But Soros is no hands-off donor. According to the Open Society
Institute's Web site: "Despite the breadth of his endeavors,
Soros is personally involved in planning and implementing many of
the foundation network's projects."
Soros says he gives away about $400 million annually.
It's an admirable picture, but "philanthropy" may be
the wrong word. Unlike, say, Bill Gates, who really does put the
bulk of his charity into helping the world's poor through medical
services, Soros tends to fund pressure groups and foundations he
misleadingly characterizes as promoting "civil society"
and "democracy."
The image gives him moral cover to manipulate democracies whose
voter verdicts he opposes.
Tearing Down America
The first groups Soros supported back in the 1980s did play a
role in undercutting the rickety communist regimes of Eastern
Europe. But his motives seemed less than idealistic. All Soros
groups tend to tear down tyrannies rather than build up democracies.
And since 2003, tearing down what he views as the
"fascist" tyranny of the United States, as he has put it,
is "the central focus of my life."
Through networks of nongovernmental organizations, Soros intends
to ruin the presidency of George W. Bush "by any legal means
necessary" and knock America off its global pedestal. "His
view of America is so negative," says Sen. Joe Lieberman, who,
like Gen. David Petraeus, has been a target of Soros' electoral
"philanthropy." "The places he's put his money are .
. . so destructive that it unsettles me." Soros' aim seems to
be to make the U.S. just another client state easily controlled by
the United Nations and other one-world groups where he has lots of
friends.
Best known among these groups is MoveOn.org, a previously small
fringe-left group to which Soros has given $5 million since 2004.
Bulked up by cash, the group now uses professional public relations
tactics to undercut the Iraq War effort, with its latest a full-page
New York Times ad that branded Gen. Petraeus "General Betray
Us."
It ran Sept. 10 in the New York Times, the same day Petraeus
delivered his progress report on the surge in Iraq.
MoveOn.org previously put out ads depicting Bush as a Nazi,
something that certainly echoes Soros' sentiment.
"We have to go through a certain de-Nazification
process," he told this year's Davos conference in Switzerland.
Moving On To The Far Left
MoveOn.org was also pivotal in getting Howard Dean elected
chairman of the Democratic Party in a bid to push the party to the
far left.
Soros acolyte Arianna Huffington is on record as advocating that
outcome. Berating Democrats for their electoral losses in 2004, she
wrote: "Have these people learned nothing from 2000, 2002 and
2004? How many more concession speeches do they have to give —
from 'the center' — before they realize it's not a very fruitful
place?"
Soros also has financed spin outfits such as Media Matters that
specialize in providing distorted conservative political statements
as grist for leftist politicians and media.
Media Matters (and MoveOn.org) succeeded last year in denying
incumbent Lieberman the Democratic nomination for Senate in
Connecticut and effectively drove the moderate out of his own party.
Net result: Fewer Democrats, including today's crop running for
office, are willing to challenge any Soros-financed pressure group.
Money & Elections
Soros' efforts go beyond spin. He has also bankrolled groups
involved in the manipulation of elections, an activity that has
increased since his money came into the picture. Two groups —
Americans Coming Together and the Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now — were sanctioned recently by the
Federal Election Commission for fraud.
Soros pledged $10 million to ACT, which has since been fined
$775,000 for illegally funneling $70 million set aside for voter
registrations to Democratic candidates.
He also gave at least $150,000 to ACORN, the left-wing group best
known for pushing minimum-wage hikes, marching for illegal-immigrant
amnesty and harassing Wal-Mart. ACORN has been accused of voter
fraud in 13 states since 2004 and was convicted of falsifying
signatures in a voter registration drive last July, drawing a fine
of $25,000 in Washington state.
Soros says he has ended funding to voter-drive organizations, but
he still heads a secretive rich-man's club called "Democracy
Alliance" that has doled out $20 million to activist groups
like ACORN.
It's also noteworthy that the Soros-funded MoveOn.org advocates
"paper-trail" electronic voting in the U.S., the same kind
used in Venezuela, where allegations of electronic fraud and ballot
secrecy violations have ended confidence in the system and sealed
Chavez's dictatorship.
Terrorist-Friendly Groups
Soros additionally finances groups best described as helpful to
terrorists. Since 1998, he has given the American Civil Liberties
Union $5 million to empower criminals, including lawsuits on behalf
of terrorists' "civil rights."
Soros' Open Society Institute gave $20,000 for the legal defense
of radical attorney Lynne Stewart. She was convicted in 2002 of
abetting jailed terrorists after the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing.
Soros is also involved in the financing of a 9/11 memorial at
ground zero, the World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex —
which critics say blames the U.S. for 9/11.
"Bush says (the terrorists) hate us for what we are, not
what we do, and I think that's false," Soros told an audience
at UC Berkeley last year.
He has handed $3.1 million to the left-wing Tides Foundation,
which funds organizations, such as the Sea Shepherds, Earth First!
and the Ruckus Society, that have condoned or engaged in
eco-terrorism.
On the international front, Soros-backed groups have undercut
important U.S. allies, including Israel and Colombia, which have
aligned with the U.S. rather than the U.N.
Both see their sovereignty as non-negotiable, view victory over
their enemies as an absolute good and refuse to become failed states
— all anathema to the thinking of Soros. His Human Rights Watch
repeatedly attempts to portray both nations as pariah states.
One World Government
Soros additionally finances groups supporting the interests of
one-world government. While he has criticized the United Nations
occasionally, he favors U.N. dominance in world affairs, sees the
European Union as a model for "open society" and has
called for a global central bank.
Anyone who doesn't agree with this vision, or who doesn't fit
cozily into his multilateral model, gets a visit from Soros-backed
groups.
MoveOn.org, for example, led the charge to keep John Bolton out
of a permanent seat in the U.N., and Bankwatch piled on to topple
Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank.
In fact, pick any cause that seeks to weaken the U.S. and it's
hard not to find Soros' name on its list of financial backers. Most
of these causes are financed by relatively small amounts, but that's
all that's needed to make trouble.
And without the cash, countless bad ideas would have no presence
in American political debate at all.
What keeps these groups on cue, and Democrats in line, is the
prospect that any funding from Soros can be stepped up to massive
levels. It's probably no coincidence that Soros was a big backer of
campaign finance reforms that have allowed nominally nonpartisan
groups like MoveOn.org to strike with the kinds of tactics they are
using.
Soros usually doesn't offer up or endorse specific candidates for
office. His chief aim seems to be tearing down Bush, driving the
Democrats to the far left and enforcing party discipline through
fear. In fact, he seems to like keeping Democrats guessing whether
or not he's offended.
The strategy seems to be working. No Democrat had the courage to
cross MoveOn.org after its libelous Petraeus ad. On Thursday, a
symbolic vote in Congress censuring MoveOn.org for the Petraeus ad
passed, but with the notable absence of both Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama. Election looming, neither wants to cross Soros'
MoveOn.org.
Soros himself does not believe in victory in Iraq and wants to
keep America from achieving it.
"The war on terror cannot be won," he has said.
