The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2019 15 TALKING POINTS Ortagus Debuts as State Department Spokesperson I n her first official interview as State Department spokesperson on May 14, Morgan Ortagus told Fox News’ Guy Ben- son that she’s aiming for press briefings five days a week. The former U.S. govern- ment official and Fox News contributor was appointed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on April 3. Ortagus began her government ser- vice as a public affairs officer for USAID, serving in Iraq in 2007. From 2008 to 2010, she served as the deputy U.S. Treasury attaché to Saudi Arabia, and then in 2010, she moved to the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, working to designate terrorists for placement on the United Nations Sanctions List. She is an active U.S. Naval Reserve officer. She replaces Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor. Pompeo Challenges China on Human Rights S ecretary of State Mike Pompeo strongly criticized China over its human rights record in a prepared state- ment on June 3 about China’s crackdown against Tiananmen Square protesters 30 years ago. “Over the decades that followed, the United States hoped that China’s integra- tion into the international system would lead to a more open, tolerant society,” Sec. Pompeo said in the statement. “Those hopes have been dashed. China’s one-party state tolerates no dis- sent and abuses human rights whenever it serves its interests,” he continued. “Today, Chinese citizens have been sub- jected to a new wave of abuses, especially in Xinjiang, where the Communist Party leadership is methodically attempting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo swears in Brian Bulatao on May 17. STATEDEPARTMENT Senate Confirms Under Secretary of State for Management T he Senate confirmed Brian Bulatao as under secretary of State for man- agement in a 92-5 vote on May 17. Bulatao, a business executive and a former classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the U.S. Military Acad- emy at West Point, served as chief operat- ing officer at the Central Intelligence Agency when Pompeo was director there. Bulatao’s appointment was delayed for almost a year when Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) placed a hold on the nomination. The senator lifted the hold after the State Department agreed to provide documents, requested by Menendez, linked to an investigation into political retribution in the department. In June 2018, Foreign Policy reported that Mari Stull, a political appointee in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, had been vetting the social media accounts of senior-level Foreign Service members in search of “signs of ideo- logical deviation.” The State Department has also launched an investigation into the allegations of political retribution, Bloomberg reported in May. Secretary of State Pompeo swore Bulatao in on May 17. The under secretary post had been vacant since January 2017. Russian intelligence officers who are part of the Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system. … They used sophisticated cybertechniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake online identities and through the organization WikiLeaks. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate. … If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments— that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American. —Robert Mueller speaking on May 29 at the U.S. Justice Department. These were his first public comments since the start of the special investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election two years ago. Contemporary Quote