Alberto Fernandez (United States official)

Alberto M. Fernandez (born 1958) is 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.

In an interview on Al-Jazeera on October 21, 2006 he asserted that "I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq." His comments were widely reported in the US and international press.

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".

His apology was satirized by newspaper columnist Bill Shein in an October 26, 2007 column called, "The No Candor Zone."

What is little known to this day is that Fernandez's remarks were taken directly from public remarks made by the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Baquba only days before. Speaking in English, Khalilzad had said that "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." The leading pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat carried the remarks on page one of its October 6, 2006 issue under the headline: "Khalilzad Admits US Arrogance and Incompetence in Iraq." While Fernandez's Arabic language remark was widely reported in English, Khalilzad's remarks in English were mostly reported in the Arabic press.

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.

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, 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.

• 1958 - born in Havana, Cuba.
• 1959 - arrived in Miami, Florida as a refugee.
• 1976 - serves in US Army and Reserves till 1981.
• 1981 - receives BA in Middle East Studies from the University of Arizona.
• 1983 - MA in Middle East Studies from the University of Arizona. Joined the United States Information Agency. Served as a Junior Officer in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
• 1986 - Press Attaché at the US Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua.
• 1988 - Public Affairs Officer at US Embassy in Kuwait.
• 1990 - Country Affairs Officer for Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan in the USIA/NEA Area Office, Washington DC.
• 1993 - Public Affairs Counselor in Damascus, Syria.
• 1996 - Public Affairs Counselor in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
• 1999 - Public Affairs Counselor in Amman, Jordan.
• 2002 - Public Affairs Counselor in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• 2004 - stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on a one-year posting. (possible conflict between references on Kabul posting dates)
• 2005 July - appointed Director for Public Diplomacy for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
• 2006 October - Apologises for "US arrogance and stupidity in Iraq" comments.
• 2006 November - wins the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy.
• 2007 June - Charge D'affaires, U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan
• 2009 July - Nominated as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea; confirmed by the US Senate on December 24, 2009.
• 2012 March - Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC).
• 2015 May - retires from the Department of State.