<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/08/06/senators-demand-documents-over-malaysia-trafficking-upgrade" class="">http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/08/06/senators-demand-documents-over-malaysia-trafficking-upgrade</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><h1 class="h-biggest" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 35px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 1.2; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">Senators threaten subpoena over documents tied to State Department's global trafficking report</h1><h2 class="h-normal h-light h-big h-slacker" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; font-size: 21px; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); line-height: 1.2; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;"></h2><div data-config-distributor-id="90080" id="ndn-video-player-1" class="ndn_embedded ndn-widget-embed-1 ndn_embed ndn_embedding ndn_embedContainer" data-config-site-section="ndn1_usnews" data-config-height="9/16w" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; width: 652px;"></div><div class="block-generous drawer" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;"><div class="bar-sep-overunder drawer_main t-small" style="margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5; width: 652px; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221);"><span class="drawer_paddingTop item" style="display: block; float: left; padding-top: 8px;">Associated Press</span><time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2015-08-06" class="t-small drawer_marginTop item" style="line-height: 1.5; display: block; float: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-left: 20px; padding-left: 20px; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221);">Aug. 6, 2015 | 3:00 p.m. EDT</time></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="block article-logo" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;"><img width="27" height="31" data-size="rectangle150x100" style="border: 0px;" apple-inline="yes" id="251954B7-6081-4B0A-A41B-87883AB51E57" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:8086A21C-71A1-42E2-AD92-50B9DFD6DE9E@hsd1.pa.comcast.net." class=""></div><div class="block skin-editable" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators angered by the decision to upgrade Malaysia in the State Department's human trafficking report threatened a subpoena on Thursday unless they receive all communications related to the annual U.S. ranking of countries' efforts to combat modern-day slavery.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Last month's report raised Malaysia from the lowest ranking, a change that critics say was related to the country's involvement in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that President Barack Obama is eager to conclude.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">During a visit to Malaysia for regional security talks, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that Malaysia had significantly improved combating what often is described as modern-day slavery. Kerry said he signed off on the report and had no conversations with anyone about links between it and the trade talks.</p><div data-config-distributor-id="90080" id="ndn-video-player-2" class="ndn_embedded ndn_embed ndn_embedding ndn-widget-embed-2 ndn_embedContainer" data-config-site-section="ndn1_usnews" data-config-height="9/16w" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 652px;"></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Later, at a Senate hearing, the official who oversees the department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons faced detailed questioning about the rankings for Cuba, India and Malaysia, in particular.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee made clear their dissatisfaction with the answers from Undersecretary of State Sarah Sewall. In Malaysia's case, she cited legal reforms and increases in trafficking investigations and prosecutions during 2014.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">"This is possibly the most heartless, lacking of substance presentation I have ever seen about a serious topic. I don't see how anybody could believe that there was integrity in this process," said the chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Millions of migrants from poorer Asian countries work in Malaysia in the flesh trade, on plantations and in domestic service. In May, Malaysian authorities found abandoned jungle camps used by human traffickers that held more than 100 graves suspected to contain the remains of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. Earlier, there was a similar discovery by Thailand police.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Thailand was among a group of 23 countries, including North Korea, Syria and Iran, that earned the lowest ranking in the most recent trafficking report.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., raised suspicions about political interference in Malaysia's upgrade. Menendez, a trade pact opponent, had led the successful push for inclusion in recent trade legislation of a provision that bars the U.S. from entering into trade agreements with nations with the lowest trafficking ranking.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Menendez called for the committee to review all the documentation created in relation to this year's trafficking report. Corker said that if the State Department did not comply immediately, the committee would subpoena the information.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, told reporters after the hearing that the department was waiting for the committee to submit a formal request "but speaking generally, of course we try to be responsive to Congress."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Sewall said Malaysia had consulted with civil society groups and drafted amendments to its anti-trafficking law in order to better protect victims. She said trafficking investigations increased by more than 100 percent and prosecutions by 67 percent.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">But Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., noted that the legal reforms had yet to be implemented and that trafficking convictions had dropped from nine in 2013 to just three in 2014. Sewall also acknowledged that the number of convictions was "inadequate."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">"Seems like you are trying to justify a result that's not there," he said.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">The Obama administration also has drawn criticism for upgrading Cuba, a shift that came just a week after the U.S. and Cuba formally restored diplomatic relations, ending a half-century of estrangement.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" class="">Speaking about Malaysia's case, Kerry said that despite its upgrade, the government in Kuala Lumpur had "a long way to go" and that it did not mean a "gold seal of approval" from Washington. Malaysia will be demoted next year if it fails to follow through, he said.</p><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div id="zedoContainer" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" class=""></div></div></body></html>