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The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a Washington think tank focused on Iran, terrorism, and sanctions. Its chief executive is Mark Dubowitz; its founder is Clifford May. Of all the institutes that pushed for war with Iran, FDD is the one whose fingerprints are most directly on the government's own case: its research became the White House's official list of Iran's crimes against Americans, its advocacy arm backed the bill tying the U.S. and Israeli militaries together, and, as the former counterterrorism chief Joe Kent put it, it is "constantly putting so-called experts on Fox News, the programs they know the President is consuming."

Where it came from​

Several writers who examined FDD's early tax filings report the same origin. Jacki Maniel: "FDD was founded in 2001 under the name Emet, Hebrew for 'truth,' with its stated IRS mission being to 'enhance Israel's image in North America and the public's understanding of issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations.' It changed its name, not its mission." (Maniel on X, March 21, 2026). Risk consultant Brett Erickson quoted the same mission from "the initial documents filed for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service" (Erickson on X, June 10, 2026). Stephen McIntyre described FDD as founded "to provide education to enhance Israel's image in North America," with the original identity "EMET (Hebrew for 'truth')" (McIntyre on X, March 19, 2026). Readers can check this against FDD's first IRS filings.

What its people said about the war​

  • Mark Dubowitz, during the June 2025 war: "Israel started this operation, but only Trump can finish it" (quoted in FDD's own coverage, June 21, 2025). In March 2026 he argued that "Israel didn't drag the US into war with Iran" (FDD, March 8, 2026), a line answered by the State Department's own legal opinion that the U.S. entered the war "at the request of" Israel (see at the request of Israel).
  • Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British ambassador and FDD senior fellow, eight days into the 2026 war: "The Islamic Republic has been waging undeclared war on the United States for over 45 years. The question is not why the US and Israel attacked Iran in June 2025 and then again these past 8 days. It's why we didn't do it years ago." (Fitton-Brown on X, March 8, 2026).
  • Behnam Ben Taleblu, on December 31, 2025, two months before the war, urged Washington to stop "admir[ing] the problem from afar" and seize "this moment" with Iran's regime "rebuilding its ballistic missile arsenal and flirting with renewed nuclear development" (FDD piece reposted by @javieryearson, December 31, 2025).
  • Craig Singleton, FDD senior China fellow, January 2026: strikes on Iran would show "China's partnerships offer little protection when the United States decides to act" (TJ Morris on X, January 21, 2026).
  • Richard Goldberg, FDD senior adviser, in July 2024: "Donald Trump is an existential threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran... And the regime knows maximum pressure will return" (as quoted by Dan Linnaeus on X, July 17, 2024). Goldberg served on the National Security Council in 2019 before returning to FDD.
  • Andrea Stricker, FDD, with David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, was set against the Director of National Intelligence's finding that Iran was not building a bomb (see Gabbard's assessments); a 2024 paper by the two was titled "Going for the bomb" (source list, Linnaeus, June 21, 2025).
  • H.R. McMaster, former National Security Adviser, is described in a 2026 column as working for FDD, "which we now know the White House cribbed from to make its case against Iran" (captured search scrape).

FDD's list became the government's case​

The most important FDD document of the war is a list. On June 19, 2025, Tzvi Kahn, a former AIPAC staffer, published an FDD memorandum of Iranian attacks on Americans since 1979. On March 2, 2026, the White House published a list that McIntyre and others found "virtually identical." See the White House list copied from FDD.

FDD Action and the military integration bill​

FDD's advocacy arm, FDD Action, issued an alert the day the war began, "U.S. Launches Operation Epic Fury to Eliminate Iran's Nuclear and Missile Threats" (FDD Action, February 28, 2026). According to The Guardian, "FDD Action strongly supports the bipartisan United States-Israel Futures Act," whose language became Section 219 of the 2027 defense bill (The Guardian, June 5, 2026). See Section 219.

M.A. Rothman, a defender of the war, noted that Tucker Carlson's father, Dick Carlson, became vice chairman of FDD after 9/11, and quoted Dubowitz and Clifford May lamenting Tucker's turn against the war; May wrote that Tucker had become "a lost boy... lost to the cause of Israeli survival" (Rothman on X, April 3, 2026). The episode shows how FDD's leaders frame opposition to the war: as a betrayal of Israel.

On television​

Joe Kent, describing the "echo chamber" around the President: "You have think tanks like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies that's constantly putting so-called experts on Fox News, the programs they know the President is consuming." (Going Underground on X, September 26, 2026). Former Israeli intelligence officer Shaiel Ben-Ephraim said the prevailing American view is that Netanyahu directs U.S. policy "through lobbies, organizations such as the FDD, and figures close to Trump" (Ganji on X, July 29, 2026). In June 2026 FDD also published "Mapping Qatar's $400 Billion Footprint in the United States," which Erickson argues fed a campaign against the Gulf mediators trying to end the war (Erickson).

Status: Mark Dubowitz, Clifford May, Edmund Fitton-Brown, Behnam Ben Taleblu, Craig Singleton, Richard Goldberg, Andrea Stricker, Tzvi Kahn, and H.R. McMaster are alive. Dick Carlson — Deceased (2025). Their advocacy is legal; nothing here states any committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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