STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Hillary Clinton’s Private Emails at the State Department: Unfathomable and Criminal.

Her Actions Implicate Career Foreign Service Officers [FSOs] who should have stopped her from the very beginning. 

Including the following FSO Professionals:

• Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

• Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy.

• Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell.

• Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

One of the more unfortunate parts of writing my blogs is to highlight the miscreant behaviors of many professionals with whom I had a very successful past experience. When Under Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger recruited me into the State Department in the late 1970’s, I had the good fortune of getting to know two exceptional Foreign Service Officers [FSO]s: Pat Kennedy and Eric Boswell. Both were men of the highest integrity and moral convictions. They were as far as I was concerned the best of the FSOs. Yet these FSOs worked under a very strange situation. Most if not all of their bosses were political appointments who tolerated the Foreign Service and more often than not, continuously complained about them.

From the very beginning of my career, I was a strong advocate for the FSOs. I felt that they were not trained properly at their Foreign Service Institute. I had insisted that courses in negotiations; as well as more sophisticated instruction on terrorism and international crises management should have been provided. In general, most of the FSOs acted extremely professionally, especially overseas when they were left alone to do best what they were trained to do-foreign diplomatic overtures.

I must now emphasize that there was always one major security element that was continuously enforced by the State Department Office of Management and the Office of Diplomatic Security. That security issue was none other than protecting at all times national security cables, letters, information; and anything that was literally written during working hours.These restrictions were so severe that I remember if I had left even a non-classified paper on my desk accidentally, I would be appropriately disciplined the next day by someone from Management [Pat Kennedy] or his equivalent in the office of Diplomatic Security [Eric Boswell or his surrogate]. That was the basic ethos of the professional Foreign Service—maintain security at all times and at any cost; no matter what was written during working hours. Personal communications were completely prohibited. At the end of each time I had served in the State Department, I had to sign a piece of paper that stated that I had not taken or received any Classified Information upon my departure.

Then along came Hillary Clinton!

What can I say that I have already not said about Hillary numerous times? Her husband and she are the perfect duo for a “Folie A Deux”—each trying to outmatch the other for blatant sociopathic behaviors; as well as criminal activities.

A couple years ago when the Benghazi Affair had occurred, I had already earmarked Pat Kennedy and Eric Boswell as the two primary FSOs who had to have known about this fiasco of prevarication. They were placed on leave with pay.

Now, I point to these two gentleman once again.

Pat was and probably still is the most thorough administrative manager I have ever met. He must have known about Hillary’s blatant flaunting of Diplomatic Security; as did her Assistant Secretary of State, the Honorable Eric Boswell [who had been a Deputy to the Director of National Intelligence]. Then there is the recently retired Ambassador William Burns who had attained the highest accomplishment of a FSO: Career Ambassador. Last but not least, is Thomas Pickering, one of the brightest FSO’s with whom I had the pleasure of working with in several different administrations. He was and still is a very clever, wily FSO who knew how to create or untangle a very complex embarrassing diplomatic faux pas.Tom had to know from the very beginning of his investigation into the Libyan fiasco that Hillary was not using the appropriate channels of communications in either the Arab Springs or in Benghazi.

Now the time has come for these gentlemen to step forward and tell all that they know about their ersatz boss, the woman who played the role of a Secretary of State. In addition to the fact that Hillary had accomplished nothing but garnering bonus miles at a large expense to the American public, she had been in complete violation of the national security laws throughout her tenure. Her use of private emails places a stain on all the professionals in the State Department; bar none!

As for Hillary, she will hopefully receive her just punishments. However, my concern is for the blatant silence and absence of moral outrage from any of the aforementioned professional FSOs. Hillary has not only corrupted her personal future and reaffirmed the doubts that all decent Americans had about her from the very beginning of her official appearance in the folly of Bill’s House of Cards.The Foreign Service confronts a moment in history where they will stand up and explain itself as to whether they had been collusive or remain silent and by implication remain the co-conspirators. If ever the FSOs are to assert their tenets of professionalism-it is right now! Failing that, they will forever remain the effete, non-professional supernumeraries that will always be dominated by political cronyism.

Allow me to end with a  quote from the Arthur Koestler, an author who spoke out:

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion [of FSO professionalism].”