Plowing the American Mind

By Raschel Ehrenfeld
Saturday, May 21st, 2016 @ 1:20AM

Left: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement on Iran at the White House in Washington, January 17, 2016. Obama signed an executive order on Saturday lifting sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear program after Tehran fulfilled requirements under a nuclear agreement with world powers, the White House said. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters.

The Obama administration used the Ploughshares Fund to plow through Congress’s and the public’s perception of threats to our national security. It used this and other organizations to harrow its critics and to plant disinformation to undermine the security of the United States from within and without.

In 2015, it used the Ploughshares Fund that prides itself on supporting “ the smartest minds and most effective organizations to reduce nuclear stockpiles, prevent new nuclear states, and increase global security,” to pay off useful idiots in the press and NGOs to advocate the “White House Narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal,” and to undermine Israel’s opposition. Its board chairperson Mary Lloyd Estrie boasted in its 2015 annual report that $7,322,110 in grants paid for “the absolutely critical role that civil society played in tipping the scales towards this extraordinary policy victory.”

Creating this “echo chamber,” as Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes boasted to the New York Times Magazine, helped the White House to achieve this national and international deception. In 2015, to silence Israeli opposition, Ploughshares Fund gave the pro-Palestinian J-Street, $576,500, and more than $281,000 to the National Iranian American Council to promote the deal.

Other recipients of grants to publish analysis and briefings supporting the Obama deal with Iran, include the Arms Control Association $282,500; the Brookings Institution, $225,000; and the Atlantic Council, $182,500. 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. The ‘Gulf 2000 Project’, Columbia University received $75,000,” To support analysis, reporting and other efforts to inform the debate about Iran’s nuclear program and international diplomatic approaches to verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies ($50,000).

On its website, Ploughshares outlined its broader objective of “ensuring regular and accurate coverage of nuclear issues in reputable and strategic media outlets” such as The Guardian, Salon, the Huffington Post or Pro Publica.” Since earlier “efforts failed to generate enough coverage,” Ploughshares offered “funding reporters at The Nation and Mother Jones and a partnership with The Center for Public Integrity [!?] to create a national security desk, using web videos, podcasts, photo-based stories” and other “attention-grabbing formats” for “creatively reframing the issue.” The Center for Public Integrity’s CEO, Peter Bale, who confirmed receiving $70,000, declared “None of the funding received by Ploughshares was for coverage of the Iran deal.” Other recipients also denied the funding from Ploughshares affected their reporting, as if money was not fungible.

On its website, Ploughshares Fund describes itself “a global security foundation” that for more than thirty-five years, “have helped provide more than $100 million to support the smartest people with the best ideas on global security.”

Among its 2015 donors of more than $100,000, are the Carnegie Corporation of New York; The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; George; Soros’s Open Society Foundations and Policy Center; Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Lesser amounts were given by The Nasir Foundation; Tide (which receives grants from Soro’s Open Society); GE Foundation, as well as some 22 anonymous donors in different categories.

Ploughshares Fund is but one source used to plant the Iran-deal deception. How many others have been used and how much money was spent to deceive the American people on this and other Obama initiatives? Much of the damage caused by his policies is irreversible.

To stop his administration from inflicting additional damages to the country and its allies, the identities of other foundations supporting his narrative should be exposed together with all their grantees – individuals, think-tanks, academic institutions, NGOs and media organizations. They should all be recognized as the pipers who play the tune dictated by Obama. A tune many now come to realize is way out of tune with America’s national security and its standing in the world.