The questionable and mysterious past of Robert Gates

Robert Gates is George W. Bush’s choice for replacing Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary. Robert Gates is also a trusted Bush Inc. friend. But is he trustworthy to the public? Sources say no.

We know one thing: the current Bush administration wants to get Gates in the door and through the congressional approval process by pushing for a quick confirmatio before the end of 2006, before the new Democrat controlled Senate is seated.

If Bush’s plan goes smoothly, "there will be no time for a serious investigation into Gates’s past." Perfecto.

Gates has faced accusations of working with Islamic extremists in Iran, arming Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq, and politicizing U.S. intelligence to conform with the desires of policymakers. Do we really want someone who was EVEN accused of these things in a position such as Secretary of Defense?

In 1993, Russia sent an intelligence report to a U.S. House investigative task force stating that Gates participated in secret contacts with Iranian officials in 1980 to delay release of 52 U.S. hostages then held in Iran, a move to benefit the presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Now where have we seen this kind of behavior recently? Hmmm.

"To push through Gates’s nomination to be CIA director in 1991, the elder George Bush lined up solid Republican backing for Gates..."

As Bush Inc. grapples with the current 'Iraq gone wrong', "they are turning to an even more trusted hand to run the Defense Department. The appointment of Robert Gates suggests that the Bush Family is circling the wagons to save the embattled presidency of George W. Bush."

Read the full article at Consortium News
Also read "Gates has a history of manipulating intelligence"