The trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, thats a problem. And its my job as president to help solve it. Welcome to the journal editorial report. That was president obama wednesday promising changes to policing in america in the wake of the Staten Island grand jury decision not to indict a Police Officer in the july death of a black man restrained in a chokehold. That decision, of course, followed last weeks unrest in ferguson, missouri, after a grand jury there declined to charge Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of another black suspect, Michael Brown. The president announced monday the creation of a task force to come up with steps for, quote, Building Public trust in Police Forces nationwide. It called on congress to fund a 263 Million Community policing initiative including 75 million to equip Police Officers with body cam
Instead begin to normalize relations between our two countries. Welcome, im paul gigot, that was president obama unveiling sweeping changes to u. S. Policy towards cuba in the wake of a swap that freed American Contractor alan gross after five years in prison. The president announced the surprise deal on wednesday and said his administration will take steps to normalize diplomatic relations with cuba and eegs economic and travel restrictions. He also called on congress to have an honest and serious debate about lifting the trade embargo which has been in place since 1962. Joining the panel this week, dan henninger, americas columnist, mary o gradedy and global view columnist brett stevens. Mary, is this a better deal for cuba or the United States . Quite obviously its a better deal for the cuban regime, not for the cuben people. Not only because we got one person who was spying for us in prison in cuba almost 20 years in exchange for three cuban spies that were in jail in the u. S. And
Welcome to the journal editorial report. Im paul gigot. Outrage spread across the world this week after a video was released showing a caged jordan yan Fighter Pilot being burned alive by Islamic State militants, an act that King Abdullah vowed to a avenge with a war. And president obama called it a brutal and vicious death cult but he told the attendees that violence rooted in religion isnt exclusive to islam. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the crusades and the inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of christ. And our home country, slavery and jim crow all too often was justified in the name of christ. Joining the panel this week, wall street journal columnist and Deputy Editor dan henninger, Dorothy Rabinowitz and columnist Mary Anastasia ogrady. Well get to the president s remarks in a bit, but what does this week and the and this brutal murder of the jordanian mean for the war and the alliance a
Seven or eight months ago as i recall. So far as i know, it had nothing to do with any kind of hostage swap or any other tit for tat. But donald trump warned that his opponent represents four more years of the same. We got our hostages back, and now we find out what we actually paid for the hostages, and it was in cash, which is terrible because that sets a terrible, terrible precedent. And its just sickening. And youll have four more years of obama if you elect Hillary Clinton. Joining the panel this week, wall street journal columnist and deputy editor, dan henninger, and columnist bret stevens. Maherian na Stacia Ogrady and bill mcgurn. So, bret, old news . Oh, no, its new and very interesting news because the Obama Administration never admitted back in january that they had sent 400 million in pallets of euros, swiss francs, to tehran in order to get those hostages released on the day they were released. This is fantastic reporting from our colleagues on the news side of the wall s
Henninger, jason riley, and mary ogrady and bill mcgurn. Dan, i remember we had a visitor from the Counterterrorism Group in the white house a couple months ago telling us this person telling us on background that they were concerned about europe. Now we see it manifesting itself here at the christmas season. Absolutely, paul. I was thinking very much the same thing. It was just a month ago, recall, that the pentagon made it known that they were going to move on an invasion of raqqa which is the Islamic State Head Quarters in syria. This is a time when the iraq army and the Coalition Partners were trying to retake mosul. I thought thats a lot to bite off at the same time. But the pentagon said back then that they were concerned that the Islamic State was going to try to project terror into europe and elsewhere, and clearly they were right. Not merely europe. Yemen and jordan have both experienced terrorist attacks in the last week. Obviously the west has to be on alert. The german situ