Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Rockstar on February 28, 2003, 01:57:43 PM
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Where does all that money come from?
'MAINSTREAM' USEFUL IDIOTS
By BYRON YORK
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February 23, 2003 -- THE antiwar group Not In Our Name has attracted a lot of attention in recent months by publishing a "statement of conscience" in newspapers across the country. The organization purchased two full pages in the Jan. 27 New York Times to run the statement, which assails the Bush administration for "unleash[ing] a spirit of revenge" after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and embarking on a course of "war abroad and repression at home."
The letter was signed by hundreds of celebrity endorsers, including the actors Ed Asner, Martin Sheen and Marisa Tomei; writers Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker and Barbara Kingsolver; musicians Graham Nash, Pete Seeger and Mos Def; and politicians Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. The combination of well-known names and high-profile ad placement has made Not In Our Name a leading player in the antiwar movement.
Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to Not In Our Name's financial support network. A look at that network shows that the group relies on tax-exempt foundations that in the past have been - and today still are - affiliated with a variety of radical causes, including the defense of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal, support for Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba and involvement with figures linked to Middle Eastern terrorism.
AT a Not In Our Name demonstration held on Jan. 27 outside the United Nations, one speaker declared that opposition to a war in Iraq, as exemplified by the rally, "is becoming a broad-based movement." A look behind the scenes, however, suggests that the organization itself is not broad-based at all, but is, rather, one of a small group of radical sects devoted to causes far removed from the antiwar effort. Not In Our Name is in fact two groups, which began as one.
The organization was created in March 2002 by a gathering of left-wing activists that included representatives from the Revolutionary Communist Party, the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party, Refuse and Resist!, the International League of Peoples' Struggle and the National Lawyers Guild, among others. The organizers intended for Not In Our Name to stage protests across the country and also draft, according to the group's organizing document, a "Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience to be issued by well-known artists, intellectuals, activists and people in public life, lending their moral authority and their unified voice to the resistance movement."
AT least in the latter goal, Not In Our Name has been extraordinarily effective. But it had to split in two to succeed. There had been concern among organizers that some of those who might be inclined to sign the statement might not want to be associated with Not In Our Name's activist wing. So the group created two separate entities, one called the Not In Our Name Statement (which handles the manifesto and the collecting of celebrity signatures) and the other called the Not In Our Name Project (which handles street demonstrations and other protests).
"For the statement to succeed, we thought it should be separate from any form of political actions," says Clark Kissinger, a member of the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party who has played a major role in organizing Not In Our Name. "We wanted people to be able to sign the statement without having their names used to endorse other actions."
Today, the staffs and finances of both groups are managed independently. Still, both parts of Not In Our Name need to raise money. Rather than creating foundations to collect cash, they formed alliances with so-called "fiscal sponsors" - that is, already established foundations that could use their tax-exempt status for fundraising.
THE Not In Our Name statement that appeared in the Times included a small box asking that donations be sent to something called the Bill of Rights Foundation. Last year, the foundation agreed to serve as Not In Our Name Statement's fiscal sponsor, but a look at the group's Internal Revenue Service records shows that until recently, it has had nothing at all to do with the peace movement. Rather, almost every dollar raised by the group for several years went to the legal defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted cop-killer whose case has become a cause célèbre among some on the Left.
In 2001, for example, the foundation spent a total of $102,152, of which $95,737 went toward Abu-Jamal's legal expenses. In the year 2000, the foundation spent $75,956, of which $57,722 was for Abu-Jamal. And in 1999, the foundation spent $155,547, of which $139,126 went to Abu-Jamal's lawyers.
At the end of 2001, Abu-Jamal changed his legal and finance team, leaving the Bill of Rights Foundation without its main cause. In 2002, it hooked up with Not In Our Name Statement. Foundation president Judith Levin sees the Abu-Jamal case and opposition to a possible war as closely linked. "They're related as a matter of principle," she explains. "The connection is the violation of civil rights of people in this country."
FOR its fund raising, the Not In Our Name Project is allied with another foundation, this one called the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. Founded by several New Left leaders in 1967 to "advance the struggles of oppressed people for justice and self-determination," IFCO was originally created to serve as the fundraising arm of a variety of activist organizations that lacked the resources to raise money for themselves.
In recent years, IFCO served as fiscal sponsor for an organization called the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (their partnership ended when the coalition formed its own tax-exempt foundation). Founded in 1997 as a reaction to the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, the coalition says its function is to oppose the use of secret evidence in terrorism prosecutions.
Until recently, the group's president was Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida computer-science professor who has been suspended for alleged ties to terrorism. (He is still a member of the coalition's board.) According to a New York Times report last year, Al-Arian is accused of having sent hundreds of thousands of dollars, raised by another charity he runs, to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Times also reported that FBI investigators "suspected Mr. Al-Arian operated 'a fund-raising front' for the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine from the late 1980s to 1995." Al-Arian also brought a man named Ramadan Abdullah Shallah to the University of South Florida to raise money for one of Al-Arian's foundations - a job Shallah held until he later became the head of Islamic Jihad.
TODAY, IFCO sponsors Refuse and Resist!, an antiwar group with ties to the Revolutionary Communist Party, and also devotes substantial energy to supporting the Castro regime in Cuba. Cuba is a particular favorite of IFCO's executive director, the Rev. Lucius Walker, who, addressing a "solidarity conference" in Havana in November 2000, proclaimed, "Long live the struggle of the Cuban people! Long live the creative example of the Cuban Revolution! Long live the wisdom and heartfelt concern for the poor of the world by Fidel Castro!" Both IFCO and the Bill of Rights Foundation are tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charities, which means that all contributions made to them - whether for antiwar protests, Cuban solidarity rallies, or the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal - are fully tax-deductible.
The groups have been quite successful. The most recent IRS records available for IFCO, from the year 2000, show that the foundation took in $1,119,564 in contributions. For their part, organizers of the Not In Our Name Statement report that they have taken in more than $400,000 in recent months for the purpose of publishing their statement. It is not possible to say who is giving the money, or whether it comes from many people or just a few; federal laws do not require tax-exempt foundations to reveal their donors - or even whether donations are received from inside or outside the United States.
'WE who sign this statement call on all Americans to join together," says the Not In Our Name manifesto. To hear the group's leaders speak, one might think that is actually happening, that there really is a "broad-based movement" represented by these activists. But a look at the people and organizations involved in Not In Our Name suggests otherwise - no matter how many celebrity signatures they might collect.
Byron York is National Review's White House correspondent. From the Feb. 24 issue.
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Another article that is printed in the sincere hope that people are too stupid to actually read it, and will get indignant over the headline.
Nothing in there but smoke and mirrors.. sad.
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yes , midnight , it is another trick of the bush CIA oil mongers
DETH TO AMEERKA OIL MONGERS
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john90210, Osama loves you, he really does.
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as always, following the money reveals the agenda.
noodlesukers. gawdamn freeloadin commie jihad noodlesukers.
gets my goat, yah know.. it's fasionable to protest. the freakin vacuous headed pinheads that support this movement are nothin more than pawns for the jihad.
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MT dont defend communist degenerates. You have aboslutely no feeling or idea of what communist types bring forward when give any sort of power or influence. Plese dont be deceived by their peaceful facade - these people are violent degenerates and terrorist who would like nothing better than to destroy america and destroy democracy and all matter of personal and economic freedoms.
Think I'm exaggerating? I knew some of these "activits" from my last school. Talking to them and engaging them to to open up revelas a trerrifying agenda including forced deprortation, eliminatinaon of cities (no joke) as in in everyone is forced to forage for food in the wilderness, no voting rights, massive social reconstruction, massive elimination of capitalist/middle class and even elimination of higher techinical education including even the training of doctors who would supposedly be rendered superfulous by the new rural foraging lifestyle. Maybe this sounds extreme to an american but dont be dismissmisive of my warning so easily, these people are full blown revolutinaries in the sens of pol pot or something worse. Granted the ones I met with may be extremists but they were also known to be leaders in the groups around the bay area.
Be careful of coddling them in any way, be careful MT.
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Funny Grun,
Now go read the article and tell me how it relates in any way to the idea that anti-war activists are communists or even Al Quaida simps or gives any solid proof of the above.
Hint.... it doesn't, it is BS and yellow journalism.
Then I would like you to please understand that I am niether pro communist nor anti war. I am anti-BS and thats what this article is chock full of. (pardon the preposition)
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Visited by another Knee Jerk Reaction.
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MT..
Follow the money.
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All I'm telling you is what I heard from the mouths of some local young leaders of the "peace, anti-trade, anti USA, anti-capitalism" movement. These people are very dangerous communists and they pervade all the recent political protests like Seattle or the current anti-war movemement.
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Originally posted by midnight Target
Nothing in there but smoke and mirrors.. sad.
Moslem extremists with ties to terrorist organizations funding anti war protestors is "smoke and mirrors" to you?
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Originally posted by Hangtime
MT..
Follow the money.
Please show me a legitamate link in that article between terrorists and the "Not in our name" group. I'll try...
to Not In Our Name's financial support network. A look at that network shows that the group relies on tax-exempt foundations that in the past have been - and today still are - affiliated with a variety of radical causes, including the defense of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal, support for Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba and involvement with figures linked to Middle Eastern terrorism.
Well there is the set-up. Accused of having financial ties to... to... the defense of a man on death row? Hmmmm? Kinda like a whole bunch of other free legal organizations that oppose the death penalty. Nothing insidious there...
Support for Fidel Castro? How about Anti Cuban lobby? How about support for the lifting of those stupid sanctions that have done nothing but keep Castro in power.. but I digress.
INVOLVEMENT WITH FIGURES LINKED TO MIDDLE EASTERN TERRORISTS?? Lets chase that one down!!
Bill of Rights Foundation. Last year, the foundation agreed to serve as Not In Our Name Statement's fiscal sponsor
OK so we get from "Not in Our Name" to "Bill of Rights Foundation" with a pretty legit connection. Now what?
but a look at the group's Internal Revenue Service records shows that until recently, it has had nothing at all to do with the peace movement. Rather, almost every dollar raised by the group for several years went to the legal defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted cop-killer whose case has become a cause célèbre among some on the Left.
So now it is assisting "Not In Our Name" (henceforth to be known as NION), but it used to assist other non-profit organizations? This might be a good time to show who this Mumia guy really is:
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning Pennsylvania journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. On death row since 1982, he was wrongfully sentenced for the shooting of a police officer. New evidence, including the recantation of a key eyewitness, new ballistic and forensic evidence and a confession from Arnold Beverly (one of the two killers of Officer Faulkner) points to his innocence! Mumia had no criminal record.
So we got the Bill of Rights Foundation (BORF) supporting Mumia before assiting the NION group. So far ...... SMOKE AND MIRRORS!!
Even the article leaves this link at this point. Why? Because there is nothing there!
More later!
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You seem to have skipped over Sami Al-Arian.
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Oh yah.. the islamic jihad front guy attached as a professor to the university of florida. They just locked him up last week when they followed the money didn't they?
the freakin terrorists must be laffin their tulips off at us.. our happy pinhead 'save the babies, stop the war' yuppie population pumps millions of dollars into the jihad to finance sept 11th and a bomb in isreal every other day while the media and government focuses on pot buyers and suv owners financing terrorists.
whotta world.
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Originally posted by Fatty
You seem to have skipped over Sami Al-Arian.
I was just getting started!!
FOR its fund raising, the Not In Our Name Project is allied with another foundation, this one called the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization.
In recent years, IFCO served as fiscal sponsor for an organization called the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (their partnership ended when the coalition formed its own tax-exempt foundation).
Until recently, the group's president was Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida computer-science professor who has been suspended for alleged ties to terrorism. (He is still a member of the coalition's board.)
Al-Arian is accused of having sent hundreds of thousands of dollars, raised by another charity he runs, to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
So all you have is a person accused of raising money for IJ (from a completely different source) that USED to belong to the board of a Charity that USED to use a fund raiser that is ALLIED WITH (wtf does that mean ?) NOIN. Smoke and Mirrors!!! Yellow journalism! I'm ashamed of you all for falling for this crap!
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never heard of any of those people that signed.
However, seeing Jesse Jackson on the list.. ahahahahaha.
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The alleged (and I will grant you alleged pending his hearing) fundraising and support of PIJ took place during the time that he was president and that they were allied. Stepped down from president after he was suspended from USF for ties to terrorism? Ahh, but it's merely coincidence and speculation, it has nothing to do with keeping a clean face on a dirty organization.
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He didnt
USED to belong to the board
He USED to president but was still on the board at the time of his arrest.
But this guy ran various foundations. Some benefitted the Jihad. Its not to much of a stretch to see where he would use another foundation to oppose a war against a government (Iraq) that has also supported Jihad and a leader (Saddam) who pays out money to the families of suicide bombers sponsored by Jihad. You could almost assume a guy like this has a vested interest in keeping Suddam in power.
But the links to terrorism aside, these degenerates have a motivation unto themslves. They Hate America.
They only want peace when it suites them.
The world would be better off if more people
[fell] for this crap
Then fell for the "Just give peace a chance" garbage.
BTW I am anti-war against Iraq. I think we oughta goto war with these degenerates instead.
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Yaknow, the reasons for and the contribution to the anti-war movement from questionable sources pales in comparison to the backroom backslapping and profit making during this war of the Carlyle group...yet nobody seems to want to question their ethics or reasons for being so secretive.
So, what's worse. Having questionable sources fund and orginize anti-war protests or a group of the worlds elite making huge profits from that war...who do you think influences this countries administration and their actions more.....and why?
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Well, allowing the vague implication for the sake of argument, one professes a desire to see the US wiped from the earth, the other might make a profit.
Golly you're right, it's really close there.
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Jeebuz, Fatty.. yer wasting yer time in yer present job.
You'd make zillions as a political commentator. Unmerciful, accurate skewering on demand, 25 words or less. The networks would love ya!
Do it!
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You guys are gonna make me pull a Hortlund here in a minute!!
(deep breaths)
OK I'm better.
Based on the article.....
Al-Arian is accused of having sent hundreds of thousands of dollars, raised by another charity he runs,
NOT the one that is linked (tenuously at best) through another group to NOIN.
So what we are saying here is that the legitamacy of your group is based upon whether it has any links at all....no matter how many degrees of seperation there may be... to anyone who might be bad.
One more thing... Al-Arian is not even linked to the same fund raising group that raises funds for NOIN. He is linked to another group that Used to use the group that NOIN uses.
C'mon people! It is possible to disagree with your views and still not be a murdering, baby killing, ranting, pinko SOB. (testing the SOB search engine)
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You know MT, if David Duke raised money for another organization besides the KKK, I'd be suspect of that too.
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Kurt Vonnegut has had some of the most intelligent and human things to say on the subject of war that it has been my privilege to read.
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Originally posted by Fatty
You know MT, if David Duke raised money for another organization besides the KKK, I'd be suspect of that too.
Nice analogy, but WRONG!!
If Duke used to work for company A who raised money for company B, and company B had at one time raised money for company C, and company C was "aligned" with Company D... then Company D is therefore affiliated with the KKK.... right?
Duh!
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If Duke was Imperial Wizard of racist protest group A, and then ran protest group B, you would be hiding your head in the sand if you did not know protest group B was racist.