"The American Foreign Service Association two months ago protested the selection of mid-level civil servant Diane Zeleny for the job, calling it a 'pre-cooked deal' done by manipulating the process and violating personnel rules. AFSA filed a grievance asking foreign service director general George Staples to 'undo this assignment.'There was a radio broadcast earlier this week in which it was stated that of some 1000 people in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, only 30 speak Arabic, and only 6 of them speak it well. It is hard enough to get really good people into embassies abroad, without stuffing the posts with political appointees. The reason we went to the merit-based career system was that too often in the past the United States was represented by political hacks, unprepared for the posts in which they served.
"Staples did, though he gave Zeleny until next summer to leave Brussels. Staples, in a joint announcement with AFSA chief J. Anthony Holmes, said 'we understand that she is doing an excellent job and is to be commended' for her work. But foreign service officers may now begin applying for the job, they said."
Foreign Service Officers are the eyes and ears of our government abroad, more so that the intelligence agencies. Not only do they represent the United States to the nationals of the countries in which they serve, our political, economic, military, commercial, and scientific attaches report on the trends and developments in those countries that concern us.
Good for AFSA keeping the principle alive.
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