The following is by a columnist in my local paper who is a retired employee of the State Department....this article says it all about the problems with the Bush administration....they are obviously more interested in their own fragile egos than in doing what it takes to address some of the most pressing international issues:
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Article published Monday, February 14, 2005
A return to service not in the cards
By DAN SIMPSON
This will be hard to write, because it hurts a lot.
Some readers will be aware of my background as a career State Department officer of 35 years, serving as U.S. ambassador to the Central African Republic, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other assignments.
Last week I received a call from the State Department asking if I would be willing to go to Khartoum, Sudan, for four months or so to stand in as acting ambassador. Departure would be in two weeks.
The reason for the need for someone with my experience, including wartime assignments to Beirut and Mogadishu, was the combination of the signature at the turn of the year of a peace agreement, ending decades of civil war between the north and south of Sudan, the trouble - some would say genocide - in Darfur in the west of Sudan, and most recently new fighting with separatists in the east of Sudan.
The United States has had no ambassador in Khartoum for years; naming one formally could take as much as six months. Could I stand in to head the embassy in the meantime?
Lots of nice things were said about my reputation and what I would bring to the job. I was the State Department's first choice, I was told.
After talking with my wife and family, I asked The Blade's publisher, John Robinson Block, if he would agree to release me temporarily to fill the need. He responded that he saw it like someone being called up to the National Guard. He said The Blade and Pittsburgh `Post-Gazette` were proud that I was being asked and would welcome me back when I finished the assignment.
I told the State Department that and was told that they would proceed with seeking urgent clearance for the appointment.
However, I was called the next day and told, after I did some digging, that the assignment had been rejected at the political level. The initial reason given was that my medical and security clearances were out of date. I knew that wasn't it. Those can easily be updated; I had retired only in 2001. I asked for the truth. What it turned out to be was writing that I had done for our two newspapers that had offended the Bush Administration.
view complete article at:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...0313/-1/OPINION
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