Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September 11 Revisited

The tenth anniversary of that horrid day has generated a flood of memories. I hope not to bore my readers with yet another account of "where I was" on that day, but I can't help it.

I was the Charge of a medium-sized American embassy in Asia. The Ambassador was back in the US, and barely missed getting on one of the hijacked flights. It was early evening local time. My wife and I were at the gym at a five-star international chain hotel; I was on the treadmill watching, with no particular interest, the nauseous BBC world news show that was on the gym's sole TV set. The news reader, a pompous and vaguely east Asian woman whom I recall as looking much like a Vulcan from the old Star Trek series, suddenly grabbed her earpiece, and said there was a report of a small commuter plane hitting a World Trade Center tower in New York.  She prattled on about something else, then suddenly the image cut to the smoking tower just as the second plane hit. Along with millions of other people, I watched on live TV as hundreds of people were brutally murdered. A lot of confused reporting began; much cross talk, some silly BBC criticism of US air traffic control and of the NY fire department for responding too slowly.

The gym trainer, an Aussie expat, came up to me and said, "How can two planes hit the same place?" I remember telling him, almost without thinking about what I was saying, "It has to be deliberate." It suddenly dawned on me, after I said it, that, in fact, it must have been deliberate.

I got off the treadmill and went to look for my wife; I pulled her out of her aerobics class, and said "Something is up. We have to go."  I had the bodyguards take us home, and I called our head of security. He was frantically trying to get some logical story out of Washington, but either could not get through, or got contradictory accounts of what was going on: some sort of attack on the Pentagon; a car bomb outside the Congress; another one outside the State Department; and on and on. I told him to get the country team together (heads of section) and to heighten our own security at the Embassy as we could be facing a worldwide attack on US facilities. We all met and talked, and talked, and talked, and could get nothing useful out of Washington.

Adding to the confusion was that the Assistant Secretary of our regional bureau, a political appointee close to a prominent Senator, had run, and I quite literally mean run, with her aide, screaming, yes, screaming, out of her office, into the garage, gotten into her car, and had headed home.  She had abandoned her post at a time of great crisis. The amazing thing was that weeks later, she laughingly told the story herself with no sense of shame or of how that imagery could affect those around her. But then this was the same one who, just a few days earlier, had fired an extraordinarily talented Foreign Service Officer, one of the most knowledgable people I had ever met when it came to South Asia, because he did not seem to take her seriously.  Ah, yes, leadership in action.

The Embassy went on high alert; the next morning I had to tell the Embassy employees what I knew, which was very little other than what was on the news, and to reassure the local-hire staff that, whatever happened, we would not cut and run out on them. They would be looked after.  Afterwards, I remember telling my security chief, "Don't make me a liar on that promise." He nodded.

Endless requests for press interviews; briefings of other embassies and the local government; lots of confusion; condolence calls and visits from all over the host country; all sorts of false rumors and threats. In subsequent weeks, we got hit with a barrage of fake anthrax powder letters; telephoned bomb threats, and so on.

Finally, the word came. Revenge was in the offing. I got instructions to contact the President of a neighboring Muslim country to which our Embassy was also accredited. I was to get permission for US warplanes to overfly his country on the way to bomb Afghanistan. We needed his OK right away, so there was no time to travel and meet him face-to-face. I called him on the phone, and had one of those one-minute conversations that make years of Foreign Service life worthwhile. I remember the conversation vividly.

"Mr. President, we need your permission for our bombers to fly through your national airspace on the way to targets in Afghanistan. We need it right away."

"Would we know when your bombers are flying through our airspace?"

"Your air traffic controllers in [the capital] might pick them up."

"I see. Would my public know that your bombers are there?"

"Not likely unless there is some sort of accident or emergency landing."

"I see.  If I say 'no' what happens?"

"Mr. President, we are going to get justice for 9/11. You are our friend. Please help us in this small way."

"So if I say 'no' you are going to go anyhow, right?  Please, no diplomacy. Tell me the truth in plain words."

"Yes. We are going to go anyhow."

"Ok [laughing] then I will say 'yes' to your planes. Please tell President Bush that I approve."

"President Bush will be very grateful."


I will write another posting on 9/11 in the next few days. I am wrapped up in a nasty professional issue, which I will describe in the future, and that is limiting my ability to blog.

14 comments:

  1. Welcome home.

    We've missed you very much.

    Hope you resolve this issue.

    Quickly, and to your satisfaction.

    dennis

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  2. I am proud that we have people like you representing us in foreign countries. Your job must be something like my work was in "mental health." Often my supervisors and colleagues were much crazier than my clients.

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  3. Amen, Portia's Mom!

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  4. I agree with the other commenters and truly appreciate your efforts. I'm grateful DoS has had lots of skilled and dedicated professionals, like you. Good luck with the situation and God Speed.

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  5. Thanks for this, DiploMad. We've all long suspected that the bulk of political appointees are inept and undedicated. It's bittersweet to discover that that is largely the fact.

    skh.pcola

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  6. If only we had kept that approach for the last ten years, rather than please Pakistan, Syria and Iran don't kill our soldiers and make us not retaliate in any way.

    It might of also put many of the less America first members of the State department in positions to choose their career or their ideology.

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  7. "President Bush will be very grateful."

    I hope he was. We should reward our friends.

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  8. Diplomad, do you have any posts on the various conspiracy theories out there? Also, what do you know about a guy named Steve Pieczenik?

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  9. So much great material. So little commentary. The Democrats thank you.

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  10. Okay, so we know you're alive. (At least we think so.) Did the State Department throw you in jail?

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  11. I note there have been no comments since November 1. Others may have given up on you but I have not.

    Your provocative writings are needed in this election year. You said you had a new posting but you would be back. Have you ever thought your posting might have been made to ensure your silence?

    Suggestion: Retire now. Feel free to write. Write. You are a force for good. We need you. Your master does not.

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  12. Wherever you are, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. Things are looking worse and worse financially and geopolitically worldwide. Naturally, I also hope you return to blogging soon.

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  13. Another missive from an anonymous fan.

    I hope you are well and that you are not contemplating suicide over Obama's actions vis-a-vis the Afghan situation.

    Please return to blogging as soon as you can. We all miss your commentary and anecdotes.

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  14. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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