The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is joining a coalition of civil society groups that call for President Joe Biden to roll back sanctions against Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.
Forty-six organizations, including two avowedly Communist groups, on Tuesday submitted a letter to Biden that urges him to implement "significant" changes to the United States' sanctions policy. The U.S. Peace Council and International Action Center are openly supportive of Communist and totalitarian regimes.
The U.S. Peace Council has cozied up to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and accused the U.S. government of launching coups in Ukraine and Venezuela. The International Action Center recently released a report that parrots the popular Chinese talking point that the coronavirus originated in a U.S. military lab in Maryland.
Sent in the wake of the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, a policy long backed by the isolationist-leaning Quincy Institute, the letter demonstrates the organization's ongoing efforts to push Biden's foreign policy to the left.
"We write to urge you to complete the administration's sanctions policy review as expeditiously as possible, to make its findings public, and to implement significant and structural changes to U.S. sanctions policy," the letter reads.
The signatories offer to provide "expertise" to the Biden administration during its sanctions policy review.
"We believe we have valuable insight to share, and your administration has said it seeks such input," they write.
The letter is the Quincy Institute's first known collaboration with the U.S. Peace Council and the International Action Center, two of the harshest critics of U.S. foreign policy.
The U.S. Peace Council has been a reliable defender of America's adversaries since it launched in 1979 as an affiliate of the Soviet Union. In recent years, the group has cozied up with Assad and Nicolás Maduro, the disputed president of Venezuela.
The International Action Center has conducted similar "anti-imperialist" activism since its founding in 1992. Its founder, former attorney general Ramsey Clark, gained notoriety for defending war criminals Slobodan Milošević, Charles Taylor, and Saddam Hussein. Clark also represented two Nazi camp guards, Karl Linnas and Jakob Reimer, who faced war-crime charges after they immigrated to the United States.
The Quincy Institute did not respond to a request for comment. The International Action Center and the U.S. Peace Council did not return requests for comment.
Another signatory, CODEPINK, is waging a campaign called "China Is Not Our Enemy" to oppose the Biden administration's pending arms sales to Taiwan. Many of the group's arguments echo Chinese Communist Party talking points.
"Given China's overwhelming military superiority over Taiwan, more weapons will do nothing to enhance Taiwan's self-defense; instead they will further deepen Taiwan's military reliance on the U.S., making U.S. involvement in a future China-Taiwan clash increasingly likely," CODEPINK's campaign site reads. "Sending more weapons to Taiwan will surely upset Chinese leaders, further sabotaging opportunities for much-needed cooperation on climate change, pandemic relief, nuclear nonproliferation, and other issues of common concern."
CODEPINK and 47 other organizations signed a July letter that urges the Biden administration to prioritize cooperating with China on climate change rather than looking into Beijing's litany of human rights abuses. The Washington Free Beacon reported that several of the other cosigners take funds from left-wing billionaire George Soros.