Obama speech 'relied on amnesia'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Matt Welch: State of the Union featured content-free calls to action for action's sake


• He says governed might want to know what they've gotten in return for ballooning debt


• Didn't we try repairing infrastructure with the stimulus package? he asks


• Welch: Rand Paul spoke to those who think government should get out of way

Editor's note: Matt Welch is editor in chief of Reason and co-author of "The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America" (Public Affairs).

(CNN) -- The two most memorable lines of President Barack Obama's fourth State of the Union address were the ad-libbed: "Get it done" (which doesn't appear in the remarks as prepared), and the emotional "They deserve a vote," concerning victims of gun violence.

As exasperated appeals for an obstructionist Congress to get off its duff, the exhortations provided emotional catnip for Democrats. For the rest of us, however, they were sobering reminders of what governing liberalism has deteriorated into: content-free calls to take action for action's sake.

Consumers of national governance are within their rights to ask just what we've gotten in return for ballooning the cost of the stuff since 2000. The answer may lie in not just what the president said, but what he has assumed we've already forgotten.

Matt Welch

"Let's cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next 20 years," said the president, who promised a "Recovery Through Retrofit" three years ago. "The American people deserve a tax code that ... lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that create jobs right here in America," said the man who before he took office vowed to, uh, give "tax breaks to companies that are investing here in the United States."

That "aging infrastructure badly in need of repair"? Well, what happened to the $50 billion from the stimulus package dedicated to precisely that task, or the $50 billion plan 18 months later? Making college "more affordable"? That has been the motivation for continuous ratcheting of government involvement in higher education, which has -- surprise! -- coincided with a several-decade increase in tuition costs and student loan debt.

Greene: In 2013, democracy talks back

Do-something politics works when Americans have amnesia, or are reacting to headline-making tragedies, or when they just want free stuff. But this irresistible force is butting up against the immovable object of a have-nothing U.S. Treasury. Debt service costs will soon overtake defense spending, and baby boomer entitlements are about to transform the federal government into a check-writing program for senior citizens.

Americans know by now that Obama can't possibly believe his own promises that his policies won't "increase our deficit by a single dime," not only because of his poor track record with that particular vow, but because he spends the rest of his time talking about all the various things the government needs to "invest" to create "broad-based growth." It's a conflict at the basic level of vision with those of us who think prosperity is mostly a private-sector affair that is on balance imperiled, not improved, by the exertions of a deficit-spending government.

Opinion: Obama dares Congress to get the job done

Thankfully, and quite unlike during the 2012 presidential campaign, the competing vision was voiced Tuesday night. Not necessarily by a dehydrated but game Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union address, but by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who did the honors online for the tea party.

"The path we are on is not sustainable," Paul said, directly. "All that we are, all that we wish to be, is now threatened by the notion that you can have something for nothing, that you can have your cake and eat it, too, that you can spend a trillion dollars every year that you don't have."

Paul dinged Republicans as well as Democrats, targeted military spending as well as entitlements, and spent a good 30 seconds giving a more full-throated defense of wartime civil liberties than the allegedly anti-war candidate Obama ever did.

Most importantly, he laid out a truly alternative vision that speaks directly to the growing number of Americans who feel like the federal government has failed as the engine of economic growth, and needs urgently to take a back seat before it does more harm.

Rothkopf: This time, a president in full

"What America needs," Paul said, "is not Robin Hood, but Adam Smith." As Obamanomics continues underperforming through a second term, it will be fascinating to see whether Ron Paul's kid can get more people to agree.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Matt Welch.

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Bahrainis protest on eve of revolt anniversary

MANAMA: Thousands of Bahraini Shiites took to the streets Wednesday on the eve of the second anniversary of their crushed uprising, as a national dialogue aimed at ending a political stalemate resumed.

Following a call by opposition groups, demonstrators marched in 12 villages and chanted anti-regime slogans, witnesses said, amid calls for a general strike and nationwide protests on Thursday and Friday to commemorate the uprising.

"Khalifa! Step down," they chanted, addressing Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, an uncle of King Hamad who has been in office for more than four decades and is widely despised by the Shiite majority.

Although the protests ended peacefully, groups of youths later blocked streets in the village of Sitra, southeast of Manama, with garbage bins and rocks, an AFP correspondent said.

Riot police fired tear gas and shotguns to disperse them.

More demonstrations are expected on Thursday following calls by the February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition.

The clandestine radical cyber group has also urged a Friday march on what was once known as Pearl Square, where protesters camped for a month before being forcefully driven out in mid-March 2011.

The mainstream opposition led by the Al-Wefaq Shiite formation called for a demonstration on Friday in Shiite villages.

The Bahraini authorities have in turn appealed for people to ignore the calls for strikes and civil disobedience.

Meanwhile, representatives of the opposition, and other pro-government political groups, and the government held on Wednesday a new session of talks of the national dialogue that resumed at the weekend, BNA state news agency reported.

Opposition groups, including Al-Wefaq, made a last-minute decision to join the talks after they had walked out in the first round in July 2011, complaining that they were not serious.

But protesters voiced their opposition to the initiative on Wednesday, chanting: "No to dialogue".

The opposition issued a statement at the end of the demonstrations insisting that an end to Bahrain's deadlock would be through a "comprehensive political solution that would hand power to the people and end dictatorship".

Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since its forces crushed the protests in March 2011. The unrest has so far left 80 people dead, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

- AFP/jc

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Body found in cabin may be Christopher Dorner

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Michael Crain, who was allegedly shot by Christopher Dorner, is buried in Riverside


• Authorities have a "reasonable belief" that Dorner died in a mountain standoff


• Authorities have not conclusively identified the body found near Big Bear Lake


• The LAPD is still guarding some people named in Dorner's manifesto

Follow the story here and at CNN affiliates KCBS/KCAL, KABC and KTLA.

Riverside, California (CNN) -- Police from around the Los Angeles area gathered to bury one of their own Wednesday while investigators worked to confirm the man blamed for killing Officer Michael Crain and three other people was dead.

A squad of bagpipers led Crain's flag-draped casket through a cordon of blue uniforms into a church in Riverside, the Los Angeles suburb where he served 11 years on the force. Investigators say he was shot and killed by Christopher Dorner, a cashiered Los Angeles cop who launched a vendetta against his old department last week.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said authorities have a "reasonable belief" that the body found in a burned-out cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains late Tuesday is Dorner's. But while the SWAT teams that prowled the city in search of the former Navy officer have stood down, the officers detailed to guard his potential victims remain in place.

"I think we all are breathing a sigh of relief," Villaraigosa said Wednesday. "We do believe that it is the body of Christopher Dorner, but we don't know for a certainty. And until we do, those police officers who were targeted will continue to be protected. That's the least we could do."

Authorities say Dorner launched a guerrilla war against the Los Angeles Police Department over what he considered his unfair dismissal in 2009. He's accused of killing four people -- Crain, a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy, the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance -- and wounding three other police officers since February 3.

It wasn't clear when a formal identification could be made of the charred remains found in the cabin near Big Bear Lake, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles, after a Tuesday shootout with police. Until then, "a lot of apprehension" remains in the ranks of the LAPD, Lt. Andy Neiman said.

"It's been a very trying time over the last couple of weeks for all of those involved and all those families, friends and everybody that has been touched by this incident," he said.

Timeline in manhunt

Standoff

The fiery standoff that capped the search Tuesday came five days after Dorner's burned truck turned up on a forest road near Big Bear Lake. Officers converged on the remote area, but the trail went cold for days in a fierce blizzard. On Sunday, the San Bernardino authorities said they had scaled back the search.

Los Angeles authorities had issued a $1 million reward for Dorner's capture. Villaraigosa said it was too soon to say if anyone would be able to claim the reward.

What may have been the final act began Tuesday, when California Fish and Wildlife wardens said they spotted Dorner driving a purple Nissan down icy roads near Big Bear Lake. He was driving very close to school buses, as if using them as cover, Lt. Patrick Foy said.

No children were on the buses, he said.

The wardens, driving in two different vehicles, chased Dorner. A gun battle ensued.

One of the warden's cars was hit, and Dorner crashed his car and ran, according to authorities. He then carjacked a pickup truck.

Rick Heltebrake, a camp ranger, said he was driving when he saw the crashed purple truck -- and then something terrifying.

"Here comes this guy with a big gun, and I knew who it was right away," he told CNN affiliate KTLA. "He just came out of the snow at me with his gun at my head. He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out of the car and start walking.' "

Heltebrake said the man let him take his dog and walk away with his hands up.

"Not more than 10 seconds later, I heard a loud round of gunfire," Heltebrake said. "Ten to 20 rounds maybe. I found out later what that was all about."

How authorities identify a burned body

The fire

Dorner fled to a nearby cabin and got into another shootout with San Bernardino County deputies, killing one and wounding another.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Tuesday the other deputy was in surgery, "but he should be fine."

Some of the firefight between police and the gunman was captured live on the telephone of a reporter for CNN affiliates KCBS and KCAL. Police in Los Angeles listened live over police scanners broadcast on the Internet, Neiman said.

"It was horrifying to listen to that firefight," he told reporters.

The cabin caught fire when police tossed smoke devices inside, a law enforcement source told CNN. The intense fire burned for hours as authorities waited at a distance.

After initially saying that no body had been found, sheriff's investigators finally confirmed overnight that they had found charred human remains in the ashes.

The department said it would work to identify the remains, but it could take a while.

Devices such as flash-bang grenades and tear gas canisters designed to disorient and disable suspects can cause fires, CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director, said Wednesday.

Talk Back: Does the Dorner case teach us anything about guns?

Death toll

The deputy's death in the shootout Tuesday brought to four the number of people that police believe Dorner killed.

Dorner, who vowed to kill police officers to avenge what he called an unfair termination, was first named a suspect in two shooting deaths on February 3: Monica Quan, the daughter of his police union representative, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence.

Police say he killed Crain and wounded Crain's partner in an ambush on their patrol car Thursday. They say he also wounded an LAPD officer who chased him in the suburban city of Corona, California.

Manifesto

Police say Dorner promised a war on police after issuing a manifesto blaming the LAPD for mistreating him. He claimed he was railroaded out of the department after filing a brutality report against another officer and said a culture of racism and misconduct continues within the department.

The manifesto warned dozens of LAPD figures and their families that he would wage "asymmetric warfare" against the department, drawing on his training with the LAPD and as a naval officer in river warfare and security units.

He said it was not something he enjoyed, but called it a "last resort" to clear his name and bring change to the department.

He also predicted his own death would come in a confrontation with police.

"Self Preservation is no longer important to me," the manifesto said. "I do not fear death as I died long ago."

CNN's Miguel Marquez reported from near Big Bear Lake and Lateef Mungin wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Paul Vercammen, Stan Wilson, Casey Wian, Kathleen Johnston, Alan Duke, Matt Smith, Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Martinez, Holly Yan and Michael Pearson also contributed to this report.

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Video: Syria's youngest talk about life in war zone

The impact of war on Syria's youngest residents is depicted in a striking video released Wednesday by Global Post. A correspondent, identified only as " Maya," spoke with kids in a Syrian children's shelter about their experiences growing up in a war zone.

The sound of explosions can be heard in the background as the footage opens to a room filled with young people.

"When the shelling starts we don't hear the explosions as much, so we feel safer," says 14-year-old Mariam. "But when the shelling is heavy we feel only God can protect us."

Between images of the children playing--with hula hoops, computer games and, in one case, a bullet--the young subjects give their personal accounts of war. They speak candidly, and without tears, about witnessing brutal massacres, the deaths of classmates and dreaming about bombs.

Turkieh, an 8-year-old with bouncy curls and a bright pink sweater, is calm as she recounts the loss of her mother.

"My mum went to buy bread and was coming back when the sniper shot her," she says.

The United Nations say more than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict started.

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Dorner Hid Just Steps From Command Center

Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop whom authorities believe died in a fiery standoff with police Tuesday night, was apparently holed up in a snow-covered cabin in the California mountains just steps from where police had set up a command post and held press conferences during a five-day manhunt.

The charred remains of a body believed to be Dorner was removed from another cabin, high in the San Bernadino Mountains near Big Bear, Calif., the site of Dorner's last stand. Cornered inside the mountain cabin, the suspect shot at cops, killing one deputy and wounding another, before the building was consumed by flames.

Police are working to officially identify the body, but "have reason to believe that it is him," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman.

The manhunt for Dorner, 33, one of the biggest in recent memory, led police to follow clues across the West and into Mexico, but it ended just miles from where Dorner's trail went cold last week.

Residents of the area were relieved today that after a week of heightened police presence and fear that Dorner was likely dead.

"I'm glad no one else can get hurt and they caught him. I'm happy they caught the bad guy," said Ashley King, a waitress in the nearby town of Angelus Oaks, Calif.

Hundreds of cops scoured the mountains near Big Bear, a resort area in Southern California, since last Thursday using bloodhounds and thermal-imaging technology mounted to helicopters, in the search for Dorner. The former police officer and Navy marksman was being hunted as the suspect who had killed a cop and cop's daughter and had issued a "manifesto" declaring he was bent on revenge and pledged to kill dozens of LAPD cops and their family members.

Carjacking Victim Says Christopher Dorner Was Dressed for Damage Watch Video

Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Inside the Shootout Watch Video

Chris Dorner Manhunt: Fugitive Ex-Cop in Shootout With Police Watch Video

But it now appears that Dorner never left the area, and may have hid out in an unoccupied cabin just steps from where cops had set up a command center.

It was at the cabin Tuesday morning where two women arrived to find a man matching Dorner's description inside. He took the women hostage, tying them up and stealing their car. At 12:20 p.m. PT, one of the woman broke free and called police.

Dorner crashed that car and hijacked a pickup truck as officials from the state Fish and Game Department pursued him.

"I saw some movement in the trees and it was Christopher Dorner and he came out onto the road, out of the snow, and he was dressed in all camouflage and had a big assault, sniper-type rifle and he had a vest on, like a ballistics vest. He was dressed up to do some damage it looked like. He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out and start walking up the road and take your dog with you,' Rick Heltebrake, the pickup's driver, told ABC News.

Dorner then took off into the woods on foot, where sheriff's deputies pursued him to a rental cabin in which he barricaded himself and began firing.

Two deputies were wounded in the firefight and airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said. The second deputy received non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Some local television stations broadcast police scanner traffic of the firefight, punctuated by the sound of automatic gunfire.

"It was horrifying to listen to that firefight and to hear those words. 'Officer down' is the most gut-wrenching experience that you can have as a police officer," said LAPD spokesman Lt. Andrew Neiman.

Over the course of the next five hours, heavily armed SWAT teams with tank-like vehicles surrounded the cabin, even firing tear gas inside, but never entered the building.

Cops said they heard a single gunshot go off from inside the cabin just as they began to see smoke and fire. Later they heard the sound of more gunshots, the sound of ammunition being ignited by the heat of the blaze, law enforcement officials said.

Dorner is accused of killing four people, including the deputy shot on Tuesday. Last Thursday he allegedly gunned down Riverside police officer Michael Crain, who was laid to rest today.

Crain's shooting and the discovery of an online manifesto pledging to kill dozens of cops launched the dragnet.

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Was euro ever 'about to collapse'?

By Ramy Inocencio, for CNN

February 12, 2013 -- Updated 0948 GMT (1748 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Former European Central Bank chief says euro was never going to collapse


• In 2012, critics predicted at least partial breakup of 17-member eurozone


• Euro plunged to 25-month low against U.S. dollar in July 2012


• Currency war fears prevail in run-up to G20 finance ministers meeting this week

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Less than six months ago, eurozone watchers had been predicting the breakup of the 17-member bloc of nations as the euro plunged to a 25-month low against the U.S. dollar last July.

Even as recently as November, Warren Buffett, the famed CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said of the eurozone's future that "it's hard to tell exactly how it comes out."

But since then, the euro has appreciated nearly 11% as its member countries battled to contain sovereign debt crises, rising unemployment and social unrest. The euro now stands at a 13-month high against the greenback.

And flying in the face of last year's critics, former European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet told CNN's Nina dos Santos that the euro "was never about to collapse" and that its viability as a currency is solid.

"The euro as a currency has never been put in question," asserted Trichet, while at the same time admitting the euro area's financial stability and credit worthiness had been tested.

As for the euro, he said it "is certainly reliable and credible."

Yet, the euro's gains over the past seven months is a mixed blessing. Arguments have long-existed for and against a stronger currency. Appreciation means investors are more confident in the euro but eurozone exports become more expensive when sold overseas; devaluation makes the bloc's exports more competitive globally, which many eurozone officials would prefer.

But if the world's major economies devalued their currencies to make exports more competitive and to spur their economies to growth again, it would be chaos, says Trichet.

"If the reasoning is the same in all constituencies you have nothing but...a 'beggar-thy-neighbor' policy which is a recipe for catastrophe."

That catastrophe could take the form of an all-out currency war. And this week, the world's leading banks called on the G20 group of richest nations to avoid such an outcome.

"We believe major central banks should focus on enhancing their cooperation...to guide market expectations and thus help avoid a disorderly interest rate adjustment process and undue exchange rate volatility," the Institute of International Finance wrote in a letter to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is chairing the G20 finance minister's meeting later this week.

But with the eurozone in recession for the second time in four years, the desire to devalue the euro may be strong. The European Central Bank in December cut its 2013 growth forecast, with a best-case growth rate scenario of only 0.3%.

"It is no time for complacency," warned Trichet who added that the central banks of the United States, Japan and Europe as well as their private sectors should get their "house(s) in order."

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Fears of 'catastrophic' violence in tense Mali

GAO, Mali: Mali risks descending into "catastrophic" violence, the UN rights chief warned on Tuesday, as tensions swept the country after a string of attacks by Islamist rebels on French-led forces.

After four days of suicide bombings and guerrilla fighting in the northern city of Gao, fears of fresh attacks were high following a call from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - which US officials have labelled Al-Qaeda's most dangerous franchise - for a holy war in Mali.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay warned a second kind of violence also threatened the country - reprisal attacks by the army and black majority on light-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs accused of supporting the rebel groups that have plunged Mali into crisis.

"As the situation evolves, attacks and reprisals risk driving Mali into a catastrophic spiral of violence," Pillay told the UN Security Council.

"Protection of human rights is key to stabilising the situation."

Pillay said human rights investigators from her department had started arriving in the Malian capital last week, and called on all sides in the conflict to refrain from revenge attacks.

Rights groups have accused the Malian army of killing suspected rebel supporters and dumping their bodies in wells.

Tuaregs and Arabs have also come under attack from their black neighbours in northern towns such as Timbuktu, where looting broke out after French-led forces reclaimed the city and a mob tried to lynch an alleged Islamist supporter.

A grave containing several Arabs' bodies was recently discovered in Timbuktu.

With fears of reprisal attacks high, many Arabs and Tuaregs have fled.

In all, the crisis has caused some 377,000 people to flee their homes, including 150,000 who have sought refuge across Mali's borders, according to the UN.

Mali imploded after a March 22 coup by soldiers who blamed the government for the army's humiliation at the hands of north African Tuareg rebels, who have long complained of being marginalised by Bamako.

With the capital in disarray, Al-Qaeda-linked fighters hijacked the Tuareg rebellion and took control of the north.

Analysts say the crisis has been fuelled by a complex interplay of internal tensions and international factors, including Al-Qaeda's call to jihad.

Those concerns were underlined Tuesday when AQAP, Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, condemned France's month-old intervention as a "crusader campaign against Islam" and called all Muslims to join a holy war against it.

"Supporting the Muslims in Mali is a duty for every capable Muslim with life and money, everyone according to their ability," AQAP's Sharia Committee said in a statement reported by the SITE Intelligence agency.

Around 90 percent of Malians are Muslim, but the Islamists' hardline ideology is not broadly accepted.

AQAP said jihad is "more obligatory on the people who are closer" to the fight and that "helping the disbelievers against Muslims in any form is apostasy", said US-based SITE, which monitors extremist Internet forums.

The statements were an apparent reference to north African countries, notably Algeria, where Islamist gunmen attacked a gas field after the government agreed to let French warplanes use Algerian airspace, unleashing a hostage crisis that left 37 foreigners dead.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al-Qaeda's north African branch, is one of the groups that seized control of northern Mali for 10 months in the wake of a March coup, along with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and and Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith).

France launched its operation in Mali on January 11, after the interim government called for help fending off Islamist insurgents who were advancing into southern territory.

But after pushing the rebels from the towns under their control, France is eager to wind down the operation in its former colony and hand over to United Nations peacekeepers.

The European Union said on Tuesday it would resume aid to impoverished Mali worth up to 250 million euros that was suspended after the coup.

Britain also announced aid of 5 million pounds ($7.8 million, 5.8 million euros) to buy food, medical supplies and clean water for civilians caught up in the conflict.

- AFP/de

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Prosecutor: Fugitive ex-cop still looking for revenge

LOS ANGELES A prosecutor who filed a murder charge against a fugitive former Los Angeles police officer that could result in the death penalty said he believes the man hasn't finished carrying out his vendetta.

"Just read his manifesto and look at his actions," Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said. "He's trying to send a message, and it would be my belief that his message is not completed yet."

Zellerbach filed charges Monday against Christopher Dorner for the murder of Riverside police Officer Michael Crain and the attempted murder of three other officers.

The manhunt for Dorner, 33, began last Wednesday when he was named the suspect in the Orange County killings of a former Los Angeles police captain's daughter and her fiance the previous weekend. Hours after police announced they were looking for him, Dorner allegedly fired at two LAPD officers then ambushed the Riverside officers.

"By both his words and conduct, he has made very clear to us that every law enforcement officer in Southern California is in danger of being shot and killed," Zellerbach said at a news conference guarded by four officers armed with rifles.

21 Photos

Manhunt for suspected LAPD cop killer

Play Video

Fugitive officer goes from hunter to hunted

Play Video

Miller on Dorner manhunt: "They got a lot of tips"

Police said Dorner wrote a lengthy manifesto that was posted to Facebook after the double killing. The manifesto vowed deadly revenge on those in the LAPD responsible for his firing years earlier, and their families. Police now are providing protection for some 50 families thought to be targets.

The search for Dorner remained focused in the mountains near Big Bear Lake about 80 miles east of Los Angeles after his burned-out truck was found there last Thursday. Authorities are searching more than 30 square miles day and night in the ski resort area and checking on roughly 600 cabins.

Police urged area residents with security cameras to review images to see if Dorner was recorded.

Police and other officials believe a $1 million reward, raised from public and private sources, will encourage residents to stay vigilant. More than 1,000 tips had come in since the reward was announced, Lt. Andrew Neiman, an LAPD spokesman, said Tuesday. CBS Los Angeles affiliate KCAL reports that the city council is considering raising the reward by $100,000.

"Now it's like the game show `Who Wants to be a Millionaire,"' said Anthony Burke, supervisory inspector for the U.S. Marshals regional fugitive taskforce. "Instead of one contestant, we've got 100,000, and there's only one question you have to answer. All they have to answer is where he's at, and we can take it from there."

Neiman also said investigators obtained new security video from a Sport Chalet sporting goods store in suburban Torrance but had not determined whether it shows Dorner. The video posted earlier on TMZ.com recorded a man resembling Dorner arrive with two small scuba tanks then leave with both those tanks and a larger one.

The wide-ranging search has created unusually heavy traffic backups at California border crossings into Mexico, as agents more closely inspect each car. State police in Mexico's Baja California were given photographs of Dorner and warned to consider him armed and extremely dangerous.

A U.S. Marshals Service affidavit used to obtain a federal arrest warrant on Feb. 7 cited probable cause to believe Dorner went to Mexico, but Neiman said Tuesday that it "in no way indicates one way or the other" whether Dorner is in that country.

Authorities have obtained a no-bail arrest warrant, which allows Dorner to be apprehended anywhere, Zellerbach said.

Dorner was fired from the LAPD five years ago, when a department board determined that he falsely claimed another officer had kicked a suspect. Randal Quan represented him during the proceeding.

Quan's daughter, Monica, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, were found shot dead Feb. 3 in a car in the parking structure of their Irvine condominium. Last Wednesday, after discovery of the manifesto, Irvine police announced they were searching for Dorner.

Early Thursday in the Riverside County city of Corona, Dorner shot at two LAPD officers who had been dispatched to protect a possible target of Dorner, police said. One officer's head was grazed by a bullet; the other was unharmed.

Minutes later, Dorner used a rifle to ambush two Riverside officers, killing one and seriously wounding another, authorities said. The slain officer was identified as the 34-year-old Crain. The other officer's identity was not released to protect his family.

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Fort Hood Hero Says President 'Betrayed' Victims

Three years after the White House arranged a hero's welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.

"Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."

"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she said. "In fact they've been neglected."

There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley's allegations.

Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.

Tonight's broadcast report also includes dramatic new video, obtained by ABC News, taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, capturing the chaos and terror of the day.

WATCH Exclusive Video of Fort Hood's Aftermath

Munley, since laid off from her job with the base's civilian police force, was shot three times as she and her partner, Sgt. Mark Todd, confronted Hasan, who witnesses said had shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire on soldiers being processed for deployment to Afghanistan.

As Munley lay wounded, Todd fired the five bullets credited with bringing Hasan down.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

Despite extensive evidence that Hasan was in communication with al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki prior to the attack, the military has denied the victims a Purple Heart and is treating the incident as "workplace violence" instead of "combat related" or terrorism.

READ a Federal Report on the FBI's Probe of Hasan's Ties to al-Awlaki

Al-Awlaki has since been killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen, in what was termed a major victory in the U.S. efforts against al Qaeda.

Munley and dozens of other victims have now filed a lawsuit against the military alleging the "workplace violence" designation means the Fort Hood victims are receiving lower priority access to medical care as veterans, and a loss of financial benefits available to those who injuries are classified as "combat related."

READ the Fort Hood Victims' Lawsuit

Some of the victims "had to find civilian doctors to get proper medical treatment" and the military has not assigned liaison officers to help them coordinate their recovery, said the group's lawyer, Reed Rubinstein.

"There's a substantial number of very serious, crippling cases of post-traumatic stress disorder exacerbated, frankly, by what the Army and the Defense Department did in this case," said Rubinstein. "We have a couple of cases in which the soldiers' command accused the soldiers of malingering, and would say things to them that Fort Hood really wasn't so bad, it wasn't combat."

A spokesperson for the Army said its policy is not to comment on pending litigation, but that it is "not true" any of the military victims have been neglected and that it has no control over the guidelines of the Veterans Administration.

Secretary of the Army John McHugh told ABC News he was unaware of any specific complaints from the Fort Hood victims, even though he is a named defendant in the lawsuit filed last November which specifically details the plight of many of them.

"If a soldier feels ignored, then we need to know about it on a case by case basis," McHugh told ABC News. "It is not our intent to have two levels of care for people who are wounded by whatever means in uniform."

Some of the victims in the lawsuit believe the Army Secretary and others are purposely ignoring their cases out of political correctness.

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NKorea withdraws from nuclear test site: report

SEOUL: North Korea has pulled manpower and equipment out of its nuclear test site, a report said Monday, which cited the move as a possible sign of an imminent blast.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said that Seoul has been keeping close watch on the underground Punggye-ri nuclear test site, as no movement of manpower and equipment has been observed there since Friday.

The agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the apparent withdrawal could point to a nuclear test being carried out soon.

North Korea has warned of a third atomic test since last month, but has not specified a date.

"When manpower and equipment are withdrawn, it can be an indication that a nuclear test is imminent," the source told Yonhap, requesting anonymity.

"We're watching the developments closely to know whether a nuclear test is imminent or it's another deceptive tactic," the source added.

Another Seoul government source told Yonhap that the withdrawal of manpower and equipment could be linked to the Lunar New Year's holiday, which is celebrated for three days in North Korea, having started on Sunday.

Yonhap said it was unclear whether the withdrawal was temporary.

Seoul has predicted Pyongyang may carry out its third nuclear test between the end of the holiday and the late leader Kim Jong-il's birthday on February 16, Yonhap said.

The withdrawal from the northeastern nuclear site comes after North Korea accused the United States and South Korea of "fussing over speculation" in Japan-based pro-North weekly magazine Tongil Sinbo, funded by Pyongyang.

"They are fussing over speculation without having a clue about what important state measures will be taken, including whether it will be a nuclear test or something worse than that," said the editorial, dated Friday and posted on the North's official website, Uriminzokkiri.

The North's top body, the National Defence Commission, announced on January 24 it would carry out a "high-level nuclear test" and further rocket launches, in a defiant response to tightened UN sanctions after its successful long-range rocket launch in December.

The isolated communist state insists the rocket launch was a scientific mission aimed at putting a satellite into an orbit.

But the US and many other countries viewed it as a disguised ballistic missile test, banned under UN resolutions which were triggered by Pyongyang's previous nuclear and missile tests in 2006 and 2009.

Experts and Seoul officials, citing recent satellite imagery, say the impoverished but nuclear-armed state has completed preparations for another atomic test at the northeastern nuclear site.

- AFP/jc

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