How the Anti-Iran Lobby Machine Dominates Capitol Hill

http://www.thenation.com/blog/180714/meet-billionaire-funders-anti-diplomacy-lobby

 

How the Anti-Iran Lobby Machine Dominates Capitol Hill

Neocon think tanks get millions from wealthy donors, which they use to game the system, buy influence—and push for regime change.

Eli Clifton and Ali Gharib

July 15, 2014   |    This article appeared in the August 4-11, 2014 edition of The Nation.

This story was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.
In the basement of Washington’s swank Mandarin Oriental Hotel on a balmy spring day, the conference guests were finishing up their boxed lunches as the conversation shifted to their host’s pet topic—Iran. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, perhaps DC’s premier neoconservative think tank, had gathered donors, supporters, press and other interested parties for a two-day meeting on Middle East policy. And some of the Hill’s most rapacious hawks for sanctions on Iran were in the room that day to receive awards.