Diplomat apoligizes for 'stupidity' remark. Hmmm, I wonder why?

[dajoki]

Market Day
http://www.market-day.net/article_34527/20061022/Diplomat-apoligizes-for-stupidity-remark.php

Diplomat apoligizes for 'stupidity' remark
Posted on October 22, 2006

DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- A U.S. diplomat has apologized for telling a TV interviewer "there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq."

Alberto Fernandez's interview on Al-Jazeera Saturday came as the Bush administration showed signs of rethinking its Iraq strategy, the BBC reported. President George W. Bush, in his weekly radio address, said the United States must remain involved in Iraq until that country is peaceful, but that the military is changing tactics.

Fernandez said history will make the final judgment on U.S. policy.

"I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

The U.S. State Department issued a statement Sunday in which Fernandez said he "misspoke" and apologized.

"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 (United States) in Iraq," said Fernandez. "This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize."

[niyad]

1. thumbscrews? the rack? the iron maiden?

[dajoki]

2. Waterboarding, Family threatened, etc.

[msedano]

4. how refreshing the cubano's adjective, "stupidity"

this is probably the same guy:

Alberto Fernandez, ( [e-mail] ) has been Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs from May 2005 until the present. He was Director for Public Diplomacy in NEA�s Office of Iraq Affairs from July 2004 until May 2005. Over the past year, Mr. Fernandez has been a frequent participant on Arab media commenting in Arabic on a wide range of US foreign policy issues. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Fernandez joined the United States Information Agency in 1983. He was a Junior Officer in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. From 1986 to 1988, he served as Press Attach� at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. In 1988, he transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait to serve as Public Affairs Officer. He departed Kuwait, on the eve of the Iraqi Invasion, on August 1, 1990. He was then assigned to Washington, D.C. where he served as Country Affairs Officer for Egypt, Yemen and Sudan in the USIA/NEA Area Office. After Advanced Arabic Training, he served as Public Affairs Officer in Damascus, Syria (1993-96), Guatemala City, Guatemala (1996-99), Amman, Jordan (1999-2002), and Kabul, Afghanistan (2002-2003) where he was the first permanent Public Affairs Officer since the fall of the Taliban. He was a member of the State Department�s 46th Senior Seminar at the Foreign Service Institute from 2003 to 2004. Mr. Fernandez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1958 and arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1959. He served in the US Army and Reserves from 1976 to 1981. A graduate of the U.S. Army Intelligence School at Ft. Huachuca, he studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute-Foreign Language Center from 1976 to 1977. From 1977 to 1979, he served in the 519th Military Intelligence Batallion/18th Military Intelligence Group/18th Airborne Corps in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1981 with a B.A. in Middle East Studies. In 1983, he obtained an M.A. in Middle East Studies from the University of Arizona. Mr. Fernandez has received several departmental awards including a Superior Honor Award in 2003 for his work in Afghanistan, Senior Foreign Service Performance Pay for 2003, 2 Sustained Superior Performance Awards, several Group Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards and USIA�s Linguist of the Year Award for 1996. He is fluent in both Arabic (4/3+) and Spanish (5/5) and is an active member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), presenting papers at annual conferences (1997, 2001). He has published in the Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society, Middle East Quarterly and the Newsletter of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard.

http://www.csidonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=324&Itemid=95

He's the spanish-language resources, demispy, and gets a shake and bake in arabic and becomes an expert therein. I think next year he'll be an associate prof at some florida university.

mvs

[dajoki]

5. Thanks for the info n/t

[havocmom]

3. Phone taps... not just for terra-ist

Get the goods on everone and you get to control most everyone.

[Renew Deal]

7. This was reported in the press.

No taps required.

[havocmom]

8. Missed the point. I saw the news

What I DIDN'T see, was what the junta has in their file on the man. I would be willing to bet they have one.

THAT'S my point.

[dajoki]

9. Of course they do n/t

[havocmom]

10. Thank you.

The method worked well for wingers in the past (and J. Edgar) With all the new tech, one could imagine files on ANYONE who might be so bold as to chair a local political committee.

Knowledge is power. The junta loves power

[dajoki]

12. You got that right!!

[AnnieBW]

6. Probably Threatened with a Trip Back to Cuba

Well, the one little chunk of it that's known as Guantanmo Bay...

[dajoki]

14. Or worse!!

[Jack Rabbit]

11. "Arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq"

What's wrong with that coming from a diplomat? That's what I call it when I'm trying to be diplomatic.

When I'm being more blunt, I just call it "colonial piracy."

[dajoki]

13. Good point n/t