The removal of Iraq from the list came after talks with security officials in Baghdad, at the urging of State and Defense department officials, who felt the ban would undermine the stability of the United States-allied government. The Iraqis agreed to improve the quality of travel documentation and to bolster their sharing of information about potentially dangerous nationals, officials said. That success was quickly overshadowed by the controversies over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s failure to inform the Senate of his contacts with a Russian diplomat and Mr. Trump’s unsupported accusation that President Barack Obama tried to wiretap Mr. Trump’s phones during the 2016 campaign. Advertisement Continue reading the main story“We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America,” he added. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyBut Homeland Security and Justice Department officials refused to provide any further details, and wouldn’t say how many of the 300 investigation targets came from any of the countries covered by the revised travel ban.

Source: New York Times March 06, 2017 16:21 UTC