Joint Chiefs Chairman's Tough Task Ahead

(CBS)  When he takes the oath of office next week, Barack Obama, a man with no military experience, will become commander in chief of a nation fighting two wars. So where will he turn for military advice? To the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most senior officer in uniform and by law the president's principal military adviser.

He is Admiral Mike Mullen and 60 Minutes and CBS News correspondent David Martin spent eight days traveling with him to the frontlines of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as he prepared for this historic transition to a new president he had never even met until recently.

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"He asked to see me and I went out there a couple of weeks ago and so I had about 45 or 50 minutes with the president-elect in Chicago," Mullen recalled. "It was the two of us. There was one note taker there, but it basically was one on one."

Mullen is in the middle of a two-year term as chairman, a position he was named to by President Bush. That makes him the only member of the new national security team who was not handpicked by Barack Obama.

Asked what he thinks of Obama, Mullen told Martin, "I thought he was very focused, he knew what he wanted to talk about."

"So the president-elect reaches out to you. How big a deal is that?" Martin asked.

"It's a huge deal as far as I'm concerned," Mullen replied. "I think any president, and as the commander in chief, the connection with the military is absolutely vital and so making that connection as early as possible and as solid as possible, I think is a huge deal."

Mullen will be serving a president who once called the war in Iraq "dumb" and made this promise over and over: "My first day in office I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in and I will give them a new mission and that is to end this war."

To advise the new president on what that will take, Mullen flew to Iraq just before Christmas. 60 Minutes went with him as he talked with battlefield commanders and Iraqi military leaders.

From the Green Zone in Baghdad, to a forward operating base in Tikrit, to an intense on-the-run briefing at an airbase in western Iraq, it was a firsthand look at just how difficult a pullout will be.

It's not just the 140,000 troops. It's the tons of equipment and acres of command centers built up over nearly six years of war - all of it to be brought home without triggering the collapse of Iraq's government. Mullen himself once said setting a timetable for withdrawal would be dangerous.

"2009 is going to be a huge year. And at the beginning of that year the new president has said he's going to call you in and tell you…to end the war in Iraq. Is that mission impossible?" Martin asked.

"No, I don't think it's mission impossible," Mullen said. "He's said very consistently that he wants to do so responsibly. Certainly, a responsible withdrawal, a responsible ending is, I think you know a very, very possible outcome here given what I've seen transpire over the last couple of years, and literally what I saw today walking the streets of Samarra."

Two years ago it would have been impossible for Mullen to walk down the streets of Samarra, where the bombing of the Golden Mosque touched off sectarian fighting that almost tore the country apart. It's still dangerous enough to require a phalanx of armed guards, but there's a new mayor, who Mullen met and congratulated.

And shops are open on a street that was once the epicenter of Iraq's civil war. The mosque, one of the holiest sites in Iraq, is being rebuilt.

"That strikes me as sort of the perfect symbol of where we are…in Iraq," Martin remarked.

"I don't disagree with that. I think that's a pretty good …description, yeah," Mullen said.

But he also agreed that there's a lot of work still ahead.

But when we flew further north it was a different story: Admiral Mullen was supposed to take another marketplace walk in Mosul but was told that with an entourage the size of his the chance of getting hit were 100 percent, so he never left the base.

But he and his wife Deborah could still roll out the chairman's holiday USO tour, bringing a little of "home sweet home" to troops on the frontlines.

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[davemanfoot]

This quy looks like and older verison of Ernie Douglas from My Three Sons.

[hofkurz]

I would hope that in the future Mr. Martin could be more objective when he reports.
His sneering attitude was disrespectful and unnecessary.
I''m pretty sure that Bill Clinton didn''t serve in the military either.
I would rather see money that went to a submarine that wasn''t even requested by the DOD to be used for something worthwhile like education.
Less hawks and more talk. Please.
We dropped the ball in Afghanistan back in the ''80s and look where that misstep got us.
It''s all very frustrating.

[gwosterwisch]

On a lighter side. Did anyone watching this interview see the strong resemblance between the interviewer David Martin and the interviewee JCC Admiral Mike Mullen?

[murrowseye]

I have seen a lot of these interviews with the top military brass since we got into the Iraq/Afghanistan mess. This was one of the few where I felt that this officer was not just spouting propaganda fed by the Bushleviks. He seemed somewhat more forthcoming and now maybe the military commanders can knowing that demotion is not one word of dissent means an early retirement.

And while I am all for getting out of Iraq as fast as possible, I fear that once we leave it the place will tear itself apart. The admiral seemed more positive than I have ever heard, but I cannot imagine it will be pretty or easy.

[stinginrich]

On November 7, 2008, Bloomberg News requested details of Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force disclosure. According to a Bloomberg News article:

"The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

The Federal Reserve response to this request was reported by Bloomberg News:

The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it''s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.

On November 25, 2008, Fox Business Network also filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the actual data from the U.S. Treasury on the use of the bailout funds for American International Group and the Bank of New York Mellon. It then filed an additional request on December 1, 2008 on the bailout funds for Citigroup, Inc. Then, on December 18, 2008, Fox Business reported that the Treasury was ignoring their requests. Kevin Magee of FOX News commented:

The Treasury has repeatedly ignored our requests for information on how the government is allocating money to these troubled institutions. Amidst mounting corruption, we as a news organization feel it''s more important than ever to hold the government accountable.

[stinginrich]

On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order #11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy''s order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury".
In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous.

With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificates were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything.
Executive Order #11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the government the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money.
Mr. Kennedy challenged the Government of Money by challenging the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt:
War and the Creation of Money by a Privately-Owned Central Bank, and they couldn''t allow that...

[stinginrich]

That a ruling power elite does indeed control the U.S. government behind the scenes has been attested to by many americans in a position to know. Felix Frankfurter, Justice of the Supreme Court (1939-1962), said, "The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes".

In a letter to an associate dated November 21, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote, "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson".

February 23, 1954.
Senator William Jenner warned in a speech: "Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government, a bureaucratic elite which believes our Constitution is outmoded".

Baron M.A. Rothschild wrote:
"Give me control over a nation''s currency, and I care not who makes its laws".
"All that is needed to effectively control a government is to have control over the nation''s money, a central bank with a monopoly over the supply of money and credit. This had been done in Western Europe, with the creation of privately owned central banks such as the Bank of England".

1791-1811: First Bank of the United States
1811-1816: no central bank
1816-1836: Second Bank of the United States
1837-1862: Free Bank Era
1863-1913: National Banks
1913-Present: Federal Reserve System

[stinginrich]

"To be paranoid means to believe in delusions of danger and persecution. If the danger is real, and the evidence credible, then it cannot be delusional. To ignore the evidence, and hope that it CANNOT be true, is more an evidence of mental illness".

If one group is effectively in control of national governments and multinational corporations, promotes world government through control of media, foundation grants, and education, and controls and guides the issues of the day, then they control most options available. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the financial powers behind it, have done all these things, and promote the "New World Order", as they have for over seventy years.

The CFR is the promotional arm of the Ruling Elite in the United States of America. Most influential politicians, academics and media personalities are members, and it uses its influence to infiltrate the New World Order into American life. Its'' "experts" write scholarly pieces to be used in decision making, the academics expound on the wisdom of a united world, and the media members disseminate the message.

Who is capable of stopping these people from continuing with their plans for One World Governance?
Nobody.......

[stinginrich]

stinginrich,

Have you had a look at the make up of the Borad of Directors of the CFR and its International Advisory Board? Instead of reading conspiracy website, go to the primary source. You will see the boards are too diverse to represent any single interest.


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Posted by ausus at 01:02 AM : Jan 12, 2009
+ report abuse

Diversity in what connotation? We''re discussing groups of Internationalists who seek One World Governance with THEM at the head of the table.
They reference diversity of nationality only as it applies to present tense, but seek universal authority and control over all things.

[ausus-2009]

stinginrich,

Have you had a look at the make up of the Borad of Directors of the CFR and its International Advisory Board? Instead of reading conspiracy website, go to the primary source. You will see the boards are too diverse to represent any single interest.