The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

responses that did not delete the draft- ing and clearing information from all documents, whether cables, airgrams, letters or memos. But mine was not a common position. I’d become sensi- tized to the problem when a young officer who had previously served in Embassy Kinshasa was pilloried — by name—on the Hill and in the animal- rights community over a gift primate that had become the ambassador’s household pet. The officer had no direct involvement with either the treatment or disposition of the animal; all he had done was draft a polite response, for the ambassador’s signa- ture, to an overwrought animal activist. But he was listed as drafter on the bottom of the released copy of the letter. Twenty years later the problem persisted, as FOIA requests reached my desk at the Haiti Working Group with drafting information intact. It was not at all clear from my discus- sions with the individuals handling those FOIA requests that they had been given any guidelines regarding redaction of drafting and clearing information, or that they shared my concern over its exclusion. It seems that the further passage of five years has not brought either clarity or con- sistency. When I joined the State Depart- ment in 1973, I was told that cables and airgrams left post over the ambas- sador’s name because once a message was duly cleared it ceased to be the point of view of the drafter and became the point of view of the mis- sion. Similarly, instructions from Washington were not those of a partic- ular bureau or assistant secretary; they were instructions from the Depart- ment of State. The Carter administra- tion’s initiative to have drafters identi- fy themselves in the body of incoming and outgoing messages — nominally so that overseas drafting officers could get credit inWashington for their good work — was based on a profound lack of understanding that the department and overseas posts must speak with one voice. It seems to have irrepara- bly weakened that concept. It’s past time for the department’s FOIA managers to give their troops clear instructions that drafting and clearing information should always be redacted from documents released to the public. The public’s right to understand how policy is formed is met by the substance of the paper trail, not the minutia of the drafting process. Mary Lee K. Garrison FSO, retired Alexandria, Va. Keeping in Touch Mikkela Thompson’s article in the December issue was most interesting and enjoyable (“Lost and Found: International School Reunions”). I copied it and sent it to my son, Stephen Prosser, now serving as an FSO in England. Steve attended several internation- al schools in his elementary and high school years. Three years ago he and several classmates of his at the International School of Kenya ar- ranged a 20th-anniversary reunion of their high-school graduating class in Vienna, Va. It was attended by about 25 students, out of a class of 42! They came from the four corners of the globe. Many of the observations made in your article applied equally to those students of the 1970s and 1980s. From 1985 to 1986, I served on AFSA’s Committee on Education, a position I thoroughly enjoyed. The AFSA scholarship program celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1986. I volun- teered to do a research project asking the 220 merit awardees questions about how Foreign Service life affect- ed them at the time compared to 10 years later. I was impressed by the informative responses and large per- centage of awardees replying. The June 1986 issue of the FSJ featured a cover story entitled “Teens Overseas.” As part of that, I wrote an article about the results of my research project of the 220 merit awardees. James F. Prosser FSO, retired Green Bay, Wis. FS Blogs I read with interest the January report on various blogs by FSOs (Cybernotes). As an AFSA member, I would like to let you know about this one: http://FSOglobetrotter.blogspot. com. Its unique subject is food, faces and airplanes as seen through the eyes of a diplomat. It includes many pictures of food. Nathan Tidwell FSO Embassy Lahore An FSO Resigns With deep sadness I depart the State Department, prematurely end- ing a 24-year Foreign Service career. I voluntarily leave what had been a largely rewarding career in which I raised two daughters to know and appreciate the world I spent almost four decades traveling. I take this action because I believe that State is no longer effectively representing the values and priorities that have been the foundation of our security and the source of American strength. The dis- sonance between many of the actions and policies implemented — cherry- picked prewar intelligence, pre-emp- tive war, secret foreign CIA detention centers and torture, warrantless domestic spying — and my own val- ues, common sense and experience has simply become too great. I recognize that successful Foreign Service officers must have an excep- tional tolerance for ambiguity. And I understand that higher strategic aims often necessitate compromises in pur- suit of the ultimate objective. During 8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 6 L E T T E R S u