In this episode, learn about our global war strategy for the 114th Congress through highlights of two Senate Armed Services Committee hearings. Witnesses include former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, and George Shultz and retired military leaders General James Mattis, General Jack Keane, and Admiral William Fallon.

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Global Challenges and US National Security Strategy

Senate Committee on Armed Services, January 27, 2015

General James N. Mattis, USMC (Ret.)

Former Commander, United States Central Command 2010-2013

• On the Board of Directors of General Dynamics
• Board Member at Theranos, a blood diagnostics company

General John “Jack” M. Keane, USA (Ret.)

Former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army 1999 – 2003

• Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
• On the Board of Directors of General Dynamics
• Strategic advisor and consultant for Academi (Blackwater) as of July 2012
• Is a Venture Partner at SCP Partners, a private equity firm with investments in IT, medical devices & pharmaceuticals, and surveillance, and defense.
• On the Board of Directors at International Battery Inc., which manufactures lithium ion batteries.
• On the Board of Directors at MetLife
• On the Board of Directors at CDC Real Estate Opportunity Fund, a commercial Real Estate service in Washington D.C.

Quadrennial Defense Review, 2014

Admiral William J. Fallon, USN (Ret.)

Former Commander, United States Central Command

• Executive Vice President of Strategy of SM&A, which help companies score defense procurement contracts
• Independent Non-Executive Director of Frontier Services Group Limited. as of April 201, which is “Africa’s Premier Expeditionary Logistics Provider”
  • The Executive Chairman of the Board is Eric Prince of Blackwater
• Partner at Tilwell Petroleum Inc.
• Chairman of the Board of Directors at Countertack Inc., a Cybersecurity company.
• On the Board of Directors at Cylance, Inc., which is a cybersecurity company.
• On the Board of Directors at the American Security Project
• Owns his own consulting and advisory business, William J. Fallon & Associates, Inc.

Global Challenges and the U.S. National Security Strategy

Senate Committee on Armed Services, January 29, 2015

Henry Kissinger

• Government Positions
  • Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to Presidents Ford and Nixon
    • Coordinated the CIA coup that overthrew Allende and installed Pinochet in Chile (Project FUBELT)

• Private Positions

  • Member of the Breton Woods Committee
  • Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
  • Board member at the Atlantic Council
  • Trilateral Commission member
  • Honorary Council of Advisors on the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce
  • Member of the J.P. Morgan Chase International Council
  • Board Member at Theranos, a blood diagnostics company
  • Member of the 1994 CSIS American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee (with Brzezinski)
  • Advisor to the Board of Directors at American Express
  • On the Board of Directors at the Continental Grain Company, New York’s 17th largest private company

Madeleine Albright

• Government Positions
  • President Clinton’s Secretary of State
• Private Positions
  • Member of the Breton Woods Committee
  • Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
  • Trilateral Commission member
  • Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, and Chair of Albright Capital Management, an affiliated investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets.
    • Albright Capital Management is a investor in Helios Towers Africa, a telecommunications company in Africa.
    • Albright Capital Management is an investor in Flemingo International, an international Retail company with over 120 stores, that sells things in airport, seaports, and borders, including duty free stores and jewelry stores.
    • Albright Capital Management is also an investor in APR Energy, which supplies government utilities in developing nations with power equipment.

Dr. George P. Shultz

• Government positions
  • President Nixon’s Labor and Treasury Secretary
  • President Reagan’s Secretary of State
  • Advisor to President George W. Bush: The Wall Street Journal called him “The Father of the Bush Doctrine”
• Private positions
  • President and Director of the Bechtel Group from 1974-1982, until he became Reagan’s Secretary of State
    • 1976: Bechtel gets contracts build a Saudi Arabian city, Jubail
  • Member of the Breton Woods Committee
  • Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
  • Chairman of the Energy Task Force, member of the Economic Policy Working Group and the Arctic Security Working Group at the Hoover Institution
  • Educated at the University of Chicago
  • Former Chairman of the JP Morgan Chase International Council
  • On the Board of Directors of Gilead Sciences
  • Board Member of Acuitus, which has something to do with DARPA training and Education.
  • Board Member at Theranos, a blood diagnostics company
    • Riley P. Bechtel is also on the Board of Directors as of March 2014

Information Presented in This Episode Ukraine U.S. Planned Coup

Listen to the leaked phone call between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.

Transcript of the call

President Obama admits to Fareed Zakaria on CNN that the United States was behind the installation of the new Ukrainian government.

IMF loan

• Ukraine was awarded another IMF loan, this time for $17.5 billion, in February 2015.

Economic Reforms adopted

Increase military spending

• Increase in the army from 184,000 to 250,000
  • Stricter punishments for deserters (approximately 10,000 people have deserted the army.)
  • 3-7 years in jail for failure to execute an order that caused grave consequences

Privatize Energy

• Increased a tax on gas produced by Ukragasvydobuvannia and Ukmafta, Ukrainian state gas companies, from 20 to 70 percent.
• Increased the gas tariff for heat supply companies by 2.2 times
• Increased gas tariff for residents by 3.3 times

Deregulation

• Lifted ban on private sector ownership of land
• Legalized GMO’s
  • Ukraine is world’s third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat
• Three types of business activities related to agriculture will no longer require licenses
  • Trade in pesticides and argo-chemicals
  • Cattle breeding activities
  • Fumigation

Cut Social Welfare Programs

• Pension reforms will cut pensions of elderly with part time jobs by 15 percent

Weapons to the New Government

• The U.S. will send $75 million worth of “non-lethal” weapons to the Ukrainian government.
  • Why Soldiers have the Raven UAV

Iraq

Oil Pipeline

• A new oil pipeline opened from Erbil to Turkey in June 2014.

Budget Functions

Function 150

• Function 150 appears to be war related items funded through the Departments of State, Agriculture, and Treasury.
• Function 150 received approximately $50 billion in 2014 and the President requested $55 billion for 2015.

Music Presented in This Episode

• Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

• Blood is Thicker than Oil by The Undercover Hippy (found on Music Alley by mevio)

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Jennifer Briney Podcaster

Jennifer Briney started paying attention to world events while studying in Germany in the spring of 2003 when the United States overthrew the government of Iraq. After experiencing the war from outside the United States, she started asking questions about her government. Every answer led to fifty more questions. This led to a thirst for information that she is still unable to quench.

Over the years, the feeling like she was the only person paying attention to this information was making Jen insane so in late 2012, she launched Congressional Dish in order to share the information, to have an emotional outlet for dealing with the discoveries, and to create a community of people who were interested in Congress’s effect on our lives. Congressional Dish is now her full-time career, thanks entirely to the support from our growing community of producers from all over the world.