President Trump is reportedly furious after a State Department underling in Japan ignored the President’s orders and allowed Americans, sick with the coronavirus, to return to the US from Japan. Ian Brownlee, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs, appears to feel he was right in overriding the President’s directives.
Ian Brownlee, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs, in Japan has worked in the State Department for years.
According to the US Department of State’s website:
Ian G. Brownlee became the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs in February 2019. Previously he had served as an Inspector in the Office of the Inspector General.
Mr. Brownlee’s previous experience includes serving as the Minister Counselor for Consular and Consulate Affairs in Mexico, where he was responsible for coordination of consular operations across Mission Mexico’s nine consulates general and the embassy.
Prior to that, he was the Director of the State Department’s Office of Central American Affairs, where he was responsible for the implementation of the U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America. From 2012-2015, Mr. Brownlee was the Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Mr. Brownlee’s previous tours in the U.S. Foreign Service include as the Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Mexican Affairs, as Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretaries for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Consular Affairs, and in consular management positions in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and San Jose, Costa Rica. He also served in Matamoros, Mexico and Santiago, Chile.
Brownlee rationalized his decision to override the President and the CDC and allow individuals sick with the coronavirus to return to the US:
‘It’s important to remember this was an emerging and unusual circumstance,’ said Ian Brownlee, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Consular Affairs.
‘We had 328 people on buses, a plan to execute and we received lab results on people who were otherwise asymptomatic, un-ill people on a bus on the way to the airport.
‘The people on the ground did exactly the right thing…in bringing them home.’
People who had tested positive were put into isolation units on board the two cargo planes, which then flew to Joint Base San Antonio – Lackland in Texas and Travis Air Base in California.
Although officials reassured the press that the sick passengers were thoroughly contained and every precaution had been taken to ensure the safety of the healthy people onboard, reports later emerged that people on the flights had no idea they were sharing yet another even more confined space with infected individuals.
When the planes landed at their respective destinations late Sunday night, six ‘high risk’ passengers from Lackland and seven from Travis were ushered onto an additional flight to Omaha Eppley Airfield in Nebraska.
Another Deep State employee thinks he’s right and the President is wrong. This guy, who worked for the State Department in Mexico for years, thought it was important to send individuals sick with the coronavirus back to the US where they could risk getting others sick. His decision may cost American lives.
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