By PHK
I’m interested - and flattered - that on Friday Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com linked to my May 23 analysis of US policy on Iran and what’s happening at the State Department because of the information I included on David Denehy, the first and new director of State’s Iran Office.
What does not amuse me, however, is Raimondo’s evident decision to accept Laura Rozen’s LA Times designation of Liz Cheney as Assistant Secretary of State even though I stated in that same post that that part of Rozen’s story needs correcting. Liz Cheney is/was a Deputy Assistant of State for Near Eastern Affairs, she is not and never has been Assistant Secretary as Laura Rozen, and now Raimondo, stated.
I repeat: The current Assistant Secretary is C. David Welch; his predecessor was William Burns. Both are career Senior Foreign Service Officers.
Liz Cheney’s title is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) which is shortened in State Department lingo to PDAS. She has been PDAS for about one year. Before that she was one of several NEA Deputy Assistant Secretaries.
Raimondo also ignored my comment that Liz Cheney is leaving to have her fifth child and the importance that could have in the US government’s position vis-à-vis its Iran policy. My observation of her departure was based on an AP report that I linked to that came out subsequent to Rozen’s LA Times May 19 special.
What I did not say was that Cheney is being replaced by Jim Jeffrey, a career Senior Foreign Service Officer, who is currently Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Coordinator for Iraq. Jeffrey was previously the number two, or Deputy Chief of Mission, in the US Embassy in Baghdad. This is important, because Jeffrey – as capable as he undoubtedly is – is unlikely to have the intimate access to Cheney of daughter Liz. I hope, however, Jeffrey retains excellent relations with John Negroponte who was Zalmay Khalilzad’s predecessor since, if I remember correctly, Jeffrey was Negroponte’s deputy in Iraq when Negroponte was Ambassador there. This could make a difference.
Believe me, Justin and the LA Times, I have great respect for Laura Rozen’s analyses or I would not have begun my post with a link to her otherwise excellent May 19 LA Times article. But, please, the Cheney title part needs correction because it’s simply wrong. You’ve promoted Liz Cheney to a position she does not now and never did hold. Further, your articles fail to suggest that her departure from State could pave the way for a stronger – rather than weaker - Pentagon role in US policy towards Iran.
Meanwhile, I hope Rozen’s right in her subsequent May 27 LA Times article that there is increasing pressure from Henry Kissinger and other “heavy weight” Republicans for the administration to enter into direct talks with the Iranians even though people like Liz Cheney’s father, the Pentagon Iran crew and certain warhawk neocons like AEI’s Michael Ledeen oppose.
The Kissinger viewpoint is certainly what I heard reflected in Washington foreign policy circles earlier this month. It would be nice if the powers that be in the Bush administration would listen to these and other foreign policy realists for a change.