Neo Con Who?

The Neocons have become a catch phrase of modern American Politics. But who are they? The PNAC seems to be the hitching post for this group of "movers and shakers." But who are they?

Building on their letter of June 3, 1997 we can clearly see the signatories. Here's a little about them:

(Biographical Information adapted from www.disinfopedia.org - Center for Media & Democracy, Madison, WI)

Elliott Abrams
Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs.He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush along with a number of other Iran-Contra defendants on Christmas night 1992.

Gary Bauer
President of American Values. Founded Campaign for Working Families in 1996. 2000 Presidential candidate. Sec. of Education 1985 - ?

William J. Bennett
Co-director of Empower America and EMPOWER.org. He was formerly Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan and Director of National Drug Control Policy under George Herbert Walker Bush.

Jeb Bush
Governor of Florida (1999 – 2007), brother of President George W Bush.

Dick Cheney
Vice President of the United States 2001 – present. Secretary of Defense under Bush I. Chief of Staff under Ford. Congressman from Wyoming. Member, Council on Foreign Relations. Former CEO of Halliburton Company. Former Fellow with American Enterprise Institute.

Eliot A. Cohen
Professor and director at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, with an emphasis on strategic studies, the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Iraq, arms control, and NATO. Cohen has worked with the Secretary of Defense and taught at the U.S. Naval War College.

Midge Decter
Journalist. Donald Rumsfeld biographer. Married to Norman Podhoretz.

Paula Dobriansky
Under Secretary, Global Affairs. Former Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington Office of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Steve Forbes
President and CEO of Forbes, Inc. and President and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine. Former Presidential Candidate (2000).

Aaron Friedberg
Professor, Princeton University. Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar.

Francis Fukuyama
Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University

Frank Gaffney
President, CEO, and founder of the Center for Security Policy. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (87) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under Richard N. Perle (83-87).

Fred C. Ikle
Scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Korea Specialist. Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Ronald Reagan administration and Director for the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1973-1977).

Donald Kagan
Cofounder. Senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Hillhouse Professor of History and Classics at Yale University.

Zalmay Khalilzad
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. Headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Defense Department in 2000 and has been a Counselor to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.

I. Lewis Libby
Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Most recently managing partner of the Washington office of the international law firm of Dechert, Price & Rhoads.

Norman Podhoretz
Former editor-in-chief of "Commentary" (1960-95). From 1981-87, Podhoretz served with the U.S. Information Agency. He is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Dan Quayle
Former Vice President of the United States under George H.W. Bush. Member of the Board of Freedom House.

Peter W. Rodman
Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs in the Department of Defense.

Stephen P. Rosen
Beton Michael Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard University.

Henry S. Rowen
Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Otherwise affiliated with Stanford.

Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense.

Vin Weber
Co-founder and co-director of Empower America. He is currently a partner in Clark & Weinstock and co-director of the Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group.

George Weigel
Catholic Theologin. Senior Fellow, John M. Olin Chair in Religion and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC).

Paul Wolfowitz
Deputy Secretary of Defense. Author of “The Bush Doctrine.” Former Dean at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.

Not a signatory, but…

William Kristol
Chairman and cofounder. Editor of The Weekly Standard. Former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dan Quayle (89-93) and to Secretary of Education William Bennett during the Ronald Reagan administration.