World/Nation briefs September 22, 2014
Relatives: Gonzalez needs help, wouldn't have hurt anyone
MIDLAND, Texas - An Iraq war veteran accused of scaling a fence and making it into the White House before the Secret Service stopped him owns several guns that he could have brought with him if he had meant to harm anyone, his former stepson said Sunday.
Omar Gonzalez, 42, was arrested Friday and is expected in federal court today to face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon - a small folding knife in this case.
Jerry Murphy, whose mother was married to Gonzalez for several years, said Gonzalez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that he needs treatment, not to be treated like a criminal. He said Gonzalez has been driving around the country and living out of his truck for the past couple of years, and that he always carries his knife.
"I know he's got heavy artillery, you know? He's got all kinds of weapons and he was trained to use them," Murphy said. "I believe if he wanted to make a scene or cause problems, he very well could have. But it's clear that he didn't."
The Secret Service has come under heavy criticism since the embarrassing security breach, which happened when the first family wasn't at the White House.
Police departments cited can still get surplus weapons
LOS ANGELES - A Pentagon program that distributes military surplus gear to local law enforcement allows even departments that the Justice Department has censured for civil rights violations to apply for and get lethal weaponry.
That lack of communication between two Cabinet agencies adds to questions about a program under review in the aftermath of the militarized police response to protesters in Ferguson, Mo.
The Pentagon, which provides the free surplus military equipment, said its consultation with the Justice Department will be looked at as the government reviews how to prevent high-powered weaponry from flowing to the untrustworthy.
The Justice Department has opened civil rights investigations into the practices of some 20 police departments in the past five years, with the Ferguson force the latest. The investigations sometimes end in negotiated settlements known as consent decrees that mandate reforms. Yet being flagged as problematic by Washington does not bar a police department from participating in the program.
"Given the fact that they're under a consent decree it would make sense that the Department of Defense and Department of Justice coordinate on any such requests, (but) that is currently not the state," said Jim Bueermann, who heads the nonprofit Police Foundation.
100,000 Syrians pour into Turkey telling of atrocities
KUCUK KENDIRCILER, Turkey - The 19-year-old Kurdish militant, who has been fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, brought his family across the border into Turkey to safety Sunday. But in the tranquility of a Turkish tea garden just miles from the frontier, Dalil Boras vowed to head back after nightfall to continue the fight.
Pulling a wad of Syrian bills from his pocket, the young fighter - who has already lost a 17-year-old brother to the Islamic militants' brutal advance - said that if the Turkish border guards tried to stop him, the money would persuade them.
Boras and his relatives are among some 100,000 Syrians, mostly Kurds, who have flooded into Turkey since Thursday, escaping an Islamic State offensive that has pushed the conflict nearly within eyeshot of the Turkish border.
On Sunday, heavy clashes broke out between the Islamic State militants and Kurdish fighters only miles from the Syrian border town of Kobani.
- The Associated Press