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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFight Them Over There, Redux: Obama: European jihadists threaten US
Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama warned that "battle-hardened" Europeans who embrace jihad in Syria and Iraq threaten the United States because their passports mean they can enter the country without a visa.
Nearly 800 French citizens have spent time fighting in Syria's civil war, according to latest estimates, and Belgium says 200 of its people have done the same. Britain puts its number at 400.
Those holding French, Belgian and British passports -- along with a host of other European countries -- do not need visas to visit the United States, meaning they can potentially avoid scrutiny.
"We have seen Europeans sympathetic to their (militants') cause traveling into Syria and may now travel into Iraq, getting battle-hardened. Then they come back," Obama warned in an interview that aired Sunday on the US broadcaster ABC.
These combatants "have a European passport. They don't need visas to get into the United States," he told "This Week."
"Now, we are spending a lot of time, and we have been for years, making sure we are improving intelligence to respond to that.
"We have to improve our surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence there. Special forces are going to have a role. And there are going to be times where we take strikes against organizations that could do us harm."
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-european-jihadists-threaten-us-172036736.html
Obama continuing the Bush-Lite Doctrine.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)Threatening truth, justice, and the American way!
We must not let this stand!
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)and clamp down on social media that promote and recruit them.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Terrorists coming into US post a national threat...another "9/11" and so we must drone them.
Yet...we are told bulk collection of all our data in cooperation with Great Britain and France is keeping us safe.
So...then why wouldn't we know who these "jihadists" are already and monitoring them if they do choose to come into the USA. France and GB certainly know who they are.
Pre-Emptive Doctrine and funding "jihadists" (or whatever name we give them when it suits our purpose) is what causes us to be on constant terror alert.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)We've heard regime change. We've heard fight over there. We've heard the spread of radicalism. We've heard the ties to al-qaeda. Rinse and repeat.
tritsofme
(17,377 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)I am trying to keep track of the propaganda.
To be absolutely clear: I do not support pre-emption. He is saying, there will be times when we will take action against those who "could" harm us. That is simply not enough to engage the US military. I didn't support it when bush did it, I don't support Obama when he does it. And, he has done is quite a bit (Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia).
I think this present build up to military action in Iraq is a difference only of degree, not of kind, as what Bush did. It is unnecessary and will only make things worse for Iraqis and the US. Not to mention the loss of life that will result and the money that will be spent on killing rather than on people in need, especially here in the US.