David Petraeus To Join Kennedy School as Belfer Center
Senior Fellow
By Steven R. Watros, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER UPDATED:
October 18, 2013, at 3:47 p.m.
David H. Petraeus, former CIA director and retired
four-star Army general, will join Harvard Kennedy School as a non-resident
senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs,
according to an HKS press release.
At Harvard, Petraeus, who resigned from the CIA in
November 2012, will partner with Kennedy School professor Graham T. Allison ’62
to head a new Belfer Center project called “The Coming North America Decades.”
The project will study scientific, economic, and technological factors that have
contributed to North American competitiveness and analyze the potential effects
of policy options on American interests.
Petraeus stepped down from his post at the CIA following a
well-publicized scandal surrounding an extramarital affair with Paula D.
Broadwell, a Kennedy School alumna and Petraeus biographer. The two met at an
event at the Institute of Politics in 2006.
The press release does not specify when Petraeus’s
fellowship will begin.
In July, Gawker reported that Petraeus had secured a
fellowship at the Kennedy School, citing documents obtained via a Freedom of
Information Law request. Friday’s press release marks the first time the Kennedy
School has acknowledged the appointment.
___________________________________________
Petraeus is now teaching a course on US policy at CUNY's
Macaulay Honors College near Lincoln Center in Manhattan, despite ongoing
student and faculty protests.
Here is important background info and and info on protests
in NY.
Recent Guardian (UK) newspaper video on the links between
former General and CIA Chief David Petraeus and death squads. Key is Petraeus'
direct link to U.S. Colonel James Steele, who worked with death squads in El
Salvador, Nicaragua and Iraq.
The short video version is about 5 minutes, the longer one
some 50 minutes. This is a real eye-opener.
A 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic
reveals how US colonel James Steele, a veteran of American proxy wars in El
Salvador and Nicaragua, played a key role in training and overseeing US-funded
special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres in Iraq. Another
special forces veteran, retired Colonel James Coffman, worked with Steele and
reported directly to General David Petraeus, who had been sent into Iraq to
organise the Iraqi security services
Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2013 07:56:22
-0400
Subject: CUNY/Petraeus: Ad Hoc
Committee Against Militarization of CUNY statement
From:
adhoccunycommittee@gmail.com
*Press release* – Ad Hoc
Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY
Email:
adhoccunycommittee@gmail.com
Protests Cause CUNY to Move War
Criminal’s “Class” to High-Security Building
David “Death Squad” Petraeus,
Out of CUNY Now!
OCTOBER 4 – After four
consecutive weeks of protests against its hiring of ex-CIA chief David Petraeus,
the administration of the City University of New York has responded by moving
his Macaulay Honors College seminar to a new location: the BMW Building at 555
West 57th Street. According to administration memos published by the “Gawker”
website, Petraeus’ seminar – “Are We On the Threshold of the North American
Decade?” – will be held on the highly securitized 16th floor of the building,
which is part of CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The previous
schedule of 3:00-6:00 p.m. on Mondays is slated to continue. According to press
reports, a key feature of this new location is its secured parking garage, which
would allow Petraeus to come and go without having to encounter protesters. As
the “Gawker” site notes: “It’s not clear whether other CUNY classes have ever
been placed under such security.”
Together with CUNY students and
faculty, labor and anti-racist activists have joined with many other opponents
of imperialist war abroad and repression at home to protest CUNY’s provocative
political decision to hire this certified war criminal, who as Iraq/Afghanistan
war commander oversaw the creation of death squads and a network of torture
centers. As documented by the British Guardian, Petraeus’ specialist in this
grisly work was Colonel James Steele, who had worked closely with the notorious
military and paramilitary death units that ravaged Central America.
The change in the seminar’s
location is but a small victory emerging from persistent struggle on both
coasts. The seminar move comes after a protest by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans
in the “March Forward!” group at the University of Southern California,
resulting in the cancellation of a private luncheon Petraeus was scheduled to
hold there. CUNY activists have proclaimed their solidarity with those at USC,
who have expressed indignation that David “Death Squad” Petraeus was appointed
to be a “veterans’ adviser” there. Petraeus has also declared his intention to
“mentor” members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), whose return to
CUNY is another focus of the ongoing protests.
The seminar move also comes
after the violent NYPD arrest of six protesters at the September 17 Macaulay
fundraiser that featured Petraeus as a keynote speaker. At the City University
and beyond, outrage has been expressed at the use of brutal police repression on
behalf of war criminal Petraeus. A “Statement of Support to CUNY Students”
attacked at the September 17 protest has been signed by hundreds of academics,
while the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing 25,000 CUNY
faculty and staff, passed a “PSC Resolution in Protest of Violent Police
Response to Peaceful Protest by CUNY Students” by unanimous vote of the union’s
Delegate Assembly. On September 30, when two of the CUNY Six were invited to
address a PSC “Contract Now!” rally in front of the CUNY Board of Trustees'
meeting at Baruch College, they got an enthusiastic response from union members
as they explained the goals of the struggle. The repression unleashed against
protesters shows “a fundamental fact,” emphasized one organizer of the
anti-militarization campaign: “Petraeus’ backers cannot answer the documented
truth about his actions as CIA chief and war commander – so they send enforcers
in blue to try to silence our voice. But the truth of our message will not and
cannot be silenced by the NYPD’s billy clubs, choke holds and fists.”
An Ad Hoc Committee spokeswoman
stated: “We want to express our gratitude to supporters, near and far, for
taking a firm stand against the militarization of our schools. In light of these
developments, we are even more determined to oust Petraeus and ROTC through
protest and exposure.” In the following weeks it will be crucial to continue
spreading the word about developments in this struggle to defend the university
from a targeted campaign of imperialist militarism and police-state repression.
We invite groups and individuals in solidarity with this struggle to keep
mobilizing for protests outside of Petraeus’ sinister “class."
All those who defend students’
basic right to protest and oppose police brutality are encouraged to attend a
public meeting on Tuesday, October 15, calling to “Defend the CUNY Six – Drop
the Charges Now!” Lending vocal support is crucial, as two of the CUNY 6 will
have their first court appearance on October 17th. The public meeting will be
held at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 15, in the New Building of John Jay
College, 524 West 59th Street, Room 9.64 (9th floor). Press are
invited.
A key protest will occur on
October 16th at a John Jay gala, where Petraeus will be “honored” as a featured
speaker on – “Educating for Justice” (!). (More details to come.) We call on all
opponents of militarization to join in building the mobilization to oust
Petraeus and ROTC through massive protest and exposure.
CUNY must not be a war
college!
War Criminal Petraeus, ROTC,
Military Contracts and Military Recruiters: Out of CUNY!
Defend the CUNY 6!
Drop all charges
now!
--
Marty Goodman
9/23/13
CUNY students, faculty and
supporters protested today at Macaulay Honors College (35 West 67th ST.), near
Lincoln Center in Manhattan (photos bvelow). That is where retired war criminal
and CIA chief General David Petraeus is teaching a CUNY course.
Petraeus oversaw the slaughter
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Petraeus was original offered $200,000 to teach just
one course by the increasingly militarized CUNY administration. There will be
weekly protests to boot Petraeus out of CUNY.
Last week, 6 students were
beaten and arrested. They were held for 20 hours and released on charges of
riot, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental
administration.
The protestors marched from
Macaulay Honors College at 67th street to Columbus Circle at 59th street for a
rally.
Lots of UNAC flyers for Joya's
Oct 4 appearance in NYC were distributed. Good reaction.
There is a meeting Thursday to
plan the next stages in the struggle.
Kick Petraeus Out!!
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