COMMENT: In the wake of Oba­ma’s nom­i­na­tion of Chuck Hagel to be Sec­re­tary of Defense, the result­ing dia­logue has been pre­dictably inad­e­quate on both sides. Most of the focus has been on intem­per­ate state­ments he’s made on occa­sion, not on his con­nec­tions to some gen­uine­ly insid­i­ous inter­ests.

He’s also tak­en stands on some issues that have won him plau­dits in the so-called pro­gres­sive sec­tor, in most cas­es unde­served­ly. His mat­ter-of-fact state­ment that the Iraq War was fought for oil has won him applause, but that was uttered years after he duti­ful­ly vot­ed in lock­step with the Bushies to autho­rize the war in the first place.

Hagel’s insti­tu­tion­al con­nec­tions are of far more impor­tance.

He has served as a pro­fes­sor at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty, one of the most reac­tionary and “con­nect­ed” of Amer­i­can insti­tu­tions of high­er learning–an insti­tu­tion that takes its cues from the Vat­i­can, the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, the GOP and the most destruc­tive ele­ments of the nation­al secu­ri­ty estab­lish­ment.

Of greater sig­nif­i­cance is his direc­tor­ship at Chevron (Big Oil) and Zurich’s Hold­ing Com­pa­ny in Amer­i­ca. The lat­ter can be safe­ly assumed to be a repos­i­to­ry of Under­ground Reich monies and is descend­ed from the Zurich insur­ance group, which loy­al­ly served Ger­man intel­li­gence dur­ing World War II.

(In All Hon­or­able Men, James Stew­art Mar­tin high­lights the Zurich rein­sur­ance role in facil­i­tat­ing Ger­man U‑boat attacks dur­ing World War II. This dis­cus­sion can be found on pages 19–22.)

Hagel also sits on the advi­so­ry board of Deutsche Bank of Amer­i­ca, a prin­ci­ple Under­ground Reich finan­cial insti­tu­tion. Deutsche Bank was also among the mis­cre­ants who pre­cip­i­tat­ed the sub­prime cri­sis, from which the world still strug­gles to recov­er.

His cur­ricu­lum vitae bodes poor­ly for the future.

Chuck Hagel; The Atlantic Coun­cil

Chuck Hagel is a dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty. He serves on the Boards of Direc­tors of Chevron Cor­po­ra­tion and Zurich’s Hold­ing Com­pa­ny of Amer­i­ca; the Advi­so­ry Boards of Cor­sair Cap­i­tal, Deutsche Bank Amer­i­ca, M.I.C. Indus­tries and is a Senior Advi­sor to Gallup. He is Co-Chair­man of the President’s Intel­li­gence Advi­so­ry Board and a mem­ber of the Sec­re­tary of Defense’s Pol­i­cy Board. He also serves as Chair­man of the Atlantic Coun­cil . . .