THE Inspector General of the US State Department has apologised to Senator Christopher Dodd for recording unsubstantiated accusations about him in a confidential report critical of the US ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith.
The Connecticut senator, who is chairman of the Democratic Party, was accused indirectly in the report of intimidating embassy officials who had opposed the ambassador's decision to recommend a US visa for Mr Gerry Adams in 1994.
In a letter to Mr Dodd, Ms Jacquelyn Williams Bridgers, head of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), said: "This office is in possession of no information about you which would suggest that you took or sought to take retribution against individuals in the embassy because of some policy or personality differences they have had with Ambassador Smith."
She said: "Our intention in the Dublin report was merely to convey the fear that was engendered in the minds of career employees by the clear misuse of your name and position by an individual who purported to speak for the ambassador.
The report, extracts from which were published in The Irish Times on Wednesday, said an embassy official claimed he expected reprisals after the ambassador spoke with Senator Dodd the weekend following the sending of a dissent cable by diplomats disagreeing with the Adams visa.
He said an embassy colleague had told him Mrs Kennedy Smith was very upset by the dissent cable and that the ambassador had spoken to Senator Dodd about it over the weekend of January 22nd and 23rd and that Mr Dodd "had offered to speak to embassy employees about the necessity of supporting the ambassador".
The report said a colleague had reminded him that "Senator Dodd was extremely powerful and that he had a great deal of influence in the foreign affairs agencies because he was responsible for approving certain foreign affairs promotions".
The report quoted an official as saying Senator Dodd asked for the names of the officers involved in the dissent cable. Senator Dodd "reportedly told the ambassador that on a return trip to Dublin he would meet with the embassy staff to instruct them on loyalty to the ambassador," the report stated.
The officials claimed they were intimidated by this statement and took it as a direct threat to their careers" - Mrs Williams Bridgers said in her letter that Mrs Kennedy Smith had emphatically denied she had given the name of the dissenting diplomats to Senator Dodd, adding: "We have no reason to believe that she did."
"Moreover Ambassador Smith herself never suggested to us that you made the critical comments attributed to you by her assistant and again we have no reason to believe that you did.
"Because we believed that your name and title was bandied about without your knowledge or authorisation in what amounted to a brazen fear campaign, we never attempted to interview you concerning the matter. That was a clear mistake on our part.
"In retrospect, at a minimum, we should have made it absolutely clear in our report that we had no reason to believe the assertions made about you I apologise for not being more sensitive to how our language can be misconstrued."
A spokesman for Senator Dodd said that the apology raised serious questions about the quality and thoroughness of the inquiry. He had complained that Senator Dodd was not contacted during the year long investigation of the Dublin embassy. Mrs Kennedy Smith has denied the report's conclusions that she retaliated against two diplomats in the Dublin embassy.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, formally reprimanded Mrs Kennedy Smith after the report found inescapable evidence" that she had retaliated against two embassy officials for dissent.
The report found in favour of the two diplomats, who had claimed their careers were adversely affected by reprisals taken against them by Mrs Kennedy Smith and her deputy, Mr Dennis Sandberg.
The White House press spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, said on Thursday that President Clinton was confident in Mrs Kennedy Smith's service and had no plans to replace her.