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Archive 1Archive 2

He advocates "total war" in the service of democracy, a view some critics disparage as "totalitarian".

Find me where he advocates "total war."

This is actually partly a mistake, a quote from a fellow neocon was misatributed to Ledeen. Check Disinfopedia entry :

Ledeen and the 'total war' misattributed quote

The following quotation has been widely misattributed to Ledeen: "If we are going to win a total victory in the war on terrorism while deterring other major wars around the globe, we will first have to rid ourselves of our aversion to total war. By 'total' war, I mean the kind of warfare that not only destroys the enemy's military forces, but also brings the enemy society to an extremely personal point of decision, so that they are willing to accept a reversal of the cultural trends that spawned the war in the first place. A total-war strategy does not have to include the intentional targeting of civilians, but the sparing of civilian lives cannot be its first priority... The purpose of 'total' war is to permanently force your will onto another people group... [T]otal war pits nation against nation, even culture against culture."

In fact, the quotation is from another National Review columnist, Adam G. Mersereau [3]. Ledeen is justifiably angry about the misattribution, and blamed a Brown University professor, William Beeman, for it [4]. Brown has admitted the error and apologized [5]. The misattribution has been widely repeated on the Internet [6].

However, Ledeen has advocated total war, although not in such offensive terms. In a 2003 essay for the American Enterprise Institute, he wrote: "There is every reason to believe we will succeed in revolutionizing the Middle East, for we have always excelled at destroying tyrannies.... We wage total war, because we fight in the name of an idea — freedom — and ideas either triumph or fail." [7]

pir 09:33, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Yellowcake claim

French probe led to 'fake Niger uranium papers' Mark Huband, August 2 2004

A French intelligence operation to safeguard Niger's uranium industry and prevent weapons proliferation, inadvertently led to the forging of documents relating to an apparent clandestine uranium trade with Iraq, western intelligence officials say. [1]

Riiiiight. "inadvertent" forgery? In any case, the Cannistraro interview is a more recent assessment, and the claim as written is correct. Cannistraro argues that the documents were created here (by Ledeen or someone "very close") and then given to Italian intelligence (with whom Ledeen has contacts). I'm going to revert it; I think it's an important issue. --csloat 19:11, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
According to senior intelligence officials, the forged documents were produced with the involvement of people familiar with Niger, and were created in 2000
Um, that would be before the election. TDC 21:55, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
And what does that have to do with anything? The question is whether Ledeen forged the documents, which is considered likely by Cannistraro. If you have reference to someone else credible who disputes this claim, please include it as well; otherwise you are just deleting information that is inconvenient for your worldview. Please don't delete factual and relevant information -- add to it if you have additional material. --csloat 22:10, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
So, Leeden forged the documents before 9/11 and even before Bush took office in 2001? I swear, the left has sunken to the depths of the Black Helicopter crowd. Could it be a more plausible reason that Martino forged the documents himself to make more money? TDC 00:35, July 20, 2005 (UTC)
No offense, but you're the one talking nonsense. I am going to revert the page a final time so as not to run afoul of the 3RR; if you revert it again someone else will have to change it back, or I guess I can do it tomorrow, but either way this should go to arbitration or something. In any case, look, the claim reported is from a former intelligence official under the Reagan administration; it is certainly both credible and noteworthy, whether or not it is true. It is, after all, also noted without incident on the yellowcake forgery page, as it should be. It should also be here since Ledeen is implicated. Why do you insist (without a shred of evidence specifically refuting Cannistraro) that he is lying? Or you don't even say that - it's not clear what you think, other than that the French did it. I think it's fair to say there are different theories but you can't just pretend the one you don't agree with doesn't exist. --csloat 02:12, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
I think arbitration might be a bit premature, perhaps an RfC might be more appropriate. As to Cannistraro credibility and notability: Cannistraro has been out of the game for 14 years and he does not specifically say Ledeen did it. What his motivations are is anyone's guess. I will take this mater up on the yellowcake forgery page as time permits. TDC 17:46, July 20, 2005 (UTC)
He implicates Ledeen; that was the most clear way I could say it. Feel free to muck with the wording; just don't delete relevant information. If you have information about Cannistraro you can add it to the Cannistraro page (or here if it is relevant). As for his motivations -- you are reasoning backwards; you assume he is lying and speculate about why he is lying. I don't see any reason to make that assumption. His claim here is notable whether or not you doubt his credibility. --csloat 17:59, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Need to re-work/add to early 80s

I think that this is a bit of a red herring:

"He was also a vocal proponent of the theory that the Bulgarian Secret Service was behind the plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The theory was later rejected by the Italian Courts but new evidence had confirmed that it was the Bulgarians in concert with the KGB and Stasi."

I believe in the confines of the Wiki (without turning this into a book), I think it is better to say that Ledeen was an effective proponent of the theory that the Soviets had an organized and concerted effort to support international terrorism. The "Bulgarian Connection" was just one piece of a broader argument. The article on the Stasi documents is interesting - but the fact that there may have been documentation connecting the Bulgarian Secret Service to the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II isn't really relevant to the broader picture Ledeen painted in articles and in representations to policy makers and US intelligence officials that the Soviets were involved in a broader international terror network.

Former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman's Foreign Policy Magazine article "Ending the CIA's Cold War Legacy" (March 1997) among other sources documents that the notion of a broad, Soviet-backed international terror network was the result of CIA black propaganda having the unintentional effect of being used to influencing CIA analysis and US policy.

Another bit of history that is missing (see below) is Ledeen's role in the "Billy Gate" Affair. Ledeen's role in shaping the notion of the Soviet-backed international terror network and the "Billy Gate" affair and some of Ledeen's later alleged mischief do have some things in common. Threads of truth (Billy Carter did go on an ill-advised trip to Libya and met people and accepted gifts he shouldn't have) are combined with embellishments and what appear to be out-right fabrications to create assertions he has used very effectively to influence policy.

I personally doubt Ledeen forged the Niger documents. But I don't doubt Cannistraro's assessment that Ledeen is "close" to those involved. Above, "TDC" is a bit incredulous at the notion that Ledeen could have been connected to the Niger forgeries pre-9/11. But really if you look at Ledeen's ties to Italian intelligence operatives and his historical practice of advancing other disinformation to influence policy, this is not far fetched.

While the last graph is just an opinion, I'll try to work on some sources and documentation regarding the other information above and contribute them.

Ledeen's Role in "Billygate" Affair

In articles in The New Republic (1979 and 1980) and others reprinted in the Atlantic Constitution and Now (a UK magazine), Ledeen, then Executive Editor for Washington Quarterly, accused the President's brother, Billy Carter, of having met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Libya in Oct. 1978 and of having accepted loans and expense money from the Libyans. "More Adventures of Billy Carter," TNR, Feb. 10, 1979; "Preposterous Emissaries," TNR, Aug. 2, 1980

In an "unusal public deposition" to counsel of a Senate subcommittee investigating Billy Carter's ties to with Libya, Ledeen testified that he believed the president's brother was "one pawn in an ambitious influence-peddling scheme." Ledeen told Senate investigators that his sole source for the information was Michele Papa, a Sicilian lawyer who Ledeen claimed was a Libyan agent. Billy Carter denied meeting Arafat and having received a $50,000 payment from the Libyans. "Billy Source Described," The Washington Post, Oct. 29, 1980, p. A-4

Various sources have repeated charges that far from merely reporting on Billy Carter's meetings in Libya, Ledeen collaborated with Italian intelligence sources to use Billy Carter's ill-conceived trip to Libya to create an "influence peddling scandle."

  • "With the illicit support of the SISMI and in collaboration with the well-known American 'Italianist' Michael Ledeen, Pazienza succeeded in extorting, also using fraudulent means, information -- then published with great evidence in the international press -- on the Libyan business of Billy Carter, the brother of the then-president of the United States." [ From the indictment of Francesco Pazienza as reported in "Tale of Intrigue: How an Italian Ex-Spy Who Also Helped U.S. Landed in Prison Here," Jonathan Kwitny, The Wall Street Journal, Aug 7, 1985 ]

Ties to Italian Intelligence

As reported in Aug. 1985 articles in the Wall Street Journal, testimony in the trial of Francesco Pazienza and statements by top intelligence officials before the Italian parliment revealed that Ledeen performed work for SISME, the Italian Intelligence Service, and had dealings with Pazienza in addition to their collaboration on the Billygate affair.

Federico Umberto D'Amato, a top Italian security official known as "the J. Edgar Hoover of Italy," testified before parliament in 1982 that "Ledeen had collaborated with the Italian services" and that Ledeen and two former CIA agents taught Italian agents. Gen. Giuseppe Santovito, the head of SISMI and Mr. Pazienza's superior at the time, gave similar testimony. Mr. Pazienza said Ledeen received at least $120,000, at least some of which was paid into a Bermdua bank account. Ledeen denied providing training to SISMI.

Ledeen said he had performed a "risk analysis" project for SISMI and may have received $100,000 and travel expenses. He said he believed he had a personal account in Bermuda for a period of months.

Mr. Pazienza said that he and Ledeen in 1980 and 1981 also were involved in creating a direct link between some U.S. supporters of Ronald Reagan and the right wing of the then-ruling Christian Democratic Party in Italy. Ledeen and Pazienza worked as a middleman between Italian leaders and the incoming Reagan administration, bypassing normal Italian-American diplomatic channel. D'Amato provided a similar account in his testimony to parlament. Richard Gardner, the America Ambassador to Rome at the time said that Pazienza and Ledeen were "freelancers with questionable credentials" who "subsituted" for the embassy and caused "great problems."

[ Tale of Intrigue: Why an Italian Spy Got Closely Involved In the Billygate Affair," Jonathan Kwitny, The Wall Street Journal, Aug 8, 1985 ]

Who is Michael Ledeen?

Found this text elsewhere, but don't know how much of it is accurate or relevant to the article, if any of this can be independently verified and sourced it might be appropriate for inclusion. Whig 07:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Excerpt, taken from Edward Herman / Gerry O'Sullivan, The "Terrorism" Industry (Pantheon, 1989), p. 161 ff.
Michael Ledeen has long been associated with CSIS [Center for Strategic and International Studies] and was one of the founding organizers of JINSA [The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs]. During the Reagan years, Ledeen moved into the higher circles of power, serving as Secretary of State Haig's advisor and agent in Italy, as a consultant on terrorism, and playing a role in both the Bulgarian connection case and the Iran-contra affair. With these connections, Ledeen had exceptional media exposure, appearing on ABC's "Nightline" and "This Week with David Brinkley," PBS's "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour," and CNN's "Crossfire." He has also written op-ed columns and articles for numerous magazines and newspapers, and edited the Washington Quarterly (published by CSIS) prior to going to work for Haig.
Ledeen's academic career came to an end when he was denied tenure at Washington University in St. Louis in 1972 for, among other reasons, plagiarism [1]. During the 1970s, he worked as a journalist in Italy with Il Giornale Nuovo, a right-wing newspaper reputedly controlled by the CIA [2]. During this Italian stint he collaborated regularly with Claire Sterling in anticommunist propaganda closely tied to ongoing U.S. interventionist strategies [3]. In 1980 he entered into a collaboration with Francesco Pazienza, an agent of the Italian secret service (SISMI) and a member of Rome's extreme right-wing Masonic Lodge, P2 (Propaganda Due), headed by the fascist Licio Gelli. In an Italian criminal court in 1985, Pazienza was judged guilty of political manipulation, forgery, and the protection of criminals and terrorists, among other offenses. Indeed, according to the findings of the court, Pazienza falsified information about the Bologna bombing in order to divert attention away from the real (right-wing) terrorists who had staged the attack. Ledeen is identified in the court documents as an agent of SISMI, possibly placed on their payroll by Pazienza himself. Ledeen collected money for his services to SISMI, which included "risk assessment," the training of Italian intelligence agents, and providing reports on terrorism to the Italian government [4].
Pazienza and Ledeen worked together in the so-called Billygate affair during the 1980 presidential campaign, luring Jimmy Carter's brother into a compromising relationship with Qaddafi (this according to prosecuting Judge Domenico Sica). During the Reagan transition, to quote Italian police official Umberto d'Amato, "there was an interregnum during which relations between Italy and the United States were carried on in the persons of the duo Pazienza-Ledeen" [5]. Later, the pair were important participants in the creation of the Bulgarian plot to kill the pope, a story that succeeded in gulling most of the major media in the West.
Ledeen has moved within the power structure and between Western governments according to opportunity, for personal advantage and perhaps also in pursuit of political ends that are not entirely clear. Although serving as a loyal agent of the U.S. state in Italy in the 1970s, his service in the Billygate affair was to the Republican Party. He was on the payroll of the Italian secret service agency SISMI in the early 1980s, but his manipulations in Italy caused the new head of SISMI to declare before Parliament in 1984 that Ledeen was an "intriguer" and unwelcome in Italy [6]. His attachment to Israel, reflected in his JINSA connection, may have influenced his pursuit of the hostage deal with Iran (Israel favored such a transaction), and his former boss in the Pentagon, Noel Koch, asserts that while Ledeen was in Italy the CIA station chief there took him to be "an agent of influence of a foreign government" [7].
In articles written for Commentary and the New Republic, Ledeen argued in favor of U.S. support for right-wing terrorists ("resistance forces") such as UNITA and the Nicaraguan contras, and claimed that the Soviets had aligned themselves with the Mafia in order to use drug money to support international terrorism. In the first piece, entitled "Fighting Back," Ledeen urged the U.S. government to assassinate selected leaders of the Sandinista, Cuban, East German, Libyan, and Palestinian armed forces as a "counter-terrorism" measure [8]. In "K.G.B. Connection," after repeating the oft-told tale of the Bulgarian plot to kill the pope, Ledeen asserted that the Soviets were working with drug smugglers because they are "alarmingly short of hard cash these days." "Yuri Andropov's old organization, the K.G.B., has apparently become a major backer of drug smugglers, arms runners, and terrorists..." [9]. And all of this without a shred of evidence to support his charges.
References
[1] Charles R. Babcock, "Ledeen Seems to Relish Iran Insider's Role," Washington Post, Feb. 2, 1987, p. A 16; Eric Alterman, "Michael Ledeen," Regardie's, April 1987.
[2] Fred Landis, "Robert Moss, Arnaud de Borchgrave, and Right-Wing Disinformation," CovertAction Information Bulletin, no. 10 (Aug.-Sept. 1980), p. 43.
[3] See chapter 5, p. 83.
[4] Herman and Brodhead, Bulgarian Connection, pp. 94-95; Jonathan Kwitny, "Tale of Intrigue: Why an Italian Spy Got Closely Involved in the Billygate Affair," Wall Street Journal, Aug. 8, 1985.
[5] Quoted in Sandro Acciari and Pietro Calderoni, "C'ero io, c'era Pazienza," L'Espresso, Nov. 11, 1984.
[6] Marizio De Luca, "Fuori l'intrigante," L'Espresso, Aug. 5, 1984.
[7] Quoted in Christopher Hitchens, "Minority Report," Nation, Nov. 14, 1988, p. 482. Koch makes this statement following remarks on the Pollard case and Ledeen's constant efforts to obtain secret documents that seemed to have little bearing on his supposed responsibilities in Koch's office.
[8] Michael Ledeen, "Fighting Back," Commentary, Aug. 1985, p. 28.
[9] Michael Ledeen, "K.G.B. Connections," New Republic, Feb. 28, 1983, pp. 9-10.


The wording of the above is heavily POV but I think the facts are all correct (at least the ones I have heard about) and these things are properly referenced. I have no objection to incorporating some of this into the article.--csloat 17:21, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
I tend to agree - distill the the facts from the point of view. Going to some of the sources cited is useful.
This might be splitting hairs, but the Washington Post article makes it clear that Ledeen was denied tenure at Washington University on the basis of a vote within the history department. The Post article quotes the department head at the time as saying "He seemed to have used the work of somebody else without proper credit. There was no other reason to vote against him." They quote another contemporary of Ledeen and later head of the department as saying "Serious questions were raised about the quality of his scholarship and the research that went into it." So I guess the hair-splitting distinction is that Ledeen doesn't seem to have been subject to any formal proceeding regarding the plagiarism charges, but he was denied tenure on the belief of the department leadership that he had inappropriately borrowed material and his research wasn't up to par. Long story short - perhaps it is more accurate to say that he was denied tenure, for among other reasons, *charges of plagiarism*.
Another hair splitting distinction - The passage above says that Francesco Pazienza was a member of Rome's extreme right-wing Masonic Lodge, P2. I think this is implied by the company he kept and by his activities with known P2 members. However, I'm not sure that Pazienza's membership in P2 is claimed in the Wall Street Journal article that is cited. That article states:
"Italian police investigating the financial affairs of banker Michele Sindona stumbled onto records kept by a secret Masonic lodge known as P-2. They found a membership list of a thousand or so businessmen and other public figures, mostly of the political right...
Although Mr. Pazienza's name wasn't on the list, the name of his patron, Gen. Santovito, was."
I don't know whether this fact was established in the legal proceeding against Pazienza, but it isn't presented conclusively in the WSJ article. As I say, this may be a bit of hair splitting since the WSJ article - if not reporting Pazienza as a member of P2 - certainly establishes that Pazienza was very closely connected to, and collaborated with, individuals who were P2 members. Speaking of P2 -- you can find the claim that Ledeen was a member of P2 in various articles. Again, I think you can prove he was close to people in the organization, but I don't know of a source (the list of 1,000 names, for example) that explicitly includes Ledeen. Perhaps this to was established in the legal proceedsing against Pazienza - I've just never seen the source.
This isn't an attempt to clear Ledeen's name -- he certainly was involved with shady characters and shady dealings in Italy -- just an attempt to keep things factual. Something Ledeen isn't very careful about...


Dewey Clarridge On Michael Ledeen and "The Terror Network"

Below is a bit from Dewey Clarridge's book about Michael Ledeen and his role in promoting Claire Sterling's claims of a vast Soviet-controlled terror network.

Duane "Dewey" Clarridge, a longtime CIA field agent (NE & SE Asia) and administrator who was pardoned by George HW Bush for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, describes Michael Ledeen as a "fine journalist," "a scholar," and a friend. However, he comments that their friendship had a "rocky start." Clarridge wrote that Ledeen made "life difficult for us [the CIA]". He noted that the CIA took a "dim view" of individuals such Ledeen and retired CIA officer Ted Shackley who freelanced with foreign intelligence services. In 1980, Ledeen and Shackley teamed up to provide "war games-type training" for European intelligence services, including Italy's intelligence service.
Clarridge explains that Ledeen's damage to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign by "trumpeting of the Billy/Qaddifi relationship" earned the appreciation of Alexander Haig and other prominent Republicans. Clarridge wrote that Ledeen further aggravated the CIA by becoming an unofficial conduit between Haig and General Giuseppe Santovito, head of the Italian Military Service (SISMI).
Clarridge noted that Ledeen shared the views of Claire Sterling. Sterling contended in his 1980 book "The Terror Network" that the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc "extensively sponsored and trained the Red Brigades and other terrorist organizations." Clarridge commented that the book "implied (without documentation) that the Italian intelligence services -- people such as Santovito -- knew this and were sitting on the information."
When Santovito was in Washington on a trip organized by Ledeen, Clarridge describes going uninvited to the Watergate Hotel intercept Santovito in the lobby before Santovito left for the State Department to meet with Haig. Clarridge believe Haig was looking to Santovito for "evidence of Soviet or Eastern Bloc collusion in the activities of the Red Brigagdes." Clarridge recalls saying "Look, General, you know as well as I do that you have absolutely no evidence of any Soviet or Eastern Bloc involvement in training or guiding the Red Brigades. Isn't that true?" Santovito replied "Yes, that's true." [ "A Spy For All Seasons: My Life in the CIA," Duane R. Clarridge, Scribner, 1997, pgs. 187-189. ]
Clarridge noted that in 1987, as he was retiring from the agency after being formally reprimanded, it was his friend Ledeen who used connections with a prominent General Dynamics shareholder to introduce Clarridge to the General Dynamic executives who offerred him a position at the company. [ pg. 395 ]

Melvin A. Goodman on "The Terror Network"

Another important source on the CIA's assessment of the veracity of "The Terror Network" is a 1997 article by Melvin A. Goodman [ "Ending the CIA's Cold War Legacy" Foreign Policy (Spring 1997) p. 128 ]. Goodman was the CIA's Senior Soviet Analyst from 1976 to 1986. Goodman relates how DCI William Casey advanced the notion of a Soviet conspiracy behind global terrorism in order to justify more U.S. covert action in the Third World. Goodman notes that "specialists at the CIA dismissed the Sterling book, knowing that much of it was based on the CIA's own 'black propaganda'--anticommunist allegations planted in the European press."

Casey continued to push the Soviet Terror conspiracy theory in pursuit of a National Intelligence Estimate NIE on Terrorism. When he could not find the support for the Terror conspiracy theory among CIA and DIA analysts, he relied upon a visiting professor from Rutgers University to put together the draft NIE showing the Soviets were "deeply engaged in support of revolutionary violence worldwide." According the Goodman, the resulting NIE was repudiated in the policy and intelligence communities, contributing to a decline in the CIA's credibility. Secretary Shultz, Haig's successor, disagreed with the NIE and shelved it. William Webster, Casey's successor, repudiated it publicly. No intelligence service in Western Europe supported the ClA view on terrorism, and even Israel's spy service, the Mossad, was incredulous."

Parts I & II of the BBC documentary "The Power of Nighmares" includes interviews with Goodman and Ledeen in which they present their completely diametric views of the alledged Soviet terror network. This documentary goes a too far in portraying Al Qaeda as a just a "nightmare" that was invented for purposes of advancing the interests of American neocons. However, there is some interesting material such as the Ledeen and Goodman interviews. Look here for an archived version: http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

Stasi documents

As I mentioned, I think characterising Ledeen as simply a proponent of the theory of a Bulgarian intelligence connection to the attempted assassination of the Pope is a much too narrow description of Ledeen's position and activities. The mention of Stasi documents indicating a Bulgarian connection is a red herring that doesn't really belong in a discussion of Michael Ledeen.

Reagan's October Surprise

Another operation with alleged Ledeen involvement. No surprise that Ledeen and Rove are reportedly close - they really are cut from the same cloth.

Parry, Robert. Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery. New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1993. 350 pages

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