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New Evidence Confirms Paris Terrorists Were Not Refugees, Republicans Still Lying About It Anyway

New Evidence Confirms Paris Terrorists Were Not Refugees, Republicans Still Lying About It Anyway

As the Republican House votes to halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in our nation, new evidence emerges that proves the Paris attackers did not disguise themselves as refugees, but were Belgian and French citizens who have established a wide network among disgruntled Muslims in Western Europe – Muslims frustrated and excluded by the very same kind of unabashed bigotry that passes for foreign policy among both American and European right-wing nationalists.

The Guardian reports that:

New evidence emerging from the investigation into the Paris attacks points to a conspiracy significantly wider than the nine jihadi thought to have carried out the killings and that was orchestrated primarily by disaffected young Europeans.

The arrests in Paris and Brussels point to the existence of a circle of sympathetic “enablers” willing to help out without asking too many questions even if they had a limited idea of the plot. But the new evidence also strengthens investigators’ belief that the synchronised multiple attacks were coordinated by a control point in Paris.

As European citizens, there was no need to resort to subterfuge or risk Mediterranean sea crossings to reach their target. They could travel freely around the continent even when the authorities in their home countries were aware of their extreme views and foreign travels.

The passport that Republicans have seized on as evidence that the terrorists hid among refugees in fact belongs to a long-dead Syrian soldier, and was obviously a plant to drum up exactly this kind of reaction from the easily intimidated right-wing. While one of the attackers did return to Europe with a group of refugees, he was a European citizen and did not pretend to be otherwise. Unfortunately, all this information will mean nothing to American conservatives, who have seized on the Paris attacks as an excuse to vent their Islamophobia and to express their jingoistic fantasies of neocolonial conquest.

The fact that France is accepting even more Syrian refugees after the despicable terrorist attacks in Paris should put American Republicans to shame; the cowards are pulling a 9/11-level overreaction to events that didn’t even take place in our nation. If there was any doubt as to the true intentions of conservatives, consider that Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson just compared the refugees to rabid dogs. It is a dark day for our nation, and we should all be ashamed of how these so called “family values” Christians are demonizing the women and children fleeing terror and violence in the Middle East. It is precisely this kind of discrimination that breeds terrorism.

Colin Taylor
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.

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