http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0609.dreyfuss.htmlYES, IT WAS INSTITGATED BY REP FRANK WOLF Baker's commission--officially called the Iraq Study Group--was created in March by Congress at the instigation of Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican. After his third trip to Iraq last year, Wolf started contacting members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, urging the creation of a high-powered, private task force to take a fresh look at the mess in Iraq. "If you had a very serious illness...and you weren't completely comfortable that everything was going the way you hoped, you'd certainly want to get a second opinion," Wolf told me. At least 30 members of Congress supported the idea, including Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.). According to participants in the task force, a key silent partner with Wolf in putting it together was his Virginia Republican colleague, Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services committee.
<snip>
WITH MIXED REACTION But some people were afraid, above all in the administration. "Reaction was mixed," Wolf told me. "Initially, there was not a lot of support for the idea." Backed by congressional heavyweights, including Warner, Wolf met privately with Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and others in the administration. His message? "If you're so confident it's going well, why are you so afraid for someone else to take a look at it?" Wolf, as the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the State Department, had clear leverage with Rice. Not surprisingly, according to an aide to Wolf, the vice president was the most resistant to the idea. But, reluctantly or not, perhaps unwilling to challenge an idea with strong support from House and Senate Republicans, Bush and Cheney signed off on the idea. "Gradually," Wolf told me, "they came to see the merit of it." In June, President Bush himself met briefly with the task force. "Iraq is a complex situation," Bush told them. "And the fact that you are all willing to lend your expertise to help chart the way forward means a lot." <snip>
WITH QUESTIONABLE TIES http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1481.shtmlIn fact, the ISG is another official damage control apparatus, spearheaded by notorious Western political and corporate elites, former military intelligence officers, and “experts” from right-wing and intelligence-connected Western think tanks -- one of which is the US Institute for Peace itself.
What is the US Institute for Peace?
The sponsor of the ISG is the US Institute for Peace (USIP). USIP’s directors and members feature prominently throughout the ISG’s panels.
Despite its insistence that it is an independent and nonpartisan body, the USIP itself is a policy group that functions as an arm of the US government, and as a US intelligence/propaganda apparatus. The USIP members are appointed by the president of the United States, and confirmed and funded by Congress. The rotating membership of the USIP consists primarily of elites, including “retired” Washington politicians and Pentagon officials.
Named in true Orwellian fashion, the US Institute for Peace is a harbor for elite managers of global warfare.
Its former members have included the most notorious war criminals in modern history, among them Dick Cheney, Frank Carlucci, Caspar Weinberger, and Stephen Hadley. BUT I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO FIND EXACTLY WHO SELECTED THE MEMBERS OF THIS GROUP
ANYONE KNOW?
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