President Obama's global agenda, part two: Iran

Rumor has it Obama will appoint Dennis Ross his Special Envoy for Iran. Picking John Bolton or Norman Podhoretz for that post could hardly be worse. Remember, this is the same Dennis Ross, who acted as AIPAC's mouthpiece in the Clinton administration, and who, together with Martin Indyk, train-wrecked the Camp David II negotiations and the Geneva talks of 2000 with Hafez Assad (I keep recommending Clayton Swisher's brilliant account of both, The Truth about Camp David). If it were not for Ross a Second Intifada may have never occurred and Israel may have signed a peace treaty with Syria eight years ago.

If appointed, Dennis Ross has the potential to become President Obama's Douglas Feith. As if confirmation were necessary, he's already up to no good. A month ago former Senators Daniel Coats and Charles Robb introduced a reputedly bipartisan recommendation for Iran, titled Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development. In truth, it was written by Michael Makovsky and Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. Jim Lobe introduces them:

Makovsky, of course, is the younger brother of David Makovsky, the former head and currently senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), which has acted more or less as a "think tank" for the so-called "Israel Lobby" over the 20-some years since it was created as a spin-off of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Michael, who reportedly emigrated to Israel in 1989, served under Doug Feith at the Pentagon where he was part of the team that helped manipulate the intelligence to facilitate the path to war in Iraq. Rubin, of course, also worked in Rumsfeld's office at the same time."

No surprise, this paper, which amounts to nothing less than "a roadmap to war with Iran" (Loeb), enjoys the full support of Dennis Ross and he's actively lobbying for it among the Obama transition team.