Conflict in the CFR?(Council on Foreign Relations )

"The Council on Foreign Relations is a formidable place filled with formidable people--former Cabinet secretaries and ambassadors, current CEOs and pundits of the media elite--who've fired their reputations over the years in the foreign policy kiln," noted the February 26 Washington Post. "Even its headquarters--at Park Avenue and 68th Street in Manhattan, in a mansion once owned by a Standard Oil director--speaks of status, of power."

"High officials leaving government go to the council to roost," continues the report. "Those seeking the reverse trek use the council to launch government careers. Heads of state give speeches there. Diplomats mix it up. Journalists gather to hash over issues of the day.... And task forces meet to craft reports on pressing national and global policy." By way of full disclosure, Post staff writer Lynne Duke admitted, "this writer spoke on such a panel there 5 1/2 years ago."

This capsule description of the CFR brings to mind the comments made in an October 30, 1993 column by Post ombudsman Richard Harwood, entitled "Ruling Class Journalists," in which the council was described as "the nearest thing we have to a ruling establishment in the United States." If there is any figure whose name is "virtually synonymous with the council," it would be Henry Kissinger, observes the Post's Duke. "He and his New York-based international consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, are closely linked to two of the council's most powerful figures"--council chair Peter Peterson and ...