Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf

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The Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG) was a "bipartisan group whose members are prominent in U.S. international policy circles.... The 39-member group, organized as the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf, include[d] former U.S. Rep. Stephen Solarz of New York, who was a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Richard Perle, a former assistant defense secretary for international security policy." [1] In February 1998, the CPSG asked Clinton "to go beyond a military strike on Iraq and to help overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and replace his regime with a provisional government." According to the news report, however, "U.S. law and international opposition to such a plan would make it unlikely."[2]

The group based its request for a strike against Iraq on Saddam Hussein's refusal "to grant U.N. inspectors the right to conduct unfettered inspections of those sites where he is suspected of storing his still significant arsenal of chemical and biological munitions and his apparent determination never to relinquish his weapons of mass destruction." In a letter read at a Washington news conference, Solarz called upon Clinton "to adopt and implement a plan of action designed to finally and fully resolve this utterly unacceptable threat to our most vital national interests."

Additionally, Solarz stated that "if the force used against Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the punishing U.N. economic sanctions that have been in place for seven years haven't persuaded Hussein to cooperate with U.N. inspectors, it's unlikely that a new and 'much more limited' military strike will change the Iraqi leader's mind."

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"CPSG received a large grant from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a major funder of both PNAC (Project for the New American Century) and the closely related American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

"As recently as 1998, the CPSG called in an open letter to then president Bill Clinton for Washington to adopt a 'comprehensive political and military strategy for bringing down Saddam and his regime', centred on support for the INC and US air power. (See letter below.)

"That 1998 letter was signed by many of the charter members of PNAC, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, and four of his top deputies at the Pentagon, Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Dov S. Zakheim, and Peter W. Rodman.

"Other signatories included the current ultra-unilateralist undersecretary of state for arms control and international strategy, John R. Bolton, Gary Schmitt and several AEI 'scholars', including the current chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle.

"PNAC's two co-founders, William Kristol, editor of Rupert Murdoch's The Weekly Standard, and neocon commentator Robert Kagan, also signed the letter."[3]

"The 1998 letter was signed by many of the charter members of PNAC, which had been launched the year before, who are now the leading Iraq hawks inside the administration. They include Rumsfeld and four of his top deputies at the Pentagon, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Dov Zakheim, and Peter Rodman; the arch-unilateralist undersecretary of state for arms control and international strategy, John Bolton; Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula J. Dobriansky; and senior National Security Council staffers Elliott Abrams and Zalmay Khalilzad.

PNAC's Schmitt and its two co-founders, Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan; CSP's Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.; as well as several AEI associates, including Perle, Jeffrey Gedmin, Michael Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, and David Wurmser also signed."[4]

"Neocons are fond of keeping business in the family. Many of the current members and associates of the Committee, PNAC, and The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) were involved with the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG), a hard right group created prior to the Gulf War. CPSG was co-chaired by Bush chickenhawk Richard Perle along with former New York Democratic Rep. Stephen Solarz. CPSG teamed up with the Bush Senior administration to mobilize support for Iraq Attack, version I. According to Jim Lobe of the Project Against the Present Danger, CPSG received a sizable grant from the Wisconsin-based Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, a major funder of both PNAC and AEI. Obviously, these folks like [to] share the same bed."[5]

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