Category Archives: Global Politics

House passes bill to tighten flow of Syrian refugees over Obama’s objections – The Washington Post {The vote – 289 anti-American cowards to 137.

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation aimed at tightening controls on refugees from Syria and Iraq, in what Republican leaders say is a swift and strong response to last week’s terror attacks in Paris.The vote was 289 to 137.

Source: House passes bill to tighten flow of Syrian refugees over Obama’s objections – The Washington Post

Syrian ceasefire would be announced ′in the coming hours′ | News | DW.COM | 19.11.2015

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday a 15-day ceasefire between Syrian rebels and government forces in Eastern Ghouta, an area near Syria’s capital Damascus, would be announced “in the coming hours.”If agreed, the ceasefire would take place early on Thursday as a “test period” and could be extended if further agreements are made, the British-based Observatory said.However, no agreement was made for the precise time for the start of the ceasefire, and an agreement has yet to be finalized, the Observatory said.Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told the French news agency AFP, if an agreement is reached “a ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta would begin at 6:00 a.m. (0400 UTC) Thursday and will last 15 days.”Abdel Rahman added that the most powerful rebel group in Eastern Ghouta, Jaish al-Islam, was the main negotiator on the rebel side. However, a spokesperson for the rebel group could not be reached for comment.

Source: Syrian ceasefire would be announced ′in the coming hours′ | News | DW.COM | 19.11.2015

When Solidarity Only Goes So Far | Dame Magazine

As news of the attacks spread, dozens of my Syrian friends, most of whom I have met while they are living as refugees in Lebanon, were changing their profile pictures to the French flag, expressing genuine sympathy—and solidarity—with the people of Paris.One friend, a former tour guide in Palmyra—the oasis of ancient ruins in the Syrian desert that was a UNESCO world heritage site and popular tourist destination before it was recently plundered by the Islamic State—changed his profile picture to an image of the French tricolor superimposed over the ancient city that he once called home.“We had to flee ISIS in Tadmur,” he says, using the Arabic name for Palmyra. “Now France has a taste of how we felt.”Just the day before, I had been having coffee near the memorial at Republique with Bashar, a Syrian refugee who sought asylum in Paris around a year and a half ago. We were talking about whether or not the recent attacks would affect refugee policy in Paris when suddenly, a panicked crowd started running for the café, toppling tables and frantically diving down the stairwell, startled by what turned out to be fireworks, set off at the wrong time.“I felt so bad for the people of Paris,” said Bashar, as we waited inside of the restaurant’s basement kitchen to find out what was going on, and whether or not the coast was clear.“I know how it feels because we had to face so much of this in Syria.”

Source: When Solidarity Only Goes So Far | Dame Magazine

The Un-American Politics of Rejecting Refugees | GOOD

This obstructionism is pointless. The refugees are coming to America—as they should. Seven states to date (Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington) have vowed to cooperate with resettlement plans. And once those refugees are in the United States, they have the ability to freely travel within the nation and to relocate wherever they may so choose. That means that these bans, even if they were legal, would do nothing whatsoever to stop potentially bad-actor refugees (who, given our vetting procedures, are unlikely to get into the nation in the first place).These refugee bans make no sense. They fail to recognize how dissimilar the U.S. situation is from Europe’s ordeal. They fail to recognize American legal realities. But more than any of that, as numerous politicians have pointed out, they betray fundamental American values of inclusivity and refuge. They shirk our moral responsibility to aid those displaced by a conflict that has killed 250,000, destroyed a nation, and for which we are at least partially responsible by merit of our chronically misguided and shortsighted Middle Eastern politics. (Americans often balk at that notion, but the sooner we own our culpability, the better it will be for us and for the world, now and in the view of history.) And, coming as they do alongside calls for tighter monitoring of Islamic communities in the States and implicit calls for religious or ethnic tests on migrants, they reek of a deep Islamophobia. Given that the vast majority of the Paris attackers were Europeans, and given the acknowledged presence of a massive homegrown terrorist front in Europe (consisting of white radicals and Muslim extremists), it’s bizarre that we’ve chosen to restrict entrance to Syrian refugees and not to Belgian or French citizens.

Source: The Un-American Politics of Rejecting Refugees | GOOD

www.german-foreign-policy.com German media pushing WWIII

The current front of Germany’s major national media, orchestrating domestic public opinion and publicistically habituating the population to a “World War” has been broken by a renowned business magazine. Gabor Steingart, Chief Editor of the German Handelsblatt warns, “the West shares the blame for the hostile climate between the cultures.” “Of the 1.3 million lives that the wars from Afghanistan to Syria have cost, the crusade against Iraq, waged under false pretenses – and therefore in violation of international law – alone, accounts so far for 800,000 dead,” explains Steingart. “The majority of these victims were peaceful Muslims – not terrorists.” “The automatism of severity and mercilessness, the premeditated incomprehension of one’s counterpart, the fiery speeches for the respective populations at home, the rapid take-off of bomber squadrons” have “brought us to where we are today.” “This is not how you stop terrorism; this is how you fan its flames. This is not how you obtain peace; this is how you spawn suicide bombers.” In the future, rather than banking on “combat or capitulation,” we should promote “order, respect, and moderation.” “There are alternatives to military escalation.”[13] Among the leading personalities of the German mainstream media, Steingart stands alone with his warning.

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

Turkey could cut off Islamic State’s supply lines. So why doesn’t it? | David Graeber | Comment is free | The Guardian

Western leaders could destroy Islamic State by calling on Erdoğan to end his attacks on Kurdish forces in Syria and Turkey and allow them to fight Isis on the ground

Source: Turkey could cut off Islamic State’s supply lines. So why doesn’t it? | David Graeber | Comment is free | The Guardian

Islamic State posts audio message in Bengali – The Hindu

The Islamic State’s tape of nashid (chants) in Bengali was posted on the terror outfit’s media platform Al Hayat Media Centre on October 27.“A few Bangladeshi men of foreign origin have joined the IS ranks and are said to be in Syria and Iraq. This message was most probably uploaded by them to connect to the Bangladesh audience. We don’t think it can have any impact in India. But we are still keeping a watch,” said a senior Home Ministry official.Bangladesh has denied the presence of IS on its soil, though the group itself has claimed responsibility for the recent killings of an Italian and a Japanese national in that country.The official asserted again on Tuesday that the government had not so far come across any information that would suggest the IS was planning an attack on India. However, the Home Ministry has issued an advisory to all the States which stated that the IS intended to “expand the arc of high profile terror actions beyond the core area of Syria and Iraq.” This advisory comes in the wake of the Paris attacks engineered by the outfit which killed 129 people.“Though the IS has not been able to establish any significant presence in India, its success in radicalising some youth, attracting certain sections of the local population or the Indian diaspora to physically participate in its activities, or the possibility of piggy-backing on terrorist groups operating in India, have opened up the possibility of IS-sponsored terrorist action on Indian territory,” said the advisory dated November 16. “In this regard, the security arrangements for the diplomatic interests of France, U.S., U.K., Germany, Russia, Australia, Turkey and Israel may be particularly reviewed and strengthened.”

Source: Islamic State posts audio message in Bengali – The Hindu

Mass Surveillance Isn’t the Answer to Fighting Terrorism – The New York Times

It’s a wretched yet predictable ritual after each new terrorist attack: Certain politicians and government officials waste no time exploiting the tragedy for their own ends. The remarks on Monday by John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, took that to a new and disgraceful low.From Our AdvertisersSpeaking less than three days after coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris killed 129 and injured hundreds more, Mr. Brennan complained about “a lot of hand-wringing over the government’s role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists.”What he calls “hand-wringing” was the sustained national outrage following the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, that the agency was using provisions of the Patriot Act to secretly collect information on millions of Americans’ phone records. In June, President Obama signed the USA Freedom Act, which ends bulk collection of domestic phone data by the government (but not the collection of other data, like emails and the content of Americans’ international phone calls) and requires the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to make its most significant rulings available to the public.

Source: Mass Surveillance Isn’t the Answer to Fighting Terrorism – The New York Times

G.O.P. Governors Vow to Close Doors to Syrian Refugees – The New York Times {25 Governors announce they are actively anti-American, bigoted, and cowards!}

Twenty-five Republican governors vowed to block the entry of Syrian refugees into their states, arguing that the safety of Americans was at stake after the Paris attacks by terrorists including a man who entered Europe with a Syrian passport and posed as a migrant. Among the governors were those from Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas and other states that have already resettled relatively large numbers of refugees from among the 1,900 Syrians accepted by the United States in the last four years.

Source: G.O.P. Governors Vow to Close Doors to Syrian Refugees – The New York Times