No Poets Wanted In The U.S. State Department

Photo: Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Maghreb Region Raymond Maxwell during a visit to Algiers, in a photo taken sometime between November 2-5, 2011.
/ U.S. Embassy Algiers

Benghazi-Disciplined Diplomat A Prolific Poet -- CBS News

Raymond Maxwell -- one of the four State Department officials disciplined over security lapses that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year -- is also a prolific poet. And he's been publishing provocative verses since he was put on administrative leave December 18.

Some of the poetry represents scathing commentary on the post-Benghazi fallout and implies that he feels like he's been made a scapegoat. In "Trapped in a purgatory of their own deceit," Maxwell writes in part: "The web of lies they weave / gets tighter and tighter / in its deceit / until it bottoms out - / at a very low frequency - / and implodes...Yet all the while, / the more they talk, / the more they lie, / and the deeper down the hole they go... Just wait.../ just wait and feed them the rope."

It's a bold and almost shocking verse from the 20-year foreign-service worker who was the well-respected deputy assistant secretary for Maghreb Affairs in the Near East Bureau and former Chief of Staff to the Ambassador in Baghdad. Fluent in Portuguese, Maxwell is also an ex-Navy "mustanger," which means he leapt from enlisted ranks to commissioned officer.

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Update: State Department official in trouble for Benghazi attack turns out to be a poet -- New York Daily News

My Comment: This is one angry US State Department "poet".