The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2017 11 Obama’s Record on Political Ambassadors A t the end of his two terms on Jan. 20, President Barack Obama’s record on politically appointed ambassadors is on par with his predecessors. Of his ambas- sadorial appointments, 70 percent were members of the career Foreign Service, while 30 percent were political appointees. Over the course of his two terms, President George W. Bush named career FSOs to 68 percent of the ambassadorships he filled during his eight-year term, and President Bill Clinton appointed career officers to 72 percent of the ambassadorial slots he filled. Obama’s record is also similar to his recent predecessors in terms of total num- ber of ambassadorial appointments: He made a total of 419 appointments. By com- parison, Bill Clinton appointed 417 ambas- sadors, George H.W. Bush appointed 428 and Ronald Reagan appointed 420. Obama appointedmore political appointees than any Democratic president since 1974, when AFSA began recording these statistics. The Obama adminis- tration’s record represents a 2-percent increase over Clinton and a 4-percent increase over Jimmy Carter. Notably, however, Obama appointed the highest number of female ambassadors of any previous president—134.Thirty-two percent of his appointments were female. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s first nominations have already been made, with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley proposed to be ambassador to the United Nations and Iowa Governor Terry Brans- tad for China. You can follow President Trump’s ambassadorial appointments on our web- site at www.afsa.org/ambassadorlist. —Kellen Johansen, Communications Intern TALKING POINTS The Sincerest Form of Flattery? O n Dec. 2, Al-Jazeera reported that with the help of U.S. officials, authorities in Ghana busted a fake U.S. embassy that for a decade issued ille- gally obtained authentic visas. No one is known to have entered the United States on visas from the fake embassy, the State Department has said. The real U.S. embassy in Accra is a prominent, heavily fortified complex in Cantonments, one of the capital’s most expensive neighborhoods. Lines of people queue outside each day for visa appointments and other consular business. Until a few months ago, however, it had competition from a rundown, two- story pink building with a corrugated iron roof. That facility flew a U.S. flag outside every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 7:30 a.m. to 12 noon, but otherwise kept a low profile. It did not take walk-ins. Inside, visitors saw a portrait of President Barack Obama, along with signs assuring them they were in the right place. But Ghanaian and Turkish crime rings actually ran the operation, and the “consular officers” were Turkish citizens who spoke English and Dutch. (The ringleaders also ran a fake Dutch embassy.) Confirming news reports, State’s Dip- lomatic Security Bureau noted that the takedown was part of a broader “Opera- tion Spartan Vanguard” initiative, which DS special agents in Embassy Ghana’s Regional Security Office launched to address trafficking and fraud concerns in the region. The sham embassy advertised its services through flyers and billboards in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo. Some of the services it offered its custom- ers, whom it shuttled to and from the site, included issuance of fraudulently obtained but legitimate U.S. visas, counterfeit visas and false identification documents, for up to $6,000 each. According to the Washington Post, when the task force raided the place, they arrested several suspects and col- lected evidence that included a laptop computer; smart phones; 150 passports from 10 countries; counterfeit identity documents and legitimate and coun- terfeit visas from the United States, the Schengen zone, India and South Africa. The exterior of the fake U.S. embassy in Accra, Ghana. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE