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The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and its spin-off organization, Defense of Democracies, are nominally nonpartisan advocacy organizations that promote a hawkish and neoconservative line in U.S. foreign and domestic affairs. FDD was founded shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in order to support the "war on terror." According to its website, FDD achieves this by engaging in a "worldwide war of ideas" aimed at defending "democratic societies under assault by terrorism and Militant Islamism" ("About FDD"). The foundation quickly became a prominent member of the group of neoconservative-aligned think tanks and advocacy organizations that were influential in shaping the early foreign policy priorities of the George W. Bush administration. This group includes the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the Hudson Institute, the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), and Freedom House.

A sign of the FDD's emergence as a major player in the advocacy world occurred on March 13, 2006, when President George W. Bush delivered a speech on the "Global War on Terrorism" at an FDD-sponsored event. The president commended the FDD's work: "The foundation is making a difference across the world, and I appreciate the difference you're making. You have trained Iraqi women and Iranian students in the principles and practice of democracy, you've translated 'democracy readers' into Arabic for distribution across the broader Middle East, you've helped activists across the region organize effective political movements—so they can help bring about democratic change and ensure the survival of liberty in new democracies. By promoting democratic ideals, and training a new generation of democratic leaders in the Middle East, you are helping us to bring victory in the war on terror—and I thank you for your hard work in freedom's cause."

Like its neoconservative partners, FDD's agenda has included supporting a long-term military engagement in Iraq, advocating aggressive action in Iran and Syria, promoting the idea that the United States and the West are in an existential conflict with "Islamofascism," and pushing public opinion to support an Israel-centric U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The foundation has also pushed a number of domestic policies in the war on terror, including controversial eavesdropping legislation. And like many of its neoconservative brethren, FDD links cultural issues in the United States to the broader issue of confronting enemies overseas. The foundation has even lambasted comic books for their supposedly corrosive impact on American youth (Boston Globe, August 28, 2005).

Partisan or Nonpartisan?
FDD promotes itself as a nonpartisan organization, saying on its website that it is the "only nonpartisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism." The organization tries to present a bipartisan face through its leadership, but its top posts have been dominated by Republican Party insiders. FDD’s director is Clifford May, a former writer for the New York Times who in 1997-2001 served as director of communications for the Republican National Committee. May was also the editor of the party's official magazine, Rising Tide, is a former vice chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and is a CPD member. FDD has a three-member board of directors, though one listed member is the late Jeane Kirkpatrick. The other two are Steve Forbes, former Republican Party presidential candidate, and Jack Kemp, former congressman from New York who helped found (with Kirkpatrick and William Bennett) the rightist advocacy group Empower America in the early 1990s.

FDD's five "distinguished advisors" on the surface seemed a more bipartisan group: former Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), an AEI fellow and CPD member best known for crafting the “Contract for America”; Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), whose well-documented support for neoconservative policies soured Democratic Party support for him in his home state; Louis J. Freeh, the Clinton administration FBI director; James Woolsey, a Clinton-appointed  CIA chief and one of the foremost proponents of the notion that the war on terror is really World War IV; and Max Kampelman, a neoconservative booster and member of the 1970s version of the Committee on the Present Danger.

FDD’s claims of nonpartisanship were called into question in February 2008, after it created a spin-off organization, Defense of Democracies, to run an aggressive television ad campaign aimed at pressuring the Democrat-led House to “pass the Senate’s version” of the “Terror Surveillance Bill.” The controversial bill would provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that had cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance programs. The FDD has 501(c)(3) non-profit status, which bars its from undertaking political activities; the new organization, which operates out of the same offices as the FDD, “is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(4) advocacy organization affiliated with, though separate from, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Its mission is to support and encourage policies, procedures and laws necessary to defeat terrorism,” according to a February 25, 2008 statement on the FDD website.

One ad that was aired in more than a dozen different congressional districts left the impression that if the House didn’t pass the bill in question, the United States would lose clearance to “intercept Al Qaeda communications.” Spencer Ackerman, reporting in the February 26, 2008 Washington Independent, wrote, “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, [the ad] 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 [where the ad ran], 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.’ Walz is a Democrat from Minnesota’s first congressional district. The ad flashed his face about 16 seconds after it showed bin Laden’s. Similar ads ran in the TV markets of Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire’s first district; Ron Klein of Florida’s 22nd district; Tim Mahoney of Florida’s 16th district; Chris Murphy of Connecticut’s 5th district; and Joe Courtney of Connecticut’s 2nd district. All are Democrats. Now their faces appear beside bin Laden’s” (see Spencer Ackerman, Washington Independent, February 26, 2008).

A spokesperson for Rep. Walz told Newsweek (February 27, 2008): "To a lot of our constituents, these ads look like fear-mongering and scare tactics designed to persuade the public that the Democrats are soft on national security."

FDD’s efforts to distinguish itself from Defense of Democracies did not satisfy many Democratic supporters of the foundation, some of whom expressed outrage that FDD would target their colleagues. Within days of the ads airing, nearly all the Democrats who had served on FDD’s board of advisors quit, including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia, and Donna Brazile, Al Gore’s former campaign advisor.

Asked about the resignations, FDD’s May told Newsweek, "I'm disappointed that the political pressures have been such that several Democratic members of FDD's board of advisors—including several who I'm pretty sure agree with us on the substance of the issue—have decided to resign. The Senate bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, which persuaded us this was not a partisan issue.”
After the departures, FDD’s board of advisors appeared decidedly less than nonpartisan. As of March 2008, members included former Republican Party presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, Charles Jacobs, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, and Richard Perle.

Middle East Advocacy
As pressure mounted in George W. Bush’s second term for the United States to take military action on Iran, FDD joined like-minded groups in the advocacy community to push the message that peace in Iraq is intimately tied to containing Iran and that global peace is tied to regime change in Tehran. In July 2007, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, FDD’s vice president of research, penned a National Review Online article arguing that Iran was fomenting conflict not only throughout the Mideast, but also in South America. That article was converted into an FDD “Backgrounder” on Iran.
One of FDD’s major focuses is Middle East policy, and it frequently advocates an agenda closely in line with Israel’s Likud Party. An example of this came in spring 2002, when in an apparent effort to thwart Bush administration initiatives to reopen Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, FDD aired 30-second television spots that conflated Yasser Arafat with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein (Inter Press Service, April 26, 2002). The video's producer was Nir Boms, FDD's first vice president and a former officer for the Israeli Embassy in Washington (Alternet, October 10, 2003). Although the FDD is an ardent critic of terrorism, it has not criticized actions taken by Israel against Palestinians that arguably fall into this category.

In late February 2004, the FDD submitted a supporting brief to the International Court of Justice, which was considering a Palestinian petition to have the massive wall Israel is building condemned as a breach of international law. The FDD claimed that the wall, which has been at the center of violent disputes between Palestinians and Israelis,  was a first step toward resolving the conflict: "The terrorism prevention barrier can benefit the Palestinians because with it in place, Israel's re-occupation of West Bank cities and towns will no longer be necessary. Tanks, troops, checkpoints, and roadblocks will be removed as terrorism declines. Under such circumstances, the chances for renewed negotiations leading to a settlement can increase" (see "FDD Campaign Against UN Court Hearings on Israel's Anti-Terrorism Fence").
FDD has expanded its democracy programs in the Middle East with U.S. government funding. The Iraqi Women's Educational Institute (IWEI) is a joint initiative of the American Islamic Conference, the FDD, and the conservative Independent Women's Forum, whose objective, according to the FDD, is to promote the participation of women in Iraqi society through programs on democracy education and coalition-building. In 2004, the IWEI ran two programs with funding from the U.S. State Department (see “FDD, AIC, IWF to Train Iraqi Women Leaders,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies, October 27, 2004).

In January 2003, the FDD sponsored a now-defunct program called Women for a Free Iraq. Among other sponsors were the Iraq-American Council, Iraq Forum for Democracy, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, Washington Kurdish Institute, International Alliance for Justice, and the Assyrian American National Federation. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the FDD arranged for members of Women for a Free Iraq to visit congressional leaders, Vice President Dick Cheney, and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Also before the war, FDD wrote a letter to President Bush urging him to invade Iraq. At a July 2003 meeting, FDD members expressed their gratitude to the president—and also expressed concern that too many Baathists remained in power. In November 2003, the FDD organized another Washington, DC visit by Iraqi women as part of the Women for a Free Iraq campaign. The delegation, which included members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the Kurdish Regional Government, and the Baghdad City Council, attended an FDD-organized reception where delegation members met with Undersecretary Paula Dobriansky, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Alma Powell, and Frances Bremer (married to then-head of the Coalition Provisional Authority Paul Bremer).

Staff and Programs
Since its founding, the FDD has developed a large staff of writers and policy wonks, many with long track records in producing hawkish policy pieces, especially on Mideast-related issues. Among its more prominent senior fellows and staffers are Andrew C. McCarthy, a contributor to the National Review and former federal prosecutor; Walid Phares, head of FDD's Future of Terrorism Project who has written for the conservative Family Security Matters; and Claudia Rosett, an FDD "journalist-in-residence" who writes regularly for Commentary and was awarded the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism. The Breindel Award was established by Rupert Murdoch, a close ally of the neoconservatives. FDD features the Rosett Report, a blog written by Rosett. In a short February 21, 2008 post, she wrote, “Maybe President Bush should simply scrap the entire machinery that grinds out U.S. National Intelligence Estimates, and instead take out a subscription to Der Spiegel—which, contrary to last fall’s NIE on Iran, is reporting that European Union experts estimate Iran could have enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb by the end of this year.”

Many FDD principals are associated with PNAC, a now-defunct neoconservative institute that was one of the leading promoters of the Iraq War and the Bush administration's aggressive agenda in the Middle East. These include Woolsey, Gaffney, Kristol, Forbes, Perle, Kirkpatrick, and Krauthammer.

FDD runs many projects and programs, though some appear dormant. Three active program areas focus on increasing university attention to terrorism: the Undergraduate Fellowship on Terrorism, the Academic Fellowship on Terrorism, and the Summer Workshop on Teaching about Terrorism (SWOTT). According to FDD, SWOTT is a "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 ... and includes classes that encompass all facets of terrorism studies and field trips to military and other national security-related installations." FDD fellowships and terrorism education programs routinely involve study trips to Israel.

Three other active FDD programs areas focus on communications and the media: Producing Radio Programs, Investigative Reporting, and Strategic Communication Campaigns. The Strategic Communication program provides a petition for web visitors to sign that call for “all on our national leaders and fellow citizens to resist calls for a premature withdrawal from Iraq and to support America's troops under the new commander, Gen. David Petraeus.” FDD lists several other of its communication campaigns’ accomplishments: the creation of the Coalition Against Terrorist Media, which organized a global campaign against Hezbollah's al-Manar television; a campaign to highlight the Iranian threat; a campaign against the UN court hearings on "Israel's antiterrorism fence"; and the sponsorship of the Iraq-America Freedom Alliance, which gives "voice to Iraqis who are grateful for their newfound freedom and working to secure democracy."

FDD runs numerous democracy-support programs, including: an education program that has the "goal of advancing democratic values of liberty, tolerance, pluralism, and individual rights in the Greater Middle East"; a program that promotes "democracy activists" in the Middle East; and one that focuses on South Asia.

FDD also operates an International Outreach program, which builds relationships with other organizations outside the United States, such as the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD). In mid-2006, FDD and EFD, both of which list Walid Phares as a fellow, created a joint project called the Center for Liberty in the Middle East (CLIME), “a transatlantic initiative to promote democracy and support the work of reformers in the Middle East” (FDD press release, September 13, 2006). With headquarters in both Brussels and Washington, DC, and a multinational staff made of scholars from Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, CLIME’s website claims to advocate “peaceful transitions to political systems that protect individual liberties, enable a higher level of political participation, and respect ethnic, religious and political diversity.”

An effective FDD initiative in drawing media and policymaker attention is its conference program. From 2001 to 2006, FDD sponsored or cosponsored nearly 20 conferences, mostly in Washington, DC, and Bush's March 13, 2006 speech on the war on terror highlighted FDD's rapid rise in influence. In early March 2006, FDD sponsored a panel discussion with the Iranian Students for Democracy and Human Rights at the U.S. Capitol. The topic was the state of the pro-democracy movement within Iran. In February 2006, FDD sponsored two conferences, one with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on the subject of democracy and terrorism, and the other with the European Foundation for Democracy on the subject of "Iran, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and the Future Jihad against the West."

Typical themes of FDD conferences are terrorism, democratization, and the Middle East. In a September 2004 conference titled "World War IV: Why We Fight, Whom We Fight, and How We Fight," the FDD and the CPD "explored the similarities between the Cold War and the War on Terrorism." An FDD news release about the conference declared: "The Cold War is now being called by some 'World War III' because it was global, had an ideological basis, involved both military and non-military actions, required skill and the mobilization of extensive resources, and lasted for years. Today's 'war on terrorism' has the same elements, hence a broader name, 'World War IV.'"

Origins
According to FDD’s website, the foundation "was founded shortly after 9/11 by a group of visionary philanthropists and policymakers to engage in the worldwide war of ideas and to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism and Militant Islamism." A 2003 report published by the American Conservative argues that the origins of FDD can be traced back to an effort to gain support for Israel's response to the Palestinian Intifada and to diminish public outcry against Israeli actions. Its predecessor group was known as EMET ("truth" in Hebrew), an educational initiative that was founded in early 2001 by the same donors who provided the initial support for the FDD. EMET was conceived as a public relations effort to support Israel through offices in Washington and Israel. In addition to its media work, EMET initiated educational tours to Israel for U.S. university students and professors (see Daniel McCarthy, "Most Favored Democracy," American Conservative).
After 9/11, EMET evolved into FDD, with Clifford May as president and Nir Boms as vice president; Boms had been the central figure in EMET. (Boms, whose writings were promoted by Benador Associates, is no longer with FDD.) FDD operates an educational exchange program, similar to what EMET did but on a larger scale, which accepts students and professors who are interested in being activists in Israeli counterterrorism.

Funding
FDD funding sources came to the fore in February 2008 shortly after Defense of Democracies aired the aforementioned television ads. Some observers pointed to FDD’s State Department funding to argue that any use of such funds for political advocacy would be illegal. Wrote Spencer Ackerman (February 26, 2008), “A spokesman for the foundation, Brian Wise, said he did not know the exact monetary worth of the foundation’s grants, which it mostly receives from the State Department. But he said one grant was worth $487,000 for an unspecified democracy-promotion program. Wise conceded that the foundation had founded the Defense of Democracies organization last week ‘for tax purposes,’ adding that ‘Defense of Democracies [provides] issue advocacy, whereas the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is a policy institute and academic institution.’ … Wise said he was ‘100 percent sure’ that no federal funds received by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies went to the Defense of Democracies. ‘They are completely separate organizations with separate funding sources.’” A 2003 investigative report in the American Conservative put the FDD's annual budget at close to $3 million. According to the American Conservative report, the FDD relies on the support of 27 individual high-end donors, including Leonard Abramson of U.S. Healthcare; New York financier Michael Steinhardt; Edgar S. Bronfman Sr., patriarch of Seagrams and president of the Jewish World Congress, and his brother Charles Bronfman; and Lynn Schusterman, widow of Oklahoma oil executive Charles Schusterman. In 2002, the FDD received $250,000 apiece from Edgar Bronfman, Michael Steinhardt, and Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus. Other donors who each gave $100,000 included Abramson, Charles Bronfman, Lynn Schusterman, and Dalck Feith (father of Douglas Feith).

In its Form 990 tax form for 2004, FDD indicated that Ameriquest Capital had donated $1.55 million to the foundation. The form also showed Clifford May's salary at more than $305,000 a year. In 2004, the Sarah Scaife Foundation granted FDD $125,000 for general operating expenses, and a combined $275,000 in 2005 for program and project support. In 2005 FDD had assets of close to $5.5 million, according to MediaTransparency.org.