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At a noon conference call today on how the Trump administration plans to certify the nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) for a second time, National Security Council director H. R. McMaster spoke at length about why the JCPOA is a bad deal and how it has not changed Irans behavior. McMaster and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also announced new sanctions against Iran. However, McMaster still indicated that the administration plans to again certify to Congress that Iran is complying with the agreement. This decision includes certifying that the agreement is in the national-security interests of the United States.

McMaster said Iran is in default of the spirit of the agreement and we need to take a closer look at whether it is violating the letter of the deal. According to McMaster, Iran has been walking up to violating the letter of the JCPOA.

This is false. I asked McMaster how the Trump administration could do this in light of clear evidence that Iran is violating the JCPOA. I mentioned recent op-eds that Ambassador John Bolton and I wrote on these violations in The Hill and NRO. I said that this is a very troubling decision that amounts to looking the other way on Irans violations, legitimizing the dangerous concessions the Obama administration made to get this deal and goes against the presidents statements during the presidential campaign. I added that this policy to stick with the JCPOA is little different than what Hillary Clinton would have done if she had won the 2016 election.

McMaster refused to answer my question. He refused to address the issue of Iranian violations at all until another questioner pushed him on this which led McMaster to give the misleading answer above on Iran being in default of the spirit of this agreement.

McMaster mentioned an ongoing review of Iran policy that reportedly will be completed by late summer. But with a decision like this, there seems little doubt the administration is not going to fulfill President Trumps campaign promise to kill or substantially renegotiate the nuclear deal.

My hope is that President Trump will look at the facts concerning the dangers of the JCPOA and Iranian violations and not certify Iranian compliance. Other steps are urgently needed to bring the Trump administrations Iran policy in line with what President Trump promised during the campaign.

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McMaster Outlines Hillary ClintonLike Approach to Certification of Iran Nuclear Deal - National Review

BLOOMINGTON A dispute over a coat led to a November shooting on Bloomingtons east side, prosecutors said Monday on the first day in the attempted-murder trial of Darvell Williams.

A six-man, six-woman jury was seated Monday before opening arguments and the states first witness, a woman who reluctantly testified against her former roommate.

Its a really simple case, Ghrist said. It will come down to common sense. The defendant took a 9 mm handgun and shot multiple times at Willie Love. Eight shell casings were found in the apartment the defendant was living in.

Williams is facing nine felony charges, including attempted murder in the Nov. 26 shooting that also damaged a mailbox in an apartment complex, a passing car and a window at Lowes Home Improvement at 2101 E. Empire St.

One of the charges, an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon into a vehicle, against Williams was dropped in court Monday.

Defense attorney Brian McEldowney asked the jurors to keep an open mind and to listen to all of the evidence before making a decision on Williams' guilt or innocence.

These are volatile charges and our natural reaction is to get angry, but please listen to all of the testimony before making a judgment, he said.

The state called Chiquan Felton to the stand, who attempted to avoid Ghrists questions.

I plead the Fifth, she said. I have nothing to say.

Ghrist reminded her that she was not facing charges, so there were no grounds to invoke the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

After excusing the jury, Judge Robert Freitag explained that she had to be truthful with her testimony.

You are here pursuant to a court order and if you are asked a question, you must answer truthfully, and if you refuse, you could be held in contempt of court and be held in county jail until you decide to answer, he said.

When the jury returned, Felton testified that she never saw Williams shoot at Love because her back was turned while she was trying to open the door to the apartment she shared with Williams.

I heard gunshots, but I never saw him shoot at him, she said. Where I come from, you run away from gunshots.

The trial is expected to conclude Tuesday or Wednesday. Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Follow Kevin Barlow on Twitter: @pg_barlow

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Prosecutor: Attempted murder began with fued over a coat - Bloomington Pantagraph

Speaking to hundreds of thousands of people at a massive ceremony on Saturday in Istanbul, Erdogan urged vigilance against lurking enemies and declared that last summer's bloody ordeal emboldened the nation.

"This experience has unified us, made us stronger," the President said. "This wasn't the first attack against our nation and it's not going to be the last attack either."

"We know who is behind these terrorists. However, there's also the fact that if you do not combat and fight against these pieces we cannot fight and overcome those who are manipulating them. Therefore, we are going to behead these traitors."

The country has remained in a state of emergency while allowing Erdogan to tighten his grip on power and oversee a massive purge of those who he says rose up against him.

Over the past year, Erdogan and his government have clamped down on civil liberties across Turkey, gutted public institutions and universities, heavily restricted the media and ordered mass arrests of activists, journalists and the political opposition.

Since the coup attempt, more than 169,000 people have faced "judicial action" ranging from travel restrictions and detentions to arrest warrants,, the justice ministry said, according to Anadolu.

The clampdown stoked widespread unease in the country.

But the sea of Erdogan supporters packing the streets waved flags and cheered on their popular and outspoken leader. The commemoration ceremony started at July 15 Martyrs Bridge with the national anthem. Then it was followed by a Quranic recitation, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said.

The names of those people killed were read out and their pictures were also shown on big screens. A monument honoring those killed while fighting the coup attempt near the bridge was unveiled.

Erdogan praised those who lost their lives in the fight against those carrying out the attempted putsch.

"I wish this bridge were able to speak about the heroic acts on this bridge," he said. "I express my gratitude to these martyrs. They have defended their freedom, their calls to prayers, their flags, their motherland, their state and their future."

After the address, he traveled to Ankara, the capital, where he spoke to throngs at the parliament building early Sunday, repeating the same themes that he did in Istanbul, sympathy for the people who died trying to stop the coup attempt, respect and confidence for the Turkish people, criticism of the country's opposition leader, and anger toward the people who tried to overthrow the government.

Speaking in Istanbul, Erdogan warned of groups that are using terrorists as "manipulation."

He cited followers of exiled cleric and former ally Fetullah Gulen. Erdogan has claimed Gulen was behind the coup attempt, a charge that Gulen denies. Gulen is the leader of a popular movement called Hizmet, but the Turkish government refers to his group as the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization, known as FETO.

The government has said that the Gulen group "is behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary," according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

"How dare you can attack this motherland? There will be those days that you will account for what you have done," Erdogan said in Ankara. "Hey FETO, is there anywhere you can safely go? Is there anything you haven't done to damage this nation. Is there any door left that you haven't knocked at?

"You have been allocated some land in Pennsylvania to use, now you are governing these places from there. Those who made calculations for a coup d'etat completely forgot that you cannot make calculations before God and they have hit the wall of the national will as a result," Erdogan said, referring to where Gulen now lives in the United States.

Erdogan also mentioned the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a designated terror group in Turkey, the US and Europe. Known by its acronym the PKK, it has been engaged in a 30-year conflict with the Turkish government. He also cited Daesh, another name for ISIS, which Turkey also views as a foe.

"We know very well that FETO is not just FETO. PKK is not just PKK. Daesh is not just Daesh on itself. These terrorist organizations and other are not only comprised of what you can see when you look at them, we know this very well," Erdogan said.

The President said many enemies were "waiting at bay ready to attack."

"We are not uttering their names but we know all about them. We know who they are," he said. "You will not be able to succeed. You will not be able to divide our nation. You will not be able to bring our flag down."

The attempted coup took place July 15, 2016, undertaken by a faction of the military Tanks rolled into the streets of Turkey's two largest cities, Ankara and Instanbul.

Soldiers blocked the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul -- now renamed the July 15th Martyrs Bridge in honor of people on the bridge who confronted the coup-plotters.

Bombs struck the parliament building in the capital Ankara, and a helicopter stolen by rogue pilots was shot down by an F-16 jet.

Erdogan was hundreds of miles away at a seaside resort when the coup got going. By the time he emerged to address the nation via FaceTime hours later, it had already begun to abate.

About 250 people died standing up to the soldiers who took part in the uprising.

Coup plotters were rounded up the next day. In the ongoing days and week, Erdogan and his government have clamped down on civil liberties across the country, gutted public institutions and universities, heavily restricted the media and ordered mass arrests of activists, journalists and the political opposition.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, recently led a long trek through Turkey, about 250 miles over three-and-a-half weeks, to demand that the government loosen its stranglehold on the country's democracy.

Called the "March for Justice" Kilicdaroglu was joined by throngs of disaffected citizens -- many angry with Erdogan -- in the walk from the capital, Ankara, to Istanbul. Kilicdaroglu kicked off the march after the imprisonment of one of his party's parliament members.

In his Saturday address, Erdogan slammed Kilicdaroglu for repeatedly claiming that the government knew about the coup attempt in advance but it failed to stop it and called those remarks disrespectful and insulting.

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Turkey: Erdogan says behead traitors - CNN.com

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Over the weekend, Turkeymarked the one-year anniversary of a deadly coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his elected government.You probably know the story: On July 15, 2016, a mutinous faction of soldiers staged a short-lived insurrection that was confronted by mass protests in Istanbul and elsewhere. More than 250 people were killed, including many civilians, and thousands injured before order was restored.

A year ago, I reported the aftermath from Istanbul. In a country known for its profoundly polarized politics, the events of July 15 had ushered in a remarkable period of unity. After decades of military interference in political life, Turks across the political spectrum seemed galvanized by their fellow citizens' defense of democracy. On Aug. 7, Erdogan even appeared at a gigantic rally with prominentfigures of the opposition including his biggest challenger, secularist Kemal Kilicdaroglu in an unprecedented show of solidarity.

Today, whatever unity once existed is long gone. At eventsin Istanbul and Ankara commemorating the "martyrs" who perished, Erdogan thundered against his opponents at home and abroad.

"We will rip off the heads of those traitors," Erdogan saidat a massive nationalist rally in Istanbul on Saturday, reiterating his desire to reinstate the death penalty. He then scolded Kilicdaroglu, who recently led a three-week protest march against Erdogan from Ankara to Istanbul.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Erdogansaid. "This nation is not a coward like you. This nation has a heart."

Turkish authorities pinned the attempted coupon Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric whofounded a global network of influential schools and charities but who is widely seen in Turkey as the mastermind of a subversive fifth columnseeking to controlthe Turkish state. In an interview with NPR last week, Gulen againdenied any involvement in the attempted coup.

The murky origins and circumstances of the putsch are stillthe subject offevered debate,and Gulen's mooted extradition to his homelandseems nowhere in sight. Erdogan railed at Western governments for supposedly taking the side of his enemies and seeking to undermine Turkey.

"The stance of the European Union is clear to see ... 54 years have passed and they are still messing us about," he said in Ankaraon Sunday, resuming his long-running feud with European leaders. "We will sort things out for ourselves. There's no other option."

Erdogan's government certainly has set about "sorting things out." Just days after he survived the coup attempt, Erdogan declared it "a gift from God" that would usher in "a new Turkey."

Since then, Erdoganhas presided over a vast and astonishing purge of his country's state institutions and civil society. He and his allies say they areexpunging supposed Gulenist plotters, but they are in realitytargetinga much larger pool of dissidents, activistsand other perceived adversaries.

Around 150,000 people were suspended or fired from their jobs in state institutions or universities. On Friday alone, news came of 7,000 more peopledismissed from their posts, including 2,303 police officers and hundreds of academics. At least 50,000 people from the military, police, judiciary and other branches of government have been arrested. More than 100 journalists are behind bars. Dozens of newspapers and TV stations have been shut down.

Critics accuse Erdogan of laying the foundations of a one-party dictatorship, but his supporters say heis consolidating Turkish democracy. And so does he.

"Those who turned their weapons against innocent civilians on 15 July hit a brick wall made of a decade of progress in politics, economics, healthcare, justice, foreign policy and fundamental rights," Erdogan wrote in a column published by the Guardian. "This connection between the people and their government is the ultimate measure of our democracys resilience, and the strongest guarantee of its survival."

Thisyear, Erdogannarrowly won a referendum that will transform the Turkish republic's political system from a parliamentary democracy to one dominated by a strong presidential executive. But hisslim margin of victory led many analysts to predict that Erdogan will cling to his divisive populismto further cement his power.

Erdogan's fieryremarks in Istanbul this week were aimed at his base politically conservative, religiously pious and increasingly nationalist Turks. A day prior, imams around Turkey delivered state-sanctioned sermons that connected those who died defending Erdogan's rule to the fighters killed in Turkey's war of independence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The legacy of the coup attempt has "become an increasingly important political cudgel for the president and his Islamist supporters, with the victory over the coup plotters seen as a critical part of the governments popular mandate," my colleague Kareem Fahimwrote.

"His narrative means that the rise of the Turkish nation and the future of the global Muslim community hinge on Erdogan as a person and a politician," said Soner Cagaptay,author of "The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey," to the Financial Times. "The implication is that, if you dont support Erdogan, you are neither a good Turk or a good Muslim."

As we've discussed before, Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party were initially seen as forces of liberalization, unshackling Turkey's sclerotic economy and granting greater cultural freedoms to devout Muslims, ethnic Kurds and other communities long suppressed by Turkey's notoriously draconian secular state. But now, Erdogan's critics lamenthis repeated demonization of constituenciesunlikely to vote for him or his party and the deepening polarization that is taking placeunder his watch.

"Labeling at least half of your population as 'terrorist' is not a defense of democracy,"Kilicdarogluwrote in a Guardian column opposing the Turkish president. "And concentrating power in the hands of one person without any checks or balances is an assault on the very notion of democracy."

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Turkey's Erdogan turned a failed coup into his path to greater power - Washington Post

In a fiery speech Saturday marking a year since the Turkish government put down a coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to chop off the heads of traitors if capital punishment were restored in the country.

First of all we will chop off the heads of those traitors, Erdogan said in a speech celebrating the defeat of the Turkish coup.

DETAINED HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS FACE CHARGES IN TURKEY

The 2016 coup attempt killed 249 people as opposition forces attempted to overthrow Erdogan, who's been in power since 2003.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters outside the Presidential Palace. (AP)

In addition to "chopping their heads off," Erdogan suggested when trying the suspects, the government would "make them appear in uniform suits like in Guantanamo.

Supporters of Erdogan chanted we are soldiers of Tayyip and displayed nooses in a symbol of support for the death penalty, AFP reported.

ROMANIA COURT RULES TURKISH WOMAN MUST STAY UNDER ARREST

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech at a ceremony at Turkey's Parliament. (AP)

Erdogan reaffirmed he would be willing to sign any parliament-passed bill on resuming executions.

In 2004, Turkey abolished capital punishment. Any move to restore capital punishment would likely end the Ankaras European Union membership ambitions.

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Erdogan: 'We will chop off the heads of those traitors' - Fox News