US to shift many diplomats from Europe to Middle East, Asia
But as US launches diplomatic restructuring, Human Rights Watch says US 'torture' policy undermining global human rights.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will shift hundreds of diplomats from Europe and Washington to difficult assignments in the Middle East and Asia as part of a restructuring of the diplomatic corps she has dubbed "
transformational diplomacy."
The Washington Post reports that in a speech at Georgetown University Wednesday, Ms. Rice said now that the cold war is over and the US has turned its focus to fighting terrorism, drug smuggling, and disease, "the State Department's culture of deployment and ideas about career advancement must alter."
"The greatest threats now emerge more within states than between them," she said. "The fundamental character of regimes now matters more than the international distribution of power."
As part of the change in the US diplomatic corps, Rice said, diplomats will not be able to move into the senior ranks unless they accept an assignment in a dangerous position, become an expert in at least two regions, and become fluent in at least two languages. Rice cited Chinese, Urdu, and Arabic as examples.
"In the 21st century, emerging nations like India and China, and Brazil and Egypt, and Indonesia and South Africa are increasingly shaping the course of history," Ms Rice said. As many as one-third of the 7,400 Foreign Service positions may be affected by these changes in the next few years.
The EU Observer reports that the first shift will be about 100 people from positions in Europe and Washington to new ones in India, China and Lebanon. In her speech, Rice said it is "not normal" to have as many diplomats in Germany, with a population of 82 million, as in India, with a population of 1 billion.
Adding that there are still almost 200 world cities of over a million inhabitants without any US presence – despite its 7,440-strong diplomatic corps abroad – Ms. Rice indicated "This is where the action is today, and this is where we must be."
The Financial Times reports that at the same time it is restructuring its diplomatic corps, the Bush administration also plans to
restructure its foreign aid program. The program, to be run by Randall Tobias, a retired pharmaceuticals executive who currently heads the US global AIDS program, would see the US change the way it gives out aid to "better serve its foreign policy goals."
Mr. Tobias will also be appointed to the newly created position of deputy secretary for development. As a result, the move has drawn much criticism from groups who say that by merging USAID into the State Department, "the agency will lose some of its independence, and development will become purely politicized," the Financial Times said.
Meanwhile,
Voice of America reports that US foreign policy in the Middle East came under heavy fire from Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights organization. In its
latest world report, the organization accuses the Bush administration of
using torture and inhuman treatment of detainees as "a deliberate strategy in its war on terror." These policies have created an atmosphere of tolerance of abuse around the world.
"It's not simply a matter of neglect, or command failure," he said. "Rather the use of torture and inhuman treatment was the Bush policy. It was reflective of a deliberate decision by the most senior Bush administration officials to fight terrorism without regard to one of the most basic prohibitions there is in international human rights law."
Reuters reports that the group said the evidence showed abusive interrogation cannot be "be reduced to the misdeeds of a few low-ranking soldiers, but was a
conscious policy choice by senior US government officials. The policy has hampered Washington's ability to cajole or pressure other states into respecting international law, said the 532-page volume's introductory essay."
"Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive."
Mr. Roth also said the tactic was fueling terrorism recruitment, "discouraging public assistance of counterterrorism efforts and creating a pool of unprosecutable detainees."
The White House dismissed the criticism and said it did not torture terror suspects.
"I think when a group like this makes some of these assertions, it diminishes the effectiveness of that organization," [White House spokesman Scott McClellan] said. "The United States is a leader when it comes to advancing freedom and promoting democracy, and we will continue to be. We are the leader."
In England,
The Guardian reported Thursday on new information it had received about
the British government's knowledge of the US practice of rendition – the secret transfer of terror suspects to interrogation centers in Europe and Asia where they may have been tortured. The paper reported that the leaked document shows the Blair government is trying to "stifle" attempts by members of Parliament to find out just how much Britain knew about what some MPs are calling the CIA's "torture flights."
The
BBC reports the leak memo shows that the
US may have used British airports to transport terror suspects to the secret prisons far more often than the two times the government has officially admitted.
The information was contained in a leaked Foreign Office briefing paper that had been sent to the Prime Minister Tony Blair's office advising it how to handle the fallout from "controversy over CIA rendition flights and allegations of Britain's connivance in the practice."
Also...
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'Terror chief killed' in Pakistan missile attack (Independent)
•
Iran willing to negotiate over nuclear dispute (Ireland On-Line)
•
Congressional agency questions legality of wiretaps (Washington Post)
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Tom Regan
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