Advice For Beleaguered Battleground State Residents: Leave Town

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Declared and potential candidates are already in New Hampshire. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and others spoke at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit this week in Nashua. Darren McCollester/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Declared and potential candidates are already in New Hampshire. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and others spoke at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit this week in Nashua.

Darren McCollester/Getty Images

We are moving into the election season — feels like we're moving faster and faster, candidates are already in the early states — notably the newly announced Hillary Clinton. She headed right to Iowa for some close encounters with voters. Republicans, reportedly a score or so, are in New Hampshire this weekend, taking turns shaking hands with voters,

I've spent a fair amount of time over the years covering presidential campaigns, and there's an order of march for this parade. First in the "early states" — politicians are thick on the ground. Then the rest of the primaries and caucuses, some more important than others, followed by the conventions, and then the real deal, the race to win the general election.

Along the way, the professional politicians and the people who watch them — including me — are creating categories. Red states and blue states; states always loyal to their parties. A new term, purple states, we used to call them swing states, for those places that might go either way.

And then, the category that will really do the deciding: the so-called "battleground states." Now, if you live in a battleground state, you will have a ringside seat. If you want to see your candidate, you can. If you want to meet him or her, not impossible. If you've always wondered why pollsters never ask you what you think, that's about to change.

Here is my advice for residents of battleground states: think about leaving home. First apply for an absentee ballot — we all must do our civic duty. But if you stay, you will be called on the phone every night by recorded candidates, lots of times, usually during dinner. Your favorite TV shows will be drenched in political ads, the doorbell will keep ringing as nicely-dressed young people try to find out how you're voting. If you go out for coffee, pols will be right there with you.

Now here's something to think about; the sharing economy. Tourists looking for a place to stay can now find an apartment on the Internet. Why not rent your home to a political tourist, or maybe a political operative. And you can keep up with the political news without being pursued by politicians. You can make a little money to offset the expense of your escape. Think about it. Beach or battleground? Beach or battleground?

ISF bust Jordanian prostitution ring

BEIRUT: Internal Security Forces arrested Thursday two Jordanian women and a Jordanian man for allegedly running a prostitution ring, a statement said Saturday.

The two women were arrested in an unidentified hotel where they were set to meet with their clients.

The women were identified as A.M, 24, and Z.A, 19.

The female suspects are accused of fishing for clients using Whatsapp and prostituting themselves in return for a fee ranging between 300 and 500 dollars.

Police also arrested the husband of the 24-year old Jordanian woman, who was identified as M.A..

The man was arrested while dropping off the two women at the unnamed hotel.

During interrogations, the 24-year old Jordanian woman confessed to offering sexual services in return for money and claimed that she was forced into prostitution by her husband who threatened to prevent her from seeing her child if she objected.

The 19-year old also confessed to being a prostitute and said that the Jordanian man facilitated her work.

The man denied both accusations levied against him.

As a result, authorities charged the man with human trafficking and facilitating prostitution.

The 19-year old was charged with prostitution while the 24-year old woman was released because she was deemed to be a victim of human trafficking.

O'Malley, Possible Clinton Rival, Says A President Can't Let Polls Lead

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Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat who is considering a 2016 presidential campaign, is interviewed by NPR's Steve Inskeep. Ariel Zambelich/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Ariel Zambelich/NPR

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat who is considering a 2016 presidential campaign, is interviewed by NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Ariel Zambelich/NPR

Hillary Clinton is inauthentic, not transparent and will have trouble connecting with younger voters. And Republican economic theory is "bull- - - -."

That was essentially the argument Martin O'Malley made in an interview with NPR for why voters should choose him to be president over Clinton — the overwhelming favorite for the 2016 Democratic nomination — as well as whichever candidate survives the Republican primaries.

"The bigger issue is, do we have the ability as a party to lead by our principles?" O'Malley told NPR's Steve Inskeep. "Or are we going to conduct polls every time we try to determine where the middle is on any given day?"

O'Malley argued that as governor of Maryland he, unlike Clinton — who officially declared she is running for president April 12 — has led the charge on some issues dear to progressives.

"I'm glad she's come around to those positions on the issue of marriage equality, which we passed in Maryland," O'Malley said. "I'm glad she's come around to the issue of drivers licenses for new American immigrants so that they can obey the rules of the road. This was something we did also in Maryland. So I'm glad she's come around to those positions."

Clinton, like many other Democrats and the country at large, has evolved in her position on whether gay and lesbian couples can marry. On driver's licenses, during her last run for president, she declined in a 2007 debate to back a proposal by then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to grant licenses for immigrants in the country illegally. Recently she reversed her position and said she was in favor of them.

Politics

As Clinton Defends Email Policy, Department IG Finds Flaws

It's All Politics

Hillary Clinton's Privacy Problem

Clinton found herself embroiled in controversy earlier this year because of her exclusive use of a private email account to conduct official business as secretary of state. She kept a private server in her home and turned over to the State Department what she and her lawyers had determined to be 30,000 work-related emails. The rest of the emails, which she deemed to be private, were deleted.

The scandal is something O'Malley, who said he will decide whether he runs for president by the end of next month, alluded to in why he could better appeal to a younger generation. Though he rarely criticized Clinton directly, his remarks seemed tailored to her.

"I see — having spoken to younger people, people under 40 — where our country's headed, and it is not the sort of siloed and bureaucratic and ideological world of many of us baby boomers and our siblings," he said. "It is a more connected world, and it is a more collaborative and open and transparent world. That's the way I've always governed and that's the way that you have to govern in order to get things done today.

"I believe that differences will become apparent, and over the next month, I am sure she will start to roll out her policy choice."

At 52, O'Malley is 15 years younger than Clinton. She who would be the second-oldest president sworn in for a first term, trailing only Ronald Reagan.

Still, O'Malley said Clinton would be better than any of the likely Republicans running for president. He dismissed Sen. Marco Rubio's assertion that a reason to reduce regulations is because the rich benefit more than the less well off as they are better able to navigate the system. O'Malley also panned collective GOP economic theory as something akin to fertilizer.

"Our tax code's been turned into Swiss cheese," O'Malley said when asked about GOP arguments regarding how to fix things like income inequality. "And, certainly, the concentrated wealth and accumulated power and the systematic deregulation of Wall Street has led to this situation where the economy isn't working for us. All of that is true. But it is not true that regulation holds poor people down or regulation keeps middle class from advancing. That's kind of patently bull- - - -."

NPR's full interview with former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will be broadcast Monday on NPR's Morning Edition.

The Cat-And-Mouse Game Of The Great Clinton Chase, Iowa Edition

"Guy in the orange pants is pretty quick!" remarked MSNBC host Thomas Roberts, as media run after Hillary Clinton's "Scooby" van in Iowa. MSNBC hide caption

itoggle caption MSNBC

Editor's Note: This is a reporter's notebook from NPR's Tamara Keith, who is covering the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The e-mail from the Clinton campaign came late on Monday. Meet at the Panera Bread in Davenport, Iowa, at 9:45 in the morning. I was to be one of about a dozen reporters in a press pool given access to an unpublicized stop. What we quickly learned was that the restaurant was a decoy. The unannounced meet and greet was happening at a small coffee shop 20 minutes away in Le Claire.

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Reporters and campaign staffers rush to their cars to get to Hillary Clinton's first Iowa campaign stop. Tamara Keith/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Tamara Keith/NPR

Reporters and campaign staffers rush to their cars to get to Hillary Clinton's first Iowa campaign stop.

Tamara Keith/NPR

So, we all jumped in our rental cars and dashed to the Jones Street Java House where we packed into the kitchen waiting for the candidate.

One of the store's owners captured the absurdity of the whole thing when she snapped a selfie with the press throng as her backdrop.

When Hillary Clinton kicked off her campaign in Iowa, her team said she would be going small — intimate events, conversations in coffee shops with just a few people. That's easier said than done when the candidate is one of the world's most famous politicians.

When Clinton arrived, she walked up to the counter facing the tangle of reporters, who were really just a small share of those trying to cover her.

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Hillary Clinton meets her barrista. She ordered a chai tea, a caramel latte and a water. Tamara Keith/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Tamara Keith/NPR

Hillary Clinton meets her barrista. She ordered a chai tea, a caramel latte and a water.

Tamara Keith/NPR

She shook hands with a few unsuspecting customers, and then sat down to chat with three invited guests. And that's about the time the press pool was kicked out.

So, I can't tell you if they had a deep discussion about policy, or if one of her guests asked about the personal e-mail server she used while secretary of state. For the campaign, the point was simply to show Clinton relaxed and comfortable, chatting with Iowans. And, for Clinton to get a chance to sit back, relax and hear from Iowans.

It turns out the reporters weren't the only ones given decoy locations. The Democratic activists, who Clinton met with in cafes around the state, weren't told they would be meeting with her until the last minute. They turned over their cell phones before being taken to the meetings.

And such was the game of cat and mouse that characterized Clinton's return to Iowa. This was the campaign's effort to keep things small — to do Iowa the Iowa way.

"In order to have somebody like Hillary Clinton, who is huge, to be able to do that with these intimate settings, they really had to really make some compromises," said Kathie Obradovich, a political columnist for the Des Moines Register. "And one of them was not really telling everyone exactly where she's going to be. One of them was severely restricting the number of people who are in these events."

Reporters flew in from all over the country and around the globe. But because her events were in small venues, many of those reporters were left outside. When the black van she calls Scooby pulled up to the back entrance (instead of the front) of Kirkwood Community College, reporters and photographers gave chase, as captured by MSNBC.

It was comical. And embarrassing. Was that really the Iowa way?

Or was it like taking a gondola ride in the Venetian hotel in Vegas instead of Venice? To hear the people Clinton met with tell it, though, from the inside, it felt like the real deal. Yes, they were all hand-picked. But they weren't all supporters.

Before Clinton had even left the state, her campaign sent out images of front pages from all the local papers. And there she was with a cup of coffee smiling and chatting with Iowans.

The chase continues on Monday in New Hampshire. According to a campaign aide, Clinton will hold roundtable discussions and meet privately with elected officials and Democratic activists around the state. Luckily for the reporters giving chase, New Hampshire is a much smaller state.

Guards freed in Roumieh as fears of riots persist

BEIRUT: Twenty prison guards were released overnight Friday, hours after they had been taken hostage by Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison during a riot protesting strict detention regulations, security sources told The Daily Star.

“The situation in [Roumieh] is back to normal and the officers who were taken hostage have been released,” Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said in remarks published in the As-Safir newspaper Saturday.

Despite the interior minister's assurances, security sources expressed concern over the fraught situation in Block D.

A source said that the 20 guards taken hostage constituted the total number of personnel tasked with monitoring the facility, meaning that prisoners managed to take every single guard in Block D captive during the riots.

"This is evidence of a gap in prison security," the source said.

Another source inside the prison expressed his frustration with the situation since Fridays riots had severely damaged the newly rehabilitated Block D.

Cell doors were broken down, surveillance cameras were destroyed while cell partitions were also removed by the prisoners, the source said, noting that current conditions would allow for very lax security in the facility.

The devestation wrought in Block D is raising fears over the possibility of the resumption of riots, especially since the inmates are no longer confined in cells, the source added.

The release of the captive guards was secured at 2 am Friday after hours of fraught negotiations between security forces and Islamist inmates, according to the security source.

It remains unclear whether the guards were released by force or if an agreement was reached during negotiations.

Riots began during Friday's evening meal, after which inmates are usually confined to their cells for the night.

A number of prisoners in the newly rehabilitated Block D set their mattresses ablaze, and a fire spread throughout the second floor, prompting Civil Defense teams to intervene.

The inmates then escalated their riot by blocking all entrances and taking the guards hostage, the source said.

Anti-riot police stormed Roumieh prison and surrounded all entrances to Block D, issuing a warning to the prisoners.

After negotiations with the prisoners hit a dead end, police units stormed the prison as well.

The riots come in response to the stricter regulations that the prison authorities have adopted to prevent the smuggling of drugs and weapons to inmates.

The security source said the prisoners responsible for the riots were mostly Islamists who had been incarcerated in Roumieh’s notorious Block B building, which was emptied and shut down after a large-scale police operation in January.

Inmates had enjoyed relative autonomy in Block B and prevented security forces from entering.

After the clearing operation took place, television footage showed that prisoners had no cell doors and operated a barber shop and a coffee shop in Block B.

Footage also showed inmates on Block B had a large amount of electronic equipment, including TV sets and mobile phones.

Some of the prisoners are members of Islamist groups and had been imposing Shariah law inside Block B, reports said.

Roumieh prison has been the scene of repetitive riots in past years, with inmates protesting crowded cells and slow trials.

The largest riot occurred in April 2011, when inmates set their beds on fire and broke down cell doors, in protest over subpar living conditions.

Nasrallah’s anti-Saudi tirade draws Hariri rebuke

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah Friday kept up a blistering tirade against Saudi Arabia over its military intervention in Yemen, vowing to maintain his party’s unwavering support for Iranian-backed Houthi rebels regardless of the consequences.

He also blamed Saudi Arabia for the spread of extremist ideology in the Arab world and called on Hezbollah’s rival, the Future Movement, to cooperate to prevent the Yemen conflict from spilling over into Lebanon.

However, Nasrallah’s anti-Saudi diatribe quickly drew a rebuke from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who accused the Hezbollah chief of following in the footsteps of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in making “fabrications, distorting [facts], misleading [the public], [putting on] shows of strength and sectarian incitement.”

“What we heard was a coordinated event of slander and an act of digging up the graves of hatred,” Hariri said on his Twitter account Friday night, shortly after Nasrallah ended his speech. “It has exposed the hatred in [Nasrallah’s] heart against Saudi Arabia, its founder and its leadership.”

Hariri warned that offending the founder of Saudi Arabia, the late King Abdel-Aziz, would trigger a counterattack against the highest spiritual leader in Tehran and the lowest in Beirut’s southern suburbs. “Political tension will not succeed in distorting the image of Saudi Arabia, its role and standing,” he said.

Despite the escalating rhetoric, Hariri said his Future Movement would continue the dialogue with Hezbollah. “Hezbollah’s continuing escalation will not drag us into stances that will undermine the rules of dialogue and civil peace,” he said. “We are guardians to ward off strife in Lebanon and they [Hezbollah] are champions to rescue the Bashar Assad regime and the Iranian role to infiltrate into Yemen and intervene in Arab affairs.”Addressing a Hezbollah rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs to show solidarity with the Yemeni people, Nasrallah waged yet another fierce diatribe against Saudi Arabia, blaming it for the rise of extremist ideology in the region and for funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

“The aim of this rally is to announce our rejection and condemnation of the Saudi-U.S. aggression on Yemen and to declare our solidarity and sympathy with the oppressed people,” Nasrallah said via video link.

“It is our humanitarian, moral and religious duty to take this stance ... Nothing will stop us, neither intimidation nor threats, from continuing our condemnation of the Saudi-U.S. aggression on Yemen and declaring our support for the Yemeni people regardless of the repercussions,” he said.

Nasrallah dismissed Saudi labels that the intervention was designed to defend “Arabism” and confront “Iranian hegemony” in the region. “I said in my previous speech that the real goal of this war is to regain Saudi-U.S. tutelage over Yemen after the Yemeni people have recovered their sovereignty.”

Nasrallah scoffed at claims that the war in Yemen was designed to protect the two holy mosques in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina. “Yes, the two holy mosques are threatened by Daesh [Arabic acronym for ISIS] when the caliphate state announced it would destroy the Kaaba,” Nasrallah said.

But Hariri said Nasrallah’s speech would not affect Saudi-Yemeni ties.

“Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s shared history and destiny is deeper and greater than the speeches of Iranian wailing and crying that we hear from Tehran to Beirut’s southern suburbs,” he said. Hariri linked Nasrallah’s “mad” escalation against Saudi Arabia to operation “Decisive Storm.”

Saudi Arabia is spearheading a regional coalition, which since March 26 has carried out airstrikes as part of operation “Decisive Storm” against the Houthis who overran the capital Sanaa in September and have expanded to other parts of Yemen.

Nasrallah noted that after 22 days of airstrikes, operation “Decisive Storm” has failed to bring Yemeni President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi back to Sanaa or Aden, adding that any political settlement would not reinstate him as president of Yemen. The war has also failed to prevent the spread of rebels across Yemen, he added.

Ruling out a ground operation in Yemen, Nasrallah said the Houthis have not yet responded to the Saudi-led intervention. “The Yemenis have not resorted to their real options while the aggression has reached the end of the line,” he added. Despite voices in the world calling for a political solution in Yemen, he said: “The prospects of a political settlement do not seem to have ripened.”

Referring to soaring tensions between Hezbollah and the Future Movement over Yemen, Nasrallah said the two sides should respect each other’s diverging views over the conflict in order to insulate Lebanon from any spillover.

“We have had our differences over Yemen and over Syria and before that over Lebanon,” he said. “We in Lebanon want to live together and work together. We do not want the dispute over Yemen to spill over into Lebanon.”

Nasrallah said he advocated a Saudi-Iranian dialogue as this would leave a positive impact on regional conflicts. “Iran has for years been seeking to reach understanding with Saudi Arabia but Saudi Arabia has always refused,” he said. “Iran is ready today for dialogue with Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia has defiantly refused because it had failed in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and is searching for success in Yemen before going to the dialogue table.”

French weapons to land in Beirut Monday

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army will receive its first shipment of French weapons Monday, part of a $3-billion military aid package funded by Saudi Arabia to assist the poorly equipped military in its war against jihadi militants.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi said during a tour of the southern border that the armed forces would not, under any circumstances, allow militants to infiltrate Lebanese border towns.

A ceremony to mark the arrival of the shipment will take place at Rafic Hariri International Airport at 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to a statement issued by the Army Friday.

Speaking to The Daily Star, a senior Army source refused to confirm reports that the shipment would include MILAN anti-tank missiles, as claimed by local media outlets Friday.

A source close to French President Francois Hollande told The Daily Star last week that the first shipment of arms would include light equipment and military accessories such as goggles, which will be transported to Beirut from French arms warehouses.

The arming process will take three years, with lighter equipment being shipped first. Heavy weapons such as warplanes and cruisers are currently unavailable, and will take time to be manufactured and transported to Lebanon.

The arrival of the first shipment comes 11 months after an initial agreement was struck by Hollande and the late Saudi king, Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud. The delay in delivering the arms was attributed to technical reasons.

According to the Army statement, Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, Gen. Kahwagi and Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Asiri will attend the ceremony.

In addition to this military aid, Saudi Arabia promised an additional $1 billion to the Lebanese security services last August. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri was tasked with overseeing its disbursement. Hariri currently resides outside Lebanon, but visited Beirut in August to follow up on the implementation of the grant.

The Army is engaged in an ongoing battle against jihadi groups, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, in the rugged mountains outside the northeastern border town of Arsal.

Last summer, jihadi fighters overran Arsal, before withdrawing to its outskirts with more than 30 hostages from the Army and security forces.

There are fears that jihadi groups could attack border towns again and force a decisive battle with the Army this spring, once the snow in the mountains has melted.

But Kahwagi said Friday that the Army would not, under any circumstances, allow militants to infiltrate Lebanese towns, noting that Lebanon’s stability was a priority for the military.

The Army commander spoke during an inspection of military units in the southern district of Marjayoun, where he was updated on security and defense measures being taken to preserve stability on the border.

Kahwagi said the arming and training of Lebanese soldiers undertaken by friendly states was ongoing, adding that it demonstrated the international community’s faith in the Lebanese Army and its combat efficiency.

Kahwagi highlighted the importance of cooperation and coordination between Lebanese troops and UNIFIL in implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

He explained that the difficult circumstances Lebanon were witnessing and regional turmoil affecting the country required the highest level of readiness by the Army to be able to face upcoming challenges and dangers, particularly those posed by Israel and terrorism.

Kahwagi said the Army was now stronger than any time before, and there is consensus among Lebanese factions on backing it.