Tag Archives: WorldNews

Two Former Homeland Security Secretaries Wrote President Obama on Safely Welcoming Syrian Refugees

Two former Secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security — Janet Napolitano (2009-2013) and Michael Chertoff (2005-2009) — wrote to President Obama today about how we can welcome refugees while ensuring the safety and security of Americans. Here’s what they had to say:

“With respect to refugees seeking to resettle here, it is our view that we can admit the most vulnerable of these refugees into this country safely as long as we do not compromise the already established protections.”

 

Through this process, we forward American values of “openness and inclusive” by helping protect the most vulnerable Syrians.

“First, we consider only the most vulnerable — particularly survivors of violence and torture, those with severe medical conditions, and women and children — for potential admittance to the U.S.”

 

But we’re also working to ensure the safety of Americans at home. According to Secretaries Napolitano and Chertoff, refugees undergo a more rigorous screening process than anyone else we allow into the U.S.

“The process for any refugee seeking entry to the United States requires the highest level of scrutiny fro a law enforcement and national security perspective. The process takes place while the refugees are still overseas, and it is lengthy and deliberate.”

 

Here’s how the two former Homeland Security Secretaries walk us step-by-step through that process:

“Once a candidate is selected they are subjected to biographic and biometric security reviews based on the latest intelligence from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense. If they pass these national security checks, they will then be personally interviewed by specially trained DHS personnel to ensure they are qualified for admittance.”

 

After that, the candidates are subjected to further screening right up to an interview at the border before they enter the U.S.

“They are then subjected to recurrent vetting up to the final point of departure and a final interview at the border before being admitted into the U.S.”

 

That full process is why Secretaries Napolitano and Chertoff concluded that we can both welcome Syrian refugees and ensure our safety:

“The process that is currently in place is thorough and robust and, so long as it is fully implemented and not diluted, it will allow us to safely admit the most vulnerable refugees while protecting the American people.”

 

Learn more about how we can welcome refugees while ensuring our safety. 

Read the full letter from the two former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security

http://bitly.com/1XcWzRq

 

Here’s What You Need to Know About Our Strategy to Defeat ISIL

There’s no question that the tragic events in Paris underscore the urgency of our campaign to defeat and ultimately destroy ISIL. As President Obama has said, the fight against ISIL will be long — ISIL is a determined, well-resourced, and brutal enemy that aims to establish branches beyond Iraq and Syria, preying on vulnerable populations. 

This is why, at the President’s direction, the U.S. government for more than a year has executed a comprehensive and sustained strategy to defeat ISIL. Since last summer, we’ve built a global coalition of 65 partners who are working together to degrade and destroy ISIL. 

Highlights of our efforts include:

 

Relentlessly pursuing ISIL leaders and going after attack plotters wherever they are:

In the last week, we have taken strikes against notorious ISIL operative Mohammed Emwazi, aka “Jihadi John”, and Abu Nabil, the leader of ISIL in Libya. A terrorist group like ISIL won’t be defeated by a single strike, but these operations should be a clear warning to ISIL that we will go after their leadership and networks throughout the world.

 

Cutting off supply lines and shrinking their safehavens:

We’re intensifying our work with local partners in Iraq and Syria to empower them to take the fight to ISIL. In Iraq and Syria, ISIL has lost more than 20-25 percent of the populated territory they once controlled. Over the past month, Iraqi forces have largely taken back the city of Bayji from ISIL control. Just last week, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook the town of Sinjar from ISIL, an important strategic point for ISIL’s supply and communication lines. The global coalition supported the Peshmerga-led offensive with substantial airpower, launching over 50 strikes near Sinjar since November 11. 

We need to keep denying ISIL foreign fighters and cutting its revenue streams — including from oil facilities. And, just as we are shrinking their physical safehaven, we need to deny them digital safehaven and support community partners to provide alternative messages from credible voices to counter ISIL’s twisted message.

 

Enhancing and enabling partners:

We need partners in the fight against ISIL inside Iraq and Syria and around the globe to ensure our gains are sustainable. We are training Iraqi forces and are building the capacity of our partners in northern Syria.  

 

Pushing for a political solution:

We’re also making in-roads in improving inclusive governance in Iraq, and with a group of other nations, working toward a negotiated settlement in Syria to end a conflict that has cost a quarter million lives and displaced millions of people in the region. Because ultimately, a political solution that addresses the chaos that has fueled ISIL’s rise offers the only sustainable path to the group’s ultimate defeat. 

Though we’ve made progress in the fight against ISIL, it remains a very serious global threat. The tragedies in Paris and Beirut and the bombing of Metrojet 9268 make clear that we must continue to relentlessly press the group on all fronts until it is destroyed.

 

ISIL Strategy Pt 1

ISIL Strategy Pt 2

 

GOP Governors Refusing Refugees Are Creating The Terrorists Of The Future

Government officials have rarely been known for their ability to think in terms of the long game—or at least a game plan that extends beyond their current and prospective terms of office. As proof of the politician’s proclivity for shortsightedness, today we have learned that sixteen state governors  (Oklahoma joined the […]

One-Third of Papua New Gineans Suffering Drought Crisis

An estimated one-third of the population of Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific Island state, is now suffering in from the country’s worst drought this century and experts predict El Nino’s influence will carry on through March 2016. Dickson Guina, Chairman of the National Disaster Committee, told IPS that 2.4 million people across most […]