FS KNOW-HOW PREMIERES!  TWO VIEWS OF PROMOTION PANELS

$3.50 / JANUARY 2005 OREIGN ERVICE FJ O U R N A L S THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS

FOREIGN SERVICE MEMORIES A Selection of Reflections

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301-925-7706 800-540-1709 10450 Lottsford Road Mitchellville, MD 20721 37219 CONTENTS January 2005  Volume 82, No. 1

F OCUS ON R EFLECTIONS F EATURES

26 / LIFE AND DEATH IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE INSIDE A PROMOTION PANEL / 39 When you live where death comes easily, What do selection boards look for in deciding whom to sometimes you lose no matter what you do. promote? Here is a “top ten” list of tips to maximize By Thomas H. Armbruster one’s chances of career advancement. By John Naland 30 / THE GOOD OLD DAYS Despite all the pressure and unpaid overtime required GERTRUDE BELL AND IRAQ: to handle the crush of visa applicants, a retired consular DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN / 43 officer has fond memories of his career. The extraordinary Englishwoman who played By Frederick D. Purdy a key role in the birth of modern Iraq confronted 33 / SECOND-LINE DIPLOMACY: many of the same issues the U.S. and the new THE FIRST KAL INCIDENT Iraqi government face today. In the shadow of crucial talks in Moscow between Cyrus By Barbara Griffith Furst Vance and Andrei Gromyko, quiet diplomacy resolved the first Korean Airlines incident. By Kenneth N. Skoug Jr. C OLUMNS D EPARTMENTS 36 / UNPACKING MY BOOKS An FSO sorts through his PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 LETTERS / 9 baggage, literally and figuratively. Hail and Farewell CYBERNOTES / 12 By Alexis Ludwig By John Limbert MARKETPLACE / 14 LETTER FROM FS KNOW-HOW / 21 THE EDITOR / 6 BOOKS / 54 By Steven Alan Honley INDEX TO SPEAKING OUT / 15 ADVERTISERS / 62 Toward A Points-Based AFSA NEWS / Promotion System CENTER INSERT By Kenneth J. Fairfax

REFLECTIONS / 64 By Lulwa Bordcosh

THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS OREIGN ERVICE Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0146-3543), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published FJ O U R N A L S monthly with a combined July/August issue by the American Foreign Service Association, a private, non-profit Editor Editorial Board organization. Material appearing herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent STEVEN ALAN HONLEY Senior Editor HOLLIS SUMMERS, the views of the Journal, the Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries and submissions are invited, preferably by SUSAN B. MAITRA CHAIRMAN e-mail. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $13 included in annual dues; others - $40. For foreign surface mail, Associate Editor add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mail- SHAWN DORMAN KENT C. BROKENSHIRE ing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. Ad & Circulation Manager STEPHEN W. B UCK 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited ED MILTENBERGER PATI CHAPLIN manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein Business Manager CAROL A. GIACOMO MIKKELA V. T HOMPSON does not imply the endorsement of the services or goods offered. FAX: (202) 338-8244 or (202) 338-6820. WILLIAM W. J ORDAN Art Director E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELEPHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service CARYN SUKO SMITH LAURIE KASSMAN Association, 2005. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., KAY WEBB MAYFIELD Editorial Intern Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Printed on 50-percent recycled paper, of which 10 percent is post-consumer waste. DAVID CODDON VIRGINIA F. S MITH Advertising Intern CHRISTOPHER L. TEAL LULWA BORDCOSH TED WILKINSON Cover and inside illustrations by Jim Nuttle

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 3 THE REMINGTON PRESIDENT’S VIEWS Hail and Farewell

BY JOHN LIMBERT

Colin Powell has appeared an “it’s about time” message been a remarkable that urges “taming,” “bringing to heel” leader of the Depart- The professionals and “reining in” some kind of rogue ment of State. On agency. Judging by these messages, his first day on the of the Foreign the State Department in general, and job he promised he Service will serve the Foreign Service in particular, are would lead, and nothing more than dens of rebellious would expect excel- Dr. Rice with the and fractious liberals who need to be lence from those who worked for him. taught who’s in charge. He would, in return, make the well- same loyalty, Both the wailers and the gloaters being and safety of his employees his dedication and are wrong. Secretary Powell had the top priority. Many other Secretaries of affection and devotion of his employ- State have promised this; few have self-sacrifice that ees because he was a leader. He put done it as well as this one. they offered her into practice the maxim, “Take care of He understood the importance of your people, and they will take care of tone and symbols. For example, he predecessor. you.” He understood that he had made a point of swearing in every new working for him a group of uniquely ambassador and every new class of talented and skilled men and women, Foreign Service generalists and spe- who willingly went into harm’s way to cialists. Small things? Perhaps, but tions, antiquated equipment, and serve our country in the most difficult hardly trivial; and, when compared to unsafe and dilapidated buildings. The and dangerous conditions. the actions of his predecessors, acts of tragic events of 1998 in Nairobi and Dr. Rice can count on the same great symbolic importance by Dar Es Salaam evoked not only hero- from the professionals of the Foreign expressing publicly his trust in the ism, but also a depressing round of fin- Service, who will serve her with the Foreign Service professionals who ger-pointing about why our missions, same measure of loyalty, dedication work for him. despite warnings from the ambas- and self-sacrifice that they offered her He understood the operational and sadors and others, remained danger- predecessor. She deserves no less symbolic importance of material sup- ously exposed to terrorist attacks. For and, as professionals, we will provide port. He well understood the corrosive years the prevailing message to the no less. effect of the notorious “do more with Foreign Service, to paraphrase the AFSA says a fond farewell to less” mantra, which had let our mis- famous 1974 New York Post headline, Secretary Powell and thanks him for sions and bureaus sink below critical had been: “Drop Dead.” all he has done to rebuild the service mass and prevented us from perform- Secretary Powell’s departure, and and restore the pride of our profes- ing like the professionals we are. If Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s nomination as sion. He departs with our best wishes anything typified our department and his successor, have provoked bizarre for the future. We also say “welcome” our service in the 1990s, it was demor- commentary from pundits on both to Dr. Rice and look forward to work- alized people coping with long staffing left and right. On one side has ing with her in representing the gaps, personnel shortages in key posi- appeared a “woe is us” message, American people and advancing warning that the last bastion of American interests overseas. She can John Limbert is the president of the rationality will soon fall to rampant count on our complete support in her American Foreign Service Association. ideologues. On the other side has mission. 

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 5 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

BY STEVEN ALAN HONLEY

appy New Year! In keeping with that ence with an injustice or offer your insights into a theme, I am pleased to announce the foreign affairs-related issue. Hlaunch of two new departments in the Each issue of the Journal features a focus section Journal. The first is Cyberbytes, which will examining various facets of an issue related to the appear, as the name suggests, in our Cybernotes sec- Foreign Service or international relations. We com- tion. We envision it as a forum to share brief (100 mission most of the articles for these sections from words or less) vignettes about Foreign Service life, different sources, but warmly welcome contributions either humorous or serious. Imitation being the sin- (2,000-3,000 words is the usual range, though short- cerest form of flattery, one model for submissions er submissions are also accepted) from FS personnel might be the Sunday Washington Post’s “Life as who are familiar with these issues. Haiku” column. Or you can think of these items as As you can see, most of these themes relate mini-Reflections (see below for guidance on what the full-fledged version entails). Either way, we Here is a list of the focus topics our hope those of you who are simply too busy to submit Editorial Board has identified for the coming year articles or letters will seize on this opportunity to (subject, of course, to revision): dash off a quick e-mail reacting to something you read in our pages, or discussing a subject of interest 2005 EDITORIAL CALENDAR to your colleagues. for the FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Our second new department is actually a revamp- JANUARY: Foreign Service Memories ing of a current one. After an encouraging start FEBRUARY: The Powell Legacy/Transition three years ago, the stream of submissions for our FS to Secretary Rice Finances column has pretty much dried up, leaving MARCH “The Baghdad Effect” us with a (very) occasional column. So, effective with (2nd anniversary of Iraq War) this issue (see “When 24/7 Duty Isn’t: A Cautionary APRIL 25th anniversary of Tale,” p. 21), we have changed the department’s Foreign Commercial Service name to FS Know-How. We still want to offer MAY China financial information and guidance for Foreign JUNE Acquiring/utilizing FS expertise Service personnel, but we also welcome contribu- JULY/AUGUST FS Summer Fiction tions on topics ranging from managing one’s career and cutting red tape to parlaying one’s professional SEPTEMBER Security & Diplomacy (including skills in retirement. In other words, we’re looking Diplomatic Security Bureau) for practical, “how to” advice for FS members, be OCTOBER Dealing with “rogue” states (Iran, they active-duty or retired. North Korea, Libya) Let me also take this opportunity to remind you of NOVEMBER “In Their Own Write” (annual ongoing opportunities to contribute to our pages. roundup of books by FS authors) The Speaking Out department is your forum to DECEMBER “Wiring State” (Info technology & advocate policy, regulatory or statutory changes to the Foreign Service) the Foreign Service. These columns (approximately 1,500 words long) can be based on personal experi-

6 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 directly to Foreign Service professional and lifestyle Our Reflections department features short com- issues, so I hope many of you will consider sharing mentaries (approximately 600 words long) based on your insights and expertise on them with your col- personal experiences while living or traveling over- leagues. Please note that because of our lead time seas. These submissions should center on insights for publication, and the requirement for Editorial gained as a result of interactions with other cultures, Board approval, we need to rather than being descriptive receive submissions at least “travel pieces.” two months (and preferably Don’t forget that the longer) prior to the issue’s monthly AFSA News section release date. Thus, we have There are many offers many different ways for already lined up authors for members to share their expe- the February and March ways you can share riences, thoughts and con- issues, but there is still time your insights cerns regarding professional to submit manuscripts for issues. For more information, later months. in our pages. contact Journal Associate If those choices don’t grab Let us hear Editor Shawn Dorman at you, or if you feel we have [email protected]. not devoted enough space to from you. Finally, let me invite you a professional concern or to share your reactions, posi- functional issue, please con- tive and negative, to what sider writing a feature article you read each month. Just (generally 2,000-3,000 words long) about it for us. bear in mind that, as with all periodicals, the briefer We hope those of you with a more literary bent and more focused your letter is, the more likely will enter our annual summer fiction contest (now in we’ll be able to print it in full. its tenth consecutive year). Please note that entrants Please note that all submissions to the Journal are restricted to one story of 3,000 words or less, must be approved by our Editorial Board and are which must be e-mailed to Journal Business subject to editing for style, length and format. For Manager Mikkela Thompson at thompsonm@ information on how to submit a column or article, afsa.org no later than April 1. For more details, see please contact us at [email protected] and we will be the ads elsewhere in this issue or contact Mikkela delighted to respond. (Please note the new directly. e-mail address.) For other inquiries — letters, changes On a related note, we invite those of you who of address, subscriptions, etc. — e-mail us at journal@ expect to publish a book between now and the fall to afsa.org. send us a copy, along with promotional materials, for Let us hear from you.  inclusion in our sixth annual compilation of recently published books by Foreign Service-affiliated Steven Alan Honley is the editor of the Foreign authors, “In Their Own Write.” Note that Sept. 1 is Service Journal. An FSO from 1985 to 1997, he the deadline for inclusion in the roundup, which will served in Mexico City, Wellington and Washington, run in November. D.C.

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 7 2000 N. 14th Street  Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Telephone (703) 797-3259 Fax (703) 524-7559 Tollfree (800) 424-9500

8 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 LETTERS

The Afghanistan Model empowered simultaneously with A Just Election Result The November article by James application of military force to dis- We’re disappointed that some of Goodby and Kenneth Weisbrode, place the Taliban and al-Qaida; and our colleagues cast aside the tradition- “Rescuing the U.N. Security that providing humanitarian and al Foreign Service code of neutrality Council,” offers thoughtfully pre- developmental assistance was essen- this election year to campaign furious- scriptive and timely advice regarding tial to stability. ly against the re-election of President the Bush administration’s failure to The Bush administration’s impa- Bush. In post-election e-mails they secure international cooperation tient decision to bypass creation of a have proposed a four-year period of against common threats, notably in baseline international consensus on mourning because their candidate, Iraq. Iraq is the fundamental difference in Senator John Kerry, lost to President Strangely, however, this excellent the administration’s approach to the Bush, who received an absolute analysis fails to address the one two challenges. majority while compiling a three-mil- example of U.S.-U.N.-NATO coop- Edmund McWilliams lion-plus vote margin of victory. eration that offers a potentially suc- Senior FSO, retired Perhaps those colleagues, most of cessful model for the future: Falls Church, Va. whom are based in the northeast cor- Afghanistan. In 2001, the interna- ridor between Boston and Washing- tional community, working through Get with the Program ton, should spend some time over the the U.N., created a political frame- I fail to understand Eugene next four years in the 30 so-called work that has yielded a government Martin’s outrage (Letters, Novem- “red” states, like Missouri and Nevada, which is perceived by most Afghans ber) at political columnist/ in order to better understand the and the international community as pundit Mark Shields’ reference, in a mood of the American electorate. legitimate. Moreover, U.S. and PBS interview, to a “limp-wristed For starters, they should read the NATO troops have provided the State Department type” and at ref- federal Defense of Marriage Act and security space that government erences to our diplomats as “effemi- the anti-gay marriage referendums needed to establish itself. nate.” that passed in 11 states, including To be sure, this venture is not yet Perhaps Mr. Martin has been liberal Oregon, which define mar- a success. The failure of the U.S. retired too long to realize that such riage as a union between a man and and NATO to adequately address an attitude implies an unacceptable a woman. Next they could compare the still-grave threat to the Karzai bias against the State Department’s that information with recent FSJ regime posed by opium-enriched tireless and successful efforts to articles that grapple with the State warlords, and the still-inadequate attract and recruit more women. Department’s concept of “eligible levels of international development Indeed, the entrance of those with family members.” support for the regime, could yet “alternative lifestyles” into our for- And then our embittered col- doom this undertaking. eign affairs agencies is not only wel- leagues could take a closer look at But even at this fledgling stage, comed but celebrated. Sen. Kerry, who is a decorated war international efforts in Afghanistan I would strongly suggest Mr. hero to some, but a traitor to many offer some lessons. International Martin get with the program before others; a man who threw his ribbons action grew out of a broad consensus he gets slapped with a purse. over the White House fence 30 years that the world community must act; Albert Krehbiel ago but proudly displays his medals that an authentically Afghan admin- FSO, retired on his Senate office wall today. He istrative/political entity should be Fredericksburg, Va. opposed President Reagan’s policy

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9 L ETTERS u of peace through strength — which Theodore C. Streibert, who de- Rethinking Immigration won the Cold War — advocated a signed USIA as an action agency and In his October commentary, nuclear freeze, voted repeatedly who also found the bureaucratic “Challenging Samuel Huntington,” against defense, intelligence and geniuses Lionel Mosley and Ben John Dickson appears, like many national security appropriations bills, Posner, who instituted policies Americans, to continue to see immi- opposed the first Persian Gulf War which were unique for their time. gration as a disembodied aspect of and voted against an $87-billion USIA was one of the first govern- our national life that has no relation appropriation to support our troops ment agencies to institute computer- to our changing society. in Iraq after voting for that war. generated payrolls and direct What was good for the country With that sorry record, how could deposits. It hired handicapped peo- while we were still expanding coast we vote for him to become comman- ple and gave them jobs where their to coast, or populating the factories der-in-chief in the war on terrorism? physical handicaps were assets. Its of the industrial revolution, has no Finally, our disgruntled col- personnel policies produced a necessary congruence with what is leagues need to understand why bumper crop of minority officers, good for the country of 294 million President Bush made inroads among which State raided to staff embassies people with an information/technol- minorities that have traditionally in Africa. ogy economy. Similarly, what was supported Democratic candidates. James J. Halsema good for the country when immi- (He received twice as many black USIA FSO, retired grants largely took care of them- votes as he got four years ago and Glenmoore, Pa. selves or went home, is not necessar- garnered over 40 percent of the ily good for it when we have a vast Hispanic vote). Asked on CNN why A Place in the Sun array of services designed to help the he voted for the president, an I enjoyed Jim Olsen’s article on poor out of poverty, to provide wel- Hispanic leader from New Mexico “How to Steal from an International fare and medical assistance to chil- responded, “family values.” Agency” in the November Foreign dren and pregnant women, to help Unless elitist, “progressive” Demo- Service Journal. Having worked in minorities succeed in business, etc. crats reach out to Middle America, rural areas of Russia and Ukraine, I The “restrictionist” movement they are doomed to repeat the could relate to the use of donkeys to early in the 20th century was a reac- humiliating experience of this year’s get the job done. Though I didn’t tion to a period of mass immigration presidential election. use donkeys myself, we were pretty when it was undermining work Ray H. Burson resourceful in other ways. opportunities for Americans and was FSO (USIA), retired After reading Olsen’s article I ran- producing racial and labor strife. Doniphan, Mo. domly decided to check out the Huntington and others believe we Guy W. Farmer Discovery Channel’s Web site, and have returned to a situation when we FSO (USIA), retired guess what I found? More excellent again need a correction to our immi- Carson City, Nev. uses for donkeys! Your readers might gration policy. That was also the be interested in this link, which illus- conclusion of the U.S. Commission Fond Memories of USIA trates a true mix of innovation and on Immigration Reform led by the I want to express my appreciation resourcefulness: www.discovery late, incomparable Barbara Jordan. for Beatrice Camp’s October globaled.org/projects/zimbabwe.html If today’s immigration were Speaking Out column, “A Failure of #donkey. Check out the donkey strengthening America’s hallowed Imagination.” I agree with her bookmobile in Zimbabwe, which is middle class rather than fueling the assessments of the effects of selling fitted with solar-powered electronic ranks of the poor and the rich, while USIA down the river in an attempt resources. Donkeys are a serious the middle class shrinks, it might to appease Senator Jesse Helms. resource and deserve their place in represent less of a concern. But it is In my nearly 30 years with the the sun. not, and it is contributing to what Foreign Service, I dealt with the Susie Baker many Americans see as unhealthy information program in Washington Civil Service Foreign change, such as the spreading phe- and served with USIA in Singapore, Affairs Research nomenon of gated communities, Manila, Bangkok, Cairo and Analyst pools of day workers hustling jobs on Santiago. More could have been said Department of State street corners, and inner-city youth by old codgers like me about Takoma Park, Md. who cannot find jobs.

10 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005

L ETTERS u

Samuel Huntington has made to the millions of such prospective effort to intimidate their opposition clear that his concern is not with immigrants from poverty to prosper- and stifle reasoned discussion of the immigration per se, but rather ity, there is, rightly or wrongly, no issues.  aspects of today’s immigration. His place that looks more attractive than John L. Martin concerns are not just language (like the United States. … Subject to no FSO, retired Dickson, I highly value my Spanish- restrictions, this pressure will find its Director of the Federation language ability) and allegiance. termination only when the levels of for American Immigration today is bringing in a overpopulation and poverty in the Immigration Reform massive wave of newcomers, legally United States are equal to those of www.fairus.org and illegally, that has resulted in the countries from which these peo- Washington, D.C. falling wages and unemployment for ple are now so anxious to escape.” America’s poorest workers. Dickson is right when he says that Send your letters to: Huntington is in good company Huntington’s concerns should not be when he worries about the impact of dismissed out of hand. He is also [email protected]. today’s immigration on society. He correct, but naïve, when he cautions echoes some of the concerns voiced that Huntington should not be light- by George Kennan in 1993 in ly labeled a racist. Anyone who has Note that all letters Around the Cragged Hill. Kennan paid attention to the immigration are subject to editing wrote, “It is obviously easier, for the debate in this country should know short run, to draw cheap labor from that hurling the R-word is a stan- for style, format adjacent pools of poverty ... than to dard, knee-jerk tactic of the defend- and length. find it among one’s own people. And ers of open-door immigration in an Home Suite Home

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JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 11 CYBERNOTES

Undiplomatic Blogging quick communication took a quantum blogs. The first in the list, Blogwise, For diplomats, the world of blog- leap, was the next watershed for blog- lists 30,000 blogs by country and by ging may be most useful in READ ging. In January 2002, some 41,000 subject and adds 80 new entries, on ONLY mode. people created Web logs using average, each month (www.blog In November, Croatia recalled an Blogger. Today, the Google search wise.com). official from its Washington embassy engine features 74 directories for Not surprisingly, perhaps, blogs when he wrote Web diaries report- edly describing diplomatic life as boring and saying he saw no differ- Site of the Month: FirstGov.gov ence at all between the candidates in The award-winning official U.S. government Web portal celebrated its the U.S. election. According to the fourth birthday recently. Managed by the General Services Administration’s Croatian news agency Hina, Third Office of Citizen Services and Communications, FirstGov.gov is a part of USA Secretary Vibor Kalogjera, 25, was Services, one of President Bush’s e-government initiatives that is an integral recalled on suspicion of violating part of the president’s management agenda. state laws on foreign affairs and civil The Web site, in both English and Spanish, is the “front door” to online gov- servants. Excerpts of the diaries ernment information, services and transactions at the federal, state and local were published in Zagreb by the levels. With information accessible by organization, by audience (for instance, daily Jutarnji List newspaper, “For Seniors” groups links relevant to individuals over age 60), by topic and by Reuters reported. Foreign Ministry task (for instance, “Get a passport application”) from the home page, spokesmen confirmed the recall, but FirstGov.gov is extremely user-friendly: you can get what you need without declined comment. knowing how the government is organized or the names of all the departments Blog is shorthand for Web log, an and bureaus. individual or group Web site contain- There are many practical things one can do online through this site, for ing chronological entries whose con- instance: apply for a government job, find government benefits, reserve a tent can range from personal diaries campsite at a national park, report an unsafe product, apply for Social Security, to political, social or literary commen- find a scholarship, get a driver’s license, find out if there are any benefits to tary, and might focus on one topic or which you are entitled, and much more. In 2004, the site had more than 70 cover a broad range of issues. Blogs million visitors and over 200 million page views. have been steadily growing in number FirstGov.gov figures in Forbes.com’s “Best of the Web,” and in Yahoo! and influence on the media scene. Internet Life Magazine’s “50 Most Incredibly Useful Sites,” and was rated #1 in Bloggers have been responsible for “Overall Federal E-Government” by Brown University, among many other breaking news stories (The Drudge awards and citations. In 2003, FirstGov.gov won the prestigious “Innovations Report surfaced the Monica Lewinsky in American Government Award” from the Ash Institute of Harvard University, scandal), as well as for keeping the the Ford Foundation and the Council for Excellence in Government. This major media honest (they pointed to award is given to programs that are “outstanding examples of creative problem the apparent document fraud in solving in the public sector.” October that hurried CBS anchorman FirstGov.gov got its start when Internet entrepreneur Eric Brewer, whose Dan Rather’s retirement). early research was funded by the Department of Defense, donated a powerful Blogging was catapulted out of the search engine to the federal government in June 2000. President Clinton realm of the tech nerd in 1999, when instructed that the new global portal be launched in 90 days, and FirstGov.gov the Web site blogger.com offered free went online Sept. 22, 2000. GSA and 22 federal agencies funded the initiative Web site-building software that could in 2001 and 2002, and since then FirstGov.gov has received an annual appro- be used by anyone. The 9/11 disaster, priation. when the demand for information and

12 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005

CYBERNOTES

have sparked the same arguments as ment of Homeland Security’s pro- were given $373,000 to design pass- were advanced for and against the gram to collect fingerprints and pho- ports that would contain chips that Web itself a number of years ago — tos at U.S. borders began at Port stored all the printed data on the pass- or, for that matter, the invention of the Huron, Mich., Laredo, Texas, and port as well as digitized data on the printing press centuries ago. While Douglas, Ariz. It has been expanded traveler’s face. At an immigration freedom of the press is vastly expand- to operate at the 50 busiest crossings checkpoint, an antenna could read a ed and “everyman” empowered, some by the end of 2004. passport waved several inches away worry that with no auditing, editing or But in July, the Transportation and a digital camera could look at the fact-checking it will be harder than Security Administration announced traveler’s face and compare it with the ever to find the truth. that its CAPPS II program to subject data from the passport chip. No matter on which side of this every airline passenger to a back- The State Department hopes to debate one finds oneself, the blogging ground check was being delayed begin issuing a limited number of e- genie is out of the bottle, and is bound indefinitely due to privacy concerns. passports early in 2005, initially to to grow in both scope and signifi- While less contentious, the State government employees. cance. Department’s planned e-passports have also come under fire. New Salvos in Public Traveler Security Moves Privacy advocates led by the Diplomacy Debate Provoke Privacy Fears American Civil Liberties Union point A report by the Defense Science The US-VISIT program to mod- out that the new passports will be vul- Board Task Force on Strategic ernize border procedures and nerable to “skimming,” a kind of elec- Communication, a Pentagon advisory strengthen the immigration system, tronic snooping from several feet panel, is the latest contribution to the arguably one of the government’s away by anyone with a radio frequen- debate over public diplomacy that has biggest IT challenges to date, is mov- cy identification reader. Internal ing ahead. But when it comes to new State Department documents, security measures for American trav- obtained by the ACLU under the understand the need for elers, efforts have met with strong Freedom of Information Act, show Igreater scrutiny after 9/11. resistance from privacy advocates. that Canada, Germany and Britain Despite a one-year postponement have raised the same concern. But it has given already cautious (until October 2005) of the require- “This is like putting an invisible bureaucracies a new rule: ment that the 13 million foreign trav- bull’s-eye on Americans that can be elers from Visa Waiver Program coun- seen only by the terrorists,” said Barry ‘When in doubt, deny the tries include biometric identifiers in Steinhardt, director of the ACLU their passports, Customs and Border Technology and Liberty Program application.’ Every visa officer Protection officials began enforcing (http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/ today lives in fear that he will let the requirement that these travelers PrivacyMain.cfm). The ACLU present either machine-readable pass- wants State to take security precau- in the next Mohamed Atta. As a ports or nonimmigrant visas to enter tions like encrypting the data. “We result, he is probably keeping the U.S. in October, albeit with a one- are certainly still working hard on the time exemption for those lacking doc- question of whether additional securi- out the next Bill Gates. uments. Starting in April, carriers ty measures should be taken,” Deputy who transport non-compliant travel- Assistant Secretary of State for — Fareed Zakaria, ers from 22 VWP countries will be Passport Services Frank E. Moss told www.washingtonpost.com, fined. the New York Times. Nov. 23, 2004. And in November, the Depart- In October, four manufacturers

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 C YBERNOTES u

50 Years Ago... ‘Right’or ‘wrong,’ we have felt obligated to put forward our views. We have respected the officer who, for reasons he has believed valid, would stick his neck out in presenting a particular minority view — especially when it’s always so easy to be silent and safe. — David Linebaugh, Letter to the Editor, FSJ, January 1955.

raged since 9/11. The report, which the debate. This report and other can be read in full at http://www. major reports and studies on public acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09- diplomacy and its future that were Strategic_Communication. released during 2004 can be accessed pdf, says that strategic communica- at the Public Diplomacy Web Site tion, often called public diplomacy, “is ( www.publicdiplomacy. in crisis, and it must be transformed org), a site maintained by the USIA with a strength of purpose that Alumni Association. These docu- matches our commitment to diploma- ments include: cy, defense, intelligence, law enforce- • Public Diplomacy: How to Think ment and homeland security.” The About and Improve It. Rand Corpor- report continues: “Policies will not ation, 30 October 2004 succeed unless they are communicat- • What the World Thinks of ed to global and domestic audiences America: 10-Nation Survey, Septem- in ways that are credible and allow ber-October 2004. 17 October 2004 them to make informed, independent • Public Diplomacy by the Num- judgments.” bers: Transatlantic Trends Sur- At the heart of the report is a call veys in Europe and USA. Updated 19 for sweeping transformations in the September 2004 nature and practice of public diplo- • Effective Advertising or Danger- macy. These include the creation of: ous Delusions? 29 August 2004 a permanent strategic communica- • VOA Staff Petition to Congress. tion structure within the NSC; a Updated 8 August 2004 Deputy National Security Adviser for • Public Diplomacy Is Not the Strategic Communications; and an Answer. Barry Zorthian, 12 June 2004 independent, non-partisan Center for • The Need to Communicate: How Strategic Communication. The report to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy calls on the president to help bring with the Islamic World. Brookings about these changes and asks for an Institution, January 2004 increased bi-partisan and public/pri- • House Appropriations Commit- vate initiative to strengthen public tee Hearings on Public Diplomacy diplomacy. Programs. 14 February 2004 Completed in September and • Making Public Diplomacy Effect- intended for internal consumption, ive. Updated 7 February 2004 the report was released to the public • Regaining America’s Voice Over- at the end of November. The seas: Heritage Foundation Con- defense-oriented panel’s mandate was ference on U.S. Public Diplomacy. to develop strategy for global commu- 13 January 2004  nications in the “war on terror,” and — David Coddon, its findings add a new dimension to Editorial Intern

14 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 SPEAKING OUT Toward A Points-Based Promotion System

BY KENNETH J. FAIRFAX

nder the present system, minor, the impact would be profound. Foreign Service promotion Switching to a Uboards at State and the other cumulative, Increased Transparency four foreign affairs agencies meet each A point system would allow the year to weigh all of the accumulated points-based department to bring much more evidence in each FS employee’s per- promotion system transparency to the evaluation and sonnel file, based upon general guid- promotion process. Even given the ance in the form of promotion pre- could dramatically exhaustive work that goes into prepar- cepts. They then rank-order all increase the ing and agreeing upon specific promo- employees for possible promotion. transparency of tion precepts each year, many key In most instances, this system questions remain unanswered under works well to reward the top perform- the promotion the current approach. Many of these ers and identify those in need of process. are highly contentious. improvement. However, it leaves the For example, how long should a majority of officers in the middle tiers consistently average employee wait for uncertain of their prospects for future w promotion compared to a consistently promotion. In addition, while the excellent employee or to a consistent- process is intended to be objective, in to the total each employee had accu- ly above-average employee? Then reality some of the most difficult deci- mulated since his/her last promotion. there’s the perennial issue of how to sions are made behind closed doors The department or agency would then evaluate officers who turn in slightly without explicit written guidance. award promotions according to each substandard, but still acceptable, per- Switching to a cumulative, points- employee’s total accumulated points formances year after year. How many based promotion system could dra- until all the slots available for that of us know someone who, after a matically increase the transparency of cycle were used up. After each pro- dozen or more years at grade, was the process, greatly increase the pre- motion, an employee’s point total finally promoted even though his/her dictability of promotions, and signifi- would be reset to zero pending the performance (and EER) was as tepid cantly simplify the work of Foreign next year’s review. as ever? Service selection boards. Moving to a point system would not And how does a single bad EER Under a points-based system, pro- fundamentally change the EER affect future promotions? Under the motion panels would continue to meet process. The evaluation forms, the present system, who — except board annually. However, rather than con- review panels, the precepts and every- members themselves — can say how sidering each officer’s entire personnel thing else that the department and heavily a single poor evaluation from file, they would rank employees based AFSA have worked so hard to assem- three or four years ago weighs against only upon those documents added to ble would continue largely as they are an employee’s promotion chances this the personnel file during the past year. today. But once the initial investment year? Lastly, how exactly do long-term In addition, rather than receiving pro- needed to compile initial point totals is language study and other training motions based directly on the annual completed, annual promotion boards affect promotion odds? Does (or rank-ordered list, each employee would face a much easier task since should) earning an outstanding final would receive a certain number of they would review much less material score in Russian at FSI be given the “promotion points” each year based for each officer. While the procedural same weight as doing an outstanding upon his/her position in the overall changes involved in implementing a job in Russia? ranking. Those points would be added points-based system would be fairly Under the present system, promo-

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 S PEAKING O UT u

tion boards must decide how to weigh all of the factors described above because the promotion precepts are The current system silent on these difficult trade-offs. Boards may do so collectively or indi- successfully identifies vidually, and their internal guidelines can be explicit or vague. Whatever top performers and method is used, both the decision and the method used to reach it remain those in need of behind closed doors. This lack of transparency not only weakens confi- improvement. However, dence in the overall promotion process, but greatly reduces the con- it leaves mid-ranked sistency and reproducibility of results. Using promotion points, the value officers uncertain of of time-in-class versus performance would be instantly transparent, as their prospects. would a host of other trade-offs. These factors would be transparent because they would be reflected in the “point curve” that would be used to translate each employee’s position ferent impact. For example, if on the annual ranking prepared by employees ranked among the top 1 promotion boards into a specific num- percent for the year received 250 ber of promotion points. As with all points, employees ranked in the top grading systems, there is no reason 10 percent received 100 points and why promotion points should be those ranked between the 40th and assigned in a strictly linear or propor- 60th percentile received 40 points, the tional fashion based upon employees’ department would be explicitly decid- rankings. In fact, there are very good ing to recognize and reward mainly reasons for a non-linear approach. employees who turn in absolutely out- Whatever the shape of the curve, I standing performances. believe that it should be negotiated by Under either scenario, a consis- the department with AFSA. tently low-ranked employee would To understand the way the point never be promoted while those curve would work and how it would employees who consistently gravitated incorporate difficult time-in-class ver- toward the lower end of the scale sus performance issues, let’s look at would experience slow but pre- some examples. If a linear 100-point dictable promotions. maximum curve is adopted, then Whatever the shape of the curve, employees judged to have turned in the impact of one or more poor EERs the very best performance would be would be transparent. Because points awarded 100 points while the average would be awarded annually, a single would receive 50 points, and low- year’s bad performance would delay ranked employees (nearly) zero. promotion only once; it would not in Thus, under a linear system the very any way prejudice future promotion best employees could expect to accu- boards. Indeed, to better preserve the mulate points — and therefore reach integrity of the system by ensuring promotion — exactly twice as fast as that boards reach their decisions the average employee. based on employees’ performance A moderately progressive (upward- over the past year only, they should sloping) curve could have a very dif- not know an employee’s previous

16 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 S PEAKING O UT u rankings or present point total when deciding upon this year’s ranking. References to past point totals or time in class should be added to the list of inadmissible comments in order to ensure that promotion panels rank employees based solely on their per- formance and potential as document- ed in EERs and other official person- nel records over the course of the year. (Incidentally, another potentially beneficial change would be to remove the name, grade and title of rating and reviewing officers from the copy of the EER received by the committee. Boards should rank employees based on documented performance and potential, yet anecdotal reports from promotion panel members consistent- ly indicate that evaluations written by senior officials are more likely to result in promotion than are those written by officers just one rank high- er than the rated employee. Who is being rated, after all — the employee or the supervisor?) Another way a point system would bring greatly increased transparency would be by translating valuable but vague policies into explicit transparent results. For example, while the department already has a policy that long-term training should not disad- vantage officers with respect to pro- motion, what does that really mean? To answer that question under a point system, the department could adopt a policy under which students in long- term training are assigned a number of points equal to the statistical aver- age of all employees. Better yet, the department could provide predictable rewards for outstanding performance while in training by awarding the top students (measured either by final language score and/or teacher evaluation) a higher than average number of points. Underperform- ers could be penalized in a similar manner. Whichever system the department adopts, the result would

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 17 S PEAKING O UT A time of service…a time of need u

Help for Seniors May be completely transparent, as officers would know, even before signing up Be Just a Phone Call Away— for long-term training, exactly how that decision may affect their possible The Senior Living Foundation may be “point score” for the year. able to help you or someone you know. Some examples of assistance are: Increased Predictability Another positive impact of the N Home Health Care promotion point system would be to N Adult Day Care & Respite Care make the promotion process more predictable. Every candidate would N Prescription Drug Copayments know his/her point total as well as the N Transportation to Medical Appointments point total that marked the threshold N Durable Medical Equipment for promotion in previous years. While point thresholds for promotion For more information, please contact the would vary somewhat depending on SENIOR LIVING FOUNDATION the number of promotion slots avail- OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE able, knowing point totals would 1716 N Street, NW N Washington, DC 20036-2902 nonetheless usher in a significant Phone: (202) 887-8170 N Fax: (202) 872-9320 increase in employees’ ability to pre- E-Mail: [email protected] N Web Site: www.slfoundation.org dict their own promotions. SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION The effects of annual differences in the way boards weigh certain fac- tors would also be evened out under a points-based system, thereby increas- ing the consistency of the promotion process. What makes the current sys- tem seem so unpredictable to officers is that annual promotions are a “win- ner take all” process — either you are promoted or you are not. Close does not count. Thus, small differences in performance can translate into large differences in outcome. In contrast, with promotion points, small differ- ences in performance will translate into small differences in the number of points earned that year. The fact that points are accumulated over time means that an officer who is almost promoted one year can (barring some catastrophic drop in performance) expect promotion the next year. The fact that all employees would know both their total point score and their scores each year means they would receive quantitative, readily understandable performance feed- back each year and be able to make appropriate career plans. This bene- fits employees and the department alike. Outstanding employees would

18 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005

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The Senior Threshold The senior threshold is fundamen- tally different from any other type of promotion and should therefore be considered differently. At every other korman communities arlington level, the vast majority of Foreign CORPORATE SUITES Service employees can realistically arlington, va 880 north pollard street expect to be promoted eventually. 866.korman.4 : kormancommunities.com While a few are selected out, that is the exception rather than the rule. As

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19 S PEAKING O UT u

a direct result, the real question facing process down into a series of annual, most people is not if they will be pro- independent evaluations, and moving moted, but when. to a points-based system, make it The senior threshold is fundamen- possible to explicitly define trade- tally different precisely because most offs. officers will not make the jump. The second answer to this argu- Being an FS-1 officer for the longest ment is much more important possible time does not presently — because it touches upon the Foreign and should not — increase an employ- Service’s overall approach to leader- ee’s odds of making the jump to the ship and style of management. Even Senior Foreign Service. with the simplicity resulting from the There are two ways to tackle this switch to a points-based promotion issue. The department could carry system, reaching a publicly disclosed the concept of the “senior window” and agreed upon decision on the rela- forward into a point-based promotion tive merits of time-in-class versus one- system by stating that point scores time performance or service in the from a maximum of six promotion field versus training would be very dif- boards will be used to calculate the ficult. The fact remains, however, that total score on which promotions are these decisions are already being based. Just as employees now choose made each year. Indeed, it would be when to “open their windows,” they impossible to reach promotion deci- could choose when to start including sions without doing so. The differ- their annual point scores into their ence between the current system and total. Because every officer would be a points-based system comes down to considered the exact same number of how these tough decisions are made. times, the maximum total point scores At present, the department avoids would be identical. potential conflict by avoiding explicit, A second option, of course, would written guidance on what are proba- be to retain the current promotion bly the toughest decisions in the pro- system for the senior threshold. motion process. The alternative to this strategy of avoidance is to con- Good Management Means front the challenge head-on by explic- Making Tough Calls itly defining the relative value of dif- The most common argument ferent types of performance via the against adopting a point system is point curve used in a points-based that the system could not be imple- promotion process. This would mented fairly. This is based on the undoubtedly be a difficult alternative assumption that not everyone would to adopt, but the advantages in terms agree on how key trade-offs, such as of transparency and predictability — how to reward time-in-class versus and ultimately in the trust officers outstanding performance, should be have in the process — would be over- reflected in the point curve. There whelming. are two answers to this argument. No personnel system is perfect, but First, it is true that it would be virtu- I believe a points-based system has ally impossible to explicitly define much to recommend it.  time-versus-performance trade-offs under the current promotion system. The author, an FSO since 1987, has Precisely because entire folders with served in Muscat, Pusan, Seoul, many years of performance data are Moscow, Vancouver, Kiev and considered, any matrix of trade-offs Washington, D.C. He is currently would be almost impossibly complex. principal officer at Consulate But breaking the overall promotion General Krakow.

20 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 FS KNOW-HOW When 24/7 Duty May Not Be: A Cautionary Tale

BY J. MICHAEL HANNON AND JAMES F. B ROMLEY

oreign Service employees on A suit is brought against the FSO overseas assignments live Every Foreign Service in Russia. Political forces besmirch Fwith the ever-present possi- employee should be his good name, accusing him of drug bility of terrifying, completely use, drunkenness, visiting a night- unforeseen events. These include aware that the club, laughing at the injury he everything from terrorism and coups “24/7 rule” only caused, and all sorts of vicious d’etat to automobile accidents. defines the FSO’s untruths — including, incredibly, Even when the FSO did nothing alleging that he was involved in neo- wrong, auto collisions in foreign duty to the agency — Nazi activities. The campaign is countries can generate lawsuits that not the agency’s duty orchestrated to embarrass the dog him or her for years after leaving to the FSO. United States, an expectation for a post. Such events can test the which the FSO is trained. An bounds of the protections FSOs attempt by the Russians to seek a believe they are afforded by diplo- w waiver of the FSO’s diplomatic matic immunity, by insurance, and immunity fails on technical grounds. indeed by their own employer, the It is October, when it gets dark He is transferred from Russia to United States of America. Many early in Vladivostok, and it is raining another overseas assignment. In an thousands of miles from American lightly. Heading home from the gym effort to deal with the adverse pub- shores, one might be surprised by to his government-paid and protect- licity being heaped on the the harsh overlap of diplomacy and ed apartment, driving at a lawful Department of State by the the law. speed in a country where pandemo- Russians, a half-hearted effort is Take, for example, a U.S. consul nium often rules the road, and not made by the department to settle general serving in eastern Russia. having consumed any alcohol or the matter on behalf of its FSO. Like his Foreign Service colleagues drugs, the FSO approaches an inter- The very day the statute of limita- around the world, he has consistently section where he is surprised by a tions expires, suit is brought against been told that he is always on duty, black, virtually invisible car appear- the FSO in Pennsylvania, a place 24/7, and he frequently works late at ing from nowhere with its headlights convenient only to the American night. While he is entitled to a gov- off. The engineering and lighting of attorney who has brought the action. ernment automobile with a driver, an the intersection are controlled by The plaintiff is a young man, a citi- Embassy Moscow directive urges him the political forces of the existing zen of Russia, who alleges that to use his own car to save the govern- regime, and not maintained accord- because of the automobile accident, ment money. So he converts his own, ing to the standards of a Highway he is paraplegic. The United States newly-purchased automobile to this and Transportation Authority. The is named a co-defendant. When business use after being assured he is FSO tries desperately to avoid an served with the lawsuit, the U.S. covered by private insurance for the accident, but a small collision government deserts its consul gener- first 30 days. Well within that period, occurs. The darkened automobile al: it moves to dismiss the case, but after a long day at the consulate, the glances off the fender of his car, pro- only against itself, contending that FSO drives his car to a gym to work pelled at high speed into a third the FSO is not protected in the out. He does so in part to keep in vehicle coming from yet another United States by diplomatic immu- shape for his periodic medical fitness direction. A second, major crash nity, that he acted outside the scope examination to maintain his eligibility occurs, and someone in the black car of his employment, and that, for worldwide service. is seriously injured. because the accident happened in a

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 21 FS KNOW-HOW u foreign country, the U.S. govern- al assets and probably force him petition the court to issue its own ment (but not also the consul gener- into bankruptcy. certification on the grounds that the al) is not liable. The court grants The last arrow in the FSO’s quiver employee acted within the scope of the motion. is the Certification Statute of the his or her employment. If the court Federal Tort Claims Act, Title 28, so certifies, it may order that the A Last Resort United States Code, Section United States be substituted as the The FSO is left in the lurch. He 2679(d). This statute is of great defendant in the same manner, and must retain his own attorney at his import to Foreign Service person- to the same effect, as if the attorney own expense. Furthermore, even nel, wherever they are stationed and general had originally issued a certi- though he was assured by a con- whatever their duties. It provides fication. sulate employee that he was cov- that whenever a federal employee is In the case we are discussing, the ered by automobile liability insur- sued for negligence, the attorney attorney general declines to issue a ance for the first 30 days after the general of the United States may certification, based on a recommen- import date of his private vehicle, certify that the employee was acting dation from the Department of he is told this is a mistake. within the scope of employment. If State. When the FSO learns that Effectively, he had no insurance. that certification is issued, and this will be the government’s posi- Now he must defend himself and unless it is challenged and over- tion, he files a petition for certifica- live with the possibility that, unless turned by the court, the United tion with the court in California, he can prove that he was not at States will then be substituted as the whither the case has been trans- fault, a very sizable judgment may sole defendant in the proceeding. If ferred after a nightmarish and be entered against him that would the attorney general refuses to issue expensive merry-go-round of legal exhaust and overwhelm his person- a certification, the employee may proceedings, which includes an

22 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 FS KNOW-HOW u appearance by the Russian young man in federal court in a wheelchair, AFSA to File Amicus Brief on Behalf of Douglas Kent attended by several handlers. The government opposes this FSA has been working with Mr. Kent and his attorneys in connection with petition, contending that an FSO is his efforts to have the U.S. government certify that his automobile acci- not on duty 24/7, as the FSO has A dent in Vladivostok occurred in the “scope of his employment.” Given been taught. The Department of State takes the position that it is not the importance of this issue to all of the members of the Foreign Service who responsible for protecting the FSO, could find themselves in similar situations, AFSA filed a declaration with the fed- because the officer was only “com- eral district court in California in May 2004 on Mr. Kent’s behalf. muting” when the accident In that declaration, we advised the court that State Department-published pol- occurred. It is of no consequence to the Department of State that the icy provides that Foreign Service employees are considered to be on duty 24 FSO was driving his private vehicle hours a day. 3 FAM 4376 states: ‘Because of the uniqueness of the Foreign only to save the department money, Service, employees are considered to be on duty 24 hours a day and must or that, as consul general, he was observe especially high standards of conduct during and after working hours and entitled to home-to-work trans- when on leave or travel status.’ Department of State officials have, in my pres- portation. The court accepts the position of the Department of State, ence, stated on numerous occasions that given the nature of the representative forcing the FSO to appeal to the function, Foreign Service employees are on duty 24 hours a day and that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth employees are aware of that obligation. This concept is continuously reinforced Circuit. during the orientation program for entry-level Foreign Service officers. Ironically, had the Department of We also advised the court that we have represented numerous clients who State certified the FSO as acting have been proposed for disciplinary action for incidents that occurred outside within the scope of employment, the case would have been dismissed as normal workplace activities, such as traveling on vacation to where the depart- to both the FSO and the United ment had issued a travel warning or going out late at night in a dangerous area States. This is so because the in a foreign country. In support of discipline, the State Department argued that United States has declined to waive the Foreign Service employee was at post “to further the interest of the United its sovereign immunity as to lawsuits States government, not pursue his own pleasures.” The lower court stated: that arise in foreign countries. The Russian plaintiff would be left to “According to the Foreign Affairs Manual and Ms. Papp’s declaration, Foreign seek compensation in the courts of Service employees stationed abroad may be subject to discipline for their con- his own country — perhaps against duct outside the work place, although Ms. Papp stops well short of declaring that the driver of the black vehicle in employees have been disciplined for the type of conduct involved in the present which he was riding as a hitchhiker, case.” The lower court got it wrong. In fact, Foreign Service employees have or as a paying rider, at the time of the accident. been severely disciplined for automobile accidents occurring in their own auto- mobiles, after hours. A Poor Rationale On Oct. 6, 2004, the AFSA Governing Board voted unanimously to apply to Sadly, this is not some hypotheti- file an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of AFSA member cal case study in a legal tome. It is Douglas Kent in his appeal of the lower court’s decision regarding the scope of happening to Douglas Kent — and it could happen to other Foreign his employment. The board also voted to provide $5,000 to his legal defense Service employees. fund. Given AFSA’s limited resources, the board rarely provides financial support It simply makes no sense for the to individual cases. However, in this case, the board felt that the issue was of United States to send its citizens sufficient importance to our members as a whole. into harm’s way and not afford them — Sharon Papp complete protection from the fore- seeable vicissitudes of Foreign AFSA General Counsel Service work. Yet the Department

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 23 FS KNOW-HOW u of State, like other foreign affairs under the laws of his own country. ernment fears that application of the agencies, applies our own country’s Had the consulate properly placed 24/7 rule might subject it to claims concept of the “commuting rule” to Mr. Kent’s local insurance, that poli- for workers’ compensation by Mr. Kent’s circumstances on the cy would have been available to a employees for injuries incurred in an darkened streets of Vladivostok. claimant. Yet even in that circum- accident occurring overseas, or That is, in the United States it is gen- stance, unless the 24/7 rule is recog- might entitle FSOs to disability and erally understood that an employer is nized, the claimant might be death benefits in such cases. responsible for an employee’s miscon- approached by an attorney suggest- If any of those rationales do apply, duct only if the lawsuit arises from ing a lawsuit in the United States, they are poor excuses indeed for not the employee’s service to his hoping to benefit from the largesse protecting Douglas Kent and other employer while actually at work. of a jury in this country. FS personnel. Instead: This principle is generally not Given the logic of applying the • Given that the Department of extended to the employee’s commut- principle of 24/7 duty to our situa- State has presented the FSO to the ing to and fro, considered a personal tion, one might be tempted to see foreign country as a diplomat enti- endeavor. budgetary motivations for the tled to the broadest diplomatic The irony is that conceding the department’s insistence on applying immunity, should not the depart- principle of 24/7 duty (the “scope of the “commuter rule” in this case. ment concede that scope of employ- employment”) would protect both Perhaps the department believes the ment should be co-extensive with the United States government and rule shields it from having to pay diplomatic immunity? the FSO from a lawsuit in the overtime to Foreign Service special- • Should Congress make more United States, limiting the injured ists and untenured officers working clear than do existing statutes that party to resort to compensation overseas. Or perhaps the U.S. gov- the scope of employment of FSOs

24 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 FS KNOW-HOW u includes risks to which their overseas concerning the existence of influ- the goal of more fully securing to employment in any manner exposes ences and obstacles, such as inade- FSOs the promise of productive them, even though activities such as quate funding and the like, that hin- careers inherent to the position of traveling to and from work or stop- der fair and unbiased consideration “Foreign Service officer.” At a min- ping on the way home at a gymnasi- of FSOs’ requests that they be certi- imum, whatever the outcome of the um would not so clearly be related to fied to have been acting within the pending case, every Foreign Service employment were the FSOs scope of their employment? For employee should be aware that the employed in the United States? example, in Mr. Kent’s case the “24/7 rule” only defines the FSO’s • Should the State Department’s Department of State might well duty to the agency — not the policies concerning availability of choose not to protect Mr. Kent in agency’s duty to the FSO.  automobile liability insurance be order to protect itself from the reviewed and strengthened to be diplomatic fallout of being associat- J. Michael Hannon and James F. certain that whenever an FSO, in ed with an allegedly drunken and Bromley are with the Washington, response to a department rule, crass American, no matter how D.C., law firm of Thompson, order, suggestion or encouragement, unfair and distorted those allega- O’Donnell, which is representing uses a private automobile in place of tions. FSO Douglas Kent in his case an automobile owned and provided These and other matters that Aleksandr Kashin v. Douglas Kent, by the government, that insurance might occur to readers after they have on appeal to the United States Court is, to an absolute certainty, immedi- pondered the factual scenario this of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in ately available from the FSO’s first article details are offered as examples San Francisco. The firm has repre- use of the car? of problems that persist and that sented Foreign Service employees • Are there reasons to inquire ought to be addressed to help meet and their families for over 50 years.

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JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 25 F OCUS ON R EFLECTIONS

LIFE AND DEATH IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE Jim Nuttle

WHEN YOU LIVE WHERE DEATH COMES EASILY, SOMETIMES YOU LOSE NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO.

BY THOMAS H. ARMBRUSTER

f, like me, you enjoy the descriptions of exotic places, strange spices and unusual encounters often found on these pages, then I wish you better luck next month. Oh, I do have memories of mist on the Rio Bravo, cactusI in bloom in the desert, and roadrunners, owls and javelinas brightening up a walk through the Mexican brush. But this isn’t about those memories. This is about life and death on the U.S.-Mexican border. I once was talking to a U.N. colleague and said, “sometimes we saved people, sometimes we ...” He finished the sentence I was finding hard to finish myself. “Sometimes you lose people.” As a refugee coordinator in several war

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Be attentive to details, but protect your mind.

zones, he knew. Fifteen border death cases came read- What’s the worst case? That’s a good question to ily to my mind and it would not take much effort to ask yourself. In one real-life situation the authorities think of more. My Mexican counterpart in Texas had told us an American had been at the bus stop for hours. many times more because of the deaths in the desert of That sounded strange, so I urged the officer to talk to Mexican migrants. her and get her across the border any way he could. He Many of you, especially those in Iraq and came back saying she had had a falling-out with her Afghanistan, will come home with memories of life- family in Texas, and wanted to stay in Mexico. She fig- and-death situations. Perhaps the following memories, ured the bus stop was the best place to meet someone some painful to me, will help you. and make arrangements. OK. What’s the worst case? Sometimes you lose. I first learned that in an exer- She finally gets bored and calls us and we take her back cise with the Marines at Camp Lejeune. As across the border. Or, she has an asthma attack and “Ambassador Armbruster,” I was faced with telling the dies. You can guess which of those possibilities tran- Marine snipers when to fire. The “embassy” was sur- spired. Afterward, I realized I had not let my imagina- rounded by protesters. Some young people with back- tion take the case to the furthest extreme. I should packs came to the gate claiming to be Americans. With have. Always imagine the worst case and work from no ID, they were not immediately let in and were soon there. forced on their knees by the crowd. Snipers held their Let it go. The case of the 19-year-old girl who was fire as no guns were visible in the crowd. Then, from kidnapped, tortured and murdered hit everyone who behind someone shot the young men. worked on it hard. She was obviously bright and came The next day two youngsters again came to the from a good family — and happened to have her life embassy. This time they were let in and ran toward the intersect briefly with that of a drug dealer. He was building before detonating the explosives in their back- being kidnapped by a rival gang. She was kidnapped packs. They were terrorists. When you live where because she was there. I worked with the mother for death comes easily, sometimes you lose no matter what many months afterward, but then, as all do, the tour you do. Today’s right answer is tomorrow’s wrong ended and I moved far away. answer. Don’t be too hard on yourself when the odds There is a temptation to call anyway. See how are 50/50 and you choose badly. she’s doing. Try to be helpful. But you can’t be help- ful from an ocean away. New, good officers take your Tom Armbruster entered the Foreign Service in 1988. place and continue to press the case with the authori- Now Deputy Chief of Mission in Dushanbe, he has ties. Let it go. You can keep the image of the girl in served in Helsinki, Havana, Moscow, Nuevo Laredo, mind every time you work on drug issues anywhere in the Naval War College, and Washington, D.C. He has the world. Thus you honor the memory of an innocent had two previous articles published in the Journal: one person killed, just by doing your job the best you can in on kayaking from Finland to Estonia, and the other on your next post. the challenges of scientific research in Greenland. He Families and the media. The Bureau of Consular has also written for Chesapeake Bay and Above and Affairs has classes and experts who provide invaluable Beyond, a Canadian in-flight publication. insights and guidance to new consular officers on work-

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ing with families. The bottom line You honor the memory Do the right thing. It is always be polite, always listen, sounds stranger than fiction, but and always be professional. of an innocent person one American couple, in a drug- Surprisingly, even in the worst sit- and-alcohol-induced haze, was uations, people will respond in killed by doing the best indeed trying to sell their infant. kind. But if you lose a family’s Mexican authorities could not trust, you will never get it back. you can for those you meet get anyone to testify, although The same goes for the media. we found many eyewitnesses. They are quite willing to let you in your next post. The infant was clearly in danger. play the role of bad bureaucrat, We picked her up from the hiding information, dragging your Mexican child protection service feet, and being unhelpful to the and were headed to the border. family. Don’t let them. Be the family’s best advocate Just as we were at Mexican Customs, I’m told, the and a trustworthy source to the media if you can talk parents were being released from jail. By all rights, about the case. Also, families also need positive identi- once they were free, they would have to be reunited fication. Any doubt will linger. Tattoos, birthmarks, with the girl. Somehow, we didn’t get the call that clothing and other details are valuable tools and can they were free from jail until we were across the bor- put a loved one’s mind at rest. Be attentive, but … der. Darn cell phones just don’t work on the border Protect your mind. Death is not pretty. You may sometimes. We placed the girl in the protective cus- need to identify the body, accompany the family, or be tody of the state of Texas. The parents would have to on hand for an exhumation. You’ll remember it all. convince a judge that they were fit. I don’t believe Although you may be quite involved, try to keep your they ever did. memories as snapshots and not home movies. Recall the lives you save through diplomacy. Watch out for burnout. Although we heard a Hostage situations, repatriation of remains, the essen- house with dead Americans in it was booby-trapped, tial tip in a missing person case … most of the prob- the American Citizens Services FSN disregarded my lems we face overseas are resolved, or not, by the host instructions and was in the first group of officials to government. The relationship with the prosecutor enter the house. He stayed there throughout the night that you cultivate on the tennis court, the key contact as the two Americans were exhumed; then he and I in the prison that allows you unrestricted access went to the morgue and later met with the family. Both because of mutual respect, the city official whose of us went home wanting to burn our clothing because daughter’s wedding you took the time to attend — all of the stench. Solid, knowledgeable and unwavering, of those things pay off. These contacts may make the he was there when we needed him. The danger is mak- difference between life and death; and even in death ing that person in your mission the go-to person every cases they make things smoother. Our consular agent time. Rotate your people in high-stress posts so they was able to repatriate the remains of four servicemen don’t burn out. killed in an accident almost immediately because of The Privacy Act. Our super-experienced consular her excellent contacts on both sides of the border. officer always convinced American prisoners to sign In general, Foreign Service officers are really not waivers and was then able to get in touch with their fam- that tough. We feel pain just turning down a visa ily members. Maybe he told the Americans that in his applicant. But unlike our dealings with congressional experience, no matter how embarrassing it might be to and staff delegations, who normally just pose the risk have been arrested or have had an accident, families gen- of a bruised ego or two, duty officers and American erally come through in an emergency. And they do. In Citizen Services officers often do face life-and-death the one case that we didn’t get the waiver, the man was situations. In those situations, use the skills that later beaten to death in prison and did not even leave his brought you into the Foreign Service and remember real name. By the time his family finally found us, the Winston Churchill’s advice — “Never, never, never body had to be exhumed from a pauper’s grave. give up.” 

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THE GOOD OLD DAYS Jim Nuttle

DESPITE ALL THE PRESSURE AND UNPAID OVERTIME REQUIRED TO HANDLE THE CRUSH OF VISA APPLICANTS, A RETIRED CONSULAR OFFICER HAS FOND MEMORIES OF HIS CAREER.

BY FREDERICK D. PURDY

t may sound silly now, but I am coming to realize that 22 of the years between 1956 and 1986 — the period that constituted my career in the Foreign Service as a consular officer — were really the “good old days.” I Ididn’t think of them as so good then, but compared to what the life of a consular officer must be nowadays, they seem to me to be absolutely golden. Many of us then thought of what we were doing as something of benefit to our country. We saw tourist visas as a way to enable others to get to know the country we were proud of — and help the U.S. economy in the

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process. Student visas gave young people a chance to indefinite-validity visas so that the eligible applicant improve themselves and learn the methods that made didn’t have to return and we didn’t have to duplicate our country the best and most advanced in the world our efforts. Now that is impossible, for reasons said to — and then take those lessons back to help their own be connected with security and efficiency. It was often nations. Temporary work visas for Filipino and other difficult then, too, because we could not issue any bet- Third World nurses improved the care of patients in ter visas than the host country did. In one important badly understaffed hospitals back home. And immi- country, I continually tussled with the local head of grant visas reunited family members of American citi- consular affairs, but could not get our ambassador to zens and also brought individuals possessing excep- weigh in at a higher level, even though he had been a tional skills to our shores. high-level consular official himself, and it would have Often, doing that work meant plenty of pressure, benefited our own tourists more than the few locals extra hours and hurried lunches so we could handle who went to the U.S. the crush of applicants despite inadequate staffing. It The growing “efficiency” restrictions on visa activi- often meant being more patient than we normally ty today bother me more than the security ones. Most would have been with applicants who had waited a of us were happy that our NIVs, in addition to being long time, sometimes with young children and elderly mostly multiple-indefinite, were also free, thus parents. But most of my memories of those times are encouraging tourism to the U.S. Now it is 180 degrees still warm. the reverse, with a charge of $100 for each application. In other words, people who want to come to our coun- Playing God try, for whatever reason, have to pay $100, whether Being a consular officer in the “good old days” often they get the visa or not. It must not be much fun for meant using your imagination to devise new tech- consular officers, not only to tell the applicant that he niques to cope with the impossible workload. We took can’t go, but also to steal $100 from his pocket. And pride in this ability to innovate, to “make do,” even if even for those who do get the visas, they have $100 praise from the bosses and formal awards were few less to spend to help the U.S. economy. and far between. We were accustomed to being treat- In several of my reincarnations in the Foreign ed as inferiors by many hot-dog political and econom- Service, I was involved in disputes between the pro- ic officers, to say nothing of ambassadors and DCMs, grammatic sections and the administrative managers. who seldom had much concept of what we were doing. The latter usually won, and I was almost always on the Once, at a nice dinner given by a colleague, our DCM losing, program side. I am glad that I was already came to slum with the vice consuls and asked us how retired when the business of charging a big fee, sup- it was to play God “down there.” My reply that, if he posedly to enhance cost-efficiency, went into effect, really wanted to find out, he was welcome to come although I was a witness to the practice, when the fee downstairs and play God while I went up to clip news- was a lot lower, in five TDY assignments. papers, did not please him, nor help my annual Why cannot the decision on so-called cost-efficien- employee evaluation review. cy permit taking into consideration other issues of We worked hard to surpass former issuance levels importance to our country besides money? Our and set some admirable records along the way. And in national reputation for fairness and the state of our the process, we were often issuing multiple-entry, economy are also important, but are difficult to put a price on. Our visa fees, for example, simply make the Frederick Purdy, an FSO from 1956 to 1986, served in cost of foreign travel for Americans more expensive, Ciudad Juarez, Kingston, Ponta Delgada, Brasilia because other countries merely retaliated and charge (twice), Santiago, Manila, Seville and Washington, our citizens $100 or whatever, too. And, although D.C. After retirement, he went on TDY assignments to tourism to the U.S is diminishing, our nationals’ trav- Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Bogota and Addis els abroad — although affected by the intentionally Ababa. Now living in Chile, he is the author of The weak dollar — are still an important cost to us. Gringo’s Guide to Chilean Wine (fifth edition, 2003). Recently, a consular officer in our embassy here told

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Being a consular officer often meant using your imagination to devise new techniques to cope with the impossible workload.

the press that we charged the $100 because Chile did. back home and tell that to friends and relatives. I also Unfortunately, this is not true — the locals did not think we need to be broader in our war against evil charge until we began to do so. everywhere, not just in Afghanistan (if we really care about it any more) and Iraq. Whether we want to Shutting the World Out admit it or not, there is plenty of evil in Sudan and The damage our restrictive visa policies do to our Burma and China, and even in our allies like Saudi once-important tourism industry should be obvious. Arabia and Pakistan. Even though, as the world’s most According to an article in the New York Times recent- powerful shock-and-awe-provider, we don’t have ly, from October 2000 to September 2001, 6.3 million enough troops to occupy and save all the downtrodden people applied to travel from developing nations (this people of those places, we ought to at least show some includes any nations that do not have a reciprocal guts in denouncing the evil there and not just in the waiver agreement with us, thus, for example, all of remaining axes of evil, Iran and North Korea. Latin America) to the United States for business, plea- Well, I have gotten away from my theme of the sure or medical treatment. That number dropped to “good old days” of my 30 years in the Foreign Service, 3.7 million for the next fiscal year (FY 2003). but it should be obvious that I am happy now that I can Applications for student visas fell by almost 100,000 speak my mind and don’t have to be a “good soldier,” over the same two-year period. Universities that like some of our current admired leaders. I was briefly depend upon much of their revenue for fees from for- a good soldier — and also a good sailor — but I could- eign students must be hurting! At the same time that n’t take it permanently. the volume of applications is falling, refusal rates are Another big part of the “good old days” was simply rising. living in those countries my friends back home have But probably even greater is the damage these poli- learned to hate. I remember the embassy nurse stand- cies do to our international image. Some of my old ing up in a pre-PTA meeting in Brasilia and saying “I friends back home, in Pennsylvania and the didn’t bring my kids all the way down here to have Washington area, don’t care about that image, but liv- them go to school with Brazilians!” I simply got up ing outside the United States more than half of my 76 and left because I had lost the power to communicate years has changed my attitude toward the rest of the with her (or was it the other way around?). And I world. I naively, and to some of my friends unpatriot- thought of seeing my 14-year-old, blond-haired daugh- ically, think the rest of the world is important to us, not ter (now trilingual), at a recent American School open only in pragmatic terms but for its own sake, too. house, walking across the playing field with her two And I fear that the current government policy, of best friends, dark-skinned little girls from India and bashing countries who are “not with us,” so thus Trinidad and Tobago, and how proud I was, hoping she “against us,” of bad-mouthing the Islam of 1.3 billion would be a symbol of our future. people, and of crusading against evil, but only very The great Welsh travel-writer Jan Morris once selectively, is isolating us from the reality of the rest of wrote that “the past is a foreign country.” At least most the world. I think we need more foreign tourists and of the good old days of my past seem to have been international students to see for themselves that we spent there — and I thank the Foreign Service for are still not as bad as we seem to others — and to go sending me out to experience that. 

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SECOND-LINE DIPLOMACY: THE FIRST KAL INCIDENT Jim Nuttle

IN THE SHADOW OF CRUCIAL TALKS IN MOSCOW BETWEEN CYRUS VANCE AND ANDREI GROMYKO, QUIET DIPLOMACY RESOLVED THE FIRST KOREAN AIRLINES INCIDENT.

BY KENNETH N. SKOUG JR.

n April 21, 1978, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was in the second day of strategic arms control negotiations in Moscow with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko when an event in the extreme north of the Soviet OUnion introduced an unexpected and unwelcome issue into bilateral relations. In the pre-dawn hours that day a Korean Airlines Boeing-707 jet airliner bound from Paris to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska, with 113 persons aboard suffered a drastic malfunction of its directional gyro, and wandered more than 1,000 miles off-course over the Arctic Ocean and the Barents Sea southward into Soviet air space above the Kola Peninsula,

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one of the most militarily sensitive regions of the USSR. concerned. Kapitsa neither confirmed nor denied the There a Russian MiG aircraft fired on the airliner, killing telephonic assurance I had received, and the Soviet offi- two passengers, and forced its pilot to make a near-mirac- cial who had given it took no part in subsequent discus- ulous emergency landing by first light on the edge of a sions, but the Soviet news agency TASS seemed to con- frozen lake south of Murmansk. firm the assurances by reporting: “The passengers and Vance was on his second trip to the USSR. The first, crew of the plane were taken to the nearest populated shortly after the Carter administration assumed office in locality and arrangements are being made for their 1977, had provoked a spectacular public display of con- despatch from the USSR.” A supporting approach was tempt from Gromyko for having introduced a new focus made by the department to the Soviet embassy in on human rights into the Soviet context. There followed Washington. a year of frigid bilateral relations, which continued into Late on April 22, the third and final day of the Vance- 1978 with expulsions of commercial officers from both Gromyko dialogue, there was a disturbing rumor that embassies and the announcement in mid-April that the Soviet authorities might nevertheless detain the captain of most senior Soviet official at the United Nations had the aircraft, Kim Chang Kyu, whose brilliant landing defected. Vance arrived determined not to allow the doubtlessly had saved many lives. A foreign ministry frosty bilateral climate to interfere with his negotiating official told us only that he had not been informed of any objectives for strategic arms control. intent to detain anyone. Secretary Vance’s special adviser, Marshall Shulman, was kept informed of developments, Seeking Assurances but Vance did not raise the issue with Gromyko. In the When Soviet authorities notified the American United States the press reported that “second-line” offi- embassy of the downed airliner (the USSR and the cials were handling the airline issue. Republic of Korea had no diplomatic relations), the sur- David Weisz, a young embassy officer with recent con- vivors were being held in the town of Kem, close to the sular experience, put in an unbroken 48 hours (April 21- site of the forced landing and nearly 400 miles north of 22) successfully coordinating recovery of the survivors by Leningrad. Their rescue depended on joint efforts by the the airline with assistance from Consulate General embassy, the consulate general in Leningrad and Pan Leningrad. Preparations were complicated by the American World Airways. absence from the USSR of the senior Pan American rep- As economic/commercial counselor, I immediately resentative in Moscow. (PanAm officials in Berlin had no sought (and received) the foreign ministry’s telephonic experience with far northern coordinates in a region assurance that Soviet authorities would not hinder evacu- chock-full of air and naval bases, including submarine ation of passengers — and crew. My stress on the latter pens.) Belatedly, a Pan American aircraft flew with a full was due to my vivid recollection of the disappearance of a crew from West Berlin to Leningrad (where it arrived at South Korean visiting Prague in 1967 when I was serving 8 p.m. to pick up George Rueckert from our consulate there. Years later I learned that he had been turned over general and three Japanese officials). It continued to to the North Koreans to die a cruel death in captivity. Murmansk, whither most survivors had been moved. With Ambassador Malcolm Toon fully occupied with Vance, Deputy Chief of Mission Jack Matlock and I called An Ominous Development late that day on a Mr. Kapitsa, chief of the first division of Once in Murmansk, Rueckert learned that pilot Kim the foreign ministry, to press for swift repatriation of all Chang Kyu and navigator Lee Kun Shik were not with the passengers and other crew members. They were still Kenneth N. Skoug Jr. retired from the Foreign Service being detained in Kem, undergoing relentless, exhausting in 1990 with the rank of minister-counselor. He served interrogation to establish why the plane had entered as economic-commercial counselor in Moscow from Soviet airspace and refused supposed instructions to land. 1976 to 1979. He is the author of The United States Rueckert strongly protested their detention, and a heated and Cuba Under Reagan and Shultz: A Foreign Service discussion followed in which the Japanese officials joined Officer Reports (Praeger, 1996) and Czechoslovakia’s (one of the dead had been a restaurateur, whose place- Lost Fight for Freedom (Praeger, 1999). ment in a casket did not meet Japanese requirements for

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burial). There was a delay of four hours, while the PanAm It seemed possible that Vance’s visit might have opened aircraft kept one engine running so that it could take off doors for us, at least temporarily, even though he had not for Helsinki. Its fuel supply was thus running low. raised either issue. With that in mind, the embassy on Another complication was the serious condition of two April 25 cabled the department that we felt that a formal wounded persons, whose prompt evacuation was neces- diplomatic note on the case, which State wished us to sary. Ultimately, the aircraft departed without the two deliver, might complicate a matter about to be resolved. Korean airmen. Early Sunday morning, April 23, VOA reported that Triumph for Quiet Diplomacy the Russians had detained the pair and, in light of the two On April 29, pilot Kim and navigator Lee were fatalities (both killed by Soviet gunfire), had established released by Soviet authorities to the consulate general in an “investigating committee” to look into the matter. As Leningrad after they had pleaded guilty to violation of Vance was to depart that morning, I asked Shulmann Soviet air space (true) and knowingly disobeying a Soviet urgently if the secretary would raise this ominous devel- order to land (false because the Korean aircraft, despite opment with Gromyko. The answer was no. Vance was strenuous efforts using all civilian frequencies, had never focused on arms control and did not intend to introduce been able to communicate with the Soviet jet fighter). an “extraneous” issue. Indeed, in his departure statement They were also obliged to apply to the presidium of the Vance expressed lavish praise for Gromyko. The joint Supreme Soviet for “pardon.” Of course, no one asked communique spoke of progress toward an agreement on the Russians to apologize for having killed two persons on the limitation of offensive strategic weapons. Presidential board the aircraft and for having placed the lives of the spokesman Hodding Carter stated that the secretary felt other 111 in extreme jeopardy. he had met his objective. The timing was propitious for the two Koreans, who But what to do for the two Koreans, who might be left the USSR via Copenhagen. Soon after their repatri- spending years in prison if the Russian “investigation” ation, the FBI arrested three Soviet officials on espi- established that espionage had been involved instead of onage charges in the United States, and the Russians instrument malfunction? Aware that Vance would not retaliated with the arrest of an American businessman raise the issue at Vnukovo Airport, I took Mr. Sinitsyn of on trumped-up charges of violation of Soviet currency the foreign ministry aside there to “confide” that Vance laws. In a period when Soviet authorities were not loath would not mention it. I left Sinitsyn with the impression to use strong-arm methods on dissenters — the trials of — correct or not — that Vance, who had a strong back- two prominent Jewish dissidents were already under ground in civil aviation, was following the matter with preparation — and when U.S.-Soviet relations contin- great concern. His silence should not be misinterpreted. ued to be tense, the two airmen were fortunate to avoid Sinitsyn claimed to know nothing of the detention of the trial and prison. More sinister, although conjectural, one two Koreans, and to be unaware of any assurances given could assume that North Korean representatives in that they would be released. But presumably he at least Moscow were making their wishes known, and would reported to his superiors that Vance’s silence did not sig- have been delighted to take delivery of the airmen at nify lack of keen interest in early release of the Koreans. some future time. On April 24, Matlock and I called again on Kapitsa in Kim and Lee, unlike their unfortunate countryman the foreign ministry to discuss the subject. He argued that kidnapped in Prague 11 years before, were going home. a Soviet non-paper had mentioned only passengers, and It was a small triumph for quiet diplomacy. Or, perhaps, recalled that he had given no assurances about the crew. “second-line” diplomacy. Kapitsa, however, seemed to imply that the investigation Later a Korean Airlines spokesman said the airline might be “short.” would henceforth acquire DC-10 aircraft for use on polar This had a positive ring. Perhaps our protests — along routes, as they are better equipped to stay on course. with world attention to the matter — were having some Unfortunately, this tragedy did not preclude a far greater effect. Later on April 24, I was granted a lengthy business one on Sept. 1, 1983, when a Soviet aircraft destroyed a facilitation meeting with a senior Soviet foreign trade offi- misdirected Korean airliner off Sakhalin with the loss of cial that the Russians heretofore had stubbornly resisted. all 269 persons on board. 

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UNPACKING MY BOOKS Jim Nuttle

AN FSO SORTS THROUGH HIS BAGGAGE, LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY.

BY ALEXIS LUDWIG

he movers are gone and the new house, not yet a home, is like Humpty- Dumpty waiting to be put back together again. My God, where do we begin?! An inveterate practitioner of pro- crastination, I (for one)T turn to a ritual that I always look forward to: the unpacking of my books from boxes. I’ve been doing it every two or three years since well before I joined the Foreign Service more than a decade ago. Each time, I seem to get sidetracked from my orderly plan, picking up one book and then another, leafing random- ly through certain half-forgotten pages, sometimes with a surge of recognition or a twinge of nostalgia at the sudden

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A small shelf-full of deepening nostalgia.

memory of another time and circumstance and place. ask for a knife/I come running/They need a lamb/ As Charles Wright wrote in his poem “Southern Cross” I introduce myself as the lamb.” (I took a writing course from Wright at the University of Incidentally, every time I hear the word “reality” California in 1981, and have the slim volume of that Nabokov’s description of it as “one of the few words that same name in my hand now), “How sweet is the past, no mean nothing without quotes” comes to mind. I first matter how wrong, or how sad/How sweet is yesterday’s read Nabokov’s startlingly rich and vibrant work (Lolita, noise.” Pale Fire…) while living in Japan in the late 1980s, a Spread out on the floor as some already are, others time (ironically) that marked the end of my own lyrical still shut tight inside boxes, these books have regained a age and, by way of a wobbly transition, the beginning of kind of potential; they are vulnerable, in their happy dis- a brief dry era of social science. order, to rediscovery, if only of a fleeting kind. Like the I have mostly happy memories of the transition, uneven layered circles in the trunk of a tree, they etch though, which is (in some sense) embodied in one of the the outlines of my life in a casual design, and sketch a best books I’ve read about Japan: Kurt Singer’s Mirror, kind of autobiography — the contents of which are scat- Sword, and Jewel. I recall in particular Singer’s per- tered inside their pages, or hidden in the plain sight of ception of Japan as a civilization that has overcome the their covers. Each time I go through this ritual I won- tragedy of modern life and achieved “integration.” By der which thoughts since lost, which possible futures in contrast, here in Latin America where I live now, that the past, will sneak up on me suddenly and take me tragedy — or “the wide disparity between the beauty back over again. and greatness of … works of art, systems of law, meta- Youth, as Milan Kundera wrote, is a lyrical age. physical constructions … and the … shapelessness and But what age comes after? And do you lose the capac- jejuneness of ordinary human existence” — is at times ity for longing? Or is it only buried under the differ- painfully conspicuous. Singer’s perception may not be ent layers of coming to terms with “reality” that mark as pertinent to the Japan of today, but it’s something to one’s slow (in my case) evolution to adulthood? I read think about all the same. mostly poetry and fiction during those years, and one As for my life in the Foreign Service, it, too, has of my ambitions was to attain a consciousness of the found a place on my bookshelves, resembling (to con- planet hurtling through the cosmos. As I sift through tinue the earlier metaphor) the fresh circles on the a disorderly stack for my dog-eared copy of the outer edges of the tree trunk: A selection of works about Collected Walt Whitman, I stumble instead across Guatemala and by Guatemalan writers, some interest- Charles Simic’s Selected Poems: 1963-1983, and turn ing additions to my already substantial collection of to “Help Wanted” — a piece that comically depicts books on Japan, a handful of books on Indonesia, and a the Gumby-like mental flexibility of the desperate modest grouping about (mostly the politics and history job-seeker (I was a lousy one more than once): “They of) Malaysia. These are complemented by the dozen or so volumes that reflect my foray into Islam and the Alexis Ludwig was a free-lance writer in San Francisco Middle East (works by V.S. Naipal, Edward Said, before he joined the Foreign Service in January 1994. Thomas Friedman … ) spurred by the Southeast Asia He is currently serving in La Paz. experience. A small shelf-full of deepening nostalgia …

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Oddly, my two years in My life in the when the inevitable wonderings Washington enjoy a more prominent about what might have been domi- place among my books than one Foreign Service nate my waking reveries. At these might expect, perhaps because as a moments I think of a passage in one native Californian I felt “abroad, at has also found a place of William James’ essays in his book home” there, and keenly aware of its Human Immortality and Other unique offerings. Take David on my bookshelves. Essays on Popular Philosophy, McCullough’s volume of essays, which I always seek out at some Brave Companions, a book I bought point during the ritual. In it, James in 1999 after a friend from San Francisco sent me a copy recounts what happens when former possibilities cease of the wonderful piece in it titled: “Washington on the to exist as a consequence of a key decision at a fork in Potomac.” That essay alone is enough to remind one that the path of life. “Little by little,” he writes, “the habits, the nation’s capital has gotten a bad rap. It certainly rein- the knowledges, which once lay so near, cease to be forced my own fledgling view that Washington, the geo- reckoned even among possibilities ... and the old alter- graphical and historical place, has been confused with native ego, once so vivid, fades into something less sub- Washington, the legendary seat of government bureau- stantial than a dream.” cracy and power and corruption, and that the cloud of In more ways than one, this Foreign Service life (mostly undeserved) negative association has extended to enables one to keep the dream alive, including every where it manifestly doesn’t belong. two or three years when I unpack my books from their I have few regrets about the paths chosen, even boxes. 

38 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 INSIDE A PROMOTION PANEL

WHAT DO SELECTION BOARDS LOOK FOR IN DECIDING WHOM TO PROMOTE? HERE IS A “TOP TEN” LIST OF TIPS TO MAXIMIZE ONE’S CHANCES OF CAREER ADVANCEMENT.

BY JOHN NALAND

fter 18 years in the Foreign Service, I The mechanics of how the boards go about their work had the opportunity last summer to sit were well described in the May 2004 Foreign Service on a selection board for the first time. Journal article “Preparing for Promotion Panel Season” by I learned a great deal while reading David Jones and Stephen Smith (available online at over 1,000 efficiency reports on nearly http://www.afsa.org/fsj/2004.cfm). The article does contain 200 mid-level FSO generalists. Below one editorial glitch that was noted in a subsequent issue: the are the lessons I took away from that typical board spends 20 minutes (not two) reading each experience. Although they represent the views of just one employee’s performance file. Aperson serving on one board for one competition group, I think that other Foreign Service members might benefit A Caveat from these insights from inside a promotion board. Before I list tips that may be of use to employees inter- ested in rapid promotions, let me express one note of cau- The Basics tion. While promotions are important (providing a vote of The purpose of selection boards is to identify Foreign confidence in one’s performance, the opportunity for Service members whose skills, experience and qualities greater responsibilities, and more pay), they are not every- establish them as being ready to perform at the next higher thing. Arguably, the goal of a Foreign Service career is to level. Those skills, experience and qualities are spelled out enjoy and make the most of the journey, not to take an in the procedural precepts and core precepts that are nego- unbroken series of overwhelming assignments in an effort to tiated between State’s management and AFSA. claw up the ladder to some high-level job that may or may Having participated in those negotiations from 1999 to not ever materialize. Employees who focus only on getting 2003 as AFSA vice president for State and then AFSA pres- the next promotion risk falling into the trap of “always ident, I know that careful attention is placed on using the becoming, never being.” They risk getting to the end of precepts as a mechanism to shape the Foreign Service of their Foreign Service journey without having enjoyed a tomorrow. In other words, the precepts instruct selection rewarding personal life (for example, family, friends and boards to recommend for promotion only those employees hobbies). who exhibit the skills, experience and qualities that the department and AFSA have identified as being needed to Ten Tips meet the demands of America’s 21st-century diplomacy. What, then, do selection boards look for in deciding whom to promote? The precepts list many things, but below are John Naland, an FSO since 1986, has served in Bogota, what I see as being the top considerations. While many of San Jose, Nicaragua and numerous Washington assign- these “tips” may seem obvious, I think it is useful to remind ments. From 1999 to 2001, he was AFSA’s State vice pres- ourselves of them. The quotes in each section are taken from ident, and served as AFSA president from 2001 to 2003. the precepts, which can be read on the State Department He is currently principal officer in Matamoros. Intranet at http://hrweb.hr.state.gov/pe/regulation.html.

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 39 • Credit = Performance Times to promote brilliant policy wonks who Difficulty: “Creditable performance abuse their staffs, supervisors who under unusually difficult or danger- Promotions are not discourage dissenting views, or ous circumstances is particularly rele- employees who fail to lock their safes vant” for promotion consideration. rewards for prior at night. Translation: Just like judges for • Training and Skill Develop- Olympic gymnastics or diving, pro- service, but are instead ment: “Boards should attach special motion board members look not only value to an employee’s demonstrated at how well a job was done but also extrapolations from commitment to upgrading their pro- how intrinsically difficult the job was fessional skills through training.” to do. As a result, employees serving that service. Translation: Boards give positive effectively in highly demanding jobs credit to those who use FSI and other and/or in difficult locations generally training to improve their performance will be promoted more quickly than and/or raise the level of their unit’s employees serving effectively in jobs performance. To do so, boards review that are perceived as being less diffi- promotion.” Translation: Foreign employee profiles (formerly PARs) cult. Service members who have not and read long-term training evalua- • Potential: “Promotion is recog- served abroad in many years are lim- tions to see what training employees nition that a member has demonstrat- iting their promotion potential. have had. ed the capability of performing the While the State Department tries to • Foreign-Language Proficien- duties and responsibilities required at accommodate employees in difficult cy: “Boards are instructed to duly a higher level.” Translation: Pro- medical or family situations (especial- consider foreign language excellence motions are not rewards for prior ser- ly employees who have such difficul- which enhances the member’s contri- vice, but are instead extrapolations ties later in their careers after many bution to the mission.” Translation: from that service. For example, overseas assignments), it is a fact of Boards review employee profiles and notwithstanding the above first tip, life that the Foreign Service needs read language-training evaluations to employees who take tough jobs but members who are ready, willing and see what proficiencies employees fail to perform well in them are able to serve abroad. have. They give credit to those who unlikely to be promoted ahead of • Fair-Share Service: “Boards use their foreign-language skills to their peers. are encouraged to weigh positively advance their bureau or mission per- • Decision Criteria: “The Core creditable performance at hardship formance plan goals. Precepts provide the guidelines by and danger pay posts … including … • Functional Proficiency: which Selection Boards determine … Iraq and Afghanistan.” Translation: “Boards are instructed not to penalize promotability.” Translation: In read- All Foreign Service members need to employees for taking periodic assign- ing evaluation reports, boards consid- do their fair share of hardship assign- ments out-of-cone or out of special- er performance in the 29 specific ments. Those who do so generally ized skill group” (emphasis added). skills listed in the core precepts (also will be promoted more quickly than Translation: Boards may “penalize” called the “Decision Criteria for employees who do not — assuming employees who take numerous Tenure and Promotion in the Foreign that they performed well. One should assignments out of their cone or spe- Service”). Each skill is listed in three note, however, that taking an assign- cialty after tenuring if those assign- levels of accomplishment (junior, ment to a hardship and danger- ments do not appear to be serving any mid-level and senior). Boards judge pay post does not guarantee a pro- well-thought-out career development whether the employee is performing motion. (Full disclosure: In chrono- purpose. This is especially true for below, at or above the level of accom- logical order, my overseas assign- those boards charged with reviewing plishment appropriate to the employ- ments have been at 35, 0, 15 and employees by functional cones or spe- ee’s current grade. 5-percent differential posts.) cialty. • Overseas Service: “A signifi- • Leadership and Management • Broad-Gauged Officers: “The cant portion of the career must be Skills: “An employee’s leadership and department’s goal in creating the mul- spent in assignments abroad … [and] management skills should be given tifunctional skill code is to … expand boards are instructed to consider … particular importance when s/he is the pool of broad-gauged officers pre- demonstrated competence in service being considered for promotion.” pared to assume senior leadership abroad when reviewing members for Translation: Selection boards are not positions.” Although the State De-

40 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 partment and AFSA recently agreed is cited in more than one efficiency sibility. Here are a few tips for raters to abolish the multifunctional skill report over the most recent five years. and reviewers: code, the preference for broad- While boards may not low-rank • Specifics: As the employee eval- gauged officers will be a key feature of employees for the following reasons, uation form itself makes clear, raters the classwide competition that will they do constitute grounds for mid- and reviewers need to provide specif- replace multifunctionality for mid- ranking (i.e., not recommending the ic examples of performance. Without level FSO generalists beginning in employee for promotion): a small but concrete examples, praise of an summer 2005. noteworthy performance flaw, an employee’s performance will ring hol- unproductive assignment pattern, or low. What Not to Do the lack of an important skill. Many • Context: Boards not only need to In addition to deciding which mid-rankings simply result from an know what the employee did, but also employees to recommend for promo- employee’s failure to keep up with why it was important to the accom- tion, boards must also identify his/her higher-performing colleagues plishment of U.S. policy goals. But employees for low-ranking. The pre- who are busy following all or most of don’t go overboard. Reports should be cepts identify numerous things that the 10 tips listed above. about the employee’s performance, may be grounds for that designation. not a mini-briefing paper on the They include: failure to carry out Tips for Raters bureau, mission or host country. assigned tasks, low productivity or Selection boards may only evaluate • Hyperbole: It will be news to no work poorly done, an inability to work employees based on the documents one that many evaluation reports suf- effectively and cooperatively with oth- contained in their official perfor- fer from “grade inflation.” But raters ers, and a pattern of failure to safe- mance folder. Such items include and reviewers need to exercise cau- guard properly classified material and efficiency reports, long-term training tion. Boards read hundreds of reports information. In practice, low rankings reports and award nominations. and often see reports from several may also result from a significant, but Obviously, the drafting of those docu- years on the same position and/or on otherwise non-fatal, shortcoming that ments is a critical supervisory respon- multiple employees in the same sec-

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JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 41 tion. If different reports credit sever- mance and placed them in the context al employees with the same single- of their impact on mission accom- handed accomplishment, boards may Promotion panels are plishment. Weighing that informa- discount them all. tion against the job description and • Writing Style: Raters and looking for employees work requirements statements, it was reviewers must keep in mind that they not difficult to judge who was ahead are writing for boards comprised of who exhibit the skills, of, in the middle of, or falling behind one public member and probably sev- their peers. eral Foreign Service members who experience and qualities Q: Were some employees disad- have never served in that bureau or vantaged by poorly drafted reports? post. Therefore, it is essential for needed to meet the A: Rarely. I did not see many drafters to spell out all acronyms. In poorly drafted reports. When I did, addition, drafters should avoid pro- demands of America’s there were always three to six other ducing a full page of unbroken text. A reports from other years by which to little white space after or between 21st-century diplomacy. evaluate the employee. paragraphs makes it much easier for Q: Was the promotion process fair? boards to read the document and thus A: Yes. I saw no hint of favoritism focus on its content. or discrimination during board delib- erations. Although many efficiency Final Comments Q: Was it easy to read through the reports were inflated and a few were I will conclude by answering the inflated verbiage in order to decide poorly written, I still found it possible three most frequently asked ques- who merited promotion, mid-rank- to decide who met the standards of tions that I have gotten from col- ing and low-ranking? their class and demonstrated the leagues about my service last sum- A: Yes. Most reports provided the potential to serve at the next higher mer on a selection board: needed specific examples of perfor- level. 

42 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 GERTRUDE BELL AND IRAQ: DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

THE EXTRAORDINARY ENGLISHWOMAN WHO PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE BIRTH OF MODERN IRAQ CONFRONTED MANY OF THE SAME ISSUES THE U.S. AND THE NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT FACE TODAY.

BY BARBARA FURST

hough she is remembered today death nearly 40 years later, she always found time to write mainly by Middle East scholars and — letters, diaries, travel accounts, intelligence reports, travel writers, there has recently scholarly articles and books (when in England), as well as been a modest revival of interest in major policy papers for the British government. One of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) because Bell’s policy papers, for instance, pled the cause of of the key role she played in the cre- Mesopotamia during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. ation of modern Iraq in the early A scholar, writer, linguist, Arabist, mountain climber, 1920s. She was involved not only in putting King Faisal, archaeologist, photographer, explorer and founder of the Tson of the Hashemite Sharif of Mecca, on the throne in Iraqi National Museum, Bell was, to use the old cliche, Baghdad, but helped draw the new country’s borders and larger than life. The recent paperback edition of a biog- mobilized its tribes and religious groups to support the raphy by Janet Wallach, Desert Queen (Anchor Books, new nation-state. 1999), which is being reissued in 2005, as well as the pub- Gertrude Bell traveled all over the Middle East and lication of Bell’s Arabian Diaries, 1913-14 (Syracuse lived for years in Mesopotamia (as Iraq was then known), University Press, 2001) and a new edition of her The where she arguably knew more about what was happening Desert and the Sown (Cooper Square Publishers, 2001) on the ground among the local tribes than anyone else at have generated renewed interest in this remarkable that time. She was always in the thick of things, before woman. and after the birth of Iraq in 1921, with innumerable con- But by far the most fascinating window on her extraor- tacts and confidants — both among local people and the dinary life, because of the lively style and sense of deja vu British administrators, who feuded with each other and one gets, are Bell’s own letters, edited and published after with London almost as much as the Iraqis themselves. Bell’s death in 1927 by her stepmother (The Letters of Above all, starting in her 20s and continuing until her Gertrude Bell, selected and edited by Lady Bell, D.B.E., London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1927). Barbara Furst worked at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi as a secretary from 1957 to 1959. She later completed a degree This Week’s Headline in cultural anthropology at American University and a To read her copious letters from Baghdad during the diploma in social anthropology at Oxford University. She 1920s is like scanning this week’s headlines: many of the married a Foreign Service officer, with whom she lived in issues she confronted are the same ones the U.S. adminis- Pakistan in the late 1960s. There she did field work in a trators and the new Iraqi government are dealing with today. Punjabi village in an attempt to discern the social and eco- For example, in a 1922 letter to her father, Bell nomic factors that affect fertility. Later she worked as a describes Iraqi skirmishes with the Saudis on the southern contractor in health programs in developing countries for border, and the difficulty of negotiating a border treaty USAID. More recently, she has written travel articles for after the Saudis had conquered a large swath of north- the Boston Globe and other New England newspapers. central Arabia. Faisal had sent a camel corps to defend

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 43 the border, and the “Akhwan” or ry.) High-spirited and independent, Muslim Brotherhood, as the she challenged one of her examin- Wahabis called themselves, fired on Bell’s copious letters ers, saying she did not agree with his them from an airplane. Bell goes on theory. As Wallach puts it, she was a to say, “Ibn Saud may, of course, from Baghdad during young woman with “attitude.” repudiate the action of his followers; Having failed to find a husband that’s the best that can happen, for the 1920s read like this who could match her intelligence otherwise we’re practically at war and taste for adventure in the three with them.” If one substitutes “al- week’s headlines. years allotted a Victorian young lady Qaida” for “Akhwan,” we are in after her debut in society, Gertrude familiar territory: the House of Saud turned to travel. In 1892, she went claims to repudiate terrorism among to Persia, a place she had always the extremists within its borders, but longed to see. She was accompanied has been slow to do anything about arate southern province within a by her aunt, Mary Lascelles, whose it. federation. Her response: I am your husband was the British envoy to In the early 1920s, after the friend, but I am also a servant of the Shah Nasiraddin. In Tehran, Bell British-held plebiscite and a general British government, and London fell in love with a British diplomat, agreement among the leaders of the says no to anything less than a uni- Henry Cadogan. The sun, the various factions in what was then tary government. horseback rides into the surrounding known as Mesopotamia to unite and One can almost picture her rugged landscape with the young become a nation, a friend of Bell’s, a wraith hovering over the Iraqi gov- Cadogan, reading the Persian poet tribal sheik, said that all the pillars ernment today — slender, red- Hafiz (also known as Hafez) to each were standing for the formation of a haired, chain-smoking, high-energy other, the freedom, the romance new state and now what they needed — muttering to herself something were the beginnings of her passion was a roof. Shortly after that, Faisal, like “what goes around comes for the East. In spite of her strong the protege of Bell and T. E. around” or “so what else is new?” spirit, when her parents did not Lawrence (better known as approve of the match, she gave him Lawrence of Arabia), was imported A Life of Paradoxes up. She remained single; and from Mecca to become the “roof.” Born in 1868 into a well-to-do though in middle age she developed In early 2004, David Ignatius wrote Midlands iron manufacturing family, two strong romantic attachments to in the Washington Post about the Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell men — both of them married — she offer of Prince Hassan of Jordan, the was probably expected to lead a apparently remained chaste. great nephew of Faisal, to mediate quiet life and eventually become a In her 20s she traveled around among Iraqi religious factions to wife and mother, a traditional help- the world with family members and bring them together and become a meet. But like other British women to archaeological sites in the “provisional head of state.” travelers such as Mary Kingsley, Mediterranean. Finally, in late Bell describes and photographs a Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and, 1899, she was allowed to go on her grand gathering in 1921 at Falluja of later, Freya Stark, once she got a own to Jerusalem, and began study- Sunni tribal leaders on camels greet- taste of freedom — to use Bell’s ing Arabic. From there she set off ing Faisal, and Faisal’s swearing alle- phrase, “wild travel” — there was no on horseback for a trek through hos- giance to them, saying their enemies turning back. tile country to Petra — with a clan- are his enemies and vowing solidari- Bell’s life was full of paradoxes. destine side trip into the hills of ty. He is “a great Sunni among She won a “first” in modern history southwest Syria, the territory of the Sunnis,” Bell wrote to her father. at Oxford in 1890 after just two fierce Jabel Druze, against the wish- And now Falluja, as a center for years’ study, rather than the pre- es of the Turkish authorities. She Sunni insurgency, is in the headlines scribed three. Even more remark- wrote home, “Here I am a person” again. able, she accomplished this long — a phrase that would be repeated In her letters Bell reports that the before women could actually take time and again in her correspon- people of Kirkuk in the north are degrees from Oxford. (Women dence. ready to give allegiance to Faisal, but could sit for the exams and get rated A couple of years later she made those in Basra have come to her to for them, but could not take a a months-long trek across Syria that plead with her government for a sep- degree until early in the 20th centu- resulted in her classic The Desert

44 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 and the Sown, published in 1907 but still a standard guide for anyone visiting Syria and especially its desert ruins and the so-called “dead cities” in the northwestern part of the country. In that account, Bell records hiring the muleteers and a cook, purchasing provisions at vari- ous stops along the way, and setting up and breaking camp. She pho- tographed and wrote down her impressions of local people, and surveyed, measured and pho- tographed ancient ruins, later mak- ing some of them subjects for schol- arly papers. She describes the climb on a cold wet evening up the steep pass to Crac des Chevalier, the spectacular Crusader castle in western Syria with its view all the way to the Mediterranean, and then climbing still farther within the castle itself up the long, winding passage on horseback. The Turkish resident and his wives took her in, fed her and provided a room for the night — a large, stone-vaulted room that later became a very good tourist restaurant. Between forays into the Middle East, she climbed the Alps and was described by a professional Swiss mountaineer as a woman without Top: Gertrude Bell on horseback in Lebanon, 1900. Center: Bell flanked by fear, who didn’t lose her nerve even Winston Churchill (left) and T.E. Lawrence (right) at the Pyramids during the under the most perilous conditions. Cairo Conference in 1921. Bottom: Bell at a picnic with Faisal (right fore- Despite her independence and ground) in 1921, near Ctesiphon, Iraq. Photographs courtesy University of fearlessness, her letters home to her Newcastle. adored and adoring father Hugh and stepmother Florence Bell show a strong and childlike need for their approval all her life.

A Small World Perhaps most paradoxical — and ironic — of all, she, a woman, was a key political player in a male-domi- nated world, a lone female moving among powerful men and develop- ing her own power. Even more remarkable, she achieved this stature in the Middle East.

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 45 Whereas almost all women there They create an exclusive (though it’s were (and most remain) truly also a very second-rate) English soci- oppressed, Bell manipulated, Bell manipulated, ety quite cut off from the life of the cajoled and badgered local sheiks town. I now understand why British and religious leaders for her own — cajoled and badgered government has come to grief in and Britain’s — ends. She was held India, where our women do just the in great esteem and referred to as local sheiks and religious same thing.” the “khatun,” a highly regarded and One becomes aware very quickly powerful woman. Wallach quotes leaders for her own — of the small world in which Bell David Hogarth, who worked in the moved. Through her family’s con- office of intelligence in Cairo during and Britain’s — ends. nections she gained entry to the the First World War, as saying that Foreign Office and the Indian Civil T. E. Lawrence’s “revolt in the Service — to a large extent starting desert” would not have been possi- when her father passed on her let- ble without the intelligence provid- ters from the field to influential peo- ed by Bell. ple in London. The same names At the same time, a woman of in Baghdad, she lamented in anoth- crop up constantly. She first met privilege and very traditional, she er letter: “A collection of more tire- T. E. Lawrence in 1909 when she was against women’s suffrage. Most some women I never encountered. was crossing northern Syria on her women didn’t have the required … I know I’m regrettably inelastic, first trek into Mesopotamia, and he intelligence or experience to vote, but I simply can’t bear that sort. … was a 19-year-old Oxford student she believed. In particular, she was These idle women here have noth- excavating the ruins at Carchimesh. the scourge of the Foreign Office ing to do all day long. … [They] take Later in Iraq she would work with wives, whom she perceived as no sort of interest in what’s going on, St. John Philby, not always smoothly. empty-headed. Of the British wives know no Arabic and see no Arabs. The Indian Civil Service was also

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JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 47 responsible for Mesopotamia, and lined up before the Sphinx at the Bell first met Sir Percy Cox, who pyramids. was to become High Commissioner She was the scourge of for Mesopotamia after the First The Ultimate in World War, on a visit to India in the Foreign Office wives, “Wild Travel” 1902. By the time Cox arrived in For some of us, perhaps, most Baghdad after the Turkish defeat in whom she perceived as fascinating are her own descriptions 1917, she had been in and out of the of the “wild travel” that added zest region many times, and he soon empty-headed. to her life. Her Arabian Diaries, realized how invaluable her experi- written in 1913-14 for Dick ence and local connections would be Doughty-Wylie (with whom she was in carrying out the British mandate hopelessly in love), contains some of that would result from the Paris her most lyrical descriptions of liv- Peace Treaty. bargain, was promised a crown, ing in the desert. One morning she She seemed to be everywhere — though not the one he ultimately woke as the sun rose, and wrote that in the British intelligence office in got. And in early 1921 she was at the it was like being “inside an opal.” Cairo before her four-month jour- Cairo Conference led by Winston And she describes in some detail the ney by camel caravan into north- Churchill, then colonial secretary, four months she traveled with her central Arabia in 1914; at the Paris where it was decided that Iraq was own camel caravan from Jerusalem Peace Conference in 1919, where to be self-governing because it was south, and then east through Arabia, she met Prince Faisal of Mecca, the too expensive to support as a protec- traversing territory claimed by both leader of the Arabian revolt against torate. There, resplendent in furs the Shammar tribe and their blood the Turks during the war. Faisal, and a big hat, she posed with Cox, enemies, the Sauds. She was by with whom the British government Lawrence, the Churchills and other then formally charged by the British (through Lawrence), had made a dignitaries while seated on camels government with gathering informa-

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48 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 tion about conditions there, though During her earlier Syria trip, she even they promised her no protection participated in preparations for a trib- while she traveled. And always she spent al raid involving gunfire, chanting and At Hayil in 1914 she was held dancing around a bonfire. hostage by the local sheik inside his time with the local She often described the cold, mud fortress — or rather, as he was damp desert winter in her little sleep- away, by his tough old grandmother. people, in the desert ing tent, and the usefulness of her fur This family, the Rashids, head of the coat. She was always writing for Shammar, were particularly self- sitting cross-legged on dresses to be sent from London, but destructive, killing each other off admitted to her stepmother early on until the young sheik was the only the ground in their tents, that she had arranged to have split one left to lead the clan. In addition skirts made locally so she could ride to sounding them out, Bell needed in their homes and coffee her horse astride (though camels did the Rashids to honor a letter of cred- not require it). Far from roughing it, it so she could provision her caravan, houses in town and city. she traveled with a table and bed and was held up for several days for linens, china and crystal, all strapped reasons she did not really know. She onto a camel or mule, as well as a fold- was finally given some bags of gold ing canvas bathtub — which, on occa- and sent on her way. sions when she camped near a well, And always she spent time with the edge of their history, drank countless rather than an oasis, came in handy to local people, in the desert sitting tiny cups of thick black coffee, water the camels. cross-legged on the ground in their exchanged gifts, ate with her fingers tents, in their homes and coffee hous- the roasted lamb served on huge trays Baghdad At Last es in town and city. She pleased them piled with rice, and chain-smoked cig- When she finally settled down in with her colloquial Arabic and knowl- arettes while they sucked water pipes. Baghdad in 1917, having followed

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 the victorious British army into the see me whenever they return from city where she would remain until her Syria or Arabia and telling me what death less than 10 years later, she In another letter they’ve heard and seen. The tea party became the right-hand “man” for the was delightful. The walls of the diwan High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, she refers with disdain to are mellow with decades of tobacco and was named Oriental Secretary, smoke, the furniture, benches around her first paid position with the British the English newspapers the room and one table for us at the government. She was given a house upper end. ... We talked Arab politics and an office, and had virtual carte that expected [High with great gusto for an hour and a blanche to deal with the local political, half. ... I do like them so much. They tribal, ethnic and religious leaders to Commissioner Percy] are to me an endless romance. They promote the interests of the British come and go through the wilderness government. And since she believed Cox to bring about a as if it were a high road, and they all, that the British mandate was the best most politely, treat me as a colleague, thing that could have happened to stable, modern state because I, too, have been in Arcadia. Mesopotamia, especially after what When they talk of tribes or sheiks or she perceived as the misrule of the instantly. watering places, I don’t need to ask Turks, she had no problem trying to who and where they are. I know; and persuade her clients that what was as they talk I see again the wide good for Britain was good for them. Arabian horizon.” Many of them, but not all, agreed. Ever the realist, in another letter In a 1920 letter home, she ure in Baghdad to meet merchants she refers with disdain to the described her method of collecting and caravan drivers in a coffee house. English newspapers that expected information. She and a male col- “I do them a good turn whenever I Cox to bring about a stable, modern league were invited by a leading fig- can and they respond by coming in to state instantly. “He has only to say

50 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 ‘Hey, presto’ for an Arab govern- while, worse still, the existence of a ment to leap on to the stage, with brisk trade in supplies to the enemy, another Athene springing from the By August 1921 both on the Iraq front and in Syria, forehead of Zeus. You may say if you was brought to light.” like that Sir Percy will play the role Gertrude could write Despite such difficulties, by of Zeus, but his Athene will find the August 1921 Gertrude could write tri- stage encumbered by such trifles as triumphantly that it had umphantly that it had been a difficult the Shiah [sic] problem, the tribal week but “we have got our king” — in problem and other matters, over been a difficult week but no small part because of her efforts. which even a goddess might easily In addition to the political maneuver- stumble.” And in another letter, “we have got our king” ing to bring about the new country “One of the papers says, quite right- and drawing its borders, she took on ly, that we had promised an Arab — in no small part the traditional female tasks of finding government with British advisers, King Faisal a house, decorating it, and and had set up a British government because of her efforts. preparing it for his arrival in Baghdad. with Arab advisers. That’s a perfect- She advised him about his coronation ly fair statement. ...” clothes, and those of his son, and In a retrospective summary of con- designed a flag, and helped plan the ditions in Iraq at independence — much the tribes as the holy cities of ceremony itself. inserted among Gertrude’s letters by Islam, Karbala and Najaf.” The sheiks Bell stayed on as general guide, her stepmother, for their posthumous of these towns, given small monthly confidante, and friend of the king publication — Percy Cox noted allowances and sent home with orders who, Wallach writes, became a bit among other things that “the most to maintain law and order, “were restive under her constant watchful thorny problem on the Euphrates at found to be abusing their positions eye. She really felt she belonged that time (early 1920s) was not so and making hay while the sun shone; nowhere else, despite medical

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51 advice that she escape the dreaded her museum. heat of Baghdad summers. She The writer Vita Sackville-West wrote to her father in 1922 that it is Sackville-West writes, stayed with Bell in Baghdad in 1926 “shocking how the East has wound just a few months before Bell’s death. itself around my heart till I don’t “I watched them both — En route to visit her diplomat hus- know which is me and which is it. ... band Harold Nicolson in Tehran, I’m more a citizen of Bagdad [sic] the Arab prince and Sackville-West describes in her book than many a Bagdadi born, and I’ll Passenger to Tehran, published the wager that no Bagdadi cares more, the Englishwoman who same year, arriving inside Bell’s walled or half so much, for the beauty of the garden ill and exhausted after a jour- river or the palm gardens, or clings were trying to build up ney by land and sea from India. She more closely to the rights of citizen- found Bell’s pony hitched in a corner, ship which I have acquired.” a new Mesopotamia a couple of dogs, a tame partridge, and the servants’ small children Final Years between them.” among the shrubs and flowers. Taken Within a year or two after the in hand by Bell before she dashed off coronation, she realized she needed to her office, and between making something else to do and began to phone calls and chatting about who plan and build “her” museum, the British archaeologist Leonard Wool- was coming to lunch, Sackville-West Iraqi National Museum which she ley was at work, and bribing the local was provided breakfast and a bath in would then help stock from the digging team. Bell offered them what she describes as a tin saucer. accumulated artifacts from such bakshish (gifts) to produce treasures, Responding to her request for a fabled sites as Babylon, Nineveh and which slowly emerged from pockets saluki dog, Bell made a phone call Ur. In a droll passage, Wallach and other hiding places and which she before she left. A short time later describes Bell visiting Ur, where the then packed off back to Baghdad for Sackville-West was confronted with

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52 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 several local men, each with a dirty Coda and flea-ridden animal — one of the Political strife in Iraq did not dogs was selected when Bell returned “The Kingdom of Iraq settle down after the coronation. for lunch carrying a handful of flowers In 1923 Shia divines in the south for the luncheon table. The other has been placed on its began to stir up trouble and were dogs were sent away, and orders given shipped off to Persia. The areas to de-flea and shampoo the one feet, ... its future east of Erbil, Kifri and Kirkuk were remaining. causing headaches for the adminis- Bell later took her to tea with the prosperity and progress trators in Baghdad. The Kurds in king, and Sackville-West writes, “I the north were kicking up trouble. watched them both — the Arab prince rest with the Iraqis And, finally, the Turks were ejected and the Englishwoman who were try- along the northern border later ing to build up a new Mesopotamia themselves.” that year. But the reign of the between them. ‘You see,’ she had said Hashemites lasted until 1958, when to me, ‘we feel here that we are trying — Percy Cox Faisal’s grandson and family were to do something worthwhile, some- assassinated. thing creative and constructive.’ Today, almost 80 years later, Cox’s [A]nd despite her deference to his roy- words, written shortly after Bell’s alty, there could be very little doubt as an overdose of sleeping pills and never death and bound into a volume of to which of the two was the real genius woke up. She was three days short of her letters, come back to haunt us: of Iraq.” her 58th birthday. She was buried the “The Kingdom of Iraq has been A few months later, on July 11, next day — before a huge crowd that placed on its feet, and its frontiers 1926, Bell went to her bedroom after gathered along the cortege route to defined; its future prosperity and dinner. She asked her maid to wake pay their last respects — in the British progress rest with the Iraqis them- her at six the next morning, then took cemetery of the city she loved. selves.” 

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 53 BOOKS

Forging a New Armitage, Condoleezza Rice, may oppose you, but when they real- Foreign Policy Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz ize you can hurt them, they’ll join and Dick Cheney. your side.” Journalist James Mann shows us a He also offers a tantalizing insight Rise of the Vulcans: The History youthful Major Colin Powell walking into the Secretary-designate. While of Bush’s War Cabinet into a Quonset hut in Da Nang to she has taken care to avoid alienating James Mann, Viking/Penguin, 2004, take his GRE, paving the way for conservatives, she has avoided being $17.65, hardcover, 372 pages. him to earn an MBA at The George swept up into factional disputes Washington University — early evi- between Republicans. She helps the REVIEWED BY DAVID CASAVIS dence of the lifelong devotion to the president to straddle policy divides value of professional education and while advocating a dramatic break In the halcyon years between the training that he would bring with with ideas of the past. fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 him to Foggy Bottom in 2001. We As we have seen during the past attacks, the looming question at watch his steady rise through the four years, Europe — at least “Old State was: What now? What grand ranks of the Army to the position of Europe,” as Defense Secretary construct should displace the Cold chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Rumsfeld puts it — is no longer at the War policy of containment? under the Clinton administration, center of U.S. strategic thinking. Nor In response, President George H. where an atmosphere of endless do the Vulcans regard international W. Bush declared a “New World unstructured meetings enrages and organizations, or even the alliances of Order” of liberal democracies, and disgusts him. The reader who the New World Order, as necessary. there was no shortage of candidates recalls Powell’s oft-used term “a Mann quotes Paul Wolfowitz’s view for alliances and partnerships. For a skunk at the picnic” will find out that allies should be treated as duck- while it even seemed that both where it came from in these pages. lings that would inevitably get in line major political parties were on the We are introduced to an equally behind their American mother. same page, until around 2000. youthful Armitage returning from Rise of the Vulcans explains the Enter the Vulcans, a band of six Vietnam with a genuine concern for reasoning behind our occupation of foreign policy thinkers and practi- Southeast Asia. “I was tired of being Iraq and the direction of American tioners who named themselves after on the pointy edge of the spear, and foreign policy for at least the next the Greek god of fire and metal- I wanted to see who was chucking four years — and possibly far longer. working. Although several of them the spear,” he says. Mann’s account According to the Vulcans, nearly had held high-level positions in pre- helps us understand why Powell and every political thinker at State today vious Republican administrations, his Deputy Secretary of State have is obsolete. Indeed, after 9/11, when and some have been collaborating in been such a close-knit team. Pakistan’s ambassador tried to and out of government for over 35 The Vulcans’ foreign policy vision explain the background of his coun- years, it was George W. Bush’s elec- is founded on the principle that the try’s relationship with the Taliban, tion that put them in the position to United States should be unafraid Dick Armitage cut him short. implement their radically different to wield unchallengeable military “History begins today,” he said. approach to statecraft. strength. That power is coupled Whatever one thinks of that view- Rise of the Vulcans: The History with confidence in America’s virtue point, and the assumptions that sup- of Bush’s War Cabinet is perhaps and its natural role as world leader. port it, this book makes for com- best described as a group biography Mann quotes National Security pelling reading, backed by painstak- profiling six of the most prominent Adviser — now Secretary of State- ing detail. Here are the behind-the- Vulcans: Colin Powell, Richard Designate — Rice as saying, “People scenes struggles and the building

54 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 B OOKS u blocks of foreign policy forged by neath the boulder at the bottom of the saves the greatest onus for Arafat and the Vulcans. The future has arrived. mountain, reading Ross’s extended his essential inability to seize the review of the bidding is vital for those moment and make the compromises David Casavis, a frequent contributor who would contemplate another rock- that only he had the psychological to the Journal, works for the Depart- pushing expedition. authority among Palestinians to make. ment of Homeland Security. Ross adroitly avoids the major pit- Admittedly, in the end, only the falls of politico-historical writing. Palestinians could decide whether a Missing Peace is not a once-over-light- good agreement was good enough. A True “Insider” ly memoir high on impression but But their rejection has come at con- light on substantive fact (the writings siderable cost. Nevertheless, despite Account of certain former Secretaries of State his generous distribution of blame, come to mind). While it is engaging Ross flatly rejects the concept of The Missing Peace: The Inside for the casual reader, it offers plenty “imposing” peace; such a fiat would Story of the Fight for Middle of fact and commentary for the simply be an exercise allowing the East Peace Middle East specialist. (It includes a parties to avoid responsibility for the Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and 20-page epilogue updating develop- hard compromises necessary for per- Giroux, 2004, $35, hardcover, 840 ments to the present.) manent agreement. pages. He also avoids the infallibility There are indeed problems that myth; he is not always the hero of his belong in the “too hard” box. Missing REVIEWED BY DAVID T. JONES own work, but admits to error both of Peace demonstrates that all parties to commission and omission. Likewise, a dispute can make genuine compro- The Missing Peace: The Inside he is bluntly critical of senior U.S. mises, go further than ever in seeking Story of the Fight for Middle East policy-makers, including President agreement, and still fail. And the les- Peace is Dennis Ross’s view of Middle Clinton, on occasion. Moreover, he son from failure isn’t always that one East events between 1988-2000. directly confronts the hard-to-raise should try harder next time. Ross, the U.S. envoy to the Middle question of whether his Jewish faith East and the Secretary’s Special was a complicating distraction to all David T. Jones, a retired Senior Middle East Coordinator, cannot Middle East actors, and although he Foreign Service officer and frequent claim to be “present at the cre- concludes that such was not the case, contributor to the Journal, recently ation”— in the end, nothing was cre- he deserves credit for raising the spent two years studying the Middle ated. But he was decidedly present, point. East peace process as part of the State and his voice is unique as creator, Ultimately, what may be the most Department’s Office of the Historian. implementer and observer of U.S. interesting portion of the Ross policy throughout that 12-year period. account is the story of the final 18 Today, more than four years after months of the Clinton administra- Poetry and Mayhem the Camp David peace effort in July tion’s efforts in the region, particular- 2000 and the outbreak of the intifada ly his unprecedented insider account that September, peace in the Middle of the 14 days at Camp David in July Shiraz in the Age of Hafez: The East looks as distant as a manned 2000 between Israelis and Palestin- Glory of a Medieval Persian City landing on Mars: technically conceiv- ians. As he notes, the media des- John Limbert, University of able but with so many obstacles in its cribed those efforts as a failure, Washington Press, 2004, $22.50, path that the effort appears futile but the negotiating teams thought paperback, 192 pages (including even to begin. Yet, throughout much breakthroughs were still possible. six photos). of the 12-year process that Ross Accordingly, the United States con- describes, political leadership through- tinued to devote unprecedented REVIEWED BY FRANK CRAWFORD out the region and the United States amounts of its scarcest resource — believed that a lasting, mutually agreed the time of its executive leadership — Shiraz in the Age of Hafez: The peace was not only conceivable but but to no avail. Glory of a Medieval Persian City lives likely. Now, at a moment when While Ross liberally attributes up to the promise both of its title Sisyphus seems to lie crushed be- errors and shortcomings to Israelis, he and its subject. Ambassador John

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55 B OOKS u

Limbert, who served in Iran both as a turies. Though subject to Mongol neighboring magnates and sank Peace Corps Volunteer and an FSO in suzerainty, the wily Shirazis were suf- repeatedly into depression and the 1970s (and was one of the diplo- ficiently removed from the center of debauchery. He was succeeded by mats held hostage there from 1979 to Mongol power in the north to enable Amir Mohammad Mozaffer, strict in 1981), has evoked the life and history, them to pursue their endless quarrels, religion and confiscatory in practice, both bloody and sublime, of Shiraz triumphs, and defeats more or less known as “The Inspector.” Hafez during the lifetime of the great unfettered by Mongol meddling. wrote of him: “Drink not wine to the Persian poet Hafez (ca. 1320-1389). One of the more colorful rulers strains of the harp, for the inspector is Shiraz has been from time to time the was Jamal al-Din Shah Sheikh Abu awake.” capital of Iran, or at least the capital of Eshaq, who commanded the city- Such personalities typify the several minor dynasties. It has sur- state from 1343 to 1357. He appears dichotomy in the life of Shiraz in the vived as a lovely city, beloved of many to have been afflicted with what 14th century. These quarrelsome Iranians, not least as the native city of would today be called bipolar disor- people finally got their comeuppance Hafez, but also that of Sa’adi, another der. According to Hafez and the when the conqueror Timur, having great Persian poet. chroniclers the author relies on, Abu occupied Shiraz for the second time, The people of Shiraz were lucky in Eshaq was noted for his “intelligence, arrested all the remaining princes and that their city, located in southwest bravery, chivalry and generosity” and the city’s artists, scholars and crafts- Iran, was far enough south to escape was devoted to art, literature and reli- men. The princes he murdered and the direct onslaught of Mongol gious scholarship. At the same time, the others, clearly useful people, he invaders in the 13th and 14th cen- he foolishly provoked conflict with sent on to his capital, Samarqand.

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How is it that a city of 60,000, beset of the society and the longevity of a “If they take Jesus’ ass to Mecca, by mayhem and vice, can be described few stabilizing families no doubt gen- When it returns it is still an ass.” as glorious? Limbert squares that cir- erated a sort of tolerance and a seen- This book is dedicated to Terence cle nicely with a description of Shiraz it-all attitude that made the achieve- O’Donnell. For those of us fortunate as a bundle of contradictions: a violent, ment possible. enough to have lived in Iran in the unstable place full of drunkards and This book is based on extensive 1950s and 1960s and to have enjoyed “bloodthirsty hypocrites” but also a research in Persian sources. It is not Terry’s generous personality and his “tower of saints” where holy men what one would call an “easy read,” subtle understanding of Iran, as evi- prayed, fasted and nourished the poor, and, as the author points out, the denced in his fine books, Garden of and an “abode of knowledge” where Persian names and titles are as daunt- the Brave in War and Seven Shades of scholars studied Islam and where the ing as a Russian novel, if not more so. Memory, it was a delightful bonus to arts, especially poetry, were generous- (He has helpfully provided a guide to encounter his name again.  ly encouraged. Persian nomenclature.) Neverthe- It is the wonderful treasury of less, the effort pays off and the expo- Franklin J. Crawford is a retired Persian poetry that means most to the sure to Persian poetry is a double div- Foreign Service officer who served in modern reader. It is astounding that idend. The texts are in Persian with Hong Kong, Turkey, Iran, Sri Lanka Hafez and others could produce a English translations. One memorable and Washington, D.C. As consul in body of such ironic, skeptical, astrin- example comes from Sa’adi, Hafez’s Isfahan from 1957 to 1960, he was gent and truthful work in the midst of compatriot, and serves as the author’s fortunate to have Shiraz in his con- such a chaotic century. The disparities modest disclaimer of infallibility: sular district.

JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57

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JANUARY 2005/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 63 REFLECTIONS

They Grow Up So Fast...

BY LULWA BORDCOSH

he subject was the difference With a mouth full of cookie Tbetween a verb and an adverb. As I felt ashamed that crumbs Mohammad replied, “No, I stood in front of the classroom, writ- America, with all its Jihad, there is a difference between ing examples on the blackboard, I was the past Britain and the new Britain. hit in the back of the head with a paper wealth and power, The past Britain were colonizers, airplane. I turned to find two of my stu- does so little for the but the new Britain, you see, they dents wrestling on the ground, while are not. You can’t call it all one the others were running around. To children of Shatila. thing.” lose control over a classroom is not I was amazed how aware these unusual for a new teacher. But this was w children were not only of their own not your ordinary classroom, and these political situation, but that of the rest were not your ordinary 8-year-olds. Massacre memorial, countless Pales- of the world. They would ask me why I would set out a box of crayons tinian flags and nationalist murals. As Americans love Israel and hate them. and ask them to draw a picture. I tried to maneuver around the pud- One day, 6-year-old Mira asked, Instead of the typical house with a sun dles of sewage and bundles of trash, I “Aren’t we as cute as the Israeli chil- in the corner, they would draw a tank realized that this is this boy’s life; these dren?” I realized Mira and her firing at a house. When asked to sing are the images he sees every day. As friends will most likely spend their a song, it would not be “Twinkle, refugees, with no passports, with no entire lives in the refugee camp, see- Twinkle Little Star,” but a song about nationality and because of the stigma ing their children and grandchildren the orange groves in old Palestine. associated with being Palestinian, struggle with the same issues of vio- When I asked them to talk about their these children will probably grow up lence, poverty and discrimination. relatives, I would not hear about the to become vegetable vendors or taxi These Palestinian children made trip to Disneyland with grandma and drivers. I was upset to realize that me realize that an innocent childhood grandpa. Instead, I would hear how Mohammad, who dreams of becom- is not universal. My experience at the their grandparents were massacred in ing a doctor, will have his potential refugee camp this past summer made 1982. These children were different. wasted. I asked him what he would me both proud and ashamed. I was They lived their entire lives in Shatila, be if he did not become a doctor. proud that I was lucky enough to grow the Palestinian refugee camp outside With a big smile he shrugged his up in America, in a free and political- Beirut. They have known nothing but shoulders and responded cheerfully, ly stable country, where I had a care- violence, destruction and conflict. “a taxi driver.” free childhood with Crayola coloring One day I walked to class with Before class, I would hand out books and Care Bear cartoons. As a Mohammad. We passed the Shatila treats to the children and listen to child, I had no idea what Reagan- them talk. One day, with juice boxes omics was, why curtains were made of Lulwa Bordcosh, a former intern at in hand and straws drawn at each iron, or why wars were cold. the Journal, currently attends the other, I found two of my students Perhaps if we did more to ensure University of California, Santa Bar- arguing over British foreign policy. every child around the world had a bara, where she will earn her B.A. in “I would never want to go to childhood of innocence, a new gen- global/international studies and pro- Britain,” 8-year-old Jihad said. “The eration of peaceful youth would fessional writing in June 2005. The British are colonizers. They not only arise for whom war is not a reality, stamp is courtesy of the AAFSW colonized our land, but they colonized but something to read about in a his- Bookfair “Stamp Corner.” Egypt and Iraq too.” tory book. 

64 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JANUARY 2005 AFSAAmerican Foreign ServiceNEWS Association • January 2005

LAST CALL FOR AFSA AWARD NOMINATIONS Inside This Help AFSA Honor Dissenters Issue: ime is running out to send in your quoted in an Associated Press article on BRIEFS: USAA...... 2 nominations for AFSA’s 2005 last year’s awards ceremony, “We honor FS WOMEN AT STATE ...... 3 TConstructive Dissent and Exemp- dissent and we honor our colleagues’ THE RESERVES & THE FILES ...... 3 lary Performance Awards. We need your right to dissent.” FCS NEW YEAR’S WISH...... 4 help to carry on our proud tradition of Information on submitting a nomina- RETIREES: ALPHABET SOUP...... 5 recognizing and rewarding Foreign tion was detailed in the December 2004 MEMO OF THE MONTH ...... 8 Service employees who are willing to AFSA News and is also posted on the AFSA Q&A: RESIDENTIAL FURNITURE ...... 9 challenge the system from within and Web site at www.afsa.org/awards, along take a stand for what they believe. AFSA with a nomination form. Send questions IRAQ SERVICE AND PROMOTIONS is the only organization representing fed- to Barbara Berger, Coordinator for Profes- eral employees to actively encourage and sional Issues, at [email protected]. When Appreciation publicly honor those who are the “risk- Please take the time to send in your takers” and “shin-kickers” in our midst. nomination now. The deadline is Crosses the Line As AFSA President John Limbert was Feb. 25. ▫ FSA reacted strongly against the message sent worldwide by the FOCUS ON GRIEVANCES Adepartment repeating a congratu- latory statement from Ambassador John USAID Refuses to Comply with FSGB Decisions Negroponte to employees of Embassy Baghdad on their high rate of promo- n two recent grievance cases, USAID due process to Foreign Service employ- tions. AFSA has no objection to an has refused to implement the decisions ees: that’s why Congress mandated it in ambassador expressing pride in the Iof the Foreign Service Grievance the Foreign Service Act of 1980. The rules accomplishments of those who have Board. AFSA is urging that USAID take of the game and the law are clear: a served or are serving at his mission. What immediate action to implement both Grievance Board decision is binding on AFSA does object to is implying or stat- decisions. the parties unless or until a judicial appeal ing that those who serve in a particular The Foreign Service Grievance System overturns it, and both parties — agencies post will be rewarded with promotions. exists to provide a measure of justice and Continued on page 6 The bluntly-worded AFSANET sent out by AFSA State Vice President Louise Crane on the topic generated a strong Foreign Affairs response from the field: over 200 respons- Council Gives es, all but a few of them supporting the AFSA position. The responses came in Secretary from Foreign Service employees from all Powell High ranks, including officers who have served in Baghdad and have since been promot- Marks ed. As AFSA President John Limbert explains, any implication that service in See page 4 for full story Iraq gives employees a leg up on promo- Continued on page 7 AFSANEWSBRIEFS Don’t Miss the AFSA Scholarship Tilting at Windmills: A USAA Update Application Deadline Bearing 302 proxies from AFSA members, AFSA Governing Board member Ted Wilkinson represented The deadline for AFSA Scholarship applications is Feb. 6, for all Foreign AFSA at the annual USAA meeting in Chicago on Nov. Service employees whose children want to apply for free money for college. 13. Not surprisingly, 302 votes did not change any out- High school seniors can apply for the one-time-only academic or art merit come — key votes were adopted with majorities of about awards. We also offer need-based 100,000 — but the fact that so many AFSA members took financial aid scholarships for under- the trouble to send proxies helped ensure that our voice graduate college study. Awards range was heard. In particular, General Counsel Steven Bennett, from $1,000 to $3,000. Go to despite being responsible for the organization and con- www.afsa.org/scholar/index.cfm for JOSH duct of the annual meeting, gave an hour to go over all the details, or contact Lori Dec AFSA’s case with Wilkinson. at [email protected] or 1 (800) 704-2372, Bennett repeated arguments that we have heard often ext. 504. before: that USAA is trying to limit its membership clear- Life in the Foreign Service ly so as to keep a defined “niche” in the market, and had  BY BRIAN AGGELER, FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER reached a policy decision that as of 2002, new applications from FAS, FCS and USAID Foreign Service employees would not be accepted, and Foreign Service personnel “within the four corners of the State Department” who apply would qualify as “associate members.” (see p. 8). Wilkinson emphasized that the clearest criterion for lim- iting future USAA membership would be to include only personnel under the Foreign Service Act, which would overturn the arbitrary exclusion of FAS, FCS and USAID. Bennett undertook to review the issue once more and get back to us early next year, although he made no promises about the outcome of the review. Wilkinson also had a chance to talk with several USAA Board mem- bers, who expressed interest in the issue, promised to talk to Bennett about the review, and were surprised that any insurance company would be turning away valuable clients. Stay tuned … Briefs • Continued on page 7

AFSA HEADQUARTERS: Staff: Governing Board:

s: (202) 338-4045; Fax: (202) 338-6820 Executive Director Susan Reardon: [email protected] Business Department STATE DEPARTMENT AFSA OFFICE: PRESIDENT: John W. Limbert (202) 647-8160; Fax: (202) 647-0265 Controller Kalpna Srimal: [email protected] STATE VICE PRESIDENT: Louise K. Crane USAID AFSA OFFICE: Accounting Assistant Steven Tipton: [email protected] (202) 712-1941; Fax: (202) 216-3710 Labor Management USAID VICE PRESIDENT: Bill Carter General Counsel Sharon Papp: [email protected] FCS VICE PRESIDENT: Charles A. Ford FCS AFSA OFFICE: Labor Management Attorney Zlatana Badrich: [email protected] (202) 482-9088; Fax: (202) 482-9087 Labor Management Specialist James Yorke: [email protected] FAS VICE PRESIDENT: Laura Scandurra USAID Senior Labor Management Advisor Douglas Broome: [email protected] RETIREE VICE PRESIDENT: George F. Jones AFSA WEB SITE: www.afsa.org USAID Office Manager Asgeir Sigfusson: [email protected] SECRETARY: F.A. “Tex” Harris AFSA E-MAIL: [email protected] Grievance Attorneys Neera Parikh: [email protected] and AFSA NEWS: [email protected] Joe Slotnick: [email protected] TREASURER: Danny Hall FSJ: [email protected] Office Manager Christine Warren: [email protected] STATE REPRESENTATIVES: Todd A. Kushner, PRESIDENT: [email protected] Law Clerk Marques Peterson: [email protected] Elizabeth Horst, Scot L. Folensbee, STATE VP: [email protected] Member Services Tulinabo Mushingi, John C. Sullivan, RETIREE VP: [email protected] Director Janet Hedrick: [email protected] Jim Wagner USAID VP:[email protected] Representative Cory Nishi: [email protected] FCS VP: [email protected] Web site & Database Associate Meijing Shan: [email protected] USAID REPRESENTATIVE: Thomas Olson Administrative Assistant Ana Lopez: [email protected] FAS VP: [email protected] FCS REPRESENTATIVE: William Crawford

w to Contact U Contact w to Outreach Programs RETIREE REPRESENTATIVES: Gilbert Sheinbaum, Retiree Liaison Bonnie Brown: [email protected] AFSA News Director of Communications Thomas Switzer: [email protected] David E. Reuther, Theodore S. Wilkinson, III, Editor Shawn Dorman: [email protected] Congressional Affairs Director Ken Nakamura: [email protected] Stanley A. Zuckerman

Ho (202) 338-4045 x 503; Fax: (202) 338-8244 Corporate Relations/Executive Assistant Austin Tracy: [email protected] IBB REPRESENTATIVE: Laurie Kassman On the Web: www.afsa.org/news Scholarship Director Lori Dec: [email protected] Professional Issues Coordinator Barbara Berger: [email protected] FAS REPRESENTATIVE: Michael Conlon

2 AFSA NEWS • JANUARY 2005 MILITARY RESERVISTS AND OFFICIAL V.P. VOICE: STATE  BY LOUISE CRANE PERFORMANCE FILES Filling the Gaps How are FS Women at State Faring? longstanding practice at the State here are some perennial concerns among members of Department has been to account the Foreign Service. One is the status of women in the A for any period of leave without pay TService. It’s a subject of interest to me, because when I with a “gap memo” in an employee’s offi- joined, women were required to resign upon marriage. That cial performance file. Since there are sev- rule was struck down by a court in 1972. I often brag that I eral reasons why you might be missing an was the first Foreign Service career woman to give “legitimate” Employee Evaluation Report in your birth while on active duty, having married shortly after the rule OPF, the gap memo has always been delib- was voided. I also became the first female FS employee to receive erately non-informative. Whether you training in a two-year language — Japanese. So, when an AFSA member wrote to me stating that “recent promotions show that only a quarter of those promoted into and within the Senior Service are women,” I was intrigued and decid- The inclusion of military ed to check the facts. evaluations is entirely optional. Well, the statement is true. However, it’s meaningless. The more relevant ques- tion is: are women being promoted into and within the Senior Foreign Service at the same rate as men? And the answer is yes, almost always, for the past three years. Here were sick, had an EER removed as a result are some illustrative statistics: of a grievance, took LWOP to finish your PROMOTIONS OVER THE THRESHOLD, FROM FS-01 TO FE-0C master’s degree, or were called up to fight Year Total # at Grade Total # Promoted FS-1s, M FS-1s, F FS -1 (M) Promoted FS-1 (F) Promoted for your country, the gap memo merely 2002 1,120 92 810 (72%) 310 (28%) 67 (73%) 25 (27%) 2003 1,135 87 813 (72%) 322 (28%) 64 (74%) 23 (26%) stated that no EER was available for the 2004 1,172 95 833 (71%) 339 (29%) 70 (74%) 25 (26%) period in question. PROMOTIONS WITHIN THE SENIOR FOREIGN SERVICE, FROM FE-OC TO FE-MC The gap memo obviously did military Year Total # FE-OC Total # Promoted FE-OCs, M FE-OCs, F FE -OC (M) Promoted FE-OC (F) Promoted reservists a great disservice, quite apart from 2002 460 55 332 (72%) 128 (28%) 45 (82%) 10 (18%) the fact that the Uniformed Services 2003 456 51 319 (70%) 137 (30%) 29 (57%) 22 (43%) 2004 468 49 336 (72%) 132 (28%) 37 (76%) 12 (24%) Employment and Reemployment Rights Act explicitly states that a federal employ- Generally, if women make up 25 percent of the class, they receive 25 percent of the ee may not be disadvantaged in his or her promotions. With the exception of the 2002 and 2003 OC category, women are receiv- career by an absence from the normal place ing a commensurate share of the promotions. Although women were underrepresent- of work while called to active duty in the ed in the MC promotion category in 2002, they were overrepresented in 2003. Economists reserves. This is particularly important might call this a “market” correction. today with so many people being called up The same member asserted that women do not get the same “cushy” posts as men to serve in harm’s way. when they are nominated for chief of mission positions, so I checked. As a result of concern expressed to man- Of the 148 ambassadors listed, we found that 99 are members of the career Foreign agement by AFSA, Human Resources has Service. (While consistent with the historical average, AFSA’s historical and current now agreed that the gap memo for mili- position is that a much higher percentage of chiefs of mission should come from the tary reservists will state that the individual career service.) Of the 99 ambassadors who are career FS, only 23 are female. One of was absent on active military duty. them is from the Foreign Agricultural Service, so that leaves 22 percent who are State Furthermore, those who request it may Department women. Assuming that chiefs of mission are drawn from the ranks of have their military evaluations included in OCs and MCs, as of Aug. 31, 2004, there were 853 at the OC and MC levels, of whom their OPFs. The inclusion of military eval- 222 (or 26 percent) were women. So, women are underrepresented in the ranks of uations is entirely optional, because we chiefs of missions drawn from the career service at State. understand that not everyone will want, or AFSA did not try to make any subjective evaluation of the relative importance of in some cases, be able to have their mili- the countries in which we have female ambassadors. The 23 career female COMs are tary evaluations included in their OPFs. If assigned to: Albania, Angola, Burma, Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, you do, make sure to send copies to Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Lesotho, Madagascar, Micronesia, Moldova, HR/PE. If you have any questions about Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Panama, Suriname, Syria and this issue, please contact James Yorke by Turkmenistan. The reader can draw his or her own conclusions as to whether or not e-mail: [email protected]. ▫ women are relegated to the less cushy posts. ▫

JANUARY 2005 • AFSA NEWS 3 ASSESSING SECRETARY POWELL’S V.P. VOICE: FCS  BY CHARLES A. FORD STATE DEPARTMENT The Importance of Foreign Affairs Being Honest Council Gives Powell High Marks t is difficult to write the typical January column, full of new hope and optimism for FCS, in a November when the mul- BY DAVID CODDEN Itiple frustrations and false hopes of 2004 are still fresh, and t an AFSA-sponsored press confer- cynicism abounds. This New Year’s wish for leadership and ence on Nov. 22, the Foreign Affairs professional competence, combined with a new sense of mis- ACouncil, an umbrella group of 10 sion, is a sincere one. It is also attainable, given the talent of our new management team organizations — including AFSA, the and a revamped and expanded Office of Foreign Service Human Resources that should American Academy of Diplomacy and the be fully operational early in 2005. But it will be necessary to overcome the incompe- Associates of the American Foreign Service tence and drift that has stalled progress on a shared agenda to date. Worldwide — discussed its new report: Let’s start with the basics: personnel and payroll. It is hard to engage on other issues “Secretary Colin Powell’s State Department: when weekly and monthly meetings fail to solve simple things like determining base- An Independent Assessment.” pay levels or answering fundamental personnel policy questions. I can’t tell you how The FAC is concerned with “process- depressing it is to see so much valuable time wasted trying to obtain answers to key ques- management of U.S. policy and the peo- tions that have an important finan- ple involved therein.” In this domain, cial or career impact. These are often Secretary Powell received high marks. There is integrity in the system: answers that should be findable on the Ambassador Thomas Boyatt, FAC’s Intranet Web site and require no staff founder and president, praised Powell’s what is lacking are transparency time at all. “extraordinary performance,” noting that This year’s Senior Selection under Powell’s leadership 30 percent of the and openness and enough training Board was charged with making rec- personnel and resources lost during the and information. ommendations for adjusting the pay budget-cutting of the 1990s have been of individual members of the Senior recovered. Foreign Service, yet despite repeat- The report looks at the achievements ed attempts, they could find no approved guidance from the Commerce made by Secretary Powell and his man- Department as to how they should make those decisions. We likely will spend most agement team, and calls Powell “an of the first half of 2005 arguing over pay levels and how to adjust them. There has exemplary CEO.” The report cites to be a better way! achievements in two crucial areas: In the realm of recruitment, performance management and selection boards, I see strengthening the leadership culture at nothing to create a sense of hope. In an era of flat-lined budgets, significant retirement State and remedying management flaws. of a whole generation of officers, rising costs overseas and ever-increasing security con- Employee morale, which had been dan- cerns, I have found no strategic vision for the way forward in recruiting, assignments gerously low, is now robust, and the old or allocation of overseas staff. There is still no genuine career development but rather tensions between the Foreign Service and a mechanistic process to fill the slots, which is, at least, more transparent than it used the Civil Service have subsided, under the to be. mantra “one mission, one team.” We were successful in putting in place a new performance management system, yet Moreover, staffing has improved under widespread misunderstanding and mistrust remain among members as to how the process the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative, and works, as well as strong suspicion that it is manipulated by a few insiders who take care IT has finally caught up with the 21st cen- of their own. I can tell you that this cynicism is misplaced, as I have watched the selec- tury. State’s hardware is now on a four- tion board process closely, having served both on boards and in management. There year replacement cycle, and it is beta-test- is integrity in the system: what is lacking are transparency and openness and enough ing the State Messaging and Archival training and information, as well as an honest discussion of whether officers should rate Retrieval Tool (SMART), which will and judge fellow officers in an agency this small. replace the antiquated telegram system. We have known most of this for a long time, so we can only hope that 2005 becomes The report also credits Powell with the year of action. In the end, we need the leadership and the vision that will allow us improving State Department relations to renew ourselves, fix longstanding structural problems and rise above the cynicism with Congress, “critical for obtaining and drift that are only serving to hold us back. ▫ resources for his management objectives;”

4 AFSA NEWS • JANUARY 2005

reshaping consular operations to deal V.P. VOICE: RETIREE  BY GEORGE F. JONES with the post-9/11 environment; and revi- talizing public diplomacy. The FAC does not comment on foreign In the Alphabet Soup policy. Its focus is on the managerial aspects of the State Department, which serves as a reminder that the Secretary of State, in addi- ast fall, AFSA Congressional Liaison Ken Nakamura tion to representing U.S. interests abroad, gave the AFSA Governing Board a chart showing the is also the CEO of an organization, in charge L status of legislation in Congress that was of interest to of its day-to-day management. Boyatt calls AFSA and the Foreign Service. On one side was a list of bills Secretary Powell the “best leader and man- “still in play,” those that could possibly be passed before the ager” he’s encountered in his long career end of the 108th Congress. The other side was headed, in the Foreign Service. The challenge now, “Snowball’s chance in …” Under that heading, I regret to he says, is institutionalizing the changes say, were all the items of interest to retirees: health premi- Powell has made, so that they are in place um conversion to pre-tax status, the guarantee that health benefits will be main- regardless of who is Secretary of State. tained equal to those of active duty personnel, the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision. AFSA will ensure that all of these issues are on While citing many the agenda of the new Congress taking office in January, and will work hard for them. accomplishments during However, all of them cost the government money, and as concern grows on both sides of the aisle over the ballooning Powell’s tenure, the report deficit, it’s hard to be optimistic. As all of our retirees know, also looks forward at areas Because I know that they are of interest to many retirees, I want to say concern over how to fund that are still vulnerable. a word about the WEP and the GPO. Social Security remains The Windfall Elimination Provision While citing many accomplishments reduces the Social Security benefit for a major issue today. during Powell’s tenure, the report also looks government annuitants by as much as forward at areas that, while improved, are 60 percent, based on the individual annuitant’s work record. The WEP applies to still vulnerable, and need continuing anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1924, who was not eligible to retire (regardless of attention, including: maintaining a part- when they actually retired) prior to Jan. 1, 1986. According to the National Association nership with Congress, which Powell was of Retired Federal Employees, with whom AFSA works closely on retiree issues in particularly effective at doing; integrating Congress, about 635,000 former federal employees are affected by the WEP, and public diplomacy into the policy process the number is growing by 60,000 every year. WEP was enacted in 1983 as part of and expanding public affairs efforts; and legislation designed to shore up the financing of Social Security. As all of our retirees continuing to improve diplomatic readi- know, concern over how to fund Social Security remains a major issue today. ness as needs grow. The Government Pension Offset prevents retirees from receiving both an annu- The event and the report received wide ity based on the old retirement system (FSRDS) and a Social Security benefit based media coverage, including a story in on a spouse’s work record. If two-thirds of the retiree’s annuity exceeds the Social Government Executive. Agence France- Security benefit, the benefit is not payable. It does not apply to annuities (or por- Presse reporter Matthew Lee wrote that, tions of annuities) based on the new “FERS” retirement system, nor to anyone who “Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin was eligible to retire (regardless of whether they did retire) before Dec. 1, 1982. Powell won high praise on Monday from Bills to repeal or modify these reductions in Social Security benefits have been a team of foreign policy experts for over- introduced in Congress numerous times over the past 10 years, but none have made seeing a radical improvement in working it out of committee. Although bills that would totally repeal both measures were conditions and morale at what they said before the last Congress and will undoubtedly be before the new one, efforts in recent had been a ‘broken’ State Department.” years have concentrated on legislation to limit the reduction in benefits. If your rep- Stephen Barr highlighted the report, and resentative is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and especially Amb. Boyatt’s comments, in his Nov. 28 if he or she is on the Social Security Subcommittee of Ways and Means, let him or Federal Diary in the Washington Post. her know your views and explain how you personally are affected by these provi- AFSA recommends that members sions. This is by far the most effective action you can take. read the full FAC report. A link to the We would also welcome a contribution to AFSA’s Legislative Action Fund, which report can be found on the AFSA home supports our efforts on the Hill on these and many other issues affecting both the page at www.afsa.org. ▫ active-duty and retired Foreign Service. ▫

JANUARY 2005 • AFSA NEWS 5 AID Grievance • Continued from page 1 as well as employees — have the right to employee before the Grievance Board. Board. As far as we can tell, USAID offi- appeal to federal court if they do not like AFSA President John Limbert wrote cials have ignored the Board in these two the decision. But what happens when an a letter to the chairman of the Foreign cases because of their view that the agency refuses to either implement a Service Grievance Board, Edward Reidy, Grievance Board has no enforcement Grievance Board ruling or go to court? authority. In short, these officials seem That is never supposed to happen, but to believe they face no risk by their behav- USAID has now done it twice. Only once “I am alarmed at the U.S. Agency ior.” (The full text of the letter is at before in the history of the Grievance for International Development’s www.afsa.org/LettertoFSGriev.cfm) Board has an agency refused to imple- The Nov. 9 response from Chairman ment its decision. Both the federal dis- disregard for the authority of the Reidy noted that the matter “has been, trict court and the federal appeals court Foreign Service Grievance Board. and continues to be, one of grave concern then ruled sharply against the agency’s to the Foreign Service Grievance Board. refusal and in favor of the board and the Let me call this action what it is: … Be assured that this most significant grievant. stonewalling ... “ matter is among the issues that the Board In one of the ongoing USAID cases, has, even today, under consideration and the Grievance Board ordered the rein- —John Limbert study. No final consensus on the reso- statement of an untenured employee after lution of this troublesome circumstance he had been improperly “selected out.” noting that the agency is ignoring the has yet been reached.” The phrase “grave USAID sought reconsideration from the board’s decisions and asking the board to concern” is a strong one that is seldom Grievance Board, and the board recon- act quickly to assert its authority: used in Grievance Board writings. firmed and amplified its original decision. “I am alarmed at the U.S. Agency for It is not a question of whether an USAID still refused to reinstate the International Development’s disregard for agency should be able to get rid of poor employee, contending that its interpre- the authority of the Foreign Service performers. AFSA does not object to that. tation of the law trumped that of the Grievance Board. USAID’s refusal to The Grievance Board found that, substan- Grievance Board. For that to become abide by the Grievance Board’s final deci- tively and procedurally, USAID’s selec- valid, the proper procedure for USAID sions and orders undermines the integri- tion out of these two employees was fatal- to follow would have been to appeal the ty of the Grievance System and is of great ly flawed. USAID had argued its position decision in court, but USAID refused to concern to AFSA. Let me call this action vigorously but lost on the merits. This do that. Instead, USAID did nothing and what it is: stonewalling of the Grievance is an extraordinarily rare finding. Almost waited to see what AFSA and the griev- Board by USAID. … all untenured employees lose their ant would do. Eventually, as the time “Pursuant to the Foreign Service Act Grievance Board appeals against selection allowed for appealing the original deci- of 1980 (FSA), Congress greatly strength- out and denial of tenure. sion was about to run out, the grievant ened the institution of the Grievance It is not only the fate of these two had to ask the court to order USAID to Board and expanded its role. The employees that is at stake, but the do what the Grievance Board already told Board, the agencies, AFSA, and Foreign integrity of the entire grievance system. it to do: reinstate him. As of Dec. 1, the Service employees have all come to AFSA argued and won both of these court had not yet ruled. understand and accept a set of operating grievance cases for the USAID employ- In the second case, the Grievance rules and modalities. In short, everyone ees, and AFSA will continue to push for Board again ordered USAID to reinstate has accepted the rules of the game. implementation of the Grievance Board an untenured employee who had also Certain landmark court decisions and an decision in both cases. ▫ been improperly “selected out.” Reinstate amendment to the FSA have clearly her immediately or get a stay from a fed- defined the authority of the Grievance New Banking Option eral court, the Grievance Board ordered: Board with respect to the agencies. “[USAID] remains obligated to reinstate Central to the functioning of the Citibank has announced the cre- grievant immediately, as no stay has been Grievance System is the agencies’ oblig- ation of a specialized unit devoted issued by the District Court.” Simple, ation either to act on the Board’s decisions exclusively “to designing and imple- clear, straightforward. But again consid- and orders or to appeal to court. … menting personal banking solutions for ering its own judgment superior to the “The agencies’ actions represent insti- international corporations and orga- Grievance Board’s, USAID has refused to tutional defiance and overt rejection of the nizations such as the U.S. State take either action. And it has not, as of Board’s authority. USAID has apparent- Department.” Find out more at Dec. 1, appealed the case to court. In both ly decided to challenge the Grievance www.citibank.com/pboe. ▫ cases AFSA successfully represented the System and the role of the Grievance

6 AFSA NEWS • JANUARY 2005

Iraq Service • Continued from page 1 who was promoted this year. He wrote ment — disappointing. I never met any- tions cheapens those very promotions. that Amb. Negroponte’s cable implies one serving in Iraq who had been Following are excerpts from the Nov. that it was going to Baghdad that earned tempted by such false promises. We serve 15 AFSANET (the full text is at them the promotions, that there is a rela- in Iraq for many reasons, including career www.afsa.org/StateVP): tionship between serving in Iraq and get- advancement, but the department should “This week, the department sent out ting promoted. Meanwhile, one CDO not be presenting such assignments as an ALDAC, which, because this is a fam- sent Amb. Negroponte’s cable out to all something that will lead to promotions ily newspaper, AFSA will describe as his clients with this note: ‘For those of you and desired assignments. All of our col- ‘unfortunate.’ State 239051 contains bidding or hearing from people who wish leagues who received promotions did so a message from John D. Negroponte, to serve at your posts, be advised that on the basis of outstanding performance, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad. preference is given to those who have often under difficult and dangerous con- Ambassador Negroponte notes that the served as outlined (in the cable).’ Sounds ditions, not as part of any ‘deal’ or quid Secretary had earlier written (State like management has already made this pro quo. To suggest or hint otherwise 207935) that he expected that the pro- an SOP. Well, AFSA looks forward to is false advertising.” ▫ motion lists would reflect strong consid- the next negotiations, but we have not eration given to service in places like Iraq. waited to lodge our strenuous protest Amb. Negroponte now notes that over with management on behalf of our mem- 50 employees who either served or are bers. AFSANEWSBRIEFS serving in Iraq were promoted, includ- “Now, here is where AFSA stands on Continued from page 2 ing seven who crossed the senior thresh- this issue. Promotions must be based on Support the LAF old. your performance, not your assign- As we head into the 109th Congress, “Had AFSA been asked, we would not ment. … There are many reasons why please consider making a contribution have cleared this cable. Earlier, AFSA members of the Foreign Service are not to AFSA’s Legislative Action Fund. AFSA remonstrated in private with manage- in Baghdad. … As for hardship service, is the only organization actively seeking ment over those sentiments uttered by we all signed on as worldwide available to protect and improve Foreign Service the Secretary when he wrote in State and over half our overseas posts are clas- benefits. Please mail your contribution 207935: ‘I am fully confident that service sified at the 15-percent hardship level and at our posts in Iraq will be recognized in higher. Hardship service is part and par- to AFSA Legislative Action Fund, PO Box both the promotion and assignments cel of being in the Foreign Service 98026, Washington, DC 20090-8026. process.’ Now we are raising our objec- which is why AFSA supports rigorous (Make checks payable to AFSA tions publicly. ‘fair share.’ As for promotions, the pre- Legislative Action Fund.) Please help “The earlier cable and this one imply cepts are clear: we recognize service under AFSA push Foreign Service priorities on that service in Iraq gives one a substan- difficult and dangerous conditions. No the Hill by giving generously to the LAF. tial boost up the promotion ladder. They more and no less. categorically state that service in Iraq will “Finally, if you want to bid on a posi- Served in Afghanistan? reward you with your bid preference. tion in Iraq, fair enough. But please do The Association for Diplomatic Studies These cables are advertising, overselling so with your eyes open and do not be and Training, at the request of the U.S. Iraq service and making promises that deceived by false advertising. To quote Institute for Peace, is interviewing person- cannot be kept, in the hope members will from the message to AFSA from the nel who have served in Afghanistan on be enticed into bidding on positions in member who was promoted. ‘We need Provincial Reconstruction Teams, or who Iraq because of the pot of gold at the end the best people in places like Iraq, otherwise have experience with the teams. of the rainbow. Afghanistan and the other hot spots The goal of the current project is to glean “The problem with this advertising is because that’s where the most critical lessons learned from U.S. government per- that it corrupts the Foreign Service. It work is — not because of easy promo- sonnel (civilian and military) and others, devalues the substantive work you do tions.’” such as foreign officials and NGO repre- elsewhere. It demeans the service and Supporting the VP’s statement, AFSA sentatives. sacrifice of our members in places like President John Limbert said in his own If you would consider being inter- Haiti, where families have suffered message to members: viewed, or if you know someone who through two authorized/ordered depar- “… As someone who did two TDYs would be a good candidate for an inter- tures in less than a year. … in Iraq during the past 18 months, I find view, please contact ADST Executive “AFSA has not only heard from those the implicit message of the cable (State Director Jack Zetkulic at (703) 302-6991 serving under rigorous conditions, but 239051) — that service in Iraq will give or [email protected]. also from one of those with Iraq service you a boost for promotion and assign- Continued on page 8

JANUARY 2005 • AFSA NEWS 7

AFSANEWSBRIEFS Continued from page 7 USAA Membership Clarification AFSA recently made a call to USAA to clarify the catego- not qualify for the Subscriber Savings Account and cannot ry of membership that USAA bestows upon new members attend or vote on issues at USAA’s annual membership who are U.S. Foreign Service employees. The USAA Board meetings. However, CIC policyholders are eligible for all of Directors decided on Oct. 27, 2002, that U.S. Foreign USAA financial products and are serviced by the same staff Service personnel did not meet its eligibility requirements as USAA members. for full membership. In addition to Foreign Service personnel, the CIC is made All Foreign Service employees who sign up for USAA are up of former dependents of USAA members, military now issued policies through the USAA Casualty Insurance enlisted personnel, and prior USAA employees. If you Company. The CIC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of would like more information regarding your status as a USAA, with policyholders rather than members. Therefore, USAA member and the company’s eligibility requirements, CIC policyholders are considered “associate members.” please call USAA Member Relations at 1 (800) 633-0942. Unlike regular USAA members, associate members do Remember to have your USAA member number or Social not own any part of USAA, do not receive dividends, do Security number handy.

2005 AFSA Dues Rates AFSA membership dues have been raised according to the AFSA bylaws by 2.7 percent across all membership categories. This increase reflects the 3rd-quarter Consumer Price Index pub- lished on Oct. 19, 2004, by the Department of Labor, and used MEMO OF THE MONTH: by the Social Security Administration to calculate the 2005 Cost of Living Adjustment increases. From a Snowy Eastern European Post The new dues rates will take effect on Jan. 1, 2005. Members paying dues via payroll deduction and annuity deduction will see a small, automatic increase in the amount deducted from To: All Embassy Employees their paychecks and annuities. Members who pay annually will From: ADM be billed the new rate on their regularly scheduled renewal date. Membership dues account for approximately 75 percent of Embassy employees are expected to attempt to show up for AFSA’s total income. This revenue provides the association with work, even in inclement weather. If driving your personal vehi- a stable and predictable income source, which allows AFSA to continue offering excellent member services and benefits. cles is impractical, public transportation should be used. Should The lists below indicate the new dues rates for 2005. public transportation be irregular or unavailable, walking to work should be considered if practical. Active CATEGORY NEW ANNUAL NEW BIWEEKLY Employees should contact their supervisors if they will be FS 7, 8, 9 $75.20 $2.90 late for work due to the weather; a liberal leave policy will be FS 6, 5, 4 $142.20 $5.45 in effect if there are significant disruptions to public transporta- FS 1, 2, 3 $248.50 $9.55 tion. SFS $321.40 $12.35 Retiree Employees must submit leave slips for all late arrivals and CATEGORY NEW ANNUAL NEW MONTHLY early departures from work due to weather conditions. Please Annuity under $25,000 $57.90 $4.85 remember that all leave must be approved in advance. Annuity of $25,000-50,000 $86.70 $7.20 Annuity of $50,000-75,000 $115.85 $9.65 Annuity over $75,000 $145.00 $12.05 NOTE: According to our sources, this memo, fondly referred Retiree Spouse $50.00 $4.15 to at the post as the “march or die” memo, was issued after a major Retiree Associate $54.55 NA snowstorm resulted in absences from work. The issuing officer lived Associate across the street from the embassy. ASSOCIATE NEW ANNUAL $89.15

8 AFSA NEWS • JANUARY 2005 program. We were fortunate to obtain data Q: What can we do about pieces of furni- from the survey on opinions about the cur- ture that are not child-friendly, such as rent available furniture lines, and have used glass-top tables and breakable lamps? that information in composing the tech- The current residential furniture nical requirements for the recompete A: contract offers a variety of tables Q&A contract. through the different lines without glass tops Q: What criteria are used to select furni- as well as a variety of lamps. ture, lamps and carpeting for posts? Q: Will we ever get less outdated styles of Residential The criteria for selection of res- furniture and more appealing chair and sofa A: idential furniture lines under the upholstery? Furniture at Post recompete contract are based on comments The new contract will offer four BY DONNA HERRIOTT received from a broad survey, feedback A: lines of updated furniture. Team Leader, A/LM/AQM/ IT Commerce received from general services officers A/LM/AQM has worked with Drexel to attending the Foreign Service Institute’s add new items to the current contract for Editor’s Note: Due to popular demand, and GSO course and comments received from replacement of discontinued designer based on postings on the Livelines discussion GSOs via cable and/or e-mail. All furniture items. The new items will be in the FY 2005 group, Donna Herriott from the Acquisitions made available under the contract meets pricing/catalog listed under designer items Management Office offers information on the all U.S. safety standards. Individual posts and are a nice alternative to the current con- residential furniture management system and are responsible for making the actual selec- temporary line (i.e., no white finishes). The upcoming “recompete” of the contract. She tion of residential furniture off the contract new contract will offer five fabric selections has kindly offered to answer further questions for their respective post. instead of the current four, as well as updat- by e-mail: [email protected]. Livelines is Q: How are companies (like Drexel) ed color and pattern selections of uphol- sponsored by the Associates of the American awarded contracts? stery. Foreign Service Worldwide, and serves as a After all the technical require- Q: I don’t want to pay to repair a piece of forum for members of the Foreign Service A: ments have been determined, a furniture that should be disposed of due community to ask questions and share advice competitive solicitation is issued by GSA. to age. What are the rules on this? and experiences relating to Foreign Service life. Interested contractors submit proposals and The lifespan of the furniture is Sign up at www.aafsw.org. bid samples for evaluation by a technical A: governed by factors at each indi- team comprised of State Department and vidual post. Some of the factors that dic- Q: What office is in charge of the residen- GSA staff. The proposals and samples are tate the life span are: 1) conditions at post, tial furniture contract and how is the con- evaluated against pre-determined criteria such as humidity, tropical climates, hot and tract awarded? as defined in the solicitation. The award dry climates, local air pollution and terrain; The residential furniture con- is made to the contractor that best meets 2) rotation cycle of staff; and 3) accompa- A: tract is awarded by the General the criteria. nied vs. non-accompanied posts, household Services Administration. The State Q: Where can I send my suggestions on fur- pets, etc. Department’s Office of Acquisitions nishing (style, color, construction)? Q: Who decides when a piece of furniture Management (A/LM/AQM) is responsible Suggestions/comments can be is at the end of its lifespan? for the residential furniture contract. A: sent to me at herriottdj@ What happens at the end of the A/LM/AQM places orders against the con- state.gov. I will be sure to share them with A: life span of the residential fur- tract to fill post requirements. The current the technical team working on the recom- niture at any given post is usually deter- contract with Drexel runs through Sept. 30, pete contract. mined in accordance with individual post 2005. A/LM/AQM, along with the Office policy. If the post determines that the fur- of Interior Furnishings in the Bureau of niture was damaged prematurely (i.e. not Overseas Buildings Operations and many due to normal wear and tear), it may of the regional post management officers, require the employee to pay for restoration. has been working with GSA to structure the Conversely, if the post plans to replace some recompete of the new contract. Earlier this or all of the furniture upon departure of the year, A/LM/AQM surveyed PMOs from employee, the employee may not be each regional bureau, the Family Liaison required to clean or refurbish the furniture.

Office and International Cooperative JOSH My suggestion is that when you check into Administrative Support Services, to assist post quarters, you should discuss these par- us in selecting updated lines and styles to ticulars with the GSO and/or the manage- be solicited under the contract recompete ment officer. ▫

JANUARY 2005 • AFSA NEWS 9 CLASSIFIEDS

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ROLAND S. HEARD, CPA 1091 Chaddwyck Dr. Athens, GA 30606 HELEN RUDINSKY, LICENSED Tel/Fax: (706) 769-8976 PROFESSIONAL COUNSELOR, lecturer for E-mail: [email protected] FSYF/Overseas Briefing Center with over 20 • U.S. income tax services years of international experience. Assisting • Many FS & contractor clients individuals, couples and children with life tran- • Practiced before the IRS sitions, relationships, depression, anxiety, dual • Financial planning career, family separation, and TCK issues. TAX & FINANCIAL SERVICES • American Institute of CPAs, Member Tel: (202) 248-6280. FIRST CONSULTATION FREE TAX RETURN PREPARATION AND E-mail: [email protected] WWW.ROLANDSHEARDCPA.COM www.helenrudinsky.com PLANNING from a CPA firm specializing in expatriate taxation. Home of JANE A. BRUNO, FINANCIAL ADVISER: Stephen H. the author of "The Expat's Guide to U.S. Thompson, Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. Taxes" Tax return preparation, tax consulta- Member NYSE, Member SIPC (Retired tion and financial planning. Contact us at: Foreign Service Officer). Tel: (954) 452-8813, LEGAL SERVICES Tel: (202) 778-1970 or (800) 792-4411. Fax: (954) 452-8359. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Visit our Web site: www.americantaxhelp.com VIRGINIA M. TEST, CPA: Tax service ATTORNEY WITH 22 years’ successful specializing in Foreign Service/overseas con- experience SPECIALIZING FULL-TIME IN FS tractors. CONTACT INFO: (804) 695-2939. GRIEVANCES will more than double your FAX: (804) 695-2958. E-mail: [email protected] chance of winning: 30% of grievants win before the Grievance Board; 85% of my clients TAX DEDUCTION win. Only a private attorney can adequately FREE TAX CONSULTATION: For over- develop and present your case, including nec- seas personnel. We process returns as TAX-DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTIONS: essary regs, arcane legal doctrines, prece- received, without delay. Preparation and rep- Consider Irene T. Harter Memorial Fund, for dents and rules. Call Bridget R. Mugane at resentation by Enrolled Agents. Federal and tax-year 2004. The Fund is sponsored by Tel: (202) 387-4383, or (301) 596-0175. all states prepared. Includes “TAX TRAX” University of Massachusetts Medical School, E-mail: [email protected] unique mini-financial planning review with rec- is approved by the IRS for tax-deductible con- Free initial consultation. ommendations. Full planning available. Get the tributions. Info: Dr. Azra Raza at the Medical most from your financial dollar! Financial School. Tel: (508) 856-3561. Forecasts Inc., Barry B. De Marr, CFP, EA, Tax-exempt no. 04.316.7352.W or see the dis- 3918 Prosperity Ave. #230, Fairfax, VA 22031 play ad on p. 25 of this issue of the Journal. ATTORNEY Tel: (703) 289-1167; Fax: (703) 289-1178. E-mail: [email protected] PROPERTY MANAGEMENT WJD MANAGEMENT IS competitively GRIEVANCE ATTORNEY (specializing priced, of course. However, if you are consid- since 1983). Attorney assists FS officers to cor- PROFESSIONAL TAX RETURN ering hiring a property management firm, don’t rect defective performance appraisals, to PREPARATION: Thirty years in public tax forget the old saying, “You get what you pay reverse improper tenuring and promotion practice. Arthur A. Granberg, EA, ATA, ATP. for.” All of us at WJD have worked for other board decisions, secure financial benefits, Our charges are $75 per hour. Most FS returns property management firms in the past, and defend against disciplinary actions and obtain take 3 to 4 hours. Our office is 100 feet from we have learned what to do and, more impor- relief from all forms of discrimination. Free Initial Virginia Square Metro Station, Tax Matters tantly, what not to do from our experiences Consultation. Call William T. Irelan, Esq. Associates PC, 3601 North Fairfax Dr., at these companies. We invite you to explore Tel: (202) 625-1800. Fax: (202) 625-1616. Arlington, VA 22201. Tel: (703) 522-3828. our Web site at www.wjdpm.com for more E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (703) 522-5726. information, or call us at (703) 385-3600. E-mail: [email protected] TEMPORARY HOUSING CORPORATE APARTMENT SPECIAL- ISTS: Abundant experience working with PLACE A CLASSIFIED ATTORNEY, FORMER FOREIGN SER- Foreign Service professionals and the locations AD: $1.25/word (10-word min.) First VICE OFFICER: Extensive experience w/ tax to best serve you: Foggy Bottom, Woodley Park, 3 words bolded free, add’l bold text problems peculiar to the Foreign Service. Cleveland Park, Chevy Chase, Rosslyn, $2/word, header, box, shading $10 Available for consultation, tax planning, and Ballston, Pentagon City. Our office is a short walk ea. Deadline: 20th of the month for preparation of returns: from NFATC. One-month minimum. All furnish- publication 5 weeks later. M. Bruce Hirshorn, Boring & Pilger, P.C. ings, housewares, utilities, telephone and cable Ad Mgr: Tel: (202) 944-5507. 307 Maple Ave. W, Suite D, included. Tel: (703) 979-2830 or Fax: (202) 338-6820. Vienna, VA 22180. Tel: (703) 281-2161. (800) 914-2802. Fax: (703) 979-2813. E-mail: [email protected] Fax: (703) 281-9464. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.corporateapartments.com

10 AFSA NEWS • JANUARY 2005 CLASSIFIEDS

TEMPORARY HOUSING GEORGETOWN QUARTERS: Exquisite, SHEPHERDSTOWN/ WEST VIRGINIA: fully-furnished accommodations in the East 12.92 private acres with Potomac River End of Georgetown. Short walk to World frontage. Three-story cedar shake home SHORT-TERM RENTALS Bank and State Department. Lower floor of (1989), designed for entertaining. Four bed- three-level home built in 1803 and renovat- rooms, three full baths, hardwood floors, pas- ed in 2003. Private front and rear entrances, sive solar entrance. Wild flowers, deer, and TEMPORARY HOUSING eight-foot ceilings, fireplace, marble bathroom turkey. $995,000. Request brochure. with Jacuzzi and shower, granite and stain- www.homesdatabase.com/yvonnethomson WASHINGTON, D.C. or NFATC TOUR? less steel kitchen, washer and dryer; walk out YvonneThomson, agent. Real Estate Teams, EXECUTIVE HOUSING CONSULTANTS to tiered rear garden great for entertaining. LLC Tel: (877) 443-1500. offers Metropolitan Washington, D.C.’s finest Street parking and limited car/pick-up shar- portfolio of short-term, fully-furnished and ing with management. Dishes, flatware, tow- els, linens and light maid service included. equipped apartments, townhomes and sin- GETTYSBURG/PENNSYLVANIA: "The Preference for single person or couple. Rate gle-family residences in Maryland, D.C. and Harrison House", log and stone structure. Part commensurate with housing allowance. Virginia. of the house dates back to 1767. Seven In Virginia: “River Place’s Finest” is steps Photos available. Contact: Tel. (202) 625-6448, wrought iron fenced acres with circular dri- to Rosslyn Metro and Georgetown, and 15 veway, spring house, two ponds and fountain. minutes on Metro bus or State Department E-mail: [email protected], Union Army 1st Corps camped here on June shuttle to NFATC. For more info, please call www.EquityFundGroup.com 3, 1863, on its way for the first day of battle. (301) 951-4111, or visit our Web site: Zoned Residential/Light Commercial. A back- www.executivehousing.com HOME DESIGN/RENOVATION drop for weddings, artists, sculptors and musi- cians. $1,750,000. Request brochure. Virtual Tour: BUILD YOUR DREAM HOUSE: Former www.homesdatabase.com/yvonnethomson PIED-A-TERRE PROPERTIES, LTD: FSO Jon Gundersen, Senior Associate with Yvonne Thomson, agent. Real Estate Teams, Select from our unique inventory of fully-fur- BOWA Builders, can help you. BOWA is a LLC. Tel: (877) 443-1500 nished & tastefully decorated apartments & high-end residential design and construction townhouses all located in D.C.’s best in-town firm specializing in additions/renovations, neighborhoods: Dupont, Georgetown, Foggy custom homes and condominium/apartment TIMESHARE FOR SALE: Two units, Bottom & the West End. Two-month minimum. remodeling. With 16 years’ experience, Sleeps 8, Red Season Week 41, Even years, Mother-Daughter Owned and Operated. BOWA is nationally ranked by industry pub- Vacation Village, Weston, FL $15,000. Tel: (202) 462-0200. Fax: (202) 332-1406. lications as the largest whole-house remod- Tel: (540)872-2417. E-mail: [email protected] eler and second in customer satisfaction. www.piedaterredc.com Tel: (703) 734-9050. Web Site: www.bowa.com. WASHINGTON STATE ISLANDS: Spectacular views, wonderful community, climate, boating, hiking. Access Seattle & Vancouver, B.C. FURNISHED LUXURY APARTMENTS: MORTGAGE Former FSO Jan Zehner, Windermere Real Short/long-term. Best locations: Dupont Circle, Estate/ Orcas Island. Tel: (800) 842-5770. Georgetown. Utilities included. All price www.orcashomes.net. ranges/sizes. Parking available. BUYING OR REFINANCING A HOME? Tel: (202) 296-4989. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Save money with some of the lowest rates in 40 years. Jeff Stoddard specializes in work- ing with the Foreign Service community over- seas and in the U.S. Call today and experi- FLORIDA FULLY FURNISHED APARTMENTS: ence the Power of Yes! ® Tel: (703) 299-8625. Arlington, VA. Two blocks to Rosslyn Metro. E-mail: [email protected] LONGBOAT KEY, BRADENTON/ Short/long-term rental. Everything included. SARASOTA: Area will exceed expectations. $1,300 Studio, $1,500 1 BR. Please contact: Don’t miss owning in Florida. Resales, new homes, rental management and vacation Theodore at Tel: (703) 973-9551, or REAL ESTATE E-mail: [email protected]. rentals. Dynamic, growing company offering personalized professional service. Contact: Sharon E. Oper, Realtor (AFSA member) JOANN PIEKNEY/ PRUDENTIAL CAR- Wagner Realty. Tel: (941) 387-7199. RUTHERS REALTORS: Complete profes- E-mail: [email protected] SHARE SINGLE-FAMILY HOME, sional dedication to residential sales in RESTON: Yours: two BRs, bath, den w/ fire- Northern Virginia. I provide you with person- place + privileges. First floor completely ren- al attention. Over 22 years’ real estate expe- NO STATE INCOME TAX enhances gra- ovated. Owner must share expenses -- big rience and Foreign Service overseas living cious living in Sarasota, the cultural capital of house. Short or long-term. Owner can assist experience. JOANN PIEKNEY. Florida’s Gulf Coast. Contact former FSO Paul with furnishing. Three minutes to RTC: Tel: (703) 624-1594. Fax: (703) 757-9137. Byrnes, Coldwell Banker residential sales spe- $800/mo plus 1/3 utilities. Leave msg. at Tel: E-mail: [email protected] cialist, by e-mail: [email protected], or (571) 259-5492. Web site: www.foreignservicehomes.com Toll-Free: (877) 924-9001.

JANUARY 2005 • AFSA NEWS 11 CLASSIFIEDS

VACATION BOOKS PET TRANSPORTATION

NORMANDY, FRANCE: Large, comfort- able farmhouse near D-Day Beaches for weekly rental. E-mail: [email protected] or OLD ASIA/ORIENT BOOKS BOUGHT Web site: www.laporterouge.net. Asian rare books. Fax: (212) 316-3408. E-mail: [email protected]

HOME LEAVE ON SANIBEL: Former SHOPPING FSO offers 2-bedroom, 2-bath condo on PET MOVING MADE EASY. Club Pet Sanibel Island, Florida. Steps from famous International, is a full-service animal shipper seashells and pristine beach of this vacation who specializes in domestic and internation- paradise. Available on monthly and weekly al trips. Club Pet is the ultimate pet-care board- 110 - 220 VOLT STORE basis. Tel: (703) 827-0312. ing facility in the Washington Metropolitan area. MULTI-SYSTEM ELECTRONICS E-mail: [email protected] for avail- Tel: (703) 471-7818 or (800) 871-2535. ability and rates. www.clubpet.com. E-mail: [email protected]

PAL-SECAM-NTSC TVs, VCRs, AUDIO, CAMCORDER, BUSINESS CARDS CRESTED BUTTE, COLORADO: ADAPTOR, TRANSFORMERS, KITCHEN APPLIANCES Historic mining town turned ski resort. Newly GMS WORLD WIDE PHONES renovated & furnished historic miner's cabin, BUSINESS CARDS printed to State EPORT WORLD ELECTRONICS Department specifications. 500 cards for as 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. City center, walk to all 1719 Connecticut Ave NW little as $37.00! Herron Printing & Graphics. shops, restaurants. Great skiing, great sum- (Dupont Circle Metro. Btwn. R & S Sts.) Tel: (301) 990-3100. mer holidays. Three-day minimum. TEL (202) 232-2244 or (800) 513-3907 E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (866) 953-4747. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.eportworld.com www.crested-butte-wild-iris-guest-house.com DOWNTOWN LOCATION MISCELLANEOUS 1030 19TH ST. NW (between K & L Sts.) Washington, D.C. 20036, TEL (202) 464-7600. LOOKING FOR CAR PARTS? EFM with INQUIRE ABOUT OUR PROMOTIONS vast experience in car parts and accessories LONGBOAT KEY FLA: Bay-front three- Government & Diplomat discounts can locate the right item for your needs at the bedroom, three-bath townhouse in elegant best price and ship to you via APO or pouch. gated complex. Private beach club, tennis, Contact me for information and pricing at: gym, pool. Two-month minimum. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] NUTRITIONAL SOLUTIONS VITAMINS AND THINGS: Herbs, vitamins, homeo- pathics, flower remedies, body care, books, and more! We offer high-quality products that WEST VIRGINIA VILLA: 90 miles from produce dependable health benefits. Visit us SHIPPING D.C. Nicely furnished two-bedrooms 2.5-Bath at www.yellnutrition.com to question our townhouse on golf course at The Woods knowledgeable staff and to place your orders PLANNING TO MOVE OVERSEAS? Resort. Ideal for retirement or vacationing. or call us at: (703) 271-0400. Need a rate to ship your car, household goods, Rent/Lease. Tel: (202) 362-3231, or or other cargo going abroad? Contact: Joseph E-mail: [email protected] T. Quinn. at SEFCO-Export Management Company for rates and advice. Tel: (718) 268-6233. Fax: (718) 268-0505. Visit our Web site at www.sefco-export.com

BARBADOS: Three BR (sleeps 6) gra- WE MAKE GROCERY SHOPPING cious, furnished West Coast seaview home, EASY! If you miss groceries from back home, 1 min to beaches, restaurants, shops; world- visit www.lowesfoodstogo.com. We ship non- class golf 4 minutes away. Pack suit and clubs perishable groceries to you via the Dulles mail EMBASSY CUPS, MUGS or glasses and go. $1,000 week/$2,500 month off sea- sorting facility. Voila . . . food from home! wanted. Cash or trade. Contact: Lico at: son. PSZabriskie. E-mail: pegnairobi@hot- For more information e-mail: Tel: (703) 698-7180, e-mail: mail.com; Tel: (301) 587-4956 (home). [email protected] [email protected].

12 AFSA NEWS • JANUARY 2005 fer

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