Transcripts For WHYY PBS NewsHour 20141215 : vimarsana.com

Hundreds of years . Thousands of x years. We dont know. ninrnr woodrufftplus, two years after the Elementary School shooting deaths in newtown, connecticut, why a majority of americans now support gun rights over gun control for the first time in more than twenty years. Those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by c lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your life and become youre own chief life officer. c and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for t8and by contributions to your s station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff a siege that gripped downtown sydney, australia all day and much of the night, is finally over. But it came at the cost of two hostages dead, along with the gunman whod held them. Our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports. Warner the storming of this chocolate cafe in sydney began with loud bangs, in the wee hours of tuesday morning. After police swept into the building, a hostage appeared, helped down the street by officers. Moments later, another hostagec was carried out sobbing. Several other people were wheeled out on stretchers. We have accounted for 17 hostages and that includes five escaped yesterday. We have as you have reported twc deceased amongst and six that were uninjured. We also have a lone gunman who has been shot and killed and we have a male officer shot in the face. Warner it all started 16 hours earlier, during sydneys monday morning rush hour in one of the citys busiest shopping districts. A woman shouted, he has a gun so everyone started running away like crazy. Warner pictures broadcast on australian tv showed hostqgm standing in the window of the Lindt Chocolate cafe with hands up. Some were forced to hold up a black flag inscribed with the islamic declaration of faith. In the ensuing hours, a trickle of hostages fled or were freed. Nearby Office Buildings were evacuated, including sydneys era house. And Prime Minister tony abbott addressed the nation. This is a very disturbing incident. It is profoundly shocking that innocent people should be held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation. It has been a difficult day, yes, it is a day which has tested us, but so far, like australians in all sorts of situations, we have risen to the challenge. Warner hours into the siege, the hostagetaker was identified as j iranianborn man and self proclaimed sheikh, haron monis, who was out on bail on charges of Sexual Assault and accessory to murder. In 2009, monis appeared at a sydney courthouse, for writing abusive letters to families of australian soldiers killed in afghanistan. Ak manistan. This pen is my gun and these words are my bullets. Ill fight with these weapons against oppression. To promote peace. Warner australian soldiers fought with the u. S. Led coalitions in both iraq and afghanistan against alqaeda and the taliban. More recently, australia joined the 60 Nation Coalition to fight Islamic State militants taking part in air strikes over iraq in early october. Just this past september, Australian Police made dozens of raids to disrupt an alleged plot by Islamic State Group Supporters to behead australian citizens. c woodruff well get more from sydney and hear about the u. S. Intelligence take on what happened after the news summary. Oil and stocks picked up today where they left off last week going south. The price of crude sank below 56 a barrel in new york trading. c it hasnt been that low since may of 2009. And, the Dow Jones Industrial average lost almost 100 points to close below 17,181; the nasdaq fell 48 points to close at 4,605; and the s p 500 slipped 12, to 1,989. In the middle east, palestinian officials vowed today to press forward with a new bid for statehood, at the united nations. A spokesman for the fatah movement, led by palestinian president mahmoud abbas, announced the decision to try to force israel to give up the west bank. c translated the palestinian leadership decided to go to the u. N. Security council next wednesday to hold a vote on a draft resolution which calls for the end of the Israeli Occupation of the west bank within two years. The resolution will be submitted to the Security Council after a scheduled meeting has taken place between arab Foreign Ministers and europe ministers with secretary of state johnc kerry. Woodruff a second resolution at the Security Council calls for a twoyear deadline on negotiations about statehood. Israel opposes both resolutions. And today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with secretary of state john kerry in rome. Kerry meets tomorrow with the head palestinian negotiator. The death toll in central indonesia rose to 56 today after a friday mudslide that flattened a farming village. 52 others remained missing. More than 3,000 rescuers used dogs and excavators to comb through wreckage. c teams used their hands to dig out bodies trapped under the mud before carrying them away for burial. Back in this country, president obama saluted troops returning from afghanistan, and marked the end of combat operations there. He traveled to joint basec mcguiredixlandhurst and told some 3,000 soldiers that their willingness to serve overseas has kept the nation safe. Thats the selfless character of our military. Those are the precious gifts that you give america not just this time of year but all year, every year. You never stop serving, you never stop giving, you guys are like santa in fatigues. Woodruff some 13,000 foreign troops, mostly americans, will stay on in afghanistan to Train Afghan Forces and help fight al qaeda and the taliban. Back in washington, democratsc pushed to make the most of the final days of their senate majority. They are trying to get confirmation votes on more than 20 stalled president ial nominations, before going home for good. Come january, republicans wil c control the senate. This was deadline day for americans enrolling for Health Coverage on healthcare. Gov. Customers who want a health plan as of january first have to sign up by midnight, tonight, pacific time. Thats 3 00 a. M. Tuesday, eastern time. The federal site covers 37 states. Other states have their own websites, with different deadlines. Still to come on the newshour. The bloody aftermath of the australian hostage showdown. The political divides in the democratic and republican parties and what they mean for the next congress. An activist stunt may have damaged an ancient nazcac treasure in peru. Shifting american views on guns and violence. From wearable fitness devices to drones, tech trends to watch in 2015. And, the excruciating final hours of president George Washingtons life. c woodruff we return now to the deadly hostage standoff in australia. Stuart cohen is a freelance journalist based in sydney. Hes been reporting the story for npr. I spoke to him a short time ago via skype. Woodruff stuart cohen, thank you for talking with us. First of all, what more can you tell us about this incident and about the ending of t the way police stormed it this cafe at the very end . Well, it was very much a real surprisec ending to to this whole siege. It all happened in the middle of the night when it was looking like things had quieted down for the night. Police were just sort of standing around holding their ground and kind of at the 1 00 in the morning, Police Released the name of the hostagetakerc, haron monis, and then that was a bit of a sur pris there because they were keeping that name under tight wrapped. And then just before 2 00 in the morning, there was a scattering of hostages that suddenly made a break for came running out of the building. And then within 30 seconds to a minute, thats when the chaos began, several grenades were thrown, gunshots were fired and the police stormed the cafe. All very unexpected in the middle of the night like that but as they said in the press conference, they heard shots fired within the cafe, and they decided that was the time they feeded to if they didnt act then, that there was likely going to be more hostages killed. There was some question as to whether or not perhaps the gunman had started falling asleep at that time. And thats when some of thec hostages tried to make a break for it and then the gunshots were fired. But thats all going to come out in the investigation in the coming days. Woodruff now what more is known about the hostage taker . We know hes iranianborn. Yeah, he is iranianborn refugee. He has been in australia since around 1996. And considers himself a cleric. There was a person on Abc Television here in australia saying that he actually was a cleric in iran before he came to australia. But he was sort of a australia. He was considered a bit of a fringe cleric. He was convicted for writing hate mail to sending hate mail to the families of dead australian soldiers who werec killed overseas. And more recently he was charged with multiple counts of Sexual Assault as well as charged as an accessory to the murder of his exwife. So really very much a violent criminal who was out on bail. Woodruff an very quickly, how much is it believed, how wide is it believed that there are represented in australia extreme views as those that i guess were lead to believe mr. Monis had . Well, there are some views as you recall back in september the terrorist raids in sydney there was believed there were people out there who were getting ready to carry out terrorist attacks. Tony abbott the Prime Minister talked about the possibilityc of lone wolf attacksment but when it comes to this man, haron monis, its starting to come out that he was less of an lone wolf terrorist and more of just a really, sort of desperate man whose lawyer told Australian Television that this really was the ago of a desperate man. This was not a person who was carrying out a concerted terrorist attack. But a person who was out on bail for several serious crimes and was really looking at just a desperate act with nothing to lose. Not so much someone who was committing a concerted terrorist attack on behalf of isis or any other organization. Woodruff stuart cohen, joining fuss from sydney. We thank you. Youre welcome, judy. Woodruff and now for a read on how u. S. Intelligence officials are interpreting the australia attack, we turn again to our Margaret Warner. c margaret, we just heard the reporter stuart cohen saying his lawyer says he thinks this was the ago of a desperate man. But there are still questions out there. Su have been talking to top intelligence officials, what do they say . Warner the u. S. Is deferring to Australian Authorities to put together the back story of what took this man over the edge. I mean he clqb ly had antiwestern, proislamic views. So the u. S. Is very close cooperation with them. But they do consider this attack significant, this incident significant. Not as brandnew, but as part of a morphing trend. In other words, after 9 11 for more than a decade the thought was the threats to the u. S. Would come from some kind of al qaeda mastermind large scale plot. Then the lone wolf phenomenon starting in 09. But really starting now with the rise of the is group, specifically calling on their sympathizers to carry out attacks against werners in their home countries. They see, its just racheting up and keeps morphing. The perpetrator may be desperate, incompetent or deranged as they often are. But it still is considered a threat by Senior Intelligence andc counterterrorism officials in the u. S. Government. Woodruff so how much of a threat do they see here in the United States . They are looking for lone wolves all the time, we know that. What is their reading in this country . Well, the reading in this country is that so far so good. There havent been many similar attacks heru. c but they point to a couple of things. In september there was an audio speech given by a spokesman for is calling specifically for attacks on americans, canadians, australians and others, and you have seen a numbering think of those attacks in canada in october. Think of the hatchet attack of somebody who had just converted to islam, attacks four officers on the street in new york in october. So there is that. Secondly, you know, the fbi just two weeks ago last night issued a warning to American Service personnel especially who may be traveling back here for the holidays in their uniforms,c saying they had evidence that isis, they said, or isil, overseas was looking for likeminded individuals here in the United States to attack some of these soldiers. And warranted u. S. Service personnel to be very careful in their own social media postings. So there is definitely a feeling that givenc their more sophisticated social media outreach, the fact that it has become harder and harder to track and stay on top of, that there is a threat. Woodruff so in just a few seconds, why dont they think there have been more of these attacks before . Warner an very quickly, one, they do believe the u. S. Ms. Limb community is better at alerting authorities when a kid seems to be going over the edge. But two, there is incredible u. S. Surveillance. We have been arguing about that for a year and a half now, the tradeoff between privacy and u. S. Security. The u. S. Does collect this metadata. They try to stay on top of who is connecting with whom. They try get not content when they feel they have a ability or the probable cause. But they somebody said to me today, we are lacking the resources to stay on top of this kind of morphing threat. Woodruff Margaret Warner, we thank you, once again. c woodruff the u. S. Senate was working over the weekend and still in session tonight as democrats hope to push through a slate of nominees. Newshour Political Editor Lisa Desjardins reports that the final days of this congress are exposing some telling divides in both parties and a glimpse of whats ahead. Reporter inbetween. Right now, everything at the u. S. Capitol is in an awkward but pivotal inbetween state. The capitol dome is under repair at the same time as the senate and house chambers undergo a reconstruction of power. I didnt write this bill. The Senate Democrats didnt write this bill alone. c its a compromise. Reporter Senate Democrats in their last days in power are grappling with a rare public split, leaders like harry reid and Barbara Mikulski are defending the compromise spending bill that passed this weekend. Its a monumental achievement flip for showing how we can worc together, we can govern and we can get the job done. Reporter the white house joined in too at a Pivotal Moment saying the administration supports passage of the bill but that the administration objects to the inclusion of ideological and special interest measures. That led to a very rare split. Im enormously disappointed that the white house feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi wasnt alone. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren also rallied the left condemning the bills provisions that help banks. c the American People did not send us here to work for wall street banks, they sent us here to work for them. Reporter in the end, the more liberal voices lost, the bill passed. The yeas have 56, the nays have 40. Reporter meantime, the righc saw its own fissure exposed again this weekend. If you believe president obamas amnesty is unconstitutional, vote yes. If you believe president obamas amnesty is consistent with the constitution, then vote no. Reporter texas republican senator ted cruz, against the wishes of g. O. P. Leadership, forced a weekend vote on immigration, his motion failed. But notably, it forced the senate to meet saturday, allowing harry reid to out maneuver republicans and schedule votes on key nominees. Like anthony blinken, who is up for deputy secretary of state. Hes opposed by republicans in part due to his role in bringing american troops out of iraq. Such nominations will likely bec democrats last wins before they move between being in power and how they will operate as the minority come january. Lisa desjardins pbs newshour. Woodruff joining us now to analyze this congress, how it performed, and the emerging faces. Todd zwilich is the washington correspondent for p. R. I. s the takeaway. And amy walter is National Editor for the cook political report. Welcome to you both. Hi, judy. So lets talk about where, as we watch what happened in this congress over the last few days, amy, the role of harry reid, the role of nancy pelosi, what does it is a about what the role is going to be going forward. Pelosi has already been in the minority. Harry reid is now going to be in the minority. There seems to be a big divide between the pragmatists and purists. The pragmatists were like harry reid in the white house saying weve got to deal. It is not the best deal in the world. c but its better than anything were going to get once were in the minority. So lets just all agree to push this forward. The purists which in the nancy pelosi category and a lot of the liberals that you saw withc Elizabeth Warren