Day 295 - Good Morning, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Corniche

Flights from the west arrive in Abu Dhabi in the evening, when it is cooler, but not cool. But we were prepared for that. We had lived in Doha. I wasn't surprised that it felt like the oven door had been left open when we arrived. And this time we were picked up by someone we knew. Jeff, one of four Jeffs at the embassy, who had also been with us in Doha, was our sponsor. He picked us up from the airport, delivered us to our house, and arranged to drive us around the city as our orientation the following day.

There were others from our Doha days in Abu Dhabi as well. Michelle B. had been in Doha, but we only had one day in Abu Dhabi together, just long enough for her to pass on ownership of Violet, a very prissy little kitty who always got her way. Frank, the Deputy Chief of Mission, and his wife, another Michelle, were also in Abu Dhabi. I had a lot to thank Frank for because he arranged my medical evacuation from Doha when the pressure of working for the ambassador there aggravated a sinus infection and bronchitis which kept me from getting healthy. The ambassador seemed to think that medical evacuations reflected poorly on his reputation, evidence of some weakness. So Frank contacted the regional medical officer in Riyadh to suggest he order me to travel to Riyadh for treatment and rest.

So far, everything seemed better than life in Doha. We already had a cat. We lived on a street where most of the other Americans at the embassy lived. We could walk to the homes of nearly everyone we knew. Those who didn't live on that street lived within walking distance of the embassy. And Alex had a job in his field. Life was good.

But then folks in Washington finally caught up with the impact of the Khobar Towers attack. August was traditionally a slow month overseas, especially in the Middle East where it was too hot for much activity. But this August was different.

Violet

Military personnel from a temporary U.S. airbase in Saudi Arabia were relocated to the United Arab Emirates. The personnel were housed in a hotel downtown and traveled to and from that temporary airbase in the middle of the U.A.E. desert by bus. The regional security officer in Abu Dhabi, another Jeff, was concerned those buses were a target, so he welcomed the renewed emphasis on assessments of how to improve our security posture.

But the rest of us were caught in a time-zone loop. We worked Saturdays through Wednesdays. Washington worked Mondays through Fridays. We were eight hours ahead of Washington. That meant even on the days we were both open, Washington woke up just as we were going home. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 5 p.m. Abu Dhabi time, a phone call or an email message would arrive asking us to provide the answer to a question. The first one asked us to identify how many people - employees and family members - were in country. The next morning we sent the answer. That day, at 5 p.m., we got the improved question, how many of those people were civilians and how many were military. The next day, we sent that answer. And again at 5 p.m., another refinement of the question arrived: what they REALLY wanted to know was how many of the total number were dependents under school age and how many were dependents of school age or older and how many were employees.

All of those questions were part of negotiations between State and Defense to develop a memorandum of understanding regarding which agency has responsibility for the security of which Americans in country. At an embassy, multiple military organizations represent DoD interests, but they are not subject to the military command structure. Military members within an embassy fall under the chief of mission's authority. In a crisis, the lines of authority must be clear even though the U.S. military often provides the evacuation vehicles for everyone - military, civilian, and resident Americans who didn't get out by commercial means earlier (note: this does not mean their ride out is free, just in case you were thinking of doing some adventure touring in an international hotspot). Working out the MOU involved big issues which probably made the questions being sent via email seem small. In the rush to get answers, the questions went out informally. Had the questions been routed through the many offices that clear on formal messages, it would likely have been clear just what information was needed, but it would also likely have taken too much time. Perhaps the multiple rounds of refined questions resulted in the right information being collected in Washington more quickly than would have been possible with a formal message. But I felt like Chicken Little with his head cut off as I tried to gather the information.