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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2015)
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 NATION/WORLD Church shootings a reminder of homegrown extremists By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON — Confronting extremists, law enforcement in the U.S. has been focusing on aspiring jihadists who align with the Islamic State, overshadowing longstanding concerns about avowed racists, neo-Nazis and anti-government militias. The South Carolina shootings, experts say, are a reminder of the persistent dangers posed by disaffected people who are bent on violence but whose state- ments before they act may skate below the radar of police and federal authorities. The killings at a black church in Charleston appear WR ¿W D JULP SDWWHUQ RI violence fueled by hate- ¿OOHGLGHRORJ\MRLQLQJRWKHU attacks by extremists in the SDVW ¿YH \HDUV WKDW KDYH targeted Jewish and Sikh centers, federal government EXLOGLQJVDQGSROLFHRI¿FHUV While the number of Americans professing extremist ideologies ÀXFWXDWHV WKH HOHFWLRQ RI President Barack Obama, coupled with a national economic downturn, has in UHFHQW\HDUVLQWHQVL¿HGDQJHU among white supremacists and anti-government groups to levels not seen since the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, said Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League. “We’re actually about six years into a major resurgence of right-wing extremism, the largest we’ve had since the mid to late 1990s,” Pitcavage said. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, says it has counted more than 30 acts or plots of domestic terrorism or hate- driven rampages since 2010, DQ LQFUHDVH IURP WKH ¿YH years before that. Those include the killings in Kansas last year of three people outside a Jewish community center and Jewish retirement home; a 2011 bomb plot that targeted the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington; DQ DVVDXOWULÀH DWWDFN RQ a Mexican consulate and federal courthouse in Austin, Texas; the murders of six at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and the slaying of two Las 9HJDV SROLFH RI¿FHUV E\ D couple with anti-government views who left behind a VZDVWLND DQG D \HOORZ ÀDJ bearing the words “Don’t Tread on Me.” The culprits are often individuals with little or no association with organized hate groups, acting on their AP Photo/David Goldman U.S. Army Spc. Ron Leary, left and Astride Leary, of Savannah, Ga., pray at a side- walk memorial in memory of the shooting victims in front of Emanuel AME Church, Monday in Charleston, S.C. questions in stores that aroused suspicions — such as asking employees how CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s many people were working JRYHUQRUGHFODUHG0RQGD\WKDWWKH&RQIHGHUDWHÀDJ and when they closed. should be removed from the Statehouse grounds as she $Q RQOLQH KDWH¿OOHG acknowledged that its use as a symbol of hatred by the manifesto purportedly man accused of killing nine black church members has written by Roof surfaced made it too divisive to display in such a public space. days after the shooting and is Gov. Nikki Haley’s about-face comes just days after being reviewed by the FBI. authorities charged Dylann Storm Roof, 21, with murder. But tracking violent The white man appeared in photos waving Confederate extremists before they act ÀDJVDQGEXUQLQJRUGHVHFUDWLQJ86ÀDJVDQG LV GLI¿FXOW LQ SDUW EHFDXVH purportedly wrote of fomenting racial violence. Survivors spouting hateful viewpoints told police he hurled racial insults during the attack. isn’t by itself a crime, and “The murderer now locked up in Charleston said he many of those who do hoped his actions would start a race war. We have an commit violence aren’t opportunity to show that not only was he wrong, but that leaders of a movement but MXVWWKHRSSRVLWHLVKDSSHQLQJ´+DOH\VDLGÀDQNHGE\ are disaffected individuals Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites who joined on the periphery of it, said her call. Pitcavage. To some extent, law enforcement faces the Republicans return donations from same challenges in keeping tabs on Islamic State sympa- white supremacist thizers seeking to travel to WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential Syria or commit acts of terror candidates, GOP lawmakers and the lone black Republican at home — investigations in in the House are returning donations from the leader of which the FBI dissects social a white supremacist group cited by Charleston church media communications for murder suspect Dylann Roof or giving the money to evidence of intent to commit charity. a crime. Rep. Mia Love of Utah, an African-American “They tend not to be Republican woman who was elected to the House last actively engaged with the year, said through a spokesman that she had returned movement,” Pitcavage said $1,000 in donations from Earl Holt, leader of the Council of lone extremists. “They’re of Conservative Citizens. not joining organized groups. The campaigns of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rick They’re not extensively Santorum said they would donate the money received from interacting online. They’re Holt to a fund set up by Charleston’s mayor to assist the not going to events and victims’ families. meetings.” “I abhor the sentiments Mr. Holt has expressed,” Ron Hosko, a former Santorum said in a statement. “These statements and FBI assistant director and sentiments are unacceptable. Period. End of sentence.” current president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense own. KLV )DFHERRN SDJH WKH ÀDJV Fund, said that when it comes In the Charleston case, of past white-led regimes in to investigating would-be 21-year-old Dylann Roof Africa and complained that domestic terrorists, the FBI has been charged with nine “blacks were taking over the has long faced the challenge counts of murder. He is world” and that “someone of not treading on free speech DFFXVHGRIRSHQLQJ¿UHLQVLGH needed to do something rights while trying to make a Bible study last Wednesday about it for the white race,” the right call about when hate night in the Emanuel African according to a friend who speech is about to cross the Methodist Episcopal Church. spoke with the FBI after line into illegal action. The Justice Department is seeing him on surveillance “It’s a big, free country investigating the killings as a images. His erratic behavior where people say crazy hate crime. in the months before the things, and part of that is just Roof, currently held on shootings included showing the uncertainty of what some- $1 million bond on a gun up dressed in all black at a body will say versus what charge, had displayed on shopping mall and posing they intend to do,” he said. *RYFDOOVIRU'L[LHÀDJWRFRPHGRZQ U.S. report: Action needed now to slow climate change WASHINGTON (AP) — Failure to act on climate change could cause an esti- mated 57,000 deaths a year in the United States from poor air quality by 2100, the Obama administration argued in a report released Monday that warns of dire effects of global warming. The report says inaction on climate change could cost billions of dollars a year in damage from rising sea OHYHOV LQFUHDVHG ZLOG¿UHV and drought, as well as higher costs for electricity to cool homes and businesses in hotter temperatures. The Environmental Protection Agency report argues that action now on climate could save billions in avoided costs for maintenance and repairs on roads and bridges made vulnerable by global warming and save the lives of an estimated 12,000 people in 49 U.S. cities who could die from extreme temperatures in 2100. The report comes as Republicans in Congress seek to undo the administra- tion’s environmental poli- cies, including an expected plan by the EPA to target FRDO¿UHG SRZHU SODQWV and days after Pope Francis issued a stern warning about global warming’s conse- quences, especially for the poor and underdeveloped nations. The National on his own on power plants and other environmental regulations because the GOP-controlled Congress has blocked more compre- hensive efforts. “We’ll get that stuff done,” Obama said, adding that “it would be a lot better, it would be a lot more helpful, if we had some cooperation from Congress, and if I didn’t have the chairman of the energy and environment committee in the Senate holding up a snowball as if that was proof AP Photo/Jim Cole, File In this Jan. 20 file photo, a plume of steam billows from that climate change wasn’t happening, that would be the coal-fired Merrimack Station in Bow, N.H. useful.” Oceanic and Atmospheric to mark the two-year anni- Obama’s comments Administration said last versary of a “climate action referred to Sen. James month was the hottest May plan” announced by Presi- Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of around the globe in 136 dent Barack Obama. the Senate Environment and years of global records. While the most severe Public Works Committee, A global health commis- effects of global warming who tossed a snowball sion organized by the would not be felt for decades, in the Senate chamber in prestigious British medical the Obama administration February to demonstrate his journal Lancet recommended said decisions about climate claim that global warming is on Monday that substituting change need to be made now. a hoax. cleaner energy worldwide “Decisions are not going The EPA report says for coal will reduce air to wait 50 years,” EPA actions to slow climate pollution and give Earth a Administrator Gina McCa- change could save about better chance at avoiding rthy told reporters at a White $3.1 billion in expected dangerous climate change. +RXVH EULH¿QJ ³7KH\ DUH costs from sea-level rise and The panel said hundreds today’s decisions.” storm surge in 2100, while of thousands of lives each McCarthy called the the power sector could save year are at stake and global report “a wake-up call for as much as $34 billion by warming “threatens to under- some who may not be aware” 2050 in avoided costs for mine the last half century of of the potential damages of additional electricity for air gains in development and climate change. conditioning and other uses. global health.” Obama, in an interview An estimated $3 billion in The White House report out Monday with comedian avoided damages from poor is part of a weeklong effort Marc Maron for his popular water quality could be saved to emphasize climate change podcast, said he was acting by 2100, the report said. East Oregonian Page 7A Obama uses epithet to make point on podcast WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the history of slavery and segregation is “still part of our DNA” in the United States, even if racial epithets no longer show up in polite conversation. He uttered the N-word in making his point. In an interview, Obama talked about the debates over race and guns that have erupted after the arrest of a white man in the racially motivated shooting deaths of nine black church members in Charleston, South Carolina. “Racism, we are not cured of it,” Obama said. “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.” Obama’s remarks came during an interview out Monday with comedian Marc Maron for his popular podcast “WTF,” where coarse language is often part of the discussion. The president uttering a racial slur aloud stirred controversy, especially on social media, and White House spokesman Josh Earnest said later Monday that wasn’t surprising. Obama didn’t plan in advance to use the word to be provocative, Earnest said, but was simply making a point GXULQJDFDVXDOIUHHÀRZLQJLQWHUYLHZ+HVDLGKHGLGQ¶W recall ever hearing the president say the racial slur aloud before, but noted that it did appear in his book, “Dreams from My Father.” BRIEFLY Clues show escaped prisoners may have stopped at hunting cabin BELLMONT, N.Y. (AP) — Items recovered from a remote hunting cabin might be linked to a pair of convicted killers who escaped from a nearby prison more than two weeks ago, authorities said Monday as searchers swarmed rugged woods in the hamlet in far northern New York. State Police Maj. Charles Guess said at a news FRQIHUHQFHWKDWDXWKRULWLHVKDG³VSHFL¿FLWHPV´IURPWKH Adirondack cabin some 20 miles west of the prison and sent them to labs for DNA and other testing. He would not elaborate on the items but characterized the latest search effort — one of many over the past 17 days — as a FRQ¿UPHGOHDG “There are a number of factors that make this a complex search: the weather, the terrain, the environment and frankly the vast scope of the north country of the Adirondacks,” Guess said. 30 killed at crowded mosque by 2 young female suicide bombers BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — Two girls blew themselves up on Monday near a crowded mosque in northeast Nigeria’s biggest city, killing about 30 people, witnesses said. It is the fourth suicide bombing this month in Maiduguri, which is the birthplace of the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group. Fishmonger Idi Idrisa said one teenager exploded as she approached the mosque crowded with people from WKHQHDUE\%DJD5RDG¿VKPDUNHWSHUIRUPLQJDIWHUQRRQ prayers during the holy month of Ramadan. The second teen appeared to run away and blew up further away, killing only herself, he said. U.S. to provide weapons, aircraft, commandos for NATO response force TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The U.S. committed Monday to contribute weapons, aircraft and forces, including commandos, as needed for NATO’s new rapid reaction force, to help Europe defend against potential Russian aggression from the east and the Islamic State and other violent extremists from the south. 'HIHQVH6HFUHWDU\$VK&DUWHUDQQRXQFHGWKHVSHFL¿FV of American contributions to the rapid reaction force a year after President Barack Obama made a commitment to such assistance at the NATO summit last year in Wales. Carter said the U.S. will provide intelligence and surveillance capabilities, special operations forces, logistics, transport aircraft, and a range of weapons support WKDWFRXOGLQFOXGHERPEHUV¿JKWHUVDQGVKLSEDVHG missiles. It would not provide a large ground force. Euro leaders optimistic about Greek debt deal later this week %5866(/6$3²*UHHFHKDV¿QDOO\RIIHUHG economic reforms that creditors consider closer to being acceptable, giving Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras a few days to turn a spirit of goodwill into a deal that might keep the country from a painful exit from the euro currency and roil international markets. (YHQWKRXJKD¿UPGHDOEHWZHHQ*UHHFHDQGLWV lenders to get Athens more loans remained elusive at an emergency summit Monday, leaders from the 19 euro nations and the International Monetary Fund said Tsipras’ new reform plan offered the basis to break a four-month deadlock in talks. YOU’RE INVITED TO A MEDICARE BIRTHDAY PARTY! Are you turning 65 between now and the end of September? 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