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Comey testifies. A new FBI Director nominated. Iran terror attack. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

James Comey above all this week, in testimony on Capitol Hill, and the question: Did the President of the United States attempt to obstruct justice in conversation with the former director of the FBI? The whole country seemed to be listening. In the UK this week, a stunning election result puts Britain and its Brexit in trouble. In the Mideast, a row over Qatar, and terror in Tehran. Weve got Trump on infrastructure. Reality Winner. Bill Cosby on trial. This hourOn Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. -- Tom Ashbrook

Lisa Desjardins, correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. (@LisaDNews)

Michael Crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for POLITICO.(@michaelcrowley)

Jack Beatty,On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

POLITICO:Comey blasts White House for lies, plain and simple -- "Fired FBI Director James Comey used a blockbuster appearance before the Senate on Thursday to accuse the Trump administration of slandering him with its explanations of his abrupt dismissal, but also said he did not believe President Donald Trump or his aides asked him to stop the broad probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election."

New York Times:Who is Christopher Wray? Trumps F.B.I. Pick Is Said to Be Low-Key and Principled "Mr. Wray is a safe, mainstream pick from a president who at one point was considering politicians for a job that has historically been kept outside partisanship. A former assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, Mr. Wray is likely to assuage the fears of F.B.I. agents who worried that Mr. Trump would try to weaken or politicize the agency."

Tehran Times:Twin terror attacks hit Irans parliament, Imam Khomeini shrine -- "Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Revolution, were targeted on Wednesday morning by two simultaneous gun and suicide bomb assaults. The attacks unfolded as a number of gunmen stormed the main gate of the parliament building in central Tehran and opened fire. At the same time, a shooting spree targeted Imam Khomeinis shrine about 25 kilometers away in south Tehran."

Comey Hearing

Lisa Desjardins: "It was quite a hearing, and it had a lot of billing to live up to. I think it did that. I counted 259 questions in just over two and half hours yesterday, so that was more than one a minute. It was essentially a marathon at a sprinter's pace, if that makes sense. And I think what came across from that was more of an overall impression of the direction of the clouds, if you will, over President Trump ... There were some very large red flags that rose higher yesterday, but overall Republicans prosecuted their case against Mr. Comey, trying to bring up the point that, well obstruction of justice may not be something when a president says he 'hopes' you can see to do something. It has to be more clear than that. And Mr. Comey, while he said he felt he was being directed to do something, stressed that it was a feeling he had. This hasn't cleared the bar for obstruction of justice yet, Democrats are still making that case, but Republicans were happy that it seemed to fall short, at least so far.

Michael Crowley: "The Trump team and the Republican party have been hitting back on Comey pretty hard, and I would say given the terrible hand they've been dealt here, relatively effectively. Overall, Comey comes across as a sincere, credible, devoted now-former public servant. And I think that in a vacuum, if you didn't have partisan allegiances, I think most Americans, it's hard to imagine, would not find him incredibly compelling and credible. But there has been this organized counter-attack against his testimony that I think is probably scoring some points, certainly giving something for Republicans and Trump's core supporters to hang on to.

It has to worry them that this crack is going to widen and perhaps engulf them.

Jack Beatty: "This president has shown throughout the campaign, and certainly since his inauguration, that he has a almost wanton disregard for the truth, whether it's lying or dissembling or deceit whatever you want to call it, there's numerical markers for this. And Mr. Comey went right at that that is the character flaw in the president that makes defending him a very difficult proposition. And that has to, at some level, worry Republicans. Yes, I think Michael is right, they're rallying around as far as they can, but it has to worry them that this crack is going to widen and perhaps engulf them.

Britain Election Upset

Michael Crowley: "It really is a surreal turn of events in British politics, which has been chaotic for several years now, and what we're left with is kind of a scrambled egg. And I think people are still sorting through it and trying to figure out what emerges ... This backfired spectacularly on Theresa May, and what we can't be sure of is what role Donald Trump might have played here. Donald Trump, who is very unpopular in the UK and across Europe. May, of course, very early in Trump's presidency, went to the White House. They had a very chummy meeting, they rather famously held hands as they walked along the back of the White House outside the rose garden ... There are just all kinds of tides and currents happening in European politics right now, that I think we don't fully understand, and which are just causing chaos across the Western world.

There are just all kinds of tides and currents happening in European politics right now, that I think we don't fully understand, and which are just causing chaos across the Western world.

Trump's 'Infrastructure Week'

Lisa Desjardins: "We don't what kind of impact this would have on, say, taxes. Is he planning to use tax incentives to try and encourage businesses? That would have a major effect, potentially, on the deficit. There is no actual formal plan yet, there are just sort of bullet points that we've heard from the White House about what they would like to do. I think more than anything I don't want to rain on the infrastructure parade, because it is something that everyone recognizes as a need, and Democrats and Republicans both would like to work on but the truth is that congress is so backed up and so unable, right now, to find the votes for major issues, including health care and then tax reform, that it's not clear at all when a major infrastructure plan could get on the agenda.

Listen to our recent show on Trump's infrastructure plan.

This program aired on June 9, 2017.

Originally posted here:
Week In The News: Comey Hearing, Trump Tumult, Terror In Iran - WBUR

Tehran - Iran voiced its opposition on Saturday to an announcement by Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region that it will organise a vote on independence later this year.

"Iran's principal position is to support the territorial integrity of Iraq," foreign ministry spokesperson Bahram Ghasemi said.

"The Kurdistan region is part of the Iraqi republic and unilateral decisions outside the national and legal framework, especially the Iraqi constitution... can only lead to new problems."

Iraqi Kurdish leaders announced on Wednesday that they will organise an independence referendum on September 25, not only in their three-province autonomous region but also in other historically Kurdish-majority areas they have long sought to incorporate in it.

Iran worries about separatism among its own Kurds, most of whom live in areas along the border with Iraq.

Deadly clashes

Rebels of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) launch sporadic attacks into Iran from rear-bases in Iraq, triggering sometimes deadly clashes with the security forces.

After an upsurge attacks in 2011, Iranian troops launched a cross-border incursion, forcing KDPI to retreat deeper into Iraq.

The federal government in Baghdad is deeply opposed to the referendum plan of the regional government in Arbil, as is neighbouring Turkey, which has a large and restive Kurdish minority of its own.

Washington has expressed concern that it could distract from the joint fight against the Islamic State group by stoking tensions between the Kurds, and Arabs and Turkmen in northern Iraq.

"An integrated, stable and democratic Iraq guarantees the interests of the whole people [of Iraq] from all ethnic and religious groups," Ghasemi said.

"Today, Iraq more than ever needs peace and national unity and differences between Arbil and Baghdad must be resolved within the framework of dialogue and in compliance with Iraq's constitution."

24.com encourages commentary submitted via MyNews24. Contributions of 200 words or more will be considered for publication.

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Iran opposes Iraqi Kurdish independence vote - News24

Police officers run to take position around Iran's parliament building in Tehran after an assault by several attackers. Four attackers reportedly reached the building's interior, and an explosion was heard, although it was unclear whether it was a suicide bomb or a grenade. Ali Khara/AP hide caption

Police officers run to take position around Iran's parliament building in Tehran after an assault by several attackers. Four attackers reportedly reached the building's interior, and an explosion was heard, although it was unclear whether it was a suicide bomb or a grenade.

Two teams of attackers used gunfire and explosives to strike Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran on Wednesday, according to state media. The twin attacks killed at least 12 people and wounded 42 others.

"Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari said that the terrorists had entered the parliament in [women's] dress," Iran's state news agency reports. It adds that a female assailant detonated herself outside the mausoleum.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry says it foiled a third attack and is asking people to avoid public transportation, state broadcaster IRIB reports.

The Islamic State, via its Amaq News Agency, claimed responsibility for the attacks, NPR's Alison Meuse reports.

In addition to the dual attacks claimed by ISIS on the parliament building and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Iranian intelligence says it foiled a third attack. Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images hide caption

In addition to the dual attacks claimed by ISIS on the parliament building and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Iranian intelligence says it foiled a third attack.

Alison translated the extremist group's message to: "Fighters from the Islamic State have attacked the Khomeini shrine and the parliament building in central Tehran."

The message quotes an ISIS "security source," which Alison says is typical for such claims.

In an unusual move, the group also released a short video that it said was taken by one of the attackers inside parliament. In it, a gunman is seen leaving an office area where a man lies wounded and not moving on the floor. A security siren and gunfire are heard as men yell in Arabic.

At the parliament building, four attackers reached the interior, where they shot at security guards, according to IRIB. It says one of the attackers exploded a suicide vest inside the building, though other local news agencies said the explosion may have been caused by grenades thrown by the attackers.

The second attack at the shrine of Khomeini, the nation's first supreme leader came within an hour of the assault on the legislature. Assailants reportedly killed a security guard and wounded 12 other people, and a suicide bomber also detonated an explosive vest. Four attackers were said to have targeted the shrine.

Despite the violence at Iran's parliament Wednesday morning, lawmakers returned to business by the afternoon. Officials say the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped security forces control the situation.

"As you know, some coward terrorists infiltrated a building in Majlis [Parliament], but they were seriously confronted," Speaker Ali Larijani said. "This is a minor issue but reveals that the terrorists pursue troublemaking."

The U.S. State Department offered condolences to victims and their families, saying in a statement, "The depravity of terrorism has no place in a peaceful, civilized world."

Iran is deeply involved in the fight against ISIS, both in Iraq and Syria, and along with Russia is a major backer of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

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Twin Attacks Hit Iran's Parliament And Khomeini Mausoleum ...

When terrorists strike Iran, they usually target the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the countrys border with Pakistan.

It was there in April that Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni Muslim insurgent group, killed 10 Iranian border guards. Between 2013 to 2015, the group killed at least 22 other border guards in a bid to call attention to religious discrimination against Irans Sunni population.

Terrorist attacks in major Iranian cities are rare, which is one reason the near-simultaneous assaults Wednesday in Tehran were so remarkable.

They struck at the heart of the capital the parliament building and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic leaving 17 people dead and dozens more injured. Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for what would be its first successful terrorist operation on Iranian soil.

Irans Intelligence Ministry said five of the assailants were Iranians who had left the country to join the militant group, then returned last year, according to the state news agency.

So how has the Iranian government generally managed to avoid violence on such a scale?

For starters, demographics. The majority of Iranians are Shiite Muslims.

That makes them prime targets for Islamic State militants, who are Sunnis and consider Shiites to be apostates. But it also makes it difficult for the extremist group to successfully recruit Iranians to carry out attacks in their homeland.

About 9% of Iranians are Sunni, but most live in impoverished hinterlands. It is difficult for them to carry out attacks in more populated areas because of the travel, expense and logistics involved.

Iran also has a strong grip on domestic security. The police force, state Basij militia and border guards are deployed throughout the country, including the sensitive border region where many Sunnis live. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also has its own counter-terrorism unit responsible for gathering intelligence and carrying out covert operations within the country and abroad.

After Islamic State rose to prominence in 2014, Iran had to come up with a new counter-terrorism strategy, according to Ariane Tabatabai, an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University

Iran noticed the Islamic State was more brutal and had a clear anti-Shiite and anti-Iran agenda, she said.

Part of Irans strategy included a military offensive in Iraq and Syria to prevent fighting from spilling over into Iran. Iran sends military advisors to Iraq to help fight Islamic State and money and equipment to Syria to prop up President Bashar Assad.

In March 2016, the Iranian parliament voted to increase its counter-terrorism and cybersecurity budget with the aim of increasing surveillance to identify potential Islamic State operatives. Not long after, Iranian officials said they had prevented 1,500 Iranians from joining Islamic State and uncovered and stopped a terrorist operation that was planning attacks on 50 different targets in Tehran.

Iran also runs a propaganda campaign aimed at deterring Sunnis from radicalization.

It puts out messages both domestically and across its borders to counter Islamic States use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to recruit fighters. While the militant group plays up sectarian divides to appeal to Sunni minorities who face discrimination, Iranian propaganda downplays religious differences.

Iran is reaching out to people beyond its border to say that the Islamic State is not actually Islamic and that there is no difference between Sunnis and Shiites, Tabatabai said. Iran has had a tough time selling that message to people, but its trying.

In March, Islamic State released a 36-minute video message in Persian urging Irans Sunni population to attack the countrys Shiite-led government.

Its unclear whether that inspired any of the assailants in the attack this week. But it is clear that Iran is a desirable target for the extremists.

This attack shows us how Iran is no longer immune, said Vali Nasr, dean of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Attacks that we have seen in other Middle East cities and Western capitals [are] now happening in Tehran. Citizens cannot trust it wont happen again.

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad

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Islamic State rarely carries out terrorist attacks in Iran ...

LONDON Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran's majority Shi'ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted: "Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy."

He did not explicitly blame any country but the tweet appeared to refer to comments made by Saudi Arabias deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, in May, saying that that Riyadh would bring "the battle" for regional influence to Iran.

Sunni Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the Tehran attacks, but the assault further fuels tensions between Riyadh and Tehran as they vie for control of the Gulf and influence in the wider Islamic world. It comes days after Riyadh and other Sunni Muslim powers cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.

They were the first attacks claimed by Islamic State inside the tightly controlled Shi'ite Muslim country, one of the powers leading the fight against IS forces in nearby Iraq and Syria.

The deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, Reza Seifollhai, told state TV late on Wednesday that the attackers were people from Iran who had joined Islamic State. Iranian police said they had arrested five suspects

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "These fireworks have no effect on Iran. They will soon be eliminated."

"They are too small to affect the will of the Iranian nation and its officials," state TV quoted him saying.

The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Riyadh of being behind the attacks and vowed to seek revenge.

"This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president (Donald Trump) and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists. The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack," a Guards statement said.

Trump said in a statement that he prayed for the victims of the attacks but added that "states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote." The U.S. State Department and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres both condemned the attacks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said he did not know who was responsible for the attacks and said there was no evidence Saudi extremists were involved.

DRESSED AS WOMEN

Attackers dressed as women burst through parliament's main entrance, deputy interior minister Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari said, according to the Tasnim news agency. One of them detonated a suicide vest, he said.

On a video released by the IS news agency Amaq a man purportedly inside the parliament says in Arabic: "Oh God, thank you. [Gunshots]. Do you think we will leave? No! We will remain, God willing."

Police helicopters circled over parliament, with snipers on its rooftop. Within five hours, four attackers were dead and the incident was over, Iranian media said.

"I was inside the parliament when shooting happened. Everyone was shocked and scared. I saw two men shooting randomly," said one journalist at the scene.

Soon after the assault on parliament began, a bomber detonated a suicide vest near the shrine of the Islamic Republic's revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, a few kilometers south of the city, Zolfaghari said.

A second attacker was shot dead, he said. The shrine is a main destination for tourists and religious pilgrims.

"The terrorists had explosives strapped to them and suddenly started to shoot around," said the shrine's overseer, Mohammadali Ansari.

By late evening, deputy interior minister Zolfaghari put the death toll at 13, with 43 wounded.

The Intelligence Ministry said security forces had arrested another "terrorist team" planning a third attack. The National Security Council's Seifollhai said Iran had foiled 58 similar attacks, without specifying a time period.

REGIONAL ANIMOSITY

The attacks follow several weeks of heightened rhetorical animosity between Riyadh and Tehran.

In unusually blunt remarks on May 2, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is Saudi defense minister and a son of King Salman, said he would protect his country from what he called Iranian efforts to dominate the Muslim world.

Any struggle for influence between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and the revolutionary Shi'ite theocracy ought to take place "inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia," he said without elaborating.

The next day Iran accused Saudi Arabia of seeking tension in the region, saying the prince had made "destructive" comments and it was proof that Riyadh supported terrorism.

The attacks could also exacerbate tensions in Iran between newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, who positions himself as a reformer, and his rivals among hardline clergy and the Revolutionary Guards.

But Rouhani said Iran would be more united and more determined in the fight against regional terrorism and violence.

"We will prove once again that we will crush the enemies' plots with more unity and more strength," he said.

In an appeal for unity, Rouhanis chief of staff, Hamid Aboutalebi, took to Twitter to praise the security services.

"Applause to the power and firmness of our revolutionary guards, Basij (volunteer militia), police and security forces," he wrote.

However, two senior government officials, who asked not to be named, said the attacks might prompt a blame game.

"They (hardliners) are very angry and will use every opportunity to grow in strength to isolate Rouhani," said one. The other said the attacks would push Iran toward "a harsher regional policy".

Militant attacks are rare in Tehran and other major cities although two Sunni militant groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been waging a deadly insurgency, mostly in remote areas, for almost a decade.

Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province, in the southeast on the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to the Balouch minority and has long been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents fighting the Shi'ite-led republic.

Last year Iranian authorities said they had foiled a plot by Sunni militants to bomb targets in Tehran and other cities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Asma Alsharif in Cairo, Yeganeh Torbati in Washington, Lisa Barrington in Beirut, David Dolan in Istanbul; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Robin Pomeroy)

MARAWI CITY, Philippines U.S. special forces have joined the battle to crush Islamist militants holed up in a southern Philippines town, officials said on Saturday, as government forces struggled to make headway and 13 marines were killed in intense urban fighting.

MEXICO CITY German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that putting up walls will not solve problems that countries are seeing due to immigration.

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Islamist militants strike heart of Tehran, Iran blames Saudis ...