Intel chief says 2014 deadliest year for terror ever recorded, in counter to upbeat Kerry | Khodorkovsky Says Putin 'Naked King' Facing Economic Ruin
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Former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "naked king" whose economy will weaken so much that rival clans will battle each other for political power.
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Saakashvili, Nuland Discuss Ukraine Crisis In Washingtonby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
A U.S. State Department official says former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili met with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in Washington this week to discuss the Ukraine crisis.
Law Puts US Capital at Heart of Legalized Marijuana Debateby webdesk@voanews.com (Deborah Block)
The debate over the legalization of marijuana in the United States is now centering on the nation’s capital — both in the halls of Congress and on the streets surrounding it. District of Columbia residents voted last November to legalize the drug, but Congress put language in its budget to block funding for its regulation, setting up a host of challenges. Despite the congressional move, the new D.C. law, which took effect on Thursday, allows anyone over 21 possess up to 2 ounces (56 grams) of marijuana and to grow up to six plants in their home, three of them mature. Sales are barred but transfers of up to 1 ounce (26 grams) are legal, and it remains illegal to smoke and consume in public. The drug is barred in about 20 percent of the city that is federal land. Backers of the new law are celebrating. “Prohibition has failed,” said Malik Burnett, Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes liberalizing the country’s drug regulations. But some in Congress vow to use their power to block implementation. Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who chairs House Oversight Committee, warned D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that she and other city officials could go to jail. Bowser said the measure would take effect as planned. "Bullying the District of Columbia is not what [Chaffetz's] constituents expect, nor do ours," she told reporters. "We do disagree on a matter of law. There are reasonable ways to resolve this without us threatening him or he us." Still, laws on the books complicate the matter and will likely leave some users in a legal quandary. Federal law classifies marijuana as an illegal substance and anyone possessing it subject to arrest. In Washington, it is a criminal offense to possess marijuana on federal property — from parks and monuments to government buildings. David Grasso, a member the district’s legislative branch, is concerned people carrying marijuana may not even realize they are on federal land. “You can [imagine] people walking down the street not knowing what the law is from one block to the next,” he said. Opponents in Congress, led by Rep. Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican, attached a provision to the congressional budget bill prohibiting the D.C. government from spending "any local money on regulation of marijuana," Grasso said. “So we were prohibited by Congress from spending our own money on the implementation of marijuana regulations.” Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia and can override local laws. In a statement, Rep. Harris said “any movement to legalize marijuana in D.C. is a willful violation of the [federal] law.” But not having tightly regulated controls has left a loophole of uncertainty, according to Grasso. “How are you going to get marijuana if you don’t grow it?” he asked. “You’re going to have to buy it from somebody. You really don’t eliminate the underground market.” Grasso believes recreational marijuana should be regulated by the same federal bureau that controls alcohol sales. In January, he introduced a bill to tax and regulate marijuana in D.C., which he admits goes against the congressional order. Under the current law, the city can neither tax nor regulate the drug — steps congress explicitly forbade. “We should do that right away in spite of Congress,” he said. Grasso foresees a day when there would be “independent marijuana retail stores,” and perhaps restaurants “where they would cook with it.” “People should be able to go to the store and purchase it, just like they purchase groceries,” Burnett said, adding that he favors private cannabis clubs where pot can be exchanged. But Mayor Bowser is seeking to restrict those clubs since the D.C law prohibits using marijuana in restaurants and bars. Debates over the implementation of marijuana regulation is going on in several parts of the country. Rules similar to those outlined in the D.C. law took effect Tuesday in Alaska, and Colorado and Washington state already have legal marijuana. Oregon is poised for July 2015 legalization. Polls indicate the majority of Americans support marijuana legalization. Internationally, only North Korea, Uruguay and the Netherlands have legalized marijuana, while others have decriminalized the drug, or at least tolerate its use, especially in places where it has commonly been smoked.
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The man, identified as Mohammed Emwazi, came to the attention of the authorities in 2009, when they thought he was going to fight with Al Shabab.
Russia has been accused of harbouring a master cyber hacker who emptied American bank accounts of more than $100 million in one of the most sophisticated online frauds ever detected. The Kremlin is believed to have ignored a US request to arrest Evgeniy Bogachev, whom the FBI says is still at large in Russia despite being put on a list of “most wanted” cybercriminals last summer.However, eight months on, he has not been handed over, prompting the US authorities to issue a $3 million reward yesterday for information leading to his arrest.
Комплексами «Орлан-10», «Леер-3» и «Тахион-3» будут оснащены подразделения БЛА, сформированные в прошлом году в Самарской, Кемеровской областях и Алтайском крае.
Up to 2,000 Russian soldiers took part in drills in the country's west on Wednesday as Moscow conducted an inspection of its paratrooper units in the latest show of strength likely to alarm its neighbors.
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India and Israel have agreed to jointly develop a medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) system for the Indian Army to replace Russian-made air defense systems, said a source in the Indian Defence Ministry.
US and Russian troops parade on opposite sides of Estonia border
A new study finds that Hispanic foreigners, both legal and illegal, will account for a large portion of future job growth, taking perhaps as many as 75 percent of the jobs created by 2020.
It’s expected that the Hispanic population present in the U.S. will enjoy 2.6 percent growth per year over the next 20 years, thanks in part to the political phenomenon of encouraging overwhelming numbers of foreigners to settle in the U.S., along with birthright citizenship. That growth is juxtaposed by the declining population growth of the non-Hispanic population, including a sharply increasing retirement rate of the aging Baby Boomer generation that supported the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
“The Hispanic population is a younger and faster growing segment of the population, while trends in the non-Hispanic population are heavily influenced by the aging baby-boomer generation that is moving into retirement,” IHS said in a statement.
IHS warns that the conclusions could be affected by changes in immigration policy. Still, the U.S. Census also projects a large growth of the Latino population, thanks to uncontrolled immigration and automatic grants of citizenship to the offspring of aliens who entered the country illegally.
“Latinos will grow from 22 million in 2014 to over 29 million in 2034, and the foreign-born share of the Hispanic population will fall slowly over this period — from 39.7 percent to 34.8 percent,” Fox News reported.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter: @warnerthuston. Email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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AP Photo-/Evan Vucci.
A new poll shows that a substantial number of Americans doubt President Barack Obama loves the United States. According to YouGov, fewer than half — 47 percent — say that the president loves America. However, one third — 35 percent — say the president does not.
Democrats are less likely than Republicans to say Obama doesn’t love America. YouGov reports that 85 percent of Democrats say Obama loves America, while 69 percent of Republicans say he does not. But even Independents are split. Some 42 percent say he loves the U.S. but close to the same number, 38 percent, say he does not.
The poll also asked respondents whether they loved the country. For Americans over the age of 45, upward of 90 percent expressed love for the U.S. and virtually none reported they do not love America.
However, younger Americans are less certain.
“Only 71 percent of under-30s also say that they love America. Fifteen percent of under-30s say that they do not love America, while 14 percent aren’t sure,” YouGov reports.
Overall, 90 percent of conservatives report loving America, while 85 percent of moderates and 82 percent of liberals say the same. YouGov commissioned the poll after former New York Mayor Giuliani said: “I do not believe that the president loves America.”
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YouTube via NBC News
A group of Coptic Christians who emigrated from Egypt to the United States decided to get the president’s attention by dressing in the orange prison jumpsuits ISIS likes to adorn its hostages with and staging a protest on Tuesday. A group of about 50 protesters marched from the White House to Capitol Hill, chanting “Obama, Obama, did you see? Christian blood in the sea.”
According to a report at the Washington Post, organizer Hanna Asaad was moved to action by the abduction and beheading of his best friend and cousin Samuel Alham, who was one of the twenty Copts lined up on a beach and beheaded by the Islamic State in Libya.
“I kept calling my cousin and telling him he had to leave Libya, but there was no safe way out,” Asaad told the Post. “The militants came looking for Christians and then took them away. They murdered my cousin, my nephew and my classmates. Someday soon they will start murdering people in this country.” He noted that targeting Copts for murder is easy, as they tend to have small crosses tattooed on their wrists.
“ISIS wants to drive all Christians from the Middle East. Obama has to act before the whole region turns to fire,” another demonstrator warned. The demonstrators also included Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Muslim Brotherhood in their roll call of villains. I would advise them not to hold their breath waiting for the Obama Administration to call out the Muslim Brotherhood, which was last seengrinning and popping selfies at the State Department.
The Washington Post amusingly portrays President Obama as a passive bystander to the “increasingly chaotic situation in the Middle East since the Arab Spring of 2011, including the rise of the Islamic State, the deepening Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq, the collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, the intransigence of Syria’s dictatorship and the deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya.” President Obama derided the Islamic State Obama as the “junior varsity league” of terrorism when they rolled into Iraq, supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, reinfornced the intransigent Syrian dictatorship with his foolish “red line” bluster and subsequent humiliation by Syria’s patrons in Russia, and had his administration claim the deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya was a spontaneous protest over an offensive YouTube video.
Despite their small number, the Egyptian Christians living in Washington might be able to get some attention because, as the Washington Post observes, they tend to be “affluent, well-organized U.S. citizens.” The orange-jumpsuit protesters quoted in the article are all white-collar professionals. The lingering question would be exactly what they hope the American government will do for their friends and relatives in the Middle East. Some observers feel the damage done to certain Christian communities by ISIS is irreversible. The Islamic State is their most aggressive enemy, but not the only one; stories about the Christian exodus from Iraq stretch back deep into the previous decade. The Copts might have a better chance of retaining their position in Egypt than most other Christian communities in the region, especially if the Muslim Brotherhood is out of power for good.
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The infamous stimulus, which was meant to improve job prospects, wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on grants asking students to keep track of their consumption of alcohol and marijuana, among other bizarre projects.
Sadly, students looking to enter today’s work force are facing record-high youth unemployment. TheYouth Misery Index has also risen 50% while Obama has been in office. In addition, young people are inundated daily with politically correct messages from their professors, administrators, and other liberal groups. Our so-called institutions of higher learning are always eager to work with the Obama administration to allow him to visit campus. Since taking office, Obama has appeared on a college or high school campus one out of every 9 days.
Given these facts and others, its not surprising that today’s students are turning away from the ideals that made America great. In an op-ed by Charles M. Blow writing on “Who Loves America?” in theNew York Times, only 15% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 believe the United States stands above all other countries.
However, while leftist professors and liberal or apathetic students seem to dominate your school, there are steps you can and should take to stand strong for your values and beliefs.
Strengthen Your Faith – Obama attacked the Christian faith by equating the evils of radical Islam with the Christian Crusades. Yet, the Crusades were a reaction to protect innocent Christians from being slaughtered by Jihad. You must learn how to be adequately defend your faith. Increasing your knowledge of the history of Christianity as a peaceful religion that protects the innocent decreases the effectiveness of the ignorant Left’s attacks.
Read the Constitution – Obama and the Left would love for you to remain ignorant about your God-given rights under the United States Constitution, including your right to bear arms, right to free speech in your classroom and on your campus, right to express your faith in the public square, and many more. The Obama administration has already been caught spying on Americans, something you and your peers will not tolerate. By reading and knowing your rights backwards and forwards, you’ll know when those rights are violated.
Get Involved – Ronald Reagan once said to a group of Young Americans for Freedom activists: “You are most important in this particular moment of history because so many of your peers have listened to false prophets and demagogues.“
If you want to change your campus, now is the time to get involved and Young America’s Foundation will provide you with the guidance, resources, and strategies to change the atmosphere on even the most liberal college campus.
You can begin by attending an upcoming YAF Freedom Conference in either Nashua, New Hampshire, on March 27 and 28 or in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 10 and 11. At these programs you will come face-to-face with the Conservative Movement’s best tacticians and activists, as well as other young conservatives from across the country who will energize you.
Don’t wait. If you don’t take action, your peers will become liberal by osmosis.
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Texas’ top law enforcement agency is warning thousands of college and high school students to avoid going to Mexico during this year’s upcoming Spring Break season.
The warning from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) was part of their yearly tips for spring breakers. The DPS warns students to be aware on the road, avoid driving while fatigued, as well as other precautions, In recent years, the agency has also emphasized warnings about travel to Mexico.
“The Mexican government has made great strides battling the cartels, and the department commends their continued commitment to that effort,” DPS said in their advisory. “DPS also has a responsibility to inform the public about safety and travel risks and threats, and based on the unpredictable nature of cartel violence and other criminal elements, the department urges individuals to avoid travel to Mexico at this time.”
For years, spring breakers have sought out Mexican beach resorts like Acapulco, Los Cabos, and Cancun or the bars along border cities like Tijuana, El Paso and, in the past, Matamoros and Reynosa. However the onslaught of Mexican cartel violence has shut down many of those border bars and damaged the image of the beach resorts.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the border cities in Tamaulipas have been turned into a war-zone as rival factions of the Gulf Cartel have turned on each other, leading to large scale gun battles along some of those cities’ main boulevards and highways.
Also, in the beach resort of Acapulco, the increase in cartel activity plus the civil unrest caused by the slaughter of 43 Mexican education students at the hands of corrupt government officials and cartel members, have prompted the U.S. Embassy to issue warnings to Americans in the area, as Breitbart Texas reported.
Even in the once quiet resort area of Los Cabos, an uptick in cartel activity has seen a dramatic increase in murders and shootouts in recent months, as Breitbart Texas previously reported.
On Wednesday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) revealed that the White House is considering implementing its executive amnesty program in the 24 states that did not join the lawsuit against it.
A majority of states (26) joined the lawsuit that led to a federal judge (Andrew Hanen) issuing an injunction against Obama’s executive amnesty last week. The Obama administration complied with the injunction, did not accept applications for Obama’s executive amnesty, and asked Hanen for a stay before it files an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. But the White House, according to Gutierrez, is deciding whether it has the legal authority to launch its executive amnesty program in the 24 other states and the District of Columbia before the lawsuit is resolved.
“I think that is a very worthy observation, and the White House – I know the advocates are on it – but I’ve got to tell you, President Barack Obama is on it, too. He’s thinking about it, and the White House has been trying to figure out [if it’s an option],” Gutierrez reportedly said, according to The Hill.
Gutierrez, who has gone on a nationwide executive amnesty tour to instruct illegal immigrants about the executive amnesty process and warn them of scammers who may take advantage of them, reportedly even suggested that the Obama administration could go further and decide if it has the authority to implement its executive amnesty in every state except for Texas. When the Obama administration asked Hanen to stay his injunction, it proposed a compromise in its filing--let every state except for Texas implement Obama’s executive amnesty.
“That’s absolutely something the White House is looking at,” Gutierrez reportedly said. “I think it’s a great idea to look at the lawsuit and to say, ‘OK judge, since you think the harm is to Texas, why can’t we proceed in the rest of the states of the union and set that one aside?’”
In a closed-door White House meeting with some of the country’s top pro-amnesty leaders on Wednesday, Obama suggested that his administration is considering ways to start implementing its executive amnesty. According to the White House, Obama “highlighted that despite the Texas district court’s ruling, the Administration will continue to make progress on many components of the executive actions and is confident we will ultimately be able to implement the deferred action policies.”
The expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was set to begin last week but was halted after Hanen’s injunction. The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) for adults is set to begin in May.
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They are attracted abroad by higher wages and better quality of life, while in their place the UK has attracted two million migrants with low numeracy skills.
The UCL study also found that newly-arrived migrants are six times more likely to have never worked than those born in the UK.
Dr John Jerrim of UCL’s Institute of Education said: “Immigrants account for one in four of the 9.6 million working age adults living in the United Kingdom with low level numeracy skills.
“Immigration has therefore had its biggest impact upon the bottom end of the numeracy skill distribution; it has led to a significant increase in the supply of low skilled workers.”
Meanwhile, around 4.7 million Britons now live abroad, with an average of 300,000 per year joining them. The report found that between 1964 and 2011 some 684,000 “highly numerate” workers left Britain, and although a similar number of “very numerate immigrants” arrived in that time, they were dwarfed by the 2.4 million new arrivals with low numeracy.
Dr Jerrim added: “Although immigration from South Asia has added many highly numerate people to our labour force, immigration from the same region and Africa has added six times more people with low numeracy skills to the UK than those with high numeracy skills.”
MigrationWatch chairman Lord Green of Deddington said: “There has long been a level of emigration by highly skilled British workers, many of whom return later.
“Highly skilled immigrants help to compensate for this but they are not the problem.
“The problem is the mass immigration of low skilled migrants and particularly now from within the EU.”
The Telegraph reports that the research comes as official immigration figures released today heap further embarrassment upon the Prime Minister. Despite pledging to cut immigration to the “tens of thousands” during his time in power, latest figures show that 624,000 immigrants arrived in the UK in the year up to September 2014, up from 530,000 the previous year.
Home Secretary Theresa May appears now to have abandoned the policy, saying the government had been “blown off course” by the huge amount of immigration from within the EU over which the UK has no control.
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In their latest terror campaign, ISIS militants in Syria have rounded up 220 Christian civilians in the past three days, according to reports Thursday from the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The jihadists also burned two Christian churches during their raids.
The kidnappings took place in 11 different villages in the Tal Tamir countryside in al-Hasakah. The Observatory states that the prisoners have been taken to the Abd al-Aziz mount to the southwest of Tal Tamir.
“These were peaceful villages that had nothing to do with the battles,” said Nasir Haj Mahmoud, a Kurdish official in the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in northeastern Syria.
Mahmoud said that some Christians are fighting under the YPG in Hasaka province, but not in that area.
On Tuesday, Islamic State militants moved toward al-Hasakah’s southern border and abducted upwards of 70 Christians from the village of Tal Shamiram.
In an attempt to liberate the captives, mediators from Arabian tribes along with an unnamed Assyrian are endeavoring to negotiate with the kidnappers.
According to reports, in recent days ISIS has taken control of ten villages in the Tal Tamir area, resulting in widespread displacement of Christian citizens.
“We cannot give a specific number of Assyrians that have fled, but it hasn’t been a very large number of people, because Assyrians are a very small minority in Syria,” said Rami Abdul Rahman of the Observatory. “The only areas where Assyrians are left, even before the war, is in Hasakah province and small villages surrounding there.”
According to the Observatory, some Syrian Christians are fighting back against ISIS.
The Syriac Military Council is an Assyrian Christian militia (MFS), the armed wing of the Mesopotamia National Council (MUB), which represents the Assyrian Christians in Syria, who are located primarily in the northeastern al-Hasakah province.
The MFS is the only fighting group representing just the Assyrian population, and has some 800 soldiers who work in tandem with the YPG.
“For me, I just want the Islamic State to know that despite how many people they kill, bomb our churches, we are Assyrian Christians, we will never leave our people here or our country,” said Matai Nazha, a 20-year-old fighter.
On Wednesday, Kurdish militia managed to cut off one of ISIS’ supply lines from Iraq. A Kurdish official who wished to remain nameless said the YPG had taken control of a main road linking Tel Hamis with al-Houl, a town near the Iraqi border. He described the road as the “main artery” for the Islamic State.
“We believe we will finish the battle of Tel Hamis in this campaign,” he said.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome.
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“Over the long term, this is going to get solved, because at some point there’s going to be a President Rodriguez or there’s going to be a President Chen,” Obama told a Florida International University town hall audience, hosted by Telemundo and MSNBC.
“The country is a nation of immigrants, and ultimately it will reflect who we are and its politics are going to reflect who we are,” Obama continued, implying that neither native-born Americans or legal immigrants have moral standing to determine who enters and stays in the country.
Hispanic foreigners attending the town hall — Fox News Latino did not say whether they were legal or illegal aliens — told Obama they feared that federal Judge Andrew Hansen’s stay on Obama’s executive order will force them to return to their home countries. (Fox News Latino incorrectly identifies Hansen as a Texas judge.)
The five million illegal aliens covered by Obama’s executive order could also cash in on as much as$35,000 in taxpayer handouts. That’s a minimum $175 million cost to American taxpayers for the first year alone, not counting the massive strain the low-income, poorly-educated, gang-prone aliens withhigh rates of illegitimacy and untreated diseases will place on the country’s medical and social institutions.
Obama’s claim that “history” was on his side is arguably false. The massive, historically unprecedented wave of immigrants crashing across the U.S. southern border is a political phenomenon, set in motion by the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and accelerated by the Obama administration’s disastrous Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The explosion of the Hispanic population has long-term job prospect consequences as well: Both legal and illegal aliens will occupy 75 percent of new American jobs in as little as five years.
Each year, four million Americans seeking jobs turn 18. In 2012, almost six million Americans graduated from college, saddled with an average $27,000 in student loan debt — $8,000 less than the handouts available for illegals presently in the country.
Email Katie at <a href="mailto:kmchugh@breitbart.com">kmchugh@breitbart.com</a>.
The plan, which puts the Internet in the same regulatory camp as the telephone and bans business practices that are “unjust or unreasonable,” represents the biggest regulatory shakeup to the industry in almost two decades. The goal is to prevent providers from slowing or blocking web traffic, or creating paid fast lanes on the Internet, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.
The 3-2 vote was expected to trigger industry lawsuits that could take several years to resolve. Still, consumer advocates cheered the regulations as a victory for smaller Internet-based companies which feared they would have to pay “tolls” to move their content.
Net neutrality is the idea that websites or videos load at about the same speed. That means you won’t be more inclined to watch a particular show on Amazon Prime instead of on Netflix because Amazon has struck a deal with your service provider to load its data faster.
Opponents, including many congressional Republicans, said the FCC plan constitutes dangerous government overreach that would eventually drive up consumer costs and discourage industry investment.
Republican FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai, who voted against the plan, alleged that President Barack Obama unfairly used his influence to push through the regulations, calling the plan a “half-baked, illogical, internally inconsistent and indefensible document.”
Michael Powell, a former Republican FCC chairman who now runs the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, warned that consumers would almost immediately “bear the burden of new taxes and increased costs, and they will likely wait longer for faster and more innovative networks since investment will slow in the face of bureaucratic oversight.”
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he would pursue industry-friendly legislation, although it was unlikely that Obama would sign such a bill. The FCC’s five commissioners are expected to testify before a Senate panel March 18.
“One way or another, I am committed to moving a legislative solution, preferably bipartisan, to stop monopoly-era phone regulations that harm Internet consumers and innovation,” Thune said in a statement this week.
It’s not true that consumers would see new taxes right away. The Internet Tax Freedom Act bans taxes on Internet access, although that bill expires in October. While Congress is expected to renew that legislation, it’s conceivable that states could eventually push Congress for the ability to tax Internet service now that it has been deemed a vital public utility.
“Read my lips. More Internet taxes are coming. It’s just a matter of when,” Commissioner Pai said.
For years, providers mostly agreed not to pick winners and losers among Web traffic because they didn’t want to encourage regulators to step in and because they said consumers demanded it. But that started to change around 2005, when YouTube came online and Netflix became increasingly popular. On-demand video became known as data hogs, and evidence began to surface that some providers were manipulating traffic without telling consumers.
By 2010, the FCC enacted open Internet rules, but the agency’s legal approach was eventually struck down. FCC officials are hoping to erase the legal ambiguity by no longer classifying the Internet as an “information service” but a “telecommunications service” subject to Title II of the 1934 Communications Act.
That would dramatically expand regulators’ power over the industry by requiring providers to act in the public’s interest and enabling the FCC to fine companies found to be employing “unreasonable” business practices.
The FCC says it won’t apply some sections of Title II, including price controls. That means rates charged to customers for Internet access won’t be subject to preapproval. But the law allows the government to investigate if consumers complain that costs are unfair.
Also at stake Thursday was Obama’s goal of helping local governments build their own fast, cheap broadband. Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, have filed petitions with the agency to help override state laws that restrict them from expanding their broadband service to neighboring towns.
The FCC approved these petitions, setting a precedent for other communities that might want to do the same.
Nineteen states place restrictions on municipal broadband networks, many with laws encouraged by cable and telephone companies. Advocates of those laws say they are designed to protect taxpayers from municipal projects that are expensive, can fail or may be unnecessary.
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Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter at https://twitter.com/annekflaherty .
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FBI Director James Comey told the National Association of Attorneys General that ISIS is a “chaotic spider web” that avidly uses social media to radicalize people across the United States.
“We have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states,” said Comey, adding, “This isn’t a New York phenomenon or a Washington phenomenon. This is all 50 states and in ways that are very hard to see.”
He made those comments as the FBI arrested three men in New Yor City for attempting to provide support to ISIS.
Comey said his agency is investigating suspected ISIS supporters across all 50 states.
“Those people exist in every state. I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states,” Comey said.
“ISIL in particular is putting out a siren song with their slick propaganda through social media,” Comey added.
In describing the jihadist group’s message, Comey said, “Troubled soul, come to the caliphate, you will live a life of glory, these are the apocalyptic end times, you will find a life of meaning here, fighting for our so-called caliphate. And if you can’t come, kill somebody where you are.”
The FBI director noted that the message “resonates with troubled souls, people seeking meaning in some horribly misguided way.”
FBI Director: ISIS Tentacles Reach Into All 50 U.S. States
The presence of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL) in the United States can be felt in all 50 states, according to the director of the FBI.
FBI Director James Comey told the National Association of Attorneys General that ISIS is a “chaotic spider web” that avidly uses social media to radicalize people across the United States.
“We have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states,” said Comey, adding, “This isn’t a New York phenomenon or a Washington phenomenon. This is all 50 states and in ways that are very hard to see.”
He made those comments as the FBI arrested three men in New Yor City for attempting to provide support to ISIS.
Comey said his agency is investigating suspected ISIS supporters across all 50 states.
“Those people exist in every state. I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states,” Comey said.
“ISIL in particular is putting out a siren song with their slick propaganda through social media,” Comey added.
In describing the jihadist group’s message, Comey said, ”Troubled soul, come to the caliphate, you will live a life of glory, these are the apocalyptic end times, you will find a life of meaning here, fighting for our so-called caliphate. And if you can’t come, kill somebody where you are.”
The FBI director noted that the message “resonates with troubled souls, people seeking meaning in some horribly misguided way.”
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Thursday at Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on worldwide threats, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said 2014 was the most lethal year for global terrorism in 45 years the data has been collected.
Clapper said, “When the final counting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such a data has been compiled. About half of all attacks as well fatalities in 2014 occurred in just three countries: Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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Washington--Pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine will likely wait until the spring to attack the port of Mariupol, US intelligence chief James Clapper predicted Thursday, adding such a move did not seem imminent.
Clapper said Russian President Vladimir Putin's aim was to establish a land bridge to Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow a year ago after the fall of a pro-Moscow leader in Kiev.
"It is not our assessment that he (Putin) is bent on capturing or conquering all of Ukraine. He wants a whole entity composed of the two oblasts (regions) in eastern Ukraine which would include a land bridge to Crimea and perhaps a port in specifically Mariupol," Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"We do not believe that an attack on Mariupol is imminent. I believe they will wait until the spring before they attack," he said.
Since a ceasefire brokered by European leaders went into effect on February 15, rebels have captured the key railhub of Debaltseve and were reported to be massing forces around Mariupol.
Clapper said Russian President Vladimir Putin's aim was to establish a land bridge to Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow a year ago after the fall of a pro-Moscow leader in Kiev.
"It is not our assessment that he (Putin) is bent on capturing or conquering all of Ukraine. He wants a whole entity composed of the two oblasts (regions) in eastern Ukraine which would include a land bridge to Crimea and perhaps a port in specifically Mariupol," Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"We do not believe that an attack on Mariupol is imminent. I believe they will wait until the spring before they attack," he said.
Since a ceasefire brokered by European leaders went into effect on February 15, rebels have captured the key railhub of Debaltseve and were reported to be massing forces around Mariupol.
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What ISIS really wants: An in-depth examination
The top U.S. intelligence official on Thursday gave a drastically different assessment than Secretary of State John Kerry of the terror threat -- declaring 2014 the deadliest year for global terrorism ever recorded, after Kerry claimed that threat was diminishing.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testifying on Capitol Hill, catalogued the growing terror-fueled violence in stark terms.
"When the final accounting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such data has been compiled," Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He offered statistics that would appear to challenge other administration officials' claims that the country and world are safer today.
A day earlier, Kerry testified at a separate hearing that, "Despite ISIL, despite the visible killings that you see and how horrific they are, we are actually living in a period of less daily threat to Americans and to people in the world than normally; less deaths, less violent deaths today, than through the last century."
That prompted a quick response from lawmakers and from inside the intelligence community.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn , former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Fox News that Kerry is "out of touch with reality, he clearly is not listening to the entire U.S. intelligence community."
Clapper on Thursday said that in 2013, about 11,500 worldwide attacks killed about 22,000 people. But in the first nine months alone of 2014, he said, preliminary data from a University of Maryland research unit show nearly 13,000 attacks killed 31,000 people.
Half of those attacks and fatalities were in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said. He said the Islamic State conducted more attacks than any other terror group in those first nine months.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, asked Thursday about the apparent discrepancy in the two officials' remarks, said he thinks Kerry was referring to the success in pressuring ISIS leadership.
"Pressure has been applied and has reduced the ability of ISIL to expand its reign of terror," he said.
Earnest said that doesn't mean the threat has been eliminated.
The Clapper testimony came as Congress focused attention Thursday on what's being done to defeat the Islamic State -- at all levels of government -- as more cases surface of westerners trying to link up with the terror network, including a disturbing case out of New York City.
Clapper said Thursday that about 180 Americans have been involved in various stages of traveling or trying to travel to fight in the region. He said more than 3,400 total western fighters have gone to Syria and Iraq.
He spoke after the Justice Department announced Wednesday that three New York City residents plotted to travel to Syria to join ISIS militants and "wage jihad."
One of the defendants also offered to kill the president of the United States if ordered to do so, the criminal complaint alleged.
The Obama administration, meanwhile, has forged ahead with a campaign of airstrikes against ISIS, with the help of Middle East allies. At the same time, though, President Obama has downplayed the threat. In a recent interview with <a href="http://Vox.com" rel="nofollow">Vox.com</a>, he accused the media of overplaying the issue.
"If it bleeds, it leads, right?" he said.
FBI Director James Comey has said his bureau is investigating possible ISIS supporters in all 50 states.
Aside from Clapper's testimony, a House judiciary subcommittee was holding a separate hearing on Thursday on the threat of ISIS in America. FBI and other local law enforcement officials were set to testify.
Fox News' Bret Baier contributed to this report.
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Intel chief says 2014 deadliest year for terror ever recorded, in ...
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testifying on Capitol Hill, ... been compiled," Clappertold the Senate Armed Services Committee. ... A day earlier, Kerry testified at a separate hearingthat, "Despite ISIL, despite ...
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