Barbara K. Bodine (born 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a career member of the Foreign Service of the United States Department of State.
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Education
Bodine earned her B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her Master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts. She also studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Department of State's Language Training Field Schools in Taiwan and Tunisia. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and serves on the Board of Directors of the UCSB Alumni Association and on the Advisory Council to the Program on Southwest Asian and Islamic Civilization Studies at the Fletcher School. She was the recipient of the UC Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumni Award in 1991.
Diplomatic career
After initial tours in Hong Kong and Bangkok, Bodine spent her career working primarily on Southwest Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. She has twice served in the Bureau of Near East Affairs' Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, first as Country Officer for the Yemenis, then as Political-Military officer for the peninsula. She later served as Deputy Office Director. Ambassador Bodine has also had assignments as Deputy Principal Officer in Baghdad, and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 1990. She was awarded the Secretary of State's Award for Valor for her work in occupied Kuwait during the Gulf War. Following Kuwait, Bodine was the Associate Coordinator for Operations and later served as the Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism. She went on to serve as the Dean of Professional Studies at the Department's Foreign Service Institute. She has worked on the secretariat staff of Secretaries Kissinger and Vance, and as a Congressional Fellow in the office of former U.S. Senator Bob Dole. Most recently, Bodine spent a year as the Director of East African Affairs.
Yemen
On November 7, 1997, Bodine was appointed to be Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen. During her posting in Sanaa, the destroyer Cole was bombed in a terrorist attack (see the October 12, 2000, USS Cole bombing). In 1999, she negotiated to release three Americans kidnapped in Yemen. In January 2001, en-route to the Yemeni city of Taiz to meet with the country's president, a flight carrying Ambassador Bodine and 90 other passengers from Yemen was hijacked mid-flight. The plane was diverted to the tiny African nation Djibouti, where it landed without further incident.
Yemen Controversy and September 11, 2001
Bodine's career was marked by controversy when details of an alleged conflict with the FBI investigation of the USS Cole bombing came to light. According to a number of sources, including the PBS Frontline documentary "The Man Who Knew" [1], Bodine's actions may have inhibited the FBI's investigation into the Cole attack. In particular, her conflict with FBI agent John P. O'Neill, wherein she denied his re-entry into Yemen to continue his command of the FBI investigation into the USS Cole bombing, is alleged to have slowed the investigation. Her actions potentially contributed to the intelligence failure that resulted in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The details of this conflict are documented in Lawrence Wright's book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.
Iraq
After serving in Yemen, Bodine became Diplomat in Residence at the University of California at Santa Barbara, until the March 2003 Invasion of Iraq when she was appointed coordinator for central Iraq in charge of Baghdad. In the summer of 2003, she was fired by the Coalition Provisional Authority and returned to Washington.
Portrayals and Appearances in Docudramas and Documentaries
The Path to 9/11
On September 8, 2006, Ambassador Bodine complained in the Los Angeles Times about her portrayal in the controversial ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11. In an op-ed, Bodine wrote: "According to the mythmakers, a battle ensued between a cop obsessed with tracking down Osama bin Laden and a bureaucrat more concerned with the feelings of the host government than the fate of Americans and the realities of terrorism. I know this is false. I was there. I was the ambassador." [1] The ABC miniseries compressed Bodine's role to a single extended scene suggesting she was dismissive, hostile, and vulgar toward O'Neill from the moment of his arrival in Yemen. Broadcast worldwide on September 10th and 11th, 2006, The Path to 9/11 was based on the official 9/11 Commission Report and other sources. ABC/Disney aired the film in the United States without commercial interruption, adding a disclaimer stating that it was "not a documentary," that various scenes were invented, and that narrative “time compression” was used. In the miniseries, Bodine is played by actress Patricia Heaton.
No End in Sight
Barbara Bodine is interviewed in Charles Ferguson's 2007 documentary No End in Sight, and Real Time with Bill Maher on Sept 3rd, 2007.
References
Notes
- ^ 9/11 Miniseries is Bunk Barbara Bodine, Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2006
