John Poindexter
John Marlan Poindexter ( born August 12, 1936 in Washington, Daviess County, Indiana ) is a former senior official of the U.S. Department of Defense.
He was known primarily as Deputy Security Advisor and National Security Advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, were accused in connection with the Iran - Contra affair conspiracy, fraud, lies, before a committee of the U.S. Congress and the destruction of evidence. More recently, the nuclear physicist and former Navy admiral served as chief of the jobs created by President George W. Bush Information Awareness Office of DARPA, which is subordinate to the Pentagon.
Training
Poindexter visited a school in Odon. He then joined the U.S. Navy. In 1958 he graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis as the best in its class. He left also with the degree BA in engineering sciences. Subsequently, he studied nuclear physics at the prestigious California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. In 1961 he received a Master's degree in Physics. From 1961 to 1964 he was a PhD student at the teaching there German Nobel Laureate Rudolf Mössbauer and worked on a model for understanding the Mössbauer effect. He received his PhD in 1964 with honors. The topic of his dissertation was: " Electronic Shielding by Closed Shells in Thulium Compounds".
Family
Poindexter lives in Rockville, Maryland. He's since June 6, 1958 married to Linda A. Godwin, who was once a priestess of the Episcopalian church, in August 2001, but converted to the Catholic faith. Together they have five sons, including the astronauts Alan Poindexter ( 1961-2012 ). This was from 1998 to 2010 NASA astronaut and pilot of the Space Shuttle mission STS -122 commander and mission STS - 131.
Marine
Between 1958 and 1987, Poindexter served in the U.S. Navy. After his training, he was the first engineer officer (Engineering Officer ), later chief engineer aboard destroyers. In the course of several promotions he received his first command in 1971 as commander of the cruiser USS England. In 1974 he became head of the Destroyer 31. Due to his practical experience, he got several tasks to staff level and served several naval ministers as a consultant, was adjutant to the Chief of the Operations Department of the Navy and 1978, deputy chief of naval commandos for education and training.
Policy
His first political office was Poindexter 1981. He was appointed as a representative of his branch of Member of the U.S. National Security Council (NSC ). Between 1981 and 1983 he served there in various capacities as a military advisor. On October 17, 1983 President Ronald Reagan appointed him as Deputy National Security Adviser at the time Robert McFarlane. Main task Poindexters in this function combating terrorists. He was actively involved in the successful capture of the machine of Egypt Air, with trying to escape the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to Tunis. He also played a crucial role in Operation Urgent Fury, the occupation of Grenada in 1983. According to Reagan, he also made in the Security Council " an important contribution to the formulation and execution of foreign policy objectives ."
In December 1985, Reagan appointed him to the National Security Advisor. However, in this position, he served only about a year. In 1986, the U.S. showed a severe internal crisis, when it became known that the government had supplied arms to Iran. The crisis still worsened when it became public that the profits were flowed from the gun shop on illegal channels to the fighting in Nicaragua Contras, who attempted to overthrow the government there. The National Security Council has been instrumental in the so-called Iran - Contra scandal, Poindexter had to resign as the main person responsible office in 1986. During the subsequent investigation, he refused at first each statement, which the Enlightenment was initially blocked.
1988 Poindexter was indicted on several points, including for participation in a criminal conspiracy with the aim to hinder official investigations, he also was accused of lying to Congress, defrauding the government and destroying evidence. On April 7, 1990, the Court addressed him guilty on all counts and sentenced him to six months in prison. However, the sentence was overturned by another court in 1991. Reason was the satisfaction of the court that the evidence of the prosecutor should not have been used. They had been invalidated by the discovery of the fact that Poindexters testimony before the joint committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate only by the fact came about that he had been promised immunity. Without this evidence, the prosecution was unable to reach a new trial.
Private sector
Between 1988 and 1989 Poindexter worked as a scientist at the company Presearch Inc., which dealt mainly with the preparation of studies and strategies for the Department of Defense.
In 1990 he was co-founder of TP Systems Inc., a company that dealt with the development of software for personal computers. He was there chief designer and programmer to 1996. Simultaneously he worked from 1993 to 1996 as a consultant to the Elkins Group, a merger with the company EDS ( Electronic Data Systems ) to develop a satellite-based delivery system.
From 1996 to 2002 he was First Vice President of Syntek Technologies, a small company that had contracts both in defense and in the private sector. The company is also in Germany, as technical advisers in key positions the Company Cargo Lifter AG as advisors to became famous.
Comeback
In December 2002, the political career of the controversial ex- Admiral enjoyed a brief comeback. President George W. Bush appointed him director of the Information Awareness Office ( IAO). This DARPA project was under the Ministry of Defence. The most important task was the internationally criticized hard " Total Information Awareness Program" ( complete knowledge creation ). It should gather all available information on American citizens, which may serve to prevent terrorist attacks, and evaluate. Critics feared the end of every democratic liberty in the United States. William Safire described the goal as follows: " Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine you subscribe to, and each recipe that you fill, every Web site you visit and e- mail that you send or receive each academic degree that is awarded to you, any bank account that you open, every trip you book and every celebration in which you are present - all these transactions and communications will go into the system, which the Ministry of Defence as a 'virtual centralized large database ' describes. "
Receding Poindexter had but due to another project. The idea was called Policy Analysis Market (PAM ). Here, the Pentagon wanted to use the mechanisms of the market to predict terrorist attacks or political twists. Traders should bet on the Internet on whether or when certain political events. As with stock options profits should accrue when the events actually happen in a given period. Based on the bets that are the traders willing to conclude that should the so-called Policy Analysis program to predict which of the events likely so as to create a kind of violent climate index, similar to the various surveys of economic experts, entrepreneurs and consumers, by means of which will try to detect the development of the economy. After fierce public criticism of the funding was stopped.
In August 2003, Poindexter was under pressure from the then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at his office.