Posted on Mon, Mar. 19, 2007
State Department shifts key Cuba jobs
By Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - Two top officers on the State Department's Cuba desk are
moving to Iraq, adding to a government reshuffle involving a total of
six key Cuba posts.
Stephen McFarland, who heads the Cuba desk, and his number two, Timothy
Zuniga-Brown, will join the Iraqi provincial reconstruction teams, which
operate outside Baghdad's Green Zone and are considered dangerous for
U.S. personnel.
The changes come as Cuban leader Fidel Castro remains largely out of
public view after having temporarily handed power to his younger brother
Raul due to health troubles.
U.S. officials say there is nothing unusual about those departures or
the changes in other U.S. agencies.
The top tier of government that sets Cuba policy is unchanged, the
officials emphasize.
"It is just rotation stuff," says Eric Watnik, a spokesman for the
Western Hemisphere department at the State Department, noting that
McFarland and Zuniga-Brown had completed two years in their jobs and
volunteered for the Iraqi positions.
John Regan, the Cuba desk's No. 3, will head the desk until the
replacements arrive this summer, Watnik said.
Adolfo Franco, the U.S. Agency for International Development assistant
administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, is also leaving to
join Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. To replace him the White
House has nominated Paul J. Bonicelli, the current deputy assistant
administrator for the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian
Assistance at USAID.
David Mutchler, the USAID director for Cuba - a position also subject to
regular rotation - is finishing his term in the job and will leave this
summer, said Morgan D. Ortagus, a USAID press officer.
Norman Bailey, the Cuba and Venezuela coordinator for the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates
intelligence-gathering among 16 U.S. agencies, was asked to leave when
new ODNI director Mike McConnell took over earlier this year. A search
for a replacement is under way.
Also deployed to the Iraq-Afghanistan region is a civilian analyst for
the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command who focuses on the Caribbean,
including Cuba. The analyst is an army reserve officer.
The State Department also has quietly dismantled a so-called war-room
where five interagency task forces gathered to closely track events in
Cuba after Castro announced he was suffering from an undisclosed
intestinal ailment on July 31.
The five groups are continuing to operate, though not in the same
physical location, Watnik said.
Three of the groups are headed by the State Department: diplomatic
actions, strategic communications and democratic promotion.
A group that coordinates humanitarian aid to Cuba is run by the Commerce
Department, and a fifth, on migration issues, is run by the National
Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security.
The upper echelons of the administration that decide the course of Cuba
policy remain unchanged.
The two key Cabinet officers most involved in Cuba are Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, a
Cuban-American.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/16936542.htm
State Department shifts key Cuba jobs
By Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - Two top officers on the State Department's Cuba desk are
moving to Iraq, adding to a government reshuffle involving a total of
six key Cuba posts.
Stephen McFarland, who heads the Cuba desk, and his number two, Timothy
Zuniga-Brown, will join the Iraqi provincial reconstruction teams, which
operate outside Baghdad's Green Zone and are considered dangerous for
U.S. personnel.
The changes come as Cuban leader Fidel Castro remains largely out of
public view after having temporarily handed power to his younger brother
Raul due to health troubles.
U.S. officials say there is nothing unusual about those departures or
the changes in other U.S. agencies.
The top tier of government that sets Cuba policy is unchanged, the
officials emphasize.
"It is just rotation stuff," says Eric Watnik, a spokesman for the
Western Hemisphere department at the State Department, noting that
McFarland and Zuniga-Brown had completed two years in their jobs and
volunteered for the Iraqi positions.
John Regan, the Cuba desk's No. 3, will head the desk until the
replacements arrive this summer, Watnik said.
Adolfo Franco, the U.S. Agency for International Development assistant
administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, is also leaving to
join Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. To replace him the White
House has nominated Paul J. Bonicelli, the current deputy assistant
administrator for the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian
Assistance at USAID.
David Mutchler, the USAID director for Cuba - a position also subject to
regular rotation - is finishing his term in the job and will leave this
summer, said Morgan D. Ortagus, a USAID press officer.
Norman Bailey, the Cuba and Venezuela coordinator for the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, which coordinates
intelligence-gathering among 16 U.S. agencies, was asked to leave when
new ODNI director Mike McConnell took over earlier this year. A search
for a replacement is under way.
Also deployed to the Iraq-Afghanistan region is a civilian analyst for
the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command who focuses on the Caribbean,
including Cuba. The analyst is an army reserve officer.
The State Department also has quietly dismantled a so-called war-room
where five interagency task forces gathered to closely track events in
Cuba after Castro announced he was suffering from an undisclosed
intestinal ailment on July 31.
The five groups are continuing to operate, though not in the same
physical location, Watnik said.
Three of the groups are headed by the State Department: diplomatic
actions, strategic communications and democratic promotion.
A group that coordinates humanitarian aid to Cuba is run by the Commerce
Department, and a fifth, on migration issues, is run by the National
Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security.
The upper echelons of the administration that decide the course of Cuba
policy remain unchanged.
The two key Cabinet officers most involved in Cuba are Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, a
Cuban-American.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/16936542.htm
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