Month: October 2018

As authorities retrieve more suspected bombs sent to prominent Democrats, U.S. President Donald Trump is largely blaming the media for the angry political atmosphere in America.

 

“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,” Trump said on Twitter on Thursday morning. “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”

New packages meant for Biden, De Niro

Trump’s tweet came as the New York City Police Department’s bomb squad transported a suspected explosive device in a special truck out of the Tribeca neighborhood.

 

Police said the package was sent to a production company owned by actor Robert De Niro and that it is similar to those sent to other prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also confirms it has sent agents to a mail facility in the state of Delaware that was evacuated early Thursday. Media reports say a ninth suspicious package sent to former Vice President Joe Biden, who lives in New Castle County in the state, had been located.

Other packages have been addressed to a former U.S. attorney general, two Democratic Party members of Congress and former Central Intelligence Director John Brennan.

 

What police termed a live explosive device that arrived in an envelope addressed to Brennan at CNN’s New York bureau prompted the evacuation of the Time Warner Center for hours on Wednesday.

 

CNN President Jeff Zucker issued a statement saying members of the Trump administration have a “complete lack of understanding” about the seriousness of their frequent attacks against the media.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded on Twitter, accusing Zucker of being divisive.

Trump, lawmakers weigh in

Trump said at a rally late Wednesday that targeting government officials by sending them explosives “is an attack on our democracy itself.”

Throughout the day Wednesday, leaders from both the major parties called for a return to civility in the political arena, a theme Trump picked up on at the rally.

“No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains, which is done often and all the time. It’s got to stop,” said the president. “We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property. There is one way to settle our disagreements — it’s called peacefully, at the ballot box. That’s what we want.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top two Democrats in Congress, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trump of fanning the flames of political unrest.

Sender identity still unknown

Authorities have not announced any leads on the identity of the sender of the explosives.

 

“I think this is an act of political terrorism,” Congressman Rodney Davis, a Republican from the state of Illinois, said on CNN early Thursday.

The Secret Service says the package addressed to Clinton was discovered late Tuesday, intercepted at a mail screening facility near her home in a New York suburb where she lives with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton, on Wednesday, thanked the Secret Service for intercepting the package that was addressed to her.

“It is a troubling time, isn’t it? It’s a time of deep divisions and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together,” said the former secretary of state at an event in Florida.

 

A separate package addressed to Obama, according to the Secret Service, was intercepted at a screening facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, a 365-hectare military facility in Washington.

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters was sent two suspect packages, one intended for her office in the nation’s capital and the other for her home district office. The first was intercepted at a congressional mail sorting center in the state of Maryland, and the second discovered by postal inspectors at the Los Angeles Central Mail Sorting Facility.

Soros was 1st target

The first in the series of explosive devices was found Monday in a mailbox outside the New York home of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a major donor to Democratic candidates.

The Secret Service said the packages addressed to Obama and Hillary Clinton “were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such. The protectees [Obama and the Clintons] did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”
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New York police seized early Thursday what they called a suspicious package in a lower Manhattan neighborhood.

Media reports quoted police officials as saying a package similar to one sent to prominent Democrats earlier this week was sent to the address of a restaurant owned by actor Robert De Niro. The package was carried away in a containment vehicle for examination.

The latest development came as U.S. investigators worked Thursday to figure out who is responsible for mailing explosive devices to a number of current and former high-ranking government officials and the news network CNN.

WATCH: Trump Calls for Unity, Blames Media Amid Bomb Threats

​Multiple suspected bombs

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray called the probe the FBI’s highest priority after authorities discovered someone sent pipe bombs to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats.

“We have committed the full strength of the FBI’s resources and, together with our partners on our Joint Terrorism Task Forces, we will continue to work to identify and arrest whoever is responsible for sending these packages,” Wray said in a statement.

President Donald Trump said at a rally late Wednesday that targeting government officials “is an attack on our democracy itself.”  On Thursday morning, he contended that a “very big part of the anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News.”

Throughout the day Wednesday, leaders from both the major parties called for a return to civility in the political arena, a theme Trump picked up on at the rally. 

“No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains, which is done often and all the time. It’s got to stop,” said the president. “We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property. There is one way to settle our disagreements — it’s called peacefully, at the ballot box. That’s what we want.”

“The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative, and, often times, false attacks,” he said.

CNN President Jeff Zucker issued a statement saying members of the Trump administration have a “complete lack of understanding” about the seriousness of their frequent attacks against the media.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded on Twitter, accusing Zucker of being divisive.

Package targets

Packages were also sent to a former attorney general, a Democratic Party member of Congress and a former director of the CIA, all of whom are prominent critics of Trump’s presidency.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top two Democrats in Congress, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trump of fanning the flames of political unrest.

Within hours of the U.S. Secret Service announcing it had intercepted a package sent to Clinton in New York and one to Obama in Washington, the Time Warner Center in New York, where CNN has studios, was evacuated Wednesday morning after a suspicious package addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan was found in the mail room there.

A device that was contained in an envelope was safely transported from the site in a special truck by the city’s police department bomb squad. The addressee, Brennan, is a commentator on MSNBC, a rival cable news broadcaster.

New York police officials said it appeared to be a live explosive device and the package it came in also contained a white powder.

All of the other suspicious packages also contained a printed label with the congresswoman’s name and address as the sender.

The Secret Service says the package addressed to Clinton was discovered late Tuesday, intercepted at a mail screening facility near her home in a New York suburb where she lives with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Speaking on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton thanked the Secret Service for intercepting the package that was addressed to her.

“It is a troubling time, isn’t it? It’s a time of deep divisions and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together,” said the former secretary of state at an event in Florida.

 

A separate package addressed to Obama, according to the Secret Service, was intercepted at a screening facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, a 365-hectare military facility in Washington.

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters was sent two suspect packages, one intended for her office in the nation’s capital and the other for her home district office. The first was intercepted at a congressional mail sorting center in the state of Maryland, and the second discovered by postal inspectors at the Los Angeles Central Mail Sorting Facility.

The first in the series of explosive devices was found Monday in a mailbox outside the New York home of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a major donor to Democratic candidates.

The Secret Service said the packages addressed to Obama and Hillary Clinton “were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such. The protectees [Obama and the Clintons] did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”​

VOA’s Masood Farivar and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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About 50,000 NATO personnel from 31 NATO and partner countries are springing to action Thursday at the start of the alliance’s Trident Juncture exercise, its largest drills since the end of the Cold War.

The massive exercise takes place in and around Norway and involves about 65 ships, 250 aircraft and 10,000 vehicles.

‘We are ready’

NATO’s Command Senior Enlisted Leader for Allied Command Operations, Command Sgt. Maj. Davor Petek, told VOA in an exclusive interview that the large-scaled defensive games send a “very simple message.”

“We are ready, and we are capable to meet any possible security threat coming to our NATO borders,” he said. “Nobody’s willing to mess with an alliance that has so much potential, so much capability.”

WATCH: Sgt. Maj. Davor Petek

Russia invited

NATO said the drills are not an act of aggression, and the exercise’s commander said the alliance has invited Russia to observe.

“I’m happy that we have observers because they’re going to see that we’re very good at what we do. And that will have a deterrent effect on anybody who wants to cross those borders, but one nation in particular,” U.S. Navy Adm. James Foggo, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Naples, told reporters at the Pentagon earlier this month.

The exercise comes with Russia and the West still bitterly divided over Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, with some NATO countries worried Moscow may try to encroach on their sovereign land.

NATO funding

It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has slammed NATO for benefiting Europe more than the United States.

NATO members have committed to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense by 2024, but just nine of the military alliance’s 29 members are expected to reach or surpass that amount this year.

Petek told VOA Trident Juncture helps display NATO’s readiness and its commitment to stick together.

“It’s just an alliance that’s been there for a long, long time — over 70 years — but I’d say it was never probably as active and determined as it is right now in this point of time,” he said.

Trident Juncture is expected to run through Nov. 7.
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After a fitful night of throbbing abdominal pain, curled up in a ball inside her hurricane-battered home trying to wish away the agony, 21-year-old Angelena Sawyer could barely function, let alone tend to her infant daughter.

Writhing in misery, Sawyer had no idea she was suffering from acute appendicitis. Neither did her parents nor her husband, Jacob Sibilia, fully realize the gravity of the situation as they coped with the larger crisis of surviving the aftermath of a natural disaster.

A week already had passed since Hurricane Michael laid waste to rural Bay County, Florida, leaving Sawyer’s family, like many others, essentially stranded without electricity, phone service or running water. They had little if any gasoline, a 3-month-old to care for, and Sawyer’s stepmother, Jessica Melvin, was suffering from an infected foot injury.

The turning point was a random visit that day by three disaster volunteers — Zach Smith, John Basehore and Robert Pepper — checking on residents door to door in the sparsely populated Florida Panhandle community of Fountain, northeast of Panama City.

Assessing Sawyer’s condition, they realized she needed immediate medical attention. While Smith cleaned and bandaged Melvin’s foot, his colleagues called the local fire department and arranged for an ambulance to transport Sawyer to the nearest hospital some 30 miles away.

Doctors who treated her later told Sawyer her appendix had nearly ruptured. The intervention of Smith, Basehore and Pepper had likely saved her life.

At least 29 deaths in Florida have been attributed to Michael, which slammed ashore on Oct. 10 as a Category 4 hurricane and the most powerful on record ever to hit the Panhandle region.

“If it wasn’t for this crew and these men, I wouldn’t have made it to the hospital,” Sawyer told Reuters in a text message following her ordeal.

The three men, all U.S. military veterans, were part of the volunteer group 50 Star Search and Rescue, one of dozens of such outfits formed during previous flood disasters in Texas and Louisiana and reactivated in Florida when Michael struck.

Many, including 50 Star, operated under the banner of CrowdSource Rescue, a larger Houston-based network that coordinated and supported teams on the ground with thousands of volunteers working remotely around the country.

Specialized technology was a key to their work.

Their search teams relied on a digital application that enables cell phones to operate as walkie-talkie radios, as well as an Uber-like app with global positioning satellite (GPS) map to pinpoint those in distress.

Much of their effort was devoted to searching for people whom loved ones reported missing in the hardest hit shorefront communities of Mexico Beach, Panama City and Panama City Beach.

Teams also fanned out to isolated areas farther inland to deliver meals, water and medical assistance.

Their mission, said Smith, 30, was to “make sure that medically everyone is safe and sound and that people have supplies and that there’s no medical emergencies.”

After 11 days, CrowdSource teams succeeded in locating more than 2,800 people initially unaccounted for — all found alive — and turned over about 30 unresolved cases to local authorities, the group’s co-founder, Matthew Marchetti, told Reuters. The groups served some 4,500 meals to survivors during the past weekend alone, he said.

While reinforcing the strained resources of official search-and-rescue teams, the volunteers worked largely independently of them, Marchetti said.

Valerie Sale, a Bay County emergency management spokeswoman, said an almost total lack of cell phone and internet service that lasted nearly a week prevented coordination with outside volunteers, but “we’re grateful for their efforts, for sure.”
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A caravan of Central American migrants was set to resume its arduous journey to the U.S. Wednesday after pausing Tuesday to mourn a fellow traveler who was killed in a road accident and to tend to various travel-related ailments many have developed.

Such caravans have been routine over the years without much attention, but U.S. President Donald Trump has used the caravan to rally his Republican base before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Trump tweeted Wednesday his administration “will never accept people coming into our Country illegally.”

Trump fueled the controversy in a series of tweets Monday, saying without evidence that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” were among the caravan of Central American migrants bound for the U.S.

Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway defended those statements Wednesday, telling reporters outside the White House they don’t know “what information he has,” without offering proof of the accuracy of the remarks.

“I can promise you he knows more than you do and than I do on any given day about this information,” Conway said.

Trump has blasted Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala for not stopping their citizens from departing for the U.S. He said Monday he would begin cutting off or reducing foreign aid to those countries and threatened last week to use military troops to close the U.S. southern border.

The caravan of more than 7,000 of mostly Hondurans who are fleeing violence and poverty in their home country, was in the southern Mexican town of Huixtla, about 50 kilometers north of the Guatemalan border and more than 1,000 miles from the closest U.S. border.

Many in the caravan may not qualify for asylum even if they reach the border.

The U.S. does not consider escapes from poverty and violence as qualifying factors.

International law requires that individuals fleeing violence and persecution must be allowed access to the country where they are seeking asylum and the right to apply for it.

Staff from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees arrived earlier this week in the Mexican town of Tapachulas, which is near the Guatemalan border, to help stabilize the migrant caravan’s chaotic situation and to register asylum seekers.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told VOA staffers are also safeguarding migrants’ rights.

“All countries have a right to be able to manage their own immigration and manage their own borders,” Edwards said. “What is important for us is that those borders are managed in an asylum-sensitive way, which means giving people access, assessing their claims and then dealing with them accordingly in line with international law.”

Trump has vowed to prevent the caravan of migrants from entering the U.S., but beyond threats to cut or reduce foreign aid, administration officials have not indicated how the U.S. will respond to what he has called a “national emergency.”
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