The neighborhood crime watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin last month, called 911 dozens of times in the months that led to the fatal shooting.
This afternoon six of the calls made by George Zimmerman were released by theSeminole County Sheriff's Office.
In four of the recordings Zimmerman called police to report "suspicious" persons — all of whom were black — in or near the Retreat at Twin Lakes neighborhood.
He called once to report his neighbor's open garage door. And in the sixth call, Zimmerman reports children are "habitually" playing in the street at dusk and running in front of cars. He asked dispatchers to take his complaint anonymously, but provided his name and phone number.
None of the newly released calls are related to the Feb. 26 shooting inside the gated neighborhood.
Many of the calls start the same way — Zimmerman mentions the recent rash of burglaries in the area and identifies himself as a member of the neighborhood watch.
"We've had a lot of break-ins in our neighborhood recently and I'm on the neighborhood watch," Zimmerman said during one call.
"There's two suspicious characters at the gate of my neighborhood, I've never seen them before. I don't know what they are doing. They are hanging out…loitering."
That day, the "characters" are two black men in a white sedan, Zimmerman tells the dispatchers. An officer is sent to check out the call, but it's unclear if anything suspicious was uncovered.
Another time he calls two report two black teens who match the description of suspects in recent break-in, who his wife saw and identified for police.
Zimmerman and his wife, who can be heard in the background, believed the suspects were back in the neighborhood and walking near the neighborhood's back gate. Zimmerman said he'd be waiting at the back gate to let an officer in.
On Feb. 26, Zimmerman called the non-emergency line to report a suspicious person — Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman mentioned the break-ins, reported a young black male in his neighborhood who he didn't recognize and thought was acting suspiciously.
Minutes after that call, while officers were in route, Trayvon was shot and killed. Zimmerman said he acted in self defense. Officers have not arrested or charged him.
Records show Zimmerman, 28, called the cops 46 times between January 2011 and Feb. 26.
Many of the calls appear related to his crime-watch volunteer role. The most frequent reason for his calls — nine times — was to report a suspicious person, according to Sanford Police Department records released last week.
The calls released this afternoon were made to the non-emergency line. The Sheriff's Office handles dispatching for Sanford Police.
The Sheriff's Office received more calls, but the audio information is retained for six-months before it is destroyed due to space issues, said spokeswoman Heather Smith. The record and the call log are not destroyed.
So because George Zimmerman is supposed to be "Half-Hispanic" he gets a pass by the local Police for killing an Unarmed, Non-Violent BLACK Teen with a bag of candy & an Iced Tea beverage in his hands?
George Zimmerman was told by Police NOT to follow Trayvon Martin however he continued to relentlessly pursue him. If he "Felt Threatened" why follow him?
The fact that Zimmerman followed Trayvon versus NOT following him, refutes any claims he or the local Police may have of the "Stand Your Ground" Legal Defense.
It's A Shame When Our Men & Women Voluntarily Enlist In The U.S. Military To Serve & Protect Our Country, Then After Serving Not Be Able To Find Jobs. Of Course This Pertains More So To Minority Vets Than White Vets. It's True! Most White Vets Are Frequently Hired After Serving & Paid Good Salaries. While Qualified Black & Latino Vets Remain Unemployed Or Have To Settle For Low Paying Jobs. That Isn't Right!
We ask our young Marines and soldiers to be warriors and diplomats, to deploy time and time again into harm’s way, but cannot help them when they ask something of us – even something as easy as leveraging their skills, talents and unparalleled experience into a job?
It’s time to do more for veterans seeking employment. We have an obligation to make sure our veterans are able to navigate this difficult labor market and succeed in the civilian workforce.
That’s why the President today announced a comprehensive plan to ensure that veterans have the employment support and assistance they deserve.
Building on the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden’s work through Joining Forces, and on the President’s Veterans Employment Council, the proposals outlined by the President today use every available avenue to make sure that veterans have the skills employers want and that employers understand the value of hiring a veteran.
Here’s what the President’s proposal does:
Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits: A new Returning Heroes Tax Credit for firms that hire unemployed veterans (maximum credit of $2,400 for every short-term unemployed hire and $4,800 for every long-term unemployed hire) and a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit which will increase the existing tax credit for firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been unemployed long-term (maximum credit of $9,600 per veteran) and continue the existing credit for all other veterans with a service-connected disability (maximum credit of $4,800).
A Challenge to the Private Sector to Hire or Train 100,000 Unemployed Veterans or Their Spouses by the End of 2013: The President will challenge businesses to commit to hire or provide training to unemployed veterans or their spouses. Joining Forces will lead this work with businesses and industry.
Presidential Call for a Career-Ready Military: The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, working closely with other agencies and the President’s economic and domestic policy teams, will lead a new task force to develop reforms to ensure that every member of the service receives the training, education, and credentials they need to transition to the civilian workforce or to pursue higher education. These reforms will include the design of a “reverse bootcamp,” which will extend the transition period to give service members more counseling and guidance and leave them career-ready.
Transition to the Private Sector: The Department of Labor will establish a new initiative to deliver an enhanced career development and job search service package to transitioning veterans at their local One-Stop Career Centers. The Office of Personnel Management will create a “Best Practices” Manual for the private sector to help businesses identify and hire veterans.
Just Because I Didn't Agree With ALL Of Pres. Obama's Policies & Decisions During His First 2 Years In Office Doesn't Mean He Lost My Vote.
I Supported Barack Obama In 2008 & Likewise For 2012.
Its Ok To Disagree & Apply Pressure To Our ELECTED Officials.
That's What Defines REAL Democracy.
(If Both Of Us Always Agree Then One Of Us Isn't Necessary!)
But When The Dust Clears Who I Endorse & Stand By Defines ME!
He's The Person Best Suited To Continue Leading This Country & I Stand With Pres. Obama In 2012.
I Realize My Decision To Support Pres. Obama Has Made A Lot Of People Very Angry, But At The End Of The Day I Have To ONLY Live With Myself & Answer To God.
Thus What Others Think Of Me Doesn't Matter Because They Too Are Accountable To God!
Much Like His 2008 Campaign Strategy, Pres. Obama's 2012 Campaign Strategy Will Also Be About Building Relationships With People From All Walks Of Life & Promoting A Grassroots Movement.
Like His Predecessors JFK & Bill Clinton, Barack Obama Is Truly "The People's President!"
While Pres. Obama, MOST Democrats, Progressives & Independents Stand For ALL American Citizens!
The NEW America!
The America Which Welcomes ALL & Loves ALL!
This Includes Extremely Wealthy People, Senior Citizens, Veterans, Middle Class, Lower Income & Young Voters, Regardless Of Ethnicity Or Culture.
NOT Just Wealthy Citizens But Everyone Who Resides Within America's Borders.
While Most GOP Leaders & Candidates Appear To Only Be Interested In Dirty, Racially - Divisive, "Southern Strategy" Politics, Pres. Obama's Camp Is Fighting Hard To Heal & Restore Our Nation's Integrity.
Fighting Hard To Bring Back American Jobs From Overseas.
Fighting To Help Small Businesses Create Jobs In Every Community By Revamping The SBA Process.
Fighting To Keep Our Country Safe. (Remember Obama Got Osama!)
Fighting Hard To Ensure Our Financial System Is NEVER Raped Again With "War On Terror", Fake Wall Street Hedge Funds & Subprime Mortgage Schemes.
Fighting To Help Revise Our Nation's Corrupt, Horribly Unfair Tax Code & Fix The IRS System.
NO Corrupt Flat Tax Rate Please!!
(Everyone Should Pay Their Fair Share Of Taxes Even Billionaires & Millionaires!)
Fighting To Stop Abuse & Fraud Within The Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security Systems, Yet Preserving Those Same Systems. (Remember Kathy Hocul's NY-26 Win Last Tuesday?)
Fighting To Stop Childhood Obesity The Leading Cause Of Juvenile Diabetes.
Fighting To Stop Food Stamp Abuse By Making It Illegal For States To Allow Recipients With Young Children To Consistently Purchase & Feed Their Children Candy, Snacks, Sweet Drinks Versus REAL Food (Fresh Vegetables, Fruits, Whole Grain Breads, etc.,).
Fighting To Stop Many Single Mothers (Black & White) From INTENTIONALLY Making Their Children SICK Just To Get Disability Checks.
Fighting To Stop Age & Racial Discrimination As It Relates To Unfair Hiring Practices.
Fighting To Stop The Destruction Of Collective Bargaining Rights For Labor Unions.
Fighting To Stop Private & For-Profit Schools From Ripping Off Students By Giving Them Fake Degrees Or Degrees With Little Value In Exchange For Student Loans. (i.e., Most Cosmetology Schools. Most NOT All!)
Fighting To Stop Consumer Abuse At The Hands Of BIG Banks (Too Big To Fail!) & Our Nation's 3 Largest Credit Reporting Agencies (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union).
Fighting To Stop ILLEGAL Foreclosures. Especially Among Active Duty U.S. Military Service Members & Veterans.
Fighting To Stop Health Insurance Companies From Taking Money From Members Then ILLEGALLY Denying Them Coverage.
Fighting To Stop Governors From Privatizing Prisons For Revenue Which Encourages Wrongful Convictions & Long Term Imprisonment Of Black & Hispanic Men.
Even Black & Hispanic Men Who Are First Time Offenders Or Those Who Have Committed Non-Drug-Related, Non-Homicidal Crimes.
Fighting To Stop Police Brutality & Taser Gun Abuse.
Fighting To Stop Governors From Allowing Black & Hispanic Children To Remain In Foster Care Until They Age Out (NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA) Versus Being Adopted By GOOD Foster Parents (NOT Criminals), Just For The Purpose Of Getting More Federal Funding Only To Later Be Wasted On Political Wish Lists.
Fighting To Stop Federal Funding For Public Schools From Being Used To Segregate White Students From Minority Students.
Fighting To Preserve Funding For Early Childhood Programs Like Head Start Which Leads To Higher Academic Success For Low Income Black & Hispanic Children.
Fighting To Help Upgrade American Schools, Including Those In Urban Areas To Better Prepare American Students To Compete In The Global Workforce.
Fighting To Upgrade America's Infrastructure (Bridges, Roads, Highways, High Speed Rail, Internet Access).
Fighting To Protect Veterans From Being Taken Advantage Of By Fake Veterans Advocacy Agencies & Greedy Property Management Companies That Overcharge Veterans For Rental Properties.
Fighting To Stop VA Hospital Pharmacies (Especially In Southern States) From Issuing Pain Pills To Veterans Like Handing Candy To Children On Halloween Night.
In the first presidential election since the Tea Party's emergence, Republican candidates are drifting rightward on a range of issues, even though more centrist stands might play well in the 2012 general election.
On energy, taxes, health care and other topics, the top candidates hold positions that are more conservative than those they espoused a few years ago.
The shifts reflect the evolving views of conservative voters, who will play a major role in choosing the Republican nominee. In that sense, the candidates' repositioning seems savvy or even essential.
But the eventual nominee will face President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election, when independent voters appear likely to be decisive players once again. Those independents may be far less enamored of hard-right positions than are the GOP activists who will wield power in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and other nominating contests.
"The most visible shift in the political landscape" in recent years "is the emergence of a single bloc of across-the-board conservatives," says the Pew Research Center, which conducts extensive voter surveys. Many of them "take extremely conservative positions on nearly all issues," Pew reports. They largely "agree with the tea party," and "very strongly disapprove of Barack Obama's job performance."
Climate policy is a dramatic example of how GOP presidential hopefuls have shifted to the right in recent years. Former Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Jon Huntsman of Utah, along with other likely candidates, have backed away from earlier embraces of regional "cap-and-trade" programs to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
Such stands were unremarkable in GOP circles just a few years ago. Sen. John McCain, the 2008 presidential nominee, supported a cap and trade plan to place prices and limits on the emission of heat-trapping gasses.
'I'm sorry' Now the position is anathema to millions of Republicans, and therefore to the party's candidates. Pawlenty is the most effusive in his backtracking. "I was wrong, it was a mistake, and I'm sorry," he says repeatedly.
The likely presidential candidates have shifted rightward on other issues as well.
Romney, who leads in most polls, has rejected his earlier stands supporting abortion rights, gun control and gay rights. He says his 2006 law requiring Massachusetts residents to obtain health insurance was right for his state at the time, but he has condemned the Obama-backed mandate that would cover all Americans.
Pawlenty campaigns as a tight-fisted conservative who would refuse to raise the nation's debt ceiling, even though many Republican leaders say economic chaos would ensue. Yet in 2006, Pawlenty told a newspaper, "the era of small government is over" and "government has to be more proactive, more aggressive."
Pawlenty says he was partly quoting another person. But in the same 2006 interview he said, "there are certain circumstances where you've got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful."
Pawlenty has abandoned such talk in his presidential quest.
The Republican Party's rightward drift is causing headaches for the presidential hopefuls on the issue of Medicare, a potential minefield in the general election. House Republicans passed a bill that eventually would convert Medicare to a less costly, less generous program. It would help older Americans buy health insurance, but it no longer would provide benefits based mainly on a patient's needs rather than costs.
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich touched off a firestorm by calling the plan radical. He spent the better part of a week trying to recant, change the subject and get his campaign back on track.
Pawlenty, after promising to offer his own Medicare plan, acknowledged conservatives' priorities and said he would sign the House measure if it were the only choice before him.
Romney hedged Friday on whether he would sign the House bill into law. "That's the kind of speculation that is getting the cart ahead of the horse," he said. "I'm going to have my own plan."
Many Republican activists are delighted by the rightward tack of their party and its presidential contenders.
If anything, "mainstream Republican leaders are pushing the party too far to the left," said Sid Dinerstein, GOP chairman in Palm Beach County, Fla. The House plan for Medicare is the only one that makes sense, he said, and GOP candidates "should become articulate and knowledgeable in talking about it."
'Wiggling all over the place' Louisiana's Republican chairman, Roger F. Villere Jr., agrees.
"The conservative issues are the correct issues," he said. The presidential candidates should embrace the House stand, he said, and persuade voters they care more about saving Medicare than the Democrats do.
Some in Obama's camp, however, say the presidential contenders risk locking themselves into hard-right positions that won't play well when less ideological voters flock to the polls in November 2012.
Romney, Pawlenty, Gingrich and others "are wiggling all over the place" to appease staunch conservatives, said Bill Burton, Obama's former spokesman and now a Democratic fundraiser and advocate. Americans want strong, consistent leaders, he said, and the Republican contenders aren't filling the bill.
Obama, of course, has had his own inconsistencies, such as backing away from calls to increase payroll and income taxes on the wealthy.
Moreover, competitive Democratic primaries are usually the mirror image of GOP contests. Democratic candidates generally edge to the left to attract liberal activists before hewing back to the center for the general election.
This time, however, Obama has no primary opponents to worry about. That allows him to focus on the all-important independent voters, who swung the 2008 elections to Democrats, and the 2010 midterm elections to Republicans.
The latest Pew Research study suggests that independents, who "played a determinative role in the last three national elections," will have even more clout in 2012. They comprised 30 percent of the national electorate in 2005, Pew found. They now make up 37 percent.
Whoever survives the conservative-dominated Republican nominating process will have to address those independents' concerns quickly and adroitly.
The United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis today, with the leaking to the Guardian and other international media of more than 250,000 classified cables from its embassies, many sent as recently as February this year.
At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables – many designated "secret" – the Guardian can disclose that Arab leaders are privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been instructed to spy on the UN leadership.
These two revelations alone would be likely to reverberate around the world. But the secret dispatches, which were obtained by WikiLeaks, the whistleblowers' website, also reveal Washington's evaluation of many other highly sensitive international issues.
These include a shift in relations between China and North Korea, high-level concerns over Pakistan's growing instability, and details of clandestine US efforts to combat al-Qaida in Yemen.
Among scores of disclosures that are likely to cause uproar, the cables detail:
• Grave fears in Washington and London over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, with officials warning that as the country faces economic collapse, government employees could smuggle out enough nuclear material for terrorists to build a bomb.
• Inappropriate remarks by Prince Andrew about a UK law enforcement agency and a foreign country.
• Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government, with one cable alleging that vice-president Zia Massoud was carrying $52m in cash when he was stopped during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. Massoud denies taking money out of Afghanistan.
• How the hacker attacks which forced Google to quit China in January were orchestrated by a senior member of the Politburo who typed his own name into the global version of the search engine and found articles criticising him personally.
• Allegations that Russia and its intelligence agencies are using mafia bosses to carry out criminal operations, with one cable reporting that the relationship is so close that the country has become a "virtual mafia state".
• The extraordinarily close relationship between Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, which is causing intense US suspicion. Cables detail allegations of "lavish gifts", lucrative energy contracts and the use by Berlusconi of a "shadowy" Russian-speaking Italiango-between.
• Devastating criticism of the UK's military operations in Afghanistan by US commanders, the Afghan president and local officials in Helmand. The dispatches reveal particular contempt for the failure to impose security around Sangin – the town which has claimed more British lives than any other in the country.
The US has particularly intimate dealings with Britain, and some of the dispatches from the London embassy in Grosvenor Square will make uncomfortable reading in Whitehall and Westminster. They range from political criticisms of David Cameron to requests for specific intelligence about individual MPs.
The cables contain specific allegations of corruption, as well as harsh criticism by US embassy staff of their host governments, from Caribbean islands to China and Russia. The material includes a reference to Putin as an "alpha-dog" and Hamid Karzai as being "driven by paranoia", while Angela Merkel allegedly "avoids risk and is rarely creative". There is also a comparison between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Adolf Hitler.
The cables names Saudi donors as the biggest financiers of terror groups, and provide an extraordinarily detailed account of an agreement between Washington and Yemen to cover up the use of US planes to bomb al-Qaida targets. One cable records that during a meeting in January with General David Petraeus, then US commander in the Middle East, Yemeni president Abdullah Saleh said: "We'll continue saying they are our bombs, not yours."
Other revelations include a description of a near "environmental disaster" last year over a rogue shipment of enriched uranium, technical details of secret US-Russian nuclear missile negotiations in Geneva, and a profile of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who they say is accompanied everywhere by a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse.
Clinton led a frantic damage limitation exercise this weekend as Washington prepared foreign governments for the revelations, contacting leaders in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, France and Afghanistan.
US ambassadors in other capitals were instructed to brief their hosts in advance of the release of unflattering pen-portraits or nakedly frank accounts of transactions with the US which they had thought would be kept quiet. Washington now faces a difficult task in convincing contacts around the world that any future conversations will remain confidential.
As the cables were published, the White House released a statement condemning their release. "Such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the US for assistance in promoting democracy and open government. By releasing stolen and classified documents, WikiLeaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals."
In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "We condemn any unauthorised release of this classified information, just as we condemn leaks of classified material in the UK. They can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the US have said, may put lives at risk. We have a very strong relationship with the US government. That will continue."
The US ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman, said: "We have briefed the UK government and other friends and allies around the world about the potential impact of these disclosures … I am confident that our uniquely productive relationship with the United Kingdom will remain close and strong, focused on promoting our shared objectives and values."
Sir Christopher Meyer, who was British ambassador to the US in the Blair years, thought the leaks would have little impact on diplomatic behaviour. "This won't restrain dips' [diplomats'] candour," he said. "But people will be looking at the security of electronic communications and archives. Paper would have been impossible to steal in these quantities."
The state department's legal adviser has written to the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and his London lawyer, warning that the cables were obtained illegally and that the publication would place at risk "the lives of countless innocent individuals … ongoing military operations … and co-operation between countries".
The electronic archive of embassy dispatches from around the world was allegedly downloaded by a US soldier earlier this year and passed to WikiLeaks. Assange made it available to the Guardian and four other news organisations: the New York Times, Der Spiegel in Germany, Le Monde in France and El PaÃs in Spain. All five plan to publish extracts from the most significant cables, but have decided neither to "dump" the entire dataset into the public domain, nor to publish names that would endanger innocent individuals. WikiLeaks says that, contrary to the state department's fears, it also initially intends to post only limited cable extracts, and to redact identities.
The cables published today reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network, with diplomats tasked to obtain not just information from the people they meet, but personal details, such as frequent flyer numbers, credit card details and even DNA material.
Classified "human intelligence directives" issued in the name of Clinton or her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, instruct officials to gather information on military installations, weapons markings, vehicle details of political leaders as well as iris scans, fingerprints and DNA.
The most controversial target was the UN leadership. That directive requested the specification of telecoms and IT systems used by top officials and their staff and details of "private VIP networks used for official communication, to include upgrades, security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys".
PJ Crowley, the state department spokesman in Washington, said: "Let me assure you: our diplomats are just that, diplomats. They do not engage in intelligence activities. They represent our country around the world, maintain open and transparent contact with other governments as well as public and private figures, and report home. That's what diplomats have done for hundreds of years."
The acting deputy spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, Farhan Haq, said the UN chief had no immediate comment. "We are aware of the reports."
The dispatches also shed light on older diplomatic issues. One cable, for example, reveals, that Nelson Mandela was "furious" when a top adviser stopped him meeting Margaret Thatcher shortly after his release from prison to explain why the ANC objected to her policy of "constructive engagement" with the apartheid regime.
"We understand Mandela was keen for a Thatcher meeting but that [appointments secretary Zwelakhe] Sisulu argued successfully against it," according to the cable. It continues: "Mandela has on several occasions expressed his eagerness for an early meeting with Thatcher to express the ANC's objections to her policy. We were consequently surprised when the meeting didn't materialise on his mid-April visit to London and suspected that ANC hardliners had nixed Mandela's plans."
The US embassy cables are marked "Sipdis" – secret internet protocol distribution. They were compiled as part of a programme under which selected dispatches, considered moderately secret but suitable for sharing with other agencies, would be automatically loaded on to secure embassy websites, and linked with the military's Siprnet internet system.
They are classified at various levels up to "secret noforn" [no foreigners]. More than 11,000 are marked secret, while around 9,000 of the cables are marked noforn.
More than 3 million US government personnel and soldiers, many extremely junior, are cleared to have potential access to this material, even though the cables contain the identities of foreign informants, often sensitive contacts in dictatorial regimes. Some are marked "protect" or "strictly protect".
Last spring, 22-year-old intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was charged with leaking many of these cables, along with a gun-camera video of an Apache helicopter crew mistakenly killing two Reuters news agency employees in Baghdad in 2007, which was subsequently posted by WikiLeaks. Manning is facing a courtmartial.
In July and October WikiLeaks also published thousands of leaked military reports from Afghanistan and Iraq. These were made available for analysis beforehand to the Guardian, along with Der Spiegel and the New York Times.
A former hacker, Adrian Lamo, who reported Manning to the US authorities, said the soldier had told him in chat messages that the cables revealed "how the first world exploits the third, in detail".
He also said, according to Lamo, that Clinton "and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available in searchable format to the public … Everywhere there's a US post … there's a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed".
Asked why such sensitive material was posted on a network accessible to thousands of government employees, the state department spokesman told the Guardian: "The 9/11 attacks and their aftermath revealed gaps in intra-governmental information sharing. Since the attacks of 9/11, the US government has taken significant steps to facilitate information sharing. These efforts were focused on giving diplomatic, military, law enforcement and intelligence specialists quicker and easier access to more data to more effectively do their jobs."
He added: "We have been taking aggressive action in recent weeks and months to enhance the security of our systems and to prevent the leak of information."
Six months after leaving the Obama administration, former green jobs czar Van Jones is staging a public comeback, directing his love at the Republicans who helped pushed him out of the administration – whether they want it or not.
Jones, who left the administration last September amidst questions from Fox host Glenn Beck and others on the right about his politics before joining the administration, was finally pushed to resign after the emergence of a petition he'd signed supporting the Sept. 11 "truth movement."
His return to the public stage began Wednesday, when the founder of the advocacy group Green for All was named a senior fellow at the Green Opportunity Initiative at the progressive Center for American Progress, and separately appointed as a fellow at Princeton University, teaching environmental and economic policy.
Jones also took to the airwaves, visiting with some prominent African-American commentators to promote his green agenda.
His message: Republicans – who called for his head just six months ago and who, before accepting his White House job – could work with Democrats to promote a green jobs initiative.
"Conservatives should be really happy because we're talking about enterprise," Jones told Roland Martin of his green plans Sunday on TV One's "Washington Watch."
In an unexpected outpouring, Jones gave props to Beck at the NAACP Image Awards on Friday, delivering a message to his “fellow countryman” while accepting the President’s Award for his work on green initiatives.
“I see you, and I love you, brother. I love you and you cannot do anything about it. I love you and you cannot do anything about it,” Jones said. “Let’s be one country. Let’s be one country. Let’s get the job done.”
(Beck returned the love shot on Twitter: “I love you too,Glad to all live in one country.Will it be the founders country or the one you pushed when with storm?”)
Speaking the same day to Suzanne Malveaux on CNN, Jones recalled a recent speech of his that tea partiers attended, where someone “on the front row, like, you know, mad-dogging me and I started talking. I started talking about American jobs and the future and how we can be one country, and the guy's book starts getting lower and lower and lower, and at the end of the speech, he came up and asked me to sign Glenn Beck's book.
Asked what he wrote, Jones said, “We are one country, Van Jones.”
For weeks before Jones's resignation, Beck had led the charge against Jones, accusing him of being a communist because of his affiliation with a 1990s anti-war group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement. Jones was the founder of a group, Color of Change, that had pushed for a successful advertising boycott of Beck's show after Beck had already twice criticized Jones on the air.
Jones repeatedly denied Beck's charges, but the talker has stuck to his guns. During the annual Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month, Beck repeated the charge that Jones is a "self-described" communist.
When Jones resigned last September, he released a statement acknowledging the right's role in his departure after Republicans aired several inflammatory comments he'd made over the years. In addition to the 9/11 petition question, Jones also drew fire for calling Republicans "a-holes."
"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide," Jones said.
In an interview with PBS's Tavis Smiley Thursday, Jones revisited how he ended up signing a petition calling for an investigation of the Bush administration role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. During his interview with Smiley, Jones called the whole debacle a misunderstanding in which his name was put on a petition - one that he says he never actually saw.
Jones said some people approached him at a conference saying they represented 9/11 families and said, " 'Will you help us?' I said, 'Sure, whatever you want.'
"And then these people, I didn't know what their agenda was, they went and put my name on some abhorrent, crazy language they never showed me, I never saw. And it just sat there on this website for years," Jones said on the program.
On "Washington Watch," Jones reiterated that he willingly stepped down, saying that he felt that the controversy surrounding him was distracting attention away from the health care debate.
"I chose to resign because I was becoming a distraction," Jones said. "There were things I had said done in my past that were being confused."
Suspect in terror plot arrested at Colorado home AURORA, Colorado — FBI agents late Saturday arrested Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Colorado resident and Afghan national suspected in an alleged terrorist plot in the United States.
Zazi and his father, Muhammad Zazi, were handcuffed without incident as authorities raided Zazi’s home in the Denver suburb of Aurora, CNN’s Jim Spellman reported from the scene.
Earlier in the day, Najibullah Zazi, who has been questioned for the past three days by federal investigators, declined to attend a fourth day of interviews, his attorney’s publicist said.
Zazi has admitted to having ties to al Qaeda, an administration official familiar with the matter told CNN Friday. Either a plea deal or charges are possible for Zazi, the official said.
The nature of the charges was not immediately clear late Saturday.
The alleged terrorist plot, which came to light this week after raids in New York, may have been targeting a major transportation center, like a large railroad or subway station, sources close to the investigation told CNN on Thursday.
There were plans for an attack, presumably in the New York area, where crowds are large and security screening for nonairport travelers is lax, the sources said.
Two sources familiar with the investigation said that Zazi had video of New York’s Grand Central Terminal, a massive junction of rail and subway lines, as well as shops and restaurants, which see an average of more than a half million visitors per day.
A former counterterrorism official said backpacks, computers and maps were found during searches in the New York City borough of Queens, and field tests turned up positive for explosives. But such tests often yield false positives, and the former official was unaware whether more definitive test results had been obtained.
On Wednesday, federal agents searched Zazi’s apartment in Denver and another home in the same Denver suburb in connection with the investigation.
A law enforcement official told CNN that diagrams showing how to make bombs were found on the computer that Zazi had with him when he was stopped in New York during a recent visit. But his lawyer, Arthur Folsom, denied that was true.
“There’s no diagram of a bomb; there’s no information like that,” Folsom told reporters Thursday as he accompanied his client to his second meeting with federal agents. Had that been the case, he asked, “Do you really think the FBI would have allowed us to walk out of here last night?”
Zazi has no ties to terrorism, Folsom said.
He suggested that Zazi may have drawn investigators’ attention “because he stayed at a house owned by an old friend of his who was under observation from the FBI.”
Folsom said Zazi stayed in an apartment that was raided after he had driven from Denver to New York on business. Sources close to the investigation told CNN that the Queens raids were spurred by a confluence of events in the city — including the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session and President Barack Obama’s Wall Street speech on Monday.
Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation said the Colorado searches were part of a probe that began with Zazi and led to New York.
The case began with a tip from a New York police informant and led to FBI wiretaps to develop the case, the former counterterrorism official said.
Agents launched the raids after police stopped Zazi on the George Washington Bridge during a recent visit to New York City, raising concerns that he would figure out he was under surveillance, the former official told CNN.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee Wednesday that he did not think the investigation had revealed any “imminent danger.”
Resources devoted to the investigation include the placement of a hostage rescue team in New York for possible raids and the deployment of resources to the Denver area in Colorado, where another phase of the probe is taking place, the sources said.
"This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility."
The Obama administration may let some accused 9/11 terrorists at Guantanamo Bay plead guilty and be executed without facing trial, the New York Times reports. A proposed change in military law, which governs Guantanamo tribunals, would give the alleged attackers what they seek—martyrdom—and avoid trials that could reveal harsh US interrogation techniques. It would also avoid charging the accused in Federal court.
The five 9/11 detainees said last December that they wanted to plead guilty, but defense lawyers argued that military law should be followed, forbidding guilty pleas in capital cases. A military judge is still mulling it over. But critics of the proposed legislation, which is circulating privately among officials, are already speaking out: “They’re encouraging martyrdom," said a lawyer for a 9/11 detainee.
"I can't make it any more clear." "We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev)
"For months, we have been saying what Senate Democrats now acknowledge: that because the administration has no plan for what to do with the 240 detainees at Guantanamo, it would be irresponsible and dangerous for the Senate to appropriate the money to close it." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
In what may appear to be an unusual crushing defeat for popular President Barack Obama, was a resounding vote of NO from congress as it relates to him receiving funding to help close Gitmo.
The president previously pledged to close the detainee prison camp by January of 2010.
However today congressmen and women from both sides of the political spectrum were spot on as they agreed closing Gitmo would be a huge mistake, adversely impacting the safety of our entire nation.
No one has forgotten what Terrorists did to our country on 9-11. Better yet no one wants to forget.
The prisoners/ detainees currently housed at Gitmo are there NOT for chewing gum as Speaker Pelosi so eloquently put it, they are there for committing horrible acts against American people, on our soil.
Releasing those detainees as a means of protecting their Human Rights may seem like a good idea, but considering the circumstances it isn't prudent nor in the best interest of our national security.
What about the Human Rights of 3,000 innocent American citizens who met an untimely demise at the hands of cold-blooded, homicidal murderers eight years ago?
No offense to President Obama but we're talking hardcore Terrorists and Killers here, NOT regular criminals or regular gangsters.
Many of those detainees were trained almost from birth to hate and destroy Americans.
They are not without the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, able to be rehabilitated.
With this knowledge why should our government release these trained combatants into our communities around our families, schools, hospitals, churches, jobs, etc.,
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