An intelligence report by the Department of Homeland Security contradicts the White House’s assertion that immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries pose a specific threat of being terrorists, and should be blocked from entering the U.S.
The report is the latest episode in a struggle between intelligence officials and the Trump White House – you know, the gang who can’t shot straight – that has rippled across most of our intelligence agencies. Some officials have critiqued administration policies, while the president and senior members of his staff have accused officials of leaking information to undermine his administration and the legitimacy of his election.
Another sad example of “sand-box fighting” that doesn’t make any American feel secure about the necessary mature protection the country needs at this moment, given the state of affairs going on around Planet Earth.
This intel report came from Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. It said that its staff “assesses that country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity.” The White House yesterday dismissed it as politically motivated and poorly researched.
The disclosure of an intelligence report so directly at odds with top White House priorities marks an unusually sharp rupture between the administration and career public servants. It also underscores the difficulty Carrot Top has had in converting his confrontational and bombastic campaign rhetoric into public policy.
I’ve always noticed that it’s much more difficult to convert ‘bombastic’ promises into anything resembling appropriate policy, if you’re perceived as a large-mouth A-hole!
But, maybe that’s just me…
Trump’s administration, headed up by chief Leninist, Stevie Bannon, and little girly boy Stevie Miller, is seeking to enforce an executive order blocking immigrants from the seven countries, which it has portrayed as based on nationality and security factors, and NOT religion [which is still under a re-write after the initial cluster!!!]. Trump is expected to issue a new order this coming week, after federal courts blocked his first attempt to temporarily halt immigration and prohibit refugees from entering the country.
The Department of Homeland Security report was prepared in response to the White House request for intelligence assessments of terrorist threats posed by migration. Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the Homeland Security report said it was compiled on short notice, but that it relied on information that analysts routinely collect and examine in order to guide counterterrorism policies. The report was shared with agencies outside DHS, according to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.
Trump administration officials said the assessment ignored available information that supports the immigration ban and the report they requested has yet to be presented.
The translation of which NO one seems to have a clue, as of this morning, Saturday, February 25, 2017.
If you don’t have to get up, my counsel is go back to bed for the better part of the day.
The new DHS report, which is not classified, states that its findings are based on public statistics and reports from the Department of Justice and the State Department as well as an annual report on global threats produced by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Trump has defended the immigration ban, noting that the seven countries were identified by the Obama administration as “sources of terror,” and that two of them, Iraq and Syria, are home bases to members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, who conceivably could enter the U.S. posing as immigrants or refugees.
But the Homeland Security report found that in the past six years, foreign-born people in the United States who were “inspired” to participate in terrorist acts came from 26 different, and separately identified, countries.
In all, analysts found 82 individuals who were “primarily” based in the U.S. who had either died trying to engage in terrorism, or were convicted on charges. Of those, “slightly more than half” were native born U.S. citizens, the report found.
Only two of the seven countries targeted by Trump – Iraq and Somalia – are among the top origins countries for foreign-born individuals who engaged in terrorism in the United States, the report found. Those countries, in order, are Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iraq and Uzbekistan.
The DHS report found that countries targeted in Trump’s immigration order already accounted for a small portion of total visas issued in the fiscal year 2015, with NO country accounting for more than 7% of visas granted in the Middle East, North Africa or Sub Saharan Africa, the report found. The country accounting for the largest percentage of visas issued in those regions was Iran, the report found, which the U.S. designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984. What? Oops! Did you know that, Barry?
With these number of pages of detailed intelligence, one can’t expect any trustworthy/reliable judgement to spring forth, especially when our 45th president does NOT even read…
Remember the words of Ben Franklin: “If you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you.”
Lobster on the Prairie 