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Rafale: India, France ink IGA, to sort out ‘financial aspects’

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hollande_Modi

New Delhi: India and France today inked an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) on the sale of 36 French fighter jets, Rafale, but were unable to sign the final deal due to some “financial” aspects, which are expected to be sorted out in “couple of days”.

This agreement was among the 14 pacts signed between the two countries after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting French President Francois Hollande which focused ways to enhance cooperation in counter- terrorism, security and civil nuclear energy.

“…Leaving out financial aspect, India and France have signed Inter-Governmental Agreement on purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets. We expect that even the financial aspects pertaining to purchase of Rafale jets will be resolved as soon as possible,” Modi said at a joint press event with Hollande.

Terming the signing of the IGA as a “decisive” step, the French President said there are some financial issues that will be sorted out in “couple of days”.

The two countries are in negotiations for 36 Rafale fighter jets in fly away conditions since the announcement for the deal was made by Modi in April during his visit to France.

However, the final deal is yet to be sealed as both sides are still negotiating the price which is estimated to be about Rs 60,000 crore. A high-level team from France is here and carrying out last minute negotiations.

Apart from defence cooperation, the talks between the two leaders primarily focused on ways to boost counter-terrorism cooperation in the aftermath of attack in Paris in November last and Pathankot terror strikes earlier this month.

“From Paris to Pathankot, we saw the gruesome face of the common challenge of terrorism…I also commend the strength of your resolve and action these terrorist attacks. President Hollande and I have agreed to scale up the range of our counter-terrorism cooperation in a manner that helps us to tangibly mitigate and reduce the threat of extremism and terrorism to our societies.

“We are also of the view that the global community needs to act decisively against those who provide safe havens to terrorists, who nurture them through finances, training and infrastructure support,” Modi said.

The two countries reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring to justice their perpetrators and the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which also caused the demise of two French citizens, and to ensure that such attacks do not recur in the future, a joint statement issued after the talks said.

“Daesh has attacked us. The ISIS is provoking us but we are determined to take the right decision. We will strike them time and again those who kill our children. I would like to thank you for the support in dire circumstances. France will never forget. We have decided to strengthen our cooperation against terror,” Hollande said.

The two sides resolved to step up their joint effort to counter violent extremism and radicalisation, disrupt recruitment, terrorist movements and flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters, stop sources of terrorist financing, dismantle terrorist infrastructure and prevent supply of arms to terrorists.

“To this end, they committed to further develop exchanges in the fields of intelligence, finance, justice and police. They welcomed the strengthening of the cooperation between Indian and French counter terrorism authorities and units, in particular between their cybersecurity experts,” the joint statement said.

Stressing that terrorism cannot be justified under any circumstance, regardless of its motivation, wherever and by whomsoever it is committed, Modi and Hollande pitched for decisive actions to be taken against Lashkar-e-Tayibba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Haqqani Network and other terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.

They also condemned the recent terror attacks in Pathankot and Gurdaspur in India.

On other issues which were discussed, Modi said, “From smart cities, locomotives, railway tracks and nuclear power. These are all foundations for building a new commercial partnership.”

On his part, Hollande asserted that “There is no better trust than sharing civil nuclear technology” and hoped that the issues pertaining to the six reactors at Jaitapur nuclear plant will be settled in one year.

In pursuance of the 2008 civil nuclear pact, the two leaders encouraged their industrial companies to conclude techno-commercial negotiations by the end of 2016 for the construction of six nuclear power reactor units at Jaitapur the statement said.

The negotiations will consider cost viability of the project, economical financing from the French side, collaboration on transfer of technology and cost-effective localisation of manufacturing in India for large and critical components in accord with Government of India’s “Make in India” initiative.

“France acknowledged the need for India to have lifetime guarantee of fuel supply and renewed its commitment to reliable, uninterrupted and continued access to nuclear fuel supply throughout the entire lifetime of the plants, as stated in the 2008 bilateral IGA on nuclear cooperation.

“The two leaders agreed on a roadmap of cooperation to speed up discussions on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in 2016. Their shared aim is to start the implementation of the project in early 2017.

“Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to responsible and sustainable development of civil nuclear energy with highest consideration to safety, security, non-proliferation and environmental protection,” it said.

France and India underscored the contribution of nuclear energy to their energy security and to the fight against climate change.

France reaffirmed its strong and long standing support for India’s candidacy to the international export control regimes, particularly to the NSG and welcomed India’s decision to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, the statement said.

Describing his visit as “outstanding and exceptional”, Hollande said it was an honour for France and him to be chief guest at the Republic Day.

“I commend the action of Modi at the climate change conference. I am aware Modi had potential reluctance at the COP 21. He wanted the innovation technology for developing countries to be spread. We owe it to, including Modi for what was achieved at the climate conference, the French President added.

Apart from inking IGA for purchase of Rafale jets, the two countries signed 13 agreements cutting across a wide variety of sectors including railways, culture, space, science and technology.

French firms to invest $10 bn in India in next 5 yrs: Sapin

France’s Minister for Finance and Public Accounts Michel Sapin today said French companies have been investing billions in India and he expects that they will invest over USD 10 billion in the next five years.

“Over the last five years, French companies invested more than USD 1 billion per year and we estimate that they will continue to invest at least USD 10 billion in next five years,” Sapin said at the India-France business session organised by industry body Ficci.

French companies represent 10 per cent of solar capacity installed in India and by 2020-22, they could add additional capacities, he said.

Sapin said France is the third-biggest foreign investor in India with an investment stock of USD 20 billion and there are more than 400 French companies present in India with a consolidated turnover of over USD 20 billion.

“The majority of these investments are meant for the industrial sector. This makes France a major player in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India programme. This complementarity can also been seen in the context of other programmes of the Indian government,” Sapin said.

The minister added that France has directed French Development Agency to earmark 60 per cent of total financial outlay to India.

“The economic presence of France in India goes back to a long time and is very diverse. This expression of interest in India did not wait for Indian GDP to supersede that of China,” Sapin said. The agency operates in 70 countries and provides finance for development. In 2014, it committed euro 8.1 billion across the globe for various projects.

He met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley this morning and has invited him to visit France for an annual economic dialogue between the two countries.

“In France, Indian companies are too few in numbers though France is one of the biggest recipients of FDI in the world. I count all French companies in India to act as ambassador, for our country and invite their counterparts to discover in France what they are missing,” Sapin stressed.

(PTI)

Man rams car into soldiers protecting mosque in France

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Soldiers shoot and injure perpetrator during second attack attempt while elderly man is struck by stray bullet.

Soldiers have been protecting sensitive places in France including official buildings and religious sites since the Paris attacks [Bilalmstory/Twitter]

Soldiers have been protecting sensitive places in France including official buildings and religious sites since the Paris attacks [Bilalmstory/Twitter]

by Al Jazeera

A soldier and an elderly man were injured when a man drove his car at troops protecting a mosque in Valence in southern France, officials said.

The injured passerby was a 72-year-old man who was hit in the calf by a stray bullet shot by the soldiers on Friday, Valence mayor Nicolas Daragon told the iTELE news channel.

“The four soldiers were in front of the mosque, a moderate, quiet mosque, in between two prayer sessions, at a time when many worshippers arrived,” Daragon said. “A car drove at them.”

The driver was seriously wounded when the soldiers shot at him during his second attempt at ramming into them, but his injuries are not life-threatening, the government said in a statement.

He is said to be 29 years old, from a suburb of Lyon which is about an hour’s drive from Valence, and was not previously known to intelligence services.

The imam of the mosque, Abdullah Imam Dliouah, said in a statement posted toFacebook: “The mosque officials and worshippers are deeply shocked by this act. The soldiers protecting the mosque are appreciated by the worshippers and we condemn this agression towards those who ensure our safety.

“We wish to reiterate that this act, despite its gravity, will not dampen our resolve to promote us living together, as we have always done.”

France has been on high alert since the November 13 attacks in Paris in which 130 people were killed by armed attackers who claimed they were linked to the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Soldiers are protecting sensitive places across the country, including official buildings and religious sites.

Mosques vandalised as US states reject Syria refugees

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Suspected hate crimes targeting Muslims carried out as anti-Islam rhetoric swells in the US following Paris attacks.

More than 4.2 million Syrians have fled their country as the civil war continues [Santi Palacios/AP]

More than 4.2 million Syrians have fled their country as the civil war continues [Santi Palacios/AP]

by Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera

Several mosques have been vandalised and a number of suspected hate crimes targeting Muslims carried out after dozens of United States governors announced they would not accept Syrian refugees in their states.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights organisation, said on Monday that it has documented recent “vandalism, threats and hate [incidents]” in Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Virginia, Nebraska, Tennessee, Ohio and New York, among other states.

The wave of incidents follows declarations by at least 27 state governors – 26 from the right-wing Republican party and a Democrat – saying they will block Syrian refugees, citing last Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

In one incident, officials at the Islamic Centre in Omaha, Nebraska, said that an image of the Eiffel Tower was spray-painted on the wall of a local mosque overnight on Monday, CAIR said.

In Pflugerville, Texas, worshippers arrived at their local mosque on Monday morning to find faeces smeared on the door and a torn-up copy of the Quran on the doorstep.

The Islamic Center of St Petersburg, Florida, received threatening voicemails just hours after news of the Paris attacks broke.

The caller said that they have “a militia that is going to come down to your Islamic Society of Pinellas County and firebomb you and shoot whoever is there in the head”.

According to CAIR, another Florida mosque, the location of which has not been made public, received similar threats. A caller vowed to “bomb” the mosque and “shoot people at will”.

In Portland, Oregon, protesters gathered outside a local and taunted worshippers as they arrived for prayer. They called members of the local Ahmadiyya Muslim community “cowards” and told them they are “going to hell”.

On Tuesday, an Uber driver in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he was punched and threatened with death by a passenger who mistook him as a Muslim, according to local media.

And a Muslim family in Orlando, Florida, said their family home was shot at by an unknown assailant on Monday. Speaking to local media, the Elmasri family and their neighbours said they were targeted because of their faith.

‘Clear uptick in anti-Islam rhetoric’

Corey Saylor, spokesperson at CAIR, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the governors’ refusal to accept Syrian refugees has encouraged Islamophobic sentiment.

“It gives people a license to put into action the uglier things they may be thinking” about Muslims, he said.

“After any incident like the Paris attack, we see a clear uptick in anti-Islam rhetoric.”

The Syrian uprising started in March 2011 and quickly devolved into a full-scale civil war. More than 250,000 people have been killed throughout the conflict, according to United Nations estimates.

More than 4.2 million Syrians have become refugees, while about 7.6 million are internally displaced within the country’s borders.

“Closing the doors on people fleeing war zones is not a message that America should send to the world,” Saylor said. “Rather than values, the [governors] are projecting fear.”

Some legislators called for US President Barack Obama’s administration to accept Christian refugees and reject Muslims.

Saylor says such calls are misinformed because ” ISIL’s number one victims are Muslims.”

Human rights groups have slammed the governors’ anti-refugee measures.

While governors are not able to ban Syrian refugees from residing in their states, they can suspend cooperation between state programmes and the federal government.

The federal government is the sole authority for refugee resettlement. But states can cut their own funding to local refugee programmes, placing the full weight the financial burden on the federal government.

“That can make it more difficult,” Angelita Baeyens, programmes director for the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, told Al Jazeera. “But it also sends a message of extreme intolerance and Islamophobia.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Monday that the US should not allow any Syrian refugees, including orphaned children, into the country.

“I don’t think orphans under five are being, you know, should be admitted into the United States at this point,” Christie said.

Baeyens said that Christie’s comments and others like it “create a climate of fear and suspicion”.

“In the face of the worst refugee crisis in recent history, this rhetoric is really appalling,” she added. “It is collective hysteria.”

Presidential candidates have also chimed in. Writing on Twitter, Republican Donald Trump claimed that “some” Syrian refugees may be ISIL members.

Mike Huckabee, presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor, made similar anti-refugee comments during an interview with Fox News on Monday.

“Can you imagine bringing in a bunch of Syrian refugees who’ve lived in the desert their whole lives that are suddenly thrown into an English speaking community? Where it’s maybe in Minnesota where it is 20 degrees below zero?”

According to CAIR, Trump and Huckabee are among more than a dozen presidential hopefuls for the 2016 elections who have employed Islamophobic rhetoric during their campaigns.

While only 1,500 Syrians have been resettled in the US to date, the Obama administration announced earlier this year that 10,000 more will be accepted throughout a one-year span.

Speaking of the governors’ declarations, Human Rights Watch said Syrian refugees were being used as a “scapegoat”.

“Resettled refugees from Syria have fled persecution and violence, and undergone rigorous security screening by the US government,” Alison Parker, codirector of HRW’s US programme, said in a statement.

“The governors’ announcements amount to fearmongering attempts to block Syrians from joining the generous religious groups and communities who step forward to welcome them.”

Two suspects killed in Paris police raid

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Deaths in Saint-Denis suburb police operation include female suicide bomber who blew herself up, prosecutor says.

Paris police raid

by Al Jazeera

Two suspects linked to the deadly attacks in Paris died after police raided an apartment in a northern suburb of the French capital, a prosecutor said. Police declared the operation was now over.

Forensic experts were examining the apartment after female suspect killed herself by detonating a vest rigged with explosives at the start of the operation in Saint-Denis early Wednesday, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.

A second suspect was shot during the raid, police said.

The identity of the casualties was not immediately released. However, French media said the target of the raid was Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a key suspect in Friday’s attacks, in which at least 129 people were killed. His fate remains unclear.

Heavily armed police were seen hauling away a naked man from the building at the centre of the raid in Saint-Denis.

Earlier, Molins said in a statement that three men holed up inside the apartment were arrested, while a man and woman were detained near the location of the raid.

Three police officers and a passer-by were wounded in an initial shootout at the apartment, sources told Al Jazeera.

Hollande defiant

Speaking at an assembly of French mayors, President François Hollande called for a larger coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has claimed the attacks in Paris.

Hollande also confirmed that a “dangerous and heavy” police operation had ended with the deaths and arrests.

“It was aimed at neutralising last night the terrorists based in Saint-Denis who are linked to the authors of the attacks and awful crimes of Friday night,” Hollande said.

“Two of the terrorists have died in the raid. There have been arrests. I can imagine the anguish which took hold of the residents of Saint-Denis in the early hours of the morning and I salute their calmness.

“I want to also express all my solidarity with the guards of the Mayor of Saint-Denis who already experienced the attack close to Stade de France on Friday.”

Residents of the area in northern Paris first reported hearing bursts of gunfire at 4:30am (3:30 GMT) as police exchanged fire with the suspects.

After a short lull in the operation, at least seven explosions were heard at 6:30 GMT, with more blasts reported later in the morning as a standoff ensued.

French soldiers secured the area as shots were exchanged in Saint-Denis in an operation to catch suspects [Jacky Naegelen/Reuters]

About 50 soldiers, heavily armed special police units, and ambulances gathered at the scene as a helicopter hovered overhead.

“Saint-Denis is a relatively poor area, housing many immigrants. It is near the area of the national stadium Stade de France, where suicide bombers claimed several lives during Friday’s attacks,” Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland reported from the scene.

Police also detained a man who said the suspects were staying in his flat.

“I found out that it’s at my house, and that the people are holed up at my flat. I didn’t know they were terrorists,” Jawad Ben Dow told Reuters news agency.

“Someone asked me to put two people up for three days and I did them a favour, it’s normal. I don’t know where they came from I don’t know anything. If I’d known do you think I’d have done it?” he said.

Police ordered onlookers to clear the vicinity as ambulances and fire engines lined street.

Friday night’s attacks in the French capital raised security concerns around the world.

Two Air France flights from the United States diverted for emergency landings on Tuesday because of bomb threats. All passengers were reported safe and no explosives were found on the flights.

Hollande on Wednesday held a meeting to discuss proposals to extend by three months the state of emergency declared after attacks, the worst in France since World War II.

It will then be put to vote by lawmakers on Thursday and Friday.

In a sign of the nervousness gripping Europe after Friday’s carnage, a football match between Germany and the Netherlands was cancelled on Tuesday and the crowd evacuated after police acted on a “serious” bomb threat.

As police stepped up the hunt for the fugitives, French and Russian jets pounded ISIL targets in the group’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa in Syria for a third consecutive day.

France and Russia have vowed retaliation for the Paris attacks and last month’s bombing of a Russian airliner, also claimed by ISIL, which have galvanised international resolve to destroy the group and end Syria’s more than four-year civil war.

“It’s necessary to establish direct contact with the French and work with them as allies,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said as France prepared to send an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean.

Hollande will meet Putin in Moscow on November 26, two days after seeing US President Barack Obama in Washington.

Syrians in Raqqa tell of ‘insane nights’ of French air strikes

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Activists say abandoned ISIL bases hit in city suburbs with no civilians or fighters as France carries out air strikes.

A man in Raqqa stands where a statue of Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez used to be [Hamid Khatib/Reuters]

A man in Raqqa stands where a statue of Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez used to be [Hamid Khatib/Reuters]

by Diana Al Rifai, Al Jazeera

French defence officials say that, for the second time in less than 24 hours, fighter jets have targeted Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria.

Ten Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters carried out the raid early in the morning, dropping 16 bombs, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, as France hits back at ISIL in retaliation for Friday’s Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

“Both targets were hit and destroyed simultaneously,” the ministry said.

“Conducted in coordination with US forces, the raid was aimed at sites identified during reconnaissance missions previously carried out by France.”

On Sunday, the French defence ministry said 30 air strikes destroyed an ISIL training camp and munitions dump in Raqqa.

However, a media activist in Raqqa, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that French air strikes had targeted abandoned ISIL bases in the suburbs of the city where there are no civilians or ISIL fighters.

“It has been two insane nights. Abandoned ISIL posts were targeted at the entrance of the city, along with ISIL checkpoints and several other points. Electricity and water have been cut off as supply lines were hit too.

“We can confirm that there were no civilians killed or injured in the latest French air strikes.

“People are horrified and everyone here lives in fear. We are sure that several ISIL fighters at the checkpoints were killed in the air strikes.”

The Pentagon said that over the past few days it had also bombed ISIL posts in Iraq and Syria.

On Monday, the US-led coalition’s warplanes struck ISIL targets in Raqqa and several posts were destroyed, the US defence department said on its website.

France is part of the coalition, which was launched in September 2014, but conducted its first air strike in Syria only in September 2015.

‘Raqqa is devastated’

The Syrian activist in Raqqa said that in the past few days Russian air strikes had caused the most destruction.

“Last week, Russian air strikes destroyed one of the main bridges in the city in addition to the national hospital. Most hospitals in the city have been destroyed in Raqqa,” he said.

“Russian air strikes have resulted in so much destruction. If these countries wanted to bomb the heartland of ISIL, they could have done so. But they still have not targeted the group’s most important bases.

“This is what we do not understand. The targets bombed by French warplanes were mostly abandoned by ISIL fighters.

“The US, Russia and France are all bombing Syria. How many more countries want to bomb us?

“Raqqa is devastated. Raqqa has endured the unbearable and we live in fear under ISIL’s dictatorship.

“A lot of people fled the the city. In fact, most refugees heading to Europe are from Raqqa. That is how desperate they are to leave here. People are fed up here and just want to live normal lives.

“Our lives are all under threat. ISIL controls every aspect of our lives and we are not allowed to expose the truth.

“Not everyone who lives in Raqqa approves of ISIL. I am a citizen of Raqqa and I refused to leave my hometown just like many others did.

“What the world needs to know is that we live under ISIL control on the ground, and constant air strikes from the sky. We are trapped,” the activist said.

Separately, the anti-ISIL group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered said on Sunday that overnight air strikes hit a stadium, a museum, several clinics, a hospital and a governmental building.

The group told Al Jazeera that no civilians were hurt or injured in any of the latest French air strikes.

“Of course we do not like to see people afraid of air strikes and explosions, but we support any actions that will take ISIL out of Raqqa,” the group said on its Twitter account.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said activists reported hearing explosions in Raqqa resulting from air strikes.

The activists’ network said no civilian death toll has been recorded due to the strikes.

Predictable and deplorable: US lawmakers vow to slam door on refugees

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As more than a dozen governors pledge to close state borders, advocates decry actions as cowardly and ‘un-American’

A Syrian woman holds her baby after their arrival on a small boat from the Turkish coast on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. (Photo: AP/Santi Palacios)

A Syrian woman holds her baby after their arrival on a small boat from the Turkish coast on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. (Photo: AP/Santi Palacios)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

In what appears to be a textbook case of xenophobia and political fearmongering in the wake of a tragedy, more than a dozen U.S. governors have declared their states off-limits to Syrian refugees in the days following Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.

The leaders of Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Maine, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, and Arkansas on Monday all pledged to stop or oppose any additional Syrian refugees from resettling in their states, following announcements made by the governors of Alabama and Michigan on Sunday.

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan was the first Democratic governor to join her Republican counterparts.

In a statement Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, decried the rolling announcements as “un-American,” saying those who reject refugees are allowing fear to overrun national ideals.

“This un-American rejection of refugees, who will face significant security checks prior to entry, sends entirely the wrong message,” CAIR said. “Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world.”

Responding to news that Michigan Governor Dan Snyder would rescind his previous commitment to accept Syrian refugees into his state, Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan declared: “This type of behavior is the exact cowardice and capitulation that the terrorists seek to force out of our elected leaders. Instead of stoking the fear that drives his party to a frenzy, Gov. Snyder should do the right thing and show Michiganders that we’re a state that will accept responsibility as global citizens to do our part to help people in crisis and that we can do that in a way that is both safe and responsible.”

Similarly, the ACLU of Florida issued a statement denouncing Governor Rick Scott for “blaming Syrian refugees for the very violence they are escaping.”

“We mourn those lost in the horrific attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad, and wish to express our condolences, grief and condemnation,” the ACLU continued. “However, we must also warn against what we have often seen since 9/11: the impulse in the wake of a terrorist attack to overreact and curtail the freedoms that make our country great.”

In response to the prospects of a similar backlash in Europe, the UK-based refugee council said on Monday, “The world was moved by the response of Parisians who rallied round to help each other—opening their doors to people fleeing the murderous attacks. We should follow this example by offering safety to others who need it. We cannot leave refugees fleeing to Europe from these very same terrorists without safe haven.”

“We cannot use these deplorable events as an excuse to turn our backs on vulnerable refugees; compromising our most cherished values in the face of terror,” the statement continued. “We cannot let them divide us. We cannot let hatred and fear win.”

The windfall of anti-refugee sentiment came as U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday announced that the recent terror attacks would not change his plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees.

“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,” Obama declared at the close of the G20 summit in Turkey. “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.”

“We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” he added.

In a letter sent to Obama on Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott specifically urged him to abandon this plan. “Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity,” Abbott stated. “As such, opening our door to them irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril.”

Predictably, the move to close U.S. borders is being championed by Republican presidential candidates, including Ben Carson, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who on Sunday said U.S. resettlement efforts should focus on Christian refugees.

Not to be outdone, Senator Rand Paul on Monday said he would introduce a bill to put an immediate moratorium on U.S. visas for refugees “as well as others from obtaining visas to immigrate, visit, or study in the U.S. from about 30 countries that have significant jihadist movements.” Paul told reporters in a press call that the legislation would be paid for “with a special tax on arms sales to any of these countries.”

Despite the political bombast, legal experts are questioning whether such restrictions can even be made by state officials. According to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Hines v. Davidowitz, “the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution.”

Or as Jen Smyers, associate director for immigration and refugee policy at the Church World Service, told Mother Jones, “There are really clear discrimination protections against saying someone can’t be in your state depending on where you’re from.”

However, as journalist Glenn Greenwald noted in this tongue-in-cheek Biblical reference, elected officials claim to take their directions from a higher moral authority.

Non-French war deaths matter

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bodybags

by David Swanson

We are all France. Apparently. Though we are never all Lebanon or Syria or Iraq for some reason. Or a long, long list of additional places.

We are led to believe that U.S. wars are not tolerated and cheered because of the color or culture of the people being bombed and occupied. But let a relatively tiny number of people be murdered in a white, Christian, Western-European land, with a pro-war government, and suddenly sympathy is the order of the day.

“This is not just an attack on the French people, it is an attack on human decency and all things that we hold dear,” says U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. I’m not sure I hold ALL the same things dear as the senator, but for the most part I think he’s exactly right and that sympathy damn well ought to be the order of the day following a horrific mass killing in France.

I just think the same should apply to everywhere else on earth as well. The majority of deaths in all recent wars are civilian. The majority of civilians are not hard to sympathize with once superficial barriers are overcome. Yet, the U.S. media never seems to declare deaths in Yemen or Pakistan or Palestine to be attacks on our common humanity.

I included “pro-war government” as a qualification above, because I can recall a time, way back in 2003, when I was the one shouting “We are all France,” and pro-war advocates in the United States were demonizing France for its refusal to support a looming and guaranteed to be catastrophic and counterproductive U.S. war. France sympathized with U.S. deaths on 911, but counseled sanity, decency, and honesty in response. The U.S. told France to go to hell and renamed french fries in Congressional office buildings.

Now, 14 years into a global war on terror that reliably produces more terror, France is an enthusiastic invader, plunderer, bomber, and propagator of hateful bigotry. France also sells billions of dollars of weaponry to lovely little bastions of equality and liberty like Saudi Arabia, carefully ignoring Saudis’ funding of anti-Western terrorist groups.

When U.S. militarism failed to prevent 911, I actually thought that would mean reduced militarism. When a Russian plane was recently blown up, I think I imagined for a split second that Russia would learn its lesson and stop repeating U.S. mistakes. When people were just killed in France, I didn’t have any time to fantasize about France coming to its senses, because a “socialist” president was already doing his Dubya-on-the-rubble imitation:

“To all those who have seen these awful things,” said François Hollande, “I want to say we are going to lead a war which will be pitiless. Because when terrorists are capable of committing such atrocities they must be certain that they are facing a determined France, a united France, a France that is together and does not let itself be moved, even if today we express infinite sorrow.”

The video doesn’t look like Bush, and the French word combat does not necessarily mean war just because the Washington Post says it does. It can mean fight in some other sense. But what other sense exactly, I’m not sure. Prosecuting anyone responsible would of course make perfect sense, but a criminal justice system ought not to be pitiless. It’s a war that ought to be pitiless. And it’s a war that will guarantee more attacks. And it’s a war that France has begun.

“It is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners,” said Albert Camus.

Please go back to thinking, France.

We do love you and wish you well and are deeply sorry for U.S. influence against your better tendencies.

David Swanson is an American activist, blogger and author. http://davidswanson.org

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.

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