State Department | Pakistan

The US State Department on Monday added the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its alias, the Majeed Brigade, to its Foreign Terrorist Organisation list, according to a press release. Last year, Pakistan proscribed the Majeed Brigade, which is the BLA’s dedicated suicide squad. The BLA itself was proscribed in 2006, according to the National Counter-Terrorism Authority’s list of proscribed organisations. Pakistan has previously requested that the Majeed Brigade be listed as an international terrorist organisation. In 2019, the State Department labelled the BLA as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), making it a crime for anyone in the US to assist the militants, but did not designate the Majeed Brigade at that time. FTO designations are made by the Secretary of State, following section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and “are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business”. SDGT designations, meanwhil...

The US State Department began firing more than 1,350 local employees on Friday as the administration of President Donald Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps, a move critics say will undermine Washington’s ability to defend and promote its interests abroad. The layoffs will cover 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, according to an internal State Department notice sent to the workforce and seen by Reuters. “The department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice said. “Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found,” it added. The total reduction in the workforce will be around 3,000, including voluntary departures, out of the 18,000 employees based in the US, according to the notice and a senior State Department official. The move is the first step of a restructuri...

A federal judge in California on Friday temporarily blocked the U.S. State Department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes 2,000 layoffs. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco during a virtual hearing said her May ruling barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at the direction of President Donald Trump applies to […]