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A bold Hijab-wearing Muslim ex- White House staffer of Bangladeshi-origin has said she quit her job after US President Donald Trump announced his controversial travel ban, lasting just eight days in the new administration.
Rumana Ahmed was hired in 2011 to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council (NSC).
My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman –– I was the only hijabi in the West Wing –– and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included,” she wrote in an article published in The Atlantic.
Ahmed said that like most of her fellow American-Muslims, she spent much of 2016 watching with “conster“Despite this –– or because of it –– I thought I should try to stay on the NSC staff during the Trump Administration, in order to give the new president and his aides a more nuanced view of Islam, and of America’s Muslim citizens.
“I lasted eight days. When Trump issued a ban on travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all Syrian refugees, I knew I could no longer stay and work for an administration that saw me and people like me not as fellow citizens, but as a threat,” she said.
Ahmed said the evening before she left her job at the White House, she notified Trump’s senior National Security Council (NSC) communications adviser, Michael Anton, of her decision.
“His initial surprise, asking whether I was leaving government entirely, was followed by silence -- almost in caution, not asking why. I told him anyway,” she wrote.

“I told him I had to leave because it was an insult walking into this country’s most historic building every day under an administration that is working against and vilifying everything I stand for as an American and as a Muslim,” Ahmed said.
She told Anton that the administration was attacking the basic tenets of democracy. She said Anton just looked at her and said nothing.

Ahmed, whose parents immigrated to the US from Bangladesh in 1978, said inspired by then president Barack Obama, she joined the White House in 2011, after graduating from the George Washington University.
“The days I spent in the Trump White House were strange, appalling and disturbing,” she wrote.
Ahmed’s personal account comes amid a spike in incidents of intimidation and assault targeting hijab-wearing women across the US following Trump’s electoral triumph.

   
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WASHINGTON -- A White House national security staffer resigned after eight days 
in the Trump administration. The Maryland woman is a Muslim-American whose family emigrated from Bangladesh.
She was a holdover from the Obama White House who had hoped to stay.
“It was a very tense and unwelcoming feeling,” Rumana Ahmed said.
Ahmed worked as a staffer on the National Security Council during the Obama administration. When President Trump took office, she decided to stay, but quickly became uncomfortable.
“I got both of those looks of ‘oh my God, like, are you OK, you know, is this, you know, I’m surprised you’re still here,’” Ahmed said. “But then you also had others who were just very cold and just kind of ignored the fact that I was even there.”
She was hoping to change minds, even though as a Muslim-American woman she had been offended by the president’s rhetoric on the campaign trail.
“At the end of the day you may not convince everybody, but there might be one or two people who will be willing to at least listen,” Ahmed said.
As for convincing anybody in the Trump White House, she said, “There was no opportunity to interact with anybody.”
In the chaotic early days, Ahmed believes she and other staffers were often cut out of the policy-making process.You kind of actually found out about things as they came out in the news, and that wasn’t just true of some of us who stayed, but it was also true of some of the Trump staffers as well,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed said one of the last straws for her was the president’s executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Less than two weeks into the Trump presidency, she quit.
“Walking into that building was becoming more and more difficult every single day because everything that administration was doing stood against what I stood for as both an American and a Muslim,” Ahmed said.
There has been a lot of turmoil on the National Security Council. Just this week, Mr. Trump named H.R. McMaster to replace Michael Flynn as national security adviser. White House officials did not have a lot to say about Ahmed’s comments, only that they wish her well.






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a month into his presidency, Donald Trump continues to talk up his win last November with a tweet Saturday morning that was promptly mocked by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
As is his custom on Saturday mornings, Trump tweeted out a random comment first thing in the morning, writing, “Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!”
Sanders quickly shot Trump with a pithy, “They did. It wasn’t,” accompanied with photos showing the dismal turnout for the President’s inauguration.



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French President Francois Hollande ripped President Trump for his comments criticizing the city of Paris in a speech on Friday, saying Trump should support France instead of slamming its dealings with terrorism.

Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, that "Paris is no longer Paris" and that he has a friend who used to love Paris but doesn't go there any more because it isn't the same anymore.

Hollande said Trump's comments were a breach of etiquette and he shouldn't be insulting the French capital.

"There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country. I wouldn't do it with the United States and I'm urging the U.S. president not to do it with France," Hollande said, according to Reuters.

According to the report, more than 230 people have died in France during the last two years in terrorist attacks and the country has been in a state of emergency since the November 2015 bombings and shootings in Paris.

Trump has repeatedly criticized the state of affairs in Paris and the rest of France during his presidential campaign and since he took office. He uses the country as an example of what he doesn't want the United States to be when it comes to allowing in immigrants and refugees from the Middle East.

Hollande said there are parts of the U.S. that France does not want to emulate as well.
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Earlier, in July, Sankeerth, 25, of Hyderabad was murdered by his roommate, also an IndThe killing of Srinivas Kuchibhotla has come as yet another blow to the Telugu community in the US and has focused attention on a series of tragedies that have struck immigrants from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in recent times. Kuchibhotla of Hyderabad was killed and his colleague Alok Madasani from Warangal district in Telangana was injured in a shooting in a bar in Olathe, Kansas. In what is suspected to be the first incident of its nature after Donald Trump assumed office, a former Navy serviceman opened fire as he reportedly yelled “Middle Easterners, get out of my country” in what is seen as a case of mistaken identity.
The two engineers were working as aviation programme managers at Garmin, a MNC. Kuchibhotla, 32, is the second man from Telangana to die in a shootout in the US this month. Software engineer Vamshi Reddy Mamidala was shot dead in Milpitas, California, on February 10, by an offender in the garage of his apartment building. The 27-year-old, who hailed from Warangal district, died when the assailant opened fire while fleeing after rob
Kansas killing latest in series of tragedies to hit Telugus in US
Kansas killing latest in series of tragedies to hit Telugus in US
Earlier, in July, Sankeerth, 25, of Hyderabad was murdered by his roommate, also an Indian, in Austin, Texas.
By: IANS | Hyderabad | Published: February 25, 2017 3:54 PM
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Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot dead by a gunman in Kansas on Wednesday night. (Source: IE)
The killing of Srinivas Kuchibhotla has come as yet another blow to the Telugu community in the US and has focused attention on a series of tragedies that have struck immigrants from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in recent times. Kuchibhotla of Hyderabad was killed and his colleague Alok Madasani from Warangal district in Telangana was injured in a shooting in a bar in Olathe, Kansas. In what is suspected to be the first incident of its nature after Donald Trump assumed office, a former Navy serviceman opened fire as he reportedly yelled “Middle Easterners, get out of my country” in what is seen as a case of mistaken identity.
The two engineers were working as aviation programme managers at Garmin, a MNC. Kuchibhotla, 32, is the second man from Telangana to die in a shootout in the US this month. Software engineer Vamshi Reddy Mamidala was shot dead in Milpitas, California, on February 10, by an offender in the garage of his apartment building. The 27-year-old, who hailed from Warangal district, died when the assailant opened fire while fleeing after robbing a woman.
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These are not isolated incidents. More than 30 techies and students from the two Telugu states have died since 2008, victims of crime or accidents. Young dreams were cut short by the disasters that hit one of the largest groups among the Indian community in the US. In December last year, Chunduri Sai Tejaswi, a 23-year-old student from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, was killed after she was hit by a speeding vehicle while crossing the road in Fremont’s Niles District.
Earlier, in July, Sankeerth, 25, of Hyderabad was murdered by his roommate, also an Indian, in Austin, Texas. In June 2016, Hyderabad’s Namboori Sridatta (25), who was working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Arizona, drowned while picnicking with friends at a waterfall. Early last year, Shiva Karan, a 23-year-old student from Hyderabad, committed suicide, reportedly due to depression. He was pursuing a master’s programme in Raleigh of North Carolina State University.
In June 2015, Sai Kiran, 23, of Hyderabad was shot dead by a robber in Florida after he refused to part with his mobile phone. Sai Kiran was pursuing his MS from Atlantic University and had left India only a month and a half back. In a similar case in 2014, Elaprolu Jayachandra, 22, was shot dead during a robbery at a convenience store in Pasadena, Texas, where he was working. The spate of killings between in 2008 and 2009 was attributed by some to the economic meltdown and massive job losses in the US.
Indin Americans who have spent considerable time in the US point out that among various ethnic communities in the US, the Indians are doing well and among Indians, Telugus have excelled in various fields. More than 600,000 Telugus are estimated to be living in the US. Many youngsters are pursuing 
advanced degrees and have become successful software professionals, engineers, doctors and business managers. There is also a feeling that the youth are not taking enough precautions for their safety and thus becoming victims of crimes. While bodies like the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) have drafted safety guidelines, there have been demands that Indian authorities guide the citizens, especially students, on dos and don’ts.
Students are more vulnerable to attacks as they take up part-time jobs in areas with high crime rates as they are offered more money than in other areas. While the US mission in India issued 60,000 student visas in 2015, the US consulate general in Hyderabad issued the largest number. According to US officials, the Consulate General in Hyderabad issued the fifth largest number of student visas in the world.
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WASHINGTON — President Trump turned the power of the White House against the news media on Friday, escalating his attacks on journalists as “the enemy of the people” and berating members of his own F.B.I. as “leakers” who he said were putting the nation at risk.

In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Trump criticized as “fake news” organizations that publish anonymously sourced reports that reflect poorly on him. And in a series of Twitter posts, he assailed the F.B.I. as a dangerously porous agency, condemning unauthorized revelations of classified information from within its ranks and calling for an immediate hunt for leakers.

Hours after the speech, as if to demonstrate Mr. Trump’s determination to punish reporters whose coverage he dislikes, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, barred journalists from The New York Times and several other news organizations from attending his daily briefing, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps.

Mr. Trump’s barrage against the news media continued well into Friday night. “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth,” he wrote on Twitter shortly after 10 p.m., singling out The Times and CNN. “A great danger to our country.”


The moves underscored the degree to which Mr. Trump and members of his inner circle are eager to use the prerogatives of the presidency to undercut those who scrutinize him, dismissing negative stories as lies and confining press access at the White House to a few chosen news organizations considered friendly. The Trump White House has also vowed new efforts to punish leakers.

Mr. Trump’s attacks on the press came as the White House pushed back on a report by CNN on Thursday night that a White House official had asked the F.B.I. to rebut a New York Times article last week detailing contacts between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russian intelligence officials. The report asserted that a senior White House official had called top leaders at the F.B.I. to request that they contact reporters to dispute the Times’s account.

“The fake news doesn’t tell the truth,” Mr. Trump said to the delight of the conservatives packed into the main ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center just south of Washington. “It doesn’t represent the people, it doesn’t and never will represent the people, and we’re going to do something about it.”

In the West Wing less than three hours later, the consequences were becoming clear. Mr. Spicer told a handpicked group of reporters in a briefing in his spacious office that the White House would relentlessly counter coverage it considered inaccurate.

“We’re going to aggressively push back,” he said, according to a recording of the session provided by a reporter who was allowed to attend. “We’re just not going to sit back and let, you know, false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.”

Reporters from The Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, the BBC and The Huffington Post were among those shut out of the briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer admitted only reporters from a group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed.

Those organizations included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Fox News also attended.

Reporters from The Associated Press and Time magazine, who were set to be allowed in, chose not to attend the briefing in protest of the White House’s actions. The Washington Post did not send a reporter to the session.

“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement. “We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”

Marty Baron, the Post’s editor, called Mr. Spicer’s decision to exclude some news organizations from a scheduled briefing “appalling.”

“This is an undemocratic path that the administration is traveling,” Mr. Baron said. “There is nothing to be gained from the White House restricting the public’s access to information.”

The White House played down the drama surrounding Friday’s briefing.

“We invited the pool, so everyone was represented,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, said in an email Friday afternoon, referring to the small group of reporters on hand at the White House each day to follow the president and send reports to the broader press corps. “We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, also protested the decision. But Jeff Mason, the organization’s president, pointed out that the White House had provided near-daily briefings and accepted questions from a variety of news outlets since Mr. Trump took office.

“We’re not happy with how things went today,” Mr. Mason said in an interview. “But it’s important to keep in mind the context of how things have gone up until now.” He added: “I don’t think that people should rush to judgment to suggest that this is the start of a big crackdown on media access.”
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