U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, hoping to boost workforce morale, unveiled an “ethos” statement on Friday that some former officials viewed with skepticism, partly because an early draft had language they saw as an admonition not to leak to the media.
Two former officials knowledgeable about the effort said the language rankled them because it implied diplomats could not be trusted and they questioned the need for an “ethos” statement laying out the agency’s characteristic attitudes and beliefs.
The two former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the initiative was driven by Ulrich Brechbuhl, the State Department counselor who is a close aide to Pompeo and was his classmate at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
A third former official knowledgeable about the effort said the language alluding to leaks ultimately had been dropped and that the statement itself sought to burnish the esprit de corps at the department.
“There was something that could be taken as a no-leak pledge that was in an early draft. It did not (survive),” said that former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Marking his first anniversary as the nation’s top diplomat, Pompeo presided at a ceremony in the State Department’s main lobby as a curtain was lifted from a giant facsimile of the statement at one end of the half-filled, marbled hall.
“These principles will now be the operating principles of our department,” he said. He then recited the statement that read in part, “I am a champion of American diplomacy” who “will protect the American people and promote their interests and values around the world” with “unfailing professionalism.”
A senior State Department official involved in the effort said he did not recall specific discussion about leaks but that there was a wider discussion of accountability and professional responsibility.