Wednesday, June 4, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Are Border Children a Refugee Crisis for the U.S.? – NBC
BY SUZANNE GAMBOA
First published June 3rd 2014

Americans are accustomed to seeing reports of refugees swamping the borders of countries abroad - Syrians fleeing to Turkey, Sudanese streaming to South Sudan. But they aren’t accustomed to seeing such flights of humanity on their doorstep.

The escalating numbers of young children arriving alone at the U.S. border with Mexico, many of them younger than 13, prompted the president to declare a humanitarian crisis on Monday.

The issue has brought to light a divide; those who believe in stronger immigration enforcement blame the president and consider the arrivals an immigration enforcement problem. Groups who work with children who have crossed the border alone say the nation is experiencing its own refugee crisis as children flee violence in their home countries.

“If this was happening in any other part of the world, the United States would be telling the receiving countries they have an obligation to protect the arriving migrants. We’ve done that to much poorer countries who have seen much poorer people,” said one advocate.

Wendy Young is president of Kids In Need of Defense, a group started by Angelina Jolie and Microsoft that assists immigrant and refugee children. Young said the key difference is that in this case the children are being forced to leave their home countries. Not all children fall into the situation of being refugees, but refugee crises abroad often are a mixed population too, Young said.

“I give the administration credit for identifying this as a humanitarian crisis. It gives them a lot of latitude to triage an emergency response,” said Young. But in coming days and weeks the response will need to become more sophisticated because many of the kids have been forced to leave home and many won’t be able to return.

Refugee carries a specific definition in immigration law as someone who has a founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Many of the kids would fit in the latter category, Young said.

Michelle Brané, of the Women’s Refugee Commission, said she hopes the president declaring the children's arrivals a humanitarian crisis reminds people of the nation’s responsibility.

In a U.N. report on refugees, 38 percent of the Mexican children interviewed said they were being recruited and exploited by human smugglers.

“If this was happening in any other part of the world, the United States would be telling the receiving countries they have an obligation to protect the arriving migrants. We’ve done that to much poorer countries who have seen much poorer people,” said Brané, the commission’s director of migrant rights and justice program.

Recent reports have documented some of the harrowing journeys of the children and life threatening encounters.

"We had kids tell us really awful, awful traumatizing stories. One girl told us of opening her door and finding a chopped up body in a plastic bag as a warning from a gang," said Brané, whose group first reported on unaccompanied children in 2009.

The rise in apprehensions of children crossing the border illegally and alone is happening as overall border apprehensions have increased only slightly and remain at historic lows, according to Customs and Border Protection.

From Oct. 1 to May 31st of the 2014 fiscal year, 47,017 children had been apprehended at the Southwest border, up from 24,493 in fiscal year 2013, CBP data shows. Most of the children are entering the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees found that Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Belize have all seen increases in asylum claims from citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Their arrivals in other countries suggest they are not coming to the U.S. solely for immigration benefits, Brané said.

The childrens’ arrivals are becoming entangled in the immigration debate and Republican displeasure with the administration’s immigration and border enforcement policies

Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of theHouse Judiciary Committee, said the surge of children is an “administration-made disaster” and called for enforcement at the border and in the interior U.S.

Goodlatte said the administration is rubber stamping credible fear claims at the border. He has also said the administration's deferred deportations for DREAMers has encouraged an increase in border crossings.

“Word has gotten out around the world about President Obama’s lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged more individuals to come to the United States illegally, many of whom are children,” Goodlatte said in a statement. He said he would hold a hearing on the issue.

Goodlatte’s view contrasts with that of the UNHCR which concluded in a report released in March that a large majority of the 404 Central American children they interviewed may qualify for international protection.

Various conventions and agreements require the international community assure the basic rights of individuals when the governments of their home countries are not protecting their basic rights. Generally, the person must be found to qualify as a “refugee.”

The UNHCR reported two overarching patterns of harm experienced by the children: violence by organized armed criminals, such as drug cartels and gangs, and violence in the home. Thirty-eight percent of the Mexican children interviewed said they were being recruited and exploited by human smugglers.

A White House official who did not want to be named said refugee has a specific definition under U.S. immigration law and not all children meet the definition while others have other protection needs.

António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a March forum most of the children had one thing in common: conviction their states could not protect them. He added the persecution experienced by the children was not usually state-sponsored, so condemning their countries was not needed.

A White House official who did not want to be named said refugee has a specific definition under U.S. immigration law and not all children meet the definition while others have other protection needs.

“For these reasons the U.S. government is not limiting our response to this crisis, only to those individuals who might meet the refugee definition and believes the more accurate, encompassing description to be “urgent humanitarian situation.”



http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/child-migrants-surge-unaccompanied-central-america

70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. What Happens to Them?

Officials have been stunned by a "surge" of unaccompanied children crossing into the United States.
—By Ian Gordon
| July/August 2014 Issue

“Just like that, Adrián became part of an explosion of child migrants traveling alone to sneak into the United States, a group government officials and advocates have begun referring to, with alarm, as "the surge." The number of undocumented children—mostly teens, but some as young as five—apprehended crossing the border without parents or guardians has more than doubled in the past two years, while the number of adults caught at the border increased just 18 percent. Just yesterday, President Obama described it as an "urgent humanitarian situation," asking Congress for an additional $1.4 billion to deal with the influx and creating amultiagency taskforce, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to coordinate the federal response.

“Although some have traveled from as far away as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, the bulk are minors from Mexico and from Central America's so-called Northern Triangle—Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which together account for 74 percent of the surge. Long plagued by instability and unrest, these countries have grown especially dangerous in recent years: Honduras imploded following a military coup in 2009 and now has the world's highest murder rate. El Salvador has the second-highest, despite the 2012 gang truce between Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. Guatemala, new territory for the Zetas cartel, has the fifth-highest murder rate; meanwhile, the cost of tortillas has doubled as corn prices have skyrocketed due to increased American ethanol production (Guatemala imports half of its corn) and the conversion of farmland to sugarcane and oil palm for biofuel.

“Many of the kids are coming to help a family in crushing poverty. Some are trying to join a parent who left years ago, before the recession and increased border enforcement slowed down adult immigration. Still others are leaving because of violence from family members and gangs. According to a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 58 percent of the 400 youth the agency interviewed "had suffered, been threatened, or feared serious harm" that might merit international protection. "This is becoming less like an immigration issue and much more like a refugee issue," says Wendy Young, executive director of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a DC-based nonprofit that helps unaccompanied immigrant kids find pro bono legal services. "Because this really is a forced migration. This is not kids choosing voluntarily to leave."

“US authorities have struggled with how to handle the tens of thousands of kids who end up caught by the Border Patrol. Those coming from Mexico are taken straight back across. The rest are referred to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (rather than being put in immigration detention with adults) and placed in temporary shelters while their deportation proceedings get under way.
Journalists aren't allowed into these shelters "for safety reasons," an ORR spokeswoman told me—due to concerns about trafficking victims, the agency goes to great lengths to conceal the exact locations of its facilities. It also forbids the groups that run them, including Catholic Charities and Southwest Key, from commenting on the issue. It took me a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain basic statistics, like the number of facilities (80) and the average time kids stay in the shelters (45 days in 2013, down from 72 in 2011).

“In fiscal 2011, ORR had 53 shelters that housed 6,560 kids. By 2013, there were 80 shelters with nearly 25,000 unaccompanied children. The surge was so unexpected that when it first began, the feds temporarily put hundreds of kids in emergency dormitories at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. According to a report from the Women's Refugee Commission, "the facility looked and felt like an emergency hurricane shelter." As recently as May, shelters in South Texas were so crowded that ORR was sending hundreds of kids to Lackland, which has room for 1,000.”




This article from Mother Jones is much longer than the clips that I have quoted here. It gives more background on this influx of children than the NBC article held. It is suggested reading on the subject.

From the NBC article, certain things struck me. First, the vast numbers who have come already, and according to the Mother Jones article as many as 70,000 are expected to arrive, is simply startling to me. Second, the predictable statements by Virginia Senator Bob Goodlatte blaming Obama, saying that his “lax” policy on border enforcement has attracted these kids to the US. Goodlatte plans to hold an investigation on the situation.

Michelle Brané, of the Women’s Refugee Commission denies this. They are also arriving in Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Belize, and are coming from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. “'Their arrivals in other countries suggest they are not coming to the U.S. solely for immigration benefits,' Brané said”. Whatever the reasons they are coming, in my viewpoint, we can't just turn away children under 13 years of age. They can't work for a living and they have to eat. I would suggest that the UN become involved in working with the countries of origin to stop the problems that are causing this shockingly large influx. Gang warfare is one of the causes, but violence in their home has been claimed by some of the children. The Mother Earth report cites massive breakdowns in those countries, both politically and economically. The skyrocketing cost of corn for tortillos due to increased American production of ethanol is blamed. Every action has a reaction. The US wants a smaller carbon footprint and it causes famine in Central America.





New FBI Child ID app helps parents report missing children
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS NEWS June 4, 2014

MIAMI - A new app that helps report when a child goes missing is something the FBI thinks every parent should download, reports CBS Miami.

Called The FBI Child ID app, the smart phone tool uses critical information like descriptions of the missing child and current photographs to immediately set up a search, according to the station. It allows parents to send pictures of their child - along with details like height and weight - to thousands of officers in one simple step.

"If your child were to go missing, with one push of a button this information is transmitted quicker than you can dial 911," FBI Special Agent Timothy Gallagher, who has worked on missing child cases for over 20 years, told CBS Denver.

"The first few hours when a child goes missing are critical," Gallagher said, "and the information which we need to obtain many times has to come from the parent."

Gallagher told the station it can often be difficult to get an accurate description of a missing child from panicked parents. "I remember working these cases 15 years ago and you had to go to a parent who had lost a child and were fishing around for pictures and trying to remember what their height and weight and descriptors are," he said.

More than 140,000 people have already downloaded the app to their smart phones and tablets, according to CBS Denver. The FBI encourages parents who haven't already downloaded it to do so as their kids get ready to start their summer activities. The department says it does not collect or store any of the information entered into the app.




When a child is kidnapped there is no time to lose. “The FBI Child ID app allows parents to send pictures of their child - along with details like height and weight - to thousands of officers in one simple step.” FBI Special Agent Timothy Gallagher, speaking from 20 years of experience said, “"I remember working these cases 15 years ago and you had to go to a parent who had lost a child and were fishing around for pictures and trying to remember what their height and weight and descriptors are." This app allows you to input the important information and then, if it is needed, just hit a button to transmit it to authorities. Over 140,000 apps have already been downloaded. The FBI does not store the information, so there should be no privacy concerns. This is a simple idea that should help retrieve kidnapped children more quickly and this article doesn't mention a cost for the app. I assume it's free.




U.S. military biosensors could reveal science of sweat – CBS
By ELIZABETH HOWELL LIVESCIENCE.COM June 4, 2014

Blood tests may be the current standard method of tracking certain indicators of a person's health, but a new project led by the U.S. military could change the way health is monitored.

It turns out that many of the same indicators of health that flow in human blood are also present in sweat. The U.S. military project aims to develop skin "biosensors" that track what is flowing in the sweat of soldiers, to monitor their health and improve their performance. The high-tech devices, which look and feel like adhesive bandages, could be used to collect real-time measurements, such as heart rate, respiration rate and hydration, the researchers said.

"It's getting away from the concept of, you go to the hospital, they take a 10-milliliter vial of blood and a couple of hours or days later come back with the answer," said Josh Hagen, a chemical engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory's 711th Human Performance Wing at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

The sensors -- flat, electronic chips that are embedded into bandages -- are designed to record health information that can be downloaded onto smartphones and computers. The military wants to use this technology to learn how best to deploy its soldiers and how to keep them functioning at peak performance.

Blood and sweat

Researchers at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) started mulling the idea in 2009, when Morley Stone, the chief scientist of the 711th Human Performance Wing, shared a picture of a transdermal patch -- an adhesive patch that delivers drugs to the bloodstream -- and suggested they use a similar device to monitor more details about the body.

Vital signs are important, but the AFRL is also interested in looking at biomarkers that indicate stress or fatigue, Hagen told Live Science. These biomarkers could include measurements of dopamine (a chemical in the brain associated with pleasure), cortisol (a stress hormone) or other potential biomarkers. These chemicals and hormones are well studied in the blood, but how they appear in sweat is not as well understood.

A breakthrough came in 2008, when Esther Sternberg, a former researcher at the National Institutes of Health who is now the research director for the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, led a study on sweat biomarkers that can be used to indicate depression. She discovered that the biomarkers could be found in sweat at almost identical concentrations as found in blood.

Hagen recalled that, after reading the paper, he pulled out a 1954 journal article about the chemical composition of sweat, which suggested that anything found in blood that can dissolve in water will show up in equivalent concentrations in sweat. Researchers at the AFRL decided to test the concept.

Wearability

The first challenge was to make the sensors small enough to wear, the researchers said. Transistors can be tiny these days, making them easy to place on a soldier's body. The AFRL is integrating the electronics into materials already designed with "skin wearability" in mind, such as Band-Aids.

The key is to make the silicon-based electronic chips interchangeable, based on what needs to be measured. Each sensor should be able to look for specific biomarkers in sweat, but prototypes could include multiple sensors, depending on what is required, Hagen said.

The small bandage could be placed somewhere on the body -- figuring out where the sensors work best will be part of tests scheduled for next year. The testing phase will measure electrolytes, which the body excretes in sweat, giving indications of a person's hydration level. Electrolytes are detectable in sweat at a threshold that is higher than other potential biomarkers, which makes them a good test case, Hagen said.

So far, the project is expected to cost millions of dollars. But once working biosensor prototypes are available, the military wants to make the technology available for civilian applications, in order to make individual units more affordable, the researchers said.

The benefits for civilians could be groundbreaking, Hagen said. Athletes could monitor their performance in real time to meet workout goals, while children or people who are afraid of needles could use these biosensors to glean information normally obtained through blood tests, the researchers said.




In order to track the condition of soldiers in action, the military has designed a skin “biosensor” with the aim of improving their performance. “The high-tech devices, which look and feel like adhesive bandages, could be used to collect real-time measurements, such as heart rate, respiration rate and hydration, the researchers said.” According to Josh Hagen, a chemical engineer, it can replace blood tests that take days to be read. The sensors are flat electronic chips that collect data, which can be downloaded into smart phones or computers.

“Vital signs are important, but the AFRL is also interested in looking at biomarkers that indicate stress or fatigue, Hagen told Live Science. These biomarkers could include measurements of dopamine (a chemical in the brain associated with pleasure), cortisol (a stress hormone) or other potential biomarkers.” Esther Sternberg of NIH has found that perspiration contains these biomarkers as much as blood does, and that depression can be diagnosed by the chemicals. The article states that the initial research will cost millions of dollars, but the army plans to make them available to civilians and bring the cost down. Athletes and “people who are afraid of needles” may find them useful for monitoring purposes, in that they often replace blood tests. This article didn't mention it, but since the tests of sweat chemicals can detect depression, this also should make it useful for the army. Suicides and depression have become an increasing problem in the military.





NSA chief defends use of facial recognition technology
By JAKE MILLER CBS NEWS June 4, 2014

The head of the National Security Agency explained the agency's use of facial recognition technology on Tuesday, pushing back on a report that claimed the NSA is collecting millions of images of Americans as part of a surveillance database.

During a cyber security conference in Washington, Adm. Michael Rogers acknowledged his agency is using facial recognition technology, but he emphasized the strict legal limits on the application of that the technology to U.S. citizens, according to Bloomberg News.

The defense was prompted by a report last Saturday in the New York Times that the spy agency is intercepting "millions of images per day" of people around the world. The report was based on documents obtained by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who fled the country last June after exposing several highly classified government surveillance programs.

The documents provided by Snowden, according to the Times, show that the agency has broadened its focus beyond written and oral communication to include facial images, fingerprints, and other personal identifiers that could help them keep tabs on suspected terrorists or other surveillance targets.

On Tuesday, Rogers said the legal limits that govern other forms of information intercepted by the agency apply to the facial images as well.

"We do not do this in some unilateral basis against U.S. citizens," Rogers said, according to Bloomberg News. "We have very specific restrictions when it comes to U.S. Persons."

"In broad terms, we have to stop what we're doing if we come to the realization that somebody we're monitoring or tracking has a U.S. connection that we were unaware of," he added. "We have to assess the situation and if we think there is a legal basis for this and we have to get the legal authority or justification."

An NSA spokeswoman told the Times that the NSA is required to obtain judicial approval to browse pictures of U.S. citizens obtained by the agency, much as it would be required to get court approval to sift through their telephone records or emails.

Still, this newest revelation -- the latest in a series of rolling disclosures from Snowden about the vast capabilities of the U.S. intelligence community -- has civil liberties advocates worried about a destruction of privacy.

The controversy sown by Snowden's previous disclosures has prompted calls for reform from activists and lawmakers. In May, the House approved a bill that would prohibit the spy agency's bulk collection of metadata from domestic phone calls. Under that proposal, the phone companies would retain the records themselves, and the NSA would be forced to obtain a court order to direct the companies to search the records. The Senate has not yet voted on the legislation.




Adm. Michael Rogers is defending the NSA's use of facial recognition technology, stating that its use on American citizens is strictly regulated by laws. Rogers said, “'In broad terms, we have to stop what we're doing if we come to the realization that somebody we're monitoring or tracking has a U.S. connection that we were unaware of,' he added. 'We have to assess the situation and if we think there is a legal basis for this and we have to get the legal authority or justification.'" The House bill that prohibits the NSA from collecting telephone information on government property, but instead must have the telephone companies to handle the data with the requirement of a court order to search the data, was approved in May, but has not been passed. Hopefully it will clear the Senate soon.





Giant Snails Take Over South Florida, Officials Use This Unexpected Weapon to Capture Them -- ABC
Credit: Bradley Blackburn and Joanna Suarez
Posted 06/03/2014, 06:50PM
Updated 06/04/2014, 01:25PM

They're destroying buildings, spreading disease and could be coming to a garden near you.

Snails in general are slow moving, but the Giant African Land Snail (or GALS) has spread at lightning speed across South Florida.

"They eat 500 different plants, including everything we grow in Florida as a source of food," said Mark Fagan. "In addition to that, they're a human and animal threat, because they carry a parisitic nematoad that could cause meningitis."

Fagan and his team with the Florida Department of Agriculture have been fighting the snails 24/7 since the epidemic started in one woman's house in 2011. GALS can eat right into a home and build up calcium.

Since then, the Department of Agriculture has collected 139,000 snails from nearly 30 different sites across Miami-Dade County. Once captured, the GALS are put into a deep freeze or a tank where their behavior is carefully studied.

Experts are hoping these clues can help them wage the war against them. Giant African Land Snails can lay a hundred eggs a month and grow up to 15 inches long, normally distinguished by the spiral shell with clear stripes.

Although they're now crawling around South Florida, they are native to Nigeria and most likely came here to be used in religious practices, according to experts. . The Florida Department of Agriculture is relying on dogs to help wage the war. They have become so effective that the federal government just granted an additional $5 million to fund more canines. These dogs are trained to sniff the snails out from their hiding places.

"The dogs are trained them to ignore all the native snails and all the non-native snails that are established here in Florida," said Omar Garcia, an Environmental Specialist with the Department of Agriculture. Turns out a giant snail's worst nightmare is man's best friend.





Florida is just too great a place to live! First it was the brown recluse spider which walked up into the Southern US states from Mexico in the 1970's, more recently the alarming number of full-sized pythons that now live in the Everglades, some large tropical lizards, even a few stray monkeys, now it's humongous snails. Ewww!! “'They eat 500 different plants, including everything we grow in Florida as a source of food,' said Mark Fagan. 'In addition to that, they're a human and animal threat, because they carry a parasitic nematode that could cause meningitis.'"

The article states that GALS can “eat right into a home.” I find that hard to believe. Please see the following CNN article which claims these snails can indeed eat through stucco. The Department of Agriculture has collected 139,000 of these snails from some 30 sites in Miami-Dade County and put most of them into a deep freeze, while studying some in laboratories. They can lay 100 eggs a month, and they get to be 15 inches long. They were brought here from Nigeria, “most likely for use in religious practices.” Dogs wonderful nose has been recruited to sniff the animals out, while ignoring all other snail types. Thank goodness snails can't bite!



http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/florida-giant-snails/

It's real: Attack of the giant African land snails in Florida
By Joe Sutton, CNN
updated 1:44 PM EDT, Mon April 15, 2013

(CNN) -- Florida, already threatened with sinkholes, now has a new terror: rat-sized, tire-puncturing snails.

Sounding like something out of a 1950s B-movie, these giant African land snails eat their way through some surprising stuff, including stucco, plastic recycling bins, signs and more than 500 species of plants, says the Florida Department of Agriculture.

Their calcium shells bear pointy edges that are sharp enough to blow out tires of vehicles that run over them.




Leader Of Pakistani Political Movement Arrested In London – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
June 03, 2014

The leader of Pakistan's powerful Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) was arrested Tuesday in London, where he's been living in self-imposed exile since the 1990s.

Reuters says Altaf Hussain was taken into custody in relation to a murder case, but the BBC says he was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

Reuters says:

"Hussain is known for his fiery addresses to his supporters in Karachi though a loudspeaker connected to a telephone. He effectively controls the sometimes violent port city of Karachi from his headquarters in a north London suburb.

"Hussain's hold on Karachi is so strong that he is capable of shutting down entire neighbourhoods of the city of 18 million."

The BBC says:

"Mr Hussain has lived in the UK since 1991, saying his life would be at risk if he returned to Pakistan.

"The British and Pakistani authorities have in the past expressed concerns that any arrest of Altaf Hussain could lead to violent protests in Karachi."

NPR's Philip Reeves, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, says, "News of Hussain's arrest hit Karachi like a thunderbolt. Traffic jams built up as residents, fearful of violence, tried to get home. Shops and gas stations pulled up their shutters; several buses were torched."

The BBC says: "One man in the city, who gave his name as Tahir, told the BBC that MQM supporters were firing guns in the streets and setting fire to any shops which remained open."

On its website, the MQM says its leadership in Pakistan has "advised the party workers to remain calm, peaceful and to stay united."

The MQM is made up primarily of millions of Urdu-speaking Muslims whose families migrated to Karachi when British India was divided into India and Pakistan at the time of independence in 1947.




According to NPR's Philip Reeves, "'News of Hussain's arrest hit Karachi like a thunderbolt. Traffic jams built up as residents, fearful of violence, tried to get home. Shops and gas stations pulled up their shutters; several buses were torched.'.... The MQM is made up primarily of millions of Urdu-speaking Muslims whose families migrated to Karachi when British India was divided into India and Pakistan at the time of independence in 1947.” Altaf Hussain, according to one report, was suspected of being connected to a murder, but the BBC said it was money laundering. According to the article he was the active head in full control of the MQM in Pakistan while living in London.



Muttahida Qaumi Movement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MQM, is a secular[6][7] political party inPakistan mainly representing Urdu-speaking Mohajirs.[10] The student organization, All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization (APMSO), was founded in 1978 by Altaf Hussain which subsequently gave birth to the Muhajir Qaumi Movement in 1984.[11] 

The MQM is generally known as a party which holds strong mobilizing potential in Karachi, having traditionally been the dominant political force in the city.[12][13] Muttahida Qaumi Movement is currently the second largest party in Sindh with 37 out of 130 seats and overall the fourth largest party in the National Assembly of Pakistan after the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Pakistan Peoples Party andPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.[14]

The party has, regardless, kept its influence over Islamabad by remaining a key coalition partner of the federal government since the late 1980s (1988-1990, 1990-1992, 2002-2007, 2008-2013).[15]

It was launched to protect the Muhajir community who perceived themselves as the victims of discrimination and repression by the quota system that gave preference to certain ethnicities for admissions in educational institutions and employment in civil services.[18][19] In 1997, MQM replaced the term Muhajir in its name with Muttahida (Urdu for "United").[20]

According to Nichola Khan the party allegedly receives support from Pakistan's neighboring country India.[21]

Accusations of violence[edit]

In the mid-1990s, MQM created widespread political violence that affected Pakistan's southern Sindh province, particularly Karachi, the port city that is the country's commercial capital.[30] In the mid-1990s, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and others accused the MQM and a rival faction, MQM Haqiqi, of summary killings, torture, and other abuses. The MQM-A routinely denied involvement in violence.[16]

The party's use of extra-legal activities in conflicts with political opponents have earned it the accusation ofterrorism.[31][32][33] The party's strongly hierarchical order and personalist leadership style led to some critics labelling the MQM as fascist.[31][34]

 MQM has several chapters across the world in the United States, Canada, South Africa, several European countries, and Japan.[52] Currently, the heads of MQM North America are former Federal Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Ibad ur-Rehman.[53]

Militancy[edit]
In 2009, the US Consul General in Karachi Stephen Fakan revealed in a cable that MQM has a militant group named Good Friends having thirty five thousand members, of which ten thousand are active.[54]