An al-Qaida suspect, accused of supporting terrorists, made his initial appearance in a U.S. federal court in Philadelphia Friday, following his extradition from Spain.

Ali Charaf Damache was indicted in 2011 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on charges that he aided terrorism, including a plan to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

Authorities believe Damache conspired with an American woman, Colleen La Rose, who was known as Jihad Jane, to recruit people to carry out terror attacks in Europe and Asia.

La Rose is serving a 10-year sentence for plotting the attacks, including the plan to kill Vilks, which never materialized.

Trial, not Guantanamo

Damache, who was known online as Black Flag, is the first foreigner brought to the United States to face terrorism charges under the Trump administration.

Trump has said he would be fine with sending terrorism suspects to the military prison in Guantanamo Bay instead of civilian courts.

It was not immediately clear why the Trump administration changed its stance.

Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior only said the U.S. has “consistently used the extradition process to obtain indicted fugitives who are overseas, so that they can stand trial in our federal courts.”

The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the move.

“Prosecuting terrorism cases in federal courts is the right thing to do,” said David Cole, the ACLU national legal director.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, under the Obama administration, said, “It’s good to see that the president and the attorney general now seem to share my belief in the effectiveness of the world’s greatest judicial system and its ability to keep the American people safe.”

Suspect is Algerian

Damache, who is Algerian and had lived in Ireland for years, was detained in Ireland in 2010, but a court there refused a U.S. request to extradite him and set him free.

In 2015, however, he was arrested in Barcelona, and the Spanish government agreed to extradite Damache to the U.S.
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This month marks 50 years since the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) went into effect. FOIA promised to make government transparent and recognized the right of anyone to petition the U.S. government for official records. Requests can be denied for only nine reasons relating to concerns such as privacy and national security. Journalists consider FOIA invaluable, though they submit less than 10 percent of all FOIA requests. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports.
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As Vice President Mike Pence prepares to visit Montenegro for talks with Western Balkan leaders, a senior State Department official says U.S. engagement in the region remains strong.

The comments by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Hoyt Brian Yee, come amid concerns that deep cuts in the proposed State Department budget could diminish Washington’s role in fragile democracies exposed to Russian interference.

On issues where U.S. and Russian interests align in the region, such as counterterrorism, Yee said the United States will try to work closely with Russia.

“But where Russia and the United States do not see eye to eye, where we are perhaps working along different lines, the United States, as Secretary [Rex] Tillerson has said, as Vice President Pence has said, the United States will defend the interests and the values of the United States and its allies very firmly, and that’s what we are doing.”

Russian influence

The Western Balkans are one example of where, Yee says, the United States thinks it is important remain vigilant without exaggerating the seriousness and magnitude of Russian election meddling and influence campaigns.

“We are taking steps where we can to strengthen countries of the Western Balkans against malign influence—whether it’s from Russia or other sources, other countries, other factors—to be sure that it is not going to be as easy for Russia, or any other actor, to influence through malign means the foreign policy or domestic policy of countries in the Balkans,” he told VOA.

One case that should be worrisome to every democracy in Europe, he says, is Russia’s interference in Montenegro.

“If Russia is willing, as the evidence overwhelmingly indicates, to not only interfere in elections, but to topple the government of a democratically elected state, of a state which just became a member of NATO, then other countries in the Balkans need to be very cautious,” Yee said. He was referring to Podgorica’s trial of Russian-funded coup plotters who allegedly planned to kill Prime Minister Milo Ðukanovic in order to derail the small Balkan nation’s bid to join the Western alliance.

That thwarted coup plot, which would have been carried out on Montenegro’s election day in 2016, was followed by its June 2017 accession to NATO.

Moscow had strongly opposed not only Montenegro’s NATO bid, but has actively sought to deter other Balkan countries from getting closer to Euro-Atlantic institutions, including the European Union, and to expand its presence in the region. Russia has reportedly been meddling in Macedonian internal affairs for nearly a decade, and has tried to use its traditional ties with Serbia to maintain its clout.

The United States recently expressed concern about (( a disaster relief center Russia is operating in Serbia https://www.voanews.com/a/united-states-sees-russia-humanitarian-center-serbia-spy-outpost/3902402.html )), which some Western groups and military analysts see as a subtly disguised military base set up by the Kremlin to spy on U.S. interests in the Balkans.

Vucic meeting

Pence’s upcoming Balkans trip comes on the heels of a White House meeting with newly inaugurated Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

According to analyst James Hooper, a former senior State Department official on the Balkans, Vucic used the meeting to prove to Serbian people that he’s trying to strike a diplomatic balance between East and West.

“Serbia has a very close relationship with Russia, and … I think there was some criticism, some concern that they were getting a little too distant from the West, from the United States,” Hooper said. “After all, Serbia wants a future within the EU.”

Because a non-alignment policy may not be sustainable in a globalized world, Serbia, Hooper added, should align its foreign policy with the goal of EU integration.

Pence and Vucic also discussed the need to normalize relations with Kosovo, whose independence is not recognized by Serbia or Russia.

Yee also says the recent White House meetings and Pence’s upcoming Balkans trip only affirms the new administration’s commitment to the region.

EU, NATO integration

Although Yee believes Balkan-wide EU and NATO integration will continue to square with U.S. interests—as it has across numerous administrations and party lines—Daniel Serwer, professor of conflict management at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says it may be too soon to say.

“Like the previous administration, they have a lot of issues on their plate; like the previous administration, they have delegated the Balkans to the Vice President, which is not all bad, but it is not all good either,” he said. “It seems to me that it is doubtful that there will be a great deal more attention, but I don’t think we know yet.”

What may compound the situation in the Western Balkans is the fragility of its democracies. Reform benchmarks required for NATO and EU accession have so far been mixed.

“They need our support and we realize that,” said Yee. “We intend fully to provide that support, but we need on the other side the political will, the resistance to corruption, the commitment to focus on solutions rather than political games. If there is this genuine partnership between both sides, than I believe we can be successful.”

Yee also said Balkan leaders who are resolved to see through the reforms that enable European integration will make their countries more resilient in the face of outside influences and be better positioned to determine their own national fate.

Although Serwer would like to see a more robust engagement in the Balkans, he agrees with Yee.

“We didn’t do what we did in the Balkans in order to control the Balkans,” he said of prevailing U.S. policies. “We did what we did in the Balkans so [those] people … could control their own destiny.”

This story originated in VOA’s Albanian Service. 

Jela DeFranceschi, Jovana Djurovic contributed to this report.
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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has resigned.

Sources quoted in media reports say his decision to step down is linked to the appointment of new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. They say President Trump’s spokesman offered his resignation shortly after Scaramucci, a New York financier, was named.

At a press conference Friday afternoon, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement on behalf of Trump in which the president thanked Spicer for his service.

“I am grateful for Sean’s work on behalf of my administration and the American people. I wish him continued success as he moves on to pursue new opportunities — just look at his great television ratings,” she said on behalf of Trump.

Spicer’s press briefings had drawn large audiences on television and social media. Recently, Sanders has taken over most briefings, and held them off camera.

The Scene in the White House

In introducing Scaramucci, Sanders continued quoting Trump as saying he has “great respect for Scaramucci” and looks forward to working with him.

“He’s been a great supporter and will now help implement key aspects of our agenda while leading the communications team,” she said. “We have accomplished so much and we are getting credit for so little. The good news is, the people get it even if the media doesn’t.”

Who is Scaramucci?

Scaramucci, a fierce defender of Trump on cable talk shows, has long been considered a contender for the White House staff. In January, he sold his hedge fund, SkyBridge Capital, with the expectation of being named assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs.

But the White House ethics committee found that SkyBridge was sold to a Chinese conglomerate with ties to the government, so the post went instead to another contender, Ideagen founder and former CEO George Sifakis. Scaramucci last month was named senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Scaramucci, a registered Republican, has backed political figures in one way or another for nearly a decade. In 2008, he was a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. In 2012, he served as National Finance Co-Chair for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Scaramucci first backed Republican Scott Walker and later Republican Jeb Bush. After Walker and Bush both dropped out of the race, he joined the Trump Finance Committee. He also served on Trump’s transition team.

Educated at Tufts University and Harvard Law School, the 53-year-old Scaramucci has said he comes from a middle-class background.

He told Yahoo Finance in May that he is well-suited for a White House position. “I think I’m a reasonably good communicator,” he said. “I think I understand the policies reasonably well. I’m a trained economist, entrepreneur. … I’m not bragging. I just think I have an interesting enough skill set.” Regarding his background, he said, “I came from a middle-class family, so I have identification for the struggle, and I think there’s a number of ways I could serve.”

Scaramucci has television experience, both as a defender of peers and politicians under fire, and as host of the financial television show Wall Street Week, which built up its reputation at public broadcaster PBS before the name was sold to SkyBridge in 2014.

Scaramucci’s White House appointment was reportedly not supported by some members of Trump’s staff, including spokesman Spicer, who resigned Friday, and chief of staff Reince Priebus, who has had differences with Scaramucci in the past. Priebus, however, told the Associated Press on Friday that he supports Scaramucci “100 percent.” He added, “It’s all good here.”

The New York Times reports that the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross supported the appointment.

Friday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News that Scaramucci is “somebody who has been an incredible asset to President Trump all during the campaign [and the] transition.” She added,  “Anthony is someone who is a friend to the administration.”

VOA’s Marissa Melton contributed to this report.
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U.S. allies in Eastern Europe and Ukraine are worried that Russia’s planned war games in September could be a “Trojan horse” aimed at leaving behind military equipment brought into Belarus, the U.S. Army’s top general in Europe said Thursday.

Russia has sought to reassure NATO that the military exercises will respect international limits on size, but NATO and U.S. official remain wary about their scale and scope.

U.S. Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who heads U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters in an interview that allied officials would keep a close eye on military equipment brought to Belarus for the Zapad 2017 exercise, and whether it was removed later.

“People are worried this is a Trojan horse. They say, ‘We’re just doing an exercise,’ and then all of a sudden they’ve moved all these people and capabilities somewhere,” he said.

Hodges said that he had no indications of any such plans by Russia, but that greater openness by Moscow about the extent of its war games would help reassure countries in Eastern Europe.

NATO allies are nervous because previous large-scale Russian exercises employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Such tactics were later used in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, NATO diplomats say.

Hodges said the United States and its allies had been very open about a number of military exercises taking place across Eastern Europe this summer involving up to 40,000 troops, but it remained unclear whether Moscow would adhere to a Cold War-era treaty known as the Vienna document, which requires observers for large-scale exercises involving more than 13,000 troops.

Some NATO allies believe the Russian exercise could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013.

Russia has said it would invite observers if the exercise exceeded 13,000 forces.

Scheduled NATO exercises

Hodges said NATO would maintain normal rotations during the Russian war games, while carrying out previously scheduled exercises in Sweden, Poland and Ukraine.

The only additional action planned during that period was a six-week deployment of three companies of 120 paratroopers each to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for “low-level” exercises, Hodges said.

“We want to avoid anything that looks like a provocation. This is not going to be the Sharks and the Jets out on the streets,” Hodges said in a reference to the gang fights shown in the 1961 film West Side Story, set in New York City.
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