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
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violence fueled by hate-
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attacks by extremists in the
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targeted Jewish and Sikh
centers, federal government
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While the number of
Americans
professing
extremist
ideologies
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President Barack Obama,
coupled with a national
economic downturn, has in
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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,
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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;
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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
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couple with anti-government
views who left behind a
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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
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and when they closed.
should be removed from the Statehouse grounds as she
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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“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
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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.
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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
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missiles. It would not provide a large ground force.
Euro leaders optimistic about Greek
debt deal later this week
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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.
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