Breaking: Obama: ‘This was an act of terrorism’ | 06 Dec 2015 | (CNN) 8:04 p.m. ET update: President Obama says “this was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.” 8:07 p.m. ET update: Obama says the “threat from terror is real but we will overcome it.” He pledges to “destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us.” 8:08 p.m. ET update: Obama pledges to review visa waiver program. He urges Congress to reassess gun laws, saying people on the no-fly list shouldn’t be able to obtain a gun. 8:10 p.m. ET update: Obama says U.S. should not engage in a “long and costly ground war.” He argues that ISIL “does not speak for Islam.” Original story: President Barack Obama is poised to deliver a rare prime-time address from the Oval Office on Sunday to reassure anxious Americans that his administration will protect them from the threat posed by ISIS [I-CIA-SIS].

Farook Family Lawyer Suggests San Bernardino Attack Was Faked, Along With Sandy Hook —‘It doesn’t seem plausible to us’: Family of US Muslim who killed 14 says they don’t believe official account of the massacre and even suggest the Sandy Hook slaying didn’t take place | 04 Dec 2015 | A lawyer representing the family of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook has questioned accounts of the massacre which saw Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik kill 14 at a holiday party on Wednesday morning. Attorney David Chesley said they doubted the accuracy of information released by the police and FBI. Farook, 28, and his Pakistan-born wife Malik, 27, died in a gun battle with police after the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center. To illustrate his point, Chesley made a bizarre reference to the Sandy Hook massacre, suggesting it didn’t take place as described in the official narrative. ‘There were a lot of questions drawn with Sandy Hook and whether or not that was a real incident or not.’ When Chesley was asked if he doubted the events of Sandy Hook, he said: ‘There has been a lot speculation about it is all I would say.’

Neighbor Purportedly Bought ‘Assault-Style’ Weapons Used in San Bernardino Rampage – Official | 05 Dec 2015 | An old neighbor of one of the San Bernardino shooters is believed to have purchased the “assault-style” rifles used in Wednesday’s massacre, a law enforcement official told ABC News today. Overnight authorities raided the Riverside, California, home of Enrique Marquez, who public records show lived next door to an old address of Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the [alleged] San Bernardino killers, the official said. Police previously said that two handguns used in the attack were purchased by Farook and his wife-turned-accomplice Tashfeen Malik, but the other two guns – highly modified “assault-style” weapons — had been purchased by an unidentified third party. The official told ABC News today the third party is suspected to be Marquez.

Imam: Texts With [Alleged] San Bernardino Shooter Eyed by FBI Were About Food | 05 Dec 2015 | A leader of a San Bernardino mosque said investigators questioned him about a series of text messages he sent [alleged] massacre gunman Syed Farook, but they were only about food donations for Islamic holy days. Roshan Abbassi, assistant imam at Dar-Al-Uloom Al-Islamia, told NBC News that Farook had volunteered to bring chicken biryani to the masjid for the evening meal that marks the breaking of the daily fast during Ramadan. Between June 12 and June 28, he and Farook exchanged 38 messages, he said, according to his phone records.

San Bernardino Suspects: ‘Three White Males, Dressed in Military Gear’ (Craft International, again?) | 06 Dec 2015  [Click here for image.]

Obama to address terrorist threat in Oval Office address Sunday night | 05 Dec 2015 | President Obama will deliver an Oval Office address Sunday at 8 p.m., the White House announced Saturday, as criticism of his terrorism strategy is mounting in the wake of attacks in California and overseas. The president’s decision to speak directly to Americans comes as his administration has come under fire for failing to curb the threat posed by the Islamic State, which carried out last month’s series of strikes in Paris that killed 130 people and is now connected to last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. While the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS [but actually I-CIA-SIS], has not claimed direct responsibility for the attack that killed 14 Americans and wounded even more, one of the two perpetrators had declared her allegiance to the Islamic State before [allegedly] carrying it out.

Leytonstone Tube stabbing a ‘terrorist incident’ –Met said suspect was reportedly threatening other people with knife | 05 Dec 2015 | A stabbing at a Tube station in east London is being treated as a “terrorist incident”, the Met Police has said. Police were called to reports of people being attacked at Leytonstone station just after 19:00 GMT. A man was arrested after being Tasered by police. One man suffered serious knife injuries while two others received minor injuries. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command are now investigating the incident.

Knifeman screams ‘this is for Syria’ in Leytonstone tube machete attack | 05 Dec 2015 | A man reportedly screamed ‘this is for Syria’ before allegedly slashing a person’s throat and attacking up to three people. Police were called to Leytonstone station after reports of a stabbing in the ticket hall on Saturday at around 7pm. Sources told the Telegraph one person has been seriously injured and a second was also hurt. Officers tasered a man at the scene. [In the US, police officers would have opened fire.]

Poland considering asking for access to nuclear weapons under Nato program | 06 Dec 2015 | Poland’s deputy defence minister has said the ministry is considering asking for access to nuclear weapons through a Nato program in which non-nuclear states borrow the arms from the US. Tomasz Szatkowski said the ministry was discussing whether to ask for access to Nato’s [insane] “nuclear sharing” program to strengthen the country’s ability to defend itself. Among Nato’s 28 members there are three nuclear powers — the US, France and Britain — but only the US has provided weapons to allies for nuclear sharing.

Far-Right Front National on course to make history in French regional elections | 06 Dec 2015 | The far-Right Front National (FN) was on Sunday night on course to make historic gains in regional elections in France, held in a state of emergency just three weeks after terror attacks that killed 130. After a campaign overshadowed by the refugee crisis and security fears in the wake of the Isil attacks in Paris, early estimates suggested the FN had fared even better than expected by coming first in six out of 13 “super-regions” in round one with the run-off next Sunday. It won the largest slice of the national vote — on around 30 per cent compared to around 27 per cent for the Right and its allies and around 23 per cent for the ruling Socialists leading Marine Le Pen, its leader to declare the FN “without contest the first party of France”.

UPS building in San Bernardino deemed safe after suspicious package is checked | 04 Dec 2015 | A suspicious package that forced the evacuation of a UPS facility in San Bernardino on Friday evening was examined by bomb experts and deemed safe, police said. A UPS driver returned the 3-pound package to the facility on Victoria Avenue after noticing that it was addressed to the Redlands home of the [alleged] shooters who killed 14 people at a social services agency this week. The facility was evacuated about 7:30 p.m. and the surrounding streets blocked off. “Item was safe, posed no threat,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter about 10:40 p.m.

New York Times Runs Editorial on Page One – First Time Since 1920 | 04 Dec 2015 | The New York Times is running an editorial on its front page on Saturday, the first time the paper has done so since 1920, calling for greater regulation on guns in the aftermath of a spate of mass shootings. The editorial, headlined “The Gun Epidemic,” describes it as “a moral outrage and a national disgrace that people can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill with brutal speed and efficiency.” It suggests drastically reducing the number of firearms, and “eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition.”

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CLG