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Stephen Friedman Named to Chair President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Thursday, Oct 27 2005, 3:58PM
Brent Scowcroft was not asked by the President to return to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board when Scowcroft's term expired at the end of 2004. Most had assumed that Scowcroft would not only continue to serve on the PFIAB but would continue as Chairman as well.
At a weekend gathering at the home of Zbigniew Brzezinski just after the New Year, Scowcroft reportedly shared with those gathered, "I just got fired."
Shortly after, Scowcroft gave a humdinger of a speech before the New America Foundation -- along with Zbig Brzezinski -- on the 6th of January.
The President has now just announced that his new Chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board will be former Goldman Sachs executive and former National Economic Advisor to the President Stephen Friedman.
Friedman was probably the least known head of the National Economic Council this country has seen -- particularly given the profile of the presciently accurate Larry "Iraq War = $200 Billion" Lindsey, Gene Sperling, Laura Tyson, and Robert Rubin. He never embarrassed the President. He's viewed as "safe" by the White House.
This from a White House Press release a short while ago:
The President intends to appoint Stephen Friedman, of New York, to be a Member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, for a term of two years, beginning on December 20, 2005. Upon appointment, the President intends to designate him Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and Member and Chairman of the Intelligence Oversight Board.The President intends to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, for a term of two years:
James L. Barksdale of MississippiArthur B. Culvahouse of Virginia
William O. DeWitt, Jr. of Ohio
Admiral James O. Ellis (Ret.) of Georgia
Donald L. Evans of Texas
Martin Faga of Virginia
Lee Hamilton of Indiana
Ray Hunt of Texas
David E. Jeremiah of Virginia
John L. Morrison of Minnesota
Elizabeth Pate-Cornell of California
The President intends to appoint Stefanie R. Osburn, of Virginia, to be Executive Director of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Ms. Osburn currently serves as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Management at the Central Intelligence Agency. Prior to this, she served as Chief of Staff for the Deputy Director of Center Intelligence for Community Management. Ms. Osburn, who has been with the CIA for over 20 years, has also served as Chief of Program Analysis, Chief of Policy, the Hard Target Executive Secretary, Chief of Security, Chief of Plans and Senior Program Analyst. Ms. Osburn received her bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia Southern.
More later.
-- Steve Clemons
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Barksdale. Wasn't there someone named Barksdale involved in 43's natinal guard failure someplace? Maybe not. Just sounded familiar.
Does Don Evans know anything at all about intelligence, or is this just another gang of W's cronies?
Barksdale. Wasn't there someone named Barksdale involved in 43's natinal guard failure someplace? Maybe not. Just sounded familiar.
no.
but who are these people, and what do they tell us about Shrub's intentions at this point.
And on a related note, I know we're all thrilled with Scowcroft, recently, but as Chair of the FIAB, wasn't it his job to tell Bush that the intelligence on Iraq sucked?
Barksdale was CEO of Netscape and a big honcho in the tech world. What relationship this has to Intel one wonders.
Remember Netscape in the mid '90s? Yep, it's that Jim Barksdale. That's why he sounds familiar. He was CEO.
As for some of his more recent activity, he's in charge of rebuilding Mississippi. Busy guy. :)
I saw this comment on another message board where it was generating a lot of outrage among those who have family members in Iraq - I didn't know where else to put this but I wondered if you knew anything about this and why it is not getting more play in the American press.
"I read a - to me - disturbing article in a German magazine called "Stern" today. It was about 3 German guys, who are fighting in Iraq on the US side as mercenaries. Did you know your own government calls these mercenary forces "Private Military Contractors"? They are the second largest troop after the US, a force of more than 20000 men, paid for by the Pentagon! Work cycle: 6 weeks home-time in Germany, 3 months of fighting in Iraq. What really disturbed me was that those men are payed $18,000 per month!!!!
And Don Evans was Commerce Secretary during Bush's first term. Culvahouse is chair of powerhouse law firm O'Melveny and Myers, and was White House Counsel near the end of Reagan's second term. DeWitt is a Bush Pioneer and longtime Bush friend. Ellis used to be Commander of the US Strategic Command, which I think used to be the Strategic Air Command, for those of us who grew up in the Cold War.
Someone else can Google the rest of the list.
Lee Hamilton huh? Is this a reward for not embarassing Bush with the 9/11 commission findings?
Looks like the Bushites are going to need that kind of intelligence.
Just in:
Cheney withheld documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee prior to the war:
http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1027nj1.htm
Don Evans was Commerce Secretary during Bush's first term
more importantly, he's Bush's bible study pal from Midland, which is how he got to be SoC in the first place.
Cronyism and vanity: a symbiosis on Capitol Hill. I came across this listing of FIAB nominees and was shocked to see the name of a person to whom I am related by marriage. While a wonderful person of high intelligence and having a strong finance background, this person has absolutely NO experience in foreign intelligence, not even academically. What disheartens me more than the obvious sheltering tactics of GB is that these "cronies" are accepting advisory positions for which they are NOT qualified. The only explanation that I can come up with is pure vanity. The political chasm is my family thus widens...
to AJ:
the article about 3 german mercenaries working for the Pentagon is here:
http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/547129.html?q=irak%20Military%20Contractors
Sorry, it's in german
And just what does a Goldman Sachs bond-schleper bring to foreign intelligence?
Isn't DeWitt the chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals?
he looks like terance stamp.
Interesting.
8 out of 12 are Southerners (Including Ms. Osburn but not Friedman). George sure has an affinity for those Good Ol' Boys. One might even go so far as to call it a tropism.
In other news, deceased CIA counterintelligence legend James Jesus Angleton has been appointed to head the Council of Economic Advisors, also deceased.
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