We can only hope that with the departure of these failed State Department officials, their failed policies will be swept out along with them. Chief among these is the almost universally held idea that poverty causes terrorism. The United States has wasted uncounted (literally, because a great deal of it was in untraceable bags full of cash) billions of dollars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, and other countries in the wrongheaded assumption that Muslims turn to jihad because they lack economic opportunities and education. American officials built schools and hospitals, thinking that they were winning over the hearts and minds of the locals.
Fifteen years, thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars later, no significant number of hearts and minds have been won. This is partly because the premise is wrong. The New York Times reported in March that “not long after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001…Alan B. Krueger, the Princeton economist, tested the widespread assumption that poverty was a key factor in the making of a terrorist. Mr. Krueger’s analysis of economic figures, polls, and data on suicide bombers and hate groups found no link between economic distress and terrorism.”
CNS News noted in September 2013 that “according to a Rand Corporation report on counterterrorism, prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2009, ‘Terrorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated, or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.’ One of the authors of the RAND report, Darcy Noricks, also found that according to a number of academic studies, ‘Terrorists turn out to be more rather than less educated than the general population.’”
Yet the analysis that poverty causes terrorism has been applied and reapplied and reapplied again. The swamp is in dire need of draining, and in other ways as well. From 2011 on, it was official Obama administration policy to deny any connection between Islam and terrorism. This came as a result of an October 19, 2011 letter from Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates to John Brennan, who was then the Assistant to the President on National Security for Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism, and later served in the Obama administration as head of the CIA. The letter was signed not just by Khera, but by the leaders of virtually all the significant Islamic groups in the United States: 57 Muslim, Arab, and South Asian organizations, many with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Islamic Relief USA; and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).
The letter denounced what it characterized as U.S. government agencies’ “use of biased, false and highly offensive training materials about Muslims and Islam.” Despite the factual accuracy of the material about which they were complaining, the Muslim groups demanded that the task force “purge all federal government training materials of biased materials”; “implement a mandatory re-training program for FBI agents, U.S. Army officers, and all federal, state and local law enforcement who have been subjected to biased training”; and more—to ensure that all that law enforcement officials would learn about Islam and jihad would be what the signatories wanted them to learn.
Numerous books and presentations that gave a perfectly accurate view of Islam and jihad were removed from coounterterror training. Today, even with Trump as President, this entrenched policy of the U.S. government remains, and ensures that all too many jihadists simply cannot be identified as risks, since the officials are bound as a matter of policy to ignore what in saner times would be taken as warning signs. Trump and Tillerson must reverse this. Trump has spoken often about the threat from “radical Islamic terrorism”; he must follow through and remove the prohibitions on allowing agents to study and understand the motivating ideology behind the jihad threat.
The swamp needs draining indeed. This news from the State Department, and the New York Times’ grief over it, are good signs that the U.S. is on its way back on dry land.
“The Desperation of Our Diplomats,” by Roger Cohen, New York Times, July 28, 2017:
WASHINGTON — On the first Friday in May, Foreign Affairs Day, the staff gathers in the flag-bedecked C Street lobby of the State Department beside the memorial plaques for the 248 members of foreign affairs agencies who have lost their lives in the line of duty. A moment of silence is observed. As president of the American Foreign Service Association, Barbara Stephenson helps organize the annual event. This year, she was set to enter a delegates’ lounge to brief Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on its choreography before appearing alongside him. Instead, she told me, she was shoved out of the room.
Stephenson, a former ambassador to Panama, is not used to being manhandled at the State Department she has served with distinction for more than three decades. She had been inclined to give Tillerson the benefit of the doubt. Transitions between administrations are seldom smooth, and Tillerson is a Washington neophyte, unversed in diplomacy, an oilman trying to build a relationship with an erratic boss, President Trump.
Still, that shove captured the rudeness and remoteness that have undermined trust at Foggy Bottom. Stephenson began to understand the many distressed people coming to her “asking if their service is still valued.” The lack of communication between the secretary and the rest of the building has been deeply disturbing.
An exodus is underway. Those who have departed include Nancy McEldowney, the director of the Foreign Service Institute until she retired last month, who described to me “a toxic, troubled environment and organization”; Dana Shell Smith, the former ambassador to Qatar, who said what was most striking was the “complete and utter disdain for our expertise”; and Jake Walles, a former ambassador to Tunisia with some 35 years of experience. “There’s just a slow unraveling of the institution,” he told me….
gravenimage says
Break out the champagne: State Department officials quitting over “complete and utter disdain for our expertise”
………………
God, I hope things improve.
john spielman says
yup, the draining of the D.C. swamp has begun!
p says
State Department officials quitting over “complete and utter disdain for our liberalism”
Peter Piper says
LOL!!! Dana Shell Smith, the former ambassador to Qatar, who said what was most striking was the “complete and utter disdain for our expertise” IF THEY HAD SUCH “EXPERTISE” THEN WHY IS THE NATION IN SUCH A MESS? No, they HAVE no expertise… but the Trump administration will help to straighten this mess out.
jule says
Qatar has to be boycotted until it condemns Muslim Bros but it is so ingrained it will take a long time. Our congress needs to see the Expertise of why Muslim Bros are part of the Movement including terrorists. Now I see why I have heard from leaders in Canada…”don’t worry, we are already in the White House and taking over”. I didn’t know if I should believe them but we see it is very very true. It must change. More Expertise needs to be publicized regardless of how much CAIR and others object.(and they will ….but that will mean proper expertise is getting through and not be allowed to be called “alt right’ or Islamophobic.) Islam is a Government. Islam becomes a State, no matter where it settles. Islam is a Government. There was a woman in Sweden who left here group in Sweden to marry a Christian Swed. When she went back to visit her group they told her not to ever come back or else she will have trouble….she was told ‘You are not in Sweden here. Here in our group you are in Islam. You made your choice”.
marblenecltr says
Don’t be surprised at the number of U. S. citizens of a certain background moving way south of the equator, say, New Zealand or Paraguay (Guten tag!)
mortimer says
What expertise? Surely the vaunted ‘EXPERTISE’ of those highly paid FRAUDS is not on the JIHAD doctrine, MISOGYNY doctrine, TAQIYYA doctrine or SUPREMACY doctrine of Islam.
How could these ‘experts’ presume to make policy about Islam when they have not read any of Islam’s source documents, let alone know even the names of them? They simply cannot. They are totally out of their depth.
President Trump should hire REAL EXPERTS who have read the Koran, Sira, hadiths, sharia law manuals and Islamic history and STUDIED THEM. Only REAL EXPERTS on Islam can make sound POLICY regarding Islam.
Anyone who tries PREPOSTEROUSLY to make policy about Islam without studying the PRIMARY, SOURCE DOCUMENTS is a totally ARROGANT FRAUD.
Relations between Muslims and kafirs are STEEPED IN TAQIYYA from top to bottom.
selahgreene says
Mortimer, Kindly apply for a job at State. Preferably in the International Threats Department. You have demonstrated far more expertise than the current denizens. Perhaps that is because you live and work in the real world, not the Fantasyland of the left.
t. says
I second that, selahgreene!
Debi Brand says
Well stated, mt, across the board. Well stated.
Terry says
Now, if this could continue–WITH MORE LEAVING. NOT ONLY AT FOGGY BOTTOM, BUT AT THE DEPT OF ENERGY; DEPT. OF EDUCATION; ETC.
As to Foggy Bottom- when Harry Truman was president, Foggy Bottom hated him. He was despised.
When the vote was coming up to recognize Israel, the State Dept. WAS TOTALLY AGAINST IT. SO, TRUMAN THUMBED HIS NOSE AT FOGGY BOTTOM, TOLD THEM TO KISS HIS ASS, AND VOTED FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
A few years later ( early 1960’s I think) a State Dept. official wrote an article in The Reader’s Digest ( might have been an abridged version form another publication-this was decades ago)– where he bemoaned that there WAS NOT A UNITED ARAB NATION, ACROSS THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST, AND THAT THE U.S. NEVER (SINCE PRES. TRUMAN-HE & IKE) TRIED TO PUSH FOR ONE.
The bias was evident. pro Islamist/Muslims.
I doubt if anything has changed.
Always On Watch says
Be still my heart! The Obama-loyal Islamophiles are leaving the State Department.
underbed cat says
Your sure they are leaving…this would be great news.
During the Obama years, he sent red hair( envoy) to North Korea….do you think there was coordination between NK and Obama to enable Kim to connect with the Iranian/Chinese physicists to achieve technical skills for the dangerous weapons.? I was always suspicious about his moves and motives with all the leaders who wanted to topple the U.S…..
Just wondering if there is a connection between Iran, China and North Korea.
Oliver says
Underbed–I have read for several years-in scattered pieces, that Iran and North Korea had ” deals” going on.
Some of the problems started with Clinton, continued but on a lower level with Bush 2 then stepped up under Obama.
leaving pres Trump to deal with it.
Keys says
“Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.”
The green side.
I’d bet the same can be said for “progressive” Democrat leaders.
The red side.
Monty says
Mr Trump is no diplomat. That is a major plus. He’s had a shot at China, and is completely justified. Of course the Palestinians want peace, as long as it involves the eradication of Israel. Mr Trump may have been fooled by Abbas at first, but he’s awake up now. Someone has to stand up to the bullies. Maybe Mr Trump will.
Guest says
Is a highly experienced deal maker not a diplomat? The right sort?
Jen says
And he’s a wild card. No one knows what to think or how to deal with him. An unknown quantity. International issues, he could do nothing or he could launch a war. Trump’s advantage I think. Sometimes the best way to win is to confuse your opponent. For conservatives in the US or any where in the West, he loves our values and hates anything that opposes them. Huge improvement over past 8 years.
Guest says
I’ve just read the article. No NYT reader could possibly understand what Robert is telling us here. It’s all just ‘Trump is bellicose’, ‘Trump is creating a toxic environment’, ‘Trump is into torture’, ‘Trump is against diplomacy’.
Virtually nothing about islam, except implying that Saudi Arabia is helping cause terrorism.
How many Americans believe the NYT?
gravenimage says
Guest, Robert Spencer is saying that we are better off *without* these tools. I’m not sure why you would disagree with that.
Guest says
I totally understand Robert and agree. I’m saying that NYT readers won’t understand what Robert is telling us here. So how many Americans believe that rag?
gravenimage says
Ah–I see what you are saying, Guest–and I agree. But not having these “experts” gumming things up at the State Department is a good thing, whether leftists recognize that or not.
Baucent says
Difficult often to get rid of career civil servants who are resisting a new administration. Best strategy does seem to either ignore their advice or transfer them to backwater posts. Hopefully most take the hint and leave.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
The solution is to build a parallel administration with fresh people, get it up and running, while you “starve out” (and alienate) the old structure.
Always On Watch says
I don’t personally know anyone at the State Department.
But I do know a few at the EPA. And all of them were old enough to retire. They did so immediately after November 8, 2016 — even though they had originally planned to work for at least two more years.
Perhaps something similar is happening at State.
Jim says
There are ways to fire them. It’s merely a process that opens the door for them, places your boot on their butt, and helps them to discover the street and how to use their feet.
Georg says
Poverty and big cities cause terrorism, which doesn’t work well to explain who so many impoverished people and big cities, or even some impoverished people living in big cities, have nothing to do with terror. Hmm… perhaps the operative variable isn’t being isolated. But there is something else which seems to exist wherever there is terror and terror wherever this thing exists. But I don’t want to be racist.
Mark Swan says
Good One Georg
Oliver says
Poor people don’t usually revolt and start revolutions (Venezuela, now, is an exception- because they are being deprived of food, and medicines and their rights by a despotic dictatorship).
Most poor people try to make enough money to buy food.
Revolutions are (usually) started by those with lots of money and too much time, and too few worries.
Castro was an attorney; one of the Russian leaders ( either Lenin or Stalin) was a minister.
Sounder says
Their “expertise” has the wirkd in a bloidy mess and growing. Good riddence. BTW There is poverty in every country, none wage jjhad you dolts.
Sounder says
World in a bloody mess i meant, sorry cant type on this thing!
Always On Watch says
Sounder,
I have the same problem with my mini iPad.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/07/28/clarion-tillerson-standing-muslim-brotherhood-terror-designation/
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Designating “the muslim brotherhood” should have been Trump’s FIRST act upon becoming President.
Mark Swan says
Absolutely Flavius Claudius Iulianus, they should have been designated as terrorist.
PRCS says
How about designating them a JIHADIST organization.
Oliver says
Flavius and others
Don’t know if you are aware of this, but some “Christian evangelist leader” said that what Trump MUST DO FIRST IS FIRE MR. S –HIS NEW HEAD, AND ESCORT HIM OUT OF THE W.H., AND BAN HIM.
That this is MORE IMPORTANT than health care; tax reform; NK; terrorism, etc.
Leading me to wonder: do some right wing people also have their heads up their assholes?
So, “he used profanity”. I guess to little children, that is bad- but adults-in the real world?
emmett says
Hey, just because they were sending all of the ” MODERATE ” moslems to OBAMMYS unicorn ranch, doesn’t mean they are TRAITORS !
Mirit says
To learn much more about why we need to drain the swamp completely – read the book “Catastrophic Failure”. What Robert Spencer wrote about here is much more detailed in that book.
Marvin says
Career state department employees need to be let go. Too many are there to serve a political agenda. A through cleaning needs to be done.
C T says
No, there are a large number of realistic people there with wide experience. Don’t tar the good guys and gals just because they work at the same place as a bunch of NPR-believing virtue-signallers.
gee says
Tillerson is part of the swamp. He is in the pockets of his oil buddies.
Kepha says
I have very mixed feelings about this post, especially since I had a short and inglorious diplomatic career back in the early 1990’s. I know something about Foreign Service people, including their strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it’s fun to watch these liberals who have long blasted State as a “fuddy-duddy” organization lamenting the loss of so many career diplomats; on the other, I question whether Trump truly appreciates what he may be losing.
Certainly there is a disconnect between the styles of people used to the brusque ways of parts of the business world and those who are prized for their ability to unruffle the ruffled feathers of various foreigners.
State seems to attract the very best and very worst of high-intelligence, highly educated, intellectually curious Americans. On the one hand, there are those who will lead and be led into disastrous decisions and remain stuck in their cognitive dissonance until Doomsday; on the other, there are those who have a very great capacity to learn, grow, identify mistakes, and figure out ways to back away from them.
When the O maladministration’s State Department was once described as “women on training wheels” (SHrillary Shrooooo, Sammie Power, etc.), it was probably a perceptive career Foreign Service Officer who coined it. The Blog Diplomad 2.0 is written by a former senior FSO and reflects a very clear-eyed perspective on the JIhad and other international issues. Just as in the 1980’s and 1990’s there were campus Maoists at State who learned and changed after a tour in China, there are probably plenty of “religion of peace” Arabists at state who have been cured after serving in the Dar-al-Islam.
If State gets funded and starts recruiting again (as will probably have to happen), I would urge some American JW readers with language skills (especially in “hard” languages) to take the Foreign Service Exam and submit to the background check. Give it a try.
gavinwca says
Please don’t let the door hit you in your liberal, socialist arse on the way out.
wm1 says
“Trump and Tillerson must reverse this. Trump has spoken often about the threat from “radical Islamic terrorism”; he must follow through and remove the prohibitions on allowing agents to study and understand the motivating ideology behind the jihad threat.”
With clueless Kelly now running the White House, not a chance. I find no reason for optimism.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
In his article published July 28, 2017, New York Times reporter Roger Cohen states that on May 5, 2017, Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association, was “shoved out of” a delegates’ lounge at the State Department. This reporting is incomplete. Who shoved her? Who witnessed the shoving? What part of the shover’s body came into contact with what part of her body? Did she lose her balance? Was this shoving videotaped, and does reporter Cohen have a copy? This shoving is a serious breach of decorum that requires a fuller report.
brane pilot says
The US State Department has taken on the role of NGO ships in the Mediterranean that are ferrying thousands of destitute, illiterate, Muslim Africans to Italy every DAY. This agency sees it as its mission to socially engineer the USA into a third world country by resettling countless Muslims deemed ‘refugees’ by corrupt and incompetent UN agencies.
Take care of homeless US citizens sleeping in the streets first, then we can talk about providing for destitute illiterate foreigners on the other side of the world, many from cultures that are openly hostile to American culture and ideals.
R says
It is time to hold our government responsible for the treason it has engaged in with Islam, as of giving aid and comfort to Islam — being an enemy since representatives of Islam have attacked and declared Islam’s warfare, by way of apprising those in buracracy and elected positions in the US government, in a very personal, hands on way.
Summary judgments and executions of those most guilty of betraying the Constitution in the commission of treason, and punishment of enablers and establishers of Islam, hopefully sanctioned and approved by the SCOTUS is really needed. Such needed seriousness may remind some of their responsibility and others of their oath.
Ray Jarman says
To provide an example of just how the Department of State has been towards Israel is when one entity at the Embassy in Tel Aviv had a coin to represent the group, instead of something depicting the state of Israel, it chose the Al Aqsa mosque. From the Ambassador to the junior officers working at the American Embassy and the American Consulate, in Jerusalem, the attitude was one of disdain for the Israelis and adoration for the thuggish Palestinian terrorists.
When the President George W. Bush administration declared that it would not promote immoral practices such as husbands having sex with other women and prostitution of every sort, especially in Africa, embassy general services personnel were told to fill the bathrooms with condoms in contravention to WH directives.
Trying to clean house is especially difficult since those sitting on the evaluation boards of the oral examinations are all ultra liberal which prevents anyone with a conservative outlook from receiving a positive grade and even if he or she were to pass the oral evaluation, the chances of being tenured would be very slim. When a Jewish person states that the State of Israel should be wiped out of existence, one has to be concerned and the cleaning of the house is extremely necessary.
alex says
The ones leaving all seem to be people who have “put in their time” and are retiring. How is this a problem? If many young officials were leaving, that could be a problem but the examples given are not.
Peter says
Expertise in what? Leftist, liberal progressive, delusional utopian fantasies? Certainly not REALPOLITIK. An institution that cannot fathom that the existence of an Islamic threat to the West (and the Rest of non-Muslim humanity) is certainly better off without their “expertise.” Those who cannot stomach Trump and cannot uphold their impartiality should be put in the “outbox.”