Originally published on the CGS blog on May 4, 2007.
Deep in Al Kamen’s usually fun but almost always snarky In the Loop column in the Washington Post last Friday, there was a brief (and completely unsnarky) mention of the resignation of Barry Lowenkron, who has served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor (DRL) in the Bush Administration for roughly the past 18 months. Lowenkron has decided to leave the Department to serve as a Vice President of International Programs with the MacArthur Foundation.
Now I have not had the opportunity to meet Mr. Lowenkron, but I do know that his appointment came fourteen months after the resignation of the previous Assistant Secretary, Lorne Craner. Word on the street at the time was that the Administration could not get anyone to accept the job — not even loyal Bushies wanted the to take on the Sisyphean task of trying to explain this President’s absolutely abysmal human rights policies. So instead they turned to… well, let me allow the official State Department bio to tell the story:
Barry F. Lowenkron was sworn-in as the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) on October 14, 2005. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Lowenkron served as Principal Deputy Director of Policy Planning for the Department of State. From 1993 to 2002 he held a variety of positions in the Intelligence Community, including National Intelligence Officer for Europe, Director of the National Intelligence Council’s Analytic Staff, and Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence. Mr. Lowenkron served two tours as Director of European Security Affairs on the National Security Council (1988-89, 1991-93), and as Civilian Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff where he received the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service medal. He spent 5 years as a member of the Policy Planning Staff under Secretary of State George Shultz. Prior to joining the State Department, Mr. Lowenkron was a program development officer at the United States Information Agency.
To the rest of the world, the Assistant Secretary for DRL is a major figure — or at least was a major figure before this Administration. S/he is the person responsible for telling the bad guys that the United States is paying attention. But to an administration that cares little for human rights, that doesn’t matter. When they could not get anyone with a shred of credibility in the human rights community to take the job, they turned to a career foreign service officer who spent much of his time working in and around the intelligence community. Having as our government’s principal human rights spokesperson a guy who spent much of his career in intelligence and defense — well let’s just say it hasn’t done anything to enhance America’s already badly tarnished reputation as a defender of human rights.
But hey — it just goes to show that you can spend fourteen months serving as an apologist for some of the Administration’s most abhorrent policies and still land on your feet. Congrats Barry!
To be fair to Mr. Lowenkron, at least he tried to do the job — I would be surprised if the Administration even bothers trying to fill this completely thankless job in the 21 months it has left.
Full disclosure: I served in the Clinton Administration. in fact I served at State in DRL as Chief of Staff to Harold Hongju Koh, who was the finest Assistant Secretary for Human Rights that this country may ever have. If you want to see what a government’s conscience should look like, check out his remarks at the Closing Plenary of Citizens for Global Solutions’ 2006 annual meeting.
