This war came from a think tank {PNAC}

[Echo In Light]

This war came from a think tank
By Jochen Boelsche,

0403/03 "Spiegel" -- It was in no way a conspiracy. As far back as 1998, ultra right US think tanks had developed and published plans for an era of US world domination, sidelining the UN and attacking Iraq. These people were not taken seriously. But now they are calling the tune.

German commentators and correspondents have been confused. Washington has tossed around so many types of reasons for war on Baghdad "that it could make the rest of the world dizzy", said the South German Times.

And the Nuremburg News reported on public statements last week by Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer to an inner circle in the US that war can only be avoided if Saddam not only disarms, but also leaves office.

Regime change is a condition that is in none of the barely remembered 18 UN resolutions. The Nuremburg News asked in astonishment whether Fleischer had made the biggest Freudian slip of his career or whether he spoke with the President's authority.

It's not about Saddam's weapons

So it goes. Across the world critics of President Bush are convinced that a second Gulf War is actually about replacing Saddam, whether the dictator is involved with WMD or not. "It's not about his WMD," writes the German born Israeli peace campaigner, Uri Avnery, "its purely a war about world domination, in business, politics, defence and culture".

There are real models for this. They were already under development by far right Think Tanks in the 1990s, organisations in which cold-war warriors from the inner circle of the secret services, from evangelical churches, from weapons corporations and oil companies forged shocking plans for a new world order.

In the plans of these hawks a doctrine of "might is right" would operate, and the mightiest of course would be the last superpower, America.

Visions of world power on the Web

To this end the USA would need to use all means - diplomatic, economic and military, even wars of aggression - to have long term control of the resources of the planet and the ability to keep any possible rival weak.

These 1990's schemes of the Think Tanks, from sidelining the UN to a series of wars to establish dominance - were in no way secret. Nearly all these scenarios have been published; some are accessible on the Web.

For a long time these schemes were shrugged off as fantasy produced by intellectual mavericks - arch-conservative relics of the Reagan era, the coldest of cold-war warriors, hibernating in backwaters of academia and lobby groups.

At the White House an internationalist spirit was in the air. There was talk of partnerships for universal human rights, of multi-lateralism in relations with allies. Treaties on climate-change, weapons control, on landmines and international justice were on the agenda.

Saddam's fall was planned in 1998

In this liberal climate there came, nearly unnoticed, a 1997 proposal of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) that forcefully mapped out "America's global leadership". On 28 Jan 1998 the PNAC project team wrote to President Clinton demanding a radical change in dealings with the UN and the end of Saddam.

While it was not clear whether Saddam was developing WMD, he was, they said, a threat to the US, Israel, the Arab States and "a meaningful part of the world's oil reserves". They put their case as follows:

"In the short term this means being ready to lead military action, without regard for diplomacy. In the long term it means disarming Saddam and his regime. We believe that the US has the right under existing Security Council resolutions to take the necessary steps, including war, to secure our vital interests in the Gulf. In no circumstances should America's politics be crippled by the misguided insistence of the Security Council on unanimity." (clintonletter)

Blueprint for an offensive

This letter might have remained yellowing in the White House archives if it did not read like a blue-print for a long-desired war, and still might have been forgotten if ten PNAC members had not signed it. These signatories are today all part of the Bush Administration. They are Dick Cheney - Vice President, Lewis Libby - Cheney's Chief of Staff, Donald Rumsfeld - Defence Minister, Paul Wolfowitz - Rumsfeld's deputy, Peter Rodman - in charge of 'Matters of Global Security', John Bolton - State Secretary for Arms Control, Richard Armitage - Deputy Foreign Minister, Richard Perle - former Deputy Defence Minister under Reagan, now head of the Defense Policy Board, William Kristol - head of the PNAC and adviser to Bush, known as the brains of the President, Zalmay Khalilzad - fresh from being special ambassador and kingmaker in Afghanistan, now Bush's special ambassador to the Iraqi opposition.

But even before that - over ten years ago - two hardliners from this group had developed a defence proposal that created a global scandal when it was leaked to the US press. The suggestion that was revealed in 1992 in The New York Times was developed by two men who today are Cabinet members - Wolfowitz and Libby. It essentially argued that the doctrine of deterrence used in the Cold War should be replaced by a new global strategy.

Its goal was the enduring preservation of the superpower status of the US - over Europe, Russia and China. Various means were proposed to deter potential rivals from questioning America's leadership or playing a larger regional or global role. The paper caused major concerns in the capitals of Europe and Asia.

But the critical thing, according to the Wolfowitz-Libby paper, was complete American dominance of Eurasia. Any nation there that threatened the USA by acquiring WMD should face pre-emptive attack, they said. Traditional alliances should be replaced by ad-hoc coalitions.

This 1992 masterplan then formed the basis of a PNAC paper that was concluded in September 2000, just months before the start of the Bush Administration.

That September 2000 paper (Rebuilding America's Defences) was developed by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Libby, and is devoted to matters of "maintaining US pre-eminence, thwarting rival powers and shaping the global security system according to US interests". (RAD)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2041.htm

[conscious evolution]

1. Rebuilding Americas Defenses=Mien Kampf

Evil always leaves its calling card.
Always.

Kicking and recommending.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. K&R

The people who did this belong in jail forever!

[madokie]

3. I think these folks need to be locked the hell up

Is what I think

[OneBlueSky]

4. and how many of these think tank thinkers actually served in the armed forces . . .

or experienced war first-hand? . . . my guess is not many . . .

[driver8]

5. I had a freeper on another forum tell me that the PNAC was a myth

created by "the liberal media".

This was after I provided him with a link to their now defunct website.

How is it that people don't know about these criminals and what they have done? Why do people look at you like you are a crazy conspiracy nut when you tell them about the PNAC?

It is unbelievable to me that these people have created all of this death and destruction and are simply going to walk away from the mess.

[formercia]

6. Legitimizing the war in Congress (1998)

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/24299.php

The Advisory Board's "Honorary Co-Chairmen" were Joe Lieberman and John McCain.

And what an Advisory Board it was!

Members included Newt Gingrich (who's now busy marketing the Iraq war's pre-planned next phase, affectionately referred to as "World War 3"), James P. Hoffa (the Teamsters' top guy), former Senator Robert Kerrey, Robert Kagan (a founder of the neocon Project for the New American Century, or PNAC), William Kristol (head of PNAC, frequent commentator on Fox News, and Editor of the Rupert Murdoch-backed neocon "Weekly Standard" magazine), R. James Woolsey (former CIA head), Danielle Pletka (of the American Enterprise Institute, who's busy, busy, busy these days as an on-air cheerleader for Israel's activities in Lebanon), and Richard Perle (whose nickname, reportedly, is "The Prince of Darkness").

Given the current activities in Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Perle deserves special attention.

Perle was the lead author of a mid-1990s policy paper for the Israeli Prime Minister recommending that Israel preemptively remove Saddam Hussein from power, among other international objectives. This paper, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," calls for "reestablishing the principle of preemption, rather than retaliation alone." It calls for "engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon." It also recommends sweeping pro-privatization, pro-corporatist changes in Israel's economy, to help solve the Israeli economy's "large problem" created by 70 years of "Labor Zionism." It recommends ways Israel can market its new policies to the US public and Congress "by tapping into themes of American administrations during the Cold War which apply well to Israel." And it even makes special mention of Newt Gingrich.

(You can read the whole paper at http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm; a few more quotes are attached below.)

But Lieberman's and McCain's role as war cheerleaders predates 2002 and the CLI. According to Lieberman's current campaign website, "Senator Lieberman served as lead Democratic cosponsor of the 1991 Gulf War Resolution. In 1998, he teamed up with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to enact the Iraq Liberation Act, which stated that regime change in Iraq was U.S. policy. And in the fall of 2002, Senator Lieberman was a lead sponsor of a resolution authorizing the President to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam." (See http://lieberman.senate.gov/issues/security.cfm)

http://web.archive.org/web/20030324120145/www.liberationiraq.org/

MISSION STATEMENT



The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq was formed to promote regional peace, political freedom and international security by replacing the Saddam Hussein regime with a democratic government that respects the rights of the Iraqi people and ceases to threaten the community of nations.

The regime of Saddam Hussein has attacked its neighbors, acquired weapons of mass destruction, and directed those weapons against innocent men, women, and children. It has supported international terrorism and has savagely murdered and repressed the Iraqi people. The current government of Iraq poses a clear and present danger to its neighbors, to the United States, and to free peoples throughout the world.

The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq will engage in educational and advocacy efforts to mobilize US and international support for policies aimed at ending the aggression of Saddam Hussein and freeing the Iraqi people from tyranny. The Committee is committed to work beyond the liberation of Iraq to the reconstruction of its economy and the establishment of political pluralism, democratic institutions, and the rule of law.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.4655.ENR:

Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)

--H.R.4655--

H.R.4655

One Hundred Fifth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,

the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight

An Act

To establish a program to support a transition to democracy in Iraq.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Iraq Liberation Act of 1998'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) On September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, starting an 8 year war in which Iraq employed chemical weapons against Iranian troops and ballistic missiles against Iranian cities.

(2) In February 1988, Iraq forcibly relocated Kurdish civilians from their home villages in the Anfal campaign, killing an estimated 50,000 to 180,000 Kurds.

(3) On March 16, 1988, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurdish civilian opponents in the town of Halabja, killing an estimated 5,000 Kurds and causing numerous birth defects that affect the town today.

(4) On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded and began a 7 month occupation of Kuwait, killing and committing numerous abuses against Kuwaiti civilians, and setting Kuwait's oil wells ablaze upon retreat.

(5) Hostilities in Operation Desert Storm ended on February 28, 1991, and Iraq subsequently accepted the ceasefire conditions specified in United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 (April 3, 1991) requiring Iraq, among other things, to disclose fully and permit the dismantlement of its weapons of mass destruction programs and submit to long-term monitoring and verification of such dismantlement.

(6) In April 1993, Iraq orchestrated a failed plot to assassinate former President George Bush during his April 14-16, 1993, visit to Kuwait.

(7) In October 1994, Iraq moved 80,000 troops to areas near the border with Kuwait, posing an imminent threat of a renewed invasion of or attack against Kuwait.

(8) On August 31, 1996, Iraq suppressed many of its opponents by helping one Kurdish faction capture Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government.

(9) Since March 1996, Iraq has systematically sought to deny weapons inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) access to key facilities and documents, has on several occasions endangered the safe operation of UNSCOM helicopters transporting UNSCOM personnel in Iraq, and has persisted in a pattern of deception and concealment regarding the history of its weapons of mass destruction programs.

(10) On August 5, 1998, Iraq ceased all cooperation with UNSCOM, and subsequently threatened to end long-term monitoring activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNSCOM.

(11) On August 14, 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105-235, which declared that `the Government of Iraq is in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations' and urged the President `to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations.'.

(12) On May 1, 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105-174, which made $5,000,000 available for assistance to the Iraqi democratic opposition for such activities as organization, training, communication and dissemination of information, developing and implementing agreements among opposition groups, compiling information to support the indictment of Iraqi officials for war crimes, and for related purposes.

[RethugAssKicker]

7. This should be common news... very few people know of this.

I have been so disgusted with this "empirish" approach to the world.

The U.S. has truly turned into an evil empire.

[MadrasT]

8. McCain dodges the PNAC question

Interesting YouTube video where McCain is directly asked about it and dodges the question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XklWKZ3NY

McCain asked about PNAC and 9/11 at town hall

Friday, July 11, 2008 During a town hall event in Portsmouth, OH on Wednesday, John McCain was asked by a member of the audience whether his links to the parent organization of the Project for a New American Century explain why he has been reluctant to support calls for a new investigation of 9/11.

The questioner began, “I was curious about a document. Back in September of 2000, the Project for a New American Century, or PNAC, whose members included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, wrote a document entitled ‘Rebuilding Americans Defenses.’”

As McCain turned and paced away from him, the questioner continued, “In it, they state, quote, “The process of transformation, even if it bring revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor.”

“Now, many Americans believe that that ‘new Pearl Harbor’ event took place on 9/11,” the questioner went on, as McCain grimaced slightly. “And according to a recent New York Times and CBS News poll, 84% of Americans believe that there were some criminal elements of our government involved in 9/11.”

Calls of disapproval began to arise from the audience, but the questioner shot back, “Hold on!” and continued asking McCain, “Can you tell us about your role as — hold on — as president of the ‘New Citizen Project,’ founded in 1994, which served as a chief fund-raising and parent organization to PNAC? And is this one of the factors that has made you so reluctant to support the victims’ family members and first responders who are begging for a new investigation into 9/11?”

The boos became louder at that point, and McCain grimaced again, turned his back and walked away, but the questioner insisted, “It’s a serious question.”

“I have a serious answer, sir,” McCain replied, “and that is that it was Joe Lieberman and I — a Democrat — that sponsored the legislation for the 9/11 Commission. … And very frankly, the administration was not, shall I say, enthusiastic about the establishment of that commission. … I am proud of what the 9/11 Commission did. I am proud that we have enacted many of the reforms … that they recommended. And I will stand by their recommendations and their conclusions, as will the overwhelming majority of Americans.”

“It’s a free country,” McCain concluded. “You are free to disagree with their conclusions. But I am proud to have been one of those who was, along with Joe Lieberman, responsible for the establishment of the 9/11 Commission.”

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast July 9, 2008.

[Mabus]

9. McCain past president of NCP, precursor of PNAC

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080612_john_mccains_chilling_project_for_america/

McCain’s Ties to PNAC

John McCain’s connection to PNAC can be traced back to before its formation in 1997. In fact, he was president of the New Citizenship Project, founded by Kristol in 1994. This organization was parent to PNAC, and served as its chief fundraising organ.

McCain also worked cooperatively with PNAC and Wolfowitz in attempting to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. In 1998, he co-sponsored the Iraq Liberation Act—drafted by PNAC—which decreed “regime change” in Iraq to be U.S. policy, and which appropriated $97 million in U.S. military aid to the Iraqi National Congress (INC). The INC was a group of anti-Hussein Iraqi militants whose purpose was to instigate a national uprising against Hussein. It was led by Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi informant whose subsequent faulty intelligence—claims that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaida—was used to sell the Iraq war to the American public. In 2004, in response to accusations that he deliberately misled U.S. intelligence agencies, Chalabi glibly stated, “We are heroes in error.”

McCain also was co-chair (with Sen. Joseph Lieberman) of The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI). Established by PNAC in late 2002, this committee continued to finance Chalabi’s INC with millions of taxpayer dollars, until shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, when it was discontinued. In 2004, McCain became a signatory of PNAC, ironically signing on to a PNAC letter condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy for its return to the “rhetoric of militarism and empire.”

McCain has accordingly been a foot soldier for PNAC from its inception, and, although this organization is no longer in existence, its ideology and its signatories (many of whom now serve as advisers to the McCain presidential campaign) are still very much active.

fwiw, according to http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_Citizenship_Project">sourcewatch the Philanthropy Roundtable shares a phone number and office address with the New Citizenship Project. Here is the roundtable's website: http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/content.asp?pl=440&contentid=443

According to their website, it looks like they are doing outreach to replenish their coffers.

The Philanthropy Roundtable seeks to build a critical mass of donors focused on making important advances toward victory over terrorism. Our national security meetings encourage innovative thinking through private initiatives like independent scholarship and research and metropolitan and regional disaster preparedness which exist outside of the government. Some of the previous Roundtable meetings have included Philanthropy and the War on Terrorism in New York City and Philanthropy’s Role in Defending America in Colorado Springs. Through donor interaction in this area, we desire to improve the overall quality of national security philanthropy.

The September 11 attacks caused the philanthropic community to ask how donors can best serve their country by helping America organize against the increased threat of terrorism. Questions include:

* What is the appropriate role of the private sector in fighting terrorism?

* How can philanthropists get involved and make a substantive difference?

* How can donors ensure that their grantmaking effectively serves national security while also conforming to the missions of their foundations and trusts?

The Philanthropy Roundtable has established the National Security Breakthrough Group (NSB) to help the donor community find answers to these and similar questions. The NSB Group, like the Roundtable as a whole, supports the principle that voluntary private action can make a significant difference in the security and welfare of the American people.

http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/content.asp?pl=440&contentid=443

[jillan]

14. I had no idea McCain's hands were this dirty.

Thanks for posting that.

[Mabus]

15. Thanks for noticing it

I keep posting it but just never gets traction. I also thought it was important to try to find out where they (Kristol's gang) has been up to these days. If you check out the Roundtable's website you'll find a lot of the GOP hot button issues.

[slipslidingaway]

10. Also... A Clean Break

Short on time for the next few days, links are here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1870796&mesg_id=1878564

"...To put the “Clean Break” plan in a bigger framework, I think it’s interesting to look at it in the context of other documents. Back in 2003, when we first started producing research that looks at the policy formulation process here in Washington, DC, we began to cast about for the documents which seemed to be the core policy documents with the most influence on Bush administration officials, and we centered on three particular documents. The “Clean Break” plan is interesting because by far it’s the most specific. It’s essentially a laundry list of policy objectives that’s extremely specific and extremely detailed, although it’s only a few pages long. But there are two other documents that I think anyone who really wants to understand the core policy formulation process and really wants to understand what’s behind U.S. policy need to understand are two other documents.

“Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” which was published by the Project for the New American Century in September of 2000, it’s important to read that document for the clues it provides about pre-positioning U.S. military assets in the region in the name of securing power projection over petroleum resources as well as securing Israeli interests in the region. It’s important to understand that important PNAC members include Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, John Bolton, among other people who entered the administration or remained on the outside as key advisors. It’s important to read these documents because the suggestions that they made are part of their DNA. They brought that with them into the administration. And finally “The U.S. National Security Strategy,” not the one that just came out, but the one that came out in 2002 which went to great lengths justifying pre-emption as a strategy for the United States for the very first time, legitimizing pre-emption. This is thought to be largely the work of Paul Wolfowitz who had tried in other circumstances to legitimize pre-emption as an American strategy. Again of the three documents, the “Clean Break” plan is by far the most specific and therefore the most interesting. But if we use another analogy this time of a personal computer, if this neoconservative influence policy making were a personal computer, clearly the hardware is “The National Security Strategy of the U.S.A.,” the operating system, pre-positioning assets in the region, is “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” and the program rather the specific instruction set is the “Clean Break” plan..."

[Individualist]

11. Don't forget about Will Marshall, DLC founder, who was a signator of two PNAC documents.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/charts/pnac-chart.htm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2034042

[FiveGoodMen]

12. "It was in no way a conspiracy" -- someone explain that line, please

A bunch of people get together to figure out how to mislead Americans so they can misuse American forces ... but ... "It was in no way a conspiracy"!

[Stephanie]

13. More info here >

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=110&topic_id=80