Necon Nincompoop, Paul Wolfowitz, Involved In Policy Conflict of Interest Again
That classy, suave, spit combing, ethics challenged guy, Paul Wolfowitz, is at it again causing potential foreign policy disruption.
This necon nincompoop has an infamous record of helping cause and then leaving disaster in his wake from the Iraq invasion that he claimed would pay for itself with Iraq oil revenues to the World Bank scandal during his tenure as president there.
As Jim Lobe reports at Asia Times: "Just 15 months after being forced to resign as president of the World Bank over a conflict of interest regarding his professional and personal relationship with his girlfriend, former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz may be involved in another, far more geostrategic conflict of interest.
"It involves his dual roles as chairman of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board (ISA
and chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council. Among the latter's US members are military contractors who have been dying to get the George W Bush administration's approval to sell about US$11 billion worth of arms to the island to protect it against the threat of an attack by the mainland.
"It involves his dual roles as chairman of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board (ISA
and chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council. Among the latter's US members are military contractors who have been dying to get the George W Bush administration's approval to sell about US$11 billion worth of arms to the island to protect it against the threat of an attack by the mainland."Like the Defense Policy Board, the ISAB became a stronghold for all manner of national security hawks under Bush, with former under secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Robert Joseph, James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and former defense secretary James Schlesinger among its members.
"Wolfowitz's appointment, coming after his disgrace at the bank - not to mention his performance as deputy to former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and superior of then-under secretary of defense Douglas Feith from 2001 to 2005 - was seen as a kind of token public redemption that would presumably have little consequence in actual policy terms.
"That assessment may have been premature, because, judging by an article appearing in Wednesday's Washington Times by Bill Gertz, Wolfowitz's ISAB may be trying to gin up tensions with China, acting as a new "Team B" in persuading policymakers and the public at large that Beijing's military modernization, especially its missile program, is more threatening to the US than, in Gertz's words, "many current government and private-sector analyses" have depicted it.
"That assessment may have been premature, because, judging by an article appearing in Wednesday's Washington Times by Bill Gertz, Wolfowitz's ISAB may be trying to gin up tensions with China, acting as a new "Team B" in persuading policymakers and the public at large that Beijing's military modernization, especially its missile program, is more threatening to the US than, in Gertz's words, "many current government and private-sector analyses" have depicted it.
"Now, one has to be careful about anything that Gertz reports, particularly about China, as he is a charter member of the "Blue Team" - a group of hawkish policy specialists, congressional staff, and journalists which includes neo-con luminaries such as William Kristol and Robert Kagan and their Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
"That said, it is clear that someone associated with ISAB wanted to leak what - to China anyway - will be seen as a highly provocative document that will tend to confirm the worst fears of its military, which according to the draft, already suffers from "clear paranoia" about US intentions, particularly with respect to missile defense and the military use of space.
"It is also clear that the leaker is also very concerned about the pivotal role Taiwan could play in thwarting what the task force sees as China's military ambitions and hence the importance not only of enhancing US capabilities, but, presumably, of selling advanced weapons to the island, as well.
"Moreover, the leak comes at a critical moment in the administration's deliberations about the long-pending arms package for Taiwan, whose approval Wolfowitz and other advocates had hoped would have been forthcoming last week.
"It is also clear that the leaker is also very concerned about the pivotal role Taiwan could play in thwarting what the task force sees as China's military ambitions and hence the importance not only of enhancing US capabilities, but, presumably, of selling advanced weapons to the island, as well.
"Moreover, the leak comes at a critical moment in the administration's deliberations about the long-pending arms package for Taiwan, whose approval Wolfowitz and other advocates had hoped would have been forthcoming last week.
"Taiwan is hoping to acquire seven weapons systems from the US as part of the package - anti-tank missiles, Apache helicopters, Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries, diesel-electric submarines, P3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft, sea-launched Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Black Eagle helicopters.
"Wolfowitz in July virtually assured his friends at the Business Council in Taipei that Bush would go ahead with the package some time after the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August. But according to Chris Nelson of the Nelson Report, a recent study by a Naval War College expert - which has gained considerable attention from administration policymakers - argues that much in the pending package will do very little, if anything, to improve Taiwan's ability to resist an attack by Beijing.
"The study proposed an alternative "porcupine" strategy for defending the island which, it noted, would likely be strongly opposed by "the arms manufacturers who stand to benefit form the sale of aircraft, ships, and supporting systems to Taiwan" that are included in the current package.
"Wolfowitz in July virtually assured his friends at the Business Council in Taipei that Bush would go ahead with the package some time after the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August. But according to Chris Nelson of the Nelson Report, a recent study by a Naval War College expert - which has gained considerable attention from administration policymakers - argues that much in the pending package will do very little, if anything, to improve Taiwan's ability to resist an attack by Beijing.
"The study proposed an alternative "porcupine" strategy for defending the island which, it noted, would likely be strongly opposed by "the arms manufacturers who stand to benefit form the sale of aircraft, ships, and supporting systems to Taiwan" that are included in the current package.
"Needless to say, some of those same arms manufacturers were behind Wolfowitz's selection as the (well-paid) chairman of the Business Council, and they would be sorely disappointed if his influence and connections with the administration did not yield the anticipated dividends (see Paul Wolfowitz: A man to keep a close eye on, March 21, 2001).
"Nelson reported on Wednesday that the arms manufacturers have indeed won the day and that most, if not all of the package will be approved by the White House.
"Nelson reported on Wednesday that the arms manufacturers have indeed won the day and that most, if not all of the package will be approved by the White House.
"Once again, Wolfowitz's actions suggest that his grasp of the concept is pretty shaky. On the other hand, the presence of senior executives from Lockheed (a huge beneficiary of the current package) and Boeing, among other arms contractors heavily invested in missile defense and space weapons, on the State Department's board indicate that Wolfowitz is not exactly alone in that respect. (Gertz reports that Allison Fortier, a Lockheed vice president, served on the task force that produced the draft.) "It's basically functioning like a lobbyist group," Nelson told me."
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