Creating a Cauldron in the Middle East - Michael Ledeen - Fascism

[eleny]

I was researching "yellowcake" trying to learn what it is and what countries have it. By Googling, I learned that Gabon, Namibia, South Africa and Niger are sources in Africa.

I also looked up a definition of yellowcake and arrived at this Encyclopedia web site that linked to its definition of "yellowcake forgery". It talks all about how we went to war in Iraq using the forged documents.
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Yellowcake-forgery

And that's where Michael Ledeen is mentioned. "In an interview published April 7, 2005, Cannistaro (the former head of counterterrorism operations at the CIA and the intelligence director at the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan) was asked by Ian Masters what he would say if it was asserted that the source of the forgery was former National Security Council and State Department consultant Michael Ledeen. (Ledeen had also allegedly been a liaison between the American Intelligence Community and SISMI (Italian military intelligence agency) two decades earlier.) Cannistraro answered by saying: "you'd be very close."
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Yellowcake-forgery

So I followed the Encyclopedia External link for Ledeen and found this:
"Regarding regime change in the Middle East, in 2002 Ledeen criticized the views of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, writing: Regime change is the overthrow of a government (or regime) considered illegitimate by an external force (usually military), and its replacement with a new government according to the ideas and/or interests promoted by that force.
He (Scowcroft) fears that if we attack Iraq "I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a caldron and destroy the War on Terror." One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists. That's our mission in the war against terror."
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Michael-Ledeen

An article on Ledeen in The American Conservative shows them to be very wary of him: "Flirting with Fascism/Neocon theorist Michael Ledeen draws more from Italian fascism than from the American Right" http://www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html
"...But there is at least one neoconservative commentator whose personal political odyssey began with a fascination not with Trotskyism, but instead with another famous political movement that grew up in the early decades of the 20th century: fascism. I refer to Michael Ledeen, leading neocon theoretician, expert on Machiavelli, holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, regular columnist for National Review—and the principal cheerleader today for an extension of the war on terror to include regime change in Iran....
As Ledeen shows, the Italian fascists expressed their desire “to tear down the old order” (his words from 2002) in terms that are curiously anticipatory of a famous statement in 2003 by the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. In 1932, Asvero Gravelli also divided Europe into “old” and “new” when he wrote, in Towards the Fascist International, “Either old Europe or young Europe. Fascism is the gravedigger of old Europe. Now the forces of the Fascist International are rising.” It all sounds rather prophetic."

[wli]

1. very interesting

So do you think they'll use RICO on AEI and PNAC now?

[eleny]

6. Is there a paddy wagon big enough?

[cal04]

2. Interesting who he talks to

He is also the author of The War Against the Terror Masters, which claims that America must topple the regimes of the terror masters such as Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia to eliminate the threat of terrorism.


Prof Ledeen is also believed to have the ear of the White House's current Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and has regular conversations with him. His view on the war on terror is clear, he said: "Iraq is just one battle in a larger war, bringing down the regime in Iran is the central act, because Iran is the world's most dangerous terrorist country."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3031803.stm

[eleny]

4. We don't hear much of Ledeen, so I figured to post about him

The article about him in the American Conservative magazine was frightening.
"Ledeen was especially interested in the role played by youth in Italian fascism. It was here that he detected the movement’s most exciting revolutionary potential. The young Ledeen wrote that those who exalted the position of youth in the fascist revolution—like those who argued in favor of his beloved “universal fascism”—were committed to exporting Italian fascism to the whole world, an idea in which Mussolini was initially uninterested."
http://www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html

[The2ndWheel]

3. Yeah, they're a good group

Ledeen being the king nut of that whole clique.

[eleny]

5. "good group" - Yipes!

King nut and one of the chief architects, for sure. Reading about him gave me shivers.

[joemurphy]

7. Wow!!!! Nice find! n/t

[joemurphy]

8. But be careful. There are lots of factual errors in the

Encyclopedia cite. Wilson was never sent to Niger to check on whether the Iraqi-Niger documents were forged. He never even saw the documents prior to, or during his stay in Niger. He only learned they were forged in March, 2003 when the IAEA discovered this to be the case right on the eve of the Iraq War.

[eleny]

10. The site only says he went to investigate the documents

I took that to mean the material in the documents. But I do see your point. It could easily be interpreted as you suggest. Also, I never read anywhere else that Wilson asserted that the docs were forgeries as Ency. article says. He only reported what he found but had no direct responsibility to address the origins of the documents.

I've been reading articles published on the net from a few years ago about all this. There are so many of this type of glitch. Important glitches that would make people take a wrong fork in the road in their thinking and sorting out. Or get the worng impression of the principals.

Thanks for your reply, joem.

[joemurphy]

12. I agree with you about glitches.

My favorite is when the two white house sources called the six reporters. The Washington Post said it was before Novak's article. Later, Newsweek said it was after Novak's article. Nobody's focused on it very much.

Another one has to do with when Novak's article came out. It was published on July 14, 2003. But it was available on the wires on July 11, 2003. It's possibly a very important issue.

I've learned from this and the DSMs that putting a chronology together -- usually pirating someone reputable and amplifying on it -- helps keep everything straight.

Your stuff on Ledeen's a biggie though. No one has really dug into the forged Niger documents much. Cannistraro's fingering Ledeen is...well...to say the least interesting. The mysterious break-in at the Niger embassy in Rome is fun for speculation too. Who did it?
Italian intelligence? Some rogue Berlusconi-instigated group? The INC? Fun, huh?

[Emit]

9. Thanks. Check out RightWeb's info on Ledeen...

Ledeen is a key player in the Bush & Co. regime.


http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/ledeen/ledeen.php

<<snip>>
Highlights & Quotes

Michael Ledeen, the neocons' point man on regime change in Iran (and in Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia), is apparently capable of viewing diplomacy only through the barrel of a gun, arguing in a November 2003 piece for the National Review Online that the "appeasers" in Congress and the State Department "don't want to know about Iran, because if they did, they would be driven to take actions that they do not want to take. They would have to support democratic revolution in Iran, and they prefer to schmooze with the mullahs." He concludes, "I guess some top official will have to die at the hands of (obviously) Iranian-supported terrorists before the Pentagon is permitted to work on the subject." (8)

Commenting on Ledeen's screed, Anthony Gancarski of Antiwar.com wrote, " talks of military confrontation with Iran, which will be ugly like nothing since the Korean war, like he's a frat boy trying to get laid. Ledeen is a risible presence on the American scene, and this column hopes that his enemies in Washington find a way to take him to task for reckless, foolish talk that will lead to the death of more Americans and further diffusion of the Administration's credibility." (9)

Ledeen has a colorful track record, which has produced substantial grist for the conspiracy mill: He was allegedly tied to the Italian P2 Masonic Lodge, a violent right wing group that was involved in a number of terrorists attacks in Italy in the 1970s the 1980s; in the late 1970s, while P2 was doing its dirty work, Ledeen was working as a consultant to Italian intelligence on terrorism issues; as a consultant to the National Security Council in the 1980s, Ledeen acted as a go-between for Oliver North in the early stages of the Iran-Contra affair, working with the Israeli spy David Kimche to gain the release of U.S. hostages in Beirut through an Iranian arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar; he helped promote the "Bulgarian Connection" theory that the KGB was behind the assassination attempt on the pope in 1981; and, more recently, the Sydney Morning Herald reported (August 8, 2003) that Ledeen worked with Pentagon staffers to redevelop the channel to arms dealer Ghorbanifar in support of resistance efforts in Iran. Reported the Herald: " Rhode recently acted as a liaison between Feith's office, which drafted much of the Administration's post-Iraq planning, and Ahmed Chalabi, a former Iraqi exile groomed for leadership by the Pentagon. Mr. Rhode is a protege of Michael Ledeen, who was a National Security Council consultant in the mid 1980s when he introduced Mr. Ghorbanifar to Oliver North, a NSC aide, and others in the opening stages of the Iran-Contra affair. It is understood Mr. Ledeen reopened the Ghorbanifar channel with Mr. Feith's staff." (9, 10)
<<snip>>

Lots more here:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/ledeen/ledeen.php

BTW, RightWeb is a part of International Relations Center:
http://www.irc-online.org/about.php
<<snip>>
Adhering to a high level of academic discipline, we research, analyze, and offer prescriptive alternatives to current, suggested, and projected policies. Our distinguished program staff augments their extensive experience with contributions from hundreds of experts on regions and issues; academics, activists, journalists, NGOs, and policy professionals from around the world.
<<snip>>

(Amongst its members of the board of directors is Noam Chomsky)


___________________________________________________

And Katherine Yurica (Yurica Report) did a really good piece on him and his connections to Bush & Co.

April 7, 2005

Everything You Need to Know About Michael Ledeen

By Katherine Yurica

Would you be surprised to find that a man who was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan Administration, a man who is the darling of the Bush White House and is an adviser to Karl Rove, a man who loves Machiavelli and studies him, a neo-conservative who has close ties to one of America’s leading “Christian” Dominionists—Pat Robertson, and a man who called Pearl Harbor “lucky” and a providentially inspired event—may be the man who is behind the forging of the Niger documents that convinced America to launch a preemptive strike against Iraq?

Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, in Los Angeles, interviewed Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of Counterterrorism operations at the CIA. Cannistraro came close to naming the man who forged the Niger documents. When Masters asked, “If I said ‘Michael Ledeen’?” Vincent Cannistraro replied, “You’d be very close.”

Who is Michael Ledeen? Or perhaps more importantly, what does he believe? Here are just a few quotes from his book, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli’s Iron Rules Are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago. (Truman Talley Books (St. Martin’s Press), 1999.) Ledeen wrote...

<<snip>>

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/MichaelLedeen.html

[eleny]

11. He and Rove mostly stayed in the shadows

But wield significant influence.

[Emit]

13. Ledeen

Seems to have a thing for fascism and Machiavelli, doesn't he?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40012-2003Oct3?language=printer

In his first book, "Universal Fascism" (1972), based on his doctoral thesis, Ledeen drew a strong connection between two seemingly different intellectual currents: the fascist cult of youth and the attempt in the mid-1930s to form a fascist international. Both tendencies, he demonstrated, grew out of the disillusionment of younger intellectuals with the first decade of Mussolini's reign. Since the Duce had failed to radically transform Italian society, his more idealistic followers now dared to hope that the younger generation all across Europe would form a confederation of radical nationalists that would reject the virulent racism of German fascism.

<<snip>>
But there is another, less ringing, strain in Ledeen's thinking. "To be an effective leader, the most prudent method is to ensure that your people are afraid of you," Ledeen wrote in "Machiavelli on Modern Leadership." "To instill that fear, you must demonstrate that those who attack you will not survive."


<<snip>>
The Ledeen enigma -- extolling democracy while calling for iron political discipline -- can be traced back to what he has called "the usual Machiavellian paradox: Compulsion -- or necessity, as he terms it -- makes men noble, and enables them to remain free, while abundant choice is dangerous, leads to chaos, and leaves men at the mercy of their enemies." Ledeen fears that some elements of society have forgotten the virtue of such compulsion. "The generals, the businessmen, and the athletic coaches know this, but the political leaders and journalists often forget it."

[eleny]

14. The guy is a real piece of work

And one of the articles posted today asserts that he's one of Rove's closest advisors. Makes my palms sweaty.

[Emit]

15. Yes, the only full-time Rove advisor, according to this

Middle East

Veteran neo-con advisor moves on Iran
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - When The Washington Post published a list of the people whom Karl Rove, President George W Bush's closest advisor,
regularly consults for advice outside the administration, foreign policy veterans were shocked when Michael Ledeen popped up as the only full-time international affairs analyst.

"The two met after Bush's election," the Post reported cheerfully, quoting Ledeen about Rove's request that "any time you have a good idea, tell me". "More than once, Ledeen has seen his ideas, faxed to Rove, become official policy or rhetoric," noted the newspaper.

"When I saw that, I couldn't believe it," said one retired senior diplomat. "But then again, with this administration, it seemed frighteningly plausible."

<<snip>>

Ledeen's right-wing Italian connections - including alleged ties to the P-2 Masonic Lodge that rocked Italy in the early 1980s - have long been a source of speculation and intrigue, but he returned to Washington in 1981 as "anti-terrorism" advisor to the new secretary of state, Al Haig.
Cont'd here:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF26Ak03.html

[eleny]

16. What bastards

We've got W going around the country saying tht Iraq is the central focus of the war on terror. And here Ledeen is shifting the focus to Iran. From the article you posted:
""We are now engaged in a regional struggle in the Middle East, and the Iranian tyrants are the keystone of the terror network," he wrote in Monday's Post. "Far more than the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the defeat of the mullahcracy and the triumph of freedom in Tehran would be a truly historic event and an enormous blow to the terrorists." "

Btw, this is the most recent article I've seen today that mentions him.

[Emit]

17. In the post above, that's the wrong link to the excerpts I pasted

Here's the correct one:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/10/10/man_of_the_world?pg=full

Sorry! :silly:

[eleny]

18. Something funny at the site

I clicked the link and there's these ads flashing at the top of the page. The first one to show was one saying something like "Have your cake and eat it, too". Given the discussion, it caught my eye.