Tallahassee Democrat | 05/23/2004 | Wolfowitz's blunders cost us dearly: "Sun, May. 23, 2004 | By Bronwyn Lance Chester | THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
It's a good thing the Pentagon didn't contract out the position of deputy defense secretary. Corporate America would have surely canned Paul Wolfowitz by now.
Almost every rosy prediction made by the Iraq war's architect has fallen flat. Instead of squandering company profits, however, Wolfowitz's high-stakes bungling and erroneous forecasts have helped sacrifice more precious commodities: thousands of lives, billions of taxpayer dollars and much of the global goodwill America enjoyed after Sept. 11.
How many strikes does this guy get before he's out? "
Blunder No. 1: Iraq as global threat.
Blunder No. 2: Troop strength
Blunder No. 3: Foreign troop participation
Blunder No. 4: Ahmed Chalabi
Blunder No. 5: Paying for the occupation ...
Monday, May 24, 2004
Monday, May 17, 2004
After mismanaging the Vietnam War, LB Johnson rode turned tail and rode off into the sunset of his Texas ranch ... Bush too?
USATODAY.com - Should cowboy Bush ride into the sunset?: "Posted 5/13/2004 10:15 PM
...
Where? Iraq. He led us astray by falsely claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that threatened us. After the "Mission Accomplished" boast in May 2003, he put our troops in new jeopardy by taunting terrorists from other countries with his "Bring 'em on!" challenge last July 2. His anything-goes-against-the-bad-guys attitude and his total lack of postwar planning helped prompt the ongoing prison-abuse embarrassments and brutal retaliations.
Why? Because he believes he can be re-elected as a tough-talking, self-proclaimed "War President."
Maybe Bush should take a cue from a fellow Texan, former president Lyndon Baines Johnson, who also had some cowboy characteristics.
LBJ, after mismanaging the Vietnam War that so bitterly divided the nation and the world, decided he owed it to his political party and to his country not to run for re-election. So, he turned tail and rode off into the sunset of his Texas ranch. ...
...
Where? Iraq. He led us astray by falsely claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that threatened us. After the "Mission Accomplished" boast in May 2003, he put our troops in new jeopardy by taunting terrorists from other countries with his "Bring 'em on!" challenge last July 2. His anything-goes-against-the-bad-guys attitude and his total lack of postwar planning helped prompt the ongoing prison-abuse embarrassments and brutal retaliations.
Why? Because he believes he can be re-elected as a tough-talking, self-proclaimed "War President."
Maybe Bush should take a cue from a fellow Texan, former president Lyndon Baines Johnson, who also had some cowboy characteristics.
LBJ, after mismanaging the Vietnam War that so bitterly divided the nation and the world, decided he owed it to his political party and to his country not to run for re-election. So, he turned tail and rode off into the sunset of his Texas ranch. ...
Friday, January 16, 2004
Necconservatives causing nothing less than an inversion of its traditional self-undertstanding and sense of priorities
Appetite for Destruction: "January 19, 2004 issue
Copyright � 2004 The American Conservative | By Claes G. Ryn"
Neoconservatives have more in common with French revolutionaries than American traditionalists.
...
Virtually all Americans recognized the necessity of an emphatic response to 9/11. The reason this atrocity did not elicit focused action against the perpetrators but became instead the justification for war against Iraq and a worldwide battle against terrorism is that neo-Jacobin intellectuals and activists had long prepared to launch such a policy. After 9/11 they could push through policies whose full implications were not obvious to their less ideological bosses. President Bush had the excuses that he confronted wholly unanticipated and unsettling circumstances and was not an intellectual and historian able fully to understand the cause that he adopted.
...
America is witnessing nothing less than an inversion of its traditional self-undertstanding and sense of priorities.
Claes G. Ryn is Professor of Politics at Catholic University and Chairman of the National Humanities Institute. He is the author of America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire.
Copyright � 2004 The American Conservative | By Claes G. Ryn"
Neoconservatives have more in common with French revolutionaries than American traditionalists.
...
Virtually all Americans recognized the necessity of an emphatic response to 9/11. The reason this atrocity did not elicit focused action against the perpetrators but became instead the justification for war against Iraq and a worldwide battle against terrorism is that neo-Jacobin intellectuals and activists had long prepared to launch such a policy. After 9/11 they could push through policies whose full implications were not obvious to their less ideological bosses. President Bush had the excuses that he confronted wholly unanticipated and unsettling circumstances and was not an intellectual and historian able fully to understand the cause that he adopted.
...
America is witnessing nothing less than an inversion of its traditional self-undertstanding and sense of priorities.
Claes G. Ryn is Professor of Politics at Catholic University and Chairman of the National Humanities Institute. He is the author of America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
O'Neill Says He Didn't Take U.S. Treasury Documents: all documents came from Treasury's chief legal officer
Excite - News: "O'Neill Says He Didn't Take U.S. Treasury Documents | Jan 13, 3:21 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, under fire for criticizing President Bush's leadership, denied on Tuesday he had taken secret documents from the Treasury.
On Monday, hours after O'Neill criticized the president on CBS television, the Treasury Department said its Inspector General was investigating how a document marked 'secret' was shown during the interview.
Speaking on NBC's 'Today' show, the ex-Treasury Secretary said the documents were given to him by the Treasury's chief legal officer after he requested them to help former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind write a book on O'Neill's time in the Cabinet.
'I said to him (the general counsel) I would like to have the documents that are OK for me to have. About three weeks later, the general counsel, the chief legal officer, sent me a couple of CDs, which I frankly never opened,' said O'Neill, who resigned under pressure a year ago in a shake-up of Bush's economy team." ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, under fire for criticizing President Bush's leadership, denied on Tuesday he had taken secret documents from the Treasury.
On Monday, hours after O'Neill criticized the president on CBS television, the Treasury Department said its Inspector General was investigating how a document marked 'secret' was shown during the interview.
Speaking on NBC's 'Today' show, the ex-Treasury Secretary said the documents were given to him by the Treasury's chief legal officer after he requested them to help former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind write a book on O'Neill's time in the Cabinet.
'I said to him (the general counsel) I would like to have the documents that are OK for me to have. About three weeks later, the general counsel, the chief legal officer, sent me a couple of CDs, which I frankly never opened,' said O'Neill, who resigned under pressure a year ago in a shake-up of Bush's economy team." ...
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Bush administration 'systematically misrepresenting' Iraq's WMD: repeated visits by VP Cheney pressed analysts to come to "more threatening" judgments
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Carnegie group says Bush made wrong claims on WMD: "Julian Borger in Washington | Thursday January 8, 2004 | The Guardian
The Bush administration will today be accused of 'systematically misrepresenting' the threat posed by 'Iraq's weapons of mass destruction' in a comprehensive report on post-war findings. "
...
The authors say the intelligence reports of Iraq's capabilities grew more shrill in October 2002 with the publication of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which included an unusual number of dissenting views by intelligence officials.
The intelligence community, the report says, began to be unduly influenced by policymakers' views "sometime in 2002". Repeated visits to the CIA by the US vice president, Dick Cheney, and demands by top officials to see unsubstantiated reports, created an atmosphere in which intelligence analysts were pressed to come to "more threatening" judgments of Iraq.
The report concludes that "administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile programmes". ...
The Bush administration will today be accused of 'systematically misrepresenting' the threat posed by 'Iraq's weapons of mass destruction' in a comprehensive report on post-war findings. "
...
The authors say the intelligence reports of Iraq's capabilities grew more shrill in October 2002 with the publication of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which included an unusual number of dissenting views by intelligence officials.
The intelligence community, the report says, began to be unduly influenced by policymakers' views "sometime in 2002". Repeated visits to the CIA by the US vice president, Dick Cheney, and demands by top officials to see unsubstantiated reports, created an atmosphere in which intelligence analysts were pressed to come to "more threatening" judgments of Iraq.
The report concludes that "administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile programmes". ...
Monday, November 24, 2003
Iraq appoints US citizen [neo-conservative] as its American envoy
: "Iraq appoints US citizen as its American envoy | By David Rennie in Washington | (Filed: 24/11/2003)
The Iraqi Governing Council has appointed an Iraqi-American woman and human rights lobbyist its first ambassador to the United States.
Rend Rahim Francke is little known in Iraq. As a young girl she was sent for an education at boarding school in England, followed by Cambridge and the Sorbonne. She left Iraq for good in the 1970s and has been a US citizen since 1987.
A former banker and currency trader, Ms Francke is better known in the think-tanks and political salons of Washington DC, where she has been a prominent and passionate advocate for Iraqi regime change.
She worked with neo-conservative hawks in pushing for more US support for exile and opposition groups.
Advising on post-war planning, she shared the faith of neo-conservatives that building a democratic Iraq, and holding Saddam Hussein to account for human rights abuses, could transform the Middle East.
The Iraqi Governing Council has appointed an Iraqi-American woman and human rights lobbyist its first ambassador to the United States.
Rend Rahim Francke is little known in Iraq. As a young girl she was sent for an education at boarding school in England, followed by Cambridge and the Sorbonne. She left Iraq for good in the 1970s and has been a US citizen since 1987.
A former banker and currency trader, Ms Francke is better known in the think-tanks and political salons of Washington DC, where she has been a prominent and passionate advocate for Iraqi regime change.
She worked with neo-conservative hawks in pushing for more US support for exile and opposition groups.
Advising on post-war planning, she shared the faith of neo-conservatives that building a democratic Iraq, and holding Saddam Hussein to account for human rights abuses, could transform the Middle East.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Chicago Tribune | 10 receive humanities prizes
Chicago Tribune | 10 receive humanities prizes: "Northwestern's Epstein joins Updike, Holbrook | Published November 17, 2003
Northwestern University English professor and essayist Joseph Epstein and novelist John Updike were among 10 people to be awarded on Friday the National Humanities Medal by President Bush.
Epstein, whose works include fiction and social and literary commentary, and the others were cited for contributions to the humanities. Updike's many works include novels, short stories, poetry and criticism.
The other recipients are:
- Robert Ballard, the deep-sea explorer famed for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic.
- Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the creators of the Children's Television Workshop and its 'Sesame Street' show.
- Midge Decter, a neoconservative writer and columnist. ... [... Her second husband, (neoconservative) Norman Podhoretz, is editor of Commentary. ed.]
Northwestern University English professor and essayist Joseph Epstein and novelist John Updike were among 10 people to be awarded on Friday the National Humanities Medal by President Bush.
Epstein, whose works include fiction and social and literary commentary, and the others were cited for contributions to the humanities. Updike's many works include novels, short stories, poetry and criticism.
The other recipients are:
- Robert Ballard, the deep-sea explorer famed for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic.
- Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the creators of the Children's Television Workshop and its 'Sesame Street' show.
- Midge Decter, a neoconservative writer and columnist. ... [... Her second husband, (neoconservative) Norman Podhoretz, is editor of Commentary. ed.]
Monday, November 17, 2003
DoD Statement refutes Fieth's letter to Senate Intelligence Committee about Qaida and Iraq Connections
DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections: "United States Department of Defense | No. 851-03 | IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 15, 2003
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.
A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 27, 2003 from Douglas J. Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the Department to provide the reports from the Intelligence Community to which he referred in his testimony before the Committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida. "
News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.
A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 27, 2003 from Douglas J. Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the Department to provide the reports from the Intelligence Community to which he referred in his testimony before the Committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida. "
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Investigation Clears Perle of Wrongdoing, Rumsfeld Says
Excite - News: "Investigation Clears Perle of Wrongdoing, Rumsfeld Says | Nov 16, 4:10 pm ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - An investigation by the Defense Department's inspector general has cleared Pentagon adviser Richard Perle of any violation of conflict of interest laws in his private consulting business, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Sunday.
...
Perle, an architect of the Iraq war, remains as a member of the board, which is now headed by former Florida Republican Rep. Tillie Fowler.
Perle stepped down after facing allegations of a conflict of interest over his work as an adviser for the bankrupt telecommunications firm Global Crossing Ltd. .
...
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Perle was the focus of a new inquiry by Hollinger International, a media conglomerate where he serves as director. The inquiry is focusing on several transactions, including $2.5 million in payments made by the company into Trireme Partners, a venture capital company in which Perle is a managing partner, the newspaper said.
SEOUL (Reuters) - An investigation by the Defense Department's inspector general has cleared Pentagon adviser Richard Perle of any violation of conflict of interest laws in his private consulting business, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Sunday.
...
Perle, an architect of the Iraq war, remains as a member of the board, which is now headed by former Florida Republican Rep. Tillie Fowler.
Perle stepped down after facing allegations of a conflict of interest over his work as an adviser for the bankrupt telecommunications firm Global Crossing Ltd. .
...
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Perle was the focus of a new inquiry by Hollinger International, a media conglomerate where he serves as director. The inquiry is focusing on several transactions, including $2.5 million in payments made by the company into Trireme Partners, a venture capital company in which Perle is a managing partner, the newspaper said.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Neo-conned: Case for war made up, say top names
Case for war made up, say top names: "By ANDREW GUMBEL in Los Angeles | 11/10/03: (The Independent)
An unprecedented array of United States intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials have gone on record to lambast the Bush Administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq.
In their view, the very foundations of intelligence-gathering have been damaged in ways that could take years, even decades, to repair.
...
They also reconstruct the way senior White House officials - notably Vice-President Dick Cheney - leaned on the CIA to find evidence that would fit a preordained set of conclusions.
"There was never a clear and present danger. There was never an imminent threat. Iraq - and we have very good intelligence on this - was never part of the picture of terrorism," says Mel Goodman, a veteran CIA analyst who now teaches at the National War College.
...
"The theory that you can bludgeon political grievances out of existence doesn't have much of a track record," he [George Bush snr's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman] says, "so essentially we have been neo-conned into applying a school of thought about foreign affairs that has failed everywhere it has been tried."
An unprecedented array of United States intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials have gone on record to lambast the Bush Administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq.
In their view, the very foundations of intelligence-gathering have been damaged in ways that could take years, even decades, to repair.
...
They also reconstruct the way senior White House officials - notably Vice-President Dick Cheney - leaned on the CIA to find evidence that would fit a preordained set of conclusions.
"There was never a clear and present danger. There was never an imminent threat. Iraq - and we have very good intelligence on this - was never part of the picture of terrorism," says Mel Goodman, a veteran CIA analyst who now teaches at the National War College.
...
"The theory that you can bludgeon political grievances out of existence doesn't have much of a track record," he [George Bush snr's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman] says, "so essentially we have been neo-conned into applying a school of thought about foreign affairs that has failed everywhere it has been tried."
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Barrage Blasts Wolfowitz's Baghdad Hotel: "I wish Wolfowitz had been killed" says grocer
Excite - News: "Rocket Barrage Blasts Wolfowitz's Baghdad Hotel | Oct 26, 5:35 am ET | By Carol Giacomo
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Anti-American guerrillas blasted the Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying with a barrage of rockets on Sunday, but the No. 2 Pentagon official survived unharmed, U.S. officials said.
The brazen attack killed a U.S. soldier but a defiant Wolfowitz vowed that the United States would not be cowed into abandoning Iraq.
Fifteen people were also wounded in the strike that is a setback for the Bush administration, undermining its insistence the United States is winning the guerrilla war in Iraq despite escalating violence.
...
Wolfowitz, a major force behind the United States invading Iraq, was led away by security forces. He appeared composed after descending a stairwell past thickening smoke and blood stains with a fire alarm blaring, witnesses said.
...
Angry at U.S. occupation, Iraqis expressed regret at what they saw as an assassination attempt had failed.
"I wish Wolfowitz had been killed. I wish all Americans here would be killed," said Ali Hussein, a grocer in central Baghdad. "The Americans are not human beings, they are monsters. They lied to the Iraqi people."
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Anti-American guerrillas blasted the Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying with a barrage of rockets on Sunday, but the No. 2 Pentagon official survived unharmed, U.S. officials said.
The brazen attack killed a U.S. soldier but a defiant Wolfowitz vowed that the United States would not be cowed into abandoning Iraq.
Fifteen people were also wounded in the strike that is a setback for the Bush administration, undermining its insistence the United States is winning the guerrilla war in Iraq despite escalating violence.
...
Wolfowitz, a major force behind the United States invading Iraq, was led away by security forces. He appeared composed after descending a stairwell past thickening smoke and blood stains with a fire alarm blaring, witnesses said.
...
Angry at U.S. occupation, Iraqis expressed regret at what they saw as an assassination attempt had failed.
"I wish Wolfowitz had been killed. I wish all Americans here would be killed," said Ali Hussein, a grocer in central Baghdad. "The Americans are not human beings, they are monsters. They lied to the Iraqi people."
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Most censored stories in the media: #1 The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
Project Censored: "#1 The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
...
... Eventually labeled "neoconservatives," this circle of influential strategists played important roles in the Defense Departments of Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr., at conservative think tanks throughout the '80s and '90s, and today occupies several key posts in the White House, Pentagon, and State Department. Most principal among them are:
·Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, our current Vice-President and Defense Secretary respectively, who have been closely aligned since they served with the Ford administration in the 1970s;
·Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the key architect of the post-war reconstruction of Iraq;
·Richard Perle, past-chairman and still-member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board that has great influence over foreign military policies;
·William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and founder of the powerful, neo-conservative think-tank, Project for a New American Century.
...
Project Censored wishes to acknowledge that Jim Lobe, the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Inter Press Service (IPS), has been covering the ways in which neo-conservatives, using the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) among other mechanisms, used the 9/11 attacks to pursue their own agenda of global dominance and reshaping the Middle East virtually from the outset of the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism.” For more information, please vist the following link: http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/neo-cons/index.asp
...
... Eventually labeled "neoconservatives," this circle of influential strategists played important roles in the Defense Departments of Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr., at conservative think tanks throughout the '80s and '90s, and today occupies several key posts in the White House, Pentagon, and State Department. Most principal among them are:
·Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, our current Vice-President and Defense Secretary respectively, who have been closely aligned since they served with the Ford administration in the 1970s;
·Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the key architect of the post-war reconstruction of Iraq;
·Richard Perle, past-chairman and still-member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board that has great influence over foreign military policies;
·William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and founder of the powerful, neo-conservative think-tank, Project for a New American Century.
...
Project Censored wishes to acknowledge that Jim Lobe, the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Inter Press Service (IPS), has been covering the ways in which neo-conservatives, using the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) among other mechanisms, used the 9/11 attacks to pursue their own agenda of global dominance and reshaping the Middle East virtually from the outset of the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism.” For more information, please vist the following link: http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/neo-cons/index.asp
Monday, October 20, 2003
Neoconservative Web
Irving Kristol -- father of neo-conservatives, William Kristol
William Kristol -- "Weekly Standard"/editor, FOX analyst, AEI/Director, PNAC/chairman, AEI/PNAC/share same building
Norman Podhoretz -- Jewish "Commentary"/editor, Abrams/father-in-law, AEI/Irving Kristol award, PNAC/signatory
Richard Perle -- UofChicago/son-in-law/student/Wohlstetter, Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author, Pentagon/Rumsfeld's Defense Advisory Board/ex-chairman
Paul Wolfowitz -- Pentagon/Deputy Secretary of Defense, UofChicago/student/Wohlstetter, PNAC/signatory
Elliot Abrams -- Bush/NSC/director of Near Eastern Affairs, Reagan/pardonned for Iran-Contra/Co-worked with Kagan, Podheretz/son-in-law, PNAC/signatory
I Lewis "Scott" Libby -- Cheney/chief of staff, PNAC/signatory
John Bolton -- AEI-ex-SVP, Under Secretary of State
Dick Cheney -- VP, PNAC/signatory
Donald Rumsfeld -- Pentagon/Deputy for Defense, PNAC/signatory
Robert Kagan -- Cheney/wife is next deputy national security adviser, Reagan/Abrams co-worker
Douglas Feith -- Pentagon/Wolfowitz/deputy for policy, Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author
Michael + Barara Ledeen -- AEI/fellow
David and Meyrav Wurmser -- Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author, State Dept/Mideast policy
Paula Dobriansky -- Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs
Daniel Pipes -- U.S. Institute of Peace, Middle East Forum/President
Michael Rubin -- AEI, Pentagon/Mideast policy
David Steinmann -- Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)/Chairman
William Kristol -- "Weekly Standard"/editor, FOX analyst, AEI/Director, PNAC/chairman, AEI/PNAC/share same building
Norman Podhoretz -- Jewish "Commentary"/editor, Abrams/father-in-law, AEI/Irving Kristol award, PNAC/signatory
Richard Perle -- UofChicago/son-in-law/student/Wohlstetter, Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author, Pentagon/Rumsfeld's Defense Advisory Board/ex-chairman
Paul Wolfowitz -- Pentagon/Deputy Secretary of Defense, UofChicago/student/Wohlstetter, PNAC/signatory
Elliot Abrams -- Bush/NSC/director of Near Eastern Affairs, Reagan/pardonned for Iran-Contra/Co-worked with Kagan, Podheretz/son-in-law, PNAC/signatory
I Lewis "Scott" Libby -- Cheney/chief of staff, PNAC/signatory
John Bolton -- AEI-ex-SVP, Under Secretary of State
Dick Cheney -- VP, PNAC/signatory
Donald Rumsfeld -- Pentagon/Deputy for Defense, PNAC/signatory
Robert Kagan -- Cheney/wife is next deputy national security adviser, Reagan/Abrams co-worker
Douglas Feith -- Pentagon/Wolfowitz/deputy for policy, Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author
Michael + Barara Ledeen -- AEI/fellow
David and Meyrav Wurmser -- Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author, State Dept/Mideast policy
Paula Dobriansky -- Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs
Daniel Pipes -- U.S. Institute of Peace, Middle East Forum/President
Michael Rubin -- AEI, Pentagon/Mideast policy
David Steinmann -- Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)/Chairman
Sunday, October 19, 2003
The neoconservatives Crusade: 5 years, seven wars -- Iraq, Syria, ...
The Village Voice: Features: The Widening Crusade by Sydney H. Schanberg: "October 15 - 21, 2003
A few years later, in June 1997, a group of neoconservatives formed an entity called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and issued a Statement of Principles. 'The history of the 20th Century,' the statement said, 'should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire.' One of its formal principles called for a major increase in defense spending 'to carry out our global responsibilities today.' Others cited the 'need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values' and underscored 'America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles.' This, the statement said, constituted 'a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity.'
Among the 25 signatories to the PNAC founding statement were Dick Cheney, I. Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff), Donald Rumsfeld (who was also defense secretary under President Ford), and Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's No. 2 at the Pentagon, who was head of the Pentagon policy team in the first Bush presidency, reporting to Cheney, who was then defense secretary). Obviously, this fraternity has been marinating together for a long time. Other signers whose names might ring familiar were Elliot Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, and Norman Podhoretz.
...
In his new book, Winning Modern Wars, retired general Wesley Clark, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, offered a window into the Bush serial-war planning. He writes that serious planning for the Iraq war had already begun only two months after the 9-11 attack, and adds:
"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. . . . I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."
A few years later, in June 1997, a group of neoconservatives formed an entity called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and issued a Statement of Principles. 'The history of the 20th Century,' the statement said, 'should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire.' One of its formal principles called for a major increase in defense spending 'to carry out our global responsibilities today.' Others cited the 'need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values' and underscored 'America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity and our principles.' This, the statement said, constituted 'a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity.'
Among the 25 signatories to the PNAC founding statement were Dick Cheney, I. Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff), Donald Rumsfeld (who was also defense secretary under President Ford), and Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's No. 2 at the Pentagon, who was head of the Pentagon policy team in the first Bush presidency, reporting to Cheney, who was then defense secretary). Obviously, this fraternity has been marinating together for a long time. Other signers whose names might ring familiar were Elliot Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, and Norman Podhoretz.
...
In his new book, Winning Modern Wars, retired general Wesley Clark, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, offered a window into the Bush serial-war planning. He writes that serious planning for the Iraq war had already begun only two months after the 9-11 attack, and adds:
"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. . . . I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."
Friday, October 17, 2003
AlterNet: All in the Neocon Family: an extended clan of spouses, children, and friends
AlterNet: All in the Neocon Family: "All in the Neocon Family
By Jim Lobe, AlterNet | March 27, 2003
What do William Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Elliot Abrams, and Robert Kagan have in common? Yes, they are all die-hard hawks who have gained control of U.S. foreign policy since the 9/11 attacks. But they are also part of one big neoconservative family - an extended clan of spouses, children, and friends who have known each other for generations.
Neoconservatives are former liberals (which explains the 'neo' prefix) who advocate an aggressive unilateralist vision of U.S. global supremacy, which includes a close strategic alliance with Israel. Let's start with one of the founding fathers of the extended neocon clan: Irving Kristol.
The son of this proud couple is none other that William Kristol ...
Irving Kristol's most prominent disciple is Richard Perle ... he wed the daughter of his professor at the University of Chicago, the late Alfred Wohlstetter – the man who helped both his son-in-law and his fellow student Paul Wolfowitz get their start in Washington ...
Perle's own protege is Douglas Feith, who is now Wolfowitz's deputy for policy and is widely known for his right-wing Likud position. And why not? His father, Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Dalck Feith, was once a follower of the great revisionist Zionist leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky, in his native Poland back in the 1930s ...
... A long-time collaborator with Perle, Michael Ledeen is married to Barbara Ledeen, a founder and director of the anti-feminist Independent Women's Forum (IWF), who is currently a major player in the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and another neo-con power couple – David and Meyrav Wurmser – co-authored a 1996 memorandum for Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu outlining how to break the Oslo peace process and invade Iraq as the first step to transforming the Middle East.
Lynne Cheney also hangs her hat at AEI. Her husband Dick Cheney recently chose Victoria Nuland to become his next deputy national security adviser. Nuland, as it turns out, is married to Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol's main comrade-in-arms and the co-founder of PNAC.
... None other than Iran-contra veteran Elliott Abrams.
... [who] worked closely with Bob Kagan back in the Reagan era. He is also the son-in-law of Norman Podhoretz, long-time editor of the influential conservative Jewish publication Commentary, and his wife, Midge Decter, a fearsome polemicist in her own right.
... is also the father of John Podhoretz, a columnist for the Murdoch-owned New York Post and frequent guest on the Murdoch-owned Fox News channel.
[Norman's] proteges include former U.N. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and Richard Pipes, who was Ronald Reagan's top advisor on the "Evil Empire," as the president liked to call the Soviet Union. His son, Daniel Pipes, has also made a career out of battling "evil," which in his case is Islam.
...
... Contrary to appearances, the neocons do not constitute a powerful mass political movement. They are instead a small, tighly-knit clan whose incestuous familial and personal connections, both within and outside the Bush administration, have allowed them grab control of the future of American foreign policy.
By Jim Lobe, AlterNet | March 27, 2003
What do William Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Elliot Abrams, and Robert Kagan have in common? Yes, they are all die-hard hawks who have gained control of U.S. foreign policy since the 9/11 attacks. But they are also part of one big neoconservative family - an extended clan of spouses, children, and friends who have known each other for generations.
Neoconservatives are former liberals (which explains the 'neo' prefix) who advocate an aggressive unilateralist vision of U.S. global supremacy, which includes a close strategic alliance with Israel. Let's start with one of the founding fathers of the extended neocon clan: Irving Kristol.
The son of this proud couple is none other that William Kristol ...
Irving Kristol's most prominent disciple is Richard Perle ... he wed the daughter of his professor at the University of Chicago, the late Alfred Wohlstetter – the man who helped both his son-in-law and his fellow student Paul Wolfowitz get their start in Washington ...
Perle's own protege is Douglas Feith, who is now Wolfowitz's deputy for policy and is widely known for his right-wing Likud position. And why not? His father, Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Dalck Feith, was once a follower of the great revisionist Zionist leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky, in his native Poland back in the 1930s ...
... A long-time collaborator with Perle, Michael Ledeen is married to Barbara Ledeen, a founder and director of the anti-feminist Independent Women's Forum (IWF), who is currently a major player in the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and another neo-con power couple – David and Meyrav Wurmser – co-authored a 1996 memorandum for Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu outlining how to break the Oslo peace process and invade Iraq as the first step to transforming the Middle East.
Lynne Cheney also hangs her hat at AEI. Her husband Dick Cheney recently chose Victoria Nuland to become his next deputy national security adviser. Nuland, as it turns out, is married to Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol's main comrade-in-arms and the co-founder of PNAC.
... None other than Iran-contra veteran Elliott Abrams.
... [who] worked closely with Bob Kagan back in the Reagan era. He is also the son-in-law of Norman Podhoretz, long-time editor of the influential conservative Jewish publication Commentary, and his wife, Midge Decter, a fearsome polemicist in her own right.
... is also the father of John Podhoretz, a columnist for the Murdoch-owned New York Post and frequent guest on the Murdoch-owned Fox News channel.
[Norman's] proteges include former U.N. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and Richard Pipes, who was Ronald Reagan's top advisor on the "Evil Empire," as the president liked to call the Soviet Union. His son, Daniel Pipes, has also made a career out of battling "evil," which in his case is Islam.
...
... Contrary to appearances, the neocons do not constitute a powerful mass political movement. They are instead a small, tighly-knit clan whose incestuous familial and personal connections, both within and outside the Bush administration, have allowed them grab control of the future of American foreign policy.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Amazon.com: Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Amazon.com: Books: Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions | by Clyde Prestowitz
...
His early use of Webster's definition of "Rogue" as "deviant, having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition" not only suits the unilateralist Bush team perfectly, but makes it clear that in objective terms, as perceived by the rest of the world--not just the Middle East, but the responsible Asian powers as well as what Rumsfeld revealingly denigrates as "old Europe"--the USA is indeed a "rogue nation."
...
At the top of page 277: "The imperial project of the so-called neoconservatives is not conservatism at all but radicalism, egotism, and adverturism articulated in the stirring rhetoric of traditional patriotism. Real conservatives have never been messianic or doctrinaire. The very essence of conservatism, which the neoconservatives constantly preach, is limited government. Yet the imperial project they are proposing will greatly increase the role of government both at home and abroad. ... This is not conservatism. It is Big Government."
...
As the worldwide outpouring of post-9/11 sympathy for America has given way to worldwide anti-American protests, Americans are asking why the world hates us. This nuanced but unsparing book gives a bill of particulars. American high-handedness has exacerbated tensions in hot spots from the West Bank to the Korean peninsula. American unilateralism has sabotaged a host of international agreements on such issues as land mines, biological weapons and the International Criminal Court. America preaches free trade while protecting its steel, textiles and agriculture from foreign competition. America, Atkins argues, runs a wasteful, SUV-centered economy while it rejects treaties on the environment and global warming. America's self-proclaimed role as champion of democracy flies in the face of its history of installing and supporting dictators in countries from Indonesia to Iraq. Most of all, Atkins says, the world fears America's overwhelming military might, now ominously paired with a doctrine of "preempting" the emergence of rival powers. These problems have been much discussed of late, but Prestowitz, author of Trading Places, pulls them together into a comprehensive and historically informed survey of contemporary U. S. foreign relations. Although he forthrightly calls the United States an imperial power, Prestowitz, a former Reagan Administration trade official, is by no means anti-American. He insists that America's intentions are usually good, and that the world likes and admires Americans when they live up to their own ideals. Still, his is a damning portrait of the United States as seen through the angry, bewildered eyes of foreigners: selfish, erratic, hypocritical, muscle-bound and a bad citizen of the world.
...
His early use of Webster's definition of "Rogue" as "deviant, having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition" not only suits the unilateralist Bush team perfectly, but makes it clear that in objective terms, as perceived by the rest of the world--not just the Middle East, but the responsible Asian powers as well as what Rumsfeld revealingly denigrates as "old Europe"--the USA is indeed a "rogue nation."
...
At the top of page 277: "The imperial project of the so-called neoconservatives is not conservatism at all but radicalism, egotism, and adverturism articulated in the stirring rhetoric of traditional patriotism. Real conservatives have never been messianic or doctrinaire. The very essence of conservatism, which the neoconservatives constantly preach, is limited government. Yet the imperial project they are proposing will greatly increase the role of government both at home and abroad. ... This is not conservatism. It is Big Government."
...
As the worldwide outpouring of post-9/11 sympathy for America has given way to worldwide anti-American protests, Americans are asking why the world hates us. This nuanced but unsparing book gives a bill of particulars. American high-handedness has exacerbated tensions in hot spots from the West Bank to the Korean peninsula. American unilateralism has sabotaged a host of international agreements on such issues as land mines, biological weapons and the International Criminal Court. America preaches free trade while protecting its steel, textiles and agriculture from foreign competition. America, Atkins argues, runs a wasteful, SUV-centered economy while it rejects treaties on the environment and global warming. America's self-proclaimed role as champion of democracy flies in the face of its history of installing and supporting dictators in countries from Indonesia to Iraq. Most of all, Atkins says, the world fears America's overwhelming military might, now ominously paired with a doctrine of "preempting" the emergence of rival powers. These problems have been much discussed of late, but Prestowitz, author of Trading Places, pulls them together into a comprehensive and historically informed survey of contemporary U. S. foreign relations. Although he forthrightly calls the United States an imperial power, Prestowitz, a former Reagan Administration trade official, is by no means anti-American. He insists that America's intentions are usually good, and that the world likes and admires Americans when they live up to their own ideals. Still, his is a damning portrait of the United States as seen through the angry, bewildered eyes of foreigners: selfish, erratic, hypocritical, muscle-bound and a bad citizen of the world.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
POLITICS: Bush Stance on Syria Hit Shows Neo-Cons Still Hold Sway
POLITICS: Bush Stance on Syria Hit Shows Neo-Cons Still Hold Sway: "Analysis by Jim Lobe | October 7, 2003
ROME, Oct 7 (IPS) - The neo-conservatives in and around the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush may be on the defensive, but Washington's reaction to the Israeli attack on Syria Sunday show that they remain in the driver's seat at the White House.
The fact that Bush has himself refused to in any way criticise the Israeli attack -- the first on Syria since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war -- shows how far the neo-cons have succeeded in aligning U.S. policy with the right-wing government in Israel, a key goal going back to the first Likud government of the late Menahim Begin and, more recently, since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won elections in early 2001.
...
Syria was also cited as a target in a public letter to Bush on Sep. 20, 2001 -- just 9 days after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon -- ...
Among other measures, it called for Bush to take military action in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban and destroy al Qaeda, to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq ”even if the evidence does not link Iraq directly to the (Sep. 11) attacks; and cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it puts a stop to all terrorist acts emanating from territory under its control.”
... ”We believe the administration should demand that Iran and Syria immediately cease all military, financial, and political support for Hezbollah and its operations. Should Iran and Syria refuse to comply, the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism.”
The letter was signed by 39 prominent right-wingers, almost all of them neo-conservatives, such as Kristol himself, Perle, Kirkpatrick, and Gaffney. ”Israel has been and remains America's staunchest ally against international terrorism, especially in the Middle East,” ...
Throughout the Iraq war, many of these same people, as well as their close associates in the administration, such as Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz and Feith, argued that Syria represented a serious threat to the United States and its troops in Iraq, at one point asserting that Damascus was sheltering senior Iraqi leaders and its WMD.
... former CIA director James Woolsey, was widely quoted on television as saying that the ”war on terrorism” should be seen as ”World War IV” that should include as targets ”fascists of Iraq and Syria”.
ROME, Oct 7 (IPS) - The neo-conservatives in and around the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush may be on the defensive, but Washington's reaction to the Israeli attack on Syria Sunday show that they remain in the driver's seat at the White House.
The fact that Bush has himself refused to in any way criticise the Israeli attack -- the first on Syria since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war -- shows how far the neo-cons have succeeded in aligning U.S. policy with the right-wing government in Israel, a key goal going back to the first Likud government of the late Menahim Begin and, more recently, since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won elections in early 2001.
...
Syria was also cited as a target in a public letter to Bush on Sep. 20, 2001 -- just 9 days after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon -- ...
Among other measures, it called for Bush to take military action in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban and destroy al Qaeda, to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq ”even if the evidence does not link Iraq directly to the (Sep. 11) attacks; and cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it puts a stop to all terrorist acts emanating from territory under its control.”
... ”We believe the administration should demand that Iran and Syria immediately cease all military, financial, and political support for Hezbollah and its operations. Should Iran and Syria refuse to comply, the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism.”
The letter was signed by 39 prominent right-wingers, almost all of them neo-conservatives, such as Kristol himself, Perle, Kirkpatrick, and Gaffney. ”Israel has been and remains America's staunchest ally against international terrorism, especially in the Middle East,” ...
Throughout the Iraq war, many of these same people, as well as their close associates in the administration, such as Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz and Feith, argued that Syria represented a serious threat to the United States and its troops in Iraq, at one point asserting that Damascus was sheltering senior Iraqi leaders and its WMD.
... former CIA director James Woolsey, was widely quoted on television as saying that the ”war on terrorism” should be seen as ”World War IV” that should include as targets ”fascists of Iraq and Syria”.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Iraq War Hawks Have Plans to Reshape Entire Mideast
Iraq War Hawks Have Plans to Reshape Entire Mideast: "Published on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 in the Boston Globe | Iraq War Hawks Have Plans to Reshape Entire Mideast | by John Donnelly and Anthony Shadid
WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration debates going to war against Iraq, its most hawkish members are pushing a sweeping vision for the Middle East that sees the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq as merely a first step in the region's transformation.
The argument for reshaping the political landscape in the Mideast has been pushed for years by some Washington think tanks and in hawkish circles. It is now being considered as a possible US policy with the ascent of key hard-liners in the administration - from Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith in the Pentagon to John Hannah and Lewis Libby on the vice president's staff and John Bolton in the State Department, analysts and officials say.
...
''The goal is not just a new regime in Iraq. The goal is a new Middle East,'' said Raad Alkadiri, an Iraq analyst with PFC, a Washington-based energy consulting organization. ''The goal has been and remains one of the main driving factors of preemptive action against Iraq.''
Cheney revealed some of the thinking in a speech in August when he made the administration's case for a regime change. He argued Hussein's overthrow would ''bring about a number of benefits to the region'' and enhance US ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
...
A powerful corollary of the strategy is that a pro-US Iraq would make the region safer for Israel and, indeed, its staunchest proponents are ardent supporters of the Israeli right-wing. Administration officials, meanwhile, have increasingly argued that the onset of an Iraq allied to the US would give the administration more sway in bringing about a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though Cheney and others have offered few details on precisely how.
...
''Everyone will flip out, starting with the Saudis,'' said Meyrav Wurmser, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute in Washington. ''It will send shock waves throughout the Arab world.
''Look, we already are pushing for democracy in the Palestinian Authority - though not with a huge amount of success - and we need a little bit more of a heavy-handed approach,'' she said. ''But if we can get a democracy in the Palestinian Authority, democracy in Iraq, get the Egyptians to improve their human rights and open up their system, it will be a spectacular change. After a war with Iraq, then you really shape the region.''
WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration debates going to war against Iraq, its most hawkish members are pushing a sweeping vision for the Middle East that sees the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq as merely a first step in the region's transformation.
The argument for reshaping the political landscape in the Mideast has been pushed for years by some Washington think tanks and in hawkish circles. It is now being considered as a possible US policy with the ascent of key hard-liners in the administration - from Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith in the Pentagon to John Hannah and Lewis Libby on the vice president's staff and John Bolton in the State Department, analysts and officials say.
...
''The goal is not just a new regime in Iraq. The goal is a new Middle East,'' said Raad Alkadiri, an Iraq analyst with PFC, a Washington-based energy consulting organization. ''The goal has been and remains one of the main driving factors of preemptive action against Iraq.''
Cheney revealed some of the thinking in a speech in August when he made the administration's case for a regime change. He argued Hussein's overthrow would ''bring about a number of benefits to the region'' and enhance US ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
...
A powerful corollary of the strategy is that a pro-US Iraq would make the region safer for Israel and, indeed, its staunchest proponents are ardent supporters of the Israeli right-wing. Administration officials, meanwhile, have increasingly argued that the onset of an Iraq allied to the US would give the administration more sway in bringing about a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though Cheney and others have offered few details on precisely how.
...
''Everyone will flip out, starting with the Saudis,'' said Meyrav Wurmser, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute in Washington. ''It will send shock waves throughout the Arab world.
''Look, we already are pushing for democracy in the Palestinian Authority - though not with a huge amount of success - and we need a little bit more of a heavy-handed approach,'' she said. ''But if we can get a democracy in the Palestinian Authority, democracy in Iraq, get the Egyptians to improve their human rights and open up their system, it will be a spectacular change. After a war with Iraq, then you really shape the region.''
US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy
Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy: "US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy | Brian Whitaker reports on the network of research institutes whose views and TV appearances are supplanting all other experts on Middle Eastern issues |Monday August 19, 2002
A little-known fact about Richard Perle, the leading advocate of hardline policies at the Pentagon, is that he once wrote a political thriller.
...
In real life too, Mr Perle is not fighting his battle single-handed. Around him there is a cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East "experts" who share his neo-conservative outlook and who pop up as talking heads on US television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington.
The network centres on research institutes - thinktanks that attempt to influence government policy and are funded by tax-deductible gifts from unidentified donors.
When he is not too busy at the Pentagon, or too busy running Hollinger Digital - part of the group that publishes the Daily Telegraph in Britain - or at board meetings of the Jerusalem Post, Mr Perle is "resident fellow" at one of the thinktanks - the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
...
[Names numerous interconnections: David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, Colonel Yigal Carmon, Michael Rubin, Daniel Pipes
A little-known fact about Richard Perle, the leading advocate of hardline policies at the Pentagon, is that he once wrote a political thriller.
...
In real life too, Mr Perle is not fighting his battle single-handed. Around him there is a cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East "experts" who share his neo-conservative outlook and who pop up as talking heads on US television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington.
The network centres on research institutes - thinktanks that attempt to influence government policy and are funded by tax-deductible gifts from unidentified donors.
When he is not too busy at the Pentagon, or too busy running Hollinger Digital - part of the group that publishes the Daily Telegraph in Britain - or at board meetings of the Jerusalem Post, Mr Perle is "resident fellow" at one of the thinktanks - the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
...
[Names numerous interconnections: David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, Colonel Yigal Carmon, Michael Rubin, Daniel Pipes
No War For Israel
No War For Israel: "Bush's Israeli Lobby Advisors!
The reality of the situation is that no one in Washington, whether in the Pentagon (top military brass, joint chiefs, etc) or in Congress, wants this Israeli proxy war against Iraq. Only those connected to the Israeli lobby want this war.
It is very important to know the identity of these pro-Israeli officials within the administration in order to understand who is behind this war-mongering and realizing that is serving Israeli interests, not American interests.
It is unfortunate that Bush has picked these people to these top posts. The sad fact for him is that in the instant that he decides not to go to war against Iraq, the Israeli lobby will bring him down, like they did to his father, a decade earlier.
Note: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is one of the Israeli lobby's 'think tank.' Many of the Israeli lobby's 'experts' come from this front group, like Martin Indyk.
...
[Key names: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Edward Luttwak, Henry Kissinger, Dov Zakheim, Kenneth Adelman, I. Lewis Libby, Robert Satloff, Elliott Abrams, Marc Grossman, Richard Haass, Robert Zoellick et al.]
The reality of the situation is that no one in Washington, whether in the Pentagon (top military brass, joint chiefs, etc) or in Congress, wants this Israeli proxy war against Iraq. Only those connected to the Israeli lobby want this war.
It is very important to know the identity of these pro-Israeli officials within the administration in order to understand who is behind this war-mongering and realizing that is serving Israeli interests, not American interests.
It is unfortunate that Bush has picked these people to these top posts. The sad fact for him is that in the instant that he decides not to go to war against Iraq, the Israeli lobby will bring him down, like they did to his father, a decade earlier.
Note: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is one of the Israeli lobby's 'think tank.' Many of the Israeli lobby's 'experts' come from this front group, like Martin Indyk.
...
[Key names: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Edward Luttwak, Henry Kissinger, Dov Zakheim, Kenneth Adelman, I. Lewis Libby, Robert Satloff, Elliott Abrams, Marc Grossman, Richard Haass, Robert Zoellick et al.]
Friday, October 03, 2003
Whose War? A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interest. by Patrick J. Buchanan
Whose War?: "March 24, 2003 issue
Copyright © 2003 The American Conservative | Whose War? | A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interest. by Patrick J. Buchanan
The War Party may have gotten its war. But it has also gotten something it did not bargain for. Its membership lists and associations have been exposed and its motives challenged. In a rare moment in U.S. journalism, Tim Russert put this question directly to Richard Perle: “Can you assure American viewers ... that we’re in this situation against Saddam Hussein and his removal for American security interests? And what would be the link in terms of Israel?"
...
The War Party’s plan, however, had been in preparation far in advance of 9/11. And when President Bush, after defeating the Taliban, was looking for a new front in the war on terror, they put their precooked meal in front of him. Bush dug into it.
...
On Sept. 12, Americans were still in shock when Bill Bennett told CNN that we were in “a struggle between good and evil,” that the Congress must declare war on “militant Islam,” and that “overwhelming force” must be used. Bennett cited Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and China as targets for attack. Not, however, Afghanistan, the sanctuary of Osama’s terrorists. How did Bennett know which nations must be smashed before he had any idea who attacked us?
The Wall Street Journal immediately offered up a specific target list, calling for U.S. air strikes on “terrorist camps in Syria, Sudan, Libya, and Algeria, and perhaps even in parts of Egypt.” Yet, not one of Bennett’s six countries, nor one of these five, had anything to do with 9/11.
...
On Sept. 20, forty neoconservatives sent an open letter to the White House instructing President Bush on how the war on terror must be conducted. Signed by Bennett, Podhoretz, Kirkpatrick, Perle, Kristol, and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, the letter was an ultimatum. To retain the signers’ support, the president was told, he must target Hezbollah for destruction, retaliate against Syria and Iran if they refuse to sever ties to Hezbollah, and overthrow Saddam. Any failure to attack Iraq, the signers warned Bush, “will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism.”
...
In 1992, a startling document was leaked from the office of Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon. Barton Gellman of the Washington Post called it a “classified blueprint intended to help ‘set the nation’s direction for the next century.’” The Wolfowitz Memo called for a permanent U.S. military presence on six continents to deter all “potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.” Containment, the victorious strategy of the Cold War, was to give way to an ambitious new strategy designed to “establish and protect a new order.”
Though the Wolfowitz Memo was denounced and dismissed in 1992, it became American policy in the 33-page National Security Strategy (NSS) issued by President Bush on Sept. 21, 2002. Washington Post reporter Tim Reich describes it as a “watershed in U.S. foreign policy” that “reverses the fundamental principles that have guided successive Presidents for more than 50 years: containment and deterrence.”
Copyright © 2003 The American Conservative | Whose War? | A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interest. by Patrick J. Buchanan
The War Party may have gotten its war. But it has also gotten something it did not bargain for. Its membership lists and associations have been exposed and its motives challenged. In a rare moment in U.S. journalism, Tim Russert put this question directly to Richard Perle: “Can you assure American viewers ... that we’re in this situation against Saddam Hussein and his removal for American security interests? And what would be the link in terms of Israel?"
...
The War Party’s plan, however, had been in preparation far in advance of 9/11. And when President Bush, after defeating the Taliban, was looking for a new front in the war on terror, they put their precooked meal in front of him. Bush dug into it.
...
On Sept. 12, Americans were still in shock when Bill Bennett told CNN that we were in “a struggle between good and evil,” that the Congress must declare war on “militant Islam,” and that “overwhelming force” must be used. Bennett cited Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and China as targets for attack. Not, however, Afghanistan, the sanctuary of Osama’s terrorists. How did Bennett know which nations must be smashed before he had any idea who attacked us?
The Wall Street Journal immediately offered up a specific target list, calling for U.S. air strikes on “terrorist camps in Syria, Sudan, Libya, and Algeria, and perhaps even in parts of Egypt.” Yet, not one of Bennett’s six countries, nor one of these five, had anything to do with 9/11.
...
On Sept. 20, forty neoconservatives sent an open letter to the White House instructing President Bush on how the war on terror must be conducted. Signed by Bennett, Podhoretz, Kirkpatrick, Perle, Kristol, and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, the letter was an ultimatum. To retain the signers’ support, the president was told, he must target Hezbollah for destruction, retaliate against Syria and Iran if they refuse to sever ties to Hezbollah, and overthrow Saddam. Any failure to attack Iraq, the signers warned Bush, “will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism.”
...
In 1992, a startling document was leaked from the office of Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon. Barton Gellman of the Washington Post called it a “classified blueprint intended to help ‘set the nation’s direction for the next century.’” The Wolfowitz Memo called for a permanent U.S. military presence on six continents to deter all “potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.” Containment, the victorious strategy of the Cold War, was to give way to an ambitious new strategy designed to “establish and protect a new order.”
Though the Wolfowitz Memo was denounced and dismissed in 1992, it became American policy in the 33-page National Security Strategy (NSS) issued by President Bush on Sept. 21, 2002. Washington Post reporter Tim Reich describes it as a “watershed in U.S. foreign policy” that “reverses the fundamental principles that have guided successive Presidents for more than 50 years: containment and deterrence.”
Ad hoc office under Douglas Feith appears key to nformal network of mostly neo-conservatives
neocons: "How Neocons Influence the Pentagon By Jim Lobe in Washington, D.C. Asia Times August 8, 2003
An ad hoc office under US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith appears to have acted as the key base for an informal network of mostly neo-conservative political appointees that circumvented normal inter-agency channels to lead the push for war against Iraq.
The Office of Special Plans (OSP), which worked alongside the Near East and South Asia (NESA) bureau in Feith's domain, was originally created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to review raw information collected by the official US intelligence agencies for connections between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
Retired intelligence officials from the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have long charged that the two offices exaggerated and manipulated intelligence about Iraq before passing it along to the White House.
But key personnel who worked in both NESA and OSP were part of a broader network of neo-conservative ideologues and activists who worked with other George W Bush political appointees scattered around the national security bureaucracy to move the country to war, according to retired Lieutenant-Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who was assigned to NESA from May 2002 through February 2003.
...
Along with Feith, all of the political appointees have in common a close identification with the views of the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.
...
"They would draw up 'talking points' they would use and distribute to their friends," said Kwiatkowski. "But the talking points would be changed continually, not because of new intel [intelligence], but because the press was poking holes in what was in the memos."
...
[Key Names: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Elliott Abrams
Luti, William Bruner, Chris Straub, John Bolton; Michael Wurmser
Michael Rubin, David Schenker, Michael Makovsky, Chris Lehman
An ad hoc office under US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith appears to have acted as the key base for an informal network of mostly neo-conservative political appointees that circumvented normal inter-agency channels to lead the push for war against Iraq.
The Office of Special Plans (OSP), which worked alongside the Near East and South Asia (NESA) bureau in Feith's domain, was originally created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to review raw information collected by the official US intelligence agencies for connections between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
Retired intelligence officials from the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have long charged that the two offices exaggerated and manipulated intelligence about Iraq before passing it along to the White House.
But key personnel who worked in both NESA and OSP were part of a broader network of neo-conservative ideologues and activists who worked with other George W Bush political appointees scattered around the national security bureaucracy to move the country to war, according to retired Lieutenant-Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who was assigned to NESA from May 2002 through February 2003.
...
Along with Feith, all of the political appointees have in common a close identification with the views of the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.
...
"They would draw up 'talking points' they would use and distribute to their friends," said Kwiatkowski. "But the talking points would be changed continually, not because of new intel [intelligence], but because the press was poking holes in what was in the memos."
...
[Key Names: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Elliott Abrams
Luti, William Bruner, Chris Straub, John Bolton; Michael Wurmser
Michael Rubin, David Schenker, Michael Makovsky, Chris Lehman
US Neoimperialism in World Affairs May Outlast Bush
US Neoimperialism in World Affairs May Outlast Bush: "US Neoimperialism in World Affairs May Outlast Bush Inderjeet Parmar, Special to Arab News MANCHESTER. 3 October 2003
...
A neoconservative movement has been getting stronger since the 1970s, when Irving Kristol resurrected the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), from which Bush has borrowed at least twenty members for his administration, including John Bolton, Michael Rubin, and Richard Perle. In the early 1990s, Edwin J. Fuelner, Jr., head of the conservative Heritage Foundation, vowed to “build a new governing establishment by the end of the decade.” Currently, that establishment is headed by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) which, since its founding in 1997, has lobbied for a war for regime change and eliminating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, his deputy, Vice President Richard Cheney, and ex-CIA Director James Woolsey are leading founder members. Kristol’s son, William, heads up the PNAC. PNAC is thoroughly interconnected with a number of right-wing pro-war organizations, including Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, an exposure committee for fighting the “enemy within”, to which, among others, the current American administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, belongs.
...
A neoconservative movement has been getting stronger since the 1970s, when Irving Kristol resurrected the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), from which Bush has borrowed at least twenty members for his administration, including John Bolton, Michael Rubin, and Richard Perle. In the early 1990s, Edwin J. Fuelner, Jr., head of the conservative Heritage Foundation, vowed to “build a new governing establishment by the end of the decade.” Currently, that establishment is headed by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) which, since its founding in 1997, has lobbied for a war for regime change and eliminating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, his deputy, Vice President Richard Cheney, and ex-CIA Director James Woolsey are leading founder members. Kristol’s son, William, heads up the PNAC. PNAC is thoroughly interconnected with a number of right-wing pro-war organizations, including Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, an exposure committee for fighting the “enemy within”, to which, among others, the current American administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, belongs.
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Neoconservative Web
| Role | Relations | AEI, PNAC, JINSA | Other Notes | |
| Irving Kristol | "godfather" of neoconservatives Former editor of Commentary published by American Jewish Committee |
father of William | AEI scholar | |
| William Kristol | Hub of neo-conservatives Editor Weekly Standard, Fox Analyst |
son of Irving | AEI Director, PNAC Chairman | |
| Norman Podhoretz | "Commentary"/editor | Abrams/father-in-law | Irving Kristol award, PNAC signatory | |
| Richard Perle | Pentagon Rumsfeld's Defense Advisory Board ex-chairman | UofChicago student son-in-law Wohlstetter | AEI Fellow, JINSA founder | Israel/Likud 1996-Oslo-Iraq Co-author Helped found JINSA, CSP Open Letter to the Clinton |
| Paul Wolfowitz | Pentagon/Deputy Secretary of Defense | UofChicago student Wohlstetter | -, PNAC signatory | Key architect of war in Iraq Co-wrote 1992 Defense Planning Guide Open Letter to the Clinton |
| Elliot Abrams |
NSC Director of Near Eastern Affairs | Podheretz, son-in-law Co-worked with Kagan |
-, PNAC signatory | Reagan/pardonned for Iran-Contra Open Letter to the Clinton |
| I Lewis "Scott" Libby | Chief of staff to VP Cheney | VP Cheney | -, PNAC founder | Co-wrote 1992 Defense Planning Guide |
| John Bolton | Under Secretary of State | State Dept | AEI ex-SVP | Open Letter to the Clinton |
| Dick Cheney |
Vice President | VP Cheney | Wife is AEI scholar, PNAC signatory | |
| Donald Rumsfeld | Pentagon Deputy for Defense | Pentagon | -, PNAC signatory | Open Letter to the Clinton |
| Robert Kagan |
Weekly Standard writer |
VP Cheney Co-worked with Abrams |
PNAC co-founder | Wife is next deputy national security adviser to Cheney |
| Douglas Feith -- |
Under Secretary for policy | Pentagon, Wolfowitz deputy | VP JINSA | Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author Open Letter to the Clinton CSP Director |
| David, Meyrav Wurmser | Mideast Policy | VP Cheney | Israel/Likud/1996-Oslo-Iraq/Co-author | |
| Michael Rubin | Pentagon consultant Mideast policy | Pentagon | AEI Fellow | |
| Michael, Barara Ledeen | AEI Fellow JINSA board |
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| David Steinman | JINSA Chairman | CSP Director | ||
| James Woolsey | JINSA | Ex CIA Chief | ||
| Paula Dobriansky | Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs | State Dept | ||
| Dov Zakheim | Defense Dept | Pentagon | Open Letter to the Clinton |
Thursday, September 25, 2003
A road to a calmer situation in Palestine does in fact exist, it runs through Baghdad.
Foreign Affairs - Palestine, Iraq, and American Strategy - Michael Scott Doran: "Palestine, Iraq, and American Strategy Michael Scott Doran From Foreign Affairs, January/February 2003
Summary: Many critics argue that the Bush administration should put off a showdown with Saddam Hussein and focus instead on achieving a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they fail to understand that although Palestine is central to the symbolism of Arab politics, it is actually marginal to its substance. Now, as in 1991, if a road to a calmer situation in Palestine does in fact exist, it runs through Baghdad.
Michael Scott Doran is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of Pan-Arabism Before Nasser: Egyptian Power Politics and the Palestine Question. "
Summary: Many critics argue that the Bush administration should put off a showdown with Saddam Hussein and focus instead on achieving a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they fail to understand that although Palestine is central to the symbolism of Arab politics, it is actually marginal to its substance. Now, as in 1991, if a road to a calmer situation in Palestine does in fact exist, it runs through Baghdad.
Michael Scott Doran is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of Pan-Arabism Before Nasser: Egyptian Power Politics and the Palestine Question. "