The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2023 13 A Cheap Shot? In response to Frederic Maerkle’s let- ter, “Classified Docu- ments, ” in the April 2023 Foreign Service Journal , it is an easy thing to “blame the secretary” (or the assistant, or an offi- cer) for classified material found in someone’s home. I would like to remind readers that it is the responsibility of the individual to ensure that all classified material stays where it belongs. Blaming someone else is a cheap shot! Katherine McGifford OMS, retired Enumclaw, Washington Good Friday Agreement at 25 Hope and history rhymed this April as we marked the 25th anniversary of one of our most successful and enduring peace- making efforts, the Northern Irish Good Friday Agreement. Oddly, rather than calling attention to the unsung American diplomats working behind the scenes who helped make that a possibility, AFSA included in its April 14 daily media roundup a link to a July 1996 FSJ article, “Dissent in Dublin, ” a celebrated Dissent Channel case. The 1994 Dublin dissent was a protest to then-Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith’s cable to Washington recom- mending a visa for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and including Ireland in the visa waiver program. Concerned that giving a visa to the leader of an organization linked to IRA terrorist acts would send the wrong signal, the FSOs drafted a Dissent Channel mes- sage and sent it out at close of business on a Friday when one of themwas the acting deputy chief of mis- sion (DCM), without giving the ambassador a heads-up. All hell broke loose when Amb. Kennedy Smith found out the following week. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) was called in to investigate the harsh retalia- tion she visited on the public affairs officer and consul, which led to her being admonished; the July 1996 FSJ cover story celebrated the dissenters, one of them crowned with AFSA’s top award for constructive dissent. Ironically, if that dissent message had succeeded, Good Friday might never have happened. More irony was in high- lighting that dissent during the week that Congress hit State with a subpoena for the 2022 Embassy Kabul Dissent Channel cable. With the benefit of 25+ years hindsight, AFSA and the OIG got it right to come down hard on Ambassador Kennedy Smith (referred to inside the embassy as “she who must be obeyed”) for retaliating. Based on the very long, miserable year I endured as her second (of three) DCMs, I could sympathize with the dissenting offi- cers not wanting to directly confront her. However, you can be righteously wrong, as the Dublin dissenters proved to be. I got to Dublin in August 1996 after two years in Belgrade, where I dealt with terrorists and indicted war criminals daily. One does not make peace with the good guys, rather the bad ones. In 1995, I had faced a similar dilemma in Belgrade when, in the absence of formal approval fromWashington, I had to decide whether to issue Slobodan Milosevic a visa to go to Dayton, Ohio. Imagine the alternate futures if the U.S. had not issued those visas. No Day- ton Accord, no Good Friday Agreement. No peace in Bosnia, no end to 30 years of The Troubles. And the decision to add Ireland to the visa waiver program was prescient. In 1997, Ireland experienced its first net in-migration in centuries, thanks to its booming economy and vibrant cultural explosion. Larry Butler Ambassador, retired Thomaston, Maine, and Reston, Virginia Consular Fellows Needed With all the talk of Foreign Service reform and hiring rule changes in the March 2023 Foreign Service Journal , the Department of State should also consider a decisive measure to address the nonim- migrant visa (NIV) application backlogs. Wait times for B1/B2 applicants requiring an interview range from several months to more than a year at some posts, creating an economic and diplomatic challenge for the department and major delays for travelers. Long NIV wait times harm the U.S. tourism industry and its workforce. An important issue to host nation govern- ments, the problem also strains bilateral relations. Many countries are competing for international visitors, and the U.S. cannot afford to fall behind. State deserves praise for its remote adjudication initiative, but it won’t be able to rapidly reduce the pent-up demand without significantly more adju- dicators. The solution is to expand the Consular Fellows Limited Non-Career Appointment (LNA) program. LNA Consular Fellows are short- term, contract employees trained to conduct interviews and adjudicate visa applications. They are an essential part of the department’s workforce and play a critical role in reducing NIV wait times.