Page 42 - June 23, 2017

Groton Daily Independent
Friday, June 23, 2017 ~ Vol. 24 - No. 344 ~ 42 of 54
Jackson said it was “sheer luck” that no one was physically injured when Welch entered Washington’s Comet Ping Pong restaurant on Dec. 4 armed with an AR-15 assault ri e and a revolver. He was there just about a month after the election of President Donald Trump to investigate unfounded internet rumors about prominent Democrats harboring child sex slaves at the restaurant.
As diners and staff ed, leaving half-eaten pizza and cups of soda, Welch went through the restaurant. At one point, he red his AR-15 at a locked closet, but he discovered there were no children being held in the restaurant and surrendered peacefully.
Welch’s sentence was just below the 4 1⁄2 years prosecutors sought and above the 1 1⁄2 years Welch’s attorney asked for.
During the hearing, the 29-year-old Welch spoke brie y to apologize, saying he realized that his words “cannot undo or change what already happened.” In a letter led with the court, he wrote that he is “truly sorry for endangering the safety of any and all bystanders who were present that day,” but he didn’t talk about the conspiracy theory that motivated him to act, saying just that he came to Washington “with the intent of helping people I believed were in dire need of assistance.”
On Thursday, he sat quietly in an orange jail jumpsuit throughout most of the hearing as his mother, father, sister and ancée sat in the front of the courtroom.
Welch’s attorney, Dani Jahn, said that Welch’s actions were “reckless” and “misguided,” but she said Welch, a father and former emergency medical technician, had acted with the intent of defending children. Welch, who is from Salisbury, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in March to interstate transportation of a rearm and ammunition and assault with a dangerous weapon. Though the rumors he went to investigate
were unfounded, they have upended the lives of those who worked in the restaurant.
The restaurant’s owner, James Alefantis, said in court that the “viscous web of lies” about his business has been traumatic for him and his staff. He still needs security there, he said, and has suffered both emotionally and nancially. In letters to the judge and in court, employees described the terror of Welch’s
actions, with some saying they have depression and nightmares and need trauma counseling.
But Alefantis also said he is hopeful.
“I am hopeful that those who provoke fear, traf c in lies and perpetuate conspiracy will awake to the
tangible harms that result from their actions,” he said in court. “I am hopeful that one day reason will prevail before a shot rings out again in a place of warmth and love and communal gathering.”
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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko
Iraqis: IS blew up mosque in ‘formal declaration of defeat’ By BALINT SZLANKO and SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — With their control of Mosul slipping away, Islamic State militants decided to send a message of de ance: They blew up the 12th century al-Nuri Mosque, along with its famous leaning minaret. The mosque, destroyed Wednesday night, would have been a symbolic prize in the ght for Iraq’s second-largest city. It was from a pulpit in that mosque that the extremists’ leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
declared a caliphate in the lands they had seized in Iraq and Syria in July 2014.
According to Iraqi of cials, the destruction of the landmarks indicated that IS defenses are crumbling
and the campaign to retake Mosul — launched more than eight months ago — is in its nal stages. “They knew that the battle had been decided in favor of the Iraqi forces and they knew that we were going to enter the mosque in only a few hours,” said Iraqi special forces Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi,
adding that his troops were only 50 meters (yards) from the mosque site.
“That’s why they exploded it,” he said.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tweeted early Thursday that the mosque’s destruction was an admission
by the militants that they are losing the ght, calling it a “formal declaration of their defeat.”
Inside western Mosul, residents were still reeling from the loss of the iconic structure that was blown up
during the celebration of Laylat al Qadr, the holiest night of the year for Muslims.