3-6-09

Admiral Mullen and Robert Gates Engage in War Against the States, Treason, and Promote Lies to the World Regarding Guns & Mexico to Make the USA a communi$t Police State

This following statement is a bold face lie. "Mexican and US authorities have traced over 90 percent of the guns used by the cartels to American gun shops and shows, ..."

Admiral Mullen and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates are lying to the world when they support the notion that 90 % of the guns used by those killing people in Mexico are obtaining their guns from the USA and USA gun shops and shows. Anyone who knows anything about guns and buying guns knows that one must have a background check and a permit to buy an gun from a gun shop in the United States. To say gun shops are not following the laws and selling guns in violation of the law is a total and complete lie. Are Admiral Mullen and Mr. Gates saying the ATF is a worthless organization that can't do their job even though the ATF receives billions to see to it gun shops don't sell guns to persons without background checks? Are Admiral Mullen and Mr. Gates saying the US border patrol is worthless even though they receive billions to check people and vehicles traveling between the USA and Mexico? I have crossed the Texas and Mexican border many times and there is no way to smuggle contraband between the two, and the only contraband that makes it from Mexico and the USA is directed to make it by those in power, the US Congress. By the way what I am in the process of writing now has been deleted twice. So the coward communi$t$ are active editing me as I type. Which is pretty cool because it implies not only a bad guy ability to monitor what I type when I type and not on the Internet and also deleting my writing implies at least some mind suggestion is part of their dirty trick abilities. As I have said, if one is not monitored by satellite then one is not that important. Thanks for the compliment. I'll try to remember what I wrote and re write it for the third time. If what I wrote is important enough for the bad guys to erase, then it is important enough for me to try and remember what I wrote. Let's see. I wrote I purchased a collector gun from a Texas gun shop around 30 years ago and the gun shop required my driver's license and recorded the gun's serial number connected to my my name. When about to cross over in to Mexico I opted to throw this expensive gun away rather than risk smuggling it into Mexico because I feared Mexico's gun laws. Speculated the ATF will read this and wonder where the heck my little gun is, and if the ATF is this competent there is no way they would allow Texas gun shops sell guns to people without a background check. How many US gun shops have the BTAF closed down for not following the rules to the ts'? Thousands. The ATF not doing its job? BS. Mexico has incredibly tough gun laws. It is against Mexican gun law to possess a gun or ammunition. Period. Then I wrote of a story in which a found fired bullet casing cost a man jail time in Mexico and over $10,000.00 to get out of his Mexican ammunition violation. The communi$t$' Bureau of Propaganda and Fantasy is selling this lie that 90% of the cartels guns have been traced to gun shops and shows, for their agenda, which is to invade Mexico. If the bad guys lie us in to Mexico, then obviously the bad guys are lying about why they want to invade Mexico. Also remember it was Karl Rove and the Little George Administration which threw the Mexican 2006 Presidential election to Calderon. Remember John Negroponte was US Ambassador to Mexico. Where Negroponte goes, murder, hate, violence, and communi$t Police State follow. Also where is the proof 90% of guns used in killing people in Mexico are linked to US gun shops. How many guns? What guns specifically? What are the serial numbers of the smuggled guns? What gun shops specifically? Our country lies to us concerning September 11. Why should we believe this illogical gun story without specific proof. To my mind the Mexican drug war and the BS US gun shops are providing the guns is as baseless and a propaganda lie and will get this country in as much or probably more trouble than September 11.

Who supplied the guns and ammunition in Iraq ? Who is supplying the guns and ammunition in Afghanistan and Pakistan? The US military. Why is Mr. Gates allowing our military fly drones, which is unconstitutional, makes war against the USA, and treason, and drop bombs in Pakistan? Killing civilians and supplying them with guns creates an enemy for the US military to defeat. Why did the Little George Administration have a torture department? Same reason. Torture people to hate the USA more and make war on us and kill our braves soldiers in uniform. It is out of defeating the enemy the US military creates that the US conquers and establishes a satellite communi$t police state country for the bad guy directed USA to rule as a communi$t police state. Like the bad guy directed USA has done in Central and South America and all over the planet, the USA is arming Mexican civilians and killing them for the purpose of creating an enemy in Mexico for the US military to conquer. The US military is all to happy to help Mexico with the drug problem and murder problem the bad guy directed US military created from the get go. Go to the bank knowing the US military going to Mexico will make the situation much worse, expect hundreds of thousands of Mexicans murdered. Mexico will become another communi$t police state the bad guy directed USA creates, and Mexico will become and iron curtain preventing Americans from escaping the USA when comrade Obama oversees violence, murder of US citizens, just like comrade Little George oversaw the murder of 1.5 million Iraqi. Why do you think the Obama Administration is working to keep the US citizens enemy combatants without Civil Rights? Why do you think there are over 600 secrete prisons, mostly on so called closed down military bases, in the USA now? It is part of the Rothschild Rockefeller scam to toss the US Constitution and rule the USA by Martial Law. Who is arming US gangs as I type? The bad guy directed clandestine forces under the direction of John Negroponte. The USA invading and putting USA military troops in Mexico is an important part of the plan to enslave the American people and rule us by Martial Law. The bad guys are making war on the US Constitution and the American people which is treason as big as Dallas. If you like the deliberately manipulated economic meltdown we are now experiencing, you are going to love it when the USA invades Mexico and puts US military troops in Mexico.

The question becomes why are Admiral Mullen and Robert Gates lying to the world when they say or support the lie USA gun shops are selling to Mexican murderers? This lie, USA gun shops are selling to people without a background check or a gun permit, is part of some people in the US military, Obama, the US Congress, and Mr. Gates making war on the USA, which is treason. Gun shop owners love America whereas Mullen and Gates and the communi$t$' hate America and these bad guys have sold their souls to the devil in the name of making the USA a communi$t police state. The Rothschilds and Rockefellers are behind our recent economic meltdown for the purpose of stealing trillions in bailout money from their Greenspan derivative scam. The Rothschilds and Rockefellers are behind this scam to arm Mexicans, direct the US military to invade Mexico, which violates the US Constitution and International Law, for the purpose of overthrowing the US Constitution, declare US citizens enemy combatants, steal the money of Americans, Holocaust Jewish people again, and make the USA another Rothschild Rockefeller communi$t police state ruled by Martial Law.

Also don't forget Robert Gates worked with comrade Big George arming Saddam Hussein and manipulating the Iraq-Iran War in which over one million Sunni Shiite kids were killed. This is known as the Iraq Contra Affair in which Gates was spared indictment by a hair. In this affair the bad guy directed USA , which includes comrade Big George and Gates, supplied Saddam Hussein chemical weapons which were used on Kurds and Iranians in which at least 5000 were killed. It is the Iraq-Iran War which created the hate between the Sunni Shiites which makes the present War in Iraq move forward.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_military_chief_to_offer_help_to__03042009.html

US military chief to offer help to Mexico in violent drug war
Published: Wednesday March 4, 2009

America's top military officer heads to Mexico this week to offer help to a government battling powerful drug cartels, amid alarm in Washington over escalating violence across the border.

With the death toll at 5,300 last year and Mexican cartels armed with automatic weapons and billions in cash, the crisis has become a full-blown national security concern for the United States.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was due in Mexico later this week as the United States signalled it was ready to step up military and other assistance to tackle the heavily armed drug rings ravaging the country's north.

"The cartels are retaliating," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told NBC on Sunday. "It clearly is a serious problem."

But he said Mexico has dropped its traditional reluctance to cultivate ties with the US military.

"I think we are beginning to be in a position to help the Mexicans more than we have in the past," Gates said. "Some of the old biases against cooperation between our militaries and so on, I think, are being satisfied."

The United States started sharing intelligence with Mexico in November and under a new program plans to provide helicopters, maritime surveillance aircraft and other equipment, Pentagon spokesman Commander Jeffrey Gordon said.

Mullen, who visited Brazil on Monday as part of a week-long Latin American tour that includes stops in Chile, Peru and Colombia, said last week the United States was "looking for ways to assist" the Mexican government.

"Clearly one of the things he expects to talk to his counterparts in Mexico and other officials about is the growing violence and growing threat with regard to narco-trafficking and the drug cartels," Captain John Kirby, spokesman for Mullen, told AFP.

"We would welcome the opportunity to increase and enhance our military-to-military cooperation," Kirby said by phone after Mullen's visit to Brazil. "There's clearly room to do more."

The two countries have been cooperating for some time, but last year the effort intensified with the US Merida Initiative that gives Mexico 1.4 billion dollars over three years and 200 million to Central America and the Caribbean.

The initiative has nabbed some top drug barons and shipments, but the cartels remain defiant. In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, they have threatened to decapitate the mayor and his entire family.

Experts say military cooperation will not be enough and that corruption in Mexico as well as growing demand for drugs on the US side of the border feed the scourge.

Both governments have blamed the other for failing to take action.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon took offense at a State Department report last week that said pervasive corruption was hampering the drug war. He said it was time Washington stopped the flow of guns and drug money into Mexico.

"I think that weapons and cash cross from there to here, and that both countries should strive to make their border safe and open to trade and workers, but closed to illegal drugs, weapons and money trafficking," he said.

Mexican and US authorities have traced over 90 percent of the guns used by the cartels to American gun shops and shows, even though US laws forbid foreign nationals from buying fire arms.

And an estimated 15 to 20 billion dollars passes across the US border to the drug barons each year, US analysts say.

Mullen in a speech last month cited years of US assistance to Colombia, with military aid only one element, as a successful model for tackling drug cartels.

"I think the Colombian example is a great example of a very broad program that was not just military to support a friend at a time when, effectively, they were very close to a failed state," Mullen said at Princeton on February 5.

The admiral said similar support could help Mexico.

"We?ve offered that," he said. "It takes engagement -- not high-end military activity."

I just read Alan Bock's article on the drug war in Mexico and as a native Texan who has traveled in Mexico all my life I find what is going on illogical. I believe the bad guys running this country are behind the violence to give our military an excuse to set up in Mexico to make matters worse in Mexico. Logic dictates Gates is making war on the USA, treason, and sending our troops to Mexico is part of the plan to make the USA a communi$t police state rules by Martial Law. What is going on in Mexico is as dangerous for our freedom as the economic meltdown, both events the deliberate of the bad guys, Rothschilds and Rockefellers who own our banking system. Trouble in Mexico and Gates position to send US troops there in my opinion is the area AntiWar should focus their hell raising.

To AntiWar.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/01/gates-eyes-increased-us-military-aid-for-mexicos-drug-war/

Gates: US Military Can Help Mexico in Drug War
Defense Secretary Cheers Calderon for Taking on Cartels
Posted March 1, 2009

In an interview today on NBC, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the US is in position to provide more help to the Mexican government to continue its fighting against drug cartels along the two nations’ border. Gates declared the drug war “a serious problem,” and said that he envisions the US providing training, surveillance and intelligence to Mexico.

Gates also praised President Felipe Calderon for his willingness to take on the cartels, though the clashes have killed a significant number of people and led the US Joint Forces Command to conclude that the nation was at risk for a “rapid and sudden collapse.”

Earlier this year it was reported that the US was considering playing an increasing role in the drug war, and the possibility of joint operations with the Mexican military was raised. Still, today’s comments by Gates were the most public acknowledgment that the Obama Administration is indeed moving forward with such plans.

Related Stories
January 14, 2009 -- US Military Warns of Sudden Collapse of Mexico

zzzzzzzzzz

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/01/14/us-military-warns-of-sudden-collapse-of-mexico/

US Military Warns of Sudden Collapse of Mexico
Calderon Stresses "Security Needs" as Military Report Warns of "Rapid and Sudden Collapse"
Posted January 14, 2009

America’s Joint Forces Command issued their annual “Joint Operating Environment” report, which projects future wars and other potential global threats. This year, the report pointed to two nations which may undergo a “rapid and sudden collapse.” One, unsurprisingly, was Pakistan: a near-bankrupt nation with spiraling inflation, a huge domestic insurgency problem and growing military tension with neighboring India. The other was Mexico.

Is Mexico really on the cusp of turning into a failed state? It seems hard to imagine but the report cautions that “the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels.”

Indeed, Mexican forces have been involved in violent clashes, largely linked to their war on drugs and the organized crime spawned by that war. The Mexican drug war has been escalating for years, backed heavily by the United States, and has turned into an outright shooting war between the military and the gangs. Still, it seems a stretch to put its problems on the same level as Pakistan’s.

An interesting aside to this report becoming public is that Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been visiting the United States this week, hoping to impress upon outgoing President Bush and incoming President-elect Obama the seriousness of the security situation in Mexico. This report is liable to make that task easier.

Related Stories
March 1, 2009 -- Gates: US Military Can Help Mexico in Drug War

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=14335

March 2, 2009
Drug War Tragedy in Mexico
by Alan Bock
Perhaps it has taken warnings to U.S. college students considering where to undertake the traditional undergraduate (and beyond) practices of drinking too much and looking for sex in a warm climate during spring break to bring the situation home to Americans. Various colleges and even the U.S. State Department have warned that something close to open warfare [.pdf] is occurring in Mexico, and it just isn't a safe place for naive or fun-seeking college students, even those with little money who are not obvious candidates for kidnapping or extortion.

Even sadder, authorities both in Mexico and the United States are not only taking actions [.pdf] that are more likely to increase violence than to reduce it, but they can also be said to have been the impetus behind the violence.

For someone like me, who grew up in Southern California and has been visiting across the border – not much past Rosarito, but just crossing the border is enough to know you are in a different country – this feels especially tragic. There has long been a rough-and-ready quality to Mexico, but the country has attractions well beyond the fleeting pleasure of being able to buy a beer before you have reached legal age in the United States. There is nothing quite like sitting on a beach, whether at the old Rosarito Beach Hotel or the house my late aunt used to have just north of Rosarito, with a drink in hand and pleasant company watching the sun sink into the ocean and spread a remarkable variety of roseate colors in the sky.

Mexico has miles of not just uncrowded but virtually uninhabited beautiful beaches. I have always found the people pleasant, fun-loving, and eager to please, even after it was apparent that I was not one of those rich Americanos but a tourist of modest means. My wife and I especially treasure memories of eating excellent steak dinners for almost no money in dollars at a steakhouse in Rosarito Beach while being serenaded by roving mariachi musicians.

Tourism, once an important backbone of the economies of border towns like Tijuana, Rosarito, and Mexicali, which I know well, and Neuvo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez, which I don't, is down as much as 90 percent in the last year or so. The violence in Mexico has been increasing steadily and growing in gruesomeness. In 2005 more than 1,300 people were killed in drug-gang-related violence. By 2007 the number had grown to 2,673. Some estimates put the deaths at 4,500 just through November of 2008. And many of the bodies discovered show signs of the victims having been tortured.

Beheadings are sadly not all that uncommon. Two years ago the heads of a murdered police strike force commander and one of his deputies were jammed onto a fence in front of the police station in Acapulco, which used to be a legendary tourist paradise of sorts. Not long after that, five severed heads were tossed across a dance floor in a nightclub in the state of Michoacán. Other heads have been left near schools, courthouses, and city halls.

The violence has spilled over into the United States, and not just into border towns. Phoenix, Ariz., 185 miles north of the border, has become the kidnapping-for-ransom capital of the United States, with 368 cases reported to police last year for a crime that it notoriously underreported because of fear. Not all these kidnappings are drug-war-related, of course, but the rash of crime began with drug-war crimes. Last June a group of heavily armed cartel gunmen dressed in Phoenix police uniforms fired more than 100 rounds into a house during the targeted assassination of a man reported to be a Jamaican drug dealer who had double-crossed a Mexican cartel.

The major reason for this tragic surge in violence, of course, is the fact that for the last few years the Mexican government, spurred on and subsidized by the U.S. government, has decided to get serious about cracking down on the many drug cartels that flourish in Mexico, profiting from the apparently quite steady demand for illicit drugs in the United States. Unfortunately, they have discovered, as authorities who have sought to win the ill-considered War on Drugs by main force have discovered time and time again, that the drug cartels are hydra-headed monsters. Kill or imprison the head of a particularly brutal cartel, as the authorities were able to do recently with the notorious Felix Arellano organization in Tijuana, and a half dozen contenders for leadership quickly emerge, all of them skilled to one extent or another in the dark arts of violence, concealment, intimidation, and cruelty.

The reasons for the ongoing failure of prohibitionism have to do with the economics of prohibition. It is impossible to know for sure, of course, until a non-prohibition market emerges, but a decent educated guess [.pdf] is that drugs for which there is an active demand see their prices rise at least tenfold under prohibition. Between cannabis or coca or opium plant and street buyer, then, are opportunities for markups that virtually no producer of a legal commodity in even a modestly competitive environment could hope to attain. There are people who are willing to lie, cheat, torture, and kill for the kind of money that can be made dealing in illicit drugs, and until end times or utopia, there always will be.

The vast amounts of cash that can flow through illicit drug networks also make official corruption not only possible but virtually inevitable. Mexican police at all levels have hardly been noted for their purity in the best of times, but when the drug war metaphor begins to be taken literally, corruption multiplies.

In ordinary commerce, disputes are often handled quietly, or as a last resort taken to court to be resolved by a judge. In illicit commerce, of course, there is no resort to courts, arbitration companies, or other peaceful methods, so the inevitable disagreements and disputes among people already self-identified as part of a criminal underworld and inclined to and experienced in violence tend to be handled violently, with gun battles and executions increasingly part of the landscape in Mexico. Unfortunately the violence often spills over to include innocent bystanders, including children. Just this year a little girl in Ciudad Juarez, six people standing in front of a recreation center in that city, a 14-year-old girl in Acapulco, and two small children in Tijuana found themselves in the wrong places at the wrong times and were killed.

So what has the United States government done about the violence that has wracked our neighbor to the south, that has already spread to this country, and that threatens to expand to other cities with notable Mexican-American populations, such as Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and perhaps even communities in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, and what do the supposedly prestigious organs of respectable opinion suggest we do about it? To torture a metaphor, the government provided the kindling for the fire, poured some gasoline on in it, and threw a handful of firecrackers into it just to make it a bit more spectacular and dangerous. Meanwhile, various commentators have broken out tired and bedraggled hobbyhorses and ridden them, hoping that the blaze of the bonfire will somehow make the faded paint and worn-out parts look shiny and attractive.

The U.S. government has cheered on the Mexican government as it took steps to turn the metaphorical "war on drugs" into a real war with human casualties and collateral damage among innocent civilians. It is almost impossible to confirm, but it seems likely that various U.S. enforcement agencies have worked closely with Mexico's federales. And last June, just to make sure the violence intensified, Congress approved a $400 million subsidy for the Mexican government's "anti-drug" efforts. Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced more crackdowns.

As for quasi-respectable opinion, it is divided among several ineffective steps that won't help and will probably make the situation worse but that give their proponents a warm feeling. The drug warrior ideologues, of course, recommend further escalation, despite decades of manifest failure, a recent example being $5 billion spent on Plan Colombia without reducing the flow of drugs to North America and Europe. The anti-immigration ideologues argue that we should get really serious about sealing the border this time, actually finishing that wall, and if necessary stationing the military on the border to prevent those pesky Mexicans from trying to hammer nails or rake leaves. And the anti-gun ideologues, with cheerleading from the New York Times, argue for tightening U.S. gun laws and stepping up enforcement, as if closing sporting goods stores in the Southwest will suddenly make it impossible for Mexican cartelistas to acquire weapons.

The most efficacious approach [.pdf] to stemming the violence in Mexico is to recognize that just as what most newspapers blithely call "drug-related crime" is actually drug-law-related crime or even drug-law-caused crime, the wave of violence in Mexico is not caused by the inherent viciousness of the Mexican underclass or the physiological properties of drugs deemed illicit, but by the set of perverse incentives that arise when governments treat adults like children and dictate what they can ingest, attempting to prohibit plants and substances that are easily grown and formulated and for which there is a steady demand. The violence in Mexico is not "drug-related" but "drug-law-related" or even caused directly and indirectly by the laws attempting to prohibit the use of some substances.

An increasing number of people in other countries have recognized this for some time, as a recent statement by three former Latin American presidents acknowledges [.pdf]. If the United States were to abandon or even pull back from its futile War on Drugs, then other countries would probably follow quickly, some of them eagerly, as it is U.S. pressure that keeps many prohibitionist laws in place in other countries. This step would have the added benefit of depriving politically oriented terrorist groups – think the Taliban in Afghanistan – of huge sources of money and experience in clandestine activity.

I wouldn't bet on this war ending any time soon, however.

Digg this!

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/02/clinton-us-doesnt-expect-diplomacy-to-work-with-iran/

Clinton: US Doesn’t Expect Diplomacy to Work With Iran
Iran Again Insists Charges About Nuclear Program Are Baseless
Posted March 2, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she has serious doubts that Iran would respond to the Obama Administration’s interest to engage in diplomacy on its nuclear program, and that “our eyes are wide open on Iran.”

Secretary Clinton apparently did not believe that the Iranian President’s remarks during last month’s 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution celebration that his nation was ready to talk with the United States constituted a response. Nor apparently did the numerous other times since President Obama’s elections in which the Iranian government spoke of its eagerness to improve relations.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi again told reporters that the repeated US claims that his government was attempting to make a nuclear weapon were “baseless remarks, even from the technical viewpoint, and just for political propaganda.”

The spokesman pointed to the fact that the latest accusations, made by Admiral Mullen, were immediately contradicted by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, adding that his government is neither capable nor willing to begin enriching uranium to the levels necessary to make nuclear weapons. The IAEA has repeatedly confirmed that the uranium enriched so far to only the low levels needed for its upcoming nuclear power plant has not been diverted to any other use.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/04/report-israel-seriously-considering-attacking-iran/

Report: Israel ‘Seriously Considering’ Attacking Iran
Timeframe for Potential Attack Growing Shorter
Posted March 4, 2009

A report issued today by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) warned that the Israeli government believes that it still retains the ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear program with a unilateral attack, and as the international community’s diplomatic path remains unsuccessful in stopping a weapons program or indeed proving that one exists, Israel is “seriously considering” attacking Iran.

The prospect of an attack is primarily in the near term, because the attack on Iran’s illusory secret nuclear weapons program would be seriously complicated by the prospect of the Iranian government acquiring an S-300 air defense system from Russia. Russia has repeatedly insisted that it doesn’t intend to give Iran the system, but the IAEA insists Iran doesn’t have the ability to make nuclear weapons either. The Israeli government is less interested in the reality of the situation than with what has been repeated over and over domestically: that Iran is an “existential” threat to Israel and has to be stopped with military force.

But the WINEP report points out that Israel isn’t the only one that stands to lose from such an attack: the US would pay an enormous penalty internationally because whether it is the case or not they will be perceived as having given Israel a green light for the attack.

Related Stories

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/03/04/clinton-declares-iran-a-threat/

Clinton Declares Iran a Threat
Ayatollah Warns US on 'Wrong Path'
Posted March 4, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out at the Iranian government today, declaring them a threat to the Middle East, Europe and Russia. Clinton also claimed that “it is clear that Iran intends to interfere with the internal affairs of all of these people.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed disappointment with the Obama Administration’s foreign policy today, saying that the new administration was pursuing the same “wrong path” as President Bush did.

Though President Obama campaigned on the idea of approaching Iran diplomatically, his officials have repeatedly publicly accused the Iranian government of attempting to acquire nuclear weapons and has rebuffed Iranian attempts to improve relations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

Robert Gates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Robert Michael Gates

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

22nd United States Secretary of Defense
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 18, 2006
President George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Deputy Gordon England (2006-2009)
William J. Lynn III (2009-)
Preceded by Donald Rumsfeld

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15th Director of Central Intelligence
In office
November 6, 1991 – January 20, 1993
President George H. W. Bush
Deputy Richard James Kerr
William Oliver Studeman
Preceded by William Webster
Succeeded by James Woolsey

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

16th Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
In office
April 1986 – March 1989
President Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Preceded by John McMahon
Succeeded by Richard James Kerr

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born September 25, 1943 (1943-09-25) (age 65)
Wichita, Kansas
Political party Independent[1]
Spouse Becky Gates
Alma mater Georgetown University (Ph.D.)
Indiana University (M.A.)
College of William & Mary (B.A.)
Signature
Military service
Service/branch United States Air Force
Years of service 1967 – 1969
Rank Second Lieutenant
Battles/wars Vietnam War
Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is currently serving as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense. He took office on December 18, 2006.[2] Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of Central Intelligence. Before he joined the CIA, he served with the United States Air Force (USAF).[3] After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates also served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton, that has studied the Iraq War. He was also the first pick to serve as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security when it was created following the September 11, 2001 attacks, but he declined the appointment in order to remain President of Texas A&M University.[4]

Gates accepted the nomination as Secretary of Defense position on November 8, 2006, replacing Donald Rumsfeld. He was confirmed with bipartisan support.[5] In a 2007 profile written by former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Time named Gates one of the year's most influential people.[5] In 2008, Gates was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.[6] He currently continues to serve as Secretary of Defense in President Barack Obama's cabinet.[7]

Contents [hide]
1 Early life and education
2 Intelligence career
2.1 Positions
2.2 Director of Central Intelligence
2.3 Level of involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal
3 Career after leaving the CIA
3.1 1993-1999
3.2 Texas A&M
3.3 Corporate boards
3.4 Public service
3.5 Declined appointment as Director of National Intelligence
4 Secretary of Defense
4.1 Bush Administration
4.2 Obama Administration
5 Criticism
5.1 NATO Comments
6 Awards and decorations
7 References
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links

[edit] Early life and education
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Gates attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the BSA as an adult.[8][9] He graduated from Wichita East High School in 1961, reportedly with straight "A"s.[10]

Gates then won a scholarship to attend the College of William and Mary where he graduated in 1965 with a B.A. in History. At William & Mary, Gates was an active member and president of the Alpha Phi Omega (the national service fraternity) Chapter and the Young Republicans; he was also the business manager for the William and Mary Review, a literary and art magazine.[11] At his William & Mary graduation ceremony, Gates received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award naming him the graduate that "has made the greatest contribution to his fellow man." [11]

Gates then went on to receive a Master's degree in history from Indiana University in 1966 and a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University in 1974. The title of his Georgetown doctoral dissertation is "Soviet sinology: an untapped source for Kremlin views and disputes relating to contemporary events in China" and is available from University Microfilms International as document number 7421652. He received an L.H.D. (Doctor of Humane Letters) from William & Mary in 1998.

He was married on January 7, 1967.[12]

[edit] Intelligence career

[edit] Positions
While at Indiana University, Gates was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency and joined the agency in 1966.[13] On 4 January 1967, he was conscripted and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.[12][13] From 1967 to 1969, he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command as an intelligence officer which included a stint at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where he delivered intelligence briefings to Intercontinental Ballistic Missile crews.[14] After fulfilling his military obligation, he rejoined the CIA.

Gates left the CIA in 1974 to serve on the staff of the National Security Council. He returned to the CIA in late 1979, serving briefly as the director of the Strategic Evaluation Center, Office of Strategic Research. He was named the Director of the DCI/DDCI Executive Staff in 1981, Deputy Director for Intelligence in 1982, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from April 18, 1986 to March 20, 1989.

[edit] Director of Central Intelligence

Gates while Director of Central Intelligence.Gates was nominated to become the Director of Central Intelligence (head of the CIA) in early 1987. He withdrew his name after it became clear the Senate would reject the nomination due to controversy about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

Gates was Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from March until August 1989, and was Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser from August 1989 until November 1991.

Gates was nominated (for the second time) for the position of Director of Central Intelligence by President George H. W. Bush on May 14, 1991, confirmed by the Senate on November 5, and sworn in on November 6, becoming the only career officer in the CIA's history (as of 2005) to rise from entry-level employee to Director.

Deputy Directors during his tenure were Richard J. Kerr (from November 6, 1991 until March 2, 1992) and Adm. William O. Studeman (from April 9, 1992 through the remainder of Dr. Gates' tenure). He served until 1993.

The final report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, issued on August 4, 1993, said that Gates "was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known of their activities. The evidence developed by Independent Counsel did not warrant indictment..." [15]

[edit] Level of involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal
Because of his senior status in the CIA, Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran-Contra Affair and was in a position to have known of their activities. In 1984, as deputy director of CIA, Gates advocated that the U.S. initiate a bombing campaign against Nicaragua and that the U.S. do everything in its power short of direct military invasion of the country to remove the Sandinista government [16]. The evidence developed by Independent Counsel did not warrant indictment of Gates for his Iran-Contra activities or his responses to official inquiries.

Gates was an early subject of Independent Counsel's investigation, but the investigation of Gates intensified in the spring of 1991 as part of a larger inquiry into the Iran/contra activities of CIA officials. This investigation received an additional impetus in May 1991, when President George H.W. Bush nominated Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). The chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) requested, in a letter to the Independent Counsel on May 15, 1991, any information that would “significantly bear on the fitness” of Gates for the CIA post.

Gates consistently testified that he first heard on October 1, 1986, from Charles E. Allen, the national intelligence officer who was closest to the Iran initiative, that proceeds from the Iran arms sales may have been diverted to support the Contras. Other evidence proves, however, that Gates received a report on the diversion during the summer of 1986 from DDI Richard Kerr.[17] The issue was whether the Independent Counsel could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gates was deliberately not telling the truth when he later claimed not to have remembered any reference to the diversion before meeting with Allen in October.

Grand Jury secrecy rules hampered Independent Counsel's response. Nevertheless, in order to answer questions about Gates' prior testimony, Independent Counsel accelerated his investigation of Gates in the summer of 1991. This investigation was substantially completed by September 3, 1991, at which time Independent Counsel determined that Gates' Iran-Contra activities and testimony did not warrant prosecution.

Independent Counsel made this decision subject to developments that could have warranted reopening his inquiry, including testimony by Clair E. George, the CIA's former deputy director for operations. At the time Independent Counsel reached this decision, the possibility remained that George could have provided information warranting reconsideration of Gates's status in the investigation. George refused to cooperate with Independent Counsel and was indicted on September 19, 1991. George subpoenaed Gates to testify as a defense witness at George's first trial in the summer of 1994, but Gates was never called.

[edit] Career after leaving the CIA

[edit] 1993-1999
After retiring from the CIA in 1993, Gates worked as an academic and lecturer. He evaluated student theses for the International Studies Program of the University of Washington.[citation needed] He lectured at Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Indiana, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, and the College of William and Mary.[citation needed] Gates served as a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Oklahoma International Programs Center and a trustee of the endowment fund for the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, which in 1998 conferred upon him honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

In 1996, Gates' autobiography, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, was published. Gates has also written numerous articles on government and foreign policy and has been a frequent contributor to the op-ed page of The New York Times.[18]

Gates at Texas A&M
[edit] Texas A&M
Gates was the interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University from 1999 to 2001. On August 1, 2002, he became the 22nd President of Texas A&M. As the university president, Gates made significant progress in four key areas of the university's "Vision 2020" plan, a plan to become one of the top 10 public universities by the year 2020. The four key areas include improving student diversity, increasing the size of the faculty, building new academic facilities, and enriching the undergraduate and graduate education experience.[19] During his tenure, Gates encouraged the addition of 440 new faculty positions and a $300 million campus construction program, and saw dramatic increases in minority enrollment. On February 2, 2007, Gates was conferred the title of President Emeritus by unanimous vote of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. Gates and his wife Becky received honorary doctoral degrees from Texas A&M on August 10, 2007.[20]

[edit] Corporate boards
Gates has been a member of the board of trustees of Fidelity Investments, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc., Parker Drilling Company, Science Applications International Corporation, and VoteHere, a technology company which sought to provide cryptography and computer software security for the electronic election industry.[21] A White House spokeswoman has said Gates plans to sell all the stock he owns in individual companies and sever all ties with them if confirmed by the Senate.[22]

[edit] Public service
Gates is a former president of the National Eagle Scout Association.[23]

In January 2004, Gates co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations task force on U.S. relations towards Iran. Among the task force's primary recommendation was to directly engage Iran on a diplomatic level regarding Iranian nuclear technology. Key points included a negotiated position that would allow Iran to develop its nuclear program in exchange for a commitment from Iran to use the program only for peaceful means. [24]

At the time of his nomination by President George W. Bush to the position of Secretary of Defense, Gates was also a member of the Iraq Study Group, also called the Baker Commission, which was expected to issue its report in November 2006, following the mid-term election on November 7. He was replaced by former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.

[edit] Declined appointment as Director of National Intelligence
In February 2005, Gates wrote in a message posted on his school's website that "there seems to be a growing number of rumors in the media and around campus that I am leaving Texas A&M to become the new director of national intelligence in Washington, D.C." The message said that "To put the rumors to rest, I was indeed asked to take the position, wrestled with perhaps the most difficult — and close — decision of my life, and last week declined the position."

Gates committed to remain as President of Texas A&M University through the summer of 2005; President George W. Bush offered the position of United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to John Negroponte, who accepted.[25]

Gates said in a 2005 discussion with the university's Academy for Future International Leaders that he had tentatively decided to accept the DNI position out of a sense of duty and had written an email that would be sent to students during the press conference to announce his decision, explaining that he was leaving to serve the U.S. once again. Gates, however, took the weekend to consider what his final decision should be, and ultimately decided that he was unwilling to return to Washington, D.C., in any capacity simply because he "had nothing to look forward to in D.C. and plenty to look forward to at A&M."[26]

[edit] Secretary of Defense

[edit] Bush Administration

Gates being sworn in as Defense Secretary on December 18, 2006.On November 8, 2006, after the 2006 midterm election, President George W. Bush announced his intent to nominate Gates to succeed the resigning Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. Secretary of Defense.[27][28]

Gates was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate Armed Services Committee on December 5, 2006. During his confirmation hearing on December 5, 2006, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan asked Gates if he thought the United States was winning the war in Iraq, to which Gates responded: "No, sir." He then went on to say that he did not think the United States was losing the war either.[29] The next day, Gates was confirmed by the full Senate by a margin of 95-2, with Republican Senators Rick Santorum and Jim Bunning casting the two dissenting votes and senators Elizabeth Dole, Evan Bayh, and Joe Biden not voting.[30] On December 18, 2006, Gates was sworn in as Secretary of Defense by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten at a private White House ceremony and then by Vice President Dick Cheney at the Pentagon. [2]

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gives a gig 'em with a group of Aggie marines at Camp Fallujah, IraqSeveral months after his appointment, The Washington Post published a series of articles beginning February 18, 2007 that brought to the spotlight the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal.[31] As a result of the fallout from the incident, Gates announced the removal of Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey, and later, he approved the removal of Army Surgeon General Kevin C. Kiley.[32]

On June 8, 2007, Gates announced that he would not recommend the renomination of Peter Pace, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, due to anticipated difficulties with the confirmation process. Instead, Gates recommended Mike Mullen, the Chief of Naval Operations at the time, to fill the position. [33] On June 5, 2008, in response to the findings on Air Force misshipments of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons components, Gates announced the resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley.[34]

[edit] Obama Administration
On December 1, 2008, President-elect Obama announced that Robert Gates would remain in his position as Secretary of Defense during his administration,[7] reportedly for at least the first year of Obama's presidency.[35] Gates is the fourteenth Cabinet member in history to serve under two Presidents of different parties. One of the first priorities under President Barack Obama’s administration for Gates will be a review of U.S. policy and strategy in Afghanistan.[36] Gates, sixth in the presidential line of succession, was selected as designated survivor during Obama's inauguration.[37] On March 1, 2009 he told David Gregory on Meet the Press that he would not commit to how long he would serve as Secretary of Defense but implied that he would not serve the entire first term.[38]

[edit] Criticism

Gates responds to a question during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on December 5, 2006As deputy director and director of America's leading intelligence agency for many years, Gates and his CIA staff have been faulted for failing to accurately gauge the decline and disintegration of the Soviet Union. More particularly, Gates has been criticized for concocting evidence to show that the Soviet Union was stronger than it actually was, and also for repeatedly skewing intelligence to promote a particular worldview.[39] Also, according to Newsweek, Gates, as deputy director of CIA, allegedly vouched for the comprehensiveness of a CIA study presented to the Senate and President Reagan alleging that the Soviet Union played a role in the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II. A CIA internal review later denounced the report as being skewed[39], but that Gates did not try to influence the report's conclusions.[40]

[edit] NATO Comments
On January 16, 2008, Gates was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying NATO forces in southern Afghanistan do not know how to properly combat a guerilla insurgency and that could be contributing to rising violence in the country [2]. The Netherlands [3] and United Kingdom [4] protested.