Re: IRAQ: resignation letter

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Fri Feb 28 2003 - 10:17:32 MST

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    Roh h.
    >Can some one give the background on this letter -- it reads like a piece of
    >fiction.

    I have a good friend in Athens, maybe she has news sources that say more
    I'll ask.

    All I found was the following. I'm impressed by that letter.
    It's rare to find a person of integrity in politics. Count me as
    a new John Brady Kiesling fan.

    http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3395.htm
    American Embassy in Athens, Greece

    Principal U.S. Embassy Officials
    Ambassador--Thomas J. Miller
    Deputy Chief of Mission--Michael Cleverley
    Political Counselor--John Brady Kiesling
    Economic Counselor--John Stepanchuk
    Principal Commercial Officer--Walter Hage
    Consul General--Peggy Gennatiempo (Halarion Martinez, Summer 2002)
    Consul General, Thessaloniki--John Koenig
    Regional Security Officer--William Gaskill
    Agricultural Officer--Lisa Hardy-Bass (resident in Rome)

    short report from the Athens main newspaper (translated)
    http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_28/02/2003_26983

    same, but slightly longer story here
    International Herald Tribune

    http://www.iht.com/articles/88180.htm
    U.S. diplomat resigns to protest Iraq policy
    Felicity Barringer The New York Times
    Friday, February 28, 2003

    UNITED NATIONS, New York A career diplomat who has served in U.S.
    embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan resigned this week
    in protest against the country's policies on Iraq.

    The diplomat, John Brady Kiesling, the political counselor at the
    U.S. Embassy in Athens, said in his resignation letter, "Our fervent
    pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international
    legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both
    offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson." Kiesling, 45,
    who has been a diplomat for about 20 years, said Wednesday that he
    faxed the letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday after
    informing Thomas Miller, the ambassador in Athens, of his decision.
    He said that he had acted alone, but had received support afterward
    from colleagues. "No one has any illusions that the policy will be
    changed," he added. "Too much has been invested in the war."

    Louis Fintor, a State Department spokesman, said that he had no
    information on Kiesling's decision and that it was department policy
    not to comment on personnel matters.

    In his letter, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by
    a friend of Kiesling's, the diplomat wrote Powell: "We should ask
    ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a
    war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too
    much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S.
    interests override the cherished values of our partners." His letter
    continued: "Even where our aims were not in question, our
    consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort
    to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle
    East, and in whose image and interests."

    It is rare but not unheard-of for a diplomat, immersed in the State
    Department's culture of public support for policy regardless of
    private feelings, to resign with this kind of public blast. From
    1992 to 1994, five State Department officials quit out of
    frustration with the Clinton administration's Balkans policy.

    -- 
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    Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
    Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
    Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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