Former U.N. Ambassador Visits SMPA to talk Benghazi, American Diplomacy

by Andrew Desiderio

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering visited the School of Media and Public Affairs on Tuesday, in an event sponsored by the Walter Roberts Endowment and the GW Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.

At the event, titled “Beyond Benghazi: U.S. Public Diplomacy in Troubled Times,” Pickering spoke extensively of his experiences as co-chair of the Accountability Review Board (ARB) report, which detailed what went wrong during the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The attack resulted in the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

SMPA Fellow Tara Sonenshine, the former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, opened the event by emphasizing Pickering’s service to this nation in his many roles within the federal government. “Tonight, we really honor him for extraordinary service,” Sonenshine said.

SMPA Director Frank Sesno, who offered personal insight regarding Ambassador Pickering’s service while Sesno was the White House correspondent for CNN, moderated the discussion. Sesno said Pickering was always one of his most reliable sources.

Sesno began the conversation by asking Pickering what the Benghazi attack has meant for the U.S. and our influence abroad. “Benghazi was a blow,” he said asserted. Pickering was emotional when speaking of Ambassador Stevens, who was a close friend of his: “A friend tragically died under circumstances that should never be repeated.”

But what exactly went wrong in Benghazi on that fateful day? “We made a series of quite harsh findings,” Pickering asserted, claiming that our forces were “caught short.” There was, according to Pickering, an element of failed leadership on the part of many government officials in carrying out basic responsibilities in Benghazi.

“It was not possible for us, in these special circumstances, to dodge the bullet.”

Pickering outlined many of the specific problems that were present in Benghazi. Local authorities and law enforcement were particularly absent in Benghazi. Specifically, security protection overlooked the potential for fire and arson at the compound: “We learned, in fact, that fire is a weapon,” Pickering said.

The diplomatic mission in Benghazi was “too big a compound,” with “too few people protecting it,” Pickering said of his findings outlined in the ARB report.

Overall, “there should be no exceptions to the rules for dealing with security.” Benghazi, unfortunately, was an exception.

Another important aspect of the Benghazi probe is the media coverage and partisanship which has come along with it. To the ambassador’s dismay, he has seen what he calls the “worst kind of partisan strife,” and an “embarrassing level of party politics at the lowest level of mud wrestling.”

Pickering did not mince his words, and did not sugarcoat the issue at hand. He compared the hyped-up media coverage to winning a “Pulitzer Prize in creative fiction.”

But with all of the extensive reporting and evaluations of what went wrong in Benghazi, Sesno asked, has there been appropriate accountability for what went wrong? Pickering’s answer was an emphatic “yes.”

Furthermore, when asked if the Benghazi incident exposed vulnerability for then-Sec. of State Hillary Clinton if she decided to run for president in 2016, Pickering asserted that Clinton and President Obama were not responsible for any of the wrongdoings.

When asked about the current political environment, Pickering made the case that Washington has become increasingly out-of-touch with what is going on, in the sense that key positions are widely populated by political appointees who, to his dismay, have little or no abroad experience.

“Every administration wants their own people in the key jobs, and they’re not necessarily the people who have spent their life in the field and who know what’s going on,” Pickering explained.

In addition, Pickering believes that our government has, in many ways, less of a capacity to listen to what foreign governments are thinking and saying, even though our media outlets here in the U.S. report on it extensively. He cited Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in their criticisms of U.S. public diplomacy.

Finally, Pickering offered valuable advice to those seeking careers in Foreign Service: “Learn as much as you can about your job and what other people do. Be committed to service, and don’t worry too much about your next assignment. Go regularly to church, synagogue, or mosque, and pray for luck.”