Trump to sell planes to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram despite concerns over human rights abuses
Here's our look at the Trump administration and the rest of Washington:
- Trump's budget director says wall fight won't trigger government shutdow
- Justice Department pushes California and 8 other jurisdictions on "sanctuary cities"
- Trump tweets that shooting in Paris will have "big impact" on French presidential elections
- Trump targets Dodd-Frank financial regulations in latest executive action
- China has cooperated with U.S. on "menace" from North Korea, president says
- The Carl Vinson carrier strike group didn't go to North Korea last week, despite administration claims
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON
Trump to sell planes to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram despite concerns over human rights abuses
| Associated Press |
The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nation's security forces, according to U.S. officials.
Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obama's presidency. The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak about internal diplomatic conversations.
Though President Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review. Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years. In the worst incident, a fighter jet on Jan. 17 repeatedly bombed a camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled from Boko Haram. Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders' counts.
That bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue during Obama's presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said last week that he supported the A-29 deal to Nigeria as well as the sale of U.S.-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama administration.
Under Obama, the U.S. said Bahrain failed to make promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
"We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales," Corker said.
The State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken "few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."
Amnesty International has accused Nigeria's military of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram suspects. President Muhammadu Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal military detention. Nigeria's military has denied the allegations.
The A-29 sale would improve the U.S. relationship with Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market (with of 170 million people), the continent's biggest economy and its second-largest oil producer. Nigeria also is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa, where experts warn Islamic extremists such as the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trump's priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost U.S. manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home. The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Fla.
"It's hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the U.S.," said J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass veto-proof legislation. That's a high hurdle given Corker's support. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also said he backs the sale.
"We've really got to try to do what we can to contain them," McCain said of Boko Haram.
In Trump's first phone call with Buhari in February, he "assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," according to Buhari's office.
A Feb. 15 White House statement that provided a summary of the call said "President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February that he was "leery" of the sale because of the Nigerian military's impunity. Cardin said this week he's not trying to block the deal.
"Ultimately we hope that the sale goes forward," he said. "But there is progress that needs to be made in protecting the civilian population."
Latest updates
WASHINGTON
Trump's budget director suggests wall fight won't trigger shutdown
| Laura King |
The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, says he thinks a government shutdown can be averted before the Friday deadline.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats are negotiating a temporary funding measure to keep the federal government from running out of money on Friday. Mulvaney said in an TV interview aired Sunday that there could be an accord in place soon to ensure a shutdown won't occur.
“The negotiations are ongoing, and there’s no reason we can’t have an agreement there as early as today,” Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I don’t think anybody foresees or expects or wants a shutdown," he added.
President Trump is demanding that the spending measure include $5 billion to begin building a massive wall along the border with Mexico and to enhance enforcement of immigration laws -- one of Trump’s most ardent campaign pledges.
Democrats have balked at adding that money to the measure that must be enacted to temporarily fund the government until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
John Kelly, secretary of Homeland Security, interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union,” suggested Trump would fight to add money for the wall in the stopgap funding measure.
“I would suspect he will be insistent on the funding,” Kelly said.
Democrats have denounced linkage of the wall funding and money to keep the government afloat.
“I hope the president will back off,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), also interviewed on CNN. “To think that he would consider shutting down the government of the United States of America over this outlandish proposal of a border wall.... That would be the height of irresponsibility.”
Some Republicans, too, say the stakes are too high to allow a shutdown.
Sen. Mario Rubio (R-Fla.) said the message sent by disarray in Washington would be dangerous at a time of high tensions over North Korea and other international hot spots.
“We just cannot shut down the government right now,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He said allowing that to occur would have a “very destabilizing” impact on global affairs.
Thousands turn out for science march in nation's capital
 David Willman
|
Scientists and their supporters took to the streets of Washington and other cities around the world Saturday, with many expressing worries about a diminishing role for fact-based research under the Trump administration.
Waving signs with slogans like “Science is Real” and “Ask for Evidence!” the marchers in the nation’s capital gathered under drizzly skies at the base of the Washington Monument, a short distance from the White House. The crowd swelled by the thousands even as the light rain turned to a downpour.
The event, timed to coincide with Earth Day, was billed as nonpartisan, with scientists, students, researchers and advocates worldwide seeking to promote the role of science in policymaking and public life.
Organizers encouraged participants to wear work gear such as their lab coats, or to dress as a science hero. Nancy Davis of Baltimore came to the Washington march decked out in full Revolutionary War-era regalia as Benjamin Franklin; she said her chemist sister approved of the tribute to the Founding Father and part-time electricity experimenter.
Marcher Jeanne Walton, 51, an eighth-grade science teacher at Central York Middle School in York, Pa., said she worried about the effect of some current political rhetoric on her young students.
“I’m watching science being denied and undermined,” said Walton, who was marching with her 18-year-old son, Trey, a mechanical engineering major at Temple University in Philadelphia. “We’re replacing facts with propaganda.”
Hours before the Washington march, parallel events took place in later time zones. Among the larger events were marches in Berlin, London and Geneva.
More marches were taking place in other U.S. cities, including Boston and Los Angeles. Arctic scientists tweeted their support from the North Pole.
NEW YORK
New York soft on crime? "Outrageous," says the mayor
| Barbara Demick |
Today's @TheJusticeDept statement is unbelievably disrespectful to the hardworking #NYPD cops who fight crime and keep people safe everyday.
The New York City mayor and police commissioner held an emergency press conference and fired off tweets to contest a letter sent Friday by the U.S. Justice Department saying that the city is soft on crime.
"It’s unacceptable,’’ said Mayor Bill De Blasio. "It's outrageous and it's absurd."
New York City’s past three months were among the safest on record, city officials said.
Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill reeled off statistics showing a dramatic drop in crime since 1993: murders down 82%; shooting down 81%; and overall crime down 76%.
So far in 2017, crime is down 5.4% from last year. There have been eleven murders in the city of 8.4 million.
"I like to think of myself as a pretty calm and measured person, and I think most of the time I present myself that way, but when I read that statement by [the Justice Department] this afternoon, my blood began to boil,’’ O’Neill said.
The clash is the latest round in an escalating dispute between New York City and the presidential administration of its native son, Donald Trump. The Justice Department is cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities,’’ threatening them with loss of funding if they do not cooperate with immigration authorities.
Letters went out to nine jurisdictions on Friday. Besides New York, those targeted were the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, and Cook County, Ill.
The letter to New York said "New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city's 'soft on crime' stance."
Last week, four young men were found brutally murdered in Islip, New York, in a crime that authorities have linked to the MS-13 gang. Islip is located on Long Island and is not part of New York City.
Israeli American teen suspected of Jewish center bomb threats faces federal charges
 Jaweed Kaleem
|
Federal officials on Friday filed charges against an 18-year-old Israeli American in connection with hundreds of hoax bomb threats this year that had put U.S. Jewish institutions on edge.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Orlando, Fla., said Michael Ron David Kadar was behind at least 245 "threatening telephone calls involving bomb threats and active shooter threats" from Jan. 4 to March 7.
In another complaint filed in federal court in Macon, Ga., Kadar was also charged with a series of calls to public schools and residences that either threatened attacks or made false reports about attacks to trick police into showing up, an illegal prank known as "swatting." The calls began in 2015 and continued through this year.
He used Google Voice and other digital phone services as well as computerized voice manipulation to disguise his identity, according to the complaints.
The arrest was part of a joint operation between the FBI, Israel law enforcement, and police from Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Kadar, who is a dual citizen, was arrested March 23 in Israel, where he lived in the southern city of Ashkelon.
“Today’s charges into these violent threats to Jewish Community Centers and others represent this Department’s commitment to fighting all forms of violent crime,” Atty. Gen Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “These threats of violence instilled terror in Jewish and other communities across this country and our investigation into these acts as possible hate crimes continues.”
Kadar isn't the first person charged with making bomb threats against Jewish centers.
On March 3, Juan Thompson was arrested in St. Louis on suspicion of making threats to seven Jewish community centers and the Anti-Defamation League’s New York headquarters. Police said Thompson, a former journalist with the Intercept, was a copycat who made the threats in an attempt to frame an ex-girlfriend.
Immigration
9th Circuit appeals court declines wider review of Trump's travel ban
 Maura Dolan
|
A San Francisco-based federal appeals court declined Friday to convene an 11-judge panel to consider President Trump’s moratorium on admitting refugees and travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries.
In a brief order, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the judges voted to reject a request by Hawaii to skip the standard first step of review by a three-judge panel and move directly to an “en banc” panel.
The order did not provide any details about the judges’ vote or reasoning.
Normally an appeal is first heard by a three-judge panel. That panel’s decision can then be appealed to an 11-judge en banc panel or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 9th Circuit will hear the Trump administration’s appeal of a Hawaii judge’s national injunction against the travel ban during a May 15 hearing in Seattle.
The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing a more limited injunction against Trump’s executive order, decided without being asked to go directly to en banc review. The Virginia-based court has scheduled a hearing for May 8.
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON
House panel's Russia hearing with Obama officials is back on
| David S. Cloud |
A previously canceled House Intelligence Committee hearing to receive testimony from three former top Obama administration officials about Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election is back on for next month.
The panel said Friday it had invited Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general fired by President Trump, former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, to testify sometime after May 2 in an open hearing after their original testimony was abruptly canceled in March by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Tulare).
The announcement indicates that the panel’s Russia investigation, which was thrown into turmoil last month after Nunes stepped aside as head of the probe following allegations he may have improperly disclosed classified information, is getting back on track.
Rep. K. Michael Conaway, (R-Texas) took over as head of the investigation after Nunes' decision.
A committee news release on Thursday also said that FBI Director James B. Comey and Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency, would testify in a closed session on May 2.
Nunes’ decision to call off the original hearing with Yates, Brennan and Clapper came only days after the committee's first public hearing in which Comey confirmed that the bureau was investigating Russia's ties to President Trump's associates.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) called the cancellation of the hearing a “dodge” by Nunes to aid the White House. Schiff said Nunes' connections to the White House raised insurmountable public doubts about whether the committee could credibly investigate the president's campaign associates.
Yates, who was fired in January after she refused to defend the Trump administration's proposed travel ban, was expected to be questioned about her role in the firing of Trump's first national security advisor, Michael Flynn.
Yates alerted the White House in January that Flynn had misled the White House about whether he had discussed sanctions in a December phone call with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Flynn was not ousted from the White House until the discrepancies were made public.
Nunes came under fierce criticism from Democrats for making public information provided him to him last month by White House aides concerning classified intelligence reports that apparently referred to Trump associates -- information that Nunes did not provide to members of his committee.
He stepped aside as head of the Russia investigation after the leaders of the House Ethics Committee said it is investigating whether Nunes improperly disclosed classified information, apparently when he held a news conference last month to claim that Trump associates' names had been revealed in intelligence reports.
Nunes has denied wrongdoing.
WASHINGTON
'Dreamers' should 'rest easy,' Trump says
| Associated Press |
President Trump says young immigrants shielded from deportation — often referred to as "dreamers" — should "rest easy" about his immigration policies.
Trump told the Associated Press he is "not after the dreamers, we are after the criminals. That is our policy."
President Obama changed enforcement priorities to protect from deportation many young people brought to the country illegally as children.
Attorneys say 23-year-old Juan Manuel Montes was recently deported to Mexico despite having qualified for deferred deportation. Montes sued Tuesday for access to records on his deportation.
Trump says Montes' case is "a little different than the Dreamer case," though he did not specify why.
White House
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON
Trump welcomes aid worker freed after years in Egyptian jail
 Michael A. Memoli
|
Free after having been detained in an Egyptian jail for nearly three years, Aya Hijazi was welcomed to the Oval Office on Friday in what the Trump administration cast as a diplomatic triumph.
"We are very happy to have Aya back home and it's a great honor to have her in the Oval Office," President Trump told reporters.
Hijazi, a dual American Egyptian citizen who founded a non-governmental organization to help Egyptian street children, was imprisoned in 2014 on what U.S. officials and human rights advocates said were unsubstantiated charges of human trafficking.
After multiple delays, Hijazi's case finally was heard in an Egyptian court Sunday and she and her co-defendants were acquitted. She returned to the United States on Thursday on a U.S. government plane, accompanied by deputy national security advisor Dina Powell.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday said Trump and his team had "worked behind the scenes" to bring her home.
Trump's recent welcome of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who has been widely criticized for cracking down on dissent and freedom of expression in his country, marked a significant thaw in relations between the U.S. and Egypt.
The Obama administration temporarily suspended a $1.3-billion aid package to the country after Sisi and the military seized power from the elected government led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which took office after the ouster of longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak.
The Trump White House made it clear that it was willing to at least publicly downplay human rights concerns while instead prioritizing Egypt's ability to help combat terrorism within its borders and in the broader region.
"We understand the concern, and I think those are the kind of things that I believe progress is made privately," Spicer had told reporters as Sisi was visiting with Trump.
On Friday, Spicer said Trump had engaged directly on Hijazi's behalf "and made it clear to the Egyptian government how important it was to him that this American be released and returned." But he would not say if Trump had raised the issue to Sisi in their private meetings.
In an interview with Fox News during his visit to Washington, Sisi indicated that Hijazi's case would be resolved in short order.
"Whenever there is a case within the authority for the president and according to the law and the constitution, we take action in it," he said.
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