December 6, 2015


News Clips For The Day


CORRECTION: Jimmy Carter's brainchild Habitat for Humanity was misstated as Habitat for America. I apologize, and have corrected it below.


http://news.yahoo.com/pursuing-transparency-vatican-orders-external-audit-assets-150132878--sector.html

Pursuing transparency, Vatican orders external audit of assets
Reuters
December 5, 2015

Photograph -- The Vatican announced that accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers will carry ….


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Saturday it had ordered the first external audit of its assets as part of a drive by Pope Francis to bring transparency to its finances where millions of euros have gone unrecorded without any central oversight.

Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi said auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL] would start work immediately.

The pope has promised to overhaul the Vatican's murky financial management, which have been hit by repeated scandals in recent years, however he has met resistance from Church officials who want to maintain tight control over operations.

Lombardi told reporters that the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy had called on PwC, the world's second-largest audit firm by revenue, to review the Vatican's consolidated financial statements, which includes assets, income and expenses.

The decision to work with one of the world's top four auditors continued "the implementation of new financial management policies and practices in line with international standards," he said.

A Vatican financial statement this year revealed that Vatican departments had stashed away 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) of assets that were not declared on any balance sheet.

The head of the economy secretariat, Cardinal George Pell, said last year that departments had "tucked away" millions of euros and followed "long-established patterns" in jealously managing their affairs without reporting to any central accounting office.

Pope Francis picked Pell, an outsider from the English-speaking world, to oversee the Vatican's often muddled finances after decades of control by Italian clergy.

Since the pope's election in March, 2013, the Vatican has enacted major reforms to adhere to international financial standards and prevent money laundering.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Richard Balmforth)




“The Vatican said on Saturday it had ordered the first external audit of its assets as part of a drive by Pope Francis to bring transparency to its finances where millions of euros have gone unrecorded without any central oversight. …. Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi said auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL] would start work immediately. …. however he has met resistance from Church officials who want to maintain tight control over operations. …. The decision to work with one of the world's top four auditors continued "the implementation of new financial management policies and practices in line with international standards," he said. …. Since the pope's election in March, 2013, the Vatican has enacted major reforms to adhere to international financial standards and prevent money laundering.”


Pope Francis will be known as a reformer on a massive scale in the way the Vatican is run. I am thinking of his safety, however. He may be stepping on too many toes in his courageous march toward the 21st century.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-bernardino-shooting-ex-neighbors-home-raided/

San Bernardino shooting: Ex-neighbor's home raided
CBS/AP
December 6, 2015

Photograph -- Police surround a home in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, searching for evidence in connection with the shootings in San Bernardino. AP PHOTO/KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
28 PHOTOS -- America's mass shootings
Facebook -- marquez-1.jpg, Enrique Marquez. PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK
Play VIDEO -- New details emerge about female San Bernardino attacker
Photograph -- potw-rtx1x2d8.jpg, A police officer picks up a weapon from the scene of the investigation around the area of the SUV vehicle where two suspects were shot by police following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California December 3, 2015. © MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS


SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Early on Saturday, authorities with guns drawn raided a home next door to the house where family of one the shooters in the San Bernardino rampage used to live in Riverside, California, breaking windows and using a cutting torch to get into the garage, neighbors said.

The FBI would not say what it was looking for, but a neighbor said an old friend of Syed Farook's lives there.

CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports a law enforcement source says the target of the raid was Enrique Marquez, who is believed to have been the individual who three years ago bought the AR15 rifles in California used in the San Bernardino attack.

Marquez is believed to have checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack. It is unclear if Marquez is still in the hospital. It is also unknown whether the FBI has been able to interview him.

The source told CBS News Marquez is not under arrest and is not considered a suspect in the shooting rampage. The source said that Marquez was employed as a security guard.

Farook obtained the assault weapons from Marquez at some point in what a source said was a legal transfer. FBI agents seized numerous items during a search of Marquez's Riverside home early Saturday. The search warrant providing the probable cause to conduct the search as well as the items confiscated has been sealed.

In the final few years of Tashfeen Malik's life, the people around the young woman saw her dress ever more conservatively and urge people ever more ardently to live a devout life.

For an aunt in Malik's old hometown in Pakistan, Malik's growing religious focus was one of the last things she heard about her 29-year-old niece -- before last week, when she learned that her niece and her niece's husband had donned masks, hoisted assault rifles and killed 14 people in a rampage in Southern California.

"I recently heard it from relatives that she has become a religious person, and she often tells people to live according to the teachings of Islam," recalled aunt Hifza Batool.

Batool spoke in the town of Karor Lal Esan, the home of Malik's family, 280 miles southwest of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Malik's path from Pakistan to the bloody events of last week -- when she and her husband slaughtered people gathered for a training session and holiday luncheon -- remains a mystery.

FBI officials, family lawyers and others said they know little about the housewife and mother, apart from what came to light on Friday: that Malik had pledged allegiance on Facebook to the Islamic State of Iraq ans Syria (ISIS) group as she and her American-born husband, Farook, 28, launched the massacre.

The husband and wife were killed in a furious shootout with police hours after they opened fire on a gathering of Farook's colleagues from the San Bernardino County public health department, where he worked as a restaurant inspector.

The FBI said it is investigating the rampage as a terrorist attack.

U.S. officials said Farook had been in contact with extremists via social media. One official said those contacts were not recent and did not involve any significant players on the FBI's radar.

Farook was born in Chicago to Pakistani parents and raised in Southern California. Malik arrived in the U.S. in 2014 on a Pakistani passport and a fiancee visa but had spent extended periods of time in Saudi Arabia.

She started studying pharmacy at Bahauddin Zakariya University in the Pakistani city of Multan in 2012.

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Sunday that investigators so far have found no evidence linking Malik to Islamic militants.

He said his country is ready to share any information it has about Malik and her family.

"We have nothing to hide," he said.

A maid who worked in the Multan home where Malik lived said Malik initially wore a scarf that covered her head but not her face.

Former classmate Afsheen Butt said Malik showed drastic changes after a trip to Saudi Arabia in late 2008 or early 2009.

"She used to tell us that this is the real life. We are a nation that has strayed from the right path," Butt said. "She used to give us Islamic religious literature."

Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said authorities there have received no indication Malik was radicalized in Saudi Arabia.

A year before she got married, she began wearing a scarf that covered all but her nose and eyes, the maid said. The maid spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing her employment with the family.

President Barack Obama planned to deliver a prime-time address to the nation Sunday night on the attack and the government's efforts to keep the country safe.




“The FBI would not say what it was looking for, but a neighbor said an old friend of Syed Farook's lives there. CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports a law enforcement source says the target of the raid was Enrique Marquez, who is believed to have been the individual who three years ago bought the AR15 rifles in California used in the San Bernardino attack. Marquez is believed to have checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack. It is unclear if Marquez is still in the hospital. It is also unknown whether the FBI has been able to interview him. …. FBI agents seized numerous items during a search of Marquez's Riverside home early Saturday. The search warrant providing the probable cause to conduct the search as well as the items confiscated has been sealed. …. U.S. officials said Farook had been in contact with extremists via social media. One official said those contacts were not recent and did not involve any significant players on the FBI's radar.”


More details emerge here to give a vivid picture of the two jihadists and their family, neighborhood, and friends. It must be very emotionally disturbing to people like her old school friend who saw the “drastic changes” in Malik. I really wish I knew what items were taken from their neighbor’s house and why. It makes me wonder just what life in an Islamic ethnic community like there is like. I wonder what viewpoints they circulate among themselves and what activities they enjoy. “Al-Turki said authorities there have received no indication Malik was radicalized in Saudi Arabia.” Authorities there probably have little knowledge of travelers in and out of the country, in general, but years ago when bin Laden’s life was being picked apart and analyzed by the press one article said that Saudi Arabia is a source of much radicalization. The US government seems to consider them an ally politically, but there are large cultural differences between our nations.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jimmy-carters-cancer-is-gone-grandson/

Jimmy Carter says his cancer is gone
CBS/AP
December 6, 2015

Photograph -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter takes questions from the media during a news conference about his recent cancer diagnosis and treatment plans, at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia August 20, 2015. REUTERS/John Amis


ATLANTA - Former President Jimmy Carter has responded well to months of cancer treatment, and his latest scan did not detect the disease.

In a statement, Mr. Carter said: "My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones. I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab."

His grandson, Jason Carter, first told the The Associated Press in a text message earlier Sunday.

The elder Carter apparently shared the good news before giving a Sunday School lesson at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Jill Stuckey, a church leader who was present, said Carter had announced that a brain scan this week showed no cancer.

The former president continued teaching Sunday School regularly after his initial diagnosis of brain cancer this summer.

In August, Mr. Carter said doctors told him he had melanoma that had begun in his liver and spread to other parts of his body.

Doctors "found that there were four spots of melanoma on my brain...they are very small spots, about two millimeters," Mr. Carter said.

He had surgery earlier in the year to remove the mass on his liver.

CBS News' chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports that Mr. Carter's family has a strong history of pancreatic cancer. His three siblings and father died from it.

In May, Carter cut short a trip to Guyana to observe an election because he wasn't feeling well. But he recently finished a book tour promoting his latest book, "A Full Life: Reflections at 90."

Carter was the 39th president of the United States, serving between 1977 and 1981, and at 90 years old, he's the nation's second-oldest living president. After leaving the White House, he established the Carter Foundation and has traveled the world working on issues like healthcare and global democracy.



“In a statement, Mr. Carter said: "My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones. I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab." …. The elder Carter apparently shared the good news before giving a Sunday School lesson at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Jill Stuckey, a church leader who was present, said Carter had announced that a brain scan this week showed no cancer. …. In May, Carter cut short a trip to Guyana to observe an election because he wasn't feeling well. But he recently finished a book tour promoting his latest book, "A Full Life: Reflections at 90." Carter was the 39th president of the United States, serving between 1977 and 1981, and at 90 years old, he's the nation's second-oldest living president. After leaving the White House, he established the Carter Foundation and has traveled the world working on issues like healthcare and global democracy.”


In my view Carter is one of the best human beings we have ever had in the presidency. He got lots of bad press over the fall of the Iranian embassy, and of course the warnings of the employees there should certainly have been taken seriously, but he worked so hard to achieve peace in the Middle East and in the Habitat For Humanity project that I was truly impressed. I hope he “hangs in there” for another decade or more. George Burns was in his 100th year before he died. Carter has that lean look that a lot of long-lived people do and he is still teaching his Sunday School Class. Mental and physical activity are thought to keep people alive a long time, and I do hope that will be his fate.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-im-not-playing-on-fears-of-muslims/

Donald Trump: "I'm not playing on fears" of Muslims
crimesider
By REBECCA KAPLAN FACE THE NATION
December 6, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Who are the Trump voters?
Play VIDEO -- Donald Trump: "I don't believe" San Bernardino shooter's sister was unaware of plot
Play VIDEO -- Trump: I would “go after the wives” of terrorists
Play VIDEO -- Trump: ISIS is “brainwashing young, impressionable people”


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is defending his public remarks about Muslims in America, saying he is advocating common-sense positions rather than playing on people's fears.

"I'm not playing on fears. I don't want to play on fears. I understand the whole world," Trump said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" that aired Sunday. "I have Muslim friends who are great people. And by the way, they tell me, 'there's a big problem.' I'm not playing on fears. I'm playing on common sense."

Earlier this week, Trump said in a Fox News interview that the U.S. should "take out" the families of terrorists. He has also said he wouldn't rule out the idea of requiring American Muslims to register in a database.

He said Sunday that "there can be profiling" of Muslims but stopped short of calling for a Muslim-only database.

"You have people that have to be tracked. If they're Muslims, they're Muslims. But you have people that have to be tracked," he said. He added that he wants "real vigilance," and said, "whether it's mosques or whatever."

"If you have people coming out of mosques with hatred and with death in their eyes and on their minds, we're going to have to do something," Trump said.

He lamented the fact that some neighbors of San Bernardino shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook reportedly did not report suspicious activity at his home because they worried they would be profiling.

"If they thought there was something wrong with that group and they saw what was happening, and they didn't want to call the police because they didn't want to be profiling, I think that's pretty bad," he said. "Everybody wants to be politically correct, and that's part of the problem that we have with our country."

He also said that the "tremendous problem with radical Islamic terrorism" won't be solved until President Obama "gets the hell out" of office.

Trump has encouraged a heightened focus on the families of suspected terrorists. In a portion of the interview released earlier, he said he did not believe Farook's sister was unaware of the shooting plot as she said in an interview with CBS News.

"I would go after a lot of people and find out whether or not they knew. I'd be able to find out. Cause I don't believe the sister," he replied.

He also said he would "certainly go after the wives" of terrorists and said he would "be very tough on families, because the families know what's happening."

As an example, he said that the 9/11 attackers "put their families on airplanes a couple of days before, sent them back to Saudi Arabia for the most part. Those wives knew exactly what was going to happen. And those wives went home to watch their husbands knock down the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and wherever the third plane was going... Those wives knew exactly what was happening."

His other proposals to fight terror attacks include allowing more people to carry guns and changing the way the government and media label those who plan terrorist attacks.

"You fight it with intelligence. You fight it by beating them at their own game. You fight it by not saying "mastermind." Like you did, like other people did. I see the word 'mastermind,'...I call them the guy with the dirty hat. The guy with the dirty, filthy hat," Trump said. "These people are animals. These people are not masterminds. They're not even smart people. I bet you they have very low IQs."

Additionally, he said, the U.S. needs to get better at countering internet propaganda by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"The press is making them into something, they're making them into Robin Hood. And young people and other people are following," he said. "We came up with the Internet, but they're using it better than we do."

One thing Trump did not say he definitely supported: to ban people on the no-fly list from purchasing firearms. A Democratic bill to enact that plan failed in a Senate vote the day after the San Bernardino shooting.

"I'd certainly take a look at it. I would. I'm very strong into the whole thing with Second Amendment -- but if you can't fly, and if you've got some really bad -- I would certainly look at that very hard," Trump said.

He also said that "people could look at" those who are amassing a large collection of ammunition, but "we can't do anything to hurt the Second Amendment. People need their weapons to protect themselves, and you see that now more than ever."



He also said he would "certainly go after the wives" of terrorists and said he would "be very tough on families, because the families know what's happening." As an example, he said that the 9/11 attackers "put their families on airplanes a couple of days before, sent them back to Saudi Arabia for the most part. Those wives knew exactly what was going to happen. …. He lamented the fact that some neighbors of San Bernardino shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook reportedly did not report suspicious activity at his home because they worried they would be profiling. "If they thought there was something wrong with that group and they saw what was happening, and they didn't want to call the police because they didn't want to be profiling, I think that's pretty bad," he said. …. Earlier this week, Trump said in a Fox News interview that the U.S. should "take out" the families of terrorists. …. He also said that the "tremendous problem with radical Islamic terrorism" won't be solved until President Obama "gets the hell out" of office. …. His other proposals to fight terror attacks include allowing more people to carry guns and changing the way the government and media label those who plan terrorist attacks.”


Trump said here that he does consider the amassing of large amounts of ammunition to be suspicious and that people on the no-fly list perhaps should not be allowed to buy guns. Of course in this case it was the killer's neighbor who actually bought the guns. His wild charge that President Obama is somehow connected with the terrorism problem is just more of the same rhetoric, all too similar to the claim that Obama is a Muslim and was not born in the US. His statement that he would “go after the wives” apparently for interrogation purposes is shocking. He also said at another time recently that the US government should “take out” – that generally means kill -- the families of jihadists. A law allowing that sounds to me to be decidedly unconstitutional just on the surface, so how would he possibly be able to do that? I don’t think we’ve ever done anything like that in this country -- Chile or Africa, maybe. When we tortured people it was only the jihadists themselves, and that was appalling to most Americans. Of course, Trump’s pattern is to say something wild and shocking and then back down in a couple of days when the press and other candidates get on his case about it. He’ll probably do that with his “take out” statement, which even he will likely regret later. Americans just don't approve of such things, except in the backwoods perhaps.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/7-year-old-donates-money-in-piggy-bank-to-vandalized-mosque-texas/

7-year-old donates money in piggy bank to vandalized mosque
CBS NEWS
November 19, 2015

Photograph -- 7-year-old Jack Swanson from Texas. CBS affiliate KEYE
Photograph -- 49011270-3a6e-445e-a6e9-a827f4601e82-pflugervillemosque2.jpg, Vandalism at Pflugerville mosque in Texas. CBS AFFILIATE KEYE VIA PFLUGERVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT
Photograph -- mosqueleader.jpg, Board Member at the Islamic Center in Pflugerville, Faisal Naeem CBS AFFILIATE KEYE



AUSTIN, Texas -- When a local mosque in Pflugerville, Texas, was vandalized with feces over the weekend, community members of all faiths and backgrounds stopped by the center to donate money for the cleanup and lay flowers at the doorstep.

But one donation stood out among the rest. It came from 7-year-old Jack.

Laura Swanson brought her son Jack to the Islamic Center to teach him a lesson about kindness and acceptance, reports CBS affiliate KEYE.

"What happened in Paris is not what is happening in Pflugerville," Swanson told KEYE. "We should all be here supporting each other."

Swanson and her son gathered what money they had, $20, to donate to the Islamic Center in hopes to help cleanup what vandals left behind. But if you ask Board Member at the Islamic Center in Pflugerville, Faisal Naeem, it means so much more than that.

"It's $20 bucks but coming from Jack, collecting his pennies, it's worth 20 million bucks to me and to our community," he said.

The Pflugerville Police Department is searching for the vandal or vandals responsible for vandalism at the Islamic Center of Pflugerville on Windermere Drive. Investigators say a member of the center arrived just before 6 a.m. Monday to find a torn apart Quran with a large amount of feces on it at the front entrance of the mosque.

Police have classified this case as a hate crime. A spokesperson for the police department said there have not been any previous known threats to the center, KEYE reports.

The last time anyone was at the Islamic Center was on Sunday night around 10:00 p.m.

There was no physical damage to the facility, and the clean up costs were estimated to be approximately $150.

"They are brothers and sisters in humanity and that is first and foremost," said one Christian woman who brought flowers and signs in support of the center.

Several Muslims from different Mosques around Austin also showed up Monday night.

"We wanted to express our support and say we are hear for you as your Muslim brothers and sisters," said a Muslim woman.

Naeem tells KEYE that misconceptions about Muslims and Islam may be the root of the vandalism.

"This is very unexpected and quite honestly, shocking," said Naeem.

With vandalism also comes fear, Naeem explained.

"Can something like Wisconsin, the Sikh temple thing, happen here? If you would have asked me this question yesterday I would have said, no, this is Austin," said Naeem. "But, that is no longer true."

Naeem said the fear extends to his children -- born and raised in the United States -- who will struggle to understand the hatred they may face.

"What do I tell them? That they are Americans, but not quite?" Naeem said.



“Police have classified this case as a hate crime. A spokesperson for the police department said there have not been any previous known threats to the center, KEYE reports. The last time anyone was at the Islamic Center was on Sunday night around 10:00 p.m. There was no physical damage to the facility, and the clean up costs were estimated to be approximately $150. "They are brothers and sisters in humanity and that is first and foremost," said one Christian woman who brought flowers and signs in support of the center. Several Muslims from different Mosques around Austin also showed up Monday night.”


Vandalism is a vicious crime and often a sign of even worse to come since it is born of pure malice, but when the community repudiates it and extends the hand of friendship as they have in this case, it makes me hopeful. I’m afraid there will be much more of such things before we get over this social crisis, however. We have to make room for newcomers to share our nation. That’s what we have always stood for as a people. I can only hope for the best.