WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is contemplating reducing again on sharing intelligence with accomplice international locations that criminal
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is contemplating reducing again on sharing intelligence with accomplice international locations that criminalize homosexuality as a part of a push by the appearing director of nationwide intelligence, Richard Grenell, to prod these nations to alter their legal guidelines.
The intelligence neighborhood needs to be pushing American values with the international locations it really works with, Mr. Grenell stated in an interview this week.
“We are able to’t simply merely make the ethical argument and count on others to reply in form as a result of telling others that it’s the fitting factor to do doesn’t at all times work,” he stated. However, he added, “to battle for decriminalization is to battle for fundamental human rights.”
Mr. Grenell is considered the primary brazenly homosexual cupboard member and has put anti-discrimination points close to the highest of his agenda. In his earlier put up because the American ambassador to Germany, Mr. Grenell started final yr assembling homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teams from america and different international locations as a part of the administration’s effort to alter anti-gay legal guidelines.
Whereas tying human rights reforms to nationwide safety is usually the hallmark of Democratic administrations, mixing hard-power priorities with commerce and different points has been a part of President Trump’s international coverage.
Stuart Milk, head of the Harvey Milk Basis and nephew of Harvey Milk, the primary brazenly homosexual elected official in a significant American metropolis, stated Mr. Grenell reached out to work along with his group on decriminalization. Mr. Milk stated he was cleareyed in regards to the Trump administration’s poor report on L.G.B.T. rights, significantly given its efforts to roll again anti-discrimination efforts for transgender troops within the navy.
“In some methods, Ric is driving this with out a whole lot of deep help within the administration,” Mr. Milk stated. “However I feel he’s very honest. He’s somebody who believes, on the very minimal, decriminalization ought to occur. And if we’ve an administration the place individuals wouldn’t suspect this drive to be coming from, it makes it a bit bit extra highly effective.”
Mr. Grenell stated he had the backing of the White Home. “Now we have the president’s complete help,” he stated. “That is an American worth, and that is United States coverage.”
About 69 international locations criminalize homosexuality, principally within the Center East, Africa and Southeast Asia. However the checklist of nations contains some vital American intelligence companions corresponding to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kenya.
Mr. Grenell would not say whether the administration was considering withholding additional cooperation, or ratcheting back current intelligence sharing with countries that criminalize homosexuality. His office is forming a group to review the issue and develop ideas, intelligence officials said.
“If a country that we worked in as the United States intelligence community was arresting women because of their gender, we would absolutely do something about it,” Mr. Grenell said. “Ultimately, the United States is safer when our partners respect basic human rights.”
Mr. Grenell has also suggested in meetings that foreign aid be used as an incentive to prod countries with bans on homosexuality to remove them, said Hadi Damien, the founder of Lebanon’s Beirut Pride group, who participated in the discussions Mr. Grenell held as ambassador to Germany. But Mr. Grenell has been careful to try to use aid as an incentive to alter laws, not a sanction against countries.
“While the U.S., or any other country, cannot influence how other countries process their domestic affairs, the U.S. can push toward change through the voice of its officials and through the implementation of its programs,” Mr. Damien said.
While Mr. Grenell is serving only in an acting capacity, and his appointment will likely end in September or when the Senate confirms a replacement, he has begun work on some controversial changes, including a review aimed at shrinking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and sending some officers detailed to that office back to their home intelligence agencies. He has also rebuffed calls by Democrats for him to hold off on those changes.
“I am not a seat warmer,” Mr. Grenell said. “The president asked me to do a job and I am going to the job to the best of my ability.”
“I expect every I.C. agency to ensure policies are specific and deliberate in protecting the L.G.B.T. work force,” Mr. Grenell wrote.
In the interview, Mr. Grenell said his office was reviewing the security clearance process and the kinds of questions that contractors and F.B.I. agents were asking during background checks. He said he wanted to ensure the process did not lead to transgender people in transition being outed to former colleagues, or gay people who were not out to families being put in difficult positions.
“You have to be sensitive to the individual’s personal situation, but the L.G.B.T. community also has to remember authenticity in the I.C. is fundamental to doing national security and intelligence jobs,” Mr. Grenell said. “You don’t ever want to be in a position of hiding anything. That is how you can be compromised or blackmailed. So it is really important to be authentic, but to be authentic, people need to feel comfortable and safe.”
Until the 1980s, the government denied security clearances to gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people, under the belief that their sexual identity could be used to force them to give up secrets.
While those questions have been removed from security clearance questionnaires, Mr. Milk said that discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender people persists in the intelligence agencies. Mr. Milk held a session last year at the Pentagon, where he spoke with people working for the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and other agencies.
“We had a lot of people from the intelligence community at this listening event, people from the N.S.A. and other intelligence branches, who were talking about how difficult it was, still to this day, to be L.G.B.T. in those branches of government,” Mr. Milk said.