Obama picks co-founder of AIPAC and Fox News commentator as advisor on Iran policy

23 posts / 0 new

Fri, 2009-01-23 11:46

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
Dennis Ross, a former top diplomat for the George H W Bush and Clinton administrations, will become the Obama administration’s top envoy on the Middle East, an internal email from Mr Ross’s current employer has revealed.

Mr Ross, who previously served as the US envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is set to take a wider role as [b]Hillary Clinton’s top adviser for the Middle East as a whole.[/b]

[url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e970d878-dd1f-11dd-a2a9-000077b07658.html][col... Times[/u][/b][/color][/url]

Quote:
Ross is co-founder of AIPAC; [url=http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Ross_Warning_iran/2008/04/23/90322.ht... ideologue[/url]; big-time supporter of the Iraq War; foreign affairs commentator for [i]Fox News[/i]; fellow with Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), sister organization of AIPAC described by one distinguished scholar (Columbia’s Rashid Khalidi) as "the most important Zionist propaganda tool in the United States;" a man who has stated (in defiance of the U.S. intelligence consensus) that Iran will "be a nuclear power, if not a nuclear weapon state" by April 2009 if not forcibly deterred.

The only reason to make him envoy to Iran is to have him repeat the Bush-Cheney ultimatum: cease enriching uranium (something the Non-Proliferation Treaty allows all signatory nations to do, and which Iran does under tight IAEA monitoring) or face a U.S. strike.

As the leader of the U.S. negotiating team during the Israeli-Palestinian talks in 1999-2000, Ross was [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR200505... by fellow U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller (also Jewish) as "Israel’s lawyer" and criticized for not "critically examining" what following "Israel’s lead" would mean for U.S. interests. [b]He is widely believed to have authored Obama’s fawning AIPAC speech presented last June.[/b]

[url=http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2009/01/obama%e2%80%99s-neocon/][color=roy... Leupp[/u][/b][/color][/url]

Fri, 2009-01-09 19:39

Michelle

Gross.

Fri, 2009-01-09 22:51

Hoodeet

Is this a joke?

First Rick Warren, then Blair (who condoned the butchery in East Timor while head of Pacific Command, then lied about the situation to Congress) and a handful of leftovers from W's 8 years, including a former top CIA official involved in torture and rendition, who as the new head of counter-terrorism won't need to appear in confirmation hearings in Congress.

Now this. Can't be.

Sat, 2009-01-10 09:26

josh

Disgusting if true. Which it probably is.

Although not as bad, this is also disturbing, and not surprising:

"The incoming Obama administration is expected to appoint a number of special envoys, likely to include Richard Holbrooke, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who is expected to cover issues including Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Among other things, Holbrooke ran water for Georgia, and its propaganda, during the conflict with Russia over the summer.

Sat, 2009-01-10 11:03

thorin_bane

Twittle dee and twitte dum, and everyone asked me why I think the big O will be a waste of time. I feel very bad for americans. It is like that episode of the simpsons "Don't blame me marge. I voted for kodos" No matter what the same group of evil aliens are running the show. If this is change then why is everyone a washington insider, and worse yet a washington insider from the repugnicans? The ONLY thing I can see is, if he goes about with HUGE change and uses all the republicans to prove that it isn't a partisan move. Which is very smart tacticly, ala Manley Panel on Afghanistan.

Tue, 2009-01-20 11:31

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/2z65nb5.jpg[/IMG]

Tue, 2009-01-20 13:14

josh

"George Mitchell, the former Senate Democratic Majority Leader, is under serious consideration as the Middle East envoy for the Obama administration, Obama officials confirmed on Monday.

Mitchell is highly regarded as a negotiator for his work in the successful Northern Ireland peace process, and his selection would put a clear stamp on the Middle East as a top priority."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/01/19/mitchell_under_consideration_f.html?wprss=44

Tue, 2009-01-20 13:33

Michelle

So the opening post is incorrect, then? Obama hasn't chosen anyone yet?

Tue, 2009-01-20 13:41

josh

Not yet.

Tue, 2009-01-20 17:17

#10

johnpauljones

ABC NEws is reporting the Denis Ross will be Presidents envoy to Iran

Thu, 2009-01-22 15:36

#11

josh

Mitchell chosen.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/22/politics/main4747680.shtml

Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation of Israel League complains because he thinks Mitchell is too fair:

""Sen. Mitchell is fair. He's been meticulously even-handed," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn't been ‘even handed' - it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support."

"So I'm concerned," Foxman continued. "I'm not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East.""

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/21/mitchell-foxman-envoy/

Thu, 2009-01-22 16:24

#12

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Quote:
NBC reports [Dennis] Ross will "not be a special envoy to Iran...but he is expected to be in charge of Iran policy." Yglesias writes that there are some doubts about Ross's ability to be an effective diplomat with Iranians, given that he was "was widely criticized in the Arab world for being too tight with the Israeli side during the Camp David process."

[url=http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/envoys-announcement/][color=mediumbl...

Thu, 2009-01-22 20:35

#13

Frustrated Mess Frustrated Mess's picture

Quote:
"To be a genuine party to peace ... Hamas must meet clear conditions, recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and abide by past agreements."

Obomba puts the exact same pre-conditions on Hamas as Bush. Puts no pre-conditions on Israel, and has not a word about Israel's war crimes committed in Gaza. Change you can believe in? Sure, if you believe Obomba's change is a fraud.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jPtaKU2LPWiexE17YEnalgiiK2pA

Thu, 2009-02-19 15:23

#14

Fidel

[url=http://www.thestar.com/News/article/580084][color=mediumblue][b]How the US created an enemy in Iran[/b][/color][/url]

Quote:

Stephen Kinzer, a former Middle Eastern correspondent for The New York Times and author of All the Shah's Men, says the first Americans to venture into what was then Persia were missionaries, including Howard Baskerville, still considered by many a Persian martyr. He was killed in 1909 while leading revolutionaries who were rising up against the British-backed Shah.

They went on to establish a constitutional monarchy in Iran and cemented America's reputation as having no imperialistic intent on the Iranian people.

That reputation was lost soon after World War II, as Washington became mindful of the threat of Communist expansion in the Middle East. Iran had become increasingly important to Britain as its major source of oil. Integral to Britain's prosperity was the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, owned by the British government.

Crisis erupted in 1951 when the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadeq, announced plans to nationalize the company's assets. Then Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought help from a wartime ally in Washington, newly elected President Dwight Eisenhower, who was worried about losing Iran in its entirety to the Soviet Union.

And so Eisenhower sanctioned a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1953 that toppled Mossadeq and helped His Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to take control. The Shah soon abolished the multi-party system and instituted two decades of repressive violence.

The Shah was eventually overthrown in the Iranian Islamic Revolution. For having backed the Shah, in 1979 America's embassy in Tehran was stormed by militants, who took about 70 people hostage.

Thu, 2009-02-19 15:29

#15

Xengine

And to add to Fidel's post:

Carter, no doubt under the advice of that snake, Kissinger, allowed the Shah into the United States. That's when the students went nuts and took the hostages.

I don't know what the Americans and British were thinking to give sanctuary to what amounted to Iran's own version of Saddam Hussein, who they installed and enabled, but they certainly weren't trying to make nice with the Iranians.

Then they have the stupidity to get all wide eyed and ask "why do they hate us?"

"War is a racket" - Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC

Thu, 2009-02-19 15:35

#16

Grantrant

I believe it was Kermit Roosevelt, nephew of FDR, who headed up this first CIA coup.

Be nice to Americans or they will bring Democracy to your country

Tue, 2009-02-24 00:26

#17

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Dennis Ross has been appointed special adviser to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, on the Gulf region, including Iran and southwest Asia, the US state department has announced.

[url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE51N0G320090224][color=med...

Tue, 2009-02-24 15:09

#18

josh

"Steve Rosen, the indicted-for-espionage former AIPAC staffer, has organized a powerful campaign to defeat the President's nominee for chief of the National Intelligence Council, which synthesizes intelligence information and presents it to the President. Check it out.

Laura Rozen was first to report that the Obama administration wants to appoint Charles Freeman, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, ato the post. .

Jim Lobe explains why the job is important and why Freeman is a good choice for it.

But here's the problem. The right-wing of the lobby HATES Freeman. It considers Freeman anti-Israel because he has repeatedly indicated that he believes that successive Israeli governments deserve their share of blame for sinking the peace process. He does not toe the line."

http://tinyurl.com/bwcx23

Sun, 2009-03-01 02:47

#19

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://www.counterpunch.org/sasan02272009.html][color=mediumblue][u]The Fox Guarding the Chicken Coop: Dennis Ross and Iran[/u][/color][/url]

Wed, 2009-03-11 09:23

#20

josh

AIPAC claims another scalp:

"Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced today that Ambassador Charles W. Freeman Jr. has requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed. Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman's decision with regret.

. . . .

In the U.S., you can advocate torture, illegal spying, and completely optional though murderous wars and be appointed to the highest positions. But you can't, apparently, criticize Israeli actions too much or question whether America's blind support for Israel should be re-examined."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/10/freeman/

And Freeman's parting shot:

The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.

Wed, 2009-03-11 19:47

#21

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

Here's a [url=http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/10/freeman/index.html][co... link to Glenn Greenwald's article[/u][/color][/url].

Mon, 2011-11-14 17:18

#22

M. Spector M. Spector's picture

[url=http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/dennis-ross-resigns-as-midd... Ross Resigns As Obomba's Middle East Advisor[/url]

12 Nov 2011
by James M. Wall

Quote:
After working for five US presidents, Dennis Ross has resigned his position as President Obama’s chief Middle East advisor.

Presidents Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama, all arrived at the White House determined to recast the nation’s role in finding a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Sometimes immediately, sometimes later, one man was involved in shaping how the US dealt with peace between Israel and the Palestinians. At first his role was small; but by the time he went to work for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, he had became the key player in the process.

That man is Dennis Ross, a non-lawyer, who has been called “Israel’s lawyer”, by former State Department official, Aaron David Miller.

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, and a former colleague of President Obama’s at the University of Chicago, was asked by the Institute of Middle East Understanding (IMEU) for his reaction to Ross’ departure. His response:

Quote:
[b]Since the Reagan administration, Dennis Ross has played a crucial role in crafting Middle East policies that never served peace, which is today farther away than ever.

His efforts, which contributed to the growth in the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied territories from under 200,000 in the 1980s to nearly 600,000 today, were marked by a litany of failures.

It is long overdue for him and the bankrupt policies he represents to be shown the door.[/b]

Diana Buttu, former legal advisor to Palestinian negotiators and a current Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told IMEU:

Quote:
[b]Dennis Ross has done more to undermine the rights of Palestinians and set back their struggle for freedom and equality than any other American official.[/b]

...

When Ross leaves the White House at the end of this month, [b]he will return to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a spin-off agency created by AIPAC[/b].

Ross worked with a variety of titles for five US presidents. But wherever he hung his hat, his Zionist loyalties were clearly evident to those he served and shaped, in the media/religious/political leadership bubble that shields American decision makers and decision-shapers, from seeing any Middle East reality except the Zionist version.

Mon, 2011-11-14 17:19

#23

M. Spector M. Spector's picture