What the State Department's official statement didn't tell you: Tragically killed Anne Smedinghoff worked in Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan

At this sad time for American diplomacy ("A suicide car bomb in southern Afghanistan killed three American soldiers and two American civilians, including a State Department Foreign Service officer"), it has become known that the murdered State Department diplomat

Anne Smedinghoff worked in public diplomacy.

It is somewhat disconcerting to this blogger, as someone involved in U.S. public diplomacy for many years, that the source of this information about a courageous woman's activities in Afghanistan did not come from Secretary of State John Kerry's official statement on her death (granted, the statement does say that "Our American officials and their Afghan colleagues were on their way to donate books to students in a school in Qalat.")

Rather, the nature of what Smedinghoff's work entailed (to be sure, not described in detail) came from a private source, "Chicago's Very Own" WGNtv, on an internet entry, "State Department diplomat with Chicago ties killed in Afghanistan," which states that she was a "young diplomat from River Forest" and quotes her father:

Mr. Smedinghoff said Anne went into the Foreign Service right out of college. Her first post was in Venezuela and she volunteered to go to Afghanistan where she’d been since last July. As a diplomat, she was working in the public diplomacy department for the local population. She was helping women and working for equality for women, and with schools and local businesses there. Anne simply adored her job, her father said. 'She was living in a compound that was heavily fortified and she was always trying to get out and do things for the population.'”

Such State Department neglect of mentioning the public diplomacy side of its activities -- need I say that public diplomacy is not intended to be "classified" information -- was also regrettably evident in its reporting on the tragic death of Ambassador Stevens.

UPDATE 1: Re additional coverage of Smedinghoff in the media, which include Kerry's later statements about her, see (1) and (2).

UPDATE 2 (April 9, via PR, early morning): Craig Newman, "Parents' statement on the death of Anne Smedinghoff," Chicago Sun-Times [includes video]

UPDATE 3 (April 9, via MP on Facebook, Ca. 10:00 ): AP, "Diplomat’s death in Afghanistan worries Foreign Service students," Washington Post

UPDATE 4 (April 9, ca. 10:30 AM) Posted by Seth Horowitz, "Anne Smedinghoff, U.S. Diplomat Killed in Afghanistan Remembered as Ambitious and Dedicated" [includes ABC News video], z6mag.com

UPDATE 5 (April 9, ca. 11:00 AM): Niticentral Staff, "Afghanistan: US diplomat killed in explosion," niticentral.com (April 8). states: "A US woman diplomat was killed this weekend in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. The State Department confirms to sources that Anne Smedinghoff was a public diplomacy officer assigned to the US embassy in Kabul. ... Anne Smedinghoff was just 27 [sic] years old."

UPDATE 6 (April 9, 11:32 AM): Michael Schwirtz, "Diplomat Killed on Afghan Mission She Coveted," New York Times (April 7): "As a public diplomacy officer, Ms. Smedinghoff was on the front lines of an effort to move Afghanistan beyond its decades-long struggle with war and oppression to a place where women might walk openly in the streets and where children, including young girls, might go to school. It is a job fraught with dangers and frustrations that have been compounded as the United States, along with its NATO allies, has shrunk its military footprint. Bases have been scaled back and ground and air transports reduced, meaning less security for development work."

UPDATE 7 (April 9, 11;38 AM): Selim Algar, "US envoy slain: Victim, 25, was delivering books in A’stan," New York Post (April 8) : "Smedinghoff was the first US diplomat killed since the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September that claimed the life of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. She first worked in Venezuela before her assignment in Afghanistan, her parents said. 'Working as a public diplomacy officer, she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war,' they said."

UPDATE 8 (April 9, 11: 54 AM): Carrie Wells, "Johns Hopkins graduate killed in bomb blast in Afghanistan: Anne Smedinghoff, 25, among five Americans killed Saturday," The Baltimore Sun  (April 8): "Smedinghoff, who worked in the public diplomacy section of the State Department, was killed along with three U.S. soldiers and a civilian employee of the Defense Department, according to U.S. authorities. She is believed to be the first U.S. diplomat killed in Afghanistan since the war began."

UPDATE 9 (April 9, 12:04 PM) Ben Brumfield, Catherine E. Shoichet and Josh Levs, "Americans, Afghan civilians killed in weekend violence," CNN (April 7) Google "public diplomacy" reference for this article for this article states (April 9, 12:04): "Diplomat's killing believed to be first since Benghazi ... Venezuela, Smedinghoff volunteered for an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and had been working as a public diplomacy officer there since July." But the article under reference does in fact not mention "public diplomacy."

UPDATE 10 (April 9, 12:45 PM), John Brown, Facebook entry: "What our public diplomacy diplomats increasingly look like: Image of murdered Foreign Service Officer Anne Smedinghoff, 25, dying for her country (why?) in Afghanistan (from CNN cited above)"

UPDATE 11 (April 10, 6:48 AM) Zabul Attack: Domani Spero, "Were They Walking in a Red Zone?," DiploPundit: "In the early morning this past Sunday, a day after Anne Smedinghoff and four others were killed in Zabul, Afghanistan, I received an untraceable anonymous note that she was walking, and was not in a vehicle when she was killed. The four-sentence tip alleged that she was with Ambassador Jonathan Addleton, the American Senior Civilian Representative (RC-South) in Kandahar and asked a rhetorical question, 'Will anyone be held accountable? doubtful.' Ambassador Addelton was formerly the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia.

The Senior Civilian Representative, in the embassy’s view is 'the co-equal of the military commander of that region rather than a member of his staff' (for more of that, see this). So, what do you do with something like that? Do you ignore it or chase it down the rabbit hole? Does it really matter whether they were walking in a red zone or were inside a vehicle? They’re still dead. But it’s been bugging me quite a bit." Image from entry