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Trump faces growing state department mutiny against immigration ban
Source: The Guardian
Trump faces growing state department mutiny against immigration ban
• More than 200 diplomats sign ‘dissent’ memo criticizing executive order
• Press secretary Sean Spicer says dissenters should resign
Julian Borger in Washington
Monday 30 January 2017 23.18 GMT
A mutiny among US diplomats was gathering steam on Monday as hundreds of state department officials were reported to have signed a memo fiercely dissenting from Trump’s refugee ban.
“We are better than this ban,” one leaked version of the memo said, arguing that it would backfire, making the US less safe from terrorism. The executive order, freezing entry for nationals of a list of seven majority Muslim countries, “stands in opposition to the core American and constitutional values that we, as federal employees, took an oath to uphold”, the memo said.
The memo is being sent through the state department’s “dissent channel”, set up at the time of the Vietnam war to allow alternative points of view to be aired inside the institution. Under its foreign affairs manual, dissenters are strictly protected from reprisals, but the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, warned the signers they should resign if they did not like the policy.
“I think that they should either get with the programme or they can go. This is about the safety of America,” Spicer said during his daily briefing at the White House.
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• More than 200 diplomats sign ‘dissent’ memo criticizing executive order
• Press secretary Sean Spicer says dissenters should resign
Julian Borger in Washington
Monday 30 January 2017 23.18 GMT
A mutiny among US diplomats was gathering steam on Monday as hundreds of state department officials were reported to have signed a memo fiercely dissenting from Trump’s refugee ban.
“We are better than this ban,” one leaked version of the memo said, arguing that it would backfire, making the US less safe from terrorism. The executive order, freezing entry for nationals of a list of seven majority Muslim countries, “stands in opposition to the core American and constitutional values that we, as federal employees, took an oath to uphold”, the memo said.
The memo is being sent through the state department’s “dissent channel”, set up at the time of the Vietnam war to allow alternative points of view to be aired inside the institution. Under its foreign affairs manual, dissenters are strictly protected from reprisals, but the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, warned the signers they should resign if they did not like the policy.
“I think that they should either get with the programme or they can go. This is about the safety of America,” Spicer said during his daily briefing at the White House.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/30/state-department-mutiny-trump-refugee-ban
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