Congressman Paul Findley, Founder

Author, speaker and pundit Paul Findley served in the United States Congress for 22 years representing central Illinois. Before his Congressional service, Mr. Findley served as a Naval officer with the Seabees in the Pacific in World War II, followed by work as  a newspaper editor in Jacksonville, Illinois.

Mr. Findley is the author of the best-selling book They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby, first published in 1985 and most recently updated in 2003. This was the first book to expose the power of the Israel Lobby throughout the United States: in Congress, academia, and the press. A reviewer noted:

“Because he questioned blind American support of Israel, the lobby deprived a conscientious Illinois congressman of the seat he occupied for 22 years. In doing so, it freed Paul Findley to write the most powerful expose to date of Israel’s abuse of American trust, a book which may prove Admiral Moorer’s prediction to him that ‘the American people would be goddam mad if they knew what goes on.’”

Read more: Paul Findley

Alison Weir, President

Alison Weir former is a journalist and the founder of If Americans Knew, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the Israel-Palestine conflict, specializing in statistical analysis. Weir writes and speaks widely about Israel-Palestine, with particular focus on media coverage. Her articles on the subject have been published in anthologies both in the U.S. and abroad and in diverse online and print publications.

Ms. Weir has given talks at numerous universities, including Harvard Law School, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Naval Postgraduate Institute; four times at the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, and has twice given briefings on Capitol Hill.

Former U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA) said of her presentation: “Ms. Weir presents a powerful, well documented view of the Middle East today. She is intelligent, careful, and critical. American policy makers would benefit greatly from hearing her first-hand observations and attempting to answer the questions she poses.”

The New York Times reported of her lecture in Greenwich, Connecticut: “When the speech ended, Ms. Weir was met with thunderous applause, and across the room there was a widespread sense of satisfaction that someone was saying what needed to be said.”

In 2004 she was inducted into honorary membership of Phi Alpha Literary Society, founded in 1845 at Illinois College. The award cited her as a: “Courageous journalist-lecturer on behalf of human rights. The first woman to receive an honorary membership in Phi Alpha history.”

Philip Giraldi, Executive Director

Philip Giraldi is a recognized authority on international security and counterterrorism issues. He is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served eighteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was Chief of Base in Barcelona from 1989 to 1992 designated as the Agency’s senior officer for Olympic Games support. Since 1992 he consulted for a number of Fortune 500 corporate clients.

Mr. Giraldi was awarded an MA and PhD from the University of London in European History and holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the University of Chicago. He speaks Spanish, Italian, German, and Turkish.

His columns on terrorism, intelligence, and security issues regularly appear in The American Conservativemagazine, Huffington Post, and antiwar.com. He has written op-ed pieces for the Hearst Newspaper chain, has appeared on “Good Morning America,” MSNBC, National Public Radio, and local affiliates of ABC television. He has been a keynote speaker at the Petroleum Industry Security Council annual meeting, has spoken twice at the American Conservative Union’s annual CPAC convention in Washington, and has addressed several World Affairs Council affiliates. He has been interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Britain’s Independent Television Network, FOX News, Polish National Television, Croatian National Television, al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, 60 Minutes, and other international and domestic broadcasters.

Senator James Abourezk

James Abourezk is a former Democratic United States Representative and United States Senator as well as serving in the United States Navy during the Korean War.. He represented South Dakota in the U.S. Senate from 1973 until 1979 and served in South Dakota’s second district in the House of Representatives between 1971 and 1973. In 1974, Time magazine named him one of the 200 Faces for the Future

Senator Abourezk has degrees in civil engineering and in law and is currently a senior partner in Abourezk Law Offices, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is the author of Advise and Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate and the co-author of Through Different Eyes: Two Leading Americans — a Jew and an Arab — Debate U. S. Policy in the Middle East.

Daniel McGowan

Daniel McGowan is a Professor Emeritus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the founder of Deir Yassin Remembered, a not-for-profit human rights organization seeking to build a truth and reconciliation center at Deir Yassin 1,400 meters north of Yad Vashem, the most famous Holocaust museum in the world.

John Whitbeck

John Whitbeck is an international lawyer who writes frequently about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often from Palestinian viewpoint, and has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel. Since 1988, his articles on behalf of Middle East peace have been published more than 600 times in more than 80 Arab, Israeli and international newspapers, magazines, journals and books.

In 1993,his “Two States, One Holy Land” framework for peace was the subject of a three-day conference in Cairo, attended by 24 prominent Israelis and Palestinians, including four Knesset members, under the sponsorship of The Middle East Institute (Washington), and his “condominium solution” for sharing Jerusalem in a context of peace and reconciliation has been published more than 50 times in various lengths and languages.

A graduate of Harvard College (1968) and Harvard Law School (1973), he left the United States in 1976 and has since lived and practiced law in Paris, London and Jeddah.