Afghan refugees will be heading for the world's borough following Joe Biden's foreign policy debacle.

 

PIX News 

  Thousands of refugees and immigrants from Afghanistan could arrive in Queens in the coming weeks after the collapse of the government as U.S. troops withdraw from the country.

U.S. military forces secured the airport in Kabul this week and began a massive evacuation effort, even as the Taliban began to formally assert its authority over the entire country.

Many in the Queens communities of Flushing and Fresh Meadows, including Sunita Viswanath, know people scrambling to get out of Afghanistan.

“This is the time the world needs to stand with Afghanistan and not abandon Afghanistan,” said Viswanath, the co-founder of Women for Afghan Women.

The organization is the largest Afghan women’s rights group in the world — founded in Queens nearly 20 years ago when the war began.

WAW has been on the ground in Afghanistan running child care centers and helping out women who have suffered human rights violations.

“We have been running a women’s rights organization, so we are at particular danger because we’ve been doing this work, so our hope and prayers we can get people,” Viswanath said.

The group’s immediate goal is to get about 500 staff, women and children out of the country by working with the U.S. government, American allies and private operators.

However, they say just getting to the airport in Kabul is risky not just because of the Taliban, but also because of roving gangs.

 

U.S. military commanders insist the security situation is improving, to an extent, after the initial mad scramble to leave. Thousands of U.S. troops have secured Hamid Karzai Airport and are ramping up airlift efforts, which will move out 5,000 to 8,000 passengers per day.

What Dizzy Lizzy stands for in her own words

From the Queens Chronicle:

The two-term councilwoman is seeking the Democratic nomination for the new 6th Congressional District.

Crowley is in the midst of her first full term. She served a year prior to that after winning a special election.

On transportation, she said she is tired of projects such as the Long Island Rail Road’s East Side Access project and the 7 subway line extension, “projects that pass through here that we don’t benefit from.”

Actually, quite a few of her potential constituents would benefit from this project. LIRR runs east of Flushing and would bring all those folks into Grand Central. As for the 7 subway line extension, that doesn't run through her potential district, it's in Manhattan only.

Crowley said the 7 could be extended in other directions, such as to connect LaGuardia Airport and the future development at Willets Point to Manhattan.

When did the 7 train STOP going to Willets Point?

In addressing the nation’s $16 trillion deficit, Crowley could not identify any non-military programs that she would eliminate from the budget.

“I would cut parts of programs,” she said. “I’m sure there is waste and fraud.”

Wow, now there's some deep thinking.

She did not directly acknowledge that saving the money by pulling out of Afghanistan, where the Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to hatch its 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, could once again leave a dangerous vacuum where terrorists could plot more attacks on the United States. “I don’t know where it ends over there,” she said.

What a fine grasp of foreign policy and homeland security!

While demographics in the Unites States have changed dramatically since Social Security’s inception in 1935, Crowley said that there is no need to restructure the program, even with President Obama’s own experts saying the fund is unsustainable at its current ratio of workers to benefit recipients.

“I think when more people get back to work and begin paying into the system again that will fix itself,” she said.

And there you go. Stupid is as stupid does. Or in this case, doesn't do.

Remember in November

From the Queens Courier:

We solemnly ask you to take a moment on November 11 and remember those who have given their lives in the current war against terrorism being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan and to say a prayer for every one of them. They died so that we may continue to live free.

As we approach the 91st Veterans Day observance this month, we hope your also remember the one million New Yorkers, men and women who have served in uniform and deserve our thanks, not only on Veterans Day, but on every day.

We hope that you support our politicians as they lobby for -- and win -- better benefits and programs, property tax exemptions, tuition education assistance, job training, employment assistance and counseling.

We call on newly elected Governor Andrew Cuomo to increase funding for veterans' service agencies and help returning citizen-soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan to reclaim homes lost to foreclosures while they were deployed and enact legislation to halt such losses in the future.

We hope that his year, each and every home in Queens displays a flag on Veterans Day.

Staten Island man wanted to join Taliban

From WPIX:

A New York City-born man was ordered to return from Hawaii where he was arrested on charges he tried to join the U.S. military at a Times Square recruiting station so he could he could be deployed to Iraq, desert and fight with anti-American insurgency forces.

Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, 21, was charged with making false statements in the midst of a New York-based terrorism investigation, authorities said Monday.

A U.S. Department of Justice news release said Shehadeh was arrested Friday in Honolulu. A judge there ordered him on Monday to return to Brooklyn to face charges. It was unclear when he would appear in a New York court.

A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn said the FBI and the New York Police Department had been investigating Shehadeh "and several other individuals in connection with a plot to travel overseas and wage violent jihad against the United States and other coalition military forces."

The complaint alleged that Shehadeh, who was born in the United States and lived on Staten Island, caught the attention of U.S. authorities by buying a one-way ticket to Pakistan in June 2008. Once he arrived there, Pakistani officials wouldn't allow him into the country and he returned to New York.

A follow-up investigation found that Shehadeh had created Internet postings and video promoting jihad, the complaint said.

In October 2006, the complaint said, Shehadeh went to Times Square to try to join the Army. It said when a recruiter asked him if he'd traveled overseas, he lied and said he'd only been to Israel.

Later that month, Shehadeh tried to fly from Newark, N.J. to Jordan, where he again was not allowed entry. Once he returned to the United States on a flight to Detroit, counterterrorism investigators confronted him about the his radical Internet writings.

The complaint said under questioning, he admitted that one of his Web sites was "designed to mirror and reformat the teachings of radical U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki" and "that in the past, he agreed with and sympathized with al-Qaida's violent jihad against the West."

The complaint also alleged Shehadeh attempted to recruit another person to join him to train in Pakistan immediately after the two discussed a sermon by al-Awlaki.

Queens terror suspect facing new charges

From NY1:

There could be new charges against a Queens man allegedly linked to al-Qaida and a New York City terror plot.

Prosecutors charge that Adis Medunjanin, 25, conspired to kill United States soldiers in Afghanistan.

They told a Brooklyn judge they expect further charges, and that his case might be combined with that of Najibullah Zazi, the Colorado man accused of plotting an attack on the city's subway system.

Medunjanin pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving military training from al-Qaida.