Sen. Ted Cruz: Iranian regime is the ‘gravest threat’

The threat posed by Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, is the “gravest threat” facing the United States, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said on Wednesday.

The Republican Senator from Texas warned “We are repeating the mistakes of the 1990s with regard to North Korea… but here the dangers are qualitatively greater.”

What makes Iran more dangerous is that their country, which is led by Khamenei and the mullahs, are not rational actors, explained Cruz.

“If Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, the odds are unacceptably high that they will use that weapon,” he added.

Even If Iran doesn’t use their nuclear weapon, “the inevitable result will be nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East,” he concluded.

Meanwhile Sen. Marco Rubio accused President Obama of pushing for a deal on Iran's nuclear weapons to cement his own legacy back home.

"I think driving a lot of this is domestic politics — the ability to say at the end of his term that he was the one that got this deal done, that it was an achievement and that a future president was the one that lost that achievement," Rubio said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News's "Kelly File."

"There's no doubt that is part of the checklist as they look to build the legacy. Unfortunately, I think it leaves this country in a very dangerous position and our strongest ally in the Middle East, Israel, in an even more dangerous position," he added.

"He thinks that if he can get a deal that delays it by five years, that's a good thing," Rubio said on Fox. "I think that the Iranians believe that Barack Obama and John Kerry are desperate for a deal, and I think that they sense it."

New York Cop Charged with Manslaughter in Fatal Shooting

NEW YORK – New York Police Department rookie patrolman Peter Liang was arraigned Wednesday for the fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American man.

Liang, 27, appeared in a Brooklyn courtroom to listen to the charges, which include manslaughter – carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years – and official misconduct.

He was released without bail after entering a plea of not guilty.

Akai Gurley, 28, was killed Nov. 20 while leaving the Louis Pink Houses, a public housing complex in Brooklyn.

Liang and another rookie officer were in the stairwell when Gurley and his girlfriend, a building resident, entered on their way down to the lobby.

Both officers were using flashlights, as the lights in the stairwell were burned out, and Liang also had his gun drawn.

Liang accidentally shot Gurley at a distance of about 10 feet (3 meters), the NYPD said at the time.

Authorities announced Tuesday that a Brooklyn grand jury had voted to indict the officer.

Gurley’s death came four months after another African-American man, Eric Garner, died after a white NYPD officer applied a chokehold while trying to arrest him for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.

The 43-year-old Garner, who was asthmatic, died of asphyxiation. The medical examiner classified the July 17 death as a homicide and said the chokehold was a factor.

Even so, a grand jury in the New York borough of Staten Island declined to charge the officer.

The Staten Island decision was announced 11 days after a St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict white police officer Darren Wilson for the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Ex-Governor’s Brother Arrested on Corruption Charges in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Carlos Mateo Aguirre Rivero, the brother of former Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre, and several other individuals were arrested on corruption charges, Mexican Criminal Investigations Agency director Tomas Zeron said.

Investigators “have determined that a group of people, including former public servants in the state of Guerrero,” had state and federal funds deposited in their personal bank accounts, Zeron said.

The suspects, however, did not have any corporate or business relationships with companies that received public works contracts in Guerrero, the federal official said.

“It was determined, moreover, that relatives of the former public servants linked to these illegal transactions served as legal representatives, had power of attorney and were authorized (signers) on bank accounts of the different firms via which the funds were diverted,” Zeron said.

Funds from the Federal Electricity Commission, Banobras, the Federal Treasury, the State Water Commission, the State Public Safety Council and the Guerrero Highway and Airport Infrastructure Commission were diverted and ended up in personal bank accounts.

Some 287 million pesos ($19.16 million) was diverted to the suspects’ personal accounts between January 2012 and September 2014 via the Constructora Travesa, Comercializadora 2003 and Comercializadora Topacio corporations, Zeron said.

The Federal Police arrested the suspects on Tuesday on arrest warrants issued by a federal judge in Mexico state, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, Zeron said.

The other suspects under arrest are Luis Angel Aguirre Perez, Paulo Ignacio Hughes Acosta, Mauricio Francisco Hughes Acosta, Alejandro Carlos Hughes Acosta and Jorge Eduardo Hughes Acosta, the federal official said, adding that “other people” were also in custody.

Angel Aguirre, a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, stepped down as Guerrero’s governor in October in the wake of the disappearance of 43 education students in the city of Iguala.

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Iran news in brief, 9 February 2015

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