Pompeo Forms "Iran Action Group" To Coordinate All Iran Strategy, Reports Directly To White Ho

[Swordsmyth]

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Thursday that the United States has formed an "Iran Action Group" within the State Department to guide Washington's post-nuclear deal policy. The group will coordinate all activity and policy related to Iran, including inter-agency initiatives after President Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal in May.
Pompeo told reporters the action group would be "directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the State Department's Iran-related activity."
It is to be headed by current State Department director of policy planning Brian Hook, who will in turn report directly to Pompeo. Hook has been a lead negotiator attempting to pressure European allies to significantly alter prior commitments related to the international deal.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...s-directly-him

[Brian4Liberty]

Those who say that Trump is not all there mentally may have a point. The fact that Trump can’t keep track of never-Trumpers and neoconservatives infiltrating the highest levels of his administration is strong evidence.

Brian Hook, head of State Department policy planning, is an astute operative and member in good standing of the neocon elite. He’s also a onetime foreign policy adviser to Romney and remains in close touch with him. Hook was one of the founders, along with Eliot Cohen and Eric Edelman, of the anti-Trump John Hay Initiative. Hook organized one of the Never Trump letters during the campaign, and his views are well-known, in part through a May 2016 piece by Julia Hoffe in Politico Magazine. A passage: “My wife said, ‘never,’” said Brian Hook, looking pained and slicing the air with a long, pale hand. ….Even if you say you support him as the nominee,” Hook says, “you go down the list of his positions and you see you disagree on every one.”

One might wonder how a man such as Hook could become the director of policy planning and a senior adviser to Rex Tillerson, advising on all key foreign policy issues? The answer is: the Romney network.
...
https://www.theamericanconservative....oreign-policy/

[Brian4Liberty]

More on Brian Hook’s John Hay Initiative:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post5981540

[goldenequity]

'Never Trumper' Brian Hook State Dept Chief Director of Policy Planning Global Economic Terror
a month ago...

[RonZeplin]

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb
Bomb, Bomb, Iran...

John Hay Initiative

Named after President Theodore Roosevelt’s chief diplomat, the John Hay Initiative is an advocacy group led by former foreign policy advisers to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign that has coached many of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates. Bloomberg View reported in August 2015: “For candidates who haven't the time or resources to build their own foreign policy staffs at this stage, the project, called the John Hay Initiative, is a handy tool to get smart fast on complicated subjects and even hand off some heavy lifting on national security issues.”[1]

The Hay Initiative’s more than 250 “experts,” who have reportedly advised more than half of the 2016 Republican candidates, include a who’s who of prominent neoconservatives and avowed militarists, including figures like Michael Hayden and Michael Chertoff.[2] “For the party itself, the group's omnipresence behind the scenes is shaping a hawkish, right-of-Hillary-Clinton foreign policy agenda that is quickly becoming the established position of the party hopefuls going into 2016.”[3]


The Hay Initiative was founded in 2013 by former Romney advisor Brian Hook and former George W. Bush administration officials Eric Edelman and Eliot Cohen. According to Cohen: "For candidates who have a conservative, centrist foreign policy, it gives you a huge virtual staff. When there is a candidate, you are going to have a reasonable cohesive foreign policy establishment behind you. That's important for the campaign, and it's important for governance."[4]

According to its website, the Hay Initiative’s staff consists of a “Steering Committee” comprised of Cohen, Edelman and Hook, and a director of operations, Martha Simms. The group’s advisory council is comprised of a variety of neoconservative and former George W. Bush administration officials, including former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), former State Department official Paula Dobriansky, neoconservative theorist Robert Kagan, former NSA director Michael Hayden, former Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO), and 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.[5]

In addition to advising Republican presidential candidates, the Hay initiative aims to shape the foreign policy a future Republican presidential administration by helping staff foreign policy positions.[6] The Daily Beast reported that the group is “structured somewhat like a campaign foreign policy team in waiting, with a steering committee, an advisory board, and 18 policy working groups covering regional and functional topics ranging from Iran to foreign assistance to space policy.”[7]

Hay Initiative leaders have expressed dismay over a supposed turn to “neo-isolationism” among Democrats and Republicans. Said co-founder Brian Hook in September 2014: “There certainly are a lot of people from the Romney campaign, but we see this as having its own identity, one of a broad range of people who believe in American leadership abroad and are concerned about neo-isolationism in both parties. We want to be a resource to presidential campaigns in 2016, those who are interested in conservative internationalism and promoting American leadership and ideals.”[8]

Similarly, Cohen explained: “A lot of it is driven by the concern that if you look at both parties, and you can call it neo-isolationism, you see people really calling into question American leadership.”[9]

Ties to 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates

Hay Initiative members have briefed most of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates, leading one observer to comment: “If you wonder why most Republican candidates sound exactly the same on foreign policy, it’s because they are nearly all getting their advice from the same people.”[10]

Among those who have received advice from the group are: Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina, and Chris Christie.[11] Fiorina and Christie have reportedly had speeches written by Hay Initiative founders Cohen, Edelman, and Hook.[12] The head of Walker’s foreign policy team, Mike Gallagher, worked for the Hay Initiative and another Walker foreign policy advisor, David Kramer, is a Hay Initiative member and an alumni of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).[13] Rubio has reportedly received advice from Hay Initiative member Roger Zakheim, the son George W. Bush official and staunch Iraq War advocate Dov Zakheim.[14]