« previous | MUCK HOME | next »
State Department Inspector General To Probe Alleged Cover-Up In Albania
While the U.S. Ambassador to Albania denied allegations of wrongdoing today from his office in Tirana, back in Washington the State Department's Inspector General has opened an investigation.
"We've opened an investigation into this matter at the request of the department and we are coordinating with other agencies," Tom Burgess, a spokesman for the State Department IG, said in a phone interview with TPMmuckraker.
State Department officials have known for months about the allegations that arms dealer AEY and its 22-year-old president may have tried to pass off cartons of illegal Chinese-made ammunition to fulfill a $300 million U.S. government contract supplying the Afghan Army.
But yesterday's disclosure that the the U.S. Ambassador in Tirana, John Withers, may have known about it and then concealed that knowledge from lawmakers on Capitol Hill apparently came as a surprise to the State Department.
According to the AP:
In Washington on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the allegation would be investigated, but that he knew of no evidence to support it.Speaking to reporters, Casey said the State Department has asked its inspector general "to go and look at these charges and conduct a thorough, fair and transparent investigation of these allegations."
He said, "These are very serious allegations."
But Casey also said, "We certainly don't have any information that would support or substantiate these allegations which are being made against a career Foreign Service officer" with 24 years of distinguished experience.
Comments (6)
Keep using that pic for these stories...haha!
June 24, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder what John Withers did before he was the ambassador to Albania and whether he ever worked at DHS under Tom Ridge...
June 24, 2008 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keep using that pic for these stories...haha!
You're a tool. The other picture (Dude, where's my ammo???) is much better, or worse, depending how you look at it.
The picture above is from the perp's own Facebook page.
June 24, 2008 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Withers is a senior member of the career Foreign Service. He has probably never had a job outside of the State Department.
He's one of those guys who gets to serve in crap countries as a pinnacle of his career. The politicals get the cush jobs (Brussels, Paris, Barbados, etc).
I doubt he has ever worked for Tom Ridge.
June 24, 2008 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
A brief bio of John Withers can be found at the Tirana embassy website. This all seems quite suspect, and I have a hard time believing career diplomats would intentionally facillitate the Pentagons shady arms deals. Something doesn't add up in Major Harrison's story. Also senior service members too can get high profile posts, such as DCMs to large embassies, even heads of sections. These, however, are guaranteed to be stressful and highly demanding posts.
June 25, 2008 12:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Career Ambassadors (and much of the State Department career foreign service) have had a tough time with the Bush Administration.
Apart from the handfuls of politically appointed ambassadors to plum posts (UK, France, Italy, Australia, etc) the career service has been faced with a "toe the line or you're against us" attitude.
In Withers' case, it's one of three things:
1/ DOD's man in Tirana is lying
2/ Withers was ordered by someone (probably politically appointed) in Washington to do what he did.
3/ Withers acted alone
My guess is #2.
But career Ambassadors have done dirty dealing in the past. Director of National Intelligence John Negoponte was at one time an ambassador in the career service. He was a key player in the Iran-Contra scandal while serving as Ambassador to Honduras.
June 25, 2008 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink