The Foreign Service Journal, January 2010

key figure on the House Foreign Af- fairs Committee. Amb. Timerman credited him with teaching the lesson that “not only Democrats defend human rights.” There were several former diplo- mats: Ambassador Robert White, Wayne Smith and F. Allen (“Tex”) Har- ris. As a young political officer in Buenos Aires, Harris became Derian’s man-on-the-street, bringing hope to families of the disappeared. In fact, one of the families he knew well was represented at the gathering: Isabel Mignone, whose sister was among the disappeared and whose father, Emilio Mignone, founded an organization to document the cases of disappearances. Another courageous person at the event was Robert Cox, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald. The newspaper printed the stories of dis- appearances when families were will- ing to publicly denounce those cases. Jacobo Timerman wrote in his book that he and Cox alone battled for the freedom to publish such accounts, and he described the threats that forced the Cox family to flee Buenos Aires. While the human rights careers of many at the Argentine Embassy that night reflected the past, at least one 28 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 Former Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., with Patt Derian.