By Daniel Greenfield
It was recently observed that Ron Paul was to the left of Obama on
national security and the best evidence for that statement can be found
when one year ago Ron Paul joined forces with Barney Frank on a proposal to gut national defense via a panel of experts, quite a few of whom were tied to George Soros.
In July 2010, Barney Frank and Ron Paul co-authored a Huffington Post article rolling out their Sustainable Defense Task Force.
The Task Force “consisting of experts on military expenditures that
span the ideological spectrum” would recommend a trillion dollars in
defense cuts. The experts, however, didn’t quite “span the ideological
spectrum” — more like float under it.
The panel of experts who would decide how to best gut national
defense featured such independent thinkers as William D. Hartung of the
New America Foundation. Hartung’s main expertise was appearing in
“Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American
Empire.”
Then there was Lawrence J. Kolb of the Center for American Progress
and Miriam Pemberton of the Institute for Policy Studies. If you want to
know what the Center, the Foundation and the Institute all have in
common, it’s Hungarian and smells like stale cabbage and the death of
nations.
The rather creepy Institute for Policy Studies issued a paper proposing that Obama
act as king and rule through executive orders. The New American
Foundation is not only backed by Soros but has his son on its leadership
council. The Center for American Progress is run by the co-chair of
Obama’s transition team and is, for all intents and purposes, the think
tank of the White House. All three are Soros funded.
But it doesn’t end there. Also on the panel was Christopher Hellman
of the National Priorities Project (NPP). If you are wondering what the
NPP is, it’s a think tank whose objective is to “influence national
spending priorities.” And if you’re in the mood for a double, Miriam
Pemberton is also on the board of the NPP. The man behind the curtain at
NPP? None other than our favorite Hungarian James Bond villain.
Going further down the list there’s Winslow Wheeler of the Center for
Defense Information (CDI). The CDI’s goal is to strengthen “national
and international security through international cooperation [and]
reduced reliance on unilateral military power to resolve conflict.” CDI
operates under the aegis of the World Security Institute, which is
apparently the least creepy name they could think of. Wheeler is a
Counterpunch contributor, a site which even Stalinists think goes a bit
too far. CDI gets money from the Open Society Institute (OSI) where the
stench of death and stale cabbage never goes away.
Then there’s Charles Knight and Carl Conetta of the Project for
Defense Alternatives, which appears to be a subset of the Commonwealth
Institute. Of its board of directors, S.M. Miller is also the founder of
United for a Fair Economy which enjoys generous support from a certain
philanthropic chap who occasionally destroys economies for sport.
Another member, Guy Molyneux, has also worked with OSI. A third board
member, Richard Healey, was formerly director of the Institute for
Policy Studies and is on the advisory board of the Center for Social
Inclusion, founded by two OSI veterans.
If you think this can’t get any worse, meet Paul Kawika Martin of
Peace Action (PA). You might know PA better by its old name, the
“Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy” or just “SANE,” a Communist front
group investigated by none other than Senator Thomas Dodd. PA has the
same attitude toward American defense that burglars have toward alarm
systems in other people’s homes. They don’t like them very much. And
they have a “five year strategic plan” for the job.
Paul Kawika Martin travels around fighting progress on board The
Rainbow Warrior and is also involved with Physicians for Social
Responsibility. Martin has also collaborated with the National Iranian
American Council (NIAC), a front for the Iranian regime. I think you can
guess by now who funds Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Also on the task force is Laicie Olson of the Center for Arms Control
and Non-Proliferation. The Center is actually a subset of the Council
for a Livable World. Olson originally worked for Physicians for Social
Responsibility.
Another task force member was Heather Hurlburt of the National
Security Network (NSN). The NSN’s goals are to “build a strong
progressive national security and counter conservative spin.” Its
founder was part of Obama’s transition team and resigned to work for
Janet Napolitano. Soros’s OSI helped fund NSN, and its Special Counsel
was on the NSN Policy Committee.
If you’re tired of reading through all this, then here’s the summary.
Of the Paul-Frank Task Force, 9 out of 14 members were linked to
Soros’s organs. Two were affiliated with the Cato Institute. One is
indeterminate.
Ron Paul proposed to put a bunch of Soros-funded think tank experts
in charge of dismantling the US military. Think about that for a moment.
Ron Paul supporters can see conspiracies in a glass of water; can they
see anything wrong with this picture? Can they see anything wrong with
having a man from a group that was investigated for its Communist ties
in the driver’s seat on national defense?
The task force’s proposals included cutting nuclear deterrence;
reducing the fleet by 57 ships, including two carriers; canceling the
Joint Strike Fighter; “severely curtail missile defense” — and that is a
direct quote from the report — retiring four Marine battalions;
reducing the military by 200,000 personnel; cutting defense research
spending by 50 billion over ten years; and increasing health care fees
for members of the military.
Not only did Paul join forces with Barney Frank to slash military
preparedness, but he ended up putting the experts of a foreign
billionaire with global ambitions in charge of the project. And that was
what he did as a congressman. Can anyone imagine what he would do as
president?
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