Here is a piece in the Boston Herald about the death of the U.S. diplomat who apparently committed suicide in Pakistan.
Heartbroken columnist doubts reports of son's murder
The devastated father of U.S. diplomat Keith Ryan described his son’s death in Pakistan as a “troubling mystery,” as new reports suggest he may have been murdered, after official reports indicated it was a suicide.
“Everyone is devastated. I am well aware of these reports and we are very concerned about that. (But) we have no reason at this time to doubt the official version,” said Bob Ryan, 61, a top Boston Globe sports columnist from Hingham.
U.S. officials said Keith Ryan, 37, a Homeland Security attache to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head Monday morning, just hours before he was to fly home after a year in the troubled country.
But medical sources in Islamabad dismissed the suicide theory, telling Pakistani news agencies the bullet hit the back of Ryan’s head and was fired from several feet away.
“There is only an entry wound on the rear upper portion of his neck . . . there is no visible blackening of the entry wound (from gunpowder), indicating that the shot was fired from the distance of more than four feet,” the source at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences told The News of Pakistan.
Bob Ryan said of the contradictory reports, “It is disturbing, but understandable given the geopolitics of the area. We are looking for resolution, but we are a ways from that.”
Keith Ryan was a father of 8-year-old triplets, Conor, John and Amelia, who live with his wife Kate in Silver Spring, Md.
Bob Ryan described his son as an adventurous, strong, self-sufficient man.
“He was extremely buoyant, had a very lively personality. He was aggressive, strong, opinionated and humorous. He was always very sure of himself and that was true from an early age,” said Ryan.
“He always liked cops and robbers and was an extreme patriot so it was no surprise that he went into law and order and went to work for the government.”
Ryan said he wasn’t surprised his son ended up in one of the world’s most dangerous countries.
“I knew he’d end up in a hot spot,” said Ryan. “I was concerned about his safety every day. Islamabad got worse and worse, particularly after the Bhutto assassination. It was getting to the point where I thought, ‘Please, let’s get him out of there.’ ”
Showing posts with label John Granville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Granville. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Another Piece About Granville
Here is the NY Times piece about Granville. It serves as a reminder that serving our country in the Foreign Service can be a dangerous job. This could have been any of us.
U.S. Diplomat Killed in Sudan
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: January 2, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya — An American diplomat in Sudan and his driver were shot and killed early Tuesday as they were coming home from a New Year’s Eve party in Khartoum, the capital.
In Washington, the Agency for International Development identified the diplomat as one of its officials, John Granville, 33, originally of Buffalo. American officials said it was “too early to tell” if the shooting had been random or planned, but Sudanese officials said the circumstances were suspicious, especially because gun crime is rare in Khartoum, considered one of the safest cities in Africa.
The United Nations had recently warned its staff in Sudan that there was credible evidence that a terrorist cell was in the country and planning to attack foreigners.
According to Western officials, Mr. Granville left a New Year’s Eve party at the British Embassy around 2:30 a.m. and was being driven to his home in an upscale neighborhood in central Khartoum. Shortly before he arrived, a car pulled up next to him and 17 shots were fired, Sudanese officials said.
Mr. Granville’s driver, a Sudanese employee of the American Embassy, was killed instantly, and Mr. Granville was shot in the neck and chest. He was rushed to the hospital and died several hours later.
The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the Sudanese driver who was killed as Abdel Rahman Abbas, 40.
A Sudanese government official said that the attack appeared well planned. The assailants’ car sped in front of the diplomat’s car, cutting it off. Two gunmen exited their car, with one of them shooting Mr. Granville and the other shooting the driver, the official said.
Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Khartoum, said he could not comment on the circumstances because the shooting was under investigation.
A spokesman for Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said American and Sudanese law enforcement agents were working closely together to investigate.
“We do not know why this happened,” said Ali Sadiq, the spokesman. “All options are possible.”
The attack came just hours after President Bush signed a bill that makes it easier for mutual funds and other investment managers to sell stakes in companies that do business in Sudan. The bill is aimed at Sudan’s oil and defense industries, in particular, and is part of the broader campaign to put pressure on the Sudanese government to end the bloodshed in Darfur, a troubled region in western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have died.
The United States has urged the Sudanese government to cooperate better with the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, and on Monday, formal authority was transferred from the current African Union force to a joint United Nations-African Union mission.
Mr. Granville had served the Agency for International Development in Sudan as well as Nairobi. A photo on the agency’s Web site shows Mr. Granville standing amid a crowd of African women, each holding a radio distributed by the agency.
Mr. Granville had been deeply involved in a project to distribute 450,000 radios equipped with generator cranks and solar panels, which work in places with no electricity.
The goal was to prepare southern Sudan for elections in 2009 and a possible referendum in 2011 on independence, according to Shari K. Bryan, who is a senior associate and regional director for East and Southern Africa at the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit, pro-democracy group based in Washington.
Sean McCabe, who is married to John Granville’s only sibling, Katie McCabe, said that Mr. Granville had been in Africa for about 10 years, since his graduation from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. The Peace Corps sent Mr. Granville to Cameroon for two years in the mid-1990s, Mr. McCabe said, and Mr. Granville also won a Fulbright scholarship for study in Africa.
“He’d come home and visit and spend time with his mother and his sister, and then he’d go back there and work,” said Mr. McCabe, reached by telephone at the home of Mr. Granville’s mother, Jane Granville, in the Buffalo suburb of Angola, N.Y.
“That was his life,” Mr. McCabe said. “He loved it.”
On Tuesday night, the American Embassy sent out an e-mail message to Americans in Sudan notifying them about the attack on the diplomat.
“Terrorist groups continue to seek opportunities to carry out attacks against U.S. interests,” the message said, repeating earlier warnings. “U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places.”
Izzadine Abdul Rasoul Muhammad contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan, and Matthew L. Wald from Washington.
U.S. Diplomat Killed in Sudan
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: January 2, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya — An American diplomat in Sudan and his driver were shot and killed early Tuesday as they were coming home from a New Year’s Eve party in Khartoum, the capital.
In Washington, the Agency for International Development identified the diplomat as one of its officials, John Granville, 33, originally of Buffalo. American officials said it was “too early to tell” if the shooting had been random or planned, but Sudanese officials said the circumstances were suspicious, especially because gun crime is rare in Khartoum, considered one of the safest cities in Africa.
The United Nations had recently warned its staff in Sudan that there was credible evidence that a terrorist cell was in the country and planning to attack foreigners.
According to Western officials, Mr. Granville left a New Year’s Eve party at the British Embassy around 2:30 a.m. and was being driven to his home in an upscale neighborhood in central Khartoum. Shortly before he arrived, a car pulled up next to him and 17 shots were fired, Sudanese officials said.
Mr. Granville’s driver, a Sudanese employee of the American Embassy, was killed instantly, and Mr. Granville was shot in the neck and chest. He was rushed to the hospital and died several hours later.
The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the Sudanese driver who was killed as Abdel Rahman Abbas, 40.
A Sudanese government official said that the attack appeared well planned. The assailants’ car sped in front of the diplomat’s car, cutting it off. Two gunmen exited their car, with one of them shooting Mr. Granville and the other shooting the driver, the official said.
Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Khartoum, said he could not comment on the circumstances because the shooting was under investigation.
A spokesman for Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said American and Sudanese law enforcement agents were working closely together to investigate.
“We do not know why this happened,” said Ali Sadiq, the spokesman. “All options are possible.”
The attack came just hours after President Bush signed a bill that makes it easier for mutual funds and other investment managers to sell stakes in companies that do business in Sudan. The bill is aimed at Sudan’s oil and defense industries, in particular, and is part of the broader campaign to put pressure on the Sudanese government to end the bloodshed in Darfur, a troubled region in western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have died.
The United States has urged the Sudanese government to cooperate better with the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, and on Monday, formal authority was transferred from the current African Union force to a joint United Nations-African Union mission.
Mr. Granville had served the Agency for International Development in Sudan as well as Nairobi. A photo on the agency’s Web site shows Mr. Granville standing amid a crowd of African women, each holding a radio distributed by the agency.
Mr. Granville had been deeply involved in a project to distribute 450,000 radios equipped with generator cranks and solar panels, which work in places with no electricity.
The goal was to prepare southern Sudan for elections in 2009 and a possible referendum in 2011 on independence, according to Shari K. Bryan, who is a senior associate and regional director for East and Southern Africa at the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit, pro-democracy group based in Washington.
Sean McCabe, who is married to John Granville’s only sibling, Katie McCabe, said that Mr. Granville had been in Africa for about 10 years, since his graduation from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. The Peace Corps sent Mr. Granville to Cameroon for two years in the mid-1990s, Mr. McCabe said, and Mr. Granville also won a Fulbright scholarship for study in Africa.
“He’d come home and visit and spend time with his mother and his sister, and then he’d go back there and work,” said Mr. McCabe, reached by telephone at the home of Mr. Granville’s mother, Jane Granville, in the Buffalo suburb of Angola, N.Y.
“That was his life,” Mr. McCabe said. “He loved it.”
On Tuesday night, the American Embassy sent out an e-mail message to Americans in Sudan notifying them about the attack on the diplomat.
“Terrorist groups continue to seek opportunities to carry out attacks against U.S. interests,” the message said, repeating earlier warnings. “U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places.”
Izzadine Abdul Rasoul Muhammad contributed reporting from Khartoum, Sudan, and Matthew L. Wald from Washington.
Not An Auspicious Start To The New Year
This is not how I had hoped to start the New Year. It is a reminder how dangerous this job can be. My condolences to the officer's family and the family of his driver.
Gunman kills U.S. diplomat, driver in Sudan
KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- An American diplomat working toward restoring peace in war-torn Sudan was shot and killed along with his driver early Tuesday as he headed home from a New Year's party in the Sudanese capital, his family said.
U.S. officials are working with Sudanese authorities to determine whether it was a targeted attack or an isolated incident.
John Granville, 33, was a U.S. Foreign Service diplomat from Buffalo, New York.
His sister said he had telephoned his mother Monday to wish her a happy new year, and mentioned he was planning to attend a party.
Hours later, the family received a call from U.S. officials that Granville had been shot sometime after midnight local time. Sudan is eight hours ahead of Eastern time.
The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the driver as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas and said the car was heading to a western suburb of Sudan's capital, The Associated Press reported. Abbas, who was killed instantly in the attack, was employed by the U.S. Embassy, said Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the embassy.
Granville died several hours later from his injuries.
Granville's sister, Katie McCabe, said she believes hospital workers did not notice that her brother had been shot in the stomach -- in addition to the hand and shoulder -- which caused fatal internal bleeding.
Braunohler said it was too early to determine the motive for the attack.
"At this point we're not ruling anything out, but we don't know," he said.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali As Sadeq downplayed the idea that the diplomat had been targeted, saying the pre-dawn shooting was the result of a "street argument."
He said the streets of Khartoum were packed with cars leaving New Year's celebrations and an argument broke out between people in two cars, one of which was carrying foreigners.
The argument escalated and one of the Sudanese fired on the car carrying the foreigners, resulting in the casualties, he said.
Sudanese security forces are searching for the gunman, Sadeq said.
Granville's family said he became passionate about Africa after helping build a school in a rural Cameroon village as a Peace Corps volunteer.
"John's life was a celebration of love, hope and peace," the statement said. "He will be missed by many people throughout the world whose lives were touched and made better because of his care."
He is survived by his mother, sister, nephew and nieces.
Jane Granville told CNN that her son was aware of the dangers in the countries where he worked.
"John said, 'Mom ... if anything happens to me over there ... just know that I was doing what I loved in helping those people," she said.
Gunman kills U.S. diplomat, driver in Sudan
KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- An American diplomat working toward restoring peace in war-torn Sudan was shot and killed along with his driver early Tuesday as he headed home from a New Year's party in the Sudanese capital, his family said.
U.S. officials are working with Sudanese authorities to determine whether it was a targeted attack or an isolated incident.
John Granville, 33, was a U.S. Foreign Service diplomat from Buffalo, New York.
His sister said he had telephoned his mother Monday to wish her a happy new year, and mentioned he was planning to attend a party.
Hours later, the family received a call from U.S. officials that Granville had been shot sometime after midnight local time. Sudan is eight hours ahead of Eastern time.
The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the driver as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas and said the car was heading to a western suburb of Sudan's capital, The Associated Press reported. Abbas, who was killed instantly in the attack, was employed by the U.S. Embassy, said Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the embassy.
Granville died several hours later from his injuries.
Granville's sister, Katie McCabe, said she believes hospital workers did not notice that her brother had been shot in the stomach -- in addition to the hand and shoulder -- which caused fatal internal bleeding.
Braunohler said it was too early to determine the motive for the attack.
"At this point we're not ruling anything out, but we don't know," he said.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali As Sadeq downplayed the idea that the diplomat had been targeted, saying the pre-dawn shooting was the result of a "street argument."
He said the streets of Khartoum were packed with cars leaving New Year's celebrations and an argument broke out between people in two cars, one of which was carrying foreigners.
The argument escalated and one of the Sudanese fired on the car carrying the foreigners, resulting in the casualties, he said.
Sudanese security forces are searching for the gunman, Sadeq said.
Granville's family said he became passionate about Africa after helping build a school in a rural Cameroon village as a Peace Corps volunteer.
"John's life was a celebration of love, hope and peace," the statement said. "He will be missed by many people throughout the world whose lives were touched and made better because of his care."
He is survived by his mother, sister, nephew and nieces.
Jane Granville told CNN that her son was aware of the dangers in the countries where he worked.
"John said, 'Mom ... if anything happens to me over there ... just know that I was doing what I loved in helping those people," she said.
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