Rwanda,April 10th: eyes and ears gone

"Embassies, depending on the importance of the mission, are comprised of officers from the Department of State and other U.S. Departments and agencies with essentially two-fold responsibility: representing U.S. interests abroad and reporting back to Washington on events in the 'host country'.

Given the minor U.S. stake in Rwanda, U.S. Embassy Kigali in 1993-1994 was a small mission, lacking a separate political officer, its own CIA representative or its own defense attaché. However, due to Rwanda's sizable humanitarian needs, it did have a US Agency for International Development (USAID) representative. Consequently, two people-U.S. Ambassador David Rawson and Deputy Chief of Mission Joyce Leader-were the primary 'eyes and ears' for policymakers on Rwanda. When U.S. officials locked the Embassy and evacuated from Rwanda on April 10th as ordered by Department of State officials, Washington policymakers lost both this ground-level view and the capacity to influence events in Rwanda."

Taken from "The U.S. and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994: Information, Intelligence and the U.S. Response" by William Ferroggiaro, March 24, 2004