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The problem of forged or fraudulent passports in Europe – especially from the Middle East – is so bad that it has forced the U.S. government to warn five countries that they have until next week to act, or they will lose their visa-free travel rights. Interpol says there are 250,000 passports, mostly from Iraq and Syria, that have been lost or stolen in the last five years.  And that includes blank documents. Politico: American and European security officials speak of an “epidemic” created by a spike in demand from asylum-seekers — and from terrorists like those who carried...

By Don Melvin CNN Geneva prosecutor: 2 terror suspects Syrian Suspects arrested on suspicion of manufacture, concealment, transport of explosives and toxic gases UPDATED 1:55 PM EST Dec 12, 2015 (CNN) Swiss police have arrested two people with Syrian passports and found traces of potential bomb-making chemicals in a car as security remains high around Geneva amid a terrorism alert and a hunt for suspects, authorities said Saturday. Authorities have been looking for at least two people with indirect links to suspects in the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks. It was not immediately clear whether Saturday's arrests were linked to...

Published on Nov 19, 2015 Three Syrian refugees in Greece are caught on hidden camera talking about using fake passports to get to Europe and the US. They talk about using the same route as one of the terrorists who perpetrated the attack in Paris last week. When asked how to obtain a fake passport one of the Syrian refugees responded: "You need a person who the made the fake passport. And you need to pay for it. Maybe about three thousand Euro. ($3,189).” He also added that that is how a lot of Syrians come to the US and...

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Five Syrian men detained in Honduras this week traveling on doctored Greek passports do not belong to "any terrorist cell", four are university students, and all were fleeing war at home and seeking refuge in the United States, Honduran authorities said on Thursday.

Tegucigalpa (AFP) - Honduran authorities have arrested five Syrians intending to make it to the United States with stolen Greek passports, triggering alarm Wednesday in the wake of the Paris attacks launched by Syria-linked jihadists. The Syrians were arrested on Tuesday as they flew into Toncontin airport serving the Honduran capital and failed to make it past airport security checks, a police spokesman, Anibal Baca, told reporters. "Five Syrian citizens have been detained and will be taken to our offices to be investigated because it is suspected they are carrying false documents, passports stolen in Greece," Baca said. They had...

Conflict News ‏@Conflicts 43m43 minutes ago BREAKING: Honduras says has detained 5 Syrians who were traveling by land to the United States with stolen Greek passports - Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated he would revoke passports from people who go overseas to fight for ISIS and “You’re going to have to certainly look at” closing mosques “if the mosque is, you know, loaded for bear” on Tuesday’s “Varney & Co” on the Fox Business Network. Trump [relevant remarks in first video] re-iterated his prior claim about George W. Bush and September 11th, he did say that former President Bill Clinton, along with Bush holds responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. He added, “Now, was Clinton possibly, also guilty? Yeah, yeah sure. He should have maybe been more...

Iranian Terrorist Attack Against U.S. Revealed How Bill Clinton concealed it from the public and U.S. intelligence. October 7, 2015 Arnold Ahlert    A bombshell report by the Washington Times reveals that fecklessness in the face of terror isn’t a condition exclusive to the Obama administration. "Bill Clinton’s administration gathered enough evidence to send a top-secret communique accusing Iran of facilitating the deadly 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist bombing,” the Times states, "but suppressed that information from the American public and some elements of U.S. intelligence for fear it would lead to an outcry for reprisal, according to documents and interviews.” Nineteen American...

Hillary Clinton was in full freak-out mode after her State Department announced it was changing language on passport applications in order to be more inclusive of same-sex couples with children, judging from an email she sent two top aides. The Washington Post first reported the proposed change, a shift from 'mother' and 'father' to 'parent 1' and 'parent 2' on applications for children under age 16, on January 7, 2011. The Post based its story on a press release two weeks earlier that announced the tweak 'in recognition of different types of families.' Hillary lashed out at then-chief of staff...

In September 2015, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton styles herself as a staunch defender of gay rights — particularly gay parental rights. “I’m proud of you!” she told a gay man last April, after he explained how he and his partner had adopted a little girl together. But four years ago, Clinton was singing a very different tune. An e-mail included in the latest tranche of Clinton documents released by the State Department on Wednesday shows the then-secretary of state exploding at her staff over plans to replace “Mother” and “Father” with “Parent One” and “Parent Two” on passport application...

A Turkish court on Thursday charged a Syrian national suspected of plotting to slam speedboats packed with explosives into cruise ships loaded with Israeli tourists, lawyers and police said. According to The AP, defense lawyer Ilhami Sayan said the suspect, identified in the Turkish media as Lu'ai Sakra, was charged with membership in an "illegal organization." He was arrested earlier this month. Police said Sakra was linked to al-Qaeda. "I have no regrets," Sakra shouted to journalists as he was led into the courthouse. "I was going to attack Israeli ships. If they come, my friends will attack them." "I...

State driver’s licenses are among those from four states that will no longer cut it for clearing airport security under tightened measures that will go into effect sometime in 2016. But travelers may not face any obstacles anytime soon. The DMV has asked for an extension from Homeland Security for the Real ID Act, which calls for the extra ID measures in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. “We have no reason to believe that any New Yorker will have a problem using their current state-issued ID card to get on a plane come January 2016,” the DMV said...

If you don’t have a passport already, you may need to get one soon. Residents of certain states are going to need to show their passports — rather than simply their IDs — even if they’re only flying domestic. Yes, it will infringe upon states’ rights handed to them by the 10th Amendment and create unnecessary cost to taxpayers in order to implement the change, but let’s be real — the government doesn’t care about that. From Zero Hedge: To comply with the 2005 Real ID Act, which the U.S. government has been slowly implementing for the past decade, citizens in a...

Citizens of Brazil who were born in Jerusalem will have their passports amended to eliminate “Israel” from the line denoting place of birth. Existing passports are to be reissued with the “offending” term deleted, and passports that are not changed will be invalid at the end of the year. While the rule change would appear to have been influenced by the U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that Americans born in Jerusalem could not have their birthplace listed as Jerusalem, Israel—but rather would be listed as Jerusalem alone—Brazil had apparently made the decision on dropping Israel a year ago,...

Link only. This is a problem with my personal computer, but the link will take you to the story.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned back a demand from Congress that Americans born in Jerusalem be allowed to have their passports changed to reflect Israel as their birthplace, heeding a warning from the State Department “a simple passport alteration could ‘provoke uproar throughout the Arab and Muslim world,’”

The Supreme Court on Monday said Congress overstepped its bounds when it tried to force the president's hand in a hot-button dispute over the Middle East. In a 6-3 ruling, the court struck down a 2002 law requiring the State Department to recognize Jerusalem as a part of Israel — over the objections of both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, which had refused to implement the law. The Supreme Court sided with the executive branch on Monday.

Starting in 2016, the Transportation Security Administration will require all airline passengers to present a REAL ID compliant identification card or a passport in order to board a flight. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 20-30% of Americans live in jurisdictions that are not REAL ID compliant, meaning their driver's licenses will no longer be accepted during security checks at the airport.

BRUSSELS, Belgium Sept. 30 A former pro soccer player who joined the al-Qaida terrorist network was convicted and sentenced to prison Tuesday for plotting to bomb a NATO base believed to contain nuclear weapons. Nizar Trabelsi of Tunisia, who once played professional soccer in Germany, received the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison from a court that also convicted 17 other men and acquitted five others in the largest terrorism trial in Belgium's history. Trabelsi admitted planning to drive a car bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel air base, a Belgian military post used by NATO where...

.... Di-Natale provided coverage of the [Osama bin Laden] raid's aftermath, including an exclusive interview with Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped U.S. agents verify Bin Laden's presence, and who remains imprisoned in Pakistan to this day. Di-Natale notably reported from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound in the aftermath of the US raid, and is known for chiseling out a brick from the compound: Call me a conspiracy theorist, but when I heard about Di-Natale's death, the first thing that popped into my mind was this: Who killed him? It isn't that far-fetched to suspect foul play when a journalist...