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A look at how Syrian refugees were vetted before Trump

Before President Trump's executive order on immigration, Bill Whitaker reported on the Syrian refugee crisis and followed Syrian families from Jordan through the vetting process to the U.S.

2017Jan 29
CORRESPONDENTBill Whitaker

The following script is from “Finding Refuge,” which originally aired on Oct. 16, 2016, and was rebroadcast on Jan. 29, 2017. Bill Whitaker is the correspondent. Katy Textor, producer.

Friday, after a whirlwind week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days. Last night, after a flurry of legal challenges, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency stay.

The executive order, which sparked protests around the world, also stops all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days. Syrian refugees are barred indefinitely, pending a review of the screening process. Once again, Syrian refugees find themselves at the center of a heated debate -- pitting our American tradition of altruism against our fear of terrorism. Donald Trump won the presidency claiming tens-of-thousands of Syrians -- mostly young men -- were streaming into the U.S. and that the Obama administration had no system to properly vet them. So, what has the vetting process been? We went to the region, as we reported last fall, to see for ourselves.

This is Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan -- about seven miles from the Syrian border. 80,000 Syrian refugees living in tiny, steel boxes as far as the eye can see.

The camp run by the U.N. sprang out of the Jordanian desert in 2012 as millions of refugees poured out of Syria. It’s now the largest Syrian refugee camp in the Middle East.

Gina Kassem: Every refugee here lives in pre-fab housing.

Gina Kassem oversees the refugee resettlement program in the Middle East and North Africa for the U.S. State Department. As of late 2016, the U.S. was processing an additional 21,000 Syrian refugee applications for relocation to the United States.

Gina Kassem: Mostly we focus on victims of torture, survivors of violence, women-headed households, a lot of severe medical cases.

Kassem told us each Syrian refugee who makes it to the United States goes through a lengthy process of interviews and background checks.

Bill Whitaker: You know there are many Americans who don’t trust government to fix the roads or run the schools. How can you convince them that this process is going to keep them safe?

Gina Kassem: Because they undergo so many steps of vetting, so many interviews, so many intelligence screenings, so many checks along the way. They’re fleeing the terrorists who killed their family members, who destroyed their houses. These are the victims that we are helping through our program.

The war in Syria has taken the lives of almost a half-million people, leveled entire cities and created the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II.

Syria’s neighbor Jordan has been overwhelmed with nearly 1.5 million refugees, in the camps and in the cities. Any who can, make their way here, to the capital.

Waiting to register with the U.N. in Amman, Jordan
CBS NEWS

For the lucky few this is where the long road to the U.S. begins. Everyday thousands of Syrian refugees line up here in Amman, Jordan, to register with the U.N.

Every single refugee is interviewed in detail multiple times by the U.N. for their vital statistics: where they came from, who they know.

Their irises are scanned to establish their identity.

And then they wait for the chance the U.N. might refer them to the United States. Less than one percent have had that chance.

For that one percent the next step has been this State Department resettlement center in Amman for a background check led by specially trained Department of Homeland Security interrogators.

Like all Syrian refugees being vetted this family was questioned at least three times by interviewers looking for gaps or inconsistencies in their stories.

All that information is then run though U.S. security databases for any red flags. To be a refugee in Jordan is to be patient. The U.S. security check goes on an average of 18-24 months.

Those who pass are then told to pack up for their new life in the United States.

This family had just been told they are moving to Chicago, Illinois.

Bill Whitaker: What are you feeling right now?

Wife: I am afraid. We don’t know anything.

Just before they go they are given a crash course on life in the U.S.. America 101.

Teacher: English, education or experience.

Most know little about where they are moving. Those we spoke to didn’t really care. They know exactly what they are leaving behind. We met Sulaf and her 15-year-old daughter Joody in Amman this past August.

Bill Whitaker: So now you’re going to the United States. Do you know where?

Sulaf: North Carolina.

Bill Whitaker: What do you know about North Carolina?

Sulaf: I don’t know. I don’t know. Nice-- nice city.

Sulaf was an elementary school teacher back in Homs, Syria, her husband a dentist. She says they had a good life until Syrian President Assad’s forces turned their lives into a living hell.

She says they would hear the sounds of other buildings collapsing. And they would tell themselves, “We’re next.” She started giving her kids sleeping pills so they could sleep.

From left: Joody and her mother, Sulaf, speak with Bill Whitaker
CBS NEWS

Sulaf’s daughter Joody was 10 years old at the time.

Bill Whitaker: You remember all this?

Joody: Everything, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was very scary. It-- we cannot go to the-- to the school. Most of my friends’ death,

Bill Whitaker: Most of your friends are dead?

Joody: Yes.

Sulaf says she is lucky she made it to Jordan alive with her family and her parents. She has one sister in bombed out Aleppo, another in ISIS-controlled territory. But Jordan is where her husband Ahmad’s luck ran out. He was found to have Lou Gherig’s disease and died in 2014. Her youngest son Malaz was diagnosed with autism but the family couldn’t find treatment.

This past August, Sulaf was cleared by Homeland Security to travel to the U.S. It was just in time. She was considering taking her family on the treacherous journey to Europe by boat in order to get Malaz the help he needs.

She told us if she tried to cross the ocean to Europe and they made it, they made it. If they died, they died. There’s no difference between death and life in this place. She says she can’t work, she can’t educate her children, she has no opportunity.

Bill Whitaker: So a new life in America is your only hope?

Sulaf: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Ekbal with family in Riverdale, Maryland
CBS NEWS

We met Ekbal and his wife Eman in their apartment in Jordan this past August as they were preparing to leave for the U.S.

Ekbal owned a clothing store in Daraa, Syria, before the war. He says he was arrested and tortured--accused of being a foreign spy by Assad’s forces just for watching a protest outside his store.

Bill Whitaker: You said that the men who arrested you said, “No one will know what happened to you.”

You believe that the best possible option is that you die quickly, he said.

Bill Whitaker: You felt that it might be better if you were to die.

Ekbal: Death is mercy at this point.

When Ekbal was released the family fled Syria. After a nearly two-year vetting process they were cleared by U.S. Homeland Security. In September, they moved into this empty apartment in Riverdale, Maryland. They say it’s lonely, but Ekbal has figured out the local bus and just got a part-time job at the local 7-Eleven.

Opening our doors to refugees like Ekbal is a proud part of America’s heritage, but just over a year ago when Paris was attacked by ISIS fighters killing 130 civilians, many Americans wanted to slam the doors shut.

A Syrian passport was found on one of the suicide bombers who had entered Europe with the flood of Syrian refugees. That prompted 31 U.S. governors to call for a complete halt to the Syrian Refugee Program.

Georgia’s Republican Governor Nathan Deal went further and signed an executive order denying state services to Syrian refugees.

It turned out that bomber wasn’t Syrian after all. He was part of a sophisticated ISIS plot to get radicals into Europe. But it cast a shadow of suspicion over all Syrian refugees.

Mohammad, his wife Ebtesam and son Hasan were among the first Syrian refugees to arrive in the U.S. They settled in Georgia just weeks after the attacks in Paris.

At first, I was worried, he said. But I told myself that there’s no way I would be mistreated in this country. Because this is a country of laws.

Mohammad and his family were sponsored by the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, in deep Republican Marietta, Georgia, just outside Atlanta.

With Governor Deal banning services the church stepped in to support the family. Senior Pastor Bryant Wright, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention found himself in a political firestorm -- at odds with the governor -- a man he voted for.

Pastor Wright: Well see, our calling, Bill, is far higher to follow Christ and do what Christ teaches us to do than whether there’s an “R” or a “D” behind your name. And that’s what we’ve got to live by far more than what people are hearing on talk radio, or on the news or from political candidates.

Wright wrote a letter to Governor Deal asking him to reconsider his position.

Bill Whitaker: Did he respond?

Pastor Wright: No, he didn’t respond.

Governor Deal didn’t respond to 60 Minutes either. Last December he was forced to withdraw his ban when Georgia’s attorney general found it to be illegal.

Since then this Christian church, working with U.S. refugee resettlement agencies World Relief and Lutheran Services, has gone on to sponsor seven more Muslim families from Syria.

In July, Mohammad, Ebtesam and Hasan welcomed their cousin Nouras and his family of six.

Volunteer: Welcome to your new home.

Here in the Atlanta area, volunteers and case workers help newcomers from the beginning. Getting them settled into new homes and teaching them to use an ATM.

The refugees are given English tutoring and help finding jobs. This past summer, Mohammad was able to pay his bills on his own for the first time. He’s working at a catering company owned by a church member. Hassan has started kindergarten and slowly they say they are starting to feel at home here.

Ebtesam: I feeling this country, my country.

Mohammad: My country, yes.

Pastor Wright told us he is isn’t naïve about the potential risks of allowing in Syrian refugees.

Pastor Wright: The government has decided 10,000 Syrian refugees are coming. That’s not our decision. Isn’t it better to reach out and love these folks than to give them the cold shoulder? Which approach do you think might cause a Muslim refugee to be more sympathetic to Islamic terrorism? Which approach? To me it’s a no-brainer.

For many members of Congress faith in the government’s ability to properly vet refugees is misguided.

Paul Ryan: When we know that ISIL is already telling us that they are trying to infiltrate the refugee population, don’t you think that common sense dictates we should take a pause and get this right?

Bill Whitaker: Can you tell the American people that this vetting is safe?

Jeh Johnson: I can tell the American people it is probably the most cumbersome, thorough vetting process by which any immigrant comes into the United States.

Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told us the situation in the U.S. is vastly different from Europe which saw its borders flooded with unvetted refugees.

Jeh Johnson: If we don’t feel we know enough about you-- we’re not going to admit you.

Bill Whitaker: Out of all the people you’re letting in, how, how many are being denied?

Jeh Johnson: Thousands have been denied admission to this country. And an even larger number who are on hold.

There is no known case of a Syrian refugee being involved in any terror plot in the United States, but in 2009 the U.S. missed this Iraqi refugee and allowed him in, even though the military knew he had been an insurgent fighting U.S. forces. He and another Iraqi refugee were then caught in Kentucky trying to buy a stinger missile to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Bill Whitaker: How does this guy walk into America?

Jeh Johnson: With every case from years ago there should be lessons learned.

Bill Whitaker: Things have changed--

Jeh Johnson: Things have changed--

Bill Whitaker: --since then?

Jeh Johnson: --considerably since then. We have, on my watch, added social media and other checks, consulting additional databases. We’ve added those checks in the face of the worldwide refugee crisis that we see right now.

Last month, Sulaf and her children flew from Jordan to their new home in Cary, North Carolina. She says it took 18 months of security checks for her to make it here.

She’s now learning to navigate an American grocery store and is anxious to find a job.

Church volunteer: There may be an opportunity...

Their new life in America isn’t easy but for the first time in a long time Sulaf says she has hope.

Sulaf: And on behalf for me and my kids, I would like thanks for peop--American people and American government for this chance. And thank you very, very, very much. And-- ours-- save our children.

Since we first broadcast this story, Sulaf found a job in the bakery of a Whole Foods store. And according to the State Department, as of this weekend, the vetting of Syrian refugees has been suspended as a result of President Trump’s executive order to review the process.

To find out more about the organizations mentioned in Bill Whitaker’s report “Finding Refuge,” here are their names and links:

United Nations Refugee Agency: http://www.unhcr.org/en-us
World Relief: http://www.worldrelief.org/
Lutherans Immigration and Refugee Service: https://lirs.org/

President Trump’s ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the circumstances leading up to it, have quickly become a major crisis for the fledgling administration, forcing the White House on the defensive and precipitating the first significant breach in relations between Trump and an increasingly restive Republican Congress.

Even as the White House described Trump’s “immediate, decisive” action in demanding Flynn’s resignation late Monday as the end of an unfortunate episode, senior GOP lawmakers were buckling under growing pressure to investigate it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that the events leading to Flynn’s departure would be added to a broader probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Intercepts showed that Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions in a phone call with the Russian ambassador — a conversation topic that Flynn first denied and then later said he could not recall.

McConnell’s comments followed White House revelations that Trump was aware “for weeks” that Flynn had misled Vice President Pence and others about the content of his late-December talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

White House counsel Donald F. McGahn told Trump in a briefing late last month that Flynn, despite his claims to the contrary, had discussed U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration in late December, press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday. That briefing, he said, came “immediately” after Sally Q. Yates, then the acting attorney general, informed McGahn on Jan. 26 about discrepancies between intercepts of Kislyak’s phone calls and public statements by Pence and others that there had been no discussion of sanctions.

The resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn comes on the heels of reports that he discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador while a civilian, before President Trump took office. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

Trump brought in senior strategist Stephen K. Bannon and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to join the discussion with McGahn, according to two officials familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

McGahn then conferred with Yates again the following day, Jan. 27, to try to glean more information, these two officials said. Within the White House, the matter was viewed skeptically, and Trump, Bannon, Priebus and McGahn for several days remained among the few people briefed, they said.

Over the next two weeks, the officials said, Flynn was asked multiple times about what exactly he had said. He brushed aside the suggestion that he had spoken about sanctions with the ambassador — denials that kept him afloat within the White House even as he was being actively evaluated, they said.

It was not until a Washington Post report last Thursday, in which Flynn was quoted as saying that he had no “recollection” of discussing sanctions but couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t, that the downward slide culminating in Monday’s forced resignation began, several administration officials said.

[National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say]

“We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said at the daily White House press briefing. He emphasized that an internal White House inquiry had concluded that nothing Flynn discussed with the Russian was illegal but that he had “broken trust” with Trump by not telling the truth about the talks.

When asked whether Trump told Flynn to talk to Kislyak about sanctions, Spicer responded: “No, absolutely not.”

Asked why Trump had waited nearly three weeks to act after what Spicer called a “heads-up” from the Justice Department, he said that once the question of legality was settled, “then it became a phase of determining whether or not [Flynn’s] action on this and a whole host of other issues undermined” Trump’s trust. He declined to specify the “other issues.”

In an interview conducted early Monday and published Tuesday by the Daily Caller, Flynn said that he did not specifically discuss sanctions with Kislyak but rather President Barack Obama’s simultaneous expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. He said he told the ambassador that “we’ll review everything” following Trump’s inauguration.

Current and former U.S. officials have said, however, that much of the conversation was about sanctions and that Flynn suggested that Moscow not respond in kind to the expulsions — advice that Russian President Vladimir Putin took in declining to take retaliatory action.

Although Trump has not publicly mentioned his view of the sanctions, Spicer said that the president “has made it very clear he expects the Russian government to de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea,” even as he hopes to cooperate with Putin on terrorism.

Asked Tuesday on a flight to Brussels about Flynn’s ouster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said it “has no impact” on his job. “It doesn’t change my message at all, and who is on the president’s staff is who I will work with,” he said.

Mattis was on his way to a meeting of NATO defense ministers, who were expected to discuss their significant concerns about Russian aggression. During his confirmation hearing, Mattis placed Russia first among threats to U.S. security.

Officials inside the National Security Council described low morale and concern about the future. The “worthless” message at a five-minute staff meeting Tuesday morning, one official said, was: “Keep working hard. Don’t leave.”

For those who knew and liked Flynn, another official said, “it’s sad. He’s a good man, and I hate to see this.”

Various accounts of the Flynn saga offered by White House officials in recent days have added to confusion about how the administration viewed Flynn’s actions, who knew what and when they knew it.

News accounts about a Flynn-Kislyak conversation in late December — the day before Obama announced new sanctions related to Russian election interference — first surfaced in aDavid Ignatius column in The Post on Jan. 12. Asked the next day whether they had talked about the sanctions in light of Trump’s campaign and post-election pledges to better relations with Russia, White House officials said the subject had not been discussed.

Three days later, Pence told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Flynn had assured him personally that there was no conversation about sanctions. Spicer offered similar assurances in a subsequent White House briefing.

On Jan. 24 or 25, based on discrepancies between comments by Pence and Spicer and what they knew from regular intercepts of Kislyak’s calls, FBI agents interviewed Flynn. Details of that interview, first reported Tuesday by the New York Times, are unknown but they could expose Flynn to possible charges if he denied that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak. That interview was followed by the Justice notice to McGahn, who immediately informed Trump and others, officials said.

After Trump ordered McGahn to review the matter, Spicer said, he quickly concluded that the president’s “instinctive” conclusion that the discussions were not illegal was correct. But some in the White House who had long distrusted Flynn began to contemplate his departure. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Keith Kellogg, the National Security Council chief of staff, began attending intelligence briefings with Flynn.

“The president was sort of like: Until this matter is sorted out, I want buttressing,” said the senior official, one of several who discussed the sensitive matter on the condition of anonymity. “The idea was . . . if the president decides to pull the trigger, we need to make sure that we have some options.”

Flynn was eventually made aware of the White House investigation, which led to alarm among senior Trump aides when he initially told The Post, in a Feb. 8 interview, that there had been no discussion about sanctions. He revised his remarks to the paper the next day, saying through a spokesman that “while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

The two accounts were published by The Post on the evening of Feb. 9.

“His story remained the same until that night,” Spicer told reporters in his office Tuesday evening. “There was a story in The Post where there’s a White House official that says that he could not recall. . . . Whatever that quote was is what matters. . . . His story remained the same until that night.”

Pence spokesman Marc Lotter told reporters that the vice president first became aware of the “incomplete information” Flynn had provided him by reading the same newspaper account.

[Pence did not learn that Flynn misled him on Russia until last week]

Flynn was then questioned by McGahn, Pence and Priebus, who the official said was so frustrated that his tone became more that of a litigator than a colleague.

Asked Friday aboard Air Force One about the Post reporting that Flynn allegedly had not told the truth about the calls, Trump said he was not familiar with it.

“I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen it. What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that,” Trump told reporters on the plane.

Spicer said Tuesday that Trump was responding only to a question about the Post report and was not speaking about the overall issue of Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador and his discussion of sanctions.

After discussing the situation throughout the weekend at Trump’s Florida resort, a final decision was made Monday night by Trump, along with Priebus and senior advisers Bannon and Jared Kushner, to tell Flynn to resign, officials said.

That is a notably different version of events than the one offered Monday night, when administration officials characterized Flynn’s departure as voluntary. One senior White House official said Monday that Trump had not fired Flynn but that he had made the decision to resign on his own because of “the cumulative effect” of damaging news coverage.

(The Washington Post)

Woman chained in container says captor bragged about killing

By SEANNA ADCOX, ASSOCIATED PRESS | COLUMBIA, S.C. — Feb 15, 2017, 3:50 AM ET

WATCHVictims of South Carolina Serial Killer Identified

A South Carolina woman who spent two months chained inside a large metal container says her captor raped her daily and bragged that he was good at killing, claiming that his victims tallied nearly 100.

Kala Brown says she did what she had to do to survive.

"He told me as long as I served my purpose, I was safe," Brown told Phillip McGraw, the host of the television show "Dr. Phil."

It was the first time she has talked publicly since her Nov. 3 rescue, which authorities say helped them solve seven killings in the area dating back 13 years. Police said Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate agent with his own firm until his arrest, killed Brown's boyfriend, a couple who had been missing nearly a year and four people at a motorcycle shop in 2003.

Brown said she and her boyfriend had gone to Kohlhepp's rural property Aug. 31 to help him clear some underbrush. She'd cleaned houses for him previously to prepare them for sale. After the couple followed him to a two-story garage on the 95-acre property in Spartanburg County, Kohlhepp handed them hedge clippers and bottles of water. He said he needed to get something inside and came out shooting, Brown said.

He shot Charles Carver three times in the chest, she said. He gagged Brown and handcuffed her ankles and wrists. Kohlhepp took her to a "pitch black," 30-foot-long storage container nearby, chained her by the neck in a back corner and raped her, she said.

He "let me know that if I tried to run, he'd kill me. If I tried to hurt him, he'd kill me. If I fought back, he would kill me. And then he raped me," Brown said in episodes that aired this week. "He would rape me twice a day, every day."

The days evolved into a pattern, she said.

He took her to the garage twice a day, where she ate, used the bathroom and was allowed to bathe every other day using a washcloth and a small plastic bowl of water. But she was never unchained, she said.

"He would put more chains on before he took other chains off," she said.

Kohlhepp, 45, faces murder, kidnapping and weapons charges. He is not charged with sexual assault. Spokesmen for the sheriff and prosecutor declined to address the rape allegations or whether more charges are forthcoming. His attorney did not return messages.

The Associated Press normally does not identify victims of sexual assault but is naming Brown after she publicly identified herself.

The day after her rescue, investigators found Carver's body in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp's property. Brought to the site in handcuffs, Kohlhepp showed authorities the graves of the couple missing since December 2015. Kohlhepp told Brown he held that woman captive, too, before killing her.

Police said Kohlhepp acknowledged the grisly 2003 cold case after authorities granted him several requests, including letting him speak to his mother.

Brown said Kohlhepp told her he killed Carver because "it was easier to control someone if you took someone they loved."

She thought Kohlhepp was infatuated with her and didn't want to kill her, even saying he would let her go and give her money "if he ever got old and sick," she said. He explained Stockholm syndrome, in which a hostage starts feeling sympathetic toward their captor, and said "it would kick in and we'd be happy together."

He twice let her see parts of the property beyond the garage and container, including once chained to a four-wheeler.

"I had been in a dark, small, enclosed space and couldn't move more than a few feet. I was thrilled to be outdoors," she said.

When Brown heard people talking outside the container the morning of Nov. 3, she panicked, thinking maybe he had brought someone else. When she realized help had come, "I started screaming and hitting the walls," she said.

"I knew my family would never stop looking, but he was so careful, I couldn't see how I could be found so soon. I was scared it really wasn't happening," she said. "And when they finally got the door open and I saw the police uniforms, I was relieved."

(abcNEWS)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/15/2017 2:35:35 PM
	Watch video In a Syrian refugee camp: I would tell President Trump ‘to come and see’ us Michael Isikoff Chief Investigative Correspondent Yahoo NewsFebruary 15, 2017 BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon — Families crammed into ramshackle tents. Children playing amid garbage. Their parents, bewildered and fearful — with no place to go. That is life in Jdita, a settlement center for Syrian refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. “What you see now is how we live every day,” says Hana Khalaf, surrounded by a half-dozen young children, her nephews, nieces and cousins, huddled together on the tent floor. “Life is monotonous. The situation is difficult. Imagine, you never know when your tent will catch fire.” Her country has been on fire for six years. There are 4.8 million refugees from Syria’s civil war. That’s more than five times the number of Palestinian refugees created by the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. An estimated 1.6 million Syrians are in Lebanon, where most can’t get work permits due to onerous local regulations. Many of the children in Jdita have no school to attend. So the families wait endlessly in their tents — for something to change. But nothing does. Sana’ Jassem clutches a crying baby, standing by a sheet-metal-covered well and a fire crackling by a tire. She and her husband, Toufic Salem-Ali, a farmer from outside Aleppo, fled the city when the shelling started in 2013. Toufic has nothing to farm now. “Life is difficult when the man does not work,” Sana’ says, looking at her husband as he stares off into space. “Most days, one stays hungry when the man does not work.” Moutaz Khalaf, 33, Hana’s brother, has mournful eyes as he tells the tragic story of his family. He had been a senior lawyer in the Syrian Directorate of Agriculture in Aleppo. In 2013, his mother left for a trip to Lebanon — and disappeared, taken captive by regime soldiers. “I’ll never forget that day,” he says. Five months later, his brother — a former soldier in the Syrian army — was traveling in territory controlled by the rebel Free Syria Army (the FSA) and disappeared as well. “I feel like I have bad feelings for the number seven, because my mother disappeared on the seventh of April and my brother on the seventh of September,” he said. Then a friend, a fellow government employee, was arrested by Syrian Air Force Intelligence. “They took him, and after 16 days, they released him as a corpse, as a result of torture and electrocution,” Khalaf says. executed at Saydnaya in mass hangings authorized by senior officials of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, the report says." data-reactid="30" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Later, he finally got word about his mother. She had been taken to Saydnaya Prison outside Damascus — the same notorious facility that Amnesty International, in a report last week, dubbed a “human slaughterhouse.” Between 5,000 and 13,000 detainees have beenexecuted at Saydnaya in mass hangings authorized by senior officials of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, the report says. an interview last week, he said, “You can forge anything these days,” and then added, “We’re living in a fake news era”— a phrase he now uses for all allegations of human rights abuses by his government." data-reactid="31" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;">When I asked Assad about the report in an interview last week, he said, “You can forge anything these days,” and then added, “We’re living in a fake news era”— a phrase he now uses for all allegations of human rights abuses by his government. Was his mother a political protester? No, Khalaf says, she was “illiterate” and had nothing to do with politics. But she was a Sunni and, he says, the regime had held her and 13 other Sunnis as hostages to force the release of 42 Alawites being held by the rebels. The plan for an exchange didn’t work out — so they executed her instead, he says. Khalaf and the rest of the residents are afraid to return to Syria and are years away from any hope of resettlement in the United States or Europe. But still, they have been following — on their mobile phones and on televisions — the debate in the United States about President Trump’s executive order to ban all Syrian refugees from the country. I asked Khalaf if he had a message for Trump. He does, he says. He wants him to come to Jdita. “I [would] tell him to come and see the Syrian refugees, who are lost between torn tents and a torn country,” he says. “And now there are kids who are [being] raised, a generation being raised thinking that tents are their home.” (Yahoo News)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/15/2017 4:53:44 PM
	A look at how Syrian refugees were vetted before Trump Before President Trump's executive order on immigration, Bill Whitaker reported on the Syrian refugee crisis and followed Syrian families from Jordan through the vetting process to the U.S. 2017Jan 29 CORRESPONDENTBill Whitaker The following script is from “Finding Refuge,” which originally aired on Oct. 16, 2016, and was rebroadcast on Jan. 29, 2017. Bill Whitaker is the correspondent. Katy Textor, producer. Friday, after a whirlwind week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days. Last night, after a flurry of legal challenges, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency stay. The executive order, which sparked protests around the world, also stops all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days. Syrian refugees are barred indefinitely, pending a review of the screening process. Once again, Syrian refugees find themselves at the center of a heated debate -- pitting our American tradition of altruism against our fear of terrorism. Donald Trump won the presidency claiming tens-of-thousands of Syrians -- mostly young men -- were streaming into the U.S. and that the Obama administration had no system to properly vet them. So, what has the vetting process been? We went to the region, as we reported last fall, to see for ourselves. Zaatari refugee camp CBS NEWS This is Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan -- about seven miles from the Syrian border. 80,000 Syrian refugees living in tiny, steel boxes as far as the eye can see. The camp run by the U.N. sprang out of the Jordanian desert in 2012 as millions of refugees poured out of Syria. It’s now the largest Syrian refugee camp in the Middle East. Gina Kassem: Every refugee here lives in pre-fab housing. Gina Kassem oversees the refugee resettlement program in the Middle East and North Africa for the U.S. State Department. As of late 2016, the U.S. was processing an additional 21,000 Syrian refugee applications for relocation to the United States. Gina Kassem: Mostly we focus on victims of torture, survivors of violence, women-headed households, a lot of severe medical cases. Kassem told us each Syrian refugee who makes it to the United States goes through a lengthy process of interviews and background checks. Bill Whitaker: You know there are many Americans who don’t trust government to fix the roads or run the schools. How can you convince them that this process is going to keep them safe? Gina Kassem: Because they undergo so many steps of vetting, so many interviews, so many intelligence screenings, so many checks along the way. They’re fleeing the terrorists who killed their family members, who destroyed their houses. These are the victims that we are helping through our program. The war in Syria has taken the lives of almost a half-million people, leveled entire cities and created the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II. Syria’s neighbor Jordan has been overwhelmed with nearly 1.5 million refugees, in the camps and in the cities. Any who can, make their way here, to the capital. Waiting to register with the U.N. in Amman, Jordan CBS NEWS For the lucky few this is where the long road to the U.S. begins. Everyday thousands of Syrian refugees line up here in Amman, Jordan, to register with the U.N. Every single refugee is interviewed in detail multiple times by the U.N. for their vital statistics: where they came from, who they know. Their irises are scanned to establish their identity. And then they wait for the chance the U.N. might refer them to the United States. Less than one percent have had that chance. For that one percent the next step has been this State Department resettlement center in Amman for a background check led by specially trained Department of Homeland Security interrogators. Like all Syrian refugees being vetted this family was questioned at least three times by interviewers looking for gaps or inconsistencies in their stories. All that information is then run though U.S. security databases for any red flags. To be a refugee in Jordan is to be patient. The U.S. security check goes on an average of 18-24 months. Those who pass are then told to pack up for their new life in the United States. This family had just been told they are moving to Chicago, Illinois. Bill Whitaker: What are you feeling right now? Wife: I am afraid. We don’t know anything. Just before they go they are given a crash course on life in the U.S.. America 101. Teacher: English, education or experience. Most know little about where they are moving. Those we spoke to didn’t really care. They know exactly what they are leaving behind. We met Sulaf and her 15-year-old daughter Joody in Amman this past August. Bill Whitaker: So now you’re going to the United States. Do you know where? Sulaf: North Carolina. Bill Whitaker: What do you know about North Carolina? Sulaf: I don’t know. I don’t know. Nice-- nice city. Sulaf was an elementary school teacher back in Homs, Syria, her husband a dentist. She says they had a good life until Syrian President Assad’s forces turned their lives into a living hell. She says they would hear the sounds of other buildings collapsing. And they would tell themselves, “We’re next.” She started giving her kids sleeping pills so they could sleep. From left: Joody and her mother, Sulaf, speak with Bill Whitaker CBS NEWS Sulaf’s daughter Joody was 10 years old at the time. Bill Whitaker: You remember all this? Joody: Everything, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was very scary. It-- we cannot go to the-- to the school. Most of my friends’ death, Bill Whitaker: Most of your friends are dead? Joody: Yes. Sulaf says she is lucky she made it to Jordan alive with her family and her parents. She has one sister in bombed out Aleppo, another in ISIS-controlled territory. But Jordan is where her husband Ahmad’s luck ran out. He was found to have Lou Gherig’s disease and died in 2014. Her youngest son Malaz was diagnosed with autism but the family couldn’t find treatment. This past August, Sulaf was cleared by Homeland Security to travel to the U.S. It was just in time. She was considering taking her family on the treacherous journey to Europe by boat in order to get Malaz the help he needs. She told us if she tried to cross the ocean to Europe and they made it, they made it. If they died, they died. There’s no difference between death and life in this place. She says she can’t work, she can’t educate her children, she has no opportunity. Bill Whitaker: So a new life in America is your only hope? Sulaf: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Ekbal with family in Riverdale, Maryland CBS NEWS We met Ekbal and his wife Eman in their apartment in Jordan this past August as they were preparing to leave for the U.S. Ekbal owned a clothing store in Daraa, Syria, before the war. He says he was arrested and tortured--accused of being a foreign spy by Assad’s forces just for watching a protest outside his store. Bill Whitaker: You said that the men who arrested you said, “No one will know what happened to you.” You believe that the best possible option is that you die quickly, he said. Bill Whitaker: You felt that it might be better if you were to die. Ekbal: Death is mercy at this point. When Ekbal was released the family fled Syria. After a nearly two-year vetting process they were cleared by U.S. Homeland Security. In September, they moved into this empty apartment in Riverdale, Maryland. They say it’s lonely, but Ekbal has figured out the local bus and just got a part-time job at the local 7-Eleven. Opening our doors to refugees like Ekbal is a proud part of America’s heritage, but just over a year ago when Paris was attacked by ISIS fighters killing 130 civilians, many Americans wanted to slam the doors shut. A Syrian passport was found on one of the suicide bombers who had entered Europe with the flood of Syrian refugees. That prompted 31 U.S. governors to call for a complete halt to the Syrian Refugee Program. Georgia’s Republican Governor Nathan Deal went further and signed an executive order denying state services to Syrian refugees. It turned out that bomber wasn’t Syrian after all. He was part of a sophisticated ISIS plot to get radicals into Europe. But it cast a shadow of suspicion over all Syrian refugees. Mohammad, his wife Ebtesam and son Hasan were among the first Syrian refugees to arrive in the U.S. They settled in Georgia just weeks after the attacks in Paris. At first, I was worried, he said. But I told myself that there’s no way I would be mistreated in this country. Because this is a country of laws. Mohammad and his family were sponsored by the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, in deep Republican Marietta, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. With Governor Deal banning services the church stepped in to support the family. Senior Pastor Bryant Wright, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention found himself in a political firestorm -- at odds with the governor -- a man he voted for. Pastor Wright: Well see, our calling, Bill, is far higher to follow Christ and do what Christ teaches us to do than whether there’s an “R” or a “D” behind your name. And that’s what we’ve got to live by far more than what people are hearing on talk radio, or on the news or from political candidates. Wright wrote a letter to Governor Deal asking him to reconsider his position. Bill Whitaker: Did he respond? Pastor Wright: No, he didn’t respond. Governor Deal didn’t respond to 60 Minutes either. Last December he was forced to withdraw his ban when Georgia’s attorney general found it to be illegal. Since then this Christian church, working with U.S. refugee resettlement agencies World Relief and Lutheran Services, has gone on to sponsor seven more Muslim families from Syria. In July, Mohammad, Ebtesam and Hasan welcomed their cousin Nouras and his family of six. Volunteer: Welcome to your new home. Here in the Atlanta area, volunteers and case workers help newcomers from the beginning. Getting them settled into new homes and teaching them to use an ATM. The refugees are given English tutoring and help finding jobs. This past summer, Mohammad was able to pay his bills on his own for the first time. He’s working at a catering company owned by a church member. Hassan has started kindergarten and slowly they say they are starting to feel at home here. Ebtesam: I feeling this country, my country. Mohammad: My country, yes. Pastor Wright told us he is isn’t naïve about the potential risks of allowing in Syrian refugees. Pastor Wright: The government has decided 10,000 Syrian refugees are coming. That’s not our decision. Isn’t it better to reach out and love these folks than to give them the cold shoulder? Which approach do you think might cause a Muslim refugee to be more sympathetic to Islamic terrorism? Which approach? To me it’s a no-brainer. For many members of Congress faith in the government’s ability to properly vet refugees is misguided. Paul Ryan: When we know that ISIL is already telling us that they are trying to infiltrate the refugee population, don’t you think that common sense dictates we should take a pause and get this right? Bill Whitaker: Can you tell the American people that this vetting is safe? Jeh Johnson: I can tell the American people it is probably the most cumbersome, thorough vetting process by which any immigrant comes into the United States. Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told us the situation in the U.S. is vastly different from Europe which saw its borders flooded with unvetted refugees. Jeh Johnson: If we don’t feel we know enough about you-- we’re not going to admit you. Bill Whitaker: Out of all the people you’re letting in, how, how many are being denied? Jeh Johnson: Thousands have been denied admission to this country. And an even larger number who are on hold. There is no known case of a Syrian refugee being involved in any terror plot in the United States, but in 2009 the U.S. missed this Iraqi refugee and allowed him in, even though the military knew he had been an insurgent fighting U.S. forces. He and another Iraqi refugee were then caught in Kentucky trying to buy a stinger missile to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Bill Whitaker: How does this guy walk into America? Jeh Johnson: With every case from years ago there should be lessons learned. Bill Whitaker: Things have changed-- Jeh Johnson: Things have changed-- Bill Whitaker: --since then? Jeh Johnson: --considerably since then. We have, on my watch, added social media and other checks, consulting additional databases. We’ve added those checks in the face of the worldwide refugee crisis that we see right now. Last month, Sulaf and her children flew from Jordan to their new home in Cary, North Carolina. She says it took 18 months of security checks for her to make it here. She’s now learning to navigate an American grocery store and is anxious to find a job. Church volunteer: There may be an opportunity... Their new life in America isn’t easy but for the first time in a long time Sulaf says she has hope. Sulaf: And on behalf for me and my kids, I would like thanks for peop--American people and American government for this chance. And thank you very, very, very much. And-- ours-- save our children. Since we first broadcast this story, Sulaf found a job in the bakery of a Whole Foods store. And according to the State Department, as of this weekend, the vetting of Syrian refugees has been suspended as a result of President Trump’s executive order to review the process. To find out more about the organizations mentioned in Bill Whitaker’s report “Finding Refuge,” here are their names and links: United Nations Refugee Agency: http://www.unhcr.org/en-us World Relief: http://www.worldrelief.org/ Lutherans Immigration and Refugee Service: https://lirs.org/ © 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/15/2017 11:13:13 PM
	Mass evacuation as rain strains tallest US dam Josh Edelson AFPFebruary 14, 2017 Water rushes down a spillway as an emergency measure at the Oroville Dam in Oroville, California on February 13, 2017 (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson) Oroville (United States) (AFP) - Almost 200,000 people were under evacuation orders in northern California after a threat of catastrophic failure at the tallest dam in the United States. Officials said the danger had subsided for the moment as water levels at the Oroville Dam, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Sacramento, had eased. But people were still being told to stay away. Several weeks of heavy rain filled the 770-foot (235-meter) high dam to capacity. The threat comes not from the dam itself, which the California Department of Water Resources said was not in danger of collapse, but an emergency spillway that channels excess water. A giant hole opened in the dam's main spillway last week, forcing the authorities to activate the emergency overflow channel on Saturday for the first time. But it began eroding, threatening a rupture that would have sent water surging toward the valley below, media reported. The authorities released 100,000 cubic feet of water per second from the main spillway, bringing down the level of the reservoir Sunday, the Sacramento Bee newspaper said, quoting the water department. The paper reported that advocacy groups had warned in 2005 that the spillway posed a danger in the event of major flooding and had recommended to the federal government that it be reinforced. Department head Bill Croyle told a news conference near the danger zone that he was unaware of the advice, but pledged that engineers would analyze what went wrong once the crisis was over, the paper said. The department did not respond to a request for comment on the report. Helicopters readied overnight to drop rocks into eroded areas in the emergency spillway ahead of rain forecast for Wednesday and Thursday that could fill the reservoir again. The California National Guard said on Facebook that it had alerted its 23,000 members to be ready to deploy. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told a news conference on Sunday that no more water was seeping over the spillway, adding: "We're not at the point yet where we can make decisions about whether or not it is safe to repopulate areas." Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis told reporters on Monday the federal military was ready, if needed, to provide air transport, water rescue, medical care and shelter. Some 188,000 people in downstream communities were told to leave on Sunday afternoon as water was still gushing over the top of the wide auxiliary spillway. Officials in Butte County and Yuba issued "immediate evacuation" orders of low-lying area, with the Butte County Sheriff's department warning of a developing "hazardous situation." "All Yuba County on the valley floor," the Yuba County Office of Emergency Services said in a Facebook post. "The auxiliary spillway is close to failing... Take only routes to the east, south, or west. DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE!!!!!" Water from the dam flows down the Feather River that runs through Oroville, a city of about 20,000 people. "It's clear the circumstances are complex and rapidly changing. The state is directing all necessary personnel and resources to deal with this very serious situation," Governor Jerry Brown said in a statement. The Oroville Dam has been in use since 1968. Less famous than America's iconic Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, Oroville is still the tallest. (Yahoo News)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/16/2017 10:26:51 AM
	Flynn departure erupts into a full-blown crisis for the Trump White House White House Press secretary Sean Spicer points as he answers questions from members of the media, seen reflected in an exit sign, during the daily briefing. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) By Karen DeYoung, Abby Phillip and Jenna Johnson February 14 at 9:10 PM President Trump’s ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the circumstances leading up to it, have quickly become a major crisis for the fledgling administration, forcing the White House on the defensive and precipitating the first significant breach in relations between Trump and an increasingly restive Republican Congress. Even as the White House described Trump’s “immediate, decisive” action in demanding Flynn’s resignation late Monday as the end of an unfortunate episode, senior GOP lawmakers were buckling under growing pressure to investigate it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that the events leading to Flynn’s departure would be added to a broader probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Intercepts showed that Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions in a phone call with the Russian ambassador — a conversation topic that Flynn first denied and then later said he could not recall. McConnell’s comments followed White House revelations that Trump was aware “for weeks” that Flynn had misled Vice President Pence and others about the content of his late-December talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. White House counsel Donald F. McGahn told Trump in a briefing late last month that Flynn, despite his claims to the contrary, had discussed U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration in late December, press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday. That briefing, he said, came “immediately” after Sally Q. Yates, then the acting attorney general, informed McGahn on Jan. 26 about discrepancies between intercepts of Kislyak’s phone calls and public statements by Pence and others that there had been no discussion of sanctions. The resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn comes on the heels of reports that he discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador while a civilian, before President Trump took office. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post) Trump brought in senior strategist Stephen K. Bannon and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to join the discussion with McGahn, according to two officials familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. McGahn then conferred with Yates again the following day, Jan. 27, to try to glean more information, these two officials said. Within the White House, the matter was viewed skeptically, and Trump, Bannon, Priebus and McGahn for several days remained among the few people briefed, they said. Over the next two weeks, the officials said, Flynn was asked multiple times about what exactly he had said. He brushed aside the suggestion that he had spoken about sanctions with the ambassador — denials that kept him afloat within the White House even as he was being actively evaluated, they said. It was not until a Washington Post report last Thursday, in which Flynn was quoted as saying that he had no “recollection” of discussing sanctions but couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t, that the downward slide culminating in Monday’s forced resignation began, several administration officials said. [National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say] See what President Trump has been doing since taking office View Photos The new president is expected to make his mark on an aggressive legislative agenda. “We’ve been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks, trying to ascertain the truth,” Spicer said at the daily White House press briefing. He emphasized that an internal White House inquiry had concluded that nothing Flynn discussed with the Russian was illegal but that he had “broken trust” with Trump by not telling the truth about the talks. When asked whether Trump told Flynn to talk to Kislyak about sanctions, Spicer responded: “No, absolutely not.” Asked why Trump had waited nearly three weeks to act after what Spicer called a “heads-up” from the Justice Department, he said that once the question of legality was settled, “then it became a phase of determining whether or not [Flynn’s] action on this and a whole host of other issues undermined” Trump’s trust. He declined to specify the “other issues.” In an interview conducted early Monday and published Tuesday by the Daily Caller, Flynn said that he did not specifically discuss sanctions with Kislyak but rather President Barack Obama’s simultaneous expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. He said he told the ambassador that “we’ll review everything” following Trump’s inauguration. Current and former U.S. officials have said, however, that much of the conversation was about sanctions and that Flynn suggested that Moscow not respond in kind to the expulsions — advice that Russian President Vladimir Putin took in declining to take retaliatory action. Although Trump has not publicly mentioned his view of the sanctions, Spicer said that the president “has made it very clear he expects the Russian government to de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea,” even as he hopes to cooperate with Putin on terrorism. Asked Tuesday on a flight to Brussels about Flynn’s ouster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said it “has no impact” on his job. “It doesn’t change my message at all, and who is on the president’s staff is who I will work with,” he said. Mattis was on his way to a meeting of NATO defense ministers, who were expected to discuss their significant concerns about Russian aggression. During his confirmation hearing, Mattis placed Russia first among threats to U.S. security. Officials inside the National Security Council described low morale and concern about the future. The “worthless” message at a five-minute staff meeting Tuesday morning, one official said, was: “Keep working hard. Don’t leave.” For those who knew and liked Flynn, another official said, “it’s sad. He’s a good man, and I hate to see this.” Various accounts of the Flynn saga offered by White House officials in recent days have added to confusion about how the administration viewed Flynn’s actions, who knew what and when they knew it. News accounts about a Flynn-Kislyak conversation in late December — the day before Obama announced new sanctions related to Russian election interference — first surfaced in aDavid Ignatius column in The Post on Jan. 12. Asked the next day whether they had talked about the sanctions in light of Trump’s campaign and post-election pledges to better relations with Russia, White House officials said the subject had not been discussed. Three days later, Pence told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Flynn had assured him personally that there was no conversation about sanctions. Spicer offered similar assurances in a subsequent White House briefing. On Jan. 24 or 25, based on discrepancies between comments by Pence and Spicer and what they knew from regular intercepts of Kislyak’s calls, FBI agents interviewed Flynn. Details of that interview, first reported Tuesday by the New York Times, are unknown but they could expose Flynn to possible charges if he denied that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak. That interview was followed by the Justice notice to McGahn, who immediately informed Trump and others, officials said. After Trump ordered McGahn to review the matter, Spicer said, he quickly concluded that the president’s “instinctive” conclusion that the discussions were not illegal was correct. But some in the White House who had long distrusted Flynn began to contemplate his departure. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Keith Kellogg, the National Security Council chief of staff, began attending intelligence briefings with Flynn. “The president was sort of like: Until this matter is sorted out, I want buttressing,” said the senior official, one of several who discussed the sensitive matter on the condition of anonymity. “The idea was . . . if the president decides to pull the trigger, we need to make sure that we have some options.” Flynn was eventually made aware of the White House investigation, which led to alarm among senior Trump aides when he initially told The Post, in a Feb. 8 interview, that there had been no discussion about sanctions. He revised his remarks to the paper the next day, saying through a spokesman that “while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.” The two accounts were published by The Post on the evening of Feb. 9. “His story remained the same until that night,” Spicer told reporters in his office Tuesday evening. “There was a story in The Post where there’s a White House official that says that he could not recall. . . . Whatever that quote was is what matters. . . . His story remained the same until that night.” Pence spokesman Marc Lotter told reporters that the vice president first became aware of the “incomplete information” Flynn had provided him by reading the same newspaper account. [Pence did not learn that Flynn misled him on Russia until last week] Flynn was then questioned by McGahn, Pence and Priebus, who the official said was so frustrated that his tone became more that of a litigator than a colleague. Asked Friday aboard Air Force One about the Post reporting that Flynn allegedly had not told the truth about the calls, Trump said he was not familiar with it. “I don’t know about that. I haven’t seen it. What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that,” Trump told reporters on the plane. Spicer said Tuesday that Trump was responding only to a question about the Post report and was not speaking about the overall issue of Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador and his discussion of sanctions. After discussing the situation throughout the weekend at Trump’s Florida resort, a final decision was made Monday night by Trump, along with Priebus and senior advisers Bannon and Jared Kushner, to tell Flynn to resign, officials said. That is a notably different version of events than the one offered Monday night, when administration officials characterized Flynn’s departure as voluntary. One senior White House official said Monday that Trump had not fired Flynn but that he had made the decision to resign on his own because of “the cumulative effect” of damaging news coverage. (The Washington Post)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/16/2017 10:47:47 AM
	Woman chained in container says captor bragged about killing By SEANNA ADCOX, ASSOCIATED PRESS \| COLUMBIA, S.C. — Feb 15, 2017, 3:50 AM ET WATCHVictims of South Carolina Serial Killer Identified A South Carolina woman who spent two months chained inside a large metal container says her captor raped her daily and bragged that he was good at killing, claiming that his victims tallied nearly 100. Kala Brown says she did what she had to do to survive. "He told me as long as I served my purpose, I was safe," Brown told Phillip McGraw, the host of the television show "Dr. Phil." It was the first time she has talked publicly since her Nov. 3 rescue, which authorities say helped them solve seven killings in the area dating back 13 years. Police said Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate agent with his own firm until his arrest, killed Brown's boyfriend, a couple who had been missing nearly a year and four people at a motorcycle shop in 2003. Brown said she and her boyfriend had gone to Kohlhepp's rural property Aug. 31 to help him clear some underbrush. She'd cleaned houses for him previously to prepare them for sale. After the couple followed him to a two-story garage on the 95-acre property in Spartanburg County, Kohlhepp handed them hedge clippers and bottles of water. He said he needed to get something inside and came out shooting, Brown said. He shot Charles Carver three times in the chest, she said. He gagged Brown and handcuffed her ankles and wrists. Kohlhepp took her to a "pitch black," 30-foot-long storage container nearby, chained her by the neck in a back corner and raped her, she said. He "let me know that if I tried to run, he'd kill me. If I tried to hurt him, he'd kill me. If I fought back, he would kill me. And then he raped me," Brown said in episodes that aired this week. "He would rape me twice a day, every day." The days evolved into a pattern, she said. He took her to the garage twice a day, where she ate, used the bathroom and was allowed to bathe every other day using a washcloth and a small plastic bowl of water. But she was never unchained, she said. "He would put more chains on before he took other chains off," she said. Kohlhepp, 45, faces murder, kidnapping and weapons charges. He is not charged with sexual assault. Spokesmen for the sheriff and prosecutor declined to address the rape allegations or whether more charges are forthcoming. His attorney did not return messages. The Associated Press normally does not identify victims of sexual assault but is naming Brown after she publicly identified herself. The day after her rescue, investigators found Carver's body in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp's property. Brought to the site in handcuffs, Kohlhepp showed authorities the graves of the couple missing since December 2015. Kohlhepp told Brown he held that woman captive, too, before killing her. Police said Kohlhepp acknowledged the grisly 2003 cold case after authorities granted him several requests, including letting him speak to his mother. Brown said Kohlhepp told her he killed Carver because "it was easier to control someone if you took someone they loved." She thought Kohlhepp was infatuated with her and didn't want to kill her, even saying he would let her go and give her money "if he ever got old and sick," she said. He explained Stockholm syndrome, in which a hostage starts feeling sympathetic toward their captor, and said "it would kick in and we'd be happy together." He twice let her see parts of the property beyond the garage and container, including once chained to a four-wheeler. "I had been in a dark, small, enclosed space and couldn't move more than a few feet. I was thrilled to be outdoors," she said. When Brown heard people talking outside the container the morning of Nov. 3, she panicked, thinking maybe he had brought someone else. When she realized help had come, "I started screaming and hitting the walls," she said. "I knew my family would never stop looking, but he was so careful, I couldn't see how I could be found so soon. I was scared it really wasn't happening," she said. "And when they finally got the door open and I saw the police uniforms, I was relieved." (abcNEWS)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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