Obama's Appointments and Disappointments link to old file on Bush appointments
Chief of Staff
Food and Agriculture
Intelligence
Rahm Emmanuel. While serving as a House member, Rahm lived rent-free for five years in a D.C. apartment owned by Stanley Greenberg, consultant to BP and prime architect of BP's rebranding campaign. As chairperson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rahm steered hundreds of thousands of dollars of polling contracts to Greenberg.
Chief Agriculture Negotiator at the office of the United States Trade Representative
Islam Siddiqui, former registered lobbyist for CropLife America (whose members include Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow). "Siddiqui Instrumental in Drafting First Proposed Organic Standards that Would Have Allowed Toxic Sludge, GMOs and Irradiated Food to be Labeled “Organic”. More on CropLife America and the 98 Organizations which opposed Obama's nomination of Siddiqui here.
Senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA (Food Safety Czar)
Michael Taylor, Former Monsanto attorney. While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90's, he oversaw and approved the use of Monsanto'sgenetically engineered bovine growth hormone injected into cows to increase milk supply, despite it being banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. He left that position and became a Vice President and chief lobbyist at Monsanto, a position which has been scrubbed from his official FDA bio. More detailed info here and here.
USAID Director and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics
Rajiv Shah, former agricultural programs director for the Gates Foundation and board member of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), both pro-GMO organizations which work closely with Monsanto. "AGRA used funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to write twenty-three grants for projects in Kenya. Twelve of those recipients are involved in research in genetically modified agriculture, development or advocacy. About 79 percent of funding in Kenya involves biotech in one way or another." And, English says, "so far, we have found over $100 million in grants to organizations connected to Monsanto." (from the Organics Consumers Association.)
Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper, who helped sell the Iraq invasion in 2003 by claiming illicit weapons material ''unquestionably'' had been moved out of Iraq into Syria. Obama on clapper: "He possesses a quality I value in all my advisers: a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know even if it's not what we want to hear." Clapper has been responsible, under Obama, for overseeing torture techniques from "the notorious Appendix M to the Army Field Manual, which the Pentagon itself acknowledges is not compliant with the Geneva Conventions standards for prisoners of war."