Tag Archives: State Department

Americans missing in Baghdad kidnapped by Iran-backed militia

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Three U.S. citizens who disappeared last week in Baghdad were kidnapped and are being held by an Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia, two Iraqi intelligence and two U.S. government sources said on Tuesday.

Unknown gunmen seized the three on Friday from a private residence in the southeastern Dora district of Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. They are the first Americans to be abducted in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011.

The U.S. sources said Washington had no reason to believe Tehran was involved in the kidnapping and did not believe the trio were being held in Iran, which borders Iraq.

“They were abducted because they are Americans, not for personal or financial reasons,” one of the Iraqi sources in Baghdad said.

The three men are employed by a small company that is doing work for General Dynamics Corp, under a larger contract with the U.S. Army, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Iraqi government has struggled to rein in the Shi’ite militias, many of which fought the U.S. military following the 2003 invasion and have previously been accused of killing and abducting American nationals.

Baghdad-based analyst Hisham al-Hashemi, who advises the government, said the kidnappings were meant to embarrass and weaken Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is trying to balance his country’s relations with rival powers Iran and the United States.

“The militias are resentful of the success of the army in Ramadi which was achieved with the support of the U.S.-led coalition and without their involvement,” he said.

SECTARIAN TENSIONS

Shi’ite militias were kept out of the battle against Islamic State in Ramadi for fear of aggravating sectarian tensions among the Sunni population in the western city.

Baghdad touted the military’s advance there last month, with backing from coalition airstrikes, as evidence of a resurgent army after it collapsed in 2014.

The State Department said on Sunday it was working with Iraqi authorities to locate Americans reported missing, without confirming they had been kidnapped.

Asked about the kidnapping at the daily U.S. State Department news briefing on Tuesday, spokesman John Kirby said: “The picture is becoming a little bit more clear in terms of what might have happened.” He provided no details.

Kirby declined to say whether Secretary of State John Kerry had contacted Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif about the kidnapping.

Hostility between Tehran and Washington has eased in recent months with the lifting of crippling economic sanctions against Iran in return for compliance with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions and a recent prisoner swap.

However, the United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals on Sunday for supplying Iran’s ballistic missile program.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Zargham in Washington and Maher Chmaytelli in Baghdad; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Advocates puzzled by U.S. response to Central American migrants

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Refugee advocates said on Thursday the Obama administration is sending mixed signals to Central American migrants by deporting families who have fled to the United States while increasing resources in the crime-ridden region for asylum seekers.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States would work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to expand opportunities for people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to apply for refugee status before coming to the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently conducted raids in the United States on Central American families who had fled the region in an effort to deter others from doing the same.

“That frankly leaves us scratching our heads and leaves us wondering how the administration could be talking about the refugee resettlement issue in such different terms,” said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, an advocacy organization for children who enter the U.S. immigration system alone.

Young said the families were not given due process before being deported.

The question of what claim Central Americans fleeing violence have to refugee status in the United States comes amid a polarized national debate about the U.S. immigration system.

Some congressional Republicans have said migrants, including refugees from Central America and the Middle East, could threaten public health and national security. More than 140 Democrats in the U.S. House wrote a letter to President Barack Obama condemning the deportation raids.

Refugee and immigration advocates said the administration’s plan to deport Central Americans from the United States while increasing opportunities for them to seek asylum from their own countries wrongfully assumes that those asking for asylum at the border are a threat.

The asylum application process, which can take two years, is unfeasible for families needing to flee violence quickly, said Jen Smyers, associate director of immigration and refugee policy at Church World Service.

Michelle Brané, director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said the administration’s “border enforcement approach to this issue has been a mistake from the beginning.”

Young said the administration wanted to counter the perception that border is out of control but “I think what they’re going to find out is that the most dangerous political calculation is that the immigrant rights community … are now all unifying and speaking out in strong opposition to this new policy.”

(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Bill Trott)

Government announces new anti-terrorism task force, initiative

The United States government took new steps in the fight against the Islamic State and other extremist groups on Friday, with three separate departments unveiling new measures designed to help stop terrorist organizations from spreading their radical messages to a global audience.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security teamed up to establish a new anti-extremism task force and the State Department created a new Global Engagement Center that will help counter terrorist propaganda, according to news releases from the departments.

“The horrific attacks in Paris and San Bernardino this winter underscored the need for the United States and our partners in the international community and the private sector to deny violent extremists like ISIL fertile recruitment ground,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement about the new efforts, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Price noted the announcement came on the day that top White House and national security officials were meeting with several leading technology companies in California’s Silicon Valley.

Lawmakers and President Barack Obama have publicly called for more to be done to help prevent terrorist organizations from using social media to share information about their actions and messages. In December, George Washington University’s Program on Extremism released a report that said it identified at least 300 Islamic State sympathizers in the United States who spread propaganda or communicated with other “like-minded individuals” on social media.

Following the San Bernardino terrorist attacks, lawmakers proposed legislation that would require social media companies to report any evidence of terrorist activities to the proper authorities. The Department of Justice has said one of the San Bernardino shooters pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State on Facebook on the morning of the deadly rampage.

“Today’s developments reflect President Obama’s commitment to take every possible action to confront and interdict terrorist activities wherever they occur, including online,” Price said in a statement.

The State Department said its Global Engagement Center would “more effectively coordinate, integrate and synchronize” its anti-terrorism communications. The State Department currently runs a social media campaign called “Think Again Turn Away,” that says it offers “truths about terrorism.” Its recent Twitter postings tout victories the United States-led coalition and Iraqi military have scored against ISIS, including killing of 75 terrorists and destroying equipment.

It’s not exactly clear if or how this new effort will differ from the existing campaign.

The State Department’s news release said the Global Engagement Center will “focus more on empowering and enabling partners … who are able to speak out against these groups and provide an alternative to ISIL’s nihilistic vision.” The department said the efforts will center on things like how terrorists treat women and defectors, rather than what the groups publicize.

The Department of Justice said the Countering Violent Extremism Task Force is part of the government’s increased effort “to prevent extremists from radicalizing and mobilizing recruits, especially here at home.” The task force will aim to coordinate the anti-terrorism efforts of a variety of government agencies, bringing officials from the Homeland Security and Justice departments, FBI and National Counterterrorism Center together under one roof.

Pressure grows on China to rein in North Korea; South launches propaganda barrage

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) – South Korea unleashed an ear-splitting propaganda barrage across its border with North Korea on Friday in retaliation for its nuclear test, while the United States called on China to end “business as usual” with its ally.

The broadcasts, in rolling bursts from walls of loudspeakers at 11 locations along the heavily militarized border, blared rhetoric critical of the Pyongyang regime as well as “K-pop” music. North Korea later responded with its own broadcasts.

Wednesday’s nuclear test angered both the United States and China, which was not given prior notice, although the U.S. government and weapons experts doubt Pyongyang’s claim that the device it set off was a hydrogen bomb.

China is North Korea’s main economic and diplomatic backer, although relations between the Cold War allies have cooled in recent years.

China’s Foreign Ministry urged North Korea to stick to its denuclearization pledges and avoid action that would make the situation worse, but also said China did not hold the key to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.

“Achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and safeguarding the peninsula’s peace and stability accords with all parties’ mutual interests, is the responsibility of all parties, and requires all parties to put forth efforts,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing.

The North agreed to end its nuclear program in international negotiations in 2005 but later walked away from the deal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that he had told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China’s approach to North Korea had not succeeded.

“APPROACH HAS NOT WORKED”

“China had a particular approach that it wanted to make, that we agreed and respected to give them space to implement that,” Kerry told reporters after the phone call. “Today, in my conversation with the Chinese, I made it very clear that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual.”

In a call on Friday with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, Wang said talks on the issue should be resumed as soon as possible, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

South Korea’s nuclear safety agency said it had found a minuscule amount of xenon gas in a sample from off its east coast but said more analysis and samples were needed to determine if it came from a nuclear test.

The head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which uses monitoring stations around the world to detect atomic tests, said only “normal” levels of xenon had been detected, at a site in Japan.

“Xenon readings at 1st station downwind of #DPRK test site RN38 Takasaki #Japan at normal concentrations. Sampling continues,” the CTBTO’s executive secretary, Lassina Zerbo, said on Twitter on Friday evening.

The presence of xenon would not indicate whether the blast was from a hydrogen device or a simpler fission explosion.

Seismic waves created by the blast were almost identical to those generated in North Korea’s last nuclear test in 2013, Jeffrey Park, a seismologist at Yale University, wrote in a post on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists website, adding to scepticism about the hydrogen bomb claim.

Meanwhile, South Korea resumed its frontier broadcasts, which the isolated North has in the past threatened to stop with military strikes.

The last time South Korea deployed the loudspeakers, in retaliation for a landmine blast in August that wounded two South Korean soldiers, it led to an exchange of artillery fire.

The sound can carry 10 km (6 miles) into North Korea during the day and more than twice that at night, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported.

BORDER PROPAGANDA

A male announcer could be heard from South Korea telling North Koreans that their leader Kim Jong Un and his wife wear clothes costing thousands of dollars. Another message said Kim’s promises to boost both the economy and the nuclear program were unrealistic.

The North’s broadcasts were not clearly audible from the South and appeared intended to drown out those from the South, Yonhap said, citing a South Korean official.

As North Korea boosted troop deployments in front-line units, the South vowed to retaliate against any attack on its equipment, raised its military readiness to the highest level near the loudspeakers, canceled tours of the Demilitarized Zone on the border, and also raised its cyberattack alert level.

In Washington, the North’s actions appeared to have forged rare unity in the House of Representatives between Republicans and Democrats on tightening sanctions against North Korea.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, told reporters that Democrats would support a North Korea bill likely to be brought for a vote by Republicans next week. A congressional source said it was expected as soon as Monday.

But it is unclear how more sanctions will deter North Korea, which has conducted four nuclear tests since 2006.

The United States and South Korea are limited in their military options. Washington sent a pair of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over South Korea in a show of force after North Korea last tested a nuclear device in 2013.

North Korea responded then by threatening a nuclear strike on the United States.

A South Korean military official said Seoul and Washington had discussed the deployment of U.S. strategic weapons on the Korean peninsula, but declined to give details. Media said the assets could include B-2 and B-52 bombers, and a nuclear-powered submarine.

(Additional reporting by James Pearson, Se Young Lee, Christine Kim, Jee Heun Kahng, Ju-min Park and Jack Kim in SEOUL, Dagyum Ji in GIMPO, Patricia Zengerle, Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu and Arshad Mohammed in WASHINGTON, Tim Kelly in YOKOSUKA and Francois Murphy in VIENNA; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Paul Tait and Kevin Liffey)

California shooter’s visa record shows routine interview, no flags raised

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The record of San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik’s U.S. visa interview in Pakistan shows it was conducted without any obvious irregularities and triggered no significant suspicions, according to a source familiar with the official State Department file.

The apparent lack of anything untoward in Malik’s interview in Pakistan for a K-1 “fiancée” visa that she was subsequently granted underscores the difficulty facing President Barack Obama’s administration as it seeks ways to improve security vetting of visa applicants. Current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the visa vetting process said that even if the interview and security checks had been more stringent, it is unlikely they would have turned up any red flags on Malik.

The one-paragraph interview record, details of which have not previously been reported, cites documents that Malik used to prove her relationship with U.S.-born partner Syed Rizwan Farook, including a photograph of their engagement ceremony, e-mails and financial transfers between them, the source said.

The file shows that Malik told the consular officer who conducted the May 22, 2014 interview that she had met Farook online. The record says Malik correctly specified the date of Farook’s birthday and his job as a food safety inspector – tests to confirm that she genuinely knew him.

It contained no information about her political or religious views. The documents that Malik is believed to have shown to the interviewing officer were not retained in the file, the source said.

The brief interview report does not specify exactly where in Pakistan the interview took place, how long it lasted or the specific questions that Malik was asked.

After being granted the visa, Malik joined Farook in San Bernadino, California, where they married. She subsequently was granted a permanent residence, or Green Card, visa which required an additional security vetting process and an interview in the United States. On Dec. 2, the couple carried out an attack in San Bernadino that killed 14 people and which U.S. officials believe was inspired by the extremist Islamic State group.

Although the primary focus of a K-1 visa process is to authenticate an applicant’s relationship with a U.S. person, it also involves security clearances, including checks with U.S. spy, law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies.

In the wake of the shootings, President Barack Obama ordered a review of the K-1 visa procedure and of a separate program that waives visas for citizens of some countries. The United States issued 35,925 K-1 visas in 2014, and rejected 15,838 applicants, according to State Department data.

A State Department official said that “all required procedures were followed” in Malik’s case, and declined to give further details.

HEAVY VISA WORKLOAD

Several Congressional committees are investigating how Malik was granted her visa in Pakistan and have obtained copies of all or parts of her visa files compiled by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

While the probes are at an early stage, questions have been raised on Capitol Hill about the effectiveness of the visa vetting process and whether it needs to be tightened.

Some lawmakers have asked for the administration’s review to include a requirement that consular officers examine social media postings in vetting security risks.

The State Department said it already employs social media screening on a “case by case” basis and was working with other agencies to expand its use.

In Malik’s case, however, investigators say it appears there was little, if any, suspicious public online activity to find.

Although Malik’s apparent lack of previous militant activity would have made her hard to spot, the apparently routine nature of her interview highlights vulnerabilities in the U.S. vetting system, the current and former U.S. officials said.

U.S. authorities in Pakistan could have — but did not — seek a more extensive background investigation of Malik, which would have sought further details from security agencies in Washington and more on-the-ground checks in Pakistan.

The current and former officials said that consular officers who process applications and interview applicants are often junior and overburdened with casework.

Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst, said the State Department should boost its funding for consular services to allow officers to spend more time examining each application, increasing the likelihood of rejection.

“One cannot expect U.S. consular officers to conduct the equivalent of an FBI background investigation on every visa application; the sheer volume of applications they must review would preclude doing so,” he said.

Jessica Vaughan, a former U.S. diplomat and consular officer now with the Center for Immigration Studies, a group which favors tougher visa enforcement, said that front-line visa officers often favor “customer service” — rapid processing of applications — over thorough background or security checks.

The process could be improved quickly by increasing the number of screeners, undertaking more extensive background checks and making the interviews more rigorous, she said.

Asked whether heavy workloads were undermining the effectiveness of screening, a State Department official said the department has “increased staffing appropriately” to meet a rise in global U.S. visa applications.

(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)

Saudi Arabian Mass Execution Spurs International Outrage

A recent mass execution in Saudi Arabia has spurred international backlash, drawing condemnations from human rights advocates and United States officials while reportedly driving a wedge in diplomatic relations between the kingdom and other Islamic nations.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported that the country had killed 47 people that had been convicted of “terrorist crimes” on Saturday. Among them, according to the report, was Nimr al-Nimr, who the U.S. State Department characterized as an important leader in the Islamic community. His reported execution drew immediate rebuke from Amnesty International, one of the most vocal critics of the death penalty and Saudi Arabia’s seemingly unrelenting use of it.

“Saudi Arabia’s authorities have indicated that the executions were carried out to fight terror and safeguard security.” Philip Luther, the director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, said in a statement. “However, the killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in particular suggests they are also using the death penalty in the name of counter-terror to settle scores and crush dissidents.”

Most of Saudi Arabia aligns with Sunni Islam, a branch that has different teachings than Shia Islam, creating some religious tension. Nimr was a leader in the Shiite minority, Amnesty said.

The group indicated Nimr had criticized Saudi Arabia’s government and was originally arrested for political protests in a traditionally Shiite region in 2011. Amnesty called his trial “political and grossly unfair,” and Luther said executing Nimr and 46 others when there were doubts about the fairness of the country’s criminal proceedings “a monstrous and irreversible injustice.”

It’s not the first time Amnesty has criticized Saudi Arabia’s executions. The group has previously said Saudi Arabia killed at least 151 people in the first 11 months of 2015, its highest such total in 20 years, and Amnesty isn’t alone in speaking out against the country’s use of the death penalty.

“We have previously expressed our concerns about the legal process in Saudi Arabia and have frequently raised these concerns at high levels of the Saudi Government,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement released Saturday. “We reaffirm our calls on the Government of Saudi Arabia to respect and protect human rights, and to ensure fair and transparent judicial proceedings in all cases.”

Kirby said the United States was “particularly concerned” about the death of Nimr.

In the statement, Kirby said the religious leader’s execution “risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced. In this context, we reiterate the need for leaders throughout the region to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions.”

But those calls appeared to be falling on deaf ears.

CNN reported a group of protesters in Iran, which predominantly follows Shia Islam, waged an attack against the Saudi Arabian embassy following the execution. That attack led to Saudi Arabia and three other Muslim nations taking diplomatic actions against Iran, CNN reported.

On Monday, Kirby told a news briefing that the State Department condemned the attack on the embassy and encouraged the countries continue to seek diplomatic solutions to the conflicts.

“We continue to believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations are essential to work through differences,” Kirby told reporters. “Increased friction runs counter to the interests of all those in the international community who support moderation, peace and stability.”

State Department Hosts Muslim Brotherhood

The State Department welcomed Muslim Brotherhood aligned leaders to discuss their ongoing effort to undermine the government of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The group has been seen taking provocative photos during their trip where they are flashing the Islamist group’s four finger hand signal and the posting those photos to social media sites.

The State Department is maintaining a dialogue with the group because of their continued involvement in the Egyptian political spectrum.

“The State Department continues to speak with Muslim Brothers on the assumption that Egyptian politics are unpredictable, and the Brotherhood still has some support in Egypt,” Eric Trager of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy told the Washington Free Beacon. “But when pro-Brotherhood delegations then post photos of themselves making pro-Brotherhood gestures in front of the State Department logo, it creates an embarrassment for the State Department.”

Terrorism expert Patrick Poole said the meeting is an insult to our Egyptian allies.

“What this shows is that the widespread rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East, particularly the largest protests in recorded human history in Egypt on June 30, 2013, that led to Morsi’s ouster, is not recognized by the State Department and the Obama administration,” Poole said.

“This is a direct insult to our Egyptian allies, who are in an existential struggle against the Muslim Brotherhood, all in the pursuit of the mythical ‘moderate Islamists’ who the D.C. foreign policy elite still believe will bring democracy to the Middle East.”