Council on Foreign Relations - Shadow Government USA

The CFR is the promotional arm of the Ruling Elite in the United States of America. Most influential politicians, academics and media personalities are members, and it uses its influence to infiltrate the New World Order into American life. Its' "experts" write scholarly pieces to be used in decision making, the academics expound on the wisdom of a united world, and the media members disseminate the message.
To understand how the most influential people in America came to be members of an organization working purposefully for the overthrow of the Constitution and American sovereignty, we have to go back at least to the early 1900's, though the story begins much earlier (depending on your viewpoint and beliefs).
That a ruling power elite does indeed control the U.S. government behind the scenes has been attested to by many americans in a position to know. Felix Frankfurter, Justice of the Supreme Court (1939-1962), said: "The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes." In a letter to an associate dated November 21, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote, "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson." February 23, 1954,
Senator William Jenner warned in a speech: "Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government, a bureaucratic elite which believes our Constitution is outmoded." http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Council_Foreign_Relations.htm


www.zmag.org, March 2006 & April 2006

Part I (From the Wilderness)

Missing from the ongoing public debate over war and the torture and abuse of detainees by the CIA and U.S. military is the extent to which the debaters on both sides are all members of only one very influential ruling class organization, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Their ongoing discussion reflects this organization's ability to frame public debate and the passage of laws. The debate also highlights the divisions within the CFR and the larger U.S. ruling class over imperial strategy and tactics as the U.S. tries to subdue Iraqi resistance and maintain control of its neoliberal empire. (What is liberal about it?)

The New York-based CFR is the oldest, largest, and most powerful of U.S. ruling class think tanks. It is much more than a think tank, however, since it is also an organization with over 4,200 members, each one prominent in a key sector of U.S. life. The CFR also publishes Foreign Affairs magazine, which, according to a recent survey, is the nation's "most influential" media outlet, ahead of all other newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media.
The largest single group in the CFR is the corporate business community, which makes up 31 percent of the CFR membership, with the academic community in second place with 25 percent. The balance of CFR members are employed in the nonprofit sector, government, law, and journalism. The business community is also the source of most of CFR's financial support, with hundreds of top U.S. corporations giving them from $15,000 to $50,000 every year. Among corporations who gave at least $25,000 during the 2004-2005 year were Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP plc, Amerada Hess, Chevron, Halliburton-KBR, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell Oil, Kuwait Petroleum, Schlumberger Limited, and Aramco Services. (The oil companies)
Viewed in ideological terms, there are four key groups among the CFR membership. The small "left" side of the political spectrum is made up mainly of liberal Democrats, along with a few scholars and activists. These include people like civil rights leader Jessie Jackson, Nation magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, Richard J. Barnet of the Institute for Policy Studies, ACLU President Nadine Strossen, former Senator George S. McGovern, U.S. head of Amnesty International William Schulz, author/activist Daniel Ellsberg, and Princeton University Professor Richard A. Falk.
Moving to the right is what could be called "middle of the road" imperialists. These are people who play important roles in both the Democratic Party and the CFR, people like former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; current and former Senators John Kerry, Christopher J. Dodd, Joseph I. Lieberman, Bob Graham, Sam Nunn, Gary Hart, John D. Rockefeller, Evan Bayh, and Diane Feinstein; AFL-CIO head John J. Sweeney; Robert E. Rubin of Citicorp; international businessperson George Soros; former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright; Zbigniew Brzezinski of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Laura d'Andrea Tyson of Morgan Stanley and the Brookings Institution; and many others.
Moving further to the right is another key membership group, best labeled the conservative Republican imperialists. Much of the CFR's top leadership, past and present, fits into this category. Examples include corporate leaders David Rockefeller, Peter G. Peterson, Maurice R. Greenberg, and Carla A. Hills. Also part of this group are current and former Senators Chuck Hagel, Bill Frist, John McCain, John Warner, Olympia Snowe, Alfonse M. D'Amato, Warren Rudman, and William S. Cohen, as well as former Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush (a former CFR member and director, but no longer listed as a member), and former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Alexander M. Haig Jr., Colin L. Powell, and George P. Shultz.

At the far right end of the CFR political spectrum is a large group of so-called "neo-conservatives." These are ultra-imperialists whose extremist ideological/political approach includes unilateral preventative war, disdain for human rights, use of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause, obsession with national security, favoring corporate control of society, racism, super-nationalism, extreme militarism, disregard for the rule of law, suppression of labor unions, promotion of fraudulent elections, and rampant cronyism/corruption. Council members who fit into this category include Vice President Dick Cheney and his former chief assistant I. Lewis Libby; former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith; former Defense Policy Board chair Richard Perle; former Congresspeople Vin Weber and Newton L. Gingrich; State Department officials Elliott Abrams and John Bolton; right-wing organizer Grover G. Norquist; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; author Norman Podhoretz; and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. All of these, except Rice, Feith, Perle, Bolton, Gingrich and Norquist, are also founding members of the super-imperialist group Project for a New American Century.
From Sourcewatch:

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. 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.
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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]).
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_on_Foreign_Relations

If what is said of the CFR is true (and evidence certainly deems it to be so), we have an entire group of individuals involved in establishing a New World Order by force, a NWO that literally enslaves the lot of us, except of course for the thugs and dead enders to whom we gave our collective trust as citizens to protect the constitution and the country. Planning world aggression is a war crime no matter how you slice it. From the looks of it this is not the first time these thugs have planned our demise.
From WWI to today the list of American corporations behind every war is always consistent, as are the evil elite who fund both sides. Let us shine a little holy light on these carpet baggers.

Let's shine a little light on the source behind the klutz in office eh!