US House Speaker not ready to back Trump as Republican nominee

Washington, May 6, 2016, (PTI):

US House Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican official of the nation has said that he is "not ready" yet to back his party's presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.
"I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now," Ryan told CNN in an interview.

Ryan's stunning statement had its immediate ripple effect inside the party and might have lasting impact on Trump's presidential ambitions, if the division within the Republican establishment are not shorted out soon.

Ryan said the onus for uniting the party now lies on Trump, who after his Indiana primary win and withdrawal from the race by the two opponents –- Ted Cruz and John Kasich -– is the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican party.

"And I hope to (support Trump), though, and I want to. But I think what is required is that we unify the party. And I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee," Ryan said.

"This is the party of Lincoln, of Reagan, of Jack Kemp. And we don't always nominate a Lincoln and a Reagan every four years, but we hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln- and Reagan-esque," the House Speaker said.

He hoped that the candidate "advances the principles of our party and appeals to a wide, vast majority of Americans".

However, Trump fired back immediately.
"I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda. Perhaps in the future we can work together and come to an agreement about what is best for the American people. They have been treated so badly for so long that it is about time for politicians to put them first!" Trump said.

The tensions between Trump and Ryan go beyond temperament, The Washington Post reported.

"They have philosophical differences about the size and scope of government. Ryan champions free-trade agreements, international military engagement, and sweeping overhauls of Social Security and Medicare, whereas Trump is an avowed opponent of recent trade deals, foreign interventions and proposed changes to entitlement programs," the Post reported.

"The GOP divide over Ryan's decision not to board the Trump Train reflects the broader civil war raging within the Grand Old Party as it prepares to coronate a billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star with zero political experience and a questionable conservative record," The Hill reported.

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Former CIA chief in Pak suspected of being poisoned by ISI

Washington, May 6, 2016, (PTI):

A former CIA station chief in Pakistan, who presided over the May 2011 raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden at his hideout in Abbottabad, is believed to have been poisoned by the powerful ISI, a media report said today.
Mark Kelton was removed from Islamabad two months after the raid on bin Laden's compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad, citing health concerns.

"Mark Kelton retired from the CIA, and his health has recovered after he had abdominal surgery. But agency officials continue to think that it is plausible — if not provable — that Kelton's sudden illness was somehow orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as the ISI," The Washington Post said in an exclusive investigative report.

A spokesman of the Pakistani Embassy here, however, described the report as fictional.

According to The Post, Kelton, declined multiple requests for an interview, but in a brief exchange by phone he said that the cause of his illness "was never clarified".
He said that he was not the first to suspect that he had been poisoned.

"The genesis for the thoughts about that didn't originate with me," he was quoted as saying.

The Post said such a disclosure is a disturbing postscript to the sequence of events surrounding the bin Laden operation five years ago and adds new intrigue to a counterterrorism partnership that has often been consumed by conspiracy theories.

"Even if the poisoning suspicion is groundless, the idea that the CIA and its station chief considered the ISI capable of such an act suggests that the breakdown in trust was even worse than widely assumed," The Post said.

According to the daily, current and former US intelligence officials said that the ISI has been linked to numerous plots against journalists, diplomats and other perceived adversaries and that the spy agency's animosity toward Kelton was intense.

Meanwhile, A CIA spokesman said there is no evidence that Pakistani authorities poisoned a US official serving in the country.

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Facebook face-tagging in photos targeted in lawsuit

San Francisco, May 6, 2016 (AFP)

A US judge has rejected a request by Facebook to toss out a civil suit accusing it of violating privacy with face-recognition software to help "tag" people in pictures.

A lawsuit filed by three Illinois residents under the auspices of the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act can proceed, US District Court Judge James Donato said.

"The court accepts as true plaintiffs' allegations that Facebook's face recognition technology involves a scan of face geometry that was done without plaintiffs' consent," he said in the ruling.

It appeared that legislators in Illinois passed the act to address emerging biometric technology such as Facebook face-recognition software at issue in the case, according to the judge.

Facebook had argued in a motion to dismiss that analyzing uploaded photographs did not qualify as biometric data and that the Illinois law did not apply.

The leading social network had modified its terms of service to state that California law applies, but timing and circumstances permit the application of the Illinois act in the suit, the 24-page ruling said.

The suit accuses Facebook of unlawfully collecting and storing biometric data taken from faces in pictures "secretly and without consent" for a feature that lets people "tag" friends by name at the social network.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs contend that Facebook is violating Illinois law because biometric identifiers in the form of facial geometry are gathered, stored and then used for tagging suggestions at the California-based social network without permission.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, comes as Internet titans such as Facebook, Google, and others are investing heavily in artificial intelligence to better recognize, understand and cater to users of online offerings.

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US Congress seeks to block USD 450 million aid to Pakistan

Washington, May 6, 2016 (PTI)

 The US Congress has initiated a move to block USD 450 million in aid to Pakistan for failing to "demonstrate its commitment" and taking action against the Haqqani terror network.
The provision in the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2017, if passed by the Congress, would not allow the US Government to waive this condition in 'national interest'.

According to NDAA 2017 as passed by the House Armed Services Committee last week, of the total amount of reimbursement and support authorised for Pakistan during the period beginning on October 1, 2016, and ending on December 31, 2017, USD 450 million would not be eligible for a national security waiver unless the Secretary of Defence certifies that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations against the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan.

The Defence Secretary also needs to certify that Pakistan is demonstrating commitment to prevent the Haqqani Network from using North Waziristan as a safe haven and is actively coordinating with Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, including the Haqqani Network, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

There is similar certification requirement in the current fiscal 2016 ending on September 31, 2016, but the amount is USD 300 million.

Defence Secretary has not been able to give necessary certification for the release of such a fund to Pakistan so far.

The House Armed Services Committee says that it will continue to review the reimbursements made to Pakistan and how it comforts with the future of US policy, including key counterterrorism and security objectives, in the region.

It also asked the Secretary of Defence to notify the congressional defence committees prior to making any reimbursement to Pakistan for any logistical, military or other support.

It further extends the requirement for the Secretary of Defense to certify, prior to making any reimbursement to Pakistan, that Pakistan is maintaining security along the Ground Lines of Communications, taking demonstrable steps to support counterterrorism operations, disrupting cross border attacks and countering the threat of improvised explosive devices.

The move comes days after the US told Pakistan to put forward its national funds to buy eight F-16s worth USD 700 million after some top Senators put a hold on the use of American tax payers' money to partially finance them. 

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Top reason why Americans will vote for Donald Trump: To stop Hillary Clinton

May 6, 2016, New York, Reuters

 The U.S. presidential election may turn out to be one of the world's biggest un-popularity contests.

Nearly half of American voters who support either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump for the White House said they will mainly be trying to block the other side from winning, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday.

The results reflect a deepening ideological divide in the United States, where people are becoming increasingly fearful of the opposing party, a feeling worsened by the likely matchup between the New York real estate tycoon and the former first lady, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"This phenomenon is called negative partisanship," Sabato said. "If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn't have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton."

Trump has won passionate supporters and vitriolic detractors for his blunt talk and hardline proposals, including his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, his vow to force Mexico to pay for a border wall, and his promise to renegotiate international trade deals.

Former Secretary of State Clinton's appeal to voters seeking continuity with President Barack Obama's policies, has won her a decisive lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but finds strong opponents among those disillusioned by what they see as lack of progress during Obama's tenure.

The poll asked likely voters about the primary motivation driving their support of either Trump or Clinton heading into the general election on Nov. 8.

About 47 percent of Trump supporters said they backed him primarily because they don't want Clinton to win. Another 43 percent said their primary motivation was a liking for Trump's political positions, while 6 percent said they liked him personally. Similar responses prevailed among Clinton supporters.

About 46 percent said they would vote for her mostly because they don't want to see a Trump presidency, while 40 percent said they agreed with her political positions, and 11 percent said they liked her personally.

The April 29-May 5 poll included 469 likely Trump voters and 599 likely Clinton voters. It has a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. (For results, click http://tmsnrt.rs/1TLCbqX)

To be sure, voters' opinions could change over the next several months. Candidates will be feted at party conventions, will square off in a series of national debates, and will be targeted by millions of dollars worth of advertisements.

But the negative atmosphere is likely to reign, says Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University professor who has studied the rise of negative partisanship in America.

Both campaigns probably will decide their best strategy is to work even harder to vilify each other, he said.

"It's going to get very, very negative," he added. That would play into a longer-term trend.

A 2014 study by Pew Research Center found that Democrats and Republicans have shown increasingly negative views toward each other over the past few decades. In 2014 more than a quarter of Democrats, and more than a third of Republicans, viewed the opposition as "a threat to the nation's well-being."

Barbara Monson, 59, a Republican from Murray, Utah, is among them. "No matter who the Republican (nominee) is, I would have voted for him," poll respondent Monson said of her support for Trump. "It's never going to be Clinton. Never."

Jo-Anne Michaud, 69, an independent voter from Abingdon, Maryland, told Reuters she would try to keep an open mind. Although she has voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the past, she feels repelled by Trump.

"I used to like the guy when I watched his show," Michaud said. "But I just hate the way he talks now. I don't think he's a nice person deep down inside."

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