Joining today's show are Mike Barnicle, Mark Halperin, Eugene Robinson, Chris Jansing, Shawn Henry, Roger Cohen, Sen. Chris Murphy, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, Jeff Greenfield, Steve Schmidt, Rep. Seth Moulton, Rep. Peter King, Fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sara Eisen, Capt. Florent Groberg and more...
Dolphins were caught yesterday and none were caught today off the coast in Taji, Japan. I will be doing an article about it this week. We need to get this fire lit again because they are catching and killing a lot of Dolphins by my count. I will spell it out in then and in that new article that i am piecing together this week.
Regardless, there will be no boots on the ground so to speak by us over in Syria and the Metrojet airline crash was indeed caused by terrorism. Fragments of bombs were found in that clean up of the wreck. that was confirmed today. Plus, many Governors in many States are using the refugee issue in a Political way. It is not even a legal thing they can decide and nor is it even an issue. They are just popping off about that issue. It makes no sense. they have no authority to make such a decision. Overall, the Middle East is in chaos today. That so called strategy or lack there of, all gets addressed below.
There is a big debate happening as we speak over the 'no boots on the ground' decision and how the POTUS handles itself or himself with the people on Capital Hill. I feel that he is damned if he does and damned if he does not. I say that because if we did go in alone or with him making a decision, the POTUS would be called a tyrant or s Dictator that acts in illegal ways and if he does not, he is deemed as being weak with those foreign affairs decisions. They are Politicising it for the wrong reasons and because of the Primary Election but again, whom are they fooling by making that an issues today (yesterday). Is Obama 'running out the clock' to be able to pass on the issue in Syria to the next administration? There is a lot more to get to today too.
Again, Obama rules out U.S. troops on ground to fight Islamic State. President Barack Obama ruled out a shift in strategy in the fight against Islamic State on Monday despite the deadly attacks in Paris, saying putting more U.S. troops on the ground as sought by his political critics "would be a mistake." Speaking after a G20 summit in Turkey, Obama described the attacks in France that killed 129 people as "a terrible and sickening setback" and vowed to redouble efforts to destroy Islamic State, even as the group threatened to strike Washington.
Mindful of the difficulties that the United States had in controlling Iraq after its invasion in 2003, Obama is very reluctant to commit American ground forces to Middle East conflict zones. "We are going to continue the strategy that has the best chance of working," he told a news conference, adding that there would be "an intensification" of the effort against Islamic State.
Obama has been criticized for his administration's handling of the current turmoil in Syria and Iraq, with some Republicans calling for a more aggressive approach that would include more U.S. troops on the ground in the region. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush called on Monday for more U.S. troops in leadership positions and as advisers to Iraqi and Kurdish units. He also sought a no-fly zone in Syria, a move Obama has resisted, in part because Islamic State has no air force.
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump, another Republican White House contender, supported sending as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in the region, while South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham spoke of creating a ground force of U.S., French and other NATO forces to fight Islamic State.
Obama pushed back against the Republicans and said some were only recommending what the administration had already done against Islamic State while others seemed to think if he were "just more bellicose ... that would make a difference."
"This is not a traditional military opponent. We can retake territory and as long as we keep our troops there we can hold it. But that does not solve the underlying problem of eliminating the dynamics that are producing these kinds of violent, extremist groups," Obama said. A majority of Americans want the United States to intensify its assault on Islamic State following the Paris attacks, but most remain opposed to sending troops to Iraq or Syria, where the militant group is based, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Obama told reporters that U.S. intelligence agencies had been concerned about a potential attack on the West by Islamic State for more than a year, but he said none of the warnings they had received were specific enough to have prevented Friday's attacks in Paris. Even so, the United States is streamlining the process by which it shares intelligence and operational military information with France. Reporting on this story was done by Matt Spetalnick, Phil Stewart, Lisa Lambert and Erin McPike; Writing by Tim Ahmann and David Alexander; Editing by Alistair Bell (Reuters).
Also again, the Russian passenger jet that crashed over Sinai, Egypt, was brought down by a bomb estimated to contain 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service said Tuesday, and the Russian government is offering a $50 million reward for information about those who brought it down.
The government had initially resisted the theory that the plane fell victim to terrorism, perhaps in retaliation for Russia's support of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
But in a turnaround, the government is offering the reward, according to the official Sputnik news.
Also on Tuesday, a U.S. defense official said Russia had conducted a "significant number of strikes" in Raqqa in northern Syria in the past several hours. The terrorist group ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for downing the plane, has made its Syrian headquarters in Raqqa.
The group's claim has yet to be verified. It has also claimed responsibility for the massive terrorist attack in France on Friday, in which at least 129 people were killed.
Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed on October 31 after departing from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
The head of the FSB, Aleksandr Bortnikov, said the homemade bomb had the explosive power of one kilogram of TNT, according to the Kremlin.
A photo of one of the youngest victims on the Russian jet that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has gone viral. The photo shows 10-month old Darina Gromova looking out the window at the St. Petersburg Airport on October 15.
A photo of one of the youngest victims on the Russian jet that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has gone viral. The photo shows 10-month old Darina Gromova looking out the window at the St. Petersburg Airport on October 15.
The remarks came in a meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin held with various security and foreign affairs officials -- a meeting that began with a minute of silence for the victims of the crash.
The bomb, Bortnikov told Putin, explained why fragments of the plane were scattered over a large area, the Kremlin website said.
"This is not the first time Russia experiences barbaric terrorist crime, usually without any obvious internal or external causes, the way it was with the explosion at the railway station in Volgograd at the end of 2013." Putin said. "We remember everything and everyone."
He said Russians would not dry their tears, but would nevertheless find and punish those responsible.
"We have to do it without any period of limitation; we need to know all their names," Putin said. "We will search wherever they may be hiding. We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish them."
He told the Foreign Ministry to appeal for international help.
'Security has got to be enhanced'
Western governments, particularly those in Britain and the United States, had said they had information pointing to a bomb having brought the plane down, and have said it may have been smuggled aboard the plane in Sharm el-Sheikh, from which the plane took off -- possibly with help from an airport employee.
They have criticized security procedures at the airport at Sharm el-Sheikh. The plane was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia.
CNN spoke Tuesday with Carolyn McCall, chief executive of the UK budget airline EasyJet, who has called for aviation security and regulation to be improved.
"The reason the British government advised all airlines to stop flying to Sharm is that they believed there was a device in the hold of the Metrojet aircraft," McCall said. "They had inside intelligence giving them that information, so that's not surprising to anybody in the airline industry, given that the British government took very strong action immediately. Clearly, that is why security has got to be enhanced at Sharm el-Sheikh."
She said EasyJet had suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh through the end of this month, as have all other British airlines.
"We will not resume flying until we are told unequivocally by the government that it is safe to operate at Sharm el-Sheikh airport," she said.
More than half the nation's governors say Syrian refugees not welcome. More than half the nation's governors -- 27 states -- say they oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states, although the final say on this contentious immigration issue will fall to the federal government.
States protesting the admission of refugees range from Alabama and Georgia, to Texas and Arizona, to Michigan and Illinois, to Maine and New Hampshire. Among these 27 states, all but one have Republican governors.
The announcements came after authorities revealed that at least one of the suspects believed to be involved in the Paris terrorist attacks entered Europe among the current wave of Syrian refugees. He had falsely identified himself as a Syrian named Ahmad al Muhammad and was allowed to enter Greece in early October.
Some leaders say they either oppose taking in any Syrian refugees being relocated as part of a national program or asked that they be particularly scrutinized as potential security threats.
Only 1,500 Syrian refugees have been accepted into the United States since 2011, but the Obama administration announced in September that 10,000 Syrians will be allowed entry next year.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Monday, "Defeating ISIS involves projecting American ideals to the world. Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world."
Authority over admitting refugees to the country, though, rests with the federal government -- not with the states -- though individual states can make the acceptance process much more difficult, experts said.
American University law professor Stephen I. Vladeck put it this way: "Legally, states have no authority to do anything because the question of who should be allowed in this country is one that the Constitution commits to the federal government." But Vladeck noted that without the state's participation, the federal government would have a much more arduous task.
"So a state can't say it is legally objecting, but it can refuse to cooperate, which makes thing much more difficult."
Is shunning refugees the answer to terror?
Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said one tactic states could use would be to cut their own funding in areas such as resettling refugees. The conference is the largest refugee resettlement organization in the country.
But "when push comes to shove, the federal government has both the plenary power and the power of the 1980 Refugee Act to place refugees anywhere in the country," Appleby said.
More than 250,000 people have died since the violence broke out in Syria in 2011, and at least 11 million people in the country of 22 million have fled their homes. Syrians are now the world's largest refugee population, according to the United Nations. Most are struggling to find safe haven in Europe.
In announcing that his state would not accept any Syrian refugees, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Monday on his personal account, "I demand the U.S. act similarly," he said. "Security comes first."
In a letter to President Barack Obama, Abbott said "American humanitarian compassion could be exploited to expose Americans to similar deadly danger," referring to Friday's deadly attacks in Paris.
In a statement from Georgia's governor, Republican Nathan Deal, he said Georgia will not accept Syrian refugees "until the federal government and Congress conducts a thorough review of current screening procedures and background checks."
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley also rejected the possibility of allowing Syrian refugees into his state and connected refugees with potential terror threats.
"After full consideration of this weekend's attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program," Bentley said Sunday in a statement.
"As your governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way."
There is currently no credible threat against the state, the governor's office said, and no Syrian refugees have been relocated to Alabama so far.
As the list of states blocking refugees grows, at least one state, Delaware, announced that it plans to accept refugees.
"It is unfortunate that anyone would use the tragic events in Paris to send a message that we do not understand the plight of these refugees, ignoring the fact that the people we are talking about are fleeing the perpetrators of terror," Gov. Jack Markell said in a statement.
States whose governors oppose Syrian refugees coming in:
-- Alabama
-- Arizona
-- Arkansas
-- Florida
-- Georgia
-- Idaho
-- Illinois
-- Indiana
-- Iowa
-- Kansas
-- Louisiana
-- Maine
-- Massachusetts
-- Michigan
-- Mississippi
-- Nebraska
-- Nevada
-- New Hampshire
-- New Jersey
-- New Mexico
-- North Carolina
-- Ohio
-- Oklahoma
-- South Carolina
-- Tennessee
-- Texas
-- Wisconsin
States whose governors say they will accept refugees:
-- Colorado
-- Connecticut
-- Delaware
-- Hawaii
-- Pennsylvania
-- Vermont
-- Washington
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said the state would "put on hold our efforts to accept new refugees."
Obama: Subjecting refugees to religious test 'shameful'
Obama: Subjecting refugees to religious test 'shameful' 05:13
"Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration. But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents," he said in a statement.
Snyder demanded that the Department of Homeland Security review its security procedures for vetting refugees but avoided blanket suspicion of people from any region.
"It's also important to remember that these attacks are the efforts of extremists and do not reflect the peaceful ways of people of Middle Eastern descent here and around the world," Snyder said.
And Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson posted on his official Twitter account that he would "oppose Syrian refugees being relocated to Arkansas."
Mississippi, Ohio bristle at taking refugees
The governors of Ohio and Mississippi also announced their states would not allow Syrian refugees.
Jim Lynch, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, issued this statement:
"The governor doesn't believe the U.S. should accept additional Syrian refugees because security and safety issues cannot be adequately addressed. The governor is writing to the President to ask him to stop, and to ask him to stop resettling them in Ohio. We are also looking at what additional steps Ohio can take to stop resettlement of these refugees."
Kasich is a Republican presidential candidate.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant wrote on Facebook that he was working with the state's homeland security department to "determine the current status of any Syrian refugees that may be brought to our state in the near future.
"I will do everything humanly possible to stop any plans from the Obama administration to put Syrian refugees in Mississippi. The policy of bringing these individuals into the country is not only misguided, it is extremely dangerous. I'll be notifying President Obama of my decision today to resist this potential action."
Louisiana: 'Kept in the dark'
Louisiana governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal complained bitterly in an open letter to Obama that the federal government had not informed his government about refugees being relocated to his state last week.
"It is irresponsible and severely disconcerting to place individuals, who may have ties to ISIS, in a state without the state's knowledge or involvement," Jindal said in his letter Saturday.
He demanded to know more about the people being placed in Louisiana to avoid a repeat of the Paris attacks and wanted to know whether screening would be intensified for refugees holding Syrian passports.
And he suggested Obama hold off on taking in more refugees.
"It would be prudent to pause the process of refugees coming to the United States. Authorities need to investigate what happened in Europe before this problem comes to the United States," Jindal said.
Republican candidate Donald Trump called accepting Syrian refugees "insane."
"We all have heart and we all want people taken care of, but with the problems our country has, to take in 250,000 -- some of whom are going to have problems, big problems -- is just insane. We have to be insane. Terrible," Donald Trump said at a rally in Beaumont, Texas.
It's not clear why Trump used the 250,000 figure.
The Obama administration has previously announced plans to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees next year.
While addressing reporters on Monday, Obama called out Republican candidates who have objected to admitting refugees to the United States.
"When I hear a political leader suggesting that there should be a religious test for which a person who is fleeing from a war torn country is admitted... when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that is shameful," the President said. "We don't have religious tests to our compassion."
New York: 'Virtually no vetting'
A senior White House security official attempted to allay concerns about the vetting of Syrian refugees.
On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said, "We have very extensive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who have come to the United States. There is a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our National Counter Terrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security, so we can make sure that we are carefully screening anybody that comes to the United States."
New York Rep. Peter King, speaking on Fox News, cast doubt on Rhodes' comments.
"What he said about the vetting of the refugees is untrue. There is virtually no vetting cause there are no databases in Syria, there are no government records. We don't know who these people are."
On Sunday, investigators said that one of the Paris bombers carried Syrian identification papers -- possibly forged -- and the fear of Syrian refugees grew worse.
"It's not that we don't want to -- it's that we can't," Florida Sen. and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "Because there's no way to background check someone that's coming from Syria."
Fleeing war, more Syrians are coming to the U.S. Meet one family
Subscribe: Get the most important news delivered to your inbox daily with our 5 Things newsletter. CNN's Ariane de Vogue, Chandler Friedman, John Newsome, and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
Terrorists, video games and us.
Various news outlets reported Monday that the Paris terrorists used PlayStation consoles to communicate prior to the attack. (This turned out to be inaccurate.) But if you remember, I worried about something like that in my Future of War essay entry.
In fact, intelligence services have been concerned about video games and virtual worlds for some time. The 9/11 Commission reported terrorists using flight simulators and games “to increase familiarity with aircraft models and functions, and to highlight gaps in cabin security.” In 2008 while working as an Engineer in the Air Force Research Laboratory, I wrote an essay to play in an Air Force Future’s Wargame. It specifically explained how terrorists would use video game technology. From the Executive Summary, “These games provide an anonymous virtual environment for both enemy nations and terrorist organizations, completely unfettered access to a communications, recruiting, financing, planning, and operations.”
The concept did end up playing a large part in the SIGMA meeting of science-fiction writers that same year, “So even as real terrorists are exploiting Second Life and other virtual-world games for recruitment, planning and financing, SIGMA is turning the tables to give the United States a home court advantage in the fight for the future.”
The result was a project called Reynard from IARPA, part of the office of the Director of National Intelligence. The program’s goal was to correlate real-world threats or behaviors with in-game behavior. In other words, does a particular style of play or avatar choice indicate the player is a terrorist? I was briefly involved with the program, before we (Air Force Research Lab) backed out because of Intelligence Oversight concerns. (A large portion of the program was to monitor online players, which included US Citizens.) We thought the program ended shortly after because of these issues. Edward Snowden let us know the idea continued in various forms. Indeed, the U.S. government has been actively pursuing this domain including projects to crack console encryption.
Back in 2008 at the AFRL, I created a team called the Gaming Lab. Our objective was to apply commercial video game technology to DoD problems—the very same way terrorist were using games; mission rehearsal, communications, planning, etc. We built notional operations centers with the video game serving as our ‘world’ to train, augment, and improve intelligence tools, training, and analysts.
Two years ago, Tom Ricks asked about the generational divide with technology. The Paris attack shows the imperative of understanding that gap.
Matt McClure is an Engineer and Analyst. He spent a decade as an Officer and Civilian in the Air Force Research Laboratory playing video games and wargaming. He is the author of an upcoming novel about terrorists, video games, and Homeland Security.
Update, Nov. 16, 2015: The initial report from Forbes regarding the Paris attackers’ use of PlayStation consoles is inaccurate. The source for the original article was a Nov. 10 statement by Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon, saying: “The most difficult communication between these terrorists is PlayStation 4. It’s very, very difficult for our services — not only Belgian services but international services — to decrypt the communication that is done via PlayStation 4.” There is currently no official evidence that the Paris attackers used the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Network to plan or coordinate the attack.
US airstrikes destroy more than 100 ISIS oil trucks in Syria.
Airstrikes conducted by the United States have destroyed at least 116 trucks used by Islamic State to smuggle crude oil in Syria, officials said.
The airstrikes took place on Monday near Deir al-Zour, an area in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). They were carried out by four A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships operating out of Turkey, The New York Times reported.
The anti-IS airstrikes came after the jihadist group took credit for the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people and left 352 injured. France has also intensified its military attacks against IS, including a Sunday air raid by France against an IS headquarters building and a training camp.
However, the plans for the strikes were developed well before that, according to the official interviewed by the newspaper. The plan was part of a campaign to disrupt the ability of IS to generate revenue to supports its operations, since terrorist organization currently takes in as much as $40 million a month by producing and exporting oil.
The United States had previously refrained from striking the fleet of trucks, believed to number over 1,000, out of concern over civilian casualties, according to the New York Times. This meant that, up until Monday, the IS oil logistics system remained largely intact, but reconnaissance drones had been surveying the area where the trucks assemble for some time.
To avoid civilian casualties, F-15 jets dropped leaflets prior to the attack, warning drivers to abandon their vehicles. The leaflets were followed by strafing runs an hour prior to the strikes to emphasize the message. After the strikes, US officials said that there were no immediate reports of civilian casualties.
Colonel Steven H. Warren, a spokesman for the US-led coalition based in Baghdad, confirmed the use of A-10s and AC-130s in the strike and that 116 tanker trucks were destroyed.
“This part of Tidal Wave II is designed to attack the distribution component of ISIL’s oil smuggling operation and degrade their capacity to fund their military operations,” Warren said.
The campaign to disrupt the IS war machine is called Tidal Wave II, in a reference to Operation Tidal Wave, a campaign undertaken by the United States during World War II to curtail Axis oil production in Romania. The name was suggested by Lieutenant General Sean B. MacFarland, who assumed command of the international coalition’s campaign in Iraq in Syria in September.
G20 vows joint security steps after Paris attacks; no new strategy on Syria. World leaders vowed tighter border controls, more intelligence sharing and a crackdown on terrorist financing after the Paris attacks, but there was little sign at a summit on Monday of a dramatic shift in strategy against Islamic State in Syria.
U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at the end of the G20 meetings in Turkey, said the coordinated attacks in the French capital were a setback in the fight against the jihadists, but that putting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria to combat them "would be a mistake."
The attacks across Paris, which killed 129 people at a concert, restaurants and a soccer stadium on Friday, underlined the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIL) far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq. They overshadowed the two-day summit, which took place just 500 km (310 miles) from Syria.
"ISIL is the face of evil," Obama told a news conference, describing the attacks as a "terrible and sickening" setback but adding that progress against the group was being made.
"Tragically, Paris is not alone. We've seen outrageous attacks by ISIL in Beirut, last month in Ankara, routinely in Iraq. Here at the G20, our nations have sent an unmistakable message, that we are united against this threat," he said.
Concerned about the "acute and growing flow of foreign terrorist fighters", G20 leaders agreed to step up border controls and aviation security, in a joint statement that marked a rare departure from their usual focus on the global economy.
They condemned the Paris attacks as "heinous" and said they remained committed to tackling terrorist financing.
"This is the first time the G20 has actually gone into this sort of detail ... There was a real sense of solidarity between everyone present," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.
French warplanes pounded positions held by Islamic State in Syria on Sunday in what Fabius described as self-defense, while Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was accelerating efforts to find partners in the fight on the ground.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted Britain to also carry out air strikes in Syria but still needed to convince more lawmakers to back such action, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fight against terrorism could not be won by military force alone.
U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State were complicated when Russia joined the conflict a month and a half ago, targeting what the West says are mainly foreign-backed fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's ally, rather than focusing on Islamic State.
Obama met Russian President Vladimir Putin in an informal meeting lasting around 30 minutes at the summit on Sunday, a discussion which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said had been constructive but not groundbreaking. Obama made no mention of their meeting at his news conference.
The dilemma for Obama remained how to rally the coalition against Islamic State without drawing the United States deeper into Syria's war, U.S. officials said.
European allies expressed full support, in a meeting with Obama, for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria in parallel with a planned political transition drawn up by foreign ministers in Vienna on Saturday and meant to lead to elections in Syria within two years, a White House official said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the possibility of a military ground operation in Syria had not been discussed at the summit.
Syria's war has also spawned Europe's largest migration flows since World War Two, and global leaders pledged to work to resolve a crisis that has seen millions of people displaced.
In a diplomatic coup for host Turkey and Europe, the G20 recognized the crisis as a "global concern" with major political and economic consequences, despite opposition from Russia, China and some others who saw it primarily as a European problem.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned against conflating the migration crisis with the threat from global terrorism, saying to do so would be to shirk a humanitarian responsibility.
"Terrorism has no religion, ethnicity, nationality or region," he said, adding that Turkey would pursue its battle against Kurdish militants, Islamic State, radical leftists, and other threats with equal determination.
Turkey has come under pressure from Western allies to ramp up its fight against Islamic State and tighten control of its 900 km (560-mile) border with Syria, which the jihadists have used to bring in supplies and foreign fighters. It is also under pressure from Europe to stem the flow of refugees.
But the NATO member has long complained about a lack of robust intelligence sharing and urged the West to provide more information about potential suspects before they travel.
A senior Turkish official said Ankara had twice notified France about one of the Paris attackers but had only received a request for more information after the attacks.
Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of Paris, is the only attacker to have formally been named by police in France. He was identified by the print from one of his fingers that was severed when his suicide vest exploded.
Populist leaders around Europe rushed to demand an end to an influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa in the hours after the Paris attacks.
"I was surprised how determined the leaders were not to confuse refugees with terrorists," one senior EU official said, noting the statement had already been in the works after twin suicide bombings in October in host Turkey's capital Ankara. "What happened in Paris only strengthened the language." Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Kylie MacLellan, Lidia Kelly, David Dolan, Gernot Heller, Orhan Coskun and Asli Kandemir; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Trevelyan.
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