Taliban Attacks 10 Police Stations in Afghanistan, 100 Officers Missing
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At least 10 police stations in northeast Afghanistan have come under attack by the Taliban and as many as 100 missing police officers are feared dead, an Afghan military official said Monday.
Russian KRET concern is developing a new aircraft guidance system, a targeting and navigation complex, a weapons control system and other electronic equipment. A total of 800 firms and organizations are involved in the modernization of the Tu-160 aircraft.
Within the framework of the Open Skies Treaty, a joint mission of the United States and Denmark will fly over Russian territory in an American OC-135B aircraft.
The ISIL is in Ukraine: America’s “Agents of Chaos” Unleashed in Eurasia by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Is the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) / Islamic State (IS) / Al-Dawlah Al-Islamiyah fe Al-Iraq wa Al-Sham (DAISH/DAESH) active in post-EuroMaidan Ukraine? The answer is not exact. In other…
Baltimore gang members denied evidence-free claims that they had declared a truce to “take out” police officers. (WBAL-TV) As I discussed in my previous post on the Baltimore Police Department’s inflation of the “purge” threat last Monday, there’s increasing evidence…
ISIL is Using Ukraine as a Forward Base into Caucasia and Entry into Europe by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
“In the West, most look at the war in Ukraine as simply a battle between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian government. But the truth on the ground is now far more complex, particularly when it comes to the volunteer battalions…
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The Decline and Fall of the United States by David Swanson
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To…
- IgorPutin teaches geography: ‘All the former USSR is Russia’
- IgorPutin teaches geography: ‘All the former USSR is Russia’
- IgorPutin teaches geography: ‘All the former USSR is Russia’
- IgorPutin teaches geography: ‘All the former USSR is Russia’
- The truthPutin teaches geography: ‘All the former USSR is Russia’
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Norway will bolster defense spending by a further US $500 million annually in direct response to Russia's growing military strength in the High North and its aggression in Ukraine and the Baltic Sea region.
Finland has contacted nearly a million reservists by e-mail but an armed forces spokesman on Saturday denied the move was motivated by security concerns.
Israel's decision last week to enforce just two of its three red lines driving deterrence at its northern border illustrates the challenging balancing act of maintaining those lines while preventing them from morphing into tripwires to wider war.
Western powers are getting set to counter an expertly crafted Russian disinformation campaign over Ukraine which has left them wrong-footed too many times for comfort.
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US warships protecting American-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz may extend assistance to other countries' vessels, officials said Friday, after reports of Iranian forces harassing shipping.
Edward Snowden addresses an ACLU-sponsored event in Hawaii / AP
BY: Bill Gertz
Disclosures of National Security Agency secrets by the former contractor Edward Snowden have damaged U.S. efforts to battle terrorists, NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers said on Monday.
“I would say that it has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what terrorist groups around the world are doing,” Rogers said at a conference in Washington.
The admiral declined to provide specifics. “I don’t want them to have any doubt in their minds we are aggressively out hunting and looking for them,” he said during a cyber security conference hosted by the New America Foundation.
“And they should be concerned about that, and I want them to be concerned, quite frankly, because I’m concerned about the security of our nation,” Rogers said.
The director of the NSA in his comments voiced concerns that the security of Americans and overseas allies has been undermined by the leaks. “So anyone who thinks this has not had an impact, I would say, doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” he said.
Asked about new “blind spots” in the agency’s tracking of terrorist communications as a result of Snowden’s disclosures, Rogers responded: “Have I lost capability that we had prior to the revelations? Yes.”
Rogers’ remarks echoed those of Michael Daniel, the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator and a special assistant to the president, who said in a speech last year that the Snowden leaks will be felt for decades
“Make no mistake: We are going to be dealing with the fallout from that for all of your careers, and the impact that that has had on our national security will reverberate for decades,” Daniel told midshipmen at the Naval Academy on March 28.
Snowden, meanwhile, surfaced in an online interview Monday on the social networking site Reddit and brushed off criticism that he is a traitor.
Asked about comments by Neil Patrick Harris, an actor and the host of this year’s Academy Awards, Sunday night suggesting that he was a traitor, Snowden wrote: “To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don’t think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that’s not so bad. My perspective is if you’re not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don’t care enough.”
“Edward Snowden could not be here for some treason,” Harris said after Citizenfour, a film about Snowden, won an Oscar.
Snowden, currently a fugitive in Russia, passed thousands of top-secret NSA documents to several anti-secrecy journalists.
The most recent disclosures revealed that the NSA intercepted key codes used in cell phone SIM cards to prevent communications from being intercepted.
Earlier disclosures included revelations that the NSA was capable of breaking into the networks of foreign intelligence agencies and intercepting their communications and reports from foreign spies.
Asked if he would have done things differently, Snowden said he would have gone public earlier.
“I would have come forward sooner,” he stated. “Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers.”
Snowden and his supporters have sought to justify his actions against NSA as those of a whistleblower.
Snowden’s critics, in both government and the private sector, however, have said that most of his disclosures were unrelated to alleged civil liberties abuses and have not revealed legal wrongdoing – only aggressive intelligence-gathering.
Asked about the role of the U.S. government in conducting cyber attacks against Iran’s industrial control systems several years ago using a computer worm called Stuxnet, Rogers declined to comment.
But he stated: “The United States, like many nations around the world, clearly, we have capabilities in cyber.”
To avoid escalation that could inflict strategic damage and cost lives, Rogers said cyber deterrence concepts need to be developed to reduce the risks of a cyber war.
“We clearly are not, I think, where we need to be, where I think we want collectively to be,” he said. “This is still the early stages of cyber [deterrence], in many ways. So we’re going to have to work our way through this.”
On nation state threats, Rogers identified both China and Russia as major challenges.
Cyber war likely will involve major electronic attacks against critical infrastructure, such as the electrical grid or financial networks designed to cause a significant impact on the day-to-day functioning of society, he said.
Losses caused by foreign cyber attacks have been estimated at between $100 billion to $400 billion annually through intellectual property theft, he said.
Rogers defended the telephone metadata collection program used to located terrorists, a program he said grew out of the intelligence failures of Sept. 11, 2001.
“You have in at least one instance phone connectivity between one of the plotters who was in the United States and back overseas,” he said, adding that critics argued NSA should have access to the data and should have “connected the dots” of the plot.
Rogers also was asked about the U.S. response to the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack in November that the U.S. government has attributed to North Korean government hackers.
He declined to say what role Cyber Command would take in what President Obama has said would be U.S. retaliation.
“On the positive side, several months have passed now,” he said. “We haven’t seen a repeat of the behavior, which is I think in part was part of the entire intention, to say, ‘Look, this is unacceptable and that we don’t want this to happen again.’”
Rogers repeated a warning he had made earlier to Congress that “I think it’s only a matter of time before we see destructive offensive actions taken against critical U.S. infrastructure,” while he is head of Cyber Command.
“I didn’t realize that it would go against a motion picture company, to be honest,” he said.
Rogers said the North Korea cyber attack “bounced all over the world before it got to California” using networks located on different continents and different geographical regions.
Rogers also said the U.S. government contacted the Chinese government to seek Beijing’s cooperation in investigating the North Korean cyber attacks that security analysts say may have transited networks in China.
“We reached out to our Chinese counterparts to say, ‘Hey, look, this is of concern to us and it should be of concern to you, that in the long run, this kind of destructive behavior directed against a private entity purely on the basis of freedom of expression is not in anyone’s best interests, that this is not good.’”
The Chinese listened, but Rogers said it is not clear how Chinese will respond to U.S. requests for cooperation on foreign cyber attacks will play out in the future.
On May 1, the Justice Department made an unprecedented indictment of five Chinese military hackers involved in stealing corporate U.S. data.
China reacted angrily to the indictment and demanded that the prosecution, which was largely symbolic because the five military hackers remain in China, be halted.
Rogers declined to comment when asked about recent news reports that NSA is using spyware in computer hard drives for surveillance.
However, he said NSA’s surveillance mission is limited to a “very specific framework” bound by legal restrictions.
Rogers also sidestepped questions about NSA efforts to track down online fundraising by terrorist groups like the Islamic State. “We spend a lot of time looking for people who don’t want to be found,” he said.
Rogers, who is also the current commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, co-located with NSA at Fort Meade, Md., said he opposed splitting the leadership between NSA and Cyber Command.
“Given where U.S. Cyber Command is in its maturity and its journey right now, it needs the capabilities of the National Security Agency to execute its mission to defend critical U.S. infrastructure and to defend the department’s networks,” Rogers said.
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· · · · · · ·
Edward Snowden's leaks of classified information from the National Security Agency's top secret surveillance program has compromised the ability of the United States to track down terrorists.
According to NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers, the security of Americans and overseas allies has been undermined by the leaks, the
Washington Free Beacon
reported.
"I would say that it has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what terrorist groups around the world are doing," Rogers said at a conference hosted by the New America Foundation in Washington, according to the Beacon.
"I don't want them to have any doubt in their minds we are aggressively out hunting and looking for them," he said. "And they should be concerned about that, and I want them to be concerned, quite frankly, because I'm concerned about the security of our nation."
He did not get specific, but said that the leaks have had a material impact on security.
"So anyone who thinks this has not had an impact, I would say, doesn't know what they're talking about," he said, according to the Beacon.
Rogers added that there are now "blind spots" in the ability of the agency to track terrorist communications as a result of the disclosures.
"Have I lost capability that we had prior to the revelations? Yes," he said, according to the Beacon.
Other high-level officials in the administration have said recently that Snowden's leaks will reverberate for decades to come.
"Make no mistake: We are going to be dealing with the fallout from that for all of your careers, and the impact that that has had on our national security will reverberate for decades," said Michael Daniel, the White House's cybersecurity coordinator and a special assistant to the president, in an address to midshipmen at the Naval Academy, according to the Beacon.
Snowden continues to be in exile in Russia
, having given thousands of classified documents to journalists. Recent disclosures revealed that that NSA intercepted key codes used in cellphone SIM cards to prevent communications from being intercepted, the Beacon reported.
On Monday, Snowden did an
online interview with Reddit
. When asked whether he would have done anything differently, he said he would have gone public earlier.
"I would have come forward sooner," Snowden said, according to the Beacon. "Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers."
Rogers also commented on the cyberattack by North Korea, saying it was a positive sign that there has not been a subsequent attack.
But he warned that "It's only a matter of time before we see destructive offensive actions taken against critical U.S. infrastructure."
He also revealed that the U.S. government contacted the Chinese government for help in investigating the North Korean cyberattack, given it may have involved networks in China.
"We reached out to our Chinese counterparts to say, 'Hey, look, this is of concern to us and it should be of concern to you, that in the long run, this kind of destructive behavior directed against a private entity purely on the basis of freedom of expression is not in anyone's best interests, that this is not good,'" he said, according to the Beacon.
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· ·
National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers on Monday defended his agency's online spying tactics to an audience of technologists in the nation's capital, but faced criticism about whether surveillance methods threaten cybersecurity and consumer privacy rights.
The NSA’s online data collection is not “a silver bullet in itself” to prevent terrorism, but “it generates value for the nation,” Rogers said during a conference on cybersecurity hosted by the New America Foundation. Former agency contractor Edward Snowden fueled criticism of government surveillance by exposing the broad scope of the NSA’s phone and Internet spying. While the film “Citizenfour,” which is about Snowden, won an Oscar for Best Documentary on Sunday, Rodgers said that Snowden’s disclosures have created “blind spots” in the NSA's surveillance by revealing at U.S. strategies to monitor terrorism, Rogers said.
“It has had a material impact on our ability to generate insights as to what terrorist groups around the world are doing,” he said. “Anyone thinks this has not had an impact … doesn’t know what they are talking about.”
The NSA’s tactics include using malware to infect and hijack the computers of businesses, the military and government organizations in dozens of foreign countries, according to documents leaked by Snowden. Reports by cybersecurity analysts also indicate the agency is using spyware.
Rogers declined to comment about the NSA's alleged spyware use, but told U.S. News: “We fully comply with the law.”
He also called for a “legal framework” to allow the government to access encrypted communications in case secure networks are being used by criminals or terrorists.
Apple and Google announced last year they would encrypt their smartphones so they could not be compelled by law enforcement to unlock information stored on the devices, aiming to protect user privacy and regain customer trust damaged by the NSA's spying on Internet data. FBI Director James Comey criticized the tech companies' plan, claiming it could damage the ability of law enforcement to monitor for threats.
During the conference, Yahoo's chief information security officer, Alex Stamos, asked Rogers if Yahoo should agree to build a "backdoor" into some of their systems to allow countries including Saudi Arabia, China, France and Russia to monitor certain users.
"It sounds like you agree with Comey that we should be building defects into the encryption in our products so that the U.S. government can decrypt," Stamos said.
"That would be your characterization," Rogers replied.
Rogers acknowledged businesses have a “valid concern” about losing consumer trust, but the government needs to be able to legally monitor encrypted communications.
Rogers acknowledged businesses have a “valid concern” about losing consumer trust, but the government needs to be able to legally monitor encrypted communications.
“Broadly, I share Director Comey’s concerns,” Rogers said.
But searching for a legal way for the government to bypass encryption is a flawed solution, because there is no indication consumers would willingly accept software that enabled government surveillance, says Bruce Schneier, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Even if they did, that type of software would weaken cybersecurity and make consumers vulnerable to hackers, he explains.
“I can’t build a technical solution that would satisfy his legal requirements, and any technical solution I can build won’t be trusted,” he says.
Foreign countries are also likely monitoring communications in the U.S., Rogers noted to the audience, adding that the international community is still trying to develop acceptable norms for hacking and cybersecurity.
Congress is debating how to allow the NSA to spy on networks to screen for terrorist threats while still observing privacy and consumer rights. Lawmakers face extra pressure to pass a bill ahead of June, when the NSA loses its legal authority for domestic surveillance provided by Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Intelligence gathering would suffer without that spying authority, but the agency would find a way to continue its work depending on what lawmakers decide, Rogers said.
“Be grateful that you live in a nation that is willing to have this kind of dialogue,” Rogers told the audience. “Do I believe if we lose it does it make our job harder? Yes. On the other hand we at the NSA respond to the legal framework.”
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· · ·
The Atlantic Council's Steve Grundman and Capital Alpha Partners' Byron Callan discuss Defense Secretary Ash Carter's recently unveiled cyber initiative for the Pentagon.
Eyewitness accounts published Monday from last summer's war in Gaza paint a disturbing portrait of overzealous, often indiscriminate fire on the part of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
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- Google Vice President Vint Cerf on…
- President Obama Remarks at the My…
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President Obama Remarks at the My Brother's Keeper Alliance Launch
President Obama delivers remarks on the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance during an event at Lehman College in the Bronx borough of New York City. He talks specifically about racial disparities in law enforcement tactics.Photo credit: C-SPAN- Carly Fiorina 2016 Presidential Campaign Announcement
U.S. Senate Debate on NLRB Union Election Rules
Began Airing 3:00pm EDTFollowing leader remarks, the Senate is expected to resume debate on whether to overturn President Obama’s veto of a bill disapproving National Labor Relations Board regulations on union election rules.President Obama Remarks at the My Brother's Keeper Alliance Launch
President Obama delivers remarks on the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance during an event at Lehman College in the Bronx borough of New York City. He talks specifically about racial disparities in law enforcement tactics.
President Obama Remarks at the My Brother's Keeper Alliance Launch
President Obama delivers remarks on the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance during an event at Lehman College in the Bronx borough of New York City. He talks specifically about racial disparities in law enforcement tactics.Google Vice President Vint Cerf on the Future of the Internet
Internet pioneer and Google Vice President Vint Cerf delivers remarks and responds to questions about the future of the Internet at a luncheon hosted by the National Press Club in Washington.
Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Budget Request
May 06, 2015 | 10:30am EDT | C-SPAN.orgDefense Secretary Ashton Carter and General Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, testify on the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal year 2016.View More on the Defense BudgetElton John and Rick Warren Testimony on U.S.-Sponsored Global Health Programs
May 06, 2015 | 10:00am EDT | C-SPAN.orgElton John and Rick Warren are among the witnesses at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on global health programs supported by the State Department.View More on Global Health InitiativesAttorney General Loretta Lynch Testimony on the Justice Department's 2016 Budget
May 07, 2015 | 10:30am EDT | C-SPAN.orgIn her first congressional appearance since her Senate confirmation, Attorney General Loretta Lynch testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the Justice Department’s budget request for fiscal year 2016.View More on the Justice DepartmentSouth Carolina Freedom Summit
May 09, 2015 | 10:00am EDT | C-SPANSenators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Tim Scott (R-SC), Governors Scott Walker (R-WI) and Bobby Jindal (R-LA), former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, and Dr. Ben Carson are among the speakers at the South Carolina Freedom Summit in Greenville.View More Road to the White House
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Guantanamo Bay Prison Detainees
Charles Stimson talked about the status of prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay and the Defense Department’s efforts to move dozens of detainees out of the detention facility. ** This clip is part of C-SPAN Classroom's FREE resources for teachers and…- 9 minutes
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- President Obama gives his initial reaction to the decision earlier Friday to file charges against six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, who died from spinal injuries while in police custody.
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Open Phones on Ben Carson Presidential Campaign Announcement
Telephone lines were open for viewer comments on Ben Carson’s announcement that he would seek the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
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The FBI has confirmed Phoenix native Elton Simpson, a Muslim convert from Phoenix, Arizona, as one of the shooters responsible for attacking a Draw Muhammad Contest in Garland, Texas on Sunday. Simpson had been previously convicted of lying to the FBI about his jihadist intentions in 2010. Simpson made multiple pro-Sharia statements then that led the FBI to request, unsuccessfully, that he be placed on a no-fly list.
Simpson had been indicted in January 2010 on charges of lying to the FBI. He was subsequently convicted of lying to law enforcement, but not of planning to engage in violent terrorist activity abroad.
The indictment chronicles recorded conversations from 2005-2010 with an FBI informant named Dabla Deng, who introduced himself to Simpson as someone looking to learn more about Islam. Simpson was not shy about his beliefs, praising those who “fight” for Islam and encouraging Deng to renounce the West.
“They trying to bring democracy over there man, they’re trying to make them live by man-made laws, not by Allah’s laws. That’s why they get fought. You try to make us become slaves to man? No we slave to Allah [sic], we going to fight you to the death,” Simpson told Deng on one of the tapes.
Simpson spoke often of Somalia, and a desire to go there. He told Deng in recorded audio that he was considering traveling to a madrassa in South Africa and making his way up to Somalia to join the terrorist group Al Shabaab. While Al Shabaab has been an Islamist threat for many years, they are most popularly known today for an attack that killed 147 Christian students at Garissa University, Kenya in April, and a 2013 attack on Westgate Mall in the same nation, which brought them to international prominence. Experts warned in April that Al Shabaab is evolving from a local to a “transnational” jihadist threat.
The Court document notes that his repeated references to getting ready to “bounce” to Africa and join the “brothers” prompted FBI officials to attempt to place Simpson on a no-fly list. They failed: “Because the Defendant was being deceptive about the possibility of traveling to Somalia, however, the FBI became concerned that Mr. Simpson in fact did intend to go Somalia to engage in violent jihad. As a result, the agents attempted to prevent or disrupt the Defendant’s travels. The FBI tried, unsuccessfully,to place Mr. Simpson on the no-fly list.”
It is not clear why the application to place Simpson on the no-fly list was rejected. Concerns about Muslims traveling out of the West and into Islamist war zones were lower in 2010, however, at a time when the Islamic State was still an off-shoot of Al Qaeda (they split in 2014).
Simpson was eventually arrested and plainly claimed to have never discussed this issue, the crime for which he was convicted. The court found him guilty of lying about discussing support of jihad, but not of plotting to join or aid a terrorist organization.
The Court writes that “the Government did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that theDefendant’s discussions about traveling to Somalia were related to the political situation Agent Hebert described.” Agent Herbert explained previously in the document how Al Shabaab had developed into a militarized terrorist force in the chaotic Somalian political landscape.
The Court also argues that Simpson’s statements were ambiguous:
It is true that the Defendant had expressed sympathy and admiration for individuals who “fight” non-Muslims as well as his belief in the establishment of Shariah law, all over the world including in Somalia. What precisely was meant by “fighting” whenever hediscussed it, however, was not clear. Neither was what the Defendant meant when he stated he wanted to get to the “battlefield” in Somalia.
The official number of Americans who have joined jihadist groups are believed to be in the dozens, particularly the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Read the full Court case against Simpson here:
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· · ·
Report: NYPD Cop Shot in Face by Ex-Con Dies From Injuries, Suspect Brags He’s a ‘Hell Raiser’ When Arrested
This article was originally posted in the New York Daily News:
The hero cop who was shot in the face by an ex-con died Monday after a two day struggle to stay alive, sources said… It also means that Demetrius Blackwell will likely face a murder charge for gunning down the 25-year-old officer in Queens Village on Saturday, the sources said.
Read the rest of the article here and be sure to check out Breitbart News Network’s live account of the Saturday night attack here.
The New York Daily News also published an account of the deadly shooting:
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch was shaken following a bedside visit with the gravely wounded cop from Massapequa, L.I. “We’re praying that our hero officer comes through, but with any kind of brain injury, it’s difficult to tell,” Lynch said.
As Moore struggled in the hospital, Blackwell, 35, was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
The cretin allegedly told detectives following his arrest, “They call me D. They also call me hell-raiser on the streets.”
[…]
Moore was driving an unmarked police car when he and partner Erik Jansen, 30, both on-duty but in plainclothes, pulled up behind Blackwell, whom they had spotted “adjusting an object in his waistband,” said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Moore identified himself as a police officer and asked, “Do you have something in your waistband?” a source said.
Blackwell responded: “Yeah, I got something,” pulled his gun and fired two to three shots into the car at the corner of 212th St. and 104th Road, hitting Moore in the face, the source said.
The woman who lives in the house where Blackwell fled said she heard the gunshots.
“When I came outside, all I heard (the officer) saying . . . ‘Partner, please stay with me.’ I saw him pick up his radio and call it in,” she said.
Cops nabbed Blackwell, who has nine prior arrests, including two for assaulting officers, at the home about 90 minutes after the attack.
Andre Tucker, 26, who also lives at the house where Blackwell was busted, said the suspect was one cool customer — hiding in plain sight just feet from the crime scene.
“(Blackwell) was hanging out for an hour and a half, smoking cigarettes and talking like everything is normal,” Tucker said.
He, Blackwell and others stood in the front yard gawking at the growing manhunt until cops ordered them all to go inside.
[…]
Blackwell, a cousin of former Giants cornerback Kory Blackwell, went to prison on an attempted murder conviction after firing into a car in July 2000 following a robbery. He was released from the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora in June 2008.
Blackwell was also wanted by authorities on a criminal mischief charge stemming from an incident last November in which he threw bricks at the windows of a house while toting a gun, police said.
Moore was the fifth NYPD officer shot since December. Two of the victims, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were assassinated by the same cop-hating madman.
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“Congress has the responsibility to ensure that any international trade agreement entered into by the United States must serve the national interest, not merely the interests of those crafting the proposal in secret,” Sessions’ team writes in a document that lays out the top five concerns with the Obama trade deal. “It must improve the quality of life, the earnings, and the per-capita wealth of everyday working Americans. The sustained long-term loss of middle class jobs and incomes should compel all lawmakers to apply added scrutiny to a ‘fast-track’ procedure wherein Congress would yield its legislative powers and allow the White House to implement one of largest global financial agreements in our history—comprising at least 12 nations and nearly 40 percent of the world’s GDP.
“The request for fast-track also comes at a time when the Administration has established a recurring pattern of sidestepping the law, the Congress, and the Constitution in order to repeal sovereign protections for U.S. workers in deference to favored financial and political allies.”
The Sessions document then goes point-by-point for five full pages through the TPA trade deal, laying out why it wouldn’t help Americans—rather, it would likely hurt American workers—and why the deal doesn’t in fact provide Congress with more power over trade despite talking points from the Obama trade deal’s proponents like House Ways and Means Committee chairman
, Senate Majority Leader
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
, and House Speaker .
The first point lays out how the deal would result in a “consolidation of power in the executive branch,” a point in which Sessions takes to task those like Ryan who have argued that the deal would return more power to Congress.
“TPA eliminates Congress’ ability to amend or debate trade implementing legislation and guarantees an up-or-down vote on a far-reaching international agreement before that agreement has received any public review,” Sessions writes. “Not only will Congress have given up the 67-vote threshold for a treaty and the 60-vote threshold for important legislation, but will have even given up the opportunity for amendment and the committee review process that both ensure member participation. Crucially, this applies not only to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) but all international trade agreements during the life of the TPA.
“There is no real check on the expiration of fast-track authority: if Congress does not affirmatively refuse to reauthorize TPA at the end of the defined authorization (2018), the authority is automatically renewed for an additional three years so long as the President requests the extension.
“And if a trade deal (not just TPP but any trade deal) is submitted to Congress that members believe does not fulfill, or that directly violates, the TPA recommendations—or any laws of the United States—it is exceptionally difficult for lawmakers to seek legislative redress or remove it from the fast track, as the exit ramp is under the exclusive control of the revenue and Rules committees.”
In addition to those concerns about how the deal would not in fact empower Congress—it would instead weaken Congress—Sessions notes that Obama or any future president could redact or classify information from a report the president would be required submit to Congress to get fast-track trade approval if TPA is adopted.
“Moreover, while the President is required to submit a report to Congress on the terms of a trade agreement at least 60 days before submitting implementing legislation, the President can classify or otherwise redact information from this report, limiting its value to Congress,” Sessions writes. “Is TPA designed to protect congressional responsibilities, or to limit Congress’ ability to do its duty?”
The second major point in the Sessions document details how passing TPA through Congress would result in “increased trade deficits.”
“Barclays estimates that during the first quarter of this year, the overall U.S. trade deficit will reduce economic growth by .2 percent,” Sessions writes. “History suggests that trade deals set into motion under the 6-year life of TPA could exacerbate our trade imbalance, acting as an impediment to both GDP and wage growth. Labor economist Clyde Prestowitz attributes 60 percent of the U.S.’ 5.7 million manufacturing jobs lost over the last decade to import-driven trade imbalances.”
Sessions also cites former AT&T CEO Leo Hindery, Jr., who wrote in a recent column for Reuters that since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and South Korea free trade agreements were passed and implemented, “U.S. trade deficits, which drag down economic growth, have soared more than 430 percent with our free-trade partners.”
“In the same period, they’ve declined 11 percent with countries that are not free-trade partners,” Hindery wrote, in the part where Sessions cites him, adding: “Obama’s 2011 trade deal with South Korea, which serves as the template for the new Trans-Pacific Partnership, has resulted in a 50 percent jump in the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea in its first two years. This equates to 50,000 U.S. jobs lost. “
As a result of all that, Sessions questions whether such a trade agreement would actually help—or whether it would hurt—the U.S. economy overall.
“Job loss by U.S. workers means reduced consumer demand, less tax revenue flowing into the Treasury, and greater reliance on government assistance programs. It is important that Congress fully understand the impact of this very large trade agreement and to use caution to ensure the interests of the people are protected,” Sessions wrote. “Furthermore, the lack of protections in TPA against foreign subsidies could accelerate our shrinking domestic manufacturing base. We have been getting out-negotiated by our mercantilist trading partners for years, failing to aggressively advance legitimate U.S. interests, but the proponents of TPA have apparently not sought to rectify this problem. TPA proponents must answer this simple question: will your plan shrink the trade deficit or will it grow it even wider?”
The third major point of Sessions’ “critical alert” document lays out how passing TPA, and then TPP, means the United States is effectively “ceding sovereign authority to to international powers.” Sessions cites the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to make his case, laying out how the so-called “living agreement” inside the TPP deal means that the deal could be changed by other countries and the president without congressional approval whatsoever.
That means that while China isn’t currently a part of the deal, if those countries that are a part of the TPP deal wanted to add the currency-manipulating nation to it, they could do so simply with the approval of whoever is the president of the United States at the time. Congress wouldn’t need to sign off. The other countries, with simple sign off by the president without congressional approval, could also change any other agreement terms—including opening the United States up to an influx of foreign workers aimed at replacing Americans in the workforce.
“A USTR outline of the Trans- Pacific Partnership (which TPA would expedite) notes in the ‘Key Features’ summary that the TPP is a ‘living agreement,’” Sessions wrote. “This means the President could update the agreement ‘as appropriate to address trade issues that emerge in the future as well as new issues that arise with the expansion of the agreement to include new countries.’
“The ‘living agreement’ provision means that participating nations could both add countries to the TPP without Congress’ approval (like China), and could also change any of the terms of the agreement, including in controversial areas such as the entry of foreign workers and foreign employees. Again: these changes would not be subject to congressional approval.
“This has far-reaching implications: the Congressional Research Service reports that if the United States signs on to an international trade agreement, the implementing legislation of that trade agreement (as a law passed later in time) would supersede conflicting federal, state, and local laws. When this occurs, U.S. workers may be subject to a sudden change in tariffs, regulations, or dispute resolution proceedings in international tribunals outside the U.S.
“Promoters of TPA should explain why the American people ought to trust the Administration and its foreign partners to revise or rewrite international agreements, or add new members to those agreements, without congressional approval. Does this not represent an abdication of congressional authority?”
The fourth major point of the Sessions document notes how TPA and the TPP deal it would expedite do not address currency manipulation at all.
“The biggest open secret in the international market is that other countries are devaluing their currencies to artificially lower the price of their exports while artificially raising the price of our exports to them. The result has been a massive bleeding of domestic manufacturing wealth. In fact, currency manipulation can easily dwarf tariffs in its economic impact,” Sessions wrote.
Sessions cited how the Obama Treasury Department, in a 2014 biannual report, failed to designate China—which manipulates its currency as determined by any objective standard—as a “currency manipulator,” something Sessions notes that like the George W. Bush administration suggests that the Obama administration “will not stand up to improper currency practices.”
“Currency protections are currently absent from TPA, indicating again that those involved in pushing these trade deals do not wish to see these currency abuses corrected,” Sessions wrote. “Therefore, even if currency protections are somehow added into TPA, it is still entirely possible that the Administration could ignore those guidelines and send Congress unamendable trade deals that expose U.S. workers to a surge of underpriced foreign imports.
“President Obama’s longstanding resistance to meaningful currency legislation is proof he intends to take no action. The President has repeatedly failed to stand up to currency manipulators. Why should we believe this time will be any different?”
Over the next page-plus, Sessions lays out the last—but certainly not least—of his concerns with the TPA deal, noting how it “could facilitate immigration increases above current law,” and leaves Congress powerless to stop it.
“For instance: language could be included or added into the TPP, as well as any future trade deal submitted for fast-track consideration in the next 6 years, with the clear intent to facilitate or enable the movement of foreign workers and employees into the United States (including intracompany transfers), and there would be no capacity for lawmakers to strike the offending provision,” Sessions wrote. “The Administration could also simply act on its own to negotiate foreign worker increases with foreign trading partners without ever advertising those plans to Congress.”
Sessions cites specifically how the Obama 2011 trade deal with South Korea—which was “never brought before Congress”—increased the duration of time people can get L-1 visas to come into the United States and take jobs away from Americans. Sessions notes the L-1 visa program “affords no protections for U.S. workers.”
“Every year, tens of thousands of foreign guest workers come to the U.S. as part of past trade deals,” Sessions wrote. “However, because there is little transparency, estimating an exact figure is difficult. The plain language of TPA provides avenues for the Administration and its trading partners to facilitate the expanded movement of foreign workers into the U.S.— including visitor visas that are used as worker visas.”
Sessions cites the text of the actual TPA agreement next to lay out how foreign entities, special interests, and politically motivated presidents could pervert it clearly into bringing in foreign workers.
The TPA text Sessions cites reads as follows: “The principal negotiating objective of the United States regarding trade in services is to expand competitive market opportunities for United States services and to obtain fairer and more open conditions of trade, including through utilization of global value chains, by reducing or eliminating barriers to international trade in services… Recognizing that expansion of trade in services generates benefits for all sectors of the economy and facilitates trade.”
Sessions notes that specific language, and other language throughout the TPA, “offers an obvious way for the Administration to expand the number and duration of foreign worker entries under the concept that the movement of foreign workers into U.S. jobs constitutes ‘trade in services.’”
“Stating that ‘TPP contains no change to immigration law’ is a semantic rather than a factual argument,” Sessions wrote, debunking claims from Ryan and House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)—two of the biggest proponents of the trade deal—made last week. “Language already present in both TPA and TPP provide the basis for admitting more foreign workers, and for longer periods of time, and language could later be added to TPP or any future trade deal to further increase such admissions.”
Sessions notes that since Obama can’t be trusted because of his executive amnesty and other secretive, not-congressionally-approved increases in foreign workers, he can’t be trusted now. Nor should any president be trusted with such power, he said.
“The President has already subjected American workers to profound wage loss through executive-ordered foreign worker increases on top of existing record immigration levels,” Sessions wrote. “Yet, despite these extraordinary actions, the Administration will casually assert that is has merely modernized, clarified, improved, streamlined, and updated immigration rules.
“Thus, at any point during the 6-year life of TPA, the Administration could send Congress a trade deal—or issue an executive action subsequent to a trade deal as part of its implementation—that increased foreign worker entry into the U.S., all while claiming it has never changed immigration law. The President has circumvented Congress on immigration with serial regularity.
“But the TPA would yield new power to the executive to alter admissions while subtracting congressional checks against those actions. This runs contrary to our Founders’ belief, as stated in the Constitution, that immigration should be in the hands of Congress. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the Constitution grants Congress plenary authority over immigration policy.”
Sessions concluded the document by arguing that Congress should “slow down a bit” because Congress’ role—and the entire federal government’s role—is to protect Americans.
“Our government must defend the legitimate interests of American workers and American manufacturing on the world stage,” Sessions said. “The time when this nation can suffer the loss of a single job as a result of a poor trade agreement is over.”
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Sheriff David Clarke: Freddie Gray Cops ‘Offered as Red Meat to Angry Mob’
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
“She threw the book at these Baltimore cops. As far as I’m concerned what’s happened to them is collateral damage to the rioting and the looting. She offered them up as a sacrificial lamb. You could hear the emotions in her voice. When she took that political turn at the end of the news conference, I knew we were in trouble,” Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said about Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday, airing on Sirius XM Patriot radio channel 125 with host Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow, Clarke said that he has been in law enforcement for 37 years and though he hasn’t seen it all, he’s seen a lot. He contends that the charges brought by Mosby against six Baltimore police men and women for the death of Freddie Gray were politically motivated’ and there is no way that she will prove second degree murder and some of the other charges.
Clarke, a veteran homicide detective who has overseen some 400 cases in his career, said that Mosby got too emotional. “You can’t hear voices, you have to tune that stuff out, sift through the evidence, read the volumes of police reports that come in, bring people in for interviews and see if there was stuff left out by the police, and wait for all the forensic testing to come back. In other words, you take your time.”
The frequent guest on Fox News channel said that when he heard the state attorney saying that she “had heard the voices” of the Baltimore demonstrators’ he knew that we were in big trouble. “What I’m talking about is the rule of law, our system of justice. She is abusing her power not to seek justice, but to seek revenge,” he said.
“I’ll tell you what voices she was hearing. She was hearing the voices of Ferguson, Missouri. She was hearing the voices of New York and the Eric Garner case. She was hearing the voices ot the Trayvon Martin case down in Florida. That’s what she meant by that, and I think that is sick,” Clarke added.
The reason that she didn’t bring this case to a grand jury, Clarke argued, is that Mosby knew she couldn’t get an indictment against the officers. “She took a crisis situation and she made it worse… She offered these officers as red meat to this angry mob. Almost reminded me of the days in the Roman Coliseum.”
The sheriff told Marlow that he was elected as a Democrat, but it is failed liberal policies that are at the root of the problem in Baltimore. “This emerging growth in the underclass has been fueled by these failed big government policies. It has led to a failing K-12 public education system. Only 16 percent of students who attend Baltimore public schools read at or above grade level. Yet they spend $16,000 per year to educate a kid in the Baltimore public school system.”
Clarke pointed out that the products of these schools will not be able to thrive in an economy that is becoming more and more a “knowledge based economy rather than an industrial based economy. This is a tech based economy. It’s based on what you know, what you have learned, and what you can do.”
As far as President Obama is concerned, Clarke criticized the president’s claim that the economy is coming back.
“It didn’t come back for the Baltimore ghetto. It didn’t reach down to that level,” he said. “We have spent trillions across the United States on anti-poverty programs, yet poverty is worsening… all it does is keep people mired in unbelievable horrible conditions of poverty, high unemployment, failing schools, drug and alcohol addiction, crime, and violence.”
Baltimore is run by the Democratic political class, the fifty-eight-year old Wisconsin native told listeners. “They have a stranglehold in the city and many other urban centers.”
Breitbart’s EIC asked Clarke what he thought about the erosion of liberal ideals like “being innocent until proven guilty.”
Clarke maintained that “Classic liberalism is the thing that you refer to. We need that in our society. What we are in the throes of right now is modern liberalism. It has been highly destructive to black America. Modern liberalism celebrates black underachievement. It finds excuses for lifestyles that encourage abhorrent behavior; it keeps people de-motivated, because there are no boundaries.”
Part of the problem with modern liberalism is that it allows for “blacks to blame everyone other than themselves for their problems. This is what’s destroyed the black communities starting in the 1960s with the war on poverty that tore the black family apart. Where now 70 percent of the black children growing up are born and raised in single parent household which makes it more difficult to succeed.
Modern liberalism celebrates this sad turn of events for the black family where the father has been marginalized.
“He no longer plays a substantial role in the family and the raising of his kids,” Clarke lamented. “Absent father homes is a critical reason for where we are today.”
Marlow asked Clarke what he thought of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake giving her address in front of a tarp bearing the logo of Al Sharpton’s group the National Action Network. “Totally inappropriate. She is wrapping herself around the wrong person. She’s showing her true colors. It’s a sad day for the people of Baltimore. Anytime Al Sharpton is involved, nothing good comes out of that. Now this thing has turned into what I would say is the early stages of a race war. You are judged on the people you associate with,” Clarke asserted.
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Joel Pollak / Breitbart News
The man, who had brandished a knife, according to Ynet, was shot in the legs and taken to the hospital.
A correspondent from Breitbart News had passed through the same rail station, the Givat Hamivtar station, en route to the conference.
The attack is one of several recent efforts to target civilians at light rail stations. The Givat Hamivtar station is also near the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is a popular site among Americans studying abroad.
The conference, “Towards a New Law of War,” is being organized by the Shurat HaDin organization, which sues terrorist organizations and sponsors on behalf of victims. The terrorist was taken to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
Photo: file
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Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” in light of Sunday’s shooting at a Texas art exhibit featuring cartoons about Mohammed,
slammed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her speech last week criticizing the criminal justice system for mass incarceration and the over militarization of police departments.
King said, “When people like Hillary Clinton say that police should not have weapons of war, the fact is we are at war, we are at war with Islamist terrorism and we have to have all weapons and all resources available.”
He added, “We shouldn’t even be having a debate about whether that exhibition was provocative, being in America means that you can be provocative. This is the First Amendment, we cannot sacrifice our Constitution to Islamists or politically correct commentators.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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Belfer Center hosts a conference on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation; Alexei Arbatov urges U.S. and Russia to jointly counter terrorism, and Elbe Group asserts that the Ukraine crisis should not lead to suspension of U.S.-Russian cooperation against nuclear terrorism: read about these and other developments in the latest issue of the U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism Newsletter. Available in English and Russian.
myfoxny.com
Obama Unveils Nonprofit for Young Minorities After Baltimore Unrest
New York Times-13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday addressed the racially charged turmoil in Baltimore and what he has called the “slow-rolling ...
Does Obama's New York trip offer a glimpse into his post-White ...
Blog-Washington Post (blog)-9 hours ago
Blog-Washington Post (blog)-9 hours ago
President Barack Obama arrived in New York City Monday afternoon for several speaking engagements including a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman.
First stop, Mr. Obama was scheduled to launch the My Brother's Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit organization that is being established to continue the work of the My Brother's Keeper initiative started by the president.
He will then deliver remarks at Lehman College in the Bronx. Afterwards, he will travel to Manhattan for a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman.
He closes out his trip to the Big Apple with two Democratic National Committee events before returning to Washington, D.C.
Mr. Obama is trying to build the foundation for the legacy he wants to leave, putting in place decisions that will reverberate beyond his presidency.
In quick order, Obama decided to locate his presidential library in his Chicago hometown and on Monday he will announce the launch of a foundation to continue the work of a program he created to broaden educational and other opportunities for boys and young men of color.
"I'll be done being president in a couple of years, and I'll still be a pretty young man, not compared to you guys, but I'll still be pretty young," Obama told a group of middle-school students recently. "And so I'll go back to doing the kinds of work that I was doing before, just trying to find ways to help people, help young people get educations, and help people get jobs, and try to bring businesses into neighborhoods that don't have enough businesses. That's the kind of work that I really love to do."
Obama has seemed more focused than ever on legacy-building achievements since last fall, when the outcome of significant Democratic losses in the Senate put Republicans in control of both houses of Congress for the first time since he took office in 2009.
Shortly after the election rout, Obama announced controversial new steps to shield millions of people living in the country illegally from the threat of deportation, but his actions are being challenged in federal court.
He also announced a historic thaw in relations with Cuba, long isolated by the United States, and is leading other world powers in pursuit of a deal to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Obama would also count the 2010 health care law as a legacy item, provided that it is upheld when the Supreme Court rules by the end of June on another challenge to one of its key components. The law has survived multiple attempts by congressional Republicans to overturn all or just parts of it. Obama's legacy also will be shaped by failures and setbacks in domestic and foreign policy and the rancorous political partisanship he promised to heal but did not.
On Monday, Obama will head to New York City to speak at the launch of the My Brother's Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit organization that is being established to continue the work of the My Brother's Keeper initiative started by the president.
Under the year-old initiative, businesses, foundations and community groups coordinate spending on education and other programs to help minority males stay on the right track.
"This is an issue that the president intends to continue to be focused on long after he's left the Oval Office," spokesman Josh Earnest said, in part because of recent high-profile deaths of black men during encounters with police in Missouri, Ohio, New York City, South Carolina and Baltimore.
Besides the thought of possibly resuming his work as a community organizer, Obama also has spoken of a desire for a post-presidential return to the classroom. He once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
Justin Vaughn, who teaches political science at Boise State University in Idaho, said the issues presidents choose to work on out of office often stem from personal values or events that happened during the administration. Vaughn pointed to Obama's intent to stay involved with the My Brother's Keeper program and said that for a president who operated safely and cautiously while in office "maybe it's a hint that he would be more likely to wade into the issues that animated him as a young man."
Obama joked about his legacy and the health care law at a Washington black-tie dinner last week.
"The fact is, though, at this point, my legacy is finally beginning to take shape. The economy is getting better. Nine in 10 Americans now have health coverage," he said. "Today, thanks to Obamacare, you no longer have to worry about losing your insurance if you lose your job. You're welcome, Senate Democrats."
With the Associated Press contributed to this report
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Amid the raw emotions and festering wounds of recent racial unrest, President Obama on Monday helped create a new organization to help him devote his remaining time in the White House as well as his post-presidency to bringing more opportunities to young Hispanic and African-American men trapped in poverty and hopelessness.
In an appearance in New York, shortly after news that a police officer shot in the face in Queens had died, Mr. Obama said the “cycles of periodic conflict” playing out in a series of American cities and towns like Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., underscored the need for a national effort to close the gaps between the races and end generations of grievance.
“That sense of unfairness, and of powerlessness, of people not hearing their voices, that’s helped fuel some of the protests that we’ve seen in places like Baltimore, and Ferguson and right here in New York,” Mr. Obama told an audience at Lehman College in the Bronx. “In too many places in this country,” he added, “black boys and black men, Latino boys and Latino men, they experience being treated differently by law enforcement.”
Mr. Obama went to the Bronx to attend an event announcing the creation of an independent nonprofit organization that is a spinoff of his My Brother’s Keeper initiative focusing on young minority men. The new nonprofit, staked by more than $80 million contributed largely by major American corporations, in effect will form the nucleus of Mr. Obama’s post-presidential life as he begins to think ahead to how he will use his time after January 2017.
“This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency but for the rest of my life,” Mr. Obama said. “And the reason’s simple,” he added. Referring to some of the youth he had just met, he said, “We see ourselves in these young men. I grew up without a dad. I grew up lost sometimes and adrift, not having a sense of a clear path. The only difference between me and a lot of the other young men in this neighborhood and all across the country is that I grew up in an environment that was a little more forgiving.”
Reaching back to his own upbringing, Mr. Obama added that too many young men grow up without a caring family. “Really that’s what this comes down to,” he said. “Do we love these kids?”
He bemoaned the death of Brian Moore, a plainclothes New York police officer who died Monday from injuries sustained when he was shot on a street. The president said that police officers have dangerous, difficult jobs and that most are “good and honest and fair and care deeply about their communities” even as they put their lives on the line.
“Which is why in addressing the issues in Baltimore or Ferguson or New York, the point I made was that if we’re just looking at policing, we’re looking at it too narrowly,” Mr. Obama said. “If we ask the police to simply contain and control problems that we ourselves have been unwilling to invest and solve, that’s not fair to the communities, it’s not fair to the police.”
Organizers of the new alliance said they already had financial commitments from companies like American Express, Deloitte, Discovery Communications and News Corporation. The alliance will use the money to help companies address obstacles faced by young black and Hispanic men, to provide grants to programs for disadvantaged youths and to assist communities with efforts to aid their populations.
Joe Echevarria, former chief executive of Deloitte, will lead the new alliance. His leadership team will include the former basketball star Alonzo Mourning; the singer John Legend; Mr. Obama’s close friend John Rogers; and top executives at PepsiCo, News Corporation, Sprint, BET and Prudential Group Insurance.
The alliance’s advisory group will include Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative; former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey; former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; the former football player Jerome Bettis; the former basketball star Shaquille O’Neal; the former Obama adviser Melody C. Barnes; and the mayors of Indianapolis, Sacramento and Philadelphia.
“As a proud son of Baltimore, this week’s announcement comes at a time of unique and special resonance for me,” Broderick Johnson, who heads the My Brother’s Keeper task force at the White House, said in an email to supporters. “As the country reflects on our shared responsibility to ensure that opportunity reaches every young person, I urge everyone to look at their own capacity to make a difference.”
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WASHINGTON — During a training course on defending against knife attacks, a young Salt Lake City police officer asked a question: “How close can somebody get to me before I’m justified in using deadly force?”
Dennis Tueller, the instructor in that class more than three decades ago, decided to find out. In the fall of 1982, he performed a rudimentary series of tests and concluded that an armed attacker who bolted toward an officer could clear 21 feet in the time it took most officers to draw, aim and fire their weapon.
The next spring, Mr. Tueller published his findings in SWAT magazine and transformed police training in the United States. The “21-foot rule” became dogma. It has been taught in police academies around the country, accepted by courts and cited by officers to justify countless shootings, including recent high-profile episodes involving a homeless woodcarver in Seattle and a schizophrenic woman in San Francisco.
Now, amid the largest national debate over policing since the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, a small but vocal set of law enforcement officials are calling for a rethinking of the 21-foot rule and other axioms that have emphasized how to use force, not how to avoid it. Several big-city police departments are already re-examining when officers should chase people or draw their guns and when they should back away, wait or try to defuse the situation.
A selection of police shootings that have been reported by news organizations since Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Mo., in August.
“In a democratic society, people have a say in how they are policed, and people are saying that they are not satisfied with how things are going,” said Sean Whent, the police chief in Oakland, Calif. The city has a troubled history of police abuse and misconduct, but some policy changes and a new approach to training have led to sharp declines in the use of force, Chief Whent added.
Like the 21-foot rule, many current police practices were adopted when officers faced violent street gangs. Crime rates soared, as did the number of officers killed. Today, crime is at historic lows and most cities are safer than they have been in generations, for residents and officers alike. This should be a moment of high confidence in the police, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group. Instead, he said, policing is in crisis.
“People aren’t buying our brand. If it was a product, we’d take it out of the marketplace and re-engineer it,” Mr. Wexler said. “We’ve lost the confidence of the American people.”
Mr. Wexler’s group will meet with hundreds of police leaders in Washington this week to call for a new era of training, one that replaces truisms such as the 21-foot rule with lessons on defusing tense situations and avoiding violent confrontations. While the Justice Department and chiefs of some major police departments are supportive, the effort has not been widely embraced, at least so far. Some police unions and others have expressed skepticism, saying officers are being unfairly criticized.
“All this chatter just increases the idea that these encounters are avoidable and law enforcement is at fault,” said Jeff Roorda of the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, who said officers already thought about ways to avoid confrontations.
The typical police cadet receives about 58 hours of training on how to use a gun and another 49 hours on defensive tactics, according to a recent survey by Mr. Wexler’s group. By comparison, cadets spend just eight hours learning to calm situations before force is needed, a technique called de-escalation.
“Everything now is: You get there, you see a guy with a knife, you resolve it,” said Mr. Wexler, a former senior Boston police official. In many situations, he said, officers who find themselves 21 feet from a suspect can simply take a step backward to buy themselves time and safety.
Mr. Tueller’s article never proposed a bright line between a shooting that was justified and one that was not. In a telephone interview, Mr. Tueller, 63, said he had simply wanted to warn officers that they might be in danger far sooner than they realized. Twenty-one feet as a justification for shooting, he said, just became a “sticky idea” in policing.
The Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, said at a policing conference in February: “Sometimes it seems like our young officers want to get into an athletic event with people they want to arrest. They have a ‘don’t retreat’ mentality. They feel like they’re warriors and they can’t back down when someone is running from them, no matter how minor the underlying crime is.”
Those remarks came just weeks before a police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder for shooting an unarmed man in the back. The officer had stopped the man, Walter L. Scott, because of a broken brake light. When Mr. Scott ran, the officer gave chase, even though he had Mr. Scott’s driver’s license.
A recent survey of 281 police agencies found that young officers spent far more time training on firearms and tactics than on responding to a crisis or defusing tense situations.
Median hours
spent training on . . .
“In most cases, time is on our side,” Chief Whent, of Oakland, said in an interview. “We’re chasing someone whose name we know, and we know where they live.”
The Oakland department, which is still working to repair its troubled history, now prohibits officers from chasing suspects alone into yards or alleys if they might be armed. All officers receive training that emphasizes smart decision-making. After averaging about eight police shootings annually for many years, the city had none last year and cut in half the number of times officers drew their guns, Chief Whent said.
Whether a shooting is justified often hinges on the fraction of a second before the officer fires. In Cleveland in November, officers thought that 12-year-old Tamir Rice was wielding a pistol, not realizing he was playing with a replica. In Ferguson, Mo., an officer said he killed Michael Brown, 18, last summer because Mr. Brown had lunged at him after a scuffle through the window of his cruiser. In Seattle, the officer who shot the woodcarver said that the man had refused to drop the knife and that he had struck a “very confrontational posture.”
But earlier decisions can also be critical. In Cleveland, officers pulled their cars extremely close to Tamir, immediately increasing the possibility of a confrontation. In Ferguson, the officer, Darren Wilson, got out of his car after the tussle and pursued Mr. Brown alone. In Seattle, internal investigators chastised the officer, Ian Birk, for approaching the armed man and then using the 21-foot rule to justify shooting him.
“Officer Birk created the situation which he claims he had to use deadly force to get out of,” a police review board concluded. The officer resigned.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York announced a new training program for the Police Department in December as the city faced waves of protests over the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after a police chokehold. Seattle, which is under federal supervision after a Justice Department civil rights investigation, recently announced that its officers would also receive new training.
Mr. Tueller, the retired Salt Lake City instructor, said that he supported improving police training, but that officers were being unfairly blamed for the recent spate of fatal shootings. Most, if not all, would have been avoided if the suspects had obeyed orders, he said.
“We can’t get in people’s heads, and we can’t change behavior in many situations,” he said. “If they don’t comply, the officer has to have options. De-escalation is fine, to a point.”
Teaching officers to hesitate, Mr. Tueller said, could put them in danger.
That focus on officer safety has underpinned many police policies, but Mr. Wexler argues that it is a false choice. Officers in Britain, most of whom do not carry guns and typically face fewer suspects with firearms than some American police officers do, regularly confront suspects carrying knives, as do their counterparts here. British officers follow what is known as the National Decision Model, which emphasizes talking, patience and using no more force than necessary.
No police officer in England has died from a weapon attack during the past two years, according to the most recent published data, and none have been involved in fatal shootings during that period. (Officers with guns back up those who do not carry them.)
But Mr. Wexler acknowledged that changes in policing would be slow. “Not everybody’s going to accept it,” he said. “We’re asking them to rethink in a major way things they have done for 20 years.”
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