And lo, how far Brookings hasn’t traveled…

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1. Israel Lobby Archive says:

   March 10, 2009 at 3:44 pm

   Unpaid lobbyist? Martin Indyk is single the highest compensated "employee" at Brookings. In 2007 he pulled down $274,300 in salary and benefits.

   As for not lobbying, how exactly do we categorize his lobbying for the Iraq invasion in voice, pen and deed?

   (See the seminal Indyk/Pollack essay "Lock and Load")

   http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2002/1219iraq_indyk.aspx

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2. DICKERSON3870 says:

   March 10, 2009 at 9:50 pm

   PHIL: "And lo, how far Brookings hasn't traveled…"

   ME: FROM WIKIPEDIA – Saban Center for Middle East Policy
   In 2002, the Brookings Institution established the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in order "to promote a better understanding of the policy choices facing American decision makers in the Middle East".[36] The Center is named after Haim Saban, an Israeli-American media proprietor, who donated $13 million toward its establishment[37] and directed by Martin Indyk, a former US diplomat and a former director of research at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The Center’s political slant has been described as “pro-Israel” by US foreign policy scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.[38] A U.S. government indictment alleges that the Center’s Director of Research, Kenneth Pollack, provided information to former AIPAC employees Steve J. Rosen and Keith Weissman during the AIPAC espionage scandal.[39]
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   Israeli-American Billioaire Haim Saban and the (U.S.) Democratic Party
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   Superdelegates Turned Down $1 Million Offer From Clinton Donor – May 19, 2008 02:50 PM
   by Nico Pitney and Sam Stein
   One of Sen. Hillary Clinton's top financial supporters offered $1 million to the Young Democrats of America during a phone conversation in which he also pressed for the organization's two uncommitted superdelegates to endorse the New York Democrat, a high-ranking official with YDA told The Huffington Post.
   Haim Saban, the billionaire entertainment magnate and longtime Clinton supporter, denied the allegation. But four independent sources said that just before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Saban called YDA President David Hardt and offered what was perceived as a lucrative proposal: $1 million would be made available for the group if Hardt and the organization's other uncommitted superdelegate backed Clinton……
   ENTIRE ARTICLE –
   link to huffingtonpost.com
   />
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   AND FROM MATTHEW YGLESIAS:
   10 Jun 2007 08:46 am
   If you're interested in the foreign policy views of major Hillary Clinton financial backer Haim Saban, there's no need to follow the Atrios path of attempting guilt by association with Kenneth Pollack. He discussed his views on the Middle East and Persian Gulf region in great detail in a reasonably recent interview with Haaretz:
   "When I see Ahmadinejad, I see Hitler. They speak the same language. His motivation is also clear: the return of the Mahdi is a supreme goal. And for a religious person of deep self-persuasion, that supreme goal is worth the liquidation of five and a half million Jews. We cannot allow ourselves that. Nuclear weapons in the hands of a religious leadership that is convinced that the annihilation of Israel will bring about the emergence of a new Muslim caliphate? Israel cannot allow that. This is no game. It's truly an existential danger."

   SOURCE – link to haaretz.com
   />

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