New Security Center Has Lots of Clinton Ties.

[illinoisprogressive]

This strikes me as kinda creepy:


A coterie of national security and defense experts from the last Clinton administration have formed a new Washington think tank, the Center for a New American Security, that looks an awful lot like a shadow policy apparatus for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The center is led by two former Pentagon officials in the Clinton administration. Its board includes former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, the chairman, and former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and John Podesta, the former White House chief of staff. And, indeed, Mrs. Clinton delivered the keynote address at the center’s inaugural forum in Washington today.

Yet a spokesman for the center, Price Floyd, said that the center had no direct ties to the Clinton campaign and was not advising any candidates. He pointed out, too, that the board also included Richard L. Armitage, who was Colin Powell’s No. 2 at the State Department from 2001 to 2005.

Indeed, the center is avowedly bipartisan in its materials, and its mission is “to develop strong, pragmatic, and principled national security and defense policies that promote and protect American interests and values,” according to its first series of publications

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/new-center-has-lots-of-clinton-ties/

[aquart]

1. "That looks an awful lot like"

In other words, not a shred of evidence of any bad or negative or illegal action on Hillary Clinton's part.

Innuendo, it ain't what it used to be.

[ShortnFiery]

2. A Mix-Mash of the Presidential staffs (Bush-Clinton) who gave us increasing *free trade*

Odes of Joy. :eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

7. and Plan Colombia, Balkan war, and 8-years of bombing and starving Iraq

They all supported the Iraq war because they wanted the oil as badly as the neocons.

[ShortnFiery]

12. The DLC doesn't want US to give a damn about DEAD Iraqi Children as long as The Stock Market is UP!

:wow: :crazy:

[SaveElmer]

16. Don't forget your hero...

Jimmy Carter stood in the White House with President's Ford, Clinton, and BUsh I to show support for NAFTA...

Why didn't you include him in your condemnation...?

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

3. How dare you SMEAR our nominee?

You're doing the Repukes' work for them.

Resistance in futile. So stop posting these negative personal attacks on OUR dear candidate.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

4. Clinton is the only Democratic president in the last 26 years

It is not surprising that a new Democratic think tank (to counter the likes of AEI!) would be heavily populated by officials from the only recent Democratic administration. I applaud you being on the lookout for a Trojan Horse institute for one candidate, but I think you are wrong about this.

This is great. One mistake we Democrats made is not to build a network of think tanks like the right-wing did starting in the 1970's. It is about time we started to catch-up.

Look at the board of the think tank. Of the political people on it, they are all Democrats except for Armitage, who is a moderate Republican. They needed a Republican on it to keep the veneer of bipartisanship (AEI is also officially nonpartisan so it can maintain non-profit status).

Board of Directors

The Honorable Dr. William J. Perry, Chairman of the Board
Professor and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University

The Honorable Dr. Madeleine K. Albright
Principal, The Albright Group LLC

The Honorable Richard L. Armitage
President, Armitage International

Norman R. Augustine
Former Chairman, Executive Committee, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Admiral Dennis C. Blair, USN (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command

The Honorable Dr. Richard J. Danzig
Sam Nunn Prize Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies

William J. Lynn
Senior Vice President, Government Operations & Strategy, Raytheon Company

Lieutenant General Greg S. Newbold, USMC (Ret.)
Managing Director, Torch Hill Capital

John D. Podesta
President and CEO, Center for American Progress

[IndianaGreen]

6. This is a DLC front, staffed by crooks like former Pentagon head Perry

and warmongers like Armitage. There is nothing progressive about this bunch, with one exception, John Podesta, the only one I would trust.

[Ethelk2044]

11. This is BS - I need to put my boots on

[ShortnFiery]

13. Here, you're welcome to borrow my

WADERS since we don't have wings to rise above the seemingly endless Dynastic (Bush-Clinton) Executive Branch Cronyism. ;) :hi:

[blm]

14. Seems to me they were at ODDS with Gary Hart, Gen. Zinni, Warren Rudman, John Kerry's group

and they formed one to supplant those reports from the American Security Project.

Get real - starting a security group 6 weeks after Hart introduces their group?

Why not join it and really have the STRONGEST credentialed team out there?

Let's see - Gary Hart is the foremost expert on global terrorism and homeland security, so why on earth would this newly formed group want to set itself apart from his?

[Hart2008]

18. The Clinton's have been at odds with Gary Hart since Bill flunked his VP interview in '87

Hart was the original "New Democrat" back in '84. He was attempting to revitalize the party while at the same time keeping the party's heritage:
"Our goal was to move the party forward without compromising its principles. These guys have gained power, but I'm not sure they maintained the principles."
Where the New Democrats went wrong
http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/15/hart/index.html

Ray Strother worked for Hart in his '84 run as a political consultant. Afterward, Bill Clinton would hire him as well. In his book, Falling Up, Strother recounts his efforts to serve two masters. He arranged for Hart to meet Clinton in Arkansas in early 1987 hoping to have Hart select Clinton as his VP. Following the meeting, Hart hart told Strother that Clinton had "no core," and, "He doesn't believe in anything." (Hart has never denied Strother's account of the conversation.) This comment likely found its way back to Clinton either directly through Strother or indirectly, through Strother's protege, James Carville. (Carville had been laid off from the '84 Hart campaign.)

Most who studied Hart's '87-88 campaign have come to the conclusion that is was infiltrated and sabotaged. Bill Morris, a former NSC advisor under President Johnson who resigned from the NSC when Nixon invaded Cambodia, points the finger at the Clinton's in his book Partners in Power. No one that I know from the Hart campaign disagrees with him.

(The fact that the Bill Clinton's public buddy-buddy relationship with GHW Bush and Hillary Clinton's strong support (until very recently) for Junior Bush's foreign policies have not changed anyone's mind.)

The fact remains that the Clinton's have remained closer to the Bushes in foreign policy than to others in the Democratic party. It, therefore, should surprise no one that the Clinton's would attempt to somehow undermine The American Security Project headed by Hart and which again includes former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman.

[karynnj]

19. The two men in politics who most impressed me since 1972,

were Kerry and Hart. Interesting that both were men of real principle who Bill Clinton didn't like.

Last September, Hart gave a glowing introduction to Kerry when he gave his Real Security speech at Faneuil Hall. Kerry was visibly moved and his comments on Hart were equally strong. Foreign policy and global warming are the two biggest issues facing America - and there is a fight for the soul of the Democratic party.

We know at least one (and possibly 2 - with Richardson) person from the Clinton side, the question is whether any of the candidates would be closer to Hart/Kerry.

[Hart2008]

21. Hart still makes a better President than any of them!

Dodd gave a nominating speech for Hart in '84.
He doesn't look like he is going anywhere.

Gravel and Kucinich, are much closer to Hart than Clinton-Bush on foreign policy.

Obama, Clinton, and Edwards have all made noise about Iran which is troubling.

Kerry was intense about investigating Iran-Contra and its related drug running, which had connections in Arkansas. Hillary helped raise money for the Contras, and Bill ordered the Arkansas National Guard to leave their weapons and equipment in Honduras, which were then given to the Contras to circumvent the Boland amendment. That might explain why Clinton doesn't like Kerry.

:kick:

[karynnj]

22. I wish I didn't read this - I knew Clinton was pro Contras

mainly because I read it in the 1990s. Though I completely disagreed, I thought that meant he disagreed with the Boland Amendment. The Contras were right wing thugs. I had hoped Hillary had been to the left of her husband on this.

I agree that Kerry was "intense" on this - and he should have been, beyond being against the law "which should mean something", this was a type of foreign policy that was 100% against what Kerry believed in. Kerry headed a prosecutor's office (under a disabled DA) in Middlesex county in Massachusetts. His concern for under priviledged kids is something that was a constant over decades and still is. The idea that officials would bring drugs into this country for any political goal likely struck him as sick. He fought this nearly alone and was called a "randy nutcase" and was smeared many many times.

As to the drug running, if Bill and Hillary even knew about it and looked the other way - they like GHWB and others who did so - have no conscience or soul. I know soemeone who was a teacher in an inner city in Indiana in the late 1980s. Her stories of how heart breaking it was to deal with young students who had been crack babies. If she knew this it makes a lie of everything else she ever tried to stand for. It takes a village, where the village officials risk their status to prevent cocaine from devastating neighborhoods, to raise kids.

This may explain why Bill Clinton clearly liked Weld, who stonewalled Kerry on this, enough to consider not supporting Kerry in 1996. This makes me beyond sick - if there is a link that Hillary raised money for the Contras - which would have been illegal as well as immoral - or any real proof that the Clintons knew anything beyond the fact that the CIA was using the airport, I will absolutely not vote for her - even in the general election.

This only strengthens my opinion that Kerry is an incredible person who has more class and integrity than the Clintons ever dreamed of having.

[Hart2008]

23. Read "Partners in Power" by Roger Morris, a former NSA to LBJ who resigned under Nixon.

For anyone who thinks Dr. Morris is part of some right wing attack on the Clinton's, they should check out his resume. He resigned from the National Security Council when Nixon invaded Cambodia in 1970:

Thirty-four years ago this spring, I faced your choice in resigning from the National Security Council over the invasion of Cambodia. I had been involved in fruitful secret talks between Henry Kissinger and the North Vietnamese in 1969-1970, and knew at least something of how much the invasion would shatter the chance for peace and prolong the war -- though I could never have guessed that thousands of American names would be added to that long black wall in Washington or that holocaust would follow in Cambodia. Leaving was an agony. I was only beginning a career dreamed of since boyhood. But I have never regretted my decision. Nor do I think it any distinction. My friends and I used to remark that the Nixon administration was so unprincipled it took nothing special to resign. It is a mark of the current tragedy that by comparison with the Bush regime, Nixon and Kissinger seem to many model statesmen.

A Call to Conscience, Roger Morris, May 21, 2004
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/05/21_morris_call-conscience.htm

As a former NSA, Morris was well connected with the intelligence agencies:

In the mid-1970s the CIA shredded its archives on Operation Chaos. One of those involved in the purge of the records told Morris that he had seen Bill Clinton listed as a former informant who went on to run for political office. "He was there in the records, with a special designation," the official is quoted as saying in the book.

Mr Clinton's alleged ties to the CIA would explain some later episodes during his tenure as Governor of Arkansas, when his state became a staging-point for President Ronald Reagan's secret effort to supply the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. An Arkansas State Trooper, L. D. Brown, has testified in a deposition that he was inducted into the CIA on Mr Clinton's suggestion, and then went on two clandestine flights to deliver weapons to Central America.

Mr Clinton was even commended for his "patriotic" work by the Reagan White House after he had sent the Arkansas National Guard to Honduras for manoeuvres. The deployment was a ruse by the Pentagon, according to Morris. The Arkansas Guard left its "excess" inventory behind, providing a cache of weapons that were slipped to the Contras.

Even Hillary Clinton was a Cold Warrior of sorts. Described in Morris's book as "a closet Contra supporter", she quietly aided Contra fund-raising in Little Rock. She also used her influence in US liberal circles to undercut the legitimacy of peace activists and pro-Sandinista church groups opposed to President Reagan's policies in Central America.

The point is not that Bill and Hillary Clinton are Right-wingers in disguise - although Morris demolishes the pretence that they were progressive reformers in Arkansas. It is that they have no conviction, no ideology, no guiding purpose. Driven by raw ambition, they will make any compromise necessary to advance their interests.

The Sunday Telegraph

From The Sunday Telegraph (London) review of Morris's book
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/clinton_spied_students.htm

There are other books on the subject of the airport at Mena, but Dr. Morris is one author who cannot seriously be considered part of any right wing conspiracy.

[karynnj]

24. Wow! This is sickening

I had thought Clinton a power obsessed jerk, but this is awful. Morris seems an extremely commendable man. The book sounds very interesting. It amazes me that the history of the last 50 or so years is not at all what we read in the NYT. It makes it sadder that Kerry came so very close but lost.

[blm]

25. Powerful elite AND powerful Dems had to make sure Kerry didn't get into oval office.

http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

None of the reports about the backstabbing of Kerry by Clintons, McAuliffe and Carville have been refuted.

[IndianaGreen]

5. The flip side of a PNAC/AEI neocon, is a DLC/PPI/CNAS neoliberal

They both support imperialist policies backed by raw military power. The only difference is that neocons will not use lubrication when screwing the world.

This crew will continue Bush policies of American imperialism and hegemony, but with a lot of sugar coating and with a public face of international cooperation among former colonial powers.

Nothing will change if we put them in the White House!

[blm]

8. Odd - why wouldn't they fold into Gary Hart, Rudman, Gen. Zinni's group

The American Security Project that launched last month?

There isn't any one in the country more steeped in national and international security issues and data than Gary Hart.



05/02/2007

The Board of Directors of the American Security Project today announced May 16th as the date of the organization's formal launch. A breakfast reception and press conference will be held at the National Press Club on that date from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. The event is open to the public.

The American Security Project (ASP) is a bipartisan 501C3 non-profit public policy research and educational organization, a think tank, dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security and foreign policy issues.

Board Chair, the Honorable Gary Hart will introduce the organization and the other members of the board of directors.

In addittion, ASP will release its survey of Public Attitudes on National Security.

Finally, the first of three reports on Security in the Age of Terror entitled "The Causes of Violent Jihadism" will be presented and made available to the public.

There will be opportunities for questions.

If you would like to attend this event, please RSVP to [e-mail]

[draft_mario_cuomo]

9. The repukes have multiple think tanks

I think it is healthy for us to also have numerous think tanks, as opposed to say, one dedicated to security. Think tanks are a good source for future policy ideas. The more Democratic incubators of ideas, the better.

[blm]

10. Big difference between shell think tanks used by GOP and their real think tanks.

And why dilute the impact of the first top calibre think tank the left produces by adding another one 6 weeks later?

[flpoljunkie]

15. Interesting, Armitage appears to be on both boards.

(Some in this group I recognize as supporters of Barack Obama. That may tell you why another group filled with Clinton supporters has formed in just six weeks.)

http://www.americansecurityproject.org/about/boardofdirectors

The Honorable Gary Hart, Chairman
Senator Hart served the State of Colorado in the U.S. Senate and was a member of the Committee on Armed Services during his tenure.

The Honorable Richard L. Armitage
Richard L. Armitage is President of Armitage International.

Lael Brainard
Dr. Brainard is Vice President and Director of the Global Economy Development Center and holds the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in International Economics at the Brookings Institution.

Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.)
Brigadier General Cheney is the President of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.

Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, USA (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Christman is Senior Vice President for International Affairs at the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Gregory B. Craig
Mr. Craig is a Partner at Williams and Connolly LLP.

Nelson Cunningham
Mr. Cunningham is Managing Partner of Kissinger McLarty Associates.

Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, USN (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Gunn is the President of the Institute of Public Research at The CNA Corporation, a non-profit corporation in Virginia.

Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, USA (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Kennedy is the first, and thus far only, woman to achieve the rank of three-star general in the United States Army.

The Honorable John Kerry
Senator Kerry was the Democratic nominee for President in 2004 and represents the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States Senate.

The Honorable George Mitchell
Senator Mitchell is Partner and Chairman of the Global Board of DLA Piper, Rudnick, Gray, Cary.

Susan E. Rice
Dr. Rice is Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

The Honorable Warren B. Rudman
Senator Rudman represented the state of New Hampshire for two terms in the United States Senate.

David Thorne
Mr. Thorne is currently Founder and Director of Adviser Investment Management, Inc.

General Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.)
General Zinni is President of International Operations for M.I.C. Industries.

[SaveElmer]

17. Claudia Kennedy has endorsed Hillary...nt

[blm]

26. Will she be switching to Hillary's think tank and become a PNACer-lite, too?

Or will she try and maintain some integrity and her own personal values re security issues and stay with American Security Project?

Rhetorical - I know you have no answer.

[illinoisprogressive]

20. gives a glimpse into what we can expect IF Hillary is the nominee