State Dept. names new top diplomat in Libya
The State Department sent Laurence Pope to be the new chargé d’affairs in Libya following the death of Amb. Chris Stevens on Sept. 11. Pope arrived in Tripoli today, the State Department announced. "Mr. Pope’s selection as Chargé d’ Affairs emphasizes the commitment of the United States to the relationship between our two countries and ...
The State Department sent Laurence Pope to be the new chargé d'affairs in Libya following the death of Amb. Chris Stevens on Sept. 11. Pope arrived in Tripoli today, the State Department announced.
The State Department sent Laurence Pope to be the new chargé d’affairs in Libya following the death of Amb. Chris Stevens on Sept. 11. Pope arrived in Tripoli today, the State Department announced.
"Mr. Pope’s selection as Chargé d’ Affairs emphasizes the commitment of the United States to the relationship between our two countries and to the people of Libya as they move forward in their transition to a democratic government. We will continue to assist as Libya builds democratic institutions and broad respect for the rule of law — the goals that Ambassador Stevens worked hard to achieve," State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
"Chargé Pope looks forward to working with the Libyan government and the Libyan people during this historic and challenging time, as we build strong economic, social, political, and educational bridges between our two people."
Pope served as a Foreign Service officer from 1969-2000, retiring at the rank of minister counselor after having held a number of senior posts in the State Department. He was the director for Northern Gulf affairs (1987-1990), associate director counterterrorism (1991-1993), U.S. ambassador to Chad (1993-1996), and political advisor to the head of United States Central Command (1997-2000).
In 2000, President Bill Clinton nominated Pope as ambassador to Kuwait, but as the Diplopundit blog pointed out today, his confirmation was derailed by then-senator Jesse Helms. Pope wrote about the controversy a year later, and placed the blame on Helms staffer Danielle Pletka, now the vice president of the American Enterprise Institute.
Pletka was angry at Gen. Anthony Zinni for opposing the arming of the Iraqi opposition in the 1990s, after Zinni warned about a "Bay of Goats" in congressional testimony. Pope, who was Zinni’s top civilian advisor at the time, wrote that Pletka wanted him to disavow Zinni’s comments, which he refused to do. The Senate never acted on his nomination and he resigned from the Foreign Service.
"I don’t believe for a second that career officers should be given an automatic pass when they come up for [Senate] confirmation," Pope wrote. "But it’s clearly wrong to reject a nominee without giving him or her the opportunity to rebut a whispering campaign, and it is particularly damaging in an institutional sense to hold career officers to account for loyal service."
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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