PNAC signatory Weinberger was Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration from 1981 to 1987.
1945-47, Weinberger belonged to a San Francisco law firm and was law clerk for a federal judge.
Involved in California politics from 1952 onward. In 1967, then-Governor Ronald Reagan named him chairman of the Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy; later he held other positions.
During the Nixon Administration:
1975-80, Weinberger was vice president and general counsel of the Bechtel Group in California. [See below for the relationship between Bechtel, Weinberger, and Iraq].
Caspar Weinberger was Defense Secretary in the Reagan Administration, from 1981-1987.
He shared the president's conviction that the Soviet Union posed a serious threat and that the defense establishment needed to be modernized and strengthened. ... at the Pentagon Weinberger became a vigorous advocate of Reagan's plan to increase the DoD budget. Readiness, sustainability, and modernization became the watchwords of the defense program. Modernization and the perceived need to make up for past funding deficiencies required significant budget increases ... ... [Weinberger] functioned more as the outside representative of the Department of Defense and left day-to-day internal management to the deputy secretary (Frank C. Carlucci 1981-83; Paul Thayer, 1983-84; and William H. Taft IV, 1984-89) ....[1] [Carlucci would later become Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration. William H. Taft IV is now legal advisor in George W Bush's Department of State and a PNAC signatory.]
Modernization and the perceived need to make up for past funding deficiencies required significant budget increases ...
... [Weinberger] functioned more as the outside representative of the Department of Defense and left day-to-day internal management to the deputy secretary (Frank C. Carlucci 1981-83; Paul Thayer, 1983-84; and William H. Taft IV, 1984-89) ....[1]
[Carlucci would later become Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration. William H. Taft IV is now legal advisor in George W Bush's Department of State and a PNAC signatory.]
In past administrations - like Carter's Administration- military hardliners had always banked on their capacity to parlay their minority-status roles into effective resistance to policies that deemed counterproductive to their goals. So in administrations in which they held the power, they were conscious of the need to neutralize the opposition. Upon his appointment to Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration, Weinberger therefore sent out signals...
... making it clear that there would be no counterpoint to militarism in this administration. - Peddlars of Crisis, Sanders, page 292.
As a result of his six-year Iran-contra investigation Lawrence Walsh indicted Caspar Weinberger. But before he could be tried, Weinberger was pardoned by George H.W. Bush, despite the fact that ...
... although a president has unlimited pardon powers, it is highly unusual to pardon someone before trial and conviction. The best-known precedent -- following the Watergate political scandal during the Nixon administration -- was former President Ford's pardon in 1974 of former President Nixon, who was never indicted. [2]
Along with Weinberger, five others were pardoned:
The case the prosecutor had against Weinberger could have lead to the mpeachment of Reagan: Walsh's team had discovered that Weinberger's handwritten notes disproved Bush's claim that he had been 'out of the loop' and proved that Weinberger knew full well about $25 million in Saudi contributions to the contras, even as he told Congress in 1986 that the charge was 'so outlandish as to be unworthy of comment'. According to [James] Brosnahan [the San Francisco trial attorney who moved to Washington to prosecute Weinberger], the trial would have shown that Weinberger knew as early as summer 1985 that President Ronald Reagan had personally authorized missile shipments to Iran in violation of the Arms Control Export Act, and that this potentially impeachable act was concealed by constructing a false record. 'The August [1985] meeting [of Reagan's National Security Council] discussed having Israel send the missiles to Iran and replenishing them out of U.S. stocks,' says Brosnahan. 'Weinberger is responsible for all missiles. The secretary of defense is the guy.' [MotherJones 1/1993] Also implicated was Colin Powell: Another guy who stood to lose his exalted standing in Washington if the trial took place was General Colin Powell, who was Weinberger's principal aide in 1985. In an affidavit, Powell said he 'saw virtually all the papers that went in and out of [Weinberger's] office' and thus would have had direct access to the evidence of missile replenishment. Early in the investigation, Powell gave conflicting accounts of his knowledge of Weinberger's extensive personal notes, denying knowledge of their existence (when Weinberger was claiming he didn't take any), and then saying in 1992 that the notes were no secret and describing them in detail (after Weinberger was forced to cough them up).[MotherJones 1/1993] How could Bush get away with pardoning Weinberger? Another, future-Secretary of Defense had something to do with that: Weinberger's defense team floated trial balloons before influential media groups, including editors and writers for the Washington Post, and consulted with top Democrats, including House Speaker Thomas Foley and then-Representative Les Aspin (now [Clinton Administration] defense secretary). It was clear that reaction to a Weinberger pardon would be mild. [MotherJones 1/1993] An recent article in COUNTERPUNCH [10/28/2002] suggests that the reason that George H.W. Bush lashed out at John Walker Lindh on national television was that James Brosnahan - Reagan's nemesis, the man who was going to prosecture Weinberger - was John Walker Lindh's attorney. In 1997 Caspar Weinberger hosted "World Business Review," a television and radio show, and was chairman of Forbes magazine. [1] Now fast-forward to April of 2003, when ... Bush slips a $680 million [Iraq reconstruction] contract to the Bechtel Group, whose Republican-oriented board includes such Reagan-era GOP luminaries as secretary of state George Schulz and defense secretary Caspar Weinberger (the late William Casey, Reagan's CIA director, was a Bechtel executive). The deal puts the company in position to receive a big part of the $100 billion estimated total cost of Iraqi reconstruction. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bechtel gave Republican candidates, including Bush, about $765,000 in PAC, soft money and individual campaign contributions between 1999 and 2002. [2] Control of the Press under Reagan: Controlling the briefings, the videos and the press during Desert Storm was an extension of US policy started by President Ronald Reagan and his defence chief, Caspar Weinberger. It was Weinberger, an anglophile, who admired Margaret Thatcher's manipulation of the media during the Falklands war, which led directly to her political revival in 1982. A year later, Weinberger took control of the US media when Reagan found himself in a deepening hole in Lebanon. [3] [On the press and legitimation of violent interventions, see: [4]]
Walsh's team had discovered that Weinberger's handwritten notes disproved Bush's claim that he had been 'out of the loop' and proved that Weinberger knew full well about $25 million in Saudi contributions to the contras, even as he told Congress in 1986 that the charge was 'so outlandish as to be unworthy of comment'. According to [James] Brosnahan [the San Francisco trial attorney who moved to Washington to prosecute Weinberger], the trial would have shown that Weinberger knew as early as summer 1985 that President Ronald Reagan had personally authorized missile shipments to Iran in violation of the Arms Control Export Act, and that this potentially impeachable act was concealed by constructing a false record. 'The August [1985] meeting [of Reagan's National Security Council] discussed having Israel send the missiles to Iran and replenishing them out of U.S. stocks,' says Brosnahan. 'Weinberger is responsible for all missiles. The secretary of defense is the guy.' [MotherJones 1/1993]
According to [James] Brosnahan [the San Francisco trial attorney who moved to Washington to prosecute Weinberger], the trial would have shown that Weinberger knew as early as summer 1985 that President Ronald Reagan had personally authorized missile shipments to Iran in violation of the Arms Control Export Act, and that this potentially impeachable act was concealed by constructing a false record. 'The August [1985] meeting [of Reagan's National Security Council] discussed having Israel send the missiles to Iran and replenishing them out of U.S. stocks,' says Brosnahan. 'Weinberger is responsible for all missiles. The secretary of defense is the guy.' [MotherJones 1/1993]
Another guy who stood to lose his exalted standing in Washington if the trial took place was General Colin Powell, who was Weinberger's principal aide in 1985. In an affidavit, Powell said he 'saw virtually all the papers that went in and out of [Weinberger's] office' and thus would have had direct access to the evidence of missile replenishment. Early in the investigation, Powell gave conflicting accounts of his knowledge of Weinberger's extensive personal notes, denying knowledge of their existence (when Weinberger was claiming he didn't take any), and then saying in 1992 that the notes were no secret and describing them in detail (after Weinberger was forced to cough them up).[MotherJones 1/1993]
How could Bush get away with pardoning Weinberger? Another, future-Secretary of Defense had something to do with that:
Weinberger's defense team floated trial balloons before influential media groups, including editors and writers for the Washington Post, and consulted with top Democrats, including House Speaker Thomas Foley and then-Representative Les Aspin (now [Clinton Administration] defense secretary). It was clear that reaction to a Weinberger pardon would be mild. [MotherJones 1/1993]
An recent article in COUNTERPUNCH [10/28/2002] suggests that the reason that George H.W. Bush lashed out at John Walker Lindh on national television was that James Brosnahan - Reagan's nemesis, the man who was going to prosecture Weinberger - was John Walker Lindh's attorney.
In 1997 Caspar Weinberger hosted "World Business Review," a television and radio show, and was chairman of Forbes magazine. [1]
Now fast-forward to April of 2003, when ...
Bush slips a $680 million [Iraq reconstruction] contract to the Bechtel Group, whose Republican-oriented board includes such Reagan-era GOP luminaries as secretary of state George Schulz and defense secretary Caspar Weinberger (the late William Casey, Reagan's CIA director, was a Bechtel executive). The deal puts the company in position to receive a big part of the $100 billion estimated total cost of Iraqi reconstruction. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bechtel gave Republican candidates, including Bush, about $765,000 in PAC, soft money and individual campaign contributions between 1999 and 2002. [2]
Control of the Press under Reagan:
Controlling the briefings, the videos and the press during Desert Storm was an extension of US policy started by President Ronald Reagan and his defence chief, Caspar Weinberger. It was Weinberger, an anglophile, who admired Margaret Thatcher's manipulation of the media during the Falklands war, which led directly to her political revival in 1982. A year later, Weinberger took control of the US media when Reagan found himself in a deepening hole in Lebanon. [3] [On the press and legitimation of violent interventions, see: [4]]
