USA Today - 05.11.2019

6A z TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2019z USA TODAY NEWS

across the country that revived dec-

ades-old cries of “Death to America.”

Others at protests burned U.S. flag repli-

cas and waved signs mocking the U.S.

Speaking in front of the former em-

bassy, known locally as the “U.S. Den of

Espionage,” Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi,

the commander of the Iranian army, re-

ferred to the U.S. as a “scorpion” and

said the “era of imposing pressure with

zero expense” was finished.

Iran announced new violations of its
collapsing nuclear deal with world pow-
ers as it also marked Monday the 40th
anniversary of the 1979 student take-
over of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and
a subsequent 444-day hostage crisis
that has set the tone for decades of ani-
mosity and fraught relations with the
United States.
The head of Iran’s nuclear program,
Ali Akbar Salehi, said the Middle East-
ern nation is now operating 60 IR-6 ad-
vanced centrifuges in violation of its
2015 landmark atomic deal with world
powers. An IR-6 centrifuge can produce
enriched uranium 10 times as fast as al-
lowed under the accord.
The move cuts into the one-year time
limit most experts estimate Tehran
need to have enough material to build a
nuclear weapon, although there is little
evidence to indicate that Iran is trying to
weaponize its nuclear materials.
Salehi made the announcement on
state TV as demonstrators gathered in
front of the former U.S. Embassy in Teh-
ran and footage was aired from cities

“Thanks to God, today the revolu-

tion’s seedlings have evolved into a

fruitful and huge tree that its shadow

has covered the entire” Middle East, he

said.

The 1979 embassy takeover was root-

ed in anger after a 1953 CIA-engineered

coup that toppled Iran’s elected prime

minister and cemented the power of

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

For months, Iran had faced wide-

spread unrest, ranging from separatist

attacks to worker revolts and internal

power struggles.

The shah, dying from cancer, fled

Iran to seek medical treatment in New

York in January 1979, paving the way for

the country’s Islamic Revolution.

Islamist students initially planned a

sit-in at the embassy. But the situation

quickly spun out of their control.

Some hostages would be released as

the crisis unfolded, while others fled

and found safety with Canada’s ambas-

sador and left Iran.

Fifty-two American hostages were

held for more than a year until the inau-

guration of President Ronald Reagan,

when they were freed.

The White House said in a brief state-

ment Monday, noting the anniversary,

that the “Iranian regime continues to

target innocent civilians for use as

pawns in its failed foreign relations.” It

also imposed additional sanctions on its

military and members of the inner circle

of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali

Khamenei.

The slow disintegration of the 2015

nuclear deal that saw Tehran limit its

enrichment of uranium in exchange for

the lifting of economic sanctions fol-

lowed President Donald Trump’s deci-

sion to withdraw from the accord.

Contributing: Associated Press

Iran announces more nuke deal violations

Additional centrifuges

speed up weapons race

Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY

A placard mocking President Donald Trump during a rally Monday outside the

former U.S. embassy in Tehran.ATTA KENARE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

WILMINGTON, Del. – This year, a
little bird signaled a Delaware re-
searcher that the 2019 tropical storm
season in the Atlantic Ocean was going
to be more active than normal.
“If you think about it, it makes a lot
of sense,” said Christopher Heckscher
of Delaware State University, who
found the link between veery thrushes
and tropical storm activity.
“These birds have evolved in con-
cert with storms in the fall, during
their migratory period for, theoretical-
ly, thousands of years if not more. It
would make sense that they would, at
some point, get in sync with the cli-
mate at a larger global scale.”
For two decades, Heckscher has
been studying Delaware’s densest
population of veery thrushes, a cinna-
mon-colored songbird with a spotted
chest that migrates every spring from
the southern Amazon basin to north-
ern breeding grounds that stretch from
Delaware to Canada.
Over the years he has watched and
tracked one population of veeries nes-
tling into the forests of White Clay
Creek State Park each spring. Even
though the species travels thousands
of miles for this moment, they only
ever raise one clutch, or one successful
nest of usually two to four chicks.
“I started to notice that in some
years the birds were stopping their
breeding season earlier than other
years,” the ornithologist, entomologist
and environmental science professor
said.
“It turns out that in years they stop
breeding earlier, there’s more tropical
storm activity on their migration
route,” Heckscher said.
While the link between these
thrushes and tropical activity is clear,
he said, it remains a mystery how the
thrushes are able to sense future
weather patterns as accurately or bet-
ter than advanced meteorological su-
per computers.
“Whatever it is, it’s something that
they’ve already figured it out by
mid-May at the latest, really,”
Heckscher said. “It’s just opened up
so many other questions. How do they
know this?”

A geolocator rests on the back of a
veery caught in White Clay Creek
State Park on Monday morning.KYLE
GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNA

Birds hatch an

adaptation for

forecasting

hurricanes

Maddy Lauria
The News Journal
USA TODAY

DENVER –FBI agents arrested a

southern Colorado man they said tried

to blow up a synagogue with pipe

bombs and dynamite after espousing

virulent white supremacist views.

Richard Holzer, 27, was arrested Fri-

day in Pueblo, Colorado, wearing a Na-

zi armband and carrying a knife, a

mask, and what he believed was a bag

of explosives, according to federal in-

vestigators. FBI agents for several

months secretly investigated Holzer

after he repeatedly posted anti-Semit-

ic comments using multiple Facebook

accounts.

“Holzer sent a video of himself

showing him putting on a mask, grab-

bing a machete and saying, ‘May the

gods be with me for what I must do,’ ”

FBI agent John W. Smith wrote in an

arrest affidavit.

According to investigators, Holzer

boasted that he had previously tried to

poison congregants at the redbrick

Temple Emanuel, the second-oldest

synagogue in Colorado, by hiring a

“witch doctor” to put arsenic in the wa-

ter. FBI agents said they found no evi-

dence that ever happened.

Agents said Holzer repeatedly sur-

veilled the synagogue before meeting

up on Friday with men he believed were

white supremacists supplying him with

explosives. Holzer said he believed he

was fighting a “racial holy war” against

Jewsand hoped to show the congrega-

tion that “they’re not wanted here,” ac-

cording to court documents. The pur-

ported sympathizers were actually FBI

agents, according to court records.

FBI agents said Holzer confessed af-

ter he was arrested while in possession

of what were fake explosives mocked up

by FBI experts. Holzer described him-

self as a former KKK member and now

considered himself a skinhead, accord-

ing to the FBI.

FBI Director Christopher Wray

warned last month that domestic vio-

lent extremists “collectively pose a

steady threat of violence and economic

harm to the United States.”

Testifying before Congress, Wray

said: “Trends may shift, but the under-

lying drivers for domestic violent ex-

tremism – such as perceptions of gov-

ernment or law enforcement overreach,

socio-political conditions, racism, anti-

Semitism, Islamophobia, and reactions

to legislative actions –remain constant.

The FBI is most concerned about lone

offender attacks, primarily shootings,

as they have served as the dominant le-

thal mode for domestic violent extrem-

ist attacks. More deaths were caused by

domestic violent extremists than inter-

national terrorists in recent years.”

FBI foils plot to bomb synagogue

Trevor Hughes

USA TODAY

Woven Stars of

David are shown

along the fence at

the Tree of Life

Synagogue on

Oct. 27 in

Pittsburgh. One

year ago, Robert

Bowers killed 11

people in an

attack of the

synagogue.JEFF

SWENSEN/GETTY

IMAGES

HONORING JOHN CONYERS

Monica Conyers stands at the casket of her husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., with former President Bill

Clinton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson before the start of his funeral on Monday at Greater Grace Temple

in Detroit. Conyers, 90, was the longest serving African American member of the U.S House of

Representatives. His career spanned more than 50 years and 27 terms in office. RYAN GARZA/USA TODAY NETWORK