GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump announced the names of some of his foreign policy advisers. Two names stand out as particularly egregious selections: Walid Phares, the “token Arab” for a number of pro-Israeli think tanks and policy laundries in Washington and Joseph Schmitz, the Pentagon’s chief cover-up artist as inspector general.
Phares, a Lebanese-American, has traveled in neoconservative circles for a number of years. Phares is a veteran of the right-wing and Israeli-backed Lebanese Forces, which took part in the bloody Lebanese civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990 and was led by Sami Geagea. According to our Lebanese sources, Phares may claim that he was a civil war combatant in the 1980s but he never saw any actual combat. According to a WMR source who knows Phares, the former Lebanese Forces “commander” preferred to “hide in shelters” during fights with rival guerrillas groups because he was “afraid of the sounds of bullets and rockets.” Apparently, Trump considers Phares to be a “counter-terrorism expert” and a specialist on jihadists. Phares wrote many articles in support of the disastrous “Arab Spring” and his op-ed by-line has often appeared in the neo-con Jerusalem Post, National Review,and Boston Herald, as well as in the Moonie-owned Washington Times,
Joe Schmitz, the former Defense Department inspector general, recused himself in the Pentagon’s investigation of Blackwater, the mercenary firm. After resigning as inspector-general, Schmitz joined the Prince Group, the holding company for Blackwater Worldwide. While serving as inspector general, Schmitz suppressed investigations of a number of whistleblower cases involving the crafting of phony intelligence, dubious contracts, and outright violations of Defense Department regulations and federal law.
Schmitz’s father was John G. Schmitz, a former Republican congressman from California and the 1972 presidential candidate of the far-right American Independent Party. The senior Schmitz was accused of sexually-molesting his infant son in 1982. The infant was treated successfully at an Orange County hospital but the attending physician said a piece of hair was tied so tightly around the boy’s penis in a square knot that it was almost severed. Joe Schmitz’s sister, Mary Kay Letourneau, now Mary Kay Fualaau, served six months in prison for having sex with her 12-year old student, Vili Fualaau. Letourneau gave birth to her and Fualaau’s daughter while in prison.
Another member of the Trump foreign policy advisory team is retired General Keith Kellogg. Now serving as a vice president for CACI, Inc., one of the contractors responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and nicknamed “Colonels and Captains, Incorporated,” Kellogg is a walking example of fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government. Kellogg served as an assistant for the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, Paul “Jerry” Bremer, the kleptocrat who wasted billions of dollars while serving as a de facto American “viceroy” for the occupied nation.
You can judge a person by the friends he or she keeps. In Trump’s case, his friends and advisers are not just bad, they are unacceptable.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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Trump’s foreign policy team: it gets a big ‘F’
Posted on March 30, 2016 by Wayne Madsen
GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump announced the names of some of his foreign policy advisers. Two names stand out as particularly egregious selections: Walid Phares, the “token Arab” for a number of pro-Israeli think tanks and policy laundries in Washington and Joseph Schmitz, the Pentagon’s chief cover-up artist as inspector general.
Phares, a Lebanese-American, has traveled in neoconservative circles for a number of years. Phares is a veteran of the right-wing and Israeli-backed Lebanese Forces, which took part in the bloody Lebanese civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990 and was led by Sami Geagea. According to our Lebanese sources, Phares may claim that he was a civil war combatant in the 1980s but he never saw any actual combat. According to a WMR source who knows Phares, the former Lebanese Forces “commander” preferred to “hide in shelters” during fights with rival guerrillas groups because he was “afraid of the sounds of bullets and rockets.” Apparently, Trump considers Phares to be a “counter-terrorism expert” and a specialist on jihadists. Phares wrote many articles in support of the disastrous “Arab Spring” and his op-ed by-line has often appeared in the neo-con Jerusalem Post, National Review,and Boston Herald, as well as in the Moonie-owned Washington Times,
Joe Schmitz, the former Defense Department inspector general, recused himself in the Pentagon’s investigation of Blackwater, the mercenary firm. After resigning as inspector-general, Schmitz joined the Prince Group, the holding company for Blackwater Worldwide. While serving as inspector general, Schmitz suppressed investigations of a number of whistleblower cases involving the crafting of phony intelligence, dubious contracts, and outright violations of Defense Department regulations and federal law.
Schmitz’s father was John G. Schmitz, a former Republican congressman from California and the 1972 presidential candidate of the far-right American Independent Party. The senior Schmitz was accused of sexually-molesting his infant son in 1982. The infant was treated successfully at an Orange County hospital but the attending physician said a piece of hair was tied so tightly around the boy’s penis in a square knot that it was almost severed. Joe Schmitz’s sister, Mary Kay Letourneau, now Mary Kay Fualaau, served six months in prison for having sex with her 12-year old student, Vili Fualaau. Letourneau gave birth to her and Fualaau’s daughter while in prison.
Another member of the Trump foreign policy advisory team is retired General Keith Kellogg. Now serving as a vice president for CACI, Inc., one of the contractors responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and nicknamed “Colonels and Captains, Incorporated,” Kellogg is a walking example of fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government. Kellogg served as an assistant for the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, Paul “Jerry” Bremer, the kleptocrat who wasted billions of dollars while serving as a de facto American “viceroy” for the occupied nation.
You can judge a person by the friends he or she keeps. In Trump’s case, his friends and advisers are not just bad, they are unacceptable.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2016 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).