US MILITARY PREPARING COUP?

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CURRENT & FORMER ARMY GENERALS MOUNT ANTI-OBAMA CAMPAIGN

IRAQ WAR ARCHITECT LEADS CHARGE FOR MORE WAR

YOUTUBE: THE YOUNG TURKS
"Military Generals Rebel Against President Obama"
"SIR, NO SIR!"


Media Blitz Against Peace Starts On PBS: "To Hell With The People!"

Army Gen. Jack Keane is a busy man for a retired guy. At 66, most retirees, especially those with fat government pensions, would be taking it easy. Instead, "Old Blood & Treasure" is into taking the reins of power away from the lawfully elected President of the United States of America. Keane pretended to be installing democracy in the Middle East, but he seems to be looking to overthrow it here. The only question is, will it be a bloodless coup?

The Army Junta that Keane leads may choose to stick to bloviating in the tame corporate media. After all, the media will never question the motives or the methods, much less the patriotism of anyone who has ever been in uniform, no matter how far Right or treasonous their talk. (The last two Democratic Presidents were hamstrung by this kind of talk, amplified by the media.) While the American people sleep, tossing and turning over the economy and the Right's efforts to derail it, the media are focusing on trivialities and ignoring the traitorous behavior of those we only just threw out of power. In fact, they're giving them a platform to re-fight the election they just lost.

General Keane, trained in accounting, now a financial "master of the universe," represents the interests of what Army General and US President Dwight Eisenhower called the "military industrial complex." As one of the men who helped create, manage and metastasize that cancer, Ike should know. After the income tax, the militarization of the US economy in WWII was the beginning of the growth of the Federal government and the national security State that we labor fruitlessly to support today. The income tax provides an almost unlimited pool of public money and the military is always there to spend most of it on behalf of their friends in the aerospace & defense industry. A marriage made in Hell, the Hell of poverty and disease, war abroad and repression at home that are required to support our modern military-energy-industrial complex in the high style to which they have become accustomed.

Point-man Keane has a long history of military failures to back him up before Iraq: Vietnam, Haiti, Somalia. But he failed upwards, becoming second in command of the US Army. When the going got tough in Iraq, he got going, right out of the military. The corporate world welcomed his list of contacts among Pentagon procurers, and the General's fortunes were made. But it was unbridled power he craved. He passed up a chance to become the "War Czar" of Iraq & Afghanistan (and maybe Iran & Pakistan) in hopes of something bigger, something without limits, especially not on his income. His buddy General Petraeus got the job instead, little buddy General Odierno replaced Betrayus in Iraq, and the three continued to push Keane's vision of a bigger, longer, wider war. The only thing wrong with the war was that there weren't enough American men and women in it, Keane & Petraeus & Odierno thought. Now the Generals in and out of uniform want to fix that.

That "civilian maggot" and "temporary occupant" of the White House (in the General's minds) Obama might muster the temerity to just say no to the Generalissimo's' dreams of glory in the Middle East seems to have caught them by surprise. Surprise, of course, is the soldier's best weapon. Perhaps Obama is a better warrior than these failed brass-hats. But with the help of the corporate media's reality distortion field, the Army brats will soldier on, right up to the walls of our democracy. Are we ready to defend it? Or will we allow a few not very good men to dictate to us? Bad precedent, folks. Very bad.


PSY-OPS 1
IPS NEWS
"US-IRAQ: Generals Seek to Reverse Obama Withdrawal Decision"
The cabal at work & at play.

' The first clear indication of the intention of Petraeus, Odierno and their allies to try to get Obama to amend his decision came on Jan. 29 when the New York Times published an interview with Odierno, ostensibly based on the premise that Obama had indicated that he was "open to alternatives". The Times reported that Odierno had "developed a plan that would move slower than Mr. Obama's campaign timetable" and had suggested in an interview "it might take the rest of the year to determine exactly when United States forces could be drawn down significantly". The opening argument by the Petraeus-Odierno faction against Obama's withdrawal policy was revealed the evening of the Jan. 21 meeting when retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, one of the authors of the Bush troop surge policy and a close political ally and mentor of Gen. Petraeus, appeared on the Lehrer News Hour to comment on Obama's pledge on Iraq combat troop withdrawal. Keane, who had certainly been briefed by Petraeus on the outcome of the Oval Office meeting, argued that implementing such a withdrawal of combat troops would "increase the risk rather dramatically over the 16 months". He asserted that it would jeopardise the "stable political situation in Iraq" and called that risk "not acceptable". The assertion that Obama's withdrawal policy threatens the gains allegedly won by the Bush surge and Petraeus's strategy in Iraq will apparently be the theme of the campaign that military opponents are now planning. Keane, the Army Vice-Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2003, has ties to a network of active and retired four-star Army generals, and since Obama's Jan. 21 order on the 16-month withdrawal plan, some of the retired four-star generals in that network have begun discussing a campaign to blame Obama's troop withdrawal from Iraq for the ultimate collapse of the political "stability" that they expect to follow U.S. withdrawal, according to a military source familiar with the network's plans. The source says the network, which includes senior active duty officers in the Pentagon, will begin making the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama's withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq. That would raise the political cost to Obama of sticking to his withdrawal policy. If Obama does not change the policy, according to the source, they hope to have planted the seeds of a future political narrative blaming his withdrawal policy for the "collapse" they expect in an Iraq without U.S. troops. That line seems likely to appeal to reporters covering the Iraq troop withdrawal issue. Ever since Obama's inauguration, media coverage of the issue has treated Obama' s 16-month withdrawal proposal as a concession to anti-war sentiment which will have to be adjusted to the "realities" as defined by the advice to Obama from Gates, Petreaus and Odierno. Ever since he began working on the troop surge, Keane has been the central figure manipulating policy in order to keep as many U.S. troops in Iraq as possible. It was Keane who got Vice President Dick Cheney to push for Petraeus as top commander in Iraq in late 2006 when the existing commander, Gen. George W. Casey, did not support the troop surge. It was Keane who protected Petraeus's interests in ensuring the maximum number of troops in Iraq against the efforts by other military leaders to accelerate troop withdrawal in 2007 and 2008. As Bob Woodward reported in "The War Within", Keane persuaded President George W. Bush to override the concerns of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the stress of prolonged U.S. occupation of Iraq on the U.S. Army and Marine Corps as well its impact on the worsening situation in Afghanistan. Bush agreed in September 2007 to guarantee that Petraeus would have as many troops as he needed for as long as wanted, according to Woodward's account. Keane had also prevailed on Gates in April 2008 to make Petraeus the new commander of CENTCOM. Keane argued that keeping Petraeus in the field was the best insurance against a Democratic administration reversing the Bush policy toward Iraq. Keane had operated on the assumption that a Democratic president would probably not take the political risk of rejecting Petraeus's recommendation on the pace of troop withdrawal from Iraq. Woodward quotes Keane as telling Gates, "Let's assume we have a Democratic administration and they want to pull this thing out quickly, and now they have to deal with General Petraeus and General Odierno. There will be a price to be paid to override them." '

PSY-OPS 2
IPS NEWS
"U.S.: Hawks Urge Boosting Military Spending"
Follow the money. It leads to a blood-trail.

' On Jan. 30, the far-right broadcast outlet, Fox News, quoted what it called a senior Defence official as saying that the administration was demanding a 55-billion-dollar cut in defence spending. At that point, other voices jumped in. Max Boot, a neo-conservative military analyst at the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), asserted that Pentagon chief Robert Gates had opposed the OMB's ceiling and warned that if Obama did not overrule it, "he could be doing terrible damage not only to our armed forces but also to his carefully cultivated image of moderation." The following day, Robert Kagan, a leading neo-conservative ideologue at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joined the outcry in his monthly column in the Washington Post, offering five reasons why "a ten percent cut in defense spending" could have disastrous geo-political implications by signaling to U.S. enemies that "the American retreat has begun". "At a time when people talk of trillion-dollar stimulus packages, cutting 10 percent from the defense budget is a pittance, especially given the high price we will pay in America's global position," he wrote. "...(T)his is not the time to start weakening the armed forces." "It's pretty remarkable," said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation (NAF). "Obama agrees to Bush's (defence budget) increase, and the neo-cons are running around saying, 'Oh, he's gutting the military'."Hartung and other defence analysts see this latest manoeuvre as part of a larger campaign by the Pentagon bureaucracy and the defence industry, which anticipated growing pressure on the defence budget even before the outbreak of the current financial crisis in September, to protect their interests even at a time when the Pentagon's political leadership recognises that huge increases in military spending they enjoyed during the Bush era are not sustainable. Overall, military spending increased by about 60 percent since Bush took office in 2001, not including the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the apparent disinformation about the alleged "cut" in defence spending, the Pentagon's allies in the media have been pushing hard for increased military spending to be made a part of the stimulus package. That campaign was launched in late December when Martin Feldstein, former President Ronald Reagan's chief economic adviser and an AEI fellow, argued in the Wall Street Journal for at least 30 billion dollars to expand military procurement, research, and recruitment. Such an expansion could create some 330,000 jobs, he estimated in an article entitled "Defense Spending Would Be Great Stimulus". '

PSY-OPS 3
NY DAILY NEWS
"Former VP Dick Cheney warns of nuclear attack on United States under President Obama"
Keep your fingers crossed, DICK!!!

' Dick Cheney isn't finished scaring the bejesus out of America. The former vice president warned Wednesday that there's a "high probability" the U.S. will get nuked by terrorists during President Obama's watch. "The ultimate threat to the country [is] a 9/11-type event where the terrorists are armed with something much more dangerous than an airline ticket and a box cutter - a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind," Cheney told Politico.com from his latest undisclosed location - his new Virginia office. Cheney said that "perhaps hundreds of thousands of people" would perish in such a strike, and that "there's a high probability of such an attempt." '

PSY-OPS SUPPORT
NEWSWEEK
"Army's Ex-Vice Chief of Staff Knew When He Stepped Down in '03 That 'We Were in Deep S---' "
Don't ask, don't tell. --F**k the troops!-- A real patriot.

' Gen. Jack Keane, former Army vice chief of staff, was stepping down just as the insurgency in Iraq started in late spring 2003. "I went to Iraq in June, looked at it and I knew we were in deep s---," Keane tells Newsweek. "I was going out the door. I felt frustrated. Frustrated with the situation, frustrated with myself and everything else. And somewhat guilty because I knew how ill prepared the Army was to deal with it." But Keane gave no public warnings. '

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
"Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq"
Here's what Keane's friends have to say about him.

' General Jack Keane is senior managing director and co-founder of Keane Advisors, LLC, a private equity and consulting firm. He serves as a national security analyst for ABC News and speaks throughout the nation on national security and leadership. Still active in national security, General Keane conducted a personal assessment of the security situation in Iraq for senior defense officials in 2004 and 2005, and will conduct another assessment in 2006. He has been elected to the board of directors of MetLife, General Dynamics, and Allied Barton Security. He is a senior advisor to Kholberg, Kravis and Roberts, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms. He is also an advisor to the chairman & CEO of URS Corporation. He is a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board, a commissioner for one year on the Congressional Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, director of the George C. Marshall Foundation, director of the Knollwood Foundation, a member of the Executive Committee of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, chairman of the Terry Maude Foundation, and chairman of Senior Executive Committee of the Army Aviation Association of America. General Keane, a four-star general, completed thirty-seven years in public service in December 2003, culminating as acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. As the chief operating officer of the Army for 4 1/2 years, he directed 1.5 million soldiers and civilians in 120 countries, with an annual operating budget of $110 billion. General Keane was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and provided oversight and support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Keane is a career paratrooper and a combat veteran of Vietnam who was decorated for valor and spent much of his military life in operational commands employed in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He commanded the famed 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the legendary 18th Airborne Corps, the Army’s largest war fighting organization. '

SOURCEWATCH.ORG
"Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee"
"Welcome to the Pentagon! Military-Industrial Complex? Oh, yeah, third door on the right."

' Historically, the DPBAC has mostly served as a method for the Pentagon to leverage consulting expertise in the private sector. However, the DPBAC now serves a very powerful and influential role in foreign policy and the George Walker Bush Presidency. One time chairman Richard Perle, a neo-conservative, is a staunch supporter for a war with Iraq. Perle and other members of the Board have strong ties to private interests that can potentially profit financially from a war. Some of his ties have raised conflict of interest and ethical issues, leading Perle to resign his chairmanship in an attempt quiet the criticism. Other members of the board also have strong ties to private business, especially defense contractors. Members disclose their business interests with the Pentagon, but they are not made available to the public, leaving only the Pentagon as the ethical arbitar of the Board. Companies with ties to DPBAC include Bechtel, Boeing, TRW, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton and smaller players like Symantec Corp., Technology Strategies and Alliance Corp., and Polycom Inc. '

WIKIPEDIA
"Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee"
Just a real nice bunch of fellows. Fellow Nazi murderers.

' Current members of the board[1]:

* John J. Hamre (Chairman)
* General(Ret.) Peter Pace, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
* J.D. Crouch, former Deputy National Security Advisor
* Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary of State
* William Perry, former Secretary of Defense
* Peter Rodman, former Assistant Secretary of Defense
* Harold_Brown_(Secretary_of_Defense), former Secretary of Defense
* Admiral. (Ret.) Vern Clark, former Chief of Naval Operations
* Victoria Clarke, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
* Devon Cross
* Aaron Friedberg
* Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House
* Fred Ikle
* General (Ret.) Jack Keane, former Vice Chief-of-Staff of the Army
* Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State
* General (Ret.) Richard Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
* Nadia Schadlow
* James Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense
* Marin Strmecki
* Vin Weber, former Congressman
* Ruth Wedgwood
* Christopher Williams
* James Q. Wilson '

KEANE ADVISORS.COM
"ABOUT: 'Sustained Thinking' "
Cashing in some of his bloody chips.

' Keane Advisors is a consulting and private equity organization engaged in direct equity investments aimed primarily at middle market organizations. Starting with Four-Star General John M. Keane, our organization was created with the resources to seek out the following four services within a military framework, but has expanded to any and all presented opportunities: * Private Equity * Mergers & Acquisitions * Advisory Services * Real Estate '

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