Margaret Scobey

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Biographical Information

"Margaret Scobey, a career Foreign Service officer at the rank of Minister-Counselor, was nominated on January 23, 2008 to serve as Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt and confirmed by the Senate on March 14.

"Ms. Scobey was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to Syria in December 2003 and was recalled for consultations in February 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. In addition to her service in Syria, Ms. Scobey served as Political Counselor in Baghdad, 2006-2007 and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from September 2001 through November 2003. She has also served as Director of Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Department of State, Deputy Chief of Mission in Sanaa, Yemen, as well as earlier assignments in Jerusalem, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Peru.

"In the Department, Ms. Scobey has been staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Near East and South Asian Affairs, watch officer in the Operations Center, political-military officer in the Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs, and deputy director of the Secretariat Staff. "

Youth Summit

According to Robert Dreyfuss: "The April 6 movement wasn’t unknown to the United States and its embassy, we know from Wikileaks. In December, 2008, US Ambassador Margaret Scobey reported that the embassy was well aware the Egyptian dissidents, including April 6, had spoken of a plan to organize together to topple Mubarak, noting that “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections.” Scobey wrote that the details were “so sensitive it cannot be written down,” though she called it “highly unrealistic,” she helped arrange for some activists to attend a youth meeting in New York from December 3–5, 2008, called the “Alliance of Youth Movements Summit,” organized by the State Department. A representative of April 6, presumably Maher, visited Washington and met with thinktanks and officials on Capitol Hill."