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Supplement
No. 28November 23, 2019
2019 Halifax
International Security Forum
Information About
the Agenda,
Partners and Sponsors
Protest against the 2016 Halifax International Security Forum.
Topical
Agenda
Partners
and Sponsors
Media
Partners: "Thought Leaders"
This year's topical agenda gives an idea of the
preoccupations of those coming to participate in the 2019 Halifax
International Security Forum (HISF) war conference, targeting issues
and countries that need to be "rescued" by U.S.-led imperialist
intervention.
Plenary Sessions (On-the-Record)
These will be on video on the website and broadcast on
CPAC.
1. Revolutions of Our Time: Freedom Without U.S.
2. Values Trade: Our Way or the Huawei
3. The World's Democracies: The Importance of Being
Allies
4. Institution Evolution: International Law and Global
Order
5. End of the Earth: The Arctic
6. 2020s Vision: Responsibility to Pro-Tech
7. Security Solutions, Women's Contributions
8. Revolutions and their Remains
Informal Sessions (Off-the-Record)
1. Afghanistan and Iraq: America's Long Goodbye
2. Arab Spring Review: Renew
3. Brexit Forever
4. Brutal Borders
5. Child Soldiers: Stop the Tragedy
6. The Chinese Century is Coming: That's What Xi Said
7. Climate: Change
8. Climate of Conciliation: Reaching the Skeptics
9. Democracy in a Digital World
10. Global Energy, Renewable Threats
11. Hong Kong's Summer, China's Fall
12. India à la Modi
13. Iran Provokes, the World Chokes
14. Israel's Friends, and Neighbors
15. Make Elections Safe Again
16. NATO@70: The Trials and Tribulations of Being
America's Ally
17. Our Allies: Our China Challenge
18. Out of Control: Nukes Without Treaties
19. Russia and China in Africa: The New Scramble
20. Space: The Final Command
21. Sudan's Success: Transition in Progress
22. Tokyo -- Seoul: Past Problems, Future Friends
23. Trading With Trump: Art of the Deal
24. Turkey: It's Istanbul, Not Constantinople
25. Ukraine: All Hands On
26. Venezuela: Revolution Betrayed
27. White Supremacists and the Changing Face of Terror
28. Who's Your Data?
PARTNERS
The 2019 Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) has
designated the following as its "Partners":
- Halifax Canada Club, which presently has four members:
- ATCO (Canada)
- Çalık Holding (Turkey)
- OYAK (Turkey)
- Boeing (U.S.)
- Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
- Department of National Defence (DND) (Canada)
- NATO
This initiative to involve monopolies and corporate
executives in the HISF as "partners" is in conformity with strategies
elaborated in the U.S. (such as in the Princeton Project on National
Security). The purpose is to "form elite regional opinion" by bringing
together "leading thinkers" in academia, business and non-profit
sectors in countries targeted for annexation by the United States, as
well as the supranational arms and energy monopolies, to work out how
to usurp control over the natural and human resources and over the
state itself.
Some of these are profiled below to give a sense of the
interests which set the agenda of the HISF and its aims.
Halifax Canada Club
The Halifax Canada Club was formed on August 14, 2012,
beginning as a "public-private partnership" between the Harper
government and the Calgary-based and U.S.-owned MEG Energy Corp. This
can be seen as part of the arrangements by U.S. imperialism to secure
the oil supplies it needs and to usurp control over Canadian energy
resources.
Membership in the "club" is by invitation and organized
directly from Washington, DC, like most everything else about the HISF.
Joseph Hall, then HISF Vice-President and an experienced former
operative of the National Democratic Institute in the Middle East, was
put in charge of recruitment.
ATCO
ATCO is an Alberta-based holding company with nearly
7,000 employees and assets of $21 billion. It is involved in pipelines,
natural gas and electricity in Canada and Australia through ATCO
Australia Pty Ltd. Canadian Utilities Ltd., member of the ATCO Group of
companies, is a worldwide organization of companies with assets of
approximately $7.3 billion and more than 6,500 employees, in three main
business divisions: Power Generation, Utilities (natural gas and
electricity transmission and distribution) and Global Enterprises
(technology, logistics, and energy services).
On the "About Us" section of its website, ATCO says in
part:
"With diverse products and services across many
industries, we are one-stop provider of integrated energy, housing,
transportation and infrastructure solutions. We provide customers with
innovative, sustainable solutions in the sectors that are fundamental
to global growth and prosperity: housing, real estate, energy, water,
transportation and agriculture. [...]"
No mention is made of any military involvement. On the
HISF website, however, its links to the military industry are
specifically highlighted:
"For more than 70 years, ATCO has provided military
support services, shelter solutions, logistics and energy services
worldwide. As a company built upon the belief that strong partnerships
form the basis of safe and prosperous communities, ATCO supports the
collaborative vision of the Halifax Canada Club."
CEO Nancy Southern has attended the HISF since 2013 when
MEG Energy, also of the Calgary "oil patch," launched the Halifax
Canada Club. Southern is the daughter of the late Ron Southern who
owned an estimated 81 per cent control of ATCO. Its aging board of
directors includes former CEOs of Royal Dutch Shell and BMO Capital
Markets. Ron Southern was offered a position by the Mulroney Government
in the 1980s on the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) which
"oversees" CSIS. He was one of only 13 Canadian members of the
globalist Trilateral Commission,[1] of which his
daughter is now a member. He was known as a royalist and, according to
his obituary in the National Post, was a frequent guest at
Buckingham Palace.
ATCO's involvement in war preparations is from the side
of logistics. Preparing war is not as straightforward as producing more
fighters and weapon systems. Nothing is possible without logistics and
infrastructure, along with the political, economic and ideological
preparations. That is what is given the highest priority as NATO
intensifies war preparations.
ATCO is a major DND and NATO contractor. It operates the
Kandahar International Airport in occupied Afghanistan and bases in
Kosovo, Bosnia and Canada, including in the Canadian Arctic. Its
subsidiary ATCO Frontec specializes in rapid mobilization and the
provision of services to NATO, U.S. and Canadian Forces as well as
resource and telecommunications sectors.
In the past 25 years, the feverish expansion of military
forces and spending in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq wars of
occupation presented ATCO with new opportunities. How imperial
occupation and aggression is privatized and monopolies enriched is
illustrated by contracts awarded to ATCO Frontec by NATO's Maintenance
and Supply Agency in Luxemburg (now the NATO Support Agency) to manage
the whole Kandahar International Airport. This included providing all
the information and communications systems and services related to it
(air traffic control, systems administration), the facilities operation
and administration (electrical, water and sewage systems), the
maintenance of vehicles and technical equipment (servicing, repairs),
and engineering services (runway and infrastructure repairs). The
airport, employing 30,000, was used by some 40 countries and tens of
thousands of uniformed personnel.[2] In 2005, ATCO
Frontec secured contracts to support NATO's headquarters in
Sarajevo; the headquarters for the European Union Forces in Bosnia and
Herzegovina; the Swedish Armed Forces in Kosovo; and the Canadian
Forces in Bosnia. In Canada it provides airfield services to the NATO
Flying Training Centre near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
ATCO is looking to make the big score from the increased
militarization of the High Arctic by NATO governments in the new Cold
War. In 2014 it was awarded a 10-year contract valued at more than
U.S.$340 million by the U.S. Air Force to provide operations and
maintenance services to 15 strategic radar sites that form the Alaska
Radar System -- the Ballistic Missile system.[3] In
December 2017, it received a DND contract to "provide facility
inspection, maintenance and repair, new construction and upgrades,
trade services and environmental services to CAF sites in Yellowknife,
Whitehorse, Inuvik, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit." The initial five-year
contract is valued at $79 million, with an option for a five-year
extension. ATCO had already built modular facilities for the DND in
Nanisivik, Nunavut.
Maintaining the subjugation of the Indigenous peoples of
the north is a requirement to continue the military expansion in the
north. ATCO has generated and delivered power in the Yukon since 1901
and in the Northwest Territories since 1951; this monopoly currently
includes 30,000 people in dozens of communities across the region in
its web. For more than 30 years, ATCO has also "partnered" with
Denendeh Investments Incorporated (DII) in Northland Utilities. DII was
created to hold for-profit investments made collectively by the Dene
First Nations of the Northwest Territories.
Partners from Turkey and Related Information
Two of the four high-profile Halifax Canada Club
partners of the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) in 2019 are
from Turkey: Çalık Holding and OYAK.
Çalık Holding is a large conglomerate with dealings
in energy, construction and real estate, mining, textile, telecom and
finance sectors. A Çalık executive was recently appointed the HISF's
treasurer.
OYAK is the pension fund of Turkey's armed forces, with
investments in various sectors.
Çalık Holding
The HISF website describes this sponsor as follows:
"With the vision to add sustainable values to the lives
it touches, Çalık Holding supports collaborative efforts of Halifax
Canada Club towards global prosperity."
Çalık is a huge conglomerate, active in textiles,
energy, construction, finance, logistics and media in a region
extending from Central Asia to North Africa and from the Middle East to
the Balkans. It employs around 20,000 people. Since 2009 Çalık is a
minority partner with Canadian-based Anatolia Minerals to develop an
open pit gold mine at Çöpler, Erzincan, Turkey.
Gap İnşaat, one of its leading arms, is a contractor of
over 150 construction projects of industrial plants and infrastructure,
as well as energy, oil and natural gas projects, in Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It has a subsidiary based
in Canada, GAP İnşaat Construction and Investment Co. Ltd, Calgary.
Ahmet Taçyildiz, chairman, was announced as the Treasurer of the Board
at the HISF in October 2019.
Ahmet Çalık, Chairman and principal owner, is from an
old wealthy family enriched in the textile industry and described by The
Economist as a "close associate" of President Erdogan. In 2008, a
Qatari monopoly put significant funds in Çalık as part of the
privatization of the state-owned Sabah media monopoly.
The CEO of Çalık from 2007-2013, Berat Albayrak, is the
son-in-law of Erdogan. On July 9, 2018, Erdogan appointed him as
economic chief of his new administration, in charge of a new ministry
of treasury and finance.
Çalık became a "partner" of the HISF held November
22-24, 2015, where it was represented by:
- Ahmet Çalık, President, Founder, and Chairman of Çalık
Holding
- Mehmet Ertuğrul Gürler, Deputy Chairman of Çalık
- Ahmet Taçyildiz, Chairman of Gap İnşaat, a Çalık subsidiary and now
Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the HISF
They were received with honours. Taçyildiz was publicly
introduced and thanked by HISF President Peter Van Praagh during that
year's opening session.
In the immediate aftermath of the November 13, 2015
terrorist attacks in Paris, the major focus of the HISF was
fearmongering to promote the "War against ISIS." CTV News highlighted
that it was "calling for an international coalition that will put more
boots on the ground in Syria." Van Praagh declared that the HISF had
been targeted by ISIS. Peter MacKay argued that the Paris attack came
under NATO's Charter Article 5 on collective defence.
Nonetheless, the 2015 HISF welcomed a monopoly whose
former CEO was reportedly involved with Turkey's trading with ISIS for
oil stolen from the Syrian people.
Çalık Holding is one of the top foreign funders of
NATO's political arm, the Atlantic Council ($500,000-$999,999
category). Other Turkish funders of the Atlantic Council include
Turkish Airlines, (a member of its Global Leadership Circle, $100,000
and above). The Republic of Turkey is a funder, in the $25,000-$49,999
range. Donors also include Turkey's Ministry of Energy and National
Resources (amount not listed).
OYAK
The HISF website says of OYAK:
"Established in 1961, OYAK (the Armed Forces Pension
Fund) serves as an occupational and supplementary pension fund for the
members of the Turkish armed forces. With investments, including
multinational joint ventures, in sectors such as steel, cement,
automotive, logistics, finance, energy and chemicals, OYAK supports the
mission of Halifax Canada Club of securing our modern way of life
through strategic alliances among democracies."
According to the Chicago Tribune, "Born of a
1960 coup, Turkey's OYAK army pension fund has become a potent symbol
of military economic power with interests from cement to car production
[...] The group has power commensurate with the past might of the army
that supports it."[4] Its OYAK Holding
investment subsidiary is one of the largest industrial groups in Turkey.
Why is OYAK part of the HISF? The example of the Canada
Pension Plan (CPP), which shows state-linked pension funds are used to
provide capital to the war economy, may shed some light on this
partnership. The Coalition Against the Arms Trade informs that the CPP
"has invested billions of dollars not only in war profiteers, but in
many monopolies that lead the world in oil extraction, gas pipelines,
mining operations, sweat shops, pharmaceutical fraud, and production of
the world's deadliest drug -- tobacco. The most egregious examples of
this can be found among CPP investments in the world's largest weapons
manufacturers. Our government-sponsored retirement portfolio includes
about $1.4 billion worth of stocks in some of the world's largest 100
war industries."
Other Connections to Turkey
Of note is the size and representation of the Turkish
participation in the HISF conference in the past and present. In
November 2014 the conference featured as its guest of honour Turkey's
11th president, Abdullah Gül, who was on the outs at the time with
Erdogan. Van Praagh stated, "even if Gül had not uttered a single word,
his mere presence would be sending signals to Turkey."[5]
Other HISF participants from Turkey in 2018 included:
- İbrahim Kalın, Special Adviser to the President of
Turkey, Presidency of the Republic of Turkey
- Ahmet Çalık, Chairman, Çalık Holding
- Mehmet Ertuğrul Gürler, Deputy Chairman, Çalık Holding
- Ahmet Taçyildiz, Chairman, Gap İnşaat
- Hulusi Akar, Minister of National Defense
- Selçuk Ünal, Ambassador of Turkey to Canada
- Ömer Çelik, Spokesperson, Justice and Development Party
- Falah Bakir, Head of the Department of Foreign Relations, KRG
- Safeen Dizayee, Spokesperson, KRG
- Diba Nigâr Göksel, Turkey Project Director, International Crisis Group
- Yusuf Müftüoğlu, Partner and Director of Strategy, Senior Advisor,
CRA Strategic Advisory, Macro Advisory Partners, London and U.S.A,
(formerly advisor to 11th president of Turkey, Abdullah Gül)
- Burak Gürkan, First Secretary, Grundfos (pump manufacturer), Turkey
- Süreya Köprülü, Editor in Chief, Turkish Policy Quarterly
- Raed Saleh, White Helmets co-founder, Turkey
As well, Van Praagh is a former U.S. National Democratic
Institute country director for Turkey, as was former HISF
Vice-President Joseph Hall.
Canada-Turkey Arms Trade
Canada's arms exports to Turkey rapidly increased
during the first term of the Trudeau Liberals:
2015: $7,556,736
2016: $3,994,423.41
2017: $48,269,530.60
2018: $115,743,236.98
Excluding the U.S., in 2018, Turkey was the third
highest recipient of Canadian arms, after Saudi Arabia ($1.282 billion)
and Belgium at $154 million. During this period, Turkey began
participating in CANSEC in Ottawa, one of the largest weapons fairs in
North America.
The high level of Turkey's involvement in the HISF
suggests that it has become an important back-door conduit for links
between Turkey's ruling elite and the U.S., Canada and NATO. The
Canadian government likely wants to strengthen its ties to Turkey for
both economic and geostrategic reasons. Expansion of Canadian-Turkish
cooperation could involve potential contracts in the tens of millions
of dollars for Canadian companies such as Bombardier Transportation
(high-speed trains) and participation in the development of Turkey's
own arms industry.
Boeing
Boeing joined the Halifax Canada Club in 2018. The HISF
website says of Boeing:
"Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and
leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and
security systems. As America's biggest manufacturing exporter, the
company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in
more than 150 countries. Boeing products and tailored services include
commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and
defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communication
systems, and performance-based logistics and training."
It operates three business divisions: Commercial
Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; and Boeing Global Services.
Boeing Capital Corporation supports all three divisions by providing
financing for Boeing customers.
Boeing's Defense, Space & Security division had
revenue of U.S.$21.06 billion in 2017 with 50,699 employees as of 2015.
It makes Boeing the second-largest arms company in the world,
responsible for 45 per cent of the company's income in 2011.
Boeing was one of the big winners from President Trump's
$109.7 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that was formally signed May
20, 2017. Boeing has been a major supplier of the F-15 Eagle and the
AH64 Apache attack helicopter to Israel. These aircraft have been used
to attack Palestinians in the occupied territories, resulting in many
civilian casualties.
People linked to Boeing occupy key positions in the U.S.
administration. It is one of the major arms monopolies that now occupy
the highest ranks of the U.S. administration, including cabinet members
and political appointees charged with implementing the Trump agenda.[6] The biggest U.S. monopolies are "non-partisan"
which, in U.S. terms, refers to Republican/Democratic party
affiliation; both are factions of the ruling elite and no longer exist
as political parties in any traditional sense. Boeing has passed
seamlessly from the Obama to the Trump presidency. For example, in
2016, the Washington Post and
other media reported that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
"functioned as a powerful ally for Boeing's business interests at home
and abroad, while Boeing has invested resources in causes beneficial to
Clinton's public and political image." In parallel, Saudi Arabia put
over $10 million into the Clinton Foundation; Boeing put in another
$900,000, upon which Hillary Clinton reportedly made it her mission to
get the planes sold to Saudi Arabia, despite legal restrictions. These
now drop U.S.-made bombs on Yemen with U.S. guidance, U.S. refueling
mid-air, and U.S. protection at the United Nations. The Congressional
Research Service notes that between October 2010 and October 2014, the
U.S. signed off on more than $90 billion in weapons deals to the Saudi
government.
Former Boeing executive Mira Ricardel was a leader of
Trump's Pentagon transition team. Benjamin Cassidy, installed by Trump
as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, previously worked as a
senior executive at Boeing's international business sector, marketing
its military products abroad. Former Boeing CEO and Chairman Jim
McNerney netted a spot on Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum in
December 2016, an advisory body to the president comprised of corporate
executives. Boeing Vice-President Patrick Shanahan, who formerly led
the company's missile defense subsidiary, was made U.S. Defense
Secretary -- the second highest position in the Pentagon replacing
General James Mattis. The White House announced on May 9 that Trump
intended to nominate Shanahan as Secretary of Defense. In late March,
news sources reported that Shanahan was under investigation by the
Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General because of allegations
he improperly advocated on behalf of his former employer, Boeing. That
decision was reversed on June 18 when Shanahan withdrew.
Boeing consistently receives U.S. state funds. The
website Subsidy Tracker says it is the number one recipient from all
levels of government -- $14.4 billion in various pay-the-rich schemes
since the 1990s. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic
Policy (ITEP), for the decade 2007-2017 Boeing paid only $4.5 billion
on $51 billion in profits, for a ten-year tax rate of 8.8 per cent. The
federal U.S. Export-Import Bank, a federal agency that provides
insurance and financing to aid international transactions, is often
referred to as "the Bank of Boeing;" in 2014, $7.4 billion in long-term
guarantees -- 68 per cent of the total made by the Export-Import Bank
-- went to Boeing.
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) is the
federal agency responsible for investment in the Atlantic provinces for
"economic growth."
In 2009, then Foreign Minister Peter MacKay was
designated Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, which
committed to fund the HISF. The ACOA Minister has traditionally been an
MP from the region in the governing party. The agency is traditionally
known as a "patronage cow" for the party in power, providing grants
that in reality are pay-the-rich schemes.[7]
In 2017 ACOA contributed $250,000 to the HISF. Its
justification was that it was proof that Halifax is a major "world
class city" "between North America and Europe" worthy of foreign
investment, fit to compete for military contracts. In 2009 and 2010 the
German Marshall Fund had been the organizer; in 2011 it withdrew with
the reinvention of the Halifax International Security Forum "as a
not-for-profit entity organized exclusively for charitable and
education purposes." In 2014 some internal records of ACOA were
released under Access to Information requests, which shed some light on
the arrangements. An internal July 27, 2011 memorandum to then ACOA
Minister Bernard Valcourt requested authorization for the expenditure
of $7.47 million over three years, later granted. It gave the following
rationale for this expenditure:
"The Halifax Forum provides national and international
media exposure for Halifax and Atlantic Canada. The Forum supports the
Government of Canada's priorities, including the Global Commerce
strategy and enhances Canada's place in the world. It also positions
Canada as a key player in international defence and security issues and
positions Halifax and Nova Scotia as the crossroads between Europe and
North America. In addition, the forum provides economic benefits in the
form of travel, hotel and dining expenditures made by participants, as
well as spin-off benefits for local merchants and tourism operators.
"Moving forward, the Agency and its partners are working
to identify key initiatives to enhance economic activity in the
Atlantic region. The Halifax Forum is an integral part of the Agency's
efforts to enhance the region's profile and will advocate for specific
sectors such as aerospace, defence and security, information and
communications technology, and energy. A partnership network will
result in sustainability for the Halifax Forum at the conclusion of the
2013 event."
ACOA has a development officer dedicated to the
aerospace and defence sector. It is a member of the steering group of
DEFSEC Atlantic. Staged annually in Halifax in September, DEFSEC
Atlantic is now the second largest arms show in Canada. ACOA
participates with DND in seminars "to assist Canadian businesses to be
able to compete in the Aerospace, Defence and Security industries, both
domestically and globally." To invest, they demand concessions from
workers, communities and governments, skillfully concealed under the
demagogic slogan of "making Halifax competitive," "We build ships here"
and "creating jobs."
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an
aggressive alliance of 29 countries, established to advance
Anglo-American imperialist aims, with massive amounts of funds,
weaponry and personnel at its disposal, all of it operating outside the
rule of international law and counter to the interests of international
peace. In 2018, it was represented by nine officials at the HISF, from
its military, public diplomacy (propaganda) and diplomatic branches.
NATO has been an HISF partner since the inaugural 2009
conference which focused on the alliance's "security doctrine." Thus,
the word "security" in HISF's name is informed by NATO's warmongering
definition, namely protecting and advancing Anglo-American political
and economic interests to the detriment of the peoples of the world.
What this indicates is that the HISF is a venue where
NATO can work out its program to impose itself on governments in the
name of "partnership" and "collaboration," and provide itself civilian
and humanitarian window dressing for its war preparations.
For example, a November 2017 meeting of NATO Ministers
of Defence in Brussels approved the plan for an adapted NATO Command
Structure and officially launched the expansion of NATO's cyber warfare
program and the inclusion of cyber-attacks in the collective defence
provisions of Article 5 of the Alliance's Charter.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg explained that
the alliance was going to be dictating changes to the laws of member
states to serve rapid deployment for war: "It's about legislation, and
of course it's about making sure that NATO allies implement those
standards and those requirements. We formulate the requirements and the
standards, but of course it's nations that have to implement them when
they invest in infrastructure, when they make arrangements with, for
instance, private providers of transportation."
NATO dictate to governments of member countries also
takes the form of its Parliamentary Assembly. It claims that it serves
"as an essential link between NATO and the parliaments of its member
nations" and "works to build parliamentary and public consensus in
support of Alliance policies. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly deals
with social, cultural, political and economic issues, as well as
military matters of paramount importance to NATO member nations.
Parliamentarians meet and share information during regular Assembly
sessions in North America and Europe."
NATO has long paid attention to political manipulation
of parliaments and the wrecking of public opinion. In 1954, it
initiated the formation of NATO groups in member countries, of which
the Atlantic Council in New York has become the most powerful. Its
Canadian counterpart is the NATO Association of Canada, based in
Toronto. The changes to the Canada
Elections Act contained in Bill C-76 that relate to combating
"foreign influence" and monitoring the use of social media are informed
by U.S. National Security Doctrine, NATO and its Atlantic Council think
tank as well as the Five Eyes intelligence agencies. This involves
control and regulation over electoral and political communication and,
in the name of protecting electors, the introduction of a form of
censorship to determine what is legitimate. In social media, this
affects, for example, those it decrees to be "true believers," i.e.,
who willingly or unwillingly become the dupes of Russia, etc., and are
to be criminalized. The NATO Association of Canada has also
unsuccessfully tried to impose the view that opposition to NATO by
Canadians amounts to foreign interference in Canada's internal affairs.
SPONSORS
These companies are the sponsors of the 2019 Halifax
International Security Forum:
- Air Canada (Canada)
- CAE Inc. (Canada)
- Canadian Association of Defence and Securities Industries
- Ipsos Group S.A. (France)
- Pansophico (U.S.)
Air Canada
Founded in 1937 as a nation-building
project, Air Canada provides scheduled and charter
air transport for passengers and cargo to 207 destinations worldwide,
the airline operates nearly 100 Boeing airplanes in its current fleet,
and the airline's low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge operates 25.
CAE Inc.
Formerly known as the Canadian Aviation Electronics
company, CAE is an aircraft simulator manufacturer and one of the
world's biggest providers of pilot training services. It has around 70
per cent of the world's aviation simulator market and employs some
8,500 people in 35 countries.
This global aerospace monopoly is deeply involved in
designing and producing military equipment and in the training of U.S.
and other military personnel especially combat pilots. Since October,
2015 CAE has been the prime contractor responsible for the NATO Flying
Training in Canada (NFTC) program, in a joint venture with the Royal
Canadian Air Force.
The private monopoly is one of the principal recipients
in the aerospace sector of pay-the-rich handouts from the public
treasury. According to a 2012 report, CAE Inc., had collected $646
million in handouts from Industry Canada alone since 1993. On August 8,
2018 the Trudeau and Quebec Liberal governments handed it another $200
million over the next five years "to develop a new generation of flight
simulators and new training services in the areas of aviation, defence
and health." Of this amount, $10 million from Ottawa and $5 million
from Quebec are grants.
CAE had no lack of funds. It reported profits of $355.7
million during its most recent fiscal year, which ended on March 31. It
was involved in the cratering of Bombardier. On November 8, 2018 CAE
announced it was taking over the aircraft flight and technical training
unit of Bombardier, which served more than 4,800 Bombardier business
jets, for U.S.$645 million. It gave no indication of the fate of those
now working in the unit. The situation reveals that the millions of
dollars in recent Quebec and federal pay-the-rich handouts to CAE and
Bombardier were not meant to maintain production let alone "create
jobs," but to ensure the servicing of debt held by the financial
oligarchy.
Canadian Association of Defence and Securities
Industries
For more than two decades, the Canadian Association of
Defence and Securities Industries (CADSI) has organized the annual
CANSEC weapons fair in Ottawa. Sponsored by the Trudeau war government
and the biggest U.S. arms monopolies, CANSEC features thousands of
participants from more than 60 countries, including more than 4,000
from the Canadian government and Department of National Defence. Its
main sponsor is the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown
corporation that arranges weapons deals between companies with
facilities in Canada and foreign governments, and in 2017 Lockheed
Martin, the largest U.S. military contractor. In 2018 more than 11,000
people attended the two-day conference, including 16 MPs and senators
and many generals and admirals. Many of CADSI's 800 members are also
part of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Council of Chief
Executives, Canadian Chamber of Commerce or Aerospace Industries
Association of Canada.[8] In 2016 CADSI president
Christyn Cianfarani summed up the relationship between Canada's foreign
policy and the arms business. "Canada has nurtured a long-standing
relationship with Saudi Arabia, because the Middle East is particularly
important to us -- not only from an oil perspective but also from a
regional politics perspective going way back [...]," Cianfarani told
iPolitics. Saudi Arabia, the CADSI president said, is "perceived by
Canadian companies as a market that has opportunity for us."[9]
Ipsos
Ipsos Group S.A. is a global market research and
consulting firm with worldwide headquarters in Paris, France. It ranks
as the third largest research agency in the world. As of 2014, Ipsos
has offices in 88 countries, employing 16,530 people. Its Canadian
subsidiary is Ipsos Reid, which employs some 600 people. It says it is
Canada's largest market research and public opinion polling firm.
At a time when concern is being expressed about foreign
threats to the democratic process by political marketing companies,
Ipsos contracts with NATO to assess the level of public opposition
inside the bloc to its wars. This is illustrated by the following polls
carried out in succession in 2011 as part of the aggression against
Libya:
- "Libya Military Action Poll -- Online GB," April 5-8,
2011;
- "Military action in Libya: Polling in Great Britain,
USA, France, Italy. Topline results," April 12, 2011, and;
- "Global advisor: Assessment of NATO's Military
Intervention in Libya," May 2011.
Polling is a tool for the manipulation and wrecking of
public opinion, from elections to military campaigns. Ipsos goes from
country to country conducting marketing campaigns through polling. It
uses state-of-the-art micro-targeting and interviewing techniques.
Szonda-Ipsos carried out repeated polling in Hungary, where there was
a high level of opposition to participating in the Afghan and
Iraq wars. Questions it posed tended to spread doubt and confusion to
undermine people's conviction against NATO, such as asking whether
membership in NATO was "a legitimate demand."
In 2017, the International Republican Institute headed
by U.S. Senator John McCain commissioned Ipsos to gather detailed
information in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland on social,
economic, national and international questions, subsequently used by
the U.S. state and its intelligence agencies and think tanks on which
issues to manipulate opinion. The manipulation of election polls by
U.S. agencies were one of the important mechanisms used in the "colour
revolutions" staged in Eastern Europe.
Pansophico
A U.S. cyber security company based in Delaware,
Maryland and a new sponsor in 2019. Its website provides minimal
information, stating that it "supports democratic processes through
commercial partnerships and national and international security. We
support military readiness and provide creative technological and
security solutions for democracy-based businesses and governments
across the globe."
Notes
1. The Trilateral Commission is an elite planning group
created by billionaire David Rockefeller in 1973 with the help of
Zbigniew Brzezinski, then future U.S. National Security Advisor to
President Jimmy Carter, and then Ford Foundation president, McGeorge
Bundy. It is influential both within the United States and globally.
Trilateral refers to Europe, North America and Japan.
2. War as Business:
Technological Change and Military Service Contracting, Armin
Krishnan, (Routledge, 2016), p. 115.
3. "Atco
partnership wins U.S.$340M maintenance contract for radar sites in
Alaska," Canadian Press, September 25, 2014.
4. "Turkish investigations cast shadow over powerful
army-run conglomerate," Daren Butler, Chicago Tribune, May 8,
2012.
5. "Turkey's Gul returns for encore: Turkey's former
President Abdullah Gul emerged from retirement' to attend the Halifax
Security Forum in Canada," Cengiz Çandar, Al Monitor, November
25, 2014.
6. Along with the Boeing appointments listed above,
General James L. Jones was Obama's National Security Advisor from 2009
to 2010; at the time of his appointment, he was on the boards of
directors of both Chevron and Boeing. He is presently interim chairman
of the Atlantic Council. Rudy de Leona, former vice president at Boeing
and former Defense Department official in the Clinton administration,
was a member of the Defense Policy Board. (The
Intercept, March 21, 2017)
7. It certainly worked for John Risley's Clearwater
Seafoods and Ocean Nutrition Canada Limited. See "John
Risley,
billionaire hypocrite," Tim Bousquet, Halifax Examiner, April
16, 2015.
8. "Draining
Ottawa's foreign policy swamp," Yves Engler, December 21, 2017.
9. "Canada's weapons export grew more than 89 per cent
under Harper," Elizabeth Thompson, iPolitics, January 20, 2016.
The Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) has
three "Media Partners," Foreign Affairs magazine, Foreign
Policy magazine, and Politico, which publishes content using
various media. Like the other HISF partners and sponsors, the basis for
the partnership is not immediately clear.
Foreign Affairs
Magazine
Foreign Affairs is a publication of the Council
on Foreign Relations (CFR), considered to be the most powerful foreign
policy think tank in the U.S. This section focuses on that publication
and its parent organization, to show what is the basis for being an
HISF Media Partner, in turn shedding light on what are the HISF's aims
and what interests it serves.
The HISF website states: "Since its founding in 1922, Foreign
Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of
American foreign policy and global affairs. It is published by the
[CFR], a non-profit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated
to improving the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international
affairs through the free exchange of ideas."
Foreign Affairs is the main publication of the
CFR. The journal is aimed specifically at government "policy makers,"
and the economic and intellectual elite. During James F. Hoge's 18
years as editor (1992-2010), Foreign Affairs more than doubled
its circulation to a high of 161,000, in addition to its on-line
edition. Hoge launched editions in Spanish, Japanese and Russian.[1]
The CFR has some 5,000 members (all from the U.S.),
representing the oil, energy, financial, political, university,
business, media and banking sectors, as well as multinational
institutions and the arms industry, NGOs, large media corporations and
the intelligence community and military sector.
The CFR has been described as a veritable shadow
government that plans the general strategies of the global imperialist
system, acting above any government. In their 1977 landmark book, The
Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and U.S. Foreign
Policy, the U.S. historians Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter
observed:
"That the Council is little known is thus not a sign of
insignificance, but rather points to its mode of operation. The men at
the top meet and work out together the general direction of policy --
the limits of respectable debate. Through a complex network of
channels, the content and tone of their discussion reach the
policymakers and the leaders of opinion. Eventually they may reach
those of us who take an interest in what our country is doing in the
world, but we may have little idea that what comes to be a natural
'climate of opinion' was carefully fostered and guided. For the process
is not public. Council members are selected by the Council's leadership
and the meetings are confidential. As the New York Times
expressed it, 'Except for its annual public Elihu Root Lectures, the
Council's talks and seminars are strictly off the record. An
indiscretion can be grounds for termination or suspension of
membership.'"
CFR members and individuals with high academic standing
produce documents of a political and ideological nature that serve as
weapons of the U.S. imperialists in their striving to dominate the
world. It brings together people from various political and ideological
tendencies with a common imperialist vision. In this sense, it attempts
to form a bridge over the serious inter-capitalist and
inter-imperialist rivalries and clashes within the U.S. ruling class
which it calls "to develop a bipartisan consensus on the key foreign
policy issues of the day." CFR members who come from the political
world are responsible for the implementation of the conclusions adopted
at its meetings or advanced in its detailed reports.
For over 30 years, the CFR has been in the forefront of
advocating the integration of Canada and Mexico into Fortress North
America, including the integration of ministries dealing with foreign
and military policy. For example, the CFR was the driving force behind
the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) and the
Security Perimeter which was being negotiated at the time between Obama
and Harper. On September 20, 2007 -- immediately following the
Montebello Conference with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican
President Vincente Fox -- Harper was invited to address the Council on
Foreign Relations, an address that was webcast to all CFR members. This
is further evidence that the HISF forms a fifth column platform for the
CFR to push for the destruction of any state arrangements which impede
the integration of Canada into U.S. imperialist aims.
Foreign Affairs joined the HISF as a partner in
2011. At a September 6, 2011 press conference, then Defence Minister
Peter MacKay announced additional government funding for another three
years and that he was "pleased to announce this year the Forum is
benefiting from a new partner in Foreign Affairs. Foreign
Affairs' partnership is a tremendous asset and I know that this
decision moves the Forum forward in ways that simply weren't possible
the first two years."
Neither MacKay nor newspaper reports carrying the
announcement identify the magazine either as a U.S. publication or the
journal of the CFR. Nor were terms of the partnership revealed at that
time.
In 2016, a response to a Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Freedom of Information request to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities
Agency (ACOA) brought some information about the Foreign Affairs/CFR-HISF
partnership to light. In a July 25, 2011 e-mail to an ACOA account
officer, Peter Van Praagh, newly appointed as HISF President, stated:
"Foreign Affairs magazine is owned by the Council
on Foreign Relations. Foreign Affairs is the leading source for
ideas and analysis on foreign policy and international relations. Foreign
Affairs will work with Halifax International Security Forum to
develop the agenda for the November [2011] event. This includes regular
consultation between Foreign Affairs' expert staff, its parent,
CFR and the Halifax International Security Forum to ensure that the
agenda attracts top political and intellectual leaders. The articles in
the November-December edition of Foreign Affairs will highlight
the November Halifax Forum agenda. Additionally, Halifax International
Security Forum will have access to Foreign Affairs' network of
international experts to invite to the Forum as participants and
speakers. Live video of the November conference will be available on
the Foreign Affairs' website. There will be Halifax branding on
all Foreign Affairs products
including the magazine, a HISF banner on its website and highlighting
on its Twitter//Facebook/YouTube pages. Information about Halifax will
be distributed on its e-news letter to 87,000 people. Finally, copies
of Foreign Affairs will be distributed to all HISF
participants."
Van Praagh's message to ACOA was that the role of the
CFR is decisive in terms of setting the agenda, recruiting speakers,
developing a ramified U.S.-based international elite network, and
popularizing that agenda amongst that elitist strata.[2] These arrangements also show the
subservience of the Canadian government (at that time the Harper
Conservatives) to U.S. imperialist aims. Leading officials would have
been able to clearly see that the Canadian government had no
independent role in the war conference.
Thus, at virtually no cost to itself, the CFR acquired a
new platform to champion its agenda. Furthermore, Van Praagh
disingenuously covered up the reasons why the CFR decided to become
involved. He refers euphemistically "to develop the agenda" without
mentioning either what that agenda is or what are the CFR's interests.
It suggests that the HISF could not achieve what the Anglo-American
imperialists and NATO want it to achieve on its own.
Interestingly, a search of the Foreign Affairs
website shows not a single article on or emanating from the Halifax
International Security Forum.
Also in 2011, Jonathan Tepperman, originally from
Windsor, Ontario, was installed as the Vice Chairman of the board of
the HISF (the board had been created that summer, replacing the German
Marshall Fund as the conference organizer). He had been Managing Editor
of Foreign Affairs since January 2011.
The editor of Foreign Affairs is Gideon Rose. He
surfaced at the 2011 HISF as a moderator, as did former editor James F.
Hoge Jr. Many presenters and participants at the HISF are also CFR
members, such as former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who
delivered the keynote address on November 18, 2011.
Role of CFR in Libya
What has been the recent role of the CFR in U.S.
imperialist aggression? Take for example NATO's intervention in Libya
in 2011.
CFR President Richard Haas at the time was demanding the
Obama presidency and NATO send "boots on the ground" to occupy Libya.
In an editorial in the Financial Times titled "Libya Now Needs
Boots on the Ground," he stated that Libya's "rebels" were in no way
capable of rebuilding Libya properly and would require an
"international force" to maintain order. The title alone is enough to
get an idea of the message being communicated to readers, the U.S.
ruling elite.
Haas admitted that the murderous NATO intervention in
Libya, that totaled more than 7,000 air strikes, including by Canada's
war planes, to "protect civilians," was a political intervention
designed to bring about regime change. Haas implored Obama to
reconsider his decision to rule out U.S. boots on the ground and to do
so quickly.[3] The U.S.
imperialist policy, based on brinkmanship, was in deep crisis. Dr
Leslie Gelb, honorary president of the Council on Foreign Relations (he
was president from 1993 to 2003), demanded the resignation of the chief
advisers of President Obama and the appointment of a new team. In
retrospect, it suggested that the CFR was setting the next stage for
military intervention in Syria to create the necessary climate for
radical action against the "bothersome" government of this country,
organized from the highest levels of power in the United States.
The seven months of relentless bombing and shelling by
the NATO forces caused innumerable civilian deaths, the destruction of
whole cities, the devastation of hospitals, schools, universities,
roads, sewage treatment plants, aquifers and countless other social
infrastructure paid for by the labour of Libyan and migrant workers in
the Libyan oilfields. Showing the kind of "liberation" and "democracy"
that the "international community" of plunderers has in mind for other
countries around the world, the UK presented a license to drill for oil
request to Libya's CIA-backed National Transitional Council less than
twenty-four hours after Gadhafi's death.
After months of denying the existence of insurrectionary
elements within the Syrian opposition, the U.S.-based Council on
Foreign Relations issued reports confirming that, not only were the
"protesters" armed, but that rebel forces on the ground collectively
formed a resistance army of 15,000 fighters. The CFR claimed this "Free
Syrian Army" was requesting weapons and air support, despite documented
reports of weapons being smuggled past Syria's borders from foreign
supporters, most notably, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, and Libya. CFR's
report then goes on to explore the options available to NATO for
facilitating "regime change," including the use of "overhead
surveillance assets, logistical enablers, peacekeepers, armed drones,
combat aircraft, ground troops," and "smuggled weapons." The claims of
a large, armed militant force operating inside of Syria directly
contradicted the West's concurrent narrative that Syria's military is
running rampant and killing defenseless civilians. With an army of
"15,000 defectors" attempting to seize the nation by force, with the
help of foreign money, weapons, and diplomatic support, one finds it
difficult to believe the Syrian government would instead be spending
its time conducting massacres of civilians.
Role of CFR in Syria
The CFR and the HISF have also been directly involved in
the destabilization and subversion of Syria. There is Bassma Kodmani,
member of the executive bureau and head of foreign affairs, Syrian
National Council alongside Radwan Ziadeh who was surreptitiously
brought to the 2011 HISF. She was a two-time Bilderberg meeting
attendee; director of governance and international co-operation program
for (CIA-front) Ford Foundation in pre-"Arab Spring" Egypt; and
executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) -- a research
program initiated by the CFR in 2004.
The main focus of the 2011 HISF was the organization of
the dastardly war against Syria and Iran -- with Canada announcing the
deployment of the warship HMCS Charlottetown to the eastern
Mediterranean; U.S. Senator John McCain calling for the recognition of
jihadi terrorists from the Syrian National Council as the "legitimate
representative" of the Syrian people; MacKay's future wife, Nazanin
Afshin-Jam, an Iranian monarchist, moderating the only session on Iran
as a "human rights activist." A report by the editor of a blog of the
Canadian International Council included the following observation: "The
moderator consistently brought the conversation back to conflict, air
strikes and Iranian counter attacks."[4]
One day before Christmas, the CFR released a grotesque
article on its website titled "Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike is the
Least Bad Option." The article endorsed a U.S. military strike against
Iran as a neat and cost-free way to address its nuclear program.
"The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy
Iran's nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region
and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term
national security of the United States."[5]
The CFR added its seal of authenticity to this
made-to-order "provocative argument," i.e., aggression, in which they
were trying to exploit, once again, the panic that gripped U.S. society
after the events of September 11. Author Matthew Kroenig, co-chair of
the CFR's Term Member Advisory Committee, was a CFR International
Affairs fellow in the U.S. Department of Defense.
This is the editorial stance of a journal being
described as the "media partner" of the Halifax International Security
Forum, funded by the Canadian Department of National Defence and ACOA.
From all of this it could be concluded that the modus operandi of a "media
partnership" and what MacKay was referring to when he highlighted the
role of Foreign Affairs as
one which "moves the Forum forward in ways that simply weren't possible
the first two years," made it a useful vehicle for advocating for a
superior organization of imperialist intervention and war and a more
aggressive and bellicose policy than that being followed by the Obama
government, and the wrecking of public opinion.
Foreign Policy Magazine
When Jonathan Tepperman, Vice Chairman of the Board of
the Halifax International Security Forum, moved from Managing Editor, Foreign
Affairs to Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy, it also became
a "media partner."
Foreign Policy is a U.S. news publication. It was
founded in 1970 during the turmoil of the Vietnam War by the
imperialist ideologue Samuel P. Huntington of the "clash of
civilizations" theory and Warren Demian Manshel. It focuses on global
affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy. It was
closely linked with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
which, after six years of close partnership acquired full ownership, in
1978. It began to produce content daily on its website, and six print
issues annually. In 2000, it launched international editions in Europe,
Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
Since 2008 when it was acquired from Carnegie, which was
reportedly losing $1.5 million a year, Foreign Policy magazine
and ForeignPolicy.com has been published by The FP Group, a division of
Graham Holdings Company (formerly the Washington Post Company bought by
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos). The FP Group also produces FP Events, Foreign
Policy's events division, launched in 2012.
According to Wikipedia, its
holdings include the online magazine Slate,
Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations), a group of five
large-market TV stations, higher education company Kaplan, and the now
closed Trove (formerly WaPo Labs) -- the developers of a newsreader
app. Graham Holdings Company also owned cable television and internet
service provider Cable One until it was spun off in 2015. In 2009 it
expanded the web site, adding a new cast of ten bloggers, mainly from
national security think tanks. In 2018, the magazine -- "historically
one of the more reliable destinations for freelancers who want to write
deeply reported international pieces," according to the Columbia
Review of Journalism -- closed its foreign bureaus.
Parallel to the 2018 HISF, the theme of Foreign
Policy's Fall 2018 print edition was "The Future of War" --
"The reason is that this is one of those moments when technology is
moving so fast that the old, settled ways of fighting wars are rapidly
being overturned. And nobody knows what, exactly, will follow."
Politico
The HISF writes on its website that "Politico strives to
be the dominant source for politics and policy in power centers across
every continent where access to reliable information, non-partisan
journalism and real-time tools creates, informs and engages a global
citizenry. Political professionals read Politico. Public policy
professionals need Politico. And those who hunger to better understand
Washington and government power centers around the globe go to Politico
first."
Politico is a specialized U.S. political news journal,
which recently moved into Canada. It recently launched Politico Pro to
provide a subscription-only news service to corporations and government
agencies. Its website notes, "Politico Pro Canada is a new subscription
service covering policy trends and political developments that shape
the deeply-integrated Canada-U.S. relationship. Created for business
leaders and policy makers, Politico Pro Canada's exclusive coverage
focuses on federal and state policies that affect bilateral economic
interests and government relations."
Politico is known for its fondness of anonymous sources
-- and even anonymous authors. In 2018 the outlet ran a story
suggesting that a dubious Guardian
exclusive about an alleged meeting between former Trump campaign
manager Paul Manafort and Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange might be
a product of Kremlin disinformation. The illuminating piece of
conspiracy theory was penned by a nameless ex-CIA officer.
This "partnership" was only announced on the eve of the
2018 HISF.
John Harris, Politico Editor-in-Chief, is a member of
the German Marshall Fund board of trustees. The board includes a host
of corporate executives and news commentators. Its funding also comes
from a coterie of governments especially the U.S. and Germany, major
foundations, and multinational corporations including: Bank of America
Foundation, BP, Daimler, Eli Lilly & Company, General Dynamics,
IBM, NATO, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and USAID, among many others.
Notes
1. Hoge is now chairman of the
board of Human Rights Watch, an imperialist NGO renowned for working in
tandem with the U.S. State Department.
2. An April, 2011 article amongst
others refers to the role of the CFR's "unparalleled network" that the
HISF wishes to access in the context of fomenting the "Arab Spring":
"Contrary to the conventional cover stories presenting
the uprisings in Cairo, Tunis, and elsewhere as spontaneous bottom-up
affairs, there is a great deal of evidence indicating that they were
instead coordinated top-down events planned long before the first
street demonstrations began. And like the slime trail in the garden
that leads to the slug, the trail here leads back to the Council on
Foreign Relations. Utilizing its unparalleled network of high-level
members in the U.S. government, the United Nations, the World Bank, the
Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Brookings Institution,
and many NGOs, corporations, and philanthropic organizations, the CFR
has employed a pincer attack pressuring the target governments with
economic and diplomatic efforts from above, while funding Astroturf
protests from below designed to look like real grass-roots affairs. The
saviour whom the media has anointed as the next President of Egypt,
Mohamed ElBaradei, was publicly picked over a year ago in the CFR's
journal Foreign Affairs as
the "hero" who would save Egypt, " William F. Jasper, "Organized Chaos
Behind the Scenes in the Middle East: The Middle East Uprisings May
Have Surprised Most People in the World, but Globalist Elites at the
Council on Foreign Relations Laid the Groundwork for the 'Spontaneous
Events,'" The New American,
Volume 27, Issue 7, April 4, 2011.
3. "Libya
now needs boots on the ground," Richard Haass, Financial Times, August 22, 2011.
4. "Ten
years of resisting the U.S.-led Halifax war conference," Tony Seed,
November 13, 2018.
5. Kroenig later stated "my
analysis in this article came out of work I did last year where I was a
special adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and where I
worked on defense strategy and policy on Iran." (Foreign Affairs, January/February
2012)
Condemning the warmongering article, Prof Stephen Walt
affirmed:
"There is a simple and time-honored formula for making
the case for war, especially preventive war. First, you portray the
supposed threat as dire and growing, and then try to convince people
that if we don't act now, horrible things will happen down the road.
(Remember Condi Rice's infamous warnings about Saddam's "mushroom
cloud"?) All this step requires is a bit of imagination and a
willingness to assume the worst. Second, you have to persuade readers
that the costs and risks of going to war aren't that great. If you want
to sound sophisticated and balanced, you acknowledge that there are
counterarguments and risks involved. But then you do your best to shoot
down the objections and emphasize all the ways that those risks can be
minimized. In short: In Step 1 you adopt a relentlessly gloomy view of
the consequences of inaction; in Step 2 you switch to bulletproof
optimism about how the war will play out.
"And let's be crystal clear about what Kroenig is
advocating here. He is openly calling for preventive war against Iran,
even though the United States has no authorization from the UN Security
Council, it is not clear that Iran is actively developing nuclear
weapons, and Iran has not attacked us or any of our allies -- ever. He
is therefore openly calling for his country to violate international
law. He is calmly advocating a course of action that will inevitably
kill a significant number of people, including civilians, some of whom
probably despise the clerical regime (and with good reason). And
Kroenig is willing to have their deaths on his conscience on the basis
of a series of unsupported assertions, almost all of them subject to
serious doubt." (Foreign Policy, December 21, 2011)
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