The Coming Bipartisan Betrayal on Middle East Refugees and Visas

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Are you ready for the GOP betrayal to end all betrayals?

Republicans in Congress are prepared to take the positive energy from the public demanding reform of immigration from the Middle East and deflect it into a shiny object issue that literally changes nothing – all while granting Democrats a much needed loin-cloth to cover their appalling open borders policies.

According to recent polling data, 84% of Americans believe immigration from the Middle East is “very or somewhat dangerous” and just 25% of Americans and 38% of Democrats want to bring in Syrian refugees. Yet, Republicans have been doing everything in their power to ignore the issue of immigration and visas form the Middle East. Now they plan to fund every penny of the corrupt, lawless, and dangerous refugee program in the upcoming budget bill.

What is their plan to deflect public outrage?

They plan to focus on visas from Europe instead of the Middle East and Syria and do it in such a vacuous and dishonest fashion that even Pelosi and Obama are championing the bill. In fact, they love this bill because it is the “Corker-Cardin” equivalent of the Iran loin cloth bill that bails the Democrats out from being on the hook with voters and gives off the veneer of being tough on national security.

As we noted last week, there is a secondary concern with regard to radical Islamists traveling here on visas from first-world European countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program, meaning foreign nationals from those countries do not need an in-consulate interview in order to obtain a temporary visa to travel to the U.S.
I call it a secondary concern because despite the problems in France, nobody can deny that even today travelers from France don’t pose anywhere near the risk of the Islamists who travel directly from the Middle East, such as the San Bernardino terrorist who came here on a K-1 visa from Pakistan.

Nonetheless, it would be prudent, as a secondary policy reform to shutting off the refugee program from the Middle East, to require visas from anyone who travels here from several European countries that have large Islamic populations. This bill, sponsored by Dianne Feinstein and Jeff Flake, however, does not drop a single country from the visa waiver program (VWP). In fact, it does not prevent a single terrorist from entering our country. It does nothing to change current policy.

Here is how it works.

The Flake/Obama bill suspends the VWP only for those individuals known to have traveled to Iraq and Syria over the past 5 years (the House version adds a few more countries), thereby requiring those individuals to obtain a visa in order to travel to the U.S. But most potential radical jihadis living in Europe have never travelled to those countries or have instead travelled to other Islamic countries (like Saeed Farook who traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). Moreover, the ones that did travel to Iraq and Syria are usually not on any sort of watch list that we would detect.

And finally, if they are indeed on a watch list, then we would know about it anyway under current policy. The entire point of the VWP is for first world countries with secure and effective databases to share information and flag anyone who is a security risk. That is why we don’t require a visa. So under existing law, anybody who travelled to these countries should be inadmissible, let alone require a visa to come here. Hence, this bill does not change the reality of a single potential terrorist, unless DHS officials would be willing to turn away those who have Iraq or Syria stamped on their passports.

Thus, it is clear the bipartisan elites are deflecting attention from immigrant visas from Islamic countries with no legitimate vetting tools to nonimmigrant visas from first world countries with solid databases!

It’s no wonder the travel industry, which stridently opposes any secure restrictions on travel, is openly supporting the bill. Typically, when Democrats are on the political ropes they divert attention from 99% of the problem and concede 1% to the American people. In this case, it’s zero percent. This bill literally does nothing.

Republicans are just as desperate as Obama to ignore the real issue – growing mass migration from the Middle East. They will do everything in their power to ignore the issue of Islamic refugee resettlement, even as Obama violates federal law and resettles Sharia-adherent migrants without the consent or even consultation of the states.

Unfortunately, unless the American people wake up, this new focus on European visas will serve as the perfect diversion for the perfidious bipartisan groups of political elites. (For more from the author of “The Coming Bipartisan Betrayal on Middle East Refugees and Visas” please click HERE)

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Iran Tests Another Mid-Range Ballistic Missile in Breach of UN Resolutions

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Iran has carried out a new medium range ballistic missile test in breach of two United Nations Security Council resolutions, a senior U.S. official told Fox News on Monday.

Western intelligence says the test was held Nov. 21 near Chabahar, a port city in southeast Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province near the border with Pakistan. The launch took place from a known missile test site along the Gulf of Oman.

The missile, known as a Ghadr-110, has a range of 1,800 – 2000 km, or 1200 miles, and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The missile fired in November is an improved version of the Shahab 3, and is similar to the precision guided missile tested by Iran on Oct. 10, which elicited strong condemnation from members of the U.N. Security Council.

“The United States is deeply concerned about Iran’s recent ballistic missile launch,” Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said in a statement after the last Iranian ballistic missile test in October.

President Obama mentioned the Iranian missile test during a press conference on Oct. 16 and said the United States was preparing to brief the U.N. sanctions committee. He added that it would not derail the nuclear deal. (Read more from “Iran Tests Another Mid-Range Ballistic Missile in Breach of UN Resolutions” HERE)

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Scientists Enlist the Big Gun to Get Climate Action

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Photo Credit: AP The cold hard numbers of science haven’t spurred the world to curb runaway global warming. So as climate negotiators struggle in Paris, some scientists who appealed to the rational brain are enlisting what many would consider a higher power: the majesty of faith.

It’s not God versus science, but followers of God and science together trying to save humanity and the planet, they say.

Physicist John Schellnhuber, founder of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said he has been coming to these international talks for 11 years and essentially seen negotiators throw up their hands and say “sorry guys we tried our best.” And no one protested. But this time, with the power of Pope Francis’ encyclical earlier this year calling global warming a moral issue and an even more energized interfaith community, Schellnhuber feels the world’s faithful are watching and will hold world leaders accountable. (Read more from “Scientists Enlist the Big Gun to Get Climate Action” HERE)

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Higher Levels of Fukushima Cesium Detected Offshore, Pacific Ocean

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Scientists monitoring the spread of radiation in the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear accident report finding an increased number of sites off the US West Coast showing signs of contamination from Fukushima. This includes the highest detected level to date from a sample collected about 1,600 miles west of San Francisco. The level of radioactive cesium isotopes in the sample, 11 Becquerel’s per cubic meter of seawater (about 264 gallons), is 50 percent higher than other samples collected along the West Coast so far, but is still more than 500 times lower than US government safety limits for drinking water, and well below limits of concern for direct exposure while swimming, boating, or other recreational activities.

Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and director of the WHOI Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity, was among the first to begin monitoring radiation in the Pacific, organizing a research expedition to the Northwest Pacific near Japan just three months after the accident that started in March 2011. Through a citizen science sampling effort, Our Radioactive Ocean, that he launched in 2014, as well as research funded by the National Science Foundation, Buesseler and his colleagues are using sophisticated sensors to look for minute levels of ocean-borne radioactivity from Fukushima. In 2015, they have added more than 110 new samples in the Pacific to the more than 135 previously collected and posted on the Our Radioactive Ocean web site.

“These new data are important for two reasons,” said Buesseler. “First, despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific. Second, these long-lived radioisotopes will serve as markers for years to come for scientists studying ocean currents and mixing in coastal and offshore waters.”

The recent findings reported by Buesseler agree with those reported by scientists who are part of the group Kelp Watch and by the team of Canadian scientists working under the InFORM umbrella. While Buesseler’s work focuses on ocean chemistry and does not involve sampling of biological organisms, the InFORM scientists have done sampling of fish and have not seen any Fukushima cesium in fish collected in British Columbia.

Almost any seawater sample from the Pacific will show traces of cesium-137, an isotope of cesium with a 30-year half-life, some of which is left over from nuclear weapons testing carried out in the 1950s to 1970s. The isotope cesium-134 is the “fingerprint” of Fukushima, but, with a 2-year half-life, it decays much quicker than cesium-137. Scientists back calculate traces of cesium-134 to determine how much was actually released from Fukushima in 2011 and add to it an equal amount of cesium-137 that would have been released at the same time.

Working with Japanese colleagues, Buesseler also continues to independently monitor the ongoing leaks from Fukushima Dai-ichi by collecting samples from as close as one kilometer (one-half mile) away from the nuclear power plants. During his most recent trip this October they collected samples of ocean water, marine organisms, seafloor sediment and groundwater along the coast near the reactors. Buesseler says the levels of radioactivity off Fukushima remain elevated – some 10 to 100 times higher than off the US West Coast today, and he is working with colleagues at WHOI to try to determine how much radioactive material is still being released to the ocean each day.

“Levels today off Japan are thousands of times lower than during the peak releases in 2011. That said, finding values that are still elevated off Fukushima confirms that there is continued release from the plant,” said Buesseler.

Buesseler will present his latest findings on the spread of Fukushima radiation at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco on Dec. 14, 2015. (See “Higher Levels of Fukushima Cesium Detected Offshore,” news release originally posted HERE)

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Research: Islam Really Is the World’s Most Violent Religion

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Together with a number of research assistants, the Danish linguist Tina Magaard spent three years examining the texts of the ten largest religions. The purpose was to investigate whether any of the religions incite violence.

The conclusion was clear: “The texts of Islam are clearly distinct from the other religions texts as they, to a higher degree, call for violence and aggression against followers of other faiths. There are also direct incitements to terror. … Moreover, in the Qur’an there are hundreds of invitations to fight against people of other faiths.”

The verses are in black and white and without mitigating context. One of the verses that deal with non-Muslims is: “So when you meet those who disbelieve, strike their necks until you have inflicted slaughter upon them.” (Qur’an 47: 4) . . .

Islam is not only the world’s most violent religion in writing. A huge study, based on in-depth interviews with 45,000 subjects, confirms that it is also the world’s most violent religion in practice.

The study shows that Islam is the only religion in the world in which people become more violent, the stronger they believe in their religion. (Read more from “Research: Islam Really Is the World’s Most Violent Religion” HERE)

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Former Senators Say U.S. Has Left Dangerous Power Vacuum Around World

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The world needs the U.S. to lead — and not just from behind — according to a report by two influential former senators, who argue that political pressure on the Obama administration from the far left and far right for America to disengage from the world has created a power vacuum that unpredictable and unsavory actors are all too eager to fill.

“An increasingly brazen China, revanchist Russia, volatile North Korea, and ruthless Islamic State collectively underscore the need for more, not less, American leadership abroad,” write former Sens. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat turned independent, in “Why American Leadership Still Matters,” a 40-page report being released Thursday through the American Enterprise Institute.

While the center-right think tank may be known for its hawkish positions, Mr. Kyl, who served from 1993 through 2013, stressed in an interview the need for both parties to come together in understanding America’s vital position in the world.

Despite his former National Journal ranking as the fourth most conservative senator on Capitol Hill, he lamented how biting partisanship increasingly trumps honest debate on foreign policy.

“All too often in recent years, partisanship has been the driving force rather than ideological considerations,” he said, suggesting that the disagreement between isolationists and interventionists on both sides of the aisle could be healthy — if it did not lead so often to partisan smearing of the other side. (Read more from “Former Senators Say U.S. Has Left Dangerous Power Vacuum Around World” HERE)

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EuroParliament President: Christians Not Safe in Our Continent

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In a high-level meeting on religious persecution in Brussels, the President of the European Parliament (EP) said that Europe cannot afford to continue ignoring the fate of Christians, who are “clearly the most persecuted group” in the world.

In Wednesday’s meeting, EP President Martin Schulz said that the persecution of Christians is “undervalued” and does not receive enough attention, which has also meant that it “hasn’t been properly addressed.”

Schulz’s concerns were echoed by EP Vice President Antonio Tajani, who warned that Europe sometimes “falls into the temptation of thinking we can ignore this task,” referring to the protection Christians throughout the world who suffer persecution.

Speakers cited the work of Open Doors, a human rights organization that monitors the persecution of Christians, noting that 150 million Christians worldwide suffer torture, rape and arbitrary imprisonment. Christians in Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan, North Korea and Nigeria are among those hardest hit.

The Open Doors report for 2015 found that “Islamic extremism is by far the most significant persecution engine” of Christians in the world today and that “40 of the 50 countries on the World Watch List are affected by this kind of persecution.” (Read more from “EuroParliament President: Christians Not Safe in Our Continent” HERE)

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Watch for U.S. Recession, Zero Interest Rates in China next Year

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The outlook for the global economy next year is darkening, with a U.S. recession and China becoming the first major emerging market to slash interest rates to zero both potential scenarios, according to Citi.

As the U.S. economy enters its seventh year of expansion following the 2008-09 crisis, the probability of recession will reach 65 percent, Citi’s rates strategists wrote in their 2016 outlook published late on Tuesday. A rapid flattening of the bond yield curve towards inversion would be an key warning sign.

“The cumulative probability of U.S. recession reaches 65 percent next year,” Citi’s rates strategists wrote in their 2016 outlook published late on Tuesday. “Curve inversion will likely come more quickly than the consensus thinks.” (Read more from “Watch for U.S. Recession, Zero Interest Rates in China next Year” HERE)

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Germany Just Confirmed Everyone’s Worst Fears About Syrian Refugees

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Islamic extremists in Germany are using food, shelter and the religion of home as bait as they fish the wave of Syrian refugees entering Germany for new converts to radical Islam.

“They start by saying, ‘We will help you live your faith,’” Torsten Voss of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency told the Wall Street Journal. “The Islamist area comes later — that is, of course, their goal.”

German officials said that refugees who want to attend mosques in search of familiar surroundings are, increasingly, attending those frequented by Islamic extremists. German officials told the Journal that they already know of at least 100 instances in which Islamic extremists known to the authorities have tried to establish contact with refugees.

“I’m afraid that anti-Americanism, anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism will be on the rise,” said Der Tagesspiegel editor in chief Malte Lehming. “We have very limited educational tools to change that. Syria is one of the most anti-Israel countries, influenced by Iran and helped by Hezbollah.”

More than one million Syrian refugees are expected to enter Germany in the next year. The radicalization of Muslim refugees has taken on a new urgency in Europe after disclosure that at least one of the terrorists participating in the Paris attacks entered Europe in the mass of Syrian refugees. (Read more from “Germany Just Confirmed Everyone’s Worst Fears About Syrian Refugees” HERE)

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Secret U.S. Hostage Held by Taliban Allies

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A group of Islamist militants aligned with the Taliban has been holding an American man hostage for more than a year, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with his case, which has not been reported previously.

The disclosure of another American hostage raises questions about how many Americans are being held abroad—and what the U.S. government is doing to recover them. The Obama administration has been working to streamline its hostage rescue efforts, which critics say have suffered from a lumbering bureaucracy that hasn’t kept family members fully informed about their loved ones. How effective those efforts have been is unclear.

The Daily Beast is not publishing the man’s name or many details about him at the request of his family and administration and law enforcement officials, who are concerned for his safety. The man is said to be held by the Haqqani network, a Taliban-aligned group that operates along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Previously, The Daily Beast had agreed not to write anything at all about the hostage. However, on Monday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), a leading critic in Congress of the Obama administration’s hostage rescue and recovery policies, wrote a public letter to President Obama in which he noted that “there are still Americans in captivity in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.”

The only other American known to be held in that region is Caitlin Coleman, who was kidnapped along with her husband, Joshua Boyle, a Canadian citizen, while traveling in Afghanistan in 2012. Coleman had a child while in captivity, multiple U.S. officials have said. (Read more from “Secret U.S. Hostage Held by Taliban Allies” HERE)

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