Replies

In any event, most of these meetings with a head of state like Saddam include an American notetaker who usually speaks the language. Glaspie wouldn't have needed a translator per se, but she would have been wise to have one whom she could trust.

Since Wilson was working under Glaspie, would it be plausible that he may have been her notetaker rather than her translator, perhaps?

I'm not surprised to hear the no-soles-of-the-feet-showing custom is not as rigidly practiced among Westernized Arabs. I still wonder what Al-Zubaydi means to convey by portraying her as eschewing that custom, though. When I read it, it comes across like he's trying to portray her as rude or contemptuous.

A note on Post 182 regarding Jacqueline's payments from Gabon: in addition to the payments you list, I found another $38,000 payment, which IIRC didn't turn up in some searches but was there if you poked around enough in the FARA website and Google caches. I will need to dig through my notes to find the date of the filing but I double-checked this a few times as I was going over Jacqueline's FARA filings before trying to resolve some discrepancies between what different people had found and forwarded me.

Since Wilson was working under Glaspie, would it be plausible that he may have been her notetaker rather than her translator, perhaps?

Perhaps. At an important, high level meeting some ambassadors take the DCM along as notetaker. He then writes the cable up for Washington approved by the Ambassador. On most such occasions, it is the head of the political section that accompanies the Ambassador. Since Wilson didn't speak arabic and Saddam doesn't speak French, they probably used Saddam's translator. Wilson's book probably indicates whether he was in attendance or not.

Based on post #101 Jacqueline still works for the President of Gabon.