FLASHBACK: Group that helped sell Iran nuke deal also funded media (re. Echo Chamber)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group's annual report. It also funded reporters and partnerships with other news outlets.

The Ploughshares Fund's mission is to "build a safe, secure world by developing and investing in initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate the world's nuclear stockpiles," one that dovetails with President Barack Obama's arms control efforts. But its behind-the-scenes role advocating for the Iran agreement got more attention this month after a candid profile of Ben Rhodes, one of the president's top foreign policy aides.

In The New York Times Magazine article, Rhodes explained how the administration worked with nongovernmental organizations, proliferation experts and even friendly reporters to build support for the seven-nation accord that curtailed Iran's nuclear activity and softened international financial penalties on Tehran.

"We created an echo chamber," said Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, adding that "outside groups like Ploughshares" helped carry out the administration's message effectively.

Is there an "echo chamber" selling the Russian 'hacking' claims? Revisiting the Iran Nuke Deal echo chamber connections...

http://www.ploughshares.org/about-us/staff-board/joseph-cirincione

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE
President Washington, D.C.

Joseph Cirincione is president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. He is the author of the new book Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late, Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons and Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats. He is a member of Secretary of State John Kerry's International Security Advisory Board and the Council on Foreign Relations.

His commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Financial Times, Kyodo News, Moscow Times, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Daily Beast, and Huffington Post. He has appeared on ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, PBS, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC News, Australian Broadcasting Coporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, Russia Today, and Al Jazeera.

Cirincione worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives on the professional staff of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Operations. He is the author of hundreds of articles on nuclear weapons issues, the producer of two DVDs, a frequent commentator in the media, and he appeared in the films, Countdown to Zero and Why We Fight. He previously served as Vice President for National Security and International Policy at the *Center for American Progress and Director for Nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has held positions at the Henry L. Stimson Center, the U.S. Information Agency and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He teaches at the graduate School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

(*Founder: John Podesta)

http://www.ploughshares.org/sites/default/files/resources/Ploughshares-AR-2015-web-version.pdf

GRANTS
FiSCAL YEAR 2015

CENTER FOR AMERiCAN PROGRESS WASHiNGTON, DC To support the ‘Nuclear Cost Crunch’ project that will produce a comprehensive analysis of the costs of planned US nuclear weapons programs and an interactive tool that allows users to make informed tradeo s among policy options. $100,000

CENTER FOR AMERiCAN PROGRESS ACTiON FUND WASHiNGTON, DC To support rigorous, accurate coverage of the Iran nuclear talks on ThinkProgress. $25,000

http://www.state.gov/t/avc/isab/c27632.htm

International Security Advisory Board (ISAB)

Current Board Members

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html?_r=0

The Aspiring Novelist
Who Became Obama’s
Foreign-Policy Guru

How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age.

By DAVID SAMUELSMAY 5, 2016

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