The State Department's entire senior management team just resigned

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post

By Josh Rogin January 26 at 11:02 AM

Seecretary of State Rex Tillersons job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who dont want to stick around for the Trump era.

Tillerson was actually inside the State Departments headquarters in Foggy Bottom on Wednesday, taking meetings and getting the lay of the land. I reported Wednesday morning that the Trump team was narrowing its search for his No. 2, and that it was looking to replace the State Departments long-serving undersecretary for management, Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy, who has been in that job for nine years, was actively involved in the transition and was angling to keep that job under Tillerson, three State Department officials told me.

Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Kennedy will retire from the foreign service at the end of the month, officials said. The other officials could be given assignments elsewhere in the foreign service.

In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr retired Jan. 20, and the director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, Lydia Muniz, departed the same day. That amounts to a near-complete housecleaning of all the senior officials that deal with managing the State Department, its overseas posts and its people.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/26/the-state-departments-entire-senior-management-team-just-resigned/?postshare=1341485447378534&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.c1867c7eac8a

[Freethinker65]

1. All yours Rex. Have fun

[bucolic_frolic]

2. All citizens should be scared

we are defenseless and without a rudder

if enemies are out there, the time is nigh when the US is most vulnerable

of course, this could go on for four years and it could get a lot worse

[Zoonart]

4. Captain...

The shields are down.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. It was 100 years ago this year

that Czarist Russia fell

A year of turmoil, legislative attempts to stabilize, world war

For a quick and light read for any not familiar with it, historian
Robert Goldston's "The Russian Revolution" moves events quickly

We are cooked.

[Hekate]

19. Is the core melting yet, Scottie?

[Nash Teeth]

16. Yep

I've been wondering whether our enemies would take advantage of our disorganization, and also if some of our enemies helped bring it about.

[karynnj]

3. Look at the functions of these people -- they are not political at all

This gives some context to a comment by Secretary Kerry at one of his last press availabilities where he said that there was very little transition work happening because the Trump people have not done much of it.

These are people that head the core functions of the State Department -- and as noted they have worked under both parties. Not mentioned here is the man I thought was said to be the top ranking career person, who would be leading the Department until a Secretary is confirmed - Tom Shannon, who is the Under secretary for political affairs.

I can't read the article behind the pay wall on my computer.

This is sobering. We will have a President, with absolutely no foreign policy experience - except in angering some countries and terrifying others this week. We will have a SoS, with no foreign policy experience - though the RW see him as FAR MORE qualified than Clinton and Kerry. Now, the top people running the bureaucracy, including the embassies and consular affairs etc are leaving. I hope if you need a passport, you thought ahead and did it last month!

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. And what other depts/branches of Gov't will follow, I wonder? n/t

[riversedge]

5. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic adminis

They probably know lots we do not know.


Wise choice to leave when they can--sad for the U.S.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/26/the-state-departments-entire-senior-management-team-just-resigned/?postshare=2981485447777565&tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.9e73072d4748



Josh Rogin
The State Department’s entire senior management team just resigned
By Josh Rogin January 26 at 11:02 AM



..........Then suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy and three of his top officials resigned unexpectedly, four State Department officials confirmed. Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Read These Comments



Kennedy will retire from the foreign service at the end of the month, officials said. The other officials could be given assignments elsewhere in the foreign service.

In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr retired Jan. 20, and the director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, Lydia Muniz, departed the same day. That amounts to a near-complete housecleaning of all the senior officials that deal with managing the State Department, its overseas posts and its people.

“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”...............................

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. The important of instutional memory is so often overlooked.

I have seen many agencies crash and burn or quickly wither on the vine because of constant staff and/or leader turnover.
all the vital experience of how the system works is lost,

Note to those still working...if you hear of a place with unstable, rfrequent changing leadership, or repeated job openings, that is not a healthy place.

[rzemanfl]

6. There is no way to replace that kind of experience and talent.

Even in a sane government, much less one run by lunatics and professional con artists.

Good luck USA, best wishes world.

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. I was part of a mass resignation at a small company.

It was a huge deal, with repercussions that lasted for years.

What could possibly go wrong?

[saidsimplesimon]

9. It is the FBI we should

be concerned about, imo. They are "alleged" to hire only those who have the J. Edgar Hover mindset. Very troubling?

[AllaN01Bear]

10. there is gong to be more of this as time goes on. the Rs actually re inheritied the mess that

they created under clinton. clin ton had nothing to do with that mess and the mes under dubia. god help us all

[Generator]

12. This is just more proof of the tin pot third world nation

we are going to slide into. Too bad some don't stay-risk whistleblowing and prison to save Democracy. But heroes are few and far between. I wouldn't work under these loons and grifters myself.

[3_Limes]

13. What a huge Win for Putin!!

He must be just laughing out loud at his good fortune!

[smirkymonkey]

15. K&R

[SHRED]

17. Were they forced out???

[woodsprite]

23. That's what CNN is reporting as the official word from the White House, but

Is it fact or alternative fact. It's from the White House, I think I'd take it with a grain of salt.

[maddogesq]

18. As Uncle Joe might say...

"This i! a BIG EFFIN' DEAL!"

A friend of mine that works in the hospitality industry in Bangkok told me that that DJT is perceived as a a buffoon and a destabilizing figure across Asia. i have to believe these experienced people knew they would be severely hampered by an administration headed by someone with a tendency towards metal instability.

Get ready for the chit to hit the fan.

[Achilleaze]

20. Wow. Making a statement. Honest people of integrity will not work for the IKGOPR*

* Illegitimate KGOP Regime, Inc.

[Raven123]

21. Perhaps they suspect 1) they will be let go or

2) they will be blamed for future errors by Donny John's administration

3) they prefer working alongside competent professionals

[ananda]

22. I read that they were fired ..

.. sent letters saying their services were no longer required.

LOL

Sorry but State is now a complete fubar clusterfuck.

Happy days!

[SCantiGOP]

24. True, they were fired

Doesn't make as good a story, but - here is what I posted in another thread:

These folks, as is custom, all handed in letters of resignation when the new President was sworn in. It is then up to the incoming Secretary to decide which he/she will accept. All of these people were told that they were no longer needed in their job.

Amended for link, from CNN:

Patrick Kennedy, who served for nine years as the undersecretary for management, Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Joyce Anne Barr, and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions, were sent letters by the White House that their service was no longer required, the sources told CNN.
All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/top-state-department-officials-asked-to-leave-by-trump-administration/index.html

[h2ebits]

25. Business all the way

Rex Tillerson and the five Goldman Sachs nominees to the Cabinet are all about FOR-Profit business. That is their background and always has been. They are not and never have been about the people. We are expendable and always have been.

Their experience when taking over a new business/department etc. is to replace all people in charge with their own underlings who will be loyal to them. That is what they will do and are doing. We will see a lot more of this in the coming weeks.

Where we end nobody knows. . . .