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A controversial figure who recently told (web site) the German magazine Der Spiegel that Obama is a true "citizen of the world," Talbott was accused by a former Russian spymaster at the U.N. of being a special contact of the Russian intelligence service when he served in the Clinton State Department. The charge, denied by Talbott, was included in the sensational book, Comrade J, which describes the U.N. as a base of activities for hostile foreign intelligence services.

Fascinated by such matters as Barack and Michelle Obama's wardrobe and inaugural festivities, the U.S. media seem uninterested in any of this. While Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times has written (web site) in general about the violations of Obama's promise to reveal the existence and nature of the Transition Project meetings, she has failed to provide any details about the controversial characters involved in them.

One of those characters, Schwartz, suggests the continuing influence of former Clinton National Security Adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, who became known as Sandy Burglar after he was caught stealing classified documents from the National Archives. He pleaded guilty to charges in the case in 2005, paid a fine, performed community service, but never served any jail time. He now runs a lobbying firm, Stonebridge International, representing major corporations doing business in China and other areas of the world. Stonebridge has just announced former Citigroup Chairman and CEO Charles Prince as Vice Chairman of the firm and Chairman of the firm's Board of Advisors.

Berger teamed up with Schwartz once more in 2007 to write an op-ed (web site) advocating more U.S. "global engagement"―a euphemism for more reliance on the U.N. and international organizations. Schwartz's official title under Berger at the National Security Council was senior director for multilateral and humanitarian affairs. After leaving the Clinton Administration he went to work for the United Nations.

Not surprisingly, one of Schwartz's associates at the U.S. Connect Fund is Heather Hamilton, a former top official of CGS, where she lobbied against John Bolton's nomination as Ambassador to the U.N. and for U.S. acceptance of the International Criminal Court and the U.N.'s controversial U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

While publicly exhibiting caution regarding the ICC, apparently because of the opposition to the court by U.S. military leaders, Obama has said that he supports Senate ratification of UNCLOS, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

"As president," he told the American Society of International Law, "I will make it my priority to build bipartisan consensus behind ratification of such treaties."

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