If Rice is so offended, she should spend a year or two in Iraq and
Afganistan to show how a diplomat should behave. Then she should be
recycled.
On Apr 16, 5:26 am, McSweegan is INSANE
<mcsweegan_is_ins...@yahoo . com > wrote:
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>
> Subject: State Dept worried about Russia
>
> Date: Apr 16, 2008 5:08 AM
>
> Worried that Russian diplomats will be more welcome in the Middle
> East, especially
> since Putin told Bush off in Maine re 9/11. Imagine how much more
> welcome Russia
> will be in the Middle East once everyone finds out 9/11 was an inside
> job involving
> the CFR-bankers' CIA and the Mossad: * w w w .actionlyme.org/070426homete=
mp.htm * w w w .actionlyme.org/911_HOAX.htm
> The pre-announced WTC 7 collapse: * w w w .actionlyme.org/CHENEYMO_PSYCHO=
ANALYSIS.htm
>
> State wants them there so that they can be human shields.
>
> KMDickson
> =========================
===========
> courant . com /news/nationworld/ats-ap_top14apr16,0,3267875.story
> Courant . com
> State Department warns diplomats of compulsory Iraq duty
>
> By MATTHEW LEE
>
> Associated Press Writer
>
> April 16, 2008
>
> WASHINGTON
>
> The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats they may be forced to
> serve in Iraq
> next year and says it will soon start identifying prime candidates for
> jobs at the
> Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces, according to a cable obtained
> by The Associated
> Press.
>
> A similar call-up notice last year caused an uproar among foreign
> service officers,
> some of whom objected to compulsory work in a war zone, although in
> the end the
> State Department found enough volunteers to fill the jobs.
>
> Now, the State Department anticipates another staffing crisis.
>
> "We face a growing challenge of supply and demand in the 2009 staffing
> cycle,"
> the cable said, noting that more than 20 percent of the nearly 12,000
> foreign service
> officers have already worked in the two major hardship posts -- Iraq
> and Afghanistan
> -- and a growing number have done tours in both countries.
>
> As a result, the unclassified April 8 cable says, "the prime candidate
> exercise
> will be repeated" next year, meaning the State Department will begin
> identifying
> U.S. diplomats qualified to serve in Iraq and who could be forced to
> work there
> if they don't volunteer.
>
> The prime candidate list will be comprised of diplomats who have
> special abilities
> that are needed in Iraq, such as Arabic language skills, deep Mideast
> knowledge
> or training in specific areas of reconstruction.
>
> "We must assign to Iraq those employees whose skills are most needed,
> and those
> employees should know that they personally are needed," Foreign
> Service Director
> General Harry Thomas said in the cable sent to all diplomatic
> missions.
>
> The cable describes how the department will fill upcoming vacancies at
> hardship
> posts like those Iraq and Afghanistan -- although it doesn't plan to
> force any
> Afghanistan assignments. Diplomats will "bid," or apply, for positions
> in the war zones that will be advertised in May. After that, the
> department expects
> to begin identifying prime candidates for about 300 Iraq jobs that
> come open next
> summer, Thomas wrote.
>
> The cable said more details will be announced next month, but
> identification of
> prime candidates is the first step in implementing so-called "directed
> assignments."
> That means ordering diplomats to work in certain locations under
> threat of dismissal
> unless they have a compelling reason, such as a health condition, that
> would prevent
> them from going.
>
> Last year, after prime candidates were identified for 48 Iraq jobs
> that come open
> this summer, enough qualified volunteers came forward to avoid what
> would have been
> the largest diplomatic call-up since the Vietnam War -- but not before
> the uproar
> over the prospect of forced tours made national headlines.
>
> Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that she had been
> personally offended
> by the critical comments of some diplomats who questioned the ethics
> of sending
> people against their will to a war zone. One diplomat, during an
> October session
> held at the State Department to explain the policy to employees,
> called the forced
> assignments a "potential death sentence" to loud applause.
>
> "I was deeply offended myself, and deeply sorry that these people who
> had self-selected
> into this town hall went out of their way, to my view, cast a very bad
> light on
> the foreign service," Rice told a House panel.
>
> Rice said the comments were isolated and prompted a visceral response
> by the rest
> of the diplomatic corps, including those serving in dangerous posts
> outside Iraq
> and Afghanistan. "I will tell you, the blogs were lit up in the
> Department
> of State by people who were offended ... who were absolutely offended
> by those comments,"
> she said.
>
> She added that she had not needed to "direct assign" diplomats to Iraq
> last year, but she stressed that she reserved the right to do so in
> the future.
>
> The State Department is hoping it can fill all of next year's Iraq
> vacancies
> with volunteers as it did in 2008.
>
> "We hope to accomplish the same in 2009," the cable says. "A willing,
> qualified volunteer is always preferable to an employee sent
> involuntarily."
>
> The union that represents U.S. diplomats shares that view.
>
> "Unless there is some huge upward change in the number of positions, I
> think
> it's quite possible to staff the Baghdad embassy with volunteers,"
> said
> John Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association.
> "The foreign
> service has done it for the past five years and I believe the foreign
> service will
> do it again."
>
> Yet, there are serious concerns that the pool of those willing to go
> is dwindling.
>
> Some diplomats have privately expressed unease about volunteering for
> Iraq duty
> amid deep uncertainty over how the administration following President
> Bush will
> deal with Iraq, and how that might affect security or change
> Washington's focus
> on the country.
>
> While presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has
> vowed to
> stay the course, both Democratic hopefuls, Sens. Hillary Rodham
> Clinton and Barack
> Obama, have made clear they oppose the war and have pledged to reduce
> the number
> of American troops there.
>
> Such a move could have an impact on State Department operations and
> security, some
> diplomats fear.
>
> Naland said he was not aware of such concerns. He added that security
> worries could
> be allayed by the fact that the State Department on Monday finally
> took possession
> of the new, heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after months of
> delay caused
> by constructions problems.
>
> Diplomats are expected to begin moving into the facility at the end of
> next month
> after enduring several spates of major insurgent rocket attacks in
> their less-well-protected
> offices and living quarters in the Green Zone. Four Americans -- two
> soldiers and
> two civilians -- have been killed by such fire in recent weeks.
>
> At least three foreign service personnel -- two diplomatic security
> agents and one
> political officer -- have been killed in Iraq since the war began in
> March 2003.
>
> ___
>
> Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
>
> Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
> may not be published,
> broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.