Former Envoy Details Threat She Felt After Being Ousted
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MILITARY VIDEO GAMES COLLEGE ATHLETICS Iconic American Ring Fit Adventure Military academy F-4 jet nears is Nintendo’s bid to athletes can now end of service slay fitness dragon delay service, go pro Page 3 Page 16 Page 25 Browns’ Garrett suspended indefinitely over brawl » Back page Volume 78, No. 152A ©SS 2019 CONTINGENCY EDITION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2019 stripes.com Free to Deployed Areas TRUMP HEARING Former envoy details threat she felt after being ousted BY LISA MASCARO AND MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch provided chilling detail Friday of the threat she felt upon suddenly being oust- ed from her post and learning President Donald Trump had denounced her in his phone call with Ukraine’s president. In that July call, Trump assailed her as “bad news” and said she was “going to go through some things.” In an extraordinary moment at the hearing, Trump went after her again as she spoke, tweet- ing that everywhere she served had “turned bad.” He empha- Farewell messages written by the final crew are sized that as president he had the shown throughout the cockpit of a C-5 Galaxy “absolute right” to appoint his cargo plane stored at the boneyard . own ambassadors. Welcome to a typical morning at the 309th Aero- Rather than distract from the space Maintenance and Regeneration Group, Tuc- career diplomat’s somber but powerful testimony, Trump’s in- son’s most famous parking lot with roughly $34 terference could provide more ev- billion worth of military might. idence against him in the probe. The people who work here generally refer to the “It’s very intimidating,” Yova- place by its acronym, or “A-marg” as they call it. novitch said when Trump’s new Above: F-16 Most everyone else — here and around the globe Aircraft boneyard keeps military tweet was shown on a screen in Fighting Falcons — knows it as the airplane graveyard, or simply the sit in a field at the hearing room. “I can’t speak boneyard. Davis-Monthan to what the president is trying to planes for parts, possible reuse But that nickname only tells part of the story. Air Force Base in do, but I think the effect is to be Though the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force BY HENRY BREAN Tucson, Ariz. What intimidated.” Base is the final destination for most of the warplanes Arizona Daily Star amounts to a huge Democrats strongly agreed. dirt parking lot is that end up there, some do return to the sky. “I want you to know that some TUCSON, Ariz. — As boneyards go, this place is pretty where thousands In May, AMARG restored a B-52 bomber to active of us here take witness intimida- lively. of U.S. military duty after more than a decade in storage. Now work- tion very, very seriously,” said Before many Tucsonans have even started their morn- aircraft go to die. ers at the facility are preparing dozens of retired Rep. Adam Schiff, Intelligence ing commute, a pair of aircraft mechanics are already Some go slowly as F-16 fighter jets to fly again, this time as full-sized, Committee chairman who dis- crouched over the open cockpit of an F-18 fighter jet, dis- valuable parts are “drone” aerial targets piloted by remote control. played Trump’s attack. arming the ejector seat and removing the explosives. removed over time They also help get surplus military machines During the second day of pub- Nearby, a towing crew pulls a Navy P-3 anti-submarine for use on other ready for delivery to U.S. allies, like the six helicop- lic hearings in the impeachment aircraft over to the “flush farm” to be drained of its fuel. aircraft still in the ters sent to Greece earlier this year and five more to inquiry, Yovanovitch described a air. Others are put Then they hook up to a different F-18 and haul it to the be sold to Israel. “smear campaign” against her by back into duty . “wash rack” for perhaps the last thorough cleaning it will “Any day that you come here, there’s a really wide Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy variety of things we could be working on,” says Air Giuliani, and others, includ- ever get. PHOTOS BY MATT YORK/AP Meanwhile, about a mile away, a small army of specialty Force Col. Jennifer Barnard, now in her third year ing the president’s son, Donald painters fans out to spray protective coating on row after as group commander. Trump Jr., before her firing. row of mothballed C-130 transport planes. SEE BONEYARD ON PAGE 3 SEE OUSTED ON PAGE 6 PAGE 2 •STARS AND STRIPES• Saturday, November 16, 2019 MILITARY ‘I was a Marine and this is how they treat me’ Spanish word for crazy, in refer- suspension for his conduct in the Police knew vet was a US citizen, ence to Ramos-Gomez. referral, The Associated Press Kent County Assistant Pros- reported. Sgt. John Wittkowski, ecutor Daniel Helmer was per- a spokesman for the department, but ICE detained him regardless plexed in the email exchange. said he is the commander of “I am confused. Didn’t his investigations. BY ALEX HORTON cities say doing so makes victims property have a US Passport in VanderKooi told investigators it? And he was a veteran?!” Hel- his initial reason for contacting The Washington Post and witnesses fearful of coopera- tion with police. mer wrote. ICE was a concern Ramos-Go- Six years after his combat Kessler and civil rights groups “Who knows,” Baylis replied, mez’s trespassing could have ter- service in Afghanistan, Jilmar said authorities targeted Ramos- “not sure it was a US passport. rorism implications. Ramos-Gomez sat in an immi- Gomez for his Latino origins and … I am not sure about the vet Aukerman and Kessler dis- grant detention center in Michi- believe the circumstances sur- thing.” missed that as a retroactive gan, contemplating how a U.S. rounding his arrest stemmed Courtesy of Richard Kessler Ramos-Gomez was held at Kent defense, noting he focused his ef- citizen and war veteran could get from post-traumatic stress due County Jail until Dec. 14, when forts with an agent that works on sucked into a Kafkaesque depor- to his service in Afghanistan. He Marine Jilmar Ramos-Gomez he was slated for release after deportations rather than HSI, the tation void. served as a tank crewman there served as a tank crewman in pleading guilty to a misdemeanor agency’s criminal investigations It started with an off-duty po- in 2013, earning a combat action Afghanistan in 2013. trespassing charge, Kessler said. unit. Before VanderKooi got in- lice captain watching the evening ribbon. A judge ordered him released volved, an officer texted an FBI news featuring Ramos-Gomez’s “He fought on the battlefield video shows an officer holding it on his own recognizance. But agent and described the arrest arrest, speculating if the veteran, and came back scarred. And in- open while taking notes. he didn’t go free. ICE agents led incident as “Vet, PTSD, But not a Michigan born and bred, was in stead of honoring him, ICE tried But that night, after police Ramos-Gomez away in shackles, FBI issue.” the country illegally. to deport him,” Miriam Auker- had already determined Ramos- Kessler said, beginning a three- There was no formal policy in Those suspicions triggered a man, the senior staff attorney Gomez was a citizen, his name day confinement in ICE custody. communicating referrals with decision by U.S. Immigration and for the American Civil Liber- and booking photo surfaced on Ramos-Gomez’s mother con- ICE at the time, Wittkowski said, Customs Enforcement to detain ties Union of Michigan, told The local news. tacted Kessler in a panic. Kessler when officers relied on back him for three days, despite im- Post. Grand Rapids Police Capt. contacted ICE and showed them channels with agents. mediate evidence that proved Emails and texts between Curtis VanderKooi, off-duty at supporting documents. A department policy enacted Ramos-Gomez was a citizen, Grand Rapids police and ICE of- the time and not part of the inves- “They very much admitted he in August, in response to fallout including police reviewing his ficials, obtained and published tigation, took notice. was a U.S. citizen,” he said. But from this and other incidents, al- passport the day of his arrest. by the ACLU, reveal a barrage of “Could you please check his the ordeal left the family outraged lows checks on immigration sta- Nearly a year later, the Grand miscues, miscommunication and status?” VanderKooi, the de- and Ramos-Gomez shaken. tus only in relevant investigations Rapids city commission on avoidance of evidence that could partment’s ICE liaison, wrote to “He said, ‘I can’t believe it, I and when approved by the chief. Tuesday unanimously agreed to have stopped ICE’s involvement an ICE officer in an email that was a Marine and this is how they The measure was added to “fos- award Ramos-Gomez $190,000 from the very beginning. evening, according to police treat me,’ ” Kessler said. ter trust” between police and im- in a settlement over the wrongful Ramos-Gomez, now 28, was ar- documents. ICE later said Ramos-Gomez migrant communities. detainment, his family’s attorney rested for trespassing in a secure Two days later, the officer re- “claimed in verbal statements While Aukerman was heart- Richard Kessler told The Wash- area of Spectrum Health Butter- sponds to VanderKooi, saying he to be a foreign national illegally ened by the settlement, she said ington Post.