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Name: Fried, Daniel
Current Position: Former Assistant Secretary
A native of Washington, DC, Daniel Fried served as assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs from May 2005 until March 2009. Fried began his career with the Foreign Service in 1977, serving in the Economic Bureau of the State Department until 1979. He then served at the US Consulate General in then-Leningrad from 1980 to 1981; as political officer in the US Embassy in Belgrade from 1982 to 1985; and in the Office of Soviet Affairs at the State Department from 1985 to 1987.
Fried was the Polish Desk Officer at the State Department from 1987 to 1989 and served as political counselor in the US Embassy in Warsaw from 1990 to 1993. He then joined the Clinton White House as part of the National Security Council (NSC), first as a director and then as special assistant to the President and senior director for Central and Eastern Europe. While on the NSC until 1997, he was active in designing US policy on Euro-Atlantic security, including NATO enlargement and the Russia-NATO relationship. From 1997 to 2000, Fried served as US Ambassador to Poland.
From May 2000 to January 2001, Fried was principal deputy special advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States. He then joined the Bush White House as special assistant to the President and senior director for European and Eurasian Affairs at the NSC.
On March 13, 2009, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton chose Fried to lead the team in charge of the close of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.