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The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor (abbreviated NSA, or sometimes APNSA or ANSA to avoid confusion with the abbreviation of the National Security Agency), serves as the chief adviser to the President of the United States on national security issues. This person serves on the National Security Council within the Executive Office of the President. The National Security Advisor's office is located in the West Wing of the White House. He or she is supported by a staff that produces research, briefings, and intelligence for the NSA to review and present to the National Security Council and the President of the United States.
The National Security Advisor is appointed by the President without confirmation by the United States Senate. As such, they are not connected to the bureaucracies of the Departments of State and Defense, and are therefore able to offer independent advice. The power and role of the National Security Advisor varies from administration to administration.
In times of crisis, the National Security Advisor operates from the White House Situation Room, updating the President on the latest events of a crisis.
The current office holder is retired Marine Corps General James L. Jones, who assumed the duties of the post when Barack Obama was sworn into office on January 20, 2009 as President of the United States. Jones announced his resignation on October 8, 2010 and is due to be replaced by his deputy, Thomas E. Donilon.
For a long time, Donilon lived his life from presidential campaign to campaign.
The Democratic operative worked on his first Democratic National Convention at 24, and he’s been helping elect candidates ever since. He has worked for Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Joseph R. Biden.
He has also served in policy roles, working as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and as former Clinton secretary of State Warren Christopher’s chief of staff. In that role, Donilon was intimately involved in many major foreign policy issues, including negotiating the Bosnian peace agreement and the expansion of NATO.
He was a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005, and his sole client was Fannie Mae.
Donilon worked as a member of President Barack Obama’s transition team, where he vetted potential State Department officials.Toner, Robin, "Race Is On For 1988's Brightest and Brashest Consultants," New York Times, May 31, 1987(1)Toner, Robin, "Race Is On For 1988's Brightest and Brashest Consultants," New York Times, May 31, 1987 Since then, he has become a key National Security Council aide, helping craft Obama's temporary surge of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, "Obama Adds Troops, but Maps Exit Plan," Dec. 1, 2009
(2)Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, "Obama Adds Troops, but Maps Exit Plan," Dec. 1, 2009
His brother is Michael C. Donilon, a counselor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. His wife, Cathy Russell, is Jill Biden's chief of staff.
Name a prominent Democratic official and chances are Donilon has worked for them. The Georgetown law graduate has been strategizing for congressional candidates, governors and presidential hopefuls for more than two decades. He has on the campaigns of President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) among others.
Now, Donilon is hanging up his campaign hat to work for one of his oldest and closest allies: Vice President Joseph R. Biden, who he met in 1981. Donilon was Biden’s travelling adviser during the 2008 general election and was named counselor in the vice president’s office in November 2008.
His brother, Thomas Donilon, is the national security adviser to President Obama. The two Donilons used their joint political muscle to help derail the 1987 Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork.
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Vice President Joseph R. Biden may be the reason Russell and her husband Thomas Donilon have White House jobs.
Russell’s relationship with the former senator spans more than 20 years – she worked on his 1988 presidential campaign and is a longtime adviser to his wife, Jill Biden. In November 2008, she was chosen to serve as chief of staff for the new second lady.
Friends say Russell has always been interested in public service. She moved to Washington, D.C., to attend law school at George Washington University and has been working on Capitol Hill ever since. She was a top-ranking official in President Bill Clinton’s Justice Department and will leave her post as staff director for the Senate Judiciary Committee to move into Jill Biden’s office. Burns, Alexander, "A White House family reunion," Politico, Nov. 29, 2008(
Were President Barack Obama to ask that question about the origins of this crisis of Tom Donilon, one of his closest aides whom he recently appointed to the critical job of national security adviser, Donilon would find it even more awkward to invoke the defense of ignorance. As the chief lobbyist for Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2005, he was far more intimately involved than Paulson in the manufacturing of this crisis. He successfully pressured Congress to give Fannie Mae the green light to speed past any sound regulation. Indeed, had Congress endorsed the barest semblance of regulation of the Fannie Mae-led housing scam, it would have been stillborn instead of being a very much alive Frankenstein creation.
Fannie Mae paid Donilon, a longtime Democratic Party operative, $15 million to lobby Congress to gut the power of government regulators to check the scandalous behavior in what would have been judged a crime until a majority of pro-Wall Street Republicans and Democrats in Congress rewrote the laws. He was also a top executive at Fannie Mae during the period when cooking the books to increase executive compensation would later lead to a $400 million fine. In pursuit of those profits, Fannie Mae entered into a partnership with Angelo Mozilo’s shady Countrywide Financial, and together they produced the computerized CLUES and MERS credit verification and mortgage registration systems that are at the heart of the housing swindle. Mozilo at least was finally slapped with a huge fine last week, while Donilon has yet to return a penny.
“National Security Adviser Donilon came here with some very concrete proposals about security and economic issues that we think are of common interest to Russia and the United States,” said a senior administration official who attended the meetings but was not allowed to speak publicly because of the sensitivity of the discussions. “From our perspective the reaction was constructive, especially given the context and the timing.” The official said the agreement for two meetings between the presidents “set in place kind of a work plan.”
Originally posted by JBA2848
Thomas Donilon incoming National Security Adviser for Obama?
His brother Michael C. Donilon, a counselor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden?
His wife, Cathy Russell, is Jill Biden's chief of staff.
Seems like theres another family slowly taking over the White House. Who are they?
The Russell Trust Association is the business name for the New Haven, Connecticut based Skull and Bones society, incorporated in 1856.[1]
The Russell Trust was incorporated by William Huntington Russell as its president, and Daniel Coit Gilman as its first treasurer. Gilman later went on to become president of the University of California at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University before leaving to become the first president of the Carnegie Foundation. Gilman also served as one of the first board members of the Russell Sage Foundation.
In 1943, by special act of the Connecticut state legislature, its trustees were granted an exemption from filing corporate reports with the Secretary of State, which is normally a requirement.
From 1978 until his death in 1988, [2] business of the Russell Trust Association was handled by its single trustee, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. partner John B. Madden. Madden started with Brown Brothers Harriman in 1946, under senior partner Prescott Bush. According to a 2012 filing with the IRS, the Russell Trust Association (filing as RTA Incorporated) has assets of $4,226,091, including the "Tomb" at 64 High St. in New Haven, Conn.
This chronicle of espionage, drug smuggling, and elitism in Yale University's Skull & Bones society offers rare glimpses into this secret world with previously unpublished documents, photographs, and articles that delve into issues such as racism, financial ties to the Nazi party, and illegal corporate dealings. Contributors include Anthony Sutton, author of America's Secret Establishment; Dr. Ralph Bunch, professor emeritus of political science at Portland State University; Webster Griffin Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, authors and historians. A complete list of members, including George Bush, George W. Bush, and John F. Kerry, and reprints of rare magazine articles are included.
Originally posted by Happy1
reply to post by FriedBabelBroccoli
Russia has had a long-standing problem with the chechnya islamists in the border regions of their splintered country.
The 2014 winter olympics are to be help right on the border with chechnya.
This all is soooo sickening. Do we have any real americans in our gov't anymore?
Seems to me the invasion is already done - we're just waiting for the KGB to come and put us in labor camps.
holder, obozo, samantha powers, susan rice, frankenstien - they certainly don't seem to care that they have their hands in the cookie jar - no one's going to make them obey no law.