John Marlan Poindexter (born August 12, 1936) is a retired United States naval officer and
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
* Department of Defence (Ireland)
* Department of National Defense (Philipp ...
official. He was
Deputy National Security Advisor and
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
during the
Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...
. He was convicted in April 1990 of multiple felonies as a result of his actions in the
Iran–Contra affair
The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...
, but his convictions were reversed on appeal in 1991. During the
George W. Bush administration, he served a brief stint as the director of the
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
Information Awareness Office
The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology ...
. He is the father of NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain
Alan G. Poindexter.
Early life and career
Poindexter was born in
Odon, Indiana, the son of Ellen (Sommers) and Marlan G. Poindexter. He received his undergraduate degree from the
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...
in 1958, where he graduated first in a class of 899.
His fellow graduates included astronaut
Bruce McCandless II
Bruce McCandless II (born Byron Willis McCandless; June 8, 1937 – December 21, 2017) was a United States Navy officer and aviator, electrical engineer, and NASA astronaut. In 1984, during the first of his two Space Shuttle missions, he ...
(who graduated second) and Senator
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two te ...
; previous National Security Advisor
Robert McFarlane was a contemporary, graduating the following year.
Poindexter received an MS (1961) and PhD (1964) in
nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter.
Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies t ...
from the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
. For his dissertation, he conducted laboratory research to develop further a model for understanding the
Mössbauer effect
The Mössbauer effect, or recoilless nuclear resonance fluorescence, is a physical phenomenon discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer in 1958. It involves the resonant and recoil-free emission and absorption of gamma radiation by atomic nuclei bound in a ...
with
Nobel Laureate
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make o ...
Rudolf Mössbauer
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (German spelling: ''Mößbauer''; ; 31 January 1929 – 14 September 2011) was a German physicist best known for his 1957 discovery of ''recoilless nuclear resonance fluorescence'' for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobe ...
.
Senior naval career
While commander of Destroyer Squadron 31, he was
surface warfare and
anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are typ ...
commander of battle groups in the Western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, and he developed new tactics and battle management procedures under the Composite Warfare Commander concept. As the commanding officer of , he pioneered the shipboard use of computers to manage the ship's force portion of yard overhauls.
He was also an executive officer and a chief engineer of destroyers.
As deputy commander of the
Naval Education and Training Command, he led the United States Navy's extensive education and training programs. He launched the development of a distributed
data management
Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource.
Concept
The concept of data management arose in the 1980s as technology moved from sequential processing (first punched cards, then magnetic tape) to ...
system to better manage training pipelines.
His staff assignments included: executive assistant to the
Chief of Naval Operations
The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a memb ...
, administrative assistant to the
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
and special assistant for Systems Analysis to the
Secretary of Defense
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in so ...
. He reached the rank of
vice admiral while serving as National Security Advisor, but was reverted to the rank of
rear admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star " admiral" rank. It is often rega ...
in 1986 for his role in the
Iran–Contra affair
The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...
. He retired at that rank in 1987.
U.S. executive branch service
Poindexter served in the
Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...
as military assistant to the National Security Advisor from 1981 to 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he served as
Deputy National Security Advisor, leading the
National Security Council
A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...
's Crisis Pre-planning Group. From 1985 to 1986, he was National Security Advisor,
providing recommendations to the President on national security, foreign policy and defense policy.
He played a significant role in the
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "''Star Wars'' program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons ( intercontinental ballist ...
,
Operation Urgent Fury
The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. The United States and a Caribbean Peace Force, coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fur ...
, the
Achille Lauro
Achille Lauro (; 16 June 1887 – 15 November 1982) was an Italian businessman and politician. He is widely considered one of the main precursors of modern populism in Italian politics. He was nicknamed by his supporters ''Il Comandante'' ("The ...
incident,
Operation El Dorado Canyon
The 1986 United States bombing of Libya, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, consisted of air strikes by the United States against Libya on Tuesday 15 April 1986. The attack was carried out by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), U.S. Navy and U.S. M ...
(in response to Libyan terrorist attacks), and the
Reykjavík Summit with the
Soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in ...
.
Iran–Contra affair
In the
Iran–Contra affair
The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...
, Poindexter and Oliver North sent aid to the
Contras
The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 foll ...
and money and weapons to Iran to secure the release of American hostages from Lebanon. This violated the
Boland Amendment, which forbade the United States from directly or indirectly being involved with the Contras. Evidence revealed that Poindexter was a leader in the organization of the transfer of the weapons to Iran and oversaw other people involved in the affair, such as
Oliver North
Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...
.
Poindexter and North communicated through a channel known as the "Private Blank Check" which Poindexter set up on a National Security Council (NSC) computer. Through this system, Poindexter and North were able to send messages called
PROFS notes back and forth without being intercepted by other NSC staff members. This system was not successful. Even though both Poindexter and North attempted to delete the messages, the White House Communications Agency was able to recover some of them, later used in trying Poindexter and North in court. On November 25, 1986, after the public disclosure of the Iran–Contra affair, Poindexter was forced to resign from his position as National Security Advisor.
Poindexter was convicted on April 7, 1990, of five counts of lying to Congress and obstructing the
Congressional committees investigating the Iran–Contra affair
The congressional committees investigating the Iran–Contra affair were committees of the United States House of Representatives and of the United States Senate formed in January 1987 to investigate the Iran–Contra affair. The committees held j ...
, which were investigating the Reagan Administration's covert arms sales to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to insurgents fighting to overthrow the
Sandinista
The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto C� ...
government in Nicaragua. The convictions were reversed in 1991 on appeal on the grounds that several witnesses against him had been influenced by his testimony before Congress, even though Congress had given him immunity for that testimony.
To protest his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair,
Bill Breeden, a local minister and political activist, stole a street sign bearing Poindexter's name in his home town of Odon, Indiana. The sign was eventually returned but not before making national headlines and resulting in Breeden's arrest.
Defense contractor work
From 1988 to 1989, Poindexter was senior scientist at Presearch, Inc., which had primarily been involved with defense studies and analysis. Faced with anticipated defense budget reductions, Poindexter joined the firm to develop new commercial enterprises. He designed and developed hardware and software for the prototype of a digital real-time imaging system to be used for physical security of high-value facilities. It was used to obtain a contract for a nuclear power plant security system.
From 1990 to 1996, Poindexter was the chief designer and programmer for TP Systems, Inc., a software development firm that he co-founded to specialize in commercial software for the
IBM PCs
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...
and compatibles. Development included a
symbolic debugger for
multi-tasking environments, a
BBS communications program, and numerous utility programs.
From 1993 to 1996, Poindexter served as a consultant to Elkins Group, a business alliance with
Electronic Data Systems
Electronic all cash BSN acc: 1311729000110205 Data Systems (EDS) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a s ...
(EDS), that developed the Elkins Interactive Training Network (EITN), a satellite-based training delivery system. Poindexter was the chairman of the Maritime Advisory Committee and a member of Elkins' board of directors. He also provided advice on strategic planning.
From 1996 to 2002, Poindexter served as senior vice president for SYNTEK Technologies, a small high-technology firm with contracts in domestic and international defense and commercial business. Poindexter gave high-level advice on management and directed information systems projects (for example,
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
's
Project Genoa
Project Genoa was a software project commissioned by the United States' DARPA which was designed to analyze large amounts of data and metadata to help human analysts counter terrorism.
Program synopsis
Genoa's primary function was intelligence a ...
).
In 2000, he joined the board of
Saffron Technology
Saffron Technology, Inc., is a technology company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, that develops cognitive computing systems that use incremental learning to understand and unify by entity (person, place or thing) the connections between an ...
, where he played a role building a tool to run entity analysis on Iraqi insurgent networks that planted
IEDs.
In 2007, he joined the board of Bright Planet Corporation.
After 2007, Poindexter worked to promote fraud-detecting
Associative Memory Base technology to civilian government agencies such as the
IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
.
Recall to public service
Late in 2001, upon the recommendation of
Science Applications International Corporation
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in Reston, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support.
History
The original SAIC was created in 19 ...
executive Brian Hicks, then-Vice President
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former ...
recommended Admiral Poindexter to head a separate anti-terrorist office and serve under US Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Preside ...
.
Information Awareness Office
From January 2002 to August 2003, Poindexter served as the Director of the
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
Information Awareness Office
The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology ...
(IAO). The mission of the IAO was to imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and move information technologies, components, and prototype
closed-loop information systems. This aimed to counter asymmetric threats (most notably, terrorist threats) by achieving
total information awareness
Total Information Awareness (TIA) was a mass detection program by the United States Information Awareness Office. It operated under this title from February to May 2003 before being renamed Terrorism Information Awareness.
Based on the concep ...
and thus aiding preemption, national security warning, and national security decision making.
Policy Analysis Market
Poindexter faced criticism from the media and some politicians about the
Policy Analysis Market
The Policy Analysis Market (PAM), part of the FutureMAP project, was a proposed futures exchange developed, beginning in May 2001, by the Information Awareness Office (IAO) of the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a ...
project, a theoretical
prediction market
Prediction markets (also known as betting markets, information markets, decision markets, idea futures or event derivatives) are open markets where specific outcomes can be predicted using financial incentives. Essentially, they are exchange-trad ...
that would have rewarded participants for accurately predicting geopolitical trends in the Middle East and elsewhere. This was portrayed in the media as allowing participants to profit from the assassination of heads of state and acts of
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
due to such events being mentioned on illustrative sample screens showing the interface.
The controversy over the proposed futures market led to a Congressional audit of the IAO in general. Funding for the IAO was subsequently cut and Poindexter retired from DARPA on August 12, 2003.
Views on 2020 election
Poindexter has endorsed the false
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
that the 2020 presidential election was rigged to favor
Joe Biden and claims that the United States "has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government."
Family
His wife, Linda Poindexter, was an
Episcopal priest for 13 years, but retired from the clergy when she converted to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
They have five children, including the late
Alan G. Poindexter, a
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
astronaut,
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...
pilot on the
STS-122 mission to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
, and the commander of
STS-131.
References
External links
Biographical links
"Lightning Rod"in ''
Government Executive
''Government Executive'' is an American media publication based in Washington, D.C., that covers daily government business for civilians, federal bureaucrats, and military officials. ''Government Executive'' is part of GovExec, which is owned b ...
''
corner.nationalreview.com*
Iran–Contra affair
CNN.comnbsp;– 'Iran-Contra: White House e-mail'
nbsp;– Report of Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, ''US Congressional Record'' (June 30, 1992)
Total Information Awareness
nbsp;– 'Transcript of Pentagon briefing on Poindexter's "TIA" program' (November 24, 2002)
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poindexter, John
1936 births
American nuclear physicists
California Institute of Technology alumni
Indiana Republicans
Iran–Contra affair
Living people
People convicted of making false statements
People from Daviess County, Indiana
Reagan administration personnel
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Military personnel from Indiana
United States National Security Advisors
United States Naval Academy alumni
United States Navy rear admirals (upper half)
American conspiracy theorists