Epstein Secrets

oms quickly worsened and left him as thin as a rail. Finally, wearing a training outfit and a wool cap, Arafat was taken from the West Bank town of Ramallah to a military hospital near Paris, where he died on Nov. 11. Already then, many thought that the death seemed unnatural. During a recent studio int

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

was trying to do for the Palestinians what Ben-Gurion had done before 1948. He and I met and talked often but discreetly — sometimes in his office in Ramallah, sometimes in mine, sometimes over dinner in the 31*-floor flat I was renting in central Tel Aviv. I remember one dinner in particular. I led him ont

e merit of being true: that Bibi was coming under pressure to shift our budgetary priorities away from defense toward social and economic issues. But Panetta understood that my request for a delay meant we were at least considering military action. He also realized that if we did launch an attack, it was i

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011891 / BARAK / 135 Yet especially with my main points of contact in the administration — first Bob Gates and then his successor, Leon Panetta, as Secretary of Defense —our broadly shared views, mutual respect, and the strength of the US-Israeli alliance outweighed any of that. Neither they,

significant numbers of US troops would begin arriving. As we weighed our final decision, I held a series of high-level meetings in Washington: with Panetta, national security adviser Tom Donilon, Hillary Clinton, and President Obama himself. Though not explicitly saying we were ready to attack, I left no

was trying to do for the Palestinians what Ben-Gurion had done before 1948. He and I met and talked often but discreetly - sometimes in his office in Ramallah, sometimes in mine, sometimes over dinner in the 3 1st -floor flat I was renting in central Tel Aviv. I remember one dinner in particular. I led him

e merit of being true: that Bibi was coming under pressure to shift our budgetary priorities away from defense toward social and economic issues. But Panetta understood that my request for a delay meant we were at least considering military action. He also realized that if we did launch an attack, it was i

HOUSE _OVERSIGHT_028268 / BARAK / 135 Yet especially with my main points of contact in the administration - first Bob Gates and then his successor, Leon Panetta, as Secretary of Defense - our broadly shared views, mutual respect, and the strength of the US-Israeli alliance outweighed any of that. Neither they

n significant numbers of US troops would begin arriving. As we weighed our final decision, I held a series of high-level meetings in Washington: with Panetta, national security adviser Tom Donilon, Hillary Clinton, and President Obama himself. Though not explicitly saying we were ready to attack, I left no

government fiercely=rejected last November. For Palestinians to=, an Obama visit should be a boost — especially if he visits the West Ba=k cities of Ramallah or, as has been mooted, Jericho. The message will be =hat, for all the talk of a Washington foreign policy pivot to Asia, the Middle East is still

so raises more alarm about his second-term choice=. John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and John Brennan all lack the independent standing of Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Panetta and former =eneral Petraeus. They aren't likely to challenge Mr. Obama with views he d=esn't want to hear. U.S. military actio= other than drone war

confirmed that last year the President personally killed a plan supported by his main sec=rity advisers to arm the Syrian rebels. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chief= General Martin Dempsey didn't elaborate on the President's reasons for ki=ling the proposal. But the two senior off

cus of decision-making grows rather than diminishes. This then encourages other Middle East leaders to accelerate their rush to Gaza while skipping Ramallah to court Hamas' leadership. This Qatari, Turkish, Tunisian, and Egyptian courting of Hamas has the unintended consequence of further eroding the s

oop presence in Afghanistan concludes in 2014. But the scaling down there and in Iraq has already freed up resources to go east. Earlier this year, Leon Panetta, the Pentagon chief, said the US would deploy 60 per cent of its naval assets in the Asia-Pacificand 40 per cent in the Atlantic — from the previou