Hagel picks Navy vet as chief of staff (Mark Lippert)

Stars and Stripes ^ | April 19, 2013 | Chris Carroll

[haffast]

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday named Mark Lippert, a Navy veteran and Pentagon official, as his chief of staff.

Lippert, 40, currently assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, takes over May 1 as Hagel’s right-hand man. Marcel Lettre, Hagel’s acting chief of staff for the moment, will become Lippert’s deputy, and later move to an still-undetermined senior position, officials said.

A White House insider, Lippert has ties to both Hagel and President Barack Obama that stretch back years. He accompanied both men, when they were still senators, on a 2008 visit to Afghanistan, where the two Senate Foreign Relations Committee members solidified their relationship while meeting top officials and troops on the ground. From 2005 to 2008, Lippert was a foreign policy advisor for then-Sen. Obama.

As chief of staff, Lippert will assist Hagel on policy deliberations and interagency matters. He’ll also serve as an important interlocutor between Hagel and various components of the Pentagon as Hagel, who took over in late February, acclimates to the job and solidifies his management of the Defense Department.

Defense officials say that Lippert, who studied Chinese in Beijing as a graduate student, has played a key role in DOD’s push to deepen defense ties with Asian nations as the Pentagon implements a new strategy aimed at building U.S. influence in Asia.

snip

Before he was confirmed as an assistant secretary of defense in 2012, Lippert deployed as a Navy reservist to both Afghanistan and Iraq as intelligence officer, according to his official DOD biography. He received a Bronze Star in for his service with the Navy SEALs in Iraq in 2007 and 2008.

snip

[haffast]

Mark Lippert - Wikipedia

While in graduate school at Stanford, he studied Mandarin Chinese at Peking University as part of a study abroad program.

Prior to 1999, he worked at the State Department and for California Senator Diane Feinstein. Lippert was a defense and foreign policy advisor to then Senator and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and the Senate Democratic Policy Committee from 1999 to October 2000. He then served as a researcher for Senator Patrick Leahy from October 2000 to February 2001.

In June 2005, he became a foreign policy advisor to then Senator Barack Obama, who was then serving on the Senate Foreign Relations committee.[4] He was recruited by Senator Obama's then Chief of Staff, Pete Rouse, who is currently serving as Counselor to the President.[2]

Lippert was also commissioned into the Navy Reserve in 2005 through the Navy's direct commission officer program as an intelligence officer. From August 2007 until June 2008, he served about a year[3] in what had been scheduled as a nine-month tour of duty in Iraq as an intelligence officer with the Navy SEALs. He received a Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq.[4]

After he returned from Iraq, Lippert served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then Senator Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.[4] He was responsible for briefing Obama on emerging foreign policy issues throughout the campaign.[5] He helped prepare Obama on foreign policy for the presidential debates.[6] Lippert later served as deputy director for foreign policy for the Obama–Biden Transition Project. [4]

Throughout his time in the Senate and during the presidential campaign, Lippert was noted for having a close relationship with then Senator Obama.[3] He is credited for helping Obama develop his views on defense and foreign policy, particularly his support for a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, which was completed under President Obama in December 2011 as well as Obama's emphasis on transnational security issues, such as genocide and weapons of mass destruction.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lippert

His dad, James W. Lippert, practices law in Mark's hometown of Cincinatti, OH in the fields of Construction & Service Contractors, Workers' Compensation and Social Security Appeals.

[PieterCasparzen]

Tinfoil ! Tinfoil ! /SARC

[rlmorel]

Reading that bio made me want to puke (swimming in extreme left liberalism) and made me ashamed of even having served in the same branch, but...that’s the “new” navy.

[Daus]

I curious how a policy/intelligence guy receives a bronze star?

[NKP_Vet]

Pvt Bagel, the incoherent, rambling, babbling, drunkard leading the Dep of Defense should make anyone shutter. We are the laughing stock of the world with this idiot as Sec of Defense and the lying ass treasonous traitor Lurch Kerry leading the State Dept. Pray for this nation. Pray alot.

[ogen hal]

We continue under a clown-car administration full of flaccid metrosexual clowns. Pathetic.

[napscoordinator]

HE WAS A SEAL!!!!!! Hagel doing something right for a change!!! Great pick Secretary!!!!

[Bigg Red]

A White House insider, Lippert has ties to both Hagel and President Barack Obama that stretch back years.

***
IOW, a certified Fifth Columnist.

[haffast]

I curious how a policy/intelligence guy receives a bronze star?

The Aide Who Went to War
Jul 18, 2008 8:00 PM EDT

"Back when Obama and Lippert had more free time, they liked to play basketball together. "

"As a kid, Lippert wanted to be an armed forces officer. He never outgrew that ambition, even after earning an international-relations degree at Stanford and taking a job on Capitol Hill. Joining the Navy Reserves as an intelligence officer and going to Iraq helped to reconcile the old dream with his career as a congressional staffer. "I was proud to do it, in a very cornball way," Lippert says, although he hated to go just when Obama's campaign was taking off. "It's tough," says Lippert. "You have to leave him right at the time when … you kind of want to rally around him.""

"He won't say where he went in Iraq or precisely what he did there, except that he worked with Navy SEALs. But he readily admits he faced little physical danger: "I had no mishaps, other than cutting my hand on a cracked crab in the dining hall." Still, he believes the experience has changed his approach to policy. "I think you recognize that when you work in the Senate, you work at the strategic level. And I was [in Iraq] at a very tactical level," he says. "It would be naive if I came back and said I have the answer. But what it did do was give me a sense of more personal investment in the place. I'm still very much grappling with it.""

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/07/18/the-aide-who-went-to-war.html

"President Barack Obama shares a lighter moment with Mark Lippert, the National Security Council chief of staff, in the Oval Office prior to a phone call with President-elect Jacob Zuma of South Africa."
Date 8 May 2009, 10:50

"Don't ask, don't tell."

(Yeah, I said it.)

[NKP_Vet]

You can bet your bottom dollar that Obama handpicked this sodomite to be Bagel’s second in command. What a joke. No experience whatsover in running a billionare dollar defense organization. Not for Bagel, not for this fag.

[haffast]

Tinfoil ! Tinfoil ! /SARC

HA!! Yet another rabbit hole I've fallen into.

Wonder if he'll do for Obama's "Asian Pivot" what he's done for Iraq/Afghanistan?

U.S. Rebalance to Asia
Georgetown University - February 27, 2013
http://css.georgetown.edu/story/1242699934597.html

Lippert's Keynote Address at Georgetown - mp3 audio file - 28:42 mins
https://gushare.georgetown.edu/PeaceAndSecurityStudies/CSS/WEBSITE/RebalanceToAsia/Keynote%20Address%20-%20Mark%20Lippert.mp3

[haffast]

Lippert mentions the MV-22 Osprey in his Georgetown speech.

Osprey gets support role in Marine One squadron (MV-22)
Stars and Stripes ^ | April 19, 2013 | Jennifer Hlad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3010090/posts

[haffast]

"Peace and Security" ping.

Notice the web address in post #11 for Lippert's speech audio file. I almost missed it.

https://gushare.georgetown.edu/PeaceAndSecurityStudies/CSS/WEBSITE/RebalanceToAsia/Keynote%20Address%20-%20Mark%20Lippert.mp3

[ExNewsExSpook]

Read the excerpt from the press release again..he served WITH the SEALs as an intelligence officer. Readily admits that he never went outside the wire or faced any physical danger. Also worth noting that he received a direct commission, so Lippert never had to earn it the old-fashioned way, through Annapolis, ROTC, or OCS.

Direct commissions into the intel ranks has long been a favored way for policy wonks and politicians who want to fill the “military service” square on their resumes. Sen Mark Kirk (R-IL) is another Washington insider who joined the Naval Reserve via the direct commission route. There are plenty of applicants with qualifications similar to—or better than those—of Mr. Lippert. But he moves to the front of the line for commissioning, thanks to his political connections.

Lippert is unqualified to be Chief of Staff at DoD. But so is his boss, and their commander-in-chief.

[haffast]

You can bet your bottom dollar that Obama handpicked this sodomite to be Bagel’s second in command. What a joke. No experience whatsover in running a billionare dollar defense organization. Not for Bagel, not for this fag.

From the "Daily Beast" article:

"So is he a stealth hawk inside Obama's office? Lippert scoffs at the thought, recalling the work he used to do for Vermont's decidedly nonviolent Sen. Patrick Leahy: "All we did was human-rights stuff, over and over again.""

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 The DOD is about building "relationships" and assisting our fellow man via aid and "nation building".

Come on, let's all join hands and sing "We Are the World".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7fPpxAnuM

Get your taxes in on time?

Feelin' warm n fuzzy yet? /sarc

[Daus]

HE WAS A SEAL!!!!!!

Um no.... He was an intelligence analyst assigned to work with Seals.

[rlmorel]

That’s the guy? Holy smokes...

[rlmorel]

When I see that “Force for Good” thing, I want to puke.

How about “Force to make the bulkheads of the enemy ships glow red from the heat of fire?”

Yeah, not as catchy.

The military of this country has always been there to help people when not engaged in warfare, and occasionally, even then.

But this “Force for Good” campaign makes me grind my teeth.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I curious how a policy/intelligence guy receives a bronze star?"

It's not that unusual. A Bronze Star can be awarded for either heroism in combat or simply for meritorious service in a combat zone. If it's awarded for heroism (i.e. valor) it will be distinguished with a "V" device.

This is nothing new. Bill Mauldin was awarded a Bronze Star in WWII for his Willie and Joe cartoons...