An 'Oh, Hell' Moment in Buenos Aires

A recent poll of employees in 37 agencies found the BBG in last place in three of four categories. It managed to place 36th in job satisfaction. Even worse, the agency dropped in each of the categories from a previous survey. But the overseas audience is mushrooming.

We're thinking Obama's likely pick for BBG chairman, former Time magazine top editor and author Walter Isaacson, now head of the Aspen Institute, will have a bit of a challenge on his hands. For example, there's the BBG inspector general's recent blast at the more-important-than-ever Persian News Service, which noted "confusion and sometimes . . . conflict" there because "none of the executive producers speaks Persian," though all the managing editors do.

ACCESS DENIED

We could tell ya, but . . .

CIA Director Leon Panetta, in his June 9 affidavit in the ACLU suit against the Pentagon seeking access to documents and videos involving harsh treatment of detainees in 2002, writes that "in light of . . . the sensitivity of the activities contemplated in the CIA terrorist detention and interrogation program, it was essential to limit access" to information about it.

In fact, he adds, National Security Council officials even "established a special access program governing access to information" related to the CIA's actions. He would love to tell us about the access program so we could gain access, but, as he explains in a footnote, "the name of the special access program is itself classified SECRET." Naturally.

NEW FACES AT STATE?

Hallway buzz has it that some well-known names may be heading to Foggy Bottom. Our former colleague Sidney Blumenthal, a top aide in the Clinton White House, may return to government work as a counselor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), who served on the Nixon National Security Council and in the Reagan State Department as assistant secretary of state for economic matters, is being talked about to return to State as undersecretary for economic, business and agricultural affairs.