Pentagon to set up new WMD military task force

[CornField]

(I didn't see this over in LBN, but the article came out yesterday in the Washington Times.)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060126-115358-9346r.htm

The Pentagon's latest four-year strategy report calls for setting up a special military task force to prevent weapons of mass destruction from being transferred to terrorist groups, The Washington Times has learned.

The task force will employ special operations forces, other troops and intelligence personnel to prevent states such as North Korea and Iran from supplying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons to terror groups.

The call for the new unit, which would have several hundred troops along with aircraft and other arms, comes as tensions heighten over North Korea's nuclear program and Iran's refusal to abide by international controls on its uranium-enrichment program.

The proposal is contained in the report of the legally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review. The report will be sent to Congress on Feb. 6, but portions of an unclassified summary were made available to The Times.

(much more at link)

The article says this task force was the brain child of "defense consultant Michael Pillsbury" -- why is that name setting off bells in my head??? (Nope, not thinking of warm, flaky biscuits.)

[babylonsister]

1. He worked for poppy:

Dr. Michael Pillsbury is "currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, where he is sponsored by Department of Defense Office of Net Assessment. <1> (http://www.uscc.gov/bios/2005bios/05_21_22bios/pillsbury_dr.htm)

"During the Reagan administration Dr. Pillsbury was the Assistant Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning; under President George Herbert Walker Bush he was Special Assistant for Asian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, reporting to Andrew Marshall, Director of Net Assessment. Previously he served as a defense analyst for the RAND Corporation and on the staff of several U.S. Senate Committees.

"He has taught graduate courses in Chinese foreign policy at Georgetown University, UCLA, and USC. Dr. Pillsbury studied Mandarin Chinese for 2 years at the Stanford Center in Taipei, Taiwan, under a doctoral dissertation fellowship of the National Science Foundation. He earned a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University."

"Michael Pillsbury is currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, and a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, where he is sponsored by the Office of Net Assessment, Department of Defense."<2> (http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/chinview/chinaabo.html)

Michael Pillsbury is currently a Pentagon consultant.

[ewoden]

3. Task force Rule number 1

Don't overthrow governments that DO NOT HAVE WMD's. It tends to make the terrorists ally with those who have WMD's

[AtomicKitten]

2. arms proliferation has increased under BushCo

.... maybe we should stop selling them.

[babylonsister]

4. Ya think? Me, too. nt