The Foreign Service Journal, December 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2013 51 AFSA NEWS wealthy, politically connected Russian businessman with many friends in Washington, D.C. He was a frequent trav- eler and this was just another business trip—or was it? We decided to hold his applica- tion for further scrutiny. It did not take long before we began receiving letters and phone calls from his legal counsel in the U.S., followed by letters from members of Congress. Needless to say, there was increasing interest from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, as well. It got worse. One member of Congress threatened me by telling me that by refusing the businessman’s visa, I was jeopardizing my career. I wish I could have recorded the telephone conversation when that angry congressman shouted a string of expletives at me and said his next call was to the Secretary of State. I asked myself, is this deci- sion worth it? We refused the visa on solid grounds. I made it clear to CA that the consulate in Moscow would not be issu- ing any visa to the applicant while on my watch. The ambassador backed me up, but it was months before the anger and rage subsided. The incident did not end my career. At the time, none of us considered it dissent; the visa refusal was simply the right thing to do. There- fore, we were surprised to hear about the Herter Award nomination. Receiving the award did not hurt any of our careers. We can now look back with satisfaction that we hung in there to make the right decision. At our embassies and consulates around the world, Foreign Service members make decisions with integrity and good judgment, and we stand by those decisions. Our team in Moscow did nothing more than what many of our fellow officers do on a regular basis, hopefully without the threats and expletives! Having served in more senior positions since then, I have come to highly value those officers who are unafraid to provide alterna- tive ideas, speak honestly, dissent when warranted and stand by their convictions. If that is you, I look forward to working together. n Dissent continued from page 39