http://freebeacon.com/chuck-hagels-shadow-campaign/ OH! I JUST NOTICED THE GIVE TO AMALAK STREET AS WELL
http://www.ploughshares.org/what-we-do/grant_search?page=41 J Street
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To use a pro-Israel frame to educate members of Congress on the dangers a military confrontation with Iran could have for both Israel and the United States and to promote political solutions to the nuclear impasse. 07/30/2012 $30,000
To support efforts to educate members of Congress on the consequences that preemptive use of military force against Iran's nuclear program may have on Israel.<br /> 11/01/2011 $25,000
J Street Education Fund
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To use a pro-Israel frame to educate members of Congress on the dangers a military confrontation with Iran could have for both Israel and the United States and to promote political solutions to the nuclear impasse. 07/30/2012 $30,000
To organize a speaker tour that brings an Israeli perspective on the nuclear impasse with Iran to U.S. policymakers, media and the public. 07/30/2012 $15,000
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Chuck Hagel’s Shadow Campaign
Pro-Iran group has donated $2.1M to pro-Hagel nonprofits, media outlets
Hagel AP
BY: Adam Kredo
January 25, 2013 11:59 am
Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel is deeply embedded with a network of pro-Iran foreign policy groups that have lobbied to lift economic sanctions and boost U.S. engagement with Tehran.
Hagel sits
http://www.ploughshares.org/who-we-are/board on the board of Ploughshares Fund,
http://freebeacon.com/public-radio-pay-to-play/ a progressive foundation that has granted more than $2 million to organizations that employ some of Hagel’s most outspoken advocates, who favor lifting sanctions on Iran, oppose military action against its nuclear program, and hope to weaken the U.S.-Israel alliance.
Organizations that have received donations from Ploughshares include the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the Center for American Progress (CAP), J Street, the National Security Network (NSN), and the Truman National Security Project, among others.
These individuals and organizations have worked closely with Hagel, a former Republican Nebraska senator, to oppose military action against Iran and to undermine pro-Israel initiatives aimed at bolstering the security of the Jewish state.
These same groups are now waging a media campaign to ensure their long time ally becomes the Pentagon’s top official, a posting that would put Hagel in charge of developing plans for a possible military strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
NIAC, an advocacy group long suspected of concealing its illicit ties to the Iranian regime, has emerged as perhaps the most vocal defender of Hagel’s nomination as it pertains to Iran.
http://freebeacon.com/niac-loses-defamation-suit/The group has received more than $600,000 in grants from Ploughshares since 2007.
“Hagel’s prospective nomination should never have been controversial in the first place,” NIAC President Trita Parsi recently wrote in the Huffington Post. “Hagel is a highly respected military mind who served both in the military and in the Senate with dignity and courage.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/chuck-hagel-defense-secretary_b_2371332.htmlParsi went on to slam “neoconservatives” and pro-Israel activists for challenging Hagel’s nomination and said that Hagel, who has championed direct negotiations with Iran, would lead the charge to prevent America from attacking Tehran’s nuclear sites.
“On Iran, his presence in the Obama administration would inject a much-needed dose of clear-sighted realism and strategic thinking,” Parsi wrote. “He would provide Obama’s national security team with the patience needed to ensure that America doesn’t commit another strategic mistake such as Iraq.”
Parsi has also attacked Hagel’s critics in various news reports.
http://forward.com/articles/168959/chuck-hagel-failure-may-haunt-hawks/?p=allPloughshares has given NIAC hundreds of thousands of dollars to peddle “non-military approaches to resolving the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program,” as well as to increase U.S.-Tehran outreach, according to funding documents. Parsi did not disclose his relationship with Ploughshares in his pro-Hagel writings.
The President Barack Obama-aligned Center for American Progress, or CAP, has also rushed to Hagel’s defense. It has received more than $300,000 from Ploughshares, including $250,000 for “an expanded initiative on Iran aimed at countering support for military action” against Iran
http://www.ploughshares.org/what-we-do/grant_search?page=2&grants_issue_tid[tids]=0&grants_geography_tid[tids]=0&DateApproved_TurnedDown[min][date]=&DateApproved_TurnedDown[ma SEE BOTTOM OF PAGE R GO TO TOP LINK OF ARTICLE SINCE MY LINK DOESN'T WORK
CAP, like NIAC, has publicly referred to Hagel as an “uncontroversial choice” despite outcry from lawmakers and Jewish leaders who maintain that Hagel is anti-Israel due to his controversial comments about the so-called “Jewish lobby.”
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/01/07/1400591/hagel-nominated/?mobile=ncCAP has also claimed that Hagel is stridently pro-Israel.
“The Nebraska Republican has a history of strong support for Israel, as this blog recently noted,” the CAP Action Fund wrote on its ThinkProgress blog earlier this month.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/01/06/1403301/lindsey-graham-lobs-disingenuous-attacks-on-chuck-hagel/The National Security Network, a progressive foreign policy group that has decried all talk of military intervention in Iran, has defended Hagel on MSNBC and elsewhere. It received about $100,000 from Ploughshares in 2011.
http://nsnetwork.org/silencing-the-drumbeats/ http://nsnetwork.org/amid-tensions-with-iran-%E2%80%9Cno-need-for-hysteria-and-panic%E2%80%9D/Hagel “has a really close, personal relationship with the president and that’s clearly very, very important to this president,” NSN Executive Director Heather Hurlburt said earlier this month on MSNBC’s “The Last Word.” “He’s also just been, you know, not in the pocket of the defense industry as, frankly, some of our intellectuals in both parties have.”
Hurlburt also took to the pages of U.S. News and World Report to lavish praise on Hagel’s “mainstream” foreign policy views. She did not disclosure her relationship with Ploughshares in these writings.
Additionally, the liberal fringe group J Street has emerged as the sole Jewish community group to lobby on Hagel’s behalf.
Ploughshares gave J Street $100,000 between 2011 and 2012 to “lobby Congress against the use of military force on Iran.”
J Street has been on the offense since the first rumors of Hagel’s nomination. The group has tried to convince a skeptical Jewish community that Hagel is sufficiently pro-Israel, yet it has not disclosed its relationship to Ploughshares.
Hagel will serve as a “valued voice of reason in Obama’s cabinet,” according to the Ploughshares-funded J Street, which has long lobbied to increase U.S. engagement with Tehran and weaken America’s alliance with Israel.
http://jstreet.org/blog/post/hagel-will-be-valued-voice-of-reason-in-obama-cabinet_1Additionally, J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami told USA Today earlier this month that Hagel appreciates “the appropriate uses and limitations” of U.S. power.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/01/07/obama-hagel-breannan-defense-secretary-cia/1813849/J Street and NIAC were also part of 2009 plot to torpedo Obama’s appointment of Dennis Ross as an Iran envoy. The groups opposed Ross because of his tough stance on Tehran.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/01/07/obama-hagel-breannan-defense-secretary-cia/1813849/ http://www.politico.com/static/PPM138_091113_jan.htmlPloughshares also partners with the Truman National Security Project, which received at least $310,000 in part to “counter calls for military action against on Iran.”
http://trumanproject.org/Truman has united with the Center for National Policy in recent weeks to bolster Hagel’s nomination, according to reports.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/01/10/new_progressive_foreign_policy_alliance_backs_hagelMoreover, Truman founding President Rachel Kleinfeld penned a pro-Hagel opinion piece in AOL Defense this month. She did not disclose her relationship to Ploughshares in the piece.
http://trumanproject.org/about/people/staff/rachel-kleinfeld/Iranian opposition leaders and experts warned that Hagel has aligned himself with dangerous pro-Tehran players.
“The nomination of Chuck Hagel is alarming for the future of U.S. foreign policy,” said Saba Farzan, a senior fellow and head of Iran research at the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin. “At the forefront within the debate happening in the US’s capital is that groups like NIAC cheer for Mr. Hagel.”
http://www.mideastfreedomforum.org/index.php?id=88&no_cache=1&L=1“Now, whatever NIAC is it certainly is not an organization of true freedom for Iran,” Farzan said. “As a matter of fact, Chuck Hagel and NIAC appear to be soul mates—both oppose sanctions until this very day, both have opposed classifying the [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps] as a terrorist group, both have a very anti-Israel standpoint and both advocate for dialogue with a regime that is using every second of those talks, going on for more than three decades, to brutalize its own innocent people and to act against U.S. national security.”
Hagel’s nomination has also been embraced by Tehran.
“Iran is excited about this nomination,” said Saeed Ghasseminejad, spokesman for the Iranian Liberal Students and Graduates association.
“When Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson was asked about Hagel’s nomination he replied that Tehran hoped the appointment of Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. defense secretary would lead to ‘practical changes’ in Washington’s foreign policy,” Ghasseminejad said. “His appointment undermines US effort to stop Iran’s nuclear problem.”
“[Iran] sees itself in a holy war against Israel. Iran sees Hagel’s appointment as a sign of decreasing support for Israel in D.C,” Ghasseminejad said.
Other far left recipients of Ploughshares’ funds have quickly leaped to Hagel’s defense in the weeks since the president selected him.
Media Matters for America (MMFA), the left-leaning media watchdog group that once employed purveyor of anti-Semitic language, M.J. Rosenberg, has touted Hagel in the press since benefiting from a nearly $100,000 cash infusion courtesy of Ploughshares.
http://freebeacon.com/mmfa-dumps-mj/MMFA senior fellow Eric Boehlert lashed out at Hagel’s critics in the Huffington Post this month.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/hagel-republicans-and-the_b_2448822.htmlThe Nation Institute, publisher of the liberal Nation magazine, has also celebrated Hagel’s nomination. The institute has received $30,000 from Ploughshares’ coffers.
“In almost every respect relevant to the position for which he was nominated, Hagel is remarkably well qualified,” wrote the Nation’s Eric Alterman on Jan. 8.
http://www.thenation.com/article/172074/hooray-hagelThe New America Foundation has also reported for duty in the pro-Hagel media campaign.
Steve Clemons, founder of the American strategy program at the New America Foundation, defended Hagel following a Washington Free Beacon report on his drive to shutter a popular USO port in Haifa, Israel.
http://freebeacon.com/the-saga-of-hagel-and-haifa/Clemons also defended Hagel after he was criticized for making highly inflammatory comments about gay people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/the-chuck-hagel-i-know-a_b_2348498.htmlThe New America Foundation has accepted at least $150,000 from Ploughshares.
Experts said it is clear that Ploughshares wants to help Hagel win confirmation.
“The Ploughshares Fund has in recent years been Three-Card Monte for Tehran, shifting funding from organization to organization but always for the purpose of laundering Iran’s image or advocating for its positions,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon advisor and Iran and Iraq. “With the Hagel operation, it certainly seems that Ploughshares hardly even tries to hide its political hackery.”
Ploughshares declined to make an official available for comment about Hagel.
FROM THE LINK THAT DOESN'T LINK
American Security Project
Washington, DC USA
Description Date $Amount
To recruit credible national security spokespeople to publicly support nuclear weapons budget cuts and promote diplomatic approaches to resolving tensions over Iran's nuclear program. 02/28/2012 $100,000
Americans for Informed Democracy
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To support an organizing conference and follow-up town hall-style meetings during the 2008 campaign season to engage students in discussion on the rising conflict over Iran's nuclear program. 11/05/2007 $25,000
Arms Control Association
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To support analysis, policymaker and media outreach, and leadership on reducing the risk from nuclear weapons, with an emphasis on influencing U.S. nuclear weapons policy, U.S.-Russia nuclear dialogue, U.S. policy towards Iran and related topics. 11/16/2012 $210,000
To support analysis, and policymaker and media outreach on U.S. nuclear weapons policy, U.S.-Russia nuclear dialogue, U.S. policy toward Iran and other arms control and disarmament issues.<br /> 11/01/2011 $275,000
For a series of Capitol Hill briefings aimed at countering congressional impatience with U.S.-Iran diplomacy and calls for military action. 06/05/2011 $75,000
Asia Society
New York, NY
Description Date $Amount
For a U.S.-Iran Track Two tasked with developing joint recommendations for a diplomatic strategy in Afghanistan in order to create openings over the Iranian nuclear impasse. 06/05/2011 $60,000
Atlantic Council of the United States
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To support the Iran Task Force, a high-level, bipartisan group of experts and former officials working to inform the debate on U.S. policy toward Iran. 11/15/2012 $80,000
To support the second phase of the bipartisan Iran Task Force aimed at generating analysis and outreach for improved U.S.-Iran relations. 06/05/2011 $100,000
To support a task force and series of working group meetings to develop a cadre of elite validators to encourage improved U.S.-Iran relations. 06/13/2010 $75,000
Cato Institute
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To support travel costs for two speakers to participate in a public conference exploring U.S. policy options to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.<br /> 02/22/2012 $1,000
To support a policymaker education campaign on the importance of reaching diplomatic solutions with Iran and North Korea on their respective nuclear programs. 06/07/2009 $69,700
To support policy analyses, a policy forum debate in Washington, DC, and a series of lectures and outreach activities across the country in an effort to promote a diplomatic solution with Iran over its nuclear program. 11/07/2006 $50,000
Center for a New American Security
Washington, DC USA
Description Date $Amount
To support research and analysis on U.S. policy options toward Iran and its nuclear program in order to inform debates among policymakers, media and the public. 02/28/2012 $120,000
To identify lessons learned about nuclear negotiations with North Korea and Iran, from the individuals who have directly participated in such negotiations over the past decades, and produce recommended approaches to be used by administration. 03/02/2009 $50,000
Center for American Progress Action Fund
Washington, DC
Description Date $Amount
To support efforts to produce rapid response news and analysis on Iran's nuclear program. 02/28/2012 $100,000
To hire two researchers for an expanded initiative on Iran aimed at countering support for military action. 02/16/2011 $150,000
Center for International Security and Cooperation
Stanford, CA
Description Date $Amount
To support two visiting scholars, one from Iran and one from Israel, conducting research on nuclear policy.. 06/25/2000 $40,000
Center for Media and Security, Ltd.
Millwood, NY
Description Date $Amount
For a series of media forums that address a broad array of issues associated with nuclear nonproliferation and a specific session on Iran.