Afghanistani Pashtun, Zalmay Khalilzad, Former UN Ambassador

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Zalmay "Zal" Khalilzad, age 65
Obtained the highest position any Muslim has held
in the USA government
Khalizad is a former CIA operative, and undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration who was a consultant for Unocal during the Clinton administration.

Talk about the American dream!   We've had a foreign born Ambassador go back and be ambassador to his home country, working under several presidents.  
                                                                          

Kabul

Zalmay Khalilzad (b: March 22, 1951)  has been our UN Envoy from the USA.  He's Afghanistan born and has been an American since 2004. "Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is a U.S. counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and president of Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm based in Washington, D.C He was the 26th USA Ambassador to the UN under George Bush from 2007 to 2009.  He's succeeded by Susan Rice.  Khalilzad was born in Mazar-i-Sharif but grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, a much larger city.   He first spent time in the United States as a Ceres, California high school exchange student with AFS Intercultural Programs. Later, he attained his bachelor's and master's degrees from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.   Khalilzad received his PhD at the University of Chicago in The United States.  He joined the State Department in 1984.  He's been the US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq.  Khalilzad is a Sunni Muslim and belongs to the Pashtun ethnic group.   He is fluent in English, Pashto, Dari and  Arabic

What's his voting record in the UN as far as Israel goes?  He was considered pro-Israel in 2007   Jewish groups welcomed his appointment and said they hoped Khalilzad would continue strong US support for Israel in an arena often critical of the Jewish state. The UN is often critical of the Jewish state. Officials at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said they "look forward to working with him." "Khalilzad is considered to have a positive attitude towards Israel and the US-Israel relationship," said Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "Based on his past record, we have every reason to anticipate that he will maintain the policies [in place] to date." Hoenlein added that Khalilzad's background could aid the US in the international body."                                                                        

Oldest mosque in Afghanistan is in Kabul

Before He Gained Power, Khalilzad said the  Israel Lobby “Paralyzed” Our Foreign Policy ." Evidently the Jewish groups missed this one in their vetting.                                                    

So wrote Philip Weiss in 2007.  In a 1997 paper for the Rand Corporation titled "The Implications of the Possible End of the Arab-Israeli Conflict for Gulf Security," Khalilzad (and 2 co-authors) described all the good things that would redound to the U.S. if we could only bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians."  Yes, Israel always gets blamed because the Palestinians never want peace and have their own political agenda intermeshed with their religious reasons.  "Khalilzad attributed the special relationship with Israel to several factors:  "shared cultural bonds, U.S.-Israeli strategic ties [dwindling in the aftermath of the Cold War], and the well-organized pro-Israel sentiment in the United States:  The lobby." .  They are referring to AIPAC ( The American Israel Public Affairs Committee).  It works to strengthen   relations between the United States and Israel, not to tell Israel what to do.  It does this by bringing facts from Israel to the USA.  Evidently Khalilzad doesn't understand their position all that well.  
The USA " renewed criticism of the UN Human Rights Council in 2007, arguing it had shown a misplaced focus on Israel while giving a free pass to countries with poor human rights records. The US opposition failed.  The reason listed " was the "council's relentless focus during the year,  said US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. "At the same time, the council failed during the year to address serious human rights.  This  year was spent on a single country - Israel,"  Violations were taking place in other countries such as Zimbabwe, DPRK (North Korea), Iran, Belarus and Cuba," he said. France supported the draft, as did Britain and China.  
                                                                   

UN

            The UN Human Rights Council's draft resolution  on the body's working rules 145-7 through a rare vote forced by Israel was being opposed by Israel, United States and  five other countries, including Australia, Canada and the Pacific island nation of Palau. 
Durban I was held in South Africa in 2001.  However, also in 2007, Zalmay backed Durban  III, a strongly anti-Semitic world-wide meeting.  This happened after serving as ambassador to Iraq.  Had he picked up the negativity this enemy of Israel displayed?  The first Durban conference became an instrument for racism itself, particularly directed against Israel. This agenda was driven by Iran and a number of Arab states, and primarily by the participants in the antisemitic NGO (non-governmental organization) Forum.   The 2008 conference was just as bad.  "This Durban strategy, led by NGOs, is behind the BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) efforts, which are justified using the rhetoric of human rights, to demonize and delegitimize Israel." On April 20-24, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations will host the “Durban Review Conference,” (Durban 2) – a follow-up to the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR). As mandated by the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UNHRC) is responsible for organizing and convening the event “towards the effective and comprehensive implementation” of the conclusions and recommendations of WCAR, and to continue the “global drive for the total elimination of racism.”  Evidently it wasn't going well.  "Americans were asked to : Contact your congresspeople and senators. SECRETARY RICE AND AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: America will not fund a racist conference under the Orwellian guise of its being "anti-racist."The Durban conferences had previously been criticized by Western governments for allegedly promoting rather than combating racism. Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States all boycotted Durban III held in NY City in November 2011.  The same countries, excluding Austria, Bulgaria, France and the United Kingdom, also previously boycotted the Durban Review Conference in 2009.
                                                                                   

He was interviewed on Fareed Zakaria's program, GPS this morning, which brought him to my attention.  Fareed asked him what he thought of Trump's anti-Islamic rhetoric?    Both men are Muslims.  
He's a Republican.   Would he want to work under Trump?  "According to the Washington Post, Khalilzad is “generally well liked by Democrats.”

Zalmay became a USA citizen while in Afghanistan along with 16 others on October 1, 2004.  He made a speech then, "Remarks by U.S. Ambassador and Special Presidential Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Ceremony."  He also has citizenship with Austria, where he met his wife while serving as ambassador to Afghanistan.
                                                                            

Kabul's Sakhi Shrine

George Bush appointed him. He was accused of backing Islamic fundamentalists who were attacking Afghanistan.   "Dr. Khalilzad? Would that be the same Zalmay Khalilzad who oversaw the mobilization, leadership, funding and coordination of, and the media support for, the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists who devastated Afghanistan and Bosnia?  Evidently his problems centered around oil.  "The  'oil consultant' label trivializes the harm Khalilzad has done."  "It was Khalilzad who drew up risk analysis for the trans-Afghan pipeline in the late 1990s.  The trans-Afghan pipeline was one of the primary agendas behind 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan.              

Taliban terrorists

Khalilzad negotiated for and with the Taliban. The Taliban are terrorists.  Khalilzad played a major role in the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy. Iraq is now  a failed state, mostly taken over by ISIS.  That strategy didn't work out well at all.                                                                         

We can all read more about him.  "Khalilzad's political autobiography,  The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House, My Journey Through a Turbulent World  was published by St. Martin's Press in 2016.

Resource: Farid Zakaria Sunday morning CNN program
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/US-attacks-UN-Human-Rights-Council, Nov 17 2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalmay_Khalilzad
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2004/12/20041214113020.klctb_surqzqr5d1vp-ypgnatsinahgfa.html#axzz466JMsmbq
http://emperors-clothes.com/archive/khalilzad-facts.htm  Attacks against Zalmay.
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/04/15/exp-gps-khalilzad-sot.cnn
http://www.jpost.com/International/Jewish-groups-hail-new-US-envoy-to-UN
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/durban_conference_0/
http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/243/tell-un-ambassador-khalilzad-to-stand-tall
http://mondoweiss.net/2007/04/in_97_amb_khali/-
http://www.globalresearch.ca/from-bolton-to-khalilzad-bush-administration-s-new-un-ambassador-will-continue-the-war/4087