GOP's Paul asks youth to make difference in Iowa

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks during a campaign stop at Valley High School, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks during a campaign stop at Valley High School, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks during a campaign stop at Valley High School, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks to students during a campaign stop at Valley High School, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Ron Paul is banking on a heavy youth turnout Tuesday in Iowa to lift his outsider bid to win the state's lead-off presidential caucuses.

The Texas congressman ignited huge applause at a youth rally for several presidential candidates on Tuesday, hours before voting in the evening's precinct caucuses was to begin.

Paul, who at age 76 is older than some of the students' grandparents, tossed out singer Kelly Clarkson's name during his talk but acknowledged not knowing much about the pop singer who has endorsed him.

Paul said he was somewhat puzzled by his support from young voters, but attributed it to a search for clarity by a cynical youth. "One reason is they identify with the Constitution, and I defend the Constitution."

Paul narrowly trailed Romney in Iowa polls in the last weekend before the caucuses, but had slipped some after coming under attack for views on foreign policy outside his party's mainstream. Young voters have typically been less reliable in the caucuses than voters over 35.

And while he traveled around the state Monday to rally supporters to turn out, Paul's aides sought to project confidence after Paul told ABC News he did not necessarily envision himself in the White House.

"Who knows where I'll be or what I'll do or what contribution I'll be making," Paul said in the interview.

Paul drew big enthusiastic crowds in Iowa Monday, hopping by private jet from Des Moines to cities in the east and north. He credited his statewide campaign organization, more highly structured than the apparatus that helped him reach fifth place in the 2008 GOP caucuses.

Paul said he considered his campaign as much a movement to rid the government of fiscal waste and excessive overseas commitments as it was an effort to seek the presidency.

While Paul does not plan to travel to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire until Friday, he said he has high hopes of competing well there on Jan. 10. He is airing advertisements in South Carolina, the first Southern primary state, which holds its nominating contest Jan. 21.

However, he admitted that the path to the nomination beyond South Carolina is "a challenge."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-03-Paul/id-d8dd07b3752d4f15b2a68ee59f847c45

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Spec-Ops troops learn to be gumshoes

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, a role-playing man, center, is interrogated during a mock exercise at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, N.C. A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, a role-playing man, center, is interrogated during a mock exercise at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, N.C. A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, instructors rig a dummy suicide bomber to explode during the operator advance course at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, N.C. A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, a student investigates the scene of a suicide bombing during a mock exercise at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, N.C. A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011 photo, a role playing person has a shield placed over his eyes in a mock exercise during the operator advance course at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, N.C. A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, a student collects evidence at the scene of a suicide bombing during a mock exercise at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, N.C. A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint. But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) ? A scene of stomach-clenching gore confronted the special operations troops: The shredded remains of a suicide bomber, scattered around the checkpoint.

But the blood and body are fake, like the Hollywood-style explosion that began a classroom exercise designed to teach these students to look past the grisly mess for the evidence that could lead to those who built the bomb.

Ft. Bragg's Special Warfare Center shows how the U.S. has turned hunting terror networks into half-science, half-art-form since the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11th. Forging lessons painfully learned in the decade since into a formal curriculum, the training is intended to help elite military units track militants across international boundaries and work alongside sometimes competing U.S. agencies.

The coursework is similar to the CIA's legendary spycraft training center called The Farm, and is at the brainchild of Green Beret Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, a veteran of elite special operations units, and a long stint on loan to the CIA.

Among the students at the CIA-approved Ft. Bragg course are U.S. Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marine Corps special operators. As in the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, everything from computers to fingerprints can be retrieved from a raid site and quickly analyzed. In some cases the analysis is so fast it can lead to several new targets in a single night.

The school is also an illustration of how special operations and intelligence forces have reached an easier coexistence, after early clashes where CIA officers accused the military operators of ineptly trying to run their own spy rings overseas without State Department or CIA knowledge.

"As my guys go to Afghanistan, and interface with CIA base and station chiefs, they can do it with more credibility than in the past," Sacolick told The Associated Press in a rare interview.

While many in the public may not be aware that the military is allowed to gather information, and even run its own spy networks, special operations forces have been authorized to do just that since the disastrous Desert One raid meant to rescue the U.S. hostages held in Iran in 1979. The raid went awry because of a helicopter crash, not an intelligence foul-up. But before the raid, military planners had been frustrated that CIA employees working inside the country were unable to provide them the tactical intelligence needed to insert a covert force ? even basic information like which way the streets ran outside the embassy.

That's why almost a third of every class at the CIA's Farm has been military, said a former senior intelligence official.

The Ft. Bragg school means special operators can now get much of that CIA-style training at their home facility.

Sacolick said he was shocked at how piecemeal intelligence gathering and sharing was up until a couple years ago. Special operations units would know their area, but had no established way to pass it on, he said, nor any means for reaching out to the CIA to fill in information gaps.

"The CIA will satisfy any information requirement we have," the agency veteran said. "All we have to do is ask the right person. So that's what we are creating," among the special operations teams training at Ft. Bragg, Sacolick said, pointing out troops who "have the vocabulary, have the contacts, know the questions to ask, and who to ask."

The CIA also helped Sacolick design the course to teach special operators the spy-related tradecraft they need for the counterterror fight outside known war zones, such as in Somalia or South East Asia. They learn skills like how to evade surveillance by terrorists, or a target country's intelligence service.

The elite teams' piecemeal training in those areas, often done previously by contractors rather than at the agency's Farm, was part of what caused the near-revolt of CIA station chiefs just after Sept. 11, when the Pentagon sent scores of such troops overseas. With their short haircuts, obvious military bearing, and uneven training in tradecraft, they caused more than a few uncomfortable incidents for U.S. ambassadors and CIA chiefs, who were sometimes not even told they were there.

That led to congressional alarm and a clash among the Pentagon, the spies and the diplomats over who should be able to operate where.

The White House eventually created an information exchange to allow elite military troops to gather intelligence, while keeping State and the CIA in the loop.

To make sure spy did not stumble over spy, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, Stephen Cambone, and the CIA's then-top clandestine representative, Jose Rodriguez, created a mechanism that exists to this day, to let each network know who was working for whom.

The next step was to find some common ground among those competing tribes of intelligence and military operators ? a step embraced by now-retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Then heading the military's Joint Special Operations Command, McChrystal embraced the "hostage swap" of JSOC troops and CIA officers, deploying them to each other's command centers and forcing collaboration through proximity.

But he upgraded the practice, sending his best people, instead of following the unwritten custom of sending one's least-valuable employee to get them out of the home office.

McChrystal used to lecture his people, Sacolick among them, to forge their own networks of one-on-one relationships in other agencies to counter the enemy network.

That's how Sacolick ended up at the CIA, and why he patterned his school on lessons the agency helped teach him.

The idea is to pass on the skills learned in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, where special operators have had more intelligence back-up and logistical support from the regular military than they will in the remote places where they usually operate, Sacolick said.

"I need to prepare a 12-man team to go anywhere on this planet," he said. "They need to be every bit as good as they are in Afghanistan, in the middle of Africa somewhere," or wherever the next conflict takes them.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-03-US-Special%20Operations-Intelligence%20School/id-78bf1876964d43b89c8843e1cb5163ce

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Mt. Rainier Ranger Shot To Death, Gunman Sought

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. -- About 125 people were evacuated overnight from the visitors center at Mount Rainier National Park as authorities searched the snowy terrain for an armed gunman suspected of killing a park ranger.

About 150 officers converged on the mountain park after ranger Margaret Anderson was shot to death Sunday morning, and searchers used an aircraft with heat-sensing capabilities to hunt from the skies.

Authorities believe the gunman was still in the woods, with weapons.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said that Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24-year-old believed to have survivalist skills, was a "strong person of interest" in the slaying.

"We do have a very hot and dangerous situation," Troyer said.

Teams were assessing new tactical plans that they planned to put into place at daylight, he said.

Safety concerns prompted authorities to keep the tourists quarantined at a visitors center as the manhunt unfolded. Early Monday morning, officers escorted them out of the park in groups of vehicles over the span of a few hours.

Crews had initially planned to keep everyone in a basement with guards. But it was determined to be "better to do it (evacuate) under the cover of darkness than daylight," Troyer said.

Evacuee Dinh Jackson, a mother from Olympia, who came to the mountain to sled with family and friends, told The Associated Press that officials ordered people to hurry into the lodge after the shooting.

Jackson said officials had everyone get on their knees and place hands behind their heads as they went through the building, looking at faces to make sure the gunman was not among them.

"That was scary for the kids," she said.

Michael Wall, an elementary school teacher from Puyallup, spent the morning hiking with his son. They didn't find out about the violence until returning.

Wall said he was impressed by how staff members and visitors kept each other comfortable with food and conversation.

"It was calm, cool, easygoing," Wall said. "I didn't notice any tenseness or terseness."

A parks spokesman said Barnes was an Iraq war veteran, and the mother of his child had alleged he suffered from post-traumatic stress following his deployments.

Barnes was involved in a custody dispute in Tacoma in July, during which the toddler's mother sought a temporary restraining order against him, according to court documents. In an affidavit, the woman wrote that Barnes was suicidal and possibly suffered from PTSD after deploying to Iraq from 2007 to 2008. She said he gets easily irritated, angry and depressed and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home.

Barnes was also a suspect in the early Sunday morning shooting of four people at a house party south of Seattle, police said.

Sgt. Cindi West, King County Sheriff's spokeswoman, said late Sunday that Barnes was connected to an early-morning shooting at a New Year's house party in Skyway, south of Seattle that left four people injured, two critically. That shooting happened about 3 a.m. and stemmed from an argument over a gun.

West said three people fled the scene. Two were located, and West said authorities were trying to find Barnes and had been in contact with his family, trying to have them convince him to "come to the police and tell his side of the story" in the Skyway shooting.

At Mount Rainier around 10:20 a.m. Sunday, the gunman had sped past a checkpoint to make sure vehicles have tire chains, which are sometimes necessary in snowy conditions, Bacher said. One ranger began following him while Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of two young children who was married to another Mount Rainier park ranger, eventually blocked the road to stop the driver.

Before fleeing, the gunman fired shots at both Anderson and the ranger that trailed him, but only Anderson was hit, Bacher said. Anderson would have been armed, as she was one of the rangers tasked with law enforcement, Bacher said. Troyer said she was shot before she had even exited the vehicle.

About 150 officers, including officials from the Washington State Patrol, U.S. Forest Service and FBI, were on the mountain Sunday.

Tactical responders wearing crampons and snowshoes pursued what appeared to be the gunman's tracks in the snow, Troyer said. Those tracks went into creeks and other waterways, making it more difficult for crews to follow.

"He's intentionally trying to get out of the snow," Troyer said.

Authorities recovered his vehicle, which had weapons and body armor inside, Troyer said.

A SWAT team was able to remove Anderson's body from the mountain late Sunday night, with a procession of law enforcement vehicles escorting her remains away.

The park would remain closed Monday, officials announced late Sunday.

Park superintendent Randy King said Anderson had served as a park ranger for about four years. King said Anderson's husband also was working as a ranger elsewhere in the park at the time of the shooting.

"It's just a huge tragedy ? for the family, the park and the park service," he said.

Adam Norton, a neighbor of Anderson's in the small town of Eatonville, said the ranger's family moved in about a year ago. He said they were not around much, but when they were, Norton would see Anderson outside with her girls.

"They just seemed like the perfect family," he said.

The town of about 3,000 residents, which is a logging community overlooking Mount Rainier, is very close knit, he said.

"It's really sad right now," Norton said. "We take care of each other."

It has been legal for people to take loaded firearms into Mount Rainier since 2010, when a federal law went into effect that made possession of firearms in national parks subject to state gun laws.

The shooting occurred on an unseasonably sunny and mild day. The park, which offers miles of wooded trails and spectacular vistas from which to see 14,410-foot Mount Rainier, draws between 1.5 million and 2 million visitors each year.

The Longmire station served as headquarters when the national park was established in 1899. Park headquarters have moved but the site still contains a museum, a hotel, restaurant and gift shop, which are open year-round.

____

Associated Press writer Donna Gordon Blankinship contributed from Seattle.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/02/mt-rainier-ranger-shot-to_n_1179378.html

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Iran navy tests surface-to-air missile in drill (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran's navy said Sunday it test-fired an advanced surface-to-air missile during a drill in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-sixth of the world's oil supply.

Iran's state TV said the missile, named Mehrab, or Altar, is designed to evade radar and was developed by Iranian scientists. The report said the missile was tested Sunday but provided no further details.

A leading Iranian lawmaker said the sea maneuvers serve as practice for closing the Strait of Hormuz if the West blocks Iran's oil sales. After top Iranian officials made the same threat a week ago, military commanders emphasized that Iran has no intention of blocking the waterway now.

The exercise covers a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz, including parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

The drill, which could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels that operate in the same area, is Iran's latest show of strength in the face of mounting international criticism over its nuclear program. The West fears Iran's program aims to develop atomic weapons ? a charge Tehran denies, insisting it's for peaceful purposes only.

The 10-day exercise drew significant attention after the Iranian warnings about closing the strait. Iranian military officials later appeared to back away from that threat.

A spokesman for the exercise, Rear Adm. Mahmoud Mousavi, made a similar conciliatory comment on Sunday.

"We won't disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. We are not after this," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Prominent lawmaker Ismail Kowsari offered a different view. He said the war games are part of Iran's preparations to close the vital waterway if sanctions are imposed.

"Iran's armed forces have practiced operations to close the Strait of Hormuz several times," the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Kowsari as saying Sunday.

"If we feel that the enemies want to prevent our oil exports, definitely we will close the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Mousavi said the missile that was tested Sunday is one of the newest in the navy's arsenal.

"It's equipped with state-of-the-art technology and a built-in system that enables it to thwart jammers," Mousavi told state TV. One way to deflect surface-to-air missiles is to confuse their guidance systems.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120101/ap_on_bi_ge/ml_iran_navy_drill

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Puerto Rico FBI agent drowns in attempted rescue

This undated handout photo provided by the FBI shows Danny Knapp, a 43-year-old FBI agent who drowned while trying to rescue a swimmer in distress in northeast Puerto Rico, authorities said Friday Dec. 30, 2011. Knapp, who was based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, drowned on Thursday at Hidden Beach in the coastal city of Fajardo. Friends of the swimmer had asked Knapp for help, and he was able to reach the swimmer but was later overcome by rough ocean conditions, the FBI said. (AP Photo/FBI)

This undated handout photo provided by the FBI shows Danny Knapp, a 43-year-old FBI agent who drowned while trying to rescue a swimmer in distress in northeast Puerto Rico, authorities said Friday Dec. 30, 2011. Knapp, who was based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, drowned on Thursday at Hidden Beach in the coastal city of Fajardo. Friends of the swimmer had asked Knapp for help, and he was able to reach the swimmer but was later overcome by rough ocean conditions, the FBI said. (AP Photo/FBI)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? An FBI agent who tried to rescue a swimmer in distress has drowned at a beach in northeast Puerto Rico, authorities said Friday.

Daniel Knapp, a 43-year-old agent who was based in San Juan, drowned on Thursday at Hidden Beach in the coastal city of Fajardo, the FBI said in a statement.

Friends of the swimmer had asked Knapp for help, and he was able to reach the swimmer but was later overcome by rough ocean conditions, the FBI said.

"He died a hero, saving another life," said local FBI director Joseph S. Campbell.

Knapp was born in Loma Linda, California, graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and had been with the FBI for six years. He received the 2011 FBI Director's Award for Outstanding Criminal Investigation and the 2011 Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement.

Knapp is survived by his parents and four brothers. Some of his immediate family live in Las Vegas, where the body will be transferred for funeral arrangements.

Members of Puerto Rico's police maritime unit were able to save the unidentified swimmer.

The National Weather Service issued a high surf advisory on Thursday that remains in effect, warning of waves of up to 14 feet (4 meters).

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-30-CB-Puerto-Rico-FBI-Death/id-6db11c394828486b9131ce9151998eb1

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BLABBERMOUTH.NET - Cancer-Stricken Former DEEP PURPLE ...

Former DEEP PURPLE keyboardist Jon Lord, who revealed this past summer that he was fighting cancer, has released the following statement:

"Happy New Year to all of you and thank you so much for your wonderful, kind and inspirational messages over these last few difficult months. I have been mightily sustained by reading them and will continue to be so. You are a very special lot indeed. I am doing well and I will be back with more news and updates in the next week or so. In the meantime, party hearty but look after yourselves. I wish you success and happiness, and above all, I wish you health."

Jon Lord is recognized for his Hammond organ blues-rock playing and unique sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms. He has most famously been a member of DEEP PURPLE, the band he co-founded in 1968.

Lord earlier in the year received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Leicester.

Source: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=167794

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