Soros-Backed Group
that Helped Sell Iran Nuclear Deal Funds Media, DC Think Tanks
by Aaron Klein 20 May 2016
TEL AVIV – A group that advocates a nuclear-free world
and that was identified earlier this month by the White House as central in
helping to market the Iran nuclear deal to the news media has funded National Public Radio since 2005, an Associated
Press investigation has revealed.
Think tanks funded by the Ploughshares Fund include the Arms Control
Association, Brookings Institution, and the Atlantic
Council, the AP reported.
Unmentioned by the AP is that the Ploughshares Fund is financed
by billionaire George
Soros’ Open Society Institute.
The involvement of Ploughshares in selling the Iran
agreement to the public was revealed in an extensive New York Times Magazine profile of Obama’s
deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes titled,
“The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru.” The article
contains interviews with Rhodes and scores of top Obama administration officials.
Robert Malley, senior director at the National
Security Council, explained the genesis and execution of the
marketing plan to sell the Iran deal.
Malley explained “experts” were utilized to create
an “echo chamber” that disseminated administration claims about Iran to
“hundreds of often-clueless reporters” in the news media.
In the spring of last year, legions of arms-control
experts began popping up at think tanks and on social media, and then
became key sources for hundreds of often-clueless reporters. “We created
an echo chamber,” he admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught
of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. “They were saying
things that validated what we had given them to say.”
Rhodes told Times reporter David Samuels that
the marketing strategy took advantage of the “absence of rational
discourse” and utilized outside groups, including Ploughshares.
When I suggested that all this dark metafictional play
seemed a bit removed from rational debate over America’s future role in
the world, Rhodes nodded. “In the absence of rational discourse, we are going
to discourse the [expletive] out of this,” he said. “We had test drives to
know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how
to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever
else. So we knew the tactics that worked.” He is proud of the way he sold
the Iran deal. “We drove them crazy,” he said of the deal’s opponents.
Now the AP has revealed the extent of Ploughshares
funding to NPR
and to influential foreign policy U.S. think tanks.
Besides $100,000 to NPR last year, the AP reports:
Ploughshares has funded NPR’s coverage of national
security since 2005, the radio network said. Ploughshares reports show at least
$700,000 in funding over that time. All grant descriptions since 2010
specifically mention Iran.
“It’s a valued partnership, without any conditions from
Ploughshares on our specific reporting, beyond the broad issues of national and
nuclear security, nuclear policy, and nonproliferation,” NPR said in an emailed
statement. “As with all support received, we have a rigorous editorial firewall
process in place to ensure our coverage is independent and is not influenced by
funders or special interests.”
Ploughshare’s president was interviewed on NPR, the AP
reports:
Another who appeared on NPR is Joseph Cirincione, Ploughshares’
president. He spoke about the negotiations on air at least twice last year. The
station identified Ploughshares as an NPR funder one of those times; the other
time, it didn’t.
Cirincione was an adviser on nuclear issues to Obama’s 2008
presidential campaign.
Ploughshares documents show funding last year to other
groups to “advance its nonproliferation agenda,” according to the AP.
The Arms Control Association got $282,500; the Brookings
Institution, $225,000; and the Atlantic Council, $182,500. They received money
for Iran-related analysis, briefings and media outreach, and non-Iran nuclear
work.
Other groups, less directly defined by their independent
nuclear expertise, also secured grants.
J-Street, the liberal Jewish political action
group, received $576,500 to advocate for the deal. More than $281,000 went to
the National Iranian American Council.
Princeton University
got $70,000 to support former Iranian ambassador and nuclear spokesman
Seyed Hossein Mousavian’s “analysis, publications and policymaker engagement on
the range of elements involved with the negotiated settlement of Iran’s nuclear
program.”
Ploughshares says it has awarded hundreds of grants
“whose aggregate value exceeded $60 million.”
A previous investigation by this reporter showed
Ploughshares has partnered with a who’s who of the radical left, including Code Pink,
the pro-Palestinian J Street, United for Peace & Justice, the U.S. Campaign
to End the Israeli
Occupation and Demo,
a progressive economic advisory group where President Obama’s controversial
former green
jobs czar, Van
Jones, has served on the board.
The group says its mission
is to support the “smartest minds and most effective organizations to reduce
nuclear stockpiles, prevent new nuclear states, and increase global security.”
Ploughshares is in turn financed
by Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Buffett Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York,
the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Another Ploughshares donor
is the Tides
Foundation, which is one of the largest funders of the radical left.
Tides is funded by Soros.
Ploughshares has donated
to the Institute
for Policy Studies, which calls for massive slashes in the U.S.
defense budget.
It has also financed
the International
Crisis Group, a small organization that boasts Soros on its
board.
National Security Council
Morton H. Halperin
was a senior staff for the National Security Council, a senior
fellow at the Center for American
Progress, is the chairman for J
Street, and a senior adviser for the Open
Society Foundations.
Note: Joseph A. Sestak
Jr. was a director for defense policy for the National Security
Council, and a director at the Ploughshares
Fund.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress, Demos, the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and the Tides
Foundation.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a director at the Drug Policy Alliance, a board member for the International Crisis Group, was a supporter for the Center for American Progress, the
chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a benefactor
for the National Public Radio (NPR).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, Demos, the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think
tank), the National Public Radio (NPR), the Tides Foundation, and the International Rescue Committee.
Van Jones was a senior
fellow at the Center for American Progress, is the founder of Demos,
and the founder of Green for All.
Arnold Hiatt was
a funder for Demos, and a director at J Street.
Jodie
Evans is a director at
the Drug Policy Alliance, a co-founder
for Codepink, and a trustee at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Robert Malley
was the Middle East & North Africa program director for the International Crisis Group, and a director
for democracy, human rights & humanitarian affairs for the National Security Council.
Joseph Cirincione
was the VP for the Center for American Progress,
a director for nonproliferation for the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and is the president of the
Ploughshares Fund.
Shirley M.
Tilghman is a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and was the president of Princeton University.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ted Turner
is a co-chairman for the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), the founder of the Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and the founder of CNN.
Louise
S. Sams is the EVP & general counsel for the Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and a trustee at Princeton University.
Paul
R. Krugman is an economist at Princeton
University, and a columnist for the New
York Times.
Vivian Schiller
was the Russian interpreter for the Turner
Broadcasting System Inc., an SVP for the CNN Productions, and the president & CEO for the National Public Radio (NPR).
Warren
E. Buffett is an adviser for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and a friend of Byron D. Trott.
David
A. Hamburg is an adviser for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
a director of the Office of Global Issues, director of the Office of Global
Issues for the National Security Council,
was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), a board member for the International
Crisis Group, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), a trustee at the Rockefeller
Foundation, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the
United States in war)
Rockefeller
Foundation was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Tides Foundation.
Ann
M. Fudge is a trustee at the Rockefeller
Foundation, and a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Rockefeller
Brothers Fund was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (think tank).
Vali
Nasr is a trustee at the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
Lee H. Hamilton is
an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a co-author
of Without Precedent.
Benjamin J.
Rhodes is a co-author of Without
Precedent, and a deputy national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Byron D. Trott is
a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a friend of Warren E.
Buffett.
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Newton N. Minow
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and an honorary trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), the Arms
Control Association, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
John D.
Steinbruner is the chairman for the Arms
Control Association, and was a director of the Foreign Policy Studies
Program for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Shimon Peres was
the president of Israel, and is a
friend of Haim Saban.
Haim
Saban is a friend of Shimon Peres,
a benefactor for the Saban Center for
Middle East Policy, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Kenneth M.
Pollack is a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), was a director for Persian Gulf affairs for the National Security Council, and a senior
fellow, Middle East policy for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy.
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Antoine W. van Agtmael
is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and was a foundation chair for the National
Public Radio (NPR).
David H. Romer
was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and an assistant professor at Princeton University.
Lawrence H. Summers was a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the National Economic Council chairman for the Barack Obama administration, is a distinguished
senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, a board member for the International
Crisis Group, a director at the ONE
Campaign, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Morton H. Halperin
was a senior fellow at the Center for
American Progress, a senior staff for the National Security Council, is the chairman for J Street, a senior adviser at the Open Society Foundations, and a director at the ONE Campaign.
International
Rescue Committee is a partner with the ONE
Campaign.
Samantha Power
was a director at the International
Rescue Committee, a board member for the International Crisis Group, a senior director for multilateral
affairs for the National Security
Council, Barack Obama’s aide,
and is married to Cass R. Sunstein.
Cass R. Sunstein
is married to Samantha Power, and a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Antoine W. van
Agtmael is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and was a foundation chair for the National
Public Radio (NPR).
Kenneth M.
Pollack is a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), was a director for Persian Gulf affairs for the National Security Council, and a senior
fellow, Middle East policy for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy.
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and the National Public Radio (NPR).
George
Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society,
and a benefactor for the National Public Radio (NPR).
Antoine W. van
Agtmael is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and was a foundation chair for the National
Public Radio (NPR).
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