August 5, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-confirms-flight-370-pilot-plotted-fatal-route/

Malaysia confirms Flight 370 pilot plotted fatal route
CBS/AP
August 5, 2016, 5:25 AM

47 Photos -- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah appeared in a YouTube video with the flight simulator he assembled in his home.
Play VIDEO -- MH370: True Detective Story
Play VIDEO -- Debris found "almost certainly" from MH370


KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia acknowledged for the first time that one of the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had plotted a course on his home flight simulator to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed.

Australian officials overseeing the search for the plane last month said data recovered from Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah's simulator included a flight path to the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysian officials at the time refused to confirm the findings.

On Thursday, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told local journalists that the flight path was found on the simulator. He also cautioned there were "thousands" of destinations on the simulator and no evidence that Zaharie flew the plane in that area or deliberately crashed it.

A recording of the news conference was made available to The Associated Press on Friday.

New York Magazine reported last month that an FBI analysis of the device showed Zaharie had conducted a simulated flight to the southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished along a similar route. The magazine cited the discovery as strong evidence that the disappearance was a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide at the hands of the captain.

"Until today, this theory is still under investigation. There is no evidence to prove that Captain Zaharie flew the plane into the southern Indian Ocean," Liow said. "Yes, there is the simulator but the (route) was one of thousands to many parts of the world. We cannot just base on that to confirm (he did it)."

Liow didn't say when the Indian Ocean path was flown on the simulator. He stressed that international experts and Australian officials have agreed that the most likely scenario was "uncontrolled ditching" of the plane.

The latest twist in the saga of the world's biggest aviation mystery unnerved families of the victims, who blame Malaysia for a cover-up and incompetence.

"It is sheer nonsense! I don't believe it at all. We were told in the past that both the plane and the pilots had no problem and now we are told there was something wrong with the pilot," said Li Xinmao, whose daughter Li Yan and son-in-law Luo Wei were among the majority of Chinese passengers on the flight.

"It is another irresponsible thing the Malaysian government has done to try to fool the relatives and cover up the truth and the conspiracy. We relatives strongly protest it and strongly demand the discovery of our loved ones," he said.

Relatives of passengers on the missing flight had previously expressed their dissatisfaction with the investigation. Earlier, on the Chinese social media app WeChat, a post under the profile for Song Chunjie said, "for justice, for the dignity of the (more than) 200 lives on board, and for the safety of future flights the search must go on until the plane is found, the reason why it disappeared is clear, and the people who are responsible are held accountable."

In Malaysia, Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member, said there were many unanswered questions over the Indian Ocean flight path in the captain's simulator.

She said it was unclear when he last flew the route on the simulator. She also noted reports citing a private investigator that a flaperon - a small section of the wing that washed ashore on Reunion island off East Africa last year - was broken off, indicating controlled ditching of the plane.

"I am not blaming the pilot, but the government should be more forthcoming with information. Why is France still not releasing details on the flaperon after so long?" she said. "It's very frustrating. We are like yoyo going up and down all the time."

She also said police questioned all crew families in the early days of the tragedy and had told them that all crew members were cleared.

Liow said Thursday that French authorities were still waiting for documents from several parties including Boeing, and insisted on holding on to the wing part as court evidence.

Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center - which is overseeing the search for the plane off Australia's west coast - has also said that evidence of the route did not prove that Zaharie had planned to steer the plane off course and showed only "the possibility of planning" for such an event.



ISIS psychosis can turn up anywhere, and their goal is to have it spread across the globe. We really need to make peace in the Middle East and greatly improve our interpersonal relationships with all races and religions. A cover by the Malaysian government is pointless, but likely. If someone in their government is thought to be complicit with ISIS that would be a more logical reason. I hope that isn’t true.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-cia-chief-mike-morell-donald-trump-is-already-damaging-our-national-security/

Ex-CIA chief Mike Morell: Trump "is already damaging our national security"
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
August 5, 2016, 11:01 AM

Play VIDEO -- Trump falls further behind Clinton in several polls


Mike Morell is a former CBS News contributor.

Mike Morell, who has been both acting director of the CIA and deputy director, denounced Donald Trump in a blistering op-ed and endorsed Hillary Clinton.

"Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security," Morell wrote in the New York Times, noting that Trump has "no experience on national security."

"Even more important, the character traits he has exhibited during the primary season suggest he would be a poor, even dangerous, commander in chief," he said, ticking off the billionaire's "obvious need for self-aggrandizement, his overreaction to perceived slights, and his tendency to make decisions based on intuition," among other complaints.

Morell even suggested that Trump's propulsion onto the national political stage "is already damaging our national security" and pointed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's comments about Trump.

"Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump's vulnerabilities by complimenting him," the ex-CIA director said of the primary race, when the Russian president commended Trump as "bright and talented."

"He responded," Morell said, "just as Mr. Putin had calculated."

After Putin's praise, Trump had "taken policy positions consistent with Russian, not American, interests -- endorsing Russian espionage against the United States, supporting Russia's annexation of Crimea and giving a green light to a possible Russian invasion of the Baltic States," Morell observed. "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."

Morell also blasted the GOP nominee for his proposals to ban Muslims from the country, saying it "plays into the hands of the jihadist narrative that our fight against terrorism is a war between religions." He added that Muslim Americans have played "critical roles" in keeping the U.S. safe, including a man who "ran the C.I.A.'s Counterterrorism Center for nearly a decade and who I believe is most responsible for keeping America safe since the Sept. 11 attacks."

In contrast, Morell, who is neither a registered Democrat or Republican, had only high praise for Clinton, who he said would keep the country "much safer."

"I spent four years working with Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state, most often in the White House Situation Room," said Morell, who served in the CIA under three Republican presidents and three Democrats. "In these critically important meetings, I found her to be prepared, detail-oriented, thoughtful, inquisitive and willing to change her mind if presented with a compelling argument."

"I never saw her bring politics into the Situation Room. In fact, I saw the opposite," Morell wrote. "When some wanted to delay the Bin Laden raid by one day because the White House Correspondents Dinner might be disrupted, she said, 'Screw the White House Correspondents Dinner.'"

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said of the op-ed, "I suppose this is this is [sic] the same CIA that told the president that ISIS was the JV team...These people are playing politics."

The Trump campaign issued a statement saying, "[I]t should come as no surprise that [Clinton's] campaign would push out another Obama-Clinton pawn (who is not independent) to try to change the subject in a week when Clinton's role in putting Iran on the path to nuclear weapons and this Administration being called out for sending $400 million in cash to the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism is on every front page in the country."

Morell is the latest in a line of top former national security and foreign policy officials denouncing Trump.

In an open letter first released to the Washington Post Thursday, a group of ex-cabinet members, military officers, and administration officials slammed Trump over his recent comments questioning the NATO military alliance and asking Russian hackers to find Clinton's missing emails.

"These are disgraceful statements that betray our long-standing values and national interests embraced by presidents of both parties," the letter said. "We find Trump's comments to be reckless, dangerous, and extremely unwise. They contradict a core, bipartisan principle found in every U.S. administration -- that our security in North America is indivisible with our democratic allies in Europe."

The letter was signed by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and other top NATO advisers in the Bush administration.



Great letter from a past head of the CIA on Trump’s dangerous views, and an endorsement of Clinton. Great news! Every day I feel more secure in the belief that she is on the way up, and Trump is on the way down, despite “that mean old white backlash!”



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-oneal-shooting-video-chicago-police-executed-lawyer-says/

Lawyer: Paul O'Neal was "executed" by Chicago police
crimesider
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP August 5, 2016, 12:55 PM

Photograph -- Paul O'Neal CBS CHICAGO


CHICAGO -- A family lawyer said Friday that 18-year-old Paul O'Neal was "executed" when he was fatally shot by Chicago police after a July 28 confrontation over an alleged stolen car.

Chicago authorities released video Friday of the moments before the shooting and the incident's aftermath. The shooting itself was not captured on video because the body camera worn by the officer who fired the fatal shot wasn't recording.

"We just came from watching Chicago police officers execute Paul O'Neal," Family lawyer Michael Oppenheimer said. "We just watched the family watch the execution of their loving son."

Autopsy results show that O'Neal, of Chicago, died of a gunshot wound to the back. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office have classified the death as a homicide, reports CBS Chicago.

Oppenheimer and family spokesman Ja'Mal Green said O'Neal, who was unarmed, was running away from officers when he was fatally shot.

"What I saw was cold-blooded murder," Oppenheimer said, calling the video "beyond horrific." "You don't shoot dogs that are running away."

The video shows officers firing into the Jaguar in which O'Neal was allegedly fleeing police. It also shows officers handcuffing and searching O'Neal after he was shot as he lay on the ground bleeding.

The family was set to speak to the media Friday morning, but were too distraught after viewing the video, Green said. O'Neal's mother, he said, broke down in tears.

"This is amazing to me how this officers come into our neighborhood and treat us like savages," Green said. "If he did steal that car that was for the courts to decide. Instead, the police decided to be the judge and execute him the way they did."

The department's current superintendent, Eddie Johnson, relieved three officers of their police powers after the shooting after officials said a preliminary determination concluded they had violated department policy.

Johnson has said he doesn't suspect the body camera that wasn't recording had been tampered with. Friday, Green called on him to hold officers accountable and enforce the use of body cameras.

"Every time a shooting happens, something's wrong with the body camera," Green said. "It's like, the dog ate my homework."

O'Neal's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority, the body that investigates police misconduct, expects to complete an investigation within 60 days.

"My promise to the people of Chicago is that we will be guided by the facts and should wrongdoing be discovered; individuals will be held accountable for their actions," Johnson said in a statement Friday.

He said the shooting "has raised a lot of questions about whether departmental policies were followed" and said he's tasked his team with looking at the training and tactics reflected in the incident and national best practices on use of force.



I believe and hope that a time will come when these stories will stop appearing, and that if they do, the PD in question will really seriously punish the people administratively and then, if there is a death, prosecute them for murder/homicide. I want to hear fewer and fewer statements like "whether departmental policies were followed" and more like "the training and tactics reflected in the incident and national best practices on use of force." Bureaucracies tend to hide behind the first, and grow as a culture by using the second.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-mayor-r-scott-silverthorne-drug-charges-meth-for-sex-sting/

Virginia Mayor R. Scott Silverthorne faces drug charges after meth-for-sex sting
AP August 5, 2016, 9:47 AM

Photograph -- Mayor R. Scott Silverthorne of Fairfax, Virginia, is seen in a booking photo provided by the Fairfax County Police Department. FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT


FAIRFAX, Va. -- A three-term northern Virginia mayor was arrested on drug charges after he tried to trade two grams of methamphetamine for sex acts in what turned out to be an undercover sting operation, police said Friday.

City of Fairfax Mayor R. Scott Silverthorne was arrested Thursday night after meeting at a Tysons Corner hotel just outside the Capital Beltway with undercover detectives he approached through a website used to arrange casual sexual encounters between men, Fairfax County police said at a press conference.

Police Capt. Jack Hardin said they received a tip that Silverthorne had been arranging drugs-for-sex encounters. Police then set up an online profile on the website, and within two days Silverthorne made contact online with the detective who set up the profile, Hardin said.

"We had information on what the mayor was looking for, what types of activities" he wanted to engage in, Hardin said.

Silverthorne, who also worked as a substitute teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools, was arrested and gave a full confession, police said. He was released on his own recognizance while he awaits a preliminary hearing Oct. 31 on a felony charge of drug distribution and a misdemeanor charge of possessing drug paraphernalia.

Silverthorne, in an email to The Associated Press, declined comment and referred questions to his attorney, Brian Drummond, who did not immediately return a phone call Friday morning.

The city announced Friday that Silverthorne appointed Councilman Jeffrey Greenfield as acting mayor, effective immediately. The city charter gives the mayor the power to appoint an acting mayor in his place in the event of a mayor's absence or disability.

Hardin didn't know how long Silverthorne had been using the website, which he did not identify. But he said drugs-for-sex encounters were common on the website, and that Silverthorne has set up a similar encounter at least once before.

In the sting operation, the undercover detectives agreed to meet for a group sexual encounter in exchange for methamphetamine, police said. Silverthorne, 50, would provide methamphetamine and the undercover detectives would provide the hotel room, Hardin said.

After detectives met Silverthorne at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in McLean on Thursday night, they saw him meet suppliers, Hardin said. Silverthorne was arrested after police said he gave detectives methamphetamine.

One person who was with the mayor was arrested and another person was released, Hardin said.

Detectives were able to find and arrest the suppliers, who were still in the area, he said. Detectives charged Juan Jose Fernandez, 34, of Takoma Park, Maryland, with distribution of methamphetamine, possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Caustin Lee McLaughlin, 21, also of Takoma Park, was charged with distribution of methamphetamine, obstruction of justice and possession of drug paraphernalia. As detectives arrested McLaughlin, police said he resisted and a detective used his stun gun. Police said there were no injuries.

Calls to the Office of the Public Defender, which is representing Fernandez, were not returned. No attorney is listed for McLaughlin on online court records.

Silverthorne was re-elected in May for a third term of the city of 24,000, about 20 miles west of the nation's capital, after a tumultuous year in which The Washington Post reported he lost his job with the National Association of Manufacturers, filed for bankruptcy, lost his home to foreclosure and was diagnosed with cancer. He announced in November that he'd been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, and the Post said he underwent treatment that ended two months before the election.

Silverthorne defeated Tom Ammazzalorso in May with 58 percent of the vote. The Post reported Ammazzalorso, a high school history teacher in Prince George's County, Maryland, and a former Republican official, mailed a flyer to voters that questioned Silverthorne's fitness to oversee city finances, given his personal financial problems.

Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman John Torre says Silverthorne was hired as a substitute teacher in April and terminated Friday because of this arrest. Silverthorne was used as a substitute between April and the end of the school year, he said.

Prior to serving as mayor, Silverthorne, a Democrat, also served nine terms on the Fairfax City Council from 1990 through 2008.

His father, the late Frederick Silverthorne, was mayor of Fairfax in the late 1970s and early 1980s.



It’s disturbing to me that this Mayor is smiling for his mug shot. Maybe he was high on something at the time. Most people would be unhappy under such circumstances. He clearly had been having problems, given his job history, for quite a few years. I am sorry to admit the fact that he is a Democrat. Down through the years there have been quite a few cases like this. I have noticed that GOP members are usually caught for a financial crime, and the Dems are almost always caught for a sex crime.

The most embarrassing thing to me about Democratic politicians was the case of that guy Anthony Wiener NY Congressman, who sent women he knew various disgusting photos of himself, showing his muscular body and his more personal parts. I hate to say it, but both men and women can get involved in some disgusting sexual exploits. Sex, food, water, fighting are some of the most instinctive parts of our psyche, and they do lead us astray.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-six-foot-alligator-massachusetts-backyard/

Police remove six-foot alligator from Massachusetts backyard
CBS/AP
August 5, 2016, 12:48 PM


Photograph -- Representatives from the Zoo at Forest Park in Springfield, Mass., handle a 6-foot-long, 150-pound alligator found in a backyard in West Springfield, Mass. DON TREEGER/THE REPUBLICAN VIA AP
19 Photos – Alligator attacks
Video – News clip of several men wrangling a large gator.


WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Police in Massachusetts have captured and removed a 6-foot alligator from the backyard of a home with the help of workers from a local zoo.

Officers were dispatched to the West Springfield property at about noon Thursday following a tip from a concerned resident. They extracted the alligator with two animal control catch poles - one tied around its neck and the other around its tail - from a fenced-off area in the yard.

The reptile, which weighed an estimated 150 to 180 pounds, was taken to the zoo following its capture.

Capt. Michael Banas says he's never seen anything like this in 29 years of law enforcement.

The investigation has been turned over to Massachusetts Environmental Police. It wasn't yet known if the homeowner would face charges.

The Republican newspaper posted video of the alligator's capture to YouTube.



Excerpt -- “Officers were dispatched to the West Springfield property at about noon Thursday following a tip from a concerned resident. They extracted the alligator with two animal control catch poles - one tied around its neck and the other around its tail - from a fenced-off area in the yard. The reptile, which weighed an estimated 150 to 180 pounds, was taken to the zoo following its capture. Capt. Michael Banas says he's never seen anything like this in 29 years of law enforcement. …. Officers were dispatched to the West Springfield property at about noon Thursday following a tip from a concerned resident. They extracted the alligator with two animal control catch poles - one tied around its neck and the other around its tail - from a fenced-off area in the yard. The reptile, which weighed an estimated 150 to 180 pounds, was taken to the zoo following its capture.”


We get news reports several times every year here in Jacksonville just like this one, only those gators aren’t pets. Of course, gators and crocs never exactly become trustworthy, though they get used to individuals. I miss that wildest of all TV zoo personalities, Steve Irwin. Jack Hanna was also a great one. I have sacrificed Cable TV for a number of years now, so I no longer get Animal Planet. Luckily I do have a large collection of Videocassette tapes of those and other interesting and informative shows. Sometimes I can’t relax and get to sleep, so I put on one of those tapes. Within an hour I’m usually lulled to sleep.

I can’t use overly exciting things, particularly “Alien” or “The Walking Dead,” for bedtime viewing because they wake me up. That includes funny things and intense dramas, even if they are artistically excellent. I don’t go to sleep because they’re boring, but because they fill me with peaceful contemplation. Even if I’m watching Nile crocodiles chase wildebeasts when they must cross the river, it’s part of nature for me, which is my most effective source of personal security and a strong sense of wonder. In other words, it’s essentially religious for me.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-32-years-homeless-veteran-reunited-with-family/

After 32 years, homeless veteran reunited with family in S.C.
By MARK STRASSMANN CBS NEWS
August 4, 2016, 7:28 PM

Photograph -- 0804eveningstrassmanhomelessvet5.jpg, Marta Sallie with her brother German Leon. CBS NEWS
Photograph -- 0804eveningstrassmanhomelessvet.jpg, German Leon at 21 years old. CBS NEWS
Photograph -- 0804eveningstrassmanhomelessvet2.jpg, Marta Sallie. CBS NEWS


CHARLESTON, S.C. -- It is a national tragedy. The government estimates more than 47,000 veterans are homeless, and more than 13,000 live on the streets.

German Leon was one of those homeless veterans for decades. And then came fate -- and Facebook.

In 1984, Leon, a 21 year-old Army vet, disappeared.

"He went to Atlanta to work," said Marta Sallie, his younger sister. "I got worried when I saw a year, then two years, and then when it got to five years, I was like something is wrong."

All that time, Leon bounced around Atlanta's shadows, and a series of part-time jobs, roaming [sic] houses, and homeless shelters.

The Army vet kept radio silence with his family.

"He was like a gentle giant," said Patricia Green.

Green, a social worker with the Veterans Administration, met Leon at a homeless shelter for vets in Atlanta last April. Like so many veterans, he had untreated mental health issues.

"And so I asked, well, where is your family. And he said, I don't know," she said.

Green searched online, including sending a Facebook message, to four possible family members.

"And the very next day, I get a call from the sister," Green said. "And she's like, 'is this a joke?'"

"I thought it was a hoax," said Sallie. "When I heard his voice, I knew it was real."

The Army family's reunion was 32 years in the making.

"We hugged and told him that I never gave up on him," Sallie said.

Leon said he was shocked.

"I was shocked, crying on the inside," he said.

Sallie said it was a miracle.

"For her and for me, too," said Leon. "Because I had to go through this. It's just a long, long time that went by."

Leon's sister said all the questions he can't answer don't matter. He's home.



I’ve seen three or four Internet stories like this one. It’s a potential source of danger – I would never “hook up” with anyone I met that way – but it’s also a huge net of connection points that sometimes really does produce a miracle. I’m glad to see that Leon, after all that, is not so terribly damaged mentally that he can’t form a relationship now with his sister. This was a great article. Family can be very healing.