12-Jun-15: Citizenship: is it becoming a counter-terrorism tool?

Bahraini passport [Image Source]

Last month, we noted here ["22-May-15: Yet another Australian "normal guy" joins barbarians as government announces passport-driven counter-strategy"] how Australia is evaluating a counter-terrorism strategy that involves passports.

The plan (detailed here) addresses "the growing threat of homegrown jihadi­sts" by threatening to strip "second-generation Australians involved in terrorism", as well as what are being called "dual nationals", in order "to tighten national security laws":

National security agencies are watching a large number of radic­alised second-generation Australians... [T]he government is examining ways to revoke or suspend the ­citizenship of hate preachers and foreign fighters, including Australians who have one or both parents born overseas, in a bid to tackle the growing threat of homegrown jihadists... Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said... "It is a privilege to be an Australian citizen even by birth and if people are involved in terrorist activities the government is examining what options might be available in terms of suspension of privileges..."  [The Australian, May 21, 2015]

There's been Australian criticism of the proposal:

Revoking citizenship is pointless and absurd | Andrew Zammit ("a researcher at Monash University's Global Terrorism Research Centre") | The Age, Melbourne | May 28, 2015 | "There may be many terrorist suspects currently in Lebanon who hold Australian citizenship. Australia would not appreciate it if the Lebanese government said "not our problem", revoked their citizenship and deported them. But this is effectively what Australia could end up doing to other countries. Currently only a few countries, such as Britain, take this approach. If more countries adopt it, it could undermine the international counter-terrorism co-operation that is needed to tackle this global threat and that Australia itself benefits from...

DVD "Muslims in Australia Since the 1600s"
[Image Source]

And critical voices are being heard from leaders of Australia's Muslim community:

Silma Ihram, of the Australian Muslim Women’s Association, has also warned that some Muslim Australians could end up like the Rohingya people of Burma, left stateless or “shipped off to Cambodia”. She has joined the growing chorus of criticism by some government ministers and backbenchers, legal experts and community groups, over attempts to increase executive powers to revoke citizenship of suspected terrorists... "What the government is doing is to make this whole scenario of fear. Yes we have potential for [a terrorist] problem, no one is denying that. But the debate is had like the ‘reds under the bed’ so that [Abbott] can come out with solution and be voted back in"... Ihram said young Muslims were already contributing to Australian society with high levels of tertiary entrance rates and community participation but the government’s unhelpful rhetoric, such as Tony Abbott singling out the community, was isolating. "When the government suggests Muslims don’t have the same values Australians do – which is rubbish, [Isis] will say over social media to young Muslims, ‘they will never understand you, they will always fight against you’ and it all feeds straight into their rhetoric," Ihram said... "Everyone is going to lose so many freedoms under these laws." ["Tony Abbott using citizenship debate to win next election, Muslim leader says", The Guardian, June 8, 2015]

We quoted the same Australian lady three months ago ["26-Mar-15: Australia's rising pre-occupation with its death-cultists"] when she offered a stupefyingly simplistic cause-and-effect view of Australia's growing pre-occupation with terror:

Silma Ihram, a member of the Australian Muslim Women’s Association based in Sydney, says youths are drawn to IS because the Australian government "continues to create an us versus them" mentality... Ms Ihram, born Anne Frances Beaumont, is an articulate advocate for racial tolerance and the notion that it isn't Moslems but just some angry peripheral people that give Islam a bad name. A 2006 Australian movie review called her "Erin Brockovich in a hijab". 

At the time, we noted that, if she's right, this will all end up peacefully but it might all get a lot more serious if she's wrong.

A little closer to where we live, there's recent evidence that countering terrorism via citizenship and passports has some powerful advocates. This report appeared yesterday in Gulf Daily News, a newspaper published in the Kingdom of Bahrain:

"Terror cell 57 jailed for blasts" | Noor Zahra | June 12, 2015 | FIFTY-SEVEN men have been handed jail sentences ranging from 10 to 25 years after being convicted of being part of an Iranian-backed terrorist cell that orchestrated a bombing campaign in Bahrain. They were found guilty of arms smuggling and plotting a string of attacks on security personnel and landmark structures, including the Saudi Embassy and King Fahad Causeway, by Bahrain's High Criminal Court yesterday. The court heard that members of the cell received militia training in Iraq and Iran... Four of the 61 defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence by judges, who revoked the Bahraini citizenships of all of those found guilty... Eighteen defendants found guilty are still at large and have been on the run since police first launched a series of raids targeting the group in May 2013. [The text of the verdict includes this:] "They tried to establish terrorist groups by recruiting Bahraini youth and using their connections with the Sadr movement in Iraq and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. They then sent Bahraini youth to receive militia training in Iran and Iraq to carry out terrorists attacks in Bahrain and to overthrow the government..." In addition to life sentences for five defendants, judges sentenced 22 others to 15 years behind bars and handed 10-year sentences to another 30 defendants.

Though the Bahraini paper does not mention it, most if not all of the accused are Shi'ites, the branch of Islam espoused by 10-15% of Moslems worldwide and by the majority of people in Bahrain (and backed by Iran, a Shi'ite-majority country). A solid majority of Bahrain's Moslems, about 70%, are Shia. However the tiny island state of 742,600 (2006 official estimate) of whom nearly 300,000 are non-citizens to begin with, has been controlled since the 18th century by the al-Khalifa family. It's a self-declared monarchy, like most of the statelets in the oil-drenched Persian Gulf. The al-Khalifa clan are Sunni Moslems. Hence the instability, particularly since 2011.

From a website that helps aliens acquire US citizenship

What are other states doing?

• In Canada, The Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act 2014 includes "new grounds to revoke Canadian citizenship from dual citizens who are convicted of terrorism, high treason, treason or spying offences, depending on the sentence... The majority of revocation cases will be decided by the citizenship and immigration minister, or his delegate", according to the Canadian government's backgrounder on the legislation. "This includes cases of convictions of terrorism, treason and spying offences."
• The United States (according to this source) has not recently passed any laws that would penalise foreign fighters by revoking their citizenship. The United States Constitution makes change difficult though current US legislation does allow citizenship to be revoked if a citizen displays an "intent to relinquish their citizenship". Fighting in a foreign army may be deemed an indicator of such intent and thus lead to loss of US citizenship.
• Under French law, the government may strip citizenship from dual nationals if a person has been convicted of terrorism within 15 years of becoming a French citizen. This past January, France's Constitutional Court upheld the law in a case involving a French Moroccan dual national convicted of terrorism offences… the court ruled the removal of his citizenship was permitted (and not a prohibited form of discrimination) if and only if that person had held French citizenship for more than 15 years. If less than 15 years, the principle of equality would be violated. Le Monde says there have been eight cases of dual citizens being stripped of French citizenship since 1973.

20-Aug-13: Planning to travel? One or two (dozen) places not to even think of going

Though warnings of this sort tend to get pooh-poohed in some quarters, we think it's important to record here what the Israeli public was formally told yesterday about current and immediate dangers confronting us in "coming weeks".

The warning comes from a professional, and essentially non-political, government body: the Counter-Terrorism Bureau (CTB), part of the National security Council that is, in turn, a part of the multi-dimensional Prime Minister's Office. Its website defines the mission of the CTB as a peak-level coordinating and organizational body among all the various other bodies active in the counter-terrorism field.

The Monday announcement speaks of “concrete” indications of upcoming terrorism. Geographically, it first addresses these places, ascribing the highest level of danger to them (listed here alphabeticallly within each group):

• Bahrain
• Egypt
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Qatar (citing a “basic” terrorist threat)
• Sinai Peninsula ("because of the chaotic situation in Egypt", and because of “information on the intention to carry out further attacks”)
• United Arab Emirates, meaning Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain

At the next level going down, CTB tells Israelis to postpone nonessential visits (because of “ongoing potential threats”) to 

• Morocco
• Oman
• Turkey

CTB reconfirmed the Israeli ban on Israelis going to these states where the “concrete” terror threat is “very high”

• Iran
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• Yemen

The following are characterized by “very high” terror threats; Israelis are told not to go there, and if already there, then to immediately leave:

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Chechnya
• Djibouti
• India’s Kashmir province
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Parts of Kenya
• Northern Nigeria
• Parts of the southern Philippines
• East Senegal
• Somalia
• Sudan
• Parts of southern Thailand
• Tunisia (where there are “threats to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets”)

After the "very high" threats comes the merely "high":

• Burkina-Faso
• Indonesia
• Ivory Coast
• Malaysia
• Mali
• Pakistan
• Togo

Still feeling the travel urge? The CTB says Israelis traveling overseas must

take extra precautions, such as avoiding unexpected meetings or out of the way places, and to change regular travel routes.

Why now? According to Times of Israel, the CTB cites

concerns about terrorist acts timed to coincide with the forthcoming Rosh Hashana (New Year), Yom Kippur and Succot festivals, and also said that the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US was likely to be “a favored period” for al-Qaeda and other global jihadist groups to attempt to carry out acts of terrorism. Iran and Hezbollah, it warned, were continuing their “global terror campaign” against Israeli and Jewish targets. It noted that Iran remained bent on avenging alleged Israeli responsibility for the killing of Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh in a Damascus car-bombing in 2008, and the deaths of three Iranian nuclear scientists. It said its information indicated that Israeli businessmen and ex-government officials were prime potential targets for assassination and/or kidnapping.

26-Mar-13: Hezbollah is declared "terrorist group" by Bahrain's parliament

Objects of adoration: Syrian holds poster with portraits
of Syrian president/tyrant Bashar al-Assad
and Hezbollah chief Nasrallah during pro-Assad rally
Damascus January 11, 2012 [Image Source]

, 

Benjamin Weinthal, writing in the Jerusalem Post, today:

Bahrain’s Parliament declares Hezbollah a terrorist group | March 26, 2013 | Bahrain’s lawmakers voted on Tuesday to label the Lebanese militia a terrorist organization, the Lebanon-based news outlet Now Lebanon reported. Tensions have been high since Bahrain accused Hezbollah of seeking to overthrow its government in 2011. According to a report sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011, the ruling Sunni Khalifa family asserted that Hezbollah trained insurgents in Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran to topple its government. The move to designate Hezbollah a terror entity comes on the heels of EU talks about banning Hezbollah within the 27-member body because of terror operations. Last week, a Cyprus criminal court convicted a Hezbollah member for plotting to kill Israeli tourists on the small Island. In addition to the foiled Cyprus plot, Bulgaria’s interior minister issued a report last month asserting  two Hezbollah operatives participated in the terror attack on an Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort of Burgas. The bombing in Burgas resulted in the deaths of five Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver, and severe injuries to 32 Israelis.
Major EU countries Germany and France have resisted including Hezbollah in the EU terror list because of insufficient legal evidence. JTA reported on Friday that Karl-Matthias Klause, the spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington, said “Our position is that we've always said that if we have proof that holds up in court, we can enter the procedure. There is a general readiness into looking into forbidding the military wing of Hezbollah.”
It is unclear if the legal verdict in Cyprus will influence a change in the German and French positions opposing a ban. The Netherlands is the only EU country to designate Hezbollah’s entire organization a terrorist group. The United Kingdom classifies Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist   organization. Proponents of a ban of Hezbollah  argue a terrorist listing would freeze Hezbollah’s capability to fund-raise and procure weapons in Europe, as well as mount new terror attacks on European soil.
Germany has a large contingent of Hezbollah operatives. According to the country’s domestic intelligence agency, 950 Hezbollah members operate legally in the Federal Republic.

The Times of Israel, quoting Israel Radio, says tonight that Bahraini legislators called on the other Persian Gulf states to do the same. The US and Israel have been pressing Europe's governments to outlaw Hezbollah as a terrorist group. President Obama repeated the call here last week during his visit to Israel. Hezbollah gets its backing from two major sources: the government of Syria and the government of Iran.

There's some sharp and useful background in a recent New Yorker magazine profile entitled "AFTER SYRIA: If the Assad regime falls, can Hezbollah survive?", by Dexter Filkins. He writes:

In an Arab world dominated by Sunni Muslims, Hezbollah agitates on behalf of Shiite identity—forming, along with Syria and Iran, a column of resistance sometimes called the Shiite Axis. With Syrian and Iranian help, Hezbollah has become the most powerful force in Lebanon. Too strong to be challenged even by the government, it has set up its own mini-state and built one of the world’s most sophisticated guerrilla armies. It has kept up a relentless campaign to confront Israel, even provoking a war in 2006... [But] the issue of Hezbollah’s role inside Syria raises fundamental questions about its identity and purpose. Is it really a “resistance” organization, dedicated only to fighting Israel? Siding with the Assad government has already left Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah alone in the Arab world.

Seems like a good time to remind readers of these earlier posts:

• 29-Jan-13: What their view on Hezbollah tells us about Europe's counter-terrorism strategy
• 9-Feb-13: Hezbollah and Europe: Decisions need to be made as if people's lives were on the line
• 5-Feb-13: Now that the Bulgarians have fingered Hezbollah, what happens next in Europe? 

15-Feb-11: Iran - how the local and foreign and social media see things... differently

More clashes, more protests, and now death in the streets. But don't expect the Mullahs of Iran to acknowledge that any of this is happening. Like yesterday, we have three snapshots below, all of them focused on Tehran, all of them captured at about the same moment today. The entirely different senses of what's happening are another reminder of how editors and reporters can, at will, fashion a reality that is completely disconnected from actual events while serving an ideological agenda.

First the New York Times.

Now our friends from the Iranian-state-owned PressTV who know Breaking News when they see it:

Iran's gift to the world of round-the-clock news coverage is breathless when it comes to news breaking in Bahrain and Cairo and Tunisia. But they're struck completely dumb when the subject is the tumult on the streets of their own capital, with masses getting up and standing for their long-stolen rights.

And finally a Twitter picture, one of many that are finding their way out of Iran and into the social networks today.

Iran is "the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s financial, material, and logistic support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Persian Gulf and undermined the growth of democracy." [Source - August 2010].

29-Nov-10: Finally the neighbors are caught washing some of their dirty laundry

For years, we Israelis have been subjected to the terrorist threats and attacks of the jihadist regime of the Mullahs of Teheran and their agents in Hamas and Hizbullah. The Iranian ambitions always extended beyond this tiny country, and now - finally - its extent is front-page news throughout the world today.

Secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years ago, played a crucial role in the 2007 assessment of Iran’s nuclear capacity. The missiles could for the first time give Iran the capacity to strike at capitals in Western Europe or easily reach Moscow, and American officials warned that their advanced propulsion could speed Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. [Source: The New York Times] 

Iran's Moslem cousins have known this and more for a long time. They, more than almost anyone except perhaps the Israeli government, have been anxiously lobbying for the power of the jihadists in Teheran to be curtailed - one way or (ahem) another. The British newspaper The Guardian, known in our circles for its vitriolic and unceasing attacks on and demonization of Israel and Israelis, published some insights today into how Arab political leaders view the Iranians when the flashlights are off and the cameras are not rolling. It's a revelation. You can get a sense of what follows from the header: Arab states scorn 'evil' Iran: US embassy cables reveal Tehran's reputation as a meddling, lying troublemaker intent on building nuclear weapons

• King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged Iran's foreign minister to "spare us your evil" in a meeting that reflected profound Arab hostility to the Islamic Republic.
• The Saudis and smaller Gulf states, plus Egypt, Jordan and others, complained bitterly about Tehran's nuclear ambitions, its involvement in Iraq and its support for Hezbollah and Hamas.
• The Teheran regime has "no business meddling in Arab matters", the Saudi monarch is quoted telling Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister. 
• "Iran's goal is to cause problems," the Saudi king says. "There is no doubt something unstable about them... May God prevent us from falling victim to their evil... The bottom line is that they cannot be trusted." 
• The leadership of the United Arab Emirates feared being "46 seconds from Iran as measured by the flight time of a ballistic missile".
• Abu Dhabi's crown prince and deputy commander of the UAE armed forces, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, called Iran an "existential threat" and feared "getting caught in the crossfire if Iran is provoked by the US or Israel". 
• Bin Zayed said the US should send in ground forces if air strikes were not enough to "take out" Iranian nuclear targets. 
• The UAE the foreign minister says Iran is "a huge problem that goes far beyond nuclear capabilities. Iranian support for terrorism is broader than just Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran has influence in Afghanistan, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and Africa."
• Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa says Iran is "the source of much of the trouble in both Iraq and Afghanistan" and argued forcefully for taking action to terminate their nuclear programme "by whatever means necessary. That programme must be stopped. The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it."
• Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said of Oman called Iran "a big country with muscles and we must deal with it." 
• A senior Omani minister singled out Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar as the three Gulf countries that would probably want the US to attack Iran.
• Kuwait's military intelligence chief says the Iranian jihadists are supporting terrorist groups in the Gulf and extremists in Yemen. 
• Yemen and Saudi Arabia repeatedly accuse Iran of supplying weapons and money to the Houthi rebels in Yemen's Saada region.
• Qatar, the wealthiest country in the Gulf region, is an outspoken critic of Iran in private while maintaining cordial public relations with it - and with the US.
• The Qatari prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, says "Iran is clever and makes its opponents dizzy... Iran will make no deal. Iran wants nuclear weapons... They lie to us, and we lie to them".
• Jordan and Egypt are also deeply hostile to Iran. Egypt's intelligence head Omar Suleiman calls Iran "a significant threat to Egypt … supporting jihad and spoiling peace".
• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak calls the Iranian president Ahmadinejad an extremist who "does not think rationally... Iran is always stirring trouble". 
• Mubarak has "a visceral hatred for the Islamic Republic [of Iran], referring repeatedly to Iranians as 'liars', and denouncing them for seeking to destabilise Egypt and the region. He sees the Syrians and Qataris as sycophants to Tehran and liars themselves."

And since we're suddenly being exceptionally candid with each other, some further insights from the NY Times by way of those Wikileaks:

• The Saudis are the chief financier of terrorist groups including al-Qaeda.
• Qatar, described as "a generous host to the U.S. military" by the NY Times, was the "worst in the region" at counter-terrorism efforts (says a State Department cable from December 2009). 
• Qatar's security service was "hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the United States and provoking reprisals."
• The US has tried, and failed, to prevent Syria from supplying arms to the Hizbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Hizbollah's weapons stockpile and particularly rockets and missiles has swelled hugely since the 2006 war with Israel. 
• Just one week after Syrian President al-Assad promised a senior State Department official that he would not send “new” arms to Hezbollah, the United States found that Syria was providing increasingly sophisticated weapons to the terrorists.
• And finally (at this stage) from The Guardian again: The Iranian Red Cross (technically its Red Crescent society) smuggled Iranian weapons and Iranian agents into Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. 

Welcome to the neighborhood. The double-talk and the deception about who is doing the terrorism, about the scale of their terrorist weaponry and about the size of the danger - well, how shall we put this? It's all far worse than the news channels and the politicians have been telling us for years. But not nearly as bad as it's going to get.