The Minnesota Monitor's Beltway affiliate, The Washington Independent, picks up on the unfolding story behind the Defense of Democracies ad in 'Bipartisan' Think Tank Attacks Democrats. Spencer Ackerman writes:
A neo-conservative but ostensibly bipartisan counterterrorism think tank has lost all its Democratic board members by running an attack ad in Democratic congressional districts through an affiliated enterprise.
The think tank, called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is a 501(c )3 -- meaning it was incorporated as a non-profit and non-partisan organization, barred from political activity. Last week, it established Defense of Democracies, a 501(c )4 "non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization," that ran an advertisement urging the House of Representatives to pass the Senate's version of a bill providing retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that collaborated with the Bush administration's constellation of warrantless surveillance programs. The arrangement is probably legal, experts say, but the parent think tank receives several grants from the State Department -- at least one is worth $487,000 -- for democracy-promotion programs, making its political activities questionable.
On Friday, Defense of Democracies ran an ad in 15 congressional districts that erroneously stated, "the law that lets intelligence agencies intercept Al Qaeda communications expire[d]." In fact, the intelligence community has the authority to intercept Al Qaeda communications under other laws; the expired Protect America Act allowed the National Security Agency to intercept communications between any two persons of interest to a foreign intelligence investigation, even including U.S. citizens, without a warrant. Featuring ominous music, it showed a picture of Osama bin Laden before saying -- again erroneously, according to members of the intelligence community -- "new surveillance is crippled." In the 15 districts, Defense of Democracies got specific about what it wanted. In one of them, for instance: "Tell Tim Walz that Congress must do its job and pass the Senate's terrorist surveillance bill."
The citizens of Minnesota's First Congressional district already have a means to promote democracy. It is called an election. We hope that the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies--and the taxpayer-funded grants it receives--butts out. Go read the details at MinMon.
We at BSP have had to watch the attack ad on Walz air repeatedly on KEYC-TV 12. To the station's credit, it ran Congressman Walz Strikes Back, a news story about Walz's pushback. Our more ambitious readers might consider contacting Defense of Democracies to share a piece of the District's views about the ad.
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