Saturday 28 January 2017

With a flourish of his pen


BBC One's main evening news bulletin struck a strongly negative note about President Trump's executive order blocking immigrants from a number of countries at the US's borders. Though supposedly an impartial broadcaster, the BBC didn't exactly hide its own view of the matter here. 

A transcript follows:


NEWSREADER: As referenced in Laura's report... Lawyers in the United States have lodged a challenge to an executive order - signed by President Trump - which temporarily bans all refugees, and any traveller from seven mainly Muslim countries from entering the US. The ban includes stopping those with a resident permit, known as a green card, from re-entering the country. That order has caused confusion and panic among travellers with some people being turned back from US-bound flights. Alex Forsyth reports. 
ALEX FORSYTH: On Lebanon's streets the need is clear. One in four is a refugee who has fled war in neighbouring Syria - some wanting one day to return, others desperate to move on, now all banned from the US indefinitely. And refugees from anywhere suspended for four months. Like Nivine, which is not her real name, a transgender woman persecuted in Iraq who fled to Beirut. She was in the process of being resettled in America. That now, it seems, on hold. 
NIVINE: The moment I heard the news my dreams were shattered. My parents want to kill me. I'm terrified they'll find out where I am now. I hoped I'd feel safe in the US, that I'd finally be able to sleep in a country where I have rights and no one could hurt me. 
ALEX FORSYTH: With a flourish of his pen, President Trump made sweeping changes to policies for refugees and immigrants, to improve, he said, America's security. 
DONALD TRUMP: I'm establishing new vetting measures, to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don't want them here. 
ALEX FORSYTH: The executive order specifically mention suspending entry from seven countries, with predominantly Muslim populations. People from those areas have taken to social media in confusion. One said an Iraqi friend who fled Isis was turned back from her US flight. And in Qatar a 71-year-old man heading to LA was sent back to Iraq. 


ELHAM KHATAMI (National Iranian American Council): Some green card holders have been let in. I think this was a case-by-case basis in which the family lawyers intervened. We're still waiting on getting more information on that, but in general it's a state of panic and confusion. 
ALEX FORSYTH: The extent of this order has enormous implications, not just for refugees but for many from the Middle East no able able to travel to the US. President Trump argues it will improve security but many have condemned the message it sends to Muslim communities around the world. Some refugees who have been detained at airports today are being represented by civil rights groups launching legal action. The full detail of this order may not be clear but already the consequences are being felt and challenged. Alex Forsyth. 

9 comments:

  1. You'd think the USA had never been subject to a mass terrorist attack that killed 3000, caused thousands of injuries, brought the US air economy to a virtual standstill for several days and terrorised hundreds of thousands caught up in the events of the day.

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    1. Or that the Boston bombers, the Shoe bomber, the San Bernadino shooter, the Orlando shooter, the Ohio State shooter, and the guy who tried to blow up a car bomb in Times Square were Muslim immigrants and not born and raised US white kids.

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  2. Seven countries which are the source of terrorists, which happen to be majority Muslim. Who defined these countries as being problematic and lumped them all in an official US government document? The Obamessiah, that's who. He was President when the document was created, not Trump.

    If Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, then banning people from countries that are the source of Islamic terrorism isn't about Islam. Period.

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    1. Interesting that President Trump's ban doesn't include any of the countries of origin of the 19 murderers on 9/11.
      15 of the 19 were citizens of Saudi Arabia, with two from the United Arab Emirates, and one each from Egypt and Lebanon.

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    2. Exactly. It includes only one of the top ten Muslim populations. Worst. Anti-Muslim. Ban. Ever.

      http://www.thecountriesof.com/top-10-countries-with-largest-muslim-population/

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  3. I bet the evil old uneducated bigoted voting white majority all support this.....despite Brexit.

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  4. Couple of asides:

    1. Re the BBC attitute to Americans. On BBC World Services I heard a Fooc type item about US Marines training. The reporter mimicked a Marine sergeant's accent when quoting them. Not a problem per se, it was only a while later I thought to myself a BBC reporter would never, ever dare mimic a Chinese, Indian or African accent. Probably not even Russian or French. For the BBC are a kind of obsession that is dealt with by entirely different rules.

    2. We haven't heard from the BBC how Trump is doing in the poll ratings...Whenever we don't hear from the BBC about something, whether it be the FTSE 100 (for a few weeks replaced by the FTSE 250 when it suited them) or the amazing contribution of the doctor and engineers who (so the BBC claimed) came in with the migrant wave of 2015, I smell a little rat.

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  5. I`m rather hoping that Trump is deliberately getting the liberal cholesterol up to insane levels for them-before they peg out of a stroke or coronary.
    An absolute joy to hear supersonic scales of shriekback-and clutching pearls whilst passing out with the vapours is bloody funny down here where the REAL people are.
    The BBC-like the Church, like its EU/UN spittoons that get employed by them-are so disconnected-there`s no way back, we loath them, Trump knows this as does Nigel-and Ted Malloch and Newt have hardly STARTED yet. Ann Coulter shares surely need buying now!

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    1. Trump is definitely gaslighting the media and his political opponents. He also knows he can say more or less whatever he wants because he will dial it down on the advice of his team. Not counting his family (who have no more influence than Hillary did on Bill, or Michelle on Barak), Trump has Cabinet members and other top team members who will tell him 'No.' Mattis already has, and probably others have as well. Instead of sycophants, fellow travelers, and vassals, Trump has a team of people whom he essentially sees as peers. He owes them nothing, they owe him nothing. Ignoring that is a mistake.

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