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State Department Sleaze Accumulates without Real Response
Breaking Bad! Two new sleazy State Department actions– a sweetheart consulting deal for one of Hillary’s best buds and accusations of an affair and hookers for a senior State official. See below!
Attempted suicide after a harsh interrogation? Hiring armed guys with criminal backgrounds? Senior officials having sex with subordinates, prostitutes and minors? Investigations into all of the above covered up or halted? That’s the news, not from Gitmo or some banana republic, but from your U.S. Department of State. Better get out the hand sanitizer, this blog post gets filthy fast.
A Sad Pattern of Sleaze from America’s Diplomats
Ever since the story broke on CBS News that the State Department covered up numerous allegations of wrong-doing to protect its public image, the details of said wrong-doing have been leaking out.
The reasons to care about this are many, and all the Hillary-love and attempts to just call it (just) a Republican witch hunt are a smokescreen. The obvious reason to care is that these people represent America abroad, and we need to ask what image they are projecting. In addition, such crimes and personal traits as alleged below make them vulnerable to blackmail, either by other members of the USG (promote me, give me a better assignment, or else…) or foreign intelligence (turn over the secrets or the photos go to the press). The fact that the organization apparently cannot police itself internally raises questions about competence (and the former SecState saying she was wholly ignorant of all this sludge is not a defense that actually makes her look presidential), and about what if anything it is accomplishing on America’s behalf.
Here’s a roundup to date:
— As a special shout-out to We Meant Well regulars, USA Today claims it has a memo detailing how Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, allegedly interceded in an investigation by Diplomatic Security into an affair between failed-Iraq ambassador-designate Brett McGurk and Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon.
— Cheryl Mills again: Mills, a longtime confidante of Hillary, reportedly played a key role in the State Department’s damage-control efforts on the Benghazi attack last year and was also named in accusations that department higher-ups quashed investigations into diplomats’ potential criminal activity. Cheryl Mills, who served in a dual capacity in recent years as general counsel and chief of staff to Clinton, was accused of attempting to stifle congressional access to a diplomat who held a senior post in Libya at the time of the attack.
— U.S. ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman accused of soliciting “sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children.” The ambassador “routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children,” according to documents obtained by NBC News. State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy ordered an end to the investigation. “The ambassador’s protective detail and the embassy’s surveillance detection team [Note: A State Department team that conducts counterespionage surveillance, watching State Department officials to see if they are being watched by foreign spies] . . . were well aware of the behavior.”
The ambassador explained that sometimes he fights with his wife, needs air and he goes for a walk in the park because he likes it. The Atlantic reported that the park Gutman trolled, Parc Royal Warandepark, was well-known as a place to pick up adult homosexual and adolescent boy prostitutes.
A Belgian newspaper described the park: “I see young children go to adult waiting. Later, another adult waits, often to extort money from the victim after. I’ve been awakened by cries and my terrace, I saw someone being beaten. I had my legs were shaking. Time to call the police, I saw the victim painfully get up and go.”
— A State Department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” with foreign nationals hired as embassy guards. State’s former regional security officer in Beirut, Chuck Lisenbee, allegedly sexually assaulted guards and was accused of similar assaults in Baghdad, Khartoum and Monrovia. Justine Sincavage, then-director of Diplomatic Security Service, called the allegations a “witch hunt” and gave agents “only three days” to investigate, and no charges were brought, according to USA Today.
— Members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries,” a problem the report says was “endemic.” Three members of Clinton’s security detail admitted to hiring prostitutes while on foreign trips and were given suspensions of one day. An investigator for Diplomatic Security launched an investigation into similar allegations against four other members of Clinton’s security detail but was ordered by Kimber Davidson, chief of the special investigations division, and Rob Kelty, his deputy, to shut down the investigation.
— The State Department has hired an “alarming number of law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds” because of a flawed hiring process, a stunning memo obtained by The New York Post reveals. “Too many people entering the [Diplomatic Security and Information Management] communities end up as subjects of [Special Investigation Division] investigations and HR adjudications, become Giglio-impaired and can play only limited roles thereafter,” according to the memo. “Giglio” refers to a US Supreme Court case dealing with jury notification that witnesses have made deals with the government to induce testimony. Some Diplomatic Security field offices “have major problems just waiting to be discovered,” the memo adds.
— In one case, aggressive interrogation techniques by Diplomatic Service agents “drove an employee to attempt suicide” when accused of raping his maid in Bangkok, Thailand, a memo suggests. “After “being told he would end up in a Thai prison, his wife would lose her job and his children would be pulled out of school, [the man] attempted suicide by jumping out of the 16th-story window at a hotel in Bangkok.” The guy lived, and was flown back to Washington for in-patient psychiatric care, where the agents continued to harass him. The rape charges were ultimately dropped.
— The same Diplomatic Security memo cites eight cases involving Diplomatic Security agents who resorted to “false, misleading or incomplete statements in reports,” “privacy-act violations” or “lack of objectivity” in investigations.
— Diplomatic security agents learned that James Combs, a senior diplomatic security agent in Baghdad and formerly of the DS Office of Professional Standards, was having an extramarital affair with a subordinate and had numerous affairs with men over a 30-year span without the knowledge of his wife. This presented “counterintelligence concerns,” but the investigation never reached a conclusion.
— A security contractor in Baghdad died of an overdose of methadone, which he was taking to counteract an addiction to the painkiller oxycodone. An underground drug ring may have been supplying the drugs, but State’s regional security officer did not allow a special investigations agent to pursue that possibility.
— In Miami, agents investigating a car accident by diplomatic security agent Evelyn Kittinger learned that she had been claiming full pay for several years “but had actually only worked very few hours.” State Department supervisors told the investigator to advise her to resign to avoid facing criminal charges and a major fine.
— Another report states that a top State Department official stymied investigators trying to get to the bottom of four killings in Honduras involving DEA agents and local police. The incident ended in the deaths of two pregnant women and two men last year, after Honduran national police opened fire from a State Department-owned helicopter on a small boat. Honduran police said drugs were involved, but locals said the boat was full of fishermen.
–ADDED: Sen. Charles Grassley is probing longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment status, asking how she got a sweetheart deal to be a private six-figure consultant while still serving as a top State Department official. Abedin, one of Clinton’s most loyal aides, is of course married to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who’s in the midst of a vigorous effort to beat off his own sexting scandal and become mayor of New York. Abedin hauled in as much as $350,000 in outside income on top of her $135,000 government salary. She was redesignated a “special government employee” who was able to haul in cash as a private contractor while still on the government dole.
–ADDED: Consulate General Naples’ Kerry Howard says she was bullied, harassed and forced to resign after she exposed Consul General Donald Moore’s alleged office trysts with subordinates and hookers. “When our diplomats disrespect the Italians by hiring and firing them because they have seen too much — or use them for ‘sex-ercise’ — we have to question why we have diplomats abroad at taxpayer expense,” said Howard. As a senior foreign-service officer, Moore makes as much as $179,700 a year. His first office romance supposedly occurred within days of his arrival in Italy, when he allegedly bedded a consulate employee, a single mom who fell in love with him. Moore was honored as “Consular Officer of the Year” (Barbara Watson Award) in 2005.
— A Foreign Service Officer, Michael Todd Sestak, 41, has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit bribery and visa fraud. Dude was a senior visa official in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and supposedly pocketed some $2 million dollars for his work.
It appears that Foggy Bottom has sprung multiple leaks as hard-working folks grow tired of their bosses being allowed to do just about anything without punishment. What is going on? I don’t recall this much garbage coming into the daylight ever before. I assume it was happening all the same forever, but not this much in the public eye. I think it is time for Kerry to say something about at least trying to control his organization.
And of course someone should throw Under Secretary for Management Pat Kennedy out. He *may* be getting the message that in this internet age if you don’t give people a realistic internal avenue to fix things they’ll just go outside. That’s kinda what I did… So there is no doubt much more to come…
State Department Responds
The State Department spokesman said, “We hold all employees to the highest standards.” Spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki told reporters repeatedly this week that the accusations are “unsubstantiated.”
So that’s that apparently. No reporter has seen it useful to ask why for more than four and a half years, the State Department has had no appointed inspector general, the longest such vacancy of any federal agency. Or why, during his entire time in office, Obama has not nominated anyone to fill the slot. Or why during her four years as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not demand an inspector general for her organization.
Hillary Responds
A spokesman said Clinton was completely unaware of any of the investigations mentioned in the Office of the Inspector General’s reports and memos, including the case involving her personal security detail allegedly soliciting prostitutes. “We learned of it from the media and don’t know anything beyond what’s been reported.”
It means nothing that a candidate who will no doubt cite her endless efforts on behalf of women everywhere remained unaware of sex crimes occurring, well, under her.
Opposition researchers and taxpayers alike, once again, Hillary Clinton’s defense is that she was totally unaware of what was going on in the organization she lead and managed, up to and including the actions of her own lifelong advisor and chief of staff, as well senior officials who reported directly to her. She’ll make a great president!
Oh wait– these are just “allegations.” They need to be investigated. Well, the problem of course is that one of the allegations is that powerful trolls inside State prevented or derailed any investigations, and indeed the over-arching allegation is that Diplomatic Security, charged with investigations, is riddled with political considerations that prevent full and transparent investigations. So that’s a pretty weak excuse to blow off everything said.
That said, maybe some are false. OK, but if even a small number of these serious accusations are true (rape, murder, minors) then even that suggests an organization operating without internal controls and the best defense its leader can come up with is her own ignorance. Not a good thing.
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Rich Bauer said...
1State should post a notice in DS bathrooms that employees must also gargle before returning to work.
06/16/13 2:39 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
2While these latest alleged Department of Sleeze antics tantalize America’s insatiable appetite for sex and money scandals, and the NSA, IRS, AP leaks slowly disappear from the weeks news cycles, Oblabla’s damage control team are working overtime to leak new marbles for the MSM shell game carneys. While various people are thrown under the bus each week, the mission proceeds on schedule, at any cost..even national security secrets..as long as the one that could bring the Obama administration down in a holocaust of biblical proportions remains untouchable..ie..BENGHAZI.
What difference does it make..now? Well, I’d bet $1k Sharyl Attkisson knows. At least..SOMEONE out there..THINKS she knows. Trouble is..whoever it is, may trigger the same thing they’re trying to hide at all costs.
Yeah yeah yeah..I know this is old news, but now that CBS has hired a computer forensic’s team to find out who hacked her computer..I’d submit some heads are exploding in the Obama/CIA damage control bunker.
Meanwhile, as other little Benghazi tidbits surface across the interwebs, I’d bet the BoozAllen Hazmat web team is scrambling their BEST War on Reality warriors to dismiss anyone who dares even talk about it. Fact is though, these scumbags go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY beyond just damage “control”..
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/the-real-war-on-reality/?hp
Folks, the War on Reality is alive and well, but thanks to the size of the net..they ain’t gotta chance..unless that is..the REAL truth comes out regarding ..well, you know. Then all bets are off. In he meantime…
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/multiplying-scandals-to-hide-the-one-scandal-that-could-sink-obama/
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. 🙂
06/16/13 4:11 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
3re “A security contractor in Baghdad died of an overdose of methadone”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgQ1yJqwY_4
06/16/13 5:10 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4Obama approves the assassination of Americans because he can, he continues the war on our right to privacy and the destruction of the Constitution, our democracy is going the way of the Dodo and you’re worried about what Obama is hiding about the truth of Benghazi?
06/16/13 8:44 PM | Comment Link
kyzl orda said...
5It’s amazing what gets covered up by some of the curtain clingers at the Department. On the other end of the spectrum, makes you wonder about the rank and file who dont have the honour of higher ups stepping in and waving a magic wand on their behalf, but instead get the opposite ‘treatment,’ enough even the OIG office had to express concern about the misuse of DS in personnel cases by some managers not able to do their own job.
If OIG mentions it, it must be an issue along with all that other stuff that goes unreported.
The Department should be investigated for all the terms it terminated clearances in order to deprive its own employees of due process, especially during whistleblower and other matters.
Remember the Iraq INR officer, JOhn Kokal, who is believed to have jumped from State in 2007 because he had been told he’d lose his clearance after supposedly developing mental illness?
Allegedly, he jumped while his wife waited in a car around the corner for him to get off work. If that is true, i dont understand why an alternate job couldnt be found for him, especially if the powers-that-be can do all these other nifty things for the connected and higher up. But the web, if you google, has references there were differences of political views. That is another problem that the process at the Department does not treat people equally regarding their rank or political views.
http://www.justiceforchandra.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2038
06/17/13 1:46 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
6Registered letter to me from Dale Eppler, former Consul General in Yekaterinburg Russia, denying what a Russian woman wrote about him:
“While it is true that I knew Ms…(etc)”
06/17/13 3:53 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
7“In April 2011, the Washington Post reported that current State Department leadership has pushed Obama not to appoint an inspector general.”
Well that explains a lot, including how and why several Consular Officers have continued to get away with committing felonies involving collusion with the international kidnapping of my Russian born daughter.
06/17/13 4:12 AM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
8Dear MLCT, Is there a link to that article? Wonder if its the same folks who were at it during the Bush Cheney admin too. No Inspector General, no OMbudsman either though I think finally an OMbudsman was hired in the past year or two? I could be wrong on that. Thanks
06/17/13 5:31 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
9Kyzyl, it’s one of Peter’s links above.
More: “…now Mr. Ambassador is calling his prostitution allegations “baseless” because… he lives in “a beautiful park in Brussels.”…according to a local report from 2010, the park is rumored to be a site of frequent homosexual and underage prostitution. And in 2009, RTL reported on prostitution arrests involving young boys and a policeman.”
I also notice that former Yekaterinburg Consul General Dale Eppler who denies improper conduct, and Ambassador Howard Gutman who denies improper conduct, were posted to Brussels concurrently. I wonder if they avoided improper conduct in the same park, or did they avoid improper conduct in different places?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/belgian-ambassador-prostitute-excuse/66148/
06/17/13 8:22 AM | Comment Link
knewtoomuch said...
10FYI, Kimber Davidson and Justine Sincavage are husband and wife (or were; my info is some years old). Anyway, tandem couples are nifty and, as Seinfeld says: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” . . . but it’s perhaps a wee bit cozy.
06/17/13 3:15 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
11hmmmm, on the page from which melove linked to, was a small headlinde…
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/09/foreign-service-officer-who-rants-against-state-department/43060/
Odd that it’s from 2011. Nothing on the net ever dies. Hey PVB…I get the feeling someone over there doesn’t like you..ahem..”ranting”. 🙂
06/17/13 5:11 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
12Better yet, on that same Atlantic page is a “comment:”
06/17/13 5:19 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
13Axe to grind. right. PVB..I’d bet $1k that comment was posted by the DOS Internet Hazmat team. I see them all over the place, and they’re easy to spot too. Even on that page, the comment section is a perfect example. Just look for the big.. I AM A FUCKING IDIOT declaration. 🙂
06/17/13 5:59 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
14ps..I’d bet the DOS Internet Hazmat crew must work their ass off after an embassy dancing video is posted online. Their main problem is dismissing the roar of gut splitting laughter around the world. That’s when IDIOT sticks out like a sore thumb.
06/17/13 6:09 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
15It seems naive to think that a huge government bureau would be any different than a typical large business. That would be a folly of another type of American exceptionalism- that our government is run and operated by exceptional people. The same flawed and petty behavior we see everywhere in life exists at State. State is probably run no differently than ENRON was run before Ken Lay bailed.
06/17/13 10:46 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
16The problem is that you can pick and choose to a certain extent who you do business with. With the government it is take it or leave it, and when they act like pigs they need to be spanked.
06/17/13 10:51 PM | Comment Link
exiledfs said...
17http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/staten_island/new_state_shock_HPvwttBZGMt4KOuO57zPeP
You can’t make this nonsense up:
“In the latest black eye for the scandal-ridden State Department, a whistleblower claims she was run out of the foreign service after complaining about a consul general’s alleged office trysts with subordinates and hookers.
Kerry Howard says she was bullied, harassed and forced to resign after she exposed US Consul General Donald Moore’s alleged security-threatening shenanigans in the Naples, Italy, office.”
But you have Mr. Davidson and Mr. Kelty, along with Ms. Sincavage of ‘witch hunt’ fame turning off investigations on some people, but ramping them up to department of justice level for others?
06/17/13 10:50 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
18True Pitch – some Californians got snookered by Lay and his ENRON energy scam and lost a great deal of money not knowing they had other energy supplier options. We are stuck with the State Department as it is. What are our options? State’s failures and incompetences come from the usual nepotism and appointment position dynamics.
06/18/13 12:11 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
19Ah yes, good ole “appointment position dynamics”..like contributing half a million dollars to an election campaign whereby, you get an Ambassador’s job. Priceless. If ever there was living proof that legal bribery is alive and well in the federal government, that fact alone demonstrates the true character of the DOS. At least no one can say Al Capone had anything up on the Feds…except he went to jail. DoS covers for it’s lying crooks.
ya know, there was a time when I believed our government was of the people, by the people, and for the people. Around 1964, the truth began to seep out, like water from a fresh leaking head gasket..drop by drop. As of today, the flood of reality has drained completely out. There is nothing left, but the rotten, stinking flesh of this vile carcass of corruption. What amazes me though..is how the regular workers at DOS stand the stench. All I can say is..you deserve it.
06/18/13 5:23 AM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
20PVB:
If I remember correctly, it’s possible that Donald Moore was once named “Consular Officer of the Year.”
Somebody should scrutinize the list of Conoff of the Year. They would see that the award goes to minority officers who will never be promoted to the CA Front Office.
Re Cheryl Mills: some enterprising Republican should check into the assistance she gave to American citizen Islamic radicals imprisoned in Yemen. The Ops Center records all the phone calls, and she made a bunch of them, lobbying on behalf of Amcits who had terrorist ties.
06/18/13 10:18 AM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
21Not to boast, but as usual, the memory is accurate.
Mr. Moore has served most recently from 2007-2010 as Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti. Mr. Moore is the recipient of numerous State Department awards including the 2009 Barbara M. Watson Award for Consular Excellence. Born in Fort Pierce, Florida, Mr. Moore is an eighth generation Floridian.
06/18/13 10:21 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
22PVB wrote, “when they act like pigs they need to be spanked.”
Wouldn’t some of them actually enjoy that? And enjoy wearing handcuffs too?
06/18/13 2:01 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
23“Kerry Howard says she was bullied, harassed and forced to resign after she exposed US Consul General Donald Moore’s alleged security-threatening shenanigans in the Naples, Italy, office.”
Word to the FS officer career-wise: See Naples and die…of disappointment. Seriously, why do we even have an office there?
06/18/13 2:18 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
24I’m sure if the records could be accessed (they can’t) we’d learn the primary tasks in Naples are:
a) Service Congressional visitors and other such VIPS on fact-finding tours;
b) Provide a sweet, sweet “gift” posting to favored FSOs. Moore won his award and served in Haiti and so was so entitled.
06/18/13 2:35 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
25PVB said:
quote:”Moore won his award and served in Haiti and so was so entitled.”unquote
youbetcha..SERVED. The entire DoS serve… the Death State.
bartender..I’d like to propose a toast. Here’s to all that serve. Now serve me another round.
06/18/13 3:15 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
26hmmm, I just caught this..
quote:
“a) Service Congressional visitors and other such VIPS on fact-finding tours;”unquote
yeah, I bet they “service” them alright..in parks, on the bus, under the desk and anywhere these deviant bastards want to be ..ahem..serviced.
06/18/13 3:20 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
27Awards at State can be very politicized.
A colleague who opposed the contracting out of her work, had her name removed from the list of people nominated for a performance award in ECA Bureau. Sometimes, ECA HR would dictate to supervisors who among staff WOULD receive a performance award, even if the supervisor did not want to nominate that person because our ECA HR Director personally intervened.
Yeah, the problem has been going on for some time. Sorry to disappoint anyone who thinks it is a sudden manifestation that will magically disappear with a republican president. It would depend on the leadership of the person and if we could only get a Theodore Roosevelt who was serious about civil service reform (sure he’d apply the same ideas to foreign service too) — because so far, both parties are part of the problem and it’s hard to distinguish between them. Even if this were the Bush-Cheney era, this lady and her husband would be out the door, they’d never work for government — the one difference, CBS would not deign to take their call.
These offices will read the complaints submitted to update the hierarchy at State so a plan can be formulated to get rid of the employee who dared submit a complaint. FS or CS, it’s the same. EEO and the Grievance Unit are a joke, the people who work in this part of Office of Civil Rights only worry about collecting a paycheck and fall over each other protecting the people who least deserve protection
EEO and OCR and Complaints should be abolished at State and probably other government agencies. These guys collect a paycheck and do nothing. Save the tax payer some money and deprive the hierarchy of the firewall they cling to so they dont have to dirty their hands and be caught.
Ever see that episode of the ‘Office’ where Steve Carrell is accused of sexually harassing a female employee, then worries because the EEO people have been contacted and show up, acting like serious investigators?
Then they and Carell go into an office and close the door. The EEO inspectors tell him have no fear, they are there to make it look like an investigation but they support him all the way. And the reality at State is not too different, sorry to say
06/18/13 4:05 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
28Kyzl, since I’ve never worked for the US government (nor for any government), your above comment’s references to various bureaucratic abbreviations make me feel like I’m back in 8th grade alegbra class. But perhaps we can distill your overall point down to this:
Are you suggesting that complex Federal government organisations and statutes and regulations are NOT as effective as simple old fashioned decency and common sense, when it comes to things like “Diplomats should not f-ck their staff or cruise for foreign prostitutes?”
06/18/13 4:41 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
29melov said
quote:”
Are you suggesting that complex Federal government organisations and statutes and regulations are NOT as effective as simple old fashioned decency and common sense, when it comes to things like “Diplomats should not f-ck their staff or cruise for foreign prostitutes?”unquote
melov, complex Federal organizations, statutes, and regulations aren’t actually designed with “decency and common sense” in mind. On the contrary..they’re designed with one thing in mind. To allow those that administer them to FUCK anyone they want, anyway they want, anytime they want, for as long as they want…and then get a bonus for doing it. The ONLY qualification for those positions is a provable ability to lie through your teeth while keeping a straight face…although, it helps if you can dance like a fucking idiot on lobotomy serum.
Any questions?
06/18/13 5:08 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
30@ pitchfork (tongue in cheek):
Oh dear, are you suggesting that the essence of those who rise high in the exponentially-Byzantine bureaucracy of the American Empire – and the essence of their treatment of whistleblowers – is like THIS?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z50fjQvnwfE
06/18/13 5:40 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
31yes melov, I am. Nice video btw.
Only now, they’re buttfucking the entire world with Corporate help..which the USG pays handsomely.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/u-s-agencies-said-to-swap-data-with-thousands-of-firms.html
Caligula would envy our present Emperor.
on a side note..check this out. Use your scroll wheel to zoom in. Makes Orwell look like a stroll through Disneyland.
http://www.gigapixel.com/image/gigapan-canucks-g7.html
06/18/13 6:40 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
32c’maaaan Peter, you still modding me? Or did you make a deal with the you know who? 🙂
06/18/13 6:42 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
33I don’t moderate you, but the anti-spam software (168,456 spam comments blocked to date) catches you often for some reason. Once I approve someone the first few times it is supposed to let you through unmodded. Works for most of the regulars but you. I try and keep up with approving comments manually.
06/18/13 7:36 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
34Where is the FOX paranoia when it is justified?
The State Department has hired an alarming number of law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds because of a flawed hiring process, a stunning memo obtained by The Post reveals. The background problems are severe enough that many of the roughly 2,000 agents in State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security can play only limited roles in agency efforts to police bad conduct and prosecute wrongdoers.
Can Kerry trust these guys to protect him?
06/18/13 7:18 PM | Comment Link
kyzl orda said...
35“meloveconsullongtime said…
Kyzl, since I’ve never worked for the US government (nor for any government), your above comment’s references to various bureaucratic abbreviations make me feel like I’m back in 8th grade alegbra class. But perhaps we can distill your overall point down to this:
Are you suggesting that complex Federal government organisations and statutes and regulations are NOT as effective as simple old fashioned decency and common sense, when it comes to things like “Diplomats should not f-ck their staff or cruise for foreign prostitutes?” ”
Sorry about the acronyms, they are defined below. At least 8th grade algebra is not *that* boring lol
Yes, as you said – common sense and old-fashioned decency trump all. If you dont have it, well, then you’ve got what is going on currently. Malarkey and who-the-heck-knows-what type of leadership
There also needs to be a way to screen out the talented slime, those who seem to have ‘it’, but in reality fall into the realm of pond scum. Alot of such people are suave and articulate, but they have to be. It is useful as an avoidance tactic in circumventing regulations and laws being applied, which unfortunately is worsening as a problem in Washington. Or, becoming more and more apparent because people dont think accountability will ever be applied in their case. They have ‘krisha,’ that ‘roof’ or connection to protect them, what do they care??
Your clip from ‘I, Claudius,’ is very accurate, except in lieu of beating up federal employees more kid-glove approaches have employed. The whistleblower in State’s OIG mentioned below, same person who reported on the ambassador sexing underage kids in Belgium, even had DS camping outside her house.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/17/exclusive_whistleblower_says_state_department_trying_to_bully_her_into_silence?wp_login_redirect=0
If a person is an employee at State, and the HR or DS tries to get you to sign a document **AND** you DID NOT do the accusations — NEVER SIGN. No matter the pressure, do not put pen to paper. The *I just want it to end* sentiment can lead to far more serious trouble. Guess what, bureaucrats renege on promises ostensibly made to bring things to ‘closure,’ which there never will be. Yes, we want to believe our leaders, but some are not worthy of the position they hold. Good for this lady
FS- foreign service
CS- civil service
ECA- Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the Dept of State
OCR- Office of Civil Rights
EEO – Equal Employment Opportunity
06/18/13 7:18 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
36Who isn’t the enemy of State…in Hawaii?
Anybody know if Deedy got a pass on his background check?
“The trial of a federal agent charged with killing a man inside a Waikiki McDonald’s should be moved to U.S. District Court because publicity about racial issues and animosity toward the federal government could hinder a fair trial in state court, his attorney argued Tuesday.”
As the feds are the largest employer in the state, one wonders where the animosity comes from — familiarity breeds contempt.
06/18/13 7:40 PM | Comment Link
kyzl orda said...
37Rich,
A few months back, there was a OIG report released in the wake of Benghazi analyzing the state of DS in State investigations and some prescient comments in that report were made that you have to revisit in light of these most recent problems
Among these, investigations being opened in personnel matters when other means should have been pursued and supervisors opening cases on every allegation (ie stacking charges, which is my language). Also, the report does cite potential for interference from higher up in State that could impact investigation outcomes. The language of the report is curious on this and the link is below to read it first hand. Another contributor previously provided the link to this OIG report and thanks to that person for doing so
It would be interesting to know more on the agents with alleged criminal pasts. If they exist in such large numbers and came in after being in the military, the military provided waivers for certain categories of criminal issues. But to paralyze many agents so they can perform limited aspects of their jobs sounds suspicious — too systematic and that someone higher up doesnt want them doing all aspects of their job or wants to misuse portfolios for getting rid of whistleblowers – these are alarming.
http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/206520.pdf
06/18/13 7:43 PM | Comment Link
kyzl orda said...
38Likely, Deedy kept his security clearance to be able to hold that desk job. In contrast the INR IRaq specialist who purportedly killed himself was going to lose his and his job over health issues. Sounds like no alternate work assignment was offered to the Iraq specialist either unlike for Agent Deedy
06/18/13 7:50 PM | Comment Link
john cesarian said...
39So we know an FSO told not to worry about
marital infidelity in a ‘critical threat’ country. Simply cheating on your spouse, with his/her knowledge,
has become grounds for the High Priest of SID and his minions to to completely impale State employees. Yet here we read that the DIRECTOR allowed someone to skate. Lisenbee was given a 3 day investigation. We know of cases that have gone on for a year or EIGHT with NO charges brought.
Security clearances are suspended and revoked at will. The NYPost reported on an agent in 2006
who got drunk and drove a government vehicle into oncoming traffic. Still employed.
Another agent in NYC allegedly sexually assaulted another agent. Still employed.
Another group of agents started a drunken brawl at 3 am in NYC…they’re still employed.
Another agent domestically assaulted his wife; another drove drunk on the highway against traffic; another kicked a brazilian prostitute out of a moving vehicle.
ALL ARE STILL EMPLOYED. Should we tell you more stories? This is truly disgusting. No one wants to make these people reexamine the cases that have been tainted by SID because shit will hit the fan. And PSS is another group of people just waiting for the press to go after them. It shouldn’t be this way as the people at CFSO point out.
DS cannot police itself. It cannot even investigate itself without giving handouts to its favorite sons and daughters, no matter how vile, and crushing others no matter how petty the misconduct or legal failing.
06/18/13 9:30 PM | Comment Link
john cesarian said...
40The rumor is very few people lose their clearances. You have to be a minority or truly have pissed someone off to get your clearance burned. But that isn’t pc right – so perhaps it’s never happened and the rumors are just that…
06/18/13 9:31 PM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
41Let me give you some more info. on Lisenbee.
I’ve actually met that piece of work.
During one conversation, he explained to me how the most important thing in his life was his persnal relationship with his lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
This is right befor ehe was first accused of groping a local (male) guard.
He then went on Baghdad, where it’s siad he tried to grope a fellow (Male) RSO. The RSO reacted predictably: a right cross to Liseenbee’s chops.
State frowns upon physical violence and punished the offended RSO just as much as it punished Lisenbee.
But for whatever reason, Lisennbee was always a favorite of management and was always protected.
Till now.
Snicker.
06/19/13 12:47 AM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
42John Cesarian:
Hey, I’ve heard of every one of those!
Your 9;30 is a great summary of the worst of DS.
One correction: you forgot to mention that the 2006 agent mentioned in the New York Post had some hookers in his car.
06/19/13 12:56 AM | Comment Link
Lafcadio said...
43Yeah, this be it:
From the New York Post:
July 23, 2006 — The State Department worker who crashed his unmarked government car into a taxi while escorting three scantily clad women and a cold case of beer to an undisclosed location was arraigned last night on charges of driving while intoxicated.
Jason Giuliani, 26, was arraigned on a DWI charge in Manhattan Criminal Court early this morning and released without bail.
Federal law-enforcement sources said Giuliani works in the diplomatic security detail.
Giuliani – who cops said was a Fort Lee, N.J. resident – ran a red light and smashed into a taxi cab on East 34th Street at Lexington Avenue on Friday night at about 11:30 p.m., cops said.
Witnesses said he was driving west in the eastbound lanes while telling traffic to get out of the way over the loudspeaker in his government issue black Buick.
The three young ladies were in the car, but left the scene of the crash before authorities arrived, according to witnesses and a video tape obtained by The Post.
They also took a small brown bag from Giuliani, the tape shows.
The state department would not comment on what he did for them or who he was supposed to be protecting.
They also would not comment on whether or not Giuliani would face disciplinary action in addition to criminal charges.
06/19/13 12:59 AM | Comment Link
John Cesarian said...
44@Lafcadio: The worst? I doubt it. When I was around I heard even worse stories than these. Again, the majority of agents are good, honest people. But you have an all-star cast of rejects when it comes to sins that are shoved into the closet and left to rot. I don’t get how the news called out the head of special investigations and his deputy, but didn’t mention some of the other gems in that division (legal beagle at large) or the clearnce group. Who do these people think they are? You went after a man for linking to a link but let Combs, Lisenbee, Gutman and others skate? How is it that Clinton asked her main agent about prostitution and got a nothing to see here when the group was under investigation; an investigation that special investigations turned off (not perhaps because of a family connection…)? Did those agents keep their security clearances? If so, that’s amazing. How do you sexually assault people or carry on extramarital affairs for OVER 30 years and not get your security clearance pulled? Really, how the hell does that happen when if you spit the wrong way these days you get investigated and your clearance taken away. How are you sleeping with people (americans and or locals, why discriminate) inside the embassy when your spouse works down the hall, upstairs, downstairs or NEXT DOOR…and keep your clearance? I am shocked OIG actually attempted to call these fouls. I don’t miss this world. I’m just amused the hypocrites and back-stabbing holier than you and you types are getting a dose of reality. Enough with the intimidation.
06/19/13 4:10 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
45The above commenter wrote: “The worst? I doubt it. When I was around I heard even worse stories than these”
I say, wait until the sleaze of the US Consulate in Yekaterinburg Russia is exposed.
06/19/13 4:43 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
46Yekaterinburg. Consul General. Adultery. Homewrecking. Fraud. Dale Eppler. Scott Rauland.
Is there a giant map of the world at Foggy Bottom, with an arrow pointing to Yekaterinburg with a sign, “Hot Russian Women hang out here”? Does the CIA actually ENCOURAGE Consuls posted in Russia to get publicly close to adulterous Russian women? Do they have some kind of paradoxical theory that being blackmailed by the FSB will be to America’s advantage?
Or are they really just into Russian pussy?
06/19/13 8:03 AM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
47But then it all comes down to discretion. And evidently US Ambassadors and Consuls are trained to exercise Eric Cartman’s kind of “discretion”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZLVi4v7lSM
06/19/13 10:21 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
48“But you have an (DS)all-star cast of rejects when it comes to sins that are shoved into the closet and left to rot – LAFCADIO
And then there’s the FBI:
NYT: “Critics say the fact that no agent in the past two decades has been disciplined for deliberately shooting someone raises questions about the bureau’s internal investigations.”
Hey, that guy in Orlando had it coming.
06/19/13 1:21 PM | Comment Link
vicki said...
49john cesarian said…
“The rumor is very few people lose their clearances. You have to be a minority or truly have pissed someone off to get your clearance burned. But that isn’t pc right – so perhaps it’s never happened and the rumors are just that…”
No, losing your clearance would mean that an action (which triggers the few rights that you have in terms of protesting, engaging legal assistance etc) actually took place. What State likes to do is suspend clearances indefinitely, so that you have no actual recourse. They put you (if you’re civil service) on unpaid leave while they “investigate” and then see how long you can last. Meanwhile, you’re essentially prohibited from taking another job (cause you’re still technically employed – I guess you could probably work at McD’s or Starbucks and that would be ok) so you slowly go broke while you wait for them to do something….anything.
I waited 6 plus months for any sort of action on my case. No ROI, no access to the building, no updates, no pay….in the end they got what they wanted, I quit. That’s their game.
I’d actually gotten over my bitterness until I read this….now I’m furious all over again.
06/19/13 4:51 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
50This is also what happened to me. My clearance, even after retirement, remains “temporarily suspended.”
06/19/13 4:55 PM | Comment Link
vicki said...
51Did they ever get back to you on your FOIA request? I filed one about a year ago; they said they’d respond by July 2013 (ever quickly approaching) but on the day this story broke, suddenly my new date is now end of September 2013. Makes me wonder what’s actually in the DS file on me that they don’t want me to have.
06/19/13 7:02 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
52I never received a reply to several FOIA requests. The one time I asked, State gave me a completion date for some readily-available emails of two years in the future. They don’t even care to hide their contempt for their own employees.
06/19/13 7:13 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
53Here’s a portion of my letter sent today by registered mail (international) to Congressman “Hon” Darrell Issa:
“To: Hon Darrell Issa, 2347 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Re: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and State Department Corruption
Concerning recent revelations about State Department corruption, I can add information about my own little known case involving the Yekaterinburg Consulate, adultery, passport fraud and my daughter’s Russian mother absconding in Russia with an American woman’s husband, aided and abetted by the collusion of US Consular officers. The State Department has continued strenuously to cover up this up, including several documentable felonies. I can document all of my averments. I practiced law in America for some years. I am a US citizen (etc)…”
So let’s see what THAT letter’s answer will be! I predict there will be NONE, other than a standard (written by the Congressman’s half-educated staff): “Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the State Department” etc…
06/21/13 5:51 PM | Comment Link
Expat said...
54Speaking of sleaze, be sure to let Jen the DoS Spokeswoman and Obama girl know how you feel about all of this: psakijr@state.gov.
06/26/13 12:48 PM | Comment Link
US Consulate Officers Gone Wild - | Bharat Press said...
55[…] effort in Iraq. “State is loathe to air its dirty laundry and so just deep-sixing someone […]
09/5/13 9:31 AM | Comment Link
US Consulate Officers Gone Wild « INTLFACES said...
56[…] Well, a tell-all about the reconstruction effort in Iraq. “State is loathe to air its dirty laundry and so just deep-sixing someone with pay removes the problem with no public […]
09/5/13 1:03 PM | Comment Link