I read here in Haaretz that Obama’s team in discussions with Israel about what to do about Iran included Gary Seymour, the White House honcho on arms proliferation, described as a "close friend" of Uzi Arad (above), Netanyahu’s national security advisor. Arad, you remember, is supposedly not allowed even to enter the United States because of his role in the Franklin spy case, besides being an uber-hawk. Perhaps someone can explain how is that his "close friend" has a top White House position–one that will be crucial to be determining whether or not we go to war with Iran. I don’t like to overstate the influence of "The Lobby"– but how is that Israel gets to have a "close friend" of Arad in the White House?
[Weiss adds: Is Seymour "partner, lover or donor"? Here is Arad on limited nuclear war feasibility, and why Israel is always pretty-much alone:
Herman Kahn [late, of Hudson Institute] is the original Dr. Strangelove. He was a Jewish-American genius who was a salient nuclear hawk and dealt with the planning and feasibility of nuclear wars. Kahn was a towering figure. He was a beacon of intelligence, knowledge and pioneering thought. He combined conceptual productivity, humor and informality. He attracted a group of devotees of whom I was one in the 1970s. But he also had bitter rivals who criticized him for even conceiving of the idea of a nuclear war. In the Cold War it was precisely those who talked about defense and survival who were considered nuclear hawks. The doves talked about "mutual assured destruction," which blocks any possibility of thinking about nuclear weapons. Like Kahn, I was one of the hawks. One of my projects was a paper for the Pentagon on planning a limited nuclear war in Central Europe…
We are always alone. Sometimes we have partners and lovers and donors of money, but no one is in our shoes.
I still remember Roosevelt and all the wise and enlightened types of the American security hierarchy in the period of Auschwitz, and I have retained the lesson. In Jewish history and fate there is a dimension of unfairness toward us. We have already been alone once, and even the good and the enlightened did not protect us. Accordingly, we must not be militant, but we must entrench our defense and security prowess and act with wisdom and restraint and caution and sangfroid. Never again.]
Kahn & Co. were some seriously scary people. And yet again we see the Holocaust trottest out as justification for any type of insanity. I’m just glad the Soviets (who after all sufferered no trauma in WWII) were more sensible during the Cold War.
This is yet more evidence of corruption at the highest level of the security clearance system. The man is a friend of a known fascist and intelligence operative of a foreign nation who has been implicated in espionage against the United States. Worse, he gets authorized for what has to be the highest level security clearance so that he can help set US policy on arms control, the objectives of which differ radically from the arms control objectives of the nation for which his friend spied! If that nation were any but Israel, a request for even a confidential security clearance by a man with such ties would have laughed out of hand. The FBI seriously needs to start investigating whoever is clearing people like Seymour, Wolfowitz, and Feith. There is a double standard 10 miles wide, and it didn’t pop out of thin air. If the NSA is still doing illegal wiretaps, they damn well better be tapping these guys.
I’m sorry, where in the article does he use the term ZOG? All I see is he has asked some important American security and best interest questions in view of Obama’s reliance on Gary Seymour, a buddy of Uzi Arad, as a consultant. Please clarify. Thanks.
It was in an earlier headline – since changed, it appears.
The news that Obama is relying on such people for foreign policy is really, really depressing. The USA has been hijacked and our own government is a traitor.
Well, in spite of the term ZOG, and to whatever extent it is an acronym based on current reality, here’s the latest on Israel getting the latest available top of the line fighter jet:
link to haaretz.com
This is why Eisenhower warned against the power of the military-industrial complex. The war industry doesn’t really care who ends up with its products, as long as it boosts their bottom line. And they will fight tooth and nail against any plans to eliminate the military subsidies to Israel, which end up as profit in their pockets.
Between the war industry and the political power of JINSA, any attempt to curb Israel’s military purchases is doomed.
I’ve been watching both Barak Ravid and Amos Harel (well connected man) for quite some time now.
Others seem to watch them too. Amos Harel:
Amos Harel
The Magnes Zionist, admittedly not quite the same context:
Again, the Department of Computer Science in Cork, Ireland.
Barak Ravid
To not forget another careful watcher: Richard Silverstein, my favorite quote Richard on Ravid:
This seems to be on the way in congress too:
This is depressing. Hadn’t heard of Seymour before, but he is joined on that trip with Dennis Ross. Recall that it was Ross that helped Barak sabotage the Camp David negotiations in 2000. This led directly to the Israelis claim that “there was no one to talk to” hence the second intifada. When Ross visits Israel it is reported that he is the house guest of Natan Sharansky, one of the ultra-right prosettler politicians in Likud.
Why oh why does Obama allow such obvious plants inside such sensitive negotiations?
What can and/or will Obama offer China to help further strangle Iran economically so that Israel
may allow a fake Palestinian state?
What Palestinian leader in his or her right mind would try to get the support of the
Palestinians for a fake state made of stamps, flags, and regular circuses? There’s a lot
of educated young Palestinians, no? Would such a leader offer them jobs in a new
Palestinian post office, flag shop, or as carnie folk?