Daily Archives: September 22, 2015

Papal Visit & Telework: And the @StateDept GO Has Reportedly Crashed Already #PopeInDC

September 22, 2015 By in State Department, Technology and Work Tags: , , ,

Posted: 12:11 pm EDT
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Last week we’re told that State/IRM had advised all Bureaus that GO can only handle about 25% of State Department teleworkers.  Folks were reportedly told to plan to work in the office.

Apparently, it is expected that “traffic delays will be minor” compared to Foggy Bottom’s connectivity issues.

This week, most of DC’s feds have gone on telework schedule due to the popepocalypse.

And. It looks like today, the State Department’s remote access system has already crashed.  Hard.

General question not related to the papal visit … so what happens if something really bad happens? How will the State Department manage if only 25% of its employees are able to telework? How does this compare to the telework capacity of other federal agencies?

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Here is the announcement posted online on system status, which does not indicate any mention of capacity issues:

SYSTEM STATUS as of 9/22/2015:
Please be advised due to higher than normal call volume, MRA Service Desk call hold and average wait times are 20 minutes and may be longer in some cases. If you have issues accessing GO, please reference our User Guides in the upper right hand corner of the screen. If you have any other concerns please call MRA at 202-647-2000 option 3 for support.

Customers using IE, Version 11 to log into Global OpenNet(GO) should click here for important instructions on how-to configure browser settings. If the link does not work, please follow the steps below.

  1. Click on Required System Setup
  2. System Setup for Windows 7 User Guide and
  3. go to page 18 for instructions.

ANNOUNCEMENT(S): Windows 10 GO Compatibility: The Windows 10 Operating System (OS) has been tested and confirmed to be compatible with Global OpenNet (GO). For customers using the Windows 10 OS, please reference the Windows 10 User Guide found here or by clicking the “Required System Setup” tab above.

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Amb. John Tefft “Attends” 9/20 Moscow Rally and Apollo 11 Moon Landing Wearing the Same Trench Coat!

September 22, 2015 By in Ambassadors, EUR|Europe, Foreign Service, FSOs, Realities of the FS, Social Media, Spectacular, Technology and Work, Trends Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted: 1:23 am EDT
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Russian television network REN-TV reported yesterday that the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Tefft, attended a Moscow rally of opposition activists. It apparently included a photograph purporting to show Ambassador Tefft at the event. Below via RFE/RL:

But there was one major problem with the report by the Kremlin-loyal national television network REN-TV: Tefft was not at the protest in Moscow’s outer Marino district. And the image showing Tefft talking to reporters against the background of the September 20 demonstration was a fabrication.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow responded snarkily to the report on REN-TV’s website, saying Tefft had spent the day at home and publishing photoshopped images showing Tefft speaking to the same reporters against the background of famous historical events — including U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s return to the Philippines in 1944 and the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.

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Apparently, REN- TV  first edited the report to state that it is “unknown whether these images are real or a common photo montage.” According to RFE/RL, later in the day, REN-TV followed up with an item conceding that the photograph was a fake circulated on Twitter and apologized. RFE/RL notes that the image of Ambassador Tefft used in the photo mashup was taken from an interview he gave on February 28 at the site near the Kremlin where Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead the previous day:

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RFE/RL says that REN-TV is majority-owned by National Media Group, a pro-Kremlin media conglomerate controlled by Yury Kovalchuk, one of numerous influential businessmen and officials sanctioned by the United States in response to Russia’s role in the Ukraine conflict. Read more here.

Well played @WBStevens, well played!

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Abolish the State Department? Really? Should we pretend to freak out now or later?

September 22, 2015 By in Elections, Funnies, Huh? News, Politics, State Department Tags: , , , 1 Comment

Posted: 12:17 am EDT
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The GOP candidates have been trying to out-crazy each other under the shadow of the Trump circus canopy. Cruz would like to “abolish the IRS; take all 125,000 IRS agents, and put them on our southern border.” The same candidate would also like to get rid of the Department of Education.  Paul asks in a video on the website AbolishNow.com that supporters sign a petition to have Congress also eliminate the IRS. At least seven candidates want to end “birthright citizenship” under the 14th Amendment, which grants everyone born in the United States of America the right of citizenship. Jindal suggested abolishing the Supreme Court. Carson suggested eliminating the Department of Veterans Affairs. Before suspending his campaign, Walker proposed scrapping the National Labor Relations Board, eliminating public employee unions and making right-to-work the national standard for workplaces.

Last week, a former United States Senator representing Pennsylvania, the one with a Google problem, added his voice to the “abolish this or that” crowd. Mr. Santorum was a GOP presidential candidate in 2011; he suspended his campaign in April 2012. This past May, Mr. Santorum announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. Apparently, Mr. Santorum now has a two-campaign cycle dream of abolishing the U.S. Department of State.

Who knew?

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What else did this smart potato say?

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via GIPHY

 

Can you hear him? No?

Apologies for the glitches, it sound like he does not like the State Department because employees there spend way too much time talking to foreigners?  Maybe they speak way too many foreign languages and not enough American?  American officials also wear strange shoes and un-American clothes, is that it? Ay, caramba! Oooh, do not/do not show him the fantastic headgears, you, internationalists, you!

Here are Santorum’s specific complaints according to BuzzFeed:

“I said that when I ran four years ago — the first thing I’d do is abolish the State Department and start all over.”

“I have to tell you, I dealt with them for 12 years, I was on the committees that had a lot of interaction with them, and, you know, not that there aren’t a few good people in there,” Santorum continued. “I’m sure there are really good, dedicated public — but look, it’s just, they are a bunch of internationalists who do not look after the interests of the United States. They don’t look at the world from the standpoint of the United States and our principles being the ones that are the best.”

“They’re relativists, they’re internationalists, and they are not serving the interests of the American people,” Santorum concluded.

“It’s like, if all the tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,” Santorum said. “Every problem that the State Department has, the answer is diplomacy. Why? Because if it’s not diplomacy, they don’t have a job.

“And so the answer is never to do anything, the answer is always to appease, to talk,” he continued. “I mean, I’m sure that they, that John Kerry, they’re just having the greatest love-fest over at the State Department right now, because they got a deal!

You guys are having a love-fest and you did not invite us … please send photos?!

Two candidates have already suspended their campaigns but Mr. Santorum’s campaign for some reason appears to still be chugging along. We imagine that his candidacy will fold sooner than later. But it looks like he is unable, as yet, to accept the unbearable inevitability of his short campaign life.

So okay, let’s see who else he plans to abolish with brain waves next week. Then we’ll pretend to freak out.

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State Department Dedicates Diplomatic Security (DS) Memorial

September 22, 2015 By in Diplomatic Attacks, Diplomatic Security, Foreign Service, Functional Bureaus, Locally Employed Staff, Memorial, Realities of the FS, Security, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted: 12:06 am EDT
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The Diplomatic Security (DS) Memorial was dedicated on September 18, 2015, to honor the many individuals who have given their lives to support the mission of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory B. Starr hosted the event with Antony J. Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State; Lt. Gen. Ronald Bailey, Deputy Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Plans, Policies, and Operations; and Bill Miller, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Diplomatic Security Service, in attendance. See D/Secretary Blinken’s remarks here.

Before the installation of the Diplomatic Security Memorial, DS was the only federal law enforcement agency without its own memorial. Many of those who gave their lives in service to DS were not eligible for inclusion on the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) Memorial, which primarily honors members of the Foreign Service who died while serving abroad.

On the date of its unveiling, the DS Memorial contained the names of 137 individuals from diverse backgrounds and countries throughout the world. They include:

27 U.S. Government Personnel

  • 4 Diplomatic Security Service Special Agents
  • 6 Diplomatic Couriers
  • 12 U.S. Military—Marine Security Guards
  • 5 Other U.S. Military—Embassy Security Operations

36 Private Security Contractors

74 Local Security Personnel

  • 31 Local Guard Force
  • 31 Local Law Enforcement
  • 6 Foreign Service Nationals
  • 6 Locally Employed Staff

The DS Memorial consists of the 1) DS Memorial Wall–A Visual Tribute, located inside the main lobby of Diplomatic Security headquarters in Rosslyn, Virginia; 2) Memorial Kiosk, installed with the DS Memorial Wall, the kiosk displays information about Diplomatic Security and its personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty. The information is searchable by name, year of death, country of death, and job position at time of death; 3) Memorial Website at (www.dsmemorial.state.gov) with the names of the fallen personnel hosted in a special portion of the Diplomatic Security website, the online DS Memorial displays all names of the fallen and provides a search tool for locating individuals.

via state.gov/ds

via state.gov/ds

 

The memorial goes back to 1943 and includes James N. Wright, a Diplomatic Courier who died on February 22, 1943,
in Lisbon, Portugal, in the line of duty in an airplane crash. Two years later, another Diplomatic Courier, Homer C. White, died on December 4, 1945, in Lagos, Nigeria, in the line of duty in an airplane crash.

The largest number of casualties is suffered by the local security personnel.  At least 31 local law enforcement personnel (working for the host government) were lost protecting USG facilities and personnel overseas. As many local guard force employed/contracted by the USG were also killed in the line of duty.  In 2014, Shyef, Moa’ath Farhan, a Yemeni Local Law Enforcement employee, died in Yemen, while protecting a checkpoint near U.S. Embassy Sanaa during a suicide attack. In fact, 7 of the 31 law enforcement personnel killed were all lost in Yemen.   That same year, Abdul Rahman, a locally employed staff was killed while performing his duties near the traffic circle at the main entrance to Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. He was one of several individuals killed by a lone suicide bomber. In 2013, Mustafa Akarsu, a member of the local guard force was killed during a suicide attack at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey.  That same year, eight members of the local guard force died on September 13, during the attack on U.S. Consulate Herat in Afghanistan.

Note that this memorial only includes FSNs/locally employed staff who supported the mission of  the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) and not all FSNs who lost their lives while working for the USG overseas.

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Photo of the Day: Foggy Bottom Bids Farewell to Wendy Sherman

September 22, 2015 By in Awards, John F. Kerry, Resignations, Secretary of State, State Department, Top Ranks Tags: , , ,

Posted: 12:02 am EDT
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Via state.gov

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presents a Distinguished Service Award to Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman during a farewell ceremony in her honor at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 2015. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presents a Distinguished Service Award to Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman during a farewell ceremony in her honor at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 2015. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]