He speaks his mind, keeps several steps ahead of his superiors and violates just about every other rule of the road for diplomats in the U.S. foreign service. Yet within four days of his arrival in Mogadishu last week, Robert Oakley had succeeded in shrugging off America's preoccupation with capturing clan leader Mohammed Farrah Aidid, arranged for the release of two hostages and hammered out a tentative cease-fire. Not a bad week for a man who, if the State Department handed out speeding tickets to freebooting statesmen, would have spent much of his 34-year-career in traffic court. His style places him...
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