Name Alberto Fernandez Role United States official | Education University of Arizona | |
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Alberto Miguel Fernandez (born 1958) is an Cuban-American formerdiplomat who is currently President of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), which includes Al-Hurra.
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Career
Fernandez was previously vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow in Middle East Politics and Media at the TRENDS research and advisory center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
He 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. He was US Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third largest oil producer and only Spanish speaking country, from January 2010. Before that he was Chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan from 2007 to 2009. 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.
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 started that he gave an average of about 200 interviews a year.
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.
2006 Al-Jazeera interview
In an Arabic-language interview on Al-Jazeera on October 21, 2006, Fernandez made statements translated as, "I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq."
The State Department 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 news 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."
Similarly, US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said in English days before Fernandez's comments: "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."
Awards and Honors
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 written for the Foreign Service Journal, MEMRI, Journal of International Security Affairs, The Cipher Brief, AFPC Almanac of Islamism, Washington Post, Providence, Georgetown Cornerstone, Brookings Markaz, Middle East Quarterly, ReVista the Harvard Review of Latin America, and the Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society. 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.