NEW YORK: The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report claiming that 73 percent of those convicted of international terrorism-related offenses since the 9/11 attacks were foreign born, as it moves to tighten immigration rules.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Justice Department assessed that three out every four people convicted of international terror charges were born overseas. Muslim rights activists told Arab News that their study was flawed and biased.
US federal courts convicted at least 549 people with international terrorism-related charges between Sept. 11, 2001, and December 31, 2016, the report said. Of those, 254 were not US citizens and 148 had become naturalized US citizens. Another 147 were born US citizens.
The report names convicted terrorists from Sudan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen and other countries with large or majority Muslim populations, echoing President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the threat from Islamist militants.
It focusses on acts planned and committed outside the US and those within the US that involved Daesh or another foreign group. It excludes acts of so-called domestic terrorism that did not involve overseas organizations.
“This report reveals an indisputable sobering reality — our immigration system has undermined our national security and public safety,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Republican, said in a statement.
“And the information in this report is only the tip of the iceberg: We currently have terrorism-related investigations against thousands of people in the US, including hundreds of people who came here as refugees.”
During the 2016 election campaign, Trump pledged to temporarily halt Muslim immigration to the US and, since taking office, issued a travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries and a ban on refugees that has been dogged by legal challenges.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Muslim civil rights group, told Arab News that the report’s authors had cherry-picked data to substantiate their prejudices.
“It’s reverse-engineering the numbers to stigmatize immigrants and Muslims, and disregarding the high number of domestic terror incidents that are not included in this report by really sidestepping all the domestic terrorism by white supremacists and the like,” Hooper said.
“Going forward, every report and policy from this administration has to be viewed from the prism of racism and the white supremacy that’s at the core of what the Trump administration is trying to do, based on the president’s statements and actions.”
Washington is currently debating an overhaul of America’s immigration system, with Democrats pushing for an amnesty for some undocumented migrants and their children, while many Republicans want to tighten US borders and immigration rules.
Trump has linked recent terrorist attacks to immigration, and called for eliminating the green card lottery, restricting asylum applications, combatting people who overstay their visas and stopping the so-called “chain migration” of family members to the US.
In a recent meeting with Democrat and Republican lawmakers, Trump sparked outrage by allegedly disparaging Haiti and Africa with an expletive to express his reluctance to welcome migration from impoverished nations.
The White House says the current system brings too many people to the country who cannot assimilate and lack skills and education to contribute to society. It vaunts the point-based systems of Australia and Canada.
“Our properly functioning immigration system promotes assimilation in all its forms, through whatever mechanism by which those individuals come to the US,” a senior administration official said.
“It doesn’t promote the admission of individuals who are not likely to succeed, who are not likely to assimilate, and who could potentially radicalize or may already be radicalized to pose a threat to our national security.”
Three quarters of US terrorists were foreign born: Trump study
Three quarters of US terrorists were foreign born: Trump study
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The daughters of Malcolm X sue the CIA, FBI and NYPD over the civil rights leader’s assassination
- The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also sued, declined comment
NEW YORK: Three daughters of Malcolm X have accused the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department and others in a $100 million lawsuit Friday of playing roles in the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.
In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the daughters — along with the Malcolm X estate — claimed that the agencies were aware of and were involved in the assassination plot and failed to stop the killing.
At a morning news conference, attorney Ben Crump stood with family members as he described the lawsuit, saying he hoped federal and city officials would read it “and learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs.”
The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also sued, declined comment. The FBI said in an email that it was its “standard practice” not to comment on litigation.
For decades, more questions than answers have arisen over who was to blame for the death of Malcolm X, who was 39 years old when he was slain on Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom on West 165th Street in Manhattan as he spoke to several hundred people. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X later changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
Three men were convicted of crimes in the death but two of them were exonerated in 2021 after investigators took a fresh look at the case and concluded some evidence was shaky and authorities had held back some information.
In the lawsuit, the family said the prosecution team suppressed the government’s role in the assassination.
The lawsuit alleges that there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents,” leading up to the murder of Malcolm X.
According to the lawsuit, the NYPD, coordinating with federal law enforcement agencies, arrested the activist’s security detail days before the assassination and intentionally removed their officers from inside the ballroom where Malcolm X was killed. Meanwhile, it adds, federal agencies had personnel, including undercover agents, in the ballroom but failed to protect him.
The lawsuit was not brought sooner because the defendants withheld information from the family, including the identities of undercover “informants, agents and provocateurs” and what they knew about the planning that preceded the attack.
Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, the plaintiffs, “and their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown” for decades, the lawsuit states.
“They did not know who murdered Malcolm X, why he was murdered, the level of NYPD, FBI and CIA orchestration, the identity of the governmental agents who conspired to ensure his demise, or who fraudulently covered-up their role,” it states. “The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable.”
The family announced its intention to sue the law enforcement agencies early last year.
Japan marks modern-day adventurer’s final stop on 46,000 km trek across Asia
Modern-day adventurer Omar Nok became a social media celebrity, attracting more than 750,000 Instagram followers, as he documented his circuitous 46,239 kilometer (28,732 miles) route from Egypt across a dozen countries without once boarding a plane.
“From when I was a little kid, before realizing what travel is, I already wanted to come to Japan,” Cairo native Nok, 30, said in an interview in Tokyo. “But for me, I don’t want to miss anything in between...so that’s the motivation to just go without flying to see as much as I can.”
The sharp weakening of the yen has made Japan a bargain travel destination, attracting nearly 27 million visitors in the nine months to September. It’s been an economic boon as well, with tourists spending 5.86 trillion yen ($37.58 billion) so far, a record.
For Nok, the country represented the furthest he could travel in Asia without getting a plane. He arrived by ferry in the southwestern city of Fukuoka last month and then meandered his way to Tokyo on Nov. 7, 274 days after leaving home. By comparison, a direct flight from Cairo to Tokyo takes about 12 hours.
The veteran traveler previously logged lengthy trips through Europe and the Americas, but nothing like this. The first day was the hardest, Nok said, when his father dropped him off at Red Sea port of Safaga to board a cargo boat for Saudi Arabia.
He was nervous about stepping into the unknown, venturing into central Asian countries where he didn’t speak the language and where few tourists tread. But armed with words of encouragement from his father, he stepped onto the ship, and his nerves melted away.
On his trek, he hitchhiked to Islam’s holy city of Makkah, sandboarded the dunes of Iran, broke down in the Tajikistan mountains in a purple Dodge Challenger driven by another adventurer, and crossed parts of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan riding horses and camels.
Previously a financial analyst for Amazon in Germany and Luxembourg, Nok funded his journey through savings and extremely frugal spending. His daily expenses came to about $25, although his entire two-week run through Afghanistan cost just $88, he said.
Throughout it all, Nok said he never felt in danger because generous strangers looked out for him wherever he found himself. That message resounded among his online fans as a welcome spark of hope at a time of war and political strife in much of the world.
“I’m always just moving around like locals would, and being in situations where locals would step in to help,” Nok said. “I think people wanted to see that positive side to all the countries that they only hear negative things about.”
At APEC, China’s Xi warns of growing ‘unilateralism’
- Xi is due to hold talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden on Saturday
LIMA: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday warned the world was entering an era of growing “unilateralism” and “protectionism,” in comments at a major Asia-Pacific trade summit in Peru.
Xi was in Lima for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, and is due to hold talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden on Saturday.
“In a written speech addressing APEC CEO Summit 2024, Xi also warned of the spreading unilateralism and protectionism, and cautioned that the fragmentation of the world economy is increasing,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
In the wide-ranging speech, Xi said the world had “entered a new period of turbulence and transformation,” Xinhua reported.
In that context, he called for global industrial and supply chains to be kept “stable and smooth.”
US President-elect Donald Trump, set to take office in January, has promised a raft of protectionist trade policies, including 60 percent import tariffs targeting China, with whom he engaged in a trade war during his last term in office.
The Republican has once again signaled a confrontational approach to Beijing for his second term.
Xi said any attempts to reduce global economic interdependence was “nothing but backpedaling,” comments potentially aimed at Trump’s proposed policies on the campaign trail.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, has been reeling from headwinds on several fronts, with growth struggling to recover since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beijing is pushing for an official national growth target this year of around five percent, a goal most economists believe it will narrowly miss.
But recent weeks have seen officials announce their most aggressive measures in years in a bid to breathe fresh life into the economy.
In Lima, Xi vowed to meet the GDP growth target, and to pursue economic liberalization policies that would “open its (China’s) door even wider to the world.”
Muslims who voted for Trump upset by his pro-Israel cabinet picks
- Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have factored into other swing state wins, strategists believe
- Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota said Trump’s staffing plans were not surprising, but had proven even more extreme that he had feared
WASHINGTON: US Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his Cabinet picks, they tell Reuters.
“Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his Secretary of State pick and others,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump.
Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have factored into other swing state wins, strategists believe.
Trump picked Republican senator Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel for Secretary of State. Rubio said earlier this year he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he believed Israel should destroy “every element” of Hamas. “These people are vicious animals,” he added.
Trump also nominated Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and staunch pro-Israel conservative who backs Israeli occupation of the West Bank and has called a two state solution in Palestine “unworkable,” as the next ambassador to Israel.
He has picked Republican Representative Elize Stefanik, who called the UN a “cesspool of antisemitism” for its condemnation of deaths in Gaza, to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations.
Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network (AMEEN), said Muslim voters had hoped Trump would choose Cabinet officials who work toward peace, and there was no sign of that.
“We are very disappointed,” he said. “It seems like this administration has been packed entirely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on the on the side of President Trump, to the pro-peace and anti-war movement.”
Nazarko said the community would continue pressing to make its voices heard after rallying votes to help Trump win. “At least we’re on the map.”
Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and co-founder of the Abandon Harris campaign, which endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein, said Trump’s staffing plans were not surprising, but had proven even more extreme that he had feared.
“It’s like he’s going on Zionist overdrive,” he said. “We were always extremely skeptical...Obviously we’re still waiting to see where the administration will go, but it does look like our community has been played.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Several Muslim and Arab supporters of Trump said they hoped Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, would play a key role after he led months of outreach to Muslim and Arab American communities, and was even introduced as a potential next secretary of state at events.
Another key Trump ally, Massad Boulos, the Lebanese father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, met repeatedly with Arab American and Muslim leaders.
Both promised Arab American and Muslim voters that Trump was a candidate for peace who would act swiftly to end the wars in the Middle East and beyond. Neither was immediately reachable.
Trump made several visits to cities with large Arab American and Muslim populations, include a stop in Dearborn, a majority Arab city, where he said he loved Muslims, and Pittsburgh, where he called Muslims for Trump “a beautiful movement. They want peace. They want stability.”
Rola Makki, the Lebanese American, Muslim vice chair for outreach of the Michigan Republican Party, shrugged off the criticism.
“I don’t think everyone’s going to be happy with every appointment Trump makes, but the outcome is what matters,” she said. “I do know that Trump wants peace, and what people need to realize is that there’s 50,000 dead Palestinians and 3,000 dead Lebanese, and that’s happened during the current administration.”
Trump promises to end wars with a ‘strong military’
- “We’re going to work on the Middle East and we’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It’s got to stop,” Trump added
PALM BEACH, United States: US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday promised a “strong military,” as he repeated his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump, who campaigned on an “America First” foreign policy, has said previously that he wanted to strike a deal between Kyiv and Moscow, without giving details, and end bloodshed in the Middle East.
“We have to get back to a great country with low taxes and a strong military. We’re going to fix our military, we did once and now we’re going to have to do it again,” he said Thursday at a gala organized by the America First Policy Institute at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“We’re going to work on the Middle East and we’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It’s got to stop,” Trump added.
He also criticized the “big chunk” of US spending on Afghanistan, from where American troops withdrew in 2021 after two decades of fighting an insurgency by the Taliban, which returned to power that year.
Trump’s re-election has the potential to upend the almost three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, throwing into question Washington’s multibillion-dollar support for Kyiv, which is crucial to its defense.
The Republican said on the campaign trail that he could end the fighting within hours and has indicated he would talk directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has not said how he intends to strike a peace deal on Ukraine or what terms he would propose.
