EMBASSY EVENts 2009

Ambassador Daniel Fried to Lead Dedicated Team in Guantanamo Closing

13 March 2009

Ambassador Daniel Fried

U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, appointed Ambassador Daniel Fried, a seasoned diplomat with a strong record of accomplishment, to lead a dedicated team to carry out President Obama's commitment to close the detention facility at Guantanamo within one year.  Ambassador Fried is Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State.  He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000.  Secretary Clinton has determined the United States need to intensify efforts to facilitate the transfer of detainees.  Therefore, she has asked Ambassador Fried to address this issue full-time.  Ambassador Fried’s extensive experience will be an invaluable asset as the U.S. seek the assistance of foreign governments in moving toward closure of the detention facility. 

Over the last several years, the task of negotiating transfers of detainees from Guantanamo has fallen to the Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues and his staff, whose primary function historically has been war crimes matters, a full-time job.  This shift provides the benefit of also ensuring that the Ambassador at Large and his team can devote their full attention to war crime matters, which are of critical importance to this Administration.

Daniel Fried took the oath of office as Assistant Secretary of State on May 5, 2005. Before taking the helm of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Ambassador Fried served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council since January 22, 2001.  Ambassador Fried was Principal Deputy Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States from May 2000 until January 2001. He was Ambassador to Poland from November 1997 until May 2000.

Daniel Fried, of Washington, DC, began his career with the Foreign Service in 1977. He served in the Economic Bureau of the State Department from 1977 to 1979; at the U.S. Consulate General in then-Leningrad from 1980 to 1981; as Political Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade from 1982 to 1985; and in the Office of Soviet Affairs at the State Department from 1985 to 1987. Ambassador Fried was Polish Desk Officer at the State Department from 1987 to 1989 as democracy returned to Poland and Central Europe. He served as Political Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw from 1990 to 1993.

Ambassador Fried served on the staff of the National Security Council from 1993 until 1997, first as a Director and then as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Central and Eastern Europe. At the White House, he was active in designing U.S. policy on Euroatlantic security, including NATO enlargement and the Russia-NATO relationship.