Despite his years of
helping the United States, the US government offered no help,
and he had to flee the country with his wife.
``We are not going to be able to recruit people to help us right now,
and people are not going to step forward to help us in any future wars
if this is our stance.''
This is what Donald Trump's Executive order is doing. It is putting
Americans at risk around the world. Another story from Newsweek: ``Spy Veterans Say Trump's Muslim-
Country Visa Ban Will Hurt Recruitment. President Donald Trump's temporary ban on immigrants from
seven Muslim-majority nations takes a major recruiting tool
out of the hands of US spy handlers, say a growing number of
intelligence veterans. For decades, CIA and US military spy recruiters have held
out the promise of eventual resettlement in America to induce
foreigners to turn coat and work secretly for the United
States against terrorist groups or repressive governments. In
reality, many were caught before they ever made it, but
during the Cold War countless Eastern Europeans living under
communist rule, and more recently, Muslims across the Middle
East, North Africa and Central Asia, have worked secretly for
US spy agencies on the promise that they or their children
would eventually be extracted. Another effective recruiting
tool for US operatives has been to offer their agents'
families medical care or education in the United States. Those inducements, a primary recruiting tool in Muslim
land, were effectively suspended with Trump's executive order
Friday to temporarily ban immigration from seven critical
targets of the U.S. spy agencies--Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen,
Sudan, Libya and Somalia. The departments of State and
Homeland Security, the order stipulates, may allow entry from
those countries on ``a case-by-case basis,'' but it's a balky
arrangement not likely to appeal to the managers of the CIA's
highly secretive operations directorate, its espionage and
covert action arm. Intelligence veterans with vast counterterrorism experience
are expressing dismay about how the order will affect their
spy operations.
``These individuals often put themselves at the risk of
death for working with the U.S., and without the ability to
offer them safety, we will be reducing the likelihood that
those in countries targeted by the ban will work with us in
the future,'' Phillip Lohaus, a decorated veteran of the U.S.
Keywords matched
immigration Visa immigrants