PrairiePundit

 Federalist Wire: ... The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it had deported eight individuals, described as murderers, rapists, and other serious offenders, to South Sudan. The group, identified as illegal immigrants, was transported on a dedicated flight. This action follows the administration’s efforts to address cases where the deportees’ countries of origin refused to accept their return, requiring the U.S. to identify an alternative receiving nation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) organized the deportation of eight individuals labeled as serious criminals to South Sudan. Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons emphasized the threat posed by these individuals, stating, “These are the ones that you don’t want in your community.” The operation was necessitated by the refusal of the deportees’ home countries to accept them, prompting DHS to arrange for South Sudan to receive them. ... DHS expressed frustration wit...

BBC: The United States has expanded its controversial travel ban to include people from North Korea, Venezuela and Chad. The White House said the restrictions follow a review of information sharing by foreign governments. Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation late on Sunday. "Making America safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet," Mr Trump said. The restrictions on Venezuelans apply only to government officials and their family members. The three new countries join five others from Mr Trump's original travel ban: Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. But the new proclamation removed restrictions that were placed on Sudan. ... Lifting the travel ban on Sudan may raise some questions.  It has a despotic Islamist leader and yesterday a legal Sudanese immigrant was accused of opening fire on worshippers at a Chruch of Christ in Tennessee killing one and wounding several others.  Authorities have not given...

Washington Times: In a move that blindsided both the guest and the host, a South African court Sunday issued an order barring Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar Bashir from leaving South Africa after attending a summit of African leaders in Johannesburg because he faces an arrest warrant as a war criminal. The order was issued a day after the International Criminal Court asked South African officials to comply with a 2009 warrant issued at The Hague for Gen. Bashir ’s arrest, a request the government said it would not honor. The issue sheds a new spotlight on the Darfur legal case and on the reach of the ICC , which has struggled for legitimacy in recent years as it takes on a slate of more controversial cases. Gen. Bashir , 71, in power since 1989, became the first sitting leader to be indicted as a war criminal. The warrant relates to a five-year counterinsurgency campaign in Sudan ’s Darfur region by the Khartoum government from 2003. The United Nations said the campai...

Fuel Fix: A unit of oil field services firm Schlumberger is planning to pay about $232.7 million in U.S. penalties as part of a guilty plea for illegally conducting business with the sanctioned Iran and Sudan, the Justice Department said Wednesday. The deal marks the end of a six-year federal probe into the company’s activities in those two Middle Eastern countries, which found the subsidiary “took steps to disguise” its overseas dealings for several years. Schlumberger’s $155.1 million criminal fine is the largest penalty ever billed for violating U.S. sanctions set by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The firm, which has its main offices in Houston, Paris and the Hague, will also forfeit $77.6 million in profits to U.S. authorities. “This is a landmark case that puts global corporations on notice that they must respect our trade laws when on American soil,” U.S. attorney Ronald Machen Jr. said in a written statement. Schlumberger wound down its business in Iran in th...

ISW: Recent statements by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, and an alleged new group called the “Soldiers of the Caliphate in the Land of Egypt” has given rise to speculation that ISIS may be seeking to expand beyond Iraq and Syria into new territories such as Egypt. This fear is compounded by the recent arrest of an individual at the Cairo airport, allegedly seeking to travel to Syria for training with ISIS. He is also accused of recruiting Egyptians to train in Syria for the purpose of returning to Egypt to carry out attacks against security forces. It is possible that Egyptian authorities are falsely associating individuals or groups with ISIS in an attempt to legitimize harsh security measures. At this time it does not appear that ISIS is operating in Egypt or actively seeking to gain an operational footprint there, although recent events suggest viable routes for expansion by the Islamic State should it choose to pursue them. A new group calli...

Fox News: Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who faced a death sentence for refusing to renounce her faith, has been flown to Italy on an Italian government jet, accompanied by that country's vice-minister for foreign affairs. Reuters reported that Italian television broadcast images of Ibrahim, 27, arriving at Rome's Ciampino airport accompanied by her family and Italian politician Lapo Pistelli. Earlier, Pistelli had posted a picture on his Facebook page depicting himself with Ibrahim and her two children. The caption, translated from Italian, read "With Meriam, Maya, Martin and [Ibrahim's husband] Daniel, a few minutes from Rome. Mission accomplished." Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was among those who greeted the plane, calling it "a day of celebration." Pistelli told The Daily Telegraph that Ibrahim and her family were due to fly to the United States in a few days. The Vatican said Pope Francis had "a very affectionate" m...

Matthew Clark: The Embassy of Sudan has release an official public statement that torturing and executing a woman for her Christian faith isn’t “ violating human rights .” Earlier this month a Sudanese judge sentenced Meriam Ibrahim to be flogged and executed for her Christian faith. She is currently on death row and just gave birth to an American girl . Her son, an American toddler , is also imprisoned with her. The Sudanese government’s statement acknowledging the case alleges that the media and world leaders “have mistakenly accused the government of Sudan of violating human rights.” Its outlandish attempt to deflect, defend, and distort reality is mindboggling. Sudan literally spends more time contesting the spelling of her name than dealing with the cold, harsh reality of its degradation of human rights. When it finally does address the heart of the issue, Sudan despicably attempts to justify the abhorrent torture and death sentence imposed upon Meriam. The Sudanese gove...

Guardian: Sudan is facing mounting condemnation for sentencing a pregnant woman to be whipped and then hanged for adultery and apostasy, and for keeping her shackled in prison with her toddler son a month before she is due to give birth. Governments, the UN and human rights groups have called on the Sudanese government to immediately release Meriam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, and overturn both her death sentence and sentence of 100 lashes. More than 100,000 people have backed a call by Amnesty International to release Ibrahim . Ibrahim was arrested after a Muslim relative claimed her marriage to a US citizen was invalid, and thus adulterous, because he is a Christian. Ibrahim was also found guilty of apostasy. But she said she had been brought up a Christian and refused to renounce her faith. Her lawyers have lodged an appeal against the sentence, which may be heard in Khartoum this week. Ibrahim is being held in harsh conditions and is constantly shackled, according to Amnesty. Her 20-month...

Matthew Clark: Martin Wani, a 20-month-old American boy , is suffering in prison as his mother, Meriam Ibrahim, is shackled on death row in Sudan because she is a Christian . Martin is a U.S. citizen, but the U.S. State Department refuses to even acknowledge this fact. It’s an unbelievable outrage on top of an already devastating situation. Martin’s father, Daniel Wani, Meriam’s husband, is an American Christian. In fact, on top of her death sentence, Meriam, who is pregnant with an American baby, has been sentenced to be beaten with 100 lashes after she delivers the baby because she married her Christian husband. The State Department was asked point blank about the American boy and his father’s citizenship this week. The State Department refused to answer stating, “I don’t have any more details to share,” pointing back to a recent statement by the White House that also fails to acknowledge their citizenship. Worse, Daniel, the husband and father, has reported that he had the do...

Guardian: Hundreds of Eritrean refugees have been enslaved in torture camps in Sudan and Egypt in the past 10 years, enduring weeks or months of violence and rape and extorted by traffickers often in collusion with state security forces. Some of the refugees have died, and many have been scarred for life – both physically and psychologically – as a result of mutilation, burning, beatings and sexual assault, according to dozens of testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch in a report published on Tuesday. The report, I Wanted to Lie Down and Die: Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt , says state authorities have failed to identify and prosecute perpetrators, and have often colluded with them in the kidnap and abuse of refugees. Traffickers demand ransom money to halt the torture, either from the refugees or from their relatives, who are forced to listen to their loved ones screaming down telephone lines. Even after money has changed hands, traffickers sometimes ...

Stars & Stripes: A platoon of U.S. Marines was moved from Djibouti to Uganda on Tuesday in the event the fighting in neighboring South Sudan deteriorates further. “This forward posturing provides the Combatant Commander additional options and the ability to more quickly respond, if required, to help protect U.S. personnel and facilities,” U.S. Africa Command said in a statement. AFRICOM said this contingent of some 40 Marines and a KC-130J aircraft are now in Entebbe, the capital of Uganda. The KC-130J transport plane has airborne assault capabilities, and is also used for medevac, search and rescue, and aerial refueling. “These movements were made with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Ugandan authorities,” AFRICOM said. A Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response unit was moved Monday from Moron, Spain, to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, after an incident in which four Navy SEALs were wounded during an aborted rescue operation in South Sudan. The SEALs were...

Jerusalem Post: Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other material in Iran believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, the UK-based Sunday Times reported, citing Israeli officials. According to the report, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated a cease-fire late last week. The shipment is said to include Iranian made Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense, the Sunday Times reported. Last month, following an air attack on a weapons plant near Khartoum, the Defense Ministry’s director of policy and political-military affairs accused Sudan of acting as a transit point for weapons shipments to Gaza. Amos Gilad accused Khartoum of aiding and abetting terrorism, and said the Sudanese regime was “supported by Iran” and was used as a route to transfer weapons to Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip via Egypt. ... The Isr...

Telegraph: 'Vulture spying for Israel' caught in Sudan The avian discovery was made in Kereinek, a town in the Darfur region of western Sudan, Israeli media have reported. Sudanese officials are said to have concluded that the bird was a secret agent after discovering it was fitted with GPS and solar-powered equipment capable of broadcasting images via satellite, according to Haaretz newspaper, which cited an Egyptian website, El Balad. The vulture also had a tag attached to its leg with "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem", leading to accusations that it was on an Israeli surveillance mission. The reports follow allegations by Sudan that Israel carried out the bombing of a munitions depot near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in October, after jamming the country's radar defences. Israel has made no comment on the raid, which left two people dead. The arms depot was said to be supplying weapons to the Palestinian mili...

Haaretz: Israeli spy satellites have spotted an Iranian ship being loaded with missiles that analysts say may be headed for Gaza, The Sunday Times reported. According to the report, the cargo may include Fajr-5 rockets, like those that were fired by Hamas toward Israel and the stockpiles of which the Israel Defense Forces depleted during the recent round of fighting across the Gaza border, in addition to Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, which could be stationed in Sudan to pose a direct threat to Israel. “With a lot of effort, Iran has skillfully built a strategic arm pointing at Israel from the south,” an Israeli source was quoted as saying. The cargo would travel via the Red Sea, Sudan and Egypt, following a well-established route used by Iran to smuggle arms into Gaza, the Times reported. “We believe that Iranian warships anchored in Eritrea will accompany the weapons ship as soon as it enters the Red Sea,” an Israeli source told the Times. The shipment was reportedly prepared last we...

Strategy Page: Israeli officials have quietly revealed that the force sent to bomb an Sudanese weapons plant on October 23rd consisted of eight F-15I fighter-bombers, four of them carrying two 2000 pound (909 kg) smart bombs each. In support were two combat search and rescue helicopters, a G-550 electronics warfare aircraft and a B-707 aerial refueling aircraft. The flight was about 1,900 kilometers each way. The eight bombs are believed to have destroyed 200 tons of Iranian made munitions destined for Hamas in Gaza. Only the four F-15Is with the bombs entered Sudanese air space, and the entire force promptly headed back north in international air space after the eight smart bombs hit their targets. Israel has space satellites for checking on the damage. ...  It is an interesting composition of force.  The Israelis were also able to spoof the Sudanese radar in the same way they spoofed Syrian radar in the raid on that country's nuke facility.   Iran has since b...

Benny Avni: The before-and-after satellite images said it all: First, the mysterious cargo was there, and then — puff — it was gone, leaving behind just large black holes in the ground. In between, Israeli planes flying in the dark of the desert night dropped just enough bombs on the Yarmouk military compound in Sudan to destroy the cargo, described in news accounts as “volatile.” The planes reportedly came and went undetected by Sudanese air defenses. Jerusalem’s silence aside (officials there won’t confirm or deny Khartoum’s contention that the Israeli Defense Force was behind the Oct. 23 attack), the daring and plainly successful operation sent a strong message to Sudan and Iran, two of its most powerful enemies. Whoever wins Tuesday’s election better take note, too. Sudan denies that the shipping containers seen in that “before” image (published by George Clooney’s Satellite Sentinel Project) held Iranian arms. But the two rogue countries don’t hide their ties: On Wednesday, two...

BBC: The Sudanese government says it believes Israel was responsible for explosions at a military factory in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday. Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli planes attacked the factory and two people were killed. Israel has not commented. Sudan has blamed Israel for such attacks in the past. Correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza. Leaked US State Department documents three years ago suggested that Sudan was secretly supplying Iranian arms to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In April 2011, Khartoum held Israel responsible for an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan. Israel, again, did not comment on the incident. Israel was also blamed for a strike on a convoy in north-eastern Sudan in 2009, but neither confirmed nor denied involvement.  In the latest incident fire engulfed the Yarmouk plant and nearby buildings after the explosions, with...

Fox News: Warlord Accused of Genocide to Get  Spot on UN Human Rights Council I suspect that turning human rights into a joke was their objective.  The council appears to exist so that Islamic religious bigots can use it to attack Israel while engaging in systematic slaughter

Miami Herald: The United States sent home to Sudan on Tuesday one of Guantánamo’s longest-held prisoners, a 52-year-old confessed al Qaida foot soldier and sometime driver for Osama bin Laden whose release was seen as a crucial test case of the Barack Obama-era war court. Ibrahim al Qosi pleaded guilty to terror charges in July 2010 in exchange for the possibility of release after serving a two-year sentence. U.S. troops spirited him from the remote base days after his war crimes sentence ran out and dropped him off in the capital city Khartoum about 8 p.m. Miami time Tuesday night, Wednesday in Sudan, U.S. government sources said. The Pentagon has not yet disclosed the transfer — which reduced the number of foreign prisoners at the Navy base in Cuba to 168 — to give Sudanese officials time to put the returnee in a rehabilitation program in the Horn of Africa nation. But the repatriation demonstrated that the Obama administration is still in the business of deal-making and dow...

BBC: Clashes have broken out between the armed forces of Sudan and South Sudan in several disputed border regions, both sides say. A spokesman for the South Sudan army says it is the biggest confrontation since independence. South Sudan seceded from Sudan last July after a long civil war. The nations have several outstanding issues, of which the biggest is oil. Sudan state radio says President Bashir has now put off a visit to South Sudan. He had been due to hold a summit next week with the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir. The clashes prompted President Kiir to warn of war. He said: "This morning the [Sudanese] air force came and bombed... areas in Unity state. "After this intensive bombardment our forces.... were attacked by the [Sudan Armed Forces] and militia."   Mr Kiir added: "It is a war that has been imposed on us again, but it is [Sudan] who are looking for it."   He said Southern forces had taken over the key oil field of He...