Tuesday, June 09, 2020
Trump's troop cut in Germany blindsided senior U.S. officials
AS USUAL WILDMAN TRUMP DOESN'T TELL ANYONE WHAT HE IS DOING
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s decision to cut U.S. troop levels in Germany blindsided a number of senior national security officials, according to five sources familiar with the matter, and the Pentagon had yet to receive a formal order to carry it out, Reuters has learned.
Trump decided to remove 9,500 troops from Germany, one of America’s strongest allies, reducing the number there to 25,000 from 34,500, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
That official said it was the result of months of work by the U.S. military leadership and had nothing to do with tensions between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who thwarted his plan to host an in-person Group of Seven (G7) summit this month.
But other sources familiar with the matter said a number of U.S. officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon were surprised by the decision and they offered explanations ranging from Trump’s pique over the G7 to the influence of Richard Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany and a Trump loyalist.
Reuters could not determine if Grenell had played a direct role with Trump in the decision-making. Grenell resigned his post on June 1, according to a State Department spokeswoman.
The Defense and State Departments referred questions to the White House National Security Council, which declined comment.
Asked for comment, Grenell said that “this is all gossip” and declined to address specific questions about the decision and his role in it. The reduction, he said, had been “in the works since last year.”
He underscored U.S. frustration over Germany’s failure to meet a NATO target of defense spending of 2% of GDP. He noted that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg named Germany as the only country that had not submitted a credible plan for how to reach their commitment.
At an online event hosted by the Atlantic Council thinktank on Monday, Stoltenberg declined to comment on what he termed “media leakages and media speculation” when asked about U.S. plans to cut troop numbers in Germany. He said NATO was “constantly consulting with the United States, with other NATO allies on the military posture, presence in Europe.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. official told Reuters the Pentagon had not received a formal order to cut troops and that the decision caught some Defense Department officials off guard and scrambling to figure out its meaning and impact on relations with Germany.
Germany was not consulted before the decision was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, two sources familiar with the matter said.
German government officials said on Monday that Berlin had not received confirmation of the U.S. move. But Peter Beyer, the German coordinator for transatlantic ties, said it would “shake the pillars of the transatlantic relationship.”
The Trump administration pushed to reduce U.S. troops in Germany for years and Grenell has criticized Berlin in public and private for failing to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defense, said a source briefed on U.S.-German military relations.
“In that sense, it wasn’t a surprise, but there was no consultation or coordination. And Trump administration officials had said they did not expect a withdrawal of forces,” the source added.
The decision - which has not been officially confirmed by the White House - also surprised a number of senior national security officials in the U.S. government.
Senior State Department, Pentagon and some national security council officials were blindsided and “learned something was up when calls started coming around and the WSJ article hit,” said a third source familiar with the matter.
‘NOT PLAYING BALL’
A U.S. military drawdown from Germany could sharpen trans-Atlantic tensions that Trump has fueled by questioning the value of NATO and criticizing some alliance members’ defense spending.
Security experts have called the withdrawal plan a “gift” to Russia as it comes amid serious tensions between Washington and Moscow over arms control, Moscow’s support for separatists in Ukraine, the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and other issues.
But current and former officials noted the Trump administration had at times announced steps - such as the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria in 2018 or an immediate $1 billion cut in U.S. funding for Afghanistan in March - that did not come to pass.
A congressional aide familiar with the matter said he was told Trump’s decision was motivated, in part, by Merkel’s reluctance to attend the U.S. G7 summit because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This was originally only done at very high levels and he (Grenell) was involved. This was kept extremely close hold,” said the congressional aide on condition of anonymity, saying he was told the decision was “sped up because he (Trump) was mad at Merkel for cancelling his G7 party because of COVID.”
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher and Grenell publicly warned in August that Trump could withdraw some troops from Germany and suggested they could be relocated to Poland unless Merkel responded to Trump’s calls to increase defense spending.
“It would be the ultimate kind of slap to Germany if they were rotated out of Germany and into Poland,” said a former senior U.S. official familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely. “From their (Grenell’s and Mosbacher’s) point of view, the Germans were not playing ball and should be punished.”
U.S. decision to withdraw troops from Germany "unacceptable" - Merkel ally
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s coordinator for transatlantic ties has criticised U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany.
Trump has ordered the U.S. military to remove 9,500 troops from Germany, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
“This is completely unacceptable, especially since nobody in Washington thought about informing its NATO ally Germany in advance,” Peter Beyer, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
Following Trump’s decision, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a newspaper interview that he regretted the planned withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Germany, describing Berlin’s relationship with the United States as “complicated”.
Jehovah's Witness jailed in Russia for extremism, lawyer says
The U.S.-headquartered Jehovah’s Witnesses have been under pressure for years in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin. Orthodox scholars have cast them as a dangerous foreign sect that erodes state institutions and traditional values, allegations they reject.
Jehovah’s Witnesses say 30 members of their faith are currently serving time in prison or pre-trial detention in Russia, while more than 300 are under criminal investigation.
Shpakovskiy, who was first charged in March 2019, was additionally charged with financing extremist activities later that year.
Jarrod Lopes, a U.S.-based spokesman for the religious group, condemned Shpakovskiy’s conviction.
“Today, Russia has arbitrarily imprisoned another peaceful believer, disregarding its own constitution and international human rights law,” he said in a statement.
“The city court’s ruling is in defiance of repeated demands by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other prominent international actors to stop arresting, detaining, and prosecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses for their peaceful worship.”
The court did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, and rejection of military service and blood transfusions. The group has about 170,000 followers in Russia, and 8 million worldwide.
Editing by Andrew Osborn and Giles Elgood
THEY KNOCKED ON PUTINS DOOR ONE TOO MANY TIMESMOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of organising the activities of a banned extremist organisation, his lawyer said.
The ruling at the Pskov City Court, handed to 61-year-old Gennady Shpakovskiy, was the harshest sentence for a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia since a Supreme Court decision in 2017 ruled the Christian denomination was an extremist organisation and should disband, the group said.
Shpakovskiy, who denied the charges, would appeal the decision, said his lawyer, Arly Chimirov.
The ruling at the Pskov City Court, handed to 61-year-old Gennady Shpakovskiy, was the harshest sentence for a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia since a Supreme Court decision in 2017 ruled the Christian denomination was an extremist organisation and should disband, the group said.
Shpakovskiy, who denied the charges, would appeal the decision, said his lawyer, Arly Chimirov.
The U.S.-headquartered Jehovah’s Witnesses have been under pressure for years in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin. Orthodox scholars have cast them as a dangerous foreign sect that erodes state institutions and traditional values, allegations they reject.
Jehovah’s Witnesses say 30 members of their faith are currently serving time in prison or pre-trial detention in Russia, while more than 300 are under criminal investigation.
Shpakovskiy, who was first charged in March 2019, was additionally charged with financing extremist activities later that year.
Jarrod Lopes, a U.S.-based spokesman for the religious group, condemned Shpakovskiy’s conviction.
“Today, Russia has arbitrarily imprisoned another peaceful believer, disregarding its own constitution and international human rights law,” he said in a statement.
“The city court’s ruling is in defiance of repeated demands by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other prominent international actors to stop arresting, detaining, and prosecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses for their peaceful worship.”
The court did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination known for door-to-door preaching, close Bible study, and rejection of military service and blood transfusions. The group has about 170,000 followers in Russia, and 8 million worldwide.
Editing by Andrew Osborn and Giles Elgood
Detained Belarusian blogger could be sentenced to three years in prison
BLOGGING AIN'T NO CRIME
MINSK (Reuters) - A detained Belarusian blogger who helped lead protests against President Alexander Lukashenko has been charged with disrupting public order and attacking a policeman and could be sentenced to three years in prison, state investigators said on Tuesday.
Sergei Tikhanouski, the organiser of numerous pickets against Lukashenko and author of the slogan “Stop Cockroach”, which compares the president to a cockroach character from a children’s fairytale book, was detained in May during a protest picket outside Minsk.
The state investigative committee said in a statement that it had formally charged Tikhanouski and seven other detained activists for organising actions that “grossly disrupted public order” and an attack on a police officer.
Lukashenko on Tuesday accused the opposition of trying to destabilise the situation, which he said could lead to a “massacre on a square.”
Lukashenko, a 65-year-old former Soviet collective farm boss, has tolerated little opposition since taking office in 1994 and hopes to extend his long rule in the Aug. 9 election.
Thousands of people across the former Soviet republic of 9.5 million have been lining up at election meetings to show support for others seeking to run against Lukashenko.
Public frustration with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and grievances about the economy and human rights have reinvigorated opposition to his rule.
Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by William Maclean
MINSK (Reuters) - A detained Belarusian blogger who helped lead protests against President Alexander Lukashenko has been charged with disrupting public order and attacking a policeman and could be sentenced to three years in prison, state investigators said on Tuesday.
Sergei Tikhanouski, the organiser of numerous pickets against Lukashenko and author of the slogan “Stop Cockroach”, which compares the president to a cockroach character from a children’s fairytale book, was detained in May during a protest picket outside Minsk.
The state investigative committee said in a statement that it had formally charged Tikhanouski and seven other detained activists for organising actions that “grossly disrupted public order” and an attack on a police officer.
Lukashenko on Tuesday accused the opposition of trying to destabilise the situation, which he said could lead to a “massacre on a square.”
Lukashenko, a 65-year-old former Soviet collective farm boss, has tolerated little opposition since taking office in 1994 and hopes to extend his long rule in the Aug. 9 election.
Thousands of people across the former Soviet republic of 9.5 million have been lining up at election meetings to show support for others seeking to run against Lukashenko.
Public frustration with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and grievances about the economy and human rights have reinvigorated opposition to his rule.
Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by William Maclean
Turkey orders detention of more than 400 people with alleged Gulen links
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have ordered the detention of 414 people, mainly military personnel, over suspected links to the network that Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in 2016, prosecutors and state media said on Tuesday.
Authorities have carried out a sustained crackdown on alleged followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan, since the coup attempt, when 250 people were killed. Gulen denies any involvement.
One police operation to detain 191 suspects was coordinated from the western city of Izmir and targeted people in 22 provinces, state-owned Anadolu news agency said. The police have already detained 160 of the suspects, it said.
Separately, an Istanbul prosecutor ordered the detention of 158 people including military personnel, doctors and teachers, out of which 86 people were so far detained, Anadolu said.
Anadolu said detention warrants were issued for 32 people as part of another operation targeting members of air force with suspected links. Turkish authorities were also seeking to detain 33 people from gendarmerie forces and others, it said.
In a separate operation, police detained 16 military personnel the southeastern city Diyarbakir over the weekend, security sources said. On Tuesday, a local court jailed six of them pending trial and freed 10 others, the sources added.
Turkey’s Western allies have criticised the scale of the crackdown, while Ankara has defended the measures as a necessary response to the security threat.
Since the coup attempt, about 80,000 people have been held pending trial and some 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others sacked or suspended.
Turkey’s Western allies have criticised the scale of the crackdown, while Ankara has defended the measures as a necessary response to the security threat.
Erdogan has for years accused Gulen’s supporters of establishing a “parallel state” by infiltrating the police, judiciary, military and other state institutions. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999.
Anti-racism protesters take a knee in silence in Paris
A demonstrator with letters "BLM" written on her forehead attends a protest at the Place de la Republique square, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in Paris, France June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of anti-racism protesters in Paris took a knee and held an eight minute silence on Tuesday in memory of George Floyd, the black American whose death after a police officer knelt on his neck has unleashed a global outpouring of sadness and outrage.
Holding placards reading “stop police violence”, “stop racism” and “I can’t breathe”, the final words of Floyd as he lost consciousness, the protesters bowed heads beneath the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic, in Place de la Republique.
Some raised a fist as a mark of respect for victims of police brutality.
“We’re here to fight against police violence, against all this racism that has been going on for generations. We cannot continue like this. This should be punished,” said Kathleen Mergirie, a 30-year-old black woman.
Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis two weeks ago ignited worldwide protests against racism and police brutality, including in France where people of African and Arab descent often complain that the police’s record of violence remains unaddressed.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said France had at times in its history failed to live up to the challenge of meeting Republic’s founding principles, liberty, equality and fraternity.
Police kept a low profile at the Paris protest. Scores of protesters also gathered peacefully in the western city of Nantes.
On Monday, the French government banned a dangerous chokehold used to detain suspects and promised zero tolerance of racism among law enforcement agents.
A demonstrator with letters "BLM" written on her forehead attends a protest at the Place de la Republique square, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in Paris, France June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of anti-racism protesters in Paris took a knee and held an eight minute silence on Tuesday in memory of George Floyd, the black American whose death after a police officer knelt on his neck has unleashed a global outpouring of sadness and outrage.
Holding placards reading “stop police violence”, “stop racism” and “I can’t breathe”, the final words of Floyd as he lost consciousness, the protesters bowed heads beneath the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic, in Place de la Republique.
Some raised a fist as a mark of respect for victims of police brutality.
“We’re here to fight against police violence, against all this racism that has been going on for generations. We cannot continue like this. This should be punished,” said Kathleen Mergirie, a 30-year-old black woman.
Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis two weeks ago ignited worldwide protests against racism and police brutality, including in France where people of African and Arab descent often complain that the police’s record of violence remains unaddressed.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said France had at times in its history failed to live up to the challenge of meeting Republic’s founding principles, liberty, equality and fraternity.
Police kept a low profile at the Paris protest. Scores of protesters also gathered peacefully in the western city of Nantes.
On Monday, the French government banned a dangerous chokehold used to detain suspects and promised zero tolerance of racism among law enforcement agents.
Confronting a bygone era, London removes slave trader statue
John Sibley, Estelle Shirbon
LONDON (Reuters) - A statue of Robert Milligan, an 18th century slave trader, was removed from its plinth outside a London museum on Tuesday after global anti-racism protests triggered a debate about how Britain commemorates its imperial past.
Statues glorifying slave traders and colonialists have come into sharp focus in recent days, as part of a broader movement inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests that started in the United States following the death of George Floyd.
“While it’s a sad truth that much of our city and nation’s wealth was derived from the slave trade, this does not have to be celebrated in our public spaces,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a tweet with a photo of the statue.
Earlier, Khan ordered a review of statues and street names across London, in response to mass protests in the city and elsewhere.
On Sunday, protesters in the English port city of Bristol tore down the statue of a slave trader and threw it in the harbour, while in Oxford on Monday more than 1,000 demonstrators demanded the removal of a statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes.
The previously obscure statue of Milligan stood in front of the Museum of London Docklands, on the edge of the glitzy business district of Canary Wharf, which is surrounded by the multi-ethnic, working-class borough of Tower Hamlets.
A statue of Robert Milligan is pictured being removed by workers outside the Museum of London Docklands near Canary Wharf, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London, Britain, June 9, 2020. REUTERS/John Sibley
Milligan, who owned sugar plantations in Jamaica, was involved in the construction of London’s West India Docks.
Onlookers cheered and applauded as workers in high-visibility jackets separated the statue from its plinth, then lifted it off with a crane truck.
The mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, told Reuters from the scene he felt strongly it was no longer appropriate to leave the statue in place. He said it would be put into storage and discussions would take place about what to do with it.
A BYGONE ERA
“People assumed he was just a businessman who helped build the docks, but when you dig into it you learn that in fact he was a slave trader,” Biggs said. “I find it refreshing, I find it inspiring that people want to learn and reflect.”
The decision to remove the statue was taken by the owners of the land, a body called the Canal and River Trust. “We recognise the wishes of the local community concerning the statue of Robert Milligan at London Docklands,” it said in a statement.
The orderly removal of the statue was in contrast to chaotic scenes in Bristol on Sunday. Police there decided not to stop protesters from toppling a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston to avoid inflaming the situation.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the felling of Colston’s statue was a criminal act, while interior minister Priti Patel called it “utterly disgraceful”.
Mayor Khan said a commission would review statues, plaques and street names which reflect the rapid expansion of London’s wealth and power at the height of Britain’s empire in the reign of Queen Victoria.
“Our capital’s diversity is our greatest strength, yet our statues, road names and public spaces reflect a bygone era,” he said.
British merchants played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade, the biggest deportation in known history.
As many as 17 million African men, women and children were torn from their homes and shipped to the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries. Ships returned to Europe with sugar, cotton and tobacco cultivated by slaves on brutal plantations.
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