Sep. 30, 2007 (LPAC) - Freedom Watch, a private war-council created by Cheney and her husband's American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is planning a $200 million national campaign to provide a cover for Dick's war on Iran. The New York Time's Don Van Natta reports today that "the idea for Freedom Watch was hatched in March at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Manalapan, Fla., where Vice President Dick Cheney was the keynote speaker, according to participants." The group is composed of a pack of millionaires, several of whom put a million dollars in as starters, according to one member of the club. They plan to raise the $200 million by November, and will open an office in Washington next week, with a staff of 50.

The Iran war campaign will be launched next month with a private forum of 20 "experts" drawn from AEI and elsewhere, on the theme that Iran is a threat to the security of the US. Freedom Watch spokesman Matt David rants that "Hitler could have been stopped," (comparing Hitler to Iran, not Cheney!). Mel Sembler, a Florida real estate mogul, who is a friend of Cheney and an AEI Board member, said Freedom Watch "came out of AEI" last winter. Besides Ari Fleischer, who announced the first Freedom Watch $25 million campaign to back the surge in Iraq a few months ago, other founding members are: Sheldon G. Adelson, CEO of the Sands, and the sixth richest man in the world; John Templeton, from Bryn Mawr; and Anthoney Gioia, an investment banker in Buffalo. They have been granted tax exempt status.