This list of intricate, overlapping connections is hardly exhaustive or perhaps even surprising. But it helps reveal an important fact. Contrary to appearances, the neocons do not constitute a powerful mass political movement. They are instead a small, tightly-knit clan whose incestuous familial and personal connections, both within and outside the Bush administration, have allowed them grab control of the future of American foreign policy.
Neocon Chickenhawks: A Small Tightly-Knit Clan Part 1
chertoffs dual citizenship
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/index.php
zakheims dual citizenship
http://judicial-inc.biz/Dov_zakheim.htm
Neoconservative Extended Family:-
Elliott Abrams
Abrams first gained prominence as a leading neo-conservative when he served as Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights in the early 1980s and then as Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs. Often accused him of covering up horrendous abuses committed by U.S.-backed governments, such as El Salvador and Guatemala, and rebel forces, such as the Contras and Angola's Unita. He was indicted by the Iran-Contra special prosecutor for giving false testimony about his role in illicitly raising money for the Contras but pleaded guilty to two lesser offenses of withholding information to Congress in order to avoid a trial and a possible jail term. Pardoned by President George H.W. Bush along with a number of other Iran-Contra defendants in 1992.
After Reagan left office in 1989, Abrams, like a number of other prominent neo-conservatives, was not invited to serve in the Bush Sr. administration. Instead, he worked for a number of think tanks and eventually became head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) where he wrote widely on foreign-policy issues, including the Middle East, and the threats posed by U.S. secular society to Jewish identity. He also remained in the tight-knit neo-conservative foreign-policy community in Washington that revolved around Richard Perle and Jeane Kirkpatrick at the American Enterprise Institute. Son-in-law of Norman Podhoretz.
Richard Armitage
Deputy Secretary of State (Bush) Assistant Secretary of Defense (Reagan) Emissary with Ambassadorial rank (Bush I),
Armitage was one of two dozen neoconservatives to sign an August 1999 policy statement directed at the White House and Congress, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and The Project for the New American Century.
Mr. Armitage left active duty in the US Navy 1973 and joined the U.S. Defense Attache's Office in Saigon. Before the fall of Saigon, he organized the evacuation of Vietnamese naval assets and personnel, who had collaborated with the US, from the country. In May 1975 Mr. Armitage joined the Defence Intelligence Agency in Washington as a consultant and was posted in Tehran, Iran, until November 1976, when he resigned from the Government service and joined the private sector. It is generally believed that Mr. Armitage actually covertly served in the Central Intelligence Agency till 1978. It has been alleged that he was the author of the idea of using heroin to weaken the fighting capability of the Russian invaders of Afghanistan and those who have met him say that there usually remains a strong whiff of sulphur when he leaves the room.
Heritage Foundation, Project for the New American Century
William Bennett
Secretary of Education (Reagan) also served as Director of National Drug Control Policy (Bush I). Co director of Empower America, Americans for Victory over Terrorism
Heritage Foundation, Empower America, Americans for Victory over Terrorism, Project for the New American Century, American Council of Trustees & Alumni, Intercollegiate Studies Institute
John Bolton
Under Secretary of State (Bush) - formerly Senior Vice President of the American Enterprise Institute - the leading neoconservative think tank. 1989 - 1993 Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the Department of State (Reagan), 1985-1989 Assistant Attorney General
John Bolton is yet another lawyer who was in previous Republican administrations and was parked at the right-wing and pro-Israeli American Entrerprise Institute during the Clinton years. Bolton has also been on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. and is another of the Administration pro-Zionists.
Bolton is so far to the right that in January 2001 Jesse Helms said of him:: "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world".
Bolton's hardline and right-wing credentials were affirmed in 1999 when he signed a statement prepared by the Project for the New American Century criticizing the Clinton administration for its failure to offer unequivocal support of Taiwan. The statement was also signed by other neoconservative and right-wing figures - William Kristol, William Buckley, Paul Weyrich, James Woolsey, Paul Wolfowitz, William Bennett and Elliott Abrams.
Bolton's has been supportive of an anti-UN and anti-International Criminal Court position and it is noteworthy that although his office has no purview over human rights or international justice issues, he was the one to sign the letter to Kofi Annan in May 2002 renouncing any role for the U.S. in the International Criminal Court.
It seems to be the case that Bolton has recognised the risk that US officials run of prosecution once they have retired if they travel to states applying the "universal jurisdiction" principle to the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity - and also the risk to serving officials if the ICC succeeds.
American Enterprise Institute, Project for the New American Century, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Robert Bork
Nominee for Supreme Court (Reagan) (not appointed); former Solicitor-General (Nixon/Ford); former Professor Yale Law School; leading proponent of the "originalism" doctrine under which the US Constitution is to be interpreted by the standards prevailing at the time. Now a pathetic figure on the far right of the legal landscape- but still as dangerous as he is ridiculous.
The American Entreprise Institute for Public Policy Research - The Federalist Society
Midge Decter
Midge Rosenthal attended the University of Minnesota, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and New York University, but never graduated from college. Her first job was secretary to the editor of Commentary, the intellectual magazine published by the American Jewish Committee. She later worked as an assistant editor at Midstream magazine, managing editor at Commentary, editor at Harper's Magazine, and was an editor at Legacy Books and at Basic Books. She also served as executive director of the Committee for the Free World, an anticommunist organization disbanded after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. She is the author of several books, The Liberated Woman & Other Americans (1970); The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation (1972); Liberal Parents, Radical Children (1975). She is on the board of directors of the Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at the Institute of Religion and Public Life. Her second husband, Norman Podhoretz, is editor of Commentary. Decter has four children. Biographer or, more accurately hagiographer, of Donald Rumsfeld.
Heritage Foundation, Project for the New American Century
Steven Cambone
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence formerly Staff Director for the Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management and Organization and Director of Research for the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. One of the project team with produced the PNAC Strategy paper adopted by the Administration. A Rumsfeld Protégé, his appointment was part of a move to bring covert operations into the Department of Defense. See in particular Disinopedia's Gray Fox - Intelligence Support Activity entry.
Project for the New American Century
Lynne V. Cheney
National Security Advisory Board (Bush), Wife of Vice President Dick Cheney
The American Entreprise Institute for Public Policy Research - Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Eliot Cohen
Member of the Defense Policy Advisory Board. Academic based at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), which has served as a base for a number of prominent neoconservatives, including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Cohen has been affiliated with a number of hawkish advocacy groups, including the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and the Project for the New American Century
Project for the New American Century
Douglas Feith
Under Secretary of Defense (Bush) - former managing partner of Washington law firm Feith & Zell - 1984 - 1986 Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations (Reagan) Previously served as Special Counsel to Richard Perle when he was Assist. Sec of Defense.
Douglas Feith has had a long career in both government service and the private sector. During the Reagan Administration he served as the White House National Security Staff and in the Defense Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. He also served as Special Counsel to Richard Perle, then Assistant Secretary of Defense. Feith’s former law practice in Washington had one international affiliate, in Israel and much of its reported casework involves representing Israeli interests.
Feith has frequently been featured in the activities of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Feith was the Guest of Honour at ZOA’s 100th Anniversary Gala Banquet. He served as Master of Ceremony at two other major ZOA functions and has been a frequent participant at ZOA sponsored policy briefings on Capitol Hill and he now receives ZOA lobby parties - see ZOA Press Release. From 1993 onwards, Feith was on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He was its co-Chairman with Paul Wolfowitz from 1994.
A prolific writer, Feith has left a long paper trail of anti-Arab tracts and diatribes against those who challenge or seek to compromise Israel’s strength and as he defines it, "moral superiority" over the Arabs. Within the Pentagon, it is Feith who has been responsible for the extremely murky Office of of Special Plans.
Zionist Organisation of America, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Centre for Security Policy
Frank Gaffney
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (Reagan), Founder, President and contributing editor to National Review Online, Columnist for TownHall.com, FrontPageMag.com and JewishWorldReview.com.
Gaffney's principal vehicle is the Centre for Security Policy - a particularly dangerous institution combining Neoconservative ideology with military strategy and defence contractor money.
The Center for Security Policy, Project for the New American Century
Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker US House of Representatives 95-99. First elected to the House in 1978 took control as Speaker after the November 1994 elections when the Republicans took control of the House for the first time since 1954. Led the House battle against President Clinton and called for impeachment, but himself faced ethics investigations that ended in him admitting wrongdoing. In January 1997, Gingrich was fined 0,000 by the a Congressional ethics committee for using tax-exempt foundations for political purposes, which was a violation of House rules. After the 1998 election campaign, in which the Republicans expected big gains but ultimately showed the poorest results in 34 years of any party not in control of the White House, Gingrich resigned from the speakership and from his seat in November 1998.
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research,
Gertrude Himmelfarb
Professor Emeritus of History, Graduate Center, City University of New York (Doctorate from University of Chicago in 1950 also studied at Girton College Cambridge and the Jewish Theological Seminary). Wife of Irving Kristol and mother of William Kristol. Himmelfarb is a widely respected scholar of the Victorian age, which she has written about in books like "Victorian Minds" and "Poverty and Compassion.
Heritage Foundation - American Council of Trustees & Alumni - National Association of Scholars
Robert Kagan
Senior Associate Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, contributing editor at the Weekly Standard, Deputy for Policy in the State Department (Reagan), co founder of the Project of the New American Century. Married to Victoria Nuland
Project for the New American Century
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Leavey Professor, Georgetown University - Cabinet Member, Member of National Security Council and US Ambassador to UN (Reagan). She was notorious for her Kirkpatrick doctrine, which advocated US support of repressive governments around the world. In particular she supported the Galtieri Junta in Argentina against Britain. Along with Empower America co-directors William Bennett and Jack Kemp, she called on the Congress to issue a formal declaration of war against the "entire fundamentalist Islamic terrorist network" the day after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.
The American Entreprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Empower America, National Association of Scholars, Council on Foreign Relations
Irving Kristol
Publisher & Co-Editor - The National Interest, formerly managing editor of Commentary, the Neoconservative bible, Author: Neoconservatism: the Autobiography of an Idea; Reflections of a Neoconservative - President's Commission on White House Fellowships (Reagan) - husband of Gertrude Himmelfarb & father of William Kristol
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research - National Association of Scholars - American Council of Trustees and Alumni
William Kristol
Editor, the Weekly Standard (Murdoch) , Chief of Staff to Secretary Bennett (Reagan), Chief of Staff to Vice-Pres Quayle, Board of Visitors, George Mason University, son of Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb
Project for the New American Century
Michael Leeden
Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute where he forms a fanatically pro-Israel duo with Richard Perle, adviser to Secretary Haig (Reagan), probably one of the nastiest fascists since the end of World War II and slightly to the right of Likud, advocate of regime change in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, Leeden is a key foreign policy adviser to Karle Rove and George Bush.
American Enterprise Institute, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Chief of Staff to Vice president Cheney (Bush), Deputy Undersecretary of Defence (Reagan). Formerly managing partner of Washington DC office of law firm Dechert, Price and Rhoads.
Co-authored with Paul Wolfowitz the1992 Draft Defence Planning Guidance ("DDPG") which called for US Military dominance over Europe and Asia and for pre-emptive strikes against countries suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction (the draft provoked such a furore it was eventually re-written).
Council on Foreign Relations
James C Miller III
Director Office of Management & Budget & Chairman Federal Trade Commission (Reagan)
Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation - Hoover Institution
Edwin Meese III
Attorney General (Reagan)
Heritage Foundation - The Federalist Society
Richard Perle
Former Chairman and late Member, Defense Policy Board, Department of Defense (Bush) - Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security (Reagan) Policy- Director, Jerusalem Post
Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle is a "Spitting Image" caricature of a Zionist Hawk and has probably done more than any other single person to bring the Bush Administration into disrepute in liberal European circles. He was the chief architect of the "creative destruction" strategy to reshape the Middle East starting with the invasion of Iraq.
He is familiar to UK television viewers since he is always willing (presumably for a fee) to appear as a pundit on UK television to argue what he claims is the Bush Administration point of view. He is also be familiar to readers of the Daily Telegraph where he is an occasional columnist. For decades he has been among Israel's strongest, most ardent extreme right-wing allies in Washington whose clear goal is to acquire the largest possible territory for the state of Israel without regard to the rights of the Palestinians.
Of late, Mr Perle has been less willing to appear on news programmes in the UK. This may not be unconnected with the Breeden Report into the bilking of Hollinger International:-
Original: Neocon Chickenhawks: A Small Tightly-Knit Clan Part 1