Another Attack by US Shows Its Earnestness

The United States government has shown yet again that its resolve to fight terrorism is not just rhetoric but a serious preposition. US bombers have struck multiple Taliban targets in a new air offensive over the past four days in far northeastern Afghanistan near the China and Tajikistan borders.

Ever since Donald Trump has assumed charge as the President of US, he has repeatedly talked about fighting terror.

The Southern Command said in a statement that the strikes hit Taliban training facilities in Badakhshan province, preventing the planning and rehearsal of terrorist acts. The bombing also destroyed vehicles that it said the Taliban took from the Afghan National Army and were turning into vehicle-born explosive devices.

The strikes were carried out in part by a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, which dropped 24 guided munitions. The Southern Command, which oversees US military activities in the Middle East and Afghanistan, said it continues to carry out strikes against the Taliban and its support networks in Helmand Province in the south of the country as well.

Strikes and raids by US and Afghan forces have resulted in the removal of more than 30 million Dollars of Taliban revenue since the campaign began in November, 2017, the Command said.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis, defending the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan in a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee, said that the new US strategy of training and advisory support to local troops has the strong backing of NATO allies helping the effort.The number of allies in Afghanistan has actually grown to 41, he said.

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Reason to Cheer for Donald Trump After Republican Memo's Release

United States President Donald Trump has reason to cheer after the release of the formerly classified Republican memo. "It totally vindicates me," he claimed on Twitter on Saturday (February 3).

Trump's fellow Republicans in the US House of Representatives released on Friday a previously classified memo that portrays senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department as being biased against him in the federal investigation into potential collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

The memo raised questions about what its Republican authors called "the legitimacy and legality" of FBI and Justice Department interactions with a special court to gain permission to eavesdrop on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, an oil industry consultant with numerous contacts in Russia. It cited "a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses" related to the court, set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

A remaining issue is whether Trump uses the memo as rational for firing Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, and oversees Mueller's work.

Democrats said the memo mischaracterizes highly sensitive classified information as part of a coordinated propaganda effort to discredit the FBI and Justice Department and terminate Mueller's investigation, which potentially threatens Trump's presidency.

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team wanted to question President Donald Trump as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential elections. The investigation also reportedly involved a probe into whether the President obstructed justice when he allegedly asked ex-FBI Director James Comey to drop an inquiry into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador, becoming the first senior White House official to cut a cooperation deal in Mueller’s inquiry.

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Donald Trump Hails 'New American Moment' in State of the Union

"This is our new American moment," Trump declared to lawmakers gathered at the Capitol for his first State of the Union address.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday night said that that his administration's policies on jobs, deregulation and national security have spurred a "new American moment."

"This is our new American moment," Trump declared to lawmakers gathered at the Capitol for his first State of the Union address.

The president pointed to tax cuts passed at the close of last year, along with planned pushes for infrastructure and immigration reform and continued deregulation efforts by the administration.

Trump asked members of both parties "to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable and modern infrastructure our economy needs," while coalescing around an immigration plan that protects Americans "of every background, color and creed."

While delivering his first State of the Union address, the US President declared suspension of security assistance to Pakistan. He also said that nations like China and Russia challenge American economy and values.

The White house in a tweet said that Trump’s conditions-based South Asia Strategy provides commanders with the authority and resources needed to deny terrorists the safe haven they seek in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Trump said that no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea and further added that North Korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten American homeland.

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US Indicts Pakistan Again for Terrorism Links

Ever since President Donald Trump has arrived at the helm, the United States has taken many steps against Pakistan, the scourge on the humanity, for harboring terrorism. The latest in the series is slapping of sanctions on four Taliban and two Haqqani network leaders for terrorist activities. This is again an indictment of Pakistan for its links with terrorism activities that has troubled its two neighbors – India and Afghanistan.

The US has said that Pakistan must work with the US to deny the terror groups safe haven on its soil and target their funding. All six have been designated as global terrorists by the US Department of Treasury. All property and interests in property of these persons subject to US jurisdiction are blocked and the US citizens are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

The four Taliban leaders include Abdul Samad Sani, Abdul Qadeer Basir, Abdul Baseer, Hafiz Mohammed Popalzai, and Maulawi Inayatullah, while Haqqani network leaders as Faqir Muhammad and Gula Khan Hamidi.

Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker said the Trump administration is targeting six individuals related to the Taliban or Haqqani Network who have been involved in attacks on coalition troops, smuggling of individuals or financing these terrorist groups.

He said the action supports the President Donald Trump's South Asia Strategy by disrupting terrorist organisations and publically exposing individuals who facilitate their activities.

This comes in the wake of a top commander of the Haqqani network along with two others being killed by a US drone attack. The drone struck a home near Pakistan's restive tribal Kurram agency bordering Afghanistan.Haqqani Network Commander Ehsan alias Khawari and two of his companions were killed during the strike. The drone strikes, carried out by US spy planes, targeted on the Haqqani Network hideout in the North .

US President Donald Trump had announced a new Afghan policy in August, in which Pakistan was accused of offering safe havens to agents of chaos.

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Thanks President!

One has to thank the US President Donald Trump as he announced that he was open to citizenship for 'Dreamers' in 10-12 years. This is for the first time that President Trump has indicated that he was open to a path to citizenship for America's so-called "Dreamers" in 10 to 12 years.

The move will certainly welcomed by millions of people all over the world especially in India as it may also benefit thousands of Indian-origin undocumented immigrants.

Some 6,90,000 undocumented immigrants, who were illegally brought to the US as children, are likely to get benefited. Among them include several thousand people of Indian descent.

The term "Dreamers", which is used for the undocumented immigrants living in the US illegally, came from the DREAM Act, a bipartisan legislation that was first proposed in 2001 to provide citizenship to them under certain conditions. The bill was never passed.

Trump told reporters during an impromptu news conference at the White House before he left for Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos.

Trump called this as an "incentive" for the immigrants for the hard work. However, a senior administration official later said no final decision has been taken yet over the issue.

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