Daily Archives: July 28, 2014

U.S. Congressman Loves Bollywood, Mistakes U.S. Officials for Indians Visiting Congress

July 28, 2014 By in Congress, Foreign Affairs, Hearings, Huh? News, India, Spectacular, State Department Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

— Domani Spero
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You’ve probably seen this last week, but if you haven’t, here is a newly elected member of the House of Representatives from Florida’s 19th district, who the Miami Herald called, the “latest inductee to the Sunshine State’s face-palming club. USAToday notes that the congressman won a special election last month to replace Trey Radel, who resigned following a cocaine bust.

Via The Cable’s John Hudson:

House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, freshman Rep. Curt Clawson misidentified two senior U.S. government officials as representatives of the Indian government.  The two officials, Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar, are Americans who hold senior positions at the State Department and Commerce Department, respectively.

 

The hearing was on U.S.-India Relations Under the Modi Government.  Nisha Biswal is the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) at the State Department.   Prior to her appointment as State, she was with USAID. Previously, she also served in the House of Representatives,  as the majority clerk for the House Appropriations Committee Foreign Operations Subcommittee (HACFO) and as professional staff in the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), where she was responsible for South Asia.  Arun Kumar is the Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service and Assistant Secretary for Global Markets, International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

According to USAToday, Mr. Clawson said, “I made a mistake in speaking before being fully briefed and I apologize.  I’m a quick study, but in this case I shot an air ball.”  He has reportedly apologized to both A/S Biswal and DG/FCS Kumar according to Tampa Bay Times. On Saturday, A/S Biswal tweeted this:

 

 

Still, doesn’t that make you wonder — he wasn’t “fully briefed?”  What was he doing there?   He wasn’t listening to the introductions?  He had a “dog ate my homework” moment?  He never meet U.S. officials of color before?

Peter Beinart writes that the silly gaffe is revealing of our society where whiteness is still a proxy for being American.

He had trouble recognizing that two Americans who trace their ancestry to the developing world are really American.

In today’s Republican Party, and beyond, a lot of people are having the same trouble. How else to explain the fact that, according to a 2011 New York Times/CBS poll, 45 percent of Republicans think President Obama was born outside the United States? Is it because they’re well versed in the details of which kind of birth certificate he released and when? Of course not. It’s because they see someone with his color skin and his kind of name and think: Doesn’t seem American to me.
[…]
There’s no point in continuing to ridicule Clawson. Everyone’s entitled to a dumb mistake. But it’s worth noting how unlikely it is that he would have mistaken an Irish-American for a representative of the government of Ireland or a German-American for a representative of the government of Germany. Throughout our nation’s history, whiteness (itself a shifting category) has been used as a proxy for Americanness. And as Clawson reminded us last Thursday, it still is.

A couple related posts that you might want to check out  —  Video of the Week: Where are you from? Where are you really from? No, where are your people really from? and  Video of the Week: “But we’re speaking Japanese” 日本語喋ってるんだけ

Maybe we’ll start a series of getting to know our official USG representatives.

As a side note, these Indian-American officials do not have it easy. When they go to India on behalf of the U.S. Government, they’re told, “It is a bad idea for the U.S. to send Indian-American diplomats here. They end up having to prove their loyalty to the U.S. more than others, and it doesn’t help us.” 

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State Dept Offers $3 Million Reward For 2013 Kevin Scott Sutay Abduction in Colombia

July 28, 2014 By in Americans Abroad, Awards, Govt Documents, John F. Kerry, State Department, Terrorism, WHA|Western Hemisphere Tags: , , , , ,

— Domani Spero
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The Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward for information on those responsible for the kidnapping of a U.S. citizen by the terrorist organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Secretary of State has authorized a reward of up to $3 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual involved in the abduction of Kevin Scott Sutay in central Colombia.

Mr. Sutay was abducted on June 20, 2013, in the municipality of El Retorno in Guaviare Department, southeast of Bogota. Sutay, a former American military service member, had been trekking as a tourist through Central and South America. On July 19, 2013, the FARC issued a statement claiming responsibility for the abduction. The group released Sutay on October 27, 2013.

The FARC has long targeted foreigners and government officials. In 2003, FARC members executed U.S. citizen Thomas Janis and took three other U.S. citizens hostage after their U.S. Government plane crashed in the jungle in Caquetá, Colombia.

The Department of State designated the FARC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 8, 1997.

More information about this reward offer is located on the Rewards for Justice website at www.rewardsforjustice.net. We encourage anyone with information on these individuals to contact Rewards for Justice via the website, e-mail (info@RewardsforJustice.net), phone (1-800-877-3927), or mail (Rewards for Justice, Washington, DC, 20520-0303, USA). All information will be kept strictly confidential.

The Rewards for Justice program is administered by the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid in excess of $125 million to more than 80 people who provided actionable information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Rewards4Justice.

Click here for the announcement in Spanish. The FAQ for the Rewards for Justice program is available here.

According to the State Department, since its inception, RFJ has paid more than $125 million to more than 80 individuals for information that prevented international terrorist attacks or helped bring to justice those involved in prior acts.  The Secretary of State has complete discretion over whether or not to authorize a given reward, and can change the amount of the reward, within the terms of the law. Among those considered “success stories” are the following cited by Rewards For Justice:

  • During the Persian Gulf War, a brave informant in an East Asian country came forward with alarming information about a series of planned terrorist attacks. The terrorists had already surveyed their intended targets and had assembled automatic weapons, grenades, and explosives. Just 48 hours before the first of these planned attacks, this informant provided information that was essential in thwarting the terrorists’ plan. The attack was stopped, the young man received a significant reward, and his family was relocated to a safe place. By providing this information, the individual saved hundreds of lives.
  • In another case, a young woman came forward with information regarding individuals who hijacked an airliner and brutally beat the passengers on board. She stated that she “felt strongly about justice being done.” The leader of the hijackers was returned to the U.S. and is imprisoned on air piracy charges. The young woman received a reward for her efforts to fight terrorism.
  • Another young woman, a student at a foreign university, witnessed the brutal assassination of a U.S. diplomat. As a result of the information she provided, two attackers were sentenced to life imprisonment. The student and her family were relocated to a safe place and received a significant reward.

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