Diplomats Sound the Alarm as They Are Pushed Out in Droves

nytimes.com ^ | 11/24/17 | Gardiner Harris

[cotton1706]

Of all the State Department employees who might have been vulnerable in the staff reductions that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has initiated as he reshapes the department, the one person who seemed least likely to be a target was the chief of security, Bill A. Miller.

Republicans pilloried Hillary Clinton for what they claimed was her inadequate attention to security as secretary of state in the months before the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Congress even passed legislation mandating that the department’s top security official have unrestricted access to the secretary of state.

But in his first nine months in office, Mr. Tillerson turned down repeated and sometimes urgent requests from the department’s security staff to brief him, according to several former top officials in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Finally, Mr. Miller, the acting assistant secretary for diplomatic security, was forced to cite the law’s requirement that he be allowed to speak to Mr. Tillerson.

Mr. Miller got just five minutes with the secretary of state, the former officials said. Afterward, Mr. Miller, a career Foreign Service officer, was pushed out, joining a parade of dismissals and early retirements that has decimated the State Department’s senior ranks. Mr. Miller declined to comment.

The departures mark a new stage in the broken and increasingly contentious relationship between Mr. Tillerson and much of his department’s work force. By last spring, interviews at the time suggested, the guarded optimism that greeted his arrival had given way to concern among diplomats about his aloofness and lack of communication. By the summer, the secretary’s focus on efficiency and reorganization over policy provoked off-the-record anger.

[x1stcav]

Who would’ve ever thought that the NYT would be dispensing sunshine?

[clintonh8r]

That’s not “the alarm.” That’s the sucking, oozing sound of the swamp being drained of deep state do-nothing kleptocrats at Foggy Bottom....

[SunkenCiv]

The key is to cut the throats (figuratively) of the asswipes who continue to undermine the President and this country. BTW, these firings happen at the beginning of every administration -- it's only brought up by the Partisan Media Shills when the President is Republican. Thanks cotton1706.

[spintreebob]

In the old days they could be lobbyists and facilitators for US companies trying to do business overseas...and for foreign companies trying to do business in the US.

The whole system was set up so Bush I diplomats would go to private practice under Clinton. Then Clinton diplomats would go to private practice under Bush II and the Bush I diplomats would go back to work for Bush II. Then the same with Obama.

The bi-partisan combine had a well understood game of rigged musical chairs.

[Liz]

Nice editing.

[samtheman]

Please, someone, boo hoo girl.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Beautiful...MAGA in progress.

[samtheman]

Post #10... great!

[Flaming Conservative]

McDonalds wouldn’t want such a bunch of lazy time-serving layabouts....

Not to be argumentative, but I’ve seen some McDonald’s that would. X-D

[Liz]

Trump needs to find out who on Hillary’s payroll are still listed as State Dept employees....and getting US govt paychecks.

It’s a common political practice to add someone to a govt payroll. Long after you think they’re gone they’re still cashing US govt paychecks.

[Liz]

This'll give you nightmares, people.....counting up the endless line of Huma Abedin's cousins w/ their greedy Muslim hands in the State Dept cookie jar.

UNDER HOUSE ARREST---This smirking creep is Huma's first cousin AKA a serial swindler
He subsidized businesses w/ our tax dollars looted from Hillary's State Dept. He made six million dollars vanish.

EXCERPT--“Thanks for getting in touch. Would love to arrange a meeting,” Huma Abedin replied in a June 23, 2009, email to her cousin Omar Amanat and Shamil Idriss, who heads New York-based Soliya Inc.

In May 2010, then-Secy Clinton helped Soliya get access to U.N. funding by making the U.S. a participant in a U.N. high-tech media initiative called the Alliance of Civilizations. Then in October 2010, the State Department directly awarded Soliya $1.25 million for a media technology project. “Huma helped Omar make KIT appear more valuable because of its association with the Alliance of Civilizations, which was approved by Hillary and funded in part by U.S. grants (tax dollars),” said an attorney familiar with the case.

“This helped Omar raise money for KIT, which he and his brother misappropriated for other purposes. Approximately $6 million has vanished.”

Amanat took KIT Digital public in August 2009. At the time, Amanat, known as a “serial swindler,” was in personal bankruptcy and being sued by other investors. Despite his reputation, he still managed to gain special access to US government tax dollars thanks to his ties to his well-positioned cousin and the Clinton Foundation.

THE MONEY LAUNDRY Records show that Amanat and several other family members and related charities have together donated as much as $1.2 million to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative, as well as the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Amanat, who personally contributed as much as $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation, was appointed to the Council on Foreign Relations during the time that Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state.

While the FBI has apparently closed its espionage investigation into Clinton’s unsecured private email server (the House has reopened it), its public corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation remains open.

It’s not clear if this still-active probe overlaps with the Amanat fraud investigation. However, investigators reportedly continue to look into alleged “pay-for-play” schemes involving the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation and its wealthy donors, as well as entities that paid the Clintons millions of dollars in speaking fees.

Judicial Watch and other government watchdog groups have charged that the Clinton Foundation was a pay-for-play operation that rewarded its benefactors with State Department favors.....and cash.

[Liz]

Another email Hillary "forgot" to handover: In July 2011, when Chelsea Clinton, a Clinton Foundation employee, was planning to see the U.S. women’s soccer team play in Germany, Chelsea's travel agent asked Huma Abedin to confirm that Chelsea’s travel costs could be placed on her parents’ credit card.

In an email response, Huma Abedin tells the travel agent that Chelsea and Bari Luri, Chelsea’s Clinton Foundation chief of staff, would be made part of the “official US govt delegation” going to the match and she would “fly on official govt plane both ways and the State Dept (we, the taxpayers) would take care of hotels and all transportation.”

NOTE: At the time we, the taxpayers were footing her bills, Chelsea was between jobs, but she was a highly-paid, fully-employed Clinton Foundation executive w/ her own chief of staff.

[Enchante]

ha ha, I wouldn’t know since I avoid the place.... but I didn’t really think McDonalds had such a lofty standard for employees....

[BwanaNdege]

Diplomats? DIPLOMATS?

I think this is one time that the standard liberal mantra of “women, children & minorities harmed most” is actually true.

Should we throw in “endangered species”, too?

[gundog]

Later, ‘gators!

[vette6387]

“these firings happen at the beginning of every administration “

Unfortunately, not when Republicans gain the White House, otherwise this housecleaning would be less aggressive. The truth is that guys like Boosh I and II didn’t do it because they generally agreed with RAT diplomacy. Or they were just effing lazy. Take your pick!

[unixfox]

They are parasites. Nuff said.

[Fiddlstix]

[fella]

Who wants to be briefed by a pack of known liers?

[rod1]

Best news all day!