House Republicans released 166 pages of unclassified information Friday that they say shows the Obama administration repeatedly rejected requests for increased security in Libya, leading up to the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa led the effort to access and release the documents and photos, which include notes from Ambassador Chris Stevens, one the four Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attack. In one memo, Stevens said local contacts believe Islamic extremism "appears to be on the rise in eastern Libya and the al-Qaida flag has been spotted," though he added that other contacts disagreed and believe attacks over the summer "could be the worlk of pro-Gadhafi loyalists" or other marginalized groups. Another cable sent hours before the Sept. 11 attack raised serious security concerns among diplomats in Tripoli. The senior Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, however said that a letter Issa sent to the president that highlighted the signs that more security was needed based on information in the document batch, "recklessly omits contradictory information form the very documents it quotes."
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The student from Bangladesh who allegedly plotted to set off a truck bomb outside the New York Federal Reserve Bank is one of the most dangerous terrorists the United States has faced since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S attorney handling the case said Friday.
“He came here wanting to carry out a terrorist attack and he came here already radicalized,” said U.S attorney Loretta Lynch. She added Mohammed Nafis is likely more dangerous than the group of terrorists in the 2009 Zazi suicide bomb plot who targeted New York City’s subway system. “I would say (Nafis) was as dangerous if not more so than the Zazi members,” Lynch said. “Nothing was going to stop him. This defendant was thinking ahead about how if he survives he can carry out bigger and better plots in the future." Speaking out for the first time, Lynch said the feds were a bit lucky that Nafis contacted an informant about building a terror cell to carry out bombings in New York. She said Nafis was plotting and reaching out to others weeks before the FBI knew he was in the country. Nafis was arrested Wednesday morning after parking a van he thought was loaded with more than 1000 pounds of explosives. But the device was inert because the FBI had secretly provided some non-working components. Officials insist the public was not in any immediate danger as Nafis was being closely monitored.
United Nations peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is in Syria to encourage Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to comply with a four-day truce during the Muslim holiday marking the Hajj, which begins Oct. 25. Barahimi will meet Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem Saturday morning, according to the U.N. spokesman in Damascus, Khaled al-Masri. There was no word as to whether the envoy would meet with Assad. Many in the Syrian opposition say they are skeptical about the plan, which they view as a toothless initiative. "There must be a mechanism in order to make the Syrian regime comply," said Khaled Koja, Syrian National Council representative and spokesman in Turkey. “If there is no mechanism, the Syrian regime will continue to do the same.” The violence in Syria shows little sign of abating, with opposition activists reporting heavy street clashes in Aleppo and intensified army bombing of towns along the strategic north-south highway.
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There's a new buzzword in President Barack Obama's re-election campaign: "Romnesia." Thousands of supporters who went to the second rally at George Mason University in just two weeks roared as the president introduced the new term, one he says describes Republican candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's shifting position on certain issues. "He's changing up so much, backtracking, sidestepping,” Obama said. “We've got to name this condition he's going through. I think it's called Romnesia."But the Romney campaign had some choice words of its own, calling the president's speech a "comedy routine" intended to distract from the nation's economic woes. "When you have no record to run on, you try to distract, divert and to attack the other side," said Del. Barbara Comstock, a Romney campaign co-chair. "And that's clearly what the campaign has done all summer and now through the fall you’ve seen that again. We're focused on talking directly to the American people."
Twenty-five Transportation Security Administration employees face firing and 19 others face suspension after surveillance cameras found that they were improperly screening luggage at one of the country's largest airports. The TSA said its investigation at Newark Liberty Airport began last year and had already led to the fringing of eight employees in June. The latest group cited brings the tally of employees caught up in the investigation to 52 and marks the largest single disciplinary action taken by the TSA at a U.S. airport. Those who face dismissal and suspension include both screeners and managers who are accused of not effectively supervising their employees.
The judge in the second degree murder case against George Zimmerman ruled Friday that his attorneys can inspect the school and social media records of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed 17-year-old he shot and killed in February. The ruling by Judge Debra S. Nelson came after the defense team for Zimmerman, who has pleaded not guilty and maintains he killed Martin in self-defense, argued they needed to study the records for evidence of whether Martin had any violent tendencies. Nelson heard arguments on that and several other pretrial motions during the hearing, at which attorneys for more than a dozen media organizations were also on hand to fight efforts by the prosecutor to seal defense subpoenas. Zimmerman's attorneys want to subpoena records from the Miami area schools attended by the 17-year-old, including Norland Middle School, Miami Carol City High School, Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Prosecutors, meanwhile, want Zimmerman's medical records turned over to them; Judge Nelson granted that request but said she would review the records to decide if anything should be withheld, NBC News reported. Martin's parents have steadfastly opposed the subpoenas of their late son's records, reiterating that stance at a news conference Friday.
Big Tex, the towering, iconic symbol of the State Fair of Texas, caught fire on Friday morning. The blaze consumed nearly all of Big Tex’s clothes, leaving behind little more than a metal frame as shocked attendees snapped photos. No one was injured and the fire was extinguished, NBC DFW reported. Firefighters told NBC DFW that the symbol caught fire after an electrical issue. Electrical controls move Big Tex's mouth and head, fair spokeswoman Sue Gooding told The Associated Press. Big Tex made his debut at the State Fair in 1952 and ten years later co-starred in the movie remake of the musical "State Fair." In the intervening decades, he has become recognized for his unusual posture, his massive blue jeans and his trademark "Howdy, folks!" in a booming voice. This year's fair, which closes Sunday, had been celebrating the 60th birthday of the Texas icon, who at 52 feet tall wears size 70 boots and a 75-gallon hat, according to BigTex.com. Bill Bragg, the voice of Big Tex, told NBC DFW that that he had a "lump in my throat" over the figure's destruction. But he said that Big Tex will "be rebuilt bigger and better than ever. He will be back next year. I will be his voice."
More than 23 varieties of Banana Boat sunscreen are being pulled from store shelves after five people caught fire after applying the lotion and coming in contact with an open flame in the last year. Energizer Holdings, the maker of Banana Boat sunscreen, is recalling aerosol products like UltraMist Sport, UltraMist Ultra Defense and UltraMist Kids. "If a consumer comes into contact with a flame or spark prior to complete drying of the product on the skin, there is a potential for the product to ignite," the company said in a statement, adding that the UltraMist's spray valve on these products is over-applying the sunscreen increasing its flammability. Experts say, however, that the risk of catching fire from any type of sunscreen, even aerosol sprays, which are known to contain flammable ingredients, is extremely limited. "We've found no evidence of this happening before the incidents that came to our attention," Dan Dillard, executive director of the Burn Prevention Network told The Associated Press.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points Friday, the 25th anniversary of Black Monday—the day the index lost more than 500 points—as a batch of earnings reports came in below analysts estimates. The Dow lost 205 points by the end of trading, marking the market's biggest slide since June. Microsoft, GE and McDonald's were among the companies whose third-quarter earnings had fallen short of forecasts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Numbers on existing home sales didn't boost investors' confidence, either, as data emerged showing sales had fallen more than expected in August. Meanwhile, European markets closed lower Friday, after a European Union summit ended with an agreement by Germany and France to enforce common euro zone banking regulations but with no discussion of new financial aid for Spain, according to the French president, Bloomberg News reported.
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Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan Friday accused the White House of stonewalling on answers about the administration’s response to the Sept. 11 attack in Libya, hours after President Barack Obama appeared on “The Daily Show” and rejected criticism that his administration offered a muddled response. "If four Americans get killed, it's not optimal. We're going to fix it," Obama told Jon Stewart, echoing Stewart’s earlier use of the phrase “not optimal.” Ryan told "The Charlie Sykes Show" on a Milwaukee radio station that the White House's story "continues to shift” and criticized him for the phrase “not optimal.” "They refuse to answer the basic questions about what happened," he said. "And so his response has been inconsistent, it's been misleading. And more than a month later we still have more questions than answers." Later Friday, Obama rallied college students in northern Virginia, saying Mitt Romney suffered from “Romnesia” as evidenced by his shifting positions on issues. Romney was set to rally with Ryan later in Daytona Beach, Fla.
President Barack Obama seems to have built a firewall in the Midwest that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign can't breach, NBC's First Read team writes. New NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Marist College polls out of Iowa and Wisconsin on Thursday night show Obama still with a six-point lead in Wisconsin and an eight-point lead in Iowa, despite the Romney camp's frenetic campaign pace there. In Ohio, meanwhile, Obama is also still ahead by six points, as of last week's NBC poll, and if Obama wins all three of those states, First Read points out, he will win the election. But the Romney camp disputes those numbers, saying the race in Iowa is much closer and that poll numbers are skewed by early voting volume there. Meanwhile both rivals are making concerted efforts to look like winners, as Obama faces rising pressure in Virginia and Florida and Romney in the Midwest. On Friday, in other campaign developments in swing states, The Denver Post and the Tampa Bay Times endorsed Obama, while the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Romney.
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The NHL announced the cancellation of regular season games through November 1, according to the league's official website on Friday. Two weeks ago, the league cancelled the first 82 games of the season from Oct. 11-24, with 53 more being called off on Friday. The announcement comes a day after the league rejected three proposals by the NHLPA. The league said that a full 82-game season could still be played if the two sides reached an agreement by Nov. 2. "Thoroughly disappointed," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told The Associated Press Thursday after the brief bargaining session at union headquarters.
