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FOCUS | The Xenophobe Party |
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Tuesday, 23 April 2013 11:37 |
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"Immigration reform is not about national security, in any event. It's about doing what's right, and giving the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in America - many of them here for years, working at jobs and paying withholding taxes, and many of them children - a path to citizenship."
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
The Xenophobe Party
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
23 April 13
 he xenophobia has already begun.
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today urged him to reconsider immigration legislation because of the bombings in Boston. "The facts emerging in the Boston Marathon bombing have exposed a weakness in our current system," Paul writes. "If we don't use this debate as an opportunity to fix flaws in our current system, flaws made even more evident last week, then we will not be doing our jobs."
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), senior Republican senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for an immigration reform bill, is using much the same language – suggesting that the investigation of two alleged Boston attackers will "help shed light on the weaknesses of our system."
Can we just get a grip? Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a naturalized American citizen. He came to the United States when he was nine years old. He attended the public schools of Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from where I lived.
Immigration reform is not about national security, in any event. It's about doing what's right, and giving the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in America - many of them here for years, working at jobs and paying withholding taxes, and many of them children - a path to citizenship.
It's about making sure they aren't exploited by employers and others who know they won't complain to authorities. And giving their families the security of knowing that they can live peacefully and securely without fearing deportation.
That path shouldn't be so easy as to invite others from abroad to abuse the system, and the nation has every right to demand that undocumented immigrants pay a penalty and move to the back of the queue when it comes to attaining citizenship. But the path should be reasonable, straightforward, and fair.
Other Republicans want President Obama to declare the surviving Boston bombing suspect an "enemy combatant," in order to question him without any of the protections of the criminal justice system.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says treating him as an enemy combatant is appropriate "with his radical Islamist ties and the fact that Chechens are all over the world fighting with Al Qaeda."
Hold it. Tsarnaev was arrested on American soil for acts occurring in the United States. No known evidence links him to Al Qaeda. He is Muslim - so is Graham really saying Muslims are presumed guilty until proven otherwise?
During the Bush administration, the Supreme Court upheld the indefinite military detention of Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen. But he was captured carrying a weapon on an Afghanistan battlefield, and the Court said the purpose of wartime detention was to keep captured enemies from returning to fight, and that "indefinite detention for the purpose of interrogation is not authorized."
Memo to the Xenophobe Party: The so-called "war on terror" is a war without end. If we arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without trials, without lawyers, and without the protection of our system of justice, because we suspect they have ties with terrorists, where will that end?
Our civil rights and liberties lie at the core of what it means to be an American, and we have fought for over two centuries to protect and defend them.
The horror of the Boston Marathon is real. But the xenophobic fears it has aroused are not. I would have hoped United States senators felt an obligation to calm public passions than pander to them.
We need immigration reform, and we must protect our civil liberties. These goals are not incompatible with protecting America. Indeed, they are essential to it.
Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
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Chechen Jihadis Reject Tsarnaevs (OSC) |
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Tuesday, 23 April 2013 09:16 |
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Cole writes: "Judging by Dzhokhar Tsarnayev's VKontakte page, he appears to be far from the image of an 'Islamic terrorist.' He described career and money as his main credo. And besides, he had visited his page on the Russian social networking site literally just a few hours ago."
Juan Cole; public intellectual, prominent blogger, essayist and professor of history. (photo: Informed Comment)
Chechen Jihadis Reject Tsarnaevs (OSC)
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment
23 April 13
The USG Open Source Center translates a reaction from the Caucasus Emirate Islamic insurgency on the news that the Tsarnaev brothers are accused of the Boston Marathon bombing. The CEII casts doubt on their guilt and also on the plausibility that these are jihadis, given their internet profiles at Russian-language sites. It does not claim them. For more on the CEII, see this 2011 article at the Middle East Policy Council
Chechen jihadist website reacts to identification of Boston bombers
Kavkaz-Tsentr
Friday, April 19, 2013
Document Type: OSC Translated Text
ext of a report in Russian by Chechen rebel internet news agency Kavkaz-Tsentr; subheading inserted editorially
The story of the Boston bombings is gaining greater and greater prominence. After the US government announced the suspects to be two natives of Dagestan, apparently, ethnic Chechens Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnayev, interest in the Russian mass media in the Boston bombing grew sharply.
Articles are coming out one after another with various types of allusions, and several commentators have begun to mockingly poke at the USA with their profuse talk: "Look, now (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Syrian President Bashar al-) Asad are laughing at the USA, which is supporting the terrorists in Syria."
Meanwhile, the story of the brothers itself remains very complicated, although it is hard not to miss the PR component of all of this.
For example, the name of one of the "terrorists", who is by the way only 19 years old, as if it was ordered, is Dzhokhar [Ar. Jawhar, i.e. gem, essence, also a 20th Chechen nationalist], an easily recognizable "brand" that explicitly ties the "perpetrators of the terrorist act" in Boston to Chechnya.
… It is still not clear what happened with Tamerlan Tsarnayev, why did the shoot-out start. Reports that the brothers attacked the police, stole a car and did many other things, rather than lay low and wait, seem strange at the very least.
The US authorities have said that they are searching for the surviving 19-year-old youth.
Blast suspects' background
By the way, about the brothers. They practically did not live in Chechnya, and the younger one was actually born in Kyrgyzstan. From there they immigrated to the USA. Judging by Dzhokhar Tsarnayev's VKontakte page, he appears to be far from the image of an "Islamic terrorist". He described career and money as his main credo. And besides, he had visited his page on the Russian social networking site literally just a few hours ago.
On the website of the Cambridge School (Cambridge Rindge & Latin School), where Tsarnayev studied, says that in February 2011 he won the title of "athlete of the month". Such famous people as (actors) Ben Affleck and Matt Damon graduated from this educational institute.
As for his older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnayev, as it became known, started training to become a boxer and was preparing to become a member of the US Olympic team.
According to his personal statements, had Chechnya not received independence, he would try to become a member of the US team rather than the Russian team. This information is included in the profile of the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts centre, where he was training to become a boxer.
Tsarnayev's photo gallery also says the same. He said that he would sooner become a member of the US team than the Russian team. The boxer added that so far he could not make it to the national team, because he did not have US citizenship, but he hoped to receive it in the future.
During his conversation with a photographer, the sportsman said that he was ready to become a member of the Chechen team only if it (Chechnya) becomes independent.
Tamerlan Tsarnayev had been living in the USA since he was five years old. He studied engineering at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston.
The Americans found his YouTube page, where he accumulated videos that he liked. It is interesting that one of the videos that Tamerlan Tsarnayev liked was "how I converted to Islam and become a Shi'a".
The Americans have already concluded that Tamerlan could be linked to "Al-Qa'ida". Apart from the video on Islam, one of the videos was devoted to the Black Flag anarchist organization. According to the Mother Jones portal, Al-Qa'ida was the alleged protector of the member of the Black Flag.
Meanwhile, foreign correspondents trying to phone Chechnya have reported that (Chechen leader Ramzan) Kadyrov's spokesperson had turned off his phone. He did not want to speak with journalists about the Boston events.
There is one interesting detail. The Economist's Moscow correspondent, Joshua Yaffa, recalled that earlier this week, Putin's Sport Minister (Vitaliy Mutko) said that the blast in Boston was a wake-up call for the upcoming (2014) Olympics in Sochi. This is yet another linkage with "terrorists in the Caucasus".
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Why Boehner Will Betray His Base on Immigration |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=10204"><span class="small">Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine</span></a>
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Tuesday, 23 April 2013 09:14 |
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Chait writes: "Conservatives are using the Boston terror attacks as a pretext to delay reform. Boehner rejected that argument this morning. ('Primarily, I'm in the camp of, if we fix our immigration system, it may actually help us understand who all's here, why they're here, and what legal status they have.')"
Speaker of the House U.S. Rep John Boehner answers reporters' questions during a news conference on the payroll tax vote on December 19, 2011. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Why Boehner Will Betray His Base on Immigration
By Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
23 April 13
 mmigration reform is not like gun control. Gun control popped suddenly onto the national agenda, and nothing about it made Republicans think they had to alter their stance. On immigration, Republicans fretted since the GOP primary that the party was alienating the growing Latino electorate in a way that fundamentally threatened the party's national competitiveness.
There will be a fight within the Republican Party over whether to accept immigration reform, and the fight will take place inside the House of Representatives. But it's a fight the pro-reform side is likely to win.
The portents are everywhere. Republican consultants are explaining their consensus belief that the party simply has to take immigration policy off the table in order to have any chance to reach Latino voters. "I think you're seeing a pretty concerted effort … to try to put this issue behind us" said one. Opponents are losing heart. "There are some people who lost their will to fight this fight," one conservative talk show host conceded to the New York Times, "They think they've lost it already and they've sort of thrown in the towel, including my fellow radio hosts." Paul Ryan is appearing with Luis Guittierrez today to discuss immigration reform, and is praising the Senate's Gang of Eight plan. Arch-conservative Jeff Flake has endorsed reform.
The key to the whole process is John Boehner. The House Speaker's control of the legislative process will dictate whether immigration reform lives or dies. In the short run, opponents hope to drag out the debate as long as possible, ginning up public opposition and putting the always-ugly legislative process on bright public display, as they did to the Obama agenda in 2009-2010. Robert Costa has a must-read report explaining the conservative plan to use delay to kill the bill:
Several sources close to the leadership say that even if the Senate passes something on immigration, the bill will be immediately sent to the committees, and then either sent back to the Senate with changes, or rewritten in a bicameral conference committee. This means that the chance of the Senate's Gang of Eight bill coming to the House floor, as is, is nearly non-existent. House Republicans would first have to mull it, schedule hearings, and then tinker with its legislative language.
That tweaking process could take months
Months! That sounds fun. But here is the problem. The whole point of immigration reform for Republicans - other than, you know, helping people, which no doubt moves them very deeply - is to rebrand the party. A drawn-out immigration debate commanding center stage will simply create more opportunities for conservative Republicans to say offensive things about Latinos. And make no doubt: however diligently their consultants coach them not to, they will say offensive things about Latinos. So far we've had one Republican member call undocumented immigrants "wetbacks" and another publicly muse that some of them may be secret Al Qaeda agents.
And we've only just begun! A whole summer of this stuff could drive the Democratic share of the Latino vote into the 80s.
The main question is whether a bill that passes the Senate, which seems highly probable, can get a vote in the House. If it does, it can probably pass, with mostly Democratic votes and a handful of Republicans. Will Boehner let that bill come to a vote? Costa quotes a Republican insider, who tells him, "All of the conservatives, they think they have frozen Boehner; he's in their pocket." On the other hand, the pro-reform contingent thinks he will allow a bipartisan vote. Roll Call reports, "Even while they say there is no explicit commitment from Boehner, members and aides who are part of or close to the bipartisan group seem to have confidence, even cockiness, that Boehner secretly has their back."
And so the biggest tell so far may be Boehner's comments today. Conservatives are using the Boston terror attacks as a pretext to delay reform. Boehner rejected that argument this morning. ("Primarily, I'm in the camp of, if we fix our immigration system, it may actually help us understand who all's here, why they're here, and what legal status they have.")
Boehner has to tread a careful path here, not alienating conservati8ves to the point where they depose him as Speaker. But Boehner can tell which way the wind is blowing.
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Courageous Senators Stand Up to American People |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=9160"><span class="small">Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker</span></a>
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Monday, 22 April 2013 13:00 |
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Borowitz writes: "In the halls of the United States Senate, dozens of Senators congratulated themselves today for having what one of them called 'the courage and grit to stand up to the overwhelming wishes of the American people.'"
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 04/09/13. (photo: Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
Courageous Senators Stand Up to American People
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
22 April 13
The following article by Andy Borowitz is satire.
n the halls of the United States Senate, dozens of Senators congratulated themselves today for having what one of them called "the courage and grit to stand up to the overwhelming wishes of the American people."
"We kept hearing, again and again, that ninety per cent of the American people wanted us to vote a certain way," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). "Well, at the end of the day, we decided that we weren't going to cave in to that kind of special-interest group."
"It was a gut check, for sure, but we had to draw a line in the sand," agreed Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S. Carolina). "If we had voted the way the American people wanted us to, it would have sent the message that we're here in Washington to be nothing more than their elected representatives."
Calling yesterday's Senate action "a bipartisan effort," Senator Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) said, "This proves that on a matter that affects the safety of every man, woman, and child in the nation, we can reach across the aisle to defy the interests of all of them."
Senator McConnell agreed that yesterday's vote "sent a powerful message," adding, "If the American people think that just because they voted us into office and pay our salaries, benefits, and pensions, we are somehow obliged to listen to them, they are sorely mistaken."
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zhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, was charged today with using a weapon of mass destruction. It's yet another circumstance where the legal and colloquial definitions of "weapon of mass destruction" are at odds.
