Michael Richard Pompeo (born December 30, 1963) has been the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency since January 23, 2017 after being nominated by President Donald Trump. Previously, he was the member of the United States House of Representatives for Kansas's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2017. He was a member of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party. He was a Kansas representative on the Republican National Committee and a member of the Italian American Congressional Delegation.
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Education, and early career
Pompeo was born in Orange, California, the son of Dorothy (née Mercer) and Wayne Pompeo. He is of Italian ancestry. His paternal grandmother was born in Caramanico Terme. In 1982, Pompeo graduated from Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley, California where he played power forward on the basketball team. In 1986, Pompeo graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point where he majored in mechanical engineering.
From 1986 to 1991, Pompeo served in the U.S. Army as an Armor Branch cavalry officer. He served as a United States Cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the 4th Infantry Division in the Gulf War.
In 1994, Pompeo received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, he worked as a lawyer for Williams & Connolly.
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Business career
In 1998, along with other West Point alumni, Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace and Private Security, which received a 2% investment from Koch Industries. In 2006, he sold his interest in Thayer, which was renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace, and became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment company, which was also a partner with Koch Industries.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In the 2010 Kansas Republican primary for the 4th District Congressional seat, Pompeo defeated State Senator Jean Schodorf (who received 24%), Wichita businessman Wink Hartman (who received 23%), and small business owner Jim Anderson (who received 13%). State Senator Dick Kelsey also ran for the nomination, but ended his campaign before the August primary and endorsed Pompeo. Late in the primary, Schodorf began to surge in the polls, prompting two outside groups--Americans for Prosperity and Common Sense Issues, an Ohio-based political group--to spend tens of thousands of dollars in the final campaign days to attack Schodorf and support Pompeo.
In the general election, Pompeo defeated Democratic nominee Raj Goyle, a member of the Kansas House of Representatives. Pompeo received 59% of the vote (117,171 votes), to 36% for Goyle (71,866).
During the campaign, Pompeo received $80,000 in donations from Koch Industries and its employees.
In his 2012 re-election bid, Pompeo defeated Democratic nominee Robert Tillman by a margin of 62%-32%.
Pompeo won the general election, defeating Democrat Perry Schuckman, with 66.7% of the vote.
Pompeo beat Democrat Daniel B. Giroux in the general election with 60.6% of the vote.
Committee assignments
Pompeo has been on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the following 3 subcommittees: the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Energy, and the United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on the CIA. He was also on the United States House Select Committee on Benghazi.
CIA Director
On November 18, 2016, then-President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Pompeo to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 23, 2017 with a vote of 66-32, and sworn in later that day.
In February 2017, Pompeo traveled to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. He met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an to discuss policy on Syria and ISIL. Pompeo honored the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Nayef with the CIA's "George Tenet" Medal. It was the first reaffirmation of Saudi Arabia-United States relations since Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
In August 2017, Pompeo took direct command of the Counterintelligence Mission Center, the department which helped to launch an investigation into possible links between Trump associates and Russian officials. Many CIA directors expressed concern since Pompeo is known to be an ally of Donald Trump.
Political positions
Military and national security
Surveillance
Pompeo supports the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, referring to the agency's efforts as "good and important work."
Pompeo stated that "Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database. Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed. That includes Presidential Policy Directive-28, which bestows privacy rights on foreigners and imposes burdensome requirements to justify data collection."
Terrorism
In a 2013 speech on the House floor, Pompeo said Muslim leaders who fail to denounce acts of terrorism done in the name of Islam are "potentially complicit" in the attacks. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Pompeo to revise his remarks, calling them "false and irresponsible" with overwhelming evidence contradicting his remarks.
Prisons
Pompeo opposes closing Guantánamo Bay detention camp. After a 2013 visit to the prison, Pompeo said, of the prisoners who were on hunger strike, "It looked to me like a lot of them had put on weight."
Pompeo criticized the Obama administration's decision to end black sites (secret prisons), and its requirement that all interrogators adhere to anti-torture laws.
North Korea
Pompeo desires regime change in North Korea. In July 2017, Pompeo said "It would be a great thing to denuclearize the peninsula, to get those weapons off of that, but the thing that is most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over them today."
Iran
Pompeo worked to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran that was supported by the Obama Administration. Referring to the agreement, Pompeo stated "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism." Pompeo also stated that a better option than negotiating with Iran would be to use "under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces."
On July 21, 2015, Pompeo and Senator Tom Cotton alleged the existence of secret side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on procedures for inspection and verification of Iran's nuclear activities under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. Obama administration officials acknowledged the existence of agreements between Iran and the IAEA governing the inspection of sensitive military sites, but denied the characterization that they were "secret side deals", calling them standard practice in crafting arms-control pacts and arguing the administration had provided information about them to Congress.
Israel
In November 2015, Pompeo visited Israel and stated that "Prime Minister Netanyahu is a true partner of the American people" and that "Netanyahu's efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons are incredibly admirable and deeply appreciated". He also stated that "In the fight against terrorism, cooperation between Israel and the United States has never been more important" and that "We must stand with our ally Israel and put a stop to terrorism. Ongoing attacks by the Palestinians serve only to distance the prospect of peace."
Russia
During his confirmation hearing, Pompeo stated that Russia "has reasserted itself aggressively, invading and occupying Ukraine, threatening Europe, and doing nearly nothing to aid in the destruction and defeat of ISIS."
Syria
Pompeo accused President Obama of inviting Russia into Syria.
WikiLeaks
In a 2017 speech addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Pompeo referred to WikiLeaks as "a non-state hostile intelligence service" and described founder Julian Assange as a narcissist, fraud, and coward.
"... we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now.... Assange and his ilk make common cause with dictators today. Yes, they try unsuccessfully to cloak themselves and their actions in the language of liberty and privacy; in reality, however, they champion nothing but their own celebrity. Their currency is clickbait; their moral compass, nonexistent. Their mission: personal self-aggrandizement through the destruction of Western values."
Edward Snowden
In February 2016, Pompeo said Edward Snowden "should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence." But he has spoken in favor of reforming the Federal Records Act, one of the laws under which Snowden was charged, saying "I'm not sure there's a whole lot of change that needs to happen to the Espionage Act. The Federal Records Act clearly needs updating to reflect the different ways information is communicated and stored. Given the move in technology and communication methods, I think it's probably due for an update."
In March 2014, Pompeo denounced the inclusion of a telecast by Snowden in the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas and asked that it be cancelled, predicting that it would encourage "lawless behavior" among attendees.
Energy and environment
Speaking about climate change in 2013, Pompeo said: "There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. There's some who think we're warming, there's some who think we're cooling, there's some who think that the last 16 years have shown a pretty stable climate environment."
Pompeo has stated that "Federal policy should be about the American family, not worshipping a radical environmental agenda." He has referred to the Obama Administration's environment and climate change plans as "damaging" and "radical". He opposes the regulation of Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States, and supports eliminating the United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions.
Pompeo signed the No Climate Tax pledge of Americans for Prosperity.
He has called for the permanent elimination of wind power production tax credits, calling them an "enormous government handout".
In December 2015, as a member of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Pompeo voted for two resolutions disapproving of the Clean Power Plan implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration.
On May 9, 2013, Pompeo introduced the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act. The bill would have required the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve or reject any proposal for a natural gas pipeline within 12 months. The bill passed the House of Representatives along party lines but was not voted on in the Senate.
Healthcare
Pompeo opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Pompeo has been criticized for saying that he supports funding for certain programs that are part of the ACA, yet he opposes them when they are a part of the ACA.
Social issues
Pompeo has stated that life begins at conception and believes that abortions should be allowed only when necessary to save the life of the mother. In 2011, Pompeo voted for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would have banned federal health coverage that includes abortion. Also in 2011, he voted for a prohibition on funding the United Nations Population Fund, which has been complicit in China's one-child forced abortion policy.
Pompeo opposed same-sex marriage and had sponsored bills to let states prevent same-sex couples from marrying.
Miscellaneous
Pompeo supported the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, blaming President Obama. He stated that he believed the shutdown was necessary to avoid a predicted "American financial collapse 10 years from now."
Pompeo is a lifetime member of, and has been endorsed by, the National Rifle Association.
Pompeo opposes requiring food suppliers to label food made with genetically modified organisms. He introduced the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 to block states from requiring mandatory GMO food labeling.
Pompeo sponsored the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013.
Personal life
Pompeo is married to Susan Pompeo and has one son, Nicholas. He attends Eastminster Presbyterian Church, where he serves as a deacon and teaches the fifth-grade Sunday school class.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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