March 26, 2015, in Chicago. The cousins from Aurora are accused of plotting to have one carry out a terrorist attack at an Illinois military facility while the other was to join Islamic State overseas. A photo from the 2001 West Aurora High School yearbook shows Jonas Edmonds, who is now facing federal terrorism charges.The Illinois National Guard armory in Joliet is believed to have been a planned target by Aurora resident Jonas Edmonds, 29. Jonas Edmonds is now facing federal terrorism charges.
The Illinois National Guard armory in Joliet is believed to have been a planned target by Aurora resident Jonas Edmonds, 29. Edmonds is now facing federal terrorism charges. Hasan Edmonds, 22, is believed to have lived in this Aurora home before he was arrested at Midway Airport. Edmonds is now facing federal terrorism charges. Authorities say he was planning to travel to the Middle East to aid the militant group Islamic State.
In 2013, federal authorities charged Abdella Ahmad Tounisi with providing material support to terrorists after he allegedly pledged on a fake recruitment website — secretly operated by the FBI — to join terrorists in Syria. He was arrested at O'Hare International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Turkey. Tounisi, who was 18 at the time, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Last year, Bolingbrook teen Mohammed Hamzah Khan was charged with plotting to join Islamic State after he was arrested at O'Hare, where authorities alleged he and his two younger siblings were about to board a flight to Istanbul. Khan has pleaded not guilty, and his siblings, who are minors, were not charged. Tribune reporters Jeremy Gorner, Annie Sweeney and Liam Ford; freelancer Cliff Ward; and Aurora Beacon-News reporters Kalyn Belsha and Denise Crosby contributed to this story.
Also, a NYC Building exploded and collapsed. One person is still MIA and many are injured. A powerful explosion in Lower Manhattan on Thursday caused two buildings to collapse and ignited a large fire that quickly spread to neighboring buildings, leaving at least 19 people injured. At least one person was reported missing. As the fire raged in the East Village neighborhood, there were desperate attempts to flee, with residents jumping from fire escapes, and dramatic rescues, with one man climbing through the smoke to look for people who might have been stranded and others pulling a woman to safety.
The blaze was so intense that firefighters at one point had to withdraw from the buildings and engage in what one official called a “defensive outside attack,” pumping a deluge of water onto the structures. An explosion and fire on Second Avenue on Thursday, which injured at least 19 people, served as a call to action for many in the neighborhood.After East Village Blast, a Familiar Sight: New Yorkers to the Rescue. A Facebook photo of Nicholas Figueroa, who was missing as of early Friday morning.Family Searches for Missing Son After Blast in the East Village. Mayor Bill de Blasio, during a news conference at the scene, said “preliminary evidence suggests a gas-related explosion” was caused by plumbing and gas work being done at 121 Second Avenue, near Seventh Street. The explosion and ensuing fire destroyed that building and led to the collapse of an adjacent building, 123 Second Avenue. For hours after the explosion, the fires burned and two other buildings, 119 and 125 Second Avenue, were damaged. One of them, 119, was still in danger of collapse, officials said Thursday.
More than 250 firefighters responded to what became a seven-alarm fire. Among the 19 people reported injured, four were critically injured; four were firefighters who were taken to hospitals for treatment of minor injuries; and three others, including one emergency medical worker, declined medical attention at the scene, according to the Fire Department. Nicholas Figueroa, 23, was in the restaurant in the building where the explosion occurred and was still missing early Friday morning, said his brother Tyler, 19. He said his family had searched the city’s hospitals and sought help from the police but had been unable to locate him.
Mr. de Blasio said workers from the utility Consolidated Edison had been on the site about an hour before the explosion and had found the work being done there to be deficient. But he said there were no calls reporting gas leaks before the explosion. Michael S. Clendenin, a Con Edison spokesman, said several buildings on Second Avenue had been “undergoing renovations” since as far back as August. A Facebook photo of Nicholas Figueroa, who was missing as of early Friday morning. “Based on records here, the building has had some work done inside; new gas service pipes; a lot of things; piping and such,” Mr. Clendenin said. The first reports the Fire Department received were for a building collapse, and witnesses described a frantic scene, with residents of the buildings scrambling down fire escapes to escape the raging flames and others dashing out of the rubble as the walls collapsed around them.
Niraj Desai, 36, a video game animator who works nearby, said he saw one woman stuck on a fire escape struggling to get the ladder unhooked. “This poor girl was stuck upstairs,” Mr. Desai said. “She was having a hard time. You could tell there was a lot of emotion going on. A bunch of guys were down at the bottom helping her get down.” Another man also made his way down the fire escape ladder before smoke started to pour from the building, he said. “It was pretty crazy, pretty fast,” Mr. Desai said. An explosion rocked the East Village on Thursday afternoon. The blast occurred at Second Avenue and East Seventh Street. The authorities said that those who were seriously injured seemed to have been hurt in the explosion. Residents of five buildings, including the four damaged or destroyed, were unable to return home on Thursday night, according to the authorities. The Red Cross established a temporary shelter for them at Public School 63, at 121 East Third Street. By 9 p.m., 55 adults and one child had registered for services there.
Blake Farber, 29, a film director, said he had smelled a lot of gas and had watched as two people who appeared to be working at the site were running between Sushi Park, a restaurant on the ground floor of 121 Second Avenue, and the residential entrance. Seconds later, he said, he felt the blast and was enveloped by dust and smoke. “And then I saw a bunch of people running out of the restaurant — I saw a man crawling on the ground,” he said. “He was crawling and he turned around and his face was bloody.”
The blast happened just over a year after a gas explosion leveled two buildings on Park Avenue in East Harlem, killing eight people. Federal investigators found a crack in a Con Ed gas main near the site and a separation between that main and a smaller pipe. The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet released its final report, which will provide its conclusions about what caused the explosion last March.
Nathan Blaney was nearby at a bar on St. Marks Place when he heard an explosion. His hands still shaking minutes later, he recounted running to the corner and finding about six injured people laid out on the sidewalk. Mr. Blaney took photographs of the wreckage. The facade of the ground floor of the building, which housed Sushi Park, was entirely blown out. Shards of glass reached the sidewalk across the street. Blood was splattered up and down the block and across the street. One man in a black apron had blood seeping from his head. Several other people were bleeding and covered with dust.
One woman was trapped on the building’s fire escape, apparently after climbing out of her apartment, Mr. Blaney said. She was stuck on the second floor, afraid to come down. So a pedestrian from the street — visible in pictures Mr. Blaney took — jumped onto the hanging ladder, climbed up and helped her descend to the sidewalk. The fire started at 121 2nd Ave., set off by by a possible gas explosion in a restaurant where plumbing and gas work was being done. At 3:59 p.m. a loud rumble sounded and the lower facade of one of the buildings began moving. A moment later, it slid slowly to the sidewalk in a cascade of glass and loose bricks. Heavy gray smoke filled the air, and a few moments later, as the smoke began to lift, it was evident that no part of the building was left standing. Jordy Trachtenberg was smoking an electronic cigarette on St. Marks Place, trying to calm down after an explosion “rocked his apartment and made him jump” from his chair. Mr. Trachtenberg lives at 30 St. Marks Place, which faces the back of buildings on Second Avenue.
“I felt the ground shake underneath me, and then all this debris, plaster and glass, started pelting my windows,” he said. “I ran from my building when I saw the flames go up and my apartment filled with smoke. I couldn’t breathe. I started gagging.” My first thought really was it was my home,” he added, “because we haven’t had gas for six months, and Con Ed was doing work outside today.” He shouted out to neighbors who passed by, asking if they were all right. “Of course I know them,” he said. “I want to make sure everyone is O.K. St. Marks is the tightest community in New York.”. Reporting was contributed by Joseph Burgess, Jim Dwyer, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Colin Moynihan, Benjamin Mueller, Sarah Maslin Nir, Patrick McGeehan, Tatiana Schlossberg, Liam Stack, John Surico, Kate Taylor and Alex Vadukul, and research by Susan C. Beachy.
A local domestic (sort of) story being broken is that the USA Today reports that there were Cartel funded sex parties of DEA agents. For years, Drug Enforcement Administration agents posted in Colombia engaged in sex parties involving prostitutes who were supplied by local drug cartels, a Justice Department review found Thursday. The Justice inspector general's inquiry, which examined how federal law enforcement agencies handled sexual misconduct and harassment reports, concluded that seven of 10 agents allegedly involved admitted attending the parties in Colombia where a local police officer often stood guard, protecting the agents' firearms and other property.
In addition, the report found, three of the DEA agents — all described as supervisory special agents — were "provided money, expensive gifts and weapons from drug cartel members.'' Although the misconduct jeopardized the agents' security clearances, the matter was never referred to the agency's Office of Security Programs for review, and the agents were issued suspensions ranging from two to 10 days. "Most of the sex parties occurred in government-leased quarters where agents' laptops, BlackBerry devices and other government issued equipment were present ... potentially exposing them to extortion, blackmail or coercion,'' the report said.
Some of the DEA agents involved in the misconduct, the inspector general found, also were involved in investigations of two former Colombian police officers who initially provided information about the sex parties to DEA officials. "If these special agents had served as government witnesses at the trials of these defendants, their alleged misconduct would have had to be disclosed to defense attorneys and would likely have significantly impaired ability to testify at trial,'' the report concluded. A trial was avoided, however, when the suspects struck plea agreements in a narcotics conspiracy case. DEA supervisors also failed to initiate formal internal investigations into the activities of two agents who were subjects of repeated allegations of patronizing prostitutes and frequenting a brothel, the inspector general's report found.
One of the two agents who were the focus of the allegations also was alleged to have assaulted a prostitute during a payment dispute. The Justice inspector general's review found that the agents' misconduct was ultimately reported to the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) in 2010 via an anonymous letter. Though a subsequent OPR review found that the agents' supervisors were aware of at least four complaints involving loud parties attended by prostitutes in a government-leased apartment from 2005 to 2008, the managers never forwarded those allegations for investigation by the OPR.
In all, the inspector general's report found, federal law enforcement agencies were linked to 26 allegations involving the solicitation of prostitutes abroad during a four-year review ending in 2012. Of that total, the DEA was involved in 19 such alleged offenses. Though the inspector general's review focused on allegations raised from 2008 to 2012, the findings raised new concerns about the conduct of federal law enforcement officers assigned to missions outside the U.S. In 2012, U.S. Secret Service agents preparing for the arrival of President Obama in Cartagena, Colombia, were swept up in a sex scandal when agents brought several prostitutes back to their hotel. Authorities were only alerted to the incident at the Hotel Caribe when one of the agents became involved in a dispute over payment to one of the women.
The incident resulted in agent dismissals and inquiries by congressional committees, one of which promised a separate investigation into the allegations involving the DEA. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, described the inspector general's findings as "truly stunning.'' "Let there be no mistake, this is a national security threat,'' Chaffetz said in a written statement. "We need to hold them accountable, and given the clear evidence in the OIG report, they should be fired immediately.''
DEA officials declined comment Thursday. But in a letter to the inspector general, Michael Dixon, the DEA's acting deputy chief inspector, said the report focused on just 3% of cases that the agency could have investigated "more thoroughly.'' Dixon noted that in October the agency issued a memorandum intended to "address specific areas of misconduct where the violations can seriously impact the integrity of the DEA.'' The memo, as outlined in Dixon's letter, addressed such things as off-duty conduct, sexual harassment, improper relationships with sources and other issues. "DEA believes this memorandum ensures that supervisors and managers, as well as employees are aware of their responsibilities concerning misconduct and that appropriate measures through the disciplinary process will be taken once a report of misconduct is received.''
The Secret Service tightens its rules to not allowed any of its staffers to drive a vehicle within ten hours of driving a car. Which Mika makes the great point that we are not allowed to be drinking and driving anyway. Between this issue and that DEA story about there being parties banked by the drug cartels is incredible. That is basically a bribe because if drug cartels are paying for hookers and partying, why would an agent not 'look the other way" when investigating them?
The German's BTW, have cancelled a press conference (I assume about the plane crash).
I honestly have no clue what went down in NCAA hoop last night. It seems like Kentucky won. It seems like Arizona won. North Carolina lost to North Carolina. And, there are four more games being played tonight. The teams that won yesterday are all great teams. I am not sure if you heard that Coach Dean Smith left $200 to his lettered players from the time he coached at NC over a few decades. Pretty classy move I suppose.
BTW, if your loved one died this way in some plane crash, would you got the crash site? I doubt I would go to it. It would be too much for the likes of me. But then again, I can't be in the same room when they killed my animals the way they do in vets when its at the point of no return. I hate death. I can't be near it. I hate selective death like I described when they 'put animals to sleep.' I can't kills things to eat them. I certainly would not go to the crash site. I am not sure why but I just would not.
Also, what do you think now that happened with the Malaysian Air flight that we still have not found in over a year and two months? After trying to get to understand what happened this week with that Germanwings flight, that makes that Malaysian air issue just wide the hell opened. Anything could have gone down now that we know this can happen. The only problem with doing it that way, is that you are not really sending that great of message. Not that I condone it, but what are these people trying to express? What did this Lubitz guy want to tell the world? That he was depressed and whatnot and why would he not go into a bathroom so to speak, to kill himself by himself? Why involve random people again, without some message to be told to the world? Even the likes of Timothy McVie, another mass murderer, had a message to tell the world. This guy did not say one word and do anything to send a message. If he were depressed within himself, is that the way you kill yourself? With 150 people involved in it? It makes zero sense to me.
And, yay, we get to discuss politics as in New Hampshire, a Suffolk University poll has Jeb Bush at 19%, Scott walker at 14%, Rand Paul at 7% and get this one, Donald trump is at 6% (ahead of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Chris Christy, etc.). That is just great! People say that Scott walker will be hard to beat and I disagree. His record is not great in Wisconsin. I mean for the people and he is also very bland as a public speaker but he has so much to defend eventually which is why i doubt he will have staying power if you will. Hilary of course is still the front runner overall.
Aaron Schock while likening himself to Abe Lincoln said his goodbyes this week. I think Mika is tight with him. She seems to love the guy but the fact is he spent money in such frivolous ways that was just stupid. He had no business doing it and like i said many times, what he did is what not to do in Politics 101. We know the stories and we do not need to rehash it and most of all, I also said that I thought he was gone months ago and before he paid money back to the Government, let alone this week (the 31st is technically his last day in his office).
And, fundamentally speaking about the DEA agent parties with hookers, forget about the denial plausibility they claim when they say they did not know how it was funded, but they should not have been with hookers. Plus, they had Colombian Police Enforcement would guard the weapons while these agents boinked the hookers.
Luckily for me in my life, I have never been with a hooker. I hope it never gets to the point where I can't find a woman to at least have sexual relations if say I can't be in a real relationship (like my life now but anyway). My point is though, how could these people not think they would get caught first, second and third off, but that its so wrong and counterproductive to their work. As far the drug cartel people providing it, it was probably good for their business to keep these people occupied in other ways besides to look at them for crime.
Bill Neely just reported that the FBI started an investigation since there not only three Americans on that flight that went down this week, but also that the co pilot had trained in the U.S. I am pretty sure this part of the investigation is being done its own and not with the French and German authorities. He trained here in Phoenix.
Why are Ron Paul supporters defecting from supporting Rand Paul? That story is coming up soon. Very interesting though and that shows that being a Bush or a Clinton may not be that big of a deal if people make their own assessments based on the current candidates that have legacy's. Paul supporters are very specific so that is indeed a surprise to me. Mike Allen reports that the email controversy will not affect how people feel about voting for her. The polls say its wrong but again, it is not going to change the way they vote. Clinton is also planning a 'Listening'Tour to announce her run for the POTUS.
You know something else about Iran, Chucky T (Todd) makes the great point about those nuclear deal negotiations which is how can Iran rationalize gaining more strength in that region which such a deal? But like Israel, the Saudis will hate any deal which we have mentioned and then the UAB and those Baltic states will hate any type deal. Which we mentioned before in our writings.
Joe is on meet the Press this week on Sunday. Cool. he is back from vacation then.
I think it may be time for me to watch last nights episode of 'Party Down South' while I do my boring work before my legal meetings this afternoon. The weather is so dreary for the last three days. Bill Karins says it will clear up maybe by Sunday. The Midwest is cold and the west Coast is way hot.
James Woolsey is on now. I want to hear what he says before I watch a show where I don't have to pay attention to it. Quite a statement he makes right away about Iran. I guess he wrote an article about the ISIS situation which I want to find to read. He is talking about if the likes of North Korea and Iran gets the ability to make nuclear weapons is that they can shoot them up into space to create electro magnetic fields to wipe out our electric grids. I wonder yeah as he just said, can we defend it which he says the power companies are looking into that issue. And,m it looks like we can find w\some ways to resist it. I just think in terms if whatever country gets the ability to shoot off nukes, that they would bomb other countries direct to kill people.
Breaking news is that Harry Reid is not seeking re election. That is kind of big news. He does to Mitch Mconnell to not get that elated because he still will be working with the people.
I am a bit burnt on the Yemen confusion and that confusion with why that pilot guy killed 150 people so i am posting this early again today. I am finishing too large projects too and I want that done sooner than later. Which honestly, is fine because if I hear anything we have not written about by say 9AM, I can add it with ease. This has just been such a long ass'ed news week that I need a break from it. Plus, I have to work all weekend to ahead at Sunset (or to stay caught up). Hence, watching 'Party Down South' because there is nothing that is the most opposite of real news than watching that show. It is a train wreck in action. With hotties though so it makes it fun.
The panel is also asking my question which is why a depressed person would not just kill himself and why did he feel some need to kill other people and Eugene (Robinson) asks pathologically speaking, what is the difference between wanting to kill other people and wanting to kill yourself. That is my huge question. The Doctor could not really answer it. Oh Well. Or, I may have missed it so if I did miss that precise answer, sorry.
Cool. Three people have been chosen already for the 'Know Your Values' event happening in Philadelphia which is next week (two weeks on the 10th of April) already I think. That crept on me. And, man some of the people that turned in videos are way hot. Good for them.
Oil prices are also going down even more. Michelle Caruso Cabreara is also reporting about the deal Google made with that Chairman which i am reporting about today. I'll post tat here:
Regardless of it this week, please stay in touch!
Why did a 27/28 year old guy without any ties to terrorism or any criminal background take a plane to crash it onto a side of a mountain murdering 150 plus people? According to the Guardian, Germanwings crash: report that co-pilot Lubitz had suffered 'personal life crisis'. We have live updates of it at Sunset daily (www.Sunset-Daily.com) / Yahoo / Reuters. The New York Times reports that Investigators were scouring for clues on Friday to help solve the mystery of why Andreas Lubitz, a 27-year-old German co-pilot, apparently slammed Germanwings Flight 9525 into a mountainside in the French Alps on purpose, killing all 150 on board. Prosecutors are examining several theories, including that the crash was a suicide or a mass murder.
We are really talking about how many people should always be in the cock pit. There is also a spotlight on the actual cockpit doors. The problem is that we made rules based on what went down on 9/11 in 2001 and that is contradictory to what went down this week with the Germanwings airline (and Lufthansa that did not have a rule where two people needed to be in the cockpit at all times).
As far as how to figure out of a pilot is depressed, that is a hard one since most people are not going to be forthcoming about their mental health and with their mental behavior. And,m then as far as his youth and lack of flight hours logged in, there is that issue of where do you get experience without having experience or maybe its visa versa but you know what i mean. Plus, with pilots, many never met. I have seen on flights a pilot introducing him or herself to the other ones. I have seen them shake hands before the flight takes off. It has been that way at least in the U.S. for decades now.
It seems that the investigators have found some evidence about Lubitz at his apartment. Police find 'clue' at home of Germanwings' co-pilot Andreas Lubitz and Officers testing items from his house near Dusseldorf they say could be a 'significant' discovery. German police say they may have made a “significant” discovery at the home ofAndreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who deliberately killed 149 passengers and crew by crashing an Airbus A320 in the French Alps. Officers searching Lubitz’s flat in Montabaur, on the outskirts of Dusseldorf, said they found something that may offer a “clue” as to what happened to the downed jet. Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the doomed Germanwings airliner, competing in a Lufthansa marathon in 2013. They said the items had been taken away from the address for testing, but confirmed the find was not a suicide note.
Markus Niesczery from Dusseldorf Police told the Daily Mail: “We have found something which will now be taken for tests. We cannot say what it is at the moment but it may be very significant clue to what has happened. “We hope it may give some explanations.”
German detectives were also pictured carrying evidence from another property - a £400,000 home in Montabaur, a town 40 miles from Bonn, that the pilot is believed to have shared with his parents. Police were seen leaving with large blue bags of evidence and a computer. A man, though to be his housemate, was led out of the building, shielded by police holding up jackets.
The 27-year-old is understood to have split his time between the two addresses. Lubitz barricaded himself alone in the cockpit of Germanwings flight 9525 and apparently set it on course to crash into an Alpine mountain, killing all 150 people on board including himself, French prosecutors said on Thursday. They offered no motive for why he would take the controls of the Airbus A320, lock the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set it veering down from cruising altitude at 3,000 feet per minute.
German police searched his home for evidence that might offer some explanation for what was behind Tuesday's crash in the French Alps.
The scenario stunned the aviation world. Within hours of the prosecutors' announcement, several airlines responded by immediately changing their rules to require a second crew member to be in the cockpit at all times. That is already compulsory in the United States but not in Europe. Canada said it would now require it of all its airlines. EasyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Air Berlin were among other carriers that swiftly announced such policies.
German aviation association BDL on Thursday night said all German airlines, including Germanwings and parent company Lufthansa, had agreed to discuss possible new rules requiring two crew members to be in the cockpit at all times following the crash. French and German officials said there was no indication Lubitz was a terrorist but offered no rival theories to explain his actions. Acquaintances described him as an affable young man who had given no sign of harmful intent.
Lubitz acted "for a reason we cannot fathom right now but which looks like intent to destroy this aircraft", Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said.
Setting the plane's controls for rapid descent was an act that "could only have been voluntary", Robin said. "He had... no reason to stop the pilot-in-command from coming back into the cockpit. He had no reason to refuse to answer to the air controller who was alerting him on the loss of altitude."
The captain, who had stepped out of the cockpit, probably to use the toilet, could be heard on flight recordings trying to force his way back in. "You can hear banging to try to smash the door down," Robin said.
Most of the passengers would not have been aware of their fate until the very end, he said: "Only towards the end do you hear screams," he said. "And bear in mind that death would have been instantaneous...the aircraft was literally smashed to bits."
FlightRadar24, an online air tracking service that uses satellite data, said it had found evidence the autopilot was abruptly switched from cruising altitude to just 100 feet, the lowest possible setting. The plane crashed at about 6,000 feet. "Between 09:30:52 and 09:30:55 you can see that the autopilot was manually changed from 38,000 feet to 100 feet and 9 seconds later the aircraft started to descend, probably with the 'open descent' autopilot setting," Fredrik Lindahl, chief executive of the Swedish tracking service, said. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said its air crew were picked carefully and subjected to psychological vetting.
"No matter your safety regulations, no matter how high you set the bar, and we have incredibly high standards, there is no way to rule out such an event," Spohr said.
Attention was focused on the motivations of Lubitz, a German national who joined the Lufthansa-owned budget carrier in September 2013 and had just 630 hours of flying time - compared with the 6,000 hours of the flight captain. "Suicide" was the wrong word to describe actions which killed so many other people, Robin, the French prosecutor, said: "I don't necessarily call it suicide when you have responsibility for 100 or so lives."
The family of the co-pilot arrived in France for a tribute alongside other victims. They were being kept apart from the others, Robin said. Police searched the co-pilot's home in Montabaur, Germany, leaving with large blue bags of evidence and a computer. A man was led out of the building, shielded by police holding up jackets.
Acquaintances in the town said they were stunned.
"I'm just speechless. I don't have any explanation for this. Knowing Andreas, this is just inconceivable for me," said Peter Ruecker, a long-time member of the local flight club where Lubitz received his flying license years ago. "He was a lot of fun, even though he was perhaps sometimes a bit quiet. He was just another boy like so many others here."
A photo taken from social media shows Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings jetliner that crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday.Andreas Lubitz, Who Loved to Fly, Ended Up on a Mysterious and Deadly Course. Relatives of the victims of Germanwings Flight 9525 on Thursday attended a tribute to their loved ones in Le Vernet, France. Flags, including that of the United States, were displayed representing the countries of origin of the victims.Fatal Descent of Germanwings Plane Was ‘Deliberate,’ French Authorities Say. A Germanwings Airbus took off at Duesseldorf International Airport on Tuesday.Have Recent Plane Crashes Affected Your Decision to Fly? As what had initially appeared to be a tragic accident prompted a sprawling criminal investigation, investigators began combing through Mr. Lubitz’s background, including whether he had a history of depression or psychological problems. Among the issues that are likely to come under scrutiny are his family background, whether he had financial troubles and his personal relationships.
Brice Robin, the chief Marseille prosecutor, said on Thursday the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A320 deliberately crashed the plane that killed himself and 149 others aboard in the French Alps. Investigators in the German city of Düsseldorf were sifting through the contents of two large moving boxes and two plastic bags of possible evidence removed from Mr. Lubitz’s apartment late Thursday, said Markus Niesczery, a police spokesman. He denied reports that significant clues had already been found, saying that investigators were still evaluating the items.
“The items need to be evaluated to determine whether they can give any indication of a possible motive,” Mr. Niesczery said. Prosecutors in Düsseldorf planned to hold a news conference around 12 p.m. to provide an update on their investigation. Carsten Spohr, the chief executive of Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, said on Thursday that Mr. Lubitz had passed the company’s health checks with “flying colors.”
“He was 100 percent flightworthy without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said.
But he said there had been an instance six years ago when Mr. Lubitz took a break from his training for several months. He said that if the reason was medical, German rules on privacy prevented the sharing of such information. Mr. Spohr said the revelation of Mr. Lubitz’s actions had left him stunned. Some international airlines responded to the tragedy by introducing new rules requiring that two crew members always be present in the cockpit, after the French prosecutor revealed that Mr. Lubitz had locked the plane’s pilot out of the cockpit before initiating the deadly descent. The airlines that said they were instituting a two-person rule in the cockpit included Air Canada, easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
All German airlines will introduce that requirement, the German aviation association said Friday. Thomas Winkelmann, the head of Germanwings, however, expressed doubt that such a rule would have prevented Tuesday’s crash. “I ask myself, when a person is so bent on committing a criminal act, whether that is preventable if for example a stewardess or steward is in the cockpit,” Mr. Winkelmann told the German public broadcaster ZDF on Thursday. Investigators are still trying to understand why the pilot left the cockpit, although most airlines allow it during noncritical phases of flight. There are no regulations requiring that a second crew member be present in the cockpit when one pilot leaves, usually for physiological reasons. The French prosecutor, Brice Robin, said it was reasonable to assume the pilot left the cockpit to use the toilet.
Members of a flight crew would typically use a fail-safe code to open the door if someone in the cockpit could not or would not let them in. The pilot would have known the code, Mr. Spohr said. However, the co-pilot could have activated a switch that prevents the door from opening for five minutes, or he could have found some other way to block the door, Mr. Spohr said. Mr. Robin said that the Germanwings flight had begun prosaically, with polite exchanges between the two pilots as the flight began its course from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf.
However, about a half-hour into the flight, he said that Mr. Lubitz appeared to have locked out the pilot of the plane and did not let him back in, prompting the pilot to demand access. Investigators, citing the plane’s voice recorder, said they could hear the sound of someone trying to break down the door. Mr. Robin said the plane’s voice recorder showed that Mr. Lubitz was breathing normally in the moments leading up to the crash, indicating that he had deliberately crashed the plane. Melissa Eddy contributed reporting from Düsseldorf, Germany, and Alison Smale from Berlin.
Another story happening around the world is what is happening in Yemen. CNN reports that Saudi-led coalition pounds Yemen with airstrikes a second day. A coalition of Middle Eastern forces pounded positions in Yemen from the air overnight in the second day of a campaign to bring a rebel group to its knees. At least 10 people died in the northwestern province of Saada, home to Abdul Malik Al Houthi, the supreme leader of Houthi Shiite insurgents, Houthi commanders said. More than a dozen more people were wounded, as 15 locations saw airstrikes.
What is going on here? Are we fighting ourselves or what? It is very confusing to me what is going on here and luckily for my brain, John Stewart feels the same way so whew. I am absolutely baffled about what is happening in Yemen. I am honestly baffled at what is happening through out the entire Middle East. I think Eugene Robinson is confused about it too. Maybe Ann Guerin can shed some light but she makes no bones about it being very complicated. Wasn't it so much easier when we dependent on its oil coming to us from those regions. I just do not get it but the military action also targeted a weapon storage site for the Houthis in the capital Sanaa, which the rebels overran in an offensive weeks ago. On Wednesday, Houthis captured parts of Yemen's second-largest city, Aden. At least six people died in clashes there on Thursday. The nations stepping into Yemen's civil war are predominantly Sunni Muslim, and they are working to rescue a government that has strong Sunni support.
I have to admit that I like being able to say the word Houthis (pronounced Hoochies) out loud now.
Mika says it great today because again, I thought it was me. We are with Iran in and against Iraq. We are against Iran in Yemen. And, we are with and against Iran in Syria.
Thats about right.
I think what Chris (Jansing) says is right in that we are trying to fight against ISIS. And, that we are fighting for a stable region in those areas. It is indeed confusing though because the Houthis are allied with majority Shiite Iran. Saudi Arabia, the largest contingent in the intervention dubbed al-Hazm Storm, considers the Houthis to be proxies for the Shiite government of Iran and fear another Shiite-dominated state in the region. "What they do not want is an Iranian-run state on their southern border," CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona said of the Saudis. The kingdom says Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who is out of the country, pleaded for military intervention in a letter.
"I ask you, based on the principle of self-defense in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, and on the basis of the Charter of the Arab League and the treaty of joint Arab defense, to provide instant support by all necessary means, including military intervention to protect Yemen and its people from continuous Houthi aggression," the letter, which was posted by Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry, read. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that the United States commends the military action and is supporting it through intelligence sharing, targeting assistance and logistical support, a senior State Department official said. The other nations participating in the military action are the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt, a Saudi adviser has said.
The adviser included Pakistan, saying its military was offering naval support. But on Friday, that country's defense ministry said it had only vowed to defend Saudi Arabia, according to a local media report. Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have spoken about the possibility of sending in ground troops. Saudi Arabia has blockaded the Houthis, effectively cutting off their supply lines. By Thursday afternoon, the Saudis controlled Yemeni airspace, the adviser said, and the military threatened to destroy any naval ships trying to enter Yemeni ports. Supreme leader al-Houthi spoke live Thursday night in Yemen on al-Masirah TV, saying, "If any army try to invade our country, we will prove that Yemen will be a grave for those who invade us."
Iran denounced the military intervention. Marzieh Afkham, a spokeswoman for the country's Foreign Ministry, said the operation will throw an already complicated situation into further turmoil and disrupt chances at a peaceful resolution to Yemen's monthslong internal strife. It also won't help a region already facing terrorist threats from groups like ISIS and al Qaeda, she said. "This is a dangerous action against international responsibilities to respect countries' national sovereignty," Afkham said, according to a report in Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. At least one major player in Yemen besides the Houthis -- the General People's Congress, which is the party of longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh -- thinks the Saudis and their partners should stay out. The GPC says the airstrikes have already led to civilian casualties. The best way to stop the bloodshed is to bring everyone to the negotiating table, the group said.
Also, there was an arrest because someone was plotting with ISIS. Aurora cousins Hasan and Jonas Edmonds had been aspiring terrorists for months when they arrived at the Joliet Armory on Tuesday to scout out a brazen attack, federal authorities say. In the car, Hasan Edmonds, a specialist with the Illinois National Guard who had trained at the facility since 2011, talked with his cousin and an accomplice about where the soldiers might be stationed inside, which rooms to avoid and the firepower that would be required, according to prosecutors.
Hasan then went into the low brick building to pick up a military training schedule for his cousin, who was going to carry out the attack later wearing his cousin's uniform and carrying AK-47s and grenades, prosecutors said. If all went according to plan, the body count could reach 150. Illinois National Guard, FBI knew of Aurora man's plot against military. The Illinois National Guard and FBI worked together to track down two men from Aurora attempting to work with ISIS. What the cousins didn't know was that the accomplice was an undercover FBI informant. In fact, federal agents had been tracking them since late last year when Hasan exchanged Facebook messages with an agent posing as a militant about his desire to travel to the Middle East to join the militant group Islamic State.
The plot unraveled Wednesday evening as FBI agents arrested Hasan Edmonds, 22, at Midway Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Detroit and on to Cairo to join terrorist fighters overseas, prosecutors said. Two hours later, Jonas Edmonds, 29, was arrested at his modest two-flat building in an Aurora subdivision. Both cousins were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge carrying up to 15 years in prison on conviction.
At their initial appearance Thursday afternoon at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the cousins were brought into U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan's courtroom shackled at the ankles and handcuffed. During the hearing, Jonas Edmonds was animated, yawning loudly, swiveling in a chair and tugging at his thick beard as his court-appointed attorney told the judge he would not ask for a bail hearing.
His cousin, who has a shaved head and wears glasses, was more subdued. Asked by the judge if he understood the charge, he first nodded his head silently. Told that he had to answer aloud, he said, "Yes," in a voice that was barely audible. A bond hearing for Hasan was set for Monday. Meanwhile, news of the charges shocked neighbors and left some acquaintances scratching their heads. A onetime stepmother to Hasan Edwards told the Tribune she was stunned to hear the allegations against the man whom she had raised. She described him as a good person who was drawn to the unity of the Islamic faith. "Something like this is hard to grasp," Felisha Allen said by phone from Louisiana. "Is it a dream? I don't even know what to believe."
2 Aurora men arrested after plotting to attack Illinois military base, fight with ISIS
2 Aurora men were arrested today after authorities discovered they were planning to attack an Illinois military base and fight with ISIS. Manchinique Bates, 23, who identified herself as Hasan's sister, said by phone Thursday that the FBI showed up Wednesday night at the family home in Aurora armed with a search warrant and removed computers. Bates repeatedly denied the allegations, saying her brother and cousin never spoke of any extreme beliefs.
"To be honest, we didn't know anything about my brother trying to travel across seas nor did we know about the supposed attacks my cousin was supposedly doing," Bates said. "… They don't go out seeking trouble. … Neither one of them come off as terrorists. They aren't terrorists." The cousins attended West Aurora High School, according to district spokesman Tony Martinez. Hasan Edmonds graduated in 2011. while Jonas Edmonds left school as a senior in 2004. Terrorists won't be happy until they take over the world. We won't be happy until we can take care of them! That same year, Jonas Edmonds and two others were charged in suburban Atlanta in the armed robbery of a McDonald's restaurant, court records show. He pleaded guilty in 2005 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Records show he was released in June 2010.
Court records show Hasan Edmonds' father, Lieukennye Edmonds, 46, is serving a prison sentence for failing to register as a sex offender stemming from a 1990s conviction for the attempted sexual assault of an Aurora woman. Hasan Edmonds, meanwhile, did not have a criminal record. Friends say he was a quiet student who ran track and excelled in physical education classes. A high school classmate said Edmonds had said he wanted to be on active duty. He said it "blew me out of the water" when he found out about Edmonds' arrest.
"He never said anything about crazy, radical ideas or anything like that," he said. "He was just a normal kid. He was never a troublemaker." The terrorist suspect's stepmother: 'Is it a dream? I don't know what to believe'. Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, a spokesman for the Illinois National Guard, said Edmonds joined the guard in August 2011 and was a supply specialist — responsible for ordering uniforms and other equipment — with the Joliet-based 634th Brigade Support Battalion. He last drilled with the guard for a weekend this month, Leighton said.
According to Leighton, federal authorities recently informed the guard that Edmonds was under investigation, leading them to take "discrete but concrete steps" to ensure he didn't have access to equipment or computers. Edmonds also was given different duties, he said.
According to the 33-page criminal complaint, the FBI began investigating Hasan Edmonds late last year when agents discovered that he and Jonas Edmonds allegedly had devised a plan for Hasan to travel overseas and use his military training to fight for Islamic State, also known as ISIS. In several online exchanges, Hasan Edmonds said that if he was unable to get to Syria he would stay in the U.S. and "fight and die here in the name of Allah," according to the charges. In a message Jan. 30, he told the undercover agent that the best way to beat the U.S. and its Army was to "break their will," according to the complaint.
"With the U.S., no matter how many you kill they will keep coming unless the soldiers and the American public no longer have the will to fight," Edmonds wrote, according to the complaint. "If we can break their spirits we will win." On Feb. 2, Hasan Edmonds contacted the undercover agent again and said his cousin was willing to carry out the attack on U.S. soil. "Honestly we would love to do something like the brother in Paris did," Hasan Edmonds allegedly wrote in a reference to the January terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine's headquarters in France in which 16 people were slain.
Last month, Jonas Edmonds began communicating online with another undercover operative who was posing as someone who could help the cousins in their quest to join Islamic State, according to the charges. The cousins met with that purported accomplice Monday to discuss the planned attack on the Joliet military facility, authorities said. According to the complaint, Jonas told the operative that after his cousin left for the Middle East, he planned to purchase weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, and then attack the base.
The charges brought against the Edmondses are the latest in a string of terrorism-related cases stemming from Chicago's suburbs, including Aurora. A sketch of Jonas Edmonds, left, and Hasan Edmonds at a federal court hearing March 26, 2015, in Chicago. The cousins from Aurora are accused of plotting to have one carry out a terrorist attack at an Illinois military facility while the other was to join Islamic State overseas. A photo from the 2001 West Aurora High School yearbook shows Jonas Edmonds, who is now facing federal terrorism charges.The Illinois National Guard armory in Joliet is believed to have been a planned target by Aurora resident Jonas Edmonds, 29. Jonas Edmonds is now facing federal terrorism charges.
The Illinois National Guard armory in Joliet is believed to have been a planned target by Aurora resident Jonas Edmonds, 29. Edmonds is now facing federal terrorism charges. Hasan Edmonds, 22, is believed to have lived in this Aurora home before he was arrested at Midway Airport. Edmonds is now facing federal terrorism charges. Authorities say he was planning to travel to the Middle East to aid the militant group Islamic State.
In 2013, federal authorities charged Abdella Ahmad Tounisi with providing material support to terrorists after he allegedly pledged on a fake recruitment website — secretly operated by the FBI — to join terrorists in Syria. He was arrested at O'Hare International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Turkey. Tounisi, who was 18 at the time, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Last year, Bolingbrook teen Mohammed Hamzah Khan was charged with plotting to join Islamic State after he was arrested at O'Hare, where authorities alleged he and his two younger siblings were about to board a flight to Istanbul. Khan has pleaded not guilty, and his siblings, who are minors, were not charged. Tribune reporters Jeremy Gorner, Annie Sweeney and Liam Ford; freelancer Cliff Ward; and Aurora Beacon-News reporters Kalyn Belsha and Denise Crosby contributed to this story.
Also, a NYC Building exploded and collapsed. One person is still MIA and many are injured. A powerful explosion in Lower Manhattan on Thursday caused two buildings to collapse and ignited a large fire that quickly spread to neighboring buildings, leaving at least 19 people injured. At least one person was reported missing. As the fire raged in the East Village neighborhood, there were desperate attempts to flee, with residents jumping from fire escapes, and dramatic rescues, with one man climbing through the smoke to look for people who might have been stranded and others pulling a woman to safety.
The blaze was so intense that firefighters at one point had to withdraw from the buildings and engage in what one official called a “defensive outside attack,” pumping a deluge of water onto the structures. An explosion and fire on Second Avenue on Thursday, which injured at least 19 people, served as a call to action for many in the neighborhood.After East Village Blast, a Familiar Sight: New Yorkers to the Rescue. A Facebook photo of Nicholas Figueroa, who was missing as of early Friday morning.Family Searches for Missing Son After Blast in the East Village. Mayor Bill de Blasio, during a news conference at the scene, said “preliminary evidence suggests a gas-related explosion” was caused by plumbing and gas work being done at 121 Second Avenue, near Seventh Street. The explosion and ensuing fire destroyed that building and led to the collapse of an adjacent building, 123 Second Avenue. For hours after the explosion, the fires burned and two other buildings, 119 and 125 Second Avenue, were damaged. One of them, 119, was still in danger of collapse, officials said Thursday.
More than 250 firefighters responded to what became a seven-alarm fire. Among the 19 people reported injured, four were critically injured; four were firefighters who were taken to hospitals for treatment of minor injuries; and three others, including one emergency medical worker, declined medical attention at the scene, according to the Fire Department. Nicholas Figueroa, 23, was in the restaurant in the building where the explosion occurred and was still missing early Friday morning, said his brother Tyler, 19. He said his family had searched the city’s hospitals and sought help from the police but had been unable to locate him.
Mr. de Blasio said workers from the utility Consolidated Edison had been on the site about an hour before the explosion and had found the work being done there to be deficient. But he said there were no calls reporting gas leaks before the explosion. Michael S. Clendenin, a Con Edison spokesman, said several buildings on Second Avenue had been “undergoing renovations” since as far back as August. A Facebook photo of Nicholas Figueroa, who was missing as of early Friday morning. “Based on records here, the building has had some work done inside; new gas service pipes; a lot of things; piping and such,” Mr. Clendenin said. The first reports the Fire Department received were for a building collapse, and witnesses described a frantic scene, with residents of the buildings scrambling down fire escapes to escape the raging flames and others dashing out of the rubble as the walls collapsed around them.
Niraj Desai, 36, a video game animator who works nearby, said he saw one woman stuck on a fire escape struggling to get the ladder unhooked. “This poor girl was stuck upstairs,” Mr. Desai said. “She was having a hard time. You could tell there was a lot of emotion going on. A bunch of guys were down at the bottom helping her get down.” Another man also made his way down the fire escape ladder before smoke started to pour from the building, he said. “It was pretty crazy, pretty fast,” Mr. Desai said. An explosion rocked the East Village on Thursday afternoon. The blast occurred at Second Avenue and East Seventh Street. The authorities said that those who were seriously injured seemed to have been hurt in the explosion. Residents of five buildings, including the four damaged or destroyed, were unable to return home on Thursday night, according to the authorities. The Red Cross established a temporary shelter for them at Public School 63, at 121 East Third Street. By 9 p.m., 55 adults and one child had registered for services there.
Blake Farber, 29, a film director, said he had smelled a lot of gas and had watched as two people who appeared to be working at the site were running between Sushi Park, a restaurant on the ground floor of 121 Second Avenue, and the residential entrance. Seconds later, he said, he felt the blast and was enveloped by dust and smoke. “And then I saw a bunch of people running out of the restaurant — I saw a man crawling on the ground,” he said. “He was crawling and he turned around and his face was bloody.”
The blast happened just over a year after a gas explosion leveled two buildings on Park Avenue in East Harlem, killing eight people. Federal investigators found a crack in a Con Ed gas main near the site and a separation between that main and a smaller pipe. The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet released its final report, which will provide its conclusions about what caused the explosion last March.
Nathan Blaney was nearby at a bar on St. Marks Place when he heard an explosion. His hands still shaking minutes later, he recounted running to the corner and finding about six injured people laid out on the sidewalk. Mr. Blaney took photographs of the wreckage. The facade of the ground floor of the building, which housed Sushi Park, was entirely blown out. Shards of glass reached the sidewalk across the street. Blood was splattered up and down the block and across the street. One man in a black apron had blood seeping from his head. Several other people were bleeding and covered with dust.
One woman was trapped on the building’s fire escape, apparently after climbing out of her apartment, Mr. Blaney said. She was stuck on the second floor, afraid to come down. So a pedestrian from the street — visible in pictures Mr. Blaney took — jumped onto the hanging ladder, climbed up and helped her descend to the sidewalk. The fire started at 121 2nd Ave., set off by by a possible gas explosion in a restaurant where plumbing and gas work was being done. At 3:59 p.m. a loud rumble sounded and the lower facade of one of the buildings began moving. A moment later, it slid slowly to the sidewalk in a cascade of glass and loose bricks. Heavy gray smoke filled the air, and a few moments later, as the smoke began to lift, it was evident that no part of the building was left standing. Jordy Trachtenberg was smoking an electronic cigarette on St. Marks Place, trying to calm down after an explosion “rocked his apartment and made him jump” from his chair. Mr. Trachtenberg lives at 30 St. Marks Place, which faces the back of buildings on Second Avenue.
“I felt the ground shake underneath me, and then all this debris, plaster and glass, started pelting my windows,” he said. “I ran from my building when I saw the flames go up and my apartment filled with smoke. I couldn’t breathe. I started gagging.” My first thought really was it was my home,” he added, “because we haven’t had gas for six months, and Con Ed was doing work outside today.” He shouted out to neighbors who passed by, asking if they were all right. “Of course I know them,” he said. “I want to make sure everyone is O.K. St. Marks is the tightest community in New York.”. Reporting was contributed by Joseph Burgess, Jim Dwyer, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Colin Moynihan, Benjamin Mueller, Sarah Maslin Nir, Patrick McGeehan, Tatiana Schlossberg, Liam Stack, John Surico, Kate Taylor and Alex Vadukul, and research by Susan C. Beachy.
A local domestic (sort of) story being broken is that the USA Today reports that there were Cartel funded sex parties of DEA agents. For years, Drug Enforcement Administration agents posted in Colombia engaged in sex parties involving prostitutes who were supplied by local drug cartels, a Justice Department review found Thursday. The Justice inspector general's inquiry, which examined how federal law enforcement agencies handled sexual misconduct and harassment reports, concluded that seven of 10 agents allegedly involved admitted attending the parties in Colombia where a local police officer often stood guard, protecting the agents' firearms and other property.
In addition, the report found, three of the DEA agents — all described as supervisory special agents — were "provided money, expensive gifts and weapons from drug cartel members.'' Although the misconduct jeopardized the agents' security clearances, the matter was never referred to the agency's Office of Security Programs for review, and the agents were issued suspensions ranging from two to 10 days. "Most of the sex parties occurred in government-leased quarters where agents' laptops, BlackBerry devices and other government issued equipment were present ... potentially exposing them to extortion, blackmail or coercion,'' the report said.
Some of the DEA agents involved in the misconduct, the inspector general found, also were involved in investigations of two former Colombian police officers who initially provided information about the sex parties to DEA officials. "If these special agents had served as government witnesses at the trials of these defendants, their alleged misconduct would have had to be disclosed to defense attorneys and would likely have significantly impaired ability to testify at trial,'' the report concluded. A trial was avoided, however, when the suspects struck plea agreements in a narcotics conspiracy case. DEA supervisors also failed to initiate formal internal investigations into the activities of two agents who were subjects of repeated allegations of patronizing prostitutes and frequenting a brothel, the inspector general's report found.
One of the two agents who were the focus of the allegations also was alleged to have assaulted a prostitute during a payment dispute. The Justice inspector general's review found that the agents' misconduct was ultimately reported to the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) in 2010 via an anonymous letter. Though a subsequent OPR review found that the agents' supervisors were aware of at least four complaints involving loud parties attended by prostitutes in a government-leased apartment from 2005 to 2008, the managers never forwarded those allegations for investigation by the OPR.
In all, the inspector general's report found, federal law enforcement agencies were linked to 26 allegations involving the solicitation of prostitutes abroad during a four-year review ending in 2012. Of that total, the DEA was involved in 19 such alleged offenses. Though the inspector general's review focused on allegations raised from 2008 to 2012, the findings raised new concerns about the conduct of federal law enforcement officers assigned to missions outside the U.S. In 2012, U.S. Secret Service agents preparing for the arrival of President Obama in Cartagena, Colombia, were swept up in a sex scandal when agents brought several prostitutes back to their hotel. Authorities were only alerted to the incident at the Hotel Caribe when one of the agents became involved in a dispute over payment to one of the women.
The incident resulted in agent dismissals and inquiries by congressional committees, one of which promised a separate investigation into the allegations involving the DEA. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, described the inspector general's findings as "truly stunning.'' "Let there be no mistake, this is a national security threat,'' Chaffetz said in a written statement. "We need to hold them accountable, and given the clear evidence in the OIG report, they should be fired immediately.''
DEA officials declined comment Thursday. But in a letter to the inspector general, Michael Dixon, the DEA's acting deputy chief inspector, said the report focused on just 3% of cases that the agency could have investigated "more thoroughly.'' Dixon noted that in October the agency issued a memorandum intended to "address specific areas of misconduct where the violations can seriously impact the integrity of the DEA.'' The memo, as outlined in Dixon's letter, addressed such things as off-duty conduct, sexual harassment, improper relationships with sources and other issues. "DEA believes this memorandum ensures that supervisors and managers, as well as employees are aware of their responsibilities concerning misconduct and that appropriate measures through the disciplinary process will be taken once a report of misconduct is received.''
The Secret Service tightens its rules to not allowed any of its staffers to drive a vehicle within ten hours of driving a car. Which Mika makes the great point that we are not allowed to be drinking and driving anyway. Between this issue and that DEA story about there being parties banked by the drug cartels is incredible. That is basically a bribe because if drug cartels are paying for hookers and partying, why would an agent not 'look the other way" when investigating them?
The German's BTW, have cancelled a press conference (I assume about the plane crash).
I honestly have no clue what went down in NCAA hoop last night. It seems like Kentucky won. It seems like Arizona won. North Carolina lost to North Carolina. And, there are four more games being played tonight. The teams that won yesterday are all great teams. I am not sure if you heard that Coach Dean Smith left $200 to his lettered players from the time he coached at NC over a few decades. Pretty classy move I suppose.
BTW, if your loved one died this way in some plane crash, would you got the crash site? I doubt I would go to it. It would be too much for the likes of me. But then again, I can't be in the same room when they killed my animals the way they do in vets when its at the point of no return. I hate death. I can't be near it. I hate selective death like I described when they 'put animals to sleep.' I can't kills things to eat them. I certainly would not go to the crash site. I am not sure why but I just would not.
Also, what do you think now that happened with the Malaysian Air flight that we still have not found in over a year and two months? After trying to get to understand what happened this week with that Germanwings flight, that makes that Malaysian air issue just wide the hell opened. Anything could have gone down now that we know this can happen. The only problem with doing it that way, is that you are not really sending that great of message. Not that I condone it, but what are these people trying to express? What did this Lubitz guy want to tell the world? That he was depressed and whatnot and why would he not go into a bathroom so to speak, to kill himself by himself? Why involve random people again, without some message to be told to the world? Even the likes of Timothy McVie, another mass murderer, had a message to tell the world. This guy did not say one word and do anything to send a message. If he were depressed within himself, is that the way you kill yourself? With 150 people involved in it? It makes zero sense to me.
And, yay, we get to discuss politics as in New Hampshire, a Suffolk University poll has Jeb Bush at 19%, Scott walker at 14%, Rand Paul at 7% and get this one, Donald trump is at 6% (ahead of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Chris Christy, etc.). That is just great! People say that Scott walker will be hard to beat and I disagree. His record is not great in Wisconsin. I mean for the people and he is also very bland as a public speaker but he has so much to defend eventually which is why i doubt he will have staying power if you will. Hilary of course is still the front runner overall.
Aaron Schock while likening himself to Abe Lincoln said his goodbyes this week. I think Mika is tight with him. She seems to love the guy but the fact is he spent money in such frivolous ways that was just stupid. He had no business doing it and like i said many times, what he did is what not to do in Politics 101. We know the stories and we do not need to rehash it and most of all, I also said that I thought he was gone months ago and before he paid money back to the Government, let alone this week (the 31st is technically his last day in his office).
And, fundamentally speaking about the DEA agent parties with hookers, forget about the denial plausibility they claim when they say they did not know how it was funded, but they should not have been with hookers. Plus, they had Colombian Police Enforcement would guard the weapons while these agents boinked the hookers.
Luckily for me in my life, I have never been with a hooker. I hope it never gets to the point where I can't find a woman to at least have sexual relations if say I can't be in a real relationship (like my life now but anyway). My point is though, how could these people not think they would get caught first, second and third off, but that its so wrong and counterproductive to their work. As far the drug cartel people providing it, it was probably good for their business to keep these people occupied in other ways besides to look at them for crime.
Bill Neely just reported that the FBI started an investigation since there not only three Americans on that flight that went down this week, but also that the co pilot had trained in the U.S. I am pretty sure this part of the investigation is being done its own and not with the French and German authorities. He trained here in Phoenix.
Why are Ron Paul supporters defecting from supporting Rand Paul? That story is coming up soon. Very interesting though and that shows that being a Bush or a Clinton may not be that big of a deal if people make their own assessments based on the current candidates that have legacy's. Paul supporters are very specific so that is indeed a surprise to me. Mike Allen reports that the email controversy will not affect how people feel about voting for her. The polls say its wrong but again, it is not going to change the way they vote. Clinton is also planning a 'Listening'Tour to announce her run for the POTUS.
You know something else about Iran, Chucky T (Todd) makes the great point about those nuclear deal negotiations which is how can Iran rationalize gaining more strength in that region which such a deal? But like Israel, the Saudis will hate any deal which we have mentioned and then the UAB and those Baltic states will hate any type deal. Which we mentioned before in our writings.
Joe is on meet the Press this week on Sunday. Cool. he is back from vacation then.
I think it may be time for me to watch last nights episode of 'Party Down South' while I do my boring work before my legal meetings this afternoon. The weather is so dreary for the last three days. Bill Karins says it will clear up maybe by Sunday. The Midwest is cold and the west Coast is way hot.
James Woolsey is on now. I want to hear what he says before I watch a show where I don't have to pay attention to it. Quite a statement he makes right away about Iran. I guess he wrote an article about the ISIS situation which I want to find to read. He is talking about if the likes of North Korea and Iran gets the ability to make nuclear weapons is that they can shoot them up into space to create electro magnetic fields to wipe out our electric grids. I wonder yeah as he just said, can we defend it which he says the power companies are looking into that issue. And,m it looks like we can find w\some ways to resist it. I just think in terms if whatever country gets the ability to shoot off nukes, that they would bomb other countries direct to kill people.
Breaking news is that Harry Reid is not seeking re election. That is kind of big news. He does to Mitch Mconnell to not get that elated because he still will be working with the people.
I am a bit burnt on the Yemen confusion and that confusion with why that pilot guy killed 150 people so i am posting this early again today. I am finishing too large projects too and I want that done sooner than later. Which honestly, is fine because if I hear anything we have not written about by say 9AM, I can add it with ease. This has just been such a long ass'ed news week that I need a break from it. Plus, I have to work all weekend to ahead at Sunset (or to stay caught up). Hence, watching 'Party Down South' because there is nothing that is the most opposite of real news than watching that show. It is a train wreck in action. With hotties though so it makes it fun.
The panel is also asking my question which is why a depressed person would not just kill himself and why did he feel some need to kill other people and Eugene (Robinson) asks pathologically speaking, what is the difference between wanting to kill other people and wanting to kill yourself. That is my huge question. The Doctor could not really answer it. Oh Well. Or, I may have missed it so if I did miss that precise answer, sorry.
Cool. Three people have been chosen already for the 'Know Your Values' event happening in Philadelphia which is next week (two weeks on the 10th of April) already I think. That crept on me. And, man some of the people that turned in videos are way hot. Good for them.
Oil prices are also going down even more. Michelle Caruso Cabreara is also reporting about the deal Google made with that Chairman which i am reporting about today. I'll post tat here:
| Google to Pay New CFO $70 Million in Next Two Years |
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Regardless of it this week, please stay in touch!
