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Apology of the Year

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from: Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Monday, Oct. 23, 2006, at 4:07 PM ET

Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the State department's bureau of Near Eastern affairs, has landed in hot water.

Fernandez, who speaks Arabic, appears frequently on Al-Jazeera, where his volubility and candor have won him some rare credibility within the Arab world. In August, a Web-only Newsweek profile declared him "the best-known—and unexpectedly sassy—face of U.S. diplomacy." On Oct. 21 an Al-Jazeera interviewer asked Fernandez, on camera, how history would judge the U.S.'s role in Iraq. Here is how Fernandez answered (as translated from the original Arabic by Al-Jazeera):

We tried to do our best [in Iraq], but I think there is much room for criticism, because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq. [Click here to see the video.]

Mr. Fernandez later told CNN that he was "not dissing U.S. Policy." Apparently his superiors felt otherwise. The following day Fernandez issued the three-sentence retraction below.

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hot document
entries
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from: Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Monday, Oct. 23, 2006, at 4:07 PM ET
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Bonnie Goldstein is a former special investigator to the U.S. Senate and investigative producer for ABC News.
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