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On Dec. 6, 2001, Le Monde ran an article stating that Hamid Karzai, who is now President of Afghanistan, "acted, for a while, as a consultant for the American oil company UNOCAL, at the time it was considering building a pipeline in Afghanistan." A UNOCAL spokesperson has denied this.
Obama's Dubious Advisers
When Obama has tapped former CIA officials to advise him on the Afghan War, he has an uncanny knack for picking the wrong ones -- Bruce Riedel and John Brennan, for example.
Bruce Riedel, whom Obama picked to run his first Afghan review, is a senior fellow at Brookings' pro-Israel Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He has been pre-occupied with ways in which the U.S. could help defend Israel from the threat he and Israeli leaders profess to see from Iran.
Riedel's worldview is vividly reflected in his article of Aug. 24, 2010, in The National Interest, where he suggested, "an American nuclear guarantee would add an extra measure of assurance to Israelis." He continued...
"It would be made even stronger if the administration could develop a multinational nuclear deterrent for Israel by making Israel a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Of course, getting Israel into NATO would be a very hard sell. ..."This is why, in the meantime, the administration should go another step and actually assist Israel in developing its own second-strike capabilities further. Already the United States has been deeply involved in building Israel's defense against an Iranian missile strike. ...
"The next step would be to ensure Israel has the delivery systems that would safeguard a second-strike capability. The F-15I probably already does so for the immediate future, but it is worth examining the wisdom of providing the F-22 stealth aircraft to the IDF as an even-more-sophisticated attack system that would be able to assure Israel's deterrence far into the future. ...
"We might look at providing Israel with advanced cruise-missile technology or even nuclear-powered submarines with missile capabilities to enhance its capacity to launch from platforms at sea.
"The era of Israel's monopoly on nuclear weapons in the Middle East is probably coming to an end. Israel will still have a larger arsenal than any of its neighbors, including Iran, for years if not decades. ...
"Only by enhancing Israel's nuclear capability will America be able to strongly and credibly deter an Israeli attack on Tehran's facilities. The clock is ticking on the IDF's [Israeli Defense Forces'] plans."
As you would imagine, Riedel is in full agreement with the neocons who push for more and more U.S. military involvement in the Middle East and southwest Asia.
It would be interesting to know who suggested to the President that Riedel should lead the Afghan policy review. I would wager Rahm Emanuel and the other folks who got Amb. Chas Freeman canned after several hours as Director of the National Intelligence Council -- the nation's most senior substantive intelligence position.
Another influential CIA alumnus, Kenneth Pollack, is now director of the Saban Center at Brookings. Pollack is the author of the 2002 book, The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq, which provided a thin veneer of think-tank cover for the Fawning Corporate Media to rally behind Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Pollack is credited (if that is the correct word) with persuading Establishment pundits like Bill Keller of the New York Times that invading Iraq was a swell idea, and that they should become cheerleaders for it. Which Keller and many others proceeded to do.
And then there's John Brennan, protà ©gà © of the disgraced former CIA Director George Tenet who decided it was his proper place to conjure up "intelligence" to help Bush "justify" his wars.
Brennan was initially under consideration for appointment as Obama's CIA Director, but it became clear that too many were aware of Brennan's role as Tenet's accomplice in corrupting CIA analysis and permitting abusive operations like "extraordinary rendition" and torture. He would never have made it through Senate confirmation. Nonetheless, this stellar record landed him at the White House as Obama's chief adviser on counterterrorism.
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