Good morning.

The Panel will be discussing the latest details of the major police operation near Paris and more with David Ignatius, Michael Steele, Mark Halperin, John Heilemann, Richard Haass, Chris Jansing, Josh Earnest, Fmr. Rep. Eric Cantor, Sen. Chris Coons, Thomas Sanderson, Andrea Mitchell, Pete Williams, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Rep. Keith Ellison, Margaret Carlson, Brian Sullivan and more.

There was no hunt today because of the weather in Taiji, Japan, however, below is the captured Risso's dolphin from yesterday's hunt and capturing being fed dead squid. So begins his/her life in captivity.
‪#‎dolphinproject‬ ‪#‎tweet4dolphins‬ 2015-11-17 12:15pm.

I know that Obama is catching a lot of grief for his comments about the people stating their political belief with regard to accepting refugees, but honestly and setting aside that its not even legal for these governors to take such a stance (U.S. governors don’t have power to refuse refugees access to their states), these same exact governors allow the NRA and the Gun Industry to sell them guns legally. Even though none of the terrorists in France were refugees, but anyway, the NRA-Backed Legislator says that we Can’t Take Syrian Refugees Because It’s Too Easy For Them To Buy Guns. A Texas state legislator wants the U.S. to stop allowing Syrian refugees into the country. His reasoning: They might be able to buy guns in his state.

Rep. Tony Dale (R) made this argument in a television interview on Monday and in letters to Texas’ U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz (R) and U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul and John Carter (R).

“While the Paris attackers used suicide vests and grenades,” Dale wrote, “it is clear that firearms also killed a large number of innocent victims. Can you imagine a scenario were [sic] a refugees [sic] is admitted to the United States, is provided with federal cash payments and other assistance, obtains a drivers license and purchases a weapon and executes an attack?” He urged the lawmakers to “do whatever you can to stop the [Syrian refugee] program.”

But Dale is one of the Texas legislature’s most fervent gun-rights advocates. Two weeks ago, he tweeted his National Rifle Association membership renewal. In accepting an “A” rating from the group and the Texas State Rifle Association’s PAC in 2012, he observed: “Perhaps no right is more fundamental than the right to keep and bear arms.” And his campaign website vows his fealty to the Second Amendment, saying it “isn’t just an archaic document,” a “guarantor of all of our other freedoms.” And he and his colleagues in the state legislature have blocked mandatory background checks for all gun purchases.This not the first time Dale has raised concerns about non-citizens in Texas. “I’m not saying all of these people are bad, but there are certainly people from countries of concern,” he said in March, explaining the need for legislation to create special drivers licenses for “foreigners.”

The NRA frequently claims that restrictions on gun purchases are unnecessary because “criminals don’t legally purchase firearms.” But in reality, a comprehensive analysis by Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that most guns used in recent mass shootings were purchased legally.

While those applying for refugee status must complete “the most stringent security process for anyone entering the United States,” those attempting to purchase guns through private sales at gun shows in Texas and many other states are not required to undergo any background checks whatsoever. Virtually none of the millions of refugees admitted into the United States since 1980 have become terrorists, but the U.S. leads the world in mass shootings — almost all of which are perpetrated by people born in America.

In France, 2 terrorist suspects killed, 7 held after raid in Saint-Denis, officials say. A dramatic, hours-long operation in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis ended Wednesday with two terrorist suspects dead, seven detained and new attacks potentially thwarted, authorities said. The targets of the raid included the purported ringleader of last week's attacks in Paris and came as the suspects were "about to move on some kind of operation," according to police sources.

Latest developments:
• 7:43 a.m. ET: French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that he would propose a law to legislators to extend by three months the state of emergency that was declared after the Paris attacks. The state of emergency does restrict certain liberties but gives France the means to re-establish citizens' liberty, Hollande said.

• 7:22 a.m. ET: Hollande said that what happened in the Paris suburb is further confirmation that "we are at war" with ISIS. He said terrorists were targeting France because of its values and place in the world. "Daesh (ISIS) has an army, financial resources, oil resources, and occupies a territory. It has accomplices in Europe. ... It commits barbarous massacres," Hollande said.

• 7:18 a.m. ET: French President Francois Hollande said that Wednesday's raid in Saint-Denis aimed to "neutralize terrorists." He lauded the police officers involved who might not have anticipated the violence they'd face, but nonetheless managed to carry out the operation.

• 6:56 a.m. ET: France's Council of Ministers said in a statement Wednesday that authorities have finished identifying all 129 people killed in last week's Paris attacks. More than 100 families have collected their loved ones' remains, according to the council.

• 6:33 a.m. ET: Phone surveillance and testimony helped authorities determine that it was likely that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of last week's Paris attacks, was in an apartment in Saint-Denis, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said. He did not say whether Abaaoud was among the seven detained or two killed in Wednesday's raid in the Paris suburb.

• 6:28 a.m. ET: Three people inside one apartment were arrested, one woman blew herself up and another suspected terrorist was killed, according to Molins. Four others, including the person who lent the apartment to the suspected terrorists and his friend, were also taken into custody.

• 6:17 a.m. ET: The Saint-Denis raid focused on two apartments on the same street, a Paris police source said. One of the raids led to the second raid, and one of the locations had been under surveillance since Tuesday, according to the source.

• 6:14 a.m. ET: Air France announced that someone phoned in "anonymous threats" after two of its flights from the United States destined for Paris had taken off. Those threats were later determined to be "false," according to the airline.

• 5:46 a.m. ET: The police raid is over, French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said.

• 5:24 a.m. ET: The number of terrorist suspects killed in the raid stands at two, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. A police source had earlier told CNN that three suspects were killed. Seven people have been arrested, including three men who were removed from inside the apartment, the prosecutor's office said.

• 5:24 a.m. ET: The suspects targeted in Saint-Denis were "about to move on some kind of operation," police sources told CNN, saying the raid was "right on time."

• 4:48 a.m. ET: Five officers were lightly wounded and a police dog was killed in the raid, according to police.

• 3:07 a.m. ET: A female suspect killed herself at the scene by activating her suicide belt, the prosecutor's office said.

• 2:16 a.m. ET: One of the terrorist suspects killed was shot by a police sniper, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. The broadcaster also said a civilian passerby was killed during the operation, though this report later appeared to be unfounded. So, too, did a police source's comments to CNN that three suspects had been killed.

• 1:32 a.m. ET: A series of explosions is heard in the area. The cause of the blasts wasn't immediately clear.

Full story:
Gunfire and explosions shook the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis early Wednesday as heavily armed police stormed a building where suspects linked to Friday's deadly terrorist attacks were believed to be holed up.

Police blocked off roads before dawn Wednesday and told residents to stay inside in Saint-Denis, a diverse, working-class area that is home to the Stade de France sports arena where three suicide bombings took place Friday.

The situation developed quickly over many hours, but by late morning in Paris, the French government said the siege was over.

Two terrorist suspects have been declared dead, one of them a woman who blew herself up with a suicide belt, according to authorities.

Seven other people were arrested, including three men who were removed from an apartment at the heart of the raid. Five police officers were lightly wounded and a police dog was killed during the operation.
The identities of the dead and detained suspects wasn't immediately clear.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, was one of the potential targets of the police raid, after phone surveillance and testimony lead them to believe he might be in a Saint-Denis apartment.

But the official cautioned that French and Belgian authorities weren't certain that Abaaoud -- a Belgian ISIS member who was widely believed to have been in Syria recently -- was at the location when they launched the raid. Authorities did not immediately say who was arrested or killed in the operation.

Resident: 'I'm just worried about my child'
Schools were closed and public transportation was suspended in Saint-Denis as heavily armed police and soldiers flooded streets not far from the Basilica Cathedral, where many French monarchs' remains are entombed.

A woman who was inside the building with her child during the raid described the terrifying situation.

"We could see the bullets," the woman, who identified herself only as Sabrine, told CNN affiliate France 2. "We could feel the building shaking."

Riad Moudache, a local resident, was stopped by police and told to evacuate as the raid unfolded. He rushed home to get his 3-year-old daughter.

"I'm just worried about my child," he said. "My priority now is to protect her."

Saadana Aymen, a 29-year-old who lives one street down from the site of the police operation, said he couldn't believe what was happening in his neighborhood.

"When you think of Saint-Denis, you don't think of terrorists," he told CNN. "I'm shocked! Why would the terrorists pick this neighborhood?"

Authorities have been looking for the so-called "ninth suspect," who may appear in a video recorded by a witness to the Paris attacks.

Police have been analyzing the video, which shows two gunmen inside a black car linked to the attacks and perhaps a third individual driving the car, French media reported.

Seven of the attackers were killed during the wave of violence Friday night, and an international arrest warrant is already out for one suspect, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman. The identity of the possible ninth suspect is unknown.
Abdeslam's older brother has urged the suspect, who was last seen driving toward the Belgian border hours after the attacks, to turn himself over to authorities.

"I would tell him to surrender. That's the best solution," Mohamed Abdeslam told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday. "But of course, if he has something to do with it, he must accept responsibility."

Who were suspects in Paris terror attacks?

In their push to unravel the attack plot and the suspected network behind it, counterterrorism and intelligence officials say investigators have uncovered a clue that could be a big break: cell phones believed to belong to the attackers.

According to the officials, one of the phones contained a message, sent sometime before the attacks began, to the effect of: OK, we're ready.

"It points to a sort of organization," CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said, "an attempt to try to synchronize what was going down."

But cracking into their communication won't be easy.

Investigators have found encrypted apps on the phones, which appear to have left no trace of messages or any indication of who would have been receiving them, according to officials briefed on the French investigation.

'These are not regular people'
Mohamed Abdeslam said the last time he saw his brothers was about a week ago.

"They left without saying goodbye," he said.

Now one of them is a wanted fugitive. And authorities say another Abdeslam brother, Ibrahim, 31, was among the seven terrorists who either killed themselves or were killed by police in a series of coordinated attacks across the French capital on Friday night that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

Since the attacks, the French government has declared a state of emergency, carried out hundreds of anti-terrorism raids around the country in a security clampdown and launched waves of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria.

Mohamed Abdeslam told CNN that before the attacks, he'd noticed his brothers changing and adopting more radical views. He suspects the Internet could have played a role. But he said his family was shocked by the attack, and had no idea what they were planning.

"My brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people," he said. "You cannot have the slightest doubt that they have been prepared, that they must not leave any trace which would cause suspicion that they might do such things. And even if you saw them every day, their behavior was quite normal."

Complete coverage of Paris attacks

Suspects questioned by Belgian authorities in February
Police stopped Salah Abdeslam hours after the attacks in a car on his way toward the Belgian border. They let him go because he apparently hadn't yet been linked to the terrorist operation.

Both he and Ibrahim were previously known to authorities: Belgian prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt told CNN's Ivan Watson that police questioned the Abdeslam brothers in February.

"Ibrahim tried to go to Syria and was sent back by the Turks in the beginning of 2015," Van Der Sypt said. "It was after that that we questioned him."

Both brothers were released, the federal prosecutor said, after they denied wanting to go to Syria.

He said Belgian authorities were also trying to keep an eye on Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who struck outside the Stade de France, according to several sources. "We knew (Hadfi) was in Syria," Van Der Sypt said. "But what we didn't know is apparently he was back, as he blew himself up in Paris. But we had no knowledge of the fact that he was back in Europe."

Belgian authorities said two men detained over the weekend in Molenbeek in connection with the attacks were now under arrest for "attempted terrorism and participation in the activities of a terrorist group."

Paris victims from all walks of life:
Atika Shubert and Saskya Vandoorne contributed from Saint-Denis; Scott Bronstein, Margot Haddad and Tim Lister contributed from Paris; Nima Elbagir from Brussels; Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz contributed from Washington; Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley, Khushbu Shah and Naima Kouider contributed from Atlanta; Euan McKirdy contributed from Hong Kong; Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong; Greg Botelho, Catherine E. Shoichet and Brian Walker wrote from Atlanta.

Obama arrives in Manila for APEC.
Straight from G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya, Turkey, United States (US) President Barack Obama on Tuesday morning arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Balagbag Ramp Area to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this week.

Obama was welcomed by US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia and Secretary of Department of National Defense Voltaire Gazmin. The US president will hold a Summit Dialogue at the Makati Shangri-la on Wednesday morning.

This is the second time Obama visited the Philippines. He paid a two-day state visit to Manila on April 28, 2014 as part of his four-nation Asia tour.

In his visit last year, the US and the Philippines discussed the signed  Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), a 10-year pact allowing the US military to set up camps inside major military bases of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and store weapons and materiel. EDCA is currently being challenged at the Supreme Court.

Last week, reports surfaced that even if the South China Sea dispute and EDCA are not part of the APEC agenda, President Benigno Aquino III and Obama will still discuss the matters on the sidelines of the summit.
According to a report from The STAR, Goldberg disclosed that Obama and Aquino will tackle EDCA in a bilateral meeting on Wednesday.

Apart from his dialogue and bilateral meeting, the White House noted that Obama will visit a “coastal facility” as a show of his country's maritime cooperation with the Philippines.

The White House also said he will have his first face-to-face meetings with new prime ministers of Canada and Australia, Justin Trudeau and Malcolm Turnbull.

Obama, the first African-American president of the US, was the only one to arrive at the Balagbag Ramp Area of NAIA.

2 Air France flights from U.S. to Paris diverted because of bomb threats. Two Air France flights headed from the United States to Paris were diverted because of bomb threats, officials said.

Both flights landed safely Tuesday night, and were searched and given the all-clear by Canadian and U.S. authorities.

Flight 65, en route from Los Angeles to Paris, was diverted to Salt Lake City after a bomb threat was called in from the ground, a U.S. government official said.

The official did not know whether anyone was arrested and was not aware of any unruly passengers on board.

Shortly afterward, Air France Flight 55 from Washington's Dulles International Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was diverted to an airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia -- also because of a called-in bomb threat, a government source said.

The source did not know whether the same person called in both threats.

No U.S. military aircraft were scrambled in either incident, NORAD spokesman Preston Schlachter said.

"Diversion of flights are the most draconian response to a bomb threat," CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem said.

Passengers questioned by FBI
YouTube sensation Trevor Moran was on Flight 65, headed from Los Angeles to Paris to shoot a music video.

Passenger describes emergency landing 

Passenger describes emergency landing 02:33
He said the pilot told passengers the plane had to make an emergency landing.

"There were huge buses when we landed that they loaded us all on," he told CNN.

"Everyone on the flight is waiting in this lobby. Nobody knows what's going on."

Keith Rosso, who was on the same flight, said he had just finished dinner when the staff abruptly took trays away and said the plane was landing because of "unsafe flying conditions."

'This is terrorism'
Even though the flights landed safely, CNN law enforcement analyst Jonathan Gilliam said there are reasons for serious concern.

"One thing that has to be clear is that we may call this a hoax, but the reality is, terrorism -- which we see going on in France right now, and here -- is a tactic used to affect a psychological or political change on a community. And that is what this is," Gilliam said.

"It may be a hoax, as far as a bomb threat. But this is terrorism."

On edge
The bomb threats on Paris-bound flights came four days after a wave of deadly attacks terrorized the French capital.

At least 129 people were killed in an onslaught of bombings and shootings Friday night. French President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency.

3 terrorist suspects killed in French raid in Saint-Denis, police say

The terror group ISIS claimed responsibility. Afterward, French warplanes have launched waves of airstrikes on ISIS' de facto capital of Raqqa, in northern Syria.

The Air France threats aren't the only bomb scares since the Paris attacks.

"Serious plans for explosions" forced the evacuation of a stadium in Hannover, Germany, on Tuesday night before a Netherlands-Germany soccer match, a local police chief told Germany's public broadcaster NDR.

Two tips forced officials to cancel the match about 90 minutes before kickoff.

No explosives were found at the stadium. CNN's Keith Allen, Cheri Mossburg, Tina Burnside, Rob Frehse and John Newsome contributed to this report.
Tupolev TU-160 strategic bomber performs during the first day of the MAKS-2005 international air show in Zhukovsky outside Moscow August 16, 2005. Russian President Vladimir Putin flew in Russia's most potent bomber on Tuesday and took part in the launch of cruise missiles in the Arctic, dusting off the military image he cultivated when he first came to power. Picture taken August 16, 2005. REUTERS/Viktor Korotayev - RTRKR9Z
Russia Pounds ISIS With Biggest Bomber Raid in Decades. Putin’s air force just used its nuclear bombers to lay waste to the capital of the ‘Islamic State.’

The Russian air force just pulled off one of the biggest and most complex heavy bomber missions in modern history—sending no fewer than 25 Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack bombers on a coordinated, long-range air raid against alleged ISIS forces in Syria.

The Tuesday mission, which launched under the cover of darkness from a base in Ossetia in southern Russia, signaled a significant escalation of Moscow’s air war in Syria—and heralded the rebirth of Russian heavy bomber squadrons that once had withered from a lack of funding.

Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, announced the raid on Tuesday, calling it part of “a new plan [for] the air campaign.”

“During a massive airstrike today, 14 important ISIL targets were destroyed by 34 air-launched cruise missiles,” Gerasimov said, using an alternative acronym for the terror army. “The targets destroyed include command posts that were used to coordinate ISIL activities in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, munition and supply depots in the northwestern part of Syria.”

Idlib and Aleppo are not ISIS strongholds. Indeed, U.S.-backed rebels hold much of both provinces. Russia has maintained all along that its roughly six-week-old intervention in Syria is aimed at defeating ISIS, but in fact many Russian air and missile strikes have hit rebel groups that oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIS.

Russian officials notified U.S. planners at a coalition headquarters in Qatar before the strike, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. It was the first time the Russians and Americans have put into action an October agreement to coordinate their countries’ respective operations in Syria.

The raid came the same day Kremlin officials publicly announced that a “terrorist act” brought down Russian Metrojet 9268 last month over the Sinai Peninsula. ISIS has since taken credit for the attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video depicting three types of Russian bombers arming, taking off, dropping munitions, and then returning to base, escorted along their flight paths by Su-27 fighters.

The swing-wing, jet-propelled Tu-22M Backfires apparently carried unguided “dumb” bombs. The video depicts airmen loading clusters of cruise missiles in the bomb bays of the propeller-driven Tu-95 Bears and the huge, swing-wing Tu-160 Blackjack jets, which at 177 feet long are the biggest combat planes ever built.

All three models of bomber can fly thousands of miles while hauling no less than 20 tons of weaponry. Only China and the United States possess similar heavy warplanes.

Launching 25 bombers on one mission is an impressive undertaking. Russia possesses just 70 Backfires, 58 Bears, and 13 Blackjacks. The 14 Backfires, six Bears, and five Blackjacks that reportedly struck Syria represent a significant portion of the overall fleet. The massive raid is evidence of improving readiness on the part of the Russian air force, which in the 1990s and early 2000s grounded most of its aircraft because it couldn’t afford to fuel them or pay their pilots.

By comparison, on any given day 57 of the U.S. Air Force’s 77 B-52s, 35 of its 60 B-1s, and nine of its 20 B-2 stealth bombers are even flyable, according to statistics from 2013.

The Tuesday mission signaled a significant escalation of Moscow’s air war in Syria—and heralded the rebirth of Russian heavy bomber squadrons that once had withered from a lack of funding.

And when they do fly, America’s bombers often sortie alone or in pairs, only rarely coming together in large numbers. Seven B-52s flew together to launch cruise missiles at Iraq in the early hours of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and a group of eight of the giant warplanes repeated the feat on the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003.

In other words: This Russian attack was “shock and awe”—on steroids.

Russia’s bomber raid was certainly impressive, and has propaganda value in addition to bolstering Moscow’s operations in Syria. When 25 of the planet’s most powerful warplanes attack at the same time, it’s more than a mere air raid. It’s a statement to the whole world.

More Governors Seek to Ban Syrian Refugees After Paris Massacre


After the terror attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people, the placement of refugees fleeing Syria has come under scrutiny as at least two dozen governors — mostly Republicans — have raised concerns about Syrian refugees relocating to their state.

"The first and foremost responsibility of government is to keep its people safe," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Monday. "We are working on measures to ensure ... that Texans will be kept safe from those refugees."

Nearly 2,000 refugees from Syria have relocated to the United States since 2012, the New York Times reports and President Barack Obama has said that the U.S. will accept 10,000.

In a letter to the president, Abbott wrote, "A Syrian 'refugee' appears to have been part of the Paris terror attack," likely referring to the Syrian passport that was found near the body of one of the suicide bombers near the Stade de France, the national sports stadium.

Abbott is joined by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner who also announced their states would "suspend" the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

The governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin made similar vows following the attacks, which killed at least 129 people.

North Carolina and Idaho governors said they oppose the admittance of Syrian refugees but have not said they wouldn't accept them. Massachusetts' governor said he wants to know more before accepting them and Nevada's governor has not said either way but said he is requesting a review from the federal government.

Opponents of the refugee program are also asking for Congress to play a part. They asked congressional leaders to strip funding for aid to refugees from a government spending bill that must pass before December 11.

"There are a lot of holes, gaping holes," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in on "Meet the Press."

"We don't want to be complicit with a program that could bring terrorists into the United States."

Meanwhile, three Republican presidential candidates who are governors said they don't want new refugees. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said he had signed an executive order telling state agencies to "take all available steps" to stop the intake of Syrian refugees.

In a letter to the president, Ohio Governor John Kasich encouraged the president to stop accepting refugees until "the rigor and depth of background checks are improved."

"I respectfully request that the federal government take no further action in resettling Syrian refugees in Ohio," the letter also said.

While New Jersey Governor Chris Christie did not indicate if he would not accept Syrian refugees, he said that even children with no family should not be admitted into the U.S.

"We could come up with 18 different scenarios, the fact is that we need for appropriate vetting and I don't think orphans under 5 are being — should be admitted into the United States at this point," Christie said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt. "In the end i don't trust this administration to effectively vet the people that they're asking us to take in."

The Lone Democrat — So Far

New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, who is running for Senate in 2016, is the only Democratic governor to take such a position. She said the federal government should "halt acceptance of refugees from Syria until intelligence and defense officials can assure that the process for vetting all refugees ... is as strong as possible."

While the states are asking the federal government to stop sending Syrian refugees to their states, a spokesman for the State Department, Mark Toner, said it's unclear if it's legal to ban refugees. He said lawyers are currently looking into it.

Toner said refugees from Syria have to undergo an additional screening process and there is no plan to change U.S. policy.

"We remain steadfastly committed to plan to resettle 10,000 refugees. We think we can do this safely and in way that represents American values," Toner said.

The Obama administration said in September it was prepared to accept the Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year as Europe deals with the influx of migrants from war-torn regions in the Middle East and Africa.

The holder of the passport Abbott mentioned is identified as Ahmad Almohammad. He landed on the Greek island of Leros on Oct. 3 carrying a Syrian passport Greek officials said Sunday.

Almohammad arrived on a boat from Turkey with 198 others, Greek immigration minister Ioannis Mouzalas said Sunday. That journey was undertaken by tens of thousands of refugees and migrants trying to cross borders into the European Union.

Fingerprints taken by Greek authorities match one of the three attackers who blew themselves up outside the stadium on Friday night, Mouzalas said. However, French justice minister Christiane Taubira told NBC News the passport was likely not genuine.

Obama on Monday defended the decision, saying that "slamming the door in their (refugees') faces would be against our values."

"The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism, the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife," the president at the conclusion of the G20 summit in Turkey.

Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the massacre in Paris would not alter the U.S. policy toward taking in refugees from the chaotic civil war in Syria.

"We have very expansive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who have come to the United States," Rhodes said. "There's a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our national Counterterrorism Center [and] the Department of Homeland Security, so we can make sure that we're carefully screening anybody who comes to the United States."

At least six Democratic governors, including Pennsylvania's Tom Wolf and Connecticut Danel Malloy, said they would still accept Syrians. 

Ben Carson’s Advisers Say He’s Struggling With Foreign PolicyBen Carson is running his campaign with the biblical notion that “in the multitude of counselors is safety,” he told TIME in September, calling in experts to brief him on issues that his career in neurosurgery didn’t prepare him for. But top advisers recently said that the doctor is struggling to grasp foreign policy.

In a New York Times article published Tuesday, Duane R. Clarridge, who the Times identifies as one of Carson’s “top adviser[s] on terrorism an national security,” said, “Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East.”

“We need to have a conference call once a week where his guys roll out the subjects they think will be out there, and we can make him smart,” Clarridge said.

Doug Watts, a spokesman for the Carson campaign, told TIME that Clarridge was not the only adviser.

“Mr. Clarridge has incomplete knowledge of the daily, not weekly briefings, that Dr Carson receives on important national security matters from former military and state department officials,” he said in a statement. “He is coming to the end of a long career of serving our country. Mr. Clarridge’s input to Dr. Carson is appreciated but he is clearly not one of Dr. Carson’s top advisers.”

“For the New York Times to take advantage of an elderly gentleman and use him as their foil in this story is an affront to good journalistic practices,” he added.

In September, campaign manager Barry Bennett explained to TIME the team’s strategy to bring Carson up to speed on issues. “In medical school he stopped going to lectures because he could learn better and faster by reading multiple textbooks on the same subject,” Bennett said of Carson. “Now every morning he gets a stack of briefs. We follow that up with parlor sessions where I’ll sit him down for an hour” with experts on the subject of the day.

In an interview later the same month, Carson talked about his memory, which Bennett had described as a stack of notecards in his mind. “I do have a tendency to categorize things and be able to pull something up and then just go with it,” Carson said.

Carson’s foreign policy chops were questioned recently when at the last Republican debate he claimed the Chinese had intervened in Syria, a fact that has been disputed by the White House. A few days later, Carson was unable to answer on Fox News Sunday who he would join with to form a coalition against the Islamic State.

“He’s been briefed on it so many times,” Armstrong Williams, a friend of Carson’s who does not have an official role in the campaign, told the Times. “I guess he just froze.”

Poll: Trump leads Carson, Rubio in New Hampshire. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are rising and Ben Carson is dropping in New Hampshire, according to a new WBUR poll.

Trump is the clear leader among likely Republican voters in the Granite State, with 22% support -- up four percentage points from the same poll two weeks earlier.

Carson and Rubio are tied for second at 11% each. Both have moved since the last poll, with Rubio, the Florida senator, gaining two points, and Carson, the retired brain surgeon, losing four points.

They're followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 8%, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 7% each, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 5% each.

Carly Fiorina gets 3% support and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is at 2%. No other candidates top 1%.

The poll is the first survey of New Hampshire voters conducted after Friday's attacks in Paris.

The survey found that Rubio benefited most from his performance in the fourth Republican primary debate, hosted by Fox Business Network on Nov. 10, with 36% saying he did the best job.

Hurt the most by the debate was Kasich, who 26% said did the worst. He was followed by Trump at 20% and Bush at 16%.

The survey of 405 likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters was conducted November 14-15 by The MassINC Polling Group. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 points. It was sponsored by WBUR, a National Public Radio affiliate in the Boston area.

Regardless of it all happening overnight and today, please stay in touch!