Alabama Muslims seek additional protection after recent email threats
The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group is requesting additional police protection for the state’s Islamic community following emailed threats received by the Birmingham Islamic Society and Huntsville Islamic Center. The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama) said the emails, with the subject line “YOUR ONE WARNING, stated in part, (grammatical and spelling errors maintained) “. . .MUZLIMS MEXICANS BLACKS WE WILL HUNTED NATION WIDE UNTIL ARE ARE DEAD OR GONE. . .PLAN TO RUN OR DIE, THIS IS A KINDNESS THAT WE GIVE YOU ALL WARNING, TAKE IT AND GO .” Both organizations have reported the threats to local law enforcement, Department of Justice office in North Alabama and the FBI. “We are coordinating with law enforcement authorities to reach out to Muslim community leaders to ensure additional safety measures at this time of increased anti-Muslim bigotry nationwide,” said CAIR-Alabama Executive Director Khaula Hadeed. Hadeed added, “CAIR-Alabama also condemned the rhetoric that continues to embolden bigotry and Islamophobia leading to threats of terrorism such as these against Muslim, Jewish, African-American, and Latino communities. The Muslim community continues to receive support and cooperation from local law enforcement agencies.” The Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization believes the emailed threats may be part of a mass mailing to mosques nationwide and is urging Islamic institutions to report any such threats to local police and to CAIR online. “Hate and threats will make us firm in our resolution to fight hate with love. We will take every opportunity to combat fear-mongering and build alliances and coalition that will give voices to all marginalized communities,” said Birmingham Islamic Society President Ashfaq Taufiq. CAIR has noted a spike in hate rhetoric and bias-motivated incidents targeting American Muslims and other minorities in recent months. “America is one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL as guaranteed by the constitution we cherish,” said Huntsville Islamic Center President Mateen Muhammad. “We will work together to show the world, by example, how to live and love the diversity we find in this land we call home and defeat the forces of fear and bigotry that are trying to tear us apart. United we are strong.”
Mike Pence was disappointed Michael Flynn gave him inaccurate information
Vice President Mike Pence said Monday it was right to oust Michael Flynn as national security adviser for misleading him about the adviser’s contacts with Russia. “I was disappointed to learn that the facts that have been conveyed to me by General Flynn were inaccurate,” Pence said when asked about Flynn at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “I fully support the president’s decision to ask for his resignation. It was the proper decision. It was handled properly and in a timely way.” Flynn’s resignation came after reports that he had discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, despite previously denying those conversations to Pence and other top officials. Flynn had said for weeks that he had not discussed U.S. sanctions in his conversations with the ambassador but later conceded the topic may have come up. The matter, coming before Pence’s first overseas trip as vice president, raised questions about Pence’s influence within Trump’s administration and doubts by some European leaders about whether he speaks on behalf of Trump. Trump spent the weekend at his South Florida resort considering his options for Flynn’s replacement, interviewing candidates for the key national security job. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Donald Trump marks his first month with tweets, turmoil
One month after the inauguration, the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of Donald Trump‘s White House still is a hard-hat zone. Skeletal remains of the inaugural reviewing stands poke skyward. Random piles of plywood and cables are heaped on the ground inside crooked lines of metal fencing. The disarray outside the president’s front door, though not his fault, serves as a metaphor for the tumult still unfolding inside. Four weeks in, the man who says he inherited “a mess” at home and abroad is presiding over a White House that is widely described as itself being a mess. At a stunning pace, Trump has riled world leaders and frustrated allies. He was dealt a bruising legal blow on one of his signature policies. He lost his national security adviser and his pick for labor secretary to scandal. He’s seen forces within his government push back against his policies and leak confidential information. All of this has played out amid a steady drip of revelations about an FBI investigation into his campaign’s contacts with Russian intelligence officials. Trump says his administration is running like a “fine-tuned machine.” He points to the rising stock market and the devotion of his still-loyal supporters as evidence that all is well, although his job approval rating is much lower than that for prior presidents in their first weeks in office. Stung by the unrelenting criticism coming his way, Trump dismisses much of it as “fake news” delivered by “the enemy of the people” — aka the press. Daily denunciations of the media are just one of the new White House fixtures Americans are adjusting to. Most days start (and end) with presidential tweets riffing off of whatever’s on TV talk shows or teasing coming events or hurling insults at the media. At some point in the day, count on Trump to cast back to the marvels of his upset of Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election and quite possibly overstate his margins of support. Expect more denunciations of the “dishonest” press and its “fake news.” From there, things can veer in unexpected directions as Trump offers up policy pronouncements or offhand remarks that leave even White House aides struggling to interpret them. The long-standing U.S. policy of seeking a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Trump this past week offered this cryptic pronouncement: “I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.” His U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, the next day insisted, “We absolutely support a two-state solution.” Trump’s days are busy. Outside groups troop in for “listening sessions.” Foreign leaders call or come to visit. (Or, in the case of Mexico’s president, cancel out in pique over Trump’s talk about the planned border wall.) After the president signed two dozen executive actions, the White House was awaiting a rush order of more of the gold-plated Cross pens that Trump prefers to the chrome-plated ones used by his predecessor. Trump hands them out as souvenirs at the signing ceremonies that he points to as evidence of his ambitious pace. “This last month has represented an unprecedented degree of action on behalf of the great citizens of our country,” Trump said at a Thursday news conference. “Again, I say it. There has never been a presidency that’s done so much in such a short period of time.” That’s all music to the ears of his followers, who sent him to Washington to upend the established order and play the role of disrupter. “I can’t believe there’s actually a politician doing what he says he would do,” says an approving Scott Hiltgen, a 66-year-old office furniture sales broker from River Falls, Wisconsin. “That never happens.” Disrupt Trump has. But there may be more sound and fury than substance to many of his early actions. Trump did select Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, a nomination that has drawn strong reviews from conservatives. But the president is regrouping on immigration after federal judges blocked his order to suspend the United States’ refugee program and ban visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries, which had caused chaos for travelers around the globe. Some other orders on issues such as the U.S.-Mexico border wall and former President Barack Obama’s health care law are of limited effect. Trump says his early actions show he means to deliver on the promises he made during the campaign. “A lot of people say, ‘Oh, oh, Trump was only kidding with the wall,’” the president told a group of police chiefs recently. “I wasn’t kidding. I don’t kid.” But the Republican-led Congress is still waiting to see specifics on how Trump wants to proceed legislatively on top initiatives such as replacing the health care law, enacting tax cuts and revising trade deals. The messy rollout of the travel ban and tumult over the ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn for misrepresenting his contacts with Russia are part of a broader state of disarray as different figures in Trump’s White House jockey for power and leaks reveal internal discord in the machinations of the presidency. “I thought by now you’d at least hear the outlines of domestic legislation like tax cuts,” says Princeton historian Julian Zelizer. “But a lot of that has slowed. Trump shouldn’t mistake the fact that some of his supporters like his style with the fact that a lot of Republicans just want the policies he promised them. He has to deliver that.” Put Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the camp of those more interested in substance than style. “I’m not a great fan of daily tweets,” McConnell said Friday, referring to the “extra discussion” that Trump likes to engage in. But McConnell was quick to add: “What I am a fan of is what he’s been actually doing.” He credits Trump with assembling a conservative Cabinet and taking steps to reduce government regulation, and promised: “We like his positions and
Donald Trump embraces legacy of Andrew Jackson
It was an ugly, highly personal presidential election. An unvarnished celebrity outsider who pledged to represent the forgotten laborer took on an intellectual member of the Washington establishment looking to extend a political dynasty in the White House. Andrew Jackson‘s triumph in 1828 over President John Quincy Adams bears striking similarities to Donald Trump‘s victory over Hillary Clinton last year, and some of those most eager to point that out are in the Trump White House. Trump’s team has seized upon the parallels between the current president and the long-dead Tennessee war hero. Trump has hung a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office and Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, who has pushed the comparison, told reporters after Trump’s inaugural address that “I don’t think we’ve had a speech like that since Andrew Jackson came to the White House.” Trump himself mused during his first days in Washington that “there hasn’t been anything like this since Andrew Jackson.” It’s a remarkable moment of rehabilitation for a figure whose populist credentials and anti-establishment streak has been tempered by harsher elements of his legacy, chiefly his forced removal of Native Americans that caused disease and the death of thousands. “Both were elected presidents as a national celebrity; Jackson due to prowess on battlefield and Trump from making billions in his business empire,” said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University. “And it’s a conscious move for Trump to embrace Jackson. In American political lore, Jackson represents the forgotten rural America while Trump won by bringing out that rural vote and the blue collar vote.” The seventh president, known as “Old Hickory” for his toughness on the battlefield, gained fame when he led American forces to a victory in the Battle of New Orleans in the final throes of the War of 1812. He did serve a term representing Tennessee in the Senate, but he has long been imagined as a rough and tumble American folk hero, an anti-intellectual who believed in settling scores against political opponents and even killed a man in a duel for insulting the honor of Jackson’s wife. Jackson also raged against what he deemed “a corrupt bargain” that prevented him from winning the 1824 election against Adams when the race was thrown to the House of Representatives after no candidate received a majority in the Electoral College. Even before the vote in November, Trump railed against a “rigged” election and has repeatedly asserted, without evidence, widespread voter fraud prevented his own popular vote triumph. Jackson’s ascension came at a time when the right to vote was expanded to all white men — and not just property-owners — and he fashioned himself into a populist, bringing new groups of voters into the electoral system. Remarkably, the popular vote tripled between Jackson’s loss in 1824 and his victory four years later, and he used the nation’s growing newspaper industry — like Trump on social media — to spread his message. Many of those new voters descended on Washington for Jackson’s 1829 inauguration and the crowd of thousands that mobbed the Capitol and the White House forced Jackson to spend his first night as president in a hotel. Once in office, he continued his crusade as a champion for the common man by opposing the Second Bank of the United States, which he declared to be a symptom of a political system that favored the rich and ignored “the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves.” Jackson, as Trump hopes to do, expanded the powers of the presidency, and a new political party, the new Democratic party, coalesced around him in the 1820s. He was the first non-Virginia wealthy farmer or member of the Adams dynasty in Massachusetts to be elected president. “The American public wanted a different kind of president. And there’s no question Donald Trump is a different kind of president,” Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said this past week. “He’s now comparing himself to Andrew Jackson. I think it’s a pretty good, a pretty good comparison. That’s how big a change Jackson was from the Virginia and Massachusetts gentlemen who had been president of the United States for the first 40 years.” But there are also limits to the comparison, historians say. Unlike Jackson, who won in 1828 in a landslide, Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots. Jon Meacham, who wrote a 2008 biography of Jackson, “American Lion,” said Jackson was “an outsider in style but not in substance” and his outlandish public pronouncements would often be followed by hours of deep conversations and letter-writing hashing out political calculations. “He was a wild man during the day but a careful diplomat at night,” said Meacham, who said it was too early to know whether Trump, like Jackson, “had a strategy behind his theatrics,” and whether Trump had the ability to harness the wave of populism that has swept the globe as it did in the 1820s. “The moment is Jacksoninan but do we have a Jackson in the Oval Office?” Meacham asked. Trump’s appropriation of Jackson came after his victory. Trump never mentioned Jackson during the campaign or discussed Jackson during a series of conversations with Meacham last spring But it is hardly unique for a president to adopt a previous one as a historical role model. Barack Obama frequently invoked Abraham Lincoln. Dwight Eisenhower venerated George Washington. Jackson himself had been claimed by Franklin Roosevelt and his successor, Harry Truman, both of whom — unlike Trump — interpreted Jackson’s populism as a call for expanded government, in part to help the working class. There could be other comparisons for Trump. A favorable one would be Eisenhower, also a nonpolitician who governed like a hands-off CEO. A less favorable one would be Andrew Johnson, a tool of his party whose erratic behavior helped bring about his impeachment. Trump’s embrace could signal an
Donald Trump’s proposed big military budget no sure thing
Republicans control Congress so President Donald Trump‘s pledge to boost the Pentagon budget by tens of billions of dollars should be a sure bet. It’s not. Trump faces skeptical Democrats whose support he’ll need and resistance from fiscal conservatives opposed to repealing a 2011 law that set firm limits on military and domestic spending. Unless the president figures out a way to mollify the disparate camps, he’ll have a tough time delivering on a signature campaign promise to rescue the armed forces from a festering financial crisis. Senior U.S. commanders have flatly warned that the spending caps set by the Budget Control Act are squeezing the armed forces so hard that the number of ready-to-fight units is dwindling. That means beating powers such as Russia or China is tougher than it used to be as aging equipment stacks up, waiting to be repaired, and troops don’t get enough training. Gen. Daniel Allyn, the Army’s vice chief of staff, startled many lawmakers when he testified recently that just three of the service’s 58 active-duty and reserve brigade combat teams are ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Allyn and other four-star officers pleaded during separate hearings in the House and Senate for the spending limits to be repealed, clearing the way for the bigger budgets they say are needed to stop the military’s readiness for combat from decaying further. “We need to act now before it’s too late,” said Gen. Stephen Wilson, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff. The average age of Air Force aircraft is 27 years, according to Wilson, who added that more than half of the service’s inventory would qualify for antique vehicle license plates in Virginia. On top of that, the Air Force is short 1,500 pilots and 3,400 aircraft maintainers, he said. The Navy and Marine Corps are experiencing the same turbulence. Trump, speaking at a White House news conference Thursday, said he’s ordered a plan for a “massive rebuilding” of the armed forces. He didn’t disclose how much he expected his blueprint to cost. National security hawks in Congress have suggested a defense budget of $700 billion in 2018 — more than at any point during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The total, which includes $60 billion for overseas combat operations, is $91 billion over the mandatory spending cap. That’s just a down payment to begin digging out of a readiness problem the Pentagon’s top brass says will take years to fix. GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has envisioned annual increases of between 3 percent and 4 percent, culminating with an $800 billion budget for the armed forces in 2022. Securing these sizable and sustained increases will require repealing the Budget Control Act. Trump, however, has proposed to eliminate only the budget limit on defense. That’s a nonstarter for Democrats, who have long demanded parity between the two broad categories of federal spending. They’ve argued that Trump’s approach will continue to restrict the budgets of the departments of State, Treasury and Justice, all of which play essential national security roles. “We’ve always insisted, on our side of the aisle, that as long as the caps are in place, there should be equal relief,” said Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee. Trump will need at least a handful of Democrats on his side: It’ll take 60 votes in the Senate to undo the budget law and Republicans hold 52 seats. Republicans hold a larger majority in the House, but the party’s deficit hawks are a significant obstacle. They see the caps as blunt yet effective tools to curb federal spending and prevent the national debt from spiraling further out of control. “We’re walking into a financial train wreck that is going to have implications not just in terms of national security but in terms of everyone’s financial security,” said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. “It would be disastrous to simply abandon the caps with no other alternative in place.” But not everyone is convinced that the Pentagon is struggling so mightily. Lawmakers such as Rep. Jackie Speier, a liberal California Democrat and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, contend the current defense budget of $611 billion is already more than China and Russia spend on their militaries combined. On top of that, money is being wasted on bases and installations that are no longer needed but remain open because the GOP-led Congress has so far refused to allow a new round of base closures. “No one wants to see bases close,” Speier said. “But we have a certain pot of money and we’ve got to use it smartly.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Rex Tillerson takes low-key approach as America’s top diplomat
When North Korea fired a ballistic missile into waters between South Korea and Japan, President Donald Trump moved quickly to show U.S. resolve. He appeared within hours alongside visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and said the U.S. “stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent.” Trump happened to be hosting Abe that day in Florida. Yet his lack of any mention of a U.S. treaty ally South Korea didn’t go unnoticed by the new secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. So, while on his first official trip, Tillerson arranged a three-way meeting in Germany with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers to show the U.S. wasn’t picking favorites, according to a senior State Department official. The talks culminated in a joint declaration in which the U.S. pledged to defend a pair of Asian nations that don’t always get along. There was no elaborate ceremony before the video cameras, no speeches, as their written statement went out in low-key fashion. It was Tillerson’s way. Cautious, reserved and intent on avoiding the spotlight, the former Exxon Mobil CEO is proving to be everything his extroverted Oval Office boss is not. In his first weeks as America’s top diplomat, Tillerson has gone to great lengths to avoid attracting attention, despite a growing perception in Washington that the State Department is being sidelined by a power-centric White House. Some State Department officials have been told by the White House to expect drastic budget cuts, with much of the reduction potentially coming out of U.S. foreign aid money. Trump and his team have also told those interviewing for top State Department jobs that significant staffing cuts will come. Some appear to have started already. While Tillerson was in Germany, several senior management and advisory positions were eliminated. The staffers were reassigned. Some other top posts are vacant, and there are no signs they’ll be quickly filled. While Tillerson has met or spoken with dozens of foreign counterparts in his first weeks, the White House is driving the front-page diplomacy. The lack of State Department involvement has flustered many long-time diplomats. When Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, acting Deputy Secretary Tom Shannon was assigned to represent the agency in the meeting because Tillerson was flying to Germany. At the last minute, Shannon was blocked from participating in the meeting. The meeting went on without State Department representation. It was “modified to allow for a more personal discussion,” according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Tillerson had dined the evening before with Netanyahu and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a White House aide who has emerged as Trump’s top emissary to Israel, Mexico and other countries. That is a role that traditionally has fallen to the secretary of state. Tillerson has barely spoken in public, save for greeting U.S. diplomats on his first day and brief comments after a get-together with Russia’s foreign minister. It’s a sharp contrast with the Obama administration’s last secretary of state, John Kerry, who routinely found his way to the center of global crises, enthusiastically fulfilling the “public diplomacy” part of the job. Whereas Kerry exhausted staff with impromptu, whirlwind foreign trips and constant press appearances, Tillerson has made it known to his staff that he wants a lower profile. In private, the Texas oilman with the booming baritone voice is deliberate, independent and cool-headed, according to U.S. and foreign diplomats who have interacted with him and who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to avoid possible diplomatic fallout from discussing private conversations. A common thread in Tillerson’s meetings with diplomats has been an emphasis on the safety of U.S. personnel, State Department officials said. It’s a continuation of a theme Tillerson touched on when he spoke to staffers on his first day, and one he plans to echo this coming week on a trip to Mexico City with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. Tillerson will stop at the U.S. Embassy to meet with American diplomats, officials said. Diplomats from several foreign countries said Tillerson is playing it safe in high-level meetings so far, avoiding extemporaneous comments. He shows up seeming well-prepared and confident on the substance of issues, rarely consulting his aides or written notes, they reported. In Germany last week, Tillerson urged China to help address North Korea’s nuclear threat. He called on Russia to honor a 2015 peace plan for Ukraine. While those signs of continuity in U.S. policy may have assuaged some foreign leaders’ concerns about Trump, Tillerson’s tight-lipped nature unsettled others. After meeting Tillerson, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault lamented the “vague” U.S. position on issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tillerson told several of his international partners the U.S. is still in “listening mode,” leaving some with the perception that Trump may craft U.S. foreign policy on the fly. In a rare interaction with reporters, Tillerson said before leaving Germany he was bringing home “many” messages for Trump. Asked to share a few, he demurred. “Not until I share it with him,” he said. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
