A History of Service?

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Home  »  News, Top Headlines  »  A History of Service




A History of Service?

Thursday, May 14, 2009
"A History of Service"




By: Kamil Dada
Former Secretary of State George Shultz relates his experiences to The Daily

At 88 years old, and after serving three universities, two presidents and one of the largest companies in the country, one would expect George Shultz to sit back and reflect on his long career as a public servant.

Former Secretary of State and Treasury George Shultz discussed his experiences in politics and weighed in on contemporary issues such as the economic crisis and national security. (MICHAEL LIU/The Stanford Daily)



Shultz also touched upon the nature of torture and waterboarding, given the recent national press attention surrounding declassified documents that reported that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave the nod of approval to then-CIA Director George Tenet to use waterboarding. Shultz pointed to the Geneva Convention that prohibits the use of torture and said that he agreed with it. However, he argued that the Geneva Convention does not particularly identify or define exactly what torture is.

“I don’t want to try and second-guess people who were in the administration or Congress, who in the intense problems right after 9/11 said that we also have to do everything we can to protect the country,” Shultz said. “They probably deviated somewhat from what the Geneva Convention called for.”

He argued that the administration was in a difficult situation and was operating in a setting where it had to protect the country after a major terrorist attack. To that end, he did not believe that legal authorities should investigate or prosecute administrators, such as Rice.=

“I’m not in favor of going back and trying to prosecute people for doing what they regarded as their duty to protect our national security,” he said. “I think it could set a very bad precedent.”

Just over two weeks ago, Rice noted to a student in Roble Hall, in a video made public on YouTube, that President Bush instructed officials that nothing they would do would be outside of their legal obligations under the Convention against Torture.

“So, by definition, if it was authorized by the President, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention,” Rice said to the student.

The comment sparked off a maelstrom of responses in the national spotlight, with some suggesting that Rice implied that a presidential authorization “by definition” grants something legality.

Shultz, however, strongly disagreed with this interpretation of the law.

“The President is never above the law,” he said?


One Comment on “A History of Service”?

George Shultz is a member of Bohemian Grove. With its combination of wealth and power, Bohemian Grove’s secrecy has been a target for protest for many years. Few of my family friends are member of the Bohemian Club. My father was inviting to join but turn it down! President Herbert Hoover once called this club “the greatest men’s party on Earth.”“Anybody can be President of the United States, but very few can ever have any hope of becoming President of the Bohemian Club.”- President Richard Nixon, 1972
On July 15, 2000, Austin, Texas-based filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, infiltrated the Grove and successfully made it out with documented evidence. With a hidden camera, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ceremony. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones’ documentary, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones claimed that the Cremation of Care is an “ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony,” and that the owl statue is Moloch, although ancient descriptions of Moloch suggest a human figure with the head of a bull rather than an owl.
The Grove and Jones’ investigation were covered by Jon Ronson in Channel 4’s four-part documentary, Secret Rulers of the World. Ronson documented his view of the ritual in his book, Them: Adventures With Extremists, writing that it was a startling, immature, and bizarre way for world leaders to spend their summer vacations, but that he did not see evidence of covert Satanism. According to his description of the account it was nothing more than a fraternity-esque ritual, and the only reason one could see it as Satanic was if one were looking for Satanism in it to begin with.
About 30 years ago, Philip Rothschilds ordered one of his mistresses (Ayn Rand) to write an 1100-page book that would describe to all witches how they would take control of the World through the Illuminati: It’s called Atlas Shrugs.”
John Todd–Ex-Grand Druid Witch
Ted Rudow III,MA