Robert Gates

Occupations

Government positions

• CIA: Deputy director (...), director (...)
• Department of Defense: Secretary of Defense (...)

Corporations

• VoteHere: Advisory board member

Controversies

Iran-Contra

Main articles: October Surprise, Iran-Contra

Corporate connections

• Voting machine vendors
  • VoteHere
  • Global/Diebold
  • Sequoia

External links

• Ch.16 of the Lawrence Walsh report: "Robert M. Gates"
• Washington Post, "Robert Gates and the Neverending Story . . . Iran-Contra Redux: Once More into the Breach of Trust", 1991/09/19 (pages 1, 2, 3, 4): "At issue are specific questions of whether Gates, as deputy to the late CIA director William J. Casey, knew that the National Security Council was engaged in a secret effort to resupply the contras, and that profits from the sale of arms to Iran were being diverted to that effort. Witnesses who will testify today have contradicted Gates's past testimony on these points, saying he learned of the diversion earlier than he acknowledges and may have participated in efforts to obscure it once the scandal broke. But, barring unforeseen bombshells in the course of the testimony, Gates is likely to be confirmed in the end. [...] Two days into what were supposed to be high-tension hearings, he has been questioned sharply by a few senators -- but by no means as harshly as expected, even by Democrats on the panel. Senators have fallen over themselves to thank Gates for his candor. Chairman David Boren (D-Okla.), from the start, has been wreathed in smiles."
• Prelude to Terror by Joseph Trento (2005) quotes former associate CIA director Robert Crowley as saying that Gates provided Carter's debate briefing book to William Casey prior to the October 28, 1980 presidential debate: "There is no question Gates had access to it [the briefing book]. There is no question Casey got it."
• Lawrence E. Walsh, "Lies, Cover Ups and Slanted Intelligence: Robert Gates and Iran/Contra", 2006/11/08: "Alan Fiers had told us that he had kept Gates generally informed of his Contra-support activities, through written reports and regular face-to-face presentations, although his oral reports had been guarded because Gates had not always had a note-taker present. The CIA now claimed it could not find the notes of these meetings."
• Democracy Now, "Defense Secretary Nominee Robert Gates Tied to Iran-Contra Scandal and the Secret Arming of Saddam Hussein", 2006/11/09
  • "ROBERT PARRY: [...] So there were efforts to move weapons through third countries that would help Saddam Hussein in his fight. There was military intelligence that was provided to assist him and even advice on how to use his air force. So there was this whole secret policy that was operating behind the scenes, and the Reagan administration essentially was trying to go around Congress, keep the intelligence committees as much in the dark as possible, and Bob Gates was in the center of almost all of that."
  • "MELVIN GOODMAN: [...] Boren and Gates developed a very close relationship over the period of the late ’80s and early ’90s. And Gates gave the impression to Boren that Gates would be very careful in running the CIA, that he would pay a lot of attention to the director of the Senate Intelligence Committee and that he would come to the Intelligence Committee to vet covert operations and certain projects of the CIA. And this is what Boren used to bring some of the Democrats who were opposed to Gates, such as Sam Nunn from Georgia, into line to vote for Bob Gates. [...]"
  • "ROBERT PARRY: [...] So we had to look at some of these issues of these allegations that were sort of longstanding from some people who had sort of been in the intelligence world that there had been earlier contacts, that during the 1980 campaign, when 52 Americans were being held hostage in Iran and Jimmy Carter was trying desperately to get them out, that the Republicans went behind his back, first to get information, but also then to make contacts with the Iranians directly. [...] And one of the interesting things, which probably should be looked at now, is that after — because the Gates hearings were in 1991. He denied pretty much everything, but there’s evidence that’s come out since then that he’s never really been confronted with, including a remarkable report that the Russian government prepared at Hamilton’s request in January of 1993, in which the Russian government went back through their KGB files on what they knew about these contacts with Iran, and they reported to Lee Hamilton on January 11, 1993, that in fact these contacts with the Republicans had occurred, the Soviets at that point had intelligence on it, and that Bob Gates was one of the people involved in it."
• Daily Kos blogger LondonYank, "Robert Gates Promoted and Financed Osama Bin Laden", 2006/11/09
• Mother Jones, "Rumsfeld’s Replacement: The Robert Gates File", 2006/11/09: "Casey and his protégé Gates were fervent Cold Warriors. On December 14, 1984, in a five page memorandum for then Director of Intelligence Casey, Gates, then serving as deputy director of intelligence, set forth his views: “It is time to talk absolutely straight about Nicaragua,” the memo begins. [...] Gates goes on to say this is an “unacceptable” course, arguing that the U.S. should do everything “in its power short of invasion to put that regime out.” [...] Critics have long thought Gates was heavily involved from the very beginning in putting together and implementing the secret Iran-Contra war. [...] According to the National Security Archive’s chronology of the day-by-day happenings in Iran-Contra, on October 1, 1985 the CIA’s National Intelligence Officer, Charles Allen, informed then deputy director Gates of his suspicion that funds were being diverted to the Contras. Gates, for his part, has insisted he first learned of the diversion one year later."
• Ray McGovern, "The Cheney-Gates Cabal", 2006/11/10: "A protégé of William Casey, President Ronald Reagan’s CIA director, Gates learned well from his mentor. In 1995, Gates told the Washington Post ‘s Walter Pincus that he watched Casey on “issue after issue sit in meetings and present intelligence framed in terms of the policy he wanted pursued.” Gates followed suit, cooking the analysis to justify policies favored by Casey and the White House."
• Pentagon child pornography scandal resulting from the Operation Flicker investigation - could indicate a deliberately engineered culture of pedophilia within the military that was used by the human compromise network that Pat Sullivan ran
  • Boston Globe, "Pentagon workers tied to child porn", 2010/07/23 (pages 1, 2) (FOIA response from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service in July 2010 about the investigation): "The more than 50 pages, compiled by the investigative service, part of the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s Office, contain summaries of investigations initiated since 2002, including some cases that remain open. [...] Many of those apprehended were swept up in a much broader probe initiated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in 2006. Operation Flicker identified an estimated 5,000 people who had paid money over the Internet to access websites operated overseas. But until now, it has not been disclosed that a sizable number of cases were referred to the Defense Department for investigation because they involved military personnel, intelligence officials, or defense contractors. [...] At least two of the cases were contractors with top secret clearances at the National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on foreign communications, according to the documents. [...] A separate case involves a contractor working at the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that builds and operates the nation’s spy satellites. The individual admitted in 2008 when he was being interviewed to renew his security clearance that he viewed child pornography at least twice a week on his home computer. As of December, the individual had been transferred to an agency field office in New Mexico and had not been charged. A National Reconnaissance Office spokesman, Rick Oborn, said he was aware of a few cases of agency employees accessing such images but could not immediately say whether the particular contractor was still working for the organization. [...] Thirteen suspects were identified in California, including individuals who worked at some of the most sensitive military installations on the West Coast. One was a contractor at Edwards Air Force Base, where weapons testing is conducted, while another worked at the Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake. [...] A large amount of pornography was found on the office computer of a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, including images that appeared to be of children. [...] Other agencies where personnel were investigated are blacked out in the documents because their jobs were so highly sensitive, including a case from 2007 in which a national security official had 93 documents, 8,400 pictures, and 200 movies “that were evidence of receipt of child pornography.’’"
  • Yahoo Upshot, "Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography" by John Cook, 2010/09/03 (Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by Upshot): "But new Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act, which you can read here, show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. Astonishingly, nine of those had "Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information" security clearances, meaning they had access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. But DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. [...] Among those charged were Gary Douglass Grant, a captain in the Army Reserves and a judge advocate general, or military prosecutor. [...] But the vast majority of those investigated, including an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army and an official in the office of the secretary of defense, were never charged. On top of that, 212 people on ICE's list were never investigated at all. [...] In one case, involving an Army Reserve corporal in the Pittsburgh area, a DCIS agent expressed exasperation after repeatedly trying to get ICE to collaborate with him on the investigation: "Based upon the complete non-responsiveness of ICE ... it is recommended that [the] matter be closed." As for the 212 Project Flicker names that DCIS didn't investigate, the source familiar with the investigation said there was no systematic effort to inform their superiors or commanding officers of their suspected purchases of child pornography."
  • Boston Globe, "Pentagon lagged on pursuing porn cases", 2011/01/05 (pages 1, 2): "In 2006, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which conducts Internet pornography investigations, produced a list of 5,200 Pentagon employees suspected of viewing child pornography and asked the Pentagon to review it. But the Pentagon checked only about two-thirds of the names, unearthing roughly 300 defense and intelligence employees who allegedly had viewed child pornography on their work or home computers. The defense investigators failed to check an additional 1,700 names on the list, defense officials have revealed in correspondence with Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa. [...] In a Nov. 19 letter from [Department of Defense inspector general Gordon S.] Heddell to Grassley, the Pentagon inspector general said that child pornography was “not one of DCIS’ investigative priorities.’’"
• Robert Parry, "Robert Gates Double-Crosses Obama", 2014/01/08
  • "Gates was identified as one of the participants in a key October 1980 meeting in Paris allegedly also involving William Casey, who was then Reagan’s campaign director; George H.W. Bush, a former CIA director and then-Reagan’s vice presidential running mate; Iranian emissary Mehdi Karrubi; and Israeli intelligence officers, including Ari Ben-Menashe who later testified under oath about what he witnessed. [...] The Iranians only released the hostages after Reagan was sworn in as President on Jan. 20, 1981. U.S.-approved arms deliveries followed, carried out by Israel, the Russian Report said. As a young Israeli intelligence officer, Ben-Menashe testified that he took part in the weapons shipments, sometimes coordinating his work with Gates at the CIA. Gates has denied the allegations but he has been less than forthcoming with investigators."
  • "When Gorbachev did withdraw Soviet troops in February 1989, Gates then serving as President George H.W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser joined in the decision to rebuff Gorbachev’s proposal for a cease-fire and a coalition government between the Soviet-backed regime of President Najibullah in Kabul and the CIA-supported mujahedeen. Instead, Gates and his colleagues set their sights on a decisive victory for the CIA- and Saudi-backed forces, which included Osama bin Laden and other Islamist extremists."
  • "After Bush’s defeat in 1992, Gates had hoped to stay on, but was removed by President Bill Clinton. Gates retreated to Washington State, where he worked on his first memoir, From the Shadows. Afterwards, ex-President Bush arranged to get Gates a job at Texas A&M, where Gates, the ever-skillful bureaucrat, soon rose to become the school’s president."
  • "The Democrats and the Washington press corps were easily fooled. They misinterpreted the personnel changes as a sign that Bush had decided to wind down the war. Gates was hailed as an “adult” who would lead the impetuous “war president” out of the Iraq quagmire. But the reality was the opposite. Gates became Bush’s guide for going in deeper. Gates also proved invaluable in selling the “surge” as a great “success,” although nearly 1,000 additional U.S. soldiers died (along with countless Iraqis) and the strategic arc toward a U.S. defeat wasn’t changed. The primary “success” from the “surge” was to enable Bush and his neocon advisers to exit the scene without a clear-cut defeat wrapped around their necks."
  • "After Obama was elected in 2008, his advisers persuaded the President-elect to keep Gates on as Defense Secretary, along with the media’s beloved Gen. Petraeus as a top commander. Obama ignored contrary advice from former CIA analysts who had worked with Gates and from the few journalists who understood Gates’s real history. Obama’s decision to go with the “Team of Rivals” theme in assembling his national security team guaranteed that he surrounded himself with people like Gates who had no loyalty to the new administration, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who usually sided with Gates and Petraeus as they pushed for an Iraq-style “surge” in Afghanistan."
• Salon, "Rex Tillerson’s name was suggested to Donald Trump by three establishment Republicans who represented him", 2016/12/14: "When President-elect Donald Trump selected Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state, he consulted members of the Republican Party elite who have done business with ExxonMobil in the past. Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Stephen Hadley were all instrumental in convincing Trump to choose Tillerson — the head of ExxonMobil, a client of their consulting firm RiceHadleyGates — according to a CNN report on Tuesday. A few weeks ago Vice President-elect Mike Pence contacted Rice and Hadley, who had served as George W. Bush's national security adviser, to suggest candidates for the role. The pair, along with former defense secretary Robert Gates (who had served under both Bush and Barack Obama), decided that Trump needed someone from outside the foreign policy establishment, and because Rice and Hadley had personally worked with Tillerson when he was CEO of ExxonMobil, they thought his international business experience and knowledge of Middle Eastern geopolitics recommended him for the job."
• McClatchy DC, "Confirmation won’t be Tillerson’s toughest fight. He pushed Boy Scouts to accept gays", 2016/12/14: "And from 2010 to 2012. Rex Tillerson – Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state and the CEO of ExxonMobil – headed the Boy Scouts as a national push began to let openly gay boys join the group. Tillerson wasn’t president of the organization in 2013, when the group finally allowed gays to participate, but he was “intimately involved” in the push, according to Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who co-founded Scouts for Equality, a national campaign to end discrimination in the Boy Scouts. “My understanding is that he saw the writing on the wall,” Wahls said. “He supported the policy change even though that changed the conservative culture. This is a guy who is able to write an eight figure check for fun. He has a lot of institutional power within the Boy Scouts.” Tillerson’s fellow Boy Scouts board member, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, recommended Tillerson to Trump for the defense chief job. [...] The Boy Scouts’ board has been filled with prominent business leaders over the years including Tillerson, Gates, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and current AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson."