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Mission and History

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and education on the war on terrorism. It was founded shortly after the September 11th attacks in 2001. Image File history File links FDDWoolsey. ... Nickname: the District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Official website: http://www. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years). ...

FDD is the only nonpartisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism.

FDD combines policy research, democracy and anti-terrorism training, strategic communications, and investigative journalism. FDD focuses its efforts where opinions are formed and, ultimately, where the war of ideas will be won or lost: in the media, on college campuses, and in the policy community, at home and abroad.

Founding members and advisors include prominent conservatives such as Steve Forbes, Jack Kemp, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Newt Gingrich, and former CIA director James Woolsey. The group also includes prominent liberals such as Frank Lautenberg, Charles Schumer, Joseph Lieberman and Donna Brazile, who was Al Gore's campaign manager in the 2000 presidential elections. Malcolm Stevenson Steve Forbes Jr. ... Jack French Kemp, Jr. ... Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick (born November 19, 1926) is an American conservative political scientist and member of the neoconservative movement. ... Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich, Ph. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Robert James Woolsey, Jr. ... Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (born January 23, 1924) is an American politician. ... Charles Ellis Chuck Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is an American politician. ... Joseph Isadore Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is a Jewish-American Democratic politician and a current U.S. senator from Connecticut. ... Donna Brazile (born December 15, 1959) is an American author, educator, and political activist and stratagist affiliated with the Democratic Party. ... Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. ...

FDD is a tax-exempt, non-profit institution, and does not seek to advance any political party. It is funded by a diverse group of individual philanthropists. The group generally has a hawkish stance on security issues.

Pro-Democracy Programs

The FDD's Democracy Programs consist of two synergistic initiatives to give voice to pro-democracy, anti-terrorism activists from the Islamic world, and support them in their battle against radical Islam. -- from their website

The FDD works with numerous pro-democracy groups throughout the Middle East, and has been active within Iraq helping Iraqis participate in democracy. The FDD has particularly focused on helping Iraqi women participate in the fledging Iraqi democracy.

Using grant money from the United States Department of State, the FDD held an Iraqi Women's Leadership Conference, bringing together Iraqi women in order to study the principles of democracy, learn how they can participate in their nation's new government and electoral process, and help Iraqi women to take an active role in their country's civic life.[1]

In coordination with the American Islamic Congress and the Independent Women's Forum, the FDD created the The Iraqi Women's Education Institute, which has similar goals to the Iraqi Women's Leadership Conference. [2]

The FDD also has worked with the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, often organizing speaking events in the United States for prominent Kurds. Qubad Talabani, the son of Jalal Talabani, often worked with the FDD before Operation Iraqi Freedom. The FDD also has worked with Lebanese, Syrian and Iranian pro-democracy activists, among others. The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ... The Independent Womens Forum (IWF) is an organization that, according to its website, was was established to combat the women-as-victim, pro-big-government ideology of radical feminism. ... Jalal Talabani (in Kurdish:ﺟﻪﻻﻝ ﺗﺎﻟﻪﺑﺎﻧﻰ /Celal Talebanî )(in Arabic: جلال طالباني: jalâl tâlabânî) (born 1933), Iraqi politician, was named President of Iraq on April 6, 2005 by the Iraqi National Assembly. ... For other uses of the term, see Iraq war (disambiguation) The 2003 invasion of Iraq (also called the 2nd or 3rd Persian Gulf War) began on March 20, 2003, when forces belonging primarily to the United States and the United Kingdom invaded Iraq arguably without the explicit backing of the...

The FDD also helped create Women for a Free Iraq [3], a group comprised of Iraqi exiles who had been persecuted under Saddam Hussein, which advocated for US military intervention to remove the Hussein regime. Additionally, the FDD also helped create the Iraq-America Freedom Alliance.[4] Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, (Arabic ), born April 28, 1937 , was the President of Iraq from 1979 until he was captured by U.S. troops on December 13th, 2003, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ...

Educational Programs

The FDD awards fellowships to well-qualified university students and professors. Both the Undergraduate Fellowship and the Academic Fellowship (for professors) entail the participants travelling to Israel to study terrorism. There they meet with Israeli, American, Turkish, Jordanian, and Indian officials to learn about each country's experience fighting terrorism. The fellows often form FDD-affiliated student groups on their respective campuses. Such groups have a pro-democracy, anti-terrorism mission, much like the FDD itself. FDD-affiliated student groups can now be found at nearly all major American undergraduate institutions. Many FDD Undergraduate Fellows have gone on to work in the intelligence and defense communities. [5]

FDD is the principal sponsor of the Summer Workshop on Teaching about Terrorism (SWOTT). This unique, U.S.-based effort to provide college professors with the tools they need to teach about the threat of terrorism and the methods used to combat it was inaugurated in 2005 and includes classes that encompass all facets of terrorism studies and field trips to military and other national security-related installations.

Other Programs

FDD organized the Coalition Against Terrorist Media, comprised of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and secular organizations, to focus on terrorist media including the Iranian-sponsored, Hezbollah-operated al-Manar television station. The stations calls for suicide bombings against Americans and American allies. The Coalition has briefed over 800 goverment officials and private sector CEO's in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East leading to the removal of al-Manar from eight out of ten satellite providers worldwide.

Every Sunday night at 9pm, FDD's Ambassador Richard Carlson hosts the WMAL radio show the Danger Zone. Each week, you'll get an in-depth view into the inner-workings of our national security system. Danger Zone features intense and lively discussions involving leading figures from the worlds of intelligence, security, military and academia.

FDD's photo essay Terror in Israel: The Human Cost of Terrorism, released in February 2004 begins with a message from former ambassador Richard Carlson (director of Voice of America) on Palestinian suicide bombers and the Israeli West Bank barrier. The 16-page essay contains photographs of ordinary people burned, bloodied, maimed; a city bus burst-open by an explosion and immigrants from Ethiopia maimed and killed by terrorist attacks. The FDD opposed the hearings in the International Court of Justice on the barrier and filed an amicus brief to express its opposition. 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → // February 29, 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti and flees the country for the Central African Republic. ... American movie actor Richard Carlson (April 29, 1912- November 21, 1977) was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota. ... The Voice of America (VOA) is the official broadcasting service of the United States government. ... The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ... A suicide bombing is a bomb attack on people or property, committed by a person who knows the explosion will cause his or her own death (see suicide, suicide weapons). ... The barrier route as of May 2005. ... The term terrorism is largely synonymous with political violence, and refers to a strategy of using coordinated attacks that typically fall within the time, manner of conduct, and place commonly understood as unconventional warfare. ... Peace Palace, seat of the ICJ. The International Court of Justice (known colloquially as the World Court or ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. ... Definition and Explanation: Amicus curiæ (Latin for friend of the court; plural amici curiæ) briefs are legal documents filed by non-litigants in appellate court cases, which include additional information or arguments that those outside parties wish to have considered in that particular case. ...

Oil for Food Scandal

The FDD's journalist-in-residence, Claudia Rosett, was the first reporter to break the U.N.'s Oil for Food scandal. [6] Claudia Rossett is an American writer and journalist. ... The Oil-for-Food Programme was established by the United Nations in 1996 to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine and the like. ...

As U.S. News and World Report senior writer Michael Barone explained: "The U.N. Oil for Food program, we learn from the reporting of Claudia Rosett in The Wall Street Journal, was a rip-off on the order of $21 billion -- with money intended for hungry Iraqis going instead to Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, to bribed French and Russian businesses and, evidently, to the U.N.'s own man in charge, Benon Savan."

For this reporting, Ms. Rosett received the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.

As a result of her work, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed an internal commission to investigate. The U.S. Senate and House also began their own reviews and invited her to testify at their hearings.

External links

Official Sites

• Foundation for Defense of Democracies
• FDD Official Blog
• The Iraq-America Freedom Alliance
• The Human Cost of Terrorism
• The Coalition Against Terrorist Media

Related Sites

• The Committee on the Present Danger
• Spirit of America