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Karen Kwiatkowski

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Karen Kwiatkowski
Kwiatkowski on her family's Shenandoah County farm
Birth nameKaren Unger
Born(1960-09-24)September 24, 1960(age 64)
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Air Force
Years of service1982–2003
RankLieutenant colonel
UnitNear East/South Asia and Special Plans
Other workA Case Study of the Implementation of the Reagan Doctrine.

Karen U. Kwiatkowski,néeUnger,[1](born September 24, 1960) is an American activist and commentator. She is a retiredU.S. Air ForceLieutenant Colonelwhose assignments included duties as aPentagondesk officer and a variety of roles for theNational Security Agency.

Since retiring, she has become a noted critic of the U.S. government's involvement inIraq.Kwiatkowski is primarily known for her insider essays which denounce a corrupting political influence on the course ofmilitary intelligenceleading up to theinvasion of Iraqin 2003. In 2012, she challenged incumbentBob Goodlatte,in theRepublicanprimaryforVirginia's 6th congressional districtseat in theUnited States House of Representativesand garnered 34% of the Republican vote on a constitutional and limited government platform. As of 2024, she is a member ofVeteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

While in the Air Force, she wrote two books about U.S. policy towards Africa:African Crisis Response Initiative: Past Present and Future(US Army Peacekeeping Institute,2000) andExpeditionary Air Operations in Africa: Challenges and Solutions(Air University Press,2001). She contributed toRon Paul: A Life of Ideas,(Variant Press, 2008) andWhy Liberty: Personal Journeys Toward Peace and Freedom,(Cobden Press, 2010). She has been featured in a number of documentaries, including "Why We Fight" in 2005.[2]She has written forLewRockwell.comsince 2003.[3]

Early life

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Born Karen Unger, Kwiatkowski was raised in westernNorth Carolina.She received an master's in government fromHarvard Universityand an MS in Science Management from theUniversity of Alaska.She has a PhD in World Politics fromThe Catholic University of America;her thesis was on the overt and covert war inAngola,A Case Study of the Implementation of the Reagan Doctrine.

Career

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Military

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Kwiatkowski began her military career in 1982 as aSecond Lieutenant.She served atEielson Air Force BaseinAlaska,providing logistical support to missions along theChineseandRussiancoasts. She also served inSpainandItaly.Kwiatkowski was then assigned to the National Security Agency (NSA), eventually becoming a speechwriter for the agency's director. After leaving the NSA in 1998 she became an analyst onsub-Saharan Africapolicy for the Pentagon. Kwiatkowski was in her office in the Pentagon when it was attacked onSeptember 11, 2001.From May 2002 to February 2003 she served in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia directorate (NESA).[4]While at NESA, she wrote a series of anonymous articles,Insider Notes from the Pentagonwhich appeared on the website ofDavid Hackworth.[5]Kwiatkowski left NESA in February 2003 and retired from the Air Force the following month.[6]

Writer and commentator

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In April 2003 Kwiatkowski began writing a series of articles for thelibertarianwebsiteLewRockwell.com.Since February 2004 she has written a biweekly column ( "Without Reservations" ) for the websiteMilitaryWeek.com.

She is currently a Senior Fellow at theEisenhower Media Network,[7][8]a nonprofit group of former military, intelligence and civilian national security officials who described themselves as offering "alternative analyses untainted by Pentagon or defense industry ties" and countering "Washington’s establishment narrative on most national security issues of the day."[9]

She has been critical ofneoconservatismand has advocated for a non-interventionist foreign policy.[10]Her writings on the subject of a corrupting influence of the Pentagon on intelligence analysis leading up to the Iraq War appeared in a series of articles inThe American Conservativemagazine in December 2003 and in a March 2004 article onSalon.com.In the latter piece ( "The New Pentagon Papers" ) she wrote:

I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers withinOSPusurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to bothCongressand theexecutive officeof the president.[non-primary source needed]

Kwiatkowski described how a clique of officers led by retiredNavyCaptainBill Luti,assistant secretary of defense for NESA and former aide toDick Cheneywhen the latter wasSecretary of Defense,took control of military intelligence and how the "Office of Special Plans"(OSP) grew and eventually turned into acensorshipand disinformation organism controlling the NESA.[11]

Following theAmerican ConservativeandSalonarticles, Kwiatkowski began to receive criticism from several conservative sources that supportedPresident Bush'spolicies.Michael Rubinof theNational Reviewargued she had exaggerated her knowledge of the OSP's workings and claimed she had ties toLyndon LaRouche.[12]Republican U.S. SenatorJon Kylcriticized her in a speech on the Senate floor.[13]On aFox Newsprogram, hostJohn Gibsonand formerRepublican National Committeecommunications directorClifford Maydescribed her as ananarchist.[14]Kwiatkowski responded by saying, among other points, that she had never supported or dealt with LaRouche.[15]

In addition to her writings Kwiatkowski has appeared as a commentator in the documentariesHijacking Catastrophe,Honor Betrayed,Why We FightandSuperpower.

Politics

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Kwiatkowski was raised as a Goldwater Republican, and registered Republican from 1981 until 1994. She joined the U.S.Libertarian Partyin 1994 and continued that membership until 2011. She was a speaker on military and foreign policy at the party'snational conventionin 2004.[16]She returned to the Republican Party in 2011, and entered politics with the hope of joiningRon Paul,Justin Amashand others in the House Republican Liberty Caucus. She is endorsed by a past Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, as well as by a range of other fiscal and constitutional conservatives.[citation needed]

A number of Libertarian Party members and supporters have encouraged Kwiatkowski to seek the Party's presidential nomination in the past few election cycles.[17][18]She has thus far declined to do so. On April 15, 2007, Kwiatkowski received the New Hampshire Libertarian Party's 2008vice-presidentialnomination, within a couple of weeks she declined the nomination.[19]In 2007, she announced her support forRepublicanpresidential candidate Ron Paul.[20]

2012 U.S. House of Representatives candidacy

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Main article:United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2012

In February 2011, aFederal Elections Commissionfiling declared the Friends of Karen Kwiatkowski weredraftingher to run for theVirginia's 6th districtU.S. congressionalseat in the2012 election.[citation needed]

On August 18, 2011, Kwiatkowski formally announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte in the June 12, 2012, primary election.[21]She wrote a variety of opinion pieces geared directly to her 2012 House race, and was interviewed by both local and national media. Her campaign slogan was "Less Government, More Prosperity".[citation needed]

On June 12, 2012, Kwiatkowski lost the nomination bid to Goodlatte who won 66.48% of the vote in the Republican 6th district primary election.[22]

Personal life

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Kwiatkowski lives with her family inMount Jacksonin theShenandoah Valleyof Virginia and is a farmer and part-time professor. She is married to Hap Kwiatkowski and has four children and seven grandchildren. She is aChristian.[23][24]

Founding member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

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Kwiatkowski is a founding member of theVeteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.[25][26]

In September 2015 Kwiatkowski and 27 other members of VIPS steering group wrote a letter to the President challenging a recently published book, that claimed to rebut the report of theUnited States Senate Intelligence Committeeon theCentral Intelligence Agency's use of torture.[citation needed]

Publications

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Books

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  • Kwiatkowski, Karen (2000).African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) past, present, and future?.Peacekeeping Institute, Center for Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College.
  • Kwiatkowski, Karen (2001).Expeditionary Air Operations in Africa: Challenges and Solutions.Air University Press.ISBN978-1585661008.
  • Griffin, David Ray;Peter Dale Scott(2006).9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, Vol. 1: Karen Kwiatkowski: Assessing the Official 9/11 Conspiracy Theory.Olive Branch Press.ISBN978-1566566599.

Articles and essays

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Most of Kwiatkowski's written work is available online.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski".Q-and-a.org. April 2, 2006.Retrieved26 February2015.
  2. ^"Why We Fight – A Film By Eugene Jarecki".Sonyclassics.com.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  3. ^ab"January – 1970 –".Lewrockwell.com.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  4. ^"McSweeney's Internet Tendency: An Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski: Part 1 of 2".Mcsweeneys.net. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-06-04.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  5. ^"Warning Shots by Karen Kwiatkowski".Lewrockwell.com.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  6. ^Black, Edwin."The Pentagon Insider Who Spread Rumors that Sounded Anti-Semitic".History News Network.RetrievedJune 17,2023.
  7. ^""The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace": Nat'l Security Experts Demand U.S. Push to End Ukraine War ".Democracy Now!.Retrieved2024-04-29.
  8. ^"NATO Expansion: An Idea Whose Time Has Gone?".Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.2021-05-11.Retrieved2024-04-29.
  9. ^"Home".Eisenhower Media Network.Retrieved2024-04-29.
  10. ^"Karen Kwiatkowski".natsummit.org.
  11. ^The New Pentagon Papers – A High-Ranking Military Officer Reveals how Defense Department Extremists Suppressed Information and Twisted the Truth to Drive the Country to War, by Karen Kwiatkowski,Salon.com,March 10, 2004[1]ArchivedFebruary 26, 2014, at theWayback Machine
  12. ^[2]ArchivedDecember 5, 2004, at theWayback Machine
  13. ^[3]ArchivedMay 15, 2005, at theWayback Machine
  14. ^[4]ArchivedSeptember 27, 2007, at theWayback Machine
  15. ^"Nathan Callahan / A Letter from Karen Kwiatkowski".Nathancallahan.com.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  16. ^[5]ArchivedFebruary 9, 2005, at theWayback Machine
  17. ^Knapp, Thomas (2006-04-06)."First look 2008: Karen Kwiatkowski | KN@PPSTER".Knappster.blogspot.com.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  18. ^"2008 Presidential Election (P2008)".Politics1.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  19. ^"Ballot Access News – New Hampshire Libertarians Will Hold New Nominating Convention".Ballot-access.org. 14 May 2007.Retrieved2015-02-26.
  20. ^[6]ArchivedDecember 13, 2007, at theWayback Machine
  21. ^"Kwiatkowski AnnouncesRun for 6th District Seat".WVIR-TV. August 18, 2011.RetrievedAugust 19,2011.
  22. ^Adams, Mason (June 13, 2012)."Goodlatte easily dispatches challenger in District 6 primary".The Roanoke Times.RetrievedJune 13,2012.
  23. ^"Karen Kwiatkowski".Facebook.
  24. ^Karen Kwiatkowski (@karen4the6th) | TwitterRetrieved 2018-05-12.
  25. ^ Andy Worthington(2015-09-15)."28 Veterans of US Intelligence Fight Back Against CIA Claims That the Bush Torture Program Was Useful and Necessary".Archivedfrom the original on 2015-09-28.
  26. ^Karen Kwiatkowski erhält Sam Adams Award,16 December 2018
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