Steve Clemons, executive vice president of the New America Foundation, is on a crusade against what he views as a dangerous and growing phenomenon: special interests and corporate lobbyists using non-profit think tanks in their efforts to promote their pet policies. 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.
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