The Justice Department is contending that an American-born ISIS
bride who drew President Donald Trump's ire last month as she made
public pleas to return home with her young son is not a US citizen.
In their first response to
a lawsuit that Hoda Muthana's father brought last week in a federal
court in Washington, DC, prosecutors said that Muthana was never a US
citizen because the UN had not notified American
authorities that her father was no longer a diplomat until after her
birth.
The Justice Department's
filing on Monday
doubles down on a claim made last month by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and narrows her chances of repatriation.
"Muthana is not and has never been a
U.S. citizen, and her son likewise is not a U.S. citizen. Settled law
applied to the relevant events clearly demonstrates that Plaintiff
enjoyed diplomatic-agent-level-immunity until February
6, 1995—after Muthana's birth," prosecutors wrote.
Let's go to WIKIPEDIA:
Hoda Muthana (born October 28, 1994)[4]
is an American-born woman who left to join
ISIS in November 2014, using funds her parents had provided for her college tuition.[2][5]
She left her home in
Alabama, following the instructions of an online contact, and made her way to an area occupied by jihadists.[6]
She surrendered in January 2019 to
coalition forces fighting ISIS in Syria and is, as of February 2019, requesting to return to the United States.[2]
President
Donald Trump instructed
Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo to deny her re-entry.
I don't know how that's any clearer. If you are born in the US, you are a citizen. That's how it works. You may be a dual citizen, but you are still a citizen. Okay, here's WIKIPEDIA:
Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the
University of Texas School of Law, said: "I gather that the
government's argument is that she was born to a diplomat who was in the
United States on official business, and so was not entitled to
birthright citizenship. That's correct as a matter of law
if it's true, but it's not true just because the government says so".[13]
Her lawyer,
Charlie Swift, an expert in national security law, and Constitutional Law, disputes the government's argument regarding
birthright citizenship, asserting her father was discharged from his diplomatic position a month before she was born.[1][14]
On February 21, 2019, Muthana's father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, filed an
emergency lawsuit, asking the federal government to affirm Muthana's
citizenship and allow her to return to the United States.[4]
They need to move that up higher and not have it at the end. As C.I. said in the gina and krista round-robin roundtable two weeks ago, the president of the United States cannot just strip you of US citizenship. So Hoda is a citizen and, yes, she can return to the US. That might mean she faces charges regarding ISIS (or not) but she can return to the US. Again, she might return to face trial, but she can return.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, March 4, 2019. More US bases are built in Iraq while Iraqis continue to suffer from lack of jobs in their own country.
Calls for US troops out of Iraq have been a feature of the ongoing war for over a decade now. Typically, the Kurds call for US troops to stay. NIQASH's Mustafa Habib says they're not the only ones calling for US troops to remain.
Calls for US troops out of Iraq have been a feature of the ongoing war for over a decade now. Typically, the Kurds call for US troops to stay. NIQASH's Mustafa Habib says they're not the only ones calling for US troops to remain.
Regardless of where the leaders fall on the issue, the Iraqi people's position remains the same -- all US troops -- all foreign troops period -- out of Iraq.
Despite that fact, as we noted in THIRD's "Editorial: When does the US leave Iraq?" last night, US bases are going up in Iraq.
Search results
US Sets Up 2 New Bases in Western #Iraq en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?…
MAJOR: US EXPANDS OCCUPATION OF IRAQ – BUILDS TWO NEW BASES @FortRussNews
"U.S. Has 31 Military Bases, 34,000 Soldiers in Iraq." en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?…
The war has been going on so long that now it is now possible to have children serving whose parents served. Two e-mails came into the public account noting an article Saturday about a Tweet. Didn't see that article and won't link to it. Two Sundays ago, at THIRD, we noted the same Tweet in "Editorial: The silence is deafening:"
Editorial: The silence is deafening
My first born son was 14 months old as I talked to him the night before I deployed to Kuwait/Iraq in June of 2003. My son just received mail from a recruiter for the first time. How the f**k is it possible he could go fight in the same war I did before he could walk? ENDTHEWAR
Why aren't others asking it?
And if anyone was asking sincerely for that other site to be noted, it never will be. I still have the January 2005 e-mail the head of that site wrote that was a racist attack on then-US House Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones (she passed away in 2008). That's why we don't highlight that site. It's not that we're not aware of it, it's that we're far too aware of it.
We never highlight them. We never highlighted Keith Olbermann even when he was our great hope supposedly. Keith's anti-woman, sexist nature (among other things) was well known so we never highlighted him. If there's someone we've always avoided in the 15 years of this site, there's generally a reason for that.
On the subject of Tweets, Fadel al-Nashmi (ASHARQ AL-AWSAT) reports:
Twitter has closed the official account of the “Security Media Cell” that is affiliated with the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.
The cell was initially formed under the name of the “Military Information Cell” after the ISIS terrorist organization took over large swathes of Iraqi territory in June 2014.
During the war on ISIS, the Cell played a pivotal role in disseminating combat-related military information and information from the Joint Operations Command.
It did not comment on the shutdown, but a source close to it told Asharq al-Awsat that “Twitter has suspended, not closed, the account.”
Adel Abdul Mahdi remains ineffective and ripe for removal. Nouri al-Maliki, former prime minister and forever thug, is currently attempting to convince other politicians to support his move to remove Mahdi and step back in as prime minister. Mahdi's inability to accomplish anything allows this to be a very real possibility.
At no time since 2003 has the president of Iraq (a ceremonial position) been elevated higher than the prime minister by the western press. Now western outlets repeatedly report on Barham Salih and his pronouncements as though Barham is the leader of Iraq. It as though they're preparing you for the end of Mahdi's rule.
Mahdi was, of course, the longtime choice of the CIA and his inability to rule says a lot about their poor analytics. They pushed him hard every time starting in 2010. He was the answer, they insisted.
He has turned out to be no answer at all.
Terrorism and violence happen for reasons. These include economic reasons. There are no jobs in Iraq. That could have been addressed long ago -- and should have been. But it's become a growing problem and one that Mahdi can't address apparently.
The graduates of universities have demonstrated in Alwai area in the
middle of Baghdad to demand Baghdad government providing them with job
opportunities .
If you're not getting how bad the situation is, note this.
These stats on demographics and growth rates should keep you up at night
If the referred to article doesn't show in the Tweet, it's Chloe Cornish's piece for THE FINANCIAL TIMES which notes that overall joblessness in Iraq is at 13% but for the younger adult Iraqis it stands at 40%. The article delves into the implications for Iraq's future as a result of the current babyboom taking place among Iraqi youth, so it's of interest for that as well. But with protests in Baghdad over the lack of jobs, we're noting it due to the jobless rate.
Again:
The graduates of universities have demonstrated in Alwai area in the middle of Baghdad to demand Baghdad government providing them with job opportunities .
Sir i live in Iraq and I graduated from Computer engineering college two years ago and have no job yet, please help me sir
In Iraq, residents of Basra City protest in Bahariya Square near government council building. Demand jobs, better services, abolishment of Basra Council & accountability for the corrupt.
mobp.as/zGGEo
Again, this issue has festered for some time. But Mahdi came to power after the protests began in Basra (July was when they started) so he should have had that on his lists of things to address in his first 100 days. It's now around 124 days since he became prime minister and he's done nothing to address the lack of jobs. He also still can't appoint a Minister of Defense or Minister of Interior.
Again, he's proven to be rather inept.
New content at THIRD:
