Jackson Falconer
In the midst of a major pushback against President Obama's plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. next year, presidential candidates and other prominent figures have expressed varying views on resettlement and national security, with some calling for new and extraordinary measures that they argue would help prevent terrorist threats.
Donald Trump, no stranger to controversy, brewed a new and loud dispute last week when he made a remark to a reporter on creating a database for American Muslims.
In an exchange with an NBC reporter on Thursday, the real estate magnate and Republican frontrunner said in response to a question on whether a database to track Muslims should be created: ”I would certainly implement that. Absolutely." When the reporter later asked Trump about comparing the idea to Jews being registered during Germany's Nazi era, he curtly and repeatedly replied, "You tell me."
In a Facebook post on Friday, Trump appeared to brush off the accusation without confirming how he answered the NBC reporter's question: "I didn't suggest a database–a reporter did."
Speaking on CNBC on Friday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush rebuked Trump's views as "Just wrong," and added: "It’s not a question of toughness. It’s manipulating people's angst and their fears. That’s not strength. That’s weakness."
Earlier in the week, Bush told primary voters in South Carolina that the U.S. ought to be, at a minimum, bringing in orphans or people "that clearly aren't going to be terrorists. Or Christians."
When asked by a television reporter how Christian verification could be done, he said, "If you're Christian, you can prove you're a Christian ... if you can't prove it, you're on the side of caution."
Trump's views appear to be shared by Ben Carson. Speaking in New Hampshire, Carson said to reporters: "I think we should have a database on everybody who comes into this country," but after he was told that Trump had already said he supported a national Muslim registry, the retired neurosurgeon added: "Hopefully, we already have a database on every citizen who is already here. If we don't, we are doing a very poor job."
Senator Marco Rubio, speaking on Fox News' The Kelly File on Thursday, said in response to Trump's talk of shutting down mosques: ”It’s not about closing down mosques. It’s about closing down any place–whether it’s a cafe, a diner, an internet site–any place where radicals are being inspired.“
Rubio continued: ”The bigger problem we have is our inability to find out where these places are, because we’ve crippled our intelligence programs, both through unauthorized disclosures by a traitor, in Edward Snowden, or by some of the things this president has put in place with the support even of some from my own party to diminish our intelligence capabilities.“
CIA Director John Brennan
has also pointed to Snowden as someone to blame for the Paris attacks, saying recent encryption tools used by technology firms on their phones have made it easier for terrorists to scheme without being caught by authorities. In 2013, Snowden leaked the details of a massive NSA surveillance program, provoking backlash from civil liberties advocates, and calls for less surveillance.
During her address to the Council of Foreign Relations on Friday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Silicon Valley companies that weaker encryption is needed to help fight terrorism.
Elsewhere, U.S. and French government officials have
quietly said that there is currently no definitive evidence of the Paris attackers using complicated encryption technologies for planning their operation.
Clinton also told the CFR that she did not support halting the White House's resettlement program for Syrians. "We cannot allow terrorists to intimidate us into abandoning our values and our humanitarian obligations. That is just not who we are. We are better than that," she said.
Senator Bernie Sanders has started a petition in support of continuing the resettlement program, saying in a statement: "When hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything and have nothing left but the shirts on their backs, we should not turn our backs on these refugees escaping violence in the Middle East."
At least one state has
advised several non-profit organizations to cease helping resettle. Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the organizations to halt assistance, and had his state's Health and Human Services Commission give a deadline of this past Friday, with a possible threat of cutting off funding to those organizations if they do not comply.
Abbott has joined a chorus of mostly Republican governors who have said they will not allow new Syrian refugees to resettle in their state. Gov. Rick Scott joined that group of governors last week when he sent
a letter to Congress requesting they block resettlements of refugees from the country. The House has
overwhelmingly passed a bill seeking to enact a pause on Syrian resettlements unless security measures are drastically expanded; the Senate is set to vote on the bill after Thanksgiving.
Comments
No comments on this item
Only paid subscribers can comment
Please log in to comment by clicking here.