What Are They Afraid Of?

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"The State Department has been using political litmus tests to screen private American citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the United States, weeding out critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, according to department officials and internal e-mails.

In one recent case, a leading specialist on conflict resolution who's a former senior State Department adviser was scheduled to participate in a US Embassy-sponsored videoconference in Jerusalem last month, but at the last minute he was told that his participation no longer was required.

State Department officials explained the cancellation as a scheduling matter. But internal department e-mails show that officials in Washington pressed to have other scholars replace the specialist, David L. Phillips, who wrote the book, ''Losing Iraq,' which is critical of President Bush's handling of Iraqi reconstruction.

''I was told by a senior US official that the State Department was conducting a screening process on intellectuals, and those who were against the Bush administration's Iraq policy were not welcomed to participate in US government-sponsored programs,' Phillips said.

''The ability of the United States to promote democracy effectively abroad is curtailed when we curtail free speech at home, which is essential to a free society,' he said."