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Robert M. Gates Ph.D.


Self Description

January 2007: "Dr. Robert M. Gates was sworn in on December 18, 2006, as the 22nd Secretary of Defense. Before entering his present post, Secretary Gates was the President of Texas A&M University, the nation’s seventh largest university. Prior to assuming the presidency of Texas A&M on August 1, 2002, he served as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001. Secretary Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993. Secretary Gates is the only career officer in CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to Director. He served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1986 until 1989 and as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser at the White House from January 20, 1989, until November 6, 1991, for President George H.W. Bush.

Secretary Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional, serving six presidents. During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties.

Secretary Gates has been awarded the National Security Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, has twice received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and has three times received CIA’s highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

He is the author of the memoir, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, published in 1996.

Until becoming Secretary of Defense, Dr. Gates served as Chairman of the Independent Trustees of The Fidelity Funds, the nation's largest mutual fund company, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc. and Parker Drilling Company, Inc.

Dr. Gates has also served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the American Council on Education, the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. He has also been President of the National Eagle Scout Association.

A native of Kansas, Secretary Gates received his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary, his master’s degree in history from Indiana University, and his doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University. Dr. Gates is 63, and he and his wife Becky have two adult children."

http://www.defenselink.mil/Bios/BiographyDetail.aspx?BiographyID=115

Third-Party Descriptions

September 2011: 'Al-Awlaki's father even sued Obama, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former CIA Director Leon Panetta to prevent them from having his son killed, but last December, a federal judge threw out the "unique and extraordinary" suit, leaving open the question of whether the U.S. government can legally target American citizens for death abroad without a trial.'

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/politics/targeting-us-citizens/index.html

February 2011: 'The suit — brought by 2 men and 15 women, both veterans and active-duty service members — specifically claims that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, “ran institutions in which perpetrators were promoted and where military personnel openly mocked and flouted the modest Congressionally mandated institutional reforms.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/16military.html

December 2010: "Probably. For the past 17 years, service members discharged for homosexual conduct have been permanently barred from the military, even if they swore that their sexual preference had changed. During that time, Congress has considered several bills to repeal DADT, many of which would have explicitly permitted discharged service members to rejoin. (The process is technically called reaccession.) In the end, the bare-bones legislation that Congress is about to send to the president punts the re-enlistment issue to the Pentagon. We don't yet know for sure how the secretary of defense will handle the discharged soldiers, but the military's November report (PDF) supporting repeal recommended that they be permitted to come back. Secretary Gates commissioned the report and has so far endorsed its findings."

http://www.slate.com/id/2278627

March 2010: 'Both Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised the issue in congressional testimony explaining Obama's new strategy. Clinton called "siphoning off contractual money from the international community . . . a major source of funding for the Taliban." Corruption, she said, "frankly . . . is not all an Afghan problem."'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802971.html

September 2009: 'Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates criticized the Associated Press on Friday for what he called an "appalling" lack of compassion for deciding to distribute a photograph of a mortally wounded Marine in Afghanistan over the objections of the Marine's father.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090403634.html

July 2009: 'The Democratic-controlled House is poised to give the Pentagon dozens of new ships, planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says the military does not need to fund next year, acting in many cases in response to defense industry pressures and campaign contributions under an approach he has decried as "business as usual" and vowed to help end.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072902676.html

May 2009: 'But Mr. Obama’s critics say his proposal is Bush redux. Closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and holding detainees domestically under a new system of preventive detention would simply “move Guantánamo to a new location and give it a new name,” said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested this month that as many as 100 detainees might be held in the United States under such a system.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/us/politics/23detain.html

January 2009: 'The prosecution filing Tuesday said the order came from the Secreatary of Defense, Robert M. Gates, “by order of the president.” It described the halt in all proceedings as designed “to permit the newly inaugurated president and his administration time to review the military commission process, generally, and the cases currently pending before the military commissions, specifically.”'

http://www10.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/washington/22gitmo.html

November 2008: "The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere....Administration officials said that Mr. Bush’s approval had paved the way for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to sign an order — separate from the 2004 order — that specifically directed the military to plan a series of operations, in cooperation with the C.I.A., on the Qaeda network and other militant groups linked to it in Pakistan."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/washington/10military.html

July 2008: "The Pentagon e-mail traffic was released Friday by Representative Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Mr. Waxman said he sent the letter in response to an article in The New York Times on Friday disclosing that electrical problems on American bases in Iraq were far more widespread than previously believed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/washington/19contractors.html

July 2008: "In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/08/atheist.soldier/index.html

June 2008: 'BANGKOK — In the strongest remarks yet by a high-ranking American official, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Sunday that Myanmar was guilty of “criminal neglect” for blocking large-scale international aid to cyclone victims, and that more Burmese civilians would perish unless the military regime reversed its policy.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/world/asia/02gates.html

May 2008: "Mr. Bush called for changing benefits in his State of the Union address in January, specifically to allow service members to transfer the education aid to their spouses or children. That provision, pushed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, has become the main point of contention in the debate over the bill."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/washington/22soldiers.html

August 2007: 'The grave violations suffered by Padilla were not isolated occurrences by rogue lower-level officials,' the suit says. Besides Mr. Rumsfeld, it names Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lowell Jacoby, among others, who 'personally ordered and/or approved Mr. Padilla's detention and interrogation program.'

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0824/p03s03-usju.html

June 2007: Powell's view comes close to that of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. In March, Gates said that there was a 'taint' about Guantanamo and that the more dangerous detainees should be held, but that the military prison should be closed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061000451.html

January 2007: "But Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said U.S. troops would not cross Iraq's border with Iran under the program, and the president said he is still committed to resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear program diplomatically."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601050.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Boy Scouts of America, The (BSA) Organization Jan 28, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Organization Executive (past or present) Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Organization Jan 28, 2007
Student/Trainee (past or present) College of William and Mary (W&M) Organization Jan 28, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Department of Defense (DOD)/Defense Department Organization Jan 28, 2007
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Fidelity Organization Jan 28, 2007
Student/Trainee (past or present) Georgetown University Organization Jan 28, 2007
Student/Trainee (past or present) Indiana University (IU) Organization Jan 28, 2007
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) National Association of State Universities and Land Colleges (NASULGC) Organization Jan 28, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Texas A&M University Organization Jan 28, 2007
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Appointed/Selected by President George Herbert Walker Bush Person Jan 28, 2007
Appointed/Selected by Subordinate of (past or present) President George W. Bush Person Jan 28, 2007
Appointed/Selected John J. Hamre Ph.D. Person Jul 15, 2011
Supervisor of (past or present) Opponent (past or present) General David D. McKiernan Person Sep 6, 2009
Succeeded by Leon Edward Panetta Esq. Person Jul 12, 2011
Successor to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld Person Jan 28, 2007

Articles and Resources

42 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Sep 30, 2011 U.S. drone killing of American al-Awlaki prompts legal, moral debate

QUOTE: The U.S. drone killing of American-born and -raised Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a major figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has re-energized a national debate over the legal and moral quandaries of a government deliberately killing a citizen.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Apr 24, 2011 Are drones a technological tipping point in warfare?

QUOTE: The British study noted that drones are becoming increasingly automated. With minor technical advances, it said, a drone could soon be able to “fire a weapon based solely on its own sensors, or shared information, and without recourse to higher, human authority.”

 Washington Post
Apr 06, 2011 Gaddafi using human shields, NATO officials say

QUOTE: Moammar Gaddafi’s military has concealed its tanks, troops and weapons among civilians in Libyan towns to prevent NATO aircraft from carrying out strikes in support of rebel forces... “tanks are being dispersed, being hidden, humans being used as shields in order to prevent NATO sorties to identify targets."

 Washington Post
Mar 27, 2011 Advertise on NYTimes.com Libyan Rebels March Toward Qaddafi Stronghold

QUOTE: Musa Ibrahim... argued that Western powers were now attacking the Libyan Army in retreat, a far cry from the United Nations mandate to establish a no-fly zone to protect civilians. “Some were attacked as they were clearly moving westbound,” he said. “Clearly NATO is taking sides in this civil conflict. It is illegal. It is not allowed by the Security Council resolution. And it is immoral, of course.”

 New York Times
Mar 17, 2011 Audit: Pentagon overpaid oilman by up to $200 million

QUOTE: Sargeant had won the three jet fuel contracts, despite having among the highest bids, because he had an effective monopoly over the routes. Waxman accused Sargeant and his company of price gouging and “engaging in the worst form of war profiteering.”

 Washington Post
Feb 15, 2011 Lawsuit Says Military Is Rife With Sexual Abuse

QUOTE: A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the Department of Defense of allowing a military culture that fails to prevent rape and sexual assault, and of mishandling cases that were brought to its attention, thus violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights...

 New York Times
Dec 20, 2010 Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Come Back? Congress voted to repeal DADT. Can gay soldiers who were discharged under the old rules re-enlist?

QUOTE: For the past 17 years, service members discharged for homosexual conduct have been permanently barred from the military, even if they swore that their sexual preference had changed. During that time, Congress has considered several bills to repeal DADT, many of which would have explicitly permitted discharged service members to rejoin...the bare-bones legislation that Congress is about to send to the president punts the re-enlistment issue to the Pentagon.

 Slate
Jun 26, 2010 Gen. McChrystal allies, Rolling Stone disagree over article's ground rules

QUOTE: McChrystal had been relieved of his command, his 34-year military career in tatters...officials close to McChrystal began trying to salvage his reputation by asserting that the author, Michael Hastings, quoted the general and his staff in conversations that he was allowed to witness but not report.

 Washington Post
Mar 29, 2010 Afghan corruption: How to follow the money?

QUOTE: a Defense Department contract worth up to $360 million to transport U.S. military goods through some of the most insecure territory in Afghanistan. But his company has no trucks. Instead, Wardak sits atop a murky pyramid of Afghan subcontractors who provide the vehicles and safeguard their passage. U.S. military officials say they are satisfied with the results, but they concede that they have little knowledge or control over where the money ends up.

 Washington Post
Oct 24, 2009 With ban over, who should cover the fallen at Dover?: Few in media choosing to capture events, but military posts pictures

QUOTE: "Taking pictures of the returning casualties to Dover is a measure of the human cost of war," said Ralph Begleiter, a journalism professor at the University of Delaware... "Do you want the government ultimately to have control over what we see or not see? Or do you want independent observers, an independent press or media, relaying those images?"

 Washington Post
Sep 05, 2009 AP Photo of Dying Marine Criticized: Gates Decries Decision to Distribute Image Despite Family's Protests

QUOTE: The controversy [the Associated Press deciding to distribute a photograph of a mortally wounded Marine in Afghanistan over the objections of the Marine's father] goes to the heart of one of the most sensitive realms of war coverage: the public portrayal of the wounded and the dead.

 Washington Post
Sep 02, 2009 Report Details Misbehavior by Kabul Embassy Guards

QUOTE: Private security contractors who guard the U.S. Embassy in Kabul have engaged in lewd behavior and hazed subordinates, demoralizing the undermanned force and posing a "significant threat" to security at a time when the Taliban is intensifying attacks in the Afghan capital, according to an investigation

 Washington Post
Aug 20, 2009 Splashing, and clashing, in murky waters: Piracy and private enterprise

QUOTE: for strategists grappling with the diminished safety of the world’s seas... figuring out a sensible and workable division of labour between navies and private firms is not easy.

 Economist
Aug 10, 2009 Refugees' plea to US forces in Iraq: protect us: Human rights lawyers say the US should intervene to safeguard the Iranians at Camp Ashraf, which was raided by Iraqi security forces July 28.

QUOTE: Human rights lawyers for a group of Iranian refugees living in Iraq who appear to have been brutally beaten by Iraqi security forces last month want the US military to intervene on their behalf.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jul 31, 2009 Ethics and Appropriations Make Strange Bedfellows

QUOTE: Members of the House ethics committee, who are investigating a pattern of lawmakers steering federal funds to generous defense contractors, have just had their own pet military projects approved by the same committee whose activities they are probing.

 Washington Post
Jul 30, 2009 House Seems To Be Set on Pork-Padded Defense Bill

QUOTE: The unwanted equipment in a military spending bill expected to come to a vote on the House floor Thursday or Friday has a price tag of at least $6.9 billion....The White House has said that some but not all of the extra expenditures could draw a presidential veto of the Defense Department's entire $636 billion budget for 2010, and it sent a message to House lawmakers Tuesday urging them to cut expenditures for items that "duplicate existing programs, or that have outlived their usefulness."

 Washington Post
Jul 28, 2009 Congressional Committees Raise Concerns Over Pentagon's Strategic Communications (Fine Print)

QUOTE: Lawmakers are voicing concerns about the Pentagon's strategic communications programs, through which the military aims to win over civilians and erode support for adversaries in countries around the world.

 Washington Post
May 22, 2009 President’s Detention Plan Tests American Legal Tradition

QUOTE: ...the concept of preventive detention is at the very boundary of American law, and legal experts say any new plan for the imprisonment of terrorism suspects without trial would seem inevitably bound for the Supreme Court.

 New York Times
Apr 30, 2009 In Military, New Debate Over Policy Toward Gays

QUOTE: While Mr. Obama has promised to get rid of the 16-year-old policy that allows gay men and lesbians to serve only if they keep their sexual orientation secret, Mr. Gates has said that both he and the president want to push the issue “down the road a bit.”

 New York Times
Jan 21, 2009 Obama Orders Halt to Prosecutions at Guantánamo

QUOTE: the order came from the Secreatary of Defense, Robert M. Gates, “by order of the president.” It described the halt in all proceedings as designed “to permit the newly inaugurated president and his administration time to review the military commission process, generally, and the cases currently pending before the military commissions, specifically.”

 New York Times

42 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]