While others argue Obama's sense of loyalty to his pastor, the Rev. Wright, and the extensive anti-American ideology spewed by the radical cleric, we should begin to focus on Obama's choice of his closest advisers.
One such close adviser is ex-Clinton National Security chief Anthony Lake. Lake is currently charged with drawing up Obama's future foreign and military policies.
Yet, Lake has a long history of repeated errors, dangerous mistakes, and poor judgement. Lake was once nominated to head the CIA but withdrew only days before hearings were to start on Capitol Hill. Lake cited bitter-infighting over his record as National Security adviser as the sole reason for his withdrawal.
Lake is well documented in helping Enron win an exclusive energy deal with Mozambique. Allegedly, Lake strong-armed the Mozambique government into accepting Enron's bid for the vast Pande gas fields by shutting off humanitarian aid and threatening the president of Mozambique.
While ending food aid for starving African children in a vile effort for an Enron contract may not effect the African-American support for Lake's boss, it certainly should give cannon fire to his opponents who cite that Obama says one thing but does another behind closed doors.
The blood thirsty support for the now defunct Enron by Lake should at least give voters cause to wonder about Obama.
Still, national security folks can take great joy in the efforts put forth by Anthony Lake during the Clinton years. Lake oversaw the largest sell out of the century by working with Hughes.
In 1995, Tony Lake, received a letter from then-CEO of Hughes, C. Michael Armstrong. "The USG [U.S. government] does not require congressional approval to remove commercial satellites from the United States Munitions List (USML), which is under State Department jurisdiction, and placing them on the Commerce Control List (CCL), which is under Commerce Department jurisdiction," wrote Armstrong.
"It is my understanding that State has resisted vigorously Commerce attempts to do just that. For the national good, this situation must change. A commercial communications satellite is not a defense item. State Department control of satellites is not required for national security. Continued State Department control is damaging to the U.S. satellite industry and is not warranted."
The Hughes document concluded that control over the export of advanced U.S. satellite technology should be moved to the Commerce Department. Apparently Lake agreed and Clinton signed off on the transfer. The U.S. technology sent to China included the entire list of items sought by Hughes: anti-jam capability, advanced antennas, cross links, baseband processing, encryption devices, radiation hardening, and perigee kick motors.
Of course, all of these items were developed for military applications and China simply could not resist, sending all this technology into the development of nuclear warheads now aimed at America.
Moreover, Armstrong's contention that "a commercial communications satellite is not a defense item" is simply false. In fact, Hughes executives admitted that the satellites sold to China were military items. Ironically, the admission came when the company tried to sell Asiasat-3, a former Chinese satellite, to the U.S. military.
Asiasat-3 was placed into an incorrect orbit by a Russian Proton booster rocket launched from Baikonur in 1997. In 1998, space insurance companies paid off the satellite loss and transferred ownership to Hughes. AsiaSat-3, a "commercial" satellite sold to China, was more than just a $220 million piece of orbiting junk. Hughes recovered the satellite, using a special lunar orbit technique to bring it back into a useable position around the earth.
Hughes then offered the recovered ex-Chinese satellite to the U.S. Navy for military purposes. Mark J. Schwene, Hughes Global Services vice president, was quoted in Aviation Week and Space Technology making the offer.
Another secret 1996 White House memo to Lake shows that Loral requested that President Clinton sign a waiver for a satellite export at the same time that Loral was under investigation by the FBI for sending advanced satellite technology to China without a waiver.
According to the July 1, 1996 action memo for Presidential National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, "In mid-June, Globalstar's parent company, Loral requested that we temporarily delay evaluation of their request for a national interest waiver for this project. The company has now asked us to resume processing of their application, and State has confirmed its support for approval of the license."
"The Dept. of State, with the concurrence of the Departments of Commerce and Defense and the Officer of Science and Technology Policy, recommends that the President report to Congress that it is in the national interest to waive the Tiananmen Square sanctions in order to allow the licensing of communications satellites and related equipment for export to China," states the memo.
In July 1996, President Clinton followed Lake's recommendation and signed the waiver for Loral. Clinton's waiver gave Loral enough cover to claim that any previous transfers of advanced missile technology were approved. The result was that the FBI had to close the investigation.
When the Chinagate scandal broke, Loral went down in flames, cited for a long list of illegal exports to the Chinese military. The result was that Loral went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and to this day it is struggling to survive. In addition, Hughes was charged with 123 counts of violating national security. Hughes pleaded no contest to the 123 charges filed by the U.S. State Department, paid a record fine and then was sold outright to Boeing.
None of these deals, Enron, Hughes, or Loral, could have happened without the approval of Anthony Lake. Lake was not only in the loop — he made the loop happen. Today, Lake is drawing up Senator Obama's national security policies. One can only wonder why Obama keeps Lake on as his national security adviser unless to cut him loose now would prove to be a major scandal.
Still, what great sell-outs and major screw-ups are buried inside Obama's future plans for America?
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