TRUMP Taps POMPEO, Sessions for Top Jobs
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SUBSCRIPTION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2016 SAFAR 19, 1438 AH NO: 17055 Candidates make Obama urges Dubnyk gets youth violence EU leaders to 4th SO as Wild issue a priority accept Trump beat Bruins 2Trump taps7 Pompeo,43 Sessions for top jobs Min 13º 150 Fils Flynn named national security advisor Max 28º WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump yesterday tapped arch-conservative Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general and hawkish congressman Mike Pompeo, a strident opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, as his CIA director. The incoming commander in chief also appointed retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, a top military counsel to the Republican billionaire and one of his earliest campaign surro- gates, as his national security advisor. All three have accepted their appointments, Trump’s transition team said in statement. “I enthusiastically embrace President-elect Trump’s vision for ‘one America,’ and his commitment to equal justice under law,” said Sessions, a 20-year veteran of Congress. “I look forward to fulfilling my duties with an unwavering dedication to fairness and impartiality,” added the 69-year-old, who was also one of Trump’s earliest backers. Trump described him in the statement as a “world-class legal mind” who was “greatly admired by legal scholars and vir- tually everyone who knows him.” The appointments represent the president-elect’s first steps to appoint a cabinet after a transition effort that so far has been marred by infighting and reshuffles on the team getting ready for the January 20 inauguration. For director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Trump tapped Pompeo: A congressman who became well known in This combination of pictures created yesterday shows (L to R) US Representative from Kansas Mike Pompeo, Retired Lt the controversy over a deadly militant attack against the US Gen Michael Flynn and Senator Jeff Sessions. — AFP consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. “He will be a brilliant and unrelenting leader for our intelligence community to ensure the safety of Americans and our allies,” Trump was quoted as saying in the statement. For Syrian rebels, Trump The 52-year-old co-authored a report slamming then-secre- tary of state Hillary Clinton’s handling of the attack, in which the US ambassador and three other Americans died. And as nation- al security adviser, Trump turned to the 57-year-old Flynn, who win adds to uncertainty is set to play a key role in shaping policy for a president with no experience in government or foreign policy. BEIRUT/AMMAN: On the eve of Donald Trump’s election IS with Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, which has been “I am pleased that Lieutenant General Michael Flynn will be victory, members of a Western-backed Syrian rebel group bombing the rebels for over a year in western Syria. by my side as we work to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, navi- met US officials to ask about the outlook for arms ship- Assad, in an interview published on Tuesday, said gate geopolitical challenges and keep Americans safe at home ments they have received to fight President Bashar Al- Trump would be a “natural ally” if he decides to “fight the and abroad,” Trump said. A registered Democrat, Flynn served as Assad.They were told the program would continue until terrorists”. The rebels are looking on the bright side. They Trump’s leading national security adviser during the campaign the end of the year, but anything more would depend on say support via the US-backed program has been inade- and was a highly visible surrogate, with a hardline stance on the next US administration, a rebel official at the meeting quate and Washington has stopped Saudi Arabia from giv- Islamic extremism. He described it in an interview with the New said. When Trump takes office in January, it may stop alto- ing them more powerful weapons. York Times as an existential threat on a global scale. gether. So the rebels hope a more isolationist United States will Flynn is highly respected as a decorated military intelligence The president-elect has signalled opposition to US sup- give regional states a free hand, allowing Saudi Arabia to officer who helped combat insurgent networks in Afghanistan port for the rebels, and an overhaul of policy on Syria. The provide the anti-aircraft missiles President Barack Obama and Iraq. But he left the military after President Barack Obama military aid program overseen by the Central Intelligence has vetoed. The rebel official said there had been no con- fired him as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 Agency has given arms and training to moderate rebels in tact with US officials since Trump’s win. But were US sup- following complaints about his leadership style. Flynn’s coordination with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and port to end and “this veto lifted”, that would be a good appointment does not need approval from the senate. But that others. outcome, he said. “Everybody is analyzing, there are posi- of Sessions as attorney general does, and he’s got baggage: It helped to support these rebels, fighting under the tive expectations, there are negative expectations - but Racially charged comments he made in the 1980s and which Free Syrian Army banner, as jihadist groups linked to Al- nothing is yet clear,” the official said. once cost him a chance for a job for life as a federal judge. Qaeda emerged as a major force in a war approaching its The prospect of a shift in US policy comes at a dark time Back in 1986 Sessions said that a prominent white lawyer sixth anniversary. US officials declined to comment on any for the rebellion. Russia on Tuesday escalated its military was a “disgrace to his race” for defending African-Americans. meetings with rebel groups, and previously have not com- campaign in support of Assad, drawing for the first time on Sessions acknowledged saying this in testimony to the US mented on the CIA program given its covert nature. an aircraft carrier it has sent to the region. Assad and his Senate at the time, but he insisted he did not mean it. But Trump has indicated he could abandon the rebels allies are tightening their grip on rebel-held eastern In the 1980s he also allegedly addressed a black prosecutor to focus on fighting Islamic State which control territory in Aleppo, where heavy air strikes have resumed and insur- working for him as “boy,” and joked about the Ku Klux Klan, say- eastern and central Syria. He might even cooperate against gents have failed to break the siege. — AFP ing he had thought its members were “OK, until I found out they smoked pot,” according to The New York Times. — AFP LOCAL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2016 KUWAIT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION Candidates make youth violence issue a priority KUWAIT: Over the past decade, youth antiso- cial and violent behavior has become a great national concern and a top political policy issue that has been sensationalized by media coverage in Kuwait. Rare, yet devastatingly violent, these crimes are usually committed by youth at schools and public places. Youth involvement in such dysfunctional and vio- lent behaviors put them at risk of being incar- cerated, prosecuted, losing their education, career future, and maybe their lives. In a so-called youth society like in Kuwait, where youth, ages 10-24, constitute about one-third of the total population, the need for a new strategy to increase the likelihood of having the youth population as an integral part of the country’s development plan, instead of a liability, becomes crucial. The prevailing response to youth violence and crime by government officials, policy makers, and the juvenile justice system worldwide, Dr Malak Al-Reshaid, Professor of Dr Saud Al-Ghanim, Professor of Dr Yaqoub Al-Kanderi, Professor of and in Kuwait as well, has been reactive and Sociology and Social Service Department Psychology at Kuwait University Sociology and Anthropology at KU and for- punitive. at Kuwait University mer Dean of the College of Social Sciences Incarceration phenomenon to the Kuwaiti society and is against the violators as juvenile cases take The second aspect why many candidates Although intervention efforts traditionally totally rejected, adding that the youth look at long years until they are over and by then the never touch on this issue is because once have focused on treatment after the fact (eg, the MPs as their role model and if the latter actual wrongdoing would be forgotten. On they do, then they would have to find solu- incarceration and rehabilitation), decades of were not up to the responsibility, then, the her part, Dr Malak Al-Reshaid, Professor of tions to such problems which they won’t be research suggest that prevention is the most young generation would follow suit. He urged Sociology and Social Service Department at able to do so as they lack expertise in this effective strategy available for reducing youth the State Ministry for Youth to come up with a KU told KUNA that many candidates do not domain. She added that many candidates antisocial and violent behavior. To elaborate societal solution and a state project to exploit give this issue a priority as their educational also resort to issues that lure voters such as further on this subject, Kuwait News Agency energies of the youth, saying that four years background focuses primarily on politics, eco- housing, education and health issues and (KUNA) interviewed two experts in the fields after founding the youth ministry is still below nomics and legal approach, adding that the believe that they lack knowledge if they of sociology and media who called for ambitions.