WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday (Jan 12), without providing hard evidence, that Al-Qaeda had established a new home base in Iran and the United States had fewer options in dealing with the group now it was "burrowed inside" that country. With just eight days left in office for President Donald Trump, Pompeo alleged that Iran has given safe haven to Al-Qaeda leaders and support for the group, despite some scepticism within the intelligence community and Congress. The New York Times reported in November that Al-Qaeda's Abu Muhammad al-Masri, accused of helping to mastermind the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, was gunned down by Israeli operatives in Iran. Iran denied the report, saying there were no Al-Qaeda "terrorists" on its soil. Pompeo told a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington that he was announcing publicly for the first time that al-Masri died on Aug 7 last year. Pompeo said his presence in Iran was no surprise, and added: "Al-Masri's presence inside Iran points to the reason that we're here today... Al-Qaeda has a new home base: it is the Islamic Republic of Iran."
I could hardly believe my ears when I heard Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cry racism in characterizing the reaction of authorities to incensed Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021: “No one can tell me that if that had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden said. “We have witnessed two systems of justice: one that let extremists storm the U.S. Capitol yesterday, and another that released tear gas on peaceful protestors last summer. It’s simply unacceptable,” Harris tweeted. I kept thinking, how dumb do these people think we are? Do they really think we’ve forgotten the actual events of this summer so soon? Do they think those like me who witnessed the #BLM riots with their own eyes in New York City have already forgotten how roving bands of almost exclusively black teens and twenty-somethings rioted and looted, breaking into high-end Soho boutiques and struggling small businesses already ravaged by COVID-19 and absconding with millions in merchandise while our spineless leaders stood by doing nothing and left those businesses to board up and fend for
WASHINGTON - Well before the concrete blocks and double row of tall fences that ring the United States Capitol, National Guard troops with automatic weapons check vehicles. They are under strict orders to take no chances. The inauguration of former Vice-President Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States will take place amid the tightest security in living memory. Referring to the storming of the US Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump supporters on Jan 6, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser told a press conference on Friday (Jan 15): "We saw white extremists storm the Capitol building who were trained and organised. We all have to think about a new posture." That posture is to turn the heart of the Federal Government into a fortress, complete with militarised red and green zones - red for maximum restrictions. "We continue to ask anyone who doesn't absolutely need to be out and about, or in those restricted areas to avoid them," Mayor Bowser said. So far, about 21,000 armed National Guard troops - the number may grow to 25,000 - have been deployed to lock down the capital ahead of
