Monday, October 06, 2003

Iraq Stabilization Group

Condi Rice will head the Iraq Stabilization Group giving the White House more control in the affairs in Iraq. Rumsfeld, Bremer, and Powell appear to be ceding authority.

The counterterrorism group will be run by Frances F. Townsend, one of Rice's deputy.

Robert D. Blackwill, a former ambassador to India, will run the group overseeing the creation of political institutions in Iraq, as well as directing stabilization for Afghanistan.

Economic problems from oil to electricity to the distribution of a new currency will be coordinated by Gary Edson. He has been the liaison between the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. Edson serves as a deputy to both Larry Lindsey and to Rice.

He has been responsible for coordinating and integrating international economic policy with national security and foreign policy. According to the White House, he is the "sherpa," or lead U.S. coordinator, for the annual G-8 summits.

Edson, was Deputy Policy Director of the Bush-Cheney Transition, has served as Chief of Staff and General Counsel to U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills, in the Bush Administration, and as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, Kenneth W. Dam, in the Reagan Administration.

Edson graduated with honors from Stanford University with a B.A. in anthropolgy, and he received his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Chicago.

It is good to see someone in such an important position with an obviously exhaustive foundation in economic theory.