Bush Cabal Discourages Honest, Professional Analysis

For the Nth time the Bush administration squashed an internal professional for speaking outside the lines. Once again a State Department employee incurred the wrath of higher ups by offering their professional opinion. W. Kendall Myers, Ph.D., a 30 year member of the Civil Service and an expert on U.S. British relations spoke at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies where he serves as adjunct faculty. Did Dr. Myers speak as a faculty member, a State Department employee or share his personal opinion as a U.S. citizen with some expert knowledge of the situation?

His Tuesday evening assessment suggested British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s relationship with America to be “totally one sided” in Washington’s favor. This earned Kendall a summons to the State Department which repudiated the analyst’s comments.

Deputy spokesman Tom Casey said that Kendall Myers, the official who made the off-message remarks, was summoned by his superiors at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research to a meeting to explain his remarks. "The comments, frankly, I think could be described as ill-informed, and I think, from our perspective, just plain wrong," Casey said.

The Times of London reported Thursday that Myers said Britain's role as a bridge between the United States and Europe was "disappearing before our eyes." Myers said that despite British attempts to influence U.S. policy, "we typically ignore them and take no notice - it's a sad business."

This row comes after the pre-election foot in mouth move by an Arabic speaking State Department spokesman who called the U.S.’s moves in Iraq “arrogant” and “stupid”. This earned Alberto Fernandez the right to formally apologize for seriously misspeaking.

Why should I be surprised the world’s bully treats its employees in a similar manner? In 2004 Senior Analyst Dr. Myers prominently spoke at a seminar on Global Geopolitical Trends. Just as the First Amendment sits teetering on the razor’s edge, federal employees can no longer share their professional opinion should it clash with the official Bush position. Notice how the Bush team never referred to Dr. Myers Ph.D. or 30 years experience as it called him ill informed? What is Mr. Tom Casey's educational background, how long has he worked for the civil service and what faculty appointments does he have?

The rub comes when people compare reality to Bush’s world and find little to no connection…