Waleed Ziad

Waleed Ziad, a Pakistani, is the son of a World Bank official who, according to Topf, led the "first World Bank mission into Russia with a group of Texas oil men". [1] Ziad is a co-founder of the astroturf group Pakistan-Israel Peace Forum and a principal at the Truman National Security Project, a think-tank that "envisions a Democratic Party that is preeminent in national security once again". It's advisory board is composed of individuals from various right-wing think-tanks, from the Hoover Institution to the Council on Foreign Relations. According to its founder Rachel Kleinfeld the organization was set up "very much as a counterpart to the neoconservatives of the 1970s". [2]

Ziad has written for the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and The News (Pakistan). In one of these articles Ziad writes:

Yes, the Muslim world had an unfortunate introduction to post-Enlightenment ideals, which came in the context of invasion, colonialism and exploitation. But the Arab philosophical and political movement that came out of that experience was not inherently anti-Western. In fact, in traditional Islamic thought the concept of violent resistance against an unjust ruler was virtually unheard of; for classical jurists, tyranny was preferable to the anarchy that accompanies revolt...

At the same time, our corporations should guide local entrepreneurs to promote a free market, the backbone of democracy. If anything is going to come of the neoconservative hope of making Iraq into a beacon of our values, it will be along these lines. [3] (emphasis added)

In another article, Ziad offers advice on opening a new front in the War on Terror: "Permanently dislodging these extremists calls for educational, economic and cultural development" through funding "functional education" and "real economic opportunities" with "Western money"(emphasis added) so that the US is seen not as an occupier but a "purveyor of prosperity". [4]