U.S. Attorney General William Barr says 21 Saudi military trainees are being sent home following a probe into a deadly shooting at a Florida Naval base that was carried out by a Saudi pilot.Barr told reporters the 21 have been disenrolled from training programs in the United States.He said in investigation has found that 17 of them made jihadi or anti-American comments on social media.  Barr said 15 of them had some contact with child pornography though prosecutors they could not be prosecuted under U.S. law.”This was an act of terror,” Barr said about the attack on the base in Pensacola last month that killed three people.  The FBI officially identified the shooter who killed three people as Mohammed Alshamrani, a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force who was a student naval flight officer at the Naval Aviation Schools Command at Naval Air Station Pensacola.FILE – The main gate at Naval Air Station Pensacola is seen on Navy Boulevard in Pensacola, Florida, March 16, 2016.
…

Democrat Cory Booker dropped out of the presidential race Monday, ending a campaign whose message of unity and love failed to resonate in a political era marked by chaos and anxiety.His departure now leaves a field that was once the most diverse in history with just one remaining African American candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.Since launching his campaign last February, Booker, a U.S. senator from New Jersey, struggled to raise the type of money required to support a White House bid. He was at the back of the pack in most surveys and failed to meet the polling requirements needed to participate in Tuesday’s debate. Booker also missed last month’s debate and exits the race polling in low single digits in the early primary states and nationwide.In an email to supporters, Booker said that he “got into this race to win” and that his failure to make the debates prevented him from raising raise the money required for victory.“Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win — money we don’t have, and money that is harder to raise because I won’t be on the next debate stage and because the urgent business of impeachment will rightly be keeping me in Washington,” he said.Booker had warned that the looming impeachment trial of President Donald Trump would deal a “big, big blow” to his campaign by pulling him away from Iowa in the final weeks before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses. He hinted at the challenges facing his campaign last week in an interview on The Associated Press’ “Ground Game” podcast.
 
“If we can’t raise more money in this final stretch, we won’t be able to do the things that other campaigns with more money can do to show presence,” he said.In his email to supporters, Booker pledged to do “everything in my power to elect the eventual Democratic nominee for president,” though his campaign says he has no immediate plans to endorse a candidate in the primary.It’s a humbling finish for someone who was once lauded by Oprah Winfrey as the “rock star mayor” who helped lead the renewal of Newark, New Jersey. During his seven years in City Hall, Booker was known for his headline-grabbing feats of local do-goodery, including running into a burning building to save a woman, and his early fluency with social media, which brought him 1.4 million followers on Twitter when the platform was little used in politics. His rhetorical skills and Ivy League background often brought comparisons to President Barack Obama, and he’d been discussed as a potential presidential contender since his arrival in the Senate in 2013.Now, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has mastered the art of the selfie on social media. Another former mayor, Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, is seen as the freshest face in the field. And Booker’s message of hope and love seemed to fall flat during an era characterized perhaps most strongly by Democratic fury over the actions of the Trump administration.An early focus on building out a strong and seasoned campaign operation in Iowa and South Carolina may have hampered his campaign in the long run, as the resources he spent early on staff there left him working with a tight budget in the later stages of the primary, when many of his opponents were going on air with television ads. That meant that even later in the campaign, after he had collected some of the top endorsements in Iowa and visited South Carolina almost more than any other candidate, a significant portion of the electorate in both states either said they were unfamiliar with his campaign or viewed him unfavorably.On the stump, Booker emphasized his Midwestern connections — often referencing the nearly 80 family members he has still living in Iowa when he campaigned there — and delivered an exhortation to voters to use “radical love” to overcome what he considered Trump’s hate. But he rarely drew a contrast with his opponents on the trail, even when asked directly, and even some of Booker’s supporters worried his message on Trump wasn’t sharp enough to go up against a Republican president known for dragging his opponents into the mud.
 
Booker struggled to land on a message that would resonate with voters. He’s long been seen as a progressive Democrat in the Senate, pushing for criminal justice reform and marijuana legalization. And on the campaign trail, he proposed establishing a $1,000 savings account for every child born in the U.S. to help close the racial wealth gap.He was among the first candidates to release a gun control plan, and at the time it was the most ambitious in the field, as it included a gun licensing program that would have been seen as political suicide just a decade before. He also released an early criminal justice reform plan that focused heavily on addressing sentencing disparities for drug crimes.But he also sought to frame himself as an uplifting, unifying figure who emphasized his bipartisan work record. That didn’t land in a Democratic primary that has often rewarded candidates who promised voters they were tough-minded fighters who could take on Trump.Booker’s seat is up for a vote this year, and he will run for reelection to the Senate. A handful of candidates has launched campaigns for the seat, but Booker is expected to have an easy path to reelection.Booker’s exit from the presidential race further narrows the once two dozen-strong field, which now stands at 12 candidates. 
…

U.S. troops cleared rubble and debris from a military base housing American soldiers in western Iraq on Monday, days after it was struck by a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles in a major escalation between the two longtime foes.The Iranian attack was in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport that killed a top Iranian commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, prompting angry calls to avenge his slaying.An Associated Press crew touring the Ain al-Asad base Monday saw large craters in the ground and damaged military trailers as well as forklifts lifting rubble and loading it onto trucks from a large area the size of a football stadium.The air base in Iraq’s western Anbar province is a sprawling complex about 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of Baghdad shared with the Iraqi military and housing about 1,500 members of the U.S. military and the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group.It was struck by Iranian missiles on Wednesday in Iran’s most direct assault on America since the 1979 seizing of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The proxy attack raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East although both sides have since then indicated there would not be further retaliation on either side, at least in the short term.The U.S. said no American soldiers were killed or wounded in the Iranian attack.“There were more than 10 large missiles fired and the impact hit several areas along the airfield,”said Col. Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria. He added that the explosions created large craters, knocked over concrete barriers and destroyed facilities that house dozens of soldiers.Although no soldiers were killed, he said several were treated for concussions from the blast and are being assessed by professionals. Myles added that troops received notification the missiles were on their way thanks to early warning systems, and troops were moved out of harm’s way. He described soldiers who lived through the attack as “warriors.”The Ain al-Asad air base was first used by American forces after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, and later saw American troops stationed there amid the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.President Donald Trump visited the sprawling air base in December 2018, making his first presidential visit to troops in the region. Vice President Mike Pence has also visited the base. 
…

Iranian Americans are closely watching the unfolding situation in their home country as protests continue in Tehran over  the Iran military’s admission on Saturday that it mistakenly shot down a civilian Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 on board.Many Iranian Americans have taken to the streets to express their support for the Iranian people and their demands in the ongoing protests in Iran.On Sunday, dozens of Iranian-American activists gathered in Washington D.C, to honor the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash and to show support for their fellow countrymen who reportedly have been facing a violent government crackdown on recent protests.”I’m here to support the Iranian people [and] be their voice,” said Monir, an Iranian-American, who only gave her first name. “If you go in the streets  [in Iran], you might be jailed, you might be killed in the streets, and these people are so brave,” she said as she was standing with a crowd in downtown Washington.خطاب به رهبران ايران: معترضان خود را نكشيد. هزاران تن تاكنون به دست شما كشته يا زنداني شده اند، و جهان نظاره گر است. مهمتر از ان، ايالات متحده نظاره گر است. اينترنت را دوباره وصل كنيد و به خبرنگاران اجازه دهيد ازادانه حركت كنند! كشتار مردم بزرگ ايران را متوقف كنيد! Candles and flowers are displayed with condolences offered to the families of the passengers of the Ukrainian jetliner shot down by Iran by accident at a memorial at the “2020 LA Convention for Free Iran,” Jan. 11, 2020.”One of the biggest points of contention has been this idea of wanting to support the Iranian protest movement against the Islamic regime in Iran while the same time not beating the drums of war,” she told VOA in a phone interview.Demands  evolvedSome activists said demands of Iranian protesters have evolved over the years from basic reforms to regime change.”If you listen to people on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, it is clear that people are fed up with this regime,” said Ahmad Batebi, a human rights activist based in Washington, who was imprisoned in Iran for his role in a student protest movement in 1999.”In today’s Iran, there are two governments,” he told VOA. “One that is just a façade, which is represented by people like [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and [Foreign Minister Javad] Zarif.”The other is the government that works in the shadow and holds real power is represented by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Batebi said.In April 2019, the U.S. government designated the IRGC a terrorist organization.  Lobbying lawmakers  Sadegh Amiri, another Iranian-American activist who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, said that his objective is to raise more awareness among the American public about what has actually been happening in Iran.“”We reach out to local lawmakers [in Maryland] and ordinary people to tell them Iran is not what they see on television,” he said. “We would like people in America to understand (that) Iranian people wish to live in freedom, and that this current regime in Tehran doesn’t represent them,” he told VOA.People gather for a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the Ukraine plane crash, at the gate of Amrikabir University that some of the victims of the crash were former students of, in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11, 2020.Ali Afshari of the Iranians for Secularism and Democracy, an advocacy group based in the U.S., says Iranian Americans could be effective in two ways in response to the latest events in Iran.  “First we, in the diaspora, need to amplify the voices of protesters on the ground,” he told VOA, adding that, “we need to empower people so that can sustain their demands against the Iranian regime.””Second we need to be more active in terms of reaching out to lawmakers and policymakers in Washington. Iranian Americans have a historic responsibility to convey accurate information and facts from inside Iran to people in the United States,” Afshari added.  DivisionsAnalysts say there are many differences among Iranian Americans that reflect their political, ethnic and cultural diversity.  Shahed Alavi, an Iranian political analyst based in Washington, says when it comes to attitude towards the Iranian government, there are three types of people within the Iranian American community.”There are those who fully support a regime change in Tehran and hope this ongoing protest movement will turn into something bigger,” he said.  “There are others who believe that Iranian people have the right to protest, but they don’t think the U.S. should interfere in Iranian affairs.”However, he added, “the silent majority among the Iranian community in America refuses to get involved or even have an opinion about that’s happening in Iran, because they visit Iran and still have relatives there. So they simply fear retribution from the Iranian regime.”VOA’s Persian Service, Cindy Saine  and  Saqib  Ul  Islam contributed to this story from Washington.  
…