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In our last video we showed you how Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, met this
May with some unsavory characters in a secret trip to Syria. But given McCain's history
of consorting with dubious groups from Libya to Syria, whom he calls his 'heroes' and 'freedom
fighters,' but whom the U.S. State Department, UN Security Council and media refers to as
terrorist organizations it's understood, if nothing else, that making the world safe for
Democracy is indeed a dirty business. Who profits from this business is the topic of
today's video.
[INTRO]
We move from Sen. McCain's friends to the non-governmental organizations, think tanks
and policy circles responsible for providing American leadership with actionable information
and advice, but more importantly how these non-governmental organizations and think tanks
develop U.S. strategic objectives in order to maintain and propel their corporate benefactors'
interests throughout the world.
Breaking news on the Drudge Report Wednesday was headlined, "Curveball: Woman Behind Case
for Syria Strike Fired for Lying." The woman was Elizabeth O'Bagy, fired by the Institute
for the Study of War for allegedly 'lying on her resume.' If you're unfamiliar with
O'Bagy she orchestrated Sen. John McCain's meeting with Syrian Rebels and the alleged
kidnappers he was photographed with in May of this year. As The Dialy Caller's Charles
Johnson notes, "O'Bagy's advocacy for intervention had brought her remarkable clout at the age
of 26. Her Wall Street Journal op-ed was recently cited by Secretary of State John Kerry..."
but she not only got air time in Congress and print, but on some of the most watched
shows in American newsdom:
[Hearing]
According to Kimberly Kagen, president and founder of the Study of War, she claimed O'Bagy
lied about her PHD from Georgetown University when she did not actually have one. But the
ISW, in March, acknowledged as much claiming O'Bagy was "working on a dissertation," as
in SHE HAD NOT RECEIVED a PHD. Kagen also claims O'Bagy's work in Syria is "rock solid,"
reports POLITICO. So was it really her resume in limbo, which got her canned or the fact
the ISW, described by the Washington Post as "favoring an aggressive U.S. foreign policy"
was dragged through the mud when O'Bagy was connected with one of the most unpopular wars
in American history as well as with one of its many propagandist organizations suffering
intense media scrutiny in the run up to strikes?
For instance, Obagy's Aug. 30th op-ed for the WSJ came under fire according to POLITICO,
"for misrepresenting her affiliations. Originally, the op-ed only listed O'Bagy as only "a senior
analyst" at the ISW, the WSJ later added in a clarification her connection to a syrian
advocacy group. It said, "In addition to her role at the Institute for the Study of War,
Ms. O'Bagy is affiliated with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a nonprofit operating as a 501(c)(3)
pending IRS approval that subcontracts with the U.S. and British governments to provide
aid to the Syrian opposition."
The Syrian Emergency Task Force's executive director is Mouaz Moustafa an 'expert' at
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a satellite of the huge Israeli lobby
American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which regularly lobbies for U.S.
intervention in the Middle East on behalf of Israeli interests and regularly attempts
to ensconce into U.S. law Israel as an ally of the United States. Moreover, the SETF website
URL belongs to the Torah Academy of Boca Raton, Florida espousing Israel's interests.
Moustafa and O'Bagy were again the ones who orchestrated John McCain's secret rendezvous
with the Free Syrian Army and the Northern Storm Brigade last May. Johnson notes, O'Bagy
admits she was paid for her contractual work with Moustafa and SETF by the U.S. State Department
funded Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations. And it's big business as State
Department contracting firms like "ARK [Access Resources Knowledge], Chemonics, Creative
[Associates International] and a number of the big contractors" set up the contracts
and pay the Syrian Emergency Task Force out of the half billion dollars allotted for "institution
building."
In other words it all comes full circle. John McCain and John Kerry among many others are
using information gathered from organizations advocating for syrian rebels and paid for
by you. Moreover, the Institute for the Study of War, which O'Bagy received her salary is
seeded and funded by the elite within the military industrial complex: namely Northrop
Grumman, the CIA's Palantir, Dyn Corp International and General Dynamics, companies which have
everything to gain from our wars in the middle east.
Yesterday I spoke with popular New York based independent geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser,
founder of the website StopImperialism.org and regular contributor
to RT
and PressTV.