Page 3 - Aruba Today
P. 3
U.S. NEWS A3
Friday 11 December 2015
Bergdahl says he left base to expose ‘leadership failure’
REBECCA BOONE publicly about his decision first episode of the podcast, says politicians and would- but net-net, we’ll take it
Associated Press or his subsequent five-year released Thursday. “No one be politicians have been and allow people in our
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Sgt. imprisonment by the Tal- is going to take me serious using Bergdahl as a talk- democratic society to form
Bowe Bergdahl says he iban and the prisoner swap that an investigation needs ing point to push their own their own opinions,” Fidell
walked off his base in Af- that secured his return to to be put underway.” agendas for months, a situ- said.
ghanistan to cause a crisis the United States. But over Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, ation he described as cre- Bergdahl’s interview is an-
that would catch the at- the past several months was charged in March with ating “gale-force political other coup for makers of
tention of military brass. he spoke extensively with desertion and misbehav- winds.” The more the public “Serial,” which established
He wanted to warn them screenwriter Mark Boal, ior before the enemy. He can hear Bergdahl’s own podcasts as a viable outlet
about what he believed who shared about 25 hours faces up to life in prison, words, the better, Fidell told when the first season was
were serious problems with of the recorded interviews though an Army officer has The Associated Press. downloaded more than
leadership in his unit. And with Sarah Koenig for her recommended that Berg- “Some of the information 100 million times. Makers
he wanted to prove himself popular podcast, “Serial.” dahl’s case be moved to a that is going to come out is wouldn’t say how long the
as a real-life action hero, “As a private first-class, no- special misdemeanor-level inevitably not going to be new season would last; the
like someone out of a mov- body is going to listen to military court. what we would have pre- first one was 12 separate
ie. Bergdahl hasn’t spoken me,” Bergdahl says in the His attorney Eugene Fidell ferred in a perfect universe, episodes.q
Cruz defends dictators, NSA limits in security speech
STEVE PEOPLES scriptions outlined during Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaks at the Heritage Foundation in
Associated Press an Associated Press inter- Washington, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Re- view last week, he lashed
publican presidential con- out at foreign policy hawks (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
tender Ted Cruz on Thurs- in both parties who helped
day defended Middle East ouster dictators in Egypt, caught trying to cross the dent Obama and others for “We don’t stop the bad
dictators as useful allies Libya and Iraq and now U.S.-Mexican border. favoring gun control mea- guys by giving way our
against Islamic extremists have the same policy for “Border security is national sures to help address the guns,” Cruz said. “We stop
during a Washington ad- Syria. security,” Cruz said. explosion of mass shootings the bad guys by using our
dress decrying political cor- “We’ve seen the cata- He also lashed out at Presi- in America. guns.”q
rectness and stricter gun strophic results of these my-
laws as an impediment to opic policies,” he charged.
national security. “We will not win by replac-
The first-term Texas sena- ing dictators, as unpleasant
tor described “America as they may be, with terror-
under attack” in remarks ists who want to kill us and
at a conservative think destroy America.”
tank that spanned nearly Foreign policy and national
an hour. He broke no new security have emerged as
ground, but reinforced his a central focus in the 2016
view that global security presidential campaign fol-
depends upon an aggres- lowing recent terrorist at-
sive and engaged Amer- tacks in Paris and Califor-
ica — with distinct limits. nia.
The tea party firebrand did Cruz cited border security
not call for additional U.S. as a key national security
ground troops to confront priority, suggesting that vio-
the Islamic State group in lent extremists could easily
Iraq and Syria, preferring enter the country simply by
instead to intensify the U.S.- swimming across the Rio
led air campaign and arm Grande River. There are
regional allies. no publicly disclosed ex-
And repeating policy pre- amples of a known terrorist
Scalia draws rebukes for comments about black students
SAM HANANEL of Texas have drawn re- in the 1930s who came of behind a half a century Wednesday’s arguments
Associated Press bukes from civil rights lead- age as the civil rights move- ago.” were about whether the
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. ers, top Democrats and ment was beginning. White House spokesman University of Texas has com-
Supreme Court Justice An- even the White House. And Senate Democratic lead- Josh Earnest said the com- pelling reasons to consider
tonin Scalia, famous for they returned a familiar er Harry Reid denounced ments stand in “quite race among other factors
his blustery rhetoric from spotlight to the feisty jus- Scalia on Thursday for ut- stark contrast” to the pri- when it evaluates appli-
the bench and beyond, tice who doesn’t shy away tering what he called “rac- orities and values President cants for about a quarter
finds himself in controversy from calling it as he sees it ist ideas” from the bench. Barack Obama has advo- of its freshman class.
again after suggesting that on issues like race and gay “The idea that African- cated through his career. Gregory Garre, the univer-
some black students might marriage. Scalia has a long American students are Civil rights activist Al Sharp- sity’s lawyer, told Scalia
belong at “slower-track” history of making remarks in somehow inherently intel- ton, who attended the ar- that minority students ad-
universities. blunt terms without seem- lectually inferior from other guments, said he didn’t mitted through the affirma-
His remarks Wednesday ing to care about offend- students is despicable,” know “if I was in the court- tive action program fared
during court arguments ing those in his sights, re- Reid said on the Senate room at the United States better over time than those
over an affirmative action flecting the sensibilities of a floor. “It’s a throwback ... Supreme Court or at a Don- admitted from the top 10
program at the University staunch conservative born to a time that America left ald Trump rally.” percent of all schools.q
