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East Oregonian
FRANCE: Police searches netted 127 arrests, 31 weapons
Continued from 1A
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us,” Hollande told Parliament in a rare
joint session convened at the Palace of
Versailles.
“Syria has become the biggest
factory of terrorism the world has ever
known and the international community
is still too divided and too incoherent.”
As he spoke, thousands gathered
around candlelit memorials at the
Place de la Republique square and
beneath the Eiffel Tower, which like
many top attractions in one of the
world’s most-visited cities reopened
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The tower was bathed in red, white and
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with the city’s centuries-old slogan —
“Tossed but not sunk,” suggesting an
unsinkable city braving stormy seas —
projected in white lights near its base.
French and other Western intelli-
gence agencies face an urgent challenge
to track down the surviving members
of the three Islamic State units who
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France and, perhaps more importantly,
to target their distant commanders in
IS-controlled parts of Syria.
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Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of
Moroccan descent, as chief architect of
the Friday the 13th attacks on a rock
concert, a soccer game and popular
nightspots in one of Paris’ trendiest
districts.
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mended a concert as an ideal target for
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as electronic communications between
Abaaoud and one of the Paris attackers
who blew himself up.
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of anonymity to discuss the sensitive
investigation.
Abaaoud came to public attention last
year by boasting in an IS propaganda
video about his pride in piling the dead
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Anti-terror agencies previously linked
him to a series of abortive shooting plots
this year in Belgium and France, including
a planned attack on a passenger train that
was thwarted by American passengers
who overpowered the lone gunman.
French police have used emergency
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Sunday night that netted 127 arrests and
31 weapons.
AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza
A bird flies in front of the Eiffel
Tower, which remained closed on
the first of three days of national
mourning, in Paris, Sunday.
French Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve said police seized a Kalash-
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pistols and a bulletproof vest from a
suspected arms dealer with jihadist
sympathies, and a rocket launcher
and other military-grade gear from his
parents’ home.
But police have yet to announce the
capture of anyone suspected of direct
involvement in Friday’s slaughter.
Seven attackers died — six after deto-
nating suicide belts and a seventh from
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its sources indicated 19 participated
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hands-on logistical support.
French police accidentally permitted
the suspected driver of one group of
gunmen, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam,
to avoid arrest at the border Saturday
and cross to his native Belgium. On
Monday, Belgian police in balaclavas,
gas masks and body armor raided
Abdeslam’s suspected hideout in the
Molenbeek district of Brussels but came
out empty-handed.
Abdeslam’s brother, Brahim, was
among the suicide bombers and killed
one civilian after blowing himself
up outside a restaurant. Police in
Molenbeek arrested another brother,
Mohamed, but freed him Monday
without charge.
After he left police custody, Mohamed
Abdeslam told reporters that his family
couldn’t believe that both of his brothers
were jihadists. He said all three siblings
grew up in Belgium and seemingly were
content with life in the West.
“I have not been involved in any
way with what happened on Friday the
13th in Paris. We are an open-minded
family. We never had any problem with
justice,” he said.
He said he didn’t know where his
brother Salah was or whether he would
surrender to police, and expressed
familial loyalty to him despite his shock
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understand that we have a family, we
have a mom, and he remains her child,”
he said.
Determined to root out jihadists
within French communities, Hollande
said he would present a bill Wednesday
seeking to extend a state of emergency
— granting the police and military
greater powers of search and arrest,
and local governments the right to ban
demonstrations and impose curfews —
for another three months.
He also pledged to hire 5,000 more
police within the next two years,
to freeze cuts in military personnel
through 2019, and to introduce other
bills that would stiffen jail terms for
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deport suspected terrorists.
Hollande said he hoped to meet soon
with U.S. President Barack Obama and
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
on Monday were attending the G-20
summit of nations in Antalya, Turkey.
The two leaders maintained a publicly
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tions over Russia’s support for Syrian
President Bashar Assad and Russia’s
go-it-alone pursuit of airstrikes against
both IS and anti-IS rebels in the country,
a strategy that bolsters Assad. The air
power of the United States, France and
Britain is solely targeting IS targets.
In hopes of killing Islamic State
organizers and trainees, France overnight
launched its heaviest airstrikes yet on the
city of Raqqa, the group’s de-facto capital
in Syria. French authorities said Sunday
night’s bombings destroyed a jihadi
training camp and munitions dump.
The Defense Ministry said 12
aircraft based in Jordan and the Persian
Gulf dropped a total of 20 bombs. It
called the operation the largest attack by
French air power since France joined the
U.S.-led coalition in targeting suspected
IS power bases in Syria in September.
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Institute gave items created
in the prison woodshop.
Tiffany Knight, a friend
whose company Pendleton
Web Development does
social media for Cadillac
Jack’s, organized the dinner.
A GoFundMe
account
brought in $515.
Glenn, who attended the
dinner, said her late husband
would have loved seeing the
van go to transport Ember.
“He would be delighted,”
Glenn said. “He would be
holding her right now.”
Across
the
room,
someone tickled Ember and
she giggled in delight.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
Continued from 1A
recalls.
The news wasn’t good.
Ember’s undersized brain
hadn’t fully developed. The
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“‘She will never be able
to independently care for
herself,’” Bissinger remem-
bers the neurosurgeon saying.
“‘She will be dependent on
you for the rest of her life.’”
Bissinger said she went
into a state of shock, but
eventually pulled herself
together and started putting
one foot in front of the other.
Doctors couldn’t give her an
exact road map of Ember’s
future as far as her sight and
hearing and development.
A hearing aid has brought
the little girl’s hearing
into normal range, but her
eyesight is still a mystery.
Bissinger knows Ember sees
something because she tracks
objects and looks into her
mom’s eyes.
“Our life is a game,” she
said. “It is trial and error to
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have to be patient.”
Doctors theorized that
Ember’s condition was
the result of Courtney
contracting cytomegalovirus
early in her pregnancy. The
virus is common and gener-
ally harmless — most of us
get it sometime in our lives.
“It’s as easy to get as the
common cold,” Bissinger
said. “The only time is
causes harm is when you’re
pregnant.”
As Ember grew, getting
her to medical appointments
was an increasing concern,
but Courtney, who had to give
up her job, couldn’t afford a
van with a wheelchair ramp.
The
Dodge
Grand
Caravan Entervan parked in
the Cadillac Jack’s parking
lot most recently belonged
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Courtney Bissinger unloads her daughter, Ember, 2,
from the van given to her to transport Ember in her
wheelchair.
to Jef Glenn, who had
purchased the vehicle for her
husband. Carl, a retired rail-
road worker with lung and
brain cancer, only rode in the
van twice before his death
in February. Jef later took
some of Carl’s health care
items to a medical equipment
loan closet run by Clearview
Mediation in Pendleton. She
mentioned the van to Clear-
view CEO Darrin Umbarger.
“I told him the van needed
to go to somebody who really
needed it,” Glenn said.
After some research,
Umbarger
suggested
Bissinger as the recipient.
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to purchase the van from
Glenn. Bissinger marveled
at how many people stepped
up. Umbarger played match-
maker. Glenn detailed the
van and took it to a mechanic.
One guy (Bissinger regrets
not getting his name) brought
a teddy bear and brand-new
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tie-down straps for the
wheelchair. Businesses and
individuals donated food
and door prize items. Zeigler
Transmission donated labor
for replacing a belt in the
van. Master Printers printed
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Eastern Oregon Correctional
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
SYPHILIS: Women can pass
the infection to their babies
Continued from 1A
though a couple of decades
ago some thought syphilis
was on its way out.
“It’s a disease that’s
been around forever,” he
said. “We had hope of
eliminating it in the early
part of the last decade, but
that didn’t materialize.”
Because syphilis is
epidemic in the Portland
metro area, an organization
call Syph Aware recently
rolled out a public aware-
ness campaign that includes
signs on TriMet buses and
MAX trains.
The group’s website
proclaims “Oregon is
known for many things:
natural beauty, coffee, beer
and pinot noir. Did you
know that Oregon is also
known for syphilis?”
Syphilis is stealthy. The
disease often appears as a
small painless sore in the
genital or mouth areas.
After three to six weeks or
so, the sore disappears. The
next stage, which varies
in length from weeks to
months, brings a non-itchy
rash or spots on the palms
or the soles of the feet and
sometimes fever, swollen
lymph nodes or headaches.
Then it goes silent. The
damage appears sometimes
decades later in the form of
tumors, blindness, paral-
ysis, dementia or damage
to the nervous system.
Pregnant women are of
special concern because
they can pass the infection
to their babies. Schafer
recommends screening at
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weeks and again at delivery.
Both
Schafer
and
Waldern say they are
urging physicians and other
health care providers to be
systematic when gathering
information from patients
and taking meticulous
sexual and drug use histo-
ries.
“Syphilis has been so
rare for so long that a lot
of physicians have never
seen a case,” Schafer said.
“It’s not that they’re bad
clinicians, they just haven’t
seen it.”
Earlier this month,
Umatilla County Public
Health sent letters to
providers to alert them to
the gonorrhea spike, its
implications and recom-
mendations for screening.
Syphilis is treated with
antibiotics.
Schafer doesn’t expect
the syphilis numbers to
drop soon. In fact, he hopes
they rise because that would
mean more people are
being tested. Eventually, if
all goes well, the numbers
will start to wane.
“We want to diagnose
more syphilis, not less,”
he said. “We should see an
increase in syphilis if our
campaign is successful.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
REFUGEES: Obama announced
U.S. would accept 10,000 from Syria
Continued from 1A
States have no authority
to reject Syrian refugees
or to act independently in
any way concerning the
handling of the Syrian
refugee crisis, according to
the Oregon Department of
Human Services.
“It’s kind of easy to pick,
but it doesn’t seem anyone
is paying attention to the
bigger issue on whether
governors can close their
states to refugees, if that
can actually happen,” said
Navas of media coverage on
Republican governors who
say they’re refusing more
refugees.
U.S. Congress and
the president set policy
on accepting refugees.
President Obama recently
announced the United States
would accept 10,000 Syrian
refugees, a small fraction of
some other countries. So far,
only one Syrian refugee has
settled in Oregon, an Oregon
DHS spokesman said.
Refugees may ask to
settle in a particular state
where they have social
connections, or national
volunteer agencies settle
refugees based on resources
available in different regions,
according to Oregon DHS.
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Refugee Resettlement did
not immediately return a
phone call from the EO
Media
Group/Pamplin
Media Group statehouse
bureau seeking information
on gubernatorial authority
over refugee resettlement.
State Rep. Bill Post,
R-Keizer, wrote to Brown
Monday to ask the governor
whether the state plans to
accept more Syrian refugees.
“I strongly believe that
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Oregon, should always be
a place where those seeking
relief from religious perse-
cution may come and build
a new safer life,” Post wrote.
“At the same time, I am very
concerned that if we take
any and every refugee, we
may expose Oregonians to
acts of terrorism like Paris
experienced last Friday.”
Oregon DHS gives
refugees up to eights months
of cash assistance and
employment services. The
agency tracks only refugees
participating in the short-
term Refugee Program.
Criminal Defense
Family Law
ATTORNEY DEAN F. GUSHWA
541-276-6458
410 SE Dorion, Pendleton
W W W. D E A N G U S H W A . C O M