Monday, October 01, 2007

AEI & Freedom's Watch Seek $200 Million to Sell War on Iran

Center for Media and Democracy

The New York Times reports that Freedom’s Watch is working with the American Enterprise Institute to lobby for war with Iran. ...

“ 'If Hitler’s warnings were heeded when he wrote Mein Kampf he could have been stopped,” said Bradley Blakeman, 49, the president of Freedom’s Watch and a former deputy assistant to Mr. Bush. ...

The idea for Freedom’s Watch was hatched in March at the winter meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Manalapan, Fla., where Vice President Dick Cheney was the keynote speaker...

One benefactor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the group was hoping to raise as much as $200 million by November 2008. Raising big money 'will be easy,' the benefactor said, adding that several of the founders each wrote a check for $1 million. ... Since the group is organized as a tax-exempt organization, it does not have to reveal its donors...

Among the group’s founders are Sheldon G. Adelson, ... sixth on the Forbes Magazine list of the world’s billionaires; Mel Sembler, ... who served as the ambassador to Italy and Australia; John M. Templeton Jr., the conservative philanthropist from Bryn Mawr, Pa.; and Anthony H. Gioia, a former ambassador to Malta ... .

Mr. Sembler, who is on the board of directors of the American Enterprise Institute, said the impetus for Freedom’s Watch 'came out of A.E.I.' last winter."

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