US Ex-Officials File Affidavit Against Trump Immigration Order

The group, composed of 10 former diplomats and senior security officials, described the executive directive as ‘poorly conceived, poorly implemented and poorly explained,’ NBC News reported.

According to the text of the affidavit, the order cannot be justified on grounds of national security or foreign policy, since it does not fulfill its declared task of protecting the nation from the entry of foreign terrorists.

The document, also endorsed by former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and former CIA Director Michael Hayden, stressed that in fact very few attacks against US territory since that time have been linked with foreign citizens.

The former officials urged Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals not to reinstate the entry ban while deciding whether the president has the legal or constitutional authority to issue that order.

Trump signed on January 27 a directive banning the arrival of people from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days, and blocking the refugee program for four months, in the case of the Syrians, indefinitely.

See more Washington, Feb 6 (Prensa Latina) Several former US officials filed an affidavit against the immigration order signed by President Donald Trump, saying it made the country less secure, local media reported today.

Cuba is hardly a ‘state sponsor of terror’

The US government continues to put Cuba on its international terrorism list because of flawed rationale and historical prejudice

Keith Bolender
The Guardian, UK

While an attentive US audience watched President Obama outline his plan to wind down America’s long war on terror last week, officials in Havana were shaking their heads in bewilderment and anger over how the issue of terrorism continues to be cynically manipulated against the island nation. What raised their ire was the recent announcement that Cuba would remain on the State Department’s controversial list of states that sponsor terrorism.

The long-awaited annual report on international terrorism from the State Department was released Thursday, and confirmed what officials had already indicated – that Cuba is staying on the list along with Iran, Sudan and Syria. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell confirmed the administration “has no current plans to remove Cuba”. The decision came as a disappointment for those who were expecting new Secretary of State John Kerry, a long-time critic of America’s counter-productive policy against the Castro government, might recommend Cuba’s removal. The fact he hasn’t demonstrates how difficult it is to change the dynamics of the antagonistic relationship between these two ideological adversaries.