The Trump Administration hasn’t designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization as it was expected to do.
Designation falls under the purview of Secretary of State Tillerson, who has chosen the Muslim Brotherhood;and its backers in Qatar and Turkey over their Arab rivals.
Tillerson recently signaled his opposition to designating the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-June. He only has negative things to say about the idea.
His main point is that the Brotherhood’s political parties have representatives in governments like those in Bahrain and Turkey. That is irrelevant. If it was such a problem, Bahrain itself wouldn’t have banned the Brotherhood and the U.S. wouldn’t be dealing with the Lebanese government that has Hezbollah in it, which is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Tillerson also repeated the “non-violent” and “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood propaganda. He claimed that the Brotherhood’s political parties in governments “have become so by renouncing violence and terrorism.” That was false when the Obama Administration said it, and it is false now.
The disappointment in Tillerson’s position is made exponentially greater by the fact that now is an optimum time to designate the group.
The Arab world is putting unprecedented pressure on Qatar over its support of the Brotherhood and other jihadists in the Islamist swarm. Muslim foes of the Brotherhood are left wondering where the U.S.stands because Trump and Tillerson aren’t on the same page.
Counter-terrorism expert Patrick Poole goes so far as to assert that Tillerson is “sabotaging” Trump’s foreign policy and urges his departure from the administration.
While President Trump expressed his support for the Arab measures against Qatar and unequivocally described Qatar as a major terrorism-financier, Tillerson did the opposite. He described Qatar as “very reasonable” in its reaction to the Arabs’ pressure.
Read the full story at the Clarion Project.
@ oldjerry:
Trump should fire him and all the other arabists in the state dept.@ Sebastien Zorn:
obama was and is our enemy@ woolymammoth:
Correct. Trump, fireTillerson!@ Sebastien Zorn:
Correct. Trump, fire her.
@ oldjerry:
Trump should fire him and all the other arabists in the state dept.@ Sebastien Zorn:
obama was and is our enemy@ woolymammoth:
Correct. Trump, fireTillerson!
@ oldjerry:
Trump should fire him and all the other arabists in the state dept.@ Sebastien Zorn:
obama was and is our enemy
@ oldjerry:
Trump should fire him and all the other arabists in the state dept.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
The Government will abuse any power ceded to it.
I would have opposed US entry into those wars.
@ Abolish_public_education:
Also, I really don’t think these things go according to precedent. Did Obama need a precedent for hounding conservative, pro-Israel organizations? Did he base himself on 1950’s legislation barring Communists? No. When Conservatives do it, it’s McCarthyism. When the Left does it, it’s business as usual. Pastor Niemoller was wrong. He also mischaracterized himself. He was, in fact, an active Nazi supporter, who only opposed them going after Jewish converts to Christianity, who he was ok with being second-class citizens like before. He offered to fight for Nazi Germany as a soldier from jail. After the war, he said he was sorry, but he was no liberal who just kept silent. And that’s when it’s just about speech. Nobody but the Left is trying to silence speech, apart from incitement to violence and sedition.
@ Abolish_public_education:
Do you think the German American Bund and Japanese-American Secret Societies should have been allowed to operate during WW2 or the CPUSA to operate during the Cold War? Was their banning under the Smith Act ever used against Jews?
Are you minimizing the very real threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood by comparing it to a newsletter and an actual charity that is not a front group for terror or a murderous threat to anyone?
Tillerson believes that it is more legitimate to create a formerly nonexistent Palestinian Arab state (As if we need an other Arab state for a made-up people), then the Jewish people’s right in reclaiming and repossess their Ancestral homeland.
@ dreuveni:
Good point. You are correct. Israel has it’s swamp. Every country has one. There are going to be many grey areas. Nevertheless, at this point there are fires raging and Trump, to his credit is honing in on the most critical to tackle in the near term.
I believe that Pribus, Tillers on and the like were temporary and seemingly safe appointments for the near term.
Considering his utter lack of experience and the firewall and gauntlet assembled to undermine him, I give him a passing grade, so far up until today.
In sum total, Trump has bested CNN, PBS et. al.
It is not over, but, Cooper and company are “on the rag”, especially Coo Coo Cooper.
I think the main problem is that we expect Donald to clean the swamp all by himself. Unfortunately, it seems that only he is around to accomplish that task; all the others are creatures of the swamp and they may even include his family and Bannon. Donald is like the marines, he’s looking for a few good men!
This is what Trump gets for lending his ear to the likes of Henry Kissinger, for one. IMHO…he can correct.
@ woolymammoth:
I think that by this time Trump understands that the swamp creatures he either left in office or hired will do everything they can to sabotage him. Maybe that’s why he took in Kelley as his chief or staff. Kelly has done remarkable job of ridding this country of illegals. Maybe he can do the same with the swamp creatures.
Trump placed Tillerson to win support from The Swamp “conservatives”, and the State Department mucky mucks…huge mistake.
Tillerson has to go now. I will predict that when The Iran/Obama/Democrat Nuclear sell out is up for renewal in October Tillerson will be gone…..or sooner, I like the idea of sooner or ASAP or with no delay whatsoever. The best is today.
On the subject of getting rid of….Netanyahu is finished, it is time to put him out to pasture. He has shown weakness again, this time, it is inexcusable.
Tillerson (Trump, the USG, whatever) should NOT identify MB as a terrorist organization.
That is because otherwise, sooner or later, a USG high official will designate Hadassah (or Israpundit) as one, too.
The State Dept. is full of Arabists and Tillerson is happy to go along with them, if not join them. I wonder who is responsible for pushing Tillerson as Secretary of State?
It also makes me wonder if she can be faulted for the embassy’s security being breached. Do they vet Jordanians who enter the compound? Can they? Could the security guard have disabled them with martial arts if they were so trained, thus robbing the terrorists of their pretext for an international incident? If so, why wasn’t a martial arts master hired? If she is in charge, doesn’t the buck stop with her?
Look at her resume. She was in all the wrong places at all the wrong times under Obama. She does not appear to be a bit player. Why is she still in charge? I don’t know why wikipedia says, “the then ambassador”
https://jo.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/embassy/ambassador/
A number of President Trump’s appointments could use some explaining. You may have read that he asked Ambassadors Obama appointed to step down — which the Dems tried to make something of but Obama did the same thing with his predecessor’s appointees. Well, he left Alice G. Welles in place as U.S. ambassador to Jordan.
Here is what she said when Jordan released the murderer of Israeli schoolgirls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Peace_massacre
Aah, well, you may say, maybe, as a diplomat, she didn’t want to ruffle feathers over a done deal, so that she could fight another day. Didn’t want to ruffle their feathers. I mean, she’s just not a feather-ruffler. Uh, huh.
She picks her battles, alright. Just not ours. Why is she still in there?
https://jo.usembassy.gov/embassy-consulates/embassy/ambassador/
Tillerson is against practically all of Trump’s policies. Why did Trump hire him and when is he going to fire him?