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BAR THE GATES. The more I refresh my memory about defense secretary nominee and former CIA Director Robert M. Gates, the more convinced I am that no senator on the Armed Services Committee, before which Gates appears today, who votes to move this nomination to the Senate floor will honestly be able to say that he or she has supported a man worthy of the job. In their rush to fill the Pentagon's top spot with anybody but Rumsfeld, the committee appears poised to replace an arrogant, loud-mouthed crank with a craftier player of the same philosophical bent. Like his prospective colleagues in the W adminstration, Gates has a reputation for bending intelligence to suit the political goals of his bosses, as he did during his stint as deputy to William Casey, who served as director of Central Intelligence in the Reagan administration. Lending support for the rationale that led to the unconstititutional arms-for-hostages deal known as Iran-Contra, Gates advanced faulty intelligence that asserted Soviet influence in Iran, a straw man used to create a justification for providing the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini with HAWK missiles. In their superb overview of the Iran-Contra affair, Malcolm Byrne and David Kornbluh of the National Security Archive remind us that, "at its heart, Iran-Contra was a battle over presidential power dating back directly to the Richard Nixon era of Watergate, Vietnam and CIA dirty tricks. That clash continues under the presidency of George W. Bush, which has come under frequent fire for the controversial efforts of the president, as well as Vice President Richard Cheney, to expand Executive Branch authority over numerous areas of public life. Iran-Contra also echoes in the re-emergence of several prominent public figures who played a part in, or were touched by, the scandal. The most recent is Robert M. Gates..." During the Iran-Iraq War, Gates was one of Saddam Hussein's best friends in the U.S. government, facilitating the provision of intelligence -- including satellite photos of Iran -- to the Iraqi dictator. Opposing the 1991 nomination of Gates to head the Central Intelligence Agency, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin asserted in a floor speech that "[t]he secret intelligence-sharing operation with Iraq was not only a highly questionable and possibly illegal operation, but also may have jeopardized American lives and our national intersts." Harkin also contended that Saddam likely used that intelligence in the 1991 Gulf War. Nice goin', Bob. --Adele M. Stan
