Richard Joseph Griffin (born October 9, 1949 in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

) is an American politician who served as the

assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security The assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security is the head of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in the United States Department of State. The assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security reports to the Under Secretary of State ...

, as well as director of the

Office of Foreign Missions The Office of Foreign Missions (OFM) is a component of the United States Department of State to provide services to American diplomatic personnel abroad and foreign diplomats residing in the United States. History It was created by the United ...

with the rank of

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

, from June 2005 until November 2007. His early career was with the U.S. Secret Service. He served as the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 1997 to 2005 and returned to that office as the Deputy Inspector General in 2008. He resigned in 2015 after becoming Acting Inspector General in 2013. In 1971, Griffin earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier had an enrollment of approximately 5,600 undergraduate an ...

before becoming a Secret Service agent assigned to the Chicago office. He graduated from the

National War College In the United States, the National War College (NWC) is a school within the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. History The National ...

in 1983 and received a master's degree in Business Administration from

Marymount University Marymount University is a Private university, private Catholic university with its main campus in Arlington County, Virginia, United States. It was founded as Marymount College in 1950. Marymount offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degre ...

in May 1984. As the Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security appointed by

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

, he was responsible for the department's oversight of private security contractor

Blackwater USA Constellis, formerly Blackwater, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1997, by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince. It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acquir ...

, hired to protect U.S. officials in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. The infamous

Blackwater Baghdad shootings The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted by the United States government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at ...

occurred under his aegis, where 17 civilians, including children, were killed. A critical review by the

House Oversight Committee The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the main investigative United States congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one o ...

found that his office had failed to properly supervise Blackwater and he subsequently resigned in November 2007. Just months after this, Griffin was hired at Department of Veterans Affairs as Deputy Inspector General by then-Inspector General George Opfer; the two men were part of a tight-knit community of former Secret Service guards. Here he was the lead investigator looking into long wait times for veterans seeking health care. He is famous for having concluded he was “unable to conclusively assert” that delays at the Phoenix VA Health Care System had caused patients to die. Opfer resigned in 2013, and Griffin became Acting Inspector General. He continued to face criticism on the wait times affair and on July 6, 2015 was replaced by Linda A. Halliday.

References

1949 births Living people Law enforcement officials from Chicago Politicians from Chicago Xavier University alumni United States Secret Service agents Marymount University alumni United States Department of Veterans Affairs officials United States assistant secretaries of state Directors of the Office of Foreign Missions {{US-politician-stub