Afghanistan and Paris Terrorism while the French Vote and Trump Turns Around Obama's Soft Illegal Immigrant Stance

Other events took the spotlight in the news this weekend, especially the French presidentia election, but there are two tragic events that deserve attention -- the Taliban attack on Afghan soldiers and the terrorist attack on the Champs-Elysée in Paris that had an obvious effect on the French electorate. • • • THE TALIBAN ATTACK. As Afghanistan reels from the attack that killed at least 140 unarmed soldiers and wounded many others -- all of them coming from Friday prayers or their lunch -- President Ashraf Ghani has declared a national day of mourning. The attack by Taliban fighters disguised as fellow Afghan soldiers was the deadliest attack of its kind on an Afghan military base that is the headquarters of the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps, responsible for much of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz, a province which has seen heavy fighting. The Friday attack in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif highlights the difficulty of the long struggle by the Afghan government and its international allies to defeat the Taliban insurgency. After arriving in Mazar-i-Sharif to visit the base on Saturday, Ghani ordered that flags be flown at half mast on Sunday in memory of the troops who died. President Ghani also held an emergency meeting with senior security officials and called for a "serious" investigation into the attack. In a statement online, he condemned the attack as "cowardly" and the work of "infidels." Reuters reported that as many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles -- some of them wearing plaster limb casts to fake being injured soldiers -- made their way into the base and opened fire on mostly unarmed soldiers eating and leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, according to officials. They used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, and several detonated suicide vests packed with explosives. Witnesses described a scene of confusion as soldiers were uncertain about the attackers' true identity. One wounded army officer told Reuters : "It was a chaotic scene and I didn't know what to do. There was gunfire and explosions everywhere." • Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday the attack on the base was retribution for the recent killing of several senior Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan. The US military command in Kabul said an American air strike had killed a commander, Quari Tayib, and eight other Taliban on April 17. Mujahid said the attack on the base killed as many as 500 soldiers, including senior commanders. Four of the attackers were Taliban sympathizers who had infiltrated the army and served for some time, Mujahid said, but this was not confirmed by the Afghan army. • The NATO-led military coalition deploys advisors to the base to train and assist Afghan forces but coalition officials said no foreign troops had been hurt. US Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesperson for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission, said there were a small number of coalition force advisors on the base at the time of the attack. Salvin said : "They sheltered in place during the incident. The Afghan Special Forces brought the attack to an end." Coalition Force Commander US General John Nicholson said in a statement on Friday that the attack "shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban." • • • GERMANY'S ROLE IN EUROPEAN SEMI-CAPITULATION. Ironically, German forces have long led the international mission in northern Afghanistan where Friday's deadly attack occurred. In Berlin, military officials said the work of the mission on the base would be on hold for one or two days while the Afghan army investigated the attack, but would resume : "The situation shows that we cannot stop supporting, training and advising our Afghan partners." • It would probably be distasteful in the extreme but not surprising to the German military to read the Reuters article on Saturday that quoted a Der Spiegel magazine report : "Thousands of former Taliban fighters may have entered Germany over the past two years among an influx of more than a million migrants and refugees." Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) informed security officials that thousands of migrants had identified themselves as former Taliban insurgents during the asylum application process, Der Spiegel said, adding that at least 70 Afghan men were being investigated by Germany's over-stretched chief federal prosecutor, although it was not clear whether all of them were suspected of being active Taliban militants. Six are being held in investigatory detention and preliminary court hearings involving several others are due to start next week, the magazine added. No comment was made available to Reuters from the migration office or federal prosecutors. The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, under fire for allowing in so many migrants, especially after several militant attacks linked to migrants last year, has been actively deporting groups of rejected Afghan asylum seekers. Merkel, seeking a fourth term in a September 24 election, recently defended the increase deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers, saying all other European Union countries were doing the same. She said about 55% of Afghans were granted refugee status in Germany, while 45% were turned down. • • • THE PARIS TERRORIST ATTACK -- TRUMP HIT AGAIN FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH. That bastion of extreme leftist opinion masquerading as journalism, MSNBC, attacked President Trump for calling Thursday's Paris attack that killed one police officer and seriously wounded two others "another terrorist attack." In the moments following President Trump’s Thursday press conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, MSNBC and its mindless panelists swiftly condemned Trump for referring to the deadly shooting on the Champs-Élysées as a terrorist attack. MSNBC host Brian Williams, the disgraced NBC news anchor who lost his job for lying, led the charge : “President Trump said right off the bat to a question looks like another terrorist attack in France that we have not been comfortable to call it that or report that but we'll have more reporting upcoming.” That was followed by NBC's Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd complaining about Trump “getting ahead of the facts” and trying to blame Paris itself for being attacked -- a truly dispicable affront to France, which is on an all-hands alert to stop terrorists. Todd said : "And then I am with you, look, the only thing on the what's going on in Paris, you know, always a dangerous time to be -- you know, the coverage is getting ahead of the facts and I think, you know, the President was referring to what he was saying he's watching on television." • All this occurred while French television was speaking to Paris police who were indicating that what took place "was terrorism." The frustration of President Trump was clear in his statement that the shooting "looks like another terrorist attack." He and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni offered their condolences to France. It is outrageous that these fake news comedians who cannot even call a terrorist attack by its name -- I thought that went out with Obama -- have the gall to blame President Trump for being honest and calling the Paris attack correctly, and then tossing in the CYA statement that Paris is dangerous -- was Todd trying to say that because there are terrorist threats in France, the Paris attack was not "terrorist"? • The fact is that a police officer was killed and two were seriously injured when a gunman opened fire late Thursday on the famed Champs-Élysées before he was shot dead. The police were brave in confronting the attacker who was firing a Kalashnikov. Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told the AP the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station at the center of the avenue popular with tourists. French President Francois Hollande almost immediately said in a TV statement to the French people that he was convinced the circumstances of the Paris shooting pointed to a terrorist act : "We need to realize our security, law enforcement forces targeted have the full support of the nation." The French Interior Ministry said the shooting attack "deliberately targeted" police officers guarding the area. Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that a man came out of a car and opened fire on the police vehicle. "We are faced with a specifically high terrorist threat," he told reporters, referring to the French concern that terrorists would try to disrupt the presidential balloting on Sunday. The attacker was known by secret service in France as an extremist, officials confirmed to Fox News. • The beauty of the French reaction occurred on Saturday when thousands of Parisians filled streets and squares waving posters and carrying banners in support of their police -- balloons were released and flowers and candles lit. • • • "IT JUST NEVER ENDS." Trump is right about that if he meant Europe. And France is at the epicenter of both the islamic terrorist attacks in the EU and the fight against them. On Sunday, 20,000 police and 7,000 military were deployed to ensure that the first round ofthe presidential election went without a hitch. The incident on Thursday was similar to two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month. But, the virtual omni-presence of military and police on French streets, shopping and tourist areas, and in rail stations and airports, show the French determination to keep its people and visitors safe -- if anyone is "safe" in Europe these days. France has been in a state of emergency following a series of terrorist attacks, including the the November 2015 attacks, which targeted the Bataclan concert hall and Stade de France sports arena in Paris and the deadly truck attack in Nice on Bastille Day in July 2016. The state of emergency has been extended by several parliamentary votes and remains in effect. • • • OBAMA FAILED TO CONTROL ILLEGALS. German Chancellor Merkel isn't the only head of state who allowed her country to be overrun by uncontrolled illegal immigrants. Breitbart published an article on Saturday about a new report from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Inspector General (OIG) that reveals startling failures during the Obama administration that allowed 2.2 million deportable aliens to remain free on American streets in a “supervised” status. Aliens with criminal convictions accounted for nearly 400,000 of that total. The report issued by ICE Inspector General (IG) John Roth last week details several failures under Obama that built a tremendous backlog for deportation officers (DO). Those failures, states the report, include imbalanced workloads for DOs, unachievable goals, a lack of clear policies and procedures,and lack of training. The Obama Administration announced its “Priority Enforcement Program” (PEP) in November 2014, claiming it would focus on the removal of certain criminal aliens including those convicted of felonies, multiple misdemeanors, and “significant” misdemeanors (e.g., domestic violence, sexual abuse, and sexual exploitation). It also stated that it would prioritize aliens who entered, or re-entered, the country illegally and could not prove continuous presence since January 1, 2014. But, the real result was a backing off from detaining illegals and a seriously exaggerated caseload of undetained illegals per deportation officer that, for example, was 10,500 in Washington DC in the summer of 2016. • As a result of this failed program, ICE DOs were supervising more than 2.2 million undetained aliens as of the end of August 2016. Of that number, 368,574 of the aliens were convicted criminals. • In July 2016, GOP Senator John Cornyn of Texas introduced a bill to provide remedies for countries that refuse to accept the deportation of their citizens. The measure is similar to legislation filed by Representative Ted Poe of Texas that called for restricting diplomatic visas to countries that deny or unreasonably delay the repatriation of their citizens subject to deportation from the US. In July 2016, the Center for Immigration Studies reported that nearly 1,000,000 illegal aliens ignored deportation orders from immigration judges, including nearly 200,000 criminal aliens. The CIS report confirms the refusal of countries to accept repatriation as one of the primary causes contributing to the high number of non-removals by ICE. • But, since President Trump’s election on November 8, each month shows a decline in apprehension. The two full months following the inauguration show a dramatic drop to levels not seen in the past five years, decreasing by more than 75%. Border Patrol agents arrested 16,600 illegal border crossers during the month of March. The February report indicated 23,570 apprehensions along the southwestern border with Mexico. This represents the lowest number of border apprehension in the past five years. The apprehension of Family Unit Aliens (FMUA) decreased in March by 64% from the previous month while the apprehension of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) fell by 46%. FMUA apprehensions have fallen by 88% since President Trump took office. • • • DEAR READERS, in the US, as in Europe, it is possible to control borders and prevent the majority of illegal entries. But, it demands strong leadership to make clear that the borders are being patrolled and illegal immigrants will be refused entry. This is not the whole solution, but sometimes just following the law works wonders. • And, the same rationale can be applied to the EU plague of ISIS and al-Qaida. Although the strike at the Afghan military base is miles from Europe and the borders of France and appears to not be in any way connected to Sunday's French election, it speaks to the heart and soul of France and the outlook for the longevity of the EU and of the West. The EU and life in Europe is now in the crosshairs of ISIS/al-Qaida islamic terrorists, but neither Europe nor the West in general has as yet developed a unified plan or even a "fall back" position in the war on terrorism that we are thus far sadly losing. The West and democratic nations everywhere need to regroup and press forward in a co-ordinated effort -- not with a multi-headed NATO-led force but with a "Supreme Allied Commander," much like the position General Eisenhower held during the allied assault on Hitler during World War II. The rules of engagement should also be similar to those under which Hitler was defeated -- Whatever It Takes to Win. A cleansing sweep through all countries up to the borders of the Middle East, and then microscopic examination of infiltration in those Middle East countries that seek democratic government and adherence to human rights, the rule of law, and religious freedom. Countries and allied groups should always enter a conflict to win -- to fight for principles and ideals, not tomorrow's mainstream media reports or the next opinion poll. • And, now for the French election results. Emmanuel Macron placed first with a projected 23.7% of hte vote. Marine Le Pen placed second at 21.7% of the vote. And François Fillon is at 19.8%, while Jean-Luc Melenchon is at 19.2%. The next two weeks will see a battle between the center-left "elite" Macron and the nationalist-populist conservative Le Pen as they seek broad support before the May 7 vote that will see one of them elected President of France.