News & Analysis.
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Vince Dhimos
The Supreme Court just made a bizarre pronouncement on Trump’s controversial travel ban. The gist of their decision is that, ok, maybe the ban is a swipe at the Muslim world, but so what? Trump can brazenly state that it is anti-Muslim, but that doesn’t mean it’s anti-Muslim. Ok, then. But you know what? The constitutionality is not the key issue. As usual, the media and the political class are creating issues that are beside the point. Most of the public falls for this ruse every time. Let’s look at the countries that are subject to travel restrictions based on the claim that their citizens pose a heightened security risk to the US. And let’s also look at some that are not on the list that are arguably much more of a risk than some on the list. On the basis of this cursory analysis, it will be clear that the new legislation is pure politics and has nothing whatsoever to do with the security of Americans or anyone else. Americans will recall that 15 of the 9-11 terrorists were Saudis. So of course, the Saudis are welcomed with open arms under this “ban.” After all, they only killed 3000 Americans. Anyone paying attention here? Al Jazeera reports: The ban…“prohibits entry into the US by most people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It also affects two non-Muslim majority countries, blocking travellers from North Korea and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.” During his campaign, Trump kept saying Iran was the “biggest state sponsor of terror.” He also said at one point that the Saudis were spreading terror. Yet after his inauguration, he ran to Saudi Arabia to do the sword dance with his pals and agreed, on the spot, to sell these cut throats $billions in arms, the better to kill Houthi civilians with. Did I mention that there were 15 Saudis among the nineteen 9-11 terrorists who killed 3000 Americans and that Saudi Arabia is the biggest contributor to terrorism? Let me quote from the New York Times (yes, NYT is anti-Trump, but they quote a government source here): “American government reports say financial support for terrorism from Saudis “remains a threat to the kingdom and the international community.” And while this has been ignored by Mr. Trump, Saudi Arabia undermines whatever good work it does by continuing to spend billions of dollars spreading Wahhabism, its ultraconservative brand of Islam — which in turn inspires ISIS, Al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists — through a network of imams and mosques in countries like Kosovo, Indonesia and Pakistan.” (We detailed the Saudi influence on Kosovo here). The CFR reported in 2002: “For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al-Qaeda. And for years, Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem.” Huffington Post reports: “According to a U.S. government cable, ‘financial support estimated at nearly 100 million USD anually was making its way to Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith clerics in the region from ‘missionary’ and ‘Islamic charitable’ organizations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ostensibly with the direct support of those governments.’ “ I keep stressing the Saudi role in terror because I see Americans on both sides of the left-right divide absolutely euphoric over the fact that a travel ban has been imposed mainly on countries that pose little threat to Americans (with a few exceptions like Libya and Somalia) but exempts the Saudis, who everyone knows support ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Even the report by CNN was unusually Trump-friendly, saying he was “vindicated” by the Supreme Court. The Democrats opposed the travel ban but not for sensible reasons. Their opposition was based on the ban’s supposed discrimination against Muslims. However, both sides are missing the fact that the no-travel list exempts the most dangerous Muslim countries of the Persian Gulf and, while it does indeed prohibit travel by a minority of the listed countries that can reasonably be considered dangerous, it also prohibits the least dangerous, ie, Iran, and a country, Syria, that is full of terrorists thanks in large part to weapons supplied indirectly by the US, and many of these terrorists are not of Syrian nationality or ethnicity. The fact is, any Syrians who might cause harm to Westerners are most likely going to be the US-backed anti-Assad terrorists (euphemistically called “moderates” or “rebels” in Western msm) who were forced out of the country by the Syrian army with Russian support. People calling themselves “Syrians” may also include terrorists from 80+ countries shipped to Syria thanks to generous funding from the US and allies. We can reasonably assume that these misfits are among the “refugees” the majority of which have opted to migrate to Germany, France or Sweden and are now committing acts of terror or crimes like rape in those countries. To complicate things more, officials admit they are not always sure if a person identifying as a Syrian is really a Syrian, and some non-Syrians may be slipping through. There are numerous French and German new “citizens” who are in fact relatively recent refugees from the Middle East. Thus, a case could be made for banning travel from those 3 countries with high refugee proportions, but this will never happen. But if the US is to ban Syrians because their country is full of terrorists, then what about Jordan, where ISIS and al-Qaeda are conspiring to radicalize residents of the large refugee camps, as reported here. But of course, the US can’t keep their people safe from these people because Jordan is a close ally of the US. Yes, politics drives the ban. Libya was also on Trump’s list. Like Somalia, this choice is one of the few that makes sense. The Libyan government itself has warned that some of its citizens are likely to commit acts of terror abroad. I will refrain from mentioning that before the US had Ghadaffi murdered, this likelihood was much less and US citizens were safer. Now, think really really hard, dear reader. When was the last time you read or heard about an Iranian launching a terror attack anywhere in the Western world? Iran is majority Shiite and the terrorists bombing or shooting up Western crowds are all Sunni Wahhabists or other Sunni takfiris. Yes, some Iranians have uttered violent words about the US, calling it the Great Satan, but only after the CIA contributed mightily to the ouster of their duly elected and highly popular president Mossadegh and then this same CIA saw to it that the highly unpopular Shah got elected and terrorized Iranians who dared to oppose him. And after the US shot down a civilian Iranian airliner. And after the US helped gas Iranians with Sarin and other deadly gasses (in attacks such as it now hypocritically uses as an excuse to bomb countries it claims – with no actual proof – use chemical weapons). So the US actually did aid and abet the killing of Iranians, while Iranians, full of righteous ire, only shouted angry words, but they are supposedly terrorists while the Americans are righteous and holy? All in all, we can conclude that Trump’s list is as much political theatre as it is a security measure. Nonetheless, it has apparently had the effect of making many Americans feel safer, just as Trump makes Americans feel great again.
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