Thread by @kgosztola

The Biden-Harris Transition released a list of individuals who are briefing President-elect Joe Biden on national security matters.

Here's a thread examining each of these people.

Lloyd Austin is a retired four-star military general, who was the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2013-2016 under President Obama. He was responsible for operations in Middle East and central and south Asia. He oversaw campaigns against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

As a bio for him celebrates, Austin was an assistant division commander in the 3rd Infantry Division. He helped "spearhead the invasion into Iraq in March 2003." He boasts about US military forces leaving Kuwait and seizing Baghdad "in a record 22 days."

academyofdiplomacy.org/member/lloyd-a…

During a Senate hearing in March 2014, Austin backed immunity for US troops from war crimes prosecutions by Afghan government.

"It's important to have the adequate protections and immunities for our troops if they're going to continue to operate in theater."

Tony Blinken was deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration. He was national security adviser to Biden during Obama's first tem.

From 1994 to 2001, he was part of President Bill Clinton's National Security Council.

Jonathan Guyer of The American Prospect reported on Blinken in July.

Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors with Michelle Flournoy, a hawk. He cashed "in on his international connections" and "years of face time with Saudi, Israeli, and Chinese leaders."
prospect.org/world/how-bide…

After the Ghouta chemical attack in Syria on August 21, 2013, Blinken provided Congress with a briefing on the attack.

Blinken said Congress would recognize, "Chemical weapons were used on August 21 against civilians in Syria, and the Assad regime is the one that used them."

Journalist Seymour Hersh reported on cherry-picking of intelligence. Officials overlooked evidence intel agencies knew that al Nusra, a group affiliated with al Qaida, had "mastered mechanics of creating sarin & was capable of manufacturing" it in Syria.

lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/…

Nicholas Burns was part of President George W. Bush's administration and Clinton administration. He was a spokesperson for State Department when Madeleine Albright was secretary of state. He backed the Iraq War. He is on the board of directors for Atlantic Council.

At a speaking event in 2015, Burns said he supported the Iraq War when he was in the Bush administration. Burns also attacked NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. "He went to China and Russia. That is why I dislike Snowden."

telegram.com/article/201510…

Snowden went to Hong Kong and never was in mainland China. The State Department revoked his passport, which is why he became stuck in Russia. He never planned to end up there.

It was Biden who pressured countries like Ecuador into refusing to grant Snowden asylum.

David S. Cohen was a deputy director of CIA from 2015-2017. His bio at the Big Law firm WilmerHale says he focused on how US companies "could advance the CIA's mission." He was under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in Treasury Department in Obama admin.

Cohen's WilmerHale bio indicates he was instrumental in developing sanctions for Iran, Russia, North Korea, ISIS, al Qaida, etc. He was Obama's "favorite combatant commander" or the admin's "financial Batman." He's also been referred to as a "sanctions guru."

The UN chief warned in October 2015 that sanctions on Iran had escalated inflation, spurred rise in commodities and energy costs, increased unemployment, and led to medicine shortages.

But Cohen boasted about impact sanctions had on Iran, saying rial had "dropped like a rock."

Avril Haines was a principal deputy national security adviser to Obama. In 2013, she was appointed CIA deputy director. She also held a number of senior legal positions in the Obama admin.

She is a member of CNAS, a think tank funded by weapons contractors.

Spencer Ackerman covered Haines' history as CIA deputy director. She backed "Gina Haspel for CIA director, someone directly implicated in CIA torture."

"Until late June, she consulted for Trump-favorite data firm Palantir, which emerged from CIA."

thedailybeast.com/the-proxy-war-…

While Haines apparently fought for some restrictions on CIA drone strikes, she represented the CIA's interests when it came to the Senate torture report and was accused of trying to help the agency conceal certain findings from declassification.

After the CIA spied on the Senate intelligence committee's work, Haines accepted there was no reason to discipline or hold anyone at the CIA accountable. It was one of her last acts as the agency's deputy director.

Kathleen Hicks was principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy in Obama admin.

She is senior vice president, Henry Kissinger Chair, & director of International Security Program at Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) & leader of Biden's Pentagon team.

In a previous thread on agency review team appointments, I covered the weapons manufacturers, big banks, and various fossil fuel corporations that fund CSIS.

https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1327334150622343171

Hicks supports economic sanctions against Iran to force the government to comply with America's global agenda.

Sanctions have had brutal effect on Iran's ability to respond to COVID-19 pandemic. They are dealing with worst outbreak in Middle East. cbsnews.com/video/iran-exp…

Stanley McChrystal is a retired general who commanded US and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan. He led Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), overseeing a kill list and operations that involved deadly night raids.

In Jeremy Scahill's book, "Dirty Wars," an entire chapter was dedicated to McChrystal, "The Troublemaker."

Douglas MacGregor, a career military officer, said McChrystal ingratiated himself with neoconservatives, particularly Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

McChrystal, according to one retired officer quoted in "Dirty Wars," believed he "presided over this black world where any actions were justified against Muslims" because the US was "fighting against the Caliphate."

Scahill's book thoroughly details a torture scandal that erupted around Camp Nama [Nasty Ass Military Area], which was run by JSOC. CIA general counsel Scott Muller said torture techniques at Nama were "more aggressive" than techniques the CIA was using.

In his memoir, according to Scahill, McChrystal said torture was result of "lapses of discipline among individual members." Systematized torture never happened. "That wasn't the case before I assumed command and wasn't true under my command nor under my successors."

Here's an example of the sadistic violence that occurred regularly at Camp Nama. This is partly why the Red Cross was not permitted to visit, and this violence happened on under McChrystal's command.

There is next to no accountability for torture. So, let's throw out another horrific example that implicates McChrystal. This one involves mud and a cold hose.

McChrystal engaged in a cover-up of former NFL player Pat Tillman's death.

thenation.com/article/archiv…

Scahill is very clear in "Dirty Wars." McChrystal systematized "mass killing and detention of suspected insurgents in Iraq." He convinced Obama to "surge" troops in Afghanistan and "escalated JSOC-style night raids and expanded list of names on kill list."

William McRaven was the commander of US Special Operations Command from 2011-2014 under Obama. He's most known for overseeing the bin Laden raid. But McRaven was an architect of Obama's assassination policy and a fixture in Terror Tuesday meetings (along with John Brennan).

McRaven pushed for the military strike on al Majalah in Yemen that occurred on December 16, 2009. It resulted in a massacre that killed 41 civilians, including 22 children.
thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2012-0…

From Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars," Bin Fareed, an elite figure in Yemen, described the carnage in al Majalah. "You could not tell if this meat belongs to animals or to human beings," and, "They were all children, old women, all kinds of sheep and goats and cows. Unbelievable."

Samantha Power was US permanent representative to the UN under Obama. Prior that, she was Obama's special assistant and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights. She is known for popularizing the "responsibility to protect" military doctrine."

In Max Blumenthal's book "Management of Savagery," he described Power as a "celebrity icon of military humanism." She weaponized human rights and perfected a method of masking "imperial designs" under the cloak of "genocide prevention."

Power was one of the most forceful voices for a regime change war in Syria. Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic documented how Obama grew irritated with her lobbying. "Samantha, enough, I've already read your book."

Power wrote "A Problem From Hell," and "Education of an Idealist." The first book was used to justify the Iraq War, as John Carl Baker noted in his review of "Education of an Idealist."

Power opposed asking Congress for authorization for war in Syria.
jacobinmag.com/2019/10/samant…

On Libya, Power contends, “Whatever our sincerity, we could hardly expect to have a crystal ball when it came to accurately predicting outcomes in places where the culture was not our own.”

She has a lot in common with neocons when it comes to not taking responsibility.

Vincent Stewart was deputy commander for US Cyber Command from 2017 to 2019 and director of Defense Intelligence Agency from 2015 to 2017.

Stewart said on PBS NewsHour in March 2018:

"This isn't just about Chinese. This is about Russians. This is about Iranians. These are all our potential adversaries who understand things that underpin Western liberal democracies & are going after it. That's what keeps me awake."

I highlighted Linda Thomas-Greenfield when she was announced as a leader of State Department review team.

Thomas-Greenfield was US assistant secretary of state for African affairs and has been the senior vice president for Albright Stonebridge Group's Africa section.

Thomas-Greenfield is an acolyte of Susan Rice, a front-runner for secretary of state appointment. She supported President George W. Bush's neocolonial program for Africa known as the Millennium Challenge Account.

https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1326543763632631809

Bob Work was a deputy secretary of defense in both the Obama and Trump administrations. He was CEO of the Center for New American Security (CNAS), which receives funds from weapons manufacturers.

Work participated in a panel discussion on November 17 called "The Biden Pentagon and the Future of US Defense." It was hosted by CNAS.

He said "Russia maligned influence operations" & stopping Iran's "continued march" to nuclear weapon will be "very, very high" priorities.

For an incoming administration that is supposedly going to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, Work's statement is jarring.

What "continued march"? Gareth Porter wrote a book on the Iran nuclear scare. We need to force an end to this scare once and for all. justworldbooks.com/books-by-title…