Criticisms
The Institute is considered a far left-wing organization by many. Harvey Klehr, professor of politics and history at Emory University, in his 1988 book Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today said that IPS "serves as an intellectual nerve center for the radical movement, ranging from nuclear and anti-intervention issues to support for Marxist insurgencies." Joshua Muravchik, a former scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute has also accused the institute of communist sympathies. while Emerson Vermatt has accused the think-tank of "its bitter opposition to the intelligence community, notably the CIA." Furthermore, it has been accused by the FBI as a "think factory" that helps to "train extremists who incite violence in U.S. cities, and whose educational research serves as a cover for intrigue, an political agitation."
In 1974, the Institute created an 'Organizing Committee for the Fifth Estate' as part of its "Center for National Security Studies" which published (and still publishes) the magazine CounterSpy. CounterSpy has in turn been the subject of scrutiny by officials and intelligence agencies, who claim that the magazine's "driving force" was ex-CIA agent and alleged Cuban/KGB agent Philip Agee and accused by US President George H.W. Bush and others of leading to the murder of the then CIA Station Chief in Greece, Richard S. Welch.
In his book The KGB and Soviet Disinformation: An Insider's View Ladislav Bittman, a former StB agent who worked in misinformation operations, covered the IPS's role in the Soviet intelligence network. Bittman argued that IPS was one of the several liberal think tanks that acted as pro-Soviet propaganda agencies, but his own assertions may have been counterpropaganda themselves. Brian Crozier, director of the London-based Institute for the Study of Conflict, described IPS as the "perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted if they were to originate openly from the KGB."
Read more about this topic: Institute For Policy Studies
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