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From:john.podesta@gmail.com To: r_m_gates@att.net Date: 2008-11-16 18:51 Subject: Re: Contact Information Thx. ------Original Message------ From: Bob Gates To: John.Podesta@gmail.com Sent: Nov 16, 2008 3:42 PM Subject: Contact Information John, If you or anyone needs to contact me or talk with me privately during business hours, you can reach me through my personal e-mail at r_m_gates@att.net (there is an underscore -- r_m_ -- after the r and m in place of a period. I offer that because you indicated you had tried unsuccessfully to reach me by e-mail: the underscores in the address may not have come through in my initial e-mail...

As the United States watches Russia, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned that the gridlock and lack of international leadership in Washington, D.C. was becoming the greatest national security threat facing the United States. Gates’ comments came during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I think the greatest national security threat to this country at this point is the two square miles that encompasses the Capitol building and the White House… I think that other countries are watching us very carefully,” Gates said. “Other countries, whether it’s Russia or China or Iran or North Korea, are looking to...

During a live interview with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer suggested that criticism of President Obama in Gates's new memoir was endangering American troops overseas: "As this criticism is leveled by you in the book of the commander-in-chief, the acting commander-in-chief, at a time when some 40,000 U.S. troops are in harm's way, do you think that by calling him into question at this stage it is either dangerous or dishonorable?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] After Gates rejected the notion, Lauer insisted: "But you don't think...

All too often during my 4½ years as secretary of defense, when I found myself sitting yet again at that witness table at yet another congressional hearing, I was tempted to stand up, slam the briefing book shut and quit on the spot. The exit lines were on the tip of my tongue: I may be the secretary of defense, but I am also an American citizen, and there is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that. I quit. Find somebody else. It was, I am confident, a fantasy widely shared throughout...

January 07, 2014, 02:52 pm Gates slams Biden in new memoir By Rebecca Shabad Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates slams Vice President Joe Biden in a new memoir, saying Biden has been wrong on "nearly every" major foreign policy and national security issues for the past 40 years. Gates calls Biden “a man of integrity,” but questions his judgment, writes The New York Times. The paper obtained an advance copy of the book, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” which will be released next week. “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national...

Benghazi-gate direct result of pseudo Obamanism's not to call global the enemy by name (radical Islam) Obama's direct order to de-Islamize the war on terror war on terror and possibly to the endangering the love of our people in Libya, on the 11th anniversary of another Islamic jihad attack, 911. Obama's CHOICE of biased Arabist Robert Gate, is also as devastating to blur any clarity that anti-Americanism is mainly driven by ideology. Though, Islamists (whether Taliban or al-Qaida, Ansar al Sharia, Hamas, Boko Haram, Hezbollah or Abu Sayyef), capitalize on any opportunities.

Did the Secretary of Defense need to be defended . . . or jerked back into line? Hillary Clinton apparently thought so. It was a stunning power play. On Meet The Press this morning, after Defense Secretary Bob Gates conceded that Libya is not a "vital interest" of the United States--but before he could complete his comments--Hillary cut him off. She launched into a minute-and-forty-second monologue seeking to justify US military involvement in Libya. Gates had to sit and take it . . . and never got to say another word. View video here.

Signaling the growing seriousness of the Obama administration's commitment this year to ending the military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, the Defense Department said Sunday that it will release a long-awaited report on the matter earlier than planned because senators are eager to vote on whether to repeal the policy. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the report to be released on Nov. 30, one day earlier than planned, "to support Congress's wish to consider repeal before they adjourn," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Sunday. The Senate is slated to vote again on a defense...

Washington (CNN) -- Defense Robert Gates is expected to leave his post in the spring of 2011, a senior administration source told CNN on Monday. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Gates wants to retire some time next year. Gates was quoted in an article in the magazine Foreign Policy published Monday saying he wanted to step down before the end of 2011. ... In addition, the senior official said, Gates does not want a potentially difficult confirmation battle for his successor to take place in the presidential election year of 2012.

The Obama administration has asked Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allies to consider criminal charges against Julian Assange for his Afghan war leaks. Philip Shenon reports. The Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening criminal investigations of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and to severely limit his nomadic travels across international borders, American officials say. Officials tell The Daily Beast that the U.S. effort reflects a growing belief that WikiLeaks and organizations like it threaten grave damage to American national security, as well as a growing suspicion in Washington that Assange has damaged...

WASHINGTON -- Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year. The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.

As the Military begins to move from “Don’t ask, don’t tell” to take your Christian White Anglo-Saxon American values and go to hell. One thing that becomes quite apparent, and that is president Soetoro is right; we are no longer a Christian nation. (see 17sec. video) President Soetoro has pressed the reset button on a classic cultural war in America. Sensing that his domestic policies are in serious jeopardy Soetoro fell back to a stock Liberal ideology which is meant to stir up his base—homosexuality. It is absolutely fascinating to see the big lumbering politically correct ...

Related Story: Mention of gay troops in State of the Union offers little clarity to path ahead WASHINGTON — Military commanders will look for ways to stop enforcing the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law but could still take years to fully get rid of it, according to a plan outlined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates said he will establish a panel to examine how to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay troops, with a goal of creating an implementation plan by the end of the year. The...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Top defense officials have ruled out airdropping food, water and medical supplies over Haiti, fearing that chaos would be the unintended result. “It seems to me that without having any structure on the ground, in terms of distribution, that an airdrop is simply going to lead to riots as people try and go after that stuff,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday. On Thursday, an Air Force official said that a lack of fuel and equipment was slowing air operations at the Port-au-Prince airport. The first of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson’s 19 helicopters have...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's most prominent holdover from the Bush administration—Defense Secretary Robert Gates—is staying on for at least another year. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told The Associated Press late Thursday that Gates and Obama agreed last month that Gates would stay on as Pentagon chief. The commitment is open-ended, but would be for at least the rest of 2010.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates strongly hinted on Sunday that Iran may be concealing other nuclear facilities in the country, beyond the uranium enrichment facility disclosed Friday by President Barack Obama and other leaders at the G-20 Summit. This Week host George Stephanopoulos asked Gates if the newly discovered site is "the only secret site that we know of." After a pause, Gates said, "I'm not going to get into that. I would just say that we are watching closely." Gates told Stephanopoulos there is "not a chance" the United States will heed the request of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and...

Note: The following text is a quote: NEWS ARTICLE ‘No Doubt’ New Iranian Nuke Facility is ‘Illicit,’ Gates Concludes By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2009 – Revelations that Iran has covertly been building an underground nuclear-fuel processing plant belie the Iranian-government’s denials that it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on the Sunday TV talk show circuit today. “We’ve been watching the construction of this facility for quite some time and one of the reasons that we’ve waited to make it public was to ensure that our conclusions...

Obama at the Precipice FRANK RICH September 26, 2009 THE most intriguing, and possibly most fateful, news of last week could not be found in the health care horse-trading in Congress, or in the international zoo at the United Nations, or in the Iran slapdown in Pittsburgh. It was an item tucked into a blog at ABCNews.com. George Stephanopoulos reported that the new “must-read book” for President Obama’s war team is “Lessons in Disaster” by Gordon M. Goldstein, a foreign-policy scholar who had collaborated with McGeorge Bundy, the Kennedy-Johnson national security adviser, on writing a Robert McNamara-style mea culpa about...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Severe Sanctions On Iran Could Work Gates says additional sanctions may force an economically squeezed Iran to change its nuclear policy. He questions the value of military strikes. By Paul Richter September 27, 2009 Reporting from Washington - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country is already under severe economic distress. Speaking as officials from six world powers prepare to meet with Iranian negotiators this week to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, Gates...

The Talk Shows Sunday, September 27th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Kit Bond, R-Mo.; Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell; conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former President Bill Clinton, New York Gov. David Patterson and Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Jim Webb, D-Va.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.THIS WEEK (ABC): Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.