Since 11-10-06
Bob Gates' Brushes with Controversy
Since 11-10-06
From:
Ron Kessler - Washington Wire [mailto:newsmax@reply.newsmax.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 9:00 AM
Subject: Bob Gates' Brushes with Controversy
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Bob Gates'
Brushes With Controversy
By Ronald
Kessler
Donald Rumsfeld’s sport is wrestling, and his ego is legendary. But President
Bush's nominee as the next defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, is a bicyclist —
a thoughtful man who listens.
While Rumsfeld transformed the military into a nimble force to counter today’s
complex threats, he was a lightning rod for criticism of Bush’s Iraq policies
and expressions of frustration at the war effort.
Story
continues below...
Gates, in the intelligence world where he has made his mark, is known as a
brilliant analyst who can be counted on to evaluate dispassionately the
military's situation in Iraq and to build a consensus for his views.
Born in Wichita, Kan., Gates graduated from the College of William and Mary and
obtained a master's degree in history from Indiana University and a doctorate in
Soviet studies from Georgetown University in 1974. His first experience with
intelligence was as an Air Force intelligence officer with a Minuteman missile
wing.
Gates started at the CIA as an analyst specializing in Soviet affairs in 1969.
He moved to the National Security Council under President Nixon. After
continuing at the NSC under President Ford, he returned to the agency, then
moved back to the NSC under President Carter. In 1979, Gates again returned to
the CIA, becoming deputy director for intelligence in 1982. In that job, Gates
developed the first system for holding analysts accountable for their record of
forecasts and assessments.
In 1983, Gates became chairman of the National Intelligence Council. In 1986, he
became deputy director for Central Intelligence and was acting director. Brent
Scowcroft, President H.W. Bush’s national security adviser, brought him back to
the White House in 1989 as his deputy for national security affairs. Gates was
director of central intelligence (DCI) under President Bush from 1991 to 1993.
Past Controversy — 2 Episodes
In his years in the intelligence community, Gates had two brushes with
controversy. The first occurred over his knowledge — or lack thereof — of the
CIA’s involvement in the Iran-contra affair when William Casey was DCI and Gates
was his deputy. The Iran-contra affair was a plan to exchange arms for hostages
in Iran and divert profits to the contra rebels in Nicaragua.
While the CIA itself did not arrange it, Casey and National Security Council
aide Lt. Colonel Oliver L. North, Jr. used a few individuals in the agency to
carry out the scheme.
Russell J. Bruemmer, who did an internal CIA probe of the issue as CIA general
counsel under DCI William Webster, found that several key officials — Gates,
then deputy director of central intelligence, and Thomas A. Twetten, then
assistant deputy director for operations — had received bits and pieces of
information about Iran-contra, but did not realize at the time what was
happening.
“Agency people . . . from the director on down, actively shunned information,”
Gates later told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “We didn't want to
know how the contras were being funded . . . we actively discouraged people from
telling us things.”
The second area of controversy arose when Gates was nominated as DCI. Former CIA
employees who disagreed with Gates’ views came forward to testify that Gates had
“politicized” the analytical process, allegedly skewing intelligence reporting
on the Soviet Union to suit the Reagan White House.
Intelligence analysis is inherently subjective, and the analysts never presented
any evidence to support their claim. In fact, Gates had frequently presided over
analyses and estimates that ran directly afoul of the policies of the Reagan
administration.
Current Controversy — Iraq
Currently president of Texas A&M University, Gates, 63, began serving in March
as a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, studying the U.S. approach to
the Iraq war.
“Because so many of America’s sons and daughters in our armed forces are in
harm’s way, I did not hesitate when the president asked me to return to duty,”
Gates said at a White House ceremony on Wednesday.
Bobby R. Inman, a former CIA deputy director and National Security Agency
director and a friend of Gates, called him “a good listener” who, “after he
makes up his mind, is very decisive.”
Gates is “impatient with those whose minds don’t move as fast as his does, but
he’s not arrogant,” Inman said.
Given the controversy generated by Bob Woodward’s claim that DCI William Casey
spoke to him when he lay dying on his hospital bed, it’s surprising that another
facet of Gates’ life confirming Woodward’s account never made the headlines.
In December 1986, Casey was slated to testify under oath before the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence about his role in the Iran-contra affair. Casey
had been stumbling more than usual, and he fell and cut his forehead. At 10 a.m.
on December 15, 1986, a day before his scheduled testimony, Casey collapsed in
his office as an agency doctor was taking his blood pressure.
Casey was taken to Georgetown University Hospital, where he had surgery three
days later for a malignant brain tumor. In his book “Veil,” Woodward said he
asked Casey in the hospital if he knew about the diversion of funds from the
Iran arms deal to aid the contras, a question that has never been answered.
“His head jerked up hard,” Woodward wrote. “He stared, and finally nodded yes.”
“Why?” Woodward asked.
“I believed,” Casey said, then fell asleep.
At the time, CIA officials denied that Woodward could have gotten past CIA
security at the hospital. Casey’s widow Sophia said Casey could not speak, even
haltingly. Most CIA officials thought Woodward had made up the story to get
publicity.
But William Donnelly, who was in charge of CIA administration, including
supervision of the CIA security officers, told me for my book “The CIA at War:
Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror,” “Woodward probably found a way to
sneak in.”
Gates, Bob Woodward, and Bill Casey
On Saturday morning, Jan. 24, 1987, Casey had one of his security guards place a
call to Gates, who was his deputy, at the office. According to Gates’ account in
his book “From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and
How They Won the Cold War,” Casey got on the line and, with considerable
difficulty, indicated that he wanted Gates to come see him.
Gates followed up with Casey’s wife, and she finally called on the morning of
Jan. 28 and asked Gates to come visit the director that evening.
“When I saw him in the hospital, his speech was even more slurred than usual,
but if you knew him well, you could make out a few words, enough to get a sense
of what he was saying,” Gates told me for “The CIA at War.” “I briefed him on
developments at the agency and the White House.”
When it became clear Casey was not going to recover, Gates brought Casey a
resignation letter on Jan. 29, 1987. Because he couldn’t sign the letter, Casey
handed it to Sophia to sign. She began to cry, and Casey had tears in his eyes.
“Well, that’s the end of a career,” Casey said to Gates.
Gates held his hand for a few minutes and left. Casey died in May 1987 at the
age of 74.
After Woodward’s “Veil” revealed a number of CIA secrets, the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence asked Britt Snider, its general counsel at the time,
to look into the matter and advise the committee whether it should request that
the Justice Department conduct a formal investigation.
In examining Casey’s calendar and CIA logs, Snider discovered that Casey, who
had always demanded jail time for leakers, had had 43 meetings or phone calls
with Woodward, including a number of meetings at Casey’s home with no one else
present.
With Casey dead, Snider decided it would be pointless to attempt to investigate
the leaks presented in Woodward’s book.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington
correspondent of NewsMax.com. Get his dispatches FREE sent you via e-mail.
Click here now.
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