Zoellick has replaced Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. Some are pleased about the appointment - "Applause greets Zoellick at World Bank" - according to the Economic Times.
ZoellickBut this isn't a welcome development. Robert Zoellick hails from the German Marshall Fund, a Nazi front.
Time Machine
The Allies rolled back and crushed the German military in 1945, but not the covert operators of the Nazi Party who fled the wasteland via escape routes set up every 40 miles along the German border. They left behind an industrial base tainted by failed world conquest and genocide. The German-American barons of industry who profited from the chaos that left 50 million dead were faced with a pressing public relations dilemma. 
In his postwar biography of Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary, Paul Manning described a photo op event *staged* on June 5, 1972, featuring Chancellor Willy Brandt at Harvard with an announcement that the German government would graciously donate $47-million toward the creation of a German-American foundation – "a statesmanlike approach to the recovery of former enemies." Brandt pledged that the German-Marshall Fund would be "an independent American-run educational foundation" to study and recommend "solutions" to European economic problems.Manning notes that the mission of the German George C. Marshall Research Foundation is "public relations, to cosmetize" the industrial-financial underpinnings of Hitler's Reich. Some of the corporations and organizations that have made substantial contributions to the German-Marshall Fund:
Bertelsmann Stiftung
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Boeing Company
The Brookings Institution
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
Citigroup Foundation
DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund
Draeger Stiftung
Foreign Relations Committee of the German Bundestag
GE Foundation
German Federal Ministry of the Interior
Governments of Belgium
Heinrich-Böll Stiftung
King Baudouin Foundation
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Koerber Stiftung
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Merck & Co.
Microsoft
Ministry of Defence of Georgia
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Robert Bosch Stiftung
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Rockefeller Foundation
Royal Netherlands Embassy, Belgrade
Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation
Swedish International Development Assistance (SIDA)
U.S. Agency for International Development
U.S. Mission to NATO
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas7
In October 1978, the German-Marshall Foundation sponsored a luncheon chaired by Wall Street's John J. McCloy (Nazi recruitment, Pentagon design, J.F. Kennedy murder cover-up). Hermann J. Abs (1901-94 – Hitler's banker, "architect" of the postwar German "economic miracle," honorary president of Deutsche Bank A.G., to be cherry-picked by the Pope after the P-2 Masonic money-laundering scandal to reorganize the Vatican Bank) addressed this conclave of "businessmen and bankers and members of the Foreign Policy Association in New York City on the ‘Problems and Prospects of American-German Economic Cooperation.’"
Rubbing elbows with McCloy and the Reich's ranking banker at the dais were "Henry H. Fowler, Wall Street investment banker and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Cabot Lodge, former U.S. ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany; George C. McGhee, another former American ambassador to West Germany, also a trustee of the Marshall Foundation and a member of various private and government advisory groups. These, along with the others on the dais and in the audience, represent firms and banks that are among the most prestigious in the United States and throughout the world." Every one of them had one thing in common – "all benefited from the rebirth and rebounding prosperity of the new Federal Republic of Germany. Knowingly or no, these figures and their corporations are indebted to the man who was not there, the financial and administrative genius who set the foundation for the postwar recovery of West Germany, Martin Bormann."
Under Secretary of State – and nuclear black marketeer – Marc Grossman of the German Marshall Fund and the Cohen Group lobbying firm.
Wind forward to the present. At the State Department under Condoleeza Rice, a trustee of the German-Marshall Fund is her deputy, one Marc Grossman, vice chair of the Cohen Group, Lockheed lobbyist and black marketeer. As trustee of a German industrial front set up by Nazi Bormann, Mr. Grossman might be expected to maintain connections to international terrorists.
Pakistani journalist Amir Mateen of Karachi News Service reported – one day before the air assaults on New York's World Trade Center – that Pakistani ISI Chief Mahmoud, a CIA surrogate, best-known for transferring $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, was a "week-long presence in Washington" before the destruction in Manhattan, prompting "speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council... Official sources confirm that he met [George] Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with MARC GROSSMAN, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. ... "
Another German-Marshall trustee who served as deputy secretary under Condoleeza Rice, from February 22, 2005 to July 7, 2006, was Robert B. Zoellick. The State Department web site posts these career highlights:
"During President George H.W. Bush's Administration, Mr. Zoellick served with Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, as Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, as well as Counselor to the Department (under-secretary rank).... He served as the senior U.S. official in the 'Two-plus-Four' negotiations for German unification and worked closely with Secretary Baker on the policies pertaining to the end of the Cold War.... Mr. Zoellick received the Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's highest honor. The German government awarded him the Knight Commanders Cross for his role in developing the U.S. strategy toward German unification. the U.S. strategy toward German unification. From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Zoellick served at the Department of the Treasury in various positions, including Counselor to Secretary James A. Baker, III."
The German-Marshall Fund is a Nazi military-industrial front, and its presence at the State Department is a statement on American foreign policy, undeniably ... but of immediate interest here is another GMF trustee and torch-bearer of Bormann's dream: "Jeffrey A. Goldstein, Managing Director, HELLMAN & FRIEDMAN LLC"
Hellman & Friedman often partners in business investments with the Hunt family of Texas. Warren Hellman, founder of the firm, sits on a Hunt family foundation.
BIOGRAPHY
Robert B. Zoellick
Deputy Secretary of State,
Term of Appointment: 02/22/2005 to 07/07/2006
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/42449.htm
Robert B. Zoellick's nomination as Deputy Secretary of State was confirmed by the Senate on February 16, 2005. He was sworn in on February 22, 2005.
Since February 2001, Mr. Zoelick served as the 13th U.S. Trade Representative. During his tenure as U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Zoellick completed the negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization; developed a strategy to launch new global trade negotiations at the WTO meeting in Doha and to press the negotiations forward in 2004; completed and enacted Free Trade Agreements with Singapore, Chile, Australia, and Morocco; completed FTAs with five nations of Central America and the Dominican Republic, as well as with Bahrain; worked with Congress to enact the Jordan FTA and the Vietnam Trade Agreement; launched Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the Southern African Customs Union, Panama, the Andean countries, and Thailand; and worked with Congress to pass the Trade Act of 2002, which included new Trade Promotion Authority, and to expand the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA).
During President George H.W. Bush's Administration, Mr. Zoellick served with Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, as Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, as well as Counselor to the Department (Under Secretary rank). Mr. Zoellick's responsibilities included political, economic, and security topics in all regions of the world. He served as the senior U.S. official in the "Two-plus-Four" negotiations for German unification and worked closely with Secretary Baker on the policies pertaining to the end of the Cold War. Mr. Zoellick was the lead State Department official in the negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Uruguay Round, and the launch of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group. He played a key role in the Central American peace processes. Mr. Zoellick was also appointed the President's personal representative, or Sherpa, for the G-7 Economic Summits in 1991 and 1992. In August 1992, Mr. Zoellick was appointed White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President.
Mr. Zoellick received the Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's highest honor. The German government awarded him the Knight Commanders Cross for his role in developing the U.S. strategy toward German unification.
From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Zoellick served at the Department of the Treasury in various positions, including Counselor to Secretary James A. Baker, III, Executive Secretary of the Department, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy. Mr. Zoellick received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of Treasury's highest honor.
After leaving government service in 1993, Mr. Zoellick was appointed an Executive Vice President at Fannie Mae, the largest housing finance investor in the United States, where he managed the company's affordable housing business; legal, regulatory, government relations activities; and international financial services. He also served as the John M. Olin Professor of National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, Research Scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, and Senior International Advisor to Goldman Sachs.
In May 2002, Mr. Zoellick was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. He also served as board member of a number of private and public organizations, including Alliance Capital, the Council on Foreign Relations, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the World Wildlife Fund Advisory Council.
Raised in Naperville, Illinois, Mr. Zoellick received a J.D. magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 1981. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College in 1975.
Rice's No.2 to join Goldman Sachs
The Associated Press
June 19, 2006
WASHINGTON Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, the department's No. 2 official, is resigning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Monday.
Rice praised Zoellick's "tireless work ethic," and said he had served as her "alter ego" in the department. She did not announce a replacement.
"Our nation is stronger and safer because of your work," Rice said at a State Department announcement.
"I appreciate your confidence and friendship," Zoellick replied.
Zoellick, who served six years in the Bush administration, said he would join the Wall Street investment house Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
In his resignation letter, dated June 15, Zoellick, 52, did not say why he was leaving. A former U.S. trade representative, Zoellick reportedly wanted to be promoted to treasury secretary to replace departing secretary John Snow, but President George W. Bush nominated Goldman Sachs executive Henry Paulson instead.
"I'm pleased to have built a first-rate team, offer counsel on a number of initiatives and backup the secretary," Zoellick said at the news briefing. "I've accomplished what I set out to do, and it's time to step down."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Zoellick had "been wanting to pursue options in the private sector for some time and now he's going to do it."
"Bob Zoellick is a guy who is highly competent and has served a number of presidents but you also know at a certain juncture in an administration some people who have worked hard for a long time, need to go back and pursue other opportunities."
Zoellick is expected to leave the State Department in July, officials said.
He has been the administration's leading diplomat handling the volatile situation in Sudan's western Darfur region, where at least 180,000 have died since villagers began an uprising in 2003.
Zoellick has also been the State Department's chief diplomat dealing with China.
"He has been one of my closest and most valued advisers on every single international issue," Rice said.
Although Zoellick was not widely known beyond Washington, Rice made a joking reference to one instance when Zoellick's photo was printed around the world. During a visit last year to a Chinese panda preserve, the severe, often demanding Zoellick was photographed nuzzling a panda cub and looking delighted.
Rice said she had given Zoellick tough assignments that required him to travel often and fill in for her in Washington, "and occasionally even hug a panda."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/19/news/web.0619zoellick.php
Board of Trustees
Guido Goldman, Co-Chairman , Director, German Studies Program, Harvard Center for European Studies
Marc Leland, Co-Chairman, President , Marc Leland and Associates
Calvin M. Dooley , President , Food Products Association
Jeffrey A. Goldstein, Managing Director, Hellman & Friedman LLC
Marc Grossman, Vice Chairman The Cohen Group
David Ignatius , Editorial Columnist, The Washington Post
Nike Irvin , President , Riordan Foundation
Craig Kennedy , President , The German Marshall Fund of the United States Scott Klug, Chief Executive Officer , Wisconsin Trails Publishing
Roman Martinez IV , New York, New York
Richard Powers, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs International
J. Thomas Presby , Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, retired Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu John A. Ross New York, New York Barbara Shailor Executive Director Solidarity Center
Amity Shlaes , Syndicated Columnist, Bloomberg
Jenonne Walker, Washington, DC
Leah Zell Wanger, President, LZW Group
J. Robinson West , Chairman, PFC Energy
Suzanne H. Woolsey, Washington, DC
http://www.gmfus.org/partnership/index.cfm
A NUMBER OF ORGANIZATIONS HAVE MADE SUBSTANTIAL FINANCIAL OR IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS TO GMF’S ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING:
American Council of Young Political Leaders
Atlantic Philanthropies
Bertelsmann Stiftung
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Boeing Company
The Brookings Institution
Bucerius Law School
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
Citigroup Foundation
The Cleveland Foundation
Compagnia di San Paolo
Council for the United States and Italy
Council of State Governments
DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund
Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington
Draeger Stiftung
European Commission
Erste Bank Stiftung
Foreign Relations Committee of the German Bundestag
Fundaçao Luso-Americana
Fundación BBVA
GE Foundation
Gemeinnutzige Hertie-Stiftung
German Federal Ministry of the Interior
Greek Foreign Ministry
Governments of Belgium
Heinrich-Böll Stiftung
Henry M. Jackson Foundation
HTC America
International Visitors Council/World Affairs Council of Raleigh, North Carolina
Institute of Public Policy Studies, University of Denver
King Baudouin Foundation
Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Koerber Stiftung
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Merck & Co.
Microsoft
Ministry of Defence of Georgia
Monitor Group
Netherlands Atlantic Commission
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Pacific Council on International Policy
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Robert Bosch Stiftung
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Rockefeller Foundation
Royal Netherlands Embassy, Belgrade
Safeco Corporation
Seattle Foundation
Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation
Swedish International Development Assistance (SIDA)
Tipping Point Foundation
Trust for Mutual Understanding
U.S. Agency for International Development
U.S. Mission to NATO
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas
Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius
--
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/zoellick-bio.html
United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick www.ustr.gov
Robert B. Zoellick assumed office as the 13th U.S. Trade Representative on February 7, 2001.
During his tenure as U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Zoellick completed the negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization; developed a strategy to launch new global trade negotiations at the WTO meeting in Doha and to press the negotiations forward in 2004; completed and enacted Free Trade Agreements with Singapore, Chile, Australia, and Morocco; completed FTAs with five nations of Central America and the Dominican Republic, as well as with Bahrain; worked with Congress to enact the Jordan FTA and the Vietnam Trade Agreement; launched Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the Southern African Customs Union, Panama, the Andean countries, and Thailand; and worked with Congress to pass the Trade Act of 2002, which included new Trade Promotion Authority, and to expand the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA).
During President George H.W. Bush's Administration, Mr. Zoellick served with Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, as Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, as well as Counselor to the Department (Under Secretary rank). Mr. Zoellick's responsibilities included political, economic, and security topics in all regions of the world. He served as the senior U.S. official in the "Two-plus-Four" negotiations for German unification and worked closely with Secretary Baker on the policies pertaining to the end of the Cold War. Mr. Zoellick was the lead State Department official in the negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Uruguay Round, and the launch of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group. He played a key role in the Central American peace processes. Mr. Zoellick was also appointed the President's personal representative, or Sherpa, for the G-7 Economic Summits in 1991 and 1992. In August 1992, Mr. Zoellick was appointed White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President.
Mr. Zoellick received the Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's highest honor. The German government awarded him the Knight Commanders Cross for his role in developing the U.S. strategy toward German unification.
From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Zoellick served at the Department of the Treasury in various positions, including Counselor to Secretary James A. Baker, III, Executive Secretary of the Department, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy. Mr. Zoellick received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of Treasury's highest honor.
After leaving government service in 1993, Mr. Zoellick was appointed an Executive Vice President at Fannie Mae, the largest housing finance investor in the United States, where he managed the company's affordable housing business; legal, regulatory, government relations activities; and international financial services. He also served as the John M. Olin Professor of National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, Research Scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, and Senior International Advisor to Goldman Sachs.
In May 2002, Mr. Zoellick was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. He also served as board member of a number of private and public organizations, including Alliance Capital, the Council on Foreign Relations, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the World Wildlife Fund Advisory Council.
Raised in Naperville, Illinois, Mr. Zoellick received a J.D. magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 1981. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College in 1975.
http://www.spitfirelist.com/f302.html
2. As the story indicates, the FCC ruling establishes WTO membership and "the public interest" as the primary criteria for evaluating purchases of American telecommunications firms by companies controlled by foreign governments. Much of the first half of the program reviews information about Robert Zoellick, one of the principal architects of the WTO. (The articles are excerpted from FTR#273.) (Zoellick was appointed as U.S. Trade Representative by George Bush.) As noted in FTR-186, WTO midwife Zoellick is a fellow and board member of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. ("Robert Bruce Zoellick" by Joseph Kahn; New York Times; 1/12/2001; p. A15.) ...
Paul Manning describes this organization in some detail in his book Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile. "By the 1970’s, the West Germans had concluded that influencing U.S. public opinion is better accomplished with a skilled touch than with a meat cleaver, which had characterized their efforts during the two world wars. An example of such skill was the staged news event of June 5, 1972, when Willy Brandt announced at Harvard University that the Federal Republic of Germany would donate 150 million marks ($47 million) to establish a foundation in honor of the Marshall Plan - a statesmanlike approach to the recovery of former enemies, and to the recovery generally of Western Europe. Brandt stated that the money would arrive in equal installments for the next fifteen years, for the establishment and operation in the United States of an independent American-run educational foundation specializing in solutions to European problems, to be known as the ‘German Marshall Fund of the United States - A Memorial to the Marshall Plan.’
5. "The overriding function of this German George C. Marshall Research Foundation is public relations, to cosmetize the German industrialists and bankers whose corporations whose corporations had worked so successfully for the Third Reich. In October 1978, the Marshall Foundation was utilized as a platform for Dr. Hermann J. Abs, now honorary president of Deutsche Bank A.G., as he addressed a meeting of businessmen and bankers and members of the Foreign Policy Association in New York City on the ‘Problems and Prospects of American-German Economic Cooperation.’ This luncheon meeting was chaired by his old friend, John J. McCloy, Wall Street banker and lawyer, who had worked closely with Dr. Abs when McCloy served as U.S. High Commissioner for Germany during those postwar reconstruction years. At that time, Hermann Abs, as chief executive of Deutsche Bank, was also directing the spending of America’s Marshall Plan money in West Germany as the chairman of the Reconstruction Loan Corporation of the Federal Republic of Germany. With them on the dais were Henry H. Fowler, Wall Street investment banker and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Cabot Lodge, former U.S. ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany; George C. McGhee, another former American ambassador to West Germany, also a trustee of the Marshall Foundation and a member of various private and government advisory groups. These, along with the others on the dais and in the audience, represent firms and banks that are among the most prestigious in the United States and throughout the world; all benefited from the rebirth and rebounding prosperity of the new Federal Republic of Germany. Knowingly or no, these figures and their corporations are indebted to the man who was not there, the financial and administrative genius who set the foundation for the postwar recovery of West Germany, Martin Bormann." (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0-8184-0309-8; pp. 261-262.)
6. Manning goes on to describe the function of the German Marshall Fund, an interesting factor to contemplate in connection with Zoellick, his pivotal role in the creation of the WTO and, in turn, the WTO’s important role as the yardstick by which purchases of American telecommunications firms will be measured by the FCC. "The Stroking of American public opinion by German interests, as by those of Japan, is calculated to open further the American market. The United States remains the richest and the most profitable market on the face of the earth, and these businessmen and bankers know that they either buy their way in or negotiate their way in. They know that if they are going to succeed as world companies they must have a generous slice of the U.S. market, and today this can be accomplished only through ties, treaties, and agreements, no longer entirely through retained earnings and bank lines of credit." (Ibid.; p. 262.)
7. Zoellick’s eventual ascent to a position of power in this institution is particularly interesting to note in the context of some of his other actions, professional associations and beliefs. A member of the Bush State Department, Zoellick was a strong, effective advocate within James Baker’s foreign policy establishment for speedy German reunification, and he played a pivotal role in bringing it about. "Mr. Zoellick, the other leading candidate for the trade job, was a foreign policy wunderkind under Mr. Baker. He helped design and carry out United States policy on German reunification a decade ago. He also helped start NAFTA negotiations from his post in the State Department." ("Bush Seeking to Overhaul Policy Making" by Joseph Kahn and Frank Bruni; New York Times; 1/6/2001; p. B14.)
8. Significantly, Zoellick midwifed a diplomatic compromise to create the World Trade Organization. ("Robert Bruce Zoellick" by Joseph Kahn; New York Times; 1/12/2001; p. A15.)
9. With regard to German reunification, Zoellick convinced the Bush administration to embrace German unity. "A confidant of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, he rallied western allies to back a speedy German reunification and finagled a compromise that led to the creation of the World Trade Organization. . . .But he is most widely remembered in foreign policy circles for being the Unites States’ representative at the multiparty negotiation of the future of divided Germany. He persuaded the Bush administration to embrace German unity despite the qualms of allies and alarm in the former Soviet Union." (Ibid.; p. A15.)
10. Another credit on Zoellick’s curriculum vitae, is his participation with James Baker, his apparent mentor, in the "Florida Recount," that gave Bush his "victory." "Zoellick also served as counselor to the Treasury secretary during the Ronald Reagan administration, in addition to other posts. He is a protégé of James A. Baker III, the longtime Republican official. Both traveled to Florida to help George W. Bush during the recent ballot recount controversy." ("Bush’s Trade Chief Rated as Smart, Smooth Negotiator" by Jonathan Peterson; Los Angeles Times; 1/12/2001; p. A15.)
11. With the types of connections exemplified above, Zoellick is viewed with favor in Europe. "The appointment will be greeted favorably in Europe, where Mr. Zoellick has strong contacts in both government and business. He was one of a handfull of Bush advisers that a senior EU delegation sought out last month when they visited Washington." By Edward Alden, Richard Wolffe and Stephen Fidler; Financial Times; 1/12/2001; p. 4.)
12. Zoellick’s partisan role on behalf of Germany during the closing phase of the Cold War, his pivotal role in the creation of the WTO, and his significance in the Bush/Baker milieu would seem to augur well for conditions in America for German corporations. Given FCC Chairman Michael Powell’s recent actions on acquisitions of American telecommunications companies, Zoellick’s actions have helped to open up the American telecommunications landscape to German corporate predators. ("US Ruling on Telekom Could Lead to Wave of Investment" by Peter Spiegel; Financial Times; 5/2/2001.)
13. This, in turn, is to be evaluated in terms of the scenario presented in the Nazi tract Serpent’s Walk. Mr. Emory believes that, like The Turner Diaries (also published by National Vanguard Books), the book is actually a blueprint for what is going to take place. It is a novel about a Nazi takeover of the United States in the middle of the 21st century. The book describes the Third Reich going underground, buying into the American media, and taking over the country. "It assumes that Hitler’s warrior elite - the SS - didn’t give up their struggle for a White world when they lost the Second World War. Instead their survivors went underground and adopted some of their tactics of their enemies: they began building their economic muscle and buying into the opinion-forming media. A century after the war they are ready to challenge the democrats and Jews for the hearts and minds of White Americans, who have begun to have their fill of government-enforced multi-culturalism and ‘equality.’" (From the back cover of Serpent’s Walk by "Randolph D. Calverhall;" Copyright 1991 [SC]; National Vanguard Books; 0-937944-05-X.)
14. This process is described in more detail in a passage of text, consisting of a discussion between Wrench (a member of this Underground Reich) and a mercenary named Lessing. "The SS . . . what was left of it . . . had business objectives before and during World War II. When the war was lost they just kept on, but from other places: Bogota, Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Colombo, Damascus, Dacca . . . you name it. They realized that the world is heading towards a ‘corporacracy;’ five or ten international super-companies that will run everything worth running by the year 2100. Those super-corporations exist now, and they’re already dividing up the production and marketing of food, transport, steel and heavy industry, oil, the media, and other commodities. They’re already dividing up the production and marketing of food, transport, steel and heavy industry, oil, the media, and other commodities. They’re mostly conglomerates, with fingers in more than one pie . . . . We, the SS, have the say in four or five. We’ve been competing for the past sixty years or so, and we’re slowly gaining . . . . About ten years ago, we swung a merge, a takeover, and got voting control of a supercorp that runs a small but significant chunk of the American media. Not openly, not with bands and trumpets or swastikas flying, but quietly: one huge corporation cuddling up to another one and gently munching it up, like a great, gubbing amoeba. Since then we’ve been replacing executives, pushing somebody out here, bringing somebody else in there. We’ve swing program content around, too. Not much, but a little, so it won’t show. We’ve cut down on ‘nasty-Nazi’ movies . . . good guys in white hats and bad guys in black SS hats . . . lovable Jews versus fiendish Germans . . . and we have media psychologists, ad agencies, and behavior modification specialists working on image changes.” (Ibid.; pp. 42-43.)
15. Before turning directly to the subject of music, the broadcast addresses the gradual remaking of the image of the Third Reich that is represented in Serpent’s Walk. In the discussion excerpted above, this process is further described. "Hell, if you can con granny into buying Sugar Turds instead of Bran Farts, then why can’t you swing public opinion over to a cause as vital and important as ours?’ . . . In any case, we’re slowly replacing those negative images with others: the ‘Good Bad Guy’ routine’ . . . ‘What do you think of Jesse James? John Dillinger? Julius Caesar? Genghis Khan?’ . . . The reality may have been rough, but there’s a sort of glitter about most of those dudes: mean honchos but respectable. It’s all how you package it. Opinion is a godamned commodity!’ . . . It works with anybody . . . Give it time. Aside from the media, we’ve been buying up private schools . . . and helping some public ones through philanthropic foundations . . . and working on the churches and the Born Agains." (Ibid.; pp. 42-44.)
16. Next, the program considers an odd lawsuit, which embraces evidentiary tributaries running in the direction of the remarkable and deadly Bormann organization, as well as the issue of culture and historical revisionism. The heirs to Hitler’s personal photographer are suing to obtain paintings done by Hitler. ("Court Considers Ownership of Seized Hitler Paintings" by William H. Honan; New York Times; 5/8/2001; pp. B1-B6.)
17. Some experts view the return of the paintings by the United States government to be conducive to a restoration of Hitler’s image and a rehabilitation of his politics. (Idem.)
18.The rights to photographer Heinrich Hoffman’s pictures of Hitler were held exclusively by Martin Bormann, suggesting at least the possibility that the considerable sum from the lawsuit would be destined for the Bormann organization. (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; by Paul Manning; Lyle Stuart Inc.; 1991; p. 44.)
19. Just as the Hitler watercolors were seen by some as presenting the threat of marketing "a kinder, gentler Hitler," so too were a series of forged sketches attributed to Hitler while he was serving in the German army during World War I. Those drawings received the enthusiastic endorsement of Dirk Bavendamm, the official house historian for the Bertelsmann firm. ("Bertelsmann’s Revisionist;" The Nation; 11/8/99.) This "cultural revisionism" would fit in well with the scenario presented in Serpent’s Walk.
20. The broadcast concludes with supplemental discussion of personalities in the Hitler watercolors case whose Nazi careers overlapped Bormann’s sphere of influence. (Quest by Frank Brandenburg and Ib Melchior; Copyright 1990 [SC]; Presidio Press; p. 109.) (Recorded on 5/13/2001.)
http://www.spitfirelist.com/f273.html
FTR-273 "B" as in "Bush," "B" as in "Bormann" (Two 30-minute segments) (Sources are noted in parentheses.)
1. Supplementing a line of inquiry developed in past programs, this broadcast sets forth more circumstantial evidence that the Bush family may be the American point element of the remarkable and deadly Bormann organization. (For more on this hypothesis, see also: FTR #'s 186, 194, 272. The Bormann organization is discussed at greater length below.)
2. A clandestine powerhouse, the Bormann group (in Mr. Emory's opinion) will prove to be the decisive element in human affairs, barring a sea-change in the political currents. (For more on this hypothesis, see also: FTR #'s 186, 194, 272. The Bormann organization is discussed at greater length below.)
3. Recently, former Justice Department official John Loftus disclosed that the Bush family fortune came from the 1951 liquidation of the Union Banking Corporation. ("Author Links Bush Family to Nazis;" Sarasota Herald-Tribune; 11/11/2000; accessed at www.newscoast.com.)
4. Excerpting a June, 1992 addendum to Miscellaneous Archive Show M-11, the program illustrates that the Union Banking Corporation was confiscated by the Alien Property Custodian in World War II. (“Will Family Scandals Sink George Bush?” by Curtis Lang; Village Voice; 5/5/92.)
5.This firm was a front for the Thyssen interests before, and during, the war. (Idem.) (Fritz Thyssen was one of Hitler's earliest and most prominent financial backers.)
6. Much of the first side of the broadcast consists of an excerpt of FTR-186. The discussion further develops the profound involvement of George Herbert Walker (W's great grandfather) and his son-in-law, Prescott Bush, (W's grandfather) in the financing of the German industrial concerns that backed Hitler. (The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People, by John Loftus and Mark Aarons; St. Martin's Press; copyright 1994; ISBN 0-312-11057-X pp. 358-61.)
7. In particular, the excerpt from FTR-186 further underscores the Walker-Bush involvement with the Union Banking Corporation. (Idem.)
8. The broadcast also focuses heavily on the Hamburg-Amerika Line, one of the Bush-connected companies that played a key role in Nazi espionage before, and during, World War II. (Idem.)
9. The company helped to finance the operations of the SS. (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; by Paul Manning; copyright 1981; Lyle Stuart [hardcover]; ISBN 0-8184-0309-8; p. 43.)
10. Hamburg-Amerika Line was also deeply involved with the Bormann flight capital organization.
When considering German corporations, it is important to remember that they are controlled by the Bormann Organization. This institution has perpetuated its power in an effective, clandestine, and deadly, Mafia-like fashion in the years since World War II. American corporations are driven by the profit motive, and coordinate policies on labor, environmental, marketing and taxation issues--they are otherwise relatively apolitical. In contrast, German corporations (under control of the Bormann group) function as coordinated elements of international economic and political control, not unlike the divisions in an army. Although they, too, strive to make money, profit is subordinate to the goal of German national hegemony.
11. The Hamburg -Amerika Line was among the firms discussed in the August 10, 1944 meeting, at which SS Lieutenant General Dr. Scheid coordinated the genesis of the Bormann flight capital program. “He [Scheid] also cited the Zeiss Company, the Leica Company, and the Hamburg-Amerika Line as typical firms that had been especially effective in protecting German interests abroad. He gave New York addresses to the twelve men.” (Ibid.; p. 25.)
12. The firm also served as a conduit for flight capital in, among other countries, Sweden. “Swedish companies owned or controlled by German shipping interests accepted vessels built by the Swedish firms and kept them in Swedish waters until after the war. A further example of masked investment was the money paid into the Swedish shipping firm of Rederi A/B Skeppsbron, which received a German-guaranteed loan of $3 million made from German supplies of free Swedish Kroner, in which the vessels were mortgaged to the lender. Although the Swedish company remained officially the owner of the vessels, the German Hamburg-Amerika line was the real owner.” (Ibid.; pp. 132-133.)
13. Further underscoring the strong connections between Walker, Prescott Bush Sr. and the Thyssen interests, the program illustrates that the Walker-Thyssen relationship began in 1924. (The Secret War Against the Jews; p. 358.)
14. The close relationship between Fritz Thyssen and Adolf Hitler began at about the same time. (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; by Paul Manning; pp. 242-3.)
15. The very close relationship between the Thyssen family and Martin Bormann is underscored by the fact that Bormann utilizes the Thyssen family's Latin American estates as homes and bases of operation. (Ibid., p. 292.)
16. The Thyssen estates also serve as refuge for Bormann's son, Adolf Martin, and daughter Neumi. (Ibid.; p. 290.) (FTR-155 presents information that Adolf Martin and Neumi allegedly head the Bormann organization today.)
17. Carrying on "an old family tradition," Thyssen's heir, Count Frederico Zichy-Thyssen manages the Thyssen heavy industrial firm, a critical component of the Bormann group. (Ibid.; pp. 256-7.)
18. One of Dubya’s last cabinet appointments was Robert Zoellick, who was appointed U.S. Trade Representative shortly before Bush took office. ("Bush’s Trade Chief Rated as Smart, Smooth Negotiator" by Jonathan Petersen; Los Angeles Times; 1/12/2001; p. A15.)
19. An excerpt from FTR-186 highlights Zoellick’s role as a key foreign policy adviser to Bush during the campaign. ("Bush Questions Aid to Moscow in a Policy Talk" by R.W. Apple, Jr.; New York Times; 11/20/99.)
Underscoring the probability of strong ties between the Bush camp and the Bormann group, the program sets forth Zoellick's participation in the German Marshall Fund of the United States. (Idem.)
21. Set up as a P.R. front for German heavy industry, the German Marshall fund is, in effect, a Bormann front group. (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; by Paul Manning; pp. 261-262.)
22. Zoellick was one of the principal figures in the launching of NAFTA, as well as the Bush/Baker State Department point man in the negotiations that led to the reunification of Germany. ("Bush Seeking To Overhaul Policy Making" by Joseph Kahn and Frank Bruni; New York Times; 1/6/2001; pp. B1-14.)
23. Handling German reunification, Zoellick must have worked closely with Gunther Strassmeier, Helmut Kohl's former chief of staff and the architect of German reunification. Strassmeier is the father of Andreas Strassmeier, a key figure in the Oklahoma City bombing investigation. (The Beast Reawakens, by Martin A. Lee; hardcover, Little Brown & Co., pp. 352-3, ISBN 0-316-51959-6.)
24. Zoellick also helped to midwife the World Trade Organization. ("Robert Bruce Zoellick;" by Joseph Kahn; New York Times; 1/12/2001; p. A15.)
25. A James Baker protege, Zoellick worked with Baker in the Florida recount machinations. ("Bush’s Trade Chief Rated as Smart, Smooth Negotiator" by Jonathan Petersen; Los Angeles Times; 1/12/2001; p. A15.)
26. Not surprisingly in light of the Bormann group's decisive influence in the European economy, Zoellick's ascenscion is viewed with favor by the EU. ("Zoellick Faces Task of Building Trade Bridges;" by Edward Alden, Richard Wolffe, and Stephen Fidler; Financial Times; 1/12/2001; p. 4.)
27. The program concludes with speculative information supplementing the discussion in FTR-272. One of the principal Thyssen heirs (and Bormann associates) is Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. His financial operations are based in the Netherlands, one of the principal places of business for old Fritz Thyssen. (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; by Paul Manning; p. 237.)
28. In the discussion of ASM Lithography (see FTR-272), the broadcast highlights the fact that the company's full name is “ASM Lithography Holding." ("ASM Lithography Will Wait to Acquire Silicon Valley Group" by Glenn R. Simpson; Wall Street Journal; 1/9/2001; p. B7.) Holding companies have been one of the financial cloaking vehicles through which the aforementioned Bormann group has hidden its ownership of key companies around the world, as well as maintaining its control of the German economy. (Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; by Paul Manning; pp. 134-5.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55964-2005Jan7.html
Bush nominated Rice to succeed Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Zoellick, whose nomination also needs Senate confirmation, would replace Richard L. Armitage.
Zoellick, who served at the State Department as undersecretary for economic affairs and as counselor for then-Secretary of State James A. Baker III, has steered U.S. trade policy around the world over the past four years. Known as an experienced international strategist, he has worked closely with Rice during the current and former Bush administrations.
"He already knows the building and is widely respected in Washington and on the international stage for his strong intellect," an administration official familiar with staff plans said on the condition of anonymity before the appointment is announced. Both Rice and Zoellick are known as "hard chargers and perfectionists," he added.
Zoellick's expected appointment provides the first insight into the team Rice hopes to assemble at the State Department, which has often been a dissenting voice within the administration on Iraq and other key foreign policies. Powell and other State officials have promoted diplomacy and cooperation with the United Nations, clashing with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and administration neoconservatives who have often favored a more unilateral approach on foreign policy.
What is striking about Zoellick and others being talked about as candidates for top jobs at State, foreign policy analysts said, is that most of them are professional diplomats. Zoellick is considered an internationalist attuned to the need for building coalitions, which he has had to do as trade representative.
The roster of others officials have said are in the running for the new State Department team are NATO Ambassador Nicholas Burns, who worked with Rice at the National Security Council during the first Bush administration, and Philip D. Zelikow, director of the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs and co-author with Rice of "Germany Unified and Europe Transformed." Zelikow was also staff director of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Both men are personal friends with whom Rice holds working dinners. As U.S. trade representative and NATO ambassador, Zoellick and Burns also come with expansive global contacts.
Another name touted for a senior position is the ambassador to Turkey, Eric S. Edelman, a career diplomat who was an assistant national security adviser to Vice President Cheney.
A graduate of Swarthmore College, Harvard Law School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Zoellick had also been mentioned as a leading candidate for the presidency of either Fannie Mae or the World Bank after James Wolfensohn's term ends in the summer. Some foreign policy analysts were surprised Zoellick would give up the possibility of the World Bank job to become the United States' No. 2 diplomat, but State Department officials point out that the deputy secretary can be highly influential in shaping U.S. foreign policy.
Zoellick has played a major role in jump-starting stalled World Trade Organization talks to remove barriers to the free trade of goods, services and investment. But he has been criticized for focusing much of his energy on concluding relatively modest bilateral pacts with individual countries such as Morocco, Australia, Bahrain, Singapore and Central American nations.
During the first Bush administration, he took the lead for the State Department in talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement and in developing policy as the Cold War ended, particularly in talks on German unification -- an issue close to Rice's specialty as a Soviet expert.
"Policy differences aside, he is a serious and talented economic policymaker who certainly knows the bumps and bruises of wrestling with the world's most delicate and controversial economic issues," said Gene B. Sperling, national economic adviser to President Bill Clinton and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Hopefully, he will use this position and his experience to highlight the importance of economic development, multilateral engagement and global poverty reduction as critical foreign policy imperatives."
Among the people being suggested to replace Zoellick are Josette Shiner, Zoellick's deputy; Gary Edson, former deputy national security adviser responsible for international economic affairs; Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.); Grant Aldonas, undersecretary of commerce for international trade; and Robert M. Kimmitt, a former colleague of Zoellick's at the State and Treasury departments and a former ambassador to Germany.
Several State officials also said yesterday that they believe John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, would be replaced by Robert G. Joseph, his counterpart at the National Security Council. But in response to inquiries and news reports, State officials said Bolton has no plans to resign.
Bolton is known for taking a hard line on arms control, and is leading the administration's campaign to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapons capability. Joseph represented the administration in talks that led to Libya's disarmament decision in late 2003.
Staff writers Paul Blustein and Dafna Linzer contributed to this report.
http://www.counterpunch.org/barry01142005.html
January 14, 2005
Rice's #2 at the State Department
Robert Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
By TOM BARRY
To what degree do neoconservatives and militarists control U.S. foreign policy? And how much influence do the less ideological figures like former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice have over President Bush?
Those were questions continually debated by foreign policy observers during last three years of the first Bush administration. And at the onset of Bushs second term, assessing the new ideological/realist balance in the foreign policy team is the main topic of Washingtons foreign policy community.
The presidents nomination of Condoleezza Rice and her selection of Robert Zoellick as her top deputy indicate that the ultra-hawks and neocon foreign policy revolutionaries wont completely dominate the second administration.
Neither Rice nor Zoellick, who served as the U.S. Trade Representative during the first administration, are ideologues. But neither are they moderate conservatives. Only when compared with such figures as Rumsfeld and his deputies at the Pentagon, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Cambone, and Douglas Feith, could they be considered moderates.
Both Rice and Zoellick are nonideological foreign policy operatives who are not idealists or true believers. Rather they are realists who accept the neoconservative premise of U.S. global supremacy but want to wisely manage that power to further their notions of U.S. national security and interests.
At first glance, Zoellick could be mistaken for an ideologue, as an evangelist for free trade and a member of the neoconservative vanguard. But when his political trajectory is more closely observed, Zoellick is better understood as a can-do member of the Republican foreign policy elitea diplomat who always keeps his eye on the prize, namely the interests of Corporate America and U.S. global hegemony. Based on his record in the Bush Sr. administration and the current Bush presidency, Zoellick is highly regarded as an astute dealmaker.
Rices surprise selection of Zoellick was greeted with an almost palpable sense of relief inside Washingtons foreign policy circles. The great fear, outside the neoconservative and militarist camps, was that Cheney and company would insist that the shrill unilateralist John Bolton, current undersecretary for arms control, serve as Rices deputy.
Zoellicks Track Record
Robert Zoellick, who enjoys long-distance running, has a long track record in the economic policy and diplomatic affairs of Republican administrations since the late 1980s. During the second Reagan administration, Zoellick, who began his career as a Harvard-educated lawyer, served as a special assistant at the Treasury Department. During the Bush Sr. administration, Zoellick became a key figure shaping post-Cold War economic policy as a senior officer in both the Treasury and State Departments and a personal adviser to the elder Bush.
While serving in the Bush Sr. administration, Zoellick was instrumental in sealing the NAFTA accord with Mexico. When the negotiations hit a rough spot, Zoellick served as a special assistant to President Bush in his relations with President Salinas of Mexico and managed to keep jump-start the stalled negotiations. As an indicator of the degree that U.S. foreign policy in the 1990s increasingly became focused on global economic policy, Zoellick, while serving as a counselor at the State Department and Under Secretary of State for Economics, played a key role in launching the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. In recognition for this achievement, Zoellick received the Distinguished Service Award, the State Departments highest honor.
Zoellick shuttled all over the world during the Bush Sr. administration to promote U.S. global economic policy. Before the founding of the World Trade Organization, Zoellick was the Bush administrations top negotiator with the European Union at a time when the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations was blocked by U.S.-European differences over agricultural trade liberalization. He helped break the logjam by forging the Blair House Accord, which helped save the foundering Uruguay Round. Among other functions in his role as the roving ambassador for the U.S. free trade agenda, Zoellick was the administrations sherpa at the G-7 summits in 1991 and 1992.
His reputation of an Atlanticist was secured during the Bush administration when he persuaded the U.S. government to support the reunification of West and East Germany. According to the New York Times: He is most widely remembered in foreign policy circles for being the United States representative at the multiparty negotiation over the future of divided Germany. He persuaded the Bush administration to embrace German unity despite the qualms of allies and alarm in the former Soviet Union.
Zoellick is highly respected on Wall Street and by Corporate America at large. Not only a highly effective government representative of U.S. capital, Zoellick has benefited from direct personal ties with the U.S. financial community and transnational corporations. He has directly worked in the highest echelons of the U.S. corporate community, including serving as an executive at Goldman Sachs. Before joining the Bush Jr. administration as a cabinet official in the capacity of the U.S. Trade Representative, Zoellick served on an advisory council at the Enron Corporation. In addition, Zoellick also served on the boards of such corporations as Alliance Capital, Jones Intercable, Said Holdings, and the Precursor Group.
A protÈgÈ of James Baker, who served as treasury secretary during the Reagan administration and secretary of state during the Bush Sr. administration, Zoellick has close ties to the Bush family. He was an adviser to Governor George W. Bush and served as a foreign policy adviser to presidential candidate Bush.
A New Republican Foreign Policy
Zoellicks essay in Foreign Affairs in January 2000, entitled Campaign 2000: A Republican Foreign Policy, highlighted Zoellicks grasp of the radical new foreign policy directions that would come with a Bush Jr. administration. Zoellick faulted the Clinton administration for focusing too narrowly on economic policy and for promoting social and environmental clauses within free trade organizations, as Clinton did at the outset of the WTO ministerial in Seattle. He spelled out a new foreign policy that would be based on the preeminence of military powera concept of a new American century in which unquestioned U.S. military superiority would allow the United States to shape the international order.
Zoellick was perhaps the first Bush associate to introduce the concept of evil into the construct of Bushs radical overhaul of U.S. grand strategy. A year before Bush was inaugurated, Zoellick wrote: A modern Republican foreign policy recognizes that there is still evil in the worldpeople who hate America and the ideas for which it stands. Today, we face enemies who are hard at work to develop nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them. The United States must remain vigilant and have the strength to defeat its enemies. People driven by enmity or by a need to dominate will not respond to reason or goodwill. They will manipulate civilized rules for uncivilized ends.
Although regarded as a pragmatic promoter of U.S. economic interests, Zoellick has an idealist streak that also aligns him with the neoconservatives. In his Foreign Affairs article, Zoellick points to the need for a foreign policy that recognizes the appeal of the countrys ideas are unparalleled, and points favorably to the idealism of presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in promoting their visions of an international order based on their visions of Americas transformational role in world history.
Zoellicks Foreign Affairs essay was a companion piece to another predictive about new directions in foreign policy by Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice. Zoellick worked alongside Rice in the National Security Council in the Bush Sr. administration.
In 1998 Zoellick joined a group of neoconservatives and militarists, many of whom would later form the upper ranks of George W. Bushs foreign policy teams, in signing statements of the neocon Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The statements among other things called for increased military budgets and a policy of regime change in Iraq.
Coalition of the Liberalizers
The Senate unanimously confirmed Zoellick as USTR in 2001, and it is expected that his nomination as deputy secretary of state will also receive strong bipartisan support. Although Zoellick failed to seal a Free Trade of Americas Agreement during his tenure as USTR, he won respect among the corporate community for his role in gaining bipartisan support for Bushs request for trade promotion authority, also know as fast-track authority because it reduces the role of congressional and public review of new free trade pacts.
When it comes to global economic policy, Zoellick is not a free trade ideologue or a committed advocate of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Instead, he regards free trade philosophy and free trade agreements as instruments of U.S. national interests. When the principles of free trade affect U.S. short-term interests or even the interests of political constituencies, Zoellick is more a mercantilist and unilateralist than free trader or multilateralist.
Zoellick coined the phrase the coalition of the liberalizers prior to the failed WTO ministerial in September 2003. Thats what Zoellick called the group of countries that have joined the United States in bilateral or regional trade pacts. In the face of mounting opposition from Brazil and other developing nations to the U.S. global economy agenda, USTR Zoellick began forging a coalition of trade partners that agree to open their markets and protect U.S. investment in order to ensure coveted access to the huge U.S. market.
In early 2003 Zoellick outlined a free trade strategy that anticipated rising opposition to Washingtons liberalization agenda. Instead of committing itself to making the compromises necessary to completing another negotiating round in the WTO, the Bush administration announced that it would pursue its agenda through free trade agreements (FTAs) with single nations or subregional groupings. Our FTA partners are the vanguard of a new global coalition of open markets, declared Zoellick.
At the beginning of the Bush administration, the United States had FTAs with only a few nations, including Canada, Israel, and Mexico. However, once Congress in 2002 gave the executive branch Trade Promotion Authoritythe go-ahead to pursue fast-track trade negotiationsthe Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched free trade initiatives around the world outside of the WTO. Zoellick took the lead in negotiating the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in May 2004. That same month the USTR announced the start of bilateral trade negotiations with Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru (and possibly Bolivia) as part of the planned U.S.-Andean Trade Agreement as well as the beginning of free trade negotiations with Panama.
Zoellick termed his free trade strategy one of competitive liberalization. By establishing numerous bilateral and regional agreements outside the WTO, the United States hopes to undermine opposition to its aggressive liberalizing agenda and weaken developing country demands for U.S. market access, subsidy reduction, and Special Treatment in the WTO. In a July 10, 2003 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the administrations trade czar clearly articulated the U.S. global trade and investment strategy. Zoellick explained that under WTO consensus procedures, one nation can block progress in extending economic liberalization to new areas. Explaining that Washington can pursue its liberalization agenda outside the WTO, Zoellick warned: It would be a grave mistake to permit any one country to veto Americas drive for global free trade.
Although other nations remain committed to a multilateral forum and universal trade rules, Zoellick signaled that Washington was willing to proceed unilaterally. He predicted, The WTOs influence will wane if it comes to embody a new dependency theory of trade, blaming developed countries... Seeing the recalcitrance of many developing countries to approve new trade and investment rules, the Bush administration has adopted a my way or the highway approach to global economy issues. This unilateral posture with respect to trade and investment rules mirrors its unilateralism in foreign and military policy.
The day the WTO talks broke down in Cancun, the USTR said that the wont do countries had won the day over the can do countries. Referring to the developing country coalitions that had come together to block the must-do agenda of Washington and the EU, Zoellick issued a veiled threat to the multilateral process: Were going to keep opening markets one way or another, he said.
The Bush administrations decision to raise agricultural subsidies by $80 billion in the 2002 farm bill underscored the charges that the United States is a free trade hypocrite. But protectionism and subsidies have political payoffs. When Zoellick returned from the failed Cancun talks, he was praised by leaders of the American Farm Bureau Federation for not budging on the issue of farm subsidies. This hypocrisy galls many developing countries, who see their competitively priced exports blocked by U.S. protectionism while at the same time heavily subsidized U.S. exports flow into their own domestic markets.
The USTR relentlessly pressured other nations, particularly poorer ones, to liberalize their economies. For itself, however, free trade serves more as a battering ram to knock down national barriers to U.S. trade and investment than a universal principle.
In a speech to the right-wing Heritage Foundation in Washington, Zoellick made the case that there is no alternative to globalization and that U.S. companies and consumers were already benefiting in countless ways from this new wave of corporate-led economic integration. To drive his point home about all the new opportunities, Zoellick noted: Even the funeral business has gone global, with a Houston-based company now selling funeral plots in 20 countries.
Neoconservative-Realist Balance in New Bush Administration
The selection of Rice and Zoellick to direct the State Department points to President Bushs determination to consolidate his foreign policy team. Although Rice and Zoellick are not blazing hawks like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, they are loyalists and hardliners when it comes to promoting U.S. military supremacy and corporate economic interests. Set to replace Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, Rice and Zoellick can be counted on for reducing frictions within the foreign policy apparatus and seeking more policy coherence with the Pentagon and Cheneys office.
Part of that policy coherence was expressed by Zoellick in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks when he conflated his free trade initiatives with the war on terrorism. Now we have a clear enemy who is not only trying to do us great damage, but is also trying to terrorize us to paralyze us by terrorizing us, said Zoellick. The terrorists deliberately chose the World Trade towers as their target. While their blow toppled the towers, it cannot and will not shake the foundation of world trade and freedom. Our response has to counter fear and panic, and counter it with free trade.
This coherence was also on exhibit during a speech by Zoellick at the Institute for International Economics in 2003, when he linked economic agreements with political adherence to U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. seeks cooperationor betteron foreign policy and security. Given that the U.S. has international interests beyond trade, why not try to urge people to support our overall policies? Negotiating a free trade agreement with the U.S. is not something one has a right to doits a privilege.
Although not part of the new rights militarist and neoconservative camps, Zoellicks personal arrogance, his unilateralism, and his loyalty to Bush and the Republican Partys new radical elite make him a perfect fit for Bushs new foreign policy team.
Tom Barry is policy director of the International Relations Center, online at and author of numerous books on international relations.
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