Bildt Hired as War Hawk

He of course denies it, but the facts speak for themselves.

Get It Try It

He knew what they were doing. Carl Bildt's claim that his lobby group formed to discuss Iraq after Saddam Hussein is debunked by the very man who recruited him: Randy Scheunemann.

Randy Scheunemann is a name that should be well known in neocon circles in the US. He was campaign manager for McCain in the 2008 elections and has strong ties to the Project for the New American Century, the most far right of all think tanks, where one openly advocates preemptive nuclear strikes against Russia.

Scheunemann says of Bildt:

'We recruited Carl Bildt to help promote the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein. We weren't an international advisory council as Bildt's been claiming.'

Carl Bildt was recruited by CLI - the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a group of ultraconservative war hawks with connections to the US weapons industry. Bildt has claimed that the group formed to innocently 'discuss' Iraq after Hussein, a topic that was ignored until it was clear an invasion would in fact take place.

'I discussed the matter with Carl Bildt', says Scheunemann. 'He was absolutely aware that our goal was to turn domestic and international opinion to support the invasion. Carl Bildt wrote a few articles for that specific purpose.'

Bildt's Golden Opportunity

People at the head of the CLI say that Carl Bildt saw his involvement with the group as a golden opportunity to further his career. And CLI chairman Bruce Jackson admits he wanted to help Bildt along.

Bildt's press secretary Christian Carlsson states that Carl Bildt has no comments on Scheunemann's statements.

But Bildt's blog reveals a bit more.

As a direct response to Anders Jonsson who asked if he supported the invasion of Iraq to further his career, Bildt wrote:

'However - if the truth now be told - the deputy secretary of the UN probed my interest in being the general secretary's special representative in Iraq. But by then I'd already lost a close friend and an acquaintance in Iraq, and as the father of small children, I felt I had a duty to decline.'

How about everyone else - the additional million or more - who perished in that horrific bloodbath, Carl Bildt? Are we to believe you only realised the consequences of the invasion after the fact? For that's clearly what you want us to believe.

But we don't believe it.

See Also
Rixstep Special Report: Our Man Bildt
Industry Watch: Board Members at Lundin, Big Shots at Bildt