Kenneth R. Timmerman

Last updated

Kenneth R. Timmerman (born November 4, 1953) is a political writer and conservative activist.

Contents

Timmerman is executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran, an organization that works to support democratic movements in Iran. He authored Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson. Timmerman has also written on the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. He is currently an Expert at Wikistrat. [1]

Timmerman ran for public office in Maryland as a Republican in 2000 (U.S. senator), 2012 (U.S. representative), and 2014 (lieutenant governor).

Early life and career

Born in New York in 1953, Timmerman obtained a BA from Goddard College in 1973 and an M.A. from Brown University in 1976. He moved to France, where he pursued a career as a novelist, publishing a novel called Wren Hunt in 1976 and a novella called The Iskra Scrolls in 1980.

Middle East and defense correspondent

In the early 1980s, Timmerman became a Middle East correspondent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and developed an expertise in arms trade. [2] [3] In 1982, he was taken prisoner for 24 days by Fatah guerrillas in Lebanon. [4] He was the first U.S. journalist on the scene when Islamic militants bombed the U.S. Embassy in 1983. [5]

From 1985 to 1987, Timmerman was a correspondent for Defense and ArmamentNewsweek and Military Technology, covering the Iran–Iraq War and the arms industry in the Middle East. He won the Joe Petrosino Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1987 for an investigation of an Iranian arms procurement group.[ citation needed ]

From 1987 to 1993, Timmerman published the Middle East Defense News and was international correspondent for Defense Electronics. He also wrote monographs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center on efforts by Iraq, Syria and Libya to acquire weapons of mass destruction.[ citation needed ]

Author and activist

In 1991, Timmerman published The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq after the Gulf War. Timmerman advised the United Nations Special Commission for the Disarmament of Iraq on the location of weapons plants.

In 1993, Timmerman returned to the US where he worked as a member of the staff of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations. In 1995, he founded the Foundation for Democracy in Iran with Peter Rodman, Joshua Muravchick and Iranian opposition expatriates to attempt to topple the Iranian government. He founded the Middle East Data Project to advise governments and private companies. In 1998, he made suggestions to the Rumsfeld Commission supporting the deployment of a national missile defence system.

In 1998, he wrote a piece on Osama bin Laden and his training camps in Afghanistan just before Al-Qaeda attacked two US embassies in Africa. He also wrote features for the American Spectator criticizing the export of high-technology equipment to China, which was published as a book in 2000.

Timmerman wrote Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson as a change of pace from his focus on international issues in 2002. The argument claimed that Jackson alleging connections with criminals and claiming that Rev. Jackson practised extortion of businesses. It proved to be highly successful making the top ten bestseller list with 200,000 copies printed. [6] It also reached the top of the Amazon bestseller list. [7]

On February 7, 2006, Sweden's former deputy prime minister and Liberal party leader Per Ahlmark said that he had nominated Timmerman for a Nobel Peace Prize along with UN Ambassador John Bolton for "their repeated warnings and documentation of Iran's secret nuclear buildup and revealing Iran's repeated lying and false reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency." [8] The Nobel Foundation will not confirm nominations, however, until 50 years have passed. [9]

Elections in Maryland

Timmerman was the 2012 Republican nominee for U.S. Representative for the newly redrawn Maryland's 8th congressional district , facing the incumbent Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat. [10] Timmerman lost to Van Hollen, 33% to 63%. In 2000, Timmerman was a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from Maryland. Timmerman won less than ten percent in the party primary; Paul Rappaport won the Republican nomination but lost to incumbent Paul Sarbanes, who won with 63% of the vote.

Timmerman ran for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland on a ticket with businessman Charles Lollar in the 2014 Maryland gubernatorial election. [11] [12] The Lollar/Timmerman ticket finished third in the Republican primary.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iran–Iraq War</span> 1980–1988 war in West Asia

The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 by both sides. Iraq's primary rationale for the attack against Iran cited the need to prevent Ruhollah Khomeini—who had spearheaded the Iranian Revolution in 1979—from exporting the new Iranian ideology to Iraq. There were also fears among the Iraqi leadership of Saddam Hussein that Iran, a theocratic state with a population predominantly composed of Shia Muslims, would exploit sectarian tensions in Iraq by rallying Iraq's Shia majority against the Baʽathist government, which was officially secular and dominated by Sunni Muslims. Iraq also wished to replace Iran as the power player in the Persian Gulf, which was not seen as an achievable objective prior to the Islamic Revolution because of Pahlavi Iran's economic and military superiority as well as its close relationships with the United States and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danielle Pletka</span> American conservative commentator (born 1963)

Danielle Pletka is an American conservative commentator. She is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank, and the former vice president for foreign and defense policy at AEI. She is also an Adjunct Instructor at Georgetown University's Center for Jewish Civilization. From 1992 to 2002, Pletka was a senior professional staff member at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, working for Republican Jesse Helms.

The "Saving Iran's Great Uprising" more commonly known as the Nojeh coup d'état, was a plan to overthrow the newly established Islamic Republic of Iran and its government of Abolhassan Banisadr and Ruhollah Khomeini.

American support for Ba'athist Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War, in which it fought against post-revolutionary Iran, included several billion dollars' worth of economic aid, the sale of dual-use technology, military intelligence, and special operations training. The U.S. refused to sell arms to Iraq directly due to Iraq's ties to terrorist groups, but several sales of "dual-use" technology have been documented; notably, Iraq purchased 45 Bell helicopters for $200 million in 1985. Of particular interest for contemporary Iran–United States relations are accusations that the U.S. government actively encouraged Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to invade Iran, supported by a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence and generally regarded as the conventional wisdom in the Arab world, but several scholars and former U.S. government officials deny that any such collusion occurred, and no direct documentary proof of it has been found.

Operation Staunch was launched in the spring of 1983 by the United States State Department to stop the flow of U.S. arms to Iran.

During the Iran–Iraq War, both Iran and Iraq received large quantities of weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Granoff</span>

Jonathan Granoff is an American lawyer, screenwriter and lecturer, widely known as President of the Global Security Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Mooney</span> American politician (born 1971)

Alexander Xavier Mooney is an American politician serving since 2015 as the U.S. representative from West Virginia's 2nd congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 3rd district in the Maryland State Senate from 1999 to 2011 and is a former chair of the Maryland Republican Party. He is the first Hispanic person elected to Congress from West Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States foreign policy in the Middle East</span> Activities and objectives of the United States in the Middle East

United States foreign policy in the Middle East has its roots in the early 19th-century Tripolitan War that occurred shortly after the 1776 establishment of the United States as an independent sovereign state, but became much more expansive in the aftermath of World War II. With the goal of preventing the Soviet Union from gaining influence in the region during the Cold War, American foreign policy saw the deliverance of extensive support in various forms to anti-communist and anti-Soviet regimes; among the top priorities for the U.S. with regards to this goal was its support for the State of Israel against its Soviet-backed neighbouring Arab countries during the peak of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The U.S. also came to replace the United Kingdom as the main security patron for Saudi Arabia as well as the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the 1960s and 1970s in order to ensure, among other goals, a stable flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. As of 2023, the U.S. has diplomatic relations with every country in the Middle East except for Iran, with whom relations were severed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Syria, with whom relations were suspended in 2012 following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrie Ciliberti</span> American politician

Barrie Ciliberti is an American professor and politician. He is a professor at the University of Maryland University College and current Republican legislator in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing District 4. He previously represented District 39 in the House of Delegates from 1995 to 1999.

The 2008 presidential campaign of Jim Gilmore, 68th Governor of Virginia and Chairman of the Republican National Committee began after being drafted to run by his peers in January 2007. He officially began the campaign in April after filing papers with the Federal Election Commission. Gilmore was committed to conservative principles throughout his run, which ultimately ended in July 2007 due to a lack of sufficient funding. The campaign led to Gilmore's decision to run in the 2008 Virginia Senatorial race, which he lost to Democrat Mark Warner.

French support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war was an important element to strengthen Iraq for the Iran–Iraq War. Starting in roughly 1975, leading up to the Iran–Iraq War, as well as the war itself, the greatest amount of military equipment came to Iraq from the Soviet Union, but France was probably second, and generally provided higher-technology equipment than the Soviets.

Singapore, a major commercial hub with loose export controls on weapons, both served as a transshipment point for weapons destined for Iraq, as well as providing chemical warfare precursors and being a site for manufacture, under license, of foreign-designed weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soviet Union during the Iran-Iraq War</span> Bilateral relations

The policy of the Soviet Union towards the Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988 varied, beginning with a stance of "strict neutrality" and moving towards massive military support for Iraq in the final phase of the war. The war was inconvenient for the USSR, which had aimed to ally itself with both Iran and Iraq. In the first period of the war, the Soviets declared a policy of "strict neutrality" towards the two countries, at the same time urging a negotiated peace. Iraq had been an ally for decades and the Soviets had tried to win over Iran as well, but their offers of friendship were rebuffed by both the pro-Western Shah and the Ayatollah of Iran. After the Iranian revolution, the Islamic Republic established its slogan as "neither East nor West." In 1982, the war turned in Iran's favor and the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini pledged not to stop the conflict until he had overthrown the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Such a prospect was unacceptable to the Soviet Union, which now resumed arms sales to Iraq while still maintaining an official policy of neutrality. The Soviets also feared losing Saddam's friendship with the West. After further Iranian gains in 1986, the Soviet Union massively increased its military aid to Iraq. The Soviets were now afraid of the Iranians encouraging Islamic revolution in Central Asia. Soviet aid allowed the Iraqis to mount a counteroffensive which brought the war to an end in August 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">France–Iraq relations</span> Bilateral relations

French–Iraq relations are the relations between France and Iraq. France played a major role in Iraqi secession from the Ottoman Empire and eventual freedom from British colonial status. The Franco-Iraqi relationship is often defined by conflict and peace, with France supporting Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, supporting intervention in Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, and opposing the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq. As of 2004, Iraq maintains an embassy in Paris and France maintains an embassy in Baghdad and a consulate general in Erbil.

The Barack Obama administration's involvement in the Middle East was greatly varied between the region's various countries. Some nations, such as Libya and Syria, were the subject of offensive action at the hands of the Obama administration, while nations such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia received arms deliveries. Notable achievements of the administration include inhibiting the Iranian nuclear program, while his handling of certain situations, such as the Syrian civil war, were highly criticized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Maryland gubernatorial election</span> Election for governor of Maryland, U.S.

The 2014 Maryland gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Maryland. Incumbent Democratic governor Martin O'Malley was term-limited and could not run for re-election to a third consecutive term.

Charles Lollar is an American businessman and Republican Party politician. A former Marine Corps officer, he was the Republican nominee for Maryland's 5th congressional district in 2010, losing to Democratic incumbent Steny Hoyer. After coming third in the Republican primary for Governor of Maryland in the 2014 election, he ran for the Charles County Board of Commissioners, losing to Democratic Commissioner Ken Robinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Maryland gubernatorial election</span> Election for governor of Maryland, U.S.

The 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the next governor of Maryland. Incumbent governor Larry Hogan was term-limited and could not seek a third consecutive term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraq–North Korea relations</span> Bilateral relations

Iraq–North Korea relations are relations between North Korea and Iraq. The two states are part of what is called the "Axis of Evil", countries presented by the George W. Bush administration as wishing to obtain weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorism, along with Iran. Iraq was removed from the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list in 2004.

References

  1. ↑ "Wikistrat profile on Kenneth Timmerman". Wikistrat. Archived from the original on May 1, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ Wexler, Ellyn (January 2, 2008). "Conservative agenda: Mostly mission before luxury" (PDF). Maryland Gazette. Retrieved October 8, 2020– via kentimmerman.com.
  3. ↑ Gendzier, Irene (Spring 2005). "Democracy, Deception and the Arms Trade". Middle East Report. MERIP . Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  4. ↑ Livingood, Jason (November 25, 2003). "Radical Islam in the wake of 9/11". Accuracy in Academia . Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  5. ↑ Aronoff, Roger (November 29, 2010). "Interview with Journalist Ken Timmerman on Iran, Gitmo and Tensions in the Middle East". World View Weekend. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Regnery's Latest Score (Behind the Bestsellers)". Publishers Weekly. 249 (12): 18. March 25, 2002.
  7. ↑ Dreher, Rod (April 22, 2002). "He is Somebody (Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson book review)". National Review. 54 (7): 41.
  8. ↑ "All eyes on Nobel Peace Prize possibles". BBC News. October 12, 2006. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Statutes of the Nobel Foundation". Nobel Media. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2014. Such permission may not, however, be granted until at least 50 years have elapsed after the date on which the decision in question was made.
  10. ↑ "Conservative Timmerman tries to capitalize on shift in 8th Congressional District". MarylandReporter.com. October 8, 2012. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  11. ↑ Wagner, John (February 24, 2014). "Md. GOP gubernatorial hopeful Lollar chooses Kenneth Timmerman as running mate". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
  12. ↑ Wheller, Tim (February 24, 2014). "GOP gubernatorial hopeful Lollar names running mate". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.