Council on Foreign Relations
From Free net encyclopedia
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is a think tank which describes itself as "dedicated to increasing America's understanding of the world and contributing ideas to U.S. foreign policy. The Council accomplishes this mainly by promoting constructive, closed debates and discussions, clarifying world issues, and publishing a journal called Foreign Affairs."
The Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, came about as a result of a meeting on May 30, 1919 at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, France. Some of the fifty participants were Edward M. House, Harold Temperley, Lionel Curtis, Lord Eustace Percy, Herbert Hoover, Christian Herter, plus American academic historians James Thomson Shotwell of Columbia University, Archibald Coolidge of Harvard and Charles Seymour of Yale.
Formally established in 1921, it is one of the most powerful private organizations with influence on U.S. foreign policy. It has about 4,000 members, including former national security officers, professors, former CIA members, elected politicians, and media figures. The council is not a formal institution within U.S. policy making.
There are two types of membership - term membership (which lasts for 5 years and is available to those between 30 and 36) and regular membership. Membership is open to only US citizens (native born or naturalised) and permanent residents who have applied for citizenship. Proposed members must be nominated by current ones.
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Accusation of invisible government
In 1960, FBI agent and conservative advocate Dan Smoot accused the CFR of being an "invisible government."
Board of directors
Executive
- Peter G. Peterson, Chairman
- Carla Anderson Hills, Vice Chairman
- Robert Rubin, Vice Chairman
Officers
(from [1] accessed August 05)
- Peter G. Peterson, Chairman of the Board
- Carla Anderson Hills, Vice Chairman of the Board
- Robert E. Rubin, Vice Chairman of the Board
- Richard N. Haass, President
- James M. Lindsay, Vice President, Maurice R. Greenberg Chair, Director of Studies
- David Kellogg, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, and Publisher
- Janice L. Murray, Senior Vice President and Treasurer
- Irina Faskianos, Vice President, National and Outreach Programs
- Elise Carlson Lewis, Vice President, Membership and Fellowship Affairs
- Anne R. Luzzatto, Vice President, Meetings
- Nancy E. Roman, Vice President and Director, Washington Program
- Lisa Shields, Vice President, Communications
- Lilita Gusts, Secretary of the Corporation
Current Directors
(from [2] accessed August 05)
- Peter Ackerman
- Fouad Ajami
- Madeline Albright
- Charlene Barshefsky
- Jeffrey Bewkes
- Henry Bienen
- Stephen W. Bosworth
- Tom Brokaw
- Lee Cullum
- Kenneth Duberstein
- Martin S. Feldstein
- Richard N. Foster
- Helene D. Gayle
- Maurice R. Greenberg
- Richard N. Haass (ex officio)
- Carla A. Hills
- Richard Holbrooke
- Karen Elliott House
- Michael H. Moskow
- Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
- Ronald L. Olson
- Peter G. Peterson
- Thomas R. Pickering
- David M. Rubenstein
- Robert E. Rubin
- Richard E. Salomon
- Michael A. Sabatina
- Anne-Marie Slaughter
- Joan E. Spero
- Laura D'Andrea Tyson
- Vin Weber
- Fareed Zakaria
Officers and Directors Emeriti
- Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus
- Maurice R. Greenberg, Honorary Vice Chairman
- Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.
- David Rockefeller, Honorary Chairman
- Robert A. Scalapino
Other well-known members
- John Bolton Current U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
- George H. W. Bush Former President, CIA director, Carlyle Senior Advisor Board member from April 98 to October 03.
- Paul Wolfowitz Current President of World Bank; former Deputy Sec. of Defense; co-founder of the Project For A New American Century
- Dick Cheney Current Republican Vice President 2001-present; member of the Project For A New American Century
- Donald Rumsfeld Current Secretary of Defense; member of the Project For A New American Century
- Henry Kissinger Former National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, co-founder of Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg Group.
- David Rockefeller Former chairman and co-founder of Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg Group.
- Richard Nixon Former President, Watergate scandal
- Robert S. McNamara Former Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank 1968–1981, Involved in Vietnam War Crimes
- Lyman Lemnitzer Joint Chief of Staff during the Bay of Pigs. Wrote the Northwood Document which condoned killing US civilians as a pretext for war. Download the full Northwood Document Written in 1962 and declassified in 1992. Make sure you read at least Pages 5-12!
- Bill Clinton Former President of the U.S. and a member of the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg Group.
- Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State and former National Security Advisor
- Colin L. Powell Former Secretary of State
- Alan Greenspan Former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
- Stephen J. Friedman former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission
- Richard V. Allen Former National Security Advisor
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Former president. Richard Nixon served under Eisenhower as a Vice President during 1953–1961.
- Daniel Ellsberg Former military analyst. Largely responsible for leaking the Pentagon Papers.
- Anne Garrels National Public Radio correspondent
- William F. Buckley Jr. Founder, National Review
- Timothy F. Geithner Current President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Newt Gingrich Former Speaker of the House
- Harry Harding China specialist
- Katherine Harris Current Representative in Congress
- Herbert Hoover Former President
- Jack Kemp Former Congressman from New York, 1996 vice presidential nominee
- John Kerry Senator from Massachusetts, 2004 presidential nominee
- John Edwards Former U.S. Senator from North Carolina, 2004 vice presidential nominee
- Paul H. Nitze Secretary of the Navy during the USS Liberty incident and the Gulf of Tonkin incident
- Dan Rather Former CBS Nightly News Anchor
- Bing West Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs and military historian.
- Jimmy Carter Former President of the U.S.
- Michael D. Rich Executive Vice-President of the RAND Corporation.
- Mitchell Reiss U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland
- James Billington, director of the Library of Congress
- Joan Didion, writer
See also
Further reading
- Pierre de Villemarest, Facts & Chronicles Denied to the Public, Vol. 1, Aquilion, 2004, ISBN 1904997007
- James Perloff, The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline, Western Islands, 1988, ISBN 0882791346
External links
- Council on Foreign Relations website
- An organized extensive list of members from the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group.
- Council on Foreign Relations page at Sourcewatch
- Council on Foreign Relations does the Middle East
- Focus on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
- Previous Council on Foreign Relations Membership Rosters 1950-2004
Criticism
- Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) (from the John Birch Society)
- CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada
- THE POWER ELITE EXPOSED
- Cuba and the Council on Foreign Relations
- Rush Limbaugh and the conspiracyde:Council on Foreign Relations
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