The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

14 OCTOBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL TALKING POINTS Just the Facts, Ma’am? I n May the Department of State posted the following notice on its Web site: “As of May 2012, Background Notes are no longer being updated or produced. They are in the process of being replaced by Fact Sheets that focus on U.S. relations with each country. The link to each document from anywhere on www.state. gov or on any other site, as a bookmark, etc., will remain the same, whether it appears as a Background Note or when it is replaced by a Fact Sheet. “Background Notes listed below are the most recently published versions. Previous editions are available in our archive section. ” So far, only about a third of the old notes have been converted to the new format, but the move has already drawn sharp criticism in some quarters. In an Aug. 23 Wall Street Journal opinion column, retired Foreign Service officer James M. Roberts asserts that the shift in emphasis not only amounts to “transforming these documents from straightforward reference items into PR puff sheets for the president,” but reflects a pervasive favoritism toward left-wing governments. For instance, Roberts compares the new Brazil Fact Sheet with the previous Background Note, written during the George W. Bush administration. He says the Bush-era document, totaling 4,100 words, was full of information and statistics about Brazil, and the section on U.S.-Brazil relations was just 300 words long, or 7 percent of the total. By contrast, the Fact Sheet is less than 1,200 words long, 830 of which (70 percent) cover current U.S.-Brazilian relations. Furthermore, Roberts says the coverage prominently features President Barack Obama, much of it in the context of the educational, scientific and cultural programs he launched during a March 2011 visit to the country. He also asserts that coverage of the president’s Latin American trip in the documents illustrates a disparity in treatment of left-wing and right- wing governments, since the Chile Fact Sheet makes no mention of the president’s stop in Santiago. Foggy Bottom has not responded officially to such criticism. However, an Aug. 17 blog posting by Madeleine Morgenstern on The Blaze quotes an unidentified department spokeswoman as saying that emphasizing Obama’s achievements over those of his predecessor is “not a valid way to look at” the new profiles. Instead, the spokeswoman said, the decision to change the Background Notes was made because much of the information previously featured— geographic or economic data on each country, for example—is now widely available elsewhere on the Internet, which wasn’t the case when they were first created for print 30 years ago. After pointing out that the Fact Sheets all feature links at the bottom of the page to the State Department’s official country page, U.S. embassy page and other information sources, the spokeswoman added that “the new series is meant to provide information unique to the State Department.” Such controversies are nothing new, to be sure. Many State employees still recall that the George W. Bush administration took down the series of historic photos and cartoons illustrating the history of U.S. diplomacy that had lined the first- floor corridor running from the cafeteria to the C Street lobby. It replaced themwith photos of President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with various foreign leaders. Now, dozens of photos of President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton and other Obama administration figures line that and several other hallways at Main State. Meanwhile, the original display of historic materials remains tucked away in a less frequented corridor. —Steven Alan Honley, Editor Small Arms, Big Problem O n Aug. 27 the Federation of American Scientists issued Small Arms Survey 2012 , the largest study of legal weapon transactions ever conducted. The survey puts the value of the trade in small arms, light weapons, and their parts and ammunition at $8.5 billion annually, more than double the 2006 estimate. The group’s analysis of 80,000 small and light arms from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia reveals that mortars are the most common type in Iraq and Afghanistan, closely followed by grenades and firearms. Firearms are the most numerous type in Somalia. In all three countries, the vast majority of firearms are Kalashnikov-type automatic weapons. These weapons are generally based on older designs from Eastern Europe