Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 17 Nov 2015 04:12 AM PST

“An unsecure border with Mexico is the state’s most significant vulnerability as it provides criminals and would-be terrorists from around the world a reliable means to enter Texas and the nation undetected…”
– Texas Department of Public Safety, Operation Strong Safety Report
Since before the ISIS terror attacks in Paris which claimed over 120 lives, multiple US officials and law enforcement agencies have warned that the country’s porous southern border with Mexico, along with the constant flow of illegal immigrants, put the nation at risk of a similar attack.
Texas a precursor to ISIS invasion?
Back in February, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) released a report regarding their Operation Strong Safety, a multi-agency effort reallocating law enforcement personnel and other resources to the border amid the 2014 influx of illegal aliens.
In the report, the agency admitted the “unsecure border” could be exploited by “would-be terrorists.”
“Crime has become increasingly transitory, transnational, organized, and discreet, and terrorism has become more disaggregated. An unsecure border with Mexico is the state’s most significant vulnerability as it provides criminals and would-be terrorists from around the world a reliable means to enter Texas and the nation undetected. This is especially concerning today, in light of the recent terrorist attacks and schemes around the world.”
[…]
“Illegal aliens from countries documented by the U.S. Department of State as having a known terrorism presence continue to be smuggled into and throughout Texas and the nation on a regular basis, and it is impossible to determine how many of these individuals have actually entered the U.S. undetected. Texas leads the nation in the apprehension of ‘special interest aliens’ (SIA), and there is a legitimate concern that terrorists from around the world could exploit our country’s porous Southwest border to enter the U.S. undetected, if they have not done so already.”
ISIS members have reportedly already been caught in Texas
Early last month, the director of the Texas DPS, Stephen McCraw, warned that people from countries known to have a “terrorism presence” have already been captured in Texas.
“[I]ndividuals that come across the Texas/Mexican border from countries with a known terrorism presence and the answer to that is yes,” McCraw stated when asked if any suspected ISIS terrorists had yet infiltrated the border.
“We have individuals that we’ve needed to debrief in Pashto/Dari,” the director said, referring to two languages spoken in Afghanistan. “Not a lot of Pashto and Dari speakers around.”
“But you can’t think about the last attack; you have to think of the next attack and where our vulnerabilities are,” the director urged. “So, we’re concerned about that.”
Reports also surfaced in October 2014 that several ISIS terrorists had been apprehended in South Texas.
“Islamic terrorists have entered the United States through the Mexican border and Homeland Security sources tell Judicial Watch that four have been apprehended… by federal authorities and the Texas Department of Public Safety in McAllen and Pharr,” the nonprofit watchdog group reported.
The same day Judicial Watch reported the capture of four “Islamic terrorists,” a US representative also told Fox News that the US Border Patrol had captured “at least 10 ISIS fighters” crossing over from Mexico.
“They are going to be bombing American cities coming across from Mexico,” US Rep. Duncan Hunter told “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren. “At least ten ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas.”
In April of this year, Judicial Watch issued another alarming report claiming ISIS terror cells were setting up across the border from El Paso, Texas in Ciudad Juarez and in Puerto Palomas across from Columbus and Deming, New Mexico.
ISIS has already attacked Texas, and warned of “even bigger” future attacks
Claiming it as their first attack on US soil, ISIS took responsibility for a shooting at an art contest in Garland, Texas, earlier this year in May, in which participants drew art depicting the prophet Mohammad.
“Two of the soldiers of the caliphate executed an attack on an art exhibit in Garland, Texas, and this exhibit was portraying negative pictures of the Prophet Mohammed,” ISIS reportedly said.
“We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter, and that you will see the soldiers of the Islamic State do terrible things,” the group said.
Intel experts warn there are ‘gaping holes’ in refugee vetting process
In the aftermath of the Paris shootings, and following the Obama administration’s announcement that the US will take in 10,000 Syrian refugees, US lawmakers and intelligence experts again warned that such terrorism could manifest in the homeland due to “gaping holes” in the refugee vetting process.
Rep. Michael McCaul, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, highlighted that “There are a lot of holes — gaping holes” in US defenses.
“We have hundreds of Americans that have traveled” to Iraq and Syria, he said. “Many of them have come back as well. I think that’s a direct threat.”
Another lawmaker, Rep. Devin Nunes, also pointed out the US vetting process for refugees is not robust enough to stop terrorists from entering the country.
“There’s no possible way to screen them. It should be stopped immediately,” Nunes said.
“Bottom line, if you don’t want refugees, you have to go into Iraq and Syria and defeat ISIS.”
Obama administration gave over 1,500 ‘terrorists’ asylum
Late September, documents obtained by Judicial Watch revealed the Obama administration, after making changes to a federal law in 2014, made it so that more than 1,500 “terrorists” were granted asylum in the United States in 2014.
According to the government watchdog, “the administration let 1,519 ‘inadmissible’ foreigners embroiled in terrorism into the U.S. last year because the crimes were committed ‘while under duress.’”
“Before the Obama administration tweaked a federal law last year, these foreign nationals would have been banned from the country for supporting terrorist causes,” Judicial Watch reported. “But under the changes the Secretary of Homeland Security has ‘discretionary authority’ to waive certain grounds of inadmissibility relating to terrorism.”
ISIS has now vowed to attack Washington DC
The Paris attacks happened hours after Obama remarked that progress was being made in containing the “Islamic State,” and now the group has is pledging an attack on Washington DC.
“We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” a man in the latest ISIS video said.
With mounting evidence that Islamic jihadists pose a direct threat to national security, will President Obama uphold immigration policies, secure the border and more vigorously vet incoming refugees, or will he continue to ignore the warnings and risk an attack on America.
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Posted: 17 Nov 2015 04:06 AM PST

President Putin promised to find those responsible for the Russian passenger plane crash in Egypt in any part of the world and exact revenge.
The announcement was made at a meeting at which the final results of the investigation into the causes of the tragedy were officially confirmed.
“It is not the first time Russia has faced these barbaric terrorist crimes, which often come without any visible reasons, internal or external, as was the case with terrorist act in Volgograd back in 2013. We haven’t forgotten anything or anyone,” said the President.
The President also added that the perpetrators of this attack will certainly be punished.
“We should pursue them without any statute of limitations and should know all of them by name. We will be looking for them wherever they would try to hide. We will find them in any part of the world and punish them,” he stressed.
Device
On Tuesday Russia confirmed that the Airbus A321 with 224 people on board was brought down by a terrorist explosive device.
An investigation into the crash showed traces of an explosive material in personal items and parts of the plane.
Russia is now offering $50mln for information on those who might have been involved in the terrorist attack on the A321.
The aircraft went down on October 31 while en route from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, leaving no survivors.
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Posted: 17 Nov 2015 02:36 AM PST

The Russian plane crash in Sinai, Egypt, was caused by a terrorist attack as traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of the plane, Federal Security Service director Aleksandr Bortnikov told President Vladimir Putin.
“We can say that that [Sinai plane crash] was a terror act,” Bortnikov told Putin. According to the FSB chief, experts analyzed passengers’ belongings as well as the parts of the plane. “After the examination on all these objects, we have found traces of a foreign-made explosive substance,” Bortnikov said.
“During the flight, a homemade device with the power of 1.5 kilograms of TNT was detonated. As a result, the plane fell apart in the air, which can be explained by the huge scattering of the fuselage parts of the plane,” he added.
This not the first time that Russia has faced “barbarous terrorist crimes, more often without apparent causes, outside or domestic, as it was with the explosion at the railway station in Volgograd at the end of 2013,” He added: “We haven’t forgotten anything or anyone. The murder of our nationals in Sinai is among the bloodiest crimes in [terms of] the number of casualties.”
But Russia won’t be “wiping tears from our soul and heart,” he said. “This [tragedy] will stay with us forever. But this won’t stop us from finding and punishing the culprit.”
Vladimir Putin has vowed to find and punish the culprits behind the Sinai plane attack. “Our military work in Syria must not only continue. It must be strengthened in such a way so that the terrorists will understand that retribution is inevitable,” he said.
The Federal Security Service director also announced a reward of $50 million for information on those behind the terror attack on the A321.
The Russian president asked the Foreign Ministry to “call on all our [foreign] partners” to assist in the search for the terrorists behind the attack. “We look forward in the course of this work to [help from] all our friends, including in finding and punishing the criminals,” he added.
Russia will act in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, which provides for countries’ right to self-defense, Putin said. “Those who attempt to assist criminals should be aware that the consequences of such attempts will be entirely their responsibility,” he added.
The Kogalymavia A321 air crash took place over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on October 31. All 224 people on board the plane were killed, making it the deadliest air accident in modern Russian aviation history.
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Posted: 17 Nov 2015 02:18 AM PST

The US military has reportedly delivered a new consignment of weapons and ammunition to a group of militants fighting against the Syrian government.
The weapons were delivered by land to the so-called Syrian Arab Coalition which Washington regards as a “moderate rebel group,” a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency on Sunday.
The official did not say who transported the ammunition into Syria but added that US troops did not drive them into Syria.
The first delivery to the group was carried out by an air drop back in October. US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said the ammunition was for those “moderate” militant groups whose leaders were “appropriately vetted by the United States and have been fighting to remove ISIL from northern Syria.”
Since the Syria conflict started in 2011, the US and its allies have been providing military and financial aid to the militants who are accused of widespread war crimes and crimes against civilians.
The US has on several occasions airdropped weapons for anti-Damascus militants, which ended up in the hands of the Daesh terrorists.
The years-long crisis in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and displaced millions of others.
The United States and its regional allies, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have been backing militants fighting against the Syrian government and people.
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Posted: 17 Nov 2015 02:00 AM PST


Leading Republican candidate Donald Trump told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the government needs to conduct surveillance on mosques following the deadly attacks in Paris.
“We’re going to have to watch and study the mosques because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques,” Trump said. “And from what I heard, in the old days, meaning a while ago, we had great surveillance going on in and around mosques in New York City. I understand our mayor totally cut that out. He totally cut that out. And I don’t know if you’ve brought that up, and I’m not sure it’s a fact, but I heard that under the old regime we had tremendous surveillance going on in and around the mosques of New York City. And right now that’s been totally cut out.”
After September 11, 2001, the NYPD’s Intelligence Division surveilled mosques and Muslim religious and community leaders, student associations, organizations, businesses, and individuals.
In 2007 the division released a report, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” that pinpointed a number of “radicalization” indicators, including “wearing traditional Islamic clothing [and] growing a beard,” abstaining from alcohol, and “becoming involved in social activism.”
The NYPD was responsible for creating the perception of Muslim radicalization through its “create and capture” surveillance method.
Many of the techniques used by the NYPD were perfected by the CIA. In 2011, the CIA sent a senior officer to work as a clandestine operative inside police headquarters, according to the Associated Press.
In 2012 Shamiur Rahman, an NYPD informant, said he was under orders to “bait” Muslims into saying inflammatory things. Rahman also said he intentionally misinterpreted what people said at mosques and Muslim student groups to please his NYPD handler and make more money.
“The FBI and other law enforcement agencies like the New York Police Department [NYPD) have used threats and coercion to beef up their army of informants,” writes Alex Kane. “In the post-9/11 world, informants have been a major tool law enforcement has used to infiltrate Muslim communities in the hopes of picking up tips on terrorism. Since the September 11 attacks, the FBI has put more than 15,000 informants on its payroll.”
The FBI has played a major role in baiting Muslims and has also arranged a number of fake terror plots.
“In some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act,” a report released by Human Rights Watch noted last year.
Trump’s claim New York Mayor de Blasio “totally cut” the controversial NYDD surveillance program is not entirely true.
In 2014, after lawsuits were filed in response to the program, the NYPD reportedly shut down its Demographics Unit responsible for spying on mosques and Muslims. In May of that year, however, the NYPD began to use its Citywide Debriefing Team to recruit Muslims as informants.
Although de Blasio said during his campaign he was “deeply troubled” by the program, he supported it after taking office. “Based on what I’ve learned, I believe that the NYPD is currently limiting its work to the pursuit of specific leads and that there is a substantial legal review process connected to those decisions,” he said.
In January, following the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called on de Blasio to resume the practice of placing NYPD informants in mosques.
“The mayor of New York, one of the first things he did was he pulled all of the police out of the mosques. Well, you know who put the police in the mosques? I did. You know who increased the number of police in the mosques? Kelly and Bloomberg,” Giuliani told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. “And why did I do it? Because the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 was organized in a mosque. The blind sheikh, who went to jail for a hundred years, was planning to blow up our subways in a mosque.”
Giuliani did not mention the FBI’s role in the 1993 World Trade Center plot. A Muslim informant organized the bomb plot with the “supervision” of the FBI and the District Attorney as part of a classic entrapment setup. Several of the bombers were trained by the CIA to fight in the Afghan war. Internal CIA documents later concluded the agency was “partly culpable” for the bombing.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 14:27