By Elizabeth Leafloor | RedIceCreations.com

Image: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger leaves the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday, November 1, 2011.
Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call / Getty Image

In the search area, Kissinger was subjected to what Cole called “the full Monty” of the usual groping. “He stood with his suit jacket off, and he was wearing suspenders. They gave him the full pat-down. None of the agents seemed to know who he was,” he says.

[Kissinger said] it’s “not unusual” for him to be patted down during airport security screening. He says he wears a brace on his foot and can’t remove his shoes.
Kissinger praised agents of the federal Transportation Security Administration for their “professionalism” and “courtesy” while performing what he calls “an important job.”

Julian Borger writes in The Guardian that Americans reacted to this appointment [as head of an "independent" 9/11 investigation by Bush] with "relief mixed with nostalgic affection," while Europeans were surprised to learn Kissinger was not dead or in jail.

...let’s not forget that Kissinger and Nixon were responsible for widening the Vietnam War into Cambodia.

Let’s not forget that Kissinger ordered the FBI to tap the telephones of subordinates on the staff of the National Security Council.

Let’s not forget the covert actions that led to the overthrow of socialist President Salvador Allende of Chile and the ascension of the oppressive Augusto Pinochet.

Let’s not forget East Timor. During a state visit to Jakarta in 1975, Kissinger gave a "green light" to the Indonesian dictator Suharto to invade East Timor. Less than a day after Kissinger and President Gerald Ford left Jakarta, Suharto’s troops began their assault. According to Christopher Hitchens, a quarter of a million Timorese died as a result of the occupation by Indonesia.

[...]

Although there is no "smoking gun" evidence directly connecting Kissinger to Iran-Contra, Kissinger’s long-time associate and protégé John Negroponte - now ambassador to the UN - was in the thick of it.

Kissinger is associated with the word "Realpolitik," which means politics or national policy governed by principles of power, expansion, and expediency rather than by ideals or ethics. It’s a policy favored by powerful people interested in hanging on to their power.

It is amazing how Henry Kissinger has been able to retain his aura of invincible genius in international relations, continuing to counsel presidents, foreign governments and major global businesses, while occasionally writing lofty Op Ed pieces advising the U.S. on what it should or should not be doing next. This mind you, despite Kissinger’s own history of monumental cynicism and duplicity when he was guiding foreign policy for President’s Nixon and Ford. Indeed, it’s a tribute to the ability of mainstream American media to forgive and forget.