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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) —
The man accused of killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic stunned a courtroom Wednesday when he declared himself a "warrior for the babies" and said he was guilty and won't go to trial.
Robert Lewis Dear, 57, made the outburst before he was formally charged with 179 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and other crimes.
Bearded, unkempt and cuffed at the wrists and ankles, Dear repeatedly disrupted the hourlong hearing, interrupting his public defender, Daniel King, and objecting to King's attempts to limit publicity in the case.
King — who represented Colorado theater shooter James Holmes — has asked the judge to impose a gag order on participants in the Planned Parenthood case before a trial.
"You'll never know what I saw in that clinic. Atrocities. The babies. That's what they want to seal," Dear shouted at one point, prompting a deputy to squeeze his shoulder in an effort to quiet him.
"Seal the truth, huh? Kill the babies. That's what Planned Parenthood does," Dear yelled later.
King did not address the outbursts but raised doubts about whether Dear is competent to stand trial, saying defense attorneys wanted investigators to turn over evidence as soon as possible so they could assess the "depth of his mental illness."
"Do you know who this lawyer is?" Dear then exclaimed of King. "He's the lawyer for the Batman shooter. Who drugged him all up. And that's what they want to do to me."
Holmes was on anti-psychotic medication during his trial this year in the 2012 shootings that killed 12 people and wounded 70. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Colorado Springs police have refused to discuss a potential motive in the Nov. 27 attack, which wounded nine. But even before Wednesday's startling outbursts, there was mounting evidence that Dear was deeply concerned about abortion.
He rambled to authorities about "no more baby parts" after his arrest. And a law enforcement official told The Associated Press this week that Dear asked at least one person in a nearby shopping center for directions to the clinic before opening fire. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke this week to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, Dear interjected as Judge Gilbert A. Martinez discussed a pretrial publicity order, saying, "Could you add the babies that were supposed to be aborted that day? Could you add that to the list?"
At one point, Dear yelled simply, "Protect babies!"
Later, he accused his attorneys of being in "cahoots" with Planned Parenthood to "shut me up."
"I want the truth to come out. There's a lot more to this than for me to go silently to the grave," he shouted.
Dear has lived in remote locations without electricity or water and was known to hold survivalist ideas.
One of his three ex-wives, Barbara Mescher Micheau of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, said he vandalized a South Carolina abortion clinic at least 20 years earlier, announcing to her that he had put glue in the locks of its doors, a common protest technique among activists trying to shut down abortion clinics.
Killed in the attack were Garrett Swasey, 44, a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs officer who rushed to the scene; Ke'Arre Stewart, 29, an Iraq war veteran who was accompanying someone at the clinic; and Jennifer Markovsky, 35, who also accompanied a friend at the clinic.
Five other officers were shot and wounded in the rampage.
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said Monday that responding officers rescued 24 people from inside the clinic building and helped remove 300 people from surrounding businesses where they had been hiding while the shooting unfolded.
Martinez set the next hearing for Dear for Dec. 23. A first-degree murder conviction can lead to life in prison or the death penalty.
At the end of Wednesday's hearing, the judge looked at Dear and said, "Are you finished?"
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) —
A Minnesota man charged with conspiring to help the Islamic State group was ordered held Thursday pending a detention hearing next week.
Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, 20, of Eagan, made his initial appearance in federal court on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing such support.
Court documents allege Warsame, who was arrested Wednesday night, tried to help other young men from Minnesota's Somali community travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State group. Nine others in that group were charged earlier.
Warsame gave a slight wave to family and friends gathered for his initial appearance. His relatives declined to comment as they left the courthouse.
During the hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis asked Warsame if he had examined the charging document. He replied, "Not really."
Warsame was deemed qualified for a federal defender after telling the judge he had no assets and his only income was a $14-an-hour job at a private security company, Securitas.
Chief federal defender Katherian Roe represented Warsame at the hearing but said he would be assigned another lawyer going forward. Roe told the judge that he had testified before a federal grand jury, but she didn't give details.
Another hearing was set for Tuesday.
Securitas officials didn't immediately return a phone call Thursday seeking information on Warsame.
Court documents allege Warsame and others had planned to go to Syria by way of Mexico. According to an FBI agent's affidavit, one man who was planning to leave for Syria appointed Warsame to replace him as "emir," or leader, of the group.
"As the new emir, Warsame immediately encouraged those with passports and money to travel to Syria by the end of the upcoming summer," the affidavit said.
The document says Warsame gave another man $200 for an expedited passport application. Warsame also applied for a U.S. passport on an expedited basis but was denied. Warsame eventually obtained a passport in August 2014, the affidavit said.
One man booked a May 2014 flight from Minneapolis to Istanbul, Turkey, with the intention of going on to Syria, the document said. The day before the man was to leave, Warsame accompanied him and two others to a library where the man printed out his itinerary. The four then went shopping for items needed for travel, according to the affidavit. The man who planned to fly to Turkey was stopped at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by FBI agents, who prevented him from boarding his flight.
By April 2015, the document says, Warsame changed his plan to travel via Mexico and instead planned to go with his family to East Africa, then either break free of them and travel from there to Syria, or wait in Somalia for a time when he believed the Islamic extremist al-Shabab group would join forces with the Islamic State group.
Five Minnesota men are scheduled to stand trial in May on charges including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder outside the U.S., which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The men have been described as friends in Minnesota's Somali community who recruited and inspired each other to join the Islamic State. Some of them communicated with Islamic State members overseas, some took steps to get fake passports, and some played paintball to prepare for combat, prosecutors say.
Three other members of the group have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and are awaiting sentencing. Authorities say the ninth is in Syria.
About a dozen Minnesota residents have traveled to Syria to join jihadist groups there since late 2013. In addition, more than 22 young men from Minnesota's Somali community have left the state since 2007 to join al-Shabab in Somalia.
JERUSALEM (AP) —
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump canceled plans Thursday to visit Israel, a trip for which even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — widely seen as an ally of the Republican Party — had shown little enthusiasm.
Trump announced his decision on Twitter, saying he would reschedule "at a later date after I become President of the U.S." Appearing on Fox News, he said there were many reasons for the move, among them that he didn't want to put Netanyahu in a bind.
"In fact, I did a campaign ad for him, and he's a good man, but I didn't want to put him under pressure," Trump said. "I also did it because I'm in the midst of a powerful campaign that's going very well."
Trump, who has maintained a wide lead in most early preference polling, unleashed an uproar this week when he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. The billionaire businessman has cast the idea as a prudent step in the wake of the mass shooting by an Islamic militant couple of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, while critics call it both racist and unconstitutional.
Trump also drew criticism from some American Jews for his comments last week to a gathering of Jewish donors. He was booed after refusing to endorse Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel — a key Israeli position. Some of his other comments were seen by some as promoting Jewish stereotypes.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a briefing that "most people are relieved that he's reconsidered" the visit to Israel.
"The situation in Israel is particularly volatile, and so I think in this case, his decision to reconsider that trip is a good outcome for all of those involved," Earnest added.
From the day he launched his candidacy, Trump's campaign has been driven by one controversy after the next. There was his assertion that that Mexican government was sending its rapists and criminals across the border; his statement that Sen. John McCain wasn't a war hero because he was captured; his feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly; a series of factually inaccurate remarks; and the time he called Iowa voters stupid.
Each time, Trump's comments have drawn fury from his opponents and prompted pundits to predict his pending demise. But each time, Trump has emerged unscathed.
It remains unclear whether his proposal on Muslim immigration will have any long-lasting impact on his campaign. But overseas, the Israel trip is just one of many casualties.
A visit to Israel is considered a rite of passage for U.S. presidential candidates as they seek to burnish their foreign policy credentials and appeal to Jewish American voters, and Netanyahu has hosted scores of candidates and elected American officials over the years.
During the current campaign, Trump's Republican rivals have questioned his foreign policy bona fides, suggesting he lacks the depth and diplomatic skill to tackle crises in the Mideast and elsewhere. Trump has argued his vast experience brokering business deals qualifies him to negotiate with foreign leaders, and he has cited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a prime example.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Trump said of potentially brokering a peace deal in the Middle East, "If you can make that deal, you can make any deal. It's probably the toughest deal to make."
In normal circumstances, Netanyahu, who thrives in the public limelight and tends to agree with Republican positions on economic and security issues, would have welcomed Trump. Like the other Republican candidates, Trump — whose daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism — has long worked to portray himself as a strong supporter of Israel.
But Trump's comments about Muslims had put the Israeli leader in a bind.
Throughout a three-decade political career, Netanyahu has been a leading voice warning of the dangers of Islamic extremism. Yet he has tried to be careful about differentiating between Islamic extremists and the Muslim religion. Nearly 20 percent of Israel's population is Muslim.
Early this year, Netanyahu was harshly criticized when he warned that Arabs were voting "in droves" as he made an urgent election-day plea to supporters to go to the polls.
Those comments remain fresh in the minds of Israeli Arabs, and cozying up to Trump would have risked drawing renewed accusations of racism, particularly if the outspoken real estate mogul and reality TV star managed to offend Muslims.
Opposition lawmaker Michal Rozin of the dovish Meretz party on Wednesday initiated a petition urging Netanyahu to condemn Trump's "racist" comments and to cancel the meeting unless the American retracts them. Some 37 lawmakers, nearly a third of the parliament, signed the petition.
In a statement Wednesday, Netanyahu rejected Trump's comments about Muslims, saying Israel "respects all religions." Although he had said he would go ahead with the Dec. 28 meeting, he stressed it did not amount to an endorsement of Trump.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media, said there had been no Israeli pressure on Trump to cancel. Likewise, Marc Zell, co-chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, said there was "none whatsoever" from his organization, which represents Republican supporters among the country's large American expatriate community.
"He's welcome to visit Israel, but I think it's better that he didn't come because his visit here would have been marred by a loud dissenting voice coming from all sectors of the population, including me," Zell said.
"I don't believe he's capable of being the president of the United States because I think he lacks good judgment," he added, stressing that he was voicing a personal opinion.
Palestinian officials said there were no plans for Trump to meet with them, and they welcomed news of his cancellation.
"The world public opinion in America and in Europe and the Arab and Islamic world, and even in Israel, had announced Trump persona non grata," said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official in the West Bank. She said his "culture of hatred" threatened the entire world.