Tag: Mike Pompeo

Pompeo’s moves against inspector general leave a trail of questions and a department divided

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aides blasted the State Department’s ousted internal watchdog on Monday, accusing him of mishandling leaks to the media and failing to promote Pompeo’s mission statement to employees.

The remarks attempted to fill in the gaps in the mysterious firing of Steve Linick by President Trump late Friday night, but they also raised new questions about the dismissal and exposed a sharp divide among State Department employees.

Many career officials viewed Linick as a dogged investigator of malfeasance who cultivated a reputation for diligence and relentlessness. But for the secretary’s handpicked advisers who found themselves on the wrong end of his investigations, the former prosecutor could be a source of frustration and embarrassment, said four U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Continue reading.

Pompeo says he didn’t know fired inspector general was investigating him

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Monday that he asked President Trump to fire the State Department inspector general because his work was “undermining” the department’s mission, but he declined to describe any specific concerns.

In a telephone interview, Pompeo said the decision was not an act of political retaliation, because he did not know beforehand that the official, Steve Linick, was investigating allegations that he had an aide run personal errands for him.

“I went to the president and made clear to him that Inspector General Linick wasn’t performing a function in a way that we had tried to get him to, that was additive for the State Department, very consistent with what the statute says he’s supposed to be doing,” he said. “The kinds of activities he’s supposed to undertake to make us better, to improve us.” Continue reading.

Fired inspector general was examining whether Pompeo had a staffer walk his dog, handle dry cleaning, official says

Washington Post logoThe State Department inspector general fired by President Trump was looking into allegations that a staffer for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was performing domestic errands and chores such as handling dry cleaning, walking the family dog and making restaurant reservations, said a congressional official familiar with the matter.

Steve Linick, the quasi-independent watchdog whose job it was to expose waste and malfeasance within the agency, investigated a number of issues at the State Department that agitated senior Trump administration officials, but it remains unclear what specifically triggered his ouster Friday night.

The congressional official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains highly sensitive, said that the State Department staffer was a political appointee and that at least one congressional committee learned of the allegations around the time of Linick’s firing. Continue reading.<

Pompeo is Trump attack dog on China, COVID-19

The Hill logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo has positioned himself as the Trump administration’s most aggressive China critic, pushing the argument that Beijing holds responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic.

He’s drawn the ire of Chinese officials and state-backed media, who label him a “liar” and have called him “the common enemy of mankind” for his attacks on the Communist Party, shifting their attacks directly on the secretary and away from earlier accusations speculating the U.S. military spread COVID-19.

And despite mixed messages from U.S. officials and pushback from allies, the secretary continues to speculate whether the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese laboratory as he demands a global investigation. Continue reading.

Pompeo immediately flip-flops on claim ‘experts’ think coronavirus was manmade after ABC host educates him on the true scientific ‘consensus’

AlterNet logoU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is engaging is a campaign of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and gaslighting in efforts to shore up President Donald Trump’s MAGA base while ramping up their attacks on China over the coronavirus that to date has killed more than 66,000 people in America.

On Sunday’s ABC News’ “This Week” (video below) Pompeo said the “best experts” think it was “manmade,” referring to the novel coronavirus, then immediately switched and said he believes and trusts the Intelligence Community which says it was not.

“We’ve said from the beginning this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China,” Pompeo  told ABC’s Martha Radditz.  “We took a lot of grief for that from the outset but I think the whole world can see now.” Continue reading.

Trump’s West Point Mafia

Every West Point class votes on an official motto. Most are then inscribed on their class rings. Hence, the pejorative West Point label “ring knocker.” (As legend has it, at military meetings a West Pointer “need only knock his large ring on the table and all Pointers present are obliged to rally to his point of view.”) Last August, the class of 2023 announced theirs: “Freedom Is Not Free.” Mine from the class of 2005 was “Keeping Freedom Alive.” Each class takes pride in its motto and, at least theoretically, aspires to live according to its sentiments, while championing the accomplishments of fellow graduates.

But some cohorts do stand out. Take the class of 1986 (“Courage Never Quits“). As it happens, both Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are members of that very class, as are a surprisingly wide range of influential leaders in Congress, corporate America, the Pentagon, the defense industry, lobbying firms, Big Pharma, high-end financial services, and even security-consulting firms. Still, given their striking hawkishness on the subject of American war-making, Esper and Pompeo rise above the rest. Even in a pandemic, they are as good as their class motto. When it comes to this country’s wars, neither of them ever quits. Continue reading “Trump’s West Point Mafia”

Pompeo, G-7 foreign ministers spar over ‘Wuhan virus’

At issue is whether to link the coronavirus directly to China.

WASHINGTON — Foreign ministers from the Group of 7 leading industrialized democracies sparred Wednesday over whether to call out China as the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meeting by video conference because of the outbreak, the ministers agreed on the need for joint efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes a disease being called COVID-19. But U.S. and European diplomats said the ministers were unable to agree on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s call for the virus to be identified by name as the “Wuhan virus.”

As a result, just a day after G-7 finance ministers and central bankers issued a joint communique referring to the COVID-19 virus, the foreign ministers opted against releasing a group statement. U.S, officials pointed to Tuesday’s finance ministers’ statement to reject suggestions of G-7 disunity and said the foreign ministers had never intended to release their own communique. Continue reading.

Pompeo threatens family of ICC staff with consequences while bashing probe of US war crimes

AlterNet logoAmnesty International on Wednesday rebuked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over new comments bashing the International Criminal Court and threatening court staff—and their family members—investigating alleged war crimes committed by United States forces in Afghanistan.

“Threats against family members of ICC staff who are seeking justice is a new low, even for this administration,” said Daniel Balson, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director.

Balson’s comments came a day a press briefing in which Pompeo told reporters the ICC is “a so-called court which is revealing itself to be a nakedly political body.” Continue reading.

Trump picks loyalist who helped Nunes hype bogus Obama wiretap claim for top NSC intel position

AlterNet logoIn contrast to all the U.S. presidents who were very reliant on their advisers, President Donald Trump has shown a strong preference for unquestioning loyalists — and he has been surrounding himself with them in recent months, from Attorney General William Barr to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. A recent loyalist addition to Team Trump, according to Politico reporters Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman, is Michael Ellis, now senior director of intelligence on the National Security Council (NSC).

Ellis is known for his work as a deputy to White House attorney John Eisenberg and as a counsel to the House Intelligence Committee when it was still being chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes (a far-right California Republican and strident Trump ally). He and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who now serves as national security adviser to United States Attorney General, were the two White House officials who gave Nunes intelligence reports purporting to show that former officials in President Barack Obama’s administration improperly “unmasked” members of the Trump transition team. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), later said the unsmasking narrative was “all created by Devin Nunes.”

Ellis’ name, Bertrand and Lippman note, has also been heard in connection with the Ukraine scandal: according to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — who Trump fired from the NSC after being acquitted by the U.S. Senate on two articles of impeachment — it was Ellis and Eisenberg who decided to move the record of Trump’s now-infamous July 25 phone conservation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into a top-secret NSC server. House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, argued that Trump committed an impeachable offense when, that day, he tried to pressure Zelensky into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Continue reading.

Shouting and sniping as Pompeo defends Trump’s Iran and Iraq policy

Criticism over administration’s response to the coronavirus dominates Foreign Affairs hearing

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s first public appearance of the year before Congress was his most heated and combative yet, with House Democrats frequently raising their voice to sharply rebuke the secretary, who categorically rejected all of their criticisms on the administration’s Iran policy and on its handling of the growing worldwide coronavirus outbreak.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing was nominally about the administration’s policy toward Iran and Iraq and its use of war powers. But Democrats used a good portion of their questioning time to ask about the administration’s response to COVID-19, the new coronavirus that began in late 2019 in Wuhan, China and is a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses.

Rep. Ted Deutch said the Trump administration had a major credibility problem on its hands when it came to its handling of COVID-19. Continue reading.