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Everything
You Ever Wanted to Know About Henry Kissinger
December 4, 2002
By Barbara O'Brien
Just when you thought George W. Bush couldn't get more outrageous, he appoints
Henry Kissinger to head the "independent" September 11
investigation.
Julian Borger writes in The Guardian that Americans reacted to this
appointment with "relief mixed with nostalgic affection," while
Europeans were surprised to learn Kissinger was not dead or in jail.
I knew he was not dead or in jail. But to this American, having him
back in government is like finding maggots in a sandwich.
Henry Kissinger: International Man of Mystery
Kissinger was Richard Nixon's national security advisor and, later,
secretary of state for Nixon and Gerald Ford. He helped Nixon concentrate
power in the White House by excluding Congress and professional diplomats
from the conduct of foreign policy. He was a "lone ranger" of
world affairs, traveling the globe, conducting secret meetings and covert
operations with little oversight.
He scored some remarkable successes; for example, a secret trip to Beijing
in 1971 paved the way for Nixon's famous visit to China
in 1972. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 (shared with Le Duc
Tho of North Vietnam) for the negotiations that eventually ended U.S.
involvement in Vietnam.
After the 1973 Middle East war Kissinger
negotiated disengagement agreements that separated Israeli and Arab
armies.
However, let's not forget that Kissinger and Nixon were responsible
for widening the Vietnam War into Cambodia.
Let's not forget that Kissinger ordered the FBI to tap the telephones
of subordinates on the staff of the National Security Council.
Let's not forget the covert actions that led to the overthrow of
socialist President Salvador Allende of Chile
and the ascension of the oppressive Augusto Pinochet.
Let's not forget East Timor. During a state
visit to Jakarta in 1975,
Kissinger gave a "green light" to the Indonesian dictator
Suharto to invade East Timor. Less than a day
after Kissinger and President Gerald Ford left Jakarta,
Suharto's troops began their assault. According to Christopher Hitchens, a quarter of a million Timorese
died as a result of the occupation by Indonesia.
Kissinger left government service at the end of the Ford
Administration, but was called upon by Ronald Reagan in 1983 to head the
National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, just in time for the
Iran-Contra scheme. From 1984-1990 he served as a member of the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Although there is no "smoking gun" evidence directly
connecting Kissinger to Iran-Contra, Kissinger's long-time associate and
protégé John Negroponte - now ambassador to the UN -
was in the thick of it.
Kissinger is associated with the word "Realpolitik," which
means politics or national policy governed by principles of power,
expansion, and expediency rather than by ideals or ethics. It's a policy
favored by powerful people interested in hanging on to their power.
However, in the long run it does more harm than good.
"Previous Kissingerian
forays into realpolitik have placed the US into some of history's ugliest
footnotes: support for the intemperate Shah of Iran; the bombing of
civilians in Vietnam and ultimate destabilization of Southeast Asia;
kidnap, murder, assassination, and coup in Chile; the liquidation of
hundreds of thousands of 'leftists' in Indonesia; a coup in Guatemala
that led to four decades of mayhem and butchery; legally dubious
escapades in Nicaragua; complicity in the slaughter of uncountable
Catholic laypeople, clergy, and religious in El Salvador; support of
Saddam Hussein as a balance against Iran, followed by a war against an
overly ambitious Hussein, culminating in the shameful abandonment of
Kurds and Shiites foolish enough to join a U.S.-instigated uprising.
"Some of these adventures, such as US
flirtation with Kurdish nationalists, can only be called cynical and
cruel. What typifies virtually all of the others, besides the almost
incomprehensible brutality visited upon the world's most vulnerable
people, is their consistent failure. In the long term, none of these
realpolitik-inspired interventions can be said to have achieved their
purported or even unspoken goals." [Kevin
Clarke, "Realpolitik Redux," U.S. Catholic, January 2002]
More Blasts from the Past
Kissinger founded the New York-based consulting firm Kissinger
Associates in 1982, a year before accepting the position as head of the
National Bipartisan Commission on Central America.
And, beginning in 1986, Kissinger Associates became entangled with the
infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
BCCI was a Pakistani-managed, Middle East-financed bank with
branches in 70 countries. In a nutshell, BCCI's purpose was
"stealing very large amounts of money and using it for a multitude
of illegal purposes, perverting governments, corrupting politicians, corrupting
regulators, corrupting bank regulators," according to Wall
Street Journal reporter Peter Truell.
In 1986-1989, BCCI initiated a series of contacts with Kissinger
Associates. Over several months, representatives of BCCI and
representatives of Kissinger Associates explored the possibilities for
joint projects. Following BCCI's indictment in 1988, representatives
continued to meet to discuss how Kissinger Associates might help BCCI
respond to the indictment. Kissinger ended these discussions in 1989,
according to Kissinger.
BCCI itself may not have become a client of Kissinger Associates.
However, a congressional investigation found that BCCI's
secretly owned affiliate, the National Bank of Georgia,
was.
"The committee has
obtained documents showing that the former president of the National Bank
of Georgia, Mr. Roy Carlson, received a briefing from Mr. Kissinger. Mr.
Carlson's expense report from July 1986 states, `Briefing Session Dr.
Henry Kissinger.'
"As Mr. [Alan] Stoga[*] stated, Kissinger Associates does not give
free advice. The National Bank of Georgia
therefore must have been a client of Kissinger Associates. After all, Mr.
Kissinger knew Ghaith Pharoan's[**] father, an adviser to Saudi royal
family, and he knew Ghaith Pharoan for many years." [Congressman Henry Gonzalez, Texas, Congressional Record,
House of Representatives, April 28, 1992, Page: H2694-H2702]
[*Alan Stoga was chief
economist at Kissinger Associates]
[**Ghaith Pharoan owned National Bank of Georgia]
Worse, another Kissinger Associate client, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
[BNL], connect Kissinger to Saddam Hussein. Here is more from
Congressman's Gonzalez's testimony to the House:
"Several former
employees of the Atlanta
branch of BNL conspired to provide the Government of Iraq with over $4
billion in unreported loans between 1985 and 1990. They accomplished this
massive fraud by keeping a secret set of accounting records that
concealed the over $4 billion in loans to Iraq.
...To date, several of the former employees have pleaded guilty to the
conspiracy and signing false financial statements. The former manager of
BNL, Chris Drogoul, goes to trial on June 2. He claims that the BNL
management in Rome was aware
of the loans to Iraq
and the United States
and Italian Governments should have been aware of the loans.
"The $4 billion plus
in BNL loans to Iraq
between 1985 and 1990 were crucial to Iraqi efforts to feed its people
and to build weapons of mass destruction. In addition, the BNL loans were
crucial to Reagan and Bush administration efforts to assist Saddam
Hussein. ...
"The procurement network, which operated through front companies
situated in Europe and the United States, used the BNL loans to supply
Iraqi missile, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs with
industrial goods such as computer controlled machine tools, computers,
scientific instruments, special alloy steel and aluminum, chemicals, and
other industrial goods. ...
"Several of BNL's high level friends in the United
States should have been aware of the BNL
loans to Iraq.
The high level patrons that I am referring to are Henry Kissinger, and
his Kissinger Associates compadres, Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence
Eagleburger." [Gonzalez, ibid.]
Note that Kissinger was a paid member of BNL's advisory board.
Who You Gonna Call?
President George Bush dropped the current bombshell the day before Thanksgiving, while people were distracted
by holiday plans and Congress had scattered. So Kissinger will be head of
the September 11 "independent" investigation.
Kissinger Associates is still in business. What its business is,
exactly, is hard to say. From the founding of the company all
consultations have been done verbally and in person because, as former
Kissinger Associates executive Brent Scowcroft said, ``We don't want to
see it ... passed around.'' The Kissinger client list is also secret.
Fred Kaplan of the Boston Globe recently tried to get the list but was
told by an assistant for Kissinger that its contents are private.
However, Kaplan quotes Scott Armstrong, founder of the National Security
Archive:
''He has so many clients
whose interests are so completely tied up in the results of this
investigation,'' Armstrong said. ''The minute you start talking about
clerics in Saudi Arabia, it's in no way in the interests of his clients
for the whole truth to be told.'' [Fred Kaplan, "Some See Kissinger as Wrong Man for
the Job," The Boston Globe, November 28, 2002]
If, as many suspect, Kissinger works for several Persian Gulf states,
oil companies, and transportation firms, would that not be a conflict
of interest? And, if so, why was he nominated?
As an editorial in the New York Times delicately understated,
"Mr. Kissinger obviously
has a keen intellect and vast experience in national security matters.
Unfortunately, his affinity for power and the commercial interests he has
cultivated since leaving government may make him less than the staunchly
independent figure that is needed for this critical post. Indeed, it is
tempting to wonder if the choice of Mr. Kissinger is not a clever
maneuver by the White House to contain an investigation it long
opposed." [New York Times, November 29, 2002]
Well duh, New York Times. Of course the White House is
trying to contain the investigation. The White House has opposed an
investigation since September 12, 2001, citing security concerns.
This administration is keeping secrets. On October 29, 2001, Bush
drafted an executive order that could keep presidential records
locked up in perpetuity; nearly anything in White House files can be kept
classified as long as either a former or current president says so. (See
George Lardner Jr., "Bush Clamping Down on Presidential Papers,"
The Washington Post, November 1, 2001.)
This past May, revelations that Bush was warned of impending terrorist
attacks during a security briefing (see, for example, Michael Elliott,
"How the U.S. Missed the Clues," Time, May 27, 2002) put a dent
in Bush's poppularity ratings. Subsequent news stories revealed that the
White House should have expected a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil,
yet it was caught unprepared (see the Timeline of Terror for a plethora of evidence and
links).
The congressional intelligence committees held their own hearings,
mostly behind closed doors, and when asked about investigations the White
House pointed at Congress. However, by mid-September even Republicans on
the committees complained that the White House was withholding any
information relating to the President's pre-September 11 intelligence
briefings.
"Much as he did in
dropping his initial opposition to a new Department of Homeland Security,
Bush abruptly changed course. The president announced that he now favored
an independent commission, as both houses of Congress rushed to approve
one. By mid-October, all that remained was for the White House and
Congress to nail down final details. But on the eve of its recess for the
November elections, negotiations came unglued. Republicans such as Sen.
John McCain charged that the administration was trying to scuttle the
deal." [Walter Shapiro, "Kissinger Announcement Nearly as
Secretive as He," USA Today, November 29, 2002]
The original plan for the independent investigative committee was to
have ten members and two co-chairs, one Democrat and one Republican, and
it allowed a vote of five members to authorize issuing subpoenas. The
White House insisted it would appoint one chairman and that there should
be a vote of six to four to issue subpoenas.
The White House got its way. And now Henry Kissinger - a man who keeps
secrets; a man who thinks the little people don't need to know what the
powerful are doing - is in charge.
Is this containing an investigation, or what? If the Bushies don't
have something to hide, they are putting on a hell of an act.
''The Bush administration did not want an objective inquiry into the
disastrous intelligence failures,'' Christopher Hitchens said, "and having an
inquiry chaired by Henry Kissinger is the next best thing.''
SOURCES:
The BCCI
Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States
Senate, by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, December 1992, 102d
Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140
Julian Borger, "Henry's Revenge," The
Guardian, November 29, 2002
Fred Branfman, "Wanted," Salon, May 18,
2001
Robert Bryce, "Realpolitik," The Austin
Chronicle, May 19, 2000
Duncan Campbell, "Kissinger, 79, Returns from the
Political Grave," The Guardian, November 28, 2002
Kevin
Clarke, "Realpolitik Redux," U.S. Catholic, January 2002
David Corn, "Kissinger's Back ... As 9/11 Truth
Seeker for Bush," The Nation, November 27, 2002
Maureen Dowd, "He's Ba-a-ck!" November 30, 2002
Marcus
Gee, "Is Henry Kissinger a War Criminal?" Toronto Globe and
Mail, June 11, 2002
Carol Giacomo, "Kissinger Brings Controversial
Legacy to Post," The Arizona Republic, November 27, 2002
Todd Gitlin, "Pushovers of the Press," Salon,
July 3, 2001
Congressman Henry Gonzalez, Texas, Congressional Record,
House of Representatives, April 28, 1992, Page: H2694-H2702
Larry
Gurwin, "Background: Investigating BCCI and the Savings and Loan
Fraud," in David McKean, Why the News Media Took so Long to Focus on
the Savings and Loan and BCCI Crises (Washington, D.C.: The Annenberg
Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies of Northwestern
University, 1993).
Christopher
Hitchens, "The Latest Kissinger Outrage," Slate,
November 27, 2002
Christopher Hitchens, "Kissinger's Green Light to Suharto,"
The Nation, February 18, 2002
Fred Kaplan, "Some See Kissinger as Wrong Man for
the Job," The Boston Globe, November 28, 2002
"The Kissinger Commission," The New York
Times, November 29, 2002
Dana Milbank, "Bush Taps Kissinger to Head 9/11
Probe," The Washington Post, November 27, 2002
Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus, "Kissinger to Lead
9/11 Panel," The Washington Post, November 28, 2002
Clarence Page, "Kissinger's Shady Record Is Bad Omen
for His New Job," The Chicago Tribune, December 1, 2002
Walter Shapiro, "Kissinger Announcement Nearly as
Secretive as He," USA Today, November 29, 2002
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