Joseph Ralston


Joseph W. Ralston is currently the United States Special Envoy for Countering the Kurdistan Workers Party and holds senior positions in various defense related corporations. He was previously a career officer in the United States Air Force, and served as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as Supreme Allied Commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe.

Career

Military career

Ralston served in the United States Air Force from 1965 to 2003. He served in operational command at squadron, wing, numbered air force and major command, as well as various staff and management positions at every level of the United States Air Force.
Ralston became Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1996. He was favorite to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1997, however following revelations of a secret affair he remained Vice Chairman until May 2000. He then became Supreme Allied Commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe until January 2003 when he retired.
Bill Clinton writes in his memoirs My Life that Ralston was used to resolve a potentially sticky situation with Pakistan in which the US would use Pakistani airspace to strike at the Al-Qaeda organization meeting in Afghanistan following the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. There was US concern that Pakistan's intelligence services would tip off the targets or even worse assume the missiles over Pakistan came from India, potentially triggering a nuclear conflict on the Indian sub-continent. As Clinton writes on page 799 of My Life, "we decided to send the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Ralston, to have dinner with the top Pakistani military commander at the time the attacks were scheduled. Ralston would tell him what was happening a few minutes before our missiles invaded Pakistani airspace, too late to alert the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, but in time to avoid having them shot down or sparking a counterattack on India."
In September 2006, Ralston was assigned as Special Envoy for Countering the Kurdistan Workers Party by the President of the United States George W. Bush. The PKK is a Kurdish separatist group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union.
Ralston was one of at least three retired four-star generals asked by the Bush administration to oversee both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ralston and the two other generals, however, all declined this position.

Corporate career

Ralston is director of the Timken Company and the URS Corporation, is on the Board of Directors of Lockheed Martin and has been Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group, since March 2003. He also sits on the advisory board of the American Turkish Council, an American-Turkish lobby group. and French Minister of Defense Alain Richard during a meetings at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 2001.|alt=|222x222px during the U.S.-Republic of Korea Security Consultative Meeting at The Pentagon, November 1999.|alt=|222x222px

Controversies

In 1997, at the retirement of John M. Shalikashvili, the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Ralston was the top candidate to succeed him to the highest position in the military. A scandal erupted when it became public that Ralston had an adulterous affair with a CIA employee during the 1980s. Ralston claimed this was while he and his wife Linda were separated.
Defense Secretary William Cohen backed Ralston despite the controversy, declaring that Ralston's secret, adulterous relationship 13 years ago would not "automatically disqualify" him from becoming the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There were allegations of double standards, as 1st Lieutenant Kelly Flinn was forced out of the Air Force after being charged with adultery a month prior.
Ralston withdrew his name from consideration and remained Vice Chairman until 2000, when he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in which function he served from 2000 to 2003, taking over from United States Army general Wesley Clark. In this capacity, he was the highest-ranking officer in NATO. He retired on March 1, 2003.

Alleged conflict of interest

Ralston holds various senior positions in defense and security-related corporations, simultaneously with his diplomatic role as "anti PKK coordinator". Critics allege Ralston is using his influence as special envoy to secure large governmental weapons contracts for the corporations he has directorship over. The Boston Globe described him as "an arms merchant in diplomat's clothing."
On 26 October 2006, the Kurdish National Congress of North America issued a press release demanding "the immediate resignation" of General Joseph Ralston:
Since the PKK insurgency began in 1983, 30,000 people have died and over 3,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed, often by U.S. supplied planes. Critics are concerned that hard line anti-PKK policies influenced by conflicting interests would compromise the prospects for longterm solution to the Kurdish-Turkish issue.
On October 1, 2006, the PKK announced a unilateral cease-fire in south-east Turkey, a move that the Turkish government has rejected:
Speaking before the Eurasian Strategic Research Center in Istanbul, Ralston mirrored the Turkish government's rhetoric :

Education

Military career summary

Assignments

Awards and decorations

Effective dates of promotion