American Enterprise Institute will Bomb Iran

Yes, using American and allied forces the AEI will bomb Iran.

From Today's UK Guardian:

'One of the main driving forces behind war, apart from the vice-president's office, is the AEI, headquarters of the neo-conservatives. A member of the AEI coined the slogan "axis of evil" that originally lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea. Its influence on the White House appeared to be in decline last year amid endless bad news from Iraq, for which it had been a cheerleader. But in the face of opposition from Congress, the Pentagon and state department, Mr Bush opted last month for an AEI plan to send more troops to Iraq. Will he support calls from within the AEI for a strike on Iran?'

Among the most vocal supporters of a strike on Iran at the AEI, the second most important Israeli lobby in Washington, is Joshua Muravchik. He wrote an LA Times article subtitled, "WE MUST bomb Iran".

Profile of Joshua Muravchik

'Muravchik has been associated with a string of hawkish pressure groups supporting President George W. Bush's war on terrorism and interventionist policies in the Middle East. He signed multiple letters published by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) advocating a broadened antiterror fight; he supported the creation in 2002 of the Coalition for Democracy in Iran, a group spearheaded by Michael Ledeen and Morris Amitay that advocates regime change in Iran; he was an advisory board member of the now-defunct Committee for the Liberation of Iraq; he is associated with the hawkish, pro-Israel think tanks, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs; he joined a plank of other neocons in forming a revived version of the Cold War Committee on the Present Danger; and he and a group of neoconservatives serve as “international sponsors” of the Cambridge, England-based Henry Jackson Society, an organization that promotes a “forward strategy” aimed at assisting democratization across the globe.'

The Henry Jackson Society

'The list of signatories to the HJS statement of principles also contains surprises. The list consists largely of elite UK policy-makers from both the left and right, including close associates of both Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While most of the names might be unfamiliar to people in the United States, one name stands out: Irwin Stelzer. Identified on the statement of principles as the director of economic policy studies at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute, Stelzer is a long-standing associate of the neoconservative political faction in the United States whose close connection to right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch has helped foster rumors about his ability to influence high-level British politicians, including Tony Blair (see “It's Crazy to Think that I'd Threaten Blair,” The Guardian, October 17, 2004).'

Profile of Irwin Stelzer

'Perhaps better known in Britain—where one broadsheet calls him “Rupert Murdoch's representative on Earth”—than in the United States, Irwin Stelzer is an economist at the Washington-based Hudson Institute (New Statesman, August 6, 2001). He is also a long-standing cadre of the neoconservative political faction. A close friend of Murdoch's and a frequent writer for many of the right-wing media mogul's newspapers, Stelzer has long been regarded in the United Kingdom as Murdoch's messenger to elite British policy-makers, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, with whom Stelzer maintains close contact.

Stelzer's relationship with Murdoch (and assiduous habit of promoting Murdoch's News Corporation-line on domestic and foreign policy) has made Stelzer few friends among liberal elites in the United Kingdom. In a 2004 expose about Stelzer, the Guardian quoted former EU commissioner Chris Patten: “I wouldn't sup with Irwin Stelzer if I had a spoon a yard long” (Guardian, October 17, 2004). The Guardian added: “But there are two men who do regularly sup with the patrician New Yorker: Blair and Gordon Brown … It is therefore unsurprising that, in the eyes of liberal conspiracy theorists, when Murdoch says jump and the prime minister jumps, it is Stelzer wielding the cattle prod.”

According to the Guardian, “a brutal example” of the purported influence wielded by Stelzer was the dramatic turnaround in Blair's stance vis-à-vis a referendum on the EU constitution. Blair, who initially supported pushing through UK support for the constitution without subjecting it to a public referendum, made an about-face on the issue shortly after Stelzer made a personal visit to the prime minister in early 2004. Reported the Guardian: “Political commentators were in no doubt: Stelzer had threatened Blair with an ultimatum that, unless he let the people decide, the Eurosceptic Murdoch would order the Sun and the Times to withdraw their support and back the Tories at next year's general election.”'

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The American Enterprise Institute and their funding:

Major funders:

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
Originally the Allen-Bradley Company, it was sold in 1985 to Rockwell International, a leading defense and aerospace conglomerate.

John M. Olin Foundation
The New York-based John M. Olin Foundation grew out of a family manufacturing business in chemicals and munitions. It funds nationally influential right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution and Peace. It also gives large sums of money to promote conservative programs in the country's most prestigious colleges and universities.

Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation
This foundation is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune. At one time, its largest single holding was stock in Gulf Oil Corporation.

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The Murdochian involvement:

9/11: What Did Rupert Murdoch Know?

The article mentions the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen.
This is it - The Lone Gunmen.

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An interesting point on the war:

'One Iranian news agency with a correspondent in Irbil says five US helicopters were used to land troops on the roof of the Iranian consulate.

It reports that a number of vehicles cordoned off the streets around the building, while US soldiers warned the occupants in three different languages that they should surrender or be killed.

This is the most serious action yet. Isn't it a definitive act of war for one country to storm the consulate of another, threaten to kill them if they do not surrender, and then detain six consulate officers?'

(My emboldening)