Category Archives: United States

Foreign Affairs, United States

President Trump pledges peace push after talks with Pope Francis

Pope Francis meets with President Donald Trump for a private audience.

AMERICAN PRESIDENT MEETS POPE FRANCIS 

Donald Trump has vowed to use his US presidency to promote peace around the world after what he depicted as an inspirational meeting with an initially grim-faced Pope Francis.

Meeting face-to-face for the first time, the two leaders sidestepped profound differences over a string of issues ranging from the environment to the plight of migrants and the poor.

And the US President emerged from a half-hour meeting at the Vatican gushing with enthusiasm about the 80-year-old pontiff, to the point of the former TV star appearing slightly star-struck.

“Honour of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis,” Trump wrote on Twitter before leaving Rome for Brussels and the next leg of his first overseas trip as president.

“I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world.”

On leaving Rome, Mr Trump headed for Brussels, a city he once dubbed a “hellhole”, ahead of his first summits with wary leaders of NATO and the European Union.

Trump’s declaration of intent followed a keenly-anticipated encounter between the billionaire businessman and the former Jesuit priest who has made championing the poor and the third world major themes of his papacy.

In their world view and tastes, the Argentine pontiff who eschews the use of the palaces at his disposal and the luxury hotel tycoon appear worlds apart.

But if there was any friction when they finally met, it occurred behind closed doors. In front of the cameras, both men were mostly all smiles, relaxed and even jovial.

“He is something,” Trump later said of his host. “We had a fantastic meeting.”

The Vatican described the discussions as “cordial” and emphasised the two men’s joint opposition to abortion and shared concern for persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

The pope had presented Mr Trump with a medallion engraved with an olive tree, the international symbol of peace.

Pope Francis also gave President Trump copies of the three major texts he has published as pontiff, including one on the environment which urges the industrialised world to curb carbon emissions or risk catastrophic consequences for the planet.

Mr Trump, who has threatened to ignore the Paris accords on emissions and described global warming as a hoax, vowed to read them.

A Vatican statement on the meeting highlighted “the joint commitment in favour of life, and freedom of worship and conscience.”

The American President told his host as he left, “Thank you. Thank you. I won’t forget what you said.”

“I give it to you so you can be an instrument of peace,” he said in Spanish. “We can use peace,” Trump replied.

Trump’s gifts included a collection of first editions by Martin Luther King and a bronze sculpture.

Trump’s administration has pleased the Roman Catholic Church by axing rules protecting tax-funded financing of family planning clinics that offer abortions.

Accompanied by his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, Mr Trump met Francis in the private library of the Apostolic Palace, the lavish papal residence that the current pope eschews in favour of more modest lodgings.

Afterwards, the first couple were given a private tour of the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.

While Mr Trump dropped in on Italy’s President and met Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Melania visited a children’s hospital and Ivanka met women trafficked from Africa for the sex trade.

In Brussels, he will meet EU President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, having previously backed Britain’s shock Brexit vote and saying the EU was a doomed would-be superstate.

He will then hold his first summit with the 28 leaders of the NATO military alliance, which he dubbed “obsolete” on the campaign trail, where he is expected to press them to join the US-led coalition against Islamic State in the wake of the Manchester attack in Britain.

Pope Francis and Trump’s past spats include the pope describing plans for a border wall with Mexico as not Christian and Trump evoking a possible Islamist attack on the Vatican which would make the pontiff glad to have him as president.

But there have also been conciliatory moves. In 2013, Trump tweeted that “the new pope is a humble man, very much like me” while Francis had promised to judge the man not the image.

Trump’s Vatican visit was the third leg of his overseas trip, after stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The high-profile trip has diverted attention from Trump’s domestic pressures over alleged campaign collusion with Russia.

With his poll numbers at a record low for a recently-elected president, he will be hoping for a boost after rubbing shoulders with the popular pope.

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Middle East, Society, Terrorism, United States

US President: We’ll end terror and bring peace to world

TERRORISM

US-SAUDI-ISLAMIC-SUMMIT-TRUMP

U.S. President Donald Trump called on Arab leaders to do their share to fight “Islamist extremism”

President Donald Trump has urged Muslim countries to take the lead in stamping out terrorism instead of relying on America to crush their common enemies.

Mr Trump has used his first foreign visit to rally the Muslim world to join America and mark the ‘beginning of the end’ for extremists.

Speaking at the Arab-Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – the birthplace of Islam – he urged Muslim rulers to ‘drive out’ Islamist terrorists.

He said the unprecedented summit of more than 50 leaders could lead to world peace. ‘With God’s help, this summit will mark the beginning of the end for those who practise terror and spread its vile creed,’ said President Trump.

‘At the same time, we pray this special gathering may someday be remembered as the beginning of peace in the Middle East and maybe even all over the world.’

The President urged Christians, Jews and Muslims to join in peace – including ‘peace between Israelis and Palestinians’.

His comments, made after signing an £84billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, contrasted with ones he made about Muslims while he was a presidential candidate, when he said: ‘I think Islam hates us. There’s a tremendous hatred there.’

He also caused global anger when he came to power with his threat to ban many Muslims from entering the United States. But in Riyadh, he said evil could only be overcome if the ‘forces of good are united and strong’.

He vowed to meet ‘history’s great test’ by conquering extremism with nations that have suffered most.

President Trump said: ‘Terrorism has spread across the world. But the path to peace begins right here, on this ancient soil, in this sacred land. America is prepared to stand with you in pursuit of shared interests and common security.

‘But nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them.’ The speech is seen as a reset of his approach after previous comments caused concern among Muslims.

Calling it a ‘new chapter’, he said he was not there to ‘lecture’ them or impose the American way of life.

He did, however, urge the Islamic world to do its duty, adding: ‘Muslim nations must be willing to take on the burden if we are going to defeat terrorism, to meet history’s great test and conquer extremism. Muslim-majority countries must take the lead.’

Instead of being a clash between the West and Islam, he said, it was ‘a battle between good and evil’, adding: ‘Drive them out of your places of worship, your communities, your Holy Land and the Earth.’ He warned terrorists: ‘If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be fully condemned.’

He said the region had been ‘held at bay by bloodshed and terror’.

The President also blamed Iran for supporting and aiding ‘unspeakable crimes’ in Syria, and said Iran had unsettled the Middle East and was the key road block to peace.

He did not repeat the phrase ‘radical Islamic terrorism’, which he has used before and offends Muslims.

The US and six Gulf states are also expected to co-ordinate efforts to stop funding for extremists.

During a nine-day tour, Mr Trump will have visited Israel to meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. He will also see Pope Francis, meet NATO leaders in Brussels and attend the G7 in Sicily.

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Government, Legal, Politics, Society, United States

What Is Obstruction of Justice?

UNITED STATES

Ever since President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last week the term “obstruction of justice” has been swirling inside Washington D.C. and across cable television. The rhetoric has somewhat intensified after the New York Times cited a memo from Mr Comey claiming that the president had asked him to shut down an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn following his resignation.

Using social media networking site Twitter, Senator Chris Murphy has asked about the exact definition of “obstruction of justice” and highlights the frenzy between Democrats and Republicans over its meaning. Mr Murphy tweeted with a link to the Times report.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse tweeted: “Yesterday, secrets to the Russians. Today, obstruction of justice? When does this end?”

But what exactly is Obstruction of Justice and how does it relate to the headlines that have been coming out of the Beltway?

Obstruction of Justice is essentially someone who intentionally intervenes or tampers with an ongoing investigation.

Obstruction of Justice

The Times wrote that the memo is “the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.”

“You can’t get in the way or do anything to impede an investigation that has already been launched and if you do you may suffer criminal penalties,” said William C. Banks, a law professor and Director of the Institute for National Security and Counter-Terrorism at Syracuse University.

The federal code has 21 statutes outlining the different methods of obstruction of justice, including the use of murder or physical force to disrupt a testimony influencing a juror, and falsifying records. But one of the statutes, 18 U.S. Code § 1512 also includes a general provision, explaining that someone who “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

But the key to proving obstruction of justice, explains Robert Weisberg, a law professor at Stanford, is that the intervention has to be propelled by corrupt motives.

“If it’s a threat, that makes it a crime. If it’s not a threat – but a request – it could still be a crime if the threat is motivated by a corrupt purpose,” Weisberg said.

The punishment varies, and usually depends on what the person was convicted for, but the maximum is 20 years of imprisonment if fined under the federal statute of 18 U.S. Code § 1512. In 1974, articles of impeachment drafted against Richard Nixon accused him of obstructing justice after he refused to hand over his tape recordings to the FBI. Nixon resigned, but faced no charges because Gerald Ford pardoned him.

In 2007, then Vice President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, was convicted of Obstruction of Justice – in addition to lying to a grand jury and FBI agents – regarding the federal investigation into the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame and received a 30-month prison sentence before President George W. Bush pardoned him that June.

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