More on the Chemical Attack Doctor - "He was visibly upset when the execution of the hostages was called off."

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Dr. Shajul Islam is now soliciting funds "to buy gas masks"

A few days ago, I reported on Dr. Shajul Islam, the Syrian-based British doctor who had been the point man for describing the recent Syrian "chemical attack" and its aftermath to the Western media. Though virtually no major news outlets had mentioned it, Dr. Islam had spent time in a British prison on charges of aiding a Jihadi group, and was subsequently barred from practicing medicine in the UK.

But Islam was now a sort of media darling, leading the campaign to urge the West to "care" and "do something" about alleged Assad atrocities in Northern Syria.

(I should correct the record here on one thing. I reported that Islam had been accused of "aiding ISIS." He was actually formerly accused of collaborating with al-Qaeda or an affiliate of al-Qaeda. Later he would be sought for questioning on the whereabouts of ISIS member "Jihadi John.")

The next day, Breitbart had an article that added some details to the story.

Islam had been accused of collaborating in the kidnapping of two Western journalists in Northern Syria by Jihadists affiliated with al-Qaeda. The charges were dropped only after the two main witnesses - the journalists - failed to appear.

Breitbart reports why they failed to appear. It turns out that one of them - British journalist John Cantile - had been kidnapped again, this time by ISIS. (He was kidnapped with U.S. journalist James Foley, who would later be beheaded in an ISIS propaganda video.) The other witness - Dutch journalist Jeroen Oerlemans - declined to testify for fear he would endanger Cantile's life.

Oerlemans would later be shot dead by ISIS fighters while covering the war in Libya.

Most ghoulish is Breitbart's reporting of Cantile's earlier testimony about encountering Dr. Islam, while being held captive.

“When he told me he was an NHS doctor, I thought it was weird,” Cantlie told the Daily Mail in 2012.

“This is a man who has taken an oath to save people and help them, and here he is walking around with a Kalashnikov and preaching Shariah law. There are not any doctors who I know that do that.

“He clearly believed in what he was doing but to follow something to that extreme is the disturbing thing. He was visibly upset when the execution [of two other hostages] was called off.”

Apparently, Dr. Islam's current stay in Syria is being funded to the tune of over £50,000, by a "charity" group - UK Action for Refugees.

Meanwhile, John Cantile is still in captivity, reportedly alive but forced to narrate and appear in ISIS propaganda videos. He has looked increasingly haggard and unhealthy and was last seen in a video that appears to have been made in the besieged city of Mosul.

On its slick website, featuring photos of brave doctors, white helmeted rescuers and smiling children holding hands, UK Action for Refugees claims that it was "founded on the simple principle of people helping people."

Meanwhile, it is supporting and funding an expat Jihadi agent, complicit in kidnapping and murder.

Outside of a few "conservative" outlets, such as Breitbart, no one in the Western media has mentioned Shajul Islam's past or challenged his veracity. But, as we all know, military action has already been taken against Assad - action that appears to have been at least partly motivated by information provided by Dr. Islam and his associates.

Just because a claim is wreathed in propaganda from evil and dishonest men doesn't mean that it's necessarily false. But it is a good indication that it may not be true.

BREAKING: Primary Spokesman and Source for Syria Chemical Attack Narrative - a Muslim British Doctor Now Working in Syria - Had Been Imprisoned in the UK for a Year on Charges of Aiding Jihadists

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Dr. Shajul Islam was charged with terrorism related offenses and stripped of his license to practice in the UK

The primary spokesman on the ground for the story that Syrian president Bashar Assad attacked his own citizens with chemical weapons - a doctor and British citizen named Shajul Islam - had been imprisoned in the UK in 2012-13, charged with aiding Syrian rebels in the kidnapping of Western journalists.

After the charges were dropped due to the unexplained failure of the witnesses to appear in court, Islam was sought by British authorities for allegedly having information on the whereabouts of ISIS member "Jihadi John." Islam was later stripped of his authority to practice medicine in the UK by the General Medical Council.

I added "BREAKING" to the post title because this information has gone generally unmentioned in current reporting by the media, even as Islam's interviews and tweets have served as one of the main sources for the story of the alleged chemical attack. However, Islam's purported links to al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as those of at least two of his brothers were well-reported by the British media at the time.

Here are a number of stories on the attack from the New York Post, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph, featuring Dr. Islam as one of the primary sources (and in one case, the only primary source). None of them reference his past:

Dad cradles dead twins after Syrian gas attack 

"I can show you the evidence again and again but the world doesn't care" plea from British doctor treating Syria 'gas' victims 

Syria 'chemical attack': 11 children among at least 58 people reported killed in alleged regime strike on Idlib

And here are some of Islam's recent tweets that have been prominently featured in those accounts. He currently has 10.2k followers, including many news organizations.

But the possible links of Islam and his family to "Jihadi John" were written about in August, 2014. Here are three articles from the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Breitbart:

Does this NHS doctor hold the key to identifying 'Jihadi John'? East London medic once accused of kidnapping journalists in Syria probed with his brother as hunt for world's most wanted man intensifies

Net closes on 'Jihadi John' as London pair probed

NHS Doctor With Family Jihad Ties Sought in 'Black Beatle' Beheading Search

Whatever you think about what actually happened a few days ago in Northern Syria, the scene of an alleged gas attack that has alternately been described as featuring chlorine gas, nerve gas and sarin, it is notable that Shajul Islam has turned up right in the middle of it.

From the Daily Mail, last July:

'Russia airstrikes are killing women and children… but MISSING ISIS': Struck off Brit NHS doctor accused of kidnapping Western hostages is treating bomb victims in Syria

• Shajul Islam, who was arrested for kidnapping journalists is back in Syria
• The NHS doctor and his brother were released after the case collapsed
• He spoke to US journalist in Idlib, northwest Syria about constant airstrikes
• Said there is a serious shortage of doctors and hospitals are bombed daily

A British doctor struck off by the NHS who was accused of kidnapping Western journalists has fled to Syria and is treating bomb victims, including jihadis.

Shajul Islam was arrested and charged with kidnapping two journalists in 2012 but was released after the trial collapsed when neither of the prosecution's witnesses were able to give evidence.

Dr Islam had always protested his innocence, saying he went to Syria to use his medical skills to treat victims of the civil war.

Now he has appeared in a video filmed in Idlib, in northern Syria, where he claims to be providing medical help to the victims of Syrian and Russian airstrikes.

Islam, from East London, who qualified at the University of London and worked as a doctor at St Bart's hospital, is currently removed from the medical register after a fitness to practise hearing at the General Medical Council in March.

After the criminal case against him collapsed, and he was found not guilty, he faced close monitoring by the security services.

The video published on YouTube yesterday for citizen journalist site On the Ground News, shows Islam wearing hospital scrubs and a stethoscope.

He tells American journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem that he is one of very few foreign doctors treating civilians injured in air strikes in north Syria.

Asked why he has come to Syria, Islam replies: 'I'm a doctor. There's a serious shortage of doctors. Anyone who is a doctor needs to be here. I don't understand why anyone who is sitting in England or Europe or America isn't here.'

According to a GMC report, a secret tribunal panel heard the disciplinary case against Islam in March this year and banned him for misconduct. The hearing was held in private so the details of the misconduct are not publically known.
Islam told Kareem that the situation in Syria was 'crazy'.

'You can't imagine the number of casualties and we don't have enough doctors to look after them,' he said.

'From my perspective 80 per cent of the victims are women and children. The air strikes are not hitting terrorists they are hitting innocent civilians. Imagine you are sleeping at home with your family and you are hit by an airstrike.

'Whole families are being wiped out while they are sleeping. We are seeing on a daily basis 10, 20, 30 people being killed by these air strikes. I want you to picture this: your family, your loved ones, your wife being killed.'

Islam blamed the Syrian and Russian governments for the deaths, adding: 'They are killing civilians, the Syrian government, the Russian and any other government that is working with them is aiding in killing civilians here.'

He said that he was based close to Idlib where the rebel alliance and some jihadi groups are holding out against a joint Syrian and Russian bombardment.

Islam described how air strikes had recently destroyed the main hospital in Idlib had been destroyed: 'The main hospital was hit and taken out of action, including the CT scan and the intensive care unit. ....serious trauma patients requiring CT scan have to travel a further hour away.'

He said that for many of his patients their injuries were so serious there is nothing the doctors can do for them.

Asked what was the emotional toll on him he told the journalist: 'Of course we are human beings and it is very difficult to deal with but we have no choice because we are limited in numbers of staff. We have to function 24/7 - it's not a shift thing.

'We stay in the hospital 24 hours for four days at a time and I have to be ready to respond to patients at any time from the air strikes,' he said.

UN officials reported that Idlib's national hospital was targeted by an airstrike on May 30, killing two dozen people including children.

Airstrikes on the city and the surrounding area including Binnesh and Jisr al-shoughour, which was taken by Al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra have intensified with reports of entire families being wiped out.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented several air raids across the province in the past week - in one instance killing eight people, who were mostly women and children.

At the time of his 2012 prosecution Shajul Islam, then 28, and a second man, Jubayer Chowdhury, then 24, were the only alleged British jihadists charged with kidnapping Westerners in Syria.

The pair — held in high security Belmarsh prison — walked free from court after all charges were dropped.

At the start of the hearing in November 2013, prosecutor Mark Dennis QC told the court that all evidence against the brothers rested on the two victims, who were unable to be called, and therefore could not proceed with the case.

A verdict of not guilty was recorded for the charge of kidnapping.

Media reports later suggested Islam may have held the key to the then unknown identity of Jihadi John, who was later unmasked as Mohammed Emwazi.

"You're like, f**k this." The Obama/Clinton Policies in Syria Aren't a Failure, They're a Fraud

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Who are these guys, again?

I assume one of the reasons the Trump/Pence campaign isn't talking about this is because many Republicans themselves bought into the fraud and were even partly responsible for it, quickly identifying Assad as the primary villain in Syria and then continuing to double down on that beyond all reason.

From SOFREP News by way of Consortiumnews and Creeping Sharia:

US Special Forces sabotage White House policy gone disastrously wrong with covert ops in Syria (Jack Murphy, SOFREP News):

“Nobody believes in it. You’re like, 'Fuck this,’” a former Green Beret says of America’s covert and clandestine programs to train and arm Syrian militias. “Everyone on the ground knows they are jihadis. No one on the ground believes in this mission or this effort, and they know they are just training the next generation of jihadis, so they are sabotaging it by saying, ‘Fuck it, who cares?’” 

“I don’t want to be responsible for Nusra guys saying they were trained by Americans,” the Green Beret added. A second Special Forces soldier commented that one Syrian militia they had trained recently crossed the border from Jordan on what had been pitched as a large-scale shaping operation that would change the course of the war. Watching the battle on a monitor while a drone flew overhead, “We literally watched them, with 30 guys in their force, run away from three or four ISIS guys.” 

How the US Armed-up Syrian Jihadists ("Alistair Crooke", Consortiumnews): 

In a detailed report, US Special Forces Sabotage White House Policy gone Disastrously Wrong with Covert Ops in Syria, Jack Murphy, himself a former Green Beret (U.S. Special Forces), recounts a former CIA officer having told him how the “the Syria covert action program is [CIA Director John] Brennan’s baby …Brennan was the one who breathed life into the Syrian Task Force … John Brennan loved that regime-change bullshit.” 

Murphy states bluntly: 

“distinguishing between the FSA and al-Nusra is impossible, because they are virtually the same organization. As early as 2013, FSA commanders were defecting with their entire units to join al-Nusra. There, they still retain the FSA monicker, but it is merely for show, to give the appearance of secularism so they can maintain access to weaponry provided by the CIA and Saudi intelligence services. The reality is that the FSA is little more than a cover for the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra. … 

“The fact that the FSA simply passed American-made weaponry off to al-Nusra is also unsurprising considering that the CIA’s vetting process of militias in Syria is lacklustre, consisting of little more than running traces in old databases. These traces rely on knowing the individuals’ real names in the first place, and assume that they were even fighting-age males when the data was collected by CTC [Counterterrorism Centre] years prior.” 

Nor, confirms Murphy, was vetting any better with the 5th Special Forces operating out of Turkey: 

“[It consisted of] a database check and an interview. The rebels know how to sell themselves to the Americans during such interviews, but they still let things slip occasionally. ‘I don’t understand why people don’t like al-Nusra,’ one rebel told the American soldiers. Many had sympathies with the terrorist groups such as Nusra and ISIS.” 

Others simply were not fit to be soldiers. “They don’t want to be warriors. They are all cowards. That is the moderate rebel,” a Green Beret told Murphy, who adds: 

“Pallets of weapons and rows of trucks delivered to Turkey for American-sponsored rebel groups simply sit and collect dust because of disputes over title authorities [i.e. Presidential authorities] and funding sources, while authorization to conduct training for the militias is turned on and off at a whim. One day they will be told to train, the next day not to, and the day after only to train senior leaders. Some Green Berets believe that this hesitation comes from the White House getting wind that most of the militia members are affiliated with Nusra and other extremist groups.” 

Murphy writes: 

“While the games continue on, morale sinks for the Special Forces men in Turkey. Often disguised in Turkish military uniform, one of the Green Berets described his job as, ‘Sitting in the back room, drinking chai while watching the Turks train future terrorists’ … 

“Among the rebels that U.S. Special Forces and Turkish Special Forces were training, ‘A good 95 percent of them were either working in terrorist organizations or were sympathetic to them,’ a Green Beret associated with the program said, adding, ‘A good majority of them admitted that they had no issues with ISIS and that their issue was with the Kurds and the Syrian regime.’” 

BREAKING: Cascade Mall Shooter Praised ISIS Leader on his Tumblr Page

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"My main dude Abu bakr al big daddy."

Arcan Cetin's Tumblr handle is "Meowfraulein."

His Facebook page appears to have been taken down. But his Twitter account is still up.

Why would some screwed-up Americanized Turkish kid, whose mother celebrates Christmas, praise the leader of ISIS on Tumblr?

Islam is cancer.

BREAKING: ISIS Claims Responsibility for Minnesota Mall Attack

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From CBS News:

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — An ISIS-run news agency claims the man who stabbed and wounded eight people at a mall in Minnesota​ before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer was a “soldier of the Islamic State.” 

The ISIS-run Rasd news agency reported the claim on Sunday, saying the attacker had heeded calls from the extremist group for attacks in countries that are part of a U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition. 

It was not immediately clear if the extremist group had planned the attack or even knew about it beforehand. ISIS has encouraged so-called “lone wolf” attacks. It has also claimed past attacks that are not believed to have been planned by its central leadership. 

St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said the attacker, who has yet to be identified, was wearing a security uniform and was armed with a knife, reports CBS Minnesota. Anderson said the attacker made at least one reference to Allah and asked a victim if they were Muslim. 

Police say they are not ready to call the attack an act of terrorism.
“We will be diligent and get to the bottom of this,” Anderson said. “We will be transparent.” 

All eight victims from Saturday’s attack were treated at a hospital for wounds that weren’t life-threatening and all but one were later released. 

Ashley Bayne, who was visiting a friend at the J.C. Penney store in the malldescribed the scene to CBS Minnesota. 

“I went closer to the mall entrance by J.C. Penney’s and I was looking at some jeans and all the sudden people were just running in chaos,” Bayne said. “They were screaming, ‘Someone’s stabbing people in the mall,’ and people were just really frantic and were running. 

“There were so many cop cars just responding to the area,” Bayne said. “When I got in my car to get out people were speeding out of there. By the time I left my coworker had texted me saying they had all gone into lockdown in the mall. There were no notifications in the mall at all, it was just people running and screaming.” 

Harley and Tama Exsted of Isle, Minnesota, who were in St. Cloud to watch their son play in a college golf tournament, were in the mall when the incident occurred. 

“All of a sudden I heard pop, pop, pop,” Harley Exsted told the St. Cloud Times. “I thought someone tipped over a shelf. All of a sudden these people started running. I just saw everybody running our way.”

Is France Really at War?

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Liberation, a few hours before today's attack

In response to ISIS soldiers storming a church during Mass, taking hostages and in the end, slitting the throat of a priest, French President Francois Hollande once again claimed, "this is war."  

No, it's not.

In a war, you confine captured enemy combatants in a prison camp until the war is over.

If the captured combatants were acting as spies, saboteurs or terrorists, you may shoot them.

In this "war," a captured combatant was convicted by French courts of traveling to join up with enemy terrorist forces. He spent a few months in detention and then was released into the custody of his parents. On the terms of his parole, he was allowed to leave the house for three hours each morning.

This morning, during those hours, he left his home, met up with another combatant, went to a target designated by his side and attacked a group of civilians, killing one and critically injuring another.

France on, say, 9 May 1940 was on a much greater war footing than it is now. And even they called that a phony war. We know what happened next.

In the United States, which while certainly under threat is far from the current emergency situation in France, a man was today sentenced to fifteen years in prison for attempting to join ISIS. 

France has been under a State of Emergency since the attacks of 13 November. I have a feeling it will stay that way until my toddlers have finished college.

But of course, in practice "State of Emergency" is about as meaningless, at least so far, as "this is war."

Please wear this ankle bracelet.

They might as well have given him a flower.

Both French opposition parties, often called "the center-right" and "the far-right," criticized the current government. They're correct, of course, but it remains to be seen what they would or will do differently, or at least what they would change that would make a meaningful difference.

According to Hollande, the war will "take a long time" but "we will win."

How will they win?

Incredible Footage: Panic in the Grand Mosque

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Muslim suicide bombers struck three cities in Saudi Arabia today.

The citizenry of Saudi Arabia is of course 100% Muslim by law. But ISIS, Al Qaeda and other Muslim factions consider the current rulers to be illegitimate.

Casualties were minimal by suicide bomb standards. Two guards were injured outside the US consulate in Jeddah. Two guards were killed and a number of others were injured in a large explosion near the Prophet's Mosque or "Grand Mosque" of Medina. And there may have been no casualties from one or two blasts in the eastern mainly Shiite city of Qatif.

Of course, in each case, the bomber or bombers were blown to bits.

The video below (first highlighted by Vlad Tepes) appears to show panic in the Grand Mosque of Medina. Male worshippers literally run into each other, presumably fearing an additional attack.

19-Year Old Amjad Ben Sasi, Before Being Shot in the Head by Sharia Police: "Do what you like, I am not apologizing."

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Remember his name

This occurred last December in the ISIS occupied Libyan town of Sirte. I believe it was first reported yesterday in the Sunday Times and was then picked up by the Daily Mail and Italian media. The Times claims that the above photo was taken seconds before the teenager's death.

In a sense, this is a minor story. Thousands of human beings have met the same fate in the last few years. And no doubt many were just as defiant.

Nevertheless, this speaks to us if for no other reason than we appear to have some of the details, including the victim's last words.

A 19-year-old boy has been publicly executed in Libya after he refused four times to repent for swearing. 

Amjad Mohammed Ben Sasi had allegedly blasphemed during a dispute with a neighbour in the coastal city of Sirte. 

He was consequently hauled before an Islamic State Sharia court three times and on each occasion the youth stood his ground. 

'Amjad was a proud and angry young man,' Salah Salem Ben Sasi, the teenager's uncle told The Times. 

'He was fed up with Islamic State rule in Sirte. His attitude was "Do what you like, I am not apologising".' 

But he paid the price for his defiance and on the fourth day was brought into the main square where the blasphemy charge was read aloud to the public. 

Amjad Ben Sasi remained resolute to the end, and when he was asked if he had any final words he turned to the man who was about to kill him and said 'My name will live longer than yours', the uncle recalled. 

'The executioner replied, "We shall see", and shot him twice in the back of the head.' 

Read the rest at the Daily Mail.

That Story About El Chapo Declaring War on ISIS is a Hoax

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He didn't do it

It's a great story. The only problem is it isn't true.

Here's one version from Fox News Latino. And here's another from Toronto Sun. There are many others.

The Daily Mail traces the story to Cartel Blog, which apparently picked it up (without linking or acknowledging the source) from Thug Life. Thug Life, which often posts satire, made the story up out of whole cloth to promote a comedy video. It was listed as a "TLV exclusive" whose source was "a Mexican blogger who has close ties with Sinaloa cartel members." There was no link.

This funny scoop is another reason to read the Daily Mail.

From Wills Robinson a few hours ago:

EXCLUSIVE: Blogger hoodwinks millions with hoax story about El Chapo declaring war on ISIS for destroying shipments of his 'Middle East-bound' cocaine 

An email supposedly written by Mexican cartel leader El Chapo, saying he would destroy ISIS, has been revealed as a hoax. 

It was reported that Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán had 'declared war' on the terrorists in an encrypted correspondence to their leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, in response to one of his 'shipments' of cocaine being destroyed. 

The story featured on cartelblog.com - a website dedicated to reporting the war on drugs - before being picked up a number of mainstream international news outlets and quickly going viral. 

But a writer and satirist told Daily Mail Online that he was the source of the story and that it was a work of pure fiction.

Steve Charnock 

Steve Charnock, who works for Thug Life Videos, says he published the fictional story on November 30. 

The website - and a number of others Charnock works for - upload real news stories, funny videos and some satirical pieces. 

Their aim is for these comedy pieces to go viral, but they never intended it to be picked up by major news outlets. 

He told Daily Mail Online both he and his boss came up with the story. They had previously joked in reports that the Bloods and Crips had waged war against the militants, but the stories were fake. 

'It was satire, faux news,' he said. 'It got a few shares on Facebook initially, but now it is the top story on some websites.' 

Charnock added that none of the news outlets contacted him to clarify the information. 

No one, he said, questioned how the Middle East shipment was destroyed or how the son of one of the world's most notorious fugitives would have been able to encrypt an email to the leader of ISIS. 

In the original story he made up quotes from the drug dealer, who escaped from prison through a tunnel in July.

'My men will destroy you. The world is not yours to dictate. I pity the next son of a wh*** that tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

'I will have their heart and tongue torn from them.' 

He also wrote that three cartels The Sinaloa Cartel, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Los Zetas, were expanding into the Middle East. 

There have been recent stories about criminal factions and families responding to the threat of ISIS. 

In November Giovanni Gambino, whose father was part of New York's mafia, told Daily Mail Online he would protect the city from ISIS.

Reporters Crash Unguarded Crime Scene Apartment

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(More pictures below, many from the Daily Mail)

The Federal government's behavior following the San Bernardino attack appears increasingly strange.

Early this morning, the landlord winched open the door and reporters crashed in to the shooters' apartment in Redlands, California. Apparently it had been unguarded.

Did the FBI release the crime scene so soon? If so, experts have said this would be unprecedented.

While investigators had removed a computer hard-drive along with bombs and bomb making equipment just hours before, the apartment was still crammed with personal effects and strewn with pieces of potential evidence including Islamic books, passports, drivers licenses and whole and shredded documents.

Remember that witnesses had reported the comings and goings of a number of "middle-eastern looking" men. Thus, the space had potentially been used by an ISIS cell.

Mashable reports:

In a surreal scene, a swarm of local and national media entered the apartment where Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik lived after the landlord tore off a piece of plywood that was blocking the door. 

News outlets, including MSNBC, BBC, CBS News and CNN, broadcast live scenes as reporters toting cameras and microphones pushed through the open door and reported from inside the apartment. 

One MSNBC reporter was seen examining items left on the suspects' desk, at one point picking up a child-rearing book. CNN journalists described seeing licenses, social security cards and shredded documents inside the residence. A group of photographers zeroed in on a pile of papers that were laid out on a bed. 

Another camera crew panned over a crib; the couple had a 6-month-old daughter. A CNN correspondent picked up prayer beads. 

It appeared that members of the public were inside the apartment as well. One man lingered holding a large soda. A child was seen wandering throughout the home. Another opened the refrigerator and peered inside.

The reaction of the FBI was curious:

When Mashable reached out to the FBI while the scene was simultaneously unfolding on live television, a spokesperson seemed shocked when asked if the public was allowed to enter the apartment. 

"I do not believe so, but I can check," she said around 9:30 a.m. PT. "My understanding is it is still an ongoing investigation." 

An hour later, Lourdes Arocho, spokesperson for the FBI Los Angeles field office, told Mashable: "The search is over at that location." When pressed for further comment, she repeated the statement and referred to a press conference scheduled for 11 a.m. PT. 

A man named Doyle Miller, who identified himself as the landlord, told CBS News that he didn't intend to let the press into the apartment. When he opened the door, "they rushed," he said.

Turkey Violated Greek Airspace 2,244 Times in 2014

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Maybe they thought it was an Armenian

We should add, where was Marco Rubio then?

From Jacob Bojesson at The Daily Caller:

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane for violating its airspace Tuesday, but the Turkish air force does the exact same thing several times a day in Greece. 

Turkey was quick to defend its action by stating it issued 10 warnings over the course of five minutes before firing on the plane. 

“The data we have is very clear. There were two planes approaching our border, we warned them as they were getting too close,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters. “Our findings show clearly that Turkish air space was violated multiple times. And they violated it knowingly.” 

But the Turkish air force doesn’t seem to be too careful about entering Greek airspace, according to numbers from the University of Thessaly. A tally shows the Turks committed a total of 2,244 violations in 2014, up from 636 in 2013.

The Russians did not take the matter lightly and President Vladimir Putin called the action from Turkey “a stab in the back.” He further warned of serious consequences for the action that he believes was made by “the accomplices of terrorists.” 

President Barack Obama said Russia and Turkey need to investigate what happened before taking any further actions against one another. 

“I think it is very important for us to right now make sure that both the Russians and the Turks are talking to each other and find out exactly what happened, and take measures to discourage any kind of escalation,” Obama said at a joint press conference with French President Francois Hollande at The White House.