Word: swifts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Today, nearly a year and a half after she left Iran. Swift calls her whole interest in the country "a large mistake. Until you've been through an experience like that it looks very dramatic and exciting, but I'm not up for going into a dangerous situation like Iran again." She pauses, then adds. "That's one place I've probably changed. I used to be gung ho, charging I must admit the temptation is slowly coming back, but it ain't back...
...Swift says she will remain in the foreign service and would still be willing to go abroad--though "not to Iran and probably not to the Middle East." But she does plan one major change in her career path after 12 years as a political officer, she intends to switch to consular work. "You come back with a different view," she explains. "I'm going to see if I can't help Americans more than work with foreigners I want to help people--and it's easier to help Americans than to help foreigners...
Colleagues at the CFIA, however, suggest another possible motive for her switch--a deep disillusionment which they say Swift has revealed in private conversations. In Iran, Swift spent at least part of her time working with human rights. John Limbert '64, a political officer who worker with Swift at the embassy, says she took this aspect of her work "very, very seriously." While she was a hostage, being held in the embassy. Swift reportedly was shown captured documents suggesting that other branches of the government--the CIA, Pentagon or military--were not acting in accordance with the human rights policies...
...much to carry out these instructions," explains Jean-Christopher Oberg, a Swedish diplomat now at the CFIA. "If you are used to playing games then you can accept it. If you have a certain perception, conviction, and realize that colleagues are doing the very opposite, it's traumatic." Swift, he says is switching to the consular side of the foreign service because "She doesn't want to be fooled again--she doesn't want to be in a position on to get into any conflict of interest...
Oberg, who says he is a close friend of Swift, adds that he was not at all surprised by her decision. "She's an honest woman--and it at over-rides everything else...