|
Institutional
Affiliations
American
Enterprise Institute: Resident Scholar (1)
Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs: Member, Board of Advisors
(4)
Coalition for Democracy in Iran: Co-founder (10)
American
Spectator: Foreign Editor (4)
The New
Republic: Rome Correspondent (1975-1977) (1)
Washington Quarterly: Founding Editor (3)
National Review Online: Contributing Editor (3)
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon: Golden Circle Supporter (7)
Benador
Associates: Speakers bureau
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS): Senior Fellow (1982-86)/Senior Staff Member (1977-1981) (1)
University of Rome, Italy: Visiting Professor of History (1975-1977) (1)
Washington University: Instructor and Assistant Professor of History (1967-1974) (1)
American Committee for Peace in Chechnya:
Member
Government
Service
U.S.-China Commission: Vice Chairman (1)
Department of State: Consultant, Under Secretary of Political Affairs (1982-86) (2)
Department of Defense: Consultant, Office of the Secretary (1982-86) (2)
White House: Consultant, National Security Advisor to the President (1982-86) (2)
Department of State: Special Advisor to the Secretary (1981-82) (1)
Education
University of Wisconsin: Ph.D., history and philosophy (1)
University of Wisconsin: M.S., history and philosophy (1)
Pomona College: B.A. (1)
|
Highlights
& Quotes
Michael
Ledeen, the neocons' point man on regime change in Iran (and in
Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia), is apparently capable of viewing
diplomacy only through the barrel of a gun, arguing in a November
2003 piece for the National Review Online that the "appeasers"
in Congress and the State Department "don't want to know about
Iran, because if they did, they would be driven to take actions
that they do not want to take. They would have to support democratic
revolution in Iran, and they prefer to schmooze with the mullahs."
He concludes, "I guess some top official will have to die at
the hands of (obviously) Iranian-supported terrorists before the
Pentagon is permitted to work on the subject." (8)
Commenting on Ledeen's screed, Anthony Gancarski of Antiwar.com wrote, "[Ledeen] talks of military confrontation with Iran, which will be ugly like nothing since the Korean war, like he's a frat boy trying to get laid. Ledeen is a risible presence on the American scene, and this column hopes that his enemies in Washington find a way to take him to task for reckless, foolish talk that will lead to the death of more Americans and further diffusion of the Administration's credibility." (9)
Ledeen
has a colorful track record, which has produced substantial grist
for the conspiracy mill: He was allegedly tied to the Italian P2
Masonic Lodge, a violent right wing group that was involved in a
number of terrorists attacks in Italy in the 1970s the 1980s; in
the late 1970s, while P2 was doing its dirty work, Ledeen was working
as a consultant to Italian intelligence on terrorism issues; as
a consultant to the National Security Council in the 1980s, Ledeen
acted as a go-between for Oliver North in the early stages of the
Iran-Contra affair, working with the Israeli spy David Kimche to
gain the release of U.S. hostages in Beirut through an Iranian arms
dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar; he helped promote the "Bulgarian
Connection" theory that the KGB was behind the assassination
attempt on the pope in 1981; and, more recently, the Sydney Morning
Herald reported (August 8, 2003) that Ledeen worked with Pentagon
staffers to redevelop the channel to arms dealer Ghorbanifar in
support of resistance efforts in Iran. Reported the Herald: "[Harold]
Rhode recently acted as a liaison between [Douglas]
Feith's office, which drafted much of the Administration's post-Iraq
planning, and Ahmed
Chalabi, a former Iraqi exile groomed for leadership by the
Pentagon. Mr. Rhode is a protege of Michael Ledeen, who was a National
Security Council consultant in the mid 1980s when he introduced
Mr. Ghorbanifar to Oliver North, a NSC aide, and others in the opening
stages of the Iran-Contra affair. It is understood Mr. Ledeen reopened
the Ghorbanifar channel with Mr. Feith's staff." (9, 10)
According to his bio page on the web site of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs: "Michael A. Ledeen is one of the world's leading authorities on contemporary history and international affairs. In a few years in government, he carried out some of the most sensitive and dangerous missions in recent American history. He has been profiled in the New York Times, and was the subject of a front-page article and a lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal. A profile of him concluded that 'a portrait emerges of a man with an intense knowledge of 20th-century history, a deep commitment to democracy, and a willingness to be adventurous. This is a man who has helped shape American foreign policy at its highest levels.'" (4)
Not one to mince words, Ledeen urged the then-newly installed Bush administration (National Review Online, March 8, 2001) to purge the "environmental whackos, radical feminazos," and "foreign-policy types on the National Security Council Staff and throughout State, CIA, and Defense, who are still trying to create Bill Clinton's legacy in the Middle East."
Ledeen's books include Grave New Worlds and Freedom Betrayed: How the United States Led a Global Democratic Revolution, Won the Cold War, and Walked Away. From his book The War against the Terror Masters: "The awesome power of a free society committed to a single mission is something [our enemies] cannot imagine. ... Our unexpectedly quick and impressive victory in Afghanistan is a prelude to a much broader war, which will in all likelihood transform the Middle East for at least a generation, and reshape the politics of many older countries around the world" (quoted in the American Enterprise Institute's 2002 Annual Report).
In addition to his work with the American Enterprise Institute, Ledeen has supported or co-founded a number of advocacy groups pushing for a radical transformation of the Middle East, including the Coalition for Democracy in Iran, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and Ziad Abdelnour's U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon.
|
