Gration's Good Intentions Gone Awry

I would imagine that, right about now, US Special Envoy Scott Gration is regretting his (post-Senate-hearings-need-to-improve-his-PR) decision to invite press along for his trip to Sudan earlier this month.

As predicted, Stephanie McCrummen's less-than-flattering profile of the envoy in the Washington Post is causing quite a stir, even prompting rather strong statements from senior officials and the press team at the White House, who accused McCrummen of "wildly misrepresent[ing] the policy discussions that have occurred in the White House  with quotes that been cobbled together out of context."

But McCrummen isn't covering discussions that have occurred in the White House -- she's covering what has thus far been the only public face of the Obama Administration's Sudan policy, as the much anticipated official policy review still has not been released. We are not privy to White House discussions on Sudan -- our only window is an envoy who, despite his good intentions, is a walking PR disaster.

And, as I've written many times, it does seem like Gration is allowing himself to be willfully duped by Khartoum, as he touts the regime's supposed good will while its leaders continue to undermine prospects for peace. According to McCrummen, Gration was surprised to hear of ongoing problems with humanitarian access -- problems that have been a hallmark of the conflict since the beginning -- telling an aid worker, "I thought that problem was fixed," and then deflecting responsibility away from the central government in Khartoum.

This is a central government which, by the way, told an African Union committee meeting this week that Israel is responsible for the violence in Darfur. (Those pesky Zionists, at it again.) Clearly, Khartoum needs no assistance in deflecting responsibility.

Bec Hamilton, who accompanied Gration on the Darfur leg of his trip and sat in on his interviews with McCrummen and Gwen Thompkins from NPR, wrote a series of fascinating blog posts today, adding insight and context to the WaPo article. (She does not think that Gration's statements were "taken out of context.") I found this bit particularly interesting:

The "cookies" and "gold stars" comments ["We've got to think about giving out cookies," said Gration . . . "Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement"] were bizarre - so bizarre that Gwen piped up and basically asked Gration if he realized how it sounded. Gration quipped "It's your job to work out how to not have it come across like that." (Emphasis added.)

(A slight misunderstanding of what the journalists were there to do, to say the least.)

The release of the policy review, which was scheduled to be discussed at a principals' meeting today, will now need to come with a heavy dose of damage control -- not only on the domestic front, but on the groundwork being laid for sustainable peace in Sudan.

[Photo from Save Darfur's Flickr stream, used with written permission from the organization.]