EDITOR’S NOTE: By supporting and covering up for Meles Zenawi’s genocidal dictatorship, the American embassy in Ethiopia remains one of the main sources of misery in the Horn of Africa. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post reports about a recent finding by the U.S. State Department’s Inspector General about administrative problems that have plagued the embassy.
More than a dozen top American diplomats have come and gone at the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia, a front-line nation in the battle against Islamic extremism, in less than a year, the State Department’s inspector general reported Monday.
The problem starts at the top, the auditors said.
“This situation reflects, in part, questionable personnel decisions by the previous leadership in the Bureau of African Affairs (AF) that also have impacted negatively on the political/economic section,” their report said.
With the added burden of an impending move to a new embassy and a sharp growth in personnel, the auditors said, the embassy operates “too often in crisis mode.”
The report was signed by Harold W. Geisel, the State Department’s deputy inspector general.
Blame for the spinning door in Addis Ababa seemed to be levied at Jendayi E. Frazer, a former assistant secretary of state who headed the Bureau of African Affairs under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, although she was not mentioned by name.
Now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, Fraser could not be reached for comment.
The latest American ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald E. Booth, a career foreign service officer and longtime Africa hand, arrived in Addis Ababa in April.
Despite the leadership turmoil, the senior embassy staff is doing a pretty good job, the auditors found.
“Executive direction at Embassy Addis Ababa is good for a front office in prolonged transition,” they said, “with seven chiefs or acting chiefs of mission, five deputy chiefs of mission (DCM), and several office management specialists since July 2009.”
Morale has been helped by love bombs from the home office in Foggy Bottom, the report suggested, citing “evident Washington interest and a strong sense of task.”
Morale “has remained good, surprisingly so, given local conditions,” the auditors found during their inspection trip in February
“Employees work out of a dilapidated embassy in a construction zone, commute in chaotic traffic, fight a fusty bureaucracy to get cars, household effects, and consumables shipments delivered, and go without reliable Internet service at home,” the report said.
But help is on the way.
“A stellar project director overseeing the construction of a new embassy building has achieved exemplary coordination with Embassy [personnel],” the auditors said.
“This will facilitate the moving-in process scheduled for September 2010.”
By Jeff Stein, The Washington Post
10 thoughts on “U.S. embassy in Ethiopia operates in a crisis mode – inspector”
Jendai Frazer? No, it can’t be. It must be an aberration. She was a wonderful house niga that loved to screw up things! And boy did she!
Jendayi E. Frazer was inept and corrupted.
America operates in crises mode. PERIOD!
American does not need an Embassy, Meles is just their representative doing all what they need.
I assume Jendayi E. Fazer, image in minds of many locals in Ethiopia may have an appearance that is uninviting. One has to look notice view image to identify where she err in politics of nurturing one dictator Melese. The claim resonates that under her watch she miscalculated the way out to regional peace. To err is human. Future could be good for those who learn from error to that of making a way for a perfect union, and value human rights.
American embassy in Ethiopia? What American embassy?! It simply is the office of planning and military build-up for Meles Zenawi’s repressive minority regime.
What has America done in Ethiopia? It has always undermined the will of the Ethiopian people by propping corrupt unpopular regimes and the latest one is no exception. I say they should pack-up and go home. They are bad news for Ethiopia and bad news for the region with their insatiable appetite for war and human blood under the guise of ‘cold war’, ‘the war on terror’ e.t.c. They have terrorised our region.
Go home Yanki.
Peace.
Anonymous replies:
December 13th, 2011 at 11:58 AM
God bless you Tesfa for knowing this evil doers very well
American elected officals and appointed deplomats represent the interests of their tax payers and not the Ethn. tax payers. I wondered how naive some of us have been, including during Obama election when we expected BO to call Meles and tell him to clean his house or leave. But both BO or his administration are doing what to get the American ppls’ vote and not ours.
The US is currently doing a lot of good things (e.g. fighting AIDS, poverty, Malaria etc..) but could do better in heling democracy take its roots. But they also have strike a balance between pushing the Meles regime away to China or keeing a carrot and stick approach.
The is the reality we live in.
Peace,justice and freedom to our People.
Anonymous, you said:
“American elected officials and appointed diplomats represent the interests of their tax payers and not the Ethn. tax payers.
Unfortunately, the State Department of the US is not controlled by the people of the US. It is the set of neocons, zionists and Meles’ lobbyists that provide direction and actions around the world.
Meles, Worst Dictator #9 is catered to by the US because he has guns and has no qualms in using them against his own people. The historical record proves my point.
TTFN,