ISIS Claims Responsibility for Brussels Terror Attacks

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By Morgan Chalfant. A series of coordinated terror attacks in Brussels Tuesday have put Belgium on its highest threat level alert and sparked the U.S. Embassy there to warn American citizens in the city to shelter in place.

Multiple explosions targeted two locations in Brussels Tuesday morning. Two blasts struck a departure hall of Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one occurred at the Maelbeek subway station.

The subway station is close to the offices of the European Union in central Brussels. At least one of the attacks is believed to have been the result of a suicide bomber.

Officials have confirmed that at least 31 people were killed in the attacks and 187 injured. Belgian media reports have indicated that the death toll has been elevated to 34.

“The level [of] threat in Belgium has been raised to 4 (maximum alert) with special emphasis on transport hubs, airports, stations, and nuclear plants,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said Tuesday. (Read more from “ISIS Claims Responsibility for Brussels Terror Attacks” HERE)

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Belgian Terrorists Can Still Enter US Without a Visa

By Adam Kredo. Leading lawmakers identified Belgium as a hotspot for terrorism months ago and are warning that many of the radicalized individuals living there are still able to travel to the United States without first obtaining a visa and undergoing thorough security checks.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday afternoon that current flaws in the U.S. visa waiver program—which facilities travel to the United States from partner nations including Belgium—have created a loophole that could permit radicalized individuals to legally enter the United States with minimal background checks.

DeSantis is warning of these flaws on the heels of deadly mass terrorist attack in Brussels on Tuesday that has killed at least 30 and wounded hundreds more.

“The visa waiver reform, this is something we have been perusing and the [Obama] administration has brushed us off at every turn,” DeSantis said, explaining that current policy does not mandate more strenuous checks on individuals identified as coming from terrorist hotspots, such as the small Belgian town of Molenbeek, which has emerged as a principal training site for jihadists.

“It’s the case that if those folks are citizens of Belgium they qualify for the visa waiver program and can hop on a plane and get here,” he added. “Clearly, that is not adequate given what happened.” (Read more from “Belgian Terrorists Can Still Enter US Without a Visa” HERE)

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Cuban Refugees Flocking to Texas Border

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The same week President Obama makes the first trip to Cuba by an American president in almost 90 years, The Rolling Stones will play a free concert in Havana — the first open-air show there by a British rock band.

But changing times in the Communist country haven’t stopped tens of thousands from fleeing the island and saying gimme shelter to American immigration officials at Texas land ports.

From October 2015 to February 2016, more than 18,500 Cubans arrived at Texas’ Laredo field office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes ports from Del Rio to Brownsville. If that trend continues, it will shatter last year’s numbers for the same ports, when a record 28,371 crossed. During the 2015 fiscal year, more than 43,150 arrived at the 20 CBP field offices in the United States that process immigrants. More than half — 25,800 — arrived in only the first five months of the current fiscal year.

The president’s visit to Cuba Monday was the latest step in his mission announced in late 2014 to normalize relations with the Castro regime.

“I’ve come to Havana to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people,” Obama said in a statement Monday. “I’m here to bury the last vestige of the Cold War in the Americas and to forge a new era of understanding to help improve the daily lives of the Cuban people.” (Read more from “Cuban Refugees Flocking to Texas Border” HERE)

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Marine Is Second U.S. Combat Death in Fight Against ISIS

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A U.S. Marine was killed in a rocket attack by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq on March 19, the Pentagon reported.

“Earlier today a U.S. Marine providing force protection fire support at a recently established coalition fire base near Makhmur in northern Iraq was killed after coming under ISIL rocket fire,” the Pentagon said. “Several other Marines were wounded and they are being treated for their varying injuries.”

It was the second U.S. combat death in the fight against the terrorist organization.

Makhmur, which is 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) southeast of ISIL’s Iraqi stronghold in Mosul, lies within territory controlled by the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, but Baghdad has recently been deploying federal forces there to prepare for a siege on Mosul . . .

While the U.S.-led coalition’s main role in the fight against ISIL is to provide air support, the U.S., France, Britain, Australia and Italy also have significant contingents deployed on the ground in Iraq. Their official role is to train and advise local Iraqi forces. (Read more from “Marine Is Second U.S. Combat Death in Fight Against ISIS” HERE)

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MISUNDERSTANDERS OF ISLAM: Violence and Riots Break out in Molenbeek After Paris Terror Suspect’s Arrest

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The most wanted terrorist in Europe, considered the mastermind in November’s multi-targeted attack in Paris that left 130 people dead, was arrested Friday by Belgian authorities.

But residents in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, where Saleh Abdeslam was captured, didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. Within hours, the district, which has a majority Muslim population, erupted into riots. Dozens of Abdeslam’s fans attacked police with bottles, stones, and other objects, local press reported, angered by the arrest of their “hero.”

The situation is developing.

Worse yet, Belgian newspaper De Morgen reported that “the whole neighborhood” knew where Abdeslam was ever since the Paris attacks. Nobody tipped off authorities.

The violence and code of silence over Abeslam’s hideout is not as surprising as it might seem. As we’ve noted previously, the Paris attacks were hatched in Molenbeek, in addition to the 2015 attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s offices. (Read more from “MISUNDERSTANDERS OF ISLAM: Violence and Riots Break out in Molenbeek After Paris Terror Suspect’s Arrest” HERE)

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Flydubai Plane Crashes in Russia; 62 Aboard Reported Dead

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A passenger jet circled a southern Russian airport in high winds and poor visibility before making a second, fatal attempt at landing Saturday, killing all 62 people aboard.

The flydubai Boeing 737 jet crashed at the Rostov-on-Don airport after traveling from Dubai, Russia’s Southern Regional Emergency Center said Saturday.

All those on board Flight FZ981 died, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing an official at the emergency center. (Read more from “Flydubai Plane Crashes in Russia; 62 Aboard Reported Dead” HERE)

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China Acquiring U.S.A. One Company at a Time

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What’s the best way for a country like China to exert its influence over the U.S. economy? Acquire American-owned companies like Chinese-owned Haier just did when they purchased General Electric’s (GE) appliance business for $5.4 billion . . .

America can no longer claim to be an independent nation when our manufacturing base is under foreign ownership or foreign control. After all, ownership equals control, and control equals sovereignty. We lose our sovereignty as a nation when foreign companies buy our land, factories, and companies.

How so? Because the more Chinese and other foreign companies establish ownership of American assets, plants and factories, the more they have the right to demand how our U.S economy is run, because how it is run affects them, too.

So since GE’s appliance business (not the entire company) is now under foreign ownership and therefore foreign control, what options are left for patriotic American consumers who want to keep profits, jobs, and tax revenue within the borders of the United States?

Whirlpool just happens to be the only remaining major American-owned appliance company in the United States, and we need to support them with our consumer dollars when we shop for appliances. Whirlpool owns such popular brands as Maytag, Amana, KitchenAid, and Jenn-Air. (Read more from “China Acquiring U.S.A. One Company at a Time” HERE)

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U.S. Student Sentenced to 15-Years Hard Labor in North Korea

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An American tourist cried hysterically in a North Korean courtroom Wednesday after a judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison with hard labor on a subversion charge, as US officials demanded his release and the White House announced tough new sanctions on the insular Southeast Asian state.

Otto Warmbier admitted to attempting to steal a propaganda banner from a restricted area of his hotel at the request of an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church.

Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial at the North’s Supreme Court.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the sentence was ‘unduly harsh’ and urged North Korea to pardon Warmbier and release him on humanitarian grounds.

‘Despite official claims that U.S. citizens arrested in the DPRK are not used for political purposes, it’s increasingly clear from its very public treatment of these cases that the DPRK does exactly that,’ Toner told reporters, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Read more from “U.S. Student Sentenced to 15-Years Hard Labor in North Korea” HERE)

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China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites

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China and Russia are preparing to attack and disrupt critical U.S. military and intelligence satellites in a future conflict with crippling space missile, maneuvering satellite, and laser attacks, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the Air Force Space Command, said the threat to U.S. space systems has reached a new tipping point, and after years of post-Cold War stagnation foreign states are focused on curbing U.S. space systems.

“Adversaries are developing kinetic, directed-energy, and cyber tools to deny, degrade, and destroy our space capabilities,” Hyten said in a prepared statement for a hearing of the House Armed Service strategic forces subcommittee.

“They understand our reliance on space, and they understand the competitive advantage we derive from space. The need for vigilance has never been greater,” the four-star general said.

Hyten said U.S. Global Positioning System satellites remain vulnerable to attack or jamming. The satellites’ extremely accurate time-keeping feature is even more critical to U.S. guided weapons than their ability to provide navigation guidance, he said. (Read more from “China, Russia Planning Space Attacks on U.S. Satellites” HERE)

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The U.S. Is Heading Toward a Dangerous Showdown With China

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The Obama administration is moving toward what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea.

The confrontation has been building for the past three years, as China has constructed artificial islands off its southern coast and installed missiles and radar in disputed waters, despite U.S. warnings. It could come to a head this spring, when an arbitration panel in The Hague is expected to rule that China is making “excessive” claims about its maritime sovereignty.

What makes this dispute so explosive is that it pits an American president who needs to affirm his credibility as a strong leader against a risk-taking Chinese president who has shown disregard for U.S. military power and who faces potent political enemies at home.

“This isn’t Pearl Harbor, but if people on all sides aren’t careful, it could be ‘The Guns of August,’” says Kurt Campbell, former assistant secretary of state for Asia, referring to the chain of miscalculations that led to World War I. The administration, he says, is facing “another red line moment where it has to figure out how to carry through on past warnings.” (Read more from “The U.S. Is Heading Toward a Dangerous Showdown With China” HERE)

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UN Unveils Enormous, Orwellian Global Data-Gathering Initiative

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Six months after giving birth to a cluster of nebulous Sustainable Development Goals that aim to dramatically change the economic, social and environmental course of the planet, the United Nations is working on a drastic renovation of global data gathering to measure progress against its sweeping international agenda.

The result that emerged late last week from the U.N. Statistical Commission — an obscure body of national experts that calls itself the “apex entity of the international statistics system” — is a document as sprawling, undefined and ambitious as the sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, themselves — which lay out 17 goals and 169 sometimes overlapping targets to transform global society.

In attempting to cover at least some of that ground, the so-called “draft global indicators framework” likely will add huge new volumes of information that governments collect as they measure progress toward what amounts to a global socialist or progressive agenda.

To the extent that the indicators are adopted or incorporated by national governments, such as that of the U.S., they will also provide a powerful reorientation of public debate as they filter into academic and policy discussions.

In all, the draft framework outlines 230 statistical indicators to measure progress toward the SDGs, including such familiar ones as per-capital Gross Domestic Product and the proportion of populations living below national and international poverty lines. (Read more from “UN Unveils Enormous, Orwellian Global Data-Gathering Initiative” HERE)

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