Ecuador has expelled U.S. ambassador Heather Hodges after Wikileaks exposed cables criticizing President Rafael Correa. The State Department, for its part, has retaliated by expelling Ecuador’s ambassador to the United States. That’s good, but Secretary Clinton should also remember the case of the late American ambassador Hume Horan, who oversaw the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. As Robert Kaplan quoted him in The Arabists:
After the facts of the Falasha rescue became known and the new Sudanese government wanted me removed, Chet Crocker [the assistant secretary of state for Africa] bluntly informed Khartoum that if “Sudan wanted to continue to deal with Washington, it would have to do so through Hume Horan.” I’ll always be grateful to Crocker for that support.
Horan continues to recall how the State Department caved to Saudi pressure when they demanded his recall. Let’s hope Clinton, like Chet Crocker so many years ago, stands her ground.
