If Blinken is truly involved in blocking these flights out he has to go tomorrow...
Gen. Keane blasts State Dept for blocking Afghanistan evacuations: 'This is an absurdity'
General Jack Keane blasted the State Department during an interview on "The Faulkner Focus" on Wednesday, saying it is an "absurdity" that the agency is not working more directly and efficiently with veterans' groups who are trying to help Americans and U.S. allies escape Afghanistan.www.foxnews.com
John M. "Jack" Keane
He serves as chairman of AM General, the firm that produces the Humvee.[10]
and serves as chairman of the Institute for the Study of War.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is a United States–based think tank founded in 2007 by Kimberly Kagan. .
[3] The non-profit organization is supported by grants and contributions from large defense contractors,[2] including Raytheon, General Dynamics, DynCorp and others.[4] It is headquartered in Washington, D.C.[5]
[11] In June 2016, Keane co-founded IP3 International (IP3), a nuclear energy consulting firm.
According to a staff report to the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and subsequently, Trump aides such as Jared Kushner and others have been engaged in promoting IP3's plan to transfer nuclear technology from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. According to the report, IP3 founders and others have been seeking to broker a deal with Riyadh without the "gold standard," a provision -- tied to section 123 of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act which establishes conditions for nuclear cooperation between the U.S. and its allies -- that seeks to limit weaponizing of nuclear energy.[1
He formerly served as a strategic advisor for Academi/Blackwater and is a former director of defense giant General Dynamics.
Academi was an American private military company founded in 1997 by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince[2][3] as Blackwater,
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the third-largest defense contractor in the United States, and the third-largest in the world, by sales.[3] The company is a Fortune 100 company, and was ranked No. 83 in 2020.[4]
Antony Blinken
After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm.
WestExec Advisors LLC is a consulting firm founded in 2017 by Antony Blinken, Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda, all former Obama administration officials.
In an interview with The Intercept, Flournoy explained WestExec seeks to employ "people recently coming out of government" with "current knowledge, expertise, contacts, networks."[5] The firm and its partners avoid becoming registered lobbyists or foreign agents so that they can (re)enter government service without delays.[6] It does not disclose its clients, whose names are restricted from disclosure by non-disclosure agreements.[7]
Pine Island Capital Partners
Blinken, as well as other Biden transition team members Michele Flournoy, former Pentagon advisor, and Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, are partners of private equity firm Pine Island Capital Partners,[56][57] a strategic partner of WestExec.[58] Pine Island's chairman is John Thain, the final chairman of Merrill Lynch before its sale to Bank of America.[59]
During the final stretch of Biden's presidential campaign, Pine Island raised $218 million for a Special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a public offering to invest in "defense, government service and aerospace industries" and COVID-19 relief, which the firm's prospectus (initially filed with the U.S. SEC in September and finalized on November 13, 2020) predicted would be profitable as the government looked to private contractors to address the pandemic.[57]
A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; /spæk/), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional initial public offering process.[1][2] According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Firm Tied to Team Biden Looks to Cash In On COVID Response
"In other words, Pine Island’s new fund sees the government’s response to the coronavirus as a novel opportunity to cash in—not in terms of profiting directly off treating the lethal virus, but by investing in government contractors that federal and local agencies will turn to in its wake".
Lloyd Austin
He retired from the armed services in 2016 and joined the boards of Raytheon Technologies, Nucor, Tenet Healthcare, and Auburn University.[2][3]
Immediately after retiring as CENTCOM Commander, Austin joined the board of Raytheon Technologies, a military contractor, in April 2016.[41][42] As of October 2020, his Raytheon stock holdings were worth roughly $500,000 and his compensation, including stock, totaled $1.4 million.
Nucor Corporation is a producer of steel and related products based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the largest steel producer in the United States, as well as the largest "mini-mill" steelmaker"
Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a multinational investor-owned healthcare services company based in Dallas, Texas, United States. Through its brands, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships,[7] including United Surgical Partners International (USPI),[8] the company operates 65 hospitals and over 450 healthcare facilities.[9] Tenet also operates Conifer Health Solutions, which provides healthcare support services to health systems and other clients.
He also operates a consulting firm and has been a partner at Pine Island Capital, an investment company with which Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Michèle Flournoy are affiliated.[45][41]
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