The Foreign Service Journal, April 2004

The fact of the matter is we’re here.” A graduate of Georgetown Uni- versity, and fluent in French as well as Arabic, Bradley served at Embassy Amman from 1999 to 2001, and was then posted to the U.S. mission to NATO in Brussels. He was sent to Nasiriyah in September. GAO Hits Delays in Visa Process for Science Students and Scholars At a Feb. 25 House Science Com- mittee hearing officials from the State Department, the FBI and the Depart- ment of Homeland Security respond- ed to problems and shortcomings in the current visa process for science students and scholars ( http://www. house.gov/science ). T he officials were responding to a GAO report (GAO-04-371) released at the hear- ing, “Border Security: Improvements Needed to Reduce Time Taken to Adjudicate Visas for Science Students and Scholars” ( www.gao.gov ). Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs told the committee, chaired by Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., that the State Department was addressing one of GAO’s main concerns, interoperabil- ity of computer systems, with an investment of more than $1 million to update from a cable-based system. Roger Garrity, deputy assistant director for the Records Manage- ment Division at the FBI said his agency hoped to be able to connect to this system shortly. State is also continuing to improve officer train- A P R I L 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 C YBERNOTES “High School Students Demand Wars in Easier-to-Find Countries.” “Congress Forbids Economy to Recover Until Congress Passes Bill to Help Economy Recover.” “AT&T to Cut Work Force 120 Percent.” Are these real news head- lines or just plain gibberish? Actually, they are neither, or perhaps a bit of both. A helpful antidote to election-year overload, www.satirewire.com of fers the serious student of human affairs a perfect blend of hard-edged cynicism and sharp wit that more often than not cuts right to the quick. Created by Andrew Marlatt, a comedy writer, www.satirewire.com o ffers a plethora of newsworthy headlines that often fail to make the final editions of other newspapers. Marlatt is the author of a book, Economy of Errors: SatireWire Gives Business the Business (Broadway, 2002), and his humor has been read and heard around the world, from the Chicago Sun-Times to the Sydney Morning Herald and Asahi Shimbun, and on radio networks such as NPR and the Australian Broadcasting Company. CNN calls SatireWire “a treasure chest of satirical take- offs on current news items.” The articles, which can be witty, satirical, or downright loony, poke fun at issues and events ranging from cuisine to education to software com- panies and government. The Web site also offers an exten- sive archives section in which interested readers can peruse older yet equally hilarious news headlines. The articles are guaranteed to bring howls and guffaws even if the news is no longer breaking. The only “sad” news on SatireWire is Mr. Marlatt’s deci- sion to no longer update the site, but that is where the site’s extensive Links section, cataloging over 30 other humorous sites, comes in. — Dwijen Jaydev Mehta, Editorial Intern Site of the Month: SatireWire 50 Years Ago... During the past year there has developed within the ranks of the Foreign Service a deep and widespread feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty regarding the future of the Service. Not since the early part of the century when Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson firmly applied the career principle to the diplomatic and consular services, thus leading to the unified service set up by the Rogers Act of 1924, has there been so much doubt as to whether this principle would, or even should, continue to prevail. — Editorial on the establishment of the Public Committee on Personnel, the “Wriston Committee,” FSJ , April 1954.