Edward Peck

Edward L. Peck is a retired career United States diplomat who served thirty-two-years in the U.S. Foreign Service (1956-1989).

Curriculum Vitae

Served in the US Army as a paratrooper.

Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (U. Alexis Johnson), Nixon Administration, January 1971. [ [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/77854.pdf Foreign Relations of the United States: Persons] ] [ [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/e1/c15660.htm Approval of letter regarding post-Apollo cooperation] ]

Edward Peck served as Chief of Mission in Baghdad (Iraq 1977 to 1980) in the Carter Administration and later held senior posts in Washington and abroad. He also served as a Foreign Service Officer in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, and as Ambassador in Mauritania. At the State Department he served as Deputy Director of Covert Intelligence Programs, Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs and as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He served as deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan Administration. He is president of Foreign Services International, a consulting firm that works with governments, businesses and educational institutions across the world.

Criticism of G. W. Bush plan to invade Iraq and of Middle East policy

Edward Peck argued against invading Iraq prior to the March 2003 invasion. He argued, in part, "when you take out Saddam Hussein, the key question you have to ask then is, what happens after that? And we don't have a clue. Nobody knows, but it's probably going to be bad. And a lot of people are going to be very upset about that, because that really is not written into our role in this world is to decide who rules Iraq." Peck has been highly critical of U.S. policy toward Israel, arguing through the Council for the National Interest (CNI) in which he plays an active role, that the U.S. should be more even handed in its Middle East policy. He argues that while Hezbollah could be considered a terrorist organization, it is no more terrorist than Israel or the U.S. itself. He supports a dialogue with Hezbollah. He claims that in 2000, at the Camp David talks, Israel offered the Palestinians "12 little Bantustans [see December 22 interview link below] ."

Speaking in July 2006 to syndicated US radio news programme "Democracy Now!", Peck said that:

"In 1985, when I was the Deputy Director of the Reagan White House Task Force on Terrorism, they asked us — this is a Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism; I was the Deputy Director of the working group — they asked us to come up with a definition of terrorism that could be used throughout the government. We produced about six, and each and every case, they were rejected, because careful reading would indicate that our own country had been involved in some of those activities. […] After the task force concluded its work, Congress got into it, and you can google into U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2331 [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002331----000-.html US Code Title 18, Section 2331] ] , and read the U.S. definition of terrorism. And one of them in here says — one of the terms, “international terrorism,” means “activities that,” I quote, “appear to be intended to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.” […] Yes, well, certainly, you can think of a number of countries that have been involved in such activities. Ours is one of them. Israel is another. And so, the terrorist, of course, is in the eye of the beholder." [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/28/1440244 Democracy Now] .]

Peck repeated this assertion, when asked if Hezbollah was a terrorist organization on Fox News in July 2006. [http://hotair.com/archives/2006/07/27/video-former-ambassador-ed-peck-defends-hezbollah/] .]

Jeremiah Wright

In March 2008 the U.S. Presidential campaign of Barack Obama was affected when videos of sermons by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, came to media attention. In one broadcast on many media outlets, including ABC News, Wright, on Sept. 16, 2001, referenced an appearance of Peck on Fox News before saying, "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye...and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." Wright attributed to Peck the credit for allegedly "pointing out" that "America's chickens are coming home to roost", a phrase Wright repeated several times. According to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler, though Peck did cite numerous faults against America and criticized its foreign policy, Peck never actually used the expression "chickens coming home to roost". His answers were more nuanced.

References

External links

* [http://www.counterpunch.org/peck1.html CNN Interview, October 11, 2001]
* [http://www.mideasti.org/articles/doc206.html Rethinking Iraq: An American Ambassador's Experience in Baghdad]
* [http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/print.php?sid=21 CNI and the Palestinian Election]
* [http://www.karmalised.com/archives/2006_01.html CNI Delegation Visits Hebron, Meets with Hamas Leader]
* [http://www.afsa.org/fsj/dec07/chiefOf.pdf Chief-of-Mission Authority: A Powerful but Underused Tool]