| With wall, Trump begins reset of America's role since World War II Posted: 25 Jan 2017 05:31 PM PST Dubbing it a "big day for national security," President Trump took steps Wednesday to rein in immigration and harden America's borders – notably by ordering the "immediate" construction of the wall that was the signature pledge of his campaign. The executive order begins to cast his "America First" campaign slogan in brick-and-mortar reality. In doing so, Mr. Trump signaled his intention to pursue the idea that higher walls and stronger borders – not global engagement – best enhances national security. |
| Trump to order plan for Syria 'safe zones': document Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:51 PM PST  By Julia Edwards Ainsley and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is expected to order the Pentagon and the State Department in coming days to craft a plan for setting up "safe zones" for refugees in Syria, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday, a move that could risk escalation of U.S. military involvement in Syria's civil war. The draft executive order awaiting Trump's signature signaled the new administration may be preparing a step that his predecessor Barack Obama long resisted, fearing the potential for being pulled deeper into the bloody conflict and the threat of clashes between U.S. and Russian warplanes over Syria.
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| Trump Targets Sanctuary Cities, Promises Border Wall in Executive Orders Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:45 PM PST  The orders will increase the number of border patrol enforcement officers and lay the groundwork for building a wall on the border with Mexico. According to Trump, the moves will be beneficial to both the U.S. and Mexico. "We are going to save lives on both sides of the border, and we also understand that a strong and healthy economy in Mexico is very good for the United States," he said.
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| Trump moves ahead with wall, puts stamp on U.S. immigration, security policy Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:44 PM PST  By Julia Edwards Ainsley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall and punishment for cities shielding illegal immigrants while mulling restoring a CIA secret detention program as he launched broad but divisive plans to reshape U.S. immigration and national security policy. A draft executive order seen by Reuters that Trump is expected to sign in the coming days would block the entry of refugees from war-torn Syria and suspend the entry of any immigrants from Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and African countries Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen while permanent rules are studied. Less than a week into his presidency, Trump has moved aggressively to put his stamp on a range of policies, including steps to gut the healthcare system devised by his predecessor, and make clear that as president he is not turning toward more moderate positions than he took as a candidate.
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| Draft order would halt refugee processing for Syrians Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:30 PM PST  A draft executive order obtained by The Associated Press shows that President Donald Trump intends to stop accepting Syrian refugees and suspend the United States' broader refugee program for 120 days. ...
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| Factbox - 70 years of the 'special relationship' between the United States and Britain Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:11 PM PST British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet new U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday seeking to reinvigorate what London views as the two countries' "special relationship". May, the first foreign leader to visit Trump, aims to forge closer ties with the United States as Britain leaves the European Union. |
| U.S. Congress member met with Assad in Syria, discussed peace: CNN Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:09 PM PST  Democratic U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard said on Wednesday she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and discussed the possibility of achieving peace. The Hawaii Democrat told CNN in an interview that during her four-day visit, she wanted to get a first-hand view of the suffering of the Syrian people.
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| Trump says torture works as his government readies a review Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:05 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Wednesday he believes torture works as his administration readied a sweeping review of how America conducts the war on terror. It includes possible resumption of banned interrogation methods and reopening CIA-run "black site" prisons outside the United States.
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| Former Baghdad conductor's music is his message for unity Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:00 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — When a bomb tore through a restaurant or business in Baghdad, Karim Wasfi and his cello would often appear with the urgency of a medic to promote his message of healing through music.
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| Trump to order plan for Syria 'safe zones': document Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:59 PM PST  By Julia Edwards Ainsley and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is expected to order the Pentagon and the State Department in coming days to craft a plan for setting up "safe zones" for refugees in Syria, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday, a move that could risk escalation of U.S. military involvement in Syria's civil war. The draft executive order awaiting Trump's signature signaled the new administration may be preparing a step that his predecessor Barack Obama long resisted, fearing the potential for being pulled deeper into the bloody conflict and the threat of clashes between U.S. and Russian warplanes over Syria.
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| Rights advocates slam Trump plans on Muslim immigrants, refugees Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:48 PM PST  By Daniel Trotta NEW YORK (Reuters) - Immigrant and refugee advocates on Wednesday denounced White House plans to temporarily stop receiving refugees and suspend visas for people from seven Middle Eastern and North African countries, saying they target Muslims and will make America less safe. A draft executive order seen by Reuters that Trump is expected to sign in the coming days would block the entry of refugees from war-torn Syria and suspend the entry of any immigrants from Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and African countries Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen while permanent rules are studied.
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| Hawaii Rep. Gabbard met with Syria's Assad during trip Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:26 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional Democrat just back from a weeklong trip to Syria defended her meeting with the war-torn country's president, saying Wednesday there's no possibility of a viable peace agreement unless Bashar Assad is part of the conversation.
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| US lawmaker says she met Assad on secret Syria trip Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:20 PM PST  The US congresswoman who made a recent secret trip to war-torn Syria said Wednesday she met there with President Bashar al-Assad as part of her effort to end the years-long conflict. House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard this month traveled to Damascus and the decimated city of Aleppo on a fact-finding mission, where she met with refugees, Syrian opposition leaders and relatives of fighters on both sides of the divide, in addition to Assad. "Originally, I had no intention of meeting with Assad, but when given the opportunity, I felt it was important to take it," Gabbard said in a statement.
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| U.S. Congress member met with Assad in Syria, discussed peace: CNN Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:11 PM PST  Democratic U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard said on Wednesday she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and discussed the possibility of achieving peace. The Hawaii Democrat told CNN in an interview that during her four-day visit, she wanted to get a first-hand view of the suffering of the Syrian people.
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| Trump orders construction of border wall and dramatic measures to block illegal immigration Posted: 25 Jan 2017 02:47 PM PST  President Trump signed a pair of executive orders on Wednesday stepping up immigration enforcement efforts and calling for "the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border." Trump touted the actions in a speech at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday afternoon. In his speech, Trump argued that the U.S. is "in the middle of a crisis on our southern border" owing to "the unprecedented surge of illegal migrants from Central America" and drug cartel activity.
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| A look at President Donald Trump's immigration actions Posted: 25 Jan 2017 02:36 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump began rolling out a series of measures on immigration on Wednesday, signing executive actions calling for construction of a border wall and stripping support for so-called sanctuary cities. More announcements are expected in the coming days.
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| Brussels attackers also planned kidnappings Posted: 25 Jan 2017 02:35 PM PST  The jihadists behind the Paris and Brussels terror attacks had planned to kidnap well-known figures in a bid to trade them for their brethren jailed in Belgium, media outlets reported Wednesday. Investigators came to the conclusion after discovering a recorded conversation in a laptop found in a dustbin in the Brussels neighbourhood of Schaerbeek, from where the perpetrators of the March 22 attack on the Belgian capital's airport had left, public broadcasters RTBF and VRT reported. The conversation was between an Islamic State group jihadist in Syria and Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, who blew themselves up at the airport, and Khalid El Bakraoui, a suicide bomber who attacked the Maelbeek metro station.
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| The Latest: Former intelligence officer picked to lead Navy Posted: 25 Jan 2017 02:30 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):
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| Why Iraq Needs the Oil Posted: 25 Jan 2017 01:52 PM PST On his first full day in office, Donald Trump stood before the CIA's Memorial Wall, which commemorates the agency's fallen officers, and railed against the media, boasted about the size of his inauguration-ceremony crowd, and took the opportunity to restate his conviction that "we should have kept the oil" in Iraq—a reference to America's apparent failure to claim the country's fossil fuels as its own following the 2003 invasion and subsequent war. "Maybe we'll have another chance," he mused, drawing laughter, reportedly from his own staffers in the room. But there is nothing amusing about Trump's proposal, originally aired on the campaign trail and dismissed as something between a pipe dream and a war crime. |
| Trump's first acts -- from 'Patriotic Devotion' day to a border wall Posted: 25 Jan 2017 01:42 PM PST  "When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice," Trump said in his inaugural speech. - Trump signs his first decree targeting Obama's signature healthcare reform, commanding government offices to grant all possible exemptions to limit the "economic and regulatory burden" of the law, as a prelude to full repeal. - Trump announces he will begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Accord (NAFTA) with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.
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| Religious organizations condemn Trump’s expected orders on refugees Posted: 25 Jan 2017 01:36 PM PST  Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders gathered at the national headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to condemn expected orders by President Trump that would stop the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States and impose travel restrictions on visitors from several other Muslim countries.
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| Keep out! Ten of world's top walls Posted: 25 Jan 2017 01:31 PM PST  In 2016 that number had grown to 66, according to researcher Elisabeth Vallet of the University of Quebec. As US President Donald Trump took the first step Wednesday towards fulfilling his pledge to build a wall along the Mexican border, here are some of most recent and significant frontier barriers from around the globe. -- Hungary: Facing Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II, Hungary's right-wing government built a 110-mile (177-kilometre) fence along its border with Serbia last September, followed by one along its border with Croatia.
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| Government bites back: Civil servants troll Trump, leak info Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:58 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Across the government, an unprecedented digital insurrection is taking shape.
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| Trump orders building of Mexico border wall, targets U.S. 'sanctuary' cities Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:33 PM PST By Julia Edwards Ainsley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump signed directives on Wednesday to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and strip funding from cities that shield illegal immigrants as he charged ahead with sweeping and divisive plans to transform how the United States deals with immigration and national security. The Republican president is expected to take additional steps in the coming days to limit legal immigration, including executive orders restricting refugees and blocking the issuing of visas to people from several Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and North African countries including Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen. The intent of those proposals is to head off Islamist violence in the United States, although critics have said it soils America's reputation as a welcoming place for immigrants of all stripes. |
| Here's Who Could Be the Most Powerful Player on Trump's Team Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:31 PM PST  It is probably too early and too strong to say that parallel governments are emerging in Washington – one disturbing, the other reassuring – but in its first week, the Trump administration is showing two faces. On one side of the Potomac, there is the never-ending carnival that took the crazy train from Trump Tower to the White House: Kellyanne Conway spouts "alternative facts" and Sean Spicer plays the calliope as the stream-of-consciousness barker goes on about mounting an investigation into how the "illegals" cost him the election, about crowd size at the inauguration, about going back into Iraq to snatch the oil, about "TheWall" and about whatever else pops into his presidential head. On the other side, newly installed Defense Secretary James Mattis, the former Marine general whom some conservatives once talked about as a candidate to challenge Donald Trump, has hit the ground running like a gung-ho recruit on Parris Island.
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| Prosecutor urges Arizona man's conviction for Islamic State support Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:08 PM PST  A federal prosecutor on Wednesday urged jurors to convict an Arizona man who she said played a vital role in helping a New York college student travel to Syria, where he died fighting for Islamic State. Tekeei said the Egyptian-born Phoenix resident shared his support in encrypted messages with Samy Mohammed El-Goarany, a 24-year-old student at Baruch College in Manhattan, who like El Gammal had become "obsessed" with Islamic State.
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| White House does not rule out registering or deporting people from countries that have ‘a propensity to do us harm’ Posted: 25 Jan 2017 11:21 AM PST White House press secretary Sean Spicer would not say on Wednesday whether President Trump's executive order curbing immigration from "terror prone" countries could include measures to deport or register people from those nations who are already inside the United States. The executive order will reportedly limit access to the country for visa holders and refugees from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Spicer said the White House would reveal "further information" about the executive order later this week. |
| CAIR Issues Statement on Trump's Planned 'Muslim Ban' Executive Orders Posted: 25 Jan 2017 11:11 AM PST WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic-Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today issued a statement in reaction to executive orders expected to be signed by President Donald Trump restricting immigration from a number of Middle Eastern and African countries.WATCH: Full CAIR News Conferencehttps://www.facebook. ... |
| Trump set to move on Mexican border wall Posted: 25 Jan 2017 10:34 AM PST  US President Donald Trump will take a first step toward fulfilling his pledge to "build a wall" on the Mexican border Wednesday, as he rolls out a series of immigration-related decrees. The White House said Trump will make the announcements during a visit to the Department of Homeland Security in the afternoon. Among many other things, we will build the wall!" Trump tweeted late Tuesday.
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| Rowboats and missiles in war of attrition on Iraq front line Posted: 25 Jan 2017 09:17 AM PST By Michael Georgy MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi rapid response forces take up positions on the roof of a house as their Islamic State enemies plot their next move along the front line between east and west Mosul. Sometimes the militants row small boats across the Tigris River at night to stage surprise attacks, or they fire mortar bombs that can rattle whole neighborhoods. Both sides are waging a war of attrition as government forces, who have retaken most of east Mosul over the past three months, prepare to push into the west of the city. |
| Hundreds of families leave Iraq camps for Mosul return Posted: 25 Jan 2017 09:16 AM PST  Hundreds of families who fled Mosul last year left displacement camps Wednesday to head back to their homes, in the biggest wave yet of returns to the city, officials said. Displaced Mosul residents hurled bags and foam mattresses into vans and onto buses, many smiling as they prepared to forsake a place they often first reached scared, hungry and exhausted. Iraqi forces recently completed their recapture of eastern Mosul, which tens of thousands of people had fled since the October 17 start of a massive offensive against the Islamic State (IS) group.
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| Factbox: 70 years of the 'special relationship' between the United States and Britain Posted: 25 Jan 2017 08:48 AM PST British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet new U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday seeking to reinvigorate what London views as the two countries' "special relationship". May, the first foreign leader to visit Trump, aims to forge closer ties with the United States as Britain leaves the European Union. |
| Yazidi refugees languish in policy spat after IS attacks Posted: 25 Jan 2017 08:31 AM PST  AGIOS ATHANASIOS, Greece (AP) — As a member of a persecuted minority in Iraq, 24-year-old Shaker Mahie has seen his people massacred, raped and scattered across a new continent. Now, the Yazidi — whose faith is older than Christianity — are at the center of a new European dilemma.
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| Islamic State extending attacks beyond Sinai to Egyptian heartland Posted: 25 Jan 2017 08:30 AM PST  By Ali Abdelaty and Ahmed Aboulenein CAIRO (Reuters) - "Wanted" was emblazoned across photographs posted online by Islamic State. Files bearing Islamic State logo showed faces of Egyptian military and police officers, alongside names, addresses, and ranks, urging followers to hunt them down and kill them. Coupled with the group's highest profile attack outside Sinai, the bombing of Cairo's Coptic Christian cathedral in December which killed 28, the online campaign shows that the group has extended operations to the rest of Egypt, a key U.S. ally seen as a bulwark against Islamist militancy in the region.
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| Trump's top defense and homeland officials to attend Munich Security Conference Posted: 25 Jan 2017 06:45 AM PST  U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Homeland Security chief John Kelly will attend the Munich Security Conference in February, and the event's organizers said on Wednesday they expect other senior U.S. officials to attend also. Mattis and Kelly were confirmed in their posts just days ago, following President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer had invited Trump to visit Munich - and possibly the annual security conference - shortly after his election in November, although U.S. presidents have not attended the event in the past.
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| Islamic State fighters redeploy in west Mosul after Iraqi forces take east Posted: 25 Jan 2017 06:39 AM PST  By Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters have taken up sniper positions in buildings on the west bank of the Tigris river ahead of an expected government offensive into that side the city, locals said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday his forces had taken complete control of eastern Mosul, and the commander of the campaign to retake Islamic State's last major stronghold in Iraq has said preparations to cross the Tigris are under way. IS fighters have moved in recent days into Mosul's main medical complex made up of a dozen buildings located between two of the city's five bridges - positions that can be used for observation and sniper fire, local residents told Reuters.
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| Belgium holds seven in hunt for returning Syria militants Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:49 AM PST Security officers detained seven people in Brussels on Wednesday as part of an investigation into whether militants were returning from Syria, prosecutors said. "The investigation relates to the issue of possible returning Syria fighters," federal prosecutors said in a statement. Europeans fighting alongside jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq have become a major source of concern for European authorities. |
| As dust of war settles, east Mosul buries its dead anew Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:14 AM PST  "We buried them under the orange trees," said Abdulrahman, 18. Iraqi forces have in recent days completed their reconquest of eastern Mosul, a key step in the battle to retake the country's second city from the Islamic State group. Many of those killed in the fighting had to be hastily buried in improvised plots -- like Abdulrahman's family -- and now many residents are looking to hold proper reburials.
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| Trump's talk of keeping Iraq's oil sparking concerns Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:27 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — No one knows how seriously to take President Donald Trump's threat to seize Iraq's oil.
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