Stephen G. Rademaker

Stephen G. Rademaker served as Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, in the U.S. Department of State since September 13, 2005. It was announced in January 2007 that Rademaker was leaving the State Department for a "lucrative lobbying job at the firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers." His wife is Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute.

"While assistant secretary of state, Rademaker negotiated a controversial deal allowing the United States to sell nuclear technology to India, which is not a member of the important nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Critics argued that the Bush administration 'abandoned the one incentive states have to stay in the NPT, without providing an alternative framework to sustain the effort to control proliferation'," Amanda Terkel wrote January 12, 2007, for Think Progress.

"Less than a month after that deal was ratified by Congress during its lame duck session in December [2006], Rademaker is leaving the State Department to join Barbour — which lobbied on behalf of the Indian government for the nuclear pact," Terkel wrote.

A nuclear bomb in 16 days
On April 12, 2006, Stephen G. Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters in Moscow that Iran "could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days," Bloomberg News reported.

Joshua Micah Marshall commented in the April 12, 2006, Talking Points Memo:


 * "Now, I'm pretty new to this issue. But even I can spot that Stephen Rademaker works for Robert Joseph. And that's the same Bob Joseph who was charged with muscling the CIA into letting President Bush use the Niger bamboozle in the 2003 State of the Union address. And he actually managed to get it done, even after the Alan Foley and others at the CIA told him repeatedly they didn't think it was true. So he certainly speaks with a lot of credibility on this issue."

Profiles
According to his Department of State profile, Rademaker "currently heads the newly-created Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation of the Department of State. This Bureau was created on September 13, 2005, upon the merger of the Bureau of Arms Control and the Bureau of Nonproliferation. Mr. Rademaker was sworn in on August 12, 2002, as Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, and in February 2005 he was also named as head of the Bureau of Nonproliferation pending merger of the two Bureaus.

"Immediately prior to joining the State Department, Mr. Rademaker was Chief Counsel to the Select Committee on Homeland Security of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he had lead responsibility for drafting the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security.

"For most of the previous decade, Mr. Rademaker held positions on the staff of the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives, including Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel (2001-2002), Chief Counsel (1995-2001), and Minority Chief Counsel (1993-1995). While on the staff of the International Relations Committee, he played a key role in developing the Committee’s legislative and oversight agenda. He also advised members of the Committee on such issues as the deployment of U.S. armed forces abroad, NATO enlargement, arms control, nonproliferation, foreign assistance, international law, reorganization of the foreign affairs agencies, and the promotion of democracy and human rights.

"From 1992 to 1993, Mr. Rademaker served as General Counsel of the Peace Corps. He returned briefly to the agency in 2000-2001 as the Bush-Cheney Transition’s Director of Transition for the Peace Corps.

"From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Rademaker held a joint appointment as Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of Counsel to the President and as Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council. In this position, he provided legal advice to the President and the National Security Advisor on foreign assistance, arms control, war powers, intelligence, export control, counter-narcotics, and international environmental and economic matters.

"From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Rademaker served as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. From 1986 to 1987, he served as Counsel to the Vice Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission. In 1986 he was a law clerk for the Honorable James L. Buckley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1984 to 1986, he was an associate at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling.

"Mr. Rademaker received three degrees from the University of Virginia: a B.A. With Highest Distinction in 1981, a J.D. in 1984, and an M.A. in Foreign Affairs in 1985. While at the University of Virginia he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif. He was elected Student Body President for 1980-81."

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Bush's White House Staff