-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy influences the thinking of the United States government and has a near monopoly on the supply of 'expert' witnesses to the media.

THE Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Winep) was established in 1985, and soon became the most influential thinktank with effects on the United States government's Middle East policy and US mass media reporting about the region. The institute's founding director, Martin Indyk, was previously research director of the leading pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). In contrast to Aipac's partisan image (see Watch and tell ), Indyk successfully positioned Winep as an organisation that was "friendly to Israel but doing cred ible research on the Middle East in a realistic and balanced way" (1).

While Aipac targets Congress through the massive election campaign contributions that it coordinates and directs, Winep concentrates on influencing the media and the executive branch.

To this purpose it offers weekly lunches with guest speakers, written policy briefs, and "expert" guests for radio and television talk shows. Its director for policy and planning, Robert Satloff, its deputy director, Patrick Clawson, its senior fellow, Michael Eisenstadt, and other associates appear regularly on radio and television. Winep views prevail in two weekly news magazines, US News and World Report and The New Republic (whose editors-in-chief, Mortimer Zuckerman and Martin Peretz, sit on Winep's board of advisers).

Thinktanks like the American Enterprise Institute, the Project for a New American Century, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa), and the Centre for Security Policy (CSP).

Vice President Dick Cheney, Undersecretary of State for arms control and international security John Bolton, and Undersecretary of Defence for policy Douglas Feith were all on Jinsa's board of advisers before they entered the Bush administration: in all, 22 CSP associates secured positions in the Bush national security apparatus.

Winep had limited but significant connections to this circle before they assumed office. Richard Perle, the ideological father of the war against Iraq and until recently chair of the Defence Policy Board, was a member of the Jinsa board and also the Winep advisory board. His superior at the Pentagon, Deputy Secretary of Defence and fellow ultra-hawk Paul Wolfowitz, also sat on the Winep advisory board until he joined the Bush administration.

Winep has enhanced its credibility with the Bush administration by recently adding figures with solid neo-conservative credentials to its staff.

Jonathan Schanzer, previously a research fellow at the Middle East Forum, is now a Soref fellow at Winep. The director of the Middle East Forum is Daniel Pipes, one of the loudest anti-Arab and anti-Muslim voices in the US. Pipes is now a Winep adjunct scholar. Max Abrahms, a Soref fellow specialising in Israeli security affairs, has been a columnist for National Review Online, a devoutly neo-conservative organ. Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow in terrorism studies and a former FBI analyst, also writes in the National Review Online, where he publicly supports counter-terrorism operations.

A Winep adjunct scholar, Joshua Muravchik, simultaneously works for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Richard Perle's home base. Michael Ledeen, holder of the AEI's Freedom Chair, has formulated a doctrine that captures that institution's ideological orientation: "Every 10 years or so, the US needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business".

BACK TO MAIN PAGE  -  BACK TO RUSSIAN VERSION OF ASN-NEWS.