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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Senator Chuck Hagel</title>
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	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
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		<title>Hagel Assures US Troops That He Has No Idea What He&#8217;s Doing</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-assures-us-troops-that-he-has-no-idea-what-hes-doing/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-assures-us-troops-that-he-has-no-idea-what-hes-doing</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-assures-us-troops-that-he-has-no-idea-what-hes-doing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 16:12:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran Sanctions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=187261</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If Biden decides to run for president in 2016, it is my earnest hope that he picks Hagel to be his VP.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If Biden decides to run for president in 2016, it is my earnest hope that he picks Hagel to be his VP. The sight of them together on the campaign trail will surely be an inspiration to us all.</p>
<p>During a Southeast Asia visit, <a href="http://gestetnerupdates.com/2013/04/26/video-hagel-i-dont-know-if-sanctions-are-working-to-stop-irans-nuclear-ambition/">Hagel assures American soldiers that he has</a> no idea if the sanctions are good for anything, only to then assure them that the sanctions are working. If Hagel has no idea whether the sanctions will work, then what is his basis for saying that they are working? In what sense are they working if Iran continues moving toward a nuclear weapon?</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/r2PJjVE7Bvk?feature=player_embedded" height="360" width="540" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>To paper over this confusing ambiguity, Hagel assures them that we have time. Actually the Iranians have time and they don&#8217;t need that much more of it.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/FE_DA_0131_Hagel_Hearing425x283.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-178799" alt="FE_DA_0131_Hagel_Hearing425x283" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/FE_DA_0131_Hagel_Hearing425x283.jpg" width="425" height="283" /></a></p>
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		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
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		<title>Obama&#8217;s North Korean Bluff Collapses, Kim Jong Un Wins</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamas-north-korean-bluff-collapses-kim-jong-un-wins/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obamas-north-korean-bluff-collapses-kim-jong-un-wins</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamas-north-korean-bluff-collapses-kim-jong-un-wins/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:16:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=184456</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama couldn't even handle a meaningless bluff and shut down a scheduled show of force to avoid upsetting a pint-size dictator.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamas-north-korean-bluff-collapses-kim-jong-un-wins/obama-chicken/" rel="attachment wp-att-184458"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-184458" title="obama chicken" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/obama-chicken.png" alt="" width="295" height="293" /></a></p>
<p>Two drivers played a game of chicken. One was driving an eighteen-wheeler and the other was driving a golf cart. Unfortunately the driver of the eighteen-wheeler was barely tall enough to reach the pedal and had gone to see Olympus Has Fallen over the weekend and panicked badly and drove into a ditch while the golf cart driver laughed and laughed.</p>
<p>In entirely unrelated news, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324100904578400833997420280.html">North Korea and China succeeded in outbluffing Obama</a>. This comes as a surprise to absolutely no one.</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. is putting a pause to what several officials described as a step-by-step plan the Obama administration approved earlier this year, dubbed &#8220;the playbook,&#8221; that laid out the sequence and publicity plans for U.S. shows of force during annual war games with South Korea. The playbook included well-publicized flights in recent weeks near North Korea by nuclear-capable B-52 and stealth B-2 bombers, as well as advanced F-22 warplanes.</p>
<p>The U.S. stepped back from the plans this week, as U.S. officials began to worry that the North, which has a small nuclear arsenal and an unpredictable new leader, may be more provoked than the U.S. had intended, the officials said.</p></blockquote>
<p>North Korea played the &#8220;I&#8217;m crazy and I&#8217;ve got nukes&#8221; card and Obama panicked and packed up his bluff. What&#8217;s sad is that Obama couldn&#8217;t even handle a meaningless bluff and shut down a scheduled show of force to avoid upsetting a pint-size dictator.</p>
<p>Obama naturally gets into bowing position because the only people he&#8217;s really capable of beating up on are Americans and American allies. Push him a little and he folds faster than laundry.</p>
<blockquote><p>Officials said the U.S. didn&#8217;t believe North Korea had any imminent plans to take military action in response to the exercises. Rather, the shift reflects concerns within the administration that the North, caught off guard, could do something rash, contrary to intelligence assessments showing that it is unlikely to respond militarily to the U.S. show of force.</p></blockquote>
<p>Translation: the man who personally parachuted in and killed Osama panicked badly even though his own intel people told him there was nothing to worry about.</p>
<blockquote><p>The White House has put the next steps in the playbook on hold while it assesses the North&#8217;s posture, officials say, though the administration hasn&#8217;t ruled out future shows of force.</p></blockquote>
<p>Okay you bluffed us, but in the future we might bluff back, unless you bluff again in which case we&#8217;ll fold again.</p>
<blockquote><p>On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel—one of the playbook&#8217;s chief backers—said during an address that the U.S. and other powers in the region don&#8217;t want to make a &#8220;complicated, combustible situation&#8221; even worse. He urged the North to tone down its rhetoric, holding out the prospect of a &#8220;path to peace.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Everything Chuck Hagel says should come with a laugh track. So Hagel&#8217;s bluff went to pieces because his boss is a wimp. But Hagel wants North Korea to tone down the rhetoric&#8230; even though it was the rhetoric that shut down his playbook.</p>
<p>So why should North Korea stop doing what works? Because otherwise Hagel will cry?</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. military&#8217;s Pacific Command began devising the playbook plan amid a series of provocations by the North, including the launch of a long-range rocket in December, in preparation for the annual military exercise with the South.</p></blockquote>
<p>Obama&#8217;s Asia pivot consisted of a bluff in response to a real threat. The bluff has folded. And this is why the Iran line is just as dead.</p>
<blockquote><p>The U.S. plan was discussed during several high-level White House meetings, according to participants. The effort was backed by Mr. Hagel in one of his first acts as defense secretary. John Kerry, the new secretary of state, supported the Pentagon, as did other top administration officials, according to meeting participants.</p></blockquote>
<p>Jane Fonda was invited to the meeting, but could not make it. Tom Hayden however sent his support and suggested calling North Korea and making scary &#8220;Boo&#8221; sounds into the phone.</p>
<blockquote><p>In the deliberations, supporters said it was better for the U.S. to control the escalating steps, to ensure the situation didn&#8217;t spin out of control.</p></blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s not retreat, it&#8217;s repositioning.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s some sense that we overachieved in a way, that we were so successful [in sending messages to the North] that there is consideration of pulling back somewhat while continuing to reassure the South Koreans,&#8221; a senior administration official said.</p></blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s not a retreat, it&#8217;s a victory. North Korea was so convinced that we were tough, that by running away we can reassure everyone that we really aren&#8217;t.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s a victory. In Obamerica.</p>
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		<title>Hagel Takes Over at Pentagon, Gives Bizarre Rambling Speech</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-takes-over-at-pentagon-gives-bizarre-rambling-speech/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-takes-over-at-pentagon-gives-bizarre-rambling-speech</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-takes-over-at-pentagon-gives-bizarre-rambling-speech/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:18:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post-american]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=179667</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["I've always believed that America's role in the world is one that -- and we've had variations of this throughout history -- has been one that should engage the world.  We can't dictate to the world, but we must engage in the world.  We must lead with our allies."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-takes-over-at-pentagon-gives-bizarre-rambling-speech/abc_senator_chuck_hagel_hearing_thg_130131_wblog/" rel="attachment wp-att-179670"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-179670" title="abc_senator_chuck_hagel_hearing_thg_130131_wblog" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/abc_senator_chuck_hagel_hearing_thg_130131_wblog-450x253.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="253" /></a></p>
<p>The real question is whether the former Senator from Nebraska and Tehran gives any other kind of speeches. At the Department of Defense, Hagel gave a rambling speech in which he graciously informed the Pentagon that they were not joining his team, he was joining their team.</p>
<p>Then <a href="http://gestetnerupdates.com/2013/02/27/video-it-started-hagel-we-cant-dictate-to-the-world/">Hagel proceeded to </a>share deep insights such as these from the bottomless pit of his intellect.</p>
<blockquote><p>We are living in a very defining time in the world.  You all know that.  It&#8217;s a difficult time.  It&#8217;s a time of tremendous challenge.  But there are opportunities.  And I think it&#8217;s important that we all stay focused, obviously, on our jobs, on our responsibilities, which are immense, but not lose sight of the possibilities for a better world.</p></blockquote>
<p>Staying focused is clearly a problem for Chuck.</p>
<blockquote><p>If there&#8217;s one thing America has stood for more than any one thing, is that we are a force for good.  We make mistakes.  We&#8217;ve made mistakes.  We&#8217;ll continue to make mistakes.  But we are a force for good.</p></blockquote>
<p>I think Hagel might be confusing America with himself. Should the Secretary of Defense commence by announcing that America is a well-meaning bumbling idiot?</p>
<blockquote><p>As difficult as our jobs are with the budget and sequestration &#8212; I don&#8217;t need to dwell on all the good news there &#8212; that&#8217;s a reality.  We need to figure this out.  You are doing that.  You have been doing that.  We need to deal with this reality.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve got ahead of us a lot of challenges. They are going to define much of who we are, not this institution only, but our country, what kind of a world our children are going to inherit.  I mean, that&#8217;s the big challenge that we have.  That&#8217;s the bigger picture of the objective for all of us.  Yes, it&#8217;s difficult.</p></blockquote>
<p>Don&#8217;t worry, you&#8217;re not missing a point. There isn&#8217;t a point except possibly premature senility.</p>
<blockquote><p>But it&#8217;s also pretty special.  I mean, when you think about generations and how many generations have had an opportunity to be part of something great, as difficult as this is, with everything, challenges coming at us, different kinds of challenges, cyber issues, you know all of them.  But we can really do something pretty special for our country.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hagel is pretty special too, what with his cyber issues and everything.</p>
<blockquote><p>And it&#8217;s also important for you to know that I&#8217;m committed to &#8212; and I&#8217;ve told the president this, the Congress &#8212; to assuring that every person in the Department of Defense, associated with the Department of Defense, civilian or military, is absolutely treated fairly, honestly, equal benefits, everything that each of you do should be dealt with on a fair and equal basis, no discrimination anywhere in any way.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is the first time in his speech that Hagel said anything of substance, and it&#8217;s at the halfway point. Not only that it seems to be a vague assurance of political correctness of some sort, presumably involving gay rights and women in combat.</p>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;ve always believed that America&#8217;s role in the world is one that &#8212; and we&#8217;ve had variations of this throughout history &#8212; has been one that should engage the world.  We can&#8217;t dictate to the world, but we must engage in the world.  We must lead with our allies.</p></blockquote>
<p>You can&#8217;t lead with your allies. You can work with your allies. You can lead by example. You can lead your allies. But you can&#8217;t lead with your allies.</p>
<p>But the good news is that Hagel doesn&#8217;t believe in America dictating to other countries. After twenty years of him pandering to Iran, China and every other dictatorship, this comes as a huge surprise.</p>
<p>Hagel will not be dictating to the world. The world will be dictating to Hagel.</p>
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		<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
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		<title>Democrats Unanimously Vote to Confirm Defense Secretary With Iranian Ties</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/democrats-unanimously-vote-to-confirm-defense-secretary-with-iranian-ties/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=democrats-unanimously-vote-to-confirm-defense-secretary-with-iranian-ties</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/democrats-unanimously-vote-to-confirm-defense-secretary-with-iranian-ties/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:50:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=179170</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Joining the Democrats in the 58 to 41 vote to make Chuck Hagel and the American Iranian Council the next Defense Secretary were four Republicans, Thad Cochran (Mississippi.), Mike Johanns (Nebraska.), Richard C. Shelby (Alabama) and Rand Paul (Kentucky.)]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/democrats-unanimously-vote-to-confirm-defense-secretary-with-iranian-ties/hagel-ahmadinejad-4/" rel="attachment wp-att-179171"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-179171" title="hagel ahmadinejad" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/hagel-ahmadinejad1-450x271.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="271" /></a></p>
<p>Joining the Democrats in the 58 to 41 vote to make Chuck Hagel and the American Iranian Council the next Defense Secretary were four Republicans, Thad Cochran (Mississippi.), Mike Johanns (Nebraska.), Richard C. Shelby (Alabama) and Rand Paul (Kentucky.)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&amp;session=1&amp;vote=00023">Lautenberg and Udall </a>did not vote.</p>
<p>The vote for a Defense Secretary who made anti-Semitic statements and has ties to Iranian lobbyists proves once and for all that Israel is no longer a bipartisan issue.</p>
<p>The Democratic Party joined such honorable figures as David Duke, Louis Farrakhan and Pat Buchanan <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/hagel-has-promoted-agenda-of-the-enemy/">in backing Hagel and Iran</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Going back to 2001, Hagel has been opposed to U.S. sanctions on Iran and in favor of recognizing the Islamic Republic in order to normalize trade relationships,” journalist and activist Ken Timmerman told WND. “Hagel has virtually made his position on Iran identical to the policies of the Iranian government, including a demand the U.S. enter direct negotiations with Iran ‘without preconditions’ and opposing the United States’ use of military force to block Iran’s nuclear weapons development program.”</p>
<p>Timmerman began in the Foundation for Democracy in Iran in 1995 as part of his ongoing support for freedom in the Islamic country and in 2006 was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Sweden’s former Deputy Prime Minister Per Ahlmark for playing a major role in exposing Iran’s plans to develop nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>“If Hagel is confirmed as secretary of defense,” Timmerman argued, “we will have someone in charge of the U.S. military who has promoted the agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an enemy of the United States since 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to begin the Iranian revolution.”</p></blockquote>
<p>This is how much the Democratic Party cares about national defense and national security. Never mind Israel.</p>
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		<slash:comments>19</slash:comments>
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		<title>Hagel Proposed 60,000 Man/10 Year US Occupation of Jerusalem and West Bank</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-proposed-60000-man10-year-us-occupation-of-jerusalem-and-west-bank/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-proposed-60000-man10-year-us-occupation-of-jerusalem-and-west-bank</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-proposed-60000-man10-year-us-occupation-of-jerusalem-and-west-bank/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:08:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178980</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The United States would find itself trading places with Israel, on the front lines of a new terrorist war. It would be about the worst move possible. And the fact that Hagel signed on the dotted line raises serious questions about his judgement.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-proposed-60000-man10-year-us-occupation-of-jerusalem-and-west-bank/hagel-and-obama-in/" rel="attachment wp-att-178981"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-178981" title="hagel and obama  in" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/hagel-and-obama-in--450x337.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="337" /></a></p>
<p>Hagel <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12923#.USuHI6WG18E">wasn&#8217;t the only proponent of this insane plan</a>, but he was part of it and the rest of the participants aren&#8217;t being nominated for Secretary of Defense.</p>
<p>The plan would have required an occupation of parts of Israel on an unknown scale. One NATO researcher estimated that we might be talking about a 10-15 year occupation by 60,000 troops at a cost of 160 billion dollars. And that may not be all of it.</p>
<p>The report seemed to hint at an internationalization of Jerusalem, a longtime obsession for some of the Anti-Israel crowd, complete with special airspace regulations.</p>
<p>One of the craziest aspects of this report is that this was being proposed in 2009, at a time when the United States had commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even crazier, this international force would feature large numbers of Muslim troops under NATO leadership inside Israel.</p>
<p>The proposal begins with a call for Obama to impose his own solution on both sides, which just happens to be their solution, backed by security guarantees maintained by international troops. This looks a lot like an invasion and occupation.</p>
<p>Jerusalem is carved up. There is some sort of partial right of return. And the whole thing is maintained by a Frankenstein monster of a UN/NATO/Regional peacekeeping coalition. And the worst is still to come.</p>
<p>The proposal includes a deal with Assad and Hamas. &#8220;In brief, shift the U.S. objective from ousting Hamas to modifying its behavior, offer it inducements that will enable its more moderate elements to prevail, and cease discouraging third parties from engaging with Hamas in ways that might help clarify the movement’s views and test its behavior.&#8221;</p>
<p>Obama is expected to battle a Zionist conspiracy in the United States. &#8220;There are Jewish-American and Christian Zionist groups that feel comfortable amplifying the positions of Israeli politicians hostile to hard compromise and painful concession.  At times the administration may take positions coordinated with an Israeli Prime Minister who may nevertheless feel unable, for domestic political reasons, to acknowledge his or her complicity. &#8221;</p>
<p>The report proposes having the Muslim Palestinian Authority administering Christian holy places in Jerusalem. The Christian exodus from Bethlehem should be ample reminder of how that will eventually work out.</p>
<p>What implementing it in practice would mean is that the United States would find itself in another Iraq at best and in the middle of a regional war at worst. Putting Muslim armies inside Israel would be a disaster. The Island of Peace massacre is a reminder of what happens when even professional Muslim armies are within sight of Jewish civilians. A series of terrorist attacks would quickly set both sides against each other, forcing the United States to deploy more troops to stop the violence.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t a peace plan. It&#8217;s a plan for a war.</p>
<p>The United States would find itself trading places with Israel, on the front lines of a new terrorist war. It would be about the worst move possible. And the fact that Hagel signed on the dotted line raises serious questions about his judgement.</p>
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		<title>B&#8217;nai B&#8217;rith Joins ADL and AJC in Expressing Concern About Hagel Nomination</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/bnai-brith-joins-adl-and-ajc-in-expressing-concern-about-hagel-nomination/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=bnai-brith-joins-adl-and-ajc-in-expressing-concern-about-hagel-nomination</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/bnai-brith-joins-adl-and-ajc-in-expressing-concern-about-hagel-nomination/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ADL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178798</guid>
		<description><![CDATA["B’nai B’rith International expresses the expectation that members of the Senate will give his record a thorough review prior to the vote."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/bnai-brith-joins-adl-and-ajc-in-expressing-concern-about-hagel-nomination/fe_da_0131_hagel_hearing425x283/" rel="attachment wp-att-178799"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-178799" title="FE_DA_0131_Hagel_Hearing425x283" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/FE_DA_0131_Hagel_Hearing425x283.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="283" /></a></p>
<p>The major organizations of the liberal Jewish community have now come out and expressed concern about Hagel. They did so belatedly, instead of speaking out before Schumer and Levin became Hagel&#8217;s biggest cheerleaders, perhaps as part of a deliberate strategy to appease their base by speaking out at a time when it was too late to have any effect, but they did it.</p>
<p>The leftist Jewish groups, e.g. J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Peace Now, Hamas, etc have always been major Hagel backers. And <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/jewish-organizations-speak-out-against-hagel/">the ADL, AJC and</a> B&#8217;nai B&#8217;rith  took far too long to speak out. But better late than never. And <a href="http://www.bnaibrith.org/5/post/2013/02/bnai-brith-urges-senators-to-carefully-review-hagel-responses-and-record-before-confirmation-vote-for-defense-secretary.html">by speaking out they are providing less cover</a> to Schumer and Levin to do their dastardly deed.</p>
<blockquote><p>B’nai B’rith International remains concerned with many aspects of former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel’s responses to questions during his confirmation hearing for the position of secretary of defense. Since then, more questions have been raised about Hagel’s views on a number of important issues.</p>
<p>During the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Hagel did not assuage our reservations on how he would approach such topics as terrorism, Iran and Israel. We urge all Senators, as they prepare to vote, to carefully review Hagel’s record and hearing responses to determine his qualifications for the post.</p>
<p>We are concerned that Hagel, unlike the vast majority of his Senate colleagues, underestimates the threat of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Hagel was in the minority when 88 of his then-Senate colleagues called on the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has been a global terror group since it was founded some 30 years ago. Its decades of terror include the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon that killed 241 Marines, soldiers and sailors, and the July 2012 attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria that killed five Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver and wounded 30 others. After a six month investigation, the Bulgarian government issued a report unequivocally blaming Hezbollah for that attack.</p>
<p>We are troubled that Hagel, during his confirmation hearings, undermined the importance of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He appeared to endorse a policy of containment of a nuclear Iran before being advised that containment was not administration policy.</p>
<p>In recent days, Hagel has disavowed, or said he didn’t remember, making certain past comments about Israel. At a 2007 speech he is said to have referred to the U.S. State Department as “an adjunct of the Israeli foreign minister&#8217;s office.”</p>
<p>Our hesitation on his nomination is based on our uneasiness with such updates to his record.</p>
<p>B’nai B’rith International expresses the expectation that members of the Senate will give his record a thorough review prior to the vote.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=7oJILSPwFfJSG&amp;b=8478375&amp;ct=12966983&amp;notoc=1">And here</a><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/jewish-organizations-speak-out-against-hagel/"> are the AJC and ADL statements</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p> February 15, 2013 – New York – AJC called today for further review of Senator Chuck Hagel’s views on vitally important national security and foreign policy issues, as the Senate stalled in its confirmation of the Secretary of Defense nominee.</p>
<p>A day after a procedural bid to end debate and move toward confirmation of the former Nebraska senator failed on a mostly party-line vote, AJC Executive Director David Harris said that recent reports of the nominee&#8217;s views on Middle East policy and the U.S. role merit more thorough examination.</p>
<p>The full AJC Harris statement follows:</p>
<p>&#8220;Chuck Hagel has served this country, and his state, with distinction, as we have had the privilege to tell him in person. But in light of his complex record in the Senate and controversial statements he has made since his public service on strategic and political affairs – notably grappling with the range of pressing Middle East issues – AJC believes that further Senate deliberation is called for before any final vote is taken.</p>
<p>&#8220;Moreover, reports are now circulating that the nominee purportedly spoke derisively in recent years of U.S. policy-making regarding Israel and the vital U.S.-Israel relationship. Thus, we feel it especially important that Senator Hagel be given a full opportunity to clear the air, so that the Senate can have a more thorough picture of the nominee&#8217;s views.</p>
<p>“In calling for more Senate discussion on the nomination, let me stress one key point. AJC is a strictly non-partisan organization. We speak up now only out of concern for policies we deem vital to our nation and central to our organizational mission.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The ADL initially issued a weasely pro-Hagel statement, while asking him to explain the Jewish Lobby crack, but Foxman has since come out and said that Hagel&#8217;s nomination needs a longer look.</p>
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		<title>Hagel: Israel is an &#8220;Apartheid State&#8221;, Must Negotiate with Hamas</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-must-negotiate-with-hamas/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-must-negotiate-with-hamas</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-must-negotiate-with-hamas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:13:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chuck Hagel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178236</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hagel also accused Israel of violating U.N. resolutions and called for U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas to be included in any peace negotiations.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-must-negotiate-with-hamas/obamachuckhagel/" rel="attachment wp-att-178237"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-178237" title="obamachuckhagel" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/obamachuckhagel.jpg" alt="" width="448" height="315" /></a></p>
<p>Again these are based on notes from an attendee at a Hagel speech, but the ideas are not really out of line with his known views.</p>
<p>Hagel did insist on &#8220;engaging&#8221; with Hamas. The Apartheid State argument has become routine on the left and has even crept into mainstream rhetoric. Public figures tend to refrain from using that specific word, but Hagel had advanced those types of arguments and it is not hard to believe <a href="http://freebeacon.com/report-hagel-said-israel-headed-toward-apartheid-netanyahu-a-radical/">that he would have slipped into that kind of rhetoric as well</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel said Israel is on its way to becoming an apartheid state during an April 9, 2010, appearance at Rutgers University, according to a contemporaneous account by an attendee.</p>
<p>Hagel also accused Israel of violating U.N. resolutions and called for U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas to be included in any peace negotiations.</p>
<p>“I am sitting in a lecture by Chuck Hagel at Rutgers,” Wagner wrote in the email. “He basically said that Israel has violated every UN resolution since 1967, that Israel has violated its agreements with the quartet, that it was risking becoming an apartheid state if it didn’t allow the Palestinians to form a state. He said that the settlements were getting close to the point where a contiguous Palestinian state would be impossible.”</p>
<p>Wagner said the remarks were made during the Q&amp;A session. The speech took place at the Rutgers School of Law in Newark.</p></blockquote>
<p>Rutgers does have a sizable anti-Israel and Islamist contingent and Hagel has a history of playing to the crowd at these events.</p>
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		<title>Jewish Organizations Speak Out Against Hagel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/jewish-organizations-speak-out-against-hagel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jewish-organizations-speak-out-against-hagel</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/jewish-organizations-speak-out-against-hagel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:03:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chuck Schumer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178141</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Hagel nomination is yet another opportunity to demonstrate that there is a fundamental breach between the interests of the Jewish community and of the extreme left that has taken over the Democratic Party. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/jewish-organizations-speak-out-against-hagel/schumer-reporters/" rel="attachment wp-att-178142"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-178142" title="schumer-reporters" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/schumer-reporters-450x308.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="308" /></a></p>
<p>Despite Hagel&#8217;s claims of a Jewish Cabal, Jewish organizations have remained silent and even the so-called lobby of AIPAC hasn&#8217;t said a word. Democratic Jewish Senators have fallen soullessly into line behind the Hagel train to Tehran. Now with the revelation of some of Hagel&#8217;s uglier comments, a few &#8220;mainstream&#8221; Jewish organizations <a href="http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2013/02/hagel-twisting-in-wind.html">have begun to speak out</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Last night, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that both the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have made such statements. The ADL told JTA Hagel needed to explain the remark but the American Jewish Committee went farther in saying that “further Senate deliberation is called for before any final vote is taken.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The ADL is rather late to the party and rather lukewarm, but the AJC&#8217;s move is rather bracing. The American Jewish Committee is not exactly known for taking bold pro-Israel positions. And suddenly it has waded into territory that only the ZOA, arguably the only major pro-Israel organization, has dared to venture into.</p>
<p>The ADL and AJC&#8217;s statement&#8217;s aren&#8217;t likely to move the likes of Senator Schumer or Carl Levin. Both men are beyond any sense of shame and their Jewish identifications are a matter of convenience. Expecting Senator Gillibrand, who is not only Schumer&#8217;s puppet, but who has made at least one statement indicating that she&#8217;s not terribly pro-Israel, to do so is also wishful thinking.</p>
<p>But the Hagel nomination is yet another opportunity to demonstrate that there is a fundamental breach between the interests of the Jewish community and of the extreme left that has taken over the Democratic Party and the billionaires who have bought it out lock, stock and barrel. It&#8217;s a teaching moment that shows how worthless men like Schumer and Levin are and how unwilling they are to stand up to their own party for their own constituents.</p>
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		<title>Hagel Claimed Israel Controls the State Department</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-claimed-israel-controls-the-state-department/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-claimed-israel-controls-the-state-department</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-claimed-israel-controls-the-state-department/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:51:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=177705</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A 2007 speech then-Sen. Hagel delivered at Rutgers University in New Jersey as he tested the waters for a presidential run is drawing fresh scrutiny.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-claimed-israel-controls-the-state-department/hagel-ahmadinejad-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-177706"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-177706" title="hagel ahmadinejad" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/hagel-ahmadinejad-450x271.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="271" /></a></p>
<p>Considering that the State Department<a href="http://ace.mu.nu/archives/337535.php"> tends to be the part of the United States</a> government most hostile to Israel, that is about as realistic as those Islamist accusations that the Jews control Iran.</p>
<p>Speaking of Iran, <a href="http://freebeacon.com/report-hagel-said-state-department-controlled-by-israel/">the Hagel speaking event was sponsored by the Iran Lobby</a>. So the Iran Lobby will now appoint its guy as the Secretary of Defense, with not a single Democrat daring to stand up and speak out against it (with the possibly exception of Barney Frank who is only against Hagel as a gay man).</p>
<p>But here&#8217;s one question if Hagel had spent the last decade denouncing the influence of the Saudi Lobby or the Iran Lobby or complaining that a lot of politicians are intimidated by Muslims&#8230; what are the odds that he would be up for this job?</p>
<p>I can tell you that now. Zero. Absolutely utterly zero.</p>
<blockquote><p>A 2007 speech then-Sen. Hagel delivered at Rutgers University in New Jersey as he tested the waters for a presidential run is drawing fresh scrutiny.</p>
<p>Hagel said the U.S. Department of State was an adjunct of the Israeli foreign minister’s office, according to a contemporaneous report of the event.</p>
<p>The event, which was cosponsored by the Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the American Iranian Council, was closed to the press.</p></blockquote>
<p>Clearly Hagel&#8217;s nomination is proof that the Jews not only run the State Department, <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-served-as-keynote-speaker-at-fundraiser-for-iran-lobby/">but the Obama Administration</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Hagel has long-standing ties with the pro-Tehran lobby in the United States. Since 2002, he has appeared as a keynote speaker at fund-raisers and conferences for the American-Iranian Council, a group whose founder, Housang Amirahmadi, has boasted that he is “the Iranian lobby in the United States.”</p>
<p>Housang boasted of his campaign to “conquer” Obama’s heart.</p>
<p>Iranian leaders should pay attention to what is going on, and strengthen their friends.  They [Iranian leaders] should have confidence in, energize, and trust their friends [in Washington] so they enter the arena.  This is very important.  Therefore the next two or three months are the time to conquer Obama’s heart and mind and that of his teams.</p></blockquote>
<p>I blame the Israeli lobby.</p>
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		<title>Hagel Was a &#8220;D&#8221; Student in College, Now a Democrat for Defense</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-was-a-d-student-in-college-now-a-democrat-for-defense/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-was-a-d-student-in-college-now-a-democrat-for-defense</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-was-a-d-student-in-college-now-a-democrat-for-defense/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:36:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democrats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=177282</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Now that the former "D" student defected from being a Republican to being a Democrat, the D's have to do their best to make their "D" student into the Secretary of Defense.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-was-a-d-student-in-college-now-a-democrat-for-defense/gty_chuck_hagel_jp_121214_wmain/" rel="attachment wp-att-177283"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-177283" title="gty_chuck_hagel_jp_121214_wmain" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gty_chuck_hagel_jp_121214_wmain-450x252.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="252" /></a></p>
<p>After his appearance before the Senate, it&#8217;s not exactly a great secret that Chuck Hagel isn&#8217;t very bright. And apparently not being very bright has been a career for him. Still now that the former &#8220;D&#8221; student defected from being a Republican to being a Democrat, the D&#8217;s have to do their best to <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/02/10/Hagel-Went-to-Five-Colleges-Was-D-Student-Media-Oblivious">make their &#8220;D&#8221; student </a>into the Secretary of Defense.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Well, I had a&#8211;speaking of discipline&#8211;a difficult time staying in colleges. I was never kicked out of one, I never flunked out of one. I went to five different colleges. But I was in and out, a bit bored,&#8221; Hagel said.</p>
<p>He had to take English composition three times, and struggled with other subjects as well. &#8220;Science, chemistry, some of the math courses I took were D&#8217;s,&#8221; Hagel admitted in a 2001 interview about his life and career with C-SPAN.</p></blockquote>
<p>Luckily, Hagel won&#8217;t need to understand English, Science or Math to oversee the Department of Defense as it undergoes some of its largest cuts in history.</p>
<blockquote><p>CNN lists only two colleges on Hagel&#8217;s resume&#8211;namely, the Brown Institute for Television and Radio in Minneapolis, and the University of Nebraska.</p></blockquote>
<p>Well I&#8217;m sure Hagel did his very best at the Brown Institute for Television and Radio and I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;ll do his very best job of screaming at aides and doing whatever Obama tells him to as Secretary of Defense.</p>
<p>Hagel has a career of being a dimwit and that&#8217;s why he was chosen, so that the real power can lie elsewhere while Obama parades a former Republican as the Secretary of Defense and the media assigns him all the responsibility for the disasters that follow.</p>
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		<title>Chuck Hagel&#8217;s Trainwreck Senate Hearing</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-trainwreck-senate-hearing/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=chuck-hagels-trainwreck-senate-hearing</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-trainwreck-senate-hearing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:19:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=175788</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hagel's one goal going into the hearing was not to screw up. And he screwed up at that. Republican Senators appear to be shifting away from him, even more so than before. And the Democratic Senators found themselves having to do more than just toss him softball questions, but to actually help him out]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-trainwreck-senate-hearing/0106_hagel1-450x350/" rel="attachment wp-att-175791"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-175791" title="0106_hagel1-450x350" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/0106_hagel1-450x3501.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>Chuck Hagel had been accused of political expediency, of adopting positions that were trending the right way, and then disavowing them when they no longer were. And his Senate hearing turned that impression into fact.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AB6jJrgPbtU?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" width="540" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p>The Hagel who showed up at the Senate hearing was not the principled man that liberals had tried pitching him as. Nor was he a radical, quickly leaving behind his radical views, only to clumsily reinsert them again into his responses and then disavow those responses a second time revealing himself to be a man without principles or views, a politician fumbling his way hesitantly through question after question, wary of traps, wary of committing himself to any position that is in the least bit controversial and incapable of processing even simple questions in a clear and concise manner.</p>
<p>Hagel rarely answered questions, instead he avoided them, drowning the questions in meaningless babble, in the same talking point repeated several times to take up as much time as possible. It&#8217;s the sort of behavior you might see from a hack politician during a debate, but it&#8217;s an embarrassing performance for a prospective Defense Secretary whose job isn&#8217;t to obstruct Congress but to clarify policy in a timely and concise manner.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XiXTyDnA2TI?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" width="540" height="360"></iframe></p>
<p>If Hagel&#8217;s job interview is a demonstration of what his tenure will be like, then he will obstruct Congress as much as possible, change his views unpredictably and pretend that there was no change. His policy as Secretary of Defense will be to deny everything and then to deny the denial.</p>
<p>Hagel&#8217;s one goal <a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/01/31/hagel_loses_more_gop_votes_due_to_hearing">going into the hearing </a>was not to screw up. And he screwed up at that. Republican Senators appear to be shifting away from him, even more so than before. And the Democratic Senators found themselves having to do more than just toss him softball questions, but to actually help him out during the hearings, as Carl Levin did.</p>
<p><iframe width="540" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y6-EKoUIfyQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to believe that Rice could have blown a hearing this badly. But Obama chose to pick a fight over Hagel, rather than Rice, resulting in an embarrassing performance from an embarrassing man who is now Obama&#8217;s own pet embarrassment.</p>
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		<title>Hagel Claims Iran has &#8220;Legitimate, Elected&#8221; Government</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-claims-iran-has-legitimate-elected-government/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-claims-iran-has-legitimate-elected-government</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-claims-iran-has-legitimate-elected-government/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:23:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=175763</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hagel has been accused of having close ties to the Iran Lobby and moments like these certainly do not help.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-claims-iran-has-legitimate-elected-government/hagel-ahmadinejad-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-175764"><img src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/hagel-ahmadinejad1-450x271.jpg" alt="" title="hagel ahmadinejad" width="450" height="271" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-175764" /></a></p>
<p>Hagel has been accused of having close ties to the Iran Lobby and <a href="http://freebeacon.com/hagel-iran-has-legitimate-elected-government/">moments like these certainly do not</a> help.</p>
<p><iframe width="540" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jk1vNruY8Oo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Iran&#8217;s election was fraudulent, that has been widely concluded by nearly everyone. And the legitimacy of a totalitarian regime whose elections are widely restricted is itself questionable at best.</p>
<p>The Revolutionary Guard has also been involved in attacks on American troops in Iraq and supplied explosives to the Taliban. It helped set up Hezbollah and then there have been suggestions that the Guard <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57475439/ex-revolutionary-guard-member-iran-ready-with-terror-plans-to-hit-u.s-if-israel-attacks/">might be prepared to carry out terrorist attacks</a> in the United States.</p>
<p>The Hagel hearings have turned into a trainwreck for Obama Inc. Hagel has clearly been prepared and drilled on the questions he will face, and that over-preparedness translates into long rambling and repetitive speeches are either an attempt to eat up time or to remember his prepared talking points.</p>
<p>In between those speeches, his actual views slip out, such as when he says that he supports Obama&#8217;s policy of containment on Iran, which is Obama&#8217;s actual policy, no matter how often he claims that it isn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Incompetence isn&#8217;t a sin in Obama Inc, but PR incompetence is. Unless you&#8217;re Biden, you&#8217;re not supposed to just say stupid things in public. And unless you&#8217;re Obama, you&#8217;re not supposed to accidentally say what you really mean. This is an even bigger mistake for Hagel because he lacks the media skills of either man. He&#8217;s just a longtime politician stumbling through the world&#8217;s worst job interview.</p>
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		<title>With Hagel, George Soros Finally Gets His Own Defense Secretary</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/with-hagel-george-soros-finally-gets-his-own-defense-secretary/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=with-hagel-george-soros-finally-gets-his-own-defense-secretary</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/with-hagel-george-soros-finally-gets-his-own-defense-secretary/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:27:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Soros]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ploughshares]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tides foundation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=174035</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Poughshares Fund has also partnered with a who’s who of the radical left, including Code Pink, the pro-Palestinian J Street, United for Peace &#038; Justice, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and the Demos progressive group, where Obama’s former green jobs czar, Van Jones, serves on the board.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/with-hagel-george-soros-finally-gets-his-own-defense-secretary/hagel-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-174036"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-174036" title="hagel" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/hagel-450x299.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="299" /></a></p>
<p>If you were wondering why Obama seems willing to go to the mat for a bigot who was anti-gay and anti-abortion, but wasn&#8217;t willing to stand up for a black female nominee, here&#8217;s a little hint. It&#8217;s not about what you believe, it&#8217;s about <a href="http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2013/01/17/hagel-on-board-of-soros-group-pushing-nuke-free-world-radical-left-organization-wants-massive-slashes-in-defense-spending/">which evil billionaire you work for</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, serves on the board of a George Soros-funded group that advocates a nuclear-free world.</p>
<p>The Ploughshares Fund has a long history of anti-war advocacy and is a partner of the Marxist-oriented Institute for Policy Studies, which has urged the defunding of the Pentagon and massive decreases in U.S. defense capabilities, including slashing the American nuclear arsenal to 292 deployed weapons.</p>
<p>The Poughshares Fund has also partnered with a who’s who of the radical left, including Code Pink, the pro-Palestinian J Street, United for Peace &amp; Justice, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and the Demos progressive group, where Obama’s former green jobs czar, Van Jones, serves on the board.</p>
<p>Ploughshares Fund identifies itself as a “publicly supported foundation that funds, organizes and innovates projects to realize a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.”</p>
<p>The fund calls itself “the largest grant-making foundation in the U.S. focusing exclusively on peace and security issues.” Since its founding in 1981 by San Francisco philanthropist and activist Sally Lilienthal, Ploughshares says it has awarded many hundreds of grants “whose aggregate value exceeded $60 million.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Peace and security means appeasement and surrender.</p>
<blockquote><p>A primary Ploughshares donor is the Tides Foundation, a money tunnel in which leftist donors provide funds to finance other radical groups. Tides is itself funded by Soros.</p>
<p>Ploughshares, meanwhile, opposes America’s development of a missile defense system and contributes to scores of anti-war groups highly critical of U.S. foreign policy and military expansion.</p></blockquote>
<p>And it&#8217;s the perfect place for a former Republican to put in his time proving to the left that his anti-war conversion is genuine and he&#8217;s willing to act as their stooge.</p>
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		<title>Hagel Served as Keynote Speaker at Fundraiser for Iran Lobby</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-served-as-keynote-speaker-at-fundraiser-for-iran-lobby/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hagel-served-as-keynote-speaker-at-fundraiser-for-iran-lobby</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-served-as-keynote-speaker-at-fundraiser-for-iran-lobby/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:04:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vice President Joe Biden]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=173394</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hagel has long-standing ties with the pro-Tehran lobby in the United States. Since 2002, he has appeared as a keynote speaker at fund-raisers and conferences for the American-Iranian Council, a group whose founder, Housang Amirahmadi, has boasted that he is “the Iranian lobby in the United States.”]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/hagel-served-as-keynote-speaker-at-fundraiser-for-iran-lobby/hagel-ahmadinejad/" rel="attachment wp-att-173395"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-173395" title="hagel ahmadinejad" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/hagel-ahmadinejad-450x271.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="271" /></a></p>
<p>Jewish Lobby bad. <a href="http://www.iran.org/news/2013_01_10-hagel.html">Iran Lobby good</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Hagel has long-standing ties with the pro-Tehran lobby in the United States. Since 2002, he has appeared as a keynote speaker at fund-raisers and conferences for the American-Iranian Council, a group whose founder, Housang Amirahmadi, has boasted that he is “the Iranian lobby in the United States.”</p></blockquote>
<p>How involved is Housang Amirahmadi in Iranian politics? So involved he ran for president. Housang <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obama-appoints-iran-lobbyist-to-investigate-libyan-consulate-attack/">boasted of his campaign to &#8220;conquer</a>&#8221; Obama&#8217;s heart.</p>
<blockquote><p>Iranian leaders should pay attention to what is going on, and strengthen their friends.  They [Iranian leaders] should have confidence in, energize, and trust their friends [in Washington] so they enter the arena.  This is very important.  Therefore the next two or three months are the time to conquer Obama’s heart and mind and that of his teams.</p></blockquote>
<p>Looks like the conquest was successful.</p>
<p>And guess who the other former Senator and top White House figure who addressed the AIC was? No, not that obvious. <a href="http://mehr.org/AIC_Washington_Times.htm">It was Joe Biden.</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Mr. Biden, who in October suggested that the United States might be viewed as a &#8220;high-tech bully&#8221; in attacking terrorist targets in Afghanistan, this time urged that the Bush administration &#8220;acquiesce&#8221; to Tehran&#8217;s demands to join the World Trade Organization. Insight magazine reported several weeks ago that Mr. Biden raised $30,000 at a fund-raiser held Feb. 19 at the home of Dr. Sadegh Namazi -Khah, a Los Angeles activist pushing for a softer U.S. line toward the ruling regime in Tehran; the magazine added that Mr. Biden, in private discussions at that fund-raiser, delivered a sweeping condemnation of Mr. Bush&#8217;s &#8220;axis of evil&#8221; remarks.</p></blockquote>
<p>You get what you pay for. <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/KenTimmerman/biden-iran/2010/02/02/id/348731">So does Iran</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Biden was one of 16 U.S. senators who voted against a bill that would add Iran’s Revolutionary Guards corps to the State Department&#8217;s list of international terrorist organizations, because of its involvement in murdering U.S. troops in Iraq. Rather than sanction those in power in Tehran, Biden and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel have argued that the United States should offer Tehran a greater role in Iraq&#8217;s domestic affairs. At a March 2002 conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the American-Iranian Council (AIC), Biden made the case for closer U.S. ties to the government of Iran. &#8220;I believe than an improved relationship with Iran is in the naked self-interest of the United States of America,&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>A Vice-President and a Secretary of Defense. Score two for the Iran lobby.</p>
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		<title>Colin Powell Claims Calling Obama &#8220;Lazy&#8221; is Racist, but &#8220;Jewish Lobby&#8221; is Fine</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/colin-powell-claims-calling-obama-lazy-is-racist-but-jewish-lobby-is-fine/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=colin-powell-claims-calling-obama-lazy-is-racist-but-jewish-lobby-is-fine</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/colin-powell-claims-calling-obama-lazy-is-racist-but-jewish-lobby-is-fine/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 2013 19:39:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colin Powell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Racism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=173253</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Colin Powell is against certain kinds of racism. Like the vile racism of calling a top politician "lazy". But conspiracy theories about a "Jewish Lobby" are perfectly fine.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><iframe width="540" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NbAo3fjBtdU?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Colin Powell is against certain kinds of racism. Like the vile racism of <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/01/gross-colin-powell-says-gop-has-dark-vein-of-intolerance-calling-barack-lazy-is-racist/">calling a top politician &#8220;lazy</a>&#8220;. But conspiracy theories about a &#8220;Jewish Lobby&#8221; are perfectly fine.</p>
<blockquote><p>“There’s also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities.”</p>
<p>Powell also pointed to former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, who was an aggressive surrogate for Mitt Romney, for calling Obama “lazy” after the first debate during the campaign.</p></blockquote>
<p>Clearly that&#8217;s the worst case of racism, since the time someone called Obama &#8220;stupid&#8221; or &#8220;Socialist&#8221; or &#8220;incompetent&#8221; or criticized him in any way.</p>
<p>But conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the government <a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/13/colin-powell-defends-hagels-jewish-lobby-comment-that-terms-slips-out-from-time-to-time/">are nothing to take seriously</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>GREGORY: You brought up Israel. He referred to a “Jewish lobby,” saying it intimidates a lot of people on Capitol Hill. What kind of thinking does that reflect? Can you understand pro-Israel senators being concerned by that comment?</p>
<p>POWELL: They shouldn’t be that concerned. That term slips out from time to time&#8230; Chuck should have said “Israeli lobby,” not “Jewish lobby”–and, perhaps, he needs to write on a blackboard a hundred times, “It is the Israeli lobby.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Everyone makes a slip sometimes. So long as it&#8217;s nothing big. If Hagel had said something truly offensive, like calling Obama lazy, that would be something to be truly concerned about.</p>
<p>Some &#8220;slips&#8221; are pardonable. Some &#8220;slips&#8221; are unpardonable. &#8220;Lazy&#8221; is proof that the entire Republican Party is a bunch of evil racists. Except for Chuck Hagel who isn&#8217;t a racist, but thinks the Jews should stop controlling the world.</p>
<p>As Lou Reed said to Jesse Jackson, &#8220;The words that flow so freely/Falling dancing from your lips/I hope that you don&#8217;t cheapen them/With a racist slip.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Chuck Hagel&#8217;s Muslim Genocide Denial</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-muslim-genocide-denial/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=chuck-hagels-muslim-genocide-denial</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-muslim-genocide-denial/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:16:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[armenian genocide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=173236</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“What Chuck Hagel said in his press conference in Armenia in 2005 regarding the genocide of Armenians by Turks is shameful,” said Walter Reich, a former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-muslim-genocide-denial/130107_chuck_hagel_rt_328/" rel="attachment wp-att-173237"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-173237" title="130107_chuck_hagel_rt_328" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/130107_chuck_hagel_rt_328-450x243.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="243" /></a></p>
<p>Hagel has pandered to Iran, Saudi Arabia and China. There&#8217;s no reason that another backward genocidal totalitarian state can&#8217;t also attract his pandering. Even if you have to <a href="http://freebeacon.com/chuck-hagel-has-an-armenian-problem/">step over the corpses of all the people </a>it killed.</p>
<blockquote><p>Armenian-American leaders and human rights advocates have expressed deep reservations about the nomination of Chuck Hagel to lead the defense department.</p>
<p>Hagel, a two-term Republican senator from Nebraska, was nominated Monday as President Barack Obama’s pick to head the Pentagon. He faces criticism for opposing a 2005 congressional resolution recognizing Turkey’s genocide of more than one million Armenians.</p>
<p>“What happened in 1915 happened in 1915,” Hagel said during a 2005 trip to Armenia when he was serving in the Senate. “As one United States senator, I think the better way to deal with this is to leave it open to historians and others to decide what happened and why.”</p>
<p>“The fact is that this region needs to move forward,” Hagel continued. “We need to find a lasting, just peace between Turkey and Armenia and the other nations of this region. I am not sure that by going back and dealing with that in some way that causes one side or the other to be put in difficult spot, helps move the peace process forward.”</p>
<p>“On the eve of the Holocaust, Hitler mockingly asked, ‘Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’ Not Chuck Hagel, apparently,” Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, told the Washington Free Beacon.</p>
<p>“What Chuck Hagel said in his press conference in Armenia in 2005 regarding the genocide of Armenians by Turks is shameful,” said Walter Reich, a former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “In his forthcoming confirmation hearings, senators should confront him with what he said and should expect him to address it.”</p></blockquote>
<p>But Obama Inc. has no shame and no concern for the victims of Islamic Imperialism and Muslim Genocide.</p>
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		<title>Chuck Hagel: &#8220;Terrorists Cannot be Defeated on the Battlefield&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagel-terrorists-cannot-be-defeated-on-the-battlefield/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=chuck-hagel-terrorists-cannot-be-defeated-on-the-battlefield</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagel-terrorists-cannot-be-defeated-on-the-battlefield/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:15:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=173012</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In 2005, a year earlier, Hagel was even more explicit saying that Gaza could not "remain a prison to its own citizens" and encouraging a "grand bargain with Iran's people." Three years earlier, Hagel had called for "a regional security plan for the Persian Gulf by working with the United Nations, the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iran, and Iraq."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/?attachment_id=173014" rel="attachment wp-att-173014"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-173014" title="Hagel_2444394b" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Hagel_2444394b-450x280.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="280" /></a></p>
<p>Of all the things you want in a Secretary of Defense, high on the list is competence. A Secretary of Defense who believes that terrorists cannot be defeated on the battlefield is a failure before he even takes office. But Hagel&#8217;s views, in this rant attacking Israel&#8217;s campaign in Lebanon actually mirror the views of Obama Inc.</p>
<p>Back in 2006, on the floor of the Senate, Hagel demanded that &#8220;the sickening slaughter on both sides must end&#8221; and warned that our relationship with Israel &#8220;cannot be at the expense of our Arab and Muslim relationships.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Military action alone will not destroy Hezbollah or Hamas,&#8221; Hagel warned. &#8220;The pursuit of tactical military victories at the expense of the core strategic objective of Arab-Israeli peace is a hollow victory. The war against Hezbollah and Hamas will not be won on the battlefield.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hagel urged America to listen closely to our partners in Saudi Arabia, &#8220;countries that understand the Middle East far better than we do.&#8221; And parroting Saudi rhetoric, like a good Saudi lobbyist, Hagel claimed that &#8220;the core of all challenges in the Middle East remains the underlying Arab-Israeli conflict.&#8221;</p>
<p>This claim was and is nonsense, all the more obviously so after the Sunni-Shiite conflicts and the Arab Spring, but it&#8217;s a talking point that immediately allows you to recognize a Saudi stooge or one of their useful idiots.</p>
<p>Hagel then began pushing the Beirut Declaration. &#8220;Today, we need a new Beirut Declaration-type initiative. We squandered the last one. The concept and intent of the 2002 Beirut Declaration is as relevant today as it was in 2002.</p>
<p>&#8220;The United States should engage our Middle East and international partners to revive the Beirut Declaration, or some version of that declaration, proposed by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and adopted unanimously by the Arab League in March of 2002. In this historic initiative, the Arab world recognized Israel&#8217;s right to exist and sought to establish a path toward a two-state solution and broader Arab-Israeli peace.&#8221;</p>
<p>What did the actual Beirut Declaration state? It spent several paragraphs celebrating the Palestinian Arab terrorism that they fund, it endorsed Hezbollah, and then it offered to sign a peace agreement with Israel and establish relations with the Jewish State, if Israel withdrew from all 1967 territories and accepted the refugees, which would mean the destruction of Israel.</p>
<p>Then Hagel urged the US to begin negotiating with Syria and Iran, whining, &#8220;Even superpowers have to talk to bad guys.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Ultimately, the United States will need to engage Iran and Syria with an agenda open to all areas of agreement and disagreement. For this dialog to have any meaning or possible lasting relevance, it should encompass the full agenda of issues.&#8221;</p>
<p>In 2005, a year earlier, Hagel was even more explicit saying that Gaza could not &#8220;remain a prison to its own citizens&#8221; and encouraging a &#8220;grand bargain with Iran&#8217;s people.&#8221; Three years earlier, Hagel had called for &#8220;a regional security plan for the Persian Gulf by working with the United Nations, the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iran, and Iraq.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is still Hagel&#8217;s vision and it is why Obama chose him.</p>
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		<title>Chuck Hagel&#8217;s Saudi Connection</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-saudi-connection/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=chuck-hagels-saudi-connection</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-saudi-connection/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:47:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=173007</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the spring of 2010, Chuck Hagel was nominated to serve on the Board of Directors of Chevron. There is no American oil company with more intimate connections than Chevron, which created ARAMCO before the Saudis took it over. But the Saudis didn't just take over ARAMCO, they control Chevron indirectly through oil. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/chuck-hagels-saudi-connection/20110531_saudiarabiamap/" rel="attachment wp-att-173008"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-173008" title="20110531_saudiarabiamap" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20110531_saudiarabiamap.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="319" /></a></p>
<p>In the spring of 2010, Chuck Hagel was nominated to serve on the Board of Directors of Chevron. There is no American oil company with more intimate connections than Chevron, which created ARAMCO before the Saudis took it over. But the Saudis didn&#8217;t just take over ARAMCO, they control Chevron indirectly through oil.</p>
<p>Chevron is one of Saudi Arabia&#8217;s largest purchasers of crude and its access to Saudi oil fields is a big chunk of its business model. Tofiq Al-Gabsani, the president of Saudi Refining, a subsidiary of ARAMCO, sits on the board of the American Petroleum Institute. And<a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/guidedesc.asp?catid=178&amp;type=group"> the situation goes back</a> a while.</p>
<blockquote><p>Driven by oil revenues, the Arab lobby’s leverage in affecting American policy was demonstrated in early 1973 when Mobil published a pro-Arab advertorial in The New York Times. In July of that year, the chairman of Standard Oil of California (now called Chevron) distributed a letter asking the company&#8217;s 40,000 employees and 262,000 stockholders to pressure their elected representatives to support “the aspirations of the Arab people.”</p>
<p>When another Arab-Israeli war broke out in October 1973, the chairmen of the ARAMCO partners issued a memorandum warning the White House against increasing its military aid to Israel.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hagel would not be the first cabinet member to have served on Chevron&#8217;s board. That is unfortunately a longstanding practice which reveals just how much control the Saudi Lobby has over America.</p>
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		<title>Why is a Gambler from Hong Kong Funding the Pro-Hagel Campaign?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/why-is-a-gambler-from-hong-kong-funding-a-pro-hagel-campaign/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=why-is-a-gambler-from-hong-kong-funding-a-pro-hagel-campaign</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/why-is-a-gambler-from-hong-kong-funding-a-pro-hagel-campaign/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:42:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J Street]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=172717</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Behind the bipartisan campaign is a partisan rich man who operates out of China and has done his best to influence the choice of the next Defense Secretary ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/why-is-a-gambler-from-hong-kong-funding-a-pro-hagel-campaign/1224057885709-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-172751"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-172751" title="1224057885709" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1224057885709.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="319" /></a></p>
<p>When J Street&#8217;s finances were first exposed, besides our good friend, George &#8220;My most exciting time was collaborating in the Holocaust&#8221; Soros, there was one major donor name on it who provided most of the dough for the leftist anti-Israel group. Consolacion Esdicul.</p>
<p>Who was Consolacion Esdicul and how did she have that much money to throw into the pot? Consolacion Esdicul turned out to be the secretary of Bill Benter, a very successful Hong Kong leftist gambler on horse races who is renowned for his ability to <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.03/betting_pr.html">&#8220;mask his bets.&#8221;</a></p>
<p>The horse that Bill is backing now is <a href="http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2013/01/j-street-backer-bill-benter-bankrolling.html">a whiny creaky old nag named Chuck Hagel</a>. And the one thing that J Street and Hagel have in common is that they both hate the Jewish State.</p>
<blockquote><p>But over the last two weeks, Hagel&#8217;s friends in the Democratic political world have come to his aid, principally by rounding up senior former officials to write supportive op-eds and funding an advertising effort to spread the world that Hagel does in fact have bipartisan support.</p>
<p>The Cable has learned that a large chunk of that pro-Hagel money is coming from one Democratic donor, gambling legend Bill Benter, who is working with the Podesta Group, a Washington lobbying firm, to support pro-Hagel advertising. Podesta facilitated Benter&#8217;s funding of a week of ads in Politico&#8217;s Playbook must-read daily newsletter, written by Mike Allen, a spokesman for Benter confirmed to The Cable.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Bipartisan Group issued its letter to set the record straight on Chuck Hagel&#8217;s character and on the positions taken by that Group. One of the Group&#8217;s long-time supporters, Bill Benter, paid for the advertising so that the letter could reach a wider audience,&#8221; the spokesman said. &#8220;The public interest would be better served if those organizations which spent much more on attack ads against Senator Hagel would also disclose their donors.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Maybe so, but it seems as if knowing the identity of the man dropping big bucks to get a man appointed Defense Secretary is of far more importance than the names of those who don&#8217;t want him appointed.</p>
<p>Especially if that man is operating out of territory controlled by Communist China and the sources of his money are somewhat on the vague side.</p>
<p>Behind the bipartisan campaign is a partisan rich man who operates in an enemy country outside the United States and has done his best to influence the choice of the next Defense Secretary at a time when the Asia Pivot is an issue.</p>
<p>To me that seems to be quite problematic indeed.</p>
<p>Hagel served as the chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and wrote the legislation that authorized it.</p>
<p>In December, the Atlantic Council chaired by Hagel <a href="http://www.acus.org/files/publication_pdfs/403/Envisioning2030_web.pdf.pdf">issued a report</a> stating that, &#8220;U.S. strategy to 2030 must deepen cooperation with China as <em>the most crucial single factor</em> that will shape the international system&#8230;&#8221; and stated that &#8220;U.S. strategy will need to accommodate legitimate, essential Chinese interests.&#8221;</p>
<p>In 2005, Hagel <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/08/13/2003267584/1">authored an editorial</a> urging against any aggressive US measures to deal with the trade imbalance.  Hagel has also been on record as <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/01/09/2003552109">warning the United States against</a> supporting Taiwan for fear of being dragged into a war with China.</p>
<blockquote><p>“The cornerstone of our approach to policy toward China and Taiwan has been the so-called ‘one China’ policy: There is but one China; Taiwan is part of China and the question of Taiwan’s future must be settled peacefully,” he said on the Senate floor.</p></blockquote>
<p>In 1998, Hagel aggressively pushed for granting Most Favored Nation status to China. In December 2001, he warned strongly <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec01/abmtreaty_12-13.html">against offending China</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Now, do we want to deliberately offend China or start China or force China or induce China into an arms race? Of course not. China will have to do what it believes is the best in their own self-interest.</p></blockquote>
<p>In 1999, in response to Chinese theft of American nuclear secrets, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june99/nuke_reax_05-25.html">Hagel launched into yet more apologetics</a> for the People&#8217;s Republic of China.</p>
<blockquote><p>We probably are at the lowest ebb in our relationship with China since our formal recognition of the two countries 20 years ago. That&#8217;s not good news for the world. I think we have to be careful here that we first of all don&#8217;t overstate, overplay. We don&#8217;t politicize this, we don&#8217;t dramatize this in a way that&#8217;s unfair, because we have many interests with China.</p></blockquote>
<p>One wonders who &#8220;we&#8221; is?</p>
<p>Hagel even pandered to North Korea, China&#8217;s client, <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-15-talks-nuclear_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA">urging more appeasement</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Yet Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. should not dismiss the idea of one-on-one negotiations with North Korea.</p>
<p>&#8220;Great powers engage. We do need to engage the North Koreans&#8221; because the U.N. resolution is weak and limited, Hagel said.</p></blockquote>
<p>After the collision a US plane and the capture of its 24 crew members by China in 2001, Hagel <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/02/china.aircollission/index.html">offered up more appeasement</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are at a very important and delicate point in our relationship with the People&#8217;s Republic of China and how this is handled will go a long way as to the future of that relationship,&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Ladies and gentlemen, Obama&#8217;s pick for Secretary of Defense. A man who spent his career in the Senate pandering to China and whose bid is being backed by a mysterious fellow in Hong Kong.</p>
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		<title>Does Anyone Actually Want Hagel for Secretary of Defense?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/does-anyone-actually-want-hagel-for-secretary-of-defense/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=does-anyone-actually-want-hagel-for-secretary-of-defense</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/does-anyone-actually-want-hagel-for-secretary-of-defense/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:26:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[secretary of defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senator Chuck Hagel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=171775</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In a Senate where McCain and Kerry can get along swimmingly despite their dramatic differences on Vietnam, where Lieberman can bridge both sides of the aisle, and where there is a good deal of collegiality, no one has much fondness for Hagel. Kerry, for all his faults, is expected to be easily confirmed. Hagel, on the other hand, is despised. Both men have similar politics, but different personalities. Where most Senators have made friends, Hagel seems to have left behind only enemies.]]></description>
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<p>So far we have a long list of people who don&#8217;t want Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense. A list that includes top Democrats and Republicans. It&#8217;s more of a chore to find those who actually wants Hagel for the post.</p>
<p>There have endorsements from Pat Buchanan and Tom Friedman, neither of whom are in the Senate, both of whom seem to have fastened onto Hagel because they think he&#8217;s Anti-Israel. There&#8217;s Joe Klein, of Primary Colors fame, now mostly overlooked, who has long descended into rabid ravings on his magazine blog. And none of those people are actually in Congress.</p>
<p>Obama seems to want Hagel in the job, but won&#8217;t say so. And that&#8217;s about it.</p>
<p>Barney Frank, now on the way out and with no reason to care what Obama thinks, is saying that he strongly opposes a Hagel nomination for gay rights reasons. Elliot Engel opposes it due to Hagel&#8217;s anti-Semitism. (Hagel has a real gift for making friends)</p>
<p>In the Senate, where it really counts, Senator Tom Coburn opposes Hagel because he doesn&#8217;t think he has the experience to lead the military through Obama&#8217;s ruthless defense cuts. Senator Rubio opposes Hagel over Cuba. Senator Cormyn will also oppose. Senator Schumer has refused to come out for, which means he&#8217;ll have to be bribed. Senator Lieberman has predicted a tough confirmation. Other Senators have said similar things and no one in the Senate appears to be particularly enthusiastic about him.</p>
<p>Like many turncoat Republicans, Hagel is not popular with either Democrats or Republicans. Traitors tend not to make many friends because neither side likes them or trusts them.</p>
<p>The Anti-Israel crowd has fastened on Hagel reflexively because the Pro-Israel crowd opposes him, the way that they fastened on Freeman, who had worked for two enemy governments and praised China&#8217;s restraint at Tienanmen Square. It&#8217;s become rather obvious that the Anti-Israel crowd would hysterically embrace anyone, no matter what else they did or believed, so long as they were occasionally critical of Israel.</p>
<p>The battle over Freeman, who had worked for China and Saudi Arabia, and endorsed China&#8217;s atrocities discredited the &#8220;Anyone Who Hates Israel&#8221; crowd. Bringing their endorsements to Hagel while shouting about the Jewish Lobby does Hagel no favors at all. But the battle over Hagel isn&#8217;t really about Israel. It&#8217;s about the broken relationships that Hagel left in his wake.</p>
<p>The lack of support for Hagel in the Senate shows how unqualified he is as a leader and as an influencer, skills that he would need in a top defense post. The coldness toward him in the Senate is not the fault of some Jewish conspiracy, but Hagel&#8217;s failures as a human being.</p>
<p>In a Senate where McCain and Kerry can get along swimmingly despite their dramatic differences on Vietnam, where Lieberman can bridge both sides of the aisle, and where there is a good deal of collegiality, no one has much fondness for Hagel. Kerry, for all his faults, is expected to be easily confirmed. Hagel, on the other hand, is despised. Both men have similar politics, but different personalities. Where most Senators have made friends, Hagel seems to have left behind only enemies.</p>
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