Ryan Crocker

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Person.png Ryan Crocker   SourcewatchRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(diplomat)
Ryan C Crocker.jpg
BornJune 19, 1949
Spokane, Washington
Alma materUniversity College (Dublin), Whitman College
SpouseChristine Barnes
Member ofBroadcasting Board of Governors, Council on Foreign Relations/Members, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
US diplomat who held a string of jobs as ambassador in the Middle East

Employment.png Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors

In office
August 1, 2013 - Present

Employment.png United States Ambassador to Afghanistan

In office
July 25, 2011 - July 13, 2012

Employment.png United States Ambassador to Iraq

In office
March 29, 2007 - February 13, 2009

Employment.png United States Ambassador to Pakistan

In office
November 25, 2004 - March 28, 2007

Employment.png United States Ambassador to Kuwait

In office
September 7, 1994 - December 4, 1997

Employment.png United States Ambassador to Lebanon

In office
November 29, 1990 - August 14, 1993

Ryan Clark Crocker is an American retired diplomat who was a career ambassador within the United States Foreign Service. He has been United States Ambassador to Afghanistan (2011–2012), Iraq (2007–2009), Pakistan (2004–2007), Syria (1998–2001), Kuwait (1994– 1997), and Lebanon (1990–1993). In January 2010, he became Dean of Texas A&M University's George Bush School of Government and Public Service.[1]

Early life and education

Crocker was born in Spokane, Washington.[2] Growing up, he had family members in the U.S. Air Force and in Turkey. He lived in Morocco, Canada and Turkey.[3] Crocker attended University College Dublin and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1971 and was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Career

Diplomatic posts

After graduating from college, he joined the United States Foreign Service, and after Persian language training, he was assigned to the American Consulate in Khorramshahr, Iran, in 1972. His subsequent assignment was to the newly established embassy in Doha, Qatar, in 1974 as an economic-commercial officer, and in 1976 Crocker returned to Washington, D.C., for long-term Arabic training. He completed the 20-month program at the Foreign Service Institutes Arabic School in Tunis in June 1978. Crocker was then assigned as chief of the economic-commercial section at the U.S. Interests Section in Baghdad, Iraq. Crocker served in Beirut, Lebanon, as chief of the political section from 1981 to 1984. On September 18, 1982, he reported back to the Department of State about the Sabra and Shatila massacre.[4] He also survived the 1983 United States Embassy bombing.[5]

He spent the 1984–85 academic year at Princeton University as a mid-career fellow under State Department auspices, in Near Eastern studies. He was deputy director of the Office of Israel and Arab–Israeli affairs from 1985 to 1987 and was a political counselor at the American Embassy in Cairo from 1987 to 1990. Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Crocker became the director of the Iraq–Kuwait Task Force.

In the days after the 9/11 attacks, Crocker and other senior U.S. State Department officials flew to Geneva to meet secretly with representatives of the government of Iran. For several months, Crocker and his Iranian counterparts under Major General Qasem Soleimani cooperated on capturing Al Qaeda operatives in the region and fighting the Taliban government in Afghanistan. These meetings stopped after President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech hardened Iranian attitudes toward cooperating with the U.S.[6]

In January 2002, he was appointed interim chargé d'affaires to the new government of Afghanistan, and was confirmed as Ambassador to Pakistan in October 2004. In September 2004, President Bush nominated and appointed him to the diplomatic rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the Foreign Service, equivalent to a four-star flag officer in the U.S. military.[7] On January 8, 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the Bush administration would nominate Crocker as the new American Ambassador to Iraq, replacing Zalmay Khalilzad, once that Khalilzad's confirmation to the post of Ambassador to the UN was complete. Before leaving Islamabad, Crocker joined Pakistani journalist Ahmed Quraishi in a farewell TV interview on state-run PTV, where he opened up about his experiences in Iraq and the Middle East.[8] Crocker used the occasion to share an incident involving then Vice President Dick Cheney during a short surprise visit to Pakistan in February 2007.[9]

On December 4, 2009, the Bush School of Government and Public Service announced the appointment of Crocker as its next dean, effective January 25, 2010.

Although retired from the State Department and the Foreign Service, Crocker was called upon by the Obama Administration and nominated by President Barack Obama in April 2011 to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.[10][11][12] The appointment was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on June 30, 2011.[13] In July 2012 he stepped down, as announced in May due to unspecified health reasons.[14][15] When he stepped down in July 2012 as ambassador in Kabul, Crocker was named an Honorary Marine by the United States Marine Corps.[16]

On May 10, 2013, he was nominated to serve as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Munich Security Conference/20105 February 20107 February 2010Munich
Bavaria
Germany		An anti-war demonstration outside described it as "Nothing more than a media-effectively staged war propaganda event, which this year had the purpose of justifying the NATO troop increase in Afghanistan and glorifying the continuation of the war as a contribution to peace and stability."
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References

  1. ↑ The Bush School of Government and Public Service (2009). Ambassador Crocker Named Dean of TAMU's Bush School. Retrieved December 7, 2009.
  2. ↑ Whitman College Magazine interview with Ryan Crocker (pdf)
  3. ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-09-crocker_N.htm
  4. ↑ George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993), page 104.
  5. ↑ https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2009/01/20090115.html
  6. ↑ https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/09/30/130930fa_fact_filkins
  7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130121040154/http://iraq.usembassy.gov/iraq/ambassador.html
  8. ↑ https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/eo8jhpDaWnM
  9. ↑ https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/IR1vFhULBqE
  10. ↑ The Atlantic (2011). Panetta Will Run Pentagon; Petraeus to Lead CIA. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
  11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110501170214/http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house-to-send-ryan-crocker-to-kabul-recreating-iraq-dream-team--20110426
  12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110518185602/http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Ryan_Crocker
  13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20111126173242/https://www.senate.gov/galleries/pdcl/index.htm
  14. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20131203065839/http://www.bnonews.com/inbox/?id=724
  15. ↑ "Retiring Envoy to Afghanistan Exhorts U.S to Heed Its Past"
  16. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120730114912/http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/07/marine-us-ambassador-to-afghanistan-ryan-crocker-named-honorary-marine-072712
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