Robert Gates

From Wikipedia

Robert Michael Gates

Lahir September 25, 1943
Wichita, Kansas, USA
Profession Presiden Texas A&M University

Robert "Bob" Michael Gates, Ph.D. (lahir pada September 25, 1943) merupakan presiden Universiti Texas A&M , dan juga bekas Pengarah Central Intelligence. Beiau merupakan calon Presiden untuk menjawat jawatan Setiausaha Pertahanan, ditangguhkan pengesahaanya oleh Senat Amerika Syarikat. Gates elah berkhidmat selama 26 tahun di dalam Central Intelligence Agency dan juga Majlis Keselamatan Kebangsaan. Di bawah Presiden George H.W. Bush, beliau telah berkhidmat sebagai Pengarah Central Intelligence. Selepas meninggalkan CIA, beliau telah menulis memoir beliau,[1] menjadi presiden Universiti Texas A&M , dan menjadi ahli kepada beberapa lembaga syarikat korporat. Gate telah berkhidmat sebagai ahli bipartisan commission diketuai oleh James A. Baker III, Kumpulan Pembelajaran Iraq, yang telah mempelajari kempen Iraq. Beliau juga menjad orang pertama dipilih mengetuai United States Department of Homeland Security|Jabatan Keselamatan Dalam Negeri apabila ia telah dicipta berikutan dengan peristiwa September 11, 2001.[2]



After the 2006 midterm election result, President George W. Bush announced his nomination of Gates to succeed the resigning Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. Secretary of Defense on November 8, 2006.[3][4] Gates has stated in a letter to students that he will continue as President of Texas A&M until completion of the confirmation process.[5] Gates will now face confirmation first in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and if approved, by a majority vote in the Senate.

Jadual isi kandungan

[Sunting] Biography

[Sunting] Childhood and education

A native of Wichita, Kansas, Gates attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America and is a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated from Wichita East High School in 1961. Gates then headed east to attend the College of William and Mary where he graduated with a B.A. in European history in 1965. While at William & Mary, Gates was an active member of Alpha Phi Omega, national service fraternity, as well as active in the Young Republicans and the business manager for the William and Mary Review, a literary and art magazine.[6] At William & Mary, Gates was named the graduate that "has made the greatest contribution to his fellow man." [1] 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.

[Sunting] Intelligence career

[Sunting] Positions

While at Indiana University, Gates was recruited to join the Central Intelligence Agency. However, the CIA offered no exemption from the draft during the Vietnam War. Gates spent 1967–69 in the Air Force as an officer in the Strategic Air Command, before joining the CIA full-time as an intelligence analyst. During one posting, at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, he delivered intelligence briefings to ICBM missile crews. [7]

Gates left the CIA in 1974 to serve on staff of the National Security Council. He returned to the CIA in late 1979. 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.

[Sunting] 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 of 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 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. In addition to questions about Iran-Contra affair, Senate members questioned the nomination because Gates allegedly passed intelligence to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.[8]

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, 2003, 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...." [9]

[Sunting] Criticism

Gates has been criticised for his role in the Iran-Contra affair and his role in the Iran-Iraq war (above). Also, Gates was alleged to lead an effort to falsely blame the Soviets in the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. “In 1985, Gates closeted a special team to push through another pre-cooked paper arguing that the KGB was behind the 1981 wounding of Pope John Paul II", despite the fact that CIA analysts knew that the charge was bogus. As deputy director and director of America's leading intelligence agency for many years, Gates and his CIA staff have been faulted for failing accurately to gauge the decline and disintegration of the Soviet Union. More particularly, Gates has been criticised 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 world view.

[Sunting] Other

In 1996, Gates's memoirs were published under the title From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.

Gates has been highly decorated for his service: he was the recipient of the National Security Medal and the Presidential Citizens Medal, was twice awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and three times received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

[Sunting] Level of involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal

Owing to 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. 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.[10] The issue was whether 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 1992, but Gates was never called.

[Sunting] Career after leaving the CIA

[Sunting] 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. He lectured at Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Indiana, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, and the College of William and Mary. 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 the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

In 1996, Gate's 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.[11]

[Sunting] Texas A&M

Gates was the interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001. On August 1, 2002, he became the 22nd President of Texas A&M University.

[Sunting] 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 seeks to provide cryptography and computer software security for the electronic election industry.[12].

[Sunting] Public service

Gates served as President of the National Eagle Scout Association during the mid-2000s.

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. [13]

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 7th. He was replaced by former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.

[Sunting] 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 ('Intelligence Czar') 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 2007; President George W. Bush offered the position of United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to John Negroponte, who accepted.[14]

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."

[Sunting] Secretary of Defense nomination

Gates accepts the President's nomination, November 8, 2006.
Besarkan
Gates accepts the President's nomination, November 8, 2006.

Templat:Current-section On November 8, 2006, George W. Bush nominated Gates to serve as Secretary of Defense in the wake of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. Gates will now face confirmation first in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and if approved, by a general vote in the United States Senate. If confirmed, he will become the 22nd U.S. Secretary of Defense.

[Sunting] Awards and decorations

Gates' awards and decorations include:

Government awards
  • National Security Medal
  • Presidential Citizens Medal
  • National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal (twice)
  • Distinguished Intelligence Medal (three separate times)
Other awards
  • The Borgen Project Award
  • Eagle Scout
  • Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
  • Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from College of William and Mary
  • William and Mary Alumni Association - Alumni Medallion

[Sunting] References

  1. Robert Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (May 7, 1997).
  2. "Gates' Government Intelligence Experience Runs Deep", National Public Radio, November 9, 2006. Dicapai pada 2006-11-09.
  3. "Bush replaces Rumsfeld to get 'fresh perspective'", CNN.com, November 8, 2006. Dicapai pada 2006-11-08.
  4. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg. "Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats", New York Times, November 8, 2006. Dicapai pada 2006-11-08.
  5. To the Aggie Family, Gates' first announcement, and acknowledgment to being nominated for Secretary of Defense
  6. Whitson, Brian. "Gates ('65) nominated as defense secretary." College of William and Mary. November 9, 2006. Retrieved on November 9, 2006.
  7. "Who Won the Cold War?" Thomas Powers, New York Review of Books, Vol. 43, no. 11 June 20, 1996
  8. Gates nomination, Senate Proceedings, 1991
  9. Lawrence E. Walsh, Final report of the independent counsel for Iran/Contra matters, August 4, 1993, and in particular Chapter 16, "Robert M. Gates"
  10. GlobalSecurity.org. Iran-Contra Report, Chapter 16.
  11. Texas A&M press release, July 1999.
  12. Mark Lewellen-Biddle, "Voting Machines Gone Wild!", In These Times, December 11, 2003
  13. Iran: Time for a New Approach, final report of an independent task force, July 2004, Council of Foreign Relations Press
  14. "Bush names Negroponte intelligence chief", CNN.com, February 18, 2005. Dicapai pada 2006-11-08.

[Sunting] Sources

[Sunting] Further reading

Lihat galeri mengenai: Robert Gates di Wikimedia Commons.
Didahului oleh:
William H. Webster
Director of Central Intelligence
November 6, 1991 - January 20, 1993
Diikuti oleh:
R. James Woolsey
Didahului oleh:
Ray Bowen
President of Texas A&M University
2002–Present
Diikuti oleh:
Incumbent

Templat:DCIA