Globe Trot: ISIS directs attackers from Syria to Europe

ISIS deterred a would-be recruit, now in a German prison, from taking up arms to fight in Syria and Iraq, saying “it needed more attackers in Germany and Britain.” The New York Times reports:

“By contrast, the group had more than enough volunteers for France. ‘My friend asked them about France,’ [the imprisoned Harry] Sarfo said. ‘And they started laughing. But really serious laughing, with tears in their eyes. They said, “Don’t worry about France.” “Mafi mushkilah”—in Arabic, it means “no problem.”’ That conversation took place in April 2015, seven months before the coordinated killings in Paris in November, the worst terrorist attack in Europe in over a decade.”

IRAN: The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million in cash to the Islamic regime in Iran to coincide with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, including Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini. President Obama announced the arrangement in January—without mentioning the funds transferred through European banks (making it untraceable)—which included the U.S. release of seven Iranians. In just one rich detail: “The $400 million was paid in foreign currency because any transaction with Iran in U.S. dollars is illegal under U.S. law.”

Remember that Ben Rhodes, the aspiring novelist who became Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told us the president had to bypass Congress on the Iranian nuclear deal because of the “hostility and suspicion toward Iran, not just among members of Congress but the American people.”

LIBYA: Italy will allow the United States to launch air strikes from its bases, as the U.S. military this week has begun bombing ISIS targets in Libya.

REFUGEES: So you say the world doesn’t need a policeman? Latest figures from Europe show a record 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in Europe in 2015. That’s nearly double the previous record of 700,000 following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. Based on the illegal camps I visited on my just-completed travels and those migrants “sans papiers,” the global movement is probably much larger.

Nahid, a terrified Iranian Christian, was one of 104 migrants who risked the journey to arrive by boat to the Greek island of Lesbos last week.

JAPAN: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet, selecting a hawkish defense minister after North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile.

SOUTH AFRICA: Local elections today are a test for scandal-ridden President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress, long dominant since the end of apartheid.

BACK: My apologies for the long Globe Trot drought. Traveling overseas caused me some technical problems. Good thing there wasn’t much news while I was away …