March 15, 2017
Consortiumnews.com

The Kagans Are Back; Wars to Follow

Putin's interference in thwarting the neocons' dream of a Syrian 'regime change' war moved Putin to the top of their enemies' list

by Robert Parry

The Kagan family, America's neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency. . . .

Neoconservative pundit Robert Kagan and his wife, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, run a remarkable family business: she has sparked a hot war in Ukraine and helped launch Cold War II with Russia and he steps in to demand that Congress jack up military spending so America can meet these new security threats.

This extraordinary husband-and-wife duo makes quite a one-two punch for the Military-Industrial Complex, an inside-outside team that creates the need for more military spending, applies political pressure to ensure higher appropriations, and watches as thankful weapons manufacturers lavish grants on like-minded hawkish Washington think tanks.

Not only does the broader community of neoconservatives stand to benefit but so do other members of the Kagan clan, including Robert's brother Frederick at the American Enterprise Institute and his wife Kimberly, who runs her own shop called the Institute for the Study of War. . . .

The neocons were tossed a lifeline by Democrats and liberals who detested Trump so much that they were happy to pick up Nuland's fallen banner of the New Cold War with Russia. As part of a dubious scheme to drive Trump from office, Democrats and liberals hyped evidence-free allegations that Russia had colluded with Trump's team to rig the U.S. election. . . .

Family Kagan has charted the course of action -- batter Republicans into joining the all-out Russia-bashing and then persuade a softened Trump to launch a full-scale invasion of Syria. . . .

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Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. He is the author of America's Stolen Narrative and the editor of Consortium News.

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[James Comey did confirm that his FBI has found nothing to support President Trump's tweet that President Obama ordered him wiretapped. . . .

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[Steele, who had worked for Britain's MI-6 in Russia, said he tapped into ex-colleagues and unnamed sources inside Russia, including leadership figures in the Kremlin, to piece together a series of sensational reports that became the basis of the current congressional and FBI investigations into Trump's alleged ties to Moscow.--Robert Parry, "The Sleazy Origins of Russia-gate," foreignaffairs.com, March 29, 2017]

[The United States has provided Israel with $233.7 billion in adjusted for inflation aid between 1948 through the end of 2012--Philip Giraldi, "The True Cost of Israel," consortiumnews.com, April 12, 2017]

[the open secret of Israeli influence is studiously ignored, even as presidential candidates prostrate themselves before the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. . . .

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[Calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the group describes itself as "a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative" that "will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors' efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions," and also "will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin's ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe."--Glenn Greenwald, "With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons," theintercept.com, July 17, 2017]

[The MEK is a weird political cult built around a husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. It has been guilty of numerous terrorist acts and was on the U.S. government's formal list of terrorist organizations until February 2012.--Ted Galen Carpenter, "This Group Hopes to Push America Toward Regime Change in Iran," nationalinterest.org, July 17, 2017]

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[Alliance for Securing Democracy as the source of the allegations about the NFL protests. According to the Times, the ASD has tracked 600 Twitter accounts supposedly "linked to Russian influence operations" and exposed their nefarious agenda. . . .

the ASD recruited the most recognizable face of neoconservatism in Washington, Bill Kristol. --Max Blumenthal, "McCarthyism Inc: Introducing the Counter-Terror 'Experts' Hyping Russian Threats and Undermining Our Civil Liberties," consortiumnews.com, November 10, 2017]

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What the hawkish Clinton could not achieve, the less strident imperialist Joe Biden hopes to carry on. . . .
In 2004, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) teamed up with the State Department, USAID, Freedom House, George Soros's Open Society Institute, Britain's Westminster Institute, the political consultant Dick Morris, and other government groups, including the CIA, to block Viktor Yanukovych from taking office as president following an election in 2004, which the US and domestic enemies of Yanukovych branded as rigged. That year alone, according to the State Department, the US spent about $34 million on regime change initiatives in Ukraine, while Soros pitched in about $1.6 million in support of a local "Freedom of Choice" NGO coalition and Ukraine's "New Choice 2004."--Gerald Sussman, "Biden's Ukrainegate Problem," counterpunch.org, August 10, 2020]

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The Editorial Board, "Why the Durham Report Matters to Democracy: It is a damning account of the corruption of the FBI and its accomplices," wsj.com, May 16, 2023