Like many new American veterans, I owe my life to Muslims: Trump’s executive order is un-American, dishonorable and severely harmful to U.S. national security

Like many new American veterans, I owe my life to Muslims: Trump’s executive order is un-American, dishonorable and severely harmful to U.S. national security

    Monday, February 20, 2017   No comments

Like many new American veterans, I owe my life to Muslims — the Iraqi and Afghan comrades who fought alongside me during my multiple combat tours as a Green Beret.

I join fellow veterans in Seattle and nationwide in denouncing President Trump’s decision to temporarily ban people from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States. Trump’s executive order is un-American, dishonorable and severely harmful to U.S. national security.

This sweeping and ill-conceived order will further damage U.S. credibility in the Muslim world, and will fuel recruiting by insurgent and terrorist groups claiming that America is at war with Islam.

Moreover, this shortsighted move will backfire by curbing the immigration of people from the Middle East and Africa whose language skills and cultural knowledge are in short supply in the United States. From a national-security perspective, turning our backs on them undermines our long-term interests.

 This indiscriminate ban threatens to make it harder to recruit native-born translators to support operations in Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Yemen, as well as in future conflicts, jeopardizing the lives of U.S. troops.

Throughout my military career, loyal Iraqis and Afghans displayed incredible bravery under fire to protect me and my men. These linguists have proved their trustworthiness on the field of battle and undergone extreme vetting. Our nation pledged to resettle in America interpreters who put themselves and their families at risk by working for the U.S. government.

But Trump’s ban even temporarily blocked Iraqi interpreters and their families from the United States — exposing them to unnecessary danger. It took an outcry from veterans and concern inside the Pentagon to push the Trump administration to amend the ban on Thursday and allow these heroes to immigrate as promised.

The damage caused by a stroke of Trump’s pen is already being felt, disrupting thousands of lives — from the most vulnerable refugees to talented immigrant employees of major U.S. companies. Fear is spreading.  source

On the agenda: Islam-Free America

On the agenda: Islam-Free America

    Friday, February 17, 2017   No comments

This group believes Islam threatens America: ‘It’s a spiritual battle of good and evil.’
 AUSTIN — Roy White wants to inform as many Americans as possible about the terrorists he sees in their midst.

The lean, 62-year-old Air Force veteran strode into the Texas State Capitol in late January wearing a charcoal-gray pinstripe suit and an American flag tie, with the mission of warning all 181
lawmakers about a Muslim group sponsoring a gathering of Texas Muslims at the Capitol the following day. Although the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) works to promote Muslim civil rights across America, White wanted to convince lawmakers that it is actually working to infiltrate the U.S. government and destroy American society from within.

“They’re jihadists wearing suits,” White said of CAIR and other Muslim organizations. “That’s a tough thing for us to wrap our heads around because we don’t feel threatened.”

White is the San Antonio chapter president of ACT for America, an organization that brands itself as “the nation’s largest grass-roots national security advocacy organization” and attacks what it sees as the creeping threat of sharia, or Islamic law, in the form of Muslim organizations, mosques, refugees and sympathetic politicians.

source
 

POTUS loses again: Appeals court maintains the freeze on Muslim Ban

POTUS loses again: Appeals court maintains the freeze on Muslim Ban

    Friday, February 10, 2017   No comments

ISR Comment: For the thirst time, the White House lost in court.  

 Learn about the process

It failed to convince three judges that the freeze of POTUS' Muslim ban should be lifted.The White House insists that it will pursue the defense of the ban in courts still. Trump is not stranger to using the court system. Before moving into the White House, he stood as the most litigious person ever to be nominated by a major party to run for the U.S presidency. In June 2016, USA TODAY analyzed legal filings across the United States found that the then "presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts during the past three decades."
Now that lawyers will be paid by tax payers, not from his personal or business accounts, it is likely that he will continue to take every challenged decision to courts.
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The 9th Circuit’s Opinion on the Muslim Ban:

#MuslimBan could cost Boeing $20 billion, 100,000 U.S. jobs lost

#MuslimBan could cost Boeing $20 billion, 100,000 U.S. jobs lost

    Wednesday, February 08, 2017   No comments

 

Around $20 billion worth of Boeing commercial aircraft orders to foreign countries could be at risk due to President Donald Trump's immigration action targeting countries such as Iran and Iraq.

"We think the president's travel ban could have negative implications for orders from Iran and Iraq," said James Corridore, an aerospace analyst at CFRA Research. "We see these contracts as vulnerable to cancellation, though we also think it possible that the current injunction against the travel ban will be upheld, which could lessen the impact."

In announcing the Boeing deal on Dec. 11, Boeing said the new orders will support nearly 100,000 new jobs. Boeing is in the midst of cost-cutting in its commercial aircraft division and is facing tough competition from Airbus.

In December, Boeing announced a $16.6 billion agreement for the state-owned Iran Air to buy 50 of its narrow-body 737 passenger jets and 30 of the wide-body 777 aircraft. Separately, Iraq has firm orders to buy 10 of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner wide-body aircraft and another 18 of the 737s.

Corridore noted that list prices value the combined contracts at about $20 billion. source

#MuslimBan: Trump justifies his anti-Muslim views and actions by the fact that his rhetoric won him “standing ovations”

#MuslimBan: Trump justifies his anti-Muslim views and actions by the fact that his rhetoric won him “standing ovations”

    Tuesday, February 07, 2017   No comments

 

Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign and now into the first weeks of his presidency, critics suggested that he cool his incendiary rhetoric, that his words matter. His defenders responded that, as Corey Lewandowski said, he was being taken too “literally.” Some, like Vice President Pence, wrote it off to his “colorful style.” Trump himself recently explained that his rhetoric about Muslims is popular, winning him “standing ovations.”

No one apparently gave him anything like a Miranda warning: Anything he says can and will be used against him in a court of law.

And that’s exactly what’s happening now in the epic court battle over his travel ban, currently blocked by a temporary order set for argument Tuesday before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The states of Washington and Minnesota, which sued to block Trump’s order, are citing the president’s inflammatory rhetoric as evidence that the government’s claims — it’s not a ban and not aimed at Muslims — are shams.

In court papers, Washington and Minnesota’s attorneys general have pulled out quotes from speeches, news conferences and interviews as evidence that an executive order the administration argues is neutral was really motivated by animus toward Muslims and a “desire to harm a particular group.” source

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The case for and against the Muslim Ban: the argument of the states of Washington and Minnesota



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The case for and against the Muslim Ban: Trump's lawyers argument

German international magazine, der spiegel, publishes a dossier about Trump's presidency, the illustrative image is astounding

German international magazine, der spiegel, publishes a dossier about Trump's presidency, the illustrative image is astounding

    Saturday, February 04, 2017   No comments

 ISR comment: The image illustrating the cover dossier of “Der Spiegel,” a leading magazine out of Germany, a country that knows firsthand the consequences of being ruled by populist authoritarians, is astounding. It speaks to the power of art in capturing the moment. Its selection for the cover of the magazine underscores the role of the media and journalism in society during challenging times.
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Donald Trump has now been president of the United States for two weeks. It literally pains me to write about all that has happened in these first days. The president of the U.S. is a racist. He is attempting a coup from the top; he wants to establish an illiberal democracy, or worse; he wants to undermine the balance of power.

With his style of rule -- his decrees, his appointments and his firings -- he is dividing Washington and the rest of the country. Our cover story this week, which will be published in English on Monday, describes how Trump's inner circle works and how insecurity has grown among government officials. It sheds light on the role of Stephen Bannon, the former head of the right-wing news portal Breitbart News, who has become Trump's Faust, his chief ideologue and the man pulling the strings in the White House. Bannon is also a man who loves wars -- he sees them as being thoroughly advantageous.


During the course of his reporting on the cover story, SPIEGEL Washington correspondent Gordon Repinski met with government officials who spoke of their worries and their pangs of guilt. "They are considering whether the right thing to do would be to leave the government or to put up resistance from within," says Repinski. In London, my colleague Peter Müller spoke with Ted Malloch, who is considered Trump's favorite for the post of ambassador to the European Union -- a man who has praised Brexit and predicted the collapse of the euro.

  

The problem will not resolve itself. German business is the opponent of American trade policy, the German democracy is the ideological opponent of Donald Trump, but even here, in the middle of Germany, right-wing extremists are trying to give him a helping hand. It is high time that we stand up for what is important: democracy, freedom, the West and its alliances. Germany, of all countries, the economically and politically dominant democracy in Europe, will have to form the alliance against Trump, because it won't otherwise take shape. It is, however, absolutely necessary.


  

The image for this week's cover was created by the artist Edel Rodriguez. Edel was nine years old when, in 1980, he came to the U.S. with his mother -- two refugees, like so many others. "I remember it well, and I remember the feelings and how little kids feel when they are leaving their country," he told the Washington Post on Friday night.

The newspaper wrote: "This DER SPIEGEL Trump cover is stunning." It wasn't the first time Edel has drawn Trump. He usually portrays him without eyes -- you just see his angry, gaping mouth and, of course, the hair. "I don't want to live in a dictatorship," he says. "If I wanted to live in a dictatorship, I'd live in Cuba, where it's much warmer."

In other vital coverage this week, New York correspondent Philipp Oehmke met up with Dave Eggers and Wolfgang Höbel interviewed T.C. Boyle. Both American authors spoke about the issue gripping the entire world right now: Trump's America. "The world must be shaking," says Boyle.

Finally, in a SPIEGEL interview, my colleagues Horand Knaup, Markus Feldenkirchen and I asked Martin Schulz, the center-left Social Democratic Party's candidate challenging Angela Merkel in this year's chancellor race, what he thought of Trump. "Contemptible. He crosses the boundaries of every basic consensus that a democracy needs! It's staggering."

 A selection of stories from the issue will be published in English this week at
Spiegel.de/international.

 

The psychology of why 94 deaths from terrorism are scarier than 301,797 deaths from guns

The psychology of why 94 deaths from terrorism are scarier than 301,797 deaths from guns

    Thursday, February 02, 2017   No comments

According to the New America Foundation, jihadists killed 94 people inside the United States between 2005 and 2015. During that same time period, 301,797 people in the US were shot dead, Politifact reports.

At first blush, these numbers might seem to indicate that Donald Trump’s temporary ban on immigrants from seven countries—a goal he said was intended to “protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States”—is utterly misguided.

But Trump is right about at least one thing: Americans are more afraid of terrorism than they are of guns, despite the fact that guns are 3,210 times more likely to kill them.

....

President Trump may believe he is responding to people’s outsized fears of terrorism. Unfortunately, his hastily arranged executive order won’t work—not least because, as the Wall Street Journal found (paywall), “of 180 people charged with jihadist terrorism-related crimes or who died before being charged” only 11 came from the seven countries banned in Trump’s order. He didn’t ban people from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, or Egypt—the home countries of the 19 perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.  source

Darmstadt release Anis Ben-Hatira over link to Salafism

Darmstadt release Anis Ben-Hatira over link to Salafism

    Thursday, January 26, 2017   No comments

ISR comment: Should membership in Salafism be criminalized? The release of a soccer player in Europe seem to suggest that there is a basis for criminalizing a religious sect simply because all members of actual terrorist groups, like ISIL and al-Qaeda, are derived from such a sect. It is true that all ISIL armed terrorists come from Salafist groups, but that does not make all Salafists terrorists or members of ISIL. Salafism is a broad sect that consists of many schools of thought that are at times contradictory to one another. Therefore, the generalization is not warranted. It is also wrong to persecute or prosecute persons on ideological or belief basis. These problems are what allowed groups like ISIL to thrive because ISIL made the point that all of Islam, or Sunnism, is being targeted by the West, not just those who carry out cruel and criminal acts. A new strategy is needed to confront the problems that extremism poses, not tired simplistic logic.

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Bundesliga club Darmstadt have released Tunisian midfielder Anis Ben-Hatira by mutual consent following criticism of his ties with an Islamic charity.

Ansaar International has been criticised in Germany with media reports alleging it was linked to the controversial Islamic Salafist sect.

Salafism is an ultra-conservative branch of Islam.

German authorities say "almost all" terror networks in the country have evolved out of the movement.

However, there is an important distinction to be made between the vast majority of its followers, whose aim is simply to bring Muslims back to an earlier interpretation of their religion.

German politicians have also spoken against Ansaar International.

Peter Beuth, interior minister of the state of Hessen, where Darmstadt is located, said on Tuesday: "You cannot let a professional footballer like Ben-Hatira carry on when he's in the vicinity of extremist organisations that are being observed by [Germany's domestic security agency] the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution."

Darmstadt's president said the club felt Ben-Hatira's involvement with the organisation was "wrong".

"Further co-operation makes no sense," Rudiger Fritsch added. "We wish Mr Ben-Hatira, who has always behaved impeccably, every success in his future sporting career."

On Saturday, Darmstadt fans unfurled a banner calling on Ben-Hatira to distance himself from Ansaar International.

The Berlin-born player responded the next day on Facebook, describing the fans' actions as a "smear campaign".

Ben-Hatira defended his work with Ansaar, who have projects in Syria, Somalia, the Palestinian territories and Afghanistan.

"Anyone who looks at my CV will quickly see that I am socially involved and fight for equal treatment between people of different skin colour, ethnicity or faith," he wrote.

He added: "Are you not ashamed? Do you really think I'll let myself be intimidated by that?

"I think the real scandal is that there is now an attempt to sabotage my sports career in Germany." Source

  

Full text of Astana Statement on Syrian Settlement

Full text of Astana Statement on Syrian Settlement

    Tuesday, January 24, 2017   No comments

Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Turkey issued a statement at the conclusion of the Astana international meeting on the Syrian settlement, January 23-24, 2017, stressing the following:

•     Support launching the talks between the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the armed opposition groups in Astana on January 23‑24, 2017;
•     Appreciate the participation in and facilitation of the above-mentioned talks by the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy on Syria;
•     Reaffirm their commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, non-sectarian and democratic State, as confirmed by the UN Security Council;
•     Express their conviction that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict and that it can only be solved through a political process based on the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 2254 in its entirety;
•     Will seek, through concrete steps and using their influence over the parties, consolidation of the ceasefire regime established pursuant to the arrangements signed on December 29, 2016 and supported by the UN Security Council resolution 2336 (2016), contribution to minimizing violations, reducing violence, building confidence, ensuring unhindered humanitarian access swiftly and smoothly in line with the UN Security Council resolution 2165 (2014) and protection and free movement of civilians in Syria;
•     Decide to establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire, prevent any provocations and determine all modalities of the ceasefire;
•     Reiterate their determination to fight jointly against ISIL/DAESH and Al-Nusra and to separate from them
  
  armed opposition groups;
•     Express their conviction that there is an urgent necessity to step up efforts to jumpstart the negotiation process in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution 2254;
•     Emphasize that the International Meeting on Syria in Astana is an effective platform for a direct dialogue between the government and the opposition as required by the UN Security Council resolution 2254;
•     Support the willingness of the armed opposition groups to participate in the next round of negotiations to be held between the government and the opposition under the UN auspices in Geneva as of February 8, 2017;
•     Urge all members of the international community to support the political process with a view to swiftly implementing all steps agreed on the UN Security Council resolution 2254;
•     Decide to actively cooperate on the Astana platform on specific issues of the UN-facilitated Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process so as to contribute to global efforts to implement the UN Security Council resolution 2254;
•     Express gratitude to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev, and to the Kazakh side in general, for hosting the International Meeting on Syria in Astana.

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Text of UN Security Council resolution 2254 (2015)


 



Text of UN Security Council resolution 2336 (2016)

  

Turkey no longer insists on Assad's ouster

Turkey no longer insists on Assad's ouster

    Friday, January 20, 2017   No comments

Turkey can no longer insist on a resolution of the conflict in Syria without the involvement of President Bashar al-Assad, as the situation on the ground has changed dramatically, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Friday.

Turkey has long insisted that Assad must go for sustainable peace to be achieved in Syria. But it has become less insistent on his immediate departure since its recent rapprochement with Russia, which backs the Syrian leader, and ahead of peace talks planned in Kazakhstan next week.

“As far as our position on Assad is concerned, we think that the suffering of (the) Syrian people and the tragedies, clearly the blame is squarely on Assad. But we have to be pragmatic, realistic,” Simsek told a panel on Syria and Iraq at the World Economic Forum in Davos.


“The facts on the ground have changed dramatically, so Turkey can no longer insist on a settlement without Assad, it’s not realistic,” he said.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said last week that Turkey still believes a united and peaceful Syria is impossible with Assad, but wants to proceed “step-by-step” and see the outcome of the peace talks in Astana.

Turkey and Russia brokered a ceasefire in Syria which has largely held in the run-up to the Astana talks, a process which follows the defeat of the Syrian opposition in the northern city of Aleppo last month.