James Woolsey
James Woolsey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert James Woolsey Jr. September 21, 1941 Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Attorney, government official |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Known for | Director of Central Intelligence (1993–1995) |
| Notable work | Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War on America |
Robert James Woolsey Jr. (born September 21, 1941) is an American attorney and former government official who held the position of Director of Central Intelligence from February 5, 1993, until January 10, 1995. His professional background encompasses prominent appointments such as United States Under Secretary of the Navy between 1977 and 1979, along with participation in Soviet treaty negotiations throughout the 1980s. Woolsey’s experience also spans legal practice, venture capital, and private investment sectors.
Early life and education
Woolsey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Clyde (Kirby) and Robert James Woolsey Sr. He completed his secondary education at Tulsa Central High School. In 1963, he graduated with high honors earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University. Subsequently, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, where he obtained a second BA in 1965. He earned his Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale Law School in 1968.
Career
Throughout his career, Woolsey has served in significant capacities within both Democratic and Republican administrations, impacting the leadership periods of Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Additionally, he was affiliated with the law firm Shea & Gardner, where he worked as an Associate from 1973 to 1977 and later as a partner during 1979–1989 and again from 1991 to 1993.
His governmental appointments include:
- Advisor for the U.S. Delegation during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) held in Helsinki and Vienna, between 1969 and 1970
- General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, from 1970 to 1973
- Serving as Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 through 1979
- Delegate at Large for the U.S.-Soviet negotiations on Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks (NST) in Geneva, spanning 1983 to 1986
- Ambassador to the negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) in Vienna, from 1989 until 1991
- Director of the CIA from 1993 until 1995
Relationship with Bill Clinton
During his tenure as CIA Director, Woolsey had minimal direct engagement with President Bill Clinton. According to journalist Richard Miniter:
Throughout his entire two-year service, CIA director James Woolsey never secured a private meeting alone with President Clinton. Even informal meetings were infrequent, occurring only twice. Woolsey remarked: "It wasn’t that I had a poor relationship with the president; rather, it simply did not exist."
Paula Kaufman of Insight on the News recalled:
Recall the individual who crashed a plane onto the White House lawn in 1994? That was my attempt to arrange a meeting with President Clinton.
In War in a Time of Peace, David Halberstam noted that Clinton’s decision to appoint Woolsey was partially influenced by efforts during his campaign to appeal to neoconservatives, pledging support for democratic Taiwan, intervention in the Bosnian conflict during the Bosnian War, and adopting firmer policies on human rights violations in China—thus integrating a neoconservative presence within his administration.[1]
Aldrich Ames
During Woolsey's tenure as CIA director, Aldrich Ames was apprehended on February 21, 1994, on charges of espionage and betraying the United States. The agency faced scrutiny for failing to identify Ames earlier despite noticeable improvements in his lifestyle. Congress reacted sharply when Woolsey chose not to remove or demote any CIA staff members in connection with the breach. Woolsey remarked: "Some have demanded severe consequences ... That is not my approach." He resigned suddenly on December 28, 1994.
Later career
In 1992, Woolsey became a board member of The Arlington Institute. He presently holds a position on the Board of Advisors for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), provides counsel to the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, and co-established the United States Energy Security Council. Since July 2002, he has occupied the role of senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, focusing on Global Strategic Security.
Woolsey maintains significant connections with Central and Eastern Europe as a Patron of the Henry Jackson Society and an advisor to the Global Panel Foundation. He formerly led the board of trustees at Freedom House and serves on the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor. As a participant in the Project for the New American Century, he endorsed a 1998 letter urging President Clinton to oust Saddam Hussein. That same year, he contributed to the Rumsfeld Commission, which evaluated ballistic missile threats for Congress.
Previously, Woolsey chaired the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an organization dedicated to research in foreign policy and national security. In 2008, he joined VantagePoint Venture Partners as a venture partner.
During John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, Woolsey was appointed as an advisor on energy and climate issues. In April 2011, he took on a venture partner role at Lux Capital. By July of that year, he co-founded the United States Energy Security Council alongside Robert McFarlane and joined the advisory board of the Fuel Freedom Foundation.
The Institute of World Politics awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011. Woolsey served as vice-chairman of The Jamestown Foundation and advises the nonprofit organization America Abroad Media. He is part of Genie Energy’s Strategic Advisory Board with figures like Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch; Genie Energy is recognized for discovering major oil deposits in Syria’s Golan Heights.
Currently, Woolsey acts as Chancellor at The Institute of World Politics and serves as an independent non-executive director at Imperial Pacific. In September 2016, he became a senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump but stepped down in January 2017 amid Congressional investigations into cyberattacks and Trump’s public criticisms of U.S. intelligence agencies.
In October 2017, Woolsey cooperated with FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiries concerning a September 2016 meeting involving Trump campaign advisor Michael Flynn, who reportedly offered help to Turkish officials seeking to repatriate dissident Fethullah Gülen.
In April 2021, Russia imposed an entry ban on Woolsey in retaliation for U.S. sanctions implemented under the Biden administration. That year, he co-authored Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War on America, which alleges Soviet complicity in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and claims that Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife were Soviet operatives.
On July 15, 2023, an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department revealed attempts by Gal Luft and a representative from a Chinese oil company to recruit a "former senior U.S. government official"—widely understood to be Woolsey—to secure influence within Donald Trump’s circle prior to his election.
Views
Woolsey is identified as a neoconservative member of the Democratic Party—supporting a strong stance on foreign affairs while maintaining progressive positions on economic and social matters. In the 2008 presidential race, he endorsed Senator John McCain and contributed as one of McCain's advisors on foreign policy. He characterizes himself as a "Scoop Jackson Democrat" and a "Joe Lieberman Democrat" with domestic policies aligned with "social democratic" principles, rejecting the "neoconservative" description as "silly."
Energy
Woolsey has underscored the national security threats linked to America's reliance on Middle Eastern oil, advocating for a move away from fossil fuels. At the 2007 EELPJ symposium, where he was a keynote speaker, he emphasized energy independence as a critical security goal, discussing innovations in wind energy and biofuels. He appeared in Thomas Friedman's Discovery Channel documentary Addicted to Oil and the 2006 film Who Killed the Electric Car?, endorsing technologies such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and biomass-derived fuels like cellulosic ethanol.
As a founding participant in the Set America Free Coalition, Woolsey actively promotes reducing U.S. oil dependency. He holds a board position with Plug In America, an organization advocating for electric vehicles, and offers guidance to The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, which concentrates on energy security issues. Furthermore, Woolsey is a board member of Silicon Valley solar company Siva Power, which aims to manufacture the world’s most affordable solar panels.
He wrote the foreword for 50 Simple Steps to Save the Earth from Global Warming and is recognized for articulating how national security concerns support transitioning to distributed generation and combating global warming.
Foreign influence in elections
Woolsey has spoken openly about foreign interference in U.S. elections, emphasizing concerns over external involvement in American democratic processes. During a 2018 interview on Fox News, he acknowledged that both the U.S. and other countries have engaged in meddling with foreign elections, often under the belief that such actions were advantageous, though he did not provide specific instances. He also pointed out the increasing complexity of election interference through cyber warfare techniques and called for enhanced cybersecurity measures to safeguard electoral systems and uphold democratic integrity.
Iraq
Soon after the September 11 attacks, Woolsey suggested possible Iraqi connections. In 2002, amid congressional debates over authorizing military action against Iraq, he associated Iraq with both the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 2005, Steve Clemons accused Woolsey of benefiting from and advocating for the Iraq War. Melvin A. Goodman criticized Woolsey’s leadership at the CIA and his calls for further military engagement.
In a 2009 interview, Woolsey described CIA intelligence regarding Iraqi chemical and biological weapons prior to the 2003 invasion as a "failure," but defended it as an understandable error rather than incompetence. He faulted the Bush administration for lumping various materials under the broad category of "weapons of mass destruction" and noted Iraqi efforts to mislead intelligence agencies.
Woolsey was one of seven former CIA directors who signed a 2009 letter urging President Obama to overturn Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to reopen criminal investigations into CIA interrogation practices.
Additional Activities
In 2010, Woolsey endorsed Oklahoma SQ 755, a measure prohibiting courts from referencing or applying Sharia law, and recorded a message broadcast to thousands of residents in Oklahoma. Alongside co-authors such as former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence William G. Boykin and activist Frank Gaffney, Woolsey authored Shariah: The Threat To America, published by the Center for Security Policy. The book outlines the concept of a covert jihad and contends that a majority of U.S. mosques have undergone radicalization, that Muslim social groups function as covers for violent jihadist activities, and that advocates of sharia law aim to enforce it within the United States.
Woolsey expressed support for former CIA Director Leon Panetta, drawing parallels between him and Kennedy-era CIA chief John McCone. He vehemently criticized the revelations made by Edward Snowden, labeling Snowden's potential pardon as "idiotic" and urging legal action on charges of treason, even stating that Snowden should be "hanged" if found guilty. Woolsey attributed responsibility for the Paris attacks to Snowden’s disclosures, asserting that the victims' blood was effectively on his hands.
In a letter dated July 5, 2012, addressed to The Wall Street Journal, Woolsey advocated for the release of Jonathan Pollard, highlighting Pollard’s extended imprisonment compared to other spies from Soviet and Chinese backgrounds who received lesser sentences. He emphasized Pollard’s complete cooperation, remorsefulness, and commitment to refrain from profiting from his offenses, suggesting that anti-Semitic bias played a role in Pollard’s continued confinement.
Woolsey made an appearance in Boris Malagurski's 2014 documentary The Weight of Chains 2, where he conceded that "the United States and the CIA have made mistakes and continue to do so."
In an April 2021 interview promoting his book Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War on America, Woolsey asserted that the Soviet Union orchestrated the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Additionally, he holds membership in the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya.
Personal details
Woolsey was married to Suzanne Haley Woolsey for 48 years before their marriage ended in divorce. Subsequently, he wed Nancye Miller, who was registered as a foreign agent; she succumbed to cancer in March 2019.
He traces his lineage back to early settlers George (Joris) Woolsey and Thomas Cornell from New Amsterdam.
As of 2024, Woolsey’s estimated net worth exceeds $7 million.
See also
External links
- CIA.org
- "Former CIA Director Jim Woolsey Takes to the Stage in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home"
- James Woolsey's interview with The Politic
- James Woolsey & Michael Garin – "Dixie Chicken" @YouTube
- Report by Leadel.NET
- SourceWatch profile
- by R. James Woolsey & Anne Korin
- World War IV speech by James R. Woolsey
- Institute of World Politics
- Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations