On Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien, Mitt Romney Senior Advisor Eric Fehrnstrom talks Illinois primary and Romney's decision to step aside in 2008 election.
Fehrnstrom says, "It was a big win in a big state…. You have to wonder where his opponents feel that they can win enough delegates to overtake what is really a commanding lead in the delegate count.”
When CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien asks about Romney stepping aside for McCain in 2008 and what happens if the other candidates don’t step aside for Romney this year, he replies, “At the time, John McCain did not have the delegates he needed to clinch the nomination but he was clearly on a path to doing that. The math was very challenging for Mitt Romney. And he made the decision that at that time, the country being at war in Iraq, it was important for John McCain to begin to rally the party behind him so he could prepare himself for the fall election campaign. Mitt Romney stepped aside. Now, in Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, these are both decent, honorable men who have run good campaigns. They are good Americans. They are good Republicans. And ultimately, I’m confident they'll make a decision that's not only right for their party, but right for them.”
He continues, “I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch a Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”
O’Brien questions this thinking and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein adds, “You get a second look, there's no question about it. But it is not a complete, I think, blank slate.”
Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs week mornings from 7-9am on CNN.
President Obama spoke to supporters at a campaign fundraiser. In the speech he criticized the Republican presidential candidates, who were also campaigning in the state prior to its upcoming primary. He said, "My message to all the candidates is welcome to the land of Lincoln because I'm thinking maybe some Lincoln will rub off on them while they are here."
Trayvon
Martin, 17, was shot and killed by a self-described neighborhood watch
guard in February in Sanford, Fla. The shooter, George Zimmerman, said
he shot Martin in self-defense. He has not been charged.
By msnbc.com staff
Florida
Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that they
had appointed a new prosecutor to investigate the shooting death of
Trayvon Martin and would appoint a committee on citizen safety that
would examine the state's "Stand Your Ground" law. Martin, an unarmed
17-year-old, was killed by a self-described neighborhood watch guard in
February.
In
a statement, Scott called for the task force “to investigate how to
make sure a tragedy such as this does not occur in the future, while at
the same time, protecting the fundamental rights of all our citizens –
especially the right to feel protected and safe in our state.” He said
the task force would look at Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which
allows someone who is being threatened to use deadly force. Lt.
Gov. Jennifer Carroll will lead the task force, Scott said. The Rev.
R.B. Holmes Jr., the pastor of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in
Tallahassee, will be its vice chair. Additionally, Scott and Bondi appointed Angela B. Corey, a state
attorney from another part of Florida, to oversee the investigation.
Norman Wolfinger, the state attorney who covers Sanford, where the
shooting took place, asked to step down from the investigation.
Trayvon
Martin was carrying a pack of Skittles and a can of iced tea when
George Zimmerman, 28, spotted Martin, a black teen who was walking home
from a convenience store at night in a gated community. Zimmerman told
police he shot Martin in self-defense after a confrontation.
Rep. Allen West of Florida, one of two African American Republicans in Congress, issued a statement on Facebook Thursday, criticizing how local police initially handled Martin’s death.
I have sat back and allowed myself time to assess the current episode revealing itself in Sanford Florida...
I
have sat back and allowed myself time to assess the current episode
revealing itself in Sanford, Florida involving the shooting of
17-year-old Treyvon Martin. First of all, if all that has been reported
is accurate, the Sanford Police Chief should be relieved of his duties
due to what appears to be a mishandling of this shooting in its early
stages. The US Navy SEALS identified Osama Bin Laden within hours, while
this young man laid on a morgue slab for three days. The shooter, Mr
Zimmerman, should have been held in custody and certainly should not be
walking free, still having a concealed weapons carry permit. From my
reading, it seems this young man was pursued and there was no probable
cause to engage him, certainly not pursue and shoot him….against the
direction of the 911 responder. Let’s all be appalled at this instance
not because of race, but because a young American man has lost his life,
seemingly, for no reason. I have signed a letter supporting a DOJ
investigation. I am not heading to Sanford to shout and scream, because
we need the responsible entities and agencies to handle this situation
from this point without media bias or undue political influences. This
is an outrage.
He said that he has signed a letter supporting a federal investigation.
“I
am not heading to Sanford to shout and scream, because we need
responsible entities and agencies to handle this situation from this
point without media bias or undue political influences. This is an
outrage.”
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee said Thursday that he was stepping down temporarily during the investigation.
Bill Lee, chief of police in Sanford, Florida, announces that he will be
temporarily stepping down from his position as the investigation into
the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is conducted.
A memorial to Trayvon Martin outside The Retreat at Twin Lakes community where he was shot by George Michael Zimmerman.
Editor's note: LZ
Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist
of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and
a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior
writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on
Twitter: @locs_n_laughs Watch him on Tuesdays on CNN Newsroom in the 9 am ET hour.
(CNN) -- I don't trust cops and I don't know many black people who do.
I respect them. I sympathize with them. I am appreciative of the work they do.
But when you've been
pulled over for no good reason as many times as I have; when you've been
in handcuffs for no good reason as many times as I have; when you run
out to buy some allergy medication and upon returning home, find
yourself surrounded by four squad cars with flashing lights and all you
can think about is how not to get shot, you learn not to trust cops.
LZ Granderson
The first instance of
injustice surrounding the Trayvon Martin tragedy occurred February 26,
the night George Zimmerman decided to pursue, confront and ultimately
shoot and kill Martin. The second started the moment the Sanford police
failed to properly investigate what, given the 911 tapes, is clearly a
questionable claim of self-defense made by Zimmerman. But seeing that
Martin's parents were forced to sue the police department just to hear
the tapes, it seems as if Zimmerman isn't the only questionable
component in this case.
Thursday, Sanford Police
Chief Bill Lee stepped down "temporarily." On Wednesday, Sanford city
commissioners had voted "no confidence" in him.
But at a town hall meeting
hosted by the NAACP on Tuesday, Sanford's black residents said they
lost confidence in the police long before because of the extensive
history of prejudicial treatment in the area.
Law enforcement isn't
easy. In fact, it is extremely dangerous. But that in no way excuses
improper procedure and lies. And given the amount of effort put forth by
the Sanford chief to exonerate Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood
watchman with a history of 911 calls that suggests paranoia, versus
efforts to find out the truth, it sure feels like another case of racial
profiling and police trying to cover up an impropriety.
The shooter may
not have been a police officer, but the story of how the police handled
this case is oh-so-familiar.
It's the same story the nation heard from blacks in Los Angeles surrounding the 1991 Rodney King beating.
It's the same story heard
from blacks in New York City surrounding the murder of Amadou Diallo,
who was only carrying his wallet when he was shot 41 times by four
plainclothes policemen in 1999.
That same story was
heard in New Orleans, where black men were shot and killed for sport by
police officers off the Danziger Bridge in 2005. The police department
covered it up for two years before any arrests were made. Charges were
even initially dismissed by the district judge before the Justice
Department got involved and finally, last summer, officers were
convicted.
And people wonder where
the impetus behind NWA's "___ the Police" came from. I'll tell you where
it came from. It came from knowing there are far more stories like
Trayvon Martin's that the world never hears about. In fact, we almost
didn't hear about this one. The nation heard the 911 tapes from last
month's tragic shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio within 24 hours of the incident. Martin's parents had to file a lawsuit before they could hear the ones in this case.
Why?
If the police department
had done everything it was supposed to do, if it was truly "PROHIBITED
from making an arrest based on the facts and circumstances they had at
the time" as the letter released by the city manager states, then why
hold back until there is national media attention?
The letter said the
department was still investigating the case and didn't want to
compromise it, but the authorities never brought Zimmerman in for
questioning. They still haven't. They tested Martin's body for drugs and
alcohol, but not Zimmerman's. The only person with a weapon was
Zimmerman. Martin was unarmed.
Just like the victims in New Orleans, Diallo, King. ...
In 2010, the family of
Sean Bell was awarded $7 million by the city of New York after five
police officers sprayed his car with more than 50 bullets, killing him.
He was unarmed and to be married the next day.
"No amount of money can
provide closure, no amount of money can make up for the pain," his
fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, said after the ruling. "We'll just try to
learn how to live with it and move on."
Those are words members
of the black community have to say to each other far too many times when
it comes to treatment by the police.
Investigators think they've uncovered a key clue
that will lead them to solve the mystery of what happened to legendary
aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared on a trans-Pacific flight 75
years ago.
Ric Gillespie, executive director of The
International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), said a new
enhanced analysis of a photo taken on the Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro,
formerly Gardner Island, three months after Earhart and navigator Fred
Noonan disappeared, may show the landing gear of her Lockheed Electra
protruding from a reef.
“We found some really fascinating and compelling evidence," Gillespie said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
“Finding the airplane would be the thing that would make it conclusive,” he said.
Gillespie said the photo was taken by a British survey team in
October 1937 and had been seen by Earhart researchers many times. But
investigators took a new look at it in 2010 and, when their suspicions
were triggered, had the photo checked by U.S. State Department experts.
In a blind review, they determined the component in the picture is the
landing gear of a Lockheed Electra.
"This is where the airplane went into the drink," Gillespie said.
On July 2, 75 years to the day after
Earhart was last heard from, Gillespie will depart Honolulu on a
University of Hawaii research vessel to try to find that plane in the
deep waters off a flat reef on Nikumaroro.
The privately funded effort will use robotic submarines from Phoenix
International, the U.S. Navy's primary contractor for deep ocean search
and recovery, to comb the area. The Discovery Channel will film the
exploration for a TV presentation, Gillespie said.
Gillespie acknowledged there would be skeptics after his 23 years of searching for Earhart had yet to yield an answer.
“There are some very smart people who think we’re wrong about this,
but there are some very smart people who think we’re right about this,”
he said.
One Gillespie supporter is Robert Ballard, the explorer who found the
Titanic and other deep sea wrecks, who called himself "a ringer"
brought in to vet Gillespie's case.
Ballard said he had rejected offers to look for Earhart's plane, thinking the task too difficult.
“If you ever wanted a case of finding a needle in a haystack, this is
at the top of the list in deep sea exploration,” he said at the
Washington press conference.
Ballard said he did a strict analysis of Gillespie's research and signed off on the science.
"Every time he passed the test," Ballard said. "Clearly the smoking gun was the analysis of that enhanced image."
Earhart and Noonan disappeared while on a flight from New Guinea to
Howland Island that summer of 1937. The flat reef off Gardner Island,
300 miles off their course, had been a suspected landing spot. But those
suspicions were largely based on speculation.
At Tuesday's press conference, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt
Campbell called the disappearance of Earhart "the last great unsolved
mystery of the 20th century."
If the mystery is solved this summer, Earhart's aviation trailblazing
will have played a part, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said.
"In no small part because of Amelia Earhart our world is smaller,"
LaHood said. "This very voyage to recover her remains in some ways is
doable because of Earhart herself."
“We take a special measure of pride in an expedition that is as
enterprising and inspiring as the woman with which it will unite us,” he
said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saluted Earhart's memory, too.
“Her legacy resonates today for anyone girls and boys who dreams
about the stars,” Clinton said. “She gave people hope and she inspired
them to dream bigger and bolder.”
(CNN) -- The hardest part of listening to Trayvon
Martin's mother speak about her son's death is hearing the tone of her
voice. It bears a heaviness that speaks not just of grief but of
resignation.
Sybrina Fulton is living
the nightmare that every black mother carries in the back of her mind
every day. Her son has been senselessly killed by someone who didn't see
her son -- a normal American teenager -- but saw just a black boy and
felt threatened. The police know the killer but have not arrested him.
All of the known facts
support the likelihood that Martin was pursued and killed by a zealous
neighborhood watch captain. But Martin is black, his assailant, George
Zimmerman, is white (Hispanic), and the events took place in Florida,
which has a strong self-defense law. So rather than quietly grieve,
comforted by the assurance that this terrible wrong will be forcefully
addressed, Fulton must do what many black mothers have had to do for
centuries. She must lead the charge to bring the killer to justice. She
must hire a lawyer, although her son broke no law. She must appear at
rallies and on the radio to keep public pressure on local police who
have refused to arrest Zimmerman.
Sherrilyn A. Ifill
In the early 20th
century, the consequences for the kind of relentless determination
displayed by Fulton could be deadly. Of the several dozen black women
who were lynched in our nation's history, most were killed in
retaliation for demanding the arrest of those who murdered their sons or
husbands.
We've come a long way
since those days. But Fulton still feels the pain of having to defend
the honor of her son and justify the significance of his life.
She does not say this.
But in her voice we hear the sound of a burden centuries old and almost
too heavy to bear. In a way, she is walking the rugged path forged so
courageously and publicly by Mamie Mae Till more than 50 years ago, who
never rested in her search for justice for her slain son, Emmitt.
The fear of Fulton's
terrible journey is what motivates so many black mothers to harangue
their sons with demands that they call home when they're out, that they
take a friend with them and that they watch their backs. We imagine what
could happen and try to do our best to keep the nightmare at bay. Our
hearts break when we hear the recount of Martin's call to a friend in
the minutes before he was killed. He knew Zimmerman was following him.
His fear was mixed with a young man's pride: "I'm not gonna run."
Yes, we know about those
parents who don't parent, who let their children run wild without
supervision. But we also know the truth. And the truth is that most
black mothers parent with determination, authority and fear. Especially
those mothers who have sons.
The teenage rites of
passage that thrill our white counterpoints send fear down a black
mother's spine. When your child is old enough to walk to a friend's
house in the neighborhood, it can mean the first of many stop-and-frisk
encounters with the police. When they turn 18, they can now be arrested
and charged as an adult for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A
new driver's license and car opens the door to driving-while-black
stops. Just having a flat tire in the road can end with a senseless
murder, like the death of Camille and Bill Cosby's son Ennis on the Los
Angeles freeway in 1997.
Without question, white
mothers lose their sons to murder too, and black mothers who lose their
sons and daughters to murder do so more often at the hands of other
black men or boys. There is no comfort for any of these mothers; there
is just the hope of justice. But when a white neighborhood watch captain
with a record of run-ins with the law follows, shoots and kills a black
unarmed teenager and no arrest is made, even the cold comfort of
justice is denied.
There are too many
weeping, grieving mothers in our gun-soaked, violent nation. All that
Sybrina Fulton asks for are answers and justice. Every mother of every
race should stand with her.
The Situation Room
|Added on March 21, 2012 A look at why Zimmerman wasn't arrested in Trayvon Martin's death - and teen's parents react to Trayvon's final moments.
Father: 'Our son did not deserve to die'
CNN |Added on March 22, 2012 Demonstrators crowd into Washington Square Park to protest the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin
John King USA Added on March 19, 2012 Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee tells CNN's John King why she thinks the Trayvon Martin case should be federally investigated.
But now, this case, at least in terms of the conversations swirling
around it, is anything but simple. And Trayvon Martin's name has now
become part of the vocabulary of a debate on attitudes about race.
What began as a local shooting has turned into a global story that you couldn't miss, even if you tried. It is a story that has sparked outrage,
cries of racism, accusations of vigilantism and questions about gun
laws and whether police properly investigated the case. It has in many
ways turned into a full-scale moment of reflection for Americans, of all
races, as to whether we as a nation have moved forward in our quest for
equality among races.
A petition on Change.org calling for Zimmerman's arrest,
now handled by Martin's parents, shows how ingrained the topic is in
the cultural zeitgeist. Early Thursday, the petition had reached 1
million signatures, with them coming in at a pace of 1,000 signatures a
minute, according to Noland Chambliss, communications director for
Change.org. Chambliss said the petition at times has been getting
50,000 signatures an hour.
It is one of the more dominant conversations on news and social media
sites, becoming a sort of rallying cry from those who feel an injustice
has occurred. Those who feel that Zimmerman took Florida's "stand your
ground" protection too far, or used it as an excuse to gun down a black
teen because he was wearing a hoodie, took to the streets around the
country to make their voices heard. Demonstrators crowded New York's
Union Square on Wednesday night, in a "Million Hoodie March" attended by
Martin's parents.
Most of the outrage comes from the idea that some people believe
Zimmerman specifically targeted Martin because of his race, a claim that
Zimmerman's father denies. Questions have swirled about whether Zimmerman used a racial epithet during his call to police about Martin. A
top CNN audio engineer enhanced the sound of the 911 call, and several
members of CNN's editorial staff repeatedly reviewed the tape but could
reach no consensus on whether Zimmerman used a racial slur.
And the situation has also forced
parents of black children to think about how they should discuss the
story with their kids. What rhetoric do they use? How do they explain
what they feel is happening?
CNN's Christy Oglesby wrote that her 12-year-old son knows he could have been Trayvon.
"It’s tough finding the balance between encouraging a black boy to
storm the world with confidence and at the same time to fear for his
life. But that’s what I must do," she wrote. "I know that at this very
moment some have just sucked their teeth in disgusted disbelief and
decided that I’m exaggerating. I wish that I was. I’m not. If I were,
Trayvon would be alive."
"It’s unlikely but possible that you could get killed today. Or any
day. I’m sorry but that’s the truth. Blackmaleness is a potentially
fatal condition. I tell you that not to scare you but because knowing
that could possibly save your life," he wrote. "There are people who
will look at you and see a villain or a criminal or something fearsome.
It’s possible they may act on their prejudice and insecurity. Being
Black could turn an ordinary situation into a life or death moment even
if you’re doing nothing wrong."
It has also forced a national dialogue on whether police handled the
case properly, in general, or whether there were any racial biases in
how the case was handled.
Thursday afternoon Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee announced Thursday he is stepping down "temporarily" as head of the department.
"I am aware that my role as a leader of this agency has become a
distraction from the investigation," he told reporters. "It is apparent
that my involvement in this matter is overshadowing the process.
Therefore, I have come to the decision that I must temporarily remove
myself from the position."
He added, "I do this in the hopes of restoring some semblance of calm to the city, which has been in turmoil for several weeks."
A Seminole County grand jury will convene April 10 on the matter,
according to State Attorney Norm Wolfinger, and the U.S. Justice
Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the case.
It appears that a growing movement of people across the country will
continue to rally behind Martin's parents as they urge an arrest in the
case. Another rally is planned Thursday night at a Sanford church.
Before the grand jury makes a decision on whether to hand down
indictments in the case, it is likely that more voices will fight to be
heard and added to this ongoing and heated debate.
Vice President Biden spoke to the auto workers' union in Toledo, Ohio. In his speech he He cited President Obama's actions in 2009 as key to reinvigorating the auto industry and criticized Mitt Romney's characterization of the bailout as a mistake.
I updated this to include the video of the corner
By Alan Duke, CNN
updated 6:28 PM EDT, Thu March 22, 2012
"No trauma or foul play is suspected" in Whitney Houston's death, the coroner said.
Los Angeles (CNN)
-- Whitney Houston died from an accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub,
but the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" were
contributing factors in her death, the Los Angeles County Coroner said
in an initial autopsy report released Thursday.
Houston, 48, was "found submerged in bathtub filled with water" and "no trauma or foul play is suspected," the coroner said.
The toxicology tests
found other drugs in her body, including marijuana, the anti-anxiety
drug Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril and the allergy medicine
Benadryl, the report said. But these drugs "did not contribute to the
death," it said.
The one-page report
released Thursday did not disclose the levels of each drug, but that
information will be included in the final coroner report to be made
public within two weeks, the coroner said.
Houston's family, which
had been informed of the findings before Thursday's release, issued a
statement through a family spokeswoman.
"We are saddened to learn
of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure,"
said Patricia Houston, the singer's sister-in-law and former manager.
Houston died February 11
in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California,
the day before the music industry gathered for the annual Grammy Awards
in Los Angeles.
Authorities had said that
police and fire officials were called to Houston's room at the Beverly
Hilton after her unconscious body was found in the bathtub, just hours
before she was to attend a pre-Grammy party at the hotel.
Houston won six Grammys and sold 170 million albums, singles and videos over her career.
In recent years, the singer's accomplishments were overtaken by her struggles with drug addiction.
March 22, 2012CNN's Diana Magnay reports that police found horrific videos of Mohammed Merah's attacks in his belongings.Toulouse, France (CNN) -- The French police siege to
capture a suspected al Qaeda-trained militant came to a bloody end
Thursday morning when commandos shot Mohammed Merah in the head as he
fired wildly back at them, authorities said.
Merah emerged from a
bathroom in his apartment and fired more than 30 shots at police as they
burst in to end a standoff that had lasted more than 31 hours, Paris
prosecutor Francois Molins said.
He jumped out a window onto a balcony, still shooting, and was found dead on the ground, officials said.
Two police officers were injured in the raid, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.
Merah had only two bullets left in his gun when he was killed, Molins said.
Merah, 23, was wanted in
the killings of three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three children
ages 4, 5, and 7. The shootings began March 11 and ended Monday with the
slaying of the rabbi and the children at a Jewish school in Toulouse.
Authorities said the
young man cited a variety of reasons for the killings, including
France's ban on the wearing of Islamic veils, the missions of its troops
abroad and the oppression of Palestinians.
Police found video recordings of the attacks, ammunition and ingredients for explosives after he was killed, Molins said.
In the video of the first
shooting of a French soldier in Toulouse, Merah told the soldier, "You
kill my brothers, I kill you," Molins told reporters. Another video
shows Merah gunning down two more French soldiers in Montauban. He is
heard saying "Allahu Akbar," or God is great, Molins said.
Merah claimed to have posted the videos online, but police do not know when, where or how, Molins added.
Merah was wearing a bulletproof vest when police raided his apartment, the prosecutor said.
He originally said he
would surrender to police, Gueant said, but later vowed that he would
resist and kill anyone who tried to take him into custody.
Suspect in French terror attacks dead
Story behind Mohammed Merah
Townsend: Fear of 'lone wolf' scenario
Gueant had said earlier police wanted to capture him alive, saying the priority was "to hand him over to the authorities."
Merah said he wanted to "die with weapons in his hands," Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said overnight.
After Merah's death, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said everything had been done to bring him to justice alive.
But, he said, security
forces could not be exposed to more danger as they sought to arrest him,
since enough lives had already been lost.
Sarkozy's political
rival, Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande, congratulated
police and said France had always shown that it "knows how to stand up
against its worst enemies without losing any of its values."
Campaigning for the
French presidential elections, put on hold after the Toulouse school
attack, has now resumed, with Sarkozy holding a rally in Strasbourg
Thursday afternoon. The first round of voting is due next month.
Sarkozy told supporters that his thoughts were with the victims and their families.
The shootings were not
the crime of a madman but of "a monster and a fanatic," he said, and his
crimes are "inexplicable and inexcusable."
France is not racist or
anti-Semitic, Sarkozy added, and the tragic events of the past few days
have shown that the nation is stronger when it is united and lives by
its values.
Police had surrounded
Merah's house at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, having tracked him down through
computer sleuthing and clues linked to his motorcycle, authorities said.
As police first
attempted to seize him early Wednesday morning, Merah shot and wounded
two officers, said Molins, the prosecutor.
The prosecutor said
Merah had trained with al Qaeda in Pakistan's Waziristan region,
bordering Afghanistan, and also spent time in Afghanistan.
He was sent back to
France after Afghan police picked him up at a traffic stop and alerted
international forces to his presence, Molins said.
Merah's activities led
to his inclusion on the U.S. no-fly list, a U.S. intelligence official
confirmed Thursday.
Merah had been on the list for some time, one reason
being that he had attended an al Qaeda training camp, the official
said.
Christian Etelin, a
lawyer who represented Merah in an earlier incident involving a traffic
accident, also said Merah went to Afghanistan two years ago.
After the suspect's death, Etelin said that Merah was psychologically damaged.
"He was completely cut off from reality," Etelin said on CNN affiliate BFM-TV.
Ebba Kalondo, the senior
news editor of the television network France 24, told CNN's "Erin
Burnett OutFront" earlier that the suspect called her about two hours
before police surrounded his home and laid out details of the killings
that only police would have known -- "very, very specific information"
such as the number of shots fired and the shell casings left behind.
"He seemed to be very
aware that a massive manhunt was under way for him," Kalondo said. "He
said he wasn't scared, and that neither capture nor death scared him at
all."
Merah had been under surveillance by French intelligence for years, Interior Minister Gueant said.
He had "already committed certain infractions, some with violence," Gueant said.
Merah was sentenced 15 times by a Toulouse juvenile court when he was a minor, Molins said.
The French defense
ministry said Merah had twice tried to join the French military. His
first attempt was in the northern city of Lille, where he was refused
because of prior convictions, and his second, in July 2010, was in
Toulouse, where he sought to join the Foreign Legion but left during the
first round of tests.
Merah was born in
Toulouse, said Elisabeth Allanic, a magistrate at the Paris prosecutors
office. Gueant said he was of Algerian origin.
Gueant said Merah
"wanted to avenge Palestinian children and take revenge on the French
army because of its foreign interventions."
France has about 4,000 troops supporting the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The government has said it will pull them out by 2013.
Merah also was opposed to France's recent move to ban women from wearing a full veil, Molins said.
French suspect detained in Afghanistan?
French attack victims buried in Israel
French candidates suspend campaigns
Palestinian Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad strongly rejected using his people as a
justification for the French killings, calling the string of shootings a
"cowardly terrorist attack."
Merah belonged to a
group called Forsane Alizza, or Knights of Glory, Gueant said. The
French government banned the group in January for trying to recruit
people to fight in Afghanistan.
The group issued a
"chilling warning" on its Facebook page before it was banned this year,
calling on supporters to attack Americans, Jews and French soldiers,
terror expert Sajjan Gohel said.
Police tracked Merah
down via his brother's computer IP address, which was apparently used to
respond to an ad posted by the first victim, Gueant said.
In that first shooting,
Imad Ibn Ziaten, a paratrooper of North African origin, arranged to meet
a man in Toulouse who wanted to buy a scooter Ziaten had advertised
online, the interior minister said. The victim said in the ad that he
was in the military.
A message sent from the
suspect's brother's IP address was used to set up the March 11
appointment, at which the paratrooper was killed, Gueant said.
Four days later, two
other soldiers were shot dead and another injured by a black-clad man
wearing a motorcycle helmet in a shopping center in the city of
Montauban, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Toulouse.
In the attack at the
private Jewish school Ozar Hatorah on Monday, a man wearing a motorcycle
helmet and driving a motor scooter pulled up and shot a teacher and
three children -- two of them the teacher's young sons -- in the head.
The other victim, the daughter of the school's director, was killed in front of her father.
Police, who said the
same guns were used in all three attacks, launched an intense manhunt
and late Tuesday night zeroed in on the apartment, about 3 kilometers
(1.8 miles) from the Jewish school.
Watch News from Channel 2 in Jerusalem on the terrorist and the burial of the victims. This is Thursday
You also can see Wednesdays news.
The Costa Concordia struck rocks off Italy on January 13 with about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on board.
Rome, Italy (CNN)
-- The bodies of five more people killed when the Costa Concordia
cruise ship sank were found Thursday, bringing to 30 the number of
bodies located, Italian officials said.
Two of the roughly 4,200
originally aboard the cruise liner remain missing. The Costa Concordia, a
ship belonging to cruise line Costa Crociere, struck rocks off the
island of Giglio on January 13 with about 3,200 passengers and 1,000
crew members on board.
Workers completed the
removal of 2,400 tons of oil from the ship's tanks this week, a delicate
process that began five weeks ago, the ship's owner said Thursday.
A salvage company will be
selected next month to move the ship, a task that could take a year,
according to the statement from Costa Crociere.
Divers who located the
three bodies Thursday were not able to immediately determine age or sex
of the victims, according to Piero De Milito, an official with Italy's
Civil Protection Coordination department.
"The bodies were found on
the exterior side of the wreck facing the island, between the wreck and
the rocks," De Milito said. "In the next 48 hours, we'll be able to
bring them on the mainland."
Crews used 20 vessels,
including platforms, tugs, transport ships, crane barges and tankers, to
defuel the cruise ship, which remains on its side.
While the oil has been
removed, the "caretaking" operation to clean the seabed and monitor the
ship will continue for several months, the company said.
The cruise line will choose next month which of six bidding salvage companies will remove the wrecked ship.
"The operation to remove
the wreck will be a particularly complex one and is expected to take
from 10 to 12 months, depending on which tender is chosen," the company
said.
I am on food stamps. This will surprise almost everyone who knows me. I have hidden it from friends, from family, from classmates.
I use self-checkout at the grocery store so I don’t have to face judgment from the cashiers. I read countless posts on Facebook and receive political emails telling me that being on food stamps makes me a degenerate, someone who is dependant and useless. I hear about how I should be kicked off of food stamps so I won’t be so lazy and will get a job.
At the time the economy crashed, I was studying to be a chiropractor. My (now ex-) husband was laid off from his good job. It took him over a year and a half to find a new job. During that time we lost our house and had to declare bankruptcy. Our marriage fell apart.
Living on $60 a week
I’m now a single mom struggling to make ends meet. I was faced with the decision to quit school and go back to work and pray that somehow I’d be able to make the payments on more than $100,000 in student loans or to press on with my education. I prayed about it. I applied for aid. And through the grace of God, I received food stamps.
I live on $60 a week. This pays for my gas for my car to commute and for any personal items not covered by food stamps. Silly frivolous things like soap, shampoo, toilet paper, dish soap and, at times, a cup of coffee from the bookstore. I don’t have cable, a telephone, Netflix, a DVR or a gaming system.
In the last two months,I bought one pair of dress pants because I am required to dress professionally at school, a half-dozen pairs of underwear and a package of socks. If I didn’t receive food stamps, I would have to somehow feed myself and my son out of that $60 a week I have budgeted to make it until my next student loans come. I live in a one-bedroom house. I sleep in the living room, allowing my son to have the small bedroom. Beyond that, I have a kitchen and a bathroom. I do not have a basement.
And yet so many people comment about how people like me take advantage of the system. That we have big-screen TVs — my only TV is 10 inches — and other expensive items. How we are just lazy.
This trimester, I am taking 11 classes. I am in class from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. After school, I spend a little time with my son, make dinner and put my son to bed. Then I study until I collapse in bed. I get up at 6 the next morning to put my son on the bus and start my day all over again.
Studying to be a doctor is not easy. It is not lazy. And for me, it is a calling. It is a dream. And it’s a future.
‘Tired of the hate’
I’m not writing this to ask for support. I am so blessed to be able to make ends meet and continue my education. I am writing this because I’m tired of the hate. I’m tired of being embarrassed. And I’m tired of the ignorance. Unless you’ve lost everything, you cannot possibly understand what drives someone to accept food stamps. How hard it was for them. How they cried when they submitted the application. How they are made to feel ashamed for accepting help.
You are entitled to your opinion. I respect that. But please consider my story the next time you are tempted to post or email hateful jokes; the next time you discuss with a friend how everyone on food stamps is taking advantage of the system.
I never imagined this would be my story. I was an A student, top of my class. I went to college, got a job and continued my education toward a post-graduate degree.
I did everything I was supposed to do to have the bright, amazing future I was promised by my teachers in school. Life doesn’t always turn out the way it does in storybooks.
And I was one of the charmed, lucky ones growing up. I can only imagine the lives that some people on food stamps have endured.
For the record, current estimates show that 3 to 5 percent of people on food stamps are on them fraudulently. Most are like me, enduring a difficult time in their lives.
Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors. Not to ridicule and hate them for needing help.
