Kenneth R. Timmerman

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Kenneth R. Timmerman (born November 4, 1953- ) is a journalist, political writer, and conservative Republican activist who in 2000 was a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from Maryland. Timmerman is executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran, an organization that works to support democratic movements in Iran. Timmerman authored Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson. He has also written on the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, winning a prize[citation needed] for investigative journalism for examining an Iranian arms procurement ring and publishing The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq in 1991.

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[edit] Early life and career

Born in New York in 1953, Timmerman obtained a BA from Goddard College in 1973 and an M.A. from Brown University in 1976. He moved to France, where he pursued a career as a novelist, publishing a novel called Wren Hunt in 1976 and a novella called The Iskra Scrolls in 1980.

[edit] Middle East and Defence Correspondent

In the early 1980s, Timmerman became a Middle East correspondent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and developed an expertise in the Middle East and the arms trade. In 1982, he was taken prisoner for 24 days by Fatah guerillas in Lebanon. He was the first journalist on the scene when Islamic militants bombed the US Embassy in 1983.

From 1985 to 1987, Timmerman was a correspondent for Defense and Armament Newsweek and Military Technology, covering the Iran-Iraq War and the arms industry in the Middle East. He won the Joe Petrosino Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1987 for an investigation of an Iranian arms procurement group.

From 1987 to 1993, Timmerman published the Middle East Defense News and was international correspondent for Defense Electronics. He also wrote monographs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center on alleged efforts by Iraq, Syria and Libya to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

[edit] Author and Activist

In 1991, Timmerman published The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq after the Gulf War. Timmerman advised the United Nations Special Commission for the Disarmament of Iraq on the location of alleged secret weapons plants.

In 1993, Timmerman returned to the US where he worked as a member of the staff of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations. In 1995, he founded the Foundation for Democracy in Iran with Peter Rodman, Joshua Muravchick and Iranian opposition expatriates to attempt to topple the Iranian government. He founded the Middle East Data Project to advise governments and private companies. In 1998, he made suggestions to the Rumsfeld Commission supporting the deployment of a national missile defence system.

In 1998, he wrote a piece on Osama Bin Laden and his training camps in Afghanistan just before Al-Qaeda attacked two US embassies in Africa. He also wrote features for the American Spectator criticising the export of high-technology equipment to China, which was published as a book in 2000. In 2000 Timmerman sought the nomination of the Maryland GOP to run against popular Democratic incumbent Paul Sarbanes. Timmerman won less than ten percent of the party primary voting; Paul Rappaport won the Republican nomination but lost to Sarbanes, who won 63% of the vote.

Timmerman wrote Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson as a change of pace from his focus on international issues in 2002. The argument claimed that Jackson alleging connections with criminals and claiming that Rev. Jackson practised extortion of businesses. It proved to be highly successful making the top ten bestseller list with 200,000 copies printed. (1) It also reached the top of the Amazon bestseller list. (2)

In 2003, Timmerman published Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War Against America criticising Islamic preachers for hate speech. The French Betrayal of America was published in 2004. Timmerman returned to his field of greatest expertise with the publication of Countdown to Crisis: the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran in 2005.

Timmerman was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize along with UN Ambassador John Bolton February 7, 2006 by Sweden's former deputy prime minister and Liberal party leader Per Ahlmark for "for their repeated warnings and documentation of Iran's secret nuclear buildup and revealing Iran's 'repeated lying' and false reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency." [1]

[edit] Criticism

Timmerman has been accused of yellow journalism in relation to his work on Iraqi WMDs.[2]

He has also been accused of excessive partisanship in relation to Iran and his work on the Foundation for Democracy in Iran. As the American founder of an organization that claims to represent the interests of Iranian democrats, his opinions have little influence in the Iranian diaspora.

He has been accused of stoking conflict with Iran (a charge which his supporters deny), by misrepresenting the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, as well as denouncing the National Intelligence Estimate which clearly states that Iran had ended a project to design nuclear warheads some years ago, although they increased their efforts on the more important parts of their program for building nuclear weapons. Timmerman denounced the misleading way in which the unclassified summary of the report described the report's conclusions.

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Wren Hunt Bran's Head Books 1976, 1982 ISBN 0-905220-32-3
  • The Iskra Scrolls novella Handshake Press Paris 1980
  • Fanning the Flames: Guns, Greed, and Geopolitics in the Gulf War syndicated by New York Times Syndication Sales, 1987, published in book form as Ol ins Feuer, Orell Fssl, 1988
  • La Grande Fauche: Le vol de la haute technologie (Gorbachev's Technology Wars: How the U.S.S.R Arms Itself in the West) Editions Plon Paris 1989
  • The Poison Gas Connection: The Chemical Weapons Programs of Iraq and Libya Simon Wiesenthal Center Los Angeles 1990
  • The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq Houghton Mifflin Boston 1991 ISBN 0-395-59305-0
  • The BNL Blunder: How the U.S. Policy Allowed a Bank in Atlanta to Finance Saddam Hussein's War Machine Simon Wiesenthal Center Los Angeles 1991
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction: the Cases of Iran, Syria and Libya Simon Wiesenthal Center Los Angeles 1992
  • Selling Out America: The American Spectator Investigations Xlibris Philadelphia Pennsylvania 2000 ISBN 0-7388-2858-0
  • Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson Regenery Washington DC 2002 ISBN 0-89526-165-0
  • Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America Crown Forum 2003 ISBN 1-4000-4901-6
  • The French Betrayal of America Crown Forum 2004 ISBN 1-4000-5366-8
  • Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran Crown Forum 2005 ISBN 1-4000-5368-4
  • Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender Crown Forum 2007 ISBN 0-307-35209-5

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

(1) Regnery's Latest Score (Behind the Bestsellers) March 25, 2002 Publisher's Weekly v249 i12 p18

(2) Rod Dreher, "He is Somebody (Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson book review)", National Review April 22, 2002 v54 i7 p41

[edit] References

03/27/2006 The Web site Newshog claims Kenneth R. Timmerman falsely alleges that Iran has bought nuclear warheads from North Korea. In fact, Jane's Defense Weekly reported that Iran bought some ancient missile from Pyongyang, and there was never any question of a warhead. Newshog reports: http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2006/03/exclusive-neocon-expert-caught-out.html