A few weeks ago we posted an interesting report from a Congressional intern who attended an “official briefing on the U.S.-Israel alliance” organized by AIPAC. The presenters concluded the training by telling the interns “you have leadership potential, and AIPAC can make that journey easy.”
Well, we now have some more insight into how AIPAC builds and maintains young leaders. Someone who we only know as “Shii” alerted us to a website they set up after being added to AIPAC’s DC intern mailing list. They wanted to get off the list, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to do it. In response, Shii started posting the AIPAC emails on the website – Stuck on AIPAC. As they explain on the site:
AIPAC has me on their DC intern mailing list. There is no “unsubscribe” link for their list. So until someone from AIPAC e-mails me, I will be posting all their secret e-mails here.
Shii then implores readers to donate to JStreet.
The emails are pushing AIPAC’s “AIPAC’s Summer Seminar Series” which they say they’ve been hosting for the past 30 years. There’s not a whole lot of juicy stuff here, but it is clear that AIPAC is focusing on Iran. Today, July 8th, the Seminar Series is featuring Sen. John McCain and Sen. Robert Menendez speaking on “Israel, Iran and other critical Middle East issues.” Pretty heady stuff for a summer intern. AIPAC is hoping it’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Wow, Adam, this is intoxicating. A concerned citizens organization discussing American policy and offering enticements to future students.
What frightens me more is that the ignorant girl gave a match box history that was void of substance and the rest nodded their heads in agreement. You should be elated that Americans don't know history well enough to reject the Arab rewrite out of hand.
From one of the emails: AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr provide[s] an off-the-record briefing on the role of Congress in securing the U.S. – Israel alliance, and the current prospects for Middle East Diplomacy. The role of Congress? In securing? When does it become indoctrination? When does it become intimidation? And what happens to these interns if they refuse to go along? (Read the May 2009 link above)
The AIPAC emails are interesting in that: 1. All the events are hosted in taxpayer funded, highly coveted, facilities on Capitol Hill. For any activist who has labored to schedule a room for an event, the fact that they are AIPAC's de facto summer conference center is disturbing. 2. Haim Saban is no longer trumpeted as the sponsor of the series. It used to be called the "Saban Series" http://greatdanesforisrael.wordpress.com/2007/06/... Perhaps the possibility that Saban may have been the "Israeli agent" picked up on the Jane Harmon AIPAC espionage case wire tap means he's not AIPAC's out front daddy warbucks anymore. 3. AIPAC is increasingly dropping the "pro-israel" part of its appeal to up and coming pols in exchange for merely being a road to raw political power. That's as disingenuous as its constellation of stealth pacs that also dropped the overt Israel references back in the 1980s and 1990s. Is Israel, like Saban, bad for the AIPAC brand? Perhaps they should hold these in the Spy Museum conference center?
1. All the events are hosted in taxpayer funded, highly coveted, facilities on Capitol Hill. For any activist who has labored to schedule a room for an event, the fact that they are AIPAC's de facto summer conference center is disturbing. Wow, ILI. Great observation! Someone needs to answer for this. How many other lobbying groups gets to use taxpayer-funded government facilities?
Check out Sections (a) Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Jeff Blankfort a few years ago got me interested in the AIPAC intern program — Last I heard Saban was now heading up the high school sponsored indoctrination program — trying to grab the even younger crowd when their fresh and naive. Blankfort: [Interns]…This gives its lobbyists access such registration [FARA] would prohibit, such as taking part in Congressional committee hearings, drafting or vetting legislation that concerns Israel or the Middle East, and placing its interns as volunteers in the offices of members of Congress where they serve as AIPAC’s eyes or, if you prefer it, spies… http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050801/rozen Even back then Blankfort was saying [para] "…who could turn down a campaign/& or office volunteer? Yeah, but what do they get in return? The AIPAC intern program is a formidable enterprise on the Hill — Interns that have been extensively trained, and had their salary, board and travel paid for? — As well as throwing in that is willing to extensively train, and pay for their costs, boarding and travel? — As well as throwing in What other 'ethnic' [not including the corporate revolving door agents of influence]– organization can have such easy access working within the Democratic Party? — An foreign policy organization So… some questions… 1) How many AIPAC Interns have we got working on the Hill, aswell as in DSCC and DCCC candidate campaigns? 2) Who's Who on the the AIPAC Interns 'Hall of Fame' — How many get promoted to being fully fledged permanent campaign and DC AIPAC aides? 3) There must be some token 'non-Jews' who are AIPAC Intern — there must be? Are there? It's not an all Jewish organization – so how many are non-Jews? 4) How are their assignments allocated? By academic achievement, or who your Daddy knows? 5) Who are these eager beavers on the Hill point–person? We've heard the likes of Steve Rosen has used their ears and eyes before? Laura Rozen: "…As former associates and AIPAC officials describe it, those operations were replete with enemies' lists of journalists and public figures. Rosen sent AIPAC interns as spies to take notes on the political views of other members of the small world of Jewish community political activism. One former AIPAC intern told The Nation that he was sent by Rosen to Arab-American conferences disguised as a WASP-y, pro-Palestinian liberal to find out which US Congressional candidates the attending groups were supporting… http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050801/rozen
Edit: paragraph 4. The AIPAC intern program is a formidable enterprise on the Hill — Interns having been extensively trained, having their their salary, board and travel paid for.
Hi, I'm the maintainer of the blog above. I have some extra info about this which only confirm your concerns. 1. Last year the events were hosted in private facilities. I was "in the loop" for all Congressional intern events last year, and all of the ones actually in Capitol Hill facilities were nonpartisan; not only that, but IIRC the only partisan events open to interns were GOP, DLC, and AIPAC events which were elsewhere. Yes, you read that right– AIPAC is the only lobbying group which presents itself to interns. So, the move happened this year. And I have a glimmer as to how they did it– McCain could reserve the room himself, then tell AIPAC to bring their podium and posters. I don't think McCain would VOLUNTEER to bend over like that, but certainly with a little nudging… 2. It was not called that last year either. 3. AIPAC is no longer the domain of Jews or evangelicals. When I went to the seminar last year and got on this God-forsaken list, there was an extremely diverse crowd. All of them had two things in mind: supporting AIPAC and getting into politics (a common concern of many interns). They are handing out awards like "AIPAC Platinum Member" to young supporters, which the political up-and-coming sport with pride. Additionally: 4. These e-mails are only half the fun. AIPAC also sponsors dozens of conventions every summer where they fly in supporters (i.e. average Joe, non-influential Jews who apply and get in) from around the country, either to lobby Congress or to go to special panels and seminars with lobbyists. I saw these naive blokes wearing their AIPAC stickers in the Raymond cafeteria all summer last year. I expect the details of this program are posted somewhere else. 5. I would not consider the interns in this program political movers and shakers. They were not very bright. But what I learned on the Hill last year is that they are nevertheless bound to influence policy. Summer Session interns will move on to become lobbyists themselves, or even LAs for Congresspeople. They are successfully taught that AIPAC is the status quo– thus becoming the raw material that either PACs or hard-right Congressmen (who send the Dear Colleague letters to the LAs) need to keep the machine running. It's very clever and very much an unbalanced and broken system. P.S. I was working with Barney Frank, who is almost on AIPAC's side, but as an intern was able to follow up on a constituent letter supporting Rebuilding Alliance ( http://rebuildingalliance.org/ ). I don't think it had any effect but I'm glad I wasn't just eating AIPAC's line on that.
Thanks for the info. I am wondering how long until we start a American -American Foreign Policy Public Action Committee to lobby for the US and US citizens.. How many actual donors and members does AIPAC have?… any idea?
J Street already serves that purpose, and that's why I linked it. They don't specifically oppose AIPAC (that doesn't go over well in Washington), but they provide an alternative for AIPAC's base of Jews and evangelicals. The rhetoric against J Street in the right-wing Jewish community is quite harsh. They accuse them of supporting Senator Keith Ellison, who is apparently a Muslim terrorist: http://afree87.livejournal.com/136484.html AIPAC has a budget of $65 million according to Wikipedia. $15 million is spent on campaigns like these and a staff of 158. I am betting their donor list is not public.
*FROM "Reframing the Israel Debate", By SPENCER ACKERMAN, 4/15/08 : (excerpt) …AIPAC, which calls itself “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby,” is considered among the most powerful lobbies in America. It raises money to promote an conservative definition of American “support” for Israel, one in which Israeli interests and Arab interests are defined in opposition, particularly pressing its case to members of Congress and successive administrations. It is close to many influential donors and organizations who raise and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each election cycle to fund candidates with the same view. It also possesses an intimidating number of members — more than 100,000 — whom it has cultivated over its 30-year history…. ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Israel_Publ... *FROM WIKIPEDIA: (excerpt) …The Washington Post states that AIPAC's "web site, which details how members of Congress voted on AIPAC's key issues, and the AIPAC Insider, a glossy periodical that handicaps close political races, are scrutinized by thousands of potential donors. Pro-Israel interests have contributed $56.8 million in individual, group, and soft money donations to federal candidates and party committees since 1990, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. … Between the 2000 and the 2004 elections, the 50 members of AIPAC's board donated an average of $72,000 each to campaigns and political action committees."[10] ENTIRE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Israel_Publ...
No their donor list is not public… only limited information via guidestar is available. Apparently during the Weissman and Rosen spy case Bloomfield [ex-aipac guy] said donations went through the roof. It would be really interesting to find out who funds AIPAC — and then there are all the other pro-Israel entities — yikes. Can you provide us some more information on how it all works? Do you know how many interns work on the Hill at any one time — do many of them end up getting permanent positions?
Take back America,drop israel.
There are more than 2,000 interns in Congress alone. There must be many more at lobbying firms, which are on many of the same mailing lists. No matter who we were talking to, whether it was the congressman we worked for, a senator, or freaking Colin Powell, the questions interns asked first were always "how did you get your job" and "how should I get a job like yours". It was like Washington was one big networking party. I'm betting a sizable minority of them move on to low-level permanent positions.
Amazing that Aipac got off scott free for the Rosen /Weissman Espionage trial. Pathetic. and now they will be pushing for more sanctions on Iran based on lies. Will it ever end? The lies the deception the undermining of U.S. national security
Thanks.
Not just US national security, but rule of law. Back in the 1940's, when the Jewish Agency (which set up and funded AIPAC), was financing arms smuggling from the US, they made a point of meeting with J. Edgar Hoover after they were caught moving machine guns across the Canadian border. The message delivered in the meeting was basically that the guns would only be used to slaughter abroad, and that "above board" organizations and individuals in the US would be highly embarrassed by any wide ranging FBI investigation. The basic mechanism of corruption is still in place. The Israel lobby is so rooted and intertwined across branches of government and political parties that taking on any isolated part of the operation through law enforcement or counter espionage is quickly stamped out, usually at the investigative level. Even when AIPAC's dorsal fin publicly breaks the surface (e.g. Rosen Weissman, Jane Harmon, Haim Saban's bribe for Hillary Clinton's superdelegate position) the common denominator across history is how quickly it is covered up by the so-called news media, Congress, and high officials in the Justice Department. Fortunately, Tammany Hall, the Mafia, even AIPAC's unique kind of corruption just isn't sustainable. People soon realize it is killing the host.
Was anybody actually at the McCain/Menedes thing? I heard they had over a thousand people there???
Is it possible that Obama might have been in these things at some point? Wouldn't it be great to know the names of those who were part of these kind of things 30 years ago? Was it already going on?
i was there… waited in line for almost 2 hours and they didn't even have any food or anything. i don't think there was a thousand people but there was definietly 750 or so people who got in, and many more turned away
J Street had like 25 people at their event a few weeks ago. I honestly don't think J Street will ever catch up