Author: PolitCens

…

Washington   — Largely overlooked in the massive foreign aid package signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday is a measure that targets the trafficking of a dangerous drug in Syria. 

The Illicit Captagon Trafficking Suppression Act is part of the package providing military and other aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It provides for new sanctions against individuals, entities and networks affiliated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who produce and traffic Captagon.   

Captagon is an addictive, amphetamine-like drug that is cheaply produced. Since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011, the country has become a regional hub for the production and smuggling of Captagon. 

“This is a good step towards accountability and hindering and dismantling Assad’s illicit drug trade in Syria and the Middle East,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a Washington-based advocacy group, said in a statement.  

The measure is seen as a continuation of previous congressional actions that have targeted the growing Captagon trade in Syria.  

Mohammed Alaa Ghanem, policy chief of the American Coalition for Syria, said the new measure was sought by the Syrian American community “to address Assad’s pervasive involvement in the Captagon drug trade, which has tragically transformed Syria into a narco-state.” 

“We are encouraged by the enactment of this bill into law,” Ghanem told VOA in an email. “Its inclusion in the comprehensive legislative package which was signed by the president into law highlights Congress’ dedication to the objectives laid out in the original Captagon Act that Congress passed in Dec 2022.”  

The bill was introduced to Congress by Republican Representative French Hill from Arkansas, who said Wednesday on X, “With my bill now signed into law, those directly involved with the proliferation of this dangerous drug will be targeted and sanctioned. 

“It’s crucial that we take further action to disrupt and dismantle the production and trafficking of captagon as it generates billions of illicit funding for the Assad regime and devastates families in the region,” he said.   

Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, two major backers of the Syrian government, have also been involved in drug trafficking in Syria. Observers say the trade also has funded Tehran’s military activities in the region.   

Caroline Rose, director of the Strategic Blind Spots Portfolio at the Washington-based New Lines Institute, said the bill is part of a broader U.S. strategy that seeks to curb Captagon trafficking and production in the Middle East.  

“We have seen two rounds of sanctions against Captagon agents imposed by the U.S. Treasury in the last two years, so this will keep the pressure on the U.S. inter-agency strategy to identify more eligible Captagon producers and traffickers to target,” she said.
…

As the legislative branch of the United States government, Congress is responsible for proposing and passing the nation’s laws. But in recent years, fewer and fewer laws have been making their way to the president’s desk to be signed.
…

…

In a dramatic surge, U.S. border patrol authorities detained more than 24,000 Chinese citizens crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2023, a 12-fold increase from the previous year. Many come seeking asylum, and among those that do, a small group of China’s ethnic Hui Muslims stands out. Aron Ranen brings us the story from the Big Apple.
…

When a person dies, it often falls to their children, loved ones, lawyers or even friends to sort through the things they’ve left behind. Sometimes, those things are unfinished projects or hobbies, that’s where the group Loose Ends comes in. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
…

The Independent Task Force on the Application of National Security Memorandum-20 to Israel submitted this report on April 18, 2024.
…

…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted late Tuesday to send legislation to President Joe Biden that would require Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the popular short video app’s U.S. assets within about nine months or face a

Ban.

The measure, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday, has been driven by concerns that China could access Americans’ data or surveil them with the app and Biden has said he will sign it into law.

“For years we’ve allowed the Chinese Communist party to control one of the most popular apps in America that was dangerously shortsighted,” said Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. “A new law is going to require its Chinese owner to sell the app. This is a good move for America.”

TikTok, which says it has not shared and would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, has argued the law amounts to a ban that would violate the U.S. free speech rights of its users.

The company did not immediately comment but over the weekend, it told its employees that it would quickly go to court to try to block the legislation.

“We’ll continue to fight, as this legislation is a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans on TikTok… This is the beginning, not the end of this long process,” TikTok told employees on Saturday in an email seen by Reuters.

The Senate voted 79 to 18 in favor of the bill. 
…

…

…

Washington — The U.S. ramped up its sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, designating four people and two companies it says were “involved in malicious cyber activity” on behalf of the country’s military.  

“These actors targeted more than a dozen U.S. companies and government entities through cyber operations, including spear phishing and malware attacks,” the U..S Treasury Department said in a statement. 

The individuals and companies were working “on behalf of” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC), the Treasury said. 

“Iranian malicious cyber actors continue to target U.S. companies and government entities in a coordinated, multi-pronged campaign intended to destabilize our critical infrastructure and cause harm to our citizens,” the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in a statement. 

“The United States will continue to leverage our whole-of-government approach to expose and disrupt these networks’ operations,” he added.  

Tuesday’s sanctions are the latest to be levied against Tehran by the United States and its allies for supporting anti-Israel proxies in the Middle East and for providing military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.  

Last week, the U..S and Britain announced widespread sanctions against Iran’s military drone program in response to Tehran’s large-scale attack against Israel earlier this month.  

That attack came in response to an April 1 airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus — widely blamed on Israel — that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals. 

A day after those sanctions were unveiled, the U.S. fined a Thailand-based firm $20 million for more than 450 possible Iran sanctions violations. 

They included processing close to $300 million in wire transfers for a company jointly owned by the National Petroleum Company of Iran.  

Alongside Tuesday’s sanctions, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have indicted the four individuals in question “for their roles in cyber activity targeting U.S. entities,” the Treasury Department said.

 
…

…

…

…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to China this week for talks with senior officials in Shanghai and Beijing to discuss a range of issues, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Middle East crisis, the South China Sea, and human rights. State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching has more.
…

NEW YORK — Columbia University held virtual classes Monday on the sixth continuous day of student protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

University president Nemat “Minouche” Shafik sent an email to the Columbia community announcing that classes would be held virtually. 

“The decibel of our disagreements has only increased in recent days,” Shafik wrote. “These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas. We need a reset.”

More than 100 students were arrested at the school April 18, after the university’s president authorized police to clear away protesters. Some of the students also received suspension notices from the school. 

Columbia’s action prompted an onslaught of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at other universities and responses from faculty and politicians.

The arrests occurred after students calling themselves Columbia University Apartheid Divest erected dozens of tents on a lawn at the center of the campus, establishing it as the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

Following the arrests and the demolition of the original encampment, another pro-Palestine encampment sprung on an adjacent lawn.

Students aren’t the only demonstrators experiencing tensions on campus and with the university administration.

Monday morning, Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai was denied entry to the university for an attempted pro-Israel counter-protest on the occupied lawn after he refused to comply with the university’s counter-protest policies. 

“I am a professor here; I have every right to be everywhere on campus. You cannot let people who support Hamas on campus, and me, a professor, not on campus. Let me in now,” he said after Columbia COO Cass Halloway stopped him and other pro-Israel protesters at the entrance gates.

He has repeatedly called student protesters “violent maniacs” and “pro-Hamas terrorists.” A petition calling for Davidai’s dismissal has amassed nearly 9,000 signatures as of last Thursday night; additional grievances have been shared on social media and with the university.

Some Jewish students at Columbia say that many criticisms of Israel are antisemitic and make them feel unsafe.

Since the arrests, many student groups and Columbia affiliate groups have released statements condemning the university’s decision to arrest students, citing discriminatory enforcement of rules that limit students’ freedom of speech. 

Monday, hundreds of faculty members from across Columbia and Barnard staged a rally and walkout to urge the university to reverse the students’ suspensions. Some faculty members wore their graduation regalia and sashes reading “We support students.”

The backlash from the protests has even reached the ear of U.S. President Joe Biden. When asked about the recent events at the university by reporters Monday, Biden said, “I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

Other campuses, such as Yale, Stanford, and New York University have also rallied around the Palestinian cause, calling for their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel and for a ceasefire in Gaza. Many have put up tent encampments on their campuses. About 50 students were arrested at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, Monday after they refused to leave their encampment.

Student protesters at Columbia have urged organizers of rallies outside the campus to “remember what we are protesting for” and focus on the war in Gaza, rather than just expressing solidarity with protesters. 

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and the Associated Press.

 
…