Paris, refugees & 2016

[Mac1958]

Well, SOMEONE had to bring it up.

As if there were not already a massive division in the country, the slaughters in Paris will most likely be a political issue as the presidential campaign unfolds.

I can imagine a few questions at ALL debates, both parties, such as:

• Republican governors from multiple states have closed their doors to Syrian refugees. Do you agree?
• France closed its borders and attacked ISIS in Syria, do you agree with both moves?
  
• Should America continue to accept Middle East refugees?
• What should be done about ISIS, specifically?

This is top of mind now. Which party benefits?
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[L.K.Eder]

someone had to bring it up?

it was brought up as soon as the first reports from paris trickled in. and has not stopped since.

 

[Mac1958]

someone had to bring it up?

it was brought up as soon as the first reports from paris trickled in. and has not stopped since.

Well yes, the predictable partisan ideologues from both parties have been predictably launching the predictable attacks, insults and platitudes at each other, predictably before the bodies were cold, but I just thought I would focus in on the details.
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[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - hurry up an' do nuthin'...

Global leaders mull response to Paris attacks, but little indication of next steps
November 16, 2015 – Pressed for a strong answer to the Islamic State group's attacks in Paris, the world's top industrial and developing nations are set to outline their coordinated response to what President Barack Obama has described as an "attack on the civilized world."

Numerous meetings about next steps in Syria and the Islamic State campaign are being scheduled Monday on the sidelines of the summit at the Turkish seaside resort of Antalya.

Obama is to huddle with European leaders from France, Britain, Germany and Italy. French President Francois Hollande skipped the summit to stay home and deal with the aftermath of the attacks, but Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius planned to attend the meeting with the U.S. president.

Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in a 35-minute meeting Sunday.

Global leaders mull response to Paris attacks, but little indication of next steps

See also:

Obama Defends His Strategy on ISIS
NOV. 16, 2015 — President Obama declared on Monday that his strategy for defeating the Islamic State is working despite last week’s horrific attacks in Paris, forcefully rejecting calls for escalating the use of military force in the Middle East or turning away Syrian refugees at home.

At a sometimes tense news conference at the end of an international summit meeting here, Mr. Obama said he would intensify targeted airstrikes and assistance to local ground forces in Syria and Iraq, but it will take time to cripple the terrorist group. He dismissed critics who faulted his approach, accusing them of trying to profit politically from the episode. “We have the right strategy and we’re going to see it through,” Mr. Obama told reporters before heading to the Philippines and Malaysia for summit meetings there. He said he planned to intensify his current approach but not fundamentally alter it. “What I do not do is take actions either because it is going to work politically or it is going to somehow, in the abstract, make America look tough or make me look tough.”

Mr. Obama grew especially animated in rebuffing suggestions by some Republican presidential candidates, governors and lawmakers that the United States should block entry of Syrian refugees to prevent terrorists from slipping into the country. “The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism; they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife,” Mr. Obama said. He added: “We do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.” Without naming him, Mr. Obama singled out a comment by former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, one of the Republicans seeking to succeed him, for suggesting the United States focus special attention on Christian refugees. “That’s shameful,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not American. It’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

Mr. Obama sounded weary and defensive as he repeatedly rejected criticism of his yearlong strategy in Syria and Iraq to combat the Islamic State, also called ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. Wrapping up a whirlwind 48 hours of diplomacy in this Turkish resort community on the Mediterranean Sea, the president seemed frustrated by being second-guessed. Pressed several times to explain his resistance to a broader war against the Islamic State, Mr. Obama twice chided reporters for asking the same question in slightly different ways. Each time, he appeared to take pains to navigate a narrow path — expressing his personal outrage at the “terrible and sickening” Paris attacks by calling the Islamic State “the face of evil,” while at the same time standing firm on a strategy that he acknowledged will take time to produce the results sought by the public.

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Related:

France seeks united US-Russia assault on Islamic State
Nov 16,`15 -- France wants to bring the United States and Russia together in a grand coalition dedicated to smashing the Islamic State group, President Francois Hollande told lawmakers Monday in a rare joint session in the Palace of Versailles as authorities worldwide struggled to pinpoint those responsible for the deadliest attacks on French soil since World War II.

"The faces of the dead people, of the wounded, of the families don't leave my mind," Hollande declared after France and many allies observed a minute of silence in honor of the 129 killed and 350 wounded when Islamic State attackers targeted a soccer stadium, a rock concert and four nightspots Friday with assault gun fire and suicide bombs. "In my determination to combat terrorism, I want France to remain itself. The barbarians who attack France would like to disfigure it. They will not make it change," Hollande pledged. "They must never be able to spoil France's soul."

However, he signaled a likely monthslong security crackdown following security sweeps overnight in which police nationwide arrested 127 people and seized 31 weapons, including automatic firearms and a rocket launcher. Hollande said he would present a bill Wednesday seeking to extend a state of emergency - granting the police and military greater powers of search and arrest, and local governments the right to ban demonstrations and impose curfews - for another three months.

He also pledged to hire 5,000 more police within the next two years, to freeze cuts in military personnel through 2019, and to introduce other bills that would stiffen jail terms for arms trafficking and make it easier to deport suspected terrorists. In neighboring Belgium, the base for many of Friday's attackers, police surrounded the suspected hideout of a man identified as a driver for the attackers, but came up empty after charging into the property. In Paris, officials identified the alleged mastermind of the attacks, a Belgian man who is believed to be beyond reach in Syria.

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[g5000]

What should be done about ISIS, specifically?
.

This is the only question that matters.

We should be demanding every single candidate answer it. Today.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - it's looney-tunes...

GOP Candidates Reject Obama's Refugee Plan: 'Lunacy,' 'Huge Mistake,' 'No Way to Vet'
November 16, 2015 | The terror attacks in Paris have focused new attention on the issue of Syrian refugee admissions, with several Republican presidential candidates hardening opposition to President Obama’s decision to allow 10,000 of them to settle in the United States during the current fiscal year.

“Bringing people into this country from that area of the world I think is a huge mistake,” retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said on Fox News Sunday. “Because why wouldn’t they infiltrate them with people who are ideologically opposed to us? It would be foolish for them not to do that.” Carson said the U.S. should be compassionate, and support Syrian refugees to resettle in their region of origin. “But to bring them here under these circumstances is a suspension of intellect.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sounded skeptical of the notion that refugee applicants could be properly vetted. “That’s one of the reasons why I said we won’t be able to take more refugees – it’s not that we don’t want to; it’s that we can’t because there's no way to background check someone that's coming from Syria,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” Rubio said out of 1,000 refugees, 999 may be fleeing oppression and violence but one could be an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighter. “If that’s the case, you have a problem and there is no way to vet that out. There is no background check system in the world that allows us to find that out – because who do you call in Syria to background check them?”

For months, security experts have been voicing concern about the likelihood that terrorists from ISIS or other groups could pose as refugees heading for Western nations. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said last September ISIS extremists may well be among the refugees and migrants flooding into Europe. Clapper said it was a “huge concern of ours” although he also said U.S. authorities have a “pretty aggressive” screening system in place for those seeking to enter the U.S. The discovery of a Syrian passport near the remains of one of the suicide bombers who took part in Friday’s attacks in the French capital has fueled fears about terrorists posing as refugees. A person using that passport entered Europe by landing on a Greek island less than a month ago, then traveled through Croatia before registering for asylum in Serbia, according to European authorities.

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See also:

Former Ambassador to UN: US Has ‘No Obligation’ to Accept Syrian Refugees
November 16, 2015 | John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday that the U.S. has “no obligation” to accept Syrian refugees. “We have no obligation to bring them into this country,” Bolton told Fox News’ Justice host Jeanine Pirro.

He added that the U.S. can refuse to allow Syrian refugees entry “without in any way violating our humanitarian obligations.” Bolton also dismissed White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes’ statement Sunday that the refugees are being vetted in Iraq before they are brought to the U.S. “I don’t know who else believes this other than the White House,” Bolton said in response to Rhodes’ assertion that the U.S. has “very robust vetting procedures for those refugees.”

The former ambassador to the U.N. pointed out that “there are international conventions on how to handle massive numbers of refugees” from war-torn areas, adding that “this system has completely broken down.” The U.N.’s 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was amended in 1967, defines a refugee as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” The convention affirms the right of such refugees “to seek asylum from persecution.” But Bolton noted that many of the refugees flooding into Europe “are not even from Syria.”

Even if all of the refugees could prove they had no connections with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the signers of the convention are not required to offer them asylum in their own countries. “The refugee convention imposes on the country of first asylum an obligation to provide food, shelter, sanitation, and medicine in refugee camps” with the main goal of repatriating them back to their country of origin as soon as possible, Bolton stated, adding that the U.S. should assist in this effort.

The former ambassador acknowledged that living in a refugee camp is not ideal, but said that the camps were “better than being in a war zone.” They also made it easier to achieve the ultimate goal of repatriation. “Resettlement is considered only when there is no chance of successful repatriation,” Bolton pointed out.

Former Ambassador to UN: US Has ‘No Obligation’ to Accept Syrian Refugees

Related:

Governors Balk at Taking In Syrian Refugees After Paris Terror Attacks
November 16, 2015 | The governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Michigan, and Texas are challenging federal policy on Syrian refugees following the deadly terrorist attack in Paris on Friday. At least one of the perpetrators reportedly entered France after claiming refugee status in Greece.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley flatly stated that he is refusing to accept any Syrian refugees at the State Department-approved refugee center in Mobile. “After full consideration of this weekend’s attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” Bentley said in a statement. “As your Governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm’s way.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal condemned the federal government’s relocation of Syrian refugees to Louisiana without first consulting state officials. On Monday morning, Jindal signed an executive order instructing state agencies to take all available steps to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees in Louisiana: “All departments, budget units, agencies, offices, entities, and officers of the executive branch of the State of Louisiana are authorized and directed to utilize all lawful means to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the State of Louisiana while this Order is in effect."

In a letter Jindal sent Saturday to President Barack Obama, he wrote: “Last week, the city of New Orleans began receiving its first wave of Syrian refugees. As with former immigration crises and federal relocation policy, Louisiana has been kept in the dark about those seeking refuge in the state. “It is irresponsible and severely disconcerting to place individuals, who may have ties to ISIS, in a state without the state's knowledge or involvement,” Jindal wrote.

The governor then proceeded to ask Obama for details regarding the process used by the Department of Homeland Security to make sure the new arrivals were not terrorists. “What level of background screening was conducted prior to entry in the United States? In light of the fact that some of those responsible for [Friday’s] attacks held Syrian passports, what additional protections and screenings will be put in place? “Will all Syrian refugees seeking relocation in the United States now be cleared by the Terrorist Screening Center? What degree of monitoring will be sustained after initial placement in Louisiana?” asked Jindal. Jindal suggested that “it would be prudent to pause the process of refugees coming to the United States. Authorities need to investigate what happened in Europe before this problem comes to the United States.”

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