Who's Who in the Bush Administration - The Cabinet -

William J. Burns, Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

William J. Burns, Bush's new secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, has signaled he intends to continue the U.S. policy of active involvement in the region.

Burns' position is particularly important because of Secretary Powell's dislike of sending "special envoys" to contentious regions, as was common during the Clinton administration. Therefore, Burns will most likely lead any negotiating teams in the area. In early June, just after Burns' confirmation, Secretary of State Powell dispatched Burns to the region.

Burns, 45, does not come into the Middle East without credentials. Burns worked on Near Eastern Affairs under Secretary Powell at the National Security Council, and he most recently held the position of ambassador to Jordan. He speaks Arabic, Russian, and French, and he received an International Relations degree from Oxford University. His career has been with the State Department, including the office of the Deputy Secretary of State and as head of political affairs in Moscow.

Despite his Foreign Service credentials, he has been heralded as a relatively new face in the Middle East peace process, one who doesn't carry as much political baggage as some of the older advisors who tried--and failed--to broker deals. As a negotiator, Burns has won praise for his capacity to listen rather than lecture.

Although the Bush administration initially signaled it intended to step back from active involvement in the Middle East, Buns has argued clearly for a strong U.S. role. "Active American engagement in the Middle East is a necessity, not an option," Burns stated during his confirmation hearing. Although Burns has yet to publicly show his hand, there are no signs that he will make any drastic changes in traditional U.S. policy.

Burns will also be the point person on Iraq, another U.S. policy quagmire. UNICEF estimates that at least 4,500 Iraqi children are dying every month as a result of international sanctions spearheaded by the United States. Burns was a key proponent of Secretary Powell's proposal to the UN for a shift to "smart sanctions" which were supposed to lift prohibitions on imports of civilian goods while keeping out any supplies that could be used in weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. and Britain withdrew this proposal after Russia threatened a Security Council veto.

Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy

Gordon England, who has received Senate confirmation as the 72nd Secretary of the Navy, continues the Bush administration's trend of corporate appointees. The Department of Defense leadership is now stacked with private businessmen experienced in industries such as energy, oil, and electronics.

England comes to the Pentagon after a long career with General Dynamics, most recently as an executive vice president. A major defense contractor, General Dynamics focuses on producing information systems, shipbuilding and marine systems, and land and amphibious combat systems for the United States and its allies. Its military contracts include nuclear-powered submarines for the Navy and tanks for the Army.

England adds more of that good ol' military technology to the mix. According to the Washington Times, England will be helping his branch to carry out orders such as "developing futuristic weapons to counter new types of threats emerging in the post-Soviet world."

Before joining General Dynamics in 1966, England was an engineer with Honeywell, working on the Gemini Space Program, a transitional step between the pioneering Mercury and the Apollo Programs. He also served as program manager for Litton Industries on the Navy's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft.

With no actual military service experience, England will have to rely on his corporate engineering background. After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, England earned a master's degree in business administration from the M. J. Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University in 1975. He is a member of three fraternities: Beta Gamma Sigma (business), Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership) and Beta Kappa Nu (engineering). England also served as a member of the Defense Science Board and as vice chair of the National Research Council Committee on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry.

Don Evans, Commerce Secretary

Commerce Secretary Don Evans, George W. Bush's close friend from West Texas, is a skilled businessman, fundraiser, and campaign manager. How much he knows about the world of international commerce is uncertain. However, his ideology on the subject is not much in doubt. Evans told the New York Times, "The road the Department of Commerce will travel is clear: the promotion of free enterprise, first in America and then abroad, will be our first priority--free flow of capital, free and open competition."

Evans, a native of Houston and a longtime resident of Midland, met Bush through his wife, a woman who went to grade school with the president. He has now known Bush for over 25 years, and has raised money for all of Bush's political campaigns.

The two men are very close; soul mates, in fact. It was Evans who, after a George W. binge, steered the future president away from sin and toward Jesus. According to Gail Sheehy, writing in the October, 2000 Vanity Fair, "In 1985, Don Evans urged Bush to join a new kind of men's group--a franchised Community Bible Study program for men, a precursor to the Promise Keepers."

In 1969, Evans earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas, and in 1973 he returned to UT and, like Bush, took an MBA. Evans went into the oil business as did Bush, but there are differences between them. Bush went nowhere in the oil business, but Evans became chairman and president of Tom Brown, Inc. of Midland and Denver. According to its web page, "Tom Brown, Inc. is an independent natural gas and crude oil exploration and production company with core areas of activity in the Rocky Mountains and Texas."

Evans did well, and recently did even better. The Austin Chronicle wrote in March, 2000, "The company is among several small, publicly traded oil companies that have seen their fortunes improve in recent months as the price of crude oil has skyrocketed. One of the largest individual shareholders in Tom Brown, Evans has an 800,000-share stake in the company, worth over $13 million."

The fact that Evans and Tom Brown, Inc. were the beneficiaries of a Governor Bush-promoted oil company tax break did not unduly upset the Texas electorate. As Bush made clear early on during his 1978 congressional race, "There's no such thing as being too closely aligned to the oil business in West Texas."

However, unlike the other big oilman of the administration, Dick Cheney, Evans has little experience in international exploration. He knows far more about the Permian Basin than the Caspian Sea. But Evans, loyalist that he is, is unlikely to create any international initiatives at Commerce that will go against the Bush foreign policy team.

Colin Powell, Secretary of State

Colin Powell, Secretary of State designate, is perceived as politically middle-of-the-road and morally above criticism. Certainly, he irritates Republican right-wingers by championing affirmative action and failing to condemn abortion. However, he has made his career by ingratiating himself with both Army and Republican leadership, and his world view does not seem to diverge from that of his boss, George W. Bush.

Powell was born in 1937 in Harlem and grew up in New York's South Bronx. He obtained a BS in geology from City College of New York, became commander of CCNY's ROTC, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He served in Vietnam with the America Division, and was one of those officers informed about the My Lai massacre. He responded to an Army complainant by writing, "There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs," but, "relations between America soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

Powell was not tarred by the My Lai investigation, and when he returned from Vietnam the Army awarded him tuition to pursue an MBA from George Washington University. In 1972, he garnered a Fellowship in the Nixon White House, and went on to a series of positions in the military, and in the Energy and Defense Departments under President Carter. Powell became senior military adviser to Casper Weinberger in the Reagan administration, and in 1987 Reagan named Powell National Security Advisor.

He was in the center of action during Iran-Contra, and while he would later deny knowing of illegal arms shipments, there is considerable evidence that he was in the thick of it. Powell is mentioned frequently in the Tower Commission report on Iran-Contra. And journalists Norman Solomon and Robert Parry note that Powell was a close friend of Saudi Arabian Prince Bandar who was bankrolling Contra operations to the tune of $25 million. Parry and Solomon report that it was Powell who oversaw the transfer of missiles from the army to the CIA for delivery to Iran.

Nonetheless, two years later, president Bush named Powell Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell, along with Norman Schwartzkopf, was the architect of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Powell retired from the Army in 1993.

At age 57, he was still claiming publicly that he had not yet developed a political philosophy. But it was clear from the company he kept that he had one, even if he couldn't name it. Powell had been close to both Weinberger and all-around bureaucrat Frank Carlucci (Secretary of Defense, Deputy Director of the CIA, National Security Adviser), whom he called "the godfather of godfathers." He was also assisted by Bush staffers Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, who alternated serving as Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense.

Powell appears to hold a cautiously internationalist point of view. He is not trusted by the far right, in part because he is willing to work with the UN, supports NATO expansion, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1992, Powell penned an article in CFR's magazine Foreign Relations entitled, "U.S. Forces: challenges ahead."

Despite his willingness to work with other nations, Powell has no doubt of U.S. moral superiority. At the 2000 Republican Convention, he said, "The sick nations that still pursue the 'fool's gold' of tyranny and weapons of mass destruction will soon find themselves left behind in the dust bin of history. They are investing in their own demise as surely as the Soviet Union did by investing in the Red Army."

Whether Powell intends to assist tyrants in their demise is uncertain. He has been far more cautious on armed intervention than many in and out of the military. Caution was at one time dubbed "the Powell Doctrine," and Powell himself was the main impediment to U.S. intervention in Bosnia. But Powell did not invent caution. "In fact, the Powell Doctrine was actually the Weinberger Doctrine," said Air Force Magazine in 1999, describing the six-point checklist against repeating the Vietnam experience.

As soon as Powell was nominated Secretary of State, he issued a call to renew the conflict against Iraq. "They have not yet fulfilled those agreements and my judgment is that sanctions in some form must be kept in place until they do so," Powell said at a press conference.

Because of his military experience and stature, Powell is almost certain to exercise a great deal of influence over military, as well as diplomatic, policy in the Bush administration.

James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force

The appointment of James G. Roche, Ph.D. as the 20th Secretary of the Air Force once again confirms President Bush's fondness for big business leaders. Not only does Roche have a long history both on Capitol Hill and with the Pentagon, but also an extensive resume with Northrop Grumman Corporation, the giant defense contractor headquartered in Baltimore. "What I bring to the job is the understanding of a military warrior culture and the business world," Roche said in summing up his qualifications.

Roche joined Northrop in 1992, serving most recently as corporate vice president and president of the Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector. This division develops defense electronics and systems, airspace management systems, precision weapons, marine systems, space systems, and automation and information systems.

Three of Northrop Grumman's recent business deals highlight that the corporation is certain to play a large role in the future proliferation of military technology. According to American City Business Journals, in early 2001, the Electronics Sensors and Systems Sector received a $300 million contract to provide radar equipment to Boeing, a major Pentagon supplier of airplanes and other equipment. In two major acquisitions in October 2000, Northrop took over Sterling Software and Federal Data Corporation, both leading suppliers of information technology services to the federal government.

Before entering the private sector, Roche served (1983-84) as Democratic staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee and as principal deputy director of the policy planning staff at the State Department. Earlier, he was a senior professional staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1979-81) and assistant director of the Office of Net Assessment at the Pentagon (1975-79).

In short, although a Democrat, Roche fits the Bush administration mold: he is a strong supporter of military expansion through technology, and a veteran of big business. He'll be quite comfortable alongside his counterparts Thomas White, Secretary of the Army, and Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy. Together they will form a sort of executive board for which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield sits as the CEO.

Roche has served as a member of the Secretary of Defense's Policy Board and has been connected to two of leading establishment think tanks, the Council on Foreign Relations and the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. He is also affiliated with the Conquistadores Del Cielo (an aviation executives' organization), the Military Order of the Carabao (comprised of officers who served in U.S. conflicts in Pacific and Indian Ocean countries), and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Roche has big plans for the Air Force. He's high on recruitment and wants to attract new airmen, citing a commitment to improving the everyday lives of the Air Force's personnel. "We want service in the Air Force to be fulfilling for people throughout their whole career, not just for part of it," he said at his Senate confirmation hearings. The new budget called for a $33 million increase for recruiting and retention programs.

Roche also emphasizes developing cutting-edge technology, and advocates the building of weapons that are "far more precise, far more lethal," according U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service in June, 2001.

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense

When it comes to vital national security issues like missile defense and nuclear arms control, Donald Rumsfeld’s track record and political ties show that he’s an ideologue in moderate’s clothing. Rumsfeld is every bit as ideological on the missile defense issue as Bush’s Attorney General nominee, John Ashcroft, is on the abortion issue.

Ties That Bind: Rumsfeld’s Connections With Right-Wing Think Tanks

Going back to at least 1996, Rumsfeld has routinely been singled out as a "trusted advisor and faithful supporter" in the Center for Security Policy's annual reports. Rumsfeld has also been a regular donor to the Center. Last but not least, in 1998, Rumsfeld received the Center for Security Policy’s "Keeper of the Flame" award at its annual fundraising dinner, in honor of his role in chairing the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States.

Rumsfeld has also served on the board of Empower America, a conservative lobbying group that has vigorously attacked members of the Senate who express doubts about the wisdom of rushing ahead with the deployment of a missile defense system.

Rumsfeld was already a card-carrying member of the missile defense lobby before he chaired the Congressionally mandated commission on the Third World missile threat that was used to jump start the NMD program at a point when it had reached a dead end in the Republican-led Congress. While claiming to do a careful assessment of the evidence on the potential for other nations to develop missile capabilities that can reach the United States, it is clear that Rumsfeld and his conservative cohorts decided to use the commission as an opportunity to press the case for missile defense.

The Company He Keeps: Why Rumsfeld’s Conservative Links Matter

It would be one thing if Donald Rumsfeld had affiliations with non-partisan think tanks which were objectively assessing the national security threats to the United States in the light of changing circumstances. But the Center for Security Policy is an ideologically driven advocacy organization disguised as a think tank. Ever since CSP Director Frank Gaffney convinced Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey to make National Missile Defense a plank in their 1994 political credo, the "Contract With America," his organization has served as the de facto nerve center of the missile defense lobby. CSP’s board is a virtual executive committee of the missile defense lobby, with representatives of right-wing foundations such as Heritage, Empower America, and High Frontier; weapons contractors like Lockheed Martin; Star Wars "true believers" on Capitol Hill such as Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA); and Reagan era Star Warriors like weapons scientist Edward Teller and former Reagan science advisor George Keyworth. CSP Board member Jon Kyl led the charge in the defeat of the Comprehensive Test Ban in the U.S. Senate, while Curt Weldon sponsored the amendment that created the Rumsfeld Commission to "assess" the ballistic missile defense threat to the United States.

Funders for Gaffney’s Center in recent years have included right-wing philanthropists like Richard Mellon Scaife and the Coors family, self-interested weapons contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and TRW, and supportive individuals like Donald Rumsfeld, Elliott Abrams, and Howard Phillips.

Absent from CSP’s members are moderate Republicans like Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell; nor are there any middle-of-the-road Democrats.

Stripped of their pseudo-objective rhetoric, the views routinely expressed by CSP are quite extreme, including opposition to virtually every arms control agreement of the past two decades, from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to the recent international agreement to ban anti-personnel landmines. CSP Director Frank Gaffney has already rushed into print urging Donald Rumsfeld to begin deployment of a sea-based missile defense system within the next six months, despite the fact that the interceptor missile for such a system has not even been designed yet, much less tested.

Gaffney also rushed to criticize Secretary of State nominee Colin Powell’s suggestion that the new Defense Secretary will need to "make an assessment" of the technological capabilities available to the United States before moving to deploy an NMD system.

Given Donald Rumsfeld’s close ties to organizations with a documented history of promoting missile defenses, is he capable of making an objective assessment of NMD as Secretary of Defense? Will he distance himself from the extreme views of his conservative friends and take a fresh look at the problem, or will he move full speed ahead without heeding problems of cost, technology, and diplomacy? That’s the $100 billion question.

Ann Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture

Ann Veneman was the first female deputy secretary of agriculture and, before that, was the first female secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Not surprisingly, she is a true-blue agribusiness Republican.

According to the Sacramento Bee, "Her Republican pedigree goes back a good while: as a high school student, she served as a page at one GOP convention, and she subsequently served in conventions as both delegate and alternate." Raised on a peach farm in Modesto, California, she obtained three degrees from California universities: a BA from UC Davis, an MA in public policy from Berkeley, and a law degree from UC Hastings. Her entire career has centered on agricultural law and trade.

Veneman had already made a name for herself before becoming California agriculture secretary. For seven years during the Reagan and Bush, Sr. administrations, she served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and, under Bush, was named the nation's first female deputy agriculture secretary. At a 1992 meeting, President Bush Sr., told a group of California farmers, "I'm accompanied by the woman that many of you know, Ann Veneman. I thought it would be better, coming to a bunch of experts in agriculture, to have some brains with me. Mine are good for some things,... but I certainly don't stand here as any expert."

Veneman is even better known as an expert on international marketing than as a field agent for farmers. From 1989 to 1991, Veneman was deputy undersecretary of agriculture for international affairs and commodity programs. In this assignment, she managed international issues, including trade policy, export negotiations, and food aid. According to the trade publication Ag Alert, "While she was a negotiator at the Uruguay round of talks on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the U.S.-Canada FreeTrade Agreement, and the North American Free Trade Agreement she developed her background expertise in trade that she burnished further while head of CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture)."

Veneman comes, then, as the most internationally minded agriculture secretary in memory. With agricultural exports slipping--although they still represent 10% of all U.S. exports--big agriculture welcomes Veneman as an aggressive champion for U.S. exports. In other words, Ann Veneman is bad news for agriculture in developing countries, bad news for antiglobalization forces, and good news for Archer Daniels Midland.

Thomas E. White, Secretary of the Army

As the nation's 18th Secretary of the Army, Thomas E. White, a former executive with the disreputable Enron Corporation, declared that he was now ready to "transform the entire army," among other things. With a $70 billion budget, he pledges that he will work to adopt sound business practices--an historically unprecedented innovation in a military branch notorious for poor accounting and cost overruns.

White, in fact, is no novice to the Army, having 23 years of military experience under his belt. In 1967, after graduating from West Point, White became a commissioned Army officer, doing tours in Vietnam. He also served as commander, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment; commander, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, V Corps; and executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired from the Army in 1990 with the rank of brigadier general.

Until his confirmation as Secretary of the Army, White served as vice chairman of Enron Energy Services, and as a member of Enron's executive committee. He was chairman and chief executive officer for Enron Operation Corporation and was also responsible for the Enron Engineering and Construction Company, the division responsible for building a controversial international pipeline in Bolivia and other power projects, as well as construction of domestic pipelines.

In an article in The Progressive, Pratap Chatterjee writes that both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized Enron for collaborating with police who brutally suppressed protests at the company's giant power plant in western India. Enron has also been involved in the controversial Cuiaba Integrated Energy Project in Bolivia. Enron and Shell own fifty percent of Transredes, Bolivia's hydrocarbon pipeline transport company. In January 2000, the oil pipeline erupted, dumping an estimated 10,000 barrels of refined crude oil and gasoline into the Desaguadero River, which supports indigenous communities. As an Enron executive, this international pipeline was White's direct responsibility.

At home, Enron and Bush have scratched each other's backs. According to Chatterjee, Enron and its executives were the largest contributors to George W. Bush's presidential campaign, giving a total of over $550,000. As governor, Bush granted the Enron methanol plant in Pasadena, Texas special concessions, allowing the company to pollute without a permit and giving it immunity from prosecution for violating some environmental standards.

White pledges he wants to focus on modernizing the Army, and he states, "I view the Army's transformation as entirely consistent with an increased emphasis on the future for Asia Pacific." White, like others in the Bush administration, see U.S. security strategy shifting from Europe and toward Asia, where they view China as a growing military threat.

White also advocates building more high tech hardware. In a June 12 Associated Press article, Pauline Jelinek writes that White supports "converting four Trident submarines into cruise missile carriers; enhancing the B-2 bomber to carry more bombs; accelerating the production of the high-flying Global Hawk unmanned spy plane; developing a stealthy joint long-range cruise missile; and developing a new long-range precision strike capability."

Source: http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org

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