State extends time for Iraq volunteers

Source: Miami Herald

The State Department has extended a window for diplomats to volunteer for Iraq duty in the hope the Bush administration can avoid ordering potentially unwilling candidates to serve in the combat zone, officials said Tuesday.

The department has put off until at least the end of the week the process of selecting foreign service officers for so-called "directed assignments" to Iraq as it looks for more volunteers to fill 48 spots that will come open at the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces this summer, the officials said.

Amid a furor over the possibility that some foreign service officers may be forced to go to Iraq in the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam, U.S. officials said that as of Tuesday morning, 25 volunteers had already been approved for those jobs.

Twelve of the 23 remaining posts have been tentatively filled, raising hopes that the 11 open positions can be filled with volunteers and leading the department's Bureau of Human Resources to delay the final selection process until Friday, the officials said.



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