Ambassador Becomes Focus of Egyptians’ Mistrust of U.S.

New York Times ^ | July 3, 2013 | Mark Landler

[lbryce]

WASHINGTON — Her image has been plastered on banners in Tahrir Square, crossed out with a blood-red X or distorted and smeared with insults. She is too cozy with Egypt’s deposed president and the Muslim Brotherhood, the signs say, and should leave the country.

Anne W. Patterson, a press-shy career diplomat who has been American ambassador to Cairo since 2011, suddenly finds herself a target in a dangerous political upheaval, a symbol for angry young Egyptians of America’s meddlesome role in their country’s affairs.

With the Egyptian military ousting President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday, Ms. Patterson will have to navigate a perilous course between Mr. Morsi’s opponents and his enraged Islamist supporters, both of whom have grievances with the United States.

[kabar]

I think she should be replaced as I indicated previously. We have a new Egyptian government and we need to start afresh. And it is now a very dangerous place for her given her notoriety and being a target for violence. However, she should continue to serve elsewhere if that is what she wants. She did nothing to disgrace this country, personally or professionally.

[jsanders2001]

Well if youre out camping and you have food in your tent and your’e in it you can pretty much surmise you’re going to have trouble...you dont have to know any more details..

[dennisw]

Of course I am not ranting, just speaking the truth. She is old enough to retire with honor after doing the right thing in Egypt. But she did not do the right thing, so she will flushed down the toilet anyway by the Obama regime. She is disposable.

I get it!!! Defying Obama would have effed up her job prospects after leaving-retiring from State. It all about the money after serving the United States with dishonor in Egypt!!! The private sector or university or think tank money you make while getting your Federale pension and bennies

[House Atreides]

“Anne Patterson is being made into the scapegoat. She is the President’s personal representative to the Egyptian government. She is the messenger and does not act independently when it comes to policy formulation. Her direction comes from the WH, NSC, and the State Department....”
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Yes, she and many others in the career civil and foreign services have become pawns (many eagerly, some reluctantly or obtusely) of the Washington DC branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. She’s “only following orders” and thus bears no personal responsibility?

[dennisw]

The government workers always “serve”, don’t they, “admirably”, with “great sacrifice”. You should see these pencil pushers living it up in foreign capitals.

We have so many gay ambassadors under Obama and tons of gay embassy staff serving overseas. They can't wait to get to country X and go native. To let their hair down and get it on with the local gays, lesbians and other pervy mutants

[who_would_fardels_bear]

It galls me that some rich bastard that made his money via what remains of the free market is given a prime diplomatic post by a President that is actively engaged in dismantling what little of the free market we have left.

These diplomats get to hobnob with dignitaries and celebrities. They get to live in palaces rent free. They get all sorts of very expensive tchotchkes for free that they can use to adorn their homes. As they walk their guests around their houses they can point out all these items and use them as intros to tall tales they tell about how they tamped down some important diplomatic uproar or provided the key insight to end a political stalemate.

Of course that's just me being human and envious. But I feel I have a right to be as it's all on my tax dollar and it all stinks to heaven as the highest form of hypocrisy.

But better an empty $300 shirt than some well-intentioned peacenik wearing something his boyfriend bought him at J C Penney's.

[montaine]

She should not be replaced. She should resign. Maybe she did “nothing wrong” That’s not what the Egyptians think. Nobody knows who ambassadors are. She did Something to gain this kind of notoriety,and she deserves the reward of it, even if she was just “ following orders”. When you screw up, you don’t get to be rewarded with another plum position of your choosing, you get to take the fall for your bosses.
If she is as skilled as you say, there are plenty of corporations that will pay good money for her talents.

[tanuki]

Thank you for the perspective on her. We should always refrain from shooting the messenger. It is the policy we should be focused on.

[kabar]

Why do the morons in the State department and the politicians continue to send ambassadors to Muslim countries who are almost guaranteed to be ignored and/or disrespected? I refer to women ambassadors of course.

First, people may not understand the process on how ambassadors are assigned to a country. When the WH decides on who should be ambassador to a particular country, the name is sent privately to the country asking them for agreement', i.e., the country accepts that person. A country can refuse an ambassadorial nominee before the name ever becomes public or is put before the senate for confirmation. The other countries do the same thing when assigning ambassadors to the US. So every woman nominated as an ambassador to a muslim country has received agreement'.

You can't and shouldn't lump all muslim countries together re how they treat women. Countries like Pakistan and Indonesia (the biggest Muslim country in the world) have had women PMs. Many muslim countries have sent women as ambassadors to the US and elsewhere.

I often wonder if Muslims don’t privately think we are insulting them and their culture by sending women ambassadors to their countries. We should take into consideration the mores of the culture that represents such a large segment of the world.

Self-censorship is the worst censorship of all. Should we send Jewish-Americans to be ambassadors to Muslim countries? We have. How much should we accommodate Muslims whether here or abroad? Doesn't our culture also deserve to be respected? Should we give tacit approval to the Muslim treatment of women by not assigning women to represent us in their country?

Other western countries have assigned women as ambassadors to muslim countries. It is not only the "morons" in the State Department.

This isn’t a misogynist rant. I respect the many talented women in our diplomatic corps, but surely our purpose shouldn’t be to put their careers ahead of the national interest. Why not take the ambassadorships such as England and France that traditionally go to rich male campaign donors off the table as political plums doled out by Presidents to their supporters. Let our most talented women serve there—or in posts in countries which don’t have a religious bias against women. It isn’t our job to change the world to meet our own cultural preferences..

Nonsense. We should not be ashamed of our culture or our values. We deal with Muslim countries in many different fora whether it is in international organizations like the UN or in regional organizations. Many Western countries have women heads of state. Angela Merkel has visited many Muslim countries. Should she wear an abaya or a veil when visiting with the heads of these countries?

Maybe to be even more respected and loved, we should only send Muslim-American males as Ambassadors to muslim countries.

Most career officers can't afford to be ambassadors to the UK and France. The representational allowances don't cover any where near the costs.

[Grampa Dave]

Ted Cruz made an excellent statement re the failures of Herr Obozo in Egypt:

Texas Republican Sen.Ted Cruz blasted the Obama administration’s policy toward Egypt in a scathing op-ed in Foreign Policy magazine, slamming the president’s stance on the Muslim Brotherhood “one of the most stunning diplomatic failures in recent memory.”

As the Egyptian military ends President Mohamed Morsi’s rule, Cruz points out that the ire of many people in the streets of Cairo is not reserved for the Muslim Brotherhood alone.

“The people protesting in the streets were not only carrying anti-Morsi signs,” Cruz writes. “They were also carrying signs with slogans like ‘Obama Supports Terrorism’ and ‘Obama Supports Morsi,’ as well as pictures of the American ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, with a large red ‘X’ through her face.”

Below are some examples of the pictures and signs carried by the enemies of Herr Obozo, the Egyptian People in Cairo as noted by Ted Cruz. These photos will not appear in the MSM.

[kabar]

She’s “only following orders” and thus bears no personal responsibility?

She bears the same kind of responsibility that a military officer, CIA agent, NSA officer, FBI agent, etc. bears. "Only following orders" makes it sound like we are all just Nazis who use this excuse to commit atrocities. The fact is that when the duly elected President and CIC gives orders, the people in the Executive Branch follow orders. If a person feels strongly enough about a policy, they have the option of resigning or becoming a whistle blower. Or becoming an Edward Snowden.

For example, how much responsibility do you want to assign to the guys carrying out the drone strikes?

[EQAndyBuzz]

“LOL. Tin foil hat time.”

LOL... It is funny, but notice how we always find the connection? 11 years ago the Rats were trying to impeach Bush for having someone in his third grade class who was married to a chemist that worked for a company that owned its own fishing boat that 30 years ago caught a fish that was to short to keep.

We can tie Obama to the exact night he was at Bill Ayers house having his political career launched and everyone in the MSM believes it was an innocent encounter and nothing to see here.

[kabar]

We will just agree to disagree and leave it at that. I hope she doesn’t resign and gets reassigned back to the Department.

[montaine]

Your friend should get out of Egypt ASAP. The world knows we won’t protect our diplomats any more. I wish her a long retirement.

[Kaosinla]

“The outrage mounted after Ambassador Anne Patterson said in a speech earlier this week that she is “deeply skeptical” that protests will be fruitful and defended U.S. relations with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood as necessary because the group is part of the democratically elected Egyptian government.”Some say that street action will produce better results than elections. To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical,” she said Tuesday during a seminar organized by a Cairo research center. “Egypt needs stability to get its economic house in order, and more violence on the streets will do little more than add new names to the lists of martyrs.”

“This is the government that you and your fellow citizens elected. Even if you voted for others, I don’t think the elected nature of this government is seriously in doubt,” Patterson told Tuesday’s seminar. “Throughout Egypt’s post-revolution series of elections, the United States took the position that we would work with whoever won elections that met international standards, and this is what we have done.”

Also, she urged the leader of the coptic Christians (who have experienced more atrocities and double the prison terms than under Mubarak) to not participate in tthe demonstrations...not to mention the private meetings w/ unelected MB leaders.

Oh, what a deadly web we weave...

[Revolting cat!]

Instead of serving admirably with great sacrifice (what, these sacrificing public servants don’t accept salaries?) Madame Ambassador ought to be in her modern kitchen in Podunk, MN, baking cookies. And I’m sure that many of us would appreciate her and other “public servants” like here more, if they were driving UPS trucks and delivering packages in neighbourhoods far more dangerous than those where the embassies are located.

And don’t you ever denigrate citizens who pay taxes to support the lavish lifestyles of these “public servants” as having done nothing for the country! We all know what U.S. counties are the wealthiest and whose earnings are confiscated to make them the wealthiest.

[montaine]

Thanks for the update. I knew she put her foot in it somehow.

[Kaosinla]

No problem...Zero doesn’t place anyone into a position of power who doesn’t match his own ideology or won’t bend to his will. With this, there is less of a paper trail leading back to the oval office.

[House Atreides]

“... find proof that Obama helped tip things to Morsi. The support after the fact is not much to hearl at the admin in my opinion. I think any U.S. admin would have done the same.”
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Sorry, I’m not buying that. What other administration would have been trying to discourage/prevent the Coptic Christians from participating in the recent demonstrations (it has been more like an uprising as far as I’m concerned) which LED TO THE OUSTER OF THE MORSI/MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD REGIME.

The OBAMA regime and its WILLING foreign service handmaidens were doing what they could to protect Morsi. Obama and Valerie Jarrett are no doubt weeping into their July 4th sparklers at the loss of their Muslim Brotherhood compadres in Egypt.

[tacticalogic]

Thank you very kindly for that link. Unfortunately it appears they covered themselves by providing the training to “all interested parties”.

How many of the other "interested parties" got invited to the WH?