10
The San Juan Daily Star
February 13-15, 2015
Obama’s Dual View of War Power Seeks Limits and Leeway
By PETER BAKER
I
n seeking authorization for his six-month-old military campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group, President Obama on Wednesday did something that few if any of his predecessors have done: He asked Congress to restrict the ability of the
commander in chief to wage war against an overseas enemy.
The proposed legislation Mr. Obama sent to Capitol Hill
would impose a three-year limit on American action that has
been conducted largely from the air and, while allowing Special
Operations commandos and other limited missions, would rule
out sustained, large-scale ground combat. It would also finally
repeal the expansive 2002 congressional measure that authorized
President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
But even as Mr. Obama proposed some handcuﬀs on his
power, he left behind the key to those shackles should he or his
successor decide they are too confining. While his draft resolution would rescind the 2002 authority, it would leave in place a
separate measure passed by Congress in 2001 authorizing the
president to conduct a global war against Al Qaeda and its aﬃliates. With that still the law of the land, Mr. Obama and the next
president would retain wide latitude to order military operations
in the name of fighting terrorism.
It was that essential contradiction in Mr. Obama’s proposal that shaped the contours of the emerging debate in Congress.
On one side, Republicans said Wednesday that the president had
outlined too many limits on the war against the Islamic State,
also known as ISIS or ISIL. On the other side, some liberal Democrats said the residual power of the 2001 measure and the language of Mr. Obama’s own proposal were so elastic as to leave the
president virtually unfettered.
That essential contradiction at the heart of the president’s
proposal captured the one that has characterized Mr. Obama’s
own six-year management of the Situation Room. He has repeatedly aspired to end the nation’s “perpetual war footing,” as he
terms it, and curb the president’s power to use force — even as he
availed himself of the authority he inherited from Mr. Bush and
then expanded it.
“In a way, that’s been the story of his presidency,” said Jack
Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor who, as a top lawyer
in Mr. Bush’s Justice Department, was at the heart of the last
administration’s debates about presidential power. “He’s been
talking during his entire presidency about wanting to restrain
himself. But in practice, he’s been expanding his power.”
Mr. Obama’s eﬀort to define boundaries to war power,
even with escape hatches, turns presidential history on its head.
Presidents typically resist congressional encroachment and assert the broadest possible interpretation of their ability to order
the military into combat.
Harry S. Truman sent troops into bloody battles in Korea without asking Congress to declare war. Lyndon B. Johnson
proposed no time limits in the Gulf of Tonkin resolution during
Vietnam. Bill Clinton waged the Kosovo war without congressional authorization. The measures authorizing the two wars in Iraq
fought by George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush were notably
broad. Presidents of both parties have refused to acknowledge
the constitutionality of the War Powers Act of 1973, a post-Vietnam attempt by Congress to rein in presidential authority.
President Obama described the resolution he submitted to Congress for authorization to use military force
against ISIS. He said it did not authorize a ground war
like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even under Mr. Obama, the United States military has carried out more than 1,900 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against the
Islamic State over the last six months without an explicit new act
of Congress. In a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday, Mr. Obama
repeated that he believes he has the authority under current law
to conduct such a campaign. But he said the mission would be
better oﬀ with a show of bipartisan support and emphasized the
diﬀerences between what he now seeks from Congress and what
his predecessors have.
“It is not the authorization of another ground war, like
Afghanistan or Iraq,” Mr. Obama said in remarks from the White House. While he has sent 2,600 American troops back to Iraq
in a support role, he said, “I’m convinced that the United States
should not get dragged back into another prolonged ground war
in the Middle East.” He added, “I do not believe America’s interests are served by endless war, or by remaining on a perpetual
war footing.”
At the same time, he left himself some room to refine his
past pledge against putting “boots on the ground.” The proposed measure would rule out “enduring oﬀensive ground combat
operations.” But in a letter to Congress accompanying the proposal, Mr. Obama envisioned the possibility of limited ground
action “such as rescue operations” or the use of “Special Operations forces to take military action against ISIL leadership.” He
also said the legislation would allow the use of ground forces
for intelligence gathering, spotting ground targets for airstrikes
and planning assistance to ground troops of allies like the Iraqi
government.
“If we had actionable intelligence about a gathering of ISIL
leaders, and our partners didn’t have the capacity to get them,
I would be prepared to order our special forces to take action,
because I will not allow these terrorists to have a safe haven,” Mr.
Obama said in his remarks.
Lawmakers and lawyers said the phrase “enduring oﬀensive ground combat operations” was vague enough to allow
many possible actions, as was the stated target of the Islamic
State and “associated persons or forces.” In a sense, what Mr.
Obama was proposing was a statement of intent along with a
promise of restraint that he or his successor might be able to
work around legally but that would be politically problematic
to ignore.
“What they’re saying is some ground operations are O.K.,
some boots on the ground are O.K., some oﬀensive is O.K., some
combat is O.K., and it can even go on for a bit,” said John Bellinger, the top State Department lawyer under the younger Mr.
Bush. “But they don’t want Afghanistan. They don’t want Iraq.
They don’t want occupation. They don’t want an invasion.”
That left Mr. Obama criticized by the right and the left, underscoring the diﬃculties he will face finding a consensus on a
measure that can pass.
“I don’t feel this is a constraining document as written,”
Representative Adam B. Schiﬀ of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters. “It’s I
think quite carte blanche in terms of geography, types of forces,
etc. And therefore, I think we’re going to have to have a lot of
work on that.”
Republicans disagreed, saying the measure was not only
too limited in its authority but also limited in its conception of
what will be required to beat the Islamic State, and it therefore
signaled a lack of commitment by Mr. Obama.
“If the president wants to engage in a halfhearted P.R.
eﬀort, to go through the motions to give the appearance that
we’re fighting when we’re not doing what is necessary to win,”
said Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, “then
we should not engage.”
Obama Signs Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill
P
resident Barack Obama has signed into law a measure intended to help deter veterans from committing
suicide.
He says America cannot be satisfied until all veterans
get the help they need for their struggles.
Obama says too many are struggling with post-traumatic stress.
The legislation is named the Marine veteran Clay
Hunt, who killed himself in 2011 in Texas after serving in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama says the best way to honor Hunt is to help
other veterans avoid that fate.
The bill creates a pilot program to help veterans transition from active duty. It sets up a website to provide veterans
with information about available mental health services.
The bill also requires the Department of Veterans
Aﬀairs’ suicide prevention programs to be evaluated annually by a third party.
The San Juan Daily Star
February 13-15, 2015
11 Mainland
Democrats Settle on Philadelphia as Site of 2016 Convention
D
emocrats have selected Philadelphia as
the site of the party’s 2016 national convention, choosing a patriotic backdrop
for the nomination of its next presidential candidate.
The Democratic National Committee said
Thursday the convention will be held the week
of July 25, 2016. The two other finalists were Brooklyn, New York, and Columbus, Ohio.
“There is clearly no better city to have this
special event than Philadelphia. The role of Philadelphia in shaping our nation’s history is unmatched,” said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman
Schultz, the DNC chair.
The site could serve as a passing of the baton from President Barack Obama to Hillary
Rodham Clinton, the leading contender for the
party’s nomination should she run for president,
as is widely expected.
The event will come the week after Republicans hold their national convention in Cleveland. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said
the convention is expected to cost $84 million.
“We’re confident that we can raise that,” he said.
Organizers plan to hold it at the Wells Fargo
Center, the home of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers
and NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, with events also
at the city’s convention center.
The Wells Fargo Center is part of a sports
complex that includes Citizen’s Bank Park, home
of baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies, and Lincoln
Financial Field, home of the NFL’s Philadelphia
Eagles, giving Democrats the option of staging
its final night in an open air venue. Obama delivered his acceptance speech in 2008 at Denver’s
Invesco Field at Mile High.
For Democrats, the choice came down to
whether to set the stage for the next nominee in
a big city or in another closely contested state.
Obama’s campaign used the convention cities of
Denver in 2008 and Charlotte, North Carolina,
in 2012 to aggressively register new voters and
recruit volunteers in states crucial to his political
map.
Democrats bypassed New York, which is expected to be the headquarters of Clinton’s campaign, and Columbus, the capital of one of the
most contested states in recent presidential elections.
\New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had
promoted his home borough of Brooklyn as an
ideal location for the convention and stressed
the city’s large network of financial donors who
would help underwrite the event.
Asked if recent tensions between de Blasio
and members of the New York Police Department
A general view of the Philadelphia city skyline prior to
the game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New
York Rangers in Game Four of the First Round of the 2014
NHL Stanley Cup Playoﬀs at the Wells Fargo Center on
April 25, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
hurt the city’s cause, Wasserman Schultz said the
decision was based solely on logistics, security
and resources. “Extraneous issues were not a
factor whatsoever,” she said.
Columbus said it would have oﬀered a fitting
location to respond to the Republican gathering
in Cleveland, ahead of the fall campaign. The
last Democrat to win the White House without
carrying Ohio was John F. Kennedy in 1960, and
no Republican ever has.
Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman said
the city would try to land a political convention
in 2020.
Philadelphia’s organizers pointed to the
city’s heritage as the home of the Liberty Bell and
Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were adopted,
along with its convenient East Coast location and
compact, easy-to-navigate community.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the
city has a “proven track record of hosting big
events safely and eﬃciently” and oﬀered “tremendous amenities, its accessible location and
historical significance.” The city held Democratic
conventions in 1948 during Harry S. Truman’s
presidency and in 1936, when President Franklin
D. Roosevelt was nominated for the second
time.
Philadelphia, which has 11,600 hotel rooms
downtown, has been the home to a variety of large events and played host to the Republican convention in 2000. The Vatican chose Philadelphia
as the site for the World Meeting of Families,
which Pope Francis will attend in September.
Clinton also has ties to Pennsylvania. Her
father was born in Scranton and she has allies in
the state such as Rendell, an ex-chairman of the
DNC and a former Philadelphia mayor. Democrats have carried Pennsylvania in every presi-
dential election since 1992.
Hosting a nominating convention, however,
is not a guarantee for carrying the state. For the
29 nominating conventions held since 1900, each
party has carried the hosting state 15 times and
lost it 14 times.
In more recent years, it is equally as mixed.
In the 14 conventions since 1960, Democrats have
split their host states, winning seven and losing
seven. Republicans are roughly equal, winning
six host states and losing eight.
Luck has been a bit better for Democrats since the 1992 convention in New York that nominated Bill Clinton for the first time. Democrats have
carried host states five of the six times, while Republicans have lost five of the six host states. The
last time Republicans carried their host state was
1992, when George H.W. Bush was nominated for
his second term in Houston.
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Mainland 12
The San Juan Daily Star
February 13-15, 2015
Emerging Hillary Clinton Team Shows Signs of Disquiet
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and AMY CHOZICK
L
ingering tensions between Hillary Rodham Clinton’s loyalists and the strategists who helped President Obama
defeat her in 2008 have erupted into an intense public
struggle over who will wield money and clout in her emerging
2016 presidential campaign.
At issue is controlling access to the deep-pocketed donors whose support is critical to sustain the outside organizations that are paving the way for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
It is a competition that has been exacerbated, many Clinton
supporters said, by Mrs. Clinton’s reluctance to formally enter
the race and establish a campaign organization with clear lines
of authority.
The dispute broke into the open on Monday after David
Brock, a Clinton ally, accused Priorities USA Action — a proClinton “super PAC” whose co-chairman is Jim Messina, Mr.
Obama’s 2012 campaign manager — of planting negative stories
about the fund-raising practices of Mr. Brock’s organizations.
Mr. Brock resigned from the super PAC’s board in protest.
Mr. Messina is one of the half-dozen top veterans of Mr.
Obama’s campaigns that Mrs. Clinton’s tightknit circle of advisers has hired or courted, vexing some longtime Clintonites
seeking more prominent roles for themselves. Other former
Obama aides are working with pro-Clinton groups to organize grass-roots volunteers or to fend oﬀ attacks on her record,
eﬀorts that some Democrats view as the first step toward a place
in Mrs. Clinton’s campaign when it finally gets oﬀ the ground.
All recognize that Mrs. Clinton’s political operation could
dominate the Democratic Party for the next decade, controlling
the flow of commissions, consulting work and political appointments. But the marriage between the two camps — based to
a large degree on mutual interest, if not love — now appears
more uneasy than at any time since Mr. Obama asked Mrs.
Clinton to serve in his administration after the 2008 election.
“It is ‘The Dream Team,’ but only five can start,” said John
Morgan, a Florida lawyer who has raised money for Mr. Obama and hosted fund-raisers with former President Bill Clinton.
“Who do you put at guard? Jordan, LeBron, Kobe, Magic, Bird,
Derrick Rose? That is where it is.”
The list of Obama veterans now working in “Clinton
World” includes the New York-based pollster Joel Benenson,
whom Mrs. Clinton has settled on as chief strategist over several pollsters with long Clinton ties. A consulting firm founded
David Brock last year at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark. Mr. Brock resigned this week from a
pro-Clinton “super PAC.”
by two Obama voter-turnout specialists, Mitch Stewart and
Jeremy Bird, is being paid $20,000 a month by Ready for Hillary, a super PAC focused on organizing grass-roots Clinton
supporters. Jim Margolis, whose firm handled lucrative mediabuying contracts for Mr. Obama’s campaigns, will also advise
Mrs. Clinton, whose campaign will probably raise and spend
over a billion dollars in the next two years.
But Mr. Brock’s path to the Clinton inner circle is perhaps the most convoluted. Once a conservative journalist
whose reporting on President Clinton prompted Paula Jones’s
1994 sexual harassment lawsuit against him, Mr. Brock has since emerged as a prominent liberal organizer and one of Mrs.
Clinton’s chief defenders.
With the tacit blessing of both Clintons, Mr. Brock has
maneuvered his $28 million network of media-monitoring and
opposition research organizations into the center of the emerging Clinton eﬀort, establishing a new project, Correct the Record, that has defended Mrs. Clinton in the news media and
even issued daily emails explaining her positions.
His successful fund-raising has been led by Mary Pat
Bonner, whose firm has been paid millions of dollars by Mr.
Brock’s groups to court donors — some of whom have criticized the arrangement as well as Mr. Brock.
“He is a cancer,” said Mr. Morgan, who is close to Mr.
Messina.
“If you care about your party and our country, you just
do what you are asked,” said Mr. Morgan, referring to Mr.
Brock’s public resignation from Priorities USA, which immediately reignited tales of infighting from Mrs. Clinton’s 2008
campaign. “If you care about yourself, you take your toys and
go home.”
Mr. Brock declined to comment.
Susie Tompkins Buell, a friend of Mrs. Clinton’s and a
donor from San Francisco who is close to Mr. Brock, said he “is
an incredibly important part of the Democratic Party” whose
work “protects us from the onslaught and destruction of the
Republican attack machine.”
Ms. Buell added: “Certain people are trying to destroy
David through oﬀ-the-record conversations with reporters.
They are spineless and devious.”
Mr. Messina, now a consultant with a significant roster of corporate and political clients, became co-chairman of
Priorities early last year, charged with helping the advertisingoriented super PAC secure hundreds of millions of dollars in
contributions. But with the campaign season still a year away,
Mr. Messina and his team have encountered some diﬃculty
getting commitments, according to several Democrats involved in helping the group.
Mr. Brock, in turn, has been reluctant to cede turf — or
pre-eminence — to Obama veterans like Mr. Messina. “He was
never accepted” by the Obama camp, said one Clinton loyalist,
who like most people interviewed for this article declined to
speak on the record for fear of angering either the president or
the woman who hopes to replace him.
Months ago, Mrs. Clinton’s top advisers encouraged the
three pro-Clinton super PACs — Ready for Hillary, Priorities
USA and Mr. Brock’s American Bridge 21st Century — to combine eﬀorts. Mr. Brock’s organization would provide opposition research to Priorities, which would eventually raise highdollar donations to pay for attack ads. Ready for Hillary would
dissolve after Mrs. Clinton oﬃcially declared her candidacy.
But Priorities is the only one of the groups founded by
Obama operatives, making it the least easiest to fit into the
emerging Clinton apparatus. And all outside groups are facing increased competition from oﬃcial party organizations,
like the Democratic National Committee, which are now free
to solicit their own million-dollar commitments from big
donors, thanks to new campaign finance rules inserted into
December’s federal spending bill.
House Votes To Honor 1965 Selma Marchers With Gold Medal
T
he House has voted unanimously to create a Congressional Gold Medal to honor those who endured
police violence as they marched for civil rights 50
years ago in Selma, Alabama.
The gold medal is the nation’s highest civilian award.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
The House voted 420-0 to honor the mostly black “foot
soldiers” who tried to march from Selma to Montgomery to
demand voting rights in March 1965. Alabama police attacked several hundred marchers as they crossed the Edmund
Pettus Bridge near Selma.
The violence shocked many Americans and spurred
larger marches and protests for civil rights in Alabama and
elsewhere.
The gold medal legislation was sponsored by Democratic House member Terri Sewell and Republican House
member Martha Roby, both of Alabama.
This March 21, 1965 file photo shows Martin Luther King,
Jr. and his civil rights marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., heading for the capitol in Montgomery.
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13
Mainland 14
The San Juan Daily Star
February 13-15, 2015
Obama Administration Plans to Aggressively Target Wildlife Traﬃcking
By RON NIXON
H
oping to stem illegal wildlife traﬃcking, the
Obama administration has introduced an aggressive plan for taking on traﬃckers that will
include using American intelligence agencies to track
and target those who benefit from the estimated $20billion-a-year market.
The plan, which was outlined on Wednessday by
oﬃcials from the State Department, Justice Department
and Interior Department, will also increase pressure on
Asian countries to stop the buying and selling of illegal rhinoceros horns, elephant ivory and other items,
which President Obama has called an “international
crisis,” and will try to reduce demand for those items
worldwide.
“Right now, wildlife traﬃcking is a very profitable
enterprise,” said John C. Cruden, the assistant attorney
general for the Justice Department’s Environment and
Natural Resources Division. “Our goal is to take the
profit out of this illegal trade with all the tools at our
disposal.”
But the planned actions, a result of a two-year
administration review on how to limit wildlife traﬃcking, will be supported by only a modest increase in
funding and staﬃng for the law enforcement arm of
the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency
chiefly responsible for policing the wildlife trade.
Anti-traﬃcking experts praised the eﬀort as an
important step, even as they said the government faced
a daunting task.
“It’s fantastic that we are doing this, but given that
there are still limited resources, the government needs
to really focus its eﬀorts and go after the criminal organizations behind the trade in the most critical areas
both here and abroad,” said Crawford Allan, a wildlife
traﬃcking expert with Traﬃc, a program of the World
Wildlife Fund. “They can’t have a scattershot approach
where they put a little money here and a little there.”
The action comes as the United States has grown
into the second-largest market for illegal wildlife products and a major conduit of the products to Asia, where rhino horns and ivory are believed to cure ailments
like headaches and hangovers. Oﬃcials say that millions of pounds of illegal animal products, including
bear and fish bladders, are sold every year to American and foreign customers. The trade has driven several animal species to near extinction while fueling the
growth of international criminal gangs.
“The ongoing slaughter of rhinos and elephants in
Africa is driven by rising consumer demand here, and
United States citizens are intimately involved in illegal
trade both here and abroad,” said Daniel M. Ashe, the
director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
As part of the administration’s eﬀort, the wildlife
After one of the largest seizures of illicit ivory sold in New
York, two jewelers pleaded guilty in 2012 to marketing what
prosecutors said was more than $2 million worth of goods.
service is for the first time sending oﬃcers abroad to
help combat traﬃcking originating in Africa, Asia and
South America. One oﬃcer has been posted to Thailand, and three will be sent to Tanzania, Botswana and
Peru later this year. In its most recent budget request,
the administration asked for $75.4 million a year for
the wildlife service’s law enforcement division, $8 million more than the year before.
About $4 million of the funding would be used
to support eﬀorts to stop wildlife traﬃcking in African
countries, and another $4 million to expand forensic
labs and add special agents.
But even with the increase, wildlife service oﬃcials say that the staﬃng remains inadequate and that
investigations have fallen from more than 13,000 in
2012 to about 10,000 last year.
The service has 205 investigators and an additional 120 oﬃcers who patrol nearly 40 ports of entry, examining more than 180,000 wildlife products last year.
“We have the same number of oﬃcers we had in
the 1970s, when the trade was nowhere like it is now,”
said Edward Grace, deputy director of law enforcement at the wildlife service. “We try to go after the big
smugglers, but a lot falls through the cracks.”
Since 2012, records show that American law enforcement oﬃcials have arrested 26 people and prosecuted 18 for trading in rhino horns and ivory as part of
Operation Crash, a nationwide criminal investigation
into the black market for wildlife.
In addition, oﬃcials have smashed smuggling
rings trading in gall bladders and paws from black
bears and the totoaba, a fish in Mexico that has been
pushed to the brink of extinction because of illegal traﬃcking. A totoaba bladder can fetch up to $20,000 in
Asian countries, where it is prized in soups.
Court records and other documents show that the
smuggling rings are made up of Chinese and Japanese
traders; people with links to Mexican and South American drug cartels; Irish gangsters; American auction
and antique dealers; and South African safari operators.
Most traﬃckers have little to fear, law enforcement oﬃcials said, because only an estimated 10 percent are caught. Law enforcement agencies often lack
the resources to fully police the illegal trade. Also, fines for traﬃcking are low, and loopholes in the law still
allow trade in some items, like ivory.
The shadowy wildlife trade takes place in auction houses and antique stores across the country, selfstorage facilities in places like Chelsea and the Bronx
in New York, and on the Internet, oﬃcials said. Smugglers bring in the items mainly through ports in New
York and Los Angeles.
Stopping the ivory trade has proved to be especially problematic, oﬃcials said.
Under American law, ivory can be sold if it is
more than a century old. But an investigation of vendors in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas last
year by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization, found that 77 percent to 90
percent of the ivory sold by vendors in the two cities
might be illegal under federal law.
While many vendors tried to pass the ivory oﬀ
as 100-year-old pieces, investigators said many of the
pieces appeared to have been chemically aged or physically damaged to look older.
“These fake antiques are a growing problem,”
said Daniel Stiles, a wildlife investigator based in Kenya, adding that many of the pieces came from factories
in China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, where raw ivory taken from poached elephants is
carved into statues and altered to look older.
Traﬃcking in wildlife has decimated elephant
and rhino populations in Africa. The latest figures
from South Africa show that 1,215 rhinos were killed
last year, up from a little more than 300 in 2010.
More than 100,000 elephants have been killed for
ivory since 2010, according to a 2014 Colorado State
University report. Rhino horns can fetch prices as high
as $30,000 a pound, and ivory can command prices as
high as $3,000 a pound.
Congress is also trying to address wildlife smuggling. Last month, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat
of California, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican
of South Carolina, introduced a bill that would increase
fines for traﬃcking in wildlife and allow law enforcement oﬃcials to confiscate the assets of traﬃckers.
“The problem with these wildlife crimes is that
the penalties are too low,” Ms. Feinstein said. “They
aren’t much of a deterrent. We want to change that.”
The bill is pending.
The San Juan Daily Star
February 13-15, 2015
15 Mainland
In Chapel Hill Shooting of 3 Muslims, a Question of Motive
By JONATHAN M. KATZ
and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
I
t was a little after 5 p.m., a quiet time
in a quiet neighborhood, before many
people had returned home from work
on Tuesday, when two women called 911
to report multiple gunshots and screams
echoing through a condominium complex
here near the University of North Carolina.
By the time the police arrived, three
people were dead — a newlywed couple
and the woman’s sister. They were young
university students, Muslims of Arab descent, and high achievers who regularly
volunteered in the area. A neighbor, a
middle-aged white man, was missing —
then under arrest and charged with three
counts of murder.
The victims’ families described it
as a hate crime. The police said that the
shooting appeared to have been motivated by “an ongoing neighbor dispute over
parking,” but that they were investigating
whether religious hatred had contributed
to the killings.
“To have him come in here and shoot
three diﬀerent innocent people in their
head — I don’t know what kind of person
that is,” said Namee Barakat, the father of
the male victim, Deah Shaddy Barakat.
The killings immediately set oﬀ a debate throughout the world over whether
the students had been targeted because
of their religion, with Muslims picking up
some of the language of those who protested police shootings in the United States,
using the phrase #muslimlivesmatter.
Even as Chapel Hill awoke on Wednesday, frustration had already spread on
Twitter throughout Europe and Asia, as
Muslims as far away as Indonesia shared
photographs and details of the victims’ lives.
The Chapel Hill police quickly tried
to tamp down the fears, releasing a morning statement that identified parking as
the cause of the dispute, without confirming whether the victims had been shot
in the head. The police chief, Chris Blue,
added, “We understand the concerns
about the possibility that this was hatemotivated, and we will exhaust every lead
to determine if that is the case.”
The parents of Deah Shaddy Barakat, left,
his sister and others after a news conference in Raleigh on Wednesday.
In the afternoon, Ripley Rand, the
United States attorney for the region, said
the shooting appeared to have been “an
isolated incident” and “not part of a targeted campaign against Muslims.”
Friends and neighbors struggled to
make sense of what had happened. Those who knew the victims — identified
as Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; her
husband, Mr. Barakat, 23; and her sister,
Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19 — said
they were all model students from welleducated, successful local families.
They had nonetheless run into previous problems over parking with the man
who was arrested, Craig Stephen Hicks,
46, a former car parts salesman who was
studying to be a paralegal at Durham Technical Community College.
He was one of their neighbors. They
lived on opposite sides of the two-story
Finley Forest complex on Summerwalk
Circle, where the shooting occurred — a
condominium complex tucked into the
woods about a mile and a half east of the
main University of North Carolina campus. Residents said Mr. Hicks’s apartment
was adjacent to the main parking lot; the
students lived on the other side, where little parking could be found.
Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, the
father of the two women who were killed, said Yusor had told him that she and
her husband had been harassed for their
appearance by a neighbor who was wearing a gun on his belt. On his Facebook
page, Mr. Hicks recently posted a photograph of what he said was his .38-caliber,
five-shot revolver.
A friend of Yusor said she knew that
Mr. Hicks had complained to the couple
before about making noise and the use of
parking spaces by their visitors, and that
he once came to their door carrying a rifle.
It is not clear whether they ever called the police about the altercations.
Their Facebook pages and other material online show a cheerful threesome
who were devoted to family and charitable
work. Mr. Barakat was a second-year student at the university’s graduate school of
dentistry, and his wife was set to enroll in
the same school later this year. Her sister
was an undergraduate at North Carolina
State University who had recently won an
award for her artistic talents.
“They were gems of their communities and left a lasting impression on the
people around them,” Suzanne Barakat, a
sister of Deah Barakat, said Wednesday,
reading a brief statement while flanked by
several tearful family members. “We are
still in a state of shock and will never be
able to make sense of this horrendous tragedy.”
Mr. Hicks appeared to have a deep
dislike of all religion. On his Facebook
page, nearly all of his posts expressed support for atheism, criticism of Christian
conservatives or both.
Last month, he posted a photograph
that said, “Praying is pointless, useless,
narcissistic, arrogant, and lazy; just like
the imaginary god you pray to.”
Mr. Hicks’s wife, Karen, insisted at
a news conference that her husband was
not a bigot. “I can say with absolute belief
that this incident had nothing to do with
religion or the victims’ faith, but it was
related to a longstanding parking dispute
that my husband had with the neighbors,”
she said.
His wife also pointed out his support
for gay rights and the right to abortion.
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