Samantha Power and Obama's Foreign Policy Team
By Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky
Senator Barack Obama, though impressive in his oratorical abilities, may not have the foreign policy experience that many would like to see, or that his opponents possess. It is reasonable to expect that he may rely on the foreign policy advisors he has chosen to a greater extent than would a new president more adequately grounded in foreign affairs and national security matters.
Over the past month, controversy has erupted over the issue of Senator Obama's foreign policy advisers and the impact that they might have on a future President Obama's policies toward Israel, and on American foreign policy in the broader region. Articles in the Washington Post, Newsweek, American Thinker, New York Sun, Politico, Commentary Magazine, The New Republic, CAMERA and other publications have precipitated this controversy.
Both those who support Senator Obama and his quest for the presidency and those who have concerns often share the same goal: ensuring that our next president comes to office well-prepared for the demands of the highest office in our nation. The President is uniquely powerful in the realm of foreign policy. In these perilous times, all of us want to ensure that the man or woman who steps into the White House in January is well-prepared to deal with the foreign policy challenges that lie ahead.
Who are Obama's Foreign Policy Advisors?
Newsweek published a list of Senator Obama's foreign policy advisers that included Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Malley. A few weeks later, the Washington Post on October 2, 2007 published a list of foreign policy advisers for all the major candidates, which list included the names of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Malley, Samantha Power and Susan Rice as advisers to Senator Obama. Subsequently, Martin Peretz -- an Obama supporter -- wrote at the end of December that he got the "shudders" when thinking about the foreign policy influence of "Zbigniew Brzezinski... Anthony Lake, Susan Rice and Robert O. Malley".
Peretz touched upon some of the reasons to be concerned about Malley, whom he characterized as "the most horrific name on the list". He was particularly concerned about the impact on America-Israel relations given Brzezinski's and Malley's involvement. Brzezinski's lack of concern for the safety and security of Israel is well known. Opposition to his role in the campaign was voiced across the political spectrum. Peretz touched upon some of the reasons to be concerned about the role of Malley, which were further developed in an article on our site that focused on a long series of articles Malley has written that reveal views that should give pause to all those concerned about the future of the America-Israel relationship.
The articles on Obama and his advisors in American Thinker were sourced to many news outlets before we characterized the individuals as foreign policy advisers. Subsequent to the controversy, some pushback from the campaign has developed. Emails have been circulating denying that Malley is an adviser or that stating that he does not provide advice on the Middle East, or denying that Zbigniew Brzezinski advises on issues related to Israel and the Palestinians. As Commentary's Noah Pollak has asked, is there just clever wordplay going on (otherwise, known as "spin")?
In a perplexing development, Martin Peretz subsequently wrote a blog entry denying that there were reasons to be concerned about Senator Obama's foreign policy team. He wrote that ‘spooky" stories have been circulating about his foreign policy staff and, trying to justify his new view, offered only one example to assuage concerns. He stated that Robert Malley was not a foreign policy adviser ("Malley is not and has never been a Middle East adviser to Barack Obama" -- remember this because it will come up later in this column) and there were no reasons to be concerned about the Senator's team.
Mr. Peretz wrote this without even mentioning his article just a few weeks before which expressed concern (if not outright loathing) about Robert Malley and other members of the team as mentioned above (welcome to the updated version of 1984's Memory Hole).
Then, to confuse the issue even further, he wrote just a few days ago that he is concerned about the foreign policy team of Senator Obama's and mentioned his previously listed names (except for Malley)
Martin Peretz is not alone with his concerns. In the last few days, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius (who has strong liberal credentials) also expressed qualms about Senator Obama, and specifically mentioned the realm of foreign policy and his foreign policy advisors.
If there has been a rethinking of the roles assigned to members of Obama's foreign policy team, that could be reassuring. Dennis Ross, Dennis McDonough, and Dan Shapiro have been mentioned as the "real" Middle East advisors. However, an important question remains: why did the campaign not ask for a correction to numerous articles (including the original Washington Post article) when they listed, among others, Robert Malley as an Obama foreign policy advisor? The Obama campaign staff has been lionized for its efficiency. Did it not register that there were lists in prominent publications that identified several people as foreign policy advisers that might give rise to concerns?
Or did the campaign not care until it became a political problem?
Regardless, there remains a cloud around the foreign policy team. And one name in particular now requires greater scrutiny: Samantha Power.
Samantha Power
Senator Obama's supporters have uniformly ignored the role and the views of Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor Samantha Power, who is very problematic regarding Israel, Iran, and for that matter, American supporters of Israel (see below). Power left her position at Harvard to work for Obama for a year after his election to the US Senate. She is now identified as a "senior foreign policy advisor.".
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