Excerpt:
Roger Ailes’ Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News
Republican media strategist Roger Ailes launched Fox News Channel in 1996, ostensibly as a "fair and balanced" counterpoint to what he regarded as the liberal establishment media. But according to a remarkable document buried deep within the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the intellectual forerunner for Fox News was a nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the "prejudices of network news" and deliver "pro-administration" stories to heartland television viewers.
The memo—called, simply enough, "A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News"— is included in a 318-page cache of documents detailing Ailes' work for both the Nixon and George H.W. Bush administrations that we obtained from the Nixon and Bush presidential libraries. Through his firms REA Productions and Ailes Communications, Inc., Ailes served as paid consultant to both presidents in the 1970s and 1990s, offering detailed and shrewd advice ranging from what ties to wear to how to keep the pressure up on Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the first Gulf War.
The documents—drawn mostly from the papers of Nixon chief of staff and felon H.R. Haldeman and Bush chief of staff John Sununu—reveal Ailes to be a tireless television producer and joyful propagandist. He was a forceful advocate for the power of television to shape the political narrative, and he reveled in the minutiae constructing political spectacles—stage-managing, for instance, the lighting of the White House Christmas tree with painstaking care. He frequently floated ideas for creating staged events and strategies for manipulating the mainstream media into favorable coverage, and used his contacts at the networks to sniff out the emergence of threatening narratives and offer advice on how to snuff them out—warning Bush, for example, to lay off the golf as war in the Middle East approached because journalists were starting to talk. There are also occasional references to dirty political tricks, as well as some positions that seem at odds with the Tea Party politics of present-day Fox News: Ailes supported government regulation of political campaign ads on television, including strict limits on spending. He also advised Nixon to address high school students, a move that caused his network to shriek about "indoctrination" when Obama did it more than 30 years later.All 318 pages are available here. First, some highlights: (I just took a peek at this but want to look at the whole thing when my mind is fresh, it's 318 pages so will do it later.) ...cal
Excerpt:
John Henry Sununu (born July 2, 1939) is a former Governor of New Hampshire (1983–89) and former White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. He is the father of John E. Sununu, a former senator from New Hampshire, and formerly a U.S. Representative. Sununu was the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party from 2009 to 2011.
[edit] Early life
Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba, the son of Victoria (née Dada) and John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor.[1] John is of Palestinian descent. His father's family came to the United States from the Middle East at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of the last two generations of Sununus were also born in the United States. He follows the Roman Catholic path of Christianity.
He earned a BS in 1961, a Master's degree in 1963, and a Ph.D. in 1966 from MIT, all in mechanical engineering. Sununu is a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
From 1968 until 1973, he was Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at Tufts University and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He served on the Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy Program at MIT from 1984 until 1989.
[edit] Governor
Sununu became New Hampshire's 85th Governor on January 6, 1983, and served three consecutive terms. He served as chairman of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, the Republican Governors Association and, in 1987, the National Governors Association.
[edit] White House Chief of Staff
Sununu is responsible for recommending David Souter to President George H. W. Bush for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, at the behest of New Hampshire senator Warren Rudman. The Wall Street Journal described the events leading up to the appointment of the "liberal jurist" in a 2000 editorial, saying Rudman in his "Yankee Republican liberalism" took "pride in recounting how he sold Mr. Souter to gullible White House chief of staff John Sununu as a confirmable conservative. Then they both sold the judge to President Bush, who wanted above all else to avoid a confirmation battle [after Robert Bork]."[4] Rudman wrote in his memoir that he had "suspected all along" that Souter would not "overturn activist liberal precedents."[5] Sununu later said that he had "a lot of disappointment" about Souter's positions on the Court and would have preferred him to be more similar to Justice Antonin Scalia.[5]
[edit] Televisio 
President Bush speaks on the telephone regarding Operation Just Cause with Sununu and Brent Scowcroft, 1989.n
[edit] Political positions
Sununu holds deeply conservative economic and social views[6] and as an engineer, he supports the expansion of nuclear energy. He is fiercely against the imposition of new taxes.[6]
[edit] Business
From 1963 until 1983, he served as President of JHS Engineering Company and Thermal Research Inc. In addition, he helped establish and served as chief engineer for Astro Dynamics Inc. from 1960 until 1965.
Sununu is President of JHS Associates, Ltd. and is a partner in Trinity International Partners, a private financial firm.
He is also a member of Honorary Council of Advisors for U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC).[7]
Cheney, Scowcroft and Webster.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brent_Scowcroft
Excerpt:
Scowcroft served as National Security Advisor to both Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush. He was Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. (1982-1989), an international consulting firm. "In this capacity, he advised and assisted a wide range of U.S. and foreign corporate leaders on global joint venture opportunities, strategic planning and risk assessment." [6]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brent_Scowcroft
Excerpt:
New World Order
According to Keppler Associates, Inc.'s Web Page on Brent Scowcroft:- "With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was Scowcroft who coined the term New World Order."
Profiles
Scowcroft is also the founder and "president of the Forum for International Policy, a non-profit organization that he founded in 1993 that promotes American leadership and foreign policy." [5]Scowcroft served as National Security Advisor to both Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush. He was Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. (1982-1989), an international consulting firm. "In this capacity, he advised and assisted a wide range of U.S. and foreign corporate leaders on global joint venture opportunities, strategic planning and risk assessment." [6]
Excerpt:
John H. Sununu served as Chief of Staff to the President of the United States on January 21, 1989 and served the White House until 1993. As Chief of Staff, Sununu oversaw the daily operations of the White House and its staff and also served as a Counselor to the President. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library Foundation."[1]
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/tag/credit-suisse/John H. Sununu served as Chief of Staff to the President of the United States on January 21, 1989 and served the White House until 1993. As Chief of Staff, Sununu oversaw the daily operations of the White House and its staff and also served as a Counselor to the President. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library Foundation."[1]
Excerpt:
American authorities have indicted four people, three of them formerly employed by Credit Suisse, as the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service crack down on foreign banks seen to have helped wealthy Americans evade taxes, Reuters reports. Read More »
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/business/global/24tax.html
Excerpt:
Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., accused the bankers — Marco Parenti Adami, Emanuel Agustoni, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer — of conspiracy and fraud in connection with their banking duties.
While the indictment did not name the bank in question, people briefed on the matter identified it as Credit Suisse, and a spokesman for the bank acknowledged its involvement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Chalker,_Baroness_Chalker_of_Wallasey
Excerpt:
Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey PC (née Bates; born 29 April 1942) is a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992. She served as Minister of State for Overseas Development at the Foreign Office, in the Conservative government from 1989 to 1997.
http://pinkindustry.wordpress.com/lynda-chalker/
Excerpts:
1) She was MP for Wallasey from 1974-92, and following the loss of her seat she was made a Life Peer. During her time in office Chalker was Under-Secretary of State DHSS (1979-82), a time largely remembered for the removal of benefits from the poor; then with the Dept. of Transport (1982-83) and as Minister of State for Africa & the Commonwealth at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1986-97 — an opportunity which provided very lucrative connections to the exploitation of Africa’s mineral wealth, discussed below.
She is one of only four ministers who served consecutively throughout the 18-year period of the Thatcher and Major governments in the UK. A difficult period to emerge from without criticism, and these have included the observation by John Pilger that:
“Shortly after the [1991] massacre the British Government increased its aid to the Suharto regime to £81 million, a rise of 250 per cent. The Minister for Overseas Aid, Baroness Chalker, claimed in Parliament that this was “helping the poor in Indonesia”. In fact, a large proportion of all British aid to Indonesia is made up of Aid for Trade Provisions (ATP); and much of this is the supply of weapons: British Aerospace, maker of Hawk aircraft, is among the British weapons companies helping Indonesia’s poor.”
2) The company say they provide “Knowledge and access to key decision makers in Washington and Iraq.” The London office is run by Basil Al-Rahim the former Managing Director of The Carlyle Group which, like MerchantBridge is the gatekeeper to foreign investing in Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Economic Offset Program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-05/merchantbridge-ceo-al-rahim-dies-in-iraq-plane-crash-update1-.html
Excerpt:
MerchantBridge CEO Al-Rahim Dies in Iraq Plane Crash
By Massoud A. Derhally - Feb 5, 2011 1:06 PM PT
Excerpt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/business/global/24tax.html
Excerpt:
Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., accused the bankers — Marco Parenti Adami, Emanuel Agustoni, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer — of conspiracy and fraud in connection with their banking duties.
While the indictment did not name the bank in question, people briefed on the matter identified it as Credit Suisse, and a spokesman for the bank acknowledged its involvement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Chalker,_Baroness_Chalker_of_Wallasey
Excerpt:
Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey PC (née Bates; born 29 April 1942) is a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992. She served as Minister of State for Overseas Development at the Foreign Office, in the Conservative government from 1989 to 1997.
http://pinkindustry.wordpress.com/lynda-chalker/
Excerpts:
1) She was MP for Wallasey from 1974-92, and following the loss of her seat she was made a Life Peer. During her time in office Chalker was Under-Secretary of State DHSS (1979-82), a time largely remembered for the removal of benefits from the poor; then with the Dept. of Transport (1982-83) and as Minister of State for Africa & the Commonwealth at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1986-97 — an opportunity which provided very lucrative connections to the exploitation of Africa’s mineral wealth, discussed below.
She is one of only four ministers who served consecutively throughout the 18-year period of the Thatcher and Major governments in the UK. A difficult period to emerge from without criticism, and these have included the observation by John Pilger that:
“Shortly after the [1991] massacre the British Government increased its aid to the Suharto regime to £81 million, a rise of 250 per cent. The Minister for Overseas Aid, Baroness Chalker, claimed in Parliament that this was “helping the poor in Indonesia”. In fact, a large proportion of all British aid to Indonesia is made up of Aid for Trade Provisions (ATP); and much of this is the supply of weapons: British Aerospace, maker of Hawk aircraft, is among the British weapons companies helping Indonesia’s poor.”
2) The company say they provide “Knowledge and access to key decision makers in Washington and Iraq.” The London office is run by Basil Al-Rahim the former Managing Director of The Carlyle Group which, like MerchantBridge is the gatekeeper to foreign investing in Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Economic Offset Program.
“Carlyle had a relationship with the bin Ladens that began in the early 1990s, when they tried to put together a deal for the Italian Petroleum (IP) company. At the time, Basil Al Rahim, a young Carlyle associate, was travelling from Saudi Arabia to Amman to Bahrain, to United Arab Emirates, drumming up support for Carlyle’s forthcoming international funds. One of the clients that Al Rahim helped secure was the bin Laden family, which owned a $5 billion construction business by the name of Saudi Binladin Group.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-05/merchantbridge-ceo-al-rahim-dies-in-iraq-plane-crash-update1-.html
Excerpt:
MerchantBridge CEO Al-Rahim Dies in Iraq Plane Crash
By Massoud A. Derhally - Feb 5, 2011 1:06 PM PT
MerchantBridge & Co., a London-based private equity group, said founder and Chief Executive Officer Basil Al-Rahim was killed in a plane crash in Iraq that also claimed the lives of a business partner, two JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers and three crew.
Excerpt:
Key current and past clients of BME include:
Nestle Middle EastUnileverArab Business MachinedunhillClarinsHSBC AmanahVictory HeightsSeven Tidesbloom PropertiesAldar PropertiesAbyaarAlgebra CapitalUnicorn Investment Bank Merchant Bridge KPMGEmaar Industries & InvestmentGB CorpSwicorpDeutcheBank
Excerpt:
"Al Rahim has emerged as a strong advocate of neo-liberal policies in Iraq. He has been a guest of the American Enterprise Institute and testified before the US Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) on the economic transformation of Iraq. In an economic paper for the Iraq Foundation, Al Rahim provides the classic neo-liberal argument: “The fact that the [Iraqi] state (through nationalization and expropriation) owns over 80% of the productive economic assets of the country must be recognized and immediately addressed. It is only by shifting these assets squarely back into the private sector that the economy will be properly invigorated and set on a path of sustainable long-term growth." [40][1] Basil Al Rahim is also founder and managing partner of MerchantBridge, a Riyadh-based private equity firm, and chief executive officer of MerchantBridge-UBS, a joint venture with the Swiss financial services firm. [41][2]
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/02/05/merchantbridge-jp-morgan-execs-killed-crash/Excerpt:
