David Wurmser

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David Wurmser is a Swiss-American dual citizen and a former Middle East Adviser to US Vice President Dick Cheney. Wurmser, a neoconservative, previously served as special assistant to John R. Bolton at the State Department and was a former research fellow on the Middle East at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Wurmser has a Ph.D. in international relations from Johns Hopkins University[1] He has been credited as being one of the main authors of the 1996 report A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, a paper prepared for incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. This advocated pre-emptive strikes against Iran and Syria and the abandonment of traditional "land for peace" negotiations with Palestinians. [2]

In 2000, Wurmser helped draft a document entitled "Ending Syria’s Occupation of Lebanon: the US Role?", which called for a confrontation with the regime in Damascus. The document said that Syria was developing "weapons of mass destruction".[3]

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith appointed Wurmser and veteran defense analyst Michael Maloof as a secret two-man Pentagon intelligence unit. One of their products, days after the attacks, was a memo that suggested "hitting targets outside the Middle East in the initial offensive" or a "non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq." In the memo, U.S. attacks in Latin America and Southeast Asia were portrayed as a way to catch terrorists off guard when they were expecting an assault on Afghanistan.[4]

On September 4, 2004, the Washington Post reported that FBI counterintelligence investigators had questioned Wurmser, along with Feith, Harold Rhode, and Paul Wolfowitz about the passing of classified information to Ahmad Chalabi and/or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. [5]

In September 2007, Newsweek and Reuters reported that "David Wurmser told a small group several months ago that [Vice President Dick] Cheney was considering asking Israel to strike the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz."[6][7] Meyrav Wurmser, Wurmser's wife, "told Newsweek the claims were untrue."[6]

Wurmser's wife, Dr. Meyrav Wurmser, co-founded the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Right Web profile of David Wurmser, accessed 21 November 2006
  2. ^ Daily Telegraph, London, 5 October 2007.
  3. ^ The assassination of Rafiq Hariri: who benefited? by Bill Van Auken, World Socialist Web Site, February 17, 2005
  4. ^ Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff, "Secret Proposals: Fighting Terror by Attacking ... South America?", Newsweek, August 9, 2006
  5. ^ Leak Inquiry Includes Iran Experts in Administration by Robin Wright and Dan Eggen, Washington Post, September 4, 2004
  6. ^ a b Cheney mulled Israeli strike on Iran: Newsweek. [Reuters]. September 23 2007
  7. ^ Report: Cheney may have mulled pushing Israel to hit Iran, [Haaretz]