Published on July 11th, 2010 | by Eli Clifton
24Former Bush Administration Official Heads Up Latest Astroturf Group Pushing For Attack on Iran
No sooner did I write about the growth industry in astroturf groups promoting a U.S. or Israeli military attack on Iran than a new one sprung up on CNN. Surprisingly, the partisan connections behind this group are so thinly veiled that a two-minute examination of their domain name registration uncovered ties to the Republican Party and the George W. Bush administration.
The new group, The Emergency Committee for Israel, appears to have made its public debut on July 6th when Campbell Brown—who ironically is married to Dan Senor, who serves on the four-man board of the neoconservative The Foreign Policy Initiative—hosted Noah Pollak, its “executive director,” to discuss Obama’s recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the threat allegedly posed by Iran’s nuclear program. A transcript of their discussion can be found here.
A look at the group’s website tells us that it’s “coming soon,” but an examination of the domain name’s registration is quite telling.
The domain is registered to:
Hoover, Margaret
Margaret Hoover & Associates, LLC
590 Madison Avenue
2104
New York City, New York 10022
United States
(212) 521-4181 Fax –
Margaret Hoover’s bio at Margaret Hoover & Associates reads:
Ms. Hoover held a White House appointment in the Bush Administration where she served as the Associate Director in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. A veteran of two Presidential efforts, Ms. Hoover worked on President Bush’s re-election campaign and for Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid. Other political experience includes working in the White House Office of Management and Budget, as a senior adviser to the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and deputy press secretary for Florida Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart on Capitol Hill.
Hoover’s front man, Pollak, who writes for Commentary Magazine and has served as the assistant editor of the Jerusalem-based, Shalem Center’s Azure magazine, made it abundantly clear where his, and presumably Hoover’s, political views on Israel and Iran lie.
Pollak repeated the talking points that the recent meeting between Obama and Netanyahu represented the end of the White House’s “tough love” toward Israel and suggested that the Palestinian leadership’s “fractiousness and powerlessness [!]” made progress toward any kind of peace process unlikely.
On Iran, Pollak went straight for the recent money quote delivered last week by the UAE ambassador to the US:
BROWN: Noah, Netanyahu did seem pleased with the administration’s efforts to go after Iran’s nuclear program. In his words, he said these efforts have teeth, they bite. But are the U.S. and Israel really, in your view, on the same page when it comes to Iran?
POLLAK: I would suspect not, although this is one of those issues where there is a huge amount of private discussion that goes on, although it was very interesting to see today in a story that just came out the ambassador of to [sic] the UAE came out and openly advocated for military attacks on the Iranian nuclear program.
So, I think there is a developing consensus that something needs to be done and that it would be very, very bad if the Iranians went nuclear.
The UAE foreign minister has said that the ambassador’s comments were taken out of context and didn’t represent the views of his government, but that hasn’t stopped various foreign policy hawks from jumping on the remarks as a green light from the Arab world for a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
It’s pretty clear that Pollak and Hoover, along with the people behind Keep Israel Safe and Stop Iran Now, are part of the extensive neoconservative echo chamber which seeks to create the appearance of a diverse coalition of grassroots groups calling on the US to prevent Iran from going nuclear by any means necessary.
Things as simple as looking at the registration on a domain name reveal that these groups are part of an intensely partisan (both Republican and Likudist) campaign to push the U.S. into a military conflict with Iran. And CNN, which just last week summarily fired a senior editor for a tweet praising the late Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, is amplifying their message. (It’s worth noting that David Schenker, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near Policy, also praised Fadlallah as “the most credible moral, political, and theological alternative to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia,” arguing that the U.S. will regret his passing. It’s okay when an affiliate of the Israel Lobby says it; but it’s something else for someone in the mainstream media.)
About the Author
Eli Clifton is a reporter at the American Independent News Network. He formerly wrote on U.S. national security at ThinkProgress.org and reported on U.S. foreign policy as well as trade and finance at the Washington bureau of IPS. His articles have also appeared on Right Web and in the South China Morning Post. Eli has a B.A. in Political Science from Bates College and an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics.
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CNN appears to be under the control of Likudniks. The US is being pushed and dragged into a War on Iran, or at least into supporting and assisting in an Israeli attack on Iran. The web of neocon interconnected organizations, their websites, and their media-savvy people will likely create enough of a drumbeat and rock-slide effect to roll the US into such an endeavor. Remember, they were successful in the case of Iraq, so they have a track record.
But Iran is far from being Iraq or even Iraq plus Afghanistan. Any war perpetrated on Iran would likely involve Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and other not yet visible Shiite parts of the Middle East and South Asia. The potential for calamitous blow-back and unpredictable side paths is huge.
Yes, lets just let Iran get the bomb, and then cry over another million dead jews. Much easier than actually doing anything that would offend our fascist muslim brothers.
The multi-nuke, nuclear control treaty non-signing Israel, wants to attack the no-nuke, treaty signing Iran. This is totally absurd! How stupid do they think we are?
A huge, if somewhat less apopolyptic issue, is the claim that Social Security is “broke” and that promised and paid for pensions must be cut. But the missing trillions can be traced to the “bailout” which included institutions who had never paid for FDIC insurance, or even any tax their bonus grabbing billionaires could avoid. Yet no significant effort is made to reclaim this loot, only new regulations to prevent future meltdowns.
@Jim Smith,
Prove your claim that Iran wants to have nukes! Do you remember your lies about Iraq’s WMDs. Yet, are you crying wolves about Iran? Only fools trust liars such as yourself.
I cannot help feeling that it is not just CNN but the entire media system, and indeed the entire USA, that is under the control of either Likudniks or fairly intimate fellow-travellers thereof. It seems to me that it is no exaggeration to say roundly that the USA in its entirety is under Jewish control of one variety or another. Ten years ago, it would have been a safe assumption that only “neo-Nazis” would say such a thing, but I regard myself as a marxist, and I am prepared to say it too, largely on the basis of events over the last three months alone, which have shown an absolute and obvious submission of the entire US system to even minor Israeli dictates which was not so obvious previously.
Jim Smith: Stop spreading ignorance: Iran gets the bomb (or several bombs), and is surrounded by the U.S. and Israel with hundreds of nukes. Any offensive moves by Iran are countered by 100′s of nuclear bombs so Iran will be very careful indeed. Much more careful than a certain middle eastern country that has been killing people with impunity and that needs to obey international law.
Stuff your immoral war-mongering: the rest of the world is tired of you, your paranoia and your little rogue State that doesn’t have borders or security because she doesn’t want them.
Its not just neocons. Its “good cop” “bad cop” politics with Obama or the former Bush administration. This is much bigger than one country. Everyone seems to forget about the other mideast “brothers” who are scared !@#$less of Iran getting a nuke. Afghanistan has 3 trillion in natural resources. The United State sure could use a shipping route. Hmmmm…….Iran looks like a cozy place since Afg is land locked. But then you have Iran chanting death to America every Friday in rallies for the last 25+ years and wants to wipe Israel off the map and states this publically. Sounds like lunitic fringe to me.
What the heck, lets kill 2 birds with one stone. Get rid of an old adversary who is rapidly expanding its influence in the middle east, and lets boost our economy and make Afganistan a 51st state and keep all the resources. Might as well. I hate it when we (the US) kick so much ass and then give it back to the people. We are tyrants remember??? If we are going to be accused of imperialism…might as well fit the mold and live up to the reputation. We are just 2 darn nice sometimes.
Yeah fine Jill Smith.
Lets bomb Iran and then cry for 10 million Americans and everybody else within a thousand miles of the first bomb landing in Iran
@Ben:
“Get rid of an old adversary who is rapidly expanding its influence in the middle east”
Hmmm. For the sake of controlling Iran’s petroleum, the U.S. engineered the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected head of state and installed a dictator in his place. Iran is therefore our “old adversary”.
How stupid are you, Ben?
Guess no one has come to understand that Pollack, Ledeen, Boot, et al. are complete sociopaths. That their strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan have been conclusively and repeatedly proven to be failures has conveniently been forgotten by the mainstream media and national politicians. What is also rarely remarked upon is that their global experience in diplomacy and strategy doesn’t even approach a hill of beans. Almost all of those claiming to be neocons have led nice, orderly, shielded and subsidized lives mainly in academia or think tankia. Perhaps if they had worked an honest day in their lives, they may have developed a basic understanding of what most of us are truly concerned about: bread on the table and a roof over our heads, a non-threatening and promising future and an absence of global conflict. I heartily agree with John Shubert (above) – any offensive moves initiated by Iran will be countered with an attack from Israel, the US and Europe which will turn their nation into radioactive marmalade. They may be slow, but their not stupid.
Only a child could believe that Iran doesn’t want a nuclear weapon, or at least the capability to swiftly go nuclear. But so what? Deterrence works. An A-bomb in Tehran’s hands does not mean “a million dead Jews.” That’s ridiculous.
I still don’t see a US-Iran war in the cards. I see a possible Israeli move in 2011, especially if the Obama is severly weakened by the 2010 elections. But a US war on Iran would be too costly. So long as Gates is SecDef. it won;t happen. And it probably won’t happen after he leaves.
The Israel Lobby (made up of Jews and non-Jews) has enormous influence over US policy. However, to say that “. . . the USA . . . is under Jewish control” is more than an exaggeration. It’s an invitation to Jew-baiting. This site would be perfectly justified if it chose not to publish such remarks.
Ben Wrote: “Everyone seems to forget about the other mideast “brothers” who are scared !@#$less of Iran getting a nuke.” ONLY other ME countries aren’t worried about Iran, they keep saying this, but the Zionists keep up the self serving lie.
“Afghanistan has 3 trillion in natural resources. The United State sure could use a shipping route. Hmmmm…….Iran looks like a cozy place since Afg is land locked.” UMMM, did you miss that the US was snubbed throughout Iraq? We were resented and got no oil contracts, save in Kurdistan. Further, I don’t know where you’ve been but shipping routes aren’t exactly open like the Autobahn.
“But then you have Iran chanting death to America every Friday in rallies for the last 25+ years and wants to wipe Israel off the map and states this publically.” Iran has never threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Again, you might check what Juan Cole says about this over on his informed comment blog. Your interpretation comes from MEMRI, an Israeli (Likud) group.
I don’t know if you care, are earnest or are just a sophist. But, your facts are poorly chosen and reveal you’re either a fool or taking notes from fools.
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R. Berkely: As a fellow marxist, I would like to point out that you are too focused on one facet of the puzzle. There is not one conspiracy, but many many many small ones, each fighting for power. Of course there is a neo-con conspiracy aiming for war, but there are many other conspiracies in the world. Israel just went up against the turkish one, par example. Petraeus and his mil. boys are firmly not controlled by anyone, ironicaly the US armed forces may save democracy through lobbying.
You must read Eric A Brill’s investigative report on Iran’s 2009 election….must….it is shockingly revealing
Harold Pinter, the Noble Laureate in his historical acceptance message said something like “..how many women and children do you have to kill to earn the label of a war criminal…”
How many grand significant and decisive LIES the neocons should spread to deserve the label of “enemy of humanity”
Iraqi WMD, Iraqi mobile chemical labs, uranium ore from niger, ties of Al-Queda and Saddam.. etc etc……..
Those lies were instrumental for taking US to war with Iraq.
Who are these ruthless warmongers who never apologized for their lies…..who never show any sign of remorse for grand historic tragedy of war with Iraq.
Now their biggest lie ever, on Iran, is getting exposed by American researchers.. Read this a 38 page report by Eric A Brill http://iran2009presidentialelection.blogspot.com/ or watch the videos of the statisticians of University of Maryland (WPO) in this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKG-hUyk1_0
In that video notice how a Washington Post top statistician deceptively tries to belittle the professional assertions of the WPO statisticians when he says “ …in covering the Iranian election results we concluded there are many signs of manipulations and outright fraud in Iran’s disputed election results…” Concluded? Outright fraud? How come he didn’t provide a single evidence of such “distinct” and very “consequential” accusation?
It is like evil aliens are indoctrinating the sheeple to destroy themselves.
Iranians (and many others) are doomed ….sanctions are acts of war….can’t you see another “shock and awe” on the near horizons?
With shame and anger I must agree with Rowan Berkeley. Obama’s and Hillary’s shameless kow-towing to Mr. Yahoo is disgraceful and more importantly dishonorable. Congress and several U.S. administrations have allowed Israeli supporters to seize control of much of our govt.
Eric Brill is a thoughtful guy with a good prose style. The piece mentioned, though well-written, might be rather heavy going for some people. But Brill does his best to keep to the facts. I don’t believe all his conclusions are necessarily iron-clad, but he’s a breath of fresh air compared to most of the scribblers on both sides of this particular issue.
That Domain listing changed to a privacy proxy listing 1 day after this post was published.
Now it also has another nameserver but the old one is hosted on IP 205.186.160.33 which is shared with COMMITTEEFORISRAEL.COM and that is registered to
Pollak, Noah
1317 Spear St.
South Burlington, Vermont 05403
United States
(202) 421-4092 Fax —
A quick google of the phone number given leads to a Porsche owners forum and a poster named Noah who gives his location as “Special Retardville” Not sure what he means by that.
Warmonger for Israel = Own a Porsche.
Erik,
You wrote “That Domain listing changed to a privacy proxy listing 1 day after this post was published.
Now it also has another nameserver but the old one is hosted on IP 205.186.160.33….”
Would you tell me how to find domain listings, IP addresses, et cetera?
I have often wondered when reading articles and especially comment sections if there was a coordinated effort to sway public opinion through the appearance of a large consensus.
Regards,
Charles
That ain’t a fax number, call it, I told the fellow who answered that Porsche supported the holocaust. Funny, come on prank callers, give em a ring!
http://domainwhitepages.com/
domain white pages reveals the publicly available info on domain names.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,706445,00.html Der Spiegel has another article showing Arab/Israeli accord against Iran.
Of course the UAE Aspen speech is rehashed, then Jeff Goldberg and Henri-Levy. So, the American puppet regimes, and Israel are on the same page? I don’t buy it.
American foreign policy toward other nations, betray your people/principals for US. How long will we be able to lean on the world? Might we be setting ourselves up to be utterly betrayed? When you push, push, push, sometimes the pushee steps aside, leaving the pusher to fall flat on his face.
Thank you Mr. Allen, and have a great day.
Charles
If the United States has any brains at all it would start the bombing campaign on Iran sooner than later.
As each day that passes the probability of increasing collateral damage increases adding more waste to what will be a very messy project. This is the most important reason to get going asap on this necessary action. With Turkey and Hamas feeding Hizballah with ever more sophisticated weapons ,not the slingshots and rocks the United States was selling to fund our own agenda in the middle east the “Green Movement” The goal is to have something left of Israel after a vicious counter attack of many missiles from all directions.Every day we wait we are losing ground.There will be many unforeseen situations that form as a result of such an attack.We have many prime targets of Iranian interest within striking distance of Iran.
Another reason for bombing Iran right now would be the Iran Bushehr reactor. This is definitely a priority target and to save a radioactive nightmare we need to hit this facility before the fuel rods are in place. Just think of the Chernobyl Russian Meltdown in 1986 and the recent fires that burned through the area further releasing more radioactive fallout.
Another reason for bombing Iran is that it is a lesser evil to bomb Iran than it is too let Iran have a bomb.These Iranian extremist will continue efforts to have nuclear weapons and when they acquire the weapons they will detonate a suit case style devise between New York and Boston compliments of the Messianic Apocalyptic Islamic Regime.
God bless the USA and I hope we get this messy problem resolved soon.LETS GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!