Saturday, June 10, 2006

Clinton’s CIA Director to Address Presbyterians
on Israel Divestment
press release

R. James Woolsey will deliver a lecture on “Energy, Security, and the Long War of the 21st Century” at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala. This address by former President Bill Clinton’s Director of the CIA will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, June 16th, at the Medical Forum (third floor), adjacent to the Sheraton Hotel. The public and press are invited to join Presbyterian commissioners and observers at this free lecture.

Woolsey is not only an attorney and public servant, having held presidential appointments under four administrations, two Democratic and two Republican. He is also a member of Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. As such he is concerned with the implications of a denominational decision two years ago to institute a process leading toward divestment from corporations doing business with Israel. His talk will address the issue of Israel, Palestine, and Presbyterians. It will touch on the multiple items of business the General Assembly is considering that would end divestment and move the church toward actions to promote peace in the Middle East.

The Committee to End Divestment Now is sponsoring Woolsey’s lecture in conjunction with Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom. The Committee to End Divestment Now coalesced in 2005 as a diverse group of Presbyterians united in the belief that the divestment decision was a mistake that needs to be corrected. Presbyterian Action is a committee of the Washington, D.C.–based Institute on Religion and Democracy, an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches’ social witness in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings.

The lecture will conclude by 1:25, in order for audience members to return to the business meetings of the General Assembly committees at 1:30. No lunch will be served.

James Woolsey is currently a vice president and officer in the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting firm’s Global Resilience practice, located in McLean, Virginia. Previously Woolsey served in the U.S. Government on five different occasions. During his 12 years of government service, he was Director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995; Ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Vienna, 1989–1991; Under Secretary of the Navy, 1977–1979; and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, 1970–1973. He was also appointed by the President as Delegate at Large to the U.S.–Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks (NST), and served in that capacity on a part-time basis in Geneva, Switzerland, 1983–1986. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he was an adviser on the U.S. Delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), Helsinki and Vienna, 1969–1970.

Woolsey is currently Co-Chairman (with former Secretary of State George Shultz) of the Committee on the Present Danger. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Boards of the Clean Fuels Foundation and the New Uses Council, and a Trustee of the Center for Strategic & International Studies and the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments. He also serves on the National Commission on Energy Policy.

Previously, Woolsey was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, and a trustee of Stanford University, The Goldwater Scholarship Foundation, and the Aerospace Corporation. He has also been a member of The National Commission on Terrorism, 1999–2000; The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the U.S. (Rumsfeld Commission), 1998; The President’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, 1989; The President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (Packard Commission), 1985–1986; and The President’s Commission on Strategic Forces (Scowcroft Commission), 1983.

Woolsey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He received his B.A. degree from Stanford University (1963, With Great Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa), an M.A. from Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar 1963–1965), and an LL.B from Yale Law School (1968, Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal).

Woolsey is a frequent contributor of articles to major publications, and from time to time gives public speeches and media interviews on the subjects of foreign affairs, defense, energy, critical infrastructure protection and resilience, and intelligence. In addition, James Woolsey cares about the policy and witness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and will bring particular expertise and insight about the volatile Middle East situation.