Trump Rejects Intel Report on Travel Ban
Local Editor
The US Department of Homeland Security issued an intelligence report that contradicts the White House's assertion that immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries pose a particular risk of being terrorists and should be blocked from entering the US.
The report is the latest volley in a struggle between intelligence officials and the Trump administration that has rippled across several agencies.
Some officials critiqued administration policies, while the president and senior members of his staff accused officials of leaking information to undermine his administration and the legitimacy of his election.
The report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, came from Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis. It said that its staff "assesses that country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity."
The White House on Friday dismissed it as politically motivated and poorly researched.
Relatively, the compilation and disclosure of an intelligence report so directly at odds with top White House priorities marks an unusually sharp rupture between the administration and career public servants.
The report's content also underscores the difficulty Trump has had in converting his confrontational and bombastic campaign rhetoric into public policy.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to enforce an executive order blocking immigrants from the seven countries, which it has portrayed as based on nationality and security factors, and not religion.
Trump is expected to issue a new order next week after federal courts blocked his first attempt to temporarily halt immigration and prohibit refugees from entering the country.
The DHS report was prepared in response to the White House request for intelligence assessments of terrorist threats posed by migration.
Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the Homeland Security report said it was compiled on short notice, but that it relied on information that analysts routinely collect and examine in order to guide counterterrorism policies.
Trump administration officials said the assessment ignored available information that supports the immigration ban and the report they requested has yet to be presented.
"The president asked for an intelligence assessment. This is not the intelligence assessment the president asked for," a senior administration official said. The official said intelligence is already available on the countries included in Trump's ban and just needs to be compiled.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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