Conflict Zones
How the ‘war on terror’ paved the way for student deportations in the US | Conflict News
When Asad Dandia received a message from a young man named Shamiur Rahman in March 2012, he had no reason to suspect that he was under the watchful eye of state surveillance.
Rahman simply seemed interested in deepening his relationship with Islam and getting involved in charity work. As a Muslim community organiser in New York City, Dandia was happy to help.
The young man quickly became a regular at meetings, social events and efforts to help low-income members of the community. Rahman even spent a night in Dandia’s family home.
But nearly seven months later, Rahman made a confession over social media: He was an undercover informant for the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Dandia ultimately joined a class-action lawsuit, alleging the city of New York singled out Muslim communities for surveillance as part of the wider “war on terror” in the United States.
Four years later, the city settled, agreeing to protections against undue investigations into political and religious activities.
But Dandia sees an echo of his experience in the present-day arrests of pro-Palestinian student protesters from abroad.
He is among the activists and experts who have observed an escalation of the patterns and practices that became core features of the “war on terror” — from unwarranted surveillance to the broad use of executive power.
“What I endured was very similar to what we’re seeing students endure today,” Dandia said.
He noted that a lawyer who represented him is now working on the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and permanent resident facing deportation for his pro-Palestine activism.
The administration of President Donald Trump has accused Khalil of supporting terrorism, though it has yet to charge him with a crime or release evidence to substantiate the claim.
Dandia said that the belief that Muslim, Arab and immigrant communities are inherently suspect is the common thread between their experiences. “Even if what Trump is attempting now is unprecedented, it’s drawing from longstanding traditions and policies.”
From neighbours to enemies
Scholars and analysts say that one of the throughlines is the pairing of harsher immigration enforcement with rhetoric focused on national security.
The “war on terror” largely began after the attacks on September 11, 2001, one of which targeted New York City.
In the days that followed, the administration of former President George W Bush began detaining scores of immigrants — nearly all of them from Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities — over alleged ties to terrorism.
The American Immigration Council, a Washington-based nonprofit, estimates that 1,200 people were arrested in the initial sweep. Many were ultimately deported.
But the immigration raids did not result in a single conviction on terrorism-related charges. A 2004 report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted that the government nevertheless advertised the deportations as “linked to the September 11 investigation”.
“Almost immediately after 9/11, Muslim communities were treated not as fellow New Yorkers who were living through the trauma of an attack on their city, but as potential accessories, witnesses, or perpetrators of a follow-on attack,” said Spencer Ackerman, a reporter who covered the war on terror and is the author of the book Reign of Terror.
The ACLU report says that some of those detained were held in solitary confinement and only allowed to leave their cells with shackles on their hands and legs. Some were kept in detention long after the government cleared them of any wrongdoing.
Fear in ‘the homeland’
Nikhil Singh, a history professor at New York University, believes that period of heightened fear caused the US to look inward for enemies, among its own communities.
“The argument that the US was fighting these non-state groups who didn’t have borders started to imply that the fight against those enemies could take place anywhere, including in what the Bush administration started to call ‘the homeland’,” said Singh.
He pointed out that those post-September 11 detentions exercised a broad view of executive power, in order to justify a lack of due process for alleged terror suspects.
“A lot of what’s happening now can be traced back to this moment, where this argument became normalised that the executive is responsible for keeping the country safe and, for that reason, needs to be able to suspend basic rights and ignore constitutional restraints.”
Art Eisenberg, executive counsel at the New York branch of the ACLU, explained that the history of targeting immigrant communities for national security concerns stretches beyond the “war on terror”.
“The origins of policing and surveillance and undercover work targeting immigrant groups goes all the way back to the beginning of the 20th century. The New York City police intelligence bureau used to be called the Red Squad, but earlier it had been called ‘the Italian squad’,” said Eisenberg.
Over time, those operations morphed to target new sources of potential dissent: communists, civil rights activists and the Black Panthers, among others.
But he added that the “war on terror” marked an escalation of that targeting. And those types of actions can have lasting effects on communities.
The ACLU notes that, in the years after the September 11 attacks, more than one-third of Pakistanis in a Brooklyn neighbourhood known as “Little Pakistan” were deported or chose to leave the area.
Later, in 2012, when it was revealed that authorities had been spying on Dandia’s organisation, donations started to dry up, and the mosque where they held meetings told them to meet outside instead.
No one had been charged with a crime. But the chilling effect of the surveillance caused the organisation to eventually close its doors, according to Dandia.
“People always ask this question: If you’re not doing anything wrong, why should you worry?” said Dandia. “But it’s the government that is deciding what is right and wrong.”
Escalating attacks
Under the Trump administration, critics say vague allegations of terrorism continue to be seized upon as a pretext to silence dissent.
In a statement about Khalil’s arrest, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that his involvement in campus protests against Israel’s war on Gaza showed he was “aligned” with the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
On Wednesday, masked federal agents also grabbed a 30-year-old Turkish graduate student named Rumeysa Ozturk off the street near Tufts University and took her away as she was on her way to dinner.
In that case, the Department of Homeland Security likewise accused Ozturk of taking part in activities “in support of Hamas”, without offering details.
The US has designated Hamas a foreign terrorist organisation since 1997. US law prohibits citizens and residents from providing “material support” to such organisations.
But Samuel Moyn, a professor of law and history at Yale University, said the recent arrests have failed to meet that threshold.
“The scary thing is that they have dropped the pretence of even accusing people of material support for terrorism,” Moyn told Al Jazeera. “They are relying on a claim that these views are at odds with US foreign policy.”
Singh pointed out that the seemingly arbitrary detentions allow Trump to draw on the legacy of the “war on terror”, while he pursues his own aims, including a crackdown on immigration.
“It’s the immigration agenda intersecting with the war on terror,” said Singh. “The former involves slowly chipping away at traditional constitutional rights, while the latter gives you a framework of broad presidential power.”
If left unchecked, Ackerman said that an expansive view of presidential power could pave the way for further human rights abuses, even beyond immigrant communities.
“If there’s never any accountability for institutionalised abuses, those abuses will continue and they will intensify,” he said. “That is the lesson not just of the war on terror, but of a lot of noxious human history.”
“If the Trump administration can say that what you say, what you post on social media, what you put on a placard, redounds to the benefit of a terror entity, then there really is nothing you can do to protect your freedom to say things that people in power disapprove of,” he added.
Conflict Zones
Israel pushes on with strategy to keep neighbours weak in Lebanon and Syria | Syria’s War News
Beirut, Lebanon – Israel’s continuing attacks intend to keep its neighbours unstable, weak and fragmented, analysts say, and are contributing to the derailing of governing projects in Lebanon and Syria.
Conversations with experts, analysts, and diplomats reveal a belief that Israel wants to keep the two states weak and fractured, maintaining Israel as the strongest regional power.
“The Israelis believe that having weaker neighbors, as in states that aren’t really able to function, is beneficial for them because, in that context, they’re the strongest actor,” Elia Ayoub, writer, researcher, and founder of The Fire These Times podcast, told Al Jazeera.
Lebanon and Syria, the targets of Israel’s forays, have largely not retaliated against the Israelis, who outpower them militarily, financially and technologically.
‘Israel has no limits’
Lebanon and Syria are both in a fragile condition.
Lebanon has been in dire economic straits for at least six years, with bouts of political paralysis, and has just emerged from a prolonged Israeli assault that killed more than 4,000 people and destroyed swaths of the country.
That war, which also badly damaged the armed movemen tHezbollah, a major domestic actor in Lebanon since the 1980s, ostensibly ended with the November 27 ceasefire.
Syria, meanwhile, recently emerged from a nearly 14-year-long war that displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.
The transitional government is working to unify armed factions, stabilise the economy and gain international recognition.
Along with Lebanon, which is led by its first functioning cabinet in years, Syria has new leadership that wants to turn a page on recent history but, analysts told Al Jazeera, Israel seems intent on preventing that.
Israel has been violating the ceasefire with Lebanon since it was signed, justifying each breach by claiming it had hit “Hezbollah targets”.
The situation is particularly gruesome along Lebanon’s southern border, where some villages were obliterated during the war and others were completely razed since the ceasefire was agreed on.
“There are a lot of violations,” a member of Lebanon’s civil defense force, who asked to not be named, told Al Jazeera from the battered southern town of Meiss el-Jabal, adding, “There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Israel has also refused to fully withdraw from Lebanon, as the ceasefire stipulates, instead, leaving its forces in five points that experts say are likely being held for future negotiations over delineating the Lebanon-Israel border.
“The very clear path ahead is that Israel has no limits in its operations within Lebanon,” Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told Al Jazeera.
“The only distinction made is in firepower and destruction, which is reserved for disproportionate responses to attacks on northern towns in Israel.”
Israel betting on Syria’s failure
In Syria’s chaos following the Assad regime’s overthrow on December 8, Israel launched attacks on military infrastructure around the country, focusing on the south and creeping its forces further into Syrian territory.
Syria’s transitional government has said it has no interest in regional war. Instead it has said that it has no intention to attack Israel and would respect the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between the two countries.
But the Syrian government’s overtures fell on deaf ears, and the attacks have continued.
The Israeli government immediately revealed its position towards the new Syrian government following President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow, calling it “a terror group from Idlib that took Damascus by force”. Israel has since repeatedly bombed Syria, and seized territory along the frontier between the occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria.
“Israel has made a bet that Syria will fail and will be fragmented,” Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, told Al Jazeera.
“What they’re doing is trying to position themselves in that scenario, as a push to have sway over the south and keep it unthreatening to them and protect their now almost unlimited freedom of manoeuvre in their airspace.”
In March, Israeli air strikes on Syria increased and expanded to new areas, with ground incursions increasing by 30 percent, including into the southern areas of Deraa and al-Quneitra.
“The impact on civilians has been increasingly deadly,” Muaz al-Abdullah, ACLED’s Middle East Research manager, said in a statement.
“To defend themselves, residents in the village of Kuya, in Deraa, fired warning shots to deter Israeli forces from advancing into the village on March 25. The response by Israeli forces was an air strike and shelling of the village, and at least six civilians were killed.”
Imad al-Baysiri, from Deraa, told Al Jazeera about a similar incident in Nawa, 34km (21 miles) north of Deraa city.
The Israeli army “tried to advance to all the large squares in Nawa so some young men started running and the Israeli army started shooting at them”, he said, adding that locals confronted the army and forced them to retreat.
“They brought in helicopters and drones and for around four hours bombed the area,” he said. “Warplanes and helicopters also bombarded the city of Nawa with missiles from helicopters and drones.”
‘They know war, but not peace’
Analysts can see little that would stop Israel’s near-daily attacks on Lebanon and Syria.
“They listen to Americans, but only to a certain extent,” a Western diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera.
Hezbollah’s arsenal may once have acted as a deterrent, but the latest war has changed that calculus.
“All deterrence has been lost,” Hage Ali said.
Without any diplomatic or military pressure in its way, Israel seems set on disrupting any progress in Lebanon and Syria and keeping them mired in chaos.
“That’s how Israel views its best-case scenarios in the region,” Ayoub said. “It speaks to a deep cynicism at the heart of Israeli politics, and one that comes from decades-long militarism that has become a normalised part of day-to-day Israeli political culture.”
Many analysts have spoken of Israel needing a “forever war” in the region, something that it would be “quite comfortable” in, according to Natasha Hall, senior fellow at the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, speaking at the American University of Beirut on April 8.
Or, as the diplomatic source told Al Jazeera: “This [Israeli] government has shown that it knows how to make war. But it has yet to show that it knows how to make peace.”
Conflict Zones
Chinese soldiers in Ukraine: Is Beijing sending troops to back Russia? | Russia-Ukraine war News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that his military had captured two Chinese men fighting with the Russian army.
Zelenskyy said that this was a clear sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to continue the Ukraine war, potentially threatening the ongoing peace negotiations brokered by US President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian officials also said that the capture of Chinese soldiers – the first such instance in more than three years of the war – raised questions about Beijing’s commitment to peace. China has long insisted that it is a neutral party in the war and has pushed for a ceasefire, even as its relations with Russia have strengthened throughout the war.
Beijing has also, so far, avoided sending weapons and other military equipment for Russia to use in the war, while playing a key role in propping up the Russian economy, battered by unprecedented waves of Western sanctions.
So does the capture of Chinese soldiers in Ukraine, if confirmed, suggest that Beijing is now changing its policy and getting more directly involved in the war, including with manpower support for Russia?
What happened?
Zelenskyy posted on X, saying two Chinese citizens were captured by the Ukrainian military in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russia occupied parts of Donetsk alongside other Ukrainian provinces in 2022. Zelenskyy wrote that the army found identification documents, bank cards and “personal data” in the possession of the captured Chinese citizens.
“We have information suggesting that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier’s units than just these two,” Zelenskyy wrote. He added that Kyiv is continuing investigations into the matter and has contacted Beijing for a response. The captured men are currently in the custody of the Security Service of Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy.
“Russia’s involvement of China, along with other countries, whether directly or indirectly, in this war in Europe is a clear signal that Putin intends to do anything but end the war,” Zelenskyy wrote, adding, “This definitely requires a response. A response from the United States, Europe, and all those around the world who want peace.”
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said this casts a shadow of doubt on China’s formal position advocating for peace. “Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia’s invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China’s declared stance for peace and undermines Beijing’s credibility as a responsible permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Sybiha wrote in an X post on Tuesday.
Our military has captured two Chinese citizens who were fighting as part of the Russian army. This happened on Ukrainian territory—in the Donetsk region. Identification documents, bank cards, and personal data were found in their possession.
We have information suggesting that… pic.twitter.com/ekBr6hCkQL
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 8, 2025
How has China responded?
China has denied Zelenskyy’s claims that several Chinese nationals are fighting in the war.
“Such claims have no basis. In fact, China’s position on Ukraine is very clear,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.
“Ukrainian side needs to view correctly China’s efforts and constructive role for the political settlement of the crisis.”
Are there past reports of Chinese soldiers fighting in Ukraine?
Yes, news outlets and social media posts have previously said that Chinese mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine.
French news outlet Le Monde reported on April 6 that it identified social media accounts of 40 Chinese people who claim to have signed up with Russian forces. The outlet interviewed a 37-year-old Chinese man who joined the war as a foreign mercenary in July 2023 and has since moved back to China.
In October 2024, there were reports on social media that Ukrainian forces had killed two Chinese mercenaries in Russia, the US-based Newsweek magazine reported. However, this was not backed by evidence and could not be independently verified by Newsweek.
Is China sending its soldiers to fight for Russia?
No, even if Zelenskyy is right and Chinese nationals are fighting in Ukraine on Russia’s behalf, that does not imply that Beijing has sent them there.
Mercenaries from multiple countries have arrived in Russia as tourists and joined the army in fighting against Ukraine. Several foreign mercenaries have also fought on Ukraine’s side against Russia in the war. And many foreign nationals have claimed over the past three years that they were duped into joining the Russian or Ukrainian militaries after being promised other jobs – a lucrative pay packet an incentive.
What other foreign fighters are involved in the Russia-Ukraine war?
In 2022, Putin supported a plan to allow foreign fighters to join Russia in the war. Many South Asian men, predominantly from Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, joined as mercenaries seeking economic opportunities.
While a Nepali Ministry of Foreign Affairs official estimated that about 200 Nepali men were fighting in Russia by the end of 2023, many estimate that there might be thousands of Nepalis on the battlefield.
In February, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that 127 Indian nationals were serving in the Russian armed forces. It is unclear how many among these Indian nationals are still fighting in Russia. According to the ministry last month, 16 Indian nationals who were serving in the Russian army have gone missing and the Indian government is in contact with the Russian government to find them.
South Korea, the US and Ukraine have also alleged that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian soldiers in Kursk amid strengthening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. Russia has not explicitly confirmed this. “But there is a difference: the North Koreans were fighting on the Kursk front against us,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday during a combined briefing with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. “The Chinese are fighting on the territory of Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy.
Meanwhile, Colombia-based City Paper Bogota reported in November 2024 that more than 300 Colombian mercenaries fighting on Ukraine’s side had been killed during the war. Some Sri Lankans and Indians have also fought on Ukraine’s side.
Western nationals have also joined the war, fighting on the Ukrainian side. Many of these volunteer soldiers are US nationals. It is unknown how many US nationals are currently fighting in Ukraine. A CNN investigation published in January revealed that 20 Americans are missing in action in Ukraine, and casualties are spiking.
What is China’s stance on the Ukraine war?
China officially claims a neutral stance on the war. Beijing says it does not provide Russia or Ukraine with lethal assistance, unlike Western countries which have armed Kyiv with cutting-edge weapons.
“China welcomes all efforts aimed at promoting peace talks and supports the establishment of a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework to ultimately achieve lasting peace and stability in Europe,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in February.
However, China is a close political and economic ally of Russia and has continued to purchase discounted Russian oil, which has helped fund Moscow amid economic sanctions from the West.
Western companies withdrew business from Russia following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Kyiv in February 2022. However, Chinese companies, including tech giants Alibaba and DiDi, continued business in Russia without scaling back. Chinese exports to Russia grew to fill the vacuum left behind by Western companies. In October 2024, Chinese exports to Russia grew by 12.7 percent compared with the previous year, Chinese customs data showed.
China has also backed Russia in United Nations resolutions on the war. In February, China abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution which called for “advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”. In February 2023, China abstained from voting on a UNGA resolution calling on Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukraine. In April 2022, China voted against a UNGA resolution suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
What is the latest on Russia-Ukraine peace talks?
Since February, teams from Russia and Ukraine have separately met with representatives from the US for peace talks in Saudi Arabia. On March 25, the US and Russia announced a Black Sea deal where Russia agreed to halt the use of force and stop the military use of commercial vessels in the Black Sea. Ukraine agreed to these terms. All sides also agreed to a 30-day ceasefire on attacks on Russian and Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
However, Russia and Ukraine have since traded blame for violating the agreed terms so far. Putin also has not agreed to a 30-day complete ceasefire jointly greenlit by Washington and Kyiv.
On April 6, Zelenskyy posted on X, saying: “Today’s Russian attack included missiles launched from the waters of the Black Sea … A ceasefire at sea is not just about free navigation and the export of food products — it is, above all, about overall security and bringing peace closer.”
Here is where things stand on Wednesday, 9 April:
Fighting
The Ministry of Defence in Moscow said its units intercepted and destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones overnight on the border in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions.
The ministry also said Russian forces mounted a shock attack and recaptured the village of Guyevo in Kursk, which had been held by Ukrainian troops since August 2024.
Moscow said it carried out air and artillery strikes on Ukrainian troops inside Russian territory, pushing Kyiv’s soldiers back towards the border.
Ukrainian forces attacked two Russian energy facilities in the past 24 hours despite a mutually agreed moratorium on energy strikes, the Russian Defence Ministry also said.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 46 drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile during an overnight attack, of which nine drones were shot down and 31 were lost due to electronic warfare measures.
At least 17 people were injured in Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv, which also caused fires and damaged houses, regional authorities said. One woman was left in serious condition due to her injuries.
Ukraine said its forces struck and destroyed an aircraft hangar complex, several military buildings and technical equipment, killing about 30 Russian soldiers in Ozerki village, located in Russia’s border region of Kursk.
Ceasefire
United States Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea told the UN Security Council that Washington “will have no patience” for negotiations made in bad faith or violation of any commitments in efforts to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. “We will ultimately judge [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s commitment to a ceasefire by Russia’s actions,” Shea said.
Politics and Diplomacy
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was very hard to imagine the start of negotiations with the US on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty due to the mutually strained trust with Washington, which was only on the mend.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his troops engaged six Chinese soldiers fighting for Russia on the battlefield and detained two as prisoners of war. Zelenskyy said he had ordered officials to obtain an official explanation from China as to why Chinese nationals were fighting with Russian forces.
China’s charge d’affaires has been summoned over the presence of Chinese people fighting for Russia, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. “Chinese citizens fighting as part of Russia’s invasion army in Ukraine puts into question China’s declared stance for peace,” he said.
A new round of Russia-US consultations will take place on Thursday regarding the restoration of normal functioning of Russian and US embassies, the Reuters news agency reported citing a diplomatic source.
According to Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS, Moscow’s delegation at the normalisation talks will be led by the newly appointed Russian ambassador to the US, Alexandr Darchiev, while the US delegation will be headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter.
Aid
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said his government had decided to provide a 1 billion euro ($1.19bn) aid package to Ukraine this year. He also said his country planned to support Kyiv with a similar package each year during his term.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will be virtually attending a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) on Friday, the AFP news agency reported, quoting a US defence official.
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