Tag: donald-trump

Trump’s vetting order prompts outcry ‘for everyone who believes in freedom’

Activists and analysts lead condemnation of executive order, warning of dangers to counter-terror efforts as the US fails to stand by its principles

Mousa al Mosawys mother woke him this week with a call from Iraq, frightened and in floods of tears. She was afraid not of attacks at home, but that a new US law could end her sons education or stop her from seeing him for years.

Donald Trump had not yet signed his executive order calling for new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States.

But early reports that the US president planned to ban citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries from entering the US looked like they would directly affect Al Mosawy, an Iraqi citizen studying law at Boston College on a student visa.

My mother was quite disturbed by this, he said. After he had consoled her and hung up, he began the far more difficult task of quieting his own fears about the executive order on immigration.

It included severe restrictions on immigration from those seven countries, implemented a 120-day halt to all refugee admissions and an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.

Trumps refugee ban provokes criticism at home and abroad video report

Al Mosawy, 24, is a wheelchair user and believes he would have little hope of finishing his education or launching a career if he were forced to return home.

Im from Iraq, I dont have residency in any other country, so for me [being forced to leave the US], would mean going back to Iraq, he said in a phone interview.

I have a disability and I think if I am not able to stay in this country I will not be able to finish my education. So it would be basically be a full stop to my career.

Al Mosawy said the conflicting early reports and rumours about how the new controls might work were even more frightening than the draft version that was leaked, which called for an initial 30-day ban on visas for Iraqis. The final order made that ban 90 days long.

It is far from clear how a screening process might work and the overall message sent out by the order is chilling, particularly for someone who has always felt welcome in America.

It was a stark contrast to what I had experienced previously, Al Mosawy said. Its not like Muslims have not faced persecutions or harassment in the US, I just was privileged not to personally deal with that and felt very welcomed.

In those Middle Eastern and North African countries affected by the order Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Iran and Syria few people were surprised.

Trumps election campaign was shot through with attacks on Muslims, including proposals to create a registry of American Muslims, plans for a ban and the hounding of a Gold Star family whose son died for his country.

But activists and analysts, many of whom have risked their own lives to push for democracy at home, warn that the order will still damage Americas soft power, built on its role as a champion of freedom.

For civil society, for democracy, for everyone who believes in freedom, its a big blow, and for Americans themselves, not just for the world, said Farea Al-Muslimi, Yemeni activist and co-founder of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

Anticipation of the new executive order had in effect grounded Al-Muslimi and his staff, who travel regularly to the US, though ironically it may mean little in practical terms for Yemenis at home.

The Saudi-led coalition backing one side in the raging civil war has in effect closed the main airport, meaning no one can leave anyway, he said.

The executive order may also diminish support for another of Trumps stated priorities, the global battle against extremism, by targeting countries on the frontline. Both their support and their knowledge may be lost to Washington, if their citizens are prevented from travelling.

I cannot think of another country that has given more in the fight against the Islamic State, said Rasha Al Aqeedi, a research fellow at Al Mesbar Studies and Research Center and an Iraqi citizen.

She pointed to hundreds of lives lost in the recent difficult push to dislodge the terror group from its biggest Iraqi base, the city of Mosul. The battle has been grinding on for months, and could last into the spring.

I feel including Iraq in a terror prone states list disregards the thousands of lives sacrificed over the past 100 days to liberate half of Mosul.

For Syrians who have been fighting both Isis and the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad for over half a decade, rejection by a country that once hailed their fight for greater accountability is particularly bitter.

We need to be clear that the US is not willing to pull its weight or stand by its principles as a democracy, said Salim Salamah, director of the Palestinian League for Human Rights Syria, and twice a refugee. He grew up in a camp for Palestinians in Syria, and then fled Syria for Europe during the civil war.

I think one of the most scary aspects of the executive order is that its clearly indicating that part of the vetting process [for refugees seeking settlement in the US] is going to be based on religious beliefs, which ignores the fact that Muslims themselves have been the victims of radical groups.

Even before details of the executive order were released, it had begun affecting the work of activists such as Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a Yemeni citizen working in the US as a conflict analyst and fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy.

She provides vital understanding of a country that is home to both an al-Qaida franchise and a committed opposition, and where US weapons are fuelling the brutal civil war.

I just cancelled an upcoming trip to Yemen because I worry that I wont be allowed back into the country, Al-Dawsari said, adding that in practical terms the blowback would be felt by the US itself.

What Trump is doing is simply a blanket statement that everyone who comes from these countries is a potential terrorist. The implications of that for US counter-terrorism policy in Yemen are certainly a cause of major concern for democracy, for freedoms, and even for counter-terrorism efforts.

That concern is shared by Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer who has over a decades experience in Afghanistan and Yemen.

We have important national security and humanitarian interests in countries like Yemen, Iraq and other named countries. Working with our local partners to address the security challenges there is more important than ever, and travel and exchange are a big part of that dialogue, said Gaston, a US citizen working at the Global Public Policy institute in Berlin, Germany.

This is not just a question of limiting opportunities for citizens of these countries, although that is certainly true. It is critical for US policy that Yemenis, Iraqis, or other citizens of these countries are able to travel to the US to share what is happening on the ground, upcoming security threats that the US should be aware of, or possible solutions we might work together on.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/28/donald-trump-extreme-vetting-executive-order-muslim-countries

Trump’s vetting order prompts outcry ‘for everyone who believes in freedom’

Activists and analysts lead condemnation of executive order, warning of dangers to counter-terror efforts as the US fails to stand by its principles

Mousa al Mosawys mother woke him this week with a call from Iraq, frightened and in floods of tears. She was afraid not of attacks at home, but that a new US law could end her sons education or stop her from seeing him for years.

Donald Trump had not yet signed his executive order calling for new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States.

But early reports that the US president planned to ban citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries from entering the US looked like they would directly affect Al Mosawy, an Iraqi citizen studying law at Boston College on a student visa.

My mother was quite disturbed by this, he said. After he had consoled her and hung up, he began the far more difficult task of quieting his own fears about the executive order on immigration.

It included severe restrictions on immigration from those seven countries, implemented a 120-day halt to all refugee admissions and an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.

Trumps refugee ban provokes criticism at home and abroad video report

Al Mosawy, 24, is a wheelchair user and believes he would have little hope of finishing his education or launching a career if he were forced to return home.

Im from Iraq, I dont have residency in any other country, so for me [being forced to leave the US], would mean going back to Iraq, he said in a phone interview.

I have a disability and I think if I am not able to stay in this country I will not be able to finish my education. So it would be basically be a full stop to my career.

Al Mosawy said the conflicting early reports and rumours about how the new controls might work were even more frightening than the draft version that was leaked, which called for an initial 30-day ban on visas for Iraqis. The final order made that ban 90 days long.

It is far from clear how a screening process might work and the overall message sent out by the order is chilling, particularly for someone who has always felt welcome in America.

It was a stark contrast to what I had experienced previously, Al Mosawy said. Its not like Muslims have not faced persecutions or harassment in the US, I just was privileged not to personally deal with that and felt very welcomed.

In those Middle Eastern and North African countries affected by the order Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Iran and Syria few people were surprised.

Trumps election campaign was shot through with attacks on Muslims, including proposals to create a registry of American Muslims, plans for a ban and the hounding of a Gold Star family whose son died for his country.

But activists and analysts, many of whom have risked their own lives to push for democracy at home, warn that the order will still damage Americas soft power, built on its role as a champion of freedom.

For civil society, for democracy, for everyone who believes in freedom, its a big blow, and for Americans themselves, not just for the world, said Farea Al-Muslimi, Yemeni activist and co-founder of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

Anticipation of the new executive order had in effect grounded Al-Muslimi and his staff, who travel regularly to the US, though ironically it may mean little in practical terms for Yemenis at home.

The Saudi-led coalition backing one side in the raging civil war has in effect closed the main airport, meaning no one can leave anyway, he said.

The executive order may also diminish support for another of Trumps stated priorities, the global battle against extremism, by targeting countries on the frontline. Both their support and their knowledge may be lost to Washington, if their citizens are prevented from travelling.

I cannot think of another country that has given more in the fight against the Islamic State, said Rasha Al Aqeedi, a research fellow at Al Mesbar Studies and Research Center and an Iraqi citizen.

She pointed to hundreds of lives lost in the recent difficult push to dislodge the terror group from its biggest Iraqi base, the city of Mosul. The battle has been grinding on for months, and could last into the spring.

I feel including Iraq in a terror prone states list disregards the thousands of lives sacrificed over the past 100 days to liberate half of Mosul.

For Syrians who have been fighting both Isis and the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad for over half a decade, rejection by a country that once hailed their fight for greater accountability is particularly bitter.

We need to be clear that the US is not willing to pull its weight or stand by its principles as a democracy, said Salim Salamah, director of the Palestinian League for Human Rights Syria, and twice a refugee. He grew up in a camp for Palestinians in Syria, and then fled Syria for Europe during the civil war.

I think one of the most scary aspects of the executive order is that its clearly indicating that part of the vetting process [for refugees seeking settlement in the US] is going to be based on religious beliefs, which ignores the fact that Muslims themselves have been the victims of radical groups.

Even before details of the executive order were released, it had begun affecting the work of activists such as Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a Yemeni citizen working in the US as a conflict analyst and fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy.

She provides vital understanding of a country that is home to both an al-Qaida franchise and a committed opposition, and where US weapons are fuelling the brutal civil war.

I just cancelled an upcoming trip to Yemen because I worry that I wont be allowed back into the country, Al-Dawsari said, adding that in practical terms the blowback would be felt by the US itself.

What Trump is doing is simply a blanket statement that everyone who comes from these countries is a potential terrorist. The implications of that for US counter-terrorism policy in Yemen are certainly a cause of major concern for democracy, for freedoms, and even for counter-terrorism efforts.

That concern is shared by Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer who has over a decades experience in Afghanistan and Yemen.

We have important national security and humanitarian interests in countries like Yemen, Iraq and other named countries. Working with our local partners to address the security challenges there is more important than ever, and travel and exchange are a big part of that dialogue, said Gaston, a US citizen working at the Global Public Policy institute in Berlin, Germany.

This is not just a question of limiting opportunities for citizens of these countries, although that is certainly true. It is critical for US policy that Yemenis, Iraqis, or other citizens of these countries are able to travel to the US to share what is happening on the ground, upcoming security threats that the US should be aware of, or possible solutions we might work together on.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/28/donald-trump-extreme-vetting-executive-order-muslim-countries

Prince Charles may raise climate change during Trump’s visit to Britain

Royal sources say prince will not lecture US president but does not rule out addressing topic if they meet

Prince Charles will not lecture Donald Trump over his policy on climate change during the US presidents state visit to Britain later this year but has not ruled out addressing the topic altogether, according to royal sources.

Charles is being urged by some in Whitehall to challenge Trumps pledge to abandon the United Nations climate change deal signed in Paris in 2015, as part of harmonised efforts with the UK government to keep the carbon-cutting treaty on track.

But other UK officials are reported to be concerned that the likely meeting between the two men has become a risk factor for the visit. Another potentially controversial issue that could arise is religion, with Charless history of trying to promote better interfaith relations contrasting with Trumps actions to block travellers from Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.

An anonymous source, described as being close to Trump, claimed this weekend that the president would not put up with being lectured by the prince, according to the Sunday Times. The source warned against the two men meeting at all.

Under the normal choreography of a state visit, Charles is likely to welcome Trump where he is staying and he also invites most leaders to tea at Clarence House. Whether this will happen with Trump is yet to be decided. Barack Obama did not take tea on his last state visit, but Chinas president, Xi Jinping, did.

In parts of Whitehall Charles is now considered to be an extremely good asset in helping to maintain the integrity of the UN climate change treaty. He has been gently primed to assist diplomatic efforts on the issue, a senior Whitehall source said.

There is a sympathetic hearing between Clarence House and the government on climate change, with Charless views considered absolutely in line with government policy.

It has taken a lot of work by some of us to get him into that place, but what he is doing now is extremely helpful to us, the source said.

Last week, while Trump issued executive orders to revive oil pipeline projects and told car makers environmental regulation was out of control, Charles stepped up his own warnings on the environment. In a foreword to a Ladybird book on climate change published on Thursday and co-written by the prince, he described climate change as the wolf at the door and said action must be urgently scaled up and scaled up now.

Trump has appalled climate activists by threatening to cancel the Paris deal, which was in part brokered by Obama. In 2012 Trump described climate change as created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.

One royal aide said Charles would find a meeting [with Trump] on this subject [climate change] extremely useful but also made clear that while the agenda may or may not include climate change the mode of delivery would not be confrontational or hectoring.

If anything he is a helpful and honest broker on so many issues, said one source. They explained that Charles is usually in listening mode for the first 30 minutes of meetings with heads of state and only towards the end would consider offering thoughts about how problems that had been raised might be addressed.

Another source close to the prince said it would be difficult for him to be very direct with Trump.

He has to retain political neutrality, which is why he is always walking something of a tightrope on this subject, they said.

However, the same source added: It is fair to say he considers the world to be in great peril because of climate change and system degradation and resource depletion and he feels it is necessary for him to use his position to say something about that.

Some in Whitehall hope that far from causing Trump to erupt, as one anonymous US source suggested at the weekend, the US president may in fact be more engaged by Charles expressing views about the need for urgent action on climate change than a politician, in part because of Trumps admiration of wealth and British royalty.

Trump reportedly told Theresa May in November that his Scottish mother, Mary Macloed, was a big fan of the Queen.

Trump is the sort of person who loves the panoply surrounding wealth and royalty, said a senior government source. He loves reflecting the glory of the royal family. He is pressing for a state visit so he can go and have a meal in Buckingham Palace and he wants to play golf on the Queens golf course.

Environmental campaigners have also backed Charless ability to influence the new US president, in part by rallying other countries including Brazil, China and India to stand by the deal, thereby putting indirect pressure on Trump.

He has an international outreach and he is respected in the US, said Nick Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group, an alliance of businesses, politicians and campaign groups pushing for a sustainable economy. He has the benefit of being a step removed from everyday politics and I think that is important. It allows him to have more authority and to be a more engaging figure.

Charles told the 2015 UN climate change conference in Paris: The moment has arrived to take those long-awaited steps towards rescuing our planet and our fellow man from impending catastrophe.

He has also previously acknowledged the importance of US policy on climate change. In a 2015 speech he told an audience in Washington DC: Americas impact is profound and it is my, and many others, fervent hope that you will continue to inspire others both at home and on the global stage.

In recent years, Charles has focused his campaigning and convening efforts on the fight against climate change. He runs his own international sustainability unit from Clarence House, which describes itself as a trusted forum for for key actors from governments, the private sector and civil society.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/29/prince-charles-climate-change-trump-visit-britain

Twitter users are donating like mad to the ACLU after Trump’s immigration ban

Sia performs on the Virgin Media Stage during the V Festival at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex.

Image: PA Wire/Press Association Images

The ACLU successfully argued for a halt to deportations across the United States on Saturday after an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on Friday caused chaos for immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Even before the stay was granted by a federal judge in Brooklyn, celebrities began calling for donations to the ACLU, starting with Sia, who said she will match donations up to $100,000.

SEE ALSO: Lyft pledges $1 million ACLU donation in response to Trump’s #MuslimBan

The immigration ban, which resulted in detentions of immigrants at airports around the United States and protests at many of those same airports, also targeted legal U.S. residents from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia who were out of the U.S. at the time of the ban, as well as those who have dual citizenship in one of those nations.

Sia promised to match donations to the ACLU, and others followed.

Others were doing the same even before Sia tweeted her promise, and the effect spread far past celebrities who are household names.

Lyft, the ride-sharing company, also pledged $1 million to the ACLU over the next four years.

“Banning people of a particular faith or creed, race or identity, sexuality or ethnicity from entering the U.S. is antithetical to both Lyft’s and the nation’s core values,” the co-founders wrote in an emailed statement.

The response struck a contrasting chord with Lyft’s rival, Uber, which was accused of “strike breaking” on Saturday. Uber drivers continued to pick up passengers from New York City’s John F. Kennedy airport after the New York Taxi Workers Alliance called for a one-hour ban on pick-ups from the airport as a form of protest against the immigration ban. In response, #DeleteUber began to spread across social media.

Not the best day for Uber, but seems a solid day for the ACLU.

BONUS: ACLU Releases App That Lets You Police the Police

Read more: http://mashable.com/2017/01/29/aclu-donations-sia-celebrities/

Full of nuts, watching a 70s western, I saw Americas future | Stewart Lee

It seems to me as if prophecies of Trump have been built into the culture, perhaps by the aliens who seeded us on Earth

Can it be only last year that I was making the out-of-touch liberal elite laugh, in publicly subsidised theatres throughout pre-Brexit Britain, by saying that Donald Trump sounded like the kind of name Walt Disney would come up with if he was asked to invent a fart that could speak?

Happy times.

It seemed then that Donald Trump was destined to become little more than the answer to a pub trivia question, fondly and foolishly remembered, and filed alongside Faith Browns Rusty Lee impression, Spike Milligans sitcom Curry & Chips, and an almost heroically offensive sentence my dad shouted at a woman on a gangplank near Greenwich in 1997 as an example of the dying light ofa distant dark age.

And can it be only last year that Brexits bogus cheerleader Boris Johnson, who remains incomprehensibly at large like a clever piglet, was reassuring us that we could leave the EU and stay in the single market, as his policy was having cake and eating it? Where is your cake now, fatty? Or, as Pliny the Younger might have said, Ubi nunc est subcinericius panis, sterculus?

And can it be only two days ago that a cakeless Theresa May, desperate to proffer illusory options before forcing through article 50 with the compliance of an immolated opposition, went lamb-like into the Playboy-encrusted office of Donald Trump? Friendless in Europe, she began trade negotiations with the kind of rogue state we might once have proudly imposed sanctions on. We didnt buy Apartheid oranges. Henceforth let us boycott Dunkin Donuts, hardcore pornography and Adam Sandler movies, Americas mostchoice exports.

Article 50 was not designed to be triggered; nuclear weapons were not built to be used (which is lucky for us, because ours dont work); and postwar western democracies werent supposed to vomit up people like Donald Trump, who appears to have reignited a war against the Native Americans, a conflict historians might reasonably have assumed was now settled. Things have learned to walk that ought to crawl.

Events defy analysis. Sometimes it simply isnt enough to just keep on drawing Nazi moustaches on Donald Trumps face by which I mean on pictures of Donald Trumps face. Not his actual face. If you so much as approached Trumps face with a marker pen you would soon be wrestled to the ground by the rubber-hands of his bodyguard, and then waterboarded until you agreed to disputed inauguration audience figures. To analyse Donald Trump we need better tools than felt tips. It seems to me that prophecies of Donald Trump have been built into the culture, perhaps by the very alien scientists that seeded us on Earth in the first place.

Before I seek Donald Trump in cinema, I am aware that my film buff credentials are in doubt. In last weeks column, I ignorantly mixed up two Dirty Harry movies. To be fair, it has been a hard month for fans of Clint Eastwood, whose endorsement of Donald Trump has finally meant we must face the fact that the violent reactionary characters our hero portrayed in the 1970s were not intended as satires of violent reactionary attitudes, but as blueprints for a dystopian future.

Indeed, I am now wondering if Eastwoods touching portrayal of a weird loners dysfunctional relationship with a servile orangutan in the haunting visual poem Every Which Way But Loose (1978) was actually intended as a misogynist endorsement of traditional marriage.

Fans of fake news will be pleased to know that my Dirty Harry error has been erased from history on the Observers website. As regular readers will know, the only films I have really watched these past few years are Italian spaghetti westerns of the 60s and 70s. I have now seen 112, and sheer weight of numbers makes it seem like spaghetti westerns make sense of every human problem. Like Donald Trumps tweets, they are often tasteless, incoherent and badly written, and yet somehow seem to offer exactly the answers people need.

illustration
Illustration by David Foldvari.

Last weekend I sat up late alone, eating some nuts, and watched Joe DAmatos micro-budget 1972 shambles Pokerface, a spaghetti thats hard to recommend, even to genre stalwarts. Variously also known as Run Men Run, Trinity in Eldorado, Stay Away from Trinity When He Comes to Eldorado, Run Men Eldorado Is Coming to Trinity, and, rather brilliantly, Go Away! Trinity Has Arrived in Eldorado, the movies very titles, like spellings of Theresa Mays name, are post-factual, alternative names telling alternative truths. The same shot of a laughing Mexican eating something outdoors is repeated over and over again, at different points in the film, to fill empty space. The movie itself lies. The images cannot be trusted.

Pokerface stars Stelvio Rosi, last heard of as the line producer of the 1997 Ice Cube/giant snake vehicle Anaconda, as a magician-cum-conman involved in a series of unfunny scrapes in a blandly anonymous borderland. But just as I was getting ready to hit the hay, the last third of the film changed gear, and loomed like a warning from history.

Rosi arrives in a deserted, whitewashed town, ruled over by an eccentric gold-hoarding demagogue named Eldorado (Craig Hill), who rides around on an ostentatiously decorated nag, in a generals uniform one suspects he is not entitled to wear. Frightened Mexican peasants bow to Eldorado as he rides past, and then he spits theatrically upon them from above. His garish throne is flanked by semi-naked women, instructed to laugh at his jokes and applaud his thoughts. He cries out, My gold, my beautiful gold! and is easily distracted by nudity and card tricks. Its 2am, I am full of nuts, future sexploitation director DAmatos broad-brushed caricature of crazed power is Donald Trump, made flesh in a cheap 70s western, and I claim my 5.

But were DAmatos sticky fingers guided by a godlike power, warning us of our future? There are more antecedents for Trump, as if some unseen hand had threaded cautionary archetypes into our collective consciousness, perhaps the finest being the Golem of Jewish folklore. The rabbi of medieval Prague, Judah Loew ben Bezalel, conjures a compliant monster to defend the ghetto. But he forgets to remove from its mouth the rune that brought it to life, and the Golem begins an indiscriminate rampage.

Some critics believe the story to be a 19th-century German literary invention. Fake news, folks! Fake news!! But little America has unleashed a monster of its own making, which it thought would do its bidding, and now no one knows how to bring it to a halt. Somehow I dont think Theresa May is about to put it back in its box.

Stewart Lees Content Provider is now touring, see stewartlee.co.uk for details

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/29/donald-trump-70s-western-america-future-stewart-lee-pokerface

UN funding: alarm at reports Trump will order sweeping cuts

Draft executive order would reduce voluntary contributions to international bodies by 40% and complains of burdensome commitment to UN

US allies have reacted with a mix of alarm and scepticism to reports that the Trump administration is preparing to order sweeping cuts in funding to the UN and other international organisations, while potentially walking away from some treaties.

According to one draft executive order leaked to US media outlets, there is to be a 40% cut to US voluntary contributions to international bodies. Funds are to be cut off to any international organisation that gives full membership to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation or Palestinian Authority, or supports programs that fund abortion, or skirts sanctions on Iran or North Korea.

A second order calls for a review and possible withdrawal from certain forms of multilateral treaties that do not involve national security, extradition or international trade. As examples, according to the New York Times which first reported the orders, potential targets include the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

There was at least one apparent mistake in the text suggesting it may have been drafted in haste. One of the international bodies listed as a possible target for cuts was the international criminal court in The Hague, but the US does not make contributions to the ICC and is not a member.

A senior European diplomat said on Wednesday night that the draft orders looked draconian on paper but raised questions over what their ultimate outcome would be, as under each order a review would have to be carried out before any action is taken.

It would potentially be brutal but as with all these executive orders we have to wait to see what happens in practice, the diplomat said.

According to the Washington Post, the proposed funding review is envisaged to take a year and be overseen by a panel including the departments of defence, state, justice, the office of the director of national security, the office of management and budget and the national security adviser.

Another senior European diplomat suggested that while Trumps immediate circle was signalling to his supporters that he would fulfil his election pledges of radical action, the arrival of powerful cabinet members such as Rex Tillerson at the state department and James Mattis as defence secretary would bring about a pivot to the mainstream.

The new US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, had argued for a review of US expenditure on the UN to ensure America gets what it pays for but she cautioned in her confirmation hearing against slash and burn cuts.

Many of the flurry of executive orders produced by the incoming administration will have little meaning without a congressional vote on funding.

However the order on international funding cuts, titled Auditing and Reducing US Funding of International Organisations, would reduce congressional expenditure and is likely to attract only limited opposition in Congress. Legislators have regularly complained that the US contribution, at 22% of the main UN budget and nearly 29% of peacekeeping operation costs, was disproportionate

The United States is in fact the United Nations largest supporter, providing nearly a quarter of its total revenues, and the American contribution continues to grow annually, the White House says in an introduction to the order.

This financial commitment is particularly burdensome given the current fiscal crisis and ballooning national deficits and national debt. And while the United States financial support for the United Nations is enormous, the United Nations often pursues an agenda that is contrary to American interests.

The 22% of the UN budget paid by the US represents a maximum for any one country and the contribution is calculated according to the size of the overall economy and per capita income, among other variables. No other country comes close in its contributions. Japan is next, paying nearly 10%, then China, Germany, France and the UK, which pays about 4.5% of the budget.

Natalie Samarasinghe, the executive director of the United Nations Association UK, warned of the potential impact on programmes that were already seriously underfunded including many humanitarian initiatives that successive US administrations, and the American public, support.

Samarasinghe added: Not only does it undermine the international system at a very fractious time, but also longstanding US priorities such as peacekeeping and development initiatives aimed at stabilising fragile states and combating extremism.

Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: It is not clear exactly how seriously to take this. It looks like Trump is aiming to make the maximum possible amount of political noise about the UN, but the executive order seems to park discussions about financial cuts in a special committee.

I think that heavy cuts to US funding to the UN are likely, and Trump will keep on kicking the institution to score cheap political points, Gowan added.

But there is still time for Antonio Guterres [the new UN secretary general] and the UNs friends to persuade the administration that it needs the UN to help it in places like Syria.

There are rumours that Guterres is planning to slim down parts of the UN secretariat anyway for example by cutting back the number of staff overseeing peace operations which may play well with Trump.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/un-funding-alarm-at-reports-trump-will-order-sweeping-cuts

‘Opposites attract’: Theresa May signals strong relationship with Trump

UK prime minister launches charm offensive on arrival in Philadelphia, suggesting she will get on well with US president

Theresa May has said she believed she could a forge a strong personal relationship with Donald Trump, arguing that sometimes, opposites attract, as she set out how post-Brexit Britain could work with his country to shape the world.

On the eve of a much-anticipated visit to the Oval Office, the prime minister used a speech to Republican leaders in Philadelphia to pledge that the two countries have a joint responsibility to lead, but not as they did before.

May argued that a new special relationship would be nothing like the one between Tony Blair and George W Bush, which saw the pair collaborate in invading Iraq and Afghanistan. The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are decisively over.

Despite the growing controversy in the UK and worldwide about Trumps remarks on the use of torture, as well as a series of other policies including the border wall with Mexico, May said she was determined to deepen links. She added: It is in our interests those of Britain and America together to stand strong together to defend our values, our interests and the very ideas in which we believe.

Speaking to journalists on the plane to Philadelphia, the prime minister was asked about the contrast in temperaments between the brash billionaire and a vicars daughter, when she meets Trump in the White House on Friday. Havent you ever noticed, sometimes opposites attract? she replied.

However, she also signalled that she would be prepared to deliver tough messages to the US president where their views differed, including on torture. On Wednesday, Trump had used his first TV interview as president to say he believed torture absolutely works and that the US should fight fire with fire.

Responding, May said: We have a very clear view: we condemn the use of torture, and my view on that wont change, whether Im talking to you, or talking to president Trump. She also insisted Britains policy on refusing to use intelligence gained through illegal methods remained unchanged.

The prime minister has arrived in the US with the Trump administration less than a week old and proving to be more chaotic and unpredictable than any in modern US history. Mexicos president, Enrique Pea Nieto, cancelled a scheduled visit to Washington next week to meet Trump, after the US president signed an executive order to move forward on construction of a border wall and repeated his claim that Mexico would be forced to pay for it.

Theresa
Theresa May steps off her plane at Andrews air force base near Washington DC on Thursday night. She will meet Donald Trump on Friday at the White House. Photograph: Jose Luis Magana/AP

May used the wide-ranging foreign policy speech to Republicans to underline the importance of Nato, which Trump has sometimes expressed scepticism about; and of standing up for allies, including those countries in Russias sphere of influence.

When it comes to Russia, as so often it is wise to turn to the example of President Reagan who during negotiations with his opposite number Mikhail Gorbachev used to abide by the adage trust but verify. With President Putin, my advice is to engage but beware, she warned.

She added: We should build the relationships, systems and processes that make cooperation more likely than conflict and that, particularly after the illegal annexation of Crimea, give assurance to Russias neighbouring states that their security is not in question. We should not jeopardise the freedoms that President Reagan and Mrs Thatcher brought to Eastern Europe by accepting President Putins claim that it is now in his sphere of influence.

That will be read as a strong message to Trump, who has been accused of being too close to Vladimir Putin, with the FBI even suggesting Russia may have used cyber-warfare in a bid to influence the election result.

May also pointed to the need to reduce Irans malign influence in the Middle East as a key foreign policy priority, saying Britain would support our allies in the Gulf States to push back against Irans aggressive efforts to build an arc of influence from Tehran through to the Mediterranean. That appeared to be a significant strengthening of language since Britain reopened diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2015.

The prime minister also had warm words for Trumps Republicans, telling them she was speaking, as dawn breaks on a new era of American renewal, and addressing them not just as prime minister of the United Kingdom, but as a fellow Conservative who believes in the same principles that underpin the agenda of your party the value of liberty, the dignity of work, the principles of nationhood, family, economic prudence, patriotism and putting power in the hands of the people.

Mays visit is the culmination of a series of contacts between London and Washington since Trump won the election in November. Her two closest advisers, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, met members of his team in December. The British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson also visited Washington earlier this month to discuss laying the groundwork for a potential bilateral trade deal that the UK hopes could be signed as soon as possible after Brexit.

It came as the prime minister faced growing pressure to warn Trump that the British government considers his comments about torture to be unacceptable.

Angus Robertson, the SNPs Westminster leader and a member of parliaments intelligence and security committee, asked: How can the UK claim the relationship is special when it potentially involves torture?

Theresa May must raise this with President Trump and explain the extremely damaging consequences that this policy would have on intelligence cooperation between allies.

His comments came alongside similar pleas from Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, his predecessor, Ed Miliband, and the Lib Dems Tim Farron.

And there were outspoken interventions by Conservatives, including select committee chairs Andrew Tyrie and Sarah Wollaston. Wollaston argued that Mays suggesting the UK and US should lead together on a global stage was questionable when Trump was advocating torture, disgusting racial stereotyping and turning back the clock on womens rights worldwide.

Trump has suggested he is keen to do a deal with the UK following the Brexit vote, in contrast to his predecessor, Barack Obama, who warned during the referendum campaign that London would be at the back of the queue. But sceptics point out that Trump is an avowed protectionist, who has already torn up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal with countries including Japan, and said he wants to put America first.

In his own speech at the Republicans retreat in Philadelphia, Trump joked that with Congress so far refusing to confirm his candidate for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, he would have to discuss trade with May himself. I dont have my commerce secretary; they want to talk trade; so I have got to handle it myself, he said.

Asked whether she would be willing to offer US companies access to the NHS as the price of a deal, May said that it was only the start of the process of talking about a trade deal but added: As regards the NHS, were very clear as a government that were committed to an NHS that is free at the point of use.

Trump, with record-low approval ratings for a new president, has mounted sustained attacks on the press and staged abortive efforts to mend his relationship with the intelligence agencies, while his administration faces congressional and reported intelligence service investigations into the extent of collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/26/opposites-attract-theresa-may-signals-strong-relationship-with-trump

Trump claims torture works but experts warn of its ‘potentially existential’ costs

Trump gives first presidential TV interview as draft executive order points to return to practices such as waterboarding

Donald Trump has used his first TV interview as president to say he believes torture absolutely works and that the US should fight fire with fire.

Speaking to ABC News, Trump said he would defer to the defence secretary, James Mattis, and CIA director, Mike Pompeo, to determine what can and cannot be done legally to combat the spread of terrorism.

But asked about the efficacy of tactics such as waterboarding, Trump said: absolutely I feel it works.

ABC News (@ABC)

President Trump on waterboarding: I feel it works, but will rely on teams guidance and do everything legally.” https://t.co/89o6NhpsWh pic.twitter.com/vWoL5W2ycc

January 26, 2017

When Isis is doing things that nobody has ever heard of since medieval times. Would I feel strongly about waterboarding. As far as Im concerned we have to fight fire with fire.

Trump said he asked intelligence chiefs earlier this week whether torture works. The answer was yes, absolutely, he said.

He added that terrorist groups chop off the citizens or anybodys heads in the Middle East, because theyre Christian or Muslim or anything else … we have that and were not allowed to do anything. Were not playing on an even field.

The interviews come after reports that Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that would reinstate the detention of terrorism suspects at facilities known as black sites.

This would remove limitations on coercive interrogation techniques set by a longstanding army field manual intended to ensure humane military interrogations, which is mostly compliant with the Geneva Conventions. Mattis and Pompeo were blindsided by reports of the draft order, Politico said citing sources.

However, Trump faces resistance to the prospect of the reintroduction of torture.

On Wednesday, Steve Kleinman, a retired air force colonel and senior adviser to the FBI-led team that interrogates terrorist suspects warned that weakening US prohibitions against torture was dangerous and ignorant.

A lot of these people who weigh in heavily on interrogation have no idea how little they know, [and do so] because of what they see on television, said Kleinman, chairman of the research advisory committee to the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG).

There is, at best, anecdotal evidence to support torture, said Kleinman, who emphasized that he was not speaking for the HIG.

There is, on the other hand, a robust body of scientific literature and field testing that demonstrates the efficacy of a relationship-based, rapport-based, cognitive-based approach to interrogation, as well as a robust literature that would suggest torture immediately undermines a sources ability to be a reliable reporter of information: memory is undermined, judgment is undermined, decision-making is undermined, time-references are undermined. And this is only from a purely operational perspective; we cant take the morality out of strategy.

If the US was to make it once again the policy of the country to coerce, and to detain at length in an extrajudicial fashion, the costs would be beyond substantial theyd be potentially existential, Kleinman said.

Senator John McCain, a torture survivor and co-author of a 2015 law barring the US security agencies from using interrogation techniques that surpass the prohibitions beyond those set out in the US army field manual, signalled his defiance.

The president can sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America, said McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Senate armed services committee.

McCain referenced explicit guarantees from Pompeo and Mattisduring their Senate confirmation proceedingsto follow the interrogations law and the army field manual. I am confident these leaders will be true to their word, McCain said.

The former CIA head Leon Panetta, who gave the orders to close the agencys black sites told the BBC that it would be a mistake to reintroduce enhanced interrogation techniques and damaging to the reputation of the US. Panetta said torture was violation of the US values and the constitution.

Mark Fallon, who was the deputy chief of Guantnamos Bush-era investigative taskforce for military tribunals, said: It does appear like a subterfuge to enact more brutal methods because that was what candidate Trump campaigned on during the election.

Fallon warned that the field manuals appendix M, which allows extended separation of a detainee from other captives, represented a slippery slope that could bring back torture.

Britains prime minister, Theresa May, has been urged to by her own MPs to make Britains opposition to torture clear to Trump when she visits him on Friday.

At prime ministers questions Andrew Tyrie, a senior Tory MP, said: President Trump has repeatedly said he will bring back torture as an instrument of policy. When she sees him on Friday, will the prime minister make it clear that in no circumstances will she permit Britain to be dragged into facilitating that torture, as we were after 11 September?

 

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/donald-trump-torture-absolutely-works-says-us-president-in-first-television-interview