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FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020
WASHINGTON
(AP)
-
The
Pentagon’s top leaders are going
before Congress for the irst time
in months to face a long list of
controversies,
including
their
differences with United States (US)
President Donald Trump over the
handling of protests near the White
House last month during unrest
triggered by the killing of George
Floyd in police hands.
The House hearing yesterday
provided the irst congressional
testimony by Defence Secretary
Mark Esper and Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff General
Mark Milley since March 4, when
they appeared to discuss the
administration’s defence budget
proposal. That was before the
full impact of the coronavirus
pandemic became apparent and
before nationwide civil unrest
threw the Pentagon’s relations with
Trump into crisis.
Trump’s push for an aggressive
response to the civil unrest led
to an extraordinary clash with
Esper and Milley, who on June 1
accompanied the President when
he walked from the White House
to St John’s Church on Lafayette
Square, where he held up a Bible
for photographers. That same day,
a National Guard helicopter was
lown at extremely low altitude
to help disperse protesters from
the capital’s streets, prompting
a Pentagon investigation into
whether that was a proper use of
military resources.
Esper drewTrump’s ire for telling
aPentagonnews conference that he
opposed invoking the Insurrection
Act to permit the President to use
the armed forces to put down
domestic civil unrest. Esper said he
saw no need for such an extreme
measure, a clear counterpoint to
Trump’s threat to use force.
Esper also made known his
regret at having accompanied
Trump to the presidential photo
opportunity in front of St John’s
on the day of the Lafayette
Square confrontations.
Milley later expressed public
regret that he also had been part of
the scene with Trump. He said he
had been wrong to stride in uniform
with Trump past protesters who
had been cleared from Lafayette
Square. Milley said his presence
“created a perception of themilitary
involved in domestic politics.”
“I should not have been there,”
hetoldaNationalDefenceUniversity
commencement ceremony.
Esper andMilley also are likely to
be grilled by members of the House
Armed Services Committee on a
simmering debate over removing
the names of Confederate Army
oficers from US Army bases
and banning other Confederate
symbols. That also puts them
potentially at odds with Trump,
who has said he opposes removing
the Confederate names from bases
like Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
The House and Senate versions
of the 2021 defence budget
Pentagon leaders face grilling on use of
military in unrest
legislation require name changes
at those 10 Army bases. Trump has
said he will veto the bill if it reaches
his desk with that provision intact.
Neither Esper nor Milley has
spoken publicly about two other
controversies likely to be raised at
the House hearing - intelligence
reports that Russiamay haveoffered
bounty money to the Taleban in
exchange for killing American and
coalition troops in Afghanistan, and
reported White House resistance to
permitting the Army to promote Lt.
Col Alexander Vindman to the rank
of colonel.
Vindman, who played a central
role in the impeachment case
against Trump, announced on
Wednesday that he will retire. A
statement by his lawyer accused
Trump of engaging in a “campaign
of bullying, intimidation, and
retaliation” that meant Vindman’s
future in the Army would “forever
be limited.”
Vindman’s name was on a
promotion list sent to Esper earlier
this year, according to two US
oficials familiar with the matter.
But that list was delayed for weeks
because the White House asked for
an investigation of Vindman, one
of the oficials said. The Pentagon
did a review and found that any
suggestion of misconduct was
unfounded. One oficial said the list
was resent to Esper about a month
ago, but again was delayed.
A senior defence oficial said
the list was held up by a routine
personnel review not related to
Vindman. Esper received the inal
promotion list on Monday and
approved it, with Vindman’s name
included, and it was expected
to be sent to the White House in
the next day or two, the defence
oficial said. The oficials spoke on
condition of anonymity to discuss
an internal personnel matter.
File photo shows Defence Secretary Mark Esper (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley
at Capitol Hill in Washington. Esper and Milley are going before Congress for the irst time in months to face a
long list of controversies. PHOTO: AFP
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - A Russian
bid to get the United Nations (UN) to
reduce cross-border humanitarian
aid to war-torn Syria was voted
down by the Security Council, an
oficial said.
Authorisation for the aid, which
comes through two crossing
points on the Turkish border - at
Bab al-Salam, which leads to the
Aleppo region, and Bab al-Hawa,
which serves the Idlib region -
expires today.
Under its resolution, Moscow
had wanted to abolish the irst
crossing point and put a time limit
of six months on the second.
Russia needed nine votes and
no veto from a permanent member
of the Council to get its resolution
passed - but received only four
votes, announced the President
of the Security Council, German
Ambassador Christoph Heusgen.
Seven countries voted against it
and four abstained.
“The draft resolution has not
been adopted, having failed to
obtain the required number of
votes,” Heusgen said. Diplomats
said that Russia, along with China,
Vietnam and South Africa, had
voted for the resolution.
Against were the United States
(US), the United Kingdom (UK),
France, Germany, Belgium, Estonia
and the Dominican Republic.
Tunisia, Niger, Indonesia and
Saint Vincent abstained, the
diplomats said.
The vote came after Russia and
China on Tuesday vetoed a draft
resolution by Germany and Belgium
providing for a one-year extension
of the cross-border authorisation
and the maintenance of both
crossing points.
In an interview with
AFP
on
Wednesday,
Washington’s
ambassador to the UN, Kelly
Craft, said the US opposed any
reduction.
“We know the right thing to do
is to have both border crossings in
the northwest remain open to reach
the maximum amount of Syrians
that are in need of humanitarian
aid,” Craft told
AFP
.
When asked if the issue was
a “red line,” she replied, “Yes,
absolutely.” Russia’s move “is
just another attempt for them to
politicise humanitarian assistance,”
she said.
According to Craft, keeping
only one border crossing open
would cut off 1.3 million people
living north of Aleppo from
humanitarian aid.
The choice to be made between
the Western position and that of
Russia and China is “between good
and evil, right and wrong,” said
Craft, noting that Germany and
Belgium “already have a newdraft in
mind and we are very supportive.”
The two European countries
submitted their new draft on
Wednesday evening. In their
latest draft text, obtained by
AFP
,
Germany and Belgium asked for
just a six-month extension of cross-
border aid authorisation, instead of
one year.
Moscow push to reduce UN
cross-border aid to Syria fails
LOS ANGELES (AFP) -
Glee
star
Naya Rivera is missing and
feared drowned at a California
lake, local oficials said, with
rescuers to continue a search
for her yesterday.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s
ofice earlier tweeted it was
looking for a “possible drowning
victim” at the lake, and said a
dive team was being deployed to
the area.
Rivera, 33, is best known
for her role as high school
cheerleader Santana Lopez in
Glee
, the TV series she starred in
for six seasons.
She rented a boat on
Wednesday and took her four-
year-old son onto Lake Piru,
northwest of Los Angeles, a
spokesman for Ventura County
Sheriff’s Ofice conirmed.
He was found by another
person out on the lake “asleep
and with his life vest on,” Eric
Buschow told
AFP
.
“The search is suspended until
the morning and it will resume at
daybreak”.
Rivera put up a photo of
her and her son on Twitter on
Wednesday, alongside the phrase:
“Just the two of us.”
‘Glee’ star Rivera
missing, feared drowned
Hundreds have left comments
below the post, many offering
their prayers. Rivera and the
boy’s father, actor Ryan Dorsey,
divorced in 2018 and share
custody of the child, according
to the
TMZ
outlet.
Fellow
Glee
actor, Mark
Salling, took his own life in 2018.
Another actor on the hit series,
Canadian Cory Monteith, died in
July 2013 of an overdose of drugs
and alcohol.
File photo of Naya Rivera in
California. PHOTO: AP