Progressives Push Biden to Tap Foreign Policy Experts With Deep Koch, Soros Ties

A host of progressive foreign policy groups has delivered 100 resumes to the Biden transition team in a move intended to pressure the incoming administration to include voices outside the mainstream of American foreign policy.

An organizer of the list, Alexander McCoy, political director at Common Defense, said the list reflected "Old research materials" and did not match the names submitted to the Biden team, but declined to elaborate on any alleged discrepancies between the two documents.

The list serves as a counter to the predominantly center-left foreign policy officials Biden has tapped thus far - including Antony Blinken for Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan for national security adviser - and as a suggested roadmap from the Bernie Sanders-wing of the Democratic party to rectify their exclusion from the nascent administration.

Experts who have offered praise for Biden's early picks were critical of the progressive list.

Though list organizers are touting the group's lack of corporate ties, their recommendations include four officials from the Soros-funded Open Society Foundation, and the predominance of Soros-funded organizations on the list underscores the billionaire's sweeping influence on the left-wing of the Democratic Party.

The group's founder, Trita Parsi, is included on the list, though experts said that Parsi, who as of 2013 was a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen would face an uphill battle to obtain a security clearance.

The Iranian women's rights activist and Voice of America journalist Masih Alinejad. The list also includes Quincy fellow Amir Handjani, who was as recently as last year registered as a foreign agent for Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, a vehicle controlled by the Saudi monarchy whose human-rights abuses Democrats have roundly condemned.
 

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/progressives-push-biden-to-tap-foreign-policy-experts-with-deep-koch-soros-ties/