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Thomas Fingar | |
---|---|
Chair of the National Intelligence Council | |
In office June 13, 2005 –December 1, 2008 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Robert Hutchings |
Succeeded by | Peter Lavoy |
16th Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research | |
In office July 22,2004 –June 13,2005 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Carl W. Ford Jr. |
Succeeded by | Randall M. Fort |
Personal details | |
Born | January 11,1946 |
Education | Cornell University (BA) Stanford University (MA,PhD) |
Charles Thomas Fingar,(born January 11,1946) is a professor at Stanford University. In 1986 Fingar left Stanford to join the State Department. In 2005,he moved to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the deputy director of National Intelligence for Analysis and concurrently served as the chairman of the National Intelligence Council until December 2008. [1] In January 2009,he rejoined Stanford as a Payne Distinguished Lecturer in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. [2]
Fingar received his B.A. in government and history from Cornell University (1968),and his M.A. (1969) and Ph.D. (1977) in political science from Stanford University. His principal languages are Chinese and German.
Fingar's academic career has been primarily at Stanford University,where several research appointments included Senior Research Associate in the Center for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC),and Director of the Stanford U.S.-China Relations Program.[ citation needed ]
He served as Assistant Secretary and head of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) for the United States Department of State from 23 July 2004 until May 2005. He is a career member of the Senior Executive Service. His principal foreign languages are Chinese and German. Fingar has published dozens of books and articles,mostly on aspects of Chinese politics and policymaking.[ citation needed ]
As Assistant Secretary in charge of INR,as well as Acting Assistant Secretary (2000–2001 and 2003–2004),he served as principal adviser to the Secretary on intelligence-related issues,supervised analytical work on every country and region as well as transnational challenges such as terrorism and proliferation,ensured that activities undertaken by the Intelligence Community supported the President's foreign policy,and contributed to coordinated intelligence judgments as a member of the National Foreign Intelligence Board (NFIB).[ citation needed ]
Previous assignments in the department include serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (2001–2003),Deputy Assistant Secretary for Analysis (1994–2000),Director of the Office of Analysis for East Asia and the Pacific (1989–1994),and Chief of the China Division (1986–1989). Fingar was a member of the Senior Seminar during 1992–1993.[ citation needed ]
In 1975,Fingar began work at Stanford University as a research associate in the Stanford Arms Control Program,the predecessor of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). He was director of the university's U.S.-China Relations Program when he left for the State Department in 1986. Other previous positions include assignment to the United States National Academy of Sciences as co-director of the US-China Education Clearinghouse,adviser to the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment,and consultant to numerous U.S. government agencies and private sector organizations. He served as the senior German linguist in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence,USAREUR and 7th Army in Heidelberg,Germany.[ citation needed ]
In December 2007,Fingar was one of the authors of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear programs. The NIE asserted with "high confidence" that Tehran had "halted its nuclear weapons program" in the fall of 2003. [3] This contradicted an earlier 2005 NIE report that ballistic delivery systems and uranium enrichment was continuing [4] The 2007 NIE was met with some public outcry as some alleged the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence for political aims. [5] A recent announcement by Iran on the existence of the Qom uranium enrichment site—too small for civilian purposes but ideal for producing weapons-grade uranium—was confirmed by the White House,as the U.S. has been "carefully observing and analyzing this facility for several years" although they did not know what the site was being used for until the announcement. [5] The White House statement goes against the report Fingar helped write;namely that Iran had stopped its program when at the same time the US knew of a second,secret site for enrichment. In addition,Britain,Germany and Israel disagreed with the 2007 NIE assessment. The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND),Germany's foreign intelligence agency,has amassed evidence of a sophisticated Iranian nuclear weapons program that continued beyond 2003. [6]
In October 2020,Fingar signed a letter stating the Biden laptop story “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". [7]
He currently serves on the board of directors of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.
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The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) awarded Fingar the 2005 Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Senior Professional. The commendation reads:
Dr. Thomas Fingar is recognized for his outstanding service and leadership in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), most recently serving as INR's Assistant Secretary. Fingar guided INR through more than a decade of continuous change, reinvention, and rejuvenation in response to shifting foreign policy challenges. Major INR initiatives under Tom Fingar's leadership included the creation of the Humanitarian Information Unit to cope with such humanitarian emergencies as HIV/AIDS, reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq, and tsunami relief; the transformation of INR's TIPOFF terrorism database into a major resource for national watch listing organizations after 9/11; and shifting INR's focus from "current intelligence" toward an optimal balance between briefing policy makers on fast moving issues and providing new insight through more in depth analytical products. Tom Fingar's accessible management style and willingness to adopt inventive technologies and a "team" approach greatly enhanced the output of the Bureau and elevated the morale of its staff. Imbued with what former Secretary of State Colin Powell once termed Tom Fingar's "moral courage and sense of purpose," INR has become an "outstanding intelligence outfit," with a reputation that continues to represent integrity, experience, and respected analytic judgments. [8]
Fingar was awarded the 2012 Samuel Adams Award for integrity in Intelligence. [9]
Fingar oversaw preparation of the landmark 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, in which all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies concluded with "high confidence" that Iran had halted its nuclear weapon design and weaponization work in 2003. The Estimate's key judgments were declassified and made public, and have been revalidated every year since.[ citation needed ]
Those pressing for an attack on Iran in 2008 found themselves fighting uphill. This time, thanks largely to Fingar and the professional intelligence analysts he led in 2007, intelligence analysis on Iran was fearlessly honest. A consummate intelligence professional, Fingar would not allow the NIE to be "fixed around the policy," the damning phrase used in the famous "Downing St. Memo" of July 23, 2002 to describe the unconscionable process that served up fraudulent intelligence to "justify" war with Iraq." [10]
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Stephen Anthony Cambone was the first United States Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, a post created in March 2003. Cambone first came to the attention of the public at large during the testimony of Major General Antonio Taguba before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, where he disputed the General's statement that prison guards were under the effective control of military intelligence personnel and interrogators. Cambone resigned at the beginning of 2007 and was replaced by James R. Clapper, Jr., former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Cambone was associated with the Project for the New American Century, participating in the study which resulted in the writing of the report Rebuilding America's Defenses.
Iran has research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facilities that include three known uranium enrichment plants.
The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State. Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. INR is the oldest civilian element of the U.S. Intelligence Community and among the smallest, with roughly 300 personnel. Though lacking the resources and technology of other U.S. intelligence agencies, it is "one of the most highly regarded" for the quality of its work.
Iran is not known to currently possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and has signed treaties repudiating the possession of WMD including the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran has first-hand knowledge of WMD effects—over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians were victims of chemical weapons during the 1980s Iran–Iraq War.
National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) are United States federal government documents that are the authoritative assessment of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on intelligence related to a particular national security issue. NIEs are produced by the National Intelligence Council and express the coordinated judgments of the United States Intelligence Community, the group of 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. NIEs are classified documents prepared for policymakers.
Walter Haskell Pincus is an American national security journalist. He reported for The Washington Post until the end of 2015. He has won several prizes including a Polk Award in 1977, a television Emmy in 1981, and shared a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with five other Washington Post reporters, and the 2010 Arthur Ross Media Award from the American Academy for Diplomacy. Since 2003, he has taught at Stanford University's Stanford in Washington program.
Siegfried S. Hecker is an American metallurgist and nuclear scientist. He served as Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 to 1997 and is now affiliated with Stanford University, where he is research professor emeritus in the Department of Management Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering, and senior fellow emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. During this time, he was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (1988) for outstanding research on plutonium and the forming of materials, and for leadership in developing energy and weapons systems.
Anthony H. Cordesman was an American national security analyst. He held the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and was a national security analyst on a number of global conflicts.
Henry D. Sokolski is the founder and executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank promoting a better understanding of strategic weapons proliferation issues among policymakers, scholars, and the media. He teaches as an adjunct professor at The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and at the University of Utah and has an appointment as senior fellow for nuclear security studies at the University of California at San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy.
This is the timeline of the nuclear program of Iran.
Saudi Arabia is not known to have a nuclear weapons program. From an official and public standpoint, Saudi Arabia has been an opponent of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, having signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and is a member of the coalition of countries demanding a Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. Studies of nuclear proliferation have not identified Saudi Arabia as a country of concern. Nuclear technology company IP3 International was formed in June 2016 to transfer nuclear technology from the United States to Saudi Arabia.
This article deals with activities of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, specifically dealing with arms control, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and weapons proliferation. It attempts to look at the process of tasking and analyzing, rather than the problem itself, other than whether the CIA's efforts match its legal mandate or assists in treaty compliance. In some cases, the details of a country's programs are introduced because they present a problem in analysis. For example, if Country X's policymakers truly believe in certain history that may not actually be factual, an analyst trying to understand Country X's policymakers needs to be able to understand their approach to an issue.
The P5+1 refers to the UN Security Council's five permanent members ; namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany. The P5+1 is often referred to as the E3+3 by European countries. It is a group of six world powers which, in 2006, joined together in diplomatic efforts with Iran with regard to its nuclear program.
Paula Adamo DeSutter was United States Assistant Secretary of State for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation from 2002 to 2009.
Views on the nuclear program of Iran vary greatly, as the nuclear program of Iran is a very contentious geopolitical issue. Uriel Abulof identifies five possible rationales behind Iran’s nuclear policy: (i) Economy, mainly energy needs; (ii) Identity politics, pride and prestige; (iii) Deterrence of foreign intervention; (iv) Compellence to boost regional influence; and (v) Domestic politics, mitigating, through 'nuclear diversion' the regime’s domestic crisis of legitimacy. Below are considerations of the Iranian nuclear program from various perspectives.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 together with the European Union.
Jeffrey Lewis is an American expert in nuclear nonproliferation and geopolitics, currently a professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and director of the CNS East Asia Nonproliferation Program. He has written two books on China's nuclear weapons, and numerous journal and magazine articles, blog posts, and podcasts on nonproliferation and related topics.
Vann Van Diepen is a former United States civil servant who worked in a variety of positions in the United States Department of State.
Kathleen Cordelia Bailey is an American political scientist and artist. She served as deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and as assistant director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She is a senior associate at the National Institute for Public Policy in Washington, D.C.