With a top-secret clearance, Mr Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
With a top-secret clearance, Mr Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Jared Kushner’s security clearance downgraded per Kelly policy



The security clearance of White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been downgraded, according to two people informed of the decision.

Mr Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the "top secret/sensitive compartmented information" level for more than a year. Now he is only authorised to access information at the lower "secret" level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.

Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017 lose their access to the nation's deepest secrets if they hadn't received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed Mr Kelly's order had been implemented.

Mr Trump could have reversed the decision and unilaterally offered Mr Kushner a clearance, but deferred to his chief of staff.

“I will let general Kelly make that decision and he’s going to do what’s right for the country and I have no doubt he’ll make the right decision,” Mr Trump said Friday, when he addressed the security clearance issue for the first time.

Mr Kushner’s attorney said his client’s ability to do his job won’t be affected by any change to his clearance.

“Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr Kushner’s level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration and that the current backlogs are now being addressed,” said Peter Mirijanian.

Mr Kushner’s portfolio once included relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development. But his freewheeling reach in the foreign policy space — which was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — had already been curtailed somewhat under Mr Kelly.

Still, Mr Kushner is reportedly said to have reviewed the highly secret presidential daily brief and has been in the room for some of Mr Trump’s most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions.

Mr Kushner is one of dozens of White House aides who have been working without permanent security clearances for the better part of a year.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that she would not comment on individual security clearances, but called Mr Kushner “a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that he’s been doing since he started in the administration”.

With a top-secret clearance, Mr Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. With a secret clearance, he would still have access to intelligence assessments, but not necessarily the information behind why the US knows what is being shared with him.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
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Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.