`Abusive' ambassador says she filed rebuttal

A superstar donor of President Barack Obama's last campaign who later became ambassador to Luxembourg says she has filed a rebuttal to a State Department review that found her tenure to be a disaster.

Seattle businesswoman Cynthia Stroum quit less than a week before the review was made public Thursday. The scathing report said her year in Luxembourg was fraught with personality conflicts, verbal abuse and questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor.

The review said things were so bad that some staff requested transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stroum told The Seattle Times that "there is more to the story," and she would tell her side later. She did not return a call from The Associated Press on Saturday, nor did she return a call earlier in the week.

"The initiatives that I chose to focus on were what I believed to be in the best interest of the relationship between Luxembourg and the United States, and I'm proud of the links connected especially with businesses here in my home state of Washington," she wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Stroum is the daughter of the late Sam Stroum, a Seattle philanthropist who made a fortune as an investor in the Schuck's Auto Supply.

Sam Stroum was credited with saving the Seattle Symphony from bankruptcy and pushing the construction of Benaroya Hall, the symphony's home. He also served as president of the University of Washington Board of Regents.

Cynthia Stroum, 60, is an investor in locally based companies, including Starbucks. She established two foundations focusing on cancer research and served on the board of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

She was also a producer on the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun," which received a Tony nomination in 2004.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., vouched for Stroum at her confirmation hearing.

"I have known Cynthia for many years, and I know that I can say this with experience: She will be an outstanding representative for our country," Cantwell said.

Cantwell's office declined to comment to The Times.

As a fundraiser, Stroum ginned up at least $500,000 for Obama, putting her near the top of the campaign's money generators.

Stroum also donated at least $13,800 to the campaigns of Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray since 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The State Department report said Stroum stressed to embassy staffers "the importance she attaches to the perquisites of" being an ambassador. As such, she was particularly concerned about the state of the ambassador's residence, which was being renovated, it said.

Embassy officials spent weeks trying to find her appropriate temporary housing, screening hundreds of properties. They found four that met her criteria, and she rejected all of them before finally settling on a residence.

The report also found that she inappropriately spent $2,400 on a trip to Switzerland; the embassy bought $3,400 in liquor and wine to use up its entertainment budget even though such year-end sprees are barred; and Stroum was reimbursed for buying a new queen bed, even though she had been provided with a king-size one.

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Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com