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US Diplomat Quits Publicly And Warns Of Exodus

US Diplomat Quits Publicly And Warns Of Exodus

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Bethany Milton spent 11 years working for the U.S. federal government as a consular officer in the Foreign Service. But in an op-ed for the New York Times, Milton explains that this summer, she finally decided to leave the State Department — and the straw that broke the camel’s back was hearing supporters of President Donald Trump chanting, “Send her back, send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar during a recent rally.

“When President Trump’s supporters chanted, ‘Send her back!’ I took that as a charge for me as well,” Milton asserts. “I asked the Trump Administration to send me back from my overseas posting, shipping home the family, foreign language textbooks and various tchotchkes from ‘shithole countries’ that I’ve collected in my years as a United States diplomat. I am joining a growing list of Foreign Service officers who refuse to serve this administration any longer.”

Milton, in her op-ed, explains that she has a long resumé with the federal government. From 2014-2016, for example, she “oversaw immigrant visa processing at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai, India” — and she “oversaw immigrant visa operations in Kigali, Rwanda, from 2018 to 2019.”

Milton recalls that when she joined the U.S. State Department in 2008, she sat through some presentations as part of her orientation. And in one of them, she was told, “The day you can no longer publicly support your administration’s policies is the day you need to resign.” And for Milton, she writes in her op-ed, that day came when she found the “Send her back, send her back” chants intolerable.

She also noted that there is a “growing exodus” from the executive branch under Trump.

“As a Foreign Service officer, your job is to support the administration,” Milton explains. “Without exception. Despite my personal views, I spent more than two years working to carry out the Administration’s immigration and foreign policy priorities. I continued to do so until the very minute I handed in my badge and headed to the airport.”

Milton wraps up her op-ed by noting that having left the State Department, she now has a new priority — and it involves doing her part to prevent Trump from being reelected in 2020.

“On Friday,” Milton writes, “I cleared immigration and officially returned to life as a private citizen. And today, I have a new challenge: putting my time and energy into helping elect new leadership that serves the true interests of all Americans, regardless of where they were born.”

Trump Orders All Obama’s Ambassadors To Quit By Inauguration Day

Trump Orders All Obama’s Ambassadors To Quit By Inauguration Day

(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has issued a blanket mandate requiring politically appointed ambassadors installed by President Barack Obama to leave their posts by Inauguration Day, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand said on Friday.

“I will be departing on January 20th,” Ambassador Mark Gilbert said in a Twitter message to Reuters.

The mandate was issued “without exceptions” through an order sent in a State Department cable on Dec. 23, Gilbert said.

He was confirming a report in the New York Times, which quoted diplomatic sources as saying previous U.S. administrations, from both major political parties, have traditionally granted extensions to allow a few ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

Officials from the State Department and Trump’s transition team were was not immediately available for comment.

The order threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada, and Britain, the New York Times reported.

A senior Trump transition official told the newspaper there was no ill will in the move, describing it as a simple matter of ensuring Obama’s overseas envoys leave the government on schedule, just as thousands of political aides at the White House and in federal agencies must do.

Trump has taken a strict stance against leaving any of Obama’s political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20, aiming to break up many of his predecessor’s signature foreign and domestic policy achievements, the newspaper said.

Diplomats told New York Times the order has thrown their personal lives into a tailspin, leaving them scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to stay in their countries so their children can remain in school.

(Reporting by Jonathan Barrett and Tom Westbrook in Sydney; Additional reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru.; Editing by Sunil Nair and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

IMAGE: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in Aston, Pennsylvania, September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. Diplomats Banned From Ice Bucket Challenge

U.S. Diplomats Banned From Ice Bucket Challenge

Washington (AFP) — It is the charity stunt that has got everyone from billionaires to pop stars and even former U.S. presidents drenched by buckets of freezing water.

But don’t expect American diplomats to get involved in the fast-growing Ice Bucket Challenge — in support of Lou Gehrig’s disease research — any time soon.

The State Department has issued an internal telegram forbidding U.S. ambassadors and other high-profile foreign service officers from participating in the forfeit, in which people either pledge $100 to ALS research or record themselves getting soaked by frigid water, then post it online and challenge others to do the same.

“It’s not just about ambassadors. Federal government ethics rules prevent us from using our public offices, such as — high public offices such as ambassadors — for private gain, no matter how worthy the cause is,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Thursday.

“For that reason, high-ranking State Department officials are unfortunately unable to participate in the ice bucket challenge.”

President Barack Obama has declined a dare from Ethel Kennedy, the 86-year-old widow of late senator Robert F. Kennedy. Obama promised to make a gift instead.

Pop star Justin Bieber and former U.S. president George W. Bush and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are just some of the celebrities who have drenched themselves in icy water in support for the cause.

And its popularity has spread around the globe, particularly to Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.

Four U.S. firefighters were injured, two seriously, Thursday as they were helping run an Ice Bucket Challenge at a Kentucky university.

“We express heartfelt sympathy and prayers for the families of the firefighters who were injured,” Campbellsville University university president Michael Carter said in a statement.

The university declined to give details of the accident, but said no students were hurt.

Local media said that two firefighters were moving the apparatus after the student challenge when a power arc occurred near the power lines, striking and seriously injuring them.

One of the men was in a critical condition at a local hospital, WSAZ3 television reported.

Two other firemen were also hurt but were released from hospital after treatment.

Campbellsville police and firefighter departments declined requests for comment.

AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz

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