Dr. Robert M. Bowman
Host: Charles Giuliani
Previously Aired On: Monday, August 25, 2008 - Listen to the Show!
Robert M. Bowman (born 1934) was a former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions.
Dr. Bowman is active in national and international professional societies and chaired eight major conferences. His PhD is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. Dr. Bowman has lectured at the National War College, the United Nations, Congressional Caucuses, the Academies of Science of six nations, and the House of Lords. He has appeared on McNeil-Lehrer, ABC News, the Larry King Show, Donohue, and Firing Line. He has hosted radio talk shows in New York, Rhode Island, and Florida.
Bowman, the father of Robert M. Bowman, Jr., is the founder and Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church, an “independent Catholic fellowship” created in 1996 and held to be connected through apostolic succession to the Old Catholic Church. Additionally, he is Executive Director of Christian Support Ministries. He also believes the US government was complicit in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Activism
Despite his involvement with space programs and defense, he emerged as an early public critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, also aka “Star Wars”) during the Ronald Reagan administration. On The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour, he called it “the ultimate military lunacy, easily overwhelmed and vulnerable”. Bowman founded the Institute for Space and Security Studies, and its publication Space & Security News (1983) (ISSN 1071-2569), and authored two books on the subject of SDI. He is also a critic of an outgrowth of the SDI program, the Bush administration’s proposed National Missile Defense.
For several years he has been active with Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War as a speaker. He had also been a member of the Peace Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
In 1998, Project Censored cited Bowman’s article “Our Continuing War Against Iraq,” in the May 1998 issue of Space and Security News as one of the few (along with Bill Blum of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Dennis Bernstein) covering what they deemed the fifth most censored story, “U.S. Weapons of Mass Destruction Linked to the Deaths of Half a Million Children.” The WMDs referred to are the biological samples sent to Iraq from the United States up to 1989, and use of depleted uranium during the Gulf War.
Bowman holds the belief that the US government was complicit in the September 11, 2001 attacks. On September 11, 2004 in New York City, Bowman said “…the official conspiracy theory of 9/11 is a bunch of hogwash. It’s impossible”. On the 2006 9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda Symposium, he stated: “I’m an old interceptor pilot, I know the drill, I’ve done it. I know how long it takes, I know the rules… and… critics on the government story on 9/11 have said: “Well, they knew about this, and they did nothing”. That’s not true. If our government had done nothing that day, and let normal procedure be followed, those planes, wherever they were, would have been intercepted, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive.” Bowman stated that at the bare minimum if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were involved in 9/11 then the government stood down and allowed the attacks to happen. He said it is plausible that the entire chain of military command were unaware they were used as tools by the people pulling the strings behind the attack.
Because of his beliefs, he is part of the movement to impeach George W. Bush. He is also a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, founded in January 2006 by James H. Fetzer.
In a radio interview on April 12, 2007, Bowman made this statement:
The argument over the technological feasibility of a defensive shield is entirely irrelevant, because Star Wars has nothing to do with defense. It is an attempt to deploy offensive weapons disguised as defense. In 1982, in his secret defense guidance document, Ronald Reagan ordered the Department of Defense to develop Star Wars weapons, and he assigned them two missions. One: Destroy opposing satellites and seize control of space. Two: Destroy targets on the surface of the earth from space without warning. There wasn’t a word in there about shooting down ballistic missiles. That was a smokescreen for the American people, because they knew that the American people would never approve weapons in space for offensive purposes.
Political Ambitions
In 2000, he campaigned nationwide for the nomination of the Reform Party of the United States of America for President of the United States. In some Reform Party straw polls, he polled better than the ultimate winner of the nomination Pat Buchanan, though still 40 points behind the frontrunner John Hagelin. In the California 2000 presidential primaries, he came in third among five Reform Party candidates, after Donald Trump and John B. Anderson, with 15% of the vote. Including “votes cast by Independents or voters of another party”, he came in third among six Reform Party candidates with 14% of the vote, after Trump and George D. Weber.
Bowman was also considered as one of the running mates for John Hagelin, who was running as the Natural Law Party candidate for President and also one of the front runners for the Reform Party nomination. Though many believed Bowman would win the slot on Hagelin’s ticket as the candidate for Vice President of the United States, he ultimately lost it to Nat Goldhaber.
In 2004, Bowman attempted another run at the Presidency, but ultimately endorsed John Kerry. In 2005 he toured the United States at the invitation of friends honoring him for his efforts towards peace, viewing it as a sort of “farewell tour” due to his battle with a form of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In 2006, Bowman collected signatures to get on the ballot as a Democrat running for the seat in the United States House of Representatives held by 15th District Florida Republican Dave Weldon. Democrat Timothy A. Shipe filed, but did not qualify. Shipe was not known to the Brevard County, Florida Democratic party whereas Bowman has been working with them. In September 2006 Dr. Bowman won the Democratic Primary election, and became the official Democratic candidate running against the Republican incumbent in November 2006.
Awards
The recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’s Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Republic Aviation Airpower Award, The Society of American Military Engineers’ Gold Medal (twice), the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters, and numerous other awards, he is one of the country’s foremost authorities on national security.
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