Convicted terrorist from Syria again granted asylum in Austria

A Syrian who fled to Austria and was convicted of membership in a terrorist organisation successfully appealed against the revocation of his asylum status. It is yet another case of a convicted terrorist who cannot be deported from Austria.

The Syrian G. M., who was convicted of membership of a terrorist organisation, was granted asylum again on the basis of a decision by the Federal Administrative Court. Previously, the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) in Styria had refused asylum to the Syrian refugee because of his terrorist background. It is another case of a refugee convicted of terrorism who successfully appealed against his deportation.

Only a month ago, eXXpress reported on an Iraqi who, as a secret agent of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS), had handed over numerous people to the IS henchmen. He was unmasked in Austria and had to serve a prison sentence of several years. He also succeeded in preventing his deportation and getting a further toleration in the country. It is becoming more and more apparent that such incidents are not isolated cases.

The Syrian-born G. M. was initially granted asylum at the beginning of 2015. But when it turned out that he had previously fought as a sniper alongside the Al-Nusra Front – a Syrian offshoot of Al-Qaeda that later became part of IS – he was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in November 2016. The fact that he had fought in Syria while still a teenager may have been a factor in his exoneration. In any case, he was released on parole in 2017 at the age of 20.G. M. then appealed against the revocation of his asylum status by the BFA Steiermark. With success. The Federal Administrative Court ruled in his favour this year. Since then, G. M. is once again entitled to asylum. The Federal Administrative Court emphasised to eXXpress: “After conducting an oral hearing and extensive evaluation of the evidence, the Federal Administrative Court came to the conclusion that the reasons for the decision presented in the decision of the BFA are not sufficient for a withdrawal of the asylum status due to the current legal situation and the jurisprudence of the highest courts. The BFA can appeal against this decision to the Administrative Court.

One consequence of the current legal situation and legal interpretation by the Constitutional and Administrative Courts is: convicted terrorists can still be granted asylum, but even if their asylum status is revoked – as in the case of the Iraqi who spied for IS – it is not possible to deport them in some cases. This increasingly irritates not only locals, but also the migrant communities, whose relatives have often fled precisely such people. A Syrian living in Austria, who brought the case of G. M. to the attention of eXXpress, says: “We ourselves are always horrified when we see that something like this is possible in Austria.”

https://exxpress.at/verurteilter-terrorist-aus-syrien-erhaelt-neuerlich-asyl/

Germany: LGBT campaigners project cartoon of Mohammed on DITIB Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin

The campaign PixelHELPER, which campaigns for the freedom of art and against the persecution of Jewish, homosexual and transsexual people in Islam, is causing a stir with a courageous protest.

Our tweet of the day comes from the Twitter account PixelHELPER, which has more than 38,000 followers. It describes itself as “a place for liberal LGBT Muslims | #PixelHELPER fights for #humanrights & #artfreedom | Founder @Lightartist.

The activists write: ” In memory of the murdered teacher Samuel Paty, we projected a caricature of Mohammed onto the DITIB Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin. Kurt Westergaard considered his caricatures as a naturalisation test for European values. Whoever kills for art will have to leave Europe”.

Already a month ago, the activists had erected a virtual monument dedicated to Paty. The activists’ comment on this: “Europe’s artistic freedom is immortal. The PixelHELPER pop-up museum of religious satire is set up in public places without permission for one day. The teacher Samuel Paty died because he showed religious cartoons to his students. Every person in Europe who wants to kill other people for art has to leave Europe immediately.”

https://philosophia-perennis.com/2021/08/18/lgbt-aktivisten-projizieren-mohammed-karikatur-auf-ditib-sehitlik-moschee/

Germany: Muslim threatens to kill all employees in Berlin social welfare office because of his religion

A man (27) threatened an employee at a social welfare office in the street Gotlindestraße (Lichtenberg district) on Monday morning. He said he wanted to kill everyone – because of his religion.

In the Lichtenberg district of Berlin, a 27-year-old man threatened to kill job center employees! He also attacked police officers who had been called to the scene.

He resisted considerably, tried to tear the mask off a police officer’s face, punched and kicked, the police reported on Tuesday. The officer was injured and had to be treated in hospital.In addition to the charges of disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit a crime and resisting law enforcement officers, there was also a charge of insulting the police, as the arrested man was said to have insulted and spat at the police. The only thing that was helpful was a so-called spit mask, which had to be put on the 27-year-old.After a court-ordered blood withdrawal in police custody, the suspect was allowed to leave. The investigation is now being conducted by the State Criminal Police Office, which specialises in Islamist extremism.

https://www.bz-berlin.de/berlin/lichtenberg/mann-27-droht-im-jobcenter-alle-umzubringen?fbclid=IwAR2hYSt47iLoNvR-MM2FBsy9owHxCkK5R7_gBZZqOnJknNNX_48pzUdLnZU

Tennessee vax official caught lying about anti-vaxxer threat

A Tennessee vaccine official, Michelle Fiscus, purchased a dog muzzle in order to pretend that she was being threatened by anti-vaxxers. Fiscus fraudulently claimed that an anti-vaccine individual had mailed it to her in an attempt to intimidate her.

Fiscus even denied sending herself the muzzle in a tweet. She instead blamed Republican state officials, saying it was because she had sent out a memo on minors getting the Covid vaccine without parental consent. A health department official had called the Department of Safety about the alleged threat to Fiscus.

Fiscus and her husband, Brad, claimed in multiple interviews, including with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, that the muzzle was sent anonymously to her state office. “Someone wanted to send a message to tell her to stop talking, they thought it would be a threat to her,” Brad Fiscus told the Tennessean. Fiscus herself told investigators it was done to “stop [her] talking about vaccinating people”.

But the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security found through a subpoena that the package containing the muzzle could be traced back to a credit card in Fiscus’ name.

According to an investigation report obtained by Axios, when asked by investigators,  Fiscus initially provided a different account than the one used to purchase the muzzle. But her attempt to hide the truth was soon uncovered. Investigators found out that “the results of this investigation [showed] that purchases from both Amazon accounts were charged to the same American Express credit card in the name of Dr. Michelle D. Fiscus”.

The health department meanwhile released a memo explaining that Fiscus had been fired for attempting to steer state money to a nonprofit she founded.

Fiscus denied the charges. “This is about a partisan issue around Covid vaccines and around people in power in Tennessee not believing in the importance in vaccinating the people, and so they terminated the person in charge of getting it done,” Fiscus told the Washington Post earlier.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/08/17/tennessee-vax-official-caught-lying-about-anti-vaxxer-threat/

Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2014 swap by Obama

When President Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan.

In fact, they were left free to engineer Sunday’s sacking of Kabul.

Soon after gaining their freedom, some of the notorious Taliban Five pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan and made contacts with active Taliban militants there. But the Obama-Biden administration turned a blind eye to the disturbing intelligence reports, and it wasn’t long before the freed detainees used Qatar as a base to form a regime in exile.

Eventually, they were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent “peace” talks.

Earlier this year, one of them, Khairullah Khairkhwa, actually sat across the table from President Biden’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Moscow, where Khairkhwa was part of the official Taliban delegation that negotiated the final terms of the US withdrawal. The retreat cleared a path for the Taliban to retake power after 20 years.

“I started jihad to remove foreign forces from my country and establish an Islamic government, and jihad will continue until we reach that goal through a political agreement,” Khairkhwa said at the summit.

After raiding the presidential palace in Kabul, a group of armed Taliban fighters told Al Jazeera that they were arranging to bring back their Gitmo-paroled leadership from Qatar upon securing the capital. One unidentified fighter, who blasted America for “oppressing our people for 20 years,” claimed he had also been locked up at the Guantanamo Bay facility. It’s more evidence that Gitmo catch-and-release policies facilitated the fall of Afghanistan to the enemy that Washington vowed to crush after 9/11.

The mastermind of the regime change is former detainee Khairkhwa, the Taliban mullah whom Obama released from Gitmo even though the Pentagon classified him as too dangerous to release.

Earlier this year, Khairkhwa assured the administration that the Taliban would not launch a spring military offensive if Biden committed to removing all remaining American troops. He also promised not to retaliate against any Afghans who worked with the US military or the US-backed government in Kabul. But Khairkhwa showed no signs of remorse or rehabilitation inside Gitmo — if anything, he’s probably more embittered toward the United States. Why would they believe him?

Reports coming out of Kandahar and Kabul indicate the extremists have already broken their word. Taliban thugs have started a reign of terror against people who cooperated with Westerners. Guided by a “kill list,” they are going door to door to punish their enemies.

Special envoy Khalilzad convinced the White House the US-backed government would not collapse and the Taliban would not take over — even though Khairkhwa made it clear he and his fellow mullahs sought to re-establish strict Islamic rule without outside meddling.

Mullah Khairkhwa previously served as the Taliban’s interior minister in Afghanistan, where he oversaw enforcement of brutal Islamist punishments, including beheadings and stonings. After 9/11, he was arrested in Pakistan and sent to Gitmo in 2002. The Pentagon accused him of closely associating with Osama bin Laden and bin Laden’s al Qaeda henchmen.

Twelve years later, Obama sprang Khairkhwa from jail along with four other top Taliban leaders in exchange for the Taliban releasing US Army Sgt. Robert “Bowe” Bergdahl, who was captured after deserting his post in Afghanistan. Khairkhwa and his fellow parolees, who were immediately flown to Qatar, were the only “forever prisoners” released without being cleared by the Gitmo parole board.

Upon his return, Obama celebrated Bergdahl as a heroic “POW,” a designation the Pentagon never gave him. At the bizarre Rose Garden ceremony, during which Bergdahl’s father praised Allah, Obama asserted: “We’re committed to winding down the war in Afghanistan and closing Gitmo.”

But public opinion rapidly turned against Bergdahl as the facts of his disappearance and capture became known. He ultimately was court-martialed and pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. In 2017, he was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge. Last year, the US military’s top appeals court upheld the conviction against him.

Several of his fellow soldiers were seriously injured during search-and-rescue missions launched to find him in Afghanistan. During Bergdahl’s five-year Taliban captivity, the Taliban became more accurate and deadly targeting US convoys and troops.

It’s not clear if then-Vice President Biden was fully on board with Obama’s controversial prisoner exchange. But in a reversal of Trump administration policy, Biden has restarted Obama’s program to release Gitmo detainees as part of a renewed push to close the prison.

Last month, the president released his first prisoner — accused terrorist Abdul Latif Nasser — leaving the number of remaining detainees at 39. Ten others have been cleared for release, while still others have appealed to Biden through their pro-bono defense lawyers to ensure their release, despite the risk of them returning to militant activities like the Taliban Five.

If Obama and Biden had left the five Taliban thugs to rot in Cuba, Kabul more than likely would not be back in the clutches of the Taliban right now. And maybe Americans wouldn’t have sacrificed more than 2,400 troops and $1 trillion in vain.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/16/taliban-leader-was-freed-from-guantanamo-in-2014-swap-by-obama/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter

Austria wants to set up deportation centers in countries around Afghanistan

With the help of the European Union, Austria wants to set up deportation centers in countries around Afghanistan, where it could send rejected asylum seekers. Vienna will present the proposal at Wednesday’s meeting of EU interior ministers, the APA agency reported.

The government of conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz thus continues with plans to deport Afghan citizens, despite the radical Islamist Taliban movement taking control of practically all of Afghanistan.

Austrian Minister for the Interior Karl Nehammer said that if deportations of Afghans back home are not possible because of the European Convention on Human Rights, an alternative must be found.

“Deportation centers in the Afghanistan area would be an option. That requires the strength and support of the European Commission,” Nehammer said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.

They announced that they would present the proposal at Wednesday’s meeting of EU ministers.

Austria was among the six EU states that warned the European Commission last week against stopping deportations to Afghanistan. It would send a wrong signal to other Afghans seeking EU membership, Austria pointed out. Three signatories of the letter — Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands — have meanwhile made a turnaround and suspended the deportation of Afghans due to the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country.

However, deporting unsuccessful asylum seekers does not have the support of the Austrian Greens, a coalition partner of the Kurz People’s Party in the government.

“All of you who are now talking about deportations instead of acute help and support for people on the run should be ashamed,” wrote Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, a spokeswoman for the Greens on foreign policy on Twitter.

The Czech Republic does not intend to stop the deportation of unsuccessful Afghan asylum seekers. On Friday, the Minister of the Interior, Jan Hamáček, said that the Czech authorities approach all asylum applications individually.

https://rmx.news/article/austria-wants-to-set-up-deportation-centers-in-countries-around-afghanistan/