Is Dennis Ross On, Off or Under the Bus?

To fully appreciate the colloquy at the State Department press conference yesterday regarding the status of Dennis Ross, who Haaretz has reported will “abruptly be relieved of his duties” and “reassigned to another position in the White House,” you need to recall an apocryphal lawyer story -- and then imagine what the working conditions must have been like for Soviet press spokesmen, who could be fired and shipped off somewhere if they actually answered the questions of the Western press.

 

The story involves a lawyer cross-examining a defendant and asking whether the defendant did “X.”  The defendant emphatically says “No.”  The lawyer asks whether he did “Y,” and the defendant says, even more forcefully, “Absolutely not.”  The lawyer asks finally if he did “Z,” and the defendant says “I refuse to answer that question on grounds it may incriminate me.”

 

Now read this:

 

QUESTION: . . . [T]here are a lot of reports about Dennis Ross based on one specific report in an Israeli newspaper. What’s his status? Has he been fired?

MR. KELLY: He has not been fired.

QUESTION: Is he being ousted?

MR. KELLY: He is not being ousted.

QUESTION: Is there an abrupt change to his responsibilities?

MR. KELLY: I – there is --

QUESTION: Is he being reassigned?

MR. KELLY: Look, he’s in the building today. I was in his office today. He’s working very hard on the same issues that we’ve been discussing the last, whatever it is, 15 minutes. And you know, if and when there is some kind of personnel announcement, I’ll be happy to let you know.

QUESTION: Isn’t it – isn’t he being reassigned to another position at the White House?

MR. KELLY: Anything is possible. I could be fired today too, I mean, if you guys keep probing me on this.

QUESTION: Isn’t it true that he’s being – isn’t it true that he’s being reassigned to another position at the White House?

MR. KELLY: Like I said, I have – there – I have no personnel announcements. . . .  He is – as I say, he is working very hard. He worked hard throughout the weekend, and he’s continuing to do his job today.

QUESTION: Has the book that he and David Makovsky published recently caused any problems for him internally in this Administration that you’re aware?

MR. KELLY: No, no. It’s a very good book, by the way. I started reading it over the weekend.

QUESTION: Was there any --

QUESTION: Oh, so you’re doing reviews from the podium.

QUESTION: Was there any concern about this book --

MR. KELLY: It probably was inappropriate, but there it is. It’s out there.

QUESTION: Was there any concern about his authorship of this book of some of the opinions that he and his coauthor expressed in the book --

MR. KELLY: No.

QUESTION: -- during the time leading up to his appointment?

MR. KELLY: No, not at all.

QUESTION: Why not?

MR. KELLY: Well, I mean, Mr. Ross is – I mean, he is in the Administration now. He is a very close advisor of the Secretary on a number of issues related to Iran and the region. But he also came out of the academic community, and he’s entitled – he was entitled to his opinion. He wrote the book before he came on board here.

QUESTION: But I mean, his opinion in his book and everything notwithstanding, are you saying that Dennis Ross is not being reassigned to another position at the White House?

MR. KELLY: I’m saying he’s working very hard here at the State Department.

QUESTION: Well, you’re not saying no.

MR. KELLY: I’m saying he’s working very hard here at the State Department. . . .

QUESTION: No one is questioning that he works very hard.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: But yes or no? I mean, is he being reassigned to --

MR. KELLY: I – you know, I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t predict what’s going to happen tomorrow.

QUESTION: You can’t predict till tomorrow when you’re going to announce it?

MR. KELLY: I may be reassigned, God knows where, tomorrow. I don’t know. . . . And I can be. I signed something saying I was worldwide available. So I can – at any time, I can be shipped off somewhere.

We can probably rule out Gitmo.  That would contradict our deepest values.

More on Ross's transfer here and here and here. Soccer Dad had a perceptive analysis here. More discussion here.