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Jeb Bush: Only Christians should be allowed refugee status in response to Paris attack

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Jeb Bush

by David Edwards Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said over the weekend that the U.S. should respond to the terrorist attacks in Paris by carefully screening out Syrian refugees who are not Christians.

“As it relates to the refugees, I think we need to do thorough screen,” Bush told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “And take a limited number. But ultimately, the best way to deal with the refugee crisis is to create safe zones inside of Syria so that people don’t risk their lives, and you don’t have what will be a national security challenge for both our country and for Europe of screening.”

But there was one group which should be allowed to take refuge in the U.S., the former Florida governor argued.

“There are a lot of Christians in Syria that have no place now,” he explained. “They’ll be either executed or imprisoned, either by Assad or by ISIS. And I think we should have — we should focus our efforts as it relates to the Christians that are being slaughtered.”

Tapper wondered how screeners would know which refugees were Christians.

“We do that all the time,” Bush insisted. “I think we need to be — obviously — very, very cautious. This also calls to mind the need to protect our borders, our southern border particularly.”

“This is a threat against Western civilization, and we need to lead. The United States has pulled back and when we pull back, voids are filled. And they’re filled now by Islamic terrorism that threatens our country.”

Watch the video below from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast Nov. 15, 2015.

After Paris attacks, critics warn against ‘wars of vengeance’

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Meanwhile, human rights advocates predict backlash against refugees

A vigil in Prague for Paris on Saturday. (Photo: Bianca Dagheti/flickr/cc)

A vigil in Prague for Paris on Saturday. (Photo: Bianca Dagheti/flickr/cc)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

As details trickled out about Friday’s deadly attacks in and around Paris, observers urged world leaders to avoid knee-jerk responses both at home and abroad.

“The true test for France is how they respond to the terror attacks in the long-game—that’s the king in all this,” said analyst and former U.S. Foreign Service employee Peter Van Buren in an op-ed Sunday. “America failed this test post-9/11; yet it does not sound like France understands anything more than America. ‘We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless,’ French president [François] Hollande said outside the Bataclan concert hall, scene of the most bloodshed.”

Indeed, beating the drum for “all-out war” would not be strategically sound, critics cautioned in the wake of the attacks.

ISIS leadership “is hoping to precipitate a Western ground offensive in Syria that would be as disastrous as the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the very invasion that fed what would become the ‘Islamic State’,” wrote author and academic Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies the Paris School of International Affairs, at Politico on Sunday.

And there’s little reason to think France and its Western allies won’t take the bait. The Intercept‘s Murtaza Hussain similarly warned: “I’m pretty much certain whatever is done in response to this attack will end up further exacerbating terrorism. This is the post-9/11 model.”

“But,” Phyllis Bennis wrote for The Nation, “wars of vengeance won’t work for France anymore than they worked for the United States.”

“Terrorism survives wars; people don’t,” she said. “We saw the proof of that again last night in Paris, and we saw it the day before in Beirut. We were hearing sounds of victory from US war-makers. The Obama strategy was working, they said… Yet the war—a new version of that same ‘global war on terror’—is still being waged, and clearly it still isn’t working. Because you can’t bomb terrorism—you can only bomb people. You can bomb cities. Sometimes you might kill a terrorist—but that doesn’t end terrorism; it only encourages more of it.”

As of Sunday evening—just hours after it was launched—a petition rejecting “any attempt by political leaders to exploit tragic events to promote more war” had already garnered more than 10,000 signatures.

‘Paris Changes Everything’

Immediately in the wake of Friday’s attacks, as Hollande declared a state of emergency, re-established external border controls, and mobilized the French military, fears emerged of a backlash against refugees in Europe.

“The recent violence will help justify the policies of those who most fear the influx of refugees,” warned Cassie Werber at Quartz.

Indeed, Agence France-Presse reported Sunday that the French police’s discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one attacker in particular “has sparked concerns that some of the assailants might have entered Europe as part of the huge influx of people fleeing Syria’s civil war.”

Poland’s new European Affairs Minister Konrad Szymanski said that the attacks ruled out the chances of taking in refugees under the scheme to help ease the burden on EU frontier states Italy and Greece. And Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder told Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “The days of uncontrolled immigration and illegal entry can’t continue just like that. Paris changes everything.”

However, Werber continued: “This stirring-up of anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim, feeling is no accident. It is, in fact, one of the expressed aims of the groups that organize attacks on Western targets.”

Guardian migration correspondent Patrick Kingsley agreed, questioning the narrative of the Syrian passport and noting it strange “that a bomber would remember to bring his passport on a mission, particularly one who does not intend to return alive.”

“One theory is that ISIS hopes to turn Europe against Syrian refugees,” Kingsley wrote. “This would reinforce the idea of unresolvable divisions between east and west, and Christians and Muslims, and so persuade Syrians that Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate is their best hope of protection. ‘You know what pissed off Islamist extremists the most about Europe?’ summarised Iyad El-Baghdadi, an activist and jihadi-watcher, on Twitter. ‘It was watching their very humane, moral response to the refugee crisis’.”

Because, as regional expert Aaron Y. Zelin wrote at his blog, Jihadology, on Saturday:

The reality is, The Islamic State (IS) loathes that individuals are fleeing Syria for Europe. It undermines IS’ message that its self-styled Caliphate is a refuge, because if it was, individuals would actually go there in droves since it’s so close instead of 100,000s of people risking their lives through arduous journeys that could lead to death en route to Europe.

In fact, Margaret Corvid pointed out at The Establishment: “Closing the borders as the terrifying war continues in Syria will not punish the terrorists; it will only cause more needless suffering and death, including to innocent children.”

‘Desperate to Shift Blame’

Meanwhile, at The Intercept, journalist Glenn Greenwald explores how U.S. “‘officials’ and their various media allies” are exploiting the Paris attacks in an attempt to vilify NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—and in turn shift the focus from their own failures.

After acknowledging how absurd it would be to believe that “The Terrorists only learned to avoid telephones and use encryption once Snowden came along,” Greenwald argues that such claims have a larger goal in mind.

The perpetrators of these accusations, he concludes, “are desperate to shift blame away from themselves for ISIS and terror attacks and onto Edward Snowden, journalism about surveillance, or encryption-providing tech companies,” Greenwald said. “Wouldn’t you if you were them? Imagine simultaneously devoting all your efforts to depicting ISIS as the Greatest and Most Evil Threat Ever, while knowing the vital role you played in its genesis and growth.”

French jets pound Raqqa as G20 pledges new ISIL fight

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Two days after attacks in Paris claimed by ISIL, France targets the group’s Syrian stronghold.

Al-Raqqah

by Al Jazeera

French warplanes have hit the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, as world leaders pledged to renew their fight against the armed group, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people.

In its first air strikes against ISIL since the Paris attacks, 12 warplanes, including 10 fighter bombers, dropped 20 bombs on the targets on Sunday night, the French defence ministry said.

“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh [ISIL] as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” a ministry statement said.

The planes left from Jordan and the UAE and the strikes were conducted in coordination with US forces, the ministry said.

Writing on Twitter, the anti-ISIL activist group Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said air strikes had also hit a stadium, a museum, clinics, a hospital, a chicken farm and a local governmental building.

Water and electricity were cut across the city as a result of the raids, the group said, adding that at least 30 air strikes had been carried out.

The group said no civilian casualties had been immediately reported.

Earlier on Sunday, leaders of the world’s 20 major economies (G20) pledged a renewed fight against ISIL, but offered few details on how the strategy would change.

Although the G20 usually focuses on economic issues, the President of host country Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged world leaders to prioritise the battle against ISIL, saying Friday’s assaults in Paris proved that the time for words was now over.

The attacks left at least 129 people dead and more than 350 others injured.

ISIL also claimed responsibility for a bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed at least 43 people on Thursday.

“We are confronted with a collective terrorism activity around the world. As you know, terrorism does not recognise any religion, any race, any nation, or any country,” Erdogan said.

US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, affirmed his country’s support for Paris in the wake of the attacks, saying: “We stand in solidarity with them [France] in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice.”

He pledged to “redouble” US efforts to eliminate ISIL, but offered no details about what the US or its coalition partners might do to step up its assault against the group.

French President Francois Hollande cancelled his attendance at the summit, and sent Laurent Fabius, the Foreign Minister, to represent him.

The attacks in Paris prompted a worldwide alert and called for a stepped-up offensive against ISIL.
The US already expects France to retaliate by taking on a larger role in the US-led coalition’s bombing campaign against the group.

The summit in Antalya brings Obama and fellow world leaders just 500km from Syria, where a four-and-a-half-year conflict has transformed ISIL into a global security threat and prompted Europe’s largest migration flow in decades.

Daesh releases official statement claiming responsibility for Paris attacks

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Police investigators pass near a sign smeared with what appears to be blood near the Stade de France stadium the morning after a series of deadly attacks in Paris , November 14, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier.

Police investigators pass near a sign smeared with what appears to be blood near the Stade de France stadium the morning after a series of deadly attacks in Paris , November 14, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier.

by Al Bawaba

Daesh (also known as the Islamic State) released a statement claiming responsibility for the coordinated attacks in Paris, reported Reuters. “Soldiers of Caliphate has targeted the capital of abomination and perversion,” said the statement in French.

According to the statement, Daesh members armed with suicide belts and machine guns attacked multiple “specifically chosen” locations in Paris. The attacks were retaliation for French airstrikes against Daesh and insults against the Prophet Mohammed.

The group also urged its members who cannot travel to Syria to conduct attacks in France, and called the country its “top target.”

French President Francois Hollande said the group was responsible for the attacks in a statement Saturday morning.

At least 120 killed as shootings and explosions stir chaotic scenes in Paris

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Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at six locations around Paris on Friday evening

Medics move a wounded man near the Boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire after an attack November 13, 2013 in Paris, France. Gunfire and explosions in multiple locations erupted in the French capital with early casualty reports indicating at least 60 dead. (Photo by Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)

Medics move a wounded man near the Boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire after an attack November 13, 2013 in Paris, France. Gunfire and explosions in multiple locations erupted in the French capital with early casualty reports indicating at least 60 dead. (Photo by Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)

by Al Jazeera

A state of emergency has been declared across France after attacks in Paris killed at least 128 people, in what President Francois Holland said was an “act of war” organised by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Four gunmen killed at least 80 young people attending a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall on Friday evening, city hall officials said. Heavily armed policemen eventually launched an assault on the building.

The gunmen detonated explosive belts and dozens of shocked survivors were rescued. The attackers were killed at the site and a manhunt is under way as a number of armed men are believed to be at large.

About 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris region, officials said, including an apparent triple suicide bombing outside the national stadium, Stade de France.

Hollande and the German foreign minister were watching a friendly football match between France and Germany there when the attacks occurred.

The coordinated assault came as France, a member of the US-led coalition waging air strikes against ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq, was on high alert for attacks.

ISIL video

The ISIL group released an undated video on Saturday threatening to attack France if bombings of its fighters in the Middle East continued.

The group’s foreign media arm, Al-Hayat Media Centre, made the threat through a man who called on French Muslims to carry out attacks.

“As long as you keep bombing you will not live in peace. You will even fear travelling to the market,” said the bearded Arabic-speaking man, flanked by others.

Paris Public Prosecutor Francois Molins said the death toll was at least 128 and that about 200 people were injured, 90 of them seriously.

His spokeswoman said eight assailants had also died, seven of whom had blown themselves up with explosive belts at various locations, while one had been shot dead by police.

As France awakened on Saturday, security was tight across the capital, where about 1,500 soldiers were deployed, leave was cancelled for police personnel and hospitals recalled staff to cope with the casualties.

Three restaurants and a shopping centre were also targeted in shooting attacks.

Reports also said that Paris has cancelled all public transportation services including the Metro on Saturday, as French newspapers decried a “War in the heart of Paris” with black mastheads.

The deadliest attack was on the Bataclan, a popular concert venue where the California rock group Eagles of Death Metal was performing.

The concert hall is just a few hundred metres from the former offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, target of a deadly attack by gunmen in January.

Some witnesses in the hall said they heard the gunmen shout Islamic chants and slogans condemning France’s role in Syria.

“It was carnage in that concert hall,” freelance journalist John Laurenson told Al Jazeera from Paris, adding that the death toll was higher than initially announced.

Julien Pearce, a journalist from Europe 1 radio, was inside the concert hall when the shooting began.

In an eye witness report posted on the station’s website, Pearce said several very young individuals, who were not wearing masks, entered the hall during the concert, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and started “blindly shooting at the crowd”.

“There were bodies everywhere,” he said.

The gunmen shot their victims in the back, finishing some off at point-blank range before reloading their guns and firing again, Pearce said, after escaping into the street by a stage door, carrying a wounded girl on his shoulder.

In a separate incident, police said a gunman opened fire with a Kalashnikov at a Cambodian restaurant called Le Petit Cambodge late on Friday, killing at least 14 people who were sitting at the outdoor terrace in the popular Charonne area in the capital’s 10th district.

The prosecutor mentioned five locations in close proximity where shootings took place around the same time.

Residents in Paris were asked to stay indoors as attackers could still be on the loose, French media reported.

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Paris, said: “Certainly from the very first moment the police were searching from various other bars and restaurants they were asking people to clear out bars and restaurants in the area. Clearly, police are very concerned about other potential targets.”

Police evacuated people from all bars and restaurants in the area of the 10th and 11th arrondissement, a part of Paris popular with young people and tourists.

Madeline Berry, who was dining at a restaurant in the area, told Al Jazeera: “I was just having dinner with some friends. All the sudden we noticed people moving to the back of the restaurant.

“They basically shut the shutters of the restaurant and turned the music off. People are calling their families, everyone is on the mobile phones calling their families.”

Wounded people were evacuated from the scene of a hostage situation at the Bataclan theatre in Paris [Yoan Valat/EPA]

Two explosions were heard near the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, where the France-Germany friendly soccer match was being played. The blasts were audible on television during the live broadcast.

A witness said one of the detonations blew people into the air outside a McDonald’s restaurant opposite the stadium.

The match continued until the end, but panic broke out in the crowd as rumours of the attack spread, and spectators were held in the stadium and assembled spontaneously on the pitch.

Police helicopters circled the stadium as Hollande was rushed back to the interior ministry to deal with the situation.

“We have, on my decision, mobilised all forces possible to neutralise the terrorists and make all concerned areas safe. I have also asked for military reinforcements. They are currently in the Paris area, to ensure that no new attack can take place,” Hollande said in a television statement after an emergency cabinet meeting.

International condemnation 

US President Barack Obama called the attacks in Paris “outrageous” and said the US was united with France.

“Once again we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorise innocent civilians,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

“We stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance that the government and the people of France need,” he said, and pledged to “bring these terrorists to justice and go after any terrorist networks” involved.

“Those who think that they can terrorise the people of France or the values that they stand for are wrong,” Obama said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “shocked” by the events in Paris.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the French people. We will do whatever we can to help,” he wrote on Twitter.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “profoundly shocked” by the attacks.

“At this time, my thoughts are with the victims of these apparently terrorist attacks, and with their families and all residents of Paris,” Merkel said in a statement.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Pennsylvania, Malcolm Nance, a security and intelligence consultant, said it was likely that either IISIL or al-Qaeda was behind the attacks.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this is actually an occurrence almost every day throughout the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. We just had an attack in Beirut which killed almost 40 people; we had a bombing of a Russian airliner over Egypt,” he said.

“These mass-casualty attacks are hallmarks of al-Qaeda and the ISIL organisation. It appears now that the battlefront has moved from the Middle East and is now at the forefront of the Atlantic Ocean.”

Football fans at the Stade de France after the international friendly match between France and Germany [The Associated Press]

Imperial Hubris: Obama threatens South Africa with trade sanctions

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S Africa risks suspension of right to ship farm products to US duty-free unless it drops barriers to American products.

The United States says South Africa has been blocking US chicken imports for 15 years [AP]

The United States says South Africa has been blocking US chicken imports for 15 years [AP]

by Al Jazeera

US President Barack Obama has threatened to impose trade sanctions on South Africa for blocking imports of meat from the US.

Obama said on Thursday that he will suspend South Africa’s right to ship farm products to the US duty-free unless it begins to dismantle barriers to American pork, poultry, and beef within 60 days.

“I am taking this step because South Africa continues to impose several long-standing barriers to US trade, including barriers affecting certain US agricultural exports,” he said in a letter to Congress.

At stake are trade benefits South Africa receives under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which is meant to encourage African countries to open their economies to trade.

The US says South Africa has been blocking US chicken imports for 15 years and has used “unwarranted sanitary restrictions” to keep out US pork and beef.

Mike Brown, president of the US National Chicken Council, backed the move and said it made no sense for the US to give special preferences to countries that treated it unfairly.

“This should send a clear message to South Africa and their poultry industry that they will not be given a ‘Get out of jail free’ card every time AGOA rounds the turn,” he said.

South Africa exported $176m in agricultural products to the US under AGOA in 2014 and potential lost benefits are estimated to total $4m to $7m.

South Africa missed an October 15 deadline to agree to new rules for imports of US poultry and meat products.

The country has banned US poultry imports since last December after an outbreak of bird flu.

More than 200 feared dead in Russian jet crash in Egypt

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Rescue teams locate wreckage of Airbus A-321 belonging to Metrojet which came down in central Sinai Peninsula.

Metrojet's Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey on September 17, 2015 [Kim Philipp Piskol/Reuters]

Metrojet’s Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey on September 17, 2015 [Kim Philipp Piskol/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A Russian plane carrying more than 200 people has crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said.

The statement said search-and-rescue teams found on Saturday the wreckage of the Russian passenger jet in the Hassana area, south of the city of el-Arish, where Egyptian security forces are fighting a local affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

It said the plane took off from Sinai Peninsula’s Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular destination for Russian tourists, and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after take-off.

Egyptian search and rescue team members said they heard voices in a section of the plane, an officer on the scene told Reuters news agency.

The black box which contains the flight data was also found at the scene.

“There is another section of the plane with passengers inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find survivors especially after hearing pained voices of people inside,” the officer said.

Separately, Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash, a source at his office said.

Nabil Sadek, the prosecutor general, ordered the formation of a team of prosecutors tasked with going to the site of the crash and investigating the debris.

A centre to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport, Tass news agency quoted St Peterburg city officials as saying.

The office of the Eyptian prime minister, Sharif Ismail, earlier confirmed that a Russian airliner with more than 200 people on board had crashed in central Sinai.

The Airbus 321 was at an altitude of 9,450m when it vanished from radar screens, the ministry said in a statement.

Most of the passengers are said to be Russian tourists, according to reports. The plane was operated by the small Russian airline Kogalymavia, based in western Siberia.

The pilot reportedly requested clearance for an emergency landing at Cairo airport due to a technical malfunction.

Plane tracking website Flight Radar said Metrojet flight #7K9268 disappeared over Egypt 23 minutes after departure from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Conflicting reports

The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said in a statement that flight 7K 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and had been due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10.

The authority said the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar.

A Cyprus Civil Aviation official said Cairo air traffic control notified Cypriot authorities that they had lost contact with a Russian aircraft early on Saturday.

The official said the aircraft’s last contact was with Egyptian Authorities before disappearing.

He said the aircraft did not make contact with Cypriot authorities.

Turkish government spokespersons said they had no information about the missing Russian plane ever entering Turkish airspace.

Security sources in the Sinai Peninsula later confirmed reports that an aircraft was missing.

EU parliament votes for dropped charges, asylum protection for Edward Snowden

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Resolution passed by European Parliament Thursday calls on member states to prevent whistleblower’s extradition, rendition

A sticker calling for asylum for Edward Snowden seen in Berlin. (Photo: Tony Webster/flickr/cc)

A sticker calling for asylum for Edward Snowden seen in Berlin. (Photo: Tony Webster/flickr/cc)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

The European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday urging its nations to afford NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden protection.

Passed by a 285 to 281 vote, the resolution calls on EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender.”

Snowden, who’s been residing in Russia since 2013, responded to the resolution on Twitter by calling it a “game-changer”:

While the resolution is not binding, Wolfgang Kaleck, Snowden’s lawyer in Berlin, told the Daily Dot in an email, “It is an overdue step and we urge the member States to act now to implement the resolution.”

U.S.-based digital rights group Fight for the Future welcomed the news as well. Evan Greer, the organization’s campaign director, said, “We hope that this resolution leads to a binding agreement in the EU that allows Edward Snowden to move to whichever EU country he wants, and we hope he gets an epic party thrown in his honor when he arrives.”

“The battle over mass government surveillance is a decisive moment in the history of humanity, and it’s hard to think of anyone who has done more than Edward Snowden to educate the public about the grave risks that runaway spying programs pose to our basic human rights, the future of the Internet, and freedom of expression,” he added.

The World Wide Web Foundation, which advocates for an open Internet and was founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, called it a “landmark resolution.” It added in a statement, “We call on national leaders to publicly commit to respecting the will of the European people and offering Snowden asylum.”

Berners-Lee said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last year that Snowden “should be protected, and we should have ways of protecting people like him. Because we can try to design perfect systems of government, and they will never be perfect, and when they fail, then the whistleblower may be all that saves society.”

Shaker Aamer: Last UK Guantanamo Bay detainee released after 14-year detention

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Shaker Aamer has never been charged with any offences and has maintained his innocence

Shaker Aamer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years but has never been charged or tried.

Shaker Aamer has been kept in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years but has never been charged or tried.

by Rose Troup Buchanan, Independent

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident detained in Guantanamo, has been reportedly released and is flying back to his wife and four children in London.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed to Sky News Mr Aamer had been released. His plane is believed to be due to land in the UK at around midday today.

Co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign Andy Worthington also said he had confirmation from Mr Aamer’s lawyer he is due to return.

“We’re delighted to hear that his long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end,” he told Press Association. 

“We hope he won’t be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London.”

Cori Crider, Mr Aamer’s US lawyer and strategic director of Reprieve, said in a statement the release was “long, long past time.” “Shaker now needs to see a doctor, and then get to spend time alone with his family as soon as possible.” Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen cautioned: “After so many twists and turns in this appalling case, we won’t really believe that Shaker Aamer is actually being returned to the UK until his plane touches down on British soil.” “We should remember what a terrible travesty of justice this case has been, and that having been held in intolerable circumstances for nearly 14 years Mr Aamer will need time to readjust to his freedom,” Ms Allen said in a statement. The 46-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen has been held in the US dentention centre for 13 years without trial. His case was debated in the House of Commons in March, and MPs have lobbied Washington to urgently address his transfer – which was cleared in 2007. Prime Minister David Cameron has personally lobbied on behalf of Mr Aamer, urging Barack Obama to free the Guantanamo detainee in June of this year.  A Downing Street source claimed Mr Cameron told the US president: “We are very clear we need to find a resolution to the case of Shaker Aamer.” On Friday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn congratulated Mr Aamer’s team on the release, calling it “great news.”

Mr McDonnell told The Mirror he was “breathing a heavy sigh of relief” following Mr Aamer’s release. “Shaker was simply a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, a charity worker building wells in Afghanistan who was kidnapped, ransomed and falsely imprisoned.”

Mr Aamer, whose British wife and four children live in London, has British residency and permission to reside indefinitely in the UK. He has not seen his family in 14 years.

He was imprisoned in Afghanistan after being accused of working with al-Qaeda.

A Reprieve report, published earlier this year, detailed the horrific torture he claims US interrogators meted out in an attempt to make him sign a false confession. Mr Aamer later said he would have told interrogators “he was Bin Laden” to make the torture stop.

Dr Emily Keram, an American doctor who was able to visit him in Guantanamo, diagnosed Mr Aamer with acute post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), migraines, digestive problems, swelling, asthma and tinnitus. She recommended urgent treatment for the “serious medical concerns” in the UK.

Guantanamo Bay detention centre was established in 2002 by the US government. Following a successful Freedom of Information request, the centre admitted to holding 779 men and boys over the course of its use. Mr Obama had promised to close the facility – condemned globally by international human rights organisations – but as of June this year 116 individuals remain imprisoned in the centre. That number will now stand at 115.

China to abolish decades-old one-child policy

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State news agency says restriction introduced in 1980 will be lifted, allowing all couples to have two children.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for resources [Frederic J Brown/AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The official Xinhua News Agency says China’s ruling Communist Party has decided to abolish the country’s one-child policy and allow all couples to have two children.

It cited a communique issued by the ruling Communist Party on Thursday after a four-day meeting in Beijing to chart the course of the nation over the next five years.

China is “abandoning its decades-long one-child policy”, Xinhua reported.

The restriction was introduced in 1980 as a way to curb the population and limit demands for water and other resources.

The controversial policy restricted most couples to only a single offspring, and for years authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom.

But after years of strict, sometimes brutal enforcement by a dedicated government commission, China’s population – the world’s largest – is now ageing rapidly, gender imbalances are severe, and its workforce is shrinking.

The concerns led to limited reforms in 2013, including allowing a second child for some couples in urban areas, but relatively few have taken up the opportunity.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Beijing, said the one-child policy was no longer viable for the country.

“China needs more people joining the workforce, so there is the economic aspect looking further ahead that China needs to have larger families.

“This was one of the widely anticipated measures that was expected from the five-year plan and I think it will be broadly welcomed. The one-child policy is an unpopular measure here in china. We have seen children growing up in isolation because of it,” our correspondent said.

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