A. Elizabeth Jones
A. Elizabeth Jones served as the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, from 1995 to 1997. She served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia in 2003. She was promoted to the rank of Career Ambassador in 2004.Early life and education
Jones was born in Munich to parents in the U.S. Foreign Service, and grew up in Moscow and Berlin, where she attended local schools. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College.Jones testified on the threat of terrorism in Central Asia before the United States House of Representatives' subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia on 29 October 2003. Jones said the greatest threats to the Central Asian states are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which she described as an Islamic terrorist organization, and Hizb ut-Tahrir, which praises attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. She said that despite the death of IMU leader Juma Namangani, the "IMU is still active in the region -- particularly in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan -- and it represents a serious threat to the region and therefore to our interests."
