Obama Executive Order Paves Way for Nationalization of Economy

Source: Infowars
Paul Joseph Watson

The Obama administration’s move to update an executive order to allow the government to seize control of virtually every aspect of society in both emergency and non-emergency situations lays the groundwork for the future nationalization of the U.S. economy.

Entitled “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” Obama signed the executive order late Friday afternoon. Such timing is normally a deliberate ploy to prevent a controversial issue from being picked up by the news cycle. Recall that Obama signed the highly contentious National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s Eve.

Under section 201, the EO allows the federal government to take control of;

Sec. 201. Priorities and Allocations Authorities. (a) The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.

Although the executive order is an update to the almost identical EO 12919, which was signed by Bill Clinton in 1994, in Section 201(b) of the new version, the words “under both emergency and non-emergency conditions” have been added.

In other words, the federal government is claiming the power to seize totalitarian control of the whole economy – nationalization über alles.

New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness

Source: Activist Post
Brandon Turbeville

In a stunning move, on March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The EO also states that the President and his Secretaries have the authority to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. The EO also contains a vague reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense.

Not only that, but the authority claimed inside the EO does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime.

The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order exploits the “authority” granted to the President in the Defense Production Act of 1950 in order to assert that virtually every means of human survival is now available for confiscation and control by the President via his and his Secretaries’ whim.

The unconstitutionality of the overwhelming majority of Executive Orders is well established, as well as the illegality of denying citizens their basic Constitutional and human rights, even in the event of a legitimate national emergency. Likewise, it should also be pointed out that, like Obama’s recent Libyan adventure and the foregone conclusion of a Syrian intervention, there is no mention of Congress beyond a minor role of keeping the allegedly co-equal branch of government informed on contextually meaningless developments.

Corbett Report Radio - Against Corporatocracy

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

Fascism, as Mussolini once pointed out, could more accurately be called corporatism. When corporations work hand in glove with governments they become de facto governments unto themselves. And with annual profits that make them richer than most of the nations on the planet, the largest multinationals are increasingly making their own rules. Join us tonight on Corbett Report Radio as we break down the corporate dominance of our society, and how to overcome it.

Works Cited:

GE paid just 2.3 percent in federal taxes over last 10 years on more than $81 billion in profits
Wikileaks Stratfor Emails
Hookers, spies, cases full of dollars…how BP spent £45m to win ‘Wild East’ oil rights
BAE ‘secretly paid’ Saudi prince (Registration required)
U.S. stalls on human trafficking
US: Sex scandal still haunts DynCorp
Scandal-hit US firm wins key contracts
Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA
It’s Déjà Vu for DynCorp All Over Again
TSA chief says ‘opt-out’ boycott would be a mistake
Blackwater gets an even bigger makeover
Company hoarding license-plate data on US drivers
Sony figures out how to charge you for using a power outlet

U.S. Elections: Candidates Are Bought As Wars Are Sold

Source: Global Times
Christopher Williams

US democracy up for grabs by moneybags under new laws

People got rich because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Now, swords are being sharpened for Iran. How many players in the Middle East and elsewhere are interested in seeing this happen? All they need to do is pick up the phone or write a check, and it gets closer every day.

The story begins in 1886, with an obscure court case in California, Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad. In that Supreme Court decision, a corporation was deemed to have the same legal protections under state law as any individual would have. It was originally intended to be used for enforcing a real-estate contract. But fast-forward to 2010. The Supreme Court decided in a new case, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, that corporations had the right to make unlimited financial contributions for political purposes, just as a person does. 

Corporations and individuals are still limited to $2,500 in direct contributions to a political campaign for federal office. But they may give unlimited funds to a Political Action Committee (PAC), as long as that PAC is not “officially” part of the campaign which they support. 

In reality, it means that the PAC can spend whatever it wants as long as they maintain the fiction that they are acting independently. So now we have a Republican presidential primary in full swing, with vast amounts of corporate money being poured into the PACs which support the major candidates. Some of that money is publicly disclosed. But there are also non-profit 501(c) organizations that do not have to say where the money came from. 

Why should you care? It means that candidates are no longer being elected, even in the limited sense that they were before. They are being hired, bought and paid for by their supporters whose interests do not in any way reflect the concerns of average citizens. They are supported by energy companies, drug companies, media companies, insurance companies, arms merchants, and bankers. 

Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine

Source: ClassWarFilms

This film is heavy but extremely powerful and necessary. These are indeed the times that try our souls as never before, and whether we become the hero of our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren, the next few years will surely show.

Corporatocracy: Ron Paul says US ‘slipping into fascism’

Source: RT

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul slammed America's system of governance at a rally in Kansas City, saying businesses and government are pushing the country into twenty-first century fascism.

­But before you start picturing fair-skinned, blue-eyed CEOs and bureaucrats running amok and with their right arms held high, calm down. What the outspoken Texas Republican meant was fascist corporatism – an economic model most prominently seen in Mussolini’s Italy of the 1920s to the 1940s. Fascist economic corporatism involved government and private management of full sectors of the economy – which Paul says is par for the course in today's America.

“We’ve slipped away from a true republic,” Paul told thousands of his supporters at the rally. “Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.”

His words, which a few years ago might have been dismissed by most, rang loud and clear in Kansas. Paul’s rally coincided with long-established Missouri and Kansas GOP events – from which many attendees actually slipped away to hear Paul deliver his speech. Drawn out and bled dry by ongoing and expensive overseas military campaigns, Americans are more and more receptive to a foreign policy of peace, which is what Paul promises to deliver.

The presidential hopeful echoed words already once delivered to the American people – by their president. Dwight Eisenhower said, in his farewell address to the nation, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

The disastrous rise, it seems, has happened. In 2009 alone, the United States was responsible for almost half of the world’s total military spending – 46 per cent, or 712 billion US dollars. Since then, the figures have only grown, to the point that American military spending now exceeds that of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined. The US has more than 700 military bases in 130 countries around the world.

Why Everyone Should Occupy US Corporate Media: They Lie

Source: Washington's Blog

“We denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.”  – Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties: The Extremes of Good and Evil,  44 BCE, translated by H. Rackham (1914).

This is part 4 of the following 4-part series:

Part 1: Why Occupy? A government/economics teacher explains 
Part 2: How a government teacher easily proves Occupy’s claim of US War Crimes
Part 3: How an economics teacher presents Occupy’s economic argument, victory
Part 4: Why everyone should Occupy US 1% corporate media: they lie (you’re reading it)
Important history that makes crimes in the present easy to see and understand:
Occupy This: US History exposes the 1%’s crimes then and now (6-part series)

Parts 2 and 3 of this series explains, documents, and proves that US “leadership” in politics, economics, and corporate media engage in War Crimes and looting in the trillions. Their respective criminal roles are policy, money (fake money as credit/debt, actually), and propaganda (easily provable lies of commission and omission).

They’re complicit in criminal acts that annually kill millions, harm billions, and transfer trillions from the 99% to the 1% (a fraction of the 1% actually).

Soros Big-Business Accountability Project Funded by Big-Business

Source: Land Destroyer Report

Corporate-fascist feel-good scam seeks to crush competition & establish global monopoly

Called "Revenue Watch" it claims to be "a non-profit policy institute and grantmaking organization that promotes the effective, transparent and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources for the public good. Through capacity building, technical assistance, research and advocacy, we help countries realize the development benefits of their natural resource wealth."



In reality, it is a Wall Street-London centric front of monolithic proportions that ensures foreign competitors, including nationalized companies, are prevented from exploiting in many cases their own national resources, so that they may be reserved instead for the West's corporate giants to plunder them. In many cases, this includes funding and organizing opposition groups to take to the streets and physically stop ongoing projects under humanitarian and environmental pretenses.

A look at Revenue Watch's "partners" page reveals what at only a superficial glance appears to be well-intentioned, noble civil endeavors. However, upon closer examination, a different story is told.

Who's Partnered With Soros' Revenue Watch?

What the "partners" page represents is an interconnected, incestuous network leading each time back to George Soros' Open Society Network, the OCED, USAID, British DIFD, Australia Aid, and the UN Development Program, all of which are directly partnered with the largest banking, big oil, defense contractors, and consumer multinationals on earth.

The very first "partner" on Revenue Watch's list, Democratic Republic of Congo's Action Contre l’Impunité pour les Droits Humains (ACIDH), is entirely funded by George Soros' Open Society, OCED Watch, and the European Commission. Other organizations listed, such as "RAID" and Cee Bank Watch Network (itself a Revenue Watch partner), are in turn Soros, Ford Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Freedom House, Heinrich Boell Foundation, and European Commission-funded fronts.

Digging Deeper Into Who Controls the World

Source: Activist Post
Susan Jennings

As we delve deeper into world control, more information arises that helps us understand the current global situation.  Many people are unaware of the interconnectedness between the largest global companies.

Eighty percent of the world's wealth appears to be earned by a "core" of 1,318 corporations, which in turn are being controlled by only 147 companies. Seventy-five percent of these companies are financial institutions -- and the top companies on the list are the Federal Reserve banks. 

The Federal Reserve created 26 to 29 trillion dollars' worth of bailouts for their own companies between 2007 and 2010. This was revealed in their own audit statements, and confirmed by United States Congressmen and prominent financial analysts. ( Source)  Please note that the Federal Reserve, created in 1913, is a private corporation controlled by international bankers. (Source)

Anytime the ‘Fed’ prints money-Federal Reserve Notes, the American taxpayer is charged interest on the amount printed.  Alan Greenspan admitted that “the Federal Reserve is an independent agency . . . there is no other agency of government who can overrule actions we take.”

As they understood the extreme dangers to our life and liberty, our founding fathers were adamantly opposed to a central privately controlled bank.

This global control occurs in multiple ways: 

ACTA: The Corporate Usurpation of the Internet

Source: NileBowie

In the wake of a public outcry against internet regulation bills such as SOPA and PIPA, representatives of the EU have signed a new and far more threatening legislation yesterday in Tokyo. Spearheaded by the governments of the United States and Japan and constructed largely in the absence of public awareness, the measures of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) dramatically alter current international legal framework, while introducing the first substantial processes of global internet governance. With complete contempt towards the democratic process, the negotiations of the treaty were exclusively held between industry representatives and government officials, while excluding elected representatives and members of the press from their hearings. 

Under the guise of protecting intellectual property rights, the treaty introduces measures that would allow the private sector to enforce sweeping central authority over internet content. The ACTA abolishes all legal oversight involving the removal of content and allows copyright holders to force ISPs to remove material from the internet, something that presently requires a court order. ISPs would then be faced with legal liabilities if they chose not to remove content. Theoretically, personal blogs can be removed for using company logos without permission or simply linking to copy written material; users could be criminalized, barred from accessing the internet and even imprisoned for sharing copyrighted material. Ultimately, these implications would be starkly detrimental toward the internet as a medium for free speech.

US Presidential Candidates Owned by Corporations

Source: RT


The United States Supreme court's passing of Citizens United has changed the political game. Citizens United allows corporations to pump endless quantities of money into political campaigns and prohibiting any American from doing so would be an obstruction of the first amendment. Chris Hedges, columnist with Truth Dig, tells us why he thinks voting is a dying practice.

Police State Gadgets and the Technology of Enslavement

Source: Boiling Frogs Post
James Corbett

The popular conception of the police state, derived mainly from works of science fiction, revolves heavily around the deployment of exotic technologies for keeping the populace firmly under the thumb of an authoritarian government.

Who Leads The Attack On Ron Paul?

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Those with the most to lose: Warmongering corporate fascists.  

From the remorseless liars that brought America into the Iraq War, have kept the US mired in Afghanistan for now over a decade, oversaw the genocide in Libya wrought by NATO-backed Al Qaeda terrorists, and are attempting to incite war with both Syria and Iran, comes a frothing, if not entirely elementary attack against one of the few obstacles that stands in their way of perpetual war fought at America's expense but for their personal gain. That obstacle is Ron Paul and the Constitutional reawakening he has spurred.

Leading the charge is a slightly misfitting addition to the Neo-Conservative corporate-fascist propaganda machine, openly-homosexual warmongering "libertarian" James Kirchick. While Kirchick's sexual orientation really is a matter of his own personal business, the necessity of him making it a public issue and the fact that those he works for have used anti-homosexual rhetoric to manipulate the American political landscape for decades is already a display of undermining and astounding hypocrisy.

Photo: James Kirchick, of the Neo-Con corporate-fascist "Foundation for the Defense of Democracies" leads the attack on Ron Paul. Having previously worked for the US State Department funded Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL), he is no stranger to peddling propaganda.  

Kirchick's argument is based on the same tired, already addressed "newsletter" published in Ron Paul's name decades ago, and despite none of the articles cited by Kirchick actually even being written by Ron Paul, he still enjoys preceding each accusation with, "He says..." Kirchick's servile obedience to the Neo-Con agenda, which has cultivated and is directing Ron Paul's competition - Cain, Romney, Perry, and Gingrich - is fairly obvious to detect. However, it is now a matter of record that Kirchick literally sits, as a "fellow" within a Neo-Con corporate and US State Department-funded think-tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).

The FDD features as its "executive team," the likes of James Woolsey and Clifford May while its "leadership council" includes Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Max Kampelman, Bill Kristol, and Senator Joseph Lieberman. Richard Perle, Eric Cantor, Gary Bauer, and Charles Krauthammer sit on the FDD's "board of advisors," while Reuel Marc Gerecht, Bill Roggio, and James Kirchick himself sit as FDD "fellows." Truly exemplary of everything that is wrong with America, and everything Ron Paul and the ideals he promotes aim at fixing, the FDD is a weed that needs to be pulled from America's political landscape. (For further reading regarding these names, please see "NED & Freedom House are run by Warmongering Imperialists," "Neo-Cons for Human Rights?" and to see a good example of FDD's contrived propaganda exposed and in action, "Neo-Con Infomercial: Iranium.")

Of course, despite a "Democratic" president sitting in the White House, America's foreign and domestic policy has been drawn up and carried out by corporate-fascists who hold sway over both sides of America's political aisle. "Obama's" military adventure in Libya, for instance, was not only supported by what Americans might call "Neo-Conservatives," but the war itself was drawn up by them in the first place. This indicates an overarching agenda that transcends presidencies and the perceived political ideologies they supposedly adhere to. The necessity then, to keep puppets like Bush or Obama in place is realized, as any truly independent, principled president would expose and disrupt this long running charade.

Permanent US Military Presence in Australia

Source: Land Destroyer
Tony Cartalucci
Another "Obama policy" long-ago decided by corporate-fascist think-tanks. 

After months of assuring a skeptical and disgruntled Australian public that the US military would not be getting a permanent base in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported a "US Marine Base for Darwin." US President Barrack Obama is credited with the decision, one overtly declared to be in direct response to the rise of China. Despite Obama getting credit, however, one shadowy "institution" is overly ecstatic over the announcement, and while Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith attempts to reassure the public that Australia will not have "US bases," this institution's "news blog" has already declared the decision as potentially the moment "where Australia fundamentally cast its lot in with the US," vis-a-vis China. This institution is particularly ecstatic because despite the media giving credit to Obama, it was their idea, one they've been promoting openly since at least June.

The Lowy Institution, which masquerades as an Australian think-tank, is in actuality funded and representative of the global-corporate-financier oligarchy. Described in detail in, "Globalists' Australian Nexus ," it was specifically noted as far back as June 2011 that the Lowy Institute was behind a call for establishing US military bases throughout Australia. The Australian specifically named the Lowy Institute as one of the unelected "planners" behind making "the case for US Bases." As in the recent Lowy Institute affirmation of this policy as Obama prepares to unveil their corporate-funded agenda in Darwin, Australia next Thursday, Lowy back in June also cited China and the inclusion of Australia in a more aggressive strategy being pursued by Wall Street and London to maintain their financial, economic, and strategic hegemony throughout Asia.

Attack on Iran: Hitlerian Act of Aggression

Source: Land Destoryer Report
Tony Cartalucci

As the rhetoric for war with Iran begins to mount, first with the staged DEA-Saudi bomb plot, and now with an upcoming IAEA report supposedly "exposing" Iran's nuclear arms ambitions, it is important to re-read through the signed confessions by the corporate-fascist interests behind this drive for war where it is admitted that:

1. Iran poses no threat to US national security - even if they acquired nuclear arms- rather Iran threatens US interests throughout the Middle East, half-way across the planet.
2. Iran desperately wants to avoid armed conflict with both Israel and the West and would use nuclear weapons merely as a defensive deterrence.
3. The US and Israel are actively looking to provoke Iran into war with a combination of covert support for destabilization within Iran, supporting listed terrorist organizations, and limited unilateral military first strikes to provoke an Iranian response needed to justify a wider military confrontation.

All of this is shockingly spelled out in extreme detail within the pages of the corporate-financier funded Brooking Institution report, "Which Path to Perisa?" It is essential that every American, European, and Israeli read just how malicious, callus and eager the globalist elite are to trigger a catastrophic war with the Islamic Republic for the sole purpose of protecting Wall Street and London's hegemony throughout the Middle East.

 "Which Path To Persia"? Brookings Institution 2009.pdf

Below are links to efforts to cover in detail the key aspects of this increasing war mongering, the key players behind it, including the corporations funding this agenda, as well as irrefutable evidence that illustrates these designs, laid out in 2009 have already begun to unfold.

1. Brookings' "Which Path to Persia?": The war has already begun, total war is a possibility.

2. Which Path to Persia?: Redux Syria, Libya, and beyond, Globalists prepare for second phase.

3. US Policy Toward Iran One-Way Ticket to War Policy Wonk Plays Dumb Over Role in Iranian Escalation.

4. Corporate-Fascists Clamor for Iran War Unelected corporate-funded policy makers constitute the greatest threat to US national security.

5. Iran Links US-funded Terrorists to Saudi-DEA Bomb Plot Baseless US accusations countered with more likely Iranian allegations.

6. Withdrawal of US Troops From Iraq Highly Suspect Think-tank designs for Iran leave only Israeli attack & coaxed provocation for total war on table.

Upon reading this information, one will realize with horror how patiently persistent the corporate-financier interests on Wall Street and London have pursued this campaign towards war with Iran, and how absolutely deceitful they are willing to be in order to keep it moving forward. It is absolutely imperative that people understand not only just how contrived the threat of Iran is, but that those peddling the lies of such a threat have, behind closed doors, admitted as much.

Image: Just some of the corporate-sponsors behind the unelected, warmongering "think-tank" Brookings Institution which produced the treasonous "Which Path to Persia?" report.

....

Please also take particular note of the corporations funding this act of Hitlerian aggression against a nation of 70 million at the potential loss of tens of thousands of American and Israeli (and other proxy soldiers') lives, not to mention the incalculable cost of the war to an already crippled American tax payer. Also note that these same corporations will not be losing their sons and daughters nor a single penny in the war effort, in fact, many of them stand to gain untold of fortunes and power - the very reason they are pursuing such a course of action.

Now would be a good time to contact your representatives, boycott the above mentioned corporations, and begin undermining a system that is parasitically bleeding this planet to death both financially and literally in pursuit of global corporate-fascist hegemony. And remember, it will not end in Iran, the attack and destruction of Iranian sovereignty is just the beginning.

11 Facts You Need to Know about U.S. Biggest Banks

From: Center for American Progress Action Fund 

Pat Garofalo

The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City more than three weeks ago have now spread across the country. The choice of Wall Street as the focal point for the protests — as even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said — makes sense due to the big bank malfeasance that led to the Great Recession.

While the Dodd-Frank financial reform law did a lot to ensure that a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis won’t occur — through regulation of derivatives, a new consumer protection agency, and new powers for the government to dismantle failing banks — the biggest banks still have a firm grip on the financial system, even more so than before the 2008 financial crisis. Here are eleven facts that you need to know about the nation’s biggest banks:

WARNING: Corporate-Fascist Military Coup Brewing in the United States?

From: Land Destroyer Report

Tony Cartalucci 

The US intelligence community, in conjunction with Wall Street corporate-financier interests, have spent an inordinate amount of time positioning themselves for a possible military coup and martial law take over of the United States. This is being done under the guise of the fraudulent "War on Terror" as preparation for a very real and inevitable economic collapse. In particular, one personality above all others is being groomed by intelligence operatives and policy wonks, while built-up by the corporate media [1][2] in the eyes of the public to intercede in America's accelerating political, economic, and even global tactical decline. This man is General David Petraeus who served as former head of US Central Command which included combat operations in Iraq and former commander of US forces in Afghanistan before being sworn in as the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in September 6, 2011.

Image: Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, on his way to seize power in Rome via a military coup and become the republic's first emperor. America is not immune from suffering a similar prolonged, ignoble death to the extreme, parasitic elitism that empire breeds.

Posing as a venerable American hero, "leading" American troops through two wars in service to his nation, Petraeus' ties are in fact to Wall Street and London corporate financier oligarchs. His membership [3] in the corporate-financier Council on Foreign Relations [4] is perhaps the most significant conflict of interest in America's political landscape. He has been both commander of America's troops and now director of the CIA, all while privately associating with the unelected policy makers of the CFR; an organization that represents the collective interests of the largest banks, private institutions, and corporations on earth. Whether Petraeus is guilty or not of improprieties amidst this enormous conflict of interest is irrelevant. The fact that he hasn't shown the proper judgment to rectify such a conflict by either resigning, or ending his CFR associations, should be alarming to all Americans.

To add further fears regarding the ambitions and agenda of Petraeus, one must examine those that are gravitating around him and indeed prodding him along.

In 2010, Petraeus gave a speech before the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) [5], another private institution funded by corporations, working on behalf of corporations, essentially producing their own self-serving policy and using their vast connections and resources to have it rubber stamped by Congress and executed by the US Government at the American people's expense. In his speech, Petraeus would praise Neo-Conservative policy wonk Frederick Kagan who he credited for developing the "surge" strategy in Iraq.