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25. my two pennies on PNAC
Sun Feb 17, 2013, 04:57 PM
Feb 2013

Committee for the Liberation of Iraq which lobbied through Rice's office had a cast of characters from PNAC's bowels:

Members of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq included, John McCain, Newt Gingrich, William Kristol, General Barry McCaffrey, and former CIA director James Woolsey. (Woolsey proposed the reinstatement of a constitutional monarchy in Iraq, in which a king would appoint the prime minister.)

George Shultz, Amb. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, and Elliot Abrams were also involved with the group. Abrams and Bolton are founding members of the CLI.

Elliot Abrams is a senior Bush official on the National Security Council. He was formally head of President Reagan's efforts in the Middle East. Abrams, was convicted for President Reagan's crimes in the Iran-Contra scandal and then pardoned by Bush I.

As assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs under President Reagan, Abrams was responsible for the controversial policies of that administration in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the 1980s, and played a key role in the U.S. relationship with Manuel Noriega. In 2000, Abrams was made the improbable president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. In 2001 he was hired by Condolezza Rice for a position on the NSC overseeing Arab/ Israeli negotiations. http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6895 (The Return of Elliot Abrams)

Among the other participants in the CLI were: president and executive director, Randy Scheunemann (Scheunemann served until recently as a consultant on Iraq to Donald Rumsfeld), Treasurer Julie Finley, Gary Schmitt (director of the conservative foundation, Project for the New American Century) and Richard Perle, (chairman of Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board), who is also closely associated PNAC.

The present war with Iraq is the ambition of the corporate wing of the conservative establishment who views Iraq as a potential wedge against the domination of Mideast oil-producing nations which, in many respects, are openly hostile to American economic interests in the region. Having failed to turn the first war to their corporate advantage, the exiled power brokers brooded and plotted to revive a public campaign against Saddam Hussein which would unseat the dictator and allow the U.S. to install an authority there compliant to American business concerns.

Ominously, in the fall of 2002 the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (Chairman of the Board, Bruce Jackson), was established in the Washington offices of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. The CLI engaged in educational and advocacy efforts to mobilize U.S. and international support for policies aimed at ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
http://www.counterpunch.org/nimmo1119.html
http://www.aei.org /

This advocacy came at the same time that Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley were engaged in a series of briefings with foreign policy groups, Iraq specialists and other opinion makers that was termed as a "new phase," by a White House spokesman, who described the goal as building fresh public support for Bush administration policy vs. Iraq.

Members of the CLI met in November of 2002 with President Bush's national security adviser, Condi Rice, in an effort to mount "education and advocacy efforts to mobilize U.S. and international support freeing the Iraqi people from tyranny."

Condi Rice would be an unremarkable figure in this Bush administration, if she were judged solely on her work experience outside of government, in which she perfected the role of corporate promoter and apologist.

From her position at the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors, to the board rooms of the Transamerica Corporation, and Hewlett Packard, Rice forged the corporate relationships which propelled her into the White House executive club. Rice, is a former longtime member of the board of directors of Chevron Oil, which merged with Texaco. Rice has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

Rice's contribution to the Bush dynasty began when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Bush I administration needed an experienced Sovietologist. She was basically bullish on the Soviets and she was appointed Director of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council.

She was undoubtably brought on board to teach George I and his clan the difference between Perestroika and Glasnost. She has assumed the traditional role of an international affairs Svengali to George II - a role that has distinguished such past notables as, Colin Powell, John Poindexter and Robert Iran-Contra McFarland - and she dutifully adjusted our experience-deficient commander-in-chief to the doctrine of her conservative think-tank benefactors.

Her deputy sidekick, Stephen Hadley, has been advocating policies for many years which have, to no one's surprise, found their way into the ideological bulldozer which forms the doctrine of the Bush league's foreign policy.

Stephen Hadley served as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy from 1989 to 1993 and was responsible for defense policy on NATO and Western Europe, nuclear weapons and ballistic missile defense, and arms control. He was active in the negotiations that resulted in the START I and START II treaties.

Hadley was also a member of the National Security Council staff during the earlier Bush administration. Former Lockheed president, Bruce Jackson and former Lockheed counsel, Hadley have worked closely together on the Committee to Expand NATO. Jackson was president of this entity, based in the Washington offices of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute; Hadley was its secretary.
http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/zmag/articles/petrasse... (Nato Expansion, James Petras)

As reported by Karl Grossman of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Stephen Hadley told an Air Force Association Convention in a speech September 11, 2000, "Space is going to be important. It has a great feature in the military,"
http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/zmag/feb01grossman.htm (Aerospace Executives On Bush Star Wars Team, Karl Grossman)

Hadley worked closely with the Bush-Cheney campaign as a foreign policy advisor specializing in European and Russian affairs. He was a partner in Shea & Gardner, the Washington law firm representing Lockheed Martin. He was a member of the Vulcans, an eight-person foreign policy team formed during the Bush campaign that included Condoleezza Rice and Richard Perle.


*me- internet-derivative book, 2004 'Power of Mischief'

I think it's fascinating that some original PNACers and their relatives (thru AEI) were also TwilightGardener Feb 2013 #1
I always considered Lieberman a turncoat of the worst type. Cleita Feb 2013 #2
When they lost General Petraus, they lost their main inside man in this administration. Katashi_itto Feb 2013 #71
They have been pretty damn successful, if you ask me. kelliekat44 Feb 2013 #83
I was one of those people... RevStPatrick Feb 2013 #3
Yes, remember. It wasn't hard for people to say it because the ideas presented Cleita Feb 2013 #4
Who could have ProSense Feb 2013 #5
And today, they seem to have more credibility among the non-thinkers than Cleita Feb 2013 #7
...and the Heritage Foundation was an out house for them to shit on the USA. n/t L0oniX Feb 2013 #9
btw look at the signatures on the Statement of Principles. Cleita Feb 2013 #10
Oh, Jeb Bush ProSense Feb 2013 #16
I sent your post to the Greatest Page. I hope it's not too late. n/t Cleita Feb 2013 #12
And ol' myth wrongney had a bunch of 'em lined up to be his foreign policy advisors. calimary Feb 2013 #42
I like your signature line. JDPriestly Feb 2013 #46
Thanks, it's a quote from a 2009 (floor speech) by Senator Kerry. n/t ProSense Feb 2013 #57
...and Bill Kristol and Charles Craphammer still suck! n/t L0oniX Feb 2013 #6
Yes, and I'm sure they are still part of the strategists behind all of this Cleita Feb 2013 #8
Yep. You've GOTTA keep track of 'em. ALL of 'em. calimary Feb 2013 #43
PNAC was an offshoot of the Heritage Foundation rdharma Feb 2013 #11
The Heritage Foundation is part of the American Enterprise Institute. Cleita Feb 2013 #13
Who else is a founding member nadinbrzezinski Feb 2013 #14
Yes, Jeb along with Dick Cheney. n/t Cleita Feb 2013 #15
You bet your sweet bippy. Li'l jebbie bush is a PNAC signatory. calimary Feb 2013 #45
A lot of people also don't know Bush warrantless wiretapping started prior to 9/11... Spitfire of ATJ Feb 2013 #17
Yes, we got sucked into a rabbit hole with the Bush coronation. Cleita Feb 2013 #19
It always amazed me that Turbineguy Feb 2013 #18
It always amazed me that they thought their ideas were popular. Cleita Feb 2013 #21
That's a big problem actually. See, these people didn't go away. They were arrogant harun Feb 2013 #44
Truly evil people treestar Feb 2013 #20
Yep, their signatures read like a roster of the damned. n/t Cleita Feb 2013 #22
Here's a list I made back in 2010: PNAC members in positions of power during the Bush pResidency... Ghost in the Machine Feb 2013 #29
Amazing that the Koch Brothers were so able to keep their names out of this Cleita Feb 2013 #30
Thank you, Cleita Ghost in the Machine Feb 2013 #34
I really hope Cheney goes to trial somewhere. I hope he forgets some day that several Cleita Feb 2013 #36
I was dismayed to see Vaclav Havel on that list. alfredo Feb 2013 #40
Bookmarking. I was going to ask if anyone had a list like this. n/t JHB Feb 2013 #67
Excellent list. n/t entanglement Feb 2013 #69
Charles Schumer is on there. progressoid Feb 2013 #86
Renamed and gone underground.... LeftInTX Feb 2013 #23
They just aren't putting their ideas out there for everyone to see. Cleita Feb 2013 #27
The DLC website is still "up" too, bvar22 Feb 2013 #24
Ssh. The cult of personality truedelphi Feb 2013 #26
Talk About! bvar22 Feb 2013 #35
Yep, this is the reason, I have never been a supporter of Hillary Clinton Cleita Feb 2013 #37
How about Hagel? He was a Republican who voted for the war, people run around here claiming Bluenorthwest Feb 2013 #81
Don't care for him or many other of Obama's other RW picks either. Cleita Feb 2013 #82
Hillary Clinton was quite a hawk. And still no apology JDPriestly Feb 2013 #47
Hillary Seems To Be The Odds On Favorite For 2016 President..... global1 Feb 2013 #77
Hillary is and was too hawkish for me. She is also, in my JDPriestly Feb 2013 #87
Sabo (MN), also the late... MNBrewer Feb 2013 #49
I'm not certain to whom you are referring to as "the late"... bvar22 Feb 2013 #52
Sabo is still alive Lydia Leftcoast Feb 2013 #72
my two pennies on PNAC bigtree Feb 2013 #25
Thank you for posting this very important information and for Cleita Feb 2013 #32
They wrote a letter Pres. Clinton in 1998 to persuade Arkansas Granny Feb 2013 #28
Well, Colin Powell sure modified his place in history mitchtv Feb 2013 #31
He sure smeared poo all over his reputation with that move Cleita Feb 2013 #33
Yep... K & R !!! WillyT Feb 2013 #38
Yes, they were the big pro-war propagandists. elleng Feb 2013 #39
pdr_pnac.mp3 johnnyreb Feb 2013 #41
"Why rehash this tired old shit now? Wanting to smear Tom Harkin?" MNBrewer Feb 2013 #48
Huh? This old shit brought us to the new shit we are dealing with now. Cleita Feb 2013 #50
I agree, but there ARE DUers who are saying we should let sleeping dogs lie. MNBrewer Feb 2013 #51
Only if they are dead and can't bite us anymore. Cleita Feb 2013 #54
I was hoping the quotation marks would do that :) MNBrewer Feb 2013 #58
Next time, add a link for those of us who need Cleita Feb 2013 #60
k :) MNBrewer Feb 2013 #63
Again - We're At A Point Where We All Know Where The Sleeping Dogs Lay - And We Know What They Are.. global1 Feb 2013 #79
Sounds eerily similar to Mitt Romney's campaign rhetoric. tarheelsunc Feb 2013 #53
Guess who gives him his talking points. Cleita Feb 2013 #55
PNAC believed that liberty, democracy and capitalism were contagious. mn9driver Feb 2013 #56
"...start signing big contracts with US corporations." Cleita Feb 2013 #59
True, but the PNACers really thought it would be different. mn9driver Feb 2013 #61
I agree they should all be in jail. Cleita Feb 2013 #62
Read "Imperial Life in the Emerald City." It's all there - The Velveteen Ocelot Feb 2013 #76
I think Rachel Maddow is going to be shining the lights on the cockroaches. rdharma Feb 2013 #64
I'm hoping. She is basing it on that Hubris book so since I haven't read it, I don't Cleita Feb 2013 #65
We were talking about birds of a feather ....... rdharma Feb 2013 #66
Sure and they shared each other and their major benefactors the Koch brothers. Cleita Feb 2013 #68
kr PufPuf23 Feb 2013 #70
bunch of 'em landed here -FDD Agony Feb 2013 #73
Thanks for the links. Cleita Feb 2013 #75
k & r! nt wildbilln864 Feb 2013 #74
and despite bush being out of office, those pnac dominoes keep falling: libya, syria... HiPointDem Feb 2013 #78
I was always intrigued that Iraq was the only country... KansDem Feb 2013 #80
No, I think the original wording of the Iraq War Authorization was intended TwilightGardener Feb 2013 #84
Iraq wasn't the only country Downtown Hound Feb 2013 #85
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