Update on Maxime Bernier affair !!

Return to work, explain yourself, opposition MPs tell Bernier

DANIEL LEBLANC

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

June 10, 2008 at 3:53 AM EDT

OTTAWA — Conservative MP Maxime Bernier should stop licking his wounds and come back to Ottawa to represent his constituents and explain his mishandling of confidential documents, opposition MPs said yesterday.

NDP MP Penny Priddy attacked Mr. Bernier's "irresponsible" decision to stay out of public view since he resigned as foreign affairs minister two weeks ago.

A federal official said Mr. Bernier was in his riding of Beauce yesterday after a "period of rest," but could not provide any information on coming public appearances by the former cabinet minister.

Conservative officials have said that neither Mr. Bernier nor Prime Minister Stephen Harper will testify before the public safety committee of the House, which begins its hearings today into Mr. Bernier's actions regarding the confidential documents he left in the home of former girlfriend Julie Couillard.

Related Articles

Recent

• Bernier hearings set to open
• Couillard put security at ‘enormous risk': MP
• Salon gossip led to downfall of Bernier

From the archives

• Harper won't appear at committee probing Bernier affair

"In life, people make serious errors, but you can't cover your head and disappear," said Ms. Priddy, who called on Mr. Bernier to return to the nation's capital.

"He is paid to be here," she said.

Mr. Bernier came under fire last month after it was revealed that Ms. Couillard had relationships in the 1990s with two people with ties to the Hells Angels.

Ms. Couillard then said in a television interview that Mr. Bernier left confidential documents at her home for at least five weeks in April and May, prompting Mr. Bernier's resignation and the parliamentary probe into the affair.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh said Mr. Bernier can fulfill his responsibilities as an MP as he sees fit, but that Mr. Bernier and Mr. Harper should appear in front of the public safety committee.

Mr. Dosanjh said the House of Commons should even consider issuing a subpoena to force any recalcitrant witness before the committee.

"I know that there is a way to compel them, even [if] it's an arduous and long process," he said.

The first scheduled witnesses at today's hearings are security expert and former spy Michel Juneau-Katsuya and officials from the RCMP.

The two Mounties include Raf Souccar, assistant commissioner for federal and international operations, and Bob Paulson, acting assistant commissioner for national security criminal investigations.

More on the Bernier resignation ..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080527.EBernier27/BNStory/specialComment

CTV.ca

Maxime Bernier resigns as foreign affairs minister CTV.ca, Canada - 27 May 2008 Maxime Bernier has resigned as foreign affairs minister, after he acknowledged leaving sensitive government documents out in the open -- apparently at his ...

CBC.ca

Opposition demands more answers in Bernier affair CBC.ca, Canada - 6 hours ago Maxime Bernier arrives to be sworn in at Rideau Hall in August. He is accompanied by Julie Co

Max attack

Was it only 12 days ago I had my ass handed to me for showing this cartoon to my caucus colleagues? My, my.

Don Martin: Bernier’s grave mistake
Aaron Wherry: Say Goodnight Boo Boo
Globe: Bernier resigns over security breach
Susan Delacourt: Information Explosion
Live blogging avec Julie
Mad Max and the mangled message
Prime Minister Harper’s statement on Bernier
Hell’s Angels web site (Eastern Canada)

More on the Bernier resignation ..

Tory Blues
MediaScout - Daniel Casey

In the Bernier affair, Canada has finally produced a government scandal worthy of tabloidization. We never get the sexy stuff up here, after all. Yet today, one gets the distinct impression that the press corps has finally found what they were looking for all this time, but could not articulate: That the deepening mess over the resignation of Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier reveals that the Conservative government doesn’t know what it is doing, that Harper’s tightly controlled cabinet ministers are mostly out of their depth. Bernier’s casual attitude toward confidential documents raised eyebrows long ago, as even minor ministries, much less Foreign Affairs, keep close track of their papers. At the heart of the issue is Harper’s own judgment in appointing the inexperienced Bernier in the first place, anticipating a huge controversy over deploying the Quebec-based Royal 22^nd Regiment to Afghanistan. Harper’s handling of the missing documents and the security concerns over Bernier’s girlfriend, Julie Couillard (break-ins! bikers! bugged beds!), are also raising eyebrows and causing the government to get pummeled in Question Period. What’s more, the prime ministerial lockdown on communications only works if it works, yet after so much ministerial muzzling and emphasis on message discipline, the government has been out-spun and out-hustled by the wily Couillard—a communicator so deft and well-spoken as to have been approached by the Conservatives to actually run for Parliament (or so she claims).

The National’s At Issue panel convened on an emergency basis, peppering its hotstove with suggestions that the Ottawa press corps knew for some time that something was up. Peter Mansbridge let slip that sources in the PMO were aware of a big problem with Bernier as long ago as January, while Chantal Hébert revealed that Couillard was trying to sell her story (for a hefty sum) ten days ago, saying that she had evidence that Bernier was incompetent. For the moment, a major Cabinet shuffle is in the making, with Industry Minister Jim Prentice possibly moving up to Finance and David Emerson likely to stay in the Foreign Affairs portfolio he took over temporarily this week. Bernier and the lackluster Helena Guergis will be sent out of Cabinet, and star backbenchers James Moore, Gerald Keddy, and Rod Bruinooge are moving on up to a deluxe ministerial position. The analyses of Gilles Toupin and Vincent Marissal in La Presse today are invaluable in understanding Harper’s delicate approach to his Quebec ministers, upon whom he will rely to help win him a majority but who come from rival wings of the province’s small-c conservative bleue tendency.

—————————————————————–
THE LEADS:
THE NATIONAL: “The Fallout: What she’s alleging has the government under fire”
CTV NEWS: “Opposition demands answers on Bernier files”
GLOBE AND MAIL: “Five-week gap fuels outrage”
TORONTO STAR: “Bernier storm escalates”
NATIONAL POST: “Bernier probe demanded”
LA PRESSE: “Opposition wants to hear from Bernier”
OTTAWA CITIZEN: “Bernier scandal dogs PM overseas”

THE STRAIGHT GOODS:
Information requests are picking up and government response times are slowing down, the federal information commissioner reports. The Burmese junta waits until UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is out of the country to formally extend the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. A British Columbia judge grants a far-reaching legal reprieve to a Vancouver safe-injection site.
—————————————————————–

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, BUT AT WHAT PACE?
The Citizen fronts, while the Star and the Post go inside with a story about documents and government secrecy. This one doesn’t involve low-cut dresses or bugged bedrooms, but it has meaningful implications for what stories you read in the paper and how they are reported. Federal Information Commissioner Robert Marleau, whose office oversees the Access to Information Act, made his annual report to Parliament yesterday and testified that complaints about requests for information are skyrocketing as delays grow longer and longer. While the government is generally required by the Act to release information within thirty days of receiving a request, officials can delay the release of official documents under various conditions, typically citing national security or confidentiality concerns. Marleau cites the “attitude” of officials towards Access to Information requests as one culprit, and the Star is more than happy to extend his appropriately circumspect comments with those of researchers and lawyers whose criticism of the Conservative government’s attitude towards government secrecy is less restrained. Ottawa lawyer Michael Drapeau says the system is “paralyzed for all intents and purposes,” and blames the controlling attitude of the Privy Council Office, the prime minister’s department, for the delays.

One of the Information Commissioner’s most significant responsibilities is acting as a referee and ombudsman for complaints lodged by the public about specific requests to government ministries. Marleau reported that more than one hundred complaints were received about requests to the departments of National Defence and Foreign Affairs over the treatment of Afghan prisoners; while the requests were denied on security grounds, a lawsuit against the government by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association forced the government to enter the documents into evidence (in effect, releasing them) in January. While Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier had been reviewing requests about the possible use of torture since March, 2007, the papers showed that military officials knew since June of that year that there was a possibility prisoners transferred to the Afghan government might be tortured. Marleau defended his decision to support Defence and Foreign Affairs, saying that evidence of mistreatment of prisoners could have “put the defence of Canada or Canada’s allies at risk,” and could have harmed relations with foreign countries.

CTV.ca

Maxime Bernier resigns as foreign affairs minister
CTV.ca, Canada - 27 May 2008
Maxime Bernier has resigned as foreign affairs minister, after he acknowledged leaving sensitive government documents out in the open -- apparently at his ...

CBC.ca

Opposition demands more answers in Bernier affair CBC.ca, Canada - 6 hours ago Maxime Bernier arrives to be sworn in at Rideau Hall in August. He is accompanied by Julie Co

Adieu, Maxime Bernier! May the WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL find you!

Minister left classified NATO documents

Mon May 26, 2008 7:37 PM EDT

world-news, canada, stephen-harper, minister, resigns

Rob Gillies, Associated Press Writer

Images (showing 1 of 2 photos)

In this May 8, 2008, file photo, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier responds to a question in the House of Commons, in Ottawa, Ontario. Canada's embattled foreign minister resigned for leaving classified documents in a nonsecure location, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday, calling the breach "a serious error." (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Tom Hanson, File)

In this Aug. 14, 2007, file photo, Maxime Bernier arrives to be sworn in as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs accompanied by Julie Couillard in Ottawa, Ontario. Canada's embattled foreign minister resigned for leaving classified documents in a nonsecure location, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday, May 26, 2008, calling the breach "a serious error." Harper said that Bernier's controversial relationship with the woman was not a factor in the resignation. But it was announced as Bernier's former girlfriend, Couillard, was preparing to go on a French-language television station to say that Bernier had been careless with classified documents. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson, File)

TORONTO — The Canadian foreign minister who resigned this week for a security breach had left classified documents about a NATO summit at the home of his ex-girlfriend, the government said Tuesday.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it appeared that no confidential information had gotten out.

The foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, resigned Monday after leaving the documents at the home of Julie Couillard, who has generated controversy for past ties to members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in Quebec. Harper called Bernier's security breach a "serious error."

Biker gangs have long gained attention in the French-speaking province and have been accused of trying to extend their influence to the government and the courts.

Conservative lawmaker Peter Van Loan said Tuesday that the documents were a mix of classified and public documents relating to the April NATO summit in Romania where Canada sought reinforcements for troops in Afghanistan.

"Thus far we have no information that would suggest that any secrets have been revealed," Harper said in Paris. He said the incident would be reviewed.

Bernier wrote in his letter of resignation that he learned Sunday night that he had left behind classified documents at a private residence.

"Prime Minister, the security breach that occurred was my fault and my fault alone and I take full responsibility for my actions," Bernier wrote.

Couillard said she contacted a lawyer five weeks after he left the documents at her home in April. Couillard's lawyer returned them to the government on Sunday.

In an interview broadcast Monday, she denied ever reading the documents, saying "it was definitely not for my eyes."

"I was panicked by the fact that I had that at my house," Couillard said.

Opposition parties demanded that the government explain how it took them five weeks to realize the classified documents were missing. Opposition Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Harper showed "appalling lack of judgment" for dismissing security concerns over Bernier's involvement with a woman with past ties to gang members, and called for a public inquiry.

But Harper said that Bernier's resignation has put an end to the matter. He named David Emerson, the international trade minister, to serve as interim foreign minister.

"As we've said, private lives are private lives and the government of Canada does not intend to get into the business of investigating private citizens," Harper said. "This has nothing to do with Madame Couillard. This was the unfortunate error, the unfortunate actions of the minister that are at issue here."

Bernier first drew the attention of Canadians when he appeared at his swearing-in ceremony in August with the provocatively dressed Couillard on his arm. Her former links to Hells Angels did not become public until recently.

Couillard had lived with Gilles Giguere, a well-known Montreal crime figure for three years beginning in 1993, who had ties to Maurice Boucher, the now-jailed leader of the Hells Angels in Quebec. Giguere was shot to death in 1996 when he decided to become a police informer after being arrested with a cache of submachine-guns and marijuana.

She later married Stephane Sirois, who admitted to being an enforcer for a Hells Angels-affiliated biker club. He later turned informant and testified against a dozen of his former colleagues in a 2002 trial. The two divorced in 1999.

The former model said she had never done anything wrong and never been convicted of any crime. She said she told Bernier about her involvement with Quebec bikers shortly after she began dating him in the summer of 2007.

"I am definitely not a biker's chick," she said.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Seminar: Global Enforcment Regimes

Global Enforcement Regimes Transnational Organised Crime, International Terrorism and Money Laundering TNI Expert Seminar, 28-29 April 2005 Full report available in PDF. Over the last decades the international community has taken initiatives to counter the alleged proliferation of transnational organised crime, political terrorism and money laundering. More recently, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the "criminal underworld" is increasingly merged with that of political terrorism and constructed into one underground "axis of evil" of drug trafficking, transnational organised crime and international terrorism that is a major global security threat. A new Washington consensus on how to fight this underground "axis of evil" seems to be emerging. The agenda is dominated by a concept of national security that is dominated by the world's remaining superpower, the United States of America, which is extending its national security into a global one. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks the stakes are higher for every nation to follow the US. As President George W. Bush made clear: "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." A body of multilateral agreements have been put in place "to fight the scourge" at the international level. At the UN and G8 level conventions against transnational organised crime and regulations to counter money laundering are accepted, while the UN Security Council set in motion a global programme against international terrorism. The recurrent pattern is remarkably the same since the US internationalised its "war on drugs". Drug trafficking and related issues like organised crime and money laundering of the proceeds are first labelled as a national security threat and subsequently the battlefield is transformed into an international "war on ... ". The US is able to force its agenda on the international community through its unparalleled resources and diplomatic strength both at the multilateral and bilateral level, to make sure that the war is waged on its terms. The wide array of multilateral agreements, conventions, rules and regulations on drugs, crime, money laundering and terrorism amount to a modern day version of the "software of empire" - complementing the hardware of military intervention, economic sanctions etc. Increasingly, these multilateral agreements are reached at inter-governmental level (such as the UN, G8, the EU) and presented as a fait accompli before national parliaments that are pressured to ratify them. No government wants to be labelled as an outcast because a national parliament refuses to ratify these international agreements that are the result of complicated diplomatic bargaining and an alleged international consensus. At the level of the European Union a similar process is taking place in order to harmonize is security area. In addition, there are hardly any mechanisms in place to evaluate their effectiveness or adverse effects - so they are kept in place as the modern day Ten Commandments cast in stone. The emphasis is on coercive and law enforcement measures and not on addressing the underlying root causes, which would force the dominating powers to scrutinize the current socio-economic and political world order, and redefine national security interests into a truly international one. The US in particular takes a very cynical and pragmatic approach towards emerging international security arrangements, shopping around in the global supermarket of international agreements. While on the one hand it actively sets the agenda and enforces such arrangements when drug trafficking, organised crime and terrorism are addressed, it discards and openly sabotages such arrangements because the are believed to be contrary to its national interests when other global security issues are concerned, such as environmental security (the Kyoto protocol) or the International Criminal Court (ICC). In their paper "The Global Fix - Neo-liberalism, America's Moral Crusade and International Efforts to Control Transnational Organized Crime", David Bewley-Taylor and Michael Woodiwiss show the construction of a US dominated global enforcement regime - through the interlinking concepts of drugs prohibition and organized crime. Because of the "limited and blame-shifting approach" to organized crime the US pioneered, it steered away from corporate criminal activities towards alien conspiracies of criminal organizations. This "dumbed down" version of organized crime became the model for the international community when it was ratified through the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and subsequently in the 2002 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. It ignores the criminogenic aspects of the current neo-liberal globalisation process, as well as the security needs of developing countries, in particular the increasing urban crime problems in the booming shantytowns of the Third World. Mike Levi assesses in his paper Controlling the International Money Trail. What Lessons Have Been Learned? the contradictions and incompleteness of the global governance of money laundering, believed to be one of the major measures to fight drug trafficking and organized crime. He points to the fact that anti-laundering controls since the mid-1980s have had very little impact on the actual outcomes such as the reduction of crime in general. The Anti-Money Laundering movement (AML) has been successful in transferring control policies, but is more concerned in evaluating the outputs instead of looking at the outcomes. Questions have been raised about the willingness (or possibility) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to apply its consistent principles to more the powerful nations. There are indications that the tighter control of "off-shores" is aimed at generating a competitive advantage for the core FATF members. Since 9/11 the control of the international money trail is extended to lawful activities such as charities. In her paper Fear-based Security. The Political Economy of Threat, Margaret Beare looks at the political management of fear after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, not only to enhance the global enforcement regime but also to create "windows of opportunities" to push for other policy objectives within the current neo-liberal globalisation process. Despite the unproven effectiveness of the various enforcement "wars" - on drugs, crime and terrorism - she notes an increasing tendency towards "governance through security" and the political, corporate and religious interests behind it. These interests in the US have incorporated 9/11 into their long term strategies and business and operational plans, she argues. She also notes how the concept of human security that looked to root causes and social solutions, fell victim to national security concepts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. David Cortright of the Fourth Freedom Forum shows in his paper A Critical Evaluation of the UN Counter-terrorism Program. Accomplishments and Challenges how the US concept of a "global war on terror" has become the dominant political paradigm and how this has diverted international counter-terrorism efforts towards coercive law enforcement approaches, just as the global efforts against drugs and transnational organized crime before. The focus is on denial and deterrence, with some attention to development, rather than the other D's - dissuasion and defence of human rights - as UN Secretary General Kofi Anan proposed as guidelines to counter terrorism. Consequently, the "demand side" of terrorism is ignored and the emphasis is on protection against terrorist attacks rather than preventive policies that ameliorate the grievances and conditions that give rise to terrorism. In his paper The Exceptional and Draconian Become the Norm. The Emerging Counter-terrorism Regime, Tony Bunyan of Statewatch shows in great detail how international security measures are being shaped, in particular at the G8 level. He shows how through a tyranny of small decisions, a nightmare society could be made, to quote a quote from Margaret Beare's paper. Originally created to coordinate global economic policies by the major powers of the industrialized world, the G8 is increasingly used to harmonize international policies on drugs, money laundering, transnational organized crime and terrorism, while it fails to address the possible disastrous impact of the US war debt on the global economy. The G8 is a much more effective and exclusive vehicle for policy transfers than the cumbersome UN. In addition, the Northern industrialized G8 powers are not hindered by emerging powers such as China, India and Brazil. Through its EU member states the G8 security recommendations are introduced at the EU level to harmonize the European security area. Consequently, the US has a remarkable weight on EU security policies in comparison to EU member states that are not part of the G8. Margaret Beare points to a similar harmonization process on security between the members of the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA). The resources and national policies of Canada and Mexico are being held hostage under the US "security" umbrella. The militarisation of the US economy will not stop at the border if resources are deemed to be essential for and national policies contrary to US security interests, she warns. The current security paradigm is increasingly being questioned. Many doubt whether it will be effective and point to the averse effects it might have on civil liberties, human rights and national sovereignty in the field of criminal justice. No one doubts that international cooperation is needed to address global security issues, but there is serious doubt on the effectiveness of the current construction of a global enforcement regime, as well as worries about the predominant role of the US in setting the agenda. The problem is not that there is a consensus that transnational security problems should be addressed on a transnational level. The problem is who is setting the agenda on how these transnational security policies are shaped. The US seems to be primarily concerned with safeguarding US national security at an international level instead of addressing global security needs, despite its rhetoric to the contrary. Seminar report and papers Global Enforcement Regimes. Transnational Organised Crime, International Terrorism and Money Laundering [PDF document] Report of the Seminar Proceedings David Bewley-Taylor, Department of American Studies, University of Wales Swansea (UK), and Michael Woodiwiss, University of West of England, Bristol (UK), The Global Fix. Neo-liberalism, America's Moral Crusade and International Efforts to Control Transnational Organized Crime. This paper was published as a TNI Crime and Globalisation Programme Briefing Paper: The Global Fix: The Construction of a Global Enforcement Regime in October 2005 [PDF document] Michael Levi, Professor of Criminology, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University (UK) Controlling the International Money Trail. What Lessons Have Been Learned? [PDF document] Margaret Beare, Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption, York University (Toronto, Canada) Fear-based Security. The Political Economy of "Threat" [PDF document] David Cortright, Fourth Freedom Forum (US) A Critical Evaluation of the UN Counter-terrorism Program. Accomplishments and Challenges [PDF document] Tony Bunyan, Statewatch (UK) The Exceptional and Draconian Become the Norm. The Emerging Counter-terrorism Regime [PDF document]

List of candidates national security and foreign policy advisers

list of the national security and foreign policy advisers to the leading presidential candidates from both parties.

DEMOCRATS

Hillary Clinton

Madeleine K. Albright, President Clinton’s secretary of state and now chairperson of the National Democratic Institute, foreign policy adviser

Samuel R. Berger, President Clinton’s national security adviser and now a principal at business consultancy Stonebridge, foreign policy adviser

Lt. Gen. Daniel William Christman, a former West Point superintendent and now senior vice president for international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, foreign policy adviser

Gen. Wesley K. Clark, President Clinton’s Kosovo commander and now a Democratic fundraiser, endorsed Sen. Clinton Sept. 15

John H. Dalton, President Clinton’s Navy secretary and now president of the Financial Services Roundtable’s Housing Policy Council, veterans and military retirees for Hillary

Lee Feinstein, a deputy in President Clinton’s State Department, national security coordinator

Leslie H. Gelb; president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former New York Times correspondent and a former State and Defense Department official, informal adviser

Richard C. Holbrooke, President Clinton’s UN ambassador and broker of the Dayton Peace Accords (and now a Washington Post columnist), foreign policy adviser

Martin S. Indyk, President Clinton’s ambassador to Israel and now director of Brookings’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, foreign policy adviser

Gen. John M. ("Jack") Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff who co-crafted the Iraq "surge" and is now a military analyst (sometimes for ABC news), military issues adviser

Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, veterans and military retirees for Hillary

Lt. Gen. Donald L. Kerrick, President Clinton’s deputy national security adviser, organizes meetings of retired officers

Col. Andrew F. Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefed Hillary Clinton as well as Sen. John McCain and Gov. Bill Richardson

Vali Nasr, Naval Postgraduate School professor, Middle East adviser

Michael O'Hanlon, Brookings senior fellow and former Congressional Budget Office defense and foreign policy analyst, supporter

Rep. (and retired Vice Adm.) Joseph Sestak, veterans and military retirees for Hillary

Andrew Shapiro, Sen. Clinton’s Senate foreign policy staffer

Jeffrey H. Smith, former CIA general counsel and now a partner leading the public policy and government contracts group of law firm Arnold & Porter, national security adviser

Strobe Talbott, Brookings president, informal adviser

Togo D. West, President Clinton’s secretary for veterans affairs and former secretary of the Army, veterans and military retirees for Hillary

Former Amb. Joseph C. Wilson IV, the half of the Plamegate couple who criticized the administration for using questionable evidence to promote the Iraq war, endorsed Sen. Clinton July 16

Barack Obama

Former Amb. Jeffrey Bader, President Clinton’s National Security Council Asia specialist and now head of Brookings’s China center, national security adviser

Mark Brzezinski, President Clinton’s National Security Council Southeast Europe specialist and now a partner at law firm McGuireWoods, national security adviser

Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser and now a Center for Strategic and International Studies counselor and trustee and frequent guest on PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, foreign policy adviser

Richard A. Clarke, President Clinton and President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism czar and now head of Good Harbor Consulting and an ABC News contributor, sometimes Obama adviser

Gregory B. Craig, State Department director of policy planning under President Clinton and now a partner at law firm Williams & Connolly, foreign policy adviser

Roger W. Cressey, former National Security Council counterterrorism staffer and now Good Harbor Consulting president and NBC News consultant, has advised Obama but says not exclusive

Ivo H. Daalder, National Security Council director for European affairs during President Clinton’s administration and now a Brookings senior fellow, foreign policy adviser

Richard Danzig, President Clinton’s Navy secretary and now a Center for Strategic and International Analysis fellow, national security adviser

Philip H. Gordon, President Clinton’s National Security Council staffer for Europe and now a Brookings senior fellow, national security adviser

Maj. Gen. J. (Jonathan) Scott Gration, a 32-year Air Force veteran and now CEO of Africa anti-poverty effort Millennium Villages, national security adviser and surrogate

Lawrence J. Korb, assistant secretary of defense from 1981-1985 and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, informal foreign policy adviser

W. Anthony Lake, President Clinton’s national security adviser and now a professor at Georgetown’s school of foreign service, foreign policy adviser

James M. Ludes, former defense and foreign policy adviser to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and now executive director of the American Security Project, national security adviser

Robert Malley, President Clinton’s Middle East envoy and now International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa program director, national security adviser

Gen. Merrill A. ("Tony") McPeak, former Air Force chief of staff and now a business consultant, national security adviser

Denis McDonough, Center for American Progress senior fellow and former policy adviser to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, foreign policy coordinator

Samantha Power, Harvard-based human rights scholar and Pulitzer Prize winning writer, foreign policy adviser

Susan E. Rice, President Clinton’s Africa specialist at the State Department and National Security Council and now a Brookings senior fellow, foreign policy adviser

Bruce O. Riedel, former CIA officer and National Security Council staffer for Near East and Asian affairs and now a Brookings senior fellow, national security adviser

Dennis B. Ross, President Clinton’s Middle East negotiator and now a Washington Institute for Near East Policy fellow, Middle East adviser

Sarah Sewall, deputy assistant secretary of defense for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance during President Clinton’s administration and now director of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, national security adviser

Daniel B. Shapiro, National Security Council director for legislative affairs during President Clinton’s administration and now a lobbyist with Timmons & Company, Middle East adviser

Mona Sutphen, former aide to President Clinton’s National Security adviser Samuel R. Berger and to United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson and now managing director of business consultancy Stonebridge, national security adviser

John Edwards

Barry M. Blechman, President Carter’s assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and founder and chairman of the Henry L. Stimson Center, military advisory group

Irving N. Blickstein, former assistant deputy chief of Naval operations and a RAND researcher, military advisory group

Derek Chollet, Edwards’s Senate foreign policy aide, chief national security adviser

Lt. Gen. Michael A. Hough, former Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation, military advisory group

Gen. Paul J. Kern, former Army Materiel Command commander who directed the internal investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib and now a lobbyist with the Cohen Group, military advisory group

Gen. Lester "Les" Lyles, former commander Air Force Materiel Command and now an aerospace consultant, military advisory group

Gen. Gregory S. ("Speedy") Martin, former commander Air Force Materiel Command and now a consultant, military advisory group

Rear Adm. William J. McDaniel, former commanding officer of Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, military advisory group

Rear Adm. David R. Oliver Jr., former principal deputy under secretary for acquisition and technology and now CEO of aerospace and defense company EADS North America, military advisory group

Michael Signer, onetime aide to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, deputy policy director for foreign affairs and national security

Maj. Gen. Allen Youngman, former Kentucky adjutant general and now a defense lobbyist with American Business Development Group, military advisory group

REPUBLICANS

Rudolph Giuliani

Gerard Alexander, University of Virginia politics professor and American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar, European advisory board

Peter Beering, Indiana terrorism preparedness coordinator and principal with consulting firm Indianapolis Terrorism Response Group, homeland security advisory board

Peter Berkowitz; Hoover Institution senior fellow and George Mason Law School professor focusing on laws, ethics and politics; senior statecraft, human rights and freedom adviser

Robert C. Bonner, former U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner and now a partner with law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, chief homeland security adviser

David R. Cameron, Yale political science professor, European advisory board

Robert Conquest; Soviet-era historian and former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and now a Hoover Institution research fellow; senior foreign policy advisory board

Lisa Curtis, former staffer to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and now a Heritage foundation senior research fellow, senior South Asia adviser

Carlos Eire, Cuban activist and Yale renaissance studies professor, senior foreign policy advisory board

Joshua Filler, former director Department of Homeland Security Office of State and Local Government Coordination director and now a homeland security consultant, homeland security advisory board

Louis J. Freeh, former FBI director, homeland security advisory board chairman

Nile Gardner, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow and onetime foreign policy researcher for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, European advisory board

Stephen Haber, Hoover Institution senior fellow and Stanford history and political science professor, senior western hemisphere adviser

Charles Hill, former aide to Reagan-era secretary of state George P. Shultz and now a Hoover Institution research fellow, chief foreign policy adviser

Kim R. Holmes, President George W. Bush’s former assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs and now the Heritage Foundation vice president of foreign and defense policy studies, senior foreign policy adviser

Daniel Johnson, former Minnesota homeland security director, homeland security advisory board

Former Sen. Robert Kasten, R-Wisc., former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Foreign Operations Subcommittee, senior foreign policy advisory board

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., homeland security advisory board

Martin Kramer, former director of Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, senior Middle East adviser

Andrew B. Maner, former Department of Homeland Security chief financial officer and now a member of the board of directors at emergency management software provider Previstar, homeland security advisory board

John T. Odermatt, former commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management and Citigroup’s corporate director of business continuity, homeland security advisory board

Norman Podhoretz, Hudson Institute adjunct fellow and former editor of Commentary magazine, senior foreign policy advisory board

David Pryce-Jones, novelist and essayist, senior foreign policy adviser

John Rabin, former program director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Lessons Learned Information Sharing and now a consultant, homeland security advisory board

Stephen Peter Rosen, President Reagan’s National Security Council staffer for political-military affairs and now a Harvard professor of national security and military affairs, senior defense adviser

Howard Safir, former New York City Police commissioner and now a crisis management consultant, homeland security advisory board

Richard J. Sheirer, former New York City emergency management commissioner and now a senior vice president with Giuliani Partners, homeland security advisory board

Seth Stodder, former Customs and Border Protection director of policy and planning and now a senior counsel and lobbyist with law firm Akin Gump, homeland security advisory board

C. Stewart Verdery Jr., former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for policy and planning and founder of lobbying firm Monument Policy Group, homeland security advisory board

Thomas Von Essen, former New York City Fire commissioner and now a senior vice president with Giuliani Partners, homeland security advisory board

Kenneth Weinstein, CEO Hudson Institute, foreign policy adviser

Joe Whitley, former Department of Homeland Security general counsel and now partner with law firm Alston & Bird, homeland security advisory board

S. Enders Wimbush, Hudson Institute director of future security strategies and former security consultant, senior public diplomacy adviser

Stephen Yates, former deputy assistant to Vice President Cheney for national security affairs and now a lobbyist and American Foreign Policy Council senior fellow, senior Asia adviser

John McCain

Richard Lee Armitage, President George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of state and an international business consultant and lobbyist, informal foreign policy adviser

Bernard Aronson, former assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs and now a managing partner of private equity investment company ACON Investments, informal foreign policy adviser

William L. Ball III, secretary of the Navy during President Reagan’s administration and managing director of lobbying firm the Loeffler Group, informal national security adviser

Stephen E. Biegun, former national security aide to then-Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and now Ford Motors vice president of international government affairs, informal national security adviser

Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations editor and former Wall Street Journal editorial editor, foreign policy adviser

Brig. Gen. Tom Bruner, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Lorne W. Craner, International Republican Institute president, informal foreign policy adviser

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state and a senior public policy adviser with law firm Baker Donelson, endorsed McCain April 10

Brig. Gen. Russ Eggers, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. Merrill Evans, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Niall Ferguson, Harvard historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow, informal foreign policy adviser

Michael J. Green, former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush and now Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Asia policy adviser

Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr., President Reagan’s secretary of state, endorsed McCain April 10

Maj. Gen. Evan "Curly" Hultman, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Robert Kagan; senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for then-secretary of state George P. Shultz; informal foreign policy adviser

Brig. Gen. Robert Michael Kimmitt, current deputy Treasury secretary, informal national security adviser

Henry A. Kissinger, President Nixon and President Ford’s secretary of state who met McCain in Vietnam and is now a consultant, informal adviser

Col. Andrew F. Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefed McCain as well as Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson

William Kristol, The Weekly Standard editor, informal foreign policy adviser

Adm. Charles Larson, former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and now chairman of consulting firm ViaGlobal Group, informal national security adviser

Robert "Bud" McFarlane, President Reagan’s national security adviser and now a principal with Energy & Communications Solutions, energy and national security adviser

Brig. Gen. Warren "Bud" Nelson, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Brig. Gen. Eddie Newman, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. John Peppers, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Ralph Peters, writer and retired Army officer, informal national security adviser

Brig. Gen. Maurice Phillips, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Gen. Colin L. Powell, President George W. Bush’s secretary of state, informal foreign policy adviser

James R. Schlesinger, President Nixon and President Ford’s secretary of defense, energy and national security adviser

Randy Scheunemann, national security aide to then-Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Trent Lott and now a lobbyist, defense and foreign policy coordinator (for this cycle and 2000)

Gary Schmitt, former staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee and now an American Enterprise Institute scholar, foreign policy adviser

Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush and founder of business consultancy the Scowcroft Group, adviser

George P. Shultz, President Reagan’s secretary of state and a Hoover Institution Fellow, endorsed McCain April 10

Brig. Gen. W.L. "Bill" Wallace, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. Gary Wattnem, Iowa veterans advisory committee

R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and now a vice president at consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton, energy and national security adviser

Mitt Romney

David Aufhauser, former Treasury Department general counsel and now general counsel of USB investment bank, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Jorge L. Arrizurieta, lobbyist and major Republican donor, Latin American policy advisory group

Former Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., onetime chairman of House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Latin American policy advisory group

J. (Joseph) Cofer Black, former CIA and State Department counterterrorism official and now vice chairman Blackwater USA, senior adviser on counterterrorism and national security

Ted Brennan, former aide to then-Reps. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C. and Henry Hyde, R-Ill., Latin American policy advisory group

Lt. Gen. John H. ("Soup") Campbell, former vice director of Pentagon information systems and now a lobbyist for satellite communications, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Alberto R. Cardenas, lobbyist and former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Latin American policy advisory group

Robert Charles, former assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement, Latin American policy advisory group

Samuel Cole, COO of BlueMountain Capital Management, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Mark Falcoff, American Enterprise Institute Latin America scholar emeritus and onetime consultant to President Reagan’s Commission on Central America, Latin American policy advisory group

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., ranking Republican on House Intelligence Committee, intelligence adviser

Kent Lucken, foreign service veteran now an international private banker with Citigroup, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

John McClurg, formerly of the FBI computer investigations and critical infrastructure threat assessment center and now vice president Honeywell Global Security, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Larry Mefford, former FBI agent and counterterrorism official, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Amb. Tibor Nagy, Jr., career foreign service officer with ambassadorial tours in Ethiopia and Guinea, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Amb. Roger Francisco Noriega, former assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs under George W. Bush and now a lobbyist, Latin American policy advisory group

Mitchell B. Reiss, former state department policy planning director, foreign policy adviser

V. Manuel Rocha, career foreign service officer and former ambassador to Bolivia, Latin American policy advisory group

Steven Schrage, former State Department international law specialist, foreign policy and trade director

Dan Senor, former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman and now a lobbyist and Fox News contributor, sometimes foreign policy adviser

Jose S. Sorzano, Latin America aide to President Reagan and chairman of corporate consultant Austin Group, Latin American policy advisory group

Larry Storrs, former Latin America specialist at the Congressional Research Service, Latin American policy advisory group

Caleb ("Cal") Temple, formerly with the Defense Intelligence Agency and now executive vice president of Total Intelligence Solutions, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., lobbyist and chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, policy chairman

Ed Worthington, FBI veteran, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Can Bush avoid a war crimes invesigation??

There's a crack in the President's efforts to thwart a war crimes investigation. Former and currently assigned legal counsel have a major problem. Evidence developed supports the allegations the NSA did rely on illegally captured information to violate FISA, target Americans, and render innocents in violation of the laws of war.

The CIA and NSA appear to have worked with the OVP to destroy the link between Geneva violations, unlawful FISA violations, prisoner abuse, and warrantless interrogations of US citizens, in breach of domestic and international law.

There is no statute of limitations for war crimes. The alleged evidence destruction appears well connected from concerns the JAGs well raised in re Geneva. The penalty of war crimes evidence destruction could include the death penalty.

The WH e-mail destruction is not linked with a sole event, but the broader effort to hide the use of unreliable information to justify bypassing the Congress and Courts. The basis for the state secrets claims have less to do with national security, and more to do with hiding evidence of war crimes, impeachable offenses, and violations of the Supreme Law including the Bill of Rights.

The President, Congress, and US Courts have been complicit with illegal US government activity to hide from public view evidence of the US government official's illegal conduct. They've been turning a blind eye to illegality to avoid paying attention to their complicity with the illegalities.

This misconduct and malfeasance spans all three branches, including legal counsel, court officers, and legislators. The alleged malfeasance relates to failures to enforce the laws of war, investigate, and enforce the law as required by oath.

Information developed suggests the NSA did rely on illegally captured information to violate FISA, target Americans, and render innocents in violation of the laws of war.

The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know

[The Being Read by EVERYBODY Department. You might read this, too!]

Two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush Administration say the U.S. has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise. It'll be Iraq all over again.

By John H. Richardson (more from this author)

10/18/2007, 1:34 PM

Brian Berman

In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm -- not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn't realize. It was just like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it couldn't wait for the UN inspectors to leave. The steps have been many and steady and all in the same direction. And now things are getting much worse. We are getting closer and closer to the tripline, they say.

"The hard-liners are upping the pressure on the State Department," says Leverett. "They're basically saying, 'You've been trying to engage Iran for more than a year now and what do you have to show for it? They keep building more centrifuges, they're sending this IED stuff over into Iraq that's killing American soldiers, the human-rights internal political situation has gotten more repressive -- what the hell do you have to show for this engagement strategy?' "

But the engagement strategy was never serious and was designed to fail, they say. Over the last year, Rice has begun saying she would talk to "anybody, anywhere, anytime," but not to the Iranians unless they stopped enriching uranium first. That's not a serious approach to diplomacy, Mann says. Diplomacy is about talking to your enemies. That's how wars are averted. You work up to the big things. And when U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had his much-publicized meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad this spring, he didn't even have permission from the White House to schedule a second meeting.

The most ominous new development is the Bush administration's push to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.

"The U.S. has designated any number of states over the years as state sponsors of terrorism," says Leverett. "But here for the first time the U.S. is saying that part of a government is itself a terrorist organization."

This is what Leverett and Mann fear will happen: The diplomatic effort in the United Nations will fail when it becomes clear that Russia's and China's geopolitical ambitions will not accommodate the inconvenience of energy sanctions against Iran. Without any meaningful incentive from the U.S. to be friendly, Iran will keep meddling in Iraq and installing nuclear centrifuges. This will trigger a response from the hard-liners in the White House, who feel that it is their moral duty to deal with Iran before the Democrats take over American foreign policy. "If you get all those elements coming together, say in the first half of '08," says Leverett, "what is this president going to do? I think there is a serious risk he would decide to order an attack on the Iranian nuclear installations and probably a wider target zone."

This would result in a dramatic increase in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, attacks by proxy forces like Hezbollah, and an unknown reaction from the wobbly states of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where millions admire Iran's resistance to the Great Satan. "As disastrous as Iraq has been," says Mann, "an attack on Iran could engulf America in a war with the entire Muslim world."

Mann and Leverett believe that none of this had to be.

Flynt Lawrence Leverett grew up in Fort Worth and went to Texas Christian University. He spent the first nine years of his government career as a CIA analyst specializing in the Middle East. He voted for George Bush in 2000. On the day the assassins of Al Qaeda flew two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center, Colin Powell summoned him to help plan the response. Five months later, Leverett landed a plum post on the National Security Council. When Condoleezza Rice discussed the Middle East with President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, Leverett was the man standing behind her taking notes and whispering in her ear.

Today, he sits on the back deck of a house tucked into the curve of a leafy suburban street in McLean, Virginia, a forty-nine-year-old white American man wearing khakis and a white dress shirt and wire-rimmed glasses. Mann sits next to him, also wearing khakis. She's thirty-nine but looks much younger, with straight brown hair and a tomboy's open face. The polish on her toenails is pink. If you saw her around McLean, you wouldn't hesitate:

Soccer mom. Classic soccer mom.

But with degrees from Brandeis and Harvard Law and stints at Tel Aviv University and the powerful Israeli lobby known as AIPAC, she has even better right-wing credentials than her husband.

As they talk, eating grapes out of a bowl, lawn mowers hum and birds chirp. The floor is littered with toy trucks and rubber animals left behind by the youngest of their four children. But the tranquillity is misleading. When Mann and Leverett went public with the inside story behind the impending disaster with Iran, the White House dismissed them. Then it imposed prior restraint on them, an extraordinary episode of government censorship. Finally, it threatened them.

Now they are afraid of the White House, and watching what they say. But still, they feel they have to speak out.

Like so many things these days, this story began on the morning of September 11, 2001. On Forty-fifth Street in Manhattan, Mann had just been evacuated from the offices of the U.S. mission to the United Nations and was walking home to her apartment on Thirty-eighth Street -- walking south, toward the giant plume of smoke. When her cell phone rang, she picked it up immediately because her sister worked at the World Trade Center and she was frantic for word. But it wasn't her sister, it was a senior Iranian diplomat. To protect him from reprisals from the Iranian government, she doesn't want to name him, but she describes him as a cultured man in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair. Since early spring, they had been meeting secretly in a small conference room at the UN.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Yes, she said, she was fine.

The attack was a terrible tragedy, he said, doubtless the work of Al Qaeda.

"I hope that we can still work together," he said.

*snip*

Bush waited. Three weeks later, it was time for his 2002 State of the Union address. Mann spent the morning in a meeting with Condoleezza Rice and the new president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, who kept asking Rice for an expanded international peacekeeping force. Rice kept saying that the Afghans would have to solve their own problems. Then they went off to join the president's motorcade and Mann headed back to her office to watch the speech on TV.

That was the speech in which Bush linked Iran to Iraq and North Korea with a memorable phrase:

"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world."

The Iranians had been engaging in high-level diplomacy with the American government for more than a year, so the phrase was shocking and profound.

Four more revealing pages can be accessed HERE.