DON'T FORGET MEXICO! Reporters without Borders NAILED!

[Joanne98]

Lookie here. Reporters without borders is getting money from The International Republican Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy. This little tibit of info clears up a lot. I found this on Narco News. If you read that site you know they are always fighting with "news" organizations who don't tell the truth. Keep your eyes on MEXICO today.

http://counterpunch.org/barahona08012006.html
August 1, 2006

International Republican Institute Grants Uncovered
Reporters Without Borders and Washington's Coups
By DIANA BARAHONA and JEB SPRAGUE

British press baron Lord Northcliff said, "News is something that someone, somewhere wants to keep secret, everything else is advertising." If this is true, then U.S. government funding of Reporters Without Borders must be news, because the organization and its friends in Washington have gone to extraordinary lengths to cover it up. In spite of 14 months of stonewalling by the National Endowment for Democracy over a Freedom of Information Act request and a flat denial from RSF executive director Lucie Morillon, the NED has revealed that Reporters Without Borders received grants over at least three years from the International Republican Institute.

The NED still refuses to provide the requested documents or even reveal the grant amounts, but they are identified by these numbers: IRI 2002-022/7270, IRI 2003-027/7470 and IRI 2004-035/7473. Investigative reporter Jeremy Bigwood asked Morillon on April 25 if her group was getting any money from the I.R.I., and she denied it, but the existence of the grants was confirmed by NED assistant to the president, Patrick Thomas.

The discovery of the grants reveals a major deception by the group, which for years denied it was getting any Washington dollars until some relatively small grants from the NED and the Center for a Free Cuba were revealed (see Counterpunch: "Reporters Without Borders Unmasked"). When asked to account for its large income RSF has claimed the money came from the sale of books of photographs. But researcher Salim Lamrani has pointed out the improbability of this claim. Even taking into account that the books are published for free, it would have had to sell 170 200 books in 2004 and 188 400 books in 2005 to earn the more than $2 million the organization claims to make each year ­ 516 books per day in 2005. The money clearly had to come from other sources, as it turns out it did.

The I.R.I., an arm of the Republican Party, specializes in meddling in elections in foreign countries, as a look at NED annual reports and the I.R.I. website shows. It is one of the four core grantees of the NED, the organization founded by Congress under the Reagan administration in 1983 to replace the CIA's civil society covert action programs, which had been devastated by exposure by the Church committee in the mid-1970s (Ignatius, 1991). The other three pillars of the NED are the National Democratic Institute (the Democratic Party), the Solidarity Center (AFL-CIO) and the Center for International Private Enterprise (U.S. Chamber of Commerce). But of all the groups the I.R.I. is closest to the Bush administration, according to a recent piece in The New York Times exposing its role in the overthrow of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide:

"President Bush picked its president, Lorne W. Craner, to run his administration's democracy-building efforts. The institute, which works in more than 60 countries, has seen its federal financing nearly triple in three years, from $26 million in 2003 to $75 million in 2005. Last spring, at an I.R.I. fund-raiser, Mr. Bush called democracy-building 'a growth industry.'" (Bogdanich and Nordberg, 2006)

Funding from the I.R.I. presents a major problem for RSF's credibility as a "press freedom" organization because the group manufactured propaganda against the popular democratic governments of Venezuela and Haiti at the same time that its patron, the I.R.I., was deeply involved in efforts to overthrow them. The I.R.I. funded the Venezuelan opposition to President Hugo Chavez (Barry, 2005) and actively organized Haitian opposition to Aristide in conjunction with the CIA (Bogdanich and Nordberg, 2006

http://counterpunch.org/barahona08012006.html


This is a long article please read it all.

[EFerrari]

1. "in conjunction with the CIA"

Busted, pendejos!

[Joanne98]

4. Now we know why the "reporting" from down south is so screwed.

This is important stuff. If these guys are helping steal Mexico, we will have an issue to fuck the corrupt press with. It will help because we know the press in this country won't report voting fraud. This proves the press isn't just stupid and lazy BUT corrupt.

[EFerrari]

6. It IS important stuff. This is why the Castro government

doesn't want Western "reporters" going into Cuba right now, ya think?

:hi:

[Joanne98]

2. Reporters Without Borders Unmasked 5/17/05

http://counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html
May 17, 2005

Its Secret Deal with Otto Reich to Wreck Cuba's Economy
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
By DIANA BARAHONA

When Robert Menard founded Reporters Without Borders twenty years ago, he gave his group a name which evokes another French organization respected worldwide for its humanitarian work and which maintains a strict neutrality in political conflicts ­ Doctors Without Borders. But RSF (French acronym) has been anything but nonpartisan and objective in its approach to Latin America and to Cuba in particular.

From the beginning, RSF has made Cuba its No. 1 target. Allegedly founded to advocate freedom of the press around the world and to help journalists under attack, the organization has called Cuba "the world's biggest prison for journalists." It even gives the country a lower ranking on its press freedom index than countries where journalists routinely have been killed, such as Colombia, Peru and Mexico. RSF has waged campaigns aimed at discouraging Europeans from vacationing in Cuba and the European Union from doing business there ­ its only campaigns worldwide intended to damage a country's economy.

The above is not a matter of chance because it turns out that RSF is on the payroll of the U.S. State Department and has close ties to Helms-Burton-funded Cuban exile groups.

As a majority of members of Congress work toward normalizing trade and travel with Cuba, the extremist anti-Castro groups that have dictated U.S. Cuba policy for 40 years continue working tirelessly to maintain an economic stranglehold on the island. Their support for RSF is part of this overall strategy.

Havana-based journalist Jean-Guy Allard wrote a book about RSF's leader (El expediente Robert Ménard: Por qué Reporteros sin Fronteras se ensaña con Cuba, Quebec: Lanctôt, 2005) which lays out the pieces of the puzzle regarding Menard's activities, associations and sources of funding in an attempt to explain what he calls Menard's "obsession" with Cuba. On April 27 this year the pieces began to come together: Thierry Meyssan, president of the Paris daily, Red Voltaire, published an article in which he claimed Menard had negotiated a contract with Otto Reich and the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) in 2001. Reich was a trustee of the center, which receives the bulk of its funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The contract, according to Meyssan, was signed in 2002 around the time Reich was appointed Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere for the Secretary of State. The initial payment for RSF's services was approximately 24,970 euros in 2002 ($25,000), which went up to 59,201 euros in 2003 ($50,000).

http://counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html

[TahitiNut]

3. (Another linkless OM) Here're some links ...

Orginal - http://www.counterpunch.com/barahona08012006.html

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=10692
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1788
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=64918
http://www.upec.cu/000_info/julio06/31/01-eng.htm

[Joanne98]

5. Thank you.

[Joanne98]

7. This is SO COOL! Women take over channel 9 (Oaxaca)

God. I wish we could do something like this....

Oaxaca’s State TV Station Under Popular Control
Women March to the Zocalo Against Governor and Take Over Channel 9 Studios
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1990.html

By Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca
August 2, 2006

OAXACA CITY, August 1, 2006: In the style of the marcha de las caserolas (cooking-pot march) made famous in Argentina, the women of Oaxaca took to the streets with their pots, frying pans and spoons to beat out the call “Ruiz fuera!”: “Governor Ruiz out!”


Women March through the Oaxaca zocalo August 1
Photo: D.R. 2006 Nancy Davies
On Tuesday morning about 2,000 women gathered at the Plaza of the Seven Regions and marched toward the zocalo, a distance of five miles. Along the route they were greeted by cheering onlookers who handed them water and waved signs in support of the social movement that has set as its first and foremost goal the removal from office of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (“URO”). The women tapped out the rhythm of “ya cayó” (“he’s already fallen”) and used pan covers as cymbals. Many carried wooden spoons and drummed on their frying pans.

When they gathered in the zocalo the drumming sound was like a tropical downpour – rain on a tin roof. Then the bells of the ex-government building, made over as a museum by URO, began to ring. The movement has attached ropes from the bell towers to the pavilion in the center of the zocalo, and over the sound of the tapping of thousands of spoons on pots, the bells peeled out.

No tropical rain: the sun at mid-day glared, and many women, some of whom carried children, also carried sun-umbrellas. The females present ranged in age from babes in arms to tough old grannies. As many women wore the traditional aprons –a trademark of street and market vendors in Oaxaca– as wore jeans. Before the march dispersed at 12:30, somebody announced from the pavilion, “Women are going to Channel 9.” The location of the state television facilities is a bus-ride outside the downtown area, across from the Alvaro Carillo Theater.

Women have played a strong part from the beginning of the movement, as they comprise half of the teachers’ union and/or are mothers of students affected. As parents they have expressed rage against lack of decent schools and classrooms, and most recently against paying enrollment fees for public schools. Free education is guaranteed by the Mexican Constitution. Fees to register, as well as purchase of uniforms and books, appear to have fronted yet another method of state theft.


First broadcast from occupied Channel 9
Photo: D.R. 2006 Nancy Davies
About 350 women marched into the state TV Channel 9 facilities at approximately 1:30 p.m. Nobody stopped them. Perhaps a thousand women and children more stood on watch outside the building. At 3:30 the channel went off the air. Within an hour, the women telephoned Radio Universidad, the radio station at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO), to say they had two radio stations working from the site, one AM and one FM, but no television. They reported that there had been no opposition, no struggle, and nobody was hurt. They asked the listeners for back-up – guards, food, water, and people who know how to operate television cameras.


More at link:


http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1990.html
----------------------------------------------------

EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5 PARAGRAPHS
FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE PER DU RULES.

[pretzel4gore]

8. this is good to know

at first, reading this, the suspicion was, well the cia gives money to everybody, whether they want it or not, they deposit funds in people's accounts etc, using fake names. the point is that if an org. is effective, in opposition to the pig's schemes, they then can let slip this juicy detail. however, reporters sans frontiers (rsf) appears to have been caught with its 'tit in the wringer'
good job....

[EFerrari]

9. There was a thread in LBN yesterday where Cuba was being

criticized for barring reporters from entry.

This stuff is the missing context.

[Joanne98]

11. The MSM must know about this. Interesting.

[EFerrari]

14. The corporate media ARE them. Their business plan

must be something like "if we don't own it, we rent it."

And, that speaks to how badly the Kleptocracy wants to shut down these here internets.

[Joanne98]

15. I don't think we can get our elections straightened out unless

we figure out the role the MSM has played in covering up election theft in the US! It's becoming real clear that they're involved. RWB is operating in 60 diferent countries. That's a huge scandal.

[EFerrari]

17. Well, the closest I got was catching the NYTs sitting on stories

and assuring hundreds (they said, so it was probably thousands) of people that they would "follow up" on Ohio. Of course, they did no such thing as we saw. They knew.

Then there's the AP, or Authorized Propaganda as I fondly call them. Now, the AP never seriously covered what happened in Ohio, they barely covered the RIOTS there on election night. And they called us "dissidents" for asking questions. Now, the only connection I found was that the managing editor was from the Omaha World Herald which owns a good deal of ES&S.

I haven't thought about it for a while. We know that Faux / Bush's cousin called Florida for him in 2000. The tentacles are many.

My own paper refused to report when McPherson recertified diebold. I pressed and pressed and the most I got was the reader's rep saying he was concerned and believed it should have been covered.

:shrug:

/oops

[Joanne98]

18. I know it's terrible.

[Joanne98]

10. Reporters without Borders (Sourcewatch)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reporters_Without_Borders

Reporters Without Borders
From SourceWatch
Reporters Without Borders, or RWB (French: Reporters sans frontières, or RSF) is "an international non-governmental organization devoted to freedom of the press".

RWB/RSF is a member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a virtual network of non-governmental organisations that monitors free expression violations worldwide and campaigns to defend journalists, writers and others who are persecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Table of contents
1 Funding Sources

2 Principal focus of RSF activities

3 Principals

4 Contact details

5 Other SourceWatch resources

6 External links

Funding Sources
Robert Menard, the Secretary General of RSF, was forced to confess that RSF's budget was primarily provided by "US organizations strictly linked with US foreign policy" (Thibodeau, La Presse).

NED (US$39,900 paid 14 Jan 2005)
Center for a Free Cuba (USAID and NED funded) $50,000 per year NED grant. Contract was signed by Otto Reich
European Union (1.2m Euro) -- currently contested in EU parliament
Principal focus of RSF activities
Cuba
Venezuela
Haiti
Principals
Robert Ménard -- Sec. General
Lucie Morillon -- RSF rep in Washington DC
Frank Calzón -- formerly a leader of Abdalas and the Cuban American National Foundation.
Contact details
Reporters sans frontières
International Secretariat
5, rue Geoffroy-Marie
75009 Paris - France
Tel. [phone]
Fax. [phone]
E-mail : [e-mail]
RSF Website: http://www.rsf.org/

Other SourceWatch resources
Arab Press Freedom Watch
Blogging
Gulf Press Freedom Center
Journalism
non-governmental organization
External links
"Reporters Without Borders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders)", Wikipedia.
Al Giordano, "Open Letter to Robert Ménard of Reporters Without Borders (http://www.narconews.com/letterwithoutborders1.html)", Narco News, Latin America, July 29, 2002.
Serge Halimi, "France: his master’s voice (http://mondediplo.com/2001/08/04press)", Le Monde Diplomatique, Aug 2001. (A concession by RSF's Robert Ménard).
Salim Lamrani, "The Reporters Without Borders Fraud (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=45&ItemID=7851)", ZNet Magazine, May 13, 2005.
Diana Barahona, "Reporters Without Borders Unmasked: Its Secret Deal with Otto Reich to Wreck Cuba's Economy (http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html)", Counterpunch, May 17, 2005.
Diana Barahona, "Government funds color press group’s objectivity (http://www.newsguild.org/gr/gr_display.php?storyID=2213)", The Guild Reporter, March 11, 2005.
"Journalist watchdog accused of bias (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/05/20/2003255879/print)", The Guardian, London, May 20, 2005.
Marc Thibodeau, Disquieting Questions for RSF, La Presse (Montreal), 30 April 2005.
Jean-Guy Allard, "La Unión Europea renuente a investigar las dudosas relaciones de Reporteros Sin Fronteras (http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=24542)", Rebelion, 22 Dec 2005 (in Spanish).
Carolina Cositore, "Reporters Without Britches: Reporters Without Borders Caught with Their Pants Down (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=9713)", ZNet, February 12, 2006.
Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reporters_Without_Borders"

[Joanne98]

12. National Endowment for Democracy NED (Sourcewatch)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=NED

National Endowment for Democracy
From SourceWatch

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a Washington D.C-based non-profit funded by the U.S. national budget, boasts that it is "supporting freedom around the world."

Carl Gershman has been President since April 1984.

NED's website describes its mission as being "guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values." NED, which is publicly funded, "makes hundreds of grants each year to support pro-democracy groups in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East." <1> (http://www.ned.org)

NED funding mostly flows through the four foundations listed below; these in turn are active in influencing "civil society" and electoral processes around the world, in a process sometimes referred to as "cloak and ballot" operations. While NED remains accountable to the U.S. Congress and has to publish its disbursements, this doesn't apply to the organizations that it in turn finances.

Other groups undertaking similar activities around the world based in other developed countries include: the Australian Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI); the Westminster Foundation; the Canadian International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development.

Another similar US group was also formed in 1984 called the Center for Democracy.

Table of contents
1 Founding

2 Involvement in Foreign Political Processes

2.1 Europe
2.2 Nicaragua
2.3 Haiti
2.4 Venezuela
2.5 Iran
2.6 Moldova


3 Revolving doorways

4 Fostering "Free Press"

5 Covert Embedded Reporters

6 Conducting Polls

7 Critiques and Support

8 Funding

9 Officers

10 Directors of the Board

11 Affiliated Contractors

12 Contact Information

13 SourceWatch Resources

14 Websites critiquing the NED

15 External Links

Founding
NED was founded during the Ronald Reagan presidency in 1982, and shaped by an initial study undertaken by the American Political Foundation. <2> (http://www.ned.org/about/nedhistory.html)

NED was created with a view to creating a broad base of political support for the organization. NED received funds from the U.S. government and distributes funds to four other organizations - one created by the Republican Party, another by the Democratic Party, one created by the business community and one by the "labor" movement (N.B.: the names of these organizations have changed over time):

International Republican Institute (IRI)
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
Chamber of Commerce's Center for Private Enterprise (CIPE)
AFL-CIO's American Center for International Labor Solidarity
Although publicly funded, the activities of these four institutes are not reported to Congress. According to William Robinson, "NED employs a complex system of intermediaries in which operative aspects, control relationships, and funding trails are nearly impossible to follow and final recipients are difficult to identify."

In a March 2005 interview, former CIA officer Philip Agee discussed the thinking behind NED's establishment: (Dennis Bernstein, "Philip Agee, Former CIA agent speaks on Venezuela (http://www.flashpoints.net/index.html)", Flashpoints, March 14, 2005)

During the late 1970s there was new thinking at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policymakers, and they reconsidered whether these ugly murderous military dictatorships of the 1970s were really the best way to preserve U.S. interests in these countries – U.S. interests being defined traditionally as unfettered access to the primary products and raw materials, to the labor and to the markets of foreign countries. This new thinking led to the establishment in 1983 of the National Endowment for Democracy. They had chosen the German pattern in which the major political parties in Germany have foundations financed by the federal government. They did more or less the same thing with the establishment of the NED as a private foundation – there is really nothing private about it, and all its money comes from the Congress.
But then there were the other core foundations – this was the fundamental mechanism for promotion of democracy around the world, but in actual fact, when they say the promotion of democracy, or civic education, or fortifying civil society, what they really mean is using those euphemisms to cover funding to certain political forces and not to others. In other words, to fortify the opposition of undesirable foreign governments as in the case of Venezuela, or to support a government that is favorable to US interests and avoid of coming to power of forces that are not seen as favorable to US interests. This will be the case since the early 1990s in Nicaragua because all those programs that were started in order to assure the defeat of Daniel Ortega in 1990 continued, and they continued to make sure that Sandinista Front was not reelected again after their defeat in 1990 – and that has been the case. These programs go on in various different countries and they require quite a bit of research. ... I am sure that one could find these programs in Mexico, Colombia, Peru probably, Brazil, and other countries outside the Latin American region.
Involvement in Foreign Political Processes
NED regularly provides funding to opposition candidates in elections in countries other than the USA. According to Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA" (Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, 2000, p. 180).

NED has principally supported candidates with strong ties to the military and who support the rights of U.S. corporations to invest in those countries with minimal restriction. The NED has not supported candidates who oppose investments by U.S. corporations or who promise restrictions on investment rights of U.S. corporations.

Tom Engelhardt (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=7585) notes that "we've seen "the Rose Revolution" in Georgia, "the Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, and now "the Tulip Revolution" in Kyrgyzstan, all heavily financed and backed by groups funded by or connected to the U.S. government and/or the Bush administration." He then quotes Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times, who writes:

"The whole arsenal of US foundations -- National Endowment for Democracy, International Republic Institute, International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), Eurasia Foundation, Internews, among others -- which fueled opposition movements in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine, has also been deployed in Bishkek ... Practically everything that passes for civil society in Kyrgyzstan is financed by these US foundations, or by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). At least 170 non-governmental organizations charged with development or promotion of democracy have been created or sponsored by the Americans. The US State Department has operated its own independent printing house in Bishkek since 2002 -- which means printing at least 60 different titles, including a bunch of fiery opposition newspapers. USAID invested at least $2 million prior to the Kyrgyz elections -- quite something in a country where the average salary is $30 a month." <3> (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GC26Ag03.html)
Europe
In the 1980s, NED also funded political groups in some Western European countries. Investigations by French newspaper Liberation revealed that NED funded right-wing French political groups such as the National Inter-University Union (associated with violent groups).

During the 1990s, NED invested some money, at least about $9,000,000 <4> (http://www.maloca.com/zagloba/ned.htm), in Eastern Europe to support its vision of economics and the shock therapy program, leading to unemployment rates of about 20-40% in Eastern European countries. In Serbia, NED also meddled, by among other things funding Otpor - purportedly a non-violent youth shock group.

Nicaragua
Before the 1990 elections in Nicaragua, "President Bush (Sr.) spent $9 million in NED, including a $4 million contribution to the campaign of opposition presidential candidate Violeta Chamorro" (John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Common Courage Press, Monroe Maine,1995, page 166). Chamorro won.

In 1990, Michael Kozak was the US ambassador for Nicaragua; he is presently US ambassador to the Republic for Belarus where the US is busy "promoting democracy" at this very moment (2005), and in his own words:

"Our objective and to some degree methodology are the same. Then we worked with the Sandinista authorities, the Organisation of American States, other countries in the region, and the former Soviet Union to encourage a free, fair and transparent election."
"Twelve years ago, we advised the Nicaraguan opposition that the best way to pursue their political agenda was through participation in a peaceful electoral process; today we are giving the same advice to the opposition in Belarus." <5> (http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,542155,00.html)
Haiti
In the 1990 elections in Haiti, NED supported Marc L. Bazin, providing a big fraction of his total U.S.-supported campaign funds of $36 million. Despite this funding, he only obtained 14% of the vote. Bazin had earlier been a World Bank official. He was seen by most Haitians as a "front man for military and business interests", and had been prime minister during military rule, for the presidential election. <6> (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/2424/haiti1.html)

In February of 2004, Haitian political instability erupted thanks to NED's providing financial and technical support to anti-Aristide groups such as the Democratic Platform. The Democratic Platform denied supporting the armed resistance that killed scores of people and created many refugees, but organized many disruptive rallies that forced Aristide to scramble in order to maintain order. <7> (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-copposition14feb14,0,7280682.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines) Combined with a freeze on aid to Haiti, silence from the administration of President Bush (Jr.) and preparations for housing "15,000 Haitian boat people after they are interdicted on their way to Florida," the will of the United States appears to be regime change in Haiti. <8> (http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb04/Leight0212.htm)

Venezuela
During 2001/2002, NED gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to U.S. and Venezuelan groups who organized protests and a coup d'etat against the elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. The coup happened on 11 April 2002. According to Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the U.S. navy, U.S. military attaches such as Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup, while Roger Rondon claimed that both James Rogers and another US military officer, Ronald MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12. <9> (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,706802,00.html)

In 2003, Terry Allen wrote, "Using the same conduit Reagan used to fund the contras, the National Endowment for Democracy, the George W. Bush administration had funnelled money to Venezuelan 0pposition." <10> (http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2003/11.html) Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act show that $1 million of NED funding went to opposition groups determined to unseat Chavez. <11> (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/04/1554235) <12> (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=500711)

During a March 2005 interview, former CIA officer and author of Inside the Company, Philip Agee, discussed the role of NED in Venezuela: (Dennis Bernstein, "Philip Agee, Former CIA agent speaks on Venezuela (http://www.flashpoints.net/index.html)", Flashpoints, March 14, 2005)

The failed military coup attempt of April 2002 was about one million per year. That was National Endowment for Democracy money being channeled through the so-called core foundations of NED, which are the foundations of the AFL-CIO, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Democratic and Republican parties; there are four of these foundations. In the wake of this failed coup against Chavez, a decision was taken in Washington to expand dramatically the amount of money and the types of operations that have undertaken to that point. ...
Meanwhile the NED programs continued through the four core foundations, two of which have offices here in Caracas. ... So there are in fact three supposedly private offices opened here in Caracas through which all these millions of dollars are being funneled out to the Venezuelan opposition. And it turns out in the one contract between USAID and Development Alternatives Inc., USAID named the staff in the Caracas office, and there was a provision in the contract that not one of those people could be replaced unless they were named by USAID. So you have these three offices here, that are nothing more than extensions of the United States embassy, under the control of the embassy, of the State Department, of USAID in Washington, and posing as private firms (two foundations and one commercial consulting firm) while as a matter of fact they are no more than extensions, mechanisms and instruments of the US embassy.
In September 2005, the Miami Herald reported that NED approved a $107,000 grant to Sumate, "a Venezuelan citizens group whose leaders already face charges in Venezuela of using Washington's money to try to overthrow President Hugo Chavez's government. ... Súmate leaders could face prison sentences of up to 16 years if convicted of 'conspiracy to destroy the nation's republican form of government' by accepting $31,000 from NED in 2004. Súmate helped gather the signatures to force last year's recall referendum on Chávez, which the president won handily." The 2005 grant was to train up to 11,000 people on electoral rights, in small groups of 20 to 25. <13> (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/12629899.htm)

Iran
According to the NED's online Democracy Projects Database (http://www.ned.org/dbtw-wpd/textbase/projects-search.htm) the following Iranian groups have received grants from the NED since 1990:

Iran Teachers Association (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2003)
Foundation for Democracy in Iran (1995, 1996)
National Iranian American Council (2002)
Women’s Learning Partnership (2003)
Abdorrahaman Boroumand Foundation (2002, 2003 and 2004)
Center for the International Private Enterprise (2004)
Vital Voices Global Partnership (2004)
Moldova
"In 2003, the BIOTICA Ecological Society received NED funding to ensure the expansion and long-term survival of the nascent civic sector in Transdniestria by establishing five NGO resource centers in the breakaway region." <14> (http://www.ned.org/grants/03programs/highlights-cee.html)

Revolving doorways
The close alignment of the NEDs activities with US foreign policy interests comes as no surprise, especially when you consider the revolving doorways between the US Government and the NED Board of Directors, some of the most notable of which include:

"...former US Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger (Nixon) and Madeleine Albright (Clinton), former US Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci (Reagan), former National Security Council Chair Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter), former NATO Supreme Allied Command in Europe, General Wesley K. Clark (Clinton), and the current head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz (George W. Bush). Another notable, Bill Brock, served as a US Senator, a US Trade Representative, and US Secretary of Labor, and then Chairman of the Board of NED." <15> (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=19&itemID=8268)
Fostering "Free Press"
In late 2004, Adam Wild Aba wrote, "The new intelligence law also directs the State Department to promote a free press and the development of 'professional journalists' in the Muslim world. It says free press is a must as part of the overall public diplomacy strategy for the Middle East, according to the State Department’s statement. Under the law, the National Endowment for Democracy shall fund a private-sector group to establish a free-media network to help participants share information concerning development of free media in 'societies in transition'." <16> (http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-12/25/article05.shtml)

NED also supports the nonprofit organization Internews which encourages media worldwide to "promote democracy". In 2004, Internews had a budget of $27 million, 80 percent of which came from the U.S. government.

Covert Embedded Reporters
Several articles about the political process in Haiti, Iraq, and the Palestinian-occupied territories have appeared in The New York Times, NPR, and other mainstream US media. The impression is given that the articles are from bona fide journalists, but it transpires that several of them are paid by the NED or its affilated organizations. The case of Regine Alexandre is particularly interesting. She wrote articles for the New York Times, AP, and commented on NPR. It transpires that she is on the NED payroll, and the NED confirmed this fact. However, when confronted with this information both the NYT and NPR failed to respond or take this seriously.

Source: Anthony Fenton and Dennis Bernstein, "AP reporter RéGINE is wearing two hats," (http://www.haitiaction.net/News/FP/12_29_5/12_29_5.html) Haiti Action.net, December 29, 2005.

Conducting Polls
NED (or its satellite organizations) has been active in conducting election exit polls in Serbia, Ukraine, Venezuela. These results were used on occasion to cast doubt on the actual election results, and thus deligitimize the winner of the election, and thus create pressure for an election re-run. <17> (http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/031905Mowat-1/031905mowat-1.html)

In December 2004, the NED-association organization International Republican Institute conducted a survey in Iraq to determine the popular intent to vote. It found that 75% of Iraqis would opt to vote, thus lending some legitimacy to the elelectoral exercise. However, IRI didn't poll the key cities where the insurgency is strong, i.e., Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul. <18> (http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10479673.htm) Such surveys lend legitimacy to so-called demonstration elections, and discredit those opposed to the elections.

Critiques and Support
On the right, NED has been criticized by the Cato Institute which issued a briefing which states, "NED, which also has a history of corruption and financial mismanagement, is superfluous at best and often destructive. Through the endowment, the American taxpayer has paid for special-interest groups to harass the duly elected governments of friendly countries, interfere in foreign elections, and foster the corruption of democratic movements." <19> (http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb-027es.html)

On its website, NED notes the criticism but responds that "over the years mainstream conservative activists have been among the most outspoken advocates on behalf of the Endowment. Endorsements of NED have been offered by the leadership of such stalwart conservative organizations as the Heritage Foundation and Empower America, and favorable editorials have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and National Review." <20> (http://www.ned.org/about/nedhistory.html)

In his 2004 State of the Union Speech, Bush proposed doubling funding for NED and called for a greater focus on "its new work on the development of free elections, and free markets, free press, and free labor unions in the Middle East. And above all, we will finish the historic work of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, so those nations can light the way for others, and help transform a troubled part of the world." <21> (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040120-7.html)

In March 2006, a number of activists (including amongst many others Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, Michael Parenti and David Harvey) launched a new US project called the International Endowment for Democracy (http://www.iefd.org) which critiques the activities of the NED.

Funding
NED receives an annual appropriation from the U.S. budget and, while a non-governmental organization, is subject to Congressional oversight. In the financial year to the end of September 2002 NED's budget was US$48.5 million. <22> (http://www.ned.org/publications/02annual/02finance.pdf)

In December, 2005 PhD researcher Sreeram Chaulia noted that:

"...97 percent of NED’s funding comes from the US State Department (through USAID and before 1999, the USIA), the rest being allocations made by right-wing donors like the Bradley Foundation, the Whitehead Foundation and the Olin Foundation.(http://www.ned.org/publications/04annual/auditors04.pdf see)" <23> (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051225&articleId=1638)
Officers
Vin Weber Chairman
Thomas R. Donahue Vice-Chair
Julie Finley Treasurer
Matthew F. McHugh Secretary
Carl Gershman President
Directors of the Board
Frank Charles Carlucci III of the Carlyle Group
Wesley Kanne Clark, retired General, presidential candidate, and board member of Stephens Group, a venture capital company
Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Francis Fukuyama, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University
Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Affiliated Contractors
While most of NED's funding is directed towards the four affiliated core foundations, these in turn hire a variety of "consulting" companies. In the past, these have included:

Albert Einstein Institution - involved in most Eastern European countries
Delphi International Group - involved in Nicaragua
Development Alternatives Inc. - involved in Venezuela
IFES - involved in Haiti, Pakistan, Afghanistan
Penn, Schoen and Berland - Specializes in surveys and "exit polls"; involved in most Eastern European countries and in Venezuela
Contact Information
National Endowment for Democracy
1101 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington DC, 20005
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Website: www.ned.org
SourceWatch Resources
Center for the Dissemination of Economic Information
Imperial terror in South America
U.S. Agency for International Development
America ’s Development Foundation
Websites critiquing the NED
New website, International Endowment for Democracy (http://www.iefd.org), March, 2006.
In the Name of Democracy: Towards a Global Political Intervention Monitor (http://inthenameofdemocracy.org/), (Contributors include Professor William I. Robinson).
External Links
http://www.venezuelafoia.info/
Barbara Conry “Loose Cannon: The National Endowment for Democracy (http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb-027es.html)”, Cato Institute, Policy Briefing No. 27, November 8, 1993, (accessed November 18, 2003).
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Common Courage Press, Monroe Maine,1995, page 166.
William Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention and Hegemony (http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521566916), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. For a quick summary (http://www.chez.com/bibelec/publications/international/polyarchy.html)
Bob Feldman, “The Nation's NED Connection-part 1 (http://www.questionsquestions.net/feldman/nation_ned_1.html)”, QuestionsQuestions, circa 2001.
Bob Feldman, “The Nation's NED Connection—part 2 (http://www.questionsquestions.net/feldman/nation_ned_2.html)”, QuestionsQuestions, circa 2001.
Harley Sorenson, NED's feel-good name belies its corrupt intent (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/11/17/hsorensen.DTL), SFGate.com, November 17, 2003.
David Lowe, “Idea to Reality: A Brief History of the National Endowment for Democracy (http://www.ned.org/about/nedhistory.html)”, accessed November 18, 2003.
Terry Allen, “Update by Author Terry Allen (http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2003/11.html)’, accessed November 18, 2003.
Hugo Chavez Accuses U.S. of Spending Over $1 Million To Help Oust Him (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/04/1554235), Democracy Now!, March 4, 2004.
Andrew Buncombe, "US revealed to be secretly funding opponents of Chavez (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=500711)", Independent (UK), March 13, 2004.
Ken Silverstein And Carol J. Williams, "Chavez Camp Accuses U.S. of Pushing for His Recall (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-venez13aug13,1,4376313.story)," Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2004.
Nadia Diuk, In Ukraine, Homegrown Freedom (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34008-2004Dec3.html)", Washington Post, December 4, 2004; Page A23. (Diuk is director, Europe and Eurasia, at the National Endowment for Democracy).
Lisa Ashkenaz Croke and Brian Dominick, "Controversial U.S. Groups Operate Behind Scenes on Iraq Vote (http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1311)," The New Standard, December 13, 2004.
Dennis Bernstein, "Philip Agee, Former CIA agent speaks on Venezuela (http://www.flashpoints.net/index.html)", Flashpoints, March 14, 2005.
Philip Agee, "The Nature of CIA Intervention in Venezuela (http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1403)" (interview conducted by Jonah Gindin), VenezuelaAnalysis, March 22, 2005.
Pepe Escobar, "The Tulip Revolution takes root (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GC26Ag03.html)," Asia Times, March 26, 2005.
Tom Engelhardt, "Drugs, Bases, and Jails: The Bush administration's Afghan Spring (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=7585)," Znet, April 05, 2005.
Interview with William Robinson by Jonah Gindin, The Battle for Global Civil Society (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=11&itemID=8069), June 13, 2005.
Kim Scipes, "An Unholy Alliance: the AFL-CIO and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Venezuela (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=19&itemID=8268)," Znet, July 10, 2005.
Pablo Bachelet, "Citizens group to get U.S. funds (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/12629899.htm)," Miami Herald, September 13, 2005.
Sreeram Chaulia, "Democratisation, Colour Revolutions and the Role of the NGOs: Catalysts or Saboteurs? (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051225&articleId=1638)," GlobalResearch.ca , December 25, 2005.
Jonah Gindin, "Year of Living Democratically (http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2005-12/31gindin.cfm)," ZNet Commentary, January 01, 2006.
Interview with Anthony Fenton: "U.S. Government Channels Millions Through National Endowment for Democracy to Fund Anti-Lavalas Groups in Haiti (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/23/1441204)," Democracy Now!, January 23, 2006.
Kim Scipes, "Worker-to-Worker Solidarity Committee to AFL-CIO: Cut All Ties with NED (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=19&ItemID=10191)," Znet, 1 May 2006.
Joan Roelofs, "The NED, NGOs and the Imperial Uses of Philanthropy: Why They Hate Our Kind Hearts, Too (http://www.counterpunch.org/roelofs05132006.html)", Counterpunch, 13 May 2006.
U.S. Department of State, "The Role of NGOs in the Development of Democracy (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0606/S00277.htm)", Scoop, 12 June 2006.
Jehangir S. Pocha, "nonprofits under investigation in China (http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/06/15/foreign_funded_nonprofits_under_investigation_in_china/Foreign-funded)", Boston Globe, 15 June 2006.
Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Endowment_for_Democracy"

[Joanne98]

13. International Republican Institute (Sourcewatch)

This is the organization Greg Palast is accusing of helping with voting fraud in Mexico.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Republican_Institute
International Republican Institute
From SourceWatch
Loosely affiliated with the Republican Party, the International Republican Insitute (IRI) works closely with the the National Endowment for Democracy and United States foreign policy instruments, including the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, to support economic and political development programs around the world. The organization is almost exclusively funded by the U.S. government and related agencies.

IRI's stated mission is to "support the growth of political and economic freedom, good governance and human rights around the world by educating people, parties and governments on the values and practices of democracy." However, it has also been linked to efforts to foment a violent military coup in Haiti. Max Blumenthal reports that Stanley Lucas is the program officer for the IRI's Haiti program. <1> (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/20/1327215)

While based in Washington, D.C., IRI maintains offices around the world, including in Africa (Abuja, Luanda and Nairobi), Asia (Dili, Jakarta, Phnom Phen and Ulaanbaatar), Latin America (Caracas, Guatamela City and Lima), Central and Eastern Europe (Belgrade, Bratislava, Bucharest, Istanbul, Skopje, Sofia, Tirana and Zagreb) and the former Soviet Union (Almaty, Baku, Belarus, Kyiv, Moscow, Tashkent and Tblisi).

IRI Board of Directors and Personnel includes major Republican foreign policy voices, and other prominent Republicans.

Contact Information
International Republican Institute
1225 Eye Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington DC 20005
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Web site:http://www.iri.org

SourceWatch Resources
Imperial terror in South America
External Resources
International Republican Institute profile, NNDB (http://www.nndb.com/org/683/000051530/).
Right Web Profile (http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/iri.php)
Philip Agee, "Former CIA Agent Tells How U.S. Infiltrates Civil Society to Overthrow Governments (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4332.htm)," Information Clearing House, August 3, 2003.
"Tentacles of the International Republican Institute (http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/4932/1/206)," People's Weekly World, March 13, 2004.
Andrew Wells-Dang, "When Democracy Promotion Turns Partisan: IRI in Cambodia (http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2004/0404iricambodia.php)," Right Web, April 5, 2004, viewed April 15, 2004.
Max Blumenthal, contibutor to Salon.com, authored an investigative piece that examines the role of the United States in destabilizing the democratically-elected government of Haiti's Jean Bertrand-Aristide through the International Republican Institute, a federally-funded, nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration. <2> (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/20/1327215)
Lisa Ashkenaz Croke and Brian Dominick, "Controversial U.S. Groups Operate Behind Scenes on Iraq Vote (http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1311)," The New Standard, December 13, 2004.
Ian Traynor,"US Campaign Behind the Turmoil in Kiev (http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1360236,00.html)," Friday November 26, 2004 The Guardian, Friday November 26, 2004.
Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Republican_Institute"

[Marie26]

31. Do you believe

that "Reporters without Borders" is an actual humanitarian org. that was overtaken by the agenda of Republican contributors, or do you think it was actually set up as a disguised lobbying organization? It's starting to look like the latter is true. Was RWB set up as a non-profit or a 527 group?

[Joanne98]

16. Alternet blasts "media" for distorted reporting on Mexico election.

More evidence of media corruption.

http://www.alternet.org/story/39763/
Evidence of Election Fraud Grows in México

By Chuck Collins and Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted August 2, 2006.

As the U.S. media distorts the aftermath of the July 2 election, evidence suggests there may be an attempted theft in progress.

Hundreds of thousands gather in the Mexican capital on July 16 to protest the election results.

A month after more than 41 million Mexicans went to the polls to elect their next president, the country is still awaiting a result. A preliminary count of polling station tally sheets put conservative Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN) ahead with a slight lead over left-populist Andres Manuel López Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). Both candidates have claimed victory, with López Obrador and his supporters holding vigils and protests across the country and calling for a vote-by-vote recount.

That hasn't kept a consensus from emerging in the commercial media that Calderón won by a small margin in a squeaky-clean election. In a hyperbolic editorial on July 30 -- one that bordered on the ridiculous -- the Washington Post accused López Obrador, known as AMLO to his supporters, of taking "a lesson from Joseph Stalin" and launching an "anti-democracy campaign" by demanding a manual recount and urging his supporters to take to the streets in peaceful protests. Calling the vote "a success story and a model for other nations," the editors concluded that it's "difficult to overstate the irresponsibility of Mr. López Obrador's actions."

Days after the election, the New York Times irresponsibly declared candidate Calderón the winner, even though no victor had been declared under Mexican law, and just this week, in an article about López Obrador's protests, the Times reported that López Obrador had "escalated his campaign to undo official results."

But there are no "official" results and probably won't be until after Sept. 1. Under Mexican law, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) is charged with running the elections and counting the vote. But only the country's Election Tribunal, known by its Mexican nickname as the "TRIFE," has the power to declare a victor (See here for background on the TRIFE). They have until Sept. 6 to rule on the election.

It appears that the U.S. media has become so enamored with the construct of the "anti-democratic" left in Latin America -- the ubiquitous "fiery populists" (a term that has described everyone from the centrist Lula da Silva to Hugo Chávez) -- that they are incapable of fulfilling their basic mandate to inform their readers when it comes to the political landscape south of the border. It's nothing short of journalistic malpractice.

[Judi Lynn]

19. You know how rare it is when people like this ever get caught!

They can't function properly if people actually know what they're doing, as deceit is the essential element. It doesn't work if people know they are being lied to!

Thank you so much for posting this information, and thanks again to sfexpat who linked to your thread for those of us who might have missed it if left to our own devices!

This link is more important than I can express, and the other article on this group of "journalists," as well:
http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html

If we had more information like this we wouldn't be wandering around in the dark, would we? My God!

[Joanne98]

20. I'm trying Judi. KICK!

[Ms. Clio]

27. ~

....

[Judi Lynn]

21. More explosive information from the article,

which has also been carried in additional sources, it's good to know:

Asked for his response to news of the grants, Pina had the following to say: "It was clear early on that RSF and Robert Menard were not acting as objective guardians of freedom of the press in Haiti but rather as central actors in what can only be described as a disinformation campaign against Aristide's government. Their attempts to link Aristide to the murder of Jean Dominique and their subsequent silence when the alleged hit man, Lavalas Senator Dany Toussaint, joined the anti-Aristide camp and ran for president in 2006 is just one of many examples that expose the real nature and role of organizations like RSF. They provide false information and skewed reports to build internal opposition to governments seen as uncontrollable and unpalatable to Washington while softening the ground for their eventual removal by providing justification under the pretext of attacks on the freedom of the press."
(snip)

He who pays the piper calls the tune. Taking its cues from the State Department, RSF has been guilty of demonizing governments that the U.S. wanted to overthrow, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti, while downplaying the human rights abuses of strategic allies such as Mexico and Colombia. Because it was able to hide I.R.I. grants which would have alerted people to its ulterior motives, RSF has been an effective tool in the Bush administration's covert attacks on recalcitrant Latin American leaders. The organization has also leveraged its image as an independent human rights organization to get its message into the U.S. media and university textbooks. This would be an impressive feat for a small group of individuals with no apparent journalistic credentials were it not for the fact that they have the richest, most powerful patrons in the world.
(snip/)

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1788

[Joanne98]

22. That is exactly what the Venezuelan media did...

People were so mad they were throwing rocks at the stations. I'm going to keep track of this group. I bet they operate here too. This is KEY to a lot of our problems.

[KaptBunnyPants]

23. It seemed odd to me that I never hear from Republicans without Borders

unless they are discussing one of the right wings latest targets. Now we know why, and its pretty scummy they way they copied the name of Doctors Without Borders. Like the ACU copied the ACLU. They always have to steal credibility from better organizations.

[Joanne98]

26. Republicans without borders. see post 13

[ronnie624]

24. Thanks for the information.

Hopefully, it will be seen by those who need it most. Unfortunately, those who do need it most will probably be citing RSF next week as an unimpeachable source, as if the organization's corruption was never revealed.

[Ms. Clio]

25. I wish I could nominate this 10 times

kick kick kick

[NuttyFluffers]

28. K&R and starting a chain letter :P

"if you don't mail this to 5 friends democracy in mexico will die!" :D

[scarletwoman]

29. I'd never heard of RWB until the Judy Miller jailing.

They made alot noise in defense of Miller -- poor martyr to the First Amendment -- that was just plain absurd, so I looked them up.

They SOOOO are definitely bought and sold water carriers for the corporate elite. Real sleazeballs.

sw

[Marie26]

30. K&R

:kick: