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Michael A. Ledeen

American Enterprise
Institute: Resident Scholar

Coalition for
Democracy in Iran: Cofounder
American
Spectator: Foreign Editor

Right
Web News

last
updated: 11/22/2003

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.

Sources

(1) American
Enterprise Institute: Michael Ledeen
http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.35/scholar.asp

(2) Michael
Ledeen Fact Sheet
http://www.aei.org/docLib/20021205_ledeen.pdf

(3) Benador
Associates International Speakers Bureau: Michael Ledeen
http://www.benadorassociates.com/ledeen.php

(4) JINSA:
Michael Ledeen
http://www.jinsa.org/about/adboard/adboard.html?documentid=742

(5) Beeman,
William O., "Who is Michael Ledeen?" Pacific News Service, May 8,
2003
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15860

(6) Michael
Ledeen, "US Time to Focus on Iran : The Mother of Modern Terrorism,"
JINSA
http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.html/function/view/categoryid/1930/documentid/2012/history/3,648,1930,2012

(7) U.S.
Committee for a Free Lebanon: Golden Circle Supporters
http://www.freelebanon.org/gc.htm

(8) Michael
Ledeen, "Unpunished Failure," National Review Online, November 3,
2003
http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200311030801.asp

(9) Anthony
Gancarski, "Michael Ledeen on the Run," Antiwar.com, August 22,
2003
http://www.antiwar.com/gancarski/gan082203.html

(10) Jim Lobe,
"Veteran Neocon Adviser Moves on Iran," Asia Times, June 26,
2003
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF26Ak03.html

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