Tag Archives: afghanistan

MSNBC: Trump’s plan to deport Afghan refugees is a national disgrace

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There’s no group more deserving of TPS than the Afghans who are now on the fast track to deportation.

Earlier this month, the United Nations published its latest update on human rights in Afghanistan. Here are a few of the findings: On Feb. 23, 18 people were flogged for “crimes” ranging from homosexuality to extramarital affairs. They then received sentences of between one and five years in prison. On March 3, “Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” agents made a surprise visit to a hospital and ordered staff not to attend women who weren’t accompanied by a male relative. Between Jan. 17 and Feb. 3, 50 men from the Ismaili community were abducted and interrogated on religious subjects. Those who refused to convert to Sunni Islam were beaten and threatened with death.

This is Afghanistan under Taliban rule, and it is where the Trump administration plans to send Afghans who are now living safely in the United States. 

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Americans owe a special debt to our Afghan partners, who served honorably in and alongside our armed forces and trusted the United States to stand by them instead of abandoning their country to the Taliban. The Trump administration’s decision to betray the Afghans who thought they were safe on American soil is an act of supreme cruelty and callousness. Our Afghan friends don’t deserve a one-way ticket back to the theocracy they left behind — they deserve to be Americans.

Opinion | Afghan refugees deserve better than a one-way ticket back to the cruelty they left behind
There’s no group more deserving of TPS than the Afghans who are now on the fast track to deportation.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-ends-afghan-protections-afrikaners-rcna207127

Independent: Trump puts white South Africans on citizenship fast track while rejecting all other refugees: ‘As subtle as an air raid’

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President claims Afrikaners are victims of ‘genocide’ while denying entry to refugees fleeing famine and war

Since taking office, Donald Trump’s administration has virtually shut down refugee admissions and blocked funding for resettlement groups, stranding thousands of people who were granted entry to the United States for humanitarian protections only to have those offers rescinded.

But the president has singled out one specific group of people who will be allowed entry into the United States and appear to be on a fast track to citizenship: white South Africans.

A group of 59 white South Africans admitted to the United States as “refugees” have been “essentially extended citizenship,” Trump said on Monday.

They were greeted by State Department officials on Monday after landing at Washington Dulles International Airport on a taxpayer-funded flight following their fast-tracked refugee vetting process under the administration’s radically reshaped admissions program.

King Donald is welcoming white racists from South Africa as he terminates the refugee status of 530,000 legitimate refugees already in the U.S.

Trump welcomes white South Africans while rejecting all other refugees
President claims Afrikaners are victims of ‘genocide’ while denying entry to refugees fleeing famine and war

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-south-african-citizenship-refugees-b2749548.html

Daily Mail: New FEMA head tells employees who try to block Trump’s agenda: ‘I will run right over you’

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The new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has threatened to ‘run right over’ staff in his department who resist Donald Trump‘s agenda.

David Richardson took over as acting chief at FEMA after previous boss Cameron Hamilton was booted from the role a day after criticizing the president’s plans to abolish the department.

The incoming head, whose title is Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator, was caught on camera issuing the stark warning during a staff meeting on his first day.

‘Don’t get in my way,’ the former US marine told staffers, according to a recording of the speech obtained by CBS News. 

‘I don’t need the full title I just need the authority from the president,’ Richardson continued from behind a presidential-style podium.

‘Obfuscation, delay, undermining. If you’re one of those 20 percent of the people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president’s intent.

‘I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA,’ Richardson said. 

FEMA employees later described the speech to CBS as ‘unhinged’ and ‘terrifying’.

Just another Bully Boi from the Trump agency …

FEMA head threatens to ‘run right over’ those who block Trump’s agenda
David Richardson issued a stark warning to staff on his first day as acting head of FEMA as par of a 17-minute speech to his new employees.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14699677/FEMA-head-david-richardson-warning-staff-Trump-agenda.html

Washington Post: Trump shut out refugees but is making White South Africans an exception

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Federal and Virginia state officials are preparing to receive about 60 White South Africans at Dulles International Airport next week, government documents and emails show.

Months after the Trump administration ground U.S. refugee admissions to a halt, the program meant for people fleeing war or political persecution has restarted — but only for one group: White South Africans.

Plans are underway to fly approximately 60 Afrikaners to Dulles International Airport on a State Department-chartered plane Monday, with federal and Virginia officials preparing to receive them in a ceremonial news conference, according to documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post, as well as three government officials familiar with the preparations.

Real refugees need not apply, but South Africa’s fallen racists are welcomed.

https://archive.is/MMsu5#selection-213.0-224.0

Talking Points Memo: Trump Has Ordered Safeguards Stripped From Procurement As Pentagon Prepares To Spend $1 Trillion

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To summarize, the new executive orders purport not merely to change or improve regulations, but to simply eliminate most of the existing procurement rules developed through years of oversight processes and outside scrutiny. They effectively undo procurement safeguards put in place after tremendous waste was exposed during the Cold War. In their place, the executive orders would elevate certain procedures that allow the government to spend unlimited sums without competition — the so-called “other transactions” process that need not be competed and that circumvents safeguards put in place to protect tax dollars. The Executive Orders say there should be a “first preference” for other transactions processes, which is like having a “first preference” for bringing a pistol with no safety to compete in a boxing match.

It’s all about lining their own pockets. They’ll get a pardon [they hope!] at the end of King Donald’s term and all will be well.

Trump Has Ordered Safeguards Stripped From Procurement As Pentagon Prepares To Spend $1 Trillion
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. The Trump White House this month announced…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-has-ordered-safeguards-stripped-from-procurement-as-pentagon-prepares-to-spend-1-trillion/ar-AA1DLRfe

Guardian: Fears grow that Signal leaks make Pete Hegseth top espionage target

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Experts say Pentagon chief has endangered secrets of US defense department and given assistance to foreign spies

As more develops about the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his repeated disclosures of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats, there are growing concerns his behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and his entourage a top espionage target.

Allies, already concerned by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to see the US as an intelligence-sharing liability. There are fears that the mounting firings and leak inquiries in Hegseth’s orbit, along with his inability to manage these internal crises, exposes the entire global US war footing – especially, if a geopolitical and external crisis comes across his desk.

Fears grow that Signal leaks make Pete Hegseth top espionage target
Experts say Pentagon chief has endangered secrets of US defense department and given assistance to foreign spies

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/23/pete-hegseth-pentagon-espionage

The Handbasket: US “relocates” Iraqi refugee to Rwanda via new diplomatic arrangement

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A State Department cable indicates at least 10 more people will be subjected to the same.

Now the U.S. is dumping refugees in Rwanda:

A US State Department cable was sent from the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 13th with some major news: Rwanda said it was willing to accept deportees from the United States who are unable to be sent to their country of origin for fear of persecution. A copy of the cable reviewed by The Handbasket in March confirmed the news. And now according to a new cable, which has also been reviewed by The Handbasket, the first person has officially been deported from the US to Rwanda via this new arrangement.

The Trump administration’s efforts to deport as many people as possible is loudly and publicly underway, most notably with the 238 men who were sent to El Salvador in March without due process. Unlike those cases, however, the administration has opted to quietly send Iraqi national Omar Abdulsattar Ameen from the US to Rwanda, wherein Rwanda acts as a “third country.” But it remains unclear what legal processes allowed for this to happen.

The cable, sent today—April 22, 2025—confirms Ameen’s “relocation” has already happened.

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/us-rwanda-relocates-iraqi-refugee-omar-ameen

Politico: Military contractors pitch unprecedented prison plan for detained immigrants

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Erik Prince wants to cut a deal to transport detainees from the US to El Salvador.

If you think things can’t get much worse, think again!

Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America.

The proposal, exclusively obtained by POLITICO, says it would target “criminal illegal aliens” and would attempt to avoid legal challenges by designating part of the prison — which has drawn accusations of violence and overcrowding from human rights groups — as American territory.

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The proposal would ultimately put Prince in charge of an extraordinary privatization effort that would use his company to handle logistics, including ferrying tens of thousands of detainees from American holding cells to El Salvador’s prison.

Military contractors pitch unprecedented prison plan for detained immigrants
Erik Prince wants to cut a deal to transport detainees from the US to El Salvador.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/military-contractors-prison-plan-detained-immigrants-erik-prince-00287208

Associated Press: Bondi [Bimbo #3] signals probe into Signal chat is unlikely, despite a long history of similar inquiries

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Even as President Donald Trump insisted “it’s not really an FBI thing,” the reality is that the FBI and Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling — whether intentional or negligent — of national defense information like the kind shared on Signal, a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications but is not approved for classified information.

The Justice Department has broad discretion to open an investigation, though Attorney General Pam Bondi, who introduced Trump at a Justice Department event this month, signaled at an unrelated news conference on Thursday that she was disinclined to do so. She repeated Trump administration talking points that the highly sensitive information in the chat was not classified, though current and former U.S. officials have said the posting of the exact launch times of aircraft and times that bombs would be released before those pilots were even in the air would have been classified.

Bondi signals probe into Signal chat is unlikely, despite a long history of similar inquiries
FBI Director Kash Patel may not have been part of a Signal chat in which other Trump administration national security officials discussed detailed attack plans.

Pam Bondi signals probe into Signal chat is unlikely | AP News

Daily Mail: Pete Hegseth unwittingly reveals controversial new tattoo

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Creepy!

    The new tattoo revealed in the video features the Arabic word ‘kafir,’ which in the Quran means ‘disbeliever’ or ‘infidel’ and is inked below hegseth’s ‘Deus Vult’ tattoo. 

    The discovery sparked anger from activists who are already infuriated about his tattoos featuring Christian and American images. 

    ‘Hegseth just got a kafir (كافر) tattoo under his Deus Vult tattoo—a Crusader slogan. This isn’t just a personal choice; it’s a clear symbol of Islamophobia from the man overseeing U.S. wars,’ wrote Nerdeen Kiswani, a pro-Palestinian activist in New York City on social media. 

    Kiswani described the tattoos as the ‘normalization of Islamophobia at the highest levels of power.’ 

    Others on social media felt similarly about the tattoo.

    ‘The كافر/kafir tattoo in the Quran means disbeliever,’ wrote writer Tam Hussein on X. ‘To the Muslim world the tattoo will be seen as an open declaration of Hegseth’s enmity towards them.’

    Pete Hegseth unwittingly reveals controversial new tattoo
    Eagle-eyed observers of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tapestry of tattoos noticed a never-seen-before Arabic script underneath his arm.

    Pete Hegseth unwittingly reveals controversial new tattoo | Daily Mail Online