Republican Candidates Respond Harshly To Obama’s Primetime Terrorism Address

In quick succession Sunday night, Americans were offered two visions on the modern war on terror.

President Barack Obama, in a primetime address standing in the Oval Office, told of a fight fully engaged, with victory ahead as long as the nation sticks to its values and doesn’t alienate Muslims. “Let’s not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear, that we have always met challenges, whether war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks, by coming together around our common ideals as one nation and one people,” Obama said. “So long as we stay true to that tradition, I have no doubt that America will prevail.”

Moments later, by tweet, press release and cable news appearances, Republican presidential candidates responded by making clear that the nation was not at the moment united. They argued for new leadership in the White House, squabbled amongst themselves and described in vague terms a vision of a more aggressive military and rhetorical approach to the Islamic State, which is often referred to by its acronyms, ISIS or ISIL.

“President Obama has finally been forced to abandon the political fantasy he has perpetuated for years that the threat of terrorism was receding,” Jeb Bush said in a statement.

“The reason ISIL exists is because of President Obama, not President Bush,” argued South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who wants the U.S. to deploy 10,000 troops on the ground to lead an army ten times that size against the group.

In an appearance on Fox News, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio recounted stories of meeting Americans who were pushing off travel around New Years or avoiding crowded malls during the holiday shopping season. “I fear [Obama] may have made things worse in the mind of many Americans,” he said, repeating many of the same fears Obama had tried to alleviate.

Saul Loeb—Pool/Bloomberg/ Getty ImagesU.S. President Barack Obama delivers an address to the nation in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015.

Republicans quickly focused their criticism on Obama for his focus on gun control and anti-discrimination in his remarks. Rubio declared it “cynicism” while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz lambasted Obama for injecting politics into the counter-terrorism effort.

“If I am elected President, I will direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS,” Cruz said in a statement. “And I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country. Nothing President Obama said tonight will assist in either case.”

On Twitter, GOP front-runner Donald Trump critiqued the production of Obama’s address—the President stood in the Oval Office instead of sitting behind a desk—and the President’s policy of referring to the Islamic State as ISIL, using a less-common, but more accurate acronym for the group. “Is that all there is? We need a new President – FAST!” Trump added after the 13-minute address.

Obama spoke before Sunday Night Football in an effort to wrest control once again of the national debate over terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernadino. He toughened his rhetoric, calling the Islamic State as a group of “thugs and killer—part of a cult of death.” But even as he pledged intensified efforts against the group, his was a message of staying the course—trusting in a coalition, in American values, and in his own judgment to defeat the group.

In their responses, Republicans also highlighted the ongoing fights within the GOP over whether to accept Syrian refugees as well as the use of controversial government surveillance programs.

In his remarks on Fox News, Rubio criticized Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for their votes against the bulk collection of telephone metadata by the National Security Agency—a charge Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie echoed earlier Sunday.

Paul, meanwhile, took the opportunity to critique Obama’s defense of accepting Syrian refugees into the United States, which the president has defended on humanitarian and moral grounds.

“While the President paid lip service to this fight, he plans to keep the failed, current policies in place and allow tens of thousands of refugees to enter our country,” he wrote in a statement. “I couldn’t disagree more strongly. Immigration, visas, and refugees from countries with active terror networks must be halted while we determine how to better secure our borders and our people.”

San Bernardino Calls For Unity As The City Mourns Its Dead

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) — At a church, a mosque, a makeshift street-corner memorial and other sites, they gathered Sunday to mourn the 14 victims of the San Bernardino massacre and lament that the community has now been added to the tragic list of U.S. cities scarred by terrible violence.

Residents struggled to come to terms with the violence and hoped the community would unite in mourning and not be divided by the disclosure that the killers were a religious Muslim couple.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re on this list now, a list like Newtown, Aurora and others where such tragic events occurred,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., told a crowd at a mosque. “It’s not how I want San Bernardino remembered.”

In the wake of the attack, President Barack Obama delivered a prime-time address, telling the nation the attack was an “act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.” While there was no evidence the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or were part of a broader plot, “the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization,” he said.

Investigators were looking into what led Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook to attack the gathering of Farook’s co-workers on Wednesday. Authorities were trying to determine if Malik, who was born in Pakistan and spent considerable time in Saudi Arabia, radicalized her American-born husband, Farook, and was the driving force behind the rampage, two officials said Sunday.

That possibility emerged late last week when it was disclosed that Malik had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a Facebook post about the time of the bloodbath at a holiday luncheon. Malik, 29, and Farook, 28, were killed in a furious shootout with police hours after the attack.

Obama said Sunday, “We cannot turn against one another,” but he also said radicalism has spread into some Muslim communities and has become a problem that Muslim leaders “must confront without excuse.”

On Sunday, scores of mourners, including members of the Muslim community, visited a growing memorial on a corner near the social service center where the shooting took place. There were American flags, a poster that read “Pray for the world,” balloons, candles and cards. Many said they hoped the community would pull together.

“I’m trying to use it as a teaching thing for myself and for my children that horrible things happen, but it doesn’t mean that everybody is a horrible person,” said Eric Abrams, of San Bernardino.

At the St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, where shooting victim Yvette Velasco worshipped, the service focused on the need to get beyond the anger. Many parishioners said they would reach deep into their faith to find some way to forgive.

More than 100 people gathered for an interfaith memorial service at a mosque where Farook had occasionally prayed. Silver-framed photos of the victims were placed on a table at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands, with a candle lit for each.

Jae C. Hong—APShamshad Muscati, center, gets emotional during an interfaith memorial service at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015, in Loma Linda, Calif.

Muslim community members said they are feeling both grief over the loss and fear of a backlash against their community. They encouraged community members to come together and not live in fear.

“It is really sad that we meet because of this. It is sad that only in death are we able to celebrate humanity,” 30-year-old mosque member Ajarat Bada said, fighting back tears.

Many in the crowd wrote personal notes to the victims’ families that the mosque will deliver.

Federal investigators continued trying to establish what pushed the couple to carry out what appears to be the deadliest attack on American soil by Islamic extremists since 9/11.

“I think I can’t say definitively right now what led either of these two to pick up guns and become murderers. I consider that is the focus of our investigation,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“We’re looking at everything we can find out about these two killers’ lives — how they grew up, where they grew up, how they met. All of those things will provide us guidance.”

One U.S. official said there appears to be nothing in Farook’s history that would implicate him as the driver of the attack.

Separately, a law enforcement official said investigators are looking into whether Malik was radicalized in the Middle East, where she spent considerable time, and used her 2014 marriage to Farook to penetrate the U.S. and commit jihad. But the official said it is only one among a number of theories that are being pursued.

The two officials were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

While radical Islamic groups at times have mobilized women as suicide bombers, and extremist women may exhort their men to attacks, it is extremely rare in conservative Muslim societies for female jihadists to take part in actual combat, as Malik did.

Former college classmates of Malik’s and others who knew her in Pakistan said that in recent years, she began dressing more conservatively — including wearing a black head-to-toe garment or a scarf that covered nearly her entire face — and became more fervent in her faith.

Obama: Don't let ISIL's 'cult of death' divide US

Obama said 'terrorists' were trying to 'poison the minds' of ordinary people [Reuters]

The US must not let ISIL's "cult of death" divide the nation and American Muslims need to be enlisted in the effort to eradicate the group instead of being pushed away with hate, President Barack Obama said. 

In a rare televised speech to the American people on Sunday night, Obama linked last week's deadly shooting rampage in California to the influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.  

Analysts said the speech was meant to reassure the American public after a spate of deadly international attacks in recent months, including the California shooting that killed 14 people.

"As groups like ISIL grew stronger amidst the chaos of war in Iraq and then Syria, and as the internet erases the distance between countries, we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers and the San Bernardino killers," Obama said.

The FBI continues to investigate whether the San Bernardino shooting on Tuesday was carried out by ISIL followers.

According to recent polls, 57 percent of Americans disapprove of how Obama is handling the fight against ISIL, 72 percent say the effort is going badly, and 60 percent say it is time to send more troops into Iraq and Syria to battle the armed group.

Obama reiterated on Sunday that ISIL's goal is to ignite a clash of cultures. 

"We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want," the president said. 

"ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death, and they account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world - including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology.

"Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim. If we're to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies - rather than push them away through suspicion and hate."

Adil Revzi, a Washington DC-based Muslim American, agreed with Obama's direction. 

"The basic thing is make the world realise is that the terrorism they are seeing - not only domestically and internationally - is not representative of Islam," Revzi told Al Jazeera. 

Zuma says China-Africa co-operation 'win-win'

In his closing remarks at a major summit between China and Africa in Johannesburg, he said both sides wanted to "prosper together".

On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced $60bn (£40bn) of assistance and loans for African states.

He said the momentum of rapid growth in Africa was "unstoppable".

He also proposed that China-Africa ties be upgraded to "a comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership".

Speaking on Saturday, Mr Xi said China firmly supported Africa's pursuit of independent sustainable development.

He said African countries should be allowed to address regional affairs in an independent way. 

Analysis by Karen Allen, BBC News, Johannesburg

$60bn of Chinese assistance is indeed unprecedented. A heady cocktail of debt relief, aid and preferential loans offered by the Chinese President Xi Jinping has nailed China's commitment to African development. 

But make no mistake. This is about business. China is taking a gamble on future African growth by unlocking the "bottlenecks" to development, as President Xi described them. 

These include a lack of infrastructure, skilled personnel and access to funds. But what I sense African nations need more than anything else from conversations with African businessmen and potential foreign investors, is job creation for - as one minister put it - "a young population living in an aging world". 

That requires investment in education and structural reforms. 

Africa provides not only a huge market place for Chinese goods and services but it also offers strategic opportunities. 

As China expands its international ambitions as a UN peacekeeper and a wealthy "patron" helping to bankroll African growth and "African Solutions to African Problems" what will China expect in return? 

Loyalty - not least when it seeks to protect its interests when it uses its vote on the UN Security Council, and the continued "fraternity" that President Jacob Zuma referred so warmly in his closing speech.

Mr Xi also said China was ready to play "a constructive role in promoting political settlement of Africa's hot-spot issues", but did not elaborate. 

Closing the two-day summit, Mr Zuma thanked Mr Xi for taking China's relationship with Africa "to its highest level ever".

He said co-operation with China was based on "sincerity, mutual trust, equality, win-win co-operation and mutual benefit".

"Africa and China are together a fraternal community with a shared and prosperous future," he said. "China and Africa want to prosper together."

China's announcement of grants, loans and development funds was widely anticipated, although the figure exceeded expectations.

The Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac) was the second time China has brought together African leaders since the forum was launched in Beijing in 2000.

Obama Says Terror Threat Against U.S. Has Entered ‘New Phase’

Saul Loeb—Pool/ReutersU.S. President Barack Obama speaks about counter-terrorism and the United States fight against Islamic State during an address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Dec. 6, 2015.

In a rare Oval Office address, President Barack Obama vowed Sunday night the United States would overcome a terror threat that has entered a “new phase” as he sought to reassure Americans shaken by recent attacks in Paris and California.

“I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure,” he said, speaking from a lectern in his West Wing office.

The president’s speech followed Wednesday’s shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people and wounded 21. Authorities say a couple carried out the attack and the wife pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader in a Facebook post.

Obama said that while there was no evidence that the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or part of a broader plot, “the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization.”

He announced no significant shift in U.S. strategy and offered no new policy prescriptions for defeating the Islamic State, underscoring both his confidence in his current approach and the lack of easy options for countering the extremist group.

In speaking from the Oval Office, Obama turned to a tool of the presidency that he has used infrequently. He’s made televised statements from the Oval Office just twice, the last in 2010 when he announced the end of combat missions in Iraq.

While Obama has spoken frequently about the Islamic State in recent news conferences and other events, the decision to speak in prime-time reflected concern among his advisers that his message isn’t breaking through. The White House has been particularly concerned about the heated rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates about Muslims.

Obama said, “We cannot turn against one another,” but he also said radicalism has spread into some Muslim communities and has become a problem that Muslim leaders “must confront without excuse.”

Obama Says of Terrorist Threat: ‘We Will Overcome It’

WASHINGTON — President Obama sought on Sunday to calm a jittery American public after the terrorist attack last week in California, delivering a prime-time address designed to highlight the government’s campaign against an evolving threat.

Speaking from behind a lectern in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama bluntly acknowledged the heightened fears that followed attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, Calif., which his administration over the weekend called an “act of terrorism” that was inspired, but not directed, by members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“The terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase,” Mr. Obama said. “I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure.”

He added: “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it.”

San Bernardino attack: Obama gives rare Oval Office address

He said the killings were "an act of terrorism" designed to kill innocent people. 

"Freedom is more powerful than fear," said President Obama, adding that divisiveness in American society played into the hands of extremists. 

The FBI is investigating the mass shooting by a married couple that left 14 dead.

Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 29, were killed in a shootout with police.

• What we know about Farook and Malik
• What we know about the shootings so far

The president characterised the Islamic State (IS) militant group as "thugs and killers", adding: "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it." 

The group said in a radio broadcast that the couple that carried out the attack were IS supporters, but gave no indication that IS was involved in its planning.

The FBI is also looking into reports Malik posted a message on Facebook pledging allegiance to IS around the time of the attacks.

This was only the third Oval Office address of his presidency - they are reserved for events of national importance.

President Obama has used Oval Office speeches sparingly, compared with previous presidents. His previous two addresses, both in 2010, covered the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the end of combat operations in Iraq.

Other significant Oval Office addresses include:

• George W Bush following the 9/11 attacks of 2001
• Ronald Reagan on the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in 1986
• Richard Nixon announcing his resignation in 1974
• John F Kennedy on the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962

The Wall Street Journal says Mr Obama's use of the Oval speech to cover the terror threat "underscores how serious the issue has become for both the White House and the increasingly unsettled country". 

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FBI agents on Saturday raided a house in Riverside, California on a street where Farook used to live.

The home belongs to Enrique Marquez, a friend of Farook's who bought assault rifles used in the shooting but is not considered a suspect, US media reported.

Farook, who worked for the local health department, and Malik opened fire on an office Christmas party.

Their families have expressed astonishment at the attacks.

Farook's sister, Saira Khan, told CBS News: "I can never imagine my brother or my sister-in-law doing something like this, especially because they were happily married, they had a beautiful six-month-old daughter."

The couple used handguns and semi-automatic weapons that had been legally purchased in the US, police say.

Bomb equipment, weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were later found in their home.

It is the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Connecticut in 2012.

The authorities said there was no indication so far the killers were part of an "organised group or formed part of a broader terrorist cell".