COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) states

that it is

"dedicated to increasing America's

understanding of the world and

contributing ideas to

U.S. foreign policy.

The Council accomplishes this mainly by

promoting constructive debates and

discussions,

clarifying world issues, and

publishing Foreign Affairs."

In a September 2005 makeover

of its website,
the Council proclaimed itself to be
"A Nonpartisan Resource
for Information and
Analysis"(sic),
"to be the first-stop,
nonpartisan
resource
on U.S. foreign policy and
America’s role in the world",
according to the press release.

See Also:

History

The CFR dates back to 1921, and in 1996 published its history, available on its website.

The membership of the CFR includes past Presidents, Ambassadors, Secretaries of State, Wall Street investors, international bankers, foundation executives, think tank executives, lobbyist lawyers, NATO and Pentagon military leaders, wealthy industrialists, journalists, media owners and executives, university presidents and key professors, select Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, Federal Judges, wealthy entrepreneurs, and as many as ten 9-11 Commission Members. [1] [2]

Due perhaps more to its origins, associations, and history, than to its current composition and activities, the CFR does have a reputation as one of the "triumvirate of elite organizations" together with

the Bilderberg and the Trilateral Commission.

rk NOTE: Which ones are from the BLACKROCK GROUP, you know, the satanic/Illuminati/masonic baby-eaters club?

286). MindMap:

THE CULT OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT:

https://bra.in/5j8YGk

382). What is PIZZAGATE?:

https://bra.in/3jXQZ2

331). ACTORNAUTS FROM NASA clip:

https://bra.in/6jb3Jk

Elitism doesn't necessarily preclude the ability to provide unbiased and useful service however. [3]

Carroll Quigley, Professor of History at Georgetown University, stated, "The Council of Foreign Relations is the American Branch of a society which originated in England and believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established." [4]

They hold regular private meetings including members, and very select guests.

Occasionally they will hold a public meeting, and invite the open press (including C-SPAN).

The image of the CFR as a closed-shop bi-partisan discussion forum for the foreign policy establishment has fuelled criticism that the organisation and its members are controlling world policy and events.

rk NOTE: That's what it looks like to me!

In 1938 the Council created numerous Committees on Foreign Relations throughout the county, in 1995 the Committees became a separate organization under the umbrella of the American Committees on Foreign Relations in Washington D.C..

Current Independent Task Force Projects (January 2008)

Independent Task Force on Civil Liberties and National Security (November 21, 2006—Present) – Chairs: Bob Kerrey and William H. Webster; Director: Daniel B. Prieto
Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Latin America (February 23, 2007—Present) – Chairs: Charlene Barshefsky, James T. Hill, and Shannon O'Neil; Directors: Julia E. Sweig - see Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Latin America
Independent Task Force on Global Climate Change (July 11, 2007—Present) – Chairs: George E. Pataki and Thomas J. Vilsack; Directors: Michael A. Levi and David G. Victor

Conspiracy theorists' views

The CFR and its members commonly feature prominently in conspiracy-oriented writings, such as those of anti-establishment conservatives, such as Lyndon LaRouche and Pat Robertson, as central advocates of the 'new world order'.

By way of example, James W. Wardner [5][6], claims he "exposes the evil forces behind the 'New World Order' and reveals the unholy alliances that are bringing about The Planned Destruction of America." [7]

In these writings the CFR is linked to other groups - such as the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati [8], the Skull and Bones Society, and the Bilderberg Group - and portrayed as between them seeking to impose the 'new world order'. [9] (See also "Illuminati and Council on Foreign Relations" by Myron Fagan [10] [11]).

CFR Reports & Publications

Nicholas Lehman, "How It Came To War" writes in The New Yorker, March 31, 2003, that in an interview with Richard Haass, Director of the Policy Planning staff at the State Department, he learned that Haass would be leaving the State Department to take the position of President of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The position is currently held by Leslie H. Gelb.

"Senior Statesmen Henry Kissinger and Lawrence Summers Chair New Council Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Europe," April 14, 2003: Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Summers will "co-chair a Council-sponsored independent task force on a new U.S. policy toward Europe. The bi-partisan task force will bring together leaders from business, former senior government officials, and policy experts to issue a report that will address the rift. The group will also include a number of European experts ... The Council-sponsored Task Force on Transatlantic Relations is made possible by generous grants from ENI SpA and Merrill Lynch."

"U.S. Should Provide Iraqis and Americans With a More Coherent and Compelling Vision for Iraq's Political Future. Experts Urge President to Deliver Major Address to the Nation on Importance of Getting the Job Done Right in Post-War Iraq... the George Walker Bush administration must sharpen and deepen its commitment to making Iraq a better and safer place, conclude former UN Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering and former Defense and Energy Secretary James R. Schlesinger, co-chairs of the Council-sponsored Independent Task Force on post-war Iraq," June 25, 2003.

"New Council-sponsored Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders, a blue-ribbon panel of Nobel laureates, U.S. military leaders, former high-level government officials, and other senior experts, led by former Senator Warren Bruce Rudman and advised by former White House terrorism and cyber-security chief Richard A. Clarke," June 29, 2003.

"Nearly Two Years After 9/11, the United States is Still Dangerously Unprepared and Underfunded for a Catastrophic Terrorist Attack, Warns New Council Task Force. Overall Expenditures Must Be as Much as Tripled to Prepare Emergency Responders Across the Country."
"The study was carried out in partnership with the Concord Coalition and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, two of the nation's leading budget analysis organizations."
"Jamie Metzl, Council Senior Fellow and a former National Security Council and Senate Foreign Relations Committee official, directed the effort."
The Task Force on Emergency Responders is a follow on to the Council's highly acclaimed Hart-Rudman Task Force on Homeland Security , which made concrete recommendations in February 2001 on defending the country against a terrorist attack.

TASK FORCE MEMBERS

Warren B. Rudman (Chair)
Charles Graham Boyd, Chief Executive Officer and President, Business Executives for National Security; Former Deputy Commander in Chief, U.S. European Command
Richard A. Clarke (Senior Adviser); Senior Adviser, Council on Foreign Relations; Chairman of Good Harbor Consulting, LLC; Former Senior White House Adviser
William J. Crowe, Jr., Senior Advisor, Global Options; Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
James Kallstrom, Senior Executive Vice President, MBNA America; Former Director, Office of Public Security for the State of New York
Joshua Lederberg, President-Emeritus and Sackler Foundation Scholar, Rockefeller University; Nobel Laureate
Donald Marron, Chairman, UBS America and Chairman, Lightyear Capital
Jamie Metzl (Project Director), Senior Fellow and Coordinator for Homeland Security Programs, Council on Foreign Relations; Former National Security Council aide; Former Senate Foreign Relations Committee official
Philip A. Odeen, Former Chairman, TRW Inc.
Norman J. Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Dennis Reimer, Director, Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism; Former Chief of Staff, USA
George P. Shultz, Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Former Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Labor, and Director, Office of Management and Budget
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
David Stern, Commissioner, National Basketball Association
Paul Tagliabue, Commissioner, National Football League
Harold E. Varmus, President and Chief Executive Officer, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Nobel Laureate
John W. Vessey, Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
William H. Webster, Partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy; Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency; Former Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Steven Weinberg, Director of the Theory Group, University of Texas; Nobel Laureate
Mary Jo White, Partner and Chair of the Litigation Department, Debevoise & Plimpton; Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York

Commission of the Center for Preventive Action releases report: "Andes 2020: A New Strategy for the Challenges of Colombia and the Region," January 8, 2004.

The central finding of which is stated as "Over the past two decades the United States has spent billions of dollars and significant manpower in the Andes region to stem the flow of illegal drugs; assist local security forces in the fight against drugs, terror and insurgency; and promote free markets, human rights, and democracy. Yet the democracies of the Andean region-Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia--are still at risk, and the prospect of regional collapse is real and poses a serious threat to U.S. lives and interests."
link to .PDF version of the report
The Commission attempts to redress what it considers to be a major weakness of current U.S. policy as embodied in Plan Colombia and the Andean Counter-drug Initiative: an overly narrow focus on counternarcotics and security issues, and the relative absence of complementary, comprehensive, regionally-oriented strategies.
The Commission puts forth three objectives to rectify current policy. Determined action on these three strategic objectives will, over time, accomplish sustainable progress toward political, economic, and security goals that a policy focused mainly on supply-side counterdrug efforts cannot achieve.

I. The need to more equitably distribute political and economic resources and power in each country, with a commitment to strategic rural land reform.
II. The importance of greater participation by the international community on a range of diplomatic, political, economic, social, security, and humanitarian issues.
III. The recognition that regional problems require regional approaches and that greater cooperation among the Andean countries is essential.

Scott Sherman, Kissinger's Shadow Over the Council on Foreign Relations, The Nation, December 27, 2004 (print edition), December 6, 2004 (electronic version). Article describes the attempts by Kissinger to censor articles in a CFR's publication, Foreign Affairs. It reveals some of the internal politics, and the relationship between the operators.

William Fisher, "Hope For Improving U.S. Communications With The Muslim World?," Scoop (New Zealand), May 26, 2005. A CFR report titled "A New Beginning: Strategies for a More Fruitful Dialogue with the Muslim World" suggests the U.S. try "listening more, a humbler tone, and focusing on bilateral aid and partnership, while tolerating disagreement on controversial policy issues" when trying to relate to Muslim nations. The report, based on focus groups in Morocco, Egypt and Indonesia, found that focus group members "do not take seriously U.S. government media, such as Radio Sawa, al-Hurra TV, and Hi magazine, as information sources." Specific recommendations include engaging "local and regional media via press releases, interviews, Op-Eds, press conferences, and site visits," and launching "an advertising campaign on U.S. aid and support for reform in local and regional media, and acknowledge the U.S. government as the source."

Jim Lobe, in "Ignore Africa at Your Peril, Think Tank Warns Bush" (IPS News Agency, December 5, 2005), noted that the CFR's report, "More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach toward Africa," urges the Bush administration "to upgrade its diplomatic and intelligence capabilities in the region by appointing an ambassador to the African Union (AU) and opening more missions in key African cities, particularly in energy-producing countries. It also calls for greater high-level attention to resolving conflicts in the region, particularly those, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), that threaten the stability of whole sub-regions or involve large-scale atrocities."

Leadership

Council on Foreign Relations: Historical Roster of Directors and Officers

Executive Office

As of June 2007:[12]

Richard N. Haass, President
Janice L. Murray, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Chief Operating Officer
Jeffrey A. Reinke, Chief of Staff to the President
Nita Colaço, Special Assistant to the President
Charles Landow, Special Assistant to the President, Research
Heather Parker, Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Chief Operating Officer
Eva Tatarczyk, Executive Assistant to the President
Lilita V. Gusts, Secretary of the Corporation
Sharon R. Herbst, Assistant Director, Special Projects
Alton Frye, Presidential Senior Fellow Emeritus
Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow
Darren Geist, Research Associate to the President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow
Elva Murphy, Assistant to the President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow

Board

Accessed March 2011: ^[1]

Carla A. Hills - Co-Chairman; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company
Robert E. Rubin - Co-Chairman; Former Secretary of the U.S. Treasury
Richard E. Salomon - Vice Chairman; Managing Partner, East End Advisors, LLC
Richard N. Haass - President, Council on Foreign Relations
John P. Abizaid
Peter Ackerman - Managing Director, Rockport Capital, Inc.
Fouad Ajami - M. Khadduri Prof. of Middle Eastern Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Madeleine K. Albright - Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group LLC
Henry S. Bienen - President Emeritus, Northwestern University
Alan S. Blinder - Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
Mary Boies - Managing Partner, Boies & McInnis LLP
David G. Bradley - Chairman, Atlantic Media Company
Tom Brokaw - Special Correspondent, NBC News
Sylvia Mathews Burwell - President, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Kenneth M. Duberstein - Chairman and CEO, The Duberstein Group, Inc.
Martin S. Feldstein - President Emeritus, National Bureau of Economic Research
Stephen Friedman - Chairman, Stone Point Capital
Ann M. Fudge
Pamela Gann - President, Claremont McKenna College
J. Tomilson Hill - Vice Chairman, The Blackstone Group
Donna J. Hrinak - Senior Director, Latin America Government Affairs, PepsiCo, Inc.
Alberto Ibargüen - President & Chief Executive Officer, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Shirley Ann Jackson - President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Henry R. Kravis - Co-CEO and Co-Chairman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Jami Miscik - President and Vice Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. - Distinguished Service Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
James W. Owens - Chairman, Caterpillar Inc.
Peter G. Peterson - Chairman, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Colin L. Powell - United States Army (Ret.)
Penny Pritzker - President & Chief Executive Officer, Pritzker Realty Group, L.P.
David M. Rubenstein - Cofounder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
George E. Rupp - President and CEO, International Rescue Committee
Frederick W. Smith - Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Express Corporation

*Joan E. Spero - Visiting Fellow, Foundation Center

Vin Weber - CEO and Managing Partner, Clark & Weinstock
Christine Todd Whitman - President, The Whitman Strategy Group
Fareed Zakaria - Editor, Newsweek International

Officers and Directors Emeriti:

Leslie H. Gelb (President Emeritus)
Maurice R. Greenberg (Honorary Vice Chairman)
Peter G. Peterson (Chairman Emeritus)
David Rockefeller (Honorary Chairman)
Robert A. Scalapino (Director Emeritus)

Current Directors

As of June 2007:[13]

Peter Ackerman, Managing Director, Rockport Capital, Inc.
Fouad Ajami, M. Khadduri Prof. of Middle Eastern Studies
Madeleine K. Albright, Principal, The Albright Group LLC
Charlene Barshefsky
Henry S. Bienen, President, Northwestern University
Stephen W. Bosworth, Dean, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Tom Brokaw, former NBC News anchor
Frank J. Caufield, Co-Founder, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Kenneth M. Duberstein
Martin S. Feldstein, President, National Bureau of Economic Research
Richard N. Foster
Ann M. Fudge
Helene D. Gayle, President & CEO, CARE
Maurice R. Greenberg
Richard N. Haas, President
Carla Anderson Hills, Vice Chairman; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke
Karen Elliot House
Alberto Ibargüen
Henry R. Kravis
Michael H. Moskow, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Ronald L. Olson
James W. Owens, Chairman & CEO, Caterpillar Inc.
Peter G. Peterson, Chairman; Senior Chairman and Co-Founder, The Blackstone Group
Thomas R. Pickering
Colin L. Powell, United States Army (Ret.)
Robert E. Rubin, Vice Chairman; Director/Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup, Inc.
David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
Richard E. Salomon
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Joan Edelman Spero
Laura D'Andrea Tyson
Vin Weber
Christine Todd Whitman
Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International

Directors Emeriti

Leslie H. Gelb
Maurice R. Greenberg, Honorary Vice Chairman
Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.
David Rockefeller, Honorary Chairman
Robert A. Scalapino

International Advisory Board

Accessed September 2008: ^[2]

Contact Information

New York office

The Harold Pratt House

58 East 68th Street

New York, NY 10021

Tel. (212) 434-9400

Fax: (212) 434-9800

Washington office

1779 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20036

Tel. (202) 518-3400

Fax (202) 986-2984

Web site: http://www.cfr.org/

Resources and articles

References

Board, Council on Foreign Relations, accessed March 20, 2011.
International Advisory Board, Council on Foreign Relations, accessed September 21, 2008.

External resources

Council on Foreign Relations, "Membership Roster", Council on Foreign Relations 2008 Annual Report. (Pdf)

External articles

Laurence H. Shoup, "Bush, Kerry, CFR and The Ruling Class", Z magazine, October 2004.
Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter, "Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy", (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977).
Ben Lando, "Analysis: Report, nuke reality don't mesh," UPI, April 23, 2007.
Michael Barker, "Elite ‘Democratic’ Planning at the Council on Foreign Relations", (Part 2), Znet, February 26, 2008.
American Committees on Foreign Relations American Committees on Foreign relations website

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COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS