So....Who is "International Crisis Group" saying Baker Plan Not Enough? Big Guns!

[KoKo]

Iraq faces "complete disintegration into failed state chaos" a respected think-tank has warned, urging the United States to adopt a radical change of strategy to end the crisis.

The stark analysis from the International Crisis Group came as a Pentagon report confirmed that violence in Iraq has hit record levels and two weeks after a bipartisan US panel branded the situation "grave and deteriorating."

The ICG's new report endorsed the Iraq Study Group's criticisms of White House strategy, but warned the recommendations of former secretary of state James Baker's panel would not be enough to stem the bloodshed.

In particular, the Crisis Group criticised the US insistence on supporting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government, and called instead for the international community to open talks with all Iraq's warring parties.

"The Iraqi government and security forces cannot be treated as privileged allies to be bolstered; they are simply one among many parties to the conflict," the ICG said Tuesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061219/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestreport_061219131611&printer=1


WHO IS THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP?


International Crisis Group
From SourceWatch

The International Crisis Group (ICG) is an "independent, non-profit, multinational organisation, with 100 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict."

"ICG's international headquarters are in Brussels, with advocacy offices in Washington DC, New York, Moscow and London. The organisation currently operates seventeen field offices (in Amman, Belgrade, Bogota, Dakar, Dushanbe, Islamabad, Jakarta, Kabul, Nairobi, Osh, Pretoria, Pristina, Quito, Sarajevo, Skopje and Tbilisi) with analysts working in over 40 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents."

"ICG raises funds from governments, charitable foundations, companies and individual donors. The following governments currently provide funding: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of China (Taiwan), Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States."

"Foundation and private sector donors include:

* The Atlantic Philanthropies
* Carnegie Corporation of New York
* Ford Foundation e.g.
* Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
* William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
* The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.
* John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
* The John Merck Fund
* Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
* Open Society Institute
* Ploughshares Fund
* Sigrid Rausing Trust
* Sasakawa Peace Foundation
* the Sarlo Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund
* United States Institute of Peace
* Fundac㯠Oriente."

ICG Board

"The ICG Board - which includes prominent figures from the fields of politics, diplomacy, business and the media - is directly involved in helping to bring ICG reports and recommendations to the attention of senior policy-makers around the world. ICG is chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari; and its President and Chief Executive since January 2000 has been former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. Former Congressman Stephen Solarz and Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce Maria Livanos Cattaui serve as the ICG Vice-Chairmen.

U.S. Board Members

* Morton Abramowitz, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
* Kenneth Adelman, Former U.S. Ambassador and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
* Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former U.S. National Security Advisor to the President
* Wesley Clark, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander
* Stanley Fischer,Vice-Chairman, Citigroup Inc. and former First Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund
* Carla Hills, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing; former U.S. Trade Representative
* Swanee Hunt, Founder and Chair of Women Waging Peace; former U.S. Ambassador to Austria
* Elliott F. Kulick, Chairman, Pegasus International
* Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Novelist and journalist
* Douglas Schoen, Founding Partner of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates
* George Soros, Chairman, Open Society Institute
* William O. Taylor, Chairman Emeritus, The Boston Globe


International Advisory Board

"Our International Advisory Board comprises key individual and corporate benefactors of Crisis Group. We are deeply grateful for their combination of financial support and advice. Further information on how to become a member of this group, and the benefits of membership, can be found here. Rita E. Hauser (Chair), Marc Abramowitz, Anglo American PLC, APCO Worldwide Inc., Patrick E. Benzie, BHP Billiton, Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey, John Chapman Chester, Chevron, Peter Corcoran, Credit Suisse Group/Credit Suisse First Boston, John Ehara Equinox Partners, Dr. Konrad Fischer, Iara Lee & George Gund III Foundation, JP Morgan Global Foreign Exchange and Commodities, George Kellner, George Loening, Douglas Makepeace, Anna Luisa Ponti, Quantm, Michael L. Riordan, Sarlo Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, Baron Ullens de Schooten, Stanley Weiss, Tilleke & Gibbins, Westfield Group, Don Xia, Yasuyo Yamazaki, Sunny Yoon."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Crisis_Group#International_Advisory_Board

[starroute]

1. A lot to be nervous about there

Granted, the people involved tend to be the Democratic side of things. But aside from that, they seem like the a mixture of PNAC-lite with other manipulators in the name of US interests abroad.

For example, one thing I see is a strong amount of overlap with the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, a mainly Neocon organization which was founded in 1999 by James Woolsey and co-chaired by Haig, Brzezinski, and Solarz. Morton Abramowitz and Kenneth Adelman were also members.

Solarz was a signer of the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf letter on Iraq in 1998 -- which paralleled the PNAC letter that came out at the same time and was signed by many of the same people. And he's been involved with the American Turkish Council -- the people Sibel Edmonds keeps pointing to as a source of major corruption.

Abramowitz, according to my notes, has PNAC, Turkish, and Carlyle Group connections. Adelman is PNAC as well.

Swanee Hunt is apparently one of the many children of H.L. Hunt.

And Penn, Schoen & Berland was associated with a tainted exit poll in Venezuela in 2004 that claimed to show Chavez was losing. It was also involved in some questionable goings-on in Serbia.

[KoKo]

2. Thanks for the updates on some of this crew.....

I guess the way I saw it was that if THIS GROUP is urging "peacemaking" more strongly than Baker's group...(or maybe they are the "bad cop" to Baker Group's "good cop") then it means that Big Power Brokers and Financial Groups in the "Globilization Cabal" are suddenly getting very worried that Bush is going to destabilize the whole world and bring down our financial institutions by causing havoc in the ME.

That these folks took things a step further than Baker/Hamilton...sort of says they were the "back up" in case ISG couldn't get the attention of Cheney/Bush.

Also I think it was Robert Parry who wrote an article last week saying it would be interesting to watch how the "Old Guard" deals with the "Neo-Cons" in the coming months. He seemed to feel that Baker represented the "World Stability First for Business Group" while the NeoCons are into their Fantasy Think Tank Utopian thinking and that the two would battle to the death because the "Neo-Cons" overstepped BIG TIME and are now a THREAT....

I'm also concerned about many who are involved with this "Crisis Group." Have to say, though...I think their proposal is not bad from the first report in at least trying to get a ME Conference together to get us the hell out of there and not leave the place in a wreck. The killing has to stop... :shrug:

[BeFree]

3. The killing has to stop

We can't save the world. We can't stop the killing in Iraq, only the Iraqi's can do that. What we can do is stop our involvement in the killings. That's all.

These *powers that be* don't care about the killings, they are in cahoots with the arms merchants and death dealers. It is best we show them not one iota of support. That is the beginning of reducing the killing. We must end our support of their companies and their company's products.

[KoKo]

4. What's AMAZING.....is that no Cable News has reported this!

It does make one wonder....doesn't it? :eyes: