“When you live in Hollywood and work in the industry, you realize how endemic drug use really is – affecting everyone from aspiring actors and actresses to sound and lighting guys to agents and managers...”
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On Thursday morning, a life-size replica of an Oscar statue bent over and snorting two lines of cocaine was placed on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, ahead of Sunday night’s Academy Awards.
The street art is captioned, “Hollywood’s Best Party.”
“The piece is intended to draw attention to Hollywood’s hidden problem of drug addiction that effects [sic] hundreds of people in the showbiz industry and is largely ignored until the death of a high profile A list celebrity,” Plastic Jesus collaborator Nick Stern said in a statement to LAist.
This is the second time Plastic Jesus has constructed a satirical Oscar statue; last year, the artist put up a life-size statue with a heroin needle in its arm shortly after the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.
“When you live in Hollywood and work in the industry, you realize how endemic drug use really is – affecting everyone from aspiring actors and actresses to sound and lighting guys to agents and managers,” the artist told the New York Daily News last year. “But it’s only when you have a high profile death like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Whitney Houston that it hits the news.”
The statue’s appearance and message are unfortunately timely; on Thursday afternoon, 30-year-oldParks and Recreation producer and stand-up comedian Harris Wittels was found dead of a suspected overdose at his Los Feliz home.
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Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said “there is no question but that we’re losing” the war on terror in an interview set to broadcast on Friday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.”
“I can’t justify my comment numerically, but there is no question but that we’re losing. And the reason we’re losing is because of the lack of leadership. That’s the only reason. We have stepped back” he declared.
He continued “Defense investment in the United States has gone from 10% of GDP a year under Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, and today, it’s less than 4%. And they’ve sequestered, have a sequestration that tells the world that the United States’ economic situation, or attitudinally, is unwilling to make the kinds of investments that Eisenhower would talk about as peace through strength, where we — would be unambiguously a deterrent, a dissuasion just by our existence, and not by our actions, but by our, the very fact of that capability.” And “we’re telling Putin, in effect, that well, we don’t like what he’s doing in Ukraine, but oh, golly, we’ll try to figure out a way that maybe he won’t do that. Europe is so dependent on Russian energy and oil that they are really pretty much out of the game at the present time with respect to Ukraine. And Ukraine’s enormously important. Well, if you do what you’re doing on your economy, you do what you’re doing with respect to terrorism and ISIS and being ineffective, and then you do what you’re doing with respect to Ukraine, well, I think the world is going to say gee, we could do pretty much what we would want in the Baltics, for example, or in Central Asia, or in the Spratly Islands, where the Chinese might want to increase the level of pressure there against their neighbors.”
Rumsfeld was also asked about comments made by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani about President Obama’s love of America, Rumsfeld “I can’t say whether somebody loves something or doesn’t love something.” He then added, “but clearly, his behavior is that he feels that the United States has in the past, and is today –behaves in a way that is unhelpful. And he blames us, our country, for some of the circumstances in the world that are adverse to the world’s interest. Now if one wants to characterize that as not loving the country, I don’t know. I wouldn’t, myself, but I would say that he clearly, when he goes out and makes an apology tour, and when he has the press conferences he has, and says what he says, [that] we should get off our high horse, and he pretends that these are random acts, and he calls the Fort Hood a workplace violence, he’s clearly in a state of serious denial. I mean, he can’t be, if anyone in the world looking at what’s going on knows that the way he is describing it is not accurate.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will miss a crucial vote in the U.S. Senate next week. Senate Republicans will try to break the Democrat filibuster of a House-passed bill that funds the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) but blocks funding for President Obama’s executive amnesty. Rubio will miss the vote because he’ll be in New Hampshire, testing the waters for a potential presidential campaign.
“Rubio will be in New Hampshire early next week, where he’s going to miss at least one vote in the Senate on the DHS deadlock,” Politico’s Burgess Everett wrote on Friday morning in the tip sheet email by Politico, Huddle.
Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant confirms that Rubio will miss the vote, since he doesn’t expect it to pass.
“Yes, he’s expected to miss the same procedural vote on Monday afternoon that he’s already cast several times already and we know will not pass,” Conant said in an email to Breitbart News.
It’s not unusual for presidential candidates to miss Senate votes. Senator Rubio has not made a final decision about 2016, but he’s seriously considering running for president and taking the necessary steps to prepare a competitive campaign.As he travels the country meeting with voters, there will be no doubt where he stands on any important issues before the Senate. Regarding the underlying issue: Marco does not and will not support a clean DHS funding bill that does not repeal the Presidents unconstitutional executive order on immigration.
This comes after a dustup Rubio had during an appearance in Nevada, where he told reporters that Congress should pass a DHS funding bill without conditions on Obama’s executive amnesty.
“We have to fund Homeland Security,” Rubio said in a news conference there. “We can’t let Homeland Security shut down.”
Rubio could be taken to have said that Congress needs to pass a bill to fund Homeland Security and prevent a partial shutdown if Senate Democrats don’t break their filibuster by February 27. Rubio’s office quickly walked it back, with Conant sending quotes around to reporters saying that what Rubio in fact meant by “we can’t let homeland security shut down” is that the Democrats must stop their filibuster.
This all comes after a federal judge in Texas, Judge Andrew S. Hanen, put a hold on Obama’s executive amnesty as potentially illegal. Hanen issued an injunction ordering the administration to immediately halt all implementation plans for the executive amnesty—something the administration has reluctantly agreed to comply with.
With the Democrats and the administration on defense after Hanen’s ruling, pretty much all Republicans in Congress—including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker John Boehner and Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) among scores of rank-and-file members—have publicly pressured the Senate Democrats to drop their support of the Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) created filibuster.
It remains to be seen what will happen on Monday. But if any Senate Democrats vote with the Republicans against Obama’s executive amnesty—and many of them said they opposed Obama last Fall, even though they haven’t been following through—Rubio would look really badly for not being there to contribute his vote.
“Just when conservatives want to welcome Marco Rubio back into our good graces, he self-immolates over amnesty yet again,” nationally syndicated radio host Steve Deace, who is based in Iowa, told Bretibart News.
For Rubio to now oppose Republicans just as they seem poised to finally fight Obama on something isn’t just morally wrong, it’s political malfeasance. This will further diminish whatever fading chances he had in next year’s Iowa Caucuses.Conservatives here see amnesty as bad for rule of the law, and bad for the country economically and culturally. Not to mention the fact it’s the greatest Democrat voter drive of all time.So all Rubio is doing through his support of amnesty is to help those who oppose us on every other issue as well troll for more voters. Thus, Republicans like Rubio are ironically setting the stage for their own electoral defeats with the fool’s errand.
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There are limits. Administration officials have discarded the idea of President Barack Obama himself giving an Iran-related address to rebut the two speeches Netanyahu is to deliver during his early March visit. But other options remain on the table.
Among them: a presidential interview with a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama and Netanyahu, multiple Sunday show television appearances by senior national security aides and a pointed snub of America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, which is holding its annual meeting while Netanyahu is in Washington, according to the officials.
The administration has already ruled out meetings between Netanyahu and Obama, saying it would be inappropriate for the two to meet so close to Israel’s March 17 elections. But the White House is now doubling down on a cold-shoulder strategy, including dispatching Cabinet members out of the country and sending a lower-ranking official than normal to represent the administration at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the officials said.
Vice President Joe Biden will be away, his absence behind Netanyahu conspicuous in coverage of the speech to Congress. Other options were described by officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
Netanyahu’s plan for a March 3 address to a joint meeting of Congress has further strained already tense ties between the U.S. and Israel. Congressional Republicans orchestrated Netanyahu’s visit without consulting the White House or State Department, a move the Obama administration blasted as a break in diplomatic protocol. Some Democratic lawmakers say they will boycott the speech.
U.S. officials believe Netanyahu’s trip to Washington is aimed primarily at derailing a nuclear deal with Iran, Obama’s signature foreign policy objective. While Netanyahu has long been skeptical of the negotiations, his opposition has increased over what he sees as Obama’s willingness to make concessions that would leave Iran on the brink of being able to build a nuclear weapon. His opposition has intensified as negotiations go into overdrive with an end-of-March deadline for a framework deal.
“I think this is a bad agreement that is dangerous for the state of Israel, and not just for it,” Netanyahu said Thursday.
The difference of opinion over the deal has become unusually rancorous.
The White House and State Department have both publicly accused Israeli officials of leaking “cherry-picked” details of the negotiations to try to discredit the administration. And, in extraordinary admissions this week, the administration acknowledged that the U.S. is withholding sensitive details of the talks from Israel, its main Middle East ally, to prevent such leaks.
The rebukes have only emboldened the leader of Israel, whose country Iran has threatened to annihilate. He has a double-barrel attack on the Iran talks ready for when he arrives in Washington. Not only will he address Congress, he will also deliver similar remarks at the AIPAC conference, an event to which administrations past and present have traditionally sent top foreign policy officials.
But maybe not this year.
An AIPAC official said Friday that the group has not yet received any reply to its invitation for senior administration figures to attend the meeting that starts March 1. The official stressed that last-minute RSVPs are not unusual, but the White House has been signaling for some time that a Cabinet-level guest may not coming.
Instead, the administration is toying with the idea of sending newly installed Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken to speak to the conference, according to officials familiar with internal discussions on the matter. But it’s possible Treasury Secretary Jack Lew could attend.
Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, who have both previously addressed AIPAC, will be out of the country on foreign travel that appears to have been arranged to make them unavailable to speak. Biden will be visiting Uruguay and Guatemala on a trip that was announced after Netanyahu’s speech was scheduled, while the State Department announced abruptly this week that Kerry will be traveling to as-yet-determined destinations for the duration of the AIPAC conference.
Obama spoke to AIPAC in 2012, while he was in the midst of his re-election campaign.
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Father Rosica serves as assistant in the Holy See Press Office in charge of speaking to the English language press. A Canadian himself, Rosica is also founder of the Canadian Catholic cable network called Salt & Light. Though Rosica publicly defends the right to freedom of speech and press, he is attempting to silence the blogger who has criticized him.
On February 17, Rosica’s lawyers sent a letter to David Domet, who blogs at a site called Vox Cantoris, demanding that Domet take down certain blog posts they say malign Rosica’s character. The letter says:
Each of the said statements, separately and collectively, expressly and by way of innuendo, are false and defamatory in that they suggest that Fr. Rosica is dishonest; they suggest that Fr. Rosica is untrustworthy; they suggest that Fr. Rosica is willing to act unethically to further his own agenda and to do so at the expense of others.
At issue are a number of posts criticizing Rosica for his role in the unusually contentious Extraordinary Synod on the Family at the Vatican last October, which drew global attention to the debate within the Catholic hierarchy over communion for the divorced and civilly remarried and the Church’s approach to homosexual unions. Some feared, and others hoped, that the Church was set to change traditional doctrine. The blog Vox Cantoris claimed that Father Rosica, who was one of the official spokesmen of the Synod, was central to efforts to change at least Church practice, if not Church teaching.
Rosica’s letter pointed to nine specific posts, among them:
Make no mistake friends, Tom Rosica and the rest of them are not going to go quietly in the night. They are going to work insidiously over the next year so that there (sic) heterodox view of Catholicism is enacted, not in doctrine, but in praxis. For Father Rosica, it is but a continuing journey.In a stunning rebuke of President of the Internet Father Thomas Rosica’s pronouncement that the Holy Family was “irregular” in order to justify the homoheresy of the Synod on the Family; Pope Francis today at his audience contradicted the earlier reports by the Vatican English-language spokesman and Executive Director of Canada’s Pepper and Darkness Catholic Channel of No Hope and has pronounced the Holy Family was indeed, “regular.”
American audiences might find the posts inflammatory and perhaps uncharitable, but not legally actionable. In the United States, bloggers may say practically anything they want about a public figure. But this case is being brought in Canada, where Father Rosica is a priest, against a Canadian blogger.
A similar suit was brought by a Canadian priest against the Canadian news and opinion website LifeSiteNews. The priest accused LifeSiteNews of defaming him when they suggested he did not comply with Catholic teaching on abortion. The suit dragged on for several years and ended up costing LifeSiteNews more than $250,000. The suit only ended when the priest died unexpectedly.
Father Rosica is no stranger to intramural Catholic hostilities. He has criticized LifeSiteNews and other conservative Catholic outlets for what he considers their uncivil approach to public discourse. This came to a head when Cardinal O’Malley of Boston allowed, and even participated in, a public Mass of burial for Senator Edward Kennedy, who had been perhaps the most visible Catholic abortion supporter in the United States.
In their letter, Father Rosica’s lawyers say that Rosica “is incurring and has incurred damages as a result of the aforementioned false and defamatory statements. These damages include damages to his reputation, work and service to the church.” They charge that the blog posts have also caused Rosica’s television network to lose subscribers.
Rosica’s lawyers are demanding that the blogger “immediately and publicly retract all statements on the blog regarding Fr. Rosica and apologize to him on the blog.” If the demands are not met by February 22, “we will seek instructions to commence an action against you,” they state. They have given him five days to comply, but even if he does, the lawyers say they may still sue.
It is not clear at this point what the proprietor of Vox Cantoris will do. He identifies himself as aCatholic family man without the means to defend himself against such charges.
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Reuters/Tomas Bravo
World banking giant, HSBC, got caught with its hand in a money laundering scheme that helped drug cartels turn nearly a billion dollars in narco-cash into gold. HSBC only faced a fine for their complicity, but members of money-laundering organizations (MLO) are now facing up to twenty years.
Cartel members like Don “Walt Disney” Walt and Carlos Parra-Pedroza have allegedly laundered more than $101 million into cartel affiliated banks, according to the Daily Beast’s Michael Daly.
Things were not easy for Walt, who was reportedly in fear for his life if a drug transaction took even one extra day in processing. He complained that, “cartel kings who lack even a grammar-school education had difficulty understanding complications that arose in the MOL’s generally simple scheme: Drug proceeds were used to purchase 24K scrap gold and gold jewelry, which was Fed Ex-ed to a refinery where it was melted down. The refinery then paid the prevailing price per ounce to the supposed suppliers in Mexico.”
“The bad thing is that these guys don’t even know the word ‘school,’ only know how to shoot,” Don Walt said on the recording with a confidential informant. “The reason why I’m scared is because then they’re going to cut our balls off without it being our fault. They’re good at beating everyone up…And they’re good at saying, ‘It was you.’”
It appears that HSBC got off the hook relatively unscathed. All of its money laundering for the MLO did not land a single bank official in jail. Instead HSBC received a fine. The criminal complaint against Walt and his co-conspirators is 331 pages in length. Compare that to the 30 page complaint filed against HSBC who laundered nearly eight times as much cash as the MLOs.
Don Walt pleaded guilty and could face up to twenty years in jail.
Read more details about this scheme at the Daily Beast.
Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
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After consulting with the State Department, the university announced Thursday that it would drop the ban put into effect earlier in the month and continue to allow Iranian students to enroll in graduate classes in chemical, electrical, computer, mechanical, and industrial engineering, microbiology, physics, and polymer science.
According to WWLP.com, UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy apologized for the ban, though many faculty wanted to hear more than an apology.
“I have accepted responsibility for the way it came out,” Subbaswamy said. “We’ve come together as a community, and we now understand how to move forward. That will be much more inclusive, much more consultation, in terms of how we comply with the law.”
“Iranian students are the 3rd largest foreign cohort of students,” computer science professor Emery Berger said. “You know, we are concerned that this is giving people the wrong impression. This should’ve never ever happened, and it can’t happen again. And people who are responsible should pay some kind of price.”
As UPI reported, the university’s announcement of the ban was put into place in keeping with the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 that stipulates that Iranians cannot be issued a visa to study in the United States if they plan to enter the nuclear or energy fields.
The act bans providing “through a direct operational role or by other means…technological knowledge or equipment not previously available to Iran that could contribute materially to the ability of Iran to develop nuclear weapons or related technologies.”
However, the State Department reportedly told NBC News that a blanket ban is a misleading characterization of the law and that applicants to the graduate programs can be evaluated on an individual basis.
On its website, the university announced the reversal of the ban by stating, “The decision to revise the university’s approach follows consultation with the State Department and outside counsel.”
“This approach reflects the university’s longstanding commitment to wide access to educational opportunities,” said Michael Malone, vice chancellor for research and engagement. “We have always believed that excluding students from admission conflicts with our institutional values and principles. It is now clear, after further consultation and deliberation, that we can adopt a less restrictive policy.”
Leila Golestaneh Austin, executive director of the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans – which urged UMass to reconsider its policy – said she was satisfied with the reversal of the ban.
“What we were concerned about there was the broad application of the law,” Austin told NBC News. “If they had any concerns about liability, which I understand, they should have talked to the State Department. It sounds like that’s what happened.”
As CNSNews.com reported, the announcement of the ban sparked a backlash on social media, including a petition urging the State Department and the university to reverse the policy.
UMass, according to NBC News, has about 60 Iranian students on its Amherst campus, most of which are in graduate level programs. More than 10,000 Iranian nationals are currently studying in U.S. universities, mostly in graduate programs. More than half of these students are in engineering programs.
Other universities with policies that address Iranian students in relation to the U.S. sanctions are Virginia Commonwealth University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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Columnist Charles Krauthammer declared that Europe and the US were engaging in a “complete sellout” of Ukraine that was “the worst sellout of a European country since the Munich Agreement of 1938″ on Friday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel.
“There’s a complete sellout of the Ukrainian Republic by the Germans, and the French, and the British, and us to Russia. Even apart from the violation of the armistice in which the Russians essentially expel the last remaining Ukrainians, before the agreement was implemented, when it was signed, it gave control of the border over to Russia…it controls who goes out. It’s now pouring in weapons and men. It’s the worst sellout of a European country since the Munich Agreement of 1938″ Krauthammer stated.
Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace added, “I think the question is how long does the US and the Europeans sit here and say ‘we’re waiting to see if this so-called peace deal works.’ It’s clearly not working. Do they quickly go to sanctions? Will sanctions work? Probably not. I think there is a sense that it’s time to look at other options. It’s unclear though whether any of these leaders are going to act on what those other options would be.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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Gutierrez, who vowed that pro-amnesty advocates would not be “deterred” by Judge Andrew Hanen’s injunction, told MSNBC’s Jose Diaz Balart that the “militancy that will be activated throughout the immigrant community in terms of voter registration, voter particiaption and voter anger at the Republican Party… I think you are going to see it in an unprecedented manner.”
“You may think you won today, but your victory is going to be short-lived, and November 2016 is coming right around the corner–and this will come back to haunt you,” Gutierrez, who has urged illegal immigrants to get amnesty to punish Americans against illegal immigration at the ballot box, warned Republicans.
He also accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), who led the fight against Obama’s executive amnesty, of disrespecting Obama and the office and the institution of the presidency by referring to Obama as “Barack Obama.” Abbott, though, has referred to Obama as “President Obama.”
“President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat, and Judge Hanen’s decision rightly stops the President’s overreach in its tracks,” Abbott said after Hanen issued his injunction. “We live in a nation governed by a system of checks and balances, and the President’s attempt to by-pass the will of the American people was successfully checked today. The District Court’s ruling is very clear — it prevents the President from implementing the policies in ‘any and all aspects.’”
Gutierrez vowed that he will help DREAMers who were scheduled to apply for the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on Wednesday secure documents and fill out their applications even though the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would comply with the injunction and not take applications until the case is resolved.
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“We’re here today because we all understand that in dealing with violent extremism, that we need answers that go beyond a military answer. We need answers that go beyond force.”
— Vice President Biden at the Summit on Countering
George F. Will writes a twice-weekly column on politics and domestic and foreign affairs. He began his column with The Post in 1974, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977. He is also a contributor to FOX News’ daytime and primetime programming.
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Violent Extremism , Feb. 17
The Obama administration’s semantic somersaults to avoid attaching the adjective “Islamic” to the noun “extremism” are as indicative as they are entertaining. Progressives who believe that dialogues, conversations, engagements, conferences and summits are keys to pacifying the world have a peculiar solemnity about using certain words that are potentially insensitive. This mentality is perhaps especially acute in digitally drenched people who believe that Twitter and other social media have the power to tame turbulent reality.
The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is preparing to go toe-to-toe with the Islamic State using, among other munitions, “more than 350 State Department Twitter accounts.” According to Richard Stengel , undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, “We’re getting beaten on volume, so the only way to compete is by aggregating, curating and amplifying existing content.”
Stengel, the Times reported, “said the new campaign against the Islamic State would carry out strategies now routinely employed by many businesses and individuals to elevate their digital footprints.” As managing editor of Time, Stengel’s messaging included the 2006 Person of the Year cover featuring a mirror-like panel, with the word “YOU” written on it, the message being that everyone was Person of the Year.
U.S. “countermessaging” against the Islamic State will use up to 140 characters to persuade people tempted to join in its barbarism — beheadings, crucifixions, burning people alive, etc. — that these behaviors are not nice. Stengel is upbeat about beating the Islamic State: “These guys aren’t Buzzfeed; they’re not invincible in social media.”
Beyond a coming fusillade of tweets, the administration’s arsenal against the Islamic State includes the Atrocities Prevention Board (APB). Its pedigree is better than its accomplishments.
After genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, and a 2008 government task force on the prevention of atrocities, in 2009 President Obama brought into his administration Samantha Power, the author of a book on the policy challenge of genocide, “A Problem from Hell.” She now is U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , where she speaks with a notable absence of the administration’s usual mushiness. She propelled Obama’s 2012 announcement, at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial Museum, of the APB. Obama’s words were harbingers of what was to come:
“Remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Awareness without action changes nothing. In this sense, ‘never again’ is a challenge to us all — to pause and to look within.”
To what ? Launched by this summons to introspection, the APB was therefore from inception in danger of being a hollow gesture, an exercise in right-minded awareness. In addition to the incurable mismatch between the APB’s negligible means and its ambitious goals, the board has been wounded by two U.S. atrocity-related decisions. One resulted in what can be called a calamitous success, the other is an ongoing refutation of the APB’s relevance.
Having declared the prevention of mass atrocities “a core national security interest,” in 2011 Obama acted on the “R2P” principle — responsibility to protect. He would protect Libyans, particularly the people of Benghazi, from the government of Moammar Gaddafi. This quickly became a protracted attempt to achieve regime change by assassinating him with NATO fighter bombers. Today Libya is a failed state that imports and exports Islamic extremism, and no one accepts responsibility for protecting the nation’s remnants.
Never mind. In 2012, a White House news release proclaimed that the administration “has amassed an unprecedented record of actions taken to protect civilians and hold perpetrators of atrocities accountable,” specifically citing “leadership of a successful international military effort to protect civilians in Libya.”
When the APB was created, the Syrian civil war had resulted in approximately 9,000 deaths, one-23rd of the total that chemical weapons, barrel bombs and conventional weapons have caused, so far. Decent people differ about what the administration could or should do about this. But surely it should bring its language into conformity with its capabilities and intentions. Specifically, it should stop saying things it does not mean, such as the prevention of atrocities being “a core national security interest.” And it should stop the gaseous rhetoric about countering terrorism by elevating digital footprints, and about going “beyond force” by matching the messaging prowess of Buzzfeed. The APB does not even have a Twitter account. Perhaps this is the problem.
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Washington Post (blog)
FBI's James Comey on law enforcement and race relations
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· · · · ·
February 19, 2015|7:24 am
On February 12, 2015 – exactly 150 years after Abraham Lincoln's final birthday – Federal Bureau of Investigations Director James B. Comey gave one of the most wise and relevant perspectives on the racial issues of 2015 in a 23 minute speech at the Jesuit Georgetown University. Even through the media sound-bites, the timeliness and truth of Director's comments were cogent, clear, and widely praised. I was especially moved because the basic fresh perspective he gave on racial understanding was virtually the same as what I said just 20 days earlier right here in an essay in the Christian Post! (Does FBI Director Comey read the Christian Post?)
- (By CP Cartoonist Rod Anderson)Paul de Vries is an exclusive CP columnist.
Three times in his speech Director Comey referenced the tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Three times he also talked of the devotion and integrity of assassinated of New York Police Department Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. Officer Ramos was a student in a community chaplaincy training program I help lead, and the very time he was gunned down his teacher Chaplain Marcos A. Miranda and I were meeting just blocks away. Chaplain Miranda and I were preparing to honor Officer Ramos for his excellent achievement, completing this training to represent the Lord's presence more directly in his life, including in his service as part of the NYPD, New York's finest. As we were preparing, we heard and saw NYPD helicopters flying back and forth over us and wondered what happened.
Even otherwise brilliant people can be so foolish that they blindly rely on false stereotypes of others. Popular stereotypes are unconscionable and horrible replacements for accurate perception and true understanding. When I have shared Officer Ramos' testimony – how he saw his service to NYPD as also service to Christ, protecting people and preventing crime as Godly service, bringing to the streets of New York a special depth of love of people and devotion to what is good – people generally react with surprise. Those with deep hostility to police initially resist the truth about Officer Ramos. Others are pleased to hear of his 24/7 incarnated faith.
Nobody hearing about Officer Ramos' street-level faith says, "Of course!" except for members of his family, leaders of his church, or fellow officers of the 84th Precinct. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has for good reason posthumously given Officer Ramos a promotion to "detective" and also named him "Honorary Chaplain of the 84th Precinct." There is now a plaque in the precinct station to remind everyone.
How little most people see, know, or even think about the kind of devotion needed for any of these uniformed public servants to move "toward danger, without regard for the politics or passions or race of those who needed their help – knowing the risks inherent in their work," as FBI Director Comey said.
This phenomenal sensory blindness – these profound misunderstandings – is what Director Comey most cogently addressed, and which I addressed in the earlier essay, too. On 16 occasions in 23 minutes he referenced the priorities and challenges of people literally seeing each other anew, with truth, respect, and decency. For example, Director Comey says,
We must work – in the words of New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton –to really see each other. Perhaps the reason we struggle as a nation is because we've come to see only what we represent, at face value, instead of who we are. We simply must see the people we serve. But the "seeing" needs to flow in both directions. Citizens also need to really see the men and women of law enforcement. They need to see what police see through the windshields of their squad cars, or as they walk down the street.
Finding more truthful and respectful ways of seeing other people is a vibrant potential God has given to all of us. This perceptual power is modelled in the way we see printed language. In our first language, we begin learning shapes that can represent sounds – and in combinations they can represent words and meaning. Initially as children we spell the words out as we recognize them and then put the words together in the sentences we read. Mature readers do not focus their eyes on individual letters, or even individual words, but we focus on whole phrases. Then when we learn a new language we learn additional visual patterns to recognize.
In a similar way, we can see physical phenomena and people in new ways, based upon new interests, experiences, and understandings changing even our most elemental perceptual experiences. With new experiences, interests, and understandings, our minds can create new concepts – what famed child psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) called new "schemata" –
that then open us to more developed sensory perceptions.
that then open us to more developed sensory perceptions.
For example, when we learn to identify different species of trees – by their leaves or bark –
we then see them as "Sugar Maples" or "Red Oaks," not merely as "trees." Similarly, when our true interests are less defined in terms of race than character or conduct, our eyes can be more attentive to character and conduct than to racial categorization. And even the racial categorizations can be cleansed of mistaken stereotypes.
we then see them as "Sugar Maples" or "Red Oaks," not merely as "trees." Similarly, when our true interests are less defined in terms of race than character or conduct, our eyes can be more attentive to character and conduct than to racial categorization. And even the racial categorizations can be cleansed of mistaken stereotypes.
Post-Modern thinkers such as Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996), Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) and others pointed out measurable changes in human sense perception initiated by historic changes in scientific paradigms. These pioneer thinkers brought Piaget's insights into the adult and professional learning experiences. Earlier, most Modern thinkers had assumed that human sense perception was more or less objective, but not shaped by people's theories, beliefs, or values.
Kuhn and Feyerabend overstated their cases, and they were too subjectivist, but they were right on the basic dynamics shaping of our sensory perceptions. Moreover, their own theories transformed people's sense perceptions concerning the fields of science and the humanities. Inspired by Kuhn, Feyerabend and others, intellectuals in every university department now regularly find perception-transforming roles of new paradigms within their fields of study.
These fascinating Post-Modern discoveries, while shifting us beyond Modernism, were really a vivid return to the Pre-Modern, especially the Biblical perspectives. There are numerous references throughout the Bible to people's sensory perceptions changing, generally as a consequence of changes in their relationship with God, or their behavior, beliefs, or values. Consider, for example, after giving an intensely potent restatement of the Gospel, the Apostle Paul then concludes:
Therefore, from now on we look at no one according to the flesh. Even though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now no longer. Therefore, whoever is in Christ – new creation! The old passed away. Look! The new has come! (a literal translation of II Corinthians 5:16-17)
How we look at other people matters – to them, to God, to us. The Gospel liberates people from looking merely at other people's flesh, as Paul says. The point: Coming to know Jesus should measurably change our sense perceptions of other people – and such sensory changes should be part of Christian discipleship. Then we will no longer need constantly to re-debate or rehash the most basic truths of human dignity and justice. Also, believers can help set the standard of transformed perception of all people. Others can look at people fairly, too, but the Gospel especially empowers believers to this radical, redemptive, perceptual change.
NYPD Commissioner Bratton and FBI Director Comey are quite right about present racial issues. To address racism we need changes at the most basic levels – especially in our sense perceptions. There are exercises that can help create perceptual change, as I mentioned in my previous article. Such transformations of sense perception ought to be seen as a primary element of Christian living.
Let us rise to this call to corrected vision – by God's grace redeeming our sense perceptions for our world, for our country, for our communities, for our families, for ourselves – because…we look at no one according to the flesh... Look! The new has come!
Dr. Paul de Vries is the president of New York Divinity School, and a pastor, speaker and author. Since 2004, he has served on the Board of the National Association of Evangelicals, representing 40 million evangelical Americans.
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Comey: U.S. at ‘crossroads’ on race relations(2:17)
FBI Director James Comey speaks about racial tensions, saying we can ignore these problems or “we can choose ... an open and honest discussion about what our relationship is today.” (AP)
In the days of the civil rights movement, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was focused not on the quest for justice but on his fear of Communists.
In “Parting the Waters,” the first volume of his magisterial biography of Martin Luther King Jr., Taylor Branch tells of a 1956 Eisenhower administration meeting during which Hoover “expressed no sympathy for civil rights and painted an alarming picture of subversive elements among the integrationists.”
E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column and on the PostPartisan blog. He is also a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a government professor at Georgetown University and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC’s “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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As an example, Hoover informed the Cabinet that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley — the patriarch who became a bane of the left — had come close to publicly criticizing President Eisenhower for not taking stronger action after the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi.
“I hasten to say that Mayor Daley is not a Communist,” Hoover said, “but pressures engineered by the Communists were brought to bear upon him.”
The absurdity of his feeeling it necessary to recite the words “Mayor Daley is not a Communist” tells us what we need to know about Hoover’s frame of mind.
Last Thursday’s speech by FBI Director James Comey at Georgetown University was remarkable on its own terms, but revolutionary in the context of his agency’s history. You wonder if Hoover would have accused Comey of subversive intent.
“All of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty,” Comey said. “At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.”
He explained why a copy of Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s approval of Hoover’s request to wiretap Dr. King sits on his desk: “The entire application is five sentences long, it is without fact or substance, and is predicated on the naked assertion that there is ‘Communist influence in the racial situation.’” He calls agents’ attention to the document, he said, “to ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them.”
And who would think an FBI director would cite “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” a song from the Broadway hit “Avenue Q?” His point: “Many people in our white-majority culture have unconscious racial biases and react differently to a white face than a black face.”
Yet Comey was unabashedly pro-cop. He fondly recalled his grandfather, William J. Comey, who rose to head the Yonkers, N.Y., police department. “Law enforcement is not the root cause of problems in our hardest-hit neighborhoods,” the FBI director said. “Police officers — people of enormous courage and integrity, in the main — are in those neighborhoods, risking their lives, to protect folks from offenders who are the product of problems that will not be solved by body cameras.”
Comey wasn’t just giving a let’s-respect-each-other speech. He argued that the problems of race, racism and injustice go deeper than policing. His two most concrete suggestions were a call for “more and better data related to those we arrest, those we confront for breaking the law and jeopardizing public safety, and those who confront us,” and support for President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative.
He urged attention to the “the disproportionate challenges faced by young men of color,” noting that “the percentage of young men not working or not enrolled in school is nearly twice as high for blacks as it is for whites.” The goal should be to “grow drug-resistant and violence-resistant kids.”
Let’s face it: If Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder had given the same speech (and they’ve said many of these things), the response would have been political and in some cases nasty. This only underscores why it was essential for the words to come from a white director of the FBI.
Was Comey trying to shift some of the heat away from police and toward society as a whole? No, because he was clear on law enforcement’s need to examine and reform itself. But yes, he was trying to concentrate our energies on the root causes of crime, and good for him.
It’s worth remembering that liberals were once attacked for being “root causers” trying to downplay the problem of criminality itself. But maybe it takes a cop’s grandson to prod us to act on both the problem of racism and the economic, social and familial challenges faced by young African-American men.
In this sense, Comey really is a subversive. He’s trying to subvert and thus transform a debate that leads us into ideological cul-de-sacs. He must stay at it.
Read more from E.J. Dionne’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
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Washington (CNN)FBI Director James Comey took on the issue of police and race relations Thursday challenging police to avoid "lazy mental short-cuts" that can lead to bias in the way they treat blacks and other minorities.
While he asked minority communities dealing with issues of high crime to also recognize the inherent dangers officers face in trying to keep them safe, Comey was also critical of the history law enforcement in the country, which he described as "not pretty," but also the racial tensions have plagued American society as a whole.
"I worry that this incredibly important and difficult conversation about race and policing has become focused entirely on the nature and character of law enforcement officers when it should also be about something much harder to discuss," Comey said. "Debating the nature of policing is very important but I worry that it has become an excuse at times to avoid doing something harder."
Comey also name checked the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown as well as slain police officers NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, a reference to what has been a bloody and tumultuous year between minority communities and law enforcement.
The speech before students at Georgetown University was unusual for Comey and the FBI, which usually only narrowly discusses race issues when dealing with civil rights investigations.
This agency in particular for decades had a conflicted relationship with African Americans, spending years monitoring and investigating civil rights leaders including Rev. Martin Luther King on suspicion of ties to communism. At the same time, the FBI played an integral role in federal probes of racist domestic terrorist attacks by those opposed to the civil rights movement.
Upon taking office in 2013, Comey ordered that new FBI recruits visit the MLK Memorial in Washington as way to remind agents of the dangers of excessive power. With the same aim, the bureau has required agents to visit the U.S. Holocaust Museum.
Comey, in his speech, drew laughs by invoking lines from a song in the Broadway musical Avenue Q, titled "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist." He said police officers aren't inherently prone to bias, any more than the rest of society.
Officers "don't sign up to be cops in New York or Chicago or L.A. because they want to help white people or black people. They sign up because they want to help all people. And they do some of the hardest, most dangerous policing to protect people of color."
He blamed problems with bias on "lazy mental short-cuts" that cops sometimes take. "Police officers on patrol in our nation's cities often work in environments where a hugely disproportionate percentage of street crime is committed by young men of color. Something happens to people of good will working in that environment," Comey said.
As a result, he said, officers often treat young black men, who may look like others they have locked up, differently from young white men walking down the same street.
"We need to come to grips with the fact that this behavior complicates the relationship between police and communities they serve," Comey said.
Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama have addressed the issue in similar terms and received criticism for appearing not to sufficiently back police officers. Comey attempted an even-handed tone, raising the issue that minority communities also needed to get to know police officers working in their communities.
Comey suggested some fixes to the help the relationship.
For one, he said, police departments need to report all shootings by officers so the FBI can produce reliable nationwide statistics. He noted that while he can check <a href="http://Amazon.com" rel="nofollow">Amazon.com</a> to see exactly how many copies a book title has sold, "It's ridiculous I can't tell how many people were shot by police."
He also called for better training for police departments, particularly small jurisdictions, to help officers have better judgment in dealing with the communities they serve.
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The hostility that Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators directed at Attorney General Eric Holder when he spoke openly – and truthfully — about racial profiling was clearly related to the fact that Mr. Holder is black. How will the same politicians and talking heads respond to a similarly frank speech that the F.B.I. director James B. Comey, who is white, delivered at Georgetown University today?
Mr. Comey shared several “hard truths,” including that: “At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.”
He got right to the point on the racist history of the F.B.I. itself, describing the decision to wiretap Martin Luther King as unjustified — and the attorney general’s order legitimizing the action as “without fact or substance.” Mr. Comey said that he keeps the order on his desk and requires agents to study this shameful period as part of their training. “The reason I do those things,” he said, “is to ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them.’’
He got right to the point on the racist history of the F.B.I. itself, describing the decision to wiretap Martin Luther King as unjustified — and the attorney general’s order legitimizing the action as “without fact or substance.” Mr. Comey said that he keeps the order on his desk and requires agents to study this shameful period as part of their training. “The reason I do those things,” he said, “is to ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them.’’
The second hard truth, he said, is that we all carry unconscious biases around with us and that “many people in our white-majority culture have unconscious racial biases and react differently to a white face than a black face.” As a way of leavening the example, he cited the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the hit Broadway musical “Avenue Q.”
Maybe it’s a factWe all should faceEveryone makes judgmentsBased on race.
The challenge for all of us, and especially law enforcement, is to get beyond the “lazy mental shortcuts” that too easily become a matter of habit.
“A mental shortcut becomes almost irresistible and maybe even rational by some lights. The two young black men on one side of the street look like so many others the officer has locked up. Two young white men on the other side of the street — even in the same clothes — do not. The officer does not make the same association about the two white guys, whether that officer is white or black. And that drives different behavior. The officer turns toward one side of the street and not the other. We need to come to grips with the fact that this behavior complicates the relationship between police and the communities they serve.”
He allowed that police officers can’t be held responsible for the social factors that generate crime — joblessness, poor education and the absence of role models. Nevertheless, he said: “Those of us in law enforcement must redouble our efforts to resist bias and prejudice. We must better understand the people we serve and protect — by trying to know, deep in our gut, what it feels like to be a law-abiding young black man walking on the street and encountering law enforcement. We must understand how that young man may see us. We must resist the lazy shortcuts of cynicism and approach him with respect and decency.”
That’s not much to ask. And it’s what African-Americans all across the country have been demanding for a very long time.
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It’s either an extraordinary coincidence or an act of fate. Over the past 10 days, two unusually dangerous crises have come to a head in Europe. One concerns Greece, where an unresolved economic disaster could lead to a European and even an international financial crash. The other concerns Ukraine, where a Russian invasion could lead to a European and even an international war. They are very different but in one sense similar: Both hang on the decisions and diplomacy of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.Read full article >>
 Washington Post (blog) |
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A Russia-backed rebel looks at the flag covered body of an Ukrainian serviceman in Debaltseve, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 20, 2015. After weeks of relentless fighting, the embattled Ukrainian rail hub of Debaltseve fell Wednesday to Russia-backed separatists, who hoisted a flag in triumph over the town. The Ukrainian president confirmed that he had ordered troops to pull out and the rebels reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Five hypothermia deaths were recorded in Tennessee and two in Illinois on Thursday as temperatures hit record lows across many parts of the eastern U.S.
Despite his current role as the head of a terror organisation that has brought rape and massacre to vast areas of Syria and Iraq, Baghdadi's tutors describe him as a 'well behaved' student.
 Channel 4 News |
Hack gave US and British spies access to billions of phones - Intercept
Reuters FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. and British spies hacked into the world's biggest maker of phone SIM cards, allowing them to potentially monitor the calls, texts and emails of billions of mobile users around the world, an investigative news website ... Rights groups call for action over reported US-UK phone hackU-T San Diego US, UK spies hacked firm for access to dataHindustan Times NSA helped British spies hack Dutch company to eavesdrop on phone users ...National Post The Independent- Financial Times-Quartz all 664 news articles » |
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Syria crisis: UN to publish secret 'war criminal' lists
BBC News United Nations investigators are poised to reveal the names of an estimated 200 individuals suspected of committing war crimes in Syria. The move would reverse a long-held policy of not naming alleged war criminals in the Syrian conflict. Investigators said ... UN panel: Name alleged perpetrators of war crimes in SyriaDaily Mail UN investigators to publish Syria war crimes suspect namesReuters Africa all 108 news articles » |
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - International investigators looking into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine last July met for their first joint consultation this week, examining cracks and impact patterns on the jet's fuselage, Dutch officials said on Friday.
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 New York Daily News |
Obama blasts 'bamboozlin' Republicans at DNC meeting
New York Daily News JIM LO SCALZO/EPA The President used his time at the DNC Winter Meeting to poke fun at Republicans for claiming that they are the party of the middle class, saying that they are 'bamboozlin' folks.' President Obama on Friday bashed the GOP for ... Obama Gives Rand Paul Shout-Out at DNC Meeting: He's an 'Interesting Guy'Mediaite Obama: Rand Paul Is An 'Interesting Guy'Breitbart News all 15 news articles » |
BEIRUT — The Islamic State is currently bearing the brunt of a military campaign involving some 62 countries from around the world. The United States air force, together with regional partners, is bombing it from the air. On the ground it is surrounded by hostile forces: the Kurdish YPG, the Peshmerga, the armies of Syria and Iraq and the beleaguered Free Syrian Army.
It was presumably with at least some of this knowledge in hand that three British schoolgirls set off for Turkey this week with the apparent intention of crossing into Syria and joining the jihadist group.
The death of a prosecutor investigating links between Buenos Aires and Tehran has quickly gone from being a criminal case to a political affair
Silently marching through Buenos Aires in the heavy rain, the mourners remembered a father, an ex-husband, a son, a colleague.
With 400,000 people standing alongside them seeking justice for Alberto Nisman, it took the group of prosecutors, Nisman’s former wife and his daughters, mother and relatives, almost two and a half hours to walk the 10 blocks that separate the Plaza de los dos Congresos from the Plaza de Mayo.
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(BRUSSELS) — Greece and its European creditors have reached a deal over the country’s request to extend its bailout.
An official close to discussions, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly, says a deal was reached between the two sides at Friday’s meeting of finance ministers in Brussels.
The official said that, as part of the agreement, Greece could “present a first list of reform measures by Monday” for the country’s debt inspectors to assess.
If the officials from the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission, say the list is acceptable, then another eurozone finance meeting could take place via conference call Tuesday.
Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to extend Greece's bailout by four months, officials have said.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry says the release of scores of names would be intended to increase pressure on world powers to act.
LONDON — British journalists have never been held in the highest regard. But the industry appeared to hit a new low in 2011 when it emerged during a phone hacking scandal that reporters at a British tabloid had hacked into a murdered teenager's cellphone.Read full article >>
What does the Islamic State really want? The extremist militants have carved a fiefdom of their own in the imploding nation-states of Syria and Iraq. They have proclaimed a caliphate and lured thousands of foreign fighters to their ranks. They have butchered untold numbers of innocents, enslaved women and beheaded hostages. But to what end?Read full article >>
Interim measures will mean officers cannot use Ripa laws to force naming of sources without court agreement
Police will be prevented from accessing journalists’ sources without the permission of a judge after the Home Office agreed to rush through emergency guidelines before the next election, the Guardian has learned.
In a letter to Labour MP Jack Dromey, Karen Bradley, a Home Office minister, said the government does not have time to bring through primary legislation until the next parliament, but confirmed it would introduce interim guidelines that will require the police to gain judicial approval before they can obtain information about journalists’ sources.
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Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem says euro zone extended Greek bailout by 4 months
Reuters BRUSSELS Feb 20 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers extended the bailout for Greece by four months on Friday after Athens pledged not to roll back any reforms that could have a negative fiscal impact and to honour all its debts, the chairman of the ... and more » |
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