Danielle Pletka

Danielle Pletka (born 1963 in Melbourne, Australia) is the vice-president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Biography

Youth and education

Pletka is a graduate of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

Career

Pletka is the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the AEI, a neoconservative think tank based in Washington, DC.^[1] Pletka was editorial assistant with the Los Angeles Times and Reuters, working in Jerusalem from 1984 to 1985. From 1987 to 1992, she was a staff writer for Insight on the News.She was a senior professional staff member for Near East and South Asia with the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1992 to 2002.

Pletka was a strong supporter of Iraqi opposition leader, Ahmed Chalabi, even after it emerged he was being investigated by the US authorities as an Iranian spy. Pletka defended Chalabi saying that he had been "shoddily" treated and that CIA and US State Department personnel had been fighting "a rear guard" action against him.^[2]

She researches topics related to the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation, and is an AEI expert on Iraq. Pletka is also involved in various other projects such as the Committee on the Present Danger.

Pletka is married to Stephen Rademaker, who was Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation (including head of the Bureau of Arms Control) in the George W. Bush presidential administration.^[3] The couple has three children: Olivia, Sophia, and Nicola.

Congressional testimony

• Assessing the Strength of Hezbollah (2010)
• Iran Sanctions (2010)
• Minimizing Potential Threats from Iran (2009)

Select publications

• Possible Extension of the UN Mandate for Iraq (2008)
• The Iran Counter-Proliferation Act (2008)
• The Way Forward in the Middle East (2005)
• Reconstructing Iraq (2004)
• UN Accountability for the Oil for Food Program (2004)
• United States in the War on Terrorism (20021)

Editorials

• The C.I.A. Report Is Too Tainted to Matter. After the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on torture condemned the C.I.A. for waterboarding, chaining prisoners upright, and forcing them to go without sleep for days, Pletka argued that those techniques were justified because they provided intelligence that assisted the capture of Bin Ladin, and were legally allowed by Justice Department memos.^[4]
• Don't Diss Defence Workers NY Times (23 Oct 2012
• What Obama's Slogan Conceals Washington Post (2 Nov 2012)
• The Battle for Mitt Romney's Soul Foreign Policy (9 Oct 2012)

References

1. American Enterprise Institute
3. "The Washington Note," May 2005 http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2005/05/
4. The C.I.A. Report Is Too Tainted to Matter, Danielle Pletka, New York Times, December 9, 2014.

External links

• Bio from the American Enterprise Institute, with list of articles published by Pletka
• BBC Article on Rendition
• Appearances on C-SPAN