7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Granddaughter: Barbara Bush
is ‘a fighter,’ in good spirits
Trump: ‘Mission
Accomplished’ with
missile attack on Syria
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump
on Sunday defended his use of the phrase “Mis-
sion Accomplished” to describe a U.S.-led mis-
sile attack on Syria’s chemical weapons pro-
gram, even as his aides stressed continuing U.S.
troop involvement and plans for new economic
sanctions against Russia for enabling the gov-
ernment of Bashar Assad.
Stepping up the pressure on Syria’s presi-
dent, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated
the sanctions would be aimed at sending a mes-
sage to Russia, which she said has blocked
six attempts by the U.N. Security Council to
make it easier to investigate the use of chemi-
cal weapons.
Independent investigators were prevented
by Syrian and Russian authorities today from
reaching the scene of an alleged chemical attack
near the Syrian capital,
Trump tweeted Sunday that the strike was
“perfectly carried out” and that “the only way
the Fake News Media could demean was by my
use of the term “Mission Accomplished.”” He
added that he knew the media would “seize” on
the phrase, but said it should be used often. “It is
such a great Military term, it should be brought
back,” he wrote.
Trump tweeted “Mission Accomplished”
on Saturday after U.S., French and British war-
planes and ships launched more than 100 mis-
siles nearly unopposed by Syrian air defenses.
While he declared success, the Pentagon said
the pummeling of three chemical-related facili-
ties left enough others intact to enable the Assad
government to use banned weapons against
civilians if it chooses.
His choice of words recalled a similar claim
associated with President George W. Bush fol-
lowing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Bush
addressed sailors aboard a Navy ship in May
2003 alongside a “Mission Accomplished” ban-
ner, just weeks before it became apparent that
Iraqis had organized an insurgency that would
tie down U.S. forces for years.
Bodies stacked up
during South Carolina
prison riot
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Prisoners armed with
homemade knives rioted for more than seven
hours inside a maximum-security facility, leav-
ing seven inmates dead, and bodies were “lit-
erally stacked on top of each other,” an inmate
told The Associated Press.
HOUSTON — Former first lady Bar-
bara Bush, who was reported in “failing
health” over the weekend, is in “great spir-
its” and the family is grateful for “every-
body’s prayers and thoughts,” her grand-
daughter said today.
Bush family spokesman Jim McGrath
said in a news release Sunday that “Mrs.
Bush, now age 92, has decided not to seek
additional medical treatment and will
instead focus on comfort care” at home in
Houston following consultations with her
doctors and family.
McGrath did not elaborate on the
nature of Bush’s health problems but
today said she’s suffered in recent years
from congestive heart failure and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease. She also
has been treated for decades for Graves’
disease, which is a thyroid condition, had
heart surgery in 2009 for a severe narrow-
ing of her main heart valve and was hospi-
talized a year before that for surgery on a
perforated ulcer.
Jenna Bush Hager, an anchor on
NBC’s “Today” show, told the program
this morning that Bush is resting comfort-
ably with family.
Bush is one of only two first ladies who
was also the mother of a president. The
At least 17 prisoners were seriously injured
as inmates fought uninterrupted before authori-
ties regained control of Lee Correctional Institu-
tion about 3 a.m. today, South Carolina prisons
spokesman Jeff Taillon said.
Officials didn’t immediately say what
sparked the violence at the prison, which houses
some of the state’s worst and longest-serving
offenders. No prison guards were hurt.
The riot was the latest violence in the South
Carolina prisons system, where at least 20
inmates have been killed by fellow prisoners
since the start of 2017. At Lee Correctional, an
inmate held a guard hostage for 90 minutes in
March and another killed a fellow prisoner in
February.
Most of the slain inmates were stabbed with
homemade knives or slashed, while the remain-
der appeared to have been beaten, Lee County
Coroner Larry Logan said.
“How else are you going to die in prison?
They don’t have guns,” Logan said by phone
as he went to a hospital to finish identifying the
dead.
The injured inmates required medical atten-
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Former President George H.W. Bush
and his wife Barbara Bush, pictured
in 2015.
other was Abigail Adams, wife of John
Adams, the nation’s second president, and
mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth
president.
Bush married George H.W. Bush on
Jan. 6, 1945. They had six children and
have been married longer than any presi-
dential couple in American history.
tion outside the prison, which is located 40
miles east of Columbia.
The South Carolina Department of Correc-
tions tweeted that the deaths happened in mul-
tiple inmate-on-inmate fights in three housing
units. It began at around 7:15 p.m. Sunday.
Comey speculates
Russians may have
damaging info on Trump
WASHINGTON — In his scathing appraisal
of the man who fired him as FBI chief, James
Comey cited “some evidence of obstruction of
justice” in President Donald Trump’s actions and
speculated that Russians might have dirt on the
president. Trump struck back, branding Comey
a criminal.
Their war of words escalated today after
Comey, in an ABC interview broadcast the night
before, labeled Trump “morally unfit” for office.
Trump tweeted that Comey drafted an exon-
eration of Hillary Clinton long before he talked
to her as part of an investigation into her email
practices. He labeled Comey “disgruntled” and
accused him and allies of having “committed
many crimes.” For his part, Comey has said that
nine or 10 months into the Clinton probe, he had
a “clear picture” where it was going and it’s com-
mon to draft statements before an investigation
is complete.
Comey’s remarks, coupled with the release
of his forthcoming book, offer his version of
events surrounding his firing and the investiga-
tions into Russian election meddling and Clin-
ton’s email practices. Several of the episodes he
describes in detail, including a private conver-
sation about former White House national secu-
rity adviser Michael Flynn, are central to special
counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and his
recollections are presumably valuable for prose-
cutors examining whether the president’s actions
constitute obstruction of justice.
The ex-FBI director, who until his fir-
ing in May led an investigation into possible
ties between Russia and the Trump campaign,
acknowledged that it was “stunning” to think that
Russia could have damaging information about a
U.S. president. But he said that in Trump’s case,
he could not discount the possibility that the pres-
ident had been compromised.
“These are more words I never thought I’d
utter about a president of the United States, but it’s
possible,” Comey told ABC News’ chief anchor
George Stephanopoulos. He also acknowledged
he had no proof that Russia has dirt on Trump: “I
think it’s possible. I don’t know.”
Trump pardons Scooter
Libby, says he was
‘treated unfairly’
WASHINGTON — President Donald
Trump issued a pardon Friday to I. Lewis
“Scooter” Libby, suggesting the former top
aide to Vice President Dick Cheney had been
“treated unfairly” by a special counsel. The
pardon comes at a moment when the president
faces an escalating special counsel investiga-
tion of his own.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee
Sanders insisted the pardon was not intended to
send a message to the special counsel investi-
gating Russian meddling in the 2016 election,
saying, “One thing has nothing to do with the
other.” But critics noted the timing, coming
as Trump fumes over Robert Mueller’s probe,
which he has dubbed a “witch hunt.”
Trump said in a statement that he didn’t
know Libby, “but for years I have heard that he
has been treated unfairly.”
Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, was
convicted in 2007 of lying to investigators and
obstruction of justice following the 2003 leak of
the covert identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame,
though no one was ever charged for the leak.
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