State Department sees exodus of weapons experts

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Feb. 07, 2006
State Department sees exodus of weapons experts
By Warren P. Strobel
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - State Department officials appointed by President Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties.

The reorganization of the department's arms control and international security bureaus was intended to help it better deal with 21st-century threats. Instead, it's thrown the agency into turmoil and produced an exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters, according to 11 current and former officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.

The reorganization was conducted largely in secret by a panel of four political appointees. A career expert was allowed to join the group only after most decisions had been made. Its work was overseen by Frederick Fleitz, a CIA officer who was detailed to the State Department as senior adviser to former Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a critic of arms agreements and international organizations.

Bolton's nomination to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was nearly derailed last year by allegations that he'd harassed and bullied his staff. Some State Department weapons experts from offices that had clashed with Bolton were denied senior positions in the reorganization, even though they had superior qualifications, the officials and documents alleged.
(snip/...)

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13814730.htm

[The Doctor.]

1. I hear N. Korea is hiring...

Will this bullshit ever end?

[hvn_nbr_2]

2. With faith-based weapons monitoring, who needs experts anyway?

If Kim Il George wants a report to say Iran has nukes, you don't need an expert to give the Dear Leader what he wants.

[rodeodance]

3. this is serious folks. and not just happening in State Dept.

[alittlelark]

6. I know it is... my Dad left of his own accord not long after 9-11

He's a Nuclear Physicist that has worked the triangle for almost 30 years. He was doing laser Optics for most of those 30 years.

He is rather concerned about what is going on at Sandia now. He still gets pulled in for consultations.

[sabra]

4. heck of a job, BushCo

[bvar22]

5. Brownie needs a new job....

Why not International Weapons Expert????

[tex-wyo-dem]

7. This is indeed serious....

but not an unusual tactic by the * cartel. It's all a matter of framing the issue...if you don't like the information you receive from the true experts, replace them with faux wanna-be RW "experts" who will be more than happy to give you exactly what you want. This has happened in numerous institutions (FDA, EPA, on and on).

The sick thing is that if anyone even thinks of questioning the opinions spewed forth by these charlatans, they can immediately be dismissed as challenging appointed "experts" in the field...end of challenge credibility, end of story.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Could this be related to......

this?
http://www.nysun.com/article/27110

Congress's Secret Saddam Tapes

By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 7, 2006

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The committee has already confirmed through the intelligence community that the recordings of Saddam's voice are authentic, according to its chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, who would not go into detail about the nature of the conversations or their context. They were provided to his committee by a former federal prosecutor, John Loftus, who says he received them from a former American military intelligence analyst.

Mr. Loftus will make the recordings available to the public on February 17 at the annual meeting of the Intelligence Summit, of which he is president. On the organization's Web site, Mr. Loftus is quoted as promising that the recordings "will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important - and controversial - weapons of mass destruction questions." Contacted yesterday by The New York Sun, Mr. Loftus would only say that he delivered a CD of the recordings to a representative of the committee, and the following week the committee announced that it was reopening the investigation into weapons of mass destruction.

The audio recordings are part of new evidence the House intelligence committee is piecing together that has spurred Mr. Hoekstra to reopen the question of whether Iraq had the biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons American inspectors could not turn up. President Bush called off the hunt for those weapons last year and has conceded that America has yet to find evidence of the stockpiles."

[Judi Lynn]

10. John Loftus got DU'ers attention last year when he screwed up BIG TIME

He's an utter ass. Here's the first thing I found in a quick search. There are much more detailed accounts if anyone wants to go take a look later:

August 27, 2005
Fox Contributor Fired After Endangering Innocent Family
John Loftus, Fox News Contributor, carelessly gave the address of an unsuspecting family because he thought a terrorist lived at their address. He was wrong and the family has been tortured and terrorized since his irresponsible statement. Chrish reported this story and at that time the family was waiting for an apology from Fox News. This morning 8/27/05, CNN reported that Fox had fired Loftus and issued a written apology to the family who have gone through hell.

The Voricks are now recieving police protection because the harrassment has been so severe. Mrs. Vorick claimed that she is afraid to leave her teenage child with the younger kids while she works. Someone actually spray painted " terrorist" on the wall next to their front door while they were home. A steady stream of people drive by screaming at them. Their lives have been turned upside down because John Loftus and Fox behaved so recklessly.
(snip/...)

http://www.newshounds.us/2005/08/27/fox_contributor_fired_after_endangering_innocent_family.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Family Hassled After TV Report

LA HABRA, Calif., Aug. 25, 2005

(AP) A couple whose home was wrongly identified on national television as belonging to an Islamic radical has faced harassment, and police are providing special protection.

After the report ran on Fox News on Aug. 7, people have shouted profanities at Randy and Ronnell Vorick and spray-painted "terrorist" (spelling it "terrist") on their property.

"I'm scared to go to work and leave my kids home. I call them every 30 minutes to make sure they're OK," Randy Vorick said.

John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor who appears on the Fox News segment "Inside Scoop with John Loftus," gave out the house address during the broadcast.

He said the home belonged to Iyad Hilal, whose group, Loftus said, has ties to those responsible for the July 7 bombings in London. But Hilal moved out of the house about three years ago.
(snip/...)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/25/national/main795609.shtml

[depakid]

12. They should sue that guy and Fox "news"

for all they can get.

Fox actually needs to be shut down entirely- and if pigs ever fly and the Dems regain power, the first thing they need to do is re-regulate the media and rid the world of this lying and hateful garbage.

[John Q. Citizen]

15. What an irresponsible thing to do to that family. .So what do you

make of the WMD story? Sounds suspicious to me. If they are crippling the ability to authenticate WMDs and then they claim to find WMD, wouldn't that help them to fabricate a "fraud?"

[LiberalFighter]

20. Deleted... Decided better of it..

Checked his history and maybe it was an error in judgement on his part and not intentional sloppy work.

[tanyev]

22. Wow. Separated at birth?

Rev. Jerry Falwell

[NYC]

26. WMD?

Now, we're going to find them?

...12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction...

Can't he just sweep that lie under the rug, and leave us alone?

[DainBramaged]

9. The coup is coming, it's only a matter of time

Sorry my friends, but soon you'll see them recruiting "truth squads", and then it will be too late to pick up your pitchforks.

[SicSemperTyrannis]

13. Where were you on December 13, 2000? The coup actually.....

...took place on that date, with the help of the U. S. Supreme Court.

I'm surprised so few people understand that.

[DainBramaged]

14. The coup began on that date, it isn't complete yet

[teryang]

11. The purging process is a necessary stage of dictatorship n/t

[phoebe]

16. and in 3 years, then what???

snip
from same article

Jonathan Granoff, the director of the Global Security Institute, an arms control advocacy group, said the loss of State Department arms-control expertise was especially worrisome because the only mechanism for verifying U.S. and Russian nuclear arms cuts - the 1991 START I treaty - is due to expire in less than three years.

edited - because posted same article in LBN..

[DBoon]

17. Thereby assuring we will be blindsided

the next time a nation develops or deploys these weapons for real

[aquart]

18. yup.

[LiberalFighter]

19. Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security

http://foia.state.gov/Phonebook/OrgDirectory/OrgDir.asp?ID=18

Under Secretary of State Robert G. Joseph 7208 202-647-1049
Personal Assistant Janice Neal 7208 202-647-1522
Senior Adviser James Timbie 7208 202-647-4404
Senior Adviser Frederick Fleitz 7208 202-647-1749
Special Assistant Jason Ellis 7208 202-647-0062
Senior Advisor Patricia McNerney 7208 202-647-0068
Special Assistant Matthew Zartman 7208 202-647-0440
Secretary Louise Archer 7208 202-647-4226
Secretary D'End Thomas 7208 202-647-0060
Senior Advisor Susan Koch 7208 202-647-0302
Special Assistant Tim Katsapis 7208 202-647-0072
Staff Assistant Michael Sechrist 7208 202-736-7960
Staff Assistant Doug Singleton 7208 202-647-0071
ARMS CONTROL NONPROLIFERATION ADVISORY BOARD (T/AC/NAB)
Executive Director (Vacant) 5844 202-647-4622

[phoebe]

23. scathing article on Robert G. Joseph

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1235

snip

The top U.S. government official in charge of arms control advocates the offensive use of nuclear weapons and has deep roots in the neoconservative political camp . Moving into John Bolton’s old job, Robert G. Joseph is the right-wing’s advance man for counterproliferation as the conceptual core of a new U.S. military policy. Within the administration, he leads a band of counterproliferationists who—working closely with such militarist policy institutes as the National Institute for Public Policy and the Center for Security Policy—have placed preemptive attacks and weapons of mass destruction at the center of U.S. national security strategy.

snip

Joseph replaced John Bolton at the State Department as the new undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. Like the controversial Bolton, Joseph has established a reputation for breaking or undermining arms control treaties, rather than supporting or strengthening international arms control. Joseph, too, has long believed that U.S. military strategy should be more offensive than defensive.

Over his long career in government service starting soon after receiving his doctorate from Columbia, Joseph has advocated a military policy that extends beyond deterrence to preemptive first strikes. The Bush administration has given free rein to Robert Joseph’s militarist and treaty-breaking convictions.

snip

In his 1999 testimony to the emerging threats subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joseph helped lay the groundwork for the 2003 counterproliferation action against Iraq by misrepresenting the extent and character of Iraq’s WMD programs. According to Joseph, “The alarming size and scope of the Iraqi NBC programs, revealed only after its defeat in war, reflect the value ascribed to these weapons by rogue states.” Furthermore, “we know that state programs, such as in Iraq, have overcome technical challenges. For this reason, access by terrorists to state programs—or to key individuals from such programs—should be of greatest concern.” (16)


ENTIRE article well worth reading - this man has been planning for decades..

[phoebe]

24. Frederick Fleitz - possibly involved in Plame affair - good article

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2005/09/what_do_we_lear.html

snip

First, who is Fred Fleitz and what was he, a CIA analyst, doing working for John Bolton? He explains in his testimony.

FREDERICK FLEITZ: My name is Frederick Fleitz, I'm a CI officer on detail to John Bolton's staff as a Special Assistant, I've been on detail since August 2001. I've been a CI officer for nineteen years, and I came the, a CI WINPAC, the Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Center. I've done some work in WMD, most of my work has been on international organizations, and I played a role in drafting the speech, and look forward to answering your questions. I also handled UN issues when he was the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, and he had asked that I be sent to him.

Fleitz later goes on to explain his specific role in Bolton’s office.

FREDERICK FLEITZ: I'm the acting Chief of Staff for the T front office , and I also have responsibilities with WINPAC and I perform liaison function for the Agency and Mr. Bolton.

snip

Foley is asked for further details on Fleitz’ background, but he offers primarily organizational details. Fleitz, it seems, was in Nonproliferation, a less-specific umbrella group that preceded the formation WINPAC.

Mr. Foley: I think he worked in WINPAC. But, you remember, WINPAC was put together early in the Administration, and I think Fred was with the Nonproliferation Center, one of the -- John Lauder's old organization -- and we were all, sort of, reorganized into one group then. That's what I remember. But I couldn't tell you where Fred exactly worked at the time. (Foley 7)

Fleitz’ Relationship with Plame
Let’s pause for a moment to consider whether Fleitz’ job description tells us enough for us to assert (as I and many others have) that Fleitz would have been one of the half dozen or so people who would have had the need-to-know Plame’s identity. The answer: he may have, but we don't have enough information to say for sure.

We know Plame and Fleitz both worked on counter-proliferation. Plame worked developing spies with knowledge of weapons proliferation while Fleitz seems to have worked at the intersection of non-proliferation and organized groups, perhaps terrorist or spy organizations. It may have been that Plame provided some of the raw data Fleitz used to analyze proliferating groups.

[phoebe]

25. Patricia McNerney + International Criminal Court + war crimes

http://www.pogolaw.com/news-firm-archive-907.html
snip

Patricia McNerney Biography: Previously general counsel for the Senate Intelligence Committee, a post she had held since May 2000. Before taking that position, McNerney was associate counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from January 1995-December 1999 before stepping up to majority counsel from January 1999 until May 2000.


http://www.globalpolicy.org/intljustice/icc/2004/1017suspend.htm

snip

U.S. officials say Americans must be shielded from the court because rogue nations could use it to launch politically motivated lawsuits against the United States. "Unaccountable judges, prosecutors, could pull our troops, our diplomats up for trial," President George W. Bush said of the court during his first debate with Democratic contender John Kerry, who supports the tribunal. Returning unprompted to the topic in his second debate with Kerry, Bush acknowledged Washington was at odds with some nations over the court, but insisted: "Sometimes in this world you make unpopular decisions because you think they're right." Kerry did not respond on either occasion.

snip

Trinidad and Tobago lost $450,000 in funding for its Coast Guard, most of it in training, for not signing a pact called an Article 98 that pledges to not surrender U.S. nationals to the court if they are suspected of committing crimes on foreign soil. It is among nearly two dozen nations whose military aid remains halted for not signing an Article 98 with the United States, the only government to seek such non-surrender pacts.

U.S. State Department officials insist the funding suspensions aren't harming national interests because the aid has been transferred to equally valuable programs elsewhere. For governments that have "stepped up to the plate" by signing non-surrender pacts, "it's been a positive for the relationship," said Patricia McNerney, senior adviser to John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of state for international security. In many instances, she added, "more assistance has come their way."

That hasn't been the case in Dominica, which in May reluctantly signed a non-surrender accord after as many as 15 Dominica citizens drowned in a capsized boat that the Coast Guard couldn't rescue because it had no cash for fuel. It is one of several nations that created an uproar domestically by signing an Article 98 because it needed the money.

Another Excellent article

[displacedtexan]

21. That's not an exodus.

That's a deliberate culling.

[NYC]

27. Big difference.

The headline made it sound voluntary.