Turkey: A Blind Eye Toward Turkey’s Crimes | Global Research - by Robert Parry

Theoretically, it would be a great story for the American press: an autocrat so obsessed with overthrowing the leader of a neighboring country that he authorizes his intelligence services to collaborate with terrorists in staging a lethal sarin attack to be blamed on his enemy and thus trick major powers to launch punishing bombing raids against the enemy’s military.

And, after that scheme failed to achieve the desired intervention, the autocrat continues to have his intelligence services aid terrorists inside the neighboring country by providing weapons and safe transit for truck convoys carrying the terrorists’ oil to market. The story gets juicier because the autocrat’s son allegedly shares in the oil profits.

To make the story even more compelling, an opposition leader braves the wrath of the autocrat by seeking to expose these intelligence schemes, including the cover-up of key evidence. The autocrat’s government then seeks to prosecute the critic for “treason.”

But the problem with this story, as far as the American government and press are concerned, is that the autocratic leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is in charge of Turkey, a NATO ally and his hated neighbor is the much demonized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Major U.S. news outlets and political leaders also bought into the sarin deception and simply can’t afford to admit that they once again misled the American people on a matter of war.

The Official Story of the sarin attack – as presented by Secretary of State John Kerry, Human Rights Watch and other “respectable” sources – firmly laid the blame for the Aug. 21, 2013 atrocity killing hundreds of civilians outside Damascus on Assad. That became a powerful “group think” across Official Washington.

Though a few independent media outlets, including Consortiumnews.com, challenged the rush to judgment and noted the lack of evidence regarding Assad’s guilt, those doubts were brushed aside. (In an article on Aug. 30, 2013, I described the administration’s “Government Assessment” blaming Assad as a “dodgy dossier,” which offered not a single piece of verifiable proof.)

However, as with the “certainty” about Iraq’s WMD a decade earlier, Every Important Person shared the Assad-did-it “group think.” That meant — as far as Official Washington was concerned — that Assad had crossed President Barack Obama’s “red line” against using chemical weapons. A massive U.S. retaliatory bombing strike was considered just days away.

But Obama – at the last minute – veered away from launching those military attacks, with Official Washington concluding that Obama had shown “weakness” by not following through. What was virtually unreported was that U.S. intelligence analysts had doubts about Assad’s guilt and suspected a trap being laid by extremists.

Despite those internal questions, the U.S. government and the compliant mainstream media publicly continued to push the Assad-did-it propaganda line. In a formal address to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, 2013, Obama declared, “It’s an insult to human reason and to the legitimacy of this institution to suggest that anyone other than the regime carried out this attack.”

Later, a senior State Department official tried to steer me toward the Assad-is-guilty assessment of a Britisblogger then known as Moses Brown, a pseudonym for Eliot Higgins, who now runs an outfit called Bellingcat which follows an effective business model by reinforcing whatever the U.S. propaganda machine is churning out on a topic, except having greater credibility by posing as a “citizen blogger.”

Read more: A Blind Eye Toward Turkey’s Crimes | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization

US Political Environment: Will the Republican Party Survive the 2016 Election? - by David Frum

The angriest and most pessimistic people in America aren’t the hipster protesters who flitted in and out of Occupy Wall Street.

They aren’t the hashtavists of #BlackLivesMatter. They aren’t the remnants of the American labor movement or the savvy young dreamers who confront politicians with their American accents and un-American legal status.

The angriest and most pessimistic people in America are the people we used to call Middle Americans. Middle-class and middle-aged; not rich and not poor; people who are irked when asked to press 1 for English, and who wonder how white male became an accusation rather than a description.

You can measure their pessimism in polls that ask about their expectations for their lives—and for those of their children. On both counts, whites without a

Read more: Will the Republican Party Survive the 2016 Election? - The Atlantic

Sweden: Ericsson and Apple sign patent deal

Swedish mobile telecom gear maker Ericsson said it had signed a patent licence deal with Apple over technology that helps smartphones and tablets connect to mobile networks.

The deal ends a year-long dispute with Apple, one of the biggest legal battles in mobile technology.

Ericson said it would pave the way for cooperation between the companies on future technologies.

Read: Ericsson and Apple sign patent deal - RTÉ News

Turkey: The Fallacies of Treating Turkey as Europe’s Gatekeeper - by Emiliano Alessandri,

Frightened by the social, political, and potential security implications of the aggravating refugee crisis, the EU has decided to endow Turkey with the role of Europe’s “gatekeeper.”

This is problematic not least because the country is one of the EU’s most vulnerable neighbors, but also one that is deeply implicated in the Syrian proxy war and beset by disputes with countries all around it.\

What is more, the EU is pursuing this at a critical time for Turkey. Authoritarian tendencies are no longer limited following the resounding victory of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in November – its fifth consecutive success since 2002 – which resolved the hung parliament following the June election impasse.

Read more: The Fallacies of Treating Turkey as Europe’s Gatekeeper - The Globalist

Gay Community: Slovenians reject same-sex marriage in referendum

Slovenians rejected a same-sex marriage law by a large margin in a referendum on Sunday, according to preliminary referendum results.

The results released Sunday by authorities show 63 percent voted against a bill that defines marriage as a union of two adults, while 37 percent were in favor.

The results were incomplete, but were unlikely to change significantly in the final tally.

Parliament introduced marriage equality in March, but conservative groups, backed by the Catholic Church, pushed through a popular vote on the issue.

Read more: Europe - Slovenians reject same-sex marriage in referendum - France 24

Spanish election: PM Rajoy's party loses majority

Spain's governing conservative party has won the most seats in the general election but has lost its majority and must now try to form a coalition.

With almost all votes counted, the Popular Party (PP) had 123 seats; the Socialists 90 and the anti-austerity Podemos party 69.

The liberal Ciudadanos party was in fourth place with 40 seats.

Podemos and Ciudadanos fielded national candidates for the first time, boosted by discontent among the electorate.

The PP and the Socialists have alternated running the government for more than three decades.

A spokesman for Podemos said the results showed that two-party politics in Spain had ended.
"We are entering a new era in our country," said Inigo Errejon.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's PP needed 176 seats to form a majority. It had 186 seats in the outgoing parliament.

"I will try to form a government, a stable government," Mr Rajoy told PP supporters, after the final results were announced.

Read more: Spanish election: PM Rajoy's party loses majority - BBC News

Europe's year from hell may presage worse to come - by Paul Taylor

By any measure, it has been a year from hell for the European Union. And if Britons vote to leave the bloc, next year could be worse.

Not since 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and communism crumbled across eastern Europe, has the continent's geopolitical kaleidoscope been shaken up so vigorously.

But unlike that year of joyous turmoil, which paved the way for a leap forward in European integration, the crises of 2015 have threatened to tear the Union apart and left it battered, bruised, despondent and littered with new barriers.

The collapse of the Iron Curtain led within two years to the agreement to create a single European currency and, over the following 15 years, to the eastward enlargement of the EU and NATO up to the borders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

That appeared to confirm founding father Jean Monnet's prediction that a united Europe would be built out of crises. 

In contrast, this year's political and economic shocks over an influx of migrants, Greek debt, Islamist violence and Russian military action have led to the return of border controls in many places, the rise of populist anti-EU political forces and recrimination among EU governments.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who describes his EU executive as the "last chance Commission", warned that the EU's open-border Schengen area of passport-free travel was in danger and the euro itself would be unlikely to survive if internal borders were shut.

Juncker resorted to gallows humor after the last of 12 EU summits this year, most devoted to last-gasp crisis management: "The crises that are with us will remain and others will come."

His gloomy tone was a reality check on the "we can do it" spirit that German Chancellor Angela Merkel - Europe's pre-eminent leader - has sought to apply to the absorption of hundreds of thousands of mostly Syrian refugees.

Merkel has received little support from her EU partners in sharing the migrant burden. Most have insisted the priority is sealing Europe's external borders rather than welcoming more than a token number of refugees in their own countries. 

This is partly due to latent resentment of German dominance of the EU and payback for its reluctance to share more financial risks in the euro zone. 

Some partners also accuse Berlin of hypocrisy over its energy ties with Russia, while friends such as France, the Netherlands and Denmark are simply petrified by the rise of right-wing anti-immigration populists at home.

One of the sharpest rebuffs to sharing more of the refugee burden came from close ally Paris. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said of Merkel's open door policy toward Syrian refugees: "It was not France that said 'Come!'."

Read more: Europe's year from hell may presage worse to come - Yahoo News

EU Migrant crisis: EU border security becomes new mantra -by Laurence Peter

It is often said that crises in the EU give an impetus for further integration - "more Europe".

There was a new example of that at this week's Brussels summit.

EU leaders agreed on the need for a new "European Border and Coast Guard", with greater powers and resources than the current Frontex border agency.

The European Commission stressed that the new force would not usurp the authority of national border staff - it would work alongside them.

Controversially, however, if a member state fails in its duty to protect the EU's external borders, during an emergency, the Commission could deploy EU guards without needing the state's permission.

And part of the guards' remit would be to send failed asylum seekers back - though currently such "returns" are handled by national forces.

 Read more: Migrant crisis: EU border security becomes new mantra - BBC News

Poland: Alternative energy: Polish wind farm sector faces uncertainty over new planning rules - by Agnieszka Barteczko

Windpower in Poland

Poland is considering a ban on building wind farms close to houses, a move the industry fears may block new investment in renewable energy sources and bolster coal’s role in the economy.

Under European Union rules, Poland – which generates most of its electricity from highly polluting coal – has to produce 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 compared to around 12 percent now.

Since 2005, installed wind farm capacity has risen from 83 megawatt (MW) to more than 4 gigawatt (GW), taking Poland closer to the target but more is needed to comply with the EU target.

A parliament committee asked the government earlier this week to look into how wind farms are being built in the countryside. It said new regulations were needed regarding the distance between wind farms and houses.

Read more: Polish wind farm sector faces uncertainty over new planning rules | NewsDaily

Scotland and Donald Trump: Wind Farms and Broken Promises: Donald Trump's Tortured History With Scotland - by David A. Graham

Donald Trump is a man without a country. The Queens neighborhood where he grew up has changed radically, and is now home to some of the Muslims he disparages. In New York, a left-leaning city and state, his presidential run is met with derision and embarrassment.

And then there’s Scotland. Trump has long sought Alban affection, only to be met—in large part—with a Caledonian cold shoulder. From the Borders to the Hebrides, Trump has sought to emphasize his ties with Scotland; in return, he’s earned loathing in Midlothian and antipathy in Ayrshire. The latest blow came this week, when the U.K. Supreme Court rejected his efforts to block the installation of wind turbines off the coast of Aberdeen, which Trump argued would sully Scotland’s pristine beauty—and the view from his golf development.

It’s the latest in a series of recent slights, including losing his status as an honorary ambassador for Scottish business and being stripped of an honorary degree from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Trump lashed out at the decision, accusing the Scottish government of a “foolish, small-minded, and parochial mentality.” But he hasn’t always felt that way, and has long courted Scots. The tale begins with Trump’s mother.

Read more: Wind Farms and Broken Promises: Donald Trump's Tortured History With Scotland - The Atlantic

Poverty USA: The bogus, self-serving notion that poverty is complicated - by Jeff Spross

Poverty is a "mysterious, unknowable, negative spiral-loop that some people find themselves in." So said New York Times philosopher-columnist David Brooks, in the keynote for the release of a Brookings and American Enterprise Institute (AEI) report on poverty solutions.

"Some problems are clock problems," Brooks continued, according to a transcript from sociologist Philip Cohen. "You can take them apart into individual pieces and fix them. Some problems are cloud problems. You can't take a cloud apart. It's a dynamic system that is always interspersed."

This same bogus idea — poverty is so mysterious and complicated! — can also be seen when House Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP presidential hopefuls attribute poverty to everything from the breakdown of marriage to despair and hopelessness and the loss of "friendship, hope, and love." It's why the Brookings-AEI report is a full-court press to promote marriage, tweak the education system, and encourage work all at once.

"We have to be humble" in tackling poverty, Brooks continued, "because it's so gloomy and so complicated."

In this view, poverty is a big social ecosystem. At the individual level, it's all about personal psychology, habits, and values, and how they influence one's ability to be a good neighbor, spouse, parent, and worker. At the community level, there are the cultural values that get passed around, along with the norms and ideas of what constitutes acceptable behavior, which do the same. It's all interconnected with work and the economy in an infinitely complex way. It's a cloud problem.

But is it really? There's a strong argument that poverty is actually a clock problemLet's start with the jobs supply. Conservatives themselves point to having a job as one of the key ways individuals and communities build habits and norms and values. You can "promote" work all you want; it won't matter if there flat out aren't enough jobs. And America has done a terrible job maintaining a sufficient supply of jobs — to a degree that's really shocking, all the more so because it's treated as normal in the public discourse.

Full employment — where the supply of available workers is even with, or lower than, the supply of jobs — has been missing since the late 1970s, other than a brief burst in the late 1990s. We've always had booms and busts, but the booms have stopped reaching full employment for any sustained period. This cycle is especially damaging for the poorest Americans. Economist Lane Kenworthy found that, while the poorest 10 percent of Americans made gains during economic recoveries, recent recessions have wiped out those gains completely.

Moreover, even for people who are working, the absence of full employment means they have no bargaining power, because there's always someone more desperate waiting to take their job. Wage growth stagnates, low wages become more prevalent, and more people are demeaned and mistreated on the job — not exactly ideal, if you're looking to build habits and norms and a social fabric around employment.

The jobs supply comes relatively close to being a "clock problem." We know that a certain set of macroeconomic policies — deficit spending, and loose money from the Fed — boost the supply of available work. The government chose to use these policies to maintain full employment in the mid-century, and then it chose to stop.

Next, let's talk money. If people don't have enough of it, they can't access the necessities of life, and that's what poverty is at the most basic level. But buying necessities also means "buying goods and services." And if people in a community can't do that, then businesses there can't thrive or grow, and there won't be jobs there. On top of that, holding down a job usually requires people to have a reliable place to live, a car, gas, or access to public transit, all of which require money.

If this were a primitive agrarian economy, and someone who wasn't doing anything economically productive wanted to do so, they could just stake out a plot of unclaimed land, start growing or building something, and go. In the modern world — where land and infrastructure is governed by private property rights, where we trade money rather than goods, and where labor is highly divided and specialized — it's much different. People need access to the economic feedback loop to work for pay. They can't just conjure jobs out of thin air by dint of will or work ethic. And paradoxically, getting that access requires already having money, at both the individual and collective level.

This is one of the great under-appreciated strengths of federal spending on the welfare state and general public investment. It acts as an "aggregate demand management system," maintaining a (far too low) baseline for economic activity across America's communities, along with enabling people to buy basic food, shelter, etc.

Now, Brooks regularly claims the U.S. already spends enough on the poor to lift them out of poverty, so the flaw must be elsewhere. But this is just wrong. The U.S. welfare state is too small, too diffuse and too ill-targeted to do it's job. Other Western countries spend gobs more than we do, and get far more poverty reduction.

Heck, as Cohen noted, the very same release event Brooks spoke at held up the decline in elderly poverty as a big American success. Coincidentally, the elderly are the one group in America with a whole government program devoted to cutting them regular checks. It's called Social Security.

In other words, lack of money is even more a "clock problem" than lack of sufficient jobs. You literally just give people money!

So it's incredibly galling when Brooks declares that "surely the solution is to throw everything we think works at the problem simultaneously." Because this is exactly what he and his Brookings-AEI colleagues are not willing to do. Conservatives ferociously oppose including welfare state solutions or jobs stimulus in the list of stuff getting thrown at the wall to see what sticks. So they aren't included.

Beyond that, does anyone actually know how to encourage healthy marriages? In the deep sense? What about how to heal the social fabric, re-engineer whole cultures, or build new norms, habits, values, or whatever? This stuff gets us deep into the murky waters of the human condition. There are a lot of adjectives for trying to tackle these challenges head on, but "humble" isn't one of them.

By comparison, expanding the welfare state and having the government borrow, spend, and print money is easy as pie. That might not be sufficient to heal the social fabric. But it certainly seems necessary.

So maybe we shouldn't define "poverty" in such sweeping terms to begin with. Maybe we should just define it as not having enough money, and by extension not having a job, and try to solve that first.

From:: The bogus, self-serving notion that poverty is complicated

EU Refugee crisis: 'Economic migrants' and asylum seekers are coming to Europe for the same reasons, report says - by Lizzie Dearden

Despite the British Government's efforts to distinguish between “genuine” refugees and economic migrants, a report has found that the motivations for both groups to risk their lives in desperate attempts to reach Europe are often very similar.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) , a UK-based independent think tank urged European leaders to develop a broader understanding of what causes people to migrate in order to respond to the current crisis.

Its Why People Move report said: “The evidence reveals that the asylum-seekers and economic migrants often have similar reasons for choosing to make the dangerous journey to Europe and one person may fall into both of these categories at the same time.

Read more: Refugee crisis: 'Economic migrants' and asylum seekers are coming to Europe for the same reasons, report says | Europe | News | The Independent

European Unity: After Paris: Unify Fights Against Austerity/Climate Change - by Asbjørn Wahl

The Climate Summit in Paris has once again reminded us of how vulnerable we are on planet earth. However, humanity is faced with a number of deep and challenging crises: economic, social, political, over food – and, of course, over climate change, which is threatening the very existence of millions of people. These crises have many of the same root causes, going to the core of our economic system.

Strong vested interests are involved. It is thus an interest-based struggle we are facing. All over the world, people are organising and fighting against the effects of the crises. Trade unions are heavily involved in many of these struggles, and so are many other movements – single-issue as well as broader social movements.

Increasingly, our entire social model, the way we produce and consume, is under question. The way out of these crises requires a system change and this can only be achieved if we are able considerably to shift the balance of power in society. This leaves us with the challenge of unifying movements and continuing struggles – particularly to bring anti-austerity together with the struggle against climate change.

Read more: After Paris: Unify Fights Against Austerity/Climate Change

Africa - Libya’s rival factions sign UN-brokered unity government deal

Delegates from Libya's warring factions signed a U.N.-brokered agreement to form a national government on Thursday, a deal that Western powers hope will bring stability and help fight a growing Islamic State presence.

Read more: Africa - Libya’s rival factions sign UN-brokered unity government deal - France 24

North Korea - Christianity: 60-year-old pastor gets hard labour for life in North Korea

North Korea’s highest court has sentenced a South Korea-born Canadian pastor to hard labour for life for subversion, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday (December 16).

Hyeon Soo Lim, the head pastor at a Toronto church that is one of Canada’s largest, has been held by North Korea since February. Earlier this year, he had appeared on North Korean state media confessing to crimes against the state.

North Korea’s supreme court said Lim had attempted to overthrow the North Korean government and undermine its social system with “religious activities” for the past 18 years, Xinhua reported.

The court held that he fabricated anti-North Korean propaganda as part of a US and South Korean-led “human rights racket” against the country, according to Xinhua.

The court said Lim confessed to helping people defect from North Korea, and said he had met the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia regarding the plans, Xinhua reported.

Most North Korean defectors fleeing the isolated, repressive country travel to South Korea via China and Southeast Asia, although it is possible to defect via Mongolia.

Read more: 60-year-old pastor gets hard labour for life in North Korea | euronews, world news

US Presidential Elections: GOP terrorist approach dangerous says Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton

Just hours before the GOP presidential debate Tuesday, Hillary Clinton got out in front of the Republican contenders with a forceful speech ridiculing their approach to terrorism and warning that some of the very slogans they have been using to tout their national security plans are making Americans less safe.

At a time voter attention has shifted from the economy to personal safety and the threat of terrorist attacks, Clinton used the speech in Minnesota to cast herself as the steady, experienced hand in a presidential race otherwise dominated by what she characterized as dangerous blowhards.

“Promising to carpet-bomb until the desert glows doesn't make you sound strong,” Clinton said, referring to a vow made by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “It makes you sound like you are in over your head.”

She also delivered a rebuttal to some of the more incendiary remarks made by the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump.

“Bluster and bigotry are not credentials for becoming commander in chief,” Clinton said.

Clinton characterized the Republican plan for fighting Islamic State militants as having little substance. But she also seemed to be testing a slogan of her own in this new phase of the campaign, in which the issue of terrorism is overriding all others.

“We elect a president in part, in large part, to keep us safe,” Clinton said.

As she has in the past, Clinton argued that Trump — who has called to ban all foreign Muslims from entering the United States — is not an outlier in the GOP field.

“The truth is many of those candidates have also said disgraceful things about Muslims,” she said. “This kind of divisive rhetoric actually plays into the hands of terrorists.... It alienates partners and isolates moderates we need around the world.

EU-Digest

EU Sakharov Prize: Raif Badawi's wife accepts prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights

Mrs. Badawi in Strasbourg

The Quebec wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi received a standing ovation at the European Parliament assembly today as she accepted a prestigious human rights award on his behalf.

Ensaf Haidar, who claimed refugee status in Quebec and lives with their three children in the Eastern Townships, accepted the European Union's prestigious Sakharov Prize at a ceremony in Strasbourg, France today.

"Raif Badawi was brave enough to raise his voice and say no to their barbarity. That is why they flogged him," Haidar she said in a speech, cited by the European Parliament's news service.

Read more: Raif Badawi's wife accepts prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights - Montreal - CBC News

European Commission: A European Border and Coast Guard to protect Europe's External Borders

EU Defense Force

The European Commission is today adopting an important set of measures to manage the EU's external borders and protect our Schengen area without internal borders. Today's proposals will help to manage migration more effectively, improve the internal security of the European Union, and safeguard the principle of free movement of persons. The Commission is proposing to establish a European Border and Coast Guard to ensure a strong and shared management of the external borders.

To further increase security for Europe's citizens, the Commission is also proposing to introduce systematic checks against relevant databases for all people entering or exiting the Schengen area.
 
European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said: "In an area of free movement without internal borders, managing Europe’s external borders must be a shared responsibility. The crisis has exposed clear weaknesses and gaps in existing mechanisms aimed at making sure that EU standards are upheld. Therefore, it is now time to move to a truly integrated system of border management. 

The European Border and Coast Guard will bring together a reinforced Agency, with the ability to draw on a reserve pool of people and equipment, and the Member States’ authorities, who will continue to exercise day-to-day border management. 

The system we propose will allow for an identification of any weaknesses in real time so that they can be remedied quickly, also improving our collective ability to deal effectively with crisis situations where a section of the external border is placed under strong pressure."

European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos added: "The current migration and security challenges know no borders, and require a truly European approach. 

Where Frontex used to be limited to supporting Member States in managing their external borders, the new Border Agency will go beyond this. What we are creating today is more Europe: to manage our external borders, to step up returns of irregular migrants, to allow our asylum system to function properly for those in need and to strengthen checks at the external borders of the European Union. 

The Border Package we are presenting today will increase security for our citizens and ensure high standards of border management."

 Read more: European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - A European Border and Coast Guard to protect Europe's External Borders

Sweden jails two ISIS men for life for crimes in Syria - by Robert Hackwil

Two men have been jailed for life in Sweden for committing acts of murder in Syria. They are the first to be jailed for terrorist crimes committed in the country.

The men, both Swedish, deny the charges and at least one says he will appeal.

They are accused of beheading and cutting the throats of two men in Aleppo in 2013.

One insisted he had gone to Syria to fight against the Assad regime, but film emerged of him and his colleague enthusiastically taking part in acts of savagery.

It had been kept by the youngest of the accused on a USB key at his home in Gotenburg.

Both men lived in Sweden’s second city, which has sent over 120 people to fight in Syria, making it one of Islamic State’s main recruiting centres in Europe.

Read more: Sweden jails two men for life for crimes in Syria | euronews, world news

Politics and business: The U.S. Global Business Community Must Speak Against Trump - by Philip Bowring

As a westerner long based in Asia, I am astonished at the silence – so far as I am aware – of U.S. corporate interests overseas, collective and individual, in the face of Donald Trump’s remarks about Muslims.

There is a very simple issue here. The very suggestion that Muslims should be barred from entering the United States can only cause Muslims worldwide to ask themselves: Why should we buy goods and services from a nation which so despises us?

Why should we welcome Americans whether as investors, tourists or traders if we are to be thus treated?
It is not good enough for the U.S. business community to shrug its shoulders and imply that Trump is full of publicity-seeking rhetoric and is making proposals that can never come to pass.

It is not good enough to laugh off Trump’s statements as of scant relevance, political theater at the early stage of the Republican selection battle, let alone the campaign for the presidency itself.

Read more: The U.S. Global Business Community Must Speak Against Trump - The Globalist