Baker Meets With Syrians re Iraq: but wait--isn' t that Condi's job?

Syrian Officials and Iraq Study Group Met, Envoy Says

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state who is now Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan group examining strategic options in Iraq, has met several times with Syrian officials to discuss how they might cooperate with the United States, the Syrian ambassador here said Friday.

“What would it take Syria to help on Iraq?” the Syrian ambassador, Imad Moustapha, recalled Mr. Baker asking Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Muallem, during a meeting in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria in September. Mr. Moustapha described the session as “very promising.”

During a 45-minute interview at the Syrian Embassy on Friday morning, the ambassador said he arranged the New York meeting, also attended by other members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, at Mr. Baker’s request. Separately, Ambassador Moustapha met twice with the study group in Washington.

The ambassador would not provide specifics, but said he had told the study group “in detail what actual things we can do, and what are the things that we cannot do. We were very candid with each other. We explained to them why it is in our own national interest to try to help stabilize the situation in Iraq.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/world/middleeast/18baker.html

This is actually a pretty important story. It means Bush really has outsourced major functions of the WH to the Carlyle Group.

First it was the neocons. Now it's Poopy and the Boys.
------------------------------------------------------
coup d'é·tat (k d-tä) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. coups d'état (k) or coup d'états (d-täz)
The sudden overthrow of a government by a usually small group of persons in or previously in positions of authority.

and Baker should go before a DEM Congress for confirmation.

Watch how fast Uncle Jimmie scurries back into his hole if he had to apply for the job.

She is not qualified for the job. She is an academic, Soviet history expert with no experience in government, the middle east, terrorism or intelligence.

She has been a failure.

She is only there because she is loyal and tows the line with vigor, no matter how hard it is not to laugh through her lies.

It wasn't taken care of then "Iran-Contra" so we're STILL dealing with the criminals now.

HOW LONG WILL THIS CONTINUE?

like Syria, Iran and NK happen all the time.

But the fact that it is Baker combined with the fact that this meeting wasn't kept covert is a pretty chilling indication of just how much power this Admin has turned over (which is NOT a good thing imho). This news is in the NYTimes which means it was leaked by the powerbrokers for a reason (or reasons). Why? To undercut Bu$h? Bu$h has publicly stated over and over that he won't talk to Syria which means that since Baker's visit has just gone public, they've demonstrated they are willing to break Jr's kneecaps.

Or perhaps it was leaked to try to show that the "new" Admin is willing to be flexible and pursue other strategies like working with Syria? But why go this route, with Baker and not publicly with the SOS? Another humiliation.

Was Baker's group trying to undercut Bu$h's own Iraq Study Group that he just formed in competition with Poppy's by making this pre-emptive pseudo-diplomatic move towards Syria?

And I think the answer is pretty clearly that W is being publicly castrated by Baker and Bush Sr., not in an attempt to save him but in a real attempt to avert (further) disaster for their constituency (big oil/energy, big defense) in the form of a generational shift away from the Republican party and its pro-oil, pro-war policies. Junior's being stripped of his allies one by one--Rummy's been tossed overboard, Condi's gone invisible, the rumors of Rove's impending departure are rampant, Cheney's still talking to the hard-right corporatist base, but nobody else takes him seriously (I'm guessing there's probably even some snickering at the Federalist Society).

other than his run with Jr. is finished. He's moving on to the next power play, the next campaign. His expertise as it were, isn't in governing but in maneuvering elections.

I believe Jr. would have kept Rove around indefinitely but Rove's not stupid, he can see that Poppy's back and getting bigger every day. Since he and Poppy don't have any kind of love-fest going on, Rove's gonna move on and start cranking up for '08.

The only interesting thing about Rove is with whom is he going to land.

Now Cheney vs Poppy's team? That's an interesting thing - when/if Cheney goes the coup will be complete. Cheney is so powerful in his own way, I'm sure he's playing hardball behind the scenes to stay at the top of the hill.

I think Rove's impending departure (the rumors of which may be premature, of course) is just further evidence that Junior is being systematically isolated, stripped of his little circle of protectors. These were also the people who had insulated him from reality, of course, as a way of preserving their own power. If I was given to wild specualtion (and I am), I could envision a moment in the not-too-distant future in which Cheney resigns for "health reasons" (nobody'd buy the "wanted to spend more time with the family" line in his case), and Baker or some other Carlyle stalwart is appointed VP.

So more speculation: who bumps off Jr. first? Poppy's team or Cheney? Cheney is so vulnerable to either *cough, cough* health problems, or even impeachment which means Poppy's team isn't too worried about Cheney's longevity. Bump off Jr. and they let Dick assume the throne stipulating that Poppy's team gets the VP pick (this is the bone they they Cheney to throw him off).

Then Dick has a "sudden" heart attack. Boom! Poppy's team has both spots. Or Cheney, who is very vulnerable on the impeachment front, is publicly knee-capped this way and forced out.

Heh! Top that!

And I totally agree with you that Jr. is getting systematically stripped of his circle. It's gonna be Poppy's boys who insulate Jr. now....

The only one who is going to stay in place with impunity (or as much impunity as can be mustered without further public humiliation) is Condeleeza Rice. She's too much of a black female figurehead - her political demise just won't float any which way you cut it. She's neutralized while the playas behind the scenes move on without her.

have you read the LBN thread about the high al Qaeda threat level in Indonesia, ahead of W's visit?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2621148

But I doubt that Poppy would let his first-born walk into a Qaeda attack...I think.

"on the US" (our pRez), while undercutting Dem jubilation about the election AND their effectiveness at investigating the crimes of this Admin.

Niiiice!

Okay, you win.

B-)

Condi couldn't negotiate her way out of a paper bag. She is a lightweight.

Switzerland, with all the major players represented; the big corporations, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the military, probably a few foreign government representatives - and the meeting chaired and headed by the Carlyle Group. The whole World (represented by the "Star Chamber") sees Junior as too dangerous to continue in his present seat of power - he isn't capable of it. So, the methods and means for taking charge are worked out. Junior will travel around the globe, having photo-ops and shaking hands at relatively unimportant functions, while the actual government of the US is taken over by agents of....

that the meetings would be in New York or Georgetown, and you can bet your ass that no Dems are involved. But your point about Bush being sent off to unimportant places to do unimportant things while the grownups run the country is an excellent one.

involved. It would just make good business sense, from their perspective. Bring these "good" Democrats on board so as not to have any ugly surprises and make sure the road is as smooth as possible. Remember, Big Dog is Junior's third "brother"...

Terrifyingly anti-democratic, isn't it?

daddy`s boys are going across the world trying to repair the damage that his son has done to some very important allies. one of them is syria who was a key partner with the cia in the middle east until cheney took over the cia.

}( Girl just wants to have fun.

Condi's Iraq surprise

In a secret end run around Cheney and Rumsfeld, the secretary of state pressed Bush to back the Iraq Study Group -- and change the course of the war.

By Mark Benjamin

Nov. 17, 2006 | WASHINGTON -- In late 2005, three Washington insiders with foreign policy expertise were summoned to a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- a little-known event that may end up changing the course of the war in Iraq. The three men were working to help Rep. Frank Wolf, who wanted to create an independent panel to overhaul the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq, after a recent trip there left the Virginia Republican worried that the war was headed from bad to worse.

The three men, to their surprise, were asked to attend a meeting on Nov. 29, 2005, with Rice, who had been among the core defenders of the Bush administration's war in Iraq. At the end of that meeting, Rice agreed to the idea for the panel and pledged to take the case directly to President Bush. At Rice's urging, Bush embraced what would become the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker.

"It was remarkable that Condi Rice took the lead," said David Abshire, president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, and one of four people in the November meeting, including Rice. The Iraq Study Group, he said, "happened with her going to the president."

It has been widely speculated that George H.W. Bush, the president's father, turned to his trusted former advisor Baker to help orchestrate the Iraq Study Group to clean up the Iraq mess. But the little-known story of how the panel came into being began not with Baker, but with a congressman's effort to call it like he saw it in Iraq -- and with Rice's maneuvering to sidestep an entrenched Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It set in motion the unlikely scenario now playing out in Washington in which an independent panel is about to counsel a White House not typically known as receptive to outside advice on the war.

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/17/iraq_study_group/