How Will State Department Personnel Changes Impact Counterterrorism Policy?
By Andrew Cochran
Personnel selections can signal important shifts in policy and also have unforeseen impacts. Secretary of State Rice announced numerous personnel changes in personnel this week which will hopefully change recent one State Department trend in counterterrorism policy. Many of the senior officials at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the focal point for foreign policy formulation, are changing chairs or leaving. Liz Cheney, the Vice President's daughter, is leaving after three years, and Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, former Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad and current Coordinator for Iraq, and Scott Carpenter, another top official there, will assume more duties. Other officials at NEA are also moving. We will be interested in the impact these changes will have on recent and counterproductive State Department accommodations with the Muslim Brotherhood, as discussed by Lorenzo Vidino and Doug Farah.
Secretary Rice also named Dr. Gregg Rickman as Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism, pursuant to the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. Gregg has been chief counsel for the U.S. House International Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and was lead counsel for the committee's critical work in exposing the Oil-for-Food scandal. He also was lead counsel for hearings on terrorism issues, such as "Visa Overstays: Can We Bar the Terrorist Door?" with Michael Cutler testifying (read his testimony here) and "Offshore Banking, Corruption, and the War on Terrorism", which focused on UBS's currency violations which enabled Iran and Cuba to obtain U.S. currency. Recently, he began a review of the Saddam Hussein intel docs, which I hope the subcommittee will continue to pursue. He is a friend and big CT Blog fan whose work enabled us to post several scoops (here and here). I know Gregg will bring energy, intellect, and experience to the new position, and his appointment is a positive development.
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