Robin Raphel
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Robin Lynn Raphel (born 1947) is an American former diplomat, ambassador,
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
analyst,
lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
, and an expert on Pakistan affairs. In 1993, she was appointed by President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
as the
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs #REDIRECT Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs {{R from other capitalisation ...
. She later served as U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia from November 7, 1997 to August 6, 2000, during Clinton's second term in office. In the 2000s, Raphel held a number of
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
-related diplomatic positions. She retired from the State Department in 2005 after 30 years of service. After retirement, Raphel was hired to head the global affairs and trade group of Cassidy & Associates, a DC lobbying firm. She returned to the State Department in 2009 as a senior adviser on Pakistan under
Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...
, during the tenure of then Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
. Until November 2, 2014, she served as coordinator for non-military assistance to
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. Raphel was the subject of a federal
counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ...
investigation. Surveillance of her communications began in February, 2013 and became public knowledge in October, 2014. She was suspected of being a Pakistani
asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can ...
. After abandoning the claim that she had been spying, the FBI urged Raphel to plead guilty to mishandling classified documents. Raphel refused the plea deal, and in March 2016, the Justice Department declined to file charges against her.


Early life and education

Robin Lynn Johnson was born in
Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...
in 1947 to Vera and Donald Johnson, a manager of an aluminum plant. She has two sisters, Karen Freeze and Deborah Johnson. She graduated from high school in
Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longview's population was 37,818 at the time of the 2 ...
in 1965. She received a B.A. in history and economics from the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
in 1969. During her undergraduate years she studied history at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, and would later return to England after graduation to study for a year at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
. In 1970, she took a position as a teacher at Damavand College, an Iranian women's college in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, where she taught history for two years. She earned her master's degree in economics from the
University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
.


Career


Early diplomatic career

Robin Raphel began her career in the U.S. government as an analyst at the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
after graduating with her master's degree. After leaving Iran she joined the diplomatic corps and assisted
USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
in Islamabad as an economics analyst. In 1978, Raphel returned to the United States and joined the State Department. She would take on a range of assignments for the next decade, including posts in London, until she was appointed as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in
Pretoria, South Africa Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...
in 1988. In 1991, she took the assignment of Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
, India.


Assistant Secretary of State

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Raphel as the first Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs within the
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs The Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) is an agency within the United States Department of State that is responsible for the U.S. government's relations with countries in the South and Central Asian region. The bureau is headed by t ...
, a newly created position within the State Department focused on a growing array of problems in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, including democratic stability, nuclear proliferation, energy access, Islamist and
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
extremism, poverty and women's rights issues. At the time, Pakistan had not tested its nuclear capabilities, opting for a policy of
nuclear opacity A policy of deliberate ambiguity (also known as a policy of strategic ambiguity, ''strategic uncertainty'') is the practice by a government of being intentionally ambiguous on certain aspects of its foreign policy. It may be useful if the country ...
. India's nuclear program was at the time also under the same undeclared status, which ended in 1998 with the
Pokhran-II The Pokhran-II tests were a series of five nuclear bomb Nuclear weapons testing, test explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army's Pokhran#Pokhran Nuclear Test Range, Pokhran Test Range in May 1998. It was the second instance of nuclear t ...
tests. Tensions between Pakistan and India over the unresolved dispute in Kashmir were threatening war between the two nations. Pakistan's armed forces and
intelligence services An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...
were using Afghanistan's turmoil to create "strategic depth" by fostering alliances with the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
. Meanwhile, democracy's experiment in Pakistan was witnessing a revolving door of army-induced change between the governments of Benazir Bhutto and
Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...
.


India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir

At the State Department, Raphel tried to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan by engaging both countries in a negotiated solution to their Kashmir dispute. Kashmir was raised on the agenda in Bhutto's first state visit to Washington in April 1995. It would remain a key topic of regional and bilateral discussions with both India and Pakistan throughout Clinton's two terms in office. She left the State Department's South Asia section in late June 1997.


Work with Taliban during the Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)

During her tenure at the State Department, Raphel worked to support US government policy of engagement and collaboration with the Taliban. She was one of the first senior American officials to meet personally with Taliban. One of the channels for U.S.-Taliban cooperation that she prioritized was through energy. U.S. energy policies in the mid-1990s sought to develop alternative supply routes to counter increasing tensions in the Middle East. The Clinton administration supported oil and gas pipelines to transport
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
's energy reserves through Afghanistan to an exit at Pakistan's Indian Ocean seaport of
Gwadar Gwadar ( Balochi/ ur, ) is a port city with located on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, Pakistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea opposite Oman. Gwadar is the 100th largest city of Pakistan, according to the 2017 ...
.
Unocal Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...
, an American company that was one of the many international oil companies seeking the rights to build this pipeline, entered into negotiations with Taliban, to secure protection for the pipeline. Raphel spoke in favor of the pipeline project on trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in April and August 1996. Her meeting with Taliban leaders in 1996 to advocate for a pipeline project earned her the sobriquet "Lady Taliban" in the Indian press. After Raphel's successor
Karl Inderfurth Karl Frederick Inderfurth (born September 29, 1946) is an American diplomat. He was the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs from August 1997 to January 2001. In his capacity as Assistant Secretary, Inderfurth was responsible f ...
took over, the pipeline deal collapsed, however. Raphel took part in the State Department's establishment of diplomatic relations with the Taliban shortly after its takeover of Kabul in 1996.


Advocacy for Pakistan

Raphel entered her State Department assignment at a time when U.S.-Pakistan relations were strained. Sanctions imposed by George H. W. Bush over concerns about Pakistan's burgeoning nuclear program under the
Pressler Amendment Pressler (or Preßler) () is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Johann Valentin Pressler - German ancestor of Elvis Presley who changed his name to Presley during the American Civil War * Kimberly Pressler (born 1977), Am ...
banned all military ties, supply of military hardware and jet fighters, and cut off political relations with Islamabad. Bhutto sought rapprochement with the Clinton White House, visiting the United States in April 1995. Bhutto, working with Pakistan's envoy to Washington at the time, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, sought Congressional support for an exception to the Pressler Amendment that would allow Pakistan to take delivery of military equipment that it had already paid for. This exception to Pressler (known as the Brown Amendment) was strongly supported by Raphel and by other Clinton administration officials. It was put into effect in November 1995, permitting the one-time transfer to Pakistan of $368M of equipment that had been blocked by the Pressler Amendment.


=Criticism from India

= Raphel became unpopular with Indian media in 1993, after publicly describing Kashmir as a "disputed territory." India's position is that Jammu and Kashmir, having been ceded to India in 1947 by their maharajah, are an integral part of India's territory. Raphel's advocacy for negotiation between India and Pakistan was perceived as an attack on India's territorial integrity. Also in the 1990s, Indian officials who had tapped Raphel's phone learned that she had favored a UN resolution condemning India's actions in Kashmir, but was overruled by 'higher-ups.' Raphel's decades of work with Pakistan led Indian media to consider her a "brazenly pro-Pakistan partisan in Washington." According to Richard Leiby, writing about the 1993 incident in 2014 after the FBI investigation of Raphel became public knowledge:
To the fury of India, she suggested Pakistan still had valid claims to the disputed territory of Kashmir, saying the U.S. did not believe Kashmir "is forever more an integral part of India." Even now, Indian media berate Raphel and delight in her current difficulties.


Ambassador to Tunisia

In November 1997, Robin Raphel was appointed as
United States Ambassador to Tunisia The following is a list of United States ambassadors to Tunisia. History: US Consul in Tunis * 1795–1796: Joseph Donaldson Jr. (Consul in Algiers) * 1795–1797: Samuel D. Heap (acting consul) * 1796–1797: Joseph Étienne Famin (French, ...
. Tunisia was a frequent partner for Mediterranean military exercises with U.S. naval squadrons and marine battalions, allowing more exercises in its waters than any other country in North Africa. When Raphel was ambassador, Stuart Eizenstat, the Undersecretary of State for Economics, Business and Agriculture, proposed a new initiative to liberalize trade further with Tunisia. The Eizenstat Initiative, as it came to be known informally, implemented lower tariffs on industrial and manufacturing sector goods to enable Tunisia to become a supplier for goods throughout Arab and African states. President Zine El Abidine visited the Clinton White House in 1999. During her tenure, First Lady Hillary Clinton and
Chelsea Clinton Chelsea Victoria Clinton (born February 27, 1980) is an American writer and global health advocate. She is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinto ...
visited the country to support Tunisia's improving record in women's rights. Raphel witnessed the rise in political power of Tunisia's opposition as Abidine's administration reserved 20 percent of Parliament's seats for opposition candidates for the first time since he came to power. She served her full term and left in August 2000. Raphel was Senior Vice President at the
National Defense University The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As ...
in Washington from 2000 until 2003. Raphel retired from service in 2005.


Post-retirement lobbyist

In 2005, soon after her retirement, Raphel began working for Cassidy & Associates, a Washington-based
lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
firm, where she headed the global affairs and trade group. Shortly after hiring Raphel as a senior vice president, Cassidy signed a $1.2 million contract to lobby for the government of Pakistan. Raphel was assigned to lead the contract. One month later, however, Cassidy canceled the Pakistan lobbying contract after Pakistan's president
Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...
declared emergency rule. Raphel continued her role at Cassidy, lobbying for other international clients who included Bangladeshi politician
Anwar Hossain Manju Anwar Hossain Manju (born 9 February 1944) is a Bangladeshi politician who is the incumbent Jatiya Sangsad member representing Pirojpur-2 constituency which consists of Kawkhali, Bhandaria and Zianagar upazilas. He was elected a member of Jat ...
and the Iraqi
Red Crescent The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
Organization, according '' The Hill''. On July 14, 2009, Cassidy signed a new one-year contract with the Pakistani Embassy, to "engage in efforts to improve Pakistan-U.S. relations and promote the development of U.S. policy beneficial to Pakistan and its interests."


AfPak diplomacy

In 2009, Robin Raphel joined the Afghanistan-Pakistan task force known as
AfPak AfPak (also spelled Af-Pak) was a neologism used within United States foreign policy circles to designate Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theatre of operations. Introduced in 2008, the neologism reflected the policy approach that was int ...
, joining the late
Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...
, U.S. Special Representative for the region. Her focus was to allocate U.S. resources committed under the proposed Kerry-Lugar Bill. That legislation was enacted in late 2009, tripling civilian U.S. aid to Pakistan to approximately $1.5 billion annually. Raphel's responsibilities included oversight of spending for law enforcement, improvements in Pakistan's
judicial system The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
and education programs to raise the country's literacy standards. She worked with USAID in a number of Pakistan's border areas in particular to distribute non-military assistance.


FBI Investigation

In February 2013, the FBI began investigating Raphel, based on an intercepted conversation of a Pakistani official that raised suspicions Raphel might have provided secrets to the Pakistani government. After obtaining warrants, investigators began to monitor Raphel's private conversations and Skype, and later (in January 2014) did a "sneak and peek" search of her home when she was away. During that search, they discovered some 20-year-old classified files in a file cabinet. Raphel first learned of the investigation nearly two years after it began, on Oct. 21, 2014, when she encountered FBI agents searching her home. The State Department, based on information they received from the FBI, placed Raphel on administrative leave and withdrew her security clearance. Her contract with the State Department was allowed to expire on November 2, 2014. By the spring of 2015, the Justice Department notified Raphel's attorney that she was no longer suspected of espionage. The NYT in October, 2015, reported, "officials now say the spying investigation has all but fizzled, leaving the Justice Department to decide whether to prosecute Ms. Raphel for the far less serious charge of keeping classified information in her home." The FBI, having found no evidence that Raphel was spying or that she had illegally shared classified information, repeatedly pressed Raphel, as the price of ending their investigation, to plead guilty to mishandling classified information: the 20-year-old files found in her basement. Raphel refused the plea deals. In March 2016, the Justice Department formally closed the investigation, declining to file any charges against Raphel.


Personal life

In 1972, Raphel married
Arnold Lewis Raphel Arnold Lewis Raphel (March 16, 1943 – August 17, 1988) was the 18th United States Ambassador to Pakistan. Early life and education Raphel was born March 16, 1943 in Troy, New York, into a Jewish family, the son of Harry and Sarah (Rote-Rose ...
, later Ambassador to
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
, in Tehran. They divorced ten years later.The Last Diplomat
By Adam Entous and Devlin Barrett Wall Street Journal Retrieved 03 December 2016
Her subsequent marriage to Leonard A. Ashton (1990-?) also ended in divorce. She has two daughters: Alexandra and Anna. She is fluent in French and