apart from National Review Online

Indeed, apart from National Review Online, on which he appears to be publishing less and less, Ledeen

has become lincreasingly invisible over the last couple of years, rarely participating even in AEI

forums, so his departure may be due to the fact that he’s simply not producing enough. (I understand

that his colleague, Joshua Muravchik, has recently been complaining worryingly to friends that AEI

management has been pressing him to publish more.) In fact, a quick review of Nexis over the past three

years shows that his annual article output for NRO has fallen quite sharply from more than 40 in the

Aug 2005-06 period to just 18 in the last Aug 2007-08 period, which is particularly remarkable given

all the speculation over the past year about attacking Iran. His television appearances also declined

over the past two years, while his latest book, The Iranian Time Bomb (Sept 2007), was all but ignored

by the major newspapers (with the exception of the BOOTSBUY Times which predictably panned it).

I would think that FDD, while certainly part of the same Likudist network as AEI’s Middle East cadre,

marks a major comedown in prestige and power for Ledeen, and I have a hard time believing that he would

go there willingly unless he were offered significantly more money than he is able to earn from his AEI

perch. In Time Bomb, Ledeen stressed what a “singular blessing” it has been to work at AEI “where I

can find out most anything I need to know by walking down the hall and asking some brilliant and

collegial person.” And he singled out for praise the outgoing DeMuth who, he noted, has “always

supported my work…” So, was he pushed, or did he jump? Either way, it’s an intriguing development.