How Rice Posse Struck Back

For all its globe-trotting glamour, the life of a diplomat can also be harrowing.
In 1997 David Welch volunteered to drop into northern Iraq to broker a ceasefire between two feuding Kurdish militias that Washington hoped could
eventually help overthrow Saddam Hussein. For Welch, there was a major risk
to going in: he wasnt sure how he would get out. Whats your evacuation
plan? fretted Jim Steinberg, then Deputy National Security Adviser in the
Clinton White House. Five hundred bucks in cash, Welch replied, and a
bottle of Scotch.
As it turned out, the Scotch went for toasts. The rival Kurdish warlords,
Massaud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, signed an accord and unified their
commands. Talabani is now the powerful political leader in Iraqs relatively
stable north. And Welch is one of Secretary of State Condolezza Rices top
deputies, tasked with jump-starting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,
which the Bush Administration hopes can add some much needed luster to its
foreign policy legacy.
The growing visibility of figures like welch is one more sign of Dick
Cheneys diminished role in the Bush war cabinet. During Bushs first term,
the views of the U.S.s diplomatic cops were largely dismissed by
neoconservatives allied with Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld. But as the Iraq war drags on and its chief advocates fades, the
diplomats are stealing some late-game limelight. Thats due in large part to
Rice, who has consolidated her authority over the Administrations foreign
policy and made course corrections that have resulted in a denuclearization
pact with North Korea, a new push in the Middle East and tentative moves
toward negotiating with Iran and Syria about the future of Iraq.
Carrying out rices agenda is a handpicked team of weathered foreign
service officers who have spent their careers shooting trouble and cutting
deals in some of the most remote capitals of the worldthe State
Departments Hellllhole Gang. Theyve all been tested on the front lines,
Rice told TIME. I tend to like people around me served in really difficult
posts. Its a mark of character. Its a mark of toughness. Its a mark of being
able to operate under difficult circumstances and not lose your perspective.
In addition to having done hot-spot duty, the members of the Hellhole
Gang are distinguished by their pragmatism, which has allowed them to
serve under Presidents of both parties. The team includes Rices new deputy,
who was the first Negroponte, who was the first U.S. ambassador to postSaddam Baghdad; David Satterfield, Rices special adviser on Iraq, who
served in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq; Anne Patterson, former
ambassador to Columbia, who oversees law-enforcement training in Iraq and

Afghanistan; Welch, who was in the U.S. embassy in Islamabad in 1979 when
it was seized by a violent mob; Nicholas Burns, Rices No. 3, a Balkan-wars
specialist and the point man for dealing with the Iran nuclear issue; and
Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy for multilateral talks on North Korea.
Though Rice sets the policy tone, she provides her sidemen with room
to improvise. She gives people a lot of autonomy, says Burns. She trusts
us to go out on these negotiations three, four, five days at a time. That paid
off last month when Hill helped secure North Koreas agreement to eliminate,
in principle, its nuclear-weapons programa deal that infuriated the Hellhole
Gangs hardline rivals. And yet even with Cheneys decline, the hawks could
gain the upper hand again if countries like Iran and North Korea rebuff U.S.backed diplomatic proffers. I cant remember a time when there were so
many challenges around the world confronting our country simultaneously,
says Burns. We think we can handle them. Weve got the diplomatic firepower. Its up to the Hellhole Gang to prove it.