The Alexis de Tocqueville Institute

The Institution (often also called the 'Alexis de Tocqueville Institute') is a Washington think tank with close ties to Microsoft, the Bush administrations (the elder and the younger, I think it can be argued that there's no difference in any case) and other right-wing american individuals and companies. An anonymous poster on Groklaw did the research (are you out there? I'd like to provide proper attribution.)

Unfortunately the Wired news story quotes an email from an unidentified M$ spokeperson. Most other citations link back to the Wired story. There are a few other links I found on google that place AdTI in proper perspective, as a nature-hating, money-grubbing, racist-education organization.

Cooler Heads Coalition

National Consumer Coalition

Bradley Foundation, Lynne and Harry
...List of Right-Wing Grantees:
...Alexis de Toccqueville Institution ...

The Right-Wing Affiliations of Bush Administration Officials
Vice President's Office
Assistant to the Vice President for Domestic Policy -- Cesar Conda was executive director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a libertarian think tank.

Bush's Corporate Cabinet
... Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense ...
... Other positions: ... Alexis de Tocqueville Institution ...

The Anti-Environmental Lobby and the Internet Appendix A
Anti-Environmental Web Sites
The following are the web sites of dozens of organizations involved in the backlash against environmental regulations. This list is by no means complete, and due to the rapid growth and rate of change on the internet, some web site addresses may be obsolete.
...Alexis de Tocqueville Institution

Media Transparency
Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA 22209, Web address: www.adti.net
More info culled by Media Transparency
Total $ Granted: $ 1,723,900
For Years: 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1991 1990 1989 1988
# Grants: 39
...Provider The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, John M. Olin Foundation, Inc., Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Koch Family Foundations: David Koch Foundation, Charles Koch Foundation, Claude Lambe Foundation

Send Lawyers, Guns and Money: Lobbying and the Merchants of Death from the book Washington on $10 million a Day
...Public opinion has also been targeted by a number of prominent defense intellectuals. The foremost public proponent of the B-2 is Loren Thompson of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution in Arlington, an outfit that receives funding from Northrop. Thompson produces a steady stream of pro-B-2 op-ed articles and is regularly quoted in the press.

[dead?] Think tanks at risk for corruption
...Several tank officials and analysts, who spoke to UPI on the condition of anonymity, said that the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a small Arlington, Va.- based think tank that promotes free-market principles, receives a significant portion of its funding from the Microsoft Corp. The sources said that the think tank essentially lobbies in favor of issues important to Microsoft through op-ed pieces and policy briefs by tank officials.
Although no one at de Tocqueville could be reached by deadline, an examination of their Web sites showed that the think tank has taken positions aligned with policies that would clearly benefit the computer software giant.
Think tank analysts also told stories of being asked by a Microsoft lobbyist if it was possible to fund research that supported Microsoft's side in the government's anti-trust case against the firm.

Opening the Open-Source Debate
Recently, an obscure Washington think-tank, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI), posted a press release promising a study which "outlines how open source might facilitate efforts to disrupt or sabotage electronic commerce, air traffic control or even sensitive surveillance systems." ...
... Who Funded the Report?
The first and most obvious question that the discerning reader should ask him or herself is "who funded the report?" Think tanks don't think for free; they are commissioned to do studies. And very often, who funds a study has a strong effect on the conclusions of the study.
When I questioned him about the funding source, Gregory Fossedal, head of AdTI, replied "it isn't our general policy to discuss who does and doesn't fund de Tocqueville, except in the case of qualified press or public officials who are willing to make symmetrical disclosures." ...
...However, it is a matter of public record that Microsoft funds the AdTI. It's also a matter of public record that Microsoft strongly opposes the GPL, the license under which Linux is released.
And, coincidentally, the author of the AdTI study seems particularly perturbed by the GPL. ...

Did MS Pay for Open-Source Scare?
...A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that Microsoft provides funding to the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. "We support a diverse array of public policy organizations with which we share a common interest or public policy agenda such as the de Tocqueville Institution," the spokesman wrote in an e-mail.
Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on whether the company directly sponsored the debate paper. De Tocqueville Institute president Ken Brown and chairman Gregory Fossedal refused to comment on whether Microsoft sponsored the report. ...

Caught in the Act
When asked whether Microsoft offered the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution financial compensation for its research, a Microsoft representative later admitted that the company did in fact offer funding to the research company.

P.S.: The Ins-tee-tewte is often misspelled as the Alexis de Toqueville Institute. Ok, google, here we go... :-)

The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution