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East Oregonian
TRUMP: President
Bush was proponent
of coalition-building
Continued from 1A
pean military alliance.
Trump has also challenged
the necessity of multilateralism
in his economic agenda,
pledging to scrap the 12-nation
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade
accord in favor of one-on-one
agreements that he says will
be more favorable to U.S.
businesses and workers.
With Trump still about
three weeks away from
taking office, it’s unclear how
his campaign rhetoric will
translate into action. Even
as he has criticized the UN
and NATO, he has vowed
to “aggressively pursue
joint and coalition military
operations” with allies to take
on the Islamic State militant
group. What those military
operations might entail is
uncertain, given that Trump’s
views on national security
have been both isolationist
and muscular, including his
recent call for expanding
U.S. nuclear capabilities.
Richard Grenell, who
served as U.S. spokesman
at the United Nations during
President George W. Bush’s
administration and has
been working with Trump’s
transition team, downplayed
the prospect that Trump
will withdraw from or even
disregard the UN and NATO
once he takes office.
“Trump is talking about
reforming these organiza-
tions so that they live up to
their ideals, not about aban-
doning them,” Grenell said in
an interview.
Obama has also been crit-
ical of U.S. partners at times,
telling The Atlantic magazine
earlier this year that some
U.S. allies were “free riders”
eager for Washington to solve
the world’s problems. Obama
also has pushed NATO part-
ners to live up to an agree-
ment that they spend at least
2 percent of their country’s
gross domestic product on
defense, a guideline only a
few members adhere to.
But the president’s major
foreign policy decisions have
highlighted his belief that the
U.S. is better served acting
in concert with other nations
— and that a lack of involve-
ment from allies should be a
warning sign to Washington.
Both Republican Presidents
George H.W. and George W.
Bush were also proponents
of coalition-building before
taking drastic action overseas.
With the support of the UN
Security Council and NATO
allies, Obama joined the
bombing campaign in Libya
in 2011. He backed away
from plans to launch airstrikes
against Syria in 2013, spooked
in part by the British Parlia-
ment’s refusal to authorize
its military to participate and
scant willingness among other
allies to join the effort.
On the diplomatic front,
Obama’s
administration
worked alongside five other
nations to secure a landmark
nuclear accord with Iran and
partnered with the European
Union to level economic
sanctions against Russia for
its provocations in Ukraine.
Like much of Obama’s
approach to foreign policy,
his preference for acting as
part of a coalition was shaped
by lessons learned from the
Iraq war he inherited from
George W. Bush. While
numerous other countries
were part of the war at the
start, the U.S. had by far the
largest commitment and bore
the brunt of the casualties
and the financial burden.
Responsibility for quelling
the sectarian violence and
instability that consumed Iraq
after the 2003 invasion also
fell predominantly to the U.S.
During a foreign policy
address in 2014, Obama chas-
tised those who criticized him
for seeking to share burdens
with other countries and
who saw working through
institutions such as the UN as
a “sign of weakness.”
LAND: State would have
to cover firefighting costs
Continued from 1A
bill sponsored in Congress
by U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei,
R-Nev., called the Honor
the Nevada Enabling Act of
1864.
The bill, which expired
with the end of the session,
included two phases of land
takeovers.
The first would cover
nearly 7.3 million acres,
including about half within
a checkerboard pattern
traversing the state from
Sparks
to
Wendover.
Property the government
has already “designated for
disposal” was also included.
The second phase would
transfer millions more acres
managed by the Bureau of
Land Management, U.S.
Forest Service and Bureau
of Reclamation “upon
request by the state or local
governments.”
Designated wilderness,
conservation areas, national
monuments,
wildlife
refuges, land managed by
the defense and energy
departments and American
Indian reservation land
would be exempt.
All
told,
Amodei’s
bill could have reduced
the percentage of land in
Nevada owned by the federal
government from about 87
percent to 75 percent.
Critics called it overreach,
compared with consensus
land bills that tend to focus
on smaller transfers and
specific properties.
“It is nothing like the
lands bills the state has done
in the past,” said Kyle Davis,
a consultant for the Nevada
Conservation League and
opponent of the concept.
Bids for state control
have roots in states’ rights
flare-ups such as the Sage-
brush Rebellion and, more
recently, armed standoffs
outside Bunkerville, Nevada,
and in Oregon involving
protesters and members of
cattleman Cliven Bundy’s
family.
Mike Baughman who
created a 2014 report to the
Nevada Legislature detailing
how a takeover of public
lands could work, said he
heard concerns about whole-
sale land sales.
The report said Nevada
could generate $56 million
to $206 million annually in
revenue from the land, with
money going to schools and
other uses.
During a recent meeting
with proponents of the
Nevada bill, Idaho lawmaker
Scott Bedke, R-Oakley,
called it important to empha-
size revenue prospects to
attract public support.
“The beneficiaries are the
school kids, that allays a lot
of concerns,” he said.
Others, including Goicoe-
chea, have said revenues
might be over-estimated. They
express concerns about costs,
particularly firefighting.
In
recent
decades,
more than 6 million acres
of Nevada rangeland has
burned, with the cost of
firefighting and landscape
rehabilitation largely borne
by the federal government.
A recent example is the
Hot Pot fire, which burned
more than 122,000 acres
of mostly federal land near
Midas last July.
In addition to the cost of
fighting the fire, the federal
government is footing a $5.1
million bill to rehabilitate
the burned land.
“I haven’t heard one person
give me a straight answer on
where that money is going
to come from,” said Brad
Brooks, a Wilderness Society
regional director in Idaho
who has studied land transfer
proposals across the West.
“The idea you are just
switching managers totally
ignores economic reality
that the state would have to
bear the burden of managing
firefighting cost,” he said.
Goicoechea said he was
confident the state could do
a better job managing fires.
During
a
meeting
with proponents, Amodei
acknowledged the difficulty
of getting a bill through
Congress but said he would
try again.
Supporters won’t be the
only ones who weigh in, he
said.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Trump names Bush-era veteran
and policy newcomer to posts
By VIVIAN SALAMA
Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH,
Fla. — President-elect
Donald Trump on Tuesday
appointed an experienced
hand from the George W.
Bush era to his national
security circle and a figure
from the Trump Organiza-
tion to make international
deals.
Thomas Bossert will
become an assistant to the
president for homeland
security and counterter-
rorism. A statement from
Trump’s transition team
said Bossert will advise
the president on issues
related to homeland secu-
rity, counterterrorism and
cybersecurity, and coordi-
nate the Cabinet’s process
for making and executing
policy in those areas.
The position notably “is
being elevated and restored
to its independent status
alongside the national secu-
rity adviser,” the statement
said. Policymakers have
long debated whether such
national security jobs should
operate independently from
the White House.
Bossert
will
work
closely
with
Trump’s
pick for national security
adviser, retired Lt. Gen.
Michael Flynn. Bossert is
currently president of the
risk management consulting
firm CDS Consulting. He
previously served as deputy
assistant to the president for
homeland security under
Bush.
The president-elect also
appointed one of his main
advisers on U.S.-Israel
relations as special represen-
tative for international nego-
tiations. Jason Greenblatt
has worked for the Trump
Organization for over two
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
In this Dec. 21 photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of the
media at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla.
decades and currently serves
as its executive vice presi-
dent and chief legal officer.
In the statement, Trump
said Greenblatt “has a
history of negotiating
substantial, complex trans-
actions on my behalf,” and
has the expertise to “bring
parties together and build
consensus on difficult and
sensitive topics.”
Trump recently named
his other top adviser on
Israel, David Friedman, as
his pick for U.S. ambas-
sador to Israel.
Trump’s West Wing is
shaping up to have multiple
power centers. Chief of
Staff Reince Priebus and
senior adviser Steve Bannon
will work as “equal part-
ners,” according to Trump,
and counselor Kellyanne
Conway is also expected
to have autonomy. Trump’s
influential son-in-law, Jared
Kushner, will also have a
direct line to the president.
Trump has long stoked
rivalries among his staff
in business and during his
presidential campaign. But
doing so in the White House
could sow confusion and
slow decision-making.
Trump is spending the
holidays at his Florida
resort, where he’s held a
steady stream of meetings
with senior staffers, advisers
and business executives.
A number of key posts in
his government remain; his
transition team says he will
fill those positions in the
coming days.
Meanwhile,
Trump’s
plan to dissolve his chari-
table foundation before he
takes office to eliminate any
conflicts of interest appears
to be harder than he thought.
The New York attorney
general’s
office
said
Tuesday
that
Trump
cannot move ahead with
his decision to dismantle
his charitable foundation
because state prosecutors
are probing whether the
president-elect personally
benefited from its spending.
“The Trump foundation
is still under investigation
by this office and cannot
legally dissolve until that
investigation is complete,”
said
Amy
Spitalnick,
spokeswoman for state
Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman.
The statement came
after Trump announced
that he wanted to dissolve
the Donald J. Trump
Foundation, part of what
his presidential transition
team says is an effort to
erase any potential conflicts
of interest before he takes
office Jan. 20.
But the foundation’s
inner workings have been
the subject of Schneider-
man’s investigation for
months and could remain
a thorny issue for Trump’s
incoming administration.
Israel: ‘Ironclad information’ White House behind UN rebuke
JERUSALEM
(AP)
— Doubling down on
its public break with the
Obama administration, a
furious Israeli government
on Tuesday said it had
received “ironclad” infor-
mation from Arab sources
that Washington actively
helped craft last week’s
U.N. resolution declaring
Israeli settlements in occu-
pied territories illegal.
The allegation, which
was denied by the State
Department,
further
poisoned a toxic atmo-
sphere between Israel and
the outgoing administration
in the wake of Friday’s vote,
raising questions about
whether the White House
might take further action
against settlements in Pres-
ident Barack Obama’s final
weeks in office.
With the U.S. expected
to participate in an inter-
national peace conference
in France next month and
Secretary of State John
Kerry planning a final
policy speech Wednesday,
the Palestinians hope
to capitalize on the
momentum. Israel’s nation-
alist government is banking
on the incoming Trump
administration to undo the
damage with redoubled
support.
Although the U.S. has
long opposed the settle-
ments, it has generally
used its Security Council
veto to protect its ally
from censure. On Friday,
it abstained from a reso-
lution calling settlements
a “flagrant violation” of
international law, allowing
it to pass by a 14-0 margin.
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who
has had a cool relationship
with Obama, called the
resolution “shameful” and
accused the U.S. of playing
an active role in its passage.
On
Tuesday,
his
spokesman went even
further.
“We have ironclad
information that emanates
from sources in the Arab
world and that shows the
Obama
administration
helped craft this resolution
and pushed hard for its
eventual passage,” David
Keyes said. “We’re not
just going to be a punching
bag and go quietly into the
night.”
He did not identify the
Arab sources or say how
Israel obtained the infor-
mation. Israel has close
security ties with Egypt,
the original sponsor of last
week’s resolution who, as
the lone Arab member of
the Security Council, was
presenting it at the Pales-
tinians’ request. Under
heavy Israeli pressure,
Egypt delayed the reso-
lution indefinitely — but
other members presented it
for a vote a day later. Egypt
ended up voting in favor of
the measure.
In Washington, State
Department
spokesman
Mark Toner said Kerry
would lay out his vision for
Israeli-Palestinian peace
in the speech Wednesday.
“He feels it’s his duty in his
waning weeks and days as
secretary of state to lay out
what he believes is a way to
a peaceful two-state solu-
tion in the Middle East,”
Toner said.
Toner also rejected
Israeli
allegations
of
conspiring against it, saying
Egypt and the Palestinians
drafted the resolution and
the U.S. worked with them
on the language only after
the intention to go forward
was clear. “The idea this
was pre-cooked in advance
is not accurate,” he said.
GENTRY: ‘I think it’s going to be a very interesting job’
Continued from 1A
Gentry said he follows
his passions and is lucky
enough to feel he never
worked a day in his adult
life. From air traffic control
to owning his own business,
he said he has done what
he enjoys. That goes for
refereeing high school
basketball.
He reffed in Indianapolis
and Pennsylvania, he said,
and found a dearth of refs
here, so he passed the state
exam to work the courts.
Besides, he said, he is a bit
of a loudmouth and still can
play full-court games with
guys half his age.
Tuesday he even donned
the black and white stripes
and reffed during the tourna-
ment at Nixyaawii Commu-
nity School on the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
Winter means a slower
time at Pendleton’s small
airport, but Gentry said
there is plenty to do. Flights
come and go from FedEx
and UPS, the nearby Oregon
National Guard base, Life-
Flight air ambulance service
and now Boutique Airlines
soaring back and forth to
Portland.
Plus the airport is a hub
for drone development.
Gentry said the remote-con-
trolled aircraft are an
exciting prospect, and come
spring, between that, the
other flights and small planes
coming in from regional
communities, Pendleton is
going to be humming.
“I think it’s going to be
a very interesting job,” he
said, “at an airport that’s
going up and not down.”
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