Paris implications continued

[Crixus]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/17/inside-isis-torture-brigades.html

 

Part 3 of the Daily Beast write up

[Gears of the Beast]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/17/inside-isis-torture-brigades.html

 

Part 3 of the Daily Beast write up

That series is fascinating, as is everything I've read from Michael Weiss on ISIS/Syria. 

[Hayyoth]

State Governors ask Obama White House for some basic information on re-settled asylum seekers, just in case there's like a one in a trillion chance some of them might be terrorists and it'd be an idea to keep track of them. White House tells state governors to get fucked

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-18/states-press-white-house-for-details-on-syrian-refugees

On the call several Republican governors and two Democrats -- New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and California’s Jerry Brown -- repeatedly pressed administration officials to share more information about Syrian refugees entering the United States. The governors wanted notifications whenever refugees were resettled in their states, as well as access to classified information collected when the refugees were vetted.

“There was a real sense of frustration from all the governors that there is just a complete lack of transparency and communication coming from the federal government,” said one GOP state official who was on the call.

An interview with a DHS agent is what the Feds consider thorough these days

The administration officials, led by McDonough, assured the governors that the vetting process was thorough and that the risks of admitting Syrian refugees could be properly managed. He added that the federal government saw no reason to alter the current method of processing refugees.

It gets better

Brown said he favored continuing to admit Syrian refugees but wanted the federal government to hand over information that would allow states to keep track of them, the GOP state official said.

McDonough responded to Brown that there was currently no process in place to give states such information and the administration saw no reason to change the status quo. The non-governmental organizations that help resettle the refugees would have such information.

[Red Hermit]

On a related note, reports from twitter state that after confirmation of the explosive cause of the Russian airliner tragedy, Putin has been quoted as saying: "To forgive the terrorists is up to God, to send them to Him is up to me."

Gotta love the man.

Yeah gotta love how he has his political opposition beaten or killed.  If only conservatives here would take a lesson from Putin they might actually take back this country. 

 

*Pukes*

[Fez]

Kair,

The Governors can say they are refusing to accept Syrian refugees all day long and twice on Tuesday.  Per the US Constitution they lack any power to control international borders, ports of entry, or the internal movements of people once they have been admitted into the US.  As such all these Governors can do is talk.  If they actually try and to block people coming into their States they should be slapped down hard and fast by the courts.  This is clear black letter law and the States have no say in immigration.

True. But a lot of these refugees need services like temporary housing, health care, welfare, etc. and the federal government is not really set-up to directly provide those (especially the housing one); it relies on partnerships with state governments. If states pass laws, or their governors pass executive orders, stating that no state funding may used to support the resettlement of Syrian refugees, it would be very difficult of the federal government to still place them in those states. 

I think such laws would eventually be struck down by the courts, but I think it would be through the slow, regular process that takes years. Its not something dramatic like state police setting up road checkpoints, which I'm sure would get fast-tracked removed almost immediately.

[DanteGabriel]

On a related note, reports from twitter state that after confirmation of the explosive cause of the Russian airliner tragedy, Putin has been quoted as saying: "To forgive the terrorists is up to God, to send them to Him is up to me."

Gotta love the man.

 

OOOH TIGER-RIDING SHIRTLESS FORMER COMMUNIST SAID HE WANTS TO KILL PEOPLE. MELT MY TINY BLACKENED HEART.

The right wing troglodyte hard-on for Putin continues to amaze.

[Free Northman Reborn]

Howdy Dante.

I've missed you.

[DanteGabriel]

Howdy Dante.

I've missed you.

Hey, what have you been doing recently to further the homogenization of culture in your area? That's your shtick, right?

[Free Northman Reborn]

Hehe.

 

[Mexal]

State Governors ask Obama White House for some basic information on re-settled asylum seekers, just in case there's like a one in a trillion chance some of them might be terrorists and it'd be an idea to keep track of them. White House tells state governors to get fucked

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-18/states-press-white-house-for-details-on-syrian-refugees

An interview with a DHS agent is what the Feds consider thorough these days

It gets better

It takes 2 years for a Syrian refugee to get into the country. We have accepted 2200 over the last 4 years. To say the entire process boils down to a loan interview with a DHS agent is naive and ridiculous.

[SeanF]

IFOP have just released a poll which gives Marine Le Pen the support of 40% of French 18-34 year olds.

Goodness knows what her support must be among the over 60s.

[Arakan]

What is wrong with Putin's Statement? Only god forgives terrorists. And the IS fanatics have to be terminated. 

Anyone disagrees?

[Shryke]

 

OOOH TIGER-RIDING SHIRTLESS FORMER COMMUNIST SAID HE WANTS TO KILL PEOPLE. MELT MY TINY BLACKENED HEART.

The right wing troglodyte hard-on for Putin continues to amaze.

And yet they call their opponents Anti-American while they fap till it's raw over a foreign strongman.

[Arakan]

And yet they call their opponents Anti-American while they fap till it's raw over a foreign strongman.

again: what is wrong with Putin's statement? It is the correct message towards the IS scum fanatics.

[DanteGabriel]

again: what is wrong with Putin's statement? It is the correct message towards the IS scum fanatics.

I don't care much one way or the other what Putin said. It's more about the unabashed admiration for Putin shown by FNR and other apparently anti-American right wingers.

[Wise Fool]

There is no correct or incorrect message to be sending to the Daesh. Tough talk towards them is the same as any other kind of talk: meaningless noise. Putin's tough words are for the benefit of his people; his supporters, and it's amusing that some in the GOP have somehow qualified themselves as being such while simultaneously full of jingoistic fervor for the US of A.

[Erik of Hazelfield]

I don't get the reluctance to take in Syrian refugees. These people are fleeing from Daesh. Closing the borders is like closing the doors to Bataclan while the massacre is going on because the terrorists might get out too. 

[Mexal]

I don't get the reluctance to take in Syrian refugees. These people are fleeing from Daesh. Closing the borders is like closing the doors to Bataclan while the massacre is going on because the terrorists might get out too. 

It's simple. One out of eight terrorists may have used the Syrian refugees as a cover for the Paris attacks. Therefore, terrorists can hide within the Syrian refugees and we'd be none the wiser, thus inviting potential terrorists into our country. Our refugee screening process is a joke (says the right even though facts don't back it up) and they can just waltz into the country uninhibited, all 200,000 of them that we're going to accept (even though we said we'd take in 10k over the next year and have only taken in 2.2k in 4 years) and then blow up our shopping malls.

That and for the most part, these people have little empathy for people fleeing terrorists and an oppressive regime if it means they're allowed to come to our country. If they go elsewhere, poor Syrians. They want to put them elsewhere where they can practice their destructive Islam far away from the US. That is, unless they're Christian, in which case they're more than welcome.

[Shryke]

I don't get the reluctance to take in Syrian refugees. These people are fleeing from Daesh. Closing the borders is like closing the doors to Bataclan while the massacre is going on because the terrorists might get out too. 

On that front, good news!

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/11/18/3723440/france-refugees/

French President Francois Hollande promised to honor his commitment to take in tens of thousands of refugees on Wednesday. He said France would do so despite concerns raised by ultra-right nationalist leaders that refugees might pose a security threat to the country.

“Some people say the tragic events of the last few days have sown doubts in their minds,” Hollande said, but added that it is a “humanitarian duty” to help the throngs of refugees who have landed on European shores after fleeing conflict and hardship in countries like Syria and Afghanistan.

In a speech to mayors from around France, Hollande said France would welcome 30,000 refugees over the next two years. That’s even more than the 24,000 he committed to accepting in September.

 

[Shryke]

Anyway, it now appears the real danger is our push for more people getting STEM degrees, not refugees:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/17/this-is-the-group-thats-surprisingly-prone-to-violent-extremism/

Gambetta and Hertog painstakingly gather together data on individuals belonging to a variety of terrorist groups in the Muslim world. Where they are able to get the data, it displays a compelling pattern – engineers are much more prone to become members of violent terrorist organizations.

More than twice as many members of violent Islamist organizations have engineering degrees as have degrees in Islamic studies. Nearly half of those terrorists who had degrees had degrees in engineering. Even if you make extremely generous assumptions, nine times as many terrorists were engineers as you would expect by chance. They find a similar pattern among Islamist terrorists who grew up in the West – fewer of these terrorists had college degrees, but even more of those who had degrees were engineers.

Significantly, Gambetta and Hertog find the opposite pattern among non-violent Islamic groups. In these groups, people with other degrees than engineering were over-represented.

Gambetta and Hertog also examine non-Islamic terrorist organizations, where they find that left-wing terrorists are likely to be humanities graduates rather than engineers, except in movements in Turkey and Iran. However, there is weak evidence that leaders of extreme right-wing groups in the U.S. may be more prone to be engineers than chance would predict.

I always knew engineers were evil.