Epstein Secrets

00 billion in military cuts set to take effect next year unless a new budget passes would be, in Levin's words, "a train wreck." (Defense Secretary Panetta has preferred the more apocalyptic "doomsday mechanism.") But while McCain has proposed protecting the defense budget by reducing federal spending

lpel, slicing and dicing Pentagon programs to save an estimated $490 billion over the next decade. As CIA director before his move to the Pentagon, Panetta oversaw the raid that killed bin Laden, handing Obama his signature foreign-policy achievement, and he jealously guarded his agency's turf against

ee top Obama Cabinet positions are held by Clinton veterans: Secretary of State Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. It's only a slight exaggeration to say that the many staffing changes since 2010 have resulted in the Obama camp running the campaign while the C

, Peter Beinart is an ideas man and an important voice shaping American foreign-policy debate. A onetime hawk who ardently supported the Iraq war, Beinart began moderating his views after the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and the difficulties of the occupation, ultimately admitting that

of enabling Israel's moral decline. In turn, he has earned a reputation as "U.S. Jewry's enfant terrible," according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. Beinart recently launched a group blog at the Daily Beast called Open Zion, which is devoted to "Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish future." He was one of a

having helped foment an image of Israeli obstinacy, the Obama administration was now using this image of isolation against Israel's government. Mr. Panetta's criticism was promptly endorsed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a harsh critic of Israel, who said Mr. Panetta was "correct in hi

rsaries must view this deterrence capability in recent months: October 2011: Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Israel, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta raised provocative questions about Israel. "Is it enough to maintain a military edge if you're isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena?" This c

and occupation could hope to accomplish that, and not even the most fervent anti-Iranian hawks are talking about that kind of enormous undertaking. Panetta's estimate that an aerial assault would set back the Iranian nuclear program by only one or two years is in line with many other assessments. Meanw

nd established ethnocracy that thinks of itself as a permanent frontier. In 1980, twelve thousand Jews lived in the West Bank, "east of democracy," Beinart writes; now they number more than three hundred thousand, and include Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's wildly xenophobic Foreign Minister. Lieberman has

anization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 271 Oscar insurance company, 72 Osnos, Evan, 154 Page, Carter, 101 Palestinians, 227, 230-32 Panetta, Leon, 27 Paris Climate Accord, 182, 238-39, 301 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020132 PayPal, 21 Pelosi, Nancy, 78 Pefia Nieto, Enrique, 77-78, 228 Pence, Ka

-29, 33, 42, 85, 233, 240 Bartiromo, Maria, 205 Bass, Edward, 56 Bayrock Group, 100-102 Bedminster Golf Club, 165, 213-14, 216, 287-94, 297, 302, 307 Beinart, Peter, 297 Benghazi, 97 Berkowitz, Avi, 143 Berlusconi, Silvio, 100 Berman, Mark, 78 Best and the Brightest, The (Halberstam), 53-54 Bezos, Jeff, 35