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Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

WASHINGTON -- Many of the Republicans emerging as potential members of the Obama administration have professional and ideological ties to Brent Scowcroft, a former national-security adviser turned public critic of the Bush White House.Mr. Scowcroft spoke by phone with President-elect Barack Obama last week, the latest in a months-long series of conversations between the two men about defense and foreign-policy issues, according to people familiar with the discussions. Brent Scowcroft The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft's views, which place a premium on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, might hold sway in the Obama White...

U.S. National Security Adviser Jones gave these remarks at the 45th Munich Conference on Security Policy at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof on February 8, 2009. "Thank you for that wonderful tribute to Henry Kissinger yesterday. Congratulations. As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger, filtered down through Generaal Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger, who is also here. We have a chain of command in the National Security Council that exists today.

A top economic adviser to US President Barack Obama, along with nine former senior officials, is calling on the American leader to launch a dialogue with Hamas, the The Boston Globe reported Saturday. SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World According to the report, Paul A. Volcker and other members of the bipartisan group - including former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski - have sent a letter to Obama urging him to engage Hamas in order to coax the terrorist organization to disarm and join a peaceful Palestinian unity government.

When Barack Obama ran for president, especially in the primaries, he relied on a group of foreign-policy advisers that included radical leftist thinkers like Robert Malley, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power. The rise of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State gave political watchers the first indication that Obama would not follow that direction after winning office by gaining the trust of the Left. The Wall Street Journal looks at the rest of the team forming on foreign policy and sees even stronger indications that Obama will instead fall back to the foreign policy direction of President Bush — George H....

Obama Favors Republicans With Scowcroft Ties By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and SIOBHAN GORMAN WASHINGTON -- Many of the Republicans emerging as potential members of the Obama administration have professional and ideological ties to Brent Scowcroft, a former national-security adviser turned public critic of the Bush White House. Mr. Scowcroft spoke by phone with President-elect Barack Obama last week, the latest in a months-long series of conversations between the two men about defense and foreign-policy issues, according to people familiar with the discussions. [Brent Scowcroft] Brent Scowcroft The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft's views,...

The Bush administration should stop talking about a military attack as an option if negotiations do not immediately halt Iran's uranium reprocessing program, two former national security advisers said yesterday. "Don't talk about 'do we bomb them now or later?' " said Brent Scowcroft, adviser to presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush, during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the negotiations between the United States and Iran. Scowcroft added that by mentioning that threat, "we legitimize the use of force . . . and may tempt the Israelis" to carry out such a...

Speculation is mounting (except, of course, among the “professional” press), as to the identities of six of the eight individuals included in the Libby subpoena to The New York Times (see Clarice Feldman’s piece here). The Times deemed the identities of only two of the parties worthy of release, former CIA director George Tenet and former White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer. The names of the other six remain elusive

THE Iraq Study Group report was released into a sea of unrealistic expectations. Inevitably, it disappointed hopes for a clear path through the morass of Iraq, because there is no “silver bullet” solution to the difficulties in which we find ourselves. But the report accomplished a great deal. It brought together some of America’s best minds across party lines, and it outlined with clarity and precision the key factors at issue in Iraq. In doing so, it helped catalyze the debate about our Iraq policy and crystallize the choices we face. Above all, it emphasized the importance of focusing on...

Sibel Edmonds vindicated? FBI reveals investigation continues 25.10.2006 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/85192-Sibel_Edmonds-0 On October 10, 2006, FBI spokesman Bill Carter confirmed that matters raised by Sibel Edmonds and shielded form public view by the invocation of the US States Secret privilege were still under internal investigation by the Bureau. “Due to the fact that the allegations of Sibel Edmonds reflect internal administrative and investigative matters it would not be appropriate to respond to your inquiry. I will point out that the DOJ Office of the Inspector General has reviewed this matter and released a public report. I would refer this report...

ELEANOR HALL: A key US military strategist who counts the former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, among his students, is absolutely scathing about the current Bush administration's strategy in Iraq and says no one except the President is in any doubt that it should change. Harlan Ullman who's now at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says the US lost control of events in Iraq almost immediately after the invasion and that far from assisting in the development of democracy, the US-led allies, including Australia, have fomented chaos. But Dr Ullman says he holds out little hope that either...

There are numerous competing theories about the principles which should underlie foreign policy. Let us first dispose of one of the most despicable. It is represented in the UK by Clare Short and in the US by the more substantial figure of Bill Clinton. It seems to include virtually all the people who strongly advocated military action in the former Yugoslavia, but opposed the liberation of Kuwait, and/or the liberation of Iraq. Their analysis seems to go like this: Human rights are important. Human rights deserve to be defended. Sometimes the most egregious breaches of human rights demand the mobilisation...

There are at least two elements essential to "success" in Iraq. The first is a central government that meets the needs of the people well enough to secure their sustained support, shows sufficient consideration for minority rights to win the loyalty of those minorities and demonstrates a credible determination to live in peace with its neighbors. The second is an effective, highly disciplined military and security establishment that gives its allegiance not to various elements within Iraqi society but solely to the central government. The fundamental question for the United States is what kind of policy is most likely to...

Former ambassador speaks on Iraq, CIA leak investigation In a talk sponsored by the Northeastern College Democrats at Blackman Auditorium Nov. 21, Wilson laid out the story of how he had gone from being a relatively anonymous state department official to "Valerie Plame's husband," sparing few from potent verbal attacks along the way. He was able to provide the audience with a full account of the trip to Niger he called the reason for his character assassination and, as a "side issue," his reaction to the outing of his wife's identity as a spy with the CIA. Wilson, a former...

Mr. Stability The wrongness of Brent Scowcroft's realism. By Christopher Hitchens Posted Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005, at 1:47 PM ET Scowcroft longs for the "peace" of Saddam's regime The sole point of the non-findings of the Fitzgerald non-investigation, into the non-commission of non-crimes and the non-outing of a non-covert CIA bureaucrat, is (as Messrs. Kerry, Krugman, Rich, and others keep reminding us) that it might even yet trigger the long-awaited inquest into the Iraq intervention. I very strongly hope that there is a full-dress postmortem into this country's Iraq policy, though I am not ready to assume that "inquest" or...

The punditry world is abuzz with talk of a recent New Yorker article (no link available) by writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who has interviewed Brent Scowcroft, the former national security advisor for the Ford Administration and the Administration of George H.W. Bush. In a number of passages in the piece, Scowcroft takes on the current Bush Administration over the issue of Iraq, something for which he has earned applause from many Democrats and other Bush critics. But when one reads the entire New Yorker piece, one finds that Scowcroft's critique is directed at foreign policy idealism in general. And it's a...

Now that Cindy Sheehan turns out to be a disaster for the antiwar movement -- most Americans are not about to follow a left-wing radical who insists that we are in Iraq for reasons of theft, oppression and empire -- a new spokesman is needed. If I were in the opposition camp, I would want a deeply patriotic, highly intelligent, distinguished establishment figure. I would want Brent Scowcroft. Scowcroft has been obliging. In the Oct. 31 New Yorker he came out strongly against the war and the neocon sorcerers who magically foisted it upon what must have been a hypnotized...

WASHINGTON -- Now that Cindy Sheehan turns out to be a disaster for the anti-war movement -- most Americans are not about to follow a left-wing radical who insists that we are in Iraq for reasons of theft, oppression and empire -- a new spokesman is needed. If I were in the opposition camp, I would want a deeply patriotic, highly intelligent, distinguished establishment figure. I would want Brent Scowcroft. Scowcroft has been obliging. This week in The New Yorker he came out strongly against the war and the neocon sorcerers who magically foisted it upon what must have been...

Brent Scowcroft, military assistant to President Nixon, and National Security Advisor to Presidents Ford and H.W. Bush, continues his attack on the bush foreign policy and Iraq War in an interview by Jeffrey Goldberg in The New Yorker (not available without subscription). In The Washington Note, Steven C. Clemons provides excerpts (here) from the interview: A principal reason that the Bush Administration gave no thought to unseating Saddam was that Brent Scowcroft gave no thought to it. An American occupation of Iraq would be politically and militarily untenable, Scowcroft told Bush. And though the President had employed the rhetoric of...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Now that Cindy Sheehan turns out to be a disaster for the anti-war movement -- most Americans are not about to follow a left-wing radical who insists that we are in Iraq for reasons of theft, oppression and empire -- a new spokesman is needed. If I were in the opposition camp, I would want a deeply patriotic, highly intelligent, distinguished establishment figure. I would want Brent Scowcroft.</p>

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Sunday, July 31, 2005 9:30 p.m. EDT Sandy Berger Blasts Bush for Security Failure Convicted 9/11 Commission document thief Sandy Berger is blasting the Bush administration for failing to bring security to Iraq after toppling Saddam Hussein. As co-chair of a Council on Foreign Relations Iraq war task force, Berger and his colleagues are complaining that the U.S.'s failure to prepare for the period after the war had given "early impetus for the insurgency," according to quotes picked up by Reuters. Despite pleading guilty in April to destroying top secret terrorism documents related to the 9/11 investigation,...

Bush faulted on postwar planning REUTERS WASHINGTON - An independent assessment of the tumult in Iraq led by two top former presidential advisers found that the Bush administration was unprepared for postwar Iraq and underestimated the number of troops needed in a miscalculation that helped fuel the insurgency. The report by a Council on Foreign Relations task force, released Wednesday, concluded that the failure to prepare properly for the period after the war had given "early impetus for the insurgency" now gripping the country. The task force was headed by two former national security advisers, Democrat Samuel "Sandy" Berger and...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

Scowcroft Skeptical Vote Will Stabilize Iraq Friend of Bush Family Joins Pessimists By Dana Priest and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, January 7, 2005; Page A12 Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser for President George H.W. Bush and a leading figure in the U.S. foreign policy establishment, said yesterday that he has grown pessimistic about prospects for stability and democracy in Iraq, a view increasingly expressed by other foreign policy figures in both parties. "The Iraqi elections, rather than turning out to be a promising turning point, have the great potential for deepening the conflict," Scowcroft said. He said...

Kofi's not the problem, the United Nations is Posted: December 8, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. For our well-mannered and beautifully tailored secretary general, these are not the halcyon days. Kofi Annan is sitting atop the smelliest scandal in U.N. history. Son Kojo appears to be in it up to his eyeballs. A female employee has charged a senior U.N. officer with sexual harassment, and Kofi pardoned the alleged groper. Peacekeepers in the Congo have allegedly assaulted women and girls. GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, no bomb-thrower, has, after seven months of investigating the U.N. oil-for-food scandal,...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - President Bush on Tuesday bestowed the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on three of the central architects and executors of the war in Iraq, one of the president's strongest efforts yet at putting a formal stamp of success on a war whose outcome is still a question. The recipients were Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the overall commander of the invasion of Iraq; L. Paul Bremer III, the chief civilian administrator of the American occupation of the country; and George J. Tenet, the longtime director of central intelligence who built the case for...

The next feud between America's freedom and democracy hawks and old United Nations diplomats will likely develop this week with the release of a much-anticipated report. Ordered by Secretary-General Annan, it was prepared by a panel of 16 former world movers and shakers now in their 70s, who will undoubtedly be hailed at Turtle Bay as wise men, and derided elsewhere as has-beens. Men who held previous posts like Russian foreign minister and Saddam champion Yevgeny Primakov, British U.N. envoy David Hannay, or current Arab League chief Amr Moussa, are not going to excite anyone looking for fresh insights into...

...Mr. Bush was granted Bill Clinton's wish to live in "interesting times,"... Instead of inheriting an economic recovery as Mr. Clinton did, Mr. Bush began his term facing the end of the 1990s' investment bubble and a looming recession. And instead of inheriting a placid post-Cold War world, he was presented with September 11.... On the economy, he compromised on his first tax cut to win 12 Democratic Senate votes, but it proved too Keynesian and too long-delayed to pack much punch. So Mr. Bush used his Senate victory in 2002 to double down on his tax cut bet.... Yes,...

What Wilson Didn’t Say About AfricaJoseph Wilson's Silent PartnersBy Fedora with help from a few FReeper friends Former ambassador Joseph Wilson has been a leading spokesman for critics who accuse President Bush of basing his case for war against Iraq on forged documents purporting that Iraq attempted to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson’s charge has been discredited by a Senate investigation,1 but what remains unanswered are questions arising from what is now known about French intelligence’s role in pushing the forged documents on British and US intelligence. The role of France and Wilson in undermining Bush’s case for war looks...

Scowcroft: Sharon has "mesmerized" Bush "wrapped around his little finger" By israelinsider staff October 16, 2004 Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, slammed the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview published this week in The Financial Times, saying that the current President Bush is "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger," Scowcroft said. "I think the president is mesmerized." He added: "When there is a suicide attack, Sharon calls the president and says, 'I'm on the front line of terrorism,' and the president says,...

x-Security Adviser Rips Bush Diplomacy U.S. National - AP WASHINGTON - The national security adviser under the first President Bush says the current president acted contemptuously toward NATO and Europe after Sept. 11 and is trying to cooperate now out of desperation to "rescue a failing venture" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brent Scowcroft, a mentor to the current national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), also said in an interview published in England that Bush is inordinately influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger," Scowcroft told London's Financial Times....

...Measured in offices held, the GOP hasn't been this strong since the 1920s. Republicans hold the White House and both branches of Congress, albeit narrowly but also by dint of an historic mid-term election victory in 2002. The party also owns 28 of the 50 governorships, including in the large, dynamic states of Texas, Florida and California.... [T]he GOP has a chance to forge a real mandate to govern.... Granted, this is not the case on national security, where Mr. Bush has united the party behind the assertive use of American power. In a sense, all Republicans are "neoconservatives" now,...

The Saddam-9/11 Link Confirmed By Laurie Mylroie FrontPageMagazine.com | May 11, 2004 Important new information has come from Edward Jay Epstein about Mohammed Atta’s contacts with Iraqi intelligence. The Czechs have long maintained that Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States, met with Ahmed al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence official, posted to the Iraqi embassy in Prague. As Epstein now reports, Czech authorities have discovered that al-Ani’s appointment calendar shows a scheduled meeting on April 8, 2001 with a "Hamburg student." That is exactly what the Czechs had been saying since shortly after 9/11: Atta, a long-time student...

<p>As the election debate over Iraq unfolds, we're struck by the role reversal of the two major parties on one of the central questions of U.S. foreign policy. To wit: Is it in America's interest to aggressively promote freedom around the world, or is it generally better to satisfy ourselves with "stability" and the status quo?</p>

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Billionaire Fails in Bid for Global CrossingCharles R. SmithThursday, March 6, 2003This is the second article about Li Ka Shing's bid to purchase Global Crossing. Read Part I: Global Double Crossing. Li Ka Shing has lost the first round in his effort to take over Global Crossing. Li's bid for the defunct telecommunications giant failed before a U.S. national security committee charged with oversight. The credit for causing Li's failure must be distributed evenly to both NewsMax and our readers for passing so many valuable tips about the reclusive billionaire to the FBI. In the end, Li...

he end of effective Iraqi resistance came with a rapidity which surprised us all, and we were perhaps psychologically unprepared for the sudden transition from fighting to peacemaking. True to the guidelines we had established, when we had achieved our strategic objectives (ejecting Iraqi forces from Kuwait and eroding Saddam's threat to the region) we stopped the fighting. But the necessary limitations placed on our objectives, the fog of war, and the lack of "battleship Missouri" surrender unfortunately left unresolved problems, and new ones arose. We were disappointed that Saddam's defeat did not break his hold on power, as many...

DOCUMENT: You’ll never guess who said this. 9/09 9:00 a.m. National Review Online Axis of Hypocrisy? Times have changed. Compiled by Steven Eros and Sherry W. Eros, M.D. http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document090902.asp QUESTION: Who made the following statements suggesting that the U.S. take unilateral military action against Iraq? The continued rule of Saddam Hussein poses a danger to the stability and security of the region. He has threatened his neighbors while doing everything possible to acquire weapons of mass destruction in direct violation of international law, even during the last several years, when subject to the most restrictive supervision in the history of...

Look for war debate's hidden agendasBy JIM HOAGLAND Hidden agendas are to Washington what cars are to Detroit or skyscrapers to Manhattan: They come in all shapes and sizes. Silent motives color the flawed "debate" over Iraq rattling through the capital. Critics have developed the Saddam Hussein two-step to glide over underlying concerns: YES, they dutifully say, the Iraqi dictator is a thug who has done terrible things (pause) BUT the time is not right, the administration has not made its case, the allies are not with us, we can still contain and deter the beast of Baghdad. Why this...

efreedomnews http://www.efreedomnews.com War on Iraq: Operations Begin   COMMON CAUSE Jonathan Rhodes August 24, 2002 Even in this time of war, there are media and political forces in this country that have no moral balance, that have only their own quest for power guiding their actions. Brent Scowcroft, in the Wall Street Journal, essentially reiterated his failed policy advice employed at the end of Gulf War I in 1991. That policy is cautious and narrow, a policy that strives for balance of power in the old European mold of realpolitik. This led the New York Times  to blast headlines like...

The split in Republican ranks over whether to invade Iraq represents themes that are both old and new in the party's foreign policy. Though Ronald Reagan dominates the popular image of the GOP, historically the party's leaders have had a disdain for the costs of world leadership and an aversion to power politics. These traits were most apparent in the "no more land wars in Asia" school that followed Korea and Vietnam. But this reluctance for overseas involvement extended even to popular wars than ended in victory. The first Bush administration not only failed to march on Baghdad, it rushed...

War on Iraq: National Debate Begins Jonathan Rhodes August 19, 2002 Over the past several days there have been three New York Times front page and op-ed articles reveling in the so-called "split" in the Republican Party over the Bush Administration's intention to strike Iraq preemptively, giving ammunition to the liberal press to announce the brilliance of previously "dumb" Republicans. Dick Armey Henry Kissinger Brent Scowcroft Dick Armey, Republican House Majority Leader, was described as part of the "Radical Republican Leadership" by Clinton aide Harold Ickes in Newsweek [Now It's Hillary Against a New Kid] in May 29, 2000. Armey...

Who We Are The Scowcroft Group is managed directly by Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor to Presidents Bush and Ford. Our principals bring extensive experience in business and government coupled with extraordinary regional expertise in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Our team of professionals has demonstrated prowess in the political economy of emerging markets, and strong ties to key decision-makers. Our resources are our people, in Washington D.C. and abroad. Our principals and network of consultants reach into governments and businesses, enabling us to represent clients in virtually every market in the...

<p>We're pleased, we guess, that the New York Times thought our article on Iraq by Brent Scowcroft last Thursday was important enough to lead its front page two days in a row. We'd be more pleased, though, if instead of trumpeting our story to advance a tendentious theme, the Times kept its opinions on its editorial page.</p>