| > General Clapper praised the food; his hosts later presented him with a bill for his share of the meal. Not only are they evil, but they're cheap too. But the fact is that the hosts would have billed for the meal because the U.S. government asked to be billed. The USG requires that officials traveling on business not accept gratuities, gifts, dinners, or anything above a certain value (which is about US$100 -- it gets adjusted for inflation, so it might be higher today).[1] There is an exemption to allow acceptance of gifts of travel expenses of more $100 when officials travel outside the United States on business, but only if "such acceptance is appropriate, consistent with the interests of the United States, and permitted by the employing agency".[1] In this case, General Clapper and his staff probably didn't want to deal with the question of whether it was "appropriate" or deal with reporting requirements, so they just asked for the bill. Or, their North Korean hosts, knowing U.S. policy, were proactive in making up a bill. Either way, the NYT article should have mentioned the USG policy. If they can't get that little thing right, it makes me wonder about the accuracy of the rest of the article. [1] http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title5/html/USCODE-... |
Given that presenting one's guest with a bill (or demanding a bill) would seem to violate social norms and cause embarrassment, I would imagine that meals are typically treated the same way.