Drought-hit Gampaha District walks miles, digs deep for water

Making the long trek in serach of water. Pix by Amila Gamage

• Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Gampaha District, which has been relatively free of the drought, is the latest to be affected by it, with villagers compelled to travel five to 10 km to fetch drinking water or, for bathing and washing clothes. Residents of Mirigama, Millawa, Pasyala, Muruthawela, Kal Eliya and Bolakanda are among those severely affected.

They say the rock underneath blocks the water flow from fountains to the wells, making them solely dependent on rainwater. Most of the wells in the village are dry, while whatever water there is in the rest, is muddied. The situation is heartbreaking as children go down into the deep wells at night, to try and break the bedrock with crowbars, in search of water.Residents complain of having to travel far from their villages, daily spending an additional Rs 300 to collect water. The Jaya Mawatha village in Pasyala near Mirigama, located on a vast rocky outcrop, has the villagers in a dilemma as they are unable to get pipe borne water due to the elevation, and have no water in the wells.

“My son Harshana Dilan is only 14 but, he has to go into the well daily, risking his life to find water to go to school the next day,” lamented Thushari Priyadarshani a mother of two, of her son’s fate. A villager said at least one bowser is required per week for the 47 families in the village,

“After consuming contaminated water, children are struck down by various illnesses very often. Last week, a child was admitted to the Wathupitiwala hospital, suffering from vomiting, sore throat and other symptoms. Doctors advised to give only previously-boiled water to the children. None of the villagers are government servants, and have no permanent jobs, and we live in severe economic hardship. So how can we afford to buy purified water at exorbitant rates.”

Moragammana Seelavimala Thera

A.D.S Chandrawathi

The villagers also complained of serpents lurking in the area at night, making it dangerous for nocturnal search for water.
A.D.S. Chandrawathi (83) who has been a resident of the area for more than 50 years, said this was the first time she had ever experienced such severe conditions due to a water scarcity.

“The public wells in the area were always full of water in the past. A few decades back, the main livelihood of the villagers was farming. But now, we have completely given up on cultivation, since two years ago.” Only from a single well in the area is water available for daily needs. The proud owner of the well, K.H.Sugathadasa(60) said long queues form from 4 a.m. until about 10 pm.

“More than 400 people from more than 20 villages, come daily to this well. Some from afar as 10 km.” Lochana Jayawardena (32), an Ayurvedic practitioner said he had to stop making Ayurvedic medicines for want of water. “Acute damage has been caused to medicinal plant beds. Arista and Kasaya production have been completely stopped, as pure water is key to the preparation of Ayurveda medicines.”

Thushari Priyadarshani

He said the Idiparape District Ayurveda Hospital in Mirigama had been badly hit and a shortage of Ayurvedic medicines can occur as a result.
“The hospital management has sunktube wells to ease the situation,” he said.

“There is little opportunity to organise a religious ceremony in the village. Bodhi puja have been limited to conserve water,” said Ven. Moragammana Seelavimala Thera, the chief incumbent of Maligathanna Raja Maha Viharaya, Pasyala. “The temple has been supplied with pipe-borne water, but we receive water after midnight. So, we use a small tank to store water.”

Meanwhile, the villagers are planning a Gammdu ceremonial dance to seek divine help to overcome the situation. L.P.A. Samarasiri the village devalaya’s kapumahattaya said the dance will be held on March 4 and 5. “We hope the circumstances will change after the ceremony. We have firsthand experiences in the past of drought conditions ceasing suddenly, soon after the traditional Gammdu ceremony,” said some optimistic villagers.

The Bataleeya Water Supply Scheme provides water to Pasyala, Wewaldeniya and Mirigama area residents through a limited number of water spouts. However, due to drought, the demand cannot be met by the National Water Supply & Drainage Board, as the maximum capacity from the Water Supply Scheme is distributed to residents of other areas. Hence, they have stopped providing new water connections.

L.P.A Samarasiri

The Divisional Engineer of Gampaha in a letter addressed to the Mirigama residents states that a solution cannot be provided to the people due to the insufficient capacity of the Bataleeya Water Supply Scheme, and the decrease in the water pressure, to distribute to a larger area. Hence, they do not have the technology to distribute water to the area residents of Meerigama.

An officer of the Gampaha Water Board told the Sunday Times that an optimum capacity of water from the Attanagalu Oya is treated and distributed to the people. “However, people use it for other purposes and hence, unable to fulfill their basic needs,” he added.
He added that, due to tide fluctuations salt content has risen in the Raddolu Oya.

“Last year, people were provided with drinking water by distributing large tanks in January and March. A maximum capacity of water is treated and distributed through pipelines, while 30 bowsers and tanks were distributed to the Raddolugama residents,” he said. He said the Maha Oya, Attanagalu Oya and the Kelani Ganga are the main sources of water supply to the Gampaha District.

A dried up well

“Though the water levels of Maha Oya and Attanagalu Oya have reduced significantly, it does not have a major impact on the supply, in addition to the Kelani ganga’s supply which is normal,” he said. “As a solution to the problem, new tanks should be constructed, while existing tanks should be dredged so that, sufficient water can be stored. People should stop reclaiming land in water catchment areas, while new methods of water management should be introduced,” he stated.

He stressed that, if the Attanagalla Water Supply Scheme Project is carried out by the authorities, it has the capacity to provide water to a vast area in the Gampaha District, though it would take at least three years to complete.

Why can’t Democratic leaders say they support Palestinian rights?

Michael F. Brown-24 February 2017

Keith Ellison, a congressional representative from Minnesota who hopes to win Saturday’s vote for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, has once again abandoned Palestinian rights in his ongoing effort to secure the leadership of the Democratic Party’s top governing body.

During a debate for the candidates on Wednesday evening, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo challenged Ellison over support for Israel.

“President Trump has made the relationship with Israel central to his understanding of that region of the world,” Cuomo said. The CNN host asserted that if Ellison won, critics would be concerned that the new DNC leader is a person “who said that Israel could not be the only lens” through which “all foreign policy was seen” on behalf of “seven million people.”

Cuomo was confronting Ellison with a distorted version of comments he made in 2010 that were taken out of context by the widely discredited anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim extremist Steven Emerson as part of an effort to derail the congressman’s campaign for DNC chair.

Ellison is the first Muslim elected to Congress.

Embracing party line

Despite surely knowing that Emerson’s smears lay behind Cuomo’s question, Ellison ran away from voicing any semblance of concern for Palestinian rights.

He emphasized his support for $27 billion in US aid to Israel that he had voted for as a lawmaker, aid that has undoubtedly been used to deepen Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestinian land. Ellison stressed his work with members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

He described himself as a “stalwart champion of the two-state solution” and insisted, “we’ve got to have Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security.”

Notably, Ellison failed to utter any word of criticism of Israel’s aggressive settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank that is intended to scuttle a two-state solution, or the fact that the Knesset continually passes laws to further curtail Palestinian rights and hamper the work of human rights organizations.

“Bipartisan consensus”

Trump recently upended decades of US policy by saying he was open to a one-state solution, but Ellison missed the opportunity to insist that if that were the case it would have to be a state in which Palestinians have full, equal rights.

Of the seven other candidates on stage, Ellison is the only one known for speaking out in the past about Israel’s abuses of Palestinians.

Yet in an ultimate embrace of Democratic Party orthodoxy Ellison said, “I believe that the US-Israel relationship is special and important. I’ve stood for that principle my whole service and my whole career.”

He vowed that as DNC chair he would work to “maintain the bipartisan consensus of US support for Israel.”

So if this was the line a one-time determined advocate for Palestinian rights was going to take at the debate, it is hardly surprising that neither Cuomo, co-host Dana Bash nor any of the other DNC hopefuls questioned why the US should continue its practically unconditional support for a country that has been violently subjugating Palestinians for decades.

Their silence meant that the surging progressive grassroots wing of the Democratic Party that sympathizes increasingly with Palestinians was effectively shut out of the discussion.

Ellison’s previous expressions of solidarity with Palestinians have been totally subordinated as Saturday’s vote for DNC chair by about 450 party officials looms.

At the previous DNC debate, the other frontrunner along with Ellison, former labor secretary in the Obama administration Tom Perez, was caught on camera fleeing from a reporter’s questions about Palestinian rights.

Breitbart News, the white nationalist mouthpiece formerly run by top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, noted that Ellison is endorsed by Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, as well as by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and Eric Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general.

Combining anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry in a single sentence, Breitbart asserted that these “left-wing Jews” were backing Ellison “in spite of his support for Islam.”

“Smears”

During the debate, Cuomo described Ellison as “dogged by your own questions about potential anti-Semitism.”

Ellison pushed back against what he termed “false allegations,” and pointed to the hundreds of rabbis and Jewish community leaders who have endorsed him.

“I have a long, strong history of interfaith dialogue, interfaith communication,” Ellison added. “I have strong support from the Jewish community. So these are smears and we’re fighting back every day.”

Before and during the debate, Ellison spoke much more forcefully about the recent surge in anti-Semitic incidents and threats than a reluctant President Trump.

“It is critical that we speak up against this anti-Semitism because right now, you have Jewish cemeteries being defaced and desecrated,” Ellison said during the debate. “Right now, you have Jewish institutions getting bomb threats. We have to stand with the Jewish community right here, right now.”

This exchange can be seen in the video at the top of this article.

Yet Ellison is the man labeled an “anti-Semite” by Haim Saban – the Israeli-American billionaire and Democratic Party mega-donor who admits that influencing US policy in favor of Israel is his number one priority.

Wednesday’s debate raises a question that is all the more urgent at a time when unrestrained bigotry is again widespread in American politics: why can’t would-be leaders of the Democratic Party stand both against anti-Semitism and clearly for Palestinians’ freedom in the face of rampant Israeli violations of their human rights?

Palestinians seek unity as new threats, political bickering mar gathering

Around 4,000 Palestinians from 50 countries gather in Istanbul to claim an integral part in ending the Palestinian nation’s woes

A unity conference has attracted thousands of Palestinians taking part in Istanbul (Suraj Sharma/MEE)

Suraj Sharma-Saturday 25 February 2017

ISTANBUL, Turkey – As 4,000 Palestinians gathered in Istanbul on Saturday, their message was simple: put an end to political short-sightedness and the pursuit of personal ambitions and instead fight for Palestinian rights which are under threat like never before. 

Palestinian flags were waving and the mood was largely jubilant and defiant, as patriotic songs blared into a large conference centre in Istanbul. The Palestinians, from 50 countries, are coming together for over two days to make themselves heard and to say that they are an integral part of ending the Palestinian nation’s woes. 

The sight of so many ordinary Palestinians with views ranging right across the political spectrum united in their demands for their rights was pleasing to many of the attendees as they fear the worst of times with US President Donald Trump now in office. 

This show of unity was, however, marred by the ever-present curse of domestic Palestinian political infighting and bickering casting a dark shadow on the conference. 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) sought to discredit the Palestinians Abroad conference from the very outset, saying it wasn't representative of the Palestinian people and that the job of organising and uniting the Palestinian diaspora belongs to the PLO only. 

Others criticised the choice of Istanbul as the location for the conference, saying that alone was enough to show that the conference was not being organised along non-factional lines. 

Khalid Turaani, a spokesperson for the conference, told Middle East Eye that none of the criticism was valid. 

 

Thousands of Palestinians from all over the world are in Istanbul to attend a unity conference for Palestinians abroad (Suraj Sharma/MEE)

"Single-issue leftists and Arab nationalist supporters of the Assad regime in Syria oppose this conference only because it is being held in Istanbul," said Turaani. "In response, I can only ask them to name one Arab capital that can hold such a conference at this time." 

 

'We have to be proud of our people, and we are here raising our voice for the rights of all Palestinians,' - Hisham abu Mahfouz, head of the conference preparatory commission

He also said the PA and those who are the beneficiaries of PLO largesse are wilfully denying that the founding committee of this event asserted the desire to reinvigorate the PLO and its institutions. 

Turaani said the conference for Palestinians Abroad had no official representation from any of the factions and that many attendees come from schools of thought not aligned with the two major Palestinian groups - Fatah and Hamas. 

There were very few among the attendees who identified with Fatah though, even in an unofficial capacity. 

"Why are there people out there opposed to the gathering of our own people? We have to be proud of our people, and we are here raising our voice for the rights of all Palestinians," said Hisham abu Mahfouz, head of the preparatory commission of the conference. 

He received a huge cheer when he called on those gathered to remember that the right to return was the greatest and most basic right that Palestinians needed to defend. 

Another speaker, Anees Fawzi Kassem, the head of the conference, said the Oslo Accords were the worst deal possible and had resulted in Palestinians being unable to represent Palestinians. 

"We are gathered here today to demand that we the people of Palestine be given our voice back," he said.

He went on to slam the PA, saying it had sold out the Palestinian nation.

"The PA gets a helping hand from Israel, but we the people are the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people," he said. 

Spokesperson Turaani said that ending the Hamas–Fatah divide, which he called a "deep wound" in the body of the Palestinian issue was crucial to creating a framework for better cooperation among the Palestinian diaspora. 

But Turaani also warned of the current threat facing Palestinians and questioned the competence of the PA in its present form. 

He said even though every US administration during the past 50 to 60 years had asserted its total commitment to supporting Israel financially, militarily, politically and in every other possible form, the current time was of special concern, given that both the United States and Israel have "ultra-extreme" governments. 

"It is high time that Palestinians come together to ensure that a weak donor-bondaged PA doesn't give away any more of our legal historic and moral rights in Palestine," said Turaani.

Mood different among attendees

For most of the attendees, it was a festive occasion where they hoped to present a unified Palestinian voice to the world.

Rabih Azad-Ahmad had travelled from Denmark with his wife and young child. 

 

Rabih Azad-Ahmad is at the Palestinians Abroad conference in Istanbul with his wife and child (Suraj Sharma/MEE)

 

An official at the Department of Culture and Citizens’ Services in the Danish city of Aarhus, he told MEE that it filled him with joy to see Palestinians from the world over gathered under one roof and shouting in one voice.

'This is about Palestine. I don't know about the politics and the political sides. My family and I are here to show our unity for Palestine' - Rabih Ahmed, attendee

"It is the best and only way to let the world know about our issues. I am for anything that serves the Palestinians. I would have attended this conference regardless of the city it is being held in," he said. 

Amer al-Kadah, an 18-year-old student came from Saudi Arabia with his family to attend the conference. He said his family tries to attend all such conferences where the plight of the Palestinians is discussed and solutions sought.

"This is about Palestine. I don't know about the politics and the political sides. My family and I are here to show our unity for Palestine," he said. 

Ghinda Shaban was part of a 250-person group that had come from the UK. 

"To see such conferences on Palestine and the unity brings tears to my eyes. I have known only difficulty for our people," she said.  

"My mother was eight when they left for a refugee camp in 1948. In 1993, we moved to the UK. I hope that we can become one voice and that the exile for us Palestinians ends someday," said Shaban. 

She said that now with Trump in office Palestinians really needed to band together. 

"It is crazy. I am very afraid. Imagine even the English people are afraid of Trump, so just think what it must be like for Palestinians." 

The speeches were set to go on for most of Saturday and Sunday at the Palestinians Abroad conference. Some antagonistic, others conciliatory.

But in Turaani’s view, the conference had already created history and could be considered a major success.

"Over 4,000 Palestinians from across 50 countries have come together with the simple desire to have a place on the proverbial Palestinian National table and to have a say in how their fate and national identity is being decided."

Trump trashed Paris in his CPAC speech. The city’s mayor fired back.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 24, President Trump told a story about a friend he called "Jim," who he said thinks "'Paris is no longer Paris.'” (Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

By Abby Phillip February 25 at 10:58 AM

President Trump and his friend “Jim” may have a little explaining to do.

Speaking at a conservative political conference near Washington on Friday, Trump invoked Jim, no last name provided, to illustrate what has happened to France as a result of terrorism. The president suggested that his friend had stopped his regular travel to Paris because it “is no longer Paris.”

“Take a look at Nice and Paris,” Trump said, as he began to weave the yarn. “I have a friend, he's a very, very substantial guy. He loves the City of Lights, he loves Paris.

“For years, every year during the summer, he would go to Paris. It was automatic with him and his family,” the president continued from the Conservative Political Action Conference stage at National Harbor in Maryland. “Hadn't seen him in a while, and I said, 'Jim let me ask you a question: How's Paris doing?'”

Jim replied, according to the president: “Paris? I don't go there anymore. Paris is no longer Paris.”

The moral of the story, Trump said, was that what is happening in Paris shouldn't be allowed to happen in the United States. Without naming it, Trump implied that terrorist attacks in Nice and Paris in the past several years have changed the cities, perhaps making them unsafe.

“That was four years — four, five years, hasn't gone there,” Trump added. “He wouldn't miss it for anything, now he doesn't even think in terms of going there.

“Take a look at what's happening to our world, folks,” Trump continued. “And we have to be smart. We have to be smart. We can't let it happen to us.”

“So let me state this as clearly as I can, we are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump continued.

President Trump emphasized the importance of "conservative values" and prioritizing the well-being of Americans over global interests during his speech at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 24. (Video: Sarah Parnass/Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

It wasn't long before his remarks prompted a response from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

Hours after the president spoke, she directed her message to Trump and “his friend Jim.”

View image on Twitter

Follow

Anne Hidalgo

✔@Anne_Hidalgo

To @realDonaldTrump and his friend Jim, in @LaTourEiffel we celebrate the dynamism and the spirit of openness of #Paris with Mickey & Minnie

1:36 PM - 24 Feb 2017

• 644644 Retweets
• 1,0511,051 likes

In the Eiffel Tower, “we celebrate the dynamism and the spirit of openness of #Paris with Mickey & Minnie,” the message said, along with a photo of Hidalgo posing with the two Disney cartoon characters.

On Saturday, French President François Hollande backed the mayor. “I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country,” Hollande told journalists at an agricultural trade fair, according to Reuters. “I wouldn't do it with the United States, and I'm urging the U.S. president not to do it with France.”

France was hit by several terrorist attacks over the past two years in Paris, Nice and elsewhere. On Saturday, Hollande acknowledged that there “is terrorism, and we must fight it together.”

Counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and its European allies has been strained since Trump’s inauguration. Many of Europe’s counterterrorism strategies largely rely on counter- and de-radicalization programs, focusing on the inclusion of individuals who might be particularly vulnerable to Islamic State propaganda.

Security experts in Europe have strongly condemned Trump’s recent efforts to stop certain refugees from entering the United States as counterproductive and alienating. They consider the easy availability of firearms in the United States to be a much more pressing concern — an argument that was echoed Saturday by Hollande.

“I won't make comparisons, but here people don't have access to guns,” Hollande said, referring to strict gun-possession laws in France. “Here, you don't have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy.”

French President Francois Hollande gave a strongly worded statement about President Trump's remarks regarding security in France. Trump said a friend who used to visit Paris regularly no longer does so because "Paris is no longer Paris" after recent terror attacks. (AP)

Friday’s comments weren’t the first time — even this week — that Trump has gotten into a row with a European country over his denunciations of terrorism in their countries.

Last weekend at a rally in Florida, Trump pointed to what he suggested was an incident in Sweden on Friday night that had never occurred. He later sought to clarify his comments by saying that he was speaking generally about rising crime in the country, which he blamed — without evidence — on refugees.

Trump's comments prompted head scratching among Swedes and widespread mockery online.

[Sweden has no idea what Trump meant when he said, ‘You look at what’s happening … in Sweden’]

And former European officials also sought to defend the country from Trump's undue criticism.

“Dear @realDonaldTrump, Sweden is immigration friendly, international & liberal. One of the most prosperous, richest, safest places on earth,” Alexander Stubb, a former prime minister of Finland, said on Twitter.

It later became clear that Trump was referring to a segment on Fox News about crime in Sweden, which featured the disputed work of a filmmaker.

Trump lightheartedly acknowledged the incident Friday at CPAC but didn't back down.

“I took a lot of heat on Sweden,” Trump said, to laughter from the friendly crowd. “And then a day later, I said has anybody reported what's going on? And it turned out that they didn't — not too many of them did.

“Take a look at what happened in Sweden. I love Sweden, great country, great people, I love Sweden. But they understand. The people over there understand I'm right,” Trump continued.

Riots broke out in Sweden's capital days after Trump's comments, but criminologists say that blaming immigrants for crime in Sweden would be an exaggeration.

Rick Noack in London contributed to this report.

Trump national security adviser wants to avoid term 'radical Islamic terrorism', sources say

HR McMaster felt phrase castigates ‘an entire religion’ and indicated ‘he’s not on board’ – a contrast with the president and many key staff members

Some in the meeting tell the Guardian that they were struck by the contrast between HR McMaster’s worldview and that of Donald Trump. Photograph: Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Spencer Ackerman in New York-Saturday 25 February 2017

Donald Trump’s new national security adviser has told staff at the White House he does not wish to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” to describe the terrorist threat the US faces, according to multiple sources.

HR McMaster, a respected army lieutenant general, struck notes more consistent with traditional counterterrorism analysts and espoused consensus foreign-policy views during a meeting he held with his new National Security Council staff on Thursday.

Some in the meeting left with questions about whether McMaster’s evident disagreements with Trump and his key aides portend further turbulence for the key national security and foreign policy decision-making forum.

Participants tell the Guardian that they were struck by the contrast between McMaster’s worldview and that of the president, who has repeatedly used a phrase that Muslims in the US and globally feel portrays them as threats to be confronted. 

A participant, paraphrasing McMaster, said: “He said he doesn’t want to call it radical Islamic terrorism because the terrorists are, quote, ‘un-Islamic’.”

McMaster, the participant said, indicated that the phrase castigates “an entire religion” and “he’s not on board”.

At the meeting, multiple sources said, McMaster discomfited White House staffers who view the terrorist threat in those religious terms and who were said to have exchanged awkward looks with each other.

At other points in the meeting, McMaster laid out a vigorous defense of the post-second world war liberal order, calling it a guarantor of peace and economic prosperity. Staffers inferred that McMaster was signaling to professional staff on the National Security Council that he subscribed to longstanding US foreign-policy goals, which Trump has attacked as yielding a chaotic world.

One source said McMaster was “very clear” that he viewed Russia “as an adversary”, a position not shared by Trump and which is at the center of a Washington firestorm – one which brought down McMaster’s predecessor, Michael Flynn.

Flynn lost his job after misrepresenting to Vice-President Mike Pence conversations he had with the Russian ambassador over sanctions easement, something the treasury department subsequently relaxed for US companies doing business with the Russian FSB intelligence service.

Many in Washington, particularly Democrats, suspect Trump’s warmer relations with Russia are payback for what the US intelligence community has assessed to be Russian interference in the 2016 election for Trump’s benefit. On Friday, the White House confirmed that chief of staff Reince Priebus spoke with the director and deputy director of the FBI to knock down news stories about what the intelligence agencies have intercepted about Russian contacts with the Trump presidential campaign.

HR McMaster announced as national security adviser

Some considered McMaster’s meeting to signal a departure from Flynn’s style. Flynn is said to have held one meeting with the NSC staff about halfway through his 24-day tenure, and did not email many staffers, leaving some to wonder what they were meant to be working on.

By contrast, McMaster is said to have emailed NSC staff on his first day in office.

While McMaster did not hold a question-and-answer session in the meeting, he indicated he wanted to solicit information about what at the NSC is and is not working.

But McMaster did not indicate a position on the propriety of a parallel policymaking body, known as the Strategic Initiatives Group or Sig, that has alarmed current and former NSC officials and experts.

The body, which reports to White House strategy chief Steve Bannon, the former chairman of the white-nationalist-sympathetic Breitbart News site, includes deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka. Both have expressed that the terrorist threat derives from Islam itself, as did Flynn. The administration is reportedly working to reframe an Obama-era initiative, Countering Violent Extremism, with an exclusive focus on Islam.

William McCants, a counterterrorism analyst at the Brookings Institution, wrote in Politico on Thursday that McMaster’s appointment has worried “America’s most influential Islamophobes,” including the activists behind the Ground Zero Mosque controversy. McMaster’s more nuanced views on terrorism, McCants wrote, are causing them discomfort.

Trump’s views on Islam have already led to at least one prominent resignation from the NSC staff. Rumana Ahmed, who worked on strategic communications, wrote in the Atlantic on Thursday that she resigned after Trump barred immigration from seven Muslim countries and said his “radical Islamic terrorism” rhetoric mirrored that of Islamic State.

Some at the meeting with more traditionalist foreign policy perspectives felt buoyed by McMaster’s talk but wondered how he will “work in context with the rest of the White House”.

Trump Administration Seeks to Loosen Hiring Requirements to Beef Up Border Patrol

According to an internal memo, laxer standards are needed to expand the number of Border Patrol agents, but that could come at a cost in security.

BY MOLLY O’TOOLE-FEBRUARY 25, 2017

The Trump administration is seeking to loosen some security requirements for hiring Border Patrol agents in order to meet a dramatic surge in immigration enforcement, according to internal memos obtained by Foreign Policy and analyzed by five current and former officials in the Department of Homeland Security.

Customs and Border Protection, part of DHS, is seeking approval to relax some stringent standards that have made it difficult for the agency to meet recruitment targets in recent years. That includes a request to potentially loosen congressionally-mandated requirements such as a polygraph, as well as an entrance exam and background check.

According to the five-page, Feb. 17 memo from CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, changes to hiring standards are urgently needed if the agency is to expand as now planned from 19,627 Border Patrol agents to about 26,370. One former DHS official said the current requirements, especially the lie-detector test, are “insanely cumbersome,” and a big reason the agency has trouble recruiting compared with other law-enforcement agencies and even other immigration bodies within DHS, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We do face headwinds,” McAleenan allowed, in an interview with Foreign Policy on Saturday. While declining to discuss internal planning documents, he emphasized, “Secretary Kelly has made it absolutely clear we are not going to lower standards to speed up our hiring.”

The memo estimates that even with the measures to accelerate hiring, it will take five years and cost about $2.2 billion to help fill out CBP’s ranks to meet President Trump’s quota.

“The taxpayer demonstrated in the November election very clearly that border security is a very important issue for them,” McAleenan told FP. “The investments are justified to protect our communities.”

But some former officials said the plan, despite bland bureaucratic language, clearly suggests loosening requirements in order to ramp up hiring.

“Most of the measures are worded in terms that look neutral on their face,” Stephen Legomsky, former senior counsel to the Secretary of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Barack Obama, told FP after reviewing the memos.

“But because all of that is prefaced with how they need to make changes for the express purpose of enhancing their hiring ability, then obviously these things are meant to loosen those standards, not to tighten them,” he said.

And some current and former DHS officials and outside experts are concerned that lowering standards could allow the influx of less-qualified candidates who may be susceptible to corruption. CBP is uniquely targeted by drug-trafficking and other transnational organizations seeking out agents they can bribe — with money or sexual favors — to allow drugs, undocumented immigrants, or other contraband across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We actually lived through this,” said Jay Ahern, a deputy CBP commissioner under George W. Bush, when the agency doubled in size. When reviewing tens of thousands of applicants, he said, mistakes are inevitable.

“If you start lowering standards, the organization pays for it for the next decade, two, or three,” Ahern said. (He did not review the memos.)

McAleenan’s memo is part of CBP’s effort to figure out how to meet the Trump administration’s increased immigration enforcement. In one of his first acts as president, Trump issued an executive order that mandated building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and beefing up enforcement by adding 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents, and 10,000 additional ICE officers, tripling their number. DHS Secretary John Kelly expanded upon the executive order with directives released on Feb. 21 that dramatically expand the pool of immigrants subject to deportation.

“CBP has insufficient agents/officers to effectively detect, track, and apprehend all aliens illegally entering the United States,” Kelly wrote in the directives, released three days after the internal CBP memo was stamped. He directed DHS department heads, such as McAleenan, to immediately begin the process of hiring, “while ensuring consistency in training and standards” and “subject to the availability of resources.”

In the memo, McAleenan described some of the changes CBP is considering — waiving the polygraph for some applicants such as police in good standing, making background investigations less stringent, and easing the entrance exam — as making CBP “more competitive.”

Some officials said the steps outlined are long overdue to reduce unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and meet the staffing shortfalls at CBP; it is still 1,600 agents shy of its authorized strength, and turnover is prevalent. In the last budget cycle, CBP requested funding for 300 fewer officers than the prior year, preferring to upgrade old equipment than chase “unrealistic” hiring expectations.

In addition to the lie-detector test, CBP applicants undergo cognitive, fitness, and medical exams, as well as fingerprinting, financial disclosure, drug testing and background checks. Even veterans with security clearances have to undergo an additional security screening to be hired at CBP, the former DHS official pointed out.

McAleenan said Saturday CBP is also looking at better pay equity, incentivizing remote locations, opening up more opportunities for veterans, and continuing to streamline the hiring process. In the last two years, McAleenan said, CBP has reduced its hiring timeline from 400 days to 170.

But social changes, he added, have added to the hiring difficulty. “We’re dealing with an environment around law enforcement that’s challenging in our society right now,” he said. And marijuana legalization in some states “makes it challenging for young people to meet our standards.”

Yet the polygraph has become the biggest hurdle, officials and experts say. Two out of three CBP applicants fail — more than double the average rate for eight other law enforcement agencies, according to the Associated Press.

McAleenan observed in the memo that the lie-detector test “has been identified as both a significant deterrent and point of failure.” ICE, he noted, does not require a polygraph test, and that agency’s own drive to hire 10,000 more agents will “greatly hinder” CBP’s own staffing.

The polygraph “helps us insure our integrity,” and has helped identify cartel lackeys trying to infiltrate CBP, McAleenan said Saturday. But he’s looking for ways to ensure it’s not being used “as an investigative tool,” and to allow some applicants — such as former members of the military or other law enforcement agencies — to skip it.

“We’d like to have the flexibility to make those decisions, instead of having every single person who applies be subject to the polygraph,” McAleenan said. “But we’re going to make those decisions very carefully in balancing the risk against the benefits.”

Yet those tough standards, including a mandatory polygraph, were put into place by Congress in 2010, after Customs and Border Protection suffered acute growing pains during the Bush administration, when CBP doubled in size. Some Border Patrol agents didn’t complete background checks before they deployed to the frontlines, officials reported, and the agency saw an increase in cases of internal corruption, and questions over its use-of-force training following a spate of deadly incidents.

And problems have persisted. According to rights group Southern Border Communities Coalition, between 2010 and 2015, media reported 40 deadly incidents involving CBP, and only one agent was prosecuted. The former head of internal affairs at CBP, James Tomsheck, who declined to comment for this story, claims he was pushed out in 2014 because he fought against a “paramilitary” mindset and a culture of evading accountability for abuses. This week, the Supreme Court is hearing a case to determine whether parents of a Mexican teenager shot and killed by a CBP agent can sue.

The administration’s rush to beef up border security comes as illegal crossings into the United States from Mexico have sunk to their lowest levels in four decades; among Mexican immigrants, the flow has in fact reversed since 2009. Still, “we have not reached the level where we have more people than we need for the crossings,” McAleenan said.

The additional agents would primarily be placed in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where the bulk of border traffic is today, as well as the Tucson and Yuma sectors in Arizona, but also at the northern border with Canada.

“In many ways, you know, the border is more secure than it’s ever been, we have fewer people trying to cross,” McAleenan said of the southern line. “But we still have significant risks, and we need to address them across the entire border.”

The moves, especially the staffing plans, have made Mexico nervous, even beyond the public pronouncements of President Enrique Peña Nieto and other officials, who rejected the new directives as “unilateral” and “inappropriate.”

The Mexican government reached out to CBP immediately after Trump’s Jan. 25 executive order with a number of questions over how carefully the agency selects, recruits, and trains agents, according to a separate series of emails obtained by FP.

While some former officials said Mexican and American counterparts frequently communicate over new directives, others described the correspondence as atypical, and indicative of increased tensions between the U.S. and Mexico over Trump’s rhetoric.

“It’s a bit unusual, but it’s a really unusual transition,” said David Martin, a former counsel for DHS and the Departments of State and Justice, and now a professor emeritus at the University of Virginia law school. “Particularly with the focus on immigration so early and so vehemently in the new administration.”

Photo Credit: John Moore / Staff