Samuel M. Witten | |
---|---|
Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration | |
Acting | |
In office December 31, 2007 –July 9, 2009 | |
President | George W. Bush Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Ellen Sauerbrey |
Succeeded by | Eric Schwartz |
Personal details | |
Education | University of Maryland, College Park (BA) Columbia Law School (JD) |
Samuel M. Witten is a United States Lawyer who was Deputy Legal Adviser of the Department of State from 2001 to 2007, and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2007 to 2009.
Samuel M. Witten was educated at the University of Maryland, College Park, receiving a B.A. in 1979, and at Columbia Law School, receiving a J.D. in 1983.
After law school, Witten clerked for Judge Stanley Seymour Brotman of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He then spent 1984 through 1989 working as a staff attorney at the United States Department of State. He worked at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers from 1989 to 1992, where his work particularly focused on the right of U.S. airlines to operate outside the United States. He joined the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division in 1992, working there until 1993. In 1993-94, he returned to the State Department and headed an interagency team representing the United States at an international arbitration relating to the U.S.'s longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom related to U.S. airlines' access to London Heathrow Airport.
Witten joined the United States Department of State in 1994, becoming legal counsel of the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. In 1996, he became Assistant Legal Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence. There, his work involved the extradition of fugitives to and from the United States; he was also involved in negotiating treaties related to international law enforcement cooperation. In 2001, Witten was promoted to Deputy Legal Adviser of the Department of State, serving under Legal Adviser William Howard Taft IV, and, after Taft's departure in 2005, John B. Bellinger III. He was one of four State Department Deputy Legal Advisers, the top-ranking position for a career lawyer at the State Department, and supervised legal matters including international law enforcement cooperation, human rights and refugees, and international economic issues. In 2005-2006, he also served as Director of the Office of War Crimes Issues.
In June 2007, Witten was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. With the Departure of Assistant Secretary Ellen Sauerbrey, on December 31, 2007, Witten became Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. He served as Acting Assistant Secretary until July 8, 2009, when Eric P. Schwartz was sworn in as Assistant Secretary.
In 2010, Witten joined the Washington, D.C. offices of law firm Arnold & Porter.
Witten was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife, Joan Kleinman, and his dog Nani (2012). He has three children, Benjamin (1989), Ari (1991), and Molly (1995). He has two grandchildren, Miles (2020) and Nora (2023).
The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
The United States order of precedence is an advisory document maintained by the Ceremonials Division of the Office of the Chief of Protocol of the United States which lists the ceremonial order, or relative preeminence, for domestic and foreign government officials at diplomatic, ceremonial, and social events within the United States and abroad. The list is used to mitigate miscommunication and embarrassment in diplomacy, and offer a distinct and concrete spectrum of preeminence for ceremonies. Often the document is used to advise diplomatic and ceremonial event planners on seating charts and order of introduction. Former presidents, vice presidents, first ladies, second ladies, and secretaries of state and retired Supreme Court justices are also included in the list.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that promotes United States exports of nonagricultural U.S. services and goods.
William Howard Taft IV is an American diplomat and attorney who has served in the United States government under several Republican administrations. He is a son of William Howard Taft III and a great-grandson of President William Howard Taft.
Assistant Secretary of State (A/S) is a title used for many executive positions in the United States Department of State, ranking below the under secretaries. A set of six assistant secretaries reporting to the under secretary for political affairs manage diplomatic missions within their designated geographic regions, plus one assistant secretary dealing with international organizations and one equivalent as the coordinator/ambassador at large for counterterrorism. Assistant secretaries usually manage individual bureaus of the Department of State. When the manager of a bureau or another agency holds a title other than assistant secretary, such as "director", it can be said to be of "assistant secretary equivalent rank". Assistant secretaries typically have a set of deputies, referred to as deputy assistant secretaries (DAS).
William Rivington Brownfield is a Career Ambassador in the United States Foreign Service and the former Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs as of January 10, 2011. He has previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia.
John Bellinger Bellinger III is an American lawyer who served as the Legal Adviser for the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration. He is now a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is a position of the United States government within the Department of State that heads the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, which is responsible for development of policies and programs to combat international narcotics and crime. The current acting Assistant Secretary is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary James A. Walsh.
Thomas Alfred Shannon Jr. is an American diplomat who served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2016 to 2018. In early 2017, Shannon served as acting United States Secretary of State until President Donald Trump's nominee, Rex Tillerson, was confirmed. He was also acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States until the Senate confirmed President Trump's nominee, John J. Sullivan.
The United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) is one of seven litigating components of the U.S. Department of Justice. ENRD's mandate is to enforce civil and criminal environmental laws and programs protecting the health and environment of the United States, and to defend suits challenging those laws and programs.
Elizabeth Verville is an American civil servant in the Senior Executive Service (SES) who served as acting deputy assistant secretary of state (DAS) for international crime in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Verville led the U.S. delegations to the United Nations (UN) in developing multilateral treaties, such as the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which was passed in 2000 to combat transnational organized crime, and the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Prior to her role as acting DAS, she served on the National Security Council as director of global affairs for international crime, counternarcotics, and counterterrorism. She also previously served as deputy director of the first U.S. interagency office created to protect the nation's critical information infrastructure.
Nancy Jo Powell was the United States Ambassador to India from April 2012 to May 2014.
Kenneth Ian Juster is a veteran American diplomat, who served as the United States Ambassador to India from 2017 to 2021. He is currently senior counselor at the global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, senior adviser at the institutional investor CDPQ, strategic adviser at the software company Salesforce, and distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis is a high-level civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Under Secretary, as head of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at DHS, is the principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for fusing law enforcement and intelligence information relating to terrorism and other critical threats.
A career Foreign Service Officer, Paul E. Simons served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Chile from 2007 to 2010.
Abba Philip Schwartz was United States Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs from 1962 to 1966.
Julia Ann Vadala Taft was a United States official who was involved in international humanitarian assistance, and who served as Director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance from 1986 to 1989, and as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 1997 to 2001.
Jonathan Moore was United States Director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs from 1987 to 1989 and United States Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council from 1989 to 1992.
Michael G. Kozak is an American diplomat in the United States Department of State who served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Belarus between 2000 and 2003 and chief of mission at the United States Interests Section in Havana between 1996 and 1999, and was a nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador in 1991. He achieved a measure of prominence in the 1980s for his attempts to negotiate with Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega to leave power.
The State Migration Service of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is a governmental organization implementing state policy for migration in Kyrgyzstan. Kaymazarov Tashtanbek Turarovich was appointed, starting from 21 October 2020, to become the current Chairman of the State Migration Service.