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Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

By: Aaron Klein

Published: June 22nd, 2011

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Is Leon Panetta Suitable

To Head The Defense Department?

CIA Director Leon Panetta, President Obama’s nominee to serve as secretary of defense, co-chaired an initiative to regulate U.S. oceans and cede them to United Nations-based international law.

Panetta’s oceans initiative was a key partner of an organization that promotes world government called Citizens for Global Solutions.

Also, that group’s parent organization, the World Federalist Movement, backs Responsibility to Protect, the controversial military doctrine used by Obama as the main justification for U.S. and international airstrikes against Libya. Billionaire George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect, the main center pushing the doctrine. That center includes the World Federalist Movement as one of its members and coordinators.

Panetta faces a senate vote this week on whether to confirm him as defense secretary.

Until his appointment as CIA director in 2009, Panetta co-chaired the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, which is the partner of Citizens for Global Solutions in a push to ratify U.S. laws and regulations governing the seas.

The oceans initiative bills itself as a bipartisan, collaborative group that aims to “accelerate the pace of change that results in meaningful ocean policy reform.”

Among its main recommendations is that the U.S. should put its oceans up for regulation to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

That UN convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.

The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative Leadership Council includes John Podesta, President and CEO of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which is reportedly highly influential in advising the White House on policy.

Panneta’s oceans initiative is a key partner of Citizens for Global Solutions, or CGS, which, according to its literature, envisions a “future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone.”

CGS states it works to “build the political will in the United States” to achieve this global vision.

CGS is a member organization and supporter of the World Federalist Movement, which seeks a one-world government. The World Federalist Movement considers the CGS to be its U.S. branch.

The Movement openly brings together organizations and individuals which support the establishment of a global federal system of strengthened and democratized global institutions with plenary constitutional power accountable to the citizens of the world and a division of international authority among separate global agencies.

The Movement’s headquarters are located near the UN building in New York City. A second office is near the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

These locations are significant since the Movement heavily promotes the UN and is the coordinator of various international projects such as the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect military doctrine.

These latest revelations about Panetta follow a series of articles by this reporter in recent days highlighting possible concerns about Obama’s secretary of defense pick.

Those articles exposed that in 1979, Panetta, then a California congressman, keynoted the conference of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, or WILPF, a pro-Soviet, anti-war group during the height of the Cold War.

Panetta also honored the founding member of the WILPF, which was once named by the State Department as a “Soviet front.”

Separately, this journalist reported that Panetta once proposed allowing Congress to conduct spot checks, at its discretion, of the CIA – the only government agency that contests the authority of the Congressional comptroller general to audit its activities, citing the covert aspects of its operation.

Also last week, it was reported that Panetta in 1983 served on the fundraising committee of the Institute for Policy Studies, a leftist think tank that has long faced criticism for positions some say attempt to undermine U.S. national security.

The connection of Panetta’s oceans initiative to a global center coordinating the Responsibility to Protect doctrine might raise questions regarding Panetta’s defense strategy as he faces a vote that is likely to place him at the leadership of the Pentagon.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.

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About the Author: Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York's 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m (CHANGE TO 7-9 p.m.). His website is KleinOnline.com

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