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Andrew S. Natsios (born September 22, 1949) is an American civil servant who has served in a number of Massachusetts and high level federal government positions. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and was appointed as Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance and Special Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan. In December 2005, Natsios announced his resignation from USAID to join the faculty of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in January 2006. He was the Special Envoy to Sudan, focusing specifically on Darfur,[1] from 2006 until his retirement in 2007 [2]
Natsios is the author of numerous articles on foreign policy and humanitarian emergencies, as well as the author of two books: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1997), and The Great North Korean Famine (U.S. Institute of Peace, 2001).
Education
Natsios received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his Masters of Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Career
Andrew Natsios is a veteran and served in the United States Army Reserve.
Natsios served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1975 to 1987. He also was chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee for seven years. From 1987 to 1989, he was executive director of the Northeast Public Power Association in Milford, Massachusetts.
In 1986, Natsios introduced legislation to repeal the Massachusetts Teachers' Oath, a product of the 1930s that remained law in the Commonwealth even after the Supreme Judicial Court invalidated the law in 1967. The legislation passed without opposition.
He was director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at USAID from 1989 to 1991 and assistant administrator for the Bureau for Food and Humanitarian Assistance (now the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance) from 1991 to January 1993.
A 23-year veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves, Natsios retired in 1995 with the rank of lieutenant colonel after having served in the Gulf War.
From 1993 to 1998, Natsios was vice president of World Vision U.S. He was secretary for administration and finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from March 1999 to April 2000. And he was chairman and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority from April 2000 to March 2001, where he took over responsibility for managing Boston's controversial Big Dig (even though he had twice voted against it as a state representative). In May 2001, he was sworn in as the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Natsios resigned from USAID on January 14, 2006.[3] President Bush appointed him Special Envoy for Darfur in 2006.[1] He retired as special envoy in 2007 when Rich Williamson was appointed as the new special envoy to Sudan[2]
Along with a number of other notable Greek Americans, Natsios is a member of the advisory board of The Next Generation Initiative, a leadership program aimed at getting students involved in public affairs.
Administrator of USAID
As director of USAID during the first George W. Bush administration, among other duties, Natsios was involved in Iraq's post-war reconstruction and spoke out in support of the administration assertions that the country's oil wealth would largely cover the cost of reconstruction. At the outset of the war, the administration had asked Congress for $1.7 billion for reconstruction and $489 million for oil-related repairs. "In a televised interview in late April, [2003, Natsios] said that amount was 'it for the U.S.' He said any other reconstruction money would come from elsewhere, including other countries and future 'Iraqi oil revenues,' which he predicted at '$20 billion a year.'" In an interview in October of that year, "Mr. Natsios said he had based those comments on 'the discussion in the interagency process at the time,' adding, 'That's what the Office of Management and Budget was telling us.'" The October report continued: "Trent Duffy, a budget office spokesman, said this week that 'the administration was very clear that the $1.7 billion in initial reconstruction was for the beginning stages and that it was necessary to get a better understanding of the fuller, comprehensive needs going forward.'"[4]
In 2006, having taken considerable criticism for the 2003 ABC television interview statements, Natsios "broke his silence" and criticized the Iraq reconstruction efforts as they had proceeded under CPA head Paul Bremer, saying Natsios' and USAID advice and procedures were ignored. "Dan Senor, former spokesman for Bremer’s CPA, dismissed Natsios’s criticisms, saying the insurgency in Iraq made ordinary contracting procedures impossible."[5]
In his testimony to the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations in June, 2001, Natsios spoke against the idea of trying to get AIDS drugs to people in Africa, famously arguing that rural Africans would not be capable of managing the pill regimen with the precision needed to avoid drug resistance because "People do not know what watches and clocks are", "They use the sun..." (Source: 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa).
Family
A native of Holliston, Massachusetts, Natsios and his wife, Elizabeth, have three children: Emily, Alexander, and Philip.
References
^ a b "President Bush Addresses United Nations General Assembly:White House Archive". 2006-09-19. Retrieved 2006-09-19.
^ a b "Rep. Frank R. Wolf (VA) on Sudan". Undated. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
^ "Top U.S. Foreign Aid Official Steps Down: NPR". Retrieved 2006-09-19.
^ Gerth, Jeff, "Report Offered Bleak Outlook About Iraq Oil, The New York Times, October 5, 2003. Retrieved 2010-09-05. Referenced in Frank Rich, "Freedom's just another word", The New York Times, September 4, 2010 (September 5, 2010 p. WK8, NY ed.).
^ Hirsh, Michael, "Breaking the Silence", Newsweek, March 22, 2006. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
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