U.S.-allied forces capture 9/11 planner in Syria

SYRIA: U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured more than a month ago in Syria a man linked to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a Syrian-born German national, praised “violent jihad.” In December 2001, Zammar, believed involved in recruiting the 9/11 hijackers, was detained in Morocco by CIA agents and later turned over to Syria, where he ultimately joined ISIS.

Note that the SDF captured Zammar and the Kurds first reported it. Yet, in northern Syria, the United States abandoned both forces over the last two months, as Turkish forces forced them out of Afrin. The SDF and YPG (the mainly Kurdish People’s Protection Units) requested air cover from U.S. forces 70 miles away and didn’t get it—that, plus the religious cleansing and human suffering are the subject of my next feature in WORLD Magazine.

TURKEY: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in calling for snap elections this week, is showing signs of panic as opposition to his emergency-law rule grows. But the election, now set for June 24, may doom efforts to secure the release of Andrew Brunson next month, when he is scheduled to appear again before a panel of judges on May 7. “It would be perceived as weakness to release him as Erdogan is trying to build leverage ahead of the elections,” said Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators aren’t having it, calling for sanctions on Turkey as part of the upcoming year’s spending bill, and labeling Ankara’s actions to continue to hold Brunson as “hostage taking.”

CUBA: As Miguel Díaz-Canel becomes the first president outside the Castro clan to lead the government in nearly 60 years, few experts expect much to change. Díaz-Canel, who served as first secretary of the Communist Party, is expected to continue restrictions on personal and religious rights. Those restrictions involved entire churches in 2017, according to a new report, and include 1,322 arrests, four sentences, 873 cases of physical or mental abuse, seven attacks on houses of religious ministers, and two cases of church expulsions.

ZIMBABWE: More than 15,000 nurses have gone on strike and face a showdown with Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who fired them yesterday. But a letter-writing campaign by citizens hopes to #BringBackOurNurses.

RUSSIA: A “long-planned” change by Google that downgrades protections against censors happens to coincide with a new wave of state censorship in Russia.

WEEKEND READS: Maj. Gen. Michael D. Healy earned the nickname “Iron Mike” leading Army Rangers deep behind enemy lines in the Korean War. He went on to serve for a decade in Vietnam, one of the first in and the last to leave, supervising the U.S. withdrawal from Saigon—and later preserving the role of Special Forces, an asset leading into the 9/11 attacks and subsequent wars. He died this week at 91. … And one of my favorite commentators on the secret to happiness we have lost along with losing former first lady Barbara Bush this week.

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