Withers’ full letter: We only say the truth!

Withers declares that his reports have been verified by the highest ranks of the government and that the US Embassy always says the truth.

In his reports during his mandate in Albania, Withers doesn’t spare the critics for autocratic governing, corruption and suspicious connections.

Withers full letter:

September 28, 201 1

Dear Friends,

It has been a year since I departed Albania. You are still in my thoughts and memories for the many kindnesses you showed me and for the rich experiences we shared together. A part of me shall always remain in Albania.
Over the past weeks, alleged State Department cables, revealed through Wikileaks, have appeared in your media. There has been continued speculation about these cables, much of it, unfortunately, misleading and incorrect. I write to you now in the hope of clarifying certain misconceptions that are floating about. I no longer do so as American Ambassador to Albania, but as a private citizen of my country. But l also do so as a friend of Albania and one who, as you know, believes in truth.

It was suggested, even before my departure, that I pursued a ‘personal agenda’ during my tenure in Albania. My superiors in Washington considered those assertions bogus and flatly rejected them in an official communication, which later became public, to the most senior levels of your government. That same allegation has risen again. It remains untrue. Ironically, nothing so clearly demonstrates that untruth as the Wikileaks revelations themselves. They incontrovertibly show the balance, even-handedness, and objectivity of Embassy reporting on Albania during my tenure. All parties, personages, and political actions were subject to the same scrutiny and candor. No unbiased observer can conclude otherwise.

Indeed, Embassy Tirana’s reporting not only met the State Department’s high standards – our cables were regularly praised in Washington – but was also completely in accord with Embassies throughout the world. They, like us, provided frank assessments of the people and circumstances in their areas of responsibility. However disconcerting or embarrassing some might find those appraisals to be, the truth is that no American Embassy or Ambassador has a ‘private agenda.” We are the personal representatives of the President of the United States and devoted solely to serving the interests of the American people. Our agenda is their agenda, plain and simple. Anyone who suggests otherwise does a disservice not so much to an individual like me, but to the distinguished office that so many accomplished Americans have been privileged to hold and a further disservice to those who entrusted us with that office.

As a former diplomat and equally as a citizen of my country, I deeply regret the Wikileaks phenomenon. The ability of diplomats to speak openly and in confidence to one another is and has been an essential component of our trade since the beginning.
Our information, including on Albania, is gleaned from an extraordinarily wide range of sources, including the highest levels of government. Any act that harms a diplomat’s ability to share information in such a manner or to work with other diplomats for the common good is reprehensible. As you read this material, as 2 tarnished as it may be, I urge you, therefore, not to be distracted by its various sensational assertions, but to focus instead on the one essential and incontrovertible fact it contains: American Embassies tell the truth.
That is and will ever be the first and highest principle of American diplomacy. No matter how bad the news or uncomfortable the circumstance, an American Embassy reports the truth, even about a close ally like Albania. If your elections are suspect, we say so. If governmental authorities threaten the independence of the nation’s democratic institutions and its media, we say so. If severe partisanship thwarts the good governance of the country; if pervasive corruption undermines genuine economic development; if the leadership’s priority is the relentless pursuit of power rather than service to the people, we say so. And if universal principles of democracy continue to be cast aside and democracy itself falls further into retreat – we say so and will say so until real progress resumes. That is the primary duty of an American diplomat, and that duty will be fulfilled.

I am no longer in government service, but this I know: you may trust the American Embassy. You may not like everything it says, but you may rely on our diplomats to strive for the highest standards of honesty and objectivity. No amount of leaked Wikileaks material; no editorials, however impassioned; no outbursts, however strident can ever change that.

In closing, allow me to bid you, my Albanian friends, every success and happiness.
You are a special people and your country is a special place. I retain great admiration for your remarkable talents and have high hopes for your future. I send all of you my fondest regards.

Your friend,

John L. Withers II

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