Poking holes in the Brookings Institution’s “preening conceit”—”they bequeath their website with an ‘.edu’ suffix…. They are ‘scholars.’ Just ask them and they’ll tell you“—Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald (5/26/09, ad-viewing required) quotes one blogger fundamentally debunking Brookings mainstay William Glaberson‘s May 22 New York Times contention that, as U.S. president, Barack Obama “has sworn an oath to protect the country”: “Barack Obama did not swear an oath to ‘protect the country.’ He swore an oath to protect the principles upon which the country was founded and the document in which those principles are enshrined.”
Looking more broadly at “Beltway world,” in which “the Brookings Institution is a ‘liberal‘ think tank,” Greenwald explains that
when it comes to foreign policy and civil liberties, these are three of its most consequential contributions over the last several years: (1) the invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq, in the form of Ken Pollack and Michael O’Hanlon (working in tandem, as usual, with the ultra-neoconservative American Enterprise Institute); (2) unquestioning devotion to Israel’s right-wing policies, in the form of major funder Haim Saban (“I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel…. On the issues of security and terrorism I am a total hawk”); and (3) indefinite, preventive detention with no charges or trial in the form of Benjamin Wittes (with his close associate, Bush OLC lawyer Jack Goldsmith), who also serves at the right-wing Hoover Institution and writes for the Weekly Standard. Only in Washington would such a group be deemed anything other than extremist.
In fact, U.S. journalists see the Brookings Institute as so far from the “extreme” that they have made it the No. 1 most-cited think every single year since FAIR started tracking such things in 1995. See our annual Think Tank Spectrum report by longtime contributor Michael Dolny.
Is the “Brookings Institution” the same entity as the “Brookings Institute”?
If so, what might also interest readers is that in 2008 the MacArthur Foundation–(whose board of directors now includes a board members of Chevron, United Technologies & the New York Times Company and whose incoming president, Robert Gallucci, is a former U.S. Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs and the husband of former U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence Policy and Coordination Jennifer Sims–who was given a “Distinguished Service Medal” by the CIA director on behalf of the National Foreign Intelligence Board in 1998)–gave a multi-million dollar grant to the Brookings Institution in 2008. See following:
“The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., has announced a $5 million endowment grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for its Metropolitan Policy Program.
“The grant will enable Brookings to expand its senior management team and leverage an additional $20 million in matching funds that it hopes to raise by 2012. Those investments are needed to keep pace with the program’s rapid growth from a twenty-person, $5 million operation in 2004 to nearly double that size today.
“The program, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, works to help metropolitan areas achieve three goals: productive growth that embraces an innovative economy and builds on the distinct strengths of individual places; inclusive growth that fosters a strong middle class and reduces racial and ethnic disparities in education, income, and wealth; and sustainable growth that strengthens cities and older communities while promoting energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive patterns of development. MacArthur has awarded a series of grants for the program during the past decade, funding such projects as multiyear research and policy development around metropolitan economic performance, transportation issues, and improving the quality of data available on urban communities in order to connect their residents to the economic mainstream.
“The MacArthur Foundation’s generous award enables us to take every component of our enterprise to a higher level â┚¬” from research and policy development to communication and outreach â┚¬” leading to greater impact across the board,” said Bruce Katz, director of the program. “The foundation’s investment comes at a critical juncture in the intellectual and organizational life of our program, as we add up the first ten years of our work to promote a national economic agenda that builds on the assets â┚¬” and centrality â┚¬” of America’s metropolitan areas.”
â┚¬Ã…“Brookings Receives $5 Million Gift From MacArthur Foundation to Endow Metropolitan Policy Program.â┚¬Ã‚ Brookings Institution Press Release 1/23/08.