Elections & Voting
McCain’s neocon friends
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Oct 8, 2008, 00:24

(WMR) -- John McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is a neocon’s neocon. Scheunemann not only has fronted for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as a lobbyist but also served as the executive director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a group that shilled for the discredited Iraqi con artist Ahmad Chalabi, the originator of reams of bogus “intelligence” that provided “proof” the neocons needed to hoodwink the United States into a bloody invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Other members of the CLI included McCain, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, former Nebraska Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Secretary of State George Schultz.

The November 15, 2002, New York Times stated that Scheunemann, a former aide to Republican Senators Trent Lott and Bob Dole, patterned the CLI’s lobbying efforts to get the United States to oust Saddam Hussein after the “low-budget methods used in the NATO enlargement. Scheunemann is now advocating NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine.

Schuenemann’s Orion Strategies consulting company represented Georgia and Macedonia, two nations seeking NATO membership, as well as Taiwan, while working for McCain’s presidential campaign. Scheunemann also sought financial support for McCain from the Republican Jewish Coalition, a pro-Likud organization of wealthy and influential Jewish Republican fat cat donors to the GOP.

Scheunemann, who has received over $800,000 in lobbying fees from Georgia, arranged for McCain to attend the November 23, 2006, second anniversary celebration in Tbilisi of Georgia’s “Rose Revolution,” an uprising funded by so-called progressive Democrat George Soros. McCain’s fellow celebrants included Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko; Israeli minister, former Soviet dissident, and noted Israeli expansionist Natan Sharansky; Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, and Romanian President Troian Basescu.

On July 22, 2006, WMR reported: “The Israeli invasion of Lebanon was planned between top Israeli officials and members of the Bush administration. On June 17 and 18, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud Knesset member Natan Sharansky met with Vice President Dick Cheney at the American Enterprise Institute conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado. There, the impending Israeli invasions of both Gaza and Lebanon were discussed.”

It is also noteworthy that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis’ lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, represented Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russian opponent of Yushchenko.

McCain has nominated Yushchenko, as well as Saakashvili, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Scheunmann’s obvious ties to what represents the Russian-Israeli Mafia are highlighted by the fact that he lobbied McCain to look the other way when McCain, as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, refused to investigate the use of Indian tribal lands for lucrative casino deals that were hammered out by jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his law firm Greenberg Traurig. It has since been reported that McCain is a high-stakes gambler who has wagered large sums of money at casinos on tribal lands, including Foxwoods in Connecticut. The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which owns Foxwoods, is a major contributor to McCain’s coffers.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

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