May 21, 2017


News and Views


THE PARTIES ARE DEBATING WHETHER THE TWO INVESTIGATIONS WILL INHIBIT EACH OTHER, AND THE DEMOCRATIC SENATOR WAXMAN SAID NOT THERE ISN’T MUCH MORE THAN THAT IN THIS ARTICLE, BUT IT’S A STEP ALONG THE WAY.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/ample-precedent-argues-that-special-investigation-wont-impede-parallel-congressional-probes/2017/05/19/5145bfd8-3cab-11e7-a058-ddbb23c75d82_story.html?utm_term=.3018cf1289dd&wpisrc=nl_politics-pm&wpmm=1
PowerPost
Ample precedent argues that special investigation won’t impede parallel congressional probes
By Karen Tumulty May 19, 2017

Photograph -- Cummings: 'This is about the fight for the soul of our democracy' (The Washington Post)
Play Video 2:04 Cummings speaking

While some Republicans are warning that the appointment of a special counsel could impede Congress’ parallel investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, there is ample precedent that argues the opposite.

“It’s clearly an excuse,” said former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “It didn’t keep them from doing oversight when there was a Democratic president.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein assured lawmakers Friday that his appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible coordination between the Russian government and associates of President Trump should not impede Congress’s own probes into that same question, according to one account by a senior Democratic congressman.

During a closed briefing with House members, Rosenstein was pressed on whether congressional investigations might conflict with the one conducted by the recently named special counsel, former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

“Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein recognized and acknowledged that Congress has an independent right to continue its own investigations into issues that, although not necessarily criminal, relate to our core oversight functions,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Photograph -- Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein arrives heads to a briefing with lawmakers on the investigations of the ties between the Trump administration and Russian officials. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)

However, Rosenstein encouraged the lawmakers to make sure that their efforts are closely coordinated with those of the Justice Department, and that they should “establish a point of contact for Special Counsel Mueller,” Cummings said via email.

Some GOP senators have cautioned that congressional committees would have to slow down or move aside, to avoid interfering with Mueller’s operation.

“Certainly, I think Congress’s ability to investigate this process fully is going to be hampered,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) added that it may impossible to subpoena key witnesses.

But veterans of previous situations such as this dismiss those arguments.

Indeed, during the administration of Democratic president Bill Clinton, there were no fewer than seven investigations, led by independent counsels, looking into the behavior of his administration and its top officials.

The most important was the sprawling one that began with questions regarding Whitewater, a failed real estate venture that Bill and Hillary Clinton had invested in during the 1970s and 1980s. Under independent counsel Kenneth Starr, that one expanded to include controversies involving the White House Travel Office; allegations of improper use of FBI files, and ultimately, Clinton’s extramarital affair with a White House intern that led to his impeachment.

Throughout, Republicans controlling Congress kept up the pace of their own investigations.

Particularly active was Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who took over as chairman of the oversight committee in 1997.

Barbara Comstock, now a Republican congresswoman from Northern Virginia, was chief investigative counsel for Burton. In her recollection, the committee’s work frequently complemented the work being done by special prosecutors.

“We did investigations separate from what the Justice Department was doing, and often, we found documents before they did,” she said.

“The purpose of the congressional investigations is the public’s right to know, and I think the two can be done concurrently,” Comstock added.

Waxman noted that congressional oversight goes far broader than the question of whether a crime was committed, which is the purview of the special counsel.

Among those areas: whether national security was compromised by what intelligence officials say were Russian efforts to boost Trump’s chances in the election, and what might be done to prevent future meddling.

Another question, Waxman said, is whether Trump officials “have been hones [sic] with the public about their actions, and what has been going on at the highest levels of the administration.”

[NOTE: “HONES” IS A WORD, BUT ITS' MEANING DOESN’T FIT HERE, AND IT ISN’T AN ADJECTIVE, BUT “HONEST” IS; SO I LABELED THIS A “SIC.”]

Karen Tumulty is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Follow @ktumulty



I HOPE TO SEE THIS MODEL PRISON PROGRAM BECOME MANDATORY EVERYWHERE, OR AT LEAST POSITIVELY ENCOURAGED. MENTAL HEALTH CARE IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT. PRISONS AND JAILS COULD BE UNDER A RATING AND REGULATION SYSTEM THAT REWARDS PRISON MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL AND COOPERATIVE PRISONERS WITH FEATURE ARTICLES ABOUT THEM ON A PRISON FACEBOOK PROGRAM, (IF THERE ISN’T ONE, SET ONE UP); TRAINING AND LESSONS IN USEFUL SUBJECTS FROM COMPUTER USE TO READING OR MATH, AND GED TESTING; THEN, FOR THE PRISONERS WHO BEHAVE WELL AND STUDY, WITH, PERHAPS EXTRA SNACKS, MORE TELEPHONE TIME, COMPETING SPORTS TEAMS, OR SOME OTHER CREATIVE AND EMOTIONALLY UPLIFTING THINGS. THE PRISON MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THIS COOK COUNTY PRISON IS ALREADY DOING SOME OF THESE. READ THIS ENCOURAGING ARTICLE ON SOMETHING WHICH I WAS AFRAID WAS NOT GOING TO REALLY IMPROVE – THE HARD-SET NEGATIVE ATTITUDES AMONG GUARDS TOWARD PRISONERS, AND UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT LIVING SITUATIONS THERE. OF COURSE, THIS IS ONLY ONE JAIL. THESE COMMENTS THAT HE IS BEING “TOO SOFT” OR “DISLOYAL TO CORRECTIONS OFFICERS” IS THE KIND OF NEGATIVITY IN THINKING AMONG LAW ENFORCEMENT. A LACK OF LOYALTY TO THE GUARDS SOUNDS LIKE SHERIFF DART IS ALSO REPRIMANDING OR PUNISHING GUARDS WHO DO CRUEL OR DISHONEST THINGS. I HOPE SO, BECAUSE THIS IS THE PATH TO TRUE REHABILITATION, AND IT WILL END IN LOWER RECIDIVISM RATES ALSO, I’M SURE.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cook-county-jail-sheriff-tom-dart-on-60-minutes/
Half of the inmates shouldn’t be here, says Cook County sheriff
CORRESPONDENT
Lesley Stahl
May 21, 2017

At one of the largest jails in the U.S., Sheriff Tom Dart sees his job as not just keeping people in jail, but helping some of them get out

Sheriff Tom Dart says Cook County Jail, with a population of about 7,500, has become a dumping ground for the poor and mentally ill.

Cook County has implemented a mental health program for some inmates that is now a model for other U.S. jails and includes medication, doctor's visits and group therapy.

Dart's unconventional methods have come under scrutiny as "too soft" and some corrections officers have questioned his loyalty to staff.

Photograph -- Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart CBS NEWS

Chicago -- with the largest number of murders last year of any major city in the country -- has one of the largest jails in the country.

An average of 70,000 men and women pass thru Cook County Jail each year, many more than once and, as with other big city jails, most of the inmates who cycle through are either poor, mentally ill or members of a gang.

One of the few things Republicans and Democrats, agree on is the need for corrections reform. And Cook County is leading the way -- almost by necessity -- with a new approach to help break the cycle.

Photograph -- Dart meets with men in the jail's minimum-security division, all of whom have been charged with low-level, non-violent crimes. CBS NEWS

The county sheriff, Tom Dart, is getting a lot of the credit. A former prosecutor who's been elected and re-elected sheriff since 2006, Dart -- as you'll see -- is unconventional.

It was a cold day at Cook County Jail when we met Tom Dart. He has redefined the role of sheriff. He sees the job as not just keeping people in jail but helping some of them get out. He says many behind bars shouldn't be there.

"OK, if they're going to make it so that I am going to be the largest mental health provider, we're going to be the best ones."
Tom Dart: How are you guys doing?

Inmate: Pretty good…

Several times a month, Dart mingles with the men in the jail's minimum-security division, all of whom have been charged with low-level, non-violent crimes.

Tom Dart: What's your charge?

Inmate: I had a violation of probation. I was on probation for driving while license revoked.

Photograph -- stahl-dart-walk.jpg, Sheriff Tom Dart and 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl in Cook County Jail, one of the largest jails in the U.S. CBS NEWS

Dart says the jail – with a population today of about 7,500 -- has become a dumping ground for the poor and mentally ill.

Lesley Stahl: What percent do you think here really shouldn't be here?

Tom Dart: I would suggest conservatively that half of the people here in the jail shouldn't be here. That they don't—

Lesley Stahl: Half?

Tom Dart: They don't pose a danger to anybody. The people in most jails-- in 95 percent of the people in this jail are waiting on a trial. So everybody here are people who haven't been convicted yet. So you say to yourself, "All right, they're presumed innocent. Who is so dangerous that we need to hold them here while we're waiting on a trial?"

Tom Dart: You had some violence a long time ago? Nothing, a long time ago? So nothing.

As he makes the rounds, he sounds less like an incarcerator than a defense attorney.

"Last year alone, we had 1,024 people who spent their entire prison term here in the Cook County Jail, but the more incredible statistic is that same group of people spent an extra 222 years of custody here..."

Tom Dart: I can't-- I'm not promising you guys anything, 'cause I don't know what the hell they're gonna do. But I promise you we will push it.

Inmate: All right.

The biggest problem for most of the inmates, he says, is they simply don't have enough money to make bail.

Inmate: I'm trying to find out why my bond's so high.

Lesley Stahl: How many percentage wise people are really poor and can't afford bail?

Photograph -- cara-smith-intv.jpg, Cara Smith, top adviser for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. CBS NEWS

Tom Dart: On any given day we have probably 2 to 3 hundred people that if they came up $500 they would leave here but we find that if you have access to money wherever it may come from, and frequently it's coming from your gang and if you happen to be the guy in your gang who is the guy who does most of the shootings, you're a very valuable person, they want you back out on the street. But you have some individual who's in here who's never been a danger to anybody, he can't come up with a hundred dollars. He's sitting…the guy with the gun, he's out the door.

[Tom Dart in meeting: Next guy is possession of cannabis.]

He usually turns his notes over to his top adviser, Cara Smith, who runs what you might call a you-shouldn't-be-here squad.

Cara Smith: And what are you charged with?

Inmate: Retail theft.

Cara Smith: And what did they say you tried to steal?

Inmate: Some Red Bulls.

Cara Smith: Some Red Bull drinks.

Smith and her staff hold "office hours" …looking for inmates they can help.

Cara Smith: What we need to work on is trying to get your bond reduced so that you can bond out, so that you can get out of here.

Inmate: OK.

Cara Smith: OK?

Inmate: Yes.

Cara Smith: OK. Good luck, we'll be in touch

Combing through cases, Cara Smith discovered something disturbing. They call them: "dead days."

Photography class at Cook County Jail 60 MINUTES OVERTIME
Photography class at Cook County Jail

Cara Smith: We made up the term but we call them dead days because people spend so much time pre-trial here at the Cook County Jail that once they're sentenced to prison, they've already served their term.

Lesley Stahl: They probably spent more time here than the sentence in some of the cases.

Cara Smith: So last year alone we had 1,024 people who spent their entire prison term here in the Cook County Jail, but the more incredible statistic is that same group of people spent an extra 222 years of custody here in the Cook County Jail.

Lengths of stay run from a week or less to 8 or 9 years. Some of the people who spend years here are the mentally ill, who make up about a third of the population, and are the jail's biggest cost.

Elli Montgomery: And do you know what your charge is today?

Inmate: Retail theft.

Elli Montgomery: Retail theft?

Inmate: $70 worth of ground beef.

Elli Montgomery: $70 worth of ground beef?

Every inmate is screened for mental illness when they first arrive.

Inmate: I was diagnosed as schizophrenic when I was in group home.

Elli Montgomery: In a group home? OK. We're gonna make sure that you get help today.

Inmate: If I don't get the medication that I need, I know it's gonna go wrong.

This man -- who also has a history of mental illness -- has been in and out of the jail 37 times.

Elli Montgomery: I understand.

Lesley Stahl: How does that happen? How does someone come back to a jail 37 times?

Tom Dart: What in God's name do you expect to happen with that person? OK so this person has a serious mental illness, he's not being treated, his family and him have been disconnected for years, he obviously doesn't have a job. He has nowhere to live. What do you think is going to happen? I'll tell you what's going to happen. He will come in contact with law enforcement, either because he's trying to find a place to sleep or he's trying to find something to eat and he'll be back in here. It's not because he walked out of here saying, "Listen, I want to go and commit horrific crimes." It's like he's trying to survive.

Lesley Stahl: In many ways society has turned jails and prisons into mental health clinics and you're actually running one here.

Tom Dart: Yeah. I said, "OK, if they're going to make it so that I am going to be the largest mental health provider, we're going to be the best ones. We're going to treat 'em as a patient while they're here, it's like, we are going to think differently."

Cook County Jail was already one of the largest mental health facilities in the country in 2012, when Chicago closed down half its mental health clinics. These men -- the high-functioning mentally ill -- are bused five days a week to a program that is now a model for other jails across the country. They get medication, visits with psychiatrists, and group therapy.

Counselor: So today I want us to continue to move forward. And you're going to have to have some things that's going to take you to another level.

About 60 percent of all the jail's corrections officers have advanced mental health training. And Dart has moved new people over to the medical facilities.

Tom Dart: What I did is redefined job position and where it would've been a law enforcement position I changed it into a doctor position or a mental health position. And so we've been bringing on a lot of doctors, counselors, therapists, and I have—

Lesley Stahl: Are you running a jail?

Tom Dart: Well, I sometimes I wonder.

Photograph -- nneka-jones-tapia-cellblock.jpg, Sheriff Dart named a psychologist to be Cook County Jail's warden: 39-year-old Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia. CBS NEWS

Nothing exemplifies his new direction more than who he chose to run the jail. Not someone with a law enforcement background. He named a psychologist to be the warden: 39-year-old Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia.

[Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia in jail: I'm gonna go cell to cell. Who should I talk to?]

She started as an intern at Cook County Jail almost 10 years ago – and worked her way up. As warden, she tries to infuse more humanity into a pretty heartless place – the maximum-security wing, where she offers some tough-love therapy.

Guard: He wouldn't let the officers handcuff him.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: Why is that?

Guard: Put up a fight. They had to take him to the ground and cuff him.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: Are you gonna keep getting into it with staff?

Inmate: If they keep denying my rights.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: OK, see, you have the wrong attitude.

Inmate: I ain't got the wrong attitude.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: Because I'm trying to help you. But you're still telling me that you're gonna have issues with the staff, and I can't have that. So it's up to you.

Lesley Stahl: We filmed you doing rounds like a doctor in a hospital. But you talked to every single inmate that you passed.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: Yes. It's because we understand the person is a person. They're not what…their charge, they're not their crime. And so we want to give that individual attention to as many people as we can.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: Sorry, gentlemen.

On a walk through a medium-security cellblock she works on "attitude adjustment," trying to change their way of thinking so they don't come back here.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: And all of you guys with tattoos. You might want to think about having those removed. You need to cause how are you going to get a job when you get out?

Inmate: Yah.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: I mean cause first impression is everything. You can't do that.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: How many of you guys have kids?

Lesley Stahl: Oh my.

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: So it's not just you that's impacted by you being here—

Inmates: It's our families. Our families.

Cooking class in Cook County Jail

Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia: --but your families, your children.

To reach out to their families, she's listed her phone number on the jail's website. Dart and his methods have come under intense criticism. He's too soft on the inmates, say some of the corrections officers. Their antagonism grew into outright hostility last year when Dart, intending to be transparent about life behind the walls, released videos to the public showing guards brutally beating up inmates.

Dennis Andrews, the business agent at Teamsters Local 700 that represents the corrections officers, says his members were furious.

Dennis Andrews: The anger was he didn't release the videos of the detainees attacking the officers. You can't release a small segment of something happening without releasing a tape of how you got from point A to point B.

Lesley Stahl: Does the public have a right to see those men beating the prisoners?

Tom Dart: If we aren't releasing that information, then it furthers the public's feeling that law enforcement is covering things up, and that we're hiding things, and we don't have anything to hide. We have good people here, is the majority. But we have some people that don't. And we can't shy from that, because it's what poisons the well with the public.

After the criticism, Sheriff Dart did release videos of inmates attacking staff. But Andrews says that didn't improve morale.

Dennis Andrews: He doesn't address the situations of his own staff at the jail who are being attacked daily by detainees. He presumes them innocent but he doesn't presume his staff innocent.

Lesley Stahl: He presumes his staff guilty?

Dennis Andrews: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: It can't be good if they think that you're not on their side?

Tom Dart: You know, I become puzzled when they think I'm not on their side. It is the most difficult job. And you start with that and then. You're dealing with mentally ill folks. So they've been asked to do all sorts of things that they didn't sign up for. And I am outrageously sympathetic to that.

Photograph -- chess.jpg, Cook County Jail inmates play a game of chess. CBS NEWS

What Sheriff Dart can't tell us yet is whether recidivism rates are coming down. On any given day, he says he releases roughly 200 people to the streets, but he accepts another 200 – some still the old familiar faces. To improve the chances they won't return – again, he's introduced activities like chess lessons.

Tom Dart: People said, you know, "Your chess program. You know, how is that work--" I said, "You know what? One of the major issues we have with the people here-- is they don't think about consequences. "They just think the very first move. They're playing checkers. Chess makes you think four, five, six moves out." I can't tell you how many of the guys in the chess program has told me they never thought like that in their life, that their way of thinking has changed.

There's more than chess. Dart has enlisted volunteers to offer all kinds of classes you rarely see in a jail:

Christopher Jacobs: And you can always move in closer if you want.

A photographer teaches inmates how to find new ways to look at the world and themselves…

Musicians provide therapy through rhythm and sound…

Chef Bruno Abate: Et voila! And we gonna put a little rosemary.

Photograph -- cooking-class.jpg, Italian chef Bruno Abate gives cooking class to inmates at Cook County Jail. CBS NEWS
Italian chef, Bruno Abate, gives cooking lessons.

Bruno Abate: I'm not here just to make food, I'm here to change the way you thinking so you don't come back in this place anymore. We say you know we touch the bottom, now we can only go up, right?

Lesley Stahl: What about your corrections officers, do they look at you and say, "Wait a minute, this is all upside down here."

Tom Dart: Yeah, I mean there's definitely employees here that are puzzled by me. You know, Sheriff Goofy is out giving pizza to all the inmates now 'cause he loves them.

Lesley Stahl: Sheriff Goofy?

Tom Dart: Absolutely. Absolutely. I wear it proudly.

Lesley Stahl: People are going to say you're on the wrong side of the street, ya know?

Tom Dart: That's been suggested.

Lesley Stahl: Yeah.

Tom Dart: But, you'll never find anybody that is more strident in going after the bad, the evil, the ones that hurt people. I used to prosecute them. I arrest them now in my Sheriff's office as well. But when it comes to just blindly, and truly out of indifference, just saying there's segments of our society that we will treat this horrifically callous way, I'm not going to be party to that. And if that upsets people, that's fine.

Produced by Deirdre Cohen. Evie Salomon and Andrea Hilbert, associate producers.



TRUMP IS RIGHT ON ONE THING. EVERY NATION NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO DEFEND ITSELF. OF COURSE, THE DEEPER REASON FOR AMERICAN INTERVENTION IS TERRITORIAL CONTROL FOR THE USA, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY AND “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.” THE SALE OF “BEAUTIFUL WEAPONS” THAT HE REFERS TO IN THIS ARTICLE AND VIDEO IS THE REAL PAYOFF.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE WAY HE SPEAKS WILL REMAIN FODDER FOR COMEDIANS, AS HE IS PROBABLY SIMPLY UNABLE TO CHANGE IT – USE NOT MORE WORDS, BUT BETTER WORDS. HE REALLY NEEDS TO BUY A DICTIONARY AND A THESAURUS. ANOTHER ARTICLE MENTIONED THE FACT THAT HE IS BEING MOCKED ALL OVER THE WORLD. I KNOW I WOULD BE, TOO, BUT I’M NOT FOOLISH ENOUGH TO WANT TO BE PRESIDENT. MY EGO NEEDS JUST AREN’T THAT HIGHLY DEVELOPED.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/trumps-first-foreign-trip/trump-speech-muslims-we-are-not-here-lecture-n762631?cid=par-xfinity_20170521
POLITICS TRUMP'S FIRST FOREIGN TRIP MAY 21 2017, 1:37 PM ET
Trump Tells Muslim Leaders: ‘Drive out’ the Terrorists
by ALI VITALI

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Donald Trump offered a message of unity Sunday as he called on the Arab world to confront extremism during a highly anticipated speech in the birthplace of Islam.

"A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and extremists," Trump told the dozens of Muslim leaders who attended his remarks.

"Drive. Them. Out. Drive them out of your places of worship," the president continued. "Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land, and drive them out of his Earth!"

The speech during the initial stop of the president's first foreign trip was a stark contrast to his previous comments on Islam. As a candidate, Trump frequently criticized the religion, saying, "I think Islam hates us" and "there's a tremendous hatred there."

In Riyadh, Trump said, "This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations. This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it."

Calling terrorists "the foot soldiers of evil," the president added, "If we do not stand in uniform condemnation of this killing, then we not only will be judged by our people, not only will we be judged by history, but we will be judged by God."

Play Trump Urges Muslim Leaders on Terrorists: 'Drive them Out' Facebook Twitter Embed
Trump Urges Muslim Leaders on Terrorists: 'Drive them Out' 1:01

The U.S.'s Middle Eastern allies have often complained about America's focus on human rights, a stance Trump also seemed keen to make a break from.

"America is a sovereign nation and our first priority is always the safety and security of our citizens," the president said. "We are not here to lecture — we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values — to pursue a better future for us all."

Introducing Trump, Saudi Arabia's King Salman spoke of the need "to stand united to fight the forces of evil and extremism."

"There is no honor in committing murder," Salman said, adding that Islam is "the religion of peace and tolerance."

PHOTOS: Trump in Saudi Arabia

In his address, Trump defined the struggle against extremism as "a battle between good and evil."

"Barbarism will deliver you no glory — piety to evil will bring you no dignity," the president said. "If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be condemned."

Trump also offered a firm rebuke of Iran — a notable departure from the Obama administration's overtures to the country which had caused a chill in relations with the Saudi government.

Calling out Iranian leaders for training terrorists and "spreading destruction and chaos across the region," Trump, who has called for ripping up the nuclear deal with Iran, implored all nations to "work together to isolate" Tehran until the regime is "willing to be a partner for peace."

RELATED: Read the full speech here

"Pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they so richly deserve," he said.

Trump also included a brief reference to his hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians — a deal he has repeatedly said he hopes to broker during his time in office. Trump noted "peace in this world is possible — including peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I will be meeting with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas."

Play Trump: 'We Are Not Here to Lecture,' But to Offer Partnership Facebook Twitter Embed
Trump: 'We Are Not Here to Lecture,' But to Offer Partnership 0:43

In the speech at the King Abdul Aziz Conference Center, Trump did not use the phrase "radical Islamic terror" — one he uttered repeatedly on the campaign trail, and lambasted his predecessor for not saying. The president did refer to "confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds."

Trump called on countries in the region to do the hard work themselves and not to expect the U.S. to fight terror for them.

“We are not here to lecture — we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship.”

"The nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them. The nations of the Middle East will have to decide what kind of future they want for themselves, for their countries, and for their children," Trump said. "Muslim-majority countries must take the lead in combating radicalization."

Trump said he hoped the gathering of the region's leaders in Riyadh would mark the beginning of the end of terrorism and the start of peace in the Middle East.

"This region should not be a place that refugees flee, but to which newcomers flock,'' the president said.

His presidential campaign was rife with anti-Muslim comments and promises, including his support for surveillance of mosques in the U.S. and for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."

Play -- Look Back at Trump's Remarks on Muslims, Saudi Arabia 1:44
As president, Trump made good on a version of that promise by signing a travel ban that has been stalled in the courts but which would have temporarily barred entry to those from a handful of Muslim-majority countries, although not Saudi Arabia.

On Saturday, Trump received a royal greeting after touching down in the country. The pomp and pageantry included a signing ceremony for a military arms deal to Saudi Arabia, worth $110 billion effective immediately and up to $350 billion over 10 years, and ended with a boisterous banquet filled with music and dancing.

"That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States," Trump told reporters Saturday. "Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs."

Earlier Sunday before his speech, Trump held meetings with other regional leaders during which he touted "lots of beautiful military equipment" that U.S. workers manufacture.

Watch Trump's speech here: Look Back at Trump's Remarks on Muslims, Saudi Arabia 1:44



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/churches-synagogues-openly-defy-trump-immigration-crackdown/
Churches, synagogues openly defy Trump’s immigration crackdown
More than 800 houses of worship in the U.S. have volunteered to shelter illegal immigrants and their families who face deportation
May 21, 2017
CORRESPONDENT
Scott Pelley

Photograph --

There is a peaceful rebellion growing against federal immigration law and the interpretation of that law by the Trump administration. More than 800 houses of worship across the country have volunteered to shelter illegal immigrants and their families who face deportation -- daring federal agents to step through their stained-glass doors. The churches and synagogues are joining more than 600 cities and counties that have declared themselves sanctuaries—ordering their police not to detain people if it's only because of their immigration status. In no other venue of the law has so much of the nation stood in defiance of Washington.

"We're taking a leap of faith, right, in many respects, because we don't know what's going to happen."
Philadelphia's Arch Street Methodist Church was built by Abraham Lincoln's favorite minister.

Rev. Robin Hynicka: We are a sanctuary church.

And a 155 years later, Reverend Robin Hynicka is on the same chapter and verse.

Rev. Robin Hynicka: My baptismal covenant, there's a vow that's taken either on my behalf when I was baptized as a child or as an adult, that I would take the power and the freedom that God gives me to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they show themselves.

Scott Pelley: Well, in your view what is this, evil, injustice, or oppression?

javier.jpg
Javier Flores Garcia has lived in the basement of a church for six months. CBS NEWS
Rev. Robin Hynicka: It's injustice and oppression, all of which is evil. Yeah, when a human being's human rights are denied, when they can't stay with their family, when they can't work, when they can't participate in the community in which they have deep roots, all of those apply.

He's talking about Javier Flores Garcia who has lived in the church basement for six months. He came from Mexico, illegally in 1997. He's a landscaper with a decade-old DUI on his record. His other offense is crossing the border repeatedly. A judge ordered him deported but he moved here rather than leave his three children who were born citizens.

Javier Flores Garcia: I think you have to keep fighting and I'm doing this for my kids. And I would do it again if it became necessary.

Rev. Robin Hynicka: We're taking a leap of faith, right, in many respects, because we don't know what's going to happen.

ragsdale.jpg
Daniel Ragsdale, deputy director of ICE CBS NEWS

Federal agents can arrest Flores in the church, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, has a decades-long policy of avoiding places of worship, schools and hospitals.

Daniel Ragsdale: My advice would be they should come out of the basement of the churches and follow the law.

"As a human being, I know it is traumatic for folks. But I will also say that the rule of law is something that America is built on."
Daniel Ragsdale is deputy director of ICE. He runs the daily operations and oversees 13,000 officers.

Daniel Ragsdale: So if they are to check in with ICE, they should come and check in with ICE.

Scott Pelley: Checking in with ICE is gonna get them deported.

Seeking sanctuary in the face of deportation 60 MINUTES OVERTIME
Seeking sanctuary in the face of deportation

Daniel Ragsdale: Checking in with ICE will follow the law. And in cases where there's a removal order, of course we would execute it.

Scott Pelley: How much concern do you have about separating families in deportations?

Daniel Ragsdale: As a human being, I know it is traumatic for folks. But I will also say that the rule of law is something that America is built on. But this seems to be the one area where the narrative about separating families, you know, sort of gets a little bit ratcheted up.

Scott Pelley: Well, you can understand why.

Daniel Ragsdale: Well, I can. But I would suggest that every person who has, you know, come to the United States illegally, just like if I went somewhere and, you know, resided in violation of law, I could expect at some point that sovereign country to want to remove me.

Trump: We're rounding 'em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And they're gonna be happy because they wanna be legalized.

Before the election, candidate Trump told us he would deport all of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

Trump's "humane" deportation plan 60 MINUTES OVERTIME
Trump's "humane" deportation plan

Trump: And, and, by the way, I know it doesn't sound nice. But not everything is nice.

Now, President Trump says he's pursuing violent criminal immigrants first.

President Trump: You see what's happening at the border, all of a sudden for the first time, we're getting gang members out, we're getting drug lords out. We're getting really bad dudes out of this country. And at a rate that no one has ever seen before and they are the bad ones.

It's not just the bad guys. The fact is in the Trump administration, according to ICE, about 11,000 undocumented people with no criminal records have been detained so far—that's twice as many as last year. Because of this, the number of religious institutions across the country offering sanctuary has doubled to 800.

Just last week this church in Buffalo, New York, offered sanctuary to a family of six from Honduras. The church has opened its doors to 40 illegal immigrants since January. When congregations in cities including Phoenix, Denver and Philadelphia give sanctuary, they are in open defiance of immigration law.

Scott Pelley: That leads me to wonder whether there's any internal conflict within you. I mean, you preach morals and yet you're breaking the law.

Rev. Robin Hynicka: There's no conflict. I think-- I've said this before that when a law breaks the backs of God's people then it's time for us to think about breaking those laws.

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60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley interviews Sixto Paz, center, and Ismael Delgado, left. They both reside at the Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix. CBS NEWS

Trouble is, those laws never stop changing and that is one reason the immigration debate is never settled. Since 1790, Congress has rewritten immigration law, on average, about every four years. America imported Chinese labor to build the Transcontinental Railroad. And when it was finished, Congress banned all Chinese. In World War I, nearly 20 percent of U.S. forces were not citizens. In World War II, America begged more than four million Mexicans to come to work. And in 1986, Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Trump: Day One, my first hour in office, those people are gone.

Mr. Trump blames immigrants for violence. He often fired up his rallies by raising the murder, by an illegal immigrant, of a woman in San Francisco, a sanctuary city. But according to the Department of Justice, the incarceration rate for illegal immigrants is one-third that of citizens.

Jim Kenney: To lay criminality at the feet of immigrants is not only morally unfair, it is factually wrong.

One of Jim Kenney's first acts as mayor was to declare Philadelphia a "sanctuary" which means his police do not ask about citizenship and will not hold illegal immigrants if the only reason is that ICE wants to deport them. He says it violates the constitution to hold people without a warrant.

There are more than 600 cities, counties and states that consider themselves sanctuaries. Two years ago there were half as many.

President Trump: We've ordered a crackdown on sanctuary cities…

President Trump is now trying to cut off federal funds from these sanctuary cities. But he's been stopped so far by the courts.

Jim Kenney: This is not a us versus them. This is we upholding the Constitution of the United States of America and asking them to comply with it also by presenting us with a proper judicial warrant so we can release that person to their custody.

Scott Pelley: The Feds are talking about taking your federal money away. And Mr. Mayor, I bet you can't afford that.

Jim Kenney: No. But think about the conundrum that this presented. If you accept the assertion that undocumented immigrants cause crime, which I do not accept, and I think it's wrong, why would you defund police departments?

Scott Pelley: There are people shouting at the television right now saying, "If they came illegally, they shouldn't be here. It's a terrible thing, but they shouldn't have come."

sixto-paz-2.jpg
Sixto Paz would have been deported 10 months ago if he hadn't found shelter at a Phoenix church. CBS NEWS

Jim Kenney: Well, you know, Ellis Island had opened in 1892. The bulk of Irish Diaspora came to America in the 1840s. We didn't have papers either. We were undocumented. There was an anti-Italian slur, when I was growing up in my neighborhood called W-O-P—that's without papers. If you come to the country without documents because you're starving in your country or you're being held hostage by drug dealers or you're afraid your children are gonna be shot in the streets or on their farm, I think that that's self-preservation and self-survival. And any group of people would flock to America because that's been the historic place where people came to be saved.

Sixto Paz: This is my country. I'm working hard.

Sixto Paz would have been deported 10 months ago if he hadn't confined himself to Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix. Ismael Delgado moved in four months ago.

Ismael Delgado: We came to work.

Paz crossed illegally in 1985. Under the policy of President Reagan he was granted a work permit, which was revoked under the policies of George W. Bush. His four children are citizens by birth. His youngest is five.

"I'm here because I had to...I respect all the law, I respect the people, I'm working hard to do the best. I've got a clean record."
Sixto Paz: I spent 32 years over here, and I don't wanna leave him alone. And I paid my taxes for 28 years.

Scott Pelley: Paid your taxes 28 years?

Sixto Paz: Yes, yes.

Scott Pelley: There are people watching the interview who are saying, you shouldn't have come here.

Sixto Paz: When someone, you're hungry, you not have a job, you not have money. What are you gonna do? I not come to United States to take vacation, man. I'm here because I had to. I'm come over here, and I respect all the law, I respect the people, I'm working hard to do the best. I've got a clean record. And I learned a lot over here, I learned a language. It's not, I don't speak very well, but I'm working on that. And my son, my daughters, they're professionals.

Scott Pelley: You have two older daughters who are medical assistants?

Sixto Paz: Yes.

Scott Pelley: They both graduated from college here in the United States?

Sixto Paz: Yes, yes, sir.

Scott Pelley: Sounds like the American Dream.

Sixto Paz: Yes.

Scott Pelley: If the priority is serious criminal offenders, why are we seeing deportation orders for little old ladies and middle-aged men who've never committed a crime?

Daniel Ragsdale: That's a great question. So if someone who was placed in removal proceedings goes through that entire process, again, all at taxpayer expense, and gets a removal order, if we encounter that person and that order has been litigated and challenged and due process has been met, it's odd that anyone would expect us to simply ignore all those decisions by lawyers, by judges, by federal court judges in some cases, and simply say, "We're gonna make policy on the street and ignore it."

Scott Pelley: One of the changes in the guidance from the Obama administration to the Trump administration is that President Trump's executive order prioritizes the removal of those who entered illegally. Well, that's everybody. That's 11 million people.

Daniel Ragsdale: Well, we only have the same size workforce. There's just no way that that could simply be done in any rapid fashion, which is why we are still focusing on the folks that I talked about, which are people that present the greatest risk to public safety.

Rev. Robin Hynicka: Javier embodies the spirit of sanctuary. He and we together are sanctuary.

Scott Pelley: Do you worry that the government might take steps against sanctuary congregations across the country?

Rev. Robin Hynicka: I do worry about that. I think it would be a huge breach of the age old traditions of providing at least having some place in our civil society where there is, there is an opportunity to challenge laws, and policies, and procedures that are creating more injustice than they are creating justice.

In rare cases, ICE officers have made arrests near schools and churches. A man was arrested in California dropping his child at school, and in Virginia, several illegal immigrants were arrested shortly after walking out of this church—leaving many to wonder where are the lines once the border's been crossed?

Daniel Ragsdale: Those are the laws that Congress has passed. I don't think it's anybody's question that if you don't have lawful status that at some point you could be removed. And I think that's something that people should be aware of. And, again, I think the president – when he announced the program, was pretty clear about that.

Produced by Michael Rey and Oriana Zill Granados. Dina Zingaro, associate producer.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-expresses-concern-110-billion-arms-deal-saudi-arabia/
CBS/AP May 21, 2017, 5:48 PM
Israeli minister expresses concern about $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli Cabinet minister has expressed concern about a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that President Trump signed Saturday in Riyadh.

Yuval Steinitz, a senior Cabinet minister and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confidant, called Saudi Arabia "a hostile country" and said the deal was "definitely something that should trouble us."

He made the remark as Mr. Trump prepares to head to Israel, on the second leg of his first overseas as president.

The trip comes as the dynamics between the United States and the region's players are moving in unexpected directions.

What to watch for during Trump's first foreign trip as president
"That was a tremendous day," Mr. Trump told reporters on Saturday while in Saudi Arabia. "Tremendous investments in the United States."

The agreement he signed -- which signals a strengthening relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia -- will provide fighter jets, tanks, combat ships and anti-missile defense systems, and create defense-sector jobs in the U.S., according to the White House. The deal includes additional private-sector agreements and a joint vision statement with Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest oil producers.

Mr. Trump's trip to Israel set to begin Monday, and include separate meetings with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Trump also planned to visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and the Western Wall, an important key Jewish holy site.

Mr. Trump has cast the elusive pursuit of peace between Israelis and Palestinians as the "ultimate deal." But he will step foot in Israel having offered few indications of how he plans to achieve what so many of his predecessors could not.

President Trump delivers speech on Islam
Play VIDEO
President Trump delivers speech on Islam

Mr. Trump has handed son-in-law Jared Kushner and longtime business lawyer Jason Greenblatt the assignment of charting the course toward a peace process. The White House-driven effort is a sharp shift from the practice of U.S. previous administrations that typically gave secretaries of state those reins. Kushner and Greenblatt were to accompany Mr. Trump on his two-day visit.

White House aides have played expectations for significant progress on the peace process during Mr. Trump's stop, casting it as more symbolic than substantive. Yet Mr. Trump may still need to engage in some delicate diplomacy following revelations that he disclosed highly classified intelligence Israel obtained about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with top Russian officials, without Israel's permission.

While Israeli officials cheered Mr. Trump's election, some are now wary of the tougher line he has taken on settlements: urging restraint but not calling for a full halt to construction. Trump has retreated from a campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, bending to the same diplomatic and security concerns as other presidents who have made similar promises.

Palestinians, who viewed Mr. Trump's victory with some trepidation, are said to have been pleasantly surprised by his openness during a recent meeting with Abbas in Washington. A senior official who was part of the Palestinian delegation said Mr. Trump is planning to try to relaunch peace talks, with a goal of reaching an agreement within a year. The Trump administration rejected a request from the Palestinians to push for an Israeli settlement freeze, but promised to sort out the issue during peace negotiations, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump Diplomacy: What will the President accomplish on his first foreign trip?
Play VIDEO
Trump Diplomacy: What will the President accomplish on his first foreign trip?

Jibril Rajoub, a senior Palestinian official close to Abbas, said Mr. Trump was a "serious president" who "seeks to have a real deal, not just managing the conflict."

David Friedman, the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, told the newspaper Israel Hayom that Trump's goal at the start is simply "for the parties to meet with each other without preconditions and to begin a discussion that would hopefully lead to peace."

The last round of peace talks, led by then-President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry, fell apart in 2014.

Greenblatt has quietly done much of the heavy work for the U.S. thus far. The low-profile Greenblatt, who spent about two decades as a lawyer at the Trump Organization before joining the White House, has traveled to the region twice since the inauguration and is in weekly contact with pivotal players from both sides.

Palestinian officials were struck by the fact that Greenblatt, an Orthodox Jew, took off his skullcap for their meetings. He also visited the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, home to Abbas' West Bank headquarters, and a school at the camp, which sits opposite to the Israeli settlement of Beit El. Senior White House officials, including Friedman, have close ties with Beit El.

"That was good gesture by him," said Mahmoud Mubarak, head of the local council in Jalazoun.

Aaron David Miller, a Middle East peace adviser to Democratic and Republican secretaries of state, said that despite Greenblatt's positive reviews in the region, there are limits over how much influence he, or any American officials, can have over the process.

President Trump abroad amid controversy
Play VIDEO
President Trump abroad amid controversy

"The issue over many years has not been the mediator in the middle -- it's the guys sitting on the other sides of the mediators," said Miller, now a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Israeli officials say they are largely in the dark about what ideas Mr. Trump might present for peace or what concessions he may demand. Hard-liners who dominate Netanyahu's government grew particularly concerned when White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster voiced support last week for Palestinian "self-determination."

Naftali Bennett, leader of the nationalist Jewish Home Party, lamented "a kind of change in the spirit" of Trump's positions since he was elected in November. He urged Netanyahu to reject Palestinian statehood and insist that Jerusalem remain under Israeli sovereignty forever.

While Netanyahu in the past has expressed support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has been vague about this goal since Mr. Trump gained power.

Mr. Trump's trip began in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, and after Israel, it takes him to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis, to Brussels for a NATO summit and to Sicily for a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

On Sunday, Mr. Trump gave a speech in Riyadh. He focused on unifying Muslim nations in the fight against terrorism.

Mr. Trump emphasized that the fight isn't a battle between different faiths, but "battle between good and evil" -- and a battle that other Muslim nations must lead. Mr. Trump called on Muslim nations to "drive them (terrorists) out of your Holy Land, and drive the out of this earth."

"Muslim nations must be willing to take on terrorism and send its wicked ideology into oblivion," Mr. Trump said.



THIS ARTICLE PARTICULARLY PLEASES ME BECAUSE IT GOES INTO THE KIND OF DETAIL THAT FASCINATES ME AND DRAWS ME. I HAVE FELT THE SAME "ELECTRICITY" WHEN TOUCHING AN ANCIENT STONE THAT WAS USED BY SOMEONE THOUSANDS OF YEARS EARLIER. I PERSONALLY HAVE A 6,000 YEAR OLD INDIAN GRINDSTONE IN MY APARTMENT NOW WHICH MY FATHER DUG UP IN HIS GARDEN. HE WAS AS AVID ABOUT SUCH THINGS AS I AM. WE TOOK IT TO THE UNC-CHAPEL HILL CAMPUS WHERE AN ARCHAEOLOGIST EXAMINED IT AND GAVE IT THAT PROBABLE AGE.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/space-archaeology-transforms-how-ancient-sites-are-discovered/
Space archaeology" transforms how ancient sites are discovered
May 21, 2017
CORRESPONDENT
Bill Whitaker

Archaeologists often spend years digging and hoping they'll find the remnants of ancient civilizations. There's a lot of ground yet to be uncovered. Archaeologist Sarah Parcak says less than 10 percent of the Earth's surface has been explored, so she's leading the way to speed up the search. Parcak uses satellite photos to locate ancient sites and she's finding them -- thousands. It's called space archaeology and it's transforming the field. Sarah Parcak is a professor at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. We met her in Egypt doing what she loves most: digging in the dirt.

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Archaeologist Sarah Parcak is a professor at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. CBS NEWS

Our journey took us past the most famous archaeological site on Earth, the Pyramids of Giza rising from the Egyptian desert. Here and elsewhere, modern Egypt is built next to and often on top of ancient Egypt. From Cairo, we traveled 40 miles south and almost 4,000 years back in time to the village of Lisht. Today, the people of Lisht bury their dead in a cemetery at the edge of town, in the same place that ancient Egyptians buried their dead.

Sarah Parcak: Every day, I come to the site. And it's just blows my mind. You know, and this is just one tomb.

At the age of 38, Sarah Parcak is leading the excavation of a tomb that's 3,800 years old.

Bill Whitaker: Were all of the tombs this elaborate?

Sarah Parcak: No, no…so this is special.

Sarah Parcak: This is a big rock cut tomb of a wealthy Middle Kingdom official. It's big.

We watched Parcak's team meticulously dig with trowels and brushes -- after three weeks of this, the tomb buried for millennia was slowly revealed. Most of the discoveries were fragments of pots and inscribed stones. That changed the morning we arrived.

dig-site.jpg
The dig site CBS NEWS

Bill Whitaker: Sarah, what is this? What have you found?

Sarah Parcak: So this is beautiful.

Sarah Parcak: Look at that.

Bill Whitaker: Oh, a hand.

Sarah Parcak: This is amazing.

Bill Whitaker: Look at this. You've got an arm there—

Sarah Parcak: This is a limestone block that was part of this-- probably part of this tomb.

Bill Whitaker: So this is a big find?

Sarah Parcak: It's a very big find. It's the biggest find of our season.

The stone is part of a much larger slab. Look closely and you can make out the lower half of a seated person and the hand of another.

Bill Whitaker: Oh, look at that. That's incredible.

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An alcove at the back of the tomb has a stone tablet with the name Intef. CBS NEWS

Who's buried here was a mystery until Parcak's team solved it. She took us to an alcove at the back of the tomb where they discovered this stone tablet with a name: Intef. It describes a powerful man...head of the pharaoh's treasury and overseer of his army. Parcak showed us the tablet is damaged and she wondered whether Intef's enemies desecrated his tomb.

Sarah Parcak: Was he corrupt? Was he-- did he step on too many people on his way to the top? Who was this guy? What did he do? But that's what makes archeology interesting...it's like you're reading the ancient version of the National Enquirer in slow time.

Sarah Parcak: I often get asked, you know, especially when we're excavating in tombs, "Don't you feel bad? You're disturbing these people. You know, they wanted to be left alone." Yes, that's true. But on the flipside, the ancient Egyptians, they wanted their names to be remembered.

Bill Whitaker: And to let them live on.

Sarah Parcak: Yeah. And, you know, Intef and his mom and his children, you know, now the world knows them and knows who they are.

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Local villagers do much of the heavy lifting. CBS NEWS

Once freed from the Earth, the ancient slab was hoisted using ancient methods. Local villagers do much of the heavy lifting. The man in charge is Omar Farouk.

Bill Whitaker: They call you "Reis"?

Reis Omar: Yes.

Bill Whitaker: What does that mean?

Reis Omar: They call me "Reis," this mean, yani, "the chief."

Bill Whitaker: You're the chief?

Archaeology has been the Farouk family business since the earliest digs in Egypt in the late 19th century. Omar's father, his grandfather and great grandfather oversaw digs like this one. For him, there's pride in both the work and the connection to ancient civilization.

Reis Omar: You know, you say you are Pharaonic people.

Bill Whitaker: You are Pharaonic people—

Reis Omar: Yeah.

Bill Whitaker: You are from the Pharaohs?

Reis Omar: Exactly.

Sarah Parcak: And we think the pyramids were built by aliens. Like, all you have to do is watch these modern Egyptian men move a big stone. And that's it, that's how the pyramids were built, by…

Bill Whitaker: You think this is how they built the pyramids, so—

Sarah Parcak: Yeah, using you know, ramp systems-- large groups of men moving stones. It's-- it's not rocket science, as it were.

From the first pharaohs to the Roman conquest, ancient Egyptian civilization lasted more than 3,000 years. Many of the most impressive artifacts are inside the famed Cairo Museum. But Sarah Parcak, a well-known Egyptologist, is convinced most of ancient Egypt remains undiscovered.

Here at Intef's tomb she's digging for the main burial chamber. Parcak is adept at this old school archaeology … but she's ushering in a new school of the science. She's making discoveries from 400 miles above the Earth while sitting at her desk. She gets infrared photos from Digital Globe, a commercial satellite company and looks for shapes, like circles and squares, not usually found in nature, and not easily visible on the ground that indicate human activity.

Bill Whitaker: So what have you found?

Sarah Parcak: A lot. I'm at the point where I can't keep track.

Parcak has found more than 3,000 ancient settlements in Egypt; Roman sites across Europe and North Africa; Viking sites in Iceland.

Sarah Parcak: So, we're gonna look up here.

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One of Sarah Parcak's early important finds was in a farm field near the ancient Roman city of Portus. CBS NEWS
One of her early important finds was in a farm field near the ancient Roman city of Portus. It's a site in Italy where archaeologists have been digging for a decade, but hadn't been able to find the city's amphitheater until Sarah Parcak looked at the satellite photos.

Sarah Parcak: So what you see in this image are fields. But you can't really see much of anything.

Bill Whitaker: Not much.

Sarah Parcak: So we can go to the next image. OK. So if you see—

Bill Whitaker: A circle.

Sarah Parcak: And what you're looking at is the likely amphitheater of Portus. It's in that field.

Bill Whitaker: How 'bout that?

Bill Whitaker: And from the surface you would see nothing?

Sarah Parcak: Absolutely nothing walking over the top of it.

Bill Whitaker: So your satellite sensors are not peering through the ground?

Sarah Parcak: Uh-unh. No.

Bill Whitaker: You're what? Looking for subtle variations on top of the ground?

Sarah Parcak: Right. So every site in the world is covered by different things whether it's some kind of soil or sand or vegetation. And all of those things are going to be affected in different ways by what's buried beneath the ground depending on whether it's a ditch or a stone wall or a mud brick building. So it's figuring out, it's puzzling out, what's there? What's it made of? Then and only then can you begin processing the image.

At the Portus farm field, that processing shows vegetation – colored orange – that's less healthy than the surrounding crop because of the stones that lie beneath. Parcak teases out the underlying features that can't be seen with the naked eye using sophisticated digital editing. It's like a souped up Photoshop. Just look at this satellite photo of Egypt's ancient city of Tanis -- Parcak fine-tunes the image to turn desert sand into a detailed map. And the structures from a place called Medinet Maadi seem to rise from ground.

And the structures from a place called Medinet Maadi seem to rise from ground.

Sarah Parcak: It almost is at the point where it feels like cheating, where you can see everything from hundreds of miles in space. And it's like that everywhere.

Bill Whitaker: Was this new technique welcomed by the community of archeologists?

Sarah Parcak: When my colleagues and I started finding not just one thing or two things but thousands of things, I think our colleagues were skeptical. "How is it possible that you could be looking in this place that we've been looking for 30 years, and you're seeing thousands of things?" Now, everyone's using it.

Sarah Parcak now is making it possible for everyone to look for ancient sites through her new project: GlobalXplorer. It's a website that invites armchair explorers to flip through satellite images of Peru. Since it started in January, people have examined more than 11 million photos and may have found thousands of unknown sites.

Photograph -- looting-pits-black-circles.jpg,
When Parcak looked at satellite photos of this area, she saw what others didn't --- signs of rampant looting.

The site in Eqypt where Parcak is digging has been known to archaeologists for decades. But when Parcak looked at satellite photos of the area, she saw what others didn't --- signs of rampant looting.

Bill Whitaker: You can actually see the holes dug by the looters—

Sarah Parcak: Yes, easily. Easily.

Bill Whitaker: From space. Easily?

Sarah Parcak: It's very clear. It's not like ambiguous blob-iness, it-- you can see before and then after. And there are over 800 of them here.

Bill Whitaker: Over 800 of them?

Sarah Parcak: Uh-huh (affirm). Yes.

This is the satellite photo of the area from 2010. Here's the same location in 2013. The dark spots are looting pits. Looting spiked after the Arab Spring in 2011 as tourism plummeted and many of the sites were left unprotected. The area was ravaged and after Parcak shared the photos with the Egyptian government, it asked her to excavate Intef's tomb to preserve and protect what remains.

Sarah Parcak: There's one there. They tried one down there, it didn't work.

Parcak showed us the looting pits seen from space are all around the ancient cemetery... and she believes the fragments of bones and artifacts scattered around Intef's tomb are debris left behind by looters.

Bill Whitaker: Do you think the looters have gotten most of the antiquities from these tombs already?

Sarah Parcak: So it's this question, you know, how long is a piece of string. How much is left after thousands of years? And we all know that looting is part of the human condition. Many of these tombs were robbed in antiquity. You know, I'm never going to be able to tell you what was in a hole after the looters got there.

Bill Whitaker: So these tombs have been looted since ancient times?

Sarah Parcak: Uh-huh. They have been.

Bill Whitaker: It's not just a modern phenomenon?

Sarah Parcak: No, no, no, no. It's been going on for thousands of years.

The objects stolen by modern looting can be bought from ritzy galleries, auction houses and through online sites like eBay. Last November, the U.S. recovered these looted antiquities, including a child's sarcophagus and a mummified hand and returned them to the Egyptian embassy. They're among hundreds of objects that Egypt has repatriated from around the world…some go on display in a special exhibit at the Cairo Museum.

Sarah Parcak: The most important thing for archeological discovery is context. Where did something come from? Then you can begin to understand its function, its importance. That's why for us, as archeologists, looting is such a huge problem. Because when an object is taken out of its original context, we don't know where it comes from. We can't tell you anything about it aside from, "Well, it's a mummy," or, "It's a statue." But that's kind of it. The story doesn't get told.

Archaeology is methodical hard work. The dirt that's removed is carefully sifted for smaller pieces of stone, bone and pottery. Parcak assembled a team of specialists to eke out every last clue from what they find.

Rexine Hummel: I'm always euphoric when I'm here.

Rexine Hummel and Bettina Bader specialize in the jigsaw pieces of pots. Amazingly, you can see the thumbprint from the person who made this one.

Bettina Bader: You are very close to the man or woman who made this.

Bill Whitaker: How about that.

Bettina Bader: How do you feel now?

Bill Whitaker: Just touching something that's thousands of years old is kind of electric.

Bettina Bader: And you see the person's fingerprints and it draws me close to this stuff because they have used it – they have made it, they have used it.

Bill Whitaker: They've touched it and now you're touching it.

Bettina Bader: Exactly.

Sarah Parcak: That's what pulls you back every year. Like, the story is never finished ever.

Bill Whitaker: You find a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more.

Sarah Parcak: Every year.

We saw the wonders of ancient Egypt emerging from the desert sand. Sarah Parcak says imagine what more can be found peering down from space.

Produced by David Schneider and Joyce Gesundheit.


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Trump hiring freeze might still affect CDC jobs
Nearly 700 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently vacant, according to The Washington Post…


http://my.xfinity.com/video/trump-budget-proposal-may-have-paid-parent-leave/948420675737/Comcast/Newsy_newest?cid=sf_vidtray_Cat&tab=TV
http://my.xfinity.com/video/trump-budget-proposal-may-have-paid-parent-leave/948420675737/Comcast/Newsy_newest?cid=sf_vidtray_Cat&tab=TV
Trump budget proposal may have paid parent leave
The first daughter has been a vocal advocate for paid parental leave…


http://my.xfinity.com/video/virtual-therapy-can-have-real-world-benefits/948311619716/Comcast/Newsy_newest?cid=sf_vidtray_Cat&tab=TV
Virtual therapy can have real-world benefits
Virtual reality headsets and cameras can supplement and in some cases even improve occupational therapy…


http://my.xfinity.com/video/notre-dame-students-walk-out-during-pence-s-graduation-speech/949615171666/Comcast/NBCNews_new?cid=sf_vidtray_Cat&tab=TV
Notre Dame Students Walk Out During Pence’s Graduation Speech
A group of graduating students at the University of Notre Dame walked out as Vice President Pence took the stage to deliver the commencement address…


http://my.xfinity.com/video/see-how-these-adoptable-cats-bring-an-autistic-woman-out-of-her-shell/948159043531/Comcast/X1_AnimalPlanet?cid=sf_vidtray_Cat&tab=TV
See How These Adoptable Cats Bring An Autistic Woman Out Of Her Shell
Jordan, who is autistic, has made incredible strides since working with adoptable cats…


FOR THOSE WHO THINK FISHING IS FOR WIMPS, SEE THIS VIDEO.

http://my.xfinity.com/video/jeremy-wade-is-hunting-for-the-fish-that-dragged-a-nepalese-fisherman-to-his-death/945062467597/Comcast/X1_AnimalPlanet?cid=sf_vidtray_Cat&tab=TV
Jeremy Wade Is Hunting For The Fish That Dragged A Nepalese Fisherman To His Death
Jeremy meets with locals to find out what kind of monster fish could be terrorizing the…


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