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Tyler DurdenMarch 8, 2016 Last Thursday, in a speech delivered at the University of Utah, Mitt Romney blindsided Donald Trump in what amounted to a scathing indictment of the billionaire’s ability to lead the country. "If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished," Romney said, in an apparent effort to play party elder. "If Donald Trump’s plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession," Romney continues, hitting Trump on the economy. "A few examples. His proposed 35 percent tariff-like penalties would instigate a trade war...

CBS) - Chicago may be an ISIS target, media reports out of Switzerland say. Geneva is already stepping up security outside the United Nations. Besides Chicago, also mentioned as a possible North American target is Toronto, Canada. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports Chicago has long been a target of terrorists since President Obama was first elected - first by Al Qaeda, and now ISIS. Authorities say the threat in Switzerland is specific, but it's less so for Chicago and Toronto. While Swiss authorities are on alert, they are not cancelling activities like Geneva's popular costume parade scheduled for...

A Pakistani man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Tuesday for his role in a failed al Qaeda bomb plot targeting sites in Europe and the United states, including the New York City subway system. Abid Naseer, 29, is the eighth defendant to be charged in this case, CBS News' Paula Reid reports. Prosecutors say the planned attack was directed and coordinated with senior Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and also involved other targets in Europe. "I know you're not what I'd say, for any lack of a better word, a 'typical' criminal. Not in any sense of the...

Remember, remember! The fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! Guy Fawkes and his companions Did the scheme contrive, To blow the King and Parliament All up alive. Threescore barrels, laid below, To prove old England's overthrow. But, by God's providence, him they catch, With a dark lantern, lighting a match! A stick and a stake For King James's sake! If you won't give me one, I'll take two, The better for me, And the worse for you. A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,...

Dozens of members of the House GOP's most conservative faction plan to meet Tuesday to discuss ways to counteract the decision of House Speaker John Boehner and other leaders to seek retribution against members who vote against must-pass measures. The House Freedom Caucus, a GOP group made up of about 40 of the most conservative members, plans to hold the discussion some time after Tuesday's evening votes, according to lawmakers familiar with the initiative. Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Monday in a radio interview that many conservatives were "fed up" with the string of punishment meted out to...

Actually, it’s the Swiss who are probing the 2018 World Cup award to Russia, and the US bid was for the 2022 World Cup that went to Qatar.  Vladimir Putin won’t let those facts get in the way of a good anti-American rant, of course. The Russian strongman publicly questioned why the US would have any interest or jurisdiction over a legal argument that doesn’t involve its own citizens, which also turns out to be … not true: Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of meddling in FIFA’s affairs and hinted that it was part of an...

Leading into a key hearing in her case Tuesday, one of two Waukesha girls charged in the Slender Man stabbing case has asked a judge to declare the law that required her to be charged as an adult unconstitutional and dismiss the case. Attorneys for 13-year-old Anissa Weier filed a motion last week challenging the law as it applies to her, saying it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that keeping her from the juvenile court system violates her rights to equal protection and due process. Weier and Morgan Geyser, 12, are charged as adults...

MARION COUNTY -- An apparent planned attack on the Eustis Police Department was thwarted Monday after Marion County investigators found 22 firearms, several containers of black powder, bulletproof vests and drugs inside a shed. The Marion County Sheriff's Office's Crime Suppression Unit received information Friday concerning illegal firearms and explosives stored at a home. Investigators said they received information that a rocket propelled grenade launcher and missiles were being stored in a safe that was located inside a shed on the property. "The occupants of the shed intended to use the rocket launcher on the Eustis Police Department on May...

Counterterrorism police have alleged two of the five men they arrested in an operation in Melbourne were planning an Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack on an Anzac Day ceremony. The two men, an 18-year-old Hallam man and an 18-year-old Hampton Park man, were arrested this morning during a major joint counterterrorism team operation. Another man was arrested for weapons offences and two other men were in custody assisting police with their enquiries, after seven search warrants were executed as part of Operation Rising. The Australian Federal Police said they believed the two 18-year-olds were plotting an attack to take place on...

Canadian police say they have foiled a plot to carry out a mass shooting in the Halifax area on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested and a fourth reportedly shot himself dead after police surrounded his home. At least two suspects had intended "to go to a public venue... with a goal of opening fire to kill citizens, and then themselves", police said. excerpt- Brian Brennan, commanding officer of the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the plot had involved a 19-year-old man from the Halifax suburb of Timberlea and a 23-year-old woman from the US state of Illinois. When...

Ebola, evil voices and the devil. Those are just a few of the things a Butler County bartender cited as reasons he was going to kill House Speaker John Boehner this past fall, federal agents said. Michael Robert Hoyt, 44, was indicted Jan. 7 on charges of threatening to murder the congressman in a plot police said included poisoning his drink at a country club.

Multiple potential challengers say in new interviews they might take on Hillary Clinton if, as expected, she runs for the White House in 2016 Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) all made comments to The New Yorker indicating they are considering challenging Clinton from the left. O'Malley, who has made his interest in a presidential run clear with trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, joined Republicans, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in linking Democrats' midterm losses to the Clintons, who campaigned hard for candidates. “None...

French authorities say they foiled an Islamic terrorist plot reportedly targeting the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and a nuclear power plant last year. The revelation comes as the country unveiled new anti-terror rules which included a proposal to ban terror suspects from leaving the country if it is thought they intend to fight abroad, The Telegraph reported. French authorities revealed they arrested a 29-year-old Algerian butcher living in southern France June 2013, after they found coded messages between him and a high-ranking Al Qaeda member discussing how “to conduct jihad in the place you are currently,” according to Le Parisien....

BRIDGEPORT -- A Moroccan national who allegedly plotted to turn a radio-controlled model airplane into a drone-like flying bomb and crash it into a school and a Connecticut federal building was arrested Monday by FBI agents. Wires and tools were found in the High Ridge Drive apartment where El Mehdi Semlali Fahti, 27, had been living since January with an individual he met while incarcerated in Virginia, according to the FBI. It was not known if any explosives were found. Fahti told an undercover agent in five recorded conversations that he studied the bomb attack operation for months, and had...

**SNIP** When the president himself wanted to initiate discussions prior to shutdown, Harry Reid vetoed it, effectively overruling Obama. The Post report also notes that Nancy Pelosi has permitted dozens of House Democrats to vote with the GOP on a litany of common-sense piecemeal bills to restore funding to popular and essential elements of the federal government. She ran the political calculus and allowed certain members to break with the party in order to avoid being targeted with potent attack ads next year. She did so knowing that these fixes would be dead on arrival in the Senate. In short,...

One oft-overlooked aspect of the Constitution’s genius is the Framers’ humility. They had two animating ideals to guide the Republic they designed. The first, of course, was liberty: The United States would be the first Republic in history in which sovereignty was vested in “We the People,” not the central government; in which the central government’s function was to serve rather than rule the people; and in which the citizen’s autonomy over his life and property was presumed—the central government permitted to burden it only in limited and strictly defined ways. The second ideal was separation of powers: The recognition...

A Yemeni government spokesman claims authorities have foiled a plot by al-Qaida militants aimed at taking control of two cities in the country, then storming strategic ports and bombing gas facilities.

More glorious fruit of the Arab Spring. "3 Arrested in Plot to Bomb Egyptian Cities and Embassy," by Ben Hubbard in the New York Times, May 11 (thanks to Kenneth): CAIRO — Egyptian security forces have arrested three militants with ties to Al Qaeda who were planning terrorist attacks in Egyptian cities and against a foreign embassy, the interior minister said Saturday. A Western official said the Egyptians had privately identified the embassy as the United States Embassy in Cairo. Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said at a news conference that the suspects had been arrested with 22 pounds of explosive...

The RCMP have arrested two people in connection with a homegrown terror plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto Via Rail passenger train on the Canadian side of the border. Police identified the suspects as Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser of Montreal and Toronto. They were arrested Monday morning and are facing criminal charges including conspiracy to carry out an attack against, and conspiring to murder persons unknown for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group. Assistant RCMP Commissioner James Malizia, the officer in charge of federal policing operations, said the alleged plot was...

Updated at 8 p.m. ET: NEW YORK - A suspected terrorist parked a van packed with what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb next to the Federal Reserve building in Lower Manhattan and tried to detonate it Wednesday morning before he was arrested in a terror sting operation, authorities said. The suspect, 21-year-old Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, is a Bangladeshi national who came to the U.S. on a student visa in January for the specific purpose of launching a terror attack here, authorities said. He allegedly told an undercover agent last month that he hoped the attack would disrupt...