William Odom

William Odom    ( spook,  officer)
Born	June 23, 1932  Cookeville,  Tennessee,  USA
Died	May 30, 2008 (Age 75)  Lincoln,  Vermont
Cause of death	heart attack
Victim of	premature death?
Nationality	US
Alma mater	•  United States Military Academy •  Columbia University
Member of	American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Interests	mass surveillance
Bilderberg NSA director. In retirement voiced criticism of Israel lobby, then died of a heart attack  Director of the National Security Agency  In office 1985 - August 1988 Preceded by Lincoln D. Faurer Succeeded by William O. Studeman

William Eldridge Odom was a United States Army lieutenant general, protégé of Zbigniew Brzezinski, known as his "super hawk", who was selected Director of the National Security Agency under President Ronald Reagan.

After his retirement, he became known for his outspoken criticism of the Israel lobby, the Iraq War and warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. He died of an apparent heart attack at his vacation home in Lincoln, Vermont.

“By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.”
William E. Odom (April 2006) 

Career

In 1954 he graduated from the West Point and was commissioned a second lieutenant. In 1962, he took a master's degree from Columbia University, then was military liaison in Potsdam, East Germany. 1966–1969 he taught courses in Russian history at West Point. Odom owed his rapid rise to the support of Zbigniew Brzeziński, whom he had met at Columbia University.

From 1970 to 1971, he was a lieutenant colonel in Vietnam helping to oversee attempts to build up the South Vietnamese forces.

While working as assistant military attache at the United States embassy in Moscow 1972-74, he visited all of the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Although constantly trailed by KGB, he nonetheless managed to smuggle out a large portion of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's archive, including the author's membership card for the Writers' Union and Second World War military citations; Solzhenitsyn subsequently paid tribute to Odom's role in his memoir "Invisible Allies" (1995).

Upon returning to the United States, he resumed his career at West Point where he taught courses in Soviet politics. Odom regularly stressed the importance of education for military officers.

In 1977, he was appointed as the military assistant to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish assistant for national security affairs to President Jimmy Carter. Among the primary issues he focused on were American-Soviet relations, including the SALT nuclear weapons targeting, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran hostage crisis, presidential directives on the situation in the Persian Gulf, "terrorism" and hijackings, and the executive order on telecommunications policy.

Odom told Claire Sterling at a cocktail party in Washington in February 1979 that "international terrorism" was not worth mentioning. He asked the journalist further: "Why don't you write a book on covert action? That is the real terrorism." Odom then told Sterling about his time with the CIA in Laos, where US operatives disguised as a Viet Cong carried out "terrorist attacks".

From 2 November 1981 to 12 May 1985, Odom worked as the Army's Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence.

From 1985 to 1988, he was director of the National Security Agency, under president Ronald Reagan.

In the 1990s, he advocated sending American troops to Yugoslavia, arguing for the area's strategic importance. He was in favor of expanding NATO to Eastern Europe.

Odom was a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he specialized in military issues, intelligence, and international relations. He was also an adjunct professor at Yale University and Georgetown University, where he taught seminar courses in U.S. National Security Policy and Russian Politics.

He was a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Israel lobby

In 2003, he revealed how the question of the 1967 USS Liberty incident’s deliberateness “just wasn’t a disputed issue” within the NSA. Along with NSA Deputy Director for Operations Oliver Kirby, U.S. Air Force Major General John E. Morrison (Kirby’s successor), and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, he said he was unaware of any agency official at any time who dissented from the “deliberate” conclusion.

Since 2005, he had argued that U.S. interests would be best served by an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, having called the 2003 U.S. invasion the worst strategic blunder in the history of U.S. foreign policy. He had also been critical of the NSA's warrantless wiretapping of international calls, having said "it wouldn't have happened on my watch".

Odom was also openly critical of the Israel lobby influence in the decision to go to war: "It's pretty hard to imagine us going into Iraq without the strong lobbying efforts from the AIPAC and the [neoconservatives], who think they know what's good for Israel more than Israel knows."

Other

Odom was a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and the American Philosophical Society.

 

A Quote by William Odom

Page	Quote	Date
Corporate media/Islamophobia	“Terrorism cannot be defeated because it’s not an enemy, it’s a tactic. A war against Al Qaida is sensible and supportable, but a war against a tactic is ludicrous and hurtful... a propaganda ploy to swindle others into supporting one’s own terrorism ... and encourages prejudices against Muslims everywhere. What if we said “Catholic Christian IRA hitmen” ?”	2006

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1993	22 April 1993	25 April 1993	Greece Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel Vouliagmeni	The 41st Bilderberg, held in Greece
Colloquium on Counterintelligence	24 April 1980	26 April 1980		Spooky 1980 Washington conference

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References

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