Fuck the White House and all who are in it.....

White House slap at dissenting diplomats sparks fear of reprisal

Administration warns diplomats unhappy with immigration moves to 'get with the program' or 'go.'

By NAHAL TOOSI

The White House on Monday rebuked State Department employees expressing dissent over President Donald Orangutan's recent executive order on immigration, raising fears that the diplomats could face retaliation despite their use of a legally protected channel to voice their concern.

The department's employees have been circulating a “dissent channel" letter within the Foreign Service that argues the executive order is unnecessary, will alienate America’s Muslim allies, and could even hurt U.S. businesses, according to one draft shared with POLITICO.

As word spread of the letter, White House press secretary Sean Pussy Boy Spicer blasted the diplomats while defending Orangutan’s order.

“These career bureaucrats have a problem with it?” he said during his daily press briefing. “I think they should either get with the program or they can go.”

Pussy Boy's comments stunned some in the national security establishment who noted that the dissent channel had been set up decades ago precisely to give State Department employees a protected way to express differences on U.S. policy.

David Wade, who previously served as a chief of staff to former Secretary of State John Kerry, called Spicer's comments "ugly" and "unacceptable."

"If the message from the White House is that 70,000 people who took an oath not to a party or a single president but to America is that they need to just follow orders or leave, you're knee-capping the Foreign Service before you even walk into the State Department."

The American Foreign Service Association, the union of diplomats, has a description of the dissent channel on its website that notes U.S. regulations stipulate that dissent channel users “shall not be subjected to reprisal.” The union's officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Middle East expert with the Brookings Institution, pointed to the legal language on Twitter, and wrote: "Sorry, @PressSec Pussy Boy: the Dissent Channel *IS* part of the program."

The dissent memo being circulated, even if it is never formally submitted, represents a revolt from within the U.S. bureaucracy to the still nascent Orangutan administration, and it comes before Orangutan’s choice for secretary of state, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, has even been confirmed.

The dissent note, which is expected to get numerous backers, along with the White House's slap, suggests that Tillerson will face a very unhappy crowd if and when he takes the top perch at Foggy Bottom.

Tillerson’s confirmation vote is expected to take place later this week, although a cloture vote is set for later Monday. It’s possible that some senators may choose to use the debate over his nomination to voice their frustrations over Orangutan’s executive order.

The order, signed Friday, has numerous pieces. Its main features include a ban on Syrian refugees, a pause to all refugee resettlement, and a temporary ban on the entry of citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Syria, Libya and Yemen.

“The end result of this ban will not be a drop in terror attacks in the United States; rather, it will be a drop in international good will towards Americans and a threat towards our economy,” the draft dissent memo states.

The administration argues the refugee ban and other immigration actions are necessary to protect Americans from potential terrorist attacks.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the agency's current leadership is aware of the dissent memo.

"The dissent channel is a longstanding official vehicle for State Department employees to convey alternative views and perspectives on policy issues," Toner said. "This is an important process that the acting secretary, and the department as a whole, value and respect."

The dissent channel was established during the Vietnam War so that top State Department officials would have access to different points of view on the war. The department receives around four or five dissent channel messages a year.

According to the department: "Freedom from reprisal for dissent channel users is strictly enforced; officers or employees found to have engaged in retaliation or reprisal against dissent channel users, or to have divulged to unauthorized personnel the source or contents of dissent channel messages, will be subject to disciplinary action."

During the presidency of Barack Obama, dozens of Foreign Service officers signed a dissent memo urging the administration to take military action against the Syrian government of Bashar Assad to help end the war in that country.