Richard Armitage

Richard Lee Armitage (born April 26 1945) was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005.

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Early life and military career

Born in Boston, Armitage attended Saint Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta before enrolling in the United States Naval Academy.^[1] Armitage graduated in 1967 and was then commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served on a destroyer stationed off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War before volunteering to serve what would eventually become three combat tours with the riverine/advisory forces that advised the South Vietnamese navy during the war.^[2]

According to Captain Kiem Do, a Republic of Vietnam Navy officer who served with him in Vietnam, Armitage "seemed drawn like a 'moth to flame' to the hotspots of the naval war: bedding down on the ground with Vietnamese commandos, sharing their rations and hot sauce, telling jokes in flawless Vietnamese."^[3] Instead of a uniform, Armitage often dressed in native garb, and was nicknamed "Tran Van Phu" (rich navy guy) by the Vietnamese.^[3]

It has been frequently, and inaccurately, reported that Armitage was a member of the elite Navy SEALs. Armitage has been accused of not denying this in the past, although he now corrects this mischaracterization in interviews^{[citation needed]}.

Several associates who fought alongside Armitage and other politicians (including Ted Shackley)^[4] have since said publicly that Armitage was instead associated with the CIA's highly controversial and clandestine Phoenix Program.^[4] Armitage has since denied a role in Phoenix and has stated that - at most - CIA officers would occasionally ask him for intelligence reports. ^[5]

In 1973, Armitage left active duty and joined the office of the U.S. Defense Attache in Saigon. Immediately prior to the fall of Saigon, he organized and led the removal of South Vietnamese naval assets and personnel from the country and out of the hands of the approaching North Vietnamese. Armitage told South Vietnamese naval officers to take their ships to a designated place in the ocean where they would be rescued by U.S. forces and the ships destroyed. When Armitage arrived at the designated location he found over 20,000 South Vietnamese clinging to less than three dozen naval boats without food or water.^[6] With transportation options limited for removing the floating city, Armitage personally decided to sail the flotilla of ships over 1000 miles to Subic Bay, Philippines in 1975 against the wishes of both the Philippine and American governments. Armitage personally arranged for food and water to be delivered by the U.S. Defense Department before negotiating with both governments for permission to dock in Subic Bay.^[2][6]

Public service career

After the fall of Saigon Armitage moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as a consultant for the United States Department of Defense. He was almost immediately sent to serve in Tehran, Iran until November 1976. Following that posting, he moved to Bangkok and operated an import/export business in the private sector for the next two years. In 1978, he returned to the U.S. and started working as an aide to Senator Bob Dole.^{[citations needed]}

In late 1980, Armitage became a foreign policy advisor to President-elect Ronald Reagan. Following that role, he was made a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, a high-ranking post in The Pentagon. He served in this position from 1981 to 1983.

In June 1983, he was promoted to Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy where he represented the Department of Defense in developing political-military relationships and initiatives throughout the world. He helped to spearhead U.S. Pacific security policy including the USA-Japan and U.S.-China security relationships, managed all Defense security assistance programs, and provided oversight of policies related to the law of the sea, U.S. special operations, and counter-terrorism. He played a leading role in Middle East security policies.^{[citations needed]}

Armitage left that post in 1989 to serve as a special negotiator for the President on military bases in the Philippines, and as a mediator on water issues in the Middle East.

In 1991, he was appointed a special emissary to King Hussein of Jordan. Following that, he was sent to Europe with the title of ambassador; his assignment was to direct U.S. foreign aid to the states that had been formed out of the fallen Soviet Union. He occupied that post until 1993, at which point he entered the private sector. His roles in the private sector included a directorship of US data aggregation company ChoicePoint. ^[7]

In 1998, Armitage signed "The Project for the New American Century" letter (PNAC Letter) to President Bill Clinton. The letter urged Clinton to target the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power in Iraq due to erosion of the Gulf War Coalition's containment policy and the resulting possibility that Iraq might develop weapons of mass destruction. The letter's intended purpose of removing Hussein was to protect Israel and other U.S. allies in the region, including oil-producing Arab countries.^{[citations needed]}

During the 2000 U.S. Presidential election campaign, he served as a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush as part of a group led by Condoleezza Rice that called itself The Vulcans.^{[citations needed]}

The United States Senate confirmed him as Deputy Secretary of State on March 23 2001; he was sworn three days later. A close associate of Secretary of State Colin Powell, Armitage was regarded, along with Powell, as a moderate within the presidential administration of George W. Bush. According to President Mussharaf, of Pakistan, shortly after 9/11, Armitage presented Pakistan with demands for assistance in the campaign against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The demands were non-negotiable. Should Pakistan accept, it would be considered a United States ally. Should it decline, Pakistan would be considered an enemy. According to Mussharaf, Armitage further averred that, should Pakistan decline, the United States would bomb it 'back to the Stone Age.' Armitage denies having used those words. Armitage tendered his resignation on November 16 2004, the day after Powell announced his resignation as Secretary of State. He left the post on February 22 2005, when Robert Zoellick succeeded the office.

Life after public service

There was some media speculation that President Bush would appoint him to a key security position such as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Director of National Intelligence or Defense Secretary. As of the start of July, 2007, Armitage had not re-entered public service. On May 10 2006, he was elected to the board of directors of the ConocoPhillips oil company.

In October 2006, Armitage lobbied – on behalf of the L-3 Communications Corporation, a company providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance products – some key people in the Taiwanese political circles regarding the possible sales of P-3C marine patrol aircraft to the ROC military. Those who received his personal letter included Premier Su Tseng-chang, President of the Legislative Yuan Wang Jin-pyng, and opposition People First Party leader James Soong.

Armitage stated in the letter that he wished the Taiwan government would reconsider the purchase from Lockheed Martin, the dealer the United States government had designated. Instead, he hoped that the right to negotiate the purchase should be made through an open and fair bidding process.^[8] The letter was made public by PFP Legislators on October 24 2006 in a Legislative Yuan session discussing the military purchases.^[9]

Role in revealing Valerie Plame's CIA employment

Main article: CIA leak scandal

Journalist Bob Woodward of the Washington Post revealed on November 15 2005 that "a government official with no axe to grind" leaked to him the identity of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame in mid-June 2003. According to an April 2006 Vanity Fair article (published March 14 2006), former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee said in an interview "that Armitage is the likely source is a fair assumption," though Bradlee later told the Post that he "[did] not recall making that precise statement" in the interview.^[10]

On March 2 2006, bloggers discovered that "Richard Armitage" fit the spacing on a redacted court document, suggesting he was a source for the Plame leak.^[11]

On August 21 2006, the Associated Press published a story that revealed Armitage met with Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003. The information came from official State Department calendars, provided to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.^[12]

In the September 4 2006 issue of Newsweek magazine, in an article titled "The Man Who Said Too Much", journalist Michael Isikoff, quoting a "source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities", reported that Armitage was the "primary" source for Robert Novak's piece outing Plame. Armitage allegedly mentioned Ms. Wilson's CIA role to Novak in a July 8, 2003 interview after learning about her status from a State Department memo which made no reference to her undercover status.^[13] Isikoff also reported that Armitage had also told Bob Woodward of Plame's identity in June 2003, and that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald investigated Armitage's role "aggressively", but did not charge Armitage with a crime because he "found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame's covert CIA status when he talked to Novak and Woodward".

Novak, in an August 27 2006 appearance on Meet the Press, stated that although he still would not release the name of his source, he felt it was long overdue that the source reveal himself.^[14]

Armitage has also reportedly been a cooperative and key witness in the investigation.^[15] According to The Washington Note, Armitage has testified before the grand jury three times.^[16]

On August 29 2006 Neil A. Lewis of The New York Times reported that Armitage was the "initial and primary source" for columnist Robert Novak's July 14, 2003 article, which named Valerie Plame as a CIA "operative" and which triggered the CIA leak investigation.^[17] On August 30 2006, CNN reported that Armitage had been confirmed "by sources" as leaking Ms. Wilson's CIA role in a "casual conversation" with Robert Novak.^[18] The New York Times, quoting people "familiar with his actions", reported that Armitage was unaware of Ms. Wilson's undercover status when he spoke to Novak.^[19]

The Times claims that White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was informed that Armitage was involved on October 2, 2003, but asked not to be told details. Patrick Fitzgerald began his grand jury investigation three months later knowing Armitage was a leaker (as did Attorney General John Ashcroft before turning over the investigation).

On March 6 2007 a jury convicted Libby of "obstruction of justice, giving false statements to the F.B.I. and perjuring himself, charges embodied in four of the five counts of the indictment".^[20]

Fitzgerald has issued no statement about Armitage's involvement, and as of August 2006, the CIA leak investigation remains open.

On September 7 2006, Armitage admitted to being the source in the CIA leak.^[21] Armitage claims that Fitzgerald had originally asked him not to discuss publicly his role in the matter, but that on September 5 Armitage asked Fitzgerald if he could reveal his role to the public, and Fitzgerald consented.^[21]

In a review of Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, which hit book stores in early September 2006, Novak wrote: "I don't know precisely how Isikoff flushed out Armitage [as Novak's original source], but Hubris clearly points to two sources: Washington lobbyist Kenneth Duberstein, Armitage's political adviser, and William Taft IV, who was the State Department legal adviser when Armitage was deputy secretary."^[22]

Pakistan and the War on Terror

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with CBS News 60 Minutes on September 21 2006, alleged that Armitage called an ISI general immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks and threatened to "bomb the country (Pakistan) back to the stone age" unless they supported the US-led war on terror. Presently, Musharraf has refused to provide details, commenting that he is unable to provide details due to restrictions by the publisher (Simon & Schuster) of his book In the Line of Fire: A Memoir.^{[citation needed]} President Bush on the other hand has mentioned that he only became aware of these comments as late as September 2006, when he read them in the newspapers. Armitage confirmed he had held a conversation with the Pakistani general to whom Musharraf had sourced the comments, but denied using a threat of military action couched in such terms on the claimed basis that he was not authorized to do so.^[23]

Trivia

• Armitage is fluent in Vietnamese and versed in many other languages.
• Armitage received an honorary KBE from the United Kingdom in December 2005 ^[24]
• He was a linebacker at the United States Naval Academy with Roger Staubach.
• He is married to Laura Samford Armitage; they have eight children, six (6) of whom are adopted. They have also cared for over 50 foster children during their marriage.
• He is an avid bodybuilder. He can benchpress 350 to 400lbs.

References