Leon Panetta is currently the US Secretary of Defense. That means he’s in charge of America’s armed forces. What did he do before assuming that important role? From February 2009 to June 2011 he ran the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Yesterday Panetta gave a speech. You can read all about it at the National Defense magazine’s website (backup link). The occasion was:

a reception hosted in his honor by the Environmental Defense Fund at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. [bold added]

I’ve written about the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) before. When UK activists released their No Pressure video – in which school kids uninterested in reducing their carbon footprint are blown to bloody pulp – the EDF was among those green groups that failed to condemn the film (backup link).

A year ago I observed that the EDF is enormous, well-funded, and influential:

take a look at its list of staff experts. There are 130 names on that list. They have a program manager for “Latin America & Caribbean” and a separate one for Cuba. They have seven attorneys, eight economists, a recreational fisheries specialist, and a vice-president of corporate sponsorships.

The EDF likes to paint itself as an underdog, fighting the good fight against corporate giants. But any group that’s wining and dining the Secretary of Defense – who just happens to be the former director of the CIA – is no grassroots operation.

The EDF is part of the establishment. Period. Full stop.

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h/t Tom Nelson

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