Obama taps major donors for ambassadorships

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has tapped four big Democratic Party donors for plum ambassadorships in Europe and Latin America while naming six career diplomats to posts in Africa, the Mideast and the Pacific.

Washington lawyer Howard Gutman, who raised more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign and personally contributed the maximum $4,600 to it, was nominated to be the next U.S. envoy to Belgium, the White House said in a statement Thursday.

Gutman also contributed $2,300 to now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.
Read on.

Interesting that the media cry foul and make a big stink on Obama's nominating some of his donors of his campaign for ambassadorships when this has been traditional for all President. I haven't heard the outcry from the media when Bush appointed many of his business buddies for White House positions or Bush's connection with President Hamid Karzai , Afghan leader and former consultant for Unocal. Remember Fahrenheit 9/11 movie?


Michael Moore narrated: Or was the war in Afghanistan really about something else? Perhaps the answer was in Houston, Texas. In 1997 while George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea. And who got a Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney: Halliburton.


Many critics claimed this is untrue but I haven't heard of a lawsuit against Moore's claim.

From White house website, here are the nominees' bios for the key ambassadorship positions:

Pamela J. H. Slutz, Ambassador to the Republic of Burundi

Ms. Pamela Slutz, a career Foreign Service Officer, has served as Deputy Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya since October 2006. Ms. Slutz joined the U.S. Department of State in 1981 and was tenured and commissioned as a Foreign Service Officer in 1984. Her previous overseas assignments include: Kinshasa, Zaire (1982-84); Jakarta, Indonesia (1984-87 and 1999-2001); Shanghai, China (1991-94); and the American Institute in Taiwan (2001-03). She was the U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia from 2003-2006. Her domestic assignments (in Washington) in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs include: the Office of Korea Affairs (1981-82); the Office of China and Mongolia Affairs (1995-97); and the Office of East Asian and Pacific Regional Security and Policy Planning (1997-99). She also served as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Nuclear and Space Talks with the USSR (in Geneva, 1987-89). Ms. Slutz holds a B.A. from Hollins University and an M.A. from the University of Hawaii.

Gordon Gray, Ambassador to the Republic of Tunisia

Gordon Gray served as Senior Advisor to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq from June 2008 until May 2009. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Gray joined the Foreign Service in 1982. Prior to his assignment in Iraq, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2005 to 2008; his responsibilities included the promotion of U.S. interests in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, and oversight of the Bureau’s Regional Affairs office. Mr. Gray was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt from 2002 until 2005. His other foreign assignments include Morocco (where he began his career in government as a Peace Corps volunteer), Pakistan, Jordan, and Canada. Mr. Gray served in Washington as the director of the office of Arabian Peninsula affairs, the office of peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, and the counterterrorism regional affairs office. Mr. Gray holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A. from Columbia University.

Richard J. Schmierer, Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman

Richard Schmierer has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs since 2008. Immediately prior, Mr. Schmierer served as Director of the Office of Iraq Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the State Department since 2007. Mr. Schmierer is a State Department Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service. He began his diplomatic career in 1980. His first Foreign Service tour was in Germany from 1980 through 1984. Mr. Schmierer then served a three-year assignment as the Public Affairs Officer at the American Consulate General in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (1985-88). From 1988-1992, Mr. Schmierer served at the headquarters of the U.S. Information Agency, first as the head of the Middle East office of the International Visitor Program, and later in the Agency’s Office of European Affairs. From 1992-1996, Mr. Schmierer served as the Press Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. Mr. Schmierer returned to Saudi Arabia in August 1997, where he served as Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, until June 2000. From June 2000 through June 2004 he served as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the American Embassy in Berlin, Germany. In June 2004-June 2005, Mr. Schmierer served as Embassy Counselor for Public Affairs in Baghdad. In July 2005 he joined the staff of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Mr. Schmierer holds a B.A. from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and Master and Doctoral degrees from the University of Massachusetts.

Martha L. Campbell, Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands

Martha Campbell has been a career member of the Department of State’s Foreign Service for 29 years. She currently serves as the Dean of the School of Professional and Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, training State Department and interagency employees in support of foreign policy priorities around the world. She served previously as the Executive Director of the Bureaus of European and Eurasian Affairs and International Organizations Affairs. Ms. Campbell opened the Office of the U.S. Representative in Majuro in the Marshall Islands in 1987, after the United States signed the Compact of Free Association. Since she joined the Foreign Service in 1980, Ms. Campbell has served as Management Officer at U.S. Embassies in The Hague, Stockholm, Budapest, Majuro and Paramaribo, Suriname. She was also a consular officer in Rotterdam and Chief of the Political/Economic Section on a second tour in Paramaribo. In Washington, Ms. Campbell served previously in the Executive Office of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, as a Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Management and as a Career Development Officer. She is a graduate of the 46th Senior Seminar. Ms. Campbell received her B.A from Kalamazoo College and her M.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Alfonso E. Lenhardt, Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania

Major General Lenhardt (USA, Ret.) is the President and CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council. Prior to his work with the Council, Gen. Lenhardt was Senior Vice President of Government Relations for The Shaw Group. Gen. Lenhardt served as the 36th Sergeant at Arms for the U.S. Senate. He also served as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Council on Foundations. Capping his three decades of military service, Gen. Lenhardt served as Commanding General of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command. Gen. Lenhardt has also served on the board of several community service organizations. He holds a B.S. from the University of Nebraska, a Masters in Public Administration from Central Michigan University, and a Masters in the Administration of Justice from Wichita State University.

Mark Gitenstein, Ambassador to Romania

Mr. Gitenstein is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in issues related to national security and civil liberties. He is also a partner at the Washington office of the multi-national firm Mayer Brown LLP. Prior to his work at Mayer Brown, Mr. Gitenstein was the Executive Director of The Foundation for Change Inc. Previously, Mr. Gitenstein worked as a Senate staff member for 17 years— both in Senator Biden’s personal office, and then as Chief Counsel with the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is the author of Matters of Principle, an award winning book on his experience managing the Judiciary Committee staff during the confirmation battle over the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987. Mr. Gitenstein holds a B.A. from Duke University and a J.D. from Georgetown University.

Howard W. Gutman, Ambassador to Belgium

Howard Gutman is a partner with Williams & Connolly LLP. Identified as one of "Washington's Top Lawyers" by Washingtonian magazine, Mr. Gutman’s practice areas focus on commercial litigation, including securities, contracts, antitrust, labor, banking, real estate, intellectual property, insurance coverage, international law and partnership disputes. Mr. Gutman's clients have included Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, financial services firms, labor unions, pension funds, law and accounting firms, government entities, real estate developers, sports teams, and political candidates. He is also litigation counsel for Friedman, Billings & Ramsey, a top ten U.S. investment bank. Mr. Gutman previously served as a Special Assistant to F.B.I Director William H. Webster, focusing on counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence; as a law clerk to Justice Potter Stewart on the United States Supreme Court; and as a law clerk to Judge Irving L. Goldberg on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Mr. Gutman has been an Editor of Litigation Magazine for over 24 years and an active participant in the ABA's Litigation Section. He is a member of the Board of the Washington Hebrew Home in Rockville, Maryland. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia University.

Don Beyer, Ambassador to Switzerland and the Principality of Lichtenstein

Mr. Beyer was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1989 and served until 1998. In that capacity, he presided over the Virginia Senate, earning the reputation as the most activist President of the Senate in Virginia history. He chaired the Economic Recovery Commission, the Virginia Commission on Sexual Assault, the Virginia Commission on Disabilities, the Poverty Commission and was co-founder of the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Mr. Beyer has served on the Virginia Board of First Union National Bank and the board of Shenandoah Life Insurance Company. He is currently on the board of Lightly Expressed, a fiber optic lighting design and manufacturing firm. An experienced and successful businessman, he has grown his family’s chain of automobile dealerships and serves on the Volvo International Product Development team. Mr. Beyer is a member of the Northern Virginia Business Roundtable and the Northern Virginia High Tech Council, which he co-founded. He currently serves on the boards of Youth for Tomorrow, the Washington Community Foundation, and the Red Cross. Mr. Beyer graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College, magna cum laude with Highest Honors in Economics in 1972.

Vinai Thummalapally, Ambassador to Belize

Mr. Thummalapally is the President of MAM-A Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of recordable optical discs. Prior to his role at MAM-A Inc., he served as the plant manager for Mitsui Advanced Media Inc., which also manufactures recordable optical discs. He has served in several other similar roles in his 31-year career, including as General Manager for WEA Manufacturing, as a Managing Partner of Clines Office Products, and as Manufacturing Manager of Disc Manufacturing, Inc. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California State University and completed post graduate courses in Business Administration.

John R. Nay, Ambassador to the Republic of Suriname

John R. Nay has served as U.S. Consul General in Toronto since June 2006. Prior to serving in Toronto he served from 2003-2006 as Office Director for African Regional and Security Affairs in the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, holding the rank of Minister-Counselor, and has been a member of the Foreign Service since 1977. Previously Mr. Nay had served from 2002-03 as a Senior Inspector in the State Department's Office of the Inspector General, and prior to that as Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India from 1999-2002, and as Regional Consular Officer for southern Africa based in Johannesburg, South Africa from 1996-1999. In earlier tours of duty, Mr. Nay served in Washington, D.C. as Deputy Director for Pacific Island Affairs from 1993-95, and from 1982-1985 as an analyst on Cambodia issues for two years and on Korean affairs for one year. Mr. Nay also had previous foreign tours of duty as consular chief at the American Institute in Taiwan, in Taipei, Taiwan (1990-1993) and at the U.S. Consulate General in Calgary, Canada (1985-1989), as well as earlier tours of duty in Singapore (1980-1982) and Taiwan (1978-1980). Mr. Nay holds a BA and MA in History from Andrews University and a Masters in National Security Strategy from the National Defense University.