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By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — Amid ongoing foreign policy crises around the globe and as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, the State Department last week finalized the firings of nearly 250 foreign service officers in a brief, impersonal email.

“Your reduction in force separation will be effective today,” part of it read. “Thank you again for your service to the Department.”

Those reductions in force (RIFs), which were initiated last July, also impacted more than 1,000 civil service officers, and saw the firings of entire staffs in offices that former officials say would have been able to provide guidance on the war in Iran, which is having severe consequences for the US and global economy. The State Department has consistently maintained that the RIFs were meant to eliminate redundancies and that work on key issues was maintained and moved to different offices.

Beyond the firings, scores of experienced foreign service officers with decades of experience have retired. Nearly a dozen former officials who spoke with CNN said it is clear that the Trump administration has no upward assignments or promotions, like ambassadorships, available for career diplomats, leaving them with no options in an “up or out” system.

“It was just unprecedented numbers of people choosing to leave,” said David Kostelancik, who retired after 36 years in the foreign service. The American Foreign Service Association estimates that roughly 2,000 foreign service officers left the State Department last year.

Meanwhile, more than 100 ambassador posts around the world, including in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia, do not have a Senate confirmed ambassador, setting the US far behind the likes of adversaries like China.

And the most sensitive diplomatic negotiations, on fraught topics like ending the war in Iran and securing an end to the Ukraine conflict, are being led by business associates and family members of President Donald Trump, often without teams of experienced diplomats with regional expertise.

Taken together, the actions represent what former diplomats say is a systematic hollowing out of the State Department that Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day pledged to empower. Although the agency has begun hiring new diplomats, the loss of experienced personnel, the former officials say, will have far-reaching consequences for the US’ ability to project power and deliver on its priorities both now and for years to come.

“I think historians will look back on this period as one of the great unforced errors that the United States imposes on itself,” former career ambassador John Bass told CNN.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the idea that the agency was being hollowed out is “false,” and the claim that the loss of hundreds of experienced diplomats will impact US’ ability to deliver on its priorities is “baseless.”

“Our reorganization eliminated redundant positions, streamlined efforts by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, and empowered our diplomatic corps,” he said, referring to the sweeping overhaul within the department.

Pigott said that “the RIF’s are not having any negative impact on our ability to respond to operations, our ability to plan, and our ability to execute in service to Americans.”

“In fact, we have been able to respond quicker and more effec

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — Amid ongoing foreign policy crises around the globe and as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, the State Department last week finalized the firings of nearly 250 foreign service officers in a brief, impersonal email.

“Your reduction in force separation will be effective today,” part of it read. “Thank you again for your service to the Department.”

Those reductions in force (RIFs), which were initiated last July, also impacted more than 1,000 civil service officers, and saw the firings of entire staffs in offices that former officials say would have been able to provide guidance on the war in Iran, which is having severe consequences for the US and global economy. The State Department has consistently maintained that the RIFs were meant to eliminate redundancies and that work on key issues was maintained and moved to different offices.

Beyond the firings, scores of experienced foreign service officers with decades of experience have retired. Nearly a dozen former officials who spoke with CNN said it is clear that the Trump administration has no upward assignments or promotions, like ambassadorships, available for career diplomats, leaving them with no options in an “up or out” system.

“It was just unprecedented numbers of people choosing to leave,” said David Kostelancik, who retired after 36 years in the foreign service. The American Foreign Service Association estimates that roughly 2,000 foreign service officers left the State Department last year.

Meanwhile, more than 100 ambassador posts around the world, including in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia, do not have a Senate confirmed ambassador, setting the US far behind the likes of adversaries like China.

And the most sensitive diplomatic negotiations, on fraught topics like ending the war in Iran and securing an end to the Ukraine conflict, are being led by business associates and family members of President Donald Trump, often without teams of experienced diplomats with regional expertise.

Taken together, the actions represent what former diplomats say is a systematic hollowing out of the State Department that Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day pledged to empower. Although the agency has begun hiring new diplomats, the loss of experienced personnel, the former officials say, will have far-reaching consequences for the US’ ability to project power and deliver on its priorities both now and for years to come.

“I think historians will look back on this period as one of the great unforced errors that the United States imposes on itself,” former career ambassador John Bass told CNN.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the idea that the agency was being hollowed out is “false,” and the claim that the loss of hundreds of experienced diplomats will impact US’ ability to deliver on its priorities is “baseless.”

“Our reorganization eliminated redundant positions, streamlined efforts by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, and empowered our diplomatic corps,” he said, referring to the sweeping overhaul within the department.

Pigott said that “the RIF’s are not having any negative impact on our ability to respond to operations, our ability to plan, and our ability to execute in service to Americans.”

“In fact, we have been able to respond quicker

The post SB Way Back When – The “Fellowship Colony” Fades Away appeared first on edhat.

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — Freedom for Richard Glossip cost $50,000. It also cost 29 years of his life.

The former death row inmate convicted of murdering the owner of the motel he managed walked out of jail Thursday for the first time since 1997, after 10% of his $500,000 bond was paid by celebrity and criminal reform advocate Kim Kardashian, her publicist told The Oklahoman.

“It’s overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time,” Glossip said outside the Oklahoma County Detention Center, his now-gray hair flapping in a stiff wind.

A judge’s order Thursday setting bond for Glossip, 63, came after two trials, two independent investigations, and so many appeal documents and hearings that it’s difficult to count.

Judge Natalie Mai said in her order that a 2023 statement by Oklahoma’s attorney general that there was reasonable doubt in the case meant she “cannot deny bail to Glossip.”

Although Glossip – who has maintained his innocence – was able to leave jail Thursday with an ankle monitor and mandatory curfew, his legal case will continue, as prosecutors vow to try him a third time for the January 7, 1997, murder of Barry Van Treese.

Here’s how Glossip got to this point, and what’s still ahead in this unresolved case.

Glossip narrowly escapes execution multiple times

Nine execution dates have come and gone since Glossip’s first murder conviction. Three times, Glossip has come close enough to death to be served a “last meal” before his execution was delayed.

“It’s still scary, it will always be scary until they finally open this door and let me go,” Glossip told CNN in 2023.

One thing that has never been in dispute: Van Treese was not killed by Glossip. The man who wielded the baseball bat that ended the motel owner’s life was a maintenance worker named Justin Sneed.

That fact has been a repeated source of frustration for Glossip’s supporters.

“We actually know who the murderer is, and yet somebody is on death row that’s not the murderer,” said attorney Stan Perry, who helped conduct an independent review of the case at the request of state lawmakers.

The then-19-year-old Sneed was allowed to live at the motel by Glossip in exchange for his labor at a time when Van Treese appeared to be growing suspicious of his manager because of missing money, court records say.

Sneed testified Glossip had promised to pay him $10,000 to carry out the murder, testimony that came as part of a plea deal that spared Sneed’s life. Glossip acknowledged Sneed had told him about killing Van Treese – information he did not report to police – but said he only found out after it was done.

Sneed, now 48 years old, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a deal Glossip also was offered but refused, saying he wouldn’t plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit.

Sneed has never publicly recanted his testimony. But Glossip’s legal team has produced witnesses who claim Sneed exonerated Glossip in private conversations and a handwritten note from prison in which he asks, “Do I have the choice of re-canting my testimony at anytime during my life, or anything like that.”

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals – the state’s highest court in criminal cases – overturned Glossip’