Thursday, March 27, 2014

The NeoCons Around Rand Paul: A Look at Rand's Foreign Policy Advisers

WaPo, today, provides some shocking insights into how Rand Paul's foreign policy perspective is developing:
Paul’s national team plans to huddle once every quarter, with weekly calls between the meetings. Foreign policy advisers, such as former ambassador Richard Burt and Lorne Craner, a former State Department official, are expected to be part of the chain of command... Trygve Olson, a Paul ally and an adviser to American Crossroads, a Karl Rove-affiliated super PAC...could join his camp after the midterm elections.

Who are these guys?



Richard Burt serves as managing director at McLarty Associates, where he has led the firm’s work in Europe and Eurasia since 2007. McLarty Associates emerged out of Kissinger-McClarty Associates and is considered one of the most influential Washington global-insider groups.

From the McLarty web site:
 McLarty Associates has built a global team of seasoned international specialists with expertise in all the major markets of the world.

Our professionals are former diplomats, trade negotiators, intelligence officers, journalists, and business people. Most of our staff base in Washington, DC and New York, but our overseas associates can be found at our representative office in Beijing, as well as in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Brussels, Kiev, Moscow, Germany, Turkey, Egypt, UAE, Jakarta, Vietnam, China, Japan, Philippines, and India.

Our approach is interactive. We do not produce generic white papers, or craft strategies for others to execute. Rather, we work closely with our clients to analyze the international opportunity or problem, assess the tools available to the client, develop the strategy, and execute it – all in close coordination with the client...Our clients are generally Fortune 200 companies with substantial global footprints..
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From 1992 to 1995, Burt was a partner with McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm.

Prior to that, Burt was U.S. ambassador to of Germany from 1985 to 1989. Before the ambassadorship, he worked at the State Department as assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs from 1983 to 1985. From 1981 to 1983,  Burt was the director of politico-military affairs in the Department of State.

From 1977 to 1980, Burt worked in Washington as the national security correspondent for The New York Times. From 1973 to 1977, he worked for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, first as a research associate and then as assistant director.

The institute claims that it
"was hugely influential in setting the intellectual structures for managing the Cold War."
ISS supported the Iraq war and hosted President Bush during his 2004 state visit to Britain.

Lorne Craner is a member of the  George W. Bush Presidential Center's Human Freedom Advisory Council. He  was president of the International Republican Institute  from 2004 to 2013, where John McCain is a board member.

IRI appears to be a CIA front that has been involved in U.S. overseas meddling. From IRI's web site:
In the Republic of Georgia, IRI has worked to strengthen political party structures since 1999.  The Institute’s work helps parties effectively communicate their platforms, utilize campaign technologies and develop and strengthen regional structures.

Since the 2008 presidential election, IRI has helped Georgian political parties develop viable platforms and ideas on which to base their constituent messages. ...

Since 2007, IRI has worked with the mayor of Soacha, Colombia to increase government transparency and accountability...

In Tunisia and Egypt, IRI works with traditionally marginalized youth populations as they engage in political processes through civil society.  Through the Youth Leadership Academy in Egypt and Youth in Politics program in Tunisia, IRI helps young activists implement community projects, develop advocacy skills and conduct government watchdog activities...

In Sudan, IRI played an instrumental role in the preparations for the historic January 2011 referendum...
From the The Amman, Jordan-based Arab Women’s Leadership Institute web site:
In 2008, the International Republican Institute established AWLI with support from the National Endowment for Democracy.
According to the George Bush Center, previously, Craner was Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the George W. Bush Administration.  "Among other accomplishments, Craner initiated the first U.S. government programs to advance democracy in China... and contributed to the conception and implementation of the Administration’s approach to democratization in the Middle East."

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Here's Justin Raimondo in 2012 on the Rove-affiliated Trygve Olson:
Who is Trygve Olson? A former official of the International Republican Institute(IRI), a tax-funded "regime-change" operation under the rubric of the National Endowment for Democracy, Olson was involved in several of the "color revolutions" that swept Eastern Europe and the central Asian former Soviet republics during the Bush years. This New York Times article reports on his activities in Belarus meddling in their internal politics and plotting to overthrow its thuggish President, Alexander Lukashenko: he also played a part in stirring up similar trouble on Washington’s behalf in Serbia and Poland.  
At a meeting of the New Atlantic Initiative, another semi-official interventionist outfit, in 2004, Olson appeared on the same podium as various government apparatchiks of the old Cold Warrior/Radio Free Europe type, who gave seminars on the ins-and-outs of successful "regime change." While others gave talks on Lukashenko’s "links" to Saddam Hussein and Israel’s other enemies in the region, Olson gave a presentation on polling results in the country. A particular area of concern was the possibility of an economic or political union with Russia, which was seen by the participants as the main threat to "democracy" and Europeanization in Belarus. And while meddling in Eastern Europe appears to be his specialty – his wife, Erika Veberyte, served as chief foreign policy advisor to the Speaker of the Lithuanian parliament – this biography on the web site of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University says: 
"Mr. Olson has helped advise political parties and candidates in numerous countries throughout the world including nearly all of Central and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Serbia." 
The "color revolutions" of the Bush era were brazen attempts to overthrow regimes deemed unfriendly to the US, and absorb the scattered pieces of the former Soviet Union into the Western sphere of influence. Of course, these efforts all backfired: in Georgia, for one example, our chosen candidate set up a veritable dictatorship, jailed his opponents for "treason," and launched a disastrous war against Russia. In Ukraineand Kyrgyzstan, too, our sock puppets set themselves up for a backlash: both US-installed regimes have since been ousted, either by being unceremoniously voted out of office or by force. In Venezuela, the US government has long sought to overthrow the blustering caudillo, Hugo Chavez, and our meddling has only played into his hands, enabling him to muster nationalist resentment against the democratic opposition. The same is generally true elsewhere. These "strategic" deployments of "soft power" never work, and wind up hurting our interests rather than advancing them. 
Another aspect of these "soft power" deployments is the inevitable involvement of the American intelligence community in some form or other, engaging in covert operations with no real congressional oversight and without the knowledge or consent of the American people. This can lead to all kinds of abuses that inevitably impact on our domestic politics – an area where the CIA is supposedly forbidden from entering, although that has never been the case. 
In the New York Times piece on the Belarussian operation, the reporter describes a meeting attended by Olson and Belarussian dissidents as "a meeting of the freedom industry," a telling description because that’s exactly what it is: an industry, one in which Olson is a player. It’s the "regime change" industry that has flourished in this country ever since the start of the cold war. The necons played a key role in staffing the organizations and semi-official front groups into which billions of our tax dollar flowed: Reagan gave the National Endowment for Democracy to them as a sort of playground, where they were out of the way and free to think they had some real influence on the administration. In the post-cold war world, the NED took on added importance – and more tax dollars – as the US tried to cash in on the Soviet collapse by sponsoring "color revolutions" throughout the former Soviet bloc. It didn’t matter that the very reason for launching these cold war institutions was no longer in existence: as one needn’t explain to a Ron Paul supporter, government programs have a life of their own, and killing them is akin to driving a stake through the heart of a vampire – a difficult and often impossible feat. 
All this explains a lot. Rand now appears to be in the Bush family orbit and is bringing on to his team heavy Empire building, global interventionists. It's becoming very clear why MSM is so comfortable with Rand, he is one of them

7 comments:

  1. Watch for Rand's application for membership into Bohemian Grove

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  2. Well with the Bush name effectively kryptonite for years to come, they have to do something after the debacle W years , I guess. But as JWG is presumably already typing, it won't do them much good.

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  3. Nope, dear Rand-apologists.

    Rand Paul is not a neocon waiting to happen at all, move along.
    He is just playing the game to get power and bring libertarian happiness to America.

    Idiots.

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  4. Rand just voted against the anti-Russia sanctions, he was outvoted 09-2. So much for Rand's so-called neo-con advisers. LOL:

    Rand Paul one of only two to vote against Ukraine aid/Russia sanctions bill

    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?447875-Rand-Paul-one-of-only-two-to-vote-against-Ukraine-aid-Russia-sanctions-bill

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    Replies
    1. Pfft. He is allowed to wander when they don't need his vote. That's Rand's job, to capture and confuse people like you.

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    2. I agree. Allowed to present libertarian views to try & fool ppl. & bring anti progressives back to GOP fold. But voted w/ neocons on other anti libertarian issues such as * boosting * defense funding, not cuting as you would expect if he were truly anti war, as he has claimed.

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