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Bernie Sanders aide defends Omar with term seen as anti-Semitic, apologizes

A top staffer to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign apologized Tuesday for invoking “a dual allegiance” of Jewish Americans while defending Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Belén Sisa, Sanders’ national deputy press secretary, was discussing the term seen as anti-Semitic in a Facebook thread over the weekend -- and argued that questioning it was legitimate, Politico reported.

“This is a serious question: do you not think that the American government and American Jewish community has a dual allegiance to the state of Israel? I’m asking not to rule out the history of this issue, but in the context in which this was said by Ilhan,” Sisa wrote.

When asked by another Facebook user if her boss, who is Jewish, has “dual loyalty,” she replied, “I think I would probably have to ask him? But his comments make me believe other wise as he has been very blunt on where he stands.”

She deleted the Facebook posts after Politico confronted her about her remarks.

OMAR DENIES EQUATING OBAMA AND TRUMP, SAYS ONLY ONE IS 'HUMAN'

Sisa later issued an apology.

"In a conversation on Facebook, I used some language that I see now was insensitive. Issues of allegiance and loyalty to one's country come with painful history,” Sisa told Politico. "At a time when so many communities in our country feel under attack by the president and his allies, I absolutely recognize that we need to address these issues with greater care and sensitivity to their historical resonance, and I'm committed to doing that in the future.”

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Last week, the House of Representatives passed an anti-hate resolution sparked in large part by Omar's recent suggestions that Israel supporters want U.S. lawmakers to pledge “allegiance” to the Jewish state – which was widely condemned as echoing the age-old “dual loyalties” smear against Jewish politicians. The resolution did not mention the freshman congresswoman by name.

Sanders' campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

Fox News' Liam Quinn contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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North Korea signals shift in nuclear diplomacy; Kim’s right-hand man sidelined

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, return to discussions after a break at Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, return to discussions after a break at Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 7, 2018. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – The demotion of Kim Yong Chol, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s point man for nuclear talks with the United States, signals he has taken the fall for the failed second summit between the two countries, diplomats in Seoul and regional experts said.

The hawkish former general and spymaster was recently removed from a key party post and is expected to hand over his leading role in the nuclear talks to diplomats who had been previously restrained to playing a secondary part, they said.

Kim Yong Chol remains a formidable force in Pyongyang but there is no word whether he has been given a new role in the ultra-secretive North Korean power structure. He did not accompany Kim Jong Un to Russia this week for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, the North Korean leader’s first international foray since his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February ended in disarray.

“The summit damaged the North’s long-held principle that its leader never makes an error, so they have to shift the blame,” said Kim Hyun-wook, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul.

“This may not mean an immediate shift in their U.S. strategy, but the diplomats will likely take the initiative to contain the fallout from Hanoi and promote diplomacy with various countries.”

Kim Yong Chol was beside Kim through the last 12 months, including for his three meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, two with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the two Trump summits, in Singapore and Hanoi.

But for those who have known him as a hardline military general, Kim Yong Chol never seemed comfortable with the art of negotiating the roll back of his country’s nuclear program in exchange for concessions from the United States.

Kim avoided getting into details at negotiating sessions, instead leaving it to diplomats to build strategy, two diplomatic sources in Seoul familiar with the North’s diplomatic engagements said.

Even then, he refused to yield control, one of the sources said.

“Whether or not he understood the issues, he kept a tight grip on the negotiations. It seemed like: ‘Over my dead body I’m going to let Ri Yong Ho take over,'” the source said, referring to the North’s foreign minister.

‘REAL SPOKESWOMAN’

Ri and his deputy, Choe Son Hui, are seen to be taking over the vacuum left by Kim Yong Chol, flanking the leader as he met Putin on Thursday.

The collapse of the Hanoi summit was a major setback for Kim Jong Un, who, several sources said, was led to believe by hawkish aides like Kim Yong Chol that he was about to win sought-after sanctions relief in return for a promise to partially scrap nuclear facilities.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said the demands Kim made of Trump in Hanoi had the hallmarks of the “best scenario” strategy advocated by hawks like Kim Yong Chol.

“But it turned out to be a scenario that the United States could never accept,” Cheong said. “Kim Jong Un cutting his reliance on Kim Yong Chol is a positive sign for the negotiations.”

The person who now appears to have Kim’s ear is Vice Foreign Minister Choe, North Korea experts said.

She has steadily grown in influence over the last 15 years, rising from a junior player on the North’s U.S. diplomacy team to become vice foreign minister and a member of the powerful State Affairs Commission.

She held several news conferences after the collapse of the Hanoi summit, playing the rare role of conveying Kim Jong Un’s thinking.

Thae Yong Ho, former North Korean deputy ambassador in London who defected to the South in 2016, said Choe has joined an inner circle of women close to Kim Jong Un, including his sister and his wife.

“Now she’s the real spokeswoman for Kim Jong Un,” Thae told a forum hosted by the Asan Institute of Policy Studies on Wednesday in Seoul. “How can Choe read his mind? Because she has access.”

A diplomatic source also said Choe appears to have built rapport with Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister who is also a senior party official, which contributed to her recent promotion.

“We have to remember that (Foreign Minister) Ri and Choe are not only North Korea’s best people for the job of dealing with the U.S.,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center.

“But they both have known the leader since he was a small boy so there is a dynamic of their wanting to see Kim Jong Un thrive and succeed.”

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Jack Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: OANN

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South Korea economy unexpectedly contracts in first quarter, worst since global financial crisis

A man walks in a park at a business district in Seoul
FILE PHOTO: A man walks in a park at a business district in Seoul, South Korea, March 23, 2016. Picture taken on March 23, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 24, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter, marking its worst performance since the global financial crisis, as government spending failed to keep up the previous quarter’s strong pace and as companies slashed investment.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter declined a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, the worst contraction since a 3.3 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2008 and sliding from 1 percent growth in Oct-Dec, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday.

None of the economists surveyed in a Reuters poll had expected growth to contract. The median forecast was for a rise of 0.3 percent.

From a year earlier, Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 1.8 percent in the January-March quarter, compared with 2.5 percent growth in the poll and 3.1 percent in the final quarter of 2018.

Exports fell 2.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, a sharper drop than the 1.5 percent decline in the previous three months.

Capital investment tumbled 10.8 percent to a 21-year low, while construction investment inched down 0.1 percent, according to the central bank.

(Reporting by Joori Roh, Cynthia Kim; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Woman caught on camera dumping puppies next to dumpster behind store in Coachella, California

A woman in California is being sought by officials after she was caught Thursday on a security camera dumping a bag full of puppies next to a dumpster behind a store.

The Riverside County Animal Services said in a Facebook post the incident happened in Coachella after a woman was captured on surveillance video around 1 p.m. pulling up in a Jeep and getting out of the vehicle carrying a plastic bag.

The woman can then be seen walking towards a dumpster used for recycling materials and dropping the clear, plastic bag next to the bin before driving away.

“There is no excuse for dumping puppies,” Animal Services Commander Chris Mayer said in a statement. “Especially in today’s age when we or other shelters would be willing to get these animals to foster parents or rescue partners. This was a shameful act."

'DEAD' DOG ESCAPES GRAVE, SHOCKS OWNERS, AFTER BEING ACCIDENTALLY BURIED ALIVE

About an hour later, a passerby named John was rummaging through the trash discovered the puppies still alive, according to officials.

A woman was captured on surveillance video dumping a bag of puppies behind a dumpster in Coachella, California on Thursday.

A woman was captured on surveillance video dumping a bag of puppies behind a dumpster in Coachella, California on Thursday. (Riverside County Animal Services)

In total, there were 7 puppies inside the bag. All were 3 days old and were believed to be terrier mixes.

MINNESOTA WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY AFTER 64 DEAD CATS FOUND ON PROPERTY

Officials said had it not been for the Good Samaritan's actions, the puppies may not have survived much longer since temperatures in Coachella on Thursday were into the mid-90's.

“The Good Samaritan played a major role in saving these puppies’ lives,” Mayer said. “His actions were humane and heroic.”

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The puppies are now being cared for by a rescue shelter in Orange County, FOX11 reported.

The Riverside Animal Services Department is now hoping that someone will recognize the woman and turn her in. Mayer, who called the woman’s actions "despicable," said he's been in contact with investigators from the Riverside County Sheriff Office and the District Attorney’s office, who said she could face animal cruelty charges.

Source: Fox News National

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Cop’s attorney: ‘Perfect storm’ led to unarmed woman’s death

A Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman as she approached his squad car after calling 911 to report a possible crime was reacting to a loud noise and feared an ambush, his attorney said Tuesday, calling it "a perfect storm with tragic consequences."

Mohamed Noor, charged with murder and manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, and his partner were rolling down a dark alley in response to Damond's 911 calls about a possible sexual assault when a bicyclist appeared in front of them and they heard "a bang," defense attorney Peter Wold said in his opening statement at Noor's trial.

"It is the next split second that this case is all about," Wold said.

Noor fired a single shot, killing Damond, a 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia whose death rocked both countries and led to changes in the Minneapolis Police Department. The shooting came just two weeks after an officer in New York was ambushed and killed in a parked vehicle.

Attorneys for Noor, who was fired after being charged in the case and has never talked to investigators about what happened, argue that he used reasonable force to defend himself and his partner from a perceived threat. But prosecutors say there is no evidence he faced a threat that justified deadly force

Prosecutor Patrick Lofton, in his opening statement, questioned a statement from Noor's partner, Matthew Harrity, that he heard a thump right before the shooting. Lofton said Harrity never said anything at the scene about such a noise, instead mentioning it for the first time some days later in an interview with investigators.

Lofton also said investigators found no forensic evidence to show that Damond had touched the squad car before she was shot, an assertion that seemed aimed at the possibility that she had slapped or hit it upon approaching the officers.

Lofton also wondered why other officers responding to the scene didn't consistently have their cameras switched on. The officers did not turn on their body cameras until after the shooting, and there was no squad car video. Lofton noted that a sergeant taking statements had her camera on when she talked to Harrity, but off when she talked to Noor.

"We'll never hear what Noor said," he said.

Tuesday's opening statements came after six days of jury selection for Noor. Damond was a life coach who had been engaged to be married in just a month's time. Noor, 33, is a Somali American whose arrival on the force just a couple of years earlier had been trumpeted by city leaders working to diversify the police force.

Damond called 911 twice, then called her fiance and hung up when police arrived, Lofton said. One minute and 19 seconds later, Damond was cradling a gunshot wound to her abdomen and saying, "I'm dying," Lofton added.

Minnesota law allows police officers to use deadly force to protect themselves or their partners from death or great bodily harm. Prosecutors charged Noor with second-degree intentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Earlier Tuesday, Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance relented on restrictions that would have prevented the public and media from viewing video evidence introduced in the case. That's expected to include body-camera video that shows efforts to save Damond. Quaintance had cited a desire to protect Damond's privacy, but a coalition of media groups including The Associated Press had challenged the ban.

"The court, like the jury, must follow the law — even if I disagree with it," said Quaintance.

Noor's attorneys haven't said whether he will testify. If he does, prosecutors may be able to introduce some evidence that the defense wanted to keep out of the state's case, including that he has refused to talk to investigators. They also could bring up a 2015 psychological test that showed Noor disliked being around people and had difficulty confronting others. Despite that test, a psychiatrist found him fit to be a cadet officer.

The shooting raised questions about Noor's training . The police chief defended Noor's training, but the chief was forced to resign days later. The shooting also led to changes in the department's policy on use of body cameras.

___

Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti

___

Check out the AP's complete coverage of Mohamed Noor's trial.

Source: Fox News National

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Dem senator defends Biden’s conduct despite opposing Kavanaugh over unsubstantiated claims

U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., defended Joe Biden from allegations of misconduct, saying it’s “not for others to judge” and agreed that the stories of inappropriate conduct “distract” Democrats from beating President Trump in the 2020 election.

Jones, a vulnerable Democrat in a deep-red state, appeared on a Mother Jones podcast that was posted Wednesday, where he effectively endorsed Biden amid his expected candidacy announcement Thursday and offered a defense of the latest allegations of inappropriate behavior by Biden toward women.

EX-COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH TOMMY TUBERVILLE REVEALS WHY HE WILL RUN FOR ALABAMA SENATE AGAINST DOUG JONES

“I’ve been very candid about this in the past — my closest friend in this field of candidates has been someone I’ve known for 40 years. And that’s former Vice President Biden,” Jones said during the interview.

“And despite the issues that he’s faced, I still think that he has the ability to reach people from all ends of the political spectrum and govern this country.”

Jones defended Biden despite having voted against the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh last year on the grounds that it would send a negative message on sexual harassment, even as allegations against Kavanaugh weren’t corroborated.

“You know, it’s funny, I think he’s said some of the right things, I think he’s said some wrong things. I think the thing that people need to remember that it’s not for others to judge.”

— U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala.

In the interview, Jones was pressed on the allegations concerning Biden, where numerous women came forward in recent months detailing incidents of the former vice president touching them inappropriately over the years. Biden didn’t deny the allegations and said in a video released last month that he’ll “be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”

“You know, it’s funny, I think he’s said some of the right things, I think he’s said some wrong things. I think the thing that people need to remember that it’s not for others to judge,” Jones said, noting that “it’s really for the people who are at the receiving end of that.”

“I won’t use the term ‘innocent’ because that’s probably not appropriate, but I don’t think Joe Biden ever had the kind of intention you had that in a harassing kind of way or an assaulting kind of way,” he continued.

BIDEN ALLEGATIONS REVIVE SCRUTINY OVER HISTORY OF 'UNCOMFORTABLE' INTERACTIONS WITH WOMEN

“I won’t use the term ‘innocent’ because that’s probably not appropriate, but I don’t think Joe Biden ever had the kind of intention you had that in a harassing kind of way or an assaulting kind of way.”

— U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala.

“And I’ve said that for years anyway. I’ve said it about civil rights, I’ve said it about other things. It goes back to Atticus Finch, you gotta walk around in someone else’s shoes to see things from their point of view. And I think this is a very, very significant moment where more and more people are taking a look at that.”

But Jones’ tone seemed entirely different during last year's hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, during which several women alleged sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh.

“What message will we send to our daughters & sons, let alone sexual assault victims?” Jones tweeted as he announced his “no” vote on Kavanaugh. “The message I will send is this—I vote no. #RightSideofHistory”

Later in the recent interview, Jones also agreed that debates about Biden and allegations against him “sort of distract from the ultimate goal that Democrats have of beating Donald Trump.”

“Oh, absolutely, I think a lot of things, I mean, I think, you know, President Obama this weekend in Berlin at the Obama Foundation was talking about Democrats having a circular firing squad over things that are important but not something that can win the election.

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“I think that we have to not be so rigid, I think we have to not be so judgmental on every issue that comes up but I think we will do that,” he added.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Lawsuit claims Trump campaign nondisclosure agreements are unlawful

A former staffer on President Trump’s 2016 campaign has filed a class action lawsuit in the hope of nullifying the nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements campaign workers were made to sign.

The suit was filed by former staffer Jessica Denson and argues that the agreements - which the Trump campaign had staffers, volunteers and contractors sign – is unlawful. The agreements prohibit the signers from ever publically criticizing or disparaging Trump, his family and his company, and also bars them from disclosing private or confidential information.

While the Trump campaign has gone after numerous former staffers who have publically spoken out against the president – most notably Omarosa Manigault Newman and Cliff Sims – Denson’s lawsuit is the most wide-ranging attack on the campaign’s use of nondisclosure agreements to stifle criticism of Trump.

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARATION SPARKS PROTESTS

According to a report by BuzzFeed News, the lawsuit could cover thousands of former staffers, volunteers, and contractors and, if the suit proves successful, could free them to talk publicly about their time on the campaign without fear of legal or financial repercussions.

Denson’s lawyers argue that the agreements campaign workers were made to sign are unlawful because they penalize employees from suing for things like workplace discrimination, harassment, unpaid wages and other issues.

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“The Form NDAs effectively strip employees, contractors, and volunteers of their ability to pursue any of their rights to redress workplace misconduct,” Denson’s lawyers wrote in the arbitration filing. “Anything and everything they could do will of necessity contain some information that a Trump Person could find disparaging or a disclosure of confidential information.”

They also argue that the NDA is too vague and gives Trump discretion to decide what is “private” and “confidential,” that it doesn’t have any time or geographic limits and “lacks a legitimate purpose.” Lawyers also contend the agreement should be voided as it permits a government actor to restrain a person’s free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
FILE PHOTO: Golf – Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – April 14, 2019 – Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 26, 2019

Tiger Woods is sending a message that he thinks he still has enough left, emotionally and physically, to win three more major championships to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 titles.

Speaking to GolfTV in his first sit-down interview since the Masters, Woods said he has taken some time off since his victory at Augusta National, which still doesn’t feel real.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe,” Woods said. “I was texting one of my good friends last night … that I couldn’t believe that I won the tournament. That it really hasn’t sunk in. I haven’t started doing anything. I’ve just been laying there. And every now and again, I’ll look over there on the couch and there’s the jacket.”

That’s the fifth green jacket for the 43-year-old Woods, who hadn’t won a major tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open. Along the way, four back surgeries, a divorce and other personal issues derailed him.

He said he has been spending time with his children – daughter Sam, 11, and son Charlie, 10 – who weren’t born when their father was the most dominant golfer on the planet.

“They never knew golf to be a good thing in my life and only the only thing they remember is that it brought this incredible amount of pain to their dad and they don’t want to ever want to see their dad in pain,” Woods said. “And so to now have them see this side of it, the side that I’ve experienced for so many years of my life, but I had a battle to get back to this point, it feels good.”

He said he hopes – maybe expects — they’ll see this side again.

And no one will take Woods for granted at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, N.Y., which starts May 16.

Woods said he’ll be ready for a course he already conquered once in a major: the 2002 U.S. Open.

“I’m doing all the visual stuff, but I haven’t put in the physical work yet. But it’s probably coming this weekend,” he said.

Before Woods encountered health and personal problems, it was expected that topping Nicklaus’ major mark was “when” and not “if.” Then the certainty went away, but Woods thought he still had a chance.

“I always thought it was possible, if I had everything go my way. It took him an entire career to get to 18, so now that I’ve had another extension to my career – one that I didn’t think I had a couple of years ago – if I do things correctly and everything falls my way, yeah, it’s a possibility. I’m never going to say it’s not.

“Now I just need to have a lot of things go my way, and who’s to say that it will or will not happen? That’s what the future holds, I don’t know. The only thing I can promise you is this: that I will be prepared.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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An official Sri Lankan police Twitter account was deleted after it misidentified an American human rights activist as a suspect in the country’s Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, police posted the names and photos of six people that they said were at-large suspects in the bombings that killed more than 250 people.

However, one of the names on the list was Muslim U.S. activist Amara Majeed, who quickly tweeted that she had been falsely identified.

“I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS terrorists that committed the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. What a thing to wake up to!” she wrote.

SRI LANKA AUTHORITIES SAY EASTER ATTACK LEADER KILLED IN ONE OF NINE HOTEL BOMBINGS

She wrote in a follow-up tweet that the claim was “obviously completely false” and asked social media users to “please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks.”

“And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community,” she continued.

Later, she wrote an update saying police apologized for wrongly mistaking her as a suspect.

Police said in a statement: “However, although one of the released images was identified as one Abdul Cader Fathima Khadhiya in the information provided by the CID, the CID has now informed that a) the individual whose image was labeled as Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya is not in fact Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya b) the individual pictured is not wanted for questioning c) Abdul Cader Fathima is the correct name of the suspect wanted by the CID.”

On Friday, the account, @SriLankaPolice2 was deleted with no explanation. Police did not release more information regarding the mistake.

Majeed, who founded “The Hijab Project” when she was 16 years old, told the Baltimore Sun that it was hurtful to be linked to the attacks.

“Sri Lanka is my motherland,” the Brown University student said. “It’s very painful to be associated with [the bombings].”

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Mohamed Zahran, the suspected leader of the attacks which targeted six hotels and churches, killed himself in a suicide bombing at the Shangri-La hotel. Police also said they had arrested the second-in-command of the group, called National Towheed Jamaat. Catholic churches in Sri Lanka canceled all Sunday Masses until further notice over concerns that they remain a top target of Islamic State-linked extremists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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