Alberto Fernandez (United States official)

Alberto M. Fernandez. Official U.S. State Department photo

Alberto M. Fernandez was the Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. from March 2012 to February 2015. CSCC was set up in September 2011 by White House Executive Order 13584 to combat the propaganda of Al-Qaida, its allies and adherents.[1] He previously was US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third largest oil producer and only Spanish speaking country, from January 2010.[2] Before that he was Chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan from 2007 to 2009.[3] In Sudan, he worked to maintain the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accords between the NCP government and the rebels of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) and to bring humanitarian relief to war-torn Darfur.[4]

Fernandez was the director of the office of press and public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the United States Department of State from August 2005 to May 2007. As one of the few to speak fluent Arabic at the U.S. State Department, he was the mouthpiece for U.S. policy in the Middle East. A Newsweek profile pegged him as averaging about 200 interviews a year. An example dialogue/interview.[5]

In an interview on Al-Jazeera on October 21, 2006 he asserted that "I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq." His comments were widely reported in the US and international press.

The State Department initially reacted by denying that he had made the comments, claiming that they had been "mistranslated." After independent translators confirmed the translation as being correct, a press release issued by the State Department quoted an apology from Fernandez: "Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq. This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize".[6]

His apology was satirized by newspaper columnist Bill Shein in an October 26, 2007 column called, "The No Candor Zone."[7]

What is little known to this day is that Fernandez's remarks were taken directly from public remarks made by the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Baquba only days before. Speaking in English, Khalilzad had said that "it's important to recognize that mistakes have been made over the last few years. There have been times when US officials have behaved arrogantly and were not receptive to advice from local leaders."[8] The leading pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat carried the remarks on page one of its October 6, 2006 issue under the headline: "Khalilzad Admits US Arrogance and Incompetence in Iraq." While Fernandez's Arabic language remark was widely reported in English, Khalilzad's remarks in English were mostly reported in the Arabic press.[9]

Fernandez has also served in senior US embassy positions, as Counselor for Public Affairs, in Kabul, Amman, Guatemala City, and Damascus. Earlier in his career, he served at the US Embassy in Kuwait (Public Affairs Officer), Managua (Press Attache and Spokesman), Santo Domingo (Director of the Dominican American Cultural Institute, ICDA), and Abu Dhabi.

Fernandez is a recipient of a Presidential Meritorious Service Award for 2008, the State Department's 2006 Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy, a Superior Honor Award in 2003 for his work in Afghanistan, and the 1996 Linguist of the Year Award, among many others. He has published in Middle East Quarterly, ReVista the Harvard Review of Latin America, and the Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society (JAAS). He has also lectured at numerous U.S. universities and presented papers at conferences of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), and Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID). Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, Florida, he is a graduate of the University of Arizona and Defense Language Institute. Fluent in Arabic (4/3+), Spanish (5/5) and English, is married and has two sons.[10]

Fernandez's paternal grandfather, lawyer Dr. Alberto Fernandez Diaz (d. 1932 in Havana), was the first husband of famed Cuban singer Rita Montaner.

Timeline

Sources

  1. ↑ archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/HHRG-112-FA18-WState-FernandezA-20120802.pdf
  2. ↑ blogs.mcclatchydc.com/nationalsecurity/2010/04/and-the-second-prize-is.html
  3. ↑ US Department of State(2007).BIOGRAPHY. Retrieved October 24, 2007.
  4. ↑ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/03/120771.htm
  5. ↑ IslamonLine.net(2006).A text of an interview/dialogue. Retrieved November 24, 2006.
  6. ↑ BBC(2006).US official retracts Iraq remarks. Retrieved November 24, 2006.
  7. ↑ Reason Gone Mad . Retrieved April 16, 2009.
  8. ↑ http://www.militaryquotes.com/forum/arrogant-us-made-mistakes-iraq-+26281.html
  9. ↑ http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/10/3E52F97F-A
  10. ↑ islamonline.net(2006).Live Dialogue - Guest CV. Retrieved November 24, 2006.
  11. ↑ Miami Herald(2006).Amber Baskette and Alberto Fernandez of Hialeah, Florida. Retrieved November 24, 2006.
  12. ↑ foxnews.com(2006).Special Report w/ Brit Hume. Retrieved November 24, 2006.
  13. ↑ whitehouse.gov(2009). . Retrieved July 26, 2009.

External links