Spokesman John Pike: self-promoterPosted on 01/17/2002 5:01:01 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
John Pike is everywhere, promoting himself in the media as "a national security expert"
Just today in the Christian Science Monitor: "It makes me nervous that, like the British, we've acquired an empire in a fit of absent-mindedness,"
says John Pike,a national security expert at GlobalSecurity.org. The key aspects of today's US military deployments, according to Pike, are their scope, and their durability. "They're not just a bunch of guys passing through," says Pike.
Let's take a look at John Pike. Spokesman John Pike: self-promoter
[Excerpt from his site] John Pike, one of the world's leading experts on defense, space and intelligence policy, is Director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization which he founded in December 2000. GlobalSecurity.org is focused on innovative approaches to the emerging security challenges of the new millennium. Internationally renowned for his depth of knowledge on a broad array of issues, Pike is widely noted for his ability to translate complex technical information into concise and pithy soundbites. He has consistently provided insight and understanding of world affairs, military, space and satellite technology to policy makers, the press and the public at large.
Pike previously worked for nearly two decades with the Federation of American Scientists, where he directed the Space Policy, Cyberstrategy, Military Analysis, Nuclear Resource and Intelligence Resource projects. Pike developed the Federation's award winning website, and was personally responsible for creating most of the site's online content. He has also been at the forefront of utilizing satellite imagery to monitor worldwide weapons facilities.
Frequently called upon to testify before Congress, Pike in 1983 established the Space Policy Working Group, comprised of Congressional staff and advocacy organizations concerned with missile defense issues. Ten years later, he set up the Military Spending Group, composed of public interest organizations working on alternative security strategies. Pike helped form the National Campaign to Save the ABM Treaty, and served on its Executive Committee. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served on a variety of non-governmental boards and advisory committees, including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Peace Research and European Security Studies Center, and the Verification Technology Information Centre of London. He has been a consultant to numerous groups, including the United Nations Group of Government Experts on Confidence Building Measures in Outer Space. In 1991 he participated in the NASA International Near-Earth Object (NEO) Detection Panel, and served as a consultant to the NEO Working Group of the International Astronomical Union.
Pike regularly provides commentary and analysis on space and security issues to PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, NPR, and numerous print and online publications. Aerospace Weekly called him "one of the country's most credible space industry observers," and the Christian Science Monitor wrote that he was "one of the handful of American observers equally conversant with both the technological and political aspects of strategic defense and arms control." In 1986 the National Journal named Pike as one of the 150 "People Who Make a Difference" in Washington. In 1988 U.S. News and World Report, citing his work on space and defense, listed him among the 250 members of the "New American Establishment." And in 1994 he was named one of the 25 "Rising Stars Who Will Lead us into the Next Space Age" by the National Space Society's Ad Astra magazine.
In 1991 Pike received the "Public Service Award" of the Federation of American Scientists, and in 1997 he was presented with the Open Source "Award of the Golden Candle" for his work on intelligence related issues. The author of more than 200 studies and articles on national security and space, Pike began his career as a political consultant and science writer. [End Excerpt]
Current Projects and Initiatives at the Federation of American Scientists… (How interesting but not surprising that John Pike's doing most of them)
"John Pike, a spokesman for the Federation of American Scientists and perhaps the shrewdest SDI foe in the galaxy..." -- The Washington Times
"Mr. Pike is regularly quoted in the press and has provided what some Congressional staff members consider the best analyses of the arms control implications of specific `star wars experiments'." -- The New York Times
"... one of the most informed outsiders on the `Star Wars' campaign. Reporters turn to him, lawmakers consult him, and the Pentagon disagrees with him." --Defense Week
The media is filled with lazy reporters eager to latch on to a "talking head" waiting in the wings to give a quick sound bite. When you think about it, if these "talking heads" had real jobs, they'd be busy somewhere else. The media has air time to fill and these types fill it. Accuracy and content doesn't matter to news readers. But it should matter to us, because Pike has an agenda.
Where he falls down is in the practical application of his knowledge.
I first became aware of Pike back in the late '80s, when he was CNN's favorite commentator on NASA's DOD missions. Pike would smugly describe the payload ... and he would invariably be wrong.
I can confidently state that Mr. Pike would have avoided such errors if he'd simply bothered to read the latest issue of Aviation Week....
They're right about a lot, but not everything -- especially in the "forum" parts.
It would seem the bottom line is, you can't trust what the man says.
Actually, it's that you can't trust his opinions at all, and that you should take his technical revelations with a grain of salt.
Of course, his whole agenda -- to expose secrets to the world -- looks like little more than a juvenile attempt to gain attention. And we must admit that he's a sharp enough to be pretty successful at it.
Or, as we call it, Aviation Leak.
(smile)
You're right, though, you can get a lot of good info from that mag.
So because he bills himself as "...Pike is widely noted for his ability to translate complex technical information into concise and pithy soundbites. He has consistently provided insight and understanding of world affairs, military, space and satellite technology to policy makers, the press and the public at large. " let the buy beware.
Of course, his whole agenda -- to expose secrets to the world -- looks like little more than a juvenile attempt to gain attention. And we must admit that he's a sharp enough to be pretty successful at it.
Washington Post Column on John Pike --Stone, a PhD mathematician from Stanford, acknowledged that his star staff member [Pike] attended Vanderbilt but never got a degree. "I view him as the Edwin Land of our community - Land never graduated from Harvard. He was a great genius, and he didn't have time for college," Stone said. "John didn't have time for anything that didn't interest him. As opposed to working on lost causes, John works on things that are ripe for media attention - and he's been far more successful at managing the media than any scientist at FAS."
Beware that these scientists may not have the latest classified data and that the programs that they think may not work may in fact be showing better performanc than they realize.
And this is the point. Pike's free to say what he will, but if he has have nothing to hide, why not be upfront about himself and his agenda?
I'd like the media to give their readers and viewers the credentials of their "experts" so we could weigh what they're saying and decide why they're saying it.
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