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US Ends Controversial Laptop Ban On Flights From Middle East (theguardian.com)
The United States has ended a four-month ban on passengers carrying laptops onboard US-bound flights from certain airports in the Middle East and North Africa, bringing to an end one of the controversial travel restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump's administration. From a report: Riyadh's King Khalid international airport was the last of 10 airports to be exempted from the ban, the US department of homeland security (DHS) confirmed in a tweet late on Wednesday local time. Middle East carriers have blamed Trump's travel restrictions, which include banning citizens of some Muslim-majority countries from visiting the United States, for a downturn in demand on US routes. In March, the United States banned large electronics in cabins on flights from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa over concerns that explosives could be concealed in the devices taken onboard aircraft. The ban has been lifted on the nine airlines affected -- Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Royal Jordanian , Kuwait Airways, EgyptAir and Royal Air Maroc -- which are the only carriers to fly direct to the US from the region. A ban on citizens of six Muslim-majority countries -- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, -- remains in place, though has been limited after several US court hearings challenged the restrictions.
Here is the thing.
The US War on Terrorism, is really the war against Saudi funded Wahabi Sunni Aggression. Saudi Arabia is the philosophical Nazi Germany (bad analogy) of the War on Terrorism. They are behind the ideology that started all of this. What we are seeing as "The Islamic Invasion of Europe" Is more like an attempt by the Saudis to expand their colony states, to Europe and beyond. Many refugees from Syria are exactly that, Refugees. Some are Saudi Sunni Colonists.
The Saudis have made "colonies" of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Maldives, and a few other places. They are indirectly funding Proxy armies, like ISIS, the Taliban, and Al'Queda. While ISIS has been pretty much defeated in Iraq and Syria, eventually, a new Sunni Proxy Army will show up, they will attack the Shia first, the west second. A vague Analogy to this is Protestant vs. Catholic conflicts during the 16th Century. Its the closest Christian Parallel I can draw.
Wahabi Islam is as incompatible with Liberal Western Democracy as Oliver Cromwell and 16th Century Protestantism would be if it existed today.
The thing is, this has the potential to threaten the very existance of the Human species circa Global Warming/Climate Change. The US Protects Saudi Arabia, despite the fact they are possibly the worst Regime on Earth except for maybe North Korea. The Saudi controlled Sunni states have no concept of Environmentalism or concept that their actions in Green House gas production could render the entire world uninhabitable. They have a Fatalistic cult like view of history and will drive the Human species into extinction if not stopped. For them, Fossil Fuels made them rich. If the cash flow due to the energy demands of the west stops, they die poor. Alternative Energy isn't even a question.
The issue is, all the US Does is make it worse and sell them Weapons. The US Representative Democracy has imploded into a Right Wing Oligarchy. Congress is filled with lunatics that are in entrenched Gerrymandered districts who have been there for decades that are impossible to remove. They have put a complete incompetent in the Presidency. They just ram-rodded a far right Corporatist into the Supreme Court.
The US Does stupid, ineffective things like Trump's Travel Ban that doesn't address the problem, and scapegoat's Minorities. I suspect that this will be how Humanity dies. Earth rendered uninhabitable because the US's Oligarchs were too addicted to Fossil Fuels and Saudi cash.