diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index f5d01a91..e3510593 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,100 +1,100 @@ -- 2026-10-01T1711 · [[_manifest]] -- 2026-10-01T1711 · [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] -- 2026-10-01T1707 · [[Judicial Crisis Network]] -- 2026-10-01T1707 · [[Morgan Guaranty Trust]] -- 2026-10-01T1707 · [[Judicial Crisis Network]] -- 2026-10-01T1707 · [[Morgan Guaranty Trust]] -- 2026-10-01T1706 · [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] -- 2026-10-01T1703 · [[_NOTES_C1_canary]] -- 2026-09-25T2350 · [[Lesley Groff]] -- 2026-09-25T2350 · [[Black Family Foundation]] -- 2026-09-25T2350 · [[World Transhumanist Association]] -- 2026-09-25T2350 · [[JEGE, Inc.]] -- 2026-09-25T2350 · [[Air Ghislaine, Inc.]] -- 2026-09-25T2350 · [[Hyperion Air]] -- 2026-09-25T2341 · [[_NOTES_Y_EFTA]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Transhumanism]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Extropianism]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Ilopango Airbase]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Zorro Ranch]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Little St. James]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[9 East 71st Street]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Lolita Express]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[FISA Section 702]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Frogman Case]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Time]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Southern Trust Company]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[JPMorgan Chase]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[John Templeton Foundation]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Gratitude America]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Financial Trust Company]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Dechert]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Boies Schiller Flexner]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Virgin Islands Department of Justice]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[State Department]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Economic Development Commission]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[DEA]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Larry Visoski]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Ricky Ross]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Renato Pena]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Loretta Preska]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Haley Robson]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Lawrence Krauss]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[John de Jongh]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Gerald Lefcourt]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Darren Indyke]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Cecile de Jongh]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Walter Grasheim]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Sandalio Gonzalez]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Nick Bostrom]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Maurene Comey]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Jeffrey Epstein]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Douglas Aukland]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Debra Black]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Danilo Blandon]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Celerino Castillo]] -- 2026-09-25T2322 · [[Bill Gates]] -- 2026-09-25T2321 · [[Apollo Global Management]] -- 2026-09-25T2321 · [[Jonathan Buma]] -- 2026-09-25T2321 · [[Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General]] -- 2026-09-25T2321 · [[Celestino White]] -- 2026-09-25T2321 · [[Robert W. 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Bath]] +- 2026-10-01T2032 · [[Robert Peloquin]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Caroline Ellison.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Caroline Ellison.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6a4e8189 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Caroline Ellison.md @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - CarolineEllison + - AlamedaResearch + - FTX + - SamBankmanFried + - JaneStreet + - EffectiveAltruism + - FTXFoundation + - Anthropic + - CooperatingWitness + - Forfeiture +alias: + - Caroline Ellison + - Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research) +summary: "Jane Street trader turned Alameda Research chief executive who pleaded guilty in December 2022, testified against Sam Bankman-Fried, forfeited Anthropic shares and was released from federal custody in January 2026." +born: 1994-11 +location: "Boston, Massachusetts (born)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Jane Street Capital]]" + start: 2016 + end: 2018-03 + role: "assistant quantitative trader on the equities desk, after summer internships in 2015 and 2016" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Alameda Research]]" + start: 2018-03 + role: "cryptocurrency trader" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alameda Research]]" + end: 2022-11-18 + role: "co-CEO, then sole CEO from about August or September 2022" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Alameda Research]]" + start: 2022-09-06 + end: 2022-11-11 + role: "director, per the FTX debtors' complaint" + fn: 7 + - type: director_of + with: "[[FTX Foundation]]" + role: "director of the Delaware nonprofit whose sole member was Bankman-Fried" + fn: 8 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]" + role: "former girlfriend, per the government's sentencing letter" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]" + start: 2022-12-21 + end: 2025-12-23 + role: "defendant in SEC v. Ellison, No. 22-cv-10794; consent judgments of 2022 and 2025" + fn: 12 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]]" + start: 2022-12-23 + role: "consent judgment in CFTC v. Bankman-Fried, No. 22-cv-10503" + fn: 4 + - type: informant_for + with: "[[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]]" + start: 2022-12-08 + role: "cooperating witness under a cooperation agreement" + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-12-19 + end: 2024-09-24 + role: "guilty plea to seven counts; sentenced to 24 months" + fn: 2 + - type: represented + with: "[[WilmerHale]]" + reverse: true + role: "defense counsel" + fn: 4 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Caroline Ellison (born November 1994 in [[Boston]]) was a trader at [[Jane Street Capital|Jane Street]] and then at [[Alameda Research]], the cryptocurrency trading firm of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]], which she ran as co-chief executive and chief executive until her employment ended on or about November 18, 2022. She pleaded guilty on December 19, 2022 to seven counts in the Southern District of New York under a cooperation agreement, testified for about three days at Bankman-Fried's trial in October 2023,[^1] and was sentenced on September 24, 2024 by Judge [[Lewis A. Kaplan]] to 24 months in prison (Bureau of Prisons register number 36854-510).[^2] The [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] records her actual release date as January 21, 2026, from the residential reentry management office in New York.[^3] + +### Family and education + +Her counsel's sentencing memorandum, citing the presentence report, states that she was born in Boston to Glenn and Sara Ellison, both professors of economics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], and grew up in the Boston suburbs; that she captained her middle and high school math teams and won an award at the 2011 International Olympiad in Linguistics; and that she studied mathematics at [[Stanford University]], where she was the fifth member of a newly formed [[Effective Altruism]] group, came to the movement through online communities devoted to rationalism as she moved away from the Catholic faith of her youth, and started a blog on which she wrote about effective altruism topics. The memorandum states that she adopted the precept of "earning to give," gave first to global health and animal welfare charities, and later devoted much of her giving to artificial intelligence safety; a college friend's letter quoted in it describes her concern that artificial intelligence "would take over the world and cause humanity's extinction."[^4] + +### Jane Street + +According to the memorandum, she applied in her junior year for paid internships in order to earn money to donate, received three offers from financial companies, and in June 2015 moved to New York as a summer trading intern at Jane Street, where she first met Bankman-Fried, then a full-time trader of about a year's standing who was coaching a mock trading exercise; they became acquainted at a Jane Street-sponsored dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. Her counsel wrote that Jane Street trained interns to maximize the expected value of a trading strategy rather than to focus on potential losses, through mock trading and a culture of constant small wagers, and that she did not recall structuring her thinking around expected value before Jane Street. She arranged a fifth year at Stanford in order to qualify for a second internship in the summer of 2016, was asked within weeks to forgo the master's program, and worked from the fall of 2016 for about a year and a half as an assistant quantitative trader on the equities desk, giving away most of her salary, with a social circle made up mainly of Jane Street employees, Bankman-Fried among them.[^4] + +### Alameda Research + +The memorandum states that in February 2018 Jane Street sent her on a recruiting trip to the Bay Area, that she met Bankman-Fried for coffee in [[Berkeley]], where he described Alameda as having an effective altruism ethos and as largely funded by wealthy people he knew through the movement, and that she began there as a cryptocurrency trader in March 2018, aged 23. Shortly afterward, her counsel wrote, she learned that Alameda had suffered large losses before she arrived; four managers who had pressed Bankman-Fried to disclose the losses to the wealthy investors who had lent Alameda its trading capital told the lenders against his directive, the lenders recalled much of their money, and the four managers left with many other employees. Bankman-Fried later told her he had known of the crisis when he offered her the job.[^4] A 2025 filing of the [[FTX Recovery Trust]] states that Bankman-Fried had founded Alameda in November 2017 with [[Tara Mac Aulay|Tara MacAulay]], the former chief executive of the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], and that in April 2018 MacAulay and other employees resigned after he refused their offer to buy him out.[^5] + +The memorandum describes overnight shifts from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. from the fall of 2018, moves to [[Hong Kong]] and then [[Bahamas|the Bahamas]] at Bankman-Fried's direction, and an "on-again-off-again, sometimes-secret relationship" with him; it states that she received no equity in Alameda and held less than 1 percent of [[FTX]].[^4] The government's letter of September 17, 2024, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Danielle Sassoon|Danielle R. Sassoon]], states that Bankman-Fried appointed her and [[Sam Trabucco]] co-chief executives of Alameda in the summer of 2021, explaining that he wanted to separate Alameda and FTX "more optically," that her salary did not change, that he retained 90 percent of Alameda, and that she continued to report to him.[^1] The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]'s complaint gives her tenure as co-chief executive from about October 2021 to about August 2022, when she became the sole chief executive, and records that she lived in Hong Kong and the Bahamas;[^6] the FTX debtors' complaint against the insiders gives it as August 2021 to September 2022 and states that she was also a director of Alameda from September 6, 2022 until the bankruptcy petition.[^7] + +The debtors' complaint in the [[Latona Biosciences Group|Latona]] proceeding states that the directors of the [[FTX Foundation]], a Delaware nonprofit whose sole member was Bankman-Fried, included Bankman-Fried, [[Nishad Singh]], [[Gary Wang]], Ellison and [[Nick Beckstead]];[^8] a later complaint by the FTX Recovery Trust describes the same five as its directors and officers.[^9] A December 30, 2021 document in which Bankman-Fried set out proposed terms for hiring [[Ross Rheingans-Yoo]], a former Jane Street colleague, lists the manager as "likely Caroline [Ellison] + SBF [Bankman-Fried] + Nick [Beckstead] depending on the task," and the revised and final terms place his Alameda position "reporting to CE [Ellison]." On April 11, 2022 Ellison signed his employment agreement with Alameda Research (Bahamas) Ltd. by DocuSign on behalf of Alameda; the debtors and Rheingans-Yoo stipulated that he did not perform the duties of a trader or investment associate there, was not employed by the FTX Foundation, and was paid from the bank accounts of FTX Digital Markets Ltd.[^10] + +### Conduct described by prosecutors + +The government's letter described Ellison as "Alameda's nominal CEO and Bankman-Fried's former girlfriend." Prosecutors wrote that she never worked at FTX and had no role in designing the code that gave Alameda special treatment there, that she had no knowledge of Bankman-Fried's campaign finance scheme, and that once she learned of the features she used them at his direction to misappropriate customer funds. The letter recounts, citing trial testimony and exhibits, the mid-2021 repurchase of [[Binance]]'s stake in FTX, then worth about 2 billion dollars, with a mix of FTX funds and customer deposits; an analysis she prepared in the fall of 2021 showing Alameda's net asset value at negative 2.7 billion dollars without FTT, Solana and Serum, after which she told Bankman-Fried that further venture investments were too risky and he proceeded with billions of dollars of them; and the May 2022 collapse of Terra and Luna, after which Alameda's lenders recalled nearly all their loans and Alameda repaid more than 6 billion dollars on demand. A spreadsheet prepared at Bankman-Fried's request showed Alameda with a negative 11 billion dollar balance on FTX and 13 billion dollars borrowed in customer funds; of the 6.5 billion dollars repaid to lenders, almost 70 percent was customer money. She prepared seven alternative balance sheets for lenders such as [[Genesis Global Capital|Genesis]], and Bankman-Fried chose "alternative 7," which hid Alameda's borrowing from FTX and about 5 billion dollars of related-party loans to FTX executives.[^1] + +The government wrote that in November 2022 she posted tweets meant to reassure FTX customers after Bankman-Fried told her, "I can't be the one to tweet because I don't want to be associated with Alameda"; that at an all-hands meeting on November 9, 2022, which she did not know was being recorded, she told Alameda employees that customer funds had been used to repay recalled loans and that she, Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh had been involved; and that, unlike [[Ryan Salame]], she did not try to withdraw large sums from her FTX accounts before the bankruptcy. It quotes her testimony that Bankman-Fried's attitude toward lying and stealing "made me more willing to do things like lie and steal over time." She disclosed to prosecutors a payment of about 140 million dollars in cryptocurrency to unfreeze Alameda's accounts in China by bribing a Chinese official; the government charged Bankman-Fried with conspiracy to violate the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] on that basis but, "without the Bahamas consent," did not proceed on the count at trial.[^1] + +The SEC's complaint alleged that from at least May 2019 through November 2022 Ellison, Wang and Bankman-Fried defrauded the equity investors who put more than 1.8 billion dollars into FTX, and that Ellison, at Bankman-Fried's direction, caused Alameda to borrow from third-party lenders against holdings of FTT, a token FTX issued to Alameda at no cost, and engaged in automated purchases of FTT in order to increase its price and the value of Alameda's collateral.[^6] + +### The debtors' claims and her FTX holdings + +On July 20, 2023 FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda and other debtors sued Bankman-Fried, Wang, Singh and Ellison in the Delaware bankruptcy court for breach of fiduciary duty, waste, conversion and fraudulent transfers. As to Ellison, the debtors alleged that on February 22, 2022 she caused 22.5 million dollars to move from an Alameda account on FTX named "off_market_ftt" to an Alameda payroll account, then to an account of Salameda Limited, an FTX group entity, and then to her own FTX account; that on March 29, 2022 she transferred 10 million dollars from that account to her personal bank account; and that this money funded her 10 million dollar investment, through an M-SAFE agreement in late March 2022, in an unnamed "artificial intelligence safety and research company." They also alleged that she received 2,000,000 FTX call options on December 29, 2020 and a further 750,000 less than three months later without paying for them, and cash bonuses of 6,262,529.89 dollars on July 23, 2021 and September 14, 2022. The complaint quotes her private notes of March 2022 estimating a cash deficit at FTX.com of more than 10 billion dollars, and records that she responded with a "claps" emoji to a developer's warning about Alameda's borrowing on FTX US.[^7] + +The equity holder lists filed by the debtors on March 13, 2023 record Caroline Ellison as the holder of 38,160,000 shares of Class A common stock of West Realm Shires Inc., the parent of FTX US, and of 2,750,000 shares of common stock of FTX Trading Ltd.[^11] + +### Plea and cooperation + +According to the government's letter, federal agents executed a search warrant at her residence on November 16, 2022 and seized her phone; her attorneys relayed her interest in assisting the government the same day, gave an attorney proffer on December 7, and she began proffering on December 8. A grand jury indicted Bankman-Fried on December 9, 2022. On December 19, 2022 she pleaded guilty before Judge [[Ronnie Abrams]] to a superseding information charging conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers (18 U.S.C. section 1349), wire fraud on customers (section 1343), conspiracy to commit and commission of wire fraud on lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and securities fraud (section 371), and conspiracy to commit money laundering (section 1956(h)). The pleas of Ellison and Wang were unsealed after Bankman-Fried consented to extradition and arrived in the [[United States]] on December 21, 2022. She met the government about 20 times after her plea and testified for about three days at the October 2023 trial, at which Bankman-Fried was convicted on all seven counts.[^1] Prosecutors wrote that she reviewed hundreds of documents and spreadsheets in discovery to identify evidence in an investigation hampered by Bankman-Fried's destruction of evidence, located the seven-tab balance sheet spreadsheet whose metadata showed his review before one version went to a lender, flagged chats concerning the use of Alameda trading to raise the price of FTT, and continued despite public scrutiny and Bankman-Fried's efforts to "weaponize her personal writings."[^1] + +The SEC filed its action against Ellison and Wang on December 21, 2022 (No. 22-cv-10794, [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]]), and judgments on consent were entered as to each on December 23, 2022.[^12] Her counsel wrote in 2024 that under the consent judgments with the SEC and with the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]] (in *CFTC v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22-cv-10503) she had accepted lifetime bans from working in the securities or commodities industries, from trading for others, and from serving as an officer or director of a public company.[^4] On December 19, 2025 the SEC filed her consent and moved for final judgment, and on December 23, 2025 Judge [[P. Kevin Castel]] entered a final judgment permanently enjoining her from violating section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and section 17(a), barring her for 10 years from the date of the initial judgment from acting as an officer or director of an issuer with registered securities, and enjoining her for five years from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer or sale of securities other than for her own account. The final judgment entered as to Wang the same day carries an eight-year officer and director bar.[^12] + +### Settlements and civil cooperation + +The sentencing memorandum states that she had settled with the plaintiffs' steering committee in the FTX multidistrict litigation in the [[Southern District of Florida]] by a stipulation dated January 23, 2024, and, subject to the approval of the United States Attorney's Office, gave it documents and a declaration, filed February 16, 2024, describing how the Bahamian bank [[Deltec Bank and Trust]] provided Alameda a "clandestine line of credit of approximately $2 billion." It states that she sat for multiple interviews with the [[FTX bankruptcy examiner]] about Alameda and its relationship to FTX US, provided information to the [[New York Attorney General]]'s Investor Protection Bureau for a cryptocurrency investigation, and assisted the SEC and CFTC on market manipulation and FTX US compliance. Her counsel wrote that she had lived largely in hiding since December 4, 2022, and that friends declined to submit sentencing letters for fear of being identified.[^4] On September 23, 2024 her counsel, [[Anjan Sahni]] of [[WilmerHale]], informed the court that the settlements anticipated in the sentencing submission had been finalized: a consent preliminary order of forfeiture with the government, and a settlement with the FTX debtors resolving all their claims against her and setting a framework for her continuing cooperation. The letter was copied to [[Christopher Dunne]] of [[Sullivan & Cromwell]], counsel to the debtors.[^13] + +### Sentence, forfeiture and the Anthropic shares + +The presentence report put the guideline sentence at life, capped at 1,320 months, on an offense level of 43 driven by a loss above 10 billion dollars, and the probation office recommended time served. The government moved under section 5K1.1 of the [[Federal Sentencing Guidelines|Sentencing Guidelines]] on account of what it called her "extraordinary cooperation."[^1][^4] Her memorandum was filed by WilmerHale lawyers Sahni, [[Stephanie Avakian]], [[Peter Neiman]] and [[Nicholas Werle]].[^4] On September 24, 2024 Judge Kaplan imposed 24 months on each of the seven counts, to run concurrently, recommended a minimum security facility as close to Boston as possible, set surrender no earlier than November 7, 2024, and imposed three years of supervised release, with a special condition that throughout that term she continue to cooperate with the government, the SEC, the CFTC and, if requested, the FTX bankruptcy estate. All open counts were dismissed on the government's motion.[^2] The government later asked the court to correct the judgment to reflect that the court had declined to order restitution, as it had for Bankman-Fried, in favor of a remission process for forfeited assets.[^14] + +The consent preliminary order of forfeiture, filed September 25, 2024, provides for a money judgment of 11,020,000,000 dollars, for which she is jointly and severally liable with Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh. It forfeits "the shares of Series B Preferred Stock in Anthropic PBC, acquired by the defendant on or about May 13, 2022, through the Simple Agreement for Future Equity the defendant purchased in exchange for $10,000,000 on or about March 31, 2022," recites a financial affidavit she swore on or about May 9, 2024, requires her to liquidate a Vanguard brokerage account and pay the proceeds to the United States before October 8, 2024, and records her admission that the property involved in the offenses, other than the [[Anthropic]] shares, "cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence." The United States agreed not to pursue substitute assets if she made the payment and the forfeiture was completed.[^15] Her counsel wrote that the Anthropic shares, which she viewed as an investment in the safe development of artificial intelligence, were the only significant purchase she made while at Alameda and supplied the bulk of the value of her settlements.[^4] The FTX estate agreed in March 2024 to sell the majority of its own Anthropic stake for 884 million dollars, with Jane Street the second-largest buyer at almost 100 million dollars.[^16] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Letter of the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon, *United States v. Ellison*, 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 17, 2024), ECF No. 502, pp. 1-10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.502.0.pdf +[^2]: Amended Judgment in a Criminal Case as to Caroline Ellison, *United States v. Ellison*, (S2) 22 Cr. 673-03 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y.; date of imposition Sept. 24, 2024; signed Oct. 9, 2024; filed Oct. 10, 2024), ECF No. 520, pp. 1-4. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.520.0.pdf +[^3]: Federal Bureau of Prisons, Inmate Locator, Caroline Ellison, register number 36854-510, facility "New York" (residential reentry management office), actual release date 01/21/2026, queried October 1, 2026. https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/ +[^4]: Defendant Caroline Ellison's Sentencing Memorandum (redacted public filing), *United States v. Ellison*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2024), ECF No. 497, memorandum pp. 1-17, 26-27, 41, 46-48 and signature page (ECF pp. 4-21, 30-31, 44, 49-51). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.497.0.pdf +[^5]: FTX Recovery Trust's Motion for Reconsideration or to Modify Order Allowing Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 31846, paras. 8-9. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.31846.0.pdf +[^6]: Complaint, *Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ellison*, No. 22-cv-10794 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 21, 2022), ECF No. 1, paras. 1-5, 13-17. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.591453/gov.uscourts.nysd.591453.1.0.pdf +[^7]: Complaint, *FTX Trading Ltd. v. Bankman-Fried* (Bankr. D. Del. filed July 20, 2023), filed as D.I. 1886 in *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD), parties, pp. 18-19, 25 and 30-31. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1886.0.pdf +[^8]: Complaint, *Alameda Research Ltd. v. Platform Life Sciences Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. July 19, 2023), filed as D.I. 1881 in No. 22-11068, para. 17. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1881.0.pdf +[^9]: First Amended Complaint, *FTX Recovery Trust v. Manifold Markets, Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 24-50214 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 38, para. 10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.194811/gov.uscourts.deb.194811.38.0.pdf +[^10]: Stipulation of Undisputed Facts Relating to Ross Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. Jan. 15, 2025), D.I. 29218, paras. 3-6, 13, 21-25, 44-46. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.29218.0.pdf +[^11]: Notice of Filing of Lists of Equity Holders, Exhibit A (WRS Equity Holders List) p. 8 and Exhibit B (FTX Trading Equity Holders List) p. 25 of 69, filed Mar. 13, 2023 in *In re Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd.*, No. 23-10149 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del.), D.I. 76-1. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.189054/gov.uscourts.deb.189054.76.1.pdf +[^12]: Docket, *Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ellison*, No. 22-cv-10794-PKC (S.D.N.Y.), judgments of Dec. 23, 2022, consents and motions of Dec. 19, 2025, and final judgments as to Caroline Ellison and Zixiao ("Gary") Wang signed by Judge P. Kevin Castel on Dec. 23, 2025 (docket text); CourtListener docket 66676576. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66676576/securities-and-exchange-commission-v-ellison/ +[^13]: Letter of Anjan Sahni, *United States v. Ellison*, No. 1:22-cr-673-LAK (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 23, 2024), ECF No. 505. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.505.0.pdf +[^14]: Letter of the United States re amendment of judgment, *United States v. Ellison*, S2 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 7, 2024), ECF No. 517. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.517.0.pdf +[^15]: Consent Preliminary Order of Forfeiture as to Specific Property/Money Judgment, *United States v. Ellison*, S2 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. filed Sept. 25, 2024), ECF No. 510, pp. 3-4, 8. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.510.0.pdf +[^16]: MacKenzie Sigalos, "FTX estate selling majority stake in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million, with bulk going to UAE," *CNBC*, March 25, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/ftx-estate-sells-majority-stake-in-startup-anthropic-for-884-million.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carter Cornick.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carter Cornick.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ec556e17 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carter Cornick.md @@ -0,0 +1,174 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - CarterCornick + - FBI + - Chilbom + - OrlandoLetelier + - DINA + - CubanNationalistMovement + - PuertoRico + - Counterterrorism + - CounterTerrorismConsultants + - PrivateSecurity +alias: + - Carter Cornick + - C. Carter Cornick + - L. Carter Cornick + - L. Carter Cornick Jr. + - L. Carter Cornick, Jr. +summary: "FBI agent who received informant reports on Puerto Rican independence groups, ran the Chilbom investigation of the 1976 Letelier and Moffitt murders, and in 1988 founded Counter Terrorism Consultants with the case's prosecutor." +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + start: 1967 + end: 1988 + role: "special agent; supervisor, counterterrorism section, FBI headquarters" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño]]" + start: 1972-11 + end: 1973-10 + role: "agent receiving informant reports, San Juan file 100-4014" + fn: 6 + - type: investigated + with: "[[DINA]]" + start: 1976-09 + role: "case agent, Letelier and Moffitt murders (Chilbom)" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Cuban Nationalist Movement]]" + start: 1976-09 + role: "case agent, Letelier and Moffitt murders (Chilbom)" + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Michael Townley]]" + start: 1979-02 + end: 1979-02 + role: "co-interviewer with Robert Scherrer, FD-302 interviews of February 6, 8 and 9, 1979" + fn: 12 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Intelligence Information Handling Committee]]" + start: 1984-11 + end: 1985-03 + role: "FBI member, Geographic Information Systems Subcommittee" + fn: 16 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Hostage Locating Task Force]]" + role: "FBI representative (as stated in the CTC resume packet)" + fn: 4 + - type: founded + with: "[[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]]" + start: 1988-08 + role: "co-founder" + fn: 5 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]]" + start: 1988-08 + role: "president; chief executive officer by 1990" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Eugene Propper]]" + start: 1988-08 + role: "co-founder of Counter Terrorism Consultants" + fn: 5 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +L. Carter Cornick Jr. was a special agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] from 1967 to 1988.[^1] He was a former Marine,[^2] described in 1978 as "descended from several generations of Virginians,"[^3] and held a bachelor's degree in Asian history from the [[University of Virginia]].[^4] He spent sixteen of his twenty-one bureau years on terrorism.[^5] In San Juan in 1972 and 1973 he received informant reports for the bureau's file on the [[Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño]]; from September 1976 he was case agent of the investigation code-named Chilbom into the murders of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]; in the 1980s he worked in the counterterrorism section at FBI headquarters; and in August 1988 he and the case's prosecutor, [[Eugene Propper]], formed [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]][^1][^5][^6] + +### San Juan, 1972 to 1976 + +The FBI's [[San Juan]] field office kept the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño under file 100-4014. Cover sheets for informant reports (form FD-306) in that file record Cornick as the receiving agent on at least eight occasions between November 1972 and October 1973. A report of November 1972 described planned activity of the [[Puerto Rican Socialist Party]], a planned demonstration in [[Washington, D.C.]], and a party meeting set for November 24, 1972, and was routed to a further file on the Committee for the Defense of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners. A report of July 24, 1973 consisted of a "mailing-membership list" of the [[Casa de la Amistad]]. One of September 28, 1973 covered activities of the group the cover sheet abbreviates as NPPR, including the September 12 celebration of the birth of [[Pedro Albizu Campos]] and of the [[Grito de Lares]]. Each cover sheet carried the printed notations that persons marked with an asterisk "only attended a meeting and did not actively participate" and that "violence or revolutionary activities were not discussed," and each instructed that information from the source, when disseminated, be paraphrased and classified to protect the source's identity.[^6] + +Cornick also served as the San Juan office's media coordinator and completed the FBI's first media in-service training, at which the columnist [[Jack Anderson]] was the keynote speaker.[^1] He investigated bombings in [[Puerto Rico]] and, by the account of the journalist [[Zach Dorfman]], armed robbery cases.[^2][^3] He was transferred to the Washington field office several weeks before September 21, 1976, and placed on a newly formed criminal squad that handled bombing matters.[^1] + +### Sheridan Circle + +Cornick reached [[Sheridan Circle]] about ten minutes after the bomb under Letelier's car exploded on the morning of September 21, 1976. [[Michael Moffitt]], who had been in the back seat, was shouting about DINA, a name that meant nothing to Cornick.[^2] His first questions were whether further devices remained and whether the FBI had jurisdiction. The jurisdiction rested on the Protection of Foreign Officials statute, whose coverage of former ambassadors had been added at the suggestion of a junior [[State Department]] attorney; without it the case would have gone to the homicide squad of the [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|Metropolitan Police Department]].[^1] The special agent in charge, [[Nick F. Stames]], assigned Cornick because of his availability, his Spanish and his experience with the Puerto Rico bombings.[^3] "It's your case. Do it," Stames told him at the scene.[^7] [[Stuart Case]], chief of the FBI explosives unit, directed the forensic search, which extended to the roofs of neighboring embassies and wire mesh over the storm drains. When another official moved to reopen part of the circle to traffic, Cornick refused: "The crime scene is here once."[^1][^2] + +Letelier had worked at the [[Institute for Policy Studies]], which, Cornick wrote, had been "formerly investigated by the FBI"; the [[Washington Post]] reported in 1978 that the institute had been "infiltrated and spied upon by informants for the FBI" during the [[Vietnam War]]. Its staff resisted the evacuation and search of their building, which was ordered after a dog reacted to a car parked in front; Cornick wrote that he learned thirty years later that the dog had reacted to marijuana residue.[^1][^3] [[Saul Landau]] wrote that he met Cornick at [[Isabel Letelier]]'s house on the night of the murder, that the institute's staff accused Cornick personally of having tapped their telephones, opened their mail and gone through their garbage, and that Cornick answered: "I don't know anything about that, but I'll tell you one thing. We're on the same side in this one."[^7] [[John Dinges]] and Landau wrote that some senior FBI officials referred to Letelier and the institute as "pinkos" and "commie perverts" and suggested that Cornick direct the investigation at the American left and Chilean exiles, and that Cornick, "a staunch anticommunist," resisted.[^7] + +The United States Attorney, [[Earl Silbert]], assigned a prosecutor from his major crimes unit at once, which Cornick attributed to the loss of evidence in the early "Watergate" investigation.[^1] The prosecutor was Eugene Propper. Cornick recalled telling Stames the next morning: "I have no intention of working with the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. I don't want some assistant U.S. attorney telling me how to run a case."[^2] The two had never met; they worked together for the next eighteen months before arrests were made in April 1978.[^3] The bureau designated the case a special, with major case status and the code name Chilbom.[^1] Cornick's plan was to rule out every motive other than the obvious one, including a Venezuelan mistress, a disgruntled colleague and a personal enemy abroad. His first report, written after three weeks, ran to more than 1,300 pages with a 50-page administrative section asking every receiving office and legal attaché for comment.[^1] He had the FBI interview every person in Letelier's address book, and some agents, by the account of Dinges and Landau, probed for leftist activity and suggested that the left had a motive.[^7] + +### Caracas and the Cuban exiles, 1976 to 1977 + +Because the Cuban exile side of the investigation would involve intelligence information, Propper, Assistant Attorney General [[J. Stanley Pottinger|Stanley Pottinger]] and the director of central intelligence, [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]], met to determine to what extent the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] could help.[^3] Within two days of the bombing [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete|Ricardo Morales]], an informant for the CIA, the FBI, the [[Drug Enforcement Administration|DEA]] and the [[Miami]] police who was also an officer of the Venezuelan intelligence service [[DISIP]], told the FBI that the Novo brothers of [[Union City, New Jersey]], had done it, citing [[Orlando Bosch]].[^2] On November 5, 1976, Assistant Attorney General [[Richard Thornburgh]] asked the State Department to arrange interviews of four men then held in [[Caracas]] in connection with the bombing of [[Cubana Flight 455 bombing|Cubana Flight 455]]: Bosch, [[Luis Posada Carriles]], [[Freddy Lugo]] and [[Hernán Ricardo Lozano]]. Thornburgh named the investigators to be sent: Propper and FBI special agents Carter Cornick and Raul Salinas. [[Harry Shlaudeman]] relayed the request to the embassy in Caracas on November 11 in a cable sent under [[Henry Kissinger]]'s name.[^8] Venezuelan officials kept Propper from Bosch for months.[^2] + +Cornick later said that the CIA had placed Cuban exiles "recruited by the agency to fight the good war against Castro" in DISIP. "The agency put them down there!" he told Dorfman in 2015. Dorfman put the claim to [[Jack Devine]], a retired CIA officer stationed in Chile from 1971 to 1974, who answered: "Go show me. Prove it."[^2] Cornick repeated the claim in 2016: "the CIA inserted many anti-Castro Cubans into its intelligence service (DISIP) while still on friendly terms."[^1] + +Propper brought [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Ignacio Novo]] of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] before the grand jury.[^2][^3] The State Department gave Propper and Cornick photographs and background on two Chileans, Juan Williams and Alejandro Romeral, who had entered the [[United States]] through Miami in August 1976 on official Chilean passports. In July 1977 the informant [[Ricardo Canete]] and the jailed militant [[Rolando Otero]] identified the Williams photograph, Otero in Cornick's presence. In December 1977 Cornick and a team of agents found immigration forms showing that both men had entered in August and left on September 2, 1976.[^2] An investigative clerk of the Washington field office found them after more than six weeks of searching forms by hand in a warehouse in [[Suitland, Maryland]].[^1] + +### Santiago, 1978 + +The Chilean foreign ministry announced that it would answer only formal letters rogatory. The letters were sent with only the questions sealed, and Propper told courthouse reporters that they might find something in the clerk's office; the next day's front pages reported that the investigation was focused on members of the Chilean government. Cornick wrote that within several days the Chilean press identified "the individual with blond hair" as an American, [[Michael Townley]], "who also worked for the CIA," and the second man as a DINA captain, [[Armando Fernandez Larios]].[^1] Propper and Cornick arrived in [[Santiago]] on March 19, 1978.[^2] At the headquarters of DINA's successor, the [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]], Cornick saw two soldiers feeding books into a fire in an oil drum; inside, the general in charge admitted for the first time that Townley had worked for DINA.[^1] + +Propper, Cornick and the legal attaché [[Robert Scherrer]] questioned two Chilean army captains that month about their roles. One said under questioning on March 24 that the purpose of their August 1976 mission to the United States had been to see [[Vernon Walters]]. Walters gave the FBI a deposition in June 1978 denying any knowledge of the case or contact with the officers.[^9] One evening members of the [[Carabineros de Chile|Chilean National Police]] told Cornick and Scherrer that a warrant required them to appear before a magistrate; Cornick wrote that both held diplomatic passports accrediting them to Chile, cited immunity, and that the police backed down.[^1] Chile expelled Townley on April 8, 1978, and Cornick escorted him to the United States; the [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]] ordered the plane to land at [[Baltimore]] short of New York.[^1][^10] On May 9 Ambassador [[George Landau]] cabled from Santiago that Chilean courts were investigating the expulsion, that the press had named Scherrer and Cornick as Townley's escorts, and that lawyers for Townley and his wife wanted them called before the investigating judge. Scherrer held a diplomatic passport; "in order to preserve same option with respect to Carter Cornick," Landau recommended "strongly" that Cornick be issued one for future visits, and likewise Propper.[^10] + +Townley's plea agreement, signed on April 18, 1978, capped his sentence at ten years. "We did not have, in my opinion, a prosecutable case," Cornick told Dorfman. "So what we did was we made a deal with the worst possible guy."[^1][^2] Townley implicated DINA's commander, [[Manuel Contreras]], its chief of operations, [[Pedro Espinoza]], and Fernandez Larios, and told the investigators that President [[Augusto Pinochet]] began every working day with a briefing from Contreras.[^1] A CIA report dated April 28, 1978, while Cornick was working in Santiago, stated that "Contreras told a confidant he authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." Shown that report and others in 2015 by John Dinges, Cornick said: "As you may suspect, none of this was new to us at the time." He called the information hearsay from people who would never testify, and said that "the interests of the U.S., according to [the Department of] State, were that Chile was a non-Communist country in [[Latin America]] and therefore no further punitive action against them was warranted."[^11] + +### The test bomb + +Cornick proposed a replication test: a second car of the same model, a bomb built by Townley from the same components, and a comparison of the damage. The prosecutors feared that a failed test would reach the defense in discovery, and the request went for approval to the bureau's deputy director.[^1][^2] An agent in [[Detroit]] obtained the car from [[General Motors]]. Townley, escorted by deputy marshals, was taken to each place where he had bought parts, including a Radio Shack on E Street behind FBI headquarters, and built the device with Stuart Case.[^1][^2] On July 20, in the summer of 1978 by Cornick's account, the bomb was detonated at the FBI explosives range; the electronics expert [[Bill Koopman]] wired the modified Fanon-Courier transmitter to the car's cigarette lighter. A search of the test site turned up a brass spacer post that matched one recovered at Sheridan Circle.[^1] A photograph Cornick supplied to Dorfman is captioned "Aftermath of controlled FBI bombing, 1979."[^2] + +### Indictment and trial, 1978 to 1979 + +On August 1, 1978, three Chilean officers and four Cuban exiles were charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official and with murder.[^1] On October 17 the prosecutors stated in a court filing that Townley had made "two unrelated contacts" with the CIA in Florida "a number of years ago," one of them in 1970 or 1971.[^9] That fall a bomb exploded at the home of the Chilean Supreme Court judge considering the American extradition request, and eleven days later another at the home of the judge investigating the first.[^1] + +After a [[New York Times]] magazine feature that summer, the producers of the [[CBS]] program "60 Minutes" asked for a segment with [[Mike Wallace]]. Cornick favored it as a platform to describe the Cuban Nationalist Movement as "a group of criminals, not super patriots, who regularly extorted the anti-Cuban exile community for personal gain"; CBS agreed to let a prosecutor censor any question that could affect the trial. Afterward, Cornick wrote, "according to public, police and FBI sources, CNM funding sustained a major blow," and the program entered the curriculum for FBI media coordinators at [[FBI Academy|Quantico]].[^1] + +The trial opened on January 9, 1979. The lead defense attorney, [[Paul Goldberger]], told the jury that the murder "was carried out by Michael Townley . . . working as an agent of the CIA." Propper concluded that the defense had taken on DINA's case because DINA was funding the defendants, "which turned out to be the case," Cornick wrote, and the CIA's chief personnel officer testified that Townley had never worked for the agency.[^1] + +During the trial Townley was held in the offices of the Major Crimes Unit of the [[United States Attorney for the District of Columbia|United States Attorney]], and with the knowledge of Propper and Barcella he telephoned people in Chile, including his Chilean lawyer and [[Gustavo Etchepare]], to gather information on the extradition case. Etchepare was a former member of [[Patria y Libertad]] with connections to DINA. On January 30, 1979, locked alone in Propper's office, Townley called Etchepare without authorization. Defense attorneys and relatives of the Cuban defendants told reporters that Contreras's Chilean lawyer, [[Sergio Miranda Carrington]], had brought from Chile a cassette on which Townley threatened to kill the trial judge, [[Barrington Parker]]; according to Miranda Carrington, Etchepare had recorded the call and given it to him, and he had passed it to the Cuban defendants' lawyers. A transcript was distributed to reporters at the courthouse by people connected with the defendants.[^12] The FBI's translation of the cassette has Townley saying: "the fact is that this was one of the things which were discussed like so, among friends, with people from the FBI, that is, have as many friends as we all have call . . . make threatening calls to the Judge for him to withdraw from the case."[^12] Scherrer and Cornick interviewed Townley about it on February 6, 8 and 9, 1979. On February 8 Townley denied asking anyone to threaten the judge and denied that any FBI agent or federal official had ever suggested or implied it. In a later interview with the same agents he said the remarks were a deliberately provocative "diatribe" meant to persuade Etchepare that the FBI was not taping their calls, that the transcript had been altered, and that DINA's electronics section had doctored recordings of Contreras's enemies when he worked for it.[^12] The FBI Laboratory reported on March 30, 1979, in a report captioned Chilbom, that the cassette showed six bursts of noise consistent with the recorder being stopped and restarted and "characteristics indicating that segments of one or more previously recorded conversations were copied onto" it.[^12] + +The jury asked for two exhibits, the photographs of the two cars and the telephone records linking Townley to Guillermo Novo, and convicted Guillermo Novo and [[Alvin Ross]] on all counts; Ignacio Novo received eight years on lesser charges.[^1][^2] Dorfman reported that in May 1979 Pinochet's former press secretary, [[Federico Willoughby]], traveled secretly to Washington with a message that Pinochet would hand over Contreras if the charges against Fernandez Larios and Espinoza were dropped.[^2] About three months after the verdict Chile denied extradition, ruled the Townley evidence inadmissible, and sent the remaining evidence to a military tribunal. At the end of November 1979 the United States announced diplomatic sanctions without trade or commercial measures.[^1] + +### Leaks and the Director of Central Intelligence, 1979 to 1980 + +In early December 1979 Cornick met the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] on leaks. A memorandum to the director of March 10, 1980 states: "I have scheduled Carter Cornick (FBI) to call on you at the EOB tomorrow (Tues) at 1500. This is a follow-up to his meeting with you in early Dec on leaks."[^13] The director's schedule for Thursday, March 13, 1980 lists, at 1500, "Carter Cornick (FBI), re Leaks."[^14] Cornick later wrote that "capricious media leaks by both Field and Bureau officials were harmful, but not fatal to the case," and that the intervention of Deputy Associate Director [[Jim Adams]] prevented "stove piping" between the bureau's intelligence and criminal divisions.[^1] + +In September 1980 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|Court of Appeals]] reversed the convictions on the authority of *[[United States v. Henry]]*, and the Solicitor General's office declined to seek review.[^1] On May 30, 1981 a second jury acquitted Guillermo Novo and Ross of the murder counts.[^1] A week later [[Joe Trento]] reported that Canete, then in the witness protection program, said he had deliberately made his testimony less convincing for fear of anti-Castro Cubans, and that Barcella said Townley "understood that the politics of the situation had changed. The Reagan people had a lot of support in the Cuban community." Trento quoted an unnamed high Justice Department official who expected an order to put the case "on the shelf," and an unnamed CIA official who had helped train the Cubans: "when you implicate the Chilean secret police, you implicate our own CIA." The same official said that Contreras had "recently participated in security exercises with U.S. intelligence." Barcella and Cornick, whom Trento described as the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, told him that the most humiliating part of the case was having to go to the CIA "hat in hand" to ask how large a role American intelligence had played in training the Cubans and the Chileans. "It is very possible the CIA lied to me and withheld information from me on these cases," Barcella said.[^15] + +### Headquarters, 1980 to 1988 + +Cornick became a supervisor in the terrorism section at FBI headquarters, where, he wrote, he found reports from the Letelier case that had been marked for dissemination to the legal attaché in Argentina still in a file cabinet.[^1] On November 27, 1984 the executive secretary of the [[Intelligence Information Handling Committee]] of the Director of Central Intelligence sent "FBI/L. Carter Cornick" and the other members of its Geographic Information Systems Subcommittee a draft of standards for video disc maps, to be produced under a [[Defense Mapping Agency]] contract.[^16] A memorandum of March 11, 1985 called the subcommittee to a meeting on March 22 to discuss the contracts; its membership list gives Cornick's office as Room 4445 of the J. Edgar Hoover Building.[^17] In April 1985 he attended, as a supervisory special agent, the tenth annual symposium on the role of behavioral science in physical security, "Outthinking the Terrorist," at Springfield, Virginia.[^18] Townley was paroled in May 1983 after 62 months, and Fernandez Larios, who in early 1986 had approached the American government through Willoughby and the embassy's Chilean lawyer, [[Alfredo Etcheberry]], met State Department, United States Attorney and FBI representatives in Santiago on January 14, 1987; because of fears that he would be recognized there, Cornick worked with a secondary team in [[Buenos Aires]].[^2] Cornick wrote that Fernandez Larios agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to murder; Dorfman wrote that he pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact and served seven months.[^1][^2] + +A resume packet that Counter Terrorism Consultants circulated in 1990 describes Cornick's last years in the bureau. It states that he spent sixteen of his twenty-one FBI years in the counterterrorism program, the last eight at headquarters; that he had headed the FBI's Terrorist Research and Analytical Center and, at his retirement, the section's computer center; that he had supervised the investigations of the 1983 bombings of the American embassy and the Marine compound in [[Beirut]] and of the 1984 seizure of American hostages in Lebanon, and in 1985 had supported the investigations of the [[TWA Flight 847]] hijacking and the [[Achille Lauro]] case; that he had created the FBI's crisis management protocol for special events and held posts in security for the 1980 Winter Olympics, the 1984 Summer Olympics, the 1984 party conventions, the 1986 rededication of the Statue of Liberty and the 1987 Pan American and World Games; and that he had helped create logistical, operational and computer support for the [[Hostage Rescue Team]]. It also states that he "was the FBI representative to the [[Hostage Locating Task Force]] at the [[White House]], the inter-agency group coordinating American policy on U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and to the State Department's Persian Gulf Threat Working Group," and that he received the FBI Director's Award in 1986.[^4] + +### Counter Terrorism Consultants + +Cornick retired in May 1988 by his own account, and on June 1, 1988 according to the company's resume packet.[^1][^4] In early August 1988 he and Propper, then with the Washington law firm [[Lane and Edson]], announced Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc., to sell foreign "democratic" governments, airlines, shipping companies and sponsors of events such as the Olympic Games "pro-active" strategies against terrorism and the management of kidnappings and hijackings. Cornick was president; Propper said he was a full partner without a title. Scherrer, recently retired as the FBI's records chief, joined as a consultant, and Barcella, then with [[Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc]], was to advise on extradition. The company's services included "amassing in-depth intelligence files for a client," "liaison programs with national and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies," hostage negotiation and "media leak investigations." It was seeded with about $500,000 from "a lot" of investors whom the founders declined to name, and they said their success would not depend on classified information. Cornick said he would draw on fifteen to twenty part-time consultants retired from the [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]], the State Department, the Justice Department, the FBI and the [[Defense Investigative Service]], and had developed "artificial intelligence" computer models of terrorist behavior. "This is the first time anyone has retired from the FBI's terrorism section" to sell such services, he said. [[Jeff Stein]] of [[United Press International]] reported that the four men had also worked together on the investigation of [[Edwin Wilson]], and listed Cornick's direction of the FBI investigations of the Beirut bombings, the TWA 847 hijacking and the Achille Lauro seizure and his management of security at the [[1980 Winter Olympics|Lake Placid]] Games.[^5] + +By 1990 the firm was CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., at 2300 M Street NW in Washington, with Cornick as co-founder and chief executive officer. A copy of its resume packet, bearing a fax header of 1990, is among the papers of the journalist [[Danny Casolaro]]. Besides Cornick, Propper and Barcella, the associates listed were an unnamed former senior CIA operations officer described as a former chief of counterterrorism for the agency and its representative on White House, State Department and [[National Security Council]] counterterrorism committees, who had retired in 1987 and had earlier been chief of the agency's air and maritime elements from 1974 to 1977; [[Francis J. McNeil|Frank McNeil]], ambassador to [[Costa Rica]] from 1980 to 1983 and later senior deputy for intelligence and research at the State Department; [[James B. Motley]], vice president for national security studies and programs at [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] Advanced Technologies Corporation since September 1987, who had appeared before the [[Vice President's Task Force on Combatting Terrorism]] in 1985; and a former foreign service officer, Nudell, who had served in [[Nicaragua]] and in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism.[^4] + +### After the bureau + +After Pinochet's arrest in [[London]] in October 1998, the Justice Department approved Cornick's testimony before the Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] at the federal courthouse in Washington, and he was deputized as a deputy United States marshal so that he could review the case files, then still on manual index cards.[^1] On September 19, 2001, in Washington, he gave a statement to United States judicial authorities in the presence of the Italian prosecutor [[Giancarlo Capaldo]] for the Rome investigation of [[Operation Condor]]; he described Scherrer's contacts with the Argentine [[Secretaría de Inteligencia|SIDE]] and with DINA, said that Scherrer had received his information on Condor from an Argentine SIDE officer, and said that Contreras was known as "Condor One."[^19] A letter of May 18, 2005 from twenty members of the House of Representatives to President [[George W. Bush]], placed in the [[Congressional Record]] by [[Dennis Kucinich]], quoted Cornick as having said in an interview that the Cubana bombing and the Letelier bombing were both planned at a June 1976 meeting in [[Santo Domingo]] attended by Posada, who was involved "up to his eyeballs."[^20] + +Cornick wrote in 2016 that the Letelier case, more than the assassination of the Swedish prime minister [[Olof Palme]], the Beirut embassy and Marine bombings, or the kidnapping and murder of the CIA station chief in Beirut, [[William Buckley]], was the culmination of his career as an investigator.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: L. Carter Cornick Jr., "Chilbom," *The Grapevine* (Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI), August 2016, pp. 11 to 16, https://fbistudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FBI-Grapevine-Chilbom.pdf. +[^2]: Zach Dorfman, "Codename: Chilbom," *The Atavist Magazine*, no. 59, June 21, 2016, https://magazine.atavist.com/2016/codename-chilbom. +[^3]: Timothy S. Robinson, "The Letelier Case," *The Washington Post*, May 21, 1978, p. A4, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050048-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000100050048-7. +[^4]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents the Resumes of its Associates," fax copy (header 1990), pp. 141 P01 to P12, in the Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks. +[^5]: Jeff Stein, "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/. +[^6]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Juan field office, file 100-4014 (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño), FD-306 cover sheets for informant reports received by SA L. Carter Cornick Jr., dated between November 22, 1972 and October 10, 1973, released to Representative José Serrano and posted by the project "The FBI Files on Puerto Ricans," file parts SJ-100-4014 33 and 34, https://archive.org/details/PartidoIndependentistaPuertorriqueno. +[^7]: John Dinges and Saul Landau, *Assassination on Embassy Row* (New York: Pantheon, 1980; McGraw-Hill paperback, 1981), pp. 211, 229 to 236, https://archive.org/details/assassination-on-embassy-row. +[^8]: Secretary of State to American Embassy Caracas, "Interrogation of Bosch," telegram 1976STATE277225, November 11, 1976 (drafted and approved by Harry W. Shlaudeman, quoting Richard L. Thornburgh's letter of November 5, 1976), Department of State, released 2006, https://archive.org/details/State-Dept-cable-1976-272754. +[^9]: Jeremiah O'Leary, "Chileans Inject CIA Into Letelier Slaying Probe," *Washington Star*, October 18, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060103-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00901r000700060103-4. +[^10]: American Embassy Santiago (George Landau) to Secretary of State, "Letelier/Moffitt Assassination Investigation," telegram 1978SANTIA03456, May 9, 1978, Department of State, released 2014, https://archive.org/details/StateDeptcable1978-117178. +[^11]: John Dinges, "A Bombshell on Pinochet's Guilt, Delivered Too Late," *Newsweek*, October 14, 2015 (issue of October 30, 2015), https://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/30/bombshell-pinochets-guilt-delivered-too-late-383121.html. +[^12]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington field office file WF 185-425 (Chilbom): FD-302 reports of interviews of Michael Vernon Townley by SAs Robert W. Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick Jr., February 6, 8 and 9, 1979, and a later undated interview; FD-302 of interview at FBI headquarters, March 28, 1979; FBI Laboratory report to SAC WFO, re Chilbom, Lab. No. 90313098 E TV, March 30, 1979; FBI translation of cassette Q188, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-townley-phone.pdf. +[^13]: Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, March 10, 1980, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP05T00644R000401190032-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp05t00644r000401190032-5. +[^14]: "DCI's Schedule for Thursday 13 March 1980," CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP05T00644R000401230043-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp05t00644r000401230043-8. +[^15]: Joe Trento, untitled article, *Wilmington Sunday News Journal*, June 7, 1981, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680027-3, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403680027-3. +[^16]: Executive Secretary, Intelligence Information Handling Committee, to GISS Members, "Proposed Video Disc Standards," memorandum IHC/MM 84-92, November 27, 1984, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP86M00017R000400310007-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86m00017r000400310007-4. +[^17]: Acting Chairman, Intelligence Information Handling Committee, to GISS Members, "GISS Meeting," memorandum IHC/MM 85-50, March 11, 1985, with Geographic Information Systems Subcommittee membership list, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP87M00220R000500530039-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp87m00220r000500530039-7. +[^18]: *Supplemental Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioral Science in Physical Security (10th): Outthinking the Terrorist, an International Challenge*, Springfield, Virginia, April 23 to 24, 1985, attendee list, Defense Technical Information Center ADA161669, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA161669. +[^19]: Operation Condor proceeding (Rome), ordinanza di custodia cautelare, part 2, note 1731 and a later note, citing C. Cornick, statement before United States judicial authorities in the presence of PM G. Capaldo, Washington, September 19, 2001, Rogatoria USA, fd. 1, fll. 941 to 975, DocumentCloud 6165069, https://archive.org/details/6165069-Condor-Ordinanza-custodia-cautelare-2. +[^20]: Dennis J. Kucinich, "Letter to President Bush Regarding Luis Posada Carriles," extension of remarks, May 18, 2005, *Congressional Record* (bound edition) 151, pt. 8, p. 10512, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRECB-2005-pt8/pdf/CRECB-2005-pt8-Pg10512.pdf. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ca77938e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Edward Jay Epstein.md @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +--- +category: "Authors & Journalists" +tags: + - Person + - Journalist + - JFKAssassination + - Angleton + - Nosenko + - ColdWar + - ReadersDigest + - JeffreyEpstein +alias: + - Edward Jay Epstein + - Edward J. Epstein + - Edward Epstein +summary: "American investigative journalist whose books on the Warren Commission and Soviet defectors drew on classified information from James Angleton and other CIA officers, and who kept an acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein from 1987 to 2019." +born: 1935-12-06 +died: 2024-01-09 +location: "New York, New York (died)" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Reader's Digest]]" + reverse: true + role: "research sponsor for Legend" + fn: 6 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + role: "named target of a January 1967 dispatch on critics of the Warren Report" + start: 1967-01 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Edward Jay Epstein (December 6, 1935, to January 9, 2024) was an American investigative journalist and the author of more than twenty books, among them [[Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth|Inquest]] (1966), [[Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald|Legend]] (1978), [[Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA|Deception]] (1989), [[Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer|Dossier]] (1996) and [[How America Lost Its Secrets]] (2017). He took his bachelor's and master's degrees in government at [[Cornell University]] and a doctorate at [[Harvard University]]; the obituary placed by his family gives the doctoral field as Urban Studies. He died at home in [[New York City]] after a brief struggle with Covid.[^1] + +### Inquest and the CIA dispatch of January 1967 + +Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth was published by [[Viking Press]] in 1966. It was his master's thesis at Cornell.[^1][^2] In the December 1966 issue of [[Esquire]] he published a further article that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] later described as explaining away objections to the book.[^3] + +A CIA dispatch to chiefs of certain stations and bases, titled "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report" and dated January 1967, stated that the trend of opinion about the [[Warren Commission]] "is a matter of concern to the [[U.S. government]], including our organization." Its sixth paragraph stated that "another kind of criticism has recently emerged, represented by Edward Jay Epstein's Inquest," that he "adopts a scholarly tone, and to the casual reader, he presents what appears to be a more coherent, reasoned case than the writers described above," and that [[Richard Rovere]] and [[Lord Devlin]], "previously backers of the Commission's Report," had changed their minds. The seventh paragraph stated that "Epstein's competence in research has been greatly exaggerated," giving as examples the date on which the CIA passed a [[Mexico City]] photograph to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (November 22, 1963, not November 18 as Inquest had it) and a Secret Service interview report that Inquest said had been withheld from the National Archives; the dispatch stated that an Archives staff member told a CIA officer that Epstein asked for the document, was told it was classified, and ended a two-day visit before the Secret Service declassified it. The eighth paragraph compared Epstein and other "intellectual critics" with [[Richard H. Popkin]], the author of The Second Oswald, whom it described as showing "love of theorizing and lack of common sense and experience." The action paragraph directed that "a useful strategy may be to single out Epstein's theory for attack, using the attached [[Fletcher Knebel]] article and Spectator piece for background."[^4] + +### Reader's Digest, Angleton and Legend + +Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald was published in 1978 by [[Reader's Digest]] Press.[^2] A Reader's Digest condensation stated that the magazine's editors had asked Epstein to examine the world through which [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] moved, that over two years he had studied "more than 10,000 pages of previously classified documents pertaining to Oswald" and had conducted, "with a staff of assistants, more than 400 interviews."[^5] + +[[Cleveland Cram]], a CIA officer, reviewed the book in a 1993 monograph for the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. Cram wrote that Epstein learned of the case of the Soviet defector [[Yuri Nosenko]] through Reader's Digest, that this led to his acquaintance with [[James Jesus Angleton]], that Angleton became his major source on Nosenko, and that Reader's Digest sponsored his research "to the tune of $500,000." Cram wrote that Epstein's articles and the book "publicized for the first time" the clashes inside the Agency between the Counterintelligence Staff and the Soviet Division over Nosenko, that Epstein "stated that he had spoken occasionally with James Angleton" without acknowledging him as the source, and that in Deception, which Cram placed in the year after Angleton's death on May 11, 1987 (the catalog record gives 1989), Epstein admitted that from 1977 onward he had obtained large amounts of highly classified information from Angleton, [[Newton Miler]], [[Tennent Bagley]] and others in the CIA who shared Angleton's views. In his review of Deception Cram wrote that Epstein described Angleton as his major source since 1976, when they first met, and that Angleton had referred him to Miler and [[Raymond Rocca]], to the retired CIA officer [[William Hood]], to the FBI officers [[William Sullivan]] and [[Sam Papich]], to the former [[MI6]] officer [[Stephen de Mowbray]] in England and to Bagley in Belgium. Cram listed from Epstein's source notes for Legend [[Gordon Stewart]], [[Stansfield Turner]], [[Richard Helms]], Angleton and members of his staff, Sullivan and Papich.[^6] + +Cram also wrote that [[Henry Hurt]], a Reader's Digest writer, helped with the research for Legend and was introduced by Epstein to Angleton, and that "nothing was officially done" to caution Angleton about leaking classified information, whereas when the CIA found that [[Clare E. Petty]] had leaked classified material to the press "he received an official warning letter." He described Legend as having given "enormous stimulus" to the thesis that Nosenko had been sent by the [[KGB]] as a cover story for Oswald, wrote that Deception, which Epstein published after Angleton's death, "like Legend, is propaganda for Angleton and essentially dishonest," and described the book as having "the smell of attic dust" and as Epstein's "last hurrah" in the world of intelligence, adding that "with glasnost, he apparently sensed that the days of the conspiracists were numbered. It was time to take the money and run." Cram also wrote that in an interview with Vanity Fair in May 1989 Epstein admitted that Golitsyn shaped Angleton's views and possibly was a liar, and ended the interview with the remark "Actually, I don't know whether to believe Angleton at all!"[^6] + +In a letter published in the [[New York Times]] on September 27, 1981, answering a column of [[William Safire]] on the source "Fedora," [[G. Robert Blakey]], chief counsel of the [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] in 1977 to 1979, wrote that he had directed an investigation of Nosenko and had concluded, with a unanimous committee, that Nosenko had lied to the FBI and the CIA in 1963 and 1964 and to the committee in 1978. He wrote that the committee had reviewed Epstein's allegations about a relationship between Fedora and Nosenko and concluded, "contrary to Epstein's assertion," that the bona fides of Nosenko were not inextricably intertwined with those of any other defector.[^7] + +### The Office of Security file + +A [[CIA Office of Security]] memorandum for the record of July 18, 1978, by [[Bruce Solie|Bruce L. Solie]], Chief of the Security Analysis Group, bears the subject "EPSTEIN, Edward Jay #488 768" and the record number 104-10113-10396. It states that it identifies the Office of Security files reviewed by staff members of the [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]]; that certain items were not reviewed, were placed in sealed envelopes, and were returned to the security file; and that material placed in the file at the time of the review is marked with a green dot. A review sheet naming the Committee's reviewers and the dates of review is described as attached and is not part of the copy released.[^8] + +### George de Mohrenschildt, March 29, 1977 + +On March 29, 1977, [[George de Mohrenschildt]] was found dead of a gunshot wound in the Manalapan, Florida, house where he was a guest. A [[Washington Star]] account filed under March 30, 1977, in CIA files, reported that Sheriff Richard Wille said, "We're 99 percent certain he killed himself," and that Wille and State Attorney David Bludworth questioned witnesses until shortly before midnight, among them "free lance writer Ed Epstein, who had told the [[West Palm Beach Post]] Monday night that he had been interviewing de Mohrenschildt in connection with a book he was doing about Lee Harvey Oswald." The AP account stated that de Mohrenschildt was traced by a House Assassinations Committee investigator to the Florida address and returned to the house at about 2:45 p.m., and that about an hour later he apparently shot himself. The sheriff said that a call to the house was believed to have been placed from Miami by the House investigator [[Gaeton Fonzi]]. After the questioning Epstein said, "the police told me not to talk."[^9] A memorandum from the CIA's Dallas office over the name of [[J. Walton Moore]] records that on March 31, 1977, a Dallas Morning News reporter telephoned to ask about the Agency's relationship with de Mohrenschildt, and that Moore told him the relationship was documented in the Warren Commission Report and that he had nothing further to add.[^10] + +### Later articles and books + +*The Rise and Fall of Diamonds* was published by [[Simon & Schuster]] in 1982.[^2] In [[The Atlantic]] for March 1983 Epstein published "The Cartel That Never Was," with the subtitle "[[Saudi Arabia]] finds in the perceived unity and power of OPEC a convenient illusion."[^11] A 1982 clipping in CIA files carries an article by Epstein titled "Disinformation," on the verification of arms-control agreements, from a periodical not named in the copy.[^11] + +In 1985 [[The New Republic]] carried Epstein's article "The Spy Who Came In to Be Sold," circulated in galley by June 26, asserting that the memoir *Breaking with Moscow* by the Soviet defector [[Arkady Shevchenko]], published by [[Alfred A. Knopf]], had invented the "supermole" account of Shevchenko's work for the CIA. The Associated Press reported that Epstein wrote, "What is fabricated here are not just car-chases, meetings, conversations, reports, dates, motives and espionage activities, but a spy who never was." The editor of the book, [[Ashbel Green]], said his own contacts in the intelligence community "have always confirmed Shevchenko's role" and described Epstein as "a well-known conspiracy theorist." The Associated Press reported that the memoir, published by Knopf, had sold 180,000 copies and been serialized in Time magazine.[^12] [[William A. Reuben]], writing in The Nation, quoted Epstein's conclusion that "Shevchenko's book is a fraud on the same level as Clifford Irving's fake about [[Howard Hughes]]."[^13] + +Deception (Simon & Schuster, 1989), The Assassination Chronicles (Carroll & Graf, 1992) and Dossier (Random House, 1996) followed.[^2] In a review of Dossier in the [[Baltimore Sun]], [[Scott Shane]] wrote that Epstein, drawing on Soviet archives, FBI files and secret tapes Hammer made of himself arranging bribes, described [[Armand Hammer]] as having used his business at the direction of Soviet intelligence to move money to operatives abroad, having moved millions from [[Occidental Petroleum]] to a Swiss account, and having had a woman on his payroll change her name legally; Shane wrote that Hammer died in 1990.[^14] In *Commentary*, Daniel Silver wrote that Epstein concluded Hammer "was more of an agent than an opportunist," basing the conclusion on interviews, Soviet archival material and tape recordings Hammer made secretly of his own transactions, including acts of bribery; Silver wrote that Epstein described a Libyan oil concession obtained through kickbacks to Libyan officials, illegal contributions to the Nixon campaign that led to Hammer's only criminal conviction, and a personal estate at his death valued at no more than $40 million, and that Epstein left open how long Hammer was an active Soviet agent and whether he acted under orders from Moscow.[^15] The Big Picture (Random House, 2005) and How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), about [[Edward Snowden]], appear in the library catalog records.[^2] + +### Acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein + +In September 2019, after [[Jeffrey Epstein]] died in custody, [[Air Mail]], the online magazine of [[Graydon Carter]], published Epstein's "My Tea with Jeffrey Epstein," which he told [[The Daily Beast]] was Chapter 46 of an unpublished memoir.[^16] The opening paragraphs of the article, which are public, state that he met Jeffrey Epstein in 1987 at the annual Halloween party of the film producer [[Coco Brown]], where he was standing with [[Isabel Goldsmith]] when Jeffrey Epstein and his brother [[Mark Epstein]] joined them, and that at a tea the following Thursday Jeffrey Epstein asked whether he would write about his business for his monthly "Wall Street Babylon" column in [[Manhattan, inc.]] magazine.[^17] According to the Daily Beast's report of its interview with him, on later occasions Jeffrey Epstein arranged first-class airline upgrades that proved to be bogus, and he accepted lodging in a Santa Monica apartment rented for [[Eva Andersson]]. He told the Daily Beast that a Simon & Schuster executive he had introduced to Jeffrey Epstein at his birthday dinner on December 6, 1988, later said he had given Jeffrey Epstein $70,000 to invest in a takeover of [[Pennwalt]] and had received no papers; the Daily Beast reported that it could not confirm the executive's identity. He said he used a computer program Jeffrey Epstein gave him to read financial records, found "dozens of demands for the return of investment money" and a twice-bounced check, and wrote a 1989 column describing Jeffrey Epstein without naming him, after which Jeffrey Epstein stopped speaking to him; the Daily Beast reported that the column brought attention from the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]. According to the same report, contact resumed in 2013 after Epstein published an essay on [[Vladimir Nabokov]] in the [[New York Review of Books]], and continued with visits to the East 71st Street house, walks in Central Park and emails until 2019.[^16] + +Epstein told the Daily Beast that he "hung around with Jeffrey because I was fascinated with him," that "Everything about Jeffrey was a con," that Jeffrey Epstein had claimed to him to be a private detective and to fly monthly to Moscow to meet [[Vladimir Putin]], that he never discussed the allegations about underage girls with him, never flew on his plane, never visited his homes other than the East 71st Street townhouse, and was never offered a massage. He called Jeffrey Epstein "the poster boy for rehabilitation" after his 2008 plea and suggested that the July 2019 federal charges were an act of bad faith on the part of the government.[^16] + +### Correspondence in the Jeffrey Epstein estate documents + +Documents released by the [[Department of Justice]] in its [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] include emails between the two men dated 2012 and 2013. On March 8, 2012, Epstein wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, "My book in dsk is just about finished. My title is 3 DAYS IN MAY:the DSK THRILLER. When in ny it would be great to see you"; Jeffrey Epstein answered "next week??" and Epstein replied "Next week is good for me."[^18] On April 14, 2012, Jeffrey Epstein sent Epstein a message about a scandal involving [[United States Secret Service]] agents in Colombia; Epstein answered that he had just landed at Kennedy airport and had "Spent day with dsk yesterday" (the book concerned [[Dominique Strauss-Kahn]]); Jeffrey Epstein wrote "Come by at 645 if you are free," and Epstein replied "I can't tonight."[^19] In an exchange of April 16 and 17, 2012, an assistant of Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein, who signed himself Ed Epstein, arranged his arrival at Jeffrey Epstein's home at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17.[^20] On February 9, 2013, Jeffrey Epstein forwarded to an assistant an invitation from the author [[Michael Wolff]] to a party on March 5, 2013, in honor of Epstein's book The Annals of Unsolved Crime, with the note "and remind me to call him on the 19th."[^21] + +### Death + +Epstein died on January 9, 2024, at his home in New York City, aged 88. The family obituary states that he had "built an astounding network of dear friends."[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Edward Jay Epstein," obituary placed by the family, Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, Dignity Memorial, January 2024. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/new-york-ny/edward-epstein-11625388 +[^2]: Internet Archive catalog records for Epstein's books: *Inquest* (New York: Viking Press, 1966), https://archive.org/details/inquestwarrencom00epst; *Legend* ([New York]: Reader's Digest Press, 1978), https://archive.org/details/legendsecretworl00epst; *The Rise and Fall of Diamonds* (Simon and Schuster, 1982), https://archive.org/details/risefallofdiamon0000epst; *Deception* (Simon and Schuster, 1989), https://archive.org/details/deceptioninvisib00epst; *The Assassination Chronicles* (Carroll & Graf, 1992), https://archive.org/details/assassinationchr0000epst; *Dossier* (Random House, 1996), https://archive.org/details/dossiersecrethis00edwa; *The Big Picture* (Random House, 2005), https://archive.org/details/bigpicturenewlog00epst; *How America Lost Its Secrets* (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), https://archive.org/details/howamericalostit0000epst. Metadata only; the texts of Inquest, Legend, Deception and Dossier are lending-restricted and were not read. +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency dispatch, "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report," January 1967, paragraph 6 (reference to Epstein's article in the December 1966 issue of Esquire), CIA document C00352448. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00352448 +[^4]: Central Intelligence Agency dispatch, "Countering Criticism of the Warren Report," January 1967, to Chiefs, Certain Stations and Bases, paragraphs 2, 3, 6 and 7, CIA document C00352448 (released 2025). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00352448 +[^5]: Epstein, Edward Jay. "Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald," *Reader's Digest* condensation, 1978, editors' introduction, JFK record 104-10404-10388 (CIA copy 00364632). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00364632 +[^6]: Cram, Cleveland C. *Of Moles and Molehunters: A Review of Counterintelligence Literature, 1977 to 92*. Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1993, essay section "A Turning Point" and reviews of Epstein, *Legend* (pp. 24 to 26) and *Deception* (pp. 58 to 59), and of Henry Hurt, *Shadrin*. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/books-monographs/of-moles-and-molehunters-a-review-of-counterintelligence-literature-1977-92/ +[^7]: Blakey, G. Robert. "Unpersuasive Case Against 'Fedora,'" letter to the editor, *New York Times*, September 27, 1981 (letter dated September 17, 1981), CIA-RDP90-00552R000100590002-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000100590002-6 +[^8]: Solie, Bruce L., Chief, Security Analysis Group, CIA Office of Security. Memorandum for the Record, "EPSTEIN, Edward Jay #488 768," July 18, 1978, JFK record 104-10113-10396 (CIA document 00412727). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00412727 +[^9]: "George de Mohrenschildt," *Washington Star* (Associated Press), March 30, 1977, in CIA files (document 00543522; text also in 00551716 and 00503961). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00543522 +[^10]: Memorandum from Chief, Dallas Office (J. Walton Moore) to Chief, Domestic Collection Division, "Call from Dan Watson of Dallas Morning News re George de Mohrenschildt," JFK record 104-10244-10157 (CIA document 00469125). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00469125 +[^11]: Epstein, Edward Jay. "The Cartel That Never Was," *The Atlantic Monthly*, March 1983, CIA-RDP90-00806R000200870004-0; Epstein, Edward Jay. "Disinformation: Or, Why the ... Verify an Arms-Control Agreement" (title partly illegible in the copy), 1982, CIA-RDP90-00552R000606540019-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000606540019-2 https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000200870004-0 +[^12]: "Writer says 'mole' invented tale," Associated Press, *Chicago Tribune*, June 28, 1985, CIA-RDP90-00965R000100370008-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000100370008-6 The article text is in Epstein, "The Invention of Arkady Shevchenko, Supermole: The Spy Who Came In to Be Sold," 1985, CIA-RDP90-00965R000301860011-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000301860011-5 +[^13]: Reuben, William A. "The Documents That Weren't There," *The Nation*, 1985, quoting Epstein in *The New Republic*, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605300023-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605300023-6 +[^14]: Shane, Scott. "Nailing Hammer: Epstein's 'Dossier,'" *Baltimore Sun*, September 8, 1996. https://www.baltimoresun.com/1996/09/08/nailing-hammer-epsteins-dossier/ +[^15]: Silver, Daniel. "Reprobate" (review of Epstein, *Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer*, Random House, 418 pp.), *Commentary*. https://www.commentary.org/articles/daniel-silver/dossier-by-edward-jay-epstein/ +[^16]: Grove, Lloyd. "Edward Jay Epstein, Yet Another Journalist Who Accepted Favors From Jeffrey Epstein," *The Daily Beast*, September 14, 2019. https://www.thedailybeast.com/edward-jay-epstein-yet-another-journalist-who-accepted-favors-from-jeffrey-epstein/ Epstein's own article, "My Tea with Jeffrey Epstein," *Air Mail*, September 14, 2019, is paywalled and was read only to its first paragraphs. https://airmail.news/issues/2019-9-14/my-tea-with-jeffrey-epstein +[^17]: Epstein, Edward Jay. "My Tea with Jeffrey Epstein," *Air Mail*, September 14, 2019, opening paragraphs (the remainder is behind a subscription wall and was not read). https://airmail.news/issues/2019-9-14/my-tea-with-jeffrey-epstein +[^18]: Email chain "Re: Dsk," March 8, 2012, EFTA02012785. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02012785.pdf +[^19]: Email chain, April 14, 2012, EFTA01767728. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01767728.pdf +[^20]: Email chain "Re: Jeffrey Epstein," April 16 to 17, 2012, EFTA00415113. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00415113.pdf +[^21]: Email, Jeffrey Epstein to an assistant, "Fwd: INVITATION: EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN 'THE ANNALS OF UNSOLVED CRIME,'" February 9, 2013, EFTA02018963. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02018963.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Griffin Bell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Griffin Bell.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8055f852 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Griffin Bell.md @@ -0,0 +1,194 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - GriffinBell + - AttorneyGeneral + - DepartmentOfJustice + - KingAndSpalding + - FISA + - JimmyCarter + - FBI + - CIA + - IranContra + - Georgia + - 1970s +alias: + - Griffin Bell + - Griffin B. Bell + - Griffin Boyette Bell + - Judge Bell +summary: "Georgia lawyer and Fifth Circuit judge who, as Carter's Attorney General, testified for the FISA bill, countersigned Liddy's commutation, and headed the department that charged FBI officials Felt and Miller and two ITT executives." +born: 1918-10-31 +died: 2009-01-05 +location: "Americus, Georgia (born)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[King & Spalding]]" + role: "partner" + start: 1953 + end: 1961 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Ernest Vandiver]]" + role: "chief of staff (honorary)" + start: 1959-01-13 + end: 1961-10 + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]]" + role: "circuit judge" + start: 1961-10-06 + end: 1976-03-01 + fn: 2 + - type: appointed + with: "[[John F. Kennedy]]" + reverse: true + role: "circuit judge" + start: 1961 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + role: "attorney general" + start: 1977-01-26 + end: 1979-08-16 + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Jimmy Carter]]" + reverse: true + role: "attorney general" + start: 1977 + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Edward Gerrity]]" + role: "attorney general at the filing of charges" + start: 1978-03-20 + fn: 26 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Robert Berrellez]]" + role: "attorney general at the filing of charges" + start: 1978-03-20 + fn: 26 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[W. Mark Felt]]" + role: "attorney general at the indictment" + start: 1978-04 + fn: 28 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Edward S. Miller]]" + role: "attorney general at the indictment" + start: 1978-04 + fn: 28 + - type: represented + with: "[[E.F. Hutton]]" + role: "counsel for internal investigation" + end: 1985-09-05 + fn: 33 + - type: member_of + with: "[[President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform]]" + role: "vice chairman" + start: 1989 + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[George H.W. Bush]]" + role: "counsel on release of Iran-Contra deposition" + start: 1992-12-30 + fn: 34 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Griffin Boyette Bell (October 31, 1918 to January 5, 2009) was a Georgia lawyer, a partner of the [[Atlanta]] firm [[King & Spalding]], a judge of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] from 1961 to 1976, and [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] of the [[United States]] under President [[Jimmy Carter]] from January 26, 1977 to August 16, 1979.[^1] As Attorney General he testified in support of the bill that became the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]], countersigned the commutation of [[G. Gordon Liddy]]'s sentence, and headed the Department of Justice when former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] officials [[W. Mark Felt]] and [[Edward S. Miller]] and two [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] executives were charged. After leaving office he conducted an internal investigation for the brokerage [[E.F. Hutton]] and in 1992 was asked by President [[George H.W. Bush]] to assist in seeking release of Bush's [[MOC - Iran-Contra|Iran-Contra]] deposition. + +### Georgia Practice, the Vandiver Administration and the Fifth Circuit + +Bell was born in [[Americus, Georgia]], served in the Army from 1941 to 1946, attaining the rank of major, and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1947. He practiced in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] and Rome and joined King & Spalding in Atlanta in 1953.[^1] A biographical sketch placed in the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] record in January 1977 lists him as chief of staff to Georgia Governor [[Ernest Vandiver]], an honorary position, from January 13, 1959 to October 1961, and as a judge of the Fifth Circuit from October 6, 1961 to March 1, 1976.[^2] + +A [[Scripps-Howard News Service]] report that was placed in the record of his 1977 confirmation hearings stated that in January 1961, when a federal judge ordered two Black students admitted to the [[University of Georgia]], Bell was instrumental in drafting legislation that gave local communities the option of closing schools rather than integrating, assured students the right to refuse to attend desegregated classes, and provided state grants for students who left public schools for private academies. The report quoted Vandiver as saying of Bell, "He was very helpful to us," and stated that Bell served as John F. Kennedy's Georgia campaign chairman in 1960.[^3] Bell testified that the moderation in his role lay in the fact that "we did not close the schools" and that Georgia had "no violence" and "no disruption of any sort in the educational process."[^4] A newspaper article that Bell introduced into the record stated that Bell, then Vandiver's chief of staff, had asked the banker [[John A. Sibley]] to head the study commission on the state's school systems.[^5] Warren Cochran of Atlanta, a YMCA worker who testified on Bell's behalf, said that Bell asked Black leaders to meet with him, told them he was doing so voluntarily so that they would know what was happening, and said he was trying to convince Vandiver to change his position, which Vandiver did not do; Cochran said the meetings took place at night in the King & Spalding offices in the [[Trust Company of Georgia]] building, and, asked by Senator [[John Chafee]] whether Bell had asked them to hold off on lawsuits, answered, "We were not ready to file the suits anyway."[^6] + +In July 1961 [[Leon Jaworski]], the Houston lawyer who became the [[Watergate]] special prosecutor in 1973, investigated Bell's background for the [[American Bar Association]]'s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary at the request of the committee's chairman, [[Bernard G. Segal]], who had been told that Deputy Attorney General [[Nicholas Katzenbach]], on behalf of Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy|Robert Kennedy]], had asked for the investigation and that President Kennedy intended to appoint Bell if he was found qualified. Jaworski filed his report on July 25, 1961 and testified in support of Bell at the 1977 hearing.[^7] + +### The 1977 Confirmation Hearings + +The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on Bell's nomination on January 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 19, 1977 under Chairman [[James Eastland]], who told Bell on the first day, "I will vote to confirm you."[^8] The Scripps-Howard report in the record described Bell as "a law partner of Carter intimate [[Charles Kirbo]]."[^3] + +Questioned by Senator [[Donald Riegle]] about private clubs, Bell testified that he joined the [[Capital City Club]] in Atlanta in 1955 and the [[Piedmont Driving Club]] in 1956, that he was made an honorary member of both when he was appointed to the court, that he joined the [[Oglethorpe Club]] in Savannah as a nonresident member, and that he became a dues-paying member of the Atlanta clubs again when he resigned from the bench. He said the clubs had no restrictive covenants and that the judges of the Fifth Circuit had debated at a court meeting whether to continue in private clubs and "stayed in."[^9] [[Clarence Mitchell Jr.|Clarence Mitchell]], director of the Washington bureau of the [[NAACP]], testified that a judge who belonged to a private club that denied membership on the basis of race had a duty to inform the litigants of the membership, and that, as far as the NAACP knew, Bell had not done so in a case he tried.[^10] + +Bell testified that he had withdrawn from King & Spalding as a senior partner on December 31, 1976, would retain no equity and be paid nothing, and had made a written statement disqualifying himself from any matter in which King & Spalding or his son's Savannah firm [[Lee & Clarke]] represented a party, from matters involving parties that paid the firm a regular monetary retainer, and from matters involving a "regular client," defined as one that had made "a substantial financial contribution to the gross fees of King & Spalding on a regular basis over a significant number of years."[^11] [[David Cohen]], president of [[Common Cause]], asked that Bell provide the committee with a list of all corporate, business and other institutional clients of King & Spalding and a gross-dollar figure for the "substantial" threshold; a representative of the [[National Organization for Women]] told the committee that, according to information from attorneys, the firm had no women or Black partners.[^12][^13] The Justice Department's official biography records that Bell was sworn in on January 26, 1977.[^1] + +### Liddy Commutation, April 12, 1977 + +On April 12, 1977 President Carter signed an order commuting Liddy's sentence from 20 years to eight years; the order bore the countersignature "Attorney General: Griffin B. Bell." [[White House|The White House]] announcement stated that the action was taken "in the interest of equity and fairness based on a comparison of Mr. Liddy's sentence with those of all others convicted in Watergate related prosecutions."[^14] + +### Warrantless Wiretaps and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act + +On August 22, 1973, in [[United States v. Brown]], Bell wrote for a Fifth Circuit panel affirming the conviction of [[H. Rap Brown|Hubert Geroid Brown]] on a federal firearms charge, and held that warrantless wiretaps authorized by the then Attorney General for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence, in which Brown's involvement was "happenstance at the most," were lawful. The opinion stated that the President "may constitutionally authorize warrantless wiretaps for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence" and cited as accord the district court decision in [[Zweibon v. Mitchell]], which had sustained a wiretap authorized by Attorney General [[John N. Mitchell]].[^15] At the 1977 hearing Senator [[Charles Mathias]] read the passage to Bell, who answered that it was written "before we knew of the abuses that we now know of, in foreign intelligence gathering" and was "too broad in today's context perhaps." Senator [[James Abourezk]] asked whether the President had the power to wiretap American citizens without a warrant in the foreign security field, and Bell answered: "I have some doubt that he does," adding that "as long as I am Attorney General, if I have any thing to do with it, that will not happen."[^16][^17] + +Bell testified on July 19, 1977 before the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]'s Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Rights of Americans, accompanied by [[John M. Harmon]] of the [[Office of Legal Counsel]], Frederick D. Baron and William Funke, in support of S. 1566, a bill to authorize applications for a court order approving electronic surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information within the United States. He adopted the prepared statement he had given to the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures, which described a procedure in which applications for warrants would be made to one of seven district judges publicly designated by the Chief Justice, with appeal to a three-judge court of review, on a finding that the target was a "foreign power" or an "agent of a foreign power," with certification by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs or a similar official.[^18] Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 on October 25, 1978 and stated that it required "for the first time, a prior judicial warrant for all electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purposes in the United States in which communications of U.S. persons might be intercepted."[^19] + +### Correspondence with the Central Intelligence Agency + +[[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] records from the Bell years show the Attorney General and [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Stansfield Turner]] writing to each other by first name ("Dear Griffin," "Dear Stan"). On May 9, 1977 Bell answered a request from Deputy Director [[E. H. Knoche]] for legislation on unauthorized disclosure of classified information by saying he would wait for the study of a Presidential Review Memorandum working group chaired by the Office of Legal Counsel and including the CIA general counsel.[^20] On June 1, 1977 Bell asked the CIA for any documents of the preceding five years containing significant analysis of competition in energy markets, to support a Justice Department antitrust policy statement on the energy sector; Turner's reply, catalogued as July 1977, stated that the agency had published none directed at the competitive practices of United States energy firms.[^21] + +On May 25, 1978 the [[Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] wrote to Bell about the delay in the FBI investigation of its staff member [[Stephen Bryen]], begun after [[Michael Saba|Michael P. Saba]] filed an affidavit with the Department of Justice on March 13, 1978.[^22] On August 24, 1978 Bell wrote to Turner about the prosecution of [[William Kampiles|William Peter Kampiles]], a former CIA employee charged with passing a classified manual to the [[Soviet Union]], assuring him that the Department would take protective measures and stating that "prosecutive judgments and decisions" were "solely the responsibility of this Department"; he told Turner that the case would go to a grand jury in [[Hammond, Indiana]] on Friday, August 25.[^23] On August 17 and November 13, 1978 Turner wrote to Bell seeking support for legislation to protect the identities of CIA officers and agents.[^24] On February 6, 1979 Turner invited Bell to speak to CIA employees in the headquarters auditorium on "Intelligence and the Legal System," and on May 10, 1979 thanked him for his discussion of "Foreign Intelligence and the Legal System."[^25] + +### The ITT Charges, March 1978 + +A newspaper account of March 21, 1978, preserved in the CIA Reading Room, stated that the Justice Department had charged [[Edward Gerrity]] and [[Robert Berrellez]] of ITT with perjury and obstruction of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on multinational corporations, over testimony about the company's cooperation with the CIA in [[Chile]]; that the department had decided not to prosecute ITT chairman [[Harold Geneen]]; that "Attorney General Griffin Bell decided to go ahead with the prosecution of Gerrity and Berrellez despite fears in the intelligence community a perjury trial would disclose national security secrets"; and that "CIA director Stansfield Turner met with Bell last Thursday to express his concern." The article stated that the statute of limitations was about to expire for all three officials. A *[[The Washington Star|Washington Star]]* report of August 1978, also preserved in the CIA Reading Room, stated that the Justice Department had announced that "to safeguard national security and U.S. foreign intelligence interests" it would not pursue three of the six counts against Gerrity.[^26][^27] + +### The FBI Surveillance Prosecutions + +According to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department began in April 1976, before Bell took office, an investigation of FBI break-ins against relatives and acquaintances of [[Weather Underground]] suspects, and in April 1978 a grand jury indicted [[L. Patrick Gray|L. Patrick Gray III]], Felt and Miller for conspiring to deprive them of their rights under 18 U.S.C. 241. Gray's trial was severed on March 5, 1979. Felt and Miller were convicted on November 6, 1980. The government filed a nolle prosequi as to Gray on December 10, 1980, acknowledging that the charges were "unconvincing." Gray sued Bell and Justice Department attorneys on April 9, 1981; the district court dismissed the suit on immunity grounds in July 1982 and the court of appeals affirmed on June 21, 1983.[^28] + +In discovery proceedings in 1979, Chief Judge [[William B. Bryant]] ruled that Felt and Miller could assert the "Barker-Martinez defense" of reasonable reliance on the authority of superiors, a defense drawn from the 1976 appeal of the Fielding break-in defendants, in which Liddy was a co-defendant.[^29] Mark D. Cummings, who was assigned to Felt's defense, wrote that former Attorneys General John N. Mitchell and [[Richard Kleindienst]] testified at the trial, and that [[Richard Nixon]] testified for the defense, citing trial transcript pages 5909 to 5936.[^30] The *[[The Christian Science Monitor|Christian Science Monitor]]* reported on April 16, 1981 that President [[Ronald Reagan]] had granted "full and unconditional" pardons to Felt and Miller, who had been fined a total of $8,500.[^31] + +The Liddy commutation bears Bell's countersignature on April 12, 1977; the charges against Gerrity and Berrellez were filed on March 20, 1978; and the indictment of Gray, Felt and Miller was returned in April 1978.[^14][^26][^28] + +### After the Justice Department + +Bell resigned as Attorney General on August 16, 1979 and returned to practice in Atlanta. In 1980 he headed the United States delegation to the [[Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe|Madrid Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe]], and in 1982 he was a co-chair of the Attorney General's National Task Force on Violent Crime.[^1] He served on the Secretary of State's advisory committee on [[South Africa]] from 1985 to 1987.[^32] + +On September 5, 1985 Bell held a press conference to release his report on E.F. Hutton, which the company had commissioned after pleading guilty earlier in 1985 to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud over a check-overdrafting scheme operated from mid-1980 to mid-1982. The *Christian Science Monitor* reported that Bell said he tried to link top officers to the conduct but was "never able to do that from a standpoint of criminality," found "excessive or abusive" overdrafts, and recommended reorganization of the board of directors; the report cleared former president [[George L. Ball]] and others in the top circle of improper activity in connection with the overdrafting. The same report stated that a House subcommittee on crime was investigating the case, in particular the Justice Department's failure to seek criminal penalties against any individuals.[^33] + +In 1989 Bell became vice chairman of President Bush's [[President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform|Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform]].[^1] On December 30, 1992, White House Press Secretary [[Marlin Fitzwater]] announced that Bush had asked Bell to assist him in seeking a copy of his deposition of January 11, 1988 in the Iran-Contra investigation, which the [[Independent Counsel]] had decided not to provide, and that Bell would assume full responsibility for advising the President should the Independent Counsel fail to complete the investigation during Bush's term.[^34] In a statement prepared for the 1999 debate over reauthorizing the independent counsel statute, Bell wrote that he had experience under the statute "as Attorney General and later as counsel for President Bush in the Iran-Contra investigation," that he was opposed to renewal, and that he had been co-chair, with Senator [[Howard Baker]], of the [[Miller Center]] commission that unanimously recommended that the statute be allowed to expire.[^35] + +Bell died on January 5, 2009 at [[Piedmont Hospital]] in Atlanta, at the age of 90; the [[Associated Press]] reported the cause as kidney failure, with pancreatic cancer and kidney disease.[^36] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, "Griffin Boyette Bell," Attorneys General biographies (born Americus, Georgia, October 31, 1918; Army 1941 to 1946; admitted to the Georgia bar 1947; King & Spalding 1953; appointed to the Fifth Circuit by President Kennedy in 1961; sworn in as Attorney General January 26, 1977; resigned August 16, 1979; Madrid delegation 1980; Task Force on Violent Crime 1982; Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform 1989; died Atlanta, January 5, 2009). https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/bell-griffin-boyette +[^2]: *Griffin B. Bell: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session, on the Prospective Nomination of Griffin B. Bell, of Georgia, to Be Attorney General*, January 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 19, 1977 (Government Printing Office, 1977), biographical sketch, pp. 7-8. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^3]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), Scripps-Howard News Service report placed in the record, pp. 60-62. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^4]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Griffin B. Bell, resumed, p. 460. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^5]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), article "Lifelong Friend of Education, He Made Possible Peaceful School Integration in Georgia," *Buckhead* (Atlanta), January 24, 1977, introduced by Bell, p. 461. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^6]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Warren Cochran, pp. 278-280, 293-294. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^7]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Leon Jaworski, pp. 221-222. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^8]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), title page, and testimony of Griffin B. Bell, opening exchange with Chairman Eastland, p. 8. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^9]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Griffin B. Bell, pp. 120-122. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^10]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Clarence Mitchell, director, Washington Bureau, NAACP, pp. 159-161. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^11]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Griffin B. Bell, pp. 35-36 (disqualification statement) and p. 133 (severance). https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^12]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony and statement of David Cohen, president of Common Cause, pp. 353, 358-359. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^13]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), testimony of Melissa Thompson, National Organization for Women, pp. 427-428. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^14]: Jimmy Carter, "Commutation of G. Gordon Liddy's Prison Sentence: Announcement of the Commutation, With the Text of the Order," April 12, 1977, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/commutation-g-gordon-liddys-prison-sentence-announcement-the-commutation-with-the-text-the +[^15]: *United States v. Brown*, 484 F.2d 418 (5th Cir. 1973) (No. 72-2181) (Bell, J.), decided August 22, 1973, Parts I and V. https://static.case.law/f2d/484/cases/0418-01.json +[^16]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), exchange of Senator Charles Mathias and Griffin B. Bell, pp. 12-13. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^17]: Bell nomination hearings (1977), exchange of Senator James Abourezk and Griffin B. Bell, resumed testimony, p. 80. https://archive.org/details/griffinbbellhear00unit +[^18]: *Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Rights of Americans of the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, on S. 1566*, July 19 and 21, 1977 and February 8, 24 and 27, 1978, testimony of Griffin B. Bell, July 19, 1977, pp. 11-12 and following (CIA Reading Room copy CIA-RDP80S01268A000400010006-3). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80s01268a000400010006-3 +[^19]: Jimmy Carter, "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Statement on Signing S. 1566 Into Law," October 25, 1978, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act-1978-statement-signing-s-1566-into-law +[^20]: Letter, Griffin B. Bell to E. H. Knoche, May 9, 1977, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP94B00280R001200100002-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp94b00280r001200100002-3 +[^21]: Letter, Stansfield Turner to Griffin B. Bell, July 1977 (catalog date July 26, 1977), CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP80M00165A001900150002-7. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80M00165A001900150002-7 +[^22]: Letter, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to Griffin B. Bell, May 25, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R001400080081-0. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP81M00980R001400080081-0 +[^23]: Letter, Griffin B. Bell to Stansfield Turner, August 24, 1978, re *United States v. William Peter Kampiles*, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP86B00963R000200100024-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86b00963r000200100024-8 +[^24]: Letters, Stansfield Turner to Griffin B. Bell, August 17 and November 13, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R000700080035-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000700080035-9 +[^25]: Letters, Stansfield Turner to Griffin B. Bell, February 6, 1979 (CIA-RDP83-00156R001000100046-6) and May 10, 1979 (CIA-RDP80B01554R003300260033-6), CIA Reading Room. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP83-00156R001000100046-6 and https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01554r003300260033-6 +[^26]: "2 ITT Men Charged with Senate Lies," March 21, 1978, newspaper clipping in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030069-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030069-7 +[^27]: "3 Charges Dropped Against ITT Executive," *Washington Star*, August 1978, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030079-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030079-6 +[^28]: *Gray v. Bell*, 712 F.2d 490, 493-494 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (No. 82-1838), decided June 21, 1983. https://static.case.law/f2d/712/cases/0490-01.json +[^29]: *United States v. Felt*, 491 F. Supp. 179 (D.D.C. 1979) (Crim. No. 78-00179) (Bryant, C.J.), decided December 21, 1979; *United States v. Barker*, 546 F.2d 940 (D.C. Cir. 1976). https://static.case.law/f-supp/491/cases/0179-01.json +[^30]: Mark D. Cummings, "Presidential 'Warrants,'" 7 *National Security Law Journal* 142, 148-151 nn.49, 62 (2020). Cummings states that he was assigned to the defense of W. Mark Felt. https://www.nslj.org/wp-content/uploads/Cummings_Presidential-22Warrants22-Final.pdf +[^31]: "2 former top FBI men pardoned by Reagan," *Christian Science Monitor*, April 16, 1981. https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0416/041631.html +[^32]: "Griffin Bell (1977-1979)," Miller Center, University of Virginia. https://millercenter.org/president/carter/essays/bell-1977-attorney-general +[^33]: David T. Cook and John Yemma, "Bell probe of E. F. Hutton check scam finds conduct unethical," *Christian Science Monitor*, September 6, 1985. https://www.csmonitor.com/1985/0906/ahutton.html +[^34]: George Bush, "Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Iran-Contra Investigation," December 30, 1992, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-press-secretary-fitzwater-the-iran-contra-investigation +[^35]: Griffin B. Bell, "Independent Counsel Statute," statement (undated; prepared for the 1999 reauthorization debate), Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs archive. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/bell.pdf +[^36]: "Griffin Bell, former attorney general, dies at 90," Associated Press, via NBC News, January 5, 2009. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna28505758 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hillary Clinton.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hillary Clinton.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..17e73f6c --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Hillary Clinton.md @@ -0,0 +1,264 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - Politician + - HillaryClinton + - BillClinton + - Arkansas + - RoseLawFirm + - Whitewater + - MadisonGuaranty + - IndependentCounsel + - BCCI + - ClintonFoundation + - UraniumOne + - PrivateEmailServer + - PerkinsCoie + - FusionGPS + - JeffreyEpstein +alias: + - Hillary Clinton + - Hillary Rodham Clinton + - Hillary Rodham + - Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton + - Hillary Diane Rodham + - Mrs. Clinton + - Secretary Clinton + - HRC +summary: "Lawyer, First Lady, New York senator and Secretary of State whose Madison Guaranty work, White House testimony, private email server and 2016 campaign spending were examined by independent counsel, inspectors general and the FEC." +born: 1947-10-26 +location: "Chicago, Illinois (born)" +relations: + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Bill Clinton]]" + role: "wife" + start: 1975 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[House Committee on the Judiciary]]" + role: "counsel, impeachment inquiry staff" + start: 1974 + end: 1974 + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Legal Services Corporation]]" + role: "board member, later chair" + start: 1977 + fn: 3 + - type: represented + with: "[[Systematics]]" + role: "lawyer in the Financial General Bankshares litigation" + start: 1978 + fn: 4 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[James McDougal]]" + role: "co-owner of the Whitewater land and company" + start: 1978 + end: 1992 + fn: 5 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Rose Law Firm]]" + role: "partner" + fn: 9 + - type: represented + with: "[[Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association]]" + role: "billing partner" + start: 1985-04 + end: 1986-07 + fn: 10 + - type: head_of + with: "[[President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform]]" + role: "chairman" + start: 1993-01-25 + fn: 17 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Robert B. Fiske Jr.]]" + reverse: true + role: "regulatory independent counsel" + start: 1994-01-20 + end: 1994-08-05 + fn: 6 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Kenneth Starr]]" + reverse: true + role: "independent counsel" + start: 1994-08-05 + fn: 7 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Robert W. Ray]]" + reverse: true + role: "independent counsel" + fn: 7 + - type: represented + with: "[[David Kendall]]" + reverse: true + role: "personal lawyer" + fn: 12 + - type: member_of + with: "[[United States Senate]]" + role: "senator from New York" + start: 2001-01-03 + end: 2009-01-21 + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[State Department]]" + role: "Secretary of State" + start: 2009-01-21 + end: 2013-02-01 + fn: 3 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + role: "Midyear Exam email investigation" + end: 2016-07-06 + fn: 26 + - type: represented + with: "[[Perkins Coie]]" + reverse: true + role: "counsel to the 2016 campaign" + fn: 27 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]]" + role: "Epstein inquiry subpoena and deposition" + start: 2025-08-05 + end: 2026-02-26 + fn: 31 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Hillary Diane Rodham was born in [[Chicago]] on October 26, 1947, to Dorothy and Hugh Rodham and grew up in [[Park Ridge, Illinois]]. She graduated from [[Wellesley College]] in 1969 and enrolled at [[Yale Law School]], where she met [[Bill Clinton]], and she married him in 1975.[^1] She took her law degree in 1973 and in 1974 served as counsel on the impeachment inquiry staff of the [[House Committee on the Judiciary]].[^2] The same year she moved to [[Arkansas]], where she taught as an assistant professor at the [[University of Arkansas School of Law]]. In 1977 President [[Jimmy Carter]] appointed her to the board of the [[Legal Services Corporation]], which she later chaired.[^3] During the twelve years her husband was Governor of Arkansas she practiced law in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]].[^1] + +### Systematics and the BCCI Takeover of Financial General + +In 1978 [[Financial General Bankshares]] sued the Little Rock investment banker [[Jackson Stephens]], his firm [[Stephens Inc.]] and the bank data processor [[Systematics]] over the accumulation of its stock for clients of [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], a campaign that ended with BCCI's secret control of the bank, renamed [[First American Bankshares]]. Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin, then reporters for the [[Wall Street Journal]], wrote in 1992 that Stephens's firm had given "substantial legal work" to the [[Rose Law Firm]], that "Mrs. Clinton even represented one of Stephens's companies in a case related to BCCI," and that "in 1978, she did legal work for Systematics Inc. when it was sued for its role in Abedi's scheme to collect stock in First American." They based the statement on a court filing and noted that she then practiced under the name Hillary Rodham. The same writers recorded that Stephens backed [[George H.W. Bush]] in 1992 while employees of Stephens Inc. gave more money to the Clinton campaign than the employees of all but two other firms in the country.[^4] + +### Whitewater + +In 1978 Attorney General Bill Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, and [[James McDougal|Jim]] and [[Susan McDougal]] bought land near the White River in [[Marion County, Arkansas|Marion County]] as equal partners, and in 1979 they transferred it to the [[Whitewater Development Company]]. The Clintons contributed about 36,862 dollars and the McDougals about 80,076 dollars; the company lost more than 80,000 dollars, and in 1992 McDougal bought the Clintons' share for 1,000 dollars. McDougal bought the [[Bank of Kingston]] in October 1980 and renamed it [[Madison Bank & Trust]]; on December 16, 1980, it lent Mrs. Clinton 30,000 dollars at 20 percent interest, secured by Lot 13, of which she was the record owner. When bank regulators objected to her construction loan and to a Whitewater loan, the first was replaced by a loan to Governor Clinton from the Security Bank of Paragould and the second by a [[Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association|Madison Guaranty]] loan in his name, which was later retired through a nominee loan to [[Chris Wade]] and a chain of transfers that ran through a McDougal company's loan at [[Stephens Security Bank]].[^5] + +The independent counsel found that the McDougals held substantially all managerial control until 1986 and that Mrs. Clinton took a more active part afterward. Madison Guaranty failed in 1986 at a cost to taxpayers of 73 million dollars. On September 1, 1992, in the presidential campaign, the [[Resolution Trust Corporation]] office in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] sent Criminal Referral No. C-0004 on Madison Guaranty to the United States Attorney in Little Rock and the local office of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. Jim and Susan McDougal were convicted of felonies in May 1996, and Wade pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud in March 1995. The office concluded that "insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Clinton knowingly participated in the criminal financial transactions Jim McDougal engaged in to benefit Whitewater Development."[^5] The matter passed from the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s Criminal Division to the regulatory independent counsel [[Robert B. Fiske Jr.]], who served from January 20 to August 5, 1994, and then to [[Kenneth Starr]].[^6][^7] + +### Madison Guaranty and the Securities Department + +Madison Guaranty's principal counsel was [[Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard]], the firm of McDougal's business partner [[Jim Guy Tucker]]. The Arkansas Securities Commissioner, nominated by the Governor, also served as Arkansas Savings and Loan Supervisor and regulated state-chartered thrifts. In January 1985 Governor Clinton appointed [[Beverly Bassett]], who had worked on Madison Guaranty matters as an associate at the Mitchell Williams firm. McDougal told investigators that at the request of the former commissioner [[John Selig]] he recommended Bassett to the Governor, and a message slip records that he telephoned Clinton on December 22, 1984, to do so. Bassett testified that she did not know McDougal had recommended her and would not have asked him to; President Clinton said he did not remember whether McDougal had.[^8] + +Rose's representation began on April 23, 1985, with two matters before the [[Arkansas Securities Department]]: a plan for Madison Guaranty to raise its net worth by issuing preferred stock, which no state-chartered Arkansas thrift had done, and a broker-dealer subsidiary. The Rose associate [[Rick Massey]] billed the most hours, and Mrs. Clinton billed more than any other Rose partner. On April 29 and 30 she billed one hour for a "telephone conference with B. Bassett, Securities Commissioner" and one with Massey. The next day Rose sent the department supervisor [[Charles Handley]], who had told Madison Guaranty that Arkansas law did not permit the stock, a two-page opinion letter arguing that it did; the letter closed, "Should you require further information or assistance, please advise Hillary Rodham Clinton or Richard Massey of this firm." Massey testified that he drafted it and named her because she was the billing partner. Handley maintained his position, and the staff attorney Bill Brady advised Bassett to refer the question to the Arkansas Attorney General; Bassett did not.[^9] + +On May 14, 1985, Bassett wrote, "Dear Hillary: I agree with your analysis and conclusion," and that "as the Savings and Loan Supervisor, I concur in your opinion that Madison's proposed capitalization plan is not inconsistent with Arkansas law." On May 23 Mrs. Clinton forwarded the letter to McDougal: "We appreciate the opportunity to work for you and look forward to continuing success in resolving whatever questions arise as you continue your plan for growth." McDougal wrote on Bassett's letter, "John: Be sure we keep their $2,000 a month retainer paid. Jim." The independent counsel agreed that Bassett's analysis appeared consistent with Arkansas law. Madison Guaranty never met the net worth conditions for issuing the stock; by December 1985 it had acquired the property known as IDC, and the independent counsel found that the fraudulent Castle Grande sales to insiders "achieved the same result the stock offering was intended to achieve." The retainer checks drawn on Madison Guaranty's account were made out to "Rose Law Firm, Attn: Hillary Clinton," in amounts from 2,000 to 2,018 dollars between May 1985 and October 1986.[^9] + +### The Retention Dispute + +How Rose was hired was disputed. McDougal said Governor Clinton jogged into his office early one morning in August or September 1984, complained about his wife's earnings, and that McDougal then put Rose on a retainer of 2,000 dollars a month. Mrs. Clinton said Massey brought the client in and that her own role was to collect an old bill owed by Madison Bank & Trust; she stated that on April 23, 1985, she arranged for the bill to be paid so that Massey could take the new client. President Clinton said he could not remember asking McDougal to give his wife business but did not say McDougal's recollection was false. Massey did not remember bringing Madison Guaranty to Rose.[^10] + +The independent counsel "conclusively established that the old bill had been settled in October 1984, six months before Mrs. Clinton's supposedly having arranged for it to be paid," when Madison Bank & Trust paid 5,000 dollars of a 5,893 dollar balance and Rose never pursued the rest. The independent counsel found the statement "factually incorrect" but not shown to have been knowingly false. "On balance, the weight of evidence supports McDougal's version of events," it concluded, but the evidence was insufficient to warrant prosecution, and McDougal, "the most important percipient witness," had died in March 1998.[^10] + +### Castle Grande and the Billing Changes + +Before Rose's billing records surfaced, Mrs. Clinton testified in April 1995 that she was to be the billing partner with no substantive role and that she did not remember what the IDC matter was. A 1993 Rose fee recap showed her receiving 2,731.25 dollars for "Madison Guaranty/Stock Offering and IDC" in January 1986, several times her largest allocation on any Madison Guaranty matter. On January 30, 1986, Rose sent five bills under her name as billing partner. The computerized memorandum for the IDC matter showed 912.50 dollars of her work; she raised it by hand to 2,731.25 dollars, adding 14.5 hours of work with no indication of what it was, and no supporting entry was ever made in the Rose billing computer. Her time sheets for 1985 and 1986 were never found. In 1992, during the presidential campaign, her secretary requested those time sheets from Rose storage; no investigation located them afterward.[^11] + +The records show twelve unspecified conferences with the landowner [[Seth Ward]], the father-in-law of the Rose partner [[Webster Hubbell]] and a Madison Financial employee, between November 14, 1985, and January 7, 1986. On November 20, 1985, McDougal sent Ward a memorandum about a brewery and tasting room on the property: "I have spoken with the Governor on this matter and expect that it will be approved. We must be very careful to not mention that there will be a 'tavern' in the location." On April 7, 1986, the day Madison Guaranty and Ward executed two "cross notes" on Ward's commissions, she billed the IDC matter for a telephone conference with a Madison Guaranty officer; the independent counsel found that significant evidence corroborated the officer's account that they discussed the notes, while she said the call concerned another matter. She also billed for drafting a May 1, 1986, option agreement between Ward and Madison Guaranty's subsidiary, which federal examiners concluded had misled them about sham loans between Ward and the thrift.[^11][^12] + +### The Billing Records + +The billing records for 1985 and 1986 were produced to the Office of the Independent Counsel on Friday, January 5, 1996, by her personal lawyer [[David Kendall]], with a cover letter to the associate independent counsel [[John D. Bates|John Bates]]; they had been subpoenaed eighteen months earlier.[^7] The [[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation]] inspector general reopened the Rose investigation and on September 20, 1996, issued a supplemental report. Its counsel [[Patricia Black]], who had told the House that Rose's involvement was "minor and brief," testified before the grand jury in 1998: "As evidenced by the billing records, it was neither. My testimony, in short, was wrong." The independent counsel found that the regulators had given Congress materially incomplete testimony about her role and that "partially as a result of Hubbell's actions, the United States Congress was misled." Hubbell, her former partner and then Associate Attorney General, resigned in March 1994 and pleaded guilty in December 1994 to mail fraud and tax evasion for defrauding Rose and its clients of at least 394,000 dollars; the independent counsel later prosecuted him for concealing Rose's Madison Guaranty conflicts, and he pleaded guilty to one further felony.[^12][^13] + +The independent counsel's table of contents for the part on the records lists sections titled "Huber Testified She Found the Records in Room 319A," "Evidence Relating to Mrs. Clinton's Conduct in July 1995," "Fingerprint Analysis Disclosed Mrs. Clinton's and Vince Foster's Prints," "Webb Hubbell and Vince Foster Had the Billing Records in 1992," "Attempts to Locate Mrs. Clinton's Time Sheets," and "Billing Records Found in Foster's Attic, July 1997," the last a second set of Madison Guaranty and Madison Bank & Trust records. The body of that part is not among the published volumes on the Government Publishing Office site.[^14] The analysis in the published volume records that an FBI laboratory report of March 21, 1996, found her fingerprints on the copy produced from the [[White House]], that she testified she may have handled the records during the 1992 campaign but not after they were subpoenaed, and that Hubbell reviewed the records in 1992 and discussed with her "her numerous conferences with Seth Ward."[^15] + +The independent counsel found "substantial evidence" that she did "more than an insubstantial amount of legal work on the IDC matter," "significant evidence" that her testimony about it was "incomplete and factually inaccurate," and three motives to minimize her role: political embarrassment over work "representing the thrift before state agencies regulated under her husband's authority as Governor," possible civil claims against Rose, and possible criminal exposure. It concluded that there was "no substantial evidence to support the conclusion that Mrs. Clinton was a knowing participant in the criminal conduct of McDougal or others," that her statements could not be proven knowingly false beyond a reasonable doubt, and that prosecution was declined.[^15] + +### Foster's Office + +On the evening of July 20, 1993, after the death of Deputy White House Counsel [[Vince Foster]], White House Counsel [[Bernard Nussbaum]], the First Lady's chief of staff [[Maggie Williams]] and [[Patsy Thomasson]] entered Foster's office; before going to the White House Williams spoke by telephone with Mrs. Clinton. A uniformed [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] officer later said he thought he saw Williams leave with documents; Williams passed a polygraph on the question. On July 22 Nussbaum reviewed Foster's files himself and told the Justice Department attorneys [[David Margolis]] and Roger Adams that he would turn over only what investigators were entitled to have; they and Deputy Attorney General [[Philip Heymann]] said he broke an agreement, which Nussbaum denied. There was a series of calls that morning among Mrs. Clinton, [[Susan Thomases]] and Williams, and between Thomases and Nussbaum, all of whose participants denied trying to influence the search.[^16] + +After the search, Williams collected the Clintons' personal files and, she testified, called Mrs. Clinton to ask where to put them in the residence; she said Mrs. Clinton told her, "I think Carolyn has a closet up on the third floor that you could use to store them. You should call Carolyn." Williams and a White House Counsel's office intern entered the residence at 7:25 p.m., and [[Carolyn Huber]] put the box in a locked closet in Room 323, the room in which she and Mrs. Clinton stored the family's personal papers. The files went to [[Williams & Connolly]] on July 27; the firm's index shows that one file in the box was titled "Whitewater Development." On July 26 an associate counsel found a torn note in Foster's briefcase; Nussbaum showed it to Mrs. Clinton, and it was not reported to investigators for about thirty hours, until Attorney General [[Janet Reno]] told Nussbaum to hand it over. No complete index of Foster's office was made, and the independent counsel found the evidence insufficient to establish that anyone obstructed justice or that the Clintons withheld documents from the grand jury.[^16] + +### Health Care Task Force + +On January 25, 1993, President Clinton established the [[President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform]] with his wife as chairman and as members the Secretaries of the Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Labor and Commerce, the budget director and the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. A separate working group of about 300 permanent federal employees, about 40 "special government employees" and an unknown number of consultants was headed by the presidential adviser [[Ira Magaziner]], the only Task Force member who attended its meetings. The Task Force held one public hearing and met behind closed doors at least 20 times in April and May 1993. In [[Association of American Physicians and Surgeons v. Clinton]], decided June 22, 1993, the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]] held that the Task Force was exempt from the [[Federal Advisory Committee Act]] because 3 U.S.C. 105(e) could be read as treating the President's spouse as "a de facto officer or employee," so that the panel was composed wholly of full-time government officials; it remanded the question of the working group. The district court had held that she was not an officer or employee "merely by virtue of her status as 'First Lady.'"[^17] + +### Travel Office and the FBI Files + +On May 19, 1993, the seven employees of the [[White House Travel Office]] were dismissed; its director, [[Billy Dale]], was later prosecuted and acquitted. On January 4, 1996, the White House produced a 1993 draft memorandum by the management chief [[David Watkins]] stating that "Foster regularly informed me that the First Lady was concerned and desired action, the action desired was the firing of the Travel Office staff." Watkins's notes record her telling him on May 14, 1993: "We need those people out. We need our people in. We need the slots." The independent counsel found that the Clintons' friend [[Harry Thomason]] was "the impetus for Mrs. Clinton's concerns," and that [[Mack McLarty]], Watkins, Foster and Thomason met on at least three occasions to discuss them. The confidential FBI background report of Billy Dale was requested by White House officials on December 20, 1993, seven months after his dismissal.[^7] + +In the final report, filed June 22, 2000, and released October 18, 2000, Independent Counsel [[Robert W. Ray]] wrote that "the evidence is overwhelming that she in fact did have a role in the decision to fire the employees," that her sworn testimony that she had no input or role "is factually inaccurate," and that the evidence was nevertheless "insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Clinton knowingly made a false statement." The independent counsel "fully and completely" discharged Watkins and Mrs. Clinton "from all criminal liability." Kendall, in a letter of September 28, 2000, appended to the final report, called the "factually inaccurate" finding "highly unfair and misleading."[^7] + +When the report on the White House acquisition of about 900 FBI background files of former Reagan and Bush administration staff was unsealed on July 28, 2000, Ray stated that "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official, or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, was involved in seeking confidential Federal Bureau of Investigation background reports." He found no personal relationship between her and [[Craig Livingstone]], the director of the White House personnel security office, and no corroboration for an FBI document recording that Nussbaum had told agents Livingstone came highly recommended by her and that she knew his mother. She and Livingstone had denied any such relationship under oath.[^18] + +### Senate + +She served as a senator from [[New York]] from January 3, 2001, until her resignation on January 21, 2009, and sat on the [[Senate Armed Services Committee|Armed Services Committee]].[^2][^3] On October 11, 2002, she voted yea on House Joint Resolution 114, the authorization for the use of military force against [[Iraq]], which passed 77 to 23.[^19] + +### The Clinton Foundation and the State Department + +She was sworn in as Secretary of State on January 21, 2009, and her appointment terminated on February 1, 2013.[^3] At her confirmation hearing before the [[Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] on January 13, 2009, the ranking member, [[Richard Lugar]], said that "the main issue related to Senator Clinton's nomination that has occupied the Committee" was how her service could be reconciled with the activities of Bill Clinton and the [[Clinton Foundation]], that "foreign governments and entities may perceive the Clinton Foundation as a means to gain favor with the Secretary of State," and that "the only certain way to eliminate this risk going forward is for the Clinton Foundation to forswear new foreign contributions." The Obama transition and the Foundation had instead signed a memorandum of understanding requiring disclosure of past donors, annual disclosure thereafter, and a State Department ethics review of donations from foreign governments and government-controlled entities. Lugar called it "a beginning, not an end" and proposed that all foreign gifts of 50,000 dollars or more be reviewed, since "conflicts of interest could arise from a donation from a Gazprom executive or a member of the Saudi Royal family as easily as from the governments of Russia and [[Saudi Arabia]]."[^20] + +The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation (EIN 31-1580204) reported revenue of 57.1 million dollars for 2011 and 54.7 million for 2012. For 2013, the year she left the department, it reported revenue of 148.9 million and contributions of 144.4 million; for 2014, 177.8 million and 172.6 million; for 2015, 116.1 million and 108.9 million; and for 2016, 70.8 million and 62.9 million. Revenue for 2017 was 38.4 million.[^21] + +### Uranium One + +On June 30, 2015, Senator [[Chuck Grassley]] wrote to Treasury Secretary [[Jack Lew]], citing reporting by Jo Becker and Mike McIntire in the [[New York Times]], that in September 2005 [[Frank Giustra]] won a uranium deal in [[Kazakhstan]] for his company UrAsia days after visiting the country with Bill Clinton, and then gave 31.3 million dollars to the Clinton Foundation; that UrAsia merged into [[Uranium One]]; that Uranium One and former UrAsia investors gave 8.65 million dollars between 2008 and 2010 while the company's Kazakh mining licenses were in doubt; that the Uranium One chairman [[Ian Telfer]] gave 1 million dollars in 2009 through his family's Fernwood Foundation and 250,000 dollars in 2010 as [[Rosatom]], through its subsidiary ARMZ, sought a majority of the company; and that in June 2010 Bill Clinton was paid 500,000 dollars for a speech in Russia funded by a Russian investment bank. Uranium One and ARMZ notified the [[Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States]], on which the Secretary of State sits and which Treasury chairs, in the first week of August 2010 and were told on October 22, 2010, that "there were no unresolved national security concerns." Grassley wrote that "Secretary Clinton's involvement in the decision-making process needs to be more closely examined."[^22] + +Dan Friedman of [[Mother Jones]] reported that the State Department's representative on the committee, Assistant Secretary [[Jose Fernandez]], told the Times that Clinton "never intervened with me" on any matter before it, that the approval was unanimous among the committee's member agencies, and that a second approval in 2013, when Rosatom bought the remaining shares, came after she had left the department; Giustra said he had sold his interest three years before the Russian purchase.[^23] In November 2017 Attorney General [[Jeff Sessions]] directed the Utah United States Attorney [[John Huber]] to review the Foundation and Uranium One matters. Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky of the [[Washington Post]] reported in January 2020, citing current and former officials, that Huber had conferred with FBI agents in Little Rock handling "a meandering probe into the Clinton Foundation," had largely finished and had found nothing worth pursuing, with no criminal charges.[^24] + +### The Private Email Server + +She used a personal email account on a private server for official business throughout her tenure. The State Department inspector general reported in May 2016 that she had not sought approval to do so, that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Information Resource Management "did not, and would not, approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account," and that she "did not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act." On January 9, 2011, the outside adviser to Bill Clinton who supported the system shut the server down because he believed "someone was trying to hack us," and later that day wrote, "We were attacked again." Her production omitted the first months of her tenure, and through her counsel she declined the inspector general's request for an interview.[^25] + +The [[Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General]] reported in June 2018 that in the summer of 2014, after the department told her former chief of staff [[Cheryl Mills]] that it could not locate her emails for requests from the [[House Select Committee on Benghazi]], she asked Mills and Kendall to oversee their production. Mills, Kendall and the former department lawyer [[Heather Samuelson]] devised a method by which Samuelson culled the work-related messages, and in December 2014 she produced about 55,000 pages, about 30,000 emails. The committee sent preservation orders on March 3, 2015. Later that month [[Paul Combetta]] of [[Platte River Networks]], the company administering the server, realized he had not applied a retention change Mills had requested months earlier, had what he told the FBI was an "oh shit" moment, and used BleachBit to delete the emails from the server; according to FBI documents her attorneys had advised him of the preservation order before he did so. In all, 31,830 emails her lawyers had deemed personal were deleted from the laptops of Mills and Samuelson and from the server. The Intelligence Community inspector general referred the matter to the FBI on July 6, 2015.[^26] + +On June 27, 2016, Attorney General [[Loretta Lynch]] and Bill Clinton met for 20 to 30 minutes aboard Lynch's aircraft at [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] Sky Harbor Airport; Lynch publicly denied discussing the investigation. Mrs. Clinton was interviewed at FBI headquarters on July 2, 2016, with Mills and Samuelson present as her lawyers. On July 5 FBI Director [[James Comey]] described her and her aides as "extremely careless" in handling classified information, a phrase that earlier drafts had rendered "grossly negligent," and said "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case. His statement reported that 110 emails in 52 chains among the 30,000 had contained classified information when sent, eight chains at Top Secret, that the FBI had recovered several thousand more work-related emails, and that "we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them." Lynch accepted the recommendation to decline prosecution on July 6.[^26] + +### The 2016 Campaign, Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS + +In the spring of 2016 the law firm [[Perkins Coie]], counsel to [[Hillary for America]] and the [[Democratic National Committee]], retained [[Fusion GPS]], whose co-founder [[Glenn Simpson]] in mid-May 2016 retained the former British intelligence officer [[Christopher Steele]] and his firm [[Orbis Business Intelligence]]; Steele was then also a confidential human source for the FBI.[^27] Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS 1,024,407.97 dollars in 2016. Between July 15 and August 26, 2016, the DNC paid Perkins Coie 849,407.97 dollars, of which it reported 782,907.97 dollars as "legal and compliance consulting," and the campaign paid Perkins Coie 175,000 dollars, which it reported as "legal services." On a complaint by the [[Coolidge Reagan Foundation]], the [[Federal Election Commission]] voted 4 to 0 on July 23, 2019, to find reason to believe that both committees had misreported the purpose of funds paid to Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie, after deadlocking 2 to 2 on whether they had also misreported the payee. It found probable cause by votes of 4 to 2 on December 16, 2021, and on February 17, 2022, accepted conciliation agreements with civil penalties of 105,000 dollars for the DNC and 8,000 dollars for the campaign. Each committee stated that it "does not concede" the finding and contended that Fusion GPS worked at the direction of Perkins Coie, including in anticipation of litigation. On March 25, 2022, the Commission voted 6 to 0 to dismiss the allegations under the foreign national provision against Steele, [[Marc Elias]], Perkins Coie, the campaign and Fusion GPS.[^28] + +The report of Special Counsel [[John Durham]], dated May 12, 2023, records that in late July 2016 American intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that she had approved "a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify [[Donald Trump]] by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services," a document the intelligence community said it did not know to be accurate and that "may reflect exaggeration or fabrication." [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] Director [[John Brennan]] briefed President [[Barack Obama]] on it on August 3, 2016, and on September 7 the intelligence agencies sent an investigative referral on it to Comey and [[Peter Strzok]]. The Perkins Coie lawyer [[Michael Sussmann]] gave the FBI's general counsel data purporting to show a covert channel between the [[Trump Organization]] and [[Alfa Bank]], telling him he was not acting for any client; Durham found that he was representing the campaign, as shown by Perkins Coie billing records, and the technology executive [[Rodney Joffe]]. A jury acquitted Sussmann of making a false statement. At his trial Elias and the campaign manager [[Robby Mook]] testified that the campaign did not authorize Sussmann to go to the FBI, and Mook testified that senior campaign officials favored giving the Alfa Bank allegations to the media and that Clinton approved doing so, before their accuracy had been resolved.[^27] + +### The Hillary Victory Fund + +The [[Hillary Victory Fund]], a joint fundraising committee first registered with the Federal Election Commission on September 10, 2015, with the campaign treasurer Elizabeth Jones as its treasurer, reported 530.0 million dollars in receipts and 529.6 million in disbursements for the 2016 cycle. Its itemized disbursements include 165.9 million dollars to Hillary for America, 108.9 million to the DNC, 68.6 million to the digital firm [[Bully Pulpit Interactive]], 29.0 million to the direct-mail firm [[Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey]] and 11.3 million to [[Financial Innovations]], with transfers of between about 2.5 million and 3.4 million dollars to each of 38 state Democratic parties.[^29] In the same cycle many of those parties reported disbursements of comparable size to the DNC. The Missouri Democratic State Committee received 3,043,700 dollars from the fund and reported 3,033,700 dollars in disbursements to the DNC; the Mississippi party received 3,025,700 and reported 3,015,700; Wyoming received 3,023,500 and reported 3,013,500; [[New Jersey]], Delaware, Kansas and South Dakota each reported disbursements to the DNC equal to the amounts they received from the fund. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party, which received 3,110,348 dollars, reported 412,626 dollars to the DNC, and the [[North Carolina]] party, which received 3,423,484 dollars, reported 379,614.[^30] + +### House Oversight and Jeffrey Epstein + +On July 23, 2025, the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]] approved by voice vote subpoenas to ten people, including both Clintons, in its inquiry into [[Jeffrey Epstein]] and [[Ghislaine Maxwell]], and Chairman [[James Comer]] issued them on August 5. Her deposition, first set for October 9, was moved to December 18, 2025; she declined that date, citing a funeral, did not propose a January date, and did not appear on January 14, 2026, under a further subpoena. On January 21, 2026, the committee voted with members of both parties to recommend that the House hold both Clintons in contempt, and on February 3 Comer announced that they had agreed to appear.[^31] + +She was deposed on February 26, 2026, at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in [[Chappaqua, New York]]. Her opening statement said: "I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices." Afterward she said she had "never met Jeffrey Epstein" and knew Maxwell "casually as an acquaintance," and that Maxwell had attended her daughter's wedding as the guest of an invited guest. Comer said the times she answered "I don't know. You'll have to ask my husband" numbered "more than a dozen," and Representative [[Scott Perry]] said questions about the [[Clinton Global Initiative]] or the Clintons' relationship with Epstein and Maxwell had to go to Bill Clinton. Representative [[Lauren Boebert]] gave a photograph of the closed session to the commentator Benny Johnson, and the deposition was briefly paused.[^32] + +In video released on March 2, 2026, each Clinton is questioned for about four and a half hours. Representative [[Nancy Mace]] asked how she had known [[Howard Lutnick]] in the early 2000s and said she had an email in which Lutnick invited Epstein and his associates to an "intimate event" on Clinton's behalf at his New York offices; Clinton said she knew nothing about it. Boebert asked her about [[Pizzagate]].[^33] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton," The White House, Office of the First Lady (Clinton administration archive, National Archives). https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/HILLARY_Bio.html +[^2]: "CLINTON, Hillary Rodham," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, capture of February 1, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160201012933/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C001041 +[^3]: "Hillary Rodham Clinton," Biographies of the Secretaries of State and Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (appointed January 21, 2009; termination of appointment February 1, 2013). https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/clinton-hillary-rodham +[^4]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992, ch. 18 and source notes, p. 428 (index entry "Clinton, Hillary, 428"). https://archive.org/details/bypetertruellauthorlarrygurwinauthorfalseprofitstheinsidestoryofbccitheworldsmos +[^5]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part A, "The Clintons, the McDougals, and the Whitewater Development Company," pp. 1-5 and 27-28 (RTC Criminal Referral No. C-0004; Bank of Kingston loan of December 16, 1980). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-2.pdf +[^6]: Office of the Independent Counsel (Robert W. Ray), *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In re Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association*, vol. I, table of contents, section III.B to III.C ("Department of Justice Criminal Division Fraud Section (November 1993 to January 1994)"; "Regulatory Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. (January 20, 1994 to August 5, 1994)"). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-1-1.pdf +[^7]: Office of the Independent Counsel (Robert W. Ray), *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In re Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association, In re William David Watkins and In re Hillary Rodham Clinton*, filed June 22, 2000, released October 18, 2000, pp. 1-5, 14-17 and 233-234, with notes 4, 10-16, and the letter of David E. Kendall to Hon. Mark J. Langer, September 28, 2000, in the appendix. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheIndependentCounselReMadisonGuarantySLDavidWatkinsAndHillaryRodhamClinton +[^8]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 1, pp. 114-117 and notes 497-505 (Bill Clinton to Beverly Bassett, January 22, 1985, Doc. No. DEK219149; message slip of December 22, 1984, Doc. No. DEK218791; Senate Whitewater Committee hearing, January 25, 1996; W. Clinton deposition, April 22, 1995, at 77). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-3-1.pdf +[^9]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 1, pp. 115-132 and notes 545-581 (Rose letter to Charles Handley, April 30, 1985, Doc. Nos. RFL1 03182-3183; Bassett to Clinton, May 14, 1985, Doc. No. RLF1 03184; Clinton to McDougal, May 23, 1985; Brady RTC affidavit, May 18, 1994; McDougal note to Latham, McDougal grand jury testimony, April 2, 1997, at 121). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-3-1.pdf +[^10]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 3, "Mrs. Clinton's Madison Guaranty Representation," pp. 410-414 and 466-467. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-4-2.pdf +[^11]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 1, pp. 161-164, 174-175 and notes 713-723, 766 (Rose billing records, January 1986, Doc. No. DEK015017; McDougal to Ward memorandum, November 20, 1985). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-3-1.pdf +[^12]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 2, pp. 251-252, 288-292 and 406, with notes 1131-1140 (letter from David E. Kendall to John D. Bates, January 5, 1996; Rose Law Firm billing records 1985-1986, Doc. Nos. DEK 014936 through 5049; FDIC-OIG, Supplemental Report on Rose Law Firm Conflicts of Interest, WA-94-0016, September 20, 1996; Black grand jury testimony, February 19, 1998, at 4-7). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-4-1.pdf +[^13]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. III, Part C, "Webster L. Hubbell's Billing Practices and Tax Filings," introduction. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf +[^14]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. III, table of contents, Part D, "Rose Law Firm Billing Records," sections III.A to III.G, pp. 71-143. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-1.pdf +[^15]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. II, Part B, ch. 3, pp. 488-495 and notes 1959-1964 (FBI Laboratory Report, March 21, 1996; H. Clinton grand jury testimony, January 26, 1996, at 28; Hubbell grand jury testimony, December 19, 1995, at 177-178). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-2-4-2.pdf +[^16]: *Final Report*, In re Madison Guaranty, vol. III, Part E, "The Discovery and Removal of Documents from Vincent W. Foster Jr.'s Office," pp. 151-156, 239-240 and 245-247, with notes 1422-1423 and 1458-1471 (Williams & Connolly index, Doc. No. 325-DC-00000028; M. Williams sworn interview, October 28, 1994; Secret Service residential movement logs, July 22, 1993). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-3.pdf +[^17]: Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. v. Clinton, 997 F.2d 898 (D.C. Cir. June 22, 1993), Nos. 93-5086, 93-5092, opinion of Silberman, J. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/997/997.F2d.898.93-5092.93-5086.html +[^18]: "Independent counsel: No evidence to warrant prosecution against first lady in 'filegate,'" CNN, July 28, 2000 (Bob Franken and Tom Dunleavey contributing). https://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/07/28/clinton.filegate/ +[^19]: U.S. Senate, roll call vote 237, 107th Cong., 2d sess., on H.J. Res. 114, October 11, 2002. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1072/vote_107_2_00237.xml +[^20]: Lugar, Richard G. Opening statement for the confirmation hearing of Senator Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, January 13, 2009, pp. 2-4 and Attachment A. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/LugarStatement090113a.pdf +[^21]: Bill Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, EIN 31-1580204, Form 990 financial data for tax years 2011 to 2017, via the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/311580204.json +[^22]: Grassley, Charles E. Letter to Jacob J. Lew, Secretary of the Treasury, June 30, 2015, pp. 1-3, citing Jo Becker and Mike McIntire, "Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal," New York Times, April 23, 2015, and Uranium One to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, January 29, 2013. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2015-06-30%20CEG%20to%20Treasury%20(CFIUS%20+%20Uranium).pdf +[^23]: Friedman, Dan. "The Clinton-Uranium 'Scandal' Is Right-Wing Nonsense. Here's Everything You Need to Know," *Mother Jones*, October 31, 2017. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/the-clinton-uranium-scandal-is-right-wing-nonsense-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/ +[^24]: Barrett, Devlin, and Matt Zapotosky. "Justice Department winds down Clinton-related inquiry once championed by Trump. It found nothing of consequence," *Washington Post*, reprinted in the *Philadelphia Inquirer*, January 10, 2020. https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/justice-department-hillary-clinton-inquiry-trump-20200110.html +[^25]: U.S. Department of State, Office of Inspector General, *Office of the Secretary: Evaluation of Email Records Management and Cybersecurity Requirements*, ESP-16-03, May 2016, pp. 2, 22-23, 36-37 and 39. https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/esp-16-03.pdf +[^26]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election*, Report 18-04, June 2018, Executive Summary pp. i-iii, ch. 1 pp. 1-5, ch. 2 pp. 37-39, and the draft of Comey's statement of July 5, 2016, Bates FBI DOJ OIG ELEC 003446 to 003448. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-J37-PURL-gpo93700/pdf/GOVPUB-J37-PURL-gpo93700.pdf +[^27]: Durham, John H., Special Counsel. *Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns*, U.S. Department of Justice, May 12, 2023, pp. 11-12, 16-17, 81-85, 266 and 287. https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf +[^28]: Federal Election Commission, MURs 7291 and 7449: conciliation agreements with DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee and with Hillary for America, and letter of Richard L. Weiss to Graham Wilson, February 22, 2022 (doc. 64); certification of July 23, 2019 (doc. 20); Commission votes of December 16, 2021, February 17, 2022, and March 25, 2022, recorded in the MUR 7449 case file. https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7449/7449_64.pdf ; https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7449/7449_20.pdf ; https://www.fec.gov/data/legal/matter-under-review/7449/ +[^29]: Federal Election Commission, Hillary Victory Fund, committee C00586537: committee record, 2016 cycle totals, and Schedule B disbursements by recipient and by recipient committee, 2016 cycle, via the FEC API. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00586537/?cycle=2016 +[^30]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule B disbursements by recipient committee (recipient C00010603, DNC Services Corp./Democratic National Committee), 2016 cycle, for the Missouri Democratic State Committee (C00135558), Mississippi Democratic Party PAC (C00149641), WY Democratic State Central Committee (C00001917), New Jersey Democratic State Committee (C00104471), Democratic State Committee (Delaware) (C00211763), Kansas Democratic Party (C00019380), South Dakota Democratic Party (C00160937), Pennsylvania Democratic Party (C00167130) and North Carolina Democratic Party-Federal (C00165688), via the FEC API. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/by_recipient_id/ +[^31]: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "Oversight Committee Republicans and Democrats Hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in Contempt for Defying Lawful Subpoenas," January 21, 2026, https://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-committee-republicans-and-democrats-hold-bill-and-hillary-clinton-in-contempt-for-defying-lawful-subpoenas/ ; "Chairman Comer Announces the Clintons Caved, Will Appear for Depositions," February 3, 2026, https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-announces-the-clintons-caved-will-appear-for-depositions/ +[^32]: Yilek, Caitlin. "Hillary Clinton tells House committee she had 'no idea' about Epstein's crimes," CBS News, February 26, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-epstein-house-oversight-committee-deposition/ +[^33]: Grayer, Annie, MJ Lee, Aaron Blake, Emily Condon and Dugald McConnell. "Epstein deposition videos show Hillary Clinton in heated moments with lawmakers, Bill Clinton addressing hot tub photo," CNN, March 2, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/politics/clinton-depositions-epstein-video diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James A. Baker III.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James A. Baker III.md index 98614ff7..eb8a7b20 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James A. Baker III.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James A. Baker III.md @@ -1,16 +1,244 @@ --- -category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs" +category: "Intelligence & Government" tags: - Person + - Politician - Nuclear - Israel -summary: "Chief of Staff under President Reagan who agreed sanctions against Israel were essential after the 1981 bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor." + - JamesBaker + - TreasuryDepartment + - StateDepartment + - ReaganAdministration + - BushAdministration + - Debategate + - BCCI + - BNLScandal + - MatrixChurchill + - BakerBotts + - CarlyleGroup + - FARA + - SaudiArabia + - IraqStudyGroup + - Texas +alias: + - James A. Baker III + - James Baker + - Jim Baker + - James Addison Baker III + - James A. Baker, III + - Secretary Baker +summary: "Lawyer and Republican campaign manager who was Reagan's chief of staff and Treasury Secretary and Bush's Secretary of State, then Baker Botts senior partner, Carlyle senior counselor, Iraqi debt envoy and Iraq Study Group co-chair." born: 1930-04-28 location: "Houston, Texas" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Andrews & Kurth]]" + role: "lawyer" + start: 1957 + end: 1975 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States Department of Commerce]]" + role: "Under Secretary of Commerce" + start: 1975 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[President Ford Committee]]" + role: "national chairman" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[George Bush for President Committee]]" + role: "national chairman" + start: 1979-01 + end: 1980-05 + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[White House]]" + role: "chief of staff to President Reagan" + start: 1981 + end: 1985 + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Debategate]]" + role: "received the Carter briefing book from Casey and passed it to the debate team" + start: 1980 + end: 1980 + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[United States Department of the Treasury]]" + role: "Secretary of the Treasury" + start: 1985-02-03 + end: 1988-08-17 + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[State Department]]" + role: "Secretary of State" + start: 1989-01-25 + end: 1992-08-23 + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[BNL Scandal]]" + role: "Secretary of State briefed on the case; interviewed by Independent Counsel Frederick Lacey" + fn: 13 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[White House]]" + role: "chief of staff and senior counselor to President Bush" + start: 1992-08 + end: 1993-01 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Baker Botts]]" + role: "senior partner" + start: 1993-03 + fn: 15 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Carlyle Group]]" + role: "senior counselor" + start: 1993 + fn: 15 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Carlyle Group]]" + role: "executive officer and member of TCG Holdings; managing director of TCG Ventures" + fn: 16 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Electronic Data Systems]]" + role: "director; chairman of the governance committee" + start: 1996 + fn: 15 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Reliant Energy]]" + role: "director" + fn: 15 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Rice University]]" + role: "director" + fn: 15 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]]" + role: "board member" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy]]" + role: "honorary chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[George W. Bush]]" + role: "campaign representative in the Florida recount" + start: 2000-11-09 + fn: 17 + - type: appointed + with: "[[George W. Bush]]" + reverse: true + role: "personal envoy on Iraqi debt" + start: 2003-12-05 + fn: 22 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Iraq Study Group]]" + role: "co-chair" + start: 2006-03-15 + fn: 24 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 --- -James A. Baker III served as the Chief of Staff under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981, where he agreed that some sanctions against [[Israel]] were essential.[^1] +James Addison Baker III was born in [[Houston]] on April 28, 1930, graduated from [[Princeton University]] in 1952, served two years on active duty as a lieutenant in the [[United States Marine Corps]], took his law degree with honors from the [[University of Texas School of Law]] in 1957, and practiced with the Houston firm of [[Andrews & Kurth]] from 1957 to 1975.[^1] Through the influence of his first wife he entered Republican politics, chaired [[George H.W. Bush]]'s unsuccessful 1970 Senate campaign in [[Texas]], and in 1971 became finance chairman of the Republican Party, with a regional role in the 1972 reelection of [[Richard Nixon]].[^2] He served as the Chief of Staff under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing|Osirak]] in June 1981, where he agreed that some sanctions against [[Israel]] were essential.[^3] + +### Ford and Bush Campaigns + +His public service began in 1975, when President [[Gerald R. Ford]] appointed him Under Secretary of Commerce. He then served on Ford's campaign staff as deputy chairman for delegate operations and, four months later, as national chairman of the [[President Ford Committee]]. From January 1979 to May 1980 he was national chairman of the [[George Bush for President Committee]].[^1][^4] He led presidential campaigns for Ford, Reagan and Bush over five consecutive elections from 1976 to 1992.[^1] + +### Chief of Staff + +From 1981 to 1985 Baker was White House Chief of Staff.[^1] According to the national security adviser [[Richard V. Allen]], as recounted by [[Seymour Hersh]], at the meeting of Reagan's senior officials the morning after the Israeli raid on Osirak, Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] proposed canceling the sale of F-16 aircraft to Israel, and Vice President Bush and Baker agreed that some sanctions were essential; Reagan, Allen said, "rolled his eyes at me" and made clear he would take no such step. A scheduled delivery of four F-16s was suspended a few days later and quietly resumed two months after that.[^3] + +### The Carter Briefing Papers + +In 1983 the [[Time (magazine)|Time]] correspondent [[Laurence Barrett]] wrote in *Gambling with History* that a Reagan campaign "mole" in the camp of President [[Jimmy Carter]] had "filched papers containing the main points the President planned to make" in the Cleveland debate of October 28, 1980, and that Baker, then a senior campaign adviser, "looked the other way when a dirty trick was perpetrated on Carter. He was grateful not to know the mechanics of it." Baker said through an aide that he did not know how the papers were obtained. Representative [[Donald Albosta]], chairman of the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, wrote to Baker, to the budget director [[David Stockman]], to the communications director [[David Gergen]] and to the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[William J. Casey]], who had managed Reagan's 1980 campaign; Albosta said the matter "appears on the surface to be more serious than Watergate."[^5] + +Casey replied on June 22, 1983: "I have no recollection that I ever received, heard of or learned in any other way of a set of papers which laid out the Carter debate plan or the points which President Carter had planned to make."[^6] Baker's letter, as reported in the [[Washington Post]], stated that "it is my best recollection" that Casey was the senior campaign official who gave him a large loose-leaf book in a black binder "that was thought to have been given to the Reagan camp by someone with the Carter campaign," "with the suggestion that it might be of use to the [Reagan] Debate Briefing Team" headed by Gergen and [[Frank Hodsoll]], and that after thumbing through it he "passed it on." He called it a "compendium" of Carter administration policy positions, wrote that he had "no recollection that I ever received or saw any debate strategy or sensitive debating points prepared by the Carter campaign or Carter White House," and said he had "never, directly or indirectly" asked anyone to get it. Stockman said the material had been "useful" in preparing Reagan. The campaign consultant [[Myles Martel]] said he had urged Hodsoll to return it: "My impression was we had something we shouldn't have had." Casey then said he did not remember "any black book" but that he had sent Baker all papers that crossed his desk about the debate.[^7] + +On June 27, 1983, Carter's former pollster [[Patrick Caddell]] delivered to the White House a copy of what he said was the complete Carter briefing book. After Baker, Stockman and Gergen reviewed it, the White House said it appeared "a more finished, more sensitive briefing book than they recall," and that papers retrieved from Reagan campaign officials' files had been forwarded to the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. Baker had discussed the matter with Casey at a meeting the day before.[^8] In June 1984 the Democratic majority of the Albosta subcommittee reported that "the persons using these papers were aware that they were using Carter debate briefing materials" and that the foreign policy papers were "most likely" taken from the Carter [[National Security Council]] front office or the White House Situation Room. At a news conference on June 14, 1984, Reagan said that "no one" in his campaign had seen the briefing book and called the differing recollections of Baker and Casey "easily understandable."[^9] + +### Treasury and BCCI + +Baker became the sixty-seventh Secretary of the Treasury on February 3, 1985, exchanging jobs with [[Donald Regan]], and also chaired the President's Economic Policy Council. The Treasury Department credits him with guiding the 1986 tax reform bill through Congress and with "encouraging international economic cooperation by lowering the value of the dollar"; the State Department's historians describe him as "instrumental in passing the Plaza Accord of September 1985."[^1][^2][^4] He resigned on August 17, 1988, to chair the Bush campaign.[^4] + +Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin wrote in their 1992 history of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] that a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] report dated September 30, 1986, alleging BCCI's involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering and its secret control of [[First American Bankshares]], was distributed to the State, Treasury and Commerce departments but not to the [[Federal Reserve]], and that Regan, asked about it, said he did not recall seeing it and suggested it may have gone to Baker, his successor, who at the time was traveling in Morocco. They also wrote that in 1987 the Iranian businessman [[Mohammed Rahim Motaghi Irvani]], whom they describe as having multiple ties to BCCI, wrote to Baker, whom they identify as Bush's campaign manager, offering to help, and that the letter was forwarded to Baker by the former CIA director [[Richard Helms]] with a note describing Irvani as "a man of substance and decency"; the letter and Helms's cover note were released by the Senate subcommittee chaired by [[John Kerry]]. They recorded that [[Jackson Stephens]], whose firm had gathered First American stock for BCCI's clients, was a member of Bush's "Team 100" and that his wife ran Bush's 1988 campaign in Arkansas.[^10] + +### Secretary of State + +Baker was appointed Secretary of State on January 25, 1989, and served until August 23, 1992, the sixty-first holder of the office; he traveled to 90 countries.[^1][^2] On February 9, 1990, in Moscow, he told [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], according to the American memorandum of conversation released under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], that "if we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of [[NATO]], there would be no extension of NATO's jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east." The Soviet record of the same meeting has him saying that "not an inch of NATO's present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction." The same day [[Robert Gates]], deputy to the national security adviser [[Brent Scowcroft]], told the [[KGB]] chairman [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]] at the Lubyanka the same thing. On February 10 Baker wrote to Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] that he had asked Gorbachev whether he would prefer a unified Germany "tied to NATO, with assurances that NATO's jurisdiction would not shift one inch eastward from its present position."[^11] + +### Matrix Churchill and the BNL Prosecution + +An authentication certificate numbered 89/3648-2, dated March 14, 1989, attests the seal of the Ohio Secretary of State, [[Sherrod Brown]], on papers of the Cleveland firm [[Matrix Churchill]]. It reads: "In testimony whereof, I, James A. Baker III, Secretary of State, have hereunto caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed and my name subscribed by the Authentication Officer of the said Department," and is subscribed "James A. Baker III, Secretary of State. By Annie R. Maddux, Authentication Officer, Department of State." Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs]], placed it in the Congressional Record on August 10, 1992, with a similar document of May 10, 1989, issued over the name of Acting Secretary [[Lawrence Eagleburger]]. Gonzalez said that Iraqis had taken control of Matrix Churchill in late 1988, that Iraqi law required American firms to be certified before opening a branch, that "unwittingly, in 1989 both James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburge[r] helped Matrix-Churchill establish its Baghdad branch," and that the State Department then held intelligence identifying the firm as an Iraqi front company.[^12][^13] + +Independent Counsel [[Frederick Lacey]], appointed by Attorney General [[William Barr]] on October 16, 1992, to investigate the handling of the prosecution of [[Christopher Drogoul]] and others in the [[BNL Scandal]], listed Baker among the people he and his staff had "spoken to, interviewed or deposed under oath." Lacey classified the second part of his report "Top Secret Codeword."[^13] He recorded that, according to the daily log of the Atlanta prosecutor [[Gale McKenzie]] in the fall of 1989, "then Secretary of State Baker was most interested in the [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|BNL]] case and was receiving frequent briefings," and that the Justice Department first contacted her office on October 26, 1989, when [[Robert Mueller]] called for information on the case; by the time of Lacey's inquiry Mueller was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division.[^13] + +Lacey quoted an October 26, 1989, State Department memorandum to Baker from Kelly and Sofaer, sent through Kimmitt and McCormack, warning that "our ability to influence Iraqi policies in areas important to us, from Lebanon to the [[Middle East]] peace process, will be heavily influenced by the outcome of the [[Commodity Credit Corporation|CCC]] negotiations." On November 8, 1989, the Agriculture and State Departments overcame the resistance of the National Advisory Council and obtained approval of 1 billion dollars in [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|Commodity Credit Corporation]] guarantees for Iraq for fiscal 1990, of which one 500 million dollar tranche was released before the Gulf War. The two departments asserted at each stage that there was "no evidence to date that would lead us to recommend that the Department should not extend the guarantees," a claim Lacey called "inconsistent with McKenzie's statements to the contrary." He wrote that it was "not within my responsibility to address the wisdom of the decision." Citing a memorandum of April 17, 1990, from Kimmitt to Baker, he wrote that "as with the CCC program, political considerations have been brought to bear upon Eximbank decisions," while the [[Export-Import Bank of the United States|Export-Import Bank]] had found Iraq "not creditworthy by any reasonable standard" in April 1989.[^13] + +In the days before the February 1991 indictment, during the war with Iraq, the list of defendants grew to include the Jordanian businessman [[Wafai Dajani]], whose company handled grain for Iraq at [[Aqaba]] and whom Drogoul called "the brother of the Prince of Jordan," but Dajani and others "were removed as defendants a few days later at a February 13 meeting" of the Atlanta prosecutors and Justice Department officials, Mueller among them. At that meeting the State Department did not want the [[Central Bank of Iraq]] indicted while the Atlanta office still did, and the Treasury, Defense and State Departments, the Export-Import Bank and the Federal Reserve then answered Mueller with a joint memorandum supporting indictment of [[Rafidain Bank]] but opposing indictment of the Central Bank. The prosecutors denied any State Department interference and said the decision not to indict Dajani was their own, for want of evidence. Lacey recorded that Dajani had paid Drogoul 100,000 dollars through a consulting position in 1990 and 1991 and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. He found "absolutely no support" for reports that the Justice Department, "perhaps influenced by others in the Executive Branch," had imposed the theory of BNL as a victim on the Atlanta office.[^13] + +### Baker Botts and Foreign Principals + +Baker served as White House Chief of Staff and Senior Counselor to President Bush from August 1992 to January 1993.[^1] The Houston firm of [[Baker Botts]] was registered under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] as Baker & Botts, L.L.P., registration 4293, from September 15, 1989, to September 30, 2003. Its foreign principals were the Federation of German Industries (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, September 15, 1989, to April 30, 1993), the French chemical company [[Rhône-Poulenc]] (May 1, 1991, to February 13, 1996), Middle East Airlines Airliban of [[Lebanon]] (May 23, 1991, to November 1, 1993), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of [[Yemen]] (April 22, 1992, to July 21, 2000), the Government of [[Abu Dhabi]] (July 29, 1992, to March 31, 1995) and the Japan External Trade Organization office in Houston (November 9, 1992, to September 30, 2003). In 1977 the firm had registered for the Indonesian state oil company [[Pertamina]], and from September 15, 2017, to October 12, 2018, it was registered for the Ministry of Financial Services and Home Affairs of the [[Cayman Islands]].[^14] + +### Carlyle and Corporate Boards + +Baker has been a senior partner of Baker Botts since March 1993 and was a senior counselor of the [[Carlyle Group]] from 1993. The 2002 proxy statement of [[Electronic Data Systems]], which had been split off from [[General Motors]] in June 1996, lists him as a director since 1996 and chairman of its governance committee, and as a director of [[Reliant Energy]], Reliant Resources, [[Rice University]] and the [[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]]; it discloses that EDS retained Baker Botts for legal services during 2001.[^15] + +Carlyle's Schedule 13D filings with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] list him among the executive officers of its holding entities. The filing of May 21, 2001, on [[Net2000 Communications]] names him among the executive officers of TC Group, L.L.C. and TCG Holdings, L.L.C. and members of TCG Holdings, with [[Frank Carlucci]], [[Richard Darman]], [[William Conway]], [[Daniel D'Aniello]], [[David Rubenstein]], [[Jerome Powell]], [[Glenn Youngkin]] and [[Afsaneh Beshloss]], and as one of nine managing directors of TCG Ventures, L.L.C.; the reporting entities included Cayman Islands partnerships, and the directors of TCG Ventures, Ltd. were Rubenstein and a British Virgin Islands company in care of [[Julius Baer]] Bank & Trust. The amendment of January 13, 2005, on [[Magellan Midstream Partners]] again lists him among the executive officers of TC Group and members of TCG Holdings, with [[Louis Gerstner]] and [[William Kennard]].[^16] + +### Florida, 2000 + +On November 9, 2000, Baker was in [[Tallahassee, Florida|Tallahassee]], identified by CNN as an observer for the Bush campaign "there to supervise a recount of the state vote in Florida on behalf of George W. Bush." He said he would meet the Florida secretary of state later that day and hoped to meet [[Warren Christopher]], whom the Gore campaign had sent "to do the exact same thing."[^17] On November 28 he introduced the senior litigation team for the contest of the result: [[Barry Richard]] of [[Greenberg Traurig]], [[Fred Bartlit]] and [[Philip Beck]] of Bartlit Beck in Chicago, and "two law partners of mine at Baker Botts in Houston, Texas," [[Irvin Terrell]] and [[Daryl Bristow]].[^18] + +### The Saudi Defense in the September 11 Litigation + +[[Michael Isikoff]] of [[Newsweek]] reported on April 15, 2003, that "a trio of lawyers from Baker Botts" had filed a motion for Prince [[Sultan bin Abdulaziz]], the Saudi defense minister, in the September 11 families' suit, arguing that he was immune and acknowledging that he had approved payments of about 266,000 dollars a year for 16 years to the [[International Islamic Relief Organization]] and grants of 52,000 dollars to the [[World Assembly of Muslim Youth]] as official acts. Isikoff wrote that Baker Botts "still boasts former secretary of State James Baker as one of its senior partners" and that its recent alumni included [[Robert Jordan]], President Bush's former personal lawyer and then ambassador to [[Saudi Arabia]]. The plaintiffs' lead lawyer, [[Ron Motley]], said: "We smoked out the prince."[^19] On November 14, 2003, Judge [[James Robertson]] of the District of Columbia dismissed the claims against Sultan for his official acts for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and those for his personal acts for lack of personal jurisdiction, and dismissed the claims against Prince [[Turki bin Faisal Al Saud|Turki]], the former head of Saudi general intelligence, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.[^20] William H. Jeffress Jr. of Baker Botts appears among defense counsel in that opinion, and Jeffress, Christopher R. Cooper, Sara E. Kropf and Jamie S. Kilberg of Baker Botts in the consolidated opinion of January 18, 2005, in the [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]].[^20][^21] + +### The Iraqi Debt Envoy + +On December 5, 2003, President [[George W. Bush]] announced that "in response to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council" he had appointed Baker "to be my personal envoy on the issue of Iraqi debt," reporting directly to the President.[^22] [[Naomi Klein]] wrote in *[[The Nation]]* on November 1, 2004, that Baker was then senior counselor and an equity partner of Carlyle "with an estimated $180 million stake," that Saudi Arabia was among Iraq's largest creditors, that Carlyle and Baker Botts did extensive business with the Saudi royal family, and that on December 12, 2003, the [[New York Times]] had called editorially for him to resign from both. She wrote that documents obtained by The Nation showed a consortium including Carlyle and the [[Albright Group]] of the former Secretary of State [[Madeleine Albright]] proposing to [[Kuwait]] that its claims on Iraq, as much as 57 billion dollars, be transferred to a foundation the consortium would control, with Kuwait investing 2 billion dollars in a private equity fund, half of it through Carlyle. The proposal, she reported, said the role of Carlyle figures including former President Bush, [[John Major]] and Baker was "now more limited" because of his appointment but that after his "retirement from his temporary position" they would "once again be free to play a more decisive role." On January 21, 2004, the day Baker met Kuwait's foreign minister as envoy, the consortium hand-delivered the proposal to the same minister.[^23] + +Carlyle's spokesman [[Chris Ullman]] told Klein that "neither the Carlyle Group nor James Baker wrote, edited or authorized this proposal to the Kuwait government," that Carlyle knew of the proposal and stood to receive a 1 billion dollar investment but "played no role in procuring that investment," and that after Baker's appointment Carlyle "explicitly restricted its role to only investing assets on behalf of Kuwait." The consortium's chief executive, Shahameen Sheikh, said the timing "had nothing to do with Mr. Baker's visit." Klein wrote that the White House and Baker's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.[^23] + +### The Iraq Study Group + +In late 2005 Representative [[Frank Wolf]] asked the [[United States Institute of Peace]] to facilitate an assessment of Iraq with the [[James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy]] at Rice University, the [[Center for the Study of the Presidency]] and the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]]. Baker and the former Representative [[Lee Hamilton]] co-chaired the [[Iraq Study Group]], launched on March 15, 2006, at a Capitol Hill meeting hosted by Senator [[John Warner]]. Its members were Eagleburger, [[Vernon Jordan]], [[Edwin Meese]], [[Sandra Day O'Connor]], [[Leon Panetta]], [[William Perry]], [[Charles Robb]] and [[Alan Simpson]]; the former CIA director Robert Gates was an active member until his nomination as Secretary of Defense. Recommendation 62 of its December 2006 report urged technical assistance to the Iraqi government "to prepare a draft oil law" creating "a fiscal and legal framework for investment," and Recommendation 63 urged that the [[United States]] "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies" and help reorganize the national oil industry "as a commercial enterprise."[^24] + +### Envoys and Commissions + +From 1997 to 2004 Baker was the personal envoy of [[United Nations]] Secretary-General [[Kofi Annan]] on the [[Western Sahara]] conflict. He co-chaired the Commission on Federal Election Reform with Carter in 2005 and the National War Powers Commission with Warren Christopher in 2008, and is honorary chairman of the Baker Institute. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991.[^1] + +### Political Contributions + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records itemize contributions from James A. Baker III of Houston: 1,000 dollars to George Bush for President on June 6, 1980, and 1,000 dollars on June 11, 1980, to the Connally for President Committee, with his employer given as Andrews Kurth Campbell & Jones; 1,000 dollars to Bush for President Inc. on March 16, 1999; 2,000 dollars to Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. on December 3, 2003, two days before his appointment as envoy; 15,000 dollars to the National Republican Senatorial Committee on April 11, 2006; 2,500 dollars to Romney for President Inc. on July 26, 2011, and July 5, 2012; 2,500 dollars to RickPerry.org on September 16, 2011, with his employer given as the Baker Institute; 2,700 dollars to Jeb 2016 Inc. on January 18, 2016; and 2,800 dollars to Team Graham on September 23, 2020, with Baker Botts as employer in the other filings.[^25] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: "James A. Baker, III," Baker Botts L.L.P., attorney biography. https://www.bakerbotts.com/people/b/baker-james-a-iii +[^2]: "James Addison Baker III," Biographies of the Secretaries of State and Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (appointed January 25, 1989; termination of appointment August 23, 1992). https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/baker-james-addison +[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. New York: Random House, 1991, p. 9 (account of Richard V. Allen). https://archive.org/details/seymour-hersch-the-samson-option +[^4]: "James A. Baker, III (1985 - 1988)," U.S. Department of the Treasury, Prior Secretaries. https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/prior-secretaries/james-a-baker-iii-1985-1988 +[^5]: "Casey fourth Reagan aide asked about '80 campaign incident," *Baltimore Sun*, Washington Bureau, June 22, 1983, reproduced in CIA Reading Room document C05560156. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-05560156 +[^6]: Casey, William J., Director of Central Intelligence, letter to Representative Don Albosta, June 22, 1983, CIA-RDP85M00364R001703320052-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85m00364r001703320052-2 +[^7]: Hoffman, David. "Casey Is Cited as Source of Briefing Book," *Washington Post*, June 24, 1983, reproduced in CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400039-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000505400039-7 +[^8]: Schram, Martin, and Lou Cannon. "1980 Debate 'Papers' Go To Justice," *Washington Post*, June 28, 1983, reproduced in CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020034-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201020034-3 +[^9]: Hoffman, David. "Reagan Says 'No One' Saw '80 Briefing Book," *Washington Post*, June 15, 1984, reproduced in CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390080-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000505390080-3 +[^10]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992, pp. 365 and 382, with source notes. https://archive.org/details/bypetertruellauthorlarrygurwinauthorfalseprofitstheinsidestoryofbccitheworldsmos +[^11]: Savranskaya, Svetlana, and Tom Blanton. "NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard," National Security Archive Briefing Book, December 12, 2017, Documents 05 (memorandum of conversation between Gorbachev and Baker, February 9, 1990, U.S. Department of State FOIA 199504567), 06 (Gorbachev Foundation record of the same conversation), 07 (memorandum of conversation between Robert Gates and Vladimir Kryuchkov, February 9, 1990) and 08 (letter from Baker to Helmut Kohl, February 10, 1990). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early +[^12]: Gonzalez, Henry B. Special order, "US Armed Iraq Through BNL," section "Baker and Eagleburger Approve MCC Baghdad Branch," *Congressional Record*, House, August 10, 1992, reproducing Department of State authentication no. 89/3648-2 of March 14, 1989. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm +[^13]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," Part I, pp. 1, 12, 37 n., 43, 68-74 and 102-104, reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro*, hearing, 103d Cong., 1st sess., November 9, 1993, Serial No. 103-95, pp. 343-347, 355, 380, 386, 411-417 and 445-447. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit +[^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act unit, registrant and foreign principal records for registration 4293 (Baker Botts L.L.P., September 15, 1989, to September 30, 2003), registration 2833 (Baker & Botts, 1977) and registration 6464 (Baker Botts, LLP, 2017 to 2018), via the FARA eFile API. https://efile.fara.gov/api/v1/ForeignPrincipals/json/Terminated/4293 +[^15]: Electronic Data Systems Corporation, Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed March 6, 2002 ("Directors Standing for Election" and "Certain Transactions"), Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR accession 0000950109-02-001187. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1007456/000095010902001187/ddef14a.htm +[^16]: Carlyle Venture Partners, L.P., et al., Schedule 13D, Net2000 Communications, Inc., filed May 21, 2001, Item 2 (accession 0000950133-01-501284); TC Group, L.L.C., et al., Schedule 13D/A, Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., filed January 13, 2005, Schedule A-1 (accession 0001193125-05-006004), Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1099363/000095013301501284/w49431sc13d.txt ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1126975/000119312505006004/0001193125-05-006004.txt +[^17]: "Election 2000: James Baker Holds News Briefing on Progress of Florida Recount," CNN transcript, November 9, 2000. http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0011/09/se.03.html +[^18]: "Bush Legal Team Remarks," Tuesday, November 28, 2000, American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/documents-related-the-2000-election-dispute-40 +[^19]: Isikoff, Michael. "Terror Watch: A Legal Counterattack," *Newsweek*, April 15, 2003. https://www.newsweek.com/terror-watch-legal-counterattack-133991 +[^20]: Burnett v. Al Baraka Investment & Development Corp., 292 F. Supp. 2d 9 (D.D.C. November 14, 2003), list of counsel; described in In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, 349 F. Supp. 2d 765, 781 n.2 (S.D.N.Y. 2005). https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/burnett-v-baraka-inv-893111164 +[^21]: In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, 349 F. Supp. 2d 765 (S.D.N.Y. January 18, 2005), list of counsel. http://uniset.ca/other/cs5/349FSupp2d765.html +[^22]: "Statement on James A. Baker III," Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, December 5, 2003. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031205-3.html +[^23]: Klein, Naomi. "James Baker's Double Life," *The Nation*, November 1, 2004, republished by Type Investigations. https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2004/11/01/james-bakers-double-life/ +[^24]: *The Iraq Study Group Report*, December 2006, Recommendations 62 and 63, pp. 55-56, and "Letter from the Sponsoring Organizations," p. 64. https://web.archive.org/web/2id_/http://media.usip.org/reports/iraq_study_group_report.pdf +[^25]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts for contributor "Baker, James A. III," Houston, Texas, 1980 to 2020, via the FEC API. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James R. Bath.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James R. Bath.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2290cb9b --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James R. Bath.md @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +--- +category: "BCCI Scandal" +tags: + - Person + - JamesBath + - BCCI + - SaudiArabia + - Houston + - TexasAirNationalGuard + - GeorgeWBush + - Arbusto + - Aviation + - Mahfouz + - BinLaden +alias: + - James R. Bath + - James Bath + - Jim Bath + - Jim R. Bath +summary: "Houston aircraft broker and Texas Air National Guard pilot who acted as trustee for Salem bin Laden and Khalid bin Mahfouz, sat on Main Bank's board and invested in George W. Bush's Arbusto partnerships." +born: 1936 +location: "Houston, Texas" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Texas Air National Guard]]" + role: "pilot, major, 147th Fighter Group, Ellington Air Force Base" + start: 1965 + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Lan Bentsen]]" + role: "real estate partner, Bath Bentsen Interests" + start: 1973 + fn: 2 + - type: represented + with: "[[Salem bin Laden]]" + role: "business representative and trustee in Houston" + start: 1976 + end: 1988 + fn: 3 + - type: represented + with: "[[Khalid bin Mahfouz]]" + role: "trustee for investments in the United States" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Houston Gulf Airport]]" + role: "5 percent interest; bought on behalf of Salem bin Laden" + start: 1977 + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Main Bank]]" + role: "shareholder and director" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[George W. Bush]]" + role: "contributions to the 1978 congressional campaign" + start: 1978-08-23 + end: 1978-10-12 + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[Lloyd Bentsen]]" + role: "contributions to Senate campaigns" + start: 1979-05-31 + end: 1988-10-05 + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[John Connally]]" + role: "contribution to Connally for President" + start: 1979-11-14 + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[George H. W. Bush]]" + role: "contributions to presidential campaign committees" + start: 1980-01-04 + end: 1987-04-13 + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[Arbusto Energy]]" + role: "50,000 dollar investment for 5 percent of Arbusto '79 and Arbusto '80" + end: 1986 + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Skyway Aircraft Leasing]]" + role: "sole director; company owned by Khalid bin Mahfouz according to a court document" + fn: 3 + - type: owned + with: "[[Southwest Airport Services]]" + role: "majority owner and operator, Ellington Field" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Khalid bin Mahfouz]]" + reverse: true + role: "1.4 million dollar loan toward the Express Auto Park garage, Hobby Airport" + start: 1990 + fn: 3 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Bill White]]" + role: "partner in real estate joint ventures and Venturcorp; later adverse litigant" + start: 1980 + fn: 7 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network]]" + reverse: true + role: "review of accusations of acting for Saudi interests, reported June 1992" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +James R. Bath, a native of [[Natchitoches, Louisiana]], moved to [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] in 1965 at the age of twenty-nine to join the [[Texas Air National Guard]], and became an aircraft broker and real estate developer there.[^1] He was 55 years old in October 1991 and in June 1992.[^2][^3] From 1976 he was the business representative in Houston of [[Salem bin Laden]], under a trust agreement, and he held a 5 percent interest in oil partnerships controlled by [[George W. Bush]].[^3] + +### Texas Air National Guard + +[[Craig Unger]] wrote that Bath became friendly with George W. Bush, who began training as an F-102 pilot at [[Ellington Air Force Base]] in 1970, in the unit called the "Champagne Unit," and that Bath called Bush "Geo," the abbreviation on his uniform.[^1] An order of the [[National Guard Bureau]] dated September 29, 1972, issued "by order of the Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force" over the name of Major General [[Francis S. Greenlief]], chief of the bureau, confirmed in paragraph 6 the "verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1STLT GEORGE W BUSH," Texas Air National Guard, Headquarters 147th Fighter Group, Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, "from flying status," and in paragraph 7 the "verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Sep 72 suspending MAJ JAMES R BATH" of the same group. The reason given in each case was "Failure to accomplish annual medical examination."[^4] + +Unger wrote in *[[Salon (website)|Salon]]* in 2004 that when the White House released Bush's military records in March 2004 the second name on the order was redacted, although names of other guardsmen were printed in full, and that the same order, released earlier under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] to the researcher Marty Heldt, showed Bath's name. [[White House|The White House]] declined to explain. Bath confirmed that he was the man named and said the suspensions were not significant: "It happens all the time, especially in the Guard." He declined to say why he and Bush had missed their physicals and said: "Geo did not use drugs."[^1] In 1991 Bath told *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* that his friendship with Bush dated from their service in the Guard and that he was only "slightly" acquainted with the then-President, [[George H. W. Bush]].[^2] + +### Aviation, Bentsen and Connally + +Atlantic Aviation, a [[Delaware]] company selling business aircraft, hired Bath in 1968 to open its Houston office, and he later became an aircraft broker on his own.[^1] In 1973 he formed a real estate partnership with [[Lan Bentsen]], a son of Senator [[Lloyd Bentsen]]; sources whom *Time* did not name said that one purpose was to find investments for the senator's blind trust. Bath and Bentsen said they had not been partners for years, but in 1991 secretaries at Bath's office still answered the telephone "Bath Bentsen Interests," and Bath said he had not got around to changing the name. Bath opened his own aircraft brokerage in 1976.[^2] Unger wrote that Bath counted among his friends the Bentsen family, the younger and elder Bush, whom the son introduced to Bath in the mid-1970s, the Houston lawyer [[James Baker|James A. Baker III]], his duck-hunting companion, and [[John Connally]].[^1] + +### Saudi Clients + +Bath told Unger that around 1974, while trying to sell an F-27 turboprop, he received a telephone call from Salem bin Laden, then about twenty-five, a son of the founder of the [[Saudi Binladin Group]], and that he befriended bin Laden and his associate [[Khalid bin Mahfouz]], heir to the [[National Commercial Bank]] of [[Saudi Arabia]]. Unger wrote that Salem bin Laden bought aircraft and construction equipment, houses at [[Marble Falls, Texas|Marble Falls]] and near [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], and set up an aircraft services company, Binladen Aviation, in [[San Antonio]]; and that Mahfouz bought a 3.5 million dollar house in the [[River Oaks, Houston|River Oaks]] section of Houston and a 4,000-acre ranch in [[Liberty County, Texas|Liberty County]] near Bath's own ranch. "By 1976, bin Laden had appointed Bath to be his American business representative. Bin Mahfouz drew up a similar arrangement with him."[^1] + +According to the *[[Houston Chronicle]]*, the 1976 trust agreement by which Salem bin Laden appointed Bath his business representative in Houston was drawn shortly after George H. W. Bush became director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. In sworn depositions Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis as trustee and would use his name on their investments in return for a 5 percent interest in the deals.[^3] Bath told Unger: "The investments were sometimes in my name as trustee, sometimes offshore corporations and sometimes in the name of a law firm."[^1] + +### Houston Gulf Airport and Main Bank + +Bath bought [[Houston Gulf Airport]] in [[League City, Texas]] in 1977 on behalf of Salem bin Laden, receiving a 5 percent interest in the companies that own and operate it; after bin Laden died in 1988 his interests in the airport passed to Mahfouz, according to court documents.[^3] Unger dates to August 1977 the purchase of the [[Main Bank]] of Houston, then a community bank with about 70 million dollars in assets, by Connally, Bath, Mahfouz and [[Ghaith R. Pharaon|Ghaith Pharaon]], and wrote that Bath acted as an intermediary between the Saudis and Connally, who was positioning himself for the 1980 presidential nomination.[^1] *Time* dated to 1978 Bath's entry as a shareholder and director of Main Bank, with Connally, Pharaon, whom it described as an alleged front man for the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]], and Mahfouz, who later became a major shareholder in that bank. Pharaon later sold his Main Bank holdings and bought the [[National Bank of Georgia]], in *Time*'s words "allegedly on behalf of B.C.C.I." *Time* reported that a researcher had found that in the late 1970s Main Bank, when it held only 58 million dollars in deposits, had been buying 10 million dollars a month in new 100 dollar bills, for a purpose not known.[^2] + +A full-page advertisement for the Jeddah newspaper *[[Arab News]]* and its magazine *Saudi Business*, printed in the issues of November 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18 and 26, 1978, carried a testimonial signed by Bath: "Doing business in Saudi Arabia is a very personal experience, and ARAB NEWS and SAUDI BUSINESS give me a feel for the market there." Beneath it the advertisement stated: "Jim Bath, a former [[U.S. Air Force]] fighter pilot, heads Jim Bath and Associates, a turbine aircraft consulting firm based in Houston. He also operates an airport there on behalf of a group of Saudi investors, and travels frequently to the Kingdom."[^5] + +### Campaign Contributions + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records list the following contributions from "Jim R. Bath" or "Jim Bath" of Houston. On May 30, 1978 he gave 125 dollars to the Archer for Congress Committee of [[Bill Archer|William R. Archer]], candidate for the House from the 7th District of Texas, with his employer given as Jim Bath and Associates. George Bush for Congress, the 1978 committee of George W. Bush in the 19th District of Texas, recorded 409 dollars on August 23, 1978 under the name "Bath, Jim (IK)" with a zero zip code, and gifts of 500 dollars on August 31 (employer given as "real estate aviation") and 500 dollars on October 12, 1978. The Senator Lloyd Bentsen Election Committee recorded 1,000 dollars on May 31, 1979, with the employer given as Bath Bentsen Interests. Bath gave 1,000 dollars to the Connally for President Committee on November 14, 1979 and 1,000 dollars to George Bush for President on January 4, 1980; 250 dollars on June 19, 1980 to the 1980 Republican Presidential Unity Committee, with the employer given as Bath/Bentsen International; 500 dollars to the Bentsen committee on May 20, 1982; 500 dollars on July 1, 1982 to the Friends of Prescott Bush Campaign Committee, the Connecticut Senate committee of [[Prescott Bush Jr.|Prescott S. Bush Jr.]]; 1,000 dollars to George Bush for President, Inc. on April 13, 1987; and 1,000 dollars to the Bentsen committee on October 5, 1988, with the employer field reading "realtor."[^6] + +### Skyway, Southwest Airport Services and Hobby Airport + +In a sworn deposition Bath said he was the sole director of [[Skyway Aircraft Leasing]] Ltd., which a court document showed to be owned by Mahfouz.[^3] *Time* reported that Bath's partners in Skyway, one of four similarly named companies he controlled, were "artfully hidden," and that the firm that incorporated his companies in the [[Cayman Islands]] had set up a money-collecting front company for [[Oliver North]] in the [[Iran-Contra affair]]; that Skyway leased a 10 million dollar Gulfstream II to the [[Abu Dhabi National Oil Company]], controlled by Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan AL-Nahayan|Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan]], president of the [[United Arab Emirates]] and owner of BCCI; that associates confirmed Bath had brokered more than 150 million dollars of private aircraft sales and leases, concentrated among Middle Eastern royalty.[^2] Unger wrote that through Skyway Bath brokered about 150 million dollars of aircraft deals to major BCCI stockholders including Pharaon and Sheikh Zayed.[^1] + +Bath operated, and held a majority stake in, [[Southwest Airport Services]] at [[Ellington Field]]. The *[[Houston Post]]* reported in 1990 that the government had spent millions of dollars more than necessary by fueling military aircraft, including [[Air Force One]], there rather than at a government fuel station, with a markup of as much as 60 percent; *Time* noted that the paper's report had prompted no official investigation.[^2] In 1990 Bath bought the [[Express Auto Park]] garage at [[William P. Hobby Airport]] for 8.4 million dollars, which included a 1.4 million dollar loan provided by Mahfouz, according to transaction documents.[^3] + +### Arbusto + +Tax documents and personal financial records show that Bath held a 5 percent interest in Arbusto '79 Ltd. and Arbusto '80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W. Bush, and had invested 50,000 dollars in them; "There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests," the *Chronicle* wrote. Bush's company, [[Bush Exploration Co.]], the general partner, went through several mergers and became [[Harken Energy]], of which Bush was a shareholder and director, which held offshore drilling rights off [[Bahrain]], and one of whose top shareholders was [[Abdullah Taha Bakhsh]]. Bush told the newspaper that to his knowledge Bath's investment came from personal funds and that no Saudi money was invested in [[Arbusto Energy|Arbusto]].[^3] Early 1980s tax records reviewed by *Time* showed that Bath remained a stockholder until Bush sold his company to Harken in 1986, while Bush had denied ever having business dealings with Bath.[^2] Bath told Unger that "100 percent of those funds were mine. It was a purely personal investment," and that bin Laden and Mahfouz "never met Bush, ever."[^1] + +### The White Litigation + +Charles W. (Bill) White, a graduate of the [[United States Naval Academy|Naval Academy]] and former Navy fighter pilot, formed a real estate partnership with Bath in 1980, with a joint venture for each project under a Master Partnership Agreement and White in charge of day-to-day operations; they were also partners in the development company [[Venturcorp]], Inc.[^3][^7] White told *Time* that it was Lan Bentsen who suggested that he go into business with Bath.[^2] Bath sued White in September 1986 for rescission or dissolution of the partnership and damages, and White counterclaimed in February 1987. After two motions to compel, and a hearing on February 20, 1989 at which White's lawyer stated that all requested documents had been produced or did not exist, the trial court appointed a special master; White then swore by affidavit that all documents had been produced and afterward produced more than ten thousand others. On October 6, 1989 the master struck White's pleadings, including his counterclaims, and ordered him to pay Bath 5,000 dollars. After an evidentiary hearing from June 18 to July 2, 1990, the trial court adopted the master's findings and entered a default judgment for Bath. The [[Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals|Fourteenth Court of Appeals]] at Houston, sitting as Justices [[Paul Pressler]], Junell and Ellis, affirmed in *[[White v. Bath]]*, 825 S.W.2d 227, on February 20, 1992; Kem T. Frost appeared for Bath. Rehearing was denied on March 26, 1992, and the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] denied certiorari on April 19, 1993.[^7][^8] + +White claimed that Bath was a front man for CIA business operations, used his connections to the Bush family and Senator Bentsen to cloak offshore companies that moved money and airplanes between the [[Middle East]] and Texas, and kept the upper hand in five lawsuits "by privately asserting to the court that he had 'national security' connections"; he also claimed in court that Bath had wanted to borrow 550,000 dollars from their venture to cover funds Bath had "misappropriated" from an aircraft company he controlled. Bath told *Time*: "I am not a member of the CIA or any other intelligence agency," and called White's account a "fantasy."[^2] Unger wrote that Bath later equivocated, telling him: "There's all sorts of degrees of civilian participation. It runs the whole spectrum, from maybe passing on relevant data to more substantive things. The people who are called on by their government and serve, I don't think you're going to find them talking about it. Were that the case with me, I'm almost certain you wouldn't find me talking about it."[^1] + +### The 1992 Federal Review + +On June 4, 1992, Jerry Urban of the *Chronicle* reported, citing "sources close to the investigations," that the [[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network]] of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] were reviewing accusations that Bath had guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence [[United States]] policy under the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and Bush administrations, and that the review stemmed in part from court documents White had obtained in litigation. Such representation would have required registration as a foreign agent with the [[Department of Justice]]. White said Bath had told him he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role with Saudi Arabia since 1976. Bath, who had previously denied working for the CIA, declined to comment for the record, as did spokesmen for FinCEN and the FBI.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Craig Unger, "Mystery man," *Salon*, April 28, 2004. https://www.salon.com/2004/04/28/james_bath/ +[^2]: Jonathan Beaty, "A Mysterious Mover of Money and Planes," *Time*, October 28, 1991. https://time.com/archive/6718843/a-mysterious-mover-of-money-and-planes/ +[^3]: Jerry Urban, "Bush Said Friend's Arbusto Investment Was His Own, Not Saudi Money," *Houston Chronicle*, June 4, 1992, as reproduced at the 9/11 Timeline archive (original not retrieved). https://911timeline.s3.amazonaws.com/1990s/houstonchronicle060492.html +[^4]: National Guard Bureau, Departments of the Army and the Air Force, orders AO 87, dated September 29, 1972, paragraphs 6 and 7, signed for the Secretaries by Francis S. Greenlief, Chief, National Guard Bureau, in "George W. Bush Presidential Papers," GWB02 Military Records, Extras and Extracts, p. 25 of the scan (Internet Archive). https://archive.org/details/GeorgeW.BushPresidentialPapers +[^5]: *Arab News* (Jeddah), advertisement for *Arab News* and *Saudi Business*, issues of November 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18 and 26, 1978, in the Internet Archive collection "Arab News, 1978, Saudi Arabia, English." https://archive.org/details/ArabNews1978SaudiArabiaEnglish +[^6]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, contributor names "BATH, JIM R," "BATH, JIM R. MR," "BATH, JIM" and "BATH, JIM (IK)," Houston, Texas, committees C00000125 (Archer for Congress Committee, candidate H6TX07029), C00079350 (George Bush for Congress), C00029769 (Senator Lloyd Bentsen Election Committee), C00107318 (Connally for President Committee), C00106922 (George Bush for President), C00128306 (1980 Republican Presidential Unity Committee), C00145961 (Friends of Prescott Bush Campaign Committee), C00213538 (George Bush for President, Inc.), image numbers 78011413712, 78011503577, 78011503461, 78011283458, 79020042048, 80031040056, 80031053403, 80031110532, 82020092415, 82020080463, 87034752452, 88020213114, retrieved through the FEC API (api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/); images at https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/ +[^7]: *White v. Bath*, 825 S.W.2d 227 (Tex. App., Houston [14th Dist.] 1992), No. B14-91-00260-CV, decided February 20, 1992, rehearing denied March 26, 1992 (Junell, J.; before Paul Pressler, Junell and Ellis, JJ.), full text at the Harvard Caselaw Access Project. https://static.case.law/sw2d/825/cases/0227-01.json +[^8]: *White v. Bath*, 507 U.S. 1039 (1993), No. 92-7783, certiorari denied April 19, 1993, Harvard Caselaw Access Project. https://static.case.law/us/507/cases/1039-01.json diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leopold Aschenbrenner.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leopold Aschenbrenner.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..045a440a --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Leopold Aschenbrenner.md @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - LeopoldAschenbrenner + - SituationalAwareness + - OpenAI + - FTXFutureFund + - HedgeFund + - EffectiveAltruism + - AISafety + - CarlShulman +alias: + - Leopold Aschenbrenner + - Aschenbrenner +summary: "German-born former FTX Future Fund staffer and OpenAI Superalignment researcher, fired in 2024, who founded Situational Awareness LP, an AI-infrastructure hedge fund that CNBC reported was forced to sell its public holdings in 2026." +location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Global Priorities Institute]]" + role: "research affiliate on long-run economic growth" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[FTX Future Fund]]" + end: 2022-11-11 + role: "member of the four-person team named at launch" + fn: 7 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[OpenAI]]" + role: "researcher on the Superalignment team; fired for alleged leaking, according to The Information" + fn: 9 + - type: founded + with: "[[Situational Awareness LP]]" + role: "founder" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Situational Awareness LP]]" + start: 2024-05 + role: "managing partner and chief investment officer" + fn: 15 + - type: owned + with: "[[Situational Awareness LP]]" + role: "50 to 75 percent owner of the adviser, per Form ADV Schedule A" + fn: 15 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Carl Shulman]]" + start: 2024-10 + role: "business partner; co-portfolio manager and director of research, 25 to 50 percent owner of the adviser" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[Patrick Collison]]" + reverse: true + role: "anchor investor in the firm" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[John Collison]]" + reverse: true + role: "anchor investor in the firm" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Nat Friedman]]" + reverse: true + role: "anchor investor in the firm" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Daniel Gross]]" + reverse: true + role: "anchor investor in the firm" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Avital Balwit]]" + role: "fiance, as reported by CNBC in July 2026" + fn: 10 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Leopold Aschenbrenner is the founder of [[Situational Awareness LP]], a [[San Francisco]] investment adviser to an AI-infrastructure hedge fund. His own site states that he "originally hail[s] from Germany," "did research on long-run economic growth at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute," worked "on the Superalignment team at OpenAI," and "recently founded an investment firm focused on AGI, with anchor investments from [[Patrick Collison]], [[John Collison]], [[Nat Friedman]], and [[Daniel Gross]]."[^1] The cover pages of the firm's ownership filings with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] give his citizenship as code 2M, the EDGAR code for Germany.[^2] + +### Columbia and Oxford + +[[Columbia University]]'s alumni magazine announced in April 2021 that Aschenbrenner, an economics and mathematics-statistics major from Berlin, was the valedictorian of the class of 2021. It described him as a research affiliate at the [[Global Priorities Institute]] at the [[University of Oxford]] and a cofounder of Columbia College Effective Altruism, and stated that after graduation he would be a research fellow at the [[Forethought Foundation]].[^3] In the interview he said he arrived at Columbia aged 15, and listed among his courses "War, Peace, and Strategy" with [[Richard K. Betts]] and "War in Germany" with [[Adam Tooze]].[^3] The Forethought Foundation was a project of the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], directed from October 2017 by [[William MacAskill]].[^4] In a 2024 interview [[Dwarkesh Patel]] said the two had met "through the [[Tyler Cowen]] universe."[^5] + +### FTX Future Fund + +Cowen posted the announcement of the [[FTX Future Fund]] on Marginal Revolution on 1 March 2022. The fund planned "to distribute at least $100M this year" and might "deploy up to $1B this year"; its team was "[[Nick Beckstead]] (CEO), Leopold Aschenbrenner, Will MacAskill, and [[Ketan Ramakrishnan]]." Cowen added: "[[Emergent Ventures]] winner Leopold Aschenbrenner has been a driving force behind this, congratulations to Leopold!"[^6] Aschenbrenner later described the fund as "a foundation funded by [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] but we were our own thing. We were based in the Bay Area," and said that in November 2022 "it was revealed that Sam was a giant fraud, and from one day to the next, the whole thing collapsed."[^5] He was among the signatories of a post dated 11 November 2022 announcing that the team had resigned, which stated that "to the extent that the leadership of [[FTX]] may have engaged in deception or dishonesty, we condemn that behavior in the strongest possible terms."[^7] + +In 2018, through the American affiliate of the Centre for Effective Altruism, [[Open Philanthropy]] had granted 5,000,000 dollars to "create and seed a new discretionary fund that will be administered by [[Carl Shulman]]," a research associate at the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] and Open Philanthropy adviser; the work Shulman said he might fund included "economic modeling of the impacts of automating different aspects of AI development."[^8] Shulman later became Aschenbrenner's co-portfolio manager. + +### OpenAI + +[[Erin Woo]] and [[Stephanie Palazzolo]] of [[The Information]] reported on 11 April 2024, citing "a person with knowledge of the situation," that [[OpenAI]] had fired two researchers for allegedly leaking information: Aschenbrenner, "a researcher on a team dedicated to keeping artificial intelligence safe for society," and [[Pavel Izmailov]]. They described Aschenbrenner as "an ally of OpenAI chief scientist [[Ilya Sutskever]], who participated in a failed effort to force out OpenAI CEO [[Sam Altman]] last fall," and wrote that "It's not clear what information the two fired staffers leaked."[^9] + +In a podcast interview with Patel posted on 4 June 2024, Aschenbrenner said the leak was a "brainstorming document on preparedness, safety, and security measures" that he had shared "with three external researchers for feedback," after redacting a reference to "a future cluster." He said he had earlier written an internal memo on OpenAI's security, "which I thought was egregiously insufficient to protect against the theft of model weights or key algorithmic secrets from foreign actors," shared it with "a couple of board members" after "a major security incident," and received "an official HR warning for sharing the memo with the board." He said that when he was fired "it was very made explicit that the security memo was a major reason," that a lawyer had questioned him about "whether the government should be involved in AGI, whether I and the superalignment team were loyal to the company, and what I was up to during the OpenAI board events," that he had not signed the employee letter during those events, and that he was offered equity worth "close to a million dollars" on leaving but "didn't want to sign."[^5] [[David Faber]] of [[CNBC]] wrote in July 2026 that "OpenAI has said those concerns were unrelated to his departure."[^10] The essay series "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," published under his name, is dated June 2024.[^11] + +### The Funds + +Situational Awareness Partners LP, a Delaware partnership, filed a notice of exempt offering (Form D) on 23 September 2024 as a hedge fund relying on Rule 506(b) and the section 3(c)(7) exclusion, with a minimum investment of 5,000,000 dollars and offices at 512 2nd Street, San Francisco. Its general partner is SAF AI GP LP, whose general partner is SAF AI GP LLC, managed by Aschenbrenner, who signed the form; [[Nicholas Gross-Whitaker]] is chief operating officer.[^12] Situational Awareness Offshore LP, a [[Cayman Islands]] partnership at the offices of Walkers Corporate Limited, filed on 12 December 2024 with a first sale on 1 December and 24,042,356 dollars sold to two investors.[^13] A third vehicle, "Situational Awareness LP Nov 2024 a Series of CGF2021 LLC," administered by [[Sydecar]] in Claymont, Delaware, reported 24,975,000 dollars sold to 32 investors under the section 3(c)(1) exclusion.[^14] + +The adviser registered with the SEC effective 24 February 2025 (file 801-132039, CRD 333011), after withdrawing a California exempt-reporting registration on 25 January 2025.[^15] Its Form ADV of 11 June 2026 reports regulatory assets under management of 9,278,344,000 dollars, all discretionary, in two accounts, and eight employees, four of them in advisory roles. The single private fund it reports is Situational Awareness Partners LP, a master fund whose feeder is the offshore partnership, which is registered with the [[Cayman Islands Monetary Authority]]. It reports the fund's gross asset value as 9,278,344,000 dollars, its beneficial owners as about 81, the share owned by the adviser and its related persons as about 4 percent and the share owned by non-United States persons as 14 percent. The auditor is [[KPMG]] in Walnut Creek, the administrator is Stone Coast Fund Services, and the prime brokers are BofA Securities Prime, [[Citigroup]] Global Markets, [[Goldman Sachs]] and J.P. Morgan Securities, with [[Citizens Financial Group]] also listed as a custodian. Schedule A lists Aschenbrenner as chief investment officer from May 2024 with ownership of 50 to 75 percent, Shulman as director of research from October 2024 with 25 to 50 percent, and Gross-Whitaker as chief operating officer from August 2024 with 5 to 10 percent, followed by chief financial officer Patrick DeGraca (January 2026) and chief compliance officer Kimberly Summe (June 2026).[^15] + +The amended Forms D record the cumulative amounts sold since the first sales. For the Delaware fund they were 997,910,000 dollars from 65 investors (signed 5 September 2025), 1,025,510,000 dollars from 66 investors (29 December 2025), 1,762,326,027 dollars from 93 investors (10 March 2026) and 4,346,004,027 dollars from 135 investors (11 September 2026). For the Cayman feeder they were 53,185,626 dollars from 10 investors (8 and 29 December 2025), 198,142,357 dollars from 15 investors (10 March 2026) and 5,184,671,655 dollars from 52 investors (11 September 2026).[^12][^13] Two further partnerships under the same general partner, SAF FSC2 LP and SAF PIC LP, filed on 12 May 2026 as venture capital funds, reporting 167,150,000 dollars from 25 investors and 50,100,000 dollars from nine, with first sales on 1 May 2026.[^16] + +### Reported Positions + +The adviser's quarterly holdings reports (Form 13F) list long equity positions and listed options, the latter valued at the underlying shares. The first, for 31 December 2024, listed six positions worth 254,813,765 dollars, led by [[Marvell Technology]] and followed by [[Vistra]], Vertiv, Talen Energy, [[Constellation Energy]] and Modine. For 31 March 2025 the twelve positions totaled 1,005,567,727 dollars, led by call options on 20,237,400 shares of [[Intel]] (459,591,354 dollars), and included [[CoreWeave]] and [[Core Scientific]]. For 30 June 2025 the nine positions totaled 2,123,023,762 dollars, led by put options on a VanEck semiconductor exchange-traded fund. For 30 September 2025 there were 28 positions worth 4,138,368,748 dollars, and for 31 December 2025, 29 worth 5,516,758,344 dollars, led by [[Bloom Energy]].[^17] + +For 31 March 2026 the report listed 42 positions worth 13,676,657,577 dollars, of which the five largest were put options: on the VanEck semiconductor fund (2,042,716,860 dollars), [[Nvidia]] (1,568,257,120 dollars), [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] (1,072,873,230 dollars), [[Broadcom]] (1,006,247,961 dollars) and [[Advanced Micro Devices]] (969,160,863 dollars); there were also puts on Micron, [[Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company]] and ASML, and long positions in bitcoin-mining and data-center companies including IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark and Applied Digital. The same report was filed under the Delaware fund's own registration. The report for 30 June 2026, signed by Summe, listed 26 positions worth 20,242,292,228 dollars, almost all long: [[SanDisk]] (5,673,738,513 dollars), [[Micron Technology]] (5,573,819,392 dollars), Bloom Energy, Taiwan Semiconductor, [[Nebius Group]], CoreWeave and Core Scientific.[^17][^18] + +### Core Scientific, Nebius and SharonAI + +A Schedule 13D filed on 19 August 2025 reported that the Delaware fund held 17,682,918 shares of Core Scientific (5.8 percent), bought for 213,190,431.12 dollars, "for investment purposes." The reporting persons were the adviser, SAF AI GP LP, Situational Awareness LLC, the fund, Aschenbrenner, "the managing partner and control person of Adviser and General Partner," and Shulman, "the co-portfolio manager of the Fund"; both men signed the joint filing agreement. The filing reserved the right to recommend "mergers, consolidations, sales or acquisitions of assets, changes in control." Counsel was Anthony J. Caldwell of [[Shartsis Friese]]. An amendment of 14 October 2025 reported 28,756,478 shares (9.4 percent), bought for 362,121,757.59 dollars.[^2] In the proxy statement for Core Scientific's proposed acquisition by CoreWeave, filed on 26 September 2025, the adviser appears among the holders of more than 5 percent, alongside the [[Vanguard Group]], [[BlackRock]], Two Seas Capital and G1 Execution Services.[^19] + +The adviser reported 12,410,060 Class A shares of Nebius Group (5.6 percent) on a Schedule 13G for 19 May 2026.[^20] In June 2026 the fund bought shares of [[SharonAI Holdings]] under a securities purchase agreement with a prefunded warrant at 0.0001 dollars a share, capped at 19.99 percent until shareholders approved the issuance on 27 August 2026; the next day the reporting persons filed a Schedule 13D for 8,070,950 shares (21.1 percent), bought for 523,882,863.18 dollars, stating an investment purpose. The fund exercised the rest of the warrant on 15 September 2026.[^20] + +### July and August 2026 + +Faber reported on 30 July 2026, citing people familiar with the matter, that the fund "was forced to sell all of its public stock holdings" after losses on AI infrastructure investments "such as SK Hynix" and on "short positions in software companies such as Adobe," that it had grown to "as big as $45 billion at the start of July," and that "Ken Griffin's [[Citadel]] hedge fund reached a deal to buy the fund's publicly traded assets." He wrote that prime brokers including [[Bank of America]], Goldman Sachs and [[JPMorgan Chase]] had been "working with the fund as it seeks to meet margin requirements," that "The firm had been negotiating to sell its stake in [[Anthropic]]," and that a spokesman "said reports that it was marketing a stake it owns in Anthropic are not accurate." Citing a Fortune profile, he reported that Aschenbrenner was engaged to [[Avital Balwit]], chief of staff to Anthropic's chief executive, [[Dario Amodei]].[^10] + +A second amendment to the Core Scientific Schedule 13D, filed on 4 August 2026 by Adriana Schwartz of [[Seward & Kissel]], reported 25,608,473 shares (8.1 percent) on 15 July and 14,089,395 shares (4.4 percent) on 4 August. Its schedule of transactions lists two sales on 3 August 2026 of 5,759,539 shares each, at 19.6896 and 19.4807 dollars, "sold through block trades with unaffiliated third parties."[^21] The SharonAI Schedule 13D followed on 28 August, and the amended Forms D, reporting the cumulative 4.35 billion and 5.18 billion dollars sold, were signed on 11 September 2026.[^12][^13][^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Aschenbrenner, Leopold. "Leopold Aschenbrenner," author page, situational-awareness.ai, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://situational-awareness.ai/leopold-aschenbrenner/ +[^2]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Schedule 13D, Core Scientific, Inc. (CIK 0001839341), accession 0000935836-25-000543, filed 19 August 2025, with Exhibit 99.1 (joint filing agreement signed by Aschenbrenner and Shulman); Schedule 13D/A, accession 0000935836-25-000638, filed 14 October 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000093583625000543/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000093583625000638/primary_doc.xml +[^3]: "'21 Valedictorian Remembers Special Times at the College." Columbia College Today, 23 April 2021. https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/latest/take-five/valedictorian-special-times-college +[^4]: Centre for Effective Altruism, Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2021, filed at Companies House 5 April 2022, Trustees' Report, "Structure, Governance & Management" and "Objectives and Activities." https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzMzNTExMDE2NGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^5]: Patel, Dwarkesh. "Leopold Aschenbrenner: 2027 AGI, China/US super-intelligence race, and the return of history." Dwarkesh Podcast, transcript, 4 June 2024, at about 02:22 to 02:41. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/leopold-aschenbrenner +[^6]: Cowen, Tyler. "Announcing the Future Fund." Marginal Revolution, 1 March 2022. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/03/announcing-the-future-fund.html +[^7]: Beckstead, Nick, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Ketan Ramakrishnan and others. "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned." Effective Altruism Forum, 11 November 2022. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1 +[^8]: Open Philanthropy, "Centre for Effective Altruism, New Discretionary Fund," award date March 2018, grant investigator Holden Karnofsky, Wayback Machine capture of 5 January 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250105202534/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-new-discretionary-fund/ +[^9]: Woo, Erin, and Stephanie Palazzolo. "OpenAI Researchers, Including Ally of Sutskever, Fired for Alleged Leaking." The Information, 11 April 2024 (headline and byline; text as reproduced by CDO Times, 28 April 2024). https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-researchers-including-ally-of-sutskever-fired-for-alleged-leaking ; https://cdotimes.com/2024/04/28/openai-researchers-including-ally-of-sutskever-fired-for-alleged-leaking-the-information/ +[^10]: Faber, David. "Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness sells entire book of public investments, sources say." CNBC, 30 July 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/leopold-aschenbrenners-hedge-fund-is-facing-steep-ai-losses.html +[^11]: Aschenbrenner, Leopold. "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," June 2024, site home page. https://situational-awareness.ai/ +[^12]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Situational Awareness Partners LP (CIK 0002038540): Form D, accession 0000935836-24-000602, filed 23 September 2024; Forms D/A, accessions 0000935836-25-000591 (signed 5 September 2025), 0000935836-25-000734 (29 December 2025), 0000935836-26-000153 (10 March 2026) and 0000935836-26-000486 (11 September 2026). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002038540 +[^13]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Situational Awareness Offshore LP (CIK 0002048430): Form D, accession 0000935836-24-000752, filed 12 December 2024; Forms D/A, accessions 0000935836-25-000718 (8 December 2025), 0000935836-25-000735 (29 December 2025), 0000935836-26-000154 (10 March 2026) and 0000935836-26-000484 (11 September 2026). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002048430 +[^14]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Form D, "Situational Awareness LP Nov 2024 a Series of CGF2021 LLC" (CIK 0002047424), accession 0002047424-24-000001, filed 5 December 2024. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2047424/000204742424000001/primary_doc.xml +[^15]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, "Situational Awareness LP," CRD 333011, firm summary, retrieved 1 October 2026; Form ADV, other-than-annual amendment filed 11 June 2026, Items 5 and 7.B and Schedules A and D, Section 7.B.(1). https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm/333011 ; https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/333011/PDF/333011.pdf +[^16]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Forms D, SAF FSC2 LP (CIK 0002131438), accession 0000935836-26-000242, and SAF PIC LP (CIK 0002131439), accession 0000935836-26-000243, each filed 12 May 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2131438/000093583626000242/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2131439/000093583626000243/primary_doc.xml +[^17]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Forms 13F-HR of Situational Awareness LP (CIK 0002045724), cover pages and information tables: accessions 0000935836-25-000120 (31 December 2024), 0002045724-25-000002 (31 March 2025), 0002045724-25-000006 (30 June 2025), 0002045724-25-000008 (30 September 2025), 0002045724-26-000002 (31 December 2025), 0002045724-26-000008 (31 March 2026) and 0000935836-26-000418 (30 June 2026). https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002045724&type=13F-HR +[^18]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 13F-HR of Situational Awareness Partners LP (CIK 0002038540), accession 0002038540-26-000004, period 31 March 2026. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002038540&type=13F-HR +[^19]: Core Scientific, Inc., definitive merger proxy statement (Schedule 14A, DEFM14A), accession 0001140361-25-036346, filed 26 September 2025, "Beneficial Ownership of Core Scientific Common Stock," note 14; located through EDGAR full-text search, which also returns CoreWeave, Inc.'s Form S-4 of 20 August 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000114036125036346/ny20053622x1_defm14a.htm +[^20]: Securities and Exchange Commission, filings by Situational Awareness LP: Schedule 13G, Nebius Group N.V., accession 0000935836-26-000303, filed 27 May 2026; Schedule 13G, SharonAI Holdings Inc. (CIK 0002068385), accession 0000935836-26-000334, filed 29 June 2026, and 13G/A, accession 0000935836-26-000416, filed 14 August 2026; Schedule 13D, accession 0000935836-26-000468, filed 28 August 2026, Items 3, 4 and 6; Schedule 13D/A, accession 0000935836-26-000500, filed 17 September 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2045724/000093583626000303/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2068385/000093583626000468/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2068385/000093583626000500/primary_doc.xml +[^21]: Securities and Exchange Commission, Schedule 13D/A (Amendment No. 2), Core Scientific, Inc., accession 0000919574-26-004796, filed 4 August 2026, cover pages, Item 5 and Exhibit 99.2 ("Transactions in the Past 60 Days"). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000091957426004796/primary_doc.xml diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nick Beckstead.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nick Beckstead.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..103eee56 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Nick Beckstead.md @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - NickBeckstead + - FTXFutureFund + - FTXFoundation + - EffectiveVentures + - OpenPhilanthropy + - EffectiveAltruism + - Longtermism + - SecureAIProject + - Latona + - WythamAbbey +alias: + - Nick Beckstead + - Nicholas Beckstead + - Nicholas Michael Beckstead + - Dr Nicholas Michael Beckstead +summary: "American philosopher, Open Philanthropy program officer and Effective Ventures director who ran the FTX Foundation and Future Fund, was sued and then dismissed by the FTX debtors, and co-founded Secure AI Project." +born: 1985-03 +location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + start: 2014 + role: "program officer, science philanthropy and machine learning" + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Future of Humanity Institute]]" + role: "research fellow" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Effective Ventures]]" + start: 2012-02-23 + end: 2019-04-02 + role: "director of the company then named Centre for Effective Altruism" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Effective Ventures]]" + start: 2021-07-01 + end: 2023-08-23 + role: "director of the company named Centre for Effective Altruism until August 2022, then Effective Ventures Foundation" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[FTX Foundation]]" + role: "chief executive, reporting directly to Bankman-Fried" + fn: 9 + - type: director_of + with: "[[FTX Foundation]]" + role: "director of the Delaware nonprofit" + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[FTX Future Fund]]" + role: "chief executive" + fn: 2 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]" + role: "chief executive of the FTX Foundation" + fn: 9 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Alameda Research]]" + start: 2023-07-19 + end: 2024-03-14 + role: "defendant in the debtors' Latona adversary proceeding, No. 23-50444; settled and dismissed" + fn: 14 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Center for AI Safety]]" + role: "policy lead" + fn: 2 + - type: founded + with: "[[Secure AI Project]]" + role: "co-founder and chief executive" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Nicholas Michael Beckstead (born March 1985), an American philosopher, was a program officer at [[Open Philanthropy]] from 2014, a director of the English charitable company now named Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) in two periods between 2012 and 2023, and the chief executive of the [[FTX Foundation]] and its [[FTX Future Fund]] until the team's resignation in November 2022. The debtors in the [[FTX]] bankruptcy named him as a defendant in July 2023 and dismissed him in March 2024 after he agreed to cooperate. His website lists him as co-founder and chief executive of Secure AI Project.[^1][^2] + +### Education and Open Philanthropy + +His website states that he completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy at the [[University of Minnesota]] and a Ph.D. in philosophy at [[Rutgers University]], that he was a research fellow at the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] of the [[University of Oxford]], and that he was an early employee of Open Philanthropy, where he served as a program officer "in a variety of areas, including science philanthropy and machine learning, starting in 2014." The same page lists conversations he recorded in 2013 and 2014 on space colonization and on surviving a global food crisis.[^2] + +### Centre for Effective Altruism and Effective Ventures + +[[Companies House]] records for company 07962181, incorporated on February 23, 2012 as the Centre for [[Effective Altruism]], renamed Effective Ventures Foundation on August 25, 2022 and Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) on February 27, 2023, list Dr Nicholas Michael Beckstead, an American national, as a director from February 23, 2012 to April 2, 2019 (with a correspondence address in [[San Francisco]]) and again from July 1, 2021 to August 23, 2023. The register lists [[William MacAskill]] as a director from February 23, 2012 to September 21, 2023, [[Toby Ord]] from February 23, 2012 to July 29, 2022, [[Hilary Greaves]] from April 2 to July 18, 2019, [[Claire Zabel]] from July 18, 2019 to March 28, 2024, [[Owen Cotton-Barratt]] from March 24, 2020 to February 11, 2023, and [[Tasha McCauley]] from July 1, 2021 to March 14, 2024, and records [[Tara Mac Aulay]] as company secretary from July 1, 2015 to August 17, 2018.[^1] A 2025 filing by the [[FTX Recovery Trust]] states that [[Sam Bankman-Fried|Bankman-Fried]], as chief executive of the FTX Foundation, "hired Nick Beckstead, an Effective Altruist who sat on the Board of Directors of Effective Ventures, a federation of Effective Altruist organizations and projects (including the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]])," and that the Foundation employed MacAskill as an adviser. The same filing records that Bankman-Fried had left the Centre's board in 2019 after it investigated its connections with [[Alameda Research]].[^3] + +On November 19, 2022 the charity reported to the [[Charity Commission for England and Wales|Charity Commission]] that FTX and affiliated entities, among its funders, had filed for bankruptcy, that it held 3.3 million pounds and 300,000 dollars in funding from them, and that two of its trustees were connected with FTX, one as chief executive of the FTX Foundation and the other as an unpaid adviser to the Future Fund. The Commission opened a statutory inquiry on December 19, 2022. Its report, published May 22, 2024, does not name the trustees. It records that the charity ringfenced the funds, obtained a defence against money laundering from the [[National Crime Agency]], and returned 4,246,503.16 dollars to FTX under a settlement; that the two FTX-connected trustees had been excluded from decisions on the bankruptcy and resigned during the inquiry; that their connections had produced "a lack of clarity as to whether they were acting for the charity or on behalf of FTX Foundation at any given time"; that trustees had not been required to disclose potential conflicts on joining the board until October 2022; and that there was nonetheless no evidence of unmanaged conflicts regarding funds received from the FTX Foundation.[^4] + +*[[Civil Society]]* reported in April 2024, citing the charity's accounts, that Effective Ventures Foundation bought [[Wytham Abbey]], near [[Oxford]], in April 2022 after receiving 17 million pounds from Open Philanthropy to support the purchase.[^5] *[[Third Sector]]* reported on February 18, 2026 that the charity had paid almost 15 million pounds for the abbey, recorded an impairment loss of 8.6 million pounds as of June 30, 2025, and sold it to an unnamed buyer for 6 million pounds in November 2025.[^6] The charity's announcement of March 25, 2024 stated that the Wytham Abbey Project had not met "the funding bar of our major funders" and that the board had decided to sell the property; an update of November 11, 2025 recorded completion of the sale.[^7] Beckstead was recorded as a director of the charity from July 2021 through the purchase and until August 2023.[^1] + +### The FTX Foundation + +A document that Bankman-Fried created on December 30, 2021 at 1:55 a.m. Eastern time, setting out proposed terms for hiring [[Ross Rheingans-Yoo]], tells the recipient to "chat with Nick [Beckstead ('Beckstead'), the CEO of the FTX Foundation,] about foundation stuff before this is finalized," and lists the manager as "likely Caroline [Ellison] + SBF [Bankman-Fried] + Nick [Beckstead] depending on the task." A revised version Rheingans-Yoo created later that day describes a position as "Director of Special Projects, reporting to NB," and states that "FDUs," foundation direction units, "can be directed to plausibly-EA things at Ross's discretion with NB[ Beckstead]/SBF oversight for not damaging the FTXF/etc brand"; the final terms of March 24, 2022 repeat that clause. The debtors and Rheingans-Yoo stipulated in January 2025 that he began work on or about January 4, 2022 and, with the knowledge and consent of Bankman-Fried and Beckstead, held himself out as a "program officer," "project officer" and "special projects lead" of the FTX Foundation, although he was not employed by it and was paid by FTX Digital Markets Ltd.[^8] + +The debtors' complaint of July 19, 2023 states that the FTX Foundation was a Delaware nonprofit, non-stock corporation whose sole member was Bankman-Fried and whose directors included Bankman-Fried, [[Nishad Singh]], [[Gary Wang]], [[Caroline Ellison]] and Beckstead, and that Beckstead, as its chief executive, reported directly to Bankman-Fried.[^9] A later complaint by the FTX Recovery Trust states that FTX Foundation, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on February 1, 2022 and renamed FTX Philanthropy, Inc. on July 1, 2022, that its directors and officers included the same five, and cites the February 28, 2022 post of [[Leopold Aschenbrenner]] and Beckstead describing the Future Fund's regranting program, which offered "discretionary budgets to independent part-time grantmakers." According to that complaint, in March 2022 the Foundation approved a regrantor's request to send 1 million dollars to [[Manifold Markets]] through simple agreements for future equity; because the Foundation was not yet incorporated, Alameda Research Ventures LLC was made the counterparty, Bankman-Fried signed the agreements on March 20 and April 2, 2022, and the money was wired from Alameda Research Ventures' account at [[Signature Bank]]. Manifold Markets applied on March 21, 2022 for funds to create a charitable arm, and on or about August 8, 2022 FTX Philanthropy sent it 500,000 dollars, which the Trust alleges funded Manifold for Charity and seeks to recover.[^10] In a motion of July 23, 2025 the Trust stated that the Bankruptcy Court had overruled, on July 9, 2025, its objection to Rheingans-Yoo's claim to a 650,000 dollar donation to an effective altruism cause of his choosing, and that he had designated Manifold for Charity, where Singh then worked as an engineer, as the beneficiary.[^3] + +On cross-examination of Bankman-Fried at his trial on October 31, 2023, Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Danielle Sassoon]] asked whether he had discussed with the Bahamian prime minister [[Philip Davis]] paying off the national debt of about 11.6 billion dollars, which he said he did not remember, and whether he had joked that his employee [[Ryan Salame]] was effectively a member of the Bahamian government, which he denied. She then read from Government Exhibit 2504, a chat titled "Project Chinchilla Chatter" dated December 2, 2021, in which Bankman-Fried wrote that "the Bahamas has already asked if we want to do anything with their CBDC." The next message was from Beckstead at 12:01 a.m.: "Leopold is going to look online to try to figure out who in the Bahamas government we should be talking to." Bankman-Fried replied, "His name is Ryan Salame."[^11] + +In a post on the [[Effective Altruism Forum]] timestamped 02:04 UTC on November 11, 2022, Beckstead, Aschenbrenner, [[Avital Balwit]], [[Ketan Ramakrishnan]] and MacAskill announced that they had resigned from the Future Fund "earlier today." They wrote that they were "shocked and immensely saddened," that they had "fundamental questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund," and that "it looks likely that there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor."[^12] + +### Equity in FTX + +The FTX debtors' lists of equity holders, filed March 13, 2023, record Nick Beckstead as the holder of 100,000 shares of Class A common stock of West Realm Shires Inc., the parent of FTX US, and 22,400 shares of common stock of FTX Trading Ltd.[^13] + +### The Latona adversary proceeding + +On July 19, 2023 Alameda Research Ltd. and FTX Trading Ltd. filed an adversary complaint (Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444, Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware) against [[Platform Life Sciences]] Inc., Lumen Bioscience, [[GreenLight Biosciences]] Holdings, Riboscience, Genetic Networks, 4J Therapeutics, [[Latona Biosciences Group]], the FTX Foundation, Bankman-Fried, Rheingans-Yoo and "Nicholas Beckstead." The debtors alleged that the FTX Foundation and Latona, which they called "a sham non-profit company organized in the Bahamas," channeled approximately 71.6 million dollars of commingled Alameda and FTX funds to the life sciences companies, and sought to recover no less than 71,550,000 dollars as fraudulent transfers. Against Beckstead and Rheingans-Yoo they pleaded aiding and abetting, or knowing assistance in, Bankman-Fried's breach of fiduciary duty.[^9] Latona was incorporated in [[Bahamas|the Bahamas]] on May 20, 2022 with Rheingans-Yoo, Bankman-Fried and a third person as its initial directors.[^8] + +The complaint alleges that on or around January 25, 2022 Platform Life Sciences pitched Rheingans-Yoo, Bankman-Fried and Beckstead on a 10 million dollar investment; that Rheingans-Yoo wrote that "Nick [Beckstead] had a different idea," an investment of 4 million dollars to "support short-run operations" followed by co-founding a company if it looked like "a multi-$bln opportunity"; that Beckstead approved, on a funding recommendation form dated January 27, 2022, a 3,250,000 dollar "philanthropic grant," increased from the 3 million dollar budget "to support the onboarding of 1-2 trial sites in the Bahamas"; and that because the Foundation had no bank account, Rheingans-Yoo and Beckstead, at Bankman-Fried's direction, caused FTX to wire the money on February 4, 2022. It quotes an internal document Beckstead wrote in May 2022 about the Platform Life Sciences investment: "Why did it need to be through Latona? In case it makes a lot of money. Prefer not to be disclosed on Bahamian entity balance sheet. Main thing: if it makes a ton of money, how open do we need to be about that?" It states that he conceded most of the life sciences investments were "ill-advised and not well-evaluated," that on August 9, 2022 he called a proposed GreenLight investment "unattractive" in part because it came from a "random CEO pitching this to Ross [Rheingans-Yoo] at a conference," that he forwarded Riboscience's deck to Bankman-Fried and Rheingans-Yoo in January 2022, and that on July 15, 2022 the office manager of FTX in [[Miami]] introduced [[Joseph Bankman|Joe Bankman]], Bankman-Fried's father, Rheingans-Yoo and Beckstead to the two founders of Genetic Networks, one of them [[Leland Hartwell]]. The pleading puts FTX's damages on the Platform Life Sciences transfer at 3.25 million dollars.[^9] + +The debtors' disclosure statement records that a stipulation of November 1, 2023 stayed the proceeding as to the smaller life sciences defendants and Beckstead; that on January 25, 2024 the debtors reached a settlement with him "pursuant to which he provided documents and information to the Debtors, sat for an interview, and agreed to be deposed in the adversary proceeding if necessary"; that the court approved it on March 13, 2024; and that the debtors dismissed him from the case on March 14, 2024. Platform Life Sciences paid the debtors 16 million dollars, GreenLight 420,918 dollars and Genetic Networks 450,000 dollars.[^14] + +### Center for AI Safety and Secure AI Project + +His website lists, after the Future Fund, a period as policy lead at the [[Center for AI Safety]] and his current role as co-founder and chief executive of Secure AI Project, which it describes as developing and advocating "pragmatic policies to reduce risks of severe harm from advanced AI."[^2] [[ProPublica]]'s Nonprofit Explorer, drawing on the [[Internal Revenue Service]] business master file, lists Secure AI Project (EIN 33-2394289) at 584 Castro Street in San Francisco as a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization with a ruling date of January 1, 2026, revenue and assets of 195,025 dollars, and a return for the tax period ending December 2024.[^15] [[Dario Amodei]]'s essay "The Adolescence of Technology" of January 2026, filed by [[Anthropic]] as an exhibit in its suit against the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of War]], thanks "Nick Beckstead" and "Jim McClave," among others, "for their helpful comments on drafts of this essay."[^16] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Companies House, Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), company no. 07962181, company overview (incorporation and previous company names) and officers register, accessed Oct. 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/officers +[^2]: Nick Beckstead, personal website, "About Me," accessed Oct. 1, 2026. https://www.nickbeckstead.com/ +[^3]: FTX Recovery Trust's Motion for Reconsideration or to Modify Order Allowing Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 31846, paras. 1-2, 7-10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.31846.0.pdf +[^4]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity Inquiry: Effective Ventures Foundation UK," published May 22, 2024 (since withdrawn under the Commission's retention policy), sections "Background," "Findings" and "Conclusions." https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk +[^5]: "Crypto-backed charity plans closure and £17m Oxford property sale," *Civil Society*, April 3, 2024. https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/crypto-backed-charity-plans-closure-and-17m-oxford-property-sale.html +[^6]: "Charity backed by crypto fraudster sells historic property at 'significantly' reduced price," *Third Sector*, February 18, 2026. https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-backed-crypto-fraudster-sells-historic-property-significantly-reduced-price/finance/article/1948737 +[^7]: Rob Gledhill, "Announcement on the future of Wytham Abbey," Effective Altruism Forum, March 25, 2024, with update of November 11, 2025. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yggjKEeehsnmMYnZd/announcement-on-the-future-of-wytham-abbey +[^8]: Stipulation of Undisputed Facts Relating to Ross Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. Jan. 15, 2025), D.I. 29218, paras. 3-6, 9-13, 18-21, 32-35, 42-46. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.29218.0.pdf +[^9]: Complaint, *Alameda Research Ltd. v. Platform Life Sciences Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. July 19, 2023), filed as D.I. 1881 in No. 22-11068, caption and paras. 1, 5, 9-10, 17-20, 48-51, 53-64, 82, 88, 98, 174-179. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1881.0.pdf +[^10]: First Amended Complaint, *FTX Recovery Trust v. Manifold Markets, Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 24-50214 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 38, paras. 10, 38-40 and n.6. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.194811/gov.uscourts.deb.194811.38.0.pdf +[^11]: Trial transcript, *United States v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 31, 2023), filed as ECF No. 380, Bankman-Fried cross-examination, pp. 2751-2752. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.380.0.pdf +[^12]: Nick Beckstead, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Avital Balwit, Ketan Ramakrishnan and Will MacAskill, "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned," Effective Altruism Forum, published 2022-11-11T02:04 UTC. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1 +[^13]: Notice of Filing of Lists of Equity Holders, Exhibit A (WRS Equity Holders List) p. 14 and Exhibit B (FTX Trading Equity Holders List) p. 35 of 69, filed Mar. 13, 2023 in *In re Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd.*, No. 23-10149 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del.), D.I. 76-1. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.189054/gov.uscourts.deb.189054.76.1.pdf +[^14]: Disclosure Statement for Debtors' Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization of FTX Trading Ltd. and Its Affiliated Debtors, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (JTD), p. 59 (litigation, item 5), filed as Exhibit C to ECF No. 450, *United States v. Bankman-Fried*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. June 14, 2024), ECF No. 450-3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.450.3.pdf +[^15]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 332394289, Secure AI Project (IRS EO BMF data, updated Sept. 16, 2026). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/332394289.json +[^16]: Dario Amodei, "The Adolescence of Technology," January 2026, acknowledgments, filed as Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of Michael J. Mongan, *Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War*, No. 3:26-cv-01996-RFL (N.D. Cal. Mar. 9, 2026), ECF No. 6-7. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.6.7.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Philip Agee.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Philip Agee.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f014181e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Philip Agee.md @@ -0,0 +1,239 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - CIA + - Defector + - InsideTheCompany + - Counterspy + - CovertActionInformationBulletin + - HaigVAgee + - IntelligenceIdentitiesProtectionAct + - Cuba + - KGB + - LatinAmerica + - Passport + - 1970s +alias: + - Philip Agee + - Phillip Agee + - Phil Agee + - Philip B. F. Agee + - Philip Burnett Franklin Agee +summary: "CIA operations officer in Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico from 1957 to 1968 whose 1975 book named Agency personnel, whose passport was revoked in 1979, and who died in Havana." +born: 1935-01-19 +died: 2008-01-07 +location: "Takoma Park, Maryland (born)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + start: 1957 + end: 1968 + role: "operations officer" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States Air Force]]" + start: 1957-08 + role: "active duty" + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Department of State]]" + start: 1960-11 + end: 1969-01 + role: "cover employment" + fn: 2 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + role: "reporting to the FBI on his travel plans, 1974" + fn: 20 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Home Office]]" + start: 1976-11-15 + role: "deportation from the United Kingdom" + fn: 27 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + end: 1977-03-18 + role: "disclosure of classified information in Inside the Company" + fn: 26 + - type: founded + with: "[[Covert Action Information Bulletin]]" + start: 1978 + role: "co-founder" + fn: 10 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Department of State]]" + start: 1979-12-23 + role: "revocation of passport" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Haig v. Agee]]" + end: 1981-06-29 + role: "respondent" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Cubalinda]]" + start: 2000 + role: "online travel agency, with European investors and a state travel agent" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (January 19, 1935 to January 7, 2008) was an operations officer of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] who served in [[Quito]], [[Montevideo]] and [[Mexico City]] and resigned in 1968. His book [[Inside the Company: CIA Diary]] (1975) named CIA officers, agents and contacts in [[Ecuador]], [[Uruguay]] and [[Mexico]]. He was deported from [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[France]] and the [[Netherlands]]; in December 1979 the [[State Department|Department of State]] revoked his passport, and in June 1981 the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] upheld the revocation in [[Haig v. Agee]]. He died in [[Havana]].[^1][^2][^3] + +### Early life and Agency service + +In a letter of June 10, 1977 authorizing the attorney [[Melvin L. Wulf]] to request his government files, Agee stated that he was born on January 19, 1935 at [[Takoma Park, Maryland]], that he was employed by the CIA "from August or July 1957 until January 1969," that from August 1957 to about June 1960 he was on active duty in the [[United States Air Force]], and that from November 1960 until January 1969 he was employed by the Department of State "under a cover arrangement with the Central Intelligence Agency."[^2] The Supreme Court's opinion in Haig v. Agee gives his employment as 1957 to 1968, in the division responsible for covert intelligence gathering abroad, with training in clandestine operations "including the methods used to protect the identities of intelligence employees and sources."[^1] A CIA unclassified fact sheet of September 1978 states that he worked for the Agency for eleven years before resigning in November 1968.[^4] A CIA reviewer of his book wrote that it began "with an account of his recruitment in 1959."[^5] The [[Associated Press]] reported at his death that he "quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years."[^3] + +The CIA reviewer, writing in the Agency's journal [[Studies in Intelligence]] in a review released in 1996, placed him in Quito from 1960 to 1963, in Montevideo from 1964 to 1966 and in Mexico City from 1966 to 1968, and wrote that Agee "had rejected going into his family business, had left law school after three months, and left his wife and later his girl friend."[^5] + +### Quito, 1960 to 1963 + +Agee's diary entry describing the founding of the [[AIFLD|American Institute for Free Labor Development]] states that "Business leaders are front men on the Board of Directors so that large sums of [[Agency for International Development|AID]] money can be channelled to AIFLD," that the institute "is headed by [[Serafino Romualdi]], 10 Division's longtime agent," and that its directors included [[George Meany]], [[J. Peter Grace]] and [[Joseph Beirne]] of the [[Communications Workers of America]].[^6] + +The entry for Quito, July 11, 1963 records that a four-man military junta had replaced President [[Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy|Carlos Julio Arosemena]] after a banquet for the president of the [[W. R. Grace and Company|Grace Lines]], and that Agee watched the Presidential Palace from a room arranged by Jorge Andino, whom he describes as a support agent and the owner of the Hotel Majestic, while monitoring the military intelligence radio and reporting to the station, which sent progress reports to headquarters and to the military commands in [[Panama]]. The entry of July 13 states: "we've already started passing data from the Subversive Control Watch List to Major de los Reyes here in Quito and to Colonel Lugo in Guayaquil which they are using with military colleagues in the arrests campaign," and records that more than a hundred Communists and other leftists had been jailed in [[Guayaquil]] alone. The entry of July 31 records [[United States]] recognition of the junta that day and that "all along we've kept busy getting information to Major de los Reyes and Colonel Lugo."[^7] + +### Mexico City and resignation + +Agee's entry on his assignment to Mexico City records a briefing on the station's operations, which he describes as "heavily weighted towards liaison (which rests on the unusually close relationship between [[Gustavo Díaz Ordaz|Gustavo Diaz Ordaz]], the President of Mexico and [[Winston Scott]], the Chief of Station) and operational support (surveillance, observation posts, travel control, postal intercepts, telephone tapping)."[^8] + +The September 1978 CIA fact sheet states that "At the time of his resignation in Mexico City, Agee gave no indication of disaffection," that his resignation letter "had only praise and good wishes for the Agency and his colleagues," and that "he was asked to resign because of personal/marital problems which threatened to expose him publicly in Mexico City as a CIA officer."[^4] In January 1977 the British journalist [[Anthony Holden]] reported Agee's own account that before the 1968 Olympic Games he had told his CIA superiors in Mexico City of his intention to resign, and that he was then in a custody dispute with his former wife, who had threatened to expose him as a CIA officer to make him back down.[^9] [[Christopher Andrew]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] wrote that he "had been forced to resign in 1968 after complaints at his heavy drinking, poor financial management and attempts to proposition wives of American diplomats."[^10] The CIA reviewer wrote: "In Mexico City his increasing dissent amounts to defection."[^5] + +### Writing Inside the Company, 1970 to 1972 + +Agee wrote in the book's introduction that "In order to write this book, I have spent most of the last four years in intensive research to reinforce my own recollections."[^11] A diary entry dated Mexico City, January 1971 records his decision "to name all the names and organizations connected with CIA operations" and "to seek ways of getting useful information on the CIA to revolutionary organizations that could use it to defend themselves better."[^12] + +An entry of March 1971 records a trip to [[Montreal]] to meet a publisher's representative, with whom he discussed doing the research in [[Paris]], [[Brussels]] or [[Cuba]]. Agee listed his fears about Cuba: "my past work against Cuba and communism, possible Soviet pressures, my reluctance to engage in sessions for counter-intelligence ploys, problems with the CIA afterwards," and wrote that he feared the CIA "would begin a campaign to denigrate me as a traitor." He agreed to go if the trip could be arranged and added: "Presumably the book will have to be politically acceptable to the Cubans and the research materials available."[^13] + +An entry dated Paris, August 1971 states: "In May I went to Havana to discuss the research materials needed, and they agreed to assist with what they have available, which appears to be a good deal. They also invited me to stay there to finish as much as possible, which I accepted." An entry of October 1971 is headed Havana.[^14] An entry of August 1972 states that he went to Havana again in May 1972 and that "For reasons I fail to understand there is a lack of confidence in my intentions about the book's political content," that research left pending in Cuba had not been done, and that "the Cubans wouldn't want to be embarrassed by a politically unacceptable book."[^15] In the book's acknowledgements Agee wrote that in Havana the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí and the [[Casa de las Américas]] "provided special assistance for research and helped find data available only from government documentation," and that "Representatives of the Communist Party of Cuba also gave me important encouragement at a time when I doubted that I would be able to find the additional information I needed."[^16] + +The CIA reviewer, in a review whose editor's note states that it "does not purport to examine the possibility or extent of Soviet involvement in Agee's actions, from the start or at an early stage," wrote: "One assumes that when he visited Havana he received editorial assistance from the Cubans and Soviets, but how much is, of course, not clear."[^5] + +### Paris, 1971 to 1972 + +Agee wrote that in late 1971 he sent a letter to the Montevideo weekly [[Marcha]] about possible CIA election operations against the [[Frente Amplio]]. According to his entry of January 1972, a few days after Christmas a former training colleague, whom he names as Keith Gardiner, appeared at his Paris hotel with a copy of the published letter and said that [[Richard Helms]] wanted to know "just what I think I am doing"; Gardiner told him that the Paris station, then headed by [[David Murphy]], had located him through the French liaison service, and suggested that he was being manipulated by the Soviets through his publisher.[^17] + +In the entry of August 1972 Agee wrote that after returning from Cuba he recognized street surveillance in Paris, which he suspected was the French service acting at CIA request, and that he was befriended by Americans including a freelance journalist he names as Sal Ferrera and a woman he names as Leslie Donegan, who offered to finance him and read the manuscript.[^15] His June 1977 authorization letter lists his Paris mail address from May to October 1972 as care of Ferrera.[^2] The entry of October 6, 1972 states that in September the CIA's General Counsel visited his father in [[Florida]] and his former wife "to express Helms's concern over the book and my trips to Cuba," leaving copies of a recent court decision on the secrecy agreement.[^18] The entry of October 14, 1972 states that a typewriter Donegan had given him contained "an elaborate installation of transistors, batteries, circuits, wiring and antennas, also a tiny microphone for picking up voices," which he found after detecting a beeping signal on his radio and seeing a couple he took to be monitors outside the studio where he was living. An entry of October 24, 1972, written in [[London]], states that a friend in Paris had been arrested and questioned for several hours at the Ministry of the Interior about him and the book.[^19] + +### Publication and the London campaign, 1974 to 1975 + +A memorandum written shortly before the press conference by the CIA Director of Security, [[Charles W. Kane]], asked the Deputy Director for Administration to approve a memorandum to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], at the telephoned request of the Chief of [[Latin America]] Operations, stating that "Information has been received from a usually reliable source that Philip Agee plans to return to the United States immediately after a press conference which he has scheduled in London for 3 October 1974." It cites a CIA memorandum to the FBI of August 23, 1974 "and Previous Correspondence."[^20] + +At the London press conference Agee announced "a new campaign to fight the United States CIA wherever it is operating," with two functions: "to expose CIA officers and agents and to take the measures necessary to drive them out of the countries where they are operating" and "to seek within the United States to have the CIA abolished." He said that the list released that day "was compiled by a small group of Mexican comrades whom I trained to follow the comings and goings of CIA people before I left Mexico City."[^1] + +The book carried an appendix that the CIA reviewer counted as 429 names and descriptions of "CIA Employees, Agents, Collaborators and Organizations."[^5] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that it identified approximately 250 Agency officers and agents, that it was first published in Britain "Because of legal problems in the United States," and that a review in [[The Spectator]] by [[Miles Copeland]], a former CIA station chief in [[Cairo]], called it "as complete an account of spy work as is likely to be published anywhere."[^10] The Stonehill Publishing edition was distributed in the United States by George Braziller; the CIA review cites a 1975 [[Penguin Books]] edition.[^5][^11] + +### Counterspy and the death of Richard Welch + +In December 1975 [[Richard Welch]], the CIA chief of station in [[Athens]], was shot dead outside his home after an English-language newspaper in Athens named him as chief of station.[^1][^21] On December 29, 1975 the [[National Public Radio]] program All Things Considered reported that CIA Director [[William Colby]] had denounced the [[Fifth Estate]], a Washington group that published the quarterly [[Counterspy]] and had named Welch in September 1975, for what he called "irresponsible and paranoid attacks" on employees of the agency. The group's spokesman [[Douglas Porter]] said that Welch had been exposed in 1967 in an East German publication, "Who's Who in the CIA," in [[British Guiana]] in 1969, and in [[Peru]], and that the group reprinted only names already published abroad.[^21] On January 5, 1976 the [[Christian Science Monitor]] reported that the [[Department of Justice]], at the request of the CIA, was examining whether to prosecute Counterspy's editors, [[Tim Butz]], Margaret Van Houten, [[Winslow Peck]] and Porter.[^22] + +[[David Atlee Phillips]], president of the Association of Retired Intelligence Officers, wrote in a letter published in the [[Washington Star]] on January 28, 1976 that the journalist [[Norman Kempster]] had, in Phillips's summary, suggested "that the death of Richard Welch in Athens had been deftly exploited by the CIA" and that the press had "swallowed the bait" of a CIA stratagem to blame the Fifth Estate. Phillips confirmed that he had said Welch's death "became inevitable" when "a few American ex-intelligence officers joined Philip Agee in his sordid campaign of identifying American intelligence officials abroad," and added: "I certainly don't know who pulled the trigger."[^23] + +Agee wrote in a letter to the editor published on March 1, 1976 and signed from [[Cambridge]]: "I never 'fingered' Richard Welch to Counterspy, the Athens News or to any other publication or person. However, I continue to help other journalists, and would have helped the Athens News in identifying the [CIA] people if asked." He wrote that Welch had been identified in print as a CIA officer as early as 1968.[^24] The September 1978 CIA fact sheet states that Agee "has attempted to downplay his indirect contribution to the assassination of Athens Station Chief Richard Welch."[^4] The [[New York Post]] reported on December 17, 1979 that Agee "heatedly denied any connection."[^25] Agee later sued [[Barbara Bush]] for $4 million for defamation over a passage in her autobiography linking his book to Welch's death; the Associated Press reported that she revised the book to settle the case.[^3] + +### Deportation from Britain, 1976 to 1977 + +Agee had lived in Britain since 1972; his June 1977 letter lists addresses in London from November 1972, in [[Cornwall]] from May 1974 to August 1975 and in Cambridge from September 1975.[^2][^26] On November 18, 1976 Home Secretary [[Merlyn Rees]] told the [[House of Commons]] that on November 15 Agee and the journalist [[Mark Hosenball]] had been informed of his decision to make deportation orders against them under section 3(5)(b) of the [[Immigration Act 1971]], as being conducive to the public good in the interests of national security. Agee was told that the Home Secretary had considered information that he "had maintained regular contacts harmful to the security of the United Kingdom with foreign intelligence officers," had been involved in disseminating information harmful to its security, and had aided and counseled others in obtaining such information for publication. There was no statutory right of appeal; an advisory panel of Sir Derek Hilton, Sir Clifford Jarrett and Sir Richard Hayward would hear representations. Rees said he was "not prepared to go into greater detail." [[Judith Hart]] asked him to read pages 567 and 570 of Agee's book; [[Winston Churchill (MP)|Winston Churchill]] asked whether there would be concern "that individuals have been maintaining contact with Cuban and Soviet bloc intelligence services."[^27] + +On January 9, 1977 the [[Sunday Times]] published an article by Anthony Holden on what it called the Polish connection. It reported that on January 12, 1976 [[Murray Seeger]], the [[Los Angeles Times]] correspondent in [[Bonn]], had written a story from Brussels, citing "qualified western sources," that blamed Agee for the arrest of the fencer [[Jerzy Pawlowski]] and 120 other [[NATO]] agents in [[Poland]] by giving their names to the [[KGB]] in Cuba in 1971. The Los Angeles Times never printed it; its foreign editor, Bob Gibson, said it "needed further checking." Seeger told the Sunday Times his sources were "highly reliable" and would not comment on whether they had CIA connections. Pawlowski had been arrested in June 1975 and sentenced in April 1976 to 25 years. Agee described the story as a smear by his former colleagues in the CIA and argued that, had he passed the names in 1971, the ring would not have survived until 1975. Holden reported that, according to an intermediary, Rees had told a senior politician that he was deporting Agee "because he has betrayed two of our men behind the Iron Curtain."[^9] On January 10, 1977 the journalist [[Lindsay Mackie]] reported Agee's statement that he had heard, from what he called "a second-hand second-hand source," that Rees had told the Liberal leader [[David Steel]] that Agee was responsible for the deaths of two men in Poland; Agee denied it, and said that the only link between himself and Pawlowski was that both had been at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.[^28] + +The panel hearings at 116 Pall Mall opened on January 11, 1977.[^28] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that Agee's character witnesses included [[Stan Newens]], Hart, Alex Lyon, [[Ramsey Clark]], [[Morton Halperin]] and [[Seán MacBride]], and that a KGB file noted by Mitrokhin claimed the London residency had been used "to direct action" by Labour Party, union and journalists' leaders against the decision, a claim they described as "greatly exaggerated."[^10] On February 16, 1977 Rees told the Commons that the panel's advice had not changed his decision and that he had made a deportation order against each man, served with notices requiring them to report weekly to the police.[^29] Agee left England for the Netherlands on June 3, 1977.[^10] + +### The Justice Department investigation, 1977 + +On March 22, 1977 the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had closed its investigation of Agee and told him he was free to return without facing prosecution for disclosing CIA secrets. The decision was made the previous Friday, March 18, by the new head of the Criminal Division, [[Benjamin Civiletti|Benjamin R. Civiletti]], a day after he met Agee's attorneys; several weeks earlier Civiletti's predecessor, [[Dick Thornburgh|Richard L. Thornburgh]], had told Agee that he might be charged for disclosing classified material in the book. Civiletti said the investigation had "reached a logical end without producing ground for prosecution." A CIA spokesman said the agency was "upset," and Director [[Stansfield Turner]] said he was weighing a campaign for new laws.[^26] + +### The Greek article, 1977 + +On June 13, 1977 [[Anne Weaver]] reported from Athens that an article by Agee, "The American factor in Greece: old and new," written in April 1976, had appeared in the left-of-center biweekly Anti, naming 64 Americans whom he said were CIA employees in Greece and 175 who he said had served there. An opposition deputy, Virginia Tsouderou, called for clarification of what they were doing and for some expulsions; a member of [[Constantine Karamanlis]]'s [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] party called the article "an open invitation to assassination."[^30] [[Newsday]] reported that the Greek government had tried to stop publication by offering the magazine full financial compensation, according to a senior staff member.[^30] + +### Freedom of Information Act request, 1977 to 1978 + +On November 9, 1977 Wulf sent requests under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] on Agee's behalf to the CIA, the [[National Security Agency]], the FBI and the Departments of Defense, State and Justice for "all files and records of every description" relating to him. A memorandum of March 22, 1978 from [[John F. Blake]], assistant for information to the CIA's Deputy Director for Administration, records that the CIA had asked the other agencies to refer to it any document containing CIA information, that the FBI had referred four, two of them CIA documents found in FBI files, and that "Nothing has, as yet, been released to Agee or his lawyer."[^2] + +### The Covert Action Information Bulletin and Dirty Work, 1978 to 1979 + +A CIA fact sheet delivered on September 7, 1978 to the staff of Senator [[Lloyd Bentsen]] states that at the World Youth Festival in Havana Agee announced [[Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe]], "said to contain biographies of 700 CIA and [[NSA]] personnel abroad," and the launch of the [[Covert Action Information Bulletin]], which he hoped would become "a permanent weapon in the fight against the CIA, the FBI, military intelligence, and all other instruments of U.S. imperialist oppression throughout the world," and that he intended to organize a worldwide network called "CIA Watch." The fact sheet dates his first public break to a 1971 letter to a Uruguayan newspaper.[^4] A newspaper column of August 19, 1978 states that [[William Schaap]], an attorney of the [[National Lawyers Guild]], announced from the Havana Libre Hotel a group called Counter-Watch, and quotes the bulletin's July 1978 first issue asking readers to send, "anonymously if you desire, copies of U.S. diplomatic lists." It states that Welch was killed on December 23, 1975.[^31] + +On August 11, 1979 [[Isaiah J. Poole]] reported in the New York News World that CIA Director Turner had said that as a result of the bulletin's exposures "Nearly all major foreign intelligence services with which we have liaison relationships have undertaken review of their relations with the Agency," that Agee then lived in [[Hamburg]], and that the staff included Schaap, [[Ellen Ray]] and [[Louis Wolf]], who said "We are not out, per se, to destroy the CIA."[^32] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that KGB files claim the bulletin was founded "on the initiative of the KGB" and that the group running it, codenamed RUPOR, which first met in [[Jamaica]] early in 1978, was "put together" by the counterintelligence directorate of the KGB's First Chief Directorate; that a KGB task force under V. N. Kosterin supplied it with material; that early in 1979 [[Oleg Nechiporenko]] and A. N. Itskov met Agee in Cuba and gave him a list of CIA officers in Africa for Dirty Work II: The CIA in Africa; and that they agreed with the head of the Cuban [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|DGI]], Pedro Pupo Pérez, that it should appear during the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] summit in Havana in September 1979. They wrote that "There is no evidence in Mitrokhin's notes that any member of the RUPOR group, apart from Agee, was conscious of the role of the DGI or KGB."[^10] + +### The 1978 damage assessment and briefing + +The September 1978 fact sheet states that Agee's first book "exposed 170 Agency personnel and numerous agents and operations in Latin America," that the exposures "resulted in the retirement of more than 100 active foreign agents," and that as of June 1977 their monetary cost was estimated at more than $2,000,000. It states that "There are numerous cases of current and prospective clandestine agents refusing to cooperate with CIA," and that officials of American corporations had cited Agee in explaining their reluctance to cooperate.[^4] + +On August 16, 1978 the CIA briefed the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] on Agee at the request of Representative [[Bob Wilson (California politician)|Bob Wilson]], Republican of California. The briefers were [[John N. McMahon]], Deputy Director for Operations, and [[Anthony Lapham]], the General Counsel; no transcript was to be taken. The committee's questions included "What might CIA have done or what would CIA have liked to have done had the circumstances or law permitted?"[^33] Wilson had sat in 1973 on the Special Subcommittee on Intelligence of the [[House Armed Services Committee]] chaired by [[Lucien Nedzi]].[^34] On November 21, 1978 [[Reuters]] reported from Bonn that Hamburg authorities had given Agee permission to stay in [[West Germany]] until at least May 1979, and that the previous year the West German authorities had refused to let him stay.[^35] + +### Iran and the revocation of the passport, 1979 + +According to government affidavits summarized in Haig v. Agee, after the seizure of the American embassy in [[Iran]] on November 4, 1979 Agee "made contact with the captors, urged them to demand certain CIA documents, and offered to travel to Iran to analyze the documents"; one affidavit mentioned, "but does not vouch for the accuracy of," a report that he had been invited to sit on a "Revolutionary Tribunal" to judge the hostages.[^1] The New York Post reported on December 17, 1979 that an Iranian diplomat in the United States had said that "Philip Agee is at the top of our list of candidates" for an anti-imperialist American seat on such a tribunal; Phillips told the paper: "If I were a hostage, he'd be the last guy I'd want to see."[^25] On December 19, 1979 Turner wrote to Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]]; the letter is withheld as exempt, and the New York Post clipping is filed with it.[^25] + +On December 23, 1979 the American Consul General in Hamburg delivered to Agee a letter revoking his passport under 22 CFR 51.70(b)(4), which permits revocation when the Secretary determines that a national's activities abroad "are causing or are likely to cause serious damage to the national security or the foreign policy of the United States." The notice cited his activities in Mexico, the United Kingdom, [[Denmark]], Jamaica, Cuba and Germany. Both lower courts suggested that the immediate impetus was the Iran crisis.[^1] + +### Haig v. Agee + +Agee did not use the administrative procedure and sued in the District Court for the District of Columbia. For his summary judgment motion he conceded the Secretary's factual averments; his counsel said "I would concede any charge [the Government] want[s] to make against him." The district court (Agee v. Vance, 483 F. Supp. 729) held that the regulation exceeded the Secretary's authority under the Passport Act of 1926, and the Court of Appeals (Agee v. Muskie, 629 F.2d 80), which stressed that Agee had not been indicted, affirmed.[^1] + +On June 29, 1981 the Supreme Court reversed in an opinion by Chief Justice [[Warren Burger]]. Its footnotes record that in a separate suit to enforce his secrecy agreement the district court had found that "Agee has shown a flagrant disregard for the requirements of the Secrecy Agreement" (Agee v. Central Intelligence Agency, 500 F. Supp. 506); that in July 1980, two days after a press conference in Jamaica at which "Agee's principal collaborator" identified Richard Kinsman as CIA chief of station, Kinsman's house was strafed with automatic gunfire; and that in January 1981 two American officials of the AIFLD, an organization Agee had identified as a CIA front, were assassinated in [[El Salvador]]. The Court noted that "The Secretary does not assert that Agee has specifically incited anyone to commit murder." The Secretary told the Court that Agee had been given identification papers permitting him to return to the United States. Justice [[Harry Blackmun]] concurred; Justice [[William J. Brennan Jr.|William Brennan]], joined by Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]], dissented, writing that "bad facts make bad law."[^1] + +### The Intelligence Identities Protection Act, 1980 to 1982 + +At a 1980 hearing of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] on S. 2216, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Deputy [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Frank Carlucci]] testified that the problem "had its inception with faithless Government employees who went public with the names of CIA personnel, the most prominent of whom, of course, is Phillip Agee," and that when he was ambassador to [[Portugal]] Agee had published the names of embassy staff, "some accurate, some not," with telephone numbers, license plates, car makes and addresses.[^36] In a statement of May 8, 1981 to the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, Director [[William J. Casey]] cited Welch's murder, the July 1980 attack in Jamaica, and the expulsion of six Americans from [[Mozambique]] following visits by members of the Cuban intelligence service and editors of the bulletin.[^37] Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that all thirteen members of the House intelligence committee sponsored the bill, "popularly known as the 'Anti-Agee Bill,'" which became law in June 1982, and that Agee afterwards traveled on passports issued by [[Maurice Bishop]]'s government in [[Grenada]] and by the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] government in [[Nicaragua]].[^10] + +### Nicaragua, October 1981 + +A cable of October 13, 1981 from the American embassy in [[Managua]], signed by [[Roger Gamble|Roger R. Gamble]] and sent with immediate precedence, reported that Agee's visit coincided with a demonstration organized by the [[Sandinistas|FSLN]] and the government to close an "anti-imperialist" campaign, and that his remarks at a press conference on October 12 were "thinly veiled calls for attacks on Embassy and Embassy personnel." The embassy reported that dependents had been told to pack, that the [[United States Southern Command|Southern Command]] had been alerted to a possible evacuation, that classified traffic had been destroyed and the embassy would close at 2:30 p.m., that Foreign Minister [[Miguel d'Escoto]] was "too busy" to meet, and that junta members and comandantes [[Daniel Ortega]], [[Bayardo Arce]] and [[Jaime Wheelock]] were all "unavailable."[^38] + +### Cuban and Soviet intelligence allegations + +Andrew and Mitrokhin wrote that in 1973 Agee approached the KGB residency in Mexico City, which turned him away as a suspected CIA plant, and quoted [[Oleg Kalugin]]: "Agee then went to the Cubans, who welcomed him with open arms... The Cubans shared Agee's information with us." They wrote that a KGB file claimed Inside the Company was "prepared by Service A, together with the Cubans," which they described as "doubtless with some exaggeration"; that "Mitrokhin's notes do not indicate exactly what the KGB and its Cuban ally, the DGI, contributed to Agee's text"; that at Service A's insistence he removed all references to CIA penetration of Latin American Communist parties; that the KGB kept contact with him in London through the [[Novosti]] correspondent Edgar Cheporov; and that the files describe him as an agent of the DGI but "do not formally list him as a KGB, as well as DGI, agent." They wrote that in May 1976 the KGB learned from Agee, codenamed PONT, that a Soviet source codenamed MAREK was an American dangle run jointly by the CIA and the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]].[^10] + +On October 8, 2000 [[Julia Preston]] and [[Tim Weiner]] reported in the [[New York Times]] on a document carried by [[Pedro Riera Escalante]], a major of the Cuban intelligence directorate and consul in Mexico City from 1986 to 1991, who was deported from Mexico to Havana that week. Riera described an operation, "Moncada," in which he said he used Agee to try to recruit the secretary of the deputy chief of the CIA station in Mexico City; United States intelligence officials said it was a total failure and that Agee was quickly identified and rebuffed. Riera said his work with Agee began in 1973, when he was liaison between Agee and the Cuban Politburo while Agee was writing the book, that he conveyed the government's suggestions about what Agee should disclose, and that telephone numbers of CIA officials at the Mexico City embassy supplied by Agee later helped him identify station personnel. Agee did not reply to an e-mail sent to his office in Cuba.[^39] The Mexico City newspaper Reforma, which said it had seen Riera's service file, reported in a translation published by [[Cryptome]] that during "long months between 1974 and 1975, Escalante was the official in charge of correcting Agee's texts."[^40] The Associated Press reported in 2008 that Agee had been accused of receiving up to $1 million from the Cuban intelligence service, an accusation first made in a 1992 report by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence defector, and that Agee denied it.[^3] + +### Later years and death + +Agee lived for years in Hamburg and later in Havana. In 2000 he opened [[Cubalinda]], an online travel agency for Americans traveling to Cuba, with European investors and a state travel agent as partners. In 2003 he distinguished his disclosures from the exposure of [[Valerie Plame]], calling the latter "purely dirty politics," and said he had named his former colleagues to "weaken the instrument for carrying out the policy of supporting military dictatorships" in [[Greece]], [[Chile]], [[Argentina]], Uruguay and [[Brazil]]. After the arrest of 75 Cuban dissidents in 2003 he wrote in Granma International that the dissidents "were funded and controlled by a hostile foreign power." He died in Havana after operations for perforated ulcers; [[Granma]] called him "a loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender of the peoples' fight for a better world."[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280 (1981), decided June 29, 1981: opinion of Chief Justice Burger, Part I and notes 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 15 and 16; concurrence of Justice Blackmun; dissent of Justice Brennan, joined by Justice Marshall (delivery of the revocation letter by the Consul General in Hamburg on December 23, 1979). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/453/280 +[^2]: Philip Agee to Melvin L. Wulf, June 10, 1977 (authorization letter, with consular acknowledgment, Amsterdam, June 1977); Melvin L. Wulf to the Director of Central Intelligence and other agency heads, November 9, 1977; John F. Blake, Assistant for Information, DDA, to the Acting Director of Central Intelligence, "FOIA Request on Behalf of Mr. Philip Agee," DDA 78-1204, March 22, 1978. CIA-RDP81-00142R000700040006-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81-00142r000700040006-8 +[^3]: "Former CIA agent Agee dies in Cuba at age 72," Associated Press, NBC News, January 9, 2008. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna22571961 +[^4]: CIA Office of Legislative Counsel, memorandum for the record OLC 78-2991/2, "Request by Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D., Texas) for Unclassified Information on Philip Agee," September 7, 1978 (typed September 12, 1978), with attached unclassified fact sheet delivered September 7, 1978. CIA-RDP81M00980R000600300055-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000600300055-3 +[^5]: "Intelligence in Recent Public Literature," review of Philip Agee, *Inside the Company: CIA Diary* (Penguin Books, 1975), *Studies in Intelligence*, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Historical Review Program release in full July 2, 1996, posted May 8, 2007. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Review-Inside-the-Company.pdf +[^6]: Philip Agee, *Inside the Company: CIA Diary* (New York: Stonehill Publishing Company, distributed by George Braziller, 1975), pp. 206 to 207 (Quito entry on the founding of the AIFLD). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^7]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 250 to 253 (Quito entries of July 11, 13 and 31, 1963). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^8]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 424 to 428 (Washington entry on assignment to Mexico City). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^9]: Anthony Holden, "Why they want to deport me," The Sunday Times (London), January 9, 1977. CIA-RDP88-01315R000300560018-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300560018-2 +[^10]: Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, *The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB* (New York: Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, 1999; paperback edition with an introduction dated 2001), p. 206 (chapter 13, "The Main Adversary, Part 4") and pp. 230 to 234 (chapter 14, "Political Warfare"), with the chapter notes. Read in the full-text scan of the paperback edition at https://archive.org/details/the-sword-and-the-shield-the-mitrokhin-archive-and-the-secret-history-of-the-kgb_202605 +[^11]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, Introduction, pp. 1 to 2, and front matter (Stonehill Publishing Company, distributed by George Braziller). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^12]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 485 to 486 (Mexico City, January 1971). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^13]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 488 to 489 (Mexico City, March 1971). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^14]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 489 to 491 (Paris, August 1971; Havana, October 1971). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^15]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 495 to 497 (Paris, August 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^16]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, Acknowledgements, p. 563. https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^17]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 493 to 495 (Paris entries of late 1971 and January 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^18]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 497 to 498 (Paris, October 6, 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^19]: Agee, *Inside the Company*, pp. 498 to 501 (Paris, October 14, 1972; London, October 24, 1972). https://archive.org/details/inside-the-company-cia-diary-philip-agee +[^20]: Director of Security (Charles W. Kane) to Deputy Director for Administration, "Philip Burnett Franklin Agee," with attached draft memorandum to the Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, referencing CIA memorandum of August 23, 1974; reading room date October 1, 1974. CIA-RDP84-00780R006100130022-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00780r006100130022-9 +[^21]: "Report on Richard Welch," transcript, All Things Considered, WETA Radio and NPR network, December 29, 1975, with Susan Stamberg and Jeff Stein. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100370007-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100370007-8 +[^22]: Dana Adams Schmidt, "U.S. Weighs Prosecution of Editors in Welch Case," Christian Science Monitor, January 5, 1976. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100360054-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100360054-7 +[^23]: David Atlee Phillips, letter, "The Death of Richard Welch," Washington Star, January 28, 1976. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100360023-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100360023-1 +[^24]: Philip Agee, "I never 'fingered' Richard Welch," letter to the editor, March 1, 1976, signed Cambridge, England (publication not identified on the clipping). CIA-RDP99-00498R000100040087-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000100040087-5 +[^25]: Stansfield Turner to Cyrus R. Vance, December 19, 1979 (text withheld as exempt), filed with "Philip Agee: Iranians want him as a judge," New York Post, December 17, 1979. CIA-RDP81B00401R000600050023-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81b00401r000600050023-9 +[^26]: Associated Press, "U.S. Closes Probe of CIA Critic Agee," Washington Post, March 22, 1977, p. A7. CIA-RDP99-00498R000100080006-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000100080006-0 +[^27]: Hansard, House of Commons, "Mr. Hosenball and Mr. Agee (Deportation)," November 18, 1976, vol. 919, cols. 1567 to 1572 (statement of the Home Secretary; questions of Mrs. Hart and Mr. Churchill). https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1976/nov/18/mr-hosenball-and-mr-agee-deportation +[^28]: Lindsay Mackie, "Polish agent deaths 'behind Agee order'," newspaper article of January 10, 1977 (publication not identified on the clipping; reading room date January 10, 1977). CIA-RDP88-01315R000300560016-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300560016-4 +[^29]: Hansard, House of Commons, "Mr. Agee and Mr. Hosenball," February 16, 1977, vol. 926, cols. 495 to 496 and following. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1977/feb/16/mr-agee-and-mr-hosenball +[^30]: Anne Weaver, "Agee names Greek CIA men," June 13, 1977 (attributed to The Guardian in the reading room title "[The Manchester Guardian, 13 June 1977]"), CIA-RDP88-01314R000300490003-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000300490003-7; "Agee on CIA in Greece," Newsday, June 14, 1977, CIA-RDP88-01314R000300490001-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000300490001-9 +[^31]: "Lives of CIA Agents Deliberately Imperiled," newspaper column, August 19, 1978 (publication and author not identified on the clipping). CIA-RDP88-01314R000100390039-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100390039-1 +[^32]: Isaiah J. Poole, "CIA goes after anti-U.S. agent magazine," New York News World, August 11, 1979. CIA-RDP88-01314R000100390017-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01314r000100390017-5 +[^33]: Assistant Legislative Counsel to Frederick P. Hitz, Legislative Counsel, "16 August 1978 Briefing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Phillip Agee," OLC 78-2991, August 15, 1978. CIA-RDP81M00980R002100030023-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r002100030023-1 +[^34]: House Committee on Armed Services, Special Subcommittee on Intelligence, *Inquiry into the Alleged Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Watergate and Ellsberg Matters*, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., October 23, 1973, membership page. CIA-RDP75B00380R000100090080-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75b00380r000100090080-8 +[^35]: Reuters dispatch from Bonn, November 21, 1978, CIA Operations Center news service. CIA-RDP81M00980R000400040002-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000400040002-2 +[^36]: *Intelligence Identities Protection Act (S. 2216)*, hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 96th Cong., 2d sess., 1980, testimony of Frank C. Carlucci, pp. 43 to 45. CIA-RDP85-00003R000200080003-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85-00003r000200080003-5 +[^37]: William J. Casey, Director of Central Intelligence, Statement for the Record before the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, May 8, 1981, on S. 391. CIA-RDP85-00003R000200040003-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp85-00003r000200040003-9 +[^38]: American Embassy Managua to Secretary of State, Managua 4517, "Agee Visit Security Precautions," Confidential, EXDIS, NIACT Immediate, October 13, 1981 (drafted by Roger R. Gamble). CIA-RDP84B00049R001503700007-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84b00049r001503700007-4 +[^39]: Julia Preston and Tim Weiner, "A Document by Cuban Spy Talks of Acts Against C.I.A.," New York Times, October 8, 2000, as reproduced at https://cryptome.org/cuban-op-cia.htm +[^40]: Grupo Reforma, untitled article on Pedro Riera Escalante, Reforma (Mexico City), October 2000, in the English translation by Cryptome reproduced with the New York Times article at https://cryptome.org/cuban-op-cia.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roelof Botha.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roelof Botha.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f53b8b8a --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Roelof Botha.md @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +--- +category: "Technologists" +tags: + - Person + - RoelofBotha + - SequoiaCapital + - VentureCapital + - PayPalMafia + - Square + - SpaceX + - TwentyThreeAndMe + - HouseSelectCommitteeOnTheCCP + - SouthAfrica +alias: + - Roelof Botha + - Roelof F. Botha + - Botha, Roelof +summary: "South African-born actuary and venture capitalist, PayPal chief financial officer at its 2002 offering, Sequoia Capital partner from 2003 and senior steward from 2022 to 2025, and SpaceX director from June 2026." +location: "Menlo Park, California" +relations: + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Pik Botha]]" + role: "grandson" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[McKinsey & Company]]" + start: 1996-08 + end: 1998-07 + role: "management consultant" + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[PayPal]]" + start: 2000-03 + role: "vice president of financial and risk management; chief financial officer from August 2001" + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Sequoia Capital]]" + start: 2003-01 + role: "partner; managing member of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC from 2007 to 2025" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Sequoia Capital]]" + end: 2025-11-04 + role: "senior steward" + fn: 11 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Square]]" + start: 2011-01 + role: "director; audit and risk and compensation committees in 2015" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Xoom Corporation]]" + role: "director" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Natera]]" + role: "director" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[23andMe]]" + end: 2024-09-17 + role: "director and audit committee member" + fn: 18 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Unity Technologies]]" + role: "chairman by October 2023; lead independent director from May 2024" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[MongoDB]]" + role: "Class I director" + fn: 21 + - type: director_of + with: "[[SpaceX]]" + start: 2026-06-16 + role: "independent director and audit committee member" + fn: 4 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Stanford University]]" + start: 2024 + role: "member of the board of trustees" + fn: 4 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[House Select Committee on the CCP]]" + start: 2023-10-17 + role: "addressee, as managing partner, of the committee's letter to Sequoia Capital" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[VenturePAC]]" + start: 2021-11-19 + end: 2022-09-15 + role: "$10,000 contributor" + fn: 24 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +### Family and education + +Roelof Botha was born in [[Pretoria]], [[Alec Hogg]] of [[News24]] wrote in February 2017, when Botha was 43; Hogg wrote that he carried "the same name as his father, one of [[South Africa]]'s top economists and long-time advisors to PWC, and his grandfather, former SA Foreign Minister 'Pik'," [[Pik Botha]], who is a different man from [[P.W. Botha]]. Hogg wrote that Botha had recorded the highest marks in the [[University of Cape Town]]'s actuarial science examinations, had become South Africa's youngest actuary at 25, and had moved to California in 1998 to attend Stanford's business school, where he was valedictorian.[^1] + +[[PayPal]]'s prospectus of February 2002 gives his age as 28 and records a B.S. in actuarial science, economics and statistics from the University of Cape Town in 1994, fellowship of the [[Faculty of Actuaries]] in 1996, work as a management consultant for [[McKinsey & Company]] from August 1996 to July 1998, and an M.B.A. from the [[Stanford Graduate School of Business]] in 2000.[^2] + +### PayPal + +Botha joined PayPal in March 2000, served as vice president of financial and risk management, and became chief financial officer in August 2001.[^2] In April 2000 the company assumed a $70,000 loan at 9 percent that he owed to his former employer, and forgave it in 25 percent annual installments from June 2001. In July 2001 he took a non-recourse loan of $112,500 under an employee liquidity program in which PayPal then repurchased part of the participants' stock; [[David Sacks]] and [[Reid Hoffman]] took $450,000 and $500,000 under the same program.[^2] + +The board in the prospectus included [[Michael Moritz]], a partner of [[Sequoia Capital]] since 1986 and a director since August 1999, whose appointment the prospectus describes as "a condition to the obligation of entities affiliated with Sequoia Capital to complete their investment." In August 1999 Sequoia funds had bought 15,000,000 shares of Series A preferred stock from [[Elon Musk]] for $5.0 million. Moritz sat on the audit committee with Musk and [[Shailesh Mehta]], former chief executive of [[Providian]]. Entities affiliated with Sequoia owned 9.9 percent of PayPal before the offering.[^2] + +### Sequoia Capital + +Botha joined Sequoia in January 2003.[^3] A Form 8-K of [[SpaceX]] states that he was a managing member of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC from 2007 to 2025.[^4] Square's registration statement of 2015 names him among the directors and stockholders of SC US (TTGP), Ltd. who exercised voting and investment discretion over Sequoia's 2010 [[United States]] venture funds, with [[Jim Goetz]], [[Michael Goguen]], [[Doug Leone]] and Moritz.[^3] + +On January 31, 2017 Goetz wrote to Sequoia's investors that he would step aside from his leadership responsibilities, thanking "Doug and Sir Michael for the trust they placed in me." News24 printed the letter and reported that Goetz's place as one of the firm's three stewards went to Botha, alongside Leone and [[Neil Shen]], who ran the China business.[^1] + +When [[23andMe]] went public through a merger in June 2021, Botha was listed as a director and beneficial owner of 18,442,574 Class B shares, 4.54 percent, of which 17,818,438 were held by Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC; the filing named Leone and Botha as the directors of SC US (TTGP) with discretion over the Global Growth Fund II funds.[^5] A Schedule 13D for [[Maplebear]] (Instacart), filed on February 27, 2024 and signed by Botha as authorized signatory, lists [[Cayman Islands]] funds, their management partnerships, SC US (TTGP), Ltd., Leone and Botha as reporting persons, and states that "the directors and stockholders of SC US (TTGP) who exercise voting and investment discretion" are Leone and Botha. It records that Sequoia managing member [[Ravi Gupta]] had joined Maplebear's board in August 2023.[^6] + +### Square, Xoom and other boards + +Botha became a director of [[Square]] in January 2011, as the designee of the Series B preferred holders.[^3] Square's Form D of September 2011 lists him with [[Jack Dorsey]], [[Jim McKelvey]], [[Vinod Khosla]], [[Larry Summers]] and [[Mary Meeker]] as directors, and [[Keith Rabois]] as an executive officer.[^7] Rabois resigned as chief operating officer in January 2013 amid an employee's allegation of sexual harassment, which he denied.[^8] In the registration statement of November 2015, Sequoia's 2010 funds held 15,728,310 shares, 5.3 percent, and Khosla Ventures III, LP held 16.9 percent; Botha sat on the audit and risk committee with [[David Viniar]] and Summers and on the compensation committee with Meeker, and also served on the boards of [[Natera]] and [[Xoom Corporation]].[^3] Rabois was a Xoom director until May 2015.[^9] At the annual meeting of the renamed Block, Inc. in June 2026, Botha was re-elected a Class II director with 869,045,360 votes for and 127,444,544 withheld, alongside [[Shawn Carter]] and McKelvey.[^10] + +### Senior steward + +[[TechCrunch]] reported that Botha took the firm's highest role, senior steward, in mid-2022.[^11] On November 9, 2022 Sequoia wrote to the limited partners of its Global Growth Fund III, and posted the letter publicly, that it was marking its investment in [[FTX]] to zero: "In recent days, a liquidity crunch has created solvency risk for FTX." The letter gave a cost basis of $150 million in that fund and $63.5 million in SCGE Fund, L.P., and said: "We are in the business of taking risk."[^12] The investment had been made in FTX's Series B in July 2021, when the exchange was valued at $18 billion.[^12] + +On June 6, 2023 Botha, Neil Shen and [[Shailendra Singh]] announced that Sequoia would separate into Sequoia Capital in the United States and Europe, [[Peak XV Partners]] in India and Southeast Asia, and [[HongShan]] in China by March 2024, writing that "It has become increasingly complex to run a decentralized global investment business."[^13] + +### The House Select Committee + +On October 17, 2023 [[Mike Gallagher]] and [[Raja Krishnamoorthi]], chairman and ranking member of the [[House Select Committee on the CCP]], wrote to Botha as managing partner and to [[Don Vieira]], partner and global chief policy officer. The letter named investments by Sequoia Capital China in EverSec, 4Paradigm, DJI and DeepGlint and support by both Sequoia entities for [[ByteDance]]. It stated the committee's understanding, from "source material on file," that roughly 20 percent of the carry from each deal had flowed to the top of the Sequoia family, that a compliance office in Menlo Park had reviewed every deal, and that 60 to 70 percent of Sequoia Capital China's limited partners had been American, falling to about half. It described an internal screening process set up in the summer of 2022 covering only Chinese quantum computing, semiconductor and aerospace investments, and asked for answers by November 1, 2023.[^14] + +The committee's report of February 8, 2024 stated that Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Capital China had invested about $1.4 billion in ByteDance from March 2014, that Shen sat on ByteDance's board and was a representative to the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]], and that Sequoia Capital China had invested about $32 million in BGI Tech, a subsidiary of the genomics company [[BGI Group]], from 2013 to November 2020; the report quotes an internal Sequoia China memo of September 2012 that touted BGI's acquisition of the American sequencer Complete Genomics. It recorded Sequoia's statement that its entry into China "coincided with expressed government policies and public positions in the US that encouraged businesses to invest in the region."[^15] + +Vieira, according to [[Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom]], had been chief of staff of the [[National Security Division]] of the [[Department of Justice]] and counselor to the assistant attorney general for national security from 2009 to 2011, an espionage prosecutor, and deputy chief counsel of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]. At Sequoia he founded the firm's Washington office, served as chief legal officer and represented the firm on the board of the [[National Venture Capital Association]]; he also sat on the boards of Genuity Science and [[Hakluyt & Company|Hakluyt & Co.]]. Skadden announced his return on September 9, 2025.[^16] + +### 23andMe, Unity and MongoDB + +At 23andMe's annual meeting on August 25, 2022, Botha was re-elected a Class I director with 1,797,444,732 votes for and 16,584,769 withheld.[^17] On September 17, 2024 he and the six other independent directors, including [[Neal Mohan]], resigned together, writing to the chief executive [[Anne Wojcicki]] that "we have yet to receive from you a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal" and that "because of your concentrated voting power" they would resign "rather than have a protracted and distracting difference of view with you as to the direction of the Company." Botha was then on the audit committee.[^18] + +On October 9, 2023 Botha, as chairman of [[Unity Technologies]], accepted the resignation of its chief executive [[John Riccitiello]], who left his posts that day and was to retire on April 9, 2024; Botha's letter extended the period for exercising Riccitiello's vested equity to five years and permitted continued vesting, in exchange for a separation agreement.[^19] On May 1, 2024 Unity announced that Botha would return from chairman to lead independent director.[^20] At [[MongoDB]]'s annual meeting on June 25, 2024 he was re-elected a Class I director with 34,836,881 votes for, 22,488,981 withheld and 9,306,416 broker non-votes.[^21] + +### Departure from leadership + +In 2025 Sequoia partner [[Shaun Maguire]] called the New York mayoral candidate [[Zohran Mamdani]] an "Islamist" who "comes from a culture that lies about everything." In August the firm's chief operating officer, [[Sumaiya Balbale]], resigned over the decision not to discipline him. At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in October 2025 Botha said: "Internally, we celebrate a diversity of opinions, and we need spiky people inside of Sequoia." On November 4, 2025 Sequoia announced that [[Alfred Lin]] and [[Pat Grady]] would succeed him as co-stewards. [[Marina Temkin]] of TechCrunch reported that he had overseen the distribution of $50 billion to limited partners since taking over the firm's United States and European business in 2017.[^11] A profile of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] that Sequoia published on its website in September 2022 credited Lin and [[Michelle Bailhe]] with pursuing the FTX investment.[^22] Sequoia's Form ADV amendment of July 17, 2026 lists Leone, Goetz, Lin, Grady, Maguire and others as direct owners and executive officers of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC and does not list Botha.[^23] + +### SpaceX and Stanford + +On June 16, 2026 the board of SpaceX elected Botha an independent director to fill a vacancy and appointed him to its audit committee. The Form 8-K states that he has been a trustee of [[Stanford University]] since 2024 and that a member of his family had worked at SpaceX since January 2025 on the enterprise operations team, with 2025 compensation above the $120,000 reporting threshold, "generally commensurate with their peers' compensation." SpaceX does not pay its non-employee directors.[^4] + +### Political contributions + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records show two contributions under his name, each of $5,000, to VenturePAC of the National Venture Capital Association, on November 19, 2021 and September 15, 2022, with Sequoia Capital as employer.[^24] Leone, the other director of SC US (TTGP) named in the 2024 filing, gave $2,000,000 to Never Back Down Inc. on April 19, 2023, $1,000,000 to America PAC on June 14, 2024 and $250,000 to the [[Trump 47 Committee]] on October 30, 2024.[^24] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Alec Hogg, "SA prodigy, Pik Botha's 43yo grandson, to lead Silicon Valley's top VC firm," News24, February 1, 2017, reproducing the letter of Jim Goetz to Sequoia investors. https://www.news24.com/Fin24/sa-prodigy-pik-bothas-43yo-grandson-to-lead-silicon-valleys-top-vc-firm-20170201 +[^2]: PayPal, Inc., prospectus (Form 424B4), February 2002, "Management," "Certain Relationships and Related Transactions" and "Principal Stockholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702006471/a2071068z424b4.htm +[^3]: Square, Inc., Form S-1/A, filed November 16, 2015, "Management" (director biographies, board composition, committees) and "Principal Stockholders" (footnotes 4 and 8). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000119312515378578/d937622ds1a.htm +[^4]: Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Form 8-K, filed June 17, 2026 (accession 0001628280-26-043865), Item 5.02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026043865/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm +[^5]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed June 21, 2021 (accession 0001193125-21-194255), security ownership table and footnotes 4 and 5. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312521194255/d187358d8k.htm +[^6]: Sequoia Capital USV XIV Holdco, Ltd. and others, Schedule 13D re Maplebear Inc., filed February 27, 2024, cover pages, Items 2 and 4, and signatures. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1579091/000119312524048200/d799472dsc13d.htm +[^7]: Square, Inc., Form D, filed September 30, 2011 (accession 0001512673-11-000003). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000151267311000003/primary_doc.xml +[^8]: Edward Ngai, "Square COO, Stanford alum, resigns over sexual harassment allegations," The Stanford Daily, January 25, 2013. https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/25/square-coo-resigns-over-sexual-harassment-allegations/ +[^9]: Xoom Corporation, Form 8-K, filed March 27, 2015, Item 5.02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1315657/000155837015000406/xoom-20150325x8k.htm +[^10]: Block, Inc., Form 8-K, event date June 16, 2026 (accession 0001193125-26-275869), Item 5.07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000119312526275869/d55271d8k.htm +[^11]: Marina Temkin, "Sequoia names Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as new co-stewards as Roelof Botha steps down," TechCrunch, November 4, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/04/sequoia-names-alfred-lin-and-pat-grady-as-new-co-stewards-as-roelof-botha-steps-down/ +[^12]: Connie Loizos, "Sequoia Capital marks its FTX investment down to zero dollars," TechCrunch, November 9, 2022, reproducing Sequoia's letter to Global Growth Fund III limited partners. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/sequoia-capital-marks-its-ftx-investment-down-to-zero-dollars/ +[^13]: Manish Singh and Rita Liao, "Sequoia splits China and India arms from US mothership to avoid 'portfolio conflict' and 'market confusion'," TechCrunch, June 6, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/06/sequoia-rebrands-china-india-and-southeast-asia-units/ +[^14]: Rep. Mike Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, letter to Roelof Botha and Don Vieira, Sequoia Capital, October 17, 2023, Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023.10.17-letter-to-sequoia-capital.pdf +[^15]: Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, "The CCP's Investors: How American Venture Capital Fuels the PRC Military and Human Rights Abuses," February 8, 2024, pp. 4 to 5, 7, 18 and 21. https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-02-08%20-%20VC%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf +[^16]: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, "Don L. Vieira" (professional biography), https://www.skadden.com/professionals/v/vieira-donald-l ; "Skadden Welcomes Back Don Vieira as Partner in Washington, DC," September 9, 2025, https://www.skadden.com/about/news-and-rankings/news/2025/09/skadden-welcomes-back-don-vieira-as-partner-in-washington-dc +[^17]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed September 1, 2022 (accession 0000950170-22-017988), Item 5.07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000095017022017988/me-20220825.htm +[^18]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed September 18, 2024 (accession 0001193125-24-221081), Item 5.02 and Exhibit 17 (resignation letter of September 17, 2024). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312524221081/d894676d8k.htm ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312524221081/d894676dex17.htm +[^19]: Unity Software Inc., Form 8-K, filed October 10, 2023, Exhibit 10.1 (letter of Roelof Botha, Chairman, to John Riccitiello, and transition agreement, October 9, 2023). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000119312523253118/d551719dex101.htm +[^20]: Unity Software Inc., Form 8-K, filed May 1, 2024, Exhibit 99.1 (press release). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000181080624000085/ex991pressrelease.htm +[^21]: MongoDB, Inc., Form 8-K, filed June 28, 2024 (accession 0001441816-24-000136), Item 5.07. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1441816/000144181624000136/mdb-20240625.htm +[^22]: Adam Fisher, "Sam Bankman-Fried Has a Savior Complex, And Maybe You Should Too," Sequoia Capital website, September 22, 2022, as archived by the Internet Archive on November 9, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221109025610/https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight/ +[^23]: Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC, Form ADV (CRD 157373, SEC file 801-122957), other-than-annual amendment of July 17, 2026, Schedule A. https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/157373/PDF/157373.pdf +[^24]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor names "Botha, Roelof" (sub_ids 4121820211386160968 and 4111520221629334595, committee C00150367) and "Leone, Doug" and "Leone, Douglas" (sub_ids 4080120231758607105, 4103020241011643180, 4021320251172522832), queried October 1, 2026 through https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Buckley.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Buckley.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0c9e1180 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Buckley.md @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - CIA + - Hostage + - Beirut + - IranContra + - Hezbollah + - Stargate + - Lebanon +alias: + - William Buckley + - William Francis Buckley + - William F. Buckley (CIA) + - Bill Buckley +summary: "CIA station chief in Beirut kidnapped on March 16, 1984, whose captivity and death in 1985 figured in the arms-for-hostages dealings with Iran; his remains were returned in December 1991." +born: 1928-05-30 +died: 1985-06-03 +location: "Medford, Massachusetts (born); Beirut, Lebanon (kidnapped)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + role: "station chief, Beirut" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Islamic Jihad Organization]]" + role: "kidnapped and held hostage" + start: 1984-03-16 + end: 1985-06-03 + fn: 2 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Center Lane]]" + role: "target of remote-viewing tasking by the CIA" + start: 1984-03-21 + end: 1984-04-20 + fn: 5 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]" + role: "hostage whose release was sought" + fn: 7 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928, to June 3, 1985) was a lieutenant colonel of the [[United States Army]] and an officer of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] who was serving as station chief in [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]], when he was kidnapped on March 16, 1984. The [[United States]] District Court for the District of Columbia found that he was held for 444 days and died in captivity on June 3, 1985. His remains were returned to the United States in December 1991.[^1][^2] + +### Army and CIA career + +Buckley was born in Medford, Massachusetts, graduated from high school in 1947 and entered the Army. According to a memorial page of the Special Forces Association chapter that bears his name, he served as a company commander with the 1st Cavalry Division in the [[Korean War]], graduated from [[Boston University]] in political science, worked as a librarian in the public libraries of Concord, Winchester and Lexington, attended the Special Forces qualification course in 1960, served with the Military Assistance Command in the [[Vietnam War]], was promoted to lieutenant colonel in May 1969, and was employed by the CIA from 1955 to 1957 and again from 1965, with assignments in Vietnam, [[Zaire]], Cambodia, [[Egypt]] and [[Pakistan]].[^3] The CIA states that elements of his career remain classified, that he was awarded the Silver Star for capturing a North Korean machine-gun nest, that in the late 1970s he helped develop the Incident Response Team and the Counterterrorism Group, and that he volunteered to be Station Chief in Lebanon after the 1983 bombing of the [[United States Embassy in Beirut]].[^1] + +The court's findings of fact state that as the highest-ranking CIA official in Beirut his position was "an open secret" within the Lebanese government and among the violent religious factions of the city. The retired CIA officer [[Chip Beck]] testified that two weeks before the kidnapping Buckley said to him, "I'd rather die in a botched rescue attempt than waste away or die like Tucker did in Vietnam. Try as hard as you can to push the bureaucracy to get me out of here." The court identified Tucker Gougelmann as Buckley's old mentor, tortured in Vietnam.[^2] + +### Kidnapping and the Planning Group meeting + +Buckley was seized in the underground garage of his apartment building in Beirut on March 16, 1984. The group that claimed responsibility used the name [[Islamic Jihad Organization]], which the court described as an alias of [[Hezbollah]].[^2] + +A bulletin of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service dated March 29, 1984, reported that a Kuwaiti newspaper described Buckley as the third secretary of the American embassy, said that he was close to Lebanese President [[Amine Gemayel]] and was known to the president's entourage, and attributed the kidnapping to a Soviet intelligence network operating in Syria. The bulletin was placed at Tab L, "Mid-East Press Reports of Buckley's CIA Relationship," of the briefing binder prepared for the [[Director of Central Intelligence]], [[William J. Casey]], for a meeting of the [[National Security Planning Group]] on March 30, 1984, from 11:00 to 12:00 in the [[White House]] Situation Room. A cover memorandum described attendance as limited to principals and the subjects as "the Iran-Iraq war and the Buckley abduction." The binder's other tabs concerned the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi use of chemical weapons, the oil supply and a memorandum by [[Graham Fuller]] arguing for earlier support to Iraq.[^4] + +### Remote viewing sessions + +From March 21 to April 20, 1984, the Army's INSCOM [[Center Lane|CENTER LANE]] project conducted 11 remote-viewing interviews at the request of the CIA concerning Buckley. On March 20 the CIA supplied three essential elements of information: the location of Buckley, his physical and mental condition, and the identity of his captors; on April 10 a fourth was added, who the CIA should contact to arrange his release. A photograph of Buckley taken before the kidnapping cued the first interviews, and later ones were cued with his name, date and place of birth and a photograph "allegedly taken by his captors" that the CIA supplied. The summary states that information from the project "was 'on the streets' in Lebanon hours after being passed to the CIA," that much of it was later verified by other CIA sources, and that no further interviews were conducted after April 20 because the project had exhausted its leads. A memorandum of the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations dated May 1, 1984, stated that the Agency's relationship with CENTER LANE "has been that of a customer," that "we have no Agency people or funds assigned," that its sources "have often 'made contact' far beyond what might be expected by probabilities and coincidence" with "a less than hoped for signal-to-noise ratio and a less than photographic resolution, as well as some outright misses," and that "we would like to continue to call upon CENTER LANE." Lieutenant Colonel [[Brian Buzby]] attached both documents to an overview of May 4, 1984, recommending that the project continue within INSCOM.[^5] The project is also described on the [[Stargate Project]] page. + +### Ransom proposals + +According to the report of Independent Counsel [[Lawrence Walsh]] on the [[Iran-Contra Affair]], [[Michael Ledeen]] said that in 1985 the former CIA official [[Ted Shackley]] told him of a meeting Shackley had in late 1984 with the Iranian [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], who said it might be possible to ransom Buckley; that Shackley in April or May 1985 asked him to relay to the Administration a memorandum on the plan, which the [[State Department]] had already rejected in December 1984; and that he gave the memorandum to [[Oliver North]]. A footnote cites a memorandum from Shackley to General [[Vernon Walters]] of November 22, 1984.[^6] The [[Tower Commission]] report records that Shackley and Ledeen separately told the board that Shackley sent his report to Walters, that in May 1985 Shackley told Ledeen he had no response from Walters, and that in June 1985 Shackley gave Ledeen the report with an update, which Ledeen passed to North, without reading it, with the message that Shackley "had had a contact with an Iranian who had said he thought he could ransom Buckley."[^7] + +In the Walsh report the Israeli talks of 1985 among [[Adolph Schwimmer]], [[Yaakov Nimrodi]] and Ghorbanifar included a proposal that Israel sell Iran 100 TOW missiles, in return for which Ghorbanifar, "as a sign of the power of his contacts in Iran," would obtain the release of Buckley.[^6] On June 7, 1985, North submitted to [[Robert McFarlane]] two plans for the release of the Americans held in Lebanon, both approved by McFarlane; the second was the private ransoming of two hostages, including Buckley, for $2 million, an operation that would take "considerable time (contacts inside Lebanon, financial transactions, and rental of yacht/safehouse)."[^7] Walsh reported that in the spring of 1985 reports reached the CIA that Buckley was being tortured and that, according to Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]], Buckley's fate was of special concern to Casey; that in early September 1985 North asked [[Charles Allen]], the national intelligence officer for counterterrorism, to collect intelligence about Ghorbanifar, his Iranian contact and their contacts in Lebanon, saying the request related to a possible release of Buckley; and that after the delivery of 408 TOW missiles on September 14, 1985, led to the release of the Reverend [[Benjamin Weir]] and not Buckley, "the fact that Buckley had not been released was of special concern, because Administration officials had sought his return first."[^6][^8] + +A report to the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] by Senators [[John Kerry]] and [[Hank Brown]] on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] states that during the trial of the arms dealer Michael Aspin in London, Leslie Aspin testified that a TOW missile sale of 1985 was a legitimate sale authorized by the United States government as part of a 1984 to 1985 effort to ransom Buckley, with the weapons to move from Portugal to Iran, and that in a sworn statement of May 1, 1987, Aspin (the report does not say which of the two) attested that he and North had opened three joint accounts at BCCI in Paris into which North deposited $5 million on November 15, 1984. The subcommittee stated that North denied maintaining such an account, that it had confirmed other accounts in London and Monte Carlo but had no access to the Paris accounts, and that Aspin and the dealer [[Ben Banerjee]] were dead; it adds that a BCCI Paris manager learned in 1988 of an account named Devon Island and was told that it existed but had not been used.[^9] + +### The Islamic Jihad announcement and accounts of the death + +On October 1, 1985, Israeli aircraft bombed the headquarters of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] in Tunis. On October 4 Islamic Jihad announced that it had executed Buckley in retaliation, and on October 12 it issued a further statement, published in Beirut, repeating that it had executed "the American spy" and offering to turn the body over to the [[United Nations]] Secretary-General, [[Javier Perez de Cuellar]], 24 hours before the release of 100 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.[^7][^10] The Tower Commission report states in a footnote that in October 1985 the United States obtained reliable evidence that Buckley had died the preceding June, and that the announcement of October 4 was false according to the [[National Security Council|NSC]] staff chronologies, to Iranians who met CIA and NSC personnel, and to the released hostages Jenco and Jacobsen, who reported that Buckley probably died on June 3, 1985, of "pneumonia-like symptoms."[^7] + +A memorandum dated December 5, 1985, apparently by North, stated: "We are relatively confident of information that former Beirut Chief of Station, Bill Buckley, is dead."[^7] On December 13, 1985, [[Jack Anderson]] and [[Dale Van Atta]] wrote in the *[[Washington Post]]* that the CIA had highly sensitive intelligence leaving no doubt of Buckley's death, while the State Department's official position was that "we assume that he is alive." They wrote that Buckley was taken from the Bekaa Valley to Tehran in early March 1985 disguised as an injured Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldier on a Syrian army helicopter to Damascus and an Iran Air flight, held in a house on Fereshteh Street, interrogated in the basement of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, moved to a Revolutionary Guard camp near Qom after an Iraqi bomb landed near the house, and that he suffered a heart attack induced by torture, probably between April 10 and 15, and died soon after in a Tehran hospital.[^11] In a later column Anderson and Van Atta wrote that the CIA denied their story, that President [[Ronald Reagan]] told them off the record in February 1986 that Buckley was dead, and that the death was publicly acknowledged a year after their report.[^12] + +The *Washington Post* reported in late November 1986 that Buckley had been the CIA's station chief in Beirut and that he had disclosed information under torture; his sister said she retained hope that he was alive and called the reports that he confessed before dying "absurd."[^13] On December 2, 1986, the former hostage [[David Jacobsen]] said on NBC News that he believed Buckley died on the evening of June 3, 1985, recalling that Buckley had been delirious and running a high fever and that guards asked him as a hospital director what they could do and then said "We can't do that" when he told them to get Buckley to a hospital.[^13] On January 20, 1987, Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]] said that an American "in terrorist hands is tortured and, in the case of William Buckley, killed."[^14] + +### The interrogation transcript + +A memorandum from North to [[John Poindexter]] of September 25, 1986, reporting meetings in Washington with an Iranian "Second Channel," stated that the Iranians possessed a 400-page transcript of the torture and debriefing of Buckley; Walsh recorded that [[Clair George]] had been "extremely emotionally involved" in the Buckley matter.[^15] At the Frankfurt meetings of October 5 to 7, 1986, North laid out a seven-step proposal in which the Iranians would use their influence to secure the release of the remaining hostages, the body of Buckley and "a debrief by his captors."[^7] In 1988 Anderson and Van Atta wrote that they had seen a suppressed transcript of the September 1986 meeting, in which an Iranian envoy, [[Ali Hashemi]], a nephew of [[Hashemi Rafsanjani]], said that "Buckley revealed 200 to 300 sensitive names of people and over 400 pages of debriefing," and that Hashemi said Hezbollah passed the information to the Iranians.[^12] Poindexter's plan for the Tehran mission of McFarlane in May 1986 provided that after the delivery of HAWK parts and the release of hostages "the remains of Buckley would be turned over."[^6] + +The *New York Daily News* reported on December 9, 1986, that testimony of Casey and McFarlane had convinced senators that the real motive for the arms sales was to free American hostages, and quoted a source who had heard most of the testimony to the Senate intelligence panel as saying that the primary focus was to free Buckley. Senator [[Frank Murkowski]] was quoted as saying, "It is clear to me that the humanitarian motive to win the freedom of the hostages was the paramount motive."[^16] + +### Remains and burial + +On August 21, 1987, a CIA routing sheet from the Information and Privacy Coordinator asked C/NE for concurrence "as to the extent of disclosure concerning Mr. Buckley"; the reading room indexes the document as "Memorial Service for William F. Buckley" and the following page is withheld.[^17] The CIA held a memorial service in 1985, awarded him a star on its Memorial Wall and the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, and in 1988 laid him symbolically to rest at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].[^1] + +On December 27, 1991, police found a body near the airport highway in Beirut before dawn after an anonymous telephone call, wrapped in cotton and bandages, in a blanket and a plastic bag, as the remains of Lieutenant Colonel [[William Richard Higgins]] had been found the previous weekend. Coroner-General Dr. Ahmed Harati identified the remains as Buckley's. A caller who said he spoke for Islamic Jihad said the body had been released.[^18] + +### Surette v. Islamic Republic of Iran + +His companion of more than twenty years, as administrator of his estate, sued the Islamic Republic of Iran, the [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]] and the [[Ministry of Intelligence and Security|Ministry of Information and Security]] in the District of Columbia in 2001. Service was made through diplomatic channels on September 24, 2001; the clerk entered default on December 5, 2001; and Judge [[Paul L. Friedman]] heard evidence on September 3 and 4, 2002. Witnesses included Chip Beck, Jacobsen by videotape, Dr. [[Patrick Clawson]], Dr. Bruce Tefft, Norman Gardner, the medical examiner Dr. Richard Froede by videotape, and the accountant John Devlin.[^2] + +In its opinion of November 1, 2002, the court found that Buckley had been held captive for 444 days, interrogated, tortured and denied medical care, and had died on June 3, 1985. It credited Jacobsen's testimony that Buckley, held behind plywood partitions, was delirious with fever on his last day, that the captors did not act on suggestions of water, antibiotics and cooling, that Jacobsen heard "death rattles" and then a "tap" he understood to be a silenced gun, and that he later saw a bullet hole in the wall 12 to 24 inches above the floor. It stated that Buckley's remains, recovered years later, were too decomposed to reveal much about his treatment but were found with a catheter and a set of intravenous tubes with a butterfly valve, which Froede and Tefft testified could have been used to cause extreme pain. Norman Gardner testified that videotapes of Buckley in captivity released to the United States came from Iran, and Jacobsen testified that a man called Ali, who had "absolute authority" over the guards, was the Iranian representative to the kidnapping group.[^2] + +The court held Iran, the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security liable under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and entered judgment for $1,021,284 for the estate's lost income, $5,440,000 for the estate's pain and suffering ($10,000 for each of 444 days plus $1,000,000 for the period of facing death alone), $10,000,000 in solatium for his companion and $2,500,000 for his sister, and $300,000,000 in punitive damages against the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry jointly and severally.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "William F. Buckley," Central Intelligence Agency, Honoring Our Heroes. https://cia.gov/legacy/honoring-heroes/heroes/william-f-buckley +[^2]: *Surette v. Islamic Republic of Iran*, 231 F. Supp. 2d 260 (D.D.C. 2002) (Friedman, J.), Civil Action No. 01-0570 (PLF), decided November 1, 2002, findings of fact I.A and I.B, conclusions of law and judgment, pp. 261 to 275. Reporter text at https://thecjf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/final-opinion-Surette.pdf +[^3]: "In Memory of LTC William Buckley," Special Forces Association Chapter 54 memorial page. https://sfob54.org/LTC-William-Buckley.html (secondary source; the CIA states that parts of his career remain classified). +[^4]: "NSPG Meeting on Iran-Iraq War/Buckley Kidnapping, 30 March 1984," contents page, cover memorandum of March 29, 1984, SA/DCI/IA to Director of Central Intelligence, and Tab L (FBIS unnumbered item of March 29, 1984, citing a Kuwaiti newspaper through the Middle East News Agency; the scanned text is partly garbled), CIA-RDP86B00420R000200450001-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86b00420r000200450001-0 +[^5]: "Summary of Investigation, Subject: William F. Buckley, 84-04," CIA-RDP96-00788R001600510002-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00788r001600510002-8; Buzby, Brian, Lieutenant Colonel, "Purpose: To Provide an Overview of Center Lane," May 4, 1984, with attached summary and CIA memorandum "Comments on Recent CENTER LANE Experience," May 1, 1984, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220003-8, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700220003-8 +[^6]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, 1993, chapter 1 ("United States v. Robert C. McFarlane"), text and notes 73, 76 to 78, 82, 101 to 102 and 143. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm +[^7]: *Report of the President's Special Review Board* (Tower Commission), February 1987, declassified copy in CIA-RDP89G00643R001300120001-9, text of Part III on the Iranian initiative, footnotes 7 and 20, and Appendix B (Ledeen and Shackley accounts, page B-4). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00643r001300120001-9 +[^8]: Walsh, *Final Report*, chapter 15 ("William J. Casey"), text and notes 35 and 43. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_15.htm +[^9]: Kerry, John, and Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate*, December 1992, chapter 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence," section "Other Iranian Arms Dealers and BCCI," notes 85 to 89. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm +[^10]: "Text of statement on Buckley," Associated Press, *Boston Globe*, October 13, 1985, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200063-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100200063-2 +[^11]: Anderson, Jack, and Dale Van Atta. "Buckley Is Dead, and Iran Is Responsible," *Washington Post*, December 13, 1985, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200043-4. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200043-4 +[^12]: Anderson, Jack, and Dale Van Atta. "CIA Official Tortured to Death, Gave Secrets," Deseret News, September 28, 1988. https://www.deseret.com/1988/9/28/18779491/cia-official-tortured-to-death-gave-secrets/ See also the transcript of the interview of Dale Van Atta on "Nightwatch," CBS, December 27, 1985, CIA-RDP88G01116R001001550002-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88g01116r001001550002-8 +[^13]: "Buckley Sister Retains Hope," Associated Press, *Washington Post*, November 28, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200023-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100200023-6; "David Jacobsen Comments on Death of William Buckley," NBC Nightly News transcript, December 2, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200048-9, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200048-9; "Ex-Hostage Disputes Date of Buckley Death," Associated Press, *Washington Post*, December 3, 1986, CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200049-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000100200049-8 +[^14]: Gertz, Bill. "Vice President confirms Buckley was tortured and killed," *Washington Times*, January 21, 1987, CIA-RDP90-00965R000302310058-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000302310058-3 +[^15]: Walsh, *Final Report*, chapter 17 ("United States v. Clair E. George"), text and notes 64 to 68, citing North to Poindexter memorandum of September 25, 1986 (AKW 7291 to 7308) and George's deposition of April 24, 1987. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_17.htm +[^16]: "Buckley key to deal, freeing hostages the motive, senators hear," *New York Daily News*, December 9, 1986, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605350007-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605350007-9 +[^17]: Routing and record sheet, Information and Privacy Coordinator, August 21, 1987, "Official Disclosure," CIA-RDP89G00643R001000080034-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00643r001000080034-1 +[^18]: Abu-Nasr, Donna. "Hostage Crisis Is Finally Over for America: William Buckley's Remains Found on Beirut Highway," Associated Press, *The Seattle Times*, December 27, 1991. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19911227/1325252/hostage-crisis-is-finally-over-for-america----william-buckleys-remains-found-on-beirut-highway diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Alexander M. Haig, Jr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Alexander M. Haig, Jr..md index d4ff8af1..243f958e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Alexander M. Haig, Jr..md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Alexander M. Haig, Jr..md @@ -1,17 +1,238 @@ --- -category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs" +category: "Key Figures" tags: - Person + - SecretaryOfState + - NixonAdministration + - Watergate + - HalperinWiretap + - Chile + - NATO + - Falklands + - Osirak - Nuclear - Israel -summary: "Secretary of State under President Reagan who was present at high-command meetings following Israel's 1981 bombing of the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor." + - MGMMirage + - RevolvingDoor +alias: + - Alexander M. Haig, Jr. + - Alexander Haig + - Alexander M. Haig Jr. + - Alexander M. Haig + - Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. + - Al Haig + - General Haig + - Haig +summary: "Kissinger's deputy and a Halperin wiretap defendant, Nixon's chief of staff, NATO commander, Reagan's first Secretary of State, and later a director and paid consultant of MGM Mirage, SDC International and DOR BioPharma." born: 1924-12-02 died: 2010-02-20 -location: "Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania" +location: "Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania (born); Baltimore, Maryland (died)" +relations: + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Henry A. Kissinger]]" + role: "assistant and deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs" + fn: 5 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Halperin v. Kissinger]]" + start: 1973-06 + role: "defendant; summary judgment entered for him in december 1976" + fn: 3 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + start: 1973 + end: 1974 + role: "white house chief of staff" + fn: 13 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Church Committee]]" + reverse: true + start: 1975-08-15 + end: 1975-08-15 + role: "testified on chile track ii" + fn: 5 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe]]" + start: 1974 + end: 1979 + role: "supreme allied commander in europe" + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United Technologies Corporation]]" + start: 1978 + end: 1981 + role: "president and chief operating officer" + fn: 2 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Ronald Reagan]]" + reverse: true + end: 1982-06-25 + role: "secretary of state" + fn: 22 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Haig v. Agee]]" + end: 1981-06-29 + role: "petitioner as secretary of state" + fn: 17 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Worldwide Associates]]" + start: 1984 + role: "chairman and president" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Donald Rumsfeld]]" + reverse: true + start: 1988-01-27 + end: 1988-01-27 + role: "$1,000 to haig for president" + fn: 14 + - type: director_of + with: "[[MGM Mirage]]" + start: 1990 + role: "director" + fn: 27 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[MGM Mirage]]" + start: 1990-05 + role: "consultant; fees of $50,000 in 2000" + fn: 27 + - type: funded + with: "[[MGM Mirage PAC]]" + start: 2000-12-19 + end: 2004-05-04 + role: "three contributions totaling $2,500" + fn: 14 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Interneuron Pharmaceuticals]]" + role: "director" + fn: 27 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[SDC International]]" + start: 1999-05 + role: "strategic advisor; 1 to 2 percent of contracts obtained through his efforts" + fn: 13 + - type: director_of + with: "[[SDC International]]" + start: 2002-01 + role: "director and proxy holder" + fn: 13 + - type: head_of + with: "[[DOR BioPharma]]" + start: 2002-12-23 + role: "non-employee chairman of the board and consultant" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Republican National Committee]]" + start: 1994-01-11 + end: 2008-05-07 + role: "contributions of $750 to $5,000 listing worldwide associates as employer" + fn: 14 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 --- -Alexander M. Haig, Jr. served as the Secretary of State under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak bombing]] in June 1981. While the [[State Department]] formally condemned the bombing, Haig was privately forbearing.[^1] +Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was born on December 2, 1924, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, and died at about 1:30 a.m. on February 20, 2010, at [[Johns Hopkins Hospital]] in [[Baltimore]], at the age of 85; a hospital spokesman attributed his death to complications of an infection.[^1] He was military adviser and then deputy to [[Henry A. Kissinger]] at the [[National Security Council]], [[White House]] chief of staff to [[Richard Nixon]], Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, president of [[United Technologies Corporation]], and Secretary of State under President [[Ronald Reagan]].[^1][^2] Nixon promoted him in 1972 from two-star to four-star rank, passing over 240 officers with greater seniority.[^1] + +### Kissinger's deputy and the 1969 wiretaps + +On May 9, 1969, the [[New York Times]] reported on [[United States]] bombing raids in [[Cambodia]]. The following day, according to the findings recited by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]], officials of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] and Colonel Alexander Haig, Kissinger's assistant, worked out procedures to conduct the surveillance "with no record maintained" in the Bureau's normal files, and the Bureau then formally requested wiretap authorization from the Attorney General. Three other private telephones were tapped in the attempt to find the source of the article. The tap on the home telephone of [[Morton H. Halperin]], a National Security Council staff member, ran from May 1969 to February 1971. At first the logs were kept at the Bureau in special files, where Kissinger and Haig reviewed them; later, summary letters went to Kissinger, to Nixon through [[John Ehrlichman]], and occasionally to [[John Mitchell]], and after May 1970 only to [[H. R. Haldeman]]. The investigation eventually included electronic surveillance of 13 government employees and four newspaper reporters.[^3] + +A memorandum from Haig to Kissinger dated June 4, 1969, supplied "talking points" for a meeting with FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] and recommended continuing the Halperin tap "so that a pattern of innocence can be firmly established," as the court quoted it. The report of the [[House Committee on the Judiciary]] on the impeachment of Nixon, H. Rept. 93-1305, concluded that the May 1969 wiretaps, including Halperin's, were established for "political purposes," as the court cited it.[^3] The Associated Press obituary states that Haig helped arrange the wiretaps of government officials and reporters on Nixon's behalf.[^1] + +### Halperin v. Kissinger + +Halperin and his family sued in the [[United States District Court for the District of Columbia]] in June 1973 (Civil Action No. 1187-73), within a month of the government's admission at the trial of [[Daniel Ellsberg]] that Ellsberg had been overheard on the tap. The defendants were Nixon, Mitchell, Kissinger, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Haig, [[Jeb Magruder]], FBI Director [[Clarence Kelley]], the FBI official [[William C. Sullivan]] and Assistant Attorney General [[Robert Mardian]]; the [[Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company]] was also named. On cross-motions for summary judgment in December 1976 the district court ruled for all defendants except Nixon, Mitchell and Haldeman (424 F.Supp. 838), and in August 1977 it awarded $1 in nominal damages.[^3] + +On July 12, 1979, the court of appeals (606 F.2d 1192) reversed on the application of Title III of the [[Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968]], on damages and on the summary judgment for Kissinger.[^3] The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] affirmed in 1981 by an equally divided Court and dismissed certiorari as to Haldeman (452 U.S. 713). On remand the district court granted summary judgment to all defendants on qualified immunity (578 F.Supp. 231 (1984)). On December 5, 1986, in an opinion by Circuit Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] (807 F.2d 180), the court of appeals held that summary judgment was proper as to the initiation of the wiretap but not as to its continuation after May 1970, and remanded.[^4] + +### Laos and Chile, 1970 and 1971 + +The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, the [[Church Committee]], described Haig as "Kissinger's deputy" and recorded his contacts with [[Thomas Karamessines]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s Deputy Director for Plans, in October 1970, during the CIA's effort to prevent the inauguration of [[Salvador Allende]] in [[Chile]], the operation the Committee called Track II and the CIA's memoranda carried as [[Project FUBELT]]. Karamessines's calendar showed a lunch with Haig on October 8 and meetings on October 15, 19 and 22; on October 10 Karamessines told Haig by telephone, according to a CIA memorandum, that the Station had "made direct contact with a number of the senior military officers" and "received pessimistic reactions from all." At the October 15 meeting of Kissinger, Haig and Karamessines, the CIA memorandum recorded that General [[Roberto Viaux]] did not have more than one chance in twenty of a successful coup, that a message would be sent warning him against precipitate action, and that Kissinger instructed Karamessines to preserve Agency assets in Chile and keep up the pressure on Allende. The CIA cable sent to the Station on October 16 stated that it was "firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup."[^5] + +Kissinger and Haig testified that the October 15 meeting turned off the Agency's coup efforts and that afterwards they were neither informed of nor authorized Track II activities; CIA officials testified that their activities after October 15 were known to and authorized by the White House, and the Committee reported that it could not resolve the conflict. Haig testified on August 15, 1975, that he left the October 15 meeting "with the impression that there was nothing authorized," that he was not familiar with the Valenzuela plan or "$50,000" and had no recollection of a meeting with Karamessines on October 19, the afternoon of the day the Station's cable outlining the plan arrived, that word of the shooting of General [[Rene Schneider]] on October 22 came as "a great shock," and, asked whether he was informed before the attempted abduction, "I don't believe I was at all."[^5] + +On February 3, 1971, Karamessines sent Brigadier General Haig, then Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, two "Top Secret Sensitive/Exclusively Eyes Only" messages for Haig from Ambassador [[William H. Godley]] in [[Laos]], captioned "Operation Gold," received through CIA channels. One reported that a Lao official, Sisouk, had let Godley glance at the Royal Lao Government's draft declaration to be issued after the operation against Tchepone began, and that the Prime Minister had agreed on the need for discretion but wondered whether anything could be kept secret.[^6] + +On January 12, 1972, the CIA's Office of Legislative Counsel recorded that the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] had telephoned Haig about the nomination of a new Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. Haig said the nomination might be presented in the very near future, that he was unaware of plans to alert key senators in advance but thought Senator [[John Stennis]] might be advised, and that he would tell the Director the White House "game plan" once it was decided.[^7] + +### Chief of staff and the August 1974 meetings with Ford + +Haig succeeded Haldeman as White House chief of staff in 1973.[^1] In sworn testimony to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Judiciary Committee on October 17, 1974, President [[Gerald R. Ford]] described two meetings with Haig on August 1, 1974, when Ford was Vice President. In the early morning Haig told him of additional tape evidence due to be delivered to Judge [[John Sirica]] on Monday, August 5. Haig came again at about 3:30 in the afternoon for roughly three-quarters of an hour and told him of the damaging nature of a June 23, 1972, conversation on one of the tapes, of which White House lawyers had told him. Ford testified that Haig outlined the courses under discussion in the White House, among them the President stepping aside under the 25th Amendment, a censure vote, "the question of whether the President could pardon himself," "pardoning various Watergate defendants, then himself, followed by resignation," and "a pardon to the President, should he resign"; that Haig "indicated he was not advocating any of the options"; and that, asked about the pardon power, Haig said it was his understanding from a White House lawyer that a President could grant a pardon before any criminal action was taken. Ford testified that on the morning of August 2 the Nixon lawyer [[James St. Clair]] told him he had not been the source of any opinion about the pardon power, and that late on August 2 he telephoned Haig to say that nothing they had discussed should be given any consideration in Nixon's decision, to which Haig replied that he was in full agreement. Asked whether Haig had discussed a pardon with Nixon or his representatives during the week of August 4 or afterward, Ford answered: "not to my knowledge."[^8] + +The Associated Press obituary states that Haig "suggested to President Gerald Ford that he pardon his predecessor," that he played a key role in persuading Nixon to resign, and that he repeatedly denied speculation that he was "Deep Throat."[^1] It states that he stayed about six weeks with the Ford administration.[^1] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] became Ford's chief of staff on September 27, 1974.[^9] + +### Supreme Allied Commander Europe + +Haig was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe from 1974 to 1979.[^2] On December 5, 1975, George A. Carver Jr., the CIA's Deputy for National Intelligence Officers, informed Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in writing that, at General Haig's request, the CIA had arranged to provide him intelligence support tailored to his needs, concentrating on current political and economic developments and supplementary to the support he received through military channels, and that the arrangements had been endorsed by Rumsfeld's predecessor and the Chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] and set up with the knowledge of the Director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]. A copy went to a CIA file labeled "HAIG SUPPORT."[^10] A CIA reminder of March 6, 1978, directed that General Haig be sent a personal copy of National Intelligence Estimate 4-1 when it came off the press.[^11] + +[[Rowland Evans]] and [[Robert Novak]] wrote in a column printed in the [[Boston Globe]] on January 25, 1981, that in his last days as President, [[Jimmy Carter]] summoned General [[Robert Huyser]], Haig's deputy at [[NATO]] whom Carter had sent to [[Tehran]] in January 1979 over Haig's objections, for a conversation the columnists described as an unsuccessful ploy against Haig's confirmation as Secretary of State; they cited "an intimate of both Huyser and Haig" as saying Huyser was "unshakable" in praising Haig.[^12] + +### United Technologies + +Haig's later corporate biographies give different dates for his presidency of United Technologies: the 2004 proxy statement of DOR BioPharma gives 1978 to 1981, and the 2002 proxy statement of SDC International gives 1979 to 1981 and states that he "remains as a consultant."[^2][^13] The Associated Press obituary places the move after he briefly explored a presidential run in 1979.[^1] On August 15, 1980, "Haig, Alexander M Jr" of Farmington, Connecticut, employer United Technologies, gave $500 to the United Technologies Corporation political action committee.[^14] + +### Secretary of State + +A memorandum by [[Robert Gates]] records the subjects raised at a breakfast between Director of Central Intelligence [[William J. Casey]] and Haig on March 20, 1981, among them NATO security, with State to work with NATO Secretary General [[Joseph Luns]].[^15] On March 30, 1981, after the attempted assassination of Reagan, Haig told reporters in the White House briefing room: "Constitutionally gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to the vice president, he will do so. As for now, I'm in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the vice president and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course."[^1] + +[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Haig was present at a meeting of Reagan's high command following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in June 1981 (the [[Osirak bombing]]), and that while the [[State Department]] formally condemned the bombing, Haig was privately forbearing.[^16] + +On June 29, 1981, the Supreme Court decided [[Haig v. Agee]], in which Haig, as Secretary of State, was the petitioner. The Court upheld the revocation of the passport of [[Philip Agee]], a CIA employee from 1957 to 1968 who had announced a campaign to expose CIA officers and agents; the revocation had been ordered in December 1979, before Haig took office.[^17] + +CIA scheduling memoranda record that Casey planned a meeting with Haig on October 1, 1981, at 3:30 p.m., and that Casey and his deputy, Admiral [[Bobby Ray Inman]], were scheduled for breakfast with Haig on October 6, 1981, and again on January 26, 1982.[^18] The National Intelligence Officer for [[Latin America]] prepared Casey for the October 1 meeting with a memorandum listing four policy alternatives on Cuba and [[Central America]], the third being increased support for [[El Salvador]], Guatemala and Honduras "plus replacement of Sandinista Directorate by Third Force moderates to include the use of US forces to deter or interdict Cuban reinforcement of Nicaragua," and the fourth "direct pressure on Cuba," including an oil blockade. The memorandum stated that there was "virtual consensus among Defense, most of CIA and State" for the third alternative.[^19] + +On April 2, 1982, Casey sent Haig ("Dear Al") a quick intelligence assessment of the military aspects of the "Falkland affair" in the [[Falkland Islands]], which referred to "the Argentine invasion Friday," with a copy to Vice President [[George H.W. Bush]].[^20] On April 14, 1982, Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] told the House of Commons that Haig had made two visits to the [[United Kingdom]] and one to [[Buenos Aires]], praised his "tireless efforts," and said that on his second visit he had put forward ideas concerning the withdrawal of troops and an interim period for negotiations. On April 29 she said that Haig had put formal American proposals to the [[Argentina|Argentine]] government, and on May 4 that he was pursuing initiatives through the Peruvian government.[^21] + +Reagan accepted Haig's resignation by letter on June 25, 1982. Haig's letter of the same date states that he and Reagan had agreed that "consistency, clarity and steadiness of purpose were essential to success" and that "in recent months, it has become clear to me that the foreign policy on which we embarked together was shifting from that careful course which we had laid out."[^22] [[George P. Shultz]] succeeded him.[^1] + +### Worldwide Associates and the CIA, 1984 and 1985 + +[[Worldwide Associates]], a Washington international advisory firm, had Haig as chairman and president from 1984.[^2] Deputy Director of Central Intelligence [[John N. McMahon]] wrote to Haig ("Al") on January 5, 1984, at 1155 15th Street, N.W., Suite 800, that a doctoral candidate and former military officer whose resume Haig had passed to the Agency, whose name is redacted, would join the CIA as a career trainee on April 16, adding: "We're always on the lookout for good people and appreciate your keeping us in mind."[^23] The same address is given for Haig in the 2002 proxy statement of SDC International.[^13] + +The appointment log of Director of Central Intelligence Casey for 1985, as released, lists under Haig a reception and screening of "That's Dancing" hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Haig at the [[Motion Picture Association]], 1600 I Street, N.W., on January 22; a breakfast with Haig at the Madison Hotel on April 10; a reception and screening of "A View to a Kill" at the same address hosted by General and Mrs. Haig on May 31; a breakfast with General Haig at CIA headquarters on November 13; and a cocktail buffet hosted by General and Mrs. Haig on December 20.[^24] + +No registrant named Worldwide Associates, and none named Haig, appears in the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] registrant lists, active or terminated, retrieved from the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s FARA e-file interface on October 1, 2026; the only near matches are the law firm Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens and related Haight registrants.[^25] The Senate and House lobbying disclosure database, which begins in 1999, returns no registrant named Worldwide Associates and no lobbyist named Haig.[^26] + +### Corporate boards + +The proxy statement of [[MGM Mirage]] filed March 27, 2001, lists Haig as a director since 1990 and a consultant to the company since May 1990, holder of options on 10,000 shares, and recipient in 2000 of $50,000 in consulting fees; it describes him as chairman of Worldwide Associates, host of the weekly television program "World Business Review," and a director of [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] Inc., CompuServe Interactive Services and [[Interneuron Pharmaceuticals]]. [[Tracinda]], of which [[Kirk Kerkorian]] was sole director and stockholder, owned 91,221,432 MGM Mirage shares.[^27] + +[[SDC International]] named Haig a director in January 2002; he had been its strategic advisor since May 1999. Its proxy statement filed December 6, 2002, discloses that SDC paid him $85,000 in September 2001 for past services, issued him fully vested options on 300,000 shares at $0.40 when the agreement was renewed on September 9, 2001, and agreed to pay him "between one and two percent of the total gross contract amount of any contract entered into by SDC or any of its subsidiaries which was obtained through the efforts of General Haig." SDC's principal operating entity was its Czech subsidiary [[Tatra]]; [[Terex Corporation]], which had received shares as a strategic advisor, held 12 percent. Haig held 505,000 shares, 2.47 percent, and was one of the two persons named to vote stockholders' proxies.[^13] + +[[DOR BioPharma]] entered into a letter agreement with Haig on December 23, 2002, making him chairman of its board for a retainer of $50,000 a year and options on 2,000,000 shares; its 2004 proxy statement adds that he received a further $50,000 a year for consulting services. The company had executed licence agreements for ricin and botulinum toxin vaccines in January 2003, and its 2003 private placement was handled by [[Paramount Capital]], an investment bank affiliated with its largest stockholder, [[Lindsay Rosenwald]]. The statement lists Haig, then 79, as a director of MGM Mirage, [[Indevus Pharmaceuticals]], SDC International and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and gives Worldwide Associates' address as 4301 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia.[^2] + +### Political contributions and the 1988 campaign + +Haig for President (FEC committee C00214189), with treasurer Dominic J. Saraceno of Virginia, reported receipts of $2,633,083 for the 1988 cycle, including $140,442 in federal matching funds, and remained registered through 2000.[^28] Rumsfeld gave it $1,000 on January 27, 1988.[^14] The Associated Press obituary records that Haig ran unsuccessfully for president in 1988.[^1] + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records list contributions by entries in the name of Haig giving Worldwide Associates as employer, among them $750 to the [[Republican National Committee]] on January 11, 1994, $1,000 to Pete Wilson for President on May 1, 1995, $5,000 to the RNC on July 19, 1996, November 10, 1998, and February 1, 2000, and $2,300 to John McCain 2008 on April 10, 2007. A $1,000 contribution to McCain 2000 dated June 15, 1999, comes from "Haig, Alexander M. Mr. Jr." of [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]] with no employer listed. The records list contributions to the MGM Mirage political action committee of $500 on December 19, 2000, $1,000 on January 31, 2002, and $1,000 on May 4, 2004.[^14] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: "Alexander Haig, Presidential Adviser, Dies," CBS News and Associated Press, February 20, 2010, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexander-haig-presidential-adviser-dies/ +[^2]: DOR BioPharma, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), filed April 28, 2004, accession 0000812796-04-000012, nominee table and biography of General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., "Board of Directors Agreements," "Director Compensation," "Related Party Transactions" and beneficial ownership table, note 8, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/812796/000081279604000012/defproxy.htm +[^3]: Halperin v. Kissinger, 606 F.2d 1192 (D.C. Cir. 1979), Nos. 77-2014 and 77-2015, argued February 9, 1979, decided July 12, 1979, appeal from Civil Action No. 1187-73 (D.D.C.), Part I (statement of facts) and notes 1, 4, 17 to 20, 39 to 41, 82 and 84 (June 4, 1969 memorandum, Joint Appendix 57; H. Rept. 93-1305 at 35 and 146), https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/606/606.F2d.1192.77-2015.77-2014.html +[^4]: Halperin v. Kissinger, 807 F.2d 180 (D.C. Cir. 1986), No. 84-5095, argued May 1, 1985, decided December 5, 1986, opinion of Circuit Justice Scalia (procedural history citing 424 F.Supp. 838, 434 F.Supp. 1193, 452 U.S. 713 and 578 F.Supp. 231), https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/807/807.F2d.180.84-5095.html +[^5]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report," S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, chapter on Chile, findings and section "CIA/White House Communication During Track II" (chronology for October 8, 10, 15, 16, 19 and 22, 1970), citing Haig testimony of August 15, 1975, pp. 12, 13, 26-27, 36 and 38-39, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^6]: Thomas H. Karamessines, Deputy Director for Plans, memorandum for Brigadier General Alexander M. Haig, February 3, 1971, with two attached messages from Ambassador Godley, "Operation Gold," CIA Reading Room, LOC-HAK-477-18-13-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-loc-hak-477-18-13-9 +[^7]: Legislative Counsel, memorandum for the record, "Director's Conversation with General Al Haig, White House Staff, Re DDCI Nomination," OLC 72-0040, January 12, 1972, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP75B00380R000100020156-1, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP75B00380R000100020156-1 +[^8]: Gerald R. Ford, statement before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, House Committee on the Judiciary, October 17, 1974, typescript pp. 6-14, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Philip Buchen Files, Box 34, "Nixon Pardon Hungate Subcommittee, Ford Testimony, 1974/10/17," https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0019/4520699.pdf +[^9]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Armed Services, S. Hrg. 107-749, hearing of January 11, 2001, Committee on Armed Services Form for Donald H. Rumsfeld, Part A, items 9 and 10 (Assistant to the President under Ford, September 27, 1974, to November 18, 1975), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg75903/html/CHRG-107shrg75903.htm +[^10]: George A. Carver Jr., Deputy for National Intelligence Officers, memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, "Intelligence Support for General Haig," December 5, 1975, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP91M00696R000500010003-8, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91M00696R000500010003-8 +[^11]: CIA reminder memo, March 6, 1978 ("Send General Haig a personal copy of NIE 4-1"), CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP80B01554R003200280018-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01554r003200280018-2 +[^12]: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, "Carter failed in effort to block Haig," Boston Globe, January 25, 1981, CIA Reading Room clipping, CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900078-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000301900078-7 +[^13]: SDC International, Inc., preliminary proxy statement (PRE 14A), filed December 6, 2002, accession 0000943440-02-000519, questions and answers, beneficial ownership table, director biographies and "Certain Transactions with Management," https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1005841/000094344002000519/proxy-1202.txt +[^14]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, API queries for contributor names "Haig, Alexander" (two-year periods 1980 to 2010; New Jersey donors of the same name excluded) and "Rumsfeld, Donald" (HAIG FOR PRESIDENT, January 27, 1988), run October 1, 2026, https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^15]: Robert M. Gates, Director, DCI/DDCI Executive Staff, memorandum, "Haig Breakfast, 20 March 1981," CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP89G00720R000100040085-3, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89g00720r000100040085-3 +[^16]: Seymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy (New York: Random House, 1991). +[^17]: Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280 (1981), No. 80-83, argued January 24, 1981, decided June 29, 1981, opinion of Chief Justice Burger, Part I, https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/453/280 +[^18]: CIA Executive Secretary, memoranda "DCI Meeting with Secretary of State Haig, Thursday, 1 October 1981" (September 28, 1981), CIA-RDP84B00890R000300080052-2; "DCI and DDCI Meeting with Secretary of State Haig, Tuesday, 6 October 1981" (September 29, 1981), CIA-RDP84B00890R000300080051-3; and "DCI and DDCI Meeting with Secretary of State Haig, Tuesday, 26 January 1982" (January 19, 1982), CIA-RDP84M00395R000600260026-0, CIA Reading Room, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84b00890r000300080052-2 +[^19]: National Intelligence Officer for Latin America, memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, "Cuba/Central America Strategy Issues for Your Meeting with Secretary Haig, 1 October 1981," September 30, 1981, secret, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP84B00049R001203100015-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84b00049r001203100015-4 +[^20]: William J. Casey to Alexander M. Haig, Jr., April 2, 1982, with "Quick Intelligence Assessment on Falkland Affairs (April 2, 1982)," CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP84B00049R000701780017-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84b00049r000701780017-6 +[^21]: House of Commons, "Falkland Islands," HC Deb 14 April 1982 vol 21 cc1146-208, HC Deb 29 April 1982 vol 22 cc980-1059, and HC Deb 4 May 1982 vol 23 cc16-8 (statements of the Prime Minister), https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1982/apr/14/falkland-islands, https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1982/apr/29/falkland-islands and https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1982/may/04/falkland-islands +[^22]: Ronald Reagan, "Letter Accepting the Resignation of Alexander M. Haig, Jr., as Secretary of State," June 25, 1982, with Haig's letter of resignation of the same date, Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/letter-accepting-the-resignation-alexander-m-haig-jr-secretary-state +[^23]: John N. McMahon, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, to General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., USA (Ret.), January 5, 1984, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP86B00885R000100060077-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp86b00885r000100060077-6 +[^24]: Director of Central Intelligence, appointment and contact log for 1985, entries under "HAIG, Alexander," CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP93-00415R000200210008-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp93-00415r000200210008-9 +[^25]: U.S. Department of Justice, FARA e-file API, Registrants (Active, 537 rows) and Registrants (Terminated, 6,552 rows), retrieved October 1, 2026, https://efile.fara.gov/api/v1/Registrants/json/Active and https://efile.fara.gov/api/v1/Registrants/json/Terminated (name search; short-form registrants and foreign principals not searched). +[^26]: Lobbying Disclosure Act filings database, API queries for registrant name "Worldwide Associates" and lobbyist name "Haig," run October 1, 2026, https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/ +[^27]: MGM Mirage, Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), filed March 27, 2001, accession 0000912057-01-008537, nominee table, notes on options, and "Certain Transactions," https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789570/000091205701008537/a2041387zdef14a.htm +[^28]: Federal Election Commission, committee C00214189, Haig for President, committee record and financial totals by cycle, https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00214189/totals/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Jensen.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Jensen.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b69cbb2b --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Arthur Jensen.md @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +--- +category: "Scientists & Researchers" +tags: + - Person + - ArthurJensen + - PioneerFund + - RaceScience + - HumanBiodiversity + - UCBerkeley + - HarvardEducationalReview + - MankindQuarterly + - Psychometrics +alias: + - Arthur Jensen + - Arthur R. Jensen + - Arthur Robert Jensen +summary: "Berkeley educational psychologist whose 1969 Harvard Educational Review article on IQ and race was inserted in the Congressional Record and who is named on the Pioneer Fund's own list of grantees." +born: 1923-08-24 +died: 2012-10-22 +location: "San Diego, California (born); Kelseyville, California (died)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[University of California, Berkeley]]" + start: 1958 + role: "professor of educational psychology" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Pioneer Fund]]" + reverse: true + role: "named as a grantee on the fund's own grantees page; the fund paid the Institute for the Study of Educational Differences 1,071,500 dollars from 1973 to 1990, and a 1983 report by Jensen and a coauthor acknowledges that institute's support" + fn: 3 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity]]" + role: "submitted a written statement for a hearing scheduled for February 24, 1972, which was not held" + fn: 9 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Arthur Robert Jensen (August 24, 1923, to October 22, 2012) was an educational psychologist who joined the faculty of the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1958. His 123-page article "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" appeared in the Winter 1969 issue of the [[Harvard Educational Review]] and was entered in full in the [[Congressional Record]] by Representative [[John Rarick]] on May 28, 1969. The [[Pioneer Fund]]'s own web page lists him among its grantees.[^1][^2][^3] + +### Education and Berkeley Appointment + +Jensen was born in [[San Diego]], took a bachelor's degree in psychology at [[Berkeley]] and a master's at [[San Diego State College]], and received his doctorate from [[Columbia University]] in 1956. He then spent two postdoctoral years in [[Hans Eysenck]]'s laboratory in [[London]]. His first academic appointment at Berkeley, in the Department of Educational Psychology, dated from 1958. In 1966 and 1967 he spent a year at the [[Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences]] in [[Palo Alto]]. He died at his home in [[Kelseyville, California|Kelseyville]], California, and was then professor emeritus.[^1] + +In October 1967 he was professor of educational psychology and research psychologist in the Institute of Human Learning of the [[University of California]], Berkeley, and gave a speech to the California Advisory Council of Educational Research in San Diego.[^4] + +### The Berkeley Desegregation Evaluation + +Jensen described the following sequence in a paper printed in the Senate committee compilation of 1972. In 1967 the [[Berkeley Board of Education]] voted to desegregate its elementary schools by two-way busing, approved in January 1968 and put into effect the following September, with about 3,500 of 9,000 elementary pupils bused each day. Chancellor [[Roger Heyns]] formed an advisory committee at the school officials' request; Jensen was first called to confer in November 1967, and in late December Heyns asked him to direct the evaluation. Jensen wrote the proposal in January 1968, trained 15 testers, half white and half Negro, and had them test the district's 9,000 elementary pupils in April and May 1968 to obtain baseline data. He wrote that he insisted on outside testers and that his continuing as director was contingent on it.[^5] + +He wrote that a group called the [[Community for New Politics]] protested the study at the board meeting of May 7, 1968, alleging racist bias, and that he rebutted at the meeting of May 21. He also wrote that local newspapers publicized his views on race differences "quite luridly," including once with a red two-inch banner headline, and that it was agreed that the dean of the School of Education would become principal investigator, with Jensen "far into the background" as research psychologist.[^5] In his account the Harvard Educational Review published his article in the first week of March 1969. A spokesman for one group proposed at a board meeting that the evaluation be halted and the baseline data destroyed; at the next meeting the board announced that the district would dissociate itself from the university's project, about two weeks after the spring 1969 testing had begun. Jensen wrote that the testers completed the testing, that the school administration kept the results, and that a school official explained that "the schools were not a research institute, but a political unit."[^5] + +Jensen's report on the spring 1968 questionnaires, published in May 1970 as Research Resume No. 43 of the California Advisory Council on Educational Research of the [[California Teachers Association]], covers 337 Berkeley elementary teachers and the parents of over 8,000 pupils. Its abstract states that the vast majority of teachers favored integration and busing, that a majority of parents favored integration but approved busing less as a means of achieving it, and that a majority of every racial group favored ability grouping.[^6] + +### Federal Contract Research + +The final report of July 1970, "An Experimental Analysis of Learning Abilities in Culturally Disadvantaged Children," records that it resulted from a contract between the [[Office of Economic Opportunity]] and the University of California, Contract Number OEO 2404, with Jensen and [[William D. Rohwer Jr.]] as principal investigators; the acknowledgments name [[Douglas Penfield]] as project director and describe studies in three school districts.[^7] A paper of 1970, "Can We and Should We Study Race Differences?", is registered in ERIC with an abstract that begins: "We need to find out the extent to which individual differences, social class differences and race differences in rates of cognitive development, and differential patterns of relative strength and weakness are attributable to genetically conditioned biological growth factors."[^8] + +### The 1967 Speech and the 1969 Article + +The October 1967 speech carries the title the article later used.[^4] The article opens: "Compensatory education has been tried and it apparently has failed." In the text Jensen wrote that "such an hypothesis is anathema to many social scientists," meaning an hypothesis that genetic factors play a part in the lower average intelligence and scholastic performance of Negroes, and then: "The fact that a reasonable hypothesis has not been rigorously proved does not mean that it should be summarily dismissed." He concluded that the evidence made it "a not unreasonable hypothesis that genetic factors are strongly implicated in the average Negro-white intelligence difference," adding that "the preponderance of the evidence is, in my opinion, less consistent with a strictly environmental hypothesis than with a genetic hypothesis, which, of course, does not exclude the influence of environment or its interaction with genetic factors."[^2] + +The editors' note printed with the article announced that the Spring 1969 issue would carry a discussion by five psychologists: [[Carl Bereiter]], [[Lee Cronbach]], [[James F. Crow|James Crow]], [[David Elkind]] and [[J. McVicker Hunt]].[^2] The article's text cites "Shuey (1966), whose 578 page review is the most comprehensive, covering 382 studies," and its reference list includes [[Robert E. Kuttner|Kuttner]]'s "Biochemical anthropology" in *Race and Modern Science* ([[Social Science Press]], 1967) and a Kuttner letter in *[[Perspectives in Biology and Medicine]]* of 1968.[^2] Radical groups disrupted his lectures, students chanted "Dr. Jensen is inside. He is teaching genocide," his car tires were slashed, he received death threats, the university gave him a pair of bodyguards, and police X-rayed his mail.[^1] + +### Congressional Record Insertion + +On May 28, 1969, Representative John Rarick of [[Louisiana]], recognized by the House for 30 minutes, stated: "because of the significant findings of Dr. Arthur L. [sic] Jensen of the Institute for Human Learning at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif., in the field of environment, heredity, and behavior, I include his work." The article and its references occupy pages 14190 to 14217 of the Congressional Record for that day.[^2] + +### Senate Select Committee, 1972 + +The Senate [[Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity]], chaired by [[Walter Mondale]], scheduled a hearing on "Environment, Intelligence and Scholastic Achievement" for February 24, 1972. The hearing could not be held as planned, and in June 1972 the committee printed the statements of the scheduled witnesses with research papers on the same topic. Jensen's statement runs pages 55 to 68, followed by reprints of the 1969 article and six other papers by him, among them "Can We and Should We Study Race Differences?" and "Do Schools Cheat Minority Children?"[^9] + +The print also contains [[Richard Herrnstein]]'s "IQ" from [[The Atlantic Monthly]] of September 1971, an article by Eysenck, and two papers by [[William B. Shockley]], "Dysgenics: A Social Problem Reality Evaded by the Illusion of Infinite Plasticity of [[Human Intelligence]]" and "Dysgenics, Geneticity, Raceology: A Challenge to the Intellectual Responsibility of Educators." It reproduces the Harvard Educational Review's reprint series on the controversy, including a [[Black Student Union]] statement and "The SPSSI statement."[^9] + +In his statement Jensen wrote that he had been on the Berkeley faculty for 14 years, that no one taking the contrary position had had to endure "personal threats, prolonged harassment, invasion of his college classes by disruptive demonstrations," or two plainclothes police bodyguards, and that a newsletter of the [[American Anthropological Association]] had proposed that members burn copies of the Review. He stated: "My position is that there is now sufficient evidence to seriously question the 100-percent environmental theories of the mean white-black intelligence difference."[^9] + +The statement gave empirically determined heritabilities of IQ as "usually of the order of .70 to .80," said that in European and North American Caucasian populations genetic factors were "roughly twice as important as environmental variation" as a cause of individual differences, and put the average white-black difference in the [[United States]] at approximately one standard deviation, or 15 IQ points. It offered as an hypothesis that the heritability of IQ is the same within the white and black populations as between them and that the genetic variance involved in IQ is about one-fifth less in the black than in the white population. It proposed three educational approaches, the pursuit of aptitude-by-training interactions, greater attention to learning readiness, and greater diversity of curricula and goals, and stated that none of them was "based on the expectation of the schools' significantly changing children's basic intelligence."[^9] + +### Pioneer Fund Money + +The [[Institute for the Study of Educational Differences]] appears in the ledger of Pioneer Fund grants that [[Barry Mehler]] compiled from the fund's returns, which lists grantees by institution. Its nominal payments were 10,000 dollars in each of 1973, 1974 and 1975; 20,000 dollars in 1976; 30,000 in 1977 and 1978; 47,000 in 1979; 63,000 in 1980; 70,000 in 1981; 50,000 in 1982; 6,000 in 1983; 90,000 in 1984; 96,000 in 1985; 134,500 in 1986; 107,000 in 1987; 98,000 in 1988; and 100,000 in 1989 and 1990. The total is 1,071,500 dollars, about 10 percent of the 10,670,040.55 dollars the ledger records for all grantees from 1971 to 1996, and no payment to the institute appears after 1990.[^10] + +The [[Internal Revenue Service]] listed "Institute for the Study of Educational Differences, Orinda, Ca." among organizations eligible to receive deductible gifts in the editions of its Publication 78 revised to October 31, 1982, and October 31, 1985.[^11] A report by Philip A. Vernon and Jensen, dated 1983 in the ERIC catalog, states: "This study was supported by the Institute for the Study of Educational Differences."[^12] The ledger's entries for the University of California total 221,600 dollars from 1971 to 1996, of which 218,000 dollars were paid from 1991 to 1996; the ledger does not state whom these grants supported.[^10] + +The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] wrote that Jensen "got more than $1 million in Pioneer grants over three decades."[^13] The fund's grantees page of February 2003 describes Jensen as "Professor Emeritus Arthur R. Jensen of the University of California at Berkeley" and "todays leading exponent of the position that all mental tasks, even simple reaction time tests, reflect a unitary general factor termed g," and names him again among grantees who "significantly extended the scope of the debate about racial differences" with *The g Factor* (1998).[^3] The fund's page headed "Controversies" poses the question "But the Pioneer Fund has supported researchers such as Audrey Shuey, Henry Garrett, Arthur Jensen, [[Richard Lynn]], and [[J. Philippe Rushton]]? Didnt they all set out to prove that Blacks are inferior?" and answers: "Pioneer grantees are not interested in proving that any one group has a particular average IQ or anything else."[^14] + +### Mankind Quarterly and Social Science Press + +The issue of *[[Mankind Quarterly]]* for January to March 1973, edited in [[Edinburgh]] by [[Robert Gayre]] with [[Henry Garrett]] as honorary associate editor, Robert Kuttner as an assistant editor and [[Audrey Shuey]] on the honorary advisory board, printed [[Dale C. Adams]]'s "Farewell to Behaviourism," which begins by comparing Copernicus with Jensen: "some credit for the world henceforth admitting that human life revolves around heredity may be given to Arthur Jensen."[^15] The issue of January to March 1972 advertised, under the imprint Social Science Press, Kuttner's *Race and Modern Science* and Shuey's *The Testing of Negro Intelligence,* described as "578 pages" summarizing "382 studies."[^16] An article by [[Nathaniel Weyl]] in the same issue names Jensen, William B. Shockley and [[R. Travis Osborne]] as having presented evidence that the Negro-white intelligence gap was widening.[^17] + +The issue of Summer 1990, published in Washington by [[The Cliveden Press]], carried [[J. W. Jamieson]]'s "Arthur Jensen and the Heritability of I.Q.: A Case Study in the Violation of Academic Freedom." Jamieson's affiliation is given as the [[Institute for the Study of Man]], which the Pioneer ledger lists at 944,000 dollars for 1971 to 1996.[^10][^18] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Loehlin, John C. "Arthur R. Jensen, 1923-2012," *Twin Research and Human Genetics* 16, Supplement 1 (February 2013), pp. 499-500, doi:10.1017/thg.2012.143. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/arthur-r-jensen-19232012/F033208B342BBA3F1C97E3055FFE17D4 +[^2]: Remarks of Representative John R. Rarick of Louisiana, "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement," inserting Arthur R. Jensen, "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" *Harvard Educational Review* 39, no. 1 (Winter 1969), pp. 1-123, *Congressional Record* (House), May 28, 1969, pp. 14190-14217 (editors' note on the Spring issue at p. 14190; "Compensatory education has been tried and it apparently has failed" at p. 14190; the passage on a "not unreasonable hypothesis" at p. 14207; reference list). https://archive.org/details/1969-jensen-in-congressional-record +[^3]: The Pioneer Fund, Inc., "Grantees: Highlights of Pioneer Fund Research and Grantees," web page, capture of February 26, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20030226195940id_/http://www.pioneerfund.org:80/Grantees.html +[^4]: Jensen, Arthur R. "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" speech to the annual meeting of the California Advisory Council of Educational Research, San Diego, October 1967, 17 pp., ERIC document ED023722 (author note and abstract). https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153036_0091 +[^5]: Jensen, Arthur R. "Assessment of Racial Desegregation in the Berkeley Schools," in U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, *Environment, Intelligence, and Scholastic Achievement: A Compilation of Testimony* (Committee Print, June 1972), pp. 523-541. https://archive.org/details/1972-senate-testimony +[^6]: Jensen, Arthur R. "Parent and Teacher Attitudes Toward Integration and Busing," Research Resume No. 43, California Advisory Council on Educational Research, California Teachers Association, Burlingame, May 1970, 51 pp., ERIC document ED041092 (abstract and title page). https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153160_0387 +[^7]: Jensen, Arthur R., and William D. Rohwer Jr. "An Experimental Analysis of Learning Abilities in Culturally Disadvantaged Children," Final Report, Office of Economic Opportunity Contract OEO 2404, University of California, Berkeley, July 1970, 205 pp., ERIC document ED043690 (title page and acknowledgments). https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153158_0296 +[^8]: Jensen, Arthur R. "Can We and Should We Study Race Differences?" 1970, 60 pp., ERIC document ED041059 (abstract). https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153160_0356 +[^9]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, *Environment, Intelligence, and Scholastic Achievement: A Compilation of Testimony* (Committee Print, 92d Cong., 2d sess., June 1972), Foreword, table of contents, and "Statement of Arthur R. Jensen," pp. 55-68. https://archive.org/details/1972-senate-testimony +[^10]: Mehler, Barry, comp. "Pioneer Fund Grants, 1971-1996," Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, compiled from the fund's Internal Revenue Service returns; nominal-dollar tables in Part I (1971-1975, capture of February 2, 2002), Part II (1976-1980, capture of February 14, 2002), Part III (1981-1985, capture of February 2, 2002), Part IV (1986-1990, capture of January 29, 2002), Part V (1991-1996, capture of January 29, 2002) and Part VI (totals, capture of March 9, 2002), read at https://web.archive.org/web/20020202075204id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp1.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020214214926id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/PFp2.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020202045118id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp3.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020129112308id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp4.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020129113141id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp5.htm and https://web.archive.org/web/20020309164506id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp6.htm +[^11]: Internal Revenue Service, *Cumulative List of Organizations Described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954* (Publication 78), revised to October 31, 1982 (https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152660_0032) and revised to October 31, 1985 (https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152806_0979), entry "Institute for the Study of Educational Differences, Orinda, Ca. (3)." +[^12]: Vernon, Philip A., and Arthur R. Jensen. "Individual and Group Differences in Intelligence and Speed of Information Processing," [1983], ERIC document ED237624, p. 32 (note: "This study was supported by the Institute for the Study of Educational Differences."). https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153452_0481 +[^13]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "Pioneer Fund," Extremist Files, passage on Arthur Jensen's grants. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/pioneer-fund/ +[^14]: The Pioneer Fund, Inc., "Controversies: Setting the Record Straight," web page, capture of February 19, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20030219052001id_/http://www.pioneerfund.org:80/Controversies.html +[^15]: *Mankind Quarterly* 13, no. 3 (January-March 1973), Edinburgh, masthead (editor R. Gayre of Gayre; honorary associate editors Henry E. Garrett, Mario Cappieri and Frank C. J. McGurk; assistant editor Robert Kuttner; honorary advisory board including Audrey M. Shuey), and Dale C. Adams, "Farewell to Behaviourism." https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^16]: *Mankind Quarterly* 12, no. 3 (January-March 1972), advertisements for the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics, Inc. (New York), and for Social Science Press: Robert E. Kuttner, ed., *Race and Modern Science* (484 pages, 7.95 dollars) and Audrey M. Shuey, *The Testing of Negro Intelligence* (578 pages, 6.50 dollars). https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^17]: Weyl, Nathaniel. "Racial Discrimination and the Conservative Outlook," *Mankind Quarterly* 12, no. 3 (January-March 1972), pp. 129ff. (passage citing Arthur Jensen, William Shockley and R. Travis Osborne, following the page marked 133). https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^18]: Jamieson, J. W. (Institute for the Study of Man). "Arthur Jensen and the Heritability of I.Q.: A Case Study in the Violation of Academic Freedom," *Mankind Quarterly* 30, no. 4 (Summer 1990), pp. 351ff., published by The Cliveden Press, Washington, D.C. https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ben Horowitz.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ben Horowitz.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..77f67878 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ben Horowitz.md @@ -0,0 +1,232 @@ +--- +category: "Technologists" +tags: + - Person + - BenHorowitz + - AndreessenHorowitz + - VentureCapital + - SiliconValley + - Opsware + - PoliticalMoney + - SuperPAC + - Policing + - LasVegas + - Fairshake + - Trump +alias: + - Ben Horowitz + - Benjamin Horowitz + - Benjamin A. Horowitz + - Horowitz, Ben +summary: "Cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and former chief executive of Loudcloud and Opsware, whose family foundation gave 7,255,132 dollars to the Las Vegas police foundation and who funded crypto, AI and Trump super PACs." +location: "Las Vegas, Nevada" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Andreessen Horowitz]]" + start: 2009 + role: "cofounder and general partner" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Marc Andreessen]]" + start: 1999-09 + role: "cofounder of Loudcloud in 1999 and of Andreessen Horowitz in 2009" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Netscape]]" + start: 1995-07 + end: 1999-04 + role: "vice president" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[America Online]]" + start: 1999-04 + end: 1999-09 + role: "vice president and general manager, E-Commerce Platform division" + fn: 3 + - type: founded + with: "[[Opsware]]" + start: 1999-09 + role: "cofounder of Loudcloud, later renamed Opsware" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Opsware]]" + start: 1999-09 + end: 2007 + role: "president and chief executive of Loudcloud and Opsware" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Opsware]]" + start: 1999-09 + role: "director" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Hewlett-Packard]]" + start: 2007 + role: "vice president and general manager, Business Technology Optimization for Software" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Databricks]]" + role: "board member per a16z biography, 2026" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Anyscale]]" + role: "board member per a16z biography, 2026" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Navan]]" + role: "board member per a16z biography, 2026" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[NationBuilder]]" + role: "board member per a16z biography, 2026" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[AliphCom]]" + start: 2012-05 + role: "director, signatory of board consent" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation]]" + role: "through the Horowitz Family Foundation, 500,000 dollars (year to June 2021), 2,015,000 dollars (June 2023), 4,740,132 dollars (June 2024)" + fn: 13 + - type: funded + with: "[[Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department]]" + start: 2025 + role: "Tesla Cybertrucks donated directly with Felicia Horowitz, outside the foundation" + fn: 12 + - type: funded + with: "[[Fairshake]]" + start: 2023-10-23 + end: 2025-12-10 + role: "45,400,000 dollars attributed on the committee's filings" + fn: 17 + - type: funded + with: "[[Right for America]]" + start: 2024-07-22 + end: 2024-07-22 + role: "2,500,000 dollars" + fn: 20 + - type: funded + with: "[[BlackPAC]]" + start: 2024-10-07 + end: 2024-10-07 + role: "2,500,000 dollars" + fn: 20 + - type: funded + with: "[[MAGA Inc.]]" + start: 2025-02-04 + end: 2026-03-10 + role: "6,000,000 dollars in three contributions" + fn: 22 + - type: funded + with: "[[Leading the Future]]" + start: 2025-08-22 + end: 2026-02-11 + role: "25,000,000 dollars in two contributions attributed on the filings" + fn: 22 + - type: funded + with: "[[Senate Leadership Fund]]" + start: 2024-03-07 + end: 2026-03-19 + role: "1,250,000 dollars attributed in four contributions" + fn: 18 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[David Horowitz]]" + role: "son" + fn: 25 + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Felicia Horowitz]]" + role: "husband" + fn: 11 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Ben Horowitz (Benjamin A. Horowitz) is a cofounder and general partner of the venture capital firm [[Andreessen Horowitz]] (a16z), which he and [[Marc Andreessen]] started in 2009.[^1] He worked in product marketing at [[Lotus Development Corporation]] before joining [[Netscape]] in July 1995, where he ran product divisions including the Directory and Security line; was vice president and general manager of the E-Commerce Platform division of [[America Online]] in 1999; and from September 1999 was cofounder, president and chief executive of Loudcloud, which became [[Opsware]] and was acquired by [[Hewlett-Packard]] in 2007. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from [[Columbia University]] and a master's from the [[University of California, Los Angeles]].[^2][^3] His a16z biography lists board seats at [[Anyscale]], [[Databricks]], [[Mayvenn]], [[NationBuilder]], [[Navan]] and [[UnitedMasters]], and credits him with creating the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund.[^2] + +### Loudcloud + +The proxy statement of Loudcloud, Inc. for its annual meeting of June 26, 2001, filed with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] on May 25, 2001, states that Horowitz "is a co-founder of Loudcloud and has served as the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director since September 1999," and that he had been at America Online from April to September 1999 and a vice president at Netscape Communications from July 1995 to April 1999. The board consisted of Horowitz, Andreessen, [[Andrew Rachleff]] of [[Benchmark Capital]], [[William V. Campbell]] and [[Michael Ovitz]].[^3] + +The proxy reports Horowitz's salary as 210,000 dollars for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2001 and 35,000 dollars for the period from the company's inception in September 1999 to January 2000, with an option grant of 500,000 shares; he was the only named executive granted options that year. As of May 11, 2001 he beneficially owned 4,158,453 shares, 5.5 percent of the class, of which 3,873,453 were held individually and 285,000 by the Horowitz Family Limited Partnership, and 2,288,334 were subject to the company's right of repurchase. Andreessen's trust held 9,110,899 shares (12.0 percent) and entities affiliated with Benchmark Capital 10,010,712 shares (13.2 percent). Entities affiliated with [[Amerindo Investment Advisors]] reported 4,323,502 shares (5.6 percent) on a Schedule 13G dated April 6, 2001.[^3] + +### Sale of Opsware to Hewlett-Packard + +Opsware's Schedule 14D-9 of August 3, 2007, which names Horowitz as chief executive and the person authorized to receive notices, responds to a tender offer by Hewlett-Packard at 14.25 dollars per share in cash. It narrates that Andreessen, Horowitz and [[John O'Farrell]] met senior executives of HP and other companies between January 30 and February 14, 2007; that on January 30 [[Thomas Hogan]] and [[Sandeep Johri]] of HP Software met Horowitz and O'Farrell; that on May 21 the chief executive of an unnamed "Company No. 1" sent Horowitz a written offer of 11 dollars per share on a day when Opsware closed at 7.97 dollars; that the board told bidders it would not consider offers below 14 dollars; that Company No. 1 raised its offer to 13.25 dollars on June 21 and to 14 dollars on July 5; that Opsware retained [[Goldman Sachs]] effective July 6; and that HP's chief technology officer, [[Shane Robison]], telephoned Horowitz on July 14 to express HP's interest; on the afternoon of July 18 Robison indicated that, subject to approval by HP's board, HP would be willing to pay 14.25 dollars per share in cash.[^4] + +The board named in the filing is Campbell, [[Simon Lorne]], Ovitz and [[Michelangelo Volpi]] as non-employee directors and Andreessen as chairman; the executive officers include Horowitz, [[Timothy Howes]] and O'Farrell. The directors and executive officers agreed in tender agreements to tender their shares. As of July 16, 2007 they beneficially owned 16,756,791 shares and vested options on 7,623,156 shares, and the filing calculates that they would receive about 319,001,551 dollars in the offer and merger. Horowitz's stock option agreement of February 24, 2004 provided that half of the unvested shares would vest on a change in control, with the rest vesting monthly over the following year, and that all of them would vest on a termination without cause. The filing's table gives Horowitz 1,065,627 shares under unvested options, with accelerated value of 150,750 dollars on the change in control itself and 7,489,921 dollars on an involuntary termination not for cause.[^4] The a16z biography states that HP paid 1.6 billion dollars for Opsware and appointed Horowitz vice president and general manager of Business Technology Optimization for Software.[^2] + +### AliphCom (Jawbone) + +An action by unanimous written consent of the board of directors of [[AliphCom]], the maker of Jawbone wearable devices, dated May 2012 and approving a common stock financing, carries signature lines for five directors: [[Alexander Asseily]], [[Roelof Botha]], Horowitz, [[Hosain Rahman]] and [[David Weiden]].[^5] Botha was then a partner of [[Sequoia Capital]]. + +An authorization to disburse funds for AliphCom's Series 8 preferred stock financing names Mort, Inc. as the purchaser, in the amount of 1,249,996.88 dollars, with the date left blank.[^6] On February 4, 2016 [[Richard Kahn]] forwarded to [[Jeffrey Epstein]] a "Mort Series 8 Timeline" sent to him that day by Andrew Lindsay of Jawbone, which stated that Jawbone negotiated the Series 8 terms with [[JPMorgan Chase]] and Sequoia Capital in July 2015, that [[BlackRock]] invested 50 million dollars on July 21, 2015, that the initial Series 8 closing of 40 million dollars from JPMorgan and Sequoia was completed on July 24, 2015, and that Jawbone e-mailed Mort on August 13 about investing on the same terms. Kahn asked Epstein whether to send an email requesting the money back or pass.[^7] A notice dated July 7, 2017 states that AliphCom, doing business as Jawbone, made an assignment for the benefit of creditors on June 19, 2017.[^8] + +### Las Vegas Police Donations + +On October 11, 2024 Horowitz published a post titled "Safety First" on the a16z website, opening with a statement that [[TechCrunch]] was "working on yet another piece on me." He wrote that he and his wife, [[Felicia Horowitz]], had donated 800,000 dollars for computer terminals, about 120,000 dollars for an ice machine, a cappuccino machine and a gymnasium, 400,000 dollars for technology from the a16z portfolio company [[Prepared911]], and "approximately $6.3 million dollars" toward the products of the a16z portfolio companies [[Skydio]] and [[Flock Safety]], for the [[Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department]] (LVMPD). He wrote that "By donating the technology, I am able to give LVMPD a running start," described a sequence in which a Flock license plate alert dispatches a Skydio drone automatically, and reported that the share of 911 calls answered in under 15 seconds had risen to 95 percent for the year through September 2024 from 66 percent, and that homicides had fallen from 101 to 80.[^9] + +Margaux MacColl and Sean O'Kane of TechCrunch reported on November 8, 2024, from more than 100 emails between Horowitz and the department and internal police emails, mostly from January 2023 to July 2024, obtained by public records request, that LVMPD chief of staff [[Mike Gennaro]] had forwarded a Skydio proposal to Horowitz, who replied "Which deployment are you looking to do?" and was told "Whatever you want, Ben." Horowitz then sent money to the police foundation to buy Skydio drones. He questioned the scope of Skydio's proposal, which included drone docks on schools, writing "I thought that we just wanted this for the 11 neighborhoods" and "They bid the schools too. Is that what we asked for?"; Gennaro replied that "We can adjust however you see fit," and LVMPD said that no drone docks had been installed in its jurisdiction. Three months later, raising another a16z company, [[Kodex]], Horowitz wrote: "If it's a good idea, I am happy to help, but let's not let the company know that. We don't need another Skyd.io proposal lol." The reporters wrote that Horowitz had facilitated communication between LVMPD and at least six a16z portfolio companies, that police leadership had concerns about a proposed donation of technology from the a16z-backed company [[Toka]], and that an LVMPD sergeant who had evaluated Skydio drones later became a program manager at Skydio. An a16z spokesperson said there was "nothing more for Ben to share beyond his blog post."[^10] + +The same report states that a16z held its 2023 limited partner summit in Las Vegas, where Sheriff [[Kevin McMahill]], in uniform, sat between the Flock Safety founder [[Garrett Langley]] and the a16z partner [[David Ulevitch]] and said of Flock's products that "Every piece of that technology is the equivalent of three police officers."[^10] Estelle Atkinson of the [[Las Vegas Review-Journal]] reported on February 6, 2025 that Metro had accepted at least 7 million dollars from Horowitz through the foundation that supports it, that the donations had funded license plate readers, drones, communications center upgrades and a 911 upgrade, and that McMahill appeared in an interview with Andreessen and Horowitz posted on the firm's YouTube channel on November 18, 2024, in which he said that most of Metro's 1.5 billion dollar budget goes to salaries and benefits and spoke of enveloping high-crime areas in "technology bubbles." The University of Chicago sociologist [[Robert Vargas]] asked: "Are they accountable to the public, or are they accountable to their donors?" LVMPD said in a statement that "If we can envelop neighborhoods in a technology bubble, we can reduce crime and save people's lives."[^11] Akiya Leggio of the Review-Journal reported on February 26, 2025 that LVMPD stated "Ben and Felicia Horowitz donated the Cybertrucks to LVMPD" and that "This donation did not go through the LVMPD Foundation," after McMahill announced in his State of the Department address that Metro had ordered 10 [[Tesla]] Cybertrucks as patrol and SWAT vehicles that would not affect its general budget.[^12] + +### Horowitz Family Foundation + +The Horowitz Family Foundation (employer identification number 35-7050910) is a private foundation that files Form 990-PF for fiscal years ending June 30, prepared by Frank Rimerman and Co. Its trustees are Felicia Annette Horowitz and a second family member, and its contributor schedules list "Benjamin and Felicia Horowitz," at an address in [[Atherton, California]] on the returns through June 2021 and in [[Las Vegas]], Nevada, from the return for June 2022.[^13] + +The contributions were made in shares. The return for the year ended June 2019 lists 63,758 shares of [[Microsoft]] worth 7,128,028 dollars. The year ended June 2021 lists shares of [[Slack Technologies]] (200,000 shares, 5,145,000 dollars), [[Pinterest]] (254,450 shares, 14,975,655 dollars), [[Lyft]] (200,000 shares, 10,007,000 dollars), [[Facebook]], [[Dropbox]], [[Upwork]], [[Zuora]] and [[1Life Healthcare]]. The year ended June 2022 lists [[Salesforce]] (110,880 shares, 27,114,595 dollars), [[Airbnb]] (114,511 shares in two gifts, 20,448,175 dollars), Pinterest (8,630,050 dollars), [[Affirm]] (7,883,080 dollars in two gifts), [[DigitalOcean]], [[Roblox]] and smaller holdings in [[Opendoor]], [[Amplitude]], [[Poshmark]] and [[Warby Parker]]. The year ended June 2024 lists 35,400 shares of [[Coinbase]] worth 8,154,390 dollars, given on May 6, 2024, as well as Airbnb, Lyft and [[Nu Holdings]]. The year ended June 2025 lists 150,000 shares of [[Reddit]] (8,501,250 dollars) and 92,000 shares of [[Maplebear]] (3,266,920 dollars), both given on September 10, 2024, and shares of [[Yubico]].[^13] + +The returns record these grants to the LVMPD Foundation: 500,000 dollars for "police support" in the year ended June 30, 2021; none among the twelve grants of the year ended June 2022; 2,015,000 dollars for "support of police" in the year ended June 2023; and 4,740,132 dollars for "support of police" in the year ended June 2024, to "LVMPD Foundation Friends of Las Vegas" at 110 N. City Parkway, Suite 420, recorded as a public charity with no relationship to the foundation's managers. The three grants total 7,255,132 dollars.[^13] TechCrunch reported the 2 million dollar donation of 2023 and the purpose "support of police."[^10] The recipient, incorporated in 1999 as Friends for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (employer identification number 88-0429730) and now filing as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation at the same Suite 420 address, describes itself as raising funds "to support youth and community programs, equipment and technology, and officer training." It reported contributions of 1,084,255 dollars for 2019, 6,826,048 dollars for 2020, 11,865,125 dollars for 2021, 10,497,885 dollars for 2022 (with expenses of 27,507,555 dollars), 6,474,809 dollars for 2023 and 5,864,773 dollars for 2024.[^14] + +The Horowitz foundation's earlier grants included 250,000 dollars to the [[Barack Obama Foundation]], 250,000 dollars to the [[Anti-Recidivism Coalition]] and 300,000 dollars to [[American Jewish World Service]] in the year ended June 2019; 570,000 dollars to American Jewish World Service and 260,300 dollars to [[The Potter's House]] of [[T. D. Jakes]] in the year ended June 2021; 250,000 dollars each to the T. D. Jakes Foundation and the [[Apollo Theater]] Foundation in the year ended June 2022; 1,000,000 dollars to [[Stanford University]] for [[Stanford Health Care]] and 86,250 dollars to Harvard for a [[Nas|Nasir Jones]] Hiphop Archive fellow in the year ended June 2023; and 1,000,000 dollars to [[Friends of United Hatzalah]] and 750,000 dollars to the Chabad of the North Peninsula Israel Solidarity Fund in the year ended June 2024, along with annual grants to the UMC Foundation of Las Vegas. Total assets at book value were 15,604,829 dollars at June 2019, 61,744,089 dollars at June 2021, 134,152,684 dollars at June 2022, 134,271,519 dollars at June 2023 and 144,805,727 dollars at June 2024.[^13] + +For the year ended June 30, 2025 the foundation reported grants of 147,508,395 dollars, of which 144,112,395 dollars went to the [[National Philanthropic Trust]] of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, "for support for art, education, and health." Other grants were 1,000,000 dollars each to the [[MD Anderson Cancer Center]] and the [[Cleveland Clinic]], 696,000 dollars to the [[Tides Foundation]], 100,000 dollars to [[Hope for Prisoners]], and 400,000 dollars to Behind the Blue of Las Vegas for "support of police." There was no grant to the LVMPD Foundation, and total assets fell to 39,376,336 dollars.[^13] Behind the Blue (employer identification number 83-4125717), recognized in 2019, states that it provides financial relief to Southern Nevada law enforcement employees facing catastrophic incidents; it reported contributions of 359,865 dollars for 2023, 1,499,990 dollars for 2024 and 6,280,470 dollars for 2025.[^15] + +### Federal Political Contributions + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records list Horowitz giving 33,400 dollars to the Democratic Hope Fund on October 9, 2015, with Atherton as his city, and 1,000,000 dollars on May 27, 2022 to GMI PAC.[^16] Contributions from AH Capital Management, the a16z management company, are attributed in equal shares to Horowitz and Andreessen on the recipients' filings: AH Capital Management entries of May 30 and November 6, 2024 carry the memo "SEE ATTRIBUTION BELOW," and the entries under Horowitz's and Andreessen's names on the same dates carry memo code X.[^17] The crypto industry super PAC [[Fairshake]] (committee C00835959, first filed March 23, 2023, treasurer Brandon Philipczyk) lists AH Capital Management for 5,000,000 dollars on October 23, 2023, 14,000,000 dollars on December 14, 2023, 25,000,000 dollars on May 30, 2024, 23,000,000 dollars on November 6, 2024 and 23,800,000 dollars on December 10, 2025, and attributes half of each to Horowitz: 2,500,000, 7,000,000, 12,500,000, 11,500,000 and 11,900,000 dollars, a total of 45,400,000 dollars. Fairshake reported receipts of 260,070,709 dollars for the 2024 cycle and 137,923,216 dollars for the 2026 cycle through the latest report.[^17] Its affiliated super PACs [[Defend American Jobs]] and [[Protect Progress]] list Horowitz for 750,000 dollars each in October and December 2023, 125,000 dollars each in November 2024 and 50,000 dollars each on December 10, 2025.[^18] + +In July 2024 Andreessen and Horowitz announced on their podcast that they would support [[Donald Trump]]; Horowitz said that "For Little Tech, we think Donald Trump is actually the right choice," adding "And sorry, Mom," and said they had dined with Trump, as Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert of Business Insider reported.[^19] On July 22, 2024 Horowitz, listing his employer as A16Z, gave 2,500,000 dollars to [[Right for America]], a super PAC whose website stated its goal "to ensure President Donald J. Trump is victorious in the 2024 presidential election"; Andreessen gave 2,500,000 dollars on July 24. Right for America reported 72,503,980 dollars in receipts and 69,583,233 dollars in independent expenditures for the 2024 cycle.[^19][^20] + +On Friday, October 4, 2024, Horowitz told a16z employees by email that he and Felicia had known [[Kamala Harris]] for more than ten years, that she had been "a friend to the firm in our early days, helping with several events at my house when we built the original Cultural Leadership Fund network," and that "Felicia and I will be making a significant donation to entities who support the Harris Walz campaign," while the firm would not change its position, as Dan Primack of Axios reported.[^21] On October 7, 2024 Horowitz gave 2,500,000 dollars to [[BlackPAC]], a super PAC that reported 34,730,789 dollars in receipts for the cycle.[^20] The 11,500,000 dollars attributed to him at Fairshake followed on November 6, 2024, the day after the election.[^17] + +In 2025 and 2026 Horowitz is listed as giving 500,000 dollars on February 4, 2025, 2,500,000 dollars on March 31, 2025 and 3,000,000 dollars on March 10, 2026 to [[MAGA Inc.]], a total of 6,000,000 dollars, and 12,500,000 dollars on each of August 22, 2025 and February 11, 2026 to [[Leading the Future]], attributed as partnership contributions, a total of 25,000,000 dollars.[^22] Partnership attributions to him at the [[Senate Leadership Fund]] were 125,000 dollars on March 7, 2024, 250,000 dollars on June 20, 2024, 125,000 dollars on March 31, 2025 and 750,000 dollars on March 19, 2026, and at the Democratic super PAC SMP 250,000 dollars on each of June 20 and September 20, 2024.[^18][^22] Contributions under his own name to party committees include the [[National Republican Senatorial Committee]] (13,766 dollars on February 29, 2024, 120,467 dollars to its legal proceedings account on May 19, 2025 and 44,300 dollars on February 24, 2026), the [[National Republican Congressional Committee]], the [[Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee]] (44,300 dollars on September 22, 2025 and 22,150 dollars on February 23, 2026) and the [[Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]], and committees supporting [[JD Vance]] (Vance Victory, April 11, 2024), [[John Thune]], [[John Cornyn]], [[Cory Booker]], [[Ritchie Torres]], [[Patrick McHenry]] and [[Susan Collins]].[^18] + +### Lobbying + +The Lobbying Disclosure Act database lists A16Z Capital Management LLC, formerly AH Capital Management and doing business as Andreessen Horowitz, as an in-house registrant from January 25, 2023, with reported expenses of 950,000 dollars for 2023 (330,000, 340,000, 120,000 and 160,000 dollars by quarter), 1,760,000 dollars for 2024 (280,000, 660,000, 450,000 and 370,000 dollars), 3,530,000 dollars for 2025 (650,000 dollars; 840,000 dollars for the second quarter as amended from 790,000 dollars; 1,330,000 dollars; 710,000 dollars) and 1,540,000 dollars for the first half of 2026 (660,000 and 880,000 dollars). The reports list digital asset market structure and stablecoin legislation, anti-money laundering proposals, oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]], artificial intelligence and, from 2025, open-source artificial intelligence, the National Defense Authorization Acts, health legislation and tax. Its in-house lobbyists have included [[Collin McCune]], who lists service as deputy director and director of the [[House Financial Services Committee]] from 2019 to 2022; [[Colin Rom]], formerly a senior adviser at the [[Food and Drug Administration]] and a confidential assistant at the [[Office of Management and Budget]]; [[Michael Reed]], formerly director of whip operations for the House Minority Whip and senior adviser in the office of the Speaker; and [[Josh Arnold]], formerly deputy chief of staff to Senator [[Cynthia Lummis]].[^23] + +Outside firms registered for the firm are [[Mehlman Consulting]] (registered May 9, 2023; 180,000 dollars for 2023, 300,000 dollars for 2024, 320,000 dollars for 2025 and 160,000 dollars for the first half of 2026), [[McDermott+]] (July 5, 2023 to the second quarter of 2026), [[Cornerstone Government Affairs]] (November 26, 2024; 100,000 dollars for 2024, 320,000 dollars for 2025 and 160,000 dollars for the first half of 2026), [[Miller Strategies]] (March 14, 2025; 410,000 dollars for 2025 and 240,000 dollars for the first half of 2026), [[BGR Government Affairs]] (March 20, 2025; 270,000 dollars for 2025 and 160,000 dollars for the first half of 2026), Zero Mile Strategies (February 10, 2026, on defense technology and acquisition reform in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act; 62,500 dollars), the [[Sternhell Group]] (2026, financial services; 150,000 dollars), Capitol Tax Partners (April 30, 2026) and Raab Government Strategies (July 16, 2026, on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act). Mehlman's filings list [[Bruce Mehlman]], formerly Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy; Miller Strategies lists [[Jonathan Hiler]], formerly director of legislative affairs to Vice President [[Mike Pence]]; BGR lists [[Joseph Lai]], formerly special assistant to the President for legislative affairs, and [[Patrick Ames]], formerly a senior policy adviser at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Zero Mile lists [[Christopher Vieson]], a former staff director of the [[House Armed Services Committee]], and [[Phil MacNaughton]], a former professional staff member of the committee; and Raab lists a former policy director to Senate Republican leader [[Mitch McConnell]]. Vieson and MacNaughton registered through The VM Group for [[Scale AI]] in 2026, and Mehlman and Cornerstone also represent Scale AI.[^23][^24] + +### Family + +Horowitz is the son of the writer and activist [[David Horowitz]], founder of the [[David Horowitz Freedom Center]], who died on April 29, 2025 at the age of 86. Misty Severi of Just the News and Heather Hunter of the [[Washington Examiner]] reported that David Horowitz was survived by his sons Ben and Jonathan and a daughter, that Ben Horowitz posted "Rest in Peace to my father," and that the family's obituary recounted that when Ben told Trump about his father the previous year, "President Trump's face immediately lit up and he insisted that Benjamin get David on the phone immediately."[^25][^26] Horowitz lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Felicia Horowitz, a trustee of the family foundation.[^11][^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Andreessen Horowitz. "Who We Are." a16z.com/about, accessed October 1, 2026. https://a16z.com/about/ +[^2]: Andreessen Horowitz. "Ben Horowitz," biography and author page, a16z.com, accessed October 1, 2026. https://a16z.com/author/ben-horowitz/ +[^3]: Loudcloud, Inc. Definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A) for the annual meeting of June 26, 2001, filed May 25, 2001, accession 0001012870-01-501008, sections on directors, security ownership and executive compensation. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1100813/000101287001501008/ddef14a.txt +[^4]: Opsware Inc. Solicitation/Recommendation Statement (Schedule 14D-9), filed August 3, 2007, accession 0001047469-07-006048, "Background of the Offer," "Interests of Certain Persons" and acceleration tables. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1100813/000104746907006048/a2179079zsc14d9.htm +[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01087665 (DataSet 9), AliphCom, Action by Unanimous Written Consent of the Board of Directors, May 2012, signature page EFTA01087668. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01087665.pdf +[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00589426 (DataSet 9), "Authorization to Disburse Funds," AliphCom Series 8 Preferred Stock Financing. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00589426.pdf +[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00835155 (DataSet 9), email of Richard Kahn to Jeffrey Epstein, "Fwd: Mort Series 8 Timeline," February 4, 2016, forwarding message of Andrew Lindsay of Jawbone. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00835155.pdf +[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00793054 (DataSet 9), Notice of Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, AliphCom dba Jawbone, dated July 7, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00793054.pdf +[^9]: Horowitz, Ben. "Safety First." Andreessen Horowitz, October 11, 2024. https://a16z.com/safety-first/ +[^10]: MacColl, Margaux, and Sean O'Kane. "Ben Horowitz's cozy relationship with the Las Vegas Police Department aided a16z portfolio company Skydio." TechCrunch, November 8, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/08/ben-horowitzs-cozy-relationship-with-the-las-vegas-police-department-aided-a16z-portfolio-company-skydio/ +[^11]: Atkinson, Estelle. "Donor's millions aid Las Vegas police, observers raise questions" (headline "'Blurring the lines'"). Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 6, 2025. https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/blurring-the-lines-as-donors-millions-aid-las-vegas-police-observers-raise-questions-3276842/ +[^12]: Leggio, Akiya. "Las Vegas police Cybertrucks donated by venture capitalist Ben Horowitz." Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 26, 2025. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas/venture-capital-firm-co-founder-funds-metro-cybertrucks-3311590/ +[^13]: Horowitz Family Foundation (EIN 35-7050910), Form 990-PF e-file returns for fiscal years ended June 30: 2019 (IRS object 201903169349101270, download990xml_2019_2.zip), 2021 (202113159349103201, 2021_TEOS_XML_01A.zip), 2022 (202243189349107164, 2022_TEOS_XML_02A.zip), 2023 (202303189349101720, 2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip), 2024 (202443099349101029, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip) and 2025 (202601289349101920, 2026_TEOS_XML_05A.zip); Part VIII officers, Part XIV grants, balance sheets and Schedule B contributors and noncash property. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/ +[^14]: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation, formerly Friends for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (EIN 88-0429730), Form 990 for 2023 (IRS object 202443209349324474, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip) and 2024 (202531719349301233, 2025_TEOS_XML_06A.zip), https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/ ; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, filings 2011 to 2023, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/880429730.json ; IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Nevada, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/eo_nv.csv +[^15]: Behind the Blue (EIN 83-4125717), Form 990 for 2024 (IRS object 202501629349301600, 2025_TEOS_XML_06A.zip) and 2025 (202601319349305765, 2026_TEOS_XML_05A.zip), https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/ ; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/834125717.json +[^16]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor "Horowitz, Ben": Democratic Hope Fund, sub_id 4101220161340831485; GMI PAC, Inc., sub_id 4062420221531211249. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^17]: Federal Election Commission, committee C00835959 (Fairshake): committee record; Schedule A sub_ids 4021420241824800105, 4021420241824800108, 4062620241962823146, 4011320251129780939 and 4090820261595851229 (Horowitz) and the AH Capital Management and Andreessen entries of the same dates; committee totals for the 2024 and 2026 cycles. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00835959/ ; https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00835959/totals/ +[^18]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor names "Horowitz, Ben" and "Horowitz, Benjamin," two-year periods 2016 to 2026, minimum 10,000 dollars, queried October 1, 2026, including Protect Progress (sub_ids 4021620241825215174, 4020820251166868003, 4030420261386079637), Defend American Jobs (4020620241822088010, 4011620251132356569, 4030420261386107195), Senate Leadership Fund (4072320241978428485, 4071620241975074180, 4120420251296889061, 4070820261533602629), SMP (4071720241975953894, 4103020241011597927), NRSC (4032620241887526755, 4062320251206895252, 4032320261424905590), DSCC (4011520261302322980, 4032420261425235551) and Vance Victory (4080120241999430283). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^19]: Tangalakis-Lippert, Katherine. "Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million to a pro-Donald Trump super PAC." Business Insider, via Yahoo News, October 16, 2024. https://www.yahoo.com/news/marc-andreessen-ben-horowitz-donated-024002094.html +[^20]: Federal Election Commission, committees C00867036 (Right for America) and C00609388 (BlackPAC): Schedule A sub_ids 4112020241071302621 (Horowitz to Right for America, July 22, 2024) and 4120620241075062279 (Horowitz to BlackPAC, October 7, 2024); committee totals for the 2024 cycle. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00867036/totals/ ; https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00609388/totals/ +[^21]: Primack, Dan. "Scoop: VC titan Ben Horowitz plans 'significant' donation to Kamala Harris." Axios, October 4, 2024, including the text of Horowitz's email to employees. https://www.axios.com/2024/10/04/ben-horowitz-endorse-kamala-harris +[^22]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts: MAGA Inc. (C00892471), sub_ids 4081920251218730892, 4081920251218730893 and 4060220261512109023; Leading the Future (C00916114), sub_ids 4030420261386103983 and 4042820261483765368. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^23]: U.S. Senate and House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for clients "Andreessen Horowitz," "AH Capital Management" and "A16Z," 2023 to 2026, including A16Z Capital Management LLC registration posted January 25, 2023 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/7b18b8c6-dcd5-4e94-a6ba-e859e398de2a/print/), Mehlman Consulting registration posted May 9, 2023 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/304977a5-3e0a-4d06-9f69-f2e5cb0cfc09/print/), McDermott+ registration posted July 5, 2023 and termination posted July 6, 2026, Cornerstone Government Affairs registration posted November 26, 2024, Miller Strategies registration posted March 14, 2025, BGR Government Affairs registration posted March 20, 2025, Zero Mile Strategies registration posted February 10, 2026 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/8e23305c-2d46-4df0-a09b-afa9586f12be/print/), Sternhell Group, Capitol Tax Partners and Raab Government Strategies registrations. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=A16Z +[^24]: Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for client Scale AI: The VM Group registration posted August 28, 2026, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4087f730-33fc-451b-952d-6e39e960ccd9/print/ ; Mehlman Consulting registration posted August 19, 2025, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/abdd7fa4-d0dd-46f6-a946-a16482f72509/print/ ; Cornerstone Government Affairs registration posted October 11, 2023, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4bed6edb-c81c-41ff-aecb-e50754221888/print/ +[^25]: Severi, Misty. "Conservative author and activist David Horowitz dies at 86." Just the News, April 29, 2025. https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/conservative-author-david-horowitz-dies-86 +[^26]: Hunter, Heather. "Conservatives pay tribute following death of David Horowitz." Washington Examiner, April 30, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3397321/conservatives-pay-tribute-death-david-horowitz/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/G. Gordon Liddy.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/G. Gordon Liddy.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ef8e7fa5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/G. Gordon Liddy.md @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - GordonLiddy + - Watergate + - Gemstone + - Plumbers + - FBI + - CommitteeToReElectThePresident + - Conviction + - Radio + - 1970s +alias: + - G. Gordon Liddy + - Gordon Liddy + - George Gordon Liddy + - George Gordon Battle Liddy + - George F. Leonard +summary: "Former FBI agent and Treasury aide who joined the Plumbers, planned Gemstone for Nixon's reelection committee, was convicted in Watergate and the Fielding break-in, and had his sentence commuted by Carter in 1977." +born: 1930-11-30 +died: 2021-03-30 +location: "Hoboken, New Jersey (born)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + role: "special agent" + start: 1957 + end: 1962 + fn: 5 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Department of the Treasury]]" + role: "special assistant" + start: 1969 + fn: 5 + - type: member_of + with: "[[White House Plumbers]]" + role: "member" + start: 1971-07 + fn: 12 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Egil Krogh]]" + role: "Plumbers staff member" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Fielding break-in]]" + role: "organizer and lookout" + start: 1971-09-03 + end: 1971-09-03 + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Committee to Re-elect the President]]" + role: "general counsel" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Finance Committee to Re-elect the President]]" + role: "counsel" + start: 1972-03 + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Watergate]]" + role: "planner of Gemstone and convicted conspirator" + fn: 1 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Watergate Special Prosecution Force]]" + reverse: true + fn: 2 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 to March 30, 2021) was a former agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], a prosecutor in [[Dutchess County, New York]], an official of the [[Department of the Treasury]] and a member of the [[White House]] "[[White House Plumbers|Plumbers]]" unit. As general counsel and then finance committee counsel of the [[Committee to Re-elect the President]] he presented the intelligence plan known as Gemstone, and on January 30, 1973 he was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping offenses arising from the [[Watergate]] break-in; in 1974 he was also convicted for the 1971 burglary of the office of the psychiatrist of [[Daniel Ellsberg]]. [[Jimmy Carter]] commuted his sentence on April 12, 1977.[^1][^2][^3] He died on March 30, 2021.[^4] + +### Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dutchess County and the Treasury Department + +Edward Jay Epstein wrote in 1977 that Liddy graduated from [[Fordham University School of Law|Fordham Law School]] in 1957 and served the next five years in the FBI, becoming its youngest supervisor and a member of [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s personal staff in Washington, where he wrote articles and speeches for the director; that he resigned in 1962 and practiced with his father in [[New York City]]; and that in 1966 he moved to [[Poughkeepsie, New York|Poughkeepsie]], carrying sealed recommendations from the FBI, and was hired as an assistant district attorney of Dutchess County by District Attorney [[Raymond Baratta]].[^5] The Poughkeepsie public library's local history account records that Liddy was married in Poughkeepsie in November 1957, was an assistant district attorney there during the 1960s, and in 1966 "nabbed [[LSD]] guru Timothy Leary and others" at the [[Hitchcock Estate]] in [[Millbrook, New York|Millbrook]].[^6] Epstein described the Millbrook raid as a "no knock" entry in the middle of the night in March 1966 and wrote that the charges were dismissed because Liddy had not advised [[Timothy Leary]] of his rights in the manner required by the Supreme Court's [[Miranda v. Arizona|Miranda]] decision of that year.[^5] + +Epstein wrote that Liddy sought the Republican nomination for district attorney of Dutchess County in June 1968 and lost a party caucus, 25 to 4, then challenged Representative [[Hamilton Fish Jr.]] for the Republican congressional nomination and lost the primary by a few thousand votes, took the [[Conservative Party of New York State|New York Conservative Party]] line, and withdrew after [[Gerald R. Ford]], then House Republican leader, came to Poughkeepsie and arranged for Liddy to endorse Fish in return for a promise of a position in the Nixon administration. Epstein gave this account without attribution to a named participant.[^5] In 1969, Epstein wrote, Liddy became a special assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury under [[Eugene Rossides|Eugene T. Rossides]], who supervised the department's law enforcement bureaus, and Liddy was assigned to Task Force Number One, a joint [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] and Treasury task force on narcotics smuggling. Epstein wrote that Rossides feared Attorney General [[John Mitchell]] would use the task force to enlarge the Justice Department's domain at the expense of the [[United States Customs Service|Customs Bureau]] and that Liddy was assigned to protect Treasury's interests.[^5] + +A [[Central Intelligence Agency]] record, prepared in answer to the question whether the agency had any other dealings with Liddy while he was in Treasury or at the White House, states that in December 1969 security action was initiated to grant Liddy a number of agency clearances in connection with his Treasury employment, at which time he was listed as a member of the Presidential Task Force reporting on narcotics, marijuana and dangerous drugs; that in August 1971 he was briefed on several additional sensitive programs in connection with his assignment to the White House staff; that memoranda prepared in 1971 (the catalog text is partly illegible) indicated he was working with [[David R. Young]] on the investigation of leaks of classified information to the news media; and that he was debriefed from these special clearances on February 22, 1972. The record concludes that "Mr. Liddy held Agency clearances because of his White House duties, but he was not utilized by CIA."[^7] + +On July 26, 1973 Henry S. Ruth, Deputy Special Prosecutor of the [[Watergate Special Prosecution Force]], wrote to John S. Warner, the CIA's Acting General Counsel, about questions arising in the investigation of [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] and "the persons who were employed by Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, and Bernard Barker." The letter asked whether the CIA had employed or been associated with Felipe de Diego, Pablo Fernandez, Angelo Ferrer, Hiram Gonzalez, Humberto Lopez and [[Hal Hendrix]]; whether it knew of intelligence or undercover activities by ITT against the Chilean government in the [[United States]]; whether it knew of arrangements between ITT and the [[Robert R. Mullen Company|Mullen Company]]; whether it had any working relationship with the ITT Public Relations Office at 495 Biltmore Way, [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], Florida; and whether it was aware "of any intelligence or undercover activities performed by Howard Hunt and/or Gordon Liddy for ITT." Warner forwarded the letter on August 3, 1973 to Bill Nelson with a note that it should be cross-checked with the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]]. The reply of the CIA's Cover and Commercial Staff dated August 7, 1973, which describes the letter as dated July 29, responds to the third and fourth questions only, stating that the staff had never discussed with the Mullen Company any association with ITT, that the Mullen file contained two brochures listing no ITT among its clients, and that the staff had no relationship with or information about the Coral Gables office; the released document does not address the fifth question.[^8][^9] + +Attorney General Mitchell testified in 1973 that when Liddy was brought to him in November 1971 he understood Liddy to have been an assistant prosecutor in New York State, a candidate for Congress, an FBI agent, a Treasury employee and then a White House staff member.[^10] + +### The Plumbers and the Fielding Break-in + +[[John W. Dean]], testifying in 1973, said that he learned through [[Jack Caulfield]] that Liddy had a falling out with Rossides at Treasury and that [[Egil Krogh]] "waded into the middle of the dispute by hiring Liddy and bringing him into the White House."[^11] The Senate committee's final report stated that the Plumbers unit, under Krogh and David Young, added Liddy and [[Howard Hunt]] in July 1971, both being known to the White House as persons with investigative experience; the court of appeals dated the formation of the unit to the summer of 1971, after publication of the [[Pentagon Papers]].[^12][^13] The court of appeals recorded that Liddy was hired by Krogh with the approval of [[John Ehrlichman]] to investigate leaks of classified information.[^2] + +After Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Dr. [[Lewis Fielding]], declined to be interviewed by FBI agents, the unit proposed a covert entry into his [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]] office. Hunt traveled to Miami in mid-August 1971 to recruit [[Bernard Barker]], who had worked under him in the [[Bay of Pigs]] operation, and Barker recruited [[Eugenio Martinez]] and [[Felipe de Diego]]. On August 25, 1971 Liddy gained entry to Fielding's office by misrepresenting his identity to a cleaning woman in order to take reconnaissance photographs; he purchased supplies for the operation. Hunt and Liddy met the three Miami men at a Beverly Hills hotel on September 2, 1971. On the night of September 3 Barker, Martinez and de Diego entered the office and forced a file cabinet, and Liddy kept a lookout nearby. The file on Ellsberg was not found.[^2][^13] + +California indicted Liddy on September 4, 1973 for the break-in. At the request of Special Prosecutor [[Leon Jaworski]], and over Liddy's objection, the California prosecution was dismissed on March 11, 1974, four days after a federal grand jury indicted Liddy, Ehrlichman, Barker, Martinez and de Diego on March 7, 1974 for conspiring to violate Fielding's Fourth Amendment rights.[^2][^13] The jury convicted Liddy on July 12, 1974, and on July 31, 1974 Judge [[Gerhard Gesell]] sentenced him to one to three years, to run concurrently with his Watergate sentence. The court of appeals affirmed on May 17, 1976 in an opinion that rejected claims that the indictment was defective, that the California dismissal violated his speedy trial and due process rights, and that the trial court had erred in refusing to enforce two subpoenas duces tecum.[^2] + +On the same day the court of appeals reversed the convictions of Barker and Martinez, who had been sentenced to probation, in a per curiam opinion accompanied by separate opinions of Judges Wilkey and Merhige and a partial dissent by Judge Leventhal.[^14] At a hearing on February 22, 1979, Chief Judge William B. Bryant ruled that the "Barker-Martinez defense," which the court described as reasonable reliance on the authority of superiors, was available to the former FBI officials [[W. Mark Felt]] and [[Edward S. Miller]], who had been indicted in April 1978 on charges of conspiring to deprive relatives and acquaintances of [[Weather Underground]] fugitives of their rights through surreptitious entries; the Justice Department at the time was headed by Attorney General [[Griffin Bell]].[^15] + +### General Counsel to the Reelection Committee + +According to the court of appeals, Liddy was hired by the reelection committee in late 1971 as general counsel; in January 1972 he agreed to organize an intelligence gathering operation; and in March 1972 he moved to the Finance Committee to Re-elect the President as its counsel while continuing the intelligence assignment.[^1] Dean testified that Krogh suggested Liddy for the general counsel post, that Krogh obtained Ehrlichman's approval, and that Dean arranged an interview with Mitchell on November 24, 1971, for which Liddy prepared an agenda. Dean described it as a general job interview with virtually no discussion of intelligence plans; on December 8 [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]] interviewed Liddy briefly and asked him to start work as soon as possible.[^16] Mitchell testified that Krogh brought Liddy to his office on December 8 on a drug abuse law enforcement program, and that he did not then know Liddy worked for Krogh as one of the Plumbers.[^10] + +Magruder testified that during Liddy's first week Liddy told him he had discussed a broad intelligence plan with members of the White House staff, mentioning Dean in particular, and had been told he would have a budget of about $1 million. Dean testified that he had not encouraged Liddy's plans and had told Liddy that he would not discuss them.[^17][^18] Hunt testified that in late November 1971 Liddy told him that Attorney General Mitchell had proposed the establishment of a large-scale intelligence and counterintelligence program with Liddy as its chief, and that he and Liddy designed a budget for it under the code name Gemstone. Hunt added that in April 1972 Liddy told him the Watergate operation would be undertaken as part of Gemstone, on information, from what Hunt understood to be a government agency, that the Cuban government was supplying funds to the [[Democratic Party]] campaign, and that entries were made on May 27 and June 17, 1972.[^19] + +Magruder, Dean and Mitchell each testified about the meetings in the Attorney General's office on January 27 and February 4, 1972, at which Liddy presented charts and a plan with a budget of about $1 million, later scaled down. Magruder testified that the projects included wiretapping, photography, the abduction of radical leaders to Mexico during the [[San Diego]] convention, and call girls; Dean testified that the plan also included mugging squads and that Liddy described interception of communications between ground facilities and aircraft; Mitchell testified that he told Liddy "to go burn the charts" and described the presentation as "a complete horror story."[^20][^21][^22] Magruder testified that Mitchell approved a revised $250,000 plan on March 30 at [[Key Biscayne, Florida|Key Biscayne]]; Mitchell denied it and testified that the plan was rejected for the third time. The court of appeals affirming the convictions of Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman summarized the evidence at that trial as showing that Mitchell gave approval on that date.[^23][^24][^25] + +Money for the operation passed through the Finance Committee. [[Hugh Sloan]], its treasurer, testified that in April 1972 Liddy consulted him about four checks drawn on a Mexican bank, payable to and endorsed by [[Manuel Ogarrio]], and the two agreed to convert them into cash with the help of Liddy's friends around the country. These checks and a check of $114,000 payable to a member of the finance committee were deposited in a Miami bank account by Barker and Martinez on April 20, 1972, and most of the funds were withdrawn by Barker within two weeks. Liddy returned $111,500 in $100 bills to Sloan, and Sloan testified that he turned over to Liddy a total of $199,000 in cash, mostly in $100 bills, which Liddy gave to [[James McCord]], the committee's security chief. Bills of that denomination were later found in sequence on McCord and the four other men arrested in the [[Democratic National Committee]] offices on June 17.[^1] In his questioning of Mitchell, committee counsel stated that Sloan had testified that Liddy asked for an initial payment of $83,000 on a $250,000 budget.[^26] + +### The Arrests and the Silence + +The court of appeals summarized the evidence on the arrests. Liddy telephoned Barker before the Miami men traveled to Washington in May and June 1972; six of the defendants using aliases checked into a Washington hotel on May 22 and rented rooms at the [[Watergate complex|Watergate Hotel]] until May 29; and [[Alfred Baldwin]], a former FBI agent hired by McCord, monitored the Democratic National Committee telephones from rooms 419 and 723 of the [[Howard Johnson Motel]] across the street. Baldwin testified that Hunt and Liddy visited room 419 on May 26 and that the two later surveyed the DNC offices from the balcony of room 723.[^1] On June 17, 1972 Baldwin saw two men leave an alleyway near the building after police arrived, identified one as Hunt and said the other was wearing a suit he recognized as Liddy's. Attorney [[Douglas Caddy]] testified that Hunt telephoned Liddy at about 5 a.m. from Caddy's apartment, and that a few days later Liddy directed Caddy to pay $2,500 of the cash Hunt had given him to the criminal lawyer retained for the five men. Sloan testified that Liddy met him in a hallway that morning and said, "my boys got caught last night; I made a mistake; I used somebody from here which I said I'd never do. I'm afraid I am going to lose my job." Liddy later asked about the committee's largest shredding machine and was seen with a large stack of papers at the shredder.[^1] + +[[Richard Kleindienst]], the new Attorney General, testified that on Saturday, June 17, Liddy and [[Powell Moore]] came to the [[Burning Tree Club]], where Kleindienst was playing in a tournament; that Liddy appeared agitated, said that he had been asked to report on the Watergate break-in and that some of those arrested might be employed by the White House or the reelection committee, and (in Kleindienst's less precise recollection) said that Mitchell had asked him to come; that Kleindienst telephoned Assistant Attorney General [[Henry Petersen]] to instruct that those arrested receive no special treatment; and that he told Liddy to leave.[^27] Mitchell testified that from February 4 until June 15, 1972, when Liddy came to his office about a letter to the *[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]*, he had no conversation with Liddy.[^28] + +Dean testified that after the arrests he asked Liddy to meet him and that, shortly before noon, they walked down 17th Street toward the [[Corcoran Gallery of Art|Corcoran Gallery]]; Mitchell placed Dean's first debriefing of Liddy on June 19. Dean said Liddy told him the arrested men were his men, that Magruder had pressed him into the operation because the committee was not getting good information from an earlier bug, that Liddy had used McCord because Magruder had cut his budget, that the men were friends of Hunt, and that no one at the White House was involved.[^28][^29] [[Robert Bennett]], Hunt's employer, testified at trial that on July 2 Liddy told him he had lost his job at the committee for failing to cooperate fully with the FBI.[^1] + +### Conviction, Sentence and Refusal to Testify + +On January 8, 1973 jury selection began before Chief Judge [[John Sirica|John J. Sirica]]; five defendants changed their pleas to guilty, and on January 30, 1973 the jury found Liddy and McCord guilty. Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, two counts of burglary, and three counts of endeavoring to intercept and intercepting communications. He did not testify. On March 23, 1973 Sirica sentenced him to a total of not less than six years and eight months and not more than 20 years, with a $40,000 fine. The appellate caption lists the alias George F. Leonard. The en banc court of appeals affirmed on November 8, 1974.[^1] + +The [[Senate Watergate Committee]]'s final report stated that its knowledge of Liddy's activities came from sources other than Liddy, who refused to testify at an executive session on June 4, 1973 even after being instructed to do so upon the conferral of use immunity under a court order. The report stated that Liddy's role in Gemstone was detailed through the testimony of McCord, Magruder, Dean, Mitchell and Hunt.[^30] Dean had testified that he "never understood how the Liddy plan had been approved" and that Magruder had indicated to him that there had been White House pressure to get the plan moving.[^31] + +### Commutation and Release + +On April 12, 1977 President Carter signed an order commuting Liddy's sentence from 20 years to eight years, making him eligible for parole on July 9, 1977 and fixing a mandatory release date, with good time, of September 30, 1980. The order recited that Liddy had begun serving his sentence on January 30, 1973, was confined at the [[Federal Prison Camp, Allenwood|Federal Prison Camp at Allenwood]], Pennsylvania, and had not paid the $40,000 fine, which remained in effect. The order was countersigned by Attorney General Griffin Bell, and the White House announcement stated that the President took the action "in the interest of equity and fairness based on a comparison of Mr. Liddy's sentence with those of all others convicted in Watergate related prosecutions."[^3] The Justice Department official biography of Bell records that he was sworn in as Attorney General on January 26, 1977.[^32] The *[[The New York Times|New York Times]]*, reporting on Liddy's memoir in April 1980, stated that he left prison in September 1977 after serving 52 months, longer than any other Watergate defendant.[^33] + +### Writing, Speaking and Private Security Work + +Liddy published a novel, *Out of Control* ([[St. Martin's Press|St. Martin's]], 1979), reviewed in *[[Newsweek]]* on October 15, 1979, and an autobiography, *Will* (St. Martin's, 1980).[^33][^34] In October 1981 he spoke to a standing-room audience at the [[University of Texas at Austin|University of Texas]] on a national campus tour; the *[[Austin American-Statesman]]* reported that he said the Central Intelligence Agency had been weakened by "illusions" and that the assassination of President [[Anwar Sadat]] earlier that day might have been anticipated by a strong covert intelligence service, and that he told the audience he had been in nine different prisons.[^35] In 1985 the [[United States Tax Court]], in a dispute with the [[Internal Revenue Service]] over more than $150,000 in claimed back taxes and penalties, heard Liddy describe how he spent more than $340,000 as director of covert activities for the 1972 campaign, including $30,000 for a room bugging device, $2,270 for prostitutes at the Miami convention, $500 for [[Donald Segretti]]'s work against Senator [[Edmund Muskie]], and $300 for cartoons of Senator [[Edward Kennedy]] drawn by a CIA artist, according to [[United Press International]]; Judge [[Samuel Sterrett]] accepted Liddy's testimony in part, finding tax due on $45,430 rather than the IRS's $174,800 and rescinding a $51,766 fraud penalty.[^36] + +On March 18, 1987 the [[Associated Press]] reported from [[Santa Ana, California]] that Liddy had opened a school, the Academy of Corporate Security and Private Investigation, charging $1,500 a week and bringing classes to students, and that he also operated a security company offering drug investigations and detection of illegal surveillance.[^37] In an October 1986 interview with *[[USA Today]]*, according to United Press International, Liddy said he ran the G. Gordon Liddy Academy of Corporate Security in Florida and commanded the "Hurricane Force," a group of professional soldiers "organized to perform extraction missions (in Third World countries) for private parties."[^38] + +Liddy hosted a syndicated radio program for two decades, with a career at [[Radio America (United States)|Radio America]] that ended with his retirement in 2012, and appeared in television roles including an episode of *[[Miami Vice]]*.[^4][^39] + +### Statements About Plots to Kill Jack Anderson and Howard Hunt + +The *New York Times* reported on April 14, 1980, summarizing excerpts from *Will* published in *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]*, that Liddy wrote that a plan to kill the columnist [[Jack Anderson]] arose over lunch in Washington with Hunt and a CIA operative, was suggested because an Anderson column had supposedly compromised an American agent abroad, and preceded the Watergate burglary. According to the excerpts, a plan to kill Anderson with LSD was dismissed as impractical, and Liddy then volunteered to kill him on a Washington street but was advised by Hunt to "forget" it. The same report stated that Liddy wrote that he had been prepared to participate in a project to poison Hunt in prison for cooperating with prosecutors and that he had arranged for Hunt's food to be poisoned if a coded message arrived, which, he wrote, never came.[^33] + +The New York *Daily News* reported on April 18, 1980 that Liddy said on two network television programs that Anderson was "a pain in the butt" to the Nixon White House and that assassinating him would have been "justifiable homicide," that he had made the recommendation at a White House meeting at which Hunt first suggested drugging Anderson with LSD, and that Anderson's columns had compromised an intelligence agent who was unmasked, tortured and killed. Anderson, meeting Liddy on the program, said that neither Liddy nor anyone else could name a CIA agent tortured or killed as a result of his columns: "It never happened." Liddy answered that he had not said CIA agent. Hunt declined to appear on the second program; the report stated that Hunt said he never discussed with Liddy a need to kill Anderson, that they considered how to discredit Anderson with LSD, and that they dropped the matter when a retired CIA doctor said attempts of that kind overseas had been unsuccessful.[^40] + +United Press International reported on October 31, 1986 that Liddy told *USA Today* that he would have killed Anderson and Hunt if ordered to do so, that the decision had to be taken "from a much higher level than I was," that he had been ordered to discuss the Anderson problem with "[[Edward Gunn|Dr. Edward Gunn]] of the CIA," whom he described as "the CIA's assassination expert," and that "it was not until an Anderson column caused the death of one of our intelligence people posted abroad that that thought was even entertained." The report added that published reports in 1975 had said that a senior official in the Nixon White House ordered Anderson killed and the death made to look accidental.[^38] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *United States v. Liddy*, 509 F.2d 428 (D.C. Cir. 1974) (en banc) (No. 73-1565), decided November 8, 1974, introductory paragraphs, Part I, and nn. 2 and 3. https://static.case.law/f2d/509/cases/0428-01.json +[^2]: *United States v. Liddy*, 542 F.2d 76 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (No. 74-1885), decided May 17, 1976. https://static.case.law/f2d/542/cases/0076-01.json +[^3]: Jimmy Carter, "Commutation of G. Gordon Liddy's Prison Sentence: Announcement of the Commutation, With the Text of the Order," April 12, 1977, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/commutation-g-gordon-liddys-prison-sentence-announcement-the-commutation-with-the-text-the +[^4]: "Chief Operative Behind Watergate Scandal, G. Gordon Liddy, Dies At 90," NPR, *Morning Edition*, March 31, 2021 (transcript; born in Hoboken, N.J.; died Tuesday at his daughter's home in Virginia; 52 months in prison; talk show for 20 years until 2012). Other accounts give Brooklyn as the birthplace (Epstein, below) and 1929 as the birth year; contemporaneous reports in 1980 and 1987 give ages (49 and 56) consistent with a birth in November 1930. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/982953846/chief-operative-behind-watergate-scandal-g-gordon-liddy-dies-at-90 +[^5]: Edward Jay Epstein, *Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America* (1977), ch. 3, "G. Gordon Liddy: The Will to Power." http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/History/aof/aof3.html +[^6]: Bill Kleppel, "G. Gordon Liddy and Family," Adriance Memorial Library (Poughkeepsie Public Library District). https://poklib.org/g-gordon-liddy-and-family/ +[^7]: Central Intelligence Agency, question and response concerning other dealings with Liddy (catalog date 1972), CIA Reading Room document C01482344. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01482344 +[^8]: Letter, Henry S. Ruth Jr., Deputy Special Prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecution Force, to John S. Warner, Acting General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency, July 26, 1973, with routing slip of August 3, 1973, CIA Reading Room document C01482382. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01482382 +[^9]: Memorandum, Chief, Cover and Commercial Staff, to C/WH, "Inquiry regarding possible ITT association with CIA and Robert R. Mullen and Company," August 7, 1973, CIA Reading Room document C01367838. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01367838 +[^10]: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, Senate Resolution 60: Watergate and Related Activities*, hearings, 93d Cong., 1st sess., Book 4 (1973), testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1608-1609. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^11]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3 (1973), testimony of John W. Dean III, p. 920. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^12]: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *The Final Report* (1974; Dell paperback edition, *The Senate Watergate Report*), p. 63. https://archive.org/details/senatewatergater01unit +[^13]: *United States v. Ehrlichman*, 546 F.2d 910 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (No. 74-1882), decided May 17, 1976, Part I. https://static.case.law/f2d/546/cases/0910-01.json +[^14]: *United States v. Barker*, 546 F.2d 940 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (Nos. 74-1883, 74-1884), decided May 17, 1976. https://static.case.law/f2d/546/cases/0940-01.json +[^15]: *United States v. Felt*, 491 F. Supp. 179 (D.D.C. 1979) (Crim. No. 78-00179) (Bryant, C.J.), decided December 21, 1979; *Gray v. Bell*, 712 F.2d 490, 493-494 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (indictment of Gray, Felt and Miller, April 1978). https://static.case.law/f-supp/491/cases/0179-01.json and https://static.case.law/f2d/712/cases/0490-01.json +[^16]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3, testimony of John W. Dean III, pp. 927-928. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^17]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 2 (1973), testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder, pp. 786-787. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp02unit +[^18]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3, testimony of John W. Dean III, pp. 930-931. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^19]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 9 (1973), testimony of E. Howard Hunt, p. 3663. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp09unit +[^20]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 2, testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder, pp. 787-788. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp02unit +[^21]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3, testimony of John W. Dean III, pp. 929-931. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^22]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1610-1611. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^23]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 2, testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder, pp. 794-795. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp02unit +[^24]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1615-1616. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^25]: *United States v. Haldeman*, 559 F.2d 31 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (en banc), Part I.A. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/559/559.F2d.31.6.8.12.23.75-1384.html +[^26]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, p. 1616 (question of committee counsel Samuel Dash). https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^27]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 9, testimony of Richard G. Kleindienst, August 7, 1973, pp. 3560-3562. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp09unit +[^28]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1619-1620. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^29]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3, testimony of John W. Dean III, p. 932. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^30]: *The Final Report* (Dell paperback edition, *The Senate Watergate Report*), p. 74, citing Liddy executive session, June 4, 1973. https://archive.org/details/senatewatergater01unit +[^31]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3, testimony of John W. Dean III, p. 956. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^32]: U.S. Department of Justice, "Griffin Boyette Bell," Attorneys General biographies. https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/bell-griffin-boyette +[^33]: "Assassination Plots Described by Liddy," *New York Times*, April 14, 1980, as reproduced in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403710021-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403710021-5 +[^34]: Peter S. Prescott, "From Liddy with Love," review of *Out of Control*, *Newsweek*, October 15, 1979, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP88-01350R000200160018-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01350r000200160018-8 +[^35]: "Liddy Says 'Illusions' Weakened Spy Agency," *Austin American-Statesman*, October 7, 1981, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403710012-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403710012-5 +[^36]: "Liddy Spills Watergate-Era Tricks to Tax Court," United Press International, August 17, 1985, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403710004-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403710004-4 +[^37]: "Liddy Opens School for Private Security," Associated Press, in *New York Times*, March 19, 1987, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403710006-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403710006-2 +[^38]: "Liddy Says He Would Have Killed If Ordered," United Press International, October 31, 1986, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403710003-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403710003-5 +[^39]: Eddie Scarry, "G. Gordon Liddy Ends 20-year Radio Run," *Adweek*, September 20, 2012. https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/gordon-liddy-retirement-marsha-blackburn/ +[^40]: Thomas Raftery and Donald Singleton, "Liddy: Murder Was Rx for Our Pain in Papers," *New York Daily News*, April 18, 1980, in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000403710019-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000403710019-8 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hughes.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hughes.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..216eb025 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Howard Hughes.md @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +tags: + - Person + - HowardHughes + - HughesToolCompany + - SummaCorporation + - HughesAircraft + - HowardHughesMedicalInstitute + - RobertMaheu + - Intertel + - ProjectAzorian + - Watergate + - HughesRebozo + - CIA + - LasVegas + - Nevada +alias: + - Howard Hughes + - Howard R. Hughes + - Howard Robard Hughes + - Howard R. Hughes Jr. + - Howard Robard Hughes Jr. +summary: "Sole owner of Hughes Tool Company (later Summa Corporation) whose cash gift to Bebe Rebozo, Nevada casino purchases and company name on the CIA's Glomar Explorer run through Senate, court and CIA records." +born: 1905-12-24 +died: 1976-04-05 +location: "Houston, Texas / Las Vegas, Nevada" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Hughes Tool Company]]" + role: "sole owner of Hughes Tool Company, later Summa Corporation" + fn: 3 + - type: founded + with: "[[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]]" + role: "founder and sole trustee" + start: 1953-12-17 + fn: 4 + - type: represented + with: "[[Robert Maheu]]" + reverse: true + role: "personal representative and head of Nevada operations" + end: 1970-12-05 + fn: 3 + - type: represented + with: "[[Chester Davis]]" + reverse: true + role: "lawyer" + fn: 2 + - type: represented + with: "[[Edward P. Morgan]]" + reverse: true + role: "Washington lawyer" + fn: 9 + - type: represented + with: "[[Robert R. Mullen Company]]" + reverse: true + role: "Washington public relations under Robert Bennett" + fn: 21 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Intertel]]" + reverse: true + role: "security and management consultants, Nevada casinos" + start: 1970-12 + fn: 17 + - type: funded + with: "[[Bebe Rebozo]]" + role: "100,000 dollars in cash delivered by Richard Danner, returned in June 1973" + start: 1969-09 + end: 1973-06 + fn: 11 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities]]" + role: "requested to testify; subpoena approved but never served" + fn: 9 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Project Azorian]]" + role: "Hughes Tool Company named as owner of the Hughes Glomar Explorer" + start: 1971-04 + fn: 25 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Annette Gano Lummis]]" + role: "nephew" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was born on December 24, 1905, and died on April 5, 1976, aboard an aircraft on the way to [[Houston, Texas|Houston]].[^1] His father invented and patented the modern oil-drill bit, which was leased for 30,000 dollars a well; Hughes inherited a majority interest in the company at nineteen and bought out his relatives. In December 1970 his holdings in oil-drilling equipment, aerospace, electronics, airlines, communications and real estate were privately owned and not subject to public reporting requirements, and *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* estimated their value at 1.4 billion to 2 billion dollars. Hughes companies then employed about 65,000 people, and the [[Hughes Tool Company]] held about 60 percent of the world market for drill bits.[^2] Hughes Tool, later renamed [[Summa Corporation]], was the holding company for most of the holdings, and Hughes was its sole owner.[^3] + +### Hughes Aircraft and the Medical Institute + +The [[Howard Hughes Medical Institute]] was incorporated in [[Delaware]] on December 17, 1953, with Hughes as its trustee, holding full power to manage and control its affairs. An executive committee was created the same day. The institute was funded by the transfer to it of the electronics division of the Hughes holdings, the [[Hughes Aircraft Company]], all of whose stock it afterward held. The [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruled on March 1, 1957 that the institute was a charitable corporation exempt from federal income tax. On July 3, 1968, by a "Resolution of Trustee" that, according to the complaint of the attorney general of Delaware, Hughes caused to be adopted, the executive committee was delegated all the powers that Delaware law conferred on the board of a business corporation.[^4][^5] In 1970 *Time* described Hughes Aircraft, an electronics and satellite company, as controlled by the medical foundation, "of which Howard Hughes is sole trustee."[^2] + +### Robert Maheu and the Central Intelligence Agency + +Hughes retained [[Robert Maheu]], a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] agent, in 1953 according to *Time*, and in 1954 or 1955 according to Maheu's own testimony. In that testimony, as summarized by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Ninth Circuit]], Hughes several times said that Maheu would be his "alter ego," representing him before government agencies; from 1961 through 1965 Maheu was his personal representative at all levels of government; and Maheu never had a face-to-face conversation with Hughes in the course of a fourteen-year relationship, all communication being by telephone or written memorandum.[^2][^3] + +The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] had earlier paid Maheu a 500 dollar retainer, ended when his detective agency became more lucrative. In late August or early September 1960 the agency's Operational Support Chief, Maheu's case officer, asked him to approach [[Johnny Roselli]] about a plan to "dispose" of [[Fidel Castro]]. "At first Maheu was reluctant to become involved in the operation because it might interfere with his relationship with his new client, Howard Hughes." Maheu testified to the [[Church Committee]] that shortly before the November 1960 election, while he was in [[Miami]] on the assassination project, Hughes telephoned and asked him to return to the West Coast, and that, not wanting to lose Hughes as a client, he "definitely told him that the project was on behalf of the [[United States]] Government," including plans to dispose of Castro in connection with a pending invasion.[^6] + +A CIA memorandum for the record dated May 20, 1971, written by an agency employee seeking employment who had been introduced to the president of [[Intertel]], records that in the early 1960s Maheu closed his [[Washington, D.C.]] office, took Hughes as his sole client and moved to [[Los Angeles]]. Its author wrote that during 1962 to 1964 he was himself "working out the details of a nonofficial cover arrangement with the Aircraft Division of the Hughes Tool Company in Culver City, California," that Rhea Hopper, the vice president in charge of the division, "was the principle cleared witting official," that it was "doubtful that details of this arrangement ever reached Mr. Hughes himself," and that Maheu "was cut in as a pickup for insurance." The same memorandum states that Maheu had first done subcontract investigative work for Hughes in the early 1950s, during the Senate hearings conducted by Senator [[Owen Brewster]].[^7] + +### Trans World Airlines + +In 1944 the [[Civil Aeronautics Board]] approved control of [[Trans World Airlines]] by Hughes Tool, and from 1944 to 1960 every acquisition and lease of aircraft by the airline from the company, and every financing, received the board's approval; in 1960 the company's TWA stock was placed in a voting trust. TWA sued Hughes Tool for treble damages in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] on June 30, 1961. On February 1, 1963 the district court ordered Howard Hughes to appear for a deposition and the company to produce documents it had refused to produce. On February 8 the company filed a "notice of position" resting on the merits of its positions, which constituted a default, and judgment was entered against it on May 3, 1963. The damages were confirmed at more than 145 million dollars with interest. On January 10, 1973 the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] reversed, holding in *[[Hughes Tool Co. v. Trans World Airlines]]*, 409 U.S. 363, that the challenged transactions had been under the board's control and surveillance and were immune from the antitrust laws.[^8] Hughes had sold his TWA shares in 1966 at 86 dollars each and collected 546 million dollars.[^2] + +### Las Vegas + +Hughes moved to [[Las Vegas]] in November 1966, and Maheu contracted through his own company to manage the hotels, casinos and other properties Hughes began to acquire, reporting to Hughes rather than to the executives of Hughes Tool.[^9] *Time* noted that [[Nevada]] had no inheritance taxes. Hughes lived for four years in the penthouse of the [[Desert Inn]]; by 1970 his Nevada holdings, valued by *Time* at 300 million dollars, included the Desert Inn, the [[Sands Hotel|Sands]], the [[Landmark Hotel|Landmark]], the [[Frontier Hotel|Frontier]] and the [[Castaways Hotel|Castaways]], the [[Silver Slipper Casino|Silver Slipper]], [[Harolds Club]] in [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]], the [[North Las Vegas Airport]] and the regional airline renamed [[Hughes Air West]]. Roselli held a gift-shop lease at the Frontier and said he had collected a finder's fee when the Desert Inn was sold to Hughes. State officials examining the books of the Sands in the summer of 1970 found 186,000 dollars in markers, some signed with fictitious names, which Hughes's managers wished to write off as bad debts and which the officials refused to allow. Hughes became suspicious of his Las Vegas employees in February 1970 after a tip from federal investigators examining kickbacks and skimming in the Nevada operation.[^2] + +Hughes's purchases drew the [[Department of Justice]]. In 1968, after Hughes had promised the [[Nevada Gaming Commission]] that the [[Stardust Resort and Casino|Stardust]] would be his last major acquisition, the department's [[Antitrust Division]] prepared a civil complaint against the purchase, signed by Attorney General [[Ramsey Clark]] and scheduled for filing in late June 1968; Hughes's representatives postponed the merger shortly before it was to be filed. The Landmark, presented as a failing company, was approved in writing on January 17, 1969.[^10] + +Maheu testified that he was consulted on which political leaders Hughes should support, that Hughes knew of and approved all political contributions, and that Hughes saw them as ensuring access and influence. By 1969 Hughes's cash contributions were drawn from the Silver Slipper, which Hughes owned as a sole proprietorship. A memorandum from Hughes to Maheu, undated, found in the files of the [[Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities|Senate Watergate committee]], reads in part: "Bob, as soon as this predicament is settled, I want you to go see Nixon as my special confidential emissary. I feel there is a really valid possibility of a Republican victory this year. If that could be realized under our sponsorship and supervision every inch of the way then we would be ready to follow with Gov. [[Paul Laxalt]] as our next candidate."[^9] + +### The Contribution to Bebe Rebozo + +[[Richard Danner]] had been the FBI special agent in charge in Miami from 1940 to 1946, when he left to manage the first congressional campaign of [[George Smathers]]; after the 1950 election he introduced Senator-elect [[Richard Nixon]] to [[Bebe Rebozo]] at [[Key Biscayne, Florida|Key Biscayne]]. Danner testified that in 1968 Nixon or Rebozo asked him to learn whether Hughes would contribute to the campaign, and that Rebozo suggested he raise it with [[Edward P. Morgan]], who represented Hughes. Maheu said Hughes approved 50,000 dollars in cash, seeing a contribution through Rebozo as a means of ensuring access to Nixon. On September 9, 1968 Maheu received 150,000 dollars in two checks from the Hughes executive [[Nadine Henley]], to be used in part for a contribution to Nixon. Danner, Rebozo and Morgan met for breakfast on September 11, 1968. Rebozo testified that he was uneasy about taking cash from Hughes through Morgan because of the 1956 loan from Hughes to [[F. Donald Nixon]], the candidate's brother, and because Morgan represented [[Drew Pearson]]; the [[White House]] denied that Nixon had discussed a Hughes contribution with Danner, and Danner's diary recorded a call from the candidate "re finances" on September 27, 1968. In December 1968 Maheu received 100,000 dollars in cash, 50,000 of which he tried to deliver to the President-elect or an aide at [[Palm Springs, California|Palm Springs]].[^9][^11] + +Danner joined the Hughes organization in February 1969. The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities found that the first delivery of 50,000 dollars to Rebozo took place on September 11 or 12, 1969 at Key Biscayne; Rebozo later moved the date to 1970, and Danner changed his testimony after consulting Rebozo. The committee listed four possible delivery dates (September 11-12, 1969; July 3, 1970; August 19-20, 1970; and October 28-30, 1970) and four possible packets of cash, from the Sands in early December 1968, from Henley on December 5, 1968 and July 11, 1969, and from the Hughes lawyer Thomas Bell out of the Silver Slipper on October 26, 1970.[^11] Asked about a trip to Key Biscayne, made with Maheu, that he had once taken to be the occasion of a delivery, Danner testified: "My recollection of the reason for that trip was to contact Mr. Rebozo and discuss the dumping of the nerve gas."[^12] Danner insisted that the money was requested for the 1970 congressional campaigns; Maheu testified that the first payment fulfilled the 1968 pledge and that the second was to ensure the Hughes people "an entree with the Nixon administration"; Rebozo testified that it was for the 1972 presidential campaign.[^13] + +In the same period the books of Hughes Tool recorded other political money handled by Maheu. A check for 50,000 dollars dated May 13, 1969 was payable to Robert A. Maheu Associates, with a receipt marked "Nevada and L.V. local," which [[Chester Davis]] said the testimony of Henley identified as being for state and local contributions; Davis declined to produce an accountants' list of cash withdrawals from the Silver Slipper as the work product of litigation.[^14] In Maheu's later libel case, Summa pointed to 100,000 dollars Maheu received from Hughes's personal bank account in May 1970 "ostensibly for political contributions," of which about 13,000 dollars was so used and 87,000 dollars carried on Maheu's books as a debt to Hughes; to 59,000 dollars taken from the Silver Slipper in December 1969; and to "the disappearance of 50,000 dollars, an alleged cash contribution for former Vice-President [[Hubert Humphrey|Humphrey]]." Maheu testified that he delivered the Humphrey money in cash "by leaving it in an attache case in his limousine."[^3] + +### The Dunes + +In early 1970 Hughes instructed Maheu to negotiate the purchase of the [[Dunes Hotel]]. Maheu said Hughes told him to send Danner, then manager of the Frontier, directly to Attorney General [[John Mitchell]], whom Danner knew from the 1968 campaign. Danner met Mitchell on March 19, 1970; he testified that Mitchell said, "From our review of these figures, we see no problem. Why don't you go ahead with the negotiations," and that the purchase "met the guidelines." Danner and Maheu were both registered at the [[Madison Hotel]] in Washington that day, and Maheu recalled being told that the case "was taken care of in Washington and there would be no interference beyond that." Records of the Sonesta Beach Hotel in Key Biscayne show Danner and Maheu registered there from March 20 to 22, 1970; Mitchell left [[Union Station]] in Washington by train for Florida at 3:30 p.m. on March 20. On March 26, unaware of the oral approval, the head of the Antitrust Division, [[Richard McLaren]], wrote Mitchell a memorandum on the Dunes; McLaren said he never met Danner and knew of no approval. On November 24, 1970, [[J. Edgar Hoover]] sent Mitchell a memorandum, still unexplained when the committee reported, stating that Hughes had renewed his interest in the Dunes. The purchase fell through for financial reasons. The committee concluded that, except for that collapse, "this is a classic case of governmental decision-making for friends."[^10] + +*Time* reported in October 1973 that the committee intended to examine Maheu's reported allegation that the gifts to Rebozo were meant to buy influence on two federal decisions: the Civil Aeronautics Board's approval in July 1969 of the purchase of Air West, and the cancellation by the Justice Department in the late summer of 1970 of an antitrust action against further casino purchases.[^15] Committee counsel put the question to Davis in executive session on December 4, 1973 in four forms: whether the two 50,000 dollar payments related to the pending acquisition of the Dunes and Justice Department approval of it; to the purchase of Air West and government approval of it; to Hughes's desire to have nerve gas dumped in the Atlantic Ocean; and to any position Hughes took on the anti-ballistic missile system. Davis answered "None whatever" to each.[^14] + +### Departure and Intertel + +A few minutes before ten o'clock on Thanksgiving Eve, November 25, 1970, Hughes left the Desert Inn by an interior fire escape, was driven to North Las Vegas Airport and flew in a Hughes Tool jet to the [[Bahamas]]. By the next day he occupied a ninth-floor suite of the [[Britannia Beach Hotel]] on [[Paradise Island]], held for him for more than a year; nearly all of Paradise Island was owned by [[Resorts International]], which *Time* reported Hughes had reputedly tried to buy the year before for 85 million dollars. Eighty-four hours passed before the guards at the Desert Inn discovered he was gone. The Hughes Tool executives [[Raymond Holliday]] and [[Frank Gay|Frank W. Gay]] and the lawyer Chester Davis gathered at the [[Century Plaza Hotel]] in Los Angeles, summoned a Maheu aide and demanded Maheu's resignation; Maheu obtained a court order and the undersheriff searched the empty penthouse. Hughes then telephoned Governor Paul Laxalt and the district attorney at 1:30 a.m. to say he wanted Maheu fired.[^2] Hughes discharged Maheu on December 5, 1970.[^3] + +In a teletype of December 7, 1970, the FBI's Las Vegas office reported that Davis and Gay had announced that Intertel would be engaged to operate security and certain management phases of the Hughes casino-hotels and that Intertel had reportedly been "originally financed to extent of about two million dollars" by Resorts International. The teletype recorded the statement of "an official of Hughes operations (former SA Richard Danner)" that Resorts International and its predecessor, the [[Mary Carter Paint Company]], "may possibly be hoodlum infiltrated or financially indebted to [[Meyer Lansky]]."[^16] A memorandum from J. H. Gale to Mr. Sullivan, filed in January 1971, states that "Intertel has been engaged by officials of the Hughes Tool Company to take over the management and operation of several of the hotels and casinos in Las Vegas." On January 5, 1971 the Bureau told its legal attaché in [[Ottawa]] that it had conducted no investigation of the firm.[^17] Intertel's president was [[Robert Peloquin]]. The Sandwedge memorandum of 1971 recorded that the former [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] agent [[James Golden|Jim Golden]], "formerly with Intertel, has now switched over to the Hughes' Tool Company."[^16][^18] Danner testified that Golden visited Rebozo in December 1970 and discussed Danner's "precarious position" after the change of administration in the Hughes organization; Golden was later replaced by [[Ralph Winte]].[^12] + +The May 1971 CIA memorandum recorded that Hughes Tool had engaged Intertel "to conduct a sweeping and exhaustive investigation into the affairs and past activities of Robert A. Maheu," on a contract "reported to run upward to a million dollars," and that Intertel had already turned information over to the Internal Revenue Service, with the former head of IRS intelligence [[William Kolar]] on its staff in Las Vegas. It recorded the account of a former agency employee then on Intertel's staff that Edward P. Morgan had been paid "almost a million dollars" for past services and was "making noises to certain unnamed Hughes Tool Company officials to the effect that they had better take it easy on Maheu because of the past involvement with CIA in covert operations," and that the Intertel man "will not allow Maheu to use the Agency as a shield."[^7] + +[[Jim Hougan]] wrote that Maheu sent a task force of private detectives to the Bahamas to bug Hughes's suite and to enable him to leave, and that Intertel agents discovered the eavesdropping and had the intruders deported.[^19] In late 1971 a publisher announced an "autobiography" of Hughes based on interviews by [[Clifford Irving]]. On January 7, 1972 Hughes spoke by telephone from Paradise Island to reporters assembled in Los Angeles; asked why Maheu had been fired, he said: "Because he's a no-good, dishonest son-of-a-bitch, and he stole me blind." Maheu sued Hughes Tool for defamation in *[[Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.]]*. Hughes "had totally withdrawn from direct contact with the outside world. He would not appear in any court; he would not give depositions." The jury awarded Maheu more than 2.8 million dollars in compensatory damages and Summa about 48,000 dollars on its counterclaims; on one of them, Maheu had held about 74,000 dollars sent to him to pay the rent on a hangar leased from the [[Tucson Airport Authority]] and was about nine months behind. The Ninth Circuit reversed in part and remanded for a new trial.[^3] Hougan wrote that Peloquin, called by Maheu's lawyer, acknowledged that Intertel agents had filed more than five hundred written reports on Maheu and found no evidence of theft. He also wrote that Hughes moved to [[Managua]] in February 1972, where the American ambassador, [[Turner Shelton]], formerly consul general in the Bahamas, acted as liaison between [[Anastasio Somoza]] and Hughes.[^19] In February 1977 Intertel still controlled the security for much of the Hughes empire.[^20] + +### White House Memoranda, 1971 + +White House memoranda of January and February 1971 on Hughes were printed as exhibits to the testimony of [[Lawrence Higby]], an aide to [[H. R. Haldeman]]. On January 15, 1971 [[Charles Colson]] wrote that [[Robert Bennett]], son of Senator [[Wallace Bennett]], had left the Department of Transportation to take over the [[Robert R. Mullen Company]], that one of his new clients was Howard Hughes, and that "[[Larry O'Brien]] has been the principal Hughes man in Washington." He added: "The important thing from our standpoint is to enhance Bennett's position with Hughes because Bennett gives us real access to a source of power that can be valuable."[^21] + +[[Jack Caulfield]] wrote to [[John Dean]] on January 22 and 25 that O'Brien and "Mayhew" were longtime associates from [[Boston]]; that "serious negotiations" had taken place in 1969 for O'Brien's firm to represent the Hughes interests in Washington, with "knowledgeable sources" putting the fee at 100,000 dollars; that Maheu's "tentacles touch many extremely sensitive areas of government"; that "Mayhew apparently forwarded Hughes' political contributions, personally, to both parties over the last ten years," dealing with a Nixon fund-raiser, Vic Johnson; that the former congressman [[Patrick Hillings|Pat Hillings]], close to [[Murray Chotiner]], had been retained by Maheu for years; that Danner was close to Smathers and professed friendship with Rebozo; that the law firm of [[Clark Clifford]] had for years represented the Hughes legal interests in Washington; and that Maheu had been a close associate of the former FBI agent [[John Frank]], "generally believed to have engineered the assassination of [[Jesús de Galíndez|Jesus de Galindez]]" in 1956 on behalf of [[Rafael Trujillo]]. He proposed "an in depth analysis of all (CIA, F.B.I., IRS) information available for White House perusal."[^21] + +Dean reported to Haldeman on January 26 that Rebozo said his information on the O'Brien retainer had come from Maheu "at a time when Maheu was professing considerable friendliness towards the Administration," and that Rebozo "also requested that if any action be taken with regard to Hughes that he be notified because of his familiarity with the delicacy of the relationships as a result of his own dealings with the Hughes people." Bennett told Dean there was "no doubt" that O'Brien had been retained by Hughes and that the contract was still in existence, and that he was going to the West Coast to discuss his Hughes relationship with Gay. Haldeman replied on January 28 that Colson should "come up with a way to leak the appropriate information," that "Frankly, I can't see any way to handle this without involving Hughes," and that "we should keep Bob Bennett and Bebe out of it at all costs."[^21] + +On February 1 Caulfield wrote that the retainer could be documented only indirectly, payment having been made "via the Mahew-Claude De Sautels route"; that "Don Nixon visited the [[Dominican Republic]] with a group of wheeler dealers in September 1969," who, he wrote, "assertedly were connected with" Maheu's forces in Nevada; and that "Mahew's covert activities from his Washington association with CIA in the early sixties to his Nevada involvment on behalf of Hughes are only generally known here, at this time." On February 3 he drew Dean's attention to a *[[60 Minutes]]* broadcast with an interview of Maheu and "an indication of Intertel's activity in Nevada." An unsigned memorandum in the same exhibits alleged that Maheu had established "close and ominous relationships" with Mafia figures, that huge profits were being skimmed from the casinos, and that Maheu's representatives might have paid hotel and bar bills for the presidential advance party for an October 31 visit to Las Vegas.[^21] Asked in December 1973 whether Intertel had investigated the O'Brien-Maheu relationship, Davis answered that he knew of Intertel's work only under his own direction for litigation, and added: "insofar as I am concerned, there doesn't remain any question in my mind about payments made to and received by Mr. O'Brien."[^14] + +### The Senate Investigation + +[[William E. Griffin]], a lawyer whom Rebozo consulted in April or May 1973, testified that Rebozo told him he held 100,000 dollars in cash in a safe-deposit box at Key Biscayne, in the identical bills he had received, and that a government agency, he thought the IRS, or the Maheu case had prompted inquiry; that Rebozo then had difficulty getting Danner to take the money back, once reaching him on a golf course; and that the money was returned to Danner against a receipt.[^22] *Time* reported in October 1973, citing committee sources, that Rebozo said the second installment was paid on July 3, 1970 at Nixon's house at [[San Clemente, California|San Clemente]], the date on which Rebozo and [[Robert Abplanalp]] were closing the purchase from Nixon of 2.9 acres of the San Clemente property for, according to the same sources, 100,000 dollars; Rebozo denied that any Hughes money was used. Maheu had mentioned the contribution in a deposition in his 17 million dollar suit against Hughes in the spring of 1973.[^15] + +Rebozo returned 100,100 dollars in 1,001 Federal Reserve notes. The committee traced their serial numbers through the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] and found that, for every combination of delivery dates but one, the notes included bills not released for circulation until after a delivery date; on the combination that Danner and Rebozo described, 35 of the bills identified as the second delivery were not available until after August 20, 1970, the latest released on October 1, 1970.[^11] [[Herbert Kalmbach]] testified that on April 30, 1973 Rebozo told him he had spent some of the Hughes money on F. Donald Nixon, [[Edward Nixon]], [[Rose Mary Woods]] and others. Hughes also contributed some 150,000 dollars directly to the 1972 Nixon campaign.[^10][^13] + +The committee requested Hughes's appearance by letter, which was never answered; a subpoena was approved but could not be served because Hughes remained outside the country throughout the investigation. Rebozo refused to produce records of the Key Biscayne Bank and, when Chairman [[Sam Ervin]] sought his response in June 1974, left the country and became unavailable for service of a subpoena.[^9] By the spring of 1974 Danner had been examined twice by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], once by a federal grand jury and twice by the IRS, and Winte had been interviewed twice by the FBI.[^12] + +The committee's questions extended to Resorts International. Kalmbach testified that Rebozo suggested he see [[James Crosby]], the head of Resorts, and that Crosby's pledge to the 1970 senatorial campaign program fell from 25,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars. Griffin testified that around 1969 or 1970 he had one conversation in Washington with Crosby and [[Jack Davis]] of Resorts, whom he had first met at the 1969 inauguration, about options Resorts held on [[Pan American World Airways]] stock, that he thought Peloquin and Abplanalp were also present, and that he advised them to see the senators sponsoring restrictive legislation. Asked whether the IRS had cases involving Resorts International, the commissioner, [[Johnnie Walters]], answered: "Not to my knowledge ... I do not even know whether there were cases."[^23] The May 1971 CIA memorandum recorded that in January 1969 Resorts had moved to take control of Pan Am by buying a 9.7 percent interest, and that the Civil Aeronautics Board had intervened.[^7] + +In *[[The Village Voice]]* of January 31, 1974, [[Lucian K. Truscott IV]] wrote that a person close to the committee staff told him the staff had been instructed, "apparently by Ervin and Baker," to "stay away from" any possible quid pro quo for the donation, the Paradise Island casino, Rebozo's bank, "F. Donald Nixon's involvement" and "the whole area of the President's finances," and that Smathers and Danner were in Washington.[^24] + +### Project Azorian + +In April 1971 the chairman of [[Global Marine]], Robert F. Bauer, announced that the company would build a 600-foot mining ship for the Hughes Tool Company. The Hughes Glomar Explorer was launched on November 4, 1972, with speeches by Bauer and by Paul Reeve, general manager of the Ocean Mining Division of Hughes Tool. The government later acknowledged in court CIA sponsorship of the [[Project Azorian]] recovery of the Soviet submarine [[K-129]] "for intelligence collection purposes," and the participation of Hughes Tool, Summa and Global Marine.[^25] + +The CIA's history of the project attributes the leak behind the press accounts of 1975 to "an improbable series of events following a break-in and robbery in June 1974 at Summa Corporation headquarters in Los Angeles," and records the belief that the stolen documents might include "a memorandum from a senior Hughes official to Howard Hughes describing a proposed CIA attempt to recover a sunken Soviet submarine and requesting Hughes' approval for Hughes Company participation." Several persons in the investigation were briefed, and the source of the leak was never identified.[^25] On February 7, 1975 CIA Director [[William Colby]] told President [[Gerald Ford]] that the *[[Los Angeles Times]]* had asked whether the agency had raised a piece of a Soviet submarine: "We have called Frank Murphy to try to kill it."[^26] + +### Death and Estate + +On April 14, 1976 Hughes's aunt and closest living relative, Annette Gano Lummis, and her son [[William R. Lummis]] were granted temporary letters of administration in Probate Court No. 2 of [[Harris County, Texas|Harris County]].[^1][^27] The Howard Hughes Medical Institute claimed on February 24, 1977 that Hughes had executed a will leaving it his entire estate; a jury found on a trial begun December 6, 1977 that Hughes was domiciled in Texas. The probate court granted summary judgment that the alleged will was not valid; on January 23, 1980 the Court of Civil Appeals at Houston reversed that judgment as an impermissible advisory opinion and refused to disqualify Lummis's lawyers, [[Andrews Kurth|Andrews, Kurth, Campbell and Jones]], who had served as the institute's counsel for more than twenty years and had helped obtain its tax exemption.[^27] In each state that sought death taxes, the estate's personal representative contended that Hughes died domiciled in Nevada, "the only State in the Union without death taxes." [[California]] and [[Texas]] each claimed him; the bulk of the estate consisted of shares in a single holding company, and California alleged that its judgment would be uncollectible to the extent of about 21 million dollars. On June 22, 1978 the Supreme Court denied California leave to file a bill of complaint against Texas in *[[California v. Texas]]*, 437 U.S. 601.[^28] + +Hughes died without naming a successor trustee of the medical institute, and the Delaware complaint alleged that the institute had since been controlled by Gay and Davis as majority members of its executive committee, which on July 10, 1978 purported to amend the charter to abolish the office of trustee. The attorney general of Delaware and William Lummis, as Delaware ancillary administrator, sued in the [[Delaware Court of Chancery]] to have a trustee appointed.[^4][^5] A claim by the actress [[Terry Moore]] that she had married Hughes at sea in 1949 was dismissed on judicial estoppel; the opinion affirming the dismissal was written by Justice [[Paul Pressler]].[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *Moore v. Neff*, 629 S.W.2d 827 (Tex. App., Houston [14th Dist.] 1982), No. B2947, decided February 4, 1982 (Pressler, J.), full text at the Harvard Caselaw Access Project. https://static.case.law/sw2d/629/cases/0827-01.json (birth date computed from *Time*'s statement of December 21, 1970 that Hughes "will be 65 on Christmas Eve"). +[^2]: "Business: Shootout at the Hughes Corral," *Time*, December 21, 1970. https://time.com/archive/6838449/business-shootout-at-the-hughes-corral/ +[^3]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. 1977), modified January 12, 1978, Nos. 75-1306 and 75-2353 (Duniway, J.), parts I to V. https://openjurist.org/569/f2d/459 +[^4]: *Wier v. Howard Hughes Medical Institute*, 404 A.2d 140 (Del. Ch. 1979), decided June 26, 1979 (Marvel, Ch.), full text at the Harvard Caselaw Access Project. https://static.case.law/a2d/404/cases/0140-01.json +[^5]: *Wier v. Howard Hughes Medical Institute*, 407 A.2d 1051 (Del. Ch. 1979), decided October 26, 1979 (Marvel, Ch.). https://static.case.law/a2d/407/cases/1051-01.json +[^6]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), pp. 74-75 and n. 2 (Maheu testimony of July 29, 1975, pp. 22-23), and p. 307 n. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^7]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Robert D. Peloquin, President, International Intelligence, Inc. (INTERTEL)," May 20, 1971, signed John G. Southard, 6 pp., NARA record number 104-10122-10288, released under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, March 18, 2025. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10288.pdf +[^8]: *Hughes Tool Co. v. Trans World Airlines, Inc.*, 409 U.S. 363 (1973), Nos. 71-827 and 71-830, decided January 10, 1973, opinion of the Court (Douglas, J.) and dissent (Burger, C.J.) reciting the procedural history. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/409/363 +[^9]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981 (June 1974), ch. 8, "The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters," introduction and sections I-II, pp. 931-936 and n. 7 (Hughes memorandum to Maheu). https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities +[^10]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981, ch. 8, section VI, "Dunes Report," pp. 980-998. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities +[^11]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981, ch. 8, section V, "Delivery and Retention of the Contributions," pp. 944-948. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities +[^12]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, Senate Resolution 60, Executive Session Hearings, Book 24: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), testimony of Richard G. Danner, pp. 11417, 11464-11465, 11553-11555, and letter of Chester C. Davis to the committee, p. 11480. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob24/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob24.pdf +[^13]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Final Report*, S. Rept. 93-981, ch. 8, section X, "The Issue of Use of the Money," p. 1030, and section on purpose of the money, pp. 1055-1056. https://archive.org/details/FinalReportOfTheSenateSelectCommitteeOnPresidentialCampaignActivities +[^14]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 24*, testimony of Chester C. Davis (executive session of December 4, 1973), pp. 11398-11401, 11609-11611. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob24/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob24.pdf +[^15]: "The Nation: The Hughes Connection," *Time*, October 22, 1973. https://time.com/archive/6841879/the-nation-the-hughes-connection/ +[^16]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Peloquin file, FOI/PA No. 1602405, Part 01, teletype, Las Vegas (92-3659) to Director and Miami, December 7, 1970, pp. 21-25 (PDF pages). https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^17]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, memorandum, J. H. Gale to Mr. Sullivan, "William G. Hundley, Robert D. Peloquin, International Intelligence, Inc.," December 1970 (file stamp January 8, 1971), p. 33; Director to Legat, Ottawa, January 5, 1971, p. 42. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^18]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 21* (GPO, 1974), "Operation Sandwedge," Tab 31, pp. 9899-9902. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21.pdf +[^19]: Jim Hougan, *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents* (William Morrow, 1978), pp. 262-263, 384-385. https://archive.org/details/hougan-jim-spooks +[^20]: Tom Zito, "Peloquin of Intertel: Intelligence, Security, 'Targets of Opportunity,'" *The Washington Post*, February 20, 1977, pp. L1, L12 (page images in the Weisberg Subject Index Files, Hood College). http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/I%20Disk/Intertel%20on%20Assassination%20Samples%20of/Item%2001.pdf +[^21]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 23: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), Higby Exhibits 5-A to 5-I, pp. 11123-11135: Colson memorandum of January 15, 1971; Caulfield to Dean, January 22, January 25, February 1 and February 3, 1971; Dean to Haldeman, January 26, 1971; Haldeman to Dean, January 28, 1971; Dean to Caulfield, February 5, 1971; unsigned memorandum, Exhibit 5-I. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23.pdf +[^22]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 22: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10429-10431, 10446-10448. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22.pdf +[^23]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 21* (GPO, 1974), testimony of Herbert W. Kalmbach, p. 10183; *Book 23*, testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10792-10793; *Book 24*, testimony of Johnnie M. Walters, p. 11623. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21.pdf +[^24]: Lucian K. Truscott IV, "Watergate, the Bahamas & Howard Hughes," *The Village Voice*, January 31, 1974. https://villagevoice.com/1974/01/31/watergate-the-bahamas-howard-hughes +[^25]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Project AZORIAN: The Story of the Hughes Glomar Explorer," released January 2010, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, document 1 (scanned images, OCR read). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/doc01.pdf +[^26]: Memorandum of conversation, President Ford, Henry Kissinger, James Schlesinger, William Colby, David Jones and Donald Rumsfeld, Oval Office, February 7, 1975, Gerald R. Ford Library, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, document 2. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb305/doc02.pdf +[^27]: *Howard Hughes Medical Institute v. Lummis*, 596 S.W.2d 171 (Tex. Civ. App., Houston [14th Dist.] 1980), No. A2176, decided January 23, 1980 (Brown, C.J.). https://static.case.law/sw2d/596/cases/0171-01.json +[^28]: *California v. Texas*, 437 U.S. 601 (1978) (per curiam, June 22, 1978), with concurring and dissenting opinions. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/437/601 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John J. McCloy.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John J. McCloy.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6142747f --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John J. McCloy.md @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ +--- +category: "Key Figures" +tags: + - Person + - JohnJMcCloy + - MilbankTweed + - HICOG + - ChaseManhattan + - FordFoundation + - CouncilOnForeignRelations + - WorldBank + - WarrenCommission + - OilIndustry + - SevenSisters + - JapaneseInternment + - ArmsControl + - ColdWar +alias: + - John J. McCloy + - John McCloy + - John Jay McCloy + - John Snader McCloy + - Jack McCloy + - J.J. McCloy +summary: "American lawyer, Assistant Secretary of War, World Bank president, High Commissioner for Germany, Chase and Ford Foundation chairman, counsel to the major oil companies and Warren Commission member." +born: 1895-03-31 +died: 1989-03-11 +location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (born); Stamford, Connecticut (died)" +relations: + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Ellen Zinsser McCloy]]" + start: 1930-04-25 + role: "husband" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Cravath, Swaine & Moore]]" + start: 1924-12 + end: 1940-12 + role: "associate, partner from 1929" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States Department of War]]" + start: 1940-12 + end: 1945-11 + role: "special assistant, then Assistant Secretary of War" + fn: 1 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Henry L. Stimson]]" + start: 1940-12 + end: 1945-11 + role: "assistant to the Secretary of War" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[World Bank]]" + start: 1947-03-17 + end: 1949-06-30 + role: "president" + fn: 11 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Harry S. Truman]]" + reverse: true + start: 1949 + role: "High Commissioner for Germany" + fn: 12 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany]]" + start: 1949-09-21 + end: 1952-08-01 + role: "U.S. High Commissioner for Germany" + fn: 13 + - type: appointed + with: "[[David W. Peck]]" + start: 1950-03 + role: "chairman of the Advisory Board on Clemency for War Criminals" + fn: 16 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Ford Foundation]]" + end: 1965 + role: "chairman of the board of trustees" + fn: 22 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Council on Foreign Relations]]" + start: 1953 + end: 1971 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Chase Manhattan Bank]]" + start: 1953-01 + end: 1960-12 + role: "chairman of the board of Chase National, later Chase Manhattan" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Milbank Tweed]]" + start: 1946 + end: 1947 + role: "partner" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Milbank Tweed]]" + start: 1961 + end: 1989 + role: "name partner" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament]]" + start: 1961 + end: 1974 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[ExxonMobil]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: represented + with: "[[Mobil]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: represented + with: "[[Gulf Oil]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: represented + with: "[[Texaco]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: represented + with: "[[Standard Oil of California]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: represented + with: "[[BP]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: represented + with: "[[Royal Dutch Shell]]" + role: "counsel to the Seven Sisters oil companies" + fn: 29 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Libyan Producers Agreement]]" + start: 1971-01 + role: "counsel to whom the Business Review letters were addressed" + fn: 34 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Cuban Missile Crisis]]" + start: 1962-10 + end: 1963 + role: "chairman of the Coordinating Committee" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Warren Commission]]" + start: 1963-11-29 + role: "commissioner" + fn: 50 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +John Jay McCloy (born in [[Philadelphia]] on March 31, 1895; died in [[Stamford, Connecticut]], on March 11, 1989) was an American lawyer, banker and government official. He served as Assistant Secretary of War, president of the [[World Bank]], U.S. Military Governor and High Commissioner for [[Germany]], chairman of the [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], the [[Ford Foundation]] and the [[Council on Foreign Relations]], counsel to the major international oil companies, chairman of the [[General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament]] and a member of the [[Warren Commission]]. [[Amherst College]], which holds his papers, records his name at birth as John McCloy, with "Snader" used as a middle name in college records until about 1935 and "Jay" thereafter.[^1] + +### Black Tom and the Stimson Connection + +McCloy joined [[Cravath, Swaine & Moore|Cravath, de Gersdorff, Swaine and Wood]] in December 1924 and became a partner in 1929.[^1] The firm represented the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]] Company in the Black Tom case, a World War I sabotage case that began in 1916 when a munitions depot on [[Black Tom Island]] in New York was blown up; McCloy became involved in 1930 and saw the case through to its final settlement in 1941. The proceedings ran before the [[Mixed Claims Commission]] (August 1924 to July 1941), the [[U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia]] (October 1939 to October 1940) and the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] (August 1940 to January 1941). The archivists who processed his papers wrote that the case reportedly brought him to the attention of [[Henry L. Stimson]], then Secretary of State and later Secretary of War, who appointed him Assistant Secretary of War.[^2] McCloy served Stimson as an expert consultant from October 1940, as Special Assistant from December 1940 and as Assistant Secretary of War from April 1941 to November 1945.[^1] + +### Assistant Secretary of War and the Japanese American Exclusion + +After the outbreak of war McCloy was the civilian aide to Stimson responsible for Japanese American questions.[^3] In the first weeks of 1942 he took part in the discussions among the [[United States Department of War|War Department]], the [[Western Defense Command]] and the [[Department of Justice]] that preceded [[Executive Order 9066]]. Provost Marshal General [[Allen W. Gullion]] described a heated meeting over a draft press release, which stated that the military situation did not require the removal of American citizens of Japanese descent, between Stimson, McCloy and [[Karl Bendetsen]] for the War Department and Attorney General [[Francis Biddle]], [[J. Edgar Hoover]] and [[James Rowe]] for the Justice Department; Stimson and McCloy wanted General [[John L. DeWitt]] to consider the draft before they responded. On February 3, 1942, DeWitt read McCloy by telephone the memorandum he had promised Gullion and urged deletion of the line stating that citizens need not be removed. The [[Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians]] wrote that McCloy "was most concerned about the legality of any government action," that he favored designating restricted zones and letting people back in by permit, that he would allow in "[e]veryone but the Japs," and that he did not press DeWitt for a military justification for moving the Nisei. On February 4 he met Gullion, Rowe, [[Edward Ennis]] and [[John Burling]] on legislation to remove both citizens and aliens from parts of the West Coast. On February 18, 1942, he attended the conference at which Stimson approved Biddle's draft of the executive order; Stimson wrote in his diary that "Biddle, McCloy and Gullion had done a good piece of work in breaking down the issues between the Departments the night before."[^3] McCloy took [[Milton Eisenhower]] to [[San Francisco]] to meet DeWitt before [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] signed [[Executive Order 9102]] creating the [[War Relocation Authority]] on March 18, 1942. When evacuees were being forced to sell their holdings, he wrote [[Harry Hopkins]] that "[o]ne of the drawbacks they have is the loss of their property," and an exchange with Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]] ended with Frankfurter assuring him that he was handling a delicate matter with wisdom and appropriate hard-headedness.[^4] + +In January 1943 McCloy assured DeWitt that the new loyalty review for Nisei volunteers would not affect exclusion from the West Coast. On April 8, 1943, he wrote DeWitt that "[t]he very 'entering wedge' which you appear to dread is precisely what must be accomplished." The same month he told Bendetsen, in a discussion of how the original exclusion decision had been reached: "We never thought about it." When DeWitt's printed Final Report on the evacuation reached him in mid-April 1943, McCloy found it "too self-glorifying and too self-serving," objecting above all to its statement that the impossibility of determining loyalty, not urgency, had been the military necessity for exclusion. Bendetsen carried McCloy's revisions to DeWitt in Alaska, after which DeWitt accepted them and set out to destroy every copy of the April version. A Bendetsen memorandum of the period records that McCloy concluded there "no longer existed any military necessity for the continued exclusion of all Japanese from the evacuated zone," and that the War Department "of its own motion, would not take any action to direct or require the revision or revocation of present restrictions." In early November 1944, a week after General [[Charles H. Bonesteel]] of the Western Defense Command asked him for a personal meeting on ending exclusion, McCloy wrote that "there is a disposition not to crowd action too closely upon the heels of the election."[^5] + +McCloy and Bendetsen, the two witnesses before the commission most involved in the evacuation decision, testified that it was not taken on the basis of actual incidents of espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity. The commission concluded that the War Department had "failed to scrutinize General DeWitt's demands closely and critically."[^3] From 1947 to 1949 McCloy supported legislation to accept evacuation claims and to grant naturalization rights to Japanese residents not born in the [[United States]]. He opposed the compensation effort that followed the commission's 1983 report and prepared testimony for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations in 1984 to 1986.[^6] + +In 1953 the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act (the [[Jenner Committee]]), headed by Senator [[William E. Jenner]], issued a report referring to "Army tolerance of Communists" during the war and quoting McCloy's 1945 testimony to the [[House Committee on Military Affairs]]. On February 7, 1954, Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] accused McCloy of having ordered the destruction of Army intelligence files on Communists, and retracted the charge two days later while insisting that McCloy had been the "moving force" behind the commissioning of Communists in the Army. In 1952 Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] named McCloy to a special panel on the loyalty case of the Foreign Service officer [[John Carter Vincent]], with Judge [[Learned Hand]], former Assistant Secretaries of State [[James Grafton Rogers]] and [[G. Howland Chase]], and a former ambassador printed in the finding aid as [[Edmund C. Wilson]]; [[John Foster Dulles]] asked the panel to stop work after the change of administration.[^7] + +### The Auschwitz Letters + +In the summer and fall of 1944 the [[World Jewish Congress]] and the [[War Refugee Board]] forwarded requests to the War Department to bomb Auschwitz. On August 14, 1944, McCloy advised that "such an operation could be executed only by the diversion of considerable air support ... now engaged in decisive operations elsewhere and would in any case be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our resources." Within a week the [[United States Army Air Forces]] carried out a heavy bombing of the [[IG Farben|I.G. Farben]] synthetic oil and rubber (Buna) works near Auschwitz III, less than five miles from the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center.[^8] On November 18, 1944, answering a letter of November 8 from [[John W. Pehle]], executive director of the War Refugee Board, which forwarded the report of two eyewitnesses on Auschwitz and Birkenau, McCloy wrote that "[t]he Operation Staff of the War Department has given careful consideration to your suggestion." He listed five points, among them that the target was beyond the maximum range of medium bombers, dive bombers and fighter bombers in the [[United Kingdom]], France or Italy, that heavy bombers from British bases would face a "hazardous round trip flight unescorted of approximately 2,000 miles over enemy territory," and that "our strategic air forces are engaged in the destruction of industrial target systems vital to the dwindling war potential of the enemy, from which they should not be diverted." He added: "I know that you have been reluctant to press this activity on the War Department. We have been pressed strongly from other quarters, however, and have taken the best military opinion on its feasibility."[^9] + +### The Strategic Services Unit + +A CIA historical index card dated December 21, 1965 summarizes two memoranda on the War Department's [[Strategic Services Unit]] (SSU): one from Secretary of War [[Robert P. Patterson]] of September 27, 1945, implementing an executive order of September 20 and designating a War Department representative to administer, operate and liquidate the unit "under authority and policies to be determined by Asst SecWar," and one from McCloy of September 26, 1945, instructing him to examine the unit's facilities to determine their disposition, coordinate with the State Department and the Bureau of the Budget, "preserve SSU functions of peacetime value" and follow War Department fiscal procedures. The card's compiler commented that while the SSU director had the mission to liquidate wartime activities and preserve functions suitable for peacetime, "SSU itself appears to be without any operational mission." The name of the designated representative is withheld in the released card.[^10] + +### World Bank and the High Commissionership + +McCloy practiced with [[Milbank Tweed|Milbank, Tweed, Hope & Hadley]] in 1946 and 1947.[^1] He was the second president of the World Bank, from March 17, 1947 to June 30, 1949; during his tenure the Bank began to borrow in the capital market and made its first reconstruction and development loans, and he proposed his associate [[Eugene R. Black]] as his successor.[^11] At a meeting on April 30, 1949, [[Harry S. Truman]] asked him to become High Commissioner for Germany, and he resigned from the Bank on May 18, 1949.[^12] The [[Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany]] (HICOG) was established on September 21, 1949, with the creation of the Federal Republic, and McCloy, its first High Commissioner, served until August 1, 1952; the Amherst chronology dates his tenure as Military Governor and High Commissioner from July 1949 to July 1952.[^13] [^1] + +On August 18, 1949, [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Roscoe Hillenkoetter]] wrote McCloy that a change in the payment of German employees of American units in Germany had affected "[t]he Central Intelligence Agency unit in Germany, the Department of the Army Detachment," and requested that McCloy allot to the detachment, "from the German reparations account," a sum (withheld in the released copy) per year for the salaries of German service personnel who had worked with the CIA unit since the occupation. Hillenkoetter wrote that the Agency had no provision in its budget to carry them and that it wished "to do all possible to aid you in every way you may desire to carry out the aims of your mission."[^14] On January 12, 1951, Director [[Walter Bedell Smith]] answered a McCloy letter of December 12, 1950 concerning his talks with a person whose name is withheld, writing that "Bill, Allen Dulles and I are doing the best we can." On June 19, 1951, Deputy Director [[Allen Dulles]] returned to McCloy a paper he had handed Dulles the night before, keeping a copy, and promised the Agency's views on its recommendations.[^15] + +### The Landsberg Clemency Decisions + +McCloy appointed an [[Advisory Board on Clemency for War Criminals]] in March 1950 to review petitions from prisoners convicted by the [[Nuremberg Military Tribunals]] and held at [[Landsberg Prison]]. Its members were [[David W. Peck]], Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, of the New York Supreme Court (chairman); [[Frederick A. Moran]], chairman of the New York Board of Parole; and Brigadier General [[Conrad E. Snow]], Assistant Legal Adviser of the [[State Department|Department of State]]. The board began in Washington, established itself in [[Munich]] in July 1950, sat there for forty days, read the judgments in the cases of 104 defendants and heard 50 counsel representing 90 of them. On January 31, 1951, McCloy announced his decisions: of fifteen death sentences, ten were commuted and five confirmed, four against leaders of the SS [[Einsatzgruppen]] and one against the former head of the concentration camp administration (WVHA).[^16] + +In the Krupp case (Case 10), McCloy wrote that the guilt of the defendants "was no greater in these cases than that involved in the Farben and Flick cases" and reduced the sentences "so that the terms served will conform approximately to the sentences in similar cases." The decisions, as printed by his office, were: [[Alfried Krupp|Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach]], "from 12 years and confiscation of all property to time served and no confiscation"; [[Friedrich von Buelow]] and [[Erich Mueller]], from twelve years to time served; [[Eduard Houdremont]] and [[Friedrich Janssen]], from ten years to time served; [[Karl Eberhardt]] and [[Max Ihn]], from nine years to time served; and [[Heinrich Korschan]] and [[Heinrich Lehmann]], from six years to time served. McCloy described the confiscation decree as "the sole case of confiscation decreed against any defendant by the Nuremberg courts," wrote that he could "find no personal guilt in defendant Krupp, based upon the charges in this case, sufficient to distinguish him above all others sentenced by the Nuremberg Courts," and added that he was "making no judgments as to the ultimate title to the former Krupp property," which "will be subject to AHC Law Number 27, 'Reorganization of the German Coal, Iron and Steel Industries,' and is not affected by this decision."[^17] In the Ministries case he approved the board's reduction of the sentence of [[Gottlob Berger]], a close associate of [[Heinrich Himmler]], from twenty-five years to ten, and noted that he had already commuted the sentence of [[Ernst von Weizsäcker]] to time served. The announcement made no mention of the Flick and Farben cases, because all of the defendants in them had been released or were eligible for release.[^18] + +On May 9, 1952, reporting to the State Department on meetings with coalition party leaders over the contractual agreements ending the occupation, McCloy wrote that leaders of the German Party "recommended inter alia early release of war criminals of type of Manstein and Kesselring as gesture of good will," and that he had "gained impression that DP and FDP objections to war criminal provisions were not really fundamental and that review board procedure, if instituted at an early date, wld placate them."[^19] + +### Klaus Barbie and the Cables over McCloy's Name + +Cables from the High Commission concerning [[Klaus Barbie]] went out over McCloy's name; [[Allan A. Ryan]], in his 1983 report to the Attorney General, wrote that this followed the State Department practice by which embassy cables carry the ambassador's name, and that "[o]ne cannot infer from this practice that the ambassador or other signatory actually read or knew about the cable." In June 1950, after a French note of May 5 demanding Barbie's surrender, Deputy Political Adviser [[E. Allan Lightner]] wrote that McCloy had decided to "smoke out EUCOM on the matter to see how far they would go in helping to find this character, and to get more details as to just how embarrassing it would be to them (CIC) if he were turned over to the French." On June 16, 1950, [[Benjamin Shute]], director of HICOG's Office of Intelligence, was told at [[European Command]] headquarters in [[Heidelberg]] that the [[Counter Intelligence Corps]] had ended Barbie's employment on May 24, 1949 and had kept in contact with him until late April 1950. Ryan found that "[t]hese representations by CIC and EUCOM were false": the Counter Intelligence Corps employed and paid Barbie, and knew where he was, from April 1947 until he left for [[South America]] in March 1951. Ryan found Lightner's language not inconsistent with the conclusion that no one at HICOG knew Barbie was still in CIC custody, and recorded that "[n]either Lightner nor McCloy recalled the Barbie matter when questioned in this investigation."[^20] + +### The Ford Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations and the CIA + +McCloy was brought into the Ford Foundation as a consultant by [[Henry Ford II]] and insisted that it add a full European program, directed by his former HICOG public affairs director, [[Shepard Stone]]. In a letter of December 31, 1951, as he prepared to leave Germany, McCloy urged [[Paul G. Hoffman]] that the Foundation "help to carry on certain operations which the future [US] Embassy may find difficult to continue, but which are of great significance to United States objectives in Germany."[^21] The Amherst finding aid describes his tenure as chairman of the Foundation's board of trustees as running from 1952 to 1965; his Ford papers include a report of the [[Reece Committee|House Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations]] and [[Grenville Clark]]'s 1954 proposal for a Foundation-supported program on disarmament.[^22] + +On April 29, 1953, McCloy, on Council on Foreign Relations letterhead, wrote Allen Dulles, by then Director of Central Intelligence, that he was "delighted to have a report from Shep Stone" that Dulles would join a Council study group on relations between the democratic nations and the [[Soviet Union]], "undertaken at the Council on Foreign Relations under a grant of the Ford Foundation," with a full-time staff under [[Henry L. Roberts]] of [[Columbia University]]. "Though the group will be entirely unofficial, its findings will be made available to our government," he wrote, adding that the CIA's [[Robert Amory]] would attend the first dinner meeting on May 6, 1953.[^23] In a letter of February 25, 1954, quoted by the historian [[Volker Berghahn]] and cited by Harm Langenkamp, Stone wrote McCloy about the [[Congress for Cultural Freedom]]: "you know the sources of funds that have hitherto been supplied to the Congress, but in our conversation with these gentlemen [Nabokov and Rougemont] we should not reveal what we know."[^24] + +A memorandum of May 21, 1954 by [[Don K. Price]] set the Foundation's policy on government-sponsored programs: such projects could be recommended if "worth support on their merits, regardless of any official interest," and with the prior approval of three trustees, "the Chairman, the President, and 'Mr. McCloy.'" Langenkamp, citing Price's 1972 oral history and McCloy's interview with [[Kai Bird]], writes that McCloy and Price later defended the arrangement as a means of limiting the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s access to Foundation officers and grantees, quotes McCloy as saying the Foundation could not keep its "shirts clean" had it closed the door on the Agency entirely, and quotes Price's warning to Dulles and [[Frank Wisner]]: "The first time you meddle with our boys, we'll quit this whole program." In 1958 Dulles invited Foundation officers to Washington for a briefing on Agency operations, and in 1959 Price reached an understanding allowing the CIA to approach Foundation fellows after their grants expired; in the early 1960s Foundation president [[Henry T. Heald]] repeated the Foundation's position to Director [[John McCone]].[^24] Writing of 1962, when Stone sought a five-year guarantee of some $2,000,000 a year to free the Congress for Cultural Freedom from the CIA's treasury, Langenkamp describes McCloy as Stone's "staunchest ally" and as having by then assumed the chairmanship of the board. The Congress, which the CIA had tried from the outset to transfer to the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, reached self-sufficiency through Ford's 1957 to 1962 grant at the moment the cover of the Agency's network of front organizations was blown; Stone's 1962 proposal itself foundered.[^25] + +McCloy was chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1953 to 1971.[^1] + +### Chase Manhattan + +McCloy was chairman of the board of the Chase National Bank from January 1953 to December 1960; the bank merged with the [[Bank of the Manhattan Company]] in April 1955 to form the Chase Manhattan Bank.[^1] His papers include six volumes of appointment and telephone logs kept as chairman from 1953 to 1958, consisting mostly of names with almost no notation of subject matter, and correspondence of March 1960 concerning his retirement from the bank.[^26] On April 20, 1962, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence [[Marshall S. Carter]] wrote him at One Chase Manhattan Plaza that he was being briefed that afternoon on "the other matter" they had discussed by telephone and would come back with "a substantive proposal."[^27] + +### Counsel to the Oil Companies + +From 1961 McCloy was a name partner of Milbank, Tweed, Hope, Hadley & McCloy.[^1] For much of the 1960s and 1970s he advised the "McCloy Group," representatives of most of the major American oil companies and several European and British firms, on legal questions and on foreign and domestic policy, and advocated on their behalf in the Justice Department, the State Department and Congress. His files on the group include representation agreements dated March 20 to August 2, 1962. He kept the Antitrust Division informed of oil group meetings and negotiations, sought specific clearance for actions that might have been construed as violations of the antitrust laws, and "made a point of holding briefing meetings with each new Attorney General to ensure a continuity of contact and goodwill with the Department."[^28] + +From the early 1960s McCloy represented the Seven Sisters ([[Gulf Oil|Gulf]], [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]], [[BP]], [[ExxonMobil|Exxon]], [[Standard Oil of California|Socal]], [[Texaco]] and [[Mobil]]) and was engaged by other companies operating in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. He testified to the [[Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations]] of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]], chaired by Senator [[Frank Church]], that while an adviser to President [[John F. Kennedy]] he raised the possibility of joint action by the companies against the combined pressure of the producing countries, and that the President arranged a meeting with Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy|Robert F. Kennedy]]. Asked whether the understanding was ever formalized, he answered: "No, I don't believe I ever got a letter from him in regard to it." He informed Deputy Attorney General [[Byron White]] and Attorneys General [[Nicholas Katzenbach]], [[Ramsey Clark]] and [[John N. Mitchell|John Mitchell]] of his concerns about [[OPEC]] in informal conversations.[^29] + +On January 11, 1967, as the [[Internal Revenue Service]] questioned the industry's pricing practices, McCloy wrote Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]] about an IRS audit of the tax returns of the five American majors: "I believe that the Department of State has a particular responsibility to make known to the Treasury Department the implications of its proposed attack on crude oil prices," because the system of royalties and creditable local income taxes "was recommended to the oil companies and to the foreign governments involved in the Department of State and the Treasury Department," and without it "large amounts of direct foreign aid might well be required." The subcommittee found that the failure of the IRS to reverse its original ruling after posted and realized prices diverged in 1957 "has cost the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars in revenues"; in 1973 Exxon paid an effective rate of 11.2 percent on earnings of $2.98 billion, Mobil 5 percent and Texaco 2.3 percent.[^30] + +On December 9, 1969, McCloy joined [[David Rockefeller]] and the men listed as [[J. K. Jamieson|Jamieson]], Anderson, [[Rawleigh Warner|Warner]] and [[John Swearingen|Swearingen]] in a meeting with President [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] on the [[Middle East]]; Kissinger's briefing memorandum titled it "Your Meeting with the David Rockefeller Group."[^31] + +### The Libyan Producers Agreement and the Business Review Letters + +On September 25, 1970, McCloy attended, as attorney for several of the major companies, a meeting at which Under Secretary of State [[U. Alexis Johnson]] told the companies operating in [[Libya]] that United States intervention with the Libyan government would be "ineffective at best."[^32] On September 29, 1970, [[Peter Flanigan]], the President's Assistant for International Economic Affairs, recorded that McCloy, "representative of the International Oil Company," had spoken with Johnson; that Flanigan had cleared with Attorney General Mitchell that the companies could discuss a Libyan proposal together "if they were to sit down together with a member of the Justice Department"; and that "[t]his information was given to John McCloy who also spoke to Mitchell." Flanigan suggested to McCloy that the penalties of a break with Libya were greater than those of a settlement, reasoning that a settlement's cost increase would fall on all European and Japanese supplies but only a small part of American supplies, so that "the result would be a competitive benefit to the United States"; he told McCloy the government would expect the companies "to follow the course that they and he thought best."[^33] On January 7, 1971, Johnson met representatives of Esso, Mobil, Gulf, Texaco and Socal and "attorney John McCloy" on OPEC's demands; McCloy said the producers' cartel was in "very strong bargaining position" and asked whether the State Department "could be helpful with Department of Justice in obtaining permission under anti-trust laws for companies to coordinate response."[^34] [[James Akins]] of the State Department and [[Dudley Chapman]] of the Antitrust Division were detailed to work with the companies and McCloy on the documents.[^29] + +The [[United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division|Antitrust Division]] under Assistant Attorney General [[Richard W. McLaren]] issued [[Business Review letter|Business Review letters]] to McCloy covering a joint "[[Message to OPEC]]" and the [[Libyan Producers Agreement]] (the Safety Net Agreement), under which Libyan producers would replace the production of any company shut in for resisting Libyan demands, with Persian Gulf production to be shared under specified circumstances. The letters stated that the Department "does not presently intend to institute any proceedings under the antitrust laws." The subcommittee's report dates the letters January 19, 1971, and in the next paragraph places a January 15 meeting of McCloy and the chief executives with Secretary of State [[William P. Rogers]] and Under Secretary [[John N. Irwin II]] "two days after the issuance of the Business Review letters." At that meeting the companies sought a high-level mission to the producing countries; asked by Church whether he had suggested Irwin, McCloy answered: "No. As long as it was a person of dignity, with clout, to use that expression." Irwin, sent with Nixon's authorization, recommended from [[Tehran]] that the companies negotiate with the Gulf states separately; Rogers communicated the recommendation to McCloy, who informed the chief executives, and the subcommittee found that the State Department had thereby abandoned the strategy of a single global negotiation that lay at the heart of the Message to OPEC and the Business Review letters.[^34] [^35] + +The companies formed a [[London Policy Group]], with a parallel group in New York. Each London Policy Group meeting, on dates from January 20 to June 18, 1971, "was attended by a partner or associate from the firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, counsel for the oil companies, whose function was to assure that the discussions remained within the terms of the Message to OPEC, the Libyan Producers Agreement, and the pertinent business review letters from the Antitrust Division." "No member of the Departments of Justice or State attended any of these meetings; instead, both Departments relied upon ex post-factor [sic] oral reports by oil company executives to Akins and written reports from McCloy to McLaren."[^35] The subcommittee found "no evidence of any Department of Justice monitoring of the negotiations"; not until October 1973, after subcommittee staff began to inquire, did anyone at the Department read the cable record of the company-OPEC negotiations.[^36] The February 14, 1971 [[Tehran Agreement]] raised the Gulf governments' take by an estimated $11.7 billion over five years, a cost McCloy described to McLaren as "extremely high."[^35] + +On October 15, 1971, McCloy informed McLaren that Libya had taken unilateral steps on exchange rates, and on October 19 he asked for further Business Review letters covering joint negotiation on currency parity and participation and an extension of the sharing agreement; the Department issued new letters addressed to him.[^37] At a State Department meeting on January 3, 1972 attended by the chairmen of the major companies, [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]] and McCloy, the Under Secretary of State proposed an industry advisory body; on January 20 McCloy and Akins agreed that an informal body was acceptable, and McCloy reported that some executives were "disturbed" by Akins's insistence that the companies change their relationship with the producing countries by 1976.[^38] + +The Business Review letters required the companies to report to the Justice Department through McCloy. In March 1973 a suit by the [[Corporate Accountability Research Group]] for the documents was pending against the Justice Department, "[a] similar request by [[New York Times|The New York Times]] in 1971 had been averted under the [[Freedom of Information Act]]," and the companies told State Department officials that the sharing agreement was a "form of insurance" that had allowed Bunker Hunt Oil Company to "stand firm" against Libyan demands. On March 23, 1973, [[Warren Clark]] of the North African Office in the Bureau of African Affairs wrote that release would show Libya that the companies had banded together to "denationalize" part of British Petroleum, and that the matter was "very sensitive from a domestic political point of view. The State Department and the USG have sanctioned in these Business Review Letters a strengthening of the international cartel of seven Anglo-Saxon oil companies." A Senate subcommittee "would fry the State Department if it was revealed that we classified these documents in order to protect the 'cartel,' and that we had taken the position that what was good for the cartel was good for US national security." Clark approved keeping the agreement and the letters classified on the narrow ground of proprietary interest.[^39] + +### Oil Diplomacy in 1973 and 1974 + +[[William J. Casey]] sat on McCloy's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament; the committee's letterheads of June 1970 and March and May 1971 list him among the members.[^40] On September 5, 1973, McCloy met Casey, by then Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and asked that the government send a strong note on the illegality of Libya's nationalization, work with the Europeans "to make the Libyan expropriation attempt fail" by obtaining agreement not to buy oil from fields operated by the majors, and lift the environmental sulphur restriction as a demonstration of political determination. [[John Knubel]] of the [[National Security Council]] staff recorded for Kissinger McCloy's estimate that the net shortfall to the United States would be "about 50,000 barrels per day" if the majors stopped pumping Libyan oil, "a manageable amount (according to McCloy)".[^41] On October 12, 1973, during the [[October War]], McCloy sent [[Alexander Haig]] a memorandum by the chairmen of Exxon, Mobil, Texaco and Standard Oil of California, stating that the "chief ARAMCO shareholders" wished it "placed in the President's hands as soon as possible"; the memorandum warned that OPEC's demands could raise the free world's oil cost from the Persian Gulf alone by $15 billion a year, and a notation on Kissinger's covering memorandum of November 3 indicates that Nixon saw it.[^42] + +On November 20, 1973, Kissinger met ten oil industry executives and McCloy, listed as "Milbank and Tweed," with Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust [[Thomas Kauper]] among the officials present; Kissinger told McCloy he wanted to meet him "and a group of Atlanticists" about the Europeans, and the next day [[Brent Scowcroft]] reported that McCloy was prepared to assemble Americans and Europeans for the purpose. On February 8, 1974, Kissinger telephoned McCloy that "[w]e cannot have the Community organized against us as anti-American."[^43] Opening a meeting with the oil company heads on March 29, 1974, Kissinger said he had called it "after talking with Jack McCloy," and that "[t]he transcript taken here isn't going to go anywhere, except into my own personal files." When Deputy Secretary of Defense [[William Clements]] described the encouragement of technology and industry transfers into [[Saudi Arabia]] and the [[Atlantic Richfield]] chairman, [[Robert O. Anderson]], added, "In exchange for which we get a preferential position," McCloy said: "In other words, pick up the Yamani offer."[^44] + +In a letter of September 21, 1973 to Kauper, McCloy listed his clients and reported that the producing states were again demanding changes to the Tehran and Tripoli agreements. In a later letter to Church he stated that American companies in the Middle East had made an affirmative contribution of over $2 billion to the 1972 balance of payments; the subcommittee found that the Commerce Department estimates on which he relied had "recently been found to be substantially in error" because they were computed on posted rather than realized prices.[^45] The McCloy Group appears to have been inactive from June 1973 to February 1979.[^28] + +### The Critchfield Reports and the Oil Files + +The International Oil series of his papers contains sub-series I, "Critchfield Reports, 1968-1973," consisting of 49 "perspectives on development" and 16 special reports on Middle East issues. The Amherst archivists state that "[m]ost, if not all," were prepared by [[Basic Resources International]], a [[Falls Church, Virginia]], consulting firm "headed by [[James H. Critchfield]], formerly CIA bureau chief for the Middle East," and that Report 60 is a prospectus for the firm. Sub-series K of the same series holds a folder titled "Chase Manhattan Bank. Financial analysis of thirty-one petroleum companies" among oil company reports for 1964 to 1966. Other folders in the series hold a draft legal brief on taxes on oil company income and drafts of a proposed letter from President Nixon to the Shah of Iran.[^46] + +### Brazil and the McCone File + +On February 21, 1964, Ambassador [[Lincoln Gordon]] reported from [[Rio de Janeiro]] that President [[Joao Goulart|João Goulart]] "said looking forward to McCloy visit and thought Hanna case could have constructive solution." On February 29, 1964, McCloy, then a partner of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy, met Goulart in Rio to discuss the status of the M.A. [[Hanna Mining Company]].[^47] On April 9, 1964, at 11:10 a.m., Director of Central Intelligence John McCone and McCloy spoke by telephone; four pages of the source text of the transcript, filed in McCone's "Eyes Only" telephone records, have not been declassified. The same day the three military ministers, [[Artur da Costa e Silva|Artur Costa e Silva]], [[Francisco de Assis Correia de Melo]] and [[Augusto Rademaker|Augusto Hamann Rademaker Grünewald]], signed Brazil's [[Institutional Act]].[^48] On June 10, 1964, President [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] showed Gordon a staff report on "areas of friction abroad," including the Hanna case, and said work on resolving all of them was going forward rapidly.[^49] + +### The Warren Commission + +[[Lyndon B. Johnson]] created the Commission by [[Executive Order 11130]] of November 29, 1963, and selected from private life two lawyers, Allen Dulles, former Director of Central Intelligence, and McCloy; Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]], Senators [[Richard B. Russell]] and [[John Sherman Cooper]], and Representatives [[Hale Boggs]] and [[Gerald R. Ford]] completed its membership. Its first meeting was on December 5, 1963.[^50] A transcript titled "Report of Meeting of Members of Staff," dated July 9, 1964, records a meeting attended by General Counsel [[J. Lee Rankin]], staff, McCloy and Dulles, at which Drs. [[Dale C. Cameron]], [[Howard P. Rome]] and [[David A. Rothstein]] gave "an informal colloquy, interrogation, and explanation" on a psychiatric interpretation of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]]; its pages, 7821 to 8071, indicate that it was volume 57 of the Commission's transcripts.[^51] Rankin's files, donated to the JFK Collection, include memoranda and handwritten changes to draft chapters of the report that Ford, McCloy and Dulles, among others, recommended.[^52] + +Among the papers of Director McCone, the [[Assassination Records Review Board]] found a notation for a meeting of May 19, 1964, participants "DCI, J.J. McCloy," a dinner at the Director's residence, "Re: Oswald," annotated "Destroyed 1-28-72"; CIA historians had found the document missing when they reviewed the files in 1986, along with a record of a November 26, 1963 meeting between McCone and [[McGeorge Bundy]] on the assassination. The Board designated the notations as assassination records.[^53] + +### Disarmament and the Cuban Missile Crisis + +On January 27, 1961, Kennedy designated McCloy his adviser on disarmament and arms control, including the nuclear test ban, with offices in the [[White House]] and the State Department. On February 7, 1961, Dulles answered a McCloy letter on the test ban by naming [[Herbert Scoville]], the CIA's Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, as the Agency's point of contact.[^54] In July 1961 McCloy and [[Valerian Zorin]] conducted bilateral disarmament talks in Moscow; McCloy reported "little point in continuing while Zorin talks about plans and I talk about principles."[^55] McCloy chaired the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament from 1961 to 1974, and the committee's sessions drew briefings from CIA officers including [[Arthur Lundahl]] of the National Photographic Interpretation Center and [[David Brandwein]], chairman of the Guided Missile Committee; in November 1969 he asked Director [[Richard Helms]] for a CIA specialist on Chinese strategic questions, noting that the content of the committee's discussions "is classified and should not be revealed beyond the Committee."[^40] + +In the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] McCloy chaired the Coordinating Committee and negotiated with the Soviet representative [[Vasily Kuznetsov]] in New York. On October 26, 1962, he joined [[Adlai Stevenson]] in talks with the [[United Nations]] Secretary-General and his aides on inspection and the removal of the missiles and IL-28 aircraft. A draft United States declaration headed "McCloy draft" and dated November 21, 1962 conditioned an assurance against invading Cuba on the withdrawal of offensive weapons. On January 2 and 3, 1963, McCloy and Kuznetsov negotiated the joint letter withdrawing the matter from the Security Council.[^56] + +### Iran + +From 1979 to 1981 McCloy was a member of a "Special Project Team" working to gain asylum in the United States for the deposed [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah of Iran]]; the team was headed by David Rockefeller, then chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and included Kissinger and Chase vice president [[Joseph Verner Reed Jr.]] The team lobbied the President and the Secretary of State for the Shah's admission; he was admitted in October 1979 for cancer treatment, which was followed by the November 1979 seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran. Rockefeller in particular "was accused of helping the Shah out of self-interest, because of the millions of dollars of Iranian loans and assets held by the Chase Manhattan Bank."[^57] + +### The Papers + +McCloy gave his papers to Amherst College, where he was a trustee from 1947 to 1989, by a deed of gift in July 1985. Before their transfer, "roughly half of the papers underwent a national security review by the Department of State"; the bulk arrived in May 1986, "with several batches sent later following clearance by the relevant government agency," and a second installment received in June 1990, after his death, was reviewed by the State Department and legal counsel. The collection holds only photocopies of his War Department diaries; the originals are at the [[National Archives and Records Administration]]. Names or other details were removed from some entries to protect the privacy of individuals, and "there are a few places where information was removed from the original by an unknown party prior to the diaries' transfer to Amherst College."[^58] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, "John J. McCloy (AC 1916) Papers, 1897-1989 (Bulk: 1940-1979)," Finding Aid MA.00035, Historical Note and Chronology. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^2]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 7: Black Tom, 1924-1946, scope note and sub-series C to E. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^3]: Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, *Personal Justice Denied* (Washington, D.C., December 1982), Part I, Chapter 2, "Executive Order 9066." https://npshistory.com/publications/incarceration/personal-justice-denied/chap2.htm +[^4]: *Personal Justice Denied*, Part I, Chapter 3, "Exclusion and Evacuation." https://npshistory.com/publications/incarceration/personal-justice-denied/chap3.htm +[^5]: *Personal Justice Denied*, Part I, Chapter 8, "Ending the Exclusion." https://npshistory.com/publications/incarceration/personal-justice-denied/chap8.htm +[^6]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 11: Japanese Americans: Relocation and Compensation, 1942-1989, scope note, sub-series A to F. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^7]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 15: Jenner-McCarthy, 1952-1955, sub-series A to C. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^8]: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "The United States and the Holocaust: Why Auschwitz Was Not Bombed," *Holocaust Encyclopedia*, last edited May 1, 2016. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-united-states-and-the-holocaust-why-auschwitz-was-not-bombed +[^9]: John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, to John W. Pehle, Executive Director, War Refugee Board, November 18, 1944, as reproduced by the Jewish Virtual Library. https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mccloy-informs-pehle-that-war-department-won-rsquo-t-bomb-auschwitz-november-1944 +[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, index card, "Memoranda for [withheld], Patterson-McCloy, 27, 26 Sept 45," TSD/H 119, dated 12/21/65, CIA-RDP83-00036R000200110010-5 (approved for release 2006/10/17). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83-00036r000200110010-5 +[^11]: World Bank Group Archives, "John J. McCloy, 2nd World Bank President, March 17, 1947 - June 30, 1949." https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/archives/history/past-presidents/john-jay-mccloy +[^12]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 10: World Bank (folder "JJM resignation (to go to HICOG)," 1949 May 18) and Series 2, sub-series B (account of the April 30, 1949 meeting with President Truman). https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^13]: Allan A. Ryan Jr., *Klaus Barbie and the United States Government: A Report to the Attorney General of the United States* (U.S. Department of Justice, August 1983), p. 84, note. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf +[^14]: R. H. Hillenkoetter, Director of Central Intelligence, to John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, August 18, 1949, CIA-RDP80R01731R001300150013-2 (approved for release 2003/06/16). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001300150013-2 +[^15]: Walter B. Smith to John J. McCloy, January 12, 1951, CIA-RDP80R01731R001300110003-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001300110003-7 ; Allen W. Dulles, Deputy Director, to John J. McCloy, June 19, 1951, CIA-RDP80R01731R001300110002-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001300110002-8 +[^16]: Office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, Public Relations Division, *Landsberg: A Documentary Report* (Frankfurt, January 31, 1951), "Statement of US High Commissioner," pp. 2 to 4, and report of the Advisory Board on Clemency for War Criminals. https://archive.org/details/landsbergdocumen00unit +[^17]: *Landsberg: A Documentary Report*, "Case 10, The Krupp Case," pp. 9 to 11. https://archive.org/details/landsbergdocumen00unit +[^18]: *Landsberg: A Documentary Report*, note preceding "Case 7, The Hostages Case," and "Case 11, Ministries Case." https://archive.org/details/landsbergdocumen00unit +[^19]: U.S. Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954*, vol. VII, part 1, *Germany and Austria*, Document 30 (telegram from the High Commissioner for Germany (McCloy) to the Department of State, Bonn, May 9, 1952). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1952-54v07p1/ebook/frus1952-54v07p1.epub +[^20]: Ryan, *Klaus Barbie and the United States Government*, pp. 101 (note), 118 to 121 and notes. https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/08-02-83barbie-rpt.pdf +[^21]: Harm Langenkamp, "'A Most Interesting and Complex Involvement': Cold War Alignments between the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and the Central Intelligence Agency," Rockefeller Archive Center Research Reports (2021), p. 11 and note 49 (citing McCloy to Hoffman, December 31, 1951, in Kai Bird, *The Chairman*, p. 358). https://rockarch.issuelab.org/resources/38323/38323.pdf +[^22]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 16: Ford Foundation, scope note and sub-series A and B. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^23]: John J. McCloy, Council on Foreign Relations, to Allen W. Dulles, April 29, 1953, CIA-RDP80R01731R001200020045-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200020045-2 +[^24]: Langenkamp, Rockefeller Archive Center Research Reports (2021), notes 50 (Stone to McCloy, February 25, 1954, cited by Volker Berghahn), 56 (Price memorandum of May 21, 1954; Price oral history, June 22, 1972, p. 70; McCloy interview in Bird, *The Chairman*, p. 427) and 57 (John B. Howard oral history; Henry T. Heald oral history). https://rockarch.issuelab.org/resources/38323/38323.pdf +[^25]: Langenkamp, Rockefeller Archive Center Research Reports (2021), abstract, text at notes 58 and 59, and conclusion. https://rockarch.issuelab.org/resources/38323/38323.pdf +[^26]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 2, sub-series F and G (Chase Manhattan Bank appointment records and telephone logs) and Series 1 (retirement from Chase Manhattan, 1960 Mar). https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^27]: Marshall S. Carter, Lieutenant General, USA, to John J. McCloy, April 20, 1962, CIA-RDP80B01676R001300050094-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001300050094-2 +[^28]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 20: International Oil, 1946-1981, scope note and sub-series B, C and E. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^29]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, report together with individual views, 93d Cong., 2d sess., committee print, January 2, 1975, pp. 126 to 127. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^30]: *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, pp. 13 and 92 to 93 (McCloy to Rusk, January 11, 1967, Multinational Corporations hearings, Part 9). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^31]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, *Energy Crisis, 1969-1974*, Document 21, note 6, and Document 24 (Kissinger to Nixon, December 8, 1969) and note 5. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^32]: *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, p. 125. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^33]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 57 (memorandum for the files by Peter Flanigan, September 29, 1970), pp. 130 to 131. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^34]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 66 (telegram 3565 from the Department of State, January 8, 1971), pp. 167 to 168; *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, pp. 127 to 129. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf ; https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^35]: *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, pp. 129 to 133. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^36]: *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, p. 17. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^37]: *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, pp. 134 to 135. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^38]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 104 (memorandum of conversation, Washington, January 3, 1972) and note 2, pp. 246 to 247. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^39]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 173 (editorial note), pp. 438 to 440. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^40]: General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament letterheads and correspondence: McCloy to Arthur Lundahl, June 5, 1970, CIA-RDP78B05703A000400090083-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp78b05703a000400090083-2 ; McCloy to David S. Brandwein, March 26, 1971, CIA-RDP81R00560R000100110004-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81r00560r000100110004-6 ; McCloy to Richard Helms, May 28, 1971, CIA-RDP74B00681R000100160009-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp74b00681r000100160009-6 ; McCloy to Richard Helms, November 10, 1969, CIA-RDP80B01495R000100010004-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01495r000100010004-9 +[^41]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 201 (memorandum from John Knubel to Kissinger, September 5, 1973), pp. 548 to 549. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^42]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 212 (memorandum by the chairmen of Exxon, Mobil, Texaco and Standard Oil of California, New York, October 12, 1973) and note 1. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^43]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 243 (memorandum of conversation, November 20, 1973, 5 p.m.) and note 8, pp. 684 to 690; Document 311 (Kissinger and David Rockefeller, February 8, 1974), note 3. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^44]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVI, Document 345 (memorandum of conversation, March 29, 1974, 5:15 p.m.), pp. 954 to 977. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1969-76v36/pdf/frus1969-76v36.pdf +[^45]: *Multinational Oil Corporations and U.S. Foreign Policy*, pp. 14, 127 and 169. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CPRT-93SPRT77795O +[^46]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 20: International Oil, sub-series B, I (Critchfield Reports, 1968-1973, Reports 1 to 65) and K (Oil Company Annual Reports, 1964-1966). https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^47]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXI, *South and Central America; Mexico*, Document 183 (telegram 1761 from the Embassy in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, February 21, 1964), paragraph 8 and note 10, pp. 402 to 403. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1964-68v31/pdf/frus1964-68v31.pdf +[^48]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXI, Document 210 (transcript of telephone conversation between Director of Central Intelligence McCone and John J. McCloy, April 9, 1964, 11:10 a.m.; source: CIA, Job 80-B01285A, DCI (McCone) Files, Telephone Calls, Eyes Only), p. 461, and Document 211 (telegram 2235 from Rio de Janeiro, April 10, 1964), note 2. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1964-68v31/pdf/frus1964-68v31.pdf +[^49]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. XXXI, Document 214 (telegram 2790 from Rio de Janeiro, June 10, 1964). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1964-68v31/pdf/frus1964-68v31.pdf +[^50]: *Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy*, Foreword, p. ix, National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/foreword +[^51]: National Archives, "Inventory of the Warren Commission's Records," Entry 46 ("Report of Meeting of Members of Staff," July 9, 1964, National Archives Identifier 607521). https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/inventory +[^52]: Assassination Records Review Board, *Final Report* (September 1998), chapter 6, "J. Lee Rankin: Warren Commission Papers." https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.txt +[^53]: Assassination Records Review Board, *Final Report* (September 1998), chapter 6, "John McCone." https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/arrb-final-report.txt +[^54]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. VII, *Arms Control and Disarmament*, Document 2 (Kennedy to McCloy, January 27, 1961) and note 1, https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1961-63v07/ebook/frus1961-63v07.epub ; Allen W. Dulles to John J. McCloy, February 7, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R000800050039-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r000800050039-9 +[^55]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. VII, Document 41 (editorial note). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1961-63v07/ebook/frus1961-63v07.epub +[^56]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XI, *Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath*, Documents 86 (telegram 1484 from the Mission to the United Nations, October 26, 1962) and 263 (editorial note), https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1961-63v11/ebook/frus1961-63v11.epub ; "McCloy Draft," 11/21/62, CIA-RDP80B01676R001900100035-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900100035-5 +[^57]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, Series 28: Shah of Iran, 1979-1981, scope note. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf +[^58]: Amherst finding aid MA.00035, "History of the Collection," "Processing Information" and Series 2: Diaries and Communication Logs, notes. https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%2BPapers.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John N. Mitchell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John N. Mitchell.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6d6977c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/John N. Mitchell.md @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Person + - JohnMitchell + - Watergate + - AttorneyGeneral + - DepartmentOfJustice + - CommitteeToReElectThePresident + - Gemstone + - RobertVesco + - Wiretapping + - NixonAdministration + - Conviction + - 1970s +alias: + - John N. Mitchell + - John Mitchell + - John Newton Mitchell +summary: "Nixon's law partner and 1968 campaign manager, Attorney General from 1969 to 1972 and 1972 reelection committee head, acquitted in the Vesco case in 1974 and convicted in the Watergate cover-up in 1975." +born: 1913-09-15 +died: 1988-11-09 +location: "Detroit, Michigan (born)" +relations: + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + role: "law partner" + start: 1967 + end: 1968 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Mitchell]]" + role: "partner" + start: 1967 + end: 1968 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + role: "attorney general" + start: 1969-01-21 + end: 1972-03-01 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Committee to Re-elect the President]]" + role: "campaign director" + start: 1972-03-01 + end: 1972-07-01 + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[40 Committee]]" + role: "principal" + fn: 17 + - type: represented + with: "[[William Hundley]]" + reverse: true + role: "defense counsel" + fn: 41 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York]]" + reverse: true + start: 1973-05-10 + end: 1974-04-28 + fn: 3 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Watergate Special Prosecution Force]]" + reverse: true + end: 1975-01-01 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +John Newton Mitchell (September 15, 1913 to November 9, 1988) was a New York lawyer, law partner of [[Richard Nixon]], manager of Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] of the [[United States]] from January 21, 1969 until March 1, 1972, and head of the [[Committee to Re-elect the President]] until July 1, 1972.[^1][^2] A federal jury in [[New York City]] acquitted him in April 1974 on all counts of an indictment charging conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with a secret cash contribution by the financier [[Robert Vesco]].[^3] A jury in [[Washington, D.C.]] convicted him in January 1975 of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury in the [[Watergate]] cover-up, and he served 19 months in prison, including five months of medical furlough.[^4][^5] + +### Law Practice and the 1968 Campaign + +Mitchell was admitted to the New York bar in 1938, was a partner in [[Caldwell, Trimble & Mitchell]] from 1945 to 1966, and was a partner in [[Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Mitchell|Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Mitchell]] from 1967 to 1968.[^1] Testifying before the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] on July 10, 1973, he said that he had a casual acquaintance with Nixon before Nixon came to New York in 1963 to practice law, that the two law firms merged at the end of 1966, that he and Nixon practiced together until both retired from the firm, and that he was known as the campaign director in the 1968 campaign.[^6] + +On December 10, 1968, Mitchell wrote to [[Richard Helms]], [[Director of Central Intelligence]], on the stationery of the Office of the President-elect at 450 Park Avenue, New York. The letter thanked Helms for a letter of December 9 concerning [[William Colby|William E. Colby]] and stated that Mitchell would "take the matter up with the appropriate persons."[^7] + +[[Harry L. Sears]], a former Speaker of the [[New Jersey]] General Assembly and Majority Leader of the State Senate, became acquainted with Mitchell through work on the 1968 Republican presidential campaign. After an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for governor left Sears with campaign debts, a testimonial dinner for him was held at which Attorney General Mitchell was the guest of honor. Robert Vesco had made a contribution to Sears's campaign and had arranged a bank loan for him.[^8] + +### Attorney General + +President Nixon appointed Mitchell on January 21, 1969.[^1] Asked in 1973 about the 1970 interagency intelligence plan associated with the [[White House]] aide [[Tom Charles Huston]], Mitchell testified that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s [[Cartha DeLoach]] and [[J. Edgar Hoover]] brought it to his attention, that he had the plan in his possession during those discussions, and that he "joined Mr. Hoover in opposing its implementation." He said he later spoke to [[H. R. Haldeman]] and to the President about it and that "that was the end of it."[^9] He testified that he learned of the White House "[[White House Plumbers|Plumbers]]" unit only after June 17, 1972.[^10] + +On November 6, 1970, Mitchell authorized a warrantless wiretap on the telephone of [[William Davidon]], a [[Haverford College]] physics professor who belonged to a group that, according to information received, had made plans to blow up heating tunnels linking federal office buildings in Washington and had discussed kidnapping National Security Adviser [[Henry A. Kissinger]]. The FBI installed the tap in late November 1970 and it stayed in place until January 6, 1971, intercepting three conversations between Davidon and [[Keith Forsyth]]. In [[Mitchell v. Forsyth]] (1985), the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] held that the Attorney General was not absolutely immune from damages for national security actions but that Mitchell was entitled to qualified immunity, because the legality of a warrantless domestic security wiretap was an open question in November 1970.[^11] + +In [[Zweibon v. Mitchell]], a suit by members of the [[Jewish Defense League]], the record showed that the Attorney General approved an FBI request to wiretap the League's headquarters during October 1970, the month of the 25th session of the [[United Nations General Assembly]], and approved a second request, for a 90-day tap beginning in early January 1971. The first approval was given, the opinion stated, because of fear of international embarrassment or Soviet retaliation against Americans in Moscow. The district court had sustained the Attorney General's assertion and granted summary judgment for the defendants, and in August 1973 Judge [[Griffin Bell]], writing for a Fifth Circuit panel in [[United States v. Brown]], cited that district court decision as accord for the proposition that the President may authorize warrantless wiretaps to gather foreign intelligence. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] decided the case en banc on June 23, 1975.[^12][^13] + +### Chile and the 40 Committee, September to December 1970 + +A staff report of the Senate [[Church Committee]] recorded that on September 15, 1970, after [[Salvador Allende]] finished first in the [[Chile|Chilean]] presidential election, Nixon met with Helms, Kissinger and Mitchell and that Helms was directed to prevent Allende from taking power without the knowledge of the Departments of State and Defense or the ambassador.[^14] The Committee's interim report on assassination plots reproduced Helms's handwritten notes of the meeting, which read in part "One in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile!" and "$10,000,000 available, more if necessary."[^15] The same report stated that on the morning of September 15, at the request of [[Donald Kendall]], president of [[PepsiCo|Pepsi-Cola]], Kissinger and Mitchell had breakfast with Kendall and [[Agustin Edwards]], publisher of [[El Mercurio]] (the report cited the Mitchell calendar), the subject being the political situation in Chile and "the plight of El Mercurio and other anti-Allende forces."[^16] + +At the [[40 Committee]] meeting of October 15, 1970 the principals present were Kissinger, Mitchell, [[David Packard]], [[U. Alexis Johnson|Alexis Johnson]] and Admiral [[Thomas Moorer|Moorer]], together with [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[State Department]] officials and Ambassador [[Edward Korry|Korry]].[^17] A memorandum of December 2, 1970 from Helms to Kissinger stated that Helms had given a recapitulation of the CIA's [[Project FUBELT|Track II]] activities to Attorney General Mitchell, who would deliver it personally to Kissinger. Kissinger told the Committee he did not recall receiving the report and was puzzled that it was to be delivered through Mitchell.[^18] + +### The Reelection Committee and Liddy + +[[John W. Dean]], counsel to the President, testified that on November 24, 1971 he brought [[G. Gordon Liddy]] to Mitchell's office to be interviewed for the post of general counsel of the reelection committee, after [[Egil Krogh]] had cleared the suggestion with [[John Ehrlichman]]. Dean described a general job interview with virtually no discussion of intelligence plans, and submitted an agenda that Liddy had prepared for it.[^19] Mitchell testified that this was the first time he met Liddy, that he knew Liddy had been an assistant prosecutor in New York State, a candidate for Congress, an FBI agent, and a Treasury and White House staff member, and that a one-line reference to intelligence gathering in Liddy's prospectus was not discussed. He said that on December 8, 1971 Krogh brought Liddy to his office for a meeting on the drug abuse law enforcement program, and that he did not then know that Liddy also worked for Krogh as one of the Plumbers.[^20] + +[[Howard Hunt]] testified that in late November 1971 Liddy told him that Attorney General Mitchell had proposed a large-scale intelligence and counterintelligence program with Liddy as its chief, that he and Liddy designed a budget for it under the name Gemstone, and that he understood it to have been approved by [[Jeb Stuart Magruder]] and Dean and later by [[Charles Colson]].[^21] + +Magruder, deputy director of the reelection committee, testified that on January 27, 1972 he, Dean, Liddy and Mitchell met in the Attorney General's office, where Liddy presented about six charts, each headed by a code word, one of them Gemstone, with a total budget of about $1 million. The projects included wiretapping, electronic surveillance and photography, the abduction of radical leaders to Mexico during the [[San Diego]] convention, and call girls. Magruder said that all three listeners were appalled and that Mitchell, "in an understated way," indicated that the project was not acceptable and that Liddy would go back to the drawing boards.[^22] Dean testified that Mitchell took a few long puffs on his pipe and told Liddy that the plan was not quite what he had in mind and that the cost was out of the question, that Mitchell winked at him during the presentation, and that Dean told Liddy as they left to destroy the charts. Dean described a second meeting on February 4, at which Liddy presented a scaled-down plan and Dean ended the discussion by saying that it could not continue in the office of the Attorney General.[^23] + +Mitchell testified that Liddy's presentation was "a complete horror story," that he told Liddy "to go burn the charts," and that in hindsight he "should have thrown him out of the window." He testified that the February 4 meeting was short, that the revised plan was rejected again, and that no targets were discussed.[^24] He also testified that between February 4 and June 15, 1972 he did not see or speak to Liddy, and he called Magruder's account of showing him Gemstone material "a palpable, damnable lie."[^25] + +In July 1973 Senator [[Herman Talmadge]] asked Mitchell whether he had played an active role in the campaign while still Attorney General. Mitchell answered that "What I did was succumb to the President's request to keep an eye on what was going on over there," and, when Talmadge used the word "supervisory," said "If you would change 'supervisory' to 'consulting', I think I would be much happier." Talmadge then read him an exchange of March 14, 1972 between Mitchell and Senator [[Edward Kennedy]] before the [[Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Senate Judiciary Committee]]: "Senator Kennedy. No re-election campaign responsibilities? Mr. Mitchell. Not as yet." Mitchell said the answer related back to the Republican Party.[^26] + +Magruder testified that on March 30, 1972, at [[Key Biscayne, Florida]], where Mitchell was vacationing, he went over decision papers with Mitchell and [[Fred LaRue]], that the last item was Liddy's proposal reduced to about $250,000, that it was approved for entry into the [[Democratic National Committee]] headquarters in Washington and possibly later into other targets, and that Mitchell "simply signed off on it."[^27] Mitchell testified that the plan was rejected for a third time at that meeting, that LaRue was present throughout, that LaRue was not enthusiastic and concurred that the plan should not be approved, and that he did not believe Magruder paid Liddy $250,000.[^28] The opinion of the court of appeals affirming Mitchell's convictions summarized the trial evidence as showing that Liddy had pared his budget to $250,000 and that on March 30 Magruder obtained Mitchell's approval for Gemstone at a meeting in Key Biscayne attended only by Mitchell, Magruder and LaRue.[^5] + +The same court recorded the testimony of [[Hugh Sloan]], treasurer of the [[Finance Committee to Re-elect the President]], that he turned over to Liddy a total of $199,000 in cash, mostly in $100 bills, and that bills of that denomination later were found in sequence on the five men arrested in the Democratic National Committee offices.[^29] Committee counsel [[Samuel Dash]] read to Mitchell the testimony of [[Maurice Stans]], chairman of the Finance Committee, that after Sloan questioned a request by Liddy for money Mitchell said Magruder directed the spending and that Sloan should pay Liddy what Magruder directed. Mitchell testified that he had told Stans that Magruder had "continuing authorization" to authorize expenditures, disputed that large sums were discussed, and said he would not dispute Stans's statement about Magruder's continuing authority.[^30] + +On June 15, 1972 Liddy came to Mitchell's office with the committee's public information officer, [[Van Shumway]], about a letter to the [[The Washington Post|Washington Post]] on charges by the [[General Accounting Office]] under the [[Federal Corrupt Practices Act|Corrupt Practices Act]]. Mitchell testified that this was the only conversation he had with Liddy between February 4 and June 15.[^25] + +According to the court of appeals, after the June 17 arrests Liddy reported the capture to the committee's senior officials, who were in California, and Mitchell, [[Robert Mardian]], LaRue and Magruder decided to ask the new Attorney General, [[Richard Kleindienst]], to arrange the release of [[James McCord]] before his alias was penetrated. Kleindienst refused special treatment.[^31] Kleindienst testified that on Saturday, June 17, Liddy and [[Powell Moore]] came to the [[Burning Tree Club]] in Washington, where he was playing in a tournament; that Liddy said some of those arrested might be employed by the White House or the reelection committee and, in Kleindienst's less precise recollection, that Mitchell had asked him to come and talk to Kleindienst; that Kleindienst found this incredible, telephoned Assistant Attorney General [[Henry Petersen]] to instruct that those arrested be given no different treatment, and told Liddy to leave.[^32] A press release denying any link between the committee and the burglars appeared on June 18 under Mitchell's name; Haldeman approved it by telephone although Magruder had told him the break-in was "Liddy's operation."[^31] Mitchell, Mardian and LaRue returned to Washington on June 19 and met that evening in Mitchell's apartment with Dean and Magruder. Mitchell testified that there was no discussion of destroying documents; Magruder testified that the group discussed what to do about the problem, and the court of appeals summarized the evidence as showing that Magruder removed the Gemstone materials from the committee's files and took them to his home.[^33] Mitchell testified that Mardian and LaRue told him, after debriefing Liddy, that Liddy had been involved in the entry into the office of [[Daniel Ellsberg]]'s psychiatrist and in the matter of the [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] lobbyist [[Dita Beard]], whom, as Mitchell understood it, Liddy had assisted in leaving New York for [[Denver]].[^34] + +Mitchell resigned as campaign director on July 1, 1972. He testified that the President urged him to stay and that he had spent the previous week working on a family situation so that he could stay as husband and wife.[^2] + +### Vesco + +In its disciplinary opinion on Sears, the [[Supreme Court of New Jersey]] recorded that Vesco's corporation, [[International Controls Corporation]], was under investigation by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] over its 1970 purchase of control of [[Investors Overseas Services]]; that Vesco asked Sears several times to speak to Mitchell in the hope that Mitchell would induce SEC Chairman [[William J. Casey]] to monitor and limit the inquiry; and that Sears conveyed these requests in two letters and three meetings with Mitchell.[^35] + +The opinion placed one of those meetings on February 11, 1972, when Mitchell was still Attorney General. Sears again asked Mitchell to induce Casey to oversee the investigation and mentioned that Vesco intended to contribute up to $500,000 to the 1972 campaign. Mitchell replied that he would discuss the matter with Stans. By March 11, 1972 Vesco had pledged $250,000 to Stans, who wanted it in currency. At a meeting on April 3, it was decided that $50,000 would be contributed publicly through the New Jersey Finance Committee and the remainder as a secret cash contribution. Sears noted that the [[Federal Election Campaign Act]] of 1971, which required disclosure of contributions above $50,000, would take effect on April 7, 1972; Stans told him that the date of delivery was unimportant. On April 10, 1972, [[Larry Richardson]], president of International Controls, delivered $200,000 in cash to Stans in Washington. Justice Sullivan, who would have disbarred Sears, wrote in dissent that Richardson told Stans, "He'd like to get some help," and that Stans answered, "that is John Mitchell's department." At 2 p.m. that day Sears told Mitchell about the cash contribution and reminded him of the SEC investigation and of his requests for a meeting with Casey. While Sears was in the office, Mitchell telephoned Casey and arranged a meeting between Sears and Casey for later that day, at which, according to the majority opinion, Casey gave personal assurances that International Controls would be afforded an opportunity to respond to the SEC's findings and that he would review its allegations of SEC harassment; Justice Sullivan wrote that Casey told Sears the Commission was not in the habit of taking precipitous action but did not give "any assurance" that the company would be allowed to appear before the Commission itself.[^36] + +The opinion recorded that by October 1972 the SEC had traced funds representing the $200,000 to the International Controls treasury and had issued subpoenas to company officers, including Richardson. Sears met Mitchell in October 1972, when Mitchell expressed the belief that the subpoenas would ultimately be withdrawn, and again on November 21, 1972, when Sears gave Mitchell a file compiled by Vesco's Washington counsel and a memorandum from Vesco intended for the President's brother Donald Nixon and ultimately for the President. Mitchell and Sears agreed that the file should be returned to Vesco.[^37] The SEC sued Vesco on November 27, 1972 for a $224 million stock fraud.[^38] + +At the 1974 trial, according to *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]*, John Dean testified that beginning about July 14, 1972 he made eight to twelve telephone calls to Casey at Mitchell's behest, relaying Mitchell's complaints that the SEC was harassing Vesco, and that in late October 1972 Mitchell asked him to have Casey postpone the November 2 appearances of subpoenaed Vesco staff, saying that it would be embarrassing for them to take the Fifth Amendment before the election. Dean said that Casey answered that nothing could be done and that the witnesses took the Fifth Amendment. Dean also testified that on March 20, 1973 Mitchell telephoned him after a New York federal grand jury appearance, said "those little bastards were all over me," and told him to call Kleindienst, then Attorney General, "and tell him what's going on"; Dean passed the message to Kleindienst. Defense counsel Peter Fleming brought out that the tape of Dean's conversation with Nixon that day did not mention the request. [[G. Bradford Cook]], the SEC general counsel and later chairman, testified that Stans implied he should remove a reference to Vesco's missing $250,000 from the SEC complaint and that he complied; he acknowledged lying about this to the grand jury and a congressional committee, and resigned as SEC chairman on May 16, 1973 after ten weeks.[^38] + +The indictment returned on May 10, 1973 (73 Cr. 439, S.D.N.Y.) charged Mitchell, Stans, Sears and Vesco in a conspiracy count alleging an agreement to obstruct justice in relation to the SEC investigation and proceedings against Vesco and to defraud the United States in relation to the functions of the SEC and the General Accounting Office; Mitchell was also charged with counts of endeavoring to obstruct justice and with six counts of perjury before the grand jury. Paragraph 16(r) of the conspiracy count alleged that in October 1972 Vesco threatened to disclose the $200,000 cash contribution delivered to Stans on April 10, 1972 unless an SEC subpoena issued to him was withdrawn and that Sears relayed the threat to Mitchell. Judge [[Lee Parsons Gagliardi|Gagliardi]] ruled on the pretrial motions on August 29, 1973, denying Stans's motion to dismiss on grounds arising from the grand jury questioning of his lawyer [[Kenneth Parkinson]] and granting alternative relief suppressing Parkinson's grand jury testimony and certain documents.[^39] Sears was indicted on May 11, 1973 and, after plea negotiations, accepted transactional immunity and prepared to testify for the prosecution.[^40] + +On April 28, 1974 the jury acquitted Mitchell and Stans on all nine counts against them. Assistant United States Attorney John R. Wing said afterward: "If we could have gotten Vesco back it would have been different." Vesco had left the country and the government had been unable to secure his return.[^3] The Supreme Court of New Jersey, by a vote of four to one, suspended Sears from the practice of law for three years effective October 15, 1976; Justice Sullivan would have disbarred him.[^40] + +### Senate Testimony and the Cover-up Trial + +Mitchell appeared before the Senate committee on July 10, 1973 under subpoena, accompanied by counsel [[William Hundley]], [[Plato Cacheris|Plato C. Cacheris]] and [[Marvin Segal]]. Hundley stated for the record that by letters of June 18 and July 9, 1973 Mitchell had asked the committee to withdraw the subpoena, that the committee had refused, and that Mitchell would make no opening statement.[^41] + +A grand jury indictment in the case that became United States v. Mitchell et al., D.C. Criminal No. 74-110, charged Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, Mardian, Parkinson and [[Gordon Strachan]] with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and false statements to the FBI, the grand jury and the Senate committee. The jury acquitted Parkinson, convicted Mardian of conspiracy, and convicted Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and all the perjury counts submitted. The sentences were concurrent terms of 20 months to five years on the conspiracy and obstruction counts and 10 months to three years on each perjury count, the latter consecutive, for a total of two and a half to eight years. The court of appeals, sitting en banc, affirmed on October 12, 1976, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari on May 23, 1977.[^5] + +The court's summary of the trial evidence stated that Magruder, preparing his grand jury testimony in August 1972, reviewed his account with Mitchell, who urged him to minimize Mitchell's role in running the campaign, and that when [[E. Howard Hunt]] demanded another $122,000 on March 16, 1973, Dean relayed the demand to Ehrlichman and, at his suggestion, to Mitchell.[^42] An [[Associated Press]] obituary reported that on a March 22, 1973 White House tape Ehrlichman said "John says he's sorry he sent those burglars in there," Nixon replied "That's right," and Mitchell said "You are very welcome, sir." The same report stated that the verdict was returned on January 1, 1975 and that the sentence was two and a half to eight years.[^4] + +On June 17, 1976 the [[New York Court of Appeals]] rejected Mitchell's appeal from an Appellate Division order striking his name from the roll of attorneys on the basis of the federal judgment.[^43] The Associated Press obituary stated that he served a 19-month term that included five months of medical furloughs.[^4] + +### Testimony in the Felt and Miller Trial + +In 1980 Mitchell and Kleindienst testified at the trial of the former FBI officials [[W. Mark Felt]] and [[Edward S. Miller]], indicted in April 1978, during the tenure of Attorney General Griffin Bell, on charges of conspiring to deprive relatives and acquaintances of fugitives from the [[Weather Underground]] of their rights under 18 U.S.C. 241. [[Mark D. Cummings]], a lawyer who was assigned to Felt's defense, wrote in the *National Security Law Journal* that Mitchell testified that J. Edgar Hoover's 1966 halt on surreptitious entries was motivated less by legal concerns than by regard for the Bureau's image, and that neither Mitchell nor Kleindienst had ever been asked to approve a covert entry but both agreed it was a legal tool when national security was at stake. Cummings cited trial transcript pages 5742 to 5826 for the testimony of the two former Attorneys General.[^44] + +### Later Life and Death + +Mitchell died on November 9, 1988, in Washington, D.C., after collapsing on a street in [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]]; the Associated Press reported that he had suffered a heart attack.[^1][^4] + +### Attributed Introduction of Jeffrey Epstein and Steven Hoffenberg + +In a 2003 *[[Vanity Fair]]* article, [[Vicky Ward]] wrote that [[Steven Hoffenberg]] said he and [[Jeffrey Epstein]] were introduced by [[Douglas Leese]], a defense contractor, and that "Epstein has said they were introduced by John Mitchell, the late attorney general."[^45] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, "John Newton Mitchell," Attorneys General biographies (born Detroit, September 15, 1913; partner at Caldwell, Trimble & Mitchell 1945 to 1966 and Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Mitchell 1967 to 1968; appointed January 21, 1969; served until March 1, 1972; died November 9, 1988, Washington, D.C.). https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/mitchell-john-newton +[^2]: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, Senate Resolution 60: Watergate and Related Activities*, hearings, 93d Cong., 1st sess., Book 4 (1973), testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1664-1665 (resignation as campaign director July 1, 1972). https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit; and U.S. Department of Justice, "John Newton Mitchell," Attorneys General biographies (Mitchell served as Attorney General until March 1, 1972, "when he resigned to head President Nixon's reelection committee"). https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/mitchell-john-newton +[^3]: Associated Press, "Jury acquits Mitchell, Stans," *State News* (Michigan State University), April 29, 1974, p. 1 (acquittal on all nine counts, April 28, 1974; indictment of May 10, 1973; Assistant U.S. Attorney John R. Wing quoted; Vesco fled). https://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/state_news/1974/state_news_19740429.pdf +[^4]: "John Mitchell, 75, Watergate Conspirator, Dies," Associated Press, *Deseret News*, November 10, 1988. https://www.deseret.com/1988/11/10/18783557/john-mitchell-75-watergate-conspirator-dies/ +[^5]: *United States v. Haldeman*, 559 F.2d 31 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (en banc) (Nos. 75-1381, 75-1382, 75-1384), decided October 12, 1976, cert. denied May 23, 1977, Part I.A and n.6 (Gemstone, March 30 Key Biscayne meeting, verdicts, sentences). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/559/559.F2d.31.6.8.12.23.75-1384.html +[^6]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, p. 1602. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^7]: Letter, John N. Mitchell, Office of the President-elect, to Richard Helms, December 10, 1968, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP80B01086A000800030005-7. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80B01086A000800030005-7 +[^8]: *In re Sears*, 71 N.J. 175 (N.J. 1976), Part I (decided September 30, 1976). https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json +[^9]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1603-1604. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^10]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, p. 1605. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^11]: *Mitchell v. Forsyth*, 472 U.S. 511 (1985), Part I and Part III. https://static.case.law/us/472/cases/0511-01.json +[^12]: *Zweibon v. Mitchell*, 516 F.2d 594 (D.C. Cir. 1975) (en banc) (No. 73-1847), decided June 23, 1975. https://static.case.law/f2d/516/cases/0594-01.json +[^13]: *United States v. Brown*, 484 F.2d 418 (5th Cir. 1973) (No. 72-2181) (Bell, J.), decided August 22, 1973, Part V. https://static.case.law/f2d/484/cases/0418-01.json +[^14]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973*, staff report, 94th Cong., 1st sess. (December 18, 1975), p. 11. https://archive.org/details/CovertActionInChile196373 +[^15]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, interim report, S. Rept. 94-465 (1975), p. 227. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^16]: S. Rept. 94-465, p. 228 and n. (Helms testimony of July 15, 1975, pp. 4-5, quoted). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^17]: S. Rept. 94-465, p. 250 (40 Committee meeting of October 15, 1970). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^18]: S. Rept. 94-465, p. 253 (Helms to Kissinger memorandum of December 2, 1970; Kissinger testimony of August 12, 1975, pp. 71, 74). https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^19]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3 (1973), testimony of John W. Dean III, pp. 927-928. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^20]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1608-1609. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^21]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 9 (1973), testimony of E. Howard Hunt, p. 3663. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp09unit +[^22]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 2 (1973), testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder, pp. 787-788. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp02unit +[^23]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 3, testimony of John W. Dean III, pp. 929-931. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp03unit +[^24]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1610-1611. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^25]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1619-1620. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^26]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1653-1654. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^27]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 2, testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder, pp. 794-795, 812. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp02unit +[^28]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1615-1616. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^29]: *United States v. Liddy*, 509 F.2d 428 (D.C. Cir. 1974) (en banc) (No. 73-1565), Part I (testimony of Hugh Sloan). https://static.case.law/f2d/509/cases/0428-01.json +[^30]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1617-1618. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^31]: *United States v. Haldeman*, 559 F.2d 31 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (en banc), Part I.B. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/559/559.F2d.31.6.8.12.23.75-1384.html +[^32]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 9 (1973), testimony of Richard G. Kleindienst, August 7, 1973, pp. 3560-3562. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp09unit +[^33]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, p. 1622; Book 2, testimony of Jeb Stuart Magruder, p. 799; *United States v. Haldeman*, 559 F.2d 31, Part I.B. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^34]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, p. 1622; Book 5 (resumed testimony, July 11, 1973), p. 1919. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp05unit +[^35]: *In re Sears*, 71 N.J. 175 (1976), Part I.A. https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json +[^36]: *In re Sears*, 71 N.J. 175 (1976), Part I.B. https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json +[^37]: *In re Sears*, 71 N.J. 175 (1976), Part I.C. https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json +[^38]: "Trials: What, Never? No, Never, Never," *Time*, April 8, 1974. https://time.com/archive/6842371/trials-what-never-no-never-never/ +[^39]: *United States v. Mitchell*, 372 F. Supp. 1239 (S.D.N.Y. 1973) (No. 73 Cr. 439) (Gagliardi, J.), decided August 29, 1973, introductory paragraphs and Part II. https://static.case.law/f-supp/372/cases/1239-01.json +[^40]: *In re Sears*, 71 N.J. 175 (1976), Part I.C (indictment of May 11, 1973; transactional immunity; disciplinary charges). https://static.case.law/nj/71/cases/0175-01.json +[^41]: Senate Watergate hearings, Book 4, testimony of John N. Mitchell, July 10, 1973, pp. 1601-1602. https://archive.org/details/presidentialcamp04unit +[^42]: *United States v. Haldeman*, 559 F.2d 31 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (en banc), Part I.B and I.C. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/559/559.F2d.31.6.8.12.23.75-1384.html +[^43]: *In re Mitchell*, 40 N.Y.2d 153 (N.Y. 1976), decided June 17, 1976. https://static.case.law/ny-2d/40/cases/0153-01.json +[^44]: Mark D. Cummings, "Presidential 'Warrants,'" 7 *National Security Law Journal* 142, 148-149 (2020), citing *United States v. Felt*, No. 78-00179 (D.D.C. 1980), trial transcript pp. 5742-5826. https://www.nslj.org/wp-content/uploads/Cummings_Presidential-22Warrants22-Final.pdf +[^45]: Vicky Ward, "The Talented Mr. Epstein," *Vanity Fair*, March 2003. https://vickyward.com/article/the-talented-mr-epstein/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ken Howery.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ken Howery.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..923ed0e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Ken Howery.md @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ +--- +category: "Technologists" +tags: + - Person + - KenHowery + - PayPalMafia + - FoundersFund + - AmbassadorToSweden + - AmbassadorToDenmark + - Greenland + - PeterThiel + - AmericaPAC + - CampaignFinance +alias: + - Ken Howery + - Kenneth Howery + - Kenneth A. Howery +summary: "PayPal and Founders Fund co-founder who served as Trump's ambassador to Sweden from 2019, gave 1 million dollars to America PAC in June 2024, and became ambassador to Denmark in 2025." +location: "Texas (state of residence); Stockholm, Sweden (2019); Copenhagen, Denmark (2025)" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[PayPal]]" + role: "co-founder; director of corporate development in a January 2002 filing; chief financial officer per TechCrunch" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Founders Fund]]" + role: "co-founder; director or promoter of Founders Fund vehicles in Form D filings, 2009 to 2016" + fn: 8 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Peter Thiel]]" + start: 2009-05-15 + role: "co-director or co-promoter of Founders Fund vehicles in Form D filings" + fn: 8 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Luke Nosek]]" + start: 2009-05-15 + role: "co-director or co-promoter of Founders Fund vehicles in Form D filings" + fn: 8 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Explorers Club]]" + role: "member" + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Donald Trump]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-09-20 + role: "ambassador to Sweden; confirmed September 17, 2019, 62 to 32" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[State Department]]" + start: 2019-10-12 + role: "ambassador to Sweden, non-career appointee" + fn: 3 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Donald Trump]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-10-07 + role: "ambassador to Denmark; confirmed in en bloc vote 547, 51 to 47" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Republican National Committee]]" + start: 2020-10-13 + end: 2024-02-23 + role: "200,000 dollars on October 13, 2020, as U.S. ambassador; 413,000 dollars on February 23, 2024" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[Blake Masters]]" + start: 2022-03-27 + end: 2022-03-27 + role: "5,800 dollars to Blake Masters for Senate" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[JD Vance]]" + start: 2024-05-14 + end: 2024-05-14 + role: "3,300 dollars to JD Vance for Senate" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[America PAC]]" + start: 2024-06-20 + end: 2024-06-25 + role: "1,000,000 dollars in four contributions of 250,000 dollars" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[Trump 47 Committee]]" + start: 2024-10-17 + end: 2024-10-17 + role: "150,000 dollars in three contributions of 50,000 dollars" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[MAHA Alliance]]" + start: 2024-10-11 + end: 2024-10-17 + role: "100,000 dollars, 25,000 dollars of it attributed to the Kenneth Howery Revocable Trust" + fn: 6 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Kenneth A. Howery co-founded [[PayPal]] after graduating from [[Stanford University]] and later co-founded a venture capital firm, [[Founders Fund]], with [[Peter Thiel]] and [[Luke Nosek]].[^1][^2] He was the [[United States]] ambassador to [[Sweden]] from 2019, appointed as a non-career appointee with [[Texas]] as his state of residence, and was confirmed as ambassador to [[Denmark]] on October 7, 2025.[^3][^4] He told the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] in 2025 that his grandfathers "eventually raised their own families in Texas, where I grew up."[^5] + +### Family and Early Career + +In his statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 16, 2019, Howery introduced his mother, Karen Howery, his father, Ken Howery, and his sister, and said that both of his grandfathers had served in the Second World War: Fred Howery in the [[United States Navy]] in the Pacific and Hubert Jurek in the [[United States Army]] in Europe and North Africa.[^1] He repeated the family history to the committee in May 2025.[^5] + +He told the committee in 2019: "When I graduated from Stanford, I co-founded PayPal. Our idea was simple: to make online transactions easy."[^1] [[Ingrid Lunden]] of TechCrunch wrote in January 2025 that Howery was part of the original "[[PayPal Mafia]]", "the CFO who helped bring it together and sell it to eBay", and "a close pal of Elon Musk's".[^2] A [[Federal Election Commission]] record of a 5,000 dollar contribution to the PayPal Inc. Political Action Committee on January 17, 2002 gives his employer and title as "PayPal Inc./Director of Corporate D[evelopment]", Palo Alto.[^6] + +### Founders Fund + +In his prepared statement of 2019 Howery wrote: "After PayPal, I co-founded a venture capital firm that has and continues to support hundreds of new companies, helping create tens of thousands of jobs, and fostering innovation in space exploration, quantum computing, biotechnology, virtual reality, alternative energy, and consumer technologies." He named [[Spotify]] as one of those companies.[^7] In 2025 he described the fund's early investments as including companies "working in fields including aerospace, defense, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology", and said: "In 2019, I left the private sector for public service".[^5] + +The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]'s Form D filings for Founders Fund vehicles list Howery with Thiel and Nosek. Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP (filed May 15, 2009; 3,481,500 dollars sold to 11 investors, amended on August 17, 2009 to 6,737,500 dollars from 29 investors) lists Howery, Thiel, Nosek and [[Sean Parker]] as directors, at One Letterman Drive, Building C, Suite 420, [[San Francisco]]. Founders Fund III (filed May 5, 2010; 107,272,727 dollars from 21 investors) and Founders Fund IV (filed December 1, 2011; 500,000,000 dollars from 58 investors) list him as a promoter; Founders Fund V (filed March 6, 2014; 1,015,200,000 dollars from 109 investors) and Founders Fund VI (filed March 25, 2016; 1,274,127,000 dollars from 197 investors) list him as a director.[^8] A Federal Election Commission record of October 7, 2016 gives his employer as Founders Fund and his occupation as general partner.[^6] At his 2019 hearing Senator [[Mitt Romney]], presiding, introduced him as "the co-founder of PayPal, as well as an early investor in major [[Silicon Valley]] companies such as Facebook and SpaceX".[^1] + +### Ambassador to Sweden + +The committee heard the nomination on May 16, 2019, with Romney presiding and Senators [[Ben Cardin]], [[Jeanne Shaheen]], [[Tom Udall]] and [[Tim Kaine]] present. Howery listed participation in the [[World Economic Forum]] and membership of the [[Explorers Club]], said that he advised [[Kiva]], and said he had travelled to 99 countries. In questioning, Romney asked about the security partnership with Sweden, and Howery answered that Sweden was "a [[NATO]] partner, not a NATO member". Shaheen asked about Russian disinformation in Sweden; Howery cited Sweden's national board for psychological defense and agreed to meet the State Department's [[Global Engagement Center]]. Udall asked about climate change and Kaine about antisemitism in Sweden.[^1] + +In answers to written questions from Senators [[Robert Menendez]] and Cardin, Howery answered "No" when asked whether anyone had made a complaint of sexual harassment, discrimination or inappropriate conduct against him. Asked whether he would bring to the committee's attention any change in policy that he suspected might be influenced by the business or financial interests of the President or senior [[White House]] staff, he answered: "If confirmed, I commit to comply with all relevant federal ethics laws, regulations, and rules, and to raise concerns that I may have through appropriate channels." Asked whether he or his immediate family had financial interests in Sweden, he answered: "My investment portfolio includes interests in entities that have a presence in Sweden. This includes stock holdings, mutual funds or exchange traded funds, and private investment funds that hold interests in companies with a presence in Sweden." He added that if confirmed he would "divest all investments the State Department Ethics Office deems necessary and recuse myself from matters when required to avoid a conflict of interest".[^1] + +The Senate confirmed the nomination, PN127, on September 17, 2019 by a vote of 62 to 32 (roll call 285).[^9] He was appointed on September 20, 2019 and assumed charge on October 12, 2019.[^3] Federal Election Commission records show three contributions by "Howery, Ken Mr." to the [[Republican National Committee]] dated October 13, 2020: 106,500 dollars to its headquarters account, 58,000 dollars to its legal proceedings account and 35,500 dollars to its general account, 200,000 dollars in all. The employer on each entry is "Stockholm" and the occupation "U.S. Ambassador".[^6] In 2025 Howery told the committee that in Sweden he had worked on "countering China's influence" and on "strongly advocating for Sweden's increased defense spending and interoperability, helping pave the wave for its eventual NATO accession".[^5] + +### Political Contributions, 2022 to 2024 + +Federal Election Commission records list the following contributions by Howery, with the employer and occupation as reported on each filing.[^6] + +- 2022: two entries of 2,900 dollars to [[Blake Masters]] for Senate on March 27, through WinRed; 36,500 dollars and 13,500 dollars to the Republican National Committee on September 22 (employer "PayPal and Founders Fund", occupation co-founder). +- 2023: on October 13, 58,700 dollars and 41,300 dollars to the Republican National Committee (contributor name "Howery, Ken Ambassador") and 100,000 dollars to the Daines Senate Majority Fund. +- 2024: on February 23, 41,300 dollars to the Republican National Committee and 123,900 dollars to each of its convention, headquarters and legal proceedings accounts, and 11,600 dollars to the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee; 100,000 dollars to the Cornyn Victory Committee (May 14), with 3,300 dollars to JD Vance for Senate and 5,000 dollars to Working for Ohio, a leadership PAC whose FEC record lists Vance as its affiliate, the same day; 100,000 dollars to the 2024 Thune Republican Senate Victory committee (May 28) and entries of 3,400 to 10,000 dollars to 34 Republican state party committees, including the District of Columbia's, from May 28 to June 3; 100,000 dollars to the Hudson Victory Fund (June 14); 75,000 dollars on October 11 and 25,000 dollars on October 17 to MAHA Alliance, the latter attributed to the Kenneth Howery Revocable Trust; and three entries of 50,000 dollars to Trump 47 Committee, Inc. on October 17. + +On June 20, 21, 24 and 25, 2024, Howery gave 250,000 dollars each to [[America PAC]], 1,000,000 dollars in all, with his employer given as self-employed and his occupation as investor.[^6][^10] America PAC (committee C00879510) is registered as an independent-expenditure-only committee with a post office box in [[Austin, Texas]], Chris Young as treasurer, and a first filing date of May 22, 2024. Its other contributions of 200,000 dollars or more in June 2024 were 1,000,000 dollars each from James J. Liautaud (June 6), Lonsdale Enterprises Inc. (June 7), [[Joe Craft]] of Alliance Resource Partners (June 10), [[Douglas Leone]] of Sequoia Capital (June 14) and [[Antonio Gracias]] of Valor Equity Partners (June 28); 500,000 dollars each from Watershed Capital LLC, WCM Investments LLC and its owner Troy Link, [[Shaun Maguire]] of Sequoia Capital and John Hering of Lookout; 250,000 dollars each from [[Cameron Winklevoss]] and [[Tyler Winklevoss]] (June 21); and 200,000 dollars from Michael Thompson (June 20). [[Elon Musk]], with his employer given as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is first recorded as a contributor on July 3, 2024 (5,000,000 dollars); his entries include 40,495,178 dollars on November 25, 2024. The committee reported 263,494,648.67 dollars in receipts for the 2024 cycle.[^10] + +### Ambassador to Denmark + +Lunden described Howery in January 2025 as "U.S. President-elect Trump's pick to be the next ambassador" to Denmark. She quoted [[Greenland]]'s prime minister, [[Múte Egede]]: "We don't want to be Americans."[^2] The Copenhagen Post wrote that [[Donald Trump]] nominated Howery in December 2024.[^11] + +At the committee's hearing on May 8, 2025, Howery's prepared statement named three priorities: shared security, the economic relationship, and "Arctic security, particularly in Greenland". It referred to the 1951 defense agreement with Denmark, to [[Pituffik Space Base]] as "the northernmost U.S. military base", and to the reopening of the American consulate in Nuuk in 2020, and stated that "recent conversations about this reality, and the appropriate U.S. role in Greenland's future, have been spirited". It also said he would "work closely with Danish leaders to strengthen defense, law enforcement, and intelligence cooperation".[^5] + +The Senate confirmed him on October 7, 2025 in roll call 547, a single en bloc vote of 51 to 47 on 107 nominations provided for under Senate Resolution 412. The package included his nomination, "Kenneth Howery, of Texas, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark", with those of [[Sergio Gor]] (India), [[Herschel Walker]] (Bahamas), [[Jacob Helberg]] (Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth) and [[Paul Atkins]] (Securities and Exchange Commission).[^4] The Copenhagen Post reported that the official residence in Copenhagen was under renovation.[^11] The Local, carrying a Ritzau report of November 10, 2025, wrote that Howery had arrived in Denmark the previous week and had an audience with King [[Frederik X of Denmark|Frederik]] on November 5.[^12] + +### Greenland Interference Reports + +The Local reported that the Danish broadcaster [[DR (broadcaster)|DR]] had reported in August 2025 "that at least three US officials close to US President Donald Trump have been involved in 'interference' activities in Greenland aimed at creating division with Denmark", including gathering information on past tensions between Greenland and Denmark and identifying Greenlanders sympathetic to an American takeover. The Danish intelligence service [[PET]] had stated that Greenland was the target of such campaigns. Foreign minister [[Lars Løkke Rasmussen]] told AFP in August that "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable" and summoned the American chargé d'affaires; Denmark had also summoned the chargé in May 2025 after the [[Wall Street Journal]] reported that the United States wanted to increase espionage in Greenland. The State Department said at the time: "The United States respects the right of the people of Greenland to determine their own future." Prime Minister [[Mette Frederiksen]] had noted that the United States had not explicitly denied involvement.[^12] + +In an interview with the newspaper [[Børsen]] reported on November 10, 2025, Howery stated that he had no direct knowledge of any interference campaign orchestrated by the United States in Greenland and did not believe the United States government to be behind it, and said: "There are individual Americans who could have an interest in Greenland. But the US government does not direct or control the actions of private individuals."[^12] + +On November 25, 2025, with his employer given as the [[State Department|U.S. Department of State]] and his occupation as ambassador, Federal Election Commission records list contributions from Howery of 7,000 dollars to Whatley for Senate (part redesignated), 5,000 dollars to North Carolina First, and corresponding WinRed entries.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Nominations of the 116th Congress, First Session, Part I, S. Hrg. 116-273 (hearing of May 16, 2019): opening statement of Senator Romney (p. 303); statement and prepared statement of Kenneth A. Howery, of Texas, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden (pp. 307 to 310); questioning by Senators Romney, Shaheen, Udall and Kaine (pp. 317 to 323); responses to additional questions for the record submitted by Senators Menendez and Cardin (pp. 328 to 331). https://www.foreign.senate.gov/download/transcript-051619 +[^2]: Ingrid Lunden, "Ken Howery: The tech mogul at the center of Trump's Greenland ambition," TechCrunch, January 17, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/17/ken-howery-the-tech-mogul-at-the-center-of-trumps-greenland-ambition/ +[^3]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Kenneth A. Howery," Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission (non-career appointee; state of residence Texas; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Sweden; appointed September 20, 2019; assumed charge October 12, 2019; database updates suspended January 2024). https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/howery-kenneth-a +[^4]: U.S. Senate, roll call vote 547, 119th Congress, 1st session, October 7, 2025, 5:01 p.m., "Confirmation: En Bloc Nominations Provided for Under the Provisions of S. Res. 412," Nomination Confirmed (51 to 47), including PN54-3. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00547.xml +[^5]: Statement of Kenneth A. Howery, Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, May 8, 2025. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/download/050825_howery_testimonydocx +[^6]: Federal Election Commission, itemized Schedule A receipts for contributor names "Howery, Ken" and "Howery, Kenneth," 2002 to 2025, including images 22990662913 (PayPal Inc. PAC, January 17, 2002), 201610279036648865 (Tiberi for Congress, October 7, 2016), 202010229333170964 and 202010229333162503 (RNC, October 13, 2020), 202204159496855438 and 202204159496855439 (Blake Masters for Senate), 202210209541164400 and 202210209541200766 (RNC, 2022), 202311209599329779 and 202311209599319468 (RNC, 2023), 202405239648744395 and 202405239648741077 (RNC, February 23, 2024), 202404159632972497 (Trump Save America JFC), 202502119753399060 and 202502119753399061 (Trump 47 Committee), 202410249710186578 and 202412059731464457 (MAHA Alliance). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=Howery%2C+Kenneth and https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202010229333170964 +[^7]: Prepared statement of Kenneth A. Howery, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, May 16, 2019. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/download/howery-testimony-051619 +[^8]: Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP, Forms D filed May 15 and August 17, 2009 (accessions 0001464202-09-000001 and 0001464202-09-000003); Founders Fund III, LP, filed May 5, 2010 (0001288320-10-000004); Founders Fund IV, LP, filed December 1, 2011 (0001535267-11-000002); Founders Fund V, LP, filed March 6, 2014 (0001601419-14-000001); Founders Fund VI, LP, filed March 25, 2016 (0001669874-16-000001). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1464202/000146420209000001/primary_doc.xml , https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1491094/000128832010000004/primary_doc.xml , https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1535267/000153526711000002/primary_doc.xml , https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1601419/000160141914000001/primary_doc.xml and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1669874/000166987416000001/primary_doc.xml +[^9]: U.S. Senate, roll call vote 285, 116th Congress, 1st session, September 17, 2019, "On the Nomination PN127, Kenneth A. Howery, of Texas, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden," Nomination Confirmed (62 to 32). https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1161/vote_116_1_00285.xml +[^10]: Federal Election Commission, America PAC (C00879510), committee record, 2024 cycle totals and Schedule A receipts of 100,000 dollars or more through June 30, 2024 (images 202410099684835306 to 202410099684835311), and receipts from Elon Musk (including image 202412059738029687). https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00879510/ and https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00879510&two_year_transaction_period=2024 +[^11]: "US ambassador to Denmark finally approved," The Copenhagen Post, October 8, 2025. https://cphpost.dk/2025-10-08/news/round-up/us-ambassador-to-denmark-finally-approved/ +[^12]: Ritzau/The Local, "US Ambassador denies Trump link to Greenland 'interference'," The Local (Denmark), November 10, 2025. https://www.thelocal.dk/20251110/us-ambassador-denies-trump-link-to-greenland-interference diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyman Kirkpatrick.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyman Kirkpatrick.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6bdb0701 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Lyman Kirkpatrick.md @@ -0,0 +1,184 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - CIA + - InspectorGeneral + - BayOfPigs + - MKULTRA + - FrankOlson + - OSS + - ColdWar + - BrownUniversity +alias: + - Lyman Kirkpatrick + - Lyman B. Kirkpatrick + - Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Jr. + - Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Jr. + - Lyman Bickford Kirkpatrick Jr. +summary: "CIA inspector general from 1953 to 1961 who investigated the Frank Olson death, wrote the restricted 1961 survey of the Bay of Pigs operation, then served as executive director before teaching at Brown." +born: 1916 +died: 1995-03-03 +location: "Rochester, New York (born); Middleburg, Virginia (died)" +relations: + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Helen Kirkpatrick]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[U.S. News & World Report]]" + end: 1942-06 + role: "staff of the U.S. News Publishing Corporation" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Office of Strategic Services]]" + start: 1942-06 + end: 1945 + role: "officer; briefing officer to General Omar Bradley" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + start: 1947-01 + end: 1965 + role: "chief of domestic planning, inspector general, executive director-comptroller" + fn: 4 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Walter Bedell Smith]]" + role: "executive assistant" + fn: 4 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Allen Dulles]]" + start: 1953 + end: 1961 + role: "inspector general" + fn: 2 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[John McCone]]" + start: 1962 + end: 1965 + role: "executive director" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Joint Study Group on the Foreign Intelligence Activities of the United States Government]]" + end: 1960-12-15 + role: "chairman" + fn: 8 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Frank Olson]]" + start: 1953-11 + role: "inspector general investigating the death" + fn: 10 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bay of Pigs]]" + end: 1961-11-20 + role: "author of the Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation" + fn: 16 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Brown University]]" + start: 1965 + end: 1982 + role: "professor of political science" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Lyman Bickford Kirkpatrick Jr. (1916 to March 3, 1995) was an officer of the [[Office of Strategic Services]] and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] who served as the Agency's Inspector General from 1953 to 1961 and as its Executive Director, later Executive Director-Comptroller, from 1962 to 1965, and who then taught political science at [[Brown University]] until 1982.[^1] [^2] + +### Early Career + +Kirkpatrick was born in [[Rochester, New York]], and graduated in 1938 from [[Princeton University]]'s School of Public and International Affairs, where he was undergraduate chairman of the [[Woodrow Wilson School]]. He worked for the U.S. News Publishing Corporation ([[U.S. News & World Report]]) until June 1942, when he enlisted and was assigned to what became the OSS; in 1944 he went to Normandy as General [[Omar Bradley]]'s briefing officer, on the staff of the 12th [[U.S. Army]] Group, and he left the Army in 1945 as a major.[^1] [^3] He received the Legion of Merit and five battle stars, and after a year back at U.S. News, as an editor of "World Report," he joined the CIA.[^3] [^4] His sister was the journalist [[Helen Kirkpatrick]], foreign correspondent of the [[Chicago Daily News]].[^5] [^1] + +Kirkpatrick joined the CIA in January 1947 as chief of the domestic planning office, soon became chief of the division, then deputy assistant director under General [[Walter Bedell Smith]] and shortly afterward Smith's executive assistant in reorganizing CIA operations. In 1952 and 1953 he was hospitalized for eight months with poliomyelitis, which left him paralyzed from the waist down; he afterward traveled by wheelchair.[^4] [[Nicholas Horrock|Nicholas M. Horrock]] of the [[New York Times]] reported in 1977 that when he returned from the hospital [[Richard Helms]] had been appointed director of covert operations, a job Kirkpatrick had been expected to receive, and that "[o]ld agency hands believe that Mr. Helms gained the advantage at this point to rise to [[Director of Central Intelligence]] in the 1960's."[^2] + +### Inspector General + +The Director of Central Intelligence appointed Kirkpatrick Inspector General in 1953. He obtained approval in April 1953 for an inspection program of planned, periodic inspection of Agency components, although the Inspection and Review Staff of the Directorate of Plans kept responsibility for reviewing its own components; by mid-1954 the Inspector General's staff had grown to fifteen; in January 1955 the Director authorized him to inspect components of the Directorate of Plans independently of that staff; and by December 1959 his office had completed its first cycle of component inspections.[^6] His duties included trips to all continents and investigating the basis of charges against the CIA by Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]].[^4] On October 4, 1960, as Inspector General, he addressed the 67th annual conference of the [[International Association of Chiefs of Police]] in Washington on "Free World Police: Target for Communist Subversion."[^7] + +In the fall of 1959 the [[Bureau of the Budget]] proposed, and President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] approved, a study of the intelligence agencies. Kirkpatrick chaired the resulting [[Joint Study Group on the Foreign Intelligence Activities of the United States Government]], whose members included Lieutenant General [[Graves Erskine]] of the Defense Department, [[Allan Evans]] of the [[State Department]]'s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, [[James S. Lay]] of the [[National Security Council]], and [[J. Patrick Coyne]], executive secretary of the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities. The group submitted a 141-page report on December 15, 1960; the National Security Council approved most of its 43 recommendations on January 18, 1961, and the State Department's historians trace to it the creation of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] in August 1961.[^8] [^4] + +### The Olson Investigation + +[[Frank Olson]], a [[Special Operations Division]] scientist at [[Fort Detrick|Camp Detrick]], died on November 27, 1953, when he fell from a tenth-floor window of the [[Statler Hotel]] in New York. At a meeting at [[Deep Creek Lodge|Deep Creek Lake]], Maryland, on November 19, [[LSD]] placed in a bottle of Cointreau by [[Robert Lashbrook]] had been served to the Special Operations Division participants; neither the chief of the [[Technical Services Staff]] nor the Deputy Director for Plans specifically authorized the experiment, which [[Sidney Gottlieb]] carried out with the approval of his immediate supervisor.[^9] + +On December 1, 1953, the chief of the Inspection and Review staff sent Kirkpatrick a memorandum on "Use of LSD" prepared "[p]ursuant to your request." It reported that the chief of the Technical Services Staff, [[Willis Gibbons]], had "impounded all LSD material in CIA Headquarters in a safe adjacent to his desk" and was stopping any LSD tests under way; that only two field stations, [[Manila]] and [[Atsugi]], held LSD, and that there was none in Germany "although Mr. [[William Harvey]] recently expressed interest in the subject"; that the CIA had furnished LSD to [[George Hunter White]], chief of the New York District of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]]'s Narcotics Division, who was "fully cleared according to Dr. Gibbons"; that [[Harold Abramson]] had experimented with the drug; and that most of the Agency's LSD came from [[Eli Lilly]] of Indianapolis, which "apparently makes a gift of it to CIA," through a mechanism Gibbons could not describe.[^10] + +According to a CIA official, the Special Operations Division participants "agreed that an unwitting experiment would be desirable"; the [[Church Committee|Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities]] wrote that this account "directly contradicts" the recollection of Colonel [[Vincent Ruwet]], and cited Kirkpatrick's memorandum for the record of December 1, 1953 for it. In May 1953 Helms had told a staff meeting that LSD "was dynamite and that he should be advised at all times when it was intended to use it," a statement the committee cited to the Inspector General's diary of December 2, 1953; [[Frank Wisner]] had required that the Deputy Director for Plans personally approve any use of LSD. Gottlieb testified that he remembered neither the meeting with Helms nor the Wisner memorandum.[^11] + +[[John Marks]] wrote in *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate* that [[Allen Dulles]] personally ordered Kirkpatrick to make a full investigation, after Agency officials had first tried to make sure that no outsider would tie Olson's death to the CIA or LSD. Marks wrote that Kirkpatrick sequestered Gottlieb's LSD files, and quoted Kirkpatrick: "I brought out his stutter. He was quite concerned about his future." According to Marks, Kirkpatrick recommended some form of reprimand for Gottlieb, Gibbons and the deputy chief of the staff, [[James Drum|James "Trapper" Drum]], who had waited twenty days after Olson's death to admit that Gottlieb had cleared the experiment with him; Admiral [[Luis de Florez]], the Agency's research chairman, sent Dulles a personal memorandum against reprimands; and Kirkpatrick went through six drafts of the letter to Gottlieb, from "exceedingly bad judgment" to "very poor judgment" to "poor judgment," after which the officers were told the letters were not reprimands and would not be placed in their personnel files.[^12] + +On February 12, 1954, the Director wrote Technical Services Staff officials criticizing them for "poor judgment" in administering LSD "on an unwitting basis and without proximate medical safeguards" to Olson and for the lack of "proper consideration of the rights of the individual to whom it was being administered." On the same day the Inspector General reviewed a report on Subproject Number 3 of [[Project MKULTRA|MKULTRA]], submitted by the chief of Inspection and Review on February 10, in which the same officers were quoted as stating that one purpose of the subproject was to "observe the behavior of unwitting persons being questioned after having been given a drug." The committee found no evidence that the subproject was terminated; the evidence indicated that it continued until 1963, with test subjects contacted at random in bars and given drugs in safehouses.[^13] Horrock reported that Kirkpatrick had never testified publicly about the Olson case, but that he had reportedly told [[Nelson Rockefeller|Vice President Rockefeller]]'s commission on the CIA that he had recommended that the employees involved in giving Olson the drug be disciplined. "They were not," Horrock wrote, and Kirkpatrick "later told associates he regretted not having taken a firmer stand."[^2] + +### The 1957 Survey of the Technical Services Division and the 1961 Mail Review + +The Inspector General's report of 1957 on the [[Office of Technical Service|Technical Services Division]], issued during Kirkpatrick's tenure, stated that "[s]ix specific products have been developed and are available for operational use. Three of them are discrediting and disabling materials which can be administered unwittingly and permit the exercise of a measure of control over the actions of the subject." The same report stated: "Precautions must be taken not only to protect operations from exposure to enemy forces but also to conceal these activities from the American public in general. The knowledge that the Agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission."[^14] + +A 1961 review by the Inspector General's office, part of an evaluation of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]], examined the New York mail-opening project ([[HTLINGUAL]]). It found that "few of the operational leads have ever been converted into operations" for the Soviet Russia Division, and that "[t]he activity cannot be called a 'project' in the usual sense, because it was never processed through the approval system and has no separate funds." It recommended a coordinated evaluation by the Deputy Directors for Plans and Support. The Senate committee found that the project was reviewed by disinterested Agency components only twice, in 1961 and 1969.[^15] Horrock reported in 1977 that Kirkpatrick had testified that he knew about the illegal mail openings and that Dulles also knew of them, and that he had reportedly said the Agency was convinced that "the national security need for the mail-openings outweighed the fact that they were against the law."[^2] + +### The Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation + +On November 20, 1961, Kirkpatrick transmitted to [[John McCone]], who was about to succeed Dulles, a 150-page survey of the CIA's operation against [[Fidel Castro]], dated October 1961, with five annexes and ten recommendations. His covering memorandum stated that he had reviewed the material prepared for General [[Maxwell Taylor]]'s committee and the committee's minutes, that his meeting with the top three officers of the branch the week after the landing was reported in some seventy pages, and that "there has been a tendency in the Agency to gloss over CIA's inadequacies and to attempt to fix all the blame for the failure of the invasion upon other elements of the Government." He would make no further distribution until McCone indicated whom he wished to receive copies; the [[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]] had requested a copy so that Coyne could report on it at its December 9 meeting.[^16] + +The survey rests on interviews by the Inspector General and his representatives with about 125 Agency employees, and "contains no evaluation of or judgment on any decision or action taken by any official not employed by the Agency." It states: "The project had lost its covert nature by November 1960. ... For more than three months before the invasion the American press was reporting, often with some accuracy, on the recruiting and training of Cubans. ... Plausible denial was a pathetic illusion." Its first conclusion was that "[t]he Agency failed to recognize that when the project advanced beyond the stage of plausible denial it was going beyond the area of Agency responsibility as well as Agency capability"; others were that the Agency failed to keep national policymakers "adequately and realistically informed," reduced the exiled leaders "to the status of puppets," and entered the project without adequate boats, bases, training facilities, agent nets and Spanish speakers.[^17] + +The survey cited earlier warnings from the Inspector General's office: a June 1958 recommendation, in a survey of the Far East Division, for a high-level study of the extent to which the Agency should engage in paramilitary operations, "if any"; a January 1959 memorandum to the Deputy Director for Plans that "the Clandestine Services tends to assume responsibilities beyond its capabilities"; a 1955 survey of the Psychological and Paramilitary Operations Staff and a March 1961 survey of the Covert Action Staff, both warning against bypassing those staffs; and a July 1959 survey of the Plans directorate, which wrote that operations that "may be aimed at the overthrow of a hostile regime" require high-level liaison with the State Department and the [[White House]], and that task forces within a single division "represent a woefully inadequate response to a problem of major national significance." The survey's first recommendation was that such an operation be carried out by a task force under a senior official "on a full-time basis, and organizationally outside the DD/P structure"; its second, that "[t]he Agency should request that such projects should be transferred to the [[Department of Defense]] when they show signs of becoming overt or beyond Agency capabilities."[^18] + +### Distribution and Restriction + +Twenty copies were made because, as a later memorandum in Kirkpatrick's name explained, it had been understood when the report was written that copies would go to the President's board. The only distribution was: McCone, November 21, 1961; Dulles, Deputy Director [[Charles P. Cabell]] and Deputy Director for Plans [[Richard Bissell]], November 24; the Inspector General; the file of the acting Inspector General; the chief of the [[CIA Western Hemisphere Division|Western Hemisphere Division]], Colonel [[J. C. King]], and [[Jacob Esterline]] of that division, November 24; and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, through [[J. S. Earman]] at the Director's request, on January 18, 1962. The remaining copies stayed in his office.[^19] On November 28, 1961, Cabell recorded that he had called Kirkpatrick "to state that the fact of the IG's report on Cuba should be restricted on a must-need-to-know basis," that no further copies would go out "without authority of the DCI or DDCI," that the restriction "also specifically applies to distribution to the President's Board of Intelligence Advisors," and that he had discussed "holding this report tightly" with Dulles and Bissell.[^20] + +On November 22, 1961, two days after transmitting the survey, Kirkpatrick sat with Dulles, Cabell, Bissell, Helms and McCone in Dulles's office to review the plan, set by President [[John F. Kennedy]] and Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]] at the White House the day before, for a committee under General [[Edward Lansdale]] on action against Cuba, which the Attorney General said would embody covert operations, propaganda and actions creating dissension within Cuba; Lansdale had proposed [[James H. Critchfield]] as the CIA's man on the committee, and Bissell offered alternate names.[^21] When McCone took office on November 29, he asked Kirkpatrick to head a study of the Director's role, his relations with the White House and other agencies, and the organization of the CIA and the intelligence community; the President's statement of January 16, 1962 on the Director's responsibilities resulted from it.[^22] + +On December 1, 1961, after McCone said he was concerned that the survey taken alone "might give an erroneous impression as to the extent CIA is responsible for the failure of the operation," Kirkpatrick wrote that the failure "should be charged in order" to "[a]n over-all lack of recognition on the part of the U.S. Government as to the magnitude of the operation required to overthrow the Fidel Castro regime"; to "[t]he failure on the part of the U.S. Government to plan for all contingencies ... including the necessity for using regular U.S. military forces in the event that the exiled Cubans could not do the job themselves"; and to the government's unwillingness "to commit to the Cuban operation, as planned and executed, those necessary resources required for its success."[^23] On December 15, 1961, Cabell wrote that a detailed comment would require noting "inaccuracies, omissions, distortions, unsupported allegations, and many erroneous conclusions," that "[n]either Mr. Dulles nor I was consulted in the preparation of the Inspector General's report," and that "[i]n unfriendly hands, it can become a weapon unjustifiably to attack the entire mission, organization, and functioning of the Agency."[^24] + +McCone directed that the survey be bound with an analysis by the Deputy Director for Plans dated January 18, 1962; his January 19, 1962 letter to [[James R. Killian]], chairman of the President's board, transmitting both; memoranda by [[Tracy Barnes]] and Kirkpatrick; and Dulles's comments of February 15, 1962, which McCone acknowledged on February 19.[^25] On April 19, 1963, at McCone's direction and as Executive Director, Kirkpatrick took the bound report to [[McGeorge Bundy]]. His memorandum for the record states that Bundy asked for a summary, scanned the conclusions, and "commented that this was an aspect of the operation about which the President and himself had not been informed"; Bundy kept the report because the President "would probably wish to read it over the weekend," and asked whether [[Brigade 2506|the Brigade]] had been told before the landing that it would not be supported by U.S. military forces, which Kirkpatrick said he could not answer.[^26] + +The survey remained classified until 1998, when the [[National Security Archive]]'s Cuba Documentation Project obtained its declassification. The CIA's own five-volume official history by its historian [[Jack Pfeiffer]] includes a fifth volume titled "Internal Investigation Report"; in 1987 Pfeiffer sued under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] for its release, and the CIA convinced the court that it could not be declassified.[^27] + +### Executive Director + +In 1962 a panel headed by Kirkpatrick, then the CIA's Executive Director-Comptroller, recommended creating an office in the Clandestine Service to centralize and professionalize paramilitary action and contingency planning, "drawing upon Agency-wide resources for large-scale operations"; a new paramilitary division was established under a new National Security Council approval group, the [[Special Group (Counterinsurgency)]].[^28] Under McCone's reorganization the Executive Director became the number three position in the CIA, responsible for its internal management, and in 1963 the posts of Executive Director and Comptroller were combined; the [[Baltimore Sun]] wrote in 1965 that he had been outranked only by McCone and Lieutenant General [[Marshall S. Carter]].[^22] [^4] The Audit Staff was transferred to the Office of the Inspector General on April 1, 1962.[^6] On January 19, 1965, as Executive Director, he informed the deputy directors that [[Chester Cooper]], formerly assistant to the Deputy Director for Intelligence, had moved to the White House, that consultation with him "should not be discouraged," and that the deputy directors should be kept advised of such contacts.[^29] + +Horrock reported in 1977 that Kirkpatrick had reportedly told the Senate intelligence committee and the [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|Rockefeller Commission]] that a CIA officer complained to him in the early 1960s about being ordered to prepare an assassination attempt against [[Patrice Lumumba]], and that, according to Horrock's sources, he testified that he had gone on record within the Agency as opposing the attempt, and that, according to some sources, he testified that he was unaware of plots against Castro and [[Rafael Trujillo]].[^2] The committee's published report on assassination plots records that [[Michael Mulroney]], after Bissell asked him in 1960 to go to the Congo to kill Lumumba and he refused, made his opposition "a matter of record" with Helms and told his superior, William Harvey; the report does not name Kirkpatrick in that account.[^30] + +In 1976 Kirkpatrick wrote to the Senate committee on the functions of the Inspector General; the committee quoted a former Inspector General's letter that "[i]t is necessary that the DCI fully back the Inspector General in his recommendations unless there are overwhelming reasons to the contrary," citing Kirkpatrick's letter of January 13, 1976, and noted that "[s]ince Lyman Kirkpatrick, all the Inspectors General have taken that office as their last post with the CIA."[^31] + +### Brown University and the 1977 Nomination + +In August 1965 Kirkpatrick, holder of the President's 1964 award for distinguished federal civilian service, retired from the CIA to become professor of political science at Brown University; in his spare hours he had set up the Agency's Public Service Aid Society and its Educational Aid Fund.[^4] Horrock reported that "[s]ome sources said he resigned because he no longer expected to become the director."[^2] He taught at Brown until 1982, wrote on defense intelligence and served on several intelligence boards.[^1] + +On July 14, 1977, senior administration officials told Horrock that President [[Jimmy Carter]] had offered Kirkpatrick the post of deputy director of the CIA and that he had accepted, the announcement to await the President's conviction that he could be confirmed "without the expenditure of large amounts of political capital." Horrock reported that members and staff of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] indicated he would be closely questioned about his knowledge of assassinations, drug testing and illegal mail openings, and that a prominent Democrat said he would be "more comfortable" with another choice. Kirkpatrick, reached in Rhode Island, declined to comment.[^2] He died at his home in [[Middleburg, Virginia]], on March 3, 1995.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Lyman Bickford Kirkpatrick Jr. '38," memorial, *Princeton Alumni Weekly*. https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/lyman-bickford-kirkpatrick-jr-38 +[^2]: Nicholas M. Horrock, "Lyman Kirkpatrick Termed Choice of Carter as C.I.A. Deputy Chief," *New York Times*, July 15, 1977, p. A21, CIA-RDP90-01208R000100230084-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-01208r000100230084-6 +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Biographical Sketch, Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Jr., Inspector General, CIA," CIA-RDP75-00001R000200200078-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000200200078-9 +[^4]: "CIA's Lyman Kirkpatrick to Retire, Start Teaching," *Baltimore Sun*, August 5, 1965, CIA-RDP75-00001R000200190026-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000200190026-8 +[^5]: "Kirkpatrick, Helen (1909-1997)," *Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia* (Gale), via Encyclopedia.com (born Rochester, daughter of Lyman Bickford Kirkpatrick; name variation Helen Milbank). https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kirkpatrick-helen-1909-1997 +[^6]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book I, *Foreign and Military Intelligence*, S. Rep. No. 94-755 (1976), "The Office of the Inspector General," pp. 290 to 291. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^7]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Jr., "Free World Police: Target for Communist Subversion," address to the 67th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Washington, D.C., October 4, 1960, CIA-RDP67-00318R000100530001-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp67-00318r000100530001-9 +[^8]: U.S. Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XXV, *Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters*, Document 78 (editorial note). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1961-63v25/ebook/frus1961-63v25.epub +[^9]: *Final Report*, Book I, Appendix C, "Drug Testing Program," pp. 394 to 396. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^10]: Chief, Inspection and Review, Memorandum for Inspector General, "Use of LSD," December 1, 1953, 2 pp., Center for National Security Studies FOIA, National Security Archive. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/1953-12-01a%20CNSS-ocr.pdf +[^11]: *Final Report*, Book I, Appendix C, p. 395 and notes (citing Memorandum for the Record from Lyman Kirkpatrick, 12/1/53, p. 1; Inspector General Diary, 12/2/53; Gottlieb testimony, 10/18/75, p. 16). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^12]: John Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control* (New York: Times Books, 1979), chapter 5, text as posted at https://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/lsd/marks5.htm +[^13]: *Final Report*, Book I, Appendix C, pp. 399 to 400 and notes (memoranda from the DCI to Sidney Gottlieb and to the Chief of Operations, TSS, 2/12/54; memorandum to Inspector General from Chief, Inspection and Review, on Subproject #3 of MKULTRA, 2/10/54). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^14]: *Final Report*, Book I, Appendix C, p. 393 note and p. 394 (quoting the Inspector General's Report of 1957 on the Technical Services Division). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^15]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book III, *Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans*, S. Rep. No. 94-755 (1976), "CIA Intercepting and Opening of Mail," pp. 577 and 581 to 582 (citing memorandum from L. K. White to Acting Inspector General (attachment), 3/9/62). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_III.pdf +[^16]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Inspector General, Memorandum for Mr. McCone, "Survey of the Cuban Operation," November 20, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R001900160016-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900160016-0 +[^17]: Central Intelligence Agency, Inspector General, *Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation*, October 1961, Introduction, paragraphs 5 and 6 (printed pp. 1 to 2, PDF pp. 9 to 10), "The Choice," paragraph 42 (printed p. 61, PDF p. 69), and Conclusions (printed pp. 143 to 144, PDF pp. 151 to 152), National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 341. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB341/IGrpt1.pdf +[^18]: *Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation*, printed pp. 146 to 148 (PDF pp. 154 to 156). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB341/IGrpt1.pdf +[^19]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, "Inspector General Survey of the Cuban Operation (dated October 1961)," February 16, 1962, in *Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation* (PDF p. 2). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB341/IGrpt1.pdf +[^20]: C. P. Cabell, General, USAF, Deputy Director, Memorandum for the Record, November 28, 1961, in *Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation* (PDF p. 226). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB341/IGrpt1.pdf +[^21]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, *Cuba, January 1961-September 1962*, Document 275 (memorandum for the record drafted by McCone, Washington, November 22, 1961). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1961-63v10/ebook/frus1961-63v10.epub +[^22]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XXV, Document 95 (memorandum for the file, December 27, 1961), note 3. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1961-63v25/ebook/frus1961-63v25.epub +[^23]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Inspector General, Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, "Report on the Cuban Operation," December 1, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R001900160013-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900160013-3 +[^24]: C. P. Cabell, General, USAF, Deputy Director, "The Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation," December 15, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R001900160013-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900160013-3 +[^25]: Index note "at the direction of Mr. John A. McCone," tabs 1 to 11, in *Inspector General's Survey of the Cuban Operation* (PDF p. 3), https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB341/IGrpt1.pdf ; John A. McCone to Allen W. Dulles, February 19, 1962, CIA-RDP80B01676R001900160007-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900160007-0 +[^26]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Executive Director, Memorandum for the Record, "Meeting with Mr. McGeorge Bundy, Friday, 19 April 1963, 4:15 p.m.," CIA-RDP80B01676R001900160006-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900160006-1 +[^27]: Peter Kornbluh, "CIA Sued for 'Holding History Hostage' on Bay of Pigs Invasion," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 341, April 14, 2011. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB341/index.htm +[^28]: *Final Report*, Book I, chapter on covert action, note on the 1962 paramilitary office, p. 150. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf +[^29]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Executive Director, Action Memorandum, January 19, 1965, CIA-RDP84-00780R001000070006-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00780r001000070006-0 +[^30]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report*, S. Rep. No. 94-465 (1975), pp. 38 to 40. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94465.pdf +[^31]: *Final Report*, Book I, pp. 296 (note 71, citing Kirkpatrick letter, 1/13/76, p. 2) and 299 (notes). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ead52386 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Mercer family.md @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +--- +category: "New Right" +tags: + - Family + - MercerFamily + - RobertMercer + - RebekahMercer + - MercerFamilyFoundation + - RenaissanceTechnologies + - GovernmentAccountabilityInstitute + - Breitbart + - CambridgeAnalytica + - DarkMoney + - Parler +alias: + - Mercer family + - Mercers + - Robert Mercer + - Robert L. Mercer + - Robert Leroy Mercer + - Rebekah Mercer + - Rebekah A. Mercer + - Jennifer Mercer + - Heather Mercer + - Mercer Family Foundation +summary: "Family of the Renaissance Technologies co-chief executive Robert Mercer and his daughters, whose private foundation, super PAC contributions and company investments reached conservative organizations, Cambridge Analytica, Parler and 1789 Capital." +location: "East Setauket, New York" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Renaissance Technologies]]" + role: "Robert Mercer, co-chief executive; announced on November 2, 2017 that he would step down" + fn: 10 + - type: owned + with: "[[Cambridge Analytica]]" + role: "Robert Mercer, investor holding 90 percent for an initial 15 million dollars, per the account of Christopher Wylie" + fn: 4 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Emerdata]]" + start: 2018-03-16 + role: "Rebekah Mercer and Jennifer Mercer, directors" + fn: 28 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Government Accountability Institute]]" + role: "Rebekah Mercer, chairman of the board in the returns for 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022" + fn: 21 + - type: funded + with: "[[Government Accountability Institute]]" + start: 2013 + end: 2017 + role: "Mercer Family Foundation grants totaling 7,460,000 dollars in tax years 2013 to 2017" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[Media Research Center]]" + start: 2011 + end: 2017 + role: "Mercer Family Foundation grants totaling 17,772,420 dollars in tax years 2011 to 2017" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[Heartland Institute]]" + start: 2010 + end: 2017 + role: "Mercer Family Foundation grants, 4,818,000 dollars in tax years 2011 to 2017" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[Federalist Society]]" + start: 2013 + end: 2017 + role: "Mercer Family Foundation grants totaling 6,450,000 dollars in tax years 2013 to 2017" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[DonorsTrust]]" + start: 2016 + end: 2024 + role: "Mercer Family Foundation grants totaling 67,450,000 dollars in the returns for 2016, 2017 and 2019 to 2024" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[Make America Number 1]]" + start: 2015-04-10 + end: 2016-07-14 + role: "Robert Mercer, 15,500,000 dollars" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[John Bolton Super PAC]]" + start: 2014-04-28 + end: 2017-12-28 + role: "Robert Mercer, ten contributions of 500,000 dollars" + fn: 26 + - type: funded + with: "[[Trump 47 Committee, Inc.]]" + start: 2024-03-25 + end: 2024-03-25 + role: "Robert Mercer, 814,399 dollars" + fn: 8 + - type: funded + with: "[[Parler]]" + role: "Rebekah Mercer, described by chief executive John Matze as a lead early investor" + fn: 30 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Parler]]" + role: "Rebekah Mercer, executive officer, director and promoter in the Form D of January 6, 2022" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Omeed Malik]]" + role: "Rebekah Mercer, managing member of the general partner of 1789 Capital Fund I, LP" + fn: 6 + - type: owned + with: "[[Breitbart News]]" + role: "Robert Mercer, who wrote on November 2, 2017 that he was selling his stake to his daughters" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Dynamo Recoveries Limited]]" + start: 2021-03-12 + role: "Rebekah Mercer and Jennifer Mercer, directors" + fn: 29 + - type: owned + with: "[[Dynamo Recoveries Limited]]" + start: 2021-03-12 + role: "Rebekah Mercer, person with significant control holding 75 percent or more" + fn: 29 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Mercer family is the family of Robert Mercer, who was a co-chief executive of the hedge fund [[Renaissance Technologies]] until he announced in November 2017 that he would step down, and his daughters Rebekah Mercer and Jennifer Mercer; a Heather Mercer appears with them as a director of the family's private foundation and as a beneficiary of a trust holding shares in [[Emerdata]].[^1][^2] The family's records include a private foundation, a series of federal super PAC and party contributions, an investment in the data company [[Cambridge Analytica]], a role in the social network [[Parler]], and a private equity vehicle, [[1789 Capital]], of which Rebekah Mercer is a managing member of the general partner.[^2][^3][^4][^5][^6] + +### Renaissance Technologies and the basket options hearing + +On July 22, 2014 the [[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] of the [[United States Senate]] held a hearing, "Abuse of Structured Financial Products: Misusing Basket Options to Avoid Taxes and Leverage Limits," chaired by [[Carl Levin]]. In his opening statement Levin said that Renaissance's Medallion fund had used basket options to produce profits from 1999 to 2013 totaling more than $30 billion and that [[Deutsche Bank]] and [[Barclays]] had earned about $570 million and $655 million in revenue from the structures. The tax expert Steven Rosenthal testified that the structures reduced taxes paid to the Treasury by approximately $6.8 billion by converting short-term trading profits taxed at 35 percent into long-term gains taxed at 15 percent.[^7] The Renaissance witness was Peter Brown, identified in the hearing record as co-chief executive officer and co-president of Renaissance Technologies. The name Mercer does not appear in the text of the printed hearing record, which lists among the exhibits an October 1, 2004 indemnity agreement among Barclays and the Medallion entities including Medallion Capital Investments Ltd.[^7] + +[[Federal Election Commission]] contribution records from the 2010 through 2022 cycles give Robert Mercer's employer as Renaissance Technologies and his occupation in some entries as "co-CEO" and in others as "CEO."[^8] The Form 990-PF of the [[Mercer Family Foundation]] for the period beginning June 18, 2004 lists an investment in "Medallion Capital Investments" with a book value of $550,358; the return for 2010 lists "Medallion investments" valued at $8,456,921 at the start of the year and $23,361,133 at its end.[^9] + +On November 2, 2017 Robert Mercer wrote to Renaissance investors that he was stepping down as co-chief executive and selling his stake in [[Breitbart News]] to his daughters; in the same letter he wrote that he had been mistaken to support [[Milo Yiannopoulos]]. [[National Public Radio]] wrote that the Mercers reportedly introduced [[Donald Trump]] to [[Steve Bannon]] and to [[Kellyanne Conway]] and "also own part of Cambridge Analytica."[^10] + +In September 2021 the [[Associated Press]] reported, citing reports by the [[Wall Street Journal]] and the [[New York Times]], that Renaissance insiders including its founder [[James Simons]] and Robert Mercer had agreed to pay as much as $7 billion to settle a dispute with the [[Internal Revenue Service]] covering transactions between 2005 and 2015.[^11] + +### Mercer Family Foundation + +The Mercer Family Foundation (EIN 20-1982204) is a private foundation with a recognition date of June 2005 whose recent returns carry the care-of address of the accounting firm BerryDunn in Waltham, Massachusetts. Its Form 990-PF for 2004 covers a tax year that began on June 18, 2004; the foundation's disbursements for charitable purposes were $69,000 in 2005, $292,000 in 2007, $1,565,000 in 2008, $1,770,000 in 2009 and $4,039,000 in 2010.[^9][^12] The returns for 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 list Rebekah Mercer as the only director; the return for 2023 lists Rebekah, Robert, Jennifer and Heather Mercer, each at one hour a week, and gives Rebekah Mercer as the person in whose care the books are kept.[^2][^13] + +The foundation's grants paid, as reported to the Internal Revenue Service, were $7,105,215 in 2011, $11,677,197 in 2012, $13,492,358 in 2013, $18,300,979 in 2014 and $24,544,570 in 2015, and its total assets at the end of the year fell from $37,887,151 in 2011 to $22,729,081 in 2015.[^12] The return for 2016 reports grants of $19,025,582.[^14] + +The itemized recipients in the returns for 2011 to 2017 include the [[Government Accountability Institute]] ($1,000,000 in 2013 and 2014, $1,735,000 in 2015, $2,000,000 in 2016 and $1,725,000 in 2017, a total of $7,460,000); the [[Media Research Center]] ($1,800,000, $3,000,000, $2,972,420, $3,000,000, $3,000,000, $2,000,000 and $2,000,000 in 2011 through 2017, a total of $17,772,420); the [[Heartland Institute]] ($444,000, $912,000, $877,000, $885,000, $100,000, $800,000 and $800,000 in 2011 through 2017, a total of $4,818,000, after a grant of $100,000 in 2010); the [[Federalist Society]] ($1,600,000 in 2013, $2,050,000 in 2014, $2,300,000 in 2015 and $500,000 in 2017); the [[Citizens United Foundation]] ($2,000,000, $1,000,000, $550,000 and $250,000 in 2012 through 2015); the [[Heritage Foundation]] ($500,000 in each of 2013 through 2016); and [[Reclaim New York]] ($75,000 in 2014, $1,250,000 in 2015, $1,600,000 in 2016 and $1,760,000 in 2017).[^14] The return for 2016 also lists $500,000 to the [[Cleveland 2016 Host Committee]] and $500,000 to the [[Rev the Vote Foundation]], and the return for 2017 lists $500,000 to the [[Susan B. Anthony List]] Education Fund.[^14] The itemized grant lists in the returns for 2011 through 2017 and 2019 through 2024 contain no grant to Breitbart News, Parler or Cambridge Analytica.[^14][^15] + +From 2016 the lists change in form. [[DonorsTrust]] received $2,250,000 in 2016 and $500,000 in 2017, and the returns for 2019 to 2024 list DonorsTrust as the principal recipient: $1,400,000 in 2019, $19,250,000 in 2020, $5,800,000 in 2021, $31,000,000 in 2022, $3,500,000 in 2023 and $3,750,000 in 2024, which with the amounts for 2016 and 2017 total $67,450,000 (the return for 2018 is not included in these totals).[^14][^15] The only other recipients in the returns for 2019 to 2024 are the [[American Association for Aerosol Research]] ($9,000 in each of 2019 to 2021), the [[Marine Corps University Foundation]] ($20,000 in 2019), the [[Hospital for Special Surgery]] ($6,772,269 in 2020), the [[Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America]] and the [[Explorer's Club]] ($100,000 each in 2021), the [[Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine]] ($250,000 in 2021) and [[Ohio State University]] ($149,778 in 2022).[^15] The Oregon Institute's address on the return for 2021, 2251 Dick George Road, Cave Junction, Oregon, is also the registered address of the committee Art Robinson for Congress, which paid Cambridge Analytica $20,000 in 2014.[^15][^16] The foundation's return for 2011 lists a grant of $965,000 to an organization at Cave Junction, Oregon.[^14] The return for 2014 lists $100,000 to the Job Creators Alliance of Addison, Texas.[^17] + +A letter dated May 5, 2014 on the stationery of the Mercer Family Foundation, 240 Riverside Boulevard, New York, addressed to Mary Ann Coleman of Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, asks that $100,000 be wired from the foundation to the account of Job Creators Network Foundation; a callback verification block on the page names Rebekah Mercer. The document is in the [[Department of Justice]] [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] data set 10 among Deutsche Bank trust department records that also include client lists naming a Mercer family trust, and the page itself contains no reference to [[Jeffrey Epstein]].[^18] + +### Government Accountability Institute + +The Government Accountability Institute (EIN 45-4681912), a [[Tallahassee]], Florida charity with a recognition date of January 1, 2013, states its mission as "to investigate and expose crony capitalism, misuse of taxpayer monies, and other governmental corruption or malfeasance."[^19] Its Form 990 for 2012 lists Bannon as chairman (30 hours a week, compensation $80,769), [[Peter Schweizer]] as president and secretary-treasurer, and Rebekah Mercer as a director at one hour a week, with [[Hunter Lewis]], Owen Smith and Ronald Robinson as the other directors, and Wynton C. Hall as communications strategist. Schedule O to that return states that "Stephen Bannon, Chairman, and Rebekah Mercer, Board Director, have a business relationship."[^19] + +Schedule L to the returns for 2013, 2014 and 2015 reports purchases of advertising on the website of Breitbart News Network, LLC, with the explanation that "Stephen Bannon is chairman of the board" of that company, in the amounts of $102,500, $7,500 and $98,000; the return for 2015 adds that a committee of disinterested board members reviewed the proposed purchase and collected comparison data from other online advertising venues.[^20] Bannon's reportable compensation from the institute was $100,000 for 2013, $100,733 for 2014 and $96,703 for 2015.[^20] The return for 2016 lists Rebekah Mercer as "Chairman of the Board" at 30 hours a week without compensation, Bannon as a board director at one hour a week with compensation of $61,539, Schweizer at $210,000 and Hall as a key employee at $175,000; the returns for 2017, 2020 and 2022 also list her as chairman.[^21] + +The institute's total contributions were $2,200,000 in 2012, $2,602,500 in 2013, $1,701,000 in 2014, $2,587,000 in 2015, $2,601,000 in 2016 and $2,435,250 in 2017; for 2013 through 2017 the foundation's itemized grants to the institute were $7,460,000 of $11,926,750 in contributions.[^14][^22] + +### Federal contributions + +The OpenFEC database attributes to Robert Mercer of East Setauket, New York, individual contributions of $88,500 in the 2008 cycle, $764,426 in 2010, $5,712,860 in 2012, $8,749,000 in 2014, $23,421,700 in 2016, $5,275,000 in 2018, $1,865,200 in 2020, $600,000 in 2022, $849,399 in 2024 and $100,000 in the 2026 cycle to date, and to Rebekah Mercer of New York $1,015,050 across the 2010 to 2024 cycles, in itemized receipts of $200 or more excluding memo entries.[^8] The largest single recipient in the database is [[Make America Number 1]] ($15,500,000); the others over $1,000,000 are the [[John Bolton Super PAC]] ($5,000,000), [[Freedom Partners Action Fund]] ($2,500,000), [[American Crossroads]] ($2,000,000), [[Club for Growth]] Action ($2,000,000), the [[Congressional Leadership Fund]] ($1,900,000), [[Ending Spending Action Fund]] ($1,750,000), [[KelliPAC]] ($1,500,000), the [[Republican National Committee]] ($1,154,900 from 2008 to November 2025), [[Restore Our Future]] ($1,000,000) and [[Remember Mississippi]] ($1,000,000).[^8] The database also records $814,399 from Robert Mercer to [[Trump 47 Committee, Inc.]] on March 25, 2024, $449,400 from Rebekah Mercer to [[Trump Victory]] on June 13, 2016, and $355,200 from Robert Mercer to Trump Victory on February 14, 2020.[^8] + +Other itemized contributions by Robert Mercer in the database include $643,750 to Concerned Taxpayers of America between September 13 and December 16, 2010; $920,000 to Prosperity First Inc. in three payments from April 1 to October 22, 2012; $500,000 to Women Speak Out PAC on August 28, 2014; $500,000 each to New York Wins PAC (January 29, 2016) and Fighting for Ohio Fund (May 16, 2016); $1,500,000 to KelliPAC in four payments from July 22, 2016 to June 29, 2018; $637,100 to Black Americans for a Better Future in ten payments from September 18, 2015 to May 7, 2024; $400,000 to Great America PAC on October 25, 2018; $100,000 to [[Protect Ohio Values PAC]] on March 12, 2021, five days before a $50,000 contribution to the same committee by Rebekah Mercer; and $500,000 to General John Stark PAC on June 6, 2022.[^23] The database lists Rebekah Mercer's largest recipients as Trump Victory ($449,400), The Founders Committee ($67,700 in two committee records), Romney Victory Inc. ($65,800), Coalition for American Values PAC ($50,000) and Protect Ohio Values PAC ($50,000).[^23] + +The committee now named Make America Number 1 (C00575373) filed its original statement of organization on April 6, 2015 under a cover letter headed "Keep The Promise I," signed by the treasurer, Jacquelyn James, with the address 2 Roosevelt Avenue, Port Jefferson Station, New York; the amended statement signed on June 22, 2016 gives the name Make America Number 1.[^24] The paid-preparer block of the Mercer Family Foundation's returns for 2013 through 2017 names Jacquelyn James Varga of Golub LaCapra Wilson & DeTiberiis LLP, 2 Roosevelt Avenue, Port Jefferson Station, the same street address, and the returns for 2011 and 2012 name Brian Golub of the same firm; the return for 2019 names Louis M. Cohen of Caler Donten Levine of West [[Palm Beach, Florida]], and the returns for 2020 through 2024 name Barbara J. McGuan of Berry Dunn McNeil & Parker LLC of Portland, Maine.[^25] The committee received $11,000,000 from Robert Mercer on April 10, 2015, $500,000 on February 26, 2016, and $2,000,000 on each of March 17 and July 14, 2016; other receipts of $1,000,000 or more were $2,000,000 from [[Bernard Marcus]] (September 6, 2016), $1,000,000 from [[Peter Thiel]] (October 26, 2016) and $1,000,000 from [[Cherna Moskowitz]] (August 23, 2016).[^3] In the 2016 cycle it reported receipts of $20,737,585, disbursements of $19,659,532 and independent expenditures of $13,432,443.[^3] Its disbursements include $1,476,484 to Cambridge Analytica, $952,015 to [[The Polling Company]], $950,000 to [[Trusted Leadership PAC]], $538,446 to [[Greenberg Traurig]], $500,000 to [[Carly for America]], $336,495 to [[Bracewell & Giuliani]], $280,641 to [[Glittering Steel LLC]] for video production, $119,341 to Breitbart News Network LLC and $115,262 to [[The Aventine Group]].[^3] On December 23, 2022 it recorded a contribution refund of $620,000 to Robert Mercer.[^3] + +The John Bolton Super PAC received ten contributions of $500,000 from Robert Mercer, dated April 28 and June 30, 2014; February 24, June 30, September 28 and December 18, 2015; July 5 and September 6, 2016; and October 23 and December 28, 2017, and paid Cambridge Analytica $1,152,300 between July 7, 2014 and September 29, 2016.[^26] + +### Cambridge Analytica and Emerdata + +According to [[Christopher Wylie]], Robert Mercer invested $15 million in Cambridge Analytica for 90 percent of the company and served as its president, with Jennifer Mercer as treasurer; the company's statement of financial affairs lists Rebekah Mercer as a member of the board of managers and vice president and Jennifer Mercer as a member of the board of managers from March 6, 2014 through January 23, 2018.[^4] [[Brittany Kaiser]] told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] that almost every client meeting with a political figure was preceded by an introduction from Bannon, Rebekah Mercer or Conway, and [[Jared Kushner]] told the committee that the Mercers aggressively advocated the campaign's use of the company.[^27] + +Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer became directors of Emerdata Limited on March 16, 2018 and are recorded as active directors on the Companies House register of October 1, 2026; the company has been in administration since December 9, 2024.[^28] Jennifer Mercer was appointed on March 12, 2021 a director of [[Dynamo Recoveries Limited]], a non-trading company incorporated on March 4, 2021 with Terence William Donal Blaney as its first person with significant control; since March 12, 2021 Rebekah Mercer has been recorded as its only person with significant control, holding 75 percent or more of the shares and votes. [[Jacquelyn James-Varga]], who is also a director of Emerdata, is a director of the company.[^29] Companies House gives the correspondence address of the Mercers, James-Varga and Dynamo Recoveries as 60 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, England.[^28][^29] + +### Parler and 1789 Capital + +In November 2020 [[Newsweek]] reported, citing people familiar with the matter who spoke to the [[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]], that the Mercers had ties to Parler; Newsweek wrote that the chief executive John Matze had confirmed Rebekah Mercer as a lead investor in the early stages of the company and that her funding was conditional on the application relinquishing control over what users can see, and that she had written on the platform that she launched Parler with Matze to "provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended."[^30] A Form D filed with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] on January 6, 2022 by Parler Inc., a Delaware corporation at 901 Woodland Street, Nashville, lists Rebekah Mercer as an executive officer, director and promoter alongside the chief executive George Farmer; it reports a first sale of equity on December 15, 2021, $20,250,000 offered and sold to 10 investors at a minimum of $50,000, and finders' fees of $500,000, with William C.T. Gaynor II of Washington as the sales compensation recipient.[^5] + +A Form D filed on February 9, 2023 by 1789 Capital Fund I, LP of Palm Beach, Florida lists [[Omeed Malik]], Rebekah Mercer and [[Christopher Buskirk]] each as executive officer, director, promoter and managing member of the general partner, with a first sale on January 31, 2023, $100,000,000 offered and $10,000,000 sold to one investor at a minimum of $1,000,000.[^6] Two further Forms D filed on June 10, 2024 by 1789 Capital Co-Invest I, LP and 1789 Capital BH, LP list her as manager of the general partner; the first reports $2,162,000 sold to seven investors and the second $9,700,000 of a $10,000,000 offering sold to 28 investors.[^31] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, *Disinformation and "fake news": Final Report*, HC 1791, February 18, 2019, paragraph 286 and note 327 (describing "Jennifer and Rebekah Mercer (daughters of financier Robert Mercer)" as directors of Emerdata and listing trusts for the benefit of Rebekah, Jennifer and Heather Mercer among its shareholders as of August 10, 2018). https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf +[^2]: Mercer Family Foundation (EIN 20-1982204), Form 990-PF for 2023, Part VII (officers: Rebekah, Robert, Jennifer and Heather Mercer, directors, 1.00 hour a week each), Part VIII line 1 ("books are in care of Rebekah Mercer") and Part XV (DonorsTrust, $3,500,000), ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full text. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202423199349104317/IRS990PF +[^3]: OpenFEC API, Schedule A receipts and Schedule B disbursements of Make America Number 1 (C00575373): Robert Mercer, $11,000,000 on April 10, 2015 (file 1027937), $500,000 on February 26, 2016, $2,000,000 on March 17, 2016 and $2,000,000 on July 14, 2016; Bernard Marcus $2,000,000 (September 6, 2016); Peter Thiel $1,000,000 (October 26, 2016); Cherna Moskowitz $1,000,000 (August 23, 2016); committee totals for the 2016 cycle (receipts $20,737,584.81, disbursements $19,659,532.23, independent expenditures $13,432,442.89); disbursements to Cambridge Analytica, The Polling Company ($952,015), Trusted Leadership PAC ($950,000), Greenberg Traurig and Greenberg & Traurig ($538,446 and $41,972), Carly for America ($500,000), Bracewell & Giuliani ($336,495), Glittering Steel LLC (seven payments from July 17, 2015 to November 1, 2016, $280,641), Breitbart News Network LLC ($109,341.25 on November 25, 2015 and $10,000 on January 27, 2016) and The Aventine Group ($55,625 and $59,637); and a contribution refund to Robert Mercer of $620,000 dated December 23, 2022 (file 1681564, https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202301299575139049). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00575373/ +[^4]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 664 to 667 and note 4303 (proffer of Christopher Wylie, May 17, 2018; Statement of Financial Affairs of May 31, 2018 in *In re Cambridge Analytica LLC*, Case No. 18-11500-shl (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.)). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^5]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Form D, Parler Inc. (CIK 0001902750), accession no. 0001902750-22-000002, filed January 6, 2022: related persons George Farmer (executive officer, director), Rebekah Mercer (executive officer, director, promoter) and others; exemption Rule 506(b); date of first sale December 15, 2021; total offering amount and amount sold $20,250,000; 10 investors; minimum investment $50,000; finders' fees $500,000; sales compensation recipient William C.T. Gaynor II. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1902750/000190275022000002/primary_doc.xml +[^6]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Form D, 1789 Capital Fund I, LP (CIK 0001965234), accession no. 0001965234-23-000001, filed February 9, 2023: related persons Omeed Malik, Rebekah Mercer and Christopher Buskirk, each executive officer, director, promoter and managing member of the general partner; date of first sale January 31, 2023; total offering amount $100,000,000; amount sold $10,000,000; one investor; minimum investment $1,000,000. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1965234/000196523423000001/primary_doc.xml +[^7]: U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, hearing of July 22, 2014, *Abuse of Structured Financial Products: Misusing Basket Options to Avoid Taxes and Leverage Limits*, S. Hrg. 113-422: opening statement of Chairman Carl Levin; testimony of Steven M. Rosenthal; testimony of Peter Brown, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-President of Renaissance Technologies; index of exhibits, item 43 (Indemnity Agreement dated October 1, 2004, Barclays Bank PLC, Palomino Limited, Badger Holdings L.P., Medallion International Limited, Medallion Capital Investments Ltd., Medallion Associates L.P., Medallion Fund L.P., Medallion USA L.P. and Medallion RMP Fund L.P., BARCLAYS-PSI-632877-904). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113shrg89882/pdf/CHRG-113shrg89882.pdf +[^8]: OpenFEC API, Schedule A itemized individual contributions of $200 or more, excluding memo entries, for contributor names "MERCER, ROBERT" (including "ROBERT L"), "MERCER, REBEKAH" and "MERCER, JENNIFER" with New York addresses (Robert Mercer: East Setauket, Stony Brook, St. James or New York, employer Renaissance Technologies, occupations including "financial consultant" and "CO-CEO"), two-year transaction periods 2008 to 2026, retrieved October 1, 2026; recipient committees including Make America Number 1 (C00575373), John Bolton Super PAC (C00542464), Freedom Partners Action Fund (C00564765), American Crossroads (C00487363), Club for Growth Action (C00487470), Congressional Leadership Fund (C00504530), Ending Spending Action Fund (C00489856), KelliPAC (C00572941), Republican National Committee (C00003418), Restore Our Future (C00490045), Remember Mississippi (C00641423), Trump 47 Committee, Inc. (C00867937; $814,399 on March 25, 2024, file 1857498, https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202412059731342737) and Trump Victory (C00618389; Rebekah Mercer $449,400 on June 13, 2016, file 1087212; Robert Mercer $355,200 on February 14, 2020, file 1413489). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^9]: Mercer Family Foundation, Form 990-PF for the tax year beginning June 18, 2004 (Part II, line 10b, "Medallion Capital Investments," book value $550,358), https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_200412_990PF.pdf; Form 990-PF for 2010 (schedule of investments, "Medallion Investments," $8,456,921 beginning of year and $23,361,133 end of year), https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201012_990PF.pdf +[^10]: Jim Zarroli, "Billionaire Investor Robert Mercer To Step Down From Firm, Selling Stake In Breitbart," National Public Radio, November 2, 2017 (as published by KPBS). https://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/nov/02/billionaire-investor-robert-mercer-steps-down +[^11]: "Renaissance hedge fund execs to pay $7 billion in settlement with IRS, reports say," Associated Press, as published by CBS News, September 2021 (reporting the accounts of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; settlement "as much as $7 billion"; transactions between 2005 and 2015). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-mercer-irs-tax-settlement-7-billion/ +[^12]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, organization record for Mercer Family Foundation (EIN 20-1982204): recognition date June 2005; address care of BerryDunn, 51 Sawyer Road, Waltham, Massachusetts; grants paid and total assets at end of year by tax year, 2011 to 2023 (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/201982204.json); Forms 990-PF for 2005 (line 25, $69,000), 2007 ($292,000), 2008 ($1,565,000), 2009 ($1,770,000) and 2010 ($4,039,000), https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_200512_990PF.pdf and the corresponding archive files for 2007 to 2010. +[^13]: Mercer Family Foundation, Forms 990-PF for 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Part VIII (officers, directors, trustees), e.g. https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201612_990PF.pdf +[^14]: Mercer Family Foundation, Forms 990-PF for 2011 to 2017, Part XV line 3a (grants and contributions paid during the year), recipient lists as printed; amounts totaled by recipient from the itemized lists, e.g. 2013 (https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201312_990PF.pdf), 2015 (https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201512_990PF.pdf) and 2016 (https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201612_990PF.pdf, which reports total grants of $19,025,582, the grant to OISM of Cave Junction, Oregon, and the accounting firm address 2 Roosevelt Ave, Port Jefferson Station, New York). +[^15]: Mercer Family Foundation, Forms 990-PF for 2019 to 2024, Part XV (grants and contributions paid), ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full text: 2019 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202012559349100501/IRS990PF; 2020 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202212639349100101/IRS990PF; 2021 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202213199349104431/IRS990PF; 2022 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202303189349100610/IRS990PF; 2023 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202423199349104317/IRS990PF; 2024 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202513169349100411/IRS990PF. The 2016 and 2017 DonorsTrust grants are from the Part XV lists in the returns for those years. The Part XV list for 2020 totals $26,031,269 including $6,772,269 to the Hospital for Special Surgery; the grants-paid field in the ProPublica summary for 2020 reads $19,259,000. +[^16]: Federal Election Commission, committee record for ART ROBINSON FOR CONGRESS (C00481341), 2251 Dick George Rd, Cave Junction, Oregon; Schedule B disbursements to Cambridge Analytica of $20,000 in three payments, June to November 2014. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00481341/ +[^17]: Mercer Family Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2014, Part XV (Job Creators Alliance, Addison, Texas, 100,000 dollars, "non profit donation"). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201412_990PF.pdf +[^18]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 10, EFTA01400922 (letter of May 5, 2014, Mercer Family Foundation to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas; related items EFTA01398726, EFTA01398757, EFTA01398924 and EFTA01398965 not reopened). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01400922.pdf +[^19]: Government Accountability Institute (EIN 45-4681912), Form 990 for 2012, Part III (mission), Part VII Section A (officers and compensation), Schedule O; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer record (recognition date January 1, 2013). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201212_990.pdf and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/454681912 +[^20]: Government Accountability Institute, Forms 990 for 2013, 2014 and 2015, Schedule L Part IV (business transactions involving interested persons) and Part VII: https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201312_990.pdf ; https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201412_990.pdf ; https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/454/454681912/454681912_201512_990.pdf (amount for 2013 as read from the scanned return) +[^21]: Government Accountability Institute, Forms 990 for 2016 (Part VII Section A), 2017, 2020 and 2022, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full text: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/454681912/201743179349306999/IRS990 ; /201833199349301453/IRS990 ; /202111759349300306/IRS990 ; /202343009349300814/IRS990 +[^22]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, organization record for Government Accountability Institute (EIN 45-4681912), total contributions by tax year, 2012 to 2017. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/454681912.json +[^23]: OpenFEC API, Schedule A itemized contributions attributed to Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer of New York, New York, excluding memo entries, retrieved October 1, 2026: Concerned Taxpayers of America (C00488437; file numbers 502614, 508878, 521433, 711830); Prosperity First Inc. (C00517466; files 795576, 815221, 837748); Women Speak Out PAC (C00530766; file 1007524); New York Wins PAC (C00603365; file 1059531); Fighting for Ohio Fund (C00573014; file 1119836); KelliPAC (C00572941; files 1096404, 1164890, 1180218, 1251801); Black Americans for a Better Future (C00567784); Great America PAC (C00608489; file 1346216); Protect Ohio Values PAC (POV PAC) (C00770495; file 1532515, Robert Mercer $100,000 on March 12, 2021 and Rebekah Mercer $50,000 on March 17, 2021); General John Stark PAC (C00815407; file 1611754). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^24]: Federal Election Commission, Form 1 Statement of Organization of committee C00575373, original filed April 6, 2015 under cover letter headed "Keep The Promise I" signed by treasurer Jacquelyn James, 2 Roosevelt Avenue, Port Jefferson Station, New York (https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/670/15031410670/15031410670.pdf), and amended Form 1 dated June 21, 2016, filed June 22, 2016, in the name "Make America Number 1" (https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/183/201606229020090183/201606229020090183.pdf). +[^25]: Mercer Family Foundation, Forms 990-PF, paid preparer blocks: 2011 and 2012 (Brian Golub, Golub LaCapra Wilson & DeTiberiis), 2013 to 2017 (Jacquelyn James Varga, Golub LaCapra Wilson & DeTiberiis LLP, 2 Roosevelt Ave, Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776), e.g. https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201412_990PF.pdf and https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201612_990PF.pdf; 2019 (Louis M Cohen, Caler Donten Levine et al PA), 2020 to 2024 (Barbara J McGuan CPA, Berry Dunn McNeil & Parker LLC, PO Box 1100, Portland, Maine), ProPublica full text, e.g. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202423199349104317/IRS990PF. +[^26]: OpenFEC API, Schedule A receipts of John Bolton Super PAC (C00542464) from Robert Mercer, East Setauket, New York, $500,000 each on April 28, 2014, June 30, 2014, February 24, 2015, June 30, 2015, September 28, 2015, December 18, 2015, July 5, 2016, September 6, 2016, October 23, 2017 and December 28, 2017 (e.g. https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201801319091015357); Schedule B disbursements to Cambridge Analytica, July 7, 2014 to September 29, 2016, totaling $1,152,300. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00542464/ +[^27]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 672 and note 4348 (Kaiser transcript, pp. 40 to 43), and p. 674 and note 4362 (Kushner transcript II, pp. 84 to 85). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^28]: Companies House, EMERDATA LIMITED (company number 10911848), officers and insolvency pages, and personal appointments pages for Jennifer Lynne Mercer and Rebekah Anne Mercer (each appointed March 16, 2018, active), viewed October 1, 2026; administration started December 9, 2024. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10911848/officers +[^29]: Companies House, DYNAMO RECOVERIES LIMITED (company number 13246135), incorporated March 4, 2021, SIC 74990 non-trading company, registered office Suite 21, 60 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling; persons with significant control (Terence William Donal Blaney, March 4 to March 12, 2021; Rebekah Mercer, from March 12, 2021, 75 percent or more of shares and votes); officers including Jacquelyn James-Varga and Jennifer Lynne Mercer (each appointed March 12, 2021), viewed October 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13246135/persons-with-significant-control +[^30]: "Parler Reportedly Backed by Mercers, Same Family That Funded Cambridge Analytica," *Newsweek*, November 2020 (reporting the account of the *Wall Street Journal* and statements of John Matze and Rebekah Mercer). https://www.newsweek.com/parler-reportedly-backed-mercers-same-family-that-funded-cambridge-analytica-1547519 +[^31]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Forms D filed June 10, 2024: 1789 Capital Co-Invest I, LP (CIK 0002026273), accession no. 0002026273-24-000001 ($2,162,000 sold; seven investors) and 1789 Capital BH, LP (CIK 0002025959), accession no. 0002025959-24-000001 ($9,700,000 sold of $10,000,000; 28 investors; Rebekah Mercer listed as manager of 1789 Capital Fund I GP, LLC). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2026273/000202627324000001/primary_doc.xml diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Nick Lowles.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Nick Lowles.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..21cf30b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Nick Lowles.md @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Person + - UK + - AntiFascist + - Searchlight + - HOPEnotHate + - CombatEighteen + - Author + - Informants +alias: + - Nick Lowles + - Nicholas Lowles + - Nicholas Lloyd Lowles + - Nick Lowles MBE +summary: "British anti-fascist writer and campaigner, Searchlight editor to 2011, founder and chief executive of HOPE not hate, author of White Riot on Combat 18, and company director of its successor bodies from 2005." +born: 1968-06 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[HOPE not hate]]" + start: 2004 + role: "founder" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[HOPE not hate]]" + role: "chief executive" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Searchlight Magazine]]" + start: 1999 + end: 2011 + role: "co-editor, then editor" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[HOPE not hate]]" + start: 2005-06-25 + role: "director of Searchlight Information Services Limited, later Hope Not Hate (1986) Limited" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[HOPE not hate]]" + start: 2012-08-22 + end: 2020-02-18 + role: "director of Hope Not Hate Limited" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Nick Lowles (Nicholas Lloyd Lowles, born in June 1968 ([[Companies House]] record)) is a British anti-fascist campaigner and writer. He was co-editor and then editor of [[Searchlight Magazine]] between 1999 and 2011, founded [[HOPE not hate]] in 2004 and has been its chief executive.[^1][^2][^3] He wrote White Riot: The Violent Story of Combat 18 (2001) and a number of other books, and was appointed MBE in the New Year Honours of 2017.[^4][^5] + +### Early Life and Searchlight + +Lowles grew up in [[Hounslow]] and moved to [[Shrewsbury]] at the age of ten, became involved in the anti-fascist movement as a student volunteer at the [[University of Sheffield]], worked as a freelance investigative journalist in television, with credits on [[BBC]] Panorama, World in Action, Channel Four Dispatches and MacIntyre Undercover, and was co-editor and then editor of Searchlight between 1999 and 2011 ([[HarperCollins]] author biography).[^1] The [[Sheila McKechnie Foundation]] gives the mid-1980s as the start of his campaigning at school and 2004 as the founding of HOPE not hate, in response to the rise of the [[British National Party]].[^2] + +The Companies House record of Searchlight Information Services Limited, later renamed Hope Not Hate (1986) Limited, lists Lowles as a director appointed on 25 June 2005, with [[Gerry Gable]] as director since before 1991 and [[Sonia Gable]] as secretary.[^6] + +### Books + +The Open Library catalogue lists the following titles with Lowles as author or editor: White Noise, with [[Steve Silver]] (Searchlight, 1998); White Riot: The Violent Story of Combat 18 ([[Milo Books]], 2001); Mr. Evil, with [[Graeme McLagen]] ([[John Blake Publishing|John Blake]], 2002), catalogued under the subjects terrorists, bombings and neo-Nazism; Hooligans, with [[Andy Nicholls]] (Milo Books, 2005); A-L of British Football Gangs and M-Z of Britain's Football Hooligan Gangs, with Nicholls (2007); From Cable Street to Oldham, edited by Lowles (Searchlight, 2007); and How to Defeat the Far Right (HarperCollins, 2025).[^4] The charity's annual report for 2021 records that he "wrote Codename Arthur, the true story of the anti-fascist spy who spent 10 years infiltrating the BNP and identified the London nail bomber", released to coincide with a [[Netflix]] documentary on the nail bombing.[^7] + +### Combat 18 and the Wells Informant + +[[Larry O'Hara]] of [[Notes From The Borderland]] wrote in an introduction to his 1995 notes on [[Combat 18]] and [[MI5]] that the C18 booklet was written by [[Wilf Browning]] "with significant input from Darren Wells (aka McKenzie) who later 'came out' as a Searchlight/[[Special Branch]] informant in 2002", and that his site would at some point "dissect the tendentious disinformation peddled by Searchlight editor Nick Lowles in his 'White Riot' book on C18". O'Hara described Searchlight as "presenting themselves as squeaky clean 'Community-oriented' anti-fascists via their 'Hope Not Hate' front." O'Hara also wrote that he had never thought Browning or [[Steve Sargent]] were state assets.[^8] Searchlight's obituary of Gable, written by the magazine, describes its use of agents or "moles" within far-right groups as its "true hallmark" and says that "some of these were inserted, some had a change of heart and resolved to make amends, some simply wanted money".[^9] + +### Company Records + +Companies House lists Lowles as a director of the following: Searchlight Information Services Limited (from 25 June 2005; the company was renamed Hope Not Hate (1986) Limited in October 2012 and dissolved on 14 July 2015); Hope Not Hate (Services) Limited (from 25 September 2012; dissolved 10 September 2013); and Hope Not Hate Limited (22 August 2012 to 18 February 2020, and again from 1 September 2026).[^3][^6][^10] He was secretary of Hope Not Hate Limited from 31 August 2023 to 1 September 2026 and of the charity then named Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust from 31 August 2023 to 30 June 2025.[^3][^11] The charity's annual reports for 2021 to 2024 list him under "Key management personnel", with [[Jemma Levene]] also listed in the report for 2021.[^12] + +### The 2011 Separation + +[[Martin Bright]] wrote in the [[The Jewish Chronicle|Jewish Chronicle]] in August 2012 that Lowles was "Mr Gable's heir apparent", that he had "effectively spun off Hope Not Hate as a separate organisation", and that Gable had retained control of the magazine; Bright took neither side.[^13] The Borderland timeline, whose author is hostile to both sides, states that on 28 March 2011 Lowles and [[Cormac Hollingsworth]] met the Gables to ask for the Searchlight magazine shares and for Gable's resignation from the Searchlight companies by the end of June 2011, that Lowles resigned as editor on 23 September 2011, and that Lowles stated around the summer of 2010 that Gable had told him he would "step aside" in 2011, which the timeline records that Gable "vehemently denies".[^14] Searchlight's 2026 obituary of Gable states that Gable offered Lowles "the hand of friendship" at an anti-fascist anniversary event in 2023.[^9] + +### Informants + +[[Ed Caesar]] reported in The New Yorker in 2019 that Lowles, then HOPE not hate's chief executive, "runs several moles", that one source was an anti-fascist campaigner who went undercover nearly twenty-five years earlier, and that Lowles received a briefing after [[Robbie Mullen]] e-mailed the organisation in April 2017. According to Lowles, the police then believed that [[National Action]] had been all but dismantled after its ban. Mullen later worked for HOPE not hate as a researcher after Lowles found him the position.[^15] + +### Disputes + +[[Nigel Farage]] said on the radio station [[LBC]] in December 2016 that HOPE not hate pursued "violent and undemocratic means". HOPE not hate began a crowdfunded libel action, and on 14 November 2017 announced that Farage had filed a statement in the High Court acknowledging that it "does not tolerate or pursue violent or undemocratic behaviour".[^16] + +On the night of Saturday 3 August 2024, during rioting in Middlesbrough, Lowles wrote on X: "Reports are coming in of acid being thrown out of a car window at a Muslim woman in Middlesbrough. Absolutely horrendous." The post was seen by more than 100,000 people. [[Cleveland Police]] stated that it had not received any formal complaint from any victim. On 4 August Lowles wrote that police had denied knowledge of the attack, "though some in the local Muslim community insist it happened", and "Hold my hands up if my initial tweet was wrong". The Conservative member of Parliament [[Neil O'Brien]] described the original post as "Incredibly irresponsible".[^17] + +In 2025 and 2026 complaints to the [[Charity Commission]] by [[Jack Rankin]] and Farage concerned the relationship between the charity and Hope Not Hate Limited, of which Lowles was a director until 2020 and secretary from 2023; the Commission closed its compliance case in January 2026 and took no further action on the second complaint. Its press release of 22 January 2026 refers to the charity's changes to its secretary and trustees and does not name Lowles.[^18][^19] + +### Funding Records of the Organisation + +The [[Electoral Commission]] register records donations to HOPE not hate Ltd, a permitted third party, in the years in which Lowles was an editor or chief executive, among them 80,000 pounds from [[UNISON]] on 14 May 2009, 65,000 pounds from [[Unite the Union]] on 14 December 2009, 60,000 pounds from the [[National Union of Teachers]] on 17 February 2010, 200,000 pounds from an individual recorded as [[David Sainsbury]] on 4 November 2019, 100,000 pounds from Mr [[Greg Nasmyth]] on 12 December 2019 and 75,000 pounds from [[Open Britain|Open Britain Ltd]] in two payments in November and December 2019.[^20] The Borderland timeline states that in September 2010 "Labour-supporting financier [[Richard Brindle]] moves into HNH orbit, entrancing Lowles"; the timeline's author is hostile to both sides, and the Electoral Commission search for HOPE not hate Ltd returns no donation from a person of that name.[^14][^20] The charity's accounts record an unrestricted grant of 46,000 pounds from the [[Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust]] in each of 2019 and 2020 and grants from the charity to Hope Not Hate Limited of 625,000 pounds in 2022, 650,000 pounds in 2023 and 787,858 pounds in 2024.[^21][^22][^23][^24] The [[Sigrid Rausing Trust]] lists HOPE Not Hate as a grantee since 2013 with 1,615,000 pounds of previous grants.[^25] + +### Honours + +The [[Cabinet Office]] list of the New Year Honours 2017 contains the entry "Mr Nicholas LOWLES, Founder, Hope Not Hate. For services to Community Cohesion and Combating Extremism", London, under Members of the Order of the British Empire. The Cabinet Office list for the 2016 New Year Honours contains no entry for the name. The publisher's biography gives 2016 as the year of the award, and the 2017 list is the one that carries the entry.[^1][^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: HarperCollins Rights, "Nick Lowles" author biography (grew up in Hounslow, moved to Shrewsbury aged ten; student volunteer at Sheffield University; television credits; "Between 1999 and 2011 Lowles was co-editor, and then editor, of Searchlight magazine"; "awarded an MBE in 2016"), harpercollinsrights.co.uk, accessed 1 October 2026. https://www.harpercollinsrights.co.uk/contributors/nick-lowles-28341-uk/ +[^2]: Sheila McKechnie Foundation, "Nick Lowles", Long Term Achievement Award 2024 page. https://smk.org.uk/awards_nominations/nick-lowles/ +[^3]: Companies House, appointments of Nick Lowles (born June 1968): HOPE NOT HATE (SERVICES) LIMITED, director from 25 September 2012; HOPE NOT HATE LIMITED (08188502), director 22 August 2012 to 18 February 2020, secretary 31 August 2023 to 1 September 2026, and director again from 1 September 2026 (filing AP01, 15 September 2026), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/jk99RhE3ohSWf-QgztVYEGaMHUU/appointments and https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08188502/officers +[^4]: Open Library, author search "Nick Lowles", openlibrary.org, queried 1 October 2026 (White Noise 1998; White Riot, Milo Books, 2003 edition record, first published 2001 per Internet Archive item whiteriotviolent0000lowl; Mr. Evil 2002; Hooligans 2005; A-L and M-Z 2007; From Cable Street to Oldham 2007; How to Defeat the Far Right 2025). https://openlibrary.org/search.json?author=Nick+Lowles +[^5]: Cabinet Office, New Year Honours 2017, full list (CSV): Members of the Order of the British Empire, "Mr Nicholas LOWLES, Founder, Hope Not Hate. For services to Community Cohesion and Combating Extremism", London, GOV.UK; the Cabinet Office CSV for the New Year Honours 2016 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80ca2e40f0b62302695834/NewYearHonoursList2016.csv) was searched for the name without result. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f0f19e5274a2e8ab49da3/new-years-honours-2017-full-list-csv.csv +[^6]: Companies House, officers of HOPE NOT HATE (1986) LIMITED (02055070), formerly SEARCHLIGHT INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED: Nick Lowles, director, appointed 25 June 2005; Gerry Gable, director, appointed before 31 December 1990, resigned 4 December 2011; Sonia Kathleen Emma Gable, secretary, 1 November 1992 to 4 December 2011, accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02055070/officers +[^7]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021, filed 29 September 2022, Companies House filing MzM1MzYwMDY0NmFkaXF6a2N4 (key management personnel N Lowles and J Levene; "Publications" section). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzM1MzYwMDY0NmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^8]: Larry O'Hara, "Combat 18 and MI5: Some Background Notes", with a later undated introduction, Notes From The Borderland, borderland.co.uk (partisan source; the notes are dated December 1995). https://borderland.co.uk/combat-18-mi5-some-background-notes/ +[^9]: Searchlight, "Obituary: Gerry Gable (1937-2026), architect of modern British anti-fascism", searchlightmagazine.com, January 2026. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/01/obituary-gerry-gable-1937-2026-architect-of-modern-british-anti-fascism/ +[^10]: Companies House, officers of HOPE NOT HATE (SERVICES) LIMITED (07719229), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07719229/officers +[^11]: Companies House, appointments of Nick Lowles as secretary of HOPE UNLIMITED CHARITABLE TRUST (02738367), 31 August 2023 to 30 June 2025, accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/emU3mSR1s-h9BzsxxdYnfy2z_dY/appointments +[^12]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual reports and financial statements for 2021 (filing MzM1MzYwMDY0NmFkaXF6a2N4), 2022, 2023 (MzQzNzcyNTg5NmFkaXF6a2N4) and 2024 (MzQ4MjkyNzA1OWFkaXF6a2N4), "Key management personnel", Companies House company 02738367. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history +[^13]: Martin Bright, "Tragedy of a serious split between anti-fascists", The Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 2012. https://www.thejc.com/opinion/analysis/tragedy-of-a-serious-split-between-anti-fascists-p843rzof +[^14]: Larry O'Hara, "Exclusive: Introduction and Time-line to Hope Not Hate versus Searchlight Civil War Article NFB 10", Notes From The Borderland, borderland.co.uk (partisan source, hostile to both sides). https://borderland.co.uk/exclusive-introduction-time-line-to-hope-not-hate-versus-searchlight-civil-war-article-nfb-10/ +[^15]: Ed Caesar, "The Undercover Fascist" (print title "Hate and Love"), The New Yorker, 27 May 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/27/the-undercover-fascist +[^16]: Peter Walker, "Nigel Farage withdraws 'violent means' claim against Hope Not Hate", The Guardian, 14 November 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/14/nigel-farage-withdraws-claim-hope-not-hate-high-court +[^17]: Fiona Parker, "Hope Not Hate boss apologises for false 'acid attack on Muslim woman' tweet", The Telegraph, 5 August 2024, as syndicated by Yahoo News. https://www.yahoo.com/news/hope-not-hate-boss-apologises-162745371.html +[^18]: Charity Commission, "Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust addresses concerns following intervention by regulator", GOV.UK press release, 22 January 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hope-not-hate-charitable-trust-addresses-concerns-following-intervention-by-regulator +[^19]: Dami Adewale, "Charity cleared by commission after Farage complaint", Third Sector, 24 June 2026. https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-cleared-commission-farage-complaint/governance/article/1962712 +[^20]: Electoral Commission, Political Finance Online, donations search for "hope not hate" (recipient HOPE not hate Ltd, regulated entity type Third Party), queried 1 October 2026. https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/ +[^21]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020, filed 9 December 2021, Companies House filing MzMyMzA3OTQwOWFkaXF6a2N4 (unrestricted grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust 46,000 pounds in 2019 and 2020). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzMyMzA3OTQwOWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^22]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022, Companies House, company 02738367 (grant to HnH Ltd 625,000 pounds). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history +[^23]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023, filed 30 September 2024, Companies House filing MzQzNzcyNTg5NmFkaXF6a2N4 (grant to Hope not Hate Ltd 650,000 pounds). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzQzNzcyNTg5NmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^24]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, filed 28 September 2025, Companies House filing MzQ4MjkyNzA1OWFkaXF6a2N4 (grant to Hope not Hate Ltd 787,858 pounds). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzQ4MjkyNzA1OWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^25]: The Sigrid Rausing Trust, grantee profile "HOPE Not Hate" (supported since 2013; total of previous grants 1,615,000 pounds), accessed 1 October 2026. https://sigrid-rausing-trust.org/grantees/hope-not-hate/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Al Schwimmer.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Al Schwimmer.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a57671e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Al Schwimmer.md @@ -0,0 +1,189 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - AlSchwimmer + - Israel + - IsraelAircraftIndustries + - ArmsDealer + - NeutralityAct + - JewishAgency + - IranContra + - ShimonPeres + - LakeResources + - PresidentialPardon +alias: + - Al Schwimmer + - Adolph Schwimmer + - Adolph W. Schwimmer + - Adolph William Schwimmer + - A. W. Schwimmer + - Adolf Schwimmer + - Adolf (Al) Schwimmer +summary: "American flight engineer convicted in 1950 of smuggling aircraft to Israel for the Jewish Agency, founder of Israel Aircraft Industries, Peres adviser and Israeli intermediary in the 1985 Iran arms sales, pardoned in 2001." +born: 1917-06-11 +died: 2011-06-11 +location: "Tel Aviv, Israel" +relations: + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Jewish Agency for Israel]]" + start: 1947-09 + end: 1948 + role: "aircraft procurement, funded through Nahum Bernstein" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Haganah]]" + start: 1947 + role: "volunteer" + fn: 6 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + start: 1948 + end: 1950 + role: "subject, Neutrality Act and export control investigation, Los Angeles" + fn: 2 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + start: 1949-04 + end: 1950-02 + role: "defendant, United States v. Schwimmer et al., S.D. Cal. Docket No. 20,636" + fn: 4 + - type: founded + with: "[[Israel Aircraft Industries]]" + role: "founder of Bedek, its precursor" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Israel Aircraft Industries]]" + role: "founder and chief executive" + fn: 3 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Shimon Peres]]" + start: 1984-09 + role: "special adviser to the prime minister" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Yaacov Nimrodi]]" + start: 1985 + role: "business associate in the Iran arms channel" + fn: 13 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]" + start: 1985-01 + end: 1986-01 + role: "Israeli intermediary in the 1985 TOW and HAWK sales" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[The Enterprise (Iran-Contra)]]" + start: 1985-11 + role: "deposited about $1 million in the Lake Resources account for HAWK flights" + fn: 13 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Adolph W. "Al" Schwimmer (June 11, 1917 to June 11, 2011) was a flight engineer for the [[Air Transport Command]] in the Second World War and for [[Trans World Airlines|TWA]] afterward.[^1] From September 1947 he bought surplus American aircraft for the [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency]] and flew them through [[Panama]] and [[Czechoslovakia]] to the forces that became the [[Israeli Air Force]]. He was convicted in [[Los Angeles]] in 1950 of conspiring to violate the [[Neutrality Act]] and export controls, moved to [[Israel]], and built the aircraft maintenance company [[Bedek]] into [[Israel Aircraft Industries]].[^2][^3][^4] From September 1984 he was a special adviser to Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]], and in 1985 he and [[Yaacov Nimrodi]] were the private Israeli arms dealers through whom American missiles were first shipped to [[Iran]] in the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^5] [[Bill Clinton]] pardoned him on January 20, 2001.[^4] + +The [[Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles|Jewish Journal]] called him "a New York native" and reported that he died at Tel Hashomer hospital on his 94th birthday; the newsletter of the [[American Veterans of Israel]] called him "a native of Bridgeport."[^1][^6] In September 1947 he lived in [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]].[^2] + +### The Jewish Agency's aircraft, 1947 to 1948 + +Schwimmer gave the FBI his own account in 1949. About September 15, 1947, just back at his Bridgeport home from a transatlantic flight, he received a call from [[Albert Miller]], who met him near Grand Central Station in New York, said he was a representative of the Jewish Agency who lived in [[Palestine]], and said he wanted to start "a nucleus airline" for transport to Palestine. Miller sent him to Los Angeles to look at [[Lockheed Constellation|Constellation]] aircraft. Schwimmer bought three Constellations from the [[War Assets Administration]] for $15,000 each and received $125,000 in all to recondition them, all of it banked in his name. He told the agents he wished "to go on record as being quite aware of the fact that it was illegal to take certain types of planes out of the [[United States]] without proper [[State Department]] clearance," and that he believed the trust placed in him was owed to "his Jewish lineage and his sympathy with the Jewish cause in Palestine."[^2] The [[Lockheed Aircraft Company|Lockheed]] work was done at Burbank under the name of the Schwimmer Aviation Company.[^2] + +The money came through [[Nahum Bernstein]], a New York lawyer and veteran of the [[Office of Strategic Services]] who was counsel to the Jewish Agency and secretary of Americans for Haganah. Bernstein later testified that he met Schwimmer in November 1947, that the Jewish Agency's checks were deposited in his law firm's special account at the [[Chase National Bank]] at 20 Pine Street, and that Schwimmer opened an account to receive the funds at the [[Bank of America]] in Hollywood. Another Jewish Agency official told Bernstein that $750,000 was available for the purchases.[^7] The newsletter of the American Veterans of Israel records that Schwimmer volunteered for the [[Haganah]] in 1947.[^6] + +The FBI's Los Angeles office divided the case into four phases. In March 1948 a C-46 sold as scrap to a school district near [[Bakersfield, California|Bakersfield]] was dismantled and its engines taken to the Schwimmer company in Burbank; one of the company's associates told a woman who arranged the purchase, when she asked what she would get out of it, "You're working for the cause." Five C-46s that Schwimmer had bought cleared customs on April 13 and 14, 1948, the last days before [[Presidential Proclamation 2776]] barred the export of aircraft at midnight on April 14; they flew to Panama, then [[Žatec]] in Czechoslovakia, and Palestine. One crashed on takeoff at [[Mexico City]], killing both pilots. Forty-two Pratt and Whitney R2800-10W combat engines bought in [[Honolulu]] by [[Hank Greenspun|Herman Greenspun]] and [[William Sosnow]] were declared to customs as an exportable civilian type for shipment by [[Service Airways]] to [[Lineas Aereas de Panama]], and were seized; on April 14 Schwimmer asked an official of [[Pacific Airmotive]] for help with the export and admitted that the engines were the combat type. In May 1948 a box of C-46 radio parts was seized at the airport as a mechanic's personal baggage; a second set was picked up at midnight for cash, and Schwimmer handed the parts to the installers in Panama. In June 1948 about thirty-eight mechanics flew east on the last Constellation on the understanding that they would work on commercial aircraft in [[Rome]]. Customs impounded the two remaining Constellations in the East, and the State Department took the passports of the men who had not yet left. Schwimmer's foreman gave the FBI a signed statement on August 7, 1948 that Schwimmer and his representatives had asked him on July 21 to sign a statement contradicting what he had told customs, and that he had signed it under duress.[^2] + +A report of the [[Air Force Office of Special Investigations]] of October 18, 1948, on a reserve lieutenant colonel recruited to ferry B-17 bombers, records that Schwimmer's associate [[Leo Gardner]] told the officer he had been assured by the State Department that there would be no trouble for the men who ferried the aircraft.[^8] + +By Schwimmer's account the operation brought about thirty aircraft to Israel through [[Italy]] or [[South America]] and Czechoslovakia, through dummy airline companies that were supposed to fly charters, and recruited crews, mostly Second World War veterans. By May 1948 he was sleeping somewhere different each night. "My philosophy was that we couldn't outsmart them, but if we moved fast, we'd be ahead of them all the time," he told the [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] in 2001. He served in Israel's air force during the war.[^3] + +### Indictment and trial, 1949 to 1950 + +On April 6, 1949 a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned two indictments. The first charged Schwimmer, [[Rey Selk]], J. Leonard, [[Abe Levin]], Greenspun, [[Sam Lewis]], Sosnow, Leo Gardner and the corporation Service Airways of New York with conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act and export control laws, under Title 22, sections 452 and 453, Title 50, section 701, and Proclamation 2776. The second charged Schwimmer, Selk, Lewis and [[Elynor Rudnick]] with conspiracy to defraud the government.[^2] A month later Schwimmer and two co-defendants just back from Israel surrendered, with the support of ten Jewish organizations including [[Hadassah]] and the [[American Jewish Congress]], which said the defendants were "accused of aiding victims of aggression."[^9] Bond, first set at $10,000, was reduced to $1,000.[^2] + +The trial, *United States v. Schwimmer et al.*, was held before Judge [[Pierson M. Hall]]; the defense attorneys were [[Isaac Pacht]] and [[William Strong]]. On January 15, 16 and 17, 1950 Bernstein testified for the defense that the Jewish Agency had financed the purchases under his direction and that the defendants were its agents; the defense told the court that "the setting up of the plan, the purchase of the planes, the Panamanian situation" and "everything" had been under his supervision. An FBI agent testified in rebuttal that on January 13, 1948 Bernstein had told the bureau he had never met Schwimmer. Schwimmer, Gardner, Selk and Service Airways were convicted and fined $10,000 each; Greenspun, Sosnow and Lewis were acquitted.[^7] The Executive Grant of Clemency of 2001 identifies the conviction as one in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of California]] on Docket No. 20,636, for violation of sections 88 (1946 edition) and 371 of Title 18, section 452 of Title 22, section 701 of Title 50, and Proclamation No. 2776 of March 26, 1948, and records that on February 20, 1950 Schwimmer was sentenced to a fine of $10,000 "and to imprisonment until said fine was paid or otherwise discharged pursuant to the law."[^4] + +The assistant United States attorney, [[Herschel E. Champlin]], told the FBI that had the government known of Bernstein's role he would have been indicted with the others; Champlin then declined to prosecute him in Los Angeles because he had committed no overt act there, and referred the matter to the Justice Department. Champlin also told the bureau that the department had "worked out a formula" for the main defendants, indicted in several districts, "so that they would not be sentenced more than once." The FBI's New York office had an espionage case pending on Bernstein; a headquarters memorandum of July 1950 states that the former Israeli military attaché in Washington, [[Ephraim Ben-Arzi]], had named him in a military attaché report of January 27, 1949 as one of four persons who would control Israeli intelligence operations in the United States. In July 1950, sentencing Greenspun, Sosnow and [[Abraham Leven]] in the Miami phase of the case, Hall said that "the Government cannot permit individuals or private groups to conduct their private wars," and of Greenspun: "I think Greenspun was the leader, but I cannot bring myself to send him to prison because I believe that there are other persons more culpable than he in the background but they are not in the jurisdiction of this court." Champlin told the bureau he believed Hall had in mind such persons as Bernstein.[^7] + +Schwimmer said the Jewish Agency paid his fine and court costs.[^3] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency later wrote that the case "ultimately cost him his U.S. citizenship"; the American Veterans of Israel wrote that he was "deprived of his civil rights, including the right to vote or claim government benefits."[^6][^9] President [[John F. Kennedy]] pardoned Greenspun, later publisher of the [[Las Vegas Sun]], on October 18, 1961; Greenspun's warrant records a separate indictment, No. 21266-CD, and a fine imposed on July 17, 1950.[^3][^10] + +### Bedek and Israel Aircraft Industries + +In the early 1950s Schwimmer was running an aircraft maintenance company in [[Burbank, California|Burbank]] when [[David Ben-Gurion]] asked him to establish an aircraft company in Israel for commercial and military work.[^1] He founded Bedek, the precursor of Israel Aircraft Industries, and headed the company for nearly twenty-five years.[^3] A former employee who worked on Israel's missile program at the company's Or Yehuda facility from August 1968 to March 1969 told the FBI in June 1970 that the president of IAI was "Al Schwimmer, who actually has dual citizenship (Israel and U.S. of America), and who maintains a residence in the U.S." The source said the program was modifying French missiles, seventeen of a projected fifty-seven delivered, for a range of 500 miles, with the [[Weizmann Institute of Science|Weizmann Institute]], the [[Technion]], [[Elta Systems|Elta]], [[Motorola Israel]] and American Electronics Laboratories taking part, and that he had heard of a reactor at [[Dimona]]. The Albuquerque office captioned its memorandum "Electronics Firm in Pennsylvania Allegedly Owned by the Israeli Government."[^11] In July 1987 the FBI's Honolulu office, in a neutrality investigation concerning the Philippines that followed [[Ferdinand Marcos]]'s attempt to leave Honolulu by private plane in January 1987, listed "Al Schwimmer, 69, Chairman, Israel Aircraft Industries" among fourteen international arms suppliers profiled in wire reports, with [[Adnan Khashoggi]], [[Sarkis Soghanalian]], Sherwood International, Federal Ordnance Corporation, [[Stanford Technology Corporation|Stanford Technology]], [[Civilian Materiel Assistance]] and the Virginia farm known as "Black Eagle," and asked headquarters to run traces through [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] liaison.[^12] The Jewish Journal dated his retirement to 1988, when the company was valued at $1 billion; the American Veterans of Israel dated it to 1980.[^1][^6] He received the [[Israel Prize]] in 2006.[^1] + +### Adviser to Shimon Peres + +The [[Tower Commission]] described Schwimmer as "a long-time arms merchant and, since September 1984, Special Advisor to Prime Minister Peres."[^5] He took the post, for one shekel a year, as adviser for technology and industry, and in that capacity met President [[Ronald Reagan]] and Vice President [[George H. W. Bush]].[^1][^3] [[Michael Ledeen]] told the Tower board that Schwimmer was one of Peres's "close friends."[^5] [[Richard Secord]], asked in the 1987 hearings what Schwimmer's relationship to the Israeli government was, answered that he was "a long-time friend of the prime minister but I don't believe he had a formal position," and agreed that he was an arms dealer.[^13] + +In December 1986 Israeli officials gave the Israeli press their own account of the affair. [[Yoel Marcus]] of [[Haaretz]], in a reconstruction based on Israeli sources, wrote that in March 1985 Peres told his "informal adviser and old friend" Schwimmer that the Americans had asked for help in freeing their hostages, particularly the CIA station chief in [[Beirut]], [[William Buckley]]; that Schwimmer suggested using Nimrodi; and that it was Schwimmer "who came up with the idea of 'arms for Buckley.'" Marcus also wrote that if Israel were pushed further, "I won't be surprised if officials here use" the "bullets in the gun" it still held. [[Thomas L. Friedman]] of the [[New York Times]] reported that the account contained factual errors and conflicted with the American version; Ledeen called it "total nonsense."[^14] + +### The Iranian channel, 1985 + +In a series of meetings beginning in January 1985, Nimrodi, [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Amiram Nir]] and Schwimmer discussed obtaining the release of American hostages in [[Lebanon]] and a dialogue with Iran.[^5] The congressional committees found that Adnan Khashoggi put Ghorbanifar and [[Cyrus Hashemi]], a naturalized American indicted in 1984 for arms export violations, in touch with "an Israeli group: Al Schwimmer, an adviser to then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and Ya'accov Nimrodi," and that members of the Israeli team met Hashemi and Ghorbanifar in [[London]], [[Geneva]] and Israel in early spring. Khashoggi's former employee [[Roy Furmark]] placed the introduction in June.[^15] Khashoggi said in 1987 that he had asked Peres to have the [[Mossad]] check Ghorbanifar and that "48 hours later, Schwimmer was at my door with Nimrodi"; at a later meeting in [[Hamburg]], he said, [[David Kimche]] came with Schwimmer, Nimrodi "and another guy from Mossad," and in the first week of July "Schwimmer and Kimche flew over to see McFarlane."[^16] Ledeen recalled Schwimmer reporting that he had met Ghorbanifar "through Schwimmer's friend, Khashoggi."[^5] The committees' minority report cited Schwimmer's reported statement to Ledeen that he had just been introduced to Ghorbanifar, "even though Ghorbanifar had been meeting with them since January."[^15] + +On July 7, 1985 Kimche, Nimrodi, Schwimmer, Ghorbanifar and Khashoggi met in Geneva, and on July 8 they met Ghorbanifar's Iranian contact in Hamburg. On July 11, at Kimche's direction, Schwimmer met Ledeen in Washington and told him that Ghorbanifar thought the hostages could be freed and that selling [[TOW Missile|TOW missiles]] to Iran would improve relations; Ledeen said it was the first time he had heard of Ghorbanifar.[^17] On July 13 [[Robert McFarlane]] received a request from Peres carried by an "emissary," Schwimmer, through Ledeen.[^5] At a meeting in Israel at the end of July with Ghorbanifar, Kimche, Schwimmer and Nimrodi, Ledeen said, the subject of weapons and hostages was raised for the first time.[^18] On August 20, Israel, "working through Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar," shipped 96 TOW missiles to Iran.[^17] After a second shipment of 408, the Reverend [[Benjamin Weir]] was released on September 15, and Schwimmer asked Ghorbanifar why Buckley had not been; Ghorbanifar answered that Buckley was too ill to move.[^18] Buckley had died in June.[^15] + +[[Oliver North]]'s calendar shows a meeting with Schwimmer at 11:30 a.m. on September 26. On October 6 North asked the CIA to put Ghorbanifar and Nimrodi under surveillance during their visit, and on October 8 Ledeen, North, Nimrodi, Schwimmer and Ghorbanifar, using the alias Nicholas Kralis, met in the [[Old Executive Office Building]].[^5] Ledeen told the Tower board that Ghorbanifar had urged in one of their meetings that the arms and hostage matters, "which engaged Schwimmer and Nimrodi particularly," be dropped. Ledeen said that in October he asked Schwimmer to open an account for expenses; Schwimmer opened one at [[Credit Suisse]] and gave him the number, which Ledeen passed to North.[^5] After the sales became public Credit Suisse wrote to Ledeen that the account had never been used.[^17] On October 27 Nimrodi, Schwimmer, Ledeen, Ghorbanifar and several Iranians met in Geneva, where the Iranians asked for [[HAWK missile|HAWK missiles]].[^18] + +### The HAWK shipment, November 1985 + +On November 18 North called Schwimmer, who said the first shipment of 100 missiles had been "approved" in [[Tel Aviv]] and was to be followed by the release of five "boxes," the code word for the hostages. North wrote in his notebook: "Schwimmer to P/U [pick up] HAWKs in U.S."[^15] On November 20 the [[Lake Resources]] account at Credit Suisse in Geneva, a Panamanian company controlled by Secord that North called "our Swiss Co[mpany]," received $1 million.[^15] Secord testified: "Mr. Schwimmer quickly deposited in our account, Lake Resources account, the million dollars and said to go ahead and lease the airplanes."[^13] + +On November 22 North called Schwimmer and authorized an aircraft carrying 80 HAWKs to take off for a transit country that had not given landing permission; three and a half hours later he called again, and the aircraft was recalled and unloaded. Schwimmer abandoned his plan to fly the missiles on from the transit country in two DC-8s from a European company and, by his account, told North that the Americans would have to handle the flight logistics.[^18] North wrote to [[John Poindexter]] at 7:00 p.m.: "Unbelievable as it may seem, I have just talked to Schwimmer, in TA [Tel Aviv,] who advises that they have released their DC-8s in spite of my call to DK [David Kimche] instructing that they be put on hold until we could iron out the clearance problem.... Schwimmer released them to save $ and now does not think that they can be re-chartered before Monday." Within minutes North reported that Secord would have one of "our LAKE Resources A/C," then waiting to carry ammunition to the [[Contras]], repainted overnight to take its place.[^15] Secord, whom North had sent to [[Lisbon]], testified that he had never dealt with Schwimmer before and spoke with him "dozens of times" on an unsecured telephone.[^13] The CIA's airline proprietary flew the cargo. Its manager reported that Schwimmer proposed flying an American-registered plane into Iran with a false registration painted on its tail, or in formation with another plane to hide it from radar operators, and that Schwimmer "must be crazy"; the proposals were rejected.[^15] [[Stephen Engelberg]] of the New York Times reported that by American accounts Schwimmer had erred in letting the plane take off before landing rights in [[Portugal]] were secured, and that Israeli officials said North had failed to obtain them.[^19] + +Eighteen HAWKs reached Tehran. Secord testified that Schwimmer, at his home in Israel, told him that Ghorbanifar's contact in the Iranian prime minister's office "was literally screaming" about the missiles.[^13] According to Secord, Schwimmer and Nimrodi had promised Ghorbanifar missiles that could shoot down high-flying Soviet reconnaissance aircraft and Iraqi bombers; the I-HAWKs, like all HAWKs, could not.[^15] North wrote to Poindexter on December 4 that "Schwimmer and Ledeen were unfamiliar with the operational parameters of the HAWK" and had agreed to ship 120 missiles "totally inadequate to meet the rqmts established by the Iranians."[^5] + +### The money + +Iran paid $24.72 million for the 80 HAWKs, about $300,000 a missile. On November 22 Ghorbanifar transferred $18 million and $6 million to the account of an Israeli intermediary, whom the committees did not name, who transferred $1 million to Lake Resources "on North's demand" and paid the Israeli Ministry of Defense $11.2 million for the HAWKs at $140,000 each, keeping $11.8 million more than he had paid out. According to the Israeli Financial Chronology, $6 million of it was held in trust for Ghorbanifar and $5.8 million was for shipping and other expenses, and Ledeen and North agreed that it stay in the intermediary's account. On November 27 the ministry returned $8.17 million to the intermediary, who sent Ghorbanifar $18.6 million; at the end of November the Israelis held more than $5 million in residuals.[^15] + +The Israelis had paid the Enterprise $1 million to deliver 120 HAWKs; when only 18 were delivered, at a cost of about $200,000, $800,000 remained, and "with the Israelis' permission to use this money as the United States wished, North directed Secord to spend the $800,000 on Contra support."[^15] Secord testified that North told him he had discussed the use of the money with the Israelis "but not as to destination of the funds. So Mr. Schwimmer made a contribution." Questioned by Senator [[William Cohen]], Secord agreed that the $800,000 was Schwimmer's money, that North told him to keep it, that Nir confirmed this a month later, and that Israel would make no claim on it if it were turned over to the Treasury.[^13] The [[Washington Times]] reported the testimony as $800,000 "paid into Gen. Secord's Swiss bank account by Israeli arms dealer Al Schwimmer."[^20] In late November 1985, the committees found, Secord learned in Israel that proceeds of the earlier TOW sales had been used by Nimrodi and Schwimmer "for purposes other than purchasing the HAWKs." Asked what profits Schwimmer had made, Secord said he had no knowledge.[^13][^15] + +### London and removal, December 1985 to January 1986 + +Secord, Ghorbanifar, Kimche, Schwimmer and Nimrodi met in Paris about December 1, and the group then moved to London.[^18] On December 8 McFarlane met Ghorbanifar at Nimrodi's London home with North, Secord, Kimche, Schwimmer and an Israeli defense official present.[^17] Secord testified that, out of McFarlane's hearing, a dispute broke out among the Israelis over who was in control, Schwimmer or an official of the Ministry of Defense, and that it ended "with Schwimmer asserting that he was in control."[^13] McFarlane told the Tower board he had seen reports that the West End apartment was Schwimmer's but did not know it firsthand.[^5] North wrote: "The Israeli contact, Schwimmer, has arranged deliveries of items which were not requested by Gorbanifahr for the Iranian military. Further, the terms which he negotiated are disadvantageous to the IDF and our ability to replenish the Israelis.... Despite admonishments to the contrary, Schwimmer had already arranged for the 3,300 TOWs as part of the next steps."[^5] By mid-December Poindexter had told North to keep the initiative moving, which included substituting a new team, led by North and Nir, for Ledeen, Schwimmer and Nimrodi.[^15] + +On January 15, 1986 North reported to Poindexter Nir's view that Ghorbanifar "probably lied to Schwimmer and that Schwimmer probably lied to Nir re how much there was available."[^5] North's notes of a call with Nir that day refer to a 25 percent cut for "other Iranians" and a 15 percent cut to "accountant," which the committees identified as the code name for Schwimmer, and to "7500 each to Copp. 5300 each to DOD." The committees read North's message of that day as an effort to have more of the residual profit flow to the American side "rather than to Schwimmer and Nimrodi." On January 16 North proposed that Nir deal directly with Ghorbanifar, with Schwimmer and the Iranian officials "cut-out" from the expected profits.[^15] Asked later about his role, Schwimmer said only: "We used the connections we had, which were perhaps better than the United States had, to try to get the hostages out."[^3] + +### Inquiries + +On January 14, 1987 [[Lee Hamilton]], chairman of the House select committee, asked the acting director of central intelligence, [[Robert Gates]], for all CIA material on arms transactions with Iran, Israel, Ghorbanifar, Khashoggi, Nimrodi, Schwimmer or Nir and on efforts to free the hostages.[^21] On May 22, 1987 FBI headquarters sent its New York office, under the Iran-Contra case name FRONT DOOR, five subpoenas for Israeli officials and businessmen who had been "instrumental, in various degrees, in assisting the United States in selling arms to Iran"; the names are withheld in the copy released in the FBI's file on Schwimmer. The airtel states that the Israeli government had been "steadfast in its refusal" to make them available, that they had been entered in the Treasury Enforcement Communication System, and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service would stop them on arrival and notify the bureau and the independent counsel.[^22] Israel's insistence on diplomatic protocols prevented testimony by Schwimmer, Kimche, Nimrodi and Nir, though it provided written chronologies, which the committees used under a specific agreement with the Israeli government.[^15][^23] North told McFarlane, according to McFarlane's grand jury testimony, that he suspected "Mr. Schwimmer and Michael" had an agreement to share some of the gain from the sales; Ledeen denied profiting, and the independent counsel, [[Lawrence Walsh]], found no evidence that he had, adding that "Israel never gave OIC access to financial accounts or records."[^17] Schwimmer was never charged in the United States or Israel.[^3] + +### Pardon + +Schwimmer never applied for a pardon. The son of his co-defendant, [[Brian Greenspun]], submitted the petition, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Greenspun asked Clinton for the pardon over the preceding Thanksgiving weekend.[^3][^6] "You've got to say 'I recognize I was guilty and I did wrong,'" Schwimmer said of the application process. "I wasn't ready to say all that."[^9] His name was on the master warrant of January 20, 2001 that also pardoned [[Marc Rich]]. Before the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] on February 14, 2001, the pardon attorney, [[Roger C. Adams]], testified that for some persons on the warrant his office had received "either no documents at all or very sketchy information from the [[White House]] Counsel in the last hours before the pardons were granted," that individual warrants for nine persons were still being prepared, and that "in one case (that of Adolph Schwimmer), the conviction of which we have knowledge is more than 50 years old."[^24] The individual warrant, dated January 20, 2001 and signed by Adams at the President's direction, grants Adolph W. Schwimmer "a full and unconditional pardon"; Adams's memorandum to the department's public affairs office records it as granted "after completion of sentence." The [[Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy]], which obtained the warrant under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], reported that most records of the clemency applications had been transferred to the National Archives.[^4][^25] + +On June 27, 2008 Schwimmer wrote to President [[George W. Bush]] and Attorney General [[Michael Mukasey]] in support of a posthumous pardon for [[Charles Winters]], who had supplied B-17s to Israel and served a prison sentence; others "including myself" convicted of similar crimes, he wrote, "were treated more leniently by the justice system, as we were assessed fines and did not serve any jail time."[^26] Brian Greenspun wrote in the same campaign that Schwimmer was "the man who led the operation in which Mr. Winters participated."[^27] Bush granted the Winters pardon at the end of his term.[^25] + +In his eighties Schwimmer worked for an Israeli constitution with civil marriage and equal standing for all branches of Judaism.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Tom Tugend, "Al Schwimmer, Israel Air Force pioneer, dies at 94," *Jewish Journal* (Los Angeles), June 12, 2011, https://jewishjournal.com/news/93036/. +[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles report L.A. 2-86, September 19, 1949 (Neutrality Act and export control investigation; Schwimmer's statement; "Vineland School District," "Forty-two Aircraft Engine," "Aircraft Radio Parts" and "Two Constellation" phases; indictments), FBI file 97-HQ-2912, serial 603, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer. +[^3]: JTA Staff, "Pardoned American served Israel in 1948," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 28, 2001, https://www.jta.org/archive/pardoned-american-served-israel-in-1948. +[^4]: Executive Grant of Clemency, Adolph W. Schwimmer, signed by Roger C. Adams, Pardon Attorney, January 20, 2001, and Pardon Attorney memorandum to the Director, Office of Public Affairs, same date, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and published by the Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/01202001_Schwimmer_Pardon.pdf. +[^5]: *The Tower Commission Report: The Full Text of the President's Special Review Board* (New York: Bantam Books and Times Books, 1987), pp. 24 to 25, 30 to 31, 121 to 122, 125 to 127, 154 to 155, 163 to 165, 189 to 190, 194 to 195, 232 to 233 (page breaks as printed in the scanned text), https://archive.org/details/towercommission00unit. +[^6]: "Al Schwimmer Pardoned by Clinton," *The AVI Newsletter* (American Veterans of Israel), Spring 2001, p. 9, https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~sklausne/Newslettersp01_9.html. +[^7]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file 65-HQ-59184 (Nahum Bernstein, "Espionage, IS"), serials including New York report of June 13, 1950; Los Angeles report LA 65-5048 of July 28, 1950 by SA Philip J. Reilly ("Neutrality Act, Conspiracy"), summarizing the trial transcript of United States v. Schwimmer et al., vols. XXVIII to XXX; and headquarters memorandum of July 1950, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer. +[^8]: Headquarters, United States Air Force, Office of Special Investigations, Report of Investigation, District Office, Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, October 18, 1948 (subject a reserve lieutenant colonel; character "Subversive Activity"), p. 3, forwarded by the State Department Division of Security, November 23, 1948, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/10181948_Zatec.pdf. +[^9]: Julie Wiener, "From the Archive: The idealistic outlaw who built the Israel Air Force," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 17, 2015, https://www.jta.org/2015/05/17/culture/from-the-archive-the-american-jewish-outlaw-who-built-the-israel-air-force. +[^10]: Pardon warrant, Herman Greenspun, signed by President John F. Kennedy, October 18, 1961, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/10181961_Greenspun.pdf. +[^11]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albuquerque letterhead memorandum, "Electronics Firm in Pennsylvania Allegedly Owned by the Israeli Government," June 23, 1970 (classified Secret), FBI file 105-HQ-205824, serial 2, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer. +[^12]: SAC Honolulu (2-35) to Acting Director, FBI (attention Terrorism Section), "Neutrality Matter, Philippines," July 1987, FBI file 2-HQ-2840, serial 157X, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer. +[^13]: *Joint Hearings Before the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran and the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition: Testimony of Richard V. Secord*, 100th Cong., 1st sess., Hearings 100-1, May 5 to 8, 1987 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1987), pp. 80 to 84, 90 to 92, 96, 145, 313 to 314, https://archive.org/details/Iran-ContraReport. +[^14]: Thomas L. Friedman, "Israelis' Account on Arms: How U.S. Set Up the Deals," *The New York Times*, December 11, 1986, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000403730010-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000403730010-7. +[^15]: *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair*, H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216, November 1987, pp. 164, 166, 169, 171 nn. 16 and 18, 177, 179, 182, 187, 191 n. 147, 194, 200, 207 to 208, 280, and minority report p. 527, https://archive.org/details/Iran-ContraReport. +[^16]: Arnaud de Borchgrave, interview with Adnan Khashoggi, "Khashoggi says he warned against arms for hostages," *The Washington Times*, March 19, 1987, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000201460002-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201460002-0. +[^17]: Lawrence E. Walsh, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. 1, ch. 1, "Robert C. McFarlane," text and nn. 74, 82, 86 to 88, 98, 103, 130 and 177, https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm. +[^18]: *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair*, Appendix C, "Chronology of Events," entries of circa July 29, September 15, October 8, October 27, November 22, circa December 1 and December 7, 1985, https://archive.org/details/Iran-ContraReport. +[^19]: Stephen Engelberg, "North Implicated in Contra Supply Through Portugal," *The New York Times*, January 10, 1987, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000201820031-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000201820031-8. +[^20]: Mary Belcher, "Secord says North told Reagan about diversion," *The Washington Times*, May 7, 1987, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000100450003-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000100450003-2. +[^21]: Lee H. Hamilton, Chairman, House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, to Robert M. Gates, Acting Director of Central Intelligence, January 14, 1987, CIA Reading Room document 0001296190, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001296190. +[^22]: Director, FBI, to ADIC New York, airtel, "FRONT DOOR; Major Case 90; Ethics in Government Act 1978," May 22, 1987, FBI file 211-HQ-26, serials 796 and 1048, released under FOI/PA 1177948-1, https://archive.org/details/AdolphSchwimmer. +[^23]: "Examining the loose ends in the Iran-Contra affair," *U.S. News & World Report*, October 26, 1987, p. 22, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP89T00142R000700920014-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89t00142r000700920014-7. +[^24]: *President Clinton's Eleventh Hour Pardons: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate*, 107th Cong., 1st sess., S. Hrg. 107-194, February 14, 2001, statement of Roger C. Adams, Pardon Attorney, pp. 27 to 28, https://archive.org/details/gov.gpo.fdsys.CHRG-107shrg76344. +[^25]: "Presidential Pardons: Greenspun, Schwimmer and Winters," Israel Lobby Archive, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/. +[^26]: Al Schwimmer to President George W. Bush and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, June 27, 2008, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/06272008_Al_Schwimmer.pdf. +[^27]: Brian Greenspun to President George W. Bush and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, July 4, 2008, Israel Lobby Archive, https://www.israellobby.org/Pardon/07042008_Brian_Greenspun.pdf. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Buck Shlegeris.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Buck Shlegeris.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2c06c87f --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Buck Shlegeris.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - BuckShlegeris + - RedwoodResearch + - MachineIntelligenceResearchInstitute + - AlignmentResearchCenter + - AISafety + - EffectiveAltruism + - OpenPhilanthropy +alias: + - Buck Shlegeris + - Michael Shlegeris + - Michael Buck Shlegeris +summary: "AI-alignment researcher and recruiter at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute who became chief technology officer and then chief executive of Redwood Research, an Open Philanthropy-funded Berkeley nonprofit, and an Alignment Research Center director." +location: "Berkeley, California" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]" + role: "researcher and recruiter" + fn: 2 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]" + role: "contractor processing job applications, as of February 2021" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Redwood Research]]" + start: 2021 + role: "chief technology officer, later chief executive" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Redwood Research]]" + role: "director, from the return for 2023" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Alignment Research Center]]" + role: "board member" + fn: 9 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Buck Shlegeris is an AI-alignment researcher who worked at the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] (MIRI) in [[Berkeley]], California, and became chief technology officer and later chief executive of [[Redwood Research]]. Redwood's tax returns list him as Michael Shlegeris.[^1] + +### Machine Intelligence Research Institute + +In an "Ask Me Anything" post on the [[Effective Altruism Forum]] dated 15 November 2019, Shlegeris described himself as "a researcher at MIRI" who divided his time "roughly equally between technical work and recruitment/outreach work." He wrote that he handled the intake of participants for MIRI's "AI Risk for Computer Scientists" workshops and taught at them, did "most of the technical interviewing for engineering roles at MIRI," and managed the AI Safety Retraining Program, "in which MIRI gives grants to people to study ML for three months." On the technical side, he wrote, "I mostly work on some of our nondisclosed-by-default technical research," adding that "Because the work isn't public, there are many questions about it that I can't answer."[^2] + +On 13 February 2021 an applicant asked on the forum LessWrong whether Shlegeris still worked for MIRI, writing that the first stage of its software engineering interviews had been a quiz administered by the recruiting company [[Triplebyte]]. [[Anna Salamon]], a director of MIRI, replied that "Buck is mostly no longer working at MIRI but is doing some contracting, including about processing job applicants I think." Shlegeris wrote that he was "still in the business of talking to people who want to work on alignment stuff" and was "indeed still the person who processes MIRI job applications."[^3][^4] MIRI's return for 2019 lists [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]], Salamon, [[Edwin Evans]], [[Nate Soares]] and [[Blake Borgeson]] among its directors and does not list Shlegeris.[^4] + +### Redwood Research + +Announcing Redwood on 6 October 2021, [[Nate Thomas]] wrote that it was "a longtermist research lab focusing on applied AI alignment," that "We're led by Nate Thomas (CEO), Buck Shlegeris (CTO), and [[Bill Zito]] (COO/software engineer)," and that "our board is Nate, [[Paul Christiano]] and [[Holden Karnofsky]]," with ten staff.[^5] Karnofsky was co-chief executive of [[Open Philanthropy]]. In November 2021 Open Philanthropy recommended "four grants totaling $9,420,000 to Redwood Research for general support," with [[Nick Beckstead]] as grant investigator; the page states that "Redwood Research staff also reviewed this page prior to publication."[^6] + +Redwood Research Group Inc (EIN 87-1702255) received its tax exemption on 1 September 2021 and files in care of Nathaniel Thomas at 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 1200, Berkeley. Its return for 2021 lists Karnofsky as treasurer and Christiano as secretary, both unpaid, and Thomas, Michael Shlegeris (chief technology officer) and William Zito each paid 56,250 dollars. For 2022 Shlegeris, still chief technology officer, was paid 273,567 dollars. The return for 2023 lists him first, as chief executive and director, paid 272,175 dollars, with Thomas as board chair, Christiano and Karnofsky as directors until June and November 2023, and [[Ajeya Cotra]] as a director. The return for 2024 lists Shlegeris as chief executive and director at 272,164 dollars, Cotra as a director until August 2024 and [[Ammon Bartram]] as a director.[^1] + +Redwood reported revenue of 13,904,248 dollars for 2021, 12,049,894 dollars for 2022 and 10,036,347 dollars for 2023, nearly all from contributions, against expenses of 2,341,569, 12,759,191 and 12,590,834 dollars. Its return for 2024 reports contributions of 9,659 dollars, total revenue of 22,060 dollars and expenses of 2,922,498 dollars, including grants of 679,955 dollars.[^1][^7] + +In 2023 a pseudonymous author signing as "Omega." published a critique of Redwood on LessWrong and the Effective Altruism Forum. It stated that Redwood had received 20 million dollars from Open Philanthropy and 1.27 million dollars from the [[Survival and Flourishing Fund]], had been "granted (but never received) $6.6 million from [[FTX Future Fund]]," and ran the [[Constellation Institute|Constellation]] office of about 30,000 square feet in Berkeley, where "many OP staff work," adding that "OP pays Redwood for use of the space." Of Shlegeris it wrote that he "has 3 years of software engineering experience and a limited ML research background" and "also worked as a researcher at MIRI for two years."[^8] + +### Alignment Research Center + +The team page of the [[Alignment Research Center]] (ARC), led by Christiano, names its board as "Paul Christiano, Buck Shlegeris, and Ben Hoskin."[^9] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Redwood Research Group Inc, EIN 87-1702255, Forms 990 for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, Part I and Part VII, Section A, as rendered from IRS e-file data by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, objects 202203149349303980, 202323199349304867, 202413209349327491 and 202503199349302920, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202203149349303980/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202323199349304867/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202413209349327491/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202503199349302920/IRS990 +[^2]: Shlegeris, Buck. "I'm Buck Shlegeris, I do research and outreach at MIRI, AMA." Effective Altruism Forum, 15 November 2019. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tDk57GhrdK54TWzPY/i-m-buck-shlegeris-i-do-research-and-outreach-at-miri-ama +[^3]: "Is MIRI actually hiring and does Buck Shlegeris still work for you?" LessWrong, 13 February 2021, answers by Anna Salamon and Rob Bensinger and comment by Buck Shlegeris. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/y2qaZ7X2jHzqK84TZ/is-miri-actually-hiring-and-does-buck-shlegeris-still-work +[^4]: Machine Intelligence Research Institute Inc, EIN 58-2565917, Form 990 for 2019, Part VII, Section A, as rendered from IRS e-file data by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, object 202003219349318895, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202003219349318895/IRS990 +[^5]: Thomas, Nate. "We're Redwood Research, we do applied alignment research, AMA." LessWrong, 6 October 2021. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qHvHvBR8L6oycnMXe/we-re-redwood-research-we-do-applied-alignment-research-ama +[^6]: Open Philanthropy, "Redwood Research, General Support (2021)," award date November 2021, grant investigator Nick Beckstead, Wayback Machine capture of 12 November 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20251112112328/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support/ +[^7]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, "Redwood Research Group Inc," EIN 87-1702255, organization record and filing data, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/871702255.json +[^8]: Omega. "Critiques of prominent AI safety labs: Redwood Research." LessWrong, 17 April 2023, linkpost of the Effective Altruism Forum original. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SuZ6Guuos7CjfwRQb/critiques-of-prominent-ai-safety-labs-redwood-research +[^9]: Alignment Research Center, "Team," retrieved 1 October 2026. https://www.alignment.org/team/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Rumsfeld.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Rumsfeld.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bcb46303 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Donald Rumsfeld.md @@ -0,0 +1,325 @@ +--- +category: "Key Figures" +tags: + - Person + - SecretaryOfDefense + - FordAdministration + - GDSearle + - Aspartame + - GileadSciences + - IranIraqWar + - IraqWar + - AbuGhraib + - Guantanamo + - RevolvingDoor +alias: + - Donald Rumsfeld + - Donald H. Rumsfeld + - Donald Henry Rumsfeld + - Don Rumsfeld + - Rumsfeld +summary: "Illinois congressman, Ford chief of staff and twice Secretary of Defense, G.D. Searle and General Instrument chief executive, Gilead chairman, and Reagan's 1983 envoy to Saddam Hussein." +born: 1932-07-09 +died: 2021-06-29 +location: "Chicago, Illinois (born); Taos, New Mexico (died)" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[United States House of Representatives]]" + start: 1963 + end: 1969 + role: "representative from illinois" + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + reverse: true + start: 1969-05-26 + end: 1970-12-10 + role: "director, office of economic opportunity" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Cost of Living Council]]" + start: 1971-10-07 + end: 1973-02-02 + role: "director" + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Richard Nixon]]" + reverse: true + start: 1973-02-02 + end: 1974-12-05 + role: "permanent representative to nato" + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Gerald R. Ford]]" + reverse: true + start: 1974-09-27 + end: 1975-11-18 + role: "assistant to the president and white house chief of staff" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Defense]]" + start: 1975-11-18 + end: 1977-01-20 + role: "secretary of defense" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[G.D. Searle & Co.]]" + start: 1977-06 + end: 1985-09-30 + role: "president and chief executive officer; chairman from august 1985" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[G.D. Searle & Co. Political Action Committee]]" + start: 1979-11-13 + end: 1984-10-02 + role: "six contributions totaling $4,400" + fn: 15 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Ronald Reagan]]" + reverse: true + start: 1983-11-03 + end: 1984-04 + role: "presidential envoy for the middle east, on leave from searle" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[William Blair & Company]]" + start: 1985-10 + end: 1990-10 + role: "senior advisor, part time" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[General Instrument Corporation]]" + start: 1990-10 + end: 1993-08 + role: "chairman and chief executive officer" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Gilead Sciences]]" + start: 1988-07 + role: "director; chairman of the board from january 1997" + fn: 25 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Gilead Sciences]]" + end: 2001-01 + role: "chairman of the board; resigned to become secretary of defense" + fn: 29 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Gulfstream Aerospace]]" + role: "director" + fn: 25 + - type: director_of + with: "[[ABB Asea Brown Boveri]]" + start: 1999-06 + role: "director; nominating committee from december 1999" + fn: 4 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Tribune Company]]" + start: 1992-07 + role: "director; chairman of the technical advisory committee 1995 to 2000" + fn: 4 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Amylin Pharmaceuticals]]" + start: 1991-11 + role: "director 1991 to 1996 and from 1999" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[RAND Corporation]]" + start: 1981-04 + end: 1986-04 + role: "chairman, board of trustees" + fn: 4 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Jamestown Foundation]]" + start: 1985-10 + role: "advisory board" + fn: 4 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Bohemian Club]]" + start: 1986-12 + role: "member" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States]]" + start: 1997-12 + end: 1998-07 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + start: 1998-07 + end: 2001-01 + role: "consultant to the director of central intelligence, without compensation" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization]]" + start: 2000-06 + end: 2000-12 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Republican National Committee]]" + start: 1995-12-28 + end: 2000-07-25 + role: "six contributions to the rnc state elections committee totaling $84,000" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[Alexander M. Haig, Jr.]]" + start: 1988-01-27 + end: 1988-01-27 + role: "$1,000 to haig for president" + fn: 15 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Defense]]" + start: 2001 + end: 2006-12 + role: "secretary of defense" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Hamdan v. Rumsfeld]]" + role: "named respondent" + fn: 37 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Senate Armed Services Committee]]" + reverse: true + role: "inquiry into the treatment of detainees in u.s. custody; conclusions 13 and 19" + fn: 36 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born on July 9, 1932, in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]].[^1] He was a member of the [[United States House of Representatives]] from 1963 to 1969, an assistant to [[Richard Nixon]], ambassador to [[NATO]], [[White House]] chief of staff and Secretary of Defense under [[Gerald R. Ford]], chief executive of [[G.D. Searle & Co.]] from 1977 to 1985 and of [[General Instrument Corporation]] from 1990 to 1993, and chairman of [[Gilead Sciences]] until January 2001.[^1] He served a second time as Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under [[George W. Bush]], and died on June 29, 2021, at 88; his family's statement said he "was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, [[New Mexico]]."[^2] + +### Congress and the Nixon administration + +Before his first campaign Rumsfeld was administrative assistant to Representative [[David Dennison]] of Ohio from 1957 to 1959, a staff assistant to Representative [[Robert Griffin]] of Michigan in 1959, Dennison's campaign manager in 1959 and 1960, and a registered representative at the Chicago investment bank [[A.G. Becker & Co.]] from 1960 to 1962. He was elected to the House in 1962, served on the Science and Astronautics Committee and the Joint Economic Committee, and was a member of the transition team for President-elect Nixon.[^1] + +The employment record he filed with the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]] in 2001 lists him as Assistant to the President from May 26, 1969, to February 2, 1973; Director of the [[Office of Economic Opportunity]] from May 26, 1969, to December 10, 1970; member of the Property Review Board from April 20, 1970, and its chairman from September 11, 1971; Counsellor to the President from December 10, 1970; and Director of the [[Cost of Living Council]], the Economic Stabilization Program, from October 7, 1971, to February 2, 1973. From February 2, 1973, to December 5, 1974, he was the [[United States]] Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in [[Brussels]].[^1] + +At his 2001 confirmation hearing, Senator [[Carl Levin]] asked Rumsfeld about a 1971 taped conversation with Nixon reported that month by the [[Chicago Tribune]], in which Nixon made racist remarks and Rumsfeld spoke of Republicans having ended "Democratic wars." Rumsfeld replied that he did not remember the meeting, that to the extent he agreed with anything on the tape it was only that "some people talk like that," and that the Tribune had opposed the civil rights legislation he supported in the 1960s.[^3] He was then a director of the [[Tribune Company]], a seat he had held since July 1992.[^4] + +### Ford White House + +[[Alexander M. Haig, Jr.|Alexander Haig]], Nixon's chief of staff, met Vice President Ford twice on August 1, 1974. Ford testified under oath on October 17, 1974, that the afternoon meeting included a list of options under discussion in the White House, among them "a pardon to the President, should he resign," and that on the afternoon of August 2 he telephoned Haig to say that nothing they had discussed should be given any consideration.[^5] In August 1974 Rumsfeld was recalled from Brussels to chair the transition to the Ford presidency, and from September 27, 1974, to November 18, 1975, he was Assistant to the President and White House chief of staff.[^1] + +On October 28, 1974, Rumsfeld sent a memorandum to the directors of the Executive Office agencies, among them the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[National Security Council]] and the Office of Economic Opportunity, stating that the President had directed all members of the executive branch to comply with the conflict-of-interest regulations, asking each to bring his Confidential Statement of Employment and Financial Interests up to date, and requesting a report on compliance to the staff secretary by November 30, 1974. A second memorandum of the same date circulated to the White House staff a manual on standards of conduct, with a memorandum from Counsel to the President [[Philip Buchen]].[^6] + +In July 1975 [[William Colby]], the [[Director of Central Intelligence]], wrote to Rumsfeld ("Dear Don"), following their conversation of July 17, enclosing the Agency's quarterly report on CIA detailees to the White House. The letter stated that the Agency was prepared to provide information on the past association of any current White House employee or presidential appointee, would await the names from a Mr. Bennett to a Mr. Evans of Colby's staff, and would send its responses to Rumsfeld or to [[Dick Cheney]].[^7] + +Cheney was Rumsfeld's deputy in the spring of 1975, while the [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|Rockefeller Commission]] was investigating CIA activities inside the United States. Documents published by the [[National Security Archive]] in 2016 show handwritten edits by Cheney to the commission's draft report and the removal, on White House orders, of the report's entire 86-page section on CIA plots to assassinate foreign leaders.[^8] + +### Secretary of Defense, 1975 to 1977 + +Rumsfeld became the 13th Secretary of Defense on November 18, 1975, and held the office until January 20, 1977.[^1] On December 5, 1975, George A. Carver Jr., the CIA's Deputy for National Intelligence Officers, informed him in writing that, at General Haig's request, the CIA had arranged to give Haig, then the NATO commander, intelligence support tailored to his needs, concentrating on current political and economic developments and supplementing the support he received through military channels. The arrangements, the memorandum said, had been endorsed by Rumsfeld's predecessor and by the Chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] and set up with the full knowledge of the Director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]. One copy was distributed to a file labeled "HAIG SUPPORT."[^9] + +On October 18, 1976, [[George H.W. Bush]], then Director of Central Intelligence, wrote to Rumsfeld that, after Rumsfeld's comments that leaks might have come from the [[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]], he had checked with the Board's secretariat and been told that the Board had not been briefed on the redacted subject. Bush wrote that he doubted the source of "these vicious leaks" would ever be found and that a recent meeting in the office of Deputy Secretary [[William Clements]] "laid to rest a lot of questions about the integrity of the process."[^10] In a letter dated January 24, 1977, Rumsfeld sent Bush the Annual Defense Department Report for fiscal year 1978, writing that "steadiness of purpose and continuing real growth in national defense efforts are required to counter the adverse trends of the past decade."[^11] His form lists him as a consultant to the Defense Department, without compensation, from 1977 to 1980.[^1] + +### G.D. Searle and aspartame + +Rumsfeld was a consultant to G.D. Searle from January to June 1977, became its president and chief executive officer in June 1977, and held the post until August 1985, when he became chairman, president and chief executive officer until September 30, 1985.[^1] [[Gregory Gordon]] of [[United Press International]] reported in October 1987 that Searle, facing debt, posted a $28 million net loss in Rumsfeld's first year and that he sold more than 30 subsidiaries worth more than $400 million. Rumsfeld hired three outgoing Ford administration officials: [[John Robson]], a former partner at the Chicago law firm [[Sidley & Austin]] and Ford's chairman of the [[Civil Aeronautics Board]], as executive vice president; [[Robert Shapiro]], Robson's special assistant at the [[Department of Transportation]], as general counsel; and [[William Greener]], a Ford White House spokesman who had been Rumsfeld's chief spokesman at the Pentagon. Searle also hired [[William Timmons]], a former Ford White House official, as a Washington lobbyist.[^12][^13] + +The aspartame petition predated him. According to the [[General Accounting Office]], Searle began developing the sweetener in 1965, the [[Food and Drug Administration]] approved it for dry foods in 1974, and Searle was not permitted to market it until 1981. A 1975 FDA task force questioned the quality of the data in certain Searle studies; in 1977 the FDA and a group of university pathologists began detailed investigations of 15 studies; and in 1980 a public board of inquiry of three university scientists concluded that aspartame did not cause brain damage but that the studies did not conclusively show it did not cause brain tumors, and revoked the 1974 approval.[^14] + +Gordon reported that at the task force's request the FDA's general counsel, [[Richard Merrill]], demanded in a letter that [[Samuel Skinner]], the United States Attorney in Chicago, open a grand jury investigation of Searle and three of its employees. In February 1977 Skinner and an aide agreed to meet Searle's lawyers, among them [[Newton Minow]] of Sidley & Austin. A month later Skinner, a Republican appointee seeking a job after [[Jimmy Carter]]'s election, informed aides by memorandum that he had begun preliminary employment discussions with the firm. He withdrew from the matter and suggested that his designated successor, [[Thomas Sullivan]], decide whether to open a grand jury inquiry, a step that delayed action by at least four months. Sullivan took office 12 weeks before the statute of limitations for false statements on aspartame expired, and the grand jury that was convened did not explore those allegations. Skinner denied any conflict of interest. Assistant United States Attorney [[William Conlon]] worked with the grand jury until October 12, 1977, two days after the limitations period on the aspartame allegations expired; no indictments were brought. Conlon declined to comment and joined Sidley & Austin 15 months later.[^13] + +Gordon quoted the consumer lawyer [[James Turner]], who had objected to the 1974 approval, as alleging that Searle chose, with Rumsfeld's hiring, not to redo the questioned studies, in the belief that he could handle aspartame as "a legal problem rather than a scientific problem."[^13] In October 1978 Howard Roberts, the acting director of the FDA's Bureau of Foods who had appointed a review of the task force findings, left to become a vice president of the [[National Soft Drink Association]]; between 1979 and 1982 four more FDA officials who took part in the approval process, among them acting commissioner [[Sherwin Gardner]] and the agency lawyer [[Michael Taylor]], took jobs linked to the NutraSweet industry. All denied any conflict of interest.[^13] + +Searle waited until January 21, 1981, the day after [[Ronald Reagan]]'s inauguration, to press for a reversal of the board of inquiry. Gordon reported that former commissioner [[Jere Goyan]] found the timing curious, and that Robert Dormer, a lawyer for [[The NutraSweet Company]], said there was nothing special about the date. In May 1981, a month after [[Arthur Hull Hayes Jr.]] took office as commissioner, three scientists on a five-member commissioner's team, Satya Dubey, Douglas Park and Robert Condon, wrote memoranda to the team's lawyer, Joseph Levitt, setting out concerns about the sweetener's safety. Park told Gordon that Levitt "was obviously getting the pressure to get a resolution and a decision made"; Levitt said he had circulated an approval recommendation as a "tactical" step to break an impasse.[^13] The panel members told the General Accounting Office that they felt pressure to expedite their review because of a Searle lawsuit but none to recommend approval or disapproval. On July 18, 1981, Hayes overturned the board of inquiry and reapproved aspartame for dry foods. The GAO, which did not evaluate the scientific issues or aspartame's safety, "did not find any evidence that pressure was put on the former FDA Commissioner to approve aspartame."[^14] + +Gordon also reported that a former Searle saleswoman, Patty Wood-Allott, asserted in a letter written after the FDA cleared NutraSweet that Rumsfeld told his sales force shortly after Reagan took office that, if necessary, "he would call in all his markers and that no matter what he would see to it that aspartame would be approved that year." According to Gordon, Rumsfeld declined to return phone calls.[^13] + +In October 1982 Senator [[Howell Heflin]] proposed an amendment to the [[Orphan Drug Act]] extending Searle's domestic patent monopoly on aspartame by five years, ten months and 17 days; the Senate passed it without mentioning aspartame, Senator [[Orrin Hatch]] calling it "an excellent amendment." Gordon reported, from [[Federal Election Commission]] records, that Heflin's 1984 reelection committee received at least $9,000 from Searle's top officers and its political action committee and Hatch's at least $3,000, and that Searle's officers and political action committee gave nearly $200,000 in federal campaign contributions between 1979 and 1986. Heflin's spokesman said Searle representatives never mentioned contributions when asking him to sponsor the amendment, and Senator [[Howard Metzenbaum]] called the floor procedure "totally inappropriate."[^12] Searle petitioned in late 1982 to use aspartame in soft drinks; Hayes's deputy, Mark Novitch, approved it on a day Hayes was away. Weeks later Hayes resigned amid an internal [[Department of Health and Human Services]] inquiry into gratuities from FDA-regulated companies, including flights on jets owned by [[General Foods]], and became a consultant to [[Burson-Marsteller]], which represented The NutraSweet Company. A Burson-Marsteller vice president said Hayes was not involved in NutraSweet matters; Metzenbaum called the arrangement "unbecoming."[^13] + +Federal Election Commission records show contributions by Rumsfeld to Searle's political action committee of $1,000 on November 13, 1979, $1,000 on September 18, 1980, $500 on May 26, 1981, $500 on April 20, 1982, $500 on November 4, 1983, and $900 on October 2, 1984, and $1,000 to Reagan for President on April 1, 1980.[^15] Searle's stockholders sold the company, including the NutraSweet division and its patents, to [[Monsanto]] for $2.7 billion in the summer of 1985. Gordon reported that [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] records showed Rumsfeld receiving more than $1.5 million in bonuses between 1979 and 1984.[^12] + +### Envoy to the Middle East, 1983 and 1984 + +From October 1982 to February 1983 Rumsfeld was Presidential Envoy for the Law of the Sea, and from November 3, 1983, to April 1984 Presidential Envoy for the [[Middle East]], in both cases part time and on leave from Searle; the Middle East post is marked "W.O.C.," without compensation.[^1] On October 28, 1983, "Rumsfeld, Donald H" of Skokie, employer G D Searle, gave $750 to Reagan-Bush '84.[^15] On March 25, 1983, Rumsfeld wrote to Director of Central Intelligence [[William J. Casey]] ("Dear Bill") enclosing a paper on NATO that Casey had asked him to prepare as a member of the President's Foreign Policy Advisory Group before the inauguration, pointing to his comments on overhead photography on pages 6 and 7, and writing that the national consensus for a strong defense was "badly fractured and weakened and needs shoring up." Casey sent the letter to his deputy's office on August 13, 1983, "just for your interest."[^16] + +On December 7, 1983, a [[State Department]] cable signed "DAM" ([[Kenneth W. Dam]]) told the U.S. Interests Section in [[Baghdad]] that Rumsfeld did not think his visit worthwhile unless he met [[Saddam Hussein]] and asked: "how can we use this visit to get out of the GOI certain things we may desire."[^17] On December 20, 1983, Rumsfeld met Saddam for 90 minutes, with [[Tariq Aziz]], William Eagleton and R. H. Pelletreau present. The London embassy's cable of December 21 (London 27572) reported that Saddam showed "obvious pleasure" at a letter from Reagan, that Rumsfeld told him the two countries had shared interests in preventing Iranian and Syrian expansion, that the United States was urging other states to curtail arms sales to Iran, and that Rumsfeld raised Iraqi oil exports, including a possible new pipeline through [[Jordan]] to [[Aqaba]]. Its assessment was that the meeting "marked positive milestone in development of US-Iraqi relations."[^18] [[Joyce Battle]] of the National Security Archive wrote that, according to the detailed notes of the Saddam meeting, Rumsfeld made no reference to chemical weapons.[^19] + +Rumsfeld's own NODIS report of his separate meeting with Aziz (London 27592, "FROM RUMSFELD") records him saying that "the U.S. had no interest in an Iranian victory" and, after a passage withheld on classification grounds, "I made clear that our efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us citing the use of chemical weapons, possible escalation in the Gulf, and human rights," followed by: "From US standpoint, obviously anything that is done that complicates life for Iran and Syria is helpful."[^20] + +On December 22, 1983, the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs sent Under Secretary [[Lawrence Eagleburger]] an action memorandum recommending [[Export-Import Bank of the United States]] financing for Iraq, which would "go far to show our support for Iraq in a practical, neutral context." Eagleburger signed it on December 24 and wrote to the bank's president, William H. Draper III, that "the terrorism issue, therefore, should no longer be an impediment to EXIM financing for U.S. sales to Iraq."[^21] The bank's country review of February 21, 1984, rated Iraq a poor credit risk. Its appendix of potential U.S. suppliers, totaling $1,510.6 million, listed [[Westinghouse]] for $159 million of turbine generators, [[Bechtel]] for $150 million of engineering on a Baghdad metro and for the Jordan oil pipeline, [[General Electric]] for power projects and [[Halliburton]] for $10 million of oil field equipment.[^22] + +On March 5, 1984, the State Department publicly condemned Iraq's use of chemical weapons. A cable signed by Secretary of State [[George P. Shultz]] on March 24, 1984, captioned "EXDIS, for Rumsfeld party," gave briefing notes for his second visit to Baghdad: bilateral relations had been "sharply set back by our March 5 condemnation of Iraq for CW use, despite our repeated warnings that this issue would emerge sooner or later," a decision "to consider, and to reject, a pending application from Westinghouse to participate in a $160 million portion of a $1 billion Hyundai thermal power plant project in Iraq" was expected to confirm Iraqi perceptions that bank financing for the Aqaba pipeline was out of the question, although Eagleburger had emphasized to an Iraqi official "the administration's firm support for the line."[^23] [[Howard Teicher]], a former National Security Council staff member who wrote that he co-authored a June 1982 national security decision directive under which the United States would do "whatever was necessary and legal to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran," stated in a declaration of January 31, 1995, in [[United States v. Cardoen]] (No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH, [[United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida|Southern District of Florida]]), that in 1984 Israeli Foreign Minister [[Yitzhak Shamir]], at a Jerusalem meeting Teicher attended with Rumsfeld, asked Rumsfeld to deliver a secret offer of Israeli assistance to Iraq; that Teicher was present in Baghdad when Rumsfeld told Aziz of the offer; and that Aziz refused even to accept the Israeli letter, saying he "would be executed on the spot" by Saddam if he did.[^24] + +### Corporate boards, 1985 to 2000 + +From October 1985 to October 1990 Rumsfeld was a part-time senior advisor to the Chicago investment firm [[William Blair & Company]], and from October 1990 to August 1993 chairman and chief executive officer of General Instrument Corporation.[^1] He joined the Gilead board in July 1988 and became chairman in January 1997. The 1997 proxy statement listed his other boards as "ABB AB," [[Gulfstream Aerospace]], [[Kellogg Company]], [[Metricom]], [[Sears, Roebuck & Co.]] and Tribune Company.[^25] + +The Gilead directors in 1997 included [[Etienne Davignon]], chairman of [[Societe Generale de Belgique]] since 1985 and European Community commissioner for industry from 1977 to 1981, a director since September 1990; [[James Denny]], a former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Searle and chairman of the Searle-affiliated Pearle Health Services, a managing director of William Blair Capital Partners V, a director since January 1996; [[Gordon Moore]] of [[Intel]]; and Shultz, a director since January 1996, described as a [[Hoover Institution]] fellow, a director of the [[Bechtel Group]], AirTouch Communications and Gulfstream Aerospace, and a former president of Bechtel.[^25] The 1998 proxy statement reported 51,863 Gilead shares in a grantor annuity trust of which Rumsfeld was donor and trustee; the 2000 statement reported 30,854 shares in a grantor annuity trust of which Rumsfeld and Denny were co-donors and trustees.[^26][^27] The 2000 statement also disclosed that Gilead had paid $6,747,923 in 1999 to PharmaResearch Corporation, a contract research organization 45 percent owned by William Blair Capital Fund V, to whose manager Denny was a senior advisor.[^27] + +In September 1996 Gilead and [[Hoffmann-La Roche]] signed a development and license agreement for influenza therapies. [[Tamiflu]] was co-developed by the two companies, and Roche sold it, paying royalties to Gilead. Gilead's annual report for 2005 records royalty revenues from Roche of $12.0 million in 2003, $44.6 million in 2004 and $161.6 million in 2005, the last including $80.7 million recognized on resolution of a dispute with Roche, and attributes the 2005 increase partly to "orders for pandemic readiness supplies in certain countries."[^28] Rumsfeld resigned from the Gilead board in January 2001 to become Secretary of Defense, and Denny was elected chairman in his place.[^29] + +His 2001 Senate form lists him as a director of ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. of Zurich from June 1999; of Amylin Pharmaceuticals from November 1991 to September 1996 and again from September 1999; of Tribune Company from July 1992, chairing its technical advisory committee from 1995 to 2000; and of the private Overx, Inc. It lists him as adviser to [[Investor AB]] of Stockholm from January 1994, to Metricom from 1994 and to [[Nvidia]] from February 1998, and as chairman of the international advisory board of [[Salomon Smith Barney]] from November 1998. His investments included limited partnerships in [[Cerberus Institutional Partners]] (1999), [[Tiger Management]] (1993), Transpac Capital 1996 Investment Trust of Tortola, [[British Virgin Islands]] (1997), Chengwei Ventures Fund I of [[Shanghai]] (2000), and the Houston energy funds SCF Partners III and IV and R. Chaney & Partners III and IV, and a 1998 grantor retained annuity trust.[^4] + +The same form lists him as a member of the advisory board of the [[Jamestown Foundation]] from October 1985, a director of [[Empower America]] from January 1993, a member of the foreign policy grant advisory committee of the [[Smith Richardson Foundation]] from June 1998, a trustee of the [[Gerald R. Ford Foundation]] from September 1981, an overseer of the Hoover Institution in several periods from 1983, and a trustee of the [[RAND Corporation]] from 1977, chairing its board from April 1981 to April 1986 and from April 1995 to December 1996. It lists his membership of the [[Bohemian Club]] from December 1986, of its H.B. Camp from August 1987, and of the [[Alfalfa Club]] from 1976.[^4] + +### ABB and North Korea + +[[Swissinfo]] reported on February 24, 2003, that ABB had signed a $200 million contract with [[North Korea]] in January 2000 to supply equipment and services for two nuclear power stations at Kumho, and that Rumsfeld was a member of ABB's board "between 1990 and February 2001," dates that differ from the June 1999 start on his Senate form. ABB's spokesman, Wolfram Eberhardt, said Rumsfeld "was at nearly all the board meetings" and that the contract might or might not have been discussed. A Pentagon spokeswoman, Victoria Clark, told [[Newsweek]] that Rumsfeld "does not recall it being brought before the board at any time." ABB said it had sold its nuclear business to [[BNFL]] in early 2000.[^30] At the January 11, 2001, hearing Levin asked whether the 1994 agreement under which the United States would lead a coalition to provide North Korea with proliferation-resistant light-water reactors served the national interest; Rumsfeld said the matter was "quite a distance off my turf" and described North Korea as a proliferator. The letters "ABB" appear in the hearing record only in his biographical sketch and his committee form.[^3] + +### Commissions and intelligence advisory posts + +Rumsfeld's form lists him as a member of Reagan's Interim Foreign Policy Advisory Board in 1981, senior advisor to the [[Scowcroft Commission]] on strategic forces in 1982 and 1983, a member of the General Advisory Committee of the [[Arms Control and Disarmament Agency]] from 1982 to 1986, a consultant to the State Department from 1983 to about 1989, and a member of the National Economic Commission in 1988 and 1989.[^1] He chaired the [[Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States]] from December 1997 to July 1998. Its members, nominated by the Speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader and the minority leaders and appointed by the Director of Central Intelligence, were Rumsfeld, [[Barry Blechman]], [[Lee Butler]], [[Richard Garwin]], [[William Graham]], [[William Schneider Jr.]], [[Larry Welch]], [[Paul Wolfowitz]] and [[R. James Woolsey]]; its executive summary was dated July 15, 1998.[^31] In July 1998 he became a consultant, without compensation, to the Director of Central Intelligence, a post he held until January 2001, and from June to December 2000 he chaired the [[Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization]].[^1] + +### Political contributions + +Federal Election Commission records list contributions from "Rumsfeld, Donald, Honorable" of Chicago to the [[Republican National Committee]]'s state elections committee of $20,000 on December 28, 1995, $24,000 on June 7, 1996, $15,000 on June 30, 1998, $7,500 on April 13, 1999, $7,500 on June 10, 1999, and $10,000 on July 25, 2000, a total of $84,000. While chief executive of General Instrument he gave $5,000 to the General Instrument political action committee on January 9, 1991, and on October 16, 1992, and $1,000 and $3,000 to the cable industry's political action committee in 1991 and 1992. On January 27, 1988, he gave $1,000 to Haig for President, and on January 28 and February 4, 1988, $1,000 each to the campaigns of [[Jack Kemp]], George Bush and [[Bob Dole]]. In August 1999 he gave $1,000 each to Bush for President and to Senator [[Bill Bradley]]'s presidential campaign.[^15] The Associated Press described a brief Rumsfeld run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination.[^2] + +### Confirmation and the Pentagon, 2001 to 2003 + +President-elect Bush announced the nomination on December 28, 2000.[^1] At the January 11, 2001, hearing, asked whether he had adhered to the conflict-of-interest laws, Rumsfeld answered "I do not know," saying the rules of the bodies reviewing his filings differed, that his papers were still at the [[Office of Government Ethics]], and that he had "a large number of investments and activities that would have to be characterized as conflicts were they to be maintained"; asked again whether he would adhere to them, he said "Yes, sir."[^3] In a written answer on the [[Iraq Liberation Act]] he wrote: "In the past I have favored it."[^32] + +On September 10, 2001, at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld said: "According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions."[^33] Notes taken by his aide [[Stephen Cambone]] on September 11, 2001, record Rumsfeld at 2:40 p.m. asking for the best information fast, to judge whether it was good enough to hit "S.H." at the same time, "Not only UBL"; Battle described the notes as directing the Defense Department lawyer Jim Haynes to obtain "support" from Wolfowitz for a link between Iraq and [[Osama bin Laden]].[^34] Rumsfeld's typed talking points for his meeting with General [[Tommy Franks]] at Central Command on November 27, 2001, begin "Focus on WMD," list among possible ways to start a war "US discovers Saddam connection to Sept. 11 attack or to anthrax attacks?" and "Dispute over WMD inspections?", call for "Decapitation of government," and state: "Unlike in Afghanistan, important to have ideas in advance about who would rule afterwards." A handwritten addition reads "Influence campaign ... when begin?"[^35] + +### Detainee interrogation policy + +On December 2, 2002, Rumsfeld signed a one-page recommendation from the Defense Department general counsel, [[William J. Haynes II]], to approve all but three of 18 interrogation techniques requested by [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp|Guantanamo]], adding by hand: "I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?" Haynes's memorandum said he had discussed the matter with Wolfowitz, Under Secretary [[Douglas Feith]] and General [[Richard Myers]]. After Navy General Counsel [[Alberto Mora]] told Haynes he would sign a memorandum of legal concerns, Rumsfeld rescinded the authority on January 15, 2003; on August 13, 2003, he approved an interrogation plan for the detainee [[Mohamedou Ould Slahi]].[^36] The Senate Armed Services Committee concluded that Haynes's review "was grossly deficient" (conclusion 12), that Rumsfeld's authorization "was a direct cause of detainee abuse" at Guantanamo and "influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques" in [[Afghanistan]] and Iraq (conclusion 13), and that the techniques used at [[Abu Ghraib]] "appeared in Iraq only after they had been approved for use in Afghanistan and at GTMO" (conclusion 19).[^36] The Associated Press reported that Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to Bush in 2004 after the Abu Ghraib disclosures; he left office in December 2006 and was replaced by [[Robert Gates]].[^2] + +On June 29, 2006, in [[Hamdan v. Rumsfeld]], the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] held that the military commission convened to try the Guantanamo detainee Hamdan, a Yemeni national, "lacks the power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the UCMJ and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949."[^37] + +### Rumsfeld Foundation + +After 2008 Rumsfeld headed the Rumsfeld Foundation.[^2] The foundation, a Washington private foundation (EIN 26-0580915) with an [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] ruling date of August 2007, reported assets of $9,727,763 at the end of 2011, $11,418,376 at the end of 2012 and $1,515,771 at the end of 2023.[^38] His 2001 Senate form lists him as president of a DHR Foundation of Chicago from December 1985, annotated "Possibly without investment control."[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Armed Services, "Nominations Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, First Session, 107th Congress," S. Hrg. 107-749, hearing of January 11, 2001: Biographical Sketch of Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Committee on Armed Services Form, Part A, items 3, 5, 9 and 10 (employment record, appointment dates, former activities and selected U.S. government activities), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg75903/html/CHRG-107shrg75903.htm +[^2]: Robert Burns, "Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88," Associated Press, via PBS NewsHour, June 30, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/former-defense-secretary-donald-rumsfeld-dies-at-88 +[^3]: S. Hrg. 107-749, transcript of the hearing of January 11, 2001: Chairman Levin's standard questions on conflicts of interest, his question on the Chicago Tribune report of the 1971 Nixon tape, and his question on the 1994 agreed framework with North Korea; full-text search of the record for "ABB" returns only the biographical sketch and the committee form, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg75903/html/CHRG-107shrg75903.htm +[^4]: S. Hrg. 107-749, Committee on Armed Services Form, Part A, item 11 ("current activities": boards of directors, advisory relationships, not-for-profit boards, other memberships, fiduciary and investment relationships), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg75903/html/CHRG-107shrg75903.htm +[^5]: Gerald R. Ford, statement before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, House Committee on the Judiciary, October 17, 1974, typescript pp. 6-14, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Philip Buchen Files, Box 34, "Nixon Pardon Hungate Subcommittee, Ford Testimony, 1974/10/17," https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0019/4520699.pdf +[^6]: Donald Rumsfeld, memoranda of October 28, 1974, to the directors of Executive Office agencies and to the White House Office, Vice President's Office and Domestic Council, "Standards of Conduct/Confidential Statement of Employment and Financial Interests," with Philip W. Buchen memorandum of the same date, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP80M01009A003100020030-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80m01009a003100020030-8 +[^7]: W. E. Colby to Donald H. Rumsfeld, July 1975 (date stamp "JUL 1975"; refers to a conversation of July 17), CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP89-01114R000100050055-1, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP89-01114R000100050055-1 +[^8]: John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, eds., "Gerald Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report in 1975; Removed Section on CIA Assassination Plots," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 543, February 29, 2016, introduction and Documents 4 and 19 (Ford Library, Richard Cheney Files, Intelligence Series, Box 7), https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB543-Ford-White-House-Altered-Rockefeller-Commission-Report/ +[^9]: George A. Carver Jr., Deputy for National Intelligence Officers, memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, "Intelligence Support for General Haig," December 5, 1975, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP91M00696R000500010003-8, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP91M00696R000500010003-8 +[^10]: George Bush, Director of Central Intelligence, to Donald H. Rumsfeld, October 18, 1976, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP79-00498A000600090009-7 (portions redacted), https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp79-00498a000600090009-7 +[^11]: Donald H. Rumsfeld to George Bush, January 24, 1977, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP80M00165A001800100012-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80m00165a001800100012-2 +[^12]: Gregory Gordon, "Part 3: Sweet corporate victories," United Press International, October 1987, reprinted in S. Hrg. 100-567, pp. 504-509, https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152617_0380 +[^13]: Gregory Gordon, "Part 2: NutraSweet approval marred by controversy," United Press International, October 1987, reprinted in "NutraSweet: Health and Safety Concerns," hearing before the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, November 3, 1987, S. Hrg. 100-567, pp. 495-500, https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152617_0380 +[^14]: U.S. General Accounting Office, "Food and Drug Administration: Food Additive Approval Process Followed for Aspartame," GAO/HRD-87-46, June 18, 1987, B-223552, Executive Summary, pp. 2-4, and chapter 6, p. 58, https://www.gao.gov/assets/hrd-87-46.pdf +[^15]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, API query for contributor name "Rumsfeld, Donald," two-year periods 1980 to 2000, run October 1, 2026 (committees include SEARLE PAC / G D SEARLE & CO POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT, REAGAN-BUSH '84, HAIG FOR PRESIDENT, GEORGE BUSH FOR PRESIDENT, JACK KEMP FOR PRESIDENT, DOLE FOR PRESIDENT COMMITTEE, GENERAL INSTRUMENT CORPORATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (GIPAC), NATIONAL CABLE TELEVISION ASSOCIATION'S POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, RNC REPUBLICAN NATIONAL STATE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE, BUSH FOR PRESIDENT INC, BILL BRADLEY FOR PRESIDENT INC), https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/. The 1979 to 1984 entries give Skokie or Winnetka and employer G D Searle; the 1995 to 2000 RNC entries give "Honorable" and Chicago. +[^16]: Donald Rumsfeld to William Casey, March 25, 1983, with Casey's memorandum for ODDCI of August 13, 1983, CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP88B00443R001404080022-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88b00443r001404080022-4 +[^17]: Department of State cable State 346516, Dam to USINT Baghdad, "Rumsfeld Visit to Iraq," December 7, 1983, secret, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82, Document 27, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq27.pdf +[^18]: U.S. Embassy London to Department of State, London 27572, "Rumsfeld Mission: December 20 Meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein," December 21, 1983, secret, paragraphs 2 and 3 (capitalization normalized in quotation), National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 31, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq31.pdf +[^19]: Joyce Battle, ed., "Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82, February 25, 2003, introduction, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/index.htm +[^20]: U.S. Embassy London to Department of State, London 27592, NODIS, "From Rumsfeld," "Rumsfeld One-on-One Meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister," December 21, 1983, secret, sections 1 to 3, paragraphs 7 and 15 (capitalization normalized; passage before paragraph 15's quoted sentence withheld B1), National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 32, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq32.pdf +[^21]: Richard W. Murphy to Lawrence S. Eagleburger, action memorandum, "EXIM Bank Financing for Iraq," December 22, 1983, approved December 24, 1983, with Eagleburger to William H. Draper III, December 24, 1983, National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 33, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq33.pdf +[^22]: Export-Import Bank of the United States, memorandum to the Board of Directors, Africa and Middle East Division, "Country review and recommendations for Eximbank's programs," February 21, 1984, with "Appendix I: Iraq," National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 40, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq40.pdf +[^23]: Department of State cable State 086663, Shultz to Embassy Khartoum, "EXDIS, for Rumsfeld party," "Briefing Notes for Rumsfeld Visit to Baghdad," March 24, 1984, secret, paragraphs 2 and 5 (capitalization normalized), National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 48, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq48.pdf +[^24]: Declaration of Howard Teicher, United States v. Carlos Cardoen et al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH, executed January 31, 1995, paragraphs 6 and 10, National Security Archive EBB No. 82, Document 61, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq61.pdf +[^25]: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), filed April 2, 1997, accession 0000912057-97-011761, nominee biographies, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/882095/0000912057-97-011761.txt +[^26]: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), filed April 16, 1998, accession 0001047469-98-015263, beneficial ownership table, note 6, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/882095/0001047469-98-015263.txt +[^27]: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), filed April 18, 2000, accession 0000912057-00-018482, beneficial ownership table, note 5, and "Certain Transactions" (PharmaResearch Corporation), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/882095/0000912057-00-018482.txt +[^28]: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2005, filed March 3, 2006, Item 1 (Roche, September 1996), Item 6 note 1 ($80.7 million) and Item 7 (royalty revenue), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/882095/000119312506045128/d10k.htm +[^29]: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A), filed April 11, 2001, accession 0000912057-01-508145, election of directors and biography of James M. Denny, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/882095/000091205701508145/a2042936zdef14a.txt +[^30]: Jacob Greber, "Rumsfeld was on ABB board during deal with North Korea," swissinfo, February 24, 2003, https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-politics/rumsfeld-was-on-abb-board-during-deal-with-north-korea/3176922 +[^31]: "Report of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States: Executive Summary," July 15, 1998, pursuant to Public Law 201, 104th Congress, list of members and nominating authorities, https://irp.fas.org/threat/missile/rumsfeld/index.html +[^32]: S. Hrg. 107-749, Rumsfeld's answers to advance policy questions, "Iraqi opposition," https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg75903/html/CHRG-107shrg75903.htm +[^33]: Donald H. Rumsfeld, "DOD Acquisition and Logistics Excellence Week Kickoff, Bureaucracy to Battlefield," remarks as delivered, the Pentagon, September 10, 2001, Department of Defense transcript as reproduced at https://agovernmentofthepeople.com/2001/09/10/donald-rumsfeld-speech-about-bureaucratic-waste/ (the defense.gov original was not reachable). +[^34]: Stephen Cambone, handwritten notes of Rumsfeld's comments, September 11, 2001, 2:40 p.m., obtained under FOIA by Thad Anderson, with Joyce Battle's description, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 326, "The Iraq War, Part I: The U.S. Prepares for Conflict, 2001," September 22, 2010, Document 7, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB326/doc07.pdf +[^35]: Department of Defense, notes from Donald Rumsfeld, [Iraq war planning], November 27, 2001, annotated, pp. 1-3, National Security Archive EBB No. 326, Document 8, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB326/doc08.pdf +[^36]: U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, "Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody," Executive Summary and Conclusions, released December 11, 2008, pp. xix-xxi (Haynes memorandum, December 2, 2002 note, Mora, January 15, 2003 rescission, Slahi plan) and pp. xxviii-xxix (conclusions 12, 13 and 19), https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/torturingdemocracy/documents/20081211.pdf +[^37]: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006), No. 05-184, decided June 29, 2006, syllabus, https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-184.ZS.html +[^38]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer, Rumsfeld Foundation, EIN 26-0580915, organization API record and Form 990-PF data for tax years 2011, 2012 and 2023, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/260580915.json diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Francis Gary Powers.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Francis Gary Powers.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b6349fbf --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Francis Gary Powers.md @@ -0,0 +1,164 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - CIA + - U2Incident + - ColdWar + - Lockheed + - PrisonerExchange + - Dimona +alias: + - Francis Gary Powers + - Gary Francis Powers + - Gary Powers + - Francis G. Powers +summary: "American Central Intelligence Agency U-2 pilot shot down near Sverdlovsk on May 1, 1960, tried in Moscow, exchanged for Rudolf Abel in 1962, and killed in a 1977 television helicopter crash." +born: 1929-08-17 +died: 1977-08-01 +location: "Letcher County, Kentucky (born); Pound, Virginia (raised)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + role: "U-2 pilot" + start: 1956-05 + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Lockheed]]" + role: "U-2 test pilot" + end: 1969-09 + fn: 20 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[KNBC]]" + role: "helicopter pilot and reporter" + end: 1977-08-01 + fn: 27 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[U-2 Incident]]" + role: "pilot" + start: 1960-05-01 + fn: 5 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Roman Rudenko]]" + reverse: true + role: "State Prosecutor" + start: 1960-08-17 + end: 1960-08-19 + fn: 8 + - type: represented + with: "[[M. I. Grinev]]" + reverse: true + role: "defence counsel" + start: 1960-08-17 + end: 1960-08-19 + fn: 8 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Powers-Abel exchange]]" + role: "exchanged prisoner" + start: 1962-02-10 + fn: 11 + - type: investigated + with: "[[E. Barrett Prettyman]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman, CIA Board of Inquiry" + fn: 14 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Francis Gary Powers Jr.]]" + role: "father" + fn: 17 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot whose [[U-2 Spy Plane]] was shot down over the [[Soviet Union]] on May 1, 1960, leading to a major international incident. [[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that Powers and his colleagues continued intermittently to overfly the [[Middle East]], and were steadily back at work in the area in 1958, when the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s photo interpreters began seeing significant activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of [[Beersheba]], which turned out to be the early signs of the [[Dimona]] nuclear reactor.[^1] + +### Recruitment and the U-2 program + +Powers was born on August 17, 1929, in Letcher County, [[Kentucky]], the son of a coal-industry mortarman, and attended [[Milligan College]] in Tennessee from 1947 to 1950.[^2] He told the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services|Senate Committee on Armed Services]] in 1962 that he spent most of his life near Pound and Grundy, [[Virginia]], worked one summer as a lifeguard, joined the [[United States Air Force]] in October of the year he left college, and was first employed by the CIA in May 1956 with "well over a thousand hours" of flying time, a little better than 500 of them in the U-2.[^3] The pilots of the program were hired on civilian contracts. According to the statement the CIA placed in the Senate record, the contracts required them to perform such services as might be required and to follow the instructions and briefings given by their superiors, and the written guidance for capture was to "surrender without resistance and adopt a cooperative attitude toward their captors," to admit previous Air Force affiliation and current CIA employment, and to make no attempt to deny the nature of the mission.[^4] + +### The flight of May 1, 1960 + +The flight that became the [[U-2 Incident]] began when Powers took off from [[Peshawar]], [[Pakistan]], at 0159 Zulu on May 1, 1960, in a U-2C, on a route planned to run over [[Tyuratam]], [[Chelyabinsk]], [[Sverdlovsk]], [[Kirov]], [[Plesetsk]], [[Severodvinsk]] and [[Murmansk]] and to end on the northwest coast of Norway.[^4][^5] Soviet radar began tracking the aircraft 15 miles south of the Soviet-Afghan border and that an SA-2 surface-to-air missile detonated close to and just behind it at 70,500 feet over the Sverdlovsk area, four and a half hours into the mission.[^5] In his Senate testimony Powers described an explosion he took to be behind him and external to the aircraft, an orange glare, a nose-down spin in which he believed both wings came off, a canopy released by hand, and an oxygen hose that tore free as he was pulled out over the cowling; he said he had no written instructions with him and tore his map into small pieces during the parachute descent.[^6] + +The CIA's standard cover story for U-2 flights, approved by the President in 1956, was that they were weather flights of the [[NASA|National Aeronautics and Space Administration]]. On May 3 NASA issued a statement about a missing high-altitude weather plane whose pilot had reported oxygen difficulties. [[Nikita Khrushchev]] announced the downing of a "spyplane" near Sverdlovsk to the [[Supreme Soviet]] on May 5 without mentioning the pilot, and on May 7 announced that the pilot was alive and had admitted the mission. [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] assumed responsibility for the flight at a press statement on May 11. The [[1960 Paris Summit]] opened on May 16 with a protest and a demand for an apology from Khrushchev. NASA withdrew its support of the cover story during the summer, and the U-2 effort was given the new project name IDEALIST.[^5] + +### Interrogation and trial in Moscow + +Powers was held at the [[Lubyanka Prison]] in [[Moscow]]. In a debriefing transcript of February 20, 1962, marked TOP SECRET, he told CIA interviewers that the first interrogation there, on May 1, had been presided over by [[Roman Rudenko]] in a room of 15 or 20 people and lasted about an hour or an hour and a quarter; that his main interrogators were Kuzmin and Vasilyev, with Rodochev as interpreter; that a second interrogation on May 2 was left out of the English volumes of evidence at the trial; and that when the CIA debriefer asked whether a senior official present on May 2 was [[Aleksandr Shelepin]] he answered, "I'm almost positive."[^7] The CIA's statement of 1962 described about 100 days of solitary confinement before trial and interrogation of 10 to 12 hours a day at times.[^4] + +The trial took place from August 17 to August 19, 1960, before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under Presiding Judge V. V. Borisoglebsky, with the assessors D. Z. Vorobyov and A. I. Zakharov. The State Prosecutor was R. A. Rudenko, the Procurator-General. Powers' counsel was [[M. I. Grinev]] of the Moscow City Bar Association. Four witnesses were called by the court. The sentence was ten years' confinement, the first three in prison.[^8] On the advice of his Soviet defense counsel he said he was sorry for his actions, and the CIA's statement of 1962 described the conduct at trial as consistent with the guidance he had received.[^4][^5] + +### Contract pay during imprisonment + +On December 16, 1960, [[Richard Bissell]], then Deputy Director for Plans, sent the [[Allen Dulles|Director of Central Intelligence]] a memorandum titled "Pay to Mr. Francis G. Powers." It recalled that the Director had taken the position, with Bissell's concurrence, that the public answer to questions should be that Powers, "while in prison in Russia," was receiving "no more and no less than he is entitled to by the terms of his contract," and that this should be the policy and not only the public position. Bissell attached a paper from [[James A. Cunningham]] on the status of the matter.[^9] + +### The exchange for Abel + +[[Rudolf Abel]] had been convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to thirty years. On March 28, 1960, five weeks before the shootdown, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] affirmed the conviction 5 to 4 in Abel v. [[United States]] (362 U.S. 217), with [[James B. Donovan]] arguing for the petitioner.[^10] Confidential negotiations during the 18 months after the trial were conducted by Abel's court-appointed counsel Donovan, who corresponded with Abel's "wife" in [[East Germany]]; Acting Director [[Pearre Cabell]] wrote to Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]] in November 1961 supporting a trade; and the [[Powers-Abel exchange|exchange]] took place on February 10, 1962, on the [[Glienicke Bridge]], with the American graduate student [[Frederic Pryor]] released at another location.[^11] The CIA's 2020 account of the exchange, published on its website, states that Powers' father had proposed the swap to Abel in prison a month after the capture and that the CIA lawyer [[Milan Miskovsky]] worked with Donovan to negotiate it.[^12] + +A memorandum for the record by the CIA's Legislative Counsel [[John S. Warner]] dated February 12, 1962, records that on February 5 he told the chief counsel of the [[House Armed Services Committee]], [[Robert Smart]], and the Senate Armed Services Committee staff member [[William Darden]] that negotiations were under way, that "the release of Abel had been approved at the highest level if the Soviets would release Powers," and that "anything else was simply bonus." Warner told them on February 9 that the exchange would probably occur over the weekend. Smart was asked to inform Representative [[Carl Vinson]] and Darden told Senator [[Richard Russell]].[^13] + +### Debriefing and the Prettyman Board + +After the return the CIA reconvened the Damage Assessment Team that had met for two months in the summer of 1960. In 1960 the team had concluded that Powers' knowledge was extensive and that he had probably revealed most of it. After two weeks of debriefing in February 1962 it found the damage much less than estimated.[^11] Dulles, who had left the directorship in November 1961, told Powers "We are proud of what you have done." The new Director, [[John McCone]], appointed a Board of Inquiry.[^11] + +The General Counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], proposed the terms in a February 1962 memorandum to the Director. He wrote that the [[Department of Justice]] favored a retired federal judge as chairman, that the first choice was [[E. Barrett Prettyman]] and the second [[Harold R. Medina]], that he recommended Lieutenant General [[Harold R. Bull]] (retired) and [[John A. Bross]] as members, that no Air Force officer should sit in view of the efforts to disassociate the Air Force from the U-2 project, and that he himself would be counsel to the Board. The question put to the Board was whether Powers acted in accordance with the terms of his employment, his instructions and briefings, and his obligations as an American citizen from the start of the mission until his release.[^14] In the Board's hearing of February 22, Houston examined witnesses and entered as Exhibit 17 a cable of February 21 from [[Kelly Johnson]] of [[Lockheed]], who had spoken with Powers about the flight.[^15] + +The Board reported on February 27, 1962, that Powers had acted in accordance with his instructions and obligations and recommended that he receive his back pay. The findings rested on the testimony of debriefing experts, a review of his background by doctors, psychiatrists, former Air Force colleagues and his commander at Adana, his own testimony, a polygraph examination he had volunteered to undergo, and analysis by Kelly Johnson of photographs of the wreckage. McCone remained skeptical and had the Air Force convene its own panel, which supported Johnson. He then relied on a report of the [[National Security Agency]] suggesting that Powers had descended to a lower altitude and turned back toward Sverdlovsk before being hit, and ordered the Board to reconvene on March 1. It adhered to its findings.[^11] On March 7, 1962, the [[NSA]] Deputy Director, [[Louis W. Tordella]], told Houston that he wished to place on the record that, contrary to Bross's statement in the transcript, it had not taken questioning and cross-examination to bring out the evidence contradicting the account, and that Bross's description of the NSA briefing as "very vehemently and very positively" presented was not accepted; Houston recorded the points to be filed with the transcript.[^16] [[David A. Foy]], reviewing a 2019 book by Powers' son in Studies in Intelligence, wrote that the Board authorized $52,500 in back pay.[^17] + +### The Senate hearing of March 6, 1962 + +On March 6, 1962, at 2 p.m. in room 318 of the Old Senate Office Building, Powers testified in open session before the Senate Committee on Armed Services, accompanied by Houston. Present were Senators Russell (chairman), [[Harry F. Byrd]] of Virginia, [[John Stennis]], [[Stuart Symington]], [[Henry M. Jackson]], [[Sam Ervin]], [[Strom Thurmond]], [[Robert C. Byrd]], [[Leverett Saltonstall]], [[Margaret Chase Smith]], [[Francis Case]], [[Prescott Bush]], [[J. Glenn Beall]] and [[Barry Goldwater]]. Russell said the committee had extended the invitation through the CIA and that the hearing was in "the interest of fair play for Mr. Powers." Saltonstall told Powers: "I commend you as a courageous, fine young American citizen who lived up to your instructions."[^6] The printed record closes with the CIA's statement, which says the poison needle was intended primarily for torture or similar circumstances, that there were "no instructions that he should commit suicide," that the Board of Inquiry's conclusion was accepted by the Director, and that "the amount due Mr. Powers under the terms of his contract will be paid to him."[^4] + +The [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] also held brief hearings the same day with McCone representing the agency, and Senator [[John J. Williams]] asked McCone whether Powers was "being left with just a little bit of a cloud hanging over him."[^11] + +### Book, employment and settlement + +On June 25, 1962, a meeting in the Director's office concluded that a book by Powers on his experiences "would be undesirable, would be harmful to Powers and not in the best interests of the Agency." The CIA memorandum of June 27, 1962, signed by [[Lyman Kirkpatrick]], directed that if Powers raised the issue again he be told he would "most likely come out second best," and noted that "one of the arguments that has been constantly advanced for the high pay of the U-2 pilots has been that they would not have an opportunity for personal gain through writings."[^18] A later memorandum of the Acting Assistant Director for Special Activities, James A. Cunningham, recorded that Powers, "a special contract employee," had sought approval to publish after a certain stage in his debriefing, that he was told the Agency would interpose no objection if the work was submitted for clearance before publication and was given a list of Agency-cleared attorneys, that the Director later decided a book would be unwise, and that Powers, dissuaded, had incurred $1,022.28 in legal fees. The memorandum recommended reimbursement; Houston concurred on October 2, 1962, and the approval by [[Marshall S. Carter]] carries a stamp of November 13.[^19] + +The Air Force agreed on April 4, 1962, to reinstate Powers effective July 1, and postponed the reinstatement after divorce proceedings began. Powers meanwhile began working for Lockheed as a U-2 pilot and in March 1963 told Colonel [[Leo P. Geary]] that he would stay.[^20] On April 19, 1963, Kelly Johnson cabled the CIA to confirm approval of Powers for flying U-2 aircraft under Lockheed's contracts except those in support of Project [[OXCART]], and on April 25 the Agency replied that approval was "hereby given" under the various U-2 contracts except those involving OXCART.[^21] In the same month McCone awarded the Intelligence Star to all the U-2 pilots except Powers. Powers received it from Deputy Director Carter on April 25, 1965, two days before McCone's resignation took effect; the award was dated 1963 on the back.[^20] + +On August 9, 1967, a CIA Office of Special Activities memorandum recorded that Powers would visit headquarters to discuss two subjects: the possibility of employment with the Agency, and whether he could be given approval to write a book about his May 1 experiences.[^22] Powers remained at Lockheed until U-2 testing ceased in September 1969. [[Michael Beschloss]] claimed that Lockheed fired Powers for criticizing the Agency in his memoirs, which he had shown to the Agency in draft; the CIA history quotes Kelly Johnson's "U-2R Log" for September 25, 1969: "We have no flight test activity at all must let Gary Powers go. Have protected him for about seven years, but he doesn't have an ATR (Air Transport Rating), so we have no other job for him, not even flying the Beechcraft."[^20] Powers published Operation Overflight, written with [[Curt Gentry]] and published by [[Holt, Rinehart and Winston]], in 1970; a [[Los Angeles Times]] review of May 12, 1970, found in the CIA's files said the Air Force had reneged on a promise to reinstate him with credit for his time as a U-2 pilot.[^23] + +A CIA Office of General Counsel memorandum of October 19, 1971, by Houston, titled "Settlement for Francis Gary Powers," states that Powers had retained an attorney who wrote to the President on August 31, 1971, seeking Air Force credit for his time with the Agency and reinstatement, which in another eight years would have entitled him to a 20-year retirement. It states that the Air Force could not restore him to active duty and that a proposal approved by Secretary of the Air Force [[Robert Seamans]] and Secretary of Defense [[Melvin Laird]] would offer him up to $250,000 in lieu of all claims, placed in a trust with a corporate trustee. It continues: "The mechanics of the movement of money and arrangements for the trust will be accomplished by the Agency so that there will be no traceable record back to the Government." The Air Force offered the Agency the chance to supply up to half of the funds; [[Carl Duckett]] had argued for participation; the Director had approved up to $125,000; and the memorandum requested an advance of $250,000 to John S. Warner so that a settlement could be completed in [[Los Angeles]] on October 26 and 27. The recommendation carries the approval of the Acting Executive Director-Comptroller; the date is not legible in the copy.[^24] + +On October 31, 1972, [[John Parangosky]], Chief of the Special Projects Staff, answered a memorandum of October 27 reporting that Powers, speaking at an open forum at California State University, Northridge, had said he was laid off at Lockheed two weeks after submitting his book to the CIA for review and, asked whether he meant the CIA had pressured Lockheed, had answered "Yes, I do, but you can draw your own conclusions from those facts." Parangosky wrote: "For your information this is a lot of bologna. The record is replete with Agency help proffered Powers and Lockheed's desire to help him. In fact, after Lockheed felt it could no longer support Powers, the Agency funded an extension to enable Powers to alleviate his own situation."[^25] Foy wrote that Powers and his son, [[Francis Gary Powers Jr.]], believed the Lockheed dismissal was done at the CIA's behest.[^17] + +### Death and burial + +Powers became a traffic reporter for a Los Angeles radio station and then flew a helicopter for a television station.[^20] On August 1, 1977, the [[KNBC]] "Telecopter," a Bell 206B JetRanger registered N4TV, crashed in the Sepulveda Basin in [[Van Nuys, California|Van Nuys]], California, killing Powers and the cameraman George R. Spears. A reconstruction of the accident published by the aviation history site This Day in Aviation states that Powers had reported low fuel to the Van Nuys tower, that the engine stopped from fuel starvation, and that the National Transportation Safety Board record, docket LAX77FA060, lists as probable cause improper in-flight decisions and fuel mismanagement; the same page reports that a [[Freedom of Information Act]] request for the NTSB report was answered with a statement that 1977 accident records had been destroyed.[^26] A CIA web feature attributes the crash to a faulty fuel gauge.[^27] + +On August 6, 1977, John F. Blake, Acting Deputy [[Director of Central Intelligence]], wrote to the Director that Representative [[Robert Dornan]] of California had telephoned on August 3 with "a rather impassionate plea for assistance for the interment of Gary Powers in Arlington," that Blake had asked [[Frank Moore]]'s office at the [[White House]] and the Under Secretary of the Army to associate the Agency with the request, and that he had told the Under Secretary that Powers held the CIA Intelligence Star, "the counterpart to the military 'Silver Star.'"[^28] Powers is buried at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].[^17] + +The Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded posthumously on November 24, 1986. On February 15, 2000, after review at the request of his son, the Air Force retroactively promoted Powers to captain, credited the period of his CIA service and authorized the Prisoner of War Medal. [[George Tenet]] awarded him the CIA Director's Medal in 2000, and the Silver Star was awarded on June 15, 2012.[^26][^27] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4. +[^2]: "1 August 1977," This Day in Aviation (Bryan R. Swopes), tag page "NTSB LAX 77FA060," biography section. https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/ntsb-lax-77fa060/ +[^3]: *Francis Gary Powers: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, Eighty-Seventh Congress, Second Session, March 6, 1962*. Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 2 (copy in CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP83-00764R000500100023-2). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83-00764r000500100023-2 +[^4]: "Statement Concerning Francis Gary Powers," printed in *Francis Gary Powers: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services*, March 6, 1962, pp. 23 to 26 (CIA-RDP83-00764R000500100023-2). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83-00764r000500100023-2 A separate copy is CIA-RDP67-00318R000100190001-7. +[^5]: Pedlow, Gregory W., and Donald E. Welzenbach. *The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954 to 1974*. CIA History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1998, chapter 4, pp. 176 to 182 and 185 to 187. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-and-U2-Program.pdf (scanned pages read with optical character recognition). +[^6]: *Francis Gary Powers: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services*, March 6, 1962, pp. 1 to 5 and the exchange with Senator Saltonstall (CIA-RDP83-00764R000500100023-2). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83-00764r000500100023-2 +[^7]: "Debriefing of Francis Gary Powers #16," February 20, 1962, 1133 hours, TOP SECRET, CIA-RDP80B01676R002200060004-0, pp. 1 to 6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r002200060004-0 +[^8]: *The Powers' Case: Material of the Court Hearings in the Criminal Case of the American Spy-Pilot Francis Gary Powers, Moscow, August 17 to 19, 1960*. Soviet Booklet No. 76, London, September 1960, pp. 7, 25 to 40, 86. https://archive.org/details/powerscasemateri76powe +[^9]: Richard M. Bissell Jr., Deputy Director (Plans), Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, "Pay to Mr. Francis G. Powers," December 16, 1960, CIA-RDP62B00844R000200150001-6 (second copy CIA-RDP62B00844R000200160001-5). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp62b00844r000200150001-6 +[^10]: *Abel v. United States*, 362 U.S. 217 (1960), decided March 28, 1960, opinion by Justice Frankfurter. https://openjurist.org/362/us/217 +[^11]: Pedlow and Welzenbach, *The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954 to 1974*, chapter 4, pp. 183 to 185 ("The Fate of Francis Gary Powers"), citing the Board of Inquiry records and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee executive session of March 6, 1962 (declassified 1982). https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-and-U2-Program.pdf +[^12]: "May Day Over Moscow: The Francis Gary Powers Story." Central Intelligence Agency, April 29, 2020. https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/may-day-over-moscow-the-francis-gary-powers-story/ +[^13]: John S. Warner, Legislative Counsel, Memorandum for the Record, "Passage of Information with Respect to the Powers/Abel Exchange," OGC 62-0271, February 12, 1962, CIA-RDP64B00346R000100170064-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp64b00346r000100170064-7 (second copy CIA-RDP64B00346R000100140013-6). +[^14]: Lawrence R. Houston, General Counsel, Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, "Board of Inquiry for Francis Gary Powers and Terms of Reference," OGC 62-0274, February 1962, CIA-RDP80B01676R002200020012-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r002200020012-5 +[^15]: Board of Inquiry, Francis Gary Powers, transcript excerpts of February 22, 1962, TOP SECRET, CIA-RDP80B01676R002200080007-5. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80B01676R002200080007-5 +[^16]: Lawrence R. Houston, Memorandum for the Record, "Board of Inquiry, Francis Gary Powers," March 7, 1962 (conversation with Louis W. Tordella, Deputy Director, National Security Agency), TOP SECRET, CIA-RDP80B01676R002200070001-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r002200070001-2 +[^17]: Foy, David A. Review of Francis Gary Powers Jr. and Keith Dunnavant, *Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy* (Prometheus Books, 2019). *Studies in Intelligence* 63, no. 2 (extracts, June 2019), pp. 41 to 43. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Spy-Pilot.pdf +[^18]: Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, memorandum "Writings by Francis Gary Powers," June 27, 1962, CIA-RDP75-00001R000400130015-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000400130015-4 +[^19]: James A. Cunningham Jr., Acting Assistant Director (Special Activities), Memorandum for the Acting Director of Central Intelligence, "Reimbursement for Legal Services Incurred by Francis Gary Powers," SA-0860-62, with concurrence of Lawrence R. Houston dated October 2, 1962 and approval by Marshall S. Carter, CIA-RDP80B01676R003100040001-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003100040001-5 +[^20]: Pedlow and Welzenbach, *The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954 to 1974*, chapter 4, pp. 185 to 187 and footnote on p. 187. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-and-U2-Program.pdf +[^21]: Cable from Kelly Johnson of Lockheed received April 19, 1963, and reply of April 25, 1963, concerning approval of Francis Gary Powers to fly U-2 aircraft, SECRET, CIA-RDP89B00739R000300110131-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp89b00739r000300110131-3 +[^22]: John Parangosky, Deputy Director of Special Activities, Memorandum for the Record, "Visit of Gary Francis Powers to Headquarters," OSA-2981-67, August 9, 1967, CIA-RDP70B00501R000100040021-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp70b00501r000100040021-8 +[^23]: Kirsch, Robert. "The Book Report" (review of Francis Gary Powers with Curt Gentry, *Operation Overflight*, Holt, Rinehart and Winston), *Los Angeles Times*, May 12, 1970, copy in CIA-RDP88-01350R000200190013-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01350r000200190013-0 +[^24]: Lawrence R. Houston, General Counsel, Memorandum for the Acting Executive Director-Comptroller, "Settlement for Francis Gary Powers," OGC 71-1526, October 19, 1971, SECRET, CIA document C03072202. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-03072202 +[^25]: John Parangosky, Chief, Special Projects Staff, Memorandum for DC/SMS/DDS&T, "POWERS, Gary Francis," SPS-0918/72, October 31, 1972, with DDS&T 3066/72 of October 27, 1972, CIA document C03069466. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-03069466 +[^26]: "1 August 1977," This Day in Aviation, tag page "NTSB LAX 77FA060," including the update on the Freedom of Information Act response. https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/ntsb-lax-77fa060/ +[^27]: "May Day Over Moscow: The Francis Gary Powers Story." Central Intelligence Agency, April 29, 2020. https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/may-day-over-moscow-the-francis-gary-powers-story/ +[^28]: John F. Blake, Acting Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Note for the Director of Central Intelligence, August 6, 1977, CIA-RDP80M00165A002600120017-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80m00165a002600120017-6 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Gary Francis Powers.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Gary Francis Powers.md deleted file mode 100644 index f2d05c2d..00000000 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Gary Francis Powers.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16 +0,0 @@ ---- -category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs" -tags: - - Person - - Nuclear - - Israel -summary: "Gary Francis Powers was an American pilot whose U-2 Spy Plane was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, leading to a major international incident." -born: 1929-08-17 -died: 1977-08-01 -location: "Jenkins, Kentucky, USA" ---- -Gary Francis Powers was an American pilot whose [[U-2 Spy Plane]] was shot down over the [[Soviet Union]] on May 1, 1960, leading to a major international incident. Powers and his colleagues continued intermittently to overfly the [[Middle East]], and were steadily back at work in the area in 1958, when the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s photo interpreters began seeing significant activity at an Israeli Air Force practice bombing range south of [[Beersheba]], which turned out to be the early signs of the [[Dimona]] nuclear reactor.[^1] - -### Footnotes - -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John D. Rockefeller Jr..md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John D. Rockefeller Jr..md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4381c0de --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/John D. Rockefeller Jr..md @@ -0,0 +1,225 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +tags: + - Person + - Rockefeller + - StandardOil + - Philanthropy + - ColoradoFuelAndIron + - Ludlow + - IvyLee + - RockefellerFoundation + - BureauOfSocialHygiene + - ChaseNationalBank + - JacksonHole +alias: + - John D. Rockefeller Jr. + - John D. Rockefeller, Jr. + - John D. Rockefeller Junior + - John Davison Rockefeller Jr. + - John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. + - JDR Jr. +summary: "Son of the Standard Oil founder, Colorado Fuel and Iron director during the 1913 to 1914 strike, Rockefeller Foundation chairman, and largest Chase National Bank stockholder who financed Jackson Hole and the United Nations site." +born: 1874-01-29 +died: 1960-05-11 +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: relative_of + with: "[[John D. Rockefeller Sr.]]" + role: "son" + fn: 1 + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Abby Aldrich Rockefeller]]" + start: 1901-10-09 + end: 1948 + role: "husband" + fn: 1 + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Martha Baird Rockefeller]]" + start: 1951-08-15 + role: "husband" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Laurance Rockefeller]]" + role: "father" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Nelson Rockefeller]]" + role: "father" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[David Rockefeller]]" + role: "father" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Winthrop W. Aldrich]]" + role: "brother-in-law" + fn: 20 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Colorado Fuel and Iron Company]]" + role: "director, one of three representatives of his father's holdings" + fn: 3 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[House Committee on Mines and Mining]]" + start: 1914-04-06 + role: "witness" + fn: 3 + - type: represented + with: "[[Ivy Lee]]" + reverse: true + role: "publicity adviser to the Rockefeller office" + fn: 9 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Commission on Industrial Relations]]" + start: 1915-01-25 + role: "witness" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Rockefeller Foundation]]" + role: "president in 1914, chairman of the board of trustees in 1928 and 1936" + fn: 12 + - type: founded + with: "[[Bureau of Social Hygiene]]" + role: "established the Bureau after the 1910 grand jury" + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Raymond B. Fosdick]]" + role: "head of the reorganized Bureau of Social Hygiene" + fn: 16 + - type: founded + with: "[[International Education Board]]" + start: 1923 + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]" + role: "gave a total of 58.9 million dollars" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Chase Manhattan Bank|Chase National Bank]]" + start: 1930 + role: "largest stockholder after the Equitable Trust exchange" + fn: 21 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Standard Oil of Indiana proxy contest of 1929]]" + start: 1929 + role: "minority stockholder seeking the removal of Robert W. Stewart" + fn: 17 + - type: founded + with: "[[Snake River Land Company]]" + role: "created it as purchasing agent for Jackson Hole land" + fn: 23 + - type: funded + with: "[[Colonial Williamsburg]]" + start: 1926 + role: "restoration, 56 million dollars" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[United Nations]]" + start: 1946-12 + role: "8.5 million dollars for the East River site" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874, in [[Cleveland]], to May 11, 1960, in [[Tucson]]) was the son of [[John D. Rockefeller Sr.]], founder of [[Standard Oil]], and [[Laura Spelman Rockefeller]]. He graduated from [[Brown University]] in 1897, married [[Abby Aldrich Rockefeller]] (daughter of Senator [[Nelson W. Aldrich]] of [[Rhode Island]]) on October 9, 1901, and, three years after her death in 1948, married [[Martha Baird Rockefeller|Martha Baird Allen]] on August 15, 1951.[^1] Estimates of his net worth were 995 million dollars in 1928, 379.6 million in 1938 and 336.5 million in 1950. His children were Abby, [[John D. Rockefeller III]], [[Nelson Rockefeller]], [[Laurance Rockefeller]], [[Winthrop Rockefeller]] and [[David Rockefeller]]; five sons established the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]] in 1940, and he gave it 58.9 million dollars.[^1] His first employment was in his father's office at 26 Broadway, where he worked with the Reverend [[Frederick T. Gates]].[^1] + +### Colorado Fuel and Iron Company + +The Rockefeller interest in the [[Colorado Fuel and Iron Company]] dated from 1902. In his written statement to the [[Commission on Industrial Relations]] in January 1915 he put the cash investment at about 6 million dollars, the dividends received on the stock since 1902 at 371,000 dollars (about two thirds of one percent a year), and the wages the company had paid in the same period at more than 92 million dollars.[^2] He added that the decision of the company's officers on recognizing the union "was reached without any consultation or communication with me," and that he had no knowledge of it until after the strike had been declared.[^2] + +On April 6, 1914, he testified before a subcommittee of the [[House Committee on Mines and Mining]] (House Resolution 387, 63d Congress), where Representative [[Martin D. Foster]] of [[Illinois]] (the chairman), [[James F. Byrnes]], [[John M. Evans]] and [[Richard W. Austin]] questioned him, with [[Starr J. Murphy]] present beside him.[^3] He gave his father's holdings in the company as 139,807 of 342,355 common shares (about 40 percent), 7,943 of 20,000 preferred shares (about 40 percent), 14,450,000 dollars of the 33,437,000 dollars of Colorado Industrial Company first mortgage 5 percent bonds (about 43 percent) and 366,000 dollars of 5,638,000 dollars of the company's general mortgage 5 percent bonds. He said that he held only the shares that qualified him as a director, and that he was "one of my father's representatives in the care of this and other of his personal investments."[^3] The common stock had never paid a dividend "since our relationship to the company"; the preferred stock had paid 35 percent of its accumulated arrears and 4 percent of the current dividend in 1913.[^3] + +He named three directors as his father's immediate representatives: himself, Murphy and "J. D. Green," who were on the staff of his father's personal office. [[Lamont M. Bowers]], chairman of the company's board, he described as one "who might be said indirectly to represent our interests," and [[J. H. McClement]] as an independent New York businessman who represented the other stockholders as much as [[Rockefeller family|the Rockefellers]].[^3] The index of the Commission's published record lists Bowers as "member advisory staff of John D. Rockefeller, sr."[^4] Asked by the chairman whether the three were "dummy" directors, he answered, "We have not usually felt ourselves that."[^3] The only annual meeting of stockholders he had attended was held in [[Denver]], he estimated, at least ten years earlier; he signed the minutes of directors' meetings when they were sent east, and he received his information on the strike from correspondence with Bowers and [[J. F. Welborn]], the company's president: "we invariably stand by those officers until we have reason to believe that we have been mistaken in our judgment regarding them."[^3] Later in the examination he told the chairman that he was a director of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] "and, in fact, to be the chairman of that board," and, asked what steps he had taken to look after the conditions among the company's 10,000 employees in Colorado, answered that he had done "the very best thing that I could possibly have done in the interest of the employees, quite as much as in the interest of the large investment which I represent."[^3] + +The chairman asked why the "killing of these people, the shooting of children" had not led him to communicate with the other directors. Rockefeller answered that the issue was a national one and that "we stand ready to lose every cent we put in that company rather than see the men we have employed thrown out of work." He continued: "There is just one thing, Mr. Chairman, so far as I understand it, which can be done, as things are at present, to settle this strike, and that is to unionize the camps; and our interest in labor is so profound and we believe so sincerely that that interest demands that the camps shall be open camps, that we expect to stand by the officers at any cost. It is not an accident that this is our position." The chairman asked, "And you will do that if it costs all your property and kills all your employees?" Rockefeller answered, "It is a great principle."[^3] + +In the Commission's New York hearing in January 1915 he identified [[Jerome D. Greene]] as the other member (besides Murphy and himself) of his father's personal staff in 1914 and as a director of the company that year, one who "gave his time more to the foundation work" and so had less personal touch with the company than directors of longer standing. Greene was secretary of the Rockefeller Foundation.[^5] + +### Ludlow and the Letters to Bowers + +The tent colony of striking miners at [[Ludlow massacre|Ludlow]] was destroyed on April 20, 1914. In the Commission's hearings the counsel of the [[United Mine Workers of America]], [[Edward P. Costigan]], read from the report of three Colorado militia officers. The report stated that "practically all National Guards were enlisted about the middle of April among the superintendents and foremen, the clerical force, physicians, storekeepers, mine guards, and other residents of the coal camps," that Lieutenant [[K. E. Linderfelt]] broke the stock of his Springfield rifle over the head of the prisoner [[Louis Tikas]], and that two women and eleven children were found smothered.[^6] + +In May 1915 Chairman [[Frank P. Walsh]] read to him letters from the autumn of 1913. Bowers had written on September 29 that several mines were "working from one-half to two-thirds capacity" and that, undisturbed, the company could keep its steel works running and "supply our railroad friends with coal." Asked who the railroad friends were and whether his father held [[Southern Pacific Railroad|Southern Pacific]] securities, Rockefeller answered "I don't know" to each question, and added that he thought the phrase referred only to the railroads with which the company did business.[^7] Walsh then read a letter of October 6 from Rockefeller to Bowers: "We feel that what you have done is right and fair, and that the position which you have taken in regard to the unionizing of the mines is in the interest of the employees of the company. Whatever the outcome may be, we will stand by you to the end." A letter of October 10 to Bowers said the company's "strong and just position will not lack backing at this end."[^7] + +Walsh had read back to him in January 1915 the passage of his April 1914 testimony containing "we expect to stand by the officers at any cost" and "it is a great principle." Rockefeller answered that it concerned "the right of every man to determine for himself whether he should join the union or not."[^8] Asked whether his attention had ever been called to claims that the company's officers violated Colorado law, he said it had not; asked whether he would vote to discharge an officer persistently violating the law, he said, "If all the facts justified that belief, I should."[^8] + +The strike was called off on December 10, 1914. On December 16 [[David Griffiths]], formerly the state coal mine inspector, was named an intermediary between the company and its employees, and on January 5, 1915 a notice invited the miners to elect one representative for every 250 employees to meet company officers in Denver.[^2] + +### Ivy Lee + +[[Ivy Lee]] testified before the Commission on May 22, 1915. Walsh read to him a letter from Rockefeller of June 10, 1914: "Several points in my memorandum, however, could well even more properly be used in the letter from Gov. Ammons to President Wilson, which you are proposing to prepare as soon as the major's memorandum reaches you." The governor was [[Elias M. Ammons]]; the major was [[Edward J. Boughton]] of the Colorado militia, whom Walsh described as the advocate general who presided over the military court at [[Trinidad, Colorado|Trinidad]] (Lee said he did not know that) and whom Lee first met in New York in mid-June. Lee said Greene, "of Mr. Rockefeller's office," had seen Boughton first and that the suggestion that the governor write to the President went to Boughton through Greene. Lee agreed with Walsh that Greene was then also a director of the company, and answered "Yes, sir" when Walsh said, "You took his place, I believe?"[^9] Lee wrote to Rockefeller on June 11 that the best course was to give the governor's letter "our attention," and on July 2 that he was preparing "a very brief statement of the case which will command public attention."[^9] + +A [[New York Times]] clipping submitted to the Commission by [[Edward L. Doyle]], a witness for the miners, quoted a statement from the Rockefeller offices at 26 Broadway, issued December 7, 1914, that Greene "had withdrawn temporarily from his activities as a member of John D. Rockefeller's personal staff and that Ivy L. Lee, executive assistant to the president of the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]], would shortly take up his duties."[^10] Rockefeller told the Commission in January 1915 that Lee's membership of the staff and his salary began on January 1, 1915; that before then Lee had cooperated with the committee of three Colorado operators and with the company in presenting the facts, with the consent of the president of Lee's company, whom Rockefeller had seen; and that the staff consisted of Murphy, Lee and himself, of whom he alone drew no salary.[^8] + +Walsh asked Lee whether John D. Rockefeller Sr. had paid him 6,000 dollars from private funds for work to January 1915. Lee answered that the whole expense of the publicity campaign "was repaid to me from Colorado" and that, on his information, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had paid the greater part of his salary up to January 1 on behalf of the other operators.[^9] + +In 1934 Lee appeared before the [[McCormack-Dickstein Committee|Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the McCormack-Dickstein committee)]] on his retainer from the German dye trust, [[I. G. Farben|I. G. Farbenindustrie]]. In the House on February 27, 1935, Representative [[Samuel Dickstein]] said that Lee had told the committee he felt certain the information he supplied to the dye trust was reaching government officials, that Lee received 25,000 dollars a year for each year of the contract, and that Lee had left a son in Germany as his contact man at 33,000 dollars a year.[^11] + +### The Rockefeller Foundation's Industrial Relations Division + +The Rockefeller Foundation was incorporated by Chapter 488 of the New York Laws of 1913, which became law on May 14, 1913; the Act named as members John D. Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Gates, [[Harry Pratt Judson]], [[Simon Flexner]], Murphy, Greene, [[Wickliffe Rose]] and [[Charles O. Heydt]].[^12] The Foundation's own account to the Commission said that the Colorado disturbances "impressed the President of the Foundation with the great need and public importance of finding an effective means of preventing such conflicts and caused him to urge a far-reaching study of industrial relations." Its executive committee resolved on August 13, 1914 to appoint [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] to study industrial relations from October 1, 1914, at a salary the Foundation omitted from the published answer "as being information of a confidential nature." The arrangement had been made in conferences "principally" between King and the president and secretary, John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Greene.[^12] In his January 1915 statement Rockefeller said he had begun to secure King's services at the beginning of the previous June.[^2] + +The same document stated that the Foundation "is, moreover, a large owner of corporate securities," and its Schedule D listed the securities contributed by John D. Rockefeller and held on December 1, 1914. The schedule included 2,000 Colorado Industrial Company convertible bonds (book value 1,600,000 dollars), 7,000 shares of [[Colorado and Southern Railway]] first preferred (378,000 dollars), 20,000 shares of the [[Consolidated Gas Company]] (2,600,000 dollars), 24,845 shares of the [[Southern Pipe Line Company]] (5,703,308.88 dollars), 7,000 shares of [[Continental Oil Company|Continental Oil]] (1,330,000 dollars) and 100 bonds of a Southern Pacific branch railway first issue. The total funds of the Foundation on that date were 103,930,817.19 dollars.[^12] + +The Foundation's report for 1928 lists Rockefeller as chairman of the board of trustees and of the finance committee; Jerome D. Greene was elected a trustee that November.[^13] The members and trustees in 1936, with Rockefeller as chairman, were [[Winthrop W. Aldrich]], [[John W. Davis]], [[Lewis W. Douglas]], [[John Foster Dulles]], [[Raymond B. Fosdick]], [[Walter S. Gifford]], Greene, [[Ernest M. Hopkins]], [[Max Mason]], [[Thomas I. Parkinson]], John D. Rockefeller III, [[Walter W. Stewart]], [[Harold H. Swift]], [[George H. Whipple]], [[Ray Lyman Wilbur]] and [[Owen D. Young]].[^14] + +The Foundation's reports for those years list a grant of 75,000 dollars in 1928 "towards erection of building" for the [[Institute for Psychiatric Research, Munich|Institute for Psychiatric Research]] in [[Munich]], whose building opened that year; grants numbered RF 31045 and RF 33082 for research in neurohistology, serology and biochemistry there, on which 2,258.80 dollars was paid in 1936; small grants in 1936 to Professors O. Bumke and H. Spatz of Munich; the continuing payments in 1931 to [[Cornell University Medical School]] for Dr. [[C. R. Stockard]]'s "studies in eugenics and heredity"; and general expenses and a research program for the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]] in [[Honolulu]] and for its American Council in 1936.[^13][^15] + +### Bureau of Social Hygiene + +In 1910 he served on a New York grand jury that investigated "white slavery," and he told the House subcommittee in 1914 that he had been its foreman.[^3][^16] The grand jury's work led him to establish the [[Bureau of Social Hygiene]] in 1913, and his statement of January 27, 1913 said that investigating bodies are "generally composed of busy people, who cannot turn away from their own affairs for any great length of time to carry on reforms."[^1][^16] He contributed 5.4 million dollars to the Bureau before its dissolution in 1940.[^1] The Bureau gave 309,000 dollars more for a Laboratory of Social Hygiene at the [[Bedford Hills Reformatory]] (1912 to 1918), which tested inmates for venereal disease and made physiological and psychological assessments intended to define a physical profile of the "criminal type." The Bureau's files show no evidence of sterilization as part of the Laboratory's program; New York's sterilization law for "eugenic purposes" was in force from 1912 to 1920, during which the state sterilized one man and 42 women.[^16] + +[[Katharine Bement Davis]], who had led the reformatory at Bedford Hills, became the Bureau's general secretary in 1917. After the Bureau's trustees objected to her proposal that it undertake sex research on its own account (a comment of December 6, 1927 by [[Leonard V. Harrison]] is quoted in the research essay), she retired on January 1, 1928; Rockefeller then reorganized the Bureau and appointed Fosdick to lead it.[^16] Since 1922 the Bureau had paid for research chosen by a committee of the [[National Research Council]] on problems of sex; in 1931, "at the suggestion of the Bureau of Social Hygiene," the Rockefeller Foundation took over those grants for the period beginning July 1, 1931. The Bureau also financed the Council's committee on drug addiction, which in 1928 recommended study of the codeine alkaloids as non-habit-forming substitutes, with the chemical work assigned to Dr. [[L. F. Small]] at the [[University of Virginia]].[^15] The Bureau's grants had all concluded by 1933, and it was formally dissolved in 1940.[^16] + +### Standard Oil of Indiana + +Before the 1929 annual meeting of [[Standard Oil of Indiana]], Rockefeller, a minority stockholder, examined the testimony of its chairman [[Robert W. Stewart]] before the [[United States Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys|Senate Committee on Public Lands]] about the [[Continental Trading Company]] bonds, talked with him and asked him to resign. [[Time]] reported on January 28, 1929 that Stewart had testified "I never had anything to do with the distribution of any bonds" and later "I know about the disposition of $759,500 of these bonds," that the Senate had charged him with perjury and contempt and that juries acquitted him of both, and that Rockefeller, who according to his own account had received Stewart's promise to comply nine months earlier, "sailed for Egypt last fortnight, but left behind him a letter to stockholders, expressing loss of confidence."[^17] The company had 9,160,000 shares held by about 58,000 holders, and the vote was set for March 7 at [[Whiting, Indiana]]. Time listed the acting Alien Property Custodian, [[Howard Sutherland]] (proxies for 12,000 shares seized from Germans and Austrians in the World War), and [[A. P. Giannini]] (32,000 shares) among Rockefeller's supporters, reported that the house of [[J. P. Morgan and Company]] was "authoritatively said to be advising clients to support" him, and noted that the [[University of Chicago]], "object of many Rockefeller benefactions," was expected to vote its 30,000 shares with him; the company's president [[Edward G. Seubert]] and its board voted unanimously for Stewart, and Time reported that Standard Oil of Indiana profits for 1928 were estimated at 80 million dollars.[^17] + +The Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society states that Rockefeller retained [[Charles Evans Hughes]] to lead his lawyers and that Stewart retained [[Frank J. Hogan]], who had defended [[Edward L. Doheny]] in the [[Teapot Dome scandal|Teapot Dome]] case, and that Hughes's staff published a 69-page statement of Rockefeller's case. According to the society, Rockefeller did not attend the meeting and sent his brother-in-law Winthrop W. Aldrich with about 200 eastern stockholders; the Rockefeller side claimed 57 percent of the proxies; Stewart conceded, "I'm afraid, my friends, that the 'noes' have it, if the vote is taken by shares"; and the society quotes the [[Gary Times]] that Stewart "was plucked out of the chairmanship."[^18] The society's account names [[Harry F. Sinclair]] as one of the four oil company heads who created the Continental Trading Company in 1921.[^18] + +On November 15, 1933 the [[United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency|Senate Committee on Banking and Currency]], in hearings conducted by its counsel [[Ferdinand Pecora]] on the Chase Securities Corporation, heard [[Bertram Cutler]], who described himself as having been associated with the Rockefellers for thirty-two years "as financial adviser." Cutler testified that in November 1928 the entire holding of 3 or 4 of the so-called "Rockefeller charitable funds" in the [[Prairie Oil and Gas Company]], roughly 38 million dollars at the prices testified to, was sold to [[Blair and Company]], that he carried on the negotiations, that he had referred the Prairie Oil president, [[William S. Fitzpatrick]], to the bankers when Fitzpatrick said he would have liked to buy some of the stock, and that he had spoken to [[Hunter Marston]] of Blair and Company about it. He testified that he knew nothing of a syndicate in [[Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation]] stock in which Fitzpatrick later shared. Asked whether the Rockefeller interests held Sinclair Consolidated stock after the March 1932 consolidation of the Prairie companies with it, he answered that they held "a very substantial amount," "the amount Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., might have received for stock of the Prairie Co. that he owned," and guessed the whole at about 1,000,000 shares.[^19] + +### Chase National Bank + +Time of January 2, 1933 reported that after the 1930 exchange of stock among the [[Chase Manhattan Bank|Chase National Bank]], the [[Equitable Trust Company]] and the [[Interstate Trust Company]], "John Davison Rockefeller Jr. then became the biggest stockholder," a position [[Albert Wiggin]] had held until then, and that his wife's brother, Winthrop W. Aldrich, president of Equitable, became president of Chase. The same article said that Aldrich "led the fight to oust Robert Wright Stewart from Standard Oil of Indiana" and "makes no bones about representing the interests of his in-laws," and that whether the Rockefellers were behind Wiggin's resignation was "still a moot question."[^20] + +On October 17, 1933 Wiggin testified before the same committee. Asked by Senator [[James Couzens]] who the largest stockholder was, he consulted an associate and answered "John D. Rockefeller, Jr."; asked whether that was how the bank came to be known as the Rockefeller Bank, he answered, "I think so." He said the Chase had about 89,000 stockholders. His letter of December 21, 1932 to the executive committee, read into the record, stated that in 1930 "through the merger with the Equitable Trust Co., John D. Rockefeller, Jr., as the largest holder of Equitable stock, became, through the ensuing exchange of stock, the largest stockholder in the Chase," and that Aldrich had become president of the bank and later vice chairman of its governing board.[^21] + +### Purchases through Intermediaries + +[[Colonial Williamsburg]] began in 1926 after the Reverend [[W. A. R. Goodwin]], rector of [[Bruton Parish Church]], approached Rockefeller in 1924. He bought properties with Goodwin as his agent and communicated by coded telegram; one, authorizing the purchase of "another antique referred to in your long letter," was signed "David's father." The town was told in June 1928, and the restoration eventually covered 85 percent of the original eighteenth-century area, with more than seven hundred buildings that postdated 1790 demolished.[^22] He gave about 56 million dollars to the restoration and related projects.[^1] + +In Wyoming the [[Snake River Land Company]] was the purchasing agent he created "to mask his association and keep land prices affordable." It bought more than 35,000 acres of [[Jackson Hole]] for about 1.4 million dollars.[^23] A Senate subcommittee held hearings in 1933 on allegations that the company had used illegal tactics, and the Park Service history states that the company and the Park Service were exonerated.[^23] After holding the land for fifteen years Rockefeller wrote to President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] that, absent acceptance of the gift on terms long discussed, "it will be my thought to make some other disposition of it or to sell it in the market to any satisfactory buyers." On March 15, 1943 Roosevelt proclaimed the 221,000-acre [[Jackson Hole National Monument]].[^23] Representative [[Frank Barrett]]'s bill to abolish it passed both houses, and Roosevelt withheld his approval in a message of December 29, 1944 that referred to lands "acquired by private interests, for ultimate incorporation in the monument."[^23][^24] The Rockefeller land remained private until December 16, 1949, and the act of September 14, 1950 merging the monument into [[Grand Teton National Park]] included the compromise that "in the future presidential proclamation could not be used to create a national monument in Wyoming."[^23] He gave 17.5 million dollars to the [[Jackson Hole Preserve]]; Laurance Rockefeller, as its president, made the 1949 gift of the valley land to the federal government on his father's behalf.[^1][^25] + +### Gifts and Building + +He joined the plan for [[Rockefeller Center]] in 1928, leasing the major part of the land from [[Columbia University]]; its first fourteen buildings were erected between 1931 and 1940, and on November 1, 1939 he drove the last rivet in the U.S. Rubber Company Building.[^1] The [[International Education Board]], founded in 1923, gave more than 21 million dollars, including 1.4 million toward the 200-inch telescope on [[Palomar Observatory|Mount Palomar]], 357,000 dollars for the mathematics faculty at [[University of Göttingen|Göttingen]], 283,000 dollars for [[Niels Bohr]]'s work on atomic structure and 3.2 million dollars for the [[Oriental Institute]].[^1] His park gifts included 3.6 million dollars to [[Acadia National Park]], 5.9 million dollars for [[Fort Tryon Park]] and 15.7 million dollars in all for [[The Cloisters]], 10.2 million dollars to the [[Palisades Interstate Park]], 2 million dollars to the [[Save the Redwoods League]], 1.6 million dollars at [[Yosemite National Park|Yosemite]] and 164,000 dollars at [[Shenandoah National Park|Shenandoah]].[^1] He helped establish the [[United Service Organizations]] in 1941 and the [[National War Fund]] in 1943, which raised more than 321 million dollars; in 1944 he became chairman of the advisory committee of the [[United Negro College Fund]] and gave it 5.2 million dollars; in 1955 he gave securities valued at 20 million dollars for Protestant theological education.[^1] In December 1946 he gave 8.5 million dollars for the purchase of the land for the permanent headquarters of the [[United Nations]] on the [[East River]].[^1] His total charitable giving is estimated at 537 million dollars.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Rockefeller Archive Center, "John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1874-1960," biography, https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/john-d-rockefeller-jr/ (birth, death, education, marriages, children, net worth estimates, first employment, Rockefeller Brothers Fund 1940 and 58.9 million dollars, Bureau of Social Hygiene 1913 and 5.4 million dollars, International Education Board 1923, Colonial Williamsburg 1926 and 56 million dollars, park gifts, Jackson Hole Preserve 17.5 million dollars, Rockefeller Center, USO and National War Fund, United Negro College Fund, theological education, United Nations 8.5 million dollars in December 1946, total giving 537 million dollars). +[^2]: John D. Rockefeller Jr., *Statement of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., before United States Commission on Industrial Relations, January 25, 1915* (New York, 1915), https://archive.org/details/statementofjohnd00rock. +[^3]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Mines and Mining, subcommittee, *Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado*, hearings pursuant to H. Res. 387, 63d Cong., 2d sess., testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., April 6, 1914, pp. 2841-2878 (the exchange on "a great principle" at pp. 2873-2874), https://archive.org/details/conditionsincoa00housgoog. +[^4]: U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, S. Doc. 415, 64th Cong., 1st sess. (1916), vol. 9, contents of volume IX (index entry for L. M. Bowers), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati09unitrich. +[^5]: *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, vol. 8, pp. 7771-7773 (testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., New York, January 1915, on the personal staff of John D. Rockefeller and the directors of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati08unitrich. +[^6]: *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, vol. 9, pp. 8129-8130 (statement of Edward P. Costigan reading the report of the Colorado militia officers), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati09unitrich. +[^7]: *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, vol. 9, pp. 8659-8660 (testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Washington, May 21, 1915, examination by Chairman Walsh), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati09unitrich. +[^8]: *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, vol. 8, pp. 7761-7773 and 7837-7838 (testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., New York, January 25 and 26, 1915, including the announcement of December 7, 1914 read by Chairman Walsh and the answers on Ivy Lee's salary and staff), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati08unitrich. +[^9]: *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, vol. 9, pp. 8715-8717 and 8728-8729 (testimony of Ivy L. Lee, Washington, May 22, 1915), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati09unitrich. +[^10]: *Industrial Relations: Final Report and Testimony*, vol. 8, pp. 7075-7076 (testimony of Edward L. Doyle, submission of a New York Times clipping), https://archive.org/details/industrialrelati08unitrich. +[^11]: *Congressional Record*, House, February 27, 1935, pp. 2668-2669 (remarks of Representative Samuel Dickstein on the report of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities), https://www.fara.us/assets/htmldocuments/uploads/26622_79_cong._rec._2668-73_1935.pdf. +[^12]: Rockefeller Foundation, *Information Furnished by the Rockefeller Foundation in Response to Questionnaires Submitted by United States Commission on Industrial Relations* (1915), answers on organization and the arrangement with Mr. King, Schedule A (Chapter 488, Laws of New York, 1913) and Schedule D, https://archive.org/details/cu31924000617567. +[^13]: Rockefeller Foundation, *Annual Report 1928*, secretary's report (members and trustees), list of officers and finance committee, exhibit of capital requirements in medical education (Institute for Psychiatric Research, Munich, 75,000 dollars, "Towards erection of building") and Medical Education division, pp. 326-327, https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1928. +[^14]: Rockefeller Foundation, *Annual Report 1936*, secretary's report (members and trustees), https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1936. +[^15]: Rockefeller Foundation, *Annual Report 1931*, pp. 166 and 170-172 (Munich institute; Bureau of Social Hygiene and the National Research Council; Cornell University Medical School and Dr. C. R. Stockard), https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1931; *Annual Report 1936*, pp. 166, 354 and 370 (Munich institute, RF 31045 and RF 33082; Bumke and Spatz; Institute of Pacific Relations), https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1936. +[^16]: Teresa Iacobelli, "Sex Problems as Social Problems: The Bureau of Social Hygiene, 1911-1934" (the essay dates the Bureau 1911 to 1934; the Rockefeller Archive Center biography dates its establishment 1913), Rockefeller Archive Center REsource, January 10, 2022, https://resource.rockarch.org/story/bureau-of-social-hygiene-prostitution-history/ (quoting John D. Rockefeller Jr., "The Origin, Work and Plans of the Bureau of Social Hygiene," January 27, 1913, and Leonard V. Harrison, comment of December 6, 1927). +[^17]: "Rockefeller v. Stewart," *Time*, January 28, 1929, https://time.com/archive/6656828/rockefeller-v-stewart/. +[^18]: Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, "Battle of the Century in Whiting," https://www.wrhistoricalsociety.com/standard-oils-battle-of-the-century. +[^19]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Banking and Currency, *Stock Exchange Practices*, part 7, Chase Securities Corporation (continued), November 15, 1933, testimony of Bertram Cutler, pp. 3349-3354, https://archive.org/details/stockexchangepra0733unit. +[^20]: "Business: Wiggin Out," *Time*, January 2, 1933, https://time.com/archive/6891023/business-wiggin-out/. +[^21]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Banking and Currency, *Stock Exchange Practices*, hearings pursuant to S. Res. 84 (72d Cong.) and S. Res. 56 and 97 (73d Cong.), part 5, Chase Securities Corporation, October 17, 1933, testimony of Albert H. Wiggin, pp. 2281-2282 and 2303-2304, https://archive.org/details/stockexchangepra0533unit. +[^22]: Anders Greenspan, "Colonial Williamsburg," *Encyclopedia Virginia*, Virginia Humanities, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/colonial-williamsburg/. +[^23]: National Park Service, "Creation of Grand Teton National Park (A Thumbnail History)," https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/creation.pdf. +[^24]: Franklin D. Roosevelt, message on H.R. 2241, "To abolish the Jackson Hole National Monument," December 29, 1944, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/veto-bill-abolishing-the-jackson-hole-national-monument. +[^25]: Rockefeller Archive Center, "Laurance S. Rockefeller," biography, https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/laurance-s-rockefeller/. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Keith Rabois.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Keith Rabois.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5ba47618 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Keith Rabois.md @@ -0,0 +1,264 @@ +--- +category: "Technologists" +tags: + - Person + - KeithRabois + - VentureCapital + - PayPalMafia + - KhoslaVentures + - FoundersFund + - Opendoor + - Square + - StanfordReview + - JacobHelberg + - PoliticalDonor + - EthicsAgreement + - SiliconValley +alias: + - Keith Rabois + - Keith Rabois (venture capitalist) + - Rabois +summary: "American lawyer and venture capitalist, former PayPal and Square executive, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund partner, Opendoor co-founder and chairman, Republican donor, and husband of Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg." +location: "Miami Beach, Florida" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[The Stanford Review]]" + role: "columnist and former editor" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[College Republicans]]" + role: "president of the Stanford chapter" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Sullivan & Cromwell]]" + role: "attorney; employer given in 1998 contribution records in Washington" + fn: 11 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[PayPal]]" + role: "senior executive" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[LinkedIn]]" + role: "vice president of business and corporate development" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Slide]]" + role: "executive vice president of strategy and business development" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Square]]" + start: 2010 + end: 2013-01-24 + role: "chief operating officer" + fn: 16 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Khosla Ventures]]" + start: 2013 + end: 2019 + role: "managing director" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Founders Fund]]" + start: 2019-03 + end: 2024-01 + role: "general partner" + fn: 5 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Khosla Ventures]]" + start: 2024-01 + role: "managing partner" + fn: 5 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Yelp]]" + end: 2014-01-17 + role: "independent director; chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Reddit]]" + start: 2012 + end: 2019 + role: "director" + fn: 20 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Xoom Corporation]]" + end: 2015-05-28 + role: "independent director" + fn: 18 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Affirm]]" + start: 2013 + end: 2025-06 + role: "director designated by Khosla Ventures entities" + fn: 5 + - type: founded + with: "[[Opendoor]]" + role: "co-founder" + fn: 24 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Opendoor]]" + start: 2025-09-10 + role: "chairman" + fn: 20 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Miami Labs]]" + role: "chief executive officer, director and promoter in the August 2022 Form D" + fn: 22 + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Jacob Helberg]]" + role: "husband" + fn: 27 + - type: funded + with: "[[Never Means Never PAC]]" + start: 2016-03-28 + role: "$50,000 contributor" + fn: 23 + - type: funded + with: "[[Senate Georgia Battleground Fund]]" + start: 2020-11-12 + role: "$154,100 contributor" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Take Back the House 2022]]" + start: 2021-03-26 + end: 2022-02-21 + role: "$1,369,700 contributor" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[SFA Fund]]" + start: 2023-09-13 + end: 2024-01-12 + role: "$1,000,000 contributor" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Grow the Majority]]" + start: 2024-02-16 + end: 2026-03-06 + role: "$2,000,000 contributor" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Congressional Leadership Fund]]" + start: 2024-02-20 + end: 2026-03-06 + role: "$1,500,000 contributor" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Trump 47 Committee]]" + start: 2024-09-24 + role: "$250,000 contributor" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Republican National Committee]]" + start: 2026-02-17 + role: "$443,000 contributor" + fn: 11 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +### Stanford + +Keith Rabois was an undergraduate at [[Stanford University]], where he edited and wrote for [[The Stanford Review]] and was president of the [[College Republicans]]. He graduated in 1991 and entered the [[Stanford Law School]] that autumn.[^1] By his own count he had written 31 columns by early 1992.[^2] The Review had printed several of his articles criticizing [[Dennis Matthies]], the resident fellow of Otero, a freshman dormitory.[^3] His age is given as 51 in a registration statement filed on November 18, 2020 and as 57 in a proxy statement filed on April 28, 2026.[^4][^5] + +### The Otero incident, January 1992 + +On the night of Sunday, January 19, 1992, Rabois and two other students passed through Otero on their way to a party, according to Rabois. The head advising associate of the dormitory told [[The Stanford Daily]] that he heard one voice screaming "Faggot! Hope you die of AIDS!" and "Can't wait 'til you die, faggot!" toward the resident fellow's cottage. Rabois confirmed the remarks "in substantive content," said they were "mostly about faggots being bad in general," and said that one of his own remarks that night was "See if you can kick me out of housing." He told the paper that Matthies "gets away with intimidating an entire dorm of 80 freshmen every year." Matthies said he assumed the comments were about him but that they were not spoken to him.[^3] + +Dean of Students [[Michael Jackson]] announced that the students would not be charged under the [[Fundamental Standard]]. Jackson's ground was that the 1990 interpretation of the standard reached only face-to-face insults; Law Professor [[Thomas Grey]], who wrote the interpretation, said that yelling at a door could qualify but that the interpretation protected only students, and Matthies was a staff member.[^1][^3] Judicial Affairs Officer [[Sally Cole]] said officials had instead chosen to make the case public, so that "the pressure of public disapproval" would fall on the participants.[^1] Jackson had sent the Daily a letter, delivered on January 31, that condemned the remarks without naming the students; he said he had not told any of them he would release it.[^6][^7] On February 5 the Daily corrected its earlier reports: one of the other two students had made no remarks, another participant said he "never opened his mouth," and Matthies had not been home at the time. Jackson said the university's investigation had failed to determine exactly who said what.[^6] Residence Dean [[Angela Rickford]] said Rabois had told her the week before that he knew "exactly what's permitted at this school" and declined to meet with her or anyone in the administration.[^7] + +In an unpublished letter to the Daily, Rabois wrote: "I don't necessarily hate homosexuals, but do believe in [[Jack Kemp]]'s suggestion that they may not be the best teachers of young children in public schools and recognize that the spread of AIDS has a direct causal link back to their activity."[^7] In a column published on February 7 he wrote that the remarks "were about Dennis Matthies, they were NOT directed at him. There was absolutely no reason to believe he was home," that the intention had been "for the speech to be outrageous enough to provoke a thought of 'Wow, if he can say that, I guess I can say a little more than I thought,'" and that when a residence dean called a week later he saw "an interesting opportunity to demonstrate the ridiculousness of the Grey Standard." He wrote: "I figured it would look really bad if they tried to do it to a student who had constantly been a thorn in their side," and "I hate Democrats, not homosexuals; they're the ones that have hurt the country."[^2] + +Law students posted fliers bearing his crossed-out photograph and the words "Homophobia is Ugly." More than 400 students, deans, staff and faculty of the law school signed a petition dissociating the school from the remarks, which ran as a half-page advertisement in the Daily; Dean [[Paul Brest]] called it "just the appropriate way for the institution to respond." Several students sent the Daily's reports to a Newport Beach law firm at which Rabois was a finalist for a position and said they planned to write to every law firm in California. More than 100 people and reporters from at least three newspapers attended an advertised address by Rabois on "Free Speech, Hate Speech" at which he did not appear.[^6][^8] On February 19 he and Matthies took calls on the premiere of "Talk Back" on [[KZSU]]. Rabois cited a letter in the Daily urging readers to write to the California bar to keep him out and said that the letters to potential employers "were not just speech." Asked whether he stood by the remarks, he said: "No, I didn't mean it that way. I don't hate anyone. It was an example."[^9] The Daily still described him as a first-year law student in April 1992, and its year-end review recorded that he had defended the remarks as a test of the Fundamental Standard.[^10] His later corporate biographies give a law degree from [[Harvard University]], with honors.[^4][^5] + +### Sullivan & Cromwell and PayPal + +Contribution records place Rabois in Washington from 1996 to early 1999. Three gifts in August and September 1998 to the [[National Republican Senatorial Committee]] and one to Talent for U.S. Congress, the committee of Representative [[Jim Talent]] of Missouri, give his employer as [[Sullivan & Cromwell]]; a gift of $1,000 in January 1999 went to Quayle 2000, the presidential committee of [[Dan Quayle]].[^11] The registration statement of [[Affirm]] states that he "began his career in the industry as a senior executive at PayPal and has also practiced as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell."[^4] + +From September 2001 his contributions were filed from Palo Alto with [[PayPal]] as employer, several of them describing him as a vice president.[^11] PayPal's prospectus of February 2002 lists its executive officers and key employees as of December 31, 2001, including [[Peter Thiel]], [[Max Levchin]], [[David Sacks]], [[Reid Hoffman]] and the chief financial officer [[Roelof Botha]], and does not include Rabois. [[Michael Moritz]] of [[Sequoia Capital]] sat on the audit committee with [[Elon Musk]] and [[Shailesh Mehta]].[^12] [[Connie Loizos]] of [[TechCrunch]] wrote in 2019 that Rabois had been executive vice president of business development, public affairs and policy at PayPal from late 2000 to late 2002, and that he, Thiel, [[Ken Howery]], Sacks and [[Joe Lonsdale]] had worked together at the Review.[^13] + +### LinkedIn, Slide and Square + +The Affirm filing lists his later positions as vice president of business and corporate development at [[LinkedIn]], executive vice president of strategy and business development at [[Slide]], the company founded by Levchin, and chief operating officer of [[Square]].[^4] A 2004 contribution gives his employer as Epoch Innovations and his occupation as chief operating officer; a 2008 gift to the [[John McCain]] joint committee names Slide; and a $2,400 gift in March 2010 went to Quayle for Congress, the committee of [[Ben Quayle]] of Arizona.[^11] Rabois filed a Form 3 as a director of Yelp with an event date of March 1, 2012.[^14] + +Square's Form D of September 2011, for a $100,000,052 Series C sale, lists [[Jack Dorsey]] and [[Jim McKelvey]] as executive officers and directors, Rabois as an executive officer, and Botha, [[Vinod Khosla]], [[Larry Summers]] and [[Mary Meeker]] as directors.[^15] The Stanford Daily reported in 2013 that Rabois had joined the company in 2010 and overseen its growth from 17 employees to more than 400.[^16] + +### Departure from Square + +Rabois resigned as Square's chief operating officer in January 2013. The Stanford Daily reported on January 25, 2013 that a Square employee alleged that Rabois had sexually harassed him and that the company had known of it and failed to act; the company did not identify the employee. Rabois denied the allegation. In a blog post he described a "physical relationship" with the man and wrote that he resigned "so my colleagues could continue to do great work without the distraction that a lawsuit would most certainly bring." Square's statement accepting the resignation said he had "exercised poor judgment." No lawsuit had been filed. Rabois told [[The Wall Street Journal]] he was "completely confident that all the facts will come out and I will be vindicated."[^16] Loizos wrote in 2019 that Square had said at the time it found no evidence to support the claims.[^13] + +The board he left included Botha of Sequoia and Khosla. In Square's registration statement of November 2015, Khosla Ventures III, LP held 16.9 percent of the shares and entities affiliated with Sequoia held 5.3 percent; Khosla, a director since June 2011, had tendered his resignation effective before the offering, and Botha and Meeker formed the compensation committee.[^17] + +### Khosla Ventures and public boards + +Rabois joined [[Khosla Ventures]] as a managing director in 2013 and left in 2019.[^4] He filed a Form 3 as a director of [[Xoom Corporation]] with an event date of February 14, 2013.[^18] On January 17, 2014 he resigned from the board of [[Yelp]], where he was an independent director and chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee, without disagreement with the company.[^19] On March 25, 2015 he gave notice of his resignation from Xoom's board, effective after its annual meeting of May 28, 2015; he sat on its nominating and corporate governance committee and its compliance committee.[^18] Square's 2015 filing lists Botha as a Xoom director as well.[^17] Opendoor's 2025 filing states that he sat on the board of [[Reddit]] from 2012 to 2019 and lists early personal investments by him in [[YouTube]], [[Airbnb]] and [[Palantir Technologies]].[^20] + +He joined the board of Affirm in 2013, as the designee of entities affiliated with Khosla Ventures.[^4] OpenDoor Labs Inc. of [[San Francisco]] filed a Form D in May 2014 naming [[Eric Wu]] as executive officer and director and Rabois as director.[^21] Contribution records for 2013 and 2015 show $10,600 to Ro for Congress, the committee of [[Ro Khanna]], with Khosla Ventures as employer.[^11] + +### Founders Fund and Miami + +Loizos reported on February 20, 2019 that Rabois was joining [[Founders Fund]] as a general partner after six years at Khosla.[^13] Opendoor's 2026 proxy statement dates his Founders Fund partnership from March 2019 to January 2024.[^5] Affirm's registration statement of November 2020 records that Rabois, Thiel and [[Brian Singerman]] shared voting and investment power over Affirm shares held by The Founders Fund VI and Founders Fund Growth partnerships; Singerman had resigned from the Affirm board on November 15, 2020, and Rabois remained on it, as a member of the audit committee.[^4] + +Contribution records give his city as Miami Beach from February 2021.[^11] In August 2022 Miami Labs, Inc., of North Miami Avenue, Miami, filed a Form D listing Rabois and [[Jack Abraham]] as executive officers, directors and promoters, with $31,999,996 sold to three investors; Rabois signed as chief executive officer.[^22] He returned to Khosla Ventures as a managing partner in January 2024 and served on Affirm's board until June 2025.[^5] + +### Political contributions + +Contributions attributed to Rabois in [[Federal Election Commission]] itemized records, excluding memo entries that record joint-committee allocations, total $141,500 in 2016, $333,100 in 2020, $895,700 in 2021, $957,100 in 2022, $1,508,500 in 2023, about $2.47 million in 2024, $1,022,000 in 2025 and $1,943,000 in 2026 through early April.[^11] + +On March 28, 2016 he gave $50,000 to [[Never Means Never PAC]], a super PAC registered on March 4, 2016, whose independent expenditures from March to June 2016, chiefly online advertising bought from [[Tusk Digital]], were reported as opposing [[Donald Trump]].[^23] On October 16, 2020 he gave $25,000 to the [[Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee]].[^11] On November 12, 2020 he gave $154,100 to the Senate Georgia Battleground Fund; [[Doug Leone]] of Sequoia gave $100,900 to the same committee on November 23.[^11] + +From 2021 the larger entries run to House Republican joint fundraising committees: $1,369,700 to Take Back the House 2022 in three gifts between March 2021 and February 2022, $693,700 to Protect the House 2024 in March 2023, and $2,000,000 to Grow the Majority between February 2024 and March 2026. Memo entries attached to these gifts record allocations to Kevin McCarthy for Congress and to Majority Committee PAC, the committee of [[Kevin McCarthy]], in March 2021, February 2022 and March 2023, and to Mike Johnson for Louisiana, the committee of [[Mike Johnson]], in February 2024 and March 2025; across all joint committees, the memo entries assign $1,601,700 of his money to the [[National Republican Congressional Committee]].[^11] He gave $1,000,000 to SFA Fund, Inc., a hybrid committee affiliated with Team Stand for America, in September 2023 and January 2024, after a $16,600 gift to the joint committee Team Stand for America whose memo entries of August 2023 record transfers to Nikki Haley for President, Inc., the committee of [[Nikki Haley]]; $100,000 to The Sentinel Action Fund; $500,000 and later $250,000 and $750,000 to the [[Congressional Leadership Fund]]; $200,000 to the Scalise Leadership Fund 2024; and $400,000 to NRSC Victory.[^11] On September 24, 2024 he gave $250,000 to the [[Trump 47 Committee]], with memo allocations to Never Surrender, Inc., the leadership committee of Trump, and on October 24, 2024 $100,000 to the super PAC Right for America. Leone gave $250,000 to the Trump 47 Committee on October 30, 2024 and $2,000,000 to Right for America on June 4, 2024. On February 17, 2026 Rabois gave $443,000 to the [[Republican National Committee]], recorded in four entries that include its headquarters, convention and legal proceedings accounts.[^11] + +### Opendoor + +On September 10, 2025 [[Opendoor]] announced that "Co-Founders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu" were returning to its board, with Rabois as chairman, and that "Khosla Ventures and Wu" were investing $40 million in a private placement.[^24] Its Form 8-K of the next day recorded stock purchase agreements under which Khosla Ventures Opportunity III, LP bought 5,263,158 shares for $35 million and Wu bought 751,879 shares for $5 million. The board grew from six to eight members; Rabois became a Class I director, chairman, and a member of the audit and risk committee and the compensation committee, and the board found him independent. Khosla Ventures Opportunity III accepted standstill and non-disparagement terms running until 90 days after Rabois leaves the board.[^20] The proxy statement of April 2026 lists him as an independent chairman and audit committee financial expert, and states that he sits on the private boards of [[Faire]] and [[Ramp]].[^5] + +Rabois's Form 3 reported 615,409 Opendoor shares held directly on September 10, 2025. Forms 4 report grants of restricted stock units in lieu of a $92,500 retainer on February 17, 2026 and of 41,667 units on June 11, 2026, after which he held 630,088 and then 671,755 shares directly. The 2026 proxy lists him as beneficial owner of 680,617 shares, including the 615,409 shares and warrants over 61,539 more.[^5][^25] + +### Marriage to Jacob Helberg + +[[Jacob Helberg]], a senior adviser to the chief executive of Palantir Technologies, was appointed to the [[U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission]] on January 27, 2023 by [[Hakeem Jeffries]], who wrote that "because of the change in Congress" he was appointing Helberg, "of Miami Beach, Florida," on behalf of the Speaker.[^26] At his nomination hearing before the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on June 10, 2025, Helberg said: "I would like to thank my husband, Keith."[^27] + +Helberg's public financial disclosure report, signed on January 24, 2025, lists consulting fees of $840,000 from Palantir, for services as senior adviser to its chief executive, and, as sources of more than $5,000 in compensation described as clients of his firm Outbuild, LLC of Miami, [[General Catalyst]], Hadrian, Regent Aerospace, [[UBS]], Gusto, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures and Caffeinated Capital. The same report lists, among other assets, interests in Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Fund, Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Partners XIV and Sequoia Technology Partners XII, valued at $15,001 to $50,000, $100,001 to $250,000 and $50,001 to $100,000, Affirm stock valued at $1,000,001 to $5,000,000, and Opendoor Technologies stock valued at $500,001 to $1,000,000.[^28] + +In an ethics agreement dated May 5, 2025, addressed to [[Richard C. Visek]], the [[State Department]]'s acting legal adviser and designated agency ethics official, Helberg wrote that his spouse was managing director of Khosla Ventures, had earlier been a general partner of Founders Fund, and held equity and carried interests through both firms in funds listed in an attachment, and that he would not participate in matters affecting Khosla Ventures' financial interests. He listed as sectors of heightened conflict risk "artificial intelligence software; space technology; cybersecurity; digital currencies, including platforms for trading; financial technology; renewable energy development; consumer and enterprise technology; digital health, medical technology, diagnostics, and therapeutics; and edge networking," and wrote: "I am prohibited from sharing nonpublic information with my spouse." The retained funds in Attachment B are management and employee entities of Founders Fund V through VIII and Founders Fund Growth and Growth II, and Khosla Ventures associates entities; their underlying holdings listed there include [[OpenAI]], [[SpaceX]], [[Anduril Industries]], Opendoor Labs, Affirm, Ramp and [[Stripe]].[^29] + +The same agreement states that "I and my spouse will divest our interests in the entities listed in Attachment A" within 90 days of confirmation. Attachment A includes the three Sequoia funds, [[Slow Ventures]] and [[SV Angel]] funds, Palantir, Block and Opendoor Technologies among public companies, and private holdings including [[Hadrian Automation]] and [[Regent Craft]].[^29] The Senate confirmed Helberg on October 7, 2025, by a vote of 51 to 47, in an en bloc confirmation of nominations under S. Res. 412.[^30] The State Department lists him as Under Secretary for Economic Affairs from October 16, 2025.[^31] In a Sequoia filing of February 2024, Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Partners Fund XIV, L.P. appears as a [[Cayman Islands]] partnership whose general partner, SC U.S. Venture XIV Management, L.P., is in turn managed by SC US (TTGP), Ltd.; the filing names Leone and Botha as the directors and stockholders of SC US (TTGP) who exercise voting and investment discretion.[^32] + +### Khosla Ventures, January 2026 + +After a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a protester, an American citizen, in Minneapolis in January 2026, Rabois wrote on [[X]] that "no law enforcement has shot an innocent person. illegals are committing violent crimes every day" and that "interfering w a law enforcement operation is not protected by any of those amendments." Khosla Ventures partner [[Ethan Choi]] replied: "I want to make it clear that Keith doesn't represent everyone's views here at @khoslaventures, at least not mine." Vinod Khosla wrote: "I agree with @EthanChoi7. Macho ICE vigilantes running amuck empowered by a conscious-less administration." [[Julie Bort]] of TechCrunch, who reported the exchange on January 26, 2026, wrote that Khosla did not directly rebuke Rabois and that the firm did not respond to a request for comment.[^33] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Steve McCarroll, "Officials to fight hate speech with public pressure," The Stanford Daily, February 4, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/04/MODSMD_ARTICLE1.article.txt +[^2]: Keith Rabois, "Rabois: My intention was to make a provocative statement," The Stanford Daily, February 7, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/07/MODSMD_ARTICLE21.article.txt +[^3]: Juthymas Harntha, "Two students can't be charged for hurling homophobic slurs," The Stanford Daily, February 3, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/03/MODSMD_ARTICLE3.article.txt (issue viewer https://archives.stanforddaily.com/1992/02/03) +[^4]: Affirm Holdings, Inc., Form S-1 registration statement, filed November 18, 2020, "Management" (director biographies, board composition, committees) and "Principal Stockholders" (footnote 7). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000110465920126927/tm2026663-4_s1.htm +[^5]: Opendoor Technologies Inc., definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A), filed April 28, 2026, director biographies, board leadership, director compensation and security ownership (footnote 14). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1801169/000114036126017460/ny20064714x1_def14a.htm +[^6]: "New light shed on Otero epithet case; Officials, students clarify circumstances," The Stanford Daily, February 5, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/05/MODSMD_ARTICLE4.article.txt +[^7]: June Cohen, "Rabois' comments on 'faggots' derided across University," The Stanford Daily, February 6, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/06/MODSMD_ARTICLE5.article.txt +[^8]: June Cohen, "Law School searches for the 'appropriate' response to Rabois," The Stanford Daily, February 11, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/11/MODSMD_ARTICLE5.article.txt +[^9]: Anush Yegyazarian, "Matthies, Rabois called on views of hate speech," The Stanford Daily, February 20, 1992. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/02/20/MODSMD_ARTICLE1.article.txt +[^10]: Liesl Olson, "KZSU strives to make programs accessible," The Stanford Daily, April 23, 1992, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/04/23/MODSMD_ARTICLE34.article.txt ; John Ford, "Staff Notebook," The Stanford Daily, April 30, 1992, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/04/30/MODSMD_ARTICLE19.article.txt ; Juthymas Harntha, "Anti-gay comments" (year in review), The Stanford Daily, June 3, 1992, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheStanfordDaily/archives-text/main/1992/06/03/MODSMD_ARTICLE28.article.txt +[^11]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, contributor name "Rabois, Keith" and variants, queried October 1, 2026 through https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ ; memo-coded (X) rows excluded from totals and read separately for joint-committee allocations; employer, occupation and city as filed. Examples: Sullivan and Cromwell rows sub_id 3061920110006215854 and 3061920110006164037 (1998); Quayle 2000 sub_id 3061920110007245353; Senate Georgia Battleground Fund (C00736967) sub_id 4122920201986594565; Take Back the House 2022 (C00766782) sub_ids 4042120211278490263, 4102020211374106323, 4042920221473350526; SFA Fund, Inc. (C00828061) sub_ids 4081320242011883727, 4022720241857652170; Grow the Majority (C00858373); Congressional Leadership Fund (C00504530); Trump 47 Committee (C00867937) sub_id 4051220251193610502; Right for America (C00867036); Republican National Committee (C00003418) sub_ids 4032320261425058817 to 4032320261425058819; DSCC sub_id 4063020211312065539. Leone rows under "Leone, Doug" and "Leone, Douglas," sub_ids 4122920201986594268, 4021320251172522832, 4071920241978175326. Committee types and affiliations from https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/{id}/. Candidate links checked through https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/{id}/ and /v1/candidate/{id}/: Talent for U S Congress C00253534 (H2MO02037), Quayle 2000 Inc C00342667 (P80002587), Quayle for Congress C00475863 (H0AZ03362, Quayle, Ben), Ro for Congress C00503185 (H4CA12055), Majority Committee PAC C00428052 and Kevin McCarthy for Congress C00420935 (H6CA22125), Mike Johnson for Louisiana C00608695 (H6LA04138), Nikki Haley for President Inc., now SFA Action, C00833392 (P40010977), Never Surrender, Inc. C00828541 (P80001571). +[^12]: PayPal, Inc., prospectus (Form 424B4), February 2002, "Management." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702006471/a2071068z424b4.htm +[^13]: Connie Loizos, "Keith Rabois joins Founders Fund amid transition at the firm," TechCrunch, February 20, 2019. https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/20/keith-rabois-is-leaving-khosla-ventures-for-founders-fund/ +[^14]: Keith Rabois, Form 3 (Yelp Inc.), event date March 1, 2012 (accession 0001209191-12-014763). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1539865/000120919112014763/doc3.xml +[^15]: Square, Inc., Form D, filed September 30, 2011 (accession 0001512673-11-000003). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000151267311000003/primary_doc.xml +[^16]: Edward Ngai, "Square COO, Stanford alum, resigns over sexual harassment allegations," The Stanford Daily, January 25, 2013. https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/25/square-coo-resigns-over-sexual-harassment-allegations/ +[^17]: Square, Inc., Form S-1/A, filed November 16, 2015, "Management" and "Principal Stockholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000119312515378578/d937622ds1a.htm +[^18]: Keith Rabois, Form 3 (Xoom Corp), event date February 14, 2013 (accession 0001209191-13-009126), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1539865/000120919113009126/doc3.xml ; Xoom Corporation, Form 8-K, filed March 27, 2015, Item 5.02, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1315657/000155837015000406/xoom-20150325x8k.htm +[^19]: Yelp Inc., Form 8-K, filed January 23, 2014, Item 5.02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000119312514018681/d664869d8k.htm +[^20]: Opendoor Technologies Inc., Form 8-K, filed September 11, 2025 (accession 0001140361-25-034609), Items 3.02, 5.02 and 8.01. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1801169/000114036125034609/ef20055426_8k.htm +[^21]: OpenDoor Labs Inc., Form D, filed May 29, 2014 (accession 0001609437-14-000002). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1609437/000160943714000002/primary_doc.xml +[^22]: Miami Labs, Inc., Form D, filed August 29, 2022 (accession 0001567619-22-016760). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1873379/000156761922016760/primary_doc.xml +[^23]: Federal Election Commission, committee record for Never Means Never PAC (C00610907), https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00610907/ ; Schedule E independent expenditures, https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_e/?committee_id=C00610907 ; Schedule A receipt of March 28, 2016 (sub_id 4042920161284569336). +[^24]: Opendoor Technologies Inc., press release, "Opendoor Names Kaz Nejatian as CEO; Founders Rabois and Wu Rejoin Board," September 10, 2025, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1801169/000114036125034609/ef20055426_ex99-1.htm +[^25]: Keith Rabois, Form 3 (Opendoor Technologies Inc.), event date September 10, 2025, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1539865/000153986525000002/wk-form3_1758318753.xml ; Form 4, transaction date February 17, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1539865/000153986526000003/wk-form4_1771541896.xml ; Form 4, transaction date June 11, 2026, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1539865/000153986526000005/wk-form4_1781555848.xml +[^26]: "Communication from the Democratic Leader," Congressional Record, vol. 169, no. 18, January 27, 2023, p. H471. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2023-01-27/html/CREC-2023-01-27-pt1-PgH471-4.htm +[^27]: Statement of Jacob S. Helberg, nominee for Under Secretary of State, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, June 10, 2025. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2b6dc080-c286-1b13-84e5-3c2b80b7457a/061025_Helberg_Testimony.pdf +[^28]: Jacob Helberg, OGE Form 278e, nominee report, electronically signed January 24, 2025, certified May 6, 2025, Parts 2, 4 and 6 (items 1.1, 60 to 62, 472 and 473). https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rvp2G0RgF478/v0 +[^29]: Jacob Helberg to Richard C. Visek, Acting Legal Adviser and Designated Agency Ethics Official, U.S. Department of State, "Ethics Undertakings," May 5, 2025, Sections 3, 5 and 6, Attachment A (pp. 6 to 22) and Attachment B (pp. 22 to 26). https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rOVlaP5GUdLQ/v0 +[^30]: United States Senate, Roll Call Vote 547, 119th Congress, 1st Session, October 7, 2025, "Confirmation: En Bloc Nominations Provided for Under the Provisions of S. Res. 412" (PN12-21, Jacob Helberg, of Florida). https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00547.xml +[^31]: U.S. Department of State, "Jacob Helberg," biography. https://www.state.gov/biographies/jacob-helberg +[^32]: Sequoia Capital USV XIV Holdco, Ltd. and others, Schedule 13D re Maplebear Inc., filed February 27, 2024, Item 2 and cover pages. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1579091/000119312524048200/d799472dsc13d.htm +[^33]: Julie Bort, "Vinod Khosla publicly disavows Keith Rabois' comments on ICE shooting," TechCrunch, January 26, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/vinod-khosla-publicly-disavows-keith-rabois-comments-on-ice-shooting/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Laurance Rockefeller.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Laurance Rockefeller.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dc61bcdc --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Laurance Rockefeller.md @@ -0,0 +1,271 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +tags: + - Person + - Rockefeller + - VentureCapital + - EasternAirLines + - Itek + - Venrock + - SpecialStudiesProject + - Conservation + - UFO + - ConsciousnessResearch + - ClintonWhiteHouse +alias: + - Laurance Rockefeller + - Laurance S. Rockefeller + - Laurance Spelman Rockefeller + - Laurence Rockefeller + - Laurence S. Rockefeller + - Laurence Spelman Rockefeller + - LSR +summary: "Son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., chief stockholder of Eastern Air Lines, venture investor, conservation commissioner, and from 1993 to 1996 petitioner to the Clinton White House on UFO declassification." +born: 1910-05-26 +died: 2004-07-11 +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: relative_of + with: "[[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]]" + role: "son" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Nelson Rockefeller]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[David Rockefeller]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 2 + - type: spouse_of + with: "[[Mary French Rockefeller]]" + start: 1934-08-15 + role: "husband" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[United States Navy]]" + start: 1942 + end: 1945 + role: "lieutenant commander, Bureau of Aeronautics" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Eastern Air Lines]]" + start: 1938 + role: "chief stockholder, according to W. David Lewis" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Itek]]" + role: "60,000 dollars according to Peter O. Crisp" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Venrock]]" + start: 1969 + role: "family venture capital group through which his investments were made from August 1969" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]" + start: 1958 + end: 1980 + role: "president, then chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Special Studies Project]]" + start: 1958-05-26 + role: "chairman of the planning committee" + fn: 8 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Special Studies Project]]" + role: "member of Panel II, International Security: The Military Aspect" + fn: 8 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]" + reverse: true + start: 1958 + role: "chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission" + fn: 1 + - type: represented + with: "[[Henry L. Diamond]]" + reverse: true + start: 1993-03-29 + role: "Washington attorney and long-time associate" + fn: 19 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission]]" + start: 1958 + role: "chairman" + fn: 11 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jackson Hole Preserve]]" + role: "president" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[American Conservation Association]]" + start: 1958 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center]]" + start: 1960 + end: 1982 + role: "chairman" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Alfred P. Sloan Foundation]]" + start: 1960 + end: 1982 + role: "trustee" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[New York Zoological Society]]" + start: 1935 + end: 1986 + role: "trustee" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Virgin Islands National Park]]" + start: 1956 + role: "donated more than 5,000 acres" + fn: 12 + - type: funded + with: "[[Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab]]" + role: "donor" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[Program for Extraordinary Experience Research]]" + start: 1993 + role: "funder, according to the John E. Mack Institute" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[Human Potential Foundation]]" + role: "partial funder, in the belief of John H. Gibbons" + fn: 16 + - type: funded + with: "[[Society for Scientific Exploration]]" + start: 1997 + role: "funds for the Pocantico UFO workshop, through the LSR Fund" + fn: 44 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Laurance S. Rockefeller (May 26, 1910, in [[New York City]], to July 11, 2004, at his home on [[Fifth Avenue]]) was the fourth of the six children of [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] and [[Abby Aldrich Rockefeller]]. He attended the Lincoln School of [[Teachers College, Columbia University|Teachers College]], [[Columbia University]], entered [[Princeton University]] in 1928, took a degree in philosophy in 1932 and studied for two years at [[Harvard Law School]]. He married [[Mary French Rockefeller|Mary French]] on August 15, 1934, at [[Woodstock, Vermont]], began work in the family office at [[Rockefeller Center]] in 1935, and served from 1942 to 1945 in the [[United States Navy]]'s [[Bureau of Aeronautics]], rising to lieutenant commander.[^1] His brothers were [[John D. Rockefeller III]], [[Nelson Rockefeller]], [[Winthrop Rockefeller]] and [[David Rockefeller]].[^2] + +### Eastern Air Lines + +The historian W. David Lewis wrote that in 1938 [[Eddie Rickenbacker]], seeking financing to take over [[Eastern Air Lines]], "secured enough backing ... from a syndicate including Laurance S. Rockefeller, who became the chief stockholder in a new corporate entity known as Eastern Air Lines," and that Rickenbacker became chief executive in April 1938.[^3] In Lewis's account Eastern's directors moved Rickenbacker up to chairman in 1953 and named [[Malcolm A. MacIntyre]] president and chief executive, and Rickenbacker interfered with MacIntyre's management. Lewis wrote that Rockefeller "decided that the only way out of its problems was a merger with one of the country's two largest carriers, American Airlines." The industry, led by [[Delta Air Lines]], opposed the merger, and it became clear that [[Robert F. Kennedy]], as attorney general, would veto it on antitrust grounds even if the [[Civil Aeronautics Board]] did not; the plan was scuttled.[^3] Rockefeller had hoped the merger would let him replace Rickenbacker and MacIntyre with the chief executive of American, [[C. R. Smith]]. When it failed he appointed a search committee, which chose [[Floyd D. Hall]] of [[Trans World Airlines]]; MacIntyre was fired, and Rickenbacker was summoned to a meeting and asked to retire. Rickenbacker took the news badly and agreed only after a second meeting, which Rockefeller attended, and he left his office at Rockefeller Center and did not return.[^3] + +The Civil Aeronautics Board regulated routes and mail pay throughout this period. In a transcontinental route case decided in 1961 the Board gave Delta and [[National Airlines]] access to [[San Diego]], [[Los Angeles]] and [[San Francisco]] and denied Eastern's application; Rickenbacker had attacked President [[John F. Kennedy]] in a speech while the case was pending.[^3] + +### Venture Investments + +[[Peter O. Crisp]] joined Rockefeller's staff in 1960 and sat on the board of [[Apple Computer]] for sixteen years; in an oral history recorded on October 21, 2008 he described the origin of the family's venture investing. After the war, Crisp said, Rockefeller hired "these three guys" to look for small technology companies: [[Randy Marston]], "who had worked for the Chase Bank for many years"; [[Harper Woodward]], "General Arnold's assistant in [[World War II]] in the Pentagon for procurement matters"; and [[Teddy Walkowicz]], "a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force" and "an MIT guy"; he named a fourth man, [[Jay Richardson Dilworth]], as "kind of the senior advisor to the [[Rockefeller family]]." Crisp said he screened proposals "for Marston, Woodward and Walkowicz," the "big shots" who then joined the boards.[^4] Among the investments Crisp listed since 1946 were [[New York Airways]], Eastern Air Lines, the [[Glenn L. Martin Company]], [[Reaction Motors]] (later bought by [[Thiokol]]), the [[Marquardt Aircraft Company]] (ramjet engines for missiles), Island Packers ("a tuna factory in the Pacific"), [[Flight Refueling]], the [[Piasecki Helicopter Company]] (merged with [[Vertol]] and later acquired by [[Boeing]]) and [[Aircraft Radio Corporation|Aircraft Radio]] (bought by [[Cessna]]); he also named [[Itek]] and [[Scantlin Electronics]], maker of the Quotron.[^4] Crisp said the staff passed on [[Haloid Company|Haloid]], which became [[Xerox]], after a former staff member's memorandum found no future in its copier technology, on which Marston wrote "I concur."[^4] From August 1969 Rockefeller's investments were channeled through [[Venrock]], which Crisp said was formed in 1969 and given its name because "we didn't want to be confused with philanthropy."[^1][^4] + +The record on Itek carries three dates. The [[Boston Globe]] obituary of [[Richard Leghorn|Dick Leghorn]] states that he cofounded Itek in 1957, and quotes him that the company was known as "the mystery company. It was very hush-hush."[^5] The [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s history of the [[CORONA]] satellite program, by [[Kenneth E. Greer]], published in a classified supplement to [[Studies in Intelligence]] in spring 1973, states that in late March and April 1958 "interest shifted to a competitive design submitted by Itek Corporation, a spin-off of Boston University," that the project proposal completed on April 9, 1958 was rewritten twice, "retaining the Itek configuration," and that the final proposal was forwarded on April 16, 1958 to the President's staff secretary and approved, "although not in writing"; Itek "was made responsible for the design and development of the camera subsystem, Fairchild producing the camera under subcontract to Itek."[^6] Crisp, who joined the staff in 1960, dated Leghorn's approach to Rockefeller to "around 1960": Leghorn said Eastman Kodak's cameras were heavy and inefficient, and Rockefeller told him to show he could leave [[Eastman Kodak]] without being sued, and put up 60,000 dollars in 1960 together with [[William A. Burden and Company]] and "the Walker Brothers, Elisha and Bayard Walker, who had an investment company called the Long Island Company." Crisp said Itek was later bought by [[Litton Industries]] and that the product "which made them famous" was "the camera which was in the U-2 plane that was flown by Francis Gary Powers."[^4] + +On Apple, Crisp said that [[Mike Markkula]], who had advised the founders, called Venrock when Markkula's 110,000-dollar loan guarantee ran out, and [[Steve Jobs]] and [[Steve Wozniak]] came to New York. Venrock bought 10 percent of the company for 300,000 dollars, valuing it at 3 million dollars, and put in 200,000 dollars more about eight months later; at the initial public offering the 500,000 dollars was worth 110 million dollars. When Apple prepared to go public the company wanted the managing partner on the board, and Crisp took the seat of his partner [[Hank Smith]], who "made a lot of money in Intel and in Apple."[^4] + +### Special Studies Project + +The [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]'s [[Special Studies Project]] began in 1956 under its president, Nelson Rockefeller, who chaired it for two years; when Nelson became governor of New York in 1958 Laurance became chairman.[^7] The published planning committee lists "Laurance S. Rockefeller, (Chairman since May 26, 1958)" and "Nelson A. Rockefeller, (Chairman, resigned May 26, 1958)," with [[Dana S. Creel]], [[Nancy Hanks]], [[Emmet John Hughes]], [[Francis A. Jamieson]], [[Henry A. Kissinger]], [[John E. Lockwood]] and [[Oscar M. Ruebhausen]].[^8] + +Panel II, "International Security: The Military Aspect," first published on January 6, 1958, had been meeting since November 1956 and was the first panel to report.[^8] Its members, as listed in the 1961 volume, were [[Frank Altschul]], General [[Frederick L. Anderson]], [[Karl R. Bendetsen]], [[Detlev W. Bronk]], [[Gordon E. Dean]], [[James B. Fisk]], [[Bradley Gaylord]], [[Roswell L. Gilpatric]], [[Townsend W. Hoopes]] of J. H. Whitney and Company, [[Ellis A. Johnson]] of the Operations Research Office, Colonel [[George A. Lincoln]], [[Henry R. Luce]], General [[James McCormack Jr.]] (chairman until October 1957), [[Frank C. Nash]], "Laurance S. Rockefeller, president, Rockefeller Brothers, Inc.," [[Arthur Smithies]], [[Edward Teller]], "T. F. Walkowicz, aeronautical engineer," [[Carroll L. Wilson]], and [[John F. Floberg]] until his appointment to the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] in June 1957.[^8] The panel reports were published as *Prospect for America* by [[Doubleday]] in 1961 and sold over 400,000 copies, and participants later served in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations.[^7] + +The Central Intelligence Agency's files hold correspondence on two of the releases. [[Allen Dulles]], [[Director of Central Intelligence]], wrote to Rockefeller on September 16, 1960: "I have found this study, like the other reports in your special studies project, most interesting." The study was *The Power of the Democratic Idea*, and a copy of it in the agency's files carries a notice that it was sent "in advance of the RELEASE DATE, Wednesday, September 7, 1960" and was to be treated as confidential until then.[^9] On February 20, 1961 Rockefeller wrote to Dulles on Rockefeller Brothers Fund stationery that lists him as president, enclosing an advance copy of *Prospect for America*, which was to be published on March 17; his letter states that the Trustees of the Fund organized the project "in the belief that there was real merit in a group of citizens making an effort to look at America as it is." Dulles replied on March 1, 1961 that the book would be "a welcome and valuable addition to my private library."[^10] + +### Conservation Commissions, Jackson Hole and the Virgin Islands + +In 1958 President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] appointed Rockefeller chairman of the [[Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission]].[^1] He later served as a special emissary for President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] on the creation of [[Redwood National Park]] and chaired President [[Richard Nixon]]'s Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. He was president, then chairman, of the Fund from 1958 to 1980, chairman of [[Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center|Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center]] from 1960 to 1982, a trustee of the [[Alfred P. Sloan Foundation]] from 1960 to 1982, and a trustee of the [[New York Zoological Society]] from 1935 to 1986. In 1958 he established the [[American Conservation Association]], Inc., a philanthropy to function as a conservation service agency, assisting other agencies and initiating projects of its own.[^1] The commission's members were Senators [[Clinton P. Anderson]], [[Henry C. Dworshak]], [[Henry M. Jackson]] and [[Jack Miller]]; Representatives [[John P. Saylor]], [[Gracie Pfost]], [[Ralph J. Rivers]] and [[John H. Kyl]]; and presidential commissioners [[Samuel T. Dana]], [[Marian S. Dryfoos]], [[Bernard L. Orell]], [[Joseph W. Penfold]], [[M. Frederick Smith]] and [[Chester S. Wilson]]. The report was presented to President Kennedy and Congress on the Wednesday before the Interior Department's release of February 1, 1962, and Secretary of the Interior [[Stewart Udall]] gave priority to the creation of a Bureau of Outdoor Recreation.[^11] + +As president of [[Jackson Hole Preserve]], Inc., Rockefeller made the 1949 gift of [[Jackson Hole]] land to the federal government on his father's behalf.[^1] [[Virgin Islands National Park]] "was created through a donation of more than 5,000 acres of land in 1956 ... from Laurance Rockefeller"; in the mid-1950s he established the [[Caneel Bay]] Resort on [[Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands|St. John]], which operated until [[Hurricane Irma]] and [[Hurricane Maria]] closed it in 2017; and in 1983 Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., "an organization established by Laurance Rockefeller," donated the roughly 150 acres of the resort to the Park Service, subject to a retained use estate allowing its operator to use the property as a resort until September 30, 2023.[^12] The corporation, with an [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date of 1942, still files returns from Woodstock, Vermont, and reported assets of 5,327,031 dollars for 2023.[^13] + +### Consciousness Research + +The [[Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab|Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research]] laboratory, established in 1979 by [[Robert Jahn]], announced its closure on February 10, 2007, stating that its research "was funded by gifts from Princeton alumni [[James S. McDonnell]], patriarch of the McDonnell Douglas Aerospace empire, Laurance Rockefeller, [[Donald C. Webster]], and by numerous other philanthropic benefactors."[^14] According to the [[John E. Mack Institute]], in 1993 the [[Center for Psychology and Social Change]] formed the [[Program for Extraordinary Experience Research]] "with funding from Laurence Rockefeller" to study reported "alien encounters"; the program's own page states that as of 2002 it was no longer an active research project.[^15] + +[[C. B. Scott Jones]] wrote to the presidential science adviser, [[John H. Gibbons]], on the letterhead of the [[Human Potential Foundation]] of [[Falls Church, Virginia]].[^16] A handwritten note of February 24, 1994 on one of those letters, initialed by Gibbons, concerns Jones's association with Senator [[Claiborne Pell]] and reads: "Scott Jones used to be associated with Senator Pell. He was formerly a Navy pilot. The Human Potential Foundation is funded in part, I believe, by L.R."[^16] In the same office's memorandum for the President of August 4, 1995, Gibbons wrote that Rockefeller's interests "are related to those of Senator Pell."[^17] The writer [[Grant Cameron]], in a paper on the documents below, wrote that Pell founded the foundation and Jones was its president, that [[Common Cause Magazine]] had reported Rockefeller put more than 700,000 dollars through it from 1991 to 1994, and that [[Richard Farley]], who worked for the foundation for about three years, gave the same figure and "claimed" that Rockefeller's interest was in "alternative religious and psychiatric/psychological paradigms, including so-called 'UFOs' and 'abductions,' having 'Global Mind Change' potentials."[^18] + +### Approach to the Science Adviser, 1993 + +The [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]], where Gibbons was Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, released 991 pages of correspondence on UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence to Cameron in January 2001, according to Cameron.[^18] The earliest is a memorandum of March 29, 1993 from [[Henry L. Diamond]] to Gibbons (attention [[Mike Kowalok]]), concerning an approach by Rockefeller to President [[Bill Clinton]] and asking for a meeting with Rockefeller on April 12 or 13. It describes Rockefeller as "a leading U.S. conservationist, businessman, and philanthropist" who, "with other leading citizens, is planning to make an approach to President Clinton" on "the potential availability of government information about unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial life," and gives the basic message as "a belief in many quarters that the government has long held classified information regarding UFOs which has not been released and that the failure to do so has brought about unnecessary suspicion and distrust." It states that Rockefeller would be accompanied by Jones, "President of the Human Potential Foundation," and by Diamond, "a Washington attorney and long-time associate of Mr. Rockefeller, known to Dr. Gibbons." A handwritten note adds "+ Scott Jones."[^19] + +On April 21, 1993, on stationery of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600, Rockefeller thanked Gibbons for seeing him "so early Wednesday morning." He wrote that Gibbons had said that in three months as science adviser he had "not learned that the United States Government has a body of knowledge on UFOs or ETI that is being withheld from the public," and had made it clear that "initially our most fruitful avenue of approach, most likely, will be within the [[Department of Defense]]." Rockefeller would report on the meeting to [[Melvin Laird]] and hoped to follow up with Secretary of Defense [[Les Aspin]]; he planned a letter to President Clinton urging "a reassessment of government policy regarding UFO and ETI information" and a small group, convened with Jones's help, to discuss UFOs "in an informal, non-public way."[^20] On May 26, 1993 Gibbons, signing as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, thanked Jones for "the materials," noted that the books "came from the Foundation's library," and sent "best wishes and regards to Lawrence."[^21] + +On May 7, 1993 he wrote to the evangelist [[Billy Graham]], proposing that Graham co-sign a letter to Clinton asking for a review of the classification of UFO information, and stated that "we are working closely with Mel Laird, former Secretary of Defense, and a great good friend of the present Secretary, Les Aspin," and had met Gibbons. The other co-signers under consideration were [[Maurice Strong]], the former [[United Nations]] secretary general [[Javier Pérez de Cuéllar]], possibly former President [[Jimmy Carter]], and Senators Pell and [[Ted Stevens]]. Graham replied on May 20, 1993 that he thought Rockefeller was "exactly right, that since they are reviewing the whole classification process, many documents will probably become available that have not previously," and declined, writing that he had "made it a policy not to co-sign such letters" and kept his contacts with presidents "on a purely personal, one-on-one, private basis."[^22] + +On August 4, 1993 Rockefeller invited Gibbons or a representative to an informal roundtable he was hosting from September 13 to 15 at the [[JY Ranch]], in the Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyoming. The letter gives the purpose as assessing "the extent of information which may or may not be in the hands of the federal government" and developing "productive ways to encourage the Administration to include information of UFO and ETI phenomena in its current review of previously classified information." The six presenters were [[Steven Greer]], [[Linda Moulton Howe]], [[Bruce Maccabee]], [[R. Leo Sprinkle]], [[Jill Tarter]] of the [[NASA]] Ames Research Center and [[Keith Thompson]]; [[John Mack]], [[Peter Sturrock]], "a representative of the Science Advisor to the President" and "several of my associates" were also invited. The four themes included "strategies for influencing government policy in the direction of openness," "assessment of alleged psychological, economic and other barriers to a government policy of openness on the subject," and "spiritual and other dimensional aspects of UFO and ETI phenomena." The roundtable "will not be publicized but, of course will not be secret" and would be off the record.[^23] The [[Paradigm Research Group]] reproduces a photograph that it captions as the September 14 to 15, 1993 meeting at the JY Ranch and labels, left to right, Diamond, Greer, Maccabee, [[George Lamb]], [[Robert Bigelow]], Howe, Sprinkle, Thompson, Mack, Rockefeller, Jones, Johnie Jones and [[Robert Teets]], with [[Marie Galbraith|Marie "Bootsie" Galbraith]] and Farley behind the camera.[^24] On November 12, 1993 Diamond, on the letterhead of [[Beveridge and Diamond]], wrote to a Gibbons staff member that he had seen Gibbons at the [[Environmental Law Institute]] dinner on October 20 and that Rockefeller wished to see him again between December 10 and 23.[^25] + +### Roswell, 1994 + +After a meeting on February 4, 1994, Rockefeller wrote to Gibbons on February 14 that "your approach of starting by addressing a specific incident is an important and reasonable way to begin the process of declassification," that the July 1947 [[Roswell Incident]] "would be a logical and challenging place to start," and that if the effort succeeded it "will become an important prototype for the release of all UFO related information." He proposed amnesty "on an individual basis" for those with knowledge, and, "in the light of your proposed initiative," said "we shall defer writing to the President."[^26] On May 24, 1994 Secretary of the Air Force [[Sheila Widnall]] sent Gibbons a cover memorandum, "As you and I discussed earlier, we are researching Air Force material on UFOs in general, and Roswell in particular," with an interim report to her of May 20 from the office designated SAF/AAZ. The report stated that "in early Feb 94, upon learning of the projected GAO audit," the Air Force had stood up elements of its Declassification Review Team to begin preliminary research, and that the offices tasked had "reported no records were located to indicate anything unusual happened at Roswell in July 1947." Widnall wrote: "My policy is that we are declassifying everything even remotely related, and anything our people think still needs to be classified will have to be justified to me." A handwritten note on the cover, initialed "JG," reads: "Skip - for your scanning. After you and I have a chance to discuss, I'll be ready to communicate w/ L.R. + his niece."[^27] + +Jones wrote to Gibbons on February 17 enclosing a chronology compiled by the [[Fund for UFO Research]] and press clippings on the inquiry by Representative [[Steven Schiff]], and reporting that a [[Pentagon]] spokesman had told a [[Government Accountability Office|General Accounting Office]] investigator "Go shit in your hat." He had spent time after the February 4 meeting with [[Edward J. Reese]] of the Modern Military Branch of the [[National Archives and Records Administration]] on where Roswell documentation might be located. The letter's second page reads: "Whatever Roswell turns out to be, it is only the opening round. ... My mention of mind-control technology at the February 4 meeting was quite deliberate. Please be careful about this. There are reasons to believe that some government group has interwoven research about this technology with alleged UFO phenomena. If that [is] correct, you can expect to run into early resistance when inquiring about UFOs, not because of the UFO subject, but because that has been used to cloak research and applications of mind-control activity."[^16] + +On June 1, 1994 Rockefeller wrote that "it was Mel Laird who suggested that you should be the logical point of contact and coordination with the federal government," asked whether there were developments in the survey of information among federal agencies on Roswell that Gibbons had suggested, attached a letter from Laird, and mentioned "preliminary talks with those who might be interested in bringing about a United Nations Conference on extraterrestrial intelligence."[^28] Laird's letter, dated May 9, 1994 and replying to one from Rockefeller of April 25, stated that "you are proceeding properly by going through the President's Science Advisor," and that "any review will certainly disappoint some individuals who have built up some rather extreme antidotal and uncollaborated accounts."[^28] On July 27, 1994 [[Anne Bartley]] wrote to Gibbons about "follow-up on our meeting with Laurance S. Rockefeller and his associates," recalling that Gibbons had suggested "an informal inquiry into the availability of information within federal agencies about the 1947 Roswell, [[New Mexico]], event," asking about "prospects for a relaxation of the classification system," and stating that Rockefeller "has begun to wonder whether a U.N. Conference would be useful."[^29] + +On August 11, 1994 Jones wrote to Gibbons that [[Edgar Mitchell]], founder of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]], on whose board Pell sat, would be glad to meet Gibbons "in the area that Laurance, you and I have been discussing," and that Gibbons "may want to talk to [[R. James Woolsey|James Woolsey]] about what you are doing." The next lines, partly cut off in the scan, say that Woolsey "has a document search project under way" and "has not discovered anything of significance," and Jones adds: "If I had the responsibility to run a super safe black program on this subject, I would take it completely out of the government's" bureaucracy "and run it from the private sector, probably somewhere within" the aerospace community "or perhaps General Motors."[^30] On September 5, 1994 Rockefeller thanked Gibbons for a note that he had received a report from the Air Force; after the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] released the results of its Roswell investigation (in July 1994 in the General Accounting Office's account, and publicly available in September in Gibbons's)[^17][^31] he wrote on December 9 thanking Gibbons for "your initiative in stimulating the recent Air Force Review of the Roswell incident," adding that "we are continuing our citizens' reconnaissance of the extraterrestrial intelligence phenomenon."[^32] On February 9, 1995 Jones wrote that "there is some shadowy evidence that the administration is in the process of modifying the government's policy concerning secrecy and denial about UFO phenomena," that "Laurance mentioned that he was also considering a public relations approach" and that "he can afford a rather aggressive and expensive effort implementing that strategy, e.g., full page ads in major newspapers," and that after Rockefeller's last meeting with Gibbons "we are not going to get feedback from our attempts to get the [[White House]] to open the books on this subject."[^33] On April 11, 1995 Rockefeller wrote that he had reviewed the draft executive order revising national classification policy and that "my concern with government information involving extraterrestrial intelligence was stimulated by the widespread public belief that the government was withholding information about UFO incidents."[^34] + +The General Accounting Office wrote to Gibbons on April 12, 1995, at Schiff's request, that it was determining what records existed on Roswell. Gibbons replied on April 26 to the GAO's director of federal management issues that the Office of Science and Technology Policy had "no direct knowledge of what occurred at Roswell and no records, except for the information I received from the Air Force."[^31] An internal OSTP message of June 9, 1995 reports a call from the GAO about its eight-page report, which would state that the agency had asked OSTP and other agencies whether they held records and that "DOE and OSTP had no records"; a handwritten reply of June 12, signed "Sue B.," reads "Tanya, OK w/ JHG."[^35] + +### The Draft Letter to the President, 1995 and 1996 + +On August 4, 1995 Gibbons sent President Clinton a memorandum headed "Inquiry from Laurance Rockefeller." It begins: "You will probably see Mr. Rockefeller on your vacation in the Tetons. He will want to talk with you about his interest in extrasensory perception, paranormal phenomena, and UFO's. His interests are related to those of Senator Pell." Gibbons wrote that "Les Aspin and Mel Laird referred Laurance to me," that Rockefeller had sought "the Administration's help in 'declassifying the information'," that "I persuaded Rockefeller to not bother you with this issue but instead to let me talk with defense officials," that Secretary of the Air Force Widnall had "arranged for a full revisiting by the Air Force of pertinent records, guaranteed 'amnesty' to anyone who felt constrained to talk," and that "the bottom line is that all evidence points to a failed U.S. Air Force balloon experiment, and no evidence of a 'flying saucer' or cover-up conspiracy. (However, the UFO 'community' persists in believing that the Air Force report is flawed.)" A "second rubric" was "human potential" research: "Senator Pell and others have supported the funding of research in social science to focus more on these phenomena." Gibbons closed: "I've made no secret about my conviction that we must not be too diverted from more earthly imperatives."[^17] + +The Clintons began a vacation in Jackson Hole on August 15, 1995, with Senator [[Jay Rockefeller]] and his wife, Sharon, as hosts at a Rockefeller family estate.[^36] The [[William J. Clinton Presidential Library]] holds photographs, in a set processed for a [[Freedom of Information Act]] request, of a visit by President Clinton and [[Hillary Clinton|Hillary Rodham Clinton]] to Laurance Rockefeller's JY Ranch on August 21, 1995.[^36] On August 17 Jones, writing on Human Potential Foundation letterhead to Representative Schiff, described a conference, "When Cosmic Cultures Meet," held in Washington over the Memorial Day weekend: "The conference was part of a process to make it politically safe for Congress to get involved in a subject that from all available evidence has been the secret purview of the executive department for nearly fifty years."[^37] + +On August 23, 1995 Rockefeller's office faxed Gibbons five pages plus a cover sheet: a draft letter to President Clinton, headed "Lifting Secrecy on Information About Extraterrestrial Intelligence as Part of the Current Classification Review," and the 1993 exchange with Graham. The draft states that Rockefeller has "been interested in the enhancement of spirituality and holistic healing as well as the development of a new paradigm of consciousness," and asks the President to direct that information on extraterrestrial intelligence and UFOs "be given priority in the current classification review," to appoint a coordinator for government information about those subjects, to bring together information "from all federal agencies involved, such as the Department of Defense, the Air Force, NASA and the CIA" ("Your Science Advisor, Jack Gibbons, might be the right person for this role"), and to make known that anyone with information "will be granted amnesty from relevant oaths or other government constraints."[^22] On November 1, 1995 Diamond, writing from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600, sent Gibbons "a draft letter to the President which Laurance has been discussing with Mrs. Clinton and her staff" and a draft report on the "best evidence" about UFOs; a letter of November 8 identified [[Don Berliner]] as its principal author.[^38] + +On February 5, 1996 Rockefeller told Gibbons that the "Best Evidence Report (the report written by Don Berliner and coordinated by Marie Galbraith which we have referred to as the 'Bootsie report')" was an "unusual combined effort of the three major UFO organizations." He wrote that Gibbons's "willingness to approach the Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency and NASA on this project is extremely important," and that the group would put forward names for a pilot project on an expanded amnesty program. The draft letter to the President, he wrote, "might receive attention in a second term. You indicated that you will keep the First Lady's Office informed, and we shall as well."[^39] On February 27, 1996 Widnall wrote to Gibbons, after "our recent dinner conversation," enclosing "the full Roswell Report to pass on to Lawrence Rockefeller" and noting that a second volume was in preparation; on February 29 Rockefeller sent Gibbons the "Best Available Evidence" report, writing "I sponsored this report" and, "while I do not necessarily agree with every finding and conclusion," that "the evidence presented indicates that this subject merits serious scientific study," with a new draft of the letter to the President.[^40] On October 17, 1996 he proposed an international conference. "At the suggestion of Maurice Strong," he had contacted [[Julia Marton-Lefevre|Julia Marton Lefevre]], executive director of what the letter calls the International Scientific Union, and he forwarded a letter from [[Carl Sagan]], writing that he was "puzzled by Carl's enthusiastic support of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence by radio telescope while he maintains a high degree of skepticism about other means of inquiry."[^41] In a letter of January 2, 1997 to Gibbons, Maccabee wrote that in April 1993, "at the request of Dr. [[Ronald Pandolfi]] of the CIA," he had faxed Gibbons an information paper on UFOs.[^42] On June 20, 1997 the Secretary of the Air Force sent Gibbons the second volume of *The Roswell Report: Case Closed*, to be released on the following Tuesday.[^43] + +### Pocantico Workshop, 1997 + +In December 1996, in Sturrock's words in the introduction to the published proceedings, "Mr. Laurance S. Rockefeller, Chairman of the [[LSR Fund]], invited me to review with him the status of our understanding of the problem posed by UFO reports." Rockefeller, Diamond and Sturrock conceived a workshop; Sturrock submitted a proposal to the LSR Fund in February 1997 with administrative support from the [[Society for Scientific Exploration]], and "the necessary funds were transferred from the Fund to the Society." The workshop met at the [[Pocantico Conference Center]] at Tarrytown, New York, from September 29 to October 4, 1997, and Sturrock thanked Rockefeller "for his interest in and support of this project" and Diamond and [[Charles Tolbert]] for administrative support.[^44] + +### Rockefeller Funds + +The Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund of New York, which received its Internal Revenue Service ruling in June 2006, reported assets of 35,533,812 dollars for 2023. The Fund for UFO Research of Fairfax, Virginia, to which the letters of 1994 and 1996 refer, has been tax-exempt since April 1982.[^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Rockefeller Archive Center, "Laurance S. Rockefeller," biography, https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/laurance-s-rockefeller/ (birth, death, education, marriage, Navy service, family office, Venrock from August 1969, Jackson Hole Preserve, American Conservation Association, Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, Fund presidency and chairmanship 1958 to 1980, Sloan-Kettering, Sloan Foundation, Zoological Society). +[^2]: Rockefeller Archive Center, "John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1874-1960," biography (children of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller), https://rockarch.org/resources/about-the-rockefellers/john-d-rockefeller-jr/. +[^3]: W. David Lewis, "A Man Born Out of Season: Eddie Rickenbacker, Eastern Airlines, and the Civil Aeronautics Board," *Business and Economic History* 25, no. 1 (Fall 1996), pp. 157-163, https://thebhc.org/sites/default/files/beh/BEHprint/v025n1/p0154-p0164.pdf. +[^4]: Peter O. Crisp, "Venture Capital Greats: A Conversation with Peter O. Crisp," interviewed by Carole Kolker, October 21, 2008, National Venture Capital Association Venture Capital Oral History Project, pp. 8, 24-28, 38 and 45-47, https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/vcg-crisp.pdf. +[^5]: "Richard Leghorn, 98, pioneer of Cold War aerial espionage photography," *Boston Globe*, February 5, 2018, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2018/02/05/richard-leghorn-pioneer-cold-war-aerial-espionage-photography/C6PlYAATiFZNKx2P1La8JJ/story.html. +[^6]: Kenneth E. Greer, "Corona," *Studies in Intelligence*, Supplement, 17 (Spring 1973), pp. 1-37, reproduced in Kevin C. Ruffner, ed., *CORONA: America's First Satellite Program* (Washington: Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1995), https://www.cia.gov/static/Corona-Between-the-Sun-and-the-Earth.pdf. +[^7]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund, "In Depth: The Special Studies Project," Wayback Machine capture of October 5, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20211005203914/https://www.rbf.org/about/our-history/timeline/special-studies-project/in-depth. +[^8]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund, *Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports* (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961), list of the Special Studies Project planning committee and introduction by Panel II, https://archive.org/details/prospect-for-america-the-rockefeller-panel-reports-rockefeller-brothers-fund-1961. +[^9]: Allen W. Dulles to Laurance S. Rockefeller, September 16, 1960, CIA-RDP80B01676R003700050029-8, and the advance copy of Special Studies Project report VI, *The Power of the Democratic Idea*, with release notice, CIA-RDP80B01676R003700050028-9, CIA Reading Room, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003700050029-8 and https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003700050028-9. +[^10]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to Allen W. Dulles, February 20, 1961, and Dulles to Rockefeller, March 1, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R003500230010-0, CIA Reading Room, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r003500230010-0. +[^11]: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, news release, "Secretary Udall Pledges Support of ORRRC Proposals," February 1, 1962, https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/historic-news-releases/1962/19620201B.PDF. +[^12]: National Park Service, *Caneel Bay Area Redevelopment and Management Environmental Assessment*, Virgin Islands National Park (January 2023), chapter 1, https://npshistory.com/publications/viis/caneel-bay-redev-mgt-ea-2023.pdf. +[^13]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization records for Jackson Hole Preserve Inc (EIN 13-1813818), Laurance S Rockefeller Fund (EIN 20-4192256) and Fund For UFO Research (EIN 52-1164176), https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/131813818.json, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/204192256.json and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/521164176.json. +[^14]: Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, press release, "Princeton's PEAR Laboratory to Close," February 10, 2007, http://pearlab.icrl.org/press-statement.html. +[^15]: John E. Mack Institute, "History," https://johnemackinstitute.org/history/, and "Program for Extraordinary Experience Research (PEER)," http://johnemackinstitute.org/2003/01/program-for-extraordinary-experience-research-peer/. +[^16]: C. B. Scott Jones, Human Potential Foundation, to John H. Gibbons, February 17, 1994, with Gibbons's handwritten note dated 2/24/94, Office of Science and Technology Policy file, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-17-94.htm. +[^17]: John H. Gibbons, memorandum for the President, "Inquiry from Laurance Rockefeller," August 4, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-4-95.htm. +[^18]: Grant Cameron, "Extraterrestrial Politics in the Clinton White House (1993-2001) and the Laurance Rockefeller Initiative," introduction and notes iii and xiii, http://www.x-ppac.org/OSTP.html. The index of the scanned documents is at http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller_Initiative_Documents.htm. +[^19]: Henry L. Diamond, memorandum to John H. Gibbons, attention Mike Kowalok, "Request for Meeting with Dr. Gibbons for Laurance S. Rockefeller, April 12 or 13, 1993," March 29, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-3-29-93.htm. +[^20]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, April 21, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-21-93.htm. +[^21]: John H. Gibbons, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, to C. B. Scott Jones, May 26, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-5-26-93.htm. +[^22]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to Billy Graham, May 7, 1993, and Graham to Rockefeller, May 20, 1993, attached to Rockefeller's fax to Gibbons of August 23, 1995, with the undated draft letter to President Clinton, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-23-95.htm. +[^23]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, August 4, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-4-93.htm. +[^24]: Paradigm Research Group, "September 14-15, 1993 Meeting at Rockefeller's JY Ranch in Wyoming," photograph and caption, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/9-14-93_Meeting.htm. +[^25]: Henry L. Diamond, Beveridge and Diamond, P.C., memorandum to Sue Bachtel, November 12, 1993, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-11-12-93.htm. +[^26]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, February 14, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-14-94.htm. +[^27]: Sheila E. Widnall, Secretary of the Air Force, memorandum for John H. Gibbons, "UFO Research," May 24, 1994, with Gibbons's handwritten note, and the enclosed memorandum for the Secretary of the Air Force from SAF/AAZ, "Status Report on Search Efforts Regarding 'the Roswell Incident,'" May 20, 1994, p. 1, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-5-24-94.htm (the memorandum of May 24 is listed among the enclosures to Gibbons's letter to the General Accounting Office of April 26, 1995). +[^28]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, June 1, 1994, with the attached letter from Melvin R. Laird to Rockefeller, May 9, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-6-1-94.htm. +[^29]: Anne Bartley, memorandum for Jack Gibbons, "Laurance S. Rockefeller Interest in Extraterrestrial Intelligence," July 27, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-7-27-94.htm. +[^30]: C. B. Scott Jones, Human Potential Foundation, to John H. Gibbons, August 11, 1994, pp. 1-2, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-11-94.htm. +[^31]: U.S. General Accounting Office, General Government Division, to John H. Gibbons, April 12, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-12-95.htm; John H. Gibbons to William Hunt, Director, Federal Management Issues, U.S. General Accounting Office, April 26, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-26-95.htm. +[^32]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, September 5, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-9-5-94.htm, and December 9, 1994, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-12-9-94.htm. +[^33]: C. B. Scott Jones to John H. Gibbons, February 9, 1995, pp. 1-2, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-9-95.htm. +[^34]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, April 11, 1995 (the scan is filed under 4-11-94 and the letter is dated April 11, 1995), http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-4-11-94.htm. +[^35]: Tanya M. Felder, OSTP electronic message to Susanne Bachtel, Barbara A. Ferguson and Holly L. Gwin, "GAO Report on UFOs," June 9, 1995, with handwritten reply of June 12, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-6-9-95.htm. +[^36]: "Clintons to Vacation in Wyoming Mountains," *Spokesman-Review*, August 15, 1995, https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/15/clintons-to-vacation-in-wyoming-mountains/; William J. Clinton Presidential Library, "White House Photos - Laurance Rockefeller - Philanthropist," finding aid 2006-0546-F (contact sheet book 312, frame P31195, August 21, 1995), https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/archives/finding-aids/white-house-photos-laurance-rockefeller-philanthropist. +[^37]: C. B. Scott Jones, Human Potential Foundation, to Representative Steven Schiff, August 17, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-8-17-95.htm. +[^38]: Henry L. Diamond to John H. Gibbons, November 1, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-11-1-95.htm, and November 8, 1995, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-11-8-95.htm. +[^39]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, February 5, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-5-96.htm. +[^40]: Sheila E. Widnall, Secretary of the Air Force, to John H. Gibbons, February 27, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-27-96.htm; Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, February 29, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-2-29-96.htm. +[^41]: Laurance S. Rockefeller to John H. Gibbons, October 17, 1996, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-10-17-96.htm. +[^42]: Bruce Maccabee to John H. Gibbons, January 2, 1997, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-1-2-97.htm. +[^43]: Secretary of the Air Force to John H. Gibbons, June 20, 1997, http://www.paradigmresearchgroup.org/Rockefeller%20Documents/RID-6-20-97.htm. +[^44]: Peter A. Sturrock et al., "Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Pocantico Conference Center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29 - October 4, 1997," *Journal of Scientific Exploration* 12, no. 2 (1998), pp. 179-229, introduction as reproduced at http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc535.htm. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Luke Nosek.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Luke Nosek.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9be0fbff --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Luke Nosek.md @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +--- +category: "Technologists" +tags: + - Person + - LukeNosek + - PayPalMafia + - FoundersFund + - Gigafund + - SpaceX + - VentureCapital + - PeterThiel + - SecuritiesFilings + - CampaignFinance +alias: + - Luke Nosek + - Luke P. Nosek +summary: "PayPal co-founder, Founders Fund co-founder and Gigafund managing partner, a SpaceX director since July 2008 whose 2026 prospectus lists 32,987,360 shares, 2,381,000 pledged against personal debt." +location: "Austin, Texas" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[PayPal]]" + start: 1998-11 + end: 2002-02 + role: "co-founder; vice president of business development, marketing and strategy" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Founders Fund]]" + start: 2006-04 + end: 2017-07 + role: "co-founder; general partner" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Gigafund]]" + start: 2017-07 + role: "co-founder and managing partner" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[SpaceX]]" + start: 2008-07 + role: "director; initial Class B director and compensation and nominating committee member on the 2026 offering" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[DeepMind]]" + role: "director before its acquisition by Google" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Last Energy]]" + role: "director" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Emerald Cloud Lab]]" + role: "director" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[ResearchGate]]" + role: "director" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Halcyon Molecular]]" + start: 2009 + role: "president on joining; chairman by 2011" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Pathway Genomics]]" + role: "director, per a 2011 university biography" + fn: 2 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Peter Thiel]]" + start: 2009-05-15 + role: "co-director or co-promoter of Founders Fund vehicles; shared voting power over Founders Fund II and III funds" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Ken Howery]]" + start: 2009-05-15 + role: "co-director or co-promoter of Founders Fund vehicles in Form D filings" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Stephen Oskoui]]" + start: 2017-07-27 + role: "co-executive officer of the Gigafund funds" + fn: 14 + - type: owned + with: "[[Angel Studios]]" + start: 2025-09-10 + role: "19,459,882 Class A shares (19.48 percent) through Gigafund 1, LP, shared control with Oskoui" + fn: 16 + - type: funded + with: "[[Endorse Liberty]]" + start: 2012-01-03 + end: 2012-01-23 + role: "10,001 dollars" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Blake Masters]]" + start: 2022-03-28 + end: 2022-03-28 + role: "5,800 dollars to Blake Masters for Senate" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Turnout for America]]" + start: 2024-11-04 + end: 2024-11-04 + role: "500,000 dollars" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Republican National Committee]]" + start: 2026-03-23 + end: 2026-03-23 + role: "100,000 dollars" + fn: 4 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Luke Nosek is a venture capitalist who co-founded [[PayPal]] and, with [[Peter Thiel]] and [[Ken Howery]], [[Founders Fund]]. He has sat on the board of [[SpaceX]] (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) since July 2008 and has been managing partner of [[Gigafund]], a venture firm he co-founded in July 2017, since its inception. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering (1996) from the [[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]] and was 50 years old in June 2026.[^1] The university's Grainger College of Engineering gave him its Young Alumni Achievement Award in 2011.[^2] + +### PayPal + +Nosek co-founded PayPal and served as its vice president of business development, vice president of marketing and vice president of strategy from November 1998 to February 2002.[^1] He oversaw PayPal's marketing at launch and created its "Instant Transfer" product.[^2] A [[Federal Election Commission]] record dated September 30, 1999 lists a 250 dollar contribution from "Nosek, Luke" of Palo Alto to Bush for President Inc., with his employer given as [[Confinity]].[^3] + +### Founders Fund + +SpaceX's 2026 prospectus dates his co-founding of Founders Fund to April 2006 and his service as a general partner through July 2017.[^1] The University of Illinois award citation of 2011 gives 2005 as the year he helped found the firm, calls him a managing partner, and credits him as "the initial architect of the 'founder friendly' strategy" and the builder of the firm's biotechnology practice.[^2] Federal Election Commission records give his employer as Founders Fund, with his title variously as managing partner, managing member, partner and general partner, from June 2009 to October 2015.[^4] + +The [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]'s Form D filings for Founders Fund vehicles name him with Thiel and Howery. On May 15, 2009, Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP reported 3,481,500 dollars sold to 11 investors since a first sale on April 30, 2009, at One Letterman Drive, Building C, Suite 420, [[San Francisco]], and listed Nosek, Thiel, Howery and [[Sean Parker]] as its directors. An amendment filed August 17, 2009 reported 6,737,500 dollars sold to 29 investors.[^5] The same suite is the address given for Thiel on the 2008 and 2009 returns of the [[Thiel Foundation]]. + +Founders Fund III, LP (filed May 5, 2010) reported 107,272,727 dollars sold to 21 investors and named The Founders Fund III Management, LLC, Thiel, Howery, Nosek and Parker as promoters. Founders Fund IV, LP (filed December 1, 2011) reported 500,000,000 dollars sold to 58 investors and named Thiel, Howery, Nosek, [[Bruce Gibney]] and [[Brian Singerman]] as promoters. Founders Fund V, LP (filed March 6, 2014, 1,015,200,000 dollars from 109 investors) and Founders Fund VI, LP (filed March 25, 2016, 1,274,127,000 dollars from 197 investors) listed Thiel, Howery, Nosek and Singerman as directors, at One Letterman Drive, Building D, Suite 500.[^6][^7][^8] + +### Airbnb and the Founders Fund II and III Vehicles + +A Form 3 filed for [[Airbnb]] with a date of event of December 9, 2020 names Founders Fund II Management, LLC, Founders Fund IV Management, LLC, Thiel, Nosek and Singerman as reporting persons, each checked as a ten percent owner. Its footnotes state that Thiel and Nosek "have shared voting and investment power over the shares held by" six partnerships: The Founders Fund II, LP, its Entrepreneurs Fund and Principals Fund, and The Founders Fund III, LP, its Entrepreneurs Fund and Principals Fund. Thiel and Singerman are given the same power over the Founders Fund IV partnerships. A Form 4 filed December 14, 2020 reports the automatic conversion of the Series B and Series C preferred stock into Class B common stock on the closing of Airbnb's initial public offering, with the same statements of shared voting power.[^9][^10] SpaceX's 2026 prospectus places the end of his general partner role at Founders Fund in July 2017.[^1] + +### SpaceX + +Nosek has served on the SpaceX board since July 2008. For the company's initial public offering of June 2026 he was listed with [[Elon Musk]], [[Gwynne Shotwell]], [[Antonio Gracias|Antonio J. Gracias]] and Donald Harrison as the five directors expected to serve as the initial Class B Directors, the seats elected by holders of Class B stock. [[Ira Ehrenpreis]], Randy Glein and [[Steve Jurvetson]] were named as the initial Common Stock Directors. The board found Nosek independent under the listing standards of Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas, and he was named with Ehrenpreis (chair) and Gracias as an expected member of the compensation and nominating committee, under the controlled-company exemption.[^1] + +The prospectus's beneficial ownership table lists 32,987,360 shares of Class A common stock for Nosek: 24,987,340 shares held of record by him and 8,000,020 shares held of record by Nosek Capital, LLC, of which he is the managing member. Footnote 7 to the table states that "the reported amounts include 2,381,000 shares of Class A common stock pledged as security for personal indebtedness." The initial public offering price was 135.00 dollars per share, at which the holding corresponds to about 4.45 billion dollars.[^1] His Form 3 filed June 11, 2026 reports the same two holdings and lists him as a director, with his address in care of the company at Starbase, Texas.[^11] SpaceX's launch customers include the [[National Reconnaissance Office]], and its Starshield is "a secure satellite network designed specifically for government customers and national security applications."[^1] + +The Form 13F holdings report of Gigafund Management Company, LLC for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 lists 171,826,745 shares of SpaceX Class A common stock valued at 29,358,317,651 dollars, and 19,459,882 shares of [[Angel Studios]] Class A common stock valued at 71,417,767 dollars.[^12] A Federal Election Commission record of March 29, 2012 gives Nosek's employer as "Space X" and his occupation as board director.[^4] + +SpaceX's own Form D filings list Nosek as a director in all 21 Form D and Form D/A filings on the company's EDGAR record, from March 31, 2009 to August 5, 2022. The other related persons named include Musk, Shotwell and Jurvetson in every filing, [[Kimbal Musk]] through December 2021, Gracias from November 2010, and Harrison from August 2017. The filing of March 31, 2009 reports 15,025,000 dollars sold to seven investors of a 60,000,000 dollar offering (first sale March 18, 2009), six weeks before the first sale by Founders Fund SpaceX Fund. Later filings report 50,199,998 dollars to 16 investors (November 2010), 999,999,925 dollars to 13 investors (January 2015), 449,999,820 dollars to 25 investors (as amended November 27, 2017), 1,901,446,920 dollars to 75 investors (August 2020), 1,164,061,924 dollars to 99 investors (as amended April 14, 2021) and 1,724,965,480 dollars to 74 investors (as amended June 30, 2022).[^5][^13] + +### Gigafund + +Nosek co-founded Gigafund in July 2017 and has been managing partner since inception.[^1] The first two Gigafund Form D filings, for Gigafund 0, LP and Gigafund 0-A, LP, were filed July 27, 2017 from Redwood City, California, each with a 100,000,000 dollar offering and no sales reported. Nosek and [[Stephen Oskoui]] are the executive officers on both, and on every one of the 29 Form D and Form D/A filings made by 23 Gigafund partnerships through June 2024. From 2019 the filings give an address in [[Austin, Texas]].[^14] + +The filings report Gigafund 0.1, LP (73,811,900 dollars, amendment of May 11, 2018), Gigafund 0.2, LP (50,999,975 dollars from four investors, first sale April 25, 2018), Gigafund 0.6, LP (71,814,396 dollars, July 2020), Gigafund 0.8, LP (230,939,181 dollars from 31 investors, November 2020), Gigafund 0.12, LP (80,000,000 dollars from 19 investors, February 2021), Gigafund 0.14, LP (478,358,022 dollars of a 513,000,000 dollar offering from 43 investors, first sale June 23, 2021), Gigafund 0.15, LP (49,999,600 dollars), Gigafund 0.16, LP (74,999,680 dollars), Gigafund 0.19, LP (53,936,666 dollars) and Gigafund 0.25, LP (71,500,000 dollars of a 100,000,000 dollar offering from 14 investors, first sale April 17, 2024). Smaller vehicles (0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9, 0.13 and 0.24) raised between 2,000,000 and 16,999,998 dollars each, and Gigafund 0.22 (2023) and 0.26, 0.27 and 0.28 (June 28, 2024) reported no sales. The forms do not name portfolio companies.[^14] + +A Form 3 filed September 19, 2025 for Angel Studios, Inc. of Provo, [[Utah]] (date of event September 10, 2025) names Gigafund 1, LP, Gigafund 1 GP, LP, Nosek and Oskoui as reporting persons, each a ten percent owner. It reports 19,459,882 shares of Class A common stock held directly by Gigafund 1, LP, and states that "Stephen D. Oskoui and Luke Nosek control all voting and investments decisions" over the partnership's securities. The reporting persons' address is 555 East 5th Street, Suite 3127, Austin.[^15] The Schedule 13G filed September 17, 2025 gives the stake as 19.48 percent of the Class A shares outstanding.[^16] + +### Halcyon Molecular and Other Boards + +Nosek joined [[Halcyon Molecular]], "a Founders Fund portfolio company pursuing a novel approach to ultra-fast complete genome sequencing", as president in 2009, and was its chairman in 2011, when he also sat on the boards of [[Pathway Genomics]] and SpaceX.[^2] Federal Election Commission records of March 29, 2012 give his employer as "Halcyon Molecular/Chairman" on two contributions to Friends of [[Mark Warner]].[^4] He sits on the boards of [[Last Energy]] (small modular nuclear reactors), [[Emerald Cloud Lab]] (remotely accessible, largely autonomous life science laboratories) and [[ResearchGate]], and served on the board of [[DeepMind]] before its acquisition by [[Google]].[^1] + +### Political Contributions + +Federal Election Commission records list the following itemized contributions by Nosek, with the employer and occupation as reported on each filing.[^4] + +- 1999: 250 dollars to Bush for President Inc. (employer Confinity). +- 2009: 1,000 dollars to Friends of [[Jane Harman]] on June 19, with an offsetting entry of minus 1,000 dollars on July 1 (Founders Fund, managing partner). +- 2011: 1,000 dollars on September 10 to the Committee to Re-elect Congressman [[Dana Rohrabacher]] (Founders Fund, managing member). +- 2012: 9,000 dollars on January 3 and 1,001 dollars on January 23 to Endorse Liberty, Inc. (Founders Fund, partner); 5,000 dollars to the National Republican Congressional Committee on March 28; two entries of 2,500 dollars each to Janice Hahn for Congress (Space X, board director) and to Friends of Mark Warner (Halcyon Molecular, chairman) on March 29; 2,000 dollars each to the Committee to Re-elect [[Loretta Sanchez]] (August 27), Fattah for Congress (August 28) and Palazzo for Congress (September 11). +- 2013: 5,000 dollars to Team Graham, Inc. on March 8, partly redesignated, and two entries of 2,600 dollars to Udall for Colorado on March 26. +- 2015: 5,400 dollars to Friends of [[John McCain]], split between primary and general, and 5,000 dollars to Country First Political Action Committee on October 14 (Founders Fund, general partner, Mill Valley, California). +- 2021: 250 dollars to Georgians for Latham through WinRed on May 17 and 750 dollars on May 19 (employer given as "Gigi Fund", managing partner, Austin); 2,900 dollars to Lisa Murkowski for US Senate through WinRed on October 7 (Gigafund, co-founder, West Lake Hills, Texas). +- 2022: two entries of 2,900 dollars to [[Blake Masters]] for Senate on March 28 (Gigafund, managing partner). +- 2024: 500,000 dollars to Turnout for America on November 4 (self-employed, entrepreneur). +- 2025: 10,000 dollars to Protect Freedom Political Action Committee on November 6. +- 2026: 5,000 dollars to the Sheehy Victory Committee on February 15 (Gigafund Management Company, venture capital); 44,300 dollars and 55,700 dollars to the [[Republican National Committee]] on March 23, the second to its legal proceedings account (Gigafund Management, partner). + +Endorse Liberty, Inc. (committee C00508002) is registered as an independent-expenditure-only committee of Alexandria, Virginia, first filed December 20, 2011, with Abraham David Niederhauser as treasurer; it reported 3,937,582.81 dollars in receipts and 3,542,481.59 dollars in independent expenditures for the 2012 cycle.[^17] + +Turnout for America (committee C00883520) is registered as an independent-expenditure-only committee of Alexandria, Virginia, with Janna Rutland as treasurer, and first filed on July 17, 2024. For the 2023 to 2024 cycle it reported 45,670,092.93 dollars in receipts and 34,537,933.83 dollars in disbursements.[^18] Its largest itemized individual contributions were 5,000,000 dollars from [[Diane Hendricks]] on each of August 23 and October 4, 2024, 5,000,000 dollars (September 5) and 2,500,000 dollars (October 22) from [[Kelcy Warren]] of Energy Transfer Partners, 2,000,000 dollars from [[Andy Beal|D. Andrew Beal]] of Beal Bank, and 1,979,048.38 dollars from [[Howard Lutnick]] of Cantor Fitzgerald on October 22, 2024; [[Roger Penske]] and Jeffrey Sprecher of Intercontinental Exchange each gave 1,000,000 dollars. Its largest payee was Patriot Grassroots of Cheyenne, [[Wyoming]], which received 26,064,474.55 dollars in twelve payments, the largest of them 4,719,600 dollars on October 22, 2024, each described as "canvassing". It also paid 1,950,000 dollars to American Majority Action and 200,000 dollars to the CatholicVote.org Candidate Fund.[^19] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Space Exploration Technologies Corp., prospectus filed under Rule 424(b)(4) on June 12, 2026, SEC accession 0001628280-26-042639 (Management: executive officers and directors, board composition, director independence, compensation and nominating committee; Principal Stockholders, footnote 7; Business: customers and Starshield; cover and offering price). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026042639/spaceexplorationtechnologi.htm +[^2]: Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Nosek, Luke," 2011 Young Alumni Achievement Award citation. https://ece.illinois.edu/alumni/awards/yaaa/11-nosek +[^3]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipt of September 30, 1999, Bush for President Inc. (C00343509), image 99034852014. https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?99034852014 +[^4]: Federal Election Commission, itemized Schedule A receipts for contributor name "Nosek, Luke," 1999 to 2026, including images 29992454185 and 29934914346 (Friends of Jane Harman), 12950691291 (Rohrabacher), 13961599391 and 13961599392 (Endorse Liberty), 12972456130 (NRCC), 12020251533 and 12020251534 (Friends of Mark Warner), 12951438570 and 12951438571 (Janice Hahn for Congress), 13941782379 (Sanchez), 12972695409 (Fattah), 12972571200 (Palazzo), 13020210239 and 13020210240 (Team Graham), 13020214538 and 13020214539 (Udall), 201602020200033560 (McCain), 201601199004517424 (Country First PAC), 202201249475112325 (Latham), 202201319485294481 (Murkowski), 202204159496855548 and 202204159496855549 (Blake Masters for Senate), 202412059720711906 (Turnout for America), 202512199793619635 (Protect Freedom PAC), 202604159857798766 (Sheehy Victory Committee), 202604209866590200 and 202604209866594413 (RNC). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=Nosek%2C+Luke and https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202412059720711906 +[^5]: Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP, Form D filed May 15, 2009 (accession 0001464202-09-000001) and Form D/A filed August 17, 2009 (accession 0001464202-09-000003). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1464202/000146420209000001/primary_doc.xml and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1464202/000146420209000003/primary_doc.xml +[^6]: Founders Fund III, LP, Form D filed May 5, 2010, accession 0001288320-10-000004. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1491094/000128832010000004/primary_doc.xml +[^7]: Founders Fund IV, LP, Form D filed December 1, 2011, accession 0001535267-11-000002. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1535267/000153526711000002/primary_doc.xml +[^8]: Founders Fund V, LP, Form D filed March 6, 2014, accession 0001601419-14-000001; Founders Fund VI, LP, Form D filed March 25, 2016, accession 0001669874-16-000001. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1601419/000160141914000001/primary_doc.xml and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1669874/000166987416000001/primary_doc.xml +[^9]: Founders Fund II Management, LLC, Founders Fund IV Management, LLC, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Brian Singerman, Form 3 for Airbnb, Inc. (date of event December 9, 2020), accession 0001209191-20-062631, footnotes F3 to F11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1559720/000120919120062631/doc3.xml +[^10]: Same reporting persons, Form 4 for Airbnb, Inc. (date of event December 14, 2020), accession 0001209191-20-063866. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1559720/000120919120063866/doc4.xml +[^11]: Luke Nosek, Form 3 for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., filed June 11, 2026, SEC accession 0001628280-26-042636. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026042636/wk-form3_1781226111.xml +[^12]: Gigafund Management Company, LLC (CIK 1713833), Form 13F-HR for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, filed August 12, 2026, accession 0001140361-26-032507, information table; and earlier 13F-HR filings for December 31, 2025 (0001140361-26-004873) and March 31, 2026 (0001140361-26-020009). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713833/000114036126032507/informationtable.xml +[^13]: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (CIK 1181412), Forms D and D/A: 0001181412-09-000003 (March 31, 2009), 0001181412-10-000001 (November 9, 2010), 0001181412-15-000001 (January 26, 2015), 0001181412-17-000001 (August 8, 2017), 0001181412-17-000002 (November 27, 2017), 0001181412-18-000001 (April 18, 2018), 0001181412-19-000001 (January 3, 2019), 0001181412-19-000002 (April 17, 2019), 0001181412-19-000003 and 0001181412-19-000004 (May 24, 2019), 0001181412-19-000005 (July 9, 2019), 0001181412-20-000001 (March 13, 2020), 0001181412-20-000002 (May 26, 2020), 0001181412-20-000003 (August 18, 2020), 0001181412-21-000001 (February 23, 2021), 0001181412-21-000002 (April 14, 2021), 0001181412-21-000003 (November 15, 2021), 0001181412-21-000004 (December 29, 2021), 0001181412-22-000001 (June 13, 2022), 0001181412-22-000002 (June 30, 2022) and 0001181412-22-000003 (August 5, 2022), item 3 related persons and item 13 sales. https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001181412.json and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000118141209000003/primary_doc.xml +[^14]: Gigafund partnerships, Forms D and D/A, 2017 to 2024: Gigafund 0, LP (0001712898-17-000001), Gigafund 0-A, LP (0001712899-17-000001), 0.1 (0001721812-17-000001, 0001721812-18-000001), 0.2 (0001738772-18-000001), 0.3 (0001783523-19-000001), 0.4 (0001806124-20-000003, 0001806124-20-000004), 0.5 (0001806120-20-000003, 0001806120-20-000004), 0.6 (0001806125-20-000003, 0001806125-20-000004), 0.7 (0001817561-20-000001), 0.8 (0001826623-20-000001, 0001826623-20-000002, 0001826623-20-000004), 0.9 (0001847253-21-000001), 0.12 (0001847240-21-000001), 0.13 (0001952171-22-000001), 0.14 (0001871132-21-000003), 0.15 (0001896270-21-000001), 0.16 (0001901047-21-000001), 0.19 (0001934914-22-000001), 0.22 (0001975769-23-000001), 0.24 (0002005250-23-000002), 0.25 (0001877173-24-000001), 0.26 to 0.28 (0002028590-24-000001, 0002028590-24-000002, 0002028590-24-000003); entity list from EDGAR company search "Gigafund". https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=gigafund&owner=include&count=100&action=getcompany +[^15]: Gigafund 1, LP, Gigafund 1 GP, LP, Luke Nosek and Stephen D. Oskoui, Form 3 for Angel Studios, Inc. (date of event September 10, 2025), filed September 19, 2025, accession 0001140361-25-035604, footnote F1. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1865200/000114036125035604/form3.xml +[^16]: Gigafund 1, LP and others, Schedule 13G for Angel Studios, Inc., filed September 17, 2025, accession 0001140361-25-035282. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2085918/000114036125035282/primary_doc.xml +[^17]: Federal Election Commission, committee record and totals, Endorse Liberty, Inc. (C00508002). https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00508002/ +[^18]: Federal Election Commission, committee record and 2024 cycle totals, Turnout for America (C00883520). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00883520/ and https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00883520/ +[^19]: Federal Election Commission, Turnout for America (C00883520), 2024 cycle Schedule A receipts sorted by amount (images 202503189754229322, 202412139739921325, 202412139739921328, 202412059720711909, 202412139739921324, 202412059720711905) and Schedule B disbursements by recipient, including the payment of October 22, 2024 to Patriot Grassroots (image 202412059720711926). https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00883520&two_year_transaction_period=2024 and https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?committee_id=C00883520&two_year_transaction_period=2024 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ngo Dinh Diem.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ngo Dinh Diem.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e454bd5d --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ngo Dinh Diem.md @@ -0,0 +1,200 @@ +--- +category: "Key Figures" +tags: + - Person + - NgoDinhDiem + - Vietnam + - CIA + - EdwardLansdale + - MichiganStateUniversity + - AmericanFriendsOfVietnam + - DiemCoup + - ChurchCommittee + - CovertAction +alias: + - Ngo Dinh Diem + - Ngô Đình Diệm + - Diem + - President Diem + - Premier Diem +summary: "Premier of Vietnam from July 1954 and president of South Vietnam until his killing on November 2, 1963, in a generals' coup that Washington encouraged, after a decade of CIA subsidy and American lobbying." +died: 1963-11-02 +location: "Saigon, South Vietnam (died)" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[State of Vietnam]]" + start: 1954-07-07 + role: "premier" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[South Vietnam]]" + end: 1963-11-02 + role: "president" + fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Ngo Dinh Nhu]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Ngo Dinh Can]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 2 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[Ngo Dinh Thuc]]" + role: "brother" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + reverse: true + start: 1954 + role: "piasters sent to the Palace by the Saigon station in the first weeks of his government; dollars for Trinh Minh The passed through him in September 1954" + fn: 4 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 1955 + end: 1962 + role: "police, public administration and economic advisers under contract to his government" + fn: 5 + - type: represented + with: "[[Harold Oram, Inc.]]" + reverse: true + start: 1955 + end: 1961 + role: "public relations contract with the Vietnamese government, as reported by Ramparts" + fn: 7 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état]]" + start: 1963-08-24 + end: 1963-11-02 + role: "target of the generals' coup" + fn: 35 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Church Committee]]" + reverse: true + end: 1975-11-20 + role: "subject of the interim report on alleged assassination plots" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Ngo Dinh Diem (died November 2, 1963, [[Saigon]]) was premier of the [[State of Vietnam]] from July 7, 1954, and president of [[South Vietnam]] until he and his brother [[Ngo Dinh Nhu]] were killed during the [[1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état|generals' coup of November 1 and 2, 1963]].[^1][^2] Two [[Central Intelligence Agency]] stations in Saigon worked with his government from its first weeks, and the CIA paid money through him to armed sects in 1954.[^3][^4] A [[Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group|Michigan State University group]] under contract to his government advised his police from 1955 to 1962.[^5] The Senate's [[Church Committee]] found in 1975 that the [[United States]] encouraged the coup against him but neither desired nor was involved in his death.[^2] + +### Early career + +Diem was an Annamese Catholic who had been governor of [[Phan Thiết|Phan Thiet]] province and then minister of the interior at the imperial court of [[Bao Dai]] in [[Huế|Hue]]. In 1933, after a year in the latter office, he found that reforms he had been promised were blocked by French and Annamese officials, resigned and went into political retirement.[^1] He had earlier served as district and province chief in Annam.[^6] Bao Dai sought him as premier in 1945, [[Ho Chi Minh]] sought him for the government of the [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam]] in 1946, and the French for their solutions in 1947 and 1949, all without success.[^1] His brother [[Ngo Dinh Thuc]] was a leading Catholic clergyman with connections throughout the country and later the ranking Catholic bishop; Nhu built the semi-covert [[Can Lao]] party, and another brother, [[Ngo Dinh Can]], built a personal political organization of his own.[^1] + +### American patrons, 1950 to 1954 + +[[Wesley Fishel]], a political scientist about to join [[Michigan State University]], met Diem in a tea room in [[Tokyo]] in July 1950, according to *[[Ramparts]]*.[^5][^7] The magazine reported that Fishel had Diem appointed a consultant to the university's Governmental Research Bureau and helped arrange his long stay in the United States, and that Diem in 1952 asked the French to let Michigan State furnish technical aid to Vietnam at American expense.[^5] Diem lived with the [[Maryknoll]] missionaries in [[New Jersey]] and New York between 1951 and 1953, which gave him the competence in English that made him accessible to American officials; a [[State Department]] officer who met him in late 1950 reported that he believed "only [the] US can solve [the] problem, thru him to be sure," and an American military officer who met him in 1953 left with the impression of a "mystic 'nut.'"[^6] His supporters in this period included Cardinal [[Francis Spellman]], Senators [[Mike Mansfield]], [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Hubert Humphrey]], and Congressman [[Walter Judd]].[^6] [[Robert Scheer]] and [[Warren Hinckle]] wrote in *Ramparts* in July 1965 that Justice [[William O. Douglas]] arranged a breakfast at which Diem met Mansfield and Kennedy.[^7] + +Scheer and Hinckle wrote that [[Leo Cherne]], president of the [[International Rescue Committee]], spent two and a half weeks in Vietnam in 1954 and sent his assistant [[Joseph Buttinger]], a former leader of the Austrian Socialists, to set up a committee operation there. Buttinger met Diem four days after arriving, at the request of Colonel [[Edward Lansdale]], whom they describe as "the CIA's man in Saigon," and Lansdale introduced him to the security officials of Diem's government and to the army. They wrote that Lansdale "went through channels," convincing CIA Director [[Allen Dulles]] of Diem's worth; that Dulles talked to his brother, Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]], who brought the word to [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]]; that on Buttinger's return in December 1954 Spellman telephoned [[Joseph P. Kennedy]], who arranged meetings for Buttinger with Mansfield and State Department officials; that Buttinger talked with Senator Kennedy's assistant [[Ted Sorensen]]; and that Spellman set up meetings with the editors of *[[The New York Times]]*, the *[[New York Herald Tribune|Herald Tribune]]*, *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]* and *[[Life (magazine)|Life]]*. They called the effort the work of "a small and enthusiastic group of people, including a Cardinal, an ex-Austrian Socialist leader, and a CIA agent."[^7] The authors of the [[Pentagon Papers]] recorded that "there are those who believe that Diem was foisted upon the Vietnamese and the French by a cabal of prominent American Catholics and a CIA agent."[^1] + +### The two CIA stations, 1954 to 1955 + +By the time Diem took office the CIA had two independent stations in Saigon: the regular station under [[Emmett McCarthy]], whose covert action chief [[Paul Harwood]] had arrived in April 1954 to assess nationalist politicians, and the [[Saigon Military Mission]] under Lansdale.[^3][^4] Harwood had known Nhu for several months, and Nhu became the regular station's principal contact in the government. Lansdale recalled in his memoirs that he walked in on Diem unannounced the day after Diem took office, and the two communicated through an interpreter for two and a half years. The Embassy, oriented toward the French, kept the brothers at a distance, and Lansdale and Harwood became the principal channels of political information and influence between the two governments.[^3][^4] + +Nhu, after asking for CIA support without "controls," obtained the station's agreement to plan projects that included the Can Lao party, to be developed from his semi-covert Workers' Party as a cadre organization controlling a mass front.[^4] Nhu told Harwood that the outgoing premier, Prince [[Buu Loc]], had absconded with the premier's confidential fund. In the first weeks of the government Harwood sent piasters to the Palace for Diem's discretionary use; Harwood later could not recall the amount, which was written off on a hand receipt from a Palace functionary. From about August 1954 the station let Nhu use part of its subsidy to support a hamlet militia that Nhu said numbered some 15,000 men by the end of the year.[^4] In September 1954 Diem asked Lansdale for funds to buy the support of the [[Cao Dai]] commander [[Trinh Minh The]], whom the French believed had assassinated their commanding general in the south in 1950. Lansdale delivered the money in dollars to Diem, who passed it through Nhu to The, and on September 15 Lansdale was received at The's headquarters on the Cao Dai mountain in [[Tây Ninh Province|Tay Ninh]]. Lansdale's official report states only that "at Ambassador Heath's request, the US secretly furnished Diem with funds for The."[^4] The intelligence section of the Can Lao, the [[Political and Social Studies Service]] known as SEPES and headed by Dr. [[Tran Kim Tuyen]], became with CIA help the government's service for collection against North Vietnam.[^4] + +### Premier, 1954 to 1955 + +Diem took office on July 7, 1954, and until the following May stood virtually alone, unaided by Bao Dai, opposed by the French and offered by Americans mainly advice, criticism and promises. In ten months he survived the partition at [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva]], two threatened coups by his army chiefs of staff, clashes with the [[Binh Xuyen]] and the armed sects, and the arrival of some 900,000 refugees from the north.[^1] On December 7, 1954, Senator Mansfield judged that prospects for helping Diem looked "very dim," and in January 1955 General [[J. Lawton Collins]], the President's special representative, agreed in a report to the [[National Security Council]]. Collins cabled on April 7, 1955, that "the man lacks the personal qualities of leadership and the executive ability successfully to head a government," and on April 19, "I see no alternative to the early replacement of Diem."[^1] + +The Binh Xuyen was the organization of [[Bay Vien]], who, in Lansdale's words, had paid Bao Dai "a staggering sum" for control of gambling and prostitution in [[Cholon]] and of the Saigon-Cholon police.[^1] After Diem survived a test of arms with the army and the sects in late April 1955, Senators Mansfield and [[William Knowland]] issued statements of support and, on May 2, Senator Humphrey told the Senate that Diem was "the best hope that we have in South Vietnam." In May 1955 the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff|Joint Chiefs]] judged that his government "shows the greatest promise of achieving the internal stability essential for the future security of Vietnam."[^1] Diem returned in late August 1955 money the CIA had advanced for a scheme that came to nothing, and used Lansdale as an intermediary in unproductive negotiations with the [[Hoa Hao]] commander [[Ba Cut]] until shortly before Ba Cut's capture in April 1956.[^4] + +The [[Popular Revolutionary Committee]] that Nhu had formed at the height of the sect crisis, whose members included two former Viet Minh leaders, urged the dissolution of the Bao Dai government and elections for a national assembly. Acting under its mandate, Nhu set up a referendum in which, on October 23, 1955, an overwhelming vote for Diem over Bao Dai was recorded. The committee dissolved itself on October 31, apparently under pressure from Diem and his brother.[^1] In 1955 and 1956, in the words of the Defense Department study, Lansdale "was a key figure in installing and establishing Diem as President of South Vietnam."[^8] + +### The Michigan State University group, 1955 to 1962 + +*Ramparts* reported in April 1966, in "MSU: The University on the Make," that the Michigan State University Group in Vietnam, an official university project under contract to Saigon and Washington, had responsibility for Diem's civil service and police network, the shaping of a 50,000-man militia and the supply of guns and ammunition to the city police, the Civil Guard, the palace police and the [[Sûreté (Vietnam)|Sûreté]]. The magazine put the cost at $25 million, the largest project ever undertaken abroad by an American university. It reported that after a telephone call from Washington to the university's president, [[John A. Hannah]], requesting that red tape be cut, the first professors joined Fishel in Saigon in late May 1955; Fishel once indicated that the call came from Vice President [[Richard Nixon]], later denied it, and Hannah told the *[[Detroit News]]* that it came from an authority "even higher than Nixon." Fishel became chief of the group in 1956.[^5] + +In an introduction to the article, the economist [[Stanley Sheinbaum|Stanley K. Sheinbaum]], campus coordinator of the project for three years, wrote that "our Project had become a CIA front." Sheinbaum and [[Robert Scigliano]], assistant chief of the project from 1957 to 1959, told the magazine that five CIA men were listed on the project staff, formally appointed by the university's board of trustees, in several cases given academic rank and paid by the project, as a self-contained "VBI Internal Security Section" within the police administration division, assigned to counterespionage and counterintelligence. The magazine quoted a book by Scigliano and [[Guy H. Fox]], *[[Technical Assistance in Vietnam]]: The Michigan State University Experience* (Praeger, 1965): "USOM also absorbed at this time [1959] the CIA unit that had been operating within MSUG."[^5] The project, according to *Ramparts*, requisitioned revolvers, riot guns, ammunition, tear gas, jeeps, handcuffs and radios from stocks left over from American aid to the French, ordered some $15 million in further equipment from the United States Mission, and trained the Palace Guard in revolver shooting; the dean of the university's police administration school, [[Arthur Brandstatter]], personally inspected the Palace Guard when rumors of a coup were circulating.[^5] + +Hannah answered at a news conference on April 22, 1966, that Michigan State "did not have a spy operation within its Vietnam project" and did not have CIA people operating under cover provided by the university. He said the university had hired several men with a background in intelligence work, none known at the time of employment to have CIA affiliations; that some staff later became suspicious that some were CIA men; that the university asked the American and Vietnamese governments to let it out of the counter-subversive program and reduced its police administration division to eight persons, including five from its own faculty; that it did not buy "a single gun"; and that the article contained "no fewer than 53 errors of fact." Hinckle dared him to test the charges in court, and Fishel asked the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] for help.[^9] A CIA briefing paper of 1967 on the magazine, which lists Scheer as an author of the April 1966 article, records the magazine's financing by its owner, identified only as Mr. Keating, and his wife and describes it as designed to appeal to "campus radicals."[^10] The public administration division of the Michigan State group conceived the Civil Guard as a rural constabulary, while Diem wanted a more military force; with the support of the American military advisory group, Diem's view prevailed.[^11] + +The project ended in 1962. *Ramparts* reported that Diem, angered by critical writing published by two of its veterans, would not renew the contract, and that the university announced its termination in the name of academic freedom.[^5] + +### The American Friends of Vietnam and the 1957 visit + +Scheer and Hinckle wrote that the "Vietnam Lobby" took formal shape in the fall of 1955 as the [[American Friends of Vietnam]], with Generals [[William J. Donovan|"Wild Bill" Donovan]] and [[John W. O'Daniel|"Iron Mike" O'Daniel]] as co-chairmen and a letterhead that included Senators Kennedy and [[Richard Neuberger]], [[Max Lerner]], [[Arthur Schlesinger Jr.]], Representatives [[Emanuel Celler]] and [[Edna Kelly]], and [[Angier Biddle Duke]]. They wrote that nine of the fourteen directors of the Friends were members of the board of the International Rescue Committee or its employees, including Cherne and Buttinger, and that two months before the Friends were announced the public relations firm of [[Harold Oram]], public relations man for the Rescue Committee, signed a contract to represent the Vietnamese government for $3,000 a month plus expenses, which lasted until 1961. According to the article, Oram and his account executive [[Gilbert Jonas]], both officers of the Friends, were registered as foreign agents of the Republic of Vietnam during the period in which they held executive positions with the organization.[^7] + +On Diem's official visit to the United States in May 1957 he landed in President Eisenhower's plane, addressed a joint session of Congress, and received the [[Admiral Richard E. Byrd Award]] from Duke at a dinner sponsored by the International Rescue Committee and the American Friends of Vietnam. Scheer and Hinckle wrote that many of his speeches were written by Buttinger and by [[Sol Sanders]], a director of the Friends and a writer for *[[The New Leader]]*, and that Sanders resigned from the Friends in 1963 when its executive committee sent a congratulatory telegram to the generals who had deposed and killed Diem.[^7] A State Department set of position papers prepared for the visit was forwarded to the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] through the CIA's deputy director for plans on May 9, 1957.[^12] + +### 1960 and 1961 + +On November 11, 1960, paratroop units attacked the palace. The CIA had no advance warning, but its officer [[George Carver]], who had recently recontacted the [[Dai Viet]] politician [[Hoang Co Thuy]], was invited that morning to meet Thuy's group of civilians who hoped the military would install them, and with the permission of the chief of station, [[William Colby]], served as the channel of American pressure on the rebels to negotiate rather than storm the palace. Ambassador [[Elbridge Durbrow]] took over Colby's desk to listen to the station officers' reports. Diem used the negotiations to gain time until loyal units arrived on November 12.[^4] Lansdale reported after a visit in January 1961 that the Diem government believed Durbrow had "sympathized strongly with the coup leaders of 11 November," and wrote: "We must support Ngo Dinh Diem until another strong executive can replace him legally."[^8] + +In October 1961 President Kennedy sent General [[Maxwell Taylor]] and [[Walt Rostow]] to Vietnam. The mission arrived in Saigon on October 18 as Diem proclaimed a state of emergency, and Taylor cabled Kennedy that the United States had to "convince Diem that we are willing to join him in a showdown with the Viet Cong."[^8] + +### The crisis of 1963 + +On May 8, 1963, South Vietnamese troops in Hue fired on [[Buddhists in Vietnam|Buddhists]] celebrating Buddha's birthday, killing nine and wounding fourteen. By July 4 Generals [[Duong Van Minh]], [[Tran Van Don]], [[Le Van Kim]] and [[Tran Thien Khiem]] had agreed on the necessity of a coup. Shortly after midnight on August 21 Nhu ordered forces loyal to him to attack pagodas across the country; over thirty monks were injured and 1,400 arrested.[^2] + +On August 24 the State Department sent telegram 243 to Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]]. It stated that the "US Government cannot tolerate situation in which power lies in Nhu's hands," authorized Lodge to tell key military leaders that the United States would find it impossible to continue support unless the Nhus were removed, added that "if, in spite of all of your efforts, Diem remains obdurate and refuses, then we must face the possibility that Diem himself cannot be preserved," and instructed the country team to "make detailed plans as to how we might bring about Diem's replacement if this should become necessary." It was drafted by [[Roger Hilsman]], cleared by Hilsman, [[Michael V. Forrestal|Michael Forrestal]] and [[George Ball]], and approved for transmission by [[Averell Harriman]].[^13] Taylor later said it was sent without the concurrence of the Defense Department, the Joint Chiefs or the CIA; Hilsman maintained that the President and representatives of the agencies concerned had cleared it.[^13] + +Lieutenant Colonel [[Lucien Conein]] and another CIA officer were told on August 26 to convey the substance of the telegram to Generals Khiem and [[Nguyen Khanh]], reminding them that "we cannot be of any help during initial action of assuming power of state." On August 29 a message from the [[White House]] authorized General [[Paul Harkins]] to confirm that the United States would support a coup with a good chance of success, and Kennedy cabled Lodge the same day: "Until the very moment of the go signal for the operation by the Generals, I must reserve a contingent right to change course and reverse previous instructions."[^2] On August 30 Taylor sent the President a CIA-sourced table of the probable loyalties of the units around Saigon in a coup, rating the Presidential Guard most likely to remain loyal and the airborne brigade likely to act against Diem.[^14] + +On October 2 Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]] and Taylor reported that there was "no solid evidence of the possibility of a successful coup, although assassination of Diem or Nhu is always a possibility." They recommended withholding commodity import funds, which together with [[Public Law 480]] made up 60 to 70 percent of Vietnam's imports, suspending two [[Agency for International Development|AID]] loans, and cutting off MAP and CIA support to the units of Colonel [[Le Quang Tung]] unless they were placed under the [[Joint General Staff (Vietnam)|Joint General Staff]]. They held that "no initiative should be taken to encourage actively a change in government" and called for "an intensive clandestine effort, under the Ambassador's direction, to establish necessary contacts" to appraise coup prospects.[^15] Taylor had written to Diem the day before as "an old friend of South Vietnam," and had met Minh privately on September 29 and October 1.[^16][^17] + +### The generals and Conein, October 1963 + +On the night of October 2 Conein, who had known many of the generals since the Second World War, met Don at [[Nha Trang]] with the approval of the deputy chief of mission, [[William Trueheart]], whose guidance was to neither encourage nor discourage coup thinking.[^18] On October 5 Minh told Conein that he needed to know the American position and outlined three plans, the first being the assassination of Nhu and Ngo Dinh Can with Diem kept in office, which he called the easiest; Conein said he could not answer.[^19] The station recommended to Lodge that "we do not set ourselves irrevocably against the assassination plot." [[John McCone]], the Director of Central Intelligence, cabled on October 5 that "we cannot be in the position of stimulating, approving, or supporting assassination," and on October 6 that the recommendation be withdrawn; William Colby, then chief of the Far East Division, drafted the first cable. Conein testified that Lodge told him of McCone's position around October 20 and that he then told Don the United States opposed assassination.[^2] A CIA cable to Lodge of October 9 stated that Washington did not wish to stimulate a coup but would not thwart a change of government or deny aid to a new regime, and that knowledge was confined to an extremely limited group in the White House, State, Defense and the CIA.[^20] + +Conein's after-action report of November 1 states that the majority of officers wished Diem to have honorable retirement and exile, but that "as to Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Can, there was never dissention. The attitude was that their deaths, along with Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu would be welcomed."[^2] Conein received 3 million piasters on October 24 and kept them in a safe at his house; on October 29 Lodge cabled that a request for funds should be anticipated.[^2] The station's cable 2023 of October 29 on Conein's meeting with Don the day before, held at a dentist's office, which listed coup units and described two escape tunnels from [[Gia Long Palace]], was sent eyes only to McNamara, [[Roswell Gilpatric|Gilpatric]], Taylor, [[Victor Krulak|Krulak]] and [[William Bundy]] at Defense, among others.[^4][^21] + +At the White House on October 29 Colby estimated pro-Diem and anti-Diem forces at about 9,800 each, with 18,000 neutral. Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]] said that the United States needed 48 hours' notice, not four, of any coup. Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]] called his opposition to a coup "the minority view," and Taylor and McCone agreed with him; McNamara proposed that the deputy chief of mission, the acting CIA chief and Harkins jointly decide "what our agent Conein would say and do."[^22] Around October 30 Colby wrote to McCone proposing that Nhu be installed in his brother's place as a "strong, reasonably well oriented and efficient potential successor," whose "highly unfavorable public image" the United States should help improve; the proposal drew no support.[^4] Conein later recalled that Lodge had remarked that if nothing happened and Lodge made his scheduled trip to Washington, Conein would never work another day for the government.[^4] + +### November 1 and 2, 1963 + +On the morning of November 1 Diem received Lodge and Admiral [[Harry D. Felt|Harry Felt]] and complained that that junior CIA officers were "poisoning atmosphere by spreading rumors of coups against him," naming one officer, Hodges.[^23] Speaking alone with Lodge afterwards, Diem asked him to consult "Mr. Colby of CIA and former Ambassador Nolting" about Nhu, saying that Colby had told him it was "too bad that brother Nhu was living in an ivory tower," and asked Lodge to tell Kennedy that he was "a good and a frank ally."[^24] + +The coup began early in the afternoon; Harkins cabled Taylor that instead of four hours' or two days' notice "we got approximately four minutes."[^25] An aide to Don asked Conein to bring all available money to the Joint General Staff headquarters, and Conein brought 3 million piasters, about $42,000, which was given to Don to buy food for the troops and pay death benefits. Don wrote in his memoir, *Our Endless War*, that Conein "offered us money and weapons, but I turned him down."[^2][^21] Conein stayed at the Joint General Staff headquarters through the coup, relaying what Minh and Don told him; CIA officers in the streets supplied, with him, nearly all the authoritative information Washington received over the next twenty-four hours.[^4] At 4:30 p.m. Diem telephoned Lodge and asked, "What is the attitude of the US?" Lodge replied that he lacked information and instructions, said he was concerned for Diem's safety, and asked whether Diem had heard of the offer of safe conduct if he resigned; Diem answered, "I am trying to reestablish order."[^4] + +In Washington, before the outcome was known, Rusk cabled Lodge that "since coup is wholly Vietnamese," premature American recognition would falsely brand it as American-inspired. A second telegram, drafted by Hilsman and [[McGeorge Bundy]], instructed Lodge that acceptance of the coup in the United States would be "greatly increased" if the generals continued to develop "strongly and publicly" their charge that Nhu had been "dickering with Communists"; Lodge replied the next day that he knew "of no hard evidence of such a desire."[^26][^27] Rusk told Senator [[J. William Fulbright]] by telephone at noon that "our own involvement is minimal."[^28] + +At 6:20 on the morning of November 2 Diem called Don and offered to surrender if he and Nhu were given safe conduct to an airport. Lodge had cabled on October 30 that key leaders might request evacuation, and Conein was charged with obtaining an aircraft; when Minh and Don asked for one, a station officer told Conein it would take twenty-four hours, because it would have to come from [[Guam]] and could fly Diem only to a country that granted asylum.[^2] The station officer, [[David Smith (CIA)|David Smith]], also named France as the country most likely to grant asylum and put at twenty-four hours the time needed to bring in an aircraft able to reach Paris without intermediate stops.[^4] An escort appeared at the palace at 8:00 a.m., but Diem and Nhu were not there.[^2] + +When Conein returned to the Joint General Staff about 10:30 a.m., Minh told him the brothers were dead and had killed themselves in a Catholic church, to which Conein responded that someone had better construct a more plausible story. Minh offered to show him the bodies, and Conein declined.[^2][^4] Conein reported that he believed Minh had ordered the executions.[^4] The embassy reported that day several versions: that the brothers had spent the night at a Cholon clubhouse owned by a Chinese businessman, gone to church in the morning and been picked up by the army and locked in a vehicle; that Minh had told the former finance minister that they had shot themselves with a gun left in the vehicle "due to an inadvertence"; and that an aide to General Khanh, who saw the bodies, said they had been assassinated at least at the direction of General [[Mai Huu Xuan]].[^29] Most station reporting attributed the decision to kill them to Minh, and the various reports agreed that the killing was carried out by an officer named Nhung, described variously as Minh's bodyguard and as a supporter of Mai Huu Xuan.[^4] On November 16 an officer of unknown reliability gave the CIA two photographs of the bodies in which their hands appeared tied behind their backs, and said they had been shot and stabbed in the vehicle taking them to the Joint General Staff.[^2] + +The news reached Kennedy during a meeting at 9:35 a.m. on November 2, when Forrestal brought in a telegram reporting the deaths.[^30] Rusk instructed Lodge that the generals should establish publicly that the deaths were suicides "if this true," through an impartial group.[^31] McGeorge Bundy cabled Lodge that evening that the generals "should not be left under illusion that political assassination is easily accepted here."[^32] The State Department instructed all diplomatic posts, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, to distinguish the Saigon coup from its opposition to military coups against democratic governments elsewhere.[^33] Lodge recommended resuming commercial import payments "on a periodic and selective basis without public announcement so as to avoid appearance of blank check or of pay-off."[^34] + +The Church Committee concluded that the details of the deaths were not known and that there was no available evidence of direct or indirect American involvement in them.[^2] Taylor, asked in 1981 whether the killing had been a covert operation, answered, "Not if you mean a covert operation conducted by the CIA."[^35] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense*, Book 2, Part IV.A.5, "Evolution of the War: Origins of the Insurgency, 1954-1960," sections "Ngo Dinh Diem: Basis of Power," "Early U.S.-Diem Relations" and "The Triumph Reappraised," DTIC ADA542557, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA542557 +[^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465, 94th Cong., 1st sess., November 20, 1975, section III.E, "Diem," pp. 217-224, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^3]: Thomas L. Ahern Jr., "The CIA and the Government of Ngo Dinh Diem," *Studies in Intelligence*, vol. 37 (Winter 1993), approved for release July 29, 2014, C00622834, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0000622834 +[^4]: Thomas L. Ahern Jr., *CIA and the House of Ngo: Covert Action in South Vietnam, 1954-63* (CIA History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, June 2000), approved for release December 20, 2016, C01268718, pp. 14-15, 27-28, 32, 38, 41-42, 60, 72, 140-141, 201-214, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01268718 +[^5]: Stanley K. Sheinbaum, introduction, and "MSU: The University on the Make," *Ramparts*, vol. 4, no. 12 (April 1966), pp. 11-23, https://archive.org/details/ramparts-1962-1975 (file "Ramparts v04n12 (1966-04)") +[^6]: Ahern, *CIA and the House of Ngo*, chapter 2, "Patrons and Clients," pp. 9-11, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01268718 +[^7]: Robert Scheer and Warren Hinckle, "The 'Vietnam Lobby,'" *Ramparts*, July 1965, pp. 16-21 (read from the page images; the text layer is poor), https://archive.org/details/the-vietnam-lobby-by-ramparts +[^8]: *United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967*, Book 2, Part IV.B.1, "Evolution of the War: The Kennedy Program and Commitments, 1961," sections on the Lansdale report of January 1961 and the Taylor mission, DTIC ADA542557, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA542557 +[^9]: "Michigan State U. Denies It Knowingly Aided CIA," *The Baltimore Sun*, April 23, 1966, as preserved in the CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050013-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp82r00025r000700050013-0 +[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Briefing Notes on Ramparts," 1967, CIA-RDP70B00338R000200230132-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp70b00338r000200230132-5 +[^11]: *United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967*, Book 2, Part IV.A.4, "U.S. Training of the Vietnamese National Army, 1954-1959," DTIC ADA542557, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA542557 +[^12]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence via the Deputy Director (Plans), "Position Papers for President Ngo Dinh Diem Visit," May 9, 1957, CIA-RDP80R01731R000700500014-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r000700500014-9 +[^13]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. III, *Vietnam, January-August 1963*, document 281, telegram 243 from the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam, August 24, 1963, and source note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v03/d281 +[^14]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, *Vietnam, August-December 1963*, document 24, Taylor to the President, CM-856-63, August 30, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d24 +[^15]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 167, McNamara and Taylor to the President, "Report of McNamara-Taylor Mission to South Vietnam," October 2, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d167 +[^16]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 163, Taylor to President Diem, October 1, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d163 +[^17]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 162, memorandum for the record by Taylor, October 1, 1963, and source note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d162 +[^18]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 171, CIA Saigon station telegram 1385, October 3, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d171 +[^19]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 177, CIA Saigon station telegram, October 5, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d177 +[^20]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 192, CIA telegram to the Ambassador in Vietnam, October 9, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d192 +[^21]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 225, CIA Saigon station telegram 2023, October 29, 1963, and source note quoting Tran Van Don, *Our Endless War*, pp. 98-99, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d225 +[^22]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 234, memorandum of conference with President Kennedy, October 29, 1963, 4:20 p.m., https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d234 +[^23]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 261, Saigon telegram 854, November 1, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d261 +[^24]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 262, Saigon telegram 841, November 1, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d262 +[^25]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 267, Harkins to Taylor, MAC J00 8512, November 1, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d267 +[^26]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 264, telegram 673 to Saigon, November 1, 1963, and document 266, telegram 674 to Saigon, November 1, 1963, with source notes, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d264 and https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d266 +[^27]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 270, Saigon telegram 875, November 2, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d270 +[^28]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 265, memorandum of telephone conversation between Rusk and Senator Fulbright, November 1, 1963, 12:01 p.m., https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d265 +[^29]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 273, Saigon telegram 888, November 2, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d273 +[^30]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 274, editorial note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d274 +[^31]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 271, telegram 688 to Saigon, November 2, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d271 +[^32]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 278, Bundy to Lodge, CAP 63602, November 2, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d278 +[^33]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 277, circular telegram 833, November 2, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d277 +[^34]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 270, Saigon telegram 875, November 2, 1963, paragraph 1, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d270 +[^35]: Robert S. Gallagher, "Gen. Maxwell Taylor: Memories of Peace and War" (interview), *American Heritage*, vol. 32, no. 3 (April/May 1981), https://www.americanheritage.com/gen-maxwell-taylor-memories-peace-and-war diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rob Reich.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rob Reich.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2157304b --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rob Reich.md @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - RobReich + - Stanford + - EffectiveAltruism + - GiveWell + - Philanthropy + - AIGovernance + - AISafetyInstitute + - HumanCenteredAI + - GivingTuesday +alias: + - Rob Reich +summary: "Stanford political scientist who sat on the GiveWell board from 2013, wrote in 2015 that effective altruists are technocrats, and was senior advisor to the U.S. AI Safety Institute in 2024 and 2025." +location: "Stanford, California" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Stanford University]]" + start: 1998 + role: "assistant professor from 1998; professor of political science from 2015; McGregor-Girand Professor of Social Ethics of Science and Technology from 2023" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[GiveWell]]" + start: 2013 + end: 2018 + role: "trustee, per his curriculum vitae" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Spencer Foundation]]" + start: 2019 + role: "trustee" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[GivingTuesday]]" + start: 2012 + role: "co-founder and board member; founding board chair 2019 to 2024" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Boston Review]]" + start: 2012 + role: "trustee" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching]]" + start: 2008 + end: 2015 + role: "trustee; executive, audit and nominating committees" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society]]" + start: 2015 + end: 2023 + role: "faculty director" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society]]" + start: 2008 + end: 2025 + role: "faculty co-director" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence]]" + start: 2018 + end: 2023 + role: "founding associate director; associate director again from 2026" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[U.S. AI Safety Institute]]" + start: 2024 + end: 2025 + role: "senior advisor on public service leave from Stanford" + fn: 1 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Gina Raimondo]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024-04-16 + role: "named senior advisor by the Commerce Secretary" + fn: 9 + - type: funded + with: "[[Stanford Impact Labs]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024 + end: 2025 + role: "Scholars in Service program funded his public service leave" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]]" + start: 2023 + role: "non-resident fellow" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Rob Reich is a professor of political science at [[Stanford University]], holder since 2023 of the McGregor-Girand professorship of Social Ethics of Science and Technology, with courtesy appointments in philosophy, law and education and a senior fellowship at the [[Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence]]. His curriculum vitae lists service as a trustee of [[GiveWell]] from 2013 to 2018 and as senior advisor to the [[U.S. AI Safety Institute]] on public service leave in 2024 and 2025.[^1] + +### Education and Early Career + +Reich holds a B.A. in philosophy from [[Yale University]] and, from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, a Ph.D. in education and an M.A. in philosophy. He taught sixth grade at [[Rusk Elementary School]] in [[Houston]], Texas, from 1992 to 1994, was a senior research associate at the [[Aspen Institute]] from 1999 to 2005, and moderated Aspen Institute seminars from 2008 to 2018. At Stanford he was assistant professor of political science from 1998 to 2007, associate professor from 2008 to 2014, and professor from 2015. He was a visiting professor at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]] in 2009 and 2010 and held the Laurence S. Rockefeller visiting fellowship at the Center for Human Values at [[Princeton University]] in 2004 and 2005.[^1] + +### Centers and Institutes at Stanford + +Reich was faculty co-director of the [[Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society]] from 2008 to 2025; the center publishes the [[Stanford Social Innovation Review]]. He was faculty director of the [[McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society|Center for Ethics in Society]] from 2015 to 2023, now named the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and founding associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence from 2018 to 2023. His curriculum vitae lists him as associate director of the institute again from 2026, as a faculty fellow of [[Knight-Hennessy Scholars]] from 2025 and as a member of the Stanford Advisory Board from 2025. He has been a non-resident fellow of the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] since 2023.[^1] The center's current biography page lists him as faculty advisor and former faculty codirector.[^2] + +[[Alexander Berger]], a 2011 Stanford graduate who worked at GiveWell after graduating and then co-founded [[Open Philanthropy]], first met Reich as a freshman guest lecturer, took his courses over the next two years and completed the Honors Program in Ethics in Society with Reich, then the faculty director of the center, as his advisor, according to a 2021 article published by the center.[^3] + +The institute held its launch symposium in March 2019. Its 2019 to 2020 annual report gave Reich's title as "Marc and Laura Andreessen Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society" and faculty director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and credited him with leading the creation of an embedded ethics initiative to insert ethics modules into core computer science courses and with leading the institute's April and June 2020 virtual conferences on COVID-19 and artificial intelligence.[^4] + +The report states that income for the 2020 fiscal year was $17,751,049: gifts of $14,920,001 (84 percent), endowment payouts of $831,048 (5 percent) and $2,000,000 in Amazon Web Services cloud credits counted as in-kind income (11 percent), against expenditures of $9,830,018. The Hoffman-Yee Research Grants, which awarded $500,000 to six teams in their first year, were made possible by a gift from [[Reid Hoffman]] and [[Michelle Yee]]. The volunteer Advisory Council was chaired by Hoffman, with [[Steve Denning]] and [[Srinija Srinivasan]] as vice chairs, and listed [[Jim Breyer]], [[Kenneth Chenault]], [[Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar]], [[John Hennessy]], [[Mary Kay Henry]], [[Mellody Hobson]], [[Eric Horvitz]], Bob King, Susan Liautaud, [[James Manyika]], [[Marissa Mayer]], [[Samuel J. Palmisano]], [[Condoleezza Rice]], [[Heidi Roizen]], [[Eric Schmidt]], [[Mike Schroepfer]], [[Stephen Schwarzman]], [[Kevin Scott]], [[Neil Shen]], [[Ram Shriram]], [[Vishal Sikka]], [[Jerry Yang]] and Songyee Yoon. In June 2019 the institute's co-directors [[John Etchemendy]] and [[Fei-Fei Li]] met in Washington with the [[National Institutes of Health]], the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]], the [[House AI Caucus]], the [[Executive Office of the President]], the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, [[DARPA]] and Senator [[Rob Portman]], "whose participation would prove invaluable to garnering support for the National Research Cloud bill."[^4] + +His courses have included Computer Science 182, The Ethics of Technological Disruption, taught with [[Mehran Sahami]] and [[Jeremy Weinstein]], and Computer Science 283, AI Governance, taught with [[Sanmi Koyejo]], [[Anka Reuel]] and [[Nathaniel Persily]].[^1] + +### Philanthropy Boards + +Reich lists the following board service: trustee of the [[Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching]] from 2008 to 2015, including its executive, audit and nominating committees; trustee of GiveWell from 2013 to 2018; co-founder and board member of [[GivingTuesday|#GivingTuesday]] from 2012, and its founding board chair from 2019 to 2024; trustee of [[Boston Review]] from 2012; and trustee of the [[Spencer Foundation]] from 2019.[^1] The biography page of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society also lists him as a board member of Boston Review, Giving Tuesday and the Spencer Foundation.[^2] + +ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer data for [[Clear Fund|The Clear Fund]], the legal entity of GiveWell, show total revenue of $6,587,734 for 2013, $11,088,700 for 2014, $17,635,918 for 2015, $18,366,934 for 2016, $29,450,003 for 2017 and $36,024,182 for 2018. The same data show total assets of the Spencer Foundation of $667,415,167 at the end of 2024; revenue of Giving Tuesday Inc., recognized as exempt in 2020, of $3,527,479 for 2021 and $11,010,928 for 2023; and revenue of Boston Critic Inc., the publisher of Boston Review, of $986,327 for 2023.[^5] The [[MacArthur Foundation]] lists six grants to the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society totaling $975,000: $100,000 in 2013 (two years), $100,000 in 2016 (two years), $100,000 in 2018 (two years and four months), and $225,000 in each of 2020, 2023 and 2025 (three years each), described as general operating or flexible support.[^6] + +### GiveWell and Effective Altruism + +GiveWell published notes of a conversation of January 9, 2014 between Reich, identified as "Associate Professor of Political Science, Stanford University; Board member, GiveWell," and [[Elie Hassenfeld]] on philanthropy and [[United States]] education. The notes record Reich describing large philanthropists' strategies for achieving scale and leveraging public spending, among them charter schools, "diminishing the influence of teachers unions" and [[Teach For America]], and stating that he could think of no significant current philanthropic effort to improve career counseling or career-focused curricula.[^7] + +In July 2015 the *Boston Review* published a forum, "The Logic of [[Effective Altruism]]," and Reich contributed a response to [[Peter Singer]] titled "Does Effective Altruism Have a Politics?" He wrote that effective altruism must have a politics if it aspires to be a social movement and if it endorses causes that aim at political or institutional change, adding "(Disclosure: I am a member of the GiveWell board.)" and, as an example of the second, "See, for example, the Open Philanthropy Project." He continued: "In my experience, effective altruists are unabashed technocrats." He wrote that effective altruists "see the best state of affairs, I think, as that in which good-maximizing technocrats are in charge," that this politics "is suspicious of, or rejects, the form of politics to which most people attach enormous value: democracy," and, asked whether effective altruists would choose democratic rather than technocratic rule from scratch, "I suspect the answer is no."[^8] + +### Books and Writing + +According to his curriculum vitae, Reich's books are *Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in Education* ([[University of Chicago Press]], 2002); *Democracy at Risk* ([[Brookings Institution]] Press, 2005), the final report of the Standing Committee on Civic Education and Engagement of the [[American Political Science Association]], on which he served from 2002 to 2005; *Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better* ([[Princeton University Press]], 2018); and *System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot* ([[HarperCollins]], 2021), written with Sahami and Weinstein. He co-edited *Education, Justice, and Democracy* (University of Chicago Press, 2013; PROSE Award for the best book in education), *Philanthropy in Democratic Societies* (University of Chicago Press, 2016, with [[Chiara Cordelli]] and [[Lucy Bernholz]]) and *Digital Technology and Democratic Theory* (University of Chicago Press, 2021, with [[Hélène Landemore]] and Bernholz). He is a co-author of the 2021 paper "On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models" (arXiv:2108.07258), with [[Rishi Bommasani]], [[Percy Liang]] and others.[^1] + +His curriculum vitae also lists four 2013 white papers on philanthropy, technology and policy written with Bernholz and Cordelli, the March and April 2013 *Boston Review* cover article "What are Foundations For?", the 2013 *[[New York Times]]* opinion piece "Not Very Giving," and a 2013 essay with [[Ray D. Madoff]], "Now or Forever: Rethinking Foundation Life Spans," in the *[[Chronicle of Philanthropy]]*.[^1] + +### U.S. AI Safety Institute + +On April 16, 2024, Commerce Secretary [[Gina Raimondo]] announced that Reich would be senior advisor to the U.S. AI Safety Institute, which is housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in a group of additions to the leadership team that included [[Paul Christiano]] as head of AI safety, [[Adam Russell]] as chief vision officer, [[Mara Campbell]] as acting chief operating officer and chief of staff, and [[Mark Latonero]] as head of international engagement. They joined the director, [[Elizabeth Kelly]], and the chief technology officer, [[Elham Tabassi]]. Raimondo said: "we need the top talent our nation has to offer."[^9] + +[[Stanford Impact Labs]] wrote that Reich's leave in service was made possible in part by the Scholars in Service program, run jointly by Stanford Impact Labs and the [[Haas Center for Public Service]], and his curriculum vitae describes the 2024 to 2025 service as a full-time public service leave from Stanford funded by that program. In an interview published by Stanford Impact Labs on April 30, 2024, he described his role as to "advise the AISI and lead engagement with civil society organizations," said that the institute "is not a regulatory body," and said that "This may be the first time in U.S. history that a frontier technology or scientific discovery has been funded, designed, and developed entirely outside the purview of government." He continued that "These AI models are funded by venture capital and created by industry actors." He said the institute already had a consortium of "more than 200 companies, universities, and civil society organizations," that his own task would be coordinating the input of civil society organizations, and, of the appointment, "I've always wanted the opportunity to play a role in the federal government and this will be my first chance to do so."[^1][^10] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Rob Reich, curriculum vitae, Department of Political Science, Stanford University (last revised May 2026), sections Academic Positions, Program and Center Leadership, Other Leadership, Education, Publications, Teaching, Board Service and Other. https://robreich.people.stanford.edu/files/reich-cv.pdf +[^2]: Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, "Rob Reich" (biography page, "Faculty Advisor & Former Faculty Codirector"). https://pacscenter.stanford.edu/people/rob-reich +[^3]: Diana Aguilera, "Accomplishing as Much Good as Possible: Honors Alum Alexander Berger Paves the Way for More Effective Giving," McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, Stanford University, Nov. 12, 2021. https://ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu/news/accomplishing-much-good-possible-honors-alum-alexander-berger-paves-way-more-effective-giving +[^4]: Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, 2019-2020 Annual Report (Stanford HAI, Cordura Hall), sections Faculty (Rob Reich), Policy (Visit to Washington, D.C.), Hoffman-Yee Research Program, Advisory Council, Philanthropic Support and Financials. https://hai-production.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2021-02/hai-2020-annual-report_1.pdf +[^5]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization records for The Clear Fund (EIN 20-8625442), Spencer Foundation (EIN 36-6078558), Giving Tuesday Inc (EIN 84-2929872) and Boston Critic Inc (EIN 04-2619695), fields totrevenue and totassetsend by tax year, retrieved Oct. 1, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/208625442.json +[^6]: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, grantee page for the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (6 grants, $975,000, 2013 to 2025). https://www.macfound.org/grantee/stanford-center-on-philanthropy-and-civil-society-45770/ +[^7]: GiveWell, notes of a conversation with Rob Reich on January 9, 2014 (participants Rob Reich and Elie Hassenfeld), published by Open Philanthropy (now Coefficient Giving). https://coefficientgiving.org/wp-content/uploads/Reich-1-9-14-public-.pdf +[^8]: Rob Reich, "Response to Effective Altruism," forum "The Logic of Effective Altruism," Boston Review, July 2015 (published under the title "Does Effective Altruism Have a Politics?" in Reich's CV). https://www.bostonreview.net/forum_response/response-rob-reich/ +[^9]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team," Apr. 16, 2024. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/04/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-expansion-us-ai-safety +[^10]: Kate Green Tripp, "Stanford's Rob Reich to Serve as Senior Advisor to the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI)" (interview with Rob Reich), Stanford Impact Labs, Apr. 30, 2024. https://impact.stanford.edu/article/stanfords-rob-reich-serve-senior-advisor-us-ai-safety-institute-aisi diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Peloquin.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Peloquin.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..880993f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Peloquin.md @@ -0,0 +1,175 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - RobertPeloquin + - Intertel + - ResortsInternational + - HowardHughes + - PrivateIntelligence + - OrganizedCrime + - JusticeDepartment + - OperationTradewinds + - Watergate + - Bahamas +alias: + - Robert Peloquin + - Robert D. Peloquin + - Robert Dolan Peloquin + - Bob Peloquin +summary: "Justice Department organized crime lawyer who founded the Resorts International subsidiary Intertel in 1970, took over security for Howard Hughes's Nevada casinos that December, and later chaired Resorts International." +born: 1929-01-09 +died: 2011-03-24 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[United States Navy]]" + role: "officer on active duty, later Naval Reserve intelligence specialist" + start: 1951-08-18 + end: 1955-06-04 + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + role: "attorney, Internal Security Division" + start: 1957 + end: 1961-08 + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + role: "attorney, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section; head of Buffalo task force" + end: 1967-08 + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Operation Tradewinds]]" + role: "Justice Department liaison" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[William Hundley]]" + role: "law partner" + start: 1967-08 + fn: 2 + - type: represented + with: "[[National Football League]]" + role: "chief of security for the football leagues" + start: 1967-08 + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Resorts International]]" + role: "vice president, Paradise Enterprises Ltd." + fn: 3 + - type: founded + with: "[[Intertel]]" + role: "founder and president" + start: 1970-01 + fn: 13 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Intertel]]" + role: "president" + start: 1970 + end: 1985 + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + role: "Criminal Intelligence Program information matter" + start: 1970-04-22 + fn: 7 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Hughes Tool Company]]" + role: "through Intertel, security, management and investigation of Robert Maheu" + start: 1970-12 + fn: 13 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Resorts International]]" + role: "chairman and executive vice president" + start: 1985 + end: 1990 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Robert Dolan Peloquin (January 9, 1929, [[Fall River, Massachusetts]], to March 24, 2011, [[Frederick, Maryland]]) was a lawyer in the [[Department of Justice]] who left it in 1967 to practice with [[William Hundley]], became in 1970 the first president of [[Intertel]], a private intelligence company owned by [[Resorts International]], ran it until 1985, and was chairman and executive vice president of Resorts International from 1985 to 1990. Intertel's clients included [[Howard Hughes]], [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] and the shah of Iran.[^1] + +### Navy and Justice + +An applicant investigation conducted by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] in 1958 recorded that Peloquin attended [[Georgetown University]] from 1947 to 1951, served on active duty in the [[United States Navy]] from August 18, 1951 to June 4, 1955, leaving as a lieutenant (junior grade), and studied at the Georgetown law school from February 1953 to October 1956. He was an attorney in the department's Internal Security Division from early 1957 to August 1961, when he resigned for private practice, writing to the Director on August 25, 1961 to thank him for the Bureau's courtesies. He returned to the department, on a date the Bureau did not know, as an attorney in the [[Organized Crime and Racketeering Section]].[^2] He held a commission in the Naval Reserve as an intelligence specialist and retired from it in 1981 as a commander.[^1][^3] + +At Justice Peloquin led the first Organized Crime Strike Force, in [[Buffalo, New York]], against the [[Magaddino crime family|Magaddino]] and [[Profaci crime family|Profaci]] families, investigated the 1964 murders of [[Andrew Goodman]], [[Michael Schwerner]] and [[James Chaney]] in [[Mississippi]] and organized crime control of casinos in the [[Bahamas]], and received a department award for outstanding performance in 1966.[^1] He worked on the squad assembled to pursue [[Jimmy Hoffa]].[^4] The Bureau's summary records that from January to August 1967 he was in charge of the Buffalo task force, "during which period he attempted to set up his own investigative organization, ignoring the responsibilities of the various Federal agencies, particularly the FBI."[^2] + +### Operation Tradewinds and Paradise Island + +In 1965 the [[Internal Revenue Service]] began [[Operation Tradewinds]], a tax investigation of the means by which American racketeers, lawyers and businessmen laundered, concealed and skimmed cash in the Bahamas. [[Jim Hougan]] wrote that Peloquin was "deeply involved" in it and served as "middleman among the agencies," and that it was Peloquin who informed the [[State Department|Department of State]] in 1966 of a meeting between IRS intelligence officers and his superior, [[Henry Petersen]], chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, which dealt with evidence acquired "in ways that violated Bahamian laws and which therefore required 'special handling'": the IRS could continue to obtain information from bank employees in the Bahamas through American agents such as [[Norman Casper]], to be used "for lead purposes" and delivered on American soil. According to Hougan, a January memorandum by Peloquin on the casino planned for [[Paradise Island]] by [[James Crosby]]'s [[Mary Carter Paint Company]] stated that "the atmosphere looks right for a Lansky skim," a reference to [[Meyer Lansky]], and while the casino was under construction Peloquin shuttled between [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]], conferring with the new American consul general, [[Turner Shelton]].[^5] + +A royal commission of inquiry sat in the Bahamas in 1967 under Sir [[Ranulph Bacon]], formerly commissioner of [[Scotland Yard]] and later a director of Intertel. Hougan wrote that Peloquin was an "unofficial" but influential observer of its work; that the commission examined the casino interests of [[Wallace Groves]] and the fees of Sir [[Stafford Sands]] but not Crosby, whose casino had not yet opened; and that a few weeks before the casino opened on January 1, 1968, Crosby, who had grown close to [[Bebe Rebozo]] and Shelton, wrote thirty-four checks to campaign committees of [[Richard Nixon]], all but one for 3,000 dollars, and raised a further 100,000 dollars from friends at the urging of [[Maurice Stans]].[^6] + +### Hundley and Peloquin + +The Bureau's summary records that Peloquin resigned in August 1967 "to enter law practice with William G. Hundley, former Chief of the Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, and to assume the position of Chief of Security for the football leagues." Hougan likewise dates the firm to 1967; a 1977 profile in *[[The Washington Post]]* states that Peloquin left Justice in 1968.[^2][^4][^6] Hougan described Hundley as a veteran of [[Smith Act]] prosecutions who had "harried [[John Frank]] and quizzed [[Robert Maheu]] in the wake of the [[Jesús de Galíndez|Galindez]] kidnapping."[^6] + +The firm advised the [[National Football League]] on security; one player recalled Peloquin lecturing training-camp locker rooms on how to turn away mobsters offering bribes to fix games.[^4] Hougan named the firm's other first client as Time-Life, "sued by Mike McClaney."[^6] The *Post* wrote that the firm took on *[[Life (magazine)|Life]]* as a client, "gathering evidence for law suits filed against Life's investigative team," a group of reporters who had examined gambling in the Bahamas, and that Resorts International then became a client. A former member of the *Life* team said: "It sort of bothered me when I found out about Peloquin's association with Resorts." Peloquin said: "We certainly had both of them as clients at the same time, but I checked with Life before we took Resorts on as a client."[^4] Hougan wrote that within weeks Peloquin and Hundley were named vice presidents of the Resorts subsidiary responsible for the new casino.[^6] In 1970 Peloquin was a vice president of Paradise Enterprises, Ltd., a Resorts subsidiary.[^3] + +### Formation of Intertel + +On April 22, 1970 the FBI's Miami office reported to the Director that a confidential source, whose name is withheld in the released file, had learned of a newly formed private organization, International Intelligence, Inc., formed by the former Justice Department attorneys Peloquin and Hundley, "whose identities are well known to the Bureau," both associated with the Paradise Island hotel and casino at Nassau. The source advised that "Peloquin has made no secret of the fact that he intends to use information obtained from the Justice Department files" to gather information on racket control of corporations and to furnish it to professional sports organizations, casinos and others. The memorandum was captioned under the Bureau's Criminal Intelligence Program.[^7] A Bureau letter of April 29, 1970, copied to the Deputy Attorney General, described the source as "most reliable."[^8] On July 24, 1970 headquarters asked the New York office to check its indices, and on August 5, 1970 the former FBI supervisor [[John D. O'Connell]], Intertel's executive vice president, gave the New York office a brochure listing the company's officers.[^3] + +Intertel was incorporated in [[Delaware]] in January 1970 "to conduct and carry on a management advisory and consulting business relating to the protection of business firms of every type and description from the infiltration, incursion, attack and influence of crime and criminals." Crosby was chairman of the board, Peloquin president, and Hundley secretary and general counsel. The officers included the treasurer [[Raymond M. Gore]], also vice president for finance of Resorts International; [[Fenelon Richards]], former director of enforcement of the [[United States Customs Service|Bureau of Customs]] and director of security for Resorts; [[Thomas McKeon]], formerly a Justice Department organized crime attorney and chief of the Special Projects Section of the [[NSA|National Security Agency]]; [[David Belisle]], formerly deputy director of security at the State Department and director of investigations at the National Security Agency; [[William Kolar]], former director of the intelligence division of the IRS; and [[James Golden]], a former [[United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] agent and director of security at the 1968 Republican National Convention.[^3] + +The records give different accounts of the financing. The *Post* wrote in 1977 that in 1970 Peloquin left the law firm to form Intertel "with $100,000 staked by Resorts International," which then owned 81 percent of its stock.[^4] A teletype of December 7, 1970 from the FBI's Las Vegas office recorded a report that Intertel was "originally financed to extent of about two million dollars" by Resorts International.[^9] A [[White House]] memorandum of 1971 described Crosby as "assertedly owning" what it typed as "%91" of Intertel's stock.[^10] + +On December 31, 1970, Peloquin wrote to [[J. Edgar Hoover]] on Intertel stationery with birthday wishes and "the best wishes of the employees of INTERTEL, an organization of former government employees who have long admired your contribution to law enforcement," adding: "Please be assured of our best wishes and continuing cooperation." [[Helen Gandy]] replied that Hoover appreciated the "offer of cooperation." A Bureau note prepared for the reply records that the Bureau had enjoyed favorable relations with Peloquin while he was at Justice, that he had since been critical of the Director, and that at a conference in Buffalo on January 29, 1969 he had said that Hoover "did not recognize the existence of organized crime until 1960" and that businessmen would have to "harass" the FBI to get results on organized crime.[^2][^8] On January 5, 1971 the Bureau told its legal attaché in [[Ottawa]], in reply to an inquiry of December 17, 1970, that "no investigation has been conducted of this organization by the FBI," and that it might be engaged to run security at the Hughes casino-hotels.[^8] + +### The Hughes Account + +In late 1970 the Hughes Tool executives [[Raymond Holliday]] and [[Frank Gay|Frank W. Gay]] and the lawyer [[Chester Davis]] moved against Robert Maheu, who directed Hughes's Nevada operations. Hughes left the [[Desert Inn]] in [[Las Vegas]] on Thanksgiving Eve, November 25, 1970, and flew to the [[Britannia Beach Hotel]] on Paradise Island, owned by Resorts International. Hughes discharged Maheu on December 5, 1970.[^11][^12] + +The Las Vegas teletype of December 7 reported that Davis and Gay had announced that Intertel would be engaged on contract and that Intertel officials were in Las Vegas awaiting authorization to assume complete security responsibility. It recorded the statement of "an official of Hughes operations (former SA Richard Danner)" that the Mary Carter Paint Company and Resorts International "may possibly be hoodlum infiltrated or financially indebted to Meyer Lansky," and asked headquarters and Miami for all available information on both companies.[^9] A memorandum from J. H. Gale to Mr. Sullivan, prepared at the request of [[Clyde Tolson|Mr. Tolson]] and filed in January 1971, states: "During the past week, Intertel has been engaged by officials of the Hughes Tool Company to take over the management and operation of several of the hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, which are owned and operated by Howard Hughes."[^13] + +Hougan recorded Maheu's account that "Peloquin and Crosby, the Intertel people, came through Las Vegas months before Mr. Hughes disappeared," ostensibly to compare the Desert Inn's security with the Resorts operation in the Bahamas, and that Maheu regarded the visit as "casing the place." Hougan also recorded the statement of Intertel's general counsel, McKeon, that meetings with the Davis faction beginning in the summer of 1970 were devoted to planning the removal of Hughes from Las Vegas ("We developed a plan this thick"), and wrote that Peloquin denied that such a plan existed and attributed the summer meetings to a bomb threat against an [[Air West]] aircraft.[^14] In its written rebuttal of the *[[Las Vegas Sun]]* series of 1971, Intertel stated that the Resorts executives [[Jack Davis]] and Crosby had been in Las Vegas on the date in question solely "to aid Robert D. Peloquin, President of INTERTEL, in his consulting with the Board of Directors of the Hughes Tool Company," and that Intertel "was retained by the Board of Directors of Hughes Tool Company as consultants on security for its Nevada properties, not by Chester C. Davis, nor anyone acting alone."[^15] + +A CIA memorandum for the record of May 20, 1971, written by an agency employee seeking a position with Intertel, records that he was introduced to Peloquin on May 10, 1971 by a former agency employee then on Intertel's staff. It states that "it would appear that since December of 1970 much of their active staff working out of the D. C. office have in fact become just exactly that," detectives; that Hughes Tool had engaged Intertel "to conduct a sweeping and exhaustive investigation into the affairs and past activities of Robert A. Maheu," on a contract "reported to run upward to a million dollars"; that the investigation had "already turned certain significant information over to the Internal Revenue Service," with Kolar on the scene in Las Vegas; that the lawyer [[Edward P. Morgan]], whom the Intertel source described as having been paid almost a million dollars by Hughes Tool, was "making noises to certain unnamed Hughes Tool Company officials to the effect that they had better take it easy on Maheu because of the past involvement with CIA in covert operations," and that Intertel had studied approaches to him through former FBI channels but had not made one; and that the Intertel source "will not allow Maheu to use the Agency as a shield." The memorandum adds that the Washington lawyer [[Bernard Fensterwald]] had told a friend: "It looks like may be the good guys (INTERTEL) are in fact the bad guys with the Mafia connections."[^16] + +Asked in executive session in December 1973 whether Intertel had investigated the relationship between Maheu and [[Larry O'Brien]], Chester Davis answered: "the only thing I know about Intertel and its activities are activities under my direction with respect to gathering facts germane to issues involving litigation."[^17] Hougan wrote that in Maheu's libel suit, Maheu's lawyer, Morton Galane, called Peloquin, who acknowledged that Intertel agents had filed more than five hundred written reports on Maheu and found no evidence of theft.[^18] In February 1977 Intertel still controlled the security for much of the Hughes empire. On Christmas morning 1972 Peloquin telephoned Bacon in [[Brighton]] to arrange the immigration clearance at Gatwick of an arriving client, "Howard Hughes," and Peloquin counted as a principal success the identification of [[Edith Irving]] as the "Helga Hughes" who cashed the checks of [[McGraw-Hill]] in the [[Clifford Irving]] hoax.[^4] Peloquin told the writer [[Eamon Javers]] in 2008 that Hughes's money was the reason he could afford his farm in [[Fairfield, Pennsylvania]].[^19] + +### The Bureau's Files + +On May 24, 1971 a former FBI agent then with Intertel, [[Fred G. Robinette]], called on the Bureau official [[Alex Rosen|A. Rosen]] to offer help in answering a column by [[Jack Anderson]] on the royalties from Hoover's books; the memorandum notes that he and Kolar had earlier passed the Bureau information about a television program on the Director.[^20] On January 26, 1972 Robinette wrote to [[John P. Mohr]], assistant to the Director, about a matter "in which we are so deeply involved," enclosing an Intertel brochure to "dispel any image we may have as a 'National Private Detective Agency'," and noting that the former FBI agent Ralph Winte had just taken a position with Bill Gay, one of Hughes's top executives. Mohr reported to Tolson that he had told Robinette that the firm "was not entitled to any information in our files."[^20] + +### Watergate + +[[Jack Caulfield]], a White House aide, testified to the [[Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities|Senate Watergate committee]] that "Intertel was deeply involved in the Maheu-Hughes battle, with Intertel being on the side of the Hughes interests," and that his proposal for a private political intelligence organization, [[Operation Sandwedge]], was written around July 1971.[^10] The Sandwedge memorandum, printed as Tab 31, warned of the "new and rapidly growing Intertel organization" as a "gun for hire" that could be turned against the President in 1972. It described Hundley as former special assistant to Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy|Bobby Kennedy]] and Peloquin as a "Kennedy loyalist who functioned as Senior Attorney in Justice's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section"; named Belisle; stated that [[Stephen Smith]], the Kennedys' brother-in-law, had visited Intertel's New York office, headed by O'Connell, whom it called a "black bag" specialist; recorded that O'Connell had taken an electronics specialist to sweep the offices of [[Howard Stein]] and of [[Jerome S. Hardy]] of the [[Dreyfus Corporation]], an Intertel director; alleged that one Intertel principal, related to a Baltimore Cosa Nostra figure, was in charge of Hughes security in Las Vegas; and noted that Kolar and the Resorts president, Jack Davis, had testified before the [[New Jersey]] legislature in favor of legalized gambling. It recorded that Golden, "formerly with Intertel, has now switched over to the Hughes' Tool Company," stated a "consensus in the federal intelligence sector" that Intertel "in all likelihood" had delivered to Hughes the details of a reported Justice-IRS skimming investigation of Maheu, and recommended that Intertel be "neutralized by Justice" through a case on whether it had "unauthorized access to sensitive government files."[^10] Caulfield testified that information had come to his attention "indicating that Intertel was unlawfully receiving information from Government files," and that his intent was to find out whether that was so.[^10] He also testified that Intertel's financial success, and the IRS background of some of its leading principals, bore on his proposal that the IRS official [[Vernon Acree]] handle IRS matters for the new organization.[^21] + +The committee's Hughes and Rebozo hearings touched Resorts International. [[William E. Griffin]], a lawyer consulted by Rebozo about the 100,000 dollar Hughes contribution, testified that around 1969 or 1970 he had one conversation in Washington with Crosby and Jack Davis, at which he thought Peloquin and [[Robert Abplanalp]] were also present, about options Resorts had obtained on [[Pan American World Airways]] stock, and that he advised them to see the senators sponsoring restrictive legislation.[^22] [[Herbert Kalmbach]] testified that Rebozo suggested he see Crosby, whose pledge to the 1970 senatorial campaign program fell from 25,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars.[^22] The May 1971 CIA memorandum recorded that Resorts had tried in January 1969 to take control of Pan Am by buying a 9.7 percent interest.[^16] + +Peloquin said that after the Watergate break-in both [[Edward Bennett Williams]] and [[Murray Chotiner]] asked Intertel for help, for the Democrats and the Republicans respectively, and were turned down. The investigative reporter [[Les Whitten]] said that ITT hired Intertel to spy on Jack Anderson's office after the publication of the [[Dita Beard]] memorandum, to learn who had leaked it. Peloquin answered: "We never spied on Les."[^4] + +### Resorts International and Atlantic City + +Intertel represented Resorts International in its campaign for legalized gambling in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]. In 1977 it employed about fifty professionals, most from the FBI, IRS and CIA, and former employees put its income from more than two hundred clients at about 2 million dollars. Peloquin said: "I get 'em cheap. I capitalize on government training." On informants he said: "When I was at Justice, I probably had the best system of informers that anybody ever had. They were my sources; not the department's." The *Post* listed among the staff J. Edgar Hoover's only nephew.[^4] A [[Central Intelligence Agency]] press digest, "News, Views and Issues" no. 19 of December 6, 1974, reproduced Hougan's article on private intelligence agencies from *[[Harper's Magazine]]*, which also named Hoover's nephew among the staff, gave [[Edward Mullin]], formerly of the FBI and the CIA, as Intertel's director of intelligence operations, recorded that Peloquin and McKeon denied that Golden had worked for Intertel although an Intertel brochure associated him with the firm, and stated that an attempt to "rescue" Hughes in the Bahamas was thwarted by Bahamian officials accompanied by Intertel agents.[^23] + +Peloquin became chairman and executive vice president of Resorts International in 1985 and retired in 1990. He moved from [[Bethesda, Maryland]] to [[Plantation, Florida]] in 1990 and died after a heart attack at a nursing home in Frederick, Maryland, on March 24, 2011.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Lauren Wiseman, "Robert D. Peloquin, Lawyer," obituary, *The Washington Post*, March 28, 2011, as reproduced in Eamon Javers, "Sad News: The Death of Robert Peloquin, Who Ran Howard Hughes' Private Intelligence Ops," TheSpyPost, April 8, 2011. https://thespypost.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/sad-news-the-death-of-robert-peloquin-who-ran-howard-hughes-private-intelligence-ops/ +[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Peloquin file, FOI/PA No. 1602405, Part 01, summary "Robert D. Peloquin" of the Bureau's files, prepared December 1970 to January 1971, p. 38 (PDF page). https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^3]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, Director to SAC New York, July 24, 1970, p. 8; New York office transmittal of August 5, 1970 enclosing the International Intelligence, Inc. brochure (officers, purposes, incorporation), pp. 9 ff. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^4]: Tom Zito, "Peloquin of Intertel: Intelligence, Security, 'Targets of Opportunity,'" *The Washington Post*, February 20, 1977, pp. L1, L12 (page images in the Weisberg Subject Index Files, Hood College). http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/I%20Disk/Intertel%20on%20Assassination%20Samples%20of/Item%2001.pdf +[^5]: Jim Hougan, *Spooks: The Haunting of America: The Private Use of Secret Agents* (William Morrow, 1978), pp. 382-384. https://archive.org/details/hougan-jim-spooks +[^6]: Hougan, *Spooks*, pp. 392-394. https://archive.org/details/hougan-jim-spooks +[^7]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, memorandum, SAC Miami (92-0) to Director, April 22, 1970, "International Intelligence, Inc.; Robert Peloquin; William Hundley; Criminal Intelligence Program Information Matter," p. 6 (page image). https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^8]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, Director's letter of April 29, 1970, p. 2; letter of Robert D. Peloquin to J. Edgar Hoover, December 31, 1970, p. 41; reply of Helen W. Gandy with note, January 1971, p. 39; Director to Legat, Ottawa, January 5, 1971, p. 42. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^9]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, teletype, Las Vegas (92-3659) to Director and Miami, December 7, 1970, "International Intelligence Services, Inc.," pp. 21-25. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^10]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, Book 21: Executive Session Hearings* (GPO, 1974), testimony of John J. Caulfield, pp. 9716, 9729-9730, 9735-9736; "Operation Sandwedge," Tab 31, pp. 9899-9902. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob21.pdf +[^11]: "Business: Shootout at the Hughes Corral," *Time*, December 21, 1970. https://time.com/archive/6838449/business-shootout-at-the-hughes-corral/ +[^12]: *Maheu v. Hughes Tool Co.*, 569 F.2d 459 (9th Cir. 1977), modified January 12, 1978. https://openjurist.org/569/f2d/459 +[^13]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, memorandum, J. H. Gale to Mr. Sullivan, "William G. Hundley, Robert D. Peloquin, International Intelligence, Inc.," December 1970 (file stamp January 8, 1971), p. 33. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^14]: Hougan, *Spooks*, pp. 310-311, 367-368. https://archive.org/details/hougan-jim-spooks +[^15]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, Intertel, "Analysis of Each & Every Allegation Concerning Intertel in the Las Vegas Sun, March 21, 1971 to April 2, 1971," pp. 105-128, at pp. 113 and 125. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^16]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Robert D. Peloquin, President, International Intelligence, Inc. (INTERTEL)," May 20, 1971, signed John G. Southard, 6 pp., NARA record number 104-10122-10288, released March 18, 2025 under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10122-10288.pdf +[^17]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Presidential Campaign Activities of 1972, Senate Resolution 60, Executive Session Hearings, Book 24: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), testimony of Chester C. Davis, p. 11611. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob24/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob24.pdf +[^18]: Hougan, *Spooks*, pp. 262-263. https://archive.org/details/hougan-jim-spooks +[^19]: Eamon Javers, "Sad News: The Death of Robert Peloquin, Who Ran Howard Hughes' Private Intelligence Ops," TheSpyPost, April 8, 2011. https://thespypost.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/sad-news-the-death-of-robert-peloquin-who-ran-howard-hughes-private-intelligence-ops/ +[^20]: FBI, Peloquin file, Part 01, memorandum of A. Rosen, May 24, 1971, "Fred G. Robinette, International Intelligence, Inc.," p. 47; J. P. Mohr to Mr. Tolson, January 28, 1972, p. 89; Fred G. Robinette to John P. Mohr, January 26, 1972, p. 91. https://archive.org/details/robert-peloquin-fbi-file +[^21]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 22: The Hughes-Rebozo Investigation and Related Matters* (GPO, 1974), testimony of John J. Caulfield, pp. 10342, 10393. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob22.pdf +[^22]: Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, *Book 23* (GPO, 1974), testimony of William E. Griffin, pp. 10792-10793; *Book 21*, testimony of Herbert W. Kalmbach, p. 10183. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23/pdf/CHRG-93shrg31889Ob23.pdf +[^23]: Central Intelligence Agency, "News, Views and Issues," no. 19, December 6, 1974, CIA-RDP77-00432R000100340002-8, reproducing Jim Hougan, article on private intelligence agencies, *Harper's Magazine* (1974; title not legible in the scan). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp77-00432r000100340002-8 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ivan Voronych.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ivan Voronych.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e93fff26 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ivan Voronych.md @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - SBU + - Ukraine + - Intelligence + - Assassination + - TheBase + - WhitePhoenix + - FSB +alias: + - Ivan Voronych + - Ivan Voronich + - Іван Воронич +summary: "Ivan Voronych was a Security Service of Ukraine colonel shot dead in Kyiv on July 10, 2025, a killing the SBU attributed to FSB-directed agents and a Ukrainian cell of The Base claimed." +died: 2025-07-10 +location: "Kyiv, Ukraine (died)" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Security Service of Ukraine]]" + start: 1998 + end: 2025-07-10 + role: "officer, colonel" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Special Operations Center Alpha]]" + role: "officer, according to Ukrainian intelligence sources cited by The Times" + fn: 2 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[Roman Chervinskyi]]" + role: "deputy, according to The Times sources (the SBU press service called The Times account untrue)" + fn: 2 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[White Phoenix]]" + start: 2025-07-10 + role: "claimed killing, not confirmed by Ukrainian authorities" + fn: 8 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Federal Security Service]]" + start: 2025-07-10 + role: "killing attributed to an FSB agent-and-combat group by the SBU" + fn: 7 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +[[Ivan Voronych]] (also transliterated Voronich) was a colonel of the [[Security Service of Ukraine]] (SBU) who was shot dead in the [[Holosiivskyi]] district of [[Kyiv]] on July 10, 2025 (see [[2025 Kyiv SBU Assassination]]). The SBU press service confirmed that an SBU employee had been killed and that a criminal case had been opened under article 348 of the [[Criminal Code of Ukraine]], which covers attempts on the life of a law-enforcement employee or serviceman.[^1] + +### Career + +Details of his career come from reporting that cites unnamed intelligence sources. [[The Times]] reported, according to [[Ukrainska Pravda]], that Voronych was 50 when he died, came from the Carpathian region, joined the SSU in 1998, and moved to Kyiv for counterintelligence work after 2014. The Times cited Ukrainian intelligence sources for the statements that he joined the SBU's [[Special Operations Center Alpha]], took part in operations in [[Russia]]'s [[Kursk Oblast]], and served as a deputy under Colonel [[Roman Chervinskyi]], and one source claimed that he had orchestrated the 2015 ambush that killed [[Aleksei Mozgovoi]], the leader of the [[Ghost Brigade]] in occupied [[Luhansk Oblast]]. The Times also reported that sources alleged that he deployed sea drones against the Russian [[Black Sea Fleet]].[^2] + +The SBU press service told Ukrainska Pravda that the information in The Times, "provided by anonymous sources, is not true". It stated that Voronych "had no connection to the '[[Nord Stream]] pipeline sabotage', nor did the Ukrainian security services as a whole", and that he was not involved in SBU operations involving marine drones against the Black Sea Fleet or special operations in the rear of Russia's Kursk Oblast.[^2] + +[[The New York Times]] reported, according to [[Meduza]], that Voronych had for a time commanded the special operations unit known as the Fifth Directorate, which receives technical support from the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and oversees assassination missions such as the 2016 killing of [[Arsen Pavlov]], known by the nom de guerre Motorola, a commander of pro-Russian formations in eastern Ukraine. Another former Ukrainian intelligence operative, [[Ivan Stupak]], told the outlet NV that the unit's work included such operations.[^3] Ukrainska Pravda summarised the [[New York Times]] report as stating that he had taken part in a number of special operations, including the killing of Pavlov, and had led a unit that advanced into Russia's Kursk Oblast in 2024; the SBU press service denied that he was involved in special operations in the Kursk Oblast.[^2] The [[Mapping Militants Project]] at [[Stanford University]] reports that a small group called Phoenix, affiliated with the [[Misanthropic Division]], used the Misanthropic Division's name and flag when claiming responsibility for the Pavlov bombing, that the Misanthropic Division rejected the claim, and that experts were generally skeptical that either group had the skills and support network to carry out the attack.[^4] + +Mozgovoi's convoy was bombed and shot at near [[Alchevsk]] on May 23, 2015. [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] reported that the separatists blamed Kyiv, that Kyiv denied involvement and pointed to Mozgovoi's rivals within the separatist movement, and that answers to the question of who carried out the killing differed according to the speaker, with candidates including rival separatists, Russia, the [[United States]] and a pro-Ukrainian commando unit.[^5] + +### Killing + +According to Ukrainska Pravda's source, at about 09:00 on July 10, 2025 a man approached Voronych and fired five shots from a pistol, then fled. Voronych died at the scene.[^2][^6] [[Radio NV]] quoted Stupak as saying that the killing was clearly a contract hit, with five suppressed shots, no argument, an early morning and a carefully planned operation.[^6] + +### SBU account + +On July 13, 2025 the SBU head, Lieutenant General [[Vasyl Maliuk]], said in a video that SBU officers had been conducting an arrest operation against an "agent-and-combat group of the Russian [[Federal Security Service]]", routed to Ukraine in advance, which three days earlier "murdered an SBU officer, our brother-in-arms, Colonel Ivan Voronych". According to the SBU investigation, a man and a woman carried out the killing; their handler ordered them to follow Voronych to establish his schedule and routes, and later gave them coordinates of a stash holding a firearm and suppressor. The SBU statement said that the members of the cell began to resist and were killed during the operation in [[Kyiv Oblast]]. Maliuk said in the video: "the only prospect of the enemy on the territory of Ukraine is death."[^7] Police said that day that the killers were foreign nationals and did not disclose their country of origin.[^6] + +Ukrainska Pravda also reported, citing The Times, that Ukrainian intelligence sources said the FSB had recruited the two assassins from [[Azerbaijan]] through an organised crime syndicate in spring 2025, that the woman entered Ukraine from [[Moldova]] in May, and that the man was at first refused entry because of prior convictions but later crossed the border, which prompted an SSU investigation.[^2] + +### White Phoenix claim + +On July 16, 2025 the [[Kyiv Post]] reported that [[White Phoenix]], the Ukrainian cell of [[The Base]], posted on Telegram: "We, the White Phoenix organization, are proud of our comrades who are cleansing Ukraine from the dirty-blooded horde! This action is a carefully planned warning to the regime", and "The execution of the SBU colonel is not the end, but only the beginning." The Kyiv Post reported that Ukrainian authorities had not confirmed whether the killing was tied to White Phoenix.[^8] + +[[The Guardian]], according to Meduza, reported that its counterterrorism sources found the claim credible. An analyst at the [[Institute for Strategic Dialogue]], [[Steven Rai]], told the Guardian that The Base had been active in Ukraine since March 2025 and had carried out at least ten arson attacks, and that its role in the Voronych killing was unverified. The Guardian also noted allegations that Nazzaro, whom it described as a "semi-defected American" living in [[Saint Petersburg]], is a Kremlin spy. The founder of The Base, [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]], told the Guardian: "I have no personal involvement in this incident and don't know who is responsible for it."[^9] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "У Києві зранку 10 липня застрелили полковника СБУ", Суспільне Новини (Suspilne), July 10, 2025. https://suspilne.media/1063237-u-kievi-zastrelili-polkovnika-sbu-zmi/ +[^2]: Kateryna Tyshchenko, "Ukrainian Security Service colonel shot dead in Kyiv reported to have planned 2015 killing of Russian militant Mozgovoi", Ukrainska Pravda, July 19, 2025, reporting The Times and an SSU press service denial. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/07/19/7522537/ +[^3]: "Ukrainian colonel gunned down in Kyiv commanded secret intelligence unit that orchestrated assassinations of pro-Russian militants", Meduza, July 11, 2025, citing The New York Times. https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/07/12/ukrainian-colonel-gunned-down-in-kyiv-commanded-secret-intelligence-unit-that-orchestrated-assassinations-of-pro-russian-militants +[^4]: Mapping Militants Project, Stanford University, "Misanthropic Division" (Narrative: Phoenix and the October 2016 bombing). https://mappingmilitants.org/profiles/misanthropic-division +[^5]: Merhat Sharipzhan, "The Mysterious Assassination Of A Rebel Commander In Ukraine", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 25, 2015. https://www.rferl.org/a/assassination-of-rebel-commander-in-ukraine/27035485.html +[^6]: Alex Stezhensky, "SBU colonel's killing: U.S.-linked extremist group with Russian ties claims responsibility", The New Voice of Ukraine, July 16, 2025. https://english.nv.ua/nation/u-s-linked-extremist-group-the-base-claims-killing-of-sbu-colonel-ivan-voronych-in-kyiv-50530320.html +[^7]: "SBU claims liquidation of Russian agents responsible for killing officer in Kyiv", Kyiv Independent, July 13, 2025. https://kyivindependent.com/sbu-liquidated-russian-agents-who-killed-sbu-officer-in-kyiv-days-ago/ +[^8]: Nick Pehlman, "Russo-American Neo-Nazi Group Claims Responsibility for Assassination of SBU Colonel in Kyiv", Kyiv Post, July 16, 2025. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/56428 +[^9]: "Neo-Nazi group with suspected Russian ties claims responsibility for assassination of Ukrainian intelligence officer", Meduza, July 16, 2025, citing The Guardian. https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/07/16/neo-nazi-group-with-suspected-russian-ties-claims-responsibility-for-assassination-of-ukrainian-intelligence-officer-the-guardian diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Maxwell Taylor.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Maxwell Taylor.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..18d2981e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Maxwell Taylor.md @@ -0,0 +1,250 @@ +--- +category: "Intelligence & Government" +tags: + - Person + - MaxwellTaylor + - Military + - JointChiefsOfStaff + - BayOfPigs + - OperationMongoose + - Vietnam + - Counterinsurgency + - SpecialGroup + - PFIAB + - DiemCoup + - Brazil1964 +alias: + - Maxwell Taylor + - Maxwell D. Taylor + - Maxwell Davenport Taylor + - General Maxwell Taylor + - General Maxwell D. Taylor + - General Taylor +summary: "Army general who chaired the 1961 Bay of Pigs inquiry and the Special Group (Augmented), sat on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, chaired the Joint Chiefs and was ambassador in Saigon." +born: 1901-08-26 +died: 1987-04-19 +location: "Keytesville, Missouri (born); Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington (died)" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[U.S. Army]]" + start: 1955-06-30 + end: 1959-07 + role: "chief of staff of the Army" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Mexican Light and Power Company]]" + start: 1959 + end: 1960 + role: "chairman of the board" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts]]" + role: "president" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Cuba Study Group]]" + start: 1961-04-22 + end: 1961-06-13 + role: "chairman of the board of inquiry on the Bay of Pigs" + fn: 9 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Bay of Pigs]]" + start: 1961-04-22 + end: 1961-06-13 + role: "chairman, Cuba Study Group" + fn: 9 + - type: member_of + with: "[[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]]" + start: 1961-05-04 + role: "member named in the White House release of May 4, 1961; listed again in May 1966" + fn: 5 + - type: appointed + with: "[[John F. Kennedy]]" + reverse: true + start: 1961-07-01 + role: "military representative of the President" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[NSC Special Group]]" + role: "chairman of the Special Group (Augmented) during Operation Mongoose" + fn: 6 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Operation Mongoose]]" + role: "chairman of the overseeing Special Group (Augmented)" + fn: 6 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Special Group (Counter-Insurgency)]]" + start: 1962-01-18 + end: 1962-11-07 + role: "chairman as military representative of the President; NSAM 204 transferred the chair to State" + fn: 18 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Joint Chiefs of Staff]]" + start: 1962-10-01 + end: 1964-07-01 + role: "chairman" + fn: 2 + - type: appointed + with: "[[Lyndon B. Johnson]]" + reverse: true + start: 1964-07-01 + role: "ambassador to South Vietnam" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[United States Embassy in Saigon]]" + start: 1964-07-01 + end: 1965-07-30 + role: "ambassador; credentials presented July 14, 1964" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Institute for Defense Analyses]]" + start: 1966 + end: 1969 + role: "president" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Maxwell Davenport Taylor (August 26, 1901, Keytesville, Missouri, to April 19, 1987, [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center]]) was a [[U.S. Army|United States Army]] officer who was chief of staff of the Army from 1955 to 1959, chairman of the [[Cuba Study Group]] that examined the [[Bay of Pigs]] operation in 1961, military representative of President [[John F. Kennedy]] from July 1, 1961, chairman of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] from October 1, 1962, to July 1, 1964, and ambassador to [[South Vietnam]] from July 1964 to July 1965.[^1][^2][^3] He was named to the [[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]] on May 4, 1961, while the Cuba Study Group was taking testimony, and between 1961 and 1962 he chaired the [[NSC Special Group|Special Group (Augmented)]] that oversaw [[Operation Mongoose]] and the [[Special Group (Counter-Insurgency)]].[^4][^5][^6] In October 1963 copies of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Saigon station cables reporting contacts with the generals who overthrew [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] were distributed to him by name.[^7][^8] + +### Army career, 1922 to 1959 + +Taylor graduated fourth in a class of 102 at the [[United States Military Academy]] in 1922, receiving his diploma from the superintendent, [[Douglas MacArthur]].[^1] He was commissioned in the engineers, transferred to the field artillery in 1926 and taught French and Spanish at West Point for five years. In 1935 he went to [[Japan]] as a language officer attached to the American embassy in [[Tokyo]], served with a Japanese artillery regiment and was then sent to [[China]] as a Japanese-speaking assistant to Colonel [[Joseph Stilwell]], who was observing the Japanese advance. He returned to Washington in June 1939 for the last prewar class of the [[Army War College]], and in June 1940 he was sent on a hemispheric defense mission to [[Latin America]].[^1][^2] + +At the time of [[Pearl Harbor]] Taylor was serving in the secretariat of the Army chief of staff, General [[George C. Marshall]]. In 1942 he joined General [[Matthew Ridgway]] as chief of staff of the [[82nd Airborne Division|82nd Division]] during its conversion into the Army's first airborne division, and he commanded the division's artillery in [[Sicily]] and [[Italy]]. On September 7, 1943, he went secretly behind German lines to [[Rome]], and his judgment that an airborne landing near the city was too risky led to the cancellation of the drop. From March 1944 he commanded the [[101st Airborne Division]], which he led into [[Normandy]] on D-Day, in the airborne invasion of the [[Netherlands|Holland]] and in the defense of [[Bastogne]].[^1][^2] + +After the war Taylor was superintendent of West Point from September 1945, chief of staff of the European Command, the first American commander in [[Berlin]] and, on the Army Staff, deputy chief of staff for operations and administration. He took command of the [[Eighth United States Army|Eighth Army]] in Korea on February 11, 1953, and received his fourth star on June 23, 1953. He later commanded American ground forces in Korea, Japan and [[Okinawa]] and, from April 1955, the [[Far East Command]] and the [[United Nations Command]]. He was appointed chief of staff of the Army on June 30, 1955. In that post he opposed cuts in Army strength, argued against reliance on massive nuclear retaliation, and reorganized the infantry division into the "pentomic" structure of five battle groups for the atomic battlefield; the Army under him enforced school desegregation in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]], in 1957 and landed with the Marines in [[Lebanon]] in 1958. He retired in July 1959.[^2] + +### Mexico, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy approach + +Taylor published *[[The Uncertain Trumpet]]* in 1960, arguing for a strategy of flexible response. After retiring he became chairman of the board of the [[Mexican Light and Power Company]] in [[Mexico City]]. He said that he lost the post the following year when the Mexican government bought the utility, that his family left Mexico in December 1960, and that he then became president of the [[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts]] in New York.[^1] + +Taylor said that, when the Kennedy administration came in, Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]] offered him the embassy in [[France]] because the President thought a military man should deal with [[Charles de Gaulle]], and that he declined. He said that the first offer from the Kennedys, made through [[Robert Kennedy]], had been the directorship of the CIA, which he also refused. After the landing at the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy telephoned him from the White House and asked him to come to Washington the next day.[^1] + +### The Cuba Study Group, April to June 1961 + +By a letter of April 22, 1961, Kennedy charged Taylor, with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Admiral [[Arleigh Burke]] and [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Allen Dulles]], to study government practices in military and paramilitary, guerrilla and anti-guerrilla activity short of outright war, with particular attention to the lessons of Cuba.[^9] The first meeting was held that afternoon at [[Quarters Eye]], the CIA building that had housed the project, and was recorded as the first meeting of "General Maxwell Taylor's Board of Inquiry on Cuban Operations Conducted by CIA." At the next session, after it was noted that the President did not regard the study as an inquiry or an investigation, the members agreed to call themselves the "Green Study Group," and Taylor had the minutes amended accordingly. The group met twenty times between April 22 and May 25, 1961; the fourteenth and nineteenth meetings are entirely classified. Witnesses included [[Richard Bissell]], [[Tracy Barnes]], General [[David W. Gray]], General [[Lyman Lemnitzer]], Admiral Burke, [[McGeorge Bundy]], Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]], Secretary of State Rusk, [[Adolf A. Berle|Adolf Berle]], [[Walter Bedell Smith]], [[José Miró Cardona]], [[Antonio de Varona]] and members of the Cuban brigade. General [[Edward Lansdale]] testified at the eighth meeting, on May 2, 1961, at the Pentagon.[^9] + +On May 4, 1961, while the group was hearing testimony, Kennedy signed [[Executive Order 10938]] establishing the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, with a mandate to review all functions of the CIA and other intelligence agencies and to report to the President every six months. The order had been prepared from a draft by the special assistant for national security affairs and was forwarded to the President by Robert Kennedy on April 27. [[White House|The White House]] release of May 4 named the members as [[James R. Killian]], chairman, [[William O. Baker]], [[Jimmy Doolittle|James H. Doolittle]], [[William L. Langer]], [[Robert D. Murphy]] and General Maxwell D. Taylor (ret.).[^5] + +Taylor wrote to the President from Room 2E980 of the Pentagon on June 13, 1961, that the group was ready to make its final report orally, supported by four memoranda, and that it had found no difficulty in reaching a unanimous view on all essential points. He urged prompt implementation of its first recommendation, a Strategic Resources Group with a [[Cold War]] Indications Center, writing that the government was "losing today on many fronts."[^9] The conclusions held that a paramilitary operation the size of Zapata could not be conducted so that all American support could be "plausibly disclaimed," and that it therefore did not fit within [[NSC 5412/2]]; that by about November 1960 the impossibility of running it as a covert CIA operation should have been recognized; that the Joint Chiefs, "by acquiescing in the Zapata Plan," had given the impression of approving it although they had preferred the Trinidad plan, a point that apparently never reached the senior civilian officials; and that no failure of intelligence had contributed significantly to the defeat.[^9] + +The group recommended a permanent [[Strategic Resources Group]] of under-secretary rank from State, Defense and the CIA, under a full-time chairman reporting directly to the President, to replace the [[5412 Committee]] and to review covert operations under NSC 5412/2. It recommended that any large paramilitary operation, wholly or partly covert, requiring significant numbers of militarily trained men or equipment beyond normal CIA stocks be the primary responsibility of the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], with the CIA in a supporting role; that Defense inventory the paramilitary assets available to the [[United States]] "overt and covert, U.S. and foreign"; and that the Joint Chiefs be brought to feel as much responsibility for the Cold War as for conventional defense.[^9][^10] + +The [[Church Committee]] found in 1975 that the Taylor report of June 13, 1961, made no mention of the CIA's plot against [[Fidel Castro]] using organized crime figures. Bissell told the committee that he had not disclosed the plot because the question was never asked, because Dulles already knew, because the attempt had been called off, and because it was not germane to the failure of the invasion. Taylor, and Burke in an affidavit, told the committee that neither Bissell nor Dulles had informed them. Taylor testified on July 9, 1975, that he had never heard that underworld figures had been offered money to assassinate Castro, and that Dulles had met the board some thirty or forty times.[^4] + +An attachment to a memorandum of May 22, 1961, from [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] to the Attorney General, concerning the [[Las Vegas]] wiretap, quoted [[Sheffield Edwards]] of the CIA as saying that Bissell, "in his recent briefings of Gen. Taylor and the Attorney General," had told the Attorney General "that some of the associated planning included the use of Giancana and the underworld against Castro." Bissell told the committee that he had no recollection of briefing the two except as members of the board, that any such conversation was not before the board, and that the memorandum quoted language "I might very well have used, that is, the use of the underworld against Castro."[^4] + +### Military representative of the President, 1961 to 1962 + +The White House announced on June 26, 1961, that Taylor would become the President's military representative on July 1. An editorial clipping preserved by the CIA quotes the announcement as giving him "the responsibility of watching the function of the intelligence apparatus of the government to assure the President that it meets the future needs of the government," and the [[Foreign Broadcast Information Service]] recorded the New China News Agency's report of the appointment the next day.[^11] The Church Committee records, from his testimony and McGeorge Bundy's, that Taylor served as military representative and intelligence adviser until he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs.[^6] + +When Kennedy chose [[John McCone]] as Director of Central Intelligence in September 1961, Bundy reported to the President on September 28 that Killian was talking of resigning from the intelligence board and that some members had sharp past disagreements with McCone. Bundy wrote that "General Taylor has talked to Bobby about this and probably is trying to calm Killian down," and that Bundy himself had talked to the columnist [[Joseph Alsop]], who would write a helpful column.[^12] + +### The Taylor-Rostow mission to Vietnam, October 1961 + +A memorandum for the record of October 11, 1961, planned for Taylor to leave for South Vietnam with [[Walt Rostow]] of the White House, General Lansdale, a representative of the Joint Chiefs and an official of the State Department, on a mission to be announced at the President's press conference as an economic survey, and to examine the feasibility of the military intervention plan discussed that morning. The mission arrived in [[Saigon]] on October 18, just as Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed a state of emergency.[^13] In an eyes-only cable to the President, sent from [[Baguio]] in the [[Philippines]], Taylor argued for a task force in the Mekong delta consisting mainly of army engineers to work in a flooded area, warned that it would have to conduct some combat operations and take casualties, and held that the rest of the program would be insufficient without it, because the United States had to "convince Diem that we are willing to join him in a showdown with the Viet Cong."[^13] McNamara recommended the program on November 8; on November 11 Rusk and McNamara jointly recommended deferring combat units, and the presidential decision followed their paper.[^13] + +### The Special Group (Augmented) and Operation Mongoose + +Kennedy appointed Taylor chairman of the Special Group (Augmented), created to oversee Operation Mongoose, with Lansdale as chief of operations and [[William Harvey]] in charge of the CIA's [[Task Force W]]. The Church Committee lists its members as the regular members of the Special Group, McGeorge Bundy, [[U. Alexis Johnson|Alexis Johnson]], [[Roswell Gilpatric]], John McCone and General Lemnitzer, augmented by Robert Kennedy and Taylor; Rusk and McNamara sometimes attended.[^6] + +A memorandum for the record of October 5, 1961, by [[Thomas Parrott]], secretary of the Special Group, recorded that a plan was wanted "against the contingency that Castro would in some way or other be removed from the Cuban scene," that the presence of [[Raúl Castro]] and [[Che Guevara]] had to be taken into account, and that Taylor had told Parrott he preferred "the President's interest in the matter not be mentioned" to the assistant secretary of state concerned. Parrott also asked Tracy Barnes at the CIA for a report on what was being planned "on the covert side." Taylor testified that he had no recollection of [[NSAM 100|National Security Action Memorandum 100]], the related order, and that "never at any time" did he raise assassination with Parrott or anyone else.[^14] + +In early April 1962 Harvey reactivated the CIA's contact with [[John Rosselli]], and the poison pills were passed in that month. On May 3, 1962, Harvey reported to the Special Group (Augmented) on agent teams without mention of the Rosselli operation. Shortly afterwards Taylor gave the President what he called a "routine briefing," recorded in his memorandum for the record of May 7, 1962, which makes no reference to Harvey's contacts with Rosselli or the delivery of pills and guns.[^6] On the same day, May 7, 1962, Sheffield Edwards and the CIA's general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], briefed Robert Kennedy on the earlier underworld operation. Houston had asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] in April not to prosecute those involved in the Las Vegas wiretap, among them [[Robert Maheu]], "on grounds of security"; the Church Committee found that the CIA's objection avoided "exposure of Giancana's and Rosselli's involvement with the Agency in an assassination plot."[^15] + +At a meeting of the Special Group (Augmented) in Rusk's office on August 10, 1962, according to a memorandum by Harvey of August 14, McNamara raised the question of assassinating Castro, and it was "the obvious consensus" that the subject was not one to be made a matter of official record. Lansdale's action memorandum of August 13 assigned to Harvey papers on subjects "including liquidation of leaders," words that Harvey excised. Parrott's minutes contain no reference to assassination.[^16] On August 20 Taylor told the President that the group saw no likelihood that Castro's government would be overturned by internal means without direct American military intervention, and that it favored a more aggressive Mongoose program.[^6] + +Taylor testified that a plan to assassinate Castro was never submitted to the group, orally or in writing, that the group was never told of the pills given to Rosselli in April 1962, and that the President and the Attorney General "would never have gone around" the group to plan an assassination. He said that Robert Kennedy dealt directly with Lansdale outside the group's channels "only for the purpose of imparting his own sense of urgency." Bundy told the committee that Robert Kennedy and Taylor had "a relation of real trust and confidence."[^6] + +### The Special Group (Counter-Insurgency) + +[[NSAM 124|National Security Action Memorandum 124]] of January 18, 1962, created the Special Group (Counter-Insurgency). A CIA record of March 26, 1962, lists its members as the military representative of the President, as chairman, the Attorney General, the deputy under secretary of state for political affairs, the deputy secretary of defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, the special assistant for national security affairs, the administrator of the [[Agency for International Development]] and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs; NSAM 180 of August 13, 1962, added the director of the [[United States Information Agency]].[^17] [[NSAM 204|National Security Action Memorandum 204]] of November 7, 1962, states, "Since General Taylor has taken up his duties as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," that the [[State Department|Department of State]] would chair the group, with [[Michael V. Forrestal]] as the White House member.[^18] + +Taylor remained engaged with the group as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. A CIA note for the deputy director of November 23, 1963, the day after the President's assassination, records that in response to a recent letter from Taylor to the members of the Special Group (Counter-Insurgency), the State Department's [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]] had asked for national intelligence estimates giving "a comprehensive assessment related to the internal defense situation" in the [[Dominican Republic]] and [[Honduras]]. The same note records that the office of the chairman, concerned that extremists of right and left might eliminate the center in Italy, had asked through the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] for an estimate on Italy.[^19] + +### Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Cuban missile crisis + +Kennedy appointed Taylor chairman of the Joint Chiefs on October 1, 1962. Two weeks later the United States obtained the first definite evidence of Soviet missile sites in Cuba. Taylor sat on the [[EXCOMM|Executive Committee]] of the [[National Security Council]], and, speaking for the Chiefs, recommended air strikes, a naval quarantine and preparation for an invasion. In August 1963 he persuaded the Chiefs to endorse the [[Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]].[^2] + +### Vietnam, August to November 1963 + +Taylor attended the White House meetings of August 28, 1963, held after the pagoda raids, and reported that Vietnamese forces loyal to Diem in the Saigon area outnumbered two to one those expected to follow rebel generals in a coup, while outside Saigon the generals who might rebel commanded more troops. That evening the President announced that Taylor would ask General [[Paul Harkins]] for his personal assessment of the situation and of the generals' plans.[^20] On August 30 Taylor sent the President, as memorandum CM-856-63, a table of the probable loyalties of military units and commanders "in the event a coup d'etat is undertaken," based, except for the Civil Guard and Self Defense Corps, on a CIA report received from Saigon on August 29. It rated the [[Presidential Guard (South Vietnam)|Presidential Guard]] most likely to remain loyal, the airborne brigade as one that "could likely be led to act against Diem," and the Special Forces under Colonel [[Le Quang Tung]] as probably standing by Diem.[^21] + +Taylor said in 1981 that the State Department telegram of August 24, 1963, which authorized Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]] to tell the generals that the United States could not continue to support the government unless the Nhus were removed, had been drafted by [[Averell Harriman]], [[Roger Hilsman]] and Michael Forrestal, cleared with Under Secretary [[George Ball]] "who was out playing golf," cleared by telephone with the President at [[Hyannis Port]], and dispatched "without the concurrence of the Defense Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the CIA," and that its authors could not explain it the following Monday.[^1] In his memoirs he called it an "end run"; Hilsman maintained that the President and representatives of all the agencies concerned had cleared it.[^22] + +On September 19 Taylor recorded a call from the former ambassador [[Tran Van Chuong]], who told him there could be no final victory with the Diem government and that it would be too dangerous for senior civilians to communicate with him.[^23] Kennedy sent McNamara and Taylor to Vietnam in late September. Taylor played tennis with General [[Duong Van Minh]] at the Saigon Officers Club on September 29, with McNamara as a spectator, under the impression that Minh had a message for them; Minh declined to respond to what Taylor later called "broad hints of our interest in other subjects which we gave him during breaks in the game." At Taylor's request Colonel [[Raymond Jones (soldier)|Raymond Jones]] contacted Minh that night. On October 1 Taylor paid a farewell call on Minh, recording that Minh saw "his country in chains with no way to shake them off," and telling him that he could always communicate with Taylor on any subject through General Harkins.[^8] + +Taylor wrote to Diem on October 1 as "an old friend of South Vietnam," predicting that the insurgency in the north and center could be reduced to sporadic incidents by the end of 1964 and the Delta by the end of 1965 if conditions were met; a note on the copy records delivery on October 2 with McNamara's approval and Lodge's concurrence.[^24] The McNamara-Taylor report of October 2 recommended announcing the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963 and of the bulk of them by the end of 1965, continuing to withhold commodity import funds, suspending the AID loans for the Saigon-Cholon waterworks and the Saigon electric power project, and cutting off MAP and CIA support to Colonel Tung's units unless they were placed under the Joint General Staff. It held that "no initiative should be taken to encourage actively a change in government," and, under possible American actions, that there was a need for "an intensive clandestine effort, under the Ambassador's direction, to establish necessary contacts to allow the U.S. to continuously appraise coup prospects."[^25] + +The CIA station's cable 1385 of October 3, reporting that Lieutenant Colonel [[Lucien Conein]] had met General [[Tran Van Don]] at [[Nha Trang]] the night before with the approval of the deputy chief of mission, and that Minh wished to see Conein privately, was sent to the State Department exclusive for Rusk, Ball, Harriman and Hilsman, to the White House for Bundy, and to the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence "exclusive for McNamara, Gilpatric, Taylor, and Krulak."[^7] Minh received Conein on October 5 and outlined three plans, the first being the assassination of [[Ngo Dinh Nhu]] and [[Ngo Dinh Can]] with Diem kept in office.[^26] The station's cable 2023 of October 29, on Conein's meeting with Don the day before, which listed units in the coup group and described two escape tunnels from [[Gia Long Palace]], went to the Office of the Secretary of Defense "eyes only for McNamara, Gilpatric, Taylor, Krulak, and William Bundy," to McCone, [[Marshall Carter|Carter]] and [[Richard Helms|Helms]] at the CIA, and to the State Department and White House.[^27] + +On October 29 Taylor sent Harkins message JCS 4188-63 on a "continued lack of effective communication" between Harkins and Lodge and on divergent understandings of Washington's coup guidance. Harkins replied the next day, "I share your concern," and complained that Lodge did not clear military messages with him; Taylor had the reply conveyed to Bundy.[^28][^29] The Church Committee records that Harkins cabled Taylor his opposition to American participation in a coup.[^30] + +At the President's meeting of 4:20 p.m. on October 29, attended by the Vice President, Rusk, McNamara, Robert Kennedy, McCone, Harriman, Helms, [[William Colby]] and others, Colby estimated pro-Diem and anti-Diem forces at about 9,800 each, with 18,000 neutral. Taylor cautioned against looking at the situation "as if it were a football game." McNamara proposed that the deputy chief of mission, the acting CIA chief and Harkins jointly decide what "our agent Conein" would say and do; McCone disagreed. Robert Kennedy called his own position against a coup "the minority view." Taylor said he agreed with the Attorney General and, pressed by the President, said that even a successful coup would slow the war because the new central government would be inexperienced and the province chiefs appointed by Diem would probably be replaced. McCone said he agreed with Taylor.[^31] + +Taylor attended the President's meetings on the morning of November 1, as the coup began, and of 9:35 a.m. on November 2, when Forrestal brought in a telegram reporting that Diem and Nhu were dead.[^32] Taylor said in 1981 that "we were meeting in the Cabinet room when the news came, and President Kennedy, who always had insisted Diem never suffer more than exile, jumped up and rushed out of the room." In his memoir he placed the scene on November 1, a date the editors of the Foreign Relations series correct to November 2.[^1][^32] Asked in 1981 whether the killing of Diem had been a covert operation, Taylor answered, "Not if you mean a covert operation conducted by the CIA."[^1] At 12:25 p.m. on November 2 Taylor cabled Harkins about the risk that the new government would make a wholesale replacement of the province chiefs, writing that "it is clearly in our interest to prevent removal of effective and experienced chiefs."[^33] The Church Committee found that the United States had encouraged the coup but was neither involved in nor desired the deaths of Diem and Nhu.[^30] + +### Brazil, March 1964 + +The cable of March 27, 1964, cited as RIOD 3824 and slugged RYBAT, in which Ambassador [[Lincoln Gordon]] reported from Rio de Janeiro on the situation in [[Brazil]], was addressed for immediate passage to Secretary Rusk, Assistant Secretary [[Thomas C. Mann|Thomas Mann]], [[Ralph Burton]], Secretary McNamara, Assistant Secretary [[John T. McNaughton|John McNaughton]], "General Maxwell Taylor," CIA Director McCone, Colonel [[J.C. King]], [[Desmond FitzGerald]], the White House for Bundy and [[Ralph Dungan]], and General [[Andrew P. O'Meara|O'Meara]] in the Canal Zone, "other distribution only by approval above named." Gordon wrote that the movement around General [[Humberto Castelo Branco]] was where "both I and all my senior advisors believe our support should be placed." He recommended preparing a clandestine delivery of arms "of non-US origin" to Castelo Branco's supporters in [[São Paulo]], the "best delivery means now apparent to us" being an "unmarked submarine to be off-loaded at night in isolated shore spots in state of Sao Paulo south of Santos," with petroleum supplies, and the early detachment of a naval task force with carrier aircraft to within a few days' steaming of [[Santos]].[^34] + +### Ambassador in Saigon, 1964 to 1965 + +President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] appointed Taylor ambassador to South Vietnam on July 1, 1964, the day he left the chairmanship; he presented his credentials on July 14 and left post on July 30, 1965, with U. Alexis Johnson as deputy ambassador.[^2][^3] + +On the night of December 19 to 20, 1964, General [[Nguyen Khanh]] and the officers known as the Young Turks, among them [[Nguyen Cao Ky]] and [[Nguyen Van Thieu]], dissolved the [[High National Council]] by a "Military Council Decree No. 1" and arrested some of its members. Taylor told Prime Minister [[Tran Van Huong]] that accepting the decree would leave "a military dictatorship with only a civilian facade" and could jeopardize continued American support, and proposed conditions Huong should exact; William Bundy cabled, "Entirely agree with line you are taking."[^35] On December 23 Taylor reported that Khanh's military colleagues "would have dropped him except for the understanding that he had U.S. support," and named Generals [[Nguyen Huu Co]], [[Pham Van Dong (general)|Pham Van Dong]] and Thieu as possible replacements, excluding Minh.[^36] The State Department's instructions of December 24, for the contingency that Taylor might be declared persona non grata, expressed the hope that Huong and the military "would in end unite on dumping Khanh as their own decision."[^37] + +On February 19, 1965, Taylor reported a coup attempt led tactically by General [[Lam Van Phat]], with information coming "largely from CAS officer in contact with liaison officer" of Tran Van Don.[^38] On February 23 the State Department told Taylor that it expected the next air strike against North Vietnam on February 26 and that "we believe departure of Khanh essential before either clearance or strike."[^39] Khanh left Saigon on February 25; Taylor reported to the President on March 2 the "perceptible feeling of relief" at his departure.[^40] + +### Adviser, IDA and the intelligence board, 1965 to 1969 + +After resigning as ambassador, Taylor served as a special consultant to President Johnson and on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; he was president of the [[Institute for Defense Analyses]] from 1966 to 1969.[^1][^2] A CIA list of May 1966 names him among the board's members under [[Clark Clifford]], with William O. Baker, [[Gordon Gray]], William Langer, [[Edwin Land|Edwin H. Land]], Robert Murphy and [[Frank Pace]].[^41] CIA records of 1967 and 1968 show the agency arranging a briefing for him with the [[National Security Agency]] on July 19, 1967, and briefing him on the [[Middle East]], on Soviet technology through the [[Foreign Technology Division]], and on a special estimate of the ability to monitor Soviet arms limitations. The record of the director's meeting of November 30, 1967, notes that Taylor had requested an April 11, 1968, briefing on strategic offensive systems and that the CIA was to brief the board on espionage and counterespionage operations in Vietnam at its meeting of December 11 and 12.[^42] + +Taylor published *Responsibility and Response* in 1967, the memoir *Swords and Plowshares* in 1972 and *Precarious Security* in 1976. He died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on April 19, 1987.[^1][^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Robert S. Gallagher, "Gen. Maxwell Taylor: Memories of Peace and War" (interview with Maxwell D. Taylor), *American Heritage*, vol. 32, no. 3 (April/May 1981), https://www.americanheritage.com/gen-maxwell-taylor-memories-peace-and-war +[^2]: Joint History Office, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "General Maxwell Davenport Taylor," from *The Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1949-2016* (2016), https://www.jcs.mil/About/The-Joint-Staff/Chairman/General-Maxwell-Davenport-Taylor/ +[^3]: Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, "Maxwell Davenport Taylor (1901-1987)," Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/taylor-maxwell-davenport +[^4]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, S. Rept. 94-465, 94th Cong., 1st sess., November 20, 1975, section III.B.3(b)(i)(4)(c), "Taylor/Kennedy Bay of Pigs Inquiry," pp. 121-123, and (ii)(1)(a), p. 135, citing testimony of Taylor, July 9, 1975, pp. 72-73, and of Bissell, June 9, June 11 and July 22, 1975, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^5]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XXV, *Organization of Foreign Policy; Information Policy; United Nations; Scientific Matters*, document 87, editorial note on Executive Order 10938 and the White House release of May 4, 1961, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v25/d87 +[^6]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, section III.B.3(b)(ii)(2)-(3), "Operation MONGOOSE" and "Testimony of Kennedy Administration Officials," pp. 139-140, 153-157, citing testimony of Taylor, July 9, 1975, pp. 11-12, 27, 41-49, 62, 67, Bundy, July 11, 1975, and Taylor's memoranda to the President of May 7 and August 20, 1962, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^7]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 171, CIA Saigon station telegram 1385, October 3, 1963, and source note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d171 +[^8]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 162, memorandum for the record by Taylor, "Farewell Call on Major General Duong Van Minh," October 1, 1963, and source note quoting Taylor, *Swords and Plowshares*, pp. 297-298, and Taylor to McNamara, September 30, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d162 +[^9]: Maxwell D. Taylor to President Kennedy, June 13, 1961; Memorandum No. 3, "Conclusions of the Cuban Study Group," and Memorandum No. 4, "Recommendations of the Cuban Study Group," Recommendations 1 to 4; and memoranda for the record of the first, second and eighth meetings (April 22, April 24 and May 2, 1961), in *Operation Zapata: The "Ultrasensitive" Report and Testimony of the Board of Inquiry on the Bay of Pigs* (Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1981), contents, pp. 1-3, 40-50, 183-184, https://archive.org/details/operation-zapata +[^10]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Taylor Report," August 15, 1961, CIA-RDP80B01676R001900160002-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001900160002-5 +[^11]: Unsigned editorial clipping on the appointment of Gen. Maxwell Taylor as military representative of the President, 1961, CIA-RDP70-00058R000200130138-3, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp70-00058r000200130138-3; Foreign Broadcast Information Service, "Maxwell Taylor Named Kennedy Aide," Peking NCNA in English, June 27, 1961, in daily report of June 28, 1961, CIA-RDP75-00149R000700480016-9, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00149r000700480016-9 +[^12]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. XXV, document 91, McGeorge Bundy to President Kennedy, "Washington News," September 28, 1961, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v25/d91 +[^13]: *United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense*, Book 2, Part IV.B.1, "Evolution of the War: The Kennedy Program and Commitments, 1961," sections "The Decision to Send Taylor" and "Taylor in Saigon," including the memorandum for the record of October 11, 1961, and Taylor's eyes-only cables from Baguio, DTIC ADA542557, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA542557 +[^14]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, section III.B.3(b)(ii)(1)(b), "National Security Action Memorandum 100 of October 5, 1961, and the CIA Intelligence Estimate," pp. 136-138, citing Parrott memorandum for the record, October 5, 1961, and Taylor testimony, July 9, 1975, pp. 18-19, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^15]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, section III.B.3(b)(i)(7)(c)(2), "The Formal Decision to Forego Prosecution" and "Briefing of the Attorney General on May 7, 1962," pp. 131-133, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^16]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, section III.B.3(b)(ii)(4), "The August 10, 1962 Special Group (Augmented) Meeting," pp. 161-163, citing Harvey memorandum to Helms, August 14, 1962, and Lansdale memorandum, August 13, 1962, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^17]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Membership of Special Group, Counter Insurgency (According to NSAM 124, 18 Jan 62)," March 26, 1962, CIA-RDP80B01083A000100120022-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01083a000100120022-8 +[^18]: National Security Action Memorandum No. 204, "Special Group (Counter-Insurgency)," November 7, 1962, revised, with Bromley Smith's memorandum to holders of November 16, 1962, CIA-RDP80B01676R000100110008-3, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r000100110008-3 +[^19]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Notes for DDCI," November 23, 1963, item 5, CIA-RDP80B01676R001300100074-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r001300100074-8 +[^20]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, *Vietnam, August-December 1963*, document 1, memorandum of conference with the President, August 28, 1963, noon, and document 6, memorandum of conversation, August 28, 1963, 6 p.m., https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d1 and https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d6 +[^21]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 24, Taylor to the President, CM-856-63, "Probable Loyalties of Vietnamese Units and Commanders," August 30, 1963, with enclosure, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d24 +[^22]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. III, *Vietnam, January-August 1963*, document 281, telegram 243 from the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam, August 24, 1963, source note citing Taylor, *Swords and Plowshares*, pp. 292-294, and Hilsman, *To Move a Nation*, pp. 487-488, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v03/d281 +[^23]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 135, memorandum for the record by Taylor, "Visit of Former Ambassador Tran Van Chuong," September 19, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d135 +[^24]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 163, Taylor to President Diem, October 1, 1963, and source note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d163 +[^25]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 167, Taylor and McNamara to the President, "Report of McNamara-Taylor Mission to South Vietnam," October 2, 1963, sections I.A-B and VIII.C, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d167 +[^26]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 177, CIA Saigon station telegram, October 5, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d177 +[^27]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 225, CIA Saigon station telegram 2023, October 29, 1963, and source note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d225 +[^28]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 227, Taylor to Harkins, JCS 4188-63, October 29, 1963, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d227 +[^29]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 240, Harkins to Taylor, MAC 2028, October 30, 1963, and source note, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d240 +[^30]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, section III.E, "Diem," pp. 217-224, https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit +[^31]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 234, memorandum of conference with President Kennedy, October 29, 1963, 4:20 p.m., drafted by Bromley Smith, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d234 +[^32]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 264, telegram 673 to Saigon, November 1, 1963, source note on the 10 a.m. meeting, and document 274, editorial note on the meeting of November 2, 1963, 9:35 a.m., quoting Taylor, *Swords and Plowshares*, p. 301, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d264 and https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d274 +[^33]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. IV, document 276, Taylor to Harkins, JCS 4279-63, November 2, 1963, 12:25 p.m., https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d276 +[^34]: Telegram RIOD 3824, personal from Ambassador Gordon, March 27, 1964, sections one to four of five (LBJ Library copy), paragraphs 1, 11, 13 and 14, posted as document 2 of National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 118, "Brazil Marks 40th Anniversary of Military Coup," https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB118/bz02.pdf +[^35]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. I, *Vietnam, 1964*, document 451, Saigon telegram 1870, December 20, 1964, 5 p.m., and document 452, Saigon telegram 1874, December 20, 1964, 7 p.m., with source notes, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d451 and https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d452 +[^36]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. I, document 460, Saigon telegram 1915, December 23, 1964, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d460 +[^37]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. I, document 465, telegram 1347 to Saigon, December 24, 1964, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d465 +[^38]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. II, *Vietnam, January-June 1965*, document 141, Saigon telegram 2654, February 19, 1965, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02/d141 +[^39]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. II, document 159, telegram 1805 to Saigon, February 23, 1965, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02/d159 +[^40]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968*, vol. II, document 177, Saigon telegram 2817, March 2, 1965, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02/d177 +[^41]: Central Intelligence Agency, "President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board," membership list, May 1966, CIA-RDP71R00140A000100030002-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp71r00140a000100030002-1 +[^42]: Central Intelligence Agency, memoranda for the record of the Director's morning meetings, August 31, 1967 (CIA-RDP80R01284A001800030023-0), November 30, 1967 (CIA-RDP80R01284A001800030085-2), April 1, 1968 (CIA-RDP80R01284A001800040059-0), May 29, 1968 (CIA-RDP80R01284A001800050019-3) and August 21, 1968 (CIA-RDP80R01284A001800050076-0); memorandum for the record, "Briefing of General Maxwell Taylor, 19 July 1967," July 13, 1967 (CIA-RDP33-02415A000100030079-0); all at https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01284a001800030085-2 and the corresponding identifiers diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Government Efficiency.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Government Efficiency.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5fe84c7c --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Department of Government Efficiency.md @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ +--- +category: "U.S. Government" +tags: + - Organization + - DOGE + - ElonMusk + - USDS + - ExecutiveOrder14158 + - TreasuryPaymentSystems + - SocialSecurityAdministration + - SpecialGovernmentEmployee + - DataAccess + - Litigation +alias: + - Department of Government Efficiency + - Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) + - DOGE + - U.S. DOGE Service + - United States DOGE Service + - USDS + - U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization +summary: "Executive Office of the President unit created by Executive Order 14158 on January 20, 2025 from the United States Digital Service, led publicly by Elon Musk, with a temporary organization ending July 4, 2026." +start: 2025-01-20 +end: 2026-07-04 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Elon Musk]]" + reverse: true + end: 2025-05-30 + role: "publicly identified leader; formally classified by the defendants as a special government employee" + fn: 6 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Amy Gleason]]" + reverse: true + role: "acting administrator of the United States DOGE Service, identified as such by the White House on February 25, 2025" + fn: 3 + - type: reported_to + with: "[[White House Chief of Staff]]" + start: 2025-01-20 + role: "the USDS Administrator reports to the White House Chief of Staff under section 3(b) of the order" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Tom Krause]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-01-23 + role: "Treasury DOGE team lead; consultant from January 23, then temporary transitional Schedule C employee from February 13, 2025" + fn: 7 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Marko Elez]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-01-21 + role: "Treasury DOGE team member; resigned from Treasury on February 6, 2025" + fn: 7 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Antonio Gracias]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-02-23 + role: "member of the Social Security Administration DOGE Team, appointed as a special government employee" + fn: 15 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington]]" + role: "defendant in the Freedom of Information Act suit No. 25-cv-511 over records of the U.S. DOGE Service" + fn: 3 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]]" + reverse: true + role: "minority staff memorandum of April 27, 2025 on conflicts of interest of Elon Musk and report of July 31, 2025 on DOGE waste" + fn: 22 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is the name given in Executive Order 14158 of January 20, 2025 to an initiative implemented through the [[United States Digital Service]], which the order renamed the [[United States]] DOGE Service (USDS) and placed in the Executive Office of the President.[^1] The order created within it a temporary organization, the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, that "shall terminate on July 4, 2026," required each agency head to establish a DOGE Team of at least four employees within thirty days, and directed agency heads to ensure that USDS had "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems."[^1] [[Elon Musk]] was publicly identified as its leader until May 30, 2025.[^2] + +### Announcement and executive orders + +In November 2024 President-elect [[Donald Trump]] announced on [[X (social media)|X]] the formation of a "Department of Government Efficiency" "to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," and named Musk and [[Vivek Ramaswamy]] as its incoming leaders; on November 20, 2024 the two published an article in the [[Wall Street Journal]] describing "embedded appointees" at federal agencies and "mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy."[^3] [[Christopher Cooper]] wrote that USDS commenced operations before the inauguration and that, as reported, its employees communicated through the encrypted application [[Signal (software)|Signal]] during the transition.[^3] + +Executive Order 14158 provides that the USDS Administrator reports to the [[White House Chief of Staff]], that each agency's DOGE Team will typically include a team lead, an engineer, a human resources specialist and an attorney, and that the order "displaces all prior executive orders and regulations, insofar as they are subject to direct presidential amendment, that might serve as a barrier to providing USDS access to agency records and systems."[^1] Later orders directed agencies to consult DOGE team leads on hiring (Executive Order 14210, February 11, 2025), and to review "all existing covered contracts and grants" with DOGE officials (Executive Order 14222, February 26, 2025); an order of March 20, 2025 (Executive Order 14243) directed agencies to ensure that federal officials designated by the President or agency heads have "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems," and directed that the Secretary of the [[Department of Labor]] and designees receive "unfettered access" to unemployment and payment records held by its Office of Inspector General.[^4][^5] The White House identified [[Amy Gleason]] as the USDS Administrator on February 25, 2025; the government provided the court with no information about who held the post before her.[^3] + +### Musk's formal status + +In the suit brought by the states led by [[New Mexico]], Judge [[Tanya Chutkan]] wrote that the defendants "formally classify Musk as a 'special Government employee,'" citing paragraphs 3 and 4 of a declaration of [[Joshua Fisher]].[^6] A special government employee may serve for up to 130 days in any consecutive 365-day period under [[18 U.S.C. 202|18 U.S.C. 202(a)]].[^7] The same suit alleged, as summarized by the court, that on February 1, 2025 Musk telephoned officials of the [[United States Agency for International Development]] and pressured them to give DOGE personnel access to the agency's building, and that on February 2 he wrote on X that "We spent the weekend feeding [[Agency for International Development|USAID]] into the woodchipper."[^6] [[National Public Radio]] reported on May 30, 2025 that lawyers for the government had insisted that Musk had no legal authority and had downplayed his efforts.[^2] + +On March 12, 2025 Chutkan had granted in part the states' request for expedited discovery; on March 26, 2025 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]], in [[In re Musk]] (No. 25-5072), stayed that order pending further order, and in June 2025 the states told the district court that they would not move for a preliminary injunction, the basis for the expedited discovery.[^8] On May 27, 2025 Chutkan denied the government's motion to dismiss the states' claims that the creation of DOGE was ultra vires and that Musk exercised significant authority without Senate confirmation in violation of the [[Appointments Clause]], and dismissed the President as a defendant.[^6] On March 23, 2026, in the consolidated suit of the Japanese American Citizens League and other nonprofits, she wrote that Musk had left government, citing a declaration of Gleason, that the declaration "indicates that DOGE is still up and running," and that the Appointments Clause and ultra vires claims continued against his successor, while she dismissed the [[Administrative Procedure Act]] and freestanding separation of powers claims; the states had by then voluntarily dismissed their claims.[^5] + +### Treasury payment systems + +Two people were assigned to the [[Department of the Treasury]] team: [[Marko Elez]], named a Special Advisor for Information Technology and Modernization on January 21, 2025 and appointed as a temporary transitional Schedule C employee, and [[Tom Krause]], who took an oath on January 23, 2025 as a "consultant" under [[5 U.S.C. 3109]].[^7] The appointing official did not execute Krause's paperwork until February 3, listing a start date of February 9, and on February 10 executed revised documentation backdating the appointment to January 23; Treasury Secretary [[Scott Bessent]] delegated the duties of the Fiscal Assistant Secretary to Krause on February 5, and Krause took them up on February 13 after being sworn as a temporary transitional Schedule C employee.[^7] Krause was designated a special government employee, serves without pay, and kept his position as chief executive officer of [[Cloud Software Group]], Inc.[^7] On January 26, 2025 the [[Bureau of the Fiscal Service]] began a "payment process engagement plan" with the team, and the court recorded that Elez resigned on February 6, 2025.[^7] + +On February 8, 2025 a judge of the Southern District of New York sitting as emergency judge restrained the Treasury Department, on the application of nineteen states, from granting access to payment records or systems containing personal or financial information to political appointees, special government employees and detailees from other agencies.[^9] The case, [[New York v. Trump]] (No. 25-cv-1144), was assigned to Judge [[Jeannette Vargas]], who issued a preliminary injunction on February 21, 2025.[^7] On March 7, 2025 Judge [[Colleen Kollar-Kotelly]] denied a preliminary injunction in [[Alliance for Retired Americans v. Bessent]] (No. 25-cv-313) for want of a showing of irreparable harm, writing that she would not hesitate to find it if the defendants planned to make private information public or to share it outside the government without confidentiality obligations; on March 5, 2026 she granted summary judgment to the defendants on the grounds that the challenged decisions were not final agency action and that the ultra vires standard was not met.[^7][^10] [[The Federalist]] reported that Vargas later softened the injunction to permit access subject to vetting, training and reporting conditions, and that on September 23, 2026 she dismissed the states' access claims as moot because the executive order establishing DOGE had expired and dismissed the remaining claims.[^11] + +### Health and Human Services, Labor and other agencies + +In [[American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations v. Department of Labor]] (No. 25-cv-339), Judge [[John Bates]] set out, from the defendants' interrogatory responses, the access granted to DOGE affiliates.[^4] [[Luke Farritor]], a recent hire of the [[General Services Administration]], accepted a detail to the [[Department of Health and Human Services]] on January 21, 2025 and on his second day was granted administrator access to the Payment Management System, which holds grantees' Social Security numbers; he was also detailed to USDS and to the [[Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]].[^4] [[Aram Moghaddassi]] and Gleason were granted access to HHS systems on February 19 and 24, 2025; Gleason was hired as an HHS employee on March 5, 2025.[^4] [[Edward Coristine]], a GSA detailee to USDS and HHS, and Elez, a dual Treasury and Labor hire and detailee to USDS and to at least three other agencies, were granted access to the HHS Integrated Data Repository and its general ledger system, which hold Medicare patient data, although the opinion states that it is unclear whether they logged into the systems.[^4] On March 21, 2025, the day after the March 20 executive order, the Labor Department's chief information officer granted Moghaddassi and Elez access to the unemployment insurance data system.[^4] Bates had denied two motions for temporary restraining orders; on April 16, 2025 he held that the complaint stated an ultra vires claim against USDS and some Administrative Procedure Act claims but not a standalone [[Privacy Act of 1974|Privacy Act]] claim, and on June 27, 2025 he denied a preliminary injunction, writing that absent evidence that the personnel would imminently misuse or publicly disclose the information he could not say that irreparable harm would clearly occur, and that the court's "concerns are as grave as ever."[^12] On March 31, 2026 Bates held that the union plaintiffs had standing, denied cross-motions for summary judgment on the Administrative Procedure Act counts because of genuine disputes of material fact, and granted summary judgment to the defendants on the statutory ultra vires count; on May 26, 2026 he authorized limited discovery.[^4][^13] Separately, a disclosure by a cybersecurity employee of the [[National Labor Relations Board]] in April 2025 is described at [[NLRB Data Exfiltration]]. + +### Social Security Administration + +The suit of [[American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees]], the [[Alliance for Retired Americans]] and the [[American Federation of Teachers]] against the [[Social Security Administration]] (No. 25-cv-596, District of Maryland) was filed on February 21, 2025 and amended on March 7, 2025 to add as defendants Musk, as "Senior Advisor to the President and de facto head of DOGE," and Gleason as Acting Administrator of USDS.[^14] Judge [[Ellen Hollander]] issued a temporary restraining order on March 20, 2025 and a preliminary injunction on April 17, 2025, recording that the agency's DOGE Team consisted of five special government employees and six detailees and that [[Antonio Gracias]], appointed on February 23, 2025, was described in agency documents as a former director of [[Tesla, Inc.]] from 2007 to 2021.[^14][^15] The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] stayed the injunction on June 6, 2025 by a vote of six to three, writing that "SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work"; [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]], joined by [[Sonia Sotomayor]], dissented, and [[Elena Kagan]] would have denied the application.[^14][^16] On April 10, 2026 the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit]], sitting en banc, vacated the injunction by nine votes to six on the ground that irreparable harm had not been shown, while nine judges agreed that the plaintiffs had standing.[^14] + +On January 16, 2026 the agency filed a "Notice of Corrections to the Record" in the district court disclosing that, on its review of records obtained during or after October 2025, a DOGE Team member had run searches containing personal information on the morning of March 24, 2025 before access ended around noon, that a March 3, 2025 email copied a DOGE advisor on an encrypted attachment the agency believed contained personal information derived from its systems, and that a DOGE Team member had executed a "Voter Data Agreement" with a political advocacy group seeking to analyze state voter rolls.[^14] In the Fourth Circuit's en banc decision Judge King wrote in a concurring and dissenting opinion that it was "beyond passing strange" that only the agency, and not the two DOGE entities or two DOGE officials who were defendants, had filed the notice.[^14] + +On August 26, 2025 the [[Government Accountability Project]], representing the agency's chief data officer [[Charles Borges]], sent a disclosure to the Senate and House committees and the [[Office of Special Counsel]] alleging that after the Supreme Court's stay, on June 10, 2025, a DOGE-aligned official asked agency information technology staff for a cloud environment to which the NUMIDENT database could be transferred, that the request changed on June 11 to a transfer to a test environment with full administrative access for the requester, and that on June 12 a career official in the Office of the Chief Information Officer submitted a risk acceptance form scoring the request 15, in the "very high" range.[^17] The disclosure also alleges that after the March 20 restraining order the agency revoked access on March 21, that within twenty-four hours senior employees with administrative privileges were instructed on the evening of March 21 to restore access for two DOGE employees with forty-two profiles, and that the Office of Information Security revoked it again on March 24.[^17] The disclosure also alleges that on June 25, 2025 the Office of the Chief Information Officer elevated a further developed request to the agency's chief information officer Michael Russo to copy live NUMIDENT production data to the DOGE cloud environment, and that Russo answered "Approved...."[^17] The disclosure names Coristine, Moghaddassi, John Solly (spelled Solley elsewhere in the document) and Michael Russo, and states in a footnote that Moghaddassi had previously worked for Musk's companies Neuralink and X.[^17] [[FedScoop]] reported that Borges resigned from the agency on August 29, 2025, in a letter stating that the agency's actions against him constituted a "constructive discharge."[^18] + +On March 10, 2026 the plaintiffs filed a notice enclosing a [[Washington Post]] article reporting that a former DOGE member allegedly told co-workers that he possessed two restricted databases, NUMIDENT and the Master Death File, and had at least one on a thumb drive; the government responded that the article was unconfirmed.[^14] On June 5, 2026 the plaintiffs filed a second notice summarizing a declaration of [[Jeremiah Schofield]], a senior agency executive, which, as summarized by Judge Hollander from the plaintiffs' notice, states that DOGE personnel directed staff to add inaccurate death dates to records, that the [[Department of Homeland Security]] asked Schofield to "kill off" 6,000 individuals despite a lack of evidence that they were dead and sent a list of 2.7 million names with the same request, that Schofield and colleagues reviewed a sample and found the vast majority to be citizens or lawful permanent residents, and that a DHS official, Jon Koval, later told Schofield the directives were intended either to drive those individuals to self-deport or to bring them to Social Security offices where Immigration and Customs Enforcement could detain them.[^14] The government answered that the conduct postdated the agency action challenged and that the stories had been public for over a year.[^14] The agency's chief of human resources stated in a declaration filed on May 1, 2026 that the agency had no DOGE Team, members or affiliates, and that its chief information officer, Russo, and its general counsel, Mark A. Steffenson, "had prior association with DOGE before onboarding at SSA."[^14] On June 26, 2026 Hollander denied the government's motion to rescind her order permitting discovery.[^14] + +### Freedom of Information Act litigation + +[[Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. U.S. DOGE Service]] (No. 25-cv-511) concerned requests for records of USDS. On March 10, 2025 Cooper declined to order production by March 10 but, after the government stated that it would not process the request because USDS was not subject to the [[Freedom of Information Act]], issued a preliminary injunction on the ground that USDS was likely an agency exercising "substantial authority independent of the President" and ordered expedited processing; he reaffirmed it on March 19, 2025.[^3][^19] On June 6, 2025 the Supreme Court granted the government's application, treated it as a petition for a writ of certiorari and granted it, vacated the court of appeals' order denying mandamus and remanded, holding that portions of the discovery order requiring disclosure of the content of intra-executive-branch USDS recommendations and whether they were followed were "not appropriately tailored"; Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson would have denied the application.[^20] The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided No. 25-5130 on July 14, 2025 and denied rehearing on December 18, 2025; the government's petition for certiorari in [[U.S. DOGE Service v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia]], No. 25-1103, was filed on March 18, 2026 and distributed for the conference of September 28, 2026.[^21] + +### Conflicts of interest and savings claims + +The [[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] of the [[United States Senate]], through its minority staff under Senator [[Richard Blumenthal]], issued a memorandum on April 27, 2025 stating that as of January 20, 2025 Musk and his companies were subject to at least 65 actual or potential actions by 11 federal agencies, with estimated potential liability of at least $2.37 billion across 40 of them, including $1.19 billion for statements about Tesla's driver-assistance features.[^22] On July 31, 2025 Blumenthal released a minority staff report stating that DOGE had generated at least $21.7 billion in waste between January 20 and July 18, 2025, and referred its findings to inspectors general at 27 agencies.[^23] The court in [[New Mexico v. Musk]] recorded the complaint's allegation that DOGE publicly claimed savings through "contract/lease cancellations[,] grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions."[^5] National Public Radio wrote that its own reporting had repeatedly found the savings claims overstated or inaccurate and that Musk's target had been revised downward from $2 trillion to about $150 billion.[^2] + +### Contributions by Musk + +The [[Federal Election Commission]] OpenFEC database attributes to Elon Musk itemized contributions to [[America PAC]] (C00879510), which first filed on May 22, 2024, of $14,950,000 in July 2024, $30,000,000 in August, $30,000,000 in September, $118,600,000 in October, $4,112,036.50 in November, $8,200,000 in February 2025, $6,500,000 in March, $3,250,000 in April, $400,000 in August, $750,000 in December and $1,000,000 in March 2026, a total of $217,762,036.50 excluding memo-coded entries; a further 23 memo-coded attribution entries, which include in-kind petition incentives, total more than $82 million, and a separate entry of $17,425 for in-kind travel on April 23, 2025 is recorded under the name Elon Musk Revocable Trust.[^24] The same database lists $5,000,000 to [[MAGA Inc.]] on June 27, 2025; $10,000,000 to the [[Senate Leadership Fund]] on October 1, 2024 and $5,000,000 on each of June 27 and December 15, 2025; $5,000,000 to the [[Congressional Leadership Fund]] on each of June 27 and December 15, 2025; $10,000,000 to Fight for Kentucky on January 14, 2026; $5,000,000 to V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims on May 8, 2026; and $924,600 to [[Trump 47 Committee, Inc.]] on October 21, 2024.[^24] + +### Departure and wind-down + +NPR reported that Musk framed his departure as the end of his "scheduled time" as a special government employee, and on May 30, 2025, a 130-day tenure, he appeared with Trump in the Oval Office, where Trump gave him a ceremonial key.[^2] [[Reuters]] reported on November 24, 2025 that DOGE had disbanded with eight months left on its mandate; [[Scott Kupor]], director of the [[Office of Personnel Management]], had told the agency "That doesn't exist" when asked about DOGE's status, and said it was no longer a "centralized entity".[^25] In May 2026 the Social Security Administration told the District of Maryland that it had no DOGE Team and that the temporary organization would expire on July 4, 2026.[^14] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Executive Order 14158 of January 20, 2025, "Establishing and Implementing the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency,'" 90 Fed. Reg. 8441 (January 29, 2025), sections 3(a) to (c), 4(a) to (c) and 5. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-02005/establishing-and-implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency +[^2]: Stephen Fowler, "Elon Musk is leaving the federal government. What's next for DOGE?," National Public Radio, May 30, 2025 (updated 2:44 p.m. ET). https://www.npr.org/2025/05/30/nx-s1-5415641/musk-leaves-doge-what-comes-next +[^3]: *Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. U.S. DOGE Service*, No. 25-cv-511 (CRC) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of March 10, 2025 (ECF 18), pp. 2 to 5 and the court's findings on agency status, and Opinion and Order of March 19, 2025 (ECF 23), pp. 1 to 3 (quoting the March 10 opinion at *11 and *13 to *14). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00511/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00511-0.pdf and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00511/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00511-1.pdf +[^4]: *American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations v. Department of Labor*, No. 25-cv-339 (JDB) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of March 31, 2026 (ECF 100), pp. 2 to 8 (citing Defs.' Interrog. Resp., ECF 80-5; Gleason Appointment Aff., ECF 65-1; HHS and DOL Rule 30(b)(6) depositions; Exec. Order Nos. 14,222 and 14,243). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339-2.pdf +[^5]: *New Mexico v. Musk*, No. 25-cv-429 (TSC) and *Japanese American Citizens League v. Musk*, No. 25-cv-643 (TSC) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of March 23, 2026 (ECF 119), pp. 2 to 4, 16 to 17 and 21 to 22 and p. 30 (referring to Decl. of Amy Gleason, ECF 117-1; Notice of Voluntary Dismissal, ECF 116; Exec. Order Nos. 14,210 and 14,222). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00429/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00429-2.pdf +[^6]: *New Mexico v. Musk*, No. 25-cv-429 (TSC) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of May 27, 2025 (ECF 93), pp. 5 to 6 (Elon Musk's role; Decl. of Joshua Fisher, ECF 24-1, paragraphs 3 to 4; allegations summarized from Compl. paragraphs 86 to 100) and p. 42 (disposition). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00429/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00429-0.pdf +[^7]: *Alliance for Retired Americans v. Bessent*, No. 25-cv-313 (CKK) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of March 7, 2025 (ECF 42), pp. 7 to 12 and 44 (citing Krause Decls. I to III, Wenzler Decl., Gioeli Decl. and the preliminary injunction of February 21, 2025 in *New York v. Trump*, No. 25-cv-1144-JAV, ECF 76). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00313/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00313-0.pdf +[^8]: *New Mexico v. Musk*, No. 25-cv-429 (TSC) (D.D.C.), Opinion & Order of June 10, 2025 (ECF 103), pp. 1 to 2 (March 12 Discovery Order, ECF 61; *In re Musk*, No. 25-5072 (D.C. Cir. Mar. 26, 2025); Plaintiffs Motion to Vacate, ECF 101). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00429/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00429-1.pdf +[^9]: *State of New York v. Trump*, No. 25 Civ. 1144 (S.D.N.Y.), Order of February 8, 2025 (ECF 6) (Engelmayer, J., sitting in Part I; assigned thereafter to Vargas, J.). https://nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2025-02/25cv1144%20Order%20on%20TRO%202%208%2025_0.pdf +[^10]: *Alliance for Retired Americans v. Bessent*, No. 25-cv-313 (CKK) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of March 5, 2026 (ECF 71), pp. 1 to 4. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00313/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00313-1.pdf +[^11]: Shawn Fleetwood, "Court Dismisses Democrat States' Lawsuit Against DOGE's Treasury Access," *The Federalist*, September 23, 2026 (describing a 17-page order of Judge Jeannette Vargas in *New York v. Trump*; the order itself was not consulted). https://thefederalist.com/2026/09/23/court-dismisses-democrat-states-lawsuit-against-doges-treasury-access/ +[^12]: *American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations v. Department of Labor*, No. 25-cv-339 (JDB) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of April 16, 2025 (ECF 78), pp. 1 to 2 (denial of two TRO motions; ruling on motion to dismiss) and Memorandum Opinion and Order of June 27, 2025 (ECF 87), pp. 1 to 2 (denial of preliminary injunction). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339-0.pdf and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339-1.pdf +[^13]: *American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations v. Department of Labor*, No. 25-cv-339 (JDB) (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion of May 26, 2026 (ECF 109), p. 1. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00339-3.pdf +[^14]: *American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees v. Social Security Administration*, No. ELH-25-0596 (D. Md.), Memorandum Opinion of June 26, 2026 (ECF 236), pp. 1 to 19 (describing ECF 1, 17, 48, 146, 189, 197 (Notice of Corrections to the Record of January 16, 2026), 208, 215, 217 and 217-2 (Declaration of Florence Felix-Lawson), 233, and *AFSCME v. SSA*, 172 F.4th 361 (4th Cir. 2026) (en banc), including Judge King's concurrence and dissent at 394 n.4). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-mdd-1_25-cv-00596/pdf/USCOURTS-mdd-1_25-cv-00596-7.pdf +[^15]: *American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees v. Social Security Administration*, No. ELH-25-0596 (D. Md.), Memorandum Opinion of April 17, 2025 (ECF 146), pp. 33 to 37 (SSA DOGE Team: five special government employees and six detailees; Antonio Gracias appointed February 23, 2025; ECF 86-5 at 22). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-mdd-1_25-cv-00596/pdf/USCOURTS-mdd-1_25-cv-00596-3.pdf +[^16]: *Social Security Administration v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees*, No. 24A1063, 605 U.S. ___ (June 6, 2025) (order granting stay; Jackson, J., dissenting, joined by Sotomayor, J.; Kagan, J., would deny). https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1063_6j37.pdf +[^17]: Government Accountability Project, "Protected Whistleblower Disclosure of Charles Borges Regarding Violation of Laws, Rules & Regulations, Abuse of Authority, Gross Mismanagement, and Substantial and Specific Threat to Public Health and Safety at the Social Security Administration," letter to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Senate Committee on Finance, the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Office of Special Counsel, August 26, 2025, pp. 2 to 3 and 9 to 13 and note 3. https://whistleblower.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/08-26-2025-Borges-Disclosure-Sanitized.pdf +[^18]: Miranda Nazzaro, "SSA official resigns after whistleblower complaint over DOGE database," *FedScoop*, August 2025 (resignation letter dated August 29, 2025). https://fedscoop.com/social-security-administration-chief-data-officer-resignation-whistleblower-complaint-doge-data-vulnerability/ +[^19]: *Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. U.S. DOGE Service*, No. 25-cv-511 (CRC) (D.D.C.), Opinion and Order of March 19, 2025 (ECF 23). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00511/pdf/USCOURTS-dcd-1_25-cv-00511-1.pdf +[^20]: *U.S. DOGE Service v. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington*, No. 24A1122 (application for stay) and No. 24-1246, Supreme Court of the United States, order of June 6, 2025 (docket entries of May 23 and June 6, 2025 and judgment issued July 8, 2025). https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/24a1122.html +[^21]: *U.S. DOGE Service v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia*, No. 25-1103, Supreme Court of the United States, docket (petition filed March 18, 2026; lower court No. 25-5130, decision July 14, 2025, rehearing denied December 18, 2025; response filed June 22, 2026; reply July 1, 2026; distributed for conference of September 28, 2026). https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-1103.html +[^22]: U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Minority Staff, memorandum "Calculating Risk: Estimating the Legal Liability Elon Musk May Avoid Through His Government Takeover," April 27, 2025 (partisan staff document prepared by the minority). https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025-04-27-Minority-Staff-Memorandum-Elon-Musk-Conflicts.pdf +[^23]: Office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, press release "The $21.7 Billion Blunder: New PSI Report Reveals Billions in Taxpayer Dollars Squandered by DOGE," July 31, 2025 (describing the minority staff report "The $21.7 Billion Blunder: Analyzing the Waste Generated by DOGE"; the report itself was not consulted). https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/07/31/2025/the-217-billion-blunder-new-psi-report-reveals-billions-in-taxpayer-dollars-squandered-by-doge +[^24]: OpenFEC API, Schedule A itemized contributions by contributor name "MUSK, ELON" (and "MUSK, ELON R") of $1,000 or more, two-year transaction periods 2016 to 2026, retrieved October 1, 2026: America PAC (C00879510, registered May 22, 2024; e.g. $5,000,000 on July 3, 2024, file 1829340, https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202410159698270934); MAGA Inc. (C00892471; June 27, 2025); Senate Leadership Fund / SLF PAC (C00571703; October 1, 2024, June 27, 2025, December 15, 2025); Congressional Leadership Fund (C00504530; June 27 and December 15, 2025); Fight for Kentucky (C00898130; January 14, 2026); V-PAC: Victors, Not Victims (C00892919; May 8, 2026); Trump 47 Committee, Inc. (C00867937; October 21, 2024, file 1875658). Totals computed from the itemized lines; entries carrying memo code X are reported separately. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^25]: Courtney Rozen, "With eight months left on its charter, DOGE no longer exists," Reuters, November 24, 2025, as published by *The Japan Times*. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/11/24/world/politics/doge-disbanded/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Azov Battalion.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Azov Battalion.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a539de77 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PARAMILITARY/Azov Battalion.md @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +--- +category: "Paramilitary" +tags: + - Organization + - Ukraine + - NationalGuard + - FarRight + - NationalCorps + - LeahyLaw + - Mariupol + - Appropriations + - RiseAboveMovement +alias: + - Azov Battalion + - Azov Regiment + - Azov Brigade + - Azov + - 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov + - Special Police Patrol Battalion Azov +summary: "Azov Battalion is a Ukrainian volunteer unit founded in May 2014 by Andriy Biletsky's Patriot of Ukraine, incorporated into the National Guard in November 2014 and named in U.S. appropriations riders from 2017 to 2026." +start: 2014-05-05 +location: "Ukraine" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Andriy Biletsky]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014 + role: "first commander and founder, with other members of Patriot of Ukraine" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Denys Prokopenko]]" + reverse: true + role: "commander in 2024" + fn: 20 + - type: member_of + with: "[[National Guard of Ukraine]]" + start: 2014-11-11 + role: "separate special forces detachment within the 18th Special Forces Regiment" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[United States Congress]]" + start: 2015-06-10 + role: "House amendment of June 2015 and appropriations prohibitions on arms, training or other assistance from fiscal year 2017" + fn: 15 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]]" + start: 2014-12-15 + role: "allegations of looting, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment recorded in monitoring reports" + fn: 5 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Supreme Court of Russia]]" + start: 2022-08-02 + role: "designated a terrorist organisation in Russia" + fn: 27 + - type: funded + with: "[[Ihor Kolomoisky]]" + reverse: true + end: 2014-08-02 + role: "sponsor of the regiment until August 2014, funding then restored, according to Meduza" + fn: 9 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +[[Azov Battalion]] is a Ukrainian military formation that began in May 2014 as a volunteer battalion under the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine]] and was integrated into the [[National Guard of Ukraine]] on November 11, 2014. Its first commander, [[Andriy Biletsky]], had led the [[Kharkiv]] organisation [[Patriot of Ukraine]] and the [[Social-National Assembly]]. The unit is also known as the Azov Regiment and is now styled the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov.[^1][^2][^3] + +### Patriot of Ukraine and the Social-National Assembly + +[[Mapping Militants Project]] at [[Stanford University]] reports that Biletsky recreated Patriot of Ukraine in 2005 in Kharkiv and created the Social-National Assembly as an umbrella movement in November 2008.[^3] [[VICE]] reported that Biletsky stated in 2010 that it was the Ukrainian nation's mission to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade... against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]".[^4] The Mapping Militants profile, citing [[Foreign Policy]] reporting by [[Michael Colborne]], states that when Biletsky formed the [[National Corps]] in 2016 he toned down his rhetoric and began to deny some of his earlier white supremacist statements retroactively.[^3] + +The [[Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]] (OHCHR) report of December 15, 2014 records that clashes on March 14, 2014 in Kharkiv between Patriot of Ukraine and the pro-Russian organisation [[Oplot]] killed two members of Oplot. It states that, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the investigation had stalled "as all the members of the 'Patriots of Ukraine' alleged to have been involved in the incident are inaccessible for the investigation, due to their participation in the security operation in the east as members of the National Guard Regiment Azov".[^5] + +### Formation and Mariupol, 2014 + +The unit's own history gives May 5, 2014 as the date of its establishment "as a special forces battalion under the Ministry of Internal Affairs", and June 13, 2014 as the date of its part in the liberation of [[Mariupol]]. It states that the battalion became a special forces regiment of the ministry on September 17, 2014, and was integrated into the National Guard on November 11, 2014 as a separate special forces detachment within the 18th Special Forces Regiment, military unit 3057.[^1] The OHCHR report of December 2014 describes the unit as "previously named the Special Police Patrol Battalion Azov", recently moved under the National Guard within the ministry's chain of command.[^5] + +[[Askold Krushelnycky]] of the [[Atlantic Council]] was embedded with the battalion in June 2014. He wrote that about 200 of its members, with army, National Guard and other volunteer units, made up a force of about 400 for the attack on Mariupol, that its commander was Andriy Biletsky, that the Radical Party politician [[Oleh Lyashko]] had aligned himself with it publicly, and that about three quarters of its members were Russian-speakers from eastern Ukraine.[^6] The battalion's patch combined a wolfsangel with a black sun; the Mapping Militants profile reports that the movement says the wolfsangel stands for the letters I and N, "Idea of the Nation".[^3] + +The author [[Denys Gorbach]] wrote in [[openDemocracy]] in February 2016 that the group "owes its rise partially to [[Arsen Avakov]], Ukraine's interior minister".[^7] The [[Daily Beast]] quoted a 2014 [[BBC]] report that "The Azov Battalion was formed and armed by Ukraine's interior ministry".[^8] + +[[Meduza]] reported in July 2015 that until August 2014 the regiment was sponsored by the oligarch [[Ihor Kolomoisky]], then governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast; that on August 2, 2014 his deputy governor, [[Boris Filatov]], announced on Facebook that the funding had been terminated because of statements by the regiment's deputy commander, [[Ihor Mosaichuk]]; and that Mosaichuk left the regiment and the funding was restored. Meduza added that the regiment was also supplied with weapons and resources by the Interior Ministry, charitable foundations, volunteers and businessmen. The same survey states that Biletsky was arrested in 2011 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up a statue of Lenin in Boryspil, and that the new authorities released him and other group members from prison in 2014. It records that the regiment first became prominent in a confrontation in Mariupol on May 9, 2014, when fighters stormed a police station and one fighter was fatally shot.[^9] + +### Biletsky in the Rada and the National Corps + +Biletsky was elected to the [[Verkhovna Rada]] in 2014 for single-member district 217 in [[Kyiv]] as a self-nominated candidate. The civic watchdog Chesno records that a representative of the [[People's Front]], [[Zorian Shkiryak]], withdrew his candidacy and supported Biletsky, that Biletsky had been a member of the People's Front military council, that he was deputy chair of the Rada committee on national security and defence, and that he sat outside any faction for the eighth convocation of the Rada, from November 2014 to August 2019. Chesno's profile describes him as a political prisoner of the [[Viktor Yanukovych]] government from the start of 2012 until the end of the Revolution of Dignity, and records that in 2019 he stood second on the list of the party [[Svoboda]] and was not elected.[^2] The Mapping Militants profile states that Biletsky left the unit in October 2014 to campaign for the seat.[^3] + +The Azov Regiment separated from its political leadership in October 2016, when a conference in Kyiv formed the National Corps and elected Biletsky its leader, according to [[Tim Lister]], writing in the CTC Sentinel of the [[Combating Terrorism Center at West Point]].[^10] The National Corps joined Svoboda and [[Right Sector]] in a 2019 parliamentary bloc that won "barely two and a half percent" of the vote.[^10] + +### Human rights findings + +The December 2014 OHCHR report states that the Office of the Military Prosecutor "has not reported of taking any steps to investigate the considerable number of allegations of human rights violations against civilians and violations of international humanitarian law in the east, including looting, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment by members of certain voluntary battalions such as Aidar, Azov, Slobozhanshchina and Shakhtarsk."[^5] + +The OHCHR report for November 15, 2015 to February 15, 2016 records extensive use of civilian buildings and looting of civilian property by Ukrainian military and Azov regiment forces in [[Shyrokyne]], east of Mariupol, and states that in collecting information on the conduct of hostilities by Ukrainian forces and the Azov regiment around Shyrokyne from the summer of 2014 it documented mass looting of civilian homes, and targeting of civilian areas between September 2014 and February 2015. It records that four detainees held in Mariupol pre-trial detention for their alleged involvement in the events of May 9, 2014 "complained that they had been ill-treated by SBU officials and members of the Azov regiment in Mariupol, detained incommunicado for some time in September 2014". The same report records that a member of the Azov regiment captured by the armed groups at Shyrokyne in February 2015 was subjected to electric shock and had his teeth pulled out.[^11] + +The [[State Department]] country report on Ukraine for 2016 states that on February 25 volunteer Azov Battalion fighters blocked journalists' access to the offices of the television channel [[Inter (TV channel)|INTER]].[^12] The report for 2017 states that in May a woman in Mariupol was lured to an Azov battalion position, blindfolded and transported to an unknown destination, where men struck her and threatened to bury her unless she cooperated.[^13] The report for 2018 states that "members of nationalist hate groups, such as [[C14]] and National Corps, at times committed arbitrary detentions with the apparent acquiescence of law enforcement", and that on June 8, 2018 nationalists from the National Druzhina, "established with support from the National Corps", destroyed a Romani camp in Kyiv while police made no arrests.[^14] + +### House amendment, June 2015 + +During the House debate on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016 (H.R. 2685), Representative [[John Conyers]] offered an amendment reading: "None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide arms, training, or other assistance to the Azov Battalion." He told the House that it "limits arms, training, and other assistance to the neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia, the Azov Battalion", cited characterisations by Foreign Policy, [[New York Times|The New York Times]], The Guardian and the Associated Press, said that "Ukraine's Interior Minister recently announced the Azov Battalion will be among the units to receive training and arms from Western allies, including the [[United States]]", and said that Biletsky had organised the Social-National Assembly in 2008. Representative [[Pete Visclosky]] said the committee would accept the amendment, and Representative [[Rodney Frelinghuysen]] said "we accept the amendment". The amendment was agreed to.[^15] + +The Daily Beast interviewed U.S. Embassy and Army officials in Kyiv and [[Lviv]] in 2015. The embassy press officer, Yaryna Ferentsevych, said that "our vetting screens for human rights violations, not for ideology. Neo-Nazis, you know, can join the U.S. army too", and that she could not say whether any Azov members were on the list of people being trained. Captain Steven Modugno, public affairs officer of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, said that no one from the Azov Battalion or Right Sector was being trained in Lviv. The acting head of the National Guard, [[Mykola Balan]], said, "Azov hasn't been trained by the U.S. military", and Biletsky said that American army representatives "had never trained the battalion". Conyers told the Daily Beast that the Leahy law "takes the essential retroactive step of prohibiting assistance to units that are credibly alleged to have committed gross violations of human rights. The issue here concerns who is eligible for aid in the first place".[^8] + +The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113), the omnibus for that fiscal year, contains no reference to Azov.[^16] + +### Appropriations language, 2017 to 2026 + +The sentence from the Conyers amendment appears, word for word, in the Defense Appropriations division of each of the following enacted laws.[^17] + +- Public Law 115-31 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017), approved May 5, 2017: division C, section 8131. +- Public Law 115-141 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018), approved March 23, 2018: division C, section 8129. +- Public Law 115-245 (Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019), approved September 28, 2018: division A, section 8130. +- Public Law 116-93 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020), approved December 20, 2019: division A, section 8124. +- Public Law 116-260 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021), approved December 27, 2020: division C, section 9015. +- Public Law 117-103 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022), approved March 15, 2022: division C, section 8141. +- Public Law 117-328 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023), approved December 29, 2022: division C, section 8138. +- Public Law 118-47 (Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024), approved March 23, 2024: division A, section 8107. +- Public Law 119-75 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026), approved February 3, 2026: division A, section 8105. + +Public Law 119-4, the full-year continuing act for fiscal year 2025 approved on March 15, 2025, does not repeat the sentence. Its section 1101 provides amounts for activities under "the authority and conditions provided in applicable appropriations Acts for fiscal year 2024", among them the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 (division A of Public Law 118-47), which contains the sentence.[^18] [[Denys Prokopenko]], the commander of the brigade, wrote in [[Ukrainska Pravda]] on April 19, 2024 that "Since 2017, and to this day, a number of US Consolidated Appropriations Bills have contained" the amendment, called its existence "Nonsense", and said that it had been added without proof, on the basis of Western media influenced by Russian propaganda, and that it was the reason Azov was not equipped with the most advanced Western weapons at Mariupol in 2022.[^19] + +[[The Intercept]] reported on June 22, 2024 that the House defense appropriations language had been updated to read "None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to provide arms, training, intelligence, or other assistance to the Azov Battalion, the Third Separate Assault Brigade, or any successor organization", and that the language then in effect addressed only the Azov Battalion. The same report states that the congressional ban "has only been in effect since 2018"; the enacted text of Public Law 115-31 carries the sentence in an act approved May 5, 2017.[^17][^20] The text of Public Law 119-75, approved February 3, 2026, reads "the Azov Battalion" only.[^17] + +### Foreign volunteers and United States prosecutions + +On October 20, 2018 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] Special Agent [[Scott J. Bierwirth]] swore an affidavit in the Central District of California in support of a criminal complaint against [[Robert Rundo]], [[Robert Boman]], [[Tyler Laube]] and [[Aaron Eason]] of the [[Rise Above Movement]] for riot and conspiracy offences under 18 U.S.C. sections 2101 and 371. Paragraph 16 states that in spring 2018 Rundo, [[Benjamin Daley]] and [[Michael Miselis]] "traveled to Germany, Ukraine, and Italy to celebrate [[Adolf Hitler]]'s birthday and meet with members of European white supremacy extremist groups, including a group known as White-Rex". Paragraph 17 states that an Instagram post of August 1, 2018 showed members of the group "meeting with [[Olena Semenyaka]], the leader of the International Department for the National Corps, which is a political party in the Ukraine that was founded in 2016 out of a regiment of the Ukrainian military called the Azov Battalion". The affiant added: "Based on my training and experience, I know that the Azov Battalion is a paramilitary unit of the Ukrainian National Guard which is known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology and use of Nazi symbolism, and which is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations."[^21] + +Lister wrote in April 2020 that the founder of [[Atomwaffen Division]], [[Brandon Russell]], contacted an anonymous Azov representative through the [[Iron March]] forum in 2015, describing himself as "an avid supporter of the Azov Battalion"; that, according to [[Bellingcat]], Azov was in contact with [[Andrew Oneschuk]] through its podcast in early 2016; that a member of [[The Base]] arrested in January 2020, [[William Bilbrough]], had "repeatedly expressed an interest in traveling to Ukraine to fight with nationalists there"; and that the American writer [[Greg Johnson]], invited by Semenyaka, spoke at the Paneuropa conference in Kyiv in October 2018, which National Corps officials helped organise. Lister wrote that, from reporting trips to eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, he would be surprised if the number of foreign fighters with Ukrainian units had ever exceeded the hundreds, once fighters of Russian origin were excluded. + +In September 2019 the FBI arrested, and federal prosecutors in Kansas charged, Army Specialist [[Jarrett William Smith]] of [[Fort Riley]], Kansas, with distributing information on explosives. The complaint states that the FBI learned in March 2019 that he had "spoken about his desire to travel to Ukraine to fight with the Ukraine-based violent far-right paramilitary group, Azov Battalion", that he had told [[Craig Lang]], a man who fought with Right Sector in Ukraine from 2017 to 2019, in June 2016 that he was interested in joining Azov, and that Lang's Facebook messages showed "mentorship" of Smith.[^22] + +The [[Misanthropic Division]], a transnational neo-Nazi network, stated in March 2015 that its "main purpose" was to support the volunteer formations of Azov and Right Sector in Donbas. The Mapping Militants Project reports that some of its members fought within the Azov Battalion and that members from Italy and the [[United Kingdom]] tried to establish relations with the British groups [[National Action]] and [[Combat 18]] to recruit volunteers for Azov.[^23] + +The [[Tech Against Terrorism]] and [[Middlebury Institute CTEC|CTEC]] report of June 2022 reproduces an Iron March graphic listing as "supported groups" the [[Nordic Resistance Movement]], [[Golden Dawn]], [[CasaPound]], Serbian Action and Azov.[^24] Meduza's English translation of an investigation by [[Andrei Soshnikov]] for the BBC Russian Service states that some ultra-right activists suspected that the Iron March administrator [[Alisher Mukhitdinov]], who wrote as Alexander Slavros, had acted under pressure from the Russian government when the forum closed in November 2017, and that one rumour held that he had angered the [[Federal Security Service]] by raising money for Azov. It adds: "However, the BBC could not find evidence that any such fundraising took place."[^25] + +### Designation requests + +On October 16, 2019, in a letter led by [[Max Rose]], whom The Hill described as the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee's counterterrorism subcommittee, 39 lawmakers asked Secretary of State [[Mike Pompeo]] why Azov, the Nordic Resistance Movement and National Action had not been placed on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. The Hill reported that the shooter in the 2019 [[Christchurch mosque shootings]], [[Brenton Tarrant]], claimed in his manifesto that he trained with the Azov Battalion in Ukraine.[^26] Lister wrote in 2020 that Tarrant "implied he had been to Ukraine, though research by the author in both [[New Zealand]] and Ukraine suggests he did not", and that the manifesto was later translated into Ukrainian and printed as a book, according to Bellingcat.[^10] The State Department did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.[^26] + +### Russia's designation and Mariupol, 2022 + +The unit's history states that Azov fought for 86 days in the encirclement of Mariupol at the start of the full-scale invasion of 2022.[^1] The [[Supreme Court of Russia]] designated the Azov Regiment a terrorist organisation on August 2, 2022 on a request from the Prosecutor General's Office, banning its activities in Russia. [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] reported that about 2,500 members surrendered in Mariupol in mid-May, that relatives feared that those captured could be tried as terrorists, and that Russia "falsely claims that Ukraine is controlled by Nazis".[^27] + +### Leahy review, June 2024 + +On June 11, 2024 the State Department said, in a statement reported by NBC News and the Associated Press, that it had applied Leahy vetting to the 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade and found "no evidence of Gross Violations of Human Rights (GVHR) committed by the 12th Brigade Azov". The brigade said that embassy staff had confirmed that it had "passed the inspection required by U.S. law and has the right to receive assistance". [[Dmitry Peskov]] said that "ultranationalists" were involved and that the change in Washington's position suggested a readiness to "resort to anything".[^28] + +The Intercept reported that a State Department spokesperson said, "There was a request for resources for the 12th Special Forces Brigade, which prompted a Leahy vetting process, in which they were found to be eligible", and that the department would not say whether a Leahy ban had been in effect. Two spokespersons gave different dates for the end of the battalion: one said "That militia disbanded in 2015", and another said "The Battalion was disbanded in 2014 and the United States has never provided security assistance to the 'Azov battalion.'" The Intercept also reported that the unit's own Telegram channel announced in March 2024 that its personnel had completed a civil-military cooperation course given by [[Special Operations Command Europe]], with a photographed certificate dated December 2023, and that the State Department declined to answer questions about the training. [[Josh Paul]], a former director in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, told The Intercept that he was not aware of any standing restriction on Azov and that the unit had to his knowledge been eligible for aid since at least 2022; the report adds that Prokopenko had written on X that "Azov is still blacklisted from receiving any U.S. aid".[^20] [[Charles Blaha]], a former director of the State Department's Office of Security and Human Rights, said that the department "ought to provide a more detailed rationale for the finding that the Brigade is eligible pursuant to the Leahy law". The Intercept reported that Prokopenko and his deputy commander [[Sviatoslav Palamar]] had served in the original battalion.[^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "The history of Azov: From Battalion to Brigade", 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov (azov.org.ua), accessed October 2026. https://azov.org.ua/en/about-azov/ +[^2]: "Білецький Андрій Євгенійович", ЧЕСНО (Chesno), politician profile no. 24490, accessed October 2026. https://www.chesno.org/politician/24490/ +[^3]: Mapping Militants Project, Stanford University, "Azov Movement", last modified August 2022 (sections Overview, Patriot Ukraine, The Azov Battalion, Building a Political Wing: National Corps). https://mappingmilitants.org/files/group-profiles/azov_battlion.pdf +[^4]: Tim Hume, "How a Far-Right Battalion Became a Part of Ukraine's National Guard", VICE World News, February 16, 2022. https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ab7dw/azov-battalion-ukraine-far-right +[^5]: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine", December 15, 2014, paras. 57 and 65 and note 27. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/UA/OHCHR_eighth_report_on_Ukraine.pdf +[^6]: Askold Krushelnycky, "The Battle For Mariupol", Atlantic Council, June 2014. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-battle-for-mariupol/ +[^7]: Denys Gorbach, "The rise of Azov", openDemocracy, February 15, 2016 (free preview text). https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/rise-of-azov/ +[^8]: Will Cathcart and Joseph Epstein, "Is America Training Neonazis in Ukraine?", The Daily Beast, July 4, 2015. https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-america-training-neonazis-in-ukraine/ +[^9]: "Looting, torture, and big business: A look at volunteer groups fighting the separatists in Ukraine", Meduza, July 1, 2015. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/07/01/looting-torture-and-big-business +[^10]: Tim Lister, "The Nexus Between Far-Right Extremists in the United States and Ukraine", CTC Sentinel 13, no. 4 (April 2020), Part Two. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-nexus-between-far-right-extremists-in-the-united-states-and-ukraine/ +[^11]: OHCHR, "Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 November 2015 to 15 February 2016", March 3, 2016, paras. 25, 61, 103 and 161. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine_13th_HRMMU_Report_3March2016.pdf +[^12]: U.S. Department of State, "2016 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine". https://www.state.gov/reports/2016-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ukraine +[^13]: U.S. Department of State, "2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine". https://www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ukraine/ +[^14]: U.S. Department of State, "2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine". https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ukraine/ +[^15]: Congressional Record, vol. 161, no. 92 (June 10, 2015), House, p. H4123 (Conyers amendment, H.R. 2685) and amendment no. 29 in the printed amendments, p. H4161. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2015-06-10/html/CREC-2015-06-10-pt1-PgH4117-2.htm and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2015-06-10/html/CREC-2015-06-10-pt1-PgH4139.htm +[^16]: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Public Law 114-113 (December 18, 2015), full text searched at govinfo.gov. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-114publ113/html/PLAW-114publ113.htm +[^17]: Public Law 115-31 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017), 131 Stat. 276; Public Law 115-141, 132 Stat. 493; Public Law 115-245, 132 Stat. 3030; Public Law 116-93, 133 Stat. 2366; Public Law 116-260, 134 Stat. 1349; Public Law 117-103, 136 Stat. 209; Public Law 117-328, 136 Stat. 4620; Public Law 118-47, 138 Stat. 509; Public Law 119-75, 140 Stat. 225 (page references are the nearest preceding page marker in the govinfo text), govinfo.gov, e.g. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-115publ31/html/PLAW-115publ31.htm and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ75/html/PLAW-119publ75.htm +[^18]: Public Law 119-4 (Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025), March 15, 2025, continuing "The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024 (division A of Public Law 118-47)". https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ4/html/PLAW-119publ4.htm +[^19]: Alona Mazurenko, "Azov Brigade asks to be removed from blacklists blocking supply of Western weapons", Ukrainska Pravda, April 19, 2024, quoting an article by Denys Prokopenko. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/04/19/7452026/ +[^20]: Prem Thakker and Sam Biddle, "The U.S. Says a Far-Right Ukrainian Army Unit Can Now Get Aid. A Photo Shows Training Was Already Happening.", The Intercept, June 22, 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/06/22/ukraine-azov-battalion-us-training-ban/ +[^21]: Affidavit of Scott J. Bierwirth, Special Agent, FBI, and criminal complaint, United States v. Rundo, Boman, Laube and Eason (C.D. Cal., sworn October 20, 2018, Magistrate Judge Steve Kim), paras. 16 and 17; unsealed October 23, 2018. Posted by Lawfare. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/document-affidavit-and-criminal-complaint-over-charlottesville-violence-0 (document read from a Wayback Machine copy of https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5018819/Rundo-Criminal-Compalint.pdf) +[^22]: Criminal complaint, United States v. Smith (D. Kan.), as quoted in "Infantryman arrested for allegedly offering bomb-making instructions...", Army Times, September 23, 2019 (https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/09/23/infantryman-arrested-for-allegedly-offering-bomb-making-instructions-to-target-politicians-wanted-to-fight-in-ukraine-with-far-right-paramilitary-unit/). +[^23]: Mapping Militants Project, Stanford University, "Misanthropic Division" (Narrative, Foreign Fighters, Interactions). https://mappingmilitants.org/profiles/misanthropic-division +[^24]: Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute, and Tech Against Terrorism, "Militant Accelerationism on Telegram", June 2022, Figure 12 (p. 24). https://www.techagainstterrorism.org/hubfs/CTEC__TAT-Accelerationism-Report-.pdf +[^25]: "How a Moscow man from an Uzbek family started the world's biggest neo-Nazi forum", Meduza, February 4, 2020, translating an investigation by Andrey Soshnikov for the BBC Russian Service. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/02/04/how-a-moscow-man-from-an-uzbek-family-started-the-world-s-biggest-neo-nazi-forum +[^26]: Emily Birnbaum, "Democratic lawmakers press for white supremacist groups to be labeled foreign terrorist organizations", The Hill, October 16, 2019. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/466064-dozens-of-dem-lawmakers-press-state-department-to-designate-white/ +[^27]: RFE/RL's Russian Service, "Russian Supreme Court Labels Ukrainian Azov Military Regiment A 'Terrorist' Organization", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, August 2, 2022. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-labels-ukraine-azov-military-regiment-terrorist/31970480.html +[^28]: Daryna Mayer and Yuliya Talmazan, "U.S. lifts ban on controversial Ukrainian military unit using American weapons", NBC News, June 11, 2024, reporting a State Department statement. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-lifts-ban-azov-brigade-ukraine-american-weapons-russia-rcna156487 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/80,000 Hours.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/80,000 Hours.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dafc65ba --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/80,000 Hours.md @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Organization + - EightyThousandHours + - EffectiveAltruism + - EffectiveVentures + - CentreForEffectiveAltruism + - OpenPhilanthropy + - CareerAdvice + - AISafety +alias: + - 80,000 Hours + - 80000 Hours + - 80K + - 80k Hours + - 80,000 Hours Limited + - 80,000 Hours Foundation +summary: "Career-advice organization founded in Oxford in 2011 by Benjamin Todd and William MacAskill, hosted by the Centre for Effective Altruism's charity until 2025 and funded with at least 39.4 million dollars by Open Philanthropy." +start: 2011 +location: "London, England; Oxford, England; San Francisco Bay Area" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Benjamin Todd]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + role: "cofounder" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[William MacAskill]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + role: "cofounder" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Benjamin Todd]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief executive" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Effective Ventures]]" + end: 2025-03-31 + role: "project fiscally sponsored by the charity first registered as the Centre for Effective Altruism" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017-03 + role: "thirteen grants totaling 39,355,325 dollars from March 2017 to February 2025" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Konstantin Sietzy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-03-19 + role: "director of 80,000 Hours Limited while deputy director of talent and operations at the UK AI Security Institute" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Alex Lawsen]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-03-19 + role: "director of 80,000 Hours Limited while a senior program associate at Open Philanthropy" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Anna Weldon]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-03-19 + role: "director of 80,000 Hours Limited and 80,000 Hours Foundation while chief operating officer of the Centre for Effective Altruism" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Joshua Rosenberg]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-03-19 + role: "director of 80,000 Hours Limited while chief executive of the Forecasting Research Institute" + fn: 10 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +80,000 Hours is a career-advice organization that "started in 2011 when our founders, Ben and Will, were about to graduate from Oxford," the founders' names linking to [[Benjamin Todd]] and [[William MacAskill]]. It began as a part-time project after a lecture the two gave in February 2011 and attended the [[Y Combinator]] startup accelerator in 2015.[^1] It operated as a project of the charity company incorporated as the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], whose objects include "the advancement of education by providing sources of information about the ethics of career choices."[^2] It completed its separation from that company, by then called Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), on 31 March 2025.[^3] + +### Inside the Centre for Effective Altruism + +The company that hosted 80,000 Hours had [[Nick Beckstead]] as a director from 23 February 2012 to 2 April 2019, and [[Robert Wiblin]], later the organization's director of research, as company secretary from 21 April 2014 to 1 July 2015.[^4] The American charity, Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc, listed Todd in its return for 2019 as "CEO of the 80,000 Hours project," paid 107,119 dollars; the same return listed [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] as a former board member of that charity.[^5] + +[[Open Philanthropy]] recommended 1,125,000 dollars to 80,000 Hours for general support in March 2017, with Beckstead, then a director of the hosting company, as grant investigator. The page states that "80,000 Hours staff also reviewed this page prior to publication," that the money would raise salaries "by about 30% from previously low levels, to match comparable organizations in the [[San Francisco]] Bay Area (to which 80,000 Hours has recently moved)," and that 80,000 Hours reported about 1,500 "impact-adjusted significant plan changes" since 2011. It also records Open Philanthropy's reservation that some 80,000 Hours documents "seem 'salesy' to us and to create an impression of more impact being attributable to 80,000 Hours than we believe is reasonable." A photograph caption names Todd as chief executive and Wiblin as director of research. The page does not mention Beckstead's directorship.[^6] The renewal of February 2018, 510,000 dollars, names Beckstead and Nicole Ross as investigators; its amount was set at the sum 80,000 Hours had raised from other donors in 2017.[^6] + +Later grants were recommended first by a "Committee for Effective Altruism Support" and then without a named investigator: 4,795,803 dollars over two years in February 2019, for "helping talented graduates age 20-40 enter high-impact careers"; 3,457,284 dollars in February 2020; 1,250,000 dollars in May 2022; 3,000,000 dollars for marketing and advertising in June 2022; 1,200,000 dollars in January 2023; 2,492,000 dollars for marketing in April 2023; 4,408,000 pounds (about 5,575,238 dollars) in May 2023; 4,250,000 dollars in two grants and 2,400,000 dollars for marketing in October 2023; 6,600,000 dollars in October 2024; and 2,700,000 dollars for marketing in February 2025, a page that refers to an earlier grant of December 2023. The thirteen grants whose pages were retrieved total 39,355,325 dollars. From February 2019 the pages place the grants within the program for "growing and empowering the community of people focused on global catastrophic risk reduction," later named "Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building."[^6] + +[[Claire Zabel]], who according to Open Philanthropy "went on to lead our Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building team," was a director of the hosting company from 18 July 2019 to 28 March 2024, and [[Eli Rose]], Open Philanthropy's program officer for the same program, has been a director since 9 February 2024.[^4][^7] The hosting charity's accounts state that both have "significant influence over some of the funding decisions made by Open Philanthropy in relation to several of the charity's projects."[^3] + +In a 2022 interview on the 80,000 Hours podcast, according to [[Charlotte Alter]] of [[Time|TIME]], MacAskill described himself as "remarkably aligned with Sam" and called the [[FTX Future Fund]] potentially "an enormous inflection point for EA."[^8] + +### Accounts + +The accounts of Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) attribute 4,713,277 pounds of expenditure to 80,000 Hours in the year to June 2024 and 5,454,605 pounds in the year to June 2025, of which 3,645,558 pounds were direct costs, against 8,135,491 pounds for the Centre for Effective Altruism and 9,982,687 pounds for EA Funds and [[Giving What We Can]]. The trustees' report states that until the spin-out the project launched a video programme, automated "most of its headhunting pipeline," updated "its organisational strategy in light of recent technological developments," and grew its staff by 12 percent. The report records the charity's dependence on Open Philanthropy "for a majority of its funding."[^3] + +### Spin-out + +80,000 Hours announced its plan to leave Effective Ventures in December 2023 and announced the completion on 28 May 2025. It established two English entities: 80,000 Hours Limited, which "houses our website, podcast, job board, one-on-one service, and our operations," and 80,000 Hours Foundation, a registered charity to "facilitate donations and own the 80k intellectual property." The announcement named among the board members [[Konstantin Sietzy]], "Deputy Director of Talent and Operations at UK AISI"; [[Alex Lawsen]], "Senior Program Associate at Open Philanthropy and former 80,000 Hours Advising Manager"; [[Anna Weldon]], "COO at the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) and former EV board member"; and [[Joshua Rosenberg]], "CEO of the [[Forecasting Research Institute]]." It stated that 80,000 Hours had "recently sharpened our focus on careers that can help make AI go well."[^9] + +80,000 Hours Limited, company number 15746854, a company limited by guarantee registered at 20 Old Bailey in London, was incorporated on 28 May 2024 with three directors, who resigned as directors on 19 March 2025 and were appointed company secretaries the same day, when five new directors were appointed, among them Sietzy, Weldon, Rosenberg and Lawsen (registered as Alex Ritchie Jack Lawson); a further director replaced one of the five on 23 May 2025. The five current directors are each registered as having significant influence or control. 80,000 Hours Foundation, number 15777224, was incorporated on 13 June 2024 at the same address; its sole registered controller is 80,000 Hours Limited, with 75 percent or more of the voting rights and the right to appoint directors, and Weldon has been a director since 10 April 2025.[^10] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 80,000 Hours, "About us," retrieved 1 October 2026 (founder names linked to benjamintodd.org and williammacaskill.com). https://80000hours.org/about/ +[^2]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity Inquiry: Effective Ventures Foundation UK," 22 May 2024, section "The charity." https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk +[^3]: Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2025, filed at Companies House 13 February 2026: Trustees' Report ("Objectives and Activities," "Loss of major donors"), note 9 ("Analysis of expenditure by activities") and note 25 ("Related party transactions"). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzUwNDQ3MTAxM2FkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^4]: Companies House, "Effective Ventures Foundation (UK)," company number 07962181, register of officers, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/officers +[^5]: Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc, EIN 47-1988398, Form 990 for 2019, Part VII, Section A, as rendered from IRS e-file data by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, object 202003039349302045, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202003039349302045/IRS990 +[^6]: Open Philanthropy grant pages for 80,000 Hours, Wayback Machine captures of 2025: "General Support" (award date March 2017, grant investigator Nick Beckstead, published May 2017); "General Support (2018)" (February 2018, Beckstead and Nicole Ross); "General Support (2019)" (February 2019) and "General Support (2020)" (February 2020), Committee for Effective Altruism Support; "General Support (2022)" (May 2022); "Marketing" (June 2022); "General Support (2023)" (January 2023); "Marketing (2023)" (April 2023); "General Support (May 2023)"; "General Support (October 2023)"; "Marketing (October 2023)"; "General Support (October 2024)"; "Marketing (2025)" (February 2025). https://web.archive.org/web/20251115131122/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20251114060844/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2018/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250106011133/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2019/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20251023014900/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2020/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250107043340/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250107091214/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-marketing/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250620013228/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250210164429/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-marketing-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250117184942/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-may-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250811131533/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-october-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250620013941/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-marketing-october-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250309231210/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-general-support-october-2024/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250729084645/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/80000-hours-marketing-2025/ +[^7]: Open Philanthropy, team biographies "Claire Zabel" (Wayback capture of 5 January 2025) and "Eli Rose" (Wayback capture of 6 January 2025). https://web.archive.org/web/20250105212156/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/claire-zabel/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250106073801/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/eli-rose/ +[^8]: Alter, Charlotte. "Exclusive: Effective Altruist Leaders Were Repeatedly Warned About Sam Bankman-Fried Years Before FTX Collapsed." TIME, 15 March 2023. https://time.com/6262810/sam-bankman-fried-effective-altruism-alameda-ftx/ +[^9]: 80,000 Hours, "80,000 Hours completes spin-out from Effective Ventures," 28 May 2025. https://80000hours.org/2025/05/80000-hours-completes-spin-out-from-effective-ventures/ +[^10]: Companies House, "80,000 Hours Limited," company number 15746854, and "80,000 Hours Foundation," company number 15777224, overviews, registers of officers and persons with significant control, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15746854/officers ; https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15777224/officers diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Alcor Life Extension Foundation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Alcor Life Extension Foundation.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a954aae9 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Alcor Life Extension Foundation.md @@ -0,0 +1,251 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - AlcorLifeExtensionFoundation + - Cryonics + - Transhumanism + - TedWilliams + - DoraKent + - LarryJohnson + - Scottsdale + - Arizona + - Section501c3 + - SuspendedAnimation +alias: + - Alcor Life Extension Foundation + - Alcor Life Extension Foundation Inc + - Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Inc. + - Alcor Life Extension Foundation Inc. + - Alcor + - Alcor Foundation + - Alcor Society for Solid State Hypothermia +summary: "California-incorporated cryonics nonprofit, based in Scottsdale since 1994, whose record includes the 1988 Riverside coroner raids, a 1992 appellate ruling, the Ted Williams dispute, Arizona's failed 2004 regulation bill, and related-party vendor payments." +start: 1972 +location: "Scottsdale, Arizona" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Max More]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive officer in the returns for 2011 to 2019" + fn: 19 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Patrick Harris]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief operating officer in the return for 2019; president and chief executive officer in the returns for 2020 to 2022" + fn: 19 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jerry Lemler]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive officer in October 2003" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[James Arrowood]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive officer in the return for 2023" + fn: 20 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Marji Klima]]" + reverse: true + role: "co-chief executive officer and president in the returns for 2022 and 2023" + fn: 20 + - type: founded + with: "[[Linda Chamberlain]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "co-founder and first chief executive officer, per Alcor" + fn: 4 + - type: founded + with: "[[Fred Chamberlain III]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "co-founder, per Alcor" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Hugh Hixon]]" + reverse: true + start: 1982 + role: "facilities engineer, per Alcor" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Joseph Waynick]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief executive officer in 2004" + fn: 17 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Saul Kent]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2011 to 2016" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Catherine Baldwin]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2013 to 2017" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Ralph Merkle]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2011 to 2022" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Michael Riskin]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2011 to 2022; chairman in the returns for 2011 to 2018" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Brian Wowk]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2011 to 2021" + fn: 19 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Andrew Aymeloglu]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2016 to 2023" + fn: 19 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Larry Johnson]]" + reverse: true + start: 2003-01 + end: 2003-08-11 + role: "chief operating officer, per the East Valley Tribune" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Suspended Animation, Inc.]]" + reverse: true + role: "research and cryomedicine vendor; payments in the returns for 2013 to 2019, 2022 and 2023" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan]]" + reverse: true + role: "legal services, 452,828 dollars in the return for 2019 and 898,223 dollars in the return for 2020" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth]]" + reverse: true + role: "legal services, 648,038 dollars in the return for 2019 and 567,711 dollars in the return for 2020" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Arrowood Herbert PLLC]]" + reverse: true + role: "legal services, 426,049 dollars in 2019, 298,846 dollars in 2020 and 195,132 dollars in 2021" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Barry Aarons]]" + reverse: true + role: "lobbyist during the 2004 Arizona House bill" + fn: 16 + - type: funded + with: "[[Alcor Care Trust Supporting Organization]]" + role: "12,707,651 dollar grant in the return for 2018; 200,000 dollar grant in the return for 2020" + fn: 19 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Riverside County Coroner's Office]]" + start: 1987-12 + role: "coroner's inquiry into the death of Dora Kent, search warrants and seizures of January 1988" + fn: 5 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Inc. is a cryonics organization that stores the bodies and heads of legally dead members in liquid nitrogen. The [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date recorded for the organization is December 1972, and its returns list 7895 East Acoma Drive, [[Scottsdale]], as its address.[^1] The [[East Valley Tribune]] reported in 2003 that it was incorporated in [[California]] in 1972 as the Alcor Society for Solid State Hypothermia, took its present name in 1977, and moved its headquarters to the Scottsdale Airpark in 1994.[^2] An Iowa appellate opinion describes it as "a California nonprofit corporation registered as a tax exempt 501(c)(3) scientific organization engaged in the study and practice of cryonic suspension."[^3] + +Alcor's current staff page states that [[Linda Chamberlain]] "is one of the co-founders of Alcor (Alcor Life Extension Foundation) and served as its first CEO," that she and her husband, [[Fred Chamberlain III]], "started Alcor in 1972," and that [[Hugh Hixon]] "commenced employment at Alcor in 1982 as the Facilities Engineer."[^4] + +### The Riverside Coroner and Dora Kent, 1987 to 1992 + +According to the timeline Alcor published in its magazine, [[Dora Kent]], the 83 year old mother of the cryonics activist [[Saul Kent]], was brought from a nursing home to the Alcor facility in [[Riverside]], California, on December 10, 1987, examined by the physician [[Steve Harris]], and stopped breathing shortly after midnight on December 11; the account states that Alcor personnel, "misinterpreting" the coroner's requirement of a physician in attendance, proceeded with the suspension without a physician present to pronounce death, and that the physician signed the death certificate the following day.[^5] On December 16 the [[Riverside County Coroner's Office]] removed the non-suspended remains, and on December 21 told Alcor that an autopsy had found pneumonia as the cause of death. Alcor's account states that on December 23 two coroner's deputies told its representatives the case was closed, and that on December 24 a newspaper reported that the coroner's office was investigating whether she was alive when her head was removed.[^5] + +[[United Press International]] reported on January 14, 1988, that Coroner [[Ray Carrillo]] said the investigation into the cause of death continued, exploring "murder, suicide, accidental or natural causes," that Deputy Coroner [[Dan Cupido]] said investigators did not believe she was alive during the decapitation, that sedatives were found in a search of the facility, that Cupido said conversations with her personal physician revealed that the doctor did not consider her a "terminal patient," and that equipment found there was under investigation as possibly stolen from the [[UCLA]] Medical Center, which Alcor said it had bought as surplus. Alcor refused to surrender the head for autopsy, arguing that it would prevent future revival, and a judge had temporarily barred the coroner from thawing the head or other specimens.[^6] [[Time]] reported in March 1988 that the coroner had classified the death as a homicide and asserted that she had been injected with barbiturates that hastened her death, while Alcor officials maintained that barbiturates were given immediately after clinical death "to act as a preservative and insulate the brain."[^7] + +Alcor's account of January 7, 1988, states that coroner's deputies entered the facility under a search warrant for all patient care records and for the head of Dora Kent, copied the names and addresses of members, and handcuffed [[Mike Darwin]] and Hugh Hixon and later four others, six people in all, who were taken to the Riverside County Jail; only Darwin was charged with anything, and the account says the charge was dropped when Alcor's attorney arrived. It states that on January 12 and 13 deputies returned with UCLA police and a SWAT team and over about 30 hours removed equipment, and that on January 13 Riverside Superior Court Judge [[Victor Miceli]] issued a temporary restraining order barring the coroner from thawing or autopsying any Alcor patient.[^5] The account states that a preliminary restraining order followed on February 1, 1988, and that in a settlement with Saul Kent the coroner agreed to halt the search for the head in exchange for Kent dropping a demand for 25,600 dollars in legal expenses.[^5] + +The same account reports a further development in October 1989: that, through a leak at the [[Board of Medical Quality Assurance]], Alcor learned that the Riverside County District Attorney's Office was preparing to file 19 felony counts of practicing medicine without a license against members of its suspension team, and that the physician who had accepted the anatomical gift was to be charged with aiding and abetting. It also states that Carrillo lost the coroner's election of November 6, 1990, to his chief deputy [[Scotty Hill]], and that the false arrest claims by the six detained people were settled for about 90,000 dollars, divided among them and their attorneys.[^5] The Tribune later summarized the Kent matter as one in which "the case was dropped after extensive legal wrangling."[^8] + +### Alcor v. Mitchell, 1992 + +In *Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Inc. v. Mitchell*, 7 Cal.App.4th 1287, 9 Cal.Rptr.2d 572, the Court of Appeal decided on June 10, 1992, an appeal by the [[California Department of Health Services]], its Office of the State Registrar and their heads from a judgment for Alcor and two of its members. The opinion, by Justice Gates with Justices Nott and Manella concurring, records that "for a number of years Alcor was apparently permitted to operate" under the [[Uniform Anatomical Gift Act]], but that in March 1988 the State Registrar, [[David Mitchell]], "in a letter making explicit reference to Alcor," advised the Riverside County Coroner that burial permits may not be issued for cryonic suspension.[^9] + +The opinion states that three months later, answering an inquiry from the Riverside County Department of Health, Mitchell stated that if Alcor was storing bodies or body parts it would be "guilty of a misdemeanor" and "should be reported to the local District Attorney for investigation and prosecution as appropriate," and that the department then issued a handbook instructing local registrars that cryonic suspension is not a "scientific use." The court observed that the state had set up no procedure by which Alcor could be licensed as a procurement organization, called the position a "catch-22" that "exposes Alcor to potential criminal liability," and affirmed the trial court's injunction against interference with death registration and disposition permits for members, writing that the trial court "has expressed no opinion on the validity of cryonics or the manner in which it should be regulated, nor do we."[^9] + +### Scottsdale, 1994 to 2003 + +The Tribune reported in October 2003 that Alcor had operated in the Scottsdale Airpark largely without public scrutiny since 1994 and that "the state has little power to regulate cryonics." It reported 58 patients stored, charges of about 120,000 dollars for whole-body suspension and 50,000 dollars for a head, about 600 members, 12 employees, and a policy since 2001 requiring new members to name Alcor as beneficiary of their life insurance. Revenue rose from 485,310 dollars in 1998 to 875,615 dollars in 2001 according to Internal Revenue Service filings, and a 2002 annual report showed 2.6 million dollars (the Tribune's accompanying fact box gives 2.3 million dollars in total revenue and 5.5 million dollars in assets for 2002); the Tribune quoted [[Tom Pollak]] of the [[Urban Institute]] on administrative costs of 45 to 50 percent of expenses from 1998 to 2001, against a national median of about 13 percent, and added his caution that reporting methods vary. The chief executive, [[Jerry Lemler]], who joined Alcor in 2001, earned 85,240 dollars in 2001.[^2] + +### Ted Williams and Larry Johnson, 2002 to 2012 + +After the baseball player [[Ted Williams]] died in July 2002, his son [[John Henry Williams]] had the body frozen at Alcor, a decision that his daughter [[Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell]] disputed.[^10] [[Larry Johnson]], described by the Tribune as Alcor's former chief operating officer, worked at Alcor from January 2003 until August 11, 2003, when he said he was fired. [[Sports Illustrated]] reported in August 2003, on information Johnson supplied, that Alcor had severed Williams's head, drilled holes in it, fractured the skull and misplaced DNA samples; the Tribune reported that Alcor "has never publicly acknowledged ownership of Williams' body" and denied that his DNA was missing. Alcor sued Johnson for breach of a confidentiality agreement and theft of property, and Johnson filed a counterclaim alleging false accusations and slander.[^8] + +In the same period Johnson, through the lawyer [[John A. Heer]], wrote to [[Los Angeles]] police in mid-July 2003 about the 1992 death of a terminally ill man with AIDS whose remains are stored at Alcor. A [[Los Angeles Police Department]] robbery-homicide detective, [[Brian Carr]], confirmed to the Tribune that the death was under investigation on the basis of evidence Johnson provided, which included recordings Johnson made without the speakers' knowledge. On one recording, according to the Tribune, a man Johnson identified as Hixon, an Alcor senior board member and facilities engineer, stated that he was at the scene when a then-employee injected the man with a drug known to paralyze, adding that "after about seven or eight minutes (the patient) quit breathing, which was entirely to be expected." On another, a man Johnson identified as a second Alcor executive said that the information would "absolutely destroy" Alcor if public and that "it's deniable." The Tribune withheld the names of the former employee and of the second executive, who could not be reached; Hixon, contacted by the Tribune, said "I'm declining comment" and referred questions to Lemler, who did not return calls, and Alcor director [[Carlos Mondragon]] wrote on the Alcor website that Alcor was in active litigation with Johnson and could not comment.[^2][^8] + +John Henry Williams died of leukemia on March 6, 2004, and the Tribune reported that Boston newspapers said his body was also stored at Alcor.[^10] On March 18, 2004, Ferrell and two nephews of Ted Williams filed suit in [[Maricopa County Superior Court]] demanding that Alcor produce a "document of gift" under the [[Arizona Anatomical Gift Act]]; Alcor chief executive [[Joseph Waynick]] said that "every patient we have has a document of gift" and that the plaintiffs had no standing.[^10] In June 2004 the [[Associated Press]] reported that Ferrell and her husband signed a settlement agreeing that they would no longer try to remove the remains from Alcor or object to their preservation, that the estate, which had sued the Ferrells on May 10, would drop its litigation through its executor [[Al Cassidy]], and quoted her husband: "This has cost us about $100,000."[^11] Alcor stated that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge [[Thomas Dunevant III]] ordered it to present the document of gift to the two nephews, that it submitted a judgment to expedite the order, that the court's final order was dated November 30, 2004, and that it decided not to appeal and delivered the documents on December 20, 2004.[^12] + +Johnson's book *Frozen*, written with [[Scott Baldyga]] and published by [[Vanguard Press]], appeared in October 2009, and Alcor sued Johnson, Baldyga and the publisher in New York.[^13] On February 10, 2012, Alcor published a statement by Johnson, issued, in Alcor's words, "in connection with the end of litigation." It reads: "my account of the Ted Williams cryopreservation, which was not based upon my first-hand observation as noted in my book, is contradicted by information furnished by ALCOR. I am not now certain that Ted Williams' body was treated disrespectfully, or that any procedures were performed without authorization or conducted poorly." Alcor states that Johnson's bankruptcy filing ended its ability to collect damages from him, that on May 1, 2014, its defamation complaint against the publisher and Baldyga was dismissed on the ground that Alcor could not show knowledge of falsity at that stage, and that an appellate court later held Alcor to be a general purpose public figure and dismissed its appeal.[^13] + +### Arizona House Bill 2637, 2004 + +On February 6, 2004, [[Arizona]] House Bill 2637 was introduced by Representatives Stump, Gullett, Huffman, Meza and O'Halleran, with a long list of further sponsors that includes Senators Anderson, Bee, Blendu, R. Cannell, Giffords and Martin. Its text did not name Alcor: it required a license or registration under the funeral directors and embalmers chapter for a person or entity that stores a dead human body or remains for more than five years, even if storage began before January 1, 2005.[^14] The version engrossed by the House added that the entity must also accept money or assets as payment, that board rules could not disclose the identity of persons stored or require storage containers to be opened unless a court ordered it, and that a licensed entity would not be an organ procurement organization.[^15] + +The Tribune reported before the session that [[Bob Stump]], a [[Peoria]] Republican, said the state had "scant regulatory authority over companies such as Alcor" and that he was examining what steps to take, and that [[Rodolfo Thomas]], executive director of the [[Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers]], said "there is no regulation in terms of a mechanism for complaints, or where there is true oversight."[^2] On the March 11, 2004, floor debate, the Tribune quoted Representative [[Michele Reagan]] of Scottsdale saying the bill could drive Alcor out of business or out of Arizona and that "the tax revenue from what Alcor does (with one client) is the same as 10 car sales," and Representative [[Wally Straughn]] saying he found it "difficult to tell the difference between what Alcor does in Scottsdale and what the man did in northern Arizona who had his deceased wife in the deep freeze on the back porch." Alcor's lobbyist [[Barry Aarons]] said that after an outcry from Alcor supporters Stump added amendments allowing Alcor to keep client identities secret and containers sealed absent a court order.[^16] Alcor's own chronology records Alcor testifying at the February 26 committee hearing through Aarons, Waynick, a funeral director under contract and the researcher [[Aubrey de Grey]]; a third reading vote of 43 to 14 with 3 not voting on March 15; assignment to the [[Senate Commerce Committee]] on March 24; and withdrawal of the bill on April 1, 2004.[^17] + +### Alcor v. Richardson, 2010 + +On May 12, 2010, the [[Iowa Court of Appeals]] decided *Alcor Life Extension Foundation v. Richardson*, No. 09-1255. A [[Burlington, Iowa]], pharmacist had applied for membership on June 1, 2004, chose neurosuspension, signed documents on December 15, 2004, authorizing Alcor to take his remains, and paid a lump-sum lifetime fee of 53,500 dollars. After his death on February 19, 2009, his brother and sister, who had been appointed his co-conservators in 2008, had him embalmed and buried on February 21 without notifying Alcor. The court reversed the district court, held that Alcor was entitled to a mandatory injunction directing the siblings to sign the application for a disinterment permit at Alcor's expense, and declined to find the request moot, stating that it could not do so "without making scientific and philosophical judgments we are not prepared to make."[^3] + +### Litigation from 2017 and Legal Spending + +The [[Santa Barbara Independent]] reported in April 2019 that a [[Goleta]], California, member who had signed a whole-body contract in 1990 died in 2015 at age 90, that Alcor technicians removed his head and the rest of his remains were cremated and mailed to his son in Montana, and that Alcor sued the son over the life insurance proceeds and the son sued back, in a case to be tried in [[Santa Barbara Superior Court]] the following year. The Independent wrote that the son's lawyers intended to challenge "the validity of the entire cryonics industry by questioning its basis in science and the promises it makes to customers," quoted the son's lawyer, [[David Tappeiner]] of [[Fell Marking]], as asking "does the model itself work?", and wrote that "if they win, it could put Alcor out of business." Alcor's attorney, [[James Arrowood]], wrote that Alcor was confident that the court and, if necessary, a jury "will properly weigh all the facts and, as they have in the past, find that Alcor has acted appropriately."[^18] + +Alcor's returns list its highest paid independent contractors. In 2019 these were [[Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth]] (648,038 dollars for legal services), [[Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan]] (452,828 dollars), [[Arrowood Herbert PLLC]] (426,049 dollars) and [[Suspended Animation, Inc.]] (134,585 dollars for research). In 2020 they were Quinn Emanuel (898,223 dollars), Stradling Yocca (567,711 dollars), Arrowood Herbert (298,846 dollars), [[Sonoran Crest Development, LLC]] (277,062 dollars for construction) and [[International Cryomedicine Experts]] (116,935 dollars). In 2021 they were Arrowood Herbert (195,132 dollars), International Cryomedicine Experts (173,654 dollars) and [[Advanced Neural Biosciences]] (109,250 dollars for research and case outcomes).[^19] Total expenses on the 2018 return were 15,641,107 dollars, including a grant described below, against 4,936,084 dollars in 2019 and 4,386,958 dollars in 2020.[^1] + +### Directors, Officers and Related Parties + +The Form 990 for 2011 lists as directors [[Ravin Jain]], Saul Kent, [[Ralph Merkle]], [[Michael Riskin]] (chairman), [[Michael Seidl]], [[Brian Wowk]], [[Tim Shavers]] and [[James Clement]], with [[Max More]] as president and chief executive officer and [[Michael Perry]] as secretary, treasurer and chief financial officer. [[Catherine Baldwin]] appears from the 2013 return; [[Andrew Aymeloglu]] and [[Michael O'Neal]] from 2016; [[Michael Anzis]] and [[Bonnie Magee]] (vice president of finance) from 2017; [[Patrick Harris]] as chief operating officer in the 2019 return and as president and chief executive officer from the 2020 return; and Linda Chamberlain as secretary in the 2022 return, with [[Marji Klima]] as co-chief executive and president and [[Jason Harrow]] as a director.[^19] Saul Kent appears as a director through the 2016 return and not in the 2017 return.[^19] + +Alcor's staff page, which lists its current directors, describes Andrew Aymeloglu as "Director of Engineering at [[Palantir Technologies]] from 2005-2015" and an Alcor member since 2011; Jason Harrow as a partner at Gerstein Harrow LLP, formerly chief counsel and executive director of [[Equal Citizens]] and an assistant solicitor general in the [[New York Attorney General]]'s office; [[Rebecca Lively]] as an attorney who worked "in the private sector and in government, with a focus on legal and policy issues relating to acquisitions, intellectual property, and cyberspace operations"; and Ralph Merkle as a co-inventor of public key cryptography formerly at [[Xerox PARC]] and [[Zyvex]], stating of him that in 2008 he and [[Robert Freitas]] wrote "A Nanofactory Roadmap," a research proposal "which was declassified and published in 2025."[^4] + +More's reportable compensation was 131,328 dollars in 2011, 126,532 dollars in 2012, 123,728 dollars in 2013 (with 15,499 dollars of other compensation), 128,245 dollars in 2014 and 141,493 dollars in 2015; Perry's was 31,593 dollars in 2011 and 31,951 dollars in 2013.[^19] The 2020 return states that Alcor has no employees and leases them from [[Employers Resource]] on a direct reimbursement basis.[^19] The return for 2023 lists James Arrowood as president and chief executive officer (reportable compensation 203,665 dollars), Marji Klima as co-chief executive and president (176,500 dollars), Michael Perry as treasurer (42,000 dollars) and Linda Chamberlain as secretary (54,500 dollars), with directors including Aymeloglu, Harrow, Merkle, Michael O'Neal, Michael Seidl, Blake Honiotes and Lively, and total revenue of 5,728,535 dollars of which membership dues were 872,439 dollars.[^20] Arrowood Herbert PLLC appears among the highest paid contractors in the returns for 2019 to 2021, and the Santa Barbara Independent named James Arrowood as Alcor's attorney in April 2019; Alcor's staff page now gives his title as "CEO/President, General Counsel," and states that before becoming chief executive he served as Alcor's general counsel.[^4] + +Schedule L of the 2011 and 2012 returns reports a business transaction with [[21st Century Medicine]], described as a common officer relationship with Saul Kent, for licensing, 18,008 dollars.[^19] The 2013 return reports a research payment of 113,125 dollars to Suspended Animation, Inc. of Boynton Beach, Florida, stating that "Saul Kent and Catherine Baldwin, directors with Alcor are officers with Suspended Animation, Inc, a vendor of the organization." The same statement appears with 75,896 dollars in 2014, 88,520 dollars in 2015 and 92,740 dollars in 2016.[^19] Alcor's reviewed 2014 financial statements state that in 2014 and 2013 Alcor purchased 75,896 dollars and 113,125 dollars of services from a company for which board members are officers.[^21] The return for 2017 reports 14,704 dollars of research payments to Suspended Animation with the statement that Baldwin, "a director with Alcor," is an officer of the company. The return for 2018 lists it as the only contractor above 100,000 dollars (164,076 dollars, research) with the statement that Baldwin, "a former director," is an officer of the company; neither Kent nor Baldwin appears among the directors in the 2018 return. The returns for 2019 and 2022 list Suspended Animation as a contractor (134,585 dollars for research and 216,367 dollars for cryomedicine) without a related-party statement, and the return for 2023 lists it at 239,846 dollars for cryomedicine. The company's address is given as Boynton Beach, Florida, in the return for 2013, Santa Margarita, California, in those for 2018 and 2019, and Lake Forest, California, in those for 2022 and 2023.[^19][^20] The 2020 financial statements add that "in 2013, the [[Alcor Patient Care Trust]] purchased an investment of preferred stock in a privately held company for which Alcor Life Extension Foundation's board members are officers," without naming the company.[^21] + +### Trusts, Supporting Organizations and Transfers + +The consolidated statements, prepared under an accountants' review report and not an audit, describe the Alcor Patient Care Trust as an irrevocable trust for patients in biostasis, which held an 84.058 percent interest in [[Cryonics Property, LLC]], the owner of the Scottsdale building, through 2018 and 95.6542 percent after an additional purchase of 11.5962 percent in 2019; the [[Alcor Endowment Trust Supporting Organization]], formed in 2013 and controlled through a shared board; and the [[Alcor Care Trust Supporting Organization]], formed in June 2016.[^21] The statements for 2018 state that during that year the Patient Care Trust transferred approximately 12 million dollars of investments to the Care Trust Supporting Organization, with the intent that the deferred patient care reserve liability follow, though "the liability was not legally assumed as of December 31, 2018." The 2018 return's Schedule I reports a grant of 12,707,651 dollars to the Alcor Care Trust Supporting Organization (EIN 32-6428275), a 200,000 dollar grant to it appears in 2020, and the 2020 statements record an August 9, 2020, board approval of the transfer of the Deferred Patient Care Reserve to it, establishing a 12 million dollar liability at year end.[^19][^21] + +ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer lists revenue of 9,205,020 dollars for 2010, 5,447,800 dollars for 2011, 7,169,093 dollars for 2018, 15,560,830 dollars for 2020 and 5,728,535 dollars for 2023, and total assets of 30,564,278 dollars for 2023. The 2020 return reports 14,344,987 dollars of noncash contributions on line 1g of Part VIII; the returns do not identify donors.[^1][^19] + +### Peter Thiel + +[[Peter Thiel]], asked by [[Bari Weiss]] in an episode of her *Honestly* podcast, reported by [[Mediaite]] on May 5, 2023, whether he is signed up to be cryonically preserved, answered: "Yes, but ... think of it more as an ideological statement. I don't necessarily expect it to work, but I think it's the sort of thing we're supposed to try to do." Mediaite added, without naming a source, that in 2016 he "was named as one of many tech investors behind the Alcor Life Extension Foundation."[^22] The Form 990 and financial statement text reviewed for this page, covering 2010 to 2022, does not name Thiel as a donor or officer, and the Form 990-PF of the [[Thiel Foundation]] for 2023, which lists 59 grants totaling 4,334,013 dollars, contains no reference to Alcor.[^19][^21][^23] + +### Epstein Library References + +Documents in the [[Department of Justice]] [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] mention Alcor in correspondence. On January 17, 2013, [[Ben Goertzel]] sent [[Jeffrey Epstein]] a "cleaned-up list of interesting people" that includes Max More, described as "CEO of Alcor (the leading cryonics firm), and before that, arguably the founding philosopher of transhumanism."[^24] On August 24, 2016, [[Joscha Bach]] wrote to Epstein under the subject "Marvin and Alcor": "Marvin had a contract with Alcor to cryopreserve his brain. Do you happen to know if they got to him in time?"[^25] On April 15, 2018, Bach wrote to Epstein about the brain preservation company Nectome that "since they only share it with Alcor even that might work out"; Epstein's reply, on another subject in the same message, was "jim is clever. only spoke once to him."[^26] No document located in this search shows a contract or payment between Epstein and Alcor. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer API, Alcor Life Extension Foundation Inc (EIN 23-7154039, Scottsdale, AZ; IRS ruling date 1972-12; Form 990 totals for 2010 to 2023). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/237154039.json +[^2]: Bill Bertolino, "Alcor may face tighter controls," East Valley Tribune, October 12, 2003. https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/alcor-may-face-tighter-controls/article_168b6466-490f-5d17-8515-769f79968123.html +[^3]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation v. Richardson, No. 09-1255, 785 N.W.2d 717 (Iowa Ct. App. May 12, 2010) (Mansfield, J.), slip opinion, sections I and F. https://www.iowacourts.gov/moduledocuments/embed/18885/0098_86FEF47040AE0.pdf +[^4]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, "Meet the Team" (Alcor Leadership and Board of Directors biographies), alcor.org, accessed October 1, 2026. A description by the organization of its own staff. https://www.alcor.org/about/alcor-staff/ +[^5]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, "Alcor's Dora Kent Crisis and Legal Aftermath," compiling articles from CRYONICS magazine of January 1988, February 1988, October 1989, December 1990 and September and November 1992 (timeline of December 9, 1987, to January 13, 1988; February 1, 1988 update; Legal Update; Out-of-Court Settlement for False Arrest). An account by a party to the dispute. https://www.cryonicslegal.org/dorakent/DoraKent.html +[^6]: Susan Seager, "Woman died before cryonics lab cut off her head, coroner says," United Press International, January 14, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/01/14/Woman-died-before-cryonics-lab-cut-off-her-head-coroner-says/6063569134800/ +[^7]: "California: How Mama Lost Her Head," Time, March 7, 1988. https://time.com/archive/6711741/california-how-mama-lost-her-head/ +[^8]: Bill Bertolino, "Scottsdale company's role in death probed," East Valley Tribune, September 28, 2003. https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/scottsdale-company-s-role-in-death-probed/article_c5d5e866-8926-5e28-b077-adca15135be0.html +[^9]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Inc. v. Mitchell, 7 Cal.App.4th 1287, 9 Cal.Rptr.2d 572 (Cal. Ct. App. June 10, 1992) (Gates, J.; Nott and Manella, JJ. concurring), text as reproduced by the Cryonics Archive. https://www.cryonicsarchive.org/library/california-appellate-court-decision/ +[^10]: Bill Bertolino, "Williams' family sues Alcor," East Valley Tribune, March 19, 2004. https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/williams-family-sues-alcor/article_2e0302c6-e6e5-5f96-b78a-97944e607bcd.html +[^11]: Associated Press, "Daughter of Ted Williams drops case against Alcor," Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine), June 16, 2004. https://www.sunjournal.com/2004/06/16/daughter-ted-williams-drops-case-alcor/ +[^12]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, press releases of September 17, October 4, December 3 and December 20, 2004, collected as "Alcor Press Releases Re: Ted Williams," Cryonics Archive. Statements of a party. https://www.cryonicsarchive.org/press/alcor-press-releases-re-ted-williams/ +[^13]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, "Response to Larry Johnson Allegations" (entries of February 10, 2012, and May 19, 2014, with updates of March and August 2015), Cryonics Archive. Statements of a party. https://www.cryonicsarchive.org/press/response-to-larry-johnson-allegations/ +[^14]: Arizona Legislature, Forty-sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session, HB 2637, introduced version (462R, "I Ver"), 2004. https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/46leg/2R/bills/HB2637P.htm +[^15]: Arizona Legislature, HB 2637, House engrossed version (462R, "H Ver"), 2004, section 1 (A.R.S. 32-1340). https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/46leg/2R/bills/HB2637H.htm +[^16]: Le Templar, "03/12 - Preliminary approval given for cryonics oversight," East Valley Tribune, March 12, 2004. https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/special_reports/cryonics/article_4e6e16f3-3912-5735-98bf-70f95322bacf.html +[^17]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, "Chronology of Attempted 2004 Cryonics Legislation in Arizona," Alcor Library. A chronology by a party. https://alcor.org/Library/html/legislation.html +[^18]: Tyler Hayden, "In Cryonics Lawsuit, Son Fights for Father's Frozen Head," Santa Barbara Independent, April 17, 2019. https://www.independent.com/2019/04/17/in-cryonics-lawsuit-son-fights-for-fathers-frozen-head/ +[^19]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Form 990 for tax years 2010 to 2022 as posted by Alcor (Part VII, Sections A and B; Part VIII; Schedules I, L and O), e.g. https://www.alcor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/alcor-form-990-2013.pdf, .../alcor-form-990-2018.pdf, .../alcor-form-990-2019.pdf, .../alcor-form-990-2020.pdf and .../alcor-form-990-2022.pdf. +[^20]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2023 (Part VII, Sections A and B; Part VIII; Schedule L), Internal Revenue Service e-file object 202423209349326972, IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search bulk data, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^21]: Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Inc. and Affiliates, consolidated financial statements with independent accountants' review report, years ended December 31, 2014, 2018 and 2020 (notes on principles of consolidation, related parties and investments). https://www.alcor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/alcor-financial-statement-2014.pdf, .../alcor-financial-statement-2018.pdf and .../alcor-financial-statement-2020.pdf +[^22]: Mediaite, "Peter Thiel Confirms His Plans to Be Cryogenically Frozen When He Dies But Admits 'I'm Not Convinced It Works,'" May 5, 2023, citing the New York Post and reporting the *Honestly with Bari Weiss* interview. https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/peter-thiel-confirms-his-plans-to-be-cryogenically-frozen-when-he-dies-but-admits-im-not-convinced-it-works/ +[^23]: The Thiel Foundation (EIN 20-3846597), Form 990-PF for the year ended December 31, 2023 (Part XV), Internal Revenue Service e-file object 202403209349108200, IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search bulk data, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^24]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 9, EFTA00715319, email from Ben Goertzel to Jeffrey Epstein, January 17, 2013. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00715319.pdf +[^25]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 11, EFTA02454349, email from Joscha Bach to Jeffrey Epstein, August 24, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02454349.pdf +[^26]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 9, EFTA00832674, email exchange between Joscha Bach and Jeffrey Epstein headed "Re: Nectome," April 15, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00832674.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md index d54747ea..2205898f 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Associated Press.md @@ -1,21 +1,195 @@ --- category: "Private Organization" tags: - - organization - - media - - contra-war -summary: The Associated Press was the news service whose reporters Robert Parry and Brian Barger broke early stories on Contra drug trafficking that were suppressed by editors. + - Organization + - NewsAgency + - Cooperative + - Media + - NaziGermany + - OfficeOfCensorship + - ContraWar + - PressFreedom + - WhiteHouse +alias: + - Associated Press + - The Associated Press + - AP + - A.P. + - AP GmbH +summary: "New York news cooperative of United States newspapers and broadcasters, founded in 1846, whose Berlin photo subsidiary worked under Nazi press law and whose phone records, Gaza bureau and White House access drew government action." start: 1846 location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Kent Cooper]]" + reverse: true + start: 1925 + end: 1948 + role: "general manager" + fn: 10 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Byron Price]]" + reverse: true + start: 1937 + end: 1941-12 + role: "executive editor" + fn: 14 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alan J. Gould]]" + reverse: true + start: 1941 + end: 1963 + role: "executive editor" + fn: 14 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Robert Parry]]" + reverse: true + end: 1987 + role: "Washington correspondent" + fn: 17 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Robert Berrellez]]" + reverse: true + role: "roving correspondent for Latin America" + fn: 19 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Gary Pruitt]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive" + fn: 20 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Daisy Veerasingham]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Associated Press v. United States]]" + start: 1944-12 + end: 1945-06 + role: "appellant" + fn: 3 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + start: 2012-04 + end: 2012-05 + role: "toll records for more than 20 lines subpoenaed for April and May 2012" + fn: 21 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Israel Defense Forces]]" + start: 2021-05-15 + end: 2021-05-15 + role: "bureau building destroyed by airstrike" + fn: 25 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Associated Press v. Budowich]]" + start: 2025-02 + role: "plaintiff" + fn: 28 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 --- -The [[Associated Press]] (AP) was the news service whose reporters [[Robert Parry]] and Brian Barger broke early stories on [[Contras|Contra]] drug trafficking in the 1980s. Their groundbreaking reporting was suppressed by editors who sat on the story for weeks, heavily edited it, and ultimately spiked it.[^1] +The Associated Press (AP) is a news cooperative headquartered in [[New York City]], founded in 1846 and owned by [[United States]] newspapers and broadcasters as its members.[^1] In 1846 five New York City newspapers funded a pony express route through [[Alabama]] to bring news of the [[Mexican-American War|Mexican War]] north faster than the Post Office could carry it.[^2] The AP's history page carries a photograph of its president and chief executive, [[Daisy Veerasingham]], taken at the New York headquarters on January 11, 2022.[^2] -### Suppressed Reporting +### Cooperative structure -Robert Parry, one of the AP reporters who wrote the story on Contra drug connections, said his editors sat on the piece for weeks and edited it heavily, only to spike it at the last minute. The suppression of the AP's Contra-drug story in the 1980s foreshadowed the media establishment's treatment of [[Gary Webb]]'s [[Dark Alliance]] series a decade later. The AP's failure to publish its own reporters' findings allowed the government to maintain its denial of Contra-connected drug trafficking for years.[^2] +The AP was incorporated as a cooperative association under the Membership Corporations Law of the State of New York. In its 1945 decision the [[Supreme Court]] counted the publishers of more than 1,200 newspapers among its members and described a body of by-laws that bound every member, allowed the board of directors to fine, suspend or expel a member for a violation, and barred members from selling news to non-members. The AP had begun as an [[Illinois]] corporation in which an existing member held an absolute veto over the application of a competing publisher; the by-laws were amended in 1931 to extend a right of protest to members of more than five years' standing, and again in 1942 after complaints to the [[Department of Justice]] produced an investigation. In [[Associated Press v. United States]], argued December 5 and 6, 1944 and decided June 18, 1945, Justice [[Hugo Black]] wrote for the Court that the by-laws restrained trade in violation of the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]]. Justices [[William O. Douglas]] and [[Felix Frankfurter]] filed concurring opinions, Justice [[Owen Roberts]] dissented in part in an opinion joined by the Chief Justice, Justice [[Frank Murphy]] dissented, and Justice [[Robert H. Jackson]] took no part.[^3] + +The board is drawn from member publishers and broadcasters. At the annual meeting of April 2022 the AP announced a board of 13 directors, who were elected by members or appointed by the board, each eligible to serve nine years in total with the chair exempt. [[Gracia Martore]], formerly president and chief executive of [[Tegna]] and a director since 2013, became chair in succession to [[Steven Swartz]], president and chief executive of [[Hearst Corporation]], who had been elected in 2009 and had completed a five-year term as chair. The meeting added [[Mark Adams]] of Adams Publishing Group as a director representing small-market newspapers, and the directors named included [[Michael Newhouse]], co-president of [[Advance Publications|Advance]], and [[Isaac Lee]], founder of Exile Content.[^4] The notice of May 2014 had reported a board of 21 directors, with [[Jon Rust]] of the Southeast Missourian as vice chair, and had listed Lee as president of news for [[Univision]] and [[Rob King]] as a senior vice president of [[ESPN]], both appointed by the board.[^5] + +A search of the Nonprofit Explorer index of [[Internal Revenue Service]] exempt-organization returns on October 1, 2026 returned the Associated Press Emergency Relief Fund (EIN 02-0749041) and the Associated Press Media Editors foundation (EIN 13-3529099), and returned no Form 990 filer under the name of the cooperative itself.[^6] + +### Berlin, 1931 to 1941 + +The AP opened subsidiaries in Britain and Germany in 1931. The German subsidiary, the AP GmbH, was a German-registered photo service whose staff, as the AP's own 2017 history states, was "wholly subject to Nazi law." The [[Berlin]] news bureau was run by [[Louis P. Lochner]], who received the 1939 [[Pulitzer Prize]] for correspondence; the photo service sent some pictures to New York, where editors selected them for distribution to the AP's 1,400 American newspaper members.[^7] + +In late 1935, after resisting for two years, the AP complied with the decree that all persons working in German media be of German "Aryan" origin; the picture service reassigned or discharged six employees considered Jewish. The AP's history states that five eventually resettled in the United States with its help, that a sixth was reassigned to the [[Vienna]] bureau and was arrested by the [[Gestapo]] when the Nazis arrived in 1938, and that [[Alfred Eisenstaedt]] and two other discharged colleagues launched the Pix photo agency in New York at the end of 1935.[^8] The historian [[Harriet Scharnberg]] wrote in 2017 that the AP was the only Anglo-American picture agency operating internationally that kept its Berlin subsidiary open after 1935, that its German photographers were bound by the [[Schriftleitergesetz]] (Editors' Law) not to act to the detriment of the Reich, and that AP pictures appeared in the propaganda pamphlets *Die Juden in USA* (1939) and *Der Untermensch* (1942). She wrote that the AP's review of its own history confirmed these points and that the AP stated it regretted not having protested the use of its pictures in that way.[^9] + +In December 1938 [[Kent Cooper]], the AP's general manager from 1925 to 1948, wrote to Lochner about an unspecified proposal from the German government to the AP GmbH, a letter the AP's history reproduces. Cooper wrote: "We will want to give consideration to the suggestion for the reason that it is a suggestion to AP GmbH which is a German company." He continued that "even The Associated Press of New York is better off in Germany if it uses its good offices with the German company [AP GmbH] to bring the practices of the German company [AP GmbH] in harmony with the suggestions of the German government," and that the subsidiary "might even get the benediction of German officials." The same letter said he had long wished the subsidiary could have a German at its head so that an American need not serve as its Geschaeftsfuehrer. Lochner wrote in 1946, in a passage the history quotes, that in 1937 Nazi authorities had insisted that he give up that post because he was a foreigner and that he had then recommended Brandt, and [[Willy Brandt (AP manager)|Willy Brandt]] became Geschaeftsfuehrer; a letter from Cooper to the [[London]] manager in 1939 recorded the appointment. The history states that the subject of the German proposal has not been established.[^10] + +[[Franz Roth]], an [[Austria]]n-born photographer hired by the AP to cover the war in [[Ethiopia]] in 1935, had left the AP and was freelancing in 1938 when he was named the official Nazi party photographer for Austria. When Lochner planned to rehire him, [[W. F. Brooks]], the AP's managing director in London, wrote to [[Lloyd Stratton]] in New York that it "would not be good business for AP to have on its staff the official S.A. photographer," and proposed a freelance arrangement giving the AP a right of first refusal on Roth's pictures. Stratton replied that he agreed "wholly" with the original reply on employing Roth and also agreed "with the contractual method of obtaining Roth's product, assuming that the contract is approved by counsel."[^11] The AP's history records Roth as an "ardent Nazi" who traveled with the [[Waffen SS|Waffen-SS]] before and after the AP's expulsion from Germany and who died in combat in 1943.[^12] Scharnberg wrote that Roth was in [[Lemberg]] on July 2, 1941, during a pogrom in which about 4,000 Jewish inhabitants were killed, and that he photographed Soviet prisoners of war, captured tanks and cheering residents rather than the violence or its victims; the pictures passed German censorship and were distributed in the United States by the AP.[^9] + +After 1939 the German government drafted several AP photographers into propaganda units, requiring that their pictures be pooled for German media while the AP continued to pay their salaries, and the photographers sent some pictures to the AP picture service as exclusives. The AP's history states that its photo and news managers worked to keep the picture service free of propaganda, that it found no record that the AP protested directly to the editors of pro-Nazi media about biased headlines and captions, and that "the AP in the totality of its conduct fulfilled its mission to gather the news in Germany forthrightly and as independently as possible." It adds that the AP should have protested when its photographs were exploited by the Nazis for propaganda within Germany and should have refused to employ German photographers with active political affiliations, and that suggestions "that AP at any point sought to help the Nazis or their heinous cause are simply wrong." Scharnberg wrote that none of the results in her 2016 article, "The A and P of Propaganda," published in *Zeithistorische Forschungen* (Studies in Contemporary History), were disproven by the review.[^9][^13] + +### The Bureau Laux photo exchange and the Office of Censorship + +On December 11, 1941 the AP's Berlin office was closed and its American staff arrested; they were interned for five months and returned in a prisoner exchange via [[Lisbon]] in spring 1942. The German picture service, with its files, was confiscated and given to the [[Auswärtiges Amt|Foreign Ministry]] under the control of [[Helmut Laux]], a Waffen-SS photographer, and most of its German personnel were absorbed into the Bureau Laux. Brandt, the German manager of the picture service, who had been drafted into the [[Luftwaffe]], was transferred by Laux into the Waffen-SS to work full-time for the Bureau.[^14] + +In 1942 Laux proposed to the AP's Lisbon correspondent, Luiz C. Lupi, a photo exchange, an arrangement in which Lochner, during his repatriation, took part. Under it the Bureau Laux sent packets of photographs from Germany and German-occupied Europe to AP offices in New York and London through neutral [[Portugal]], and later [[Sweden]], until 1945, and the AP sent photographs from the United States to the neutral countries for distribution by Laux inside Germany. The earliest evidence of the arrangement in the AP's archives is an undated 1942 cable from the executive newsphoto editor in New York, Al Resch, to the Lisbon agent.[^14] + +[[Byron Price]] had been named the AP's first executive editor in 1937. Ten days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] took him from the AP to direct the [[Office of Censorship]]. On July 13, 1942 the AP's executive editor, [[Alan J. Gould]], telephoned N. R. Howard, an assistant to Price, to ask "if I could think of any reason why the AP should not make and/or renew loose photo exchange agreements with syndicates" in neutral countries. Howard's memorandum of the call records his reply: "Told him I could think of none as long as censorship operated on the news photos sent out of this country." On July 14 Gould wrote to Howard that "an experimental arrangement whereby an exchange of news pictures is being undertaken by the Associated Press" with a photographic agent in Lisbon, who furnished pictures "including pictures from Axis territories" in return for American photographs, was subject to censorship regulations. Howard replied that the Office of Censorship, including its postal, cable and press divisions, "has no objection to such an exchange, with all hands understanding that the pictures, as usual, and like all others, are subject to censorship regulations." The acting chief of postal censorship, Army Major N. V. Carlson, wrote that the exchange "should be encouraged for the information value that may be derived from the arrangements." The three letters are in the National Archives and are reproduced in the AP's history.[^14] + +German editors received the AP's photographs through Laux, who copied them for Nazi leaders and offered them to German newspapers and magazines; with one exception the pictures were unaltered, and the captions were rewritten. Allied investigators who compared the original and published captions after the war found that "practically every text was altered before release to the German public." The AP's annual reports listed the receipt of photographs from Germany among the cooperative's wartime accomplishments, and its captions identified their German origin to member newspapers.[^14] + +Laux cooperated with Allied criminal investigators and intelligence after the war, argued that his arrangement with the AP should spare him punishment, served time in an Allied detention camp, founded a photo agency in [[Frankfurt]] and sold pictures of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] on D-Day to *[[Life (magazine)|Life]]*. Brandt's request to return to the AP was refused by the American military authorities overseeing denazification because of his enlistment in the SS, which Brandt had said was forced; Lochner was embittered that the AP did not contest the finding, and the AP rehired Brandt in 1950, when he headed sales for the reconstituted AP German service until he retired in 1978. The AP sold its German-language service in 2010.[^15] + +The AP published its history, *Covering Tyranny: The AP and [[Nazi Germany]], 1933-1945*, on May 10, 2017, after Scharnberg's article of 2016. The report describes itself as the result of research in previously unexamined AP archives, other repositories, American military documents and records declassified by the [[National Archives and Records Administration]] in response to AP [[Freedom of Information Act]] requests, and it is accompanied by a separate file of scans of 43 documents, a number that Scharnberg's statement gives as 70.[^16] + +### Contra reporting, 1985 to 1987 + +[[Robert Parry]] and [[Brian Barger]], AP reporters in Washington, wrote in December 1985 the first story on cocaine trafficking by some [[Contras]] to raise money, with the [[Reagan administration]] turning a blind eye, according to Parry. Parry wrote that the story prompted the then freshman senator [[John Kerry]] to open an investigation, that the reporting was attacked by the [[White House]], the conservative press and "mainstream outlets like [[New York Times|The New York Times]]," and that by summer 1986 "our AP editors had begun to lose faith in us" and Barger resigned after being left indefinitely on the overnight editing shift. Parry left the AP in early 1987 to join *[[Newsweek]]*.[^17] Parry had also been, he wrote, the first reporter to describe the activities of the White House aide [[Oliver North]] in arranging support for the Contras after Congress ended [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] funding.[^17] + +[[Gary Webb]] wrote in *[[Dark Alliance]]* that Parry's editors sat on the story for weeks, edited it heavily and spiked it at the last minute, that the suppression of the AP story foreshadowed the media establishment's treatment of Webb's own series a decade later, and that the AP's failure to publish its own reporters' findings allowed the government to maintain its denial of Contra-connected drug trafficking for years.[^18] + +### Correspondents who moved to other posts + +[[Robert Berrellez]] was born in [[Nogales, Arizona]], was educated in [[Arizona]] and worked for the AP in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] before becoming a roving correspondent with headquarters in [[Mexico City]]. A column in the *Phoenix Republic* of April 2, 1978 states that he was in [[Cuba]] when [[Fidel Castro]] came to power and spent six months in jail there, that he had gone to work for [[ITT Corporation|International Telephone and Telegraph]], that he was by then the company's public relations director in the Southwest, and that a court in Washington was to decide whether he had committed perjury and obstructed an investigation in testifying before a [[United States Senate|Senate]] subcommittee on the company's conduct in [[Chile]].[^19] + +### Telephone records, 2012 and 2013 + +On Friday, May 10, 2013 the AP's general counsel, [[Laura Malone]], received a letter from [[Ronald C. Machen Jr.]], United States attorney for the District of Columbia, who had been appointed by Attorney General [[Eric Holder]] to lead an inquiry into leaks. The letter stated that the Department of Justice had obtained telephone toll records for more than 20 separate lines assigned to the AP and its journalists for April and May 2012.[^20] On May 13 the AP's president and chief executive, [[Gary Pruitt]], wrote to Holder: "There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters."[^20] + +Deputy Attorney General [[James M. Cole]] replied on May 14 that the Department had opened criminal investigations into unauthorized disclosures of classified information in May 2012, and had conducted "over 550 interviews" and reviewed "tens of thousands of documents" before seeking the toll records. He wrote that for each number in the May 10 letter "there was a basis to believe the numbers were associated with AP personnel involved in the reporting of classified information," that the subpoenas did not seek the content of calls, that the records covered "only a portion" of the two-month span, and that they had been "closely held and reviewed solely for the purposes of this ongoing criminal investigation."[^21] + +In September 2013 [[Donald Sachtleben]], a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] bomb technician who had continued working for the bureau as a contractor, agreed to plead guilty to disclosing national defense information to a reporter in May 2012 about a thwarted Yemen-based plan to bomb a United States-bound airliner. The Department of Justice said he "was identified as a suspect in the case of this unauthorized disclosure only after toll records for phone numbers related to the reporter were obtained through a subpoena and compared to other evidence collected during the leak investigation," and that this allowed investigators to obtain a search warrant for his phone and computer. The plea agreements, filed in [[Indianapolis]], carried a 43-month term on the national security counts and a consecutive 97-month term on two [[Child sexual abuse material|child pornography]] counts.[^22][^23] + +On July 12, 2013 the Department of Justice published a report on its policies toward the news media that reversed the presumption concerning advance notice to affected media organizations. Notice and negotiation would be omitted only if the Attorney General, taking account of the recommendations of a newly established News Media Review Committee, determined for compelling reasons that they would pose a clear and substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation, risk grave harm to national security or present an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm, and any delay would run for an initial 45 days with at most one further 45 days.[^24] + +### The Gaza bureau, 2021 and 2024 + +On May 15, 2021 an Israeli airstrike destroyed a high-rise building in [[Gaza City]] that housed the AP's bureau and other media offices. The AP's account stated that the strike came roughly an hour after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate the building and that all AP employees and freelancers left safely. Pruitt's statement said that the Israeli military had "long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there," that the AP had received a warning that the building would be hit, that it was seeking information from the Israeli government and was engaged with the [[State Department]], and that "the world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today."[^25] + +Secretary of State [[Antony Blinken]] held a press availability in Copenhagen on May 17, 2021. A reporter's question recited that the prime minister of Israel and officials of the [[Israel Defense Forces]] had said over the weekend that they had transmitted intelligence to the United States showing that [[Hamas]] used the tower to house military assets. Blinken answered that he had spoken over the weekend with Pruitt, that "we did request additional details regarding the justification" for the strike, that he "wouldn't want to weigh in on intelligence matters," and that he would "leave it to others to characterize if any information has been shared and our assessment of that information."[^26] + +On May 21, 2024 Israeli officials seized an AP camera and broadcasting equipment in [[Sderot]], accusing the AP of violating a media law enacted against Al Jazeera by supplying it with live images of northern Gaza. The communications minister, [[Shlomo Karhi]], ordered the equipment returned the same day.[^27] + +### Exclusion from the White House press pool, 2025 + +On February 11, 2025 White House press secretary [[Karoline Leavitt]] told the AP that it would not be permitted in the [[Oval Office]] or the press pool unless it revised its style guide to refer to the Gulf of America. The AP was also excluded from events in the [[East Room]]. Press pool membership had historically been set by the [[White House Correspondents' Association]], of which the AP is a founding member and which had offered the AP a standing invitation to send one reporter and one photographer. On February 25 the White House announced that it would select pool participants itself. The AP sued on [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] grounds in *[[Associated Press v. Budowich]]*, No. 1:25-cv-00532 (D.D.C.), naming [[Taylor Budowich]], the Deputy Chief of Staff, as defendant.[^28] + +Judge [[Trevor N. McFadden]] entered a preliminary injunction on April 8, 2025. On April 14 the AP was denied access to the Oval Office while the injunction was in effect; on April 15 the White House issued a policy abolishing the wire services seat from the press pool, and the district court denied the AP's motion to enforce, finding the new policy facially neutral and crediting a White House declaration that it had not excluded the AP on the basis of viewpoint.[^28] + +On June 6, 2025 a panel of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] granted the government's motion for a stay pending appeal in part, staying the injunction except as applied to the East Room. Judge [[Neomi Rao]], joined by Judge [[Gregory Katsas]], wrote that the White House was likely to succeed because "these restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion" and that the White House "retains discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted." Judge [[Cornelia Pillard]] dissented and would have denied the stay.[^28] On July 22, 2025 the full court denied the AP's motion for en banc reconsideration and vacatur of the stay order.[^29] The D.C. Circuit's posted opinion lists for January through September 2026 contain no opinion in No. 25-5109.[^30] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27. -[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 27. +[^1]: Associated Press, "About," https://www.ap.org/about/ (accessed October 1, 2026): "We were founded as an independent news cooperative, whose members are U.S. newspapers and broadcasters." +[^2]: Associated Press, "History," https://www.ap.org/about/history/ (accessed October 1, 2026). +[^3]: *Associated Press v. United States*, 326 U.S. 1 (1945), Nos. 57, 58 and 59, argued December 5-6, 1944, decided June 18, 1945; opinion of Black, J.; Douglas, J., and Frankfurter, J., concurring; Roberts, J., dissenting in part, the Chief Justice joining; Murphy, J., dissenting; Jackson, J., taking no part. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/326/1 +[^4]: "AP announces 1 director, 4 incumbents at annual meeting," *Editor & Publisher*, April 27, 2022 (Associated Press release), https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/ap-announces-1-director-4-incumbents-at-annual-meeting,225891 +[^5]: "AP Names Three New Directors, Re-Elects Another," *Editor & Publisher*, May 7, 2014, https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/ap-names-three-new-directors-re-elects-another,154134 +[^6]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, organization search for "associated press," https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/search.json?q=associated+press (queried October 1, 2026). +[^7]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny: The AP and Nazi Germany, 1933-1945* (New York, May 10, 2017), Introduction, pp. 1-4, and chapter 2 (Lochner), https://www.almendron.com/blog/wp-content/images/2017/06/ap-in-germany-report.pdf (copy of the AP's published report; the AP's own page ap.org/about/history/ap-in-nazi-germany returned "Page not found" on October 1, 2026). +[^8]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Key findings, pp. 5-6. +[^9]: Harriet Scharnberg, "Press statement by Harriet Scharnberg on AP's review 'Covering Tyranny. The AP and Nazi Germany: 1933-1945,'" May 12, 2017, https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/sites/default/files/medien/static/2016-1/Material/Press_Statement_Scharnberg_on_AP_May_2017.pdf ; her article is "The A and P of Propaganda. Associated Press and Nazi Photojournalism," *Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History* 13, no. 1 (2016), http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/1-2016/id=5324 (article not opened; cited through the statement). +[^10]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, chapter 3, "The AP GmbH Photo Service," pp. 67-68 (Cooper to Lochner, December 1938, with the AP's commentary; Cooper to Brooks, 1939; Lochner on Brandt, 1937), and the report's passage on the news-agency cartel (Cooper, general manager from 1925 to 1948). +[^11]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, chapter 4, "New York Photos: the Gatekeepers," pp. 72-73 (Brooks to Stratton; Stratton's reply). +[^12]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Key findings, p. 6. +[^13]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Introduction, pp. 2-3, and Key findings, pp. 5-6. +[^14]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Key findings, pp. 6-7, and chapter 5, "The Bureau Laux," pp. 91-104 (undated 1942 Resch cable; Gould telephone call of July 13, 1942 and letter of July 14, 1942 to N. R. Howard; Howard memorandum; Office of Censorship reply; Carlson letter, with National Archives images); the report gives Gould as AP executive editor from 1941 to 1963 and Price as the AP's first executive editor in 1937. +[^15]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Key findings, p. 7. +[^16]: Associated Press, *Covering Tyranny*, 2017, Introduction, pp. 1, 4. +[^17]: Robert Parry, "The Lost Opportunity of Iran-Contra," *Consortium News*, December 1, 2011, https://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/01/the-lost-opportunity-of-iran-contra/ ; Parry, "Regret over Gary Webb's Demise," *Consortium News*, June 1, 2013, https://consortiumnews.com/2013/06/01/regret-over-gary-webbs-demise/ +[^18]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), ch. 27 (citation carried from the existing vault page for the Associated Press; not reopened in this run). +[^19]: "Bad Deal For Berrellez," *Phoenix Republic*, April 2, 1978, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030015-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp09t00207r001000030015-6 +[^20]: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "Justice Department defends decisions in secret seizure of AP phone records as criticism mounts," May 14, 2013, https://www.rcfp.org/justice-department-defends-decisions-secret-seizure-ap-phone-records/ (describing the Machen letter of May 10, 2013 and quoting Pruitt's letter of May 13). +[^21]: James M. Cole, Deputy Attorney General, letter to Gary B. Pruitt, May 14, 2013, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/oip/legacy/2014/07/23/dag-letter-to-ap-president-pruitt.pdf +[^22]: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "Filing in case over AP bomb-plot leaker details contacts between reporter and FBI source," September 2013, https://www.rcfp.org/filing-case-over-ap-bomb-plot-leaker-details-contacts-between-report/ (quoting the Department of Justice statement of September 23, 2013). +[^23]: "Ex-FBI Agent Cornered on Terror Plot Leaks," *Courthouse News Service*, September 25, 2013, https://www.courthousenews.com/ex-fbi-agent-cornered-on-terror-plot-leaks/ (the justice.gov press release returned a block on October 1, 2026). +[^24]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report on Review of News Media Policies*, July 12, 2013, https://www.justice.gov/ag/news-media.pdf +[^25]: Associated Press, "AP statement on Israeli attack on building housing AP office," May 15, 2021, archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20210515141355/https://apnews.com/article/israel-middle-east-business-israel-palestinian-conflict-f595d0ea0a7e21a4e4974ae55e00024d +[^26]: U.S. Department of State, "Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod at a Joint Press Availability," Copenhagen, May 17, 2021, https://2021-2025.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-danish-foreign-minister-jeppe-kofod-at-a-joint-press-availability/ +[^27]: "Israel says it will return video equipment seized from AP," Associated Press, May 21, 2024 (copy at https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2024/05/21/israeli-officials-seize-ap-equipment-and-take-down-live-shot-of-northern-gaza-citing-new-media-law/). +[^28]: *Associated Press v. Budowich*, No. 25-5109 (D.C. Cir.), order of June 6, 2025 granting stay pending appeal in part (Pillard, Katsas, Rao, Circuit Judges), with statement of Rao, J., joined by Katsas, J., and dissenting statement of Pillard, J., on appeal from No. 1:25-cv-00532-TNM (D.D.C.), https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/orders/docs/2025/06/25-5109LDSN3.pdf (reciting the district court's preliminary injunction of April 8, 2025, 2025 WL 1039572, and footnote 2 on events of April 14 and 15, 2025). +[^29]: *Associated Press v. Budowich*, No. 25-5109 (D.C. Cir. July 22, 2025) (per curiam order denying emergency petition for rehearing en banc, construed as a motion for en banc reconsideration and vacatur), https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/orders/docs/2025/07/25-5109LDEN.pdf +[^30]: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, opinions by date for January through September 2026, https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/bydate/2026/1 through /9 (checked October 1, 2026 for "5109"; no matches). diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bellingcat.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bellingcat.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c1147924 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bellingcat.md @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Bellingcat + - OpenSourceInvestigation + - EliotHiggins + - NationalEndowmentForDemocracy + - Russia + - GRU + - MH17 + - Skripal + - Navalny + - UndesirableOrganization + - Netherlands +alias: + - Bellingcat + - Stichting Bellingcat + - Bellingcat Foundation + - Bellingcat Ltd + - Bellingcat US + - Bellingcat US Inc + - Bellingcat Fund + - Bellingcat Fund Inc +summary: "Open-source investigation collective founded by Eliot Higgins in 2014, run since 2018 as a Dutch foundation funded by lotteries, foundations and, in 2020 to 2022, the National Endowment for Democracy; undesirable in Russia in 2022." +start: 2014 +location: "Amsterdam, Netherlands" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Eliot Higgins]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014 + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Eliot Higgins]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-11-05 + role: "sole director of Bellingcat, the UK company by guarantee" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Eliot Higgins]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman of the board of the Dutch foundation in the 2019 to 2021 policy plan" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Aric Toler]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-11 + end: 2023-09 + role: "director of research and training" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Christo Grozev]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-02 + end: 2022-12 + role: "executive director" + fn: 7 + - type: funded + with: "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + end: 2022 + role: "grants of EUR 112,524 (2020), EUR 212,229 (2021) and EUR 87,041 (2022) in the accounts" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[StartSmall Foundation]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024 + role: "EUR 4,803,535 listed in the 2024 accounts" + fn: 17 + - type: funded + with: "[[ZINC Network]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019 + end: 2021 + role: "listed as income from companies, EUR 5,000 (2019), 54,511 (2020), 10,358 (2021)" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Adam Smith International]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + end: 2020 + role: "listed as income from companies, EUR 65,428" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Dutch Postcode Lottery]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019 + role: "EUR 250,000 in 2019 and 333,333 a year from 2021 to 2023, EUR 600,000 a year notified for 2024 to 2028" + fn: 5 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[The Insider]]" + start: 2018-09-26 + role: "joint investigations" + fn: 22 + - type: investigated + with: "[[GRU]]" + start: 2018-09-26 + role: "identification of the Skripal poisoning suspects" + fn: 22 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Prosecutor General's Office of Russia]]" + start: 2022-07-15 + role: "designated an undesirable organization" + fn: 29 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Bellingcat is an investigative organization that publishes research built from open sources, and that also sells training workshops and takes grants from foundations, lotteries and companies. It exists as a Netherlands foundation (Stichting Bellingcat), a dormant company in England, a Delaware corporation with [[United States]] charity status, and a Dutch production company of which the foundation holds 60 percent. + +### Origins and Registrations + +[[Eliot Higgins]] founded Bellingcat in 2014; he has written that he raised just under 60,000 pounds on [[Kickstarter]] that year.[^1] The English company Bellingcat (number 09858798) was incorporated on 5 November 2015 as a private company limited by guarantee, with Higgins as sole director, and its registered office has been in [[Oadby]] and in [[Leicester]]. Its accounts for the year to 31 December 2020 show 4,378 pounds in cash and a 25,026 pound loan account due to the director, and the company has filed no profit and loss account; its accounts for the year to 31 December 2025 were filed as those of a dormant company.[^2] + +[[Stichting Bellingcat]] was registered with the [[Kamer van Koophandel]] on 11 July 2018 under number 72136030.[^3] The 2019 to 2021 policy plan states that the English company was registered at the end of 2015 to run as a non-profit and that the Dutch foundation was set up in 2018 as the "global hub" for training and research.[^4] The first annual accounts of the foundation, covering 11 July 2018 to 31 December 2019, state that the foundation remained dormant until the second quarter of 2019 and that the English company was to be merged into it later in 2020; the English company remains on the register.[^5] A Dutch company, Bellingcat Productions B.V., was established on 9 July 2021, with the foundation as 60 percent shareholder.[^6] + +### Boards and Advisers + +The policy plan lists the first board of the foundation as Higgins (chairman), [[Dessislava Lange-Damianova]] (treasurer) and [[Aric Toler]] (secretary), and a supervisory board of [[Joseph Peeraer]] (chairman, described as an entrepreneur and philanthropist), [[Marietje Schaake]] (a former member of the European Parliament) and [[Yoeri Albrecht]] (director of the cultural centre De Balie).[^4] Toler served as director of research and training from November 2015 to September 2023, and [[Christo Grozev]] as executive director from February to December 2022.[^7] + +The foundation's current pages list an executive board of Higgins, Lange-Damianova and [[Giancarlo Fiorella]]; a supervisory board of [[Sander van Luik]], [[Maria Teresa Ronderos]] and [[Miriam Struyk]]; and an international advisory board of [[Alan Jagolinzer]], [[Algirdas Lipstas]], [[Anya Niestat]], [[Francis Fukuyama]], [[Premesh Chandran]] and an external adviser, [[Emiel Jurjens]].[^3] The 2021 and 2022 annual reports describe Lipstas as a former director of the [[Open Society Foundations]] and Niestat as legal director of the Docket Initiative of the [[Clooney Foundation for Justice]]; Fukuyama is described as a senior fellow at [[Stanford University]].[^8] The executive director and the operations director of the foundation are each paid 90,000 euros a year, according to its remuneration policy, and supervisory board members are unpaid.[^3] + +Higgins was described in July 2016, in a piece he wrote for the [[Atlantic Council]]'s UkraineAlert blog, as a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council's [[Digital Forensic Research Lab]].[^9] + +### Funding, 2019 to 2022 + +The foundation's own funding page states that Bellingcat does not solicit or accept money directly from governments, that it may take money from intergovernmental bodies such as the European Commission and the [[United Nations]], and that it may take money distributed by a private foundation that itself accepts government funds.[^10] The policy plan of 2019 states that Bellingcat attracted "the attention (and financial support)" of the Open Society Foundations, the [[National Endowment for Democracy]] and the [[Adessium Foundation]], and lists the National Endowment for Democracy as an institutional donor.[^4] + +The accounts for 2019, the first year of the foundation, show total income of 920,250 euros. The [[Dutch Postcode Lottery]] provided 250,000 euros and other non-profit organizations 155,403 euros: the [[Auxilium Foundation]] 100,000, the [[Human Rights Foundation]] 22,149, [[Charities Aid Foundation America]] 12,622, the "Open Society Foundation" 10,632 and [[Stichting QOSB]] 10,000. The note on income from companies reads in full that the foundation "received a donation of ZINC Network for the launch event of EUR 5.000". Grants received in advance at 31 December 2019 were 510,000 euros: the Dutch Postcode Lottery 250,000, Porticus Auxilium 100,000, Adessium 90,000 and [[Zandstorm CV]] 70,000. The accounts show no payment from the National Endowment for Democracy in 2019.[^5] + +In 2020 income was 1,715,624 euros. The National Endowment for Democracy appears for the first time, at 112,524 euros against a budget of 160,000, and a note records a further grant from it received in advance and to be settled in early 2021. The other non-profit income that year included the Auxilium Foundation (100,000), Stichting Saxum Volutum (100,000), Adessium (90,000), the [[Sigrid Rausing Trust]] (87,730) and [[Lighthouse Reports]] (15,157). Income from companies was 228,857 euros: Zandstorm CV 100,000, [[Adam Smith International]] 65,428, ZINC Network 54,511 (budgeted at 160,000), [[Chemonics International]] 5,323 and other companies 3,595. Income from governments and intergovernmental bodies was 3,876 euros, and the accounts state that Bellingcat accepts contributions only from international institutions such as the European Union, the OSCE and the United Nations.[^11] + +For 2021 the National Endowment for Democracy line is 212,229 euros against a budget of 160,000. The same table lists NEF/Civitates (115,000), the Auxilium Foundation (100,000), Adessium (90,000), the Sigrid Rausing Trust (85,256), the [[Limelight Foundation]] (60,000), [[Founders Pledge]] (46,491) and Charities Aid Foundation America (31,846); the Dutch Postcode Lottery gave 333,333 euros and the Swedish Postcode Lottery 43,328. Income from companies was 43,331 euros, including ZINC Network at 10,358, the [[Nationwide Building Society]] at 11,176 and anonymous companies at 19,938. A note states that the Russian government had designated Bellingcat a foreign agent and that some donors therefore prefer to remain anonymous.[^12] + +The 2022 accounts record the National Endowment for Democracy at 87,041 euros against a budget of 75,000. Ten anonymous grants total 674,442 euros, with the largest three at 236,100, 145,833 and 100,000; Limelight gave 120,000, Civitates 115,000, Adessium 90,000 and the Sigrid Rausing Trust 89,253. Twenty anonymous grants from companies total 383,365 euros, and Zandstorm CV appears at minus 100,000 euros. The accounts state that the European Union provided 162,703 euros.[^6] The annual report for 2022 states that "last year marked the final year of project funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) that provided funding for Russian-language workshops at no cost to journalists and human rights researchers based in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia and the Caucasus."[^8] + +The notes to the 2022 accounts also contain a statement about the supervisory board. The foundation reports that it "received a generous donation of 100.000 EUR by the chair of the Supervisory Board in two instalments - in December 2019 and in January 2020," and that it refunded the amount in December 2022, three years after receiving it, "even though the Chairman deemed this unnecessary." The accounts add that the foundation "should have refunded it earlier in accordance with our wish for independence, and to avoid any conflict of interest," and that its donation acceptance policy was amended with effect from 1 January 2023 to bar donations from supervisory board members.[^6] The policy plan names Peeraer as chairman of the supervisory board in 2019.[^4] + +The 2022 accounts also list, among obligations related to current projects at 31 December 2022, 484,545 euros attributed to Custom House Financial Ltd.[^6] Companies House records a company numbered 04380026, now named [[Convera UK Limited]], whose previous names were Custom House Financial (UK) Ltd and Custom House Currency Exchange (UK) Limited; the Bellingcat accounts do not identify the Custom House Financial Ltd of their ledger further.[^13] + +### Funding, 2023 to 2025 + +In the 2023 accounts the National Endowment for Democracy line is zero. The 2023 note lists the [[Wellspring Philanthropic Fund]] at 162,635 euros, Limelight at 120,000, Civitates at 118,386 and the Sigrid Rausing Trust at 86,924, and twenty-two anonymous grants at 1,614,630 euros, against 674,442 euros from ten anonymous grants the year before. The accounts report total income of 3,978,146 euros.[^14] The Dutch Postcode Lottery's funding request for 2024 was not approved at that point; in February 2025 the lottery notified an annual donation of 600,000 euros for 2024 to 2028.[^14][^15] + +The 2024 accounts list the [[StartSmall Foundation]] at 4,803,535 euros, thirteen anonymous grants at 1,860,737 euros, the Sigrid Rausing Trust at 177,221, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund at 153,175, Limelight at 120,000, Civitates at 115,000, the [[Proton Foundation]] at 63,494 and Charities Aid Foundation America at 48,073; the table totals 8,301,410 euros. The statement of income in the same accounts gives 1,927,307 euros for income from other non-profit organizations and 3,968,928 euros for total income.[^15][^16] The foundation announced on 16 May 2024 that StartSmall, [[Jack Dorsey]]'s philanthropic initiative, had made a donation to be used over several years.[^17] The 2025 accounts show no StartSmall income against a budget of 483,559 euros, Wellspring at 417,439, the Sigrid Rausing Trust at 182,749, twenty-three anonymous grants at 1,445,279 and total income of 3,409,323 euros. Under income from companies the 2025 accounts list Custom House Financial Ltd at 72,608 euros for 2025 and 222,561 euros for 2024.[^16] The foundation's current funding page lists Civitates, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the European Commission, the Limelight Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the StartSmall Foundation, the Swedish Postcode Foundation and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and states that other funders are known to its auditors but not named.[^10] + +### Bellingcat US + +Bellingcat US, Inc. (originally Bellingcat Fund Inc.) was established as a Delaware corporation in 2022 and received its [[Internal Revenue Service]] exemption as a charity under section 501(c)(3) with a ruling date of 1 November 2022. Its return for 2024 gives an address in Wilmington, Delaware, [[Evan Guillemin]] as principal officer and treasurer, five voting board members, eight employees and a mission "to be the leader in open-source fact finding." Revenue was 459,649 dollars in 2023 and 6,772,053 dollars in 2024, with 1,560,628 dollars of expenses and 6,301,770 dollars in assets at the end of 2024. The schedule of contributors in the return carries the entry "RESTRICTED" in place of donor names. The return was prepared by a firm named Abacus Hive.[^18][^19] The foundation's 2024 accounts state that a new board of the American entity was appointed that year and that the entity was renamed Bellingcat US in February 2025; the foundation's pages name [[Jennifer Coogan]] as its executive director.[^3][^15] + +### MH17 + +The Joint Investigation Team stated at its press meeting of 24 May 2018 that the Buk launcher that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came from the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, and added: "Earlier, the investigation collective Bellingcat came up with the same conclusion." The text continues that the team carries out "our own independent investigation."[^20] The English text of the judgment of the [[District Court of The Hague]] of 17 November 2022 in the MH17 criminal case contains no occurrence of the words Bellingcat, Higgins, Grozev or The Insider.[^21] + +### Salisbury + +On 26 September 2018 Bellingcat and [[The Insider]] published their identification of the man travelling as "Ruslan Boshirov", a suspect in the poisoning of [[Sergei Skripal]] and the death of [[Dawn Sturgess]], as the GRU colonel [[Anatoliy Chepiga]].[^22] The 2019 to 2021 policy plan records that Bellingcat researchers appeared at a press briefing at the House of Commons in October 2018.[^4] In the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, the closing statement for [[Counter Terrorism Policing]] states, of the identification of the three suspects as Mishkin, Chepiga and Sergeev, that the identifications were "publicly announced by CTP in September 2021, and earlier than that by media organisations." The same statement relies on open-source images from a Russian military command school in identifying Chepiga and cites a "heat map" that Bellingcat published for a mobile telephone registered in the name of the third suspect, Sergey Fedotov.[^23] + +### Navalny + +On 14 December 2020 Bellingcat published, with The Insider, [[CNN]] and [[Der Spiegel]], an investigation which stated that telecommunications and travel data and passport files showed a unit of the [[FSB]] working under the cover of its Criminalistics Institute to have shadowed [[Alexei Navalny]] on more than 30 overlapping flights in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and named three operatives, Alexey Alexandrov, Ivan Osipov and Vladimir Panyaev, as having travelled alongside him to Novosibirsk and followed him to Tomsk before the poisoning of August 2020. The article records that the [[OPCW]] had identified the agent as a cholinesterase inhibitor resembling the Novichok group.[^24] + +### Far-Right Network Investigations + +Bellingcat's article of 6 November 2019 explained how to access and interpret the leaked database of the [[Iron March]] forum, and stated that the [[Internet Archive]] had removed the file while it remained available from [[Distributed Denial of Secrets]].[^25] On 19 December 2019 it published "Transnational White Terror: Exposing Atomwaffen And The Iron March Networks" on the network around [[Atomwaffen Division]], written by [[Alexander Reid Ross]], [[Emmi Bevensee]] and a researcher identified as ZC, in collaboration with the Autonomous Disinformation Research Network.[^26] + +### Russian Designations + +The 2022 accounts state that the Russian government designated Bellingcat a foreign agent in 2021 and an "undesirable organisation" in 2022, an "upgrade", and that funders of an undesirable organization can face administrative or criminal action.[^6] The Moscow Times reported that Bellingcat and The Insider were labelled foreign agents in October 2021.[^27] On 15 July 2022 the [[Prosecutor General's Office of Russia]] declared the activity of Bellingcat undesirable, together with The Insider and a Czech group; [[Radio Free Europe|Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] reported that the Prosecutor General's Office gave as its reason a "threat" to the country, and that the list of undesirable organizations then held 56 entries.[^28] Bellingcat's statement of the same day gave the designation's stated motive as a threat "to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation", and noted that its website had been blocked by court order on 16 March.[^29] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Eliot Higgins, foreword, Bellingcat Annual Report 2024 (Stichting Bellingcat, June 2025), p. 3. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2025/06/Annual-Report-2024.pdf +[^2]: Companies House, BELLINGCAT, company number 09858798: overview, officers, filing history; accounts for the year ended 31 December 2020 (filed 15 November 2021), balance sheet and note 6; accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025 (dormant, filed 30 September 2026). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09858798 +[^3]: Bellingcat, "General Information" (KvK 72136030, RSIN 859000515, registered 11 July 2018; executive board, supervisory board, international advisory board and remuneration policy), consulted 1 October 2026. https://www.bellingcat.com/about/general-information +[^4]: Bellingcat Policy Plan 2019-2021, sections I, V, VIII and IX. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2020/06/Bellingcat-Policy-Plan-2019-2021.pdf +[^5]: Stichting Bellingcat, Annual Accounts 2019 (11 July 2018 to 31 December 2019), supervisory board report p. 3, statement of income and expense p. 8, notes 9, 11, 12 and 13 pp. 12 to 14. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2020/08/Bellingcat-Foundation-Annual-Accounts-2019.pdf +[^6]: Stichting Bellingcat, Annual Accounts 2022 (consolidated), principles of consolidation (p. 16, Bellingcat Productions B.V. established 9 July 2021 and 60 percent held), notes 9, 13 to 16, pp. 21 to 25. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2023/06/Bellingcat-Annual-Accounts-2022.pdf +[^7]: Bellingcat, "Previous Bellingcat Directors." https://www.bellingcat.com/previous-bellingcat-directors/ +[^8]: Bellingcat Annual Report 2022, workshops section and international advisory board page; Bellingcat Annual Report 2021, advisory board page. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2023/06/Bellingcat-Annual-Report-2022_com.pdf and https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2022/05/Bellingcat-Annual-Report-2021.pdf +[^9]: Eliot Higgins, "New Generation of Digital Detectives Fight to Keep Russia Honest," Atlantic Council UkraineAlert, 13 July 2016. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/mh17-crash-two-years-later/ +[^10]: Bellingcat, "Funding and How to Support Bellingcat," consulted 1 October 2026. https://www.bellingcat.com/about/funding-and-how-to-support-bellingcat +[^11]: Stichting Bellingcat, Annual Accounts 2020, statement of income and expenses and notes 11, 12, 15, 16 and 17. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2021/05/Bellingcat-Annual-Accounts-2020-1.pdf +[^12]: Stichting Bellingcat, Annual Accounts 2021, notes 15 to 17, p. 20. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2022/05/Bellingcat-Annual-Accounts-2021-pw.pdf +[^13]: Companies House, CONVERA UK LIMITED, company number 04380026 (previous names CUSTOM HOUSE FINANCIAL (UK) LTD and CUSTOM HOUSE CURRENCY EXCHANGE (UK) LIMITED). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04380026 +[^14]: Stichting Bellingcat, Annual Accounts 2023, notes 12 and 13, pp. 28 to 29, and statement of income p. 34. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2024/06/Bellingcat-Annual-Accounts-2023.pdf +[^15]: Stichting Bellingcat, Consolidated Annual Accounts 2024, executive summary, note 12 and note 13, pp. 7 and 26, statement of income p. 32. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2025/06/consolidated-annual-accounts-Bellingcat-2024.pdf +[^16]: Stichting Bellingcat, Annual Accounts 2025, notes 13 to 15, p. 27, statement of income p. 32. https://www.bellingcat.com/app/uploads/2026/07/Bellingcat-annual-accounts-2025.pdf +[^17]: Bellingcat, "Jack Dorsey's #startsmall Becomes Newest Bellingcat Funder," Amsterdam, 16 May 2024. https://www.bellingcat.com/jack-dorseys-startsmall-becomes-newest-bellingcat-funder/ +[^18]: Bellingcat US Inc, IRS Form 990 for 2024, ObjectId 202512269349301691, Part I, signature block, Schedule B (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full-text rendering). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/920346579/202512269349301691/full +[^19]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 920346579 (Bellingcat US Inc), ruling date 2022-11-01, 2023 revenue 459,649 dollars. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/920346579.json +[^20]: Joint Investigation Team, "Update investigation JIT MH17, press meeting 24-5-2018, speaker's text," Dutch Public Prosecution Service. https://www.prosecutionservice.nl/topics/mh17-plane-crash/criminal-investigation-jit-mh17/speakers-text-jit-mh17-press-meeting-24-5-2018 +[^21]: District Court of The Hague, judgment of 17 November 2022, case 09/748004-19, ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2022:14037 (English translation), full text searched for the strings "Bellingcat", "Higgins", "Grozev" and "Insider." https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/content?id=ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2022:14037 +[^22]: Bellingcat, "Skripal Suspect Boshirov Identified as GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga," 26 September 2018. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2018/09/26/skripal-suspect-boshirov-identified-gru-colonel-anatoliy-chepiga/ +[^23]: Inquiry into the Death of Dawn Sturgess, "Closing Statement on Behalf of Operation Verbasco," paras 66 to 72 and 78. https://dsiweb-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/Op-Verbasco-Closing-Submissions.pdf +[^24]: Bellingcat, "FSB Team of Chemical Weapon Experts Implicated in Alexey Navalny Novichok Poisoning," 14 December 2020. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/12/14/fsb-team-of-chemical-weapon-experts-implicated-in-alexey-navalny-novichok-poisoning/ +[^25]: Bellingcat, "Massive White Supremacist Message Board Leak: How to Access and Interpret the Data," 6 November 2019. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2019/11/06/massive-white-supremacist-message-board-leak-how-to-access-and-interpret-the-data/ +[^26]: Alexander Reid Ross, Emmi Bevensee and ZC, "Transnational White Terror: Exposing Atomwaffen And The Iron March Networks," Bellingcat, 19 December 2019. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2019/12/19/transnational-white-terror-exposing-atomwaffen-and-the-iron-march-networks/ +[^27]: "Russia Bans Bellingcat, Insider as 'Undesirable' Orgs," The Moscow Times, 15 July 2022. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/07/15/russia-bans-bellingcat-insider-as-undesirable-orgs-a78306 +[^28]: "Russia Bans News Outlets Bellingcat, The Insider, Czech Group As 'Security Threats'," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 15 July 2022. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-bans-news-outlets-bellingcat-insider-undesirable/31944955.html +[^29]: Bellingcat, "Statement on the Designation of Bellingcat as an 'Undesirable Organisation' in Russia," 15 July 2022. https://www.bellingcat.com/statement-on-the-designation-of-bellingcat-as-an-undesirable-organisation-in-russia/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Breitbart News.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Breitbart News.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f11e6b4f --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Breitbart News.md @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Media + - NewRight + - Breitbart + - Mercer + - SteveBannon + - AltRight + - SuperPAC +alias: + - Breitbart News + - Breitbart + - Breitbart News Network + - Breitbart News Network LLC + - Breitbart News Network, LLC + - Breitbart.com + - Breitbart London + - Breitbart Jerusalem + - Breitbart Texas +summary: "Los Angeles news website organized in 2011 as a Delaware company, with a reported ten million dollar Mercer investment that year and Steve Bannon as executive chairman from 2012 to January 2018." +start: 2011 +location: "Los Angeles, California" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Andrew Breitbart]]" + reverse: true + end: 2012-03-01 + role: "chief executive officer and manager" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Larry Solov]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and manager in 2011; president and chief executive in 2014 and 2018" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Steve Bannon]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012 + end: 2018-01-09 + role: "executive chairman" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Steve Bannon]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011-06 + role: "board seat under the 2011 investment agreement" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Mercer family]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + role: "reported investor of 10 million dollars for a large stake" + fn: 3 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Make America Number 1]]" + start: 2015-11-25 + end: 2016-01-27 + role: "vendor, list purchase and prepaid media" + fn: 10 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Raheem Kassam]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-02-16 + role: "led Breitbart London" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Aaron Klein]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-11-17 + role: "led Breitbart Jerusalem" + fn: 5 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Breitbart News Network, LLC is a limited liability company organized in Delaware in 2011 with its business address in [[Los Angeles]]. Its only filing on the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]'s EDGAR system is a notice of an exempt securities offering that names [[Andrew Breitbart]] as chief executive officer and manager and [[Larry Solov]] as president and manager.[^1] Breitbart died on March 1, 2012, shortly after midnight, at the [[UCLA]] Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.[^2] + +### The 2011 Securities Offering + +The notice, a Form D filed on September 26, 2011 under accession number 0001530877-11-000003, reports an offering of equity securities under the Rule 506 exemption with a date of first sale of August 17, 2011. The total offering amount and the total amount sold were each 9,999,990 dollars, the minimum investment accepted was 1,999,998 dollars, and two investors had invested, none of them non-accredited. The form reports no sales commissions or finders' fees and was signed on September 23, 2011 by the company's counsel. It does not name the investors.[^1] + +[[Jane Mayer]] reported in *The New Yorker* in March 2017 that the [[Mercer family]] met Andrew Breitbart in 2011 at a conference organized by the [[Club for Growth]]; that [[Steve Bannon]] drafted a business plan for the Mercers calling for an investment of 10 million dollars in Breitbart News in exchange for a large stake; that the Mercers signed the deal in June 2011; and that one provision of the deal placed Bannon on the company's board. She wrote that the investment was made through Gravitas Maximus, L.L.C., which she described as a front group that once had the same Long Island address as [[Renaissance Technologies]], and that Breitbart News had operated from office space in Santa Monica that Bannon owned. According to Mayer, Breitbart died nine months after the signing and Bannon became executive chairman.[^3] + +### Executive Chairman + +In February 2014 the company described Bannon as its executive chairman.[^4] A November 2015 company announcement identified Larry Solov as president and chief executive.[^5] Mayer reported that a house lease Bannon signed in 2013, published by *[[Washington Post|The Washington Post]]*, stated his Breitbart salary as 750,000 dollars.[^3] On January 9, 2018 Bannon stepped down as executive chairman. A source close to Bannon told ABC News, on condition of anonymity, that he was essentially forced out and had to choose between Breitbart and his political activities; ABC reported that the Breitbart board had discussed his future after remarks attributed to him in Michael Wolff's *Fire and Fury*, that [[Rebekah Mercer]], whom ABC described as a Breitbart shareholder, had disavowed him after the remarks, and that a source close to Mercer, also speaking anonymously, told ABC that she favored his departure. Solov said: "Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions."[^6] + +### Editorial Direction and the Trump Campaign + +Mayer wrote that under Bannon's direction the editors introduced a rubric called Black Crime, and that by tracking which negative stories about Hillary Clinton drew the most clicks and likes the editors identified the most potent story lines. She quoted an insider at Breitbart as saying that Rebekah Mercer "reads every story, and calls when there are grammatical errors or typos," and wrote that in 2011 David Bossie, head of [[Citizens United]], introduced Donald Trump to Bannon. She quoted the Trump campaign aide [[Sam Nunberg]] as saying: "Breitbart gave Trump a big role." Bannon told her: "The Mercers laid the groundwork for the Trump revolution."[^3] + +Mayer reported that after [[Paul Manafort]] resigned from the Trump campaign in 2016, Rebekah Mercer pushed for a staff shakeup that promoted three people funded by the family: Bannon to chief executive of the campaign, [[Kellyanne Conway]] to manager and Bossie to deputy manager. She also reported that Citizens United's foundation paid Bannon Strategic Advisors 300,000 dollars in 2012 for what it described to the [[Internal Revenue Service]] as fund-raising services; Bossie told her the filing must have been an error and that the payment was for Bannon's film development work.[^3] + +### The Government Accountability Institute + +Mayer reported that Rebekah Mercer joined the board of the [[Government Accountability Institute]], a Tallahassee nonprofit Bannon had recently founded, in 2012; that the [[Mercer Family Foundation]] gave it 1 million dollars in 2013, 1 million dollars in 2014 and 1.7 million dollars in 2015, the last more than the institute's entire budget the previous year; and that the institute paid Bannon 376,000 dollars in its first four years while reporting to the Internal Revenue Service that he worked for it thirty hours a week, in addition to running Breitbart News.[^3] + +The institute's Form 990 for calendar 2016 lists [[Peter Schweizer]] as president and director with reportable compensation of 210,000 dollars, Rebekah Mercer as chairman of the board with none, Stephen Bannon as a board director with 61,539 dollars, and Wynton Hall as a key employee with 175,000 dollars. Part VI of the return states that Bannon, Schweizer and Hall "have a business relationship." The return reports contributions of 2,601,000 dollars.[^7] The Mercer Family Foundation's Form 990-PF for 2016 lists a grant of 2,000,000 dollars to the institute, alongside 2,000,000 dollars to the [[Media Research Center]], 800,000 dollars to the [[Heartland Institute]], 500,000 dollars to the [[Heritage Foundation]] and 100,000 dollars to the [[Gatestone Institute]].[^8] The foundation's return was obtained from the Internal Revenue Service's bulk electronic filing archive; the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer listing for the foundation has no 2016 document.[^8] + +### Payments from Political Committees + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records show two disbursements by the super PAC [[Make America Number 1]] to Breitbart News Network LLC: 109,341.25 dollars on November 25, 2015, described as a list purchase expense, and 10,000 dollars on January 27, 2016, described as prepaid media. The committee, an independent-expenditure-only committee first filed on April 6, 2015, reported receiving 11,000,000 dollars from [[Robert Mercer]] on April 10, 2015, followed in 2016 by 500,000 dollars from him on February 26, 2,000,000 dollars on March 17 and 2,000,000 dollars on July 14. Its 2016 receipts also include 2,000,000 dollars from [[Bernard Marcus]] on September 6, 1,000,000 dollars from Cherna Moskowitz on August 23 and 1,000,000 dollars from [[Peter Thiel]] on October 26.[^9][^10] + +The committee's Schedule E independent expenditure line items for the 2016 cycle, 633 in all as returned by the Federal Election Commission's database, sum to 13,289,047.38 dollars in support of [[Ted Cruz]] between July 17, 2015 and March 31, 2016, 8,852,893 dollars in opposition to Hillary Clinton between July 17, 2015 and November 4, 2016, 4,489,236.14 dollars in opposition to [[Marco Rubio]] between December 10, 2015 and March 6, 2016, and 1,798,133.68 dollars in opposition to [[Donald Trump]] between January 14 and February 5, 2016.[^11] + +Other committees reported payments to Breitbart entities: 18,150.06 dollars from Club for Growth Action to Breitbart.com, LLC on November 30, 2011 for internet advertising; 12,500 dollars from Scott Walker Inc. for online advertising on September 24, 2015; 100,000 dollars from Dave McCormick for US Senate on May 10, 2022 for a media buy; 60,000 dollars from the National Republican Congressional Committee on October 25, 2022 and 80,000 dollars from the National Republican Senatorial Committee on October 28, 2024, both for media; and 12,500 dollars from Make America Great Again Inc. on November 2, 2022 for digital advertising.[^10] + +Taken together, the Schedule B records for payees whose names begin Breitbart News, Breitbart.com or Breitbart alone list 32 disbursements from 20 differently named filers between October 2009 and October 2024, totaling 548,713.31 dollars; by filer the largest sums are 135,000 dollars from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (2020 and 2024), 119,341.25 dollars from Make America Number 1, 100,000 dollars from Dave McCormick for US Senate, 63,000 dollars from the National Republican Congressional Committee and 28,150.06 dollars from Club for Growth Action (2011 and 2023). Payments to advertising or list intermediaries are not captured by this query.[^10] + +Mayer also reported a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by the [[Campaign Legal Center]], which noted that at the end of the 2016 campaign the super PAC run by the Mercers paid Glittering Steel, a film production company sharing a Los Angeles address with [[Cambridge Analytica]] and Breitbart News, 280,000 dollars for advertisements attacking [[Hillary Clinton]]; that the super PAC also paid Cambridge Analytica about 5 million dollars, the company being incorporated at the same address as Bannon Strategic Advisors; and that Bannon, then chief executive of the Donald Trump campaign, appeared to have been paid nothing by the campaign. Brendan Fischer of the center said this raised "the possibility of the Mercers subsidizing Steve Bannon's work for the Trump campaign."[^3] + +### London and Jerusalem + +On Sunday, February 16, 2014 the company launched Breitbart London and Breitbart Texas. [[James Delingpole]], formerly of *The Daily Telegraph*, and Raheem Kassam, formerly of TrendingCentral.com, were to lead Breitbart London with a staff of ten; Bannon called London and Texas "two fronts in our current cultural and political war."[^4] On November 17, 2015 it launched Breitbart Jerusalem under Aaron Klein, who had been senior reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief of WND.com since 2005 and whom, the announcement stated, Andrew Breitbart had approached before his death to run a Jerusalem bureau. Klein named Bannon, Solov and Marlow as the company's leaders.[^5] + +The Companies House register lists Breitbart News Network (UK) Limited, company number 09351324, incorporated on December 11, 2014 with a registered office in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and the activity code for media representation services. Its two directors, both appointed on December 11, 2014, are Laurence Gregory Solov and a corporate director, Breitbart News Network Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands under number 1850470 at an address in Road Town, Tortola. The persons with significant control, notified on April 6, 2016, are Solov (more than 25 and not more than 50 percent of shares and voting rights), an individual resident in the [[United Kingdom]] (more than 50 and less than 75 percent of shares and voting rights and the right to appoint directors), and the British Virgin Islands company, whose entry (shares and voting rights of 75 percent or more, and the right to appoint or remove directors) shows it ceased to be a person with significant control on the same day, April 6, 2016. The company status is active, with accounts filed to December 31, 2025. A first Gazette notice of compulsory strike-off was published on January 28, 2025 and the action was discontinued on February 5, 2025. No Mercer or Bannon appears among the officers or controllers.[^12] + +### Yiannopoulos Emails + +*BuzzFeed News* reported on October 5, 2017, from a cache of emails of the Breitbart technology editor [[Milo Yiannopoulos]], that in March 2016 he sent requests for contributions to an article on the "alt-right" to [[Curtis Yarvin]], to Andrew Auernheimer and to an editor of the white nationalist magazine *American Renaissance;* that on March 27 the co-bylined draft was sent to Bannon and to Breitbart's chief executive Larry Solov; and that Bannon wrote: "I need to go thru this tomorrow in depth...although I do appreciate any piece that mentions evola." Yiannopoulos told BuzzFeed that he is not a racist; BuzzFeed reported that Bannon, the other Breitbart employees named in the story and the Mercer family did not respond to multiple requests for comment.[^13] + +BuzzFeed also reported an email from Bannon to Yiannopoulos stating "for your eyes only we r going to use the mercers private security company," on which Bannon's co-producer at Glittering Steel, Dan Fleuette, was copied and who, BuzzFeed wrote, acted for months as the go-between for Yiannopoulos and the Mercers. After Breitbart dismissed Yiannopoulos, BuzzFeed reported, Marlow accompanied him to the Mercers' [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]] home to discuss a new venture, MILO Inc., and on February 27 an email arrived from a woman describing herself as Robert Mercer's accountant stating that a wire payment would be sent that day.[^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Form D, Breitbart News Network, LLC, CIK 0001530877, accession no. 0001530877-11-000003, filed September 26, 2011. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1530877/000153087711000003/primary_doc.xml (the EDGAR company page lists this as the only filing). +[^2]: "Publisher and Author Andrew Breitbart Dead," ABC News, March 1, 2012. https://abcnews.com/US/andrew-breitbart-publisher-author-dead/story?id=15824337 +[^3]: Jane Mayer, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency," *The New Yorker,* March 27, 2017 (print headline "Trump's Money Man"). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency +[^4]: "Breitbart News Launches 'Breitbart London' & 'Breitbart Texas' Verticals," Breitbart.com, February 16, 2014. https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2014/02/16/breitbart-news-launches-breitbart-london-breitbart-texas-verticals/ +[^5]: "Breitbart News Continues International Expansion With Launch Of Breitbart Jerusalem," Breitbart.com, November 17, 2015. https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2015/11/17/breitbart-news-continues-international-expansion-with-launch-of-breitbart-jerusalem/ +[^6]: "Steve Bannon steps down from Breitbart News," ABC News, January 9, 2018. https://abcnews.com/Politics/steve-bannon-steps-breitbart-news/story?id=52243145 +[^7]: Government Accountability Institute, Form 990 for calendar 2016, EIN 45-4681912, object ID 201743179349306999, Part VII, Part VI Section A line 2 and Part I, from the Internal Revenue Service bulk e-file archive, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2017/download990xml_2017_7.zip ; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/454681912 (organization, EIN and ruling date). +[^8]: Mercer Family Foundation, Form 990-PF for calendar 2016, EIN 20-1982204, object ID 201723199349104262, Part XV, from the Internal Revenue Service bulk e-file archive, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2017/download990xml_2017_4.zip ; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204 +[^9]: Federal Election Commission, committee C00575373, Make America Number 1, Schedule A receipts for the 2016 election cycle. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?committee_id=C00575373&two_year_transaction_period=2016&sort=-contribution_receipt_amount ; committee record, https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00575373/ +[^10]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule B disbursements to payees named Breitbart, https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/?recipient_name=BREITBART ; Make America Number 1 images 201605099015396478 (http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201605099015396478) and 201606139017571044 (http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201606139017571044). +[^11]: Federal Election Commission, committee C00575373, Make America Number 1, Schedule E independent expenditures, two-year period 2016, 633 line items summed by candidate and support or oppose indicator. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_e/?committee_id=C00575373&two_year_transaction_period=2016 (the sums are of line items as returned and have not been reconciled against amended filings). +[^12]: Companies House, Breitbart News Network (UK) Limited, company number 09351324: overview, officers, persons with significant control and filing history, accessed October 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09351324 +[^13]: Joseph Bernstein, "Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled White Nationalism Into The Mainstream," *BuzzFeed News,* October 5, 2017. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bridgewater Associates.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bridgewater Associates.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3e32d2d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bridgewater Associates.md @@ -0,0 +1,225 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - BridgewaterAssociates + - HedgeFund + - RayDalio + - Connecticut + - China + - JamesComey + - DaveMcCormick + - StateSubsidies + - EffectiveAltruism + - DalioFoundation +alias: + - Bridgewater Associates + - Bridgewater Associates, LP + - Bridgewater Associates LP + - Bridgewater Associates, L.P. + - Bridgewater Associates Holdings + - Bridgewater Associates Holdings, LLC + - Bridgewater + - Bridgewater Associates Inc + - Bridgewater (China) Investment Management + - Bridgewater China Investment Management +summary: "Westport, Connecticut hedge fund founded in 1975, registered with the SEC since 1990, whose record includes James Comey as general counsel, Connecticut subsidies, a Chinese fund license, and a Brunei sovereign fund shareholder." +start: 1975 +location: "Westport, Connecticut" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Ray Dalio]]" + reverse: true + role: "founder" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[James Comey]]" + reverse: true + start: 2010-09 + end: 2013-01 + role: "general counsel" + fn: 8 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Dave McCormick]]" + reverse: true + end: 2022-01 + role: "chief executive officer" + fn: 36 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Nir Bar Dea]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-01 + role: "chief executive officer" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Robert Prince]]" + reverse: true + start: 1986-03 + role: "co-chief investment officer" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Gregory Jensen]]" + reverse: true + start: 2004-11 + role: "co-chief investment officer" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Karen Karniol-Tambour]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-01 + role: "co-chief investment officer" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Luke Pettit]]" + reverse: true + role: "former employee, later Treasury nominee" + fn: 38 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Holden Karnofsky]]" + reverse: true + role: "investment analyst" + fn: 39 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Elie Hassenfeld]]" + reverse: true + role: "investment analyst" + fn: 39 + - type: owned + with: "[[Brunei Investment Agency]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-09 + role: "indirect member through Amanah Sdn Bhd (ownership code C at each tier)" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016-05-27 + end: 2023-03-21 + role: "First Five agreement, 22 million dollars in loan and grants plus tax credits; terminated" + fn: 14 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[National Labor Relations Board]]" + start: 2016-02-10 + end: 2016-10-28 + role: "case 01-CA-169426" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Jones Day]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + end: 2016-10-28 + role: "respondent counsel in NLRB case 01-CA-169426" + fn: 19 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Bridgewater Associates, LP is a [[Delaware]] limited partnership and an investment adviser registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] since January 12, 1990, with its offices in [[Westport]], [[Connecticut]].[^1] A Connecticut fiscal analysis prepared for a 2016 bond commission meeting gave its founding year as 1975 and described its clients as "foreign governments and central banks, corporate and public pension funds, university endowments and charitable foundations."[^2] + +### Registration, Ownership and Officers + +The firm's current Form ADV, filed on August 18, 2026, lists [[Robert Prince]] as co-chief investment officer since March 1986, [[Gregory Jensen]] as co-chief investment officer since November 2004, [[Tracey Yurko]] as chief legal officer and secretary since June 2017, [[Nir Bar Dea]] as chief executive officer since January 2022, [[Karen Karniol-Tambour]] as co-chief investment officer since January 2023 and [[Michael Kitson]] as chief compliance officer since March 2024.[^1] Bridgewater Associates Intermediate Holdings, LP is its general partner and majority owner. Schedule D states that Bridgewater Associates Holdings, LLC is the sole general partner and majority owner of Intermediate Holdings, and that the holding company's board "is comprised of equity owners, the chief executive officer, other senior employees and external directors."[^1] + +Schedule B lists the following as board members of Bridgewater Associates Holdings, LLC: [[Richard H. Anderson]], [[Sian Beilock]], [[Margo Cook]] and [[Osman Nalbantoglu]] (each since September 2022), Bar Dea, Prince and Jensen (since September 2022), [[Philip Dobrin]] (since January 2025) and [[Jasjeet Sekhon]] (since June 2026). The same schedule lists a Robert P. Prince 2016 Revocable Trust as a member since July 2024, and [[Amanah Sdn Bhd]], a foreign entity, as a member since September 2019, each with ownership code C (25 percent but less than 50 percent). The Brunei Investment Agency is listed as a member of Amanah, also since September 2019 and also with code C.[^1] The filing does not contain the name of [[Ray Dalio]], whom Xinhua describes as the firm's founder.[^1][^3] It states that "No holder of BAH LLC units is able to exercise unilateral control of the Bridgewater entities," and its disclosure reporting pages for criminal, regulatory and civil judicial actions each read "No Information Filed."[^1] [[CNBC]] reported in August 2025 that "Dalio sold his remaining stake in Bridgewater and stepped away from the board" as of the start of that month.[^4] [[Benzinga]] reported on August 1, 2025, citing [[The Wall Street Journal]], that Bridgewater repurchased the remaining shares held by Dalio and then issued new shares to the Brunei Investment Agency in a multibillion-dollar transaction giving the agency nearly 20 percent of the firm, and that the firm's communication to clients did not disclose the agency's involvement.[^5] + +The Form ADV lists, among the firm's other business names, "[[United States]] Bridgewater Associates, LP [[Beijing]] Representative Office," and notes a Connecticut notice filing effective February 12, 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission's submissions record gives the business address as One Nyala Farms Road, Westport; the 2013 Senate questionnaire of its former general counsel gave it as One Glendinning Place, Westport.[^6][^7][^8] + +### Raymond Dalio and Political Contributions + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records for individual contributions under the names Raymond Dalio, Ray Dalio and [[Barbara Dalio]] show gifts, most of them to Republican committees and candidates, from 1998 through 2016. The earliest entry is 5,000 dollars to the [[Freedom and Free Enterprise PAC]] on November 12, 1998. Entries followed for [[Straight Talk America]] (5,000 dollars in August 2000 and again in March 2006), 1,000 dollars to Friends of [[John McCain]] on November 18, 2002, and 25,000 dollars to the [[Republican National Committee]] on June 23, 2004, in which the contributor's employer is recorded as Bridgewater Associates Inc. and his occupation as president.[^9] + +In 2007 and 2008 the entries concentrate on the McCain presidential campaign: 2,300 dollars to John McCain 2008 on March 9, 2007, 28,500 dollars to the [[McCain Victory Committee]] on April 21, 2008 (with a matching 28,500 dollar entry for the Republican National Committee on April 25 described as included in a joint fundraiser transfer), 31,000 dollars to McCain Victory 2008 on May 29, 2008, and 7,750 dollars each to the Republican parties of Colorado, [[New Mexico]], Minnesota and Wisconsin through the same joint committee. He also gave 2,300 dollars to the presidential campaign of [[Mitt Romney]] on April 18, 2007, and 2,300 dollars to the presidential committee of [[Rudy Giuliani]] on November 26, 2007, in a reattribution from his wife. Further entries are 9,800 dollars to the McCain Leadership Fund on June 23, 2009, with transfers recorded to [[Country First PAC]] and Friends of John McCain on September 23, 2009; 5,000 dollars to [[America's Conservation PAC]] on July 11, 2014, in which the employer is Bridgewater Associates LP and the occupation chairman and chief investment officer; and 5,400 dollars to Friends of John McCain on June 20, 2016, as a redesignation.[^9] + +Barbara Dalio's entries include 1,000 dollars to Sanchez 2000 (September 30, 2000, employer recorded as "BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATES/MONEY MANAGE," as truncated in the filing), 2,100 dollars to Ned Lamont for Senate (October 6, 2006), 2,400 dollars to [[Charlie Crist]] for U.S. Senate (October 21, 2009) and 5,000 dollars to America's Conservation PAC (June 30, 2014). The name searches returned no individual contribution entries dated after June 20, 2016.[^9] Searches of the Senate lobbying disclosure database for the client name Bridgewater return only [[Bridgewater Capital Corporation]], a client of the lobbyist [[Michael A. Andrews]] between 2007 and 2011, and none for Bridgewater Associates; a search for the client name Dalio returns none.[^10] An email in the [[Department of Justice]] [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]], sent by [[Jeffrey Epstein]] to [[Bill Gates]] on November 9, 2013, reads in full "Kissinger got the same pitch from ray dalio last week," without identifying the pitch or giving a first name for Kissinger.[^11] An email of October 5, 2012, from Epstein's assistant to Epstein, headed "Tim Zagat/Ray Dalio," relayed that "Tim says Ray Dalio is on a boat in Japan at the moment...but Tim will have a party for Ray in January and will invite you."[^12] + +### James Comey as General Counsel + +[[James Comey]]'s 2013 questionnaire for the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] lists the following employment: Deputy Attorney General of the United States from December 2003 to August 2005; senior vice president and general counsel of [[Lockheed Martin]] from September 2005 to September 2010; general counsel of Bridgewater Associates, LP, from September 2010 to January 2013; director of [[HSBC]] Group plc from March 2013; and member of the [[Defense Legal Policy Board]] from September 2012.[^8] In the section on deferred income, he reported that he expected to receive 163,000 dollars from Bridgewater on June 30, 2013, and, "if I am confirmed," a full payout of his interests in its profit sharing plan, in the amount of 3,072,654 dollars, before assuming the directorship of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]].[^8] He listed a Lockheed Martin lump-sum pension of 400,000 dollars expected in December 2015.[^8] + +At the hearing on July 9, 2013, Senator [[Chuck Grassley]] asked about the FBI's March 2010 stop-work order to Lockheed Martin on the Sentinel case management system; Comey answered that he had no involvement, that he "was aware of it internally at Lockheed Martin just in a general way," and that he had been Deputy Attorney General when the contract was let.[^8] Grassley then noted that the Department of Justice had entered a deferred prosecution agreement with HSBC and asked whether Comey would have a conflict. Comey answered that "it would be a conflict, and so I would recuse myself from any involvement in any matter relating to my former employers."[^8] Grassley also asked about the firm's "radical transparency." Comey replied that "Bridgewater's founder suggested I consider taping all meetings at the FBI. I am not prepared to commit to that," and that he had gone to Bridgewater "in part because of that culture of transparency."[^8] + +### Connecticut Subsidies + +On September 24, 2012, during Comey's period as general counsel, [[Westfair Communications]] (publisher of the *[[Fairfield County Business Journal]]*) reported that Governor [[Dannel Malloy]] had made Bridgewater the newest participant in the state's First Five program, with the company to relocate from Westport to a 750 million dollar headquarters at the [[Harbor Point]] development in [[Stamford]] on the promise of creating at least 750 jobs. The package as reported was a 25 million dollar forgivable loan at 1 percent for ten years, a job training grant of up to 5 million dollars, a grant of up to 5 million dollars for alternative energy systems, and up to 80 million dollars in urban and industrial sites reinvestment tax credits, for those jobs. Bridgewater had already leased about 225,000 square feet at the Wilton Woods Corporate Center, and area real estate brokers had long speculated about a Stamford headquarters, "with Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio's son having been an employee of BLT," the Harbor Point developer [[Building and Land Technology]].[^13] A later analysis by the legislature's [[Office of Fiscal Analysis]] stated that under the 2012 agreement Bridgewater "was eligible to receive up to $115 million" and that the [[State Bond Commission]] allocated 9 million dollars in August 2013 for environmental remediation and bulkhead replacement on the 14 acre Bateman Way site in Stamford for the new headquarters.[^2] + +The Stamford plan did not proceed. On May 27, 2016, item D of the State Bond Commission agenda requested funds for a grant-in-aid and loan to Bridgewater Associates, LP under First Five "to assist with expansion of its facilities in Westport, [[Wilton]] and [[Norwalk]]," conditioned on retaining 1,402 jobs and creating 750; the loan was at 1 percent for ten years with principal deferred for five years, forgivable if the job targets were met by the end of 2021, with a 2 million dollar training grant and a 3 million dollar alternative energy grant. The agenda gave a total estimated cost of 527,500,000 dollars, of which company funds were 505,500,000 dollars.[^14] The Office of Fiscal Analysis listed the bond allocation as 22,000,000 dollars and noted eligibility for up to 30 million dollars in state tax credits.[^2] House Minority Leader [[Themis Klarides]] and Senate Minority Leader [[Len Fasano]] criticized the item before the vote; Governor Malloy, who chaired the commission, replied that "some day I want to live in a world where I can have it both ways."[^15] The commission approved the item on May 27, 2016, by a vote of 7 to 2. State Comptroller [[Kevin Lembo]] and Representative [[Chris Davis]] voted no. Lembo said that "the size, scope and nature of this particular proposal stands out and meets a new threshold that compels me to vote against it," and Davis asked, "Did they not have the capital funds themselves," describing Bridgewater as "a company that is quite capable of paying for this themselves." Malloy said the company was also considering at least one location in Westchester County, New York, and that Massachusetts and Boston had provided more than 145 million dollars in incentives to attract about 200 jobs away from Connecticut, after [[General Electric]] announced in January that it was moving its global headquarters from [[Fairfield, Connecticut|Fairfield]] to [[Boston]].[^16] [[CT Mirror]] reported that the state's economic development department said Bridgewater risked losing as much as 17 million dollars if it missed job benchmarks.[^17] + +Bridgewater and the state ended the arrangement in 2023. [[Connecticut Post]] reported on May 26, 2023, that a termination agreement dated March 21 and signed by [[Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development|Department of Economic and Community Development]] Commissioner [[Alexandra Daum]] and Bridgewater chief executive Bar Dea provided that the firm would keep 12 million dollars in tax credits already earned, forgo 18 million dollars in further credits, keep 5 million dollars in grants issued in 2018 and about 11 million dollars in loan forgiveness, and repay a loan balance of about 6.5 million dollars. The agreement barred the firm from relocating out of Connecticut before May 16, 2026, on pain of default and a penalty of 5 percent of the 22 million dollars in loan and grant funding. [[Sarah Fass]], Bridgewater's chief human resources officer, said in a statement that "we have no plans to relocate."[^18] + +### National Labor Relations Board Proceeding + +[[National Labor Relations Board]] case 01-CA-169426 against Bridgewater Associates, LP, Westport, was opened on February 10, 2016, on a charge by an individual whose name the docket withholds. The docket lists allegations of discipline under section 8(a)(4) and coercive actions including surveillance under section 8(a)(1). An amended charge was signed on June 23, 2016. The Region issued a Complaint and Notice of Hearing on June 30, 2016, Bridgewater answered on July 13, 2016 through counsel from [[Jones Day]], the hearing was rescheduled by a Regional Director's order on September 8, and a further Regional Director's order is dated October 28, 2016. The docket's status for the case is "Closed."[^19] The State Bond Commission vote of May 27, 2016, fell between the charge and the complaint.[^14][^19] + +### Arbitration with Former Employees + +In 2017 Bridgewater brought an arbitration against two former employees, [[Zachary Squire]] and [[Lawrence Minicone]], founders of [[Tekmerion Capital Management]], alleging misappropriation of trade secrets. The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2020, on the basis of a court filing by the two men, that a three-arbitrator panel found that Bridgewater brought the claims "not to prove misappropriation, but rather, to adversely affect [their] ability to conduct a competitive business" and that it had falsified and withheld certain evidence.[^20] [[Institutional Investor]] described the two men's position as being that the panel found Bridgewater "manufactured false evidence." Bridgewater's responding filing, as reported by the same publication, stated that the legal fees at issue totaled 1.99 million dollars, that the panel had initially found that neither side proved its claims, that its employment contracts allowed fee recovery by former employees only in discrimination claims, and that many of its investment strategies "reside in the minds of senior Bridgewater personnel."[^21] + +### The Partnership for Connecticut + +In 2019 the [[Connecticut General Assembly]] enacted [[Public Act 19-117]], the biennial budget implementer (House Bill 7424). Section 183 established "The Partnership for Connecticut, Inc." as a nonstock corporation "organized and established by the philanthropic enterprise and its agents," and defined the "philanthropic enterprise" as "a philanthropic enterprise founded in 2003 and located in Fairfield County that advances diverse philanthropic initiatives which include strengthening public education in this state and supporting financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship." The act does not name the enterprise.[^22] The [[Dalio Foundation]], Inc. of Westport carries an [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date of September 2003.[^23] + +The act provided that the corporation "shall not be construed to be a department, institution, public agency, public instrumentality or political subdivision of the state, or to perform any governmental function," and that its directors and officers would not be state employees or public officials for purposes of the ethics code. Section 185 set the board as four directors appointed by the director of the philanthropic enterprise, three appointed by the Governor, the Governor, the Senate president pro tempore, the Speaker of the House, the two legislative minority leaders and the corporation's president. Section 186 required the enterprise to provide 20 million dollars to the corporation for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2019, and the state to transfer 20 million dollars to a "Philanthropic Match" account on certification of that transfer; sections 188 and 189 allowed the Secretary of the [[Office of Policy and Management]] to spend 20 million dollars a year on the match for a maximum of five fiscal years.[^22] + +Governor [[Ned Lamont]] announced the partnership at [[East Hartford]] High School on April 5, 2019, with Barbara Dalio and Ray Dalio present; CT Mirror reported that the state would match the Dalio Foundation's 100 million dollars over five years and that the first 20 million dollar state installment would come from fiscal reserves.[^24] The [[The 74]] reported in October 2019 that the Lamonts and the Dalios were neighbors in [[Greenwich]] who "didn't know each other before Lamont became governor in January." Federal Election Commission records show a 2,100 dollar contribution from Barbara Dalio to Ned Lamont for Senate on October 6, 2006.[^9][^25] Attorney General [[William Tong]] ruled in August 2019 that communications with the elected officials on the board were subject to the [[Freedom of Information Act]], and Republican legislative leaders on the board declined in September to sign approvals needed to start the programs; [[Dalio Philanthropies]] had spent more than 50 million dollars on Connecticut schools since 2010.[^25] + +The partnership hired [[Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey]] as chief executive in March 2020 at a salary of 247,500 dollars; she was asked to resign on May 4, 2020, and on May 19, 2020, Barbara Dalio announced the Dalios' "intent to withdraw from the Partnership," writing that "it has become clear that it's not working because of political fighting."[^26] According to [[Fox Business]], Schmitt-Carey sued Dalio Philanthropies and [[Say Yes to Education]] in New York County in September 2020 for defamation and breach of contract and sought at least 2.5 million dollars. The complaint, as Fox Business quoted it, alleged that Ray Dalio had told her, "If my wife wants to distribute 10,000 coats, your job is to figure out how to do that," and, in Fox Business's words, "also states that Dalio conditioned his $100 million donation on the basis that it be exempt from state ethics and disclosure rules." The complaint is quoted as stating that "This exemption risked allowing an entity created by state legislation, with one-third of its budget coming from public funds, and with a board of directors including five elected officials, to operate in large part behind closed doors." A spokesperson for Dalio Philanthropies replied: "Anyone can make outlandish accusations. The evidence will be presented and judged fairly following the legal process."[^27] [[ProPublica]]'s Nonprofit Explorer lists Partnership for Connecticut Inc. (IRS ruling July 2019) with revenue of 20,013,287 dollars, expenses of 19,008,875 dollars and assets of 39,744,678 dollars for the fiscal year ending June 2020, and the Dalio Foundation's Form 990-PF filings show total assets of 322,846,770 dollars for 2011, 842,052,652 dollars for 2013, 804,361,145 dollars for 2020 and 1,484,061,978 dollars for 2021, a year of 687,569,757 dollars in revenue, and 1,541,767,086 dollars for 2023.[^23] The foundation's Form 990-PF for 2024 lists Raymond T. Dalio as president and director and Barbara Dalio, Mark Dalio and Matthew A. Dalio as directors, none compensated; reports total assets of 1,665,091,766 dollars, grants paid of 50,888,478 dollars and grants approved for future payment of 35,170,000 dollars; and lists, among 214 grants paid, 2,000,000 dollars to Connecticut Rise Network, 700,000 dollars to the [[Connecticut Conference of Municipalities]], 1,000,000 dollars to the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]] for its endowment campaign, 1,000,000 dollars to the [[Aspen Institute]] for its Economic Strategy Group, 500,000 dollars to the [[National Committee on United States-China Relations]] for general operations and 100,000 dollars to the [[Council on Foreign Relations]].[^28] + +### China + +Bridgewater's own account, in a July 4, 2018 release, stated that it had "managed money for Chinese institutional investors in global markets since 1993," opened a Beijing office in 2011, and in 2016 established Bridgewater China Investment Management in [[Shanghai]] under general manager [[Wang Yan]]. The release announced that the [[Asset Management Association of China]] had granted it a private securities investment fund manager license, and quoted [[Dave McCormick]], then co-chief executive, saying the firm had been "deeply involved in and studying the evolution of its economy and markets for more than 30 years."[^29] The Form ADV lists Bridgewater (China) Investment Management Co. Ltd. as a related person registered with the [[China Securities Regulatory Commission]] and the Asset Management Association of China, and lists funds named Bridgewater All Weather China, Ltd. and Bridgewater China Total Return Fund, Ltd.[^1] + +In December 2017 Institutional Investor reported that the firm's wholly foreign-owned enterprise license had been "paved in part by years of charitable giving and Dalio's personal relations as an informal adviser to some of the nation's most senior regulatory officials," that Dalio had written in his book that he advised Chinese regulators on the formation of the stock markets in the late 1980s, and that Dalio had founded the [[Beijing Dalio Public Welfare Foundation]], led since 2013 by [[Jesse Wang Jianxi]] after he retired as chief risk officer of the [[China Investment Corporation]]. The analyst [[Andrew Collier]] of [[Orient Capital Research]] was quoted as saying that Bridgewater "may be the first large hedge fund to obtain access to the Chinese market due to behind the scenes maneuvering by Ray Dalio, which is likely to have included the appointment of Jesse Wang from CIC."[^30] + +[[Rob Copeland]]'s book *[[The Fund]]*, in a passage published by [[Semafor]] in November 2023, states that Dalio first visited China in 1984, met representatives of [[CITIC]], said in one meeting, "Whatever fees you pay, I will donate back to China personally," and that "Bridgewater collected more than $10 billion for its funds from Chinese government wings." Copeland writes that Dalio became close to [[Wang Qishan]], who endorsed one of Dalio's principles, and that Dalio called him a friend, a hero, and "a remarkable force for good." Dalio's statement on the book, quoted in the same publication, was that "Bridgewater obviously is not and was not as he describes it" and that the book was "more a sign of the times when bad journalism is more a fiction than a source of truth."[^31] + +The Chinese state news agency [[Xinhua News Agency]] reported that [[He Lifeng]] met "Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates" in Beijing on August 29, 2024, and expressed the hope that Dalio "will continue to play a bridging role and promote U.S. companies to seize opportunities and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China." It reported a further meeting in Beijing on March 31, 2025, at which He said that "international investors are welcome to participate actively in the construction of China's capital market." In each report Dalio expressed willingness to contribute to cooperation between the United States and China.[^3][^32] + +The firm's quarterly Form 13F filings list its United States exchange-traded securities held at quarter end; they do not show holdings in China-listed securities or in the China-domiciled funds named in the Form ADV. Positions in four Chinese issuers listed in the United States ([[Alibaba Group]], [[Baidu]], [[JD.com]] and [[PDD Holdings]], formerly Pinduoduo) were 17.1 million dollars of 10.93 billion at December 31, 2018 (0.16 percent); 84.6 million dollars at December 31, 2019; 392.5 million dollars of 5.96 billion at June 30, 2020 (6.58 percent); 664.4 million dollars of 8.31 billion at September 30, 2020 (7.99 percent, with Alibaba at 392.2 million); 884.3 million dollars of 11.55 billion at December 31, 2020 (7.65 percent); 773.8 million dollars of 17.20 billion at December 31, 2021 (4.50 percent, with Alibaba at 507.0 million); 1.28 billion dollars of 24.81 billion at March 31, 2022 (5.18 percent, with Alibaba at 813.9 million); 356.5 million dollars, all PDD, at December 31, 2023; 159.1 million dollars at December 31, 2024 (0.73 percent); and 1.26 billion dollars of 21.55 billion at March 31, 2025 (5.85 percent: Alibaba 748.5 million, PDD 206.3 million, Baidu 191.1 million, JD.com 114.6 million). The filings for June 30, 2025 and each later quarter through June 30, 2026 list none of the four.[^33] [[CNN]]'s KFile, reviewing the filings for a broader set of Chinese companies listed in the United States, reported that the firm's holdings in them grew from 1.6 million dollars in the second quarter of 2017 to 1.77 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2021, from one company to 47; that it held a further 779 million dollars through exchange-traded funds; that a China-focused fund launched in 2018 had grown to 6.15 billion dollars by March 2022; and that after the United States added a subsidiary of an energy company in which Bridgewater held shares to a trade blacklist in June 2021, over alleged human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, Bridgewater "more than doubled its shares in the parent company" between the second and fourth quarters of 2021. The company and China denied the violations, and Bridgewater did not respond to CNN.[^34] CNBC reported in August 2025 that the firm "divested from U.S.-listed Chinese stocks in the second quarter."[^4] + +### Government Alumni + +McCormick is recorded in a Treasury press release of May 19, 2008, as Under Secretary for International Affairs of the [[United States Department of the Treasury]], speaking on behalf of Secretary [[Henry Paulson]] at the annual meeting of the [[European Bank for Reconstruction and Development]] in [[Kiev]].[^35] In a July 2018 firm release he is named as co-chief executive of Bridgewater.[^29] The [[Associated Press]] reported in April 2022, from his Senate candidate financial disclosure, that he earned more than 22 million dollars in 2021 as chief executive of Bridgewater, a post he left in early January 2022 to run for the Senate in [[Pennsylvania]], and that he reported owning Bridgewater stock valued at more than 50 million dollars.[^36] In written testimony dated September 12, 2023, to the [[House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party]], McCormick wrote that "As CEO, I had a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders and our clients to maximize returns in line with their needs," that he "held deep reservations about Bridgewater's exposure to the moral and patriotic hazards of doing business in China and often disagreed with key colleagues over China's trajectory and the nature of the CCP," and that the firm "had only a very tiny percentage of its overall business that relied on investment in China."[^37] CNN reported that a spokeswoman for his campaign, Elizabeth Gregory, said he had "consistently spoken out" about the risk posed by the Chinese Communist Party, including against Dalio, and that he lost the 2022 Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania to [[Mehmet Oz]] by fewer than a thousand votes.[^34] + +A July 2025 press release from Senator [[Bill Hagerty]] stated that [[Luke Pettit]], a nominee for Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions, had previously worked at the [[Senate Banking Committee]], Bridgewater Associates and the [[Federal Reserve]].[^38] [[Marc Gunther]] wrote in the *[[Stanford Social Innovation Review]]* in 2018 that [[Holden Karnofsky]] and [[Elie Hassenfeld]], investment analysts at Bridgewater, founded [[GiveWell]] after struggling to work out how to give away their money.[^39] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Bridgewater Associates, LP, Form ADV Part 1A with Schedules A, B and D, SEC File No. 801-35875, CRD No. 105129, filing date August 18, 2026 (Item 1, Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule D Sections 1.B, 7.A and Miscellaneous). https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/105129/PDF/105129.pdf +[^2]: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Fiscal Analysis, "Analysis of State Bond Commission Agenda Items for May 27, 2016 Meeting," item D, "Bridgewater Associates, First Five (22,000,000)," and First Five Program Funding table. https://cga.ct.gov/ofa/Documents/year/SBC/2016SBC-20160527_Analysis%20of%20State%20Bond%20Commission%20Agenda%20Items%20for%20May%2027,%202016%20Meeting.pdf +[^3]: Xinhua, "Senior Chinese official meets Bridgewater founder," China Government Network (english.www.gov.cn), August 29, 2024. https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202408/29/content_WS66d07ea0c6d0868f4e8ea553.html +[^4]: CNBC, "Bridgewater Associates sells stake in big Chinese companies," August 15, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/15/bridgewater-associates-sells-stake-in-big-chinese-companies.html +[^5]: Benzinga, "Billionaire Ray Dalio Steps Down From Bridgewater Associates, Sovereign-Wealth Fund Of Brunei Acquires Final Stake," August 1, 2025, reporting an account by The Wall Street Journal. https://www.benzinga.com/news/financing/25/08/46789004/billionaire-ray-dalio-steps-down-from-bridgewater-associates-sovereign-wealth-fund-of-brunei-acqui +[^6]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, firm summary for Bridgewater Associates, LP (CRD 105129): SEC registration effective 1/12/1990, Connecticut notice filing effective 2/12/2002, other business names. https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm/105129 +[^7]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR submissions record for Bridgewater Associates, LP, CIK 0001350694, business address. https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001350694.json +[^8]: U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of James B. Comey, Jr., to Be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, S. Hrg. 113-850, Serial No. J-113-19, July 9, 2013 (Washington: GPO, 2017), including the nominee questionnaire (employment record; item 18, deferred income and future benefits) and questions and answers of Senator Grassley. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113shrg23750/pdf/CHRG-113shrg23750.pdf +[^9]: Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API v1, schedules/schedule_a, contributor name queries "Dalio, Raymond," "Dalio, Ray" and "Dalio, Barbara," run October 1, 2026, entries dated November 12, 1998 to June 20, 2016. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^10]: U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database API, queries client_name=Bridgewater (18 filings, all registrant Michael A. Andrews, client Bridgewater Capital Corporation, 2007 to 2011), registrant_name=Bridgewater and client_name=Dalio (no filings), run October 1, 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/ +[^11]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 9, EFTA00975553, email from Jeffrey Epstein to Bill Gates, November 9, 2013. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00975553.pdf +[^12]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, DataSet 11, EFTA02561326, email headed "Tim Zagat/Ray Dalio," October 5, 2012. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02561326.pdf +[^13]: Alexander Soule, "Bridgewater to Stamford in First Five deal," Westfair Communications (Fairfield County Business Journal), September 24, 2012. https://westfaironline.com/banking-finance/bridgewater-to-stamford-in-first-five-deal/ +[^14]: Connecticut State Bond Commission, Index of Agenda Items, May 27, 2016, item D (Department of Economic and Community Development, First Five Program, Bridgewater Associates, LP). https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/OPM/AgendaMay272016pdf.pdf +[^15]: Ken Dixon, "Local Republicans criticize Malloy over $22 M grant to Bridgewater," Connecticut Post, May 23, 2016. https://m.ctpost.com/local/article/Republicans-criticize-Malloy-over-22-M-grant-to-7940560.php +[^16]: Keith M. Phaneuf, "Bond panel OK's $22M for hedge fund expansion; Lembo votes no," CT Mirror, May 27, 2016. https://ctmirror.org/2016/05/27/bond-panel-oks-22m-for-hedge-fund-expansion-lembo-votes-no/ +[^17]: Keith M. Phaneuf, "State offers reassurances over its aid to Bridgewater hedge fund," CT Mirror, August 3, 2016. https://ctmirror.org/2016/08/03/state-offers-reassurances-over-its-aid-to-bridgewater-hedge-fund/ +[^18]: Paul Schott, "Hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates pays back state loan, forgoes $18M in tax credits," Connecticut Post (CT Insider), May 26, 2023. https://www.ctpost.com/business/article/hedge-fund-bridgewater-forego-state-funds-18117916.php +[^19]: National Labor Relations Board, Case 01-CA-169426, Bridgewater Associates, LP, Westport, CT, Region 1, docket activity, allegations and participants. https://www.nlrb.gov/case/01-CA-169426 +[^20]: Neer Varshney, "Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Loses Trade Secrets Claim Against Former Staff, Arbitrators Say Hedge Fund Manufactured Evidence," Yahoo Finance, July 14, 2020, summarizing Wall Street Journal reporting of a court filing by Squire and Minicone. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ray-dalios-bridgewater-loses-trade-144235883.html +[^21]: Alicia McElhaney, "Bridgewater Fires Back Against Finding That It 'Manufactured False Evidence,'" Institutional Investor, July 14, 2020. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bsx0wq4jdzo82fn57zeo/culture/bridgewater-fires-back-against-finding-that-it-manufactured-false-evidence +[^22]: Connecticut Public Act 19-117 (House Bill 7424), "An Act Concerning the State Budget for the Biennium Ending June 30, 2021," sections 183 to 189 (pp. 219 to 226 of the enrolled act). https://www.cga.ct.gov/2019/ACT/pa/pdf/2019PA-00117-R00HB-07424-PA.pdf +[^23]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer API, Dalio Foundation Inc (EIN 43-1965846, Westport, CT, IRS ruling date 2003-09; Form 990-PF filings for 2011 to 2023) and Partnership For Connecticut Inc (EIN 84-1931601, Hartford, CT, IRS ruling date 2019-07; Form 990 for the year ending June 2020). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/431965846.json and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/841931601.json +[^24]: Keith M. Phaneuf, "Dalio foundation spearheads major investment in CT schools," CT Mirror, April 5, 2019. https://ctmirror.org/2019/04/05/dalio-foundation-spearheads-major-investment-in-ct-schools/ +[^25]: Debra West, "Hands-on Philanthropists With a Proven Track Record, Ray and Barbara Dalio Announced in April They Wanted to Give $100M to Connecticut Schools. And Then Things Got Complicated," The 74, October 28, 2019. https://www.the74million.org/article/hands-on-philanthropists-with-a-proven-track-record-ray-and-barbara-dalio-announced-in-april-they-wanted-to-give-100m-to-connecticut-schools-and-then-things-got-complicated/ +[^26]: Michael C. Bingham, "Dalios' exit spells end for education Partnership," Hartford Business Journal, May 19, 2020. https://hartfordbusiness.com/article/dalios-exit-spells-end-for-education-partnership/ +[^27]: Lydia Moynihan and Charlie Gasparino, "Ray Dalio's $100 million education charity hit with abuse of wealth and power lawsuit," Fox Business, September 24, 2020. https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/controversial-ray-dalio-backed-education-charity-faces-massive-lawsuit +[^28]: Dalio Foundation Inc (EIN 43-1965846), Form 990-PF for the year ended December 31, 2024, Internal Revenue Service e-file object 202513219349106086 (Part VII; Part XV, grants and contributions paid during the year and approved for future payment), IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search bulk data, 2025_TEOS_XML_11D. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_11D.zip +[^29]: Bridgewater Associates, "Bridgewater Associates Gains Approval From AMAC To Launch Investment Products In Mainland China," PR Newswire, July 4, 2018. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bridgewater-associates-gains-approval-from-amac-to-launch-investment-products-in-mainland-china-300676410.html +[^30]: Allen T. Cheng, "How Ray Dalio Broke Into China," Institutional Investor, December 18, 2017. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bsvwnnf4pr8akxh2axvk/corner-office/how-ray-dalio-broke-into-china +[^31]: Rob Copeland, excerpt from *The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend*, published as "Ray Dalio ran Bridgewater like the global strongmen he admired," Semafor, November 6, 2023. https://www.semafor.com/article/11/06/2023/ray-dalio-ran-bridgewater-like-the-global-strongmen-he-admired +[^32]: Xinhua, "Senior Chinese official meets with Bridgewater founder," China Government Network (english.www.gov.cn), April 1, 2025 (meeting of March 31, 2025). https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202504/01/content_WS67eb1caac6d0868f4e8f1595.html +[^33]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Bridgewater Associates, LP (CIK 1350694), Form 13F-HR information tables for report dates December 31, 2018 through June 30, 2026 (accession nos. 0001567619-19-003499, 0001567619-20-014895, 0001567619-20-019382, 0001567619-21-003290, 0001172661-22-000562, 0001172661-22-001289, 0001172661-24-001126, 0001172661-25-000823, 0001172661-25-001828, 0001172661-25-003151, 0001172661-25-004777, 0001350694-26-000001, 0001350694-26-000002 and 0001350694-26-000003); values of the Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com and Pinduoduo/PDD lines and filing totals summed for this page, values in thousands converted for filings before the report for December 31, 2022. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=1350694&type=13F-HR +[^34]: Em Steck, "McCormick wants the US to divest from China. As a hedge fund manager, he oversaw investments in Chinese companies grow more than a thousand-fold," CNN, November 4, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/04/politics/kfile-mccormick-bridgewater-chinese-investments/index.html +[^35]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Under Secretary for International Affairs David H. McCormick Statement at the Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development," press release HP-984, May 19, 2008. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/hp984 +[^36]: Associated Press, "Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick earned $22M as hedge fund CEO," April 19, 2022 (as published by WESA). https://www.wesanews.org/politics-government/2022-04-19/pennsylvania-senate-candidate-dave-mccormick-earned-22m-as-hedge-fund-ceo +[^37]: David H. McCormick, Written Testimony Submitted to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, hearing "Systemic Risk: The Chinese Communist Party's Threat to U.S. Financial Stability," September 12, 2023. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/ZS/ZS00/20230912/116380/HHRG-118-ZS00-20230912-SD001.pdf +[^38]: Office of Senator Bill Hagerty, "Hagerty Announces Staff Additions, Trump Admin Appointments," July 9, 2025. https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/2025/07/09/hagerty-announces-staff-additions-trump-admin-appointments/ +[^39]: Marc Gunther, "Giving in the Light of Reason," Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2018. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cambridge Analytica.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cambridge Analytica.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8c59e746 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Cambridge Analytica.md @@ -0,0 +1,231 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - CambridgeAnalytica + - SCLGroup + - Emerdata + - RobertMercer + - SteveBannon + - FacebookData + - PoliticalConsulting + - UKInformationCommissioner + - TrumpCampaign +alias: + - Cambridge Analytica + - Cambridge Analytica LLC + - Cambridge Analytica Ltd + - Cambridge Analytica (UK) Limited + - CA + - Cambridge Analytica Holdings LLC + - Cambridge Analytica(UK) Limited + - SCL Group + - SCL Group Limited + - SCL Elections + - SCL Elections Limited + - SCL + - Strategic Communication Laboratories + - Emerdata + - Emerdata Limited + - Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal +summary: "Delaware political data company formed in December 2013 within the British SCL Group, with Robert Mercer as investor, paid $5.9 million by the Trump campaign and in Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings from May 2018." +start: 2013-12 +end: 2018-05-17 +location: "New York, New York; London, England" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Robert Mercer]]" + reverse: true + role: "investor holding 90 percent of the company for an initial 15 million dollars, per the account of Christopher Wylie" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Rebekah Mercer]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-03-06 + end: 2018-01-23 + role: "member of the board of managers and vice president" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Jennifer Mercer]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-03-06 + end: 2018-01-23 + role: "member of the board of managers" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alexander Nix]]" + reverse: true + end: 2018-04-30 + role: "chief executive officer and board of managers member" + fn: 16 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Brittany Kaiser]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-02 + end: 2018-01-31 + role: "business development director; permanent position per her own interview" + fn: 14 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.]]" + start: 2016-07-29 + end: 2016-12-12 + role: "data management vendor, 5,912,500 dollars" + fn: 21 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Cruz for President]]" + start: 2015-07-02 + end: 2016-06-09 + role: "vendor, 5,805,552.23 dollars in itemized disbursements" + fn: 19 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[John Bolton Super PAC]]" + start: 2014-07-07 + end: 2016-09-29 + role: "research and survey research vendor, 1,152,300 dollars" + fn: 19 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Make America Number 1]]" + start: 2015-12-10 + end: 2016-12-07 + role: "media, survey research and consulting vendor, 1,476,484 dollars" + fn: 25 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[State Department]]" + start: 2017-02-20 + end: 2018-02-19 + role: "SCL Group Limited as vendor on contract SAQMMA17C0115, 456,500 dollars obligated" + fn: 11 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Federal Trade Commission]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-07-24 + end: 2019-11-25 + role: "administrative complaint and opinion, Docket 9383" + fn: 16 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Information Commissioner's Office]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017-05 + end: 2020-10-02 + role: "formal investigation into data analytics in political campaigns" + fn: 37 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]" + end: 2020-08-18 + role: "Volume 5 of the committee's Russia report examined the company" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Cambridge Analytica, formally Cambridge Analytica LLC, was a [[Delaware]] limited liability company formed in December 2013 with its principal office at 597 Fifth Avenue in [[New York City]], and part of the family of companies of the British firm [[SCL Group]].[^1] [[Robert Mercer]] capitalized the company, [[Steve Bannon]] served on its board, and its chief executive officer was [[Alexander Nix]].[^2] The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the [[United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York]] on May 17, 2018 ([[In re Cambridge Analytica LLC]], Case No. 18-11500-shl).[^3] + +### SCL Group and its predecessors + +[[Companies House]] records Strategic Communication Laboratories Limited as incorporated on July 20, 2005, and renamed SCL Group Limited on August 19, 2015.[^4] The officers recorded for that company include [[Nigel Oakes]] (director from October 3, 2005 to June 5, 2018), Alexander Waddington Oakes (director from July 20, 2005 to January 28, 2016, and secretary from March 31, 2014 to January 28, 2016), Alexander James Ashburner Nix (director from July 20, 2005 to December 7, 2012, and again from January 28, 2016 to April 30, 2018), [[Julian Wheatland]] (director from November 10, 2005 to January 12, 2007, and from December 20, 2007 to June 26, 2020), Roger Michael Gabb (director from November 10, 2005 to March 28, 2018) and Geoffrey Edwin Pattie (director from November 10, 2005 to December 1, 2008).[^4] An earlier company, Behavioural Dynamics Holdings Limited, was incorporated on February 8, 1991 with Nigel Oakes as director and was dissolved on April 26, 2011.[^5] + +[[Christopher Wylie]], who worked for SCL from June 2013 to November 2014, told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] in a proffer on May 17, 2018 that SCL had evolved from a single company with Defense, Commercial, Elections and Social divisions into a holding company with subsidiaries, that Oakes was chief executive of the holding company, and that the defense division produced 80 percent of SCL Group's revenue.[^6] Nix, who the committee reported joined SCL in 2003, was described by Wylie as responsible for the non-defense divisions.[^6] Companies House lists Nix as director of SCL Elections Limited from October 17, 2012, SCL Social Limited from February 19, 2013, SCL Commercial Limited from January 10, 2014, and SCL Analytics Limited from October 23, 2015, all to April 30, 2018.[^7] Cambridge Analytica (UK) Limited was incorporated on January 6, 2015 as SCL USA Limited and took its later name on April 14, 2016.[^8] + +The [[Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee]] of the House of Commons wrote in its 2019 final report, repeating its 2018 interim report, that SCL had carried out work "for the British Government, the US Government and other allied Governments," that the [[Ministry of Defence]] had issued an approbation of SCL after it provided psychological operations training to ministry staff, and that Nix had told the committee that SCL "is a company that operates in the government and defence space, it acts as a company that has secret clearance."[^9] In evidence to the committee, [[Brittany Kaiser]] said that before 2015 the "target audience analysis" methodology was considered "weapons grade communications tactics" and that the British government had to be told if it was to be deployed in another country.[^9] Emma Briant of the [[University of Essex]] told the committee that SCL Group had delivered counter-Russian propaganda training for [[NATO]] at about the time Cambridge Analytica pitched to the Russian oil company [[Lukoil]].[^10] + +USAspending.gov records a contract, SAQMMA17C0115, between the [[State Department]] and SCL Group Limited of 1 to 6 Yarmouth Place, Mayfair, London, signed on February 17, 2017, for "target audience research including designing communication and messaging strategy and monitoring its implementation." Performance ran from February 20, 2017 to February 19, 2018, the amount obligated was $456,500, the ceiling with all options was $496,232, and the extent-competed field reads "not competed."[^11] + +### Formation and ownership + +According to Wylie, Steve Bannon introduced Nix to Robert Mercer and [[Rebekah Mercer]] as potential investors in SCL Group, and Mercer's lawyer advised that an investment should go through a [[United States]] entity rather than SCL itself. Wylie said the company was established with an initial $15 million investment by Mercer, who held 90 percent, with the remaining 10 percent held by SCL Elections in exchange for assignment of its intellectual property, and that Robert Mercer was president, Bannon vice president, [[Jennifer Mercer]] treasurer and Nix a board member.[^2] The committee wrote that Wylie suggested Bannon engaged SCL Group and became vice president of Cambridge Analytica in order to "build an arsenal of informational weapons [that] he could deploy on the American population."[^12] Wylie added that under this arrangement Cambridge Analytica had no employees of its own and that its clients were to be served by SCL Elections.[^2] + +Bannon told the committee that he had met Nix between mid-2013 and 2014 while conducting investment due diligence for Mercer, that he described his role as that of a "typical investment banker," and that Cambridge Analytica was "totally independent" of SCL Group with its own workforce, the appearance of a shared workforce being a product of Nix and some data scientists doing work for both companies.[^2][^13] Kaiser, who opened the first United States office of the company in Alexandria, Virginia in October 2015, told the committee that at least initially the two companies "were one and the same company," and said the company at its largest had 130 employees, with about 40 in New York and 20 in Washington.[^14] + +The statement of financial affairs filed in the bankruptcy lists Nix as a member of the board of managers and chief executive officer, Rebekah Mercer as a member of the board of managers and vice president, and Jennifer Mercer as a member of the board of managers, each from March 6, 2014 through January 23, 2018.[^2] Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer signed the written consent authorizing the May 2018 petition as the board members.[^2] + +### Facebook data and Global Science Research + +The [[Information Commissioner's Office]] reported in November 2018 that the company had sought to use [[Facebook]] friend data that was available to application developers under version 1 of the Facebook platform interface, that a collaboration with [[David Stillwell]] of the [[University of Cambridge]] Psychometrics Centre failed when he refused for data protection reasons, and that in May 2014 [[Aleksandr Kogan]], another academic with links to Cambridge, offered to do the work with his own application.[^15] The office reported evidence that Cambridge Analytica staff, including Wylie, helped Kogan set up his company [[Global Science Research]], that the application collected data from about 320,000 users who took a personality test, and that Facebook estimated the total number of users and friends whose data was accessed at about 87 million.[^15] Cambridge Analytica commissioned the survey company [[Qualtrics]] to pay members of the public less than a dollar to use the application.[^15] + +The [[Federal Trade Commission]] found, on the allegations in its complaint to which Cambridge Analytica filed no answer, that the application obtained profile data from approximately 250,000 to 270,000 users and from 50 to 65 million of their friends, at least 30 million of them identifiable United States consumers, and that users were told the application did not collect personally identifiable information.[^16] The commission issued its opinion on November 25, 2019 (Docket No. 9383) after Cambridge Analytica filed neither an answer nor an opposition to the motion for summary decision; its bankruptcy trustee did not object to the motion. The commission had accepted consent settlements with Nix and Kogan on July 24, 2019 requiring them to destroy the data and algorithms derived from it.[^16] + +The Senate committee wrote that, according to Kogan, the application ultimately collected approximately 30 million personality profiles "which were transferred to SCL Group," and noted in a footnote that his written testimony to a Senate subcommittee on June 19, 2018 states that the data was not transferred to SCL.[^17] The Information Commissioner's Office reported contrary evidence that Cambridge Analytica staff controlled "the manner and frequency" with which the data was harvested and that the harvested data was transferred to a "drop-zone" from which Cambridge Analytica extracted modeled data.[^18] Wylie told the committee that the Russian government sponsored some of Kogan's research and that Kogan traveled to Russia to present it; the committee quoted a March 15, 2014 email from an SCL employee to Nix, Wylie and a colleague referring to "the interesting work Alex Kogan has been doing for the Russians."[^17] Kogan denied awareness of any evidence the Trump campaign used the data.[^17] + +### Clients and payments recorded by the Federal Election Commission + +Itemized disbursements to Cambridge Analytica in [[Federal Election Commission]] Schedule B records total $16,111,196.81 across 19 committees between June 2014 and March 2018, a figure that includes one entry marked "VOIDED: TO BE REFUNDED" ($10,027) and one memo-coded entry ($20,000); without them the total is $16,081,169.81.[^19] The largest recipients of payment by committee were [[Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.]] ($5,912,500 in five payments between July 29 and December 12, 2016), [[Cruz for President]] ($5,805,552 in 19 payments from July 2015 to June 2016), [[Make America Number 1]] ($1,476,484 in 13 payments from December 2015 to December 2016), the [[John Bolton Super PAC]] ($1,152,300 in 13 payments from July 2014 to September 2016), [[Keep the Promise II]] ($570,000 in December 2015 and January 2016) and [[Carson America]] ($438,065 from May 2015 to January 2016).[^19] The [[North Carolina Republican Party]] paid $215,000 between July 2014 and June 2015, the [[Thom Tillis]] committee $130,000 between October 2014 and December 2015, and the [[Jobs Growth and Freedom Fund]] $133,333.33 in October 2014.[^19] Two committees named Restoring American Leadership PAC and Restore American Leadership are recorded at $117,100 and $38,625 between May and December 2016, and the committees of [[Tom Cotton]] ($20,000, October 2014), [[Monica Wehby]] ($20,000, August and October 2014) and [[Patrick McHenry]] ($15,000, October 2014) also appear.[^19] Art Robinson for Congress, a committee whose registered address is 2251 Dick George Road, Cave Junction, Oregon, paid $20,000 in three payments between June 10 and November 5, 2014, and the committee Bob Huff for Congress reported the voided $10,027 entry on March 9, 2018.[^19][^20] + +The Trump campaign payments were reported as "data management" and "data management services." The campaign's reports for July, August, September and October 1 to 19, 2016 and the year-end report that carry them are amendments filed on November 19, 2018, December 20, 2018, March 13, 2019, April 5, 2019 and June 28, 2019, each the last in a chain of four or five filings that began with an original report filed between August 2016 and January 2017.[^21] The single payment of $5,000,000 is dated September 1, 2016.[^21] The Senate committee recorded that the first disbursement was on July 29, 2016 and that the payments continued through December 12, 2016.[^22] + +The Bolton PAC's payments to the company began on July 7, 2014 with $25,000 for "research" and continued as "survey research" through September 29, 2016; over the same period the committee's receipts include ten contributions of $500,000 each from Robert Mercer, dated between April 28, 2014 and December 28, 2017.[^23] Make America Number 1, whose statement of organization of April 6, 2015 was submitted under a cover letter headed "Keep The Promise I" and whose amended statement signed on June 22, 2016 gives the name Make America Number 1, received $11,000,000 from Mercer on April 10, 2015, and $4,500,000 more in 2016.[^24][^25] The committee's disbursements in the same period include payments to Cambridge Analytica, $109,341.25 to Breitbart News Network LLC on November 25, 2015 for "list purchase expense," and $280,641 to Glittering Steel LLC for video production.[^25] The [[Mercer Family Foundation]] return for 2021 lists the [[Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine]] at 2251 Dick George Road, Cave Junction, Oregon, and earlier returns list grants to an organization of that name at Cave Junction, including $965,000 in tax year 2011.[^26] The foundation and the family's other filings are described at [[Mercer family]]. + +### Contacts with the Trump campaign + +Kaiser told the Senate committee that discussion of a commercial offer to the Trump campaign began in May 2015, that she and Nix met Bannon in Washington in September 2015, that [[Donald Trump]] telephoned Bannon during the meeting and directed that Nix and Kaiser come to New York to meet [[Corey Lewandowski]], and that "eight or ten weeks" of contract negotiations followed without result.[^27] Bannon told the committee he had no recollection of the call.[^27] Kaiser also said that almost every client meeting she had with a political figure was preceded by an introduction from Bannon, Rebekah Mercer or [[Kellyanne Conway]], whom the committee described as an advisor to the Mercers at the time, and that Conway was closely involved in moving the company from the Cruz campaign to the Trump campaign.[^28] + +The committee recorded that the Cruz campaign spent about $5.8 million on the company and the campaign of [[Ben Carson]] more than $430,000, citing a [[CNN]] report, and that within a week of Cruz leaving the race the employees working on his campaign began moving to the Trump campaign.[^27] [[Rick Gates]] told the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] that the campaign decided shortly after the Republican National Convention to use the company, that the [[Republican National Committee]] did not want to use it, that [[Brad Parscale]] was reluctant, that [[Jared Kushner]] wanted to use it and negotiated a package with payment at the end of the campaign.[^22] Kushner told the committee that the Mercers aggressively advocated use of the company and that the campaign engaged it to secure the Mercers' support.[^22] Parscale said he decided to hire the company in June 2016 after approval from [[Paul Manafort]] and Kushner, that he declined its offer of "psychographic profiling" services, and that he used Republican National Committee data rather than the company's data.[^22][^29] + +The committee obtained a campaign data team presentation of August 22, 2016 with a slide depicting data flowing in both directions between the campaign and Cambridge Analytica, with the company's node titled "Digital Media Psychographic Analysis," and another slide showing arrows between its "Psychographic Analysis" and both the Republican National Committee's "GOP Data Center" and the campaign's San Antonio operation, which it called "Project Alamo."[^29] The committee wrote that documents it obtained suggested that the company's data may have been used in support of the campaign and that the campaign may have leveraged its psychographic analysis capabilities.[^29] Gates told the FBI that he later learned campaign data was transmitted to and analyzed in the [[United Kingdom]], which concerned him.[^29] Kaiser said that Project Alamo was "built completely from scratch" from the Republican National Committee's Data Trust database and purchased data sets.[^29] + +### Russian and WikiLeaks contacts + +Wylie said that from spring 2014 through 2015 Cambridge Analytica representatives met representatives of Lukoil, that Nix's presentations included discussion of rumor and disinformation campaigns, and that in May 2018 he told the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] that Lukoil "has formal information sharing agreements with the Russian Federal Security Service."[^30] Kaiser told the committee the discussions concerned a customer loyalty application for Lukoil's stations in Turkey, said she was told the data could also be useful for political activities there, and furnished a February 2015 presentation prepared by SCL Commercial; neither she nor Wylie believed that a contract resulted, and the committee stated that it did not independently corroborate the allegation that Lukoil intended to use the company to affect elections.[^30] The committee noted that the [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] had added Lukoil to its Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List on September 12, 2014.[^30] + +Wylie also told the committee that in spring 2014 Bannon approved focus groups about [[Vladimir Putin]] and Russian expansionism preparatory to a predictive model, and that Bannon and [[Konstantin Kilimnik]] were two of three people likely responsible for the idea.[^31] [[Sam Patten]], a consultant who worked for the company in Nigeria, Mexico, Kosovo and the Czech Republic, told the committee there was "no connection" between Kilimnik and Cambridge Analytica; Kaiser said that on the Nigerian project the company may have assisted its client in retaining former Israeli intelligence officers working privately to conduct opposition research.[^31] + +The committee reported open-source accounts that during the 2016 campaign Nix emailed [[Julian Assange]] about the possible release of [[Hillary Clinton]]'s deleted emails, and that Assange said in October 2017 that [[WikiLeaks]] had rejected an approach by Cambridge Analytica. The committee obtained no additional information, and Bannon and others close to the campaign said they had no prior awareness of the contact.[^32] The committee also recorded that it was unable to obtain the company's corporate communications, which were in the hands of United Kingdom authorities, and that Nix "generally disregarded the Committee's requests for an appearance."[^33] It found "no convincing evidence that Russia's government or intelligence services worked with or through" Cambridge Analytica, Psy Group or Colt Ventures in furtherance of the 2016 interference.[^33] Cambridge Analytica, LLC is named among the respondents in matters under review 7207, 7268, 7274 and 7623 before the Federal Election Commission, in which Commissioners Shana Broussard and Ellen Weintraub issued a statement of reasons citing Volume 5 after a certification dated April 22, 2021; the text of the statement concerns the Russian Federation, the Internet Research Agency and the Trump committee and does not mention Cambridge Analytica outside the caption.[^34] + +### Regulatory and criminal proceedings in the United Kingdom + +The Information Commissioner's Office issued a monetary penalty notice of £500,000 to Facebook on October 25, 2018, the highest fine permitted under the Data Protection Act 1998, citing lack of transparency and security failures relating to the harvesting of data.[^35] The office also executed a warrant at the company's premises at 8 p.m. on March 23, 2018, seized servers and other material, and reported that Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections entered administration on May 3, 2018, that an enforcement notice of May 4, 2018 required it to answer a subject access request from the American academic [[David Carroll]] that had been made in January 2017, and that the deadline of June 3, 2018 passed without compliance.[^18] The office reported that Nix and Kogan had declined invitations to voluntary interviews under caution and that it would have issued a substantial fine had the company not been in administration.[^18] SCL Elections pleaded guilty at [[Hendon Magistrates' Court]] on January 9, 2019, the day set for trial, to failing to comply with the enforcement notice; press reports gave the penalty as a fine of £15,000 with £6,000 in costs and a victim surcharge of £170.[^36] The Information Commissioner's 2020 letter to Parliament gives the fine as £18,000.[^37] + +On October 2, 2020 the Information Commissioner, [[Elizabeth Denham]], wrote to the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that the office had concluded its investigation, that the company had purchased commercially available data amounting at one estimate to more than 130 billion data points, mostly about United States voters, to combine with Facebook-derived data from Kogan, that its models were mostly built from "off the shelf" tools, that the office found no further evidence to change its view that the company was not involved in the European Union referendum campaign beyond early inquiries about UK Independence Party data, and that it found no additional evidence of Russian involvement in the servers it obtained.[^37] The letter also reported evidence that in its last stages the company was drawing up plans to move its data offshore to avoid regulatory scrutiny, which it did not carry out before it ceased trading.[^37] + +The Insolvency Service announced in September 2020 that Nix had given an undertaking disqualifying him from acting as a company director for seven years from October 5, 2020, having, in the service's words, caused or permitted SCL Elections or associated companies to act with a lack of commercial probity by marketing services including "bribery or honey trap stings, voter disengagement campaigns, obtaining information to discredit political opponents and spreading information anonymously in political campaigns." The service did not say whether any such services were performed, and Nix told Reuters he had made no admission of wrongdoing.[^38] The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee had recorded in February 2019 that the Insolvency Service was investigating the directors of SCL Elections, SCL Group, SCL Analytics, SCL Commercial, SCL Social and Cambridge Analytica (UK) under the [[Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986]].[^39] + +### Emerdata and the end of the group + +Emerdata Limited (Companies House number 10911848) was incorporated on August 11, 2017 with Wheatland as a director, and its persons with significant control from incorporation were Wheatland and Dr Alexander Bruce Tayler, each holding more than 25 percent and up to 50 percent until January 23, 2018.[^40] From January 23, 2018 the register shows Cambridge Analytica Holdings LLC, with an address on Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware, as holder of more than 50 percent and less than 75 percent of shares and votes until August 9, 2022; since that date the register carries a statement that there is no registrable person.[^40] The register records the officers appointed on January 23, 2018 as Nix (resigned March 28, 2018), Johnson Chun Shun Ko (resigned May 9, 2018), Cheng Peng (resigned May 8, 2018) and Ahmad Al Khatib (resigned May 7, 2018); Tayler was a director again from March 28 to April 18, 2018, Gary Ka Chun Tiu from June 12, 2018 to December 3, 2024, and Wheatland until May 22, 2019.[^40] Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer were appointed directors on March 16, 2018 and remained in office as of the register consulted on October 1, 2026, with [[Jacquelyn James-Varga]] (appointed May 22, 2019) and Bradley David Golub (appointed December 3, 2024).[^40] + +The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee reported in February 2019 that Emerdata had not gone into administration, was the largest creditor of SCL Elections and was paying the administration costs, and listed shareholders as of August 10, 2018 that included Cambridge Analytica Holdings LLC, Tayler, Wheatland, trusts for the benefit of Rebekah, Jennifer and Heather Mercer, Alexander and Catherine Nix, five members of the Marland family, Henry and Roger Gabb, Nigel and Alexander Oakes, and Reza Saddlou-Bundy.[^39] The committee recommended that the [[National Crime Agency]] investigate the connections between SCL Elections and Emerdata.[^39] The committee also reported that SCL Insight Limited, owned by Nigel Oakes, had been spun off in the 2017 reorganization.[^39] + +Emerdata entered administration on December 9, 2024, the register names Benjamin Stanyon and Nedim Patrick Ailyan as practitioners, records a cessation to act on April 8, 2026, and gives the registered office as care of Opus Restructuring LLP, Milton Keynes.[^40] SCL Group Limited, SCL Elections Limited and Cambridge Analytica (UK) Limited were in administration from May 3, 2018 to April 17, 2019, then in compulsory liquidation on a petition of August 13, 2018, which concluded on September 1, 2025; the first two were dissolved on January 31, 2026 and the third on January 30, 2026.[^41] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Trade Commission, *In the Matter of Cambridge Analytica, LLC*, Docket No. 9383, Opinion of the Commission, issued November 25, 2019, section I (Facts). https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/d09389_comm_final_opinionpublic.pdf +[^2]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 664 to 667 and notes 4294 to 4311 (section "SCL and Cambridge Analytica," subsection "Cambridge Analytica's Founding"), citing the proffer of Christopher Wylie of May 17, 2018, the transcript of Stephen Bannon (pp. 223 to 239), the voluntary petition and the Statement of Financial Affairs of May 31, 2018 in *In re Cambridge Analytica LLC*, Case No. 18-11500-shl (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^3]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 679 (subsection "Declaration of Bankruptcy"), citing the letter from Lamonica to Burr and Warner of February 15, 2019. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^4]: Companies House, SCL GROUP LIMITED (company number 05514098), overview and officers pages, viewed October 1, 2026; previous name Strategic Communication Laboratories Limited, July 20, 2005 to August 19, 2015. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05514098 and /officers +[^5]: Companies House, BEHAVIOURAL DYNAMICS HOLDINGS LIMITED (company number 02580903), overview and officers pages, viewed October 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02580903 +[^6]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 664 and notes 4294 to 4298, citing the proffer of Christopher Wylie of May 17, 2018 and the committee's interview of Brittany Kaiser of August 17, 2018 (pp. 21 to 25). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^7]: Companies House, personal appointments page for Alexander James Ashburner Nix, viewed October 1, 2026 (SCL Elections Limited 08256225, SCL Social Limited 08410560, SCL Commercial Limited 08840965, SCL Analytics Limited 09838667, SCL Digital Limited 09375055, SCL Sovereign Limited 09375809). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/YEplkqBMfc6Rp3dbPs57pN3aqO4/appointments +[^8]: Companies House, CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA(UK) LIMITED (company number 09375920), overview, officers and insolvency pages, viewed October 1, 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09375920 +[^9]: House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, *Disinformation and "fake news": Final Report*, Eighth Report of Session 2017 to 2019, HC 1791, February 18, 2019, paragraphs 293 and 294 and note 332 (quoting the Interim Report, HC 363, July 29, 2018, paragraph 228) and note 333 (Q1560). https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf +[^10]: House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, *Disinformation and "fake news": Final Report*, HC 1791, February 18, 2019, paragraph 295 and notes 334 and 335 (written evidence FKN0099). https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf +[^11]: USAspending.gov, award CONT_AWD_SAQMMA17C0115_1900_-NONE-_-NONE-, recipient SCL GROUP LIMITED, Department of State, definitive contract; date signed February 17, 2017; total obligation $456,500; base and all options $496,232; extent competed "not competed"; product or service code R497. Retrieved through the USAspending API on October 1, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_SAQMMA17C0115_1900_-NONE-_-NONE-/ +[^12]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 672 and note 4347 (Wylie proffer). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^13]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 666 to 667 and notes 4306 and 4310 (Bannon transcript, pp. 221 to 231 and 223 to 231). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^14]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 666 and notes 4307 to 4309 (Kaiser transcript, pp. 5 to 12, 11 to 12 and 82 to 86). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^15]: UK Information Commissioner's Office, *Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns: A report to Parliament*, November 6, 2018, section 3.2.1 (pp. 26 to 33). https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2018/nov/uk-ico-report-investigation-into-use-of-data-political-campaigns-6-11-18.pdf +[^16]: Federal Trade Commission, *In the Matter of Cambridge Analytica, LLC*, Docket No. 9383, Opinion of the Commission, issued November 25, 2019, introduction, section I and note 1 (consent settlements with Alexander Nix and Aleksandr Kogan accepted July 24, 2019, matters 182-3106 and 182-3107); administrative complaint of July 24, 2019 (matter 182 3107). https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/d09389_comm_final_opinionpublic.pdf and https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/182_3107_cambridge_analytica_administrative_complaint_7-24-19.pdf +[^17]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 668 to 670 and notes 4326 to 4333 (Kogan testimony of June 19, 2018 before the Senate Commerce Committee subcommittee; Wylie proffer; email Beltran to Nix, Ward and Wylie, March 15, 2014, WYL001009). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^18]: UK Information Commissioner's Office, *Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns: A report to Parliament*, November 6, 2018, sections 3.2.1 to 3.2.3 (pp. 31 to 37). https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2018/nov/uk-ico-report-investigation-into-use-of-data-political-campaigns-6-11-18.pdf +[^19]: OpenFEC API (https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/), Schedule B itemized disbursements, recipient names "CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA," "CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA, LLC" and "CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA LLC" (90 unique line items, retrieved October 1, 2026); amounts summed by filing committee. Committee identifiers: Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. C00580100; Cruz for President C00574624; Make America Number 1 C00575373; John Bolton Super PAC C00542464; Keep the Promise II C00575431; Carson America C00573519; North Carolina Republican Party C00038505; Jobs Growth and Freedom Fund C00536540; Thom Tillis Committee C00545772; Art Robinson for Congress C00481341; Bob Huff for Congress C00665802. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/?recipient_name=Cambridge+Analytica +[^20]: Federal Election Commission, committee record for ART ROBINSON FOR CONGRESS (C00481341), street address 2251 DICK GEORGE RD, Cave Junction, Oregon, treasurer Art Robinson, first filed April 17, 2010. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00481341/ +[^21]: Federal Election Commission, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. (C00580100), Schedule B, payments to Cambridge Analytica, LLC dated July 29, 2016 ($100,000), August 18, 2016 ($250,000), September 1, 2016 ($5,000,000), October 19, 2016 ($250,000) and December 12, 2016 ($312,500); amended reports file numbers 1291697 (receipt date November 19, 2018), 1301972 (December 20, 2018), 1319157 (March 13, 2019), 1322657 (April 5, 2019) and 1335968 (June 28, 2019), with originals 1096341, 1111849, 1119574 and 1146165 in the amendment chains. https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201903139145702446 (September 2016 payment) +[^22]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 673 to 675 and notes 4358 to 4366 (FBI FD-302 of Rick Gates, October 29, 2018; Kushner transcript II, pp. 84 to 85; Parscale transcript, pp. 55 to 62), and note 4363 (FEC disbursements July 29 to December 12, 2016, totaling $5,912,500). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^23]: OpenFEC API (https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/), Schedule B itemized disbursements to Cambridge Analytica by John Bolton Super PAC (C00542464), July 7, 2014 to September 29, 2016; and OpenFEC Schedule A receipts of C00542464 from Robert Mercer of East Setauket, New York ($500,000 each on April 28, 2014, June 30, 2014, February 24, 2015, June 30, 2015, September 28, 2015, December 18, 2015, July 5, 2016, September 6, 2016, October 23, 2017 and December 28, 2017). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?committee_id=C00542464&contributor_name=MERCER +[^24]: Federal Election Commission, Form 1 Statement of Organization of committee C00575373, original filed April 6, 2015 under cover letter headed "Keep The Promise I" signed by treasurer Jacquelyn James (https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/670/15031410670/15031410670.pdf), and amended Form 1 dated June 21, 2016, filed June 22, 2016, under the name "Make America Number 1" (https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/183/201606229020090183/201606229020090183.pdf). +[^25]: OpenFEC API, Schedule A receipts and Schedule B disbursements of Make America Number 1 (C00575373), 2015 to 2016, including receipts from Robert Mercer of $11,000,000 (April 10, 2015, file 1027937), $500,000 (February 26, 2016), $2,000,000 (March 17, 2016) and $2,000,000 (July 14, 2016); disbursements to Cambridge Analytica ($842,748 and $633,736 under two spellings), to Breitbart News Network LLC ($109,341.25 on November 25, 2015, "list purchase expense," file 1071367, and $10,000 on January 27, 2016, "media prepaid"), and to Glittering Steel LLC (seven payments from July 17, 2015 to November 1, 2016 totaling $280,641). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00575373/ +[^26]: Mercer Family Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2011, Part XV (grant to OISM, P.O. Box 1279, Cave Junction, Oregon, $965,000) (https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/201/201982204/201982204_201112_990PF.pdf); Form 990-PF for 2021, Part XV (Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, 2251 Dick George Road, Cave Junction, Oregon, $250,000), ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer full text (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201982204/202213199349104431/IRS990PF). +[^27]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 673 to 674 and notes 4352 to 4357 (Kaiser transcript, pp. 144 to 156; Bannon transcript, p. 268; Maegan Vazquez and Paul Murphy, "Trump isn't the only Republican who gave Cambridge Analytica big bucks," CNN, March 21, 2018). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^28]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 672 and note 4348 (Kaiser transcript, pp. 40 to 43). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^29]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 675 to 678 and notes 4367 to 4379 (Parscale transcript, pp. 53 to 60; Trump Data Team Presentation, August 22, 2016, FLYNN_SSCI_00011770 and 00011773; FBI FD-302 of Rick Gates, October 29, 2018; Kaiser transcript, pp. 161 to 164). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^30]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 670 to 671 and notes 4334 to 4341 (Wylie proffer; Wylie written statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 16, 2018; Kaiser transcript, pp. 66 to 67 and 121 to 123; SCL Commercial presentation for Lukoil, February 18, 2015; OFAC listing of September 12, 2014). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^31]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, p. 668 and notes 4318 to 4325 (Wylie proffer; Patten transcript, pp. 29 to 38; Kaiser transcript, pp. 67 to 68; Bannon transcript, pp. 253 to 256). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^32]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 678 to 679 and notes 4380 to 4383 (Betsy Swan, "Trump Data Guru Alexander Nix: I Tried To Team Up With Julian Assange," *The Daily Beast*, October 25, 2017; Kara Scannell, Dana Bash and Marshall Cohen, CNN, October 25, 2017). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^33]: U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, *Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities*, report released August 18, 2020, pp. 663 to 664 (section introduction, "Committee did not examine the effectiveness of the work these companies may have conducted"; limitations including Nix's non-appearance and the seizure of the company's corporate communications by U.K. authorities). https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf +[^34]: Federal Election Commission, Statement of Reasons of Commissioners Shana M. Broussard and Ellen L. Weintraub, MURs 7207, 7268, 7274 and 7623 (Russian Federation; Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; Donald J. Trump; H. Russell Taub; Cambridge Analytica, LLC; Internet Research Agency; Paul Manafort), note 2 (certification dated April 22, 2021). https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7207/7207_47.pdf +[^35]: UK Information Commissioner's Office, *Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns: A report to Parliament*, November 6, 2018, section 3.2.4 (p. 38). https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2018/nov/uk-ico-report-investigation-into-use-of-data-political-campaigns-6-11-18.pdf +[^36]: UK Information Commissioner's Office, *Investigation into the use of data analytics in political campaigns*, November 6, 2018, section 3.2.3 (trial set for January 9, 2019 at Hendon Magistrates' Court); "Cambridge Analytica Pleads Guilty In UK Data Access Case," *MediaPost*, January 9, 2019 (fine of £15,000, costs of £6,000, victim surcharge of £170, citing the ICO announcement) https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/330338/ ; Ellen Tannam, "Cambridge Analytica owner hit with £15,000 fine for disobeying UK ICO," *Silicon Republic*, January 2019 (District Judge Kenneth Grant: "wilful disregard of the enforcement notice") https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/cambridge-analytica-scl-fine +[^37]: Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, letter to Julian Knight MP, Chair, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, reference ICO/O/ED/L/RTL/0181, October 2, 2020, paragraphs 3 to 15. https://cy.ico.org.uk/media2/migrated/2618383/20201002_ico-o-ed-l-rtl-0181_to-julian-knight-mp.pdf +[^38]: "Ex-Cambridge Analytica head banned from running firms in UK," Reuters, published by Al Jazeera, September 25, 2020 (statement of the Insolvency Service of September 24, 2020; Mark Bruce, chief investigator; disqualification from October 5, 2020). https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/9/25/uk-bans-ex-cambridge-analytica-boss-for-unethical-services +[^39]: House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, *Disinformation and "fake news": Final Report*, HC 1791, February 18, 2019, paragraphs 285 to 290, 296 and notes 327 to 329 and 338. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf +[^40]: Companies House, EMERDATA LIMITED (company number 10911848), overview, officers, persons with significant control and insolvency pages, viewed October 1, 2026; personal appointments pages for Jennifer Lynne Mercer, Rebekah Anne Mercer, Jacquelyn James-Varga and Bradley David Golub. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10911848 +[^41]: Companies House, insolvency pages for SCL GROUP LIMITED (05514098), SCL ELECTIONS LIMITED (08256225) and CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA(UK) LIMITED (09375920), viewed October 1, 2026 (administration May 3, 2018 to April 17, 2019; compulsory liquidation, petition August 13, 2018, winding up commenced April 17, 2019 and concluded September 1, 2025; dissolved January 31, 2026, January 31, 2026 and January 30, 2026). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05514098/insolvency diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Centre for Effective Altruism.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Centre for Effective Altruism.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..056b277b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Centre for Effective Altruism.md @@ -0,0 +1,256 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Organization + - CentreForEffectiveAltruism + - EffectiveVentures + - EffectiveAltruism + - OpenPhilanthropy + - FTX + - SamBankmanFried + - CharityCommission + - WythamAbbey + - Longtermism +alias: + - Centre for Effective Altruism + - Center for Effective Altruism + - CEA + - Centre for Effective Altruism USA + - Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc + - Centre For Effective Altruism Inc + - Centre for Effective Altruism UK +summary: "Oxford charity company incorporated in 2012 under MacAskill, Ord and Beckstead, with a US twin that Bankman-Fried served as treasurer and director, renamed Effective Ventures in 2022 and investigated after FTX's collapse." +start: 2012-02-23 +location: "Oxford, England; San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[William MacAskill]]" + reverse: true + role: "cofounder" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[William MacAskill]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012-02-23 + end: 2023-09-21 + role: "director of the UK company; chair of the US charity in its returns for 2016 to 2021" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Toby Ord]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012-02-23 + end: 2022-07-29 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Nick Beckstead]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012-02-23 + end: 2019-04-02 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Nick Beckstead]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-07-01 + end: 2023-08-23 + role: "director of the UK company; trustee of the US charity" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]" + reverse: true + end: 2019 + role: "treasurer of the US charity in its returns for 2013 to 2015, board member in its returns for 2016 to 2018" + fn: 10 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Peter Singer]]" + reverse: true + role: "president of the US charity in its returns for 2013 to 2015" + fn: 10 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Tara Mac Aulay]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-07-01 + end: 2018-08-17 + role: "company secretary of the UK company; treasurer and secretary of the US charity" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Tara Mac Aulay]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief executive, as reported by TIME" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Hilary Greaves]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-04-02 + end: 2019-07-18 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Claire Zabel]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-07-18 + end: 2024-03-28 + role: "director of the UK company while a program director at Open Philanthropy" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Owen Cotton-Barratt]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020-03-24 + end: 2023-02-11 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Tasha McCauley]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-07-01 + end: 2024-03-14 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Lincoln Quirk]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-05-23 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Eli Rose]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024-02-09 + role: "director of the UK company while an Open Philanthropy program officer" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Patrick Gruban]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024-03-20 + role: "director of the UK company" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Howie Lempel]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-11-16 + end: 2023-12 + role: "chief executive of Effective Ventures Foundation" + fn: 8 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Zachary Robinson]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive of the US charity in its returns for June 2024 and June 2025" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Jade Leung]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-04 + role: "director of the Long-Term Incubator project" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017-03 + role: "largest funder of the UK charity, per its accounts" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[FTX Foundation]]" + reverse: true + role: "donations of 1,478,708 pounds and 2,766,546 pounds to the UK charity in the years to June 2022 and June 2023" + fn: 19 + - type: funded + with: "[[Council on Strategic Risks]]" + role: "grant of 1.6 million dollars from the US charity in the year to June 2022" + fn: 12 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Charity Commission]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-12-19 + end: 2024-05-22 + role: "statutory inquiry under section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 into the UK charity" + fn: 7 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Centre for [[Effective Altruism]] (CEA) was the name of two affiliated charities and, later, of a project hosted by them. The English company now registered as Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), number 07962181, was incorporated as the Centre for Effective Altruism on 23 February 2012, took the name [[Effective Ventures|Effective Ventures Foundation]] on 25 August 2022 and became Effective Ventures Foundation (UK) on 27 February 2023.[^1] [[William MacAskill]], [[Toby Ord]] and [[Nick Beckstead]] were each appointed directors on the day of incorporation.[^2] [[Charlotte Alter]] of [[Time|TIME]] described MacAskill as having "co-founded the Centre for Effective Altruism."[^3] The American charity filed its tax returns for 2013 to 2021 as Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc (EIN 47-1988398, [[San Francisco]], tax-exempt from February 2015) and has since been renamed Effective Ventures Foundation USA.[^4] After the 2022 renaming, CEA continued as one of the projects fiscally sponsored by the two charities, alongside [[80,000 Hours]], [[Giving What We Can]], EA Funds, the [[Forethought Foundation]], the [[Centre for the Governance of AI]] and [[Longview Philanthropy]].[^5][^6] + +### The English Company + +The [[Charity Commission]] registered the company as charity number 1149828 on 20 November 2012. Its objects include improving "fundraising and planned giving to charities," "the advancement of education by providing sources of information about the ethics of career choices" (the object under which 80,000 Hours operated) and research into the relief of poverty.[^7] + +The register of officers records Beckstead as a director from incorporation to 2 April 2019 and again from 1 July 2021 to 23 August 2023, MacAskill from incorporation to 21 September 2023, and Ord from incorporation to 29 July 2022. [[Hilary Greaves]] served from 2 April to 18 July 2019, [[Claire Zabel]] from 18 July 2019 to 28 March 2024, [[Owen Cotton-Barratt]] from 24 March 2020 to 11 February 2023 and [[Tasha McCauley]] from 1 July 2021 to 14 March 2024. [[Lincoln Quirk]] was appointed on 23 May 2023, [[Eli Rose]] and [[Johnstuart Winchell]] on 9 February 2024 and [[Patrick Gruban]] on 20 March 2024, the day Winchell resigned. The company secretaries were [[Tom Ash]] (19 February 2013 to 11 April 2014), [[Robert Wiblin]] (21 April 2014 to 1 July 2015), [[Tara Mac Aulay]] (1 July 2015 to 17 August 2018) and [[Zachary Robinson]] (11 February 2023 to 14 July 2023).[^2] The accounts for the year to June 2022 also name Joshua Axford as company secretary until 11 February 2023 and record that [[Howie Lempel]] was appointed chief executive on 16 November 2022.[^8] + +The register of persons with significant control records Mac Aulay, from 1 July 2016 to 17 August 2018, as having "significant influence or control" over the company. MacAskill, Ord and Beckstead were notified as holders of more than 25 percent of the voting rights on 31 October 2018; Beckstead's entry ceased on 2 April 2019 and those of MacAskill and Ord on 2 February 2022, when the company filed a statement that it had no registrable person. Zabel had held such an entry from 18 July 2019 and Cotton-Barratt from 24 March 2020, both ceasing on 2 February 2022. Zabel, McCauley and Quirk were notified on 21 September 2023, and the current controllers are Quirk, Rose (from 7 March 2024) and Gruban (from 20 March 2024).[^9] + +### The American Charity + +The first returns of Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc, two short-form returns for 2013 and 2014 filed in July 2015, listed [[Peter Singer]] as president, [[Peter Eckersley]] as vice president, [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] as treasurer, [[Ben Kuhn]] as secretary and [[Boris Yakubchik]] as a director, at 815 Eddy Street, San Francisco. The return for 2015 listed the same five, with [[Amy Labenz]] as principal officer. In the return for 2016 MacAskill was vice president and chair, Mac Aulay treasurer and secretary, Labenz president and [[Kerry Vaughan]] vice president, and Bankman-Fried, Kuhn, Yakubchik and Eckersley were board members. The return for 2017 listed the same board and paid Mac Aulay 51,273 dollars as treasurer and secretary. The return for 2018 listed MacAskill as chair and Bankman-Fried, Beckstead, Eckersley, Kuhn and Yakubchik as board members, with Mac Aulay paid 20,018 dollars as treasurer and secretary. The return for 2019 listed MacAskill, Beckstead and Greaves as board members and Bankman-Fried as "Former Board Member," and named [[Benjamin Todd]] as chief executive of the 80,000 Hours project.[^10] The register of the English company records no appointment for Bankman-Fried.[^2] + +Alter reported that Bankman-Fried launched [[Alameda Research]] in the fall of 2017 with Mac Aulay, "who had been the CEO of the Centre for Effective Altruism," and that its initial funding came from two donors in the movement, [[Luke Ding]] and [[Jaan Tallinn]]. According to four people with knowledge of the discussions, Alter wrote, Mac Aulay and others warned MacAskill, Beckstead and [[Holden Karnofsky]] about Bankman-Fried's conduct in the weeks before and the months after an April 2018 confrontation at Alameda; by the end of 2018 senior figures were debating his presence on CEA's board, and "In 2019, Bankman-Fried left CEA's board." One person contacted during the investigation told Alter that CEA conducted an internal investigation relating to CEA and Alameda that year, "conducted in part by MacAskill." MacAskill and Beckstead declined to answer TIME's detailed questions, citing an independent investigation, and CEA did not respond to requests to explain the departure.[^3] + +The American charity reported total revenue of 672,035 dollars for 2015, 1,548,370 dollars for 2016, 12,741,527 dollars for 2017, 10,524,715 dollars for 2018, 8,437,210 dollars for 2019 and 21,711,453 dollars for 2020. It then changed to a June year end, reporting 17,476,222 dollars for the six months to June 2021, 75,847,179 dollars for the year to June 2022, 74,969,377 dollars for June 2023, 42,384,700 dollars for June 2024 and 23,675,475 dollars for June 2025. Its returns for June 2024 and June 2025 list Robinson as president and chief executive, paid 339,903 dollars in the latter year.[^4] On 1 July 2021 the English company became the American charity's sole member, and the accounts for the year to June 2022 are consolidated; it ceased to be the sole member in December 2022, after which the two operated as independent charities under an affiliation agreement and the American one changed its name from Centre for Effective Altruism USA to Effective Ventures Foundation (US).[^5][^11] + +The American return for the year to June 2022 listed Beckstead among its trustees. Its schedule of grants to domestic organizations began with 1,670,000 dollars to [[Pure Earth]] and 1,600,000 dollars to the [[Council on Strategic Risks]] in Washington, the latter for "growing the Council on Strategic Risks' nuclear security policy development and engagement with decision-makers," followed by [[Rethink Priorities]], the [[Players Philanthropy Fund]], the [[Center for Global Development]], the [[Against Malaria Foundation]] and [[Founders Pledge]].[^12] + +### Open Philanthropy Funding + +[[Open Philanthropy]] recommended a grant of 2,500,000 dollars to CEA for general support in March 2017, with Beckstead, then a director of the English company, as grant investigator; the page states that "CEA staff also reviewed this page prior to publication" and that the grant would allow CEA to "increase staff salaries (from what we see as previously low levels)." The page does not mention Beckstead's directorship.[^13] In June 2018 Open Philanthropy recommended a further 2,000,000 pounds (2,688,000 dollars), again with Beckstead as investigator.[^14] In March 2018, with Karnofsky as investigator, it awarded 5,000,000 dollars to "the Centre for Effective Altruism USA" to "create and seed a new discretionary fund that will be administered by [[Carl Shulman]]," a research associate at the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] and an adviser to Open Philanthropy; the work Shulman signaled he might fund included "economic modeling of the impacts of automating different aspects of AI development."[^14] + +Grants recommended by a "Committee for Effective Altruism Support" followed: 2,756,250 dollars in February 2019, 1,755,921 dollars in September 2019, 4,146,795 dollars in January 2020 and 7,500,000 dollars in February 2021.[^15] Three grants in 2020 named Zabel, then a director, as investigator: 38,350 dollars in January to promote Ord's book The Precipice, 180,000 dollars in February and 48,736 dollars in September for a "longtermist project incubator," the last after 451,264 dollars were returned in March 2023.[^16] The accounts for the year to June 2021 name [[Jade Leung]] as director of the Long-Term Incubator project from April 2019.[^5] Leung later became chief technology officer of the British [[AI Security Institute]]; on 15 August 2025 the government appointed her the Prime Minister's adviser on AI, and on 23 September 2026 it announced that she would become vice-chair of the institute and take a part-time fellowship at the [[Hoover Institution]].[^17] + +Later recommendations to CEA and its successors included 500,000 dollars for the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (October 2021); two grants totaling 26,000,000 dollars for general support (March 2022); 77,000 dollars for a research assistant to [[Jonas Sandbrink]], a biosecurity researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute (May 2022); 5,318,000 dollars over three years for a coworking space in Boston for biosecurity teams "including [[Kevin Esvelt]]'s lab" (August 2022); 8,875,000 dollars for a five-year lease on an office in Harvard Square and 250,000 dollars for a one-year office for the Harvard AI Safety Team (August 2022); 4,929,000 dollars for Infrastructure Fund regranting (September 2022); two grants totaling 11,425,000 dollars to Effective Ventures Foundation, "formerly known as the Centre for Effective Altruism," and 1,500,000 pounds for office space for the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford (December 2022); 4,700,000 dollars (January 2023) and 2,360,192 dollars (June 2023) to the American charity; 7,644,021 dollars for the Harvard Square space (April 2023); 11,000,000 dollars (June 2023); 288,000 dollars for an "AI Safety Communications Centre" that "connects journalists to AI safety experts and resources" (August 2023); 3,342,238 dollars and 3,543,240 dollars in simultaneous grants to the English and American charities (November 2023); and 14,201,781 dollars for CEA (May 2024).[^18] In January and March 2023 Open Philanthropy also granted 37,128 dollars and 75,617 dollars to reimburse student group organizers who bought copies of MacAskill's What We Owe the Future; the English charity earned 119,614 pounds in royalties on that book in the year to June 2023.[^18][^19] + +The English charity's accounts for the year to June 2023 state that Zabel "is employed as a program director at Open Philanthropy, our largest funder," and that "Claire has significant influence over some of the funding decisions made by Open Philanthropy in relation to several of the charity's projects." The same note records grant income from Open Philanthropy of 39,037,949 pounds (38,285,688 pounds in the year to June 2022), and a liability of 3,352,129 pounds for grants to be returned to it.[^19] Open Philanthropy's biography of Zabel states that she joined in August 2015 and "went on to lead our Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building team"; its biography of Rose gives his title as program officer for the same program, the one under which its later CEA and 80,000 Hours grants are classed.[^20] The note for the year to June 2025 records that Rose, a current trustee, and Zabel are employed at Open Philanthropy with "significant influence" over its funding of the charity's projects, and that grant income from Open Philanthropy was 14,393,034 pounds in the year to June 2024 and 7,076,993 pounds in the year to June 2025, making 98,793,664 pounds over the four years. The trustees' report for that year describes the charity as "dependent on one major donor, Open Philanthropy" for a majority of its funding. The same note records grants of 425,508 pounds to Effective Altruism Germany, of which Gruban was formerly co-director, and states that he took no part in approving them.[^6] The 2022 and 2023 accounts describe a restricted fund named "Open Philanthropy" as "Income and expenses associated with projects supported by Good Ventures Foundation," a reference to [[Good Ventures]].[^11][^19] + +### Oxford Institutes and Projects + +The accounts for the year to June 2021 list among the senior management MacAskill (director of Forethought from October 2017), Todd (executive director of 80,000 Hours) and Leung (director of the Long-Term Incubator from April 2019). They describe the charity as affiliated with the Future of Humanity Institute and the [[Global Priorities Institute]] of the [[University of Oxford]], "with whom it shares office space," and record that both institutes' funds held by the charity were in deficit after their move to [[Trajan House]] cost more than expected, with both "expected to secure funds from a major donor."[^5] The 2025 accounts record that the two institutes "have since ceased operations."[^6] + +The charity's projects in the 2022 accounts included Longview Philanthropy, a joint project of the English and American charities from January 2022, the Atlas Fellowship, the magazine Asterisk, the Centre for the Governance of AI and a fund for "projects supported by FTX Foundation."[^11] The 2025 accounts list among the year's grantees the [[Alignment Research Center]], FAR AI, [[Conjecture]] and the [[Nuclear Threat Initiative]], and a restricted fund to provide desk space at Trajan House for the [[Oxford AI Safety Initiative]].[^6] + +### Wytham Abbey + +In December 2021 Open Philanthropy recommended two grants totaling 17,324,697 pounds (about 23,212,677 dollars) to Effective Ventures Foundation "to support the purchase, renovation, and operation of [[Wytham Abbey]]," a venue near Oxford "modeled on similar venues funded by the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] and the Brocher Foundation." The page states that if the venue proved less cost-effective than alternatives, "proceeds from a sale will be used to support EVF's ongoing operations," and that the amount was updated in October 2024.[^21] The accounts record the purchase on 1 April 2022.[^11] + +In the year to June 2025 the trustees recorded an impairment of 8,593,798 pounds against a freehold cost of 16,536,782 pounds. They state that the property was marketed in summer 2024 "at the original purchase price," that valuers then advised a change of strategy "given significant reductions in market sentiment," and that "After the year ended, the Charity entered into a sales agreement and completed the sale of Wytham Abbey for £6m in November 2025." During the year 279,816 pounds were transferred from central funds to meet the running costs. The 2024 accounts record that Lakeside, an Oxford accommodation property carried at about 1.4 million pounds, was sold after the year end for about 1.2 million pounds.[^6][^22] + +### FTX Foundation Funds and the Charity Commission Inquiry + +The announcement of the [[FTX Future Fund]] on 1 March 2022, reposted by [[Tyler Cowen]], gave its team as Beckstead (chief executive), [[Leopold Aschenbrenner]], MacAskill and [[Ketan Ramakrishnan]].[^23] Alter reported that in less than nine months the fund gave 13.9 million dollars to CEA.[^3] The English charity's accounts record donations from the [[FTX Foundation]] of 1,478,708 pounds in the year to June 2022 and 2,766,546 pounds in the year to June 2023, and state in both years that one of the trustees was also chief executive of the FTX Foundation.[^19] The Future Fund team announced its resignation in a post dated 11 November 2022.[^24] + +[[FTX]] filed for bankruptcy on 11 November 2022. Five days later Lempel was appointed chief executive.[^8] On 19 November the charity filed a serious incident report with the Commission stating that it held 3.3 million pounds and 300,000 dollars from FTX or affiliated entities, that one trustee was chief executive of the FTX Foundation and another an unpaid adviser to the FTX Future Fund. On 2 December the trustees told the Commission that those trustees had been excluded from decisions on the bankruptcy as "non-participating" trustees. The Commission opened a statutory inquiry under section 46 of the [[Charities Act 2011]] on 19 December 2022. On 12 February 2023 the trustees filed a second serious incident report about a historic safeguarding incident involving a former trustee before that person's appointment.[^7] The accounts for the year to June 2022 state that an internal investigation was "ongoing in Q1 2023 in order to investigate concerns re past conduct of a former trustee."[^8] + +The inquiry report of 22 May 2024 records that the trustees ringfenced the funds and obtained a Defence Against Money Laundering from the [[National Crime Agency]], a consent sought where a reporter suspects that property may be criminal under the [[Proceeds of Crime Act 2002]]. The charity returned 4,246,503.16 dollars (3,340,021 pounds) under a settlement reached on independent legal advice, in which the Commission had no involvement. The Commission found that trustees were not required to disclose conflicts of interest on joining the board until October 2022, that no formal training or guidance on conflicts had been given, that the two FTX-connected trustees left a "lack of clarity as to whether they were acting for the charity or on behalf of FTX Foundation at any given time," and that financial procedures "were not adhered to or reviewed regularly as the charity's income grew," with a dedicated finance team only from 2022. It found "no evidence to suggest that there were any unmanaged conflicts of interest regarding funds the charity received from the FTX Foundation," concluded that the trustees "acted diligently and quickly," and recorded that the two FTX-connected trustees and the person named in the safeguarding report resigned during the inquiry. It gave advice under section 15(2) of the Act on 3 January 2024.[^7] The register records the resignations of Beckstead on 23 August 2023 and MacAskill on 21 September 2023.[^2] The 2023 accounts state that in November 2023 the charity reached a settlement with the FTX estate "which provided a general release from all possible claims from the FTX estate."[^19] + +### Spin-out and Successor Entities + +In November 2023 the trustees decided to spin all fiscally sponsored projects out into independent entities. The accounts for the year to June 2025 record the completion dates: the Centre for the Governance of AI on 15 November 2024, Forethought on 28 February 2025, 80,000 Hours on 31 March 2025 and the teenage fellowship Non-Trivial on 11 April 2025. CEA and EA Funds were to merge from 1 July 2025. The board "does not intend to fiscally sponsor new charitable projects" and expects the company to "wind down (in 2026 or beyond)," and the accounts were prepared on a basis other than going concern. In that year the charity spent 8,135,491 pounds on CEA, 5,454,605 pounds on 80,000 Hours and 9,982,687 pounds on EA Funds and Giving What We Can, against total income of 12,083,820 pounds (31,663,819 pounds in 2024), and net funds fell from 43,259,065 pounds to 17,808,025 pounds.[^6] Open Philanthropy recommended 460,000 dollars to the English charity and 990,000 dollars to the American one for CEA's spin-out costs in May 2024.[^25] + +Two new English companies, Centre for Effective Altruism UK (number 16360152, incorporated 2 April 2025) and Centre for Effective Altruism Community UK (number 16395613, incorporated 17 April 2025), are registered at Trajan House with a single director each and a statement that the company has no registrable controller.[^26] In the [[United States]], Centre For Effective Altruism Inc (EIN 33-3737390), at an address in Milton, Delaware, holds a tax exemption with a ruling date of 1 March 2025.[^27] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Companies House, "Effective Ventures Foundation (UK)," company number 07962181, company overview and previous names, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181 +[^2]: Companies House, "Effective Ventures Foundation (UK)," register of officers (16 officers, 13 resignations), retrieved 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/officers +[^3]: Alter, Charlotte. "Exclusive: Effective Altruist Leaders Were Repeatedly Warned About Sam Bankman-Fried Years Before FTX Collapsed." TIME, 15 March 2023. https://time.com/6262810/sam-bankman-fried-effective-altruism-alameda-ftx/ +[^4]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Effective Ventures Foundation Usa," EIN 47-1988398, organization page and API record with Form 990 data for 2013 to June 2025, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/471988398 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/471988398.json +[^5]: Centre for Effective Altruism, Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2021, filed at Companies House 5 April 2022: reference and administrative details, Trustees' Report ("Structure, Governance & Management," "Affiliations"), Strategic Report ("Financial review") and note 28 ("Post balance sheet events"). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzMzNTExMDE2NGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^6]: Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2025, filed at Companies House 13 February 2026: Trustees' Report ("Structure, Governance & Management," "Affiliations," "Objectives and Activities," "Wytham Abbey," "Financial review," "Loss of major donors"), notes 2.2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 14, 18 and 25. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzUwNDQ3MTAxM2FkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^7]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity Inquiry: Effective Ventures Foundation UK," published 22 May 2024, sections "The charity," "Background," "Findings," "Conclusions" and "Regulatory Action Taken." https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk/charity-inquiry-effective-ventures-foundation-uk +[^8]: Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), accounts for the year ended 30 June 2022 (as in note 10): reference and administrative details (trustees, company secretaries, "Chief executive officer Mr H Lempel (appointed 16 November 2022)") and Trustees' Report, "Management of existing risks," "Safeguarding"; accounts for the year ended 30 June 2024, filed 1 April 2025, note 25 ("Howie Lempel was the Chief Executive Officer of the Charity until December 2023"). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzM5MTI2OTUwNmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf ; https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzQ2MDU2NjI0MmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^9]: Companies House, "Effective Ventures Foundation (UK)," persons with significant control and withdrawn statements, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/persons-with-significant-control +[^10]: Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc, EIN 47-1988398: Forms 990-EZ for 2013 and 2014 (filed July 2015), Part IV; Forms 990 for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Part VII, Section A, as rendered from IRS e-file data by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, objects 201501979349200410, 201623209349318702, 201722829349300042, 201842929349300304, 201913209349301221 and 202003039349302045, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201501979349200410/IRS990EZ ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201623209349318702/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201722829349300042/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201842929349300304/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201913209349301221/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202003039349302045/IRS990 +[^11]: Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), Trustees' and Strategic Report and consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2022, filed at Companies House 30 August 2023: "Wytham Abbey" and "Longview" in the Trustees' Report, statement of funds and fund descriptions, notes 29 to 31 ("Related party transactions," "Contingent liabilities," "Post balance sheet events"). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzM5MTI2OTUwNmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^12]: Effective Ventures Foundation USA, Form 990 for the tax year beginning July 2021 (year ended June 2022), Part VII, Section A, and Schedule I, Part II, as rendered by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, object 202311339349300516, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202311339349300516/IRS990 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202311339349300516/IRS990ScheduleI +[^13]: Open Philanthropy, "Centre for Effective Altruism, General Support (2017)," award date March 2017, grant investigator Nick Beckstead, published August 2017, Wayback Machine capture of 14 November 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20251114154919/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-2017/ +[^14]: Open Philanthropy, "Centre for Effective Altruism, General Support (2018)," award date June 2018, grant investigator Nick Beckstead, Wayback capture of 15 November 2025; "Centre for Effective Altruism, New Discretionary Fund," award date March 2018, grant investigator Holden Karnofsky, Wayback capture of 5 January 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20251115051319/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-2018/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250105202534/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-new-discretionary-fund/ +[^15]: Open Philanthropy, "Centre for Effective Altruism, General Support (2019)" (February 2019), "General Support and Community-Building Grants (2019)" (September 2019), "General Support and Community-Building Grants (2020)" (January 2020) and "General Support (2021)" (February 2021), each with grant investigator "Committee for Effective Altruism Support," Wayback captures of December 2024 to October 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20241204090451/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-2019/ ; 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https://web.archive.org/web/20251024104819/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-longtermist-incubator-september-2020/ +[^17]: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Prime Minister's Office, "Appointment of Jade Leung as the Prime Minister's AI adviser," GOV.UK, 15 August 2025; Cabinet Office, "Dr Jade Leung appointed Vice-Chair of the AI Security Institute and Security Advisor to the AI Taskforce," GOV.UK, 23 September 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/appointment-of-jade-leung-as-the-prime-ministers-ai-adviser ; https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dr-jade-leung-appointed-vice-chair-of-the-ai-security-institute-and-security-advisor-to-the-ai-taskforce +[^18]: Open Philanthropy grant pages, Wayback captures of 2023 to 2025: "Centre for Effective Altruism, Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund" (October 2021); "General Support (2022)" (March 2022); "Research Assistant for Jonas Sandbrink" (May 2022); "Biosecurity Coworking Space," "Harvard Square Coworking Space" and "Harvard AI Safety Office" (August 2022); "Infrastructure Fund Regranting" (September 2022); "Effective Ventures Foundation, General Support" and "Office Space" (December 2022); "General Support (EVF USA, January 2023)"; "Effective Ventures Foundation, Support for What We Owe The Future" (January 2023); "Effective Ventures Foundation USA, Support for What We Owe The Future" (March 2023); "Effective Ventures Foundation USA, Harvard Square Coworking Space (2023)" (April 2023); "General Support (EVF, June 2023)" and "(EVF USA, June 2023)"; "Effective Ventures Foundation, AI Safety Communications Centre" (August 2023); "General Support (EVF, November 2023)" and "(EVF USA, November 2023)"; "General Support (EVF, May 2024)." https://web.archive.org/web/20251117060703/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-effective-altruism-infrastructure-fund/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20251103005418/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-2022/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250512185858/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-research-assistant-for-jonas-sandbrink/ ; 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https://web.archive.org/web/20241110095505/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/effective-ventures-foundation-usa-support-for-what-we-owe-the-future/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250618024013/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-harvard-square-coworking-space-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20251023101706/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250711152100/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-june-2023/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250201041241/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/effective-ventures-foundation-ai-safety-communications-centre/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20251024141001/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-evf/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250518121930/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-evf-usa/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250123031744/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-general-support-evf-uk-may-2024/ +[^19]: Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2023, filed at Companies House 21 March 2024: Trustees' Report, "Management of existing risks" (FTX bankruptcy), fund descriptions, and note 27 ("Related party transactions"), page 48. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzQxNDkzNjQ2NGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^20]: Open Philanthropy, team biographies "Claire Zabel" (Wayback capture of 5 January 2025) and "Eli Rose" (Wayback capture of 6 January 2025). https://web.archive.org/web/20250105212156/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/claire-zabel/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250106073801/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/about/team/eli-rose/ +[^21]: Open Philanthropy, "Effective Ventures Foundation, Event Venue," award date December 2021, amount updated October 2024, Wayback capture of 4 November 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20251104150006/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/effective-ventures-foundation-uk-event-venue/ +[^22]: Effective Ventures Foundation (UK), Trustees' Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2024, filed at Companies House 1 April 2025, note 26 ("Post balance sheet events"). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07962181/filing-history/MzQ2MDU2NjI0MmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf +[^23]: Cowen, Tyler. "Announcing the Future Fund." Marginal Revolution, 1 March 2022. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/03/announcing-the-future-fund.html +[^24]: Beckstead, Nick, Leopold Aschenbrenner, Ketan Ramakrishnan and others. "The FTX Future Fund team has resigned." Effective Altruism Forum, 11 November 2022. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xafpj3on76uRDoBja/the-ftx-future-fund-team-has-resigned-1 +[^25]: Open Philanthropy, "Centre for Effective Altruism, Spinout Costs (EVF UK, May 2024)" and "Spinout Costs (EVF USA, May 2024)," Wayback captures of 18 June 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250618031521/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-spinout-costs-evf-uk-may-2024/ ; https://web.archive.org/web/20250618031718/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/centre-for-effective-altruism-spinout-costs-evf-usa-may-2024/ +[^26]: Companies House, "Centre for Effective Altruism UK," company number 16360152, and "Centre for Effective Altruism Community UK," company number 16395613, overviews, officers and persons with significant control, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16360152 ; https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16395613 +[^27]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, "Centre For Effective Altruism Inc," EIN 33-3737390, organization record, retrieved 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/333737390.json diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..459c4829 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.md @@ -0,0 +1,224 @@ +--- +category: "Skeptics & Critics" +tags: + - Organization + - Skeptic + - CSICOP + - SkepticalInquirer + - CenterForInquiry + - PaulKurtz + - Parapsychology + - Stargate + - MarsEffect + - JamesRandi + - RayHyman +alias: + - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal + - CSICOP + - CSICOP, Inc. + - Committee for Skeptical Inquiry + - CSI + - The Zetetic +summary: "Skeptics' organization founded in 1976 by Paul Kurtz at an American Humanist Association conference in Buffalo, publisher of the Skeptical Inquirer, later renamed the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, now a Center for Inquiry program." +start: 1976-05-01 +location: "Amherst, New York" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Paul Kurtz]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976-05-01 + role: "founder and chairman" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Paul Kurtz]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976-05-01 + role: "chairman (co-chairman in 1976)" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Marcello Truzzi]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976-05-01 + end: 1977-08 + role: "co-chairman and editor of The Zetetic" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Lee Nisbet]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "first executive director" + fn: 6 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Mark Plummer]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive director, lawyer" + fn: 13 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Barry Karr]]" + reverse: true + end: 2025-07-03 + role: "executive director" + fn: 15 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Kendrick Frazier]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor of the Skeptical Inquirer" + fn: 7 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Martin Gardner]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "original Executive Council member" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[James Randi]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "original Executive Council member" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Ray Hyman]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "original Executive Council member; chairman of the Parapsychology Subcommittee" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Philip J. Klass]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "original Executive Council member; chairman of the UFO Subcommittee" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Dennis Rawlins]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "original Executive Council member" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[James Alcock]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "Fellow; Executive Council member" + fn: 22 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Carl Sagan]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "Fellow" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Geller v. Randi]]" + start: 1991 + role: "co-defendant; awarded Rule 11 sanctions of 149,000 dollars" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) was organized on May 1, 1976, at a meeting of the [[American Humanist Association]] at the [[State University of New York at Buffalo]], with [[Paul Kurtz]], then editor of [[The Humanist]], as co-chairman.[^1][^2] Its journal, The Zetetic, was renamed the [[Skeptical Inquirer]] after its first year and was published from Buffalo and later from Amherst, New York.[^1] CSICOP filed a complaint against [[NBC]] with the [[Federal Communications Commission]] in November 1977 and was a co-defendant in a libel suit brought by [[Uri Geller]] in 1991.[^1][^3] It became the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), a program of the [[Center for Inquiry]].[^4][^5] + +### Founding + +The Humanist published a statement, "Objections to Astrology," in its September/October 1975 issue under Kurtz's editorship. It carried 186 signatures of scientists, and [[Prometheus Books]], the publishing house Kurtz founded, issued it in 1975 with additional endorsers.[^6] [[Marcello Truzzi]], a sociologist at [[Eastern Michigan University]], had meanwhile proposed a group called Resources for the Scientific Evaluation of the Paranormal in his newsletter, and in late 1975 he told readers that The Humanist had started forming a similar body, the "Committee to Scientifically Investigate Claims of Alleged Paranormal and Other Phenomena."[^6] + +The committee was organized on May 1, 1976, at an annual meeting of the American Humanist Association devoted to "The New Irrationalism: Antiscience and Pseudoscience," with some twenty-five sponsoring members.[^2] [[Kendrick Frazier]] gives the date as April 30, 1976, at an international symposium on the Amherst campus of SUNY Buffalo, sponsored initially by The Humanist, after which the committee "became an independent organization."[^1] Kurtz's founding statement said: "Many individuals now believe that there is considerable need to organize some strategy of refutation."[^1] The [[New York Times]] gave the founding 24 column inches on May 1, 1976.[^1] + +Kurtz and Truzzi were co-chairmen. [[Lee Nisbet]], listed in the first issue also as executive director of The Humanist, was CSICOP's first executive director, according to Alcock.[^6] The first issue of The Zetetic listed Fellows who included [[Isaac Asimov]], [[Martin Gardner]], [[Sidney Hook]], [[Ray Hyman]], [[Leon Jaroff]], senior editor of Time, [[Philip J. Klass]], [[James Prescott]], a psychologist at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, [[James Randi]], [[Dennis Rawlins]], [[Carl Sagan]], [[B. F. Skinner]] and [[Marvin Zelen]]. Its address was Box 29, Kensington Station, Buffalo.[^2] [[James Alcock]] listed the original Executive Council as Kurtz, Truzzi, Gardner, Randi, Hyman, Klass, Rawlins and Nisbet, with thirty-five Fellows.[^6] + +Truzzi's editorial in the first issue said: "Though it is likely that most of our results will prove negative, our central purpose is not one of debunking paranormal claims."[^2] Truzzi left the committee after the first year, resigned as editor of The Zetetic, which became the Skeptical Inquirer under a new editor, Frazier, and started Zetetic Scholar. He told the New York Times in June 1978: "I don't doubt that 99 percent of occultism is empirically false, but the approach to it has to be based on an examination of the evidence by people qualified to do that, not on outright condemnation." Kurtz replied that "we do believe it's important that, when claims of the paranormal get wide public attention and belief, the skeptical position also get media attention."[^7] A copy of the article is among the "Parapsychological Phenomena Open Source Literature" documents in the reading room of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].[^7] + +Staff of the [[Office of Technology Assessment]] wrote in a 1989 workshop report that "few scientists were involved in the creation of CSICOP" and that "the organization has always been led and operated by non-scientists."[^8] + +### Fairness Doctrine Complaint Against NBC + +CSICOP filed a complaint with the FCC under the Fairness Doctrine against the NBC program "Exploring the Unknown," narrated by [[Burt Lancaster]] and broadcast on November 8, 1977. After the commission rejected the complaint, CSICOP filed a petition on April 27, 1979, in the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]]. It was represented by [[David S. Lichtenstein]] and the law firm of [[Rothwell, Cappello and Berndtson]]. The brief argued that the program contained "controversial material of public importance" and that "NBC did not provide a reasonable opportunity to present contrasting views." It focused on segments in which psychic powers were said to cure illness and in which "psychic surgery" was shown.[^9] + +### Incorporation, Offices and Staff + +CSICOP was incorporated in 1978, "with the Board of Directors and the Executive Council holding ultimate responsibility."[^10] Rawlins wrote in Fate in 1981 that CSICOP began as an offshoot of the American Humanist Association and that in 1978, "after a year of not telling AHA anything of the ongoing legal proceedings," it separately incorporated. He also wrote that Kurtz told him by telephone that he had been fired as editor of The Humanist "after 11 years at the post."[^11] The committee became independent of The Humanist shortly after its founding.[^1] + +The executive office was at Box 29, Kensington Station, Buffalo in 1976, at 1203 Kensington Avenue, Buffalo, in 1979 and 1980, and at 3151 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, with a mailing address at Box 229, Central Park Station, in 1984.[^12] By 1996 it was across from the Amherst campus of SUNY Buffalo.[^1] The chairman received no CSICOP salary, and the committee was "financed entirely through subscriptions and donations and is always severely pressed for funds," according to Frazier.[^1] + +Nisbet was listed as executive director in 1980 and 1984. In the Fall 1988 masthead, [[Mark Plummer]], a lawyer, was executive director, Nisbet was special projects director and [[Barry Karr]] was public relations director.[^12][^13] The same issue listed seven subcommittees, with Hyman chairing Parapsychology, Klass chairing UFOs, and Plummer chairing Legal and Consumer Protection.[^13] Karr was executive director in July 1995.[^14] Karr's last day as executive director of CSI was July 3, 2025; he had begun at CSICOP as a SUNY Buffalo undergraduate during the committee's fifth year.[^15] [[Stephen Hupp]] is executive director, and Hyman and Alcock are on the Executive Council.[^16] + +On December 9, 1982, the Executive Council clarified that local, regional and national skeptics' groups sharing its goals were "autonomous, not officially or unofficially affiliated with CSICOP."[^10] + +### The Mars Effect + +Kurtz, Zelen and the astronomer [[George Abell]] had proposed a test (the Zelen test) of the claim by [[Michel Gauquelin]] that sports champions are born more often than chance with Mars in particular sectors of the sky. Gauquelin carried it out and published it in The Humanist in November/December 1977, and the participants disagreed about its results.[^1] Four articles on a further test using American champions appeared in the Winter 1979-80 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer. Kurtz, Zelen and Abell reported that 55 of 408 champions, 13.5 percent, were born in a key sector. Rawlins, who was on the editorial board and had been retained to calculate the celestial positions, wrote in the same issue that the European rate was 21.65 percent against an expected 17.17 percent and that "I do not doubt the rates, analysis, or odds." The Gauquelins and the authors each answered in the issue.[^17] + +Rawlins published an account in Fate in October 1981, "sTARBABY." He wrote that Kurtz telephoned to ask for an advance look at the results, which were "to be strictly confidential"; that a CSICOP check for 100 dollars accompanied the first installment of 72 athletes' birth data and that Kurtz later mailed "unsolicited cash"; that when the key-sector score stood at 22 percent after 120 names Kurtz "groaned"; and that Kurtz and his co-authors had converted a test of nonchampions, who scored at the chance level, into an attack on a subsample of champions. Rawlins wrote that at the point of the later control-test report the handling of the Gauquelin problem "was transformed from mere bungling to deliberate cover-up."[^11] Frazier wrote that Rawlins "intensified his criticisms to a personal level, was eventually dropped from the Executive Council," and that the Skeptical Inquirer printed his commentary "Remus Extremus" with responses by the Executive Council, Kurtz and Abell in Winter 1981-82.[^1] Alcock wrote in 2026 that Rawlins left after a 1978 Executive Council meeting in [[Washington, D.C.]], following his criticism of "a further analysis of certain astrological claims by Kurtz and others."[^6] + +In Spring 1983 Abell, Kurtz and Zelen published a reappraisal agreeing with four criticisms of their statement on the first test and three criticisms of the American test, and wrote: "We regret that at the outset we had not the foresight to exercise a great deal more care in our experiments and in reporting them." They maintained that the American test "gave results highly inconsistent with a Mars effect for athletes."[^1] + +### Parapsychology and Military Research + +Hyman reviewed The Geller Papers in the first issue of The Zetetic, and on June 11, 1976, a subcommittee of the Fellows invited Geller to submit to tests, giving him 45 days to reply.[^2] [[David Marks]] and [[Richard Kammann]] published "The Nonpsychic Powers of Uri Geller" in The Zetetic, volume 1, number 2, Spring/Summer 1977, and Marks published "[[Remote Viewing]] Revisited" in the Skeptical Inquirer in Summer 1982.[^18] + +In 1979 the Army's Grill Flame review of remote viewing considered Hyman for its scientific evaluation panel. A memorandum of the Under Secretary of the Army's office of July 17, 1979, stated that "Dr. Snyder of VPI has been asked in place of Dr. Hyman," and a memorandum of conversation of January 17, 1980, recorded that Hyman "was rejected not because of any action by Gale, but because of a protest memo from MG Thompson to Dr LaBerge."[^19] + +[[Don Addis]] wrote in "The Lighter Side" of the Summer 1984 Skeptical Inquirer, in a column titled "Psychic Arms Race? Give Me a Break!": "We find the Pentagon reportedly has been doing psychic research for possible use in espionage and war, fearing an ESP arms gap between us and the [[Soviet Union]]." He named [[Russell Targ]] as one source of the news report.[^20] On November 9 and 10, 1984, CSICOP held a conference at [[Stanford University]], "Scientific Facts and Fiction." Sidney Hook, identified as a fellow of the [[Hoover Institution]], gave the keynote address. A panel titled "The Psychic Arms Race" was moderated by Kurtz and included Hyman, Klass, [[Martin Ebon]], author of a book of that title, and Jaroff.[^21] + +A fund-raising letter from CSICOP dated March 23, 1985, and co-signed by Hyman said, according to a report by [[John A. Palmer]], [[Charles Honorton]] and [[Jessica Utts]] for the board of the [[Parapsychological Association]]: "in these days of government budget-cutting the Defense Department may be spending millions of tax dollars on developing 'psychic arms.' . . . Please help us in this battle against the irrational."[^22] In 1984 the [[United States Army]]'s [[Army Research Institute]] had asked the [[National Academy of Sciences]] to form a committee on techniques for enhancing human performance. The [[National Research Council]] committee was chaired by [[John A. Swets]], and its parapsychology subcommittee by Hyman.[^23] Palmer, Honorton and Utts wrote, in a section headed "Anatomy of Prejudgment," that Hyman and Alcock "were members of the CSICOP Executive Council in 1985, when the NRC Committee was formed," that Hyman had been chairman of CSICOP's Parapsychology Subcommittee "since its inception," and that Alcock was the author of the only paper on parapsychological techniques the NRC committee commissioned.[^22] The fall 1988 masthead of the Skeptical Inquirer listed Hyman as chairman of that subcommittee.[^13] Frazier's summary of the report in the Skeptical Inquirer quotes its conclusion: "The committee finds no scientific justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years for the existence of parapsychological phenomena," and its statement that "there is no reason for direct involvement by the Army at this time."[^23] + +In the Summer 1986 issue the Skeptical Inquirer printed "Some Remote-Viewing Recollections" by [[Elliot H. Weinberg]], identified as director of research of the [[Office of Naval Research]] from 1971 to 1979 and then director of the Navy Center for International Science and Technology. Weinberg wrote that "during a period when I had some governmental responsibility for keeping track of research trends and for recommending funding priorities, I was asked to review the field of paranormal research, particularly what was coming to be known as 'remote viewing,'" and described visits to [[Hal Puthoff]] and Targ at the [[Stanford Research Institute]], where, he wrote, [[Pat Price]] "claimed to be able to read the numbers on Soviet submarines currently in port in, say, Sebastopol."[^24] + +Five members of the Executive Council, Kurtz, Alcock, Randi, Frazier and Klass, and a staff member spent two weeks in China, from March 21 to April 3, 1988, at the invitation of the newspaper Science and Technology Daily, whose editor-in-chief, [[Lin Zixin]], was their host. Kurtz wrote that "we were asked repeatedly if it was true that the CIA and the [[KGB]] are studying psychic phenomena for use by the military."[^25] [[Dolan M. McKelvy]], a lieutenant colonel in the [[United States Air Force]], quoted in an Air War College research report of May 1988 a February 1987 Omni article, which stated that Klass had telephoned the University of Nebraska about a forum on anomalies research, protested that CSICOP's views were not represented, and threatened legal action, after which the university cancelled its sponsorship of such conferences.[^26] + +In the workshop report of February 22, 1989, on experimental parapsychology, Office of Technology Assessment staff described CSICOP as "a primary source of criticism and skepticism" and recorded that a participant "documented a long series of exchanges with the management of the journal Science."[^8] The [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]'s "Project Star Gate Research and Peer Review Plan" of June 1994, classified secret and not releasable to foreign nationals, contains in Appendix G a rejoinder by Utts printed in Statistical Science in 1991. In a section headed "Satisfying the Skeptics," Utts wrote: "Parapsychology is probably the only scientific discipline for which there is an organization of skeptics trying to discredit its work." She recounted CSICOP's founding by Kurtz and Truzzi and wrote: "While I believe that the skeptics, particularly some of the more knowledgeable members of CSICOP, have served a useful role in helping to improve experiments, their counter-advocacy stance is counterproductive."[^27] + +In 1995 the [[American Institutes for Research]] engaged Hyman and Utts for the CIA's evaluation of the [[Stargate Project]]. The Skeptical Inquirer for March/April 1996 printed Hyman's "Evaluation of the Military's Twenty-Year Program on [[Psychic Spying]]" and a major portion of the AIR conclusions, by [[Michael D. Mumford]], [[Andrew M. Rose]] and [[David Goslin]], under the title "CIA Concludes No Value to the Program."[^28] + +### Project Alpha and the Libel Suits + +In the summer of 1983 Randi placed two young magicians, [[Steve Shaw]] and [[Michael Edwards]], in the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at [[Washington University in St. Louis]]. Frazier wrote that the laboratory "eventually lost its private funding and shut down."[^1] + +[[Eldon Byrd]] sued Randi in 1989 for 38 million dollars, and Geller sued him in 1991 for 15 million dollars, with CSICOP named as co-defendant in each. In the Byrd case, according to Frazier, CSICOP was found not to have libeled Byrd, while Randi was found liable and the jury set damages at zero. In the Geller case CSICOP moved on January 15, 1992, for summary judgment and for sanctions under Rule 11; Geller did not respond by April 29, 1992, and the district court granted the motions as unopposed on July 2, 1992. On July 27, 1993, it entered judgment against Geller for 149,000 dollars, the fees and costs incurred by CSICOP. On appeal CSICOP asserted that Geller had neither satisfied the judgment nor posted a bond and that "he has secreted his assets abroad." The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed on December 9, 1994.[^1][^3] CSICOP financed its defense in part through a Legal Defense Fund, and by early 1995 had not received any money from Geller.[^1] Randi separated from CSICOP, partly to protect it from further suits.[^1] + +### Finances and the Center for Inquiry + +Kurtz left the American Humanist Association, founded the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism in 1980, and founded the Center for Inquiry in 1991, which the [[Internal Revenue Service]] classified as a supporting organization for CSICOP and the Council. [[Ronald A. Lindsay]], president and chief executive of the Center from 2008 to 2016, wrote that its bylaws provided for three directors chosen from the CSICOP board and three from the Council's board, along with at-large members, that in practice the at-large member was Kurtz, and that Kurtz "not infrequently remarked to me and Barry Karr, the executive director of CSI, that 'skeptics don't give money.'" Lindsay wrote that the original Center "had to be dissolved because it could not exist on its own as a supporting organization," that a unified organization followed in which CSICOP and the Council became programs of the Center, and that the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science merged with it.[^5][^29] + +In November 1996 CSICOP announced a "Fund for the Future" campaign: "a ten-year effort to add 20 million dollars to the Center for Inquiry endowments," a combined goal for CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism, with Gardner and [[Steve Allen]] as honorary co-chairs.[^30] + +The Center for Inquiry Inc. (EIN 22-2306795, Amherst) reported revenue of 2,344,993 dollars for 2011, 4,195,295 for 2014, 10,870,343 for 2017 and 5,443,648 for 2023.[^31] Its return for 2024 reports revenue of 6,992,396 dollars, contributions of 5,628,081 dollars, expenses of 6,474,802 dollars, assets of 6,706,828 dollars and 32 employees, and states its mission as "to sponsor programs and activities that advance humanism and skepticism." The return gives a formation year of 1980, the ProPublica record for the same employer identification number gives an IRS ruling date of April 2001, and Lindsay dates the founding of the Center to 1991.[^5][^31][^32] [[Edward Tabash]] was chairperson. The directors included [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Barry Kosmin]], [[Leonard Tramiel]] and [[Andy Thomson]]; [[Robyn Blumner]] was chief executive and president at 196,373 dollars plus 28,439 dollars in other compensation, Karr was chief financial officer and treasurer at 103,188 dollars, and [[Richard Conn Jr.]] was legal director.[^32] The Center for Inquiry Development Fund (EIN 16-1553194), formed in 1998 to support the Center, reported assets of 7,038,557 dollars for 2011, 14,515,096 for 2017 and 32,460,035 for 2023, and 34,857,998 dollars for 2024 against expenses of 92,880 dollars and no employees. The Center for Inquiry Holding Corporation (EIN 16-1403907) holds property leased to the Center.[^32][^33] + +The Center for Inquiry Inc. reported total assets of 1,692,625 dollars for 2011, 4,403,716 for 2015, 10,588,408 for 2017, 8,546,778 for 2021 and 5,588,342 for 2023, against expenses of 2,125,311 dollars for 2011, 4,833,092 for 2017 and 6,126,775 for 2023. The Development Fund reported assets of 8,757,236 dollars for 2014, 8,819,443 for 2016, 21,038,435 for 2019 and 30,781,982 for 2021, with revenue of 300,138 dollars and expenses of 407,308 dollars for 2016 and expenses of 49,540 dollars for 2021.[^31][^33] + +Frazier's January/February 2007 editorial in the Skeptical Inquirer was titled "It's CSI Now, Not CSICOP."[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Frazier, Kendrick. "History of CSICOP," in Gordon Stein, ed., *The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal* (Prometheus Books, 1996), pp. 168-180, published at skepticalinquirer.org. https://skepticalinquirer.org/history-of-csicop/ +[^2]: *The Zetetic,* vol. 1, no. 1, Fall/Winter 1976: Truzzi, editorial, pp. 3-6; Kurtz, "The Aims of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal"; "Committee News Notes" and list of Fellows; Hyman, review of *The Geller Papers.* https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^3]: *Geller v. Randi,* 40 F.3d 1300 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (No. 93-7140). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/040/40.F3d.1300.93-7140.html +[^4]: Frazier, Kendrick. "It's CSI Now, Not CSICOP," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 31, no. 1, January/February 2007 (title read; text is behind a subscription wall). https://skepticalinquirer.org/2007/01/its-csi-now-not-csicop/ +[^5]: Lindsay, Ronald A. "The Fourth Decade of CSI: Change, Renewal, and the Launch of CSICon," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 50, no. 3, May/June 2026. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2026/04/the-fourth-decade-of-csi-change-renewal-and-the-launch-of-csicon/ +[^6]: Alcock, James E. "Fifty Years of the Modern Skeptical Movement," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 50, no. 1, January/February 2026. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/12/fifty-years-of-the-modern-skeptical-movement/ +[^7]: "Skeptics Criticized on Paranormal Issue," *The New York Times,* June 25, 1978, copy in CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080024-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00787r000200080024-8 +[^8]: Office of Technology Assessment, International Security and Commerce Program, "Report of a Workshop on Experimental Parapsychology," February 22, 1989, note 3 and workshop discussion, CIA-RDP96-00789R002200450001-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00789r002200450001-8 +[^9]: "CSICP appeals ruling of FCC," News and Comment, *The Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 4, no. 1, Fall 1979, p. 2. https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2019/03/Issue-01-1.pdf +[^10]: "CSICOP, Groups, and Spokespersons," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 13, no. 2, Winter 1989, pp. 119-120. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^11]: Rawlins, Dennis. "sTARBABY," *Fate,* no. 34, October 1981, pp. 67-98, notes 1 and 2 and text, reproduced with the editor's permission. http://cura.free.fr/xv/14starbb.html +[^12]: *The Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 4, nos. 1 and 2, Fall 1979 and Winter 1979-80; vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 1980; vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 1984, mastheads. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^13]: *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 13, no. 1, Fall 1988, masthead and list of subcommittees. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^14]: "A Skeptically Inquiring Mind" (profile of James Randi), *Scientific American,* July 1995, p. 34, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190022-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00791r000200190022-3 +[^15]: "Barry Karr Is Retiring, and That Is Not a Hoax," *Skeptical Inquirer,* August 2025. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/08/barry-karr-is-retiring-and-that-is-not-a-hoax/ +[^16]: "Fellows and Staff," Skeptical Inquirer (skepticalinquirer.org), read October 1, 2026. https://skepticalinquirer.org/fellows-and-staff/ +[^17]: *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 4, no. 2, Winter 1979-80: Kurtz, Zelen and Abell, "Results of the U.S. Test of the 'Mars Effect' Are Negative," p. 19; Rawlins, "Report on the U.S. Test of the Gauquelins' 'Mars Effect,'" p. 26; Gauquelin and Gauquelin, p. 31; Kurtz, Zelen and Abell, "Response to the Gauquelins," p. 44. https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2019/03/Issue-02-2.pdf +[^18]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "The Nonpsychic Powers of Uri Geller," *The Zetetic,* vol. 1, no. 2, Spring/Summer 1977, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1977/04/the-nonpsychic-powers-of-uri-geller/; Marks, David F. "Remote Viewing Revisited," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 6, no. 4, Summer 1982, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1982/07/remote-viewing-revisited/ +[^19]: Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, memorandum for Mr. Manny Gale, July 17, 1979, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230004-1; Stoner, William L., Major, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," January 17, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Both in the archive.org mirror of the CIA Reading Room, e.g. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00788r001200230017-7 +[^20]: Addis, Don. "The Lighter Side: Psychic Arms Race? Give Me a Break!" *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 8, no. 4, Summer 1984. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^21]: "Scientific Facts and Fiction," conference program, Stanford University, November 9-10, 1984, *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 1984. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^22]: Palmer, John A., Charles Honorton and Jessica Utts. *Reply to the National Research Council Study on Parapsychology,* special report prepared for the Board of Directors of the Parapsychological Association, section 2, "Anatomy of Prejudgment: Composition of the NRC Parapsychology Subcommittee," CIA-RDP96-00789R002200420001-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00789r002200420001-1 +[^23]: Frazier, Kendrick. "Improving Human Performance: What About Parapsychology?" *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 13, no. 1, Fall 1988, pp. 34-38. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^24]: Weinberg, Elliot H. "Some Remote-Viewing Recollections: Adventures in the Land of SRI," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 10, no. 4, Summer 1986, pp. 353-358. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^25]: Kurtz, Paul, et al. "Testing Psi Claims in China: Visit by a CSICOP Delegation," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 12, no. 4, Summer 1988, pp. 364 ff. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^26]: McKelvy, Dolan M., Lieutenant Colonel, USAF. *Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier,* research report, Air War College, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, May 1988, quoting *Omni,* February 1987, CIA-RDP96-00789R001001420001-3. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00789r001001420001-3 +[^27]: Defense Intelligence Agency, "Project Star Gate Research and Peer Review Plan," June 1994, Appendix G, reproducing Utts, Jessica, "Rejoinder," *Statistical Science,* vol. 6, 1991, pp. 396-403, CIA-RDP96-00789R002700010001-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00789r002700010001-1 +[^28]: Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of the Military's Twenty-Year Program on Psychic Spying," pp. 21-26, and Mumford, Michael D., Andrew M. Rose and David A. Goslin, "CIA Concludes No Value to the Program," p. 27, *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 20, no. 2, March/April 1996. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^29]: "Center for Inquiry and Richard Dawkins Foundation Now Formally Merged," *Skeptical Inquirer,* March 2017. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2017/03/center-for-inquiry-and-richard-dawkins-foundation-now-formally-merged/ +[^30]: "Fund for the Future," advertisement, *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 20, no. 6, November/December 1996, p. 9, and vol. 21, no. 1, January/February 1997. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^31]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, Center for Inquiry Inc., EIN 22-2306795, filings for 2011 to 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/222306795.json +[^32]: Internal Revenue Service, Form 990 for tax year 2024, Center for Inquiry Inc. (object ID 202512189349301641) and Center for Inquiry Development Fund (object ID 202532189349301858), IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search electronic filings. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_08A.zip +[^33]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, Center for Inquiry Development Fund, EIN 16-1553194, filings for 2011 to 2023; Center for Inquiry Holding Corporation, EIN 16-1403907. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/161553194.json diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Council on Foreign Relations.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Council on Foreign Relations.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..12e6370e --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Council on Foreign Relations.md @@ -0,0 +1,217 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - CouncilOnForeignRelations + - ThinkTank + - ForeignPolicy + - ForeignAffairs + - RockefellerFamily + - CIA + - EstablishmentNetworks + - CorporateProgram + - WarAndPeaceStudies +alias: + - Council on Foreign Relations + - Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. + - Council on Foreign Relations Inc + - The Council on Foreign Relations + - CFR + - Harold Pratt House +summary: "New York membership organization founded in 1921 that publishes Foreign Affairs, ran confidential wartime studies with the State, War and Navy Departments, and has drawn funding from foundations, member dues and corporate subscriptions." +start: 1921 +location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Rockefeller Foundation]]" + reverse: true + start: 1939 + role: "grants for war and peace studies and the general research program, 44,500 dollars in 1939" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Carnegie Corporation of New York]]" + reverse: true + start: 1946 + role: "regular research budget, newspaper fellowships and Committees on Foreign Relations; 500,000 dollars granted November 16, 1954" + fn: 9 + - type: funded + with: "[[Ford Foundation]]" + reverse: true + start: 1949 + role: "grant for aid to Europe studies, 30,000 dollars in 1949 to 1950" + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Allen Dulles]]" + reverse: true + role: "president until he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, addressed as president in January 1951; vice-chairman of the board, on leave, in 1952 to 1953" + fn: 12 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Allen Dulles]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the term retiring 1954 and member of the Committee on Studies in 1952 to 1953" + fn: 4 + - type: director_of + with: "[[David Rockefeller]]" + reverse: true + role: "director and vice-president in 1952 to 1953, chairman of the Membership Committee, co-chairman of the Campaign for the Council from 1983; relinquished his leadership on the Board in 1985" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[George S. Franklin]]" + reverse: true + start: 1953 + end: 1971 + role: "acting executive director in 1952 to 1953, then executive director" + fn: 10 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Winston Lord]]" + reverse: true + start: 1977 + end: 1985 + role: "president" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Bobby Ray Inman]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the 1985 listing, term expiring 1988" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Richard Haass]]" + reverse: true + end: 2023-06-30 + role: "president, 1,868,393 dollars reportable compensation in the return for the year to June 2023" + fn: 27 + - type: head_of + with: "[[David Rubenstein]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman in the return for the year to June 2023" + fn: 27 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Council on Foreign Relations is a New York membership organization that publishes [[Foreign Affairs]] and runs study groups, a meetings program for members, affiliated Committees on Foreign Relations in other cities and a corporate subscription program. + +### Origins + +The Institute of International Affairs was founded in [[Paris]] in 1919 by twenty-one Americans and their British counterparts, a group that included [[Edward M. House]], [[Herbert Hoover]], [[Tasker H. Bliss]], [[Christian Herter]], [[Charles Seymour]], [[Archibald Cary Coolidge]] and [[James T. Shotwell]]. In 1921 its American branch merged with a larger existing group of New York business and professional men to form the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., under the honorary presidency of [[Elihu Root]], as a privately funded, nonprofit and nonpartisan body.[^1] The [[Internal Revenue Service]] records a ruling date of January 1927.[^2] [[Hamilton Fish Armstrong]] edited volumes 1 through 50 of Foreign Affairs (1922 to 1972), [[William P. Bundy]] volumes 51 through 62 (1973 to 1984) and [[William G. Hyland]] the volumes from 1984.[^1] + +The charter limited membership in 1939 to 400 resident and 250 nonresident members.[^3] The first Committees on Foreign Relations, the affiliated groups in other cities, were established in 1938, and 25 cities had them by 1952.[^4] + +### War and Peace Studies + +The [[Rockefeller Foundation]] granted 44,500 dollars in 1939 toward the support of Council groups studying the problems of the war and the peace settlement to follow.[^3] The War and Peace Studies Project was organized shortly after the outbreak of hostilities to furnish scholarly contributions to the work of the government; by 1943 it had sent 541 memoranda to Washington on subjects selected by both the Council and the government, and the foundation appropriated 60,860 dollars for 1944.[^5] Three groups (economic, political and security) were functioning in 1945, and the foundation appropriated 60,000 dollars for that year.[^6] + +The foundation's report for 1946 describes the program as a confidential one that the Council undertook from 1939 to 1945 "with the approval and participation of the State, War and Navy Departments," carried out "without formal assignment of responsibility and without restriction of independent action." The same report records a 1946 appropriation of 60,000 dollars for the general research program and 139,000 dollars over four years for a history of the Second World War, to be written by [[William L. Langer]] of [[Harvard University]], who had directed the Research and Analysis Section of the [[Office of Strategic Services]] "where he had exceptional access to materials bearing on foreign relations." The Council's Committee on Studies gave as its reason a concern that "the debunking journalistic campaign following World War I should not be repeated."[^7] + +[[Philip E. Mosely]], who had served during the war as research secretary of one of the Council's war and peace studies groups "organized to assist the [[State Department|Department of State]]," joined the Department of State as chief of its Division of Territorial Studies, then served as alternate to [[John Gilbert Winant]] on the [[European Advisory Commission]] and as adviser to the American delegations at Moscow, Potsdam and the Council of Foreign Ministers. In December 1954 the Council informed [[Allen Dulles]] that Mosely had agreed to accept the post of Director of Studies from July 1, 1955, subject to ratification by the Board.[^8] + +### Funding, 1946 to 1955 + +A Council table of November 1951, held in the files of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and released in 2003, sets out the research budget receipts for 1946 to 1951. The regular budget totals were 93,336 dollars (1946 to 1947), 97,197 (1947 to 1948), 87,410 (1948 to 1949), 87,390 (1949 to 1950) and 117,005 (1950 to 1951), with 117,100 projected for 1951 to 1952, 110,000 of it marked "to be secured." The [[Carnegie Corporation of New York]] contributed 25,000 dollars a year to the regular budget from 1946 to 1950 and 35,000 in 1950 to 1951; the Rockefeller Foundation contributed 30,000, 30,000, 20,000, 10,000 and 45,000 (the last a "special terminal grant") over the same years. A 25th Anniversary Fund supplied 30,000 dollars a year for the first three years, 40,000 in 1949 to 1950 and 23,698 in 1950 to 1951.[^9] + +The special-studies grants in the same table include 25,000 to 30,000 dollars a year from Carnegie for the Committees on Foreign Relations, newspaper fellowships of 20,000 (1948 to 1950) and 15,000 (1950 to 1951) and 22,500 a year for democracy studies from 1950. The Rockefeller Foundation paid 34,750 dollars a year from 1946 to 1950 for the Langer History Project, 25,000 and 30,000 dollars for studies of aid to Europe in 1948 to 1950, and 16,000 for British-American studies in 1950 to 1951; the [[Ford Foundation]] gave 30,000 dollars for aid to Europe in 1949 to 1950, the [[Sloan Foundation]] 10,000 for the Langer history and the Viking Fund 1,500 for a fellowship. Total research receipts were 159,086 dollars (1946 to 1947), 167,941, 207,160, 244,640 and 200,505, with 194,600 projected for 1951 to 1952.[^9] + +Corporate contributions to the House Fund of 1945 totaled 34,000 dollars and to the 25th Anniversary Fund for 1946 to 1951 totaled 24,100, for 58,100 in all. The contributors were [[Chase National Bank]] (10,000), [[IBM]] (12,500), [[National City Bank]] (10,000), [[Standard Oil Company (New Jersey)]] (7,500), [[Westinghouse Electric]] (7,500), [[General Electric]] (2,500), [[Socony Vacuum Oil Company]] (2,000), General Motors Overseas Operations (1,500), the [[International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union]] (1,000), the [[National Cash Register Company]] (1,000), the Underwood Corporation (900), the Macmillan Company (500), National Dairy Products (500), the Texas Company (500), the International Nickel Company (400) and the American Hawaiian Steamship Company (100). A separate page lists forty-five individual contributions to the 25th Anniversary Fund for 1946 to 1950 totaling 95,479 dollars, among them [[Frank Altschul]] (5,000), [[E. Roland Harriman]] (4,500), Allen W. Dulles (3,500, "over 5 years"), [[John Foster Dulles]] (1,250, "over 5 years"), [[W. Averell Harriman]] (1,100), [[Henry R. Luce]] (1,000), [[Herbert H. Lehman]] (5,000), [[Caryl P. Haskins]] (8,500), [[Arthur H. Dean]] (10,000) and [[Stephen Clark]] (10,000); a continuation page lists further names including [[Arthur Hays Sulzberger]], [[Myron C. Taylor]] and [[Alfred P. Sloan]]. The totals on the continuation page are 114,175 dollars from individuals, 24,100 from corporations and 7,960 in contributions under 500, or 146,235 in all.[^9] + +The annual report of the executive director for 1951 to 1952 records that the Rockefeller Foundation, "in line with its policy of discontinuing support for the general budgets of organizations which it has helped for some years," did not renew a 45,000-dollar grant to the general research program, while continuing 18,500 dollars for a study of the Political Implications of Economic Development (directed by Eugene Staley of the [[Stanford Research Institute]]), 3,500 for a study of German unity and 4,000 for a bibliography. Carnegie gave 35,000 dollars to the general research program, 3,000 to the Committee on Policy and 30,000 to the Committees on Foreign Relations, and had granted 23,000 for three research fellowships in 1952 to 1953. Members and corporations gave 32,787 dollars to the general research program, and a gift of 17,030.86 dollars in memory of Edwin F. Gay, a director from 1921 to 1945, was added. The Board had voted a 10 percent cost-of-living salary increase on December 17, 1951. The combined deficit in the general and research accounts was "the only substantial deficit the Council has ever had."[^4] + +On November 16, 1954 the Carnegie Corporation granted 500,000 dollars to be spent over five years from the following August; a Ford Foundation grant had been reported earlier, and Frank Altschul had offered to pay for a new annex, estimated at about 200,000 dollars.[^8] [[George S. Franklin]], who served as acting executive director in 1952 and 1953, is described in the finding aid of the records of the [[Trilateral Commission]] as executive director of the Council from 1953 to 1971.[^10] + +### Corporations with officers who are members, 1951 + +The fourth page of the November 1951 table lists corporations with officers who are members of the Council, with an asterisk for those that had contributed in the past. The list includes the Chase National Bank ([[Winthrop Aldrich]] as chairman and [[David Rockefeller]]), [[Dillon, Read and Company]] ([[Clarence Dillon]]), [[Brown Brothers Harriman]] (E. Roland Harriman, Ray Morris, Knight Woolley and Thomas McCance), Kuhn Loeb and Company (Frederick M. Warburg and John M. Schiff), Lehman Brothers (Robert Lehman), the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation (Gerald F. Beal), Schroder Rockefeller and Company (Mord M. Bogie), J. P. Morgan and Company (Arthur M. Anderson), the Arabian American Oil Company (James Terry Duce), Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the [[United Fruit Company]] (T. Jefferson Coolidge), Pan American Airways ([[Juan Trippe]]), Time Inc. (Henry R. Luce), the Columbia Broadcasting System ([[William S. Paley]]), Newsweek (Malcolm Muir), Reader's Digest (Harry H. Harper), Look (Gardner Cowles), the [[RAND Corporation]] (W. Phillips Davison), Avco ([[Albert C. Wedemeyer]]), the Continental Can Company ([[Lucius D. Clay]] as chairman) and American International Underwriters ([[Cornelius Vander Starr|C. V. Starr]]).[^9] + +### Officers and committees in 1952 + +For 1952 to 1953 the Council's officers were [[R. C. Leffingwell]] as chairman of the board, Allen W. Dulles as vice-chairman (on leave), [[Henry M. Wriston]] as president, David Rockefeller as vice-president, Frank Altschul as vice-president and secretary, [[Devereux C. Josephs]] as vice-president and treasurer, [[Walter H. Mallory]] as executive director (on leave) and George S. Franklin Jr. as acting executive director. The directors included W. Averell Harriman, [[William A. M. Burden]], [[John W. Davis]], [[Grayson Kirk]], [[Lewis W. Douglas]], [[Thomas K. Finletter]], [[Whitney H. Shepardson]] and Taylor. Rockefeller chaired the Membership Committee; Dulles sat on the Committee on Studies with Wriston, Armstrong, Dean, Mosely and others; Armstrong edited Foreign Affairs, whose Editorial Advisory Board comprised [[George H. Blakeslee]], Davis, Dulles, [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[George Kennan]], Langer, [[Charles H. McIlwain]], Seymour and Wriston.[^4] + +Membership stood at 927 on August 1, 1951 and 933 on August 1, 1952, in the classes resident (420 and 420), resident academic (164 and 167), junior (13 and 9), nonresident (160 and 160) and nonresident academic (170 and 177). The Committees on Foreign Relations held 191 meetings that year, and a grant from the Fund for Adult Education financed the reprinting of an article from Foreign Affairs nine times a year, with a discussion guide, for about 1,000 adult discussion groups.[^4] + +### Correspondence with Allen Dulles, 1950 to 1960 + +Several letters between the Council and Dulles are in Central Intelligence Agency files released between 2002 and 2012. On December 12, 1950, Armstrong sent Harriman, then at the [[White House]], a statement signed by members of a Council group that had studied military, economic and political problems of aid to Europe for about two years. His covering letter says the statement does not represent the views of the Council, which is precluded from taking a position on public matters, and is not for publication, and that Dulles had spoken to Harriman about it that morning.[^11] On January 2, 1951, [[Alan G. Kirk]], writing on Department of State letterhead to "Mr. Allen W. Dulles, President, Council on Foreign Relations," declined an invitation to address the Council on January 15 and proposed instead an hour with "four or five besides myself" at the Council's house on January 17 or 18, in a group whose conversations would be "kept within strictly classified lines." A note on the letter records that Dulles told Kirk's wife on January 11 that he would be away for a week.[^12] + +On February 13, 1952 Dulles wrote to [[Gordon Dean]], chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]]: "the Council is one of my closest interests and I was President of it until I came down here, but as Director and Vice-Chairman of the Board, on leave, I still spend a good deal of time on its work." The letter also refers to "the matter we discussed when you and Gordon Gray and I were together." The distribution line shows the letter was filed with the papers of the Deputy [[Director of Central Intelligence]].[^13] Letters from Franklin of November 24, 1952, January 27, 1953 and June 19, 1953 sent Dulles Council memoranda, a report on Council activities and the agenda for a Committee on Studies luncheon on February 16, 1953, and the Finance Committee's budget and pension plan, with an announcement that a balanced budget for 1952 to 1953 was assured.[^14] + +On a letter to the Council's Membership Committee carrying a distribution notation of April 20, 1955, Dulles, as Director of Central Intelligence, endorsed a proposal by [[William H. Jackson]] to admit a person whose name is redacted in the release, writing that he had known the candidate "for a number of years, particularly during his tenure in this Agency."[^15] On February 16, 1956 Armstrong thanked Dulles for attending the Editorial Advisory Board meeting of the previous night and asked about his expenses so that Foreign Affairs could reimburse him. Dulles replied on March 4 to Mallory: "Don't worry about the expenses of my trip as I was able to combine this visit to New York with plenty of official business, so that it is a proper charge against my own official travel account," and added that he was suggesting the Agency "buy several copies" of the Council's ten-year Foreign Affairs Bibliography "for use here in the Agency."[^16] + +On April 25, 1958 Armstrong asked Dulles to second a candidate (name redacted) for membership, "particularly" for the study groups on Far Eastern problems.[^17] On May 2, 1958 Franklin, by then executive director, wrote that Secretary [[Neil McElroy]] had accepted an invitation to the June 6 dinner of the Committees on Foreign Relations: "Thank you a great deal for all you did. You obviously produced the bacon."[^18] On August 20, 1959 Dulles told a correspondent that "Foster consulted me at the time he delivered his original speech on this subject before the Council on Foreign Relations," a reference to the speech on massive retaliation by John Foster Dulles.[^19] + +On May 6, 1960 Franklin invited Dulles to a Council dinner for [[Adlai Stevenson]] on Friday, June 3 at 7:30, at which Stevenson would describe his recent trip through [[Latin America]], with [[John J. McCloy]] presiding and representatives of the affiliated Committees on Foreign Relations in twenty-nine cities present. Dulles declined, writing that he could not reach New York on "2 June." A memorandum to Dulles of May 16, 1960, filed with the reply (author redacted), states that the Agency had been in touch with William Benton, who accompanied Stevenson on the trip, that Benton "promised to furnish us with a complete set of the notes maintained during their trip," and that in view of this "no attempt was made to get in touch with Governor Stevenson."[^20] + +### Discussion group on intelligence, 1968 + +The third meeting of the Council's Discussion Group on Intelligence and Foreign Policy was held at the Harold Pratt House at 5:00 p.m. on January 8, 1968. The minutes list [[Richard Bissell]] as discussion leader, [[C. Douglas Dillon]] as chairman, [[William J. Barnds]] as secretary and William R. Harris as rapporteur, with these others present: [[George Agree]], Frank Altschul, [[Robert Amory Jr.]], [[Meyer Bernstein]], Col. Sidney B. Berry Jr., Allen W. Dulles, George S. Franklin Jr., [[Eugene Fubini]], [[Julius C. Holmes]], [[Thomas L. Hughes]], [[Joseph Kraft]], [[David W. MacEachron]], [[Philip W. Quigg]], [[Harry Howe Ransom]], [[Theodore C. Sorensen]] and [[David B. Truman]]. Dillon stated that the series was off the record, that the subject of the evening was "especially sensitive," and that problems involving the Agency's relationships with private institutions would be examined at a later meeting.[^21] + +Bissell listed eight forms of covert action (political advice and counsel; subsidies to an individual; support of political parties; support of private organizations "including labor unions, business firms, cooperatives, etc."; covert propaganda; private training and exchange of persons; economic operations; and paramilitary or political action to overthrow or support a regime). On disclosures of private-institution support he said, "it is very clear that we should have had greater compartmenting of operations," that "if the Agency is to be effective, it will have to make use of private institutions on an expanding scale, though those relations which have 'blown' cannot be resurrected," and that "we need to operate under deeper cover, with increased attention to the use of 'cut-outs.'"[^21] + +[[Victor Marchetti]] and [[John D. Marks]] wrote that the minutes became public in 1971 when students occupying the Harvard Center for International Affairs found them in faculty files, that Harris later admitted privately that the text had been partially edited to remove particularly sensitive material, and that the African Research Group reprinted it. They wrote that Barnds had been with the Agency's Office of National Estimates until he joined the Council's staff in the mid-1960s, and quoted a January 1969 article by Barnds in Foreign Affairs: "The disclosure of intelligence activities in the press in recent years is a clear national liability." They also quoted Amory, in a television interview of February 26, 1967, calling press disclosures of Agency funding of the National Student Association and other private groups "a commentary on the immaturity of our society."[^22] + +Of the participants named in the minutes, Altschul, Dulles and Franklin appear in the 1952 officer and committee lists above, and Hughes and Kraft appear in the 1981 membership list of the Trilateral Commission.[^4][^23] + +### Central Intelligence Agency contacts, 1976 to 1979 + +A memorandum of July 26, 1976 from the National Intelligence Officer for China, routed via the Assistant to the Director, the Director of Security and the Chief of the Central Cover Staff, reported an invitation from the Council's program director, Rolland Bushner, to speak to the Nashville Committee on Foreign Relations and possibly to committees in Louisville, Indianapolis and St. Louis. It stated that "as is the custom with the Council my remarks will be on a not-for-attribution basis and there will not be publicity," and that the officer would "use some classified data through Confidential but will blend it in to my talk." A note on the memorandum states that the Director of Security "does not concur in the use of classified material." A memorandum of September 7, 1976 moved the second talk from Louisville to Tampa Bay on September 28.[^24] On September 12, 1979, [[Stansfield Turner]], as Director of Central Intelligence, nominated three associates of the National Foreign Assessment Center for the Council's International Affairs Fellowship for 1980 to 1981.[^25] + +### The Corporate Program, the Campaign and the membership roster, 1984 to 1985 + +The annual report for July 1, 1984 to June 30, 1985 records 2,376 members, of whom 38 percent lived in the New York area, 24 percent in the Washington area and 6 percent in the Boston area. By profession 27 percent were business executives, 21 percent scholars or academic administrators, 15 percent administrators of nonprofit institutions, 11 percent government officials, 11 percent journalists and communications executives and 10 percent lawyers; women, admitted from 1970, numbered 250. Members are elected by the Board of Directors on nomination of the Membership Committee, and by tradition participants do not attribute statements made at meetings to speakers in public media.[^1] + +The report's membership roster, which includes people invited at the Board's June 1985 meeting who had accepted by press time, lists among the names Richard M. Bissell Jr., [[William J. Casey]], [[William Colby]], [[Richard Helms]], Stansfield Turner, [[Robert M. Gates]], [[R. James Woolsey]], [[John Deutch]], [[Ray S. Cline]], [[Cord Meyer]], [[Frank G. Wisner II]], William J. Barnds and Rolland Bushner, together with [[Katharine Graham]], [[Hedley Donovan]], [[Dan Rather]], [[Jim Lehrer]], [[Flora Lewis]], [[James Reston]], William S. Paley and [[Roone Arledge]].[^1] + +Corporate Program subscriptions exceeded one million dollars for the fourth consecutive year, at 1,060,800 dollars net, and Foreign Affairs income was 2,095,300. Subscribers were offered a black-tie dinner for chairmen and presidents with an address by a prominent statesman, seminars, executive luncheons, a library of about 40,000 volumes with a clipping service, and the chance to nominate young executives for the International Affairs Fellowship.[^1] The Board approved a 14.5 million dollar Campaign for the Council in February 1983, with David Rockefeller and C. Douglas Dillon as co-chairmen and [[C. Peter McColough]] of [[Xerox]] as campaign chairman; in early August 1985, 14.1 million dollars in gifts and pledges had been received. The report's partial list of donors of 10,000 dollars or more to the Campaign names these corporations: Agip Petroleum, American Can, [[American Express]], the Arabian American Oil Company, AT&T, Atlantic Richfield, [[Bankers Trust]], Barclays Bank, the [[Bechtel Group]], Bristol-Myers, CBS, [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], Chemical Bank, [[Citibank]], Dillon Read, Dow Chemical, Dow Jones, Du Pont, [[Exxon]], Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, [[Goldman Sachs]], IBM, [[Lazard Freres]], [[Manufacturers Hanover]], [[Mobil]], [[Morgan Guaranty Trust]], Morgan Stanley, [[Northrop]], PaineWebber, Peat Marwick Mitchell, PepsiCo, [[Price Waterhouse]], Procter and Gamble, RCA, the Rockefeller Group, [[Salomon Brothers]], United Technologies and Xerox, among others. Foundation donors included the Ford Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]], the [[Andrew W. Mellon Foundation]], the Starr Foundation and the Schlumberger Foundation.[^1] + +The individual donors of 10,000 dollars or more included [[Giovanni Agnelli]], [[George W. Ball]], Michel David-Weill, Katharine Graham, [[John Gutfreund]], Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, Averell Harriman, [[Suliman S. Olayan]], [[Harry Oppenheimer]], [[Peter G. Peterson]], David Rockefeller, David Rockefeller Jr., [[Laurance Rockefeller]], [[Anton Rupert]], [[Maurice Tempelsman]], [[Cyrus Vance]], [[James D. Wolfensohn]] and [[Ezra K. Zilkha]]. Annual Giving patrons of 5,000 dollars or more were Arthur G. Altschul, Dillon, Franklin, H. J. Heinz II, McColough, the estate of Leo Model, Peterson and David Rockefeller.[^1] + +General fund expenditures were 6,778,300 dollars against total funding of 6,718,900. Nonrecurring grants made up 49.8 percent of funding in the fiscal year to June 1972 and 13.8 percent in 1984 to 1985; the International Affairs Fellowship Program, at 346,200 dollars, was paid for by the Ford, MacArthur and Mellon foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities.[^1] + +The report lists as directors, at press time, Harold Brown, Stanley Hoffmann, Nicholas Katzenbach, Lane Kirkland, Juanita Kreps, Robert Scalapino, [[Brent Scowcroft]], Stephen Stamas, Philip Geyelin, McColough, Donald McHenry, Peterson, William D. Rogers, Vance, Marina Whitman, Walter Wriston, Graham Allison, Warren Christopher, Richard Gelb, Alan Greenspan, [[Bobby Ray Inman]], Jeane Kirkpatrick, Lewis Preston and Clifton Wharton. Of these twenty-four, Brown, Allison, Christopher, Kirkland, Greenspan, Kreps and Whitman appear in the Trilateral Commission's North American roster of July 1981.[^1][^23] A letter from McCloy dated June 27, 1985, printed in the report, refers to David Rockefeller's "44 years of close and active association with the Council" and to his "relinquishment of his leadership on the Board."[^1] + +### Foreign Affairs + +Foreign Affairs published "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" in July 1947 over the signature "X," credited by the journal to George F. Kennan; the article called for "a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."[^26] + +### Recent filings + +The Council's Form 990 for the year ended June 30, 2023 reports revenue of 106,930,600 dollars, expenses of 83,166,400 dollars and year-end assets of 719,707,600 dollars; the same series of returns on the [[ProPublica]] Nonprofit Explorer shows revenue of 59,633,100 dollars and assets of 438,237,900 dollars for the year to June 2011.[^2] The 2023 return lists contributions of 63,113,857 dollars, Foreign Affairs revenue of 11,709,500, individual membership revenue of 9,036,200 and corporate membership revenue of 1,103,843, with 711 employees and 34 voting members of the governing body. It describes the membership as "over 5,000," states that the members elect all voting directors, and gives the year of founding as 1921.[^27] + +[[Richard Haass]] is shown as president through June 30, 2023 with reportable compensation of 1,868,393 dollars and 59,851 dollars of other compensation; [[Michael Froman]] is named as principal officer. Other reported compensation includes 524,534 dollars to the chief investment officer, [[Giovanna Ban]], 519,740 to the executive vice president and chief financial officer, Keith Olson, 459,793 to the director of studies, [[James M. Lindsay]], 330,419 to the editor of Foreign Affairs, [[Daniel Kurtz-Phelan]], and 280,205 to the distinguished fellow [[Martin Indyk]]. [[David Rubenstein]] is chairman, [[Blair Effron]] and [[Jami Miscik]] vice-chairmen, and the directors include [[Thad Allen]], [[Ashton B. Carter]] (through October 2022), [[Kenneth I. Chenault]], [[Laurence D. Fink]] (through June 30, 2023), [[Timothy F. Geithner]] (through June 30, 2023), [[James P. Gorman]], [[Stephen J. Hadley]], [[Jeh Johnson]], [[William H. McRaven]], [[Janet Napolitano]], [[Meghan O'Sullivan]], [[Ruth Porat]], [[Laurene Powell Jobs]], [[Frances F. Townsend]], [[Daniel H. Yergin]] and [[Fareed Zakaria]]. Schedule O reports business relationships between Haass and directors Effron, [[Stephen C. Freidheim]] and [[Nicholas Beim]]; between Rubenstein and Carter and Yergin; between Miscik and Gorman; and between directors [[James Manyika]] and Porat. Schedule I lists fellowship payments including 596,458 dollars for nine International Affairs Fellows, 288,750 dollars for four fellows in national security, 119,350 dollars for six in Japan, 100,000 dollars for one Edward R. Murrow press fellow and 80,000 dollars for one Stanton nuclear security fellow. The donor schedule is redacted in the public copy.[^27] + +Five of the directors named in the 2023 return (Rubenstein, Manyika, O'Sullivan, Townsend and Yergin) are members of the North American group in the Trilateral Commission's list of September 6, 2024, on which five Council fellows also appear.[^28] + +### Jeffrey Epstein + +Two biographical statements in the [[Department of Justice]]'s [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]], one headed "Biographical Information of Jeffrey E. Epstein" and one "About Jeffrey E. Epstein," neither dated on its face, describe [[Jeffrey Epstein]] as "a former member of the Trilateral Commission and a former member of the Council on Foreign Relations." No Council membership roll appears in the documents examined.[^29] An exchange of November 8 and 15, 2010 between Epstein and the Council's director of events concerns travel and a weekend event.[^30] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Council on Foreign Relations, Annual Report, July 1, 1984 to June 30, 1985 (New York, 1985): Summary Description, pp. 5 to 6; Staff, p. 7; Membership, p. 94; Corporate Program, p. 111; Development Activities, pp. 112 to 124 (The Campaign for the Council, pp. 119 to 123); Finances, pp. 133 to 135; Officers and Directors, pp. 2 and 148; Historical Roster, pp. 150 to 152; Membership Roster, pp. 154 ff.; letter of John J. McCloy, June 27, 1985; Foreign Affairs editors, Council Publications. Sanitized copy released by the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210066-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000100210066-5 +[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Council on Foreign Relations Inc, EIN 13-1628168, API record of filings for tax years 2011 to 2023 (ruling date 1927-01), https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/131628168 +[^3]: The Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report 1939 (New York, 1940): Social Sciences, International Relations, pp. 273 to 274, and appropriations table (RF 39110), https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1939 +[^4]: Council on Foreign Relations, Annual Report of the Executive Director, 1951-1952, with list of members and by-laws (New York, 1952): Officers and Standing Committees (front matter); Summary, p. 4; Committees on Foreign Relations, pp. 41 to 43; Foreign Affairs, pp. 42 to 43; Membership, pp. 45 to 46; Financial, pp. 48 to 49. Sanitized copy, CIA-RDP80R01731R001200010036-3, https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80R01731R001200010036-3 +[^5]: The Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report 1943 (New York, 1944): The Social Sciences, International Studies, section Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 178 to 179, https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1943 +[^6]: The Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report 1945 (New York, 1946): The Social Sciences, section Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 190 to 191, https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1945 +[^7]: The Rockefeller Foundation, Annual Report 1946 (New York, 1947): The Social Sciences, sections Council on Foreign Relations and Council on Foreign Relations, History of World War II, pp. 186 to 189, https://archive.org/details/the-rockefeller-foundation-annual-report-1946 +[^8]: Letter, Council on Foreign Relations (catalogued as from Walter H. Mallory, Executive Director) to Allen W. Dulles, December 17, 1954, CIA-RDP80R01731R001200030019-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200030019-0 +[^9]: Council on Foreign Relations, Receipts (1946-1951), Research Budget, with Contributions of Corporations, Individual Contributions to the 25th Anniversary Fund and Corporations with Officers who are members of the Council on Foreign Relations, November 1951, 8 pages, CIA-RDP80R01731R001100170005-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001100170005-1 +[^10]: Rockefeller Archive Center, The Trilateral Commission (North America) Records, finding aid by Robert Battaly, April 2011, Institutional History, p. 2, https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/2KaqPEr3JRZv5WBQsf9mKn (text read from the copy at https://archive.org/download/one-world-order-new-world-order/Trilateral%20Commission%20records%20%28Rockefeller%20Archives%29.pdf) +[^11]: Letter, Hamilton Fish Armstrong to W. Averell Harriman, December 12, 1950, CIA-RDP80R01731R003100010004-7, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r003100010004-7 +[^12]: Letter, Alan G. Kirk (Department of State) to Allen W. Dulles, January 2, 1951, with note of January 11, CIA-RDP80R01731R001100170026-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001100170026-8 +[^13]: Letter, Allen W. Dulles to Gordon Dean, February 13, 1952, CIA-RDP80R01731R001200010035-4, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200010035-4 +[^14]: Letters, George S. Franklin Jr. to Allen W. Dulles, November 24, 1952 (CIA-RDP80R01731R001200010002-0), January 27, 1953 (CIA-RDP80R01731R001200020051-5) and June 19, 1953 (CIA-RDP80R01731R001200020027-2), https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200010002-0, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200020051-5 and https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200020027-2 +[^15]: Letter, Allen W. Dulles to the Membership Committee, Council on Foreign Relations, distribution notation 20 Apr 55 (ER 6-9539/A), CIA-RDP80R01731R001200030009-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r001200030009-1 +[^16]: Letter, Allen W. Dulles to Walter H. Mallory, March 4, 1956 (ER 7-9374/A), with letter of Hamilton Fish Armstrong to Dulles, February 16, 1956, CIA-RDP80B01676R004000060049-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r004000060049-1 +[^17]: Letter, Hamilton Fish Armstrong to Allen W. Dulles, April 25, 1958, CIA-RDP80B01676R004000060009-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r004000060009-5 +[^18]: Letter, George S. Franklin Jr. to Allen W. Dulles, May 2, 1958, CIA-RDP80B01676R004000060012-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r004000060012-1 +[^19]: Letter, Allen W. Dulles to Ferdinand Lathrop Mayer, August 20, 1959, CIA-RDP80R01731R000300010083-1, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01731r000300010083-1 +[^20]: Letter, George S. Franklin Jr. to Allen W. Dulles, May 6, 1960; reply of Allen W. Dulles to Franklin, May 1960; memorandum for Mr. Dulles, May 16, 1960, CIA-RDP80B01676R004100010066-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r004100010066-6 +[^21]: Minutes of the third meeting of the Discussion Group on Intelligence and Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, Harold Pratt House, January 8, 1968 (reproduced by Public Intelligence as "Minutes of the 1968 Bissell Meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations"), https://info.publicintelligence.net/CFR-BissellMeeting.pdf +[^22]: Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (Dell paperback ed., 1975), "Covert-Action Theory," pp. 55 to 56, and "Controlling the CIA," pp. 332 to 333 (note on p. 332), https://archive.org/details/ciacultofintelli00marc_1 +[^23]: The Trilateral Commission, membership list "As of July 1, 1981," reprinted in Congressional Research Service, The Trilateral Commission, Issue Packet IP0092 (Library of Congress, 1981), https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19810501_IP0092_2d3ea09e2c6068af730f41d315f4ea490bc91878.pdf +[^24]: Memoranda, National Intelligence Officer for China to Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for National Intelligence, July 26, 1976 (NIO 1215-76) and September 7, 1976 (NIO 1426-76), CIA-RDP83B00100R000100130019-2, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp83b00100r000100130019-2 +[^25]: Letter, Stansfield Turner to Alton Frye, Director, International Affairs Fellowships, Council on Foreign Relations, September 12, 1979, CIA-RDP80B01554R003300220008-8, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01554r003300220008-8 +[^26]: "X" (George F. Kennan), "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," Foreign Affairs, vol. 25, no. 4, July 1947, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/1947-07-01/sources-soviet-conduct +[^27]: Internal Revenue Service, Form 990 of Council on Foreign Relations Inc for the year ended June 30, 2023 (tax year 2022), Parts I, III, VI, VII, VIII, Schedules B, I and O, IRS e-file XML object 202430169349300598, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_01A.zip (member 2024_TEOS_XML_01A/202430169349300598_public.xml) +[^28]: The Trilateral Commission, membership list "Last updated September 6, 2024," North American Group, https://archive.org/details/tc-membership-list-sept-6-2024-1 +[^29]: Department of Justice, Epstein Library, "Biographical Information of Jeffrey E. Epstein," EFTA00725190, and "About Jeffrey E. Epstein," EFTA00725191, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00725190.pdf and https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00725191.pdf +[^30]: Department of Justice, Epstein Library, emails of November 8 and 15, 2010 between Jeffrey Epstein and the Council on Foreign Relations director of events, EFTA00751793, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00751793.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Counter Extremism Project.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Counter Extremism Project.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9cf4eaa7 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Counter Extremism Project.md @@ -0,0 +1,213 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - CounterExtremism + - Section501c4 + - MarkWallace + - ThomasKaplan + - UANI + - DonorsTrust + - HanyFarid + - ContentModeration + - PoliticalFinance +alias: + - Counter Extremism Project + - CEP + - Counter Extremism Project United + - Counter Extremism Project United Inc + - CEPU + - The Green Light Project + - Green Light Project +summary: "New York advocacy organisation launched in September 2014 by Mark Wallace, Frances Townsend and Joseph Lieberman on the model of United Against Nuclear Iran, whose 501(c)(4) granted millions to DonorsTrust and two charities." +start: 2014-09-22 +location: "New York, United States" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Mark Wallace]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-09-22 + role: "chief executive officer" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Frances Townsend]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-09-22 + role: "board member at the launch" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Joseph Lieberman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-09-22 + role: "board member at the launch" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Thomas Kaplan]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-09-22 + role: "the one backer Wallace named at the launch" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[DonorsTrust]]" + start: 2020 + end: 2023 + role: "grants by Counter Extremism Project United Inc of 2,000,000, 5,160,900, 9,100,500 and 7,462,350 dollars for 2020 to 2023" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[United Against Nuclear Iran]]" + start: 2017 + end: 2021 + role: "grants by Counter Extremism Project United Inc to ACANI Inc of 5,000,000 dollars (2017), 5,500,000 (2018), 2,220,000 (2020) and 250,000 (2021)" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Joseph Lieberman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2018 + end: 2023 + role: "strategic consulting, 140,005 dollars in the return for 2018 and 140,004 in the return for 2023" + fn: 13 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[John Bolton]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017 + end: 2017 + role: "advisory board and consulting, 130,000 dollars" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Jeb Bush]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + end: 2023 + role: "Jeb Bush and Associates LLC, strategic consulting, 120,000 dollars (2020, 2022) and 109,000 (2023)" + fn: 12 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Hany Farid]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + end: 2022 + role: "paid by The Green Light Project Inc, 160,000 dollars (2020) and 120,000 (2022)" + fn: 24 + - type: funded + with: "[[Microsoft]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016-06 + role: "funding for the hash-matching software, per Defense One" + fn: 31 + - type: funded + with: "[[Department of Homeland Security]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + role: "fiscal year 2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant" + fn: 35 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Global Risk Advisors]]" + start: 2017-03 + role: "named in the Project ENDGAME document, per Fox News Digital; the firm's lawyer denies wrongdoing" + fn: 39 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is a [[New York City]] advocacy organisation launched on 22 September 2014 by [[Mark Wallace]], a former [[United States]] ambassador to the [[United Nations]], with [[Frances Townsend]], a former Homeland Security adviser to [[George W. Bush]], and the former senator [[Joseph Lieberman]] as board members.[^1] It operates through [[Counter Extremism Project United Inc]] (CEPU), a 501(c)(4) social welfare organisation with the employer identification number 81-0878718, and through The Green Light Project Inc, a 501(c)(3) charity with the number 46-4631639, whose Form 990 describes it as "a non-partisan organization focused on countering extremism".[^2][^3] Its model was an earlier Wallace organisation, [[United Against Nuclear Iran]] (UANI): Wallace told a House subcommittee in January 2015 that CEP was modeled "in part on advocacy efforts to counter Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons".[^4] + +### Launch and Board + +The [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] reported on 22 September 2014 that Wallace was chief executive of both CEP and UANI, that Lieberman and Townsend sat on both boards, and that the project had opened offices in New York and [[Brussels]]. Other board members of both organisations named in the report were [[Gary Samore]], a former [[White House]] coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, [[August Hanning]], a former director of Germany's secret service, the [[Bundesnachrichtendienst]] (BND), [[Dennis Ross]], an adviser on [[Middle East]] affairs to Presidents [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Barack Obama]], and [[Irwin Cotler]], a former Canadian justice minister. The report states that Wallace "declined to identify the project's sources of funding except for [[Thomas Kaplan]], a billionaire commodities investor who also backs United Against Nuclear Iran and, along with Wallace, runs the [[Tigris Financial Group]]", and that the project was "backed by a host of pro-Israel stalwarts" while Wallace sought to distance it from Israel.[^1] + +CEP's website as captured on 30 September 2014 listed [[al-Qaeda]], [[Boko Haram]], [[Islamic State|ISIS]] and the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] under the heading "The Threat".[^5] The biography filed with Wallace's written testimony of 28 October 2015 records that he was Deputy Campaign Manager of the Bush campaign in 2004, a senior adviser to Senator [[John McCain]] in 2008, general counsel of the [[Federal Emergency Management Agency]] and of the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]], and general counsel of the City of [[Miami]]'s Emergency Financial Oversight Board.[^6] + +### Corporate Structure + +The Form 990 returns of the group show a layered structure. CEPU files as a 501(c)(4), and its returns list as related organisations CEPUMedia Inc (media production, Delaware, controlled by CEPU), Counter Extremism Project Germany gGmbH (Berlin) and CEPU Cayman LLC, a disregarded entity in the [[Cayman Islands]] whose stated activity is "provides a platform for international activities". The return for 2021 gives the Cayman entity a total income of 2,999,950 dollars and end-of-year assets of zero; the return for 2023 gives it zero for both. The German entity reported total income of 60,519 dollars and end-of-year assets of 117,126 dollars in 2021, and 59,653 and 194,436 in 2023.[^2][^7] The Green Light Project's return for 2023 lists an "investment in CEP UK".[^3] + +CEPU, The Green Light Project, UANI's charity ACANI Inc (formerly the American Coalition Against a Nuclear Iran, EIN 26-2387657) and its sister 501(c)(4) United Against a Nuclear Iran Action Inc use the same New York post box addresses, PO Box 3980 and PO Box 1028, on their returns. ACANI Inc's return for 2018 describes its purpose as informing the public about the nature of the Iranian regime and names United Against a Nuclear Iran as its project.[^8][^9][^10][^11] The returns of CEPU for 2020 to 2023 list Wallace as chief executive officer and director, [[Robert Benton]] as secretary, whose compensation in the return for 2023 was recorded as payment for legal services rather than service as secretary, [[David Ibsen]] as executive director (to December 2023), and [[Jolie J. Davis]] and [[Henley Old]] as directors.[^2][^12] The directors of The Green Light Project in the returns for 2016 to 2023 include [[Michael Neifach]] and [[Brian Stack]].[^3][^9] + +### Revenue and Grant Flows + +CEPU's Form 990 for 2017 reports contributions and total revenue of 22,230,000 dollars, expenses of 14,702,134 dollars, grants paid of 12,230,000 dollars and year-end assets of 14,567,076 dollars. The grants were 5,000,000 dollars to ACANI Inc and 7,230,000 dollars to The Green Light Project.[^8] For 2018 revenue was 15,568,814 dollars, with grants of 5,500,000 dollars to ACANI Inc, 7,500,000 dollars to The Green Light Project and 5,353 dollars to the UANI action organisation.[^13] For 2020 revenue was 6,058,608 dollars and expenses 8,774,302 dollars, with grants of 2,220,000 dollars to ACANI Inc, 2,350,000 dollars to The Green Light Project and 2,000,000 dollars to [[DonorsTrust]].[^12] For 2021 revenue was 8,068,313 dollars, with grants of 250,000 dollars to ACANI Inc, 462,159 dollars to The Green Light Project and 5,160,900 dollars to DonorsTrust.[^7] For 2022 revenue was 11,034,793 dollars, with grants of 9,100,500 dollars to DonorsTrust and 49,500 dollars to the UANI action organisation.[^14] For 2023 revenue was 8,080,751 dollars and expenses 9,100,195 dollars, with a grant of 7,462,350 dollars to DonorsTrust, which the return describes as "general support to carry out educational and charitable purposes".[^2] The returns for 2019 and 2016 were not retrieved for this entry. Schedule B, which lists donors, is not part of the public copy of a 501(c)(4) return. + +The Form 990 returns of DonorsTrust list grants for general operations to the same two recipients. For 2020 the return lists 1,980,000 dollars to ACANI Inc. For 2021 it lists 1,950,000 dollars to ACANI Inc and 3,150,000 dollars to The Green Light Project; for 2022, 4,300,000 and 4,650,000 dollars; for 2023, 3,685,000 and 3,680,000 dollars; and for 2024, 2,770,000 and 2,600,000 dollars.[^15][^16][^17][^18][^19] The DonorsTrust returns do not identify the source of any grant. The 7,462,350 dollars that CEPU granted to DonorsTrust in 2023 compares with 7,365,000 dollars that DonorsTrust's return for that year lists for ACANI Inc and The Green Light Project together.[^2][^18] + +The Green Light Project's own revenue, as published by ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, was 5,490,979 dollars for 2014, 7,513,809 for 2016, 7,807,428 for 2017, 8,573,629 for 2018, 2,374,043 for 2020, 3,668,086 for 2021, 5,436,774 for 2022 and 4,173,499 for 2023. ACANI Inc reported 5,788,478 dollars for 2016 and 3,704,564 for 2023.[^20][^21] [[The Intercept]] reported that the network of organisations brought in "over $101 million between 2009 and 2019", according to its review of tax filings.[^22] CEPU's grants to ACANI Inc and The Green Light Project are of a similar size to the contributions reported by the recipients for the same years: The Green Light Project reported 7,807,428 dollars for 2017, against 7,230,000 dollars granted to it by CEPU.[^8][^20] + +### Compensation and Contractors + +CEPU's returns report Wallace's compensation from the organisation at 165,000 dollars for 2017, 355,000 for 2018, 390,000 for 2020 and 2021, 331,500 for 2022 and 356,500 for 2023. The Green Light Project's returns report 455,000 dollars for 2016, 475,000 for 2017, 250,000 for 2020 and 2021 and 212,500 for 2022 and 2023.[^2][^3][^7][^8][^9][^12][^13][^14][^23][^24][^25][^26] + +The independent contractors paid more than 100,000 dollars and listed on CEPU's returns include, for 2017, [[Vulcan Consulting|Vulcan Consulting Ltd]] of [[Dublin]] (supervision of European operations, 170,005 dollars), [[Darlink]] of [[Bnei Brak]], Israel ("strategic consulting/security advisor", 162,500), [[Beacon Global Strategies|Beacon Global Strategies LLC]] of Washington ("strategic political and media services", 130,000), [[DDC Advocacy]] (130,000) and [[John Bolton]] ("advisory board/consulting", 130,000).[^8] For 2018 they include [[Pharos Strategic Consulting|Pharos Strategic Consulting LLC]] (366,000), Vulcan (280,157), Darlink (242,990), Joseph Lieberman ("strategic consulting", 140,005) and Dennis Ross (130,000).[^13] For 2020 they include Jeb Bush and Associates LLC of [[Coral Gables, Florida]] ("strategic consulting", 120,000), and for 2022 and 2023 Jeb Bush and Associates at 120,000 and 109,000 dollars. Lieberman is listed at 140,004 dollars for 2020, 128,337 for 2021 and 2022, and 140,004 for 2023.[^2][^7][^12][^14] + +The Green Light Project's returns list contractors including, for 2016, [[Mercury Public Strategies]] (761,383 dollars), [[FP1 Public Affairs]] (300,000), [[Concord Strategic Solutions]] of [[Tel Aviv]] (299,920) and Beacon Global Strategies (120,000); for 2017, [[Wiley Rein|Wiley Rein LLP]] for legal services (286,834); and for 2020 to 2023 [[Plus Communications]], [[Red Flag Consulting]] of Dublin, [[The Brick Factory]] (website hosting), Frances Fragos Townsend ("strategic consulting", 240,000 dollars for 2020, 200,000 for 2021, 260,000 for 2022 and 170,000 for 2023) and [[Hany Farid]] (160,000 dollars for 2020 and 120,000 for 2022).[^3][^9][^23][^24][^25][^26] ACANI Inc's returns list as a contractor the Miami law firm [[Stack Fernandez Anderson and Harris]] for legal services at 436,002 dollars for 2016 and 197,233 dollars for 2017; Brian Stack is listed as a director of The Green Light Project in its returns for the same years.[^9][^10][^23][^27] + +### Statements on Donors + +On 22 September 2014 Wallace named Thomas Kaplan as the one backer he would identify.[^1] In September 2015 [[Rosie Gray]] reported in [[BuzzFeed News]] that a [[Twitter]] spokesperson had said the company declined to partner with CEP because of "undisclosed funding", and that Wallace called it "irresponsible" for Twitter to push for donor disclosure, saying "We keep our donors confidential for security reasons". Wallace described a "multi-million dollar budget" and "over 35 people".[^28] [[Eli Clifton]] and [[Murtaza Hussain]] wrote in The Intercept in November 2021 that Wallace filed a "truth in testimony" disclosure with the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs|House Foreign Affairs Committee]] in 2015 stating "We have only received to date individual and private contributions. CEP has received no monies from foreign governments."[^22] The only truth-in-testimony form located for this entry is a House Foreign Affairs Committee form for a hearing on 25 November 2017 that lists the represented organisation as United Against Nuclear Iran.[^29] + +Clifton wrote that UANI donor rolls published in 2015 showed trusts controlled by Kaplan contributing 843,000 dollars to UANI in 2013, about half of that year's revenue, and that Kaplan employs Wallace as a senior adviser at the [[Electrum Group]].[^22] The Intercept also reported that the United States government quashed a 2013 lawsuit against Kaplan and UANI that claimed they were financed by undisclosed foreign interests, intervening as a third party in a civil suit and invoking state secrets.[^22] + +### Online Takedown Advocacy and Hany Farid + +Wallace testified on 27 January 2015 before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade on the use of social media by extremist groups, and on 28 October 2015 before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, chaired by [[Ron DeSantis]], in a hearing titled "Radicalization: Social Media and the Rise of Terrorism". In the second statement he said CEP had written three letters to Twitter requesting a meeting, that Twitter had ignored all but one, and that its reply "was indifferent at best".[^4][^6][^30] + +In June 2016 CEP, "working with [[Dartmouth College|Dartmouth University]] computer scientist Hany Farid and funding from Microsoft", announced software to match known extremist images and videos by robust hashing, an approach Farid had invented in 2008 for child sexual abuse imagery with Microsoft.[^31] CEP's website lists Farid as a senior adviser.[^32] The Green Light Project's returns list Farid as a contractor for "strategic and policy analysis" at 160,000 dollars for 2020 and for "strategic consulting" at 120,000 dollars for 2022.[^24][^26] + +CEP and Farid filed a brief as amici curiae in support of the petitioners in [[Gonzalez v. Google LLC]] (No. 21-1333) on 7 December 2022, represented by [[Kimberly Lambert Adams]] of the Pensacola firm [[Levin Papantonio|Levin, Papantonio, Rafferty, Proctor, Buchanan, O'Brien, Barr and Mougey]]. The brief states that no counsel for a party authored it and that no person other than the amici and their counsel made a monetary contribution to fund it. It describes Farid as a [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]] professor who "has testified before Congress five times", advises "many of the largest tech companies on content moderation" and is a member of [[TikTok]]'s Content Advisory Council and [[Snap Inc.|Snap]]'s Safety Advisory Board, and states that CEP "has advocated against broad Section 230 immunity for tech companies that algorithmically amplify terrorist content".[^33] + +CEP states that it reports weekly on the methods extremists and terrorist groups use on the Internet to spread propaganda. Its press release of 21 January 2025 is titled "Extremist Content Online: White Supremacist Telegram Channels Identify Need for Alternative Platform After [[United States Department of State|State Department]]'s Terrorgram Collective Designation", concerning channels on [[Telegram]] and the [[Terrorgram Collective]].[^34] + +### Government Grants + +A report prepared for the [[Department of Homeland Security]] by [[RTI International]] evaluated CEP's fiscal year 2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant. It records that CEP developed a curriculum called Alternative Pathways with [[Parallel Networks]] and [[John Horgan|Dr John Horgan]], that CEP "was unable to identify a prison or other correctional institution willing to pilot its in-person AP course", and that ten incarcerated people completed a written version.[^35] The Green Light Project's return for 2020 lists a grant of 88,384 dollars to Parallel Networks of Alexandria, Virginia, for "combat extremism in respective communities".[^24] + +### Gulf States and Turkey + +[[LobeLog]] published on 21 July 2017 emails that it attributed to the account of the [[United Arab Emirates]] ambassador to Washington, [[Yousef Al Otaiba]], released by the group GlobalLeaks. Its author, Eli Clifton, wrote that on 3 September 2014 Wallace sent Otaiba cost estimates for a forum and wrote "Believe that this will be self-funding in short order with donors"; that on 8 January 2015 Townsend thanked Otaiba and [[Richard Mintz]] for "ongoing support of the CEP effort"; and that on 8 August 2016 the former senator [[Norm Coleman]] wrote to Otaiba at the suggestion of the [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] foreign minister, "The Counter Extremism Project is a 501c4".[^36] Clifton wrote that UANI, CEP, Townsend, the embassy and Coleman did not respond to written requests for comment. The authenticity of the emails was not established in the article.[^37] + +CEP's report "Qatar, Money, and Terror" and its QATAR-HARBORS campaign called on [[Qatar]] to arrest, expel or cut off support to sanction-designated or wanted individuals domiciled there and to halt support to [[Hamas]], the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups.[^38] Fox News Digital reported on 20 January 2024 that a March 2017 document titled "Project ENDGAME", prepared for Qatar by the firm [[Global Risk Advisors]], founded by the former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employee [[Kevin Chalker]], also focused on CEP in an effort to "Mitigate Attacks" against Qatar. Wallace told Fox News Digital that after the Qatari operation "hacked accounts that contained email correspondence with members of CEP leadership, they engaged in a PR campaign to destroy us and paid Americans to do their bidding". Chalker's lawyer told Fox News Digital that no indictment was pending against Chalker or the firm and that allegations of wrongdoing were "just false".[^39] + +The Intercept reported in November 2021 that Wallace also headed the [[Turkish Democracy Project]], launched in summer 2021, which had no Turkish members on its leadership board, and that eight of its eleven senior leaders and advisers held positions with UANI, CEP or both. It reported that Kaplan has "extensive business and philanthropic ties to the United Arab Emirates" and, in the [[Responsible Statecraft]] version of the article, that none of the groups had registered under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]].[^22][^36] + +### Databases and Reports on Far-Right Groups + +CEP's website lists research databases titled "White Supremacy Groups in the United States", "White Supremacy Groups in Europe" and "Far-Left Extremist Groups in the United States", a program named "ARCHER at House 88", and a German branch, CEP Germany.[^34] The Green Light Project's return for 2023 describes its program as countering support for extremist groups "by pressuring their financial support networks, building a best-in-class clearinghouse and database of extremist groups and their supporters, countering the narrative of extremists and their online recruitment, and advocating for strong laws, policies and regulations".[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Uriel Heilman, "Backers of anti-Iran group create mirror group against violent Islamists", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 22 September 2014, as published by the AZ Jewish Post. https://azjewishpost.com/2014/backers-of-anti-iran-group-create-mirror-group-against-violent-islamists/ +[^2]: Form 990 of Counter Extremism Project United Inc (EIN 81-0878718) for the tax year ended 31 December 2023 (IRS e-file object 202433269349301433; Part I, Part VII, Schedule I, Schedule R), IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search bulk XML, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip; index at https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810878718 +[^3]: Form 990 of The Green Light Project Inc (EIN 46-4631639) for the tax year ended 31 December 2023 (IRS e-file object 202413269349301351; Part III program description, Part VII, Part VII Section B, Schedule R), IRS bulk XML, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^4]: Mark D. Wallace, written testimony, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, hearing of 27 January 2015, docs.house.gov. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA18/20150127/102855/HHRG-114-FA18-Wstate-WallaceM-20150127.pdf +[^5]: Counter Extremism Project, home page, Internet Archive capture of 30 September 2014 (menu "The Threat": al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood; joint statement of Wallace, Townsend and Lieberman). https://web.archive.org/web/20140930092602/http://www.counterextremism.com:80/ +[^6]: Mark D. Wallace, written testimony, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, hearing of 28 October 2015, with biography. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/10-28-2015-Natl-Security-Subcommittee-Hearing-on-Radicalization-Wallace-CEP-Testimony.pdf +[^7]: Form 990 of Counter Extremism Project United Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2021 (IRS e-file object 202233199349331448; Part VII, Part IX, Schedule I, Schedule R), IRS bulk XML, 2022 cycles. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2022/2022_TEOS_XML_02A.zip +[^8]: Form 990-O of Counter Extremism Project United Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2017 (IRS e-file object 201823199349316562; Part I, Part VII, Schedule I), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810878718 +[^9]: Form 990 of The Green Light Project Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2016 (IRS e-file object 201703459349300950), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/464631639 +[^10]: Form 990 of ACANI Inc, then American Coalition Against a Nuclear Iran Inc (EIN 26-2387657), for the tax year ended 31 December 2016 (IRS e-file object 201713459349300326; Part VII contractors), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262387657 +[^11]: Form 990 of ACANI Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2018 (IRS e-file object 201923089349301112; Part III: "To inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime"; "UANI publishes research and daily news summaries"), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262387657 +[^12]: Form 990 of Counter Extremism Project United Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2020 (IRS e-file object 202113199349328996; Part VII, Schedule I), IRS bulk XML, 2021 "Redo" cycles. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2021/2021_TEOS_XML_01A.zip +[^13]: Form 990 of Counter Extremism Project United Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2018 (IRS e-file object 201933089349301113; Part VII, Schedule I, Schedule R), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/810878718 +[^14]: Form 990 of Counter Extremism Project United Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2022 (IRS e-file object 202343199349331654; Part I, Part VII, Schedule I), IRS bulk XML, 2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2023/2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^15]: Form 990 of Donors Trust Inc (EIN 52-2166327) for the tax year ended 31 December 2020 (IRS e-file object 202133199349305758; Schedule I: ACANI Inc 1,980,000 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2021 cycles. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2021/2021_TEOS_XML_01A.zip +[^16]: Form 990 of Donors Trust Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2021 (IRS e-file object 202243199349308799; Schedule I: ACANI Inc 1,950,000 and Green Light Project 3,150,000 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2022 cycles. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2022/2022_TEOS_XML_02A.zip +[^17]: Form 990 of Donors Trust Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2022 (IRS e-file object 202323049349300742; Schedule I: ACANI Inc 4,300,000 and Green Light Project 4,650,000 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2023/2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^18]: Form 990 of Donors Trust Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2023 (IRS e-file object 202423189349304787; Schedule I: ACANI Inc 3,685,000 and Green Light Project 3,680,000 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^19]: Form 990 of Donors Trust Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2024 (IRS e-file object 202513179349312256; Schedule I: ACANI Inc 2,770,000 and Green Light Project 2,600,000 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2025_TEOS_XML_11D.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_11D.zip +[^20]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, API record for The Green Light Project Inc (EIN 46-4631639), filings 2014 to 2023, queried 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/464631639.json +[^21]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, API record for ACANI Inc (EIN 26-2387657), filings 2011 to 2023, queried 1 October 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/262387657.json +[^22]: Eli Clifton and Murtaza Hussain, "Dark-Money Group Linked to Anti-Iran, Pro-Israel Network Targets Turkey but Has No Turks", The Intercept, 26 November 2021 (also published by Responsible Statecraft as "Dark money network pushes pro-UAE/Saudi policies from New York"). https://theintercept.com/2021/11/26/turkish-democracy-project-mark-wallace-thomas-kaplan/ +[^23]: Form 990 of The Green Light Project Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2017 (IRS e-file object 201803199349316560), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/464631639 +[^24]: Form 990 of The Green Light Project Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2020 (IRS e-file object 202133199349329703; Part VII Section B: Hany Farid 160,000 dollars, Frances Fragos Townsend 240,000; Schedule I: Parallel Networks 88,384 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2021 cycles. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2021/2021_TEOS_XML_01A.zip +[^25]: Form 990 of The Green Light Project Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2021 (IRS e-file object 202233199349331048), IRS bulk XML, 2022 cycles. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2022/2022_TEOS_XML_02A.zip +[^26]: Form 990 of The Green Light Project Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2022 (IRS e-file object 202343199349328544; Part VII Section B: Hany Farid 120,000 dollars), IRS bulk XML, 2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2023/2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^27]: Form 990 of ACANI Inc for the tax year ended 31 December 2017 (IRS e-file object 201813199349315096), IRS bulk XML. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262387657 +[^28]: Rosie Gray, "Anti-Extremism Group Gets State Department Support, But Twitter Remains Wary", BuzzFeed News, 27 September 2015. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/anti-extremism-group-gets-state-department-support-but-twitt +[^29]: House Committee on Foreign Affairs, "Truth in Testimony" disclosure form of Mark Wallace for a hearing dated 25 November 2017, organisation represented "United Against Nuclear Iran", file HHRG-115-FA13-TTF-WallaceM-20171025, docs.house.gov. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA13/20171025/106544/HHRG-115-FA13-TTF-WallaceM-20171025.pdf +[^30]: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, "Radicalization: Social Media and the Rise of Terrorism", hearing of 28 October 2015, official transcript. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-114hhrg97977/html/CHRG-114hhrg97977.htm +[^31]: Patrick Tucker, "How to Stop the Next Viral Jihadi Video", Defense One, 17 June 2016. http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/06/how-stop-next-viral-jihadi-video/129210/ +[^32]: Counter Extremism Project, tag page "eGLYPH" (items describing "CEP Senior Advisor Dr. Hany Farid"), counterextremism.com, accessed 1 October 2026. https://www.counterextremism.com/news-free-tags/eglyph +[^33]: Brief of Amici Curiae Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and Hany Farid in Support of Petitioners, Gonzalez v. Google LLC, No. 21-1333 (U.S. Supreme Court), filed 7 December 2022, Interest of Amici Curiae and footnote 1. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1333/249378/20221207151224344_No.%2021-1333_Brief%20of%20Amici%20Curiae.pdf +[^34]: Counter Extremism Project, press release "Extremist Content Online: White Supremacist Telegram Channels Identify Need for Alternative Platform After State Department's Terrorgram Collective Designation", 21 January 2025, with site navigation listing databases and programs. https://www.counterextremism.com/press/extremist-content-online-white-supremacist-telegram-channels-identify-need-alternative +[^35]: RTI International for the Department of Homeland Security, "Counter Extremism Project Site Profile: FY2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grantee Evaluation", November 2023. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/23_1108_st_CEP_SiteProfile.pdf +[^36]: Eli Clifton and Murtaza Hussain, "Dark money network pushes pro-UAE/Saudi policies from New York", Responsible Statecraft, 26 November 2021 (quotes the 2015 truth-in-testimony statement of Wallace, the August 2016 Coleman email to Otaiba, and the statement that none of the groups had registered under FARA). https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/11/26/dark-money-network-pushes-pro-uae-saudi-policies-from-new-york/ +[^37]: Eli Clifton, "Hacked Emails Reveal Close Ties Between UAE and Anti-Iran/Qatar Advocacy Groups", LobeLog, 21 July 2017. https://lobelog.com/hacked-emails-reveal-close-ties-between-uae-and-anti-iranqatar-advocacy-groups/ +[^38]: Counter Extremism Project, "Qatar, Money, and Terror" (key findings; "CEP's QATAR-HARBORS Campaign"), counterextremism.com, accessed 1 October 2026. https://www.counterextremism.com/content/qatar-money-and-terror +[^39]: Benjamin Weinthal, "Exclusive: Alleged Qatar spy operation said to have targeted GOP lawmakers opposed to Muslim Brotherhood", Fox News Digital, 20 January 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/world/exclusive-alleged-qatar-spy-operation-said-to-have-targeted-gop-lawmakers-opposed-to-muslim-brotherhood diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit Suisse.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit Suisse.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0f124f9d --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Credit Suisse.md @@ -0,0 +1,300 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - CreditSuisse + - SwissBanking + - NaziEra + - TaxEvasion + - SuisseSecrets + - IranContra + - MozambiqueTunaBonds + - Archegos + - Greensill + - UBS + - BankSecrecy +alias: + - Credit Suisse + - Credit Suisse Group + - Credit Suisse Group AG + - Credit Suisse AG + - Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG + - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC + - Schweizerische Kreditanstalt + - SKA + - Swiss Credit Bank + - Crédit Suisse + - CSFB +summary: "Zurich bank incorporated in 1856 that held Nazi-era and Iran-Contra accounts, pleaded guilty to US tax conspiracy in 2014, settled Mozambique kickback charges in 2021, and was taken over by UBS in 2023." +start: 1856-07-05 +end: 2023-06-12 +location: "Zurich, Switzerland" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[UBS]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-06-12 + role: "acquirer of Credit Suisse Group AG" + fn: 2 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[The Enterprise (Iran-Contra)]]" + role: "Geneva bank of the Lake Resources account that received the proceeds of the Iran arms sales" + fn: 10 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-05-19 + end: 2014-11-21 + role: "guilty plea by Credit Suisse AG to conspiracy to assist US customers in filing false tax returns; sentencing on 2014-11-21" + fn: 18 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-10-19 + role: "three-year deferred prosecution agreement over Mozambique financings" + fn: 15 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]]" + reverse: true + end: 2014-02-26 + role: "inquiry into Swiss accounts of US customers; hearing on 2014-02-26" + fn: 17 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-03 + end: 2023-07-24 + role: "enforcement proceedings over Greensill (concluded 2023-02-28) and Archegos (concluded 2023-07-24)" + fn: 29 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Senate Budget Committee]]" + reverse: true + role: "inquiry into Nazi-linked accounts, subpoena to Neil Barofsky; reports released 2023-04-18 and 2023-08-17" + fn: 6 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Neil Barofsky]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021 + role: "independent ombudsperson over the bank's inquiry into Nazi-linked accounts; terminated in 2022 and rehired after the UBS takeover" + fn: 6 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Ulrich Körner]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-08-01 + role: "group chief executive officer" + fn: 21 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Thomas Gottstein]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020-02 + role: "group chief executive officer, appointed after Tidjane Thiam stepped down" + fn: 27 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Tidjane Thiam]]" + reverse: true + end: 2020-02 + role: "group chief executive officer; appointed in 2015 to succeed Brady Dougan" + fn: 27 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Brady Dougan]]" + reverse: true + end: 2015-06 + role: "group chief executive officer for eight years" + fn: 20 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Urs Rohner]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman of the board of directors in the annual report for 2014" + fn: 20 + - type: owned + with: "[[The Olayan Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 2013-02-25 + role: "6.7 percent shareholder through Crescent Holding GmbH, per notification" + fn: 20 + - type: owned + with: "[[Qatar Investment Authority]]" + reverse: true + start: 2013-10-23 + role: "5.2 percent shareholder through Qatar Holding LLC, per notification" + fn: 20 + - type: owned + with: "[[Saudi National Bank]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-12-10 + role: "9.88 percent shareholder, per notification" + fn: 21 + - type: funded + with: "[[Proindicus]]" + start: 2013 + role: "provided 504 million dollars of a 622 million dollar syndicated loan" + fn: 23 + - type: funded + with: "[[Empresa Moçambicana de Atum]]" + start: 2013 + role: "provided 500 million dollars of financing and underwrote an 850 million dollar loan participation note issue" + fn: 23 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Andrew Pearse]]" + reverse: true + role: "banker; pleaded guilty in 2019 to accepting improper personal benefits in the Mozambique financings" + fn: 25 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Detelina Subeva]]" + reverse: true + role: "banker; pleaded guilty in 2019 to accepting improper personal benefits in the Mozambique financings" + fn: 25 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Surjan Singh]]" + reverse: true + role: "banker; pleaded guilty in 2019 to accepting improper personal benefits in the Mozambique financings" + fn: 25 + - type: represented + with: "[[Podesta Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 2013 + end: 2015 + role: "registered lobbyist for Credit Suisse Securities (USA)" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Covington & Burling]]" + reverse: true + start: 2013 + end: 2014 + role: "registered lobbyist for Credit Suisse Securities (USA)" + fn: 19 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Suisse Secrets]]" + start: 2022-02-20 + role: "leaked records of more than 18,000 accounts published by OCCRP and partners" + fn: 28 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Credit Suisse Group AG was the parent of Credit Suisse AG, a bank incorporated on July 5, 1856, with its seat in [[Zurich]]; the group was incorporated on March 3, 1982.[^1] [[UBS]] completed its takeover of the group on June 12, 2023.[^2] + +### The Chiasso affair of 1977 + +*[[Time]]* reported on July 18, 1977 that [[Ernst Kuhrmeier]], manager of the bank's branch at Chiasso in [[Switzerland]], was in jail awaiting trial on a charge of "disloyal management" for allegedly manipulating more than 800 million dollars. The magazine reported that over the years Kuhrmeier had funneled 868 million dollars of the branch's deposits to [[Texon Finanzanstalt]], a Liechtenstein holding company he had founded in 1961, which bought stakes in more than 150 Italian companies, and that he concealed the dealings from superiors in Zurich. It reported that the newly elected board chairman, [[Oswald Aeppli]], told about 3,000 shareholders that a team of 100 had not yet sorted out the losses, and that other bankers estimated the cost at 400 million dollars.[^3] + +### Accounts of the Nazi period + +The Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland and the Second World War, chaired by [[Jean-François Bergier]], reported in 2002 that during the war the Swiss banks lent to a large variety of German companies, that Credit Suisse (the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt) worked closely with [[Deutsche Bank]], a cooperation that extended to dealings in looted gold, and that from 1943 Credit Suisse provided most of the loans to the [[Bank der Deutschen Luftfahrt]], a bank founded in 1939 to expand the Luftwaffe. It reported that in December 1938 Credit Suisse considered buying the New York bank [[Speyer & Co.]], which a senior manager described as still considered Jewish, with "an odour not easily effaced," and that in 1940 it opened its own New York agency on the basis of assets purchased from Speyer. It reported that there was some indication that documents were destroyed, since the bank had engaged in business transactions with the [[SS]] in 1944 and 1945 arranged by Deutsche Bank's Swiss representative, [[Alfred Kurzmeyer]]. A search of its records against a list of 460 known Nazis and persons tried at Nuremberg found fourteen matches with suspicious accounts at predecessor banks. In the registration of dormant accounts under the decree of 1962, the commission reported, Credit Suisse, [[Volksbank]] and [[Bank Leu]] held that accounts below 100 francs should not be reported; the Swiss banks collectively ordered 14,186 blank forms and submitted 1,184 completed ones, and Credit Suisse disclosed one fifth of the assets originally identified as problematic.[^4] + +Class actions against Credit Suisse and another Swiss bank were filed in October 1996 in the [[Eastern District of New York]]. A global settlement was agreed in January 1999 and approved on July 26, 2000, under which the Swiss banks committed to pay 1.25 billion dollars. Credit Suisse committed to pay up to one third, and made its final payment into escrow on November 23, 2000.[^5] + +### Nazi-linked accounts, 2020 to 2026 + +In March 2020 the [[Simon Wiesenthal Center]] notified Credit Suisse that it had credible information that the bank held Nazi-linked accounts that had not been disclosed in the investigations of the 1990s. The bank retained the forensic firm [[AlixPartners]] and, with the Center's support, retained [[Neil Barofsky]] of [[Jenner & Block]] in June 2021 as Independent Ombudsperson to oversee that review. In February 2023 the ranking member of the [[Senate Budget Committee]], [[Chuck Grassley]], received allegations about the removal of Barofsky in late 2022, and he and the chairman, [[Sheldon Whitehouse]], issued the committee's first subpoena since 1991 to obtain Barofsky's report. On April 18, 2023 the committee released that report and AlixPartners' initial report. It stated that the reports showed nearly 100 previously undisclosed Nazi-linked accounts, some open until as recently as 2020, that the bank had maintained accounts for at least 99 individuals who were senior Nazi officials in Germany or members of Nazi-affiliated groups in Argentina, that seventy Argentine accounts with plausible links to Nazis were opened after 1945 and at least fourteen remained open into the twenty-first century, and that the bank's investigation had been limited by scoping restrictions. The committee stated that, as a result of its inquiry, the bank had committed to investigate further its apparent role in supporting Nazis fleeing justice.[^6] On August 17, 2023 the committee released the unredacted report. It stated that 64,000 sets of potentially relevant records were not part of the bank's investigation and that the bank had blocked Barofsky and a historian from materials.[^7] + +Barofsky, a former Special Inspector General for the [[Troubled Asset Relief Program]], testified before the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] on February 3, 2026, after UBS had taken over the investigation and rehired him. He stated that the investigation had so far determined that 628 individuals and 262 legal entities within its scope had account relationships with Credit Suisse. The accounts he described included four wartime accounts of the [[German Foreign Office]] held under a pseudonym, an account used by SS officer [[Leo Volk]] on behalf of the SS economic enterprises, an account of the Shanghai office of the arms maker [[Rheinmetall]]-Borsig, and accounts of the [[German Red Cross]]. He stated that the registry card for the Volk account, which showed that as of 1944 it was controlled by Volk and by Kurzmeyer, remained in the bank's files, and that when the Bergier commission asked in 2001 whether the bank had evidence of a business relationship with the SS enterprises the bank answered that there were no such indications; he stated that the bank's own research team had found a document confirming the account in the late 1990s. He stated that the bank executed forced transfers of Jewish clients' assets into accounts of Nazi-affiliated banks. He stated that in 1997 the bank cancelled publication of a history of its predecessor [[Bank Hofmann]] out of concern about "damages claims by former concentration camp prisoners." He stated that the bank provided banking services and acted as landlord for the [[Argentine Immigration Office]] in Bern, which ran an escape route for Nazis to [[Argentina]] supported by at least one million Swiss francs from the government of [[Juan Perón]], and he cited a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] description of the company [[Carlos Fuldner]] founded in 1950 as a group of former Wehrmacht and Nazi technicians. He stated that UBS provided full access to the archives until November 2025, when, shortly after he told UBS that the committee was considering a hearing, it informed him that it would conduct a privilege review and withhold some materials. He also wrote that UBS "deserves credit" for its commitment to supplementing the historical record.[^8] + +In his opening statement at that hearing, Grassley stated that UBS had taken legal action in New York against the Simon Wiesenthal Center before Judge [[Edward Korman]], and that its outside counsel, [[Gibson Dunn]], was reviewing and filtering the material available to Barofsky.[^9] + +### The Geneva accounts of the Enterprise + +The Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, by [[Lawrence Walsh]], records that [[Albert Hakim]] was the principal shareholder of Lake Resources, Inc., a Panamanian shell corporation established in May 1985, and that the corporation owned the account at Credit Suisse in Geneva that was the Enterprise account receiving the proceeds of the Iran arms sales. On November 21, 1989, when Hakim pleaded guilty, Lake Resources pleaded guilty to a corporate felony charge of illegally diverting 16.2 million dollars of those proceeds from the [[United States]] government.[^10] A memorandum of July 8, 1985 by the Enterprise's Swiss fiduciary agent, quoted in the report, refers to debit advices "on the Credit Suisse account of Energy" for transfers to a Liberian company, Defex S.A., created to conceal the Enterprise's mark-ups from the contras.[^11] + +The report records that [[Elliott Abrams]] gave a Bruneian official an account number for a 10 million dollar contribution to the contras that was meant to be the Lake Resources account at Credit Suisse in Geneva (386.430.22.1) but had two digits transposed (368.430.22.1) in the number that [[Oliver North]] provided to Abrams on a card typed by his secretary; that on August 19, 1986 the Sultan of Brunei ordered the transfer of 10 million dollars to Credit Suisse, Eaux Vives branch, Geneva, account 368430-22-1; and that Swiss authorities said the money was returned to Brunei. It records that in late 1989 the Independent Counsel obtained information that the deposit had passed through an account or accounts controlled by or on behalf of [[Bruce Rappaport]], a Swiss businessman, and that in August 1989 Rappaport's lawyers received a letter from the bank stating: "Credit Suisse knows the identity of the person in whose account the Sultan of Brunei's $10 million was placed. Neither Bruce Rappaport, nor any entity directly or indirectly controlled by Bruce Rappaport was the recipient of the Sultan of Brunei's $10 million." Rappaport told the Independent Counsel in October 1990, under an immunity agreement, that the account was not his and that he did not know whose it was; the Independent Counsel was unable to determine the recipient.[^12] The report also records that [[Michael Ledeen]] said he asked the Israeli arms brokers [[Al Schwimmer]] and [[Yaakov Nimrodi]] in October 1985 to open a bank account to cover Iran arms sales expenses, that an account was opened in Switzerland, and that he later received a letter from Credit Suisse dated April 23, 1987 stating that the account was never used and no money was ever deposited in it.[^13] + +### PROMIS and the Israel Desk + +[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] wrote in *Profits of War* (1992) that an abridged version of the [[PROMIS]] software with a trap door was sold by [[Degem]] to Credit Suisse in 1985, and that the [[Likud Party]], which controlled Israel's intelligence network, was interested in learning which Israelis had opened accounts there and might approach account holders for a "donation" or threaten exposure. He also wrote of an arrangement in which 450 million dollars was to be transferred from Credit Suisse to the [[Bank of Budapest]] in [[Hungary]], with [[Robert Maxwell]]'s [[Berlitz]] language schools as the conduit. Ben-Menashe is the only source cited here for these accounts.[^14] + +The annual reports of Credit Suisse for 2021 and 2022 state that it received governmental and regulatory inquiries concerning cross-border services provided by its Switzerland-based Israel Desk, and that it was conducting a review and cooperating with the authorities.[^15] + +### United States sanctions, 2009 + +In December 2009 the bank announced a settlement with the [[New York County District Attorney's Office]], the [[Department of Justice]], the [[Federal Reserve Board]], the [[Federal Reserve Bank of New York]] and the [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] over United States dollar payments between April 2002 and 2007 involving parties subject to United States economic sanctions. It entered deferred prosecution agreements and an agreement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and agreed to pay 536 million dollars. It stated that it had terminated business with sanctioned parties by 2007 and closed its representative office in [[Tehran]].[^16] + +### Cross-border tax evasion and the 2014 plea + +The [[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] reported on February 26, 2014 that, as of 2006, Credit Suisse had over 22,000 United States customers with Swiss accounts whose assets, at their peak, exceeded 12 billion Swiss francs. It reported that from at least 2001 to 2008 the bank recruited United States clients, that by 2008 over 1,800 bankers were opening and servicing accounts for them, and that the United States had obtained the names of only about 230 clients with hidden accounts at the bank. It described a banker who handed a customer bank statements hidden in a *[[Sports Illustrated]]* magazine at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and recruiting at the annual "Swiss Ball" in New York. The subcommittee collected about 100,000 documents and conducted 23 interviews. It noted that, aside from UBS, the Justice Department had prosecuted only one of the Swiss banks suspected of misconduct. At the hearing the witnesses were the chief executive, [[Brady Dougan]], the general counsel, [[Romeo Cerutti]], and the Swiss private banking co-heads [[Hans-Ulrich Meister]] and [[Robert Shafir]], followed by Deputy Attorney General [[James Cole]] and Assistant Attorney General [[Kathryn Keneally]] of the Tax Division.[^17] + +The bank's annual report for 2014 records that it received a grand jury target letter from the Justice Department in July 2011, that on February 21, 2014 it agreed to pay about 196 million dollars to the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]], and that on May 19, 2014 it pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to assist United States customers in presenting false income tax returns. The settlement totaled 2,815 million dollars: 2,000 million dollars for the Justice Department, including 666.5 million dollars in restitution to the [[Internal Revenue Service]] and a fine of 1,333.5 million dollars that included the SEC's 196 million dollars, 715 million dollars for the [[New York State Department of Financial Services]], and 100 million dollars for the Federal Reserve. The sentencing hearing took place on November 21, 2014, and the bank engaged an independent monitor reporting to the Department of Financial Services.[^18] + +Lobbying Disclosure Act filings list outside registrants for Credit Suisse Securities (USA) in 2013 to 2015 including the [[Podesta Group]], [[Covington & Burling]], [[ACG Advocacy]], [[Hogan Lovells]] and Peter Blocklin. The Podesta Group's quarterly filings for 2014 list the issues for the first quarter as "Banking capital requirements. Corporate tax reform.", for the second and third quarters as "Banking capital requirements.", and for the fourth quarter as "Pension policy."[^19] + +### Officers and shareholders + +The annual report for 2014 shows [[Urs Rohner]] as Chairman of the Board and Brady Dougan as Chief Executive Officer, and records that the board appointed [[Tidjane Thiam]], then Group Chief Executive of [[Prudential plc]], to succeed Dougan, who was to step down at the end of June 2015 after eight years in the post. The same report lists indirect shareholders by disclosure notification: [[The Olayan Group]], through Crescent Holding GmbH, 88.5 million shares or 6.7 percent as of February 25, 2013; the [[Qatar Investment Authority]], through Qatar Holding LLC, 82.0 million shares or 5.2 percent as of October 23, 2013; and Harris Associates L.P., 81.5 million shares or 5.2 percent as of November 4, 2013. The table as of December 31, 2014 also lists purchase rights of 8.0 percent for the Olayan Group, relating to 1.725 billion dollars of 9.5 percent tier 1 capital instruments it held, and of 16.5 percent for the Qatar Investment Authority, relating to 1.72 billion dollars and 2.5 billion Swiss francs of such instruments and to options.[^20] The annual report for 2022 lists the [[Saudi National Bank]] at 395.5 million shares or 9.88 percent in a notification of December 10, 2022, the Qatar Investment Authority at 5.03 percent (November 17, 2021) and the Olayan Group, through Competrol Establishment, at 4.93 percent (December 12, 2018).[^21] + +Employees listing "Credit Suisse" as employer gave 256,403.03 dollars in 485 itemized contributions to [[Obama for America]] in the 2008 cycle, and employees listing "UBS" gave 267,344.97 dollars in 518 contributions, according to the [[Federal Election Commission]]'s employer totals for the committee.[^22] + +### Mozambique financings + +The SEC's order of October 19, 2021 found that between 2013 and 2016 three former Credit Suisse bankers, identified only as Banker 1, Banker 2 and Banker 3, took kickbacks of at least 50 million dollars in connection with three transactions: a 622 million dollar syndicated loan in 2013 to [[Proindicus]], a state-owned company of [[Mozambique]], of which the bank provided 504 million dollars; an 850 million dollar issue of loan participation notes for [[Empresa Moçambicana de Atum]] (EMATUM), to which the bank also provided 500 million dollars of financing; and a 2016 exchange offer of those notes for sovereign bonds. It found that the improper payments to the bankers, intermediaries and Mozambican officials totaled at least 200 million dollars, that the bankers hid the scheme and their kickbacks from other members of management, that offering materials falsely stated the proceeds would be used for tuna fishing, and that the bank did not disclose its conflict as a creditor of Proindicus. It stated that Mozambique disclosed the Proindicus and Mozambique Asset Management transactions in April 2016, that the [[International Monetary Fund]] and donors halted support, and that Mozambique defaulted. The order records that Mozambique has disputed the validity of the guarantees.[^23] + +The bank's annual report for 2021 states that the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment on January 3, 2019, that three former employees pleaded guilty on May 20, July 19 and September 6, 2019, and that on October 19, 2021 Credit Suisse Group AG entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, with a net penalty to the Justice Department of about 175.5 million dollars. Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited pleaded guilty to one count of the same conspiracy. The SEC penalty was 65 million dollars with about 34 million dollars of disgorgement and interest, and the [[Financial Conduct Authority]] penalty about 200 million dollars with forgiveness of 200 million dollars of Mozambique's debt. The Swiss regulator [[Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority]] found that the bank violated its duty to file a suspicious activity report.[^15] The regulator's own release stated that the two 2013 loans, guaranteed by the state and together about one billion dollars, made up almost 6 percent of Mozambique's gross domestic product; that before the 2016 conversion of the EMATUM notes the parent company had information indicating that several hundred million dollars may have been misused and approved the restructuring regardless; and that a suspicious payment of about 8 million dollars to an adviser of Mozambique went through the bank, which terminated the relationship and did not file a suspicious activity report until 2019, after the Justice Department had indicted three former employees.[^24] + +The three former bankers, [[Andrew Pearse]], [[Detelina Subeva]] and [[Surjan Singh]], testified against [[Jean Boustani]], an employee of the shipbuilder [[Privinvest]], which is controlled by [[Iskandar Safa]]. Katharina Bart reported in *finews.com* on December 2, 2019 that a United States court found Boustani not guilty of three conspiracy charges, and that Pearse told investigators that Privinvest had also funneled money to the son of Mozambique's leader at the time. She reported that Credit Suisse had said that the three disguised their dealings from management.[^25] + +### Observation of executives and employees, 2016 to 2019 + +The Swiss regulator stated on October 19, 2021 that between 2016 and 2019 Credit Suisse planned seven "observations," most of which were carried out; that in two cases members of the executive board were observed in Switzerland, together with other former employees and third parties abroad; that decisions were taken informally, the bank's security service was significantly involved, text messaging services were used contrary to internal policy, and in one case an invoice was altered to conceal the cost; and that several members of the former executive board were informed in August 2019 of the planned observation of an employee in Asia. It found that statements made by the bank to the public and to the regulator proved partially incomplete or inaccurate, reprimanded two individuals, and opened enforcement proceedings against three others.[^26] The annual report for 2019 records that [[Iqbal Khan]] left the bank in July 2019 as head of International Wealth Management, succeeded by [[Philipp Wehle]]; that [[Pierre-Olivier Bouée]] was succeeded as Chief Operating Officer by [[James B. Walker]] in October 2019; and that the board accepted the resignation of Tidjane Thiam, announced on February 7, 2020 after a discussion with him of the reputational impact of media coverage of the observation incidents of 2019, and appointed [[Thomas Gottstein]] as Group Chief Executive Officer in his place effective February 14, 2020.[^27] + +### Suisse Secrets + +On February 20, 2022 the [[Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project]] and *[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]* published reports from leaked records of more than 18,000 Credit Suisse accounts, opened from the 1940s until well into the last decade and holding more than 100 billion dollars. The unnamed source of the data said in a statement that Swiss banking secrecy laws are "immoral." The project reported that 15 intelligence figures or their close relatives held accounts, among them [[Sa'ad Khair]], head of Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate from 2000 to 2005, whose account opened in 2003 and reached 28.3 million Swiss francs; the sons of Pakistan's [[Akhtar Abdur Rahman]], head of the [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] during the Afghan war, whose accounts were opened on July 1, 1985 and in January 1986; [[Ghaleb Al-Qamish]], head of Yemen's Political Security Office, whose account opened in 1999 and held almost 5 million Swiss francs by 2006; and the family of Egypt's intelligence chief [[Omar Suleiman]], whose account opened in February 2003 and was worth 63 million Swiss francs by 2007. It reported that the data contained no evidence that the Suleiman account was closed after the fall of [[Hosni Mubarak]]. It reported that at Mubarak's trial a judge cited testimony from Suleiman and other officials that the intelligence agency set up front firms using the tycoon [[Hussein Salem]], and that Salem held accounts at the bank, one worth 105 million Swiss francs by 2003. It quoted a South Asian intelligence source with knowledge of Afghanistan operations, who spoke to it anonymously, as saying of Akhtar: "A lot of money was siphoned off from the Afghan war and into his bank accounts." Ghazi Khan, one of the Pakistani brothers, called the information on the family's accounts "not correct" and said it was "denied." Credit Suisse declined to comment on individual cases and said it operated in compliance with applicable laws and had strengthened its risk management framework.[^28] + +At the 2022 annual general meeting the [[Ethos Foundation]] and other shareholders proposed a special audit concerning the supply chain finance funds and Suisse Secrets, and on April 29, 2022 the shareholders rejected the proposal.[^21] + +### Greensill and Archegos + +On March 1, 2021 the boards of four supply chain finance funds managed by Credit Suisse subsidiaries suspended redemptions, citing valuation uncertainty over assets originated by [[Greensill Capital]], which became insolvent in the [[United Kingdom]] on March 8, 2021. The last net asset value was about 10 billion dollars. The bank stated that expected losses were concentrated in positions with a net asset value of about 2.3 billion dollars relating to the [[GFG Alliance]], [[Katerra]] and Bluestone.[^15] In June 2022 the asset manager reached an agreement with [[Bluestone Resources]] and its shareholders that included recurring payments from Bluestone and from its owners, described in the annual report as the family of Bluestone chief executive [[James C. Justice III]], of up to 320 million dollars to all noteholders.[^21] + +The Swiss regulator concluded its Greensill proceedings on February 28, 2023. It found that a Credit Suisse risk manager recommended against a bridging loan to Greensill and that a senior manager overruled him, that the bank used employees responsible for the Greensill relationship to answer critical questions and relied on answers from [[Lex Greensill]] himself, and that the bank made partly false and overly positive statements to the regulator. It opened proceedings against four former managers.[^29] + +The bank's annual report for 2021 records an aggregate loss of 4,798 million Swiss francs from the failure of the hedge fund [[Archegos Capital Management]] and a recovery of compensation awards from certain individuals.[^15] The regulator concluded its Archegos proceedings on July 24, 2023. It found that the bank's position was 24 billion dollars in March 2021, four times that of the next largest hedge fund client and more than half of the group's equity, that the executive board was not informed, that limit overruns were met by raising limits, and that the bank paid out 2.4 billion dollars two weeks before the collapse. The release stated that the United States Federal Reserve fined the bank 268.5 million dollars and the [[Prudential Regulation Authority]] 87 million pounds.[^30] + +### The UBS takeover + +On March 19, 2023 the Swiss regulator approved the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS. It stated that the group faced a crisis of confidence with considerable outflows of client funds, that the extraordinary government support triggered a write-down of the nominal value of all additional tier 1 debt of about 16 billion Swiss francs, and that the [[Swiss National Bank]] would provide liquidity assistance backed by a default guarantee of the Confederation.[^31] The Federal Department of Finance records a federal loss protection guarantee for UBS of 9 billion Swiss francs and a guarantee of 100 billion Swiss francs in favor of the National Bank, completion of the takeover on June 12, 2023, termination of both guarantees by August 11, 2023, and a partial decision of the [[Federal Administrative Court]] of October 1, 2025 revoking the write-down decree.[^2] + +The regulator's report of December 19, 2023 states that since 2012 it conducted 43 preliminary investigations of the bank, issued nine reprimands, filed sixteen criminal charges, and completed eleven enforcement proceedings against the bank and three against individuals.[^32] The Parliamentary Investigation Committee of the Swiss parliament stated on December 20, 2024 that responsibility for the loss of confidence lay with the bank's board of directors and executive board, who had defied numerous interventions by the regulator, criticized the regulator's relaxation of capital requirements in 2017, and found no causal misconduct by the authorities.[^33] + +### Bulgarian clients + +The bank's annual report for 2021 states that the Swiss Office of the Attorney General charged Credit Suisse AG on December 17, 2020 over its diligence and controls applied to Bulgarian former clients who, the office alleged, laundered funds through its accounts, that the trial took place in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in the first quarter of 2022, and that the bank believed its diligence and controls complied with applicable legal requirements.[^15] + +### Epstein files + +A single page of a statement in the Justice Department's Epstein library, bearing the Bates number JPM-SDNY-00061899 and the legend "Confidential Treatment Requested by JPMorgan Chase," is headed "CS SEC EUR LTD: F/B/0 FINANCIAL TRUST" and states that it is a Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC statement whose positions are carried by Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited. Its multi-currency portfolio summary shows a cash balance of 89,880 dollars, a short market value of 421,343.97 dollars and a total portfolio value of negative 340,451.64 dollars; the page does not state the statement period.[^34] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Credit Suisse Group AG, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2013, filed April 3, 2014 ("incorporated on March 3, 1982 and July 5, 1856, respectively"). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036814000030/a140403ar20f.htm +[^2]: Federal Department of Finance (Switzerland), "UBS takeover of Credit Suisse," published December 20, 2024 (completion of the takeover on June 12, 2023; guarantees; partial decision of October 1, 2025). https://www.efd.admin.ch/en/credit-suisse-en +[^3]: "Banking: Less Go-Go in Switzerland," *Time*, July 18, 1977. https://time.com/archive/6848888/banking-less-go-go-in-switzerland/ +[^4]: Independent Commission of Experts Switzerland, Second World War, *Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War: Final Report* (Zurich: Pendo, 2002), pp. 265, 269 to 270, 379 to 380 and 452 to 453. https://www.lootedart.com/web_images/pdf/Bergier%20Final%20Report%20ueke.pdf +[^5]: Credit Suisse Group, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2002, filed March 27, 2003, "World War II settlement," pp. 85 to 86. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000104746903010549/a2104752z20-f.htm +[^6]: Senate Committee on the Budget, press release "Credit Suisse Maintained Nazi-Linked Accounts into 21st Century, Subpoenaed Records Show," April 18, 2023. https://www.budget.senate.gov/chairman/newsroom/press/credit-suisse-maintained-nazi-linked-accounts-into-21st-century-subpoenaed-records-show +[^7]: Senate Committee on the Budget, press release "Credit Suisse Failed to Fully Investigate Nazi-Linked Accounts, Full Report Confirms," August 17, 2023. https://www.budget.senate.gov/ranking-member/newsroom/press/credit-suisse-failed-to-fully-investigate-nazi-linked-accounts-full-report-confirms +[^8]: Testimony of Neil M. Barofsky, Independent Ombudsperson for Credit Suisse AG, before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, "The Truth Revealed: Hidden Facts Regarding Nazis and Swiss Banks," February 3, 2026, pp. 1 to 9, 15 to 16, 26 to 27 and 48 to 50. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/95317009-9c96-3e8f-f63d-04b7f29ef02f/2026-02-03_Testimony_Barofsky.pdf +[^9]: Senator Chuck Grassley, opening statement, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Swiss banks and Nazi ties, February 3, 2026. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/remarks/grassley-opens-judiciary-hearing-on-swiss-banks-hidden-nazi-ties +[^10]: Lawrence E. Walsh, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters* (Washington, D.C., 1993), Chapter 10, "United States v. Albert Hakim," section "The Lake Resources Plea." https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_10.htm +[^11]: Walsh, *Final Report*, Chapter 8, "The Enterprise and Its Finances," on the creation of Defex S.A. in July 1985. https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htm +[^12]: Walsh, *Final Report*, Chapter 14, "Other Money Matters," section "Third-Country Funding and the Missing Brunei Funds" and notes 38 to 42; Chapter 25, "United States v. Elliott Abrams" (transfer of August 19, 1986). https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_14.htm and https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm +[^13]: Walsh, *Final Report*, Chapter 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane," discussing Michael Ledeen (Ledeen, grand jury testimony, September 18, 1987, pp. 125 to 127, and letter from Credit Suisse to Ledeen, April 23, 1987). https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm +[^14]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (1992 edition), pp. 140 and 153 (index entries "Credit Suisse"). https://archive.org/details/profits-of-war-1992-ari-ben-menashe +[^15]: Credit Suisse Group AG, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2021, filed March 10, 2022, Note on litigation ("Israel Desk matters," "Mozambique matter," "Bulgarian former clients matter," "SCFF," "Archegos"), and "Significant events in 2021." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036822000019/cs-20211231.htm +[^16]: Credit Suisse Group, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2009, filed March 26, 2010, "US economic sanctions matter." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036810000015/a100326ar20f.htm +[^17]: *Offshore Tax Evasion: The Effort to Collect Unpaid Taxes on Billions in Hidden Offshore Accounts*, hearing before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, S. Hrg. 113-397, February 26, 2014, vol. 1, witness list and staff report, Executive Summary. https://archive.org/details/gov.gpo.fdsys.CHRG-113shrg88276 +[^18]: Credit Suisse Group AG, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2014, filed March 20, 2015, "Tax and securities law matters." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036815000028/a140320ar20f.htm +[^19]: U.S. Senate lobbying disclosure database, filings for client names beginning "Credit Suisse," filing years 2013 to 2015, including quarterly reports of the Podesta Group for 2014. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=credit+suisse&filing_year=2014 +[^20]: Credit Suisse Group AG, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2014, filed March 20, 2015, executive changes and "Significant shareholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036815000028/a140320ar20f.htm +[^21]: Credit Suisse Group AG, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2022, filed March 14, 2023, "Significant shareholders" and discussion of the supply chain finance funds and the 2022 annual general meeting. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036823000026/cs-20221231.htm +[^22]: Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API, schedule A contributions by employer, committee C00431445 (Obama for America), two-year period 2008; employer names as reported in the filings. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/by_employer/?committee_id=C00431445&cycle=2008 +[^23]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, *In the Matter of Credit Suisse Group AG*, Securities Act Release No. 11001, October 19, 2021, paragraphs 1 to 7. https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2021/33-11001.pdf +[^24]: FINMA, "Mozambique loans: FINMA concludes proceedings against Credit Suisse," October 19, 2021. https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2021/10/20211019-mm-cs-mosambik/ +[^25]: Katharina Bart, "Key Figure in Mozambique Trial Acquitted," finews.com, December 2, 2019. https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/39071-jean-boustani-acquitted-mozambique-andrew-pearse-detelina-subeva-surjan-singh-iskandar-safa +[^26]: FINMA, "Credit Suisse observation activities: FINMA identifies serious breaches of supervisory law," October 19, 2021. https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2021/10/20211019---mm---obs/ +[^27]: Credit Suisse Group AG, Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2019, filed March 30, 2020, executive board changes, Board of Directors activities and interview with the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1159510/000137036820000045/cs-20191231.htm +[^28]: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, "Suisse Secrets" project page (February 20, 2022) and "Bank of Spies: Credit Suisse Catered to Global Intelligence Figures," February 20, 2022. https://www.occrp.org/en/project/suisse-secrets/bank-of-spies-credit-suisse-catered-to-global-intelligence-figures +[^29]: FINMA, "FINMA concludes 'Greensill' proceedings against Credit Suisse," February 28, 2023. https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2023/02/20230228-mm-greensill/ +[^30]: FINMA, "Archegos: FINMA concludes proceedings against Credit Suisse," July 24, 2023. https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2023/07/20230724-mm-archegos/ +[^31]: FINMA, "FINMA approves merger of UBS and Credit Suisse," March 19, 2023. https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2023/03/20230319-mm-cs-ubs/ +[^32]: FINMA, "FINMA publishes report and lessons learned from the Credit Suisse crisis," December 19, 2023. https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2023/12/20231219-mm-cs-bericht/ +[^33]: Swiss Federal Assembly, Parliamentary Investigation Committee, press release "Lessons from the Credit Suisse crisis: PInC identifies need for action," December 20, 2024. https://www.parlament.ch/press-releases/Pages/mm-puk-2024-20-12.aspx?lang=1033 +[^34]: Statement page, "CS SEC EUR LTD: F/B/0 FINANCIAL TRUST," Bates JPM-SDNY-00061899, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein library, EFTA01582369 (DataSet 10). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01582369.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Discord.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Discord.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0c6992a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Discord.md @@ -0,0 +1,243 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Discord + - Platform + - ChildSafety + - CSAM + - SextortionNetworks + - UniteTheRight + - PentagonLeaks + - SenateJudiciary + - StateAttorneysGeneral + - Lobbying +alias: + - Discord + - Discord Inc. + - Discord Inc + - Discord, Inc. +summary: "Voice and text chat service launched in 2015 whose servers figure in the Sines v. Kessler subpoena, the Teixeira leak case, the CVLT and 764 prosecutions, a Senate subpoena, and three state suits." +start: 2015 +location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Jason Citron]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015 + role: "co-founder" + fn: 2 + - type: founded + with: "[[Stanislav Vishnevskiy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015 + role: "co-founder; chief technology officer" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jason Citron]]" + reverse: true + end: 2025-04-28 + role: "chief executive officer from the company's inception" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Humam Sakhnini]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-04-28 + role: "chief executive officer" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Mitch Lasky]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in Form D filings of 2020-07, 2020-12, 2021-07, 2021-09 and 2023-03" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Josh Elman]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in Form D filings of 2019-01 and 2020-07" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[David Sze]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in Form D filings of 2020-12, 2021-07, 2021-09 and 2023-03" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Danny Rimer]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in Form D filings of 2021-07, 2021-09 and 2023-03" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Stephen Gillett]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in Form D filings of 2020-07 through 2023-03" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Amrita Ahuja]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in the Form D filing of 2023-03" + fn: 1 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Leslie Kilgore]]" + reverse: true + role: "director named in the Form D filing of 2023-03" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Sentropy]]" + start: 2021 + role: "acquirer of the moderation technology company" + fn: 11 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Internet Watch Foundation]]" + start: 2023-11 + role: "member in the over 25,000 pound tier" + fn: 18 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Tech Coalition]]" + start: 2023 + role: "founding member of the Lantern signal-sharing program" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[National PTA]]" + start: 2022 + role: "sponsor" + fn: 11 + - type: represented + with: "[[Monument Advocacy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-05-01 + end: 2025-02-28 + role: "registered lobbying firm" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-04-01 + role: "registered lobbying firm" + fn: 19 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Sines v. Kessler]]" + role: "nonparty recipient of a subpoena for Unite the Right records" + fn: 4 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[United States v. Teixeira]]" + start: 2023-04-12 + end: 2023-04-12 + role: "produced subscriber records to the FBI on legal process" + fn: 5 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Senate Judiciary Committee]]" + start: 2023-11-20 + end: 2024-01-31 + role: "subpoena to its chief executive; hearing on January 31, 2024" + fn: 10 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[State of New Jersey]]" + start: 2025-04-17 + role: "defendant in a Consumer Fraud Act suit" + fn: 20 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[State of Indiana]]" + start: 2026-05-06 + role: "defendant with Roblox in a Deceptive Consumer Sales Act suit" + fn: 21 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[State of Texas]]" + start: 2026-05-22 + role: "defendant in a Deceptive Trade Practices Act suit" + fn: 22 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Discord Inc. is a [[Delaware]] corporation with its business address in [[San Francisco, California]], and operates a voice, video and text communications service organized into servers, channels and direct messages.[^1] In his Senate testimony of January 31, 2024, [[Jason Citron]] stated that he had co-founded Discord in 2015, that he had previously founded and served as chief executive of [[OpenFeint]], that more than 150 million people used the service each month, more than 75 percent of them outside the [[United States]], and that Discord sold no advertising and charged for subscriptions (Nitro) and Server Boosts.[^2] A company press release of April 23, 2025 stated that Citron had served as chief executive since the company's inception and that [[Stanislav Vishnevskiy]] co-founded it with him; the release named [[Humam Sakhnini]], formerly vice chairman of [[Activision Blizzard]], as chief executive effective April 28, 2025, placed him on the board, kept Citron on the board as Advisor to the CEO, kept Vishnevskiy as chief technology officer, and gave the service more than 200 million monthly active users.[^3] + +### Securities Filings + +Discord has filed six Notices of Exempt Offering of Securities (Form D) with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] under Rule 506(b), between January 2019 and March 2023. None names a purchaser.[^1] + +The first, filed January 8, 2019, reported a first sale on December 21, 2018, an offering of $150,000,085 with $94,000,000 sold to 11 investors, and named Citron (executive officer and director), [[Josh Elman]] (director), A. Relan (director) and Les Wright (executive officer, who signed the filing). The filing of July 2, 2020 (first sale June 30, 2020; $100,049,866 sold of $101,322,695; 14 investors) named Citron, [[Mitch Lasky]], Elman, Vishnevskiy and [[Stephen Gillett]] as directors and Wright as an executive officer. The filing of December 21, 2020 (first sale December 11, 2020; $100,045,423 sold of $139,999,359; 9 investors) named [[David Sze]] as a director and Clint Smith as an executive officer and signatory, and no longer listed Elman or Wright. The filing of July 13, 2021 (first sale June 28, 2021; $104,078,000 sold of $128,832,976; 71 investors) added [[Danny Rimer]] as a director. The filing of September 17, 2021 (first sale September 9, 2021; $499,999,442 sold, the full offering; 41 investors) added Tomasz Marcinkowski as an executive officer. The filing of March 15, 2023 (first sale January 17, 2023; $15,749,250; 3 investors) added [[Amrita Ahuja]] and [[Leslie Kilgore]] as directors. The amounts reported as sold across the six filings add to $913,921,981.[^1] + +### Unite the Right + +In [[Sines v. Kessler]], filed in the [[Western District of Virginia]], the plaintiffs alleged that the organizers of the [[Unite the Right rally]] held in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]] on August 11 and 12, 2017 had used a Discord server named "Charlottesville 2.0," with at least forty-three channels, to plan and direct illegal acts. The plaintiffs relied on chat logs leaked by [[Unicorn Riot]], which they believed omitted the channel used by the rally's leadership. The [[Northern District of California]] order recites, from a declaration of the plaintiffs' counsel, that Discord shut down the servers connected to Unite the Right on August 14, 2017 and kept backup tapes of them.[^4] + +The plaintiffs subpoenaed Discord for all documents and communications related to Unite the Right. Document Request 7 named the defendants and more than thirty anonymous nonparties. The holder of the account "kristall.night," represented by [[Marc Randazza]] and [[Alex Shepard]] of [[Randazza Legal Group]], moved to quash in that court; the plaintiffs were represented by [[Boies Schiller Flexner]]. On August 6, 2018, Magistrate Judge [[Joseph C. Spero]] denied the motion for lack of standing as to all information other than the "kristall.night" account, granted it in part by quashing the subpoena to the extent it sought the content of communications without the consent of a party (a limit the plaintiffs acknowledged under the [[Stored Communications Act]]), and denied it as to non-content account information, which the order directed be treated as "highly confidential" under the protective order.[^4] + +### The Pentagon Document Leak + +The affidavit that supported the April 14, 2023 criminal complaint against [[Jack Teixeira]] does not name the platform; it calls it "Social Media Platform 1," a messaging service with communities called servers. According to the affidavit by Special Agent [[Patrick M. Lueckenhoff]] of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], a user of the platform interviewed on or about April 10, 2023 ("User 1") said that the administrator of a server about geopolitics and wars had begun posting what appeared to be classified information in or about December 2022, first as text and from about January 2023 as photographs of documents. On April 12, 2023 the platform provided the FBI, on legal process, records that included the administrator's subscriber information; the billing name was "Jack Teixeira," with an address in [[North Dighton, Massachusetts]], where the FBI arrested him on April 13, 2023.[^5] + +The government's sentencing memorandum of October 29, 2024 named Discord and stated that Teixeira began removing classified information from the sensitive compartmented information facility at [[Otis Air National Guard Base]] and posting it on Discord in January 2022, that he disclosed it to "hundreds of individuals on Discord, including foreign nationals," that after the story became public he told associates on Discord to delete evidence, changed his username and deleted the contents of at least one server, and that a friend saw the disclosures circulating on a pro-Russian [[Telegram]] channel.[^6] The defense sentencing memorandum stated that the overwhelming majority of his conduct took place on private servers or in direct messages.[^7] A grand jury indicted Teixeira on six counts under [[18 U.S.C. § 793]] on June 15, 2023; he pleaded guilty on March 4, 2024; and on November 12, 2024 Judge [[Indira Talwani]] sentenced him to 180 months.[^8] + +### The Buffalo Shooting + +The [[New York Attorney General]]'s October 18, 2022 investigative report on the role of online platforms in the May 14, 2022 mass shooting in [[Buffalo, New York]] stated that the shooter kept a private Discord server as a diary, an edited transcript of about 700 pages, with access restricted to himself until shortly before the attack, when he invited users and used the server to rebroadcast his [[Twitch]] livestream. The report stated that without other users or moderators there could be no reports to Discord's Trust and Safety team, and that Discord's automatic tools "either did not scan his writing, or else were not calibrated to develop any assessment" of it. It identified a server named Plate Land in which he posted at least 83 messages between August 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021 about protective gear. The Attorney General's office stated that it had not assessed the full extent of his Discord use, in part because the Stored Communications Act may restrict disclosure by providers, and that it took no position on the Act's applicability.[^9] + +### Senate Subpoena and Hearing + +On November 20, 2023, [[Dick Durbin]] and [[Lindsey Graham]], chair and ranking member of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]], announced subpoenas to the chief executives of Discord (Citron), [[Snap Inc.]] ([[Evan Spiegel]]) and [[X Corp.]] ([[Linda Yaccarino]]) to testify at a December 6 hearing, "after repeated refusals to appear." The announcement stated that Discord and X had also refused to accept service of the subpoenas on behalf of their chief executives, "requiring the Committee to enlist the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service to personally serve the subpoenas," which it called "a remarkable departure from typical practice."[^10] The hearing, titled "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," was held on January 31, 2024.[^2] + +Citron's written testimony stated that Discord had a zero-tolerance policy for content or conduct that endangers or sexualizes children; that it used [[PhotoDNA]] hash matching and internally developed tools; that it scanned more than 47 billion images in 2023; that in the fourth quarter of 2023 it reported 55,955 accounts to the [[National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]] (55,638 for media and 317 for grooming or endangerment), disabled 116,219 accounts and removed 29,128 servers for child safety; and that more than 15 percent of its employees worked on safety. It stated that Discord had open-sourced a visual safety technology in October 2023, built a text-based exploitation detection model with [[Thorn]], was a founding member of the [[Tech Coalition]]'s Lantern program in 2023, and worked with NCMEC, [[INHOPE]], Thorn, the [[Family Online Safety Institute]], the [[Internet Watch Foundation]] and the Tech Coalition. It stated that Discord received 1,326 pieces of legal process from United States authorities in the fourth quarter of 2023, of which 1,073 were valid, and 203 valid emergency disclosure requests, of which it answered 159.[^2] + +In answers to questions for the record, Citron stated that Discord was "aligned with the goals" of the [[EARN IT Act]] (S. 1207) but "concerned that the imposition of broad liability could inadvertently result in the over-moderation of content." He stated that Discord had bought [[Sentropy]], a moderation technology company, in 2021; that its payments to an outside content moderation contractor for minor safety and exploitative content work were $0 in 2021, $217,600 in 2022 and $1.4 million in 2023; that it had met with the [[National PTA]] nearly every other week since late 2021 and had sponsored the organization since 2022; and that its reduction in force had left the safety share of employees above 15 percent. In response to a question from Senator [[Chris Coons]] about his testimony that Discord discloses estimates of the total amount of self-harm content and views, he wrote: "I misunderstood the question posed during the hearing and misspoke," and stated that Discord does not track views.[^11] + +### Reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children + +NCMEC publishes an annual table of [[CyberTipline]] reports by electronic service provider. The Discord row reads 19,480 reports in 2019 (all providers: 16,836,694), 15,324 in 2020 (21,447,786), 29,606 in 2021 (29,157,083), 169,800 in 2022 (31,802,525), 339,412 in 2023 (35,944,826), 241,354 in 2024 (20,348,306) and 489,782 in 2025.[^12] [[NBC News]] reported in July 2023, citing an analysis of NCMEC reports, that reports of child sexual abuse material on Discord rose 474 percent from 2021 to 2022; it quoted [[John Shehan]], senior vice president of NCMEC, saying "There is a child exploitation issue on the platform. That's undeniable," and reported that NCMEC had rescinded an invitation to Discord to join its CyberTipline Roundtable after the company failed to "identify a senior child safety representative to attend." The article stated that NBC News had identified 35 cases over the previous six years in which adults were prosecuted on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault that allegedly involved communications on Discord, and quoted Discord's vice president of trust and safety, [[John Redgrave]], whose company Sentropy Discord acquired in 2021.[^13] + +In the same answers to questions for the record, Citron stated: "In 2022, Discord submitted 58,179 reports to NCMEC. In 2023, we submitted 165,478 reports to NCMEC," and gave a total of 211,426 for "All CSAM Reported to NCMEC (2021-2023)," of which 1,519 reports from January 2023 were self-generated material.[^11] NCMEC's tables give 29,606, 169,800 and 339,412 for 2021, 2022 and 2023, which add to 538,818.[^12] + +NCMEC also publishes the number of takedown notifications it sent to each provider and the average days to respond or remove. For Discord the figures are 68 notifications and 3.21 days in 2021, 1,533 and 4.7 days in 2022, 2,756 and 2.46 days in 2023, and 417 and 1.16 days in 2024.[^14] + +On April 29, 2025, Senator [[Marsha Blackburn]] wrote to "Mr. Jason Citron, CEO, Discord," citing the fall from 339,412 reports in 2023 to 241,354 in 2024, a decrease of 28 percent, in the year the [[REPORT Act]] (Public Law 118-59) was enacted. The letter described the drop as "puzzling and deeply troubling," recalled that the Act raised the maximum fine for a first knowing and willful failure to report from $150,000 to as much as $850,000, and asked four questions with a response date of May 6, 2025. Discord's press release had made Sakhnini chief executive effective April 28, 2025.[^3][^15] Federal law sets the $850,000 maximum for a first failure at providers with at least 100,000,000 monthly active users and $600,000 for smaller providers; Citron had testified that more than 150 million people used Discord each month.[^16] + +On April 9, 2026, Senator [[Chuck Grassley]], chair of the Judiciary Committee, released data that NCMEC had given his office on March 16, 2026 about eight companies, among them Discord. The release stated that Discord "submitted nearly 490,000 reports involving suspected online child exploitation to NCMEC's CyberTipline in 2025," and listed as its most significant reporting issues "Failures to provide location or account information for individuals involved in reported chat logs, making these reports inactionable" and "Routine reports of adult and graphic gore content unrelated to child sexual exploitation, causing major workflow issues for NCMEC staff."[^17] + +The member list of the Internet Watch Foundation shows Discord as a member since November 1, 2023, in the tier of members contributing over 25,000 pounds; [[Microsoft]] (since 2001), [[Google]] (2004) and [[Meta Platforms|Meta]] (2009) are in the over 90,000 pound tier.[^18] + +### Lobbying + +Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, [[Monument Advocacy]] registered for Discord with an effective date of May 1, 2022, listing the issues as privacy and content moderation. Its filings report income of $50,000 for each of the second, third and fourth quarters of 2022; $60,000 for each quarter of 2023 and of 2024; and $40,000 for the first quarter of 2025, in a report giving a termination date of February 28, 2025. The issue descriptions in the fourth quarter of 2022 and first quarter of 2023 included anti-swatting; the third and fourth quarters of 2024 listed S. 1409 ([[Kids Online Safety Act]]), S. 1418 and H.R. 7890 ([[Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act]]). The lobbyists named included [[E. Ashley Hoy]] (previously Director of Coalitions in the Senate Republican Conference and in the office of Senator [[Roy Blunt]], as the Minority Whip), [[Jeffrey Gary]] (previously a law clerk to Senator [[Ron Wyden]]), [[Charles Verdery]] (previously Assistant Secretary at the [[Department of Homeland Security]]), [[Troy Stock]] (previously counsel to Representative [[Jason Chaffetz]]) and [[Kathryn Mills]] (previously Assistant Director for Congressional Relations at [[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]]).[^19] + +[[Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid]] registered for Discord effective April 1, 2025, listing privacy, content modernization, AI and online safety. Its registration names [[MJ Kenny]], whose covered positions are Deputy Floor Director and Floor Assistant in the Office of the Senate Democratic Whip and Legislative Aide and Legislative Correspondent to Senator Durbin; [[David Peluso]], a former chief of staff to Representative [[Cathy McMorris Rodgers]]; [[Adam Hechavarria]], a former legislative director to Senators [[Todd Young]] and [[Kelly Ayotte]]; and [[Lisa Kountoupes]]. The firm reported $100,000 for the second quarter of 2025, amended to $80,000, and $80,000 for each of the third and fourth quarters of 2025 and the first and second quarters of 2026, with issues including H.R. 6265 (Safer GAMING Act) and H.R. 7757 (KIDS Act).[^19] + +### State Actions + +On April 17, 2025 the State of [[New Jersey]], through Attorney General [[Matthew Platkin]] and the Division of Consumer Affairs, sued Discord in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, Essex County (ESX-C-000084-25) in a 45-page complaint, partly sealed, with four counts under the Consumer Fraud Act. New Jersey alleged that a "Safe Direct Messaging" setting offered from March 28, 2017 until April 22, 2023 defaulted to the option "My friends are nice," under which messages from friends were not scanned; that age verification relied on a self-reported birth date; that banned users could register again with a new account; and that the service was used by [[764 Network|764]], citing the sentencing of one member to thirty years. It sought an injunction, civil penalties and disgorgement.[^20] + +On May 6, 2026 the State of Indiana, through Attorney General [[Todd Rokita]], sued [[Roblox]] and Discord in Hamilton Superior Court 1 under the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act (29D01-2605-PL-005581). Its complaint alleged that Citron "refused to accept service of a subpoena" from the Senate and appeared only after the [[United States Marshals Service|Marshals Service]] was enlisted, and that NCMEC had rescinded the Roundtable invitation, citing the NBC News report.[^21] + +On May 22, 2026 the State of Texas, through Attorney General [[Ken Paxton]], sued Discord in Collin County District Court under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Texas's petition stated that a network called 764 "originated in a Discord community titled '764'," that the Texas Attorney General had opened an investigation of Discord's practices toward minors in December 2024, that the [[Federal Trade Commission]] had issued orders to Discord and eight other companies in 2020, that federal prosecutors in the [[Southern District of New York]] had described Discord in open court in April 2025 as "a hunting ground to find, manipulate and sextort our most vulnerable," and that Discord relied on unpaid volunteer moderators. The petition cited suits by the State of Nevada and the State of Indiana. Texas sought maximum default safety settings for new accounts, age verification under the SCOPE Act, repayment of revenue and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.[^22] + +### Networks Prosecuted + +The January 17, 2025 indictment in [[United States v. Rane et al. (2-25-cr-00040)|United States v. Rane]] in the [[Central District of California]] charged [[Rohan Rane]], [[Kaleb Merritt]], [[Clint Borge]] and [[Collin Walker]] with engaging in a child exploitation enterprise under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(g) from at least 2019 through about 2022. It alleges that members of [[CVLT]] worked to entice and coerce children to produce [[Child sexual abuse material|child pornography]] "on servers associated with and run by CVLT on a platform known as 'Platform D' and elsewhere online." The indictment does not name the platform.[^23] [[Marc-André Argentino]] wrote in a January 31, 2025 threat assessment that CVLT emerged as an online group between about 2017 and 2019, "organized primarily on platforms such as Kik Messenger (initially), Instagram, and later Discord and Telegram," and that one administrator turned a Discord server into a "no-rules" hub.[^24] + +The FBI's public service announcement of March 6, 2025 warned of a sharp increase in the activity of 764 and other violent online networks that "exist on publicly available online platforms, such as social media sites, gaming platforms, and mobile applications"; it names no platform.[^25] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Discord Inc. (CIK 0001763840), SEC Form D filings: accession 0001763840-19-000001 (filed 2019-01-08), 0001567619-20-012853 (2020-07-02), 0001567619-20-021412 (2020-12-21), 0001567619-21-013309 (2021-07-13), 0001567619-21-017292 (2021-09-17), 0001567619-23-005083 (2023-03-15), each at https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1763840//primary_doc.xml; state of incorporation Delaware, business address San Francisco, exemption item 06b (Rule 506(b)); related persons, amounts and investor counts as listed in each filing. +[^2]: Jason Citron, Testimony, "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, January 31, 2024, pp. 1-9. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/2024-01-31-testimony-citron +[^3]: Discord, "Discord Appoints Humam Sakhnini as Chief Executive Officer," press release, San Francisco, April 23, 2025. https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-appoints-new-ceo-humam-sakhnini +[^4]: Sines et al. v. Kessler et al., No. 18-mc-80080-JCS (N.D. Cal. Aug. 6, 2018) (Spero, M.J.), Order Regarding Motion to Quash Subpoena (Dkt. 16), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_18-mc-80080/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-3_18-mc-80080-2.pdf ; Dkt. 7 (May 24, 2018), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cand-3_18-mc-80080/pdf/USCOURTS-cand-3_18-mc-80080-0.pdf ; underlying action Sines v. Kessler, No. 3:17-cv-00072 (W.D. Va.). +[^5]: United States v. Teixeira, No. 1:23-cr-10159-IT (D. Mass.), Doc. 3-1, Affidavit of Special Agent Patrick M. Lueckenhoff in Support of an Application for a Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant (filed April 14, 2023), paras. 14-22 and n.1. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.258389/gov.uscourts.mad.258389.3.1.pdf +[^6]: United States v. Teixeira, No. 1:23-cr-10159-IT (D. Mass.), Doc. 144, Government's Sentencing Memorandum (October 29, 2024), pp. 1-5, 15-16. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.258389/gov.uscourts.mad.258389.144.0.pdf +[^7]: United States v. Teixeira, No. 1:23-cr-10159-IT (D. Mass.), Doc. 142, Defendant's [Redacted] Sentencing Memorandum (October 29, 2024), p. 30. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.258389/gov.uscourts.mad.258389.142.0.pdf +[^8]: United States v. Teixeira, No. 1:23-cr-10159-IT (D. Mass.), docket entries 48 (indictment, June 15, 2023), 130 and 131 (plea agreement and Rule 11 hearing, March 4, 2024), 152 and 154 (sentencing, November 12, 2024, and judgment, November 18, 2024). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67505240/united-states-v-teixeira/ +[^9]: Office of the New York State Attorney General, Investigative Report on the role of online platforms in the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo on May 14, 2022, October 18, 2022, pp. 27-29 and nn.83-90. https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/buffaloshooting-onlineplatformsreport.pdf +[^10]: Senate Judiciary Committee, "Durbin, Graham Announce Subpoenas to Big Tech CEOs to Testify About Their Failure to Protect Children Online," press release, November 20, 2023. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/releases/durbin-graham-announce-subpoenas-to-big-tech-ceos-to-testify-about-their-failure-to-protect-children-online +[^11]: Jason Citron, Responses to Questions for the Record, hearing of January 31, 2024, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (questions of Senators Durbin, Coons and others; answers on EARN IT Act S. 1207, on NCMEC reports for 2021 to 2023, on vendor costs, on National PTA, on Sentropy and on the reduction in force). https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/2024-01-31-qfr-responses-citron +[^12]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "CyberTipline Reports by Electronic Service Providers (ESPs)," annual tables for 2019 to 2025, https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2019-reports-by-esp.pdf (and the corresponding files for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025); 2024 table at http://ncmec.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/cybertiplinedata2024/2024-reports-by-esp.pdf. Rows "Discord" (2020, 2021) and "Discord Inc." (2019, 2022 to 2025). +[^13]: Ben Goggin, "Child predators are using Discord, a popular app among teens, for sextortion and abductions," NBC News, July 21, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/discord-child-safety-social-platform-challenges-rcna89769 +[^14]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, annual tables of notifications sent to electronic service providers: https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2021-notifications-by-ncmec-per-esp.pdf ; .../2022-notifications-by-ncmec-per-esp.pdf ; .../2023-notifications-by-ncmec-to-responsive-esp.pdf ; .../2024-notifications-by-ncmec-to-responsive-esp.pdf. +[^15]: Marsha Blackburn, letter to Jason Citron, CEO, Discord, April 29, 2025. https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/2DCCC15A-5004-4640-9F08-B56C98F6D3E6 +[^16]: 18 U.S.C. § 2258A(e), as amended by Pub. L. 118-59 (May 7, 2024). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258A +[^17]: Senate Judiciary Committee, "Grassley Releases New and Disturbing Information on Online Child Exploitation, Presses Tech Giants for Answers," press release, April 9, 2026. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/grassley-releases-new-and-disturbing-information-on-online-child-exploitation-presses-tech-giants-for-answers +[^18]: Internet Watch Foundation, "Our Members" (Discord, "Member since 01/11/2023," under "Members contributing over £25,000"), accessed October 2026. https://www.iwf.org.uk/membership/our-members/ +[^19]: Senate Office of Public Records, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, client "Discord": Monument Advocacy registration effective 5/1/2022 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/08e564b6-55cc-46f8-8f64-41074c3b1ec4/print/) and quarterly reports 2022 Q2 to 2025 Q1, including the 2025 Q1 report with termination date 2/28/2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/988d20b0-7769-4aeb-b7c7-761c49a8ee2b/print/); Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid registration effective 4/1/2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/0b9f0085-3d56-4769-b7f4-ffcaf08025ed/print/) and reports for 2025 Q2 to 2026 Q2. Listing: https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=discord +[^20]: State of New Jersey v. Discord, Inc., ESX-C-000084-25 (N.J. Super. Ct., Ch. Div., Essex County, filed April 17, 2025), Complaint, paras. 28-93 and Counts I to IV. https://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases25/2025-0417_Discord_Complaint.pdf ; New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, press release, April 17, 2025, https://www.njoag.gov/ag-platkin-sues-messaging-app-discord-for-unlawful-practices-that-expose-nj-kids-to-child-predators-and-violent-sexual-content/ +[^21]: State of Indiana v. Roblox Corporation and Discord, Inc., No. 29D01-2605-PL-005581 (Hamilton Super. Ct. 1, filed May 6, 2026), Complaint (public redacted), paras. 233-234. https://image.subscription.in.gov/lib/fe2e11747364047b721071/m/1/9a278bec-f19f-4bac-adcd-eb7847688ff3.pdf +[^22]: State of Texas v. Discord, Inc. (Collin County District Court), Texas' Original Verified Petition and Application for Temporary and Permanent Injunctions, paras. 73-92, https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/Petition_22.pdf ; Texas Attorney General, "Attorney General Ken Paxton Files Landmark Lawsuit Against Discord for Deceiving Parents and Exposing Texas Children to Predators," May 22, 2026, https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-landmark-lawsuit-against-discord-deceiving-parents-and-exposing +[^23]: United States v. Rane et al., No. 2:25-cr-00040-HDV (C.D. Cal.), Doc. 1, Indictment (January 17, 2025), paras. 1-3 and Count One. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.954681/gov.uscourts.cacd.954681.1.0.pdf +[^24]: Marc-André Argentino, "CVLT Historical Threat Assessment of the Precursor to 764," From The Depths, January 31, 2025, sections 2.1 and 3. https://www.maargentino.com/cvlt-historical-threat-assessment-of-the-precursor-to-764 +[^25]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, Alert I-030625-PSA, "Violent Online Networks Target Vulnerable and Underage Populations Across the United States and Around the Globe," March 6, 2025. https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250306 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fairness in Media.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fairness in Media.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2f534c3f --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Fairness in Media.md @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ +--- +category: "New Right" +tags: + - Organization + - FairnessInMedia + - JesseHelms + - ThomasEllis + - NationalCongressionalClub + - CBS + - TedTurner + - HostileTakeover + - FCC + - NewRight +alias: + - Fairness in Media + - Fairness In Media + - Fairness in Media, Inc. + - FIM +summary: "Raleigh committee of three Jesse Helms associates that mailed nearly a million letters in January 1985 urging conservatives to buy CBS stock, was sued by CBS, and petitioned the FCC over Laurence Tisch to 1988." +start: 1984-11-13 +location: "Raleigh, North Carolina" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Thomas F. Ellis]]" + reverse: true + role: "director; conceived the campaign" + fn: 6 + - type: founded + with: "[[Carter Wrenn]]" + reverse: true + role: "director; executive director of the National Congressional Club" + fn: 6 + - type: founded + with: "[[James Palmer Cain]]" + reverse: true + role: "director and deposed spokesman" + fn: 6 + - type: founded + with: "[[Jesse Helms]]" + reverse: true + start: 1984-11 + role: "agreed the plan with Ellis and Wrenn in November 1984 and signed the mailings; not formally a member" + fn: 6 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Claude Allen]]" + reverse: true + role: "spokesman" + fn: 9 + - type: represented + with: "[[Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O'Donnell & Weyher]]" + reverse: true + role: "counsel in CBS Inc. v. Fairness in Media (S.D.N.Y.)" + fn: 14 + - type: represented + with: "[[Bruce Fein]]" + reverse: true + role: "counsel of record on the 1988 petition for certiorari" + fn: 4 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Fairness in Media (FIM) was a committee based in [[Raleigh, North Carolina]], organized by [[Thomas F. Ellis]], [[Carter Wrenn]] and [[James Palmer Cain]], political associates of Senator [[Jesse Helms]], to urge conservatives to buy stock in [[CBS]]. Its first mailing, signed by Helms, said the committee was "launching a nationwide campaign, very much like a presidential campaign, to end the liberal bias at CBS by urging conservatives to purchase enough CBS stock" and, "if necessary," to control the network.[^1] CBS sued the committee in federal court in New York in February 1985, [[Ted Turner]] filed an exchange offer for CBS in April, and CBS announced in July an offer to repurchase about a fifth of its own shares.[^2] The committee later petitioned the [[Federal Communications Commission]] over [[Laurence Tisch]]'s purchases of CBS stock, and the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] denied its petition for certiorari in October 1988.[^3][^4] + +### Formation and Officers + +On January 10, 1985, FIM filed a document with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] stating its intent, and the Raleigh News and Observer reported the planned mailing that morning. Three political associates of Helms formed the group. Ellis was "president and director of the [[National Congressional Club]]," a political action committee that "has helped finance Helms' campaigns."[^5] The three founding directors were Ellis, Wrenn, who was executive director of the Congressional Club, and Cain, a Raleigh lawyer then twenty-eight years old. The committee was headquartered in the suburban Raleigh office building that housed the Congressional Club and other Helms-related groups.[^6] + +Ellis said that he, Wrenn and Helms had agreed on the plan a few days after [[Ronald Reagan]]'s reelection and Helms's reelection in November 1984.[^6] Cain said in March 1985 that "it was actually Tom Ellis who came up with the idea of trying to do something about the media," and that Ellis and Wrenn had decided the three major networks were the target. Cain had been senior director of the National Congressional Club in 1980 and 1981.[^7] FIM decided to press its campaign "on or about Nov 13," after the November 15 deadline for submitting shareholder proposals for CBS's spring proxy statement.[^8] + +Broadcasting's "Cronies" item of February 11, 1985, said that the impression that FIM was at arm's length from Helms "may be misleading," because Ellis had been a key adviser to Helms's reelection campaign and had been pushed by Helms the previous year for appointment to the [[Board for International Broadcasting]], from which he withdrew his name after opposition from the [[NAACP]] and some senators. The item added that FIM's spokesman, [[Claude Allen]], had been hired as press spokesman for the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]], on which Helms was the ranking member.[^9] + +### The Mailing + +The mailing began on January 21, 1985, to nearly one million people described as conservatives. Broadcasting wrote that the letter was signed by Helms "on what has the look of official Senate stationery." It asked recipients to "switch a portion of your savings or investments into stock in CBS Inc." and gave as reasons a 1983 [[TV Guide]] article finding CBS "the most anti-Reagan network," a 1982 [[Bill Moyers]] documentary, and CBS coverage of the [[Tet Offensive]].[^10] The letter opened: "For years good Americans like you have asked President Reagan and me what can be done to combat the flagrant bias in the liberal news media. At last there's an answer to that question." Recipients were to vote the CBS stock they bought or already owned "to take control of that network . . . to elect a new Board of Directors . . . committed to ending liberal media bias."[^11] Another passage read: "FIM is counting on you to become [[Dan Rather]]'s boss," followed by the request that recipients switch "a portion of your investments to CBS stock."[^1] Helms signed three mass mailings.[^6] + +CBS's reply, issued by [[Mary Boies]], vice president for corporate information, read: "CBS News reports the news as accurately and fairly as it can, independent of any political point of view. Its sole purpose is journalism; its goal is total objectivity. To seek control of a corporation for the sole purpose of subjecting its news operations to political influence contradicts the traditions of a free and independent press."[^5] + +A majority of CBS's 29.7 million shares would cost slightly over one billion dollars, by Broadcasting's estimate.[^5] Broadcasting reported that CBS stock closed at 75 on Friday, January 11.[^5] [[Thomas B. Edsall]] and [[David A. Vise]] of the [[Washington Post]] reported that CBS stock closed at 72 on January 10, the day of FIM's first SEC filing, and at 109 3/4 on the Friday before March 31 (the clipping prints the fractions imperfectly; the 1,450 dollar cost and 745 dollar gain it states for twenty shares imply 72 1/2 and 109 3/4), a gain of 745 dollars, or 51 percent, excluding brokerage fees, for an investor who bought the twenty shares the letter recommended on January 10. They attributed part of the rise to speculation after the March 18 announcement that [[American Broadcasting Companies]] had agreed to be acquired by [[Capital Cities Communications]].[^12] + +### Securities Filings + +The January 10 filing stated that FIM was "not presently soliciting proxies or requesting the withholding of proxies." It listed possible actions that included having FIM's nominees appointed to the board, encouraging a tender offer for CBS stock, selling CBS assets or subsidiaries, and "substantial changes in the company's personnel."[^5] A filing received by the SEC on February 8 stated that CBS chairman [[Thomas Wyman]] had proposed that FIM meet other CBS officers instead of himself, which FIM called "unacceptable." The filing continued: "FIM has concluded that the company does not intend to respond satisfactorily to FIM's concerns. Accordingly, FIM has decided to seek to affect a change in control of the company." It named a possible proxy campaign for "either one or two directors" and stated that FIM was "conducting discussions" with an unidentified "third person" about proxy solicitations and tender offers.[^13] In March, FIM filed a lengthy preliminary proxy statement with the SEC while stating that it was not committed to mailing it.[^7] + +### CBS Inc. v. Fairness in Media + +CBS filed suit in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York]] on February 14, 1985, and amended the complaint on February 27. The complaint alleged that FIM's SEC filings were false and misleading, did not disclose lawsuits filed against Cain by the [[Federal Election Commission]] and by the Democratic Committee of [[North Carolina]] over allegedly unlawful campaign contributions, and did not disclose that other organizations at FIM's address, including the National Congressional Club and the [[Educational Support Foundation]], had contributed to the campaign. It also alleged that the defendants had not registered as investment advisers and had not told recipients of the January 21 letter that FCC policy prohibits willful distortion of news.[^13][^14] CBS charged in the suit that FIM was "attempting to manipulate the market in CBS stock."[^12] + +Edsall and Vise wrote that the confrontation was "providing a look at some legal liabilities within the conservative political machine now under scrutiny by both government prosecutors and CBS lawyers."[^12] Wrenn called the suit "intimidation."[^13] FIM's counsel was the New York firm of Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O'Donnell & Weyher; [[Jack O'Donnell]], a partner, argued before Judge Conner at pretrial hearings in March. The same firm represented [[Hoover Adams]], a CBS shareholder and FIM supporter who published a newspaper in Dunn, North Carolina, in a motion filed in New York state court on February 22 to compel CBS to give him its list of shareholders. Adams had requested the list on February 8.[^6][^7][^14] The firm's name includes that of [[Harry Weyher]]. CBS was represented by [[Cravath, Swaine & Moore]], through [[Paul M. Dodyk]].[^14] + +CBS's requests for pretrial discovery, which O'Donnell described as covering "89 categories of documents," included FIM's financial statements, communications with the FCC and other agencies, communications with reporters and securities analysts, and "records of any visits by defendants to the Republic of [[South Africa]], or funds received from that government." Broadcasting wrote that the last two requests "seem to point to some business that FIM director Thomas Ellis may have had with the South African government." Judge Conner limited discovery for the time being to depositions of Adams and Ellis on the intended use of the list.[^14] Cain was deposed in New York on March 14.[^7] CBS later extended its requests to the trading records of six brokerage firms for February 28 and March 1, when CBS stock rose four dollars on heavy volume after news of a Turner inquiry at the FCC. CBS reported its direct costs of responding to FIM as 175,000 dollars as of March 11.[^7] + +Wyman wrote to shareholders that FIM's "campaign is but an attempt to change the content of CBS News reporting to reflect FIM's own partisan views." At a meeting with financial analysts on March 13 he said CBS had "not identified any stock in their [FIM] hands."[^7] In the last week of March CBS gave its shareholder list to FIM after FIM agreed to restrict its use, and FIM said it would not use the list to mail stockholders or begin a proxy fight before the April 17 annual meeting.[^12] + +### Ted Turner + +Turner told Broadcasting in late January 1985: "I have not talked to Jesse Helms about this, have not offered any support, nor have I been asked." On February 28 it became known that [[Charles Ferris]], a former chairman of the FCC and Turner Broadcasting System's communications counsel, had asked the commissioners about the procedural requirements for a hostile bid for a company holding broadcast licenses. A spokesman for FIM declined to confirm or deny that Turner had been talking with the group.[^15] CBS served Turner with a deposition notice in its suit against FIM.[^14] Turner indicated that he met a FIM representative on Friday, March 1, and the Atlanta Journal, quoting his deposition, reported that he told FIM he would consider joining the group, with his support conditioned on an option to run the network and its news operation.[^16] + +Turner had given Helms and [[Philip Crane]] two and a half hours of broadcast time on his superstation on August 28, 1982, for a documentary, "KGB: The Lie and the Truth," produced by the [[Coalition for Freedom]].[^12] In June 1984 he was the keynote speaker at a Washington conference, "The Conservative Movement and the Media," sponsored by the National Conservative Foundation, an offshoot of the [[National Conservative Political Action Committee]], where he told the audience that the networks were "the greatest enemies America ever had" and called broadcast executives "guilty of treason."[^11] + +Charles Babington of the Raleigh News and Observer wrote in July 1985 that the investor [[Ivan Boesky]] had bought 2.6 million CBS shares since the campaign began and that Helms and Ellis had both met recently with Turner; Ellis, he wrote, had praised Turner for donating prime time on his Atlanta superstation in 1982 for the documentary.[^6] + +[[Turner Broadcasting System]] filed a registration statement with the SEC on April 18, 1985, for an exchange offer for all CBS common stock and sued CBS the same day in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.[^2] + +### The Outcome in 1985 + +Judge [[Robert L. Vining Jr.]] found that CBS's board had removed, on April 4, 1985, a by-law allowing holders of ten percent of the stock to call a special meeting "in response to an effort by Ivan Boesky, an arbitrager," who had obtained 8.7 percent of the outstanding shares and "had approached CBS about purchasing his shares at a premium." On July 3 CBS announced an offer to repurchase about 21 percent of its stock at 150 dollars a share, 40 dollars in cash and a senior note with a face value of 110 dollars due in 1995. Turner Broadcasting alleged in its second amended complaint that the offer included a private placement of preferred stock with five institutional investors and a right for [[William S. Paley]] to sell part of his shares to CBS for 150 dollars in cash. Vining announced on July 30 that he was denying Turner's motion for a preliminary injunction and filed his opinion on August 16.[^2] + +According to CBS, [[Loews Corporation]] bought about 9.9 percent of CBS common stock after the July 3 announcement. The exchange offer was completed on August 1, and Turner withdrew soon afterward. In October Loews's chairman Laurence Tisch told Wyman that Loews intended to buy up to 25 percent of CBS stock, and Tisch was invited to join the CBS board on October 16, 1985.[^17] + +### The FCC Petitions + +FIM filed several programming complaints against WTVD, the CBS affiliate in Durham, North Carolina, and complained to the FCC about CBS news.[^4] On September 12, 1986, after Loews had bought about 25 percent of CBS stock, FIM asked the FCC to investigate whether Tisch had acquired de facto control of CBS without approval under section 310(d) of the Communications Act. The FCC wrote to CBS on September 17, CBS answered on October 1 with a letter from Paley denying a transfer of control, and the commission ruled on October 20, 1986, that none had occurred.[^4] According to FIM's petition for certiorari, three CBS officers, including [[Newton Minow]], and the former FCC chairman [[Richard E. Wiley]], a CBS lawyer, lobbied the full commission ex parte against an investigation before CBS responded. The petition cites the [[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]] of September 25, 1986, and quotes [[Lawrence Secrest]], a CBS lawyer: "it would be astounding if the Commission found anything other than that there was no transfer of control." Tisch became president and chief executive officer of CBS on January 14, 1987.[^4] + +The commission denied reconsideration in 1987. FIM petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 18, 1987 (No. 87-1217), and the court affirmed the commission in an unpublished per curiam opinion on June 8, 1988, assuming without deciding that FIM was positioned to seek review.[^17] The petition for certiorari was filed through [[Bruce Fein]] of Great Falls, Virginia, and described FIM as "supported by 15,000 active contributors who are automatic members."[^4] CBS's opposition, filed on October 3, 1988, by [[George Vradenburg III]], [[Ellen Oran Kaden]] and Wiley of [[Wiley, Rein & Fielding]], described FIM as "a group led by U.S. Senator Jesse Helms."[^17] The Supreme Court denied certiorari on October 11, 1988.[^3] + +### Federal Election Commission Records + +The OpenFEC committee, schedule A and schedule B searches return no record for the name Fairness in Media. The commission lists the National Congressional Club, under its later name National Conservative Club, with Wrenn as treasurer, an address at 8305 Falls of Neuse Road in Raleigh, and the Jesse Helms Legal Defense Fund as an affiliated committee. It records receipts and disbursements, by election cycle, of 7,873,974 and 7,212,754 dollars for 1980, 9,742,494 and 10,404,521 for 1982, 17,473,546 and 16,924,987 for 1984, 16,587,485 and 17,053,138 for 1986, and 4,150,677 and 4,140,237 for 1988. The committee's first filing was dated June 1, 1979, and its last September 29, 2006.[^18] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Kemper, Vicki. "Fairness in Media?" *Sojourners,* May 1985, quoting the letter signed by Jesse Helms. https://sojo.net/magazine/may-1985/fairness-media +[^2]: *Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. CBS, Inc.,* 627 F. Supp. 901 (N.D. Ga. 1985) (No. C85-2617A) (Vining, J.), memorandum opinion of August 16, 1985. https://static.case.law/f-supp/627/cases/0901-01.json +[^3]: *Fairness in Media v. Federal Communications Commission,* 488 U.S. 893 (1988) (No. 88-388), certiorari denied October 11, 1988. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/9081419/fairness-in-media-v-federal-communications-commission/ +[^4]: Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, *Fairness in Media v. Federal Communications Commission,* No. 88-388 (September 1988), pp. 1-9, quoting *Letter to William S. Paley,* 1 F.C.C. Rcd. 1025 (1986), reconsideration denied, 2 F.C.C. Rcd. 2274 (1987). https://archive.org/details/micro_IA40385002_0072 +[^5]: "Helms leads conservative push for CBS stock," *Broadcasting,* January 14, 1985, p. 65. https://archive.org/details/bc-1985-01-14 +[^6]: Babington, Charles. "Helms & Co.: Plotting to Unseat Dan Rather," *Columbia Journalism Review,* vol. 24, no. 2, July/August 1985 (Babington was a reporter for the Raleigh *News and Observer*). https://archive.org/details/sim_columbia-journalism-review_july-august-1985_24_2 +[^7]: "CBS versus FIM: Legal sparring occupies week," and interview "On the media as enemy," *Broadcasting,* March 18, 1985, pp. 31-32. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-03-18.pdf +[^8]: "Too late," *Broadcasting,* February 4, 1985, p. 7. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-02-04.pdf +[^9]: "Cronies," *Broadcasting,* February 11, 1985, p. 7. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-02-11.pdf +[^10]: "Helms moves forward with CBS takeover attempt," *Broadcasting,* January 21, 1985. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-01-21.pdf +[^11]: Schneir, Walter, and Miriam Schneir. "The Right's Attack on the Press," *The Nation,* March 30, 1985, as clipped for the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740025-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000605740025-6 +[^12]: Edsall, Thomas B., and David A. Vise. "CBS Fight a Litmus Test for Conservatives," *The Washington Post,* March 31, 1985 (excerpted clippings, CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210008-9 and CIA-RDP90-00965R000201740003-8). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000100210008-9 +[^13]: "Targeting CBS" and "In Brief" (CBS suit), p. 104, and editorial "Southern discomfort," *Broadcasting,* February 18, 1985. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-02-18.pdf +[^14]: "CBS on offensive in takeover challenges," *Broadcasting,* March 11, 1985. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-03-11.pdf +[^15]: "CBS gleam in Ted Turner's eye," *Broadcasting,* March 4, 1985. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-03-04.pdf +[^16]: *Broadcasting,* March 25, 1985, "In Brief" item on the Turner deposition, citing the *Atlanta Journal.* https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC/Broadcasting-Magazine/BC-1985/BC-1985-03-25.pdf +[^17]: Brief of Respondent CBS Inc. in Opposition, *Fairness in Media v. Federal Communications Commission,* No. 88-388 (October 3, 1988), pp. 1-3, 7-8. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA40385002_0072 +[^18]: Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API: committee search for "Fairness in Media" (no results); schedule A and schedule B searches for the name (no results); committee C00119370 and its totals by cycle, queried October 1, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00119370/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Federation for American Immigration Reform.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Federation for American Immigration Reform.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8422f48d --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Federation for American Immigration Reform.md @@ -0,0 +1,256 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - FAIR + - JohnTanton + - PioneerFund + - ColcomFoundation + - CordeliaScaifeMay + - ImmigrationReformLawInstitute + - ImmigrationRestriction + - Section501c3 + - LobbyingDisclosure +alias: + - Federation for American Immigration Reform + - Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) + - FAIR +summary: "Washington nonprofit founded in 1979 by John Tanton with seed money from Cordelia Scaife May, funded by the Pioneer Fund from 1982 to 1994 and by the Colcom Foundation through 2025." +start: 1979-01-02 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[John Tanton]]" + reverse: true + start: 1979-01-02 + role: "founder and chairman of the board" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Cordelia Scaife May]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978 + role: "seed money of 50,000 dollars, per the New York Times" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Pioneer Fund]]" + reverse: true + start: 1982 + end: 1994 + role: "grants totaling 1,289,000 dollars in the ledger compiled from the fund's returns" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[Colcom Foundation]]" + reverse: true + role: "3,350,000 dollars paid in the year to June 2021 and 1,950,000 dollars in the year to June 2025, with 650,000 dollars approved for later payment" + fn: 27 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Roger Conner]]" + reverse: true + start: 1979 + end: 1988 + role: "executive director" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Dan Stein]]" + reverse: true + start: 1988 + end: 2025-04 + role: "executive director from 1988, president from 2003" + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Julie Kirchner]]" + reverse: true + start: 2007 + end: 2015-08 + role: "executive director" + fn: 11 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Julie Kirchner]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-01 + end: 2025-06 + role: "executive director" + fn: 13 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Robert Dane]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015 + end: 2022 + role: "executive director" + fn: 12 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Dale Wilcox]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-07-16 + role: "executive director and general counsel" + fn: 14 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Don Collins Jr.]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman in the returns for 2016 through 2025" + fn: 13 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Robert Law]]" + reverse: true + start: 2013 + end: 2017 + role: "registered lobbyist" + fn: 40 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Matthew O'Brien]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + end: 2020 + role: "director of research" + fn: 43 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a [[Washington, D.C.]], nonprofit organization that advocates reductions in legal and illegal immigration. The [[Michigan]] ophthalmologist [[John Tanton]] founded it in 1979. Its legal affiliate is the [[Immigration Reform Law Institute]], and its returns list the [[FAIR Congressional Task Force Inc.]], a 501(c)(4), as a related organization. The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] has listed it as a hate group since 2007.[^1] + +### Founding and Seed Money + +Tanton founded FAIR on January 2, 1979, in Washington, with the environmental lawyer [[Roger Conner]] as executive director and himself as chairman of the board. Tanton had been national president of [[Zero Population Growth]] from 1975 to 1977.[^2] The [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date recorded for the organization is July 1979.[^3] + +[[Nicholas Kulish]] and [[Mike McIntire]] of [[The New York Times]], writing from Tanton's papers and internal FAIR documents, reported that Tanton met the Mellon heiress [[Cordelia Scaife May]] in 1978, sent her a nine-page funding proposal that November, and received 50,000 dollars from her to start the group. They quoted a later Tanton memorandum: "Mrs. May has been our single biggest supporter. She just gave us another $400,000. That relationship is pretty well under control." Conner told the reporters: "Without Cordy May, there's no FAIR. There was no money without her."[^4] + +The same article reported that Mrs. May's adviser [[Gregory Curtis]] urged separating FAIR's research function, which became the [[Center for Immigration Studies]] in 1986, and that Tanton also separated FAIR's litigation arm. [[Charles Kamasaki]] of the [[Migration Policy Institute]] told the reporters that the divisions kept Tanton's groups within the Internal Revenue Service public support test and concealed the source of their money.[^4] Publication 78, the Internal Revenue Service list of organizations eligible to receive deductible gifts, carried FAIR in its editions revised to October 31, 1982 and October 31, 1985. The 1985 edition also lists [[US Inc.]], Petoskey, Michigan, which the Times described as a group once run by Tanton and funded largely with Mrs. May's money.[^4][^5] + +### Pioneer Fund Grants + +The [[Pioneer Fund]] made these nominal-dollar payments to FAIR, according to the ledger of its grants that [[Barry Mehler]] compiled from the fund's Internal Revenue Service returns: 60,000 dollars in 1982, 60,000 in 1983, 65,000 in 1984, 105,000 in 1985, 80,000 in 1986, 110,000 in 1987, 150,000 in 1988, 50,000 in 1989, 150,000 in 1990, 100,000 in 1991, 150,000 in 1992, 108,500 in 1993 and 100,500 in 1994, with none in 1995 or 1996. The total is 1,289,000 dollars, 12.1 percent of the 10,670,040.55 dollars the ledger shows the fund paying to all grantees from 1971 to 1996. The ledger shows the [[American Immigration Control Foundation]] receiving 183,000 dollars over the same period and the [[Coalition for Freedom]] 195,000 dollars.[^6] + +The Southern Poverty Law Center dates the grants from 1985 to 1994 and puts them at about 1.2 million dollars.[^7] The Times wrote that FAIR "had secretly accepted more than $1 million from the Pioneer Fund."[^4] The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that [[Dan Stein]] said in 1993, before the fund's background became public, that his "job [was] to get every dime of Pioneer's money." It also reported that Stein wrote to the fund's president, [[Harry Weyher]], on March 16, 1994, enclosing a draft statement titled "Why the Pioneer Fund Supports the Immigration Reform Movement," written as though by Weyher, one line of which read: "We are pleased and proud that through financial support, we've made FAIR's important work possible." According to the same account, FAIR denied that the money had influenced its programs, and the grants ended in 1994 while FAIR was supporting [[California]]'s [[Proposition 187]].[^2] + +The Southern Poverty Law Center further reported that in early 1997 Tanton organized a gathering at the [[New York Racquet and Tennis Club]] at which three members of FAIR's board, [[Henry Buhl]], [[Sharon Barnes]] and [[Alan Weeden]], met Weyher, and that in the late 1990s Tanton vacationed with the Pioneer Fund director [[John Trevor Jr.]], who gave FAIR private financial support.[^2] + +### The WITAN Memoranda and the 1988 Disclosure + +On October 10, 1986, Tanton sent attendees of a WITAN IV meeting a memorandum of questions on the non-economic consequences of immigration to California. It asked: "Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile?" and "Will Blacks be able to improve (or even maintain) their position in the face of the Latin onslaught?"[^8] The [[Arizona Republic]] published excerpts on October 9, 1988. [[Linda Chavez]], then executive director of [[U.S. English]], resigned, calling the memoranda "repugnant and not excusable"; [[Walter Cronkite]] and [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] left that organization's board and Tanton resigned its presidency. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that FAIR supported Tanton and formed a committee to prepare his defense.[^2] + +In 1988 Dan Stein replaced Conner as executive director. The Southern Poverty Law Center states that Conner became FAIR's president and concentrated on fundraising, while FAIR's own biography of Stein states that the board appointed him its first president in 2003.[^2][^9] + +### Leadership + +Stein has been part of the organization since 1982, first as press secretary and from 1988 as executive director. Before leading FAIR he was executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, and in 2003 the board appointed him its first president.[^9] FAIR's biography of Stein says he has testified before Congress more than 50 times; the Southern Poverty Law Center quoted him in August 2009 saying that FAIR leaders had testified about 100 times.[^2][^9] + +[[Julie Kirchner]] joined FAIR in 2005 as deputy director of government relations and became executive director in 2007. She left in August 2015 to advise the [[Donald Trump]] presidential campaign.[^10][^11] [[Robert Dane]] served as executive director from 2015 until he retired late in 2022. In January 2023 the board announced Kirchner's return.[^12] In 2023 Stein told the board he planned to step down in early 2025, and the board began a succession plan by hiring Kirchner.[^9] The return for 2025 lists Stein as president until April 2025 and Kirchner as executive director until June 2025.[^13] [[Dale Wilcox]], for 11 years executive director and general counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, became executive director and general counsel of FAIR on July 16, 2025, the fifth person to lead the organization in its 46-year history.[^14] + +### Board and Compensation + +The returns for 2016 through 2025 list [[Don Collins Jr.]] as chairman. The 2016 return lists [[Frank Morris]] as vice chairman, [[Douglas E. Caton]] as treasurer, [[Dale M. Herder]] as secretary, and [[Duane Austin]], Sharon Barnes, [[James Dorcy]], [[Sarah G. Epstein]] and [[S. Blake Swensrud II]] as directors.[^15] By 2025 the board consisted of Collins, Herder as vice chairman, [[Cynthia Matthews]] as secretary, Swensrud as treasurer, Austin and [[Kevin Donaleski]].[^13] The 2017 return describes a Swensrud Endowment Fund and a Swensrud Memorial Internship Fund, the latter established in 1996 in memory of [[Sidney Swensrud]].[^16] + +Stein's reportable compensation was 305,343 dollars plus 66,809 dollars of other compensation in 2016, 452,343 dollars plus 69,339 dollars in 2018, 368,324 dollars plus 79,428 dollars in 2024, and 135,546 dollars plus 25,059 dollars in 2025.[^13][^15][^17][^18] Kirchner's reportable compensation as executive director was 351,164 dollars in 2024.[^18] + +### Finances + +Revenue, expenses and total assets at year end, in dollars, from the returns for each calendar year: + +- 2016: revenue 11,157,713; expenses 11,246,727; assets 14,425,691. +- 2017: revenue 27,442,035; expenses 8,575,890; assets 36,100,872. +- 2018: revenue 12,125,677; expenses 10,902,278; assets 36,062,018. +- 2019: revenue 6,064,444; expenses 10,599,974; assets 34,744,418 (ProPublica's extracted totals). +- 2020: revenue 7,316,658; expenses 11,364,268; assets 31,671,070. +- 2021: revenue 7,177,636; expenses 9,291,438; assets 30,645,621. +- 2022: revenue 8,269,482; expenses 8,114,597; assets 30,055,523. +- 2023: revenue 5,201,170; expenses 7,453,094; assets 27,845,838. +- 2024: revenue 7,026,289; expenses 7,649,217; assets 27,946,658. +- 2025: revenue 8,578,324; expenses 8,195,051; assets 39,388,568. + +ProPublica's extracted totals give revenue of 6,202,879 dollars for 2011 and 8,594,856 dollars for 2015.[^3][^13][^15][^16][^17][^18][^19][^20][^21][^22] + +Contributions and grants were 10,714,758 dollars in 2016 and 26,522,520 dollars in 2017, and the 2017 return's description of government relations work begins: "With the election of President Trump, 2017 presented a unique opportunity to enact many of the immigration reforms FAIR has long fought for."[^16] The public copy of the return lists 26,516,901 dollars as all other contributions and does not itemize donors. In 2016 the largest contractors were [[Davis & Company]] of [[Virginia Beach]], paid 1,848,355 dollars for advertising, and [[Stamp Idea Group LLC]] of [[Montgomery, Alabama]], paid 1,446,530 dollars for advertising.[^15] [[Google]] was paid 1,713,143 dollars for advertising in 2021 and 1,105,067 dollars in 2022.[^20][^21] + +### Colcom Foundation + +Mrs. May died in 2005. The Times reported that in 2005 the [[Colcom Foundation]], which she created in 1996, received 215 million dollars from her family trust and 30 million dollars from her personal estate, and another 176 million dollars from the estate in 2006. Using Colcom's tax filings for fiscal years 2005 to 2017, the Times counted 179.9 million dollars in grants to immigration and population-control groups, of which 56.7 million went to FAIR and 17.6 million to the Center for Immigration Studies.[^4] John Rohe, the foundation's vice president for philanthropy, who previously worked with Tanton, told the Times: "We should have a pro-immigrant, nonracial immigration policy. It should not be based on race. It's only based on the numbers."[^4] + +Colcom's returns for the fiscal years ended June 2021 through June 2025 list these grants in dollars, paid during each year in that order: + +- FAIR: 3,350,000 in FY2021; 2,600,000 in FY2022, FY2023 and FY2024; 1,950,000 in FY2025. +- Immigration Reform Law Institute: 2,500,000; 2,125,000; 2,300,000; 2,300,000; 3,725,000. +- [[NumbersUSA]] Education & Research Foundation: 2,894,485; 2,620,000; 2,730,000; 2,870,000; 2,210,000. +- Center for Immigration Studies: 1,992,800; 1,940,000; 2,100,000; 1,975,000; 1,200,000. +- [[Immigration Research Fund]]: 577,800; 500,000; 1,070,000; 1,070,000; 825,000. + +The grants are drawn from the five returns.[^23][^24][^25][^26][^27] In the year to June 2025 the return also shows 650,000 dollars approved for later payment to FAIR and 575,000 dollars to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, and 850,000 dollars paid to the [[Immigration Accountability Project]] and 105,000 dollars to [[ProEnglish]].[^27] In the year to June 2021 it lists 810,000 dollars to US Inc., 454,300 dollars to [[Progressives for Immigration Reform]], 330,000 dollars to [[Californians for Population Stabilization]] and 400,000 dollars to [[Keeping Identities Safe]].[^23] + +Colcom's total grants paid were 24,583,765 dollars in the year to June 2021, 21,209,788 in 2022, 23,101,275 in 2023, 22,125,313 in 2024 and 21,037,846 in 2025; its assets at fair market value were 578,878,320 dollars in 2021, 467,132,459 in 2022, 487,808,412 in 2023, 523,265,697 in 2024 and 538,384,400 in 2025.[^23][^24][^25][^26][^27] ProPublica's extracted figures show grants paid of 20,733,376 dollars in the year to June 2011, 25,028,319 in 2015, 32,219,776 in 2019 and 39,673,258 in 2020.[^28] The 2024 return lists [[J. S. Barsotti]] as director, president and chief investment officer at 441,000 dollars in compensation.[^26] + +### Immigration Reform Law Institute + +The Southern Poverty Law Center states that the institute was incorporated under FAIR's tax exemption and serves as FAIR's legal arm.[^2] FAIR's returns list the institute as a related 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 52-1469956, with the stated purpose "support FAIR's legal program," and list FAIR Congressional Task Force Inc., EIN 52-1258403, a 501(c)(4), as a related organization "developing immigration policies."[^22] The institute's returns list Stein as chairman, [[Jeffrey R. Parkin]] as secretary, Dale Wilcox as executive director and [[Michael Hethmon]] as senior counsel; Wilcox was paid 175,950 dollars in 2016 and 272,416 dollars in 2024.[^29][^30] Kirchner became a director of the institute on January 1, 2023.[^31] + +The institute paid [[The Bopp Law Firm PC]] of [[Terre Haute]], Indiana, 214,387 dollars for legal services in 2017 and 476,168 dollars in 2018.[^32][^33] Its returns list FAIR itself as a contractor paid for management services, 116,301 dollars in 2022 and 167,556 dollars in 2024.[^30][^34] Its revenue was 1,485,311 dollars in 2016 and 6,328,648 dollars in 2017, and 1,449,287 dollars in 2018.[^29][^32][^33] + +The institute's return for 2025 reports a "transfer of litigation program to FAIR including assets and liabilities" of 9,730,386 dollars, and FAIR's return for the same year reports the matching "transfer of litigation program from IRLI including assets and liabilities" of 9,730,386 dollars. The institute's total assets fell from 6,891,450 dollars at the end of 2024 to 574,316 dollars at the end of 2025, and FAIR's rose from 27,946,658 dollars to 39,388,568 dollars.[^13][^18][^30][^35] The institute's 2025 return lists Wilcox as executive director and general counsel until July 2025 and then as chairman; Stein as chairman until July 2025; Parkin, [[John Rooney]] and Kirchner as officers or directors until July 2025; and [[Brian Lonergan]] as director of communications until July 2025 and then secretary, with [[Shari Rendall]] as a director from July 2025.[^35] + +### Kris Kobach + +[[Kris Kobach]] joined the Immigration Reform Law Institute in 2004 as senior counsel and was by 2011 listed as of counsel.[^1][^36] The [[Associated Press]] called him in 2010 "the architect behind many of the nation's most controversial immigration laws," and quoted the institute's director, Michael Hethmon, on his role in drafting laws and training officers.[^37] + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records show that Kobach's 2004 campaign for [[Kansas]]'s third congressional district, [[Kobach for Congress]], reported receipts from [[U.S. Immigration Reform PAC]] of 1,500 dollars on August 25, 2003, 1,000 dollars on October 11, 2003, 1,000 dollars on December 20, 2003, 1,000 dollars twice on February 14, 2004, 2,500 dollars on September 13, 2004, and 2,500 dollars on October 25, 2004, a total of 10,500 dollars. The PAC's own disbursement records list seven payments to the campaign totaling 10,000 dollars, including 500 dollars on November 7, 2003. Cordelia Scaife May, listed as retired and of [[Pittsburgh]], gave the campaign 2,000 dollars on August 3, 2004, and 2,000 dollars on October 28, 2004. She gave the PAC itself 10,000 dollars in the 2002 cycle and 10,000 dollars in the 2004 cycle, and "Tanton, John Dr. & Mrs." appear among its donors with 4,000 dollars in the 2004 cycle. The committee's filings name William W. Chip as treasurer from 2002 to 2012. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that a "U.S. Immigration PAC," which it described as operated by Tanton's wife, gave Kobach 10,000 dollars in campaign contributions for his 2004 race, without giving a committee number. A second committee, [[United States]] Immigration Political Action Committee (formerly Michigan Immigration PAC) of Shelby Township, Michigan, with William D. Shull as treasurer and filings from 1999 to 2003, made no payment to Kobach for Congress in the records searched.[^1][^38] + +The institute's returns for 2016 through 2025 do not list Kobach among officers, key employees, the highest-compensated employees, or independent contractors paid more than 100,000 dollars.[^29][^30][^31][^32][^33][^35][^39] + +### Lobbying Disclosure + +FAIR has filed [[Lobbying Disclosure Act]] reports since 1999. Reported lobbying expenses were 80,000 dollars in 2011, 278,073 in 2017, 227,778 in 2018, 306,477 in 2019, 288,544 in 2020, 283,571 in 2021, 254,982 in 2022, 228,005 in 2023 and 145,746 in 2024.[^40] Registered lobbyists include Stein from 1999 to 2023 and Kirchner from 2005 to 2025, whose reports list as covered positions senior advisor at [[Customs and Border Protection]], [[U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services|USCIS]] ombudsman, and senior advisor at the [[Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman]]. [[Robert Law]] appears as a lobbyist from 2013 to 2017. Other reports list former congressional staff: [[Carl Little]], chief of staff to Representative [[John Hostettler]] until January 2007; [[RJ Hauman]], aide to Representative [[Elton Gallegly]]; [[Heather Ham-Warren]], legislative director to Representative [[Matt Gaetz]]; [[Joe Chatham]], chief counsel to Representative [[Ken Buck]]; and [[William Riley]], legislative correspondent to Representative [[Marjorie Taylor Greene]].[^40] + +### Staff in the Trump Administration + +The Times reported in 2019 that Attorney General [[Jeff Sessions]] and the [[White House]] adviser [[Stephen Miller]] were longtime FAIR allies, and that Kirchner had become USCIS ombudsman.[^4] Kirchner spent four years at the [[Department of Homeland Security]]: senior advisor to the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, USCIS ombudsman from 2017 to 2019, and from January 2020 senior advisor at the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman.[^41] She resigned the ombudsman post in October 2019; the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that a source told CNN she was moving away from Washington and that Politico quoted a senior Homeland Security official saying she was leaving "voluntarily for family reasons."[^11] + +Robert Law was FAIR's director of government relations, then chief of the USCIS Office of Policy and Strategy, then director of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the [[America First Policy Institute]], then senior counselor to Homeland Security Secretary [[Kristi Noem]]. The [[Senate]] confirmed him as Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans by a vote of 49 to 46.[^42] + +[[Matthew O'Brien]] was FAIR's director of research from 2016 to 2020, an immigration judge in Arlington, Virginia, and then the institute's director of investigations.[^43] His most recent judicial post was assistant chief immigration judge at Annandale, Virginia, and he is FAIR's deputy executive director.[^44] The returns for 2025 list O'Brien as deputy executive director as of July 2025 and [[Christopher Hajec]] of the institute as deputy general counsel as of August 2025.[^13] + +The Times reported that groups Mrs. May funded "sent key staff members to join" the Trump administration, and that the main restrictionist groups she funded reject any contention that prejudice or xenophobia motivates them.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "Kris Kobach: Lawyer for America's Nativist Movement," SPLC Report, on Kobach joining the Immigration Reform Law Institute in 2004, his 2004 congressional campaign, and the SPLC listing of FAIR as a hate group since 2007. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/kris-kobach-lawyer-americas-nativist-movement/ +[^2]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "Federation for American Immigration Reform," Extremist Files (sections "Background," "FAIR and the Pioneer Fund," and "In Their Own Words"), read October 1, 2026. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/federation-american-immigration-reform/ +[^3]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer, API record for Federation For American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126 (ruling date July 1979; revenue, expense and asset totals for tax years 2011 to 2023). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/521136126.json +[^4]: Kulish, Nicholas, and Mike McIntire. "Why an Heiress Spent Her Fortune Trying to Keep Immigrants Out," *The New York Times,* August 14, 2019 (article text and the accompanying "The Daily" transcript). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/anti-immigration-cordelia-scaife-may.html (read through the capture at https://web.archive.org/web/20260127154925id_/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/anti-immigration-cordelia-scaife-may.html) +[^5]: Internal Revenue Service, *Cumulative List of Organizations Described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954* (Publication 78), revised to October 31, 1982 (https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152660_0032) and revised to October 31, 1985 (https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152806_0979), entries for Federation for American Immigration Reform, Washington, D.C., and US Inc., Petoskey, Mi. +[^6]: Mehler, Barry, comp. "Pioneer Fund Grants, 1971-1996," Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, compiled from the fund's Internal Revenue Service returns; nominal-dollar tables in Part III (1981-1985, http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp3.htm, capture of February 2, 2002), Part IV (1986-1990, pfp4.htm, capture of January 29, 2002), Part V (1991-1996, pfp5.htm, capture of January 29, 2002) and Part VI (totals, pfp6.htm, capture of March 9, 2002), read at https://web.archive.org/web/20020202045118id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp3.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020129112308id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp4.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020129113141id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp5.htm and https://web.archive.org/web/20020309164506id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp6.htm +[^7]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "Federation for American Immigration Reform's Hate Filled Track Record," SPLC Report (section "The Eugenics Connection"). https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/federation-american-immigration-reforms-hate-filled-track-record/ +[^8]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "'WITAN Memo' III," January 29, 2010, reproducing John Tanton to WITAN IV attendees, October 10, 1986. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/witan-memo-iii/ +[^9]: Federation for American Immigration Reform, "Dan Stein," staff biography, with the letter of FAIR's Board of Directors on his retirement. https://www.fairus.org/danstein +[^10]: Piggott, Stephen. "Julie Kirchner, Former FAIR ED Named New Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman," Southern Poverty Law Center, Hatewatch, May 1, 2017. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/05/01/julie-kirchner-former-fair-ed-named-new-citizenship-and-immigration-services-ombudsman +[^11]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "Trump Official Who Once Led Hate Group Resigns Ombudsman Role," Hatewatch, October 31, 2019. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/10/31/trump-official-who-once-led-hate-group-resigns-ombudsman-role +[^12]: Federation for American Immigration Reform, "FAIR Announces Julie Kirchner as the New Executive Director," FAIR Newsletter, February 2023. https://www.fairus.org/fair-announces-julie-kirchner-new-executive-director +[^13]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2025, object ID 202621839349300527 (filed 2026); Parts I, VII and Schedule O (transfer of litigation program). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^14]: Mehlman, Ira. "Meet FAIR's New Executive Director and General Counsel: Dale Wilcox," FAIR Newsletter, July 2025. https://www.fairus.org/meet-fairs-new-executive-director-and-general-counsel-dale-wilcox +[^15]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2016, object ID 201721819349300442 (filed 2017); Parts VII, VIII, IX and Schedule R. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^16]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2017, object ID 201801669349301105 (filed 2018); Parts I, III, VII, VIII and Schedule O. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^17]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2018, object ID 201921589349300347 (filed 2019); Part VII. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^18]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2024, object ID 202521959349301457 (filed 2025); Parts I, VII and Schedule R. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^19]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2020, object ID 202111749349300546 (filed 2021); Parts I and VII. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^20]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2021, object ID 202221729349300737 (filed 2022); Part VII independent contractors. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^21]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2022, object ID 202301799349301560 (filed 2023; a second return for the same period carries object ID 202322589349301102). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^22]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Federation for American Immigration Reform, EIN 52-1136126, tax period December 2023, object ID 202441659349301024 (filed 2024); Parts VII and Schedule R. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521136126 +[^23]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Colcom Foundation, EIN 31-1479839, tax year July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, object ID 202241329349103649 (filed 2022); Part XV grants paid. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/311479839 +[^24]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Colcom Foundation, EIN 31-1479839, tax year July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, object ID 202341189349100634 (filed 2023); Part XV grants paid. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/311479839 +[^25]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Colcom Foundation, EIN 31-1479839, tax year July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, object ID 202401239349101030 (filed 2024); Part XV grants paid. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/311479839 +[^26]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Colcom Foundation, EIN 31-1479839, tax year July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, object ID 202521299349102272 (filed 2025); Part VII officers and Part XV grants. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/311479839 +[^27]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Colcom Foundation, EIN 31-1479839, tax year July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, object ID 202601279349100640 (filed 2026); Part XV grants paid and approved for future payment. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/311479839 +[^28]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer, API record for Colcom Foundation, EIN 31-1479839 (ruling date February 1997; extracted grants-paid and fair-market-value figures for fiscal years ended June 2011 through 2015 and 2019 through 2023). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/311479839.json +[^29]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2016, object ID 201721819349300742; Parts I and VII. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^30]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2024, object ID 202511969349302106; Parts I and VII. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^31]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2023, object ID 202431669349300123; Part VII (Julie Kirchner as director from January 1, 2023). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^32]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2017, object ID 201821669349300532; Parts I, VII and independent contractors. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^33]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2018, object ID 201911589349300851; Part VII and independent contractors. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^34]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2022, object ID 202341799349301474; independent contractors. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^35]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2025, object ID 202601839349300630; Part I, Part VII and Schedule O (transfer of litigation program to FAIR, 9,730,386 dollars). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^36]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "When Mr. Kobach Comes to Town: Nativist Laws and the Communities They Damage," SPLC Report, 2011. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/when-mr-kobach-comes-town-nativist-laws-and-communities-they-damage/ +[^37]: Hanna, John. "Kan. lawyer is architect of many immigration laws," Associated Press, May 10, 2010, via NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna37070355 +[^38]: Federal Election Commission, openFEC API: Kobach for Congress (committee C00389346; candidate H4KS03105), Schedule A receipts, 2003-2004; U.S. Immigration Reform PAC (committee C00253906; treasurer William W. Chip, 2002 to 2012 filings), Schedule A receipts and Schedule B disbursements, 2002-2004 and 2014-2019. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?committee_id=C00389346 and https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/?committee_id=C00253906 +[^39]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990, Immigration Reform Law Institute Inc., EIN 52-1469956, tax period December 2021, object ID 202221729349300122; independent contractors. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521469956 +[^40]: U.S. Senate Office of Public Records, Lobbying Disclosure Act database (lda.gov), registrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (registrant ID 14256; House registrant ID 30053), 102 filings from 1999 to 2026, reports LD-1 and LD-2 (expenses, lobbyists, covered positions). https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?registrant_id=14256 +[^41]: Federation for American Immigration Reform, "Julie Kirchner," staff biography. https://www.fairus.org/staff/julie-kirchner +[^42]: Canaan, Gabriel. "Senate Confirms Former FAIR Staffer Rob Law to Key DHS Position," FAIR Take, September 16, 2025. https://www.fairus.org/news/executive/senate-confirms-former-fair-staffer-rob-law-key-dhs-position +[^43]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Accountability, hearing of February 15, 2024, witness biography, "Matt O'Brien, IRLI Director of Investigations." https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO06/20240215/116859/HHRG-118-GO06-Bio-OBrienM-20240215.pdf +[^44]: Federation for American Immigration Reform, "Matt O'Brien," staff biography. https://www.fairus.org/staff/matt-obrien diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3c3cc1c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/GWU Program on Extremism.md @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - GWUProgramOnExtremism + - GeorgeWashingtonUniversity + - LorenzoVidino + - SeamusHughes + - CounterTerrorism + - MuslimBrotherhood + - AlpServices + - CourtRecords +alias: + - GWU Program on Extremism + - Program on Extremism + - George Washington University Program on Extremism + - GW Program on Extremism + - PoE + - Program for Extremism at The George Washington University +summary: "George Washington University research program founded in June 2015 inside a homeland security center with a board of former officials, led by Lorenzo Vidino, who consulted for the Swiss firm Alp Services in 2018." +start: 2015-06 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Center for Cyber and Homeland Security]]" + start: 2015-06 + role: "program within the George Washington University center" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Lorenzo Vidino]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-06 + role: "director" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Seamus Hughes]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-06 + role: "deputy director" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Hafez v. Vidino (1-24-cv-00873)]]" + start: 2024-03-27 + end: 2025-09-30 + role: "named defendant with Vidino and the university; amended complaint dismissed without prejudice" + fn: 18 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Program on Extremism is a research unit of [[George Washington University]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], established in June 2015 and led since then by [[Lorenzo Vidino]]. It publishes reports and databases drawn from court records, conducts training for law enforcement, and runs an antisemitism research initiative. Its director has acknowledged consulting in 2018 for the Swiss private intelligence firm [[Alp Services]], and the Program was a named defendant in a [[Hafez v. Vidino (1-24-cv-00873)|2024 racketeering suit]] arising from the firm's work. + +### Establishment inside the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security + +GW Today reported on June 22, 2015 that the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security had announced that it would establish the Program on Extremism as an initiative on violent and non-violent extremism. [[Frank Cilluffo]], the center's director, was quoted, and Vidino and [[Seamus Hughes]] were named director and deputy director. Vidino was described as an expert on terrorist networks in the West and author of "The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West" (2010), and Hughes as a former staff member of the [[National Counterterrorism Center]] and the [[Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee]]. The center had been formed from the Homeland Security Policy Institute and the GW Cybersecurity Initiative, and GW Today stated that it was governed by a board of directors and a policy and research advisory committee.[^1] + +Records of the [[Department of Homeland Security]]'s National Protection and Programs Directorate, released and hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union, contain the center's e-mail announcement of June 24, 2015 of its new board of directors, chaired by [[J. Richard Knop]], founder and co-manager of [[FedCap Partners]] and a member of the university's board of trustees. The announcement listed the following members with the affiliations printed in it: [[Richard V. Allen]], former national security adviser; [[Michael Balboni]] of [[RedLand Strategies]]; Ambassador [[Cofer Black]], former coordinator for counter-terrorism at the [[State Department]] and former director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s Counterterrorism Center; [[Lieutenant General]] [[Ronald L. Burgess Jr.]], former director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]; [[Michael Chertoff]] of [[The Chertoff Group]]; [[Michael Downing]] of the [[Los Angeles Police Department]]; [[Amr Elsawy]], chief executive of [[Noblis]]; [[Martin Faga]], former chief executive of [[MITRE]] and former director of the [[National Reconnaissance Office]]; [[Alberto Fernandez]], vice president of [[MEMRI]]; [[Leon Fuerth]]; [[Tom Korologos]] of [[DLA Piper]]; [[John Lainhart]] of [[IBM Global Business Services]]; [[Cathy Lanier]], chief of the [[Metropolitan Police Department]]; [[Jane Holl Lute]] of the [[Center for Internet Security]]; [[Ronald Marks]] of [[Intelligence Enterprises]], formerly of the Central Intelligence Agency; [[Cheri McGuire]] of [[Symantec]]; [[Paul McHale]]; [[Edwin Meese]] of the [[Heritage Foundation]]; [[Robert Nichols]] of [[Covington and Burling]]; [[Michael Papay]] of [[Northrop Grumman]]; [[R. David Paulison]]; [[Tom Ridge]] of [[Ridge Global]]; [[Andrew Robinson]] of [[ICF International]]; [[Howard Schmidt]] of [[Ridge-Schmidt Cyber]]; [[William Sessions]] of [[Holland and Knight]]; [[Paul Stockton]] of [[Sonecon]]; [[Douglas Stone]] of [[STAC Solutions]]; [[Frances Townsend]] of [[MacAndrews and Forbes]]; [[Jim Turner]] of [[Arnold and Porter]]; [[Kenneth Wainstein]] of [[Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft]]; and [[William Webster]], former [[Director of Central Intelligence]]. The announcement named the board as the body that would "help to sustain and grow" the center's policy and research activities.[^2] + +### Early programs, 2015 and 2016 + +The Program's newsletter of December 17, 2015, in the same release, reported its first report, "Countering Violent Extremism in America" (June 2015), and "ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa" by Vidino and Hughes (December 1, 2015). It reported events with the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] on October 14, 2015, at which Assistant Attorney General [[John Carlin]] announced the creation of a Domestic Terrorism Counsel at the [[Department of Justice]], and with the [[Brookings Institution]] and the [[Institute for Strategic Dialogue]] on November 9, 2015. It stated that Hughes had testified before the [[House Committee on Homeland Security]] on July 15, 2015 and had been named to the [[Homeland Security Advisory Council]] of the DHS Secretary, and that Vidino had given lectures and briefings to the [[Canadian Senate]], the [[Swiss Federal Police]], British government entities, the "United Arab Emirates National Defense College," and academic institutions in the [[United Kingdom]], Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and [[Austria]]. It also stated that the Program had launched "one of the largest online libraries of U.S. ISIS-related legal documents."[^2] + +The acknowledgments of "ISIS in America" name the Program's research associates and research assistants and do not name a funder.[^3] In August 2016 Vidino told GW Today that the Program had added [[Jesse Morton]] as a fellow, describing him as "a reformed, former extremist who subsequently actively assisted the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]."[^4] + +### Court-record research + +The Program's report of March 2021 on the [[January 6, 2021 Capitol breach|January 6 attack]], "This is Our House!", was written by Vidino, Hughes, [[Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens]], [[Devorah Margolin]], [[Bennett Clifford]], [[Jon Lewis]], [[Andrew Mines]] and [[Haroro Ingram]]. It counted 257 individuals charged in federal court as of February 25, 2021, identified 33 with military backgrounds, and stated that its data came from hundreds of court documents, Department of Justice press releases, [[Freedom of Information Act]] requests, interviews with [[U.S. government]] officials and news articles. The report stated that the Program had hosted an annual talk by the Domestic Terrorism Counsel since 2015.[^5] + +On December 18, 2025 the Program held an online panel, "Holding 764 Accountable," moderated by its senior research fellow [[Barry Jonas]], with [[Justin Sher]] of the [[Counterterrorism Section]] and [[Steve Grocki]], chief of the [[Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section]], both of the Department of Justice, [[Kavitha Babu]] of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, and [[James Kitchen]] of [[Jones Day]].[^6] Earlier that month [[Luke Baumgartner]] and Barry Jonas wrote in [[Just Security]] that by charging a member of [[764 Network]] under [[18 U.S.C. § 2339A]], the Department of Justice "has signaled that NVE networks like 764 are terrorist enterprises."[^7] + +### Training and staff + +The Program's training page states that it offers modules for law enforcement, community organizations and university leaders on domestic violent extremism, homegrown jihadism, and "Campus Extremism and [[Hamas]] in the US," the last using "internal Hamas documents and evidence used in a federal prosecution." It lists [[Lara Burns]], a retired FBI special agent who, according to the page, led the Justice Department's terrorism financing investigation and prosecution in [[United States v. Holy Land Foundation]]; [[Jeff Parsons]] and [[David Collins]], also retired FBI special agents; and the historian [[Omar Mohammed]].[^8] The team page lists non-resident fellows including [[Hazel Blears]], [[Rukmini Callimachi]], [[Aimen Dean]], [[Mary McCord]], [[Graeme Wood]] and Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens.[^9] The Program's Antisemitism Research Initiative lists among its projects a Mosul Jewish heritage initiative, 2021 to 2022, that "received funding from the [[International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas]] (ALIPH)."[^10] + +Hughes later became a senior research faculty member at [[NCITE]], the Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and was principal investigator of its December 2025 report on prosecutions of 764.[^11] + +### The Muslim Brotherhood in Austria and Operation Luxor + +In 2017 Vidino published "The Muslim Brotherhood in Austria." The Austrian weekly [[profil]] reported on April 2, 2023 that the study was commissioned by the [[Integration Fund]], which belonged to the Foreign Ministry then headed by [[Sebastian Kurz]], and by the [[Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism]], for a "high five-figure" fee, and that it was presented in September 2017, shortly before the national election. profil also reported that Vidino sat on the scientific advisory board of the [[Documentation Center for Political Islam]], and that his name appeared in the team of the [[Abu Dhabi]] think tank [[Hedayah]].[^12] + +Austrian police carried out [[Operation Luxor]] on November 9, 2020.[^12] The court's opinion in Hafez's suit states that the operation "targeted the homes of 70 Austrian Muslims." In his amended complaint, [[Farid Hafez]] alleged that Vidino's 2017 report was "mentioned 14 times in the search warrant" and that Vidino testified to Austrian intelligence services in January 2020, March 2022 and December 2022; the court summarized these allegations in its opinion.[^13] [[David D. Kirkpatrick]] wrote in [[The New Yorker]] that no one targeted in the raids had been arrested, much less convicted, and that an Austrian appellate court ruled the raids unlawful.[^14] profil reported that the prosecutor in Graz had named two experts, [[Heiko Heinisch]] and [[Nina Scholz]], in April 2020, that the investigation rested on Vidino's study and two reports of the domestic intelligence service, and that the Higher Regional Court in Graz later dismissed the two experts for apparent bias.[^12] + +### Consulting for Alp Services + +Kirkpatrick reported that [[Mario Brero]], founder of the Swiss private intelligence firm Alp Services, sought out Vidino early after signing the [[United Arab Emirates]] as a client, and that Brero treated him to a dinner of about 1,000 dollars at the [[Beau Rivage]] hotel in [[Geneva]] on January 12, 2018. Kirkpatrick wrote that Brero's prepared talking points indicated that he planned to lie about working for the U.A.E. and to tell Vidino instead that a "London-based law firm" had hired Alp. Two weeks later Vidino signed a contract paying 3,000 euros for "interesting leads/rumours" about the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] and a "list of alleged members of the first tier organisations in European countries." Kirkpatrick reported that, according to partial records in the hacked files, Brero had paid Vidino more than 13,000 euros by April 2020, and that an internal Alp accounting showed the UAE paying Brero at least 5.7 million euros between August 21, 2017 and June 30, 2020.[^14] + +Vidino told Kirkpatrick that he had worked for Alp, that "It's the same research I do no matter what, so it does not really matter who the final client is," and that "I am a one-trick pony. I have been researching the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe for almost twenty-five years." Asked whether he must have realized that only the UAE had the means and the motive to pay for such work, he answered, "They were the most realistic client," and added that "it wasn't clear cut whether it was the Emiratis, the Saudis, the Israelis, or some private entity in the States." Kirkpatrick quoted Vidino writing to an Alp operative in February 2020 that German authorities had invited him to Berlin and that his memo would be "juicier" after the visit, and in March 2020 that "many of the names on the list come indeed straight from various meetings with German intel"; Vidino told Kirkpatrick that he did not remember meeting the Germans around that time but considered such official interactions "field work."[^14] Vidino told profil that he had received about 3,000 euros, and told the French outlet [[Mediapart]], as quoted by profil, that he often advises law firms, consultancies and PR firms and that he did not know the identity of Alp's clients.[^12] + +Kirkpatrick reported that Brero pitched a campaign against [[Islamic Relief Worldwide]] to the Emiratis in 2019 and wrote to the Emiratis that Alp had "channeled our findings to the academic expert Lorenzo Vidino and to the Times to be sure to remain completely confidential"; the reporter at [[The Times]] told Kirkpatrick that Vidino had not disclosed that he had received the information from Alp. Kirkpatrick also reported that the [[Georgetown University Bridge Initiative]] has described Vidino as someone who "promotes conspiracy theories about the Muslim Brotherhood," and that Farid Hafez said Vidino "is like a fox."[^14] [[The Intercept]] reported in April 2024 that Vidino maintained public connections with Hedayah and had earlier been a senior analyst at the [[Investigative Project on Terrorism]].[^15] + +### Nada v. United Arab Emirates + +In January 2024 [[Hazim Nada]] and his company [[Lord Energy SA]] sued the UAE, Alp and its principals, a Swiss journalist and Vidino in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ([[Nada v. United Arab Emirates (1-24-cv-00206)|Nada v. United Arab Emirates]], 1:24-cv-00206), seeking more than a billion dollars. [[The GW Hatchet]] reported that the 87-page complaint, filed through the firm [[Clare Locke]], sought more than 2.8 billion dollars in treble damages, and that a university spokesperson did not return a request for comment.[^16] + +In a memorandum opinion of September 15, 2026, Judge [[Amy Berman Jackson]] granted the UAE's motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the [[Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act]], granted the Alp defendants' and the journalist's motions for lack of personal jurisdiction, and granted Vidino's motion on the ground that "the complaint does not include facts to give rise to a plausible inference that Vidino was a member of whatever alleged conspiracy there may have been." The opinion described the complaint's allegations that Alp hired Vidino to provide leads, paid him 2,000 to 4,000 dollars per assignment and relied on his academic credentials, and stated that they "may say something about Alp's state of mind, but they do not reveal anything about Vidino's." It treated as an allegation that Alp told the UAE it had channeled its findings to Vidino, who shared them with a journalist at The Times. The court did not reach Vidino's First Amendment argument. The opinion stated: "Nothing in this opinion is meant to suggest, though, that the knowing dissemination of false accusations of connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or other terrorist organizations could not cause real harm or that would be an appropriate tactic."[^17] + +### Hafez v. Vidino + +On March 27, 2024 Hafez, formerly a senior researcher at the [[University of Salzburg]] and then a visiting scholar at [[Williams College]], sued Vidino, George Washington University, the "Program for Extremism at the George Washington University," Alp Services, [[Diligence SARL]], Brero, [[Muriel Cavin]], [[Lionel Badal]] and [[Ariaf Studies and Research LLC]] in the same court (Hafez v. Vidino, 1:24-cv-00873), demanding 10 million dollars under the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]] and District of Columbia law. The Intercept reported that Vidino and the university had not responded to requests for comment.[^15][^18] + +On September 30, 2025 Judge [[Amir H. Ali]] granted the motions to dismiss. He held that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the Swiss, Italian and Luxembourg defendants, that the amended complaint did not plead a domestic injury to business or property as RICO requires, because the injuries described arose from events in Austria, and that the District of Columbia consumer protection and prima facie tort claims failed. The amended complaint was dismissed without prejudice. The opinion stated that the court accepted the complaint's allegations as true for purposes of the motion.[^13] Hafez filed a notice of appeal on October 29, 2025 (D.C. Circuit No. 25-7172); the court of appeals issued its mandate on June 10, 2026, referring to an order of May 11, 2026 whose text is not reproduced in the district docket entry.[^18] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Program on Extremism Launches at GW," GW Today, June 22, 2015. https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/program-extremism-launches-gw +[^2]: Program on Extremism Newsletter, December 17, 2015, and "CCHS Announces New Board of Directors," e-mail of June 24, 2015, in a DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate records release (NPPD 001896 to 001939). https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/Emails-re-GWU-Program-on-Extremism-1896-1939.pdf +[^3]: Lorenzo Vidino and Seamus Hughes, "ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa," Program on Extremism, December 2015, acknowledgments. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/downloads/ISIS%20in%20America%20-%20Full%20Report.pdf +[^4]: "Program on Extremism Expands Research, Expertise," GW Today, August 29, 2016. https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/program-extremism-expands-research-expertise +[^5]: Program on Extremism, "'This is Our House!': A Preliminary Assessment of the Capitol Hill Siege Participants," March 2021, introduction and findings. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/This-Is-Our-House.pdf +[^6]: Program on Extremism, "Holding 764 Accountable," event page, December 18, 2025. https://extremism.gwu.edu/holding-764-accountable +[^7]: Luke Baumgartner and Barry Jonas, "How the DOJ is Prosecuting Nihilistic Violent Extremism as Domestic Terrorism," Just Security, December 9, 2025. https://www.justsecurity.org/126226/prosecuting-nihilistic-violent-extremism-domestic-terrorism/ +[^8]: Program on Extremism, "Trainings." https://extremism.gwu.edu/trainings +[^9]: Program on Extremism, "Our Team." https://extremism.gwu.edu/our-team +[^10]: Program on Extremism, "Antisemitism Research Initiative." https://extremism.gwu.edu/antisemitism-research-initiative +[^11]: NCITE, "Seamus Hughes," staff biography, University of Nebraska Omaha, https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/about-ncite/staff-directory/seamus-hughes.php ; NCITE, "Prosecuting Nihilistic Violent Extremism," December 20, 2025, https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/news/2025/12/img/prosecuting-nve-report.pdf +[^12]: Anna Thalhammer, "Operation Luxor: Nehammers Debakel," profil, April 2, 2023 (publication metadata of the page). https://www.profil.at/oesterreich/operation-luxor-nehammers-debakel/402385727 +[^13]: Hafez v. Vidino, No. 1:24-cv-00873-AHA (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion, Doc. 55, September 30, 2025 (Ali, J.), and Order, Doc. 56. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.266644/gov.uscourts.dcd.266644.55.0.pdf +[^14]: David D. Kirkpatrick, "The Dirty Secrets of a Smear Campaign," The New Yorker, published online March 27, 2023 (April 3, 2023 issue). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/03/the-dirty-secrets-of-a-smear-campaign +[^15]: "Lawsuit Links Wild UAE-Financed Smear Campaign to George Washington University," The Intercept, April 20, 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/04/20/farid-hafez-muslim-lorenzo-vidino-gwu-uae/ +[^16]: Rachel Moon and Fiona Riley, "Program on Extremism director named in lawsuit for alleged involvement in smear campaign," The GW Hatchet, February 1, 2024. https://gwhatchet.com/2024/02/01/program-on-extremism-director-named-in-lawsuit-for-alleged-involvement-in-smear-campaign/ +[^17]: Nada v. United Arab Emirates, No. 1:24-cv-00206-ABJ (D.D.C.), Memorandum Opinion, Doc. 108, September 15, 2026 (Jackson, J.). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.264225/gov.uscourts.dcd.264225.108.0.pdf +[^18]: Hafez v. Vidino, No. 1:24-cv-00873-AHA (D.D.C.), Notice of Appeal, Doc. 57 (October 29, 2025); civil docket, Doc. 58; USCA Mandate in No. 25-7172, Doc. 59 (June 10, 2026). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.266644/gov.uscourts.dcd.266644.59.0.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gawker Media.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gawker Media.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..96846f1f --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Gawker Media.md @@ -0,0 +1,167 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - GawkerMedia + - NickDenton + - PeterThiel + - BolleaVGawker + - Valleywag + - Kinja + - Chapter11 + - LitigationFinance + - Univision +alias: + - Gawker Media + - Gawker Media LLC + - Gawker Media Group + - Gawker Media Group, Inc. + - Gawker (website) + - Gawker.com + - Gawker + - Valleywag + - Kinja + - Gawker Hungary +summary: "New York online publisher of Gawker, Gizmodo and five other sites that filed Chapter 11 in June 2016 after a $140.1 million verdict in Bollea v. Gawker, a suit funded by Peter Thiel." +location: "114 Fifth Avenue, New York City" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Nick Denton]]" + reverse: true + role: "founder and largest shareholder at the June 2016 petition date" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Silicon Valley Bank]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012-09-24 + role: "first lien lender" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[US VC Partners]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016-01-21 + role: "second lien lender, $15,000,000 term loan" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Bollea v. Gawker]]" + role: "defendant" + fn: 7 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Peter Thiel]]" + start: 2016-10-11 + end: 2018-05-17 + role: "Plan Administrator Rule 2004 investigation of the financing of litigation against the company" + fn: 10 + - type: owned + with: "[[Gizmodo Media Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016-09-09 + role: "purchaser of the operating assets excluding gawker.com, $135,000,000 in cash plus non-cash consideration" + fn: 7 + - type: owned + with: "[[Bustle Digital Group]]" + reverse: true + role: "purchaser of the gawker.com assets at the July 12, 2018 auction" + fn: 17 + - type: represented + with: "[[Ropes & Gray]]" + reverse: true + role: "counsel to the Plan Administrator for the Debtors" + fn: 11 + - type: head_of + with: "[[William D. Holden]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief restructuring officer" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Gawker Media LLC was a Delaware limited liability company at 114 Fifth Avenue in [[New York City]] that published seven websites, [[Gawker (website)|Gawker]], [[Deadspin]], [[Lifehacker]], [[Gizmodo]], [[Kotaku]], [[Jalopnik]] and [[Jezebel]], on a publishing platform owned by its Hungarian sister company [[Kinja]] Kft. Its parent, Gawker Media Group, Inc., was a [[Cayman Islands]] corporation. All three entities filed petitions under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the [[U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York]] on June 10 and June 12, 2016, after a [[Florida]] jury returned a verdict against Gawker Media in [[Bollea v. Gawker]].[^1] + +### Corporate Structure and Finances + +[[William D. Holden]] of [[Opportune LLP]], the chief restructuring officer, stated in his first-day declaration that the six brands other than Gawker accounted for approximately 85 percent of revenue, that the sites had a global readership above 90 million (approximately 50 million in the [[United States]]), and that the company had revenue of approximately $49.9 million in 2015, most of it from advertising. Kinja Kft., at Andrassy ut 66 in [[Budapest]], owned the platform and the intellectual property that Gawker Media licensed, and employed approximately two dozen people in [[Hungary]]. The heads of the five departments (sales, technology, editorial, legal and operations) reported to [[Nick Denton]].[^1] + +Denton was the single largest shareholder of Gawker Media Group as of the petition date. The declaration named the other shareholders as US VC Partners LP, a family trust, current and former executives and employees, and other members of the founding team, and referred to a list of equity holders attached to the chapter 11 petition. The company had issued Series A and Series B preferred shares and common shares.[^1] + +Funded debt of approximately $21.2 million consisted of two secured loans. On September 24, 2012, Gawker Media entered a loan and security agreement with [[Silicon Valley Bank]] for a term loan of $7,666,666.67 and a letter of credit of $5,302,066.00; about $6,222,222 of the term loan was outstanding at the petition date. On January 21, 2016, Gawker Media Group entered a second lien credit agreement with US VC Partners LP, a Delaware limited partnership, for a term loan of $15,000,000, all of which remained outstanding. Denton executed security, pledge and guaranty agreements for both facilities. Gawker Media also owed Kinja $13 million on two promissory notes dated January 10, 2014 ($8 million) and January 10, 2015 ($5 million), and owed its parent $250,000 on a note dated October 7, 2015.[^1] The plan supplement later listed claims on a $200,000 promissory note for funds that Gawker Media Group had lent Denton on June 7, 2016 among the causes of action reserved against him.[^2] + +The declaration listed pending suits over published articles with aggregate damages alleged or awarded of more than $250,000,000: *Bollea v. Gawker* ($140.1 million awarded); [[Huon v. Denton]], No. 11-cv-03054 (N.D. Ill.) (at least $100 million sought); [[Terrill v. Gawker Media]], No. 16-CV-00411 (S.D.N.Y.) (at least $10 million); a defamation suit in Multnomah County, Oregon ($74,000); [[Ayyadurai v. Gawker Media]], No. 16-CV-10853 (D. Mass.) (at least $35 million); and a suit in Fresno County, California. The company maintained nine insurance policies, including errors and omissions and directors and officers coverage, at annual premiums of approximately $342,000.[^1] The [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit]] decided *Huon v. Denton*, No. 15-3049, on November 14, 2016, in an opinion by Judge [[Ann Claire Williams]]. It held the defamation claim over the title and content of the Jezebel article properly dismissed, and reversed the dismissal of the claim over third-party user comments, finding that Meanith Huon had adequately alleged that Gawker employees helped create at least some of the comments, and reinstated his false-light and intentional-infliction claims, which had been dismissed only because the defamation claim failed.[^3] + +### Valleywag and Peter Thiel + +On December 19, 2007, [[Valleywag]], the company's [[Silicon Valley]] blog, published an item by [[Owen Thomas]] titled "[[Peter Thiel]] is totally gay, people."[^4] In an open letter to Peter Thiel published on Gawker on May 26, 2016, Denton quoted Thomas's text as "Peter Thiel, the smartest VC in the world, is gay. More power to him." Denton wrote that [[Max Levchin]] had told him in 2007 that Thiel was concerned about the reaction not in Silicon Valley but among investors in his hedge fund from places such as [[Saudi Arabia]], and had warned of the retribution Thiel would exact if a story about his personal life was published.[^5] + +[[BuzzFeed News]] reported in February 2018, citing two sources for the Sicha meeting and quoting Denton, that Thiel met the former Gawker editor [[Choire Sicha]] in May 2008, having been introduced by the lawyer [[Eddie Hayes]], that Thiel pledged $250,000 to the [[Committee to Protect Journalists]] in late June 2008 (the report quoted the committee's 2008 annual report), and that he met the Gawker editor [[Ryan Tate]] in August 2009. The same report stated that [[Aron D'Souza]], an Oxford-educated Australian lawyer whom Thiel's inner circle called "Mr. A," proposed to Thiel in the spring of 2011 that lawyers be hired to sue Gawker, and that D'Souza then acted as a middleman between Thiel and the law firm of [[Charles Harder]]. BuzzFeed reported that Harder had no direct contact with Thiel before the 2016 trial, citing earlier [[Forbes]] reporting and a source close to a founding partner of the firm. A Thiel spokesperson declined an interview request and D'Souza did not return calls, emails or a message sent by the reporter.[^6] + +### The Hogan Publication and the Florida Litigation + +On October 4, 2012, Gawker.com published an item by [[A.J. Daulerio]] under the title "Even for a Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex in a Canopy Bed is Not Safe for Work but Watch it Anyway," with a video excerpt of one minute and 41 seconds from a recording of [[Hulk Hogan|Terry Bollea]] in the bedroom of the radio host [[Bubba the Love Sponge|Bubba Clem]]. A 30-minute video had been delivered to Daulerio at Gawker in September 2012. Bollea sued Denton, Daulerio and the Gawker entities in the Sixth Judicial Circuit in [[Pinellas County]], Florida, No. 12012447-CI-011, for invasion of privacy by intrusion upon seclusion, publication of private facts, violation of the Florida common law right of publicity, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and violation of section 934.10 of the Florida Statutes.[^7] A federal action, *Bollea v. Gawker Media, LLC*, No. 8:12-cv-02348 (M.D. Fla.), carries a filing date of October 15, 2012 on the CourtListener docket.[^8] + +Charles Harder, then at the [[Los Angeles]] firm of [[Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman & Rabkin]], filed the suit for Bollea in October 2012 and moved his client to a new firm, [[Harder Mirell & Abrams]], formed at the beginning of 2013, according to BuzzFeed News.[^6] Gawker Media and its affiliates, as debtors, asserted in October 2016 that Gawker had disclosed the terms of its insurance coverage during the Bollea case and that Bollea then voluntarily dismissed his claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress, the claim that would have required Gawker's insurer to pay for its defense and any judgment, a sequence the Debtors cited to a May 23, 2016 *[[New York Times]]* report.[^4] + +On May 19, 2015, Gawker Media and its counsel [[Gregg Thomas]] sued the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] and the [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]], No. 8:15-cv-01202 (M.D. Fla.), for records under the [[Freedom of Information Act]] related to the Bollea suit. The action produced documents, transcripts and audio and video recordings generated or obtained by the FBI during its investigation of an extortion attempt against Bollea; DVDs seized by the FBI of Bollea in the Clem bedroom were held under seal by the state court judge. On October 21, 2015, that court ordered discovery into whether Gawker Media, Denton or Daulerio had given sealed transcripts or recordings to [[The National Enquirer]] or [[Radar Online]], which published articles in July and August 2015 describing sealed discovery. Denton, Daulerio and Gawker Media appealed that order to the [[Florida Second District Court of Appeal]] (No. 2D15-5035); the appeal was stayed by the bankruptcy.[^7] + +Trial began on March 1, 2016. On March 18 the jury returned a verdict of liability and compensatory damages of $115 million against Denton, Daulerio and Gawker Media, jointly and severally; on March 21 it awarded punitive damages of $15 million against Gawker Media, $10 million against Denton and $100,000 against Daulerio. The court entered judgment with a permanent injunction on June 7, 2016, and Denton, Daulerio and Gawker Media noticed an appeal on June 10 (No. 2D16-2535).[^7] The bond to stay execution pending appeal was $50 million for each defendant. The Holden declaration stated that the trial court refused to reduce the cash bond or accept stock or other collateral in its place, and that the judgments became available for execution on June 10, 2016.[^1] + +On May 24, 2016, *Forbes* published a report by [[Ryan Mac]] titled "This Silicon Valley Billionaire Has Been Secretly Funding Hulk Hogan's Lawsuits Against Gawker,"[^4] which [[CNBC]] summarized as reporting, citing unnamed sources, that Thiel had funded Bollea's litigation.[^9] + +### Chapter 11 and the Sale of the Operating Assets + +Gawker Media LLC filed on June 10, 2016, and Gawker Media Group and Kinja Kft. (later styled Gawker Hungary Kft.) on June 12, in No. 16-11700 (SMB) before Judge [[Stuart M. Bernstein]]. Holden served as chief restructuring officer and, under the plan confirmed on December 22, 2016, as Plan Administrator.[^10] The Plan Administrator for the Debtors was represented by [[Ropes & Gray]].[^11] On August 1, 2016, Denton filed a personal petition (No. 16-12239), and Bollea began collection proceedings against Daulerio, obtaining an order on August 17, 2016 that transferred to Bollea Daulerio's rights of indemnity against Gawker Media and Gawker Media Group.[^7] + +At an auction on August 16, 2016, [[Ziff Davis]], LLC opened with a stalking horse bid of $90 million. [[Gizmodo Media Group|UniModa]], a division of [[Univision]], submitted the highest bid, $135 million in cash plus non-cash consideration. The court approved the sale by order of August 22, 2016, and it closed on September 9, 2016. The buyer excluded the gawker.com content, domain name, trademark and related intellectual property, which remained in the estates.[^7] On September 15, 2016, UniModa, LLC filed a certificate of amendment changing its name to Gizmodo Media Group, LLC.[^12] + +### The Settlements and the Harder Trust Account + +The Debtors and Bollea signed a term sheet on October 27, 2016 and a settlement agreement on December 9, 2016. Gawker Media, Gawker Hungary and Gawker Media Group agreed to pay Bollea $31,000,000 within three business days of the effective date, by wire to the Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP Attorney Client Trust Account at [[City National Bank]] in Beverly Hills. Bollea's allowed claim for distributions from a "Gawker Media Contingent Proceeds Creditor Account" was set at $84,000,000; the account was to be funded with 45 percent of the net proceeds of any sale of the gawker.com assets and 45 percent of the net proceeds of third-party claims prosecuted by the Plan Administrator.[^7] + +The agreement barred sale of the gawker.com assets to Denton or any insider without Bollea's written consent and barred new gawker.com content mentioning Bollea, his family or his attorneys while the assets remained unsold. It required removal of the October 4, 2012 post and the delivery and deletion of the 1:41 video, the 30-minute video and all other recordings and transcripts of the Clem bedroom recordings, with deletion confirmed at Bollea's expense by [[ATX Forensics|ATX Forensics, LLC]]. The Debtors undertook to support stipulations and requests directing the FBI, the [[Tampa Police Department]], the United States Attorney's Office, the [[Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office]] and the retired Judge [[James R. Case]] to deliver or destroy their copies. Punitive damages against Denton and Daulerio were excluded from the settled claims. If the Debtors pursued their pending Rule 2004 motion, paragraph 18 barred them from seeking from Bollea or any third party discovery about Bollea, including discovery about litigation funding or finance.[^10] + +The agreement also described a second Bollea suit, filed May 2, 2016 in Pinellas County (No. 16-002861-CI) against Gawker Media, the talent agency [[Don Buchwald & Associates]], [[Cox Radio]], [[Keith M. Davidson]] and his firm Keith M. Davidson & Associates, P.L.C., and five other defendants named in the agreement, for intentional interference with contractual relations and advantageous business relationships and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The agreement stated that the settlement payment was not compensation for the damages Bollea sought from those defendants in that suit.[^7] + +The plan supplement filed on November 30, 2016 included settlement agreements with [[Shiva Ayyadurai]] for $750,000 and with [[Ashley Terrill]] for $500,000. Each directs payment to the plaintiff in care of Charles J. Harder, to the same Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP Attorney Client Trust Account at City National Bank, with the same routing number and account number given in the Bollea agreement. The three payments total $32,250,000.[^2] Under the Ayyadurai and Terrill agreements the Gawker entities could seek discovery only of litigation financing agreements and non-privileged Harder retainer agreements relating to those plaintiffs' suits.[^10] The court confirmed the plan on December 22, 2016, and it became effective on March 17, 2017.[^10][^11] + +### The Rule 2004 Investigation of Peter Thiel + +On October 11, 2016, the Debtors moved under [[Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 2004|Bankruptcy Rule 2004]] for discovery from Thiel, Harder and his firm. The motion asserted that Thiel had reportedly provided more than $10 million for the litigation; that the *New York Times* of May 26, 2016 had quoted him as saying his course was "less about revenge and more about specific deterrence," as calling the effort "one of my greater philanthropic things that I've done," and as saying he did not "expect to make any money from this. This is not a business venture"; and that Harder's firm represented Bollea, Terrill and Ayyadurai. It added that the plaintiff in *Huon v. Denton* had told a federal court on June 17, 2015 that he was "getting support from Hulk Hogan's lawyers in California," and that Ayyadurai had told *Forbes* that "to the best of [his] knowledge" he was not receiving financial support from Thiel.[^4] + +The motion also recited the timing of demand letters from Harder's firm: one on June 9, 2016 to Gawker Media seeking removal of a story about [[Donald Trump]]'s hair treatments, sent for one client; four on August 22, 2016 to Univision, the day of the sale order, for four separate clients; one on September 1, 2016 about stories on Ayyadurai; and two on September 7, 2016, two days before closing. It stated that Thiel had published a *New York Times* opinion piece on August 15, 2016, the day before the auction, saying he would "support [Mr. Bollea] until his final victory."[^4] + +Thiel and [[Thiel Capital]] LLC, represented by [[Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom]],[^10] objected on April 18, 2017 that the motion rested on supposition drawn from press reports and was brought to harass, and stated that settlement discussions between Thiel and Denton had been productive.[^13] Harder, represented by [[Chadbourne & Parke]], objected that he was opposing litigation counsel, that the discovery threatened attorney-client privilege and work product, and that the Plan Administrator was invoking Rule 2004 to pressure Thiel; Bollea objected that the settlement agreements limited the discovery.[^10] In a memorandum decision of June 28, 2017, Judge Bernstein wrote that "Thiel has acknowledged that he financed the Bollea Litigation," granted the Plan Administrator discovery from Thiel and Harder on Thiel's relationship with Harder and potential causes of action including prima facie tort, held that the objections based on the viability of a prima facie tort claim were premature, and noted that Harder "did not represent Thiel; he represented Bollea, Ayyadurai and Terrill." He denied without prejudice a second request for discovery about [[Scott Sonnenblick]], whom the Debtors had described as hired by an "unidentified Silicon Valley billionaire," presumably Thiel, "in an attempt to purchase Gawker Media in January 2016"; the court found that Thiel's connection was speculative. The decision recorded that the Bollea, Ayyadurai and Terrill settlements limited the discovery obtainable.[^10] + +The order authorizing subpoenas was entered on December 4, 2017, and the Plan Administrator served subpoenas on Thiel, Thiel Capital, Harder and his firm on December 14, 2017.[^11][^14] On January 10, 2018, Thiel submitted a bid for the gawker.com assets. On February 9, 2018, the Thiel parties moved to extend the discovery deadlines, and on February 13 the Harder parties joined that motion, stating that their document production and privilege log would not be completed by the dates in the order.[^11][^14] + +On April 24, 2018, Thiel, Thiel Capital, the Debtors and the Plan Administrator signed a release agreement. Thiel and Thiel Capital agreed not to pursue or fund actions against any buyer or licensee of the gawker.com assets, or against the Debtors or their current or former employees and contractors over those assets, and not to take part in or fund any participant in the sale process, "except that the Thiel Parties may continue to fund Mr. Bollea." They also agreed not to fund actions to remove the Gawker web archives from the internet. The parties exchanged general releases, the gawker.com assets were to be sold without the claims against the Thiel parties, and the Plan Administrator was to terminate the 2004 investigation and withdraw the subpoenas with prejudice. The Plan Administrator stated that Thiel's participation in an auction might have a chilling effect on bidding.[^11] + +Gizmodo Media Group responded on May 10, 2018, through [[Williams & Connolly]], that it did not oppose a resolution but that the covenant covered only the gawker.com assets, leaving the Thiel parties free to fund claims against Gizmodo Media Group and against three former Gawker writers and contractors over articles published before the September 9, 2016 closing, litigation it described as pending.[^12] Judge Bernstein approved the release agreement on May 17, 2018.[^15] + +### Denton's Bankruptcy and Settlement with Bollea + +On October 24, 2016, Bollea filed a complaint in Denton's personal bankruptcy seeking a determination that the judgment against him was not dischargeable (No. 16-ap-01248).[^7] *[[Fortune]]* reported on March 23, 2017 that a settlement filed the previous Wednesday provided for Bollea to drop the $10 million punitive damages claim against Denton, on condition that the deal would be off if Denton turned out to have been involved in the leak of recordings to The National Enquirer and Radar Online, which Denton had sworn he was not. According to the report, Denton represented that he held no copies of the original tape, agreed not to ask anyone tied to Bollea about "litigation financing," and was poised to emerge with $15.4 million based on court documents listing the value of his share of Gawker Media. *Fortune* quoted Denton telling the *[[New York Post]]*: "As far as I'm concerned, my decade-long involvement with Peter Thiel is over. Other journalists can pick up that particular chalice."[^16] + +### The gawker.com Assets After the Estate + +At an auction on July 12, 2018 at the New York offices of Ropes & Gray, [[Bryan Goldberg]] of [[Bustle Digital Group]] bought the gawker.com assets; [[Reuters]] reported the price as $1.35 million.[^17] Bustle Digital Group relaunched Gawker in July 2021 with [[Leah Finnegan]], who had worked at the original Gawker, as editor in chief. In February 2023, the company announced that it was suspending operations of Gawker, with Goldberg writing in a staff memo that "we have to prioritize our better-monetized sites."[^18] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Declaration of William D. Holden in Support of First Day Motions, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB) (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. filed June 12, 2016), ECF No. 7, paragraphs 1, 9 to 15, 21 to 31, 110 to 111 (corporate structure, brands, revenue, debt, equity, pending suits, insurance). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.7.0.pdf +[^2]: Notice of Filing of Plan Supplement, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 516 (filed Nov. 30, 2016), Exhibit B (Schedule of Retained Causes of Action), Exhibit D (Settlement Agreement with Shiva Ayyadurai, paragraph 3), Exhibit E (Settlement Agreement with Ashley Terrill, paragraph 3). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.516.0.pdf +[^3]: *Huon v. Denton*, 841 F.3d 733, No. 15-3049 (7th Cir. Nov. 14, 2016) (Williams, J.; argued May 31, 2016). http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016%2FD11-14%2FC%3A15-3049%3AJ%3AWilliams%3Aaut%3AT%3AfnOp%3AN%3A1862727%3AS%3A0 +[^4]: Motion of the Debtors for Leave Pursuant to Rule 2004 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure to Conduct Discovery Concerning Potential Plan Issues and Potential Causes of Action, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 341 (filed Oct. 11, 2016), table of authorities and paragraphs 1 to 13. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.341.0.pdf +[^5]: Nick Denton, "An Open Letter to Peter Thiel," Gawker, May 26, 2016. https://www.gawkerarchives.com/an-open-letter-to-peter-thiel-1778991227 +[^6]: Ryan Mac, "This Man Helped Peter Thiel Demolish Gawker," BuzzFeed News, Feb. 23, 2018. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/this-is-the-man-who-helped-peter-thiel-demolish-gawker-mr-a +[^7]: Executed Settlement Agreement with Terry Gene Bollea dated Dec. 9, 2016, Exhibit C to Notice of Filing of Revised Plan Supplement, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 590-1 (filed Dec. 12, 2016), recitals A.1 to A.15 and paragraphs 4 to 13 and 18. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.590.1.pdf +[^8]: CourtListener docket listing, *Bollea v. Gawker Media, LLC*, No. 8:12-cv-02348 (M.D. Fla.), date filed Oct. 15, 2012. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4226588/bollea-v-gawker-media-llc/ +[^9]: "PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel financing Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker: Report," CNBC, May 25, 2016 (summarizing Forbes report of May 24, 2016). https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/24/paypal-billionaire-peter-thiel-financing-hulk-hogans-lawsuit-against-gawker-forbes-reports.html +[^10]: Corrected Memorandum Decision Granting in Part and Denying in Part Plan Administrator's Motion for Leave to Conduct a Rule 2004 Examination (Bernstein, J.), *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 936 (June 28, 2017). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.936.0.pdf +[^11]: Plan Administrator's Motion for Entry of an Order Pursuant to Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9019 Approving Release Agreement with Thiel Parties, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 1105 (filed Apr. 25, 2018), paragraphs 3 to 9. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.1105.0.pdf +[^12]: Response of Gizmodo Media Group, LLC to Plan Administrator's Motion for Entry of an Order Pursuant to Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9019, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 1119 (filed May 10, 2018), paragraphs 1 to 4 and footnote 3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.1119.0.pdf +[^13]: Objection of Peter Thiel and Thiel Capital LLC to Motion of the Debtors for Leave Pursuant to Rule 2004, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 870 (filed Apr. 18, 2017), preliminary statement. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.870.0.pdf +[^14]: Joinder of Charles J. Harder Esq. and Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP to Thiel Parties' Motion to Extend Certain Deadlines Under Rule 2004 Order, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 1082 (filed Feb. 13, 2018). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.1082.0.pdf +[^15]: Order Pursuant to Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9019 Approving Release Agreement with Thiel Parties, *In re Gawker Media LLC*, No. 16-11700 (SMB), ECF No. 1127 (dated May 17, 2018; entered May 18, 2018). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146/gov.uscourts.nysb.267146.1127.0.pdf +[^16]: Jeff John Roberts, "Gawker's Nick Denton Is Set to Exit Bankruptcy," Fortune, Mar. 23, 2017. https://fortune.com/2017/03/23/gawker-nick-denton-peter-thiel-2 +[^17]: Jon Levine, "Gawker Media Sold to Bustle Founder Bryan Goldberg in Bankruptcy Auction," TheWrap, July 12, 2018. https://www.thewrap.com/gawker-media-sold-bustle-chief-bryan-goldberg-bankruptcy-auction/ +[^18]: Todd Spangler, "Gawker Is Shutting Down (Again)," Variety, Feb. 1, 2023. https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/gawker-shutting-down-1235509262/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Goldman Sachs.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Goldman Sachs.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8c5f5bbf --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Goldman Sachs.md @@ -0,0 +1,311 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - GoldmanSachs + - InvestmentBank + - WallStreet + - RevolvingDoor + - FinancialCrisis + - Abacus + - AIGBailout + - OneMDB + - TreasuryDepartment + - Lobbying +alias: + - Goldman Sachs + - Goldman + - The Goldman Sachs Group + - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. + - Goldman Sachs Group + - Goldman Sachs Group Inc + - Goldman, Sachs & Co. + - Goldman Sachs & Co. + - Goldman Sachs and Co. + - Goldman Sachs International + - GS&Co +summary: "New York investment bank founded in 1869 whose former executives became Treasury officials, which paid 550 million dollars in 2010 over a mortgage CDO and entered a 2020 deferred prosecution agreement over 1MDB bribery." +start: 1869 +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Robert Rubin]]" + reverse: true + role: "co-chairman" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Henry Paulson]]" + reverse: true + start: 1999-05 + role: "chairman and chief executive officer; resignation effective on confirmation as Treasury Secretary" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Lloyd Blankfein]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman and chief executive officer, named successor to Paulson on 2006-06-02" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Steven Mnuchin]]" + reverse: true + role: "partner; chief information officer" + fn: 9 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Stephen Friedman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2002-05 + end: 2002-12-12 + role: "director; resigned on becoming Director of the National Economic Council" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Stephen Friedman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005-04 + role: "director; chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from January 2008" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Rajat Gupta]]" + reverse: true + start: 2006-11 + role: "director" + fn: 10 + - type: director_of + with: "[[James A. Johnson]]" + reverse: true + start: 1999-05 + role: "director; vice chairman of Perseus" + fn: 10 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[William Dudley]]" + reverse: true + end: 2007-01 + role: "partner and managing director; chief U.S. economist for a decade" + fn: 12 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Gary Gensler]]" + reverse: true + role: "partner; co-head of Finance" + fn: 13 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Gary Cohn]]" + reverse: true + end: 2016-12-31 + role: "president and chief operating officer; director" + fn: 14 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Fabrice Tourre]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive director, Structured Products Group Trading (as of April 2010)" + fn: 21 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]]" + reverse: true + end: 2011-04-13 + role: "mortgage-related inquiry; hearing on 2010-04-27 and staff report" + fn: 20 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]" + reverse: true + start: 2010-04-16 + end: 2010-07-15 + role: "civil fraud action over ABACUS 2007-AC1, settled for 550 million dollars" + fn: 22 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + end: 2012-08-09 + role: "criminal inquiry into the mortgage allegations in the Senate report; closed without charges" + fn: 25 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Libyan Investment Authority]]" + start: 2007-09 + end: 2008-04 + role: "counterparty to nine derivative trades; the authority's claim to set them aside was dismissed on 2016-10-14" + fn: 29 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Youssef Kabbaj]]" + reverse: true + role: "employee seconded to work alongside Libyan Investment Authority staff from autumn 2007" + fn: 29 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[1Malaysia Development Berhad]]" + start: 2012-05 + end: 2013-03-19 + role: "underwriter of three bond issues" + fn: 35 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Department of Justice]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020-10-22 + role: "three-year deferred prosecution agreement over 1MDB; subsidiary guilty plea" + fn: 35 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Tim Leissner]]" + reverse: true + start: 1998 + end: 2016-02 + role: "participating managing director; vice chairman of Investment Banking in Asia ex-Japan" + fn: 35 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Roger Ng]]" + reverse: true + role: "managing director and agent" + fn: 35 + - type: represented + with: "[[Breaux Lott Leadership Group]]" + reverse: true + role: "registered lobbyist, 2010 filings" + fn: 30 + - type: represented + with: "[[The Duberstein Group]]" + reverse: true + role: "registered lobbyist, 2009 and 2010 filings" + fn: 30 + - type: represented + with: "[[Gephardt Group Government Affairs]]" + reverse: true + role: "registered lobbyist, 2009 and 2010 filings" + fn: 30 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Kathryn Ruemmler]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + end: 2026-06-30 + role: "general counsel; co-chair of the reputational risk committee" + fn: 39 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Goldman Sachs is an investment bank founded in 1869 and headquartered in New York.[^1] Its chairmen, chief executives and executives have moved into the [[United States Department of the Treasury]], the [[White House]] and the [[Federal Reserve Bank of New York]], and the firm has been the subject of a [[United States Senate]] inquiry, a [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] fraud action, a criminal inquiry that ended without charges, a civil suit by the [[Libyan Investment Authority]] that failed, and a corporate criminal resolution over bribery in [[Malaysia]]. + +### Executives in the Treasury and the White House + +The Treasury's departmental history states that [[Robert Rubin]] worked twenty-six years at Goldman Sachs, where he rose to Co-Chairman, before serving as the first director of the [[National Economic Council]] from 1993 to 1995 and as Secretary of the Treasury from 1995 to 1999.[^2] + +[[Henry Paulson]] was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs from May 1999 and had been its Chief Operating Officer from December 1994 to June 1998.[^3] On May 30, 2006, President [[George W. Bush]] announced his intention to nominate Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury. On June 2, 2006, Paulson submitted a letter resigning from his positions at the firm effective on his confirmation, and the firm announced that its board intended to elect [[Lloyd Blankfein]], then President and Chief Operating Officer, as his successor.[^4] On June 19, 2006, the firm announced that [[Gary Cohn]] and [[Jon Winkelried]] would become presidents and co-chief operating officers, and [[John S. Weinberg]] a vice chairman, if the Senate confirmed Paulson.[^5] + +On June 22, 2006, the [[Office of Legal Counsel]] advised the General Counsel of the [[Office of Government Ethics]] that an incoming Secretary of the Treasury could buy government bonds with the proceeds of a stock sale under a certificate of divestiture issued under 26 U.S.C. section 1043, provided that he purchased the bonds after the President signed his commission and before he took the oath of office.[^6] A prospectus filed by Goldman Sachs on June 29, 2006 registered 3,230,024 shares of common stock for resale by Paulson as selling shareholder, "confirmed by the United States Senate as the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States." The filing stated that he also held vested restricted stock units for 494,054 shares and exercisable options for 680,474 shares, and that the three holdings together were about 1.02 percent of the outstanding shares.[^7] The Treasury's history records that Paulson arrived in July 2006 after a 32-year career in finance with the firm, eight years of it as chairman and chief executive.[^8] + +[[Steven Mnuchin]], Secretary of the Treasury from 2017 to 2021, worked earlier at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and chief information officer.[^9] + +[[Stephen Friedman]] retired from the firm as Senior Partner and Chairman of the Management Committee in 1994. The proxy statement of 2003 records that he was appointed to the board in May 2002 and resigned on December 12, 2002 on becoming Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council.[^3] The proxy statement filed on April 6, 2009 lists him as a director since April 2005. In the same biography the firm recorded that he had been Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since January 2008, Chairman of the [[President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board]] and of the [[Intelligence Oversight Board]] from January 2006 to January 2009, Chairman of the private equity firm [[Stone Point Capital]] since June 2006, and a board member of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]].[^10] On May 7, 2009, the New York Fed announced that Friedman had resigned as chairman of its board. Its general counsel, [[Thomas C. Baxter Jr.]], stated in the announcement that Friedman's purchases of Goldman shares in December 2008 and January 2009 "did not violate any Federal Reserve statute, rule or policy."[^11] + +On January 27, 2009 the New York Fed named [[William Dudley]] its president and chief executive officer, succeeding [[Timothy Geithner]]. The announcement identified Friedman as chairman of the bank's board and of the search committee that selected him, and recorded that before joining the New York Fed in January 2007 Dudley had been a partner and managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and for a decade the firm's chief U.S. economist.[^12] + +[[Gary Gensler]] worked for eighteen years at Goldman Sachs, where he became a partner and, in his last role, co-head of Finance. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets from 1997 to 1999 and Under Secretary for Domestic Finance from 1999 to 2001, and Chairman of the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]] from May 26, 2009 to January 3, 2014.[^13] + +Gary Cohn, President and Chief Operating Officer and a director, resigned from the firm effective December 31, 2016 on President-elect [[Donald Trump]]'s announcement that he would be Director of the National Economic Council. The firm's report stated that he would remain affiliated as a senior director until joining the administration.[^14] A second report, dated January 24, 2017, recorded that Cohn's 2016 compensation was 20 million dollars, that restricted stock units held for later delivery were delivered on January 23, 2017 under a "Conflicted Employment" provision of the equity plan, and that he received cash of about 47 million dollars for long-term performance awards and about 18 million dollars for performance-based restricted stock units after a special committee shortened their performance periods to end on December 31, 2016 and settled them on January 23, 2017.[^15] + +### Waivers and calls in September 2008 + +[[Gretchen Morgenson]] and [[Don Van Natta Jr.]] reported in *[[The New York Times]]* on August 9, 2009, from Paulson's calendars obtained under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], that before taking office he had agreed to avoid substantive interaction with Goldman executives unless he first obtained an ethics waiver. They reported that copies of two waivers, one from the White House counsel's office and one from the Treasury, showed that both were issued on the afternoon of September 17, 2008, the day after the government agreed to lend 85 billion dollars to [[American International Group]]; that Paulson and Blankfein spoke five times that day, two of the calls before the waivers were granted; and that the two spoke two dozen times during the week of the AIG rescue. At a House hearing on July 16, 2009, Paulson said, "I operated very consistently within the ethic guidelines I had as secretary of the Treasury," and that he had asked for a waiver "when it became clear that we had some very significant issues with Goldman Sachs." His spokeswoman, Michele Davis, told the newspaper that the ethics agreement did not prevent him from talking to Goldman executives to keep abreast of market developments and that Federal Reserve officials, not Paulson, played the lead role in the AIG rescue.[^16] + +[[Nomi Prins]] reported in *[[The Daily Beast]]* on October 12, 2009 on her review of 415 pages of Paulson's calendar covering March 2008 and August 2008 to January 2009. She counted 19 calls in total between Blankfein and Paulson from September 18 to 21, 2008, which she identified as the days on which bank holding company status was approved for Goldman Sachs and [[Morgan Stanley]], against nine in total between Paulson and Morgan Stanley's [[John Mack]], and 26 calls between Paulson and Rubin, then at [[Citigroup]], against eight with Citigroup's chief executive [[Vikram Pandit]].[^17] + +The [[Federal Reserve Board]] announced on the evening of Sunday, September 21, 2008 that it had approved, pending a five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies, and that it had authorized the New York Fed to extend credit to their U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries against all types of collateral that could be pledged at its primary credit facility or at the Primary Dealer Credit Facility.[^18] + +### Directors in 2009 + +The proxy statement filed on April 6, 2009 named as non-employee directors [[John H. Bryan]], [[Claes Dahlbäck]], Friedman, [[William W. George]], [[Rajat Gupta]], [[James A. Johnson]], [[Lois D. Juliber]], [[Lakshmi Mittal]] and [[Ruth J. Simmons]]. Johnson, a vice chairman of the private equity firm [[Perseus]] and from 1991 to 1998 chairman and chief executive of [[Fannie Mae]], was listed as a member of the American Friends of [[Bilderberg]], the Council on Foreign Relations and the [[Trilateral Commission]]. Dahlbäck was senior advisor to [[Investor AB]] and to [[Foundation Asset Management]], which is owned by three [[Wallenberg]] foundations. Gupta, Senior Partner Emeritus of [[McKinsey & Company]], was an independent director of the Qatar Financial Authority and sat on the boards of [[AMR Corporation]], [[Genpact]], [[Harman International]] and [[Procter & Gamble]].[^10] + +The same proxy statement described Goldman's dealings with two directors' companies. Mittal, chairman and chief executive of [[ArcelorMittal]] and owner of about 43 percent of its shares, was the counterparty to a credit facility of about 17 billion euros begun in December 2006 in which Goldman agreed to lend up to 500 million euros (the largest loan outstanding in fiscal 2008 was about 135 million euros, and ArcelorMittal paid about 12.6 million euros in interest). The firm was joint book-runner on a 3 billion dollar ArcelorMittal bond offering in May 2008, participated in a second facility of about 4 billion dollars, and advised on a tender offer of about 1.66 billion dollars for ArcelorMittal Inox Brasil. Dahlbäck served on the investment committees of funds managed by the private equity firm EQT and received less than one percent of their profits; funds managed by a Goldman subsidiary had invested 18.7 million euros in one EQT fund and 30.0 million euros in another. The board deemed these transactions immaterial to the directors' independence.[^10] + +The Second Circuit's opinion in *United States v. Gupta* records that Goldman Sachs held a special board meeting at 3:15 p.m. on September 23, 2008 to approve an investment of 5 billion dollars in the firm by [[Warren Buffett]]; that Gupta took part by telephone from a McKinsey conference room from 3:13 to 3:53 p.m.; and that at about 3:54 p.m. his assistant dialed the direct line of [[Raj Rajaratnam]], founder of the [[Galleon Group]], and connected Gupta's line to it for 30 to 35 seconds. Gupta was convicted by a jury before Judge [[Jed Rakoff]], in a judgment entered on November 9, 2012, of one count of conspiracy and three counts of securities fraud for trades in Goldman stock by Rajaratnam in the fall of 2008, and was sentenced to 24 months and a fine of 5 million dollars. The court noted that the evidence of disclosure was circumstantial, and affirmed the judgment.[^19] + +### Mortgage positions and the Senate inquiry + +The staff report of the [[Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]], issued on April 13, 2011 under Chairman [[Carl Levin]] and Ranking Member [[Tom Coburn]], stated that in 2006 and 2007 Goldman Sachs designed and underwrote 93 residential mortgage-backed securitizations and 27 mortgage-related collateralized debt obligations totaling about 100 billion dollars. It stated that in December 2006 the firm reversed course, sold or wrote down most of its subprime inventory, and built a net short position that peaked at 13.9 billion dollars and produced record profits of 3.7 billion dollars for its Structured Products Group in 2007, which combined with other mortgage losses left the Mortgage Department with net revenues of 1.2 billion dollars. It examined four CDOs, Hudson 1, Anderson, Timberwolf and Abacus 2007-AC1, and stated that in Hudson 1 the firm took the whole short side of a 2 billion dollar CDO and made a gain of 1.7 billion dollars. It reported that a senior executive, [[Thomas Montag]], wrote to the Mortgage Department head, [[Daniel Sparks]], "boy that timeberwof was one shitty deal." It stated that Timberwolf securities lost 80 percent of their value within five months of issue, and that Goldman held 36 percent of the short position and lost money overall when it could not sell all of the securities.[^20] + +The subcommittee held a hearing on April 27, 2010. The witnesses were Sparks, [[Joshua Birnbaum]], [[Michael Swenson]], [[Fabrice Tourre]], the chief financial officer [[David Viniar]], the chief risk officer [[Craig Broderick]], and Blankfein. Blankfein told the subcommittee that the firm had received an investment from the government in 2008, held it for about eight months, and repaid it with a 23 percent annualized return. He also said: "We didn't have a massive short against the housing market and we certainly did not bet against our clients."[^21] + +The SEC filed suit against Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Tourre on April 16, 2010 in the [[Southern District of New York]] (10 Civ. 3229). The complaint alleged that the marketing materials for ABACUS 2007-AC1 stated that the portfolio had been selected by [[ACA Management LLC]] without disclosing that the hedge fund [[Paulson & Co.]] had taken part in the selection and had taken a short position through credit default swaps with Goldman.[^22] On July 15, 2010, the SEC announced that Goldman had agreed to pay 550 million dollars. In the settlement papers the firm acknowledged that the marketing materials "contained incomplete information" and that it "was a mistake" to state that ACA had selected the portfolio without disclosing the role of Paulson & Co.[^23] A jury found Tourre liable on August 1, 2013, and the final judgment filed on March 27, 2014 imposed disgorgement of 175,463 dollars, interest of 31,150.91 dollars and a civil penalty of 650,000 dollars.[^24] + +On August 9, 2012, the Justice Department stated that its investigators and prosecutors, including those in its Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, had "determined that, based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report" from Levin's subcommittee. [[David Ingram]] of [[Reuters]] reported that Levin had asked for a criminal investigation in April 2011.[^25] + +### AIG counterparty payments + +The Special Inspector General for the [[Troubled Asset Relief Program]], [[Neil Barofsky]], testified on January 27, 2010 that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had telephoned eight of the largest counterparties of American International Group's financial products unit over two days to seek concessions, that only [[UBS]] had offered a 2 percent concession if the others did so, and that the New York Fed then paid the counterparties the market value of the underlying CDOs while they kept collateral already posted, so that they were effectively paid par. According to his statement, the decision was brought before the board of directors of the New York Fed and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and each approved it.[^26] + +A staff memorandum of the [[Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission]] dated September 17, 2010, marked as a draft, stated that Goldman bought 33 credit default swaps from AIG's financial products unit, covering 21 billion dollars, or 27 percent of AIG's 78 billion dollar portfolio of such swaps at the end of 2007. It recorded that AIG's collateral postings to Goldman rose from 2.4 billion dollars at the end of 2007 to 7.6 billion dollars on September 16, 2008 and 11.9 billion dollars on November 24, 2008. In the [[Maiden Lane III]] transaction of November 24, 2008, Goldman retained 8.4 billion dollars of collateral and received 5.6 billion dollars. The memorandum added 3.4 billion dollars received through July 6, 2010 on ten swaps outside Maiden Lane III, 1.9 billion dollars of it after the New York Fed's 85 billion dollar loan to AIG on September 16, 2008, and stated that 2.9 billion dollars of that amount arose from proprietary positions on seven ABACUS CDOs and commercial mortgage securities, not from the firm's matched book. It recorded day-one revenues of 24.8 million dollars, about 3.25 basis points, on the matched book of 16.9 billion dollars notional.[^27] + +Goldman Sachs told the inspector general that it had sold equivalent protection to clients and bought protection from AIG to hedge, that a concession to the New York Fed would have produced a loss, and that with 8.4 billion dollars of collateral, more than 1.2 billion dollars of protection bought from third parties at a cost of over 100 million dollars, and an underlying value it calculated at 4.3 billion dollars, it "did not consider itself materially at risk if AIG in fact defaulted." The inspector general's report added that Goldman and the market as a whole had benefited from Maiden Lane III and the continued viability of AIG, and that if AIG had defaulted Goldman would have borne the risk of further declines in the value of the 4.3 billion dollars of CDOs and of about 5.5 billion dollars of swaps outside Maiden Lane III.[^28] + +### Libyan Investment Authority + +In *The Libyan Investment Authority v Goldman Sachs International*, [[Mrs Justice Rose]] of the [[High Court of Justice]] (Chancery Division) recorded that the authority, set up as a sovereign wealth fund, had at least 30 billion dollars of assets in late 2007 and early 2008, that Goldman Sachs Asset Management first contacted it in November 2006, and that between September 2007 and April 2008 the two entered into transactions including nine leveraged derivative trades concluded from January to April 2008. The premiums paid by the authority were equivalent to about 1.2 billion dollars and the exposure it gained was about 5.2 billion dollars, with maturities in 2011. The authority sought to rescind the trades for undue influence, including an allegation that Goldman had influenced its deputy chairman, [[Mustafa Zarti]], to agree the April trades by offering his younger brother, [[Haitem Zarti]], an internship at the bank.[^29] + +The judge found that Goldman's employee [[Youssef Kabbaj]] took Haitem Zarti on trips to Marrakesh and Dubai and paid for meals and hotels, and that the entertainment "was inappropriate and in flagrant breach of Goldman Sachs' policy on entertaining clients," but that there was no evidence that Mustafa Zarti knew of its extent. She found that the main motivation for the internship was Goldman's belief that Haitem might lead the authority's planned London office, that Mustafa Zarti was keen for his brother to work as an intern, and that the offer "did not have a material influence on the decision" to enter the April trades. She dismissed the claim on October 14, 2016, finding no protected relationship of trust and confidence and no excessive profit given the nature of the trades. The judgment records that Mustafa Zarti was not cooperating with either party, and that in separate proceedings against [[Société Générale]] the authority alleged that payments were made to influence its decisions and named Zarti among those alleged to have been paid or threatened, allegations the Société Générale defendants denied and on which the judge formed no view.[^29] + +### Lobbying and political giving + +Filings under the [[Lobbying Disclosure Act]] list expenses of 2.83 million dollars in 2009 and 4.61 million dollars in 2010 for the firm's own registrations under the client name Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Summing the latest filing for each client name, registrant and period, the filings under Goldman client names total about 4.47 million dollars in 2009 and 6.74 million dollars in 2010. Outside registrants in 2010 included [[Breaux Lott Leadership Group]] (450,000 dollars), [[The Duberstein Group]] (400,000), [[Avoq]] (320,000), [[Capitol Tax Partners]] (240,000), [[Gephardt Group Government Affairs]] (200,000) and [[The Harold Ford Group]] (100,000), and in 2009 and 2010 the [[McKinnon Group]] (80,000 each year).[^30] + +The firm's political action committee, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Political Action Committee (committee C00350744), reported receipts to the [[Federal Election Commission]] of 1,048,335 dollars in the 2008 cycle and 1,513,111 dollars in the 2010 cycle.[^31] In the same database, itemized contributions to [[Obama for America]] in the 2008 cycle from individuals listing "Goldman Sachs" as employer totaled 553,638.39 dollars in 764 contributions, the fourth largest total among named employers after [[IBM]], Microsoft and [[Harvard University]]; "Morgan Stanley" employees gave 481,158.46 dollars and "Citigroup" employees 414,444.70 dollars.[^32] + +### Greek swaps + +[[The Bureau of Investigative Journalism]] reported on February 21, 2012, from a *[[BBC Newsnight]]* film by [[Nick Dunbar]], that in 2001 Goldman Sachs arranged a swap with [[Greece]] that kept 2.8 billion euros of debt out of the national accounts, a sum that had grown to 5.7 billion euros. The head of the Greek [[Public Debt Management Agency]] at the time, [[Christoforos Sardelis]], was interviewed. Dunbar had described the deal in *[[Risk]]* magazine in 2003. Goldman Sachs told *Newsnight* that the swaps "were one of several techniques that many European governments used to meet the terms of the [Maastricht] treaty" and supplied an email showing that it had discussed the deal with [[Eurostat]]. Eurostat described the discussion as concerning "general clarifications" and said it learned of the deal in 2010.[^33] + +### Mirror Group pension shares + +A case study published in February 2023 by the Global Capitalism Project at the [[University of Oxford]] states that Goldman Sachs sold 25 million shares of [[Mirror Group Newspapers]] on the instruction of [[Robert Maxwell]], shares clearly marked as owned by the Maxwell pension funds, and that the pension scheme lost 55 million pounds. It quotes the report of the [[Department of Trade and Industry]] inspectors on Mirror Group Newspapers as stating that Goldman Sachs "bear a substantial responsibility in respect of the manipulation that occurred in the market." The study states that Goldman Sachs has consistently pointed to the Maxwells as the sole bearers of responsibility for the fraud, and that [[Kevin Maxwell]] has said in talks that the firm enabled and was aware of the crimes.[^34] + +### 1MDB + +The SEC's order of October 22, 2020 (Release No. 90243) found that former senior employees of Goldman Sachs used a third-party intermediary to bribe officials in Malaysia and [[Abu Dhabi]] to obtain business from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a Malaysian state-owned fund. Between 2012 and 2013 the firm underwrote three bond issues for 1MDB that raised about 6.5 billion dollars, from which it earned about 600 million dollars. Project Magnolia closed in May 2012 and yielded about 193 million dollars to the firm, Project Maximus closed on October 19, 2012 and yielded about 188 million dollars, and Project Catalyze was issued on March 19, 2013 and yielded about 186 million dollars. The order identified [[Tim Leissner]], employed from 1998 to February 2016 and at the end a participating managing director, vice chairman of Investment Banking in Asia ex-Japan and chairman of South East Asia, and [[Roger Ng]], a Malaysian national employed as a managing director from about 2009 to May 2014. It described [[Jho Low]] as a Malaysian national who held no formal position at 1MDB but exercised significant control over it, and [[Najib Razak]] as Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018 with authority over 1MDB. The order found that Leissner told a meeting of the firm's Capital Committee in April 2012 that Low was not involved in Project Magnolia although he and other senior employees knew he was, and that in October 2013 the firm's Intelligence Group told Leissner it could not advise Low's business entity as a client. The firm closed the related Project Condor transaction in January 2014 with Low's entity as a minority co-investor, for about 10 million dollars. Goldman Sachs agreed to a cease-and-desist order, disgorgement of 606.3 million dollars, deemed satisfied by a payment to the Government of Malaysia and 1MDB under an agreement of August 18, 2020, and a civil penalty of 400 million dollars. The order records that the firm entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice and a civil settlement with the Federal Reserve Board.[^35] + +The firm's annual report for 2020 states that on November 1, 2018 the Department of Justice unsealed a criminal information and guilty plea by Leissner and an indictment of Ng and Low, that the August 2020 agreement with the Government of Malaysia included a guarantee that Malaysia would receive at least 1.4 billion dollars in assets and proceeds of seized assets, that on October 22, 2020 the firm entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement on one count of conspiracy to violate the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]], and that its subsidiary Goldman Sachs (Malaysia) pleaded guilty to one count of the same conspiracy.[^1] + +The firm's board stated on October 22, 2020 that none of the past or current members of senior management had been involved in or aware of the firm's participation in any illicit activity at the time of the bond transactions, and that it viewed the 1MDB matter as an institutional failure. It stated that it was seeking to claw back about 76 million dollars from Leissner, Ng and [[Andrea Vella]], of which it held about 24 million dollars, that five former senior executive officers (the former chief executive, the former chief operating officer, a former chief financial officer, a former vice chairman who was chief executive of Goldman Sachs International, and a former vice chairman who was global head of growth markets) would forfeit awards totaling about 67 million dollars, and that current leaders' 2020 compensation would be reduced by 31 million dollars, for a total of about 174 million dollars.[^36] A report dated January 26, 2021 recorded reductions of 10 million dollars for [[David Solomon]], 7 million for [[John Waldron]] and 7 million for [[Stephen Scherr]].[^37] + +Leissner was sentenced on May 29, 2025 by Chief Judge [[Margo Brodie]] of the Eastern District of New York to 24 months on each of two counts, to run concurrently, and was ordered to forfeit 43.7 million dollars. [[Nina Pullano]] of *[[Courthouse News Service]]* reported that Ng, the only banker tried, received a ten-year sentence and that Low remained at large, and quoted Leissner's attorney, Henry Mazurek, who said after the sentencing that Goldman's role as a messenger calling for sanctions against Leissner "lacked all credibility."[^38] + +### Epstein files and the general counsel + +[[Kathryn Ruemmler]] became general counsel of Goldman Sachs in 2020 and co-chaired its reputational risk committee. In February 2026 she announced that she would leave the firm effective June 30, after the Justice Department's release of files on [[Jeffrey Epstein]] that included emails mentioning her from 2014 to 2019. [[CBS News]] reported that Solomon said, "I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision," and that a December 2015 email quoted her as saying, "I adore him. It's like having another older brother!" CBS also reported her statement in a 2023 interview with *[[The Wall Street Journal]]*, "I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein."[^39] + +The Justice Department's Epstein library contains an email from Ruemmler to Epstein sent on December 20, 2017 at 12:18 p.m., whose full text reads: "I totally called it! Goldman picked Karen Seymour from [[Sullivan & Cromwell]], which I predicted from the very beginning."[^40] A scheduling email from Epstein's assistant [[Lesley Groff]] dated May 12, 2014, headed "Possible Dinner Party Mon. May 19th?", is a planning note for a possible dinner on a date still to be determined ("May 19? June 1?") and lists under "Guests" fifteen names that include Lloyd Blankfein, [[Jes Staley]], [[Larry Summers]], [[Ehud Barak]], [[Leon Black]] and [[Henry Kissinger]][^41] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, filed February 22, 2021 (business description, "Founded in 1869"; Note on legal proceedings, "1MDB-Related Matters"; guarantees note, "at least $1.4 billion"). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312521049380/d39654d10k.htm +[^2]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Robert E. Rubin (1995 - 1999)," Prior Secretaries, history pages. https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/prior-secretaries/robert-e-rubin-1995-1999 +[^3]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (Schedule 14A), filed February 27, 2003 (letter signed by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.; director biography of Paulson; notice of changes in directors regarding Stephen Friedman). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000095012303002098/y82715def14a.htm +[^4]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 8-K, filed June 2, 2006, Items 5.02 and 8.01. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000095012306007325/y21951e8vk.htm +[^5]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 8-K, filed June 19, 2006, Exhibit 99.1, press release "Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried Named Presidents and Co-Chief Operating Officers; John S. Weinberg Named a Vice Chairman." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000095012306007831/y22438exv99w1.htm +[^6]: Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, "Divestiture of Stock and Purchase of Government Bonds by an Incoming Secretary of the Treasury," memorandum opinion for the General Counsel, Office of Government Ethics, June 22, 2006. https://www.justice.gov/opinion/file/786181/dl +[^7]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form S-3ASR prospectus relating to 3,230,024 shares offered by the selling shareholder Henry M. Paulson, Jr., filed June 29, 2006, "Selling Shareholder." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000886982/000095012306008368/y22661srsv3asr.htm +[^8]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Henry M. Paulson, Jr. (2006 - 2009)," Prior Secretaries, history pages. https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/prior-secretaries/henry-m-paulson-jr-2006-2009 +[^9]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Steven T. Mnuchin (2017 - 2021)," Prior Secretaries, history pages. https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/prior-secretaries/steven-t-mnuchin-2017-2021 +[^10]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Definitive Proxy Statement (Schedule 14A), filed April 6, 2009, director biographies ("Stephen Friedman, Director since April 2005"), director independence discussion and "Certain Relationships and Related Transactions." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312509073816/ddef14a.htm +[^11]: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, press release "Stephen Friedman Resigns as Chairman of the New York Fed's Board of Directors," May 7, 2009. https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/aboutthefed/2009/oa090507.html +[^12]: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, press release "New York Fed Names William C. Dudley President," January 27, 2009. https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/aboutthefed/2009/oa090127 +[^13]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "Chairman Gary Gensler," former commissioners page. https://www.cftc.gov/About/Commissioners/FormerCommissioners/ggensler.html +[^14]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 8-K, filed December 15, 2016, Item 5.02. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312516794516/d290095d8k.htm +[^15]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 8-K, filed January 24, 2017, Item 5.02(e). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312517016853/d294950d8k.htm +[^16]: Gretchen Morgenson and Don Van Natta Jr., "Paulson's Calls to Goldman Tested Ethics," *The New York Times*, August 9, 2009, as published by CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2009/08/09/paulsons-calls-to-goldman-tested-ethics.html +[^17]: Nomi Prins, "Paulson's Revealing Phone Records," *The Daily Beast*, October 12, 2009. https://www.thedailybeast.com/paulsons-revealing-phone-records/ +[^18]: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, press release "Board approves, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies," September 21, 2008. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/bcreg20080921a.htm +[^19]: *United States v. Gupta*, 747 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 2014), paragraphs 5 to 14 and 28. https://openjurist.org/747/f3d/111/united-states-v-gupta +[^20]: U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, *Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse*, Majority and Minority Staff Report, April 13, 2011, Executive Summary, pp. 9 to 11, and Goldman Sachs case study (Timberwolf). https://archive.org/details/355839-wall-street-and-the-financial-crisis-apr-2011 +[^21]: *Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks*, hearing before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, S. Hrg. 111-674, April 27, 2010 (witness list; prepared statement and testimony of Lloyd C. Blankfein, p. 130 and following). https://archive.org/details/gov.gpo.fdsys.CHRG-111shrg57322 +[^22]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 21489, "Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Fabrice Tourre," April 16, 2010, *SEC v. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Fabrice Tourre*, 10 Civ. 3229 (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2010/lr21489.htm +[^23]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press release 2010-123, "Goldman Sachs to Pay Record $550 Million to Settle SEC Charges Related to Subprime Mortgage CDO," July 15, 2010. https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-123.htm +[^24]: *SEC v. Fabrice Tourre*, 10 Civ. 3229 (KBF) (S.D.N.Y.), Document 5198, Final Judgment as to Defendant Fabrice Tourre, filed March 27, 2014 (the copy at the cited address is captioned "[Proposed] Final Judgment"). https://www.sec.gov/files/Judg10-cv-03229Tourre.pdf +[^25]: David Ingram, Reuters, "Feds won't charge Goldman for infamous trades," NBC News, August 9, 2012, quoting the Justice Department statement. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/feds-wont-charge-goldman-infamous-trades-flna933554 +[^26]: Statement of Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, January 27, 2010, concerning SIGTARP's audit "Factors Affecting Efforts to Limit Payments to AIG Counterparties" (November 17, 2009). https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20100127barofsky.pdf +[^27]: Chris Seefer and Carl McCarden, memorandum to all Commissioners, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, "Goldman Sachs Exposure to AIG from Transactions Excluded from Maiden Lane III and Collateral Posting Agreements with AIG and Other Counterparties," draft, September 17, 2010, pp. 1 to 3. https://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-docs/2010-09-17_FCIC_Staff_Memo_re_Goldman_Sachs_Exposure_to_AIG.pdf +[^28]: "Section of SIGTARP Report Related to Goldman Sachs," November 17, 2009, as published by Goldman Sachs (including note 24 of the report). https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/announcements/2009/sigtarp +[^29]: *The Libyan Investment Authority v Goldman Sachs International* [2016] EWHC 2530 (Ch), case HC-2014-000197, judgment of Mrs Justice Rose, October 14, 2016, paragraphs 1 to 12 (introduction), the sections on the Haitem Zarti internship, on missing witnesses and on the Société Générale proceedings, and section XI (conclusions). https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2016/2530.html +[^30]: U.S. Senate lobbying disclosure database, filings with client names containing "Goldman," filing years 2009 and 2010; totals computed by summing the latest-posted filing for each client name, registrant and period. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=goldman&filing_year=2010 +[^31]: Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API, committee C00350744, totals by cycle. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00350744/totals/ +[^32]: Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API, schedule A contributions by employer, committee C00431445 (Obama for America), two-year period 2008; employer names as reported in the filings. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/by_employer/?committee_id=C00431445&cycle=2008 +[^33]: Henry Richards, "How Goldman Sachs helped mask Greece's debt," The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, February 21, 2012. https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2012-02-21/how-goldman-sachs-helped-mask-greeces-debt +[^34]: "Robert Maxwell's Expectations Gap: Regulation and Reputation in the British Communications Industry, 1981-91," Case Study #29, Global Capitalism Project, University of Oxford, February 2023, quoting the Department of Trade and Industry inspectors' report. https://globalcapitalism.history.ox.ac.uk/files/case29-robertmaxwellsexpectationsgappdf +[^35]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, *In the Matter of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.*, Release No. 90243, Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-20132, October 22, 2020, paragraphs 1 to 14, 20 to 46 and 54 to 55; see also press release 2020-265. https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2020/34-90243.pdf +[^36]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 8-K, filed October 22, 2020, Exhibit 99.1, "Statement from the Board of Directors." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312520274226/d73654dex991.htm +[^37]: The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 8-K, filed January 26, 2021. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000119312521017826/d112881d8k.htm +[^38]: Nina Pullano, "Goldman Sachs banker gets two years for international bribery scheme," Courthouse News Service, May 29, 2025. https://www.courthousenews.com/goldman-sachs-banker-gets-two-years-for-international-bribery-scheme/ +[^39]: Jacob Rosen and Faris Tanyos, "Kathryn Ruemmler resigning as Goldman Sachs' general counsel after her appearances in the Epstein files," CBS News, February 12, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kathryn-ruemmler-resigning-from-goldman-sachs-epstein-files/ +[^40]: Email, Kathy Ruemmler to jeevacation@gmail.com, December 20, 2017, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein library, EFTA02611782 (DataSet 11). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02611782.pdf +[^41]: Email, Lesley Groff to Jeffrey Epstein, May 12, 2014, "Reminder: Possible Dinner Party Mon. May 19th?", U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein library, EFTA01924576 (DataSet 10); the list also appears in EFTA00284908 (DataSet 9). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01924576.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/HOPE not hate.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/HOPE not hate.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..478259eb --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/HOPE not hate.md @@ -0,0 +1,250 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Organization + - UK + - AntiFascist + - CampaignGroup + - Searchlight + - Charity + - NationalAction + - Informants + - PoliticalFinance +alias: + - HOPE not hate + - Hope not Hate + - Hope Not Hate + - HOPE Not Hate + - Hope Not Hate Limited + - HOPE not hate Ltd + - HOPE not hate Charitable Trust + - Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust + - HOPE Unlimited Charitable Trust + - Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust + - Searchlight Educational Trust + - Searchlight Information Services +summary: "British anti-fascist research and campaign organisation that renamed Searchlight's information company and educational charity in 2012, separated from Gerry Gable's magazine, and ran an informant inside National Action in 2017." +start: 2004 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Nick Lowles]]" + reverse: true + start: 2004 + role: "founder; chief executive" + fn: 8 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Nick Lowles]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012-08-22 + end: 2020-02-18 + role: "director of Hope Not Hate Limited; reappointed director 2026-09-01" + fn: 22 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Gerry Gable]]" + reverse: true + end: 2011-12-04 + role: "director of Searchlight Information Services Limited, later renamed Hope Not Hate (1986) Limited" + fn: 5 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Simon Tuttle]]" + reverse: true + start: 2012-09-25 + end: 2026-09-02 + role: "director of Hope Not Hate Limited" + fn: 22 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Cormac Hollingsworth]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-12-09 + end: 2019-07-30 + role: "director of Hope Not Hate Limited" + fn: 22 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Anna Turley]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-04-08 + end: 2024-07-11 + role: "director of Hope Not Hate Limited" + fn: 22 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Jon Cruddas]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-03-24 + role: "director of Hope Not Hate Limited" + fn: 22 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Matthew Collins]]" + reverse: true + role: "head of intelligence" + fn: 15 + - type: informant_for + with: "[[Robbie Mullen]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017-04 + role: "source inside National Action" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust]]" + reverse: true + start: 2004-04-05 + end: 2009-12-14 + role: "donations of 9,750, 11,025 and 42,500 pounds recorded by the Electoral Commission" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[UNISON]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005-04-05 + end: 2010-03-12 + role: "donations of 19,500, 80,000 and 70,000 pounds recorded by the Electoral Commission" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[Unite the Union]]" + reverse: true + start: 2009-05-21 + end: 2010-03-01 + role: "donations of 13,250, 65,000 and 10,000 pounds recorded by the Electoral Commission" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[David Sainsbury]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-11-04 + end: 2019-11-04 + role: "donation of 200,000 pounds recorded by the Electoral Commission" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[Sigrid Rausing Trust]]" + reverse: true + start: 2013 + role: "grantee; 1,615,000 pounds of previous grants and 250,000 pounds from February 2026" + fn: 33 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Charity Commission]]" + reverse: true + start: 2002-06-28 + end: 2002-09-09 + role: "statutory inquiry into Searchlight Educational Trust" + fn: 6 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Charity Commission]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-07 + end: 2026-01-22 + role: "compliance case on HOPE Unlimited Charitable Trust" + fn: 34 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +HOPE not hate is a British anti-fascist research and campaign organisation based in [[London]]. It operates through Hope Not Hate Limited, a private company limited by guarantee incorporated on 22 August 2012 ([[Companies House]] number 08188502), and through a registered charity, number 1013880, which was named the Searchlight Educational Trust from 1992 to 2012, Hope Not Hate Educational Limited from 2012 to 2016, Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust from 2016 to 2025 and HOPE Unlimited Charitable Trust from 24 October 2025.[^1][^2] The charity is the former Searchlight Educational Trust of the [[Searchlight Magazine]] organisation run by [[Gerry Gable]]. In 2011 [[Nick Lowles]] and a group of trustees and directors separated from Gable's magazine, and in October 2012 the company Searchlight Information Services Limited was renamed Hope Not Hate (1986) Limited.[^3][^4] + +### Searchlight Units Before 2004 + +Three bodies shared the Searchlight name before the separation. Searchlight Information Services Limited (company 02055070) was incorporated on 12 September 1986 with Gerry Gable as a director appointed before 31 December 1990 and [[Sonia Gable]] as secretary from 1 November 1992.[^4][^5] The Searchlight Educational Trust (company 02738367) was incorporated on 7 August 1992 and registered as a charity in August 1992.[^2][^6] Searchlight Magazine Limited (company 02516837) was incorporated on 29 June 1990, with Gerry Gable as a director until 1 June 2025 and Sonia Gable as secretary.[^7] + +In May 2002 the [[Charity Commission]] received a complaint that the Educational Trust was carrying out political activities incompatible with its charitable status, and opened a statutory inquiry under section 8 of the [[Charities Act 1993]] on 28 June 2002. The Commission's report records that the Trust's annual income was approximately 140,000 pounds, that its publication When Hate Comes to Town encouraged members of the public to carry out direct action "by, for example, disrupting political meetings", and that the Trust, the magazine company and Searchlight Information Services shared a telephone number and a postal address. The Commission advised the trustees not to use the general label "Searchlight" when referring to the charity. The inquiry closed on 9 September 2002.[^6] + +### The 2004 Campaign + +Later HOPE not hate publications and its founder's award nomination give 2004 as the year of founding, in response to the rise of the [[British National Party]].[^8][^9] The [[Electoral Commission]] register of donations lists a regulated third party named HOPE not hate Ltd from April 2004, with a donation of 9,750 pounds from the [[Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust]] accepted on 5 April 2004 for the European Parliament election of 10 June 2004.[^10] Nick Lowles was appointed a director of Searchlight Information Services Limited on 25 June 2005.[^5] + +In the July to August 2012 issue of its magazine, HOPE not hate described itself as having been founded in 2004, with over 165,000 online supporters, and stated that it "comprises Searchlight Information Services and our charitable wing, the Searchlight Educational Trust".[^11] + +### The 2011 Separation + +[[Larry O'Hara]]'s Notes From The Borderland published a timeline of the dispute that states that in March 2011 Lowles and [[Cormac Hollingsworth]] asked the Gables for the Searchlight magazine shares and for Gerry Gable to resign from Searchlight Information Services and the Educational Trust by the end of June 2011, and that Gable was offered an honorary presidency. The timeline further states that on 23 September 2011 Lowles resigned as editor of the magazine, that on 24 and 25 September the Gables removed about twenty filing cabinets of archive material from the Trust's offices, which the timeline describes as "liberate" in the Gables' term and "steal" in the term used by HOPE not hate, and that on 27 September the Trust's trustees met and removed both Gables and contacted the police. The timeline's author opposes both sides.[^12] + +Companies House records agree with several dates in that timeline. A company named Hope Not Hate Ltd (number 07719229) was incorporated on 27 July 2011 with Gerry Gable and Sonia Gable as its directors, and they resigned from it on 25 September 2012, when Lowles was appointed director and [[Ruth Smeeth]] secretary.[^13][^14] On 4 December 2011 Gerry Gable resigned as director of Searchlight Information Services Limited and Sonia Gable as its secretary; [[Simon Tuttle]] was appointed director and Ruth Smeeth secretary on the same date, with the new officers' correspondence address at the solicitors [[Gallant Macmillan]], 3 Greek Street, London.[^5] Hope Not Hate Limited (08188502) was incorporated on 22 August 2012 as HOPE NOT HATE (LBG) LIMITED. On 25 October 2012 Searchlight Information Services Limited was renamed Hope Not Hate (1986) Limited and the Searchlight Educational Trust became Hope Not Hate Educational Limited.[^1][^2][^4] + +[[Martin Bright]] wrote in the [[The Jewish Chronicle|Jewish Chronicle]] on 9 August 2012 that Gable "has retained control of Searchlight magazine and its website" and that Lowles, described as Gable's heir apparent, "has effectively spun off Hope Not Hate as a separate organisation"; Bright declined to take a side and called the dispute "genuinely Oedipal".[^3] [[Ed Caesar]] reported in [[The New Yorker]] in 2019 that [[Matthew Collins]] began collaborating with Lowles on HOPE not hate in 2007, that the campaign "split from the magazine in 2011", that Collins believed Gable had been cavalier about his safety while he was a Searchlight informant, and that Gable denied this.[^15] The HOPE not hate magazine continued to describe the organisation as comprising Searchlight Information Services and the Searchlight Educational Trust in its September to October and November to December 2012 issues, after the Companies House renaming of 25 October 2012; the May to July 2017 issue describes it as comprising HOPE not hate Ltd and HOPE not hate Charitable Trust.[^16][^17][^18] + +Searchlight's obituary of Gable, who died in January 2026, states that the split was "eventually healed when Gerry publicly offered the hand of friendship" to Lowles at an anti-fascist anniversary event in 2023.[^19] Companies House records Gable's resignation as secretary of Taxinform Limited on 3 January 2026.[^20] + +### Companies and Directors After 2012 + +Hope Not Hate Limited files accounts consisting of a balance sheet only. At 31 December 2024 it reported current assets of 720,485 pounds, including 702,053 pounds in cash, creditors due within one year of 544,621 pounds and members' funds of 175,864 pounds, against 136,556 pounds a year earlier.[^21] Its directors have included Lowles (22 August 2012 to 18 February 2020, and again from 1 September 2026), Simon Tuttle (25 September 2012 to 2 September 2026), Hollingsworth (9 December 2014 to 30 July 2019), [[Anthony Painter]] and [[Peter Jacobs]] (both from 9 December 2014), [[Matthew McGregor]] (19 January 2020 to 29 April 2022), [[Anna Turley]] (8 April 2022 to 11 July 2024), [[Jon Cruddas]] and [[Simon Gallant]] (both from 24 March 2025). Lowles was the company's secretary from 31 August 2023 to 1 September 2026.[^22][^23] The Parliament members register records Anna Turley as the [[Labour Party]] (Co-operative) member for Redcar, with her latest House of Commons membership beginning on 4 July 2024.[^24] + +The charity's directors have included [[Peter Adams]] (from 1 February 2011), [[Gurinder Singh Josan]] (from 9 December 2014), Imam [[Qari Muhammad Asim]] and [[Ros Wynne-Jones]] (both from 5 February 2018), and, in its 2023 accounts, Simon Tuttle. Lowles was its secretary from 31 August 2023 to 30 June 2025, and Kelly-Anne Duffill from 1 July 2025.[^25][^26] + +### The Charity as Grant-Maker + +The charity's annual report for 2022 records that after a strategic review in 2021 its trustees changed its focus to fundraising and grant-giving with effect from 31 December 2021.[^27] Its grants to Hope Not Hate Limited were 625,000 pounds in 2022, 650,000 pounds in 2023 and 787,858 pounds in 2024; at the end of 2024 the company owed the charity 48,102 pounds.[^26][^27][^28] Employment costs in the charity fell from 608,595 pounds in 2021 to 132,259 pounds in 2022.[^27][^29] The Charity Commission register gives gross income of 1.16 million pounds in 2020, 1.08 million in 2021, 792,940 pounds in 2022, 418,240 pounds in 2023 and 984,870 pounds in 2024, with government grants of 55,980 pounds in 2020 and none in later years.[^30] + +Restricted funds itemised in the charity's accounts include the following. For 2020, grants described as [[Home Office]] Counter Extremism Unit funds received through the [[Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation]] and the [[London Community Foundation]], grants from the [[Trust for London]] (49,679 pounds), the [[Paul Hamlyn Foundation]] and the [[Barrow Cadbury Trust]], and an unrestricted grant of 46,000 pounds from the [[Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust]] in each of 2019 and 2020.[^31] For 2021, Home Office Counter Extremism Unit funds received through the London Community Foundation, 125,750 pounds from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and restricted funds from [[Google]], the [[Sam and Bella Sebba Charitable Trust]], an anonymous family trust, Community Union and the [[Network for Social Change]].[^29] For 2023, 45,000 pounds from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, 18,000 pounds from the [[Aziz Charitable Foundation]], 10,000 pounds from [[Stonewall]] and 20,000 pounds from [[Toms Trust]].[^26] For 2024, 208,000 pounds from [[NPT Transatlantic|NPT Transatlantic Ltd]], 50,667 pounds from the AB Charitable Trust, 40,000 pounds from the [[Esmée Fairbairn Foundation|Esmee Fairbairn Foundation]], 63,000 pounds from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and 60,000 pounds from This Day.[^28] NPT Transatlantic describes itself as offering donor-advised funds.[^32] + +The [[Sigrid Rausing Trust]] lists HOPE Not Hate as a grantee supported since 2013, with previous grants totalling 1,615,000 pounds and a current grant of 250,000 pounds starting in February 2026.[^33] The charity's accounts for 2020 to 2024 do not itemise a Sigrid Rausing Trust grant, and Hope Not Hate Limited does not publish an income statement.[^21][^26][^27][^28][^29][^31] + +### Electoral Commission Donations + +The Electoral Commission register of donations lists HOPE not hate Ltd as a permitted third party receiving the following donations accepted between 2004 and 2019, in pounds: the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust 9,750 (5 April 2004), 11,025 (5 April 2005) and 42,500 (14 December 2009); the [[Trades Union Congress|Trades Union Congress South and East Region]] 9,000 (5 April 2005); [[UNISON]] 19,500 (5 April 2005), 80,000 (14 May 2009) and 70,000 (12 March 2010); [[Amicus (trade union)|Amicus]] 10,000 (30 May 2005); the [[Fire Brigades Union]] 8,500 (21 May 2009); [[Unite the Union]] 13,250 (21 May 2009), 65,000 (14 December 2009) and 10,000 (1 March 2010); the [[GMB (trade union)|GMB]] 8,000 (28 August 2009); the [[National Union of Teachers]] 60,000 (17 February 2010); and individuals recorded as [[Henry Tinsley]] 10,250 (31 December 2009) and Mailk Karim 27,500 (31 March 2010).[^10] + +For the general election of 12 December 2019 the register lists 200,000 pounds from an individual recorded as [[David Sainsbury]] (4 November 2019), 15,000 and 60,000 pounds from [[Open Britain|Open Britain Ltd]] (28 November and 5 December 2019) and 100,000 pounds from Mr [[Greg Nasmyth]] (12 December 2019), together with 17,000 pounds of donations not reported individually. The register also lists a donation of 5,000 pounds in cash from an unincorporated association named HOPE not hate (Yorkshire Region) to the Labour Party's accounting unit [[Morley and Outwood|Morley and Outwood CLP]], accepted on 19 January 2010.[^10] + +### Regulatory Scrutiny, 2024 to 2026 + +The Charity Commission stated on 22 January 2026 that it had closed a compliance case on HOPE Unlimited Charitable Trust, formerly Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust. It stated that the action arose from repeated complaints across several years that it was not clear whether the activities of Hope Not Hate Limited, a separate non-charitable organisation, were connected to or endorsed by the charity; that it gave the trustees regulatory advice and guidance in 2024; that it opened its latest case in July 2025 and was critical that limited action had been taken by then; and that the charity had changed its name, recruited three new independent trustees, appointed a new secretary and assured the regulator of its intention to appoint a paid administrator and a paid grants manager with no existing role at Hope Not Hate Limited. The Commission set an expectation that the charity could evidence its grant-making decisions, noting that its new grant criteria were limited in detail.[^34] + +The Conservative member of Parliament [[Jack Rankin]] wrote to the Commission's chief executive [[David Holdsworth]] in September 2025, describing Hope Not Hate Limited as "a purely political operation" and stating that he believed the charity's status was being used for funnelling taxpayer funds into the company; the Commission said it was assessing the concerns as part of the existing compliance case.[^35] In 2026 [[Nigel Farage]] wrote to the Commission alleging that the charity had breached charity law by distributing leaflets supporting the Labour candidate [[Andy Burnham]] in the Makerfield by-election, and that Hope Not Hate Limited "continues to be funded almost entirely by grants from the HUCT". The charity said the claims had "absolutely no basis in fact". The Commission stated that it was provided with evidence that the charity's funds were not used in producing or circulating the materials and that the company had appealed to the public for funds, and it took no further regulatory action. A spokesperson for Hope not Hate said that Hope not Hate Limited "is a non-party campaigner registered with the Electoral Commission".[^36] + +### Informants and the National Action Investigation + +Matthew Collins, HOPE not hate's head of intelligence, had been active in the British National Party and the [[National Front]] and took part in a 1989 British National Party attack on an anti-fascist meeting at [[Welling Library]] in south London. The New Yorker reported that he afterwards telephoned Searchlight anonymously and became a Searchlight informant, that he then associated with [[Combat 18]] and the [[Ulster Defence Association]] with the organisation's blessing, that in 1991 a senior Combat 18 figure ordered his murder, and that [[Scotland Yard]]'s [[Special Branch]] expedited a passport and visa for him to leave for Australia, where he stayed for ten years. A [[BBC]] film about his return to Britain, [[Dead Man Walking (BBC film)|Dead Man Walking]], aired in 2004, and since 2010 Collins has coordinated an intelligence network for HOPE not hate. Collins told the magazine that he ran about a dozen regular informants, and Lowles told it that he also ran several, one of whom had gone undercover nearly twenty-five years earlier. The magazine added that the British government treats infiltration of extremist networks as the domain of the Security Service ([[MI5]]) and the [[Counter Terrorism Command|Metropolitan Police Counter-Terror Command]], that Collins considers HOPE not hate's work a provocation to those bodies, and that a [[Metropolitan Police]] spokesperson declined to comment on its intelligence-gathering. Gable told the magazine that Collins "bottled it" in a libel case in which he declined to identify himself as Searchlight's mole: "He was no hero."[^15] + +[[Robbie Mullen]], a member of [[National Action]] and deputy to its leader [[Christopher Lythgoe]] from April 2016, e-mailed HOPE not hate in April 2017. On 1 July 2017 at the [[Friar Penketh]] pub in [[Warrington]], [[Jack Renshaw]] told the group that he planned to murder the Labour member of Parliament [[Rosie Cooper]] and a police detective, [[Victoria Henderson]]. Mullen texted Collins, who was on holiday in Portugal, "Ring me ASAP". In an extract from his 2019 book published by HuffPost UK, Collins wrote that police had no knowledge of the plan before Mullen contacted HOPE not hate.[^15][^37] Before the arrests the government offered Mullen witness protection and two years of his current salary, which he declined. Eleven suspected members were arrested on 27 September 2017, police issued Mullen the first of five [[Osman warning|Osman warnings]] that evening, and HOPE not hate helped him relocate. Collins paid many of Mullen's expenses in advance himself, and Lowles later found him work as a researcher for the organisation.[^15] + +At the [[Old Bailey]] the barrister [[Crispin Aylett]], who represented Lythgoe, put to Mullen that he had "exaggerated aspects of your evidence, told lies, all to get Christopher Lythgoe and others convicted and to bolster your credibility with your paymaster, HOPE Not Hate." On 18 July 2018 the jury convicted Lythgoe of membership of National Action and acquitted him of encouraging Renshaw; Renshaw pleaded guilty to preparing an act of terrorism, and was sentenced on 17 May 2019 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of twenty years.[^15][^38] The jury at the first trial could not reach a decision on Renshaw's membership of the group, and at the retrial a jury was unable to reach a majority verdict on any of the charges.[^15] + +The HOPE not hate magazine for September to October 2018 stated that its previous issue made no mention of the trial because "our evidence will also be used in another trial", and referred to "two leading members of National Action jailed based on information from a source inside the organisation".[^39] Collins published an account of the case with Mullen in 2019 under the title Nazi Terrorist: The Story of National Action.[^37][^40] The September to October 2017 issue of the magazine carried an interview with Patrik Hermansson, a Swedish volunteer who had spent a year inside the alt-right under the name Erik.[^9] + +### Litigation + +In December 2016 Nigel Farage wrote after the Berlin Christmas market lorry attack that "Events like these will be the Merkel legacy"; after a reply from [[Brendan Cox]] the exchange moved to the radio station [[LBC]], where Farage said that HOPE not hate pursued "violent and undemocratic means". HOPE not hate began a crowdfunded libel action. On 14 November 2017 it announced that Farage had filed a statement in the [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] which, in the group's account of the text, said he was "happy to acknowledge that Hope Not Hate does not tolerate or pursue violent or undemocratic behaviour" and would not repeat the claim. Farage said he was "perfectly happy to accept that the organisation doesn't pursue violent or undemocratic means", that the case had been "a complete waste of their donors' money", and that he had paid no damages and no apology; the group said Farage was left with costs of around 100,000 pounds.[^41] + +### Personnel and the Labour Party + +Ruth Smeeth was secretary of Searchlight Information Services Limited from 4 December 2011 and of Hope Not Hate (Services) Limited from 25 September 2012.[^5][^14] Hollingsworth, a director of Hope Not Hate Limited from 2014 to 2019, was described by the Borderland timeline as becoming chair of the Educational Trust's trustees in February 2011.[^12][^22] Anna Turley became a director of Hope Not Hate Limited on 8 April 2022 and resigned on 11 July 2024, seven days after the start of her latest membership of the House of Commons.[^22][^24] Lowles was appointed MBE in the New Year Honours of 2017 as "Founder, Hope Not Hate", for services to community cohesion and combating extremism.[^42] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Companies House, "HOPE NOT HATE LIMITED, company number 08188502", overview (incorporated 22 August 2012; previous name HOPE NOT HATE (LBG) LIMITED, 22 August to 18 October 2012), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08188502 +[^2]: Companies House, "HOPE UNLIMITED CHARITABLE TRUST, company number 02738367", overview (incorporated 7 August 1992; previous names SEARCHLIGHT EDUCATIONAL TRUST to 25 October 2012, HOPE NOT HATE EDUCATIONAL LIMITED to 12 May 2016, HOPE NOT HATE CHARITABLE TRUST to 24 October 2025), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367 +[^3]: Martin Bright, "Tragedy of a serious split between anti-fascists", The Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 2012. https://www.thejc.com/opinion/analysis/tragedy-of-a-serious-split-between-anti-fascists-p843rzof +[^4]: Companies House, "HOPE NOT HATE (1986) LIMITED, company number 02055070", overview (incorporated 12 September 1986; previous name SEARCHLIGHT INFORMATION SERVICES LIMITED to 25 October 2012; dissolved 14 July 2015), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02055070 +[^5]: Companies House, officers of HOPE NOT HATE (1986) LIMITED (02055070): Gerry Gable (director, resigned 4 December 2011), Sonia Kathleen Emma Gable (secretary from 1 November 1992, resigned 4 December 2011), Nick Lowles (director, appointed 25 June 2005), Simon Anthony Tuttle (director, appointed 4 December 2011), Ruth Smeeth (secretary, appointed 4 December 2011), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02055070/officers +[^6]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Charity Commission Report on the Searchlight Educational Trust" (inquiry under section 8 of the Charities Act 1993, opened 28 June 2002, closed 9 September 2002), reproduced at https://www.infotextmanuscripts.org/searchlightarchive/s_a_charity_commission_report.html (page last updated 20 August 2003). +[^7]: Companies House, "SEARCHLIGHT MAGAZINE LIMITED, company number 02516837", overview and officers (incorporated 29 June 1990; Gerry Gable, director, resigned 1 June 2025; Sonia Kathleen Emma Gable, secretary, and director from 1 June 2025), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02516837/officers +[^8]: Sheila McKechnie Foundation, "Nick Lowles", Long Term Achievement Award 2024 nomination page (states that Lowles founded HOPE not hate "back in 2004 in response to the rise of the far-right British National Party"). https://smk.org.uk/awards_nominations/nick-lowles/ +[^9]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 33, September to October 2017 (boilerplate: "Initially established to counter the electoral rise of the BNP"; "Going undercover", interview with Patrik Hermansson by Safya Khan-Ruf), Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_33. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_33 +[^10]: Electoral Commission, Political Finance Online, donations search for "hope not hate" (33 records returned; recipients HOPE not hate Ltd and Labour Party), queried 1 October 2026. https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/ +[^11]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 3, July to August 2012, contributors panel, Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_03. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_03 +[^12]: Larry O'Hara, "Exclusive: Introduction and Time-line to Hope Not Hate versus Searchlight Civil War Article NFB 10", Notes From The Borderland, borderland.co.uk (partisan source, hostile to both sides). https://borderland.co.uk/exclusive-introduction-time-line-to-hope-not-hate-versus-searchlight-civil-war-article-nfb-10/ +[^13]: Companies House, "HOPE NOT HATE (SERVICES) LIMITED, company number 07719229", overview (incorporated 27 July 2011 as HOPE NOT HATE LTD; renamed 16 October 2012; dissolved 10 September 2013), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07719229 +[^14]: Companies House, officers of HOPE NOT HATE (SERVICES) LIMITED (07719229): Gerry Gable and Sonia Gable (appointed 27 July 2011, resigned 25 September 2012), Nick Lowles (director) and Ruth Smeeth (secretary) (appointed 25 September 2012), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07719229/officers +[^15]: Ed Caesar, "The Undercover Fascist" (print title "Hate and Love"), The New Yorker, 27 May 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/27/the-undercover-fascist +[^16]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 4, September to October 2012, contributors panel, Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_04. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_04 +[^17]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 5, November to December 2012, contributors panel, Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_05. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_05 +[^18]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 32, May to July 2017, contributors panel, Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_32. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_32 +[^19]: Searchlight, "Obituary: Gerry Gable (1937-2026), architect of modern British anti-fascism", searchlightmagazine.com, January 2026. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/01/obituary-gerry-gable-1937-2026-architect-of-modern-british-anti-fascism/ +[^20]: Companies House, appointments of Gerry Gable (born January 1937), including Taxinform Limited (04431212), secretary, resigned 3 January 2026, accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/qRYa5TN8Ohow88__Y_b4QHr98Aw/appointments +[^21]: Hope Not Hate Limited, unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024 (balance sheet and notes), filed 26 September 2025, Companies House filing MzQ4MjgxNzE4OWFkaXF6a2N4. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08188502/filing-history/MzQ4MjgxNzE4OWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^22]: Companies House, officers of HOPE NOT HATE LIMITED (08188502), 21 officers and 14 resignations, accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08188502/officers +[^23]: Companies House, appointments of Nick Lowles as secretary of HOPE NOT HATE LIMITED (31 August 2023 to 1 September 2026) and director (22 August 2012 to 18 February 2020), accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/jk99RhE3ohSWf-QgztVYEGaMHUU/appointments +[^24]: UK Parliament, Members API, search "Anna Turley" (Labour (Co-op), Redcar, latest House of Commons membership start 4 July 2024), queried 1 October 2026. https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Members/Search?Name=Anna%20Turley +[^25]: Companies House, officers of HOPE UNLIMITED CHARITABLE TRUST (02738367), 40 officers and 33 resignations, accessed 1 October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/officers +[^26]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023, filed 30 September 2024, Companies House filing MzQzNzcyNTg5NmFkaXF6a2N4. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzQzNzcyNTg5NmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^27]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 (trustees' report, notes 17 to 23), filed 2023, Companies House, company 02738367. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history +[^28]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, filed 28 September 2025, Companies House filing MzQ4MjkyNzA1OWFkaXF6a2N4 (grant to Hope not Hate Ltd 787,858 pounds; owed by Hope not Hate Limited 48,102 pounds; restricted funds note 18). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzQ4MjkyNzA1OWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^29]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021, filed 29 September 2022, Companies House filing MzM1MzYwMDY0NmFkaXF6a2N4. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzM1MzYwMDY0NmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^30]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities, HOPE Unlimited Charitable Trust (1013880), financial history, 2020 to 2024, accessed 1 October 2026. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/1013880/financial-history +[^31]: Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust, annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020, filed 9 December 2021, Companies House filing MzMyMzA3OTQwOWFkaXF6a2N4 (restricted funds note 17; unrestricted Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust grant 46,000 pounds in 2019 and 2020). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02738367/filing-history/MzMyMzA3OTQwOWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=xhtml&download=1 +[^32]: NPT UK, "Donor-Advised Fund FAQs", nptuk.org (site navigation lists NPT Transatlantic as a donor-advised fund offering), accessed 1 October 2026. https://www.nptuk.org/donor-advised-funds/faq/ +[^33]: The Sigrid Rausing Trust, grantee profile "HOPE Not Hate" (supported since 2013; total of previous grants 1,615,000 pounds; current grant 250,000 pounds, grant start February 2026), accessed 1 October 2026. https://sigrid-rausing-trust.org/grantees/hope-not-hate/ +[^34]: Charity Commission, "Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust addresses concerns following intervention by regulator", GOV.UK press release, 22 January 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hope-not-hate-charitable-trust-addresses-concerns-following-intervention-by-regulator +[^35]: "Commission assesses Tory MP's concerns about Hope not Hate as part of case", Civil Society, 17 September 2025. https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/commission-assesses-tory-mp-s-concerns-about-hope-not-hate-as-part-of-case.html +[^36]: Dami Adewale, "Charity cleared by commission after Farage complaint", Third Sector, 24 June 2026. https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-cleared-commission-farage-complaint/governance/article/1962712 +[^37]: Matthew Collins, "How A Far Right Terror Plot To Murder A Labour MP Was Foiled By Whistleblower Robbie Mullen" (extract from Nazi Terrorist: The Story of National Action), HuffPost UK, 8 May 2019. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/national-action-rosie-cooper_uk_5cd1c61ce4b04e275d511211 +[^38]: Associated Press, "Neo-Nazi who planned to kill UK lawmaker is jailed for life", 17 May 2019 (High Court Judge Maura McGowan: "only a sentence of life imprisonment can meet the appalling seriousness of your offending"). https://www.foxnews.com/world/neo-nazi-who-planned-to-kill-uk-lawmaker-is-jailed-for-life.amp +[^39]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 36, September to October 2018, editorial ("Elephant in the room"), Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_36. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_36 +[^40]: HOPE not hate magazine, no. 39, June to July 2019, advertisement for Nazi Terrorist: The Story of National Action by Matthew Collins with Robbie Mullen, Internet Archive item hope_not_hate_39. https://archive.org/details/hope_not_hate_39 +[^41]: Peter Walker, "Nigel Farage withdraws 'violent means' claim against Hope Not Hate", The Guardian, 14 November 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/14/nigel-farage-withdraws-claim-hope-not-hate-high-court +[^42]: Cabinet Office, New Year Honours 2017, full list (CSV): Members of the Order of the British Empire, "Mr Nicholas LOWLES, Founder, Hope Not Hate. For services to Community Cohesion and Combating Extremism", London, GOV.UK. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f0f19e5274a2e8ab49da3/new-years-honours-2017-full-list-csv.csv diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Jane Street Capital.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Jane Street Capital.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fc8d8ee3 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Jane Street Capital.md @@ -0,0 +1,199 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - JaneStreet + - ProprietaryTrading + - SEBI + - Terraform + - FTX + - AlamedaResearch + - SamBankmanFried + - CarolineEllison + - Anthropic + - Lobbying + - CampaignFinance + - RevolvingDoor +alias: + - Jane Street Capital + - Jane Street + - Jane Street Group + - Jane Street Group LLC + - Jane Street Group, LLC + - Jane Street Capital, LLC + - Jane Street Capital LLC + - Jane Street Securities + - JSI Investments + - JS Group +summary: "New York proprietary trading firm that trained Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, agreed in 2024 to buy FTX's Anthropic shares, and faces India's 2025 manipulation order and the Terraform estate's insider trading suit." +start: 1999-08-31 +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Robert Granieri]]" + reverse: true + role: "co-founder" + fn: 3 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Robert Granieri]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-01 + role: "management committee member of Jane Street Group" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[James McClave]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024-12 + role: "management committee member of Jane Street Group" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]" + reverse: true + end: 2017-09 + role: "trader" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Caroline Ellison]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + end: 2018-03 + role: "assistant quantitative trader on the equities desk" + fn: 5 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Ross Rheingans-Yoo]]" + reverse: true + role: "worked with Bankman-Fried" + fn: 4 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Securities and Exchange Board of India]]" + start: 2025-07-03 + role: "ex parte interim order on index options expiry day trading; INR 4,843.57 crore impounded" + fn: 2 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Terraform Labs]]" + start: 2026-02-24 + role: "defendant in the plan administrator's insider trading suit, Snyder v. Jane Street Group" + fn: 17 + - type: represented + with: "[[Hogan Lovells]]" + reverse: true + start: 2003-03-07 + role: "registered lobbying firm as Hogan & Hartson for Jane Street Securities; termination report filed August 12, 2005" + fn: 22 + - type: represented + with: "[[Hogan Lovells]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-09 + role: "registered lobbying firm on the regulation of financial investments" + fn: 24 + - type: represented + with: "[[Porterfield, Fettig & Sears]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-06-02 + role: "registered lobbying firm on tax issues and H.R. 1" + fn: 23 + - type: represented + with: "[[Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton]]" + reverse: true + role: "defense counsel in Snyder v. Jane Street Group" + fn: 20 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Cantor Fitzgerald]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-07-19 + role: "prime brokerage and financing through CF Secured, LLC (Cantor Prime Services)" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Jane Street Capital, LLC is a broker-dealer formed in [[Delaware]] on August 31, 1999 and registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] on March 27, 2000, with its main office at 250 Vesey Street in [[New York City]]. Its direct owner is Jane Street Group, LLC, which it reports as its member from January 2014, and its indirect owners are JSHC, LLC and JSHP, LLLP, both from October 2019. The [[Financial Industry Regulatory Authority]] record lists as control persons of Jane Street Group the members of its management committee, among them [[Robert Granieri]] (from January 2014) and, from December 2024, [[James McClave]] and others. The firm is registered with 29 self-regulatory organizations, holds books and records with third parties including the communications archiver Behavox, and reports prime brokerage arrangements with Wells Fargo Securities (from August 2024), BofA Securities (clearance and custody, from August 2023) and CF Secured, LLC, which does business as Cantor Prime Services and is indirectly owned by [[Cantor Fitzgerald]], L.P. (prime brokerage and financing, from July 19, 2022).[^1] + +The interim order of the [[Securities and Exchange Board of India]] (SEBI) of July 3, 2025 gives the establishment of Jane Street Group, LLC as 2000, its headcount as more than 2,600 in five offices in the [[United States]], Europe and Asia, and its trading as spanning 45 countries. The order lists Jane Street Capital, LLC and Jane Street Execution Services, LLC as its United States broker-dealers, Jane Street Financial Limited and Jane Street Netherlands B.V. as its regulated European firms and Jane Street Hong Kong Limited as its [[Hong Kong]] entity, and records that Jane Street Europe Limited is the holding company of the [[India|Indian]] entity JSI Investments Private Limited, with Jane Street Group the ultimate holding company.[^2] The complaint in *Snyder v. Jane Street Group, LLC* gives the founding year as 1999, names Granieri as a co-founder, and states that the firm reported net trading revenue of more than 10 billion dollars and net profit of nearly 6 billion dollars in 2023, nearly 20.5 billion and nearly 13 billion dollars in 2024, and net trading revenue above 24 billion dollars in the first three quarters of 2025; that it is behind more than 10 percent of equity trades in North America; and that it entered the cryptocurrency market in 2017.[^3] + +### Alumni at Alameda Research and FTX + +[[Sam Bankman-Fried]] joined Jane Street after his graduation and left in September 2017 to become Director of Development at the [[Centre for Effective Altruism]], according to a 2025 filing by the [[FTX Recovery Trust]]. The Trust wrote that at Jane Street he met other adherents of [[Effective Altruism]] who later followed him to the [[FTX]] group, including [[Caroline Ellison]] and [[Ross Rheingans-Yoo]], and that Rheingans-Yoo, who had worked with him at Jane Street and shared a residence with him in Hong Kong, moved into his 30 million dollar penthouse in [[Bahamas|the Bahamas]] in early 2022 to work at the [[FTX Foundation]] and then at [[Latona Biosciences Group]]. In November 2017 Bankman-Fried founded [[Alameda Research]] with [[Tara Mac Aulay|Tara MacAulay]], the former chief executive of the Centre for Effective Altruism; in April 2018 MacAulay and other employees left after offering to buy him out.[^4] + +Ellison's sentencing memorandum states that she first met Bankman-Fried in June 2015, when she was a summer trading intern and he had been a full-time trader for about a year and was coaching a mock trading exercise, and that the two became acquainted at a Jane Street-sponsored dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. Her counsel wrote that Jane Street trained interns to think principally about maximizing the expected value of a strategy rather than about potential losses, through mock trading sessions and a culture of small wagers; that she returned as an intern in the summer of 2016, was asked within weeks to forgo a master's program for a full-time position, and worked from the fall of 2016 for about a year and a half as an assistant quantitative trader on the equities desk; that her social circle in New York consisted mostly of other Jane Street employees; and that in February 2018 Jane Street sent her on a recruiting trip to the Bay Area, where she met Bankman-Fried for coffee in [[Berkeley]] and accepted a job at Alameda, which she joined in March 2018.[^5] [[Nick Beckstead]], the chief executive of the FTX Foundation, was named with Rheingans-Yoo as a defendant in the FTX debtors' 2023 adversary proceeding over Latona's life sciences investments.[^6] + +### Anthropic + +[[Anthropic]]'s announcement of its 124 million dollar Series A on May 28, 2021 lists James McClave among the participants in a round led by [[Jaan Tallinn]], with [[Dustin Moskovitz]], the [[Center for Emerging Risk Research]] and [[Eric Schmidt]] also participating.[^7] [[Federal Election Commission]] records list a contributor named James McClave with the occupation trader and the employer Jane Street, and the FINRA record lists a James McClave (CRD 4823496) as a management committee member of Jane Street Group from December 2024.[^1][^8] [[Dario Amodei]]'s January 2026 essay "The Adolescence of Technology" thanks "Jim McClave," with Nick Beckstead and others, for comments on drafts.[^9] + +In March 2024 the FTX estate agreed to sell the majority of its Anthropic stake for 884 million dollars. *[[CNBC]]* reported, from a filing in the Delaware bankruptcy court dated March 22, 2024, that the largest buyer was ATIC Third International Investment Co., aligned with the [[Mubadala]] sovereign wealth fund of the [[United Arab Emirates]], for nearly 500 million dollars; that Jane Street was the second-largest buyer, at almost 100 million dollars; and that [[Craig Falls]], Jane Street's head of quantitative research, proposed to buy about 20 million dollars of shares personally. The sales were subject to the approval of Judge [[John T. Dorsey|John Dorsey]].[^10] Ellison's own Anthropic Series B shares, bought through a 10 million dollar simple agreement for future equity on or about March 31, 2022, were forfeited to the United States under her consent order of September 2024.[^11] + +### The Millennium suit and the SEBI inquiry + +Jane Street Group sued [[Millennium Management]] and two former Jane Street traders in the [[U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York|Southern District of New York]] on April 12, 2024 under the [[Defend Trade Secrets Act]] (No. 1:24-cv-02783, Judge [[Paul A. Engelmayer]]). The parties stipulated to dismiss all claims and defenses with prejudice, each bearing its own costs, and the court so-ordered the stipulation on December 6, 2024.[^12] + +SEBI's order states that its inquiry began from April 2024 media reports titled "Jane Street-Millennium Suit: 'Secret' Strategy Concerns India, Hearing Reveals" and "Ex-Jane Street trader pillories claims he stole trade secrets," reports of the Millennium action in which Jane Street alleged unauthorized use of its proprietary strategies in Indian options markets. The order's chronology lists a request to the [[National Stock Exchange of India]] on July 23, 2024 to examine the group's trading; a meeting with SEBI on August 20, 2024 and a written submission from Jane Street dated August 30, 2024; a SEBI circular of October 1, 2024 on index options; an NSE examination report on November 13, 2024; a finding by a SEBI team on February 4, 2025 that the group appeared prima facie to be violating the PFUTP Regulations; and a caution letter issued by NSE on SEBI's instructions on February 6, 2025 to Jane Street Singapore Pte. Ltd. and JSI Investments Private Limited, to which the group replied on February 6 and 21. SEBI recorded that on May 15, 2025, "in disregard of the caution letter," the group continued to run very large cash-equivalent positions in index options.[^2] + +### SEBI interim order of July 3, 2025 + +Whole Time Member [[Ananth Narayan G.]] issued the ex parte interim order (WTM/AN/MRD/MRD-SEC-3/31516/2025-26) in [[Mumbai]] under sections 11(1), 11(4), 11B(1) and 11D of the [[SEBI Act, 1992]], against JSI Investments Private Ltd., JSI2 Investments Private Ltd., Jane Street Singapore Pte. Ltd. and Jane Street Asia Trading Ltd. The order describes two strategies on [[Bank Nifty]] options expiry days, an "Intra-day Index Manipulation" strategy and an "Extended Marking The Close" strategy. On the first, which it analyzed on the sample day of January 17, 2024, SEBI found that the group bought Bank Nifty constituent shares and futures aggressively in the morning while building larger opposite positions in index options, then reversed the cash and futures positions later in the day; it computed an intraday cash and futures loss of INR 199.7 crore across 15 such days and wrote that the loss "can only be viewed as a mala fide cost." SEBI found prima facie violations of section 12A of the SEBI Act and regulations 3 and 4 of the PFUTP Regulations, 2003.[^2] + +Table 44 of the order lists 21 expiry days with total gains of INR 48,43,57,70,168 (INR 4,843.57 crore). Eighteen are Bank Nifty days from August 31, 2023 to July 10, 2024, of which January 17, 2024 accounts for INR 7,34,92,69,578; the order classes October 4, 2023, May 8, 2024 and July 10, 2024 under the extended marking the close strategy. The last three rows are [[Nifty 50|Nifty]] expiry days after the February 2025 caution letter: May 8, 2025 (INR 3,06,65,621), May 15, 2025 (INR 1,67,52,81,113) and May 22, 2025 (INR 1,99,36,24,324).[^2] + +The order addressed Jane Street's letter of August 30, 2024, which suggested that the trades were meant to "remove unwanted delta" or to "manage overall delta," in a paragraph stating that "these bland statements do not take away from any of the arguments made above." The directions impounded INR 4,843.57 crore jointly and severally into an escrow account with a lien in favor of SEBI, restrained the four entities from accessing the securities market, froze debits from their bank, custody and demat accounts, required an inventory of Indian assets within 15 days and the close-out of open derivative positions within three months, made most restraints lapse on deposit of the escrow, and gave the entities 21 days to reply. SEBI stated that its observations were prima facie and made on the material on record.[^2] On July 21, 2025 SEBI stated that Jane Street had confirmed compliance with the cease and desist direction and had deposited INR 4,843.57 crore in escrow.[^13] + +Jane Street appealed to the [[Securities Appellate Tribunal]]. On September 9, 2025, Khushboo Tiwari reported in the *[[Business Standard]]*, a three-member bench led by Justice [[P. S. Dinesh Kumar]] admitted the appeals and directed SEBI to explain within three weeks why the documents the firm sought could not be disclosed. SEBI's senior counsel, Gaurav Joshi, told the tribunal that more than 10 gigabytes of data had been provided and that "no show-cause has been issued because we are still investigating the matter," adding that the scope of a show cause notice could enlarge beyond the interim order. Jane Street sought earlier surveillance and investigation reports, including one by SEBI's Integrated Surveillance Department and correspondence with the National Stock Exchange, which it said cleared it of wrongdoing; SEBI replied that the material had not been relied upon in the order.[^14] *[[Business Today]]* reported on February 25, 2026, citing CNBC-TV18, that the tribunal had adjourned the hearing.[^15] [[Bloomberg News|Bloomberg]] reported in December 2025, citing people familiar with the investigation, that SEBI was examining a further strategy, the simultaneous selling of index call and put options at one strike price on settlement days, and could order additional disgorgement beyond the roughly 570 million dollars held in escrow; Bloomberg added that the firm had consistently denied wrongdoing in India and that the interim order put its trading gains in India from January 2023 to March 2025 at about 4.3 billion dollars.[^16] No final SEBI order and no tribunal decision had been located as of October 1, 2026. + +### Terraform and Snyder v. Jane Street Group + +On February 24, 2026 [[Todd R. Snyder]], the plan administrator of the [[Terraform Labs]] estates and of the Terraform Labs Wind-Down Trust, sued Jane Street Group, LLC, Jane Street Capital, LLC, Granieri, [[Bryce Pratt]] and [[Michael Huang]] in the Southern District of New York (No. 1:26-cv-01536, Judge [[Dale E. Ho]]), asserting claims under sections 10(b), 20A and 20(a) of the [[Securities Exchange Act of 1934|Securities Exchange Act]], Rule 10b-5, section 6(c)(1) of the [[Commodity Exchange Act]] and CFTC Rule 180.1, as assignee also of the [[Luna Foundation Guard]] and of individual investors. Terraform's plan had been confirmed by the Delaware bankruptcy court on September 20, 2024 and became effective on October 1, 2024. The complaint was filed with extensive redactions. On May 12, 2026 the court granted the defendants' letter motion to seal exhibits to their motion to dismiss and to unseal material in the complaint, finding the remaining redactions narrowly tailored to protect privacy interests, and directed the plaintiff to re-file the complaint with the revised redactions, which he did on May 18, 2026.[^17][^18] + +The re-filed complaint alleges that Jane Street completed onboarding for over-the-counter trading with Terraform by November 2018; that Pratt, a summer 2021 software engineering intern at Terraform, joined Jane Street in September 2021 and kept close contact with Terraform's head of research; that on February 22, 2022 Pratt and two Terraform employees opened a group chat they named "Bryce's Secret," in which a Terraform employee identified the "big company" interested in Terraform as "Jane Streeeeeeeet"; and that Pratt relayed to Jane Street traders what he described as information from "my sources" and "trusted sources," including an estimate that Alameda Research's Anchor deposits were "somewhere north of $1B." It alleges that Terraform's then head of research interviewed with Jane Street in late March 2022, was offered a position on May 18, 2022 after the collapse, and began work there on June 6, 2022.[^18] + +According to the complaint, Jane Street accumulated about 200 million UST between February and April 2022 and staked it in the Anchor Protocol at 20 percent; on Saturday, May 7, 2022 it unstaked and sold its entire position of about 192 million UST in a single day, and at 10:24 p.m. Huang reported to colleagues the sale of "92m UST at .9978 on binance, and 85m UST at .9942 on curve in one swap." The complaint calls that swap the largest single swap on the Curve 3pool. On May 9, Pratt opened a group message with [[Do Kwon]], Huang and another Jane Street employee to express interest in bidding on bitcoin or Luna; Kwon replied that "Bill from Jump," the [[Jump Trading]] co-founder [[William DiSomma|Bill DiSomma]], should have contacted Jane Street about a fundraise. The same day, the complaint alleges, a Jane Street colleague told Pratt that "Jump and Alameda are providing funding to Do today at some huge haircut." A Jump employee then introduced Granieri by email to DiSomma and Jump's president [[Dave Olsen]], Granieri replied that he planned to say yes, and after the call Granieri wrote to an internal "robs-discussion-group" that Jump was "a big backer of this ecosystem," was looking for help bailing it out at a 60 percent discount with lockups, planned to invest only 100 to 200 million dollars, and that Jane Street "might be interested in buying between $200 mln and $500 mln" of Luna.[^18][^19] + +The complaint alleges that Jane Street went short 3.2 million UST and 1.1 million Luna on May 9, 12.2 million UST and 1.4 million Luna on May 10, and a further 8.2 million UST and 4.5 million Luna on May 11; that on May 10 a trader said he had "understood that mnpi didn't really exist in crypto"; that Granieri planned to "informally wall" leadership off from the desk although he did not "think there's any legal requirement to do so"; that Jane Street unwound the shorts for more than 19 million dollars of profit on UST and more than 115 million dollars on Luna; that on May 13 it ended the day holding more than 2.2 billion Luna futures bought for less than 1 million dollars; and that after an on-chain analytics firm, Nansen, published wallet analysis on May 27, 2022, employees discussed decommissioning the wallet and retired four wallets. The plaintiff seeks disgorgement for Terraform's creditors.[^18] + +The defendants, represented by [[Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton]], moved to dismiss on April 23, 2026. Their memorandum calls the case "an attempt by the estate of Terraform Labs Pte Ltd. ('Terraform') to extract cash from Jane Street to foot the bill for a fraud that Terraform itself perpetrated on the market," states that investors including Jane Street withdrew more than 2 billion dollars of UST from Anchor on May 7 in response to public signals, argues that the complaint's own allegations place the 85 million UST sale ten minutes after the alleged information was visible to the market and the first shorts on May 8, before the alleged rescue information of the evening of May 9, relies on the [[Archegos Capital Management|Archegos]] decision of the Second Circuit for the absence of a duty between arm's-length counterparties, and invokes the Wagoner rule and in pari delicto, stating that the plaintiff "stands in the shoes of a convicted felon" whose founder is serving a 15-year prison sentence. Their exhibits include a May 7, 2022 Jane Street chat forwarded on June 3, 2022 "to retain a record," and the May 9, 2022 email from Jump introducing Granieri to DiSomma, "one Jumps owners," and Olsen.[^19][^20] The plaintiff, represented by [[Kirkland & Ellis]], filed an opposition under seal and in redacted form on June 11, 2026; the defendants replied on July 13, 2026, and all parties jointly requested oral argument the same day.[^17][^20] A ruling had not been located as of October 1, 2026. + +The government's letter at Ellison's sentencing records that the May 2022 collapse of Terra and Luna led Alameda's lenders to recall nearly all their loans, requiring Alameda to repay more than 6 billion dollars on demand, which it did largely with FTX customer funds.[^21] + +### Lobbying + +The [[Lobbying Disclosure Act]] record begins with a registration by Hogan & Hartson L.L.P., now [[Hogan Lovells]], effective March 7, 2003, for "Jane Street Securities" at 111 Broadway, listing lobbyists Kim M. Allen, [[Nancy Granese|Nancy L. Granese]], W. Michael House and James G. McMillan. Its mid-year 2003 report gives income of 10,000 dollars, contacts with the House and the Senate, and the specific issue "Monitor financial services legislation"; later reports record no income, and a termination report was filed on August 12, 2005.[^22] + +No further registration appears until 2025. [[Porterfield, Fettig & Sears]] registered for Jane Street Group, LLC with an effective date of June 2, 2025 (posted July 17, 2025) on "tax issues," reported 30,000 dollars for the second quarter of 2025 and 60,000 dollars for the third, the latter citing "H.R.1, One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and filed no-activity reports for the following three quarters. Its lobbyists include [[Chris Maneval]], whose disclosed covered positions include deputy chief of staff to House Republican Whip [[Tom Emmer]] and chief of staff and legislative director to Emmer.[^23] + +Hogan Lovells US LLP, since renamed Hogan Lovells Cadwalader US LLP, registered for Jane Street Group on September 18, 2025, effective August 9, 2025, on "issues related to the regulation of financial investments." Its lobbyists and their disclosed covered positions are [[Timothy Bergreen]], staff director and deputy staff director of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] from 2015 to 2021 and chief of staff and legislative director to Representative [[Adam Schiff]] from 2003 to 2014; [[Mayur Patel]], associate general counsel at the [[Office of the United States Trade Representative]] from 2011 to 2018 and chief international trade counsel of the [[Senate Finance Committee]] from 2020 to 2025; [[Aaron Cutler]], senior adviser for policy and outreach to House Majority Leader [[Eric Cantor]] in 2013 and 2014; and [[Daniel Winkler]], an aide and adviser to [[Kyrsten Sinema]] from 2015 to January 2025. It reported 160,000 dollars for the third quarter of 2025, 50,000 for the fourth, 30,000 for the first quarter of 2026 and 10,000 for the second. The agencies contacted were the [[Department of Commerce]], the [[White House|Executive Office of the President]], the [[Department of the Treasury]] and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, with the [[State Department]] added in the 2026 reports.[^24] Bloomberg reported that Jane Street representatives met the Treasury, Commerce and the Executive Office of the President to discuss the firm's operations in India, and that Granieri had met lawmakers.[^16] + +### Political contributions + +Itemized Federal Election Commission receipts that list Jane Street as the contributor's employer include, under Granieri's name, 225,000 dollars to [[Republican Voters Against Trump]] and 200,000 dollars to [[Unite the Country]] (July 31, 2020), 175,000 dollars to [[Priorities USA Action]] (August 12, 2020), 100,000 dollars each to the [[Senate Leadership Fund]], Colorado Rising PAC and 1820 PAC (September 21, 2020), 500,000 dollars to WFW Action Fund (February 25, 2022), 500,000 dollars to [[Principled Leadership for Michigan]] (July 22, 2022), 500,000 dollars to the Senate Leadership Fund (October 17, 2022), 500,000 dollars each to SFA Fund (December 15 and 27, 2023) and Women Vote (January 30, 2024), 700,000 dollars to HMP and 500,000 dollars to the [[Congressional Leadership Fund]] (September 27, 2024), and 198,000 dollars to Emmer Majority Builders (September 27, 2024). In the 2026 cycle the receipts include 130,900 dollars to Emmer Majority Builders (April 2, 2025), 345,100 dollars to Article One Victory with joint fundraising transfers to the [[Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee|DCCC]] and [[Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee|DSCC]] (December 24, 2025), and 500,000 dollars each to the committees registered as SLF PAC and CLF on March 31, 2026 and again on June 3 and 4, 2026.[^8] + +Contributions by other employees include 1,500,000 and 1,000,000 dollars to the Senate Leadership Fund on October 15, 2024 from two contributors listed as managing directors, 313,800 dollars to Emmer Majority Builders on March 1, 2024 from one of them, and 1,000,000 dollars to Unite the Country on February 28, 2020 from a contributor listed as a programmer, who appears in 2019 receipts as the firm's head of technology. James McClave, listed as a trader, gave 401,300 dollars to the [[Biden Victory Fund]] on September 24, 2020 and 250,000 dollars to the Harris Action Fund on May 10, 2023. [[Daniel Setzman]] and [[Turner Batty]], both listed on the FINRA record as management committee members of Jane Street Group from December 2024, gave to Republican joint fundraising committees in 2024, 2025 and 2026, among them 373,200 and 376,600 dollars from Setzman to Grow the Majority (September 2024 and April 2026) and 420,100 dollars from Batty to One Team Senate Majority (December 10, 2025).[^1][^8] + +### Regulatory record + +Jane Street Capital's FINRA record reports two final regulatory events involving control affiliates: an administrative fine of KRW 281.2 million (about 215,000 dollars) imposed by [[South Korea]]'s [[Financial Services Commission (South Korea)|Financial Services Commission]] on Jane Street Asia Limited, initiated December 27, 2023 and paid February 1, 2024, for hedging an October 2019 block trade before it was eligible for reporting, which the commission found violated the market disruption provisions of the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act; and a 3,500 dollar penalty imposed by [[Norway]]'s Finanstilsynet on Jane Street Group on January 21, 2021 for late reporting of net short positions in March and May 2020.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, BrokerCheck Report, Jane Street Capital, LLC, CRD 103782, SEC 8-52275 (report generated 2026), firm profile, direct and indirect owners, registrations, industry arrangements and disclosure events. https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/firm/firm_103782.pdf ; BrokerCheck Report, CF Secured, LLC, CRD 285841, firm names and indirect owners. https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/firm/firm_285841.pdf +[^2]: Securities and Exchange Board of India, "Interim Order in the matter of Index manipulation by Jane Street Group," WTM/AN/MRD/MRD-SEC-3/31516/2025-26, July 3, 2025, signed Ananth Narayan G., Whole Time Member, Mumbai, paras. 1-3 and Table 1 (pp. 1-4), paras. 15.51.3-15.51.4 (pp. 46-47), paras. 36-38 and Table 44 (pp. 94-95), paras. 60-66 (pp. 102-105). https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/attachdocs/jul-2025/1751584518593.pdf +[^3]: Complaint, *Snyder v. Jane Street Group, LLC*, No. 1:26-cv-01536-DEH (S.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 24, 2026), ECF No. 1 (public redacted version), paras. 2, 6, 11, 19-23, 46-48. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503.1.0.pdf +[^4]: FTX Recovery Trust's Motion for Reconsideration or to Modify Order Allowing Rheingans-Yoo's FDU Claim, *In re FTX Trading Ltd.*, No. 22-11068 (KBO) (Bankr. D. Del. July 23, 2025), D.I. 31846, paras. 7-11. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.31846.0.pdf +[^5]: Defendant Caroline Ellison's Sentencing Memorandum (redacted public filing), *United States v. Ellison*, No. 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 10, 2024), ECF No. 497, memorandum pp. 12-16 (ECF pp. 15-19). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.497.0.pdf +[^6]: Complaint, *Alameda Research Ltd. v. Platform Life Sciences Inc.*, Adv. Pro. No. 23-50444 (JTD) (Bankr. D. Del. July 19, 2023), filed as D.I. 1881 in No. 22-11068, caption and paras. 1, 9. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.1881.0.pdf +[^7]: Anthropic, "Anthropic raises $124 million to build more reliable, general AI systems," May 28, 2021. https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-124-million-to-build-more-reliable-general-ai-systems +[^8]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized individual receipts, contributor employer "Jane Street," receipts of 100,000 dollars or more, two-year periods 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2026, queried October 1, 2026 through the OpenFEC API (api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/). https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/ +[^9]: Dario Amodei, "The Adolescence of Technology," January 2026, acknowledgments, filed as Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of Michael J. Mongan, *Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War*, No. 3:26-cv-01996-RFL (N.D. Cal. Mar. 9, 2026), ECF No. 6-7. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.6.7.pdf +[^10]: MacKenzie Sigalos, "FTX estate selling majority stake in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million, with bulk going to UAE," *CNBC*, March 25, 2024 (updated March 28, 2024). https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/ftx-estate-sells-majority-stake-in-startup-anthropic-for-884-million.html +[^11]: Consent Preliminary Order of Forfeiture as to Specific Property/Money Judgment, *United States v. Ellison*, S2 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. filed Sept. 25, 2024), ECF No. 510, pp. 3-4. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.510.0.pdf +[^12]: Docket, *Jane Street Group, LLC v. Millennium Management LLC*, No. 1:24-cv-02783-PAE (S.D.N.Y.), entry 1 (complaint, Apr. 12, 2024) and stipulation and order of dismissal with prejudice (so-ordered Dec. 6, 2024); CourtListener docket 68431468. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68431468/jane-street-group-llc-v-millennium-management-llc/ +[^13]: "US trading firm Jane Street confirms it will comply with directive: Sebi," *Business Standard*, July 21, 2025, reporting the SEBI statement of that date. https://www.business-standard.com/markets/news/jane-street-compliance-with-order-sebi-125072101483_1.html +[^14]: Khushboo Tiwari, "Sebi refuses more data to US trading firm Jane Street as probe deepens," *Business Standard*, September 9, 2025. https://www.business-standard.com/markets/news/sat-admits-jane-street-appeal-against-sebi-in-bank-nifty-case-125090900517_1.html +[^15]: "Jane Street vs Sebi: SAT adjourns hearing in market manipulation case," *Business Today*, February 25, 2026, citing CNBC-TV18. https://www.businesstoday.in/markets/story/jane-street-vs-sebi-sat-adjourns-hearing-in-market-manipulation-case-517925-2026-02-25 +[^16]: Bloomberg, "Jane Street hires lobbyists after 20 years amid Sebi investigation," republished by *Business Standard*, December 24, 2025. https://www.business-standard.com/markets/news/jane-street-hires-lobbyists-after-20-years-amid-sebi-investigation-125122401325_1.html +[^17]: Docket, *Snyder v. Jane Street Group, LLC*, No. 1:26-cv-01536-DEH (S.D.N.Y.), entries 1 (Feb. 24, 2026), stipulated briefing order (Apr. 8, 2026), 28-29 (Apr. 23, 2026), 36 (order signed May 12, entered May 15, 2026), 37 (May 18, 2026), 41 (June 11, 2026), 49-50 (July 13, 2026); CourtListener docket 72321910. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72321910/snyder-v-jane-street-group-llc/ +[^18]: Complaint (re-filed with revised redactions), *Snyder v. Jane Street Group, LLC*, No. 1:26-cv-01536-DEH (S.D.N.Y. May 18, 2026), ECF No. 37, paras. 2-5, 11, 21-23, 46-48, 50-61, 65-69, 90-95, 100-107, 118-120, 124-163. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503.37.0_1.pdf +[^19]: Declaration of Thomas Q. Lynch in Support of Motion to Dismiss, Exhibits C (Jane Street communication, May 7, 2022) and J (Jane Street communication, May 9, 2022, revised redactions), *Snyder v. Jane Street Group, LLC*, No. 1:26-cv-01536-DEH (S.D.N.Y. filed May 19, 2026), ECF Nos. 38-3 and 38-10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503.38.3.pdf and https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503.38.10.pdf +[^20]: Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, *Snyder v. Jane Street Group, LLC*, No. 1:26-cv-01536-DEH (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 23, 2026), ECF No. 29, preliminary statement (pp. 1-4); joint letter of Rishi N. Zutshi and Sarah E. McVay requesting oral argument, ECF No. 50 (July 13, 2026), signature blocks. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503.29.0.pdf and https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503/gov.uscourts.nysd.658503.50.0_2.pdf +[^21]: Letter of the United States (AUSA Danielle R. Sassoon), *United States v. Ellison*, 22 Cr. 673 (LAK) (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 17, 2024), ECF No. 502, p. 3. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.502.0.pdf +[^22]: Lobbying Disclosure Act database, registrant Hogan & Hartson L.L.P. (listed as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader US LLP), client Jane Street Securities: registration (LD-1) effective Mar. 7, 2003, received Mar. 17, 2003, filing 4686194d-683f-4713-8105-5b839d9aba6f; mid-year 2003 report (LD-2) signed Aug. 7, 2003, filing 9502455c-0853-45bc-9fc2-75d769c4f874; year-end 2003 and 2004 reports; termination report posted Aug. 12, 2005. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Jane%20Street +[^23]: Lobbying Disclosure Act database, registrant Porterfield, Fettig & Sears, LLC, client Jane Street Group, LLC: registration effective June 2, 2025, posted July 17, 2025 (filing 41ab0657-06e7-487b-808f-de674920e11f), and quarterly reports posted July 21, 2025, Oct. 20, 2025, Jan. 20, 2026, Apr. 20, 2026 and July 17, 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/41ab0657-06e7-487b-808f-de674920e11f/print/ +[^24]: Lobbying Disclosure Act database, registrant Hogan Lovells US LLP (now Hogan Lovells Cadwalader US LLP), client Jane Street Group, LLC: registration effective Aug. 9, 2025, posted Sept. 18, 2025 (filing 575096ca-b874-4afc-b37f-e6fc53b00b58), and quarterly reports posted Oct. 16, 2025, Jan. 16, 2026, Apr. 15, 2026 and July 15, 2026, lobbyist covered-position entries. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/575096ca-b874-4afc-b37f-e6fc53b00b58/print/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Middlebury Institute CTEC.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Middlebury Institute CTEC.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c6373788 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Middlebury Institute CTEC.md @@ -0,0 +1,129 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - CTEC + - MiddleburyInstitute + - CounterTerrorism + - OnlineExtremism + - Accelerationism + - OpenAI + - TVTP +alias: + - Middlebury Institute CTEC + - CTEC + - Middlebury CTEC + - Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism + - Middlebury Institute of International Studies + - Middlebury Institute's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism +summary: "Research center at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, founded in 2018, whose work on extremist language models, Telegram networks and games drew on OpenAI access, DHS grants and Logically funding." +start: 2018 +location: "Monterey, California" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jason Blazakis]]" + reverse: true + role: "founding executive director" + fn: 4 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Alex Newhouse]]" + reverse: true + end: 2022 + role: "deputy director" + fn: 2 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[OpenAI]]" + start: 2019 + role: "research partner on misuse of GPT-2, then academic API access for GPT-3" + fn: 8 + - type: funded + with: "[[Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-10-01 + end: 2023-09-30 + role: "targeted violence and terrorism prevention grant EMW-2021-GR-00032, game-based curriculum" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[Logically]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-09 + role: "two-year research grant for a cross-platform extremism database" + fn: 14 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Meta Platforms]]" + start: 2022-09-15 + role: "research partner named at the White House United We Stand summit" + fn: 16 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[iThrive Games Foundation]]" + start: 2021 + role: "co-design and testing partner for the DHS-funded game" + fn: 12 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, known as CTEC, is a research center at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in [[Monterey, California]], part of [[Middlebury College]]. Its stated mission is to advance education, research and intelligence analysis on domestic extremism, transnational emerging threats and trust and safety technology policy, and its website describes work that provides "bespoke analysis for tech and government clients."[^1] + +### Founding and staff + +[[Alex Newhouse]] helped start the center in 2018 while a graduate student at the Institute, first as an independent contractor, then as research lead, and then as deputy director; his biography dates the deputy directorship to 2020, while a Middlebury article of October 27, 2020 lists [[Kris McGuffie]] as deputy director and Newhouse as digital research lead. In 2022 he became a senior research fellow while pursuing a doctorate at the [[University of Colorado Boulder]], and he is listed in 2026 as a non-resident senior fellow. His biography lists earlier work on the data governance and fraud management teams of [[Sony Interactive Entertainment]]. The October 2020 article described the center's staff as working on extremism research projects "for several notable clients" and did not name them.[^2] + +[[Jason Blazakis]], the center's founding executive director, directed the [[Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office]] in the [[Bureau of Counterterrorism]] of the [[United States Department of State]] from 2008 to 2018, where his biography says he was responsible for directing efforts to designate states, organizations and individuals as state sponsors of terrorism, foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists. His biography also lists earlier positions at the [[Congressional Research Service]], the [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]] and the embassy in Kabul, and a senior fellowship at the [[Soufan Center]].[^3] + +On May 24, 2023 Middlebury announced an anonymous gift of 2 million dollars to expand the center and to provide financial aid to students in the master's program in nonproliferation and terrorism studies. Blazakis was quoted calling it the most significant gift the center had received since its founding in 2018, and the announcement stated that it would support staff positions and senior research scholars.[^4] + +[[Katharine Petrich]] was named interim director on November 17, 2023, and the center announced on February 12, 2024 that [[Sarah Pollack]] would become its director of tech policy and strategy; the announcement states that Pollack had led communications for the global counter-terrorism and violent extremism program of [[Meta Platforms]].[^5] [[J.M. Berger]] and [[Sam Jackson]] joined as senior research fellows in June 2023, alongside [[Amy Cooter]], then the center's director of research, academic development and innovation.[^6] Pages dated August 2026 identify Blazakis again as executive director.[^7] + +### Reports with OpenAI + +In November 2019 [[OpenAI]] published "Release Strategies and the Social Impacts of Language Models," whose author list includes Newhouse, Blazakis and Kris McGuffie with the affiliation CTEC, alongside OpenAI staff. The report names CTEC as a partner exploring how GPT-2 could be misused by terrorists and extremists, thanks Blazakis and Newhouse for feedback on earlier versions, and reproduces as its Appendix D a CTEC report of October 2019, "The Industrialization of Terrorist Propaganda: Neural Language Models and the Threat of Fake Content Generation," by Newhouse, Blazakis and McGuffie.[^8] + +In September 2020 McGuffie and Newhouse published "The Radicalization Risks of GPT-3 and Advanced Neural Language Models." The report states on its first page: "This project was made possible by the OpenAI API Academic Access Program." It found that GPT-3 showed significant improvement over GPT-2 in generating extremist texts, and stated that "OpenAI's preventative measures are strong" while describing a risk from unregulated copycat technology.[^9] + +### Grants from the Department of Homeland Security + +The [[Department of Homeland Security]] announced fiscal year 2021 [[Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention]] grants on September 27, 2021. One, of 629,533 dollars, went to CTEC with the [[iThrive Games Foundation]] for a game-based curriculum on radicalization; the federal spending database records it as award EMW-2021-GR-00032 with a period from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2023. Middlebury's announcement of November 9, 2021 gave the amount as 630,000 dollars over two years, with Newhouse as principal investigator.[^10][^11] + +The DHS announcement of September 14, 2022 listed two further awards connected to Middlebury. One, of 699,763 dollars, went to CTEC for a joint project with the nonprofit [[Take This]] and [[Logically]] to develop "a shared framework for understanding extremism in games," best practices and training workshops for community managers and trust and safety staff. The other, of 659,327 dollars, went to [[Arizona State University]] for the continuation of "Diverting Hate," a project on incel radicalization on [[Twitter]] begun by a student team from the Institute in the [[Invent2Prevent]] program. The federal spending database records a Middlebury College award, EMW-2022-GR-00036, at 686,633.14 dollars.[^10][^11] + +The Science and Technology Directorate of DHS paid [[RTI International]] to evaluate the 2021 grant, and RTI's profile, dated July 2024 and posted by DHS on January 27, 2025, records that the grant ran from October 2021 to March 2024 including a two-quarter extension. It was the center's first targeted violence prevention grant. The center held two co-design sessions with 22 adolescents and 11 playtests, consulted [[John Horgan]] and [[Christian Picciolini]], and built a single-player dialogue game; 13 adolescents completed it and 9 completed the pre- and post-game surveys, too few for an outcome evaluation. RTI reported delays caused by changes to the game format and difficulty recruiting schools.[^12] + +[[NCITE]], the DHS Center of Excellence at the University of Nebraska Omaha, was evaluating the same grant program during these years, and RTI International was one of its partners.[^13] + +### Funding from technology companies + +On September 29, 2022 CTEC announced a two-year grant from Logically, a company that describes itself as using artificial intelligence and human expertise against misinformation, to build a cross-platform social media database on the role of extremist organization, narrative creation and disinformation in radicalization, with Newhouse as principal investigator and the senior research scholar [[Matt Kriner]] assisting. The database was to combine archives from [[Telegram]], [[YouTube]], [[Instagram]], Twitter, [[Facebook]], [[Roblox]] and [[Steam]] with leaked material from [[Epik]], the [[Oath Keepers]], [[Iron March]], [[Fascist Forge]] and the [[International Third Positionist Forum]]. CTEC was one of three recipients of grants announced by Logically.[^14] Logically was sold in a pre-pack administration deal confirmed on July 7, 2025, in which [[Kreatur Ltd]], run by a former director and early investor in Logically, acquired its technology, brand and key assets.[^15] + +Middlebury's account of October 19, 2022 states that CTEC would partner with Meta and the [[White House]] #UnitedWeStand initiative, and that the partnership was announced at the summit of September 15, 2022. It quotes [[Dina Hussein]], then counterterrorism policy lead at Meta, and Newhouse, and states that CTEC "partners with [[Spectrum Labs]] to provide multilingual research support for the construction of artificial intelligence products."[^16] The White House fact sheet for the summit lists Meta among technology companies announcing actions and does not mention CTEC or Middlebury.[^17] + +### Telegram networks and the Accelerationism Research Consortium + +In June 2022 CTEC and [[Tech Against Terrorism]] published a report on two coalitions, the [[United Acceleration Front]] and the [[National Socialist Coalition]], that emerged on Telegram in early 2021 around [[Feuerkrieg Division]] and [[InJekt Division]]. The report states that the two organizations collected and analyzed data from associated channels and chats from June 2021 to February 2022, and that Tech Against Terrorism identified 21 entities in the network.[^18] Middlebury's 2022 account states that CTEC is a founder of the [[Accelerationism Research Consortium]], which it describes as the first research initiative on militant accelerationism, and Kriner is named as the consortium's managing director.[^14][^16] + +### Profiles of extremist organizations + +The center publishes a series titled "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors," with profiles that include [[The Base]] (March 6, 2022), the [[Active Club Network]] (March 15, 2023), [[Atomwaffen Division]] (April 12, 2023) and [[National Action]] (August 23, 2023). The profile of The Base states that its founder, [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]], is based in Russia and manages the group from afar, primarily through Telegram.[^19] The October 2020 Middlebury article also refers to a CTEC report of April 2020 on the [[Russian Imperial Movement]], which the State Department designated a specially designated global terrorist entity in the same month.[^2][^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Middlebury Institute of International Studies, "Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism," home page. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec +[^2]: Middlebury Institute of International Studies, "Alex Newhouse," faculty and fellow profile, https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/people/alex-newhouse ; Eva Gudbergsdottir and Anna Philips, "National Spotlight is on CTEC Counterterrorism Research on White Supremacist Movements," Middlebury Institute, October 27, 2020, https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/national-spotlight-ctec-counterterrorism-research-white +[^3]: Middlebury Institute of International Studies, "Jason Blazakis," faculty profile. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/people/jason-blazakis +[^4]: Office of Advancement, "$2 Million Gift Will Fund Expansion of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism," Middlebury Institute, May 24, 2023. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/2-million-gift-will-fund-expansion-center-terrorism +[^5]: "Katharine Petrich Announced as CTEC's New Interim Director," Middlebury Institute, November 17, 2023, https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/katharine-petrich-announced-ctecs-new-interim-director ; Ian Driscoll, "CTEC Announces New Director of Tech Policy and Strategy," Middlebury Institute, February 12, 2024, https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/ctec-announces-new-director-tech-policy-and-strategy +[^6]: "CTEC Welcomes J.M. Berger and Sam Jackson," Middlebury Institute, June 26, 2023. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/ctec-welcomes-jm-berger-and-sam-jackson +[^7]: CTEC home page, news items of May 7 and August 10, 2026, and "CTEC Experts" staff page. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-experts +[^8]: Irene Solaiman, Miles Brundage, Jack Clark, Amanda Askell, Ariel Herbert-Voss, Jeff Wu, Alec Radford, Gretchen Krueger, Jong Wook Kim, Sarah Kreps, Miles McCain, Alex Newhouse, Jason Blazakis, Kris McGuffie and Jasmine Wang, "Release Strategies and the Social Impacts of Language Models," OpenAI Report, November 2019, partnerships section, acknowledgements and Appendix D. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.09203 +[^9]: Kris McGuffie and Alex Newhouse, "The Radicalization Risks of GPT-3 and Advanced Neural Language Models," Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, September 16, 2020, executive summary. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2009.06807 +[^10]: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, press releases and grantee abstracts for the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, fiscal years 2021 (September 27, 2021) and 2022 (September 14, 2022), compiled PDF; USAspending.gov award records EMW-2021-GR-00032 (629,533 dollars, October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2023) and EMW-2022-GR-00036 (686,633.14 dollars), recipient "President and Fellows of Middlebury College." https://ecivis-partners.s3.amazonaws.com/bplih/grantfile/2c/2c8da5432f7e05dd7e86265ed0fe7b6e6d3fced9 ; https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/ +[^11]: Stephen Diehl, "Middlebury Institute Team Will Develop Game to Counter Extremist Recruitment in Schools," Middlebury Institute, November 9, 2021. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/middlebury-institute-team-will-develop-game-counter +[^12]: RTI International, "DHS FY2021 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grantee Evaluation Site Profile: Middlebury Institute's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism," July 2024, posted by DHS January 27, 2025. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-01/2025_0127_cp3-middlebury-institute-fy21-tvtpgrant-eval-report.pdf +[^13]: NCITE, "Evaluating Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention Programs," project page, University of Nebraska Omaha. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/research/research-projects/allen-impact-tvtp-grant-programs.php +[^14]: Stephen Diehl, "CTEC is Working on First-of-its-Kind Social Media Database on Far-Right Movements," Middlebury Institute, September 29, 2022. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/ctec-working-first-its-kind-social-media-database-far-right +[^15]: "AI fact-checker Logically sold off in administration deal," UKTN, July 7, 2025. https://www.uktech.news/ai/ai-fact-checker-logically-sold-off-in-administration-deal-20250707 +[^16]: Sierra Abukins, "CTEC Partners with Meta to Support White House Initiative to Combat Violent Extremism," Middlebury Institute, October 19, 2022. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/news/ctec-partners-meta-support-white-house-initiative-combat +[^17]: "Fact Sheet: The United We Stand Summit: Taking Action to Prevent and Address Hate-Motivated Violence and Foster Unity," The White House, September 15, 2022, via the American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fact-sheet-the-united-we-stand-summit-taking-action-prevent-and-address-hate-motivated +[^18]: Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism and Tech Against Terrorism, "Militant Accelerationism Coalitions: A Case Study in Neo-Fascist Accelerationist Coalition Building Online," June 2022, executive summary; Middlebury Institute landing page of June 7, 2022. https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/militant-accelerationism-coalitions-case-study +[^19]: Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: The Base" (March 6, 2022), https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors-base ; "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: The Active Club Network" (March 15, 2023), https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors-active ; "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: Atomwaffen Division" (April 12, 2023), https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors-4 ; "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: National Action" (August 23, 2023), https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors-5 +[^20]: Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: Nordic Resistance Movement" (November 18, 2022), stating that the Russian Imperial Movement "was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity by the U.S. State Department in April of 2020." https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/ctec-publications-0/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors-nordic-resistance-movement diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Mirror Group Newspapers.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Mirror Group Newspapers.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..27d366d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Mirror Group Newspapers.md @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Newspaper + - UK + - RobertMaxwell + - MirrorGroup + - PensionFunds + - PhoneHacking + - ReachPlc +alias: + - Mirror Group Newspapers + - Mirror Group + - MGN + - MGN Limited + - MGN Ltd + - Mirror Group Newspapers plc + - Mirror Group Newspapers Limited + - Mirror Group plc + - Trinity Mirror +summary: "Publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, bought by Robert Maxwell in 1984, floated in 1991, and the subject of DTI inspectors from 1992 and phone hacking litigation." +start: 1984 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Robert Maxwell]]" + reverse: true + start: 1984 + role: "proprietor" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Reach plc]]" + reverse: true + start: 1999 + role: "parent company, as Trinity Mirror plc and later Reach plc" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Department of Trade and Industry]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-06 + end: 2001-03-30 + role: "inspectors appointed under sections 432 and 442 of the Companies Act 1985" + fn: 13 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Samuel Montagu]]" + reverse: true + role: "merchant bank sponsoring the 1991 flotation" + fn: 4 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte]]" + reverse: true + role: "auditor" + fn: 8 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Lord Williams of Elvel]]" + reverse: true + role: "director, as stated in the Commons on December 12, 1991" + fn: 9 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Paul Vickers]]" + reverse: true + start: 1992-12 + role: "company secretary and group legal director" + fn: 24 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Piers Morgan]]" + reverse: true + start: 1996 + end: 2004-05 + role: "editor of the Daily Mirror" + fn: 23 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) is the publisher of the national titles the [[Daily Mirror]], the [[The Sunday Mirror|Sunday Mirror]] and *The People*. [[Robert Maxwell]] acquired the group in 1984 and floated it in 1991.[^1] Since 1999 its parent company has been the company incorporated in 1904 as the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo and now named [[Reach plc]].[^2] + +### Corporate Entities + +The Companies House register carries three companies with the group's name. Company 00168660 was incorporated on June 29, 1920 and was named Mirror Group Newspapers plc until April 21, 1994, Mirror Group Limited from that date until September 25, 2007, and since then Stradbrook Holdings Limited, described as a non-trading company. Company 02542560 was incorporated on September 24, 1990 as Adviser (160) Limited and has been named Mirror Group Newspapers Limited since April 21, 1994; a members' voluntary liquidation began on June 18, 2025, with two [[BDO]] practitioners appointed, and dissolution is due on November 3, 2026. Company 02571173, incorporated on January 2, 1991 as Legibus 1606 Limited and renamed MGN Limited on April 16, 1991, is the active publishing company at One Canada Square, [[Canary Wharf]].[^3] + +The parent company's register entry records the names The Liverpool Daily Post and Echo Public Limited Company (from February 15, 1982), Trinity International Holdings Public Limited Company (from January 11, 1985), Trinity Public Limited Company (from May 5, 1998), Trinity Mirror plc (from September 6, 1999) and Reach plc (from May 3, 2018).[^2] + +### Maxwell Ownership and the 1991 Flotation + +Maxwell bought the group in 1984. In 1990 [[Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte]] audited his main companies, and Maxwell attempted to disguise the financial collapse of the empire with secret loans from the Mirror Group pension fund. The group was floated in 1991, and receivers were appointed to Maxwell's personal estate the same year.[^1] + +The MGN board approved Maxwell's request for sole signatory authority, for unlimited amounts, over all company bank accounts at a board meeting called at midnight and held at 2.45am on the day he took over; the board of [[Maxwell Communication Corporation]] had agreed to the same request in 1981. From 1984 a central treasury, based from 1987 in Maxwell House, handled treasury functions for all of Maxwell's companies including MGN, and the MGN finance department's role was confined to collating bank balances and processing cheques.[^4] + +[[Samuel Montagu]] was the merchant bank sponsoring the flotation.[^4] [[Lawrence Guest]], finance director of MGN since 1977, sat on the pension fund investment committee, and [[Michael Stoney]], whom [[Kevin Maxwell]] had wanted as senior finance director in November 1990, was from May 1991 answerable to Maxwell and responsible for bank relations, the treasury function and relations with the auditors. [[Alan Clements]], who had retired as finance director of [[ICI]], was approached in March 1991 to join the board as a non-executive director. [[Robert Bunn]] was finance director of the private-side Maxwell companies and a director of MGN, and [[Alan Stephens]] was company secretary of MGN from 1984; Stephens had been named company secretary of Robert Maxwell and Company in 1965, a company deeply entangled in the affairs of Pergamon Press, on which a 1973 [[Department of Trade and Industry]] report had said that Maxwell could not be trusted to exercise "proper stewardship" of a publicly quoted company.[^5][^6] Stephens was also a director of [[Bishopsgate Investment Management]]; [[Peter Walker]] had insisted that the secretarial function be split between MGN and Maxwell Communication Corporation, and Walker, displeased that board documents were often handed to directors half an hour before meetings, declined the chairmanship before the split was implemented.[^5] + +### Pension Fund Transactions + +In February 1986 the MGN pension fund bought Strand House, next to the Mirror Building, for 17.1 million pounds. The building was leased to Pergamon Press, which bought it outright for 17.8 million pounds nine months later. Six months after the pension fund purchase, [[Savills]] valued it at 36 million pounds when it was offered as collateral for a loan of 105 million pounds. Guest was on the investment committee that approved the purchase, and there was no independent valuation.[^7] + +Shares in [[Reuters]] were sold by MGN to the pension fund and bought back some time later at an artificially low price on backdated documentation; Guest signed the agreement unwinding the transaction.[^7] Coopers audit staff recorded in a memorandum of matters for partners' attention that paired transactions before and after the balance sheet date removed and then reinstated an MGN liability to the pension fund, with the note: "We understand from Robert Bunn that the reasoning is 'political.'"[^8] A letter drafted by Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte in June 1991 and addressed to Bunn warned that accounting systems, management information and statutory accounts were "well below the levels we would consider adequate", and described the quality of audit information as "lamentably poor." The inspectors found that Bunn, with Kevin Maxwell, bore "the major responsibility" for deficiencies in the information provided to the auditors and "a significant responsibility" for purchases of Mirror Group shares by Maxwell in breach of undertakings in the flotation prospectus.[^8] + +### The Pension Funds in Parliament + +On December 12, 1991, in a Commons debate on pension funds, [[Kenneth Hind]] described the appropriation by Maxwell of between 300 million and 500 million pounds from the Daily Mirror and Maxwell Communication Corporation pension fund as the catalyst for the debate. He stated that Bishopsgate Investment Management was wholly owned by the Maxwell family and that Maxwell and his two sons were trustees of the fund. He also stated that Lord Williams of Elvel, the Labour deputy leader in the House of Lords and a director of MGN, had addressed the Lords on January 31 on corporate governance. During the debate a Member asked whether the Labour Party would disclose and return the money it had received from Maxwell, citing Early Day Motion 365.[^9] + +On June 8, 1992 the Secretary of State for Social Security, [[Peter Lilley]], told the Commons that 35,000 people had pensions or were members of pension funds within the Maxwell group, and that about 15,000 of them were guaranteed their pensions by Mirror Group Newspapers.[^10] On June 9, 1992 the Commons debated the Maxwell pensioners. Ron Leighton told the House that a deputation of Daily Mirror staff led by Joe Lynch had told him that Maxwell was taking over the Daily Mirror only to get hold of the pension fund, which Lynch put at about 500 million pounds.[^11] + +### Seymour Hersh and Nicholas Davies + +In October 1991 the Mirror Group published a series of prominent articles attacking [[Seymour Hersh]] and his British publisher [[Faber and Faber]] over Hersh's book *[[Samson Option|The Samson Option]]*, suggesting that the book made false allegations about Maxwell and [[Nicholas Davies]], a former foreign editor of the Daily Mirror. On Thursday, August 18, 1994 the group apologised "unreservedly" in court for those articles, acknowledged that its attacks were "entirely improper," and agreed to pay Hersh and Faber "substantial damages" and their costs.[^12] The allegations themselves, and the Commons motions and denials that followed publication, are set out on the Robert Maxwell and Nicholas Davies pages. + +### Inspectors, Regulators and Prosecutions + +The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry appointed two inspectors in June 1992 under sections 432 and 442 of the Companies Act 1985 to investigate the affairs and membership of Mirror Group Newspapers plc: [[Sir John Thomas]] and Raymond Turner. The report was published on March 30, 2001, and the Department announced that it was taking legal advice on directors' disqualification proceedings and that regulators and professional bodies had already acted on many of the events described.[^13] Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte had agreed in 1999 to pay 67.6 million pounds to Maxwell creditors, and the Joint Disciplinary Scheme fined [[PricewaterhouseCoopers]] a record sum the same year for shortcomings in the 1990 audit.[^14] + +The inspectors found that Clements bore "the major responsibility" among the directors for failing to ensure that the board could control the management of the company and Maxwell himself, and that his presence and that of Sir Robert Clark on the board "was used to convey the impression that MGN was a properly run listed company subject to the control of the board and not RM, whereas this was not the case." They found that board papers had been handed out as meetings started in 1991, and that the directors had in consequence "inadvertently" given Maxwell sole signatory authority on a new bank account.[^8] Of Stoney they found that he co-authorised two dozen unusual transactions between MGN and Maxwell private companies.[^8] + +Stoney was charged with conspiracy to defraud and false accounting over a 50 million pound loan from [[Bankers Trust]] to MGN in October 1991; the case did not come to court after Kevin Maxwell's acquittal at an earlier trial, and the [[Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales]] expelled Stoney. Bunn was tried for conspiracy to defraud over a pension fund transaction that took place after Maxwell's death, fell ill during the trial, and the prosecution dropped its case.[^8] The trial of Kevin and Ian Maxwell collapsed in 1995.[^14] + +### Phone Hacking Litigation + +[[Mr Justice Mann]] gave judgment in *Gulati v MGN Ltd* on May 21, 2015, on the claims of eight trial claimants for whom [[David Sherborne]] appeared; MGN was represented by [[Matthew Nicklin]] QC. The defendant had admitted liability to Shobna Gulati and nine other claimants in September 2014 and had published a general public apology for phone hacking in February 2015.[^15] Mann J found that phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering had been used in an extensive and habitual way across all three national titles from 1999 to 2006, and in 2017 MGN admitted that the findings applied to all newspaper desks at all three titles.[^16] The awards to individual claimants included 260,250 pounds to one, 188,250 pounds to another and 157,250 pounds to a third; the judge described the awards as far more substantial than in any hitherto reported privacy case.[^17] + +*The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* (case HC-2000-000003) was tried before [[Mr Justice Fancourt]] over several weeks from May 10 to June 30, 2023, with judgment on December 15, 2023. The claimants were [[Prince Harry]], Nikki Sanderson, Michael Turner and Fiona Wightman, and the claim was one of many in the fourth wave of what the court called the Mirror Newspapers Hacking Litigation.[^18] MGN contested the generic allegations, and Fancourt J found that unlawful information gathering had continued after August 2006 to some extent. Expenditure on private investigators over the period, calculated by the claimants at 9.7 million pounds and put by MGN at just under 9 million pounds, exceeded 1 million pounds in each year from 2003 to 2005; 118 of 129 articles relied on in *Gulati* and the managed claims pending with it were admitted or found to be the product of voicemail interception.[^19] The court awarded 140,600 pounds in total to the Duke of Sussex, with awards for fifteen of the thirty-three sample articles among its heads, and 31,650 pounds to Mr Turner, 67,500 pounds to Ms Sanderson and 22,750 pounds to Ms Wightman.[^20] + +The judge recorded that, as counsel for MGN emphasised at the start of closing submissions, by June 2023 MGN had paid out about 105 million pounds in compensation and costs to about 600 claimants in the Mirror Newspapers Hacking Litigation.[^21] MGN spent more than 2 million pounds on one investigator group, TDI/ELI. Documents which should have been disclosed for the *Gulati* trial in 2015 were not disclosed.[^22] [[Piers Morgan]] was editor of the Daily Mirror from 1996 until he was sacked in May 2004. MGN did not call him as a witness; the judge recorded that he had stated publicly on several occasions that although he knew about phone hacking, he had never hacked a phone or instructed anyone to hack one, and a former Mirror journalist, Mr Hipwell, gave evidence that Morgan knew of and took the benefit of the practice, evidence the judge in *Gulati* had described as "convincing."[^23] + +### Board and Legal Department Knowledge, 2003 to 2013 + +The 2023 judgment named five individuals whose knowledge of unlawful activity at the three titles was in issue: Marcus Partington, in-house lawyer at *The People* from 1997 and at the Mirror from 2002, deputy group legal director of Trinity Mirror plc from April 2007 and group legal director from 2014 to 2021; Paul Vickers, company secretary and group legal director of MGN from December 1992, a main board director from 1994, and holder of the same positions at Trinity Mirror plc from 1999 to 2014; [[Sly Bailey]], chief executive of Trinity Mirror plc from February 2003 to June 2012; Vijay Vaghela, group finance director from May 2003 to February 2019; and David Grigson, a director from January 2012 and chairman from May 29, 2012 to May 2018.[^24] + +Fancourt J found that the board of Trinity Mirror plc was by the end of Bailey's tenure "dysfunctional," with substantial parts of the business handled informally and not reported to the board. He found that Vickers knew of voicemail interception at least by 2003 and that Bailey knew, or turned a blind eye, from early 2007 at the latest; that the legal department knew; and that there was a pretence that there was "no credible evidence" of the practice when the board had desisted from investigating. He found that Vaghela, the non-executive directors and the former chairmen [[Victor Blank]] and Ian Gibson did not know, that no board agenda or minutes produced in the proceedings addressed unlawful information gathering or voicemail interception, and that a questionnaire circulated by Vickers in 2011 produced 44 denials. The company was taken to have known what Bailey and Vickers knew, and the board as a whole did not decide to condone or conceal the activity.[^25] + +The judge recorded that the [[Metropolitan Police|Metropolitan Police Service]] provided proof of the activity on a large scale in December 2013, that admissions followed in September 2014, and that MGN then tried to avoid disclosure and did not disclose material documents it knew it had.[^26] + +### Reach + +At the time of the December 2023 judgment Reach had made provisions of 45.4 million pounds for known claims, potential future claims and common costs.[^27] On February 9, 2024 Prince Harry and the publisher settled the remaining parts of his claim, with an initial payment of 400,000 pounds and further "substantial" damages.[^28] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Timeline: The Maxwell scandal," *Accountancy Age,* March 29, 2001, entries for 1984, 1990, 1991 and 1992. https://accountancyage.com/2001/03/29/timeline-the-maxwell-scandal/ ; *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), para 3 (the three national titles). https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2023/3217 +[^2]: Companies House, Reach plc, company number 00082548, incorporated November 11, 1904, previous names. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00082548 ; *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 3 and 13 (Trinity Mirror plc as parent from 1999 following a merger in late 1999, now Reach plc). +[^3]: Companies House, Stradbrook Holdings Limited, company number 00168660. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00168660 ; Mirror Group Newspapers Limited, company number 02542560, and its insolvency page. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02542560 and https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02542560/insolvency ; MGN Limited, company number 02571173. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02571173 ; each accessed October 1, 2026. +[^4]: Andrew Sawers, "Maxwell report: All the publisher's men," *The CFO,* May 9, 2001, quoting the DTI inspectors' report on Mirror Group Newspapers plc (profile of Lawrence Guest). https://the-cfo.io/2001/05/09/maxwell-report-all-the-publishers-men/ . The inspectors' report itself was not available online and is quoted here as quoted in that article. +[^5]: Sawers, *The CFO,* May 9, 2001, profiles of Michael Stoney, Alan Clements, Robert Bunn, Richard Baker and Alan Stephens (same URL). +[^6]: "Timeline: The Maxwell scandal," *Accountancy Age,* March 29, 2001, entry for 1973. https://accountancyage.com/2001/03/29/timeline-the-maxwell-scandal/ +[^7]: Sawers, *The CFO,* May 9, 2001, profile of Lawrence Guest (Strand House, Reuters shares) (same URL). +[^8]: Sawers, *The CFO,* May 9, 2001, profiles of Alan Clements, Robert Bunn and Michael Stoney (same URL). +[^9]: HC Deb, December 12, 1991, vol 200, cc1069-89, "Pension Funds," speech of Kenneth Hind and interventions. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/dec/12/pension-funds +[^10]: HC Deb, June 8, 1992, vol 209, cc11-13, oral answers, "Maxwell Pensions," answers of Peter Lilley. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/jun/08/maxwell-pensions +[^11]: HC Deb, June 9, 1992, vol 209, cc203-49, "Maxwell Pensioners," speech of Ron Leighton. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/jun/09/maxwell-pensioners +[^12]: "Writer wins damages, apology in libel suit," Associated Press, in *Deseret News,* August 20, 1994. https://www.deseret.com/1994/8/20/19125977/writer-wins-damages-apology-in-libel-suit/ (the date of the court appearance is taken from the article's "Thursday" and its Saturday publication date). +[^13]: Department of Trade and Industry, "DTI publishes inspectors report on Mirror Group Newspapers plc," March 30, 2001 (The Stationery Office, ISBN 0 11 515481 7), reproduced at https://wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/54e6de9e0c383719802572b9005141ed/1ab21f25f7a1e6fa802572ab004b3fc5?OpenDocument= +[^14]: "Timeline: The Maxwell scandal," *Accountancy Age,* March 29, 2001, entries for 1995 and 1999. https://accountancyage.com/2001/03/29/timeline-the-maxwell-scandal/ +[^15]: *Gulati and others v MGN Ltd* [2015] EWHC 1482 (Ch), Mann J, May 21, 2015, title page; *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 4 and 33. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2015/1482 +[^16]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 4, 11 and 26. +[^17]: *Gulati v MGN Ltd* [2015] EWHC 1482 (Ch), paras 435, 480, 537, 599, 701 and 702. +[^18]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), title page and paras 1 to 5. +[^19]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 167 to 172. +[^20]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 1616, 1619, 1633, 1655 and 1678. +[^21]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), para 118. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2023/3217 +[^22]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 27 and 123. +[^23]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 92, 312 and 319 and the summary of *Gulati* findings in Part II. +[^24]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), para 18(d). +[^25]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), paras 582 to 592. +[^26]: *The Duke of Sussex and others v MGN Limited* [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), para 585. +[^27]: "Reach shares rise after Prince Harry wins phone hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers," Proactive Investors, December 2023. https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1036329/reach-shares-rise-after-prince-harry-win-phone-hacking-case-against-mirror-group-newspapers-1036329.html +[^28]: "Prince Harry, Mirror Group Settle Phone-Hacking Case," *The Hollywood Reporter,* February 9, 2024. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/prince-harry-mirror-settle-phone-hacking-case-1235820827/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/NCITE.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/NCITE.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..736cfeec --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/NCITE.md @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - NCITE + - UniversityOfNebraskaOmaha + - DHSCenterOfExcellence + - CounterTerrorism + - DHSScienceAndTechnology + - TVTP + - NihilisticViolentExtremism +alias: + - NCITE + - National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center + - National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center + - NCITE Center of Excellence + - Center of Excellence for Terrorism Prevention and Counterterrorism Research + - TPCR +summary: "DHS Center of Excellence at the University of Nebraska Omaha, created by a ten-year cooperative agreement announced in February 2020, which also evaluates DHS prevention grants and had an April 2025 termination notice paused." +start: 2020-02-24 +location: "Omaha, Nebraska" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[DHS Science and Technology Directorate]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020-02-24 + role: "ten-year cooperative agreement, Office of University Programs" + fn: 1 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[DHS Science and Technology Directorate]]" + start: 2021-03-10 + role: "basic ordering agreement 70RSAT21G00000002, task orders for research" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Gina Ligon]]" + reverse: true + role: "director" + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Seamus Hughes]]" + reverse: true + role: "senior research faculty and policy associate" + fn: 17 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[National Strategic Research Institute]]" + start: 2023 + role: "explosives threat project with the Department of Defense research center" + fn: 4 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, known as NCITE, is a research consortium based at the [[University of Nebraska Omaha]] and designated by the [[Department of Homeland Security]] as its Center of Excellence for terrorism prevention and counterterrorism research. The center is funded through a ten-year cooperative agreement announced in 2020 and a basic ordering agreement signed in 2021, and the university also holds separate DHS grants for prevention and threat assessment projects. + +### Selection of the University of Nebraska Omaha + +On February 24, 2020, the [[DHS Science and Technology Directorate]] announced that the University of Nebraska Omaha would lead a consortium for a new Center of Excellence for Terrorism Prevention and Counterterrorism Research. The directorate stated that it would provide a grant of 3.65 million dollars for the first operating year of a ten-year grant period. [[William N. Bryan]], then the senior official performing the duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, was quoted in the release.[^1] The university's release of the same day described a "10-year, $36 million grant" from the [[Office of University Programs]], the largest single grant in the university's 112-year history, and a consortium of 17 partner institutions "stretching from Maine to Florida to Southern California." It named the center the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center of Excellence, quoted the University of Nebraska system president [[Ted Carter]] and the Omaha chancellor [[Jeffrey P. Gold]], and quoted Nebraska's governor, [[Pete Ricketts]], who thanked the university "for its successful effort to bring such an ambitious project to fruition." Representative [[Don Bacon]] was also quoted.[^2] The center and the university later gave the figure as 36.5 million dollars over ten years.[^3] + +The release named Gina Ligon as principal investigator. It described her as holding the Jack and Stephanie Koraleski Chair for Collaboration Science in the College of Business Administration, and listed her earlier work as "collecting data on terrorist group leaders and their business operations for the Department of Defense" and "co-developing a professional training program for civilian leaders from [[USSTRATCOM]] for the National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI)." [[Douglas Derrick]] was to lead the innovation and transition portfolio. The center was to occupy [[Mammel Hall]], where work had begun on what the release called a "privately-funded, $17 million, 44,000 square-foot addition."[^2] + +A 2022 article in the University of Nebraska Foundation magazine reported that the university was selected from about 75 institutions that submitted letters of interest, after a site visit by DHS officials, and that the center occupied a new wing of the Omaha business school. Ligon, an organizational psychologist, was quoted saying that the university was "the trusted agent, the academic partner of the Department of Homeland Security for all counterterrorism research."[^3] NCITE's 2023 announcements described more than 60 academics at 26 institutions, and a partnership with the National Strategic Research Institute, a [[Department of Defense]] university affiliated research center of the University of Nebraska. NCITE stated that Omaha was the only university with both a DHS Center of Excellence and access to such a research center.[^4] + +### Basic ordering agreement and task orders + +On March 10, 2021, the DHS Office of Procurement Operations entered basic ordering agreement 70RSAT21G00000002 with the University of Nebraska. The award description states that its purpose was "to initiate Phase V of OUP's 2 new Basic Ordering Agreements (BOAs) for a 5-year period, 1 BOA each to: CBTS / [[Texas]] A&M University and NCITE / University of Nebraska Omaha." The record gives a period from March 10, 2021 to March 9, 2026, a single-award structure, the Office of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology as funding agency, and a ceiling of 45,000,000 dollars, last modified on May 13, 2025. Obligations are recorded on the task orders and not on the agreement.[^5] + +NCITE announced on April 18, 2023 that the ceiling had been raised to 35 million dollars from 10 million, and that the original ceiling had been 5 million. [[Dana Saft]], the program manager at the Office of University Programs, was quoted in the announcement. The same release stated that other agencies could direct funding through the vehicle.[^4] + +The federal spending database lists eleven task orders to the University of Nebraska under the agreement between September 2021 and September 2025, with the following award amounts and periods of performance.[^6] + +- 70RSAT21FR0000084, 5,611,667.42 dollars, September 29, 2021 to March 18, 2025. +- 70RSAT22FR0000050, 997,092 dollars, September 27, 2022 to May 31, 2024, for a workshop and report on terrorist use of explosives. +- 70RSAT22FR0000108, 8,712,585 dollars, September 30, 2022 to March 17, 2025, described as "CP3 Grant Program Evaluations." +- 70RSAT23FR0000024, 1,622,181 dollars, June 12, 2023 to March 17, 2025. +- 70RSAT23FR0000046, 10,024 dollars, May 8 to June 7, 2023, described as "Metaverse Experience - Terrorist Adoption of Emerging Technology." +- 70RSAT23FR0000114, 748,618 dollars, September 14, 2023 to March 13, 2026. +- 70RSAT23FR0000115, 839,677.85 dollars, September 19, 2023 to March 18, 2025, for support to National Threat Evaluation and Reporting. +- 70RSAT24FR0000054, 195,628 dollars, July 24, 2024 to December 31, 2025, for a fusion center threat assessment using suspicious activity reporting. +- 70RSAT24FR0000098, 1,267,870 dollars, September 30, 2024 to July 8, 2025, for a soft target risk assessment. +- 70RSAT25FR0000046, 970,300 dollars with a ceiling of 1,498,249 dollars, September 29, 2025 to March 9, 2027, titled "Research on Emerging Activity of Criminal and Terrorist Groups (REACT)." +- 70RSAT25FR0000047, 1,849,416 dollars, September 29, 2025 to March 9, 2027, titled "Disrupting Cartels." + +A twelfth order, 70RSAT26FR0000072, titled "Countering Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) Threats," is listed at 1,838,383 dollars from September 30, 2026 to March 29, 2028 under a new basic ordering agreement, 70RSAT26G00000003, dated July 15, 2026.[^6] + +### Evaluation of DHS prevention grants + +DHS administers the [[Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program]] through its [[Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships]]. NCITE announced in April 2023 a three-year project of 4.5 million dollars, led by [[Matt Allen]], to evaluate the program, with partners at [[RTI International]] and the [[Public Policy Center of the University of Nebraska]].[^4] The NCITE report states that the Science and Technology Directorate asked the center to evaluate the program, and that its outcome evaluation used data from recipients in fiscal years 2016, 2020, 2021 and 2022. A second DHS program, [[Invent2Prevent]], was evaluated by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center. The NCITE project page lists Sarah Cook, director of the security and extremism research program of RTI International, on the research team.[^7][^8] + +The DHS announcement of the fiscal year 2021 grants lists a grant of 715,102 dollars to "University of Nebraska, Omaha, NCITE" for a project on tips reporting, combining tips data from [[Sarpy County, Nebraska]] with focus groups and laboratory studies and building a chatbot for reporting.[^9] The federal spending database records the corresponding award, EMW-2021-GR-00072, at 683,920.86 dollars with a start date of October 1, 2021.[^10] Separately, the Science and Technology Directorate paid RTI International to evaluate five fiscal year 2021 grantees, among them the [[Middlebury Institute CTEC]]; RTI's profile of that grant was posted by DHS on January 27, 2025.[^11] The same grant program funded the Middlebury center in fiscal years 2021 and 2022.[^9] + +The DHS task order titled "CP3 Grant Program Evaluations" is recorded at 8,712,585 dollars, and the NCITE announcement of the evaluation project gave 4.5 million dollars.[^4][^6] + +### Termination notice of April 2025 + +[[Nextgov]] reported on April 8, 2025 that DHS had halted funding to all grants and cooperative agreements in the Science and Technology Directorate, citing a memo titled "Termination of the Centers of Excellence" signed by Acting Under Secretary [[Julie Brewer]] and sent to Secretary [[Kristi Noem]], and citing two people familiar with the matter for the approval. A memo of March 4, 2025 listed new priority mission areas for the directorate, one of them "Counter Transnational Criminal Organizations and Other Illicit Actors."[^12] + +On April 25, 2025 Nextgov reported that the termination of NCITE had been paused after discussions between Senator Pete Ricketts and Noem. The University of Nebraska Omaha stated that it received a notification of award termination on April 8 and that DHS notified it a day later that the termination was paused. Ricketts told Nextgov that a main focus of NCITE was research on cartel activity, border security and related terrorism, and said at a town hall in [[Scottsbluff, Nebraska]] that Noem had told him, "I will keep [NCITE] funded through the fiscal year." The Alaska center ADAC-ARCTIC at the [[University of Alaska Anchorage]] was the other center reported as paused.[^13] + +Four of the task orders above carry end dates of March 17 or 18, 2025 in the federal spending database: 70RSAT21FR0000084, 70RSAT22FR0000108, 70RSAT23FR0000024 and 70RSAT23FR0000115.[^6] The two task orders beginning September 29, 2025 are titled "Disrupting Cartels" and "Research on Emerging Activity of Criminal and Terrorist Groups."[^6] NCITE's 2026 announcement stated that Ricketts "played an integral role in keeping the UNO-based Center and its research federally funded in 2025."[^14] + +A fact sheet of the Science and Technology Directorate dated March 2025 describes NCITE as a consortium with more than 40 university and industry partners, lists the [[George Washington University]] among its university partners, and lists as DHS alignment [[U.S. Customs and Border Protection]], the [[Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency]], [[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]], the [[Office of Intelligence and Analysis]], the [[Transportation Security Administration]], the [[United States Coast Guard]], the [[United States Secret Service]], the State of Nebraska, Douglas County and Sarpy County.[^15] On June 10, 2025, two months after the termination notice, Ligon submitted written testimony to a subcommittee of the [[Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs]] chaired by [[James Lankford]] on threats to the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 [[Los Angeles]] Olympics. The testimony lists "newly designated cartel terrorist organizations" among likely threat actors, refers to the [[State Department]] designation of ten cartels and transnational criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations, and asks the subcommittee to consider "restoring and protecting funding for the nine DHS Centers of Academic Excellence."[^16] + +### Prosecution research and the 764 report + +[[Seamus Hughes]], who had been deputy director of the [[GWU Program on Extremism]] from its founding in 2015, is a senior research faculty member and policy associate at NCITE. The NCITE biography lists a 2023 NCITE report with [[Pete Simi]] on threats to public officials and describes his earlier service at the [[National Counterterrorism Center]] and the [[Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee]].[^17][^18][^19] The 2015 newsletter of the Program on Extremism, obtained from DHS in a records release, stated that Hughes had been named to the [[Homeland Security Advisory Council]] of the DHS Secretary.[^20] + +NCITE's report "Prosecuting [[Nihilistic Violent Extremism]]: An Examination of Federal and State Charges Against 764 and Related Networks," dated December 20, 2025, names Hughes as principal investigator of the prosecuting threat actors team with [[Mackenzie Harms]], and [[Bettina Rottweiler]], [[Caitlin Clemmow]] and [[Austin Doctor]] as leads of the youth mobilization team. It states that it is based on work supported by DHS under grant award number 20STTPC00001-06. The report describes [[764 Network]] as founded in January 2021 by a teenager in Texas who had interacted with members of [[CVLT]] and [[Greggy's Cult]], and states that court records identify crossover in membership among the three. It reports that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] stated in December 2025 that it was conducting more than 350 investigations connected to 764 and other nihilistic violent extremist groups, and that [[Canada]] was the first country to designate 764 as a terrorist entity.[^21] An NCITE briefing of August 29, 2025 had given the FBI figure as over 250 open investigations.[^22] + +### Year seven + +On August 17, 2026 NCITE announced five new projects for its seventh research year, selected from 26 applicants after a DHS blind peer review. It stated that the Office of University Programs approved a 6.1 million dollar annual allocation under the ten-year cooperative agreement on July 10, 2026, that 17 projects would begin in early September, and that the center had been awarded more than 58 million dollars in DHS grants and contracts since 2020. The new projects include research on artificial intelligence vulnerabilities at sports and entertainment venues, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attack costs, drones and prosecution of illicit threat actors.[^14] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, S&T Public Affairs, "News Release: DHS Selects the University of Nebraska Omaha to Lead Center of Excellence for Terrorism Prevention and Counterterrorism Research," February 24, 2020. https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2020/02/24/news-release-dhs-selects-university-nebraska-omaha-lead-terrorism-research +[^2]: University Communications, "UNO Selected Lead by DHS to Oversee Counterterrorism, Terrorism Prevention Research Center," University of Nebraska Omaha, February 24, 2020 (Wayback Machine capture of September 8, 2025). https://web.archive.org/web/20250908125111/https://www.unomaha.edu/news/2020/02/uno-selected-lead-by-dhs-to-oversee-counterterrorism-terrorism-prevention-research-center.php ; the text was republished as "New Center to Lead Counterterrorism, Terrorism Prevention Research," Homeland Security Newswire, February 26, 2020, https://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20200226-new-center-to-lead-counterterrorism-terrorism-prevention-research +[^3]: Jackie Ostrowicki, "How a UNO Professor Is Leading A National Center Focused on Counterterrorism," University of Nebraska Foundation, March 2022. https://nebraska.edu/nuforne/gina-ligon +[^4]: NCITE Communications, "NCITE Increases Funding Agreement With DHS, Adds $25 Million to Ceiling," University of Nebraska Omaha, April 18, 2023. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/news/2023/04/boa-funding.php +[^5]: USAspending.gov, award record for indefinite delivery vehicle 70RSAT21G00000002 (Basic Ordering Agreement, University of Nebraska, DHS Office of Procurement Operations), period of performance March 10, 2021 to March 9, 2026, base and all options value 45,000,000 dollars, last modified May 13, 2025. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_IDV_70RSAT21G00000002_7001/ +[^6]: USAspending.gov, award records for task orders under 70RSAT21G00000002 and 70RSAT26G00000003 to "University of Nebraska," retrieved through the USAspending search and award endpoints on October 1, 2026; URL pattern https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD__7001_70RSAT21G00000002_7001/ (for example CONT_AWD_70RSAT22FR0000108_7001_70RSAT21G00000002_7001). The order 70RSAT26FR0000072 appears in the award search but its detail record returned no result on that date. +[^7]: Matt Allen, Andrea Walker and others, "TVTP Grant Program Formative and Outcome Evaluation Report," NCITE, University of Nebraska Omaha (digital commons item 106; Wayback Machine capture of May 24, 2025). https://web.archive.org/web/20250524203610id_/https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1105&context=ncitereportsresearch +[^8]: NCITE, "Evaluating Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention Programs," project page, University of Nebraska Omaha. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/research/research-projects/allen-impact-tvtp-grant-programs.php +[^9]: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, press releases and grantee abstracts for the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, fiscal years 2021 (announced September 27, 2021) and 2022 (announced September 14, 2022), compiled PDF. https://ecivis-partners.s3.amazonaws.com/bplih/grantfile/2c/2c8da5432f7e05dd7e86265ed0fe7b6e6d3fced9 +[^10]: USAspending.gov, award record EMW-2021-GR-00072, "Financial Assistance for Countering Violent Extremism," University of Nebraska, Omaha, 683,920.86 dollars, start October 1, 2021. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/ (recipient search "University of Nebraska," retrieved October 1, 2026). +[^11]: RTI International, "DHS FY2021 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grantee Evaluation Site Profile: Middlebury Institute's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism," July 2024, posted by DHS January 27, 2025. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-01/2025_0127_cp3-middlebury-institute-fy21-tvtpgrant-eval-report.pdf; list of five evaluated grantees at https://www.dhs.gov/publication/2021-targeted-violence-and-terrorism-prevention-grantee-evaluation-reports +[^12]: Alexandra Kelley, "DHS cancels S&T grants under a new mission focus for the directorate," Nextgov/FCW, April 8, 2025. https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/04/dhs-cancels-st-grants-under-new-mission-focus-directorate/404378/ +[^13]: Alexandra Kelley, "Senators privately advocated to save DHS Centers of Excellence," Nextgov/FCW, April 25, 2025. https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2025/04/senators-privately-advocated-save-dhs-centers-excellence/404872/ +[^14]: NCITE Communications, "In Seventh Year, NCITE Adds Projects on CBRN Deterrence, AI Vulnerabilities at Large Venues, and More," University of Nebraska Omaha, August 17, 2026. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/news/2026/08/ncite-year-seven.php +[^15]: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, "National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE)," fact sheet, March 2025. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-03/25_0331_st_ncite_fact_sheet.pdf +[^16]: Gina Ligon, written statement, "Terrorist Threats to International Sporting Events: A Look at Tactics, Threat Actors, and Targets," U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce and Regulatory Affairs, hearing of June 10, 2025, pp. 1-10. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Ligon-Testimony.pdf +[^17]: NCITE, "Seamus Hughes," staff biography, University of Nebraska Omaha. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/about-ncite/staff-directory/seamus-hughes.php +[^18]: NCITE, "Center Directory," University of Nebraska Omaha. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/about-ncite/staff-directory/index.php +[^19]: "Program on Extremism Launches at GW," GW Today, June 22, 2015. https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/program-extremism-launches-gw +[^20]: Program on Extremism Newsletter, December 17, 2015, DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate records release, pages NPPD 001896 to 001899. https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/Emails-re-GWU-Program-on-Extremism-1896-1939.pdf +[^21]: NCITE, "Prosecuting Nihilistic Violent Extremism: An Examination of Federal and State Charges Against 764 and Related Networks," research report, December 20, 2025. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/news/2025/12/img/prosecuting-nve-report.pdf +[^22]: NCITE, "NCITE Briefing: Nihilistic Violent Extremism," University of Nebraska Omaha, August 29, 2025. https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/news/2025/08/nve-landing-page.php diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8999868e --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.md @@ -0,0 +1,163 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - NCMEC + - CyberTipline + - CSAM + - ChildExploitation + - Nonprofit + - FederalGrants + - PhotoDNA +alias: + - National Center for Missing and Exploited Children + - National Center for Missing & Exploited Children + - The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children + - NCMEC +summary: "Nonprofit exempt since 1984 that operates the CyberTipline under 18 U.S.C. 2258A, draws about three quarters of its revenue from federal grants, and seats corporate directors from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Adobe." +start: 1984 +location: "Alexandria, Virginia" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[John Walsh]]" + reverse: true + role: "co-founder" + fn: 7 + - type: founded + with: "[[Revé Walsh]]" + reverse: true + role: "co-founder" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Michelle DeLaune]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive officer" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Ernie Allen]]" + reverse: true + role: "president and chief executive officer in December 2009" + fn: 8 + - type: funded + with: "[[Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention]]" + reverse: true + role: "federal grants; $41.4 million in fiscal year 2023" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Meta Platforms]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022 + end: 2022 + role: "top corporate donor in 2022, over $1 million" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Regina Schofield]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-12-12 + role: "chairperson; vice chair until 2025-12-11" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Manus Cooney]]" + reverse: true + role: "director on the returns for 2024 and 2025" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Sean Joyce]]" + reverse: true + role: "director on the returns for 2024 and 2025" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Heidi Heitkamp]]" + reverse: true + end: 2025-04-03 + role: "director on the return for 2024; director through 2025-04-03" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Jeff Collins]]" + reverse: true + role: "corporate board seat, Amazon Web Services" + fn: 7 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Jenny Lay-Flurrie]]" + reverse: true + role: "corporate board seat, Microsoft" + fn: 7 + - type: director_of + with: "[[John Penn II]]" + reverse: true + role: "corporate board seat, Adobe" + fn: 7 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Ellen Petrocci]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-12-12 + role: "corporate board seat, Verisign" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Michael Breslin]]" + reverse: true + role: "corporate board seat, LexisNexis Special Services" + fn: 7 + - type: director_of + with: "[[David L. Bowdich]]" + reverse: true + role: "corporate board seat, The Walt Disney Company" + fn: 7 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Amazon Web Services]]" + reverse: true + role: "technology contractor paid $291,871 in 2025" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[United States v. Ackerman]]" + role: "amicus curiae; held a governmental entity or agent by the Tenth Circuit" + fn: 5 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private nonprofit corporation, exempt under section 501(c)(3) since a ruling dated May 1, 1984, with its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.[^1] Its return states that its mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization, and states that its Exploited Children Division operates the [[CyberTipline]], manages a child victim identification program and maintains a hash-sharing list to support industry detection of online [[Child sexual abuse material|child sexual abuse material]].[^2] The Stanford Internet Observatory wrote in 2024 that Congress authorized NCMEC in 1984 under the Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1983 and that NCMEC created the CyberTipline in 1998.[^3] + +### Statutory Role + +[[18 U.S.C. § 2258A]] requires a provider with actual knowledge of an apparent violation involving child pornography to report to the CyberTipline of NCMEC, and directs that NCMEC "shall make available each report" to federal, state, local or designated foreign law enforcement; section 2258C lets NCMEC give providers hash values and other elements from reports.[^4] In [[United States v. Ackerman]], decided August 5, 2016, the Tenth Circuit (opinion by Judge [[Neil Gorsuch]]) held NCMEC a "governmental entity or agent," stating that its "law enforcement powers extend well beyond those enjoyed by private citizens" under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and 42 U.S.C. § 5773(b). NCMEC appeared as amicus curiae in support of the government, represented in part by [[Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner|Bryan Cave LLP]] of Kansas City; [[Dropbox]], [[Facebook]], [[Google]], [[Microsoft]], [[Pinterest]], [[Snapchat]] and [[Twitter]] are listed as amici for the government under other counsel.[^5] NCMEC's return for 2025 lists Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP among its five largest independent contractors, paid $303,290 for legal services.[^2] + +### Finances + +NCMEC's returns report total revenue of $66,813,108 for 2025, of which contributions and grants were $60,818,469 and government grants $50,280,968; expenses were $62,756,502 and net assets $83,655,346. For 2024 they report revenue of $64,507,554, contributions and grants of $59,854,342, of which government grants were $48,907,021. Its Schedule C reports lobbying expenditures of $212,126 for 2024 and $122,836 for 2025, described as the time of staff and consultants communicating with members of Congress and their offices.[^2][^6] The Nonprofit Explorer series of its returns gives total revenue of $47,255,932 for 2019, $53,896,819 for 2020, $54,122,734 for 2021, $60,183,871 for 2022 and $65,191,787 for 2023.[^1] + +The Stanford Internet Observatory reported that in 2022 NCMEC received about 68 percent of its $58 million revenue from government contracts and grants, mainly through the Department of Justice's [[Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention]]; that in fiscal year 2023 NCMEC received $41.4 million of that office's funds and the 61 Internet Crimes Against Children task forces $40.8 million; and that in 2022 "Meta and Old Navy were the top corporate donors; each contributed over $1 million."[^3] NCMEC's website states: "This Web site is funded, in part, through a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]]."[^7] + +NCMEC's return for 2025 lists these independent contractors paid over $100,000: 1900 Duke Street LP, for office rent, $2,482,621; Motion Recruitment Partners, for technology contract services, $488,563; Creative2 LLC, for website design and maintenance, $326,718; Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, for legal services, $303,290; and [[Amazon Web Services]], for technology contract services, $291,871.[^2] The list for 2024 names 1900 Duke Street LP ($2,502,776), Motion Recruitment Partners ($741,785), Fortitude Int'l LLC for technology contract services ($523,312), Orr Group Inc. for fundraising strategy services ($308,048) and Pivotal Solutions Inc. for technology contract services ($296,650).[^6] The 2025 return reports 552 employees, 664 volunteers, total assets of $107,288,189 and a governing body of 26 voting members, 24 of them independent; the 2024 return reports 520 employees, 950 volunteers, total assets of $103,543,622 and 30 voting members, 28 of them independent.[^2][^6] + +### Officers and Board + +On the return for 2025 the reportable compensation of the president and chief executive officer, [[Michelle DeLaune]], was $521,550 (plus $27,112 of other compensation); of the chief legal officer, [[Panayiota Souras]], $286,794; of the chief financial officer, [[Paul Beriault]], $273,556; of the chief operating officer, [[Derrick Driscoll]], $268,954; and of [[John Shehan]], senior vice president of the Exploited Children Division, $239,750. Schedule O reports family relationships between [[John Walsh]] and [[Revé Walsh|Reve Walsh]] and between John Shehan and [[Staca Shehan]], who is vice president of the Analytical Services Division.[^2] + +The directors on the 2025 return include [[Regina Schofield]] (vice chair until December 11, 2025, chairperson from December 12, 2025), [[Jon Grosso]] (chair until December 11, 2025), [[Bob Trono]] (chairperson-elect), Reve Walsh, John Walsh, [[Manus Cooney]], [[Sean Joyce]], [[Heidi Heitkamp]] (through April 3, 2025), [[Karen Quintos]], [[Courtney Gregoire]], [[Jeff Collins]], [[Chris Nelson]], [[John Penn II|John Penn]], [[Michael Breslin]] and [[Ellen Petrocci]] (from December 12, 2025).[^2] NCMEC's website, in October 2026, groups its directors into individual seats and corporate seats. The individual seats list Schofield as board chair, Trono with the affiliation "Lockheed Martin Incorporation," Cooney with "American Continental Group," Quintos as "Former CCO & CMO, Dell Technologies," and John and Reve Walsh as co-founders. The corporate seats list [[Bethany Biesenthal]] ([[Jones Day]]), [[David L. Bowdich]] ([[The Walt Disney Company]]), Michael Breslin (LexisNexis Special Services, Inc.), Jeff Collins (Amazon Web Services), [[Jenny Lay-Flurrie]] (Microsoft), Chris Nelson ([[Gap Inc.]]), John Penn II ([[Adobe]]) and Ellen Petrocci ([[Verisign]]).[^7] The returns for 2024 and 2025 do not list Lay-Flurrie, Bowdich or Biesenthal.[^2][^6] + +### Technology and Industry + +On December 15, 2009 Microsoft announced that it was donating PhotoDNA to NCMEC; the release quoted [[Ernie Allen]] as NCMEC's president and chief executive.[^8] The 2024 return of [[Thorn]], which reports software subscription revenue, lists Ernie Allen among its board members.[^9] + +### Reporting Disputes + +[[NBC News]] reported in July 2023 that NCMEC's senior vice president John Shehan said NCMEC had rescinded an invitation to [[Discord]] to join its CyberTipline Roundtable after the company failed to "identify a senior child safety representative to attend," and that NCMEC said Discord's average response to takedown notifications had slowed from about three days in 2021 to nearly five days in 2022.[^10] NCMEC's published tables give 75,038 takedown notifications to providers for 2021 and 80,969 for 2022.[^11] + +On April 29, 2025, Senator [[Marsha Blackburn]] wrote to the chief executives of Discord and X, citing "recent testimony from NCMEC's President and CEO to the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]]" and NCMEC data on declines in reports in 2024.[^12] On April 9, 2026, Senator [[Chuck Grassley]] released data that NCMEC had given his office on March 16, 2026 about eight companies, quoting NCMEC's statement that "Many ESPs regularly tout the number of reports they submit to the CyberTipline, but fail to disclose that millions of reports lack basic information," and a list of "poor reporter" companies whose reports in large part lacked location information.[^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 521328557 (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), IRS ruling date 1984-05-01, subsection 501(c)(3), filings 2011 to 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/521328557.json +[^2]: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2025 (IRS object ID 202611699349301126), Parts I, III, VII and VIII, Schedules C and O. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_06A.zip +[^3]: Stanford Internet Observatory, "The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Online Child Safety Ecosystem: Perspectives from Platforms, NCMEC, and Law Enforcement on the CyberTipline and How to Improve It," April 22, 2024, secs. 2 and 2.1. https://purl.stanford.edu/pr592kc5483 +[^4]: 18 U.S.C. §§ 2258A(c), 2258C, Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258A ; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258C +[^5]: United States v. Ackerman, 831 F.3d 1292 (10th Cir. 2016), No. 14-3265, counsel listing and paras. 14-17. https://openjurist.org/831/f3d/1292/united-states-v-ackerman +[^6]: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 (IRS object ID 202502169349301015). https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_08A.zip +[^7]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "Leadership: Board of Directors," accessed October 2026. https://www.missingkids.org/footer/about/leadership/leadership-profiles +[^8]: Microsoft, "Microsoft and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Push for Action to Fight Child Pornography," Microsoft Source, December 15, 2009. https://news.microsoft.com/source/2009/12/15/microsoft-and-national-center-for-missing-exploited-children-push-for-action-to-fight-child-pornography/ +[^9]: Thorn, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 (IRS object ID 202503189349315755), Part VII. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^10]: Ben Goggin, "Child predators are using Discord, a popular app among teens, for sextortion and abductions," NBC News, July 21, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/discord-child-safety-social-platform-challenges-rcna89769 +[^11]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "2021 Notifications by NCMEC per ESP" and "2022 Notifications by NCMEC per ESP." https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2021-notifications-by-ncmec-per-esp.pdf ; https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2022-notifications-by-ncmec-per-esp.pdf +[^12]: Marsha Blackburn, letters of April 29, 2025 to Jason Citron (Discord) and Linda Yaccarino (X Corp.). https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/2DCCC15A-5004-4640-9F08-B56C98F6D3E6 ; https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/C3C2DD2F-EAC2-45B5-BDC3-02CF414782DB +[^13]: Senate Judiciary Committee, "Grassley Releases New and Disturbing Information on Online Child Exploitation, Presses Tech Giants for Answers," April 9, 2026. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/grassley-releases-new-and-disturbing-information-on-online-child-exploitation-presses-tech-giants-for-answers diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Review.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Review.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b877bd5a --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/National Review.md @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Media + - Magazine + - Conservatism + - WilliamFBuckley + - CIA + - EHowardHunt + - NationalReviewInstitute +alias: + - National Review + - NR + - National Review Inc. + - National Review Inc + - National Review Online + - National Review magazine +summary: "Conservative weekly founded November 19, 1955 by William F. Buckley Jr., with former CIA and Office of Policy Coordination personnel among its early editors, owned since August 1, 2015 by the National Review Institute." +start: 1955-11-19 +location: "New York, New York" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[William F. Buckley Jr.]]" + reverse: true + start: 1955-11-19 + role: "founder, editor and publisher" + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[National Review Institute]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-08-01 + role: "sole owner of National Review Inc." + fn: 2 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[James Burnham]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Willmoore Kendall]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Frank Meyer]]" + reverse: true + start: 1957 + end: 1972 + role: "senior editor and columnist" + fn: 7 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Priscilla Buckley]]" + reverse: true + start: 1957 + role: "managing editor from 1959" + fn: 8 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +*National Review* is an American conservative magazine whose first issue was dated November 19, 1955, under the editor and publisher [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] The opening statement by Buckley in that issue said that the magazine "stands athwart history, yelling Stop."[^1] National Review Inc., a New York corporation (EIN 13-1899384), has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the [[National Review Institute]], a 501(c)(3) charity Buckley founded in 1991, since August 1, 2015.[^2] + +### Masthead, 1957 + +A copy of the issue of February 2, 1957 is held in a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] file. Its masthead lists Buckley as editor and publisher; [[James Burnham]], [[Willmoore Kendall]] and [[William S. Schlamm]] as editors; [[L. Brent Bozell]] and [[John Chamberlain]]; [[Frank Meyer]] and [[Morrie Ryskind]] as associates; and Sam M. Jones as Washington correspondent. Its list of contributors includes [[Max Eastman]], [[J. B. Matthews]] and [[Revilo Oliver]].[^3] An undated masthead preserved in the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s file on Buckley lists [[William A. Rusher]] as publisher and, as editors, Bozell, Burnham, Chamberlain, [[Whittaker Chambers]], Kendall, Suzanne La Follette and Meyer.[^4] + +### Intelligence Service of the Founding Staff + +[[Howard Hunt|E. Howard Hunt]] wrote in his 1974 memoir *Undercover* that in 1950 he met and frequently conferred with Burnham, a former professor of philosophy whom he described as "a consultant to OPC on virtually every subject of interest to our organization," OPC being the [[Office of Policy Coordination]], the covert-action office placed under the Central Intelligence Agency. Hunt wrote that Burnham, by virtue of his Trotskyite background, was something of an authority on communist parties and front organizations, and that through Burnham he met Buckley.[^5] + +Willmoore Kendall, a political scientist, worked from 1942 in the offices of Inter-American Affairs in Washington and, according to a biographical profile in *Modern Age,* was appointed chief of the Inter-American Division, Office of Reports and Estimates, of the Central Intelligence Agency; he resigned that position in 1948 for an associate professorship at Yale, where he met Buckley, and in 1955 became a founding editor of the magazine.[^6] + +Frank Meyer joined the British Communist Party in 1931 as a student at Oxford, was expelled from the London School of Economics and deported from England in 1934, and began to draw away from the party in 1945. In the early 1950s, John Judis wrote, he was an expert government witness at Smith Act trials in New York and Chicago. [[Ralph de Toledano]], who had known him on the left, introduced him to Buckley in 1955, and he became a senior editor in 1957 and remained until his death in 1972.[^7] + +[[Priscilla Buckley]], the managing editor from 1959, appears in a printed biographical directory entry preserved in the FBI file as "reports officer CIA, Washington, 1951-53," followed by "with Nat. Review mag., N.Y.C., 1957-, mng. editor, 1959-."[^8] In the entries for William F. Buckley Jr. reproduced in the same file from two editions of a biographical directory, the listed positions are "Sr. editor American Mercury, 1952" in one and "Asso. editor Am. Mercury, 1952" in the other, then editor-in-chief of *National Review* from 1955; the second also lists membership of the [[United States Information Agency|U.S. Information Agency]]'s advisory commission from 1969, and neither entry lists service with the Central Intelligence Agency.[^8] + +### Buckley in Mexico City + +Hunt wrote that he volunteered to open the Office of Policy Coordination station in [[Mexico City]], began planning in the late summer of 1950, and interviewed candidates to work for him as agents outside the embassy: "First on my list was Bill Buckley, who readily agreed and set about working out details of his cover." Hunt wrote that Burnham had told him Buckley was looking for the best way of working against the Stalinists and that Buckley spoke English, Spanish and French.[^9] + +Hunt wrote that he assigned Buckley to help Eudocio Ravines, a Chilean communist who had been recruited by the Agency and was living in Mexico City under an alias, finish *The Yenan Way* and translate it into English; that when Scribner's accepted the translation Buckley decided to leave Mexico and the Agency; and that Buckley told him he was thinking either of purchasing the *American Mercury* or of founding a magazine of his own. In a footnote Hunt wrote that he and his wife had asked Buckley to be guardian of their children and executor of their estate, and that Buckley, already the children's godfather, agreed.[^10] + +### The Director of Security's Memorandum, 1958 + +A memorandum of November 24, 1958 from the CIA's Director of Security to the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] concerns an article in the *National Review Bulletin* of November 15, 1958 asserting that the Agency was responsible for the Dutch publication of Boris Pasternak's *Doctor Zhivago.* The memorandum states that a source of the [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] had advised that Ralph de Toledano wrote the article, describes de Toledano as a member of "the extreme right wing element" and a close associate of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], and states that the editors of *National Review* and the *Bulletin* "have had numerous articles in the past charging that the Committee for Free Europe and [[Radio Free Europe]] are CIA sponsored and financed."[^11] A text excerpt from the magazine, catalogued with the Agency's records as of 1958, states that *National Review* was encouraged by the enthusiasm of a number of serious persons for a "private investigation of Radio Free Europe," that an informal meeting of prospective members of a committee had been held, and that the enterprise was hampered by lack of funds.[^12] + +### The FBI File, 1950 to 1969 + +The FBI file begins with a memorandum of October 20, 1950 from [[Louis B. Nichols]], Assistant to the Director, to [[Clyde Tolson]]. It records that Buckley, who had been editor of the *Yale Daily News* the year before and had sponsored a forum at which Nichols spoke, had written asking to visit the Bureau, that Nichols arranged for him to call at his office, and that "an Agent in Mr. Jones' office will take Buckley on a very special tour." Nichols noted that after the Yale forum he had said that someday the Bureau would hear from Buckley. A later note in the file describes Buckley as an outspoken anticommunist who became friendly with Nichols, by then an executive vice president of Schenley Industries. A summary memorandum in the file records that Buckley and his wife came to the Bureau on October 25, 1950, were given "a very special tour of Bureau facilities" and met the Director, and that in April 1953 Buckley told Nichols he was writing a book to counteract the books of [[Alan Barth]] and Biddle denouncing loyalty and security investigations. A memorandum of October 1962 records that Buckley, identified as editor of *National Review,* was given a special tour on October 26, 1962 after a brief visit with the Director in his office, commented on the excellence of the communism exhibit, and was provided Bureau transportation to the [[White House]] for the public tour.[^13] + +On May 28, 1969 the President named Buckley to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information. An FBI memorandum of the following days states that the White House had requested an investigation; that the Bureau's main files showed "limited but cordial relations with Buckley in the past"; and that he had been on the Bureau's Special Correspondents List until May 25, 1967, when he was removed after writing in *National Review* a mock editorial of the *[[New York Times]]* "at the expense of the Director." A teletype dated June 2, 1969 ordered the inquiry completed by June 9 and directed that no neighborhood investigation be conducted without Bureau approval.[^14] + +A teletype in the inquiry lists associates of the appointee, among them Senator [[Barry Goldwater]], Senator [[Jacob Javits]], Peter Starr, president of Starr Broadcasting Group of Omaha, and James Burnham, assistant editor of *National Review.* It states that "among others" the members of the board of directors of *National Review* were Roger A. Moore, Morrie Ryskind and Lloyd H. Smith, with other names redacted.[^15] A biographical summary in the file lists Buckley as chairman of the board of directors of Starr Broadcasting Group, Omaha, Nebraska, and as a member of the board of directors of Catawba Corporation, New York.[^16] Peter Starr told agents that he had known Buckley since 1954, that Buckley was the majority stockholder and chairman of Starr Broadcasting Group and Starr the minority stockholder, and that the company had been founded with Buckley's financial backing. A person whose name is redacted told agents that Buckley had published *National Review* for many years although it operated at a financial loss and that he had offset losses by soliciting contributions from friends and subscribers.[^17] + +### Hunt and Watergate, 1973 + +On January 21, 1973 the program *Firing Line* on station WETA in Washington, hosted by Buckley, broadcast a discussion on the CIA and Cuba with E. Howard Hunt and the Havana lawyer Mario Lazo. A transcript prepared for a public affairs staff is among the CIA's records. Buckley introduced Hunt as having been intimately involved as an official in the Central Intelligence Agency in the [[Bay of Pigs]], and asked him whether public identification as a long-time CIA official allowed him to discuss the Agency's activities.[^18] + +In August 1973 an FBI background check on Buckley for a government appointment recorded the statement of [[Arthur Schlesinger Jr.]], who said on August 15 that he had debated Buckley publicly on a number of occasions, thought him a person of good character and a loyal American, and had some question concerning Buckley's associates because it was his understanding that Buckley was a good friend of E. Howard Hunt, "connected with the Watergate break-in," and the godfather of some of his children; Schlesinger said he was very much opposed to Buckley's ideas and would not recommend him for a government position. The teletype also directed the New York office to check court records on a libel suit against *Esquire* magazine and [[Gore Vidal]].[^19] + +Hunt wrote in *Undercover* that after his testimony to the Senate, thousands of telegrams and letters arrived and were answered by "a small committee William Buckley established in my behalf at his National Review offices." Hunt wrote that Buckley solicited funds for his legal defense and, when returns were disappointing, suggested that he retain Buckley's personal attorney, C. Dickerman Williams, at no cost.[^20] + +### Copeland and the Watergate Hearings, 1973 + +The staff report on the CIA and Watergate prepared for Senator [[Howard Baker]] of the Senate Watergate Committee after the committee's public hearings records that in the issue of September 14, 1973 of *National Review,* [[Miles Copeland]] wrote an article entitled "The Unmentionable Uses of a CIA," suggesting that [[James McCord]] had led the Watergate burglars into a trap. The report records it alongside an article in *Harper's Magazine* by Andrew St. George that indicated former Director of Central Intelligence [[Richard Helms]] had prior knowledge of the break-in.[^21] The journal of the CIA's Office of Legislative Counsel for November 19, 1973 records a conversation between two Senate Armed Services Committee staff members and Copeland in London about allegations in two recent articles by him in *National Review,* and a meeting with Senator [[Stuart Symington]], who said that he was inclined to "let all the St. Georges and Copelands have their say" and then rebut them on the Senate floor.[^22] + +### Agency Assessments, 1957 to 1962 + +A memorandum of December 13, 1957 for the Director of Central Intelligence, prepared by an assistant to the Director, counts 26 clippings in the Agency's files on references to the CIA by the columnist Fulton Lewis Jr. between January 1950 and December 1957, fourteen of them derogatory. It names Senator McCarthy, Westbrook Pegler, *The American Mercury* and *The National Review* as examples of others sharing Lewis's general point of view who "have shown no friendliness toward CIA," and states that there is no evidence that the groups have any cohesiveness, including an agreed plan of attack.[^23] An action memorandum from the Office of the Director dated October 1962 records that Director [[John McCone]] had picked out of his press clipping file an article from *National Review* of October 9 entitled "Swiped from the CIA, Relocation Bulletin 19, Toilet Facilities," and asked for background.[^24] + +### Ownership and Funding + +The National Review Institute's Form 990 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2017 reports National Review Inc. in Schedule R as a related corporation engaged in magazine sales, 100 percent owned by the Institute. The return lists as trustees [[Rich Lowry]], Jack Fowler, [[John Bolton]], [[Dick DeVos]], David Bahnsen, Daniel Mahoney, Brian Murdock, John Buser, L. Stanton Towne, Robert Agostinelli and Peter Travers among others, and as fellows [[Jonah Goldberg]], [[Kevin Williamson]], [[Kathryn Lopez]], [[Ramesh Ponnuru]] and Jay Nordlinger. Lowry and Fowler received reportable compensation of 367,206 dollars and 225,397 dollars respectively from related organizations, and the Institute's president received 289,752 dollars.[^25] + +ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer lists the Institute's total revenue as 519,459 dollars for the fiscal year ended July 2013, 3,963,429 dollars for July 2014, 3,286,106 dollars for July 2015, 9,034,282 dollars for July 2016, 5,689,857 dollars for July 2017 and 7,342,526 dollars for July 2018.[^26] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: William F. Buckley Jr., "Our Mission Statement," *National Review,* November 19, 1955, reproduced by the National Review Institute. https://nrinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Our-Mission-Statement.pdf +[^2]: National Review Institute, "About NRI" (founded 1991; August 1, 2015 reorganization making National Review, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary). https://nrinstitute.org/about-nri/ ; National Review Institute, Form 990 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2017, EIN 13-3649537, Schedule R (National Review Inc, EIN 13-1899384, ownership 100 percent), object ID 201733469349300108, from the Internal Revenue Service bulk e-file archive. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2017/download990xml_2017_6.zip +[^3]: *National Review,* February 2, 1957, masthead and cover, as held in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP78-01416R000200080025-7 (text from the optical character recognition of the scan; some names are partly garbled). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp78-01416r000200080025-7 +[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 1, undated *National Review* masthead. https://archive.org/details/foia_Buckley_William_F.-HQ-1 (optical character recognition text, no page numbers). +[^5]: E. Howard Hunt, *Undercover: Memoirs of an American Secret Agent* (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1974), pp. 68-69 (page numbers taken from the running heads of the scanned text). https://archive.org/details/undercovermemoirsofanamericansecretagent +[^6]: "Willmoore Kendall," *Modern Age,* online biographical profile. https://modernagejournal.com/willmoore-kendall-3/244747/ +[^7]: John B. Judis, "The Godfather of American Conservatism," Alicia Patterson Foundation. https://aliciapatterson.org/john-judis/the-godfather-of-american-conservatism/ +[^8]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 2, printed biographical directory entries for Priscilla Langford Buckley and William Frank Buckley Jr. (directory titles not shown in the scan). https://archive.org/details/foia_Buckley_William_F.-HQ-2 +[^9]: Hunt, *Undercover,* pp. 68-69. +[^10]: Hunt, *Undercover,* pp. 76-77 (page numbers taken from the running heads of the scanned text). +[^11]: Central Intelligence Agency, Memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence from the Director of Security, "Article in the National Review Bulletin of 15 November 1958 concerning the book 'Dr. Zhivago,'" November 24, 1958, CIA Reading Room document 0005796341 (scan partly illegible). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0005796341 +[^12]: CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP74-00297R000900080057-6, text excerpt from *National Review.* https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp74-00297r000900080057-6 +[^13]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 1, memorandum L. B. Nichols to Mr. Tolson, October 20, 1950, with Buckley's letter of October 19, 1950, and later routing note; summary memorandum on the main file; memorandum on the October 26, 1962 tour (the scan is partly illegible; the dates of the proposed 1950 visit in the first memorandum are not relied on). https://archive.org/details/foia_Buckley_William_F.-HQ-1 +[^14]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 2, "Special Inquiry - White House" memorandum and teletype of June 2, 1969. https://archive.org/details/foia_Buckley_William_F.-HQ-2 +[^15]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 2, 1969 inquiry teletype listing associates and board members (names partly redacted; scan partly illegible). +[^16]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 1, biographical summary (the scan is partly illegible). https://archive.org/details/foia_Buckley_William_F.-HQ-1 +[^17]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 2, 1969 interview summaries (Peter H. Starr; one interviewee redacted). +[^18]: *Firing Line,* WETA-TV Washington, January 21, 1973, transcript, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP84-00499R000200010003-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp84-00499r000200010003-1 +[^19]: FBI file on William F. Buckley Jr., headquarters file part 2, teletype of August 1973 reporting the interview of Arthur Schlesinger on "8/15/73." +[^20]: Hunt, *Undercover,* pp. 322-323 (page numbers taken from the running heads of the scanned text). +[^21]: United States Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (staff), "CIA Investigation," report to Senator Howard Baker on the CIA and Watergate, 1973, introduction and note citing Miles Copeland, "The Unmentionable Uses of a CIA," *National Review,* September 14, 1973, p. 996; CIA Reading Room document C01481990. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01481990 +[^22]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Legislative Counsel, Journal, Monday, November 19, 1973, items 5 and 6, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP75B00380R000400010011-9. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75b00380r000400010011-9 +[^23]: Central Intelligence Agency, Memorandum for the Director, "Fulton Lewis, Jr.," December 13, 1957, paras 2, 18 and 19, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP74-00297R000900070007-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp74-00297r000900070007-2 +[^24]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director, Action Memorandum No. S-254 (October 1962; day not legible in the scan), CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP80B01676R000200060002-4. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80b01676r000200060002-4 +[^25]: National Review Institute, Form 990 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2017, Part VII and Schedule R (see note 2). +[^26]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, National Review Institute, EIN 13-3649537, API v2 organization record. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133649537 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/People's Temple.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/People's Temple.md index 2d1a6319..d76ab96a 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/People's Temple.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/People's Temple.md @@ -1,56 +1,267 @@ --- category: "Private Organization" tags: + - Organization - Event + - PeoplesTemple + - Jonestown + - Guyana + - Assassination - MKULTRA - CIA - - Assassination -summary: "The 1978 mass deaths of 918 people at the People's Temple agricultural commune in Guyana, investigated as a possible MKULTRA experiment due to the discovery of drugs used in known CIA operations and the presence of CIA agent Richard Dwyer." -location: Jonestown, Guyana -created: 2026-06-03 -updated: 2026-06-03 + - LeoRyan + - SovietUnion + - HouseForeignAffairs +alias: + - People's Temple + - Peoples Temple + - Peoples Temple Christian Church + - People's Temple Christian Church + - People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ + - Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ + - Jonestown + - Jonestown massacre + - Jonestown Massacre + - Jonestown tragedy + - Peoples Temple Agricultural Project +summary: "Church led by Jim Jones that moved most members from California to a leased Guyana settlement, where 909 people died on November 18, 1978, after Leo Ryan was shot at the Port Kaituma airstrip." +end: 1978-11-18 +location: "Jonestown, Guyana" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Jim Jones]]" + reverse: true + role: "founder and director" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jim Jones]]" + reverse: true + end: 1978-11-18 + role: "leader of the People's Temple and of Jonestown" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[House Committee on Foreign Affairs]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-11-21 + end: 1979-05-15 + role: "Staff Investigative Group inquiry ordered by Chairman Clement J. Zablocki; report dated May 15, 1979" + fn: 4 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[United States Customs Service]]" + start: 1977-02 + end: 1977-09 + role: "investigation of reported gun shipments and contraband to Jonestown" + fn: 14 + - type: represented + with: "[[Charles Garry]]" + reverse: true + start: 1977-07 + role: "legal counsel" + fn: 67 + - type: represented + with: "[[Mark Lane]]" + reverse: true + role: "legal counsel" + fn: 20 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]" + start: 1980-04 + end: 1980-11 + role: "review of allegations of CIA involvement referred by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 3, 1980" + fn: 56 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Larry Layton]]" + reverse: true + end: 1978-11-18 + role: "member and Jonestown security force member; convicted in 1986 over the Port Kaituma shootings" + fn: 64 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 --- -The mass deaths at [[Jonestown]], [[Guyana]], on November 18, 1978, resulted in the deaths of 918 people at the People's Temple compound led by [[Jim Jones]] and at the nearby airfield at [[Port Kaituma]]. [[Congressman]] [[Leo Ryan]], a [[California]] Democrat, became the first and only sitting member of [[Congress]] assassinated in the line of duty. Three journalists and a People's Temple defector were also murdered at the airfield. The official version held that Jim Jones's followers committed mass suicide by swallowing cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in an act of religious devotion. Surviving relatives and investigators raised the possibility that the massacre was connected to a [[CIA]] behavioral modification program, and that many of the dead were actually murdered.[^1][^2] +The People's Temple was a church organization led by [[Jim Jones]] that moved most of its membership from [[California]] to a leased agricultural settlement in [[Guyana]] known as [[Jonestown]].[^1] On November 18, 1978, [[Leo Ryan]], a California Democrat and member of the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs]], was shot and killed at the [[Port Kaituma]] airstrip after visiting the settlement, and a mass suicide and murder ritual began at Jonestown at about 5 p.m. The committee's staff report counted 909 deaths at Jonestown, including Jones, five killed at the airstrip (Ryan, three journalists and a Temple defector), and four found dead at the Temple's headquarters in [[Georgetown]]; the three figures add to 918. A [[State Department]] situation report of the Guyana Task Force dated shortly after the deaths gave the final count of bodies removed from Jonestown as 912 or 913.[^2][^3] Chairman [[Clement J. Zablocki]] ordered the staff inquiry on November 21, 1978. The Staff Investigative Group received 902 State Department documents dated June 7, 1974, through November 29, 1978, and conducted 155 hours of on-the-record interviews with 62 persons, producing 5,038 pages of transcript that the committee classified confidential.[^4] The official account holds that Jones's followers swallowed a cyanide-laced drink. Curt Rowlett wrote in 1998 that new information revealed the possibility that the deaths were an [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA]] mind-control experiment conducted by the [[CIA]] and that most of the dead were murdered, and [[Wayne Madsen]] wrote in 2007 that the CIA kept extensive open-source records on its suspected involvement with the Temple.[^5][^6] -### CIA Presence at Jonestown +### Incorporation in Guyana and the Jonestown Lease -Jack Anderson reported on September 27, 1980, that [[Richard Dwyer]], the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in [[Georgetown]], Guyana, was a CIA agent and a friend of Jim Jones. Dwyer and U.S. Ambassador John Burke had both allegedly worked for the CIA in [[Bangkok]] during the [[Vietnam War]]. Dwyer was wounded in the Port Kaituma shootings where Ryan and the others were killed. On the death tape recorded during the final moments, Jones was heard saying, "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him." Dwyer reportedly left Guyana for [[Grenada]] after the massacre. The U.S. Consular Officer at the Georgetown embassy, [[Richard McCoy]], allegedly liaised with Jones and was a [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] intelligence official. Another alleged CIA employee, [[Dan Webber]], operating under State Department cover, visited Jonestown the day after the massacre.[^2] +The State Department told the House committee on December 13, 1978, that Temple representatives visited Guyana in 1973 to explore agricultural development, and that in February 1974 two Temple trustees applied to the Guyanese government for a long-term lease of 25,000 acres near Port Kaituma, about 130 miles northwest of Georgetown. The Guyanese Parliament incorporated the People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ by act on March 7, 1975. In February 1976 the government granted a lease of 3,842 acres in the North West District at a nominal rent. The lease required the Temple to clear, cultivate and occupy at least half the acreage during the first seven years and to report to the government at five-year intervals. The Temple stated an intention to invest about 400,000 dollars in the first two years and deposited capital with a government-owned bank.[^7] -### Drugs Found at the Site +[[Joe Holsinger]], Ryan's administrative assistant, told a San Francisco forum on May 23, 1980, that a report by the [[Alliance for the Preservation of Religious Liberty]] named [[Phillip Blakey]], a British citizen, as the person who arranged the lease and the money for it in 1974.[^8] The attorney W. William Wilson told the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] on April 16, 1980, that the [[Chicago Defender]] had reported Blakey worked for the CIA in 1975 and recruited mercenaries for the [[UNITA]] forces in [[Angola]], and that the paper cited a former senior Guyanese government administrator and other sources.[^9] The House staff report lists Philip Blakey as the husband of the defector [[Deborah Layton Blakey]] and as one of three family members, with her mother and her brother [[Larry Layton]], who remained at Jonestown.[^10] -A huge cache of mind-altering drugs was discovered at Jonestown following the massacre, including Thorazine, sodium pentothal, Demerol, thallium, chloral hydrate, and Largatil. These drugs were consistent with those used in known [[MKULTRA]] and behavioral modification operations. The presence of such quantities in an agricultural commune suggested a purpose beyond routine medical care.[^2] +The House staff group reported evidence of a strong working relationship between the Temple and some Guyanese officials, especially in customs and immigration. It found that the Temple had a privileged status that allowed it to bring items into Guyana outside the usual customs procedures, that shipments were often inspected perfunctorily or not at all, and that the Temple likely brought large sums of money and guns into the country in suitcases and false-bottom crates. Temple members could have customs areas at Timehri Airport closed to other citizens to ease the entry of members or hinder the exit of defectors, and the visas of Temple opponents were curtailed on arbitrary decisions that the [[United States Embassy in Georgetown]] later reversed.[^11] The report records repeated charges that the Temple member [[Paula Adams]] had a sexual relationship with [[Laurence Mann]], the Guyanese ambassador to the [[United States]], that she made tape recordings, and that transcripts were made for Jones and periodically turned over to high officials of the Guyanese government. It records evidence, which it called incomplete and inconclusive, that unknown Guyanese officials influenced the Stoen custody case, and testimony that support from Deputy Prime Minister [[Ptolemy Reid]] came from ideological compatibility with the Temple's socialism and did not appear to be generated for illegal reasons.[^11] The Guyanese government declined by letter of March 28, 1979, on grounds of protocol and its own judicial inquiry, to allow the staff group to interview Guyanese officials, and the report states that this left a conspicuous void.[^12] -### Brazilian Police Drug Smuggling Investigation +The [[New York Times]] reported on December 24, 1978, that local officials in the northwestern region had filed written reports expressing concern about the settlement, that the central government declined to investigate, and that at least two officers who raised questions were transferred. The same report quotes Deborah Layton Blakey as saying that in September 1977 she and [[Terri Buford]] delivered a threat of mass suicide to Reid.[^13] -According to a January 9, 1979, article in the Brazilian newspaper Manchete, Brazil's Federal Police suspected that Jones and the People's Temple were part of a [[Bolivia]]-[[Brazil]]-Guyana drug smuggling network. In 1978, Brazilian police discovered the largest cocaine shipment ever seized in Brazil, and two traffickers arrested claimed that ten kilograms of the cocaine were destined for Jim Jones in Guyana. The head of the [[Sao Paulo]] Police Headquarters for Combating Drugs, [[Arthur Carbone Filho]], stated he had conclusive documentation that the cocaine traffic between Bolivia and Guyana had been occurring frequently for some time. Carbone said the purpose of Jones's arrival in Brazil in 1969, when he resided in [[Belo Horizonte]], was probably to establish connections for supplies of Bolivian cocaine to the People's Temple. [[Francisco Carlos Gariato]], chief of the Sao Paulo Federal Police, said a Bolivian trafficker confessed to smuggling cocaine to Guyana and was later identified as a follower and recruiter for Jones.[^2] +### Customs Investigation, Interpol and the State Department -### The Lawsuit Against the CIA +The [[United States Customs Service]] began an investigation in February 1977 of allegations that more than 170 weapons stored at [[Ukiah]] had been moved to the Temple's San Francisco headquarters and possibly on to Jonestown. The House staff report states that the investigation was compromised a month later when an individual passed information about it to [[Dennis Banks]], head of the [[American Indian Movement]], in an effort to dissuade Banks from further contact with Jones, that the conversation was apparently taped and word reached Jones, and that a copy of the Customs report sent to [[Interpol]] was shared by normal procedure with the Guyanese police. According to information given to the staff group, Guyanese Police Commissioner C. A. "Skip" Roberts reportedly showed the copy to Paula Adams or [[Carolyn Layton]], and one of them passed the information to Jones.[^14] -The relatives of Jonestown victims sued CIA Director [[Stansfield Turner]], alleging that he had conspired with Jones to control the cult as part of a secret government behavior-modification program. The lawsuit was reported in the [[Washington Post]] on March 25, 1983. [[Joe Holsinger]], Congressman Ryan's assistant and friend, stated that he believed Jonestown was a massive mind control experiment and that the CIA and military intelligence were involved. The CIA maintained extensive open source records on the Jonestown allegations, though most official intelligence files on the incident remain classified.[^2] +The Customs investigation closed in August and September 1977 after a shipment of crates bound for Jonestown was opened in [[Miami]], and a report with negative results was filed. Investigators nonetheless sent copies to Interpol and the State Department because the investigation had disclosed allegations that Jones intended to establish a political power base in Guyana and might have several hundred firearms there. The State Department's Office of Munitions Control received the report on September 1, 1977, and a copy went to the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs on September 6. There is no indication that a copy went to the Embassy in Georgetown, and none of the more than 26 State Department officials the staff group interviewed had seen it before November 18, 1978, although one professed awareness of it.[^14] -### Intelligence Network in Guyana and the Caribbean +[[Richard Dwyer]] said in a 1990 oral history that the Guyanese authorities searched Temple shipments at customs because Interpol had alerted them to rumors of illegal shipments, and that nobody told the Embassy.[^15] -At the time of the massacre, Guyana was governed by Prime Minister [[Forbes Burnham]], installed with CIA help, as was [[Omar Torrijos]] in [[Panama]]. The People's Temple had amassed a large fortune in property and bank assets across [[Latin America]], including in Panama, Guyana, and Grenada. During the massacre, the Temple's ship, the "Cudjoe," was en route to [[Trinidad]] with Temple members on board. Temple members subsequently established operations in Trinidad and Grenada, where CIA client [[Eric Gairy]] was Prime Minister. According to the [[Oakland Tribune]], the [[St. George's University Medical School]] in Grenada had on its staff Dr. [[Peter Bourne]], a graduate of the [[Walter Reed Army Institute of Research]] who had studied the psychological effects of stress on those in combat and served one year in Vietnam as head of the Army's psychiatric research team.[^2] +### Embassy Georgetown, Consular Visits and the Privacy Act -### Congressman Ryan's CIA Criticism and Post-Massacre Revelations +A State Department cable from Georgetown, number 2637, dated December 29, 1976, and signed McCoy, reports that Lieutenant Governor [[Mervyn Dymally]] of California, visited Guyana to see the People's Temple agricultural mission at Port Kaituma. The chargé d'affaires met Dymally on December 27 and again on December 28, and Jones was present at the second meeting, at which the chargé summarized the state of relations between the United States and Guyana. Dymally and Jones both said they had met Foreign Minister [[Frederick Wills]] on December 26, and that he feared the United States would destabilize Guyana as it had Chile. Jones indicated that there was real fear in the Guyanese government that the CIA was a supranational agency answerable to no one and acting against Guyana unknown to other agencies of the United States government. The chargé categorically denied that any United States agency, the CIA included, was acting against Guyana. Jones said he had met Mrs. Carter and Vice President-elect [[Walter Mondale]] earlier, that they assured him the Carter administration would not interfere in Guyana's domestic affairs, and that he intended to pass this message to Prime Minister [[Forbes Burnham]] on December 29.[^16] -Congressman Ryan had been a persistent critic of the CIA. After his assassination, former CBS News correspondent [[Daniel Schorr]] revealed that Ryan was his source for uncovering a covert CIA operation in [[Angola]], in contravention of U.S. law. Schorr felt compelled on November 30, 1978, to reveal Ryan as his source because Ryan was "dead and beyond reproach." Schorr had been sanctioned by CBS News in 1976 after he passed to the [[Village Voice]] a secret House Select Committee on Intelligence report critical of Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]].[^2] +The House staff group found that the Embassy provided the Temple in advance with the names of most of the people consular officers planned to interview at Jonestown, which allowed Jones to rehearse them, and that consular visits averaged five to six hours on four occasions between August 30, 1977, and November 1, 1978. The Temple filed 26 actions under the [[Privacy Act]] for documents about specified members, and the Embassy learned of this on December 2, 1977. The report concludes that the legal claims made Embassy reporting to the State Department less candid.[^17] A consular officer's memorandum of December 15, 1977, in the State Department's released files records a meeting on December 12 with Temple members who asked about the motive behind his planned visit to Jonestown.[^18] -### Witnesses and Assassins +In June 1978 the Embassy cabled the State Department (Log 126) for permission to ask the Guyanese government to exercise normal administrative jurisdiction over Jonestown. The State Department refused by cable (Log 130) because the approach "could be construed by some as U.S. Government interference." The Embassy's cable omitted the defection of Deborah Layton Blakey, which had occurred on May 12, 1978, with the help of consular officers [[Richard McCoy]] and Daniel Weber, because of Privacy Act considerations, according to the ambassador.[^17] The House staff group found that allegations that a Temple woman had a sexual relationship with McCoy and recorded it were false, citing her signed affidavit, and found no evidence that any other Embassy employee had been compromised by the Temple.[^19] -Witnesses to the shooting of Congressman Ryan and others at the airfield described the assailants as "zombie-like" and emotionless. In reference to a rumored hit list compiled by the People's Temple, a congressional aide was quoted as saying, "There are 120 white brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit." There was evidence that Jones used doubles, and confusion existed as to whether it was the genuine Jones whose body was found among the dead.[^1] +On November 5, 1978, the Embassy relayed to Ryan that the Temple wanted him to work with its legal counsel, [[Mark Lane]], and would permit a visit only if the delegation was "balanced," had no media coverage and Lane was present. Lane wrote to Ryan on November 6 that he could not be in Jonestown when Ryan wished to visit and referred to a "witchhunt" against the Temple by the United States government.[^20] -### Larry Layton and the Only U.S. Prosecution +Deborah Layton Blakey said, according to a [[San Mateo Times]] article of December 14, 1979, that McCoy warned her not to take her assertions about oppression and possible mass suicide to the press, and that she received a letter apparently from Jones referring to a conversation with McCoy.[^21] The San Mateo Times quoted Holsinger on December 6, 1978, as saying that each time Ryan's office contacted the State Department about the Temple, letters from Temple members urging Ryan to desist followed, that staff called it a Pavlovian reaction, and that it could have been incompetence. In his 1980 testimony, which attached that article, he asked whether the free flow of information to Jones was State Department policy or the work of a few officials with close ties to Jones.[^22] -[[Larry Layton]] was the only former People's Temple member tried in the United States for criminal acts arising from the Jonestown massacre. At the Port Kaituma airstrip, Layton opened fire on those inside a six-seat Cessna, wounding several people, while other Temple members simultaneously attacked the transport plane carrying Congressman Ryan and his delegation. Ryan, three journalists, and a Temple defector were killed. Layton was convicted in December 1986 by a federal jury in San Francisco on four counts including conspiracy to kill a congressman, aiding and abetting the murders, and wounding State Department diplomat Richard Dwyer. He was sentenced to life in prison in March 1987. After serving approximately 18 years between Guyanese jails and U.S. federal custody, Layton was paroled in April 2002 following a campaign by family members and advocates. He was the only participant in the events of November 18, 1978, to face criminal prosecution in the United States.[^3] +The State Department press spokesman [[Hodding Carter]] told reporters on November 27, 1978, that the only investigation by an American agency in Guyana of which he was aware was done by Consular Affairs. Asked about reports that the CIA had been in the settlement five times, he said he was neither aware of it nor able to comment, and that such activity would be outside the CIA's charter as he understood the new charter.[^23] + +### San Francisco Political Ties + +The Temple moved its base to [[San Francisco]] in 1972. [[George Moscone]], elected mayor in 1975, signed a commission appointing "Reverend James Jones" a member of the [[San Francisco Housing Authority]] for a term ending April 27, 1980, effective November 30, 1976, in place of Stephen Walter, whose term had expired.[^24] The Jonestown Institute states that the appointment was announced on October 18, 1976, after Jones had declined an offer of a seat on the Human Rights Commission, that Jones later became chair of the authority, and that he hired three Temple leaders to positions on its staff.[^25] The House staff report describes Jones as having endowed himself with official legitimacy through the Moscone appointment, and states that San Francisco political figures appear to have been drawn by his ability to turn out hundreds of followers for rallies, mailings and phone banks, with some direct contributions to campaigns.[^26] + +The House report states that the Temple's letter-writing campaigns against critical stories produced letters from Moscone, Dymally, the head of the San Francisco school system and members of the California State Assembly, and that the campaigns were particularly effective with the [[San Francisco Chronicle]] and the [[National Enquirer]]. Jones contributed sums totaling 4,400 dollars to the [[San Francisco Examiner]], the Chronicle and ten other newspapers for use in the "defense of a free press"; the Examiner returned the money and the Chronicle sent its check to [[Sigma Delta Chi]], which declined to return it to the Temple. The Examiner cancelled an eight-part series on Jones in 1972 after picketing and a threat of suit, and the report credits the August 1977 [[New West]] article with breaking Jones's hold on San Francisco and prompting his departure for Guyana.[^26] + +[[Timothy Stoen]], Jones's legal adviser, was hired in 1976 by San Francisco District Attorney [[Joseph Freitas]], according to a newspaper chronology reprinted in the House report, which also states that Jones resigned from the Housing Authority by shortwave radio from Jonestown after the 1977 New West article.[^27] Freitas said in January 1979, according to the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, that Stoen had tried in 1976 to interfere with an investigation of death threats allegedly made by a Temple member to the Reverend [[Hannibal Williams]], and that the allegation surfaced in an in-house review. The state attorney general was investigating whether Stoen, as Freitas's voter-fraud prosecutor, had obstructed investigations at the Temple's behest and how he obtained his job. Stoen denied through his attorney that he had acted improperly.[^28] The House staff group interviewed Freitas and Stoen in California in January 1979, and after the State Department cited the Privacy Act in declining to give information about Stoen, Zablocki replied on March 13, 1979, that the Privacy Act permits disclosure to a committee of Congress within its jurisdiction under 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(9).[^29][^30] + +### Temple Finances, Panama Accounts and the Soviet Union + +The House staff report estimated Jones's controlled wealth at 12 million dollars.[^31] It records that 199 [[Social Security Administration|Social Security]] annuitants lived in Jonestown with benefits of about 37,000 dollars a month, and that about 160,000 dollars in uncashed checks, mostly for August through October 1978, were recovered there.[^32] A court-appointed receiver in California later reported accounting for about 10 million dollars, of which 7.2 million was found in two [[Panama]] banks, according to the Jonestown Institute's compilation of 1979 press reports.[^33] + +The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s file on the case (RYMUR) contains a letter dated November 18, 1978, found at Jonestown, signed in the name of a Temple member and addressed to "Dear Comrade Timofeyev" at the Soviet consulate at 48 Chandra Nagar Street, Prashad Nagar, Georgetown. The letter states that it is a letter of instructions "regarding all our assets which we want to leave to the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and that the Temple wanted its money to benefit "oppressed peoples all over the world." It describes two fixed-time deposits: account 3357 at the [[Swiss Bank Corporation]] in Panama, holding two deposits of 557,000 dollars and 1,486,000 dollars, and account 121-00-191A at the [[Union Bank of Switzerland]] in Panama, holding seven deposits maturing between May 31 and September 21, 1979, in amounts from 82,536 dollars to 1,623,000 dollars. The listed amounts add to 7,284,536 dollars.[^34] Companion letters instructed the bank officers to send cashier's checks to the consul as deposits matured; the Jonestown Institute reproduces additional letters of the same date leaving assets in banks in [[Caracas]] and [[Nassau]] to the Soviet Communist Party.[^35] + +Three Temple members left Jonestown on November 18 with suitcases that the Jonestown Institute says held over 900,000 dollars in United States currency and over 135,000 Guyanese dollars, along with the letters, with instructions to deliver them to the Soviet Embassy; they abandoned the suitcases and were taken into protective custody at Port Kaituma.[^35] At State Department briefings, reporters asked on November 27, 1978, about Jones's reported activities with the Soviet Embassy and whether Soviet officials visited Jonestown, and Hodding Carter said he had seen the report and had no information on a visit. On November 28 a reporter asked whether the Temple had been negotiating a move to the [[Soviet Union]], and he answered, "I've seen reports to that end," and said allegations about half a million dollars to be delivered to the Soviet Embassy with a letter held by the Guyanese government were under investigation. On December 1, asked what had become of the 500,000 dollars and the note, he said he had nothing to offer and would take the question.[^36] The [[Associated Press]] reported from Georgetown that Jones's aides had met at least twice with an official of the Soviet Embassy to discuss moving the colony, and the New York Times reported on December 20, 1978, that Jonestown leaders had tried to bequeath about 7 million dollars in Panamanian and Venezuelan accounts to the Soviet Union.[^37][^38] + +A State Department cable of November 1978, Georgetown 3807, records an Embassy interview with Jones's attorney Mark Lane. Lane said that Jones had talked of sending a delegation to the Soviet Union and perhaps of moving the commune there, and that he knew Jones had two or three million dollars in his cabin, which Lane said he had never seen and whose source he declined to name.[^39] A State Department letter of February 28, 1979, answering a request about Jones's foreign travel, stated that the only information the department had was a note in CIA files dated September 1960 indicating that Jones and his wife were planning a trip to the Soviet Union, Finland and Poland, and that nothing indicated the trip was made.[^40] + +[[Jim Hougan]] wrote that the CIA's [[CIA Office of Security|Office of Security]] opened a file on Jones in November 1960 and that Jones's passport had been issued on June 28, 1960.[^41] A CIA staff cable of February 1, 1979, summarizing a [[Washington Post]] article headed "Guyana Exploits [[KGB]] Tie to Jonestown," records the article's closing statement that the best evidence of CIA involvement after November 18 was a cable sent at 9:18 p.m. the night Ryan was killed, which a reporter said listed the dead and wounded before the State Department had the information; the cable's sender, addressees and the remaining paragraphs are redacted in the released copy.[^42] + +### Drugs and Medical Supplies + +The Associated Press reported on December 28, 1978, that a drug inventory found in Jonestown showed large supplies of depressants, among them Quaaludes, Demerol, Valium, morphine and 11,000 doses of Thorazine, and that two survivors and law enforcement officials said some had been used to control the behavior of people viewed as disloyal; the report states that there were no records from which to determine how often the drugs were used.[^43] A [[Newsweek]] reporter who entered Jones's cottage after the deaths described a bag of drugs including Thorazine, Darvon, Pentothal and Valium.[^44] [[Jack Anderson]] wrote on September 27, 1980, that the discovery of an arms and drug cache raised the question of links between Jones and drug traffickers and organized crime, as well as law-enforcement agencies.[^45] Madsen's 2007 account lists thallium, chloral hydrate and Largatil among the drugs, with Thorazine, sodium pentothal and Demerol, and describes them as consistent with those used in known [[MKULTRA]] operations; he wrote that such quantities in an agricultural commune suggested a purpose beyond routine medical care.[^6] + +Madsen cited a January 9, 1979, article in the Brazilian newspaper Manchete reporting that Brazil's Federal Police suspected the Temple of belonging to a [[Bolivia]], [[Brazil]] and Guyana drug network. Brazilian police had seized in 1978 the largest cocaine shipment in the country's history, and two arrested traffickers said ten kilograms were destined for Jones in Guyana. [[Arthur Carbone Filho]], head of the [[Sao Paulo]] police unit for combating drugs, said he had documentation that cocaine traffic between Bolivia and Guyana had occurred frequently and that Jones's 1969 arrival in Brazil, where he lived at [[Belo Horizonte]], was probably meant to establish connections for Bolivian cocaine. [[Francisco Carlos Gariato]], chief of the Sao Paulo Federal Police, said a Bolivian trafficker who confessed to smuggling cocaine to Guyana was later identified as a follower and recruiter for Jones.[^6] + +### The Death Tape and Richard Dwyer + +Richard Dwyer, the Deputy Chief of Mission in Georgetown, accompanied Ryan to Jonestown and was wounded at the airstrip. His oral history places him in the [[Foreign Service]] from 1957, in the State Department's Office of Functional and Biographic Intelligence, in [[Damascus]] and [[Cairo]], in [[Chad]] as deputy chief of mission and chargé from 1974 to 1977, on the Inspection Corps in 1977 and 1978, and in Georgetown from April 1978. In Chad a [[Peace Corps]] volunteer's letter identified him as the CIA chief. He said the CIA was not to his taste and that, instead of the standard reply of neither confirming nor denying the allegations, he wished he had said, "No, I am not CIA, never was and do not intend to be."[^15] A 1968 East German reference work by Julius Mader, quoted in a Senate hearing record, lists "Dwyer, Richard Alan" as born in 1933, in the State Department from 1957, working for the CIA from 1959, with posts at Damascus, Cairo and Washington.[^9] + +On the tape of the final hour at Jonestown, designated Q 042 by the FBI, Jones says: "Take Dwyer on down to the East House," and later, "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him."[^46] The San Mateo Times reported on December 14, 1979, that the FBI held a tape on which Jones said that, that the House investigator [[George Berdes]] and FBI agents in San Francisco confirmed it, and that Berdes and the agents concluded that Jones was mistaken. Dwyer told the paper that Jones apparently thought he was still at the compound and that he had spent the night with the wounded at the airstrip. [[Jackie Speier]], wounded at the airstrip, said Dwyer left the group on several occasions, that Ryan gave Dwyer a briefcase holding recorders, tapes and notes, and that when it was returned the tapes, notes and recorders were missing. Dwyer said Ryan did not give him the briefcase, that he picked it up at the airstrip, and that he gave it to the committee staff member [[Jim Schollaert]].[^21] Dwyer's oral history states that Jones thought he had returned and that the allegations that he ran a mind control operation came partly from Ryan's administrative assistant and partly from a young man at the CIA, whom he could not identify, who had told the assistant he had direct reports from "their man on the scene." Dwyer said there was nobody there but himself.[^15] The House staff report praised Dwyer's leadership of the survivors at Port Kaituma.[^17] Hougan wrote that Dwyer's background "is that of a sheepdipped CIA officer whose State Department cover had long ago worn thin," listing the Bureau of Intelligence and Research until February 1959, Damascus from 1960 to 1963, Cairo from 1963 to 1966, Washington from 1966 to 1968 and Sofia from 1970 to 1972.[^41] + +Madsen wrote that Jack Anderson reported on September 27, 1980, that Dwyer was a CIA agent and a friend of Jones, and that Dwyer and Ambassador [[John Burke]] had both allegedly worked for the CIA in [[Bangkok]] during the [[Vietnam War]]; that Dwyer reportedly left Guyana for Grenada after the massacre; that McCoy allegedly liaised with Jones and was a [[United States Air Force]] intelligence official; and that another alleged CIA employee, [[Dan Webber]], working under State Department cover, visited Jonestown the day after the massacre.[^6] The Anderson column of that date in the CIA's files states that Mader's directory lists Dwyer as a CIA agent since 1959 and that Dwyer knew Jones; it does not mention Bangkok, Grenada, McCoy or Webber.[^45] Dwyer's oral history lists his assignments after Georgetown as [[Martinique]] from 1980 to 1983 and the Office of Caribbean Affairs in 1984, and states that he served as chargé at [[Antigua]] for a couple of weeks during the Grenada crisis of 1983; the report of the House staff group lists a Daniel Weber, vice consul and third secretary at Georgetown from October 1976 through December 1978, who with McCoy helped Deborah Layton Blakey defect.[^15][^17] + +Jack Anderson's column of September 27, 1980, quoted a Capitol Hill source saying the allegations were coming from very responsible people and could not be dismissed, and stated that Dwyer had "no comment" when asked if he worked for the CIA.[^45] Larry Layton's signed confession to Guyanese authorities of November 22, 1978, stated that he had begged Jones to let him bring down the plane because he felt the people leaving were working with the CIA to smear the Temple and Guyana.[^47] + +### Ryan, the CIA and the Reviews of CIA Involvement + +On September 27, 1978, Ryan wrote to CIA Director [[Stansfield Turner]] asking him to confirm or deny a comment made during his investigation of the [[Patty Hearst]] case that the CIA had run experiments on prisoners at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, citing [[Donald DeFreeze]] of the [[Symbionese Liberation Army]] and another prisoner as sources. A routing slip in the CIA's files carries the letter.[^48] Madsen wrote that Ryan had never been a favorite of the CIA.[^6] After Ryan's death [[Daniel Schorr]] stated on November 29, 1978, that Ryan had been his source in 1975 for the covert CIA operation in Angola; the Associated Press report, published in the Washington Post on November 30, adds that Schorr was taken off the air at CBS in 1976 after passing to the [[Village Voice]] a secret House Select Committee on Intelligence report critical of Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], and later resigned from CBS.[^49] + +The House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Clement J. Zablocki, wrote to the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] on December 11, 1978, asking for all information and documents, and Turner replied on December 28 that Legislative Counsel [[Frederick P. Hitz]] would contact the staff.[^50] On February 2, 1979, Zablocki wrote to Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]] that it was the committee's understanding that all officials affiliated with the Embassy who had contact with the Temple, "including representatives of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]," would submit statements.[^51] A CIA staff cable of February 1, 1979, states that an entity whose name is redacted was reviewing documentary material recovered from Jonestown in search of evidence and was still cataloguing it, that the matter was sub judice, and that the sender had no plans to enquire further; the remaining text is redacted.[^52] A CIA routing sheet dated February 8, 1979, concerns the House committee staff.[^53] + +The House staff report states that no conclusive evidence was available that the CIA was acquiring information on Jones or the Temple and that executive orders 11905 of February 18, 1976, and 12036 of January 24, 1978, prohibited the CIA from intelligence activity on United States citizens.[^54] The report also records that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] told the staff the FBI had examined an allegation passed on by a constituent of Senator [[S. I. Hayakawa]] that Jones was holding people in Georgetown against their will, and closed it because relatives had gone voluntarily.[^54] + +The House International Operations Subcommittee, chaired by [[Dante B. Fascell]], held hearings on February 20 and March 4, 1980. Holsinger testified that the CIA had an operation in Guyana designed to support Burnham, that there were credible reports it included covert support for Jones as an ally of Burnham, that the Temple provided funds to the Burnham group and acted as an intimidating force against the government's opponents, and that on the afternoon of the killings a [[White House]] staff member told him by telephone, "We have a CIA report from the scene." He said the [[Hughes-Ryan Amendment|Hughes-Ryan]] amendment of 1974, which Ryan co-sponsored, may have been violated by a failure to report a covert operation, and asked whether the deaths at Jonestown were preferred over disclosure of that operation.[^22] Anderson quoted [[Les Francis]], the White House aide, as saying he thought he had said "intelligence report" rather than "CIA report."[^45] The [[Washington Afro-American|Afro-American]] reported on July 15, 1980, that Holsinger also said the chief medical examiner in Guyana, Dr. Leslie Mootoo, reported that more than 700 of the bodies were not suicide victims. At the San Francisco forum on May 23, 1980, Holsinger said he believed the CIA was in effective control of the Embassy, questioned whether Jonestown was a mass mind control experiment under MKULTRA, and relied on the APRL report and an article titled "The Penal Colony."[^8][^55] + +The committee staff group wrote Zablocki on March 28, 1980, that the hearings produced no substantive new information and that the CIA allegations were "largely speculative and unsubstantiated," and recommended referral to the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] of six contentions: that the CIA conducted a range of activities in Guyana, that a CIA agent witnessed Ryan's assassination, that the CIA violated the Hughes-Ryan Act by not reporting a covert operation, that it decided to allow the events of November 18 to occur to avoid disclosure, that the reporting failure was deliberate because Ryan co-authored the act, and that the CIA was used to promote American commercial interests. It recommended declassification of the committee's interview transcripts by January 1, 1985, subject to the witnesses' agreement. Zablocki, [[William S. Broomfield]], Fascell and [[John H. Buchanan]] wrote to the select committee chairman, [[Edward P. Boland]], on April 3, 1980.[^56] + +CIA files record the referral from the other side. A note of April 4, 1980, from the Office of the Director to the Legislative Counsel states that "[[John McMahon]] denies any Agency involvement" and that the Director of Central Intelligence wanted a note to Zablocki or Boland saying the select committee agreed to investigate; the writer thought it better done staff to staff, and a handwritten reply reads "Yes!" A memorandum of April 17, 1980, from the Legislative Counsel to the Director reports that the House Foreign Affairs staff said on April 14 that neither the Fascell subcommittee nor the staffers who did the initial study found substance to support "persistent rumors about CIA"; that Zablocki's reason for referring the matter was that a fresh look might quell the rumors; that the staff said the allegations came from Holsinger and others very close to Jones whose mind-set was that nothing would persuade them there had not been a conspiracy against Ryan; and that the select committee's staff director, [[Tom Latimer]], said on April 15 that he saw no substance to the allegations and was recommending to Boland a low-key investigation in which a single staff member reviewed the same material made available to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The memorandum adds that Zablocki had "wiped his hands of the matter" and that the select committee felt it must "do something."[^57] + +[[Rebecca Moore]] wrote in 1985, citing the journalist John Hanrahan, that on the second anniversary of the deaths the select committee announced in a two-page letter, without a report to the Foreign Affairs Committee or the public, that it found no evidence at all of CIA involvement, no CIA connection with Jones and no foreknowledge of the suicides, and that a congressional staff member told Hanrahan the CIA "pulled a fast one" and the first investigation's key sentence was "crafted with excruciating care."[^58] + +[[John Judge]] and [[Sandy Meredith]] were reported by the [[Philadelphia Inquirer]] on February 5, 1982, to base on circumstantial evidence their theory that Jonestown was part of a 30-year CIA mind control experiment called MKULTRA; Judge cited the Guyanese government's changing body counts and said Jones was a close friend of a government agent.[^59] + +### Civil Suits and Freedom of Information Litigation + +[[Fielding McGehee]] filed a [[Freedom of Information Act]] request with the CIA on December 6, 1978, narrowed on December 22 at the suggestion of an agency representative to records on the "Peoples Temple," and sued on November 21, 1980. On May 5, 1981, the CIA stated that it held 84 responsive documents: 12 were released in full, 18 with substantial deletions, 26 were withheld and 28 (27 from the State Department, one from the FBI) were forwarded to the originating agencies. The agency had used December 22, 1978, as a search cut-off date without telling him. The [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] held on January 4, 1983, that the delay of almost two and one-half years and the undisclosed cut-off date were evidence of bad faith that removed the credit ordinarily due to the CIA's affidavits by [[Louis J. Dube]], and reversed and remanded.[^60] Anderson wrote on September 27, 1980, that Ryan's five children had filed a 3 million dollar suit charging that the State Department withheld information that could have prevented his murder; their lawyer, [[Marvin E. Lewis]], said he would prove the State Department and the CIA possessed vital information.[^45] + +Madsen cited a Washington Post report of March 25, 1983, that relatives of Jonestown victims sued CIA Director Turner alleging he conspired with Jones to control the group as part of a secret government behavior-modification program, and wrote that the CIA maintained extensive open-source records on the Jonestown allegations while most official intelligence files remain classified.[^6] Survivors of the airstrip attack and relatives of members sued the federal government in San Francisco on October 14, 1981, alleging that Vance and Turner took part in a conspiracy with Jones to control Temple members and that Jones was an employee, servant, agent or operative of the CIA from 1963 until his death.[^61] The Washington Post reported on October 15, 1981, the same suit in its "Around the Nation" column.[^62] UPI reported on October 11, 1983, that the [[Supreme Court]] declined to review the case after a district judge dismissed it because the plaintiffs' attorney failed to serve the defendants within 40 days and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Ninth Circuit]] rejected his excuses.[^63] + +### The Larry Layton Prosecution + +Larry Layton, Deborah Layton Blakey's brother, boarded the six-seat Cessna at Port Kaituma, told the pilot to take off when shots were heard at the larger plane, and shot two passengers; a third shot misfired. He was indicted on October 9, 1980, in the Northern District of California on four counts: conspiracy to kill Leo Ryan under 18 U.S.C. 351(d), aiding and abetting that killing, conspiracy to kill Dwyer as an internationally protected person under 18 U.S.C. 1117, and aiding and abetting that attempted killing under 18 U.S.C. 1116(a). He was returned from Guyana in the company of FBI agents about November 20, 1980.[^64] A defense lawyer wrote that Layton had been tried in Guyana on attempted murder charges and acquitted.[^65] The first trial, beginning July 21, 1981, ended in a hung jury on September 26. After two interlocutory appeals by the government, a second trial began September 18, 1986, and on December 1, 1986, the jury convicted on all counts after deliberating 25 hours over six days; Peckham had excluded a final recording of Jones from the trial.[^66] On March 3, 1987, Judge [[Robert Peckham]] sentenced him to fifteen years on three counts and life on the count of aiding and abetting the killing of a member of Congress.[^64][^65] The Ninth Circuit affirmed on August 16, 1988, holding that Jones's pre-arrival tape-recorded speeches were admissible as coconspirator statements, and denied his motion to vacate for ineffective assistance of counsel.[^64] + +In the first appeal, decided August 10, 1983, the Ninth Circuit described the government's offer of proof: Jones said in nightly speeches before the visit that if Ryan came "maybe [his] plane will just fall out of the sky," and told residents not to talk to visitors; Layton had been on the Temple security force in the United States.[^47] [[Charles Garry]], a Temple lawyer, told the House staff group that in a year and a half he found no evidence to support the Temple's charges of government conspiracy, while Lane said that people in government agencies had manipulated Jones.[^67] The report states that Jones placed a false defector in the [[Concerned Relatives]] group in San Francisco a month before the trip, and records unconfirmed reports that a large shipment of cyanide arrived at Jonestown two days before Ryan's visit and a survivor's statement that Jones said days earlier the congressman's plane "might fall from the sky."[^67] Dwyer said the only person charged in Guyana with a crime was a former Marine at the Georgetown office, convicted of helping [[Sharon Amos]] kill her children, and the Washington Post reported on January 29, 1979, that Guyanese police had charged [[Charles Beikman]] and [[Stephen Jones]] over the deaths of Amos and her three children.[^15][^68] The Jonestown Institute states that Layton, after about 18 years in Guyanese jails and federal prisons, was released on parole in April 2002, two years before his scheduled release, following a six-year campaign by family members and supporters, and that he was the only man convicted on criminal charges arising from the events of November 18, 1978.[^69] ### Dan Mitrione and the Jones Connection -[[Dan Mitrione]] was an [[Indiana]] native, childhood acquaintance of Jim Jones from [[Richmond, Indiana]], who had a parallel career arc through federal law enforcement and Latin American intelligence operations. Mitrione served as Richmond's police chief before joining the State Department's [[International Cooperation Administration]] (ICA), subsequently absorbed into the [[Agency for International Development]] (AID), as a public safety adviser teaching police techniques in Brazil and [[Uruguay]]. Former Uruguayan police officials confirmed that Mitrione taught torture techniques to security forces in the cellar of his Montevideo residence, using vagrant prisoners as demonstration subjects. Jones and Mitrione were both based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil during overlapping periods in 1962-1963. Mitrione was kidnapped by [[Tupamaros]] guerrillas in Montevideo and executed in August 1970. Jones, according to the SDSU Jonestown Primary Sources document, described Mitrione as "a cruel, cruel person, even as a kid, a vicious racist" and stated he had wanted to "inform on" Mitrione's activities. Jones's CIA file, opened in November 1960, coincided with the period of Mitrione's confirmed CIA recruitment.[^4] +[[Dan Mitrione]] was an [[Indiana]] native who served as police chief of [[Richmond, Indiana]], before joining the State Department's [[International Cooperation Administration]], later absorbed into the [[Agency for International Development]], as a public safety adviser, first at Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and from 1969 as chief public safety adviser in Montevideo, [[Uruguay]]. Hougan wrote that Jones told followers in Guyana, "There was one guy that I knew growing up in Richmond, a cruel, cruel person, even as a kid, a vicious racist, Dan Mitrione," that a Richmond acquaintance confirmed the two men knew one another, and that Jones entered Brazil in April 1962 and settled in Belo Horizonte, where Mitrione was serving at the United States consulate. Jones said, as Hougan quotes him, that he had heard of Mitrione's activities in Belo Horizonte and was inclined to "inform on his activities to everybody on the Left."[^70] CounterPunch reported that Manuel Hevia Cosculluela, a Cuban double agent who infiltrated the CIA, stated that Mitrione trained Uruguayan police to torture using beggars in the soundproofed basement of his Montevideo home, and that [[Tupamaros]] guerrillas kidnapped Mitrione, whose body was found on August 10, 1970.[^71] Hougan wrote that Mitrione was recruited into the CIA under State Department cover in May 1960 and that the CIA's file on Jones was opened because Mitrione intended to use him as an agent, and that the file remained open for ten years and was closed, without explanation, after Mitrione's death, and that the CIA said after the massacre that its file on "the Rev. Jimmie Jones" was virtually empty.[^41] + +### Burnham, Grenada and the Caribbean + +Madsen wrote that Guyana was governed by Prime Minister Burnham, installed with CIA help, as was [[Omar Torrijos]] in Panama. A London newspaper's Insight team had reported in April 1967 that the 1964 downfall of [[Cheddi Jagan]]'s government in British Guiana, in a colony where Burnham led the opposing party, was engineered largely by the CIA, using [[Public Services International]] as cover, at a cost of more than 250,000 pounds over five years; a copy of the article is in CIA files.[^72] Madsen also wrote that the Temple amassed property and bank assets across [[Latin America]], including Panama, Guyana and [[Grenada]].[^6] The Temple's ship Cudjoe was en route to [[Trinidad]] with Temple members aboard during the massacre, and Temple members afterward established operations in Trinidad and Grenada, where Prime Minister [[Eric Gairy]], a CIA client according to Madsen, was in power. According to the [[Oakland Tribune]], as Madsen cited it, the staff of [[St. George's University Medical School]] in Grenada included Dr. [[Peter Bourne]], a graduate of the [[Walter Reed Army Institute of Research]] who had studied the psychological effects of stress in combat and had served a year in Vietnam as head of the Army's psychiatric research team.[^6] Holsinger told the House subcommittee that Gairy had visited Jones at the Temple in San Francisco before the move to Guyana, and that more than one million dollars of Temple money had been deposited in a Grenada bank.[^22] + +### Witnesses and Assassins + +Witnesses to the shooting of Ryan at the airstrip described the assailants as "zombie-like" and emotionless, Rowlett wrote. In reference to a rumored death list compiled by the Temple, a congressional aide was quoted as saying: "There are 120 white brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit." There was evidence that Jones used doubles, and confusion existed as to whether the genuine Jones's body was among the dead.[^5] The House staff report stated that the existence of a reported hit squad intended to eliminate Jones's staunchest opponents could not be concretely documented but should not be totally discounted, and that there was evidence Jones and key lieutenants had "understandings" to eliminate various individuals, including national political leaders.[^73] The FBI obtained transcripts of coded radio messages between Jonestown and the Temple's Georgetown house in the hours before the deaths which, according to the Washington Post's report of January 29, 1979, showed an order to kill ten members of the Concerned Relatives group who had stayed in Georgetown.[^68] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press #16, 1998. -[^2]: Wayne Madsen, "Was Jonestown a CIA Front for Drug Smuggling and Mind Control Experiments?," Wayne Madsen Report, August 31-September 3, 2007; Washington Post, March 25, 1983; Jack Anderson syndicated column, September 27, 1980; Brazilian newspaper Manchete, January 9, 1979. -[^3]: UPI Archives, "Former Peoples Temple cult member Larry Layton was convicted," December 1, 1986. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/12/01/Former-Peoples-Temple-cult-member-Larry-Layton-was-convicted/1537533797200/; Washington Post, "Layton Receives Life Sentence for Jonestown Attack," March 4, 1987. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/national/1987/03/04/layton-receives-life-sentence-for-jonestown-attack/1f34a054-edf9-4e4c-bbe3-f3bced1eeffe/ -[^4]: Hougan, Jim. "The Secret Life of Jim Jones: A Parapolitical Fugue," Jonestown and Peoples Temple (SDSU archive). https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16572; CounterPunch, "Teaching Torture: The Death and Legacy of Dan Mitrione," August 13, 2020. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/13/teaching-torture-the-death-and-legacy-of-dan-mitrione/ +[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy, Committee Print, 96th Cong., 1st Sess., House Document No. 96-223 (May 15, 1979), pp. 16-17. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^2]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 3-6 (summary of events of November 14-19, 1978). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^3]: U.S. Department of State, Operations Center, Guyana Task Force, Situation Report No. 4, document C09000556, in documents released in FOIA case F-1980-02844 (date line garbled in the scan; the report precedes Situation Report No. 28 of December 2, 1978). https://archive.org/details/F-1980-02844 +[^4]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 7-8, 15. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^5]: Curt Rowlett, "Project Mind Kontrol: Did the U.S. Government Actually Create Programmed Assassins?," Steamshovel Press, issue 16 (1998), pp. 13-23 (Jonestown passages at p. 21). https://archive.org/details/steamshovel-press-issue-16-1998 +[^6]: Wayne Madsen, "Was Jonestown a CIA Front for Drug Smuggling and Mind Control Experiments?," Wayne Madsen Report, publication date August 30, 2007 (headline dated August 31-September 3, 2007). https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20070830_4 (copy: https://archive.org/details/madsen-070831-jonesdown). Madsen cites a Washington Post article of March 25, 1983, and a Brazilian newspaper article in Manchete of January 9, 1979 (translated by the CIA); neither was opened for this draft. +[^7]: U.S. Department of State, letter of December 13, 1978, to Rep. Clement J. Zablocki, answers to questions 5 and 6, in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix I-C-1(D), pp. 65-76. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^8]: Joe Holsinger, statement to the forum "Psycho-Social Implications of the Jonestown Phenomenon," Miyako Hotel, San Francisco, May 23, 1980. https://archive.org/details/holsinger-psycho-social-implications +[^9]: Prepared statement of W. William Wilson, with attachments (including the San Mateo Times article of December 14, 1979, and an extract from Julius Mader, Who's Who in CIA (Berlin, 1968)), April 16, 1980, in National Intelligence Act of 1980, Hearings before the Select Committee on Intelligence, U.S. Senate, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., on S. 2284, pp. 551-562. https://archive.org/details/jonestown-senate-hearings-from-the-96th-congress +[^10]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), p. 10 (persons interviewed in California). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^11]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 32-33 (finding I, involvement of the Government of Guyana). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^12]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 12-14, 33. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^13]: Nicholas M. Horrock, "Mass Cult Immigration Violated Jones' Agreement with Guyana," New York Times, December 24, 1978, reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, pp. 447-450. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^14]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 25-27 (finding E, U.S. Customs Service investigation). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^15]: Richard A. Dwyer, interview by Charles Stuart Kennedy, July 12, 1990, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (copyright 1998), sections on Chad, the Inspection Corps and Georgetown, Guyana, 1978-1980. https://archive.org/details/interview-with-richard-a.-dwyer-on-jonestown +[^16]: Embassy Georgetown to Secretary of State, cable Georgetown 2637, "Dymally Visit to Guyana," December 29, 1976, in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), appendixes, pp. 147-149. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^17]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 27-32 (findings G and H, Privacy Act and role of the State Department). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^18]: U.S. Department of State, memorandum to file, December 15, 1977, subject "People's Temple," document C09000254, in documents released in FOIA case F-1980-02844, "People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana," Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/F-1980-02844 +[^19]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), p. 31. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^20]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 2-3. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^21]: Rick Sullivan and Karen Petterson, "CIA Agent Witnessed Jonestown Mass Suicide," San Mateo Times, December 14, 1979, reprinted as Attachment 2 to the statement of W. William Wilson, in National Intelligence Act of 1980, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearings, pp. 558-562. https://archive.org/details/jonestown-senate-hearings-from-the-96th-congress +[^22]: Statement of Joe Holsinger, Administrative Assistant to the late Representative Leo J. Ryan, with Exhibit A (John Horgan and Rick Sullivan, "Ryan's Calls to State Department: Somehow the Word Would Get to Peoples Temple," San Mateo Times, December 6, 1978), in Review of the Implementation of Recommendations Relating to the Death of Representative Leo J. Ryan, Hearings before the Subcommittee on International Operations, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., February 20 and March 4, 1980, pp. 6-16. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13658 +[^23]: U.S. Department of State, transcript of daily briefing, Monday, November 27, 1978 (Hodding Carter), document C09000586, in documents released in FOIA case F-1980-02844. https://archive.org/details/F-1980-02844 +[^24]: City and County of San Francisco, commission appointing Reverend James Jones a member of the Housing Authority, signed by Mayor George R. Moscone, November 30, 1976, FBI RYMUR file 89-4286-BB-17-x. http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/SFHousing.pdf +[^25]: "Jones Appointment to San Francisco Housing Authority," Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library (last modified April 17, 2024), citing Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, Raven, p. 268. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14021 +[^26]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 22-24 (finding C, opponents and media intimidated, public officials used). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^27]: Chronology, newspaper article (title and date not legible on the scan), reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, entries for 1976 and 1977. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^28]: James A. Finefrock, "DA Accuses Deputy of Pro-Temple Ploy," San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle, January 21, 1979, reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, p. 469. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^29]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 9-11 (California interviews, January 3-19, 1979). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^30]: Letter from Rep. Clement J. Zablocki to Douglas J. Bennet Jr., March 13, 1979, acknowledging the State Department letter of February 28, 1979, in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix III-G-2. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^31]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 18-19. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^32]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 33-35 (finding J, Social Security). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^33]: "The Jonestown Banks," Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library (originally posted February 25, 2018), compiling Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post reports of 1979 and 1982. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=78508 +[^34]: Letter dated November 18, 1978, signed in the name of a Temple member, to Mr. Fedor Timofeyev, Consul, 48 Chandra Nagar Street, Prashad Nagar, Georgetown, Guyana, FBI RYMUR file 89-4286-1637, p. 230 (FBI release stamp 11/9/82). http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_toFeodorTimofeyev.pdf +[^35]: "Financial Letters of November 18," Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library (last modified April 24, 2024), reproducing FBI RYMUR file 89-4286-1637, pp. 230-235, and 89-4286-B-1-k-3 and k-4, and citing Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, Raven, pp. 562-563. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13904 +[^36]: U.S. Department of State, transcripts of daily briefings of November 27, November 28 and December 1, 1978 (Hodding Carter), documents C09000586, C09000587 and C09000589, in documents released in FOIA case F-1980-02844. https://archive.org/details/F-1980-02844 +[^37]: Associated Press dispatch from Georgetown, in "Note Found on Jones' Body," Nicholas M. Horrock, New York Times, November 27, 1978, reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, p. 388. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^38]: Nicholas M. Horrock, "Paper Calls Jones Communist in 1950's," New York Times, December 20, 1978, reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, pp. 445-446. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^39]: Embassy Georgetown to Secretary of State, cable Georgetown 3807, "Interview with Mark Lane," November 1978, document C09000122, in documents released in FOIA case F-1980-02844. https://archive.org/details/F-1980-02844 +[^40]: Douglas J. Dennet Jr., Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations, letter to Rep. Clement J. Zablocki, February 28, 1979, answering question 5 of the February 2, 1979 request, in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix III-G-2, pp. 507-508. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^41]: Jim Hougan, "The Secret Life of Jim Jones: A Parapolitical Fugue," sections on Mitrione and the CIA file and on Dwyer, Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library (originally posted March 11, 2013). https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16572 +[^42]: CIA staff cable, TOT 011936Z February 1979, "Washington Post 1 February Article Titled 'Guyana Exploits KGB Tie to Jonestown,'" CIA Reading Room document 0001432572 (approved for release May 2007). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001432572 +[^43]: "Jones Commune Found Stocked With Drugs to Control the Mind," Associated Press, Georgetown, December 28, 1978, in New York Times, December 29, 1978, reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, p. 455. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^44]: "The Cult of Death," Newsweek, December 4, 1978 (reporter's account of Jones's cottage, section "A Bag of Drugs"), reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, pp. 397-435 (account at pp. 413-414). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^45]: Jack Anderson, column, Washington Post, September 27, 1980, as filed in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170035-8 ("Ryan Kin: How Much Did U.S. Know?"). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000100170035-8 +[^46]: Transcript of FBI tape Q 042, prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III, Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29079 +[^47]: United States v. Layton, 720 F.2d 548, 550-551 (9th Cir. 1983) (No. 82-1072, decided Aug. 10, 1983). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/720/720.F2d.548.82-1072.html +[^48]: Rep. Leo J. Ryan to Admiral Stansfield Turner, letter, September 27, 1978, with CIA Executive Secretariat routing slip, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R000300040014-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000300040014-0 +[^49]: "Schorr Reveals Rep. Ryan as Source of Angola Leak," Associated Press, Newport, R.I., November 29, 1978, Washington Post, November 30, 1978, p. A-22, in CIA Operations Center News Service, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP81M00980R000600030002-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp81m00980r000600030002-1 +[^50]: Letter from Rep. Clement J. Zablocki to the Director of Central Intelligence, December 11, 1978, and letter from Stansfield Turner to Zablocki, December 28, 1978, in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix III, pp. 210-212. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^51]: Letter from Rep. Clement J. Zablocki to Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, February 2, 1979, request (1), in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix I-C-1(M), pp. 153-154. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^52]: CIA staff cable, TOR 020013Z February 1979, "Wnintel," CIA Reading Room document 0001431650, "Cable re Material Recovered from Jonestown" (approved for release May 2007). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001431650 +[^53]: CIA routing and record sheet dated February 8, 1979, re House International Relations Committee staff looking into the death of Rep. Leo Ryan, CIA Reading Room document 0001432558 (approved for release February 2007). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001432558 +[^54]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 20-22 (finding B, "Conspiracy Against Jim Jones and People's Temple"), and Appendix III-B-2 (Executive Orders 11905 and 12036). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^55]: Washington Afro-American, July 15, 1980, "Ryan Aide Discounts 'Jonestown Mythology,'" CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000302770002-2. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000302770002-2 +[^56]: Staff Investigative Group (Ivo Spalatin, George R. Berdes, Thomas R. Smeeton) to Rep. Clement J. Zablocki, March 28, 1980; Zablocki to Rep. Dante B. Fascell, March 31, 1980; and Zablocki, William S. Broomfield, Fascell and John H. Buchanan Jr. to Rep. Edward P. Boland, April 3, 1980, Appendices 4 and 5, in Review of the Implementation of Recommendations Relating to the Death of Representative Leo J. Ryan, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Operations hearings, February 20 and March 4, 1980, pp. 76-79. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13658 +[^57]: CIA Office of the Director note to Legislative Counsel, April 4, 1980, "Guyana - HFAC" (Executive Registry 80-917), with UPI item of April 4, 1980, and Legislative Counsel memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence, April 17, 1980 (OLC 80-0663/5), "Guyana - HFAC/HPSCI," CIA Reading Room document 0001432433 (approved for release February 2007). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001432433 +[^58]: Rebecca Moore, A Sympathetic History of Jonestown: The Moore Family Involvement in Peoples Temple (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1985), chapter 16 excerpt, "McGehee v. CIA," citing John Hanrahan. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16588 +[^59]: Frank Rossi, "The Question of Jonestown," Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1982, as filed in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420024-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00552r000303420024-5 +[^60]: McGehee v. Central Intelligence Agency, 697 F.2d 1095, 1097-1099, 1102-1103, 1112-1113 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (No. 82-1096, decided Jan. 4, 1983). https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/697/697.F2d.1095.82-1096.html +[^61]: "Rev. Jones: Was CIA Agent, Suit Alleges," UPI, San Francisco, Los Angeles Times, October 15, 1981, as filed in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP99-00498R000200020030-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000200020030-8 +[^62]: "Around the Nation," Washington Post, October 15, 1981, p. A10, as filed in CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP99-00498R000200020031-7. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp99-00498r000200020031-7 +[^63]: Spencer Sherman, "Peoples Temple Survivors Lose Appeal," UPI, October 11, 1983. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/10/11/Peoples-temple-survivors-lose-appeal/1510434692800/ +[^64]: United States v. Layton, 855 F.2d 1388, 1392-1394 (9th Cir. 1988) (Nos. 87-1071, 87-2576, decided Aug. 16, 1988). https://openjurist.org/855/f2d/1388/united-states-v-layton +[^65]: "Larry Layton and Peoples Temple: Twenty-Five Years Later," essay by a member of Layton's defense team (author's name not shown on the captured page), Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16973 +[^66]: "Former Peoples Temple cult member Larry Layton was convicted," UPI, December 1, 1986. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/12/01/Former-Peoples-Temple-cult-member-Larry-Layton-was-convicted/1537533797200/ +[^67]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), pp. 21, 26-27 (findings B and F, including the statements of Mark Lane and Charles Garry). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^68]: Charles A. Krause, "FBI Has Copy of Cult's Radio Order To Kill," Washington Post, January 29, 1979, reprinted in Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), Appendix II-F-2, p. 478. https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 +[^69]: "The Campaign to Release Larry Layton from Federal Prison," Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=32946 +[^70]: Jim Hougan, "The Secret Life of Jim Jones: A Parapolitical Fugue," sections II.2 and II.7, Jonestown and Peoples Temple, San Diego State University Library. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16572 +[^71]: "Teaching Torture: The Death and Legacy of Dan Mitrione," CounterPunch, August 13, 2020. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/13/teaching-torture-the-death-and-legacy-of-dan-mitrione/ +[^72]: "How the CIA Got Rid of Jagan," Insight, London newspaper (masthead not visible on the scan), April 1967, CIA Reading Room document CIA-RDP75-00149R000400180010-1. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00149r000400180010-1 +[^73]: Staff Investigative Group, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy (House Document No. 96-223, May 15, 1979), p. 36 (finding K, future status of People's Temple). https://archive.org/details/ryan-assassination-house-rpt-1979-1 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ProPublica.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ProPublica.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fd4372bf --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/ProPublica.md @@ -0,0 +1,188 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - NonprofitNewsroom + - Media + - InvestigativeJournalism + - SandlerFoundation + - SupremeCourt + - DarkMoney + - Snowden + - Atomwaffen + - Section501c3 +alias: + - ProPublica + - Pro Publica + - Pro Publica Inc +summary: "New York nonprofit investigative newsroom established in 2007 and 2008 with funding from Herbert and Marion Sandler, publisher of reporting on the Snowden files, Atomwaffen Division, leaked IRS data, Leonard Leo and justices' gifts." +start: 2007 +location: "New York City" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Sandler Foundation]]" + reverse: true + start: 2007 + role: "founding and largest donor" + fn: 5 + - type: founded + with: "[[Herbert Sandler]]" + reverse: true + start: 2007 + role: "funder and founder" + fn: 3 + - type: founded + with: "[[Marion Sandler]]" + reverse: true + start: 2007 + role: "funder and founder" + fn: 3 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Herbert Sandler]]" + reverse: true + end: 2019-06-05 + role: "founding chairman" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Paul Steiger]]" + reverse: true + end: 2021-10 + role: "editor in chief at founding, later executive chairman" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Stephen Engelberg]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor-in-chief and co-chief executive" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Richard Tofel]]" + reverse: true + end: 2021-09 + role: "president and co-chief executive" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Robin Sparkman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-09 + role: "president and co-chief executive" + fn: 7 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Paul Sagan]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017 + role: "chairman of the board" + fn: 7 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[The Guardian]]" + start: 2013-09 + end: 2013-09 + role: "joint reporting on NSA decryption documents" + fn: 9 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[New York Times]]" + start: 2013-09 + end: 2013-09 + role: "joint reporting on NSA decryption documents" + fn: 9 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Leonard Leo]]" + start: 2022-08 + role: "reporting on Marble Freedom Trust and judicial network" + fn: 14 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Clarence Thomas]]" + start: 2023-04 + role: "reporting on undisclosed gifts and travel" + fn: 16 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Samuel Alito]]" + start: 2023-06 + role: "reporting on 2008 Alaska trip" + fn: 19 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom in [[New York City]] whose own account states that it "was founded in 2007-2008" and that its work has received nine [[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer Prizes]].[^1] The [[Internal Revenue Service]] recognized Pro Publica Inc (EIN 14-2007220) as exempt under section 501(c)(3) with a ruling date of February 2008.[^2] + +### Founding and the Sandler money + +*[[Slate]]* reported on October 15, 2007 that the [[San Francisco]] Bay Area billionaires [[Herbert Sandler]] and [[Marion Sandler]] "have founded the nonprofit ProPublica" with $10 million that they promised to replenish annually, that the [[MacArthur Foundation]], the [[Atlantic Philanthropies]] and the [[JEHT Foundation]] were also contributing, and that, according to the *[[New York Times]]* that day, it would hire 24 reporters and editors under [[Paul Steiger]], the former managing editor of the *[[The Wall Street Journal]]*. The same article stated that the couple had made their fortune, which *[[Forbes]]* estimated at $1.2 billion, at [[Golden West Financial]] Corp., that [[Federal Election Commission]] records showed hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts to Democratic campaigns, that Herbert Sandler had given $2.5 million to the [[MoveOn.org Voter Fund]] in 2004, and that the [[Center for Responsive Politics]] recorded $8.5 million from the couple to the 527 group [[Citizens for a Strong Senate]] in the 2004 cycle.[^3] Federal Election Commission itemized receipts for the 2004 cycle include two entries dated August 11, 2004 to the MoveOn.org Voter Fund that differ by one dollar, $2,505,014 under the name "SANDLER, HERBERT" and $2,505,013 under "SANDLER, HERBERT M," and list Citizens for a Strong Senate as Marion Sandler's largest recipient in the 2004 and 2006 cycles.[^4] + +[[Jack Shafer]]'s article in *Slate* also recalled that at the 1992 convention of the [[American Society of Newspaper Editors]] the Sandlers had blamed the press in part for the savings and loan disaster, that Marion Sandler asked "Where were you when it was happening?", and that, in the words of the *[[Chicago Tribune]]* reporter [[James Warren (journalist)|James Warren]] as quoted by *Slate*, Herbert Sandler "conceded that, apart from being an occasional anonymous source for one Wall Street Journal reporter, he declined to help journalists as much as he probably should have." It also noted that ProPublica's website promised investigations conducted "in a non-partisan and non-ideological manner."[^3] + +### Golden West, Wachovia and the board chairman + +On August 8, 2011 ProPublica reported that [[Wells Fargo]] had agreed to pay $590 million to settle class actions by investors in bonds sold by [[Wachovia]], which Wells Fargo had acquired in October 2008. The article stated that the suits alleged that Wachovia misrepresented the quality of a mortgage portfolio it bought from Golden West Financial, whose founders and chief executives were Herb and Marion Sandler, and added: "Herb Sandler is ProPublica's board chairman, and the [[Sandler Foundation]] is ProPublica's founding and largest donor. The Sandlers are not accused of wrongdoing or named as defendants in the suit." The consolidated complaint focused on a $120 billion portfolio of loans purchased from Golden West, an $8 billion portfolio of collateralized debt obligations and $15 billion of goodwill, and heavily on option adjustable-rate mortgages marketed as "Pick-A-Pay" that allowed borrowers to defer payments. Wachovia had bought Golden West for $24.3 billion in a sale announced in May 2006 and closed in October 2006. The Sandlers declined to comment on the allegations in the complaint, and Wells Fargo said the settlement was not an admission of liability.[^5] + +### Sandler Foundation grants + +The Sandler Foundation (EIN 94-3147856, San Francisco) files its Form 990 for years ended June 30. Schedule I, Part II of the returns for the years ended June 30, 2013 through June 30, 2025 lists the following cash grants to Pro Publica Inc (EIN 14-2007220): $3,000,000 (2013), three grants of $1,000,000 (2014), four of $1,000,000 (2015), three of $1,000,000 in each of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, $3,000,000 (2020), $3,000,000 (2021), $1,000,000 (2022), $2,000,000 (2023), $2,000,000 (2024) and $6,000,000 (2025), a total of $39,000,000 across the thirteen years. The same Schedule I entries, over the rows whose grantee could be read, total at least $49,750,000 in grants to the [[Center for American Progress]] and at least $34,835,000 in grants to the [[Center for Responsible Lending]].[^6] + +### Board and officers + +The Form 990 for calendar 2014 lists Herbert M. Sandler as founding chairman (three hours a week, no reportable compensation) and Paul E. Steiger as executive chairman (30 hours a week, $201,352 in reportable compensation), with directors [[Mark Colodny]], [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]], [[Claire Hoffman]], [[Robert C. S. Monks]], [[Ron Olson]], [[Paul Sagan]], [[Kat Taylor]] and [[Tom Unterman]]; [[Richard Tofel]] as president and co-chief executive ($376,782) and [[Stephen Engelberg]] as editor-in-chief and co-chief executive ($372,391). The return for 2016 adds [[S. Donald Sussman]] and lists [[Jeffrey Gerth]] as a senior reporter through December 31, 2016; Unterman's directorship ended December 6, 2016. In the return for 2017 Sagan is chairman, Sandler remains founding chairman and Steiger executive chairman (reportable compensation $96,664), and the directors include [[Angela Filo]], [[Katie McGrath]] and [[James Stone]]. Tofel's reportable compensation that year was $396,415.[^7] + +The return for 2019 records Sandler as founding chairman "thru 6/5/19" and Kat Taylor as a director through July 10, 2019. The return for 2021 records Steiger as executive chairman through October 2021 and Tofel as co-chief executive through September 2021, with Robin Sparkman as president and co-chief executive from September 2021. Directors in the 2024 return are Sagan (chairman), [[Claire Bernard]], [[Tomiko Brown-Nagin]], Colodny, [[Steve Daetz]], Filo, Gates, Hoffman, [[Anu Khosla]], [[Jonathan Klein]], [[Carrie Lozano]], McGrath, Monks, Stone and [[Charles F. Whitaker]]; Olson's directorship had ended in October 2023.[^7] + +The organization's reported contributions were $10,115,367 in 2011, $13,678,241 in 2013, $43,063,123 in 2017, $37,366,751 in 2019 and $55,857,720 in 2023, and its total assets at the end of 2023 were $85,514,123. The Nonprofit Explorer record for the period ending December 2024 shows revenue of $64,268,632 and assets of $108,058,174.[^8] + +### The Snowden documents, 2013 + +On September 5, 2013 ProPublica published, in partnership with the *New York Times* and [[The Guardian]], a report on the [[National Security Agency]] and [[GCHQ]] programs to defeat encryption, written for ProPublica by [[Jeff Larson]]. The article stated that the documents were "among more than 50,000 shared by The Guardian with The New York Times and ProPublica," that intelligence officials had asked the Times and ProPublica not to publish, and that the news organizations removed some specific facts but decided to publish. Larson's article was credited for the Guardian to James Ball, [[Julian Borger]] and [[Glenn Greenwald]], and for the Times to [[Nicole Perlroth]] and [[Scott Shane]].[^9] + +### Atomwaffen Division, 2018 + +On May 3, 2018 ProPublica published, with the [[PBS Frontline]] program, an article on active-duty military members in the [[Atomwaffen Division]], stating that the journalists had obtained seven months of messages from a confidential chat room used by the group and had identified three Atomwaffen members or associates then employed by the Army or Navy and three who had served in the past.[^10] On June 20, 2018 ProPublica reported that Lance Corporal [[Vasillios George Pistolis]], whom it had identified as a neo-Nazi and as an assailant at the [[Unite the Right rally|Charlottesville]] rally of August 2017, had been convicted at a summary court-martial of disobeying orders and making false statements and would be imprisoned for a month, reduced in rank and likely forced from the [[United States Marine Corps]]; the article stated that in the previous 13 months Atomwaffen members and associates had been charged in five murders and a bomb plot.[^11] + +### The IRS data, 2021 to 2026 + +On June 8, 2021 ProPublica published "The Secret IRS Files" by [[Jesse Eisinger]], [[Jeff Ernsthausen]] and [[Paul Kiel]], stating that it had obtained "a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation's wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years." Its first article stated that the 25 wealthiest Americans paid $13.6 billion in federal income taxes from 2014 to 2018 while their wealth, according to *Forbes*, rose $401 billion, a "true tax rate" of 3.4 percent.[^12] + +In the case of [[Charles Littlejohn]], *[[United States]] v. Littlejohn*, No. 24-3019, decided July 17, 2026, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] (Judges Rao, Walker and Rogers, with Judge Walker writing) affirmed a five-year sentence imposed on him in the District Court (No. 1:23-cr-00343). The opinion states that Littlejohn obtained a consulting job with the Internal Revenue Service in 2017, gave the tax return information of [[Donald Trump]] to a *New York Times* reporter in 2019, and took the tax return information of about 600 entities and about 7,600 of the wealthiest Americans, which he "leaked ... to ProPublica, which used data regarding at least 152 of his victims in about 50 articles." The court wrote that "ProPublica is sitting on the private, as-yet-unpublished data of other taxpayers stolen by Littlejohn."[^13] + +### Leonard Leo and Barre Seid, 2022 and 2023 + +On August 22, 2022 ProPublica and [[The Lever]] published an article by [[Andrew Perez]] of The Lever and by [[Andy Kroll]] and [[Justin Elliott]] of ProPublica reporting that [[Barre Seid]], then 90, had given a nonprofit run by [[Leonard Leo]] a donation worth $1.6 billion, described as the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in United States history. The article stated that the *New York Times* had first reported the gift and that ProPublica and The Lever confirmed it from documents obtained independently. It reported that the [[Marble Freedom Trust]] was created in April 2020 in [[Utah]]; that its address was a house in North Salt Lake owned by [[Tyler Green]], a former law clerk to Justice [[Clarence Thomas]] who is listed in the trust's tax return as an administrative trustee; that Seid transferred his full ownership of the electronics maker [[Tripp Lite]] to the trust; that in February 2021 Tripp Lite's annual report to the State of [[Illinois]] had Seid's name crossed out as an officer and Leo's written in; and that [[Eaton]] bought Tripp Lite for $1.65 billion in March 2021. The authors quoted the tax law professor [[Ellen Aprill]] that a gift to a 501(c)(4) avoided the tax on the appreciation, and reported that lawyers said Seid avoided up to $400 million in taxes. The article stated that Seid and Leo had worked together at the Chicago Freedom Trust, a charity Seid formed in 2009, and that Seid appeared to be the donor listed as "Barry Seid" who gave $17 million in 2008 to distribute copies of a DVD of the film *Obsession* in presidential battleground states. It quoted Leo's statement to the *Times* that it was "high time for the conservative movement to be among the ranks of [[George Soros]], [[Hansjörg Wyss]], [[Arabella Advisors]] and other left-wing philanthropists."[^14] + +On October 11, 2023 ProPublica published a long article by Andy Kroll, [[Andrea Bernstein]] and [[Ilya Marritz]] on Leo. It described a dinner Leo hosted in Maine on June 23, 2022 for about 70 guests including some two dozen federal and state judges, held during a conference of [[George Mason University]]'s [[Antonin Scalia]] Law School, and reported that Leo had arranged for Justices Antonin Scalia and Thomas to attend [[Koch brothers]] donor retreats from 2007 and, according to the *[[Washington Post]]*, had directed [[Kellyanne Conway]] in 2012 to pay [[Ginni Thomas]] at least $25,000 as a subcontractor, with the instruction "No mention of Ginni, of course." Leo denied that the payments had any connection to the Court.[^15] + +### Reporting on Supreme Court justices, 2023 + +On April 6, 2023 ProPublica published [[Joshua Kaplan]], Justin Elliott and [[Alex Mierjeski]]'s article reporting that for more than two decades Justice Thomas had accepted luxury trips almost every year from the Dallas real estate businessman [[Harlan Crow]] without disclosing them, including a nine-day trip to [[Indonesia]] in 2019 on Crow's superyacht that could have cost more than $500,000 if chartered, flights on Crow's jet, trips to the [[Bohemian Grove]] and stays at Crow's [[Adirondacks]] resort. A guest list for one trip in July 2017 included executives of [[Verizon]] and [[PricewaterhouseCoopers]], major Republican donors and a leader of the [[American Enterprise Institute]], and a painting at the resort showed Thomas in conversation with Leo. Crow said in a statement that the hospitality was "no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends" and that he was "unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case."[^16] + +On April 13 ProPublica reported that in 2014 a Crow company bought three properties in [[Savannah, Georgia]], including the house where Thomas's mother lived, for $133,363 from Thomas, his mother and the family of his late brother, and that Thomas had not disclosed the sale; Crow said he intended to create a museum.[^17] On May 4 it reported that Crow's company paid the boarding school tuition of a grandnephew Thomas was raising, a payment that [[Mark Paoletta]], Thomas's friend and Ginni Thomas's lawyer, acknowledged.[^18] On June 20 it reported that [[Paul Singer]], a hedge fund founder, had flown Justice [[Samuel Alito]] on a private jet to a July 2008 fishing trip in Alaska at a lodge owned by [[Robin Arkley II]], that Leo helped organize the trip and asked Singer whether Alito could fly on the jet, and that Singer's fund had cases before the Court at least ten times afterward, including a 2014 case against [[Argentina]] in which Alito did not recuse himself and voted with the majority. Leo said in a statement that he "would never presume to tell" Alito and Scalia "what to do."[^19] + +On July 12, 2023 ProPublica reported that Senators [[Sheldon Whitehouse]] and [[Dick Durbin]] had written to Singer, Arkley and Leo requesting a full accounting of transportation, lodging and gifts to any justice.[^20] On August 10 it reported that Thomas had received at least 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, eight helicopter flights and a dozen VIP sports passes from a group of wealthy donors, and quoted Thomas's April statement that the Crows "are among our dearest friends."[^21] On August 31, after Thomas filed an expanded disclosure form, ProPublica reported that he acknowledged he should have reported the 2014 real estate sale, that he had disclosed three private jet trips from Crow in 2022, and that his lawyer [[Elliot Berke]] said there had been "no willful ethics transgression."[^22] On September 22 it reported that Thomas attended at least two Koch network donor events, including a January 25, 2018 summit in [[Palm Springs]], and had not reported the flight on his disclosure form; a Koch network spokesperson said the network did not pay for the jet.[^23] + +### Supporters and gift policy + +ProPublica's supporters page lists "some of our larger donors," among them the Sandler Foundation, the John S. and James L. [[John S. and James L. Knight Foundation|Knight Foundation]], the MacArthur Foundation, the William and Flora [[William and Flora Hewlett Foundation|Hewlett Foundation]], [[Arnold Ventures]], the [[Emerson Collective]], [[Crankstart]], the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the [[Commonwealth Fund]], [[Splunk]], and the law firms [[Davis Wright Tremaine]] and [[Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton]]. Its gift acceptance practices state that no donor may dictate what it reports on and that it discloses donations of $5,000 or more in its tax filings.[^24] In *[[Columbia Journalism Review]]* on August 21, 2020 [[Tim Schwab]] wrote that his review of nearly twenty thousand [[Gates Foundation]] grants found more than $250 million for journalism, with recipients including ProPublica and The Guardian.[^25] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: ProPublica, "About," https://www.propublica.org/about/ (accessed October 1, 2026). +[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, organization record for Pro Publica Inc, EIN 14-2007220, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/142007220.json (queried October 1, 2026; ruling date 2008-02, subsection 3). +[^3]: Jack Shafer, "Investigating Herbert and Marion Sandler, the funders of the new investigative journalism outfit," *Slate*, October 15, 2007, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/10/investigating-herbert-and-marion-sandler-the-funders-of-the-new-investigative-journalism-outfit.html +[^4]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A itemized receipts, queried through the OpenFEC API on October 1, 2026 for contributor names "SANDLER, HERBERT" and "SANDLER, MARION," two-year transaction periods 2004, 2006 and 2008 (https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/). +[^5]: Jake Bernstein, "Wells Fargo Picks to Pay," ProPublica, August 8, 2011, https://www.propublica.org/article/wells-fargo-picks-to-pay +[^6]: Sandler Foundation, Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, for tax years beginning July 1, 2012 through July 1, 2024 (years ended June 30, 2013 through June 30, 2025), ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943147856 (object IDs 201420459349303162, 201531339349303388, 201620469349302842, 201710469349303771, 201800899349300645, 201901339349302285, 202021369349303167, 202141329349304039, 202241319349306374, 202320959349300902, 202401029349300145, 202511339349309036 and 202611349349311916; full-text renderings under https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/). Grantee names are missing from some rows in the renderings for the year ended June 2014 and others, so grants to other recipients were counted only where the name or EIN could be read. +[^7]: Pro Publica Inc, Form 990, Part VII, Section A, for calendar years 2014 through 2024, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/142007220 (object IDs 201501919349300415, 201612249349301181, 201732339349301053, 201832369349300743, 201912209349300626, 202042889349300439, 202102379349300020, 202242699349300499, 202312619349301136, 202412699349300726 and 202523189349307912). +[^8]: Pro Publica Inc, Form 990 summary data, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/142007220.json (queried October 1, 2026). +[^9]: Jeff Larson, "Revealed: The NSA's Secret Campaign to Crack, Undermine Internet Security," ProPublica, September 5, 2013, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-nsas-secret-campaign-to-crack-undermine-internet-encryption (reported in partnership with the New York Times and The Guardian). +[^10]: "Ranks of Notorious Hate Group Include Active-Duty Military," ProPublica and PBS Frontline, May 3, 2018, https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-hate-group-active-duty-military +[^11]: A. C. Thompson and Ali Winston, "U.S. Marine to Be Imprisoned Over Involvement With Hate Groups," ProPublica, June 20, 2018, https://www.propublica.org/article/vasilios-pistolis-imprisoned-marine-hate-groups +[^12]: Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen and Paul Kiel, "The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax," ProPublica, June 8, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax +[^13]: *United States v. Littlejohn*, No. 24-3019 (D.C. Cir. July 17, 2026), argued November 4, 2025, on appeal from No. 1:23-cr-00343 (D.D.C.), https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2026/07/24-3019-2183720.pdf +[^14]: Andrew Perez, Andy Kroll and Justin Elliott, "How a Secretive Billionaire Handed His Fortune to the Architect of the Right-Wing Takeover of the Courts," ProPublica and The Lever, August 22, 2022, https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid +[^15]: Andy Kroll, Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, "We Don't Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right's Supreme Court Supermajority," ProPublica, October 11, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority +[^16]: Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, "Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor," ProPublica, April 6, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow +[^17]: "Clarence Thomas Didn't Disclose Harlan Crow Real Estate Deal," ProPublica, April 13, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus +[^18]: "Clarence Thomas Raised Him. Harlan Crow Paid His Tuition." ProPublica, May 4, 2023 (headline as published: "Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition."), https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus +[^19]: "Alito Took Unreported Luxury Trip With GOP Donor Paul Singer," ProPublica, June 20, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court +[^20]: "Senators Ask Paul Singer, Leonard Leo for Accounting of Gifts to SCOTUS Justices," ProPublica, July 12, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/senators-ask-paul-singer-leonard-leo-accounting-gifts-supreme-court +[^21]: "Clarence Thomas' 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel," ProPublica, August 10, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-other-billionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court +[^22]: "Clarence Thomas Filing Acknowledges Harlan Crow Real Estate Deal, Private Jet Travel," ProPublica, August 31, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-disclosure-filing-harlan-crow-real-estate-travel-scotus +[^23]: "Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events," ProPublica, September 22, 2023, https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus +[^24]: ProPublica, "Supporters," https://www.propublica.org/supporters, and "Gift Acceptance Practices," https://www.propublica.org/gift-acceptance-practices (both accessed October 1, 2026). +[^25]: Tim Schwab, "Journalism's Gates keepers," *Columbia Journalism Review*, August 21, 2020, https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Scale AI.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Scale AI.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e588ff52 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Scale AI.md @@ -0,0 +1,259 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - ScaleAI + - ArtificialIntelligence + - DataLabeling + - DefenseContracting + - Lobbying + - LaborPractices + - Meta + - RevolvingDoor + - PeterThiel +alias: + - Scale AI + - Scale AI, Inc. + - Scale AI Inc. + - Scale.com + - Remotasks + - Outlier AI + - Smart Ecosystem +summary: "San Francisco AI data company founded in 2016 by Alexandr Wang, holder of 105.6 million dollars in Army obligations, whose Labor Department inquiry was dropped in 2025 and in which Meta bought a non-voting stake." +start: 2016 +location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Alexandr Wang]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + role: "founder" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alexandr Wang]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + end: 2025-06-12 + role: "chief executive" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Alexandr Wang]]" + reverse: true + role: "director; chairman of the board as of 2026-07-30" + fn: 25 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jason Droege]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-06-12 + end: 2026-08-10 + role: "interim chief executive" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Francis deSouza]]" + reverse: true + start: 2026-08-10 + role: "chief executive" + fn: 25 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Michael Kratsios]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-03 + role: "managing director" + fn: 17 + - type: funded + with: "[[Meta Platforms]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-06 + role: "non-voting minority stake; 13.79 billion dollars of the consideration carried under the measurement alternative" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Y Combinator]]" + reverse: true + role: "existing investor named in the Series F announcement of 2024-05-21" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Accel]]" + reverse: true + role: "lead investor, Series F, 2024" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[Founders Fund]]" + reverse: true + role: "existing investor named in the Series F announcement of 2024-05-21" + fn: 4 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[U.S. Army]]" + start: 2020-09-29 + end: 2024-09-14 + role: "contract W911QX20C0051, 105,550,316.38 dollars obligated" + fn: 7 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[U.S. Air Force]]" + start: 2021-03-15 + role: "ISR machine learning, Donovan and E-4C contracts" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Missile Defense Agency]]" + start: 2025-12-29 + role: "SHIELD indefinite-delivery contract" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Defense Innovation Unit]]" + start: 2025-03-05 + role: "Thunderforge prototype contract" + fn: 10 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office]]" + start: 2025-09-17 + role: "production other transaction agreement, ceiling 100 million dollars, raised to 500 million dollars on 2026-05-06" + fn: 11 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Qatar Ministry of Communications and Information Technology]]" + start: 2025-02-24 + role: "five-year strategic partnership" + fn: 24 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Department of Labor]]" + reverse: true + start: 2024-08 + end: 2025-05 + role: "Fair Labor Standards Act investigation, dropped" + fn: 19 + - type: represented + with: "[[The Halcrow Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-02-01 + end: 2023 + role: "registered lobbyist" + fn: 13 + - type: represented + with: "[[Ballard Partners]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-06-01 + end: 2023 + role: "registered lobbyist" + fn: 13 + - type: represented + with: "[[Cornerstone Government Affairs]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-10-11 + role: "registered lobbyist" + fn: 13 + - type: represented + with: "[[SHW Partners]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-15 + end: 2026-06-30 + role: "registered lobbyist, Jason Miller" + fn: 13 + - type: represented + with: "[[Mehlman Consulting]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-19 + role: "registered lobbyist" + fn: 13 + - type: represented + with: "[[The VM Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-01 + role: "registered lobbyist, former House Armed Services staff" + fn: 13 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Scale AI, Inc. is a [[San Francisco]] company that supplies labeled data, model evaluation and software for artificial intelligence. [[Alexandr Wang]] told the [[House Armed Services Committee]] in 2023 that "In 2016, I founded Scale with a mission to accelerate the development of AI," and that the company had worked with [[General Motors]], [[Toyota]], [[Meta Platforms|Meta]], [[Microsoft]] and [[OpenAI]] and with "the U.S. Department of Defense's CDAO [Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office], the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Air Force."[^1] Its federal customers include the [[U.S. Army]], the [[U.S. Air Force]], the [[Defense Logistics Agency]], the [[Missile Defense Agency]], the [[Defense Innovation Unit]] and the [[Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office]] (CDAO). In June 2025 Meta acquired a non-voting minority of its equity, and Wang joined Meta.[^2][^3] + +### Founding and Investors + +Wang wrote in the Series F announcement that "In 2016, I was studying AI at MIT" and that he founded Scale to supply the data pillar of artificial intelligence. On May 21, 2024, Scale announced a financing of 1 billion dollars at a valuation of 13.8 billion dollars, a mix of primary and secondary shares, led by existing investor [[Accel]] with participation from [[Y Combinator]], [[Nat Friedman]], [[Index Ventures]], [[Founders Fund]], [[Coatue]], [[Thrive Capital]], [[Spark Capital]], [[Nvidia]], [[Tiger Global Management]], [[Greenoaks]] and [[Wellington Management]]. The new investors named were Cisco Investments, DFJ Growth, Intel Capital, ServiceNow Ventures, AMD Ventures, WCM, [[Amazon]], [[Elad Gil]], Meta and Qualcomm Ventures. The announcement states that Scale's "Public Sector Data Engine has powered many major AI programs within the US Department of Defense."[^4] Scale's certificates of interested entities in federal court list Index Ventures VIII (Jersey), L.P., Accel-XII L.P. and Wang (June 2025), and, after the Meta investment, Meta Platforms, Inc. (September 2025).[^5][^6] + +Wang told the subcommittee that "I grew up in the shadow of the Los Alamos National Lab. My parents were physicists and worked on the technology that defined the last era of warfare, the atomic bomb," and that four years earlier he had gone "on an investor trip to China that was both enlightening and unsettling."[^1] The laboratory is at [[Los Alamos]], [[New Mexico]]. + +### Army and Air Force Contracts + +The federal spending database USAspending.gov lists contract W911QX20C0051, awarded to Scale AI, Inc. on September 29, 2020 by the Army contracting office at Adelphi, Maryland (W6QK ACC-APG Adelphi), under solicitation W911NF17S0003, a broad agency announcement of the [[Army Research Laboratory]], using basic research procedures. It covers "research, development, design, configuration, implementation, and testing of machine learning algorithm in accordance with the tasks outlined in their proposal." Its period of performance ran to September 14, 2024; obligations total 105,550,316.38 dollars against a value with all options of 110,230,803.17 dollars. The initial action obligated 16,472,937.20 dollars. Modification P00001 of October 19, 2021 is described as "adding approved DD254 to Scale AI BAA contract," the DD254 being the Department of Defense contract security classification specification. Later modifications obligated 20,857,300.44 dollars (November 16, 2021, in a modification that also incorporated the clause implementing [[Executive Order 14042]]), 17,100,278.01 dollars (July 20, 2022, "exercise CLIN 3 option"), 3,465,110.56 dollars (September 6, 2022, "additional SIPR seats on Scale AI labeling BAA," SIPR being the Pentagon's classified network), 20,325,220.12 dollars (January 13, 2023, "update DD254, exercise option"), 1,440,764 dollars (July 13, 2023), 16,250,601.28 dollars (February 1, 2024, a ceiling increase) and three funding actions in 2024 of 1,512,804.13, 7,013,890.25 and 1,111,410.39 dollars.[^7] + +The same database lists Air Force contract FA864921P0899, 749,942 dollars from March 15, 2021, for "accelerating USAF artificial intelligence/machine learning development for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance processing, exploitation, and dissemination"; Air Force contracts FA714622CB007 (945,000 dollars, February 28, 2022, "AI/ML support") and FA714622CB024 (1,800,000 dollars, July 25, 2022 to February 28, 2024, "Scale follow on"); a blanket purchase agreement for the [[Joint Artificial Intelligence Center]] test and evaluation program, W52P1J22A0073, signed January 28, 2022, with a value of 249,000,000 dollars and an ordering period to January 27, 2027; a Defense Logistics Agency indefinite-delivery contract, SP470124D0004, of September 27, 2024, under which task orders of 2,473,818 dollars and 2,511,830 dollars followed; Air Force awards for the Donovan platform, FA875125P0002 ("Tradewinds Donovan," 1,499,999.92 dollars, February 24, 2025) and FA873025PB007 ("Project Zion," 1,000,000 dollars, March 4, 2025); an Army indefinite-delivery contract, W911QX25DA011, signed August 21, 2025, with a value of 99,490,982.50 dollars for artificial intelligence support to the Army Research Laboratory through August 2030 and a task order of 2,882,872 dollars; an Air Force contract, FA875126C0001, for 5,064,551 dollars from February 27, 2026 for agentic artificial intelligence for the [[E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center]]; and a Missile Defense Agency indefinite-delivery contract, HQ085926DF526, under its Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program, signed December 19, 2025 with a recorded value of 151,000,000,000 dollars and a performance period to December 2035, with an initial order of 500 dollars.[^8] + +### Testimony Before Congress + +On July 18, 2023, Wang testified before the Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation of the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by [[Mike Gallagher]] with [[Ro Khanna]] as ranking member and [[Matt Gaetz]] among its members, at a hearing titled "Man and Machine: Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield." He said that "The country that is able to most rapidly and effectively integrate new technology into warfighting wins," that Scale had "partnered with DIU [Defense Innovation Unit] to develop a data engine that will support the Army's Robotic Combat Vehicle program," and that its Donovan platform was "being utilized right now in military planning exercises." Asked about procurement, he named the CDAO's Tradewinds program as "one of the fastest procurement methods" for new technology in the Department of Defense.[^1] + +On October 17, 2024, Wang wrote to [[Chuck Schumer]], [[Mitch McConnell]], [[Mike Johnson]] and [[Hakeem Jeffries]] asking that legislation before the end of the year authorize the [[AI Safety Institute]], require federal agencies to make their data ready for artificial intelligence, and define "developers" and "deployers," as Matt Bracken of FedScoop reported.[^9] + +### Defense Innovation Unit and CDAO Agreements + +Jon Harper of DefenseScoop reported on March 5, 2025 that the Defense Innovation Unit had announced a prototype contract to Scale for Thunderforge, an AI-assisted planning and wargaming capability incorporating Scale's agentic applications, [[Anduril Industries]]'s Lattice software platform and Microsoft's large language model technology, with the Indo-Pacific Command and European Command first in line to receive it.[^10] + +On September 17, 2025, Scale announced a five-year enterprise agreement with the CDAO with a ceiling of 100 million dollars, structured as an other transaction authority agreement, following "two and a half years" of prototype agreements, and stated that its platforms would be available "on networks up to Top Secret/SCI."[^11] On May 6, 2026, Scale announced that the CDAO, which it described as part of the "U.S. Department of War," had raised the ceiling to 500 million dollars, that components of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps and defense agencies were ordering under it, and that its annotators at its AI center in [[St. Louis]] were trained to label electro-optical, infrared and synthetic aperture radar imagery for defense programs.[^12] + +### Lobbying + +Scale AI, Inc. registered as its own lobbyist on June 8, 2021, on the National Defense Authorization Act, naming [[Jason Schmid]], who lists service as professional staff of the House Armed Services Committee. Expenses reported on its own filings were 340,000 dollars for 2021, 850,000 dollars for 2022, 670,000 dollars for 2023, 710,000 dollars for 2024, 1,180,000 dollars for 2025 and 1,040,000 dollars for the first half of 2026. The report for the first quarter of 2023 lists the Department of Defense and the [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]] among the entities contacted and covers artificial intelligence programs in the defense and intelligence authorization acts. Its later in-house lobbyists include [[Max Fenkell]], Alexander Davis, Jonathan Van Buren, formerly legislative director to Representative [[Trey Hollingsworth]], and Ariel Marshall, who lists service as chief of staff to the Under Secretary for Science and Innovation at the [[Department of Energy]] from 2023 to 2025. The report for the second quarter of 2025 lists the [[White House Office]] among the entities contacted and adds "Issues related to the AI workforce"; the reports for 2026 add an energy issue labeled "Genesis Mission," with the Department of Energy contacted.[^13] + +Outside registrants for Scale have been [[The Halcrow Group]] (February 1, 2022 to the third quarter of 2023; [[Stephanie Halcrow]], formerly professional staff of the House Armed Services Committee; 50,000 dollars per quarter), [[Ballard Partners]] (June 1, 2022 to the first quarter of 2023; [[Brian Ballard]] and Daniel McFaul, formerly chief of staff to Representatives [[Jeff Miller]] and Matt Gaetz; 40,000 dollars per quarter), [[Cornerstone Government Affairs]] (October 11, 2023; 20,000 dollars for each of the last two quarters of 2023 and 60,000 dollars per quarter since), SHW Partners LLC (August 15, 2025 to June 30, 2026), [[Mehlman Consulting]] (August 19, 2025; 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 and 60,000 dollars for the third quarter of 2025 to the second quarter of 2026) and The VM Group, whose registration, posted August 28, 2026, gives a client effective date of August 1, 2025 and names [[Christopher Vieson]], a former staff director of the House Armed Services Committee, and [[Phil MacNaughton]], a former professional staff member of the committee, on "defense technology."[^13] + +SHW Partners is the firm of [[Jason Miller]], whom Kevin McCauley of O'Dwyer's described as [[Donald Trump]]'s chief spokesperson during the 2024 campaign, and which O'Dwyer's reported in May 2025 had been retained by India at 150,000 dollars a month.[^14] Its registration for Scale states the aim "Maintain top-rated positioning as entrepreneurs and enterprise solution-oriented problem solvers in the AI space, including, but not limited to, national defense applications"; its quarterly reports list the [[Department of Defense]], the [[Office of the Director of National Intelligence]], the [[Office of Management and Budget]] and the White House Office as entities contacted, and report no income from Scale. A termination report posted July 27, 2026 gives June 30, 2026 as the end date.[^13] Cornerstone's lobbyists for Scale have included [[Heather Molino]], formerly staff director of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]]; [[Anthony Lazarski]], formerly of the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]] staff; [[William Smith]], formerly staff director of the House Appropriations Committee; [[Andrew Flick]], formerly special assistant to the President and senior adviser for congressional affairs and strategic outreach in the Office of the Vice President; and, from the fourth quarter of 2025, [[Patrick Flood]], formerly deputy chief of staff and national security adviser to Representative [[Don Bacon]]. Mehlman Consulting is led by [[Bruce Mehlman]], formerly Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy. Cornerstone and Mehlman are also registered for [[Andreessen Horowitz]], and Vieson and MacNaughton registered for Andreessen Horowitz through Zero Mile Strategies in February 2026.[^13][^15] + +Wang's own federal contributions on the record of the [[Federal Election Commission]] include 2,900 dollars through [[WinRed]] on November 1, 2022, 6,600 dollars through [[ActBlue]] and 3,300 dollars twice to the Senate campaign of [[Martin Heinrich]] on April 22, 2024, and 1,000 dollars each through ActBlue and to Friends of Maria on June 20, 2024.[^16] + +### Michael Kratsios + +[[Michael Kratsios]] listed his career in his questionnaire to the [[Senate Commerce Committee]] for his nomination as director of the [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]]: associate, chief compliance officer and chief financial officer of [[Clarium Capital|Clarium Capital Management]] (2010 to 2015); chief compliance officer of [[Thiel Capital]] and Thiel Macro (2012 to 2014); principal and chief of staff at Thiel Capital (2014 to 2017); deputy assistant to the President and deputy U.S. chief technology officer (2017 to 2019); Chief Technology Officer of the [[United States]] (2019 to 2021); acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (2020 to 2021); and "Managing Director, Scale AI, 2021-2025." The same questionnaire lists a consultancy at [[HySpecIQ]] in 2021, a seat on the board of managers of [[Improbable]] U.S. Defense and National Security in 2022 and board membership of the [[Foundation for American Innovation]] from 2023 to 2025.[^17] The Army contract W911QX20C0051 was signed on September 29, 2020, during the period he lists as acting Under Secretary for Research and Engineering.[^7][^17] + +In its conflict-of-interest answers the questionnaire states: "I worked for Scale AI from March 2021 until January 17, 2024. I am no longer an employee and will divest of all of my Scale assets, per my ethics agreement," and "I hold equity and options in Scale AI, bitcoin, and ethereum. I will divest of these assets if confirmed, per my ethics agreement." It also states that "For the past four years, I have worked as the Managing Director of Scale AI," and that he will keep participating in Scale's 401(k) plan and health savings account, to which the company no longer contributes.[^17] Charles Rollet of TechCrunch reported that Kratsios was confirmed in March 2025, and that the office "has no oversight over the Department of Labor."[^18][^19] + +### Labor Practices and Litigation + +Josh Dzieza reported in The Verge in June 2023 that annotators said Scale's Remotasks platform paid relatively well when it arrived in Kenya, "averaging about $5 to $10 per hour depending on the task," that pay for the Kenyan annotators he interviewed had dropped to between 1 and 3 dollars per hour by the beginning of 2023, and that U.S.-based Remotasks annotators generally earned 10 to 25 dollars per hour. A Scale spokesperson said that the company's economists analyze a project's specifics "to ensure fair and competitive compensation"; former employees said pay was set by "a surge-pricing-like mechanism."[^20] + +Troy Wolverton of the San Francisco Examiner reported on December 12, 2024 that a class action, McKinney v. Scale AI, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by Clarkson Law Firm, alleged that workers who train AI models had been misclassified as contractors and called Scale "the sordid underbelly propping up the generative AI industry"; a company spokesman said that "We are committed to ensuring we are in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations."[^21] Ramey v. Scale AI, Inc., No. 3:24-cv-06999 (N.D. Cal.), a [[Fair Labor Standards Act]] action filed on October 6, 2024 against HireArt, Outlier AI and Scale AI, ended with a joint notice of settlement on February 11, 2025 and a stipulation of dismissal on May 12, 2025.[^22] Schuster v. Scale AI, Inc., No. 3:25-cv-00620 (N.D. Cal.), filed on January 17, 2025 by Clarkson Law Firm against Outlier AI, Scale AI and Smart Ecosystem as a class action for negligence and under California's Unfair Competition Law and assigned to Judge [[Jacqueline Scott Corley]], drew a motion to compel arbitration on April 2, 2025 and ended with a notice of voluntary dismissal on August 10, 2026.[^5] + +### Department of Labor Investigation + +Charles Rollet of TechCrunch reported on March 6, 2025 that the [[Department of Labor]] was investigating Scale for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and that a document showed the investigation active since at least August 2024. A Scale spokesperson said it had been initiated under the previous administration and that regulators had misunderstood Scale's work; a Labor Department spokesperson said the department could not confirm or deny it. Rollet noted that Wang had attended Trump's inauguration in January 2025 and that Kratsios, Scale's former managing director, was then Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy.[^23] On May 1, 2025 the department announced that it would no longer enforce, at least for the time being, a rule of the previous administration that made it harder to classify workers as contractors. On May 9, 2025 Rollet reported, citing a source directly familiar with the matter, that the department had dropped the investigation, and that [[Upwork]] and HireArt, two of Scale's HR partners also under investigation, had confirmed that they were no longer being investigated; he wrote that it was "not clear exactly why," and that Wang had published a letter urging Trump to "win the AI war." A Scale spokesperson said: "We're pleased with this update."[^19] The stipulation of dismissal in the Ramey case was filed three days later, on May 12, 2025.[^22] + +### Qatar + +On February 24, 2025, at Web Summit Qatar, Qatar's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, [[Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai]], and Wang signed a five-year agreement for Scale to supply AI tools to Qatari government entities.[^24] + +### Meta Investment + +On June 12, 2025, Scale announced "a significant new investment from Meta Platforms, Inc." that "values Scale at over $29 billion." Wang joined Meta "to work on Meta's AI efforts" while remaining on Scale's board; the chief strategy officer, [[Jason Droege]], who had joined in September 2024 after work at [[Uber Eats]] and [[Axon]], became interim chief executive; and Scale said it would distribute proceeds "to Scale shareholders and vested equity holders" and that Meta "will hold a minority of Scale's outstanding equity."[^2] Meta's quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2025 states: "In June 2025, we completed an investment in Scale AI by acquiring a non-voting minority of its outstanding equity. Out of the total consideration, $13.79 billion was included in non-marketable equity investments accounted for under the measurement alternative method, as we do not have significant influence over Scale AI's operations." Meta's annual report for 2025 describes "our minority investments in Scale AI for $13.80 billion."[^3] + +### Scale AI v. Mercor + +On September 3, 2025, Scale sued the company [[Mercor]] and a former employee in Scale AI, Inc. v. Mercor.io Corporation, No. 3:25-cv-07402 (N.D. Cal.), under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. The case was reassigned to Judge [[Charles R. Breyer]] in December 2025, and Scale filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal with prejudice on January 2, 2026.[^6] + +### Leadership Since 2025 + +On July 30, 2026, Scale announced that [[Francis deSouza]], formerly chief operating officer and president of security products at [[Google Cloud]] and earlier president and chief executive of [[Illumina]], would become chief executive on August 10, 2026, and quoted Wang as "Scale AI Founder and Chairman of the Board."[^25] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation. "Man and Machine: Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield." Hearing of July 18, 2023, H.A.S.C. No. 118-37. Washington: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2024 (statement and testimony of Alexandr Wang). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-118hhrg53627/pdf/CHRG-118hhrg53627.pdf +[^2]: Scale AI. "Scale AI Announces Next Phase of Company's Evolution." June 12, 2025. https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-announces-next-phase-of-company-evolution +[^3]: Meta Platforms, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, filed July 31, 2025, accession 0001628280-25-036791, note on non-marketable equity investments, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000162828025036791/meta-20250630.htm ; Form 10-K for 2025, filed January 29, 2026, accession 0001628280-26-003942, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000162828026003942/meta-20251231.htm +[^4]: Wang, Alexandr. "Scale's Series F: Expanding the Data Foundry for AI." Scale AI, May 21, 2024. https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-series-f +[^5]: Schuster v. Scale AI, Inc., No. 3:25-cv-00620-JSC (N.D. Cal.), docket entries 1, 10, 17, 20 and 34. CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69556383/schuster-v-scale-ai-inc/ +[^6]: Scale AI, Inc. v. Mercor.io Corporation, No. 3:25-cv-07402-CRB (N.D. Cal.), docket entries 1, 2, 9, 27 and 30. CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71260080/scale-ai-inc-v-mercorio-corporation/ +[^7]: USAspending.gov, contract award W911QX20C0051, Scale AI, Inc. (UEI DHU2LMKSDQD9), Department of the Army, awarding office W6QK ACC-APG Adelphi, award record and transaction history queried October 1, 2026. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_W911QX20C0051_9700_-NONE-_-NONE-/ ; https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/ +[^8]: USAspending.gov, spending by award search for recipient "Scale AI," contract and indefinite-delivery award types, queried October 1, 2026, awards FA864921P0899, FA714622CB007, FA714622CB024, W52P1J22A0073, SP470124D0004, SP470124F0355, SP470125F0273, FA875125P0002, FA873025PB007, W911QX25DA011, W911QX25FA054, FA875126C0001, HQ085926DF526 and HQ085926FF523; award detail for W52P1J22A0073, W911QX25DA011 and HQ085926DF526. https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/ ; https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_IDV_HQ085926DF526_9700/ +[^9]: Bracken, Matt. "Scale AI pushes Congress to take action on AI data, safety issues this year." FedScoop, October 18, 2024. https://fedscoop.com/scale-ai-letter-to-congress-ai-priorities/ +[^10]: Harper, Jon. "Combatant commands to get new generative AI tech for operational planning, wargaming." DefenseScoop, March 5, 2025. https://defensescoop.com/2025/03/05/diu-thunderforge-scale-ai-combatant-commands-indopacom-eucom/ +[^11]: Harris, Kathryn. "From Prototype to Production: Unlocking Mission-Ready AI." Scale AI, September 17, 2025. https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-inks-100m-deal +[^12]: Harris, Kathryn. "Scale AI Expands Pentagon AI Partnership to $500 Million." Scale AI, May 6, 2026. https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-pentagon-cdao-500-million-agreement +[^13]: U.S. Senate and House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for client Scale AI, 2021 to 2026, queried October 1, 2026, including Scale AI, Inc. registration posted June 8, 2021 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/492634ce-5527-492a-8c09-5de878d7deb3/print/), first quarter 2023 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4ba340a2-3d5f-47b1-826d-bb97a8ba7791/print/), second quarter 2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/64f301f4-32d8-4066-8567-c9967ec6c02c/print/) and first quarter 2026 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/97e705c2-c0c9-42c6-af69-e20438359e3e/print/); The Halcrow Group registration posted February 1, 2022 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/f0dc743a-821b-4919-9803-218cf6ccd08e/print/); Ballard Partners registration posted June 1, 2022 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/2fd82b31-1158-43f1-b874-11559c5006f2/print/); Cornerstone Government Affairs registration posted October 11, 2023 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4bed6edb-c81c-41ff-aecb-e50754221888/print/), first quarter 2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/baae0f45-0014-4c73-9963-90c90f8393b8/print/) and fourth quarter 2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/30e96546-a5d5-459b-ae08-9b3efffca45b/print/); SHW Partners LLC registration posted August 15, 2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/ac3e454a-ae49-47b4-9373-bcff86bccc34/print/), third quarter 2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/ae29a41a-f65f-4158-9d48-d668fd35dbe1/print/) and termination posted July 27, 2026 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/c6822434-3e5e-4318-bc63-5845b2541934/print/); Mehlman Consulting registration posted August 19, 2025 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/abdd7fa4-d0dd-46f6-a946-a16482f72509/print/); The VM Group registration posted August 28, 2026 (https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4087f730-33fc-451b-952d-6e39e960ccd9/print/). https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Scale+AI +[^14]: McCauley, Kevin. "India Retains Firm of Ex-Trump Spokesperson." O'Dwyer's, May 1, 2025. https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/22935/2025-05-01/india-retains-firm-ex-trump-spokesperson.html +[^15]: Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for client A16Z Capital Management: Zero Mile Strategies registration posted February 10, 2026, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/8e23305c-2d46-4df0-a09b-afa9586f12be/print/ ; Mehlman Consulting registration posted May 9, 2023, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/304977a5-3e0a-4d06-9f69-f2e5cb0cfc09/print/ ; Cornerstone Government Affairs registration posted November 26, 2024, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/52af18bf-30a7-44c6-b1b9-6841e4616d2b/print/ +[^16]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor "Wang, Alexandr," sub_ids 4011820231711963266, 4060420241959129953, 4052420241950726141, 4052420241950726139, 4091820242040946471 and 4080520242008855753. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^17]: Kratsios, Michael. Questionnaire for nominees, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, nomination as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2025, questions 7 to 11 and conflict-of-interest answers. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/B3086E47-258A-4593-A791-DE02341F9684 +[^18]: Rollet, Charles. "Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor." TechCrunch, March 6, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/06/scale-ai-is-being-investigated-by-the-us-department-of-labor/ +[^19]: Rollet, Charles. "The Department of Labor just dropped its investigation into Scale AI." TechCrunch, May 9, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/09/the-department-of-labor-just-dropped-its-investigation-into-scale-ai/ +[^20]: Dzieza, Josh. "AI Is a Lot of Work." The Verge, June 20, 2023. https://www.theverge.com/features/23764584/ai-artificial-intelligence-data-notation-labor-scale-surge-remotasks-openai-chatbots +[^21]: Wolverton, Troy. "Suit charges SF's Scale AI with misclassifying workers, wage theft." San Francisco Examiner, December 12, 2024. https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/technology/scale-ai-lawsuit-charges-sf-tech-startup-with-wage-theft/article_b6b3781a-b827-11ef-8cc7-c320ca742702.html +[^22]: Ramey v. Scale AI, Inc., No. 3:24-cv-06999-SK (N.D. Cal.), docket entries 1, 24, 32 and 36. CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69230354/ramey-v-scale-ai-inc/ +[^23]: Rollet, Charles. "Scale AI is being investigated by the US Department of Labor." TechCrunch, March 6, 2025 (spokesperson statements). https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/06/scale-ai-is-being-investigated-by-the-us-department-of-labor/ +[^24]: "MCIT, Scale AI sign partnership agreement." The Peninsula (Qatar), February 24, 2025. https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/24/02/2025/mcit-scale-ai-sign-partnership-agreement +[^25]: Scale AI. "Scale AI Appoints Francis deSouza as CEO to Lead Next Phase of Company's Growth." July 30, 2026. https://scale.com/blog/scale-appoints-new-ceo diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sequoia Capital.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sequoia Capital.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5ea5861a --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Sequoia Capital.md @@ -0,0 +1,228 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - SequoiaCapital + - VentureCapital + - SiliconValley + - PayPalMafia + - FTX + - HongShan + - HouseSelectCommitteeOnTheCCP + - CaymanIslands + - PoliticalDonor + - RevolvingDoor +alias: + - Sequoia Capital + - Sequoia + - Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC + - Sequoia Capital Operations + - Sequoia Capital Fund + - Sequoia Capital U.S./Europe +summary: "Menlo Park venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972, early investor in Apple, Cisco, PayPal, Square and FTX, which separated from its China and India affiliates in 2023 and 2024." +start: 1972 +location: "2800 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Don Valentine]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "founder" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Michael Moritz]]" + reverse: true + start: 1986 + role: "partner" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Doug Leone]]" + reverse: true + role: "managing member from January 2003; director of SC US (TTGP), Ltd." + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Roelof Botha]]" + reverse: true + end: 2025-11-04 + role: "senior steward; managing member of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC 2007 to 2025" + fn: 11 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alfred Lin]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-11-04 + role: "co-steward" + fn: 11 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Pat Grady]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-11-04 + role: "co-steward" + fn: 11 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Neil Shen]]" + reverse: true + role: "steward and head of Sequoia Capital China" + fn: 10 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Don Vieira]]" + reverse: true + role: "partner, chief legal officer and chief policy officer" + fn: 24 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Shaun Maguire]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-03 + role: "managing member of Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC" + fn: 9 + - type: funded + with: "[[Atari]]" + start: 1974 + role: "Valentine helped finance" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Apple Computer]]" + start: 1977 + role: "start-up financing" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Cisco Systems]]" + start: 1987 + role: "investor; Valentine chairman until 1996" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[PayPal]]" + start: 1999-08 + role: "Series A, B and C investor; 9.9 percent before the 2002 offering" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Square]]" + role: "investor through the 2010 venture funds; 5.3 percent in 2015" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Twitter]]" + start: 2022-05 + role: "$800 million equity commitment by Sequoia Capital Fund, L.P. to Elon Musk's acquisition" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[FTX]]" + start: 2021-07 + end: 2022-11-09 + role: "Series B investor through Global Growth Fund III and SCGE Fund; marked to zero" + fn: 16 + - type: funded + with: "[[ByteDance]]" + start: 2014-03 + role: "Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Capital China investments of about $1.4 billion" + fn: 23 + - type: funded + with: "[[23andMe]]" + role: "17,818,438 Class B shares held by Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC in 2021" + fn: 25 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[House Select Committee on the CCP]]" + start: 2023-10-17 + role: "letter to Roelof Botha and Don Vieira; report of February 8, 2024" + fn: 22 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[In re FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse Litigation]]" + role: "defendant, as Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC, one of the Domestic Investor Defendants" + fn: 19 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +### Founding + +[[Don Valentine]], a founder of [[National Semiconductor]] and earlier a senior sales and marketing executive at [[Fairchild Semiconductor]], founded Sequoia Capital in 1972. The [[Computer History Museum]]'s biography of Valentine states that he helped finance [[Atari]] in 1974, contributed start-up financing to [[Apple Computer]] in 1977 and saw [[Electronic Arts]] start in Sequoia's office in 1982, and that Sequoia financed [[Cisco Systems]] in 1987, after which Valentine chaired Cisco until 1996 and then became vice chairman. He also organized the start-up financing of [[LSI Logic]] and chaired [[Microchip Technology]].[^1] + +### PayPal + +[[Michael Moritz]], a Sequoia partner since 1986, joined the board of X.com, later [[PayPal]], in August 1999. The prospectus for PayPal's 2002 offering describes his appointment as "a condition to the obligation of entities affiliated with Sequoia Capital to complete their investment in our Series A Preferred Stock." In August 1999 Sequoia IX funds bought 15,000,000 Series A preferred shares from [[Elon Musk]] for $5.0 million, and they later bought 6,000,000 Series B and 363,636 Series C shares. Entities affiliated with Sequoia owned 9.9 percent of PayPal before the offering. Moritz, a managing member of SC IX Management, LLC, sat on the audit committee with Musk and [[Shailesh Mehta]] and on the boards of [[Flextronics]], [[Saba Software]] and [[Yahoo]].[^2] The prospectus lists among PayPal's officers [[Peter Thiel]], [[Max Levchin]], [[David Sacks]], [[Reid Hoffman]] and the chief financial officer [[Roelof Botha]], who joined Sequoia in January 2003.[^2][^3] + +### Square and Khosla + +Square's Form D of September 2011, for a $100,000,052 Series C sale, lists Botha with [[Jack Dorsey]], [[Jim McKelvey]], [[Vinod Khosla]], [[Larry Summers]] and [[Mary Meeker]] as directors and [[Keith Rabois]] as an executive officer.[^4] Rabois resigned as Square's chief operating officer in January 2013 after an employee alleged sexual harassment, which he denied, and joined [[Khosla Ventures]] that year.[^5][^6] In Square's registration statement of November 2015, Sequoia's 2010 [[United States]] venture funds held 15,728,310 shares, 5.3 percent, under SC US (TTGP), Ltd., whose directors with voting and investment discretion were Botha, [[Jim Goetz]], [[Michael Goguen]], [[Doug Leone]] and Moritz. Botha sat on the compensation committee with Meeker of [[Kleiner Perkins]].[^3] + +Rabois's spouse, [[Jacob Helberg]], listed interests in Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Fund, Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Partners XIV and Sequoia Technology Partners XII in his 2025 nominee financial disclosure, and in his ethics agreement of May 5, 2025 committed that he and his spouse would divest them within 90 days of confirmation as Under Secretary of State.[^7] + +### Structure + +Sequoia's United States funds are [[Cayman Islands]] partnerships. A Schedule 13D filed on February 27, 2024 for [[Maplebear]] (Instacart) shows each fund under a management partnership whose general partner is SC US (TTGP), Ltd., and names Leone and Botha as the directors and stockholders of SC US (TTGP) "who exercise voting and investment discretion." The filing, signed by Botha as authorized signatory, records that Sequoia managing member [[Ravi Gupta]] had joined Maplebear's board in August 2023.[^8] + +Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] as an investment adviser (CRD 157373, file 801-122957), with Sequoia Capital Europe LLP as a relying adviser. Its Form ADV amendment of July 17, 2026 reports $82,165,771,068 in discretionary regulatory assets in 60 accounts and lists 61 private funds. Schedule A names as direct owners and executive officers Leone (managing member since January 2003), Goetz, [[Alfred Lin]], [[Pat Grady]], [[Andrew Reed]], [[Shaun Maguire]] (managing member since March 2021), [[Stephanie Zhan]], Bogomil Balkansky, Konstantine Buhler, Sonya Huang and David Cahn, the chief financial officer Marie Klemchuk, and the chief legal and compliance officer Jung Yeon Son, together with family trusts of Lin, Grady, Zhan, Balkansky and Maguire; the Shaun Maguire Living Trust is listed as a member holding between 5 and 10 percent from December 2025. Botha is not listed.[^9] + +The same filing describes Sequoia Capital Fund, L.P., a Cayman Islands partnership registered with the [[Cayman Islands Monetary Authority]], with a gross asset value of $27,164,822,736, about 355 beneficial owners, 12 percent owned by the adviser and its related persons and 23 percent by non-United States persons.[^9] + +### Stewards + +On January 31, 2017 Goetz wrote to Sequoia's investors that he would step aside from his leadership responsibilities, thanking "Doug and Sir Michael." [[News24]] printed the letter and reported that Botha would become one of three stewards with Leone and [[Neil Shen]], who ran the China business.[^10] Botha became senior steward in mid-2022. On November 4, 2025 Sequoia announced that Lin and Grady would succeed him as co-stewards.[^11] + +In 2025 Maguire called the New York mayoral candidate [[Zohran Mamdani]] an "Islamist" who "comes from a culture that lies about everything"; the chief operating officer, [[Sumaiya Balbale]], resigned in August over the firm's decision not to discipline him, and Botha said in October that "we need spiky people inside of Sequoia."[^11] In January 2026 [[Julie Bort]] of [[TechCrunch]] reported that Maguire, still at the firm, had posted comments on the Minneapolis Border Patrol shooting aligned with those of Rabois, and that Lin and Grady had not commented.[^12] + +### Political contributions of partners + +[[Federal Election Commission]] records for Moritz with Sequoia Capital, [[Sequoia Heritage]] or HRTG Partners as employer total $19,020,800. They include $13,800,000 to [[AB PAC]], the committee that filed as American Bridge 21st Century through the 2018 cycle, in nine gifts from February 20, 2020 to September 23, 2024, among them $4,800,000 on April 5, 2024; $2,100,000 to [[The Lincoln Project]]; $1,500,000 to [[PACRONYM]]; $450,000 to the Everytown Victory Fund; and, in 2026, $500,000 each to VoteVets and Government That Works PAC and $100,000 to Abundant Future.[^13] + +Records for Leone with Sequoia Capital as employer include $125,000 to Right to Rise USA in January 2015; $100,000 to the John Bolton Super PAC in June 2017; $50,000 each to America First Action and Trump Victory in 2019; $100,000 to Security is Strength PAC and $100,900 to the Senate Georgia Battleground Fund in 2020; $893,500 to the [[Senate Leadership Fund]] in three gifts from November 2020 to February 2022; about $501,000 to the [[Congressional Leadership Fund]]; $820,900 to the McCarthy Victory Fund, in part with the employer given as "venture capitalist"; $213,500 to the [[Republican National Committee]] in two gifts on December 7, 2021; $2,000,000 to Never Back Down Inc. on April 19, 2023; $1,000,000 to America PAC on June 14, 2024; and $250,000 to the [[Trump 47 Committee]] on October 30, 2024. A $2,000,000 gift to Right for America on June 4, 2024 appears under his name with the employer given as self-employed. Botha's two gifts, of $5,000 each, went to the [[National Venture Capital Association]]'s VenturePAC.[^13] + +### Twitter + +On May 5, 2022 Musk filed an amendment to his Schedule 13D for [[Twitter]] listing co-investors who had signed equity commitment letters for his acquisition. Sequoia Capital Fund, L.P. committed $800,000,000. The other commitments on the list included the Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust ($1,000,000,000), [[VyCapital]] ($700,000,000), [[Binance]] ($500,000,000), AH Capital Management, L.L.C. of [[Andreessen Horowitz]] ($400,000,000), [[Qatar Holding LLC]] ($375,000,000), Fidelity ($316,139,386), Brookfield ($250,000,000) and [[Witkoff Capital]] ($100,000,000).[^14] + +### FTX + +In a profile of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] published on Sequoia's website on September 22, 2022, the writer [[Adam Fisher]] recounted that Lin and [[Michelle Bailhe]] had studied cryptocurrency exchanges during the pandemic and contacted Bankman-Fried during FTX's Series B round in the summer of 2021, and that after a video call in which he described a financial "super-app," partners typed "I LOVE THIS FOUNDER" and "I am a 10 out of 10" in the chat window. The profile quotes FTX's head of product, [[Ramnik Arora]], saying Bankman-Fried had been "playing League of Legends through the entire meeting."[^15] On October 1, 2026 the profile's address redirected to Sequoia's FTX company page.[^15] + +Sequoia invested in [[FTX]]'s Series B in July 2021, at an $18 billion valuation; the Series C of January 2022 valued FTX at $32 billion.[^16] On November 9, 2022 Sequoia told the limited partners of Global Growth Fund III, and posted the letter publicly, that "a liquidity crunch has created solvency risk for FTX" and that it was marking the investment to zero. The letter gave a cost basis of $150 million in that fund, Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund III, Endurance Partners, L.P., under 3 percent of its committed capital and offset by about $7.5 billion of gains in the fund, and $63.5 million invested by SCGE Fund, L.P. It stated that in 2021 FTX had generated about $1 billion of revenue and more than $250 million of operating income, "as was made public in August 2022," and that "We are in the business of taking risk."[^16][^17] SC GGF III, the same Endurance Partners fund, appears among the Maplebear reporting persons in 2024.[^8] + +Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC was named a defendant in O'Keefe v. Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC, filed in the Southern District of Florida on February 22, 2023 against investors, auditors, banks and the law firm [[Fenwick & West]]; the case was closed on June 21, 2023 on transfer into the multidistrict litigation In re FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse Litigation before Judge [[K. Michael Moore]].[^18] In that litigation Sequoia appears among the "Domestic Investor Defendants" with Altimeter, Multicoin, Paradigm, Ribbit, [[SkyBridge Capital]], [[Thoma Bravo]] and [[Tiger Global Management]]. These defendants responded to a notice of supplemental authority in May 2025 and to the plaintiffs' motion to lift the discovery stay in June 2025, and on June 5, 2026 filed a reservation of rights on the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary approval of a second tranche of settlements.[^19] + +### Sequoia Capital China and HongShan + +On June 6, 2023 Botha, Shen and [[Shailendra Singh]] announced that Sequoia would separate into Sequoia Capital in the United States and Europe, [[Peak XV Partners]] in India and Southeast Asia, and [[HongShan]] in China by March 2024, writing that "It has become increasingly complex to run a decentralized global investment business."[^20] Peak XV's adviser registration lists it as formerly Sequoia Capital India Operations II LLC, based in Mauritius.[^21] + +On October 17, 2023 [[Mike Gallagher]] and [[Raja Krishnamoorthi]], chairman and ranking member of the [[House Select Committee on the CCP]], wrote to Botha and to [[Don Vieira]], partner and global chief policy officer. The committee stated its understanding, from source material on file, that each of Sequoia's five entities had its own investment committee but that roughly 20 percent of the carry from each deal flowed to the top of the Sequoia family, a central compliance office in Menlo Park reviewed every deal, Sequoia Capital's chief financial officer and legal counsel retained authority over the foreign entities, and 60 to 70 percent of Sequoia Capital China's limited partners had been American, later about half. It described a screening process adopted in the summer of 2022 that covered only Chinese quantum, semiconductor and aerospace investments, named investments in EverSec, 4Paradigm, DJI and DeepGlint, and observed that the planned Treasury outbound investment rules would not reach HongShan once it was independent.[^22] + +The committee's report of February 8, 2024 states that Sequoia had partnered with local leaders in 2005 to form Sequoia Capital China; that Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Capital China had invested about $1.4 billion in [[ByteDance]] from March 2014, and Shen sat on its board; that Shen had been a "steward of Sequoia Capital" and a representative to the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]]; that Sequoia Capital China invested $36 million in [[DJI]] from August 2014 and exited in 2019 and 2021, and RMB 466 million ($76 million) plus about $5 million through a fund with American limited partners in 4Paradigm from March 2015; and that Sequoia Capital China invested about $32 million in BGI Tech, a subsidiary of [[BGI Group]], from 2013, exiting in November 2020, after an internal memo of September 2012 touted BGI's acquisition of the American sequencing company [[Complete Genomics]]. The [[Department of Commerce]] added BGI Tech to the Entity List in March 2023. Sequoia told the committee that its entry into China "coincided with expressed government policies and public positions in the US that encouraged businesses to invest in the region" and that Sequoia Capital China's renminbi funds had no American limited partners.[^23] + +[[Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom]] describes Vieira as a former chief of staff of the [[National Security Division]] of the [[Department of Justice]] and counselor to the assistant attorney general for national security (2009 to 2011), an espionage prosecutor, deputy chief counsel of the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] and staff director of its oversight subcommittee, and a Skadden national security partner from 2017 to 2019. At Sequoia he founded the Washington office and global policy function, was chief legal officer, and represented the firm on the board of the National Venture Capital Association; he also sat on the boards of Genuity Science and [[Hakluyt & Company|Hakluyt & Co.]] He returned to Skadden on September 9, 2025.[^24] + +### 23andMe + +When [[23andMe]] became public through a merger in June 2021, Botha was a director and Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC held 17,818,438 of the 18,442,574 Class B shares attributed to him, 4.54 percent.[^25] On September 17, 2024 Botha and the six other independent directors resigned together, writing to [[Anne Wojcicki]] that they had not received "a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal" and would leave "because of your concentrated voting power."[^26] + +### San Francisco + +Moritz gave $300,000 in September 2020 to Neighbors for a Better [[San Francisco]], the political action committee that later spent about $4 million on the recall of District Attorney [[Chesa Boudin]]; he told [[Mission Local]] the 2020 gift was for that year's supervisorial elections.[^27] In 2024 he gave just under $1 million in January and $1.5 million in late August to the committee for Proposition D, the charter measure of [[TogetherSF]], a group he chaired and funded; Mission Local described him as a major benefactor of TogetherSF and the [[San Francisco Standard]] and reported that he had given more than $300 million to causes in the city.[^28] Proposition D, which would have capped city commissions at 65, expanded mayoral hiring and firing power and restricted police oversight, drew $9.5 million and was losing 45 to 55 percent in early returns on November 6, 2024; the mayoral candidate TogetherSF ranked first, [[Mark Farrell]], drew $5.4 million and stood fourth.[^29] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Computer History Museum, "Donald T. Valentine" (fellow profile). https://computerhistory.org/profile/donald-t-valentine/ +[^2]: PayPal, Inc., prospectus (Form 424B4), February 2002, "Management," "Certain Relationships and Related Transactions" (preferred stock table and footnote 2) and "Principal Stockholders." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103415/000091205702006471/a2071068z424b4.htm +[^3]: Square, Inc., Form S-1/A, filed November 16, 2015, "Management" and "Principal Stockholders" (footnotes 1, 4 and 8). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000119312515378578/d937622ds1a.htm +[^4]: Square, Inc., Form D, filed September 30, 2011 (accession 0001512673-11-000003). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1512673/000151267311000003/primary_doc.xml +[^5]: Edward Ngai, "Square COO, Stanford alum, resigns over sexual harassment allegations," The Stanford Daily, January 25, 2013. https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/25/square-coo-resigns-over-sexual-harassment-allegations/ +[^6]: Affirm Holdings, Inc., Form S-1, filed November 18, 2020, "Management." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820953/000110465920126927/tm2026663-4_s1.htm +[^7]: Jacob Helberg, OGE Form 278e nominee report, signed January 24, 2025, Part 6, items 60 to 62, https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rvp2G0RgF478/v0 ; Jacob Helberg to Richard C. Visek, "Ethics Undertakings," May 5, 2025, Section 5 and Attachment A, https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rOVlaP5GUdLQ/v0 +[^8]: Sequoia Capital USV XIV Holdco, Ltd. and others, Schedule 13D re Maplebear Inc., filed February 27, 2024, cover pages, Items 2 and 4, and signatures. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1579091/000119312524048200/d799472dsc13d.htm +[^9]: Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC, Form ADV (CRD 157373, SEC file 801-122957), other-than-annual amendment of July 17, 2026, Items 1 and 5.F, Schedule A, Schedule B and Schedule D Section 7.B.(1). https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/157373/PDF/157373.pdf +[^10]: Alec Hogg, "SA prodigy, Pik Botha's 43yo grandson, to lead Silicon Valley's top VC firm," News24, February 1, 2017, reproducing the letter of Jim Goetz. https://www.news24.com/Fin24/sa-prodigy-pik-bothas-43yo-grandson-to-lead-silicon-valleys-top-vc-firm-20170201 +[^11]: Marina Temkin, "Sequoia names Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as new co-stewards as Roelof Botha steps down," TechCrunch, November 4, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/04/sequoia-names-alfred-lin-and-pat-grady-as-new-co-stewards-as-roelof-botha-steps-down/ +[^12]: Julie Bort, "Vinod Khosla publicly disavows Keith Rabois' comments on ICE shooting," TechCrunch, January 26, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/vinod-khosla-publicly-disavows-keith-rabois-comments-on-ice-shooting/ +[^13]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, queried October 1, 2026 through https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ ; contributor "Moritz, Michael" (rows with employer Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Heritage or HRTG Partners; AB PAC C00492140, e.g. sub_id 4053020241951316444), "Leone, Doug" and "Leone, Douglas" (e.g. sub_ids 4080120231758607105, 4103020241011643180, 4021320251172522832, 4071920241978175326) and "Botha, Roelof" (committee C00150367); memo-coded rows excluded; AB PAC committee history at https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00492140/history/ +[^14]: Elon R. Musk, Amendment No. 3 to Schedule 13D re Twitter, Inc., filed May 5, 2022, Item 4 (equity commitment table). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000110465922056055/tm2214608-1_sc13da.htm +[^15]: Adam Fisher, "Sam Bankman-Fried Has a Savior Complex, And Maybe You Should Too," Sequoia Capital website, September 22, 2022, as archived by the Internet Archive on November 9, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20221109025610/https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight/ ; live address checked October 1, 2026, redirecting to https://sequoiacap.com/companies/ftx +[^16]: Connie Loizos, "Sequoia Capital marks its FTX investment down to zero dollars," TechCrunch, November 9, 2022, reproducing Sequoia's letter to limited partners. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/09/sequoia-capital-marks-its-ftx-investment-down-to-zero-dollars/ +[^17]: Steve Mollman, "VC giant Sequoia writes down $214 million investment in FTX to zero: 'We are in the business of taking risk'," Fortune, November 10, 2022. https://fortune.com/2022/11/10/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sequoia-writes-down-214-million-investment-to-zero-venture-capital-crypto +[^18]: O'Keefe v. Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC, No. 1:23-cv-20700 (S.D. Fla.), docket (filed February 22, 2023; terminated June 21, 2023), ECF Nos. 1 and 3. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66837140/okeefe-v-sequoia-capital-operations-llc/ +[^19]: In re FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse Litigation, No. 1:23-md-03076-KMM (S.D. Fla.), ECF No. 914 (May 29, 2025), ECF No. 930 (June 16, 2025) and ECF No. 1124 (June 5, 2026). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67478547/in-re-ftx-cryptocurrency-exchange-collapse-litigation/ +[^20]: Manish Singh and Rita Liao, "Sequoia splits China and India arms from US mothership to avoid 'portfolio conflict' and 'market confusion'," TechCrunch, June 6, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/06/sequoia-rebrands-china-india-and-southeast-asia-units/ +[^21]: SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, firm search for "Sequoia Capital Operations" (Peak XV Partners Operations LLC, file 801-132249, formerly Sequoia Capital India Operations II LLC), queried October 1, 2026. https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm?query=sequoia%20capital%20operations +[^22]: Rep. Mike Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, letter to Roelof Botha and Don Vieira, Sequoia Capital, October 17, 2023, Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023.10.17-letter-to-sequoia-capital.pdf +[^23]: Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, "The CCP's Investors: How American Venture Capital Fuels the PRC Military and Human Rights Abuses," February 8, 2024, pp. 4 to 5 and note c, 7, 18, 21 and 22. https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-02-08%20-%20VC%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf +[^24]: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, "Don L. Vieira" (professional biography), https://www.skadden.com/professionals/v/vieira-donald-l ; "Skadden Welcomes Back Don Vieira as Partner in Washington, DC," September 9, 2025, https://www.skadden.com/about/news-and-rankings/news/2025/09/skadden-welcomes-back-don-vieira-as-partner-in-washington-dc +[^25]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed June 21, 2021 (accession 0001193125-21-194255), security ownership table and footnotes 4 and 5. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312521194255/d187358d8k.htm +[^26]: 23andMe Holding Co., Form 8-K, filed September 18, 2024 (accession 0001193125-24-221081), Item 5.02 and Exhibit 17. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1804591/000119312524221081/d894676dex17.htm +[^27]: Will Jarrett, "Explore: $6M poured into Boudin recall," Mission Local, May 23, 2022. https://missionlocal.org/2022/05/explore-almost-9-million-donated-for-and-against-boudin-recall/ +[^28]: Kelly Waldron, "Follow the money: Bloomberg drops $1M on Breed, Moritz puts $1.5M into charter reform," Mission Local, September 4, 2024. https://missionlocal.org/2024/09/follow-the-money-bloomberg-drops-1m-on-breed-moritz-puts-1-5m-into-prop-d/ +[^29]: Joe Rivano Barros, "Michael Moritz sank millions into losing S.F. races. What happened?" Mission Local, November 7, 2024. https://missionlocal.org/2024/11/michael-moritz-togethersf-sf-elections-november-2024/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Skeptical Inquirer.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Skeptical Inquirer.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e2779472 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Skeptical Inquirer.md @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +--- +category: "Skeptics & Critics" +tags: + - Publication + - Skeptic + - SkepticalInquirer + - CSICOP + - CenterForInquiry + - Parapsychology + - RemoteViewing + - Stargate + - KendrickFrazier +alias: + - Skeptical Inquirer + - The Skeptical Inquirer + - The Zetetic + - SI +summary: "Magazine of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, begun in Buffalo in 1976 as The Zetetic and renamed in 1977, edited by Kendrick Frazier for more than four decades." +start: 1976 +location: "Amherst, New York" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + role: "publisher of the official journal" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Marcello Truzzi]]" + reverse: true + start: 1976 + end: 1977-08 + role: "editor of The Zetetic" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Kendrick Frazier]]" + reverse: true + start: 1977 + role: "editor until his death in 2022" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Stephen Hupp]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor" + fn: 8 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Skeptical Inquirer is the magazine of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal ([[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal|CSICOP]]), begun as The Zetetic in Fall/Winter 1976 and renamed after its first year. It was edited by [[Kendrick Frazier]] from 1977 until his death in 2022 and is published by the [[Center for Inquiry]] in Amherst, New York.[^1][^2][^3] + +### The Zetetic + +The first issue, Fall/Winter 1976, listed [[Marcello Truzzi]] of [[Eastern Michigan University]], Ypsilanti, as editor and [[Broady Richardson]] as managing editor. The editorial board was [[Martin Gardner]], [[Ray Hyman]], [[Paul Kurtz]], [[James Randi]], [[Dennis Rawlins]] and Truzzi. Consulting editors included [[Persi Diaconis]], [[Eric Dingwall]], [[Christopher Evans]], [[C. E. M. Hansel]] and [[Philip J. Klass]]. Subscriptions were handled by the committee's executive office at Box 29, Kensington Station, Buffalo; individual subscriptions cost 10 dollars, libraries 15 dollars and sustaining subscribers 100 dollars or more. The issue was printed by Artcraft-Burow of Buffalo and was published twice a year.[^1] + +Its contents were articles by [[Roy Wallis]] on Dianetics, [[Gary Alan Fine]] on psychics, [[Ron Westrum]] on the 1975 statement "Objections to Astrology," [[Lee Nisbet]] with Kurtz on whether astronomers are qualified to criticize astrology, [[A. James Fix]] on biorhythms and [[John T. Omohundro]] on von Däniken, with a review symposium on David M. Jacobs's The UFO Controversy in America and Hyman's review of Charles Panati's The Geller Papers. The "Committee News Notes" recorded the invitation to [[Uri Geller]] of June 11, 1976, and the committee's joint sponsorship with the [[American Humanist Association]] of tests of the claims of [[Michel Gauquelin]].[^1] According to [[James Alcock]], about a thousand subscribers signed up for the first issue. The title had been used by Truzzi for a newsletter, The Zetetic: A Newsletter of Academic Research into Occultisms, in 1975.[^2] + +### Renaming and Editors + +Truzzi edited the journal until August 1977 and left the committee, as CSICOP's history put it, in a dispute over whether it should be a scholarly journal that included proponents of the paranormal or a publication reaching the public.[^4] Kurtz and the committee hired as the new editor Kendrick Frazier, "formerly an editor of a popular science magazine," to change the magazine's content and format "to have greater public appeal." In June 1978 the address of the Skeptical Inquirer was P.O. Box 5, Amherst Branch, Buffalo, with subscriptions at 10 dollars a year, and that of Truzzi's new Zetetic Scholar was the Department of Sociology at Eastern Michigan.[^5] + +Frazier's editorial office was in Albuquerque, [[New Mexico]], in 1979 and 1988. The editorial board in Fall 1979 and Winter 1979-80 was Gardner, Hyman, Klass, Kurtz, Randi and Rawlins; in Fall 1988 it was Alcock, Gardner, Hyman, Klass, Kurtz and Randi. Consulting editors in 1988 included [[David Marks]], [[James Oberg]] and [[Robert Sheaffer]], and [[Barry Karr]] was public relations director.[^6] The Fall 1984 masthead stated that articles "represent the views and work of individual authors" and that their publication "does not necessarily constitute an endorsement by CSICOP or its members unless so stated."[^7] The masthead moved from Box 29, Kensington Station, to 1203 Kensington Avenue in 1979, and to Box 229, Central Park Station, with CSICOP's office at 3151 Bailey Avenue, in 1984.[^6] + +Subscription prices were 15 dollars in 1979 and 16.50 dollars in 1984.[^6] The magazine was quarterly in 1979 and 1984.[^6] It was bimonthly by July 1995.[^8] In 1996 Frazier gave its circulation as 35,000 subscribers in 72 countries.[^4] Gardner's column "Notes of a Fringe-Watcher" appeared in every issue from Summer 1983, and about 120 of its articles were collected in three anthologies from Prometheus Books, in 1981, 1986 and 1991.[^4] Frazier edited the magazine for more than four decades, and [[Daniel Loxton]] wrote in 2023 that he had done so for "over forty-five years."[^9] Alcock wrote that the position was held "until his death in 2022."[^2] The committee's Fellows and Staff page lists [[Stephen Hupp]] as editor of the Skeptical Inquirer and executive director of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.[^10] The site states that the magazine is published by the Center for Inquiry and carries the Center's employer identification number, 22-2306795.[^10] + +### The Mars Effect Issue + +The Winter 1979-80 issue, expanded for the purpose, carried four reports on the claimed Mars effect: Kurtz, Marvin Zelen and George Abell on the results of the American test, Rawlins on the same test, Michel and Francoise Gauquelin on "Star U.S. Sportsmen Display the Mars Effect," and the authors' response to the Gauquelins. The editor's note said the claimed effect "has received international attention in recent years" and that the editors felt it "best to place the data, analyses, and different interpretations before the interested reader." Rawlins was then a member of the editorial board.[^11] Rawlins wrote in Fate in 1981 that "the last word Frazier allowed to appear" on the subject before his article was a letter from [[Lawrence Jerome]] in Fall 1980; Frazier wrote that the magazine printed Rawlins's "Remus Extremus" with responses from the Executive Council, Kurtz and Abell in Winter 1981-82.[^4][^12] + +### Parapsychology and Remote Viewing + +The magazine's articles on parapsychology and government programs, by author and date as listed on its site, were: Hyman, review of The Geller Papers (1976); Marks and [[Richard Kammann]], "The Nonpsychic Powers of Uri Geller" (1977); Marks, "[[Remote Viewing]] Revisited" (Summer 1982); Gardner, "How Not to Test a Psychic: The Great SRI Die Mystery" (January 1983), "Koestler Money Down the Psi-Drain?" (Fall 1984) and "From SRI to Delphi: The Curious 'Mind Race'" (January 1985); [[Don Addis]], "Psychic Arms Race? Give Me a Break!" (Summer 1984); [[Martin Ebon]], "Psychic Studies: The Soviet Dilemma" (January 1986); [[Elliot H. Weinberg]], "Some Remote-Viewing Recollections" (Summer 1986); Frazier, "Improving Human Performance: What About Parapsychology?" (Fall 1988); Kurtz, "Paranormal Pandemonium in the [[Soviet Union]]" (April 1990); and, in March/April 1996, Hyman, "Evaluation of the Military's Twenty-Year Program on [[Psychic Spying]]," and [[Michael Mumford|Michael D. Mumford]], [[Andrew Rose|Andrew M. Rose]] and [[David Goslin]], "CIA Concludes No Value to the Program."[^13] + +Weinberg's contribution in Summer 1986 was introduced with a note that he had been director of research of the [[Office of Naval Research]] from 1971 to 1979. He wrote that during that period he "was asked to review the field of paranormal research, particularly what was coming to be known as 'remote viewing,'" and that he visited the [[Stanford Research Institute]] to meet [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]].[^14] Frazier's 1988 summary of the National Research Council report on enhancing human performance stated that the Army Research Institute had asked the [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1984 to form the committee and that Hyman chaired its parapsychology subcommittee, and that military officers invited to address the committee described remote-viewing experiments at SRI and "psychotronic weapons" and maintained that the Soviet Union was far ahead of the [[United States]].[^15] + +Gardner's column "Notes of a Psi-Watcher" in Winter 1984-85, titled "From SRI to Delphi: The Curious 'Mind Race,'" reviewed The Mind Race by Targ and [[Keith Harary]] (Villard Books, 1984). Gardner wrote that Targ "has left the big Menlo Park think-tank to join Harary in founding a psi-research organization they call Delphi Associates," and that Puthoff, "once an ardent Scientologist, remains at SRI."[^16] + +The editor's note to the March/April 1996 issue said that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] had contracted in 1995 for an outside evaluation of twenty years of "until-then classified government-funded programs in 'remote viewing,'" that Hyman was one of two experts asked to review the research, and that the issue would print "a major portion of the Conclusions section of the report commissioned by the CIA."[^17] Hyman wrote in that issue that the CIA had supported the program from the early 1970s and "abandoned this program in the late 1970s because it showed no promise," that the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] had then continued it as Stargate until the spring of 1995, and that "a Senate committee decided to transfer the program from the DIA back to the CIA."[^17] + +The Summer 1994 issue carried a letter by Harary, "Confusion Over Delphi Silver-Futures Trials?," answering a "Psychic Vibrations" column by Sheaffer in the Winter 1994 issue.[^18] + +### Organizations and Funding + +The magazine's copyright notices from 1976 to 1984 name the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal as holder, and the 1979 and 1980 mastheads describe it as the committee's official journal, "CSICOP, Inc."[^6] Frazier wrote that the committee was "financed entirely through subscriptions and donations."[^4] CSICOP announced in November 1996 a ten-year Fund for the Future campaign to add 20 million dollars to the endowments of the Center for Inquiry, a combined goal for CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism, saying that "publishing revenues alone cannot fund the bold outreach today's challenges demand."[^19] The Center for Inquiry Inc. reported contributions of 5,628,081 dollars and total revenue of 6,992,396 dollars for 2024.[^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: *The Zetetic,* vol. 1, no. 1, Fall/Winter 1976: masthead, table of contents, Truzzi editorial, "Committee News Notes." https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^2]: Alcock, James E. "Fifty Years of the Modern Skeptical Movement," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 50, no. 1, January/February 2026. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2025/12/fifty-years-of-the-modern-skeptical-movement/ +[^3]: Loxton, Daniel. "Kendrick Frazier's Magnificent Quest," in "Remembering Kendrick Frazier," *Skeptical Inquirer,* February 2023. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/02/remembering-kendrick-frazier/ +[^4]: Frazier, Kendrick. "History of CSICOP," in Gordon Stein, ed., *The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal* (Prometheus Books, 1996), pp. 168-180. https://skepticalinquirer.org/history-of-csicop/ +[^5]: "Skeptics Criticized on Paranormal Issue," *The New York Times,* June 25, 1978, copy in CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080024-8. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00787r000200080024-8 +[^6]: *The Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 4, no. 1, Fall 1979, https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2019/03/Issue-01-1.pdf; vol. 4, no. 2, Winter 1979-80, https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2019/03/Issue-02-2.pdf; vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 1980; vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 1984; vol. 13, no. 1, Fall 1988, mastheads, https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^7]: *The Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 9, no. 1, Fall 1984, masthead. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^8]: "A Skeptically Inquiring Mind" (profile of James Randi), *Scientific American,* July 1995, p. 34, CIA-RDP96-00791R000200190022-3 ("the bimonthly Skeptical Inquirer"). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp96-00791r000200190022-3 +[^9]: Loxton, "Kendrick Frazier's Magnificent Quest," *Skeptical Inquirer,* February 2023. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/02/remembering-kendrick-frazier/ +[^10]: "Fellows and Staff," skepticalinquirer.org, and page footer ("is a magazine published by the Center for Inquiry ... EIN: 22-2306795"), read October 1, 2026. https://skepticalinquirer.org/fellows-and-staff/ +[^11]: *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 4, no. 2, Winter 1979-80, "News and Comment" editor's note and pp. 19-62. https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2019/03/Issue-02-2.pdf +[^12]: Rawlins, Dennis. "sTARBABY," *Fate,* no. 34, October 1981, pp. 67-98. http://cura.free.fr/xv/14starbb.html +[^13]: skepticalinquirer.org article index (authors and dates as listed by the site): https://skepticalinquirer.org/1976/10/the-geller-papers/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1977/04/the-nonpsychic-powers-of-uri-geller/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1982/07/remote-viewing-revisited/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1983/01/how-not-to-test-a-psychic-the-great-sri-die-mystery/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1984/07/psychic-arms-race-give-me-a-break/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1984/10/koestler-money-down-the-psi-drain/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1985/01/from-sri-to-delphi-the-curious-mind-race/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1986/01/psychic-studies-the-soviet-dilemma/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1986/07/some-remote-viewing-recollections/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1988/10/improving-human-performance-what-about-parapsychology/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1990/04/paranormal-pandemonium-in-the-soviet-union/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1996/03/evaluation-of-the-militarys-twenty-year-program-on-psychic-spying/, https://skepticalinquirer.org/1996/03/cia-concludes-no-value-to-the-program/ +[^14]: Weinberg, Elliot H. "Some Remote-Viewing Recollections: Adventures in the Land of SRI," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 10, no. 4, Summer 1986, pp. 353-358. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^15]: Frazier, Kendrick. "Improving Human Performance: What About Parapsychology?" *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 13, no. 1, Fall 1988, pp. 34-38. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^16]: Gardner, Martin. "Notes of a Psi-Watcher: From SRI to Delphi: The Curious 'Mind Race,'" *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 9, no. 2, Winter 1984-85, p. 117 ff. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^17]: Hyman, Ray. "Evaluation of the Military's Twenty-Year Program on Psychic Spying," and Mumford, Michael D., Andrew M. Rose and David A. Goslin, "CIA Concludes No Value to the Program," *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 20, no. 2, March/April 1996, pp. 21-27. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^18]: Harary, Keith. "Confusion Over Delphi Silver-Futures Trials?" (letter), *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 18, no. 4, Summer 1994. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^19]: "Fund for the Future," advertisement, *Skeptical Inquirer,* vol. 20, no. 6, November/December 1996, p. 9. https://archive.org/details/skeptical-inquirer-1-25 +[^20]: Internal Revenue Service, Form 990 for tax year 2024, Center for Inquiry Inc. (object ID 202512189349301641). https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_08A.zip diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tech Against Terrorism.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tech Against Terrorism.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e0f7d2f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tech Against Terrorism.md @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - TechAgainstTerrorism + - AdamHadley + - QuantSpark + - OnlineHarmsFoundation + - GIFCT + - TerroristContentAnalyticsPlatform + - UNCTED + - ContentModeration + - CounterTerrorism +alias: + - Tech Against Terrorism + - TAT + - Online Harms Foundation + - QuantSpark Foundation +summary: "Counter-terrorism project begun in 2016 with the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and ICT4Peace, now run through Adam Hadley's Online Harms Foundation and funded by Canada, the GIFCT and other governments." +start: 2016 +location: "London, United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Adam Hadley]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Adam Hadley]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive director" + fn: 2 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate]]" + role: "joint project with ICT4Peace" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[ICT4Peace]]" + role: "joint project with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Switzerland]]" + reverse: true + role: "initial research project, according to Adam Hadley" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism]]" + reverse: true + start: 2020 + end: 2024 + role: "grants of 400,000, 400,000, 450,000, 450,000 and 214,000 dollars in the returns for 2020 to 2024" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[Public Safety Canada]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-06-26 + role: "up to 1 million Canadian dollars announced in 2019, up to 1.9 million in 2022" + fn: 11 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Tech Against Terrorism describes itself as an independent counter-terrorism organization, "launched by the United Nations in 2016", that works with technology companies and governments and is "implemented by the Online Harms Foundation". The Online Harms Foundation is an English company limited by guarantee whose individual director is [[Adam Hadley]] and whose corporate director and controlling person is [[QuantSpark]] Limited, a consultancy of which Hadley is the sole director. + +### Origins + +The [[United Nations]] [[Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate]] (CTED) announced "Tech Against Terrorism" as a new initiative launched on the margins of [[RightsCon]] in [[Brussels]], the second phase of a joint project between CTED and the Swiss non-governmental organization [[ICT4Peace]], "with the support of ICT industry leaders". The announcement describes the aim as "the development of a normative framework of self-regulation that can guide responses to terrorists' use of the Internet."[^1] + +Hadley told the West Point [[Combating Terrorism Center at West Point|Combating Terrorism Center]] in July 2025 that his master's dissertation at [[King's College London]], on a computational approach to detecting Islamic State propaganda, was "spotted by an official working at the U.N. Security Council", and that he was asked to join a research project with the United Nations "which at the time was just a very small initiative funded by the government of Switzerland." He said that he grew the project into Tech Against Terrorism while working as a freelance data scientist for private businesses in London, and that the year "ended with me founding Tech Against Terrorism and bootstrapping QuantSpark." The interviewer's note states that Tech Against Terrorism and QuantSpark were founded in 2016.[^2] QuantSpark Limited (company number 10304694) was incorporated on 1 August 2016, with Hadley as its director and person with significant control from that date.[^3] + +On 29 November 2017 the Permanent Mission of the [[Republic of Korea]], CTED and ICT4Peace held an event at the United Nations in [[New York City]] to launch the next phase of Tech Against Terrorism, a knowledge-sharing platform. The event notice describes the project as a public-private partnership bringing together "ICT industry leaders, e.g. Facebook, Google, Kaspersky Lab, Microsoft, Telefonica, and Twitter" with startups, governments and academia, and records speeches by the ambassadors of Korea, [[Spain]] and Switzerland.[^4] + +The organization's website states that it operates "pursuant to four UN Security Council Resolutions" (2129, 2354, 2395 and 2396) and the 2017 Comprehensive International Framework to Counter Terrorist Narratives, that it is "supported by" CTED, and that it is "implemented by the Online Harms Foundation."[^5] + +### Corporate Structure + +QuantSpark Foundation (company number 11656320) was incorporated on 2 November 2018 as a private company limited by guarantee. Its directors were Adam Ivor Hadley and QuantSpark Limited, and QuantSpark Limited has been its person with significant control since the same date. The company is now named Online Harms Foundation; its accounts for the year to 31 July 2021 carry the heading "Online Harms Foundation (formerly QuantSpark Foundation)."[^6][^7] + +The foundation files unaudited accounts for years ending 31 July, with no income and expenditure account. Its notes record the following consultancy charges invoiced to it by QuantSpark Limited, "a corporate director of the company and related party by virtue of common control and a common director": + +| Year to 31 July | Invoiced by QuantSpark Limited (pounds) | Owed to QuantSpark Limited at year end (pounds) | +|---|---|---| +| 2021 | not stated | 347,420 | +| 2022 | 618,273 | 195,733 | +| 2023 | 1,835,864 | 487,674 | +| 2024 | 2,160,943 | 1,287,711 | +| 2025 | 913,015 | 1,554,927 | + +At 31 July 2025 the foundation had net liabilities of 1,435,757 pounds (1,189,680 pounds a year earlier), cash of 15,903 pounds (149,245 pounds a year earlier) and an average of six employees (one in the year before). The going-concern note states that the company "is reliant on loans received from QuantSpark Limited, a related party, for finance," and that the director of QuantSpark Limited has confirmed that the amounts due will not be recalled within twelve months.[^7] + +QuantSpark Limited's accounts for the year to 31 July 2025 show net assets of 3,961,806 pounds (3,454,472 pounds a year earlier). Its related-party note gives the invoiced amount as 913,095 pounds net of value-added tax, states that the Online Harms Foundation owed it 1,374,157 pounds for those services and that it owed the foundation 180,769 pounds for recharged expenses, and records a loan of 250,000 pounds made in the year to 31 July 2022 to CGR Trading Limited, "a connected company by virtue of common control and a common director," with 219,500 pounds outstanding at 31 July 2025.[^8] CGR Trading Ltd. (company number 09944580), incorporated on 11 January 2016, lists Hadley as its only officer and person with significant control, with a business classification of letting and operating its own or leased real estate.[^9] + +In the July 2025 interview Hadley said that Tech Against Terrorism and QuantSpark "are separate entities, but certainly Tech Against Terrorism wouldn't have survived this long were it solely relying on government grants and tech companies," that it has had access to "an almost pro bono pool of technical specialists," and that it operates with "very limited funding."[^2] + +### Funding + +The organization's website states that its funding "comes equally from both democratic governments and the global tech industry," that it receives income "through the bespoke services we offer to tech companies," that the [[Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism]] (GIFCT) contributes, and that governments including Spain, Switzerland, the [[Netherlands]], the Republic of Korea, [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]] and the [[United Kingdom]] "have financially supported" it.[^5] + +GIFCT, a [[Washington, D.C.]] tax-exempt organization, files Form 990-PF as a private foundation. Its returns list two grantees in each of the five years from 2020 to 2024, King's College London for its Global Network on Extremism and Technology and the organization that carries Tech Against Terrorism: + +| Return year | Payee for Tech Against Terrorism initiatives | Dollars | King's College London (GNET) | +|---|---|---|---| +| 2020 | QuantSpark Foundation, 140 Old Street, London | 400,000 | 512,230 | +| 2021 | Online Harms Foundation, 128 City Road, London | 400,000 | 250,000 | +| 2022 | Online Harms Foundation, 230 Blackfriars Road, London | 450,000 | 799,271 | +| 2023 | Online Harms Foundation, 230 Blackfriars Road, London | 450,000 | 550,000 | +| 2024 | Online Harms Foundation, 230 Blackfriars Road, London | 214,000 | 275,000 | + +The purpose entered against each payment to the Tech Against Terrorism payee is "to support Tech Against Terrorism initiatives." The five payments total 1,914,000 dollars. The 2020 return lists as board members [[Monika Bickert]], [[Courtney Gregoire]], [[Leslie Miller]], [[Monique Meshe]] and [[Nick Pickles]] (the last through April 2020), with [[Nicholas Rasmussen]] as executive director, and records 80,000 dollars paid to Mercury Public Affairs LLC for strategy consulting. The 2024 return lists [[Naureen Chowdhury Fink]] as executive director and Gregoire, Miller, Pickles and [[Neil Potts]] as board members.[^10] + +[[Public Safety Canada]] announced on 26 June 2019, through the minister of public safety [[Ralph Goodale]], that Canada "will commit up to $1 million to Tech Against Terrorism to create a digital repository" that would notify smaller companies of newly detected terrorist content.[^11] On 20 September 2022, at the Christchurch Call summit in New York, Prime Minister [[Justin Trudeau]] announced up to 1.9 million Canadian dollars over three years to Tech Against Terrorism from the department's Community Resilience Fund for a second phase of the platform.[^12] The department's list of projects announced on 3 May 2023 names the recipient as "Online Harms Foundation," the project as "Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP) Phase 2" and the amount as 1,945,904 dollars.[^13] + +### Terrorist Content Analytics Platform + +The organization's transparency report for the second year of the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (1 December 2021 to 30 November 2022) states that the platform was launched in November 2020 "with support from Public Safety Canada." In that year its analysts submitted 18,995 URLs, of which 18,048 contained Islamist and 947 far-right terrorist content, and the platform sent 10,174 alerts to 57 technology companies, 9,436 of them for Islamist and 738 for far-right content; the report gives average removal rates after alerts of 84 percent for Islamist and 61 percent for far-right content, and states that 92 percent of alerts in the year concerned Islamist entities, against 98 percent in the first year. From February 2022 all URLs submitted were hashed, with the hashes to be shared with the hash-sharing consortium of GIFCT. The platform's inclusion policy is "based on the legal designation of terrorist entities by democratic nation states and supranational institutions"; the report lists the Government of Canada's designation of [[James Mason]] among five entities added during the year.[^14] + +### Research + +The organization and the [[Middlebury Institute CTEC]] published a report on two coalitions that formed on [[Telegram]] in early 2021, the [[United Acceleration Front]] and the [[National Socialist Coalition]], centred on [[Feuerkrieg Division]] and its partner [[InJekt Division]]. The report states that the two organizations collected data from June 2021 to February 2022 and that Tech Against Terrorism identified 21 entities in the network.[^15] + +### Honours + +Hadley was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the King's Birthday Honours, which the organization announced on 14 June 2024.[^16] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, "Launch of 'Tech Against Terrorism': a partnership between technology companies, governments, and UN CTED" (undated). https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/node/20795 +[^2]: Don Rassler, "A View from the CT Foxhole: Adam Hadley, Executive Director, Tech Against Terrorism," CTC Sentinel, July 2025, pp. 9 to 12. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/CTC-SENTINEL-072025_interview.pdf +[^3]: Companies House, QUANTSPARK LIMITED, company number 10304694: overview, officers, persons with significant control, filing history. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10304694 +[^4]: UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, "The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea, CTED, and ICT4Peace launch next phase of Tech against terrorism," event of 29 November 2017. https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/news/permanent-mission-republic-korea-cted-and-ict4peace-launch-next-phase-tech-against-terrorism +[^5]: Tech Against Terrorism, "About Us," consulted 1 October 2026. https://techagainstterrorism.org/about +[^6]: Companies House, ONLINE HARMS FOUNDATION (formerly QUANTSPARK FOUNDATION), company number 11656320: overview, officers, persons with significant control, filing history. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11656320 +[^7]: Online Harms Foundation (formerly QuantSpark Foundation), unaudited financial statements for the years ended 31 July 2021 to 31 July 2025, balance sheets, going-concern note and related-party notes, filed at Companies House (documents filed 9 May 2022, 28 April 2023, 30 April 2024, 31 July 2025 and 28 July 2026). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11656320/filing-history +[^8]: QuantSpark Limited, unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2025, balance sheet and note 10, filed 15 July 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10304694/filing-history +[^9]: Companies House, CGR TRADING LTD., company number 09944580: overview, officers, persons with significant control. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09944580 +[^10]: Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism Inc (EIN 84-4586487), Forms 990-PF for 2020 to 2024, Part XIV and Part VII, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, object IDs 202113199349104371, 202213149349102206, 202302719349100245, 202402649349100400 and 202512749349100101. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/844586487 +[^11]: Public Safety Canada, "Government of Canada announces initiatives to address violent extremist and terrorist content online," 26 June 2019. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2019/06/government-of-canada-announces-initiatives-to-address-violent-extremist-and-terrorist-content-online.html +[^12]: Public Safety Canada, "Government of Canada announces up to $1.9 million in funding to combat online terrorist and violent extremist content," New York, 20 September 2022. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2022/09/government-of-canada-announces-up-to-19-million-in-funding-to-combat-online-terrorist-and-violent-extremist-content.html +[^13]: Public Safety Canada, "Government of Canada announces more than $25 million for projects to counter radicalization to violence," 3 May 2023, project table. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2023/05/government-of-canada-announces-more-than-25-million-for-projects-to-counter-radicalization-to-violence.html +[^14]: Tech Against Terrorism, Terrorist Content Analytics Platform Transparency Report, Year Two: 1 December 2021 to 30 November 2022. https://techagainstterrorism.org/hubfs/Tech-Against-Terrorism-TCAP-Transparency-Report-2021-2022.pdf +[^15]: Middlebury Institute CTEC and Tech Against Terrorism, "Militant Accelerationism Coalitions: A Case Study in Neo-Fascist Accelerationist Coalition Building Online," executive summary. https://www.techagainstterrorism.org/hubfs/CTEC__TAT-Accelerationism-Report-.pdf +[^16]: Tech Against Terrorism, "Press Release: Tech Against Terrorism Founder Appointed CBE in King's Birthday Honours List," 14 June 2024. https://techagainstterrorism.org/news/tech-against-terrorism-founder-appointed-cbe-by-king-charles-iii diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Guardian.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Guardian.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a259bc45 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Guardian.md @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - Newspaper + - Media + - ScottTrust + - Snowden + - DSMANotice + - GCHQ + - WikiLeaks + - LegaciesOfEnslavement +alias: + - The Guardian + - Guardian + - Manchester Guardian + - The Manchester Guardian + - Guardian News & Media + - Guardian News and Media + - Guardian Media Group +summary: "British newspaper founded as the Manchester Guardian in 1821 and owned through the Scott Trust, whose Snowden hard drives were destroyed under GCHQ supervision in 2013 before its deputy editor joined the D-notice committee." +start: 1821 +location: "London" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Scott Trust]]" + reverse: true + role: "sole shareholder of Guardian Media Group" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Katharine Viner]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor-in-chief" + fn: 4 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alan Rusbridger]]" + reverse: true + role: "editor-in-chief" + fn: 7 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[GCHQ]]" + start: 2013-07-20 + end: 2013-07-20 + role: "Snowden hard drives destroyed under GCHQ supervision" + fn: 6 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee]]" + start: 2014-05 + end: 2018-10 + role: "seat held by deputy editor Paul Johnson as Newspaper Publishers Association nominee replacing Jane Crust of the Financial Times" + fn: 10 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[New York Times]]" + start: 2013-09 + end: 2013-09 + role: "joint reporting on Snowden documents" + fn: 8 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[ProPublica]]" + start: 2013-09 + end: 2013-09 + role: "joint reporting on Snowden documents" + fn: 8 + - type: funded + with: "[[Guardian.org Foundation]]" + reverse: true + role: "grantor to Guardian News and Media LLC" + fn: 19 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Guardian is a British newspaper founded in 1821 by [[John Edward Taylor]] as the *Manchester Guardian*.[^1] Guardian Media Group plc, the operating business that publishes its journalism, is wholly owned by the [[Scott Trust]] Limited, which its accounts describe as "charged with securing the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity."[^2] + +### Ownership by the Scott Trust + +The Scott Trust Limited (Companies House number 06706464) was incorporated on September 24, 2008 with its registered office at Kings Place, 90 York Way, [[London]]. The Scott Trust Endowment Limited (number 13856227) was incorporated on January 18, 2022.[^3] According to the accounts for the year ended March 31, 2025, the Scott Trust Limited owns Guardian Media Group plc, the operating business, and the Scott Trust Endowment Limited, which controls a portfolio of public equity, fixed income and private equity investments held to generate returns for the Guardian. The accounts record group revenue of £275.9 million (2024: £257.8 million), digital reader revenue of £107.3 million, an adjusted operating loss of £32.7 million (2024: £33.9 million), adjusted cash outflow of £24.3 million, and an endowment fund of £1,246.3 million at year end (2024: £1,274.9 million), with commitments to future investments of £178.6 million.[^2] The accounts state that the Trust agreed the sale of the *[[Observer]]* to [[Tortoise Media]], completed in April 2025, that the Trust invested in Tortoise and became one of its largest shareholders with a seat on its board, and that the Trust is the principal funder of the [[Guardian Foundation]], funds a restorative justice programme arising from the Legacies of Enslavement review, and oversees the Guardian's readers' editor.[^2] + +The corporate governance report for 2023 and 2024 states that the board of the Scott Trust Limited comprises its chair, the editor-in-chief ([[Katharine Viner]]), a director drawn from among Guardian journalists ([[Haroon Siddique]]), a member of the Scott family ([[Russell Scott]], the senior independent director) and seven independent directors, that the chairs of the two boards attend each other's meetings as observers, and that the nominations committee is chaired by Russell Scott. The endowment company's board comprises its chair, [[Tracy Corrigan]], the chair of the Scott Trust, the chief investment officer, Jonathan Evans, the general counsel and company secretary, Stephen Godsell, and two external independent members.[^4] + +[[Ole Jacob Sunde]] joined the Scott Trust in 2015, became acting chair in March 2021 and was announced as chair on June 17, 2021. The announcement stated that he had been elected to the board of the [[Norway|Norwegian]] media group [[Schibsted]] in 2000 and had chaired it since 2002, that he also chairs the [[Tinius Trust]], and that he is a member of the Board of Visitors of the [[Columbia Journalism School|Columbia University School of Journalism]].[^5] + +The Companies House officer register for the Scott Trust Limited lists, with the dates of appointment and resignation shown, directors who include [[Alan Rusbridger]] (October 1, 2008 to May 13, 2016), [[Liz Forgan]] (September 24, 2008 to November 30, 2016), [[Jonathan Scott]] (October 1, 2008 to September 17, 2015), [[Andrew Graham]] (October 1, 2008 to November 6, 2015), [[Will Hutton]] (October 1, 2008 to February 9, 2017), [[Maleiha Malik]] (October 1, 2008 to August 6, 2014), [[Carolyn McCall]] (October 1, 2008 to June 30, 2010), [[Geraldine Proudler]] (October 1, 2008 to February 6, 2013), [[Lawrence Elliott]] (October 1, 2008 to September 7, 2011), [[Anthony Salz]] (March 9, 2009 to March 27, 2020), [[Andrew Miller]] (September 6, 2010 to June 30, 2015), [[Heather Stewart]] (September 7, 2011 to March 7, 2016), [[Emily Bell]] (December 1, 2012 to November 10, 2021), [[Alex Graham]] (December 1, 2012 to March 26, 2021), Viner (from June 1, 2015), Russell Scott, Sunde, [[Vivian Schiller]] (September 17, 2015 to November 25, 2025), [[Stuart Proffitt]] (September 17, 2015 to November 25, 2025), [[Catherine Howarth]] (September 17, 2015 to September 16, 2022), [[David Pemsel]] (September 17, 2015 to December 2, 2019), [[Sushil Wadhwani]] (September 17, 2015 to September 18, 2016), [[Nils Pratley]] (May 12, 2016 to June 15, 2022), [[David Olusoga]] (from June 11, 2018), [[Mary Ann Sieghart]] (March 27, 2020 to November 10, 2021), [[Matthew Ryder]] (from March 27, 2020), [[Annette Thomas]] (March 27, 2020 to July 1, 2021), Siddique (from June 15, 2022), [[Margaret Simons]] (from September 7, 2022), Corrigan (from November 18, 2022), [[Nabiha Syed]] (from September 28, 2023), [[Jonathan Paine]] (from October 31, 2024), [[Jane Martinson]] (from October 1, 2025) and [[Samuel Gregory]] (from November 25, 2025). The secretary since October 11, 2017 is Stephen Godsell.[^3] + +### The Snowden files and GCHQ, 2013 + +[[Julian Borger]] reported in the Guardian on August 20, 2013 that "on Saturday 20 July, in a deserted basement of the Guardian's King's Cross offices, a senior editor and a Guardian computer expert used angle grinders and other tools to pulverise the hard drives and memory chips on which the encrypted files had been stored," watched by technicians from [[GCHQ]] who took notes and photographs and left empty-handed. The article stated that shortly after the first story's publication two senior British officials had come to the Guardian's offices to see Rusbridger and [[Paul Johnson|Johnson]], that they "made it clear they came on high authority to demand the immediate surrender of all the [[Edward Snowden|Snowden]] files," that after three weeks one of them said "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back," and that the compromise brought Paul Johnson, the deputy editor, the executive director [[Sheila Fitzsimons]] and the computer expert [[David Blishen]] to the basement to meet two GCHQ officials. The article stated that twelve days after the destruction the Guardian reported on [[United States]] funding of GCHQ eavesdropping operations.[^6] + +Rusbridger told the [[BBC]]'s *World at One* the same day that the task was "slightly pointless" because digital copies existed outside Britain, that [[Whitehall]] officials had threatened legal action "unless we handed it back or destroyed it," and that "given that there were other copies and we could work out of America, which has better laws to protect journalists, I saw no reason not to destroy this material ourselves rather than hand it back to the government."[^7] + +On September 5, 2013 [[ProPublica]] published, in partnership with the *New York Times* and the Guardian, an article on the [[National Security Agency]]'s encryption programme that stated that the documents were "among more than 50,000 shared by The Guardian with The New York Times and ProPublica."[^8] + +### The Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee + +The Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, renamed the Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee, administers the DA-Notice (later DSMA-Notice) system under a secretary appointed from the [[Ministry of Defence]]; its minutes are posted on the dsma.uk website. The minutes of the meeting of November 7, 2013, held at the Ministry of Defence with Air Vice-Marshal [[Andrew Vallance]] as secretary, state that the dominant aspect of the reporting period was the publication by the Guardian, and latterly by the *[[The Independent|Independent]]*, of information from classified documents "stolen by the [[NSA]] fugitive Edward Snowden." They state that "at the outset The Guardian avoided engaging with the DA Notice System before publishing the first tranche of information," that "as a member of the [[Newspaper Publishers Association]] (NPA), The Guardian was obliged to seek (but not necessarily to accept) DA Notice advice under the terms of the DA Notice code," that the *New York Times* was publishing the same details in parallel, and that "towards the end of July The Guardian had begun to seek and accept DA Notice advice not to publish certain highly sensitive details." The vice-chairman, [[Simon Bucks]], told the committee that "99% of the media remained committed to the DA Notice System," that "much of the material published by the Guardian fell into the former category" of embarrassment as distinct from genuine national security concerns, and that the editor "feared that if he shared details of his story with the secretariat it might potentially attract an injunction."[^9] + +At the next meeting, on May 8, 2014, the acting chairman welcomed Paul Johnson, deputy editor of Guardian News and Media, "as the Newspaper Publishers Association replacement for [[Jane Crust]]." The minutes of November 2011 record that Crust, deputy managing editor of the *[[Financial Times]]*, had taken over from [[Hugh Carnegy]] as one of the three Newspaper Publishers Association representatives. The May 2014 minutes state that the secretariat's "engagement ... with The Guardian had continued to strengthen," with "regular dialogues between the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries and Guardian journalists"; that, "because of an agreement between The Guardian and allied publications overseas to coordinate their respective disclosures of Snowden material, advice given to The Guardian had been passed on to The New York Times and others"; and that "the process had culminated by the appointment of Paul Johnson (Deputy Editor Guardian News and Media) as a DPBAC member."[^10] + +Johnson is listed as present at the meetings of May 8, 2014, November 6, 2014, November 5, 2015 and November 9, 2017, and as sending apologies for those of May 13, 2015, May 19, 2016, November 3, 2016 and May 17, 2018. The minutes of November 8, 2018 record that he had retired from the committee on October 30, 2018 and that the chairman thanked him, saying that he "had joined the Committee in the wake of the Snowden affair and had been instrumental in re-establishing links with the Guardian." The minutes of November 5, 2015 record that the secretary, Brigadier [[Geoffrey Dodds]], had taken part with [[Ian Cobbain]] of the Guardian and [[Chris Hughes]] of the *[[Daily Mirror]]* in a media forum on "Reporting on the Secret State" at [[Goldsmiths, University of London]], on October 29.[^11] The minutes of the eleven meetings from May 2008 to May 2013 contain no reference to the Guardian. The committee's membership page on October 1, 2026 lists media members from the [[Society of Editors]], *The Times* and *[[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]]*, the Publishers Association, the *[[Mail on Sunday]]*, [[PA Media]], the BBC, [[Sky News]], [[ITV News]], *The [[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]]* and others, and none from the Guardian.[^12] + +On October 31, 2016, during the period of Johnson's membership, the Guardian published an interview with [[Andrew Parker]], the director general of [[MI5]], by [[Ewen MacAskill]] and Paul Johnson, described as the first newspaper interview given by an incumbent MI5 chief in the service's history. The article stated that Parker said he was talking to the Guardian "rather than any other newspaper despite the publication of the Snowden files" and "a consistent scepticism about the need for extra powers for the security services." The committee met on November 3, 2016, the last meeting of Vallance as secretary; Johnson sent apologies.[^13] + +### WikiLeaks, 2011 and 2018 + +In September 2011 [[WikiLeaks]] published an editorial accusing the Guardian reporter [[David Leigh]] of disclosing in a book by himself and [[Luke Harding]] the password needed to decrypt a file of United States diplomatic cables. Leigh told the [[Associated Press]] the claim was "time-wasting nonsense" and said that [[Julian Assange]] had given him the password for a file expected to disappear within hours, that "what we published much later in our book was obsolete and harmless," and that the Guardian had not disclosed the location of the file. WikiLeaks posted on its Twitter feed that one of Leigh's statements was false.[^14] + +On November 27, 2018 the Guardian published a report by Luke Harding and Dan Collyns stating that "sources have said" [[Paul Manafort]] visited Assange at the [[Embassy of Ecuador, London|Ecuadorian embassy]] in London in 2013, 2015 and spring 2016. The report quoted Manafort: "I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him." It stated that WikiLeaks said the two had not met and that Assange described the story as a hoax. The page shows a last-modified date of February 26, 2020.[^15] + +### Richard Gott and the KGB + +[[Oleg Gordievsky]], the former [[KGB]] colonel, wrote in *The [[The Spectator|Spectator]]* of January 14, 1995 that the Guardian had responded to the Spectator's naming of its former features editor [[Richard Gott]] as a KGB agent of influence by attacking Gordievsky, that Gott had himself admitted taking "red gold" from the KGB, and that the KGB's senior officer in London, [[Igor Titov]], had pressed the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]]'s [[International Department]] for a 1983 trip to Moscow for the newspaper's leading journalists after Gott suggested it to him. Gordievsky named Gott, Rusbridger and [[Polly Toynbee]] among the journalists on the trip and wrote that their articles "were a terrible disappointment" to the Central Committee because they were "mostly very negative." He added: "The Guardian has never been a knowing conduit for KGB propaganda."[^16] + +### The Legacies of Enslavement review + +The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement Report, prepared by researchers at the [[Wilberforce Institute]] of the [[University of Hull]] following earlier research by the University of [[University of Nottingham|Nottingham]] and published in three parts, examined John Edward Taylor, the six funders of the *Manchester Guardian* it details and their business activities. Its second part states that all six funders detailed "were found to have indirect connections to transatlantic slavery," that an invoice book of the Strutt firm shows Shuttleworth, Taylor & Co. receiving raw cotton from the Sea Islands between August 14, 1822 and April 24, 1823, and that between 1817 and 1824 Taylor's firm received £2,300 1s 4d from the Strutts. The University of Hull's project page states that more than 300 enslaved people connected to the founders' plantations were named.[^17][^18] + +### Guardian.org Foundation and other funders + +The [[Guardian.org Foundation]] (EIN 81-2404459, [[Washington, D.C.]]) is a tax-exempt organization whose returns list Guardian News and Media LLC (EIN 99-0369208) as the recipient of grants described as support for theguardian.org "in establishing various projects." The Schedule I amounts in its returns for tax years 2016 through 2024 are $100,000, $85,000, $651,000, $1,230,000, $1,913,000, $2,050,000, $1,100,000, $3,055,000 and $1,940,000. The foundation's reported revenue rose from $552,000 in 2017 to $8,431,221 in 2024. Its board chairman for 2016 to 2018 was John Paton; from 2019 to 2024 the chairman was Asha Curran and the directors included Vivian Schiller, who was also a director of the Scott Trust Limited from 2015 to 2025, with Lois Quam, Alice Rhee and, from 2020, Cedric Brown.[^19] + +In *[[Columbia Journalism Review]]* on August 21, 2020 [[Tim Schwab]] wrote that his review of [[Gates Foundation]] grants found more than $250 million for journalism, with recipients including The Guardian and ProPublica.[^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement Report," University of Hull Wilberforce Institute project page, https://www.hull.ac.uk/research/projects/the-scott-trust-legacies-of-enslavement-report (accessed October 1, 2026); The Scott Trust Limited, *Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025*, https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2025/09/11/The_Scott_Trust_Limited_2024_25.pdf +[^2]: The Scott Trust Limited, *Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025*, https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2025/09/11/The_Scott_Trust_Limited_2024_25.pdf, pp. 2-12 and the notes on financial assets. +[^3]: Companies House, The Scott Trust Limited (06706464), overview and officers, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06706464 and /officers; The Scott Trust Endowment Limited (13856227), https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13856227 (all viewed October 1, 2026). +[^4]: The Scott Trust Limited, *Corporate Governance Report 2023/24*, https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2024/09/17/The_Scott_Trust_corporate_governance_report_23_24.pdf +[^5]: "Scott Trust appoints new chair," *InPublishing*, June 18, 2021, https://www.inpublishing.co.uk/articles/scott-trust-appoints-new-chair-18646 +[^6]: Julian Borger, "NSA files: why the Guardian in London destroyed hard drives of leaked files," *The Guardian*, August 20, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/20/nsa-snowden-files-drives-destroyed-london +[^7]: Josh Halliday, "Rusbridger: destroying hard drives allowed us to continue NSA coverage," *The Guardian*, August 20, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/20/guardian-editor-alan-rusbridger-nsa +[^8]: Jeff Larson, "Revealed: The NSA's Secret Campaign to Crack, Undermine Internet Security," ProPublica, September 5, 2013, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-nsas-secret-campaign-to-crack-undermine-internet-encryption +[^9]: Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, minutes of a meeting held at the Ministry of Defence on November 7, 2013, https://www.dsma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/131107-DPBAC-Meeting-Minutes-Acc2v2.pdf +[^10]: Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, minutes of May 8, 2014 (paras. 2 and 8), https://www.dsma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/140508-DPBAC-Meeting-Minutes-Acc2.pdf ; DSMA Committee minutes of November 8, 2018 (paras. 2 and 22), https://www.dsma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/181108-DSMA-Committee-Meeting-Minutes-Acc2.pdf ; minutes of November 8, 2011, para. 2, https://www.dsma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/111108-DPBAC-Meeting-Minutes-Acc2.pdf +[^11]: DPBAC and DSMA Committee minutes of November 6, 2014 (141106), May 13, 2015 (150513), November 5, 2015 (Minutes-5-Nov-15-Final-Acc2), May 19, 2016 (160519), November 3, 2016 (DSMA-Committee-Autumn-Meeting-Minutes-3-Nov-16_Acc2), November 9, 2017 (171109), May 17, 2018 (180517_Minutes_DSMAC-Acc2) and November 8, 2018 (181108-DSMA-Committee-Meeting-Minutes-Acc2, paras. 2 and 22), all under https://www.dsma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ +[^12]: DSMA minutes of May 8, 2008 through May 9, 2012 and May 7, 2013 (080507 through 130507, eleven sets) at https://www.dsma.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ searched for "Guardian"; The DSMA Notice System, "The Committee," https://www.dsma.uk/the-committee/ (viewed October 1, 2026). +[^13]: Ewen MacAskill and Paul Johnson, "MI5 head: 'increasingly aggressive' Russia a growing threat to UK," *The Guardian*, October 31, 2016 (updated November 1, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/31/andrew-parker-increasingly-aggressive-russia-a-growing-threat-to-uk-says-mi5-head ; DSMA Committee minutes of November 3, 2016, paras. 1-2. +[^14]: "WikiLeaks blames Guardian newspaper for leaks," Al Jazeera, September 1, 2011, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/9/1/wikileaks-blames-guardian-newspaper-for-leaks +[^15]: Luke Harding and Dan Collyns, "Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say," *The Guardian*, November 27, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy +[^16]: Oleg Gordievsky, "The Guardian's KGB tactics," *The Spectator*, January 14, 1995, https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/14th-january-1995/16/the-guardians-kgb-tactics +[^17]: *The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement Report*, part 2, Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, introduction and key findings, https://www.hull.ac.uk/asset-library/docs/part-2-the-scott-trust-legacies-of-enslavement-report.pdf +[^18]: University of Hull, "The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement Report," project page, https://www.hull.ac.uk/research/projects/the-scott-trust-legacies-of-enslavement-report +[^19]: Guardian.org Foundation, Form 990 and Schedule I, tax years 2016 through 2024, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/812404459 (object IDs 201820439349300787, 201832409349300813, 201922779349300312, 202003249349300715, 202132149349300718, 202202229349300105, 202312159349300816, 202403199349304780 and 202610159349301121). +[^20]: Tim Schwab, "Journalism's Gates keepers," *Columbia Journalism Review*, August 21, 2020, https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Thiel Foundation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Thiel Foundation.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d169898b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Thiel Foundation.md @@ -0,0 +1,303 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - ThielFoundation + - PeterThiel + - PrivateFoundation + - Section501c3 + - ThielFellowship + - BreakoutLabs + - Imitatio + - LifeExtension + - Seasteading + - DonorAdvisedFund + - Bilderberg + - Palantir +alias: + - Thiel Foundation + - The Thiel Foundation + - Shire Philanthropic Foundation +summary: "Peter Thiel's private foundation, named Shire Philanthropic Foundation on its 2008 return, which funded life-extension, artificial intelligence, seasteading and mimetic-theory groups, an institute at Palantir's address, and DonorsTrust." +start: 2005-11-22 +location: "San Francisco, California (2005 to 2017); West Hollywood, California (2018 to 2022); Los Angeles, California (2023 to 2024)" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Peter Thiel]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005 + end: 2023 + role: "substantial contributor on every Schedule B opened, 2005 to 2023" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Peter Thiel]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2005 to 2009; chairman of the board in the returns for 2010 to 2024" + fn: 13 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Robertson Morrow]]" + reverse: true + role: "director and president in the returns for 2005 to 2007" + fn: 2 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Jason Portnoy]]" + reverse: true + role: "director, secretary and treasurer in the returns for 2005 to 2007" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Jonathan Cain]]" + reverse: true + role: "president in the returns for 2008 to 2014" + fn: 5 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Robert Hamerton-Kelly]]" + reverse: true + role: "chairman in the return for 2009; Imitatio chair of the board in the return for 2010" + fn: 6 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Ajay Royan]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2011 to 2023" + fn: 14 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Sonia Arrison]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2015 to 2023" + fn: 18 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Mathew Alexander]]" + reverse: true + role: "treasurer and secretary in the returns for 2013 to 2023; director in the return for 2024" + fn: 16 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Jason Camm]]" + reverse: true + role: "director in the returns for 2019 to 2024" + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Blake Masters]]" + reverse: true + role: "president in the returns for 2019 and 2020; director in the returns for 2022 to 2024" + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Brian Rowen]]" + reverse: true + role: "president in the returns for 2021 and 2022" + fn: 21 + - type: head_of + with: "[[David Wheelock]]" + reverse: true + role: "president in the returns for 2023 and 2024" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Institute for Security and Analysis]]" + start: 2008-05-15 + end: 2008-05-15 + role: "1,000,000 dollars under expenditure responsibility" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]" + start: 2006 + end: 2015 + role: "grants to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and its successor, 125,000 to 275,000 dollars a year" + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Methuselah Foundation]]" + start: 2007 + end: 2014 + role: "370,124 dollars in 2007; 1,221,122.75 dollars in 2008" + fn: 4 + - type: funded + with: "[[SENS Research Foundation]]" + start: 2010 + end: 2016 + role: "1,402,068 dollars in 2010; 1,250,000 dollars in 2016" + fn: 13 + - type: funded + with: "[[Seasteading Institute]]" + start: 2010 + end: 2014 + role: "375,000 dollars in 2010; 675,554 dollars in 2012, marked mutual board" + fn: 13 + - type: funded + with: "[[American Friends of Bilderberg]]" + start: 2013 + end: 2015 + role: "25,000 dollars a year" + fn: 16 + - type: funded + with: "[[Federalist Society]]" + start: 2008 + end: 2008 + role: "250,000 dollars" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Hoover Institution]]" + start: 2008 + end: 2012 + role: "general support and Voegelin Visiting Scholars Fund" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Claremont McKenna College]]" + start: 2008 + end: 2013 + role: "Leo Strauss Project and Salvatori Center" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[American Foundation for Equal Rights]]" + start: 2010 + end: 2010 + role: "100,000 dollars general support" + fn: 13 + - type: funded + with: "[[Human Rights Foundation]]" + start: 2010 + end: 2014 + role: "175,000 dollars in 2010; 500,000 dollars in 2012" + fn: 13 + - type: funded + with: "[[Committee to Protect Journalists]]" + start: 2008 + end: 2013 + role: "250,000 dollars a year 2008 to 2011" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[Mercatus Center]]" + start: 2017 + end: 2021 + role: "35,000 dollars in 2017; 250,000 dollars in 2019 and 2021" + fn: 20 + - type: funded + with: "[[DonorsTrust]]" + start: 2020 + end: 2024 + role: "11,712,001 dollars labelled donor advised fund and general foundation grant" + fn: 10 + - type: funded + with: "[[New Venture Fund]]" + start: 2021 + end: 2021 + role: "3,000,000 dollars" + fn: 21 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Thiel Foundation (employer identification number 20-3846597) is a private foundation exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, with an [[Internal Revenue Service]] ruling date of May 2006. Its first Form 990-PF covers November 22 to December 31, 2005, and reports California as the state in which it is registered. [[Peter Thiel]] is the substantial contributor named on every Schedule B or contributor statement opened for the years 2005 through 2023, and he appears as a director or as chairman of the board in every return from the first to the most recent. The Internal Revenue Service's current record for the foundation gives an address at 215 NW 24th Street, Suite 801, [[Miami]], [[Florida]].[^1][^2] The returns record grants under four program labels (general foundation grants, Imitatio, Breakout Labs, and a fellowship program that the returns call "20under20" through 2016 and the [[Thiel Fellowship]] from 2017), followed in the 2020s by grants to [[DonorsTrust]] labelled "donor advised fund" and a single grant to the [[New Venture Fund]]. + +### Incorporation, Early Officers and Addresses + +The return for 2005 reports contributions of 25,000 dollars and assets of 25,000 dollars at 555 California Street, Suite 4360, [[San Francisco]]. It lists three uncompensated directors: Peter Thiel (two hours a week), [[Robertson Morrow]] (director and president) and [[Jason Portnoy]] (director, secretary and treasurer), and names Portnoy as the person holding the books. Thiel is listed as the only substantial contributor.[^2] The return for 2006 gives an address of One Letterman Drive, Building C, Suite 400, San Francisco, the same three officers, and a contribution of 317,000 dollars from Thiel.[^3] The return for 2007 lists the same officers and two contributions from Thiel of 2,080,839 dollars and 685,687 dollars, together 2,766,526 dollars, and reports the sale on November 9, 2007 of [[eBay]] stock for a gross price of 688,698 dollars.[^4] + +In the returns for 2008 and 2009 the Schedule B address for Thiel is One Letterman Drive, Building C, Suite 420.[^5][^6] The same suite is the address given in May 2009 by Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP, a vehicle of [[Founders Fund]],, whose Form D lists [[Luke Nosek]], Thiel, [[Ken Howery]] and [[Sean Parker]] as its directors.[^7] The foundation remained at Suite 400 of the same building until the return for 2018, which gives 9200 West Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1110, West Hollywood. The Schedule B entries for Thiel in the returns for 2018 to 2020 give his address as Suite 320 of the same West Hollywood building. The returns for 2023 and 2024 give 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 3300, [[Los Angeles]].[^8][^9][^10][^11][^12] + +### The Shire Philanthropic Foundation Name + +The first page of the return for 2008 gives the organization's name as Shire Philanthropic Foundation under employer identification number 20-3846597. The statements attached to that return (the expenditure responsibility statement, the list of officers and the schedule of grants paid) and its Schedule B carry the same name. The Form 8868 extension request filed with the return for 2009 is also in the name of Shire Philanthropic Foundation and names [[Amber Fowler]] as the person holding the books. The returns for 2005 to 2007 and from 2009 onward are filed as The Thiel Foundation. A search of the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer index for the Shire name returns no separate organization.[^1][^5][^6] + +### Officers and Directors + +The return for 2008 lists [[Jonathan Cain]] as president, Amber Fowler as vice-president, [[Lindy Fishburne]] as a director working 40 hours a week for 114,404 dollars plus 10,377 dollars in benefits, and Peter Thiel as a director.[^5] The return for 2009 lists Cain as president, Fowler as secretary, Lynn Fishburne as executive director (198,333 dollars plus 34,399 dollars in benefits), [[Robert Hamerton-Kelly]] as chairman (104,999 dollars), [[James O'Neill]] as treasurer and Thiel as a director.[^6] + +The amended return for 2010 lists Thiel as chairman of the board, Cain as president, Fowler as secretary until November 18, 2010, [[Nate Linn]] as treasurer and secretary from November 19, 2010, and James O'Neill as "acting CEO/foundation director", paid 143,304 dollars for 20 hours a week. Its list of highest-paid employees names Lynn Fishburne as executive director (150,000 dollars) and Hamerton-Kelly as "Imitatio chair of the board" (118,137 dollars).[^13] The returns for 2011 and 2012 list Cain (president), O'Neill (director and acting chief executive, paid 50,000 dollars in 2011), Linn, Thiel (chairman), Fishburne (executive director) and, for the first time, [[Ajay Royan]] as a director.[^14][^15] + +The return for 2013 lists Thiel as chairman, Cain as president, [[Mathew Alexander]] as treasurer and secretary, and Royan and O'Neill as directors. Lindy Fishburne appears among the employees as senior vice president (340,000 dollars) and [[Hemai Parthasarathy]] as scientific director (138,125 dollars).[^16] The return for 2014 adds [[Alana Ackerson]] as chief executive officer (41,667 dollars); the return for 2015 lists Ackerson as executive director (310,753 dollars), drops Cain and O'Neill, and adds [[Sonia Arrison]] as a director.[^17][^18] The returns for 2016 to 2018 list Thiel, Alexander, Royan and Arrison.[^8][^19][^20] + +[[Jason Camm]] appears as a director and [[Blake Masters]] as president (two hours a week) in the returns for 2019 and 2020.[^9][^10] The original and amended returns for 2021 list [[Brian Rowen]] as president with Thiel, Alexander, Royan, Arrison and Camm; the return for 2022 lists Rowen as president and Masters as a director.[^21][^22][^23] The return for 2023 lists [[David Wheelock]] as president with Thiel, Masters, Camm, Arrison, Royan and Alexander. The return for 2024 lists Thiel as chairman, Wheelock as president, and Masters, Camm and Alexander as directors, and no longer lists Arrison or Royan.[^11][^12] No return opened lists a president for 2018, and none lists Masters as president for 2021 or 2022. + +### Funding by Peter Thiel + +Schedule B lists Thiel as the contributor of 317,000 dollars (2006), 2,766,526 dollars (2007), 3,650,000 dollars (2008), 20,362 dollars (2009), 1,910,000 dollars (2010), 2,050,000 dollars (2011) and 35,106,000 dollars (2012).[^3][^4][^5][^6][^13][^14][^15] The return for 2013 lists 15,533,443 dollars from Thiel and corporate stock valued at 15,536,432 dollars at the end of the year.[^16] The return for 2014 lists 448,417 dollars from Thiel and 8,700 dollars from the Fox River Foundation of Naperville, [[Illinois]], the only other contributor named in any Schedule B opened.[^17] Later Schedule B entries for Thiel are 402,186 dollars (2015), 4,990,625 dollars (2016), 11,982,078 dollars (2017), 2,500,000 dollars (2018), 5,500,000 dollars (2019), 1,090,919 dollars (2020), 2,210,376 dollars and 3,000,000 dollars (2022) and 4,000,000 dollars (2023).[^8][^9][^10][^11][^18][^19][^20][^23] The return for 2021 reports no contributions, and the return for 2024 reports contributions of zero. The fair market value of the foundation's assets was 31,140,630 dollars at the end of 2013, 44,447,969 dollars at the end of 2023 and 45,244,823 dollars at the end of 2024.[^12][^16] + +### Grants, 2006 to 2009 + +The grants paid in 2006 totalled 275,000 dollars: 50,000 dollars to Africa Fighting Malaria, 75,000 dollars to the Institute on Religion and Public Life of New York for a special project, 25,000 dollars to [[Yale University]] and 125,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence of [[Palo Alto]], also for a special project.[^3] In 2007 the foundation paid 645,124 dollars: 370,124 dollars to the [[Methuselah Foundation]] (a non-matching grant of 167,000 dollars and quarterly matching grants of 203,124 dollars) and 275,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute (25,000 dollars for sponsorship of an artificial intelligence summit and 250,000 dollars in unrestricted grants). The return lists a further 852,907 dollars approved for payment to Methuselah as the remainder of the 2007 matching grants.[^4] + +The return for 2008 lists 3,036,122.75 dollars in grants. The Methuselah Foundation, at 8021 Flint Street, Springfield, [[Virginia]], received 852,906.94 dollars (the remainder of 2007 matching), 166,790.62 dollars (first and second quarter 2008 matching), 167,000 dollars (a non-challenge donation) and 34,425.19 dollars (third quarter matching). The [[Federalist Society]] received 250,000 dollars and the [[Committee to Protect Journalists]] 250,000 dollars. [[Claremont McKenna College]] received 125,000 dollars as "Support for Leo Strauss Project", and the [[Hoover Institution]] 100,000 dollars in general support and 20,000 dollars for its Voegelin Visiting Scholars Fund. The [[Philanthropy Roundtable]] received 10,000 dollars, Leadership Public Schools 5,000 dollars, and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund (in care of Joan Roth and Associates, Larkspur, California) 5,000 dollars. A grant of 50,000 dollars went to "WCNC Neurological Surgery" at 525 East 68th Street, [[New York City|New York]], for a memorial lectureship whose purpose line also names Eric Braverman.[^5] + +The return for 2009 lists 979,906 dollars in grants: 250,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute (described as the "2008 Segment of PT Grant Obligation"), 250,000 dollars to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 175,000 dollars to the UCSF Foundation for "Support of FOXO3A Small Molecules", 80,000 dollars to the Cornerstone Forum, 41,179 dollars to Preaching Peace, 34,954 dollars to Methuselah, 48,150 and 17,858 dollars to Carnet Nord of Paris, 26,316 dollars to The King's College, 20,449 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques of Montreuil, 22,000 dollars to the Travis Research Institute of [[Fuller Theological Seminary]], 5,000 dollars to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion and 9,000 dollars to the [[University of Cambridge]] for a Darwin conference.[^6] + +### The Institute for Security and Analysis Grant + +The return for 2008 records a grant of 1,000,000 dollars, dated May 15, 2008, to the "Institute of Security and Analysis", 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300, Palo Alto, California. It is the only grant in the return reported on an expenditure responsibility statement. The statement gives the purpose as "educate on the role of technology in security and analysis", the amount expended as 1,000,000 dollars, no diversion of funds, a report and verification date of December 31, 2008, and the result "grant was fully expended by grantee for intended purpose".[^5] + +[[Palantir Technologies]] filed a Form D with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] on April 14, 2009, giving its address as 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300, Palo Alto. The filing names [[Alex Karp|Alexander Karp]] (executive officer and director), Peter Thiel (director), [[Joe Lonsdale]] (executive officer and director), [[Stephen Cohen]] and [[Nathan Gettings]] (directors) as related persons, and reports 8,291,250 dollars sold to seven investors of a 20,000,000 dollar offering, with a first sale on March 25, 2009.[^24] + +The [[Institute for Security and Analysis|Institute For Security And Analysis]] (employer identification number 26-2379447, Palo Alto, Internal Revenue Service ruling date December 2009) filed Forms 990 as a public charity for 2008 to 2012 and Forms 990-PF as a private foundation from 2013. Its returns for 2013 and 2015 list Stephen Cohen as president and director, Joe Lonsdale as secretary, treasurer and director, and Ajay Royan as director, all at 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300, Palo Alto, and report no grants paid. Its returns for 2022 and 2024 list the same three officers at 314 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto, and report grants of 15,000 dollars and 13,000 dollars to Code for America Labs. Its reported total assets were 621,931 dollars at the end of 2011, 616,597 dollars at the end of 2013 and 323,570 dollars at the end of 2023.[^25] Royan was a director of the Thiel Foundation in 2013, 2015 and 2022. The Thiel Foundation's returns for 2014 and 2015 list an independent contractor named JDB, paid 191,682 dollars and 100,146 dollars for "General Consulting", at 314 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto.[^17][^18] In September 2021 Royan was named as the person to receive notices for Mithril II LP, care of Mithril Capital Management of [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], in its Schedule 13D on [[BlackSky Technology]], a satellite imagery company of Herndon, Virginia.[^26] + +### Life Extension, Artificial Intelligence and Seasteading Grantees + +The returns for 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015 list grants to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, renamed the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] by the return for 2014: 125,000 dollars (2006), 275,000 dollars (2007), 250,000 dollars (2009), 250,000 dollars (2010), 250,000 dollars (2012), 250,000 dollars (2014) and 250,000 dollars (2015). The return for 2011 lists a 4,000 dollar "grant match for 2010", and the return for 2010 lists 50,000 dollars to [[Singularity University]] at the [[NASA]] Ames Research Park.[^3][^4][^6][^13][^14][^15][^17][^18] + +The [[Seasteading Institute]] received 250,000 dollars and 125,000 dollars in 2010, 500,000 dollars plus a 114,866 dollar "grant match for 2010" in 2011, 675,554 dollars in 2012, 314,521 dollars in 2013 and 216,983 dollars in 2014.[^13][^14][^15][^16][^17] The relationship column of the return for 2012 reads "MUTUAL BOARD" against both the Seasteading Institute and the SENS Foundation.[^15] The Seasteading Institute's own Form 990 for 2013 lists [[Patri Friedman]] as board chair and Jonathan Cain as a board member.[^27] + +The SENS Foundation, later the [[SENS Research Foundation]], received four grants in 2010 (413,000 dollars, 412,000 dollars, 202,068 dollars and 375,000 dollars), 340,000 dollars, 200,000 dollars and 50,000 dollars in 2011 with a 3,000 dollar match, 760,000 dollars in 2012, 450,000 dollars in 2013, 600,000 dollars in 2014, 450,000 dollars in 2015 and 1,250,000 dollars in 2016.[^13][^14][^15][^16][^17][^18][^19] The relationship column of the return for 2013 reads "Jonathan Cain on board", and that of the return for 2014 "Jonathan Cain, executive Director on Board of Directors of SENS Foundat[ion]"; Cain was the Thiel Foundation's president in both years.[^16][^17] + +The Methuselah Foundation received 350,000 dollars in 2010 for research support and 100,000 dollars in 2014. The UCSF Foundation received 175,000 dollars a year from 2009 to 2013, described in 2010 as "Cynthia Kenyon support of FOXO3A small molecules project", and the return for 2010 lists 525,000 dollars approved for future payment to it. [[Leverage Research]] received 200,000 dollars in 2013 and 400,000 dollars in 2014, and the [[Foresight Institute]] 100,000 dollars in each of 2012 and 2013.[^13][^15][^16][^17] + +### Think Tanks, Press Freedom and Political Philosophy Grantees + +The Committee to Protect Journalists received 250,000 dollars in each of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and 75,000 dollars in 2013. The [[Human Rights Foundation]] of New York received 175,000 dollars in 2010, 250,000 dollars in 2011 with Oslo given in the purpose line, 500,000 dollars in 2012 and 200,000 dollars in 2014.[^5][^6][^13][^14][^15][^16][^17] The [[American Foundation for Equal Rights]] of Los Angeles received 100,000 dollars in general support in 2010.[^13] + +The [[Ayn Rand Institute]] received 100,000 dollars in each of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and the return for 2011 shows a further 400,000 dollars approved for future payment. The [[Hudson Institute]] received 100,000 dollars in 2011 and 2014; the [[Acton Institute]] 50,000 dollars in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017; the Hoover Institution 100,000 dollars in 2011 (paid to [[Stanford University]] as a "TF grant") and 100,000 dollars in 2012; Students for Liberty 100,000 dollars in 2012; the Independent Institute 50,000 dollars in 2010; and the [[Mercatus Center]] 35,000 dollars for an academic seminar in 2017, 250,000 dollars in 2019 and 250,000 dollars in 2021.[^9][^13][^14][^15][^16][^17][^18][^20][^21] Stanford also received 35,000 dollars in 2010 for "research support on empathy in neuroscience" and 110,000 dollars in 2011 "in support of the Stanford Law Center".[^13][^14] + +Claremont McKenna College received 125,000 dollars in 2008 for the Leo Strauss Project, 125,000 dollars in 2010, 125,000 dollars in 2011 for its "Leo Strauss Center", 200,000 dollars in 2012 and 200,000 dollars in 2013 for its Salvatori Center. The [[University of Chicago]] received 50,000 dollars in 2010 and 50,000 dollars in 2011, the latter "in support of the Leo Strauss Center", and the returns for those years show 150,000 dollars and 100,000 dollars approved for future payment to it for the Leo Strauss Center. The Leo Strauss Foundation received 100,000 dollars in 2022 (Upland, California) and 100,000 dollars in 2023 (Chicago).[^5][^11][^13][^14][^15][^16][^23] + +### American Friends of Bilderberg + +The returns for 2013, 2014 and 2015 each list 25,000 dollars to [[American Friends of Bilderberg]], [[Washington, D.C.]] (spelled "Ameican Friends of Bildeberg" in the return for 2014).[^16][^17][^18] The Forms 990-PF of American Friends of Bilderberg (employer identification number 51-0163715, 607 14th Street NW, Washington) for the same three years list Peter Thiel as one of its directors, with [[Marie-Josée Kravis]] as president, [[James A. Johnson]] as treasurer, [[Jessica Tuchman Mathews|Jessica T. Mathews]] as secretary, and [[Henry Kissinger]], [[Craig Mundie]], [[Richard Perle]], [[Roger Altman]] and [[Klaus Kleinfeld]] as directors. They describe its activity as follows: "The entity organizes and sponsors conferences which study & discuss significant problems of the Western Alliance. It also collaborates on the Bilderberg Meetings held in Europe & North America." It reported contributions of 241,000 dollars for 2014 and 159,000 dollars for 2015.[^28] + +The return for 2013 also lists 100,000 dollars each to the United States New Zealand Council, the Randolph Bourne Institute and Peers Benefit Corporation.[^16] + +### Imitatio + +The Imitatio label first appears in the returns for 2010 and 2011, alongside the payment to Hamerton-Kelly as "Imitatio chair of the board" and grants to the Association Recherches Mimétiques, the Cornerstone Forum, Preaching Peace, the Raven Foundation, Theology and Peace and individual scholars. The return for 2010 reports expenditure responsibility statements for 46,000 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques for "support of education & publication efforts" and 40,000 dollars to the Raven Foundation of Glenview, Illinois, and the return for 2011 lists a 50,000 dollar Imitatio publishing grant to the foreign publisher É Realizações Editora.[^13][^14] Imitatio-labelled grants were 672,000 dollars in 2013, 728,983 dollars in 2014, 613,325 dollars in 2015, 609,000 dollars in 2016 and 548,395 dollars in 2017.[^16][^17][^18][^19][^20] + +The return for 2014 lists 152,983 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques of Montreuil, [[France]], and individual Imitatio grants of 95,000 dollars to James Alison, 80,000 dollars to Benoît Chantre, 55,000 dollars to Mark Anspach of Bologna, 40,000 dollars to Jean-Pierre Dupuy of Paris and 40,000 dollars to William Johnsen of East Grand Rapids, [[Michigan]]; the return for 2013 also lists Alison as a consultant paid 98,035 dollars.[^16][^17] The returns for 2020 to 2024 list yearly payments of 80,000 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques, 80,000 dollars to Chantre and 65,000 dollars to Anspach, 95,000 dollars to Alison in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024, and 65,000 dollars to the Cornerstone Forum in each of 2019 to 2023. Glass Darkly Films received 60,000 dollars in 2021 and Imitatio grants of 45,000 dollars (2022), 80,000 dollars (2023) and 53,313 dollars (2024), the last two reported on expenditure responsibility statements.[^9][^10][^11][^12][^21][^23] + +### Thiel Fellowship and Breakout Labs + +Fellowship grants are labelled "20under20 fellowship" in the returns for 2012 to 2016, "Thiel Fellowship Grant" in the returns for 2017 and 2018, and "fellowship" in later returns. Fellowship totals were 2,093,046 dollars in 2013, 2,025,438 dollars in 2014, 2,369,206 dollars in 2015, 2,637,858 dollars in 2016, 2,224,071 dollars in 2017, 2,054,946 dollars in 2018, 1,650,000 dollars in 2021, 2,193,650 dollars in 2022 and 2,187,500 dollars in 2023. The returns for 2013 to 2016 list [[Dylan Field]], [[Delian Asparouhov]] and [[Vitalik Buterin]] among the 20under20 grantees.[^8][^11][^16][^17][^18][^19][^20][^21][^23] The amended return for 2021 reports fellowship grants of 100,000 dollars each on expenditure responsibility statements, and its schedule of other income includes 1,360,000 dollars labelled "grant conversion".[^22] The return for 2012 lists a grant of 200,000 dollars to David Allen Dalrymple under the general program.[^15] The returns for 2012 to 2014 list [[Danielle Strachman]] as a contractor for management of the 20under20 program, paid 275,163 dollars (2012), 250,845 dollars (2013) and 174,363 dollars (2014).[^15][^16][^17] + +Breakout Labs grants first appear in the return for 2011 (Arigos Biomedical, 50,000 dollars). The return for 2012 lists 3Scan (340,000 dollars), Arigos Biomedical (300,000 dollars), Avetech Energy (300,000 dollars), General Genomics (350,000 dollars), Immusoft (398,607 dollars), Siva Therapeutics (350,025 dollars) and Longevity Biotech (346,726 dollars).[^14][^15] Breakout Labs totals were 1,113,513 dollars in 2013, 1,616,000 dollars in 2014 (including 350,000 dollars to Cortexyme), 1,970,000 dollars in 2015, 1,315,000 dollars in 2016, 3,775,000 dollars in 2017 and 1,775,000 dollars in 2018, and the return for 2019 lists six grants of 500,000 dollars each.[^8][^9][^16][^17][^18][^19][^20] The amended return for 2021 lists a holding in Cortexyme valued at 193,149 dollars and investments in unconsolidated entities valued at 18,477,914 dollars.[^22] + +### Donor-Advised Fund and Other 2020s Grants + +Entries for the San Francisco Foundation and the San Francisco Community Foundation appear in the returns for 2014 (697,400 dollars), 2016 (501,500 dollars, labelled "Ainur Fund Grant"), 2017 (790,000 dollars, Ainur Fund), 2018 (240,000 dollars, Ainur Fund), 2019 (400,000 dollars to the "SF Community Foundation Ainur Fund") and 2020 (325,000 dollars).[^8][^9][^10][^17][^19][^20] + +The return for 2020 lists two grants to Donors Trust Inc., given an address at 4 Whitney Court, Menlo Park, California, and labelled "donor advised fund": 4,345,224 dollars and 43,891 dollars.[^10] The return for 2021 lists 4,250,000 dollars to DonorsTrust with the same label, 3,000,000 dollars to the New Venture Fund of Washington, D.C., labelled "grants", and 250,000 dollars to the Mercatus Center. The return for 2022 lists 1,370,000 dollars to DonorsTrust, and the returns for 2023 and 2024 list 1,276,111 dollars and 426,775 dollars to DonorsTrust of Alexandria, Virginia, labelled "general foundation grant". The DonorsTrust entries for 2020 to 2024 total 11,712,001 dollars.[^10][^11][^12][^21][^23] + +The return for 2021 exists in an original version submitted November 15, 2022 and an amended version submitted November 21, 2023. Both report grants paid of 12,150,000 dollars on the books and 9,803,000 dollars in charitable disbursements. The amended version reports total revenue of 5,783,988 dollars against 8,783,988 dollars in the original, a difference of 3,000,000 dollars in other income. Its general explanation attachment states that other income and investments "have been updated to properly reflect a return of capital transaction that was previously reported as investment income."[^21][^22] + +The return for 2022 lists "general foundation grants" of 100,000, 120,000 and 125,000 dollars to three individuals, and the return for 2023 repeats the 120,000 dollar grant to one of them.[^11][^23] The Newbigin House of Studies in San Francisco received 500,000 dollars in 2014 and 350,000 dollars in 2015. Helen Whitney Productions received 350,000 dollars in each of 2014 and 2015, 700,000 dollars in 2016 and 100,000 dollars in 2017, the last described as support for a documentary film. The return for 2012 lists 145,000 dollars to [[Pennsylvania State University]].[^15][^17][^18][^19][^20] The return for 2014 lists Torch Communications, a media consultant, as its highest-paid contractor at 381,330 dollars.[^17] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "The Thiel Foundation," organization record for EIN 20-3846597 (ruling date May 2006; 501(c)(3) private foundation; IRS address 215 NW 24th Street, Suite 801, Miami, Florida), and name search for "Shire Philanthropic" (no result), accessed October 1, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/203846597.json +[^2]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for the period November 22, 2005 to December 31, 2005 (Part I line 1; Part VII-A line 8a; Part VIII; Statement 1, list of substantial contributors). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_200512_990PF.pdf +[^3]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2006 (Part I; Part VIII; Statement A, grants paid; Schedule B Part I). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_200612_990PF.pdf +[^4]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2007 (Part I line 1; Part IV; Part VIII statement; Part XV, grants paid and contributions approved for future payment; Schedule B Part I). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_200712_990PF.pdf +[^5]: Shire Philanthropic Foundation (name on the face of the return), EIN 20-3846597, Form 990-PF for 2008 (page 1; Schedule B Part I; Statement 8, expenditure responsibility, Institute of Security and Analysis, grant date 05/15/2008; Statement 9, officers; Statement 11, grants paid). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_200812_990PF.pdf +[^6]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2009 (Part VIII, Attachment 10; Part XV, Attachment 13, grants paid; Schedule B; Form 8868 in the name of Shire Philanthropic Foundation). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_200912_990PF.pdf +[^7]: Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP, Form D filed May 15, 2009, SEC accession 0001464202-09-000001 (issuer address; related persons). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1464202/000146420209000001/primary_doc.xml +[^8]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2018, ProPublica object ID 201933199349102743 (page 1 address; Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201933199349102743/IRS990PF +[^9]: Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2019, ProPublica object ID 202043219349107309 (Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202043219349107309/IRS990PF +[^10]: Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2020, submitted November 15, 2021, ProPublica object ID 202123199349109047 (Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202123199349109047/IRS990PF +[^11]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2023, submitted 2024, ProPublica object ID 202403209349108200 (Parts VII and XV; Schedule B; Expenditure Responsibility Statement). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202403209349108200/IRS990PF +[^12]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2024, ProPublica object ID 202533219349106118 (Parts I, II, VII and XV; Expenditure Responsibility Statement). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202533219349106118/IRS990PF +[^13]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2010, marked "as amended" (Part VIII and Statement 13, officers; Statement 14, expenditure responsibility; Statement 15, grants paid, total 3,857,826 dollars; Statement 16, approved for future payment; Schedule B). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_201012_990PF.pdf +[^14]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2011 (Part I line 1; Part VIII line 1 statement; Part XV line 3 statement, total paid 4,207,390 dollars, and approved for future payment; Schedule B). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_201112_990PF.pdf +[^15]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2012 (Part I line 1; Part VIII; Part XV line 3 statement, total paid 8,903,410 dollars; Schedule B). https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/203/203846597/203846597_201212_990PF.pdf +[^16]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2013, submitted November 12, 2014, ProPublica object ID 201443169349101309 (Parts I, II, VIII and XV; Schedule B; corporate stock schedule). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201443169349101309/IRS990PF and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201443169349101309/IRS990ScheduleB +[^17]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2014, ProPublica object ID 201543099349100429 (Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201543099349100429/IRS990PF and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201543099349100429/IRS990ScheduleB +[^18]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2015, ProPublica object ID 201632829349100203 (Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201632829349100203/IRS990PF +[^19]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2016, ProPublica object ID 201713179349101526 (Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201713179349101526/IRS990PF +[^20]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2017, ProPublica object ID 201813189349101446 (Parts VIII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201813189349101446/IRS990PF +[^21]: Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2021, original version submitted November 15, 2022, ProPublica object ID 202213199349109531 (Parts I, VII and XV). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202213199349109531/IRS990PF +[^22]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2021, amended version submitted November 21, 2023, ProPublica object ID 202343259349100109 (Part I; Part XV; General Explanation Attachment; Other Income Schedule; Investments schedules; Expenditure Responsibility Statement). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202343259349100109/IRS990PF and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202343259349100109/GeneralExplanationAttachment +[^23]: The Thiel Foundation, Form 990-PF for 2022, ProPublica object ID 202333209349101708 (Parts VII and XV; Schedule B). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202333209349101708/IRS990PF +[^24]: Palantir Technologies Inc., Form D filed April 14, 2009 (signed April 13, 2009), SEC accession 0001321655-09-000003 (issuer address; related persons; offering and sales amounts). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1321655/000132165509000003/primary_doc.xml +[^25]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Institute For Security And Analysis," EIN 26-2379447 (filing index: Form 990 for 2008 to 2012, Form 990-PF from 2013; summary assets), and Forms 990-PF for 2013 (object ID 201413219349101341), 2015 (201643209349102079), 2022 (202303189349106245) and 2024 (202523209349100227), Part VII and Part XV. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262379447 ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201413219349101341/IRS990PF ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202303189349106245/IRS990PF ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202523209349100227/IRS990PF +[^26]: Mithril II LP, Schedule 13D on BlackSky Technology Inc., filed September 20, 2021 (event date September 9, 2021), SEC accession 0001193125-21-277424 (cover page). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1753539/000119312521277424/d234079dsc13d.htm +[^27]: Seasteading Institute, EIN 26-2386590, Form 990 for 2013, submitted October 15, 2014, ProPublica object ID 201412889349300226 (Part VII, Section A). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201412889349300226/IRS990 +[^28]: American Friends of Bilderberg Inc., EIN 51-0163715, Forms 990-PF for 2013 (object ID 201431369349100608), 2014 (201501349349102800) and 2015 (201622229349100732), Part I line 1, Part VIII line 1 and Part IX-A. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201501349349102800/IRS990PF and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/201622229349100732/IRS990PF diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Trilateral Commission.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Trilateral Commission.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5c873553 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Trilateral Commission.md @@ -0,0 +1,221 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - TrilateralCommission + - ThinkTank + - ForeignPolicy + - RockefellerFamily + - CarterAdministration + - EstablishmentNetworks + - CrisisOfDemocracy +alias: + - Trilateral Commission + - The Trilateral Commission + - Trilateral Commission North America + - Trilateral Commission (North America) + - The Trilateral Commission (North America) +summary: "Body of North American, European and Japanese business, political and academic figures proposed by David Rockefeller in 1972, directed by Zbigniew Brzezinski from 1973 and publisher of the 1975 report The Crisis of Democracy." +start: 1973 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[David Rockefeller]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "organizing chairman; called for the commission in March 1972" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Zbigniew Brzezinski]]" + reverse: true + start: 1973 + end: 1977 + role: "first full-time director" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Gerard C. Smith]]" + reverse: true + role: "North American chairman in December 1974 and in 1975" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[David Rockefeller]]" + reverse: true + role: "North American chairman in the rosters of 1980 and 1981" + fn: 12 + - type: head_of + with: "[[George S. Franklin]]" + reverse: true + start: 1977 + role: "coordinator, chosen by the executive committee in 1977; North American secretary in 1975 and executive secretary in January 1977" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Meghan O'Sullivan]]" + reverse: true + role: "chair in the return for the year to June 2023 and in the list of September 2024" + fn: 14 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Richard Fontaine]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive director, 110,000 dollars reportable compensation in the return for the year to June 2023" + fn: 14 + - type: director_of + with: "[[David Rubenstein]]" + reverse: true + role: "North American trustee in the return for the year to June 2023" + fn: 14 + - type: director_of + with: "[[Henry A. Kissinger]]" + reverse: true + role: "North American trustee in the return for the year to June 2023; named with David Rockefeller as a founder in the list of September 2024" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]]" + reverse: true + role: "180,000 dollars of the 1.67 million dollar North American budget for the three years to 1980" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Rockefeller Foundation]]" + reverse: true + role: "100,000 dollars of the three-year North American budget to 1980" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[David Rockefeller]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "initial seed money, and 150,000 dollars of personal funds in the three-year North American budget to 1980" + fn: 11 + - type: funded + with: "[[Ford Foundation]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "supplemented the initial seed money; listed among major financial supporters since 1973" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Kettering Foundation]]" + reverse: true + start: 1972 + role: "supplemented the initial seed money" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Jimmy Carter]]" + reverse: true + end: 1977 + role: "member before his election as president; attended meetings according to Robert Scheer" + fn: 3 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Walter Mondale]]" + reverse: true + role: "member, listed by the Los Angeles Times on January 24, 1977 among members in the new government" + fn: 3 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Cyrus Vance]]" + reverse: true + role: "member, listed by the Los Angeles Times on January 24, 1977 among members in the new government" + fn: 3 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Harold Brown]]" + reverse: true + role: "member, listed by the Los Angeles Times on January 24, 1977 among members in the new government" + fn: 3 + - type: member_of + with: "[[W. Michael Blumenthal]]" + reverse: true + role: "member, listed by the Los Angeles Times on January 24, 1977 among members in the new government" + fn: 3 + - type: member_of + with: "[[George H.W. Bush]]" + reverse: true + end: 1978 + role: "member; resigned in 1978" + fn: 11 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Trilateral Commission is a private organization of business, political, labor and academic figures from North America, Western Europe and Japan (later the Asia Pacific), with regional offices and a published series of task force reports. + +### Formation + +In March 1972, speaking before Chase Bank investment forums in Montreal, London, Brussels and Paris, [[David Rockefeller]] called for "an international commission for peace and prosperity composed of private citizens drawn from the [[NATO]] countries and Japan to examine such vital fields as international trade and investment; environmental problems; control of crime and drugs; population control; and assistance to developing nations." On a flight to the [[Bilderberg Group]] meeting in Belgium in April 1972 he spoke with [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], then director of the Research Institute on Communist Affairs at [[Columbia University]], who had argued in Between Two Ages (1970) for a council linking the [[United States]], Western Europe and Japan. At the April 1972 Bilderberg meeting Rockefeller urged the Bilderberg Executive Committee to take a trilateral approach and to invite Japanese participation; the proposal was again rejected, and he pursued it in consultations with Brzezinski, [[George S. Franklin]] (his Harvard roommate and executive director of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]] from 1953 to 1971) and colleagues in Europe and Japan.[^1] + +A meeting at Pocantico Hills, New York, on July 23 and 24, 1972 was attended by C. Fred Bersten, [[Robert R. Bowie]], Brzezinski, [[McGeorge Bundy]], [[Karl Carstens]], Guido Colonna di Paliano, Francois Duchene, Rene Folk, Franklin, [[Max Kohnstamm]], Bayless Manning, [[Kiichi Miyazawa]], Kinhide Mushakoji, Saburo Okita, [[Henry Owen]], Rockefeller and Tadashi Yamamoto (names as spelled in the finding aid that records it), and the participants agreed to take steps to establish the Commission. In the fall of 1972 and early 1973 the regions designated their chairmen, Brzezinski was selected as director, and financial support was obtained from several sources, including the Kettering Foundation and the [[Ford Foundation]], to supplement the initial seed money provided by Rockefeller. The Commission was established for three years and has been renewed for successive three-year terms, the thirteenth ending in 2012. The finding aid's note on the Pocantico meeting cites a document titled The Trilateral Commission: A Proposal, dated March 15, 1973, in the records of the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]].[^1] + +The first three international meetings, all of the executive committee, were held in Tokyo in October 1973, Brussels in June 1974 and [[Washington, D.C.]], in December 1974; the first plenary meeting was held in Tokyo and Kyoto in May 1975. In 1977 the Commission replaced its central director with a coordinator, George Franklin, chosen by the executive committee.[^1] + +A press guidance sheet in the Ron Nessen Papers at the [[Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library]], prepared for the executive committee's meeting with [[Gerald Ford]] on December 11, 1974, describes the Commission as "a private organization" created "in the spring of 1972 on the basis of a proposal by David Rockefeller to 'bring the best brains in the world to bear on the problems of the future.'" It gives the purposes as enhancing cooperation among the three regions, analyzing major issues and developing practicable proposals; the membership as "about 180"; the regional chairmen as [[Gerard C. Smith]] (North America), [[Takeshi Watanabe]] (Japan) and Kohnstamm (Western Europe); and the director as Brzezinski of Columbia. Task force reports to that date covered political cooperation, monetary reform, aid cooperation between industrialized and OPEC countries, energy and multilateral trade negotiations.[^2] + +[[Robert Scheer]] of the [[Los Angeles Times]] wrote on January 24, 1977 that the Commission was "created by David Rockefeller in 1972 as an attempt to work out a common negotiating position among Western Europe, Japan and the United States vis-a-vis the rest of the world," and that "At first Rockefeller didn't get much of a response." Scheer quoted the Commission's executive secretary, Franklin, as saying that the plan came together when Rockefeller put it to the Bilderberg meeting, where [[W. Michael Blumenthal]] had said that "some kind of private group" might "do more about it." Scheer wrote that Rockefeller "provided the initial funding for the commission and Brzezinski was on the payroll as director." Brzezinski told Scheer: "Henry Kissinger worked closely but also for [[Nelson Rockefeller]]. I worked closely but with David Rockefeller. I didn't work for David Rockefeller. I consider him to be a very close friend ... but he is not my employer, nor was he ever my employer." Scheer wrote that Brzezinski had been director for three years and had first met [[Jimmy Carter]] there.[^3] + +The statement of purposes issued by the executive committee in October 1973, as quoted in a [[Library of Congress]] reference sheet, says that the Commission "will seek to promote among Japanese, West Europeans and North Americans the habit of working together on problems of mutual concern."[^4] The Commission's organization leaflet gives July 1973 as the date of its inauguration, and quotes [[Theo Sommer]] of Die Zeit on "a sort of European-Japanese-American Establishment."[^4] The 1975 report The Crisis of Democracy describes the body as formed in 1973 "by private citizens of Western Europe, Japan, and North America to foster closer cooperation among these three regions on common problems."[^5] + +### Meeting with President Ford, December 1974 + +[[White House|The White House]] photograph log for December 11, 1974 records a meeting in the Cabinet Room between Ford and executive committee members of the Commission, with the names logged as Ford, Bonner, [[Harold Brown]], Pepin, Rockefeller, Roth, [[Elliot Richardson]], Gerald Smith, Brzezinski, Franklin, Haggerty, Reischauer, Scranton, Warnke, Woodcock, Wood, Bowie, Hockin, Coleman, Max Kohnstam, Umberto Columbo and Cesare Merlini, "et al."[^6] A [[Henry A. Kissinger]] chronology for December 1974 (HAK Chrons), as reproduced in the Central Intelligence Agency's reading room collection, lists a "Talker for Pres. from HAK" for the meeting with the executive committee members on Wednesday, December 11, in the Cabinet Room.[^7] The Commission's own records place its third international executive committee meeting in Washington in December 1974.[^1] + +### The Crisis of Democracy + +The Commission's Task Force on the Governability of Democracies was set up in the spring of 1974 and reported in the spring of 1975. The report, by [[Michel Crozier]] (Western Europe), [[Samuel P. Huntington]] (United States) and [[Joji Watanuki]] (Japan), was discussed at the Commission's meeting in Kyoto on May 30 and 31, 1975 and published by [[New York University Press]] under copyright of the Trilateral Commission as The Crisis of Democracy. Brzezinski's introductory note, as director, lists four joint meetings: Palo Alto on April 20 and 21, 1974, where the rapporteurs and Brzezinski drew up the outline; London on November 11 and 12, 1974; New York on February 22 and 23, 1975, with experts from the three regions; and the Kyoto plenary on May 31, 1975. Those consulted included Bowie, Brzezinski, [[James Cornford]], Franklin, Representative [[Donald M. Fraser]], [[Karl Kaiser]], [[Seymour Martin Lipset]], [[John Meisel]], [[Erwin Scheuch]], [[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.]], Gerard Smith (North American chairman), [[Yasumasa Tanaka]] and [[Tadashi Yamamoto]] (Japanese secretary).[^5] + +In the chapter on the United States, Huntington wrote that "For twenty years after [[World War II]] presidents operated with the cooperation of a series of informal governing coalitions," that [[Harry Truman|Truman]] made a point of bringing "a substantial number of nonpartisan soldiers, Republican bankers, and Wall Street lawyers into his administration," and that "Truman had been able to govern the country with the cooperation of a relatively small number of Wall Street lawyers and bankers. By the mid-1960s, the sources of power in society had diversified tremendously, and this was no longer possible." He named the national media as "the most notable new source of national power in 1970, as compared to 1950."[^8] + +In the concluding section Huntington wrote that "some of the problems of governance in the United States today stem from an excess of democracy," that "Needed, instead, is a greater degree of moderation in democracy," and that "the effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups."[^9] + +Scheer wrote that the report claims "we have too much democracy and, in particular, too much press freedom," that it "has proved an embarrassment to the commission," that Brzezinski, who had selected his former coauthor to write it, "tends to disown it" now, and that Carter "went out of his way to express disagreement."[^3] + +### Members in the Carter administration + +Scheer's article lists, besides Carter and Brzezinski, the following Commission members in the new government: Vice President [[Walter Mondale]], Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]], Secretary of the Treasury Blumenthal, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, assistant secretaries [[Lucy Wilson Benson]], [[Anthony Lake]], [[Richard Cooper]] and [[Richard Holbrooke]], and Ambassador [[Richard Gardner]]. He wrote that Carter "took the Trilateral Commission seriously and never missed a meeting," that for Brzezinski the Commission "gave him a visible platform that did not hurt his career development," and that "the Trilateral Commission has been more successful as an establishment placement service than as a source of new policy ideas, which was its original stated purpose." Brzezinski described himself to Scheer as "a transmission belt ... between people like you, who are the elite's supported and appointed critics, and those who actually exercise power and wield it." Executive committee member William Roth told Scheer that the published output was not what mattered, but that "They provide an occasion for influential people to meet, to get to know each other and to hammer out some common positions," and Franklin said that one of the main purposes of such groups was to find out who the "good guys" are. Carter wrote in Why Not the Best that "Membership on this commission has provided me with a splendid learning opportunity."[^3] + +Michael A. Calabrese wrote in The Harvard Crimson (the article's web address carries the date January 12, 1976, while its text refers to a President-elect and Vice President-elect, which indicates January 1977) that Carter, Mondale, Vance, Brzezinski, Brown and Blumenthal were "among the 60 original American members" of the Commission. Calabrese quoted Carter's media adviser Gerald Rafshoon as saying that Carter's selection to the Commission "was one of the most fortunate accidents of the early campaign and critical to his building support where it counted," and quoted Professor Edwin O. Reischauer as recalling Carter as an enthusiastic member who attended the regular meetings and sat in on executive committee sessions. Calabrese wrote that J. Paul Austin, chairman of the Coca-Cola Company, "originally sponsored Carter in the Trilateral and later served as his campaign finance chairman."[^10] + +[[U.S. News & World Report]] stated on April 7, 1980 that Carter had been in the organization before his election "as were nearly 20 present or former top members of his administration," that the former Trilateralists included Mondale, Vance, Brown and Brzezinski, "the entire foreign-policy and national-security team," and that [[John B. Anderson]] and [[George H.W. Bush]] were present or former members. Bush, who "resigned from the organization in 1978," was quoted as saying that "to suggest that those that belong to the commission . . . are involved in a conspiracy is absurd." Reagan adviser [[Caspar Weinberger]] was described as a member who said that the Commission "is performing a very valuable service." The article added that members who join the executive branch "must resign, but they often rejoin when their official service ends." It reported that the full commission had met in London on March 23 to 25, 1980, with a dinner with Prince Philip, a reception with Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] and speeches by [[James Callaghan]] and [[Lord Carrington]].[^11] + +The Commission's own roster as of July 1, 1981 lists under "Former Members in Public Service" [[William Brock]] (U.S. Trade Representative), [[Arthur F. Burns]] (Ambassador to the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]]), Bush (Vice President), [[Michael J. L. Kirby]] (Canadian Secretary to the Cabinet), [[Paul Volcker]] (Chairman of the [[Federal Reserve Board]]) and Weinberger (Secretary of Defense).[^12] + +### Funding + +U.S. News reported in 1980 that the North American share of the current three-year budget came to 1.67 million dollars: 644,000 from foundations, 530,000 from corporations, 220,000 from individuals and 84,000 from investment income. It named 180,000 dollars from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 100,000 from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] and 150,000 from David Rockefeller's personal funds, and stated that "There is no government money involved."[^11] + +The Commission's list of "Current and Former Major Financial Supporters in the United States (since the founding of The Trilateral Commission in 1973)," as of March 31, 1980, carries the statement that it "has received no financial support from the United States government." The foundations listed are the William H. Donner Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Sumitomo Fund for Policy Research Studies. The corporations are BankAmerica Foundation, Bechtel Foundation, Bechtel Power Corporation, Boeing, Cargill, Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Caterpillar Tractor, CBS, the Coca-Cola Company, Control Data, Corning Glass Works Foundation, Crown Zellerbach Foundation, Cummins Engine Foundation, Deere and Company, Exxon, Ford Motor Company Fund, General Electric, General Foods, General Mills Foundation, General Motors, W. R. Grace, Honeywell, [[IBM]], Johnson's Wax Fund, Levi Strauss Foundation, NCR Foundation, Procter and Gamble, Quaker Oats, Scott Paper, Sears Roebuck, Standard Oil of California, Texas Instruments Foundation, Time Incorporated, Wells Fargo Bank, Weyerhaeuser and Xerox. The individuals are George S. Franklin, Patrick E. Haggerty, David Packard and David Rockefeller.[^12] + +### Membership rosters + +The U.S. News article gave the membership in April 1980 as 275 and stated that the 76 U.S. members included 8 congressmen, 3 state and local officials, 17 businessmen, 13 academicians, 7 bankers and financiers, 10 officials of nonprofit organizations, 7 lawyers, 4 trade-union officials, 3 journalists or media executives and 1 representative of agricultural interests.[^11] The Commission's organization leaflet, reprinted in the same packet, gives the membership as about 290 individuals from the three regions, with an executive committee made up of the regional chairmen and deputy chairmen and twenty-eight others (twelve from Japan, eight from the United States, one from Canada and thirteen from the European Community and Norway).[^4] The North American members of that committee as of March 1, 1980 were Robert W. Bonner (Canada), [[William T. Coleman Jr.]], Franklin, [[Robert S. Ingersoll]], Kissinger, [[Bruce K. MacLaury]], [[Charles W. Robinson]], William M. Roth and [[William W. Scranton]], with Rockefeller as North American chairman and [[Mitchell Sharp]] as deputy chairman.[^12] + +The roster of July 1, 1981 names Georges Berthoin (European chairman), Watanabe (Japanese chairman) and Rockefeller (North American chairman), with Franklin as coordinator and Charles B. Heck as North American secretary. The North American list includes Bowie, described as a former Deputy Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]; [[Winston Lord]], president of the Council on Foreign Relations; [[Thomas L. Hughes]], president of the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]]; Bruce K. MacLaury, president of the [[Brookings Institution]]; [[Martha R. Wallace]], executive director of the [[Henry Luce Foundation]]; [[Joseph Kraft]], columnist; [[Helmut Sonnenfeldt]] of the Brookings Institution, a former counselor of the [[State Department]]; [[Robert S. McNamara]]; [[Alan Greenspan]]; [[Lane Kirkland]]; [[Robert V. Roosa]] of [[Brown Brothers Harriman]]; Richardson; [[Paul C. Warnke]]; and Kissinger.[^12] Of the twenty-four directors of the Council on Foreign Relations listed in its report for 1984 to 1985, seven (Brown, Graham Allison, Warren Christopher, Kirkland, Greenspan, Juanita Kreps and Marina Whitman) appear in this roster.[^13] Franklin, Hughes and Kraft are also among those present at the Council's January 8, 1968 discussion of covert action with [[Richard Bissell]].[^14] + +### Records + +The Commission donated its North American records to the [[Rockefeller Archive Center]] in March 2003. The collection runs to about 217 cubic feet, and the Archive Center's finding aid, prepared by Robert Battaly in April 2011, states that material is open for research on January 1 of the sixteenth year after the date of the most recent item in each folder. Microfilm copies of the Zbigniew Brzezinski Files, the Gerard C. Smith Files and the early correspondence for 1972 to 1975 are at the [[Jimmy Carter Presidential Library]] in Atlanta. The finding aid records that initial membership consisted of approximately 190 members, that membership is by invitation decided by the executive committee on recommendations from members and staff, and that members who accept executive-branch positions must forfeit their membership. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund records at the Archive Center include Commission grant files for 1972 to 1983 (boxes 997 to 999).[^1] + +### Filings and the 2024 list + +The Trilateral Commission (North America) files Form 990 under employer identification number 23-7309933, with a ruling date of August 1976. The returns summarized by [[ProPublica]] show revenue of 863,577 dollars and assets of 1,362,612 dollars for the year to June 2011, and revenue of 1,008,521 dollars, expenses of 1,271,483 and assets of 2,214,585 for the year to June 2023; compensation of current officers is shown as 334,825 dollars for 2017, 80,000 for 2020 and 2021, and 110,000 for 2022 and 2023.[^15] The return for the year ended June 30, 2023 reports contributions of 967,119 dollars, 22 voting members of the governing body and 2 employees. It lists [[Meghan O'Sullivan]] as chair; [[Richard Fontaine]] as executive director, paid 110,000 dollars for 10 hours a week; and as North American trustees [[B. Marc Allen]], [[Catherine Bertini]], [[Herminio Blanco Mendoza]], [[Esther Brimmer]], [[Michael Chertoff]], [[Paula J. Dobriansky]], [[Wendy Dobson]], [[Richard Falkenrath]], [[Diana Farrell]], [[David Gergen]], [[Jane Harman]], [[Carla A. Hills]], [[Karen Elliott House]], Kissinger, [[Monique Leroux]], [[Joseph S. Nye Jr.]], [[David Rubenstein]], [[Luis Rubio]], [[Jeffrey Simpson]], [[James B. Steinberg]] and [[Frances F. Townsend]]. The donor schedule is redacted in the public copy.[^14] + +The list of September 6, 2024 names [[Axel Weber]] as European chair, O'Sullivan as North American chair and Fontaine as North American executive director, and lists David Rockefeller and Kissinger as founders in memoriam. Its North American group includes Michael Bloomberg, [[Ian Bremmer]], [[Bruce Andrews]] of Intel, [[Michael Beckerman]] of TikTok and Marc Allen of Boeing, and it lists as "recent former members in public service" [[Anthony Blinken]] (Secretary of State), [[Jake Sullivan]] (National Security Advisor), [[Lael Brainard]] (Director, National Economic Council), [[R. Nicholas Burns]] (Ambassador to China), [[Mark Brzezinski]] (Ambassador to Poland), [[Ajay Banga]] (President of the World Bank), Douglas Beck (Director, Defense Innovation Unit), [[Joseph Kennedy III]] (Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs), [[David Lipton]] (First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund), [[Scott Nathan]] (Chief Executive Officer, International Development Finance Corporation), [[Richard Verma]] (Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources) and [[Wes Moore]] (Governor of Maryland). Five fellows of the Council on Foreign Relations appear in the North American group (Robert Blackwill, Esther Brimmer, [[Heidi Crebo-Rediker]], Richard Falkenrath and [[Ken Juster]]), and five directors named in the Council's return for the year to June 2023 (Rubenstein, [[James Manyika]], O'Sullivan, Townsend and [[Daniel H. Yergin]]) are in the same group.[^16][^17] + +### Jeffrey Epstein + +The two undated biographical statements in the [[Department of Justice]]'s [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] that describe [[Jeffrey Epstein]] as "a former member of the Trilateral Commission and a former member of the Council on Foreign Relations" are EFTA00725190 and EFTA00725191. In an email of February 22, 2017 to a recipient whose name is withheld, Epstein wrote of [[Ehud Barak]] that he "is the most knowledgeable of all the players I have known. - including my stint on the Trilateral Commission." No Commission membership roll appears in the documents examined.[^18][^19] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Rockefeller Archive Center, The Trilateral Commission (North America) Records, finding aid by Robert Battaly, April 2011: Institutional History, pp. 1 to 3 (citing David Rockefeller, Memoirs, 2002, p. 416; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages, 1970; and The Trilateral Commission: A Proposal, March 15, 1973, folder 6062, box 997, RG 3, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Records), Source of Acquisition, Related Archival Material and Existence and Location of Copies, pp. 4 to 6, Series 1 and Series 4, https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/2KaqPEr3JRZv5WBQsf9mKn (text read from the copy at https://archive.org/download/one-world-order-new-world-order/Trilateral%20Commission%20records%20%28Rockefeller%20Archives%29.pdf) +[^2]: Press guidance on the Trilateral Commission for the December 11, 1974 meeting with President Ford, Ron Nessen Papers, Box 125, folder "Trilateral Commission," Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, https://fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0204/1513220.pdf +[^3]: Robert Scheer, "Brzezinski: Activist Seeker of World Order" (page one, jump page 13) and "Brzezinski's Goal: Shift From Crisis Management to 'World Order' Policies" (page 14), Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1977, Part I, page image at https://archive.org/details/1977jan24losangelestimetrilateralcommisionbrzezinskicarter +[^4]: Congressional Research Service, The Trilateral Commission, Issue Packet IP0092 (Library of Congress, 1981): The Trilateral Commission: A Selected List of References (compiled by Ruth S. Freitag, Research Services) and the Commission's organization and policy leaflet, https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19810501_IP0092_2d3ea09e2c6068af730f41d315f4ea490bc91878.pdf +[^5]: Michel J. Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington and Joji Watanuki, The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (New York University Press, 1975), title page and introductory note by Zbigniew Brzezinski, https://archive.org/details/TheCrisisOfDemocracy-TrilateralCommission-1975 +[^6]: White House Photographs, December 11, 1974, rolls A2388 to A2390, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/whphotos/19741211whpo.pdf, pp. 3 to 4 +[^7]: HAK Chrons, December 1974, Library of Congress Kissinger papers, as reproduced in the CIA Reading Room, LOC-HAK-57-1-1-6, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-loc-hak-57-1-1-6 +[^8]: Crozier, Huntington and Watanuki, The Crisis of Democracy (1975), Huntington, "The United States," pp. 97 to 98, https://archive.org/details/TheCrisisOfDemocracy-TrilateralCommission-1975 +[^9]: Crozier, Huntington and Watanuki, The Crisis of Democracy (1975), Huntington, "The United States," pp. 113 to 114, https://archive.org/details/TheCrisisOfDemocracy-TrilateralCommission-1975 +[^10]: Michael A. Calabrese, "Carter's Trilateral Connection," The Harvard Crimson, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1976/1/12/carters-trilateral-connection-pmondale-vance-brzezinski/ +[^11]: "We've Been Asked: What Is the Trilateral Commission?" U.S. News & World Report, April 7, 1980, p. 37, reprinted in Congressional Research Service, The Trilateral Commission, Issue Packet IP0092 (Library of Congress, 1981), https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19810501_IP0092_2d3ea09e2c6068af730f41d315f4ea490bc91878.pdf +[^12]: The Trilateral Commission, executive committee list as of March 1, 1980, membership roster "As of July 1, 1981" (North American, European and Japanese members; Former Members in Public Service) and "Current and Former Major Financial Supporters in the United States," as of March 31, 1980, reprinted in Congressional Research Service, The Trilateral Commission, Issue Packet IP0092 (Library of Congress, 1981), https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/19810501_IP0092_2d3ea09e2c6068af730f41d315f4ea490bc91878.pdf +[^13]: Council on Foreign Relations, Annual Report, July 1, 1984 to June 30, 1985, Officers and Directors, p. 2, CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210066-5, https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00806r000100210066-5 +[^14]: Internal Revenue Service, Form 990 of Trilateral Commission (North America) for the year ended June 30, 2023, Parts I, VI, VII and Schedules B and O, IRS e-file XML object 202441359349305609, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_05A.zip (member 2024_TEOS_XML_05A/202441359349305609_public.xml) +[^15]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Trilateral Commission North America, EIN 23-7309933, API record of filings for tax years 2011 to 2023 (ruling date 1976-08), https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237309933 +[^16]: The Trilateral Commission, membership list "Last updated September 6, 2024," https://archive.org/details/tc-membership-list-sept-6-2024-1 +[^17]: Internal Revenue Service, Form 990 of Council on Foreign Relations Inc for the year ended June 30, 2023, Part VII, IRS e-file XML object 202430169349300598, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_01A.zip +[^18]: Department of Justice, Epstein Library, "Biographical Information of Jeffrey E. Epstein," EFTA00725190, and "About Jeffrey E. Epstein," EFTA00725191, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00725190.pdf and https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00725191.pdf +[^19]: Department of Justice, Epstein Library, email of Jeffrey Epstein, February 22, 2017, EFTA01053658, https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01053658.pdf diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ulster Institute for Social Research.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ulster Institute for Social Research.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..37378971 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ulster Institute for Social Research.md @@ -0,0 +1,154 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - UlsterInstituteForSocialResearch + - RichardLynn + - PioneerFund + - MankindQuarterly + - RaceScience + - HumanBiodiversity + - Publisher +alias: + - Ulster Institute for Social Research + - Ulster Institute + - UISR + - USIR +summary: "London publisher and research sponsor founded by Richard Lynn, paid 609,000 dollars by the Pioneer Fund from 1990 to 1996 and the publisher of Mankind Quarterly from January 2015." +location: "London, England" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Richard Lynn]]" + reverse: true + role: "founder" + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Richard Lynn]]" + reverse: true + role: "president in 2017 and 2018; director in 1997" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Pioneer Fund]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990 + end: 1996 + role: "grants totaling 609,000 dollars in the ledger compiled from the fund's returns" + fn: 6 + - type: funded + with: "[[Pioneer Fund]]" + reverse: true + start: 2002 + end: 2006 + role: "286,372 dollars, per the Southern Poverty Law Center" + fn: 13 + - type: owned + with: "[[Mankind Quarterly]]" + start: 2015-01 + role: "publisher of the journal" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[James Thompson]]" + reverse: true + role: "academic advisory council in 2017" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Gerhard Meisenberg]]" + reverse: true + role: "academic advisory council in 2017" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Helmuth Nyborg]]" + reverse: true + role: "academic advisory council in 2017" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Ulster Institute for Social Research is a [[London]] publisher and research sponsor founded by the psychologist [[Richard Lynn]], who was its president in 2017 and 2018 and died in 2023. Its website describes it as "established as a think tank for the support of research on social issues and the publication of works by selected authors in this field." It published the journal [[Mankind Quarterly]] from January 2015.[^1][^2][^3] The captured pages of its website give no company or charity registration number and list only an e-mail contact.[^4] + +### Pioneer Fund Grants, 1983 to 1996 + +Lynn's article "The Intelligence of the Chinese and Malays in Singapore" appeared in Mankind Quarterly in October 1977 over the address "New University of Ulster, Coleraine, N. Ireland."[^5] The [[Pioneer Fund]] paid the [[New University of Ulster]] 63,186.56 dollars in 1983 and 5,000 dollars in 1986, according to the ledger of its grants that [[Barry Mehler]] compiled from the fund's [[Internal Revenue Service]] returns. A grantee entered as the Ulster Institute for Social Research first appears in 1990. The nominal payments were 72,500 dollars in 1990, 197,500 in 1991, 50,000 in 1992, none in 1993, 55,000 in 1994, 124,000 in 1995 and 110,000 in 1996. The total is 609,000 dollars, 5.7 percent of the 10,670,040.55 dollars the ledger records for all grantees from 1971 to 1996.[^6] + +The same ledger records 74,300 dollars paid to the [[Council for Social and Economic Studies]], which published Mankind Quarterly in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] from 1979 to 2014, in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1995, and 944,000 dollars to the [[Institute for the Study of Man]].[^6][^7] + +Richard Lynn of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, appears on the Editorial Committee of Mankind Quarterly from the issue of September 1979 through at least the issue of Winter 1999.[^8] In the issue of Spring 1991, in the year of the largest recorded payment, Lynn's "Race Differences in Intelligence: A Global Perspective" carried the author line "University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland," and the issue of Fall-Winter 1991 printed his "Reply to Commentaries on Racial Differences in Intelligence."[^9] A review of Lynn's book *Dysgenics* in the issue of Spring 1997 called him "Director of the Ulster Institute for Social Research in Coleraine, Northern Ireland."[^10] + +### Pioneer Fund Directorship and Presidency + +After Pioneer Fund president [[Harry Weyher]] died on March 27, 2002, [[J. Philippe Rushton]] was appointed president, and Weyher's widow [[Michelle Weyher]] and Lynn were appointed directors, joining [[R. Travis Osborne]] and [[Karl Schakel]]. The fund's web page of 2003 described Lynn as emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ulster and "also a long-time grantee."[^11] The fund's Grantees page of 2003 describes Lynn's studies of regional IQ differences in the [[United Kingdom]] and France and his collaboration with the political scientist [[Tatu Vanhanen]], and also names [[Arthur Jensen]] among its grantees.[^12] The [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] reported that from 2002 to 2006 the Ulster Institute received 286,372 dollars from the fund, while Rushton received 301,326 dollars through the [[University of Western Ontario]].[^13] + +Rushton died in October 2012. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported in October 2013 that the fund's website said Rushton had resigned as president before his death and nominated Lynn as his successor, and that in August 2012 Rushton had transferred half the fund's assets to his [[Charles Darwin Research Institute]]. The same report described the Ulster Institute as "primarily an online effort" registered to an address near London, and said Lynn did not answer its inquiries about the fund's remaining money.[^14] The fund's total assets were 1,551,404 dollars at the end of 2011 and 94,336 dollars at the end of 2014.[^15] + +[[Hope Not Hate]] wrote in October 2024 that in 2010 the fund distributed 35,000 dollars to [[VDARE]], 110,000 dollars to Lynn and 216,376 dollars to Rushton out of 537,709 dollars in total, and that after Rushton's death Lynn "took over the organisation and among his first acts was to award himself $1.2 million."[^16] + +The fund's returns for 2020 through 2024 list Lynn as president, with a [[Bristol]] address and two hours a week, no compensation; [[Edward Miller (Pioneer Fund)|Edward Miller]] as secretary-treasurer, with a [[Potomac, Maryland]], address; and [[Alexander Beaujean]] of [[Waco, Texas]], as a director.[^17][^18][^19][^20][^21] Grants paid were none in 2020, 11,000 dollars in 2021, 37,000 dollars in 2022, 13,200 dollars in 2023 and none in 2024. The 2021 grant went to a recipient entered as "Human," in care of [[Bryan Pesta]] of [[North Olmsted, Ohio]], for "Research"; the 2022 grant went to "Human Pheromone Diversity Foundatio," in care of Bryan Pesta at the same address, for "research Support on human Diversity"; and the 2023 grant went to the [[VDare Foundation]] of [[Litchfield, Connecticut]], for "Support of writing by Dutton."[^18][^19][^20] The fund's assets at fair market value were 295,388 dollars at the end of 2020, 359,363 at the end of 2021, 252,640 at the end of 2022, 277,873 at the end of 2023 and 304,194 at the end of 2024.[^17][^18][^19][^20][^21] + +The [[Human Phenome Diversity Foundation]], whose returns give the North Olmsted address, lists Pesta as president and [[John Fuerst]] as vice president, each at six hours a week and unpaid. Its return for 2020 reports revenue of 4,663 dollars and expenses of 11,022 dollars, with the program description "Hire scientists to perform behavioral research." Its return for 2021 reports revenue of 65,395 dollars, 35,948 dollars in grants paid and expenses of 62,537 dollars, with programs described as grants for research, purchases of equipment for research, and funded research surveys.[^22][^23] + +Hope Not Hate wrote that in 2021 the fund gave 11,000 dollars to Pesta, "an academic at Cleveland State University in Ohio," and nothing else, and that in four of the last ten years it gave out no money at all. The report states that the [[Human Diversity Foundation]], a limited liability company, is the fund's successor, and that [[Emil Kirkegaard]], "who has for several years been involved in Mankind Quarterly, now controls the fund."[^16] + +### Publications + +The institute's earliest captured page, from September 2011, announces Lynn's *Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations,* a second revised edition of the 1996 [[Praeger]] book, in 381 pages with two new chapters, "one on the decline of the world's IQ, and the other on the dysgenics of immigration." The page reproduced comments on the first edition from [[William Hamilton]] of the University of Oxford, [[Thomas Bouchard|Tom Bouchard]] of the University of Minnesota and [[Victor Serebriakov]], president of British [[Mensa]], and gave the publisher as "Ulster Institute for Social Research, London."[^10][^24] + +By December 2013 its list included [[John Harvey]]'s *Race and Equality: The Nature of the Debate* (2012), Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen's *Intelligence: A Unifying Construct for the Social Sciences* (2012), Vanhanen's *Ethnic Conflicts: Their Biological Roots in Ethnic Nepotism* (2012), and *Race and Sex Differences in Intelligence and Personality: A Tribute to Richard Lynn at Eighty,* edited by [[Helmuth Nyborg]] and published on December 30, 2013.[^25] The institute's page for the 2011 *Dysgenics* edition, as captured in April 2012, carried reviewers' comments from [[Raegan Murphy]] of University College Cork, "Thomas Jackson, American Renaissance," and "Dr Edward Dutton, Quarterly Review."[^26] A page captured in November 2014 lists Vanhanen's *Global Inequality as a Consequence of Human Diversity: A New Theory Tested by Empirical Evidence.*[^27] The 2017 site lists as recent publications *Race and Sport: Evolution and Racial Differences in Sporting Ability* by [[Edward Dutton]] and Lynn (September 7, 2015), *The Life History Approach to Human Differences: A Tribute to J. Philippe Rushton,* edited by Nyborg (July 13, 2015), and *The Roma: A Balkan Underclass* by [[Jelena Čvorović]] (2014).[^1] *Race and Sport* runs to 423 pages and is sold as an e-book.[^28] Lynn and David Becker's *The Intelligence of Nations,* of 436 pages and reporting IQs for 128 nations, was published in 2019, and Lynn's *Memoirs of a Dissident Psychologist,* of 476 pages, in 2020.[^29][^30] + +### Mankind Quarterly + +Mankind Quarterly's own history states that it was published in [[Edinburgh]] from 1961, by the Council for Social and Economic Studies in Washington, "chaired by [[Roger Pearson]]," from 1979 to 2014, and from January 2015 by "the Ulster Institute for Social Research, a non-profit organization in London, England."[^2][^7] The editorial panel in April 2015 listed [[Gerhard Meisenberg]] of [[Dominica]] as editor-in-chief and Lynn of Bristol as assistant editor, with an advisory board that included [[Jüri Allik]], [[Salah Eldin Farah Attallah Bakhiet]], [[Adel Batterjee]], Jelena Čvorović, Edward Dutton, [[Lee Ellis]], [[Aurelio José Figueredo]], Edward M. Miller of [[New Orleans]] and [[Goran Štrkalj]].[^2] The panel in August 2020 listed Lynn as editor-in-chief.[^7] The Pioneer Fund's returns list an Edward Miller as secretary-treasurer; the records opened do not state whether he is the Edward M. Miller of the journal's board.[^7][^21] + +### Officers and Advisers + +The institute's website in February 2017 listed Lynn as president, [[Sophy Carroll]] as director, and an academic advisory council of Edward Miller, Nyborg, [[Donald Templer]], [[Andrei Grigoriev]], [[James Thompson]] and Meisenberg.[^1] Thompson is the organizer of the [[London Conference on Intelligence]] discussed below.[^31] + +### London Conference on Intelligence + +[[University College London]]'s investigation report on the London Conference on Intelligence, drafted in January 2018 and released in redacted form in March 2020, states that the conferences ran on the campus between 2014 and 2017 without the university's knowledge, hosted by an honorary senior lecturer, and that they were booked and paid for as an external event. The report records 16 talks in 2015, 19 in 2016 and 22 in 2017, with 13 of the 2017 presentations from people who had presented in the two previous years, and names Thompson as the organizer who paid the room charges himself.[^31] + +[[London Student]] reported in January 2018 that Lynn, as president of the Ulster Institute, spoke at the 2015 and 2016 conferences along with four of the six members of the institute's academic advisory council, that Thompson was a member of the council, and that 82 percent of those who spoke at both the 2015 and 2016 conferences were directly associated with the institute or Mankind Quarterly. It reported that John Fuerst, "a fellow of the UISR," spoke in 2015 and 2016, and that Emil Kirkegaard attended all four conferences and designed the conference website.[^32] The Human Phenome Diversity Foundation's returns list a John Fuerst as vice president; the records opened do not state that he is the same person.[^22][^23] + +### Ulster University + +On February 14, 2018, [[The Irish News]] reported that the University of Ulster's student union had voted 29 to 1, with two abstentions, to call for revocation of Lynn's emeritus title. A university spokeswoman said that Lynn "no longer works for Ulster University nor does he contribute to our research and teaching," and that the university "has been actively considering" the title. The newspaper described Lynn as assistant editor of Mankind Quarterly, "which is published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research, of which Professor Lynn is president."[^33] + +### After 2023 + +The institute's home page in August 2026 states: "Following the death in 2023 of its founder, Richard Lynn, the Institute now concentrates mainly on its book and journal publishing activities." Its latest listed publication is Lynn's memoirs.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, home page ("About"; "Institute President," "Director," "Academic Advisory Council," "Recent Publications"), capture of February 9, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170209064152id_/http://www.ulsterinstitute.org/ +[^2]: *Mankind Quarterly,* "About," web page with "Editorial Panel," capture of April 9, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150409165737id_/http://www.mankindquarterly.org/about/ +[^3]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, home page, capture of August 27, 2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20260827122033id_/https://www.ulsterinstitute.org/ +[^4]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "Contact," capture of November 16, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141116115446id_/http://www.ulsterinstitute.org:80/contact.html +[^5]: Lynn, Richard. "The Intelligence of the Chinese and Malays in Singapore," *Mankind Quarterly* 18, no. 2 (October 1977), p. 125ff. (contributors' addresses: "Richard Lynn, New University of Ulster, Coleraine, N. Ireland"). https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^6]: Mehler, Barry, comp. "Pioneer Fund Grants, 1971-1996," Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, compiled from the fund's Internal Revenue Service returns; nominal-dollar tables in Part III (1981-1985, http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp3.htm, capture of February 2, 2002), Part IV (1986-1990, pfp4.htm, capture of January 29, 2002), Part V (1991-1996, pfp5.htm, capture of January 29, 2002) and Part VI (totals, pfp6.htm, capture of March 9, 2002), read at https://web.archive.org/web/20020202045118id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp3.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020129112308id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp4.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20020129113141id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp5.htm and https://web.archive.org/web/20020309164506id_/http://www.ferris.edu:80/isar/Institut/pioneer/pfspread/pfp6.htm +[^7]: *Mankind Quarterly,* "About," web page with "Editorial Panel," capture of August 1, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200801075108id_/http://www.mankindquarterly.org/about?User-Agent=Mozilla%2F5.0+%28Windows+NT+10.0%3B+Win64%3B+x64%29+AppleWebKit%2F537.36+%28KHTML%2C+like+Gecko%29+Chrome%2F60.0.3112.113+Safari%2F537.36 +[^8]: *Mankind Quarterly,* masthead listings of the Editorial Committee, vol. 20 nos. 1 and 2 (September 1979) through vol. 40 no. 2 (Winter 1999), each reading "Richard Lynn (Coleraine, Northern Ireland)"; archive.org item "Mankind Quarterly, The 1960-2004 Scans" (scans marked as licensed to unz.org). https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^9]: Lynn, Richard. "Race Differences in Intelligence: A Global Perspective," *Mankind Quarterly* 31, no. 3 (Spring 1991), pp. 255ff.; "Reply to Commentaries on Racial Differences in Intelligence," *Mankind Quarterly* 32, nos. 1 and 2 (Fall-Winter 1991), p. 171. https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^10]: Lamb, Kenneth (running head "Kevin Lamb"). "Intelligence and Fertility," review of Richard Lynn, *Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations* (Praeger, 1996), *Mankind Quarterly* 37, no. 3 (Spring 1997), pp. 335-336. https://archive.org/details/mankind-quarterly-the-1960-2004 +[^11]: The Pioneer Fund, Inc., "The Board," web page ("The Current Board of Directors"), capture of February 19, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20030219045452id_/http://www.pioneerfund.org:80/Board.html +[^12]: The Pioneer Fund, Inc., "Grantees: Highlights of Pioneer Fund Research and Grantees," web page, capture of February 26, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20030226195940id_/http://www.pioneerfund.org:80/Grantees.html +[^13]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "Pioneer Fund," Extremist Files, passage on grants from 2002 to 2006 (286,372 dollars to the Ulster Institute for Social Research; 301,326 dollars to J. Philippe Rushton through the University of Western Ontario). https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/pioneer-fund/ +[^14]: Beirich, Heidi. "Pioneer Fund Assets Divided; New Leadership Appointed," Southern Poverty Law Center, Hatewatch, October 22, 2013. https://splcenter.org/hatewatch/2013/10/22/pioneer-fund-assets-divided-new-leadership-appointed +[^15]: ProPublica, Nonprofit Explorer, API record for Pioneer Fund Inc., EIN 51-0181036, Potomac, Maryland (extracted totals for tax years 2011 and 2014). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/510181036.json +[^16]: Hope Not Hate, "A short history of the Pioneer Fund," October 16, 2024 (read through the capture of September 1, 2026). https://web.archive.org/web/20260901131908id_/https://investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/history-pioneer-fund/ +[^17]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Pioneer Fund Inc., EIN 51-0181036, tax period December 2020, object ID 202101169349100235 (filed 2021); Part VII officers, Part XV grants. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510181036 +[^18]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Pioneer Fund Inc., EIN 51-0181036, tax period December 2021, object ID 202212079349100301 (filed 2022); Part VII officers, Part XV grants. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510181036 +[^19]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Pioneer Fund Inc., EIN 51-0181036, tax period December 2022, object ID 202301569349100100 (filed 2023); Part VII officers, Part XV grants. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510181036 +[^20]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Pioneer Fund Inc., EIN 51-0181036, tax period December 2023, object ID 202421369349100142 (filed 2024); Part VII officers, Part XV grants. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510181036 +[^21]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-PF, Pioneer Fund Inc., EIN 51-0181036, tax period December 2024, object ID 202510919349100501 (filed 2025, signed April 1, 2025 by Edward Miller); Part VII officers, Part XV (no grants). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510181036 +[^22]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-EZ, Human Phenome Diversity Foundation, EIN 84-2701983, tax period December 2020, object ID 202121099349200802 (filed July 2021). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/842701983 +[^23]: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) bulk XML, Form 990-EZ, Human Phenome Diversity Foundation, EIN 84-2701983, tax period December 2021, object ID 202221369349202747 (filed 2022). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/842701983 +[^24]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, home page announcing Richard Lynn, *Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations,* Second Revised Edition 2011 (ISBN 978-0-9568811-0-6 hardcover, 978-0-9568811-1-3 paper, 978-0-9568811-2-0 e-book), capture of September 6, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110906173654id_/http://ulsterinstitute.org/ +[^25]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "Current Publications," capture of December 27, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131227201211id_/http://www.ulsterinstitute.org:80/publications.html +[^26]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations," page with reviewers' comments on the 2011 edition, capture of April 7, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120407082753id_/http://www.ulsterinstitute.org:80/dysgenics.html +[^27]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "Global Inequality as a Consequence of Human Diversity" (Tatu Vanhanen), capture of November 4, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141104080511id_/http://www.ulsterinstitute.org:80/globalinequality.html +[^28]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "Race and Sport: Evolution and Racial Differences in Sporting Ability" (Edward Dutton and Richard Lynn; ISBN 9780993000140), capture of January 20, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250120031402id_/https://www.ulsterinstitute.org/raceandsport.html?ref=quillette.com +[^29]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "The Intelligence of Nations" (Richard Lynn and David Becker; 436 pages; ISBN 9780993000157), capture of May 19, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190519062310id_/http://www.ulsterinstitute.org:80/intellofnations.html +[^30]: Ulster Institute for Social Research, "Memoirs of a Dissident Psychologist" (Richard Lynn; 476 pages; ISBN 9780993000171), capture of October 3, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201003064103id_/https://www.ulsterinstitute.org/memoirs.html +[^31]: University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, "UCL Investigation into London Conference on Intelligence," draft report, January 2018, released in redacted form as "London Conference on Intelligence Report" (March 2020), sections 1 to 6. https://web.archive.org/web/20260908134614id_/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/about/sites/about/files/2025-10/Investigation-into-London-Conference-on-Intelligence-Mar20.pdf +[^32]: "Exposed: London's eugenics conference and its neo-Nazi links," *London Student,* January 2018 (read through the capture of September 28, 2021). https://web.archive.org/web/20210928073551id_/http://londonstudent.coop/exposed-london-eugenics-conferences-neo-nazi-links/ +[^33]: "UU students calls for removal of former professor's title," *The Irish News,* February 14, 2018. https://www.irishnews.com/news/2018/02/14/news/uu-students-calls-for-removal-of-former-professor-s-title-1255299/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Y Combinator.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Y Combinator.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c4c5f7c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Y Combinator.md @@ -0,0 +1,237 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +tags: + - Organization + - YCombinator + - StartupAccelerator + - VentureCapital + - SiliconValley + - OpenAI + - YCResearch + - SamAltman + - SanFranciscoPolitics + - PoliticalMoney + - Lobbying +alias: + - Y Combinator + - YC + - YCombinator + - Y Combinator Management + - Y Combinator Management, LLC + - Y Combinator, LLC + - Cambridge Seed + - Summer Founders Program +summary: "Startup investor founded in March 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell, whose research affiliate shared officers and a lender with OpenAI and whose federal PAC registered in 2025." +start: 2005-03-11 +location: "Mountain View, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Paul Graham]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005-03-11 + role: "cofounder; put in 100,000 dollars" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Jessica Livingston]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005-03-11 + role: "cofounder" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Robert Tappan Morris]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005-03-11 + role: "cofounder; put in 50,000 dollars" + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Trevor Blackwell]]" + reverse: true + start: 2005-03-11 + role: "cofounder; put in 50,000 dollars" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Sam Altman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014 + end: 2019 + role: "president" + fn: 9 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Geoff Ralston]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-05-20 + end: 2022 + role: "president and chief executive" + fn: 10 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Garry Tan]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-01 + role: "president and chief executive" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Jonathan Levy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022-06 + role: "managing director, partnerships, per Form ADV" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Carolynn Levy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-04 + role: "chief legal officer, per Form ADV" + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Peter Thiel]]" + reverse: true + start: 2015-03-10 + role: "part-time partner" + fn: 13 + - type: founded + with: "[[Y Combinator Research]]" + start: 2015-10-07 + end: 2020-06-05 + role: "nonprofit research lab, renamed Open Research Lab Inc. on July 13, 2020" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[OpenAI]]" + role: "late-stage fund, 10 million dollars in OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary, as reported by TechCrunch" + fn: 14 + - type: funded + with: "[[Scale AI]]" + role: "existing investor named in the Series F announcement of 2024-05-21" + fn: 38 + - type: founded + with: "[[Y Combinator Management, LLC Political Committee]]" + start: 2025-12-15 + role: "connected organization of the federal PAC known as Little Tech PAC" + fn: 34 + - type: represented + with: "[[Venture Politics]]" + reverse: true + start: 2014-09-05 + end: 2014-10-20 + role: "registered lobbyist, startup visa" + fn: 37 + - type: represented + with: "[[The Joseph Group]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-12-11 + role: "registered lobbyist" + fn: 37 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Y Combinator (YC) is a startup investment firm that [[Paul Graham]] and [[Jessica Livingston]] decided to start on March 11, 2005, walking home from dinner in [[Harvard Square]]. Graham agreed to put in 100,000 dollars, and over the following days [[Robert Tappan Morris|Robert Morris]] and [[Trevor Blackwell]] put in 50,000 dollars each, so that the firm began with 200,000 dollars. It was first called Cambridge Seed and was renamed Y Combinator before its announcement a few days later.[^1] Its standard deal is 500,000 dollars per company: 125,000 dollars for 7 percent on a post-money SAFE and 375,000 dollars on an uncapped SAFE with a most-favored-nation clause.[^2] Its investment adviser, Y Combinator Management, LLC, reports nineteen private funds with combined gross assets of about 22 billion dollars.[^3] + +### Founders + +Graham and Morris started [[Viaweb]] in 1995, and [[Yahoo]] acquired it in 1998, when it became Yahoo Store.[^4] Graham wrote in 2021 that Viaweb's shopping cart was Morris's work, its order manager Blackwell's, and that Morris was a graduate student at [[Harvard University]] when they began.[^5] In the same essay Graham recalled that "my friend Robert Morris got kicked out of Cornell for writing the internet worm of 1988."[^5] + +On November 2, 1988, Robert Tappan Morris, then a first-year graduate student in the computer science doctoral program at [[Cornell University]], released a self-replicating program from a computer at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]; it spread through the network and caused computers at universities, military sites and medical research facilities to crash. He was convicted in the [[U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York]] under section 1030(a)(5)(A) of the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] and sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service and a fine of 10,050 dollars. The [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]] affirmed on March 7, 1991, in an opinion by Judge [[Jon O. Newman]].[^6] His father, [[Robert Morris (cryptographer)|Robert Morris]], a cryptographer who had worked on Unix at [[Bell Labs]], was then chief scientist of the [[NSA|National Security Agency]]'s [[National Computer Security Center]]. John Markoff reported in the father's 2011 obituary that the agency had asked him in the late 1970s not to publish a paper on an early German cipher device, that he joined it in 1986 to work on protecting government computers and on electronic surveillance and online warfare, that he played a clandestine role in planning the electronic attacks on [[Saddam Hussein]]'s government before the [[Gulf War]] of 1991, and that after releasing the worm the son went to his parents' home in Arnold, Maryland, before turning himself in to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. The younger Morris later took a doctorate at Harvard and joined the MIT faculty.[^7] + +### Founding and Early Batches + +The first batch was the Summer Founders Program of 2005 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Graham wrote that the second batch was funded in [[Silicon Valley]] and housed in part of a building in [[Mountain View, California]] that Blackwell owned.[^1] The first batch included the founders of [[Reddit]], [[Justin Kan]] and [[Emmett Shear]], later of [[Twitch]], [[Aaron Swartz]], and [[Sam Altman]], who became YC's second president.[^5] Graham also wrote [[Hacker News]], first called Startup News, as a test of his programming language Arc.[^5] Form D filings made with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] in 2015 and 2016 for two YC Continuity funds give the address 335 Pioneer Way, Mountain View.[^8] + +### Presidents + +Graham wrote that in 2013, after Livingston declined to become president, he, Livingston, Morris and Blackwell agreed on "a complete changing of the guard": YC had until then been "controlled by the original LLC we four had started," and if Altman accepted, he would be allowed to reorganize it, with Graham and Morris retiring and Livingston and Blackwell becoming ordinary partners. Altman at first declined because he wanted to start a company to build nuclear reactors, and agreed in October 2013.[^5] On February 21, 2014, Graham announced that Altman would become president "starting next batch," that "Sam is going to lead YC," and that Graham would "continue to do office hours." He wrote that Altman "was one of the founders in the first batch we funded, in 2005."[^9] + +[[TechCrunch]] reported on May 20, 2019 that Altman had stepped away from the presidency two months earlier to become chief executive of [[OpenAI]], that he had been named chairman of YC on his way out, and that he would no longer hold that title and would instead be an adviser. The same day YC named [[Geoff Ralston]] president. Ralston had built RocketMail, which became Yahoo Mail in 1997, and had known Graham for twenty years from Yahoo.[^10] Altman wrote in announcing Ralston that working on OpenAI "has been more exciting (and more complex) than I ever imagined."[^11] On August 29, 2022, Ralston announced that he would leave at the end of the year and that [[Garry Tan]] would succeed him as president and chief executive. Tan had been in the summer 2008 batch, had been an engineer at [[Palantir Technologies]], had founded the blogging service [[Posterous]] and sold it to [[Twitter]], had been a YC partner, and had left in 2015 to run [[Initialized Capital]], the venture fund he cofounded.[^12] + +YC's adviser, Y Combinator Management, LLC, has reported to the SEC as an exempt reporting adviser since October 23, 2014 (file number 802-80528). Its annual amendment of March 27, 2026 lists Tan as chief executive and president from January 2023, [[Carolynn Levy]] as chief legal officer from April 2014, and Jonathan Daniel Levy as managing director for partnerships from June 2022, and is signed by Jonathan Levy. Its largest reported funds are YC II, L.P. (gross assets of 7,828,145,069 dollars), Y Combinator ES20, LLC (3,118,959,390 dollars), Y Combinator Continuity Fund I, L.P. (2,632,819,339 dollars), YCC20, L.P. (2,259,947,049 dollars) and YCCG21, L.P. (1,582,725,829 dollars); the nineteen funds together report 21,962,163,829 dollars.[^3] + +### Peter Thiel as a Part-Time Partner + +On March 10, 2015, Altman announced that [[Peter Thiel]] was "joining YC as one of the (now 10!) part-time partners." The post stated that YC "generally won't bring on people that are involved with other investing firms given the obvious conflict," made Thiel an exception, and said that he would not invest in any company while it was in YC or for three months after its Demo Day, a restriction that would "apply to Peter's investment entities as well." It describes his work with technology companies "both personally and through [[Founders Fund]]." The post now begins: "Edit: Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with Y Combinator."[^13] + +### YC Continuity + +Y Combinator Continuity Fund I, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership whose general partner is YC Continuity Management I, LLC, filed a Form D on June 15, 2015 signed by Jonathan Levy as a member of the general partner; it listed the offering amount as indefinite and declined to disclose its revenue range. Y Combinator Continuity Affiliates Fund I, L.P. filed a Form D on March 25, 2016 signed by Jonathan Levy as managing member of the same general partner.[^8] The adviser's 2026 Form ADV reports gross assets of 2,632,819,339 dollars for the first fund and 40,387,194 dollars for the second.[^3] TechCrunch reported in May 2024 that YC's late-stage fund had invested 10 million dollars in OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary; Graham wrote that the investment was made before Altman was full-time at OpenAI, that "This was not a very big investment for those funds," and that "obviously it wasn't influencing me, since I found out about it 5 minutes ago."[^14] + +### YC Research and OpenAI + +On October 7, 2015, Altman announced [[Y Combinator Research|YC Research]] (YCR), a nonprofit research lab, and wrote: "To start off, I'm going to personally donate $10 million." The post said the lab was "not doing this with the goal of helping YC's startups succeed or adding to our bottom line." A note added on June 5, 2020 states that YC Research, "now OpenResearch," and its projects "are no longer affiliated with Y Combinator" and had "been operating independently for several years."[^15] + +Altman, [[Elon Musk]], Thiel and Livingston were among those who announced OpenAI as a nonprofit later in 2015, as TechCrunch reported.[^14] The returns on Form 990 that OpenAI Inc. (employer identification number 81-0861541) and Y Combinator Research Inc. (81-0861414, a Delaware 501(c)(3) at 469 9th Street, Oakland) filed with the [[Internal Revenue Service]] for 2016 were both prepared by Michael Fontanello of Fontanello Duffield and Otake LLP of San Francisco and carry electronic timestamps 52 seconds apart on December 11, 2017.[^16][^17] + +The OpenAI Inc. return for 2016 lists Musk and Altman as directors, [[Chris Clark]] as director and chief operating officer, Jonathan Levy as secretary and treasurer, [[Greg Brockman]] as chief technology officer and [[Ilya Sutskever]] as research director. Schedule J reports that Clark received 40,942 dollars from OpenAI and 164,871 dollars from related organizations. The Y Combinator Research Inc. return for the same year lists Clark as president and chief operating officer at a base salary of 164,871 dollars, Levy as secretary and treasurer, and Altman and [[Patrick Scaglia]] as directors, with the investigators [[Dan Ingalls]], [[Alex Warth]], [[Bret Victor]] and [[John Maloney]]. Its mission statement reads: "YCR seeks to answer open-ended questions and develop technology that should not be owned by any one company and requires work on a very long time horizon."[^16][^17] Each return names the other organization as a related tax-exempt organization on Schedule R, and the OpenAI return reports a rental of facilities to a related organization.[^16][^17] The OpenAI return for 2017 adds [[Holden Karnofsky]] as a director and lists [[David Lansky]] as general counsel; Lansky is also listed as general counsel on the YC Research returns from 2017.[^18][^19] + +Schedule L of each return reports loans from Altman, described as a board member and officer, to the organization for "operations," approved by the board and documented in writing. On the OpenAI return for 2016 the original principal is 3,750,000 dollars and no balance is reported; Schedule M of the same return reports a noncash contribution described as "Loan Forgiveness" of 3,784,637 dollars, valued by "Loan Balance," within total contributions of 13,784,637 dollars. On the OpenAI return for 2017 the original principal is 3,000,000 dollars and the balance due is 3,006,575 dollars.[^16][^18] On the YC Research returns the original principal is 5,200,000 dollars with a balance of 5,223,285 dollars for 2016, and 5,950,000 dollars with balances of 5,950,000 dollars for 2017, 6,726,000 dollars for 2018 and 9,581,000 dollars for 2019. The 2017 return also reports a noncash contribution described as "Forgiveness of Debt" of 15,932 dollars and a grant of 500,000 dollars to [[Watsi]].[^17][^19][^20][^21] Contributions to YC Research were 1,000,000 dollars in 2016, 5,947,540 dollars in 2017, 1,635,953 dollars in 2018 and 1,726,811 dollars in 2019.[^17][^19][^20][^21] + +The return for 2020 states that a corporate name change from Y Combinator Research Inc. to Open Research Lab Inc. occurred on July 13, 2020, and describes the launch of its Basic Income project. It reports Altman's loan with an original principal of 14,071,725 dollars and a balance of 14,395,166 dollars, and a grant of 1,000,000 dollars for "operations" to Trialspark Inc. of Oakland, a recipient without a 501(c) designation. The 2021 return reports another "Forgiveness of Debt" of 272,767 dollars. The balance due was 14,535,883 dollars at the end of 2022 and 14,848,054 dollars at the end of 2023 (14,863,376 dollars on an amended return filed in January 2026). The return for 2024 reports no outstanding loan to or from an interested person and contributions of 18,164,914 dollars. Altman is listed as a director on every return from 2016 through 2024, and Clark as chief operating officer.[^22][^23][^24][^25][^26] + +### Altman's Departure in 2019 + +Elizabeth Dwoskin and Nitasha Tiku of [[Washington Post|The Washington Post]] reported on November 22, 2023, citing three people familiar with the incident, that Graham flew from the [[United Kingdom]] to [[San Francisco]] in 2019 to remove Altman.[^27] On May 30, 2024, after [[Helen Toner]], a former OpenAI board member, said on the TED AI Show that the reasons for the departure had been "hushed up at the time," Graham wrote on X, as TechCrunch quoted him: "People have been claiming [Y Combinator] fired Sam Altman. That's not true." He wrote that when OpenAI announced a for-profit subsidiary of which Altman would be chief executive, Livingston told Altman he had to choose between OpenAI and YC, and that they told him "if he was going to work full-time on OpenAI, we should find someone else to run YC, and he agreed." Kyle Wiggers of TechCrunch wrote that, reportedly, some YC partners took issue with the indirect stake in OpenAI that Altman held while president.[^14] [[Federal Election Commission]] records list Altman with Y Combinator as his employer on contributions of 250,000 dollars to the super PAC SMP on May 11, 2020 and 100,000 dollars on August 17, 2022, after he had left the presidency.[^28] + +### Garry Tan and San Francisco Politics + +On January 27, 2024, Joe Rivano Barros of Mission Local reported that Tan had written on X, in a since-deleted post, that seven named members of the [[San Francisco Board of Supervisors]], [[Aaron Peskin]], [[Connie Chan]], [[Dean Preston]], [[Shamann Walton]], [[Myrna Melgar]], [[Hillary Ronen]] and [[Ahsha Safai]], should "Die slow motherfuckers." Tan wrote afterward that he thought "everyone would get the rap reference but that wasn't a good call." Peskin called the post "unacceptable violent speech that should not be condoned in our society from anyone, particularly a tech millionaire."[^29] + +Campaign filings published by the city of San Francisco list 49 itemized receipts from Garry Tan on Form 460 Schedule A between January 12, 2015 and May 22, 2026, totalling 487,990 dollars. Four total 100,500 dollars to committees supporting the recall of District Attorney [[Chesa Boudin]]: 500 dollars on March 13, 2021, 10,000 dollars on April 25, 2021, 40,000 dollars on May 21, 2021 and 50,000 dollars on March 11, 2022. Three total 25,001 dollars to committees for the 2021 recall of three school board members. The Coalition to Grow San Francisco (Grow SF PAC) received 25,000 dollars on March 11, 2022 for a committee opposing "Mar for Supervisor 2022" and 50,000 dollars on July 27, 2023 for one opposing "Preston for Supervisor 2024," and its late-contribution reports list four further contributions of 24,500 dollars each from Tan on July 9, 2024. Other receipts include 100,000 dollars to Affordable Homes Now San Francisco on April 7, 2022, 25,000 dollars to a committee for Proposition D (victims' rights) on May 5, 2022, 12,000 dollars to the "No on B, Stop the Cop Tax" committee in December 2023 and February 2024, 25,000 dollars to SF Guardians in January and February 2024, 25,000 dollars on July 9, 2024 to the committee for "Yes on D, No on E," 10,000 dollars on October 9, 2024 to "Yes on F, San Franciscans for a Full Police Staffing," 10,000 dollars on April 7, 2025 to a committee opposing the recall of Supervisor [[Joel Engardio]], and 10,000 dollars each on May 15 and May 22, 2026 to committees for [[Matt Dorsey]] and [[Stephen Sherrill]]. Filings from 2016 to 2022 list his employer as Initialized Capital and most from mid-2023 as Y Combinator, with Initialized Capital still appearing on some 2024 and 2025 entries.[^30] + +Rya Jetha of the San Francisco Standard reported on February 11, 2026 that Tan was launching Garry's List, a statewide nonprofit he described as a "Rotary Club for radical centrism" that he was funding with money from friends and supporters, and that he had given nearly 40,000 dollars the previous month to the campaign for governor of [[San Jose]] Mayor [[Matt Mahan]].[^31] + +### Federal Political Contributions + +Federal Election Commission records list Tan, with Y Combinator as employer, giving 25,000 dollars on September 25, 2024 and 100,000 dollars on October 3, 2024 to the [[Harris Victory Fund]], with attributed amounts of 21,700 and 19,600 dollars to the [[Democratic National Committee]] and 3,300 dollars to Harris for President. He gave 10,000 dollars to the DCCC through ActBlue on September 5, 2024; 10,000 dollars on each of June 4, 2024, March 26, 2025 and May 8, 2026 to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee; 3,500 dollars twice on November 20, 2025 to the congressional campaign of [[Scott Wiener]]; and 25,000 dollars on December 24, 2025 to Abundant Future, a super PAC in Sacramento first registered on October 3, 2025.[^32] + +Graham gave 300,000 dollars to the [[Hillary Victory Fund]] on August 23, 2016, listing "Y Combinator, LLC" as employer, 100,000 dollars and 250,000 dollars to [[Swing Left]] on September 11, 2017 and May 8, 2018, and 500,000 dollars on October 1, 2018 to SMP (committee C00484642, a super PAC registered in 2010). Livingston gave 300,000 dollars to the Hillary Victory Fund on August 19, 2016, also listing "Y Combinator, LLC," and gave [[Tech for Campaigns]] 1,000,000 dollars on August 5, 2020, 4,000,000 dollars on September 29, 2020 and 5,000,000 dollars on September 10, 2024.[^33] Altman, listing Y Combinator as employer, gave SMP 250,000 dollars on April 6, 2018.[^28] + +### Little Tech PAC + +Y Combinator Management, LLC registered a connected federal political committee, the Y Combinator Management, LLC Political Committee (Little Tech PAC), on December 15, 2025 (committee C00930727), with Justin Phillips as treasurer and the address 335 Pioneer Way, Mountain View. Its reports show receipts of 120,000 dollars for December 15 to 31, 2025, 83,920.70 dollars for the first quarter of 2026 and 580.60 dollars for April 1 to May 20, 2026, a total of 204,501.30 dollars, and disbursements of 117,646.90 dollars through July 15, 2026, leaving 86,854.40 dollars in cash.[^34] + +The receipts are forty contributions of 5,000 dollars each from individuals and 4,501.30 dollars reported as other receipts from Y Combinator Management, LLC. The first, on December 18, 2025, came from Travis Lowe, listed as YC's head of public policy, in Washington; Graham and Tan followed on December 19, Jonathan Levy, listed as managing director, on December 21, and Livingston on December 23, with group and managing partners and several spouses listed as homemakers making up most of the rest. Apart from payment processing fees, the committee's first disbursement was 1,500 dollars to Iowans for Zach Nunn on March 9, 2026. On July 1, 2026 it made 59 contributions of 1,000 to 3,500 dollars to candidate and leadership committees, among them those of Senators [[Ted Cruz]], [[Josh Hawley]], [[Bernie Moreno]], [[Tim Sheehy]], [[Ted Budd]], [[Mike Rounds]], [[Dan Sullivan]] and [[Katie Britt]], and of Representatives [[Mike Rogers (Alabama politician)|Mike Rogers]] (3,000 dollars) and [[Adam Smith]] (3,000 dollars), the chairman and ranking member of the [[House Armed Services Committee]],[^35] [[Valerie Foushee]] (3,500 dollars), [[Frank Pallone]], [[Jamie Raskin]], [[Ted Lieu]], [[Jay Obernolte]], [[Pramila Jayapal]], [[Rob Wittman]] and [[John Moolenaar]]. It had also given 1,000 dollars to Team Graham, Inc. on May 15, 2026.[^36] Eddie Kim of Gazetteer SF reported in September 2026 that the committee's designated agent is Verene Prescher, YC's head of finance, that its treasurer works for the political consulting firm [[Aristotle]], and that YC and the committee did not respond to questions about its purpose.[^35] + +### Lobbying + +The firm [[Venture Politics]] registered on September 5, 2014 to lobby for Y Combinator on "High Skilled Immigration Reform - Startup Visa" and filed a termination on October 20, 2014. On December 11, 2023, [[The Joseph Group]], LLC registered for Y Combinator on "Immigration reform, tech competition policy, artificial intelligence and capital formation." Its lobbyist, [[Kevin Joseph]], lists service on the [[House Energy and Commerce Committee]] from 1987 to 1989 and the [[Senate Commerce Committee]] from 1990 to 1999. Reported income was 20,000 dollars for the fourth quarter of 2023, 30,000 dollars for each of the first three quarters of 2024 and 45,000 dollars for each quarter from the fourth quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2026, a total of 425,000 dollars.[^37] + +### Investment in Scale AI + +The Series F announcement of [[Scale AI]] on May 21, 2024 lists Y Combinator among the existing investors in the 1 billion dollar round at a 13.8 billion dollar valuation, alongside [[Nat Friedman]], [[Index Ventures]], Founders Fund and the lead investor [[Accel]], and lists [[Meta Platforms|Meta]] among the new investors.[^38] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Graham, Paul. "How Y Combinator Started." paulgraham.com, March 2012. https://paulgraham.com/ycstart.html +[^2]: Y Combinator. "What Happens at YC?" ycombinator.com/about, accessed October 1, 2026. https://www.ycombinator.com/about +[^3]: Y Combinator Management, LLC (CRD 171730, SEC file 802-80528), Form ADV annual amendment, March 27, 2026, Items 1 and 7.B (Schedule D, Section 7.B.1) and Schedule A; Investment Adviser Public Disclosure record. https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/171730/PDF/171730.pdf ; https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm/171730 +[^4]: Graham, Paul. "Bio." paulgraham.com, accessed October 1, 2026. https://paulgraham.com/bio.html +[^5]: Graham, Paul. "What I Worked On." paulgraham.com, February 2021. https://paulgraham.com/worked.html +[^6]: United States v. Morris, 928 F.2d 504 (2d Cir. 1991), Docket No. 90-1336, argued December 4, 1990, decided March 7, 1991. https://openjurist.org/928/f2d/504 +[^7]: Markoff, John. "Robert Morris, Pioneer in Computer Security, Dies at 78." The New York Times, June 29, 2011 (print July 1, 2011, section B, page 15). https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/technology/30morris.html +[^8]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Form D, Y Combinator Continuity Fund I, L.P. (CIK 0001645142), accession 0001645142-15-000001, filed June 15, 2015, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1645142/000164514215000001/primary_doc.xml ; Form D, Y Combinator Continuity Affiliates Fund I, L.P. (CIK 0001670489), accession 0001670489-16-000001, filed March 25, 2016, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1670489/000167048916000001/primary_doc.xml +[^9]: Graham, Paul. "Sam Altman for President." Y Combinator blog, February 21, 2014. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/sam-altman-for-president/ +[^10]: Loizos, Connie. "Y Combinator promotes Geoff Ralston to president, while Sam Altman shifts to advisor role." TechCrunch, May 20, 2019. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/20/y-combinator-promotes-geoff-ralston-to-president-while-sam-altman-shifts-to-advisor-role +[^11]: Altman, Sam. "Geoff Ralston for President." Y Combinator blog, May 20, 2019. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/geoff-ralston-for-president/ +[^12]: Ralston, Geoff. "Welcome Home, Garry Tan." Y Combinator blog, August 29, 2022. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/welcome-home-garry-tan +[^13]: Altman, Sam. "Welcome Peter." Y Combinator blog, March 10, 2015 (with later edit line). https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/welcome-peter +[^14]: Wiggers, Kyle. "Paul Graham claims Sam Altman wasn't fired from Y Combinator." TechCrunch, May 30, 2024, quoting Graham's posts on X of the same date. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/paul-graham-claims-altman-wasnt-fired-from-y-combinator/ +[^15]: Altman, Sam. "YC Research." Y Combinator blog, October 7, 2015, updated June 5, 2020. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/yc-research/ +[^16]: OpenAI Inc. (EIN 81-0861541), Form 990 for 2016, IRS e-file object 201703459349300445, Part VII and Schedules J, L, M and R, return timestamp December 11, 2017. IRS Form 990 e-file data, download990xml_2017_2.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2017/download990xml_2017_2.zip +[^17]: Y Combinator Research Inc. (EIN 81-0861414), Form 990 for 2016, IRS e-file object 201703459349300845, Part VII and Schedules J, L and R, return timestamp December 11, 2017. IRS Form 990 e-file data, download990xml_2017_2.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2017/download990xml_2017_2.zip +[^18]: OpenAI Inc., Form 990 for 2017, IRS e-file object 201920719349300822, Part VII and Schedules L and R, return timestamp March 12, 2019. download990xml_2019_4.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2019/download990xml_2019_4.zip +[^19]: Y Combinator Research Inc., Form 990 for 2017, IRS e-file object 201923539349301727, Part VII and Schedules I, L and M, return timestamp December 19, 2019. download990xml_2019_5.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2019/download990xml_2019_5.zip +[^20]: Y Combinator Research Inc., Form 990 for 2018, IRS e-file object 202030949349300318, Schedule L. download990xml_2020_5.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2020/download990xml_2020_5.zip +[^21]: Y Combinator Research Inc., Form 990 for 2019, IRS e-file object 202011399349301581, Schedule L. download990xml_2020_2.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2020/download990xml_2020_2.zip +[^22]: Open Research Lab (EIN 81-0861414), Form 990 for 2020, IRS e-file object 202113209349301966, Part III and Schedules I, L and O (name change of July 13, 2020). 2021_TEOS_XML_01A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2021/2021_TEOS_XML_01A.zip +[^23]: Open Research Lab, Form 990 for 2021, IRS e-file object 202213199349328891, Schedules L and M. 2022_TEOS_XML_02A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2022/2022_TEOS_XML_02A.zip +[^24]: Open Research Lab, Form 990 for 2022, IRS e-file object 202323259349301112, Schedule L. 2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2023/2023_TEOS_XML_11A.zip +[^25]: Open Research Lab, Form 990 for 2023, IRS e-file object 202403209349327670, Schedule L, 2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2024/2024_TEOS_XML_11A.zip ; amended Form 990 for 2023, object 202610309349301431, return timestamp January 30, 2026, 2026_TEOS_XML_02A.zip, https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_02A.zip +[^26]: Open Research Lab, Form 990 for 2024, IRS e-file object 202610309349300226, Part I, Part IV and Part VII, return timestamp January 30, 2026. 2026_TEOS_XML_02A.zip. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_02A.zip +[^27]: Dwoskin, Elizabeth, and Nitasha Tiku. "Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor." The Washington Post, November 22, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/22/sam-altman-fired-y-combinator-paul-graham/ +[^28]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor "Altman, Sam," sub_ids 4052220181566105868, 4062320201776698601 and 4092120221576376976. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^29]: Rivano Barros, Joe. "Garry Tan, tech CEO & campaign donor, wishes death upon San Francisco politicians." Mission Local, January 27, 2024. https://missionlocal.org/2024/01/garry-tan-death-wish-sf-supervisors/ +[^30]: City and County of San Francisco, Ethics Commission, campaign finance transactions (Form 460 Schedule A and Form 496), DataSF dataset pitq-e56w, queried October 1, 2026 for contributor Garry Tan. https://data.sf.gov/resource/pitq-e56w.json +[^31]: Jetha, Rya. "Garry Tan isn't leaving California. He's launching a policy nonprofit instead." The San Francisco Standard, February 11, 2026. https://sfstandard.com/2026/02/11/garry-tan-isn-t-leaving-california-s-launching-policy-nonprofit-instead/ +[^32]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor "Tan, Garry," sub_ids 4051020251190690588, 4051020251189907530, 4060420251204703693, 4060420251204704940, 4102320242081212337, 4103120241015203165, 4010720261300203985, 4081320261580938131, 4090920261595992703, 4091520261598475450, 4091520261598475452 and 4041020261435471006; committee record C00922229 (Abundant Future). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ ; https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00922229/ +[^33]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor "Graham, Paul" (sub_ids 4090120171448198341, 4021620181506028468, 4062720181571939382, 4021520191639633861) and "Livingston, Jessica" (4090120171448389113, 4022620211189209529, 4022620211189209530, 4012220251133165299); committee record C00484642 (SMP). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ ; https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00484642/ +[^34]: Federal Election Commission, committee C00930727, Y Combinator Management, LLC Political Committee (Little Tech PAC), committee record and reports: Year-End 2025, https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/966/202601309794605966/202601309794605966.pdf ; April Quarterly 2026, https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/828/202604159857579828/202604159857579828.pdf ; Pre-Primary (April 1 to May 20, 2026), https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/264/202605289870302264/202605289870302264.pdf ; July Quarterly 2026, https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/209/202607139874939209/202607139874939209.pdf ; Pre-Primary (July 1 to 15, 2026), https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/400/202607239894444400/202607239894444400.pdf +[^35]: Kim, Eddie. "Y Combinator's PAC is throwing money at a bunch of Republicans across the country." Gazetteer SF, September 18, 2026. https://sf.gazetteer.co/y-combinators-pac-is-throwing-money-at-a-bunch-of-republicans-across-the-country +[^36]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A (42 records) and Schedule B (72 records) for committee C00930727, two-year period 2026, queried October 1, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?committee_id=C00930727 ; https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_b/?committee_id=C00930727 +[^37]: U.S. Senate and House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for client Y Combinator: Venture Politics registration posted September 5, 2014, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/7f934920-3e3f-46e4-bfe0-2cd9379fbdae/print/ , and termination posted October 20, 2014, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/784b304f-43fa-4dc0-8ddc-bd1a64a8f877/print/ ; The Joseph Group, LLC registration posted December 11, 2023, https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/cd6749cc-6a4f-4565-8b39-e4f42f395e7d/print/ , and quarterly reports for the fourth quarter of 2023 through the second quarter of 2026, https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Y+Combinator +[^38]: Wang, Alexandr. "Scale's Series F: Expanding the Data Foundry for AI." Scale AI, May 21, 2024. https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-series-f diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/System Resistance Network.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/System Resistance Network.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2ac9785b --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/System Resistance Network.md @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Organization + - NeoNazi + - Accelerationism + - UK + - NationalAction + - Proscribed + - TerrorismAct2000 + - SiegeCulture +alias: + - System Resistance Network + - SRN +summary: "System Resistance Network was a neo-Nazi group founded in 2017 by Andrew Dymock after National Action's proscription, named in law as another name for National Action by a Home Office order in February 2020." +start: 2017 +location: "United Kingdom" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Andrew Dymock]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017 + role: "founder, according to CTEC; Dymock denied operating the group's accounts" + fn: 4 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski]]" + reverse: true + role: "former member before Sonnenkrieg Division, according to the Counter Extremism Project" + fn: 7 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Hampshire Constabulary]]" + reverse: true + start: 2017-08 + role: "inquiry into leaflets distributed in the Southampton area" + fn: 3 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Home Office]]" + start: 2020-02-24 + role: "named by order as another name for National Action" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +[[System Resistance Network]] (SRN) was a neo-Nazi group in the [[United Kingdom]] that began distributing posters and publishing a website in 2017, after the [[Home Office]] had proscribed [[National Action]] under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]] in December 2016. It was not named in any proscription order until February 24, 2020, when the Home Office made the [[Proscribed Organisations (Name Change) Order 2020]], article 2 of which provides that "System Resistance Network, being a name not specified in Schedule 2 to the Terrorism Act 2000 (proscribed organisations), is to be treated as another name for National Action".[^1] + +### Appearance in 2017 + +The [[BBC]] reported that in the summer of 2017 racist and homophobic propaganda posters bearing the logo of a new group began to appear in cities throughout the United Kingdom, and that SRN also appeared online with a website and social media accounts. The BBC tracked its street activity, found at least ten cities targeted, "from Dundee to [[Southampton]], Newport to Cambridge", and attributed this to a requirement that aspiring members prove themselves by covering their local areas with propaganda.[^2] + +The monitoring organisation [[Tell MAMA]] wrote on September 28, 2017 that the group was "a neo-Nazi movement born from the ashes of the short-lived [[Vanguard Britannia]]". The same article states that [[Hampshire Constabulary]] was investigating the distribution of its homophobic leaflets in the Southampton area in August 2017, that users of other fascist forums had praised the group, and that it asked supporters to use the [[Tutanota]] encrypted email service, as National Action and its aliases did.[^3] The article also records that Home Secretary [[Amber Rudd]] had extended the National Action ban to [[Scottish Dawn]] and the group NS131 (National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action) by an order made on September 26 and laid on September 28, 2017. System Resistance Network was not in that order.[^3] + +### Propaganda + +Tell MAMA recorded that the SRN website carried writings by [[James Mason]], a blog post eulogising [[William Luther Pierce]], and posters including one adapting the phrase "Hitler Was Right" and one captioned "Stop The Faggots".[^3] The Middlebury Institute's Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism ([[Middlebury Institute CTEC]]) states that Dymock wrote online soon after the group's creation that SRN was "focused on building a group of loyal men, true to the cause of national socialism and establishing the fascist state through revolution", and that on the SRN website he wrote that "every stabbing, bombing, shooting further plays into our hands".[^4] + +At the 2021 trial of [[Andrew Dymock]] the prosecutor, Jocelyn Ledward, told the jury that an SRN article headed "truth about the Holocaust" was "clear in its encouragement of the eradication of Jewish people" and that an article headed "hail victory" stated that a "racial holy war is inevitable". The court heard that the SRN Twitter account linked to a terrorist publication glorifying the murder of the member of Parliament [[Jo Cox]], and that Dymock sought and received donations through a PayPal account created for the SRN website.[^5] + +### Andrew Dymock and the split + +CTEC states that Dymock, then a student at [[Aberystwyth University]], established System Resistance Network in 2017, and that its members expelled him about a year later after he promoted satanist views drawn from the [[Order of Nine Angles]]; it states that he then founded [[Sonnenkrieg Division]].[^4] The BBC reported that one SRN leader used the alias Blitz, that suggestions that Blitz was a known figure from National Action were contradicted by the information the BBC found, and that Blitz split from SRN in spring 2018 after a row over his adherence to Satanism and created Sonnenkrieg Division.[^2] The Home Office described Sonnenkrieg Division in the explanatory memorandum to its 2020 proscription order as "formed in March 2018 as a splinter group of System Resistance Network (an alias of the proscribed group National Action)".[^6] + +The [[Counter Extremism Project]] states that Dymock and the Sonnenkrieg Division member [[Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski]] formerly belonged to System Resistance Network.[^7] CTEC states that two Sonnenkrieg Division members, Dunn-Koczorowski and [[Michael Szewczuk]], were arrested in December 2018 and imprisoned in June 2019, Szewczuk for four years and three months and Dunn-Koczorowski under an 18-month detention and training order.[^4] In an analysis published in February 2020 the BBC's Daniel De Simone wrote that Sonnenkrieg Division "emerged from a split in the System Resistance Network" and that both groups "were small when at their height and have been severely disrupted since", to the extent that some may question whether the move was necessary.[^8] + +The BBC reported that Dymock was first arrested at [[Gatwick Airport]] in June 2018 on his way to the [[United States]] with luggage containing extreme right-wing items and books, that he was exposed by the BBC as the founder of Sonnenkrieg Division in December 2018, that he was arrested the next day and that he was charged with 15 offences the following year.[^2][^5] + +### Dymock trial, 2021 + +Dymock was tried at the [[Old Bailey]] in 2021. The charges related to a period in 2017 and 2018 when he was alleged to have controlled the SRN website and Twitter account. He denied the charges. In police interviews he denied being a neo-Nazi and denied responsibility for the accounts, said that material on his devices must have been planted by others or that he had a reasonable excuse for holding it, and told detectives: "I am bisexual but lean towards being homosexual, in direct conflict with Nazism".[^5] The [[Algemeiner]], citing the BBC, reported that he told the court that a former girlfriend who had failed to recruit him to National Action had framed him.[^9] The BBC reported that he blamed a conspiracy involving neo-Nazis, the police and unknown men, and that the jury rejected the account.[^2] + +The jury convicted him of five counts of encouraging terrorism, two of fundraising for terrorism, four of disseminating terrorist publications, and one count each of possessing a terrorist document, stirring up racial hatred and hatred on grounds of sexual orientation, and possessing racially inflammatory material. In July 2021 Judge [[Mark Dennis]] sentenced him to seven years in prison with a further three years on extended licence, saying, "It is clear you were a leader and not a follower."[^9] + +### Name change order, 2020 + +The Home Secretary, [[Priti Patel]], announced on February 24, 2020 that orders had been laid to proscribe Sonnenkrieg Division and to recognise System Resistance Network as an alias of National Action. The announcement followed a meeting of the Proscription Review Group, which brings together police and other partners.[^10] The Name Change Order was signed at 8.45 a.m. that day by [[James Brokenshire]], Minister of State at the Home Office, and came into force on the day after it was laid before Parliament, February 25, 2020.[^1] + +The explanatory memorandum states that the order breached the 21-day convention because delay "would alert the organisation to the impending change to the law that would result in it being recognised as 'System Resistance Network', and may result in pre-emptive action by the organisation's members designed to circumvent the provisions of TACT and/or the criminal law". It adds that the order "will also assist in any prosecutions that may be brought since the Order will remove the need for the prosecuting authorities, in addition to making out the offence in question, to have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that 'System Resistance Network' is one and the same as National Action."[^11] + +The memorandum sets out the test under section 3(6) of the Terrorism Act 2000: credible evidence that the ideology, aims and methods of the groups are essentially the same, that their leaders or key individuals are the same or materially the same people, and that their members are the same or generally so. It records that this was the thirteenth order made under that power and the second in respect of National Action, that no consultation was undertaken, and that no impact assessment was prepared.[^11] The Order that proscribed Sonnenkrieg Division was made on February 27, 2020 and came into force on the following day.[^12] The Home Office list of proscribed groups carries "System Resistance Network (SRN)" under its entry for National Action. The same entry records that an order of September 2017 provides that "Scottish Dawn" and "NS131 (National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action)" are treated as alternative names for National Action, and that the order of February 2020 does the same for System Resistance Network.[^13] The group's website and accounts therefore operated for a little over two years after the September 2017 orders that omitted it.[^3][^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: The Proscribed Organisations (Name Change) Order 2020, S.I. 2020/169, arts. 1 and 2, signature block ("James Brokenshire, Minister of State, Home Office, At 8.45 a.m. on 24th February 2020") and Explanatory Note (note 2: National Action was added to Schedule 2 by S.I. 2016/1238), legislation.gov.uk. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/169/made/data.html +[^2]: Daniel De Simone, "Andrew Dymock: The neo-Nazi exposed by the BBC", BBC News, June 11, 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57406673 +[^3]: Tell MAMA, "Will the System Resistance Network be the next neo-Nazi group to be banned?", September 28, 2017. https://tellmamauk.org/will-the-system-resistance-network-be-the-next-neo-nazi-group-to-be-banned/ +[^4]: Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: Sonnenkrieg Division" (sections Leadership and Arrests/Plot/Attacks). https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors-2 +[^5]: "Andrew Dymock: Student 'called for extermination of Jews'", BBC News, May 7, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-57022269 +[^6]: Explanatory Memorandum to the Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, S.I. 2020/200, para. 7.5, Home Office. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/200/pdfs/uksiem_20200200_en.pdf +[^7]: Counter Extremism Project, "Sonnenkrieg Division". https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/sonnenkrieg-division +[^8]: "Extremist neo-Nazi group to be banned under terror laws", BBC News, February 24, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-51618248 +[^9]: Algemeiner Staff, "British Neo-Nazi Who Called for 'Extermination' of Jews Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail", Algemeiner, July 22, 2021, citing the BBC. https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/07/22/british-neo-nazi-who-called-for-extermination-of-jews-sentenced-to-7-years-in-jail/ +[^10]: Home Office and Priti Patel, "Government takes action to proscribe right-wing terrorist groups", GOV.UK, February 24, 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-takes-action-to-proscribe-right-wing-terrorist-groups +[^11]: Explanatory Memorandum to the Proscribed Organisations (Name Change) Order 2020, S.I. 2020/169, paras. 3.1, 6.4, 6.5, 10.1 and 12.3, Home Office. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/169/pdfs/uksiem_20200169_en.pdf +[^12]: The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2020, S.I. 2020/200, art. 1 and signature block (27th February 2020). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/200/made/data.html +[^13]: Home Office, "Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations" (accessible version), entry for National Action. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/United Acceleration Front.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/United Acceleration Front.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..52042e8c --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/United Acceleration Front.md @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +--- +category: "Extremism & Violent Networks" +tags: + - Organization + - NeoNazi + - Accelerationism + - Telegram + - Terrorgram + - SiegeCulture + - IronMarch + - AtomwaffenDivision +alias: + - United Acceleration Front + - UAF +summary: "United Acceleration Front was a Telegram coalition of neo-fascist accelerationist entities that emerged in early 2021 around Feuerkrieg Division and InJekt Division, and whose website shared a server address with two allied groups." +start: 2021 +location: "Online (Telegram)" +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Feuerkrieg Division]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021 + role: "network provider and co-leader as core organiser" + fn: 3 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[InJekt Division]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-06 + role: "announced alliance with Feuerkrieg Division and supplied network and aesthetic base" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +[[United Acceleration Front]] (UAF) was one of two coalition brands that appeared on [[Telegram]] in early 2021 within the milieu known as [[Terrorgram Collective|Terrorgram]]. The other was the National Socialist Coalition, which the same report also calls the National Socialist Alliance. Both described themselves as spinoffs of [[Atomwaffen Division]].[^1] + +### Documentation + +The principal record is a June 2022 report by the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism ([[Middlebury Institute CTEC]]) and [[Tech Against Terrorism]], produced with the [[Accelerationism Research Consortium]]. Its authors downloaded Telegram channels, groups and chats nearly daily from June 2021 to February 2022 and identified 21 entities in the network.[^1][^2] They recorded UAF as entity 21, under a heading for coalitions that also lists the Iron Order Alliance and the National Socialist Alliance, and noted that it was highly likely that at least three of those entities were administered by a single individual or group.[^3] + +### Feuerkrieg Division and InJekt Division + +The report places [[Feuerkrieg Division]] (FKD) at the centre of both coalitions. It states that FKD was created in 2018, went dormant during 2020, and re-emerged in 2021 with a new co-leader, referred to in the report by the pseudonym Hergle Zelea, who "served as a core organiser in the development of UAF and National Socialist Alliance". The report states that FKD re-emerged to promote [[InJekt Division]], that InJekt announced an "alliance" with FKD in June 2021, and that InJekt and FKD "provided established networks and aesthetic machinery to help build" the two coalitions.[^3] The report states that it is unclear whether the 2021 FKD Telegram entity was operationally linked to the 2018 group.[^4] + +The Home Office list of proscribed groups records that Feuerkrieg Division was proscribed in the [[United Kingdom]] in July 2020.[^5] The Middlebury Institute's profile states that the group is also proscribed in [[Australia]] and [[Canada]].[^6] + +### Entities named in UAF material + +A propaganda poster that the UAF Telegram channel disseminated lists the International White Syndicate, Kampfhund, the National Socialist Alliance, Kampfer Division and Waldjager Division. A poster from the separate Iron Order channel lists InJekt Division, the National Socialist Liberation Front, the National Partisan Movement, [[The Base]] Italia, Reinstes Division, Kriegwaffen Division, BFA, Totenwaffen Division, the New Co-Prosperity Sphere and Atomwaffen Division Argentina.[^7] + +### Shared hosting + +Domain records examined by Tech Against Terrorism showed that the domains of the United Acceleration Front, the National Socialist Alliance and the International White Syndicate "were at one point all hosted on the same IP address", and that the three were inactive by the time of writing. The report states that the National Socialist Alliance site changed its top-level domain at least twice between November 2021 and January 2022, and that the sites in the network used the domains .xyz, .tk and .eu5.org.[^8] + +The authors assessed that the apparent strength of the network "may be artificially inflated by its creators", citing a handful of administrators who managed several channels at once and several websites hosted on one address.[^9] + +### Propaganda and platform history + +The report states that none of the items shared by UAF or the National Socialist Alliance appeared to be new and that the material recycled content from Atomwaffen Division and the [[Iron March]] forum, including imagery by the propagandist known as [[Dark Foreigner]] and the "Siegefont" typeface associated with [[Siege Culture]], the doctrine drawn from [[James Mason]]'s book. All propaganda that the two coalitions posted themselves carried a logo or phrase and contact details for end-to-end encrypted email addresses.[^10] + +The report states that entities in the network usually established themselves on Telegram, directed users to websites or encrypted email, and within days or weeks were deplatformed, deleted themselves or ceased activity; three InJekt Division channels active between August and December 2021 had all been suspended by Telegram's content moderators. At least three coalitions arose during the monitoring period, and the report records frequent infighting among administrators.[^11] The report states that at least ten of the 21 entities appeared to be still active online when it was written, and that the UAF domains were not among the live sites.[^8][^11] + +### InJekt Division founder + +The report states that "in June 2021, officials in Texas thwarted a plot to attack a [[Walmart]] by an active member and suspected cofounder" of InJekt Division.[^9] [[Vice News]] reported on May 31, 2021 that the [[Kerr County Sheriff's Office]] had arrested [[Coleman Thomas Blevins]] on a warrant for a terroristic threat, that a photograph released by the office showed a shirt bearing the InJekt Division logo, and that members of the Telegram community said he had used the name "Korb Taran".[^12] Blevins pleaded guilty on November 28, 2023 to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced in May 2024 to five years in prison in the [[Western District of Texas]]. The charges had initially included making a terroristic threat.[^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC), Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and Tech Against Terrorism, with the Accelerationism Research Consortium, "Militant Accelerationism on Telegram: A Case Study in Neo-Fascist Accelerationist Coalition Building Online", June 2022, Executive Summary (p. 2). https://www.techagainstterrorism.org/hubfs/CTEC__TAT-Accelerationism-Report-.pdf +[^2]: Same report, "Online Behaviours: Overview of findings" (p. 8) and "Methodology" (p. 15). +[^3]: Same report, "Overview of Militant Accelerationism Network" (p. 7), "Key behaviours" (pp. 12 to 13), "Known entities within the network" and "Coalitions within the network" (pp. 17 to 21). +[^4]: Same report, "Key behaviours" (p. 12), stating that "It is unclear whether this online entity is directly operationally linked with the FKD group that was established in 2018." +[^5]: Home Office, "Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations" (accessible version), introductory text, GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version +[^6]: Middlebury Institute CTEC, "Dangerous Organizations and Bad Actors: Feuerkrieg Division" (Conclusion). https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors +[^7]: Same report, Figures 10 and 11 and captions (pp. 22 to 23). +[^8]: Same report, "Use of Website Infrastructure" and "Evidence of coordinated behaviour" (pp. 34 to 37). +[^9]: Same report, "Inauthentic amplification" (p. 11) and p. 37. +[^10]: Same report, "Analysis of propaganda content" (pp. 25 to 27). +[^11]: Same report, "Origins of network" and "Use of Telegram as a 'beacon' platform" (pp. 8 to 9 and 30). +[^12]: Mack Lamoureux, "Neo-Nazi Was Behind Walmart Mass Shooting Plot, Group Claims", Vice News, May 31, 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xmnw/neo-nazi-was-behind-walmart-mass-shooting-plot-group-claims +[^13]: Mason Hickok, "Kerrville man accused of making terroristic threats sentenced to 5 years on felony firearm charges", KSAT, May 9, 2024, reporting a release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas. https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2024/05/09/kerrville-man-accused-of-making-terroristic-threats-sentenced-to-5-years-on-felony-firearm-charges/ diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Camp David summit.md b/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Camp David summit.md index 344b2bdd..f23d4e0c 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Camp David summit.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Camp David summit.md @@ -1,28 +1,150 @@ ---- +--- +category: "Diplomacy" tags: - Event - Diplomacy -category: "Diplomacy" -summary: "The Camp David Accords were the September 1978 framework agreements produced by thirteen days of secret negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, facilitated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the presidential retreat in Maryland." + - CampDavidAccords + - EgyptIsraelPeaceTreaty + - JimmyCarter + - AnwarSadat + - MenachemBegin + - SinaiPeninsula + - MultinationalForceAndObservers + - USForeignAid + - CIA +alias: + - Camp David Accords + - Camp David summit + - Camp David + - Camp David Agreements + - Camp David Peace Treaty + - Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty + - Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty +summary: "Two framework agreements signed September 17, 1978 after thirteen days at Camp David between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin with Jimmy Carter mediating, followed by the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty and its U.S. aid commitments." start: 1978-09-05 end: 1978-09-17 -location: "Camp David, Maryland" +location: "Camp David, Maryland; Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Jimmy Carter]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-09-05 + end: 1978-09-17 + role: "mediator and witness to the signed frameworks" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Anwar Sadat]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-09-05 + end: 1978-09-17 + role: "president of Egypt and signatory" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Menachem Begin]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-09-05 + end: 1978-09-17 + role: "prime minister of Israel and signatory" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Cyrus Vance]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-09-05 + end: 1978-09-17 + role: "U.S. secretary of state, head of the delegation's expert group" + fn: 9 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Moshe Dayan]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-09-16 + end: 1978-09-17 + role: "Israeli foreign minister" + fn: 11 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Ezer Weizman]]" + reverse: true + start: 1978-09-17 + end: 1978-09-17 + role: "Israeli defense minister" + fn: 11 created: 2026-05-14 -updated: 2026-05-17 +updated: 2026-10-01 --- -The Camp David Accords were the product of secret negotiations held September 5-17, 1978, between Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] and Israeli Prime Minister [[Menachem Begin]], brokered by U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]] at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. The thirteen-day summit ended with two framework agreements signed on September 17, 1978: "A Framework for Peace in the [[Middle East]]" and "A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty Between Egypt and Israel."[^1] +The Camp David Accords are two framework agreements, "A Framework for Peace in the [[Middle East]]" and "A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty Between Egypt and Israel," signed at the [[White House]] on September 17, 1978 by Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] and Israeli Prime Minister [[Menachem Begin]], with U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]] signing as witness, after thirteen days of negotiation at Camp David, Maryland, that began on September 5.[^1] The second framework led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, signed on March 26, 1979.[^2] The [[State Department]] historian describes the later talks on Palestinian autonomy that followed the treaty as "ultimately inconclusive."[^3] The Nobel Peace Prize for 1978 was awarded jointly to Sadat and Begin "for jointly having negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel in 1978."[^4] After the 1979 treaty most Arab countries ostracized Egypt and expelled it from the [[Arab League]], and the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] rejected the accords. The 1993 [[Oslo Accords]] between Israel and the PLO provided for a transitional period, an elected self-governing Palestinian authority and negotiations on final status.[^5] -The first framework established principles for Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza and committed Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Palestinian representatives to negotiate an agreement within five years. That broader framework produced no subsequent treaty. The second led directly to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, signed on March 26, 1979 - the first peace agreement between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors.[^1] +### Preparations and the Intelligence Briefing -Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for the agreements. Sadat's willingness to negotiate was deeply controversial within the Arab world; Egypt was expelled from the Arab League following the 1979 treaty and not readmitted until 1989. Sadat was assassinated in October 1981 by Egyptian Islamic Jihad militants who opposed normalization with Israel.[^2] +Carter decided on July 30, 1978 to call a summit, after talks at Leeds Castle earlier that month had been inconclusive; the White House announced the meeting on August 8.[^2][^3] On August 21, [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[Stansfield Turner]] sent [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] report, described as a raw report not finally evaluated, on Sadat's expectations for the summit. According to the report, Sadat hoped for two achievements: a publicly announced agreement on principles based on [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 242]] together with an agreement on the Palestinian question based on the Aswan Formula Carter had announced in January 1978, and a precisely written secret agreement on a framework for a settlement, to be signed by Sadat and Begin and witnessed by Carter. The report stated that Sadat wanted Carter's witnessing signature to prevent either party from later misinterpreting the understanding, and that Sadat had "lost the trust and confidence" he had in Begin. The copy printed in the State Department's documentary series carries a handwritten notation, "Outside the System. Bill Quandt," referring to the [[National Security Council]] staff member [[William B. Quandt]].[^6] -The Camp David negotiations had significant intelligence dimensions. [[Kamal Adham]], former director of Saudi intelligence, served as a back-channel intermediary facilitating Saudi acceptance of the framework. Some American intelligence officials suspected that Carter's decision to provide [[Israel]] with KH-11 reconnaissance satellite imagery constituted a reward for Begin's flexibility at the summit.[^3] +On August 26, 1978 Ambassador [[Hermann Eilts]] met Sadat and Vice President [[Hosni Mubarak]] at Ismailia. In the course of that meeting, as Eilts recorded it, Sadat said that the Israelis, who took nineteen days to defeat the Egyptians in October 1973, "would not have been able to do so if the U.S. satellite photography had not been furnished to the Israelis," and that the photography had revealed his 25th Division preparing to cross the Canal.[^7] -The Accords were frequently cited as a model for subsequent Arab-Israeli diplomacy, including the Oslo process of the 1990s. +During the same month Carter, visiting the CIA, interrupted a briefing to ask how the agency could help before the summit, saying that he wanted to be "steeped in the personalities of Begin and Sadat." Three CIA components were tasked: the Office of Regional and Political Analysis with political profiles, the Office of Central Reference with biographic profiles, and the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior, which updated studies of Sadat and Begin first produced in 1977. The Center's updated profile of Begin "called attention to the increasing trend of oppositionism and rigidity in his personality"; its updated profile of Sadat was entitled "Sadat's Nobel Prize Complex" and "stressed his increasing preoccupation with his role in history and the leverage this could provide in negotiations." A third paper addressed the contrasting intellectual styles of the two men. The Center's founder, [[Jerrold Post]], wrote in the agency's journal *Studies in Intelligence* in 1979 that Carter afterwards told the agency: "After spending 13 days with the two principals, I wouldn't change a word." Carter's own diary entry for September 4 records that he spent the day before the summit studying "psychological assessments of Begin and Sadat."[^8] + +### The Summit Record + +The U.S. delegation worked in two groups. The political group consisted of Carter, Brzezinski, Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]], press secretary [[Jody Powell]], adviser [[Hamilton Jordan]] and, occasionally, Vice President [[Walter Mondale]] and Secretary of Defense [[Harold Brown]]. The expert group, directed by Vance, consisted of Assistant Secretary of State [[Harold H. Saunders]], Ambassador-at-Large [[Alfred L. Atherton Jr.]], Eilts, Ambassador [[Samuel W. Lewis]] and Quandt.[^9] + +The State Department's historians reported that, according to members of the U.S. delegation, no written memoranda of conversation were kept of Carter's discussions with Begin and Sadat, and that none of the delegation's internal discussions have been found. Carter kept his own notes and held debriefings with his staff. The unedited version of Carter's diary is held privately by the Carter Center, and the department's request for access to it was denied. Brown and Brzezinski gave historians access to significant portions of their papers at the [[Library of Congress]], both of which were closed to the public when the volume was published in 2014; Brzezinski denied access to his personal journals.[^10] + +The State Department's milestones history states that U.S. experts produced a draft treaty text that served as the basis of negotiation and was revised numerous times, and that the trilateral format became impossible to sustain, after which Carter and Vance met the Egyptian and Israeli delegations individually for twelve days.[^3] Carter wrote in a note dated September 20 that on the night of September 16 he, Vance, Begin, Foreign Minister [[Moshe Dayan]] and the Israeli legal adviser [[Aharon Barak]] agreed the wording on new settlements in the [[West Bank]] and Gaza: "After the signing of this framework and during the negotiations, no new Israeli settlements will be established in this area. The issue of future Israeli settlements will be decided and agreed among the negotiating parties." On September 17 Barak brought Carter a text from Begin that differed from it, and Carter told him it was unsatisfactory.[^11] + +### The Frameworks and the Side Letters + +The first framework, citing Resolution 242 "in all its parts," provided that Egypt, Israel, Jordan and representatives of the Palestinian people would negotiate on the West Bank and Gaza in three stages: transitional arrangements for a period not exceeding five years under an elected self-governing authority, negotiations on final status beginning no later than the third year of that period, and an Israel-Jordan peace treaty by the end of it. The second framework set a three-month goal for an Egypt-Israel treaty, full Egyptian sovereignty to the international border, Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai within two to three years of signing, civilian use of the airfields near [[Al-Arish]], Rafah, Ras en-Naqb and Sharm el-Sheikh, and limits on forces in zones on both sides of the border.[^12] + +Nine letters accompanied the frameworks: Begin's undertaking to submit the Sinai settlements question to the [[Knesset]]; Sadat's letters on the Sinai settlements, on Jerusalem, and on Egypt's readiness to "assume the Arab role" for the West Bank and Gaza provisions; Begin's letter on Jerusalem; Carter's letters of transmittal and acknowledgment, including his acknowledgment that Begin understood "Palestinians" to mean "Palestinian Arabs" and "West Bank" to mean "Judea and Samaria." A tenth letter, from Secretary of Defense Brown to Israeli Defense Minister [[Ezer Weizman]], agreed on September 28, committed the [[United States]] to consult with Israel on assistance for relocating the Israeli airbases at Eitam and Etzion in the Sinai to the Negev. Egyptian Foreign Minister [[Muhammad Ibrahim Kamel]] resigned after the signing ceremony, and [[Boutros Boutros-Ghali]] replaced him on an interim basis. The Knesset approved the agreements on September 28 by 84 to 19, and Commerce and Industry Minister [[Yigael Hurvitz]] resigned in protest.[^12] + +### The Saudi Channel + +The documentary series records [[Kamal Adham]], adviser to the Saudi royal family and chief of the Saudi intelligence secretariat, at several points around the summit. Vance's August 11, 1977 report to Carter and Brzezinski from the aircraft carrying him, on his stop in Amman to see [[King Hussein]], records that "Adham also said there had been some progress on acceptance of Resolution 242 by the PLO."[^13] After the summit, Saunders held meetings with Adham, [[Prince Turki bin Faisal]] and others in [[Jidda]] on October 18 and 19, 1978; on October 20 he told Begin that he had spoken with Crown Prince [[Fahd bin Abdulaziz]], Prince Saud, Adham and Turki, and that "I had found the task of selling the CDA difficult."[^14] + +A February 16, 1980 telegram from the U.S. Embassy in Jidda reported that Fahd had asked the ambassador to tell Carter that Saudi restraint toward Egyptian press attacks on the royal family was wearing out. The ambassador commented that Saudi replies would probably include revelations that Mrs. Sadat "was involved with the Arab arms industry" ("It was rumored that she held a ten percent interest therein"), that Fahd had referred to information furnished by Ashraf Marwan, "the now deposed head of Arab arms," and that the "Saudi principal in this venture was Kamal Adham, now out of favor here."[^15] + +### Treaty Negotiations and the Aid Commitments + +Negotiation of the treaty began at Blair House in October 1978, reached a deadlock that Vance's visits could not break, and was concluded after Carter travelled to Israel and Egypt in March 1979.[^10] The financing of the commitments to both governments is documented in a series of March 1979 memoranda. On March 14 Brown reported to Carter that in discussions with Egyptian Minister of Defense Kamal Ali and Weizman he had described, for Egypt, United States financing of $1.0 to $1.5 billion over three years, and for Israel, $2.0 to $2.5 billion over three years in addition to the existing annual $1.785 billion, including help relocating the Sinai airbases, subject to congressional approval.[^16] On March 19 Quandt reported that Brown and Weizman had agreed on $3 billion over three years, of which $800 million would be cash grants and the remainder foreign military sales credits on ten years' grace and twenty years' repayment.[^17] On March 20 Quandt wrote that the United States was committed to sell equipment and services worth $4.5 billion to Israel and Egypt, that if present terms were maintained "the U.S. Treasury will be hit for only $1.1 billion of that amount," and that "the total of resources (goods and services) which we will transfer to Egypt and Israel over the next three years will be almost $13 billion, of which over $3.5 billion will be financed directly by the U.S. taxpayer."[^18] On March 21 Brzezinski wrote Carter that the Egyptian proposal was "extremely lopsided in Israel's favor" and recommended credits for the full $1.5 billion; Carter approved that option.[^19] Brown's letter to Ali of March 23 pledged a recommendation to Congress of $1.5 billion in military equipment and services over three years, with up to $500 million annually in credits at current interest rates, and attached a list that included twelve improved HAWK batteries, 800 M113 armored personnel carriers and four destroyers.[^20] + +At a meeting with Carter on March 26, 1979, the day of the signing, Begin asked that the $800 million grant and $2.2 billion loan ratio of the Israeli package be changed to 50-50 "as a personal gift to his wife." The record states that Carter said he could not offer any encouragement. In the same meeting Carter asked whether Sadat had agreed to return the oil sector in seven months in return for an uninterrupted flow to Israel, and Begin confirmed it.[^21] A draft Memorandum of Agreement between the United States and Israel, annotated by Carter, with a final version dated March 26, provided that the United States "will provide support it deems appropriate" for Israeli responses to treaty violations and "will oppose and, if necessary, vote against any action or resolution in the [[United Nations]] which in its judgement adversely affects the Treaty of Peace."[^22] + +The Congressional Research Service reports that since 1946 the United States has provided Egypt more than $90 billion in bilateral aid, with military and economic assistance increasing significantly after the 1979 treaty, and that the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 provides Egypt $1.5 billion in total aid. It reports that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since [[World War II]], with $174 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.[^23] + +### The Treaty Text, Sinai Observation and the Multinational Force + +The Treaty of Peace, signed on March 26, 1979 with Carter as witness, provided in Article IV and Annex I that the parties would request United Nations forces and observers and would not request their withdrawal unless the Security Council approved with the affirmative votes of the five permanent members. Its appendix to Annex I requested that the United States continue airborne surveillance flights over the limited-forces zones "in accordance with previous agreements," and that the United States-operated Sinai Field Mission continue until Israel completed its withdrawal from the area east of the Giddi and Mitla Passes. The agreed minutes to Annex III provided for normal commercial sales of Egyptian oil to Israel, with Israel entitled to bid for Egyptian oil not needed for domestic consumption.[^24] + +The Multinational Force and Observers history states that on May 18, 1981 the President of the Security Council announced that the United Nations would not provide the force, that Egypt, Israel and the United States then negotiated a Protocol establishing an organization outside the United Nations, signed August 3, 1981, and that the organization is funded in equal parts by Egypt, Israel and the United States. It also states that in 1979, after the mandate of the United Nations Emergency Force II expired, the existing U.S. Sinai Field Mission took on certain of the treaty's verification functions.[^25] [[Public Law 97-132]], signed on December 29, 1981, authorized U.S. participation; under 22 U.S.C. 3423 the United States share could not exceed 60 percent of the budget for establishment and initial operation through September 30, 1982 and 33 and one third percent of annual operating expenses afterwards.[^26] + +### The KH-11 Agreement + +[[Seymour Hersh]] wrote in 1991 that in March 1979 Carter decided to give Israel access to [[KH-11]] satellite photographs covering troop movements or other threatening activities up to one hundred miles inside Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, that the decision disrupted the satellite's scheduling and left some American intelligence agencies with less access, and that "some American intelligence officials" suspected it was a reward for Begin's conduct at Camp David. Hersh also wrote that the Israelis regarded the agreement as inevitable because of what they saw as the CIA's failure to anticipate Soviet pressure on Afghanistan and the upheavals in Iran, and not because of the success of Camp David. Hersh attributed the account of the unpopularity of the decision to a former official of the [[National Security Agency]].[^27] ### Footnotes -[^1]: "Camp David Accords," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/event/Camp-David-Accords -[^2]: "Anwar Sadat," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Sadat -[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapter 1. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Arab-Israeli Dispute, August 1978-December 1980, ed. Alexander R. Wieland (Washington: Government Printing Office), Document 51, Editorial Note, pp. 193-195 (signing ceremony in the East Room, September 17, 1978; frameworks signed). Text of the frameworks: "Camp David Accords; September 17, 1978," Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v09 ; https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/campdav.asp +[^2]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, "Camp David Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process," Milestones 1977-1980 (retired page). https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david +[^3]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Preface, pp. VII-X (describing the post-treaty autonomy talks as "(ultimately inconclusive)"; the Leeds Castle talks; the August 8, 1978 acceptances). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf ; milestones page cited at note 2 (July 30 decision; draft treaty text; trilateral format). +[^4]: "The Nobel Peace Prize 1978," NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1978/summary/ +[^5]: Jimmy Carter, "Camp David Accords," *Encyclopaedia Britannica*, sections "A framework for peace" (entry updated September 10, 2026). https://www.britannica.com/event/Camp-David-Accords +[^6]: Memorandum from Director of Central Intelligence Turner to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski), August 21, 1978, with attached CIA report, "Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat's Perceptions of the Camp David Summit as of 18 August 1978," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 14, pp. 37-38 (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Middle East, Subject File, Box 9). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^7]: Memorandum of conversation, Ismailia, August 26, 1978, "Meeting with President Sadat re Camp David," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 16, pp. 44-45. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^8]: Jerrold Post, "Personality Profiles in Support of the Camp David Summit," *Studies in Intelligence* 23, no. 2 (Summer 1979), pp. 1-5 (CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP80-00630A000100070001-2, approved for release March 5, 2008; text read in the Internet Archive mirror). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80-00630a000100070001-2 ; Editorial Note, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 26, pp. 78-79 (quoting Carter, White House Diary, p. 216). +[^9]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 26, Editorial Note, p. 79 (quoting Vance, Hard Choices, pp. 218-219). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^10]: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Preface, pp. VIII-X; Document 26, Editorial Note, pp. 79-80 ("No memoranda of conversation or official records of the substance of these conversations ... have been found"). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^11]: "Note Prepared by President Carter," undated (signed September 20, 1978), "Settlements in West Bank and Gaza," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 50, pp. 192-193 (Carter Library, Brzezinski Material, Country File, Box 53). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^12]: "Camp David Accords; September 17, 1978," Avalon Project (texts of both frameworks); Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 51, Editorial Note, pp. 193-195 (list of nine letters, the September 28 Brown-Weizman letter, the Kamel resignation, the 84 to 19 Knesset vote, the Hurvitz resignation), and Document 50, p. 192 n. 2 (September 16 meeting with Begin, Dayan and Barak). https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/campdav.asp +[^13]: Telegram Secto 8152 from Secretary of State Vance to the Department of State, August 11, 1977, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume VIII, Arab-Israeli Dispute, January 1977-August 1978, Document 88, pp. 467-468. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v08/pdf/frus1977-80v08.pdf +[^14]: Telegram 7455 from the Embassy in Saudi Arabia, October 18, 1978, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 86, n. 4 (Saunders's meetings of October 18 and 19 with Kamel, Adham and Turki and with Saud, Turki, Adham and others); Telegram 2886 from the Consulate General in Jerusalem, October 21, 1978, "October 20 Meeting With Prime Minister Begin," Document 91, para. 5. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^15]: Telegram 1078 from the Embassy in Saudi Arabia to the Department of State, February 16, 1980, "Fahd Threatens Retaliation for Renewed Egyptian Media Attacks," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 336, pp. 1088-1090, paras. 5 and 9 (Carter Library, Brzezinski Material, Country File, Box 68). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^16]: Memorandum from Secretary of Defense Brown to President Carter, March 14, 1979, "Supply of Arms to Egypt and Israel in Connection with the Peace Treaty," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 206, pp. 729-730. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^17]: Memorandum from William B. Quandt to Brzezinski, March 19, 1979, "U.S.-Israeli Agreement on Military Issues," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 223, p. 781. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^18]: Memorandum from William B. Quandt to Brzezinski, March 20, 1979, "U.S.-Egyptian Military Assistance Agreement," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 220, pp. 777-778. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^19]: Memorandum from Brzezinski to President Carter, March 21, 1979, "Credits for Egypt," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 222, pp. 780-781 (n. 3: "Carter approved this option and initialed 'J.'"). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^20]: Telegram 72667 from the Department of State to the Embassy in Egypt, March 23, 1979, "Brown-Ali Letter," Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 224, pp. 783-784. https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^21]: Memorandum of conversation, Washington, March 26, 1979, 11:08 to 11:50 a.m. (President, Vance, Brzezinski; Begin, Dayan), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 229, p. 793 (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Office, Outside the System File, Box 66). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^22]: Draft Memorandum of Agreement between the Governments of the United States of America and the State of Israel, undated, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977-1980, Volume IX, Document 226, pp. 786-788 (Carter annotation "My suggestions. JC."; final version dated March 26, 1979 printed in Dayan, Breakthrough, pp. 356-357). https://static.history.state.gov/frus/frus1977-80v09/pdf/frus1977-80v09.pdf +[^23]: Jeremy M. Sharp, *Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations*, Congressional Research Service report RL33003, updated February 25, 2026; Jeremy M. Sharp, *U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments since October 7, 2023*, CRS report RL33222, updated May 28, 2025. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33003.html ; https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33222.html +[^24]: "Treaty of Peace Between Israel and Egypt, March 26, 1979," Articles IV and V, Annex I (Article VI; Appendix, Article VII), and the agreed minutes to Annex III, Avalon Project, Yale Law School (United Nations Treaty Series vol. 1136, no. 17813). https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/isregypt.asp +[^25]: Multinational Force and Observers, "Origins," including "Pre-Treaty: July '79" and "1979 to 1981." https://www.mfo.org/origins +[^26]: Multinational Force and Observers Participation Resolution, Public Law 97-132, 95 Stat. 1693 (December 29, 1981), text of S.J. Res. 100, 97th Cong. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/97/sjres100/text ; 22 U.S.C. 3423, "United States contributions to costs." https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/3423 +[^27]: Seymour M. Hersh, *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy* (New York: Random House, 1991), chapter 1, "A Secret Agreement," pp. 3-7 (text read in the Internet Archive scan, item Sampson_Option). https://archive.org/details/Sampson_Option diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Oslo Accords.md b/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Oslo Accords.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f0a6cc1d --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/DIPLOMACY/Oslo Accords.md @@ -0,0 +1,152 @@ +--- +category: "Diplomacy" +tags: + - Event + - Diplomacy + - OsloAccords + - OsloChannel + - Fafo + - Norway + - PalestineLiberationOrganization + - PalestinianAuthority + - InternationalPeaceInstitute + - JeffreyEpstein +alias: + - Oslo Accords + - Oslo Accord + - Oslo I + - Oslo II + - Oslo process + - Oslo channel + - Oslo Peace Process + - Declaration of Principles + - Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements + - Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement +summary: "Israel and the PLO exchanged recognition and signed a Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993 after secret talks in Norway run through Fafo, followed by the 1995 Interim Agreement and Norwegian inquiries." +start: 1993-09-13 +end: 1995-09-28 +location: "Oslo, Norway; Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Terje Rød-Larsen]]" + reverse: true + role: "director of Fafo and Norwegian facilitator of the Oslo channel" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Mona Juul]]" + reverse: true + role: "head of the Norwegian foreign ministry's Middle East office and facilitator" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Jan Egeland]]" + reverse: true + role: "Norwegian state secretary and facilitator" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Johan Jørgen Holst]]" + reverse: true + role: "Norwegian foreign minister" + fn: 2 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Mahmoud Abbas]]" + reverse: true + start: 1993-09-13 + end: 1993-09-13 + role: "signatory for the PLO" + fn: 3 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Shimon Peres]]" + reverse: true + start: 1993-09-13 + end: 1993-09-13 + role: "signatory for Israel" + fn: 3 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Oslo Accords are two agreements between [[Israel]] and the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. The first, the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, was signed at the [[White House]] on September 13, 1993; the second, the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, was signed in Washington on September 28, 1995. The negotiations that produced the first were held in secret in [[Norway]] through a channel run by the director of the Norwegian research institute [[Fafo]], [[Terje Rød-Larsen]], and by [[Mona Juul]] of the Norwegian foreign ministry.[^1][^2][^3] + +### The Fafo Survey and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry + +Fafo's Palestinian project began as a living-conditions survey. In his preface to the survey report, dated Oslo, May 1993, Rød-Larsen wrote that its history went back five years to Cairo, where he lived in 1989, and that the chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent, Dr. Fathi Arafat, and the director of the Palestinian hospital in Cairo, Dr. Khalid Shbaeb, had suggested that Fafo conduct a socioeconomic study of the occupied territories. He wrote that the Norwegian foreign ministry "fully concurred," that the then deputy minister [[Knut Vollebæk]] and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation ([[NORAD]]) provided financial support to design the project and run a pilot survey, that in 1990 funding for the full project was assured from the foreign ministry, "who would foot most of the bill," and that the [[Ford Foundation]] later supplied additional funding to cover local costs. He wrote that he had urged, "with the consent of both Palestinian and Israeli leaders," that the survey be strongly policy oriented, and thanked Deputy Minister [[Jan Egeland]], who "enthusiastically accompanied us on visits in the field." Fieldwork was carried out in June, July and August 1992. The report, Fafo report 151, *Palestinian Society in Gaza, West Bank and Arab Jerusalem*, was authored by [[Marianne Heiberg]], Geir Ovensen and others, and the project was led by Heiberg.[^4] + +The introduction to the report observed that the Norwegian government, which funded the survey, provided millions of dollars each year in humanitarian and development assistance to Palestinian society.[^4] The Norwegian encyclopedia *Store norske leksikon* states that Rød-Larsen established Fafo in 1982 as the Trade Union Movement's Center for Research, Evaluation and Documentation and led it until 1993, and that during the Oslo process the institute's survey served as a platform for contacts between Israelis and Palestinians that Rød-Larsen used in the secret negotiations.[^2] + +### The Channel and the Signing + +The [[State Department]]'s historical office states that U.S. officials were briefed on secret negotiations that the Israelis and Palestinians began in Oslo in December 1992 but made little effort to become involved in them, and that the administration of President [[Bill Clinton]] "played a limited role in bringing the Oslo Accord into being."[^5] According to *Store norske leksikon*, the Norwegian figures in the channel were State Secretary Jan Egeland, Mona Juul, Rød-Larsen, and the foreign ministers [[Thorvald Stoltenberg]] and [[Johan Jørgen Holst]]; Juul headed the ministry's [[Middle East]] office. The same source states that the agreement was first signed in secret in Oslo on August 20, 1993, at Parkveien 45, with Holst at the table, [[Uri Savir]] leading the Israeli side and [[Ahmed Qurei]] the Palestinian side, and that the final wording of the letters of mutual recognition was agreed shortly before the public ceremony. It was signed on September 13 by [[Mahmoud Abbas]] for the PLO and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for Israel, in the presence of [[Yasser Arafat]], Prime Minister [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and Clinton.[^2][^3] The 1995 agreement recites the letters of September 9, 1993 exchanged between the Prime Minister of Israel and the Chairman of the PLO.[^6] + +### The Declaration of Principles + +The Declaration provided for direct elections to a Palestinian Council for the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]] no later than nine months after it entered into force, a five-year transitional period beginning with Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the [[Jericho]] area, and permanent status negotiations to begin no later than the third year of the interim period, covering "Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, border, relations and cooperation with their neighbors." It established an Israeli-Palestinian Economic Cooperation Committee, treated the multilateral working groups as an instrument for a "[[Marshall Plan]]" for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and was to enter into force one month after signing.[^1] + +### The Donor Conference, the Holst Fund and the United Nations Special Coordinator + +On October 1, 1993, more than forty donor countries and institutions met at the Washington Conference to Support Middle East Peace, hosted by the [[United States]], and pledged about $2.4 billion to be disbursed over the five-year transitional period. The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for assistance to the Palestinians was established in the context of that conference, and Norway chairs it. In June 1994 Secretary-General [[Boutros Boutros-Ghali]] appointed Rød-Larsen [[United Nations]] Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories; [[Chinmaya Gharekhan]] succeeded him in February 1997.[^7] + +A July 1996 report of the Office of the Special Coordinator on donor-funded activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip contains a table of pledges and payments to the Holst Fund, which the report names with the European Union as one of two major examples of support for recurrent costs of the [[Palestinian Authority]], and which it separately credits with funding 25 million dollars of public sector emergency employment projects. The table lists total pledges from, among others, Norway (17.75 million dollars), Kuwait (21 million), Japan (11.5 million) and Israel (10.5 million). The [[World Bank]] and the European Union are thanked in the report for clarifying the figures.[^8] + +### The Interim Agreement of 1995 + +The Interim Agreement was signed in Washington on September 28, 1995 by the Government of Israel and the PLO and witnessed by the United States, the Russian Federation, Egypt, Jordan, Norway and the European Union.[^9] It defined Area A (populated areas, with the Council assuming internal security and public order), Area B (populated areas and listed hamlets) and Area C (the remainder of the West Bank, to be transferred gradually except for permanent status issues). Annex I limited the Palestinian Police to 30,000 in all branches in the interim period, up to 12,000 in the West Bank and up to 18,000 in the Gaza Strip, with the numbers changeable by agreement, and listed Norway among the countries whose observer delegations would be present at the Palestinian elections.[^6] *Store norske leksikon* states that the elections were held in 1996, that the Likud victory that year and the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 are each regarded by some as the end of the Oslo process, and that the 1994 Hebron massacre was an instance of militant opposition to the agreement.[^2] + +### Norwegian Foreign Ministry Grants to the International Peace Institute + +Rød-Larsen was president of the [[International Peace Institute]] (IPI) in New York from January 2005 to October 2020.[^10] The Office of the Auditor General of Norway ([[Riksrevisjonen]]) investigated the foreign ministry's grants to the institute for 2007 to 2012. According to the report as summarized in the Storting's control committee recommendation (Innst. 167 S, 2021 to 2022), the ministry paid 130.6 million kroner to IPI and its predecessor from 1997 to 2018 and none after 2018; the ministry and IPI concluded two three-year framework agreements in the period under review, at 11 million kroner a year for 2007 to 2009 and 8 million kroner a year for 2010 to 2012. The auditor general concluded that there were considerable weaknesses in the ministry's case handling, control and follow-up, that the ministry had not followed up missing project plans, budgets, reports and accounts from IPI, and that it was open to criticism for failing to ensure that conflict-of-interest assessments were carried out. The auditor general obtained no further information from IPI.[^10] + +The committee recommendation quotes the report on the ministry's legal department's assessment of April 13, 2012, which considered the possible disqualification of the then director general (ekspedisjonssjef) Geir O. Pedersen, the then director general Mona Juul, Foreign Minister [[Jonas Gahr Støre]] and the political leadership in matters concerning IPI. A Progress Party member of the committee, quoting the report, stated that about 47.1 million kroner was processed and paid to IPI during Pedersen's term, that Rød-Larsen communicated directly with Pedersen on several occasions, and that Pedersen was a member of IPI's International Advisory Council. The report quotes the legal department as stating that Juul and her department should neither prepare nor decide matters concerning IPI, her spouse being its head. On April 17, 2012 Pedersen's section advised Støre to support the establishment of IPI as an international organization; Støre declared himself not disqualified, according to the report, on the ground that "he knew Rød-Larsen solely through sporadic contact in a work context, that they were not friends, and that they had never met privately or at each other's homes." The same member added that Rød-Larsen had been planning minister in the government of [[Thorbjørn Jagland]] and that his ties to the labour movement and the [[Norwegian Labour Party]] were well known, and proposed that the Storting ask the government to consider whether foreign ministry employees had breached criminal provisions; the Progress Party and the Red Party also proposed that the Storting ask the auditor general to audit the grants for 2012 to 2018. The committee recommendation is dated February 15, 2022.[^10] + +### The Epstein Donations and the 2020 Reviews + +The 2017 Form 990 of IPI reports total revenue of 8,704,582 dollars, of which 6,003,286 dollars was government grants, and lists Rød-Larsen as president, 35 hours a week, with reportable compensation from the organization of 517,980 dollars and other compensation of 37,624 dollars.[^11] + +The IPI board accepted Rød-Larsen's resignation on October 29, 2020 and at the same meeting decided to commission the accounting firm KPMG. The board stated that its concerns included donations Rød-Larsen accepted from Epstein-affiliated foundations, "a short-term loan from Epstein to Mr. Rød-Larsen personally," and whether IPI was involved in other transactions; it stated that on December 4, 2019 it had directed that an amount equal to all Epstein-related donations be given to programs for victims of human trafficking and sexual assault.[^12] The probity review states that the board first became aware of the donations in late 2019.[^13] KPMG's report of December 18, 2020 analyzed IPI's records from January 2010 to October 2020 against a list of 56 entities affiliated with [[Jeffrey Epstein]] and identified five donations totaling 650,000 dollars: + +- October 11, 2011: [[Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation|Enhanced Education]], 125,000 dollars, ledger description "Enhanced Education funding for WK Rick Hooper fellowship." +- May 8, 2017: [[Gratitude America]], 150,000 dollars, "Reimbursement of tickets to the Oslo Play." +- June 12, 2017: Gratitude America, 125,000 dollars. +- November 1, 2017: Gratitude America, 100,000 dollars, "Contribution from Gatitude America, LTD Oslo Play." +- April 5, 2019: Gratitude America, 150,000 dollars, "Contribution from Gratitude America." + +KPMG also found a reimbursement of 14,158.88 dollars from Enhanced Education in 2014 for the flight of [[Larry Summers]]; no payments by IPI to Epstein or his entities; no payments related to the loan between Epstein and Rød-Larsen; and a 100,000 dollar honorarium wired on February 28, 2014 to LHSummers Economic Consulting for the Mongolian Advisory Board, funded by the Government of Mongolia, on wire instructions sent to Rød-Larsen by an assistant to Epstein.[^14] + +A separate probity review of December 21, 2020 by IPI's treasurer, the attorney Clifford Perlman, found that Rød-Larsen did not violate the wording of IPI's 2013 conflict of interest policy but should have informed the board and should not have taken the loan, found no evidence that Epstein derived personal benefit from IPI, and described the 2017 special performance of the play *Oslo*, which dramatized Rød-Larsen's role in the accords, as a fundraising event underwritten by one of Epstein's foundations. The review stated that Epstein attended the performance, had no control over the invitation list, and that his name did not appear in association with it.[^13] IPI's statement of December 22, 2020 put the donations at about 0.9 percent of IPI's revenue over the period.[^12] + +### Epstein Library Records + +The [[Department of Justice]] [[Epstein Files|Epstein Library]] contains a Gratitude America, Ltd check no. 315 on [[Deutsche Bank]] Trust Company Americas, dated November 1, 2017, payable to International Peace Institute, Inc. for 100,000 dollars with the line "Attn: Terje Rod Larsen." The same document contains an email of November 1, 2017, 7:25 a.m., from the account displayed as "Jeffrey E." to [[Richard Kahn]] reading "send IPI 100 k . to terje attention."; an email of June 12, 2017 reading "Rich please send 125 k to ipi"; Kahn's message of the same day "Confirming 125k is in addition to 150k sent in may"; and a forwarded May 8, 2017 exchange in which Kahn asked Rød-Larsen whether a check to IPI at 777 United Nations Plaza should be mailed or delivered, and Rød-Larsen replied "That is great - thank you!"[^15] Another document is an email of May 12, 2015 from [[Brad Wechsler]] to the Epstein account, replying to a message "ipi donation?", stating that "A wire transfer for 750k was processed today and IPI shld have by later today or tomorrow." The email does not name the sending entity, and KPMG's schedule of five Epstein-related donations lists none in 2015.[^16] A May 6, 2014 email from IPI's senior accountant, addressed to "Ms. Groff", states that IPI wired the honorarium to LHSummers Economic Consulting for the Mongolian Advisory Board on February 28, 2014 and asks for Summers's W-9.[^17] + +### The Økokrim Investigation + +On February 9, 2026 the Norwegian economic crime authority [[Økokrim]] announced an investigation in which Juul was named a suspect in aggravated corruption in connection with her positions in the foreign ministry and Rød-Larsen a suspect in complicity. Økokrim's chief [[Pål Lønseth]] said the investigation would be extensive and long-running. Juul's lawyer [[Thomas Skjelbred]] said she did not recognize herself in the charge, and Rød-Larsen's lawyer [[John Christian Elden]] said his client was surprised by it. Økokrim had opened an investigation of Jagland on February 5.[^18] The newspaper *VG* reported on February 27, 2026 that Jagland, Juul and Rød-Larsen were all being investigated for aggravated corruption or complicity as a result of gifts and services received from Epstein, and on March 4, 2026 that the foreign ministry had suspected seven years earlier that Rød-Larsen had given visa help to women on Epstein's behalf and that Økokrim was now investigating the matter.[^19] + +On September 26, 2026 NRK published an account of the 335-square-metre Frogner apartment at Drammensveien 42 in Oslo. According to NRK, the shipowner [[Morits Skaugen]] bought the apartment in 2011 for 12.6 million kroner, leased it to Juul and Rød-Larsen from June 1, 2011 at 500,000 kroner a year, and granted a five-year option to buy it for 13 million kroner for a premium of 3.5 million kroner, which Skaugen said Rød-Larsen paid. NRK reported that Skaugen mortgaged the apartment to SEB for 12.5 million kroner in 2013 and to DNB for 25 million kroner in December 2015, and that on March 31, 2018 Skaugen emailed Epstein that the option had lapsed and the bank's assessed market value was 18 million kroner. NRK published an email attributed to Epstein dated April 4, 2018, addressed to a lawyer for Rød-Larsen, reading "closing the rope slowly he is coming to paris to meet. the more he puts in writing the better. DO not reach out to him yet," and reported that Skaugen met Epstein in Paris on April 6, 2018. Skaugen told *VG* that he felt pressure from Epstein in Paris and told NRK that he disputes its account and that no bank suffered a loss. NRK reported that the couple took title on June 25, 2018 for 14 million kroner, and quoted an email from Skaugen to Epstein describing the price as "Half price." NRK quoted Økokrim's first state attorney Marianne Bender: "We want to find out whether Epstein, through the purchase of the apartment, contributed any transfer of wealth or other transfer to the suspected couple." Elden told NRK that "there is no funny business with this apartment sale," that the couple reject the charge and that he saw no criminal matter in it, and that Rød-Larsen did not know of any contact between Epstein and Skaugen. NRK also reported that its analysis of the released Epstein files found 5,684 emails and text messages between Epstein and Rød-Larsen, the first from 2010.[^20] + +### The Oslo Papers + +Nettavisen reported on September 29, 2026 that Økokrim found documents relating to the Oslo process in the cellar storage room of Juul and Rød-Larsen's home during the February search, seized one box, and that the foreign ministry and the National Archives of Norway were given access to the storage room in mid-March and collected five further boxes. The foreign ministry told the newspaper that material directly linked to the Oslo process would be made public at the National Archives, and Elden said the ministry was working with the defense on publication of the material Rød-Larsen transferred to the archives, both through Økokrim and directly from his cellar. The newspaper reported that the documents are not part of Økokrim's investigation and that the Storting's control and constitution committee, chaired by Per-Willy Amundsen, was holding hearings on September 30 and October 1, 2026 with current and former foreign and development ministers, including Støre and [[Espen Barth Eide]].[^21] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: "Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization Agreement: 1993" (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements), Articles I to XVII, Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/isrplo.asp +[^2]: "Oslo-avtalen," *Store norske leksikon* (secret signing August 20, 1993; signatories; criticism; 1996 elections); "Terje Rød-Larsen," *Store norske leksikon* (Fafo 1982 to 1993; role in the Norwegian channel; Juul headed the ministry's Middle East office). https://snl.no/Oslo-avtalen ; https://snl.no/Terje_R%C3%B8d-Larsen +[^3]: "Oslo-avtalen," *Store norske leksikon*, section "Oslo 1" and caption to the photograph of the secret signing at Parkveien 45. https://snl.no/Oslo-avtalen +[^4]: Terje Rød Larsen, Preface (Oslo, May 1993), pp. 6 to 10, and Marianne Heiberg, Introduction, in Marianne Heiberg and Geir Ovensen, *Palestinian Society in Gaza, West Bank and Arab Jerusalem: A Survey of Living Conditions*, Fafo report 151 (Oslo: Fafo, 1993). https://www.fafo.no/media/com_netsukii/151.pdf +[^5]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, "The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process," Milestones 1993-2000 (retired page). https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo +[^6]: Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1995, preamble, Article XI, Annex I Article I and the police strength provision, and Annex II election observer provisions (English text published by the Economic Cooperation Foundation, Tel Aviv). https://content.ecf.org.il/files/M00261_TheIsraeli-PalestinianInterimAgreement-EnglishText.pdf +[^7]: Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories, "UNSCO at a Glance: A Profile," United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-208256/ +[^8]: UNSCO, "Partners in Peace: LACC for Development Assistance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," July 1996, section on public finance, "Pledges and Payments to the Holst Fund." https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-209393/ +[^9]: Letters of December 1995 from the permanent representatives of Israel and the Palestinian observer, and from the United States and the Russian Federation, transmitting the Interim Agreement, United Nations document A/51/889 and S/1997/357, May 5, 1997. https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/D91C90A304F06EA4052564E60048C213.pdf +[^10]: Innstilling fra kontroll- og konstitusjonskomiteen om Riksrevisjonens undersøkelse av Utenriksdepartementets tildeling av tilskudd til International Peace Institute (IPI), Innst. 167 S (2021-2022), February 15, 2022, source document Dokument 3:12 (2020-2021), sections 1.1 to 1.4 and the committee's statements. https://www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Publikasjoner/Innstillinger/Stortinget/2021-2022/inns-202122-167s/?all=true +[^11]: International Peace Institute Inc., IRS Form 990 for the tax year 2017 (EIN 03-0213226), Part VII, Part VIII and summary, IRS e-file object 201833129349302893, published in IRS Form 990 series XML download file download990xml_2018_6. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2018/download990xml_2018_6.zip +[^12]: International Peace Institute, "Release of KPMG Forensic Review and IPI Probity Review," statement of December 22, 2020. https://www.ipinst.org/2020/12/kpmg-forensic-probity-review +[^13]: Clifford Perlman, "Probity Review as requested by the Chair of the Board of Directors, International Peace Institute," December 21, 2020, items 1 and 2. https://www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ProbityReviewDec2020.pdf +[^14]: KPMG LLP, "International Peace Institute: KPMG Forensic Review," December 18, 2020, Executive Summary, Summary Observations and Appendix A. https://www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IPI-KPMG-Forensic-Review-12-18-2020.pdf +[^15]: Gratitude America, Ltd check no. 315 (November 1, 2017) with emails of November 1, June 12 and May 8, 2017, EFTA00802975 to EFTA00802979, DOJ Epstein Library, Data Set 9. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00802975.pdf +[^16]: Email, Brad Wechsler to Jeffrey E., May 12, 2015, 16:13 UTC, EFTA00662431, DOJ Epstein Library, Data Set 9. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00662431.pdf +[^17]: Email, Susan Waugh (International Peace Institute) to Ms. Groff, "Larry Summers's W9," May 6, 2014, EFTA00369962, DOJ Epstein Library, Data Set 9. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00369962.pdf +[^18]: "Økokrim åpner etterforsking av Mona Juul og Terje Rød-Larsen," *NRK*, February 9, 2026 (updated February 12, 2026). https://www.nrk.no/norge/okokrim-apner-etterforsking-av-mona-juul-og-terje-rod-larsen-1.17761823 +[^19]: "Dette er Epstein-siktelsene Økokrim ville holde hemmelig," *VG*, February 27, 2026; "Etterforsker visumbistand: 'Skriv ut dette anbefalingsbrevet,'" *VG*, March 4, 2026 (standfirst only; article behind a subscription wall). https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/vree75/dette-er-epstein-siktelsene-oekokrim-ville-holde-hemmelig ; https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/GxMwwl/epstein-saken-oekokrim-etterforsker-visumbistand +[^20]: "Leiligheten til korrupsjonssiktede Mona Juul og Terje Rød-Larsen får politiet til å klø seg i hodet," *NRK*, September 26, 2026, by Bjørn Olav Nordahl and others. https://www.nrk.no/dokumentar/xl/okokrim-etterforsker-epsteins-overforinger-til-rod-larsen-1.18001797 +[^21]: Thomas Paust, "UD vil frigjøre dokumenter funnet i Rød-Larsens kjeller," *Nettavisen*, September 29, 2026. https://www.nettavisen.no/epstein-horingen/okokrim/terje-rod-larsen/ud-vil-frigjore-flere-oslo-dokumenter-funnet-i-kjellerboden-til-mona-juul-og-terje-rod-larsen/s/80-95-117074 diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf War.md b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf War.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a4102aab --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MAJOR_CONFLICTS/Gulf War.md @@ -0,0 +1,271 @@ +--- +category: "Major Conflict" +tags: + - Event + - GulfWar + - Iraq + - Kuwait + - DesertStorm + - CommodityCreditCorporation + - BNLScandal + - HillAndKnowlton + - CitizensForAFreeKuwait + - Nayirah + - GulfWarIllness + - Khamisiyah + - DualUseExports + - Section401 +alias: + - Gulf War + - Persian Gulf War + - 1991 Gulf War + - First Gulf War + - Operation Desert Storm + - Operation Desert Shield + - Gulf War of 1991 + - Desert Storm + - Desert Shield + - Persian Gulf Conflict +summary: "The 1990 to 1991 war in which a United States-led coalition expelled Iraq from Kuwait, after years of credits and exports to Baghdad, with Kuwaiti-paid publicity beforehand and veterans' illnesses afterward." +start: 1990-08-02 +end: 1991-02-28 +location: "Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia" +relations: + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Saddam Hussein]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990-08-02 + end: 1991-02-28 + role: "president of Iraq whose forces invaded Kuwait" + fn: 1 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[George H.W. Bush]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990-08-02 + end: 1991-02-28 + role: "President of the United States; American troop commitment of more than 500,000" + fn: 6 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[April Glaspie]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990-07-25 + end: 1990-07-25 + role: "United States ambassador to Iraq; meeting with Saddam Hussein" + fn: 16 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Tariq Aziz]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990-07-25 + end: 1990-07-25 + role: "Iraqi foreign minister present at the meeting with Glaspie" + fn: 16 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Hill and Knowlton]]" + reverse: true + role: "public relations firm of Citizens for a Free Kuwait" + fn: 28 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Citizens for a Free Kuwait]]" + reverse: true + role: "Kuwaiti-funded publicity organization" + fn: 28 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Lauri Fitz-Pegado]]" + reverse: true + role: "Hill & Knowlton Washington office, Kuwait account" + fn: 35 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Tom Lantos]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990-10-10 + end: 1990-10-10 + role: "co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus hearing at which Nayirah testified" + fn: 29 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[John Edward Porter]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990-10-10 + end: 1990-10-10 + role: "co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus hearing at which Nayirah testified" + fn: 29 + - type: funded + with: "[[Saudi Arabia]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990 + end: 1991 + role: "contributed 16,854 million dollars in cash and in kind toward American incremental costs" + fn: 39 + - type: funded + with: "[[Kuwait]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990 + end: 1991 + role: "contributed 16,059 million dollars toward American incremental costs" + fn: 39 + - type: funded + with: "[[Japan]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990 + end: 1991 + role: "contributed 10,012 million dollars toward American incremental costs" + fn: 39 + - type: funded + with: "[[Germany]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990 + end: 1991 + role: "contributed 6,455 million dollars toward American incremental costs" + fn: 39 + - type: funded + with: "[[United Arab Emirates]]" + reverse: true + start: 1990 + end: 1991 + role: "contributed 3,870 million dollars in cash and 218 million in kind toward American incremental costs" + fn: 39 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Senate Banking Committee]]" + reverse: true + start: 1993-08 + end: 1994-10-07 + role: "chaired by Donald Riegle; hearing of May 25, 1994 on dual-use exports and veterans' illnesses" + fn: 44 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses]]" + reverse: true + start: 1995-05 + role: "final report of December 1996 on veterans' illnesses and Khamisiyah" + fn: 45 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses]]" + reverse: true + role: "report of November 2008 on Gulf War illness" + fn: 46 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation]]" + reverse: true + start: 1994-02-10 + end: 1994-02-10 + role: "nomination hearing at which the Kuwaiti publicity campaign was examined" + fn: 35 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- +The Gulf War followed the invasion of [[Kuwait]] by [[Iraq]] on August 2, 1990, when three divisions of the [[Republican Guard Forces Command]] crossed the Kuwaiti frontier at 0100 local time and a special operations force attacked Kuwait City by helicopter at 0130.[^1] The [[United Nations Security Council]] adopted [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 660|Resolution 660]] the same day.[^2] On November 29, 1990 it adopted [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 678|Resolution 678]], which authorized member states cooperating with the Kuwaiti government, if Iraq had not complied by January 15, 1991, "to use all necessary means" to uphold Resolution 660 and the later resolutions.[^3] Coalition air attacks began on January 17, 1991, the ground offensive on February 24, and offensive operations ended at 0800 on February 28.[^4] The [[Department of Defense]] counted 613 American battle casualties, among them 146 killed in action (35 by fire from friendly forces) and 467 wounded (72 by friendly fire).[^5] More than 500,000 American troops took part, with more than 200,000 troops from other countries.[^2][^6] + +### Iraqi Debts and the Border Dispute + +[[Saddam Hussein]]'s government financed its war with [[Iran]] largely through loans; its Arab neighbors had lent it more than 37 billion dollars, and its 1990 military budget was 12.9 billion dollars. On July 17, 1990 Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait and the [[United Arab Emirates]] of exceeding oil production quotas. A meeting arranged by [[Hosni Mubarak]] and [[Fahd of Saudi Arabia|King Fahd]] at [[Jiddah]] on August 1 ended when the Iraqi representative, [[Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri|Izzat Ibrahim]], walked out, citing Kuwaiti reluctance to discuss the islands of Warbah and Bubiyan or to forgive Iraq's debt. Kuwaiti forces had gone on full alert after the July 17 speech and reduced the alert to 25 percent a week later.[^1] + +### American Credits and Exports before the Invasion + +In 1988 the [[United States Senate]] passed chemical warfare legislation aimed at Iraq. Iraq cancelled consultations on its fiscal 1989 agricultural credit guarantees, and the sanctions were removed from the bill, which passed in late December 1988, "because of agricultural and foreign policy considerations."[^7] In 1990 bills to restrict assistance to Iraq were introduced in both houses: S. 2480, which would have barred credits and guarantees unless the President certified that Iraq had opened its nuclear, chemical and biological sites to inspection; H.R. 4585, which passed the [[United States House of Representatives|House]] but not the Senate; and H.R. 4918, S. 2779 and S. 2787, none of which passed. The Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the administration opposed congressionally imposed sanctions for four reasons, among them that other nations would not join an embargo and that the administration's policy was to avoid using agricultural trade to pursue foreign policy goals. The Foreign Agricultural Service's revised risk procedure recommended limiting fiscal 1991 guarantees to 200 million dollars, conditioned on resolution of the BNL investigation.[^7] + +The [[Commodity Credit Corporation Iraq Program|guarantees]] came from the [[Commodity Credit Corporation]] of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]]. They had begun in fiscal 1983 at 401.9 million dollars, reached a high of about 1.1 billion dollars in each of fiscal 1988 and 1989, and totaled about 4.5 billion dollars through fiscal 1989, with 500 million dollars more approved for fiscal 1990. The department's own risk analyses for fiscal 1989 and 1990 rated Iraq a high-risk market. The [[Government Accountability Office|General Accounting Office]] wrote that "it also appears that foreign policy played at least as large a role in determining Iraq's GSM program levels as did market development potential, according to conversations we had with FAS and State Department officials."[^8][^9] + +[[National Security Directive 26]], issued by President [[George H.W. Bush]] and dated October 2, 1989, stated that "Normal relations between the United States and Iraq would serve our longer-term interests and promote stability in both the Gulf and the Middle East," that the government "should propose economic and political incentives for Iraq to moderate its behavior and to increase our influence with Iraq," and that any illegal use of chemical or biological weapons "will lead to economic and political sanctions." It also stated that the government "should pursue, and seek to facilitate, opportunities for U.S. firms to participate in the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy, particularly in the energy area, where they do not conflict with our non-proliferation and other significant objectives," and that, "as a means of developing access to and influence with the Iraqi defense establishment," it should consider sales of non-lethal military assistance case by case. The directive instructed the [[Director of Central Intelligence]] to increase collection on early warning indicators in the Gulf.[^10] + +Loans from the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] were among those guaranteed. The Northern District of Georgia United States Attorney's office was notified in August 1989 that the branch had kept a second set of books and made unauthorized and unreported loans to Iraq, and the Agriculture Department's inspector general joined the investigation in September 1989, when it learned that about 750 million dollars of the loans were guaranteed by the Commodity Credit Corporation. Agriculture offered half of the 1 billion dollars Iraq requested for fiscal 1990, "with the remainder dependent on the results of the ongoing Justice investigation." The first 500 million dollars was exhausted, and Iraq asked for more in February 1990.[^8] The General Accounting Office concluded that "the U.S. desire to build a strategic and agricultural trade relationship with Iraq outweighed the apparent financial risks involved and discounted evidence of Iraq's human rights violations."[^8] + +The [[Central Intelligence Agency]] Directorate of Intelligence circulated a memorandum on November 6, 1989 titled "Iraq-Italy: Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal." It stated that the branch had extended 3.2 billion dollars in 2,500 unauthorized letters of credit between February 1988 and July 1989, disbursing 1.85 billion dollars, including at least 800 million dollars guaranteed by the Commodity Credit Corporation, at an average commission of 0.2 percent. It cited British press reports that Iraq had used at least 600 million dollars of the credits to buy military and dual-use technology through front companies, described a procurement network in which "In 1987 TMG gained control of Matrix-Churchill, Ltd.," and stated: "We believe Iraqi intelligence is directly involved in the activities of many holding companies funnelling technology to Iraq." On the effect on American relations the memorandum said that the strain "will probably be short-lived, particularly if [[Baghdad]] believes additional US credits will be forthcoming after the dust of the investigation settles."[^11] [[Matrix Churchill]] is the subject of the British prosecution and the [[Scott Inquiry]] recorded at [[Arms-to-Iraq]]. + +Between the search of the branch on August 4, 1989 and the return of the indictment on February 28, 1991, the day offensive operations ended, the United States Attorney's office, a task force, the Justice Department and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] investigated more than 5.5 billion dollars in loans and letters of credit made largely to benefit entities controlled by the Iraqi government.[^12] The branch manager, [[Christopher Drogoul]], was the defendant. [[Joseph D. Whitley]] became acting United States Attorney on June 1, 1990 and recused himself from the case the same day; his former law firm had at one time represented Matrix-Churchill.[^13] The independent counsel [[Frederick Lacey]], whose report is printed in the [[House Banking Committee]]'s 1993 hearing record, wrote of [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], who had been officers of [[Kissinger Associates]] when Banca Nazionale del Lavoro was its client: "It is clear that, while at Kissinger Associates, Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with BNL management. I have seen nothing, however, to suggest that they knew of BNL-Atlanta's wrongful loans to Iraq or influenced the prosecution of this matter."[^13] In written answers to the committee Drogoul wrote that [[Wafai Dajani]] had told him that [[Henry A. Kissinger]] "was the architect of these loans as they related to U.S. foreign policy," and: "As to the United States, I concluded that they must have been aware of our activities."[^14] The prosecution and the committee's investigation under [[Henry B. Gonzalez]] are recorded at [[BNL Scandal]]. + +### July 25, 1990 + +A Central Intelligence Agency combined message titled "Middle East Area Brief for 25 July 1990" carried an item headed "Iraq-Kuwait: Is Baghdad Bluffing." It stated: "KUWAIT BELIEVES IRAQ IS ONLY BLUFFING. THE KUWAITIS PROBABLY ARE MISTAKEN," and, of Iraq: "IRAQ PROBABLY IS NOT BLUFFING; TO ACCEPT LESS THAN SATISFACTION OF ITS DEMANDS FOR REDUCED OIL PRODUCTION AND CASH IN THE FORM OF AN ARAB RECONSTRUCTION FUND WOULD BE A HUMILIATING RETREAT." The brief placed Republican Guard artillery and rocket launchers near the Kuwaiti border and judged that Saddam Hussein "ALMOST CERTAINLY FEARS THAT BROADER MILITARY ACTION WOULD BRING THE US INTO THE FRAY."[^15] + +At noon the same day Saddam Hussein received the American ambassador, [[April Glaspie]], with the foreign minister [[Tariq Aziz]], the head of his office, two note-takers and an interpreter present. Her cable to the [[United States Secretary of State]], logged at 12:46 and classified secret, described his manner as "cordial, reasonable and even warm" over two hours. It recorded Saddam Hussein as saying, with the President and Secretary [[James A. Baker III|Baker]] emphatically excluded, that "some circles" in the American government, including the CIA and the [[State Department]], were not friendly toward Iraq, and listing among his evidence that they "worked to ensure no help would go to Iraq (read EXIM and CCC)." He gave Iraq's debts as 40 billion dollars and remarked that nothing was left for Iraq to buy in the United States except wheat, "and no doubt that will soon be declared a dual-use item." Glaspie asked about the units of the Republican Guard sent to the border and what Iraq's intentions were. Saddam Hussein left the room to take a call from Mubarak and returned to say that the Kuwaiti crown prince would come to Baghdad on July 28, 29 or 30 and that "nothing will happen" until the meeting. The cable's note on the border question records Glaspie as saying that she had served in Kuwait twenty years earlier and that "then, as now, we took no position on these Arab affairs"; its summary states that the ambassador "made clear that we can never excuse settlement of disputes by other than peaceful means."[^16] + +An Iraqi record of the meeting, translated from Arabic by [[ABC News]] and supplied to *[[The New York Times]]*, was published on September 23, 1990; the State Department declined to comment on its accuracy. It quotes Glaspie as saying: "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."[^17] Glaspie told the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on March 20, 1991 that Saddam Hussein had lied to her, that the transcript had been selectively edited, and that "we did not realize he was stupid"; committee chairman [[Claiborne Pell]] said that by the time of the meeting Saddam Hussein "had clearly made up his mind to go into Kuwait."[^18] + +[[Edward Gnehm]], then the ambassador-designate to Kuwait, said in a 2014 oral history that his own confirmation hearing before the Senate subcommittee on the Middle East was held on the same afternoon, July 25, and that the chairman, [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], the only senator present, remarked that "We should just divide Kuwait, give half to the Iraqis and half to the Saudis."[^19] + +### Authorization of Force + +[[National Security Directive 54]], dated January 15, 1991, cited H.J. Res. 77 as authority for military action against Iraq, listed among its aims to "destroy Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear capabilities," directed that the United States discourage [[Israel]] from taking part, recognized the territorial integrity of Iraq, and made it "an explicit objective" to replace the Iraqi leadership if Iraq used chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, supported terrorist acts, or destroyed Kuwait's oil fields.[^20] When the first Iraqi Scud missiles fell on Israeli cities after the war began, according to the Defense Department's report, the Israeli leadership decided not to take military action; the report also states that a Scud strike on a barracks in February inflicted more American casualties than any other single engagement.[^21] The House passed H.Con.Res. 41, condemning the Iraqi attack against Israel, on January 23, 1991 by 416 to 0.[^22] + +On January 3, 1991 Senator [[Ernest Hollings]] of South Carolina told the Senate that "The Kuwaiti Government's idea of resistance is to hire a top-dollar public relations firm, [[Hill and Knowlton]], to sell the American public on liberating Kuwait."[^23] On January 4 he said that "The Kuwaitis' PR crowd has been putting stories on the news about rape and about infants being yanked out of incubators by Iraqi soldiers; which I do not doubt is true."[^24] The Senate passed [[Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution|S.J.Res. 2]] on January 12 by 52 to 47; Hollings voted no.[^25] The House passed H.J.Res. 77 the same day by 250 to 183, with [[Tom Lantos]] and [[John Edward Porter]] voting yes and Gonzalez voting no.[^26] H.J.Res. 77 became [[Public Law 102-1]] on January 14, 1991.[^27] + +### Citizens for a Free Kuwait and Hill and Knowlton + +[[Middle East Watch]] reported in February 1992 that within weeks of the invasion [[Citizens for a Free Kuwait]] was established in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], that it drew almost all of its funds from the Kuwaiti government, and that it hired Hill & Knowlton, which according to press reports was paid 5.6 million dollars between August and December 1990 and assigned 75 employees to the account. About 95 percent of the group's funds came from the Kuwaiti government, according to its disclosure documents filed with the [[United States Department of Justice]]. The firm's staff on the account included [[Craig Fuller]], who had been chief of staff to George H.W. Bush when he was vice president, and [[Robert K. Gray]], whose firm [[Gray & Company]] had merged with Hill & Knowlton in 1986.[^28] + +On October 10, 1990 the [[Congressional Human Rights Caucus]], chaired by Lantos and Porter, heard a fifteen-year-old witness identified only as [[Nayirah]]. She said: "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers coming into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where 15 babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the babies on the cold floor to die."[^29] On November 27 a witness presented to the Security Council as Dr. Issah Ibrahim, and identified by Middle East Watch as Dr. [[Ibrahim Bahbahani]], said: "Under my supervision, 120 newborn babies were buried the second week of the invasion. I myself buried 40 newborn babies that had been taken from their incubators." Two days later the Council adopted Resolution 678. Middle East Watch reported that both appearances were organized on the Kuwaiti side by Hill & Knowlton and that Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, [[Saud al-Nasser al-Sabah]]; Hill & Knowlton had said that she worked at the hospital under an assumed name. It reported that Bahbahani was an orthodontist who told it on November 30, 1990 that he had direct knowledge of forty babies, not 120, and who told ABC News on March 18, 1991: "I buried around thirty."[^29] + +[[Amnesty International]] published a report on December 19, 1990 that quoted a Red Crescent doctor saying that 312 babies had died after being taken out of incubators.[^30] Several senators repeated the incubator account in the debate on the war resolution. On January 10 Senator [[Orrin Hatch]] said that "Even ailing infants have been left to die as their incubators were carted away by Saddam Hussein and his people."[^31] On January 11 Senator [[Christopher Bond]] said that Iraqi soldiers "have taken newborn infants and thrown them out of incubators"; Senator [[John McCain]] read the Amnesty passage including the figure of 312 and said "I wish that every American would take the opportunity of reading Amnesty International's report"; Senator [[John Breaux]] said that "In hospital maternity wards Kuwaiti infants were taken from their incubators and left to die. The incubators were sent back to Baghdad"; and Senator [[Frank Murkowski]] listed among the practices described by Amnesty "denying incubators to hundreds of premature babies."[^32] Bond, McCain, Breaux, Hatch and Murkowski voted for S.J.Res. 2.[^25] + +Middle East Watch visited Kuwait from March 12 to 31, 1991, interviewed hospital staff, and examined hospital and cemetery records. It found that the al-Rigga cemetery recorded 30 infants buried on August 24, 1990, of whom 19 had died between June 27 and August 1, before the invasion; that the Maternity Hospital's incubators were all accounted for, close to eighty in its two main neonatal wards; and that the hospital director denied that babies had been thrown out of incubators. It concluded that it had "found no basis to the allegation that Iraqi troops took babies from incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals, causing them to die." Amnesty International had in April 1991 stated that it "found no reliable evidence" of the claim. Middle East Watch also found that a claim by Citizens for a Free Kuwait that a labor leader had died in detention after torture was false; he had died of cancer in hospital. As of February 1992 the Kuwaiti government and Hill & Knowlton maintained that the incidents occurred on a large scale; the Kuwaiti ambassador had said in a Canadian television interview that the incubators seen in hospitals after liberation were replacements shipped to Kuwait, and the American embassy in Kuwait had supported the account in a cable of February 4, 1992.[^33] + +The [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] registrant list shows Citizens for a Free Kuwait as registration number 4551, at 4301 Connecticut Avenue, Northwest, Washington, registered on May 17, 1991, seventy-eight days after offensive operations ended, and terminated on March 19, 1992. The registrant list for Hill and Knowlton Strategies shows registration number 3301, dated November 10, 1981.[^34] + +The [[Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation]] examined the episode on February 10, 1994 at the hearing on the nomination of [[Lauri Fitz-Pegado]], who had worked in the Washington office of Hill & Knowlton, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service. Fitz-Pegado testified that Hill & Knowlton represented Citizens for a Free Kuwait for five months before the war, that the witness did not give her last name because of fear of reprisals against her family, that her identity "was revealed to the committee," as she said Lantos, the co-chairman, had stated on the floor of the Congress, that she "had no reason whatsoever to question the veracity" of the testimony, and that she had met the doctor who testified at the [[United Nations]] a few days beforehand and had relied on information the firm could not check in an occupied country. Senator [[Byron Dorgan]] stated that the [[Kroll Associates|Kroll]] Report, which he believed was paid for by the Kuwaiti government, found that the witness had been at the hospital for a brief visit but was not a volunteer and saw no dead babies removed; Fitz-Pegado answered that her understanding was that the report said the witness was in Kuwait, was a volunteer at the hospital, and witnessed the incident. Dorgan said he would have been skeptical had he known the witness was the ambassador's daughter.[^35] + +The writer [[John R. MacArthur]], author of *Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War*, testified at the same hearing against the nomination. He stated that Citizens for a Free Kuwait filed no Foreign Agents Registration Act form "until well after the gulf war," that nearly 11 million dollars in fees paid to the firm came from the Kuwaiti government against about 17,000 dollars raised in the United States, that Hill & Knowlton's House lobbyist [[Gary Hymel]] and others including Fitz-Pegado arranged the caucus hearing, that Fitz-Pegado coached the witness, that Lantos's [[Congressional Human Rights Foundation]] occupied rent-free space in the firm's Washington headquarters, and that the firm's damage control after his January 6, 1992 article in *The New York Times* was managed by [[Frank Mankiewicz]]. He stated that six senators cited the incubator story in support of the war resolution.[^36] The Senate confirmed Fitz-Pegado on June 16, 1994 by 69 to 30; Dorgan and [[Lauch Faircloth]] voted no, McCain and [[Donald W. Riegle Jr.|Riegle]] yes.[^37] + +### Costs and Foreign Contributions + +Section 401 of [[Public Law 102-25]] required reports on American costs and foreign contributions. In early September 1990 President Bush sent two missions abroad, one led by the Secretary of the Treasury (to the [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], [[South Korea]] and [[Japan]]) and one by the Secretary of State, James Baker (to [[Saudi Arabia]], the Kuwaiti government in exile, the United Arab Emirates, [[Egypt]], Brussels, [[Italy]] and [[Germany]]). In late September, in the fiscal 1991 continuing resolution, Congress expanded the Secretary of Defense's authority to accept contributions and established the [[Defense Cooperation Account]] to receive them.[^38] The Defense Department estimated American incremental costs at 61 billion dollars and reported that coalition countries had committed almost 54 billion dollars, about two-thirds from Gulf states and the rest largely from Japan and Germany, of which almost 53 billion dollars had arrived by March 11, 1992, more than 47 billion in cash.[^6] + +The twentieth report, sent on October 15, 1992 by the Office of Management and Budget director [[Richard Darman]] to Vice President [[Dan Quayle]] and Speaker [[Tom Foley]], gave the final figures: 53,749 million dollars received (48,090 million in cash and 5,659 million in kind) against 53,951 million committed. By country, receipts were Saudi Arabia 16,854 million, Kuwait 16,059 million, the United Arab Emirates 3,870 million in cash and 218 million in kind, Japan 10,012 million, Germany 6,455 million and South Korea 251 million. The Defense Department's attached preliminary estimate put costs reported through August 31, 1992 at 56.8 billion dollars and, with potential additional exposure of 4.2 billion, at 61.1 billion. A footnote records that Germany made available more than 200 million dollars' worth of ammunition that the United States chose not to accept because the war had ended.[^39] In the Defense Department's April 1992 account, receipts as of March 11, 1992 were 16,003 million dollars from Saudi Arabia, 16,058 million from Kuwait and 52,893 million in all, and Japan provided almost 500 million dollars of in-kind equipment, of which more than 80 percent "were made in the United States or provided by US suppliers."[^40] + +The General Accounting Office table of the Commodity Credit Corporation's contingent liability on Iraqi guarantees, dated November 1990, totals 2,008,599,986 dollars, scheduled by year from 154 million dollars in fiscal 1990 and 930 million in fiscal 1991 to 622 million in 1992 and 288 million in 1993.[^41] + +### Chemical and Biological Exports and Veterans' Illnesses + +The [[Senate Banking Committee|Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs]], chaired by Donald W. Riegle Jr., held a hearing on May 25, 1994 on dual-use exports to Iraq and their possible bearing on illnesses among American veterans. Riegle, who had voted against S.J.Res. 2 on January 12, 1991, stated that [[UN Special Commission|UNSCOM]] inspectors had found and destroyed 28 Scud warheads containing sarin, which a Defense Department official said had been obtained from the former [[Soviet Union]], and that a Defense Department medical official told his staff on September 7, 1993 that the question of chemical and biological exposure had not been explored because it was the position of "military intelligence" that such exposures never occurred, and that on November 10, 1993 the Pentagon acknowledged that Czech units had detected chemical agents in the theater but concluded that the detections were unrelated to veterans' health problems.[^42] Deputy Secretary of Defense [[John Deutch]] said on May 6, 1994, according to the committee report, that the United States had "no biological detection capability deployed with any forces, anywhere."[^43] + +Committee staff compiled a list of biological materials shipped to Iraq from the [[American Type Culture Collection]] of Rockville, Maryland, under [[Department of Commerce|Commerce Department]] export licenses. They included 24 cultures, among them *Bacillus anthracis*, *Clostridium botulinum* types A and E, and *Francisella tularensis*, sent to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education on May 2, 1986; 11 cultures, including four *Bacillus anthracis* strains and *Clostridium botulinum* type A, sent to the Ministry of Trade on September 29, 1988; and *E. coli* and cloned human genetic material sent to the [[Iraq Atomic Energy Commission]] in 1987, 1988 and 1989. A [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|Centers for Disease Control]] listing for the period from October 1, 1984 added shipments including botulinum toxoid to an address in Baghdad in March and April 1986. Committee staff stated that records before 1985 were unavailable from the supplier and that the exported materials were not attenuated, and that inspections by UNSCOM found evidence of Iraqi research on pathogen enhancement involving anthrax, botulinum, *Clostridium perfringens*, brucella, tularemia and tetanus organisms.[^43] According to the committee's third staff report, dated October 7, 1994, a committee hearing on October 27, 1992 had revealed that the United States exported chemical, biological, nuclear and missile-system equipment to Iraq that was converted to military use.[^44] + +The [[Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses]], created in May 1995, held 18 public meetings between August 1995 and November 1996. Its final report found that "current scientific evidence does not support a causal link" between veterans' symptoms and exposures to pesticides, chemical warfare agents, biological warfare agents, vaccines, pyridostigmine bromide, infectious diseases, depleted uranium, oil-well fires and smoke, or petroleum products, and described stress as "likely to be an important contributing factor." It also found that the Defense Department's investigations of possible chemical and biological exposures were "superficial." Since 1991 the department's public position had been that there was no use or presence of chemical weapons in the theater, and a [[Defense Science Board]] task force concluded in June 1994 that there was "no evidence" of exposures in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. On March 4, 1991 American personnel destroyed munitions containing 8.5 metric tons of sarin and cyclosarin in Bunker 73 at [[Khamisiyah]] and on March 10 destroyed rockets at a pit there. The committee concluded: "The evidence of CW agent release at Khamisiyah is overwhelming." The units within 25 kilometers included the 37th and 307th Engineer Battalions, the 60th and 146th Explosive Ordnance Detachments, the 450th Civil Affairs Battalion and components of the 82nd Airborne Division. The Central Intelligence Agency began its review of intelligence on chemical and biological agents in March 1995; the Defense Department's [[Persian Gulf Illnesses Investigation Team]] conducted no interviews with possible eyewitnesses to Khamisiyah until June 1996, after UNSCOM confirmed in May 1996 its initial reports of chemical agents there.[^45] + +The [[Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses]], chaired by [[James H. Binns]], reported in November 2008 that Gulf War illness "affects at least one fourth of the 697,000 U.S. veterans who served" and that use of pyridostigmine bromide pills and pesticides during deployment were causally associated with it.[^46] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, chapter I, "The Invasion of Kuwait," pp. 1-5. https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^2]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, Overview, pp. 23-24 (coalition forces; United Nations Security Council Resolution 660, August 2, 1990). https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^3]: Middle East Watch, "Kuwait's 'Stolen' Incubators: The Widespread Repercussions of a Murky Incident," vol. 4, no. 1, February 6, 1992, p. 5 and n. 14 (text of paragraph 2 of United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, November 29, 1990). https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/k/kuwait/kuwait922.pdf +[^4]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, chapter VI, "The Air Campaign," and chapter VIII, "The Ground Campaign" (G-Day, February 24, 1991; offensive operations ended at 0800 on February 28). https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^5]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, Appendix M, "Fire from Friendly Forces," introduction. https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^6]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, Appendix P, "Responsibility Sharing," pp. P-1 to P-3. https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^7]: General Accounting Office, *International Trade: Iraq's Participation in U.S. Agricultural Export Programs*, GAO/NSIAD-91-76, November 14, 1990, appendix I, "Chronology of U.S.-Iraqi Agricultural Trade Relations and Foreign Policy, 1983-1990." http://web.archive.org/web/20260628093619/https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-91-76.pdf +[^8]: General Accounting Office, *International Trade: Iraq's Participation in U.S. Agricultural Export Programs*, GAO/NSIAD-91-76, November 14, 1990, pp. 1-3 (letter and results in brief). http://web.archive.org/web/20260628093619/https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-91-76.pdf +[^9]: General Accounting Office, *International Trade: Iraq's Participation in U.S. Agricultural Export Programs*, GAO/NSIAD-91-76, November 14, 1990, appendix II, "Evolution of Iraq's Participation in the GSM Program," table II.1. http://web.archive.org/web/20260628093619/https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-91-76.pdf +[^10]: George H.W. Bush, National Security Directive 26, "U.S. Policy Toward the Persian Gulf," October 2, 1989, pp. 1-3 (sections "Force Levels" and "Arms Sales"). https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsd/nsd26.pdf (Wayback Machine capture of June 14, 2021: http://web.archive.org/web/20210614161833/https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsd/nsd26.pdf). +[^11]: Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, "Iraq-Italy: Repercussions of the BNL-Atlanta Scandal," November 6, 1989, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro*, Serial No. 103-95, 103d Cong., 1st sess., hearing of November 9, 1993, pp. 194-199. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit +[^12]: Frederick B. Lacey, "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," part I, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro*, Serial No. 103-95, 103d Cong., 1st sess., hearing of November 9, 1993, pp. 359-360. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit +[^13]: Frederick B. Lacey, "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," part I, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro*, Serial No. 103-95, 103d Cong., 1st sess., hearing of November 9, 1993, pp. 513-514 (sections on Kissinger Associates and on the recusal of Joseph D. Whitley). https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit +[^14]: Written answers of Christopher P. Drogoul, answers to questions 4 and 6, printed in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, *Testimony of Former Employees of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro*, Serial No. 103-95, 103d Cong., 1st sess., hearing of November 9, 1993, pp. 140-143. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit +[^15]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Middle East Area Brief for 25 July 1990," combined message, secret, item 1, "Iraq-Kuwait: Is Baghdad Bluffing," CIA Reading Room document 0000200664 (partly redacted). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0000200664 +[^16]: American Embassy Baghdad (April Glaspie) to Secretary of State, "Saddam's Message of Friendship to President Bush," cable 90 Baghdad 04237, July 25, 1990, secret, paragraphs 3-5, 6, 23-24, 27-28 and 30. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/90BAGHDAD4237_a.html +[^17]: "Excerpts From Iraqi Document on Meeting with U.S. Envoy," *The New York Times*, September 23, 1990, p. 19 (text reproduced at https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/glaspie.html). +[^18]: "Saddam Lied, U.S. Envoy Testifies," *Roanoke Times* (Associated Press and *The Baltimore Sun*), March 21, 1991, p. A-1. https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1991/rt9103/910321/03210377.htm +[^19]: Edward W. Gnehm, oral history interview by Charles Stuart Kennedy, May 2014, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, excerpted in "A Day of Mixed Messages over Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait," adst.org, May 2017. https://adst.org/2017/05/day-mixed-messages-iraqs-invasion-kuwait/ +[^20]: George H.W. Bush, National Security Directive 54, "Responding to Iraqi Aggression in the Gulf," January 15, 1991, top secret, paragraphs 2, 3(c), 7, 9 and 10. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsd/nsd54.pdf (copy at https://web.archive.org/web/2id_/https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsd/nsd54.pdf). +[^21]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, Overview (Israeli response to the first Scud attacks), and chapter VI, "The Air Campaign," pp. 122-123. https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^22]: U.S. House of Representatives, Roll Call 11, 102d Cong., 1st sess., January 23, 1991, H.Con.Res. 41, condemning the Iraqi attack against Israel, 416 to 0. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/199111 +[^23]: Remarks of Senator Ernest Hollings, January 3, 1991, pp. S11-S13, in *Congressional Record* (bound edition), vol. 137, Senate, January 1991, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1.pdf. +[^24]: Remarks of Senator Ernest Hollings, January 4, 1991, pp. S310-S313, in *Congressional Record* (bound edition), vol. 137, Senate, January 1991, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1.pdf. +[^25]: U.S. Senate, Roll Call Vote No. 2, 102d Cong., 1st sess., January 12, 1991, S.J.Res. 2 (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution), 52 to 47. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1021/vote_102_1_00002.htm +[^26]: U.S. House of Representatives, Roll Call 9, 102d Cong., 1st sess., January 12, 1991, H.J.Res. 77, 250 to 183. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/19919 +[^27]: Public Law 102-1, 105 Stat. 3, January 14, 1991. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-105/pdf/STATUTE-105-Pg3.pdf +[^28]: Middle East Watch, "Kuwait's 'Stolen' Incubators: The Widespread Repercussions of a Murky Incident," vol. 4, no. 1, February 6, 1992, pp. 4-5 and nn. 9-10 (citing Gary Lee, "Kuwait's Campaign On the PR Front," *The Washington Post*, November 29, 1990, and "Kuwaitis Pay $5.6 Million to Publicity Firm," *The Washington Post*, December 19, 1990). https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/k/kuwait/kuwait922.pdf +[^29]: Middle East Watch, "Kuwait's 'Stolen' Incubators: The Widespread Repercussions of a Murky Incident," vol. 4, no. 1, February 6, 1992, pp. 5-7 and nn. 12-13 (citing "Testimony by Nayirah," Congressional Human Rights Caucus, October 10, 1990, pp. 2-3, and United Nations Security Council, provisional verbatim record, S/PV.2959, November 27, 1990, p. 37). https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/k/kuwait/kuwait922.pdf +[^30]: Middle East Watch, "Kuwait's 'Stolen' Incubators: The Widespread Repercussions of a Murky Incident," vol. 4, no. 1, February 6, 1992, pp. 3 and 6-7, nn. 8 and 15 (citing Amnesty International, *Iraq/Occupied Kuwait: Human Rights Violations Since August 2, 1990*, December 19, 1990, pp. 57-58). https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/k/kuwait/kuwait922.pdf +[^31]: Remarks of Senator Orrin Hatch, January 10, 1991, p. S449, in *Congressional Record* (bound edition), vol. 137, Senate, January 1991, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1.pdf. +[^32]: Remarks of Senators Christopher Bond (p. S823), John McCain (p. S827), John Breaux (p. S830) and Frank Murkowski (p. S880), January 11, 1991, in *Congressional Record* (bound edition), vol. 137, Senate, January 1991, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt1.pdf. +[^33]: Middle East Watch, "Kuwait's 'Stolen' Incubators: The Widespread Repercussions of a Murky Incident," vol. 4, no. 1, February 6, 1992, pp. 3, 8-9, 14-15 and nn. 20, 34 (citing Amnesty International news release, April 19, 1991). https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/k/kuwait/kuwait922.pdf +[^34]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act e-file system, registrants lists, Registration No. 4551, Citizens for a Free Kuwait (terminated registrants), and Registration No. 3301, Hill and Knowlton Strategies, LLC (active registrants), retrieved October 1, 2026. https://efile.fara.gov/api/v1/Registrants/json/Terminated and https://efile.fara.gov/api/v1/Registrants/json/Active +[^35]: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, *Nominations of Ginger Ehn Lew to be General Counsel ... Lauri Fitz-Pegado to be Assistant Secretary and Director-General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce*, S. Hrg. 103-966, 103d Cong., 2d sess., February 10, 1994, pp. 42-46 (testimony of Lauri Fitz-Pegado and questions of Senator Byron Dorgan). https://archive.org/details/nominationsofgin00unit +[^36]: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, *Nominations of Ginger Ehn Lew to be General Counsel ... Lauri Fitz-Pegado to be Assistant Secretary and Director-General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce*, S. Hrg. 103-966, 103d Cong., 2d sess., February 10, 1994, pp. 46-51 (testimony of John R. MacArthur). https://archive.org/details/nominationsofgin00unit +[^37]: U.S. Senate, Roll Call Vote No. 148, 103d Cong., 2d sess., June 16, 1994, confirmation of Lauri Fitz-Pegado (PN657), 69 to 30. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1032/vote_103_2_00148.htm +[^38]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, Appendix P, "Responsibility Sharing," pp. P-3 to P-4. https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^39]: Office of Management and Budget, Richard Darman, Director, letters of October 15, 1992 to Vice President J. Danforth Quayle and Speaker Thomas S. Foley transmitting the twentieth report, *United States Costs in the Persian Gulf Conflict and Foreign Contributions to Offset Such Costs*, required by section 401 of Public Law 102-25, text, table 13 and attachment. https://archive.org/details/USCostsinthePersianGulfConflictandForeignContributionstooffsetsuchcostsasrequiredbySection401PL10225 +[^40]: Department of Defense, *Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress*, pursuant to Title V of the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefits Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-25), April 1992, Appendix P, "Responsibility Sharing," figure P-1 and pp. P-7 to P-8. https://archive.org/details/ConductofthePersianGulfWarFinalReporttoCongress +[^41]: General Accounting Office, *International Trade: Iraq's Participation in U.S. Agricultural Export Programs*, GAO/NSIAD-91-76, November 14, 1990, appendix IV, table IV.2, "CCC's Contingent Liability Under the GSM-102/103 Programs for Iraq." http://web.archive.org/web/20260628093619/https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-91-76.pdf +[^42]: Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, S. Hrg. 103-900, 103d Cong., 2d sess., May 25, 1994, pp. 1-6 (opening statement of Chairman Donald W. Riegle Jr.). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesdual00unit +[^43]: Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, S. Hrg. 103-900, 103d Cong., 2d sess., May 25, 1994, committee report of May 25, 1994, pp. 34-48 (printed at pp. 262-276 of the hearing print). https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesdual00unit +[^44]: Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, *United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian Gulf War Veterans*, S. Hrg. 103-900, 103d Cong., 2d sess., May 25, 1994, Committee Staff Report No. 3, "Chemical Warfare Agent Identification, Chemical Injuries, and Other Findings," October 7, 1994, pp. 435-437 of the hearing print. https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesdual00unit +[^45]: Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, *Final Report*, December 1996 (web edition, April 1997), Executive Summary and chapter 2 ("Chemical and Biological Weapons"). https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA324720 +[^46]: Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, *Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans: Scientific Findings and Recommendations*, U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2008, Findings in Brief, p. 1. https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA490518 diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/September 11 attacks.md b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/September 11 attacks.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9bdc2060 --- /dev/null +++ b/40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/September 11 attacks.md @@ -0,0 +1,219 @@ +--- +category: "Modern Incident" +tags: + - Event + - Terrorism + - SeptemberEleventh + - AlQaeda + - SaudiArabia + - JointInquiry + - NineElevenCommission + - OperationEncore + - AbleDanger + - JASTA + - FBI + - CIA +alias: + - September 11 attacks + - September 11 + - September 11, 2001 + - September 11th attacks + - 9/11 + - 9/11 attacks + - 9/11 terrorist attacks + - Sept. 11 attacks + - 11 September 2001 + - September 11th + - 9/11 terrorist attack +summary: "Four al-Qaeda hijackings on September 11, 2001 killed 2,973 people; the record includes unshared CIA travel data on two hijackers, Saudi-linked contacts in California, and litigation against Saudi Arabia that reached a 2025 ruling." +start: 2001-09-11 +location: "New York, New York; Arlington, Virginia; Shanksville, Pennsylvania" +relations: + - type: investigated + with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]" + reverse: true + role: "PENTTBOM and Operation Encore investigations" + start: 2001-09-11 + fn: 28 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Securities and Exchange Commission]]" + reverse: true + role: "pre-attack trading review" + start: 2001-09-12 + end: 2002-05-15 + fn: 37 + - type: investigated + with: "[[9/11 Commission]]" + reverse: true + role: "statutory commission of inquiry" + start: 2002-11-27 + fn: 10 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Joint Inquiry]]" + reverse: true + role: "joint House and Senate intelligence committee inquiry" + fn: 2 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency Office of Inspector General]]" + reverse: true + role: "accountability review of CIA performance before the attacks" + fn: 22 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The September 11 attacks were four coordinated hijackings of [[United States]] airliners carried out on September 11, 2001, by members of [[al-Qaeda]]. [[American Airlines]] Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the [[World Trade Center]] at 8:46:40, [[United Airlines]] Flight 175 struck the South Tower at 9:03:11, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the [[Pentagon]] at 9:37:46, and United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11. The [[9/11 Commission]] counted 2,973 deaths, which it described as the largest loss of life from a hostile attack on United States soil.[^1] + +### Joint Inquiry + +The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducted a joint inquiry in 2002 under Senator [[Bob Graham]] and Representative [[Porter Goss]], with [[Nancy Pelosi]] as ranking minority member of the House committee. On January 29, 2003, the three wrote to [[Director of Central Intelligence]] [[George Tenet]] that the final report had been submitted for declassification review, and recommended a Director of National Intelligence who would not simultaneously direct the [[Central Intelligence Agency]].[^2] + +Part Four of the report, headed "Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters," remained classified until July 15, 2016, when the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] under Chairman [[Devin Nunes]] and Ranking Member [[Adam Schiff]] published the 28-page section after the administration of [[Barack Obama]] declassified it with redactions. Nunes stated that the section "does not put forward vetted conclusions, but rather unverified leads that were later fully investigated by the Intelligence Community."[^3] + +Finding 20 of Part Four stated that some of the hijackers, while in the United States, were in contact with and received support or assistance from individuals who may be connected to the [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi Government]], and that FBI sources alleged that at least two of those individuals were Saudi intelligence officers. The Joint Inquiry wrote that it had not independently assessed the information, that further investigation could reveal "legitimate, and innocent, explanations," and that it was referring the staff compilation to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] and the CIA.[^4] + +The discussion identified [[Omar al-Bayoumi]], who had assisted [[Nawaf al-Hazmi]] and [[Khalid al-Mihdhar]] in San Diego in 2000, as the subject of reports from individuals in the Muslim community, dating to 1999, that he might be a Saudi intelligence officer. The FBI had conducted a counterterrorism investigation of him in 1998 and 1999 and closed it. According to an FBI document quoted in Part Four, he received money from the Saudi Ministry of Defense through a Saudi company whose official told the FBI after the attacks that Bayoumi appeared at the company once and received a monthly salary; his monthly allowances were approximately $465 before the hijackers arrived, rose to over $3,700 in March 2000, fell to approximately $3,200 after December 2000, and continued until he left the United States in August 2001. A school application listed his employer as Dallah Avco, a subsidiary of a company the FBI had linked to [[Osama bin Laden]]. A former case agent testified before the committees that Bayoumi "acted like a Saudi intelligence officer, in my opinion." The same section recorded that the FBI's November 18, 2002 response stated there was "no evidence" to conclude that he was one.[^5] + +Part Four also described Osama Bassnan, a close associate of Bayoumi. The FBI had found copies of cashier's checks totaling $74,000, dated February 22, 1999 to May 30, 2002, payable to Bassnan's wife and drawn on the [[Riggs Bank]] account of the wife of Saudi Ambassador [[Bandar bin Sultan]], and a standing order of $2,000 a month on that account since January 1999. The FBI's Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence, [[Pasquale D'Amuro]], testified on October 9, 2002 that what the money was for was not known. Part Four recorded a later FBI correction that only Bassnan's wife received money directly from Prince Bandar's wife, and that Bayoumi's wife attempted to deposit three of the checks into her own accounts.[^6] + +A telephone number in the contact book of [[Abu Zubaydah]], captured in Pakistan in March 2002, was linked through toll records to a number subscribed by ASPCOL Corporation of Aspen, Colorado, which the FBI's Denver Field Office identified as the umbrella corporation managing the Colorado residence of Prince Bandar. The Denver office made no local inquiries, believing that inquiries about ASPCOL would quickly become known to Prince Bandar's employees, and held its investigation in abeyance pending guidance from FBI Headquarters. The Colorado Secretary of State had no record of the corporation. The FBI's November 18, 2002 response stated that CIA traces had revealed no direct links between numbers in Zubaydah's phone book and numbers in the United States.[^7] + +Part Four also described a CIA memorandum found in the files of the FBI's San Diego Field Office, which discussed alleged financial connections between the hijackers, Saudi officials and members of the Saudi royal family. The FBI agent who received it placed it in an individual case file and did not forward it to FBI Headquarters, which learned of its contents from the Joint Inquiry.[^8] + +The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations minority staff report on Riggs Bank, dated July 14, 2004 and prepared at the request of Senator [[Carl Levin]], records that the bank held more than 150 accounts associated with Saudi Arabia, and that the [[Office of the Comptroller of the Currency]] first learned of concerns about them from press stories beginning November 22, 2002 reporting that an account associated with the Saudi embassy had sent funds that benefited two of the hijackers. The OCC met bank management in December 2002 and began a targeted examination in January 2003, planned to last one month, which continued for more than five months. The report states that it presents no information about the Saudi accounts because the full Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, under Chairman [[Susan Collins]], was conducting its own investigation of them.[^9] + +### The commission + +Congress and President [[George W. Bush]] created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States by Public Law 107-306 on November 27, 2002. The Commission's preface records that it reviewed more than 2.5 million pages of documents, interviewed more than 1,200 individuals in ten countries, held 19 days of hearings and took public testimony from 160 witnesses.[^10] + +[[George W. Bush|President Bush]] named [[Henry Kissinger]] chairman after dropping his longstanding opposition to an independent inquiry. Former Senator [[George Mitchell]], named vice chairman, announced on December 11, 2002 that he would not serve, citing his unwillingness to sever ties with his law firm and the time the work would take. Kissinger resigned on December 13, 2002. His letter to the President stated that specific conflicts could be resolved by disclosure but that "the controversy would quickly move to the consulting firm I have built and own," and that liquidating [[Kissinger Associates]] could not be accomplished without significantly delaying the Commission's work.[^11] + +[[Lee Hamilton]] replaced Mitchell. The final report lists [[Thomas Kean]] as chair and Hamilton as vice chair, five Republican and five Democratic commissioners, and [[Philip Zelikow]] as executive director.[^12] Zelikow had advised [[Condoleezza Rice]] on the transition of the [[National Security Council]] from the Clinton to the Bush administration, and the report's notes state that Rice and Zelikow had been colleagues on the National Security Council staff and coauthors of a 1995 book on German unification, and that as executive director Zelikow recused himself from the Commission's work on that transition.[^13] Commissioner [[Jamie Gorelick]] had been the Deputy Attorney General who oversaw the working group that produced the Justice Department's July 1995 procedures governing information sharing between intelligence and criminal investigators; the notes state that she recused herself from the Commission's work on that subject, and that she, [[Richard Ben-Veniste]] and Commissioner [[James R. Thompson]] recused themselves from the work on aviation security.[^14] The report states that [[Robert Mueller]] became FBI director "just before 9/11."[^15] + +The Commission recommended replacing the dual role of the Director of Central Intelligence with a [[Director of National Intelligence|National Intelligence Director]] and creating a National Counterterrorism Center.[^16] + +### The Mihdhar and Hazmi trail + +The Commission's account of Mihdhar and Hazmi begins at a gathering of Arabs in [[Kuala Lumpur]], Malaysia, in January 2000. The CIA located Mihdhar leaving [[Yemen]] and tracked him to Kuala Lumpur, where he arrived on January 5, 2000. On January 8, surveillance teams reported that three of the Arabs had left for [[Bangkok]], where CIA officers received the information too late to track them. The Counterterrorist Center had briefed CIA leadership, and the information had been passed to the National Security Council staff of National Security Adviser [[Sandy Berger]] and to FBI Director [[Louis Freeh]], although the FBI noted that the CIA had the lead. In early March 2000 Bangkok reported that Hazmi had left on January 15 on a United Airlines flight to [[Los Angeles]], and that Mihdhar had accompanied him. No one outside the Counterterrorist Center was told, and the CIA did not try to register either man with the [[State Department]]'s TIPOFF watchlist, although it had learned that Mihdhar held a United States visa.[^17] + +The [[National Security Agency]] had the technical capability to report on communications with suspected terrorist facilities in the [[Middle East]]. The Commission wrote that it did not seek warrants from the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] court for communications between persons in the United States and abroad because it regarded that as an FBI role, and because it did not want to be viewed as targeting persons in the United States.[^18] + +In January 2001, a joint FBI and CIA source shown surveillance photographs from Kuala Lumpur said he was 90 percent certain that an unidentified man in one was Khallad, the man believed to have directed the 2000 [[USS Cole bombing]], which linked Khallad to Mihdhar. The Commission found no effort by the CIA to renew the search for Mihdhar, and found that the CIA did not tell the FBI. It wrote that Tenet and [[Cofer Black]] had testified before the Joint Inquiry that the FBI had access to this identification from the beginning, and concluded, on a record that included documents unavailable to the officials who drafted that testimony, that this was not the case.[^19] + +On May 15, 2001, a CIA officer detailed to the FBI (called "John" in the report) reviewed the old cables and began an exchange with a CIA analyst ("Dave"), but made no effort to learn whether the men were in the United States. On June 11, 2001, an FBI analyst ("Jane") showed Kuala Lumpur photographs to FBI agents in New York investigating the Cole bombing. [[NSA|National Security Agency]] reports she had found carried caveats barring their sharing with criminal investigators without permission from the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, and she did not pass them on. The CIA analyst at the meeting, who knew that Mihdhar held a visa and that Hazmi had flown to Los Angeles, was not asked and did not volunteer. Mihdhar received a new visa two days later and entered New York on July 4, 2001.[^20] + +On July 24, 2001, an FBI analyst detailed to the CIA ("Mary") began reviewing the cables. Hazmi and Mihdhar were added to the TIPOFF watchlist on August 24. The lead for the FBI's New York Field Office was sent on August 28 labeled "Routine." One of the Cole case agents was told by the FBI analyst that the wall between intelligence and criminal investigations barred him from the search, and wrote that "someday someone will die." The Commission concluded that everyone involved was confused about the rules and that the criminal agents could have conducted the search.[^21] + +The CIA Inspector General's accountability review, completed in June 2005, found that agency officers did not on a timely basis recommend watchlisting of Hazmi and Mihdhar and did not pass the travel information to the FBI in proper channels, and that "there was no coherent, functioning watchlisting program." It recommended that an Accountability Board of persons who were not agency employees review the performance of, among others, the chiefs of the Counterterrorist Center from 1998 to 2001. It stated that the team found no instance in which an employee violated the law and that none of the errors involved misconduct. The Inspector General recused himself from deliberations on one subject because of a conflict of interest.[^22] Porter Goss, who as House Intelligence Committee chairman had co-led the Joint Inquiry and by 2005 directed the CIA, declined the recommendation in October 2005. On releasing the executive summary on August 21, 2007, Director [[Michael Hayden]] wrote to employees that the declassification "was neither my choice nor my preference," that two Directors of National Intelligence had supported the agency's position against release, and that he had found no reason to revisit Goss's decision.[^23] + +The Commission also described a July 2001 memo from an FBI agent in Phoenix about flight schools, which did not reach headquarters managers before the attacks, and the August 2001 detention of [[Zacarias Moussaoui]] in Minnesota. It concluded that the Phoenix memo, had it been acted on, would not by itself have uncovered the plot.[^24] + +### Los Angeles and San Diego + +Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in Los Angeles on January 15, 2000. The Commission examined whether [[Fahad al-Thumairy]], an imam at the [[King Fahd Mosque]] in Culver City and an accredited diplomat at the Saudi consulate from 1996 to 2003, had helped them. It recorded that he was reputed to be a strict adherent of Wahhabi doctrine, that the State Department refused him entry on May 6, 2003 on a determination that he might be connected with terrorist activity, and that he denied knowing the hijackers or Bayoumi although witnesses and telephone records showed contact with Bayoumi. It concluded that it had found no evidence that Thumairy provided assistance to the two operatives.[^25] + +On February 1, 2000, Bayoumi and a companion met Hazmi and Mihdhar at a halal restaurant on Venice Boulevard in Culver City. The Commission wrote that it did not know whether the encounter occurred by chance or design, that it had seen no credible evidence that Bayoumi believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremist groups, and that its investigators found him an unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement. Bayoumi helped the two men find an apartment in [[San Diego]], co-signed the lease and issued a certified check for the deposit, for which they reimbursed him.[^26] + +The [[Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General]]'s special report on the FBI's handling of intelligence before the attacks, issued in classified form in July 2004 and released publicly in June 2005, records that the FBI's preliminary inquiry on Bayoumi was closed in June 1999 without conversion to a full investigation, so that the FBI was not investigating him in February 2000. It states that in May 2000 Hazmi and Mihdhar moved as boarders into the home of an asset of the San Diego Field Office whom the report does not name, that Mihdhar stayed until June 10, 2000 and Hazmi until December 10, 2000, that the asset had been opened on May 14, 1994 and had 14 boarders before the attacks, and that the handling agent retired in February 2002 and declined to be interviewed. The asset gave conflicting accounts to the FBI after the attacks of what he had told the agent; the handling agent said the asset gave only the first names Nawaf and Khalid, and the report concludes that the FBI obtained no information on the pair's time in San Diego from the Bayoumi inquiry or from the asset. The report also records the January 2001 identification of Khallad as made with "ninety percent" certainty, in a CIA cable that does not state it was repeated to the FBI legal attache.[^27] + +Operation Encore, an FBI New York investigation, grew out of the PENTTBOM investigation of the attacks. FBI records give three start points: a subfile under PENTTBOM opened June 28, 2007, an Encore investigation opened August 28, 2007, and a full investigation initiated October 26, 2007. The stated purpose was to understand how Mihdhar and Hazmi had been able to connect to the Southern California Muslim community.[^28] The full investigation of Thumairy was opened on February 12, 2009. A February 19, 2009 communication states that an earlier Los Angeles full investigation of Thumairy, predicated on his calls with Bayoumi and his possible association with the hijackers, had been closed because he relocated to Saudi Arabia and because "all reasonable and practical intelligence collection methods" were exhausted. A communication of October 27, 2009 restates the closing and adds a third reason, the conclusion of the United States Attorney's Office that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. Both communications state that review of the file did not appear to reveal any investigation of Thumairy as a possible "tazkia" contact for the hijackers.[^29] The October 2009 communication opened a full investigation of Musaed al-Jarrah, identified as a former director of the Islamic Affairs Department of the Saudi embassy.[^30] + +An FBI electronic communication dated April 4, 2016 summarizes interviews conducted on November 12 and 13, 2015 with a man whose name is redacted and who had a pending citizenship application. The communication states that a person whose name is redacted "was tasked by THUMAIRY to assist HAZMI and MIDHAR while they were in Los Angeles," and that a person whose name is redacted "described the hijackers as 'two very significant people.'" It records that the interviewee, in interviews, admitted showing the hijackers the location of the restaurant but denied being tasked to do so. The same document states that Bayoumi's 2003 statements about meeting the hijackers "are directly contradicted by eyewitness statements," that a companion told the FBI that Bayoumi positioned himself to look out the restaurant's front window and approached the hijackers from a distance at which he could not have heard them speaking, that employees of Dallah Avco described Bayoumi as a "ghost employee," one of about fifty such individuals, and that numbers in Bayoumi's telephone book for a Saudi physician were found on a contact card retrieved in a late May 2003 raid in Medina, Saudi Arabia.[^31] + +A communication of July 23, 2021 compiled the FBI's records on the Saudi government, the Saudi embassy and affiliated offices in connection with the attacks, for the use of future case agents. It states that it "should not be considered an intelligence assessment," that it copies original serials with their language retained, and that its writer was not re-investigating, citing a lack of resources and analytical assistance.[^32] + +A joint FBI and CIA assessment sent to the Senate intelligence committee by FBI Director Mueller and CIA Director Goss on September 1, 2005 stated that there was "no evidence that either the Saudi Government or members of the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support for the attacks" and "no information to indicate that either Omar al-Bayoumi or Osama Basnan materially supported the hijackers wittingly, were intelligence officers of the Saudi Government or provided material support for the 11 September attacks, contrary to media speculation." The same summary stated that official Saudi entities and associated organizations provided financial and logistical support to individuals in the United States, some associated with terrorism-related activity.[^33] + +The Commission wrote that it had found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded al-Qaeda, a conclusion it said did not exclude diversion of funds by charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship. A note states that it found no evidence that Princess Haifa al Faisal provided funds to the conspiracy directly or indirectly.[^34] + +### Departure of Saudi nationals + +The Commission addressed three questions about Saudi nationals who left the United States after the attacks. It found no evidence of any flight before national airspace reopened on the morning of September 13, 2001, and no evidence of political intervention, and reported that [[Richard Clarke]] had asked the FBI's [[Dale Watson]] to check whether the FBI had objections. [[White House]] Chief of Staff [[Andrew Card]] recalled being told of the Saudi request but said he did not ask anyone to act. The Commission believed that the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left on charter flights.[^35] + +### Securities trading + +On September 19, 2001, Acting Director of Enforcement [[Stephen Cutler]] of the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] stated that the Commission had received reports that those associated with the terrorist activities "may have sought to exploit our securities markets to profit from those activities," that it had "drawn no conclusions," and that speculation about what it had concluded "has absolutely no foundation in fact."[^36] + +The Division of Enforcement began its review on September 12, 2001, for the period from August 20 to September 11. Its information memorandum ENF 02-13 of May 15, 2002, addressed to the Commission, states that staff examined over 9.5 million securities transactions, reviewed trading in securities and derivatives of 103 companies in six industry groups across seven markets and in 32 exchange-traded funds and broad indices, that more than 40 staff worked on it, that the information was made available to the Justice Department and the Treasury, and that the staff briefed members of the Senate Banking Committee staff and the National Security Council staff. The memorandum states that the staff did not develop any evidence that those with advance knowledge traded on it and that every unusual trade noticed was consistent with a legitimate strategy. The [[National Security Archive]] obtained the memorandum, in redacted form, in 2010 after six years of requests; the SEC's general counsel wrote to it on April 6, 2010 agreeing to disclose it.[^37] + +The 9/11 Commission's report reached the same conclusion and in a note described the surge in put options on the parent of United Airlines on September 6 and of American Airlines on September 10: a single United States institutional investor with no ties to al-Qaeda bought 95 percent of the United put options on September 6 as part of a strategy that included buying 115,000 American shares on September 10, and the American trading was traced to an options newsletter faxed to subscribers on September 9.[^38] + +### Able Danger + +On September 21, 2005 the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] under Chairman [[Arlen Specter]] held a hearing on Able Danger, a Defense Department counterterrorism data-analysis program. Representative [[Curt Weldon]] testified that Captain Philpott "identified absolutely Mohammed Atta as a part of the Brooklyn cell" in January and February 2000, that an official had been ordered to destroy up to 2.5 terabytes of Able Danger data, and that an FBI employee had arranged three meetings with the FBI Washington Field Office in September 2000 that Defense Department officials cancelled at the last minute.[^39] Attorney [[Mark Zaid]] testified that Able Danger never identified Atta in the United States and that a chart listing Atta under "Brooklyn, New York" prompted concern among Army lawyers about compiling data on United States persons.[^40] + +A letter from former Commissioner [[Slade Gorton]] entered in the hearing record stated that the notes of Commission staff of a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel [[Anthony Shaffer]] made no mention of Atta, that the White House lawyer present agreed, and that the [[Department of Defense]] had provided all relevant Able Danger documents to the Commission. The letter stated that the Department of Defense said Shaffer worked on the program for a total of 27 days and lost his security clearance in March 2004.[^41] + +The Department of Defense Inspector General report of September 18, 2006 concluded that Able Danger team members did not identify Atta or any other hijacker before the attacks. It found that the chart witnesses remembered was a May 1999 Orion Scientific chart of 53 terrorists, including a Brooklyn cell, which did not include Atta, that four witnesses who recalled seeing Atta on a chart gave recollections that were not accurate, and that witnesses in a position to know denied that Able Danger members were barred from meeting the FBI.[^42] + +### Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act + +Families of victims and others sued Saudi Arabia and other defendants in the multidistrict litigation *In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001*, 03-md-1570, in the Southern District of New York before Judge [[George B. Daniels]]. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia first moved to dismiss in 2004 on grounds of sovereign immunity. On September 29, 2015, Daniels granted a motion to dismiss on that ground.[^43] + +On September 21, 2016, the Senate voted 71 to 27 to table a motion to discharge S.J.Res. 39, a resolution disapproving a proposed sale of M1A1/A2 Abrams tank structures and other defense equipment to Saudi Arabia.[^44] On September 20, 2016, the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck had written to Saudi Foreign Minister [[Adel al-Jubeir]] accepting an engagement as "policy counsel for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in connection with the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA)," at $100,000 a month "until JASTA becomes law or until March 31, 2017, whichever is later." The firm registered under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] on September 22, 2016, describing its activity as communicating "with Members of Congress and members of the executive branch regarding" JASTA and its passage into law.[^45] Squire Patton Boggs registered on September 20, 2016 for the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court, to provide "legal and strategic policy advice and advocacy on foreign policy and related issues," and reported receiving $400,000 from that principal on April 1, 2017.[^46] The FARA bulk registry lists foreign principal registrations for Saudi Arabian principals in September 2016 by Squire Patton Boggs, S.G.R. LLC Government Relations and Lobbying and FGS Global on September 20, Brownstein on September 22, King & Spalding on September 26, and the Podesta Group on September 30.[^47] + +On September 28, 2016, the Senate voted 97 to 1 to override the President's veto of S. 2040, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. [[Harry Reid]] voted no; [[Tim Kaine]] and [[Bernie Sanders]] did not vote.[^48] The act, Public Law 114-222, created an exception to foreign sovereign immunity for physical injury or death in the United States caused by an act of international terrorism and a tortious act of a foreign state or its officials, employees or agents acting within the scope of their office, employment or agency.[^49] + +The Second Circuit vacated the 2015 decision on request of the parties. In 2018 Daniels held that plaintiffs' allegations of direct liability were insufficient but that vicarious liability was reasonably articulated, and ordered limited jurisdictional discovery on whether Thumairy, Bayoumi and their agents acted at the direction of more senior Saudi officials in assisting Hazmi and Mihdhar. Magistrate Judge [[Sarah Netburn]] supervised the discovery. Saudi Arabia filed its renewed motion on October 6, 2023, and Daniels heard argument on July 31, 2024.[^50] + +On August 28, 2025, Daniels denied the motion. His decision records that Bayoumi worked for Saudi Arabia's civil aviation agency from 1977 and was sent to San Diego in 1994, paid through Dallah Avco, with the title of senior data processing technician and without performing that work; that plaintiffs contend he was a cooptee of Saudi intelligence and that he testified he never was a Saudi intelligence officer; that Thumairy held diplomatic status from 1996 to 2003 and that from 1999 to 2001 a bank account he had opened received significant funds from Prince Abdulaziz, a senior Saudi cabinet member, which Thumairy said were used for charitable donations and mosque expenses; that Thumairy testified he did not recall meeting Hazmi or Mihdhar and never gave instructions to assist them; and that a mosque congregant testified that no one, including Thumairy, told him to help the hijackers. It records that Akram Alzamari told the FBI that the congregant had said Thumairy asked him to look after two "significant" people, and that Alzamari testified in 2020 that the FBI's notes of that statement were erroneous.[^51] + +The decision records that Bayoumi made at least 93 calls to the Saudi Embassy between January 19 and March 24, 2000, 30 of them to its Islamic Affairs Department; that from March to April 2000 his monthly compensation from Dallah Avco more than doubled, with the personnel form giving "promotion" as the reason; that he filmed a one-hour video of [[Washington, D.C.]] in June 1999 including the Capitol; and that a notepad seized from his home in the [[United Kingdom]] in September 2001 contained a sketch of an airplane with notes on height and distance, which he testified was an equation he had memorized. It records that the hijackers rented a room in Lemon Grove from Abdussattar Shaikh, an FBI informant since 1994 whom the Justice Department Inspector General's report described as given a $100,000 payment in July 2003, and that Shaikh told the FBI he believed Bayoumi was an agent of the Saudi government. It records that after the attacks Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry told Thumairy not to return to the United States, that Jarrah wrote on November 9, 2001 that Thumairy was not a suspect and asked that he return to work, that the King and the Foreign Ministry approved his return on November 28, 2001, and that the State Department revoked his visa on March 21, 2003.[^52] + +The decision states that plaintiffs had provided "reasonable evidence as to the roles played by Bayoumi, Thumairy, and KSA," that Saudi Arabia's explanations were "either self-contradictory or not strong enough" to overcome the inference that it had employed them to assist the hijackers, and that many facts, including whether the February 2000 meetings were planned, were disputed and would be resolved at trial. It concludes: "Plaintiffs' claims will proceed to decision on their merits."[^53] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, *The 9/11 Commission Report* (Government Printing Office, 2004), pp. 7, 8, 10, 14, 30, 311. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf +[^2]: Graham, Porter [Goss] and Pelosi to George J. Tenet, letter of January 29, 2003, preceding Part Four of the Joint Inquiry report, "Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001," December 2002, in "28 Redacted Pages of Part Four of the Joint Inquiry," Internet Archive, item declasspart4_201904, pp. 1-4 of the letter. https://archive.org/details/declasspart4_201904 +[^3]: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, "Intel Committee publishes declassified '28 pages,'" press release, July 15, 2016. https://intelligence.house.gov/2016/07/15/intel-committee-publishes-declassified-28-pages/ +[^4]: Joint Inquiry, Part Four, Finding 20 and Discussion (printed pp. 416-420; page numbers read from OCR), "28 Redacted Pages of Part Four," Internet Archive item declasspart4_201904. https://archive.org/details/declasspart4_201904 +[^5]: Joint Inquiry, Part Four, section "Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan" (printed pp. 420-428), same item; testimony of the former San Diego case agent and the FBI's November 18, 2002 response as quoted there. +[^6]: Joint Inquiry, Part Four, discussion of Osama Bassnan, including the testimony of Pasquale D'Amuro on October 9, 2002 and the footnote on the FBI's correction, same item. +[^7]: Joint Inquiry, Part Four, section "Phone Numbers Linking Abu Zubaida to a Company in the United States and a Saudi Diplomat in Washington" (printed pp. 428-429), same item. +[^8]: Joint Inquiry, Part Four, discussion of the CIA memorandum found in the San Diego Field Office files (printed pp. 418-420), same item. +[^9]: United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Minority Staff, *Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the PATRIOT Act, Case Study Involving Riggs Bank*, S. Hrg. 108-633, July 14, 2004, note 2 and the section on the 2003 Saudi targeted examination. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/REPORT-Money%20Laundering%20&%20Foreign%20Corruption%20(July%202004).pdf +[^10]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, Preface, pp. xv-xvi. +[^11]: "Kissinger resigns as head of 9/11 commission," CNN.com, December 13, 2002. https://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/13/kissinger.resigns/ +[^12]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, "Commission Members" and "Commission Staff" lists, front matter. +[^13]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, p. 199 and note 165 (p. 509). +[^14]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, p. 79 and note 33 (p. 473); note on aviation security (p. 475). +[^15]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, p. 210. +[^16]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 410-414. +[^17]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 181-182. +[^18]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 87-88. +[^19]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 266-267. +[^20]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 267-269. +[^21]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 270-271. +[^22]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Inspector General, "OIG Report on CIA Accountability With Respect to the 9/11 Attacks," Executive Summary, June 2005, released August 2007, pp. xii-xvi and note 1, CIA Reading Room document 0001499482. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001499482 +[^23]: Michael V. Hayden, statement to employees on the release of the 9/11 IG report executive summary, August 21, 2007. https://irp.fas.org/news/2007/08/cia082107.html +[^24]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 272-274. +[^25]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 216-217. +[^26]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, pp. 217-219. +[^27]: Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *A Review of the FBI's Handling of Intelligence Information Prior to the September 11 Attacks*, Special Report, November 2004 (public release June 2005), chapter 5, "Two September 11 Hijackers: Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi." https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/0506/chapter5.htm +[^28]: FBI New York, electronic communication "Operation Encore" and related communications, Bates EO14040-000556 to -000557 (February 19, 2009) and EO14040-000715 to -000719 (December 4, 2007); FBI electronic communication, "ENCORE Investigation Update, Review and Analysis: Interview" (April 4, 2016), p. 2, "Full Investigation Initiated: 10/26/2007." FBI Vault, 9/11 material released under Executive Order 14040. https://vault.fbi.gov/9-11-attacks-investigation-and-related-materials/9-11-material-released-in-response-to-executive-order-14040 +[^29]: FBI New York, electronic communications of February 19, 2009 (EO14040-000556 to -000558) and October 27, 2009 (EO14040-000569 and following), FBI Vault, documents responsive to Executive Order 14040, section 2(b)(i), part 02 of 02. https://vault.fbi.gov/9-11-attacks-investigation-and-related-materials/9-11-material-released-in-response-to-executive-order-14040/documents-responsive-to-executive-order-14040-section-2-b-i-part-02-of-02/view +[^30]: Same, communication of October 27, 2009 (EO14040-000569). +[^31]: FBI New York, electronic communication of April 4, 2016, "ENCORE Investigation Update, Review and Analysis: Interview [redacted] (NOV 2015)," pp. 2-10, FBI Vault. https://vault.fbi.gov/9-11-attacks-investigation-and-related-materials/9-11-material-released-in-response-to-executive-order-14040/april-4-2016-electronic-communication-part-01-of-01/view +[^32]: FBI electronic communication of July 23, 2021, "Connections to the Attacks of September 11, 2001," Bates EO14040-003479-UPDATED to -003482-UPDATED, FBI Vault, documents responsive to Executive Order 14040, release update part 02. https://vault.fbi.gov/9-11-attacks-investigation-and-related-materials/9-11-material-released-in-response-to-executive-order-14040/documents-responsive-to-executive-order-14040-release-update-part-02/view +[^33]: Robert S. Mueller III and Porter J. Goss to Pat Roberts, letter of September 1, 2005, with Executive Summary of the joint FBI-CIA report on the extent of Saudi government support for terrorism, Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/static/02ca03957729ccbd47d46405577cf604/Executive-Summary-of-Joint-FBI-CIA-Report-on-Extent-of_Saudi-Government-Support-for-Terrorism.pdf +[^34]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, p. 171 and note 122 (p. 498). +[^35]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, p. 329. +[^36]: Securities and Exchange Commission, "Statement by Acting Director of Enforcement Stephen Cutler," press release 2001-96, September 19, 2001. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2001-96-statement-acting-director-enforcement-stephen-cutler +[^37]: SEC Division of Enforcement, "Pre-September 11, 2001 Trading Review," Information Memorandum ENF 02-13, File No. HO-9325, May 15, 2002, pp. 1-2, obtained by the National Security Archive; Nate Jones, "Document Friday: 'Terrorist-Insider-Trading?'," Unredacted (National Security Archive blog), April 30, 2010. https://unredacted.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/9-11-sec-report.pdf +[^38]: *The 9/11 Commission Report*, p. 172 and note 130 (p. 499). +[^39]: Statement of Representative Curt Weldon, *Able Danger and Intelligence Information Sharing*, hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 109th Cong., S. Hrg. 109-311 (September 21, 2005), pp. 6-13. https://archive.org/details/gov.gpo.fdsys.CHRG-109shrg25409 +[^40]: Testimony of Mark S. Zaid, S. Hrg. 109-311, p. 31. +[^41]: Slade Gorton to Senators Specter and Leahy, letter of September 20, 2005, S. Hrg. 109-311, pp. 57-58. +[^42]: Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, *Alleged Misconduct by Senior DoD Officials Concerning the Able Danger Program and Lieutenant Colonel Anthony A. Shaffer, U.S. Army Reserve*, September 18, 2006, p. 3 and Figure 1. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/FOIA-0238-2016.pdf +[^43]: *In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001*, No. 03-md-1570 (GBD)(SN) (S.D.N.Y.), Memorandum Decision and Order of August 28, 2025, ECF No. 11182, pp. 1-2 (citing 134 F. Supp. 3d 774 (S.D.N.Y. 2015)). https://assets.alm.com/56/48/0c58055d436488d8aaee80d07ca1/03-md-01570-11182-2.pdf +[^44]: United States Senate, roll call vote 114th Congress, 2nd Session, vote 145 (September 21, 2016), motion to table the motion to discharge S.J.Res. 39. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1142/vote_114_2_00145.htm +[^45]: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, registration statement exhibits A and B, FARA registration no. 5870, received September 22, 2016, with fee agreement letter of September 20, 2016 to H.E. Adel Al-Jubeir. https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5870-Exhibit-AB-20160922-4.pdf +[^46]: Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP, exhibits A and B, FARA registration no. 2165, received September 20, 2016, https://efile.fara.gov/docs/2165-Exhibit-AB-20160920-67.pdf; supplemental statement for January 1 to June 30, 2017, received August 1, 2017, https://efile.fara.gov/docs/2165-Supplemental-Statement-20170801-26.pdf +[^47]: Department of Justice, FARA bulk data file "FARA_All_ForeignPrincipals," foreign principal registration dates for registrants 2165, 6379, 5666, 5870, 6307 and 5926, accessed October 1, 2026. https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_ForeignPrincipals.csv.zip +[^48]: United States Senate, roll call vote 114th Congress, 2nd Session, vote 148 (September 28, 2016), "Shall the Bill S. 2040 Pass, the Objections of the President of the United States to the Contrary Notwithstanding?" https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1142/vote_114_2_00148.htm +[^49]: Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, Pub. L. No. 114-222, 130 Stat. 852 (September 28, 2016), codified at 28 U.S.C. section 1605B. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-114publ222/html/PLAW-114publ222.htm +[^50]: ECF No. 11182, pp. 2-4. +[^51]: ECF No. 11182, pp. 10-13. +[^52]: ECF No. 11182, pp. 14-15, 23-24, 27-29. +[^53]: ECF No. 11182, pp. 43-45. diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Child sexual abuse material.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Child sexual abuse material.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9c9bbe29 --- /dev/null +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Child sexual abuse material.md @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +tags: + - Concept + - CSAM + - ChildExploitation + - CyberTipline + - NCMEC + - Section2258A + - PhotoDNA + - InternetWatchFoundation + - EARNITAct + - GenerativeAI + - SextortionNetworks +alias: + - CSAM + - Child sexual abuse material + - Child Sexual Abuse Material + - child pornography + - Child pornography + - CSA images +summary: "Statutory and institutional record of child sexual abuse material: its definition in 18 U.S.C. 2256 and UK law, the provider reporting duty, NCMEC and the CyberTipline, hash matching, the IWF, and AI training data." +start: 1978-02-06 +location: "United States; United Kingdom" +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Federal law defines "child pornography" in [[18 U.S.C. § 2256]] as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct in which the production involves the use of a minor, which is a digital, computer or computer-generated image that is, or is indistinguishable from, that of a minor, or which has been created, adapted or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaged in the conduct; a "minor" is a person under eighteen.[^1] The term "child sexual abuse material" and its abbreviation CSAM are used by the [[National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]] (NCMEC) and by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], whose March 2025 public service announcement wrote it as "Child Sexual Abuse Material ( CSAM )," and by the 2023 text of the [[EARN IT Act]], whose section 6 stated a sense of Congress that "child sexual abuse material" has the same legal meaning as "child pornography" in federal statutes and case law.[^2][^3] The statute in [[Title 18 of the United States Code]] still uses "child pornography."[^1] + +### The Federal Definition + +The definition was first added to the Code by Public Law 95-225 of February 6, 1978 (92 Stat. 8) as section 2253, was renumbered section 2255 and amended by Public Law 98-292 of May 21, 1984, and became section 2256 in 1986. Later amendments came by Public Law 104-208 (September 30, 1996), Public Law 108-21 (April 30, 2003), Public Law 110-401 (October 13, 2008) and Public Law 115-299 (December 7, 2018). The section also defines "identifiable minor" and states that "indistinguishable" means "virtually indistinguishable, in that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude that the depiction is of an actual minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct," a definition that "does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings."[^1] + +In [[New York v. Ferber]], decided July 2, 1982, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] upheld a New York statute against a First Amendment challenge as applied to distributors of films of children, and stated that the test for child pornography is separate from the obscenity standard of [[Miller v. California]].[^4] In [[Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition]], decided April 16, 2002, the Court held the "appears to be" and "conveys the impression" provisions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, section 2256(8)(B) and (D), overbroad and unconstitutional.[^5] In [[United States v. Williams]] (No. 06-694), decided May 19, 2008, the Court held that the pandering and solicitation provision of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(3)(B), enacted after Ashcroft, was not overbroad.[^6] + +### The Provider Reporting Duty + +Section 2258A, added by Public Law 110-401 on October 13, 2008, requires a provider that obtains "actual knowledge" of facts showing an apparent violation involving child pornography to report them "as soon as reasonably possible" to the CyberTipline operated by NCMEC. Section 2258A(f) states that nothing in the section requires a provider to monitor any user or to "affirmatively search, screen, or scan" for the facts it describes. Section 2258B bars civil and criminal claims against a provider arising from its reporting and preservation duties, except for intentional misconduct, actual malice or reckless disregard. Section 2258C allows NCMEC to give providers hash values drawn from CyberTipline reports.[^7] + +The REPORT Act, Public Law 118-59, enacted May 7, 2024, added reports of child sex trafficking and enticement under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1591 and 2422(b), extended preservation of reported content from 90 days to one year, and set the maximum fine for a first knowing and willful failure to report at $850,000 for a provider with at least 100,000,000 monthly active users and $600,000 for a smaller provider, and for a later failure at $1,000,000 and $850,000. Public Law 119-60 of December 18, 2025 added "and all supplemental data included in the report" to the reports NCMEC makes available to law enforcement.[^7] + +In [[United States v. Ackerman]], decided August 5, 2016, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit]] (opinion by Judge [[Neil Gorsuch]], with Judge [[Gregory Phillips]] joining and Judge [[Harris Hartz]] joining in part) held that NCMEC is a "governmental entity or agent" for Fourth Amendment purposes, citing the "law enforcement powers" conferred by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and 42 U.S.C. § 5773(b), and that its analyst's opening of an email and its attachments that [[AOL]] had flagged by hash match was a warrantless search that exceeded AOL's private search. The opinion lists NCMEC as amicus curiae, and [[Dropbox]], [[Facebook]], [[Google]], [[Microsoft]], [[Pinterest]], [[Snapchat]] and [[Twitter]] as amici, in support of the government.[^8] The [[Stanford Internet Observatory]] reported in 2024 that in [[United States v. Wilson]] (9th Cir. 2021) the Ninth Circuit applied the private search doctrine in the same way, and that Ackerman and Wilson let NCMEC and law enforcement open without a warrant only files that platform personnel had already opened or that were publicly available.[^9] + +### Reports and Their Volume + +NCMEC created the CyberTipline in 1998.[^9] Its annual tables of reports by electronic service provider give a total of 16,836,694 for 2019, 21,447,786 for 2020, 29,157,083 for 2021, 31,802,525 for 2022 and 35,944,826 for 2023; NCMEC states that the CyberTipline received 36.2 million reports in 2023, 20.5 million in 2024 and 21.3 million in 2025.[^10][^11] NCMEC attributed part of the 2024 decline to a "bundling" feature adopted by [[Meta Platforms]], and stated that the 20.5 million reports for 2024 correspond to 29.2 million separate incidents.[^11] + +By provider, the 2023 table lists 17,838,422 reports from Facebook, 11,430,007 from [[Instagram]] and 339,412 from [[Discord]]; the 2024 table lists 8,590,357 from Facebook, 3,320,008 from Instagram, 1,851,086 from [[WhatsApp]], 1,359,806 from [[TikTok]], 1,175,084 from Google, 1,174,698 from Snapchat, 686,176 from [[X Corp.]], 241,354 from Discord and 24,522 from [[Roblox]]; and the 2025 table lists 4,907,710 from Facebook, 3,673,045 from Instagram, 2,355,302 from WhatsApp, 3,623,177 from TikTok, 1,461,378 from Google, 816,611 from X Corp, 752,031 from Snapchat, 489,782 from Discord, 65,381 from Roblox and 1,105,405 from Amazon AI Services.[^10] + +On April 9, 2026, Senator [[Chuck Grassley]], chair of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]], released data that NCMEC had given his office on March 16, 2026 concerning eight companies (Meta, Amazon AI Services, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, X.AI, Grindr and Roblox), which together submitted over 17 million reports in 2025, 81 percent of the CyberTipline's total. The release stated that none of the 1.1 million Amazon AI Services reports was actionable because they lacked location or suspect information, that a representative of that company told NCMEC its "systems were intentionally designed not to collect or retain information about the underlying content or the associated user," and that NCMEC listed Amazon AI Services among "poor reporter" companies. It stated that NCMEC received 1.5 million CyberTipline reports in 2025 with a generative AI nexus, including over 12,000 reports of CSAM that companies indicated were identified in training data.[^12] + +The Stanford Internet Observatory's 2024 study, based on interviews with platforms, NCMEC and law enforcement, reported that in 2023 NCMEC received $41.4 million of federal funds under the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention while the 61 Internet Crimes Against Children task forces received $40.8 million, and that in 2022 "Meta and Old Navy were the top corporate donors; each contributed over $1 million."[^9] + +### The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children + +NCMEC reported on its returns for 2024 and 2025 government grants of $48,907,021 against total revenue of $64,507,554, and $50,280,968 against $66,813,108. Its website lists corporate board seats held by representatives of [[Jones Day]], [[The Walt Disney Company]], LexisNexis Special Services, [[Amazon Web Services]], Microsoft, [[Gap Inc.]], [[Adobe]] and [[Verisign]]; its return for 2025 lists Amazon Web Services among its largest independent contractors, at $291,871.[^13] + +### Hash Matching + +Microsoft announced on December 15, 2009 that it was donating PhotoDNA, a technology "created by Microsoft Research" and "further developed by leading digital imaging expert Dartmouth College professor of computer science Hany Farid," to NCMEC. The release quoted [[Brad Smith]], Microsoft's general counsel, and [[Ernie Allen]], then president and chief executive of NCMEC, who stated that NCMEC's Child Victim Identification Program reviewed 250,000 images and videos per week; it stated that NCMEC had reviewed almost 30 million photographs and videos since 2003.[^14] The hash of an image is compared with hashes of known material; the Ackerman opinion describes AOL's filter as matching hash values of images that its employees had previously viewed and deemed child pornography.[^8] NCMEC's Form 990 for 2025 states that its Exploited Children Division maintains a hash-sharing list to support industry detection of online child sexual abuse material.[^15] + +### The Internet Watch Foundation + +The [[Internet Watch Foundation]] is a company limited by guarantee registered in England on August 29, 1997 (number 03426366) and a charity (1112398). For the year to March 31, 2025 its income was £7,049,679, of which £526,315 was a government grant, and its expenditure £7,174,090.[^16] Its 2025 report states that it assessed 451,210 reports, confirmed 311,610 as containing or leading to child sexual abuse material, and added 317,101 new images and videos to its hash list.[^17] Its member list divides members by annual contribution: [[Amazon]], [[Apple]], [[Anthropic]], Google (since May 2004), Meta (December 2009) and Microsoft (July 2001) are listed as contributing over £90,000; Roblox, X Corp, Pinterest and [[Epic Games]] over £50,000; and Discord (since November 2023) and Dropbox over £25,000. [[Telegram]] is listed as a member since November 2024 and [[OpenAI]] since April 2025.[^18] Companies House records list [[Peter Edward Thomas Robbins]] as company secretary from 2002 to 2011, [[Susan Elizabeth Hargreaves]] from 2013 to 2024, [[Roger Alessandro Darlington]] as a director from 2000 to 2005 and [[John Adam Carr]] as a director from 2001 to 2003; Dr Rebecca Sorla Portnoff, an American resident in the [[United States]], is listed as a director from January 5, 2026.[^19] + +### Thorn + +[[Thorn]] (EIN 27-0943677) reported on its 2024 return revenue of $16,355,617, of which $8,015,412 was program service revenue described as software subscription and service revenue, contributions of $6,661,881, expenses of $21,769,314 and net assets of $30,462,580. Its board members listed on that return include Ernie Allen and [[Neelie Kroes]]; the return also lists a Rebecca Portnoff as vice president for data science. Its series of annual returns shows contributions of $61,728,173 in 2019, against $2,498,413 in 2015 and $7,254,172 in 2018.[^20] + +### Training Data + +In a report dated December 20, 2023, [[David Thiel]] of the Stanford Internet Observatory described the examination of the LAION-5B dataset, which contains URLs and captions rather than images. Of 32,138,129 items above a safety cutoff, 1,679 were matches in PhotoDNA, which were reported to NCMEC and to the [[Canadian Centre for Child Protection]]; of those still live, that organization classified 746 as CSAM or possible CSAM; the report identified 3,226 dataset entries of suspected CSAM in all. It stated that "an obvious gap during the compilation of LAION datasets was that images were not checked against known lists of CSAM," and that about 30 percent of the URLs passed to PhotoDNA in its initial approach were no longer active.[^21] + +### Bills in Congress + +S. 1207, the EARN IT Act of 2023, was introduced April 19, 2023 by Senators [[Lindsey Graham]], [[Richard Blumenthal]] and others, and reported by [[Dick Durbin]] on May 15, 2023. It would establish a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention of nineteen members, including the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Chair of the [[Federal Trade Commission]]; add subsections (6) and (7) to [[Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act]] preserving federal civil claims and state criminal and civil claims over child sexual abuse material that is intentionally, knowingly or recklessly promoted or distributed, while providing that the use of end-to-end encryption is not "an independent basis for liability"; and state that "child sexual abuse material" has the same legal meaning as "child pornography."[^3] The Senate Judiciary Committee's results of its May 4, 2023 executive business meeting list S. 1207 as "ORDERED REPORTED FAVORABLY AS AMENDED: VOICE VOTE" and list S. 1199, the STOP CSAM Act of 2023 (Durbin), as "HELD."[^22] Discord's chief executive wrote in answers to the committee in 2024 that the company was "aligned with the goals" of the EARN IT Act but "concerned that the imposition of broad liability could inadvertently result in the over-moderation of content."[^23] + +### A Government-Operated Site + +In [[United States v. Levin]], decided October 27, 2017, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit]] stated that in February 2015 FBI agents seized control of a Tor hidden service named Playpen, which more than 150,000 users had visited between August 2014 and February 2015, and ran it for two weeks from a government facility in the Eastern District of Virginia, while a magistrate judge of that district issued a warrant on February 20, 2015 for a network investigative technique that sent identifying information from the computers of users who logged in. The court vacated the district court's suppression order on good-faith grounds. [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]], the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] of Massachusetts and Privacy International appeared as amici.[^24] + +### United Kingdom + +The [[Protection of Children Act 1978]] makes it an offence to take, make, distribute or show, or to possess with a view to distributing, an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child; "pseudo-photograph" was added with effect from February 3, 1995 by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and "child" means a person under eighteen. Section 160 of the [[Criminal Justice Act 1988]] covers possession, and section 62 of the [[Coroners and Justice Act 2009]] covers possession of non-photographic "prohibited images of a child."[^25] The [[Crime and Policing Act 2026]] (2026 c. 20, Royal Assent April 29, 2026) inserted section 46A into the Sexual Offences Act 2003, making it an offence to make, adapt, possess, supply or offer to supply a "CSA image-generator," punishable on indictment by up to five years; section 46B gives a defence to a member of the Security Service, the [[MI6|Secret Intelligence Service]] or [[GCHQ]] who acts for the purposes of a function of that body, and to Ofcom acting for its online safety functions.[^26] + +### Extortion Networks + +The FBI's alert of June 5, 2023 (I-060523-PSA) stated that the Bureau had observed since April 2023 an increase in sextortion victims reporting the use of fake images or videos made from content on their social media accounts.[^27] The alert of March 6, 2025 (I-030625-PSA) stated that [[764 Network|764]] and other violent online networks "use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to coerce or extort victims" to produce material including CSAM, that victims are typically between 10 and 17 with some as young as 9, and that the networks exist on "publicly available online platforms, such as social media sites, gaming platforms, and mobile applications"; it names no platform.[^2] NCMEC stated that its 2025 CyberTipline data included more than 3,000 reports of sadistic online exploitation, an increase of more than 125 percent.[^11] The prosecutions of [[CVLT]] and 764 members are recorded on those pages and in [[United States v. Rane et al. (2-25-cr-00040)]]. + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 18 U.S.C. § 2256(1), (8), (9), (11) and amendment history, Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2256 +[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, Alert I-030625-PSA, "Violent Online Networks Target Vulnerable and Underage Populations Across the United States and Around the Globe," March 6, 2025. https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250306 +[^3]: EARN IT Act of 2023, S. 1207, 118th Cong., as reported in the Senate (Calendar No. 70), May 15, 2023, secs. 3, 5, 6. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118s1207rs/html/BILLS-118s1207rs.htm +[^4]: New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747 (1982). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/458/747 +[^5]: Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/535/234 +[^6]: United States v. Williams, No. 06-694 (U.S. May 19, 2008). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-694.ZS.html +[^7]: 18 U.S.C. §§ 2258A, 2258B, 2258C, Legal Information Institute, with amendment notes (Pub. L. 110-401, 115-395, 118-59, 119-60). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258A ; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258B ; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2258C +[^8]: United States v. Ackerman, 831 F.3d 1292 (10th Cir. 2016), No. 14-3265 (Gorsuch, J.), paras. 1-6, 14-17, 55-57. https://openjurist.org/831/f3d/1292/united-states-v-ackerman +[^9]: Stanford Internet Observatory, "The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Online Child Safety Ecosystem: Perspectives from Platforms, NCMEC, and Law Enforcement on the CyberTipline and How to Improve It," April 22, 2024 (Shelby Grossman, Riana Pfefferkorn, David Thiel, Sara Shah, Alex Stamos, Renée DiResta, John Perrino, Elena Cryst and Jeffrey Hancock), sec. 2, sec. 2.1 and sec. 3.2.1. https://purl.stanford.edu/pr592kc5483 +[^10]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "CyberTipline Reports by Electronic Service Providers (ESPs)," annual tables for 2019 through 2025. https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2019-reports-by-esp.pdf (and files for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025); 2024: http://ncmec.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/cybertiplinedata2024/2024-reports-by-esp.pdf +[^11]: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "CyberTipline Data," 2025 and 2024 summaries. https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline/cybertiplinedata +[^12]: Senate Judiciary Committee, "Grassley Releases New and Disturbing Information on Online Child Exploitation, Presses Tech Giants for Answers," press release, April 9, 2026. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/grassley-releases-new-and-disturbing-information-on-online-child-exploitation-presses-tech-giants-for-answers +[^13]: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, IRS Forms 990 for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2025 (IRS object IDs 202502169349301015 and 202611699349301126), Parts VII and VIII; "Leadership: Board of Directors," accessed October 2026. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_06A.zip ; https://www.missingkids.org/footer/about/leadership/leadership-profiles +[^14]: Microsoft, "Microsoft and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Push for Action to Fight Child Pornography," Microsoft Source, December 15, 2009. https://news.microsoft.com/source/2009/12/15/microsoft-and-national-center-for-missing-exploited-children-push-for-action-to-fight-child-pornography/ +[^15]: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2025 (IRS object ID 202611699349301126), Part III. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2026/2026_TEOS_XML_06A.zip +[^16]: Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities, "Internet Watch Foundation," charity 1112398, financial year ending March 31, 2025; Companies House, INTERNET WATCH FOUNDATION, company number 03426366, incorporated August 29, 1997. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/4013804/full-print ; https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03426366 +[^17]: Internet Watch Foundation, 2025 IWF Data & Insights Report. https://www.iwf.org.uk/annual-data-insights-report-2025 +[^18]: Internet Watch Foundation, "Our Members," accessed October 2026. https://www.iwf.org.uk/membership/our-members/ +[^19]: Companies House, INTERNET WATCH FOUNDATION (03426366), officers register, accessed October 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03426366/officers +[^20]: Thorn, IRS Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2024 (IRS object ID 202503189349315755), Parts I, III, VII and VIII; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization 270943677. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/990/xml/2025/2025_TEOS_XML_11A.zip ; https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/270943677.json +[^21]: David Thiel, "Identifying and Eliminating CSAM in Generative ML Training Data and Models," Stanford Internet Observatory, December 20, 2023 (revised December 23, 2023), sections 1, 2, 4 and 5.2. https://purl.stanford.edu/kh752sm9123 +[^22]: Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Results of Executive Business Meeting, May 4, 2023. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2023-05-04%20-%20EBM%20-%20Results.pdf +[^23]: Jason Citron, Responses to Questions for the Record, hearing of January 31, 2024, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/2024-01-31-qfr-responses-citron +[^24]: United States v. Levin, 874 F.3d 316 (1st Cir. 2017), No. 16-1567 (Oct. 27, 2017). http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/16-1567P-01A.pdf +[^25]: Protection of Children Act 1978 (c. 37), ss. 1 and 7; Criminal Justice Act 1988 (c. 33), s. 160; Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (c. 25), s. 62, legislation.gov.uk. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/37/section/1 ; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/37/section/7 ; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/25/section/62 +[^26]: Crime and Policing Act 2026 (c. 20), s. 72 (inserting Sexual Offences Act 2003, ss. 46A and 46B), legislation.gov.uk. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/20/section/72 +[^27]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, Alert I-060523-PSA, "Malicious Actors Manipulating Photos and Videos to Create Explicit Content and Sextortion Schemes," June 5, 2023. https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2023/PSA230605 diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Dark Enlightenment.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Dark Enlightenment.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e02ea57d --- /dev/null +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Dark Enlightenment.md @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ +--- +category: "Ideology" +tags: + - Concept + - DarkEnlightenment + - Neoreaction + - NickLand + - CurtisYarvin + - UnqualifiedReservations + - Tlon + - Urbit + - PeterThiel + - NewRight +alias: + - Dark Enlightenment + - The Dark Enlightenment + - dark enlightenment +summary: "Name given in Nick Land's 2012 essay series to the neo-reactionary current around Curtis Yarvin's blog Unqualified Reservations, whose readers included Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and J. D. Vance." +location: "Online" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Nick Land]]" + reverse: true + role: "author of the essay series The Dark Enlightenment" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +The Dark Enlightenment is the title of a serial essay by [[Nick Land]], copied on the site thedarkenlightenment.com with a publication date of December 25, 2012, and the name later applied to the community of writers it describes, centered on the blog *[[Unqualified Reservations]]* by [[Curtis Yarvin]] (pen name [[Moldbug]]). The same writers are grouped under [[Neoreaction]]; the joint-stock state proposal Yarvin published in 2007 is [[Neocameralism]].[^1] + +### The Essay and Its Dating + +The copy at thedarkenlightenment.com is headed "The Dark Enlightenment, by Nick Land" and carries page metadata giving a publication time of December 25, 2012. The site's first entry, "Coming...", is dated December 3, 2012 and reads "A subterranean convocation, beneath the foundations of the [[The Cathedral|Cathedral]]." The earliest reader comment on the essay page is dated February 10, 2013, and the page displays 439 comments. Part 1 of the text refers to events of August 2011 and contains an "Added Note (March 7)" without a year. Land's own venue and the date of the original serialization were not located.[^1][^2] + +The essay runs in the parts titled 1, 2, 3, 4, 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e and 4f. Its menu on the host site links two further pages, "Moldbug's Gentle Introduction" and "Moldbug's Open Letter," which reproduce the Yarvin series of those names.[^1] + +### Part 1: Neo-reactionaries Head for the Exit + +Part 1 argues in its opening paragraphs that "a retrograde, or reactionary, 'dark enlightenment' amounts almost to intrinsic contradiction." Land then cites two events as markers. The first is the April 2009 exchange at [[Cato Unbound]] among libertarian writers including [[Patri Friedman]] and [[Peter Thiel]], in which Thiel wrote "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." The second is a response in [[Salon]] by [[Michael Lind]] in August 2011, which concluded that "Libertarianism really is incompatible with democracy."[^1][^3] + +Land describes "Voice-vs-Exit" as the rising alternative to "Equality-vs-Liberty," quotes Friedman ("we think that free exit is so important that we've called it the only Universal Human Right"), and writes that for the "hardcore neo-reactionaries" the political current is "recognizably Hobbesian, a coherent dark enlightenment, devoid from its beginning of any Rousseauistic enthusiasm for popular expression." He continues: "Where the progressive enlightenment sees political ideals, the dark enlightenment sees appetites."[^1] + +The text introduces Moldbug as the "supreme Sith Lord of the neo-reactionaries," quotes his statement that libertarians "cannot present a realistic picture of a world in which their battle gets won and stays won," and quotes at length Moldbug's definition of neocameralism ("To a neocameralist, a state is a business which owns a country"). Land adds his own gloss: "The point of neo-cameralism is to buy out the real stakeholders in sovereign power, not to perpetuate sentimental lies about mass enfranchisement." He identifies the ruling class by asking "who do capitalists pay for political favors," proposes mapping "the entire social landscape of political bribery ('lobbying')," and states that Moldbug calls the result the Cathedral.[^1] + +### Parts 2 Through 4f + +Part 2 summarizes the first chapters of Moldbug's seven-part series on [[Richard Dawkins]], including the "really ugly bug" passage on a hypothetical optimal memetic parasite, and reads it as a history of progressive democracy as an extension of low-church Protestant enthusiasm. Part 3 continues the Dawkins material, concentrating on Moldbug's question "What, exactly, is this Zeitgeist thing?"[^1] + +Part 4 ("Re-running the race to ruin") summarizes a Moldbug essay on white nationalism. Land writes that Moldbug "offers a sanitized white nationalist blog reading list" beginning with [[Lawrence Auster]] and ending at the blogger "Tanstaafl," and quotes Moldbug: "It should be obvious that, although I am not a white nationalist, I am not exactly allergic to the stuff." Part 4a is subtitled "A multi-part sub-digression into racial terror," Part 4b "Obnoxious observations," Part 4c "The Cracker Factory," Part 4d "Odd Marriages," Part 4e "Cross-coded history" and Part 4f "Approaching the Bionic Horizon." Part 4 ends with a note promising further material in a Part 5, and the host site's menu labels the last installment "Part 4f(inal)." The later parts draw on writing about group differences, East Asian cities and genetic technology (see [[Human Biodiversity]]).[^1] + +### Moldbug's Own Usage + +Yarvin posted "The path to (dark) enlightenment" on March 29, 2013, an essay built on the image of a chick that perceives the egg it is in; the page sidebar lists the Open Letter, Gentle Introduction, Dawkins, Patchwork and Carlyle series. The post text does not mention Land. The phrase "dark enlightenment" does not occur in the text of the 2007 formalist manifesto, the Dawkins, Open Letter, Gentle Introduction, Patchwork and Carlyle series or four other 2013 posts; it appears in the title of the March 2013 post only with "dark" in parentheses.[^4] + +### Early Dissemination, 2013 + +A post titled "Heroes of the Dark Enlightenment" on the [[Radish]] magazine site carries a web address dated May 24, 2013 and is linked in the TechCrunch article described below. On November 22, 2013 [[Klint Finley]] published "Geeks for Monarchy" on [[TechCrunch]], which links Land's essay as "Nick Land's Dark Enlightenment Sequence" alongside Moldbug's posts, and which [[Ava Kofman]] of *[[The New Yorker]]* later described as the article that revealed the pen name belonged to Yarvin. Finley wrote that "there has been an explosion of interest since late 2012."[^5][^6][^7] + +Finley placed the current beside several Thiel-connected enterprises. He wrote that Yarvin was scheduled to speak at the 2009 conference of the [[Seasteading Institute]] before his appearance was canceled, that Patri Friedman, whom he described as a co-founder of the institute with Peter Thiel, named Yarvin's blog in a reading list at the end of a Cato Unbound essay, that Thiel's [[Founders Fund]] was an investor in the company [[Counsyl]] of [[Balaji Srinivasan]], and that a co-founder of Yarvin's startup [[Tlon]] was one of the first recipients of the [[Thiel Fellowship]]. Finley added: "I'm not actually suggesting that there's a conspiracy here." Finley also quoted Srinivasan, who had given a [[Y Combinator]] speech in 2013 on exit, as writing "I'm not a libertarian, don't believe in secession, am a registered Democrat." The same article mentions [[Scott Alexander]]'s anti-reactionary FAQ as a published refutation.[^6] + +### Thiel and the Correspondence + +Thiel's Cato Unbound essay ("The Education of a Libertarian," April 13, 2009) states "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible," lists seasteading with cyberspace and outer space as the means of escape from politics, and writes "all of us must wish Patri Friedman the very best in his extraordinary experiment."[^3] + +Kofman reported that Yarvin linked to the essay in a post titled "Democraphobia Goes (Slightly) Viral," that Yarvin and Thiel "soon met for the first time, at Thiel's house in [[San Francisco]]," and that they began a correspondence she reviewed. She wrote that in 2014 Thiel emailed Yarvin: "How dangerous is it that we are being linked?" She wrote that Srinivasan, whom she described as then a general partner at [[Andreessen Horowitz]], and Thiel had both become friends with Yarvin after reading his blog, and that Srinivasan proposed in an email after the TechCrunch article "to sic the Dark Enlightenment audience on a single vulnerable hostile reporter to dox them," which Yarvin dissuaded.[^7] + +[[Corey Pein]] reported in *[[The Baffler]]* that Thiel had called him a conspiracy theorist at a debate for connecting Thiel to Moldbug; Pein quoted Thiel's reply to the *[[New York Times]]* that "there's nobody sitting around plotting the future, though sometimes I think it would be better if people were." Pein also reproduced a [[BuzzFeed]] account of October 2017, based on leaked emails, in which Yarvin told [[Milo Yiannopoulos]] he had been "coaching Thiel" and wrote "I watched the election at his house, I think my hangover lasted into Tuesday"; Pein wrote that the timing of the exchange, after May 2016, was unclear and that Tlon had received investment capital from Thiel, and that after the 2014 debate Yarvin emailed him congratulations on a book deal he had told only people at The Baffler. *[[Vox]]* reported that Yarvin wrote in an email that Thiel is "fully enlightened" and "just plays it very carefully."[^8][^9] + +### Tlon and Urbit + +Yarvin's software company, Tlon, is the developer of [[Urbit]]. The [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] holds four Form D notices for Tlon Corp (CIK 1727669), a Delaware corporation at 2325 3rd Street, Suite 428, San Francisco, listing 2013 as its year of incorporation and naming [[Galen Wolfe-Pauly]] as an executive officer (and, in the June notice, a director) and Yarvin as an executive officer and director.[^10] + +The first, filed on February 27, 2018 under Rule 506(c) and signed by an attorney on February 26, reports a first sale on February 16, 2018 of a security described as "Simple Agreement for Future Address Space (S.A.F.A.S.)," an indefinite offering amount, $17,806,131 sold to 24 investors, and an estimated $470,000 of gross proceeds paid to related persons, which the filing describes as "estimated salary payments to the parties described in Section 3." Two amendments filed on March 29, 2018 report $20,232,601 sold to 29 investors. A fourth notice, filed June 5, 2018 and signed by Yarvin as President on June 4, reports an equity offering under Rule 506(b) with a first sale on May 29, 2018, an offering of $2,529,649, $1,263,516 sold, $1,266,133 remaining and 17 investors. The notices do not name the investors. No later Form D for Tlon was found.[^10] + +A separate Form D, filed on August 29, 2023 by Portal Ventures Urbit Co Invest LP (Baltimore, Maryland; general partner [[Evan Fisher]]), reports a pooled venture fund with a first sale on August 8, 2023, $2,980,000 offered and sold, nine investors and a $30,000 minimum investment.[^11] + +*[[The Verge]]* reported in 2017 that Wolfe-Pauly said the company is funded by Founders Fund and that Thiel is not personally involved, that it had also received funding from Andreessen Horowitz, and that Urbit had sold "blocks" of addresses in June and made more than $200,000. It reported that Tlon co-founder [[John Burnham]] listed himself as a Thiel Fellowship recipient. Kofman reported that Tlon's investors included Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, that Urbit had drawn an estimated thirty million dollars of investment, that Yarvin left the company in 2019, that he returned in 2024 as a "wartime C.E.O." after which several top employees resigned, and that in February 2025 it raised more money from Andreessen Horowitz. [[Marc Andreessen]], Kofman wrote, got to know Yarvin after investing in Tlon.[^7][^12] + +### Campaign Contributions + +Records of the [[Federal Election Commission]] list a contributor named Curtis Yarvin, retired, at a Reno, Nevada address, giving on March 31, 2022 two contributions of $2,900 each (designated for the primary and the general election of 2022) earmarked through [[WinRed]] to Blake Masters for Senate, the committee of [[Blake Masters]] in Arizona. The FEC data return three records under that name: the two receipts and the WinRed conduit record. The record gives a name, address and occupation only; [[Noah Lanard]] of *[[Mother Jones]]* described Yarvin, the "absolute monarchist" blogger who is friends with Masters and Thiel, as "now a Masters campaign donor."[^13][^14] + +[[Andrew Prokop]] reported in *Vox* that nearly a decade before, Masters, then a Stanford law student asked for reading recommendations, had emailed a link to Yarvin's blog posts, and, citing [[James Pogue]]'s reporting in *[[Vanity Fair]]*, that at a 2021 campaign event Masters said "One of my friends has this acronym he calls RAGE," which expands to Retire All Government Employees. Kofman wrote that Thiel published *[[Zero to One]]* in 2014 with Masters, "his employee and a longtime Moldbug fan."[^7][^9] + +### RAGE and the 2021 Vance Remarks + +On October 20, 2012 the BILtalks channel uploaded a video of Moldbug's [[BIL Conference]] talk titled "How to Reboot the US Government," 18 minutes long. *The Verge* reported that the talk advocated "Retire All Government Employees," abbreviated RAGE, and quoted Yarvin as saying "If Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictatorphobia."[^15][^16] + +In September 2021 [[JD Vance]], a Senate candidate in Ohio, appeared on the podcast of [[Jack Murphy]]. In the episode as transcribed by [[WBUR]]'s *On Point*, Vance said "There's this guy, Curtis Yarvin. Who's written about some of these things," and "another option is that we should just seize the administrative state for our own purposes." *Vox* reported that he urged [[Donald Trump]], if re-elected, to "fire every single midlevel bureaucrat" and "replace them with our people," and that "when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'" [[David Corn]] reported in *Mother Jones* that Vance also described replacing liberal officeholders and compared the program to de-Nazification, and that the host had written in 2015 "Feminists need rape."[^9][^16][^17][^18] + +Yarvin wrote in a July 2024 Substack post, as quoted by *The Verge*, that Vance was a "random normie politician whom I've barely even met" and that he could not imagine having influenced him. An adviser to Vance told [[CNN]] the two had met "like once." Kofman wrote that Yarvin told her he met Vance through Thiel around 2015, and quoted Vance, reportedly speaking at a bar during the 2021 [[National Conservatism Conference]]: "Does a normal Ohio voter read . . . Mencius Moldbug? No."[^7][^16][^19] + +Kofman wrote that on the night before the January 2025 inauguration she drove Yarvin to a black-tie "Coronation Ball" at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, organized by the publisher [[Passage Press]] and billed as "MAGA meets the Tech Right," where Anton attended and [[Steve Bannon]] was the keynote speaker, and that Yarvin wore the same tuxedo he had worn to a party at Thiel's house in Washington the night before, where, as *[[Politico]]* reported, Vance greeted him with "You reactionary fascist!"[^7] + +### Michael Anton and the State Department + +CNN reported that [[Michael Anton]], later director of policy planning at the [[State Department]], featured Yarvin on a 2021 podcast he hosted while at the [[Claremont Institute]], that Yarvin said he was not in close contact with Vance and was closer to officials such as Anton, and that he had made a staffing recommendation. The State Department and [[White House]] did not respond. *Vox* quoted Yarvin telling Anton in a podcast conversation: "You can't continue to have a Harvard or a New York Times past the start of April." Yarvin's essays were published from 2019 by *[[The American Mind]]*, the Claremont Institute's journal, according to *Vox*.[^9][^19] + +CNN reported that Thiel told *[[The Atlantic]]* in 2023 that he did not think Yarvin's ideas would "work" but found him an "interesting and powerful" historian, that Andreessen has called Yarvin a "good friend," and that Andreessen posted that one can read Yarvin without becoming a monarchist.[^19] + +### Schedule F and DOGE + +In October 2024 *The Verge* wrote that RAGE "bears obvious parallels" to Trump's attack on federal bureaucrats, described the 2020 executive order creating [[Schedule F]], and noted that Schedule F was among the proposals in the [[Heritage Foundation]]'s 2025 *[[Mandate for Leadership]]*. CNN's [[Hadas Gold]] wrote in May 2025 that Yarvin's 2022 proposal for "teams of 'ninjas'" dropping into agencies was "strikingly similar to what DOGE has been doing in Washington." Kofman wrote that an anonymous adviser to the [[Department of Government Efficiency]] told the *[[Washington Post]]* it was "an open secret that everyone in policymaking roles has read Yarvin." Kofman also wrote that Yarvin dismissed DOGE as having "so much libertarian DNA" and called the administration's approach a "vibes coup," and that in 2022 he had recommended that a re-elected Trump appoint [[Elon Musk]] to run the executive branch.[^7][^16][^19] + +### Srinivasan and the Network State + +Balaji Srinivasan's book *The Network State* (2022) defines a network state as "a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states." The book lists Yarvin's *Unqualified Reservations* among its recommended reading, cites Yarvin's "How Dawkins Got Pwned" in a passage on Wokeness as a religious successor, writes that "as Yarvin in particular has documented at length, the most important left-authoritarians are not formally part of the elected State at all," and names the network of professors, activists, bureaucrats and journalists "the Paper Belt," "the Cathedral," or "the regime." It describes seasteading as "Conceived by Patri Friedman and backed by Peter Thiel." The text of the book does not use the words "neocameralism" or "Patchwork."[^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Land, Nick. "The Dark Enlightenment" (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 4a to 4f). thedarkenlightenment.com, page metadata published 2012-12-25. http://www.thedarkenlightenment.com/the-dark-enlightenment-by-nick-land/ +[^2]: "Coming…" (December 3, 2012). The Dark Enlightenment (site). https://www.thedarkenlightenment.com/2012/12/03/coming/ +[^3]: Thiel, Peter. "The Education of a Libertarian." Cato Unbound, April 13, 2009. https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ +[^4]: Moldbug, Mencius [Curtis Yarvin]. "The path to (dark) enlightenment." Unqualified Reservations, March 29, 2013. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2013/03/the-path-to-dark-enlightenment/ . Posts searched: the archive's index pages for the Open Letter, Gentle Introduction, How Dawkins Got Pwned, Patchwork and Carlyle series, "A formalist manifesto" (April 23, 2007), and the March and September 2013 posts, at https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/ +[^5]: Radish magazine, "Heroes of the Dark Enlightenment," May 24, 2013, as linked in Finley (note 6): http://radishmag.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/heroes-of-the-dark-enlightenment/ +[^6]: Finley, Klint. "Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries." TechCrunch, November 22, 2013. https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/geeks-for-monarchy/ +[^7]: Kofman, Ava. "Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America." *The New Yorker,* June 2, 2025 (print issue of June 9, 2025, "Autocracy Now!"). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/curtis-yarvin-profile +[^8]: Pein, Corey. "The Moldbug Variations." *The Baffler,* October 9, 2017. https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-moldbug-variations-pein +[^9]: Prokop, Andrew. "Curtis Yarvin wants American democracy toppled. He has some prominent Republican fans." *Vox,* October 24, 2022. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23373795/curtis-yarvin-neoreaction-redpill-moldbug +[^10]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR. Tlon Corp, CIK 1727669, Form D accession 0001727669-18-000002 (filed 2018-02-27), Form D/A 0001727669-18-000003 and 0001727669-18-000004 (filed 2018-03-29), Form D 0001727669-18-000005 (filed 2018-06-05). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000002/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000003/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000004/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000005/primary_doc.xml +[^11]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR. Portal Ventures Urbit Co Invest LP, CIK 1986184, Form D accession 0001986184-23-000002 (filed 2023-08-29). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1986184/000198618423000002/primary_doc.xml +[^12]: Lecher, Colin. "Alt-right darling Mencius Moldbug wanted to destroy democracy. Now he wants to sell you web services." *The Verge,* February 21, 2017. https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/21/14671978/alt-right-mencius-moldbug-urbit-curtis-yarvin-tlon +[^13]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts, contributor "YARVIN, CURTIS": sub_id 4042520221472578651 (P2022) and 4042520221472578649 (G2022), each $2,900, dated 2022-03-31, receipt type "earmarked (non-directed) through WinRed," recipient Blake Masters for Senate (C00784165), contributor address Reno, Nevada, occupation "retired"; WinRed (C00694323) conduit record sub_id 4011120231686191055, $5,800. Image: https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202204159496855678 ; API: https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/ +[^14]: Lanard, Noah. "Blake Masters, Disaster for Democracy, Wins Republican Nomination for Senate in Arizona." *Mother Jones,* August 3, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/blake-masters-republican-nominee-senate-arizona-best-man-trump-thiel/ +[^15]: "BIL2012 - Mencius Moldbug: How to Reboot the US Government." BILtalks, YouTube, uploaded 2012-10-20 (length 1,097 seconds). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZluMysK2B1E +[^16]: Del Valle, Gaby. "JD Vance thinks monarchists have some good ideas." *The Verge,* October 16, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24266512/jd-vance-curtis-yarvin-influence-rage-project-2025 +[^17]: "JD Vance and the rise of the 'New Right'." WBUR *On Point* (episode first aired August 2024; page republished April 5, 2025), transcript. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/04/05/jd-vance-new-right-curtis-yarvin +[^18]: Corn, David. "J.D. Vance Appeared With Podcaster Who Once Said 'Feminists Need Rape'." *Mother Jones,* August 25, 2022. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/jd-vance-appeared-with-podcaster-jack-murphy-who-said-feminists-need-rape/ +[^19]: Gold, Hadas. "Curtis Yarvin wants to replace American democracy with a form of monarchy led by a 'CEO'." CNN, May 30, 2025. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/30/politics/curtis-yarvin-wants-to-replace-american-democracy-with-a-form-of-monarchy-led-by-a-ceo +[^20]: Srinivasan, Balaji S. *The Network State: How to Start a New Country.* 2022, chapter 1 (definition, p. 9) and chapter 2 "History as Trajectory" (PDF pp. 65 to 67), reading list (PDF p. 92), seasteading passage (PDF p. 15). https://thenetworkstate.com/book/tns.pdf diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ed47d2db --- /dev/null +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/INFORMATION_SYSTEMS_&_SOFTWARE/Palantir Gotham.md @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ +--- +category: "Information System" +tags: + - InformationSystem + - Palantir + - PalantirGotham + - DataFusion + - FALCON + - ICE + - DCGSA + - SOCOM + - InQTel + - PredictivePolicing + - OperationLASER +alias: + - Palantir Gotham + - Gotham + - Palantir Government + - Palantir Gotham Platform + - Gotham platform +summary: "Palantir's first platform, released in 2008 for intelligence customers, bought by the Army, Special Operations Command, ICE (as FALCON) and police departments, and the product at issue in Palantir's 2016 bid protest against the Army." +start: 2008 +location: "Palo Alto, California" +relations: + - type: owned + with: "[[Palantir Technologies]]" + reverse: true + start: 2008 + role: "developer and owner; first platform, released in 2008" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[In-Q-Tel]]" + reverse: true + role: "investor in the developer; Palantir's court filing states the platform was developed from 2004 to 2009 with its investment and partnership" + fn: 2 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[U.S. Special Operations Command]]" + start: 2016-05-24 + end: 2021-05-25 + role: "Gotham monthly term licenses, contract H9222216C0078" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[U.S. Army]]" + start: 2014-12-01 + role: "Gotham server licenses and field service representatives, orders KZ01 to KZ06" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]]" + start: 2015-05-28 + end: 2018-05-27 + role: "FALCON operations and maintenance and Gotham license, contract HSCETC15C00001" + fn: 8 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Los Angeles Police Department]]" + role: "Palantir dashboards for Operation LASER and PredPol" + fn: 12 + - type: participant_in + with: "[[Palantir USG, Inc. v. United States]]" + end: 2018-09-07 + role: "product at issue in the Army DCGS-A Increment 2 bid protest" + fn: 10 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Palantir Gotham is the first software platform of [[Palantir Technologies]]. The company's registration statement of August 25, 2020 states that it released Gotham in 2008 "for customers in the intelligence sector," that it built the platform "for government operatives in the defense and intelligence sectors," and that it enables users "to identify patterns hidden deep within datasets, ranging from signals intelligence sources to reports from confidential informants."[^1] + +### Components and Deployment + +The registration statement lists Gotham applications named Graph, Gaia, Dossier, Stencil, Video, Table, Ava, Forward and Mobile. Gaia is described as a shared live map for planning and reporting on operations; Forward as a configuration that runs Gotham on a ruggedized laptop with no network connection; Mobile as a version for Android and iOS devices through which users file field reports and track teammates' locations; and Ava as an artificial intelligence system that scans "billions of data points" for investigators in the defense and intelligence sectors. The statement says that the majority of customers using Gotham require air-gapped or on-premises deployment, that Gotham is offered to commercial customers in financial services for fraud investigations, and that Gotham "is now used broadly across government functions."[^1] + +Its list of [[United States]] government users of Palantir's platforms names the [[U.S. Army|Army]], [[U.S. Navy|Navy]] and [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]], [[U.S. Special Operations Command]], the [[Centers for Disease Control]], the [[Department of Agriculture]], the [[Department of Health and Human Services]], the [[Department of Homeland Security]], the [[Department of Veterans Affairs]], the [[Food and Drug Administration]], the [[National Institutes of Health]] and the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]]. The text of the statement does not contain the words [[In-Q-Tel]], [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] or [[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]].[^1] + +### Development and In-Q-Tel + +In its 2016 bid protest against the U.S. Army, [[Palantir USG|Palantir USG, Inc.]] described Gotham as "initially developed between 2004 and 2009 with the help of an investment from, and a partnership with, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency," meaning In-Q-Tel, and as supplied "since 2010" to "federal and local law enforcement agencies, the [[U.S. Marine Corps|United States Marine Corps]], the United States Special Operations Command ('SOCOM'), the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], and numerous other government agencies." The parties stipulated that Gotham "is a Data Management Platform that is licensed to customers on a commercial item basis."[^2] + +[[BuzzFeed News]] reported on April 21, 2017 that Palantir received an early $2 million investment from In-Q-Tel. The report quoted [[Alex Karp]], the chief executive, from an internal staff video of August 2015 that the outlet obtained: "As many of you know, the SSDA's recalcitrant," using a Palantir codename for the Central Intelligence Agency, "and we've walked away, or they walked away from us, at the [[National Security Agency|NSA]]. Either way, I'm happy about that." BuzzFeed reported, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, that Palantir's pilot work for the [[NSA|National Security Agency]] did not become a full contract, and, citing people familiar with the company and the agency, that Palantir's software had become ingrained at the CIA, and, citing three people with direct knowledge, that the relationship had been marked by tension and even hostility. A Palantir spokesperson said the company could not comment on its relationships with intelligence agencies, and spokespeople for the CIA and the NSA declined to comment.[^3] + +### The 2011 Team Themis Inquiry + +[[Raw Story]] reported on February 9, 2011, summarizing a report in [[The Tech Herald]], that emails published by [[Anonymous]] from the account of [[Aaron Barr]] of [[HBGary Federal]] showed that Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and [[Berico Technologies]] had developed a proposal at the request of the law firm [[Hunton & Williams]], which had met [[Bank of America]] on December 3, 2010, concerning [[WikiLeaks]], including plans to "disrupt" the [[Salon]] columnist [[Glenn Greenwald]]'s support of the site. The same day Alex Karp, Palantir's chief executive, issued a statement that he had "directed the company to sever any and all contacts with HB Gary," that Palantir does not provide and has no plans to develop "offensive cyber capabilities," and that "personally and on behalf of the entire company, I want to publicly apologize to progressive organizations in general, and Mr. Greenwald in particular, for any involvement that we may have had in these matters."[^4] + +Greenwald wrote in *Salon* on February 15, 2011 that Bank of America and the [[U.S. Chamber of Commerce]] "vehemently deny any involvement" and that Palantir and Berico had issued statements terminating their relationship with HBGary Federal and saying they had nothing to do with the plans. He quoted emails in which a Palantir engineer sent Barr a presentation "Updated with Strengths/Weaknesses and a spotlight on Glenn Greenwald," and an email from the Palantir contact for the joint effort, called Team Themis, stating: "we got approval from Dr. Karp and the Board to go ahead with the modified 40/30/30 breakdown proposed." Greenwald wrote that Palantir responded to his inquiry by placing that engineer, described as 26 years old, on leave pending a review and by stating that Palantir "was not retained by any party to develop such recommendations and indeed it would be contrary to Palantir's ethics, culture and policies to do so."[^5] + +On March 28, 2011, Representative [[Hank Johnson]] asked the [[Department of Defense]], the [[Department of Justice]] and the [[Director of National Intelligence]] for all contracts with HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies. His office stated that he and nineteen House colleagues had written on March 1 to four House committees requesting a formal investigation of allegations that the contractors and Hunton & Williams had conspired to use intelligence and counterterrorism tools against United States citizens, and that on March 16 he had questioned General [[Keith Alexander]] and Dr. James Miller at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing. The release described emails made public as indicating that a planned campaign "may have included cyber attacks against political opponents of Hunton & Williams' clients, the submission of fraudulent documents to discredit targeted U.S. citizens, and the manipulation of online social networks to find damaging information."[^6] + +### Army Orders and the DCGS-A Increment 2 Protest + +USAspending records Army orders for Gotham issued by the Army contracting office at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]] (recorded as W6QK ACC-APG) under a Navy blanket purchase agreement, N0010413AZF34, which the record shows as awarded by the Navy's NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk for "Palantir software" from July 26, 2013 to July 24, 2017.[^7] Order KZ01 (December 1, 2014 to November 30, 2015) obligated $5,724,116.36 for "Palantir Gotham server licenses and associated field service representative support." An Army order, KZ02 (December 29, 2014), obligated $2,987,110 for Gotham server licenses for "101st, Ft. Sill, OK" (48 licenses). Order KZ04 (April 10, 2015 to April 10, 2016) obligated $22,401,901.14 for "procurement of Palantir Gotham software and associated support." Order KZ05 (December 1, 2015 to May 31, 2018) obligated $14,198,250.69, and order KZ06 (May 25, 2018 to November 30, 2021) $18,417,417.99.[^8] + +The Army issued Request for Proposals W56KGY-16-R-0001 for the [[Distributed Common Ground System-Army]] Increment 2 (DCGS-A2) on December 23, 2015, seeking a single contractor to be system data architect, developer and integrator. Its Request for Information of August 13, 2014 had estimated a value of $80 million to $100 million for three to four years of development. In July 2014 the Army's acquisition executive, [[Heidi Shyu]], had chartered a market study by the [[MITRE|MITRE Corporation]], and an Army information paper of January 7, 2015 described the infrastructure for the first phase as "a commercial stand-alone solution (Palantir, [[IBM]])" or a collection of capabilities. Shyu's recommendation of December 16, 2015 stated that DCGS-A Increment 1 had a data architecture "over 10 years old."[^2][^9] + +In its response to the August 2014 request, Palantir USG wrote that "The Government does not need to build Increment 2 functionality; the Government can buy the core functionality from the commercial market and integrate any number of additional applications," recommended a firm-fixed-price contract, and cited as examples its work for the Marine Corps, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract that "continues to expand Palantir capabilities through a FFP contract that includes regular software updates and custom enhancements," and a blanket purchase agreement for the Intelligence Community IT Enterprise expansion at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Palantir stated that it fielded and managed "25 Palantir deployments at every major Marine Corps command, representing over 15,000 accounts at peak usage across the Marine Intelligence community," and that its software was "in use by tens of thousands of users across the DOD and IC." The Army's December 2014 analysis of the responses found Palantir "capable to provide Data management and Workflow Management upgrades, and partially capable of providing Data Fusion and Cyber capabilities to Increment 2," and concluded that "a more capability focused RFI needs to be issued to industry." An "Operational Needs Statement for Palantir Platform" of February 9, 2015, whose author is redacted in the opinion, requested the platform and stated that it "offers a solution that meets all of our requirements." The MITRE study had assessed turn-key, cloud-infrastructure and hybrid approaches, and an [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] trade space analysis of July 2015 rated the hybrid alternative "Green" and highest of three alternatives, noting that upper-bound commercial solutions "provide similar 'turn-key' technical functionality."[^2] + +After the [[Government Accountability Office]] denied the protest of Palantir USG on May 18, 2016 (B-412746), Palantir USG and its parent filed in the [[Court of Federal Claims]] in June 2016, represented by [[Boies Schiller Flexner]]. On August 22, 2016, Judge [[Marian Blank Horn]] dismissed the parent, Palantir Technologies Inc., for waiver because it had not responded to the Army's requests for information or protested at the Government Accountability Office, and held that Palantir USG had standing.[^9] Palantir's complaint alleged that the Army had spent approximately $6 billion over fifteen years trying to develop its own software for the system. Palantir USG's protest to the Government Accountability Office, quoted by the court, stated that an Army Test and Evaluation Command assessment of Palantir conducted in theater in early 2012 was reported on April 25, 2012 and reissued in revised form on May 25, 2012 at the request of the Army's G-2, that the revision suppressed favorable comments about Palantir, and that internal Army correspondence directed that the original be formally rescinded and all copies destroyed. Lieutenant General [[William Grisoli]] conducted an Army investigation of the matter between July and October 2012.[^2][^9] + +On November 3, 2016, the court held that Palantir had not shown by clear and convincing evidence bias or bad faith by the Army, including over the 2012 report and over information papers that Colonel [[Charles Wells]] had sent to Congress on September 30 and October 18, 2011. It held that the Army had not satisfied [[10 U.S.C. § 2377|10 U.S.C. section 2377]], a requirement the court tied to investigating whether commercial items exist that can satisfy the government's needs in whole or in part before developing a product, and permanently enjoined an award under the December 23, 2015 solicitation as issued.[^2] The Army appealed. On September 7, 2018, the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]] affirmed in an opinion by Judge [[Kara Farnandez Stoll|Stoll]], writing: "To be clear, we are not suggesting that the Army must choose Palantir as the awardee." [[Theodore Olson]] of [[Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher|Gibson Dunn]] argued for Palantir, which was also represented by lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner, including [[David Boies]].[^10] + +The registration statement states that Palantir generated $51.9 million in revenue from its Army accounts from 2008 through September 2018, and $134.5 million from those accounts between October 2018 and June 2020, and describes the lawsuit as one that is "transforming the way the entire [[U.S. government]] buys software."[^1] USAspending lists Army order W56KGY19F0029 (March 25, 2019 to March 23, 2023, $23,956,939.20) with Palantir USG, issued by the Aberdeen office under indefinite delivery contract W56KGY18D0003 for a "commercial item that is a combined hardware and software" solution. Later Army orders carry the same W56KGY prefix as the 2015 solicitation number and are described as supporting "Army Capability Drop 2": W56KGY22F0029 ($36,658,071.03), W56KGY23F0029 ($34,534,395.88), W56KGY24F0045 ($35,203,406.82), W56KGY25F0111 ($14,883,564.02) and W56KGY26F0031 ($16,500,000).[^8] + +### Special Operations Command and Navy Awards + +USAspending shows Special Operations Command contract H9222216C0078, "Palantir Gotham monthly term licenses," running from May 24, 2016 to May 25, 2021, with $275,959,237.71 obligated against a ceiling of $277,509,237.71. Other Special Operations Command awards include "Palantir tools" ($1,214,651, July 9, 2009) and "Gotham cloud licenses" ($3,630,667, April 8, 2016). An office that USAspending names as [[NIWC Atlantic]] also placed orders for Palantir software license maintenance and support under blanket purchase agreement N0010413AZF34, including V782 ($35,804,181.12, September 26, 2014) and N6523617F0874 ($35,750,000, September 28, 2017 to September 27, 2020). Another Navy order, N0003920F0110, is titled "Palantir Gotham-IL 4/5 base year" (February 10, 2020; $19,404,999.96 obligated, ceiling $83,999,999.76). Other awards labelled Gotham include an Air Force order described as "non ACAT NASIC Palantir Gotham license" ($169,218, September 17, 2013), an Army order for annual maintenance of the "Palantir Gotham license core platform" ($338,437, September 27, 2013) and an order from the [[Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency]] for a "Palantir Gotham perpetual license" ($1,173,248, September 8, 2014).[^8] + +### Immigration and Customs Enforcement: FALCON and Investigative Case Management + +The earliest award from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Palantir Technologies in the USAspending search, which begins on October 1, 2007, is HSCEMD11P00040 (February 24, 2011, $58,122 for servers, cloud server licensing and training), followed on September 14, 2011 by HSCETE11F00125, "Palantir software, service, and support for HSI personnel" ($6,725,683.92), and on March 14, 2013 by HSCETC13F00010, annual support and maintenance ($394,843.12). Order HSCETC13F00030 (June 14, 2013 to May 27, 2015; $12,080,065.52) is described as [[FALCON]] operations and maintenance "for Palantir Government, a proprietary software product of Palantir Technologies, Inc." Contract HSCETC15C00001 (May 28, 2015 to May 27, 2018) obligated $39,340,900.82 for FALCON operations, maintenance and system enhancement.[^8] + +The contract file that ICE published in its [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] reading room for HSCETC-15-C-00001 defines a "Palantir Gotham FFP License" as "a license to be used in perpetuity on the ICE Falcon enterprise instance of Palantir for an unlimited number of server cores," defines the licensed product as "Palantir's proprietary commercial product Palantir Gotham," and limits use to ICE's "mission-related purposes" and to "the ICE FALCON system." The agreement states that the product and services are commercial items under 48 C.F.R. section 2.101. Its closing paragraph states that Palantir is not affiliated with The Saul Zaentz Company, d.b.a. Tolkien Enterprises, or the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien.[^11] + +Later ICE awards in USAspending are: 70CMSD18FR0000094, "Palantir Gotham software" ($249,999.50, June 7 to June 18, 2018); 70CTD019C00000001, FALCON operations and maintenance (November 28, 2018 to May 27, 2022; $37,839,725.17); 70CTD019FR0000268, "new ICM licenses, hosting, helpdesk, and O&M support" (September 25, 2019 to September 25, 2022; $43,565,619.03); 70CTD022FR0000070, FALCON interim support (May 28 to December 2, 2022; $6,937,738.86); and 70CTD022FR0000170, "[[Investigative Case Management]] (ICM) operations and maintenance support services and custom enhancements" (September 26, 2022 to September 25, 2027; $170,765,322.37). Two orders of 2026 refer to a "Case Management and Analytics Platform": 70CTD026FC0000012 (May 5, 2026 to May 4, 2027; $86,271,599.30) for the Enforcement Case Management System, and 70CTD026FC0000018 (June 26, 2026 to June 25, 2027; $45,848,616.80) for [[Homeland Security Investigations]] case management and analytics. The twelve ICE awards named in this section total $450,078,236.41.[^8] + +### Police Department Deployments + +The Inspector General of the [[Los Angeles Police Commission]] reviewed [[Operation LASER]] in a report dated March 2019. The report describes the Palantir platform as providing "a single access point to multiple sources of law enforcement data," and states that Crime Intelligence Details used it to vet people for the Chronic Offender list, ranking them by points and listing at least twelve per area. It reports that LASER dosage and crime statistics were tracked on a LASER dashboard on the Palantir "Mission Control" platform, and states in a footnote that the annual total cost of those applications "is estimated at approximately $1.8 million per year," while adding that the program "includes a great deal of functionality beyond the LASER dashboard." LASER itself was funded chiefly by [[Bureau of Justice Assistance]] grants of $499,959 (2009) and $400,000 (2014), with $899,550.54 in recorded expenditures from August 2010 to September 2018. After a July 2018 Commission meeting, areas were told to suspend entering data into the Chronic Offender database, and the Inspector General found that the majority of people designated Chronic Offenders had few if any actual contacts with the police.[^12] + +*[[The Verge]]* reported on February 27, 2018 that Palantir ran a predictive policing program with the [[New Orleans Police Department]] under an agreement signed on February 23, 2012 by Mayor [[Mitch Landrieu]], which gave the city free access to "the firm's public sector data integration platform" and was structured as a pro bono, philanthropic arrangement under the city's [[NOLA For Life]] program, without a public procurement process. The article quotes the political consultant [[James Carville]] as saying "It was entirely my idea" and that he and Karp flew to [[New Orleans]] to meet Landrieu, and reports that [[Ronal Serpas]], the department's chief at the time, said that [[Jeff Asher]], a former intelligence agent who joined the department from the CIA, ran the social network analysis from 2013 to 2015. The article, citing Palantir's own documentation, states that the method produced a list of roughly 3,900 people at highest risk of involvement in gun violence. The article refers to "Palantir's law enforcement platform" and does not name Gotham. It reports that Landrieu's press office said two weeks after publication that the pro bono contract would not be renewed, and that the Danish national police and intelligence services signed an 84-month contract with Palantir in 2016 for a predictive technology package, reported in the Danish press to be worth between $14.8 million and $41.4 million.[^13] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Palantir Technologies Inc., Form S-1 registration statement, filed Aug. 25, 2020, SEC accession no. 0001193125-20-230013, sections "Prospectus Summary," "Business" (Our Platforms; Gotham applications; U.S. government customers) and "Management's Discussion and Analysis" (Overview). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1321655/000119312520230013/d904406ds1.htm +[^2]: *Palantir USG, Inc. v. United States*, No. 16-784C (Fed. Cl. Nov. 3, 2016) (Horn, J.) (redacted opinion on the merits and permanent injunction, ECF No. 113, filed Nov. 9, 2016), findings of fact and conclusion. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cofc-1_16-cv-00784/pdf/USCOURTS-cofc-1_16-cv-00784-1.pdf +[^3]: William Alden, "Palantir's Relationship With The Intelligence Community Has Been Worse Than You'd Think," BuzzFeed News, Apr. 21, 2017. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/williamalden/palantirs-relationship-with-americas-spies +[^4]: Eric Dolan, "Update: Palantir apologizes for proposal to attack WikiLeaks," Raw Story, Feb. 9, 2011 (quoting statement of Alex Karp and summarizing a report in The Tech Herald). https://www.rawstory.com/2011/02/data-intelligence-firms-proposed-attack-wikileaks/ +[^5]: Glenn Greenwald, "More facts emerge about the leaked smear campaigns," Salon, Feb. 15, 2011. https://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/palantir/ +[^6]: Office of Rep. Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr., press release, "Rep. Johnson seeks intelligence firms' contracts in ChamberLeaks scandal," Mar. 28, 2011. https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-johnson-seeks-intelligence-firms-contracts-chamberleaks-scandal +[^7]: USAspending.gov, award record CONT_IDV_N0010413AZF34_9700 (awarding office NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Department of the Navy; description "PALANTIR SOFTWARE"; period July 26, 2013 to July 24, 2017), api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_IDV_N0010413AZF34_9700/, retrieved Oct. 1, 2026. +[^8]: USAspending.gov award records retrieved through the public API (api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/ and /api/v2/awards/) on Oct. 1, 2026, recipient name containing "PALANTIR"; award identifiers as cited in the text. Amounts are total obligations to date on that date. https://www.usaspending.gov +[^9]: *Palantir Technologies Inc. v. United States*, No. 16-784C (Fed. Cl. Aug. 22, 2016) (Horn, J.) (opinion on motion to dismiss; redacted version issued Aug. 26, 2016, ECF No. 69). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-cofc-1_16-cv-00784/pdf/USCOURTS-cofc-1_16-cv-00784-0.pdf +[^10]: *Palantir USG, Inc. v. United States*, 904 F.3d 980, No. 2017-1465 (Fed. Cir. decided Sept. 7, 2018; public opinion issued Sept. 13, 2018) (Newman, Mayer and Stoll, JJ.). https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/palantir_17-1465.opinion.9-13-18.pdf +[^11]: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FOIA reading room, contract file *Palantir Technologies Inc - HSCETC-15-C-00001* (101 pages), Palantir License and Services Agreement, pages 1 to 4 (definitions 1.1 and 1.2, grant of license, paragraph 9, closing paragraph of paragraph 14), and Attachment A. https://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/contracts/palantirTechHSCETC15C00001.pdf +[^12]: Mark P. Smith, Inspector General, Los Angeles Police Commission, *Review of Selected Los Angeles Police Department Data-Driven Policing Strategies*, BPC #19-0072 (Mar. 8, 2019; report dated Mar. 12, 2019), pages 2 to 10 and footnotes 7 and 16. https://www.lapdpolicecom.lacity.org/031219/BPC_19-0072.pdf +[^13]: Ali Winston, "Did Palantir Secretly Use New Orleans to Test Predictive Policing?," The Verge (republished by Type Investigations), Feb. 27, 2018. https://typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2018/02/27/palantir-secretly-use-new-orleans-test-predictive-policing/ diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Neocameralism.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Neocameralism.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..763da845 --- /dev/null +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Neocameralism.md @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ +--- +category: "Ideology" +tags: + - Concept + - Neocameralism + - Cameralism + - CurtisYarvin + - Moldbug + - UnqualifiedReservations + - Patchwork + - Sovcorp + - DarkEnlightenment + - Neoreaction +alias: + - Neocameralism + - neocameralism + - neocameral + - Neo-cameralism + - neo-cameralism + - Neocameralist + - Sovcorp + - Gov-corp + - Sovereign joint-stock corporation +summary: "Name coined by Curtis Yarvin on August 16, 2007 for a state organized as a joint-stock corporation that owns a territory, hires a chief executive and treats residents as customers, echoing German cameralism." +location: "United States" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Curtis Yarvin]]" + reverse: true + start: 2007-08-16 + role: "coined the term in the post Against political freedom" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-10-01 +updated: 2026-10-01 +--- + +Neocameralism is the name [[Curtis Yarvin]] ([[Moldbug]]) gave on his blog *[[Unqualified Reservations]]* to a proposal that a state be owned and run as a joint-stock corporation, with negotiable shares, a board, a chief executive and residents treated as customers. Its presentation under the heading "Patchwork" in November and December 2008 described thousands of such corporate territories. Yarvin paired the proposal with the thesis he called [[The Cathedral]]; both appear in the writings grouped under [[Neoreaction]] and in [[Nick Land]]'s [[Dark Enlightenment]] essay series. + +### Cameralism + +*Cameralism* names the administrative science of the German principalities of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [[Albion W. Small]] opened his 1909 study *The Cameralists* by explaining that *Kammer* is a variant of the Latin *camera*, and that cameralism "was the routine of the bureaus in which the administrative employees of governments, first of all in the fiscal departments, did their work." Small wrote that the writers he treated constructed "a 'science' or group of 'sciences'" around "the central consideration of the fiscal needs of the prince," and suggested that "fiscalists" would be a more accurate name for them than cameralists. His table of contents lists chapters on thirteen writers, from Osse and Obrecht to Sonnenfels, among them [[Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff]] (born 1626), [[Johann Joachim Becher]] (born 1635), [[Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi]] and [[Joseph von Sonnenfels]] (1733 to 1817).[^1] + +### Coinage, August 2007 + +Yarvin's first *Unqualified Reservations* post, "A formalist manifesto," appeared on April 23, 2007. The text of that post does not contain the words cameralism, neocameralism, sovcorp, joint-stock or Frederick.[^2][^3] + +On August 16, 2007, in "Against political freedom," Moldbug wrote: "So let me coin another name for formalism, and call it neocameralism. The word is mainly picked for its Google virginity, but it should also be reminiscent of cameralism, the governing philosophy of [[Frederick the Great]], whose [[Anti-Machiavel]] is good reading for anyone wondering what went wrong in the 19th and 20th centuries." The post continues: "To a neocameralist, a state is a business which owns a country. A state should be managed, like any other large business, by dividing logical ownership into negotiable shares, each of which yields a precise fraction of the state's profit." Each share has one vote, and the shareholders elect a board, which hires and fires managers; the residents are the business's customers. Moldbug gave as an example a state funding itself by a property tax on self-assessed land values, which he valued as an enterprise whose incentive "is simply to maximize property prices," and named Hohenzollern [[Prussia]], [[Singapore]], [[Dubai]] and [[Hong Kong]] in the discussion of historical analogues.[^2] + +The same post states the position on political rights: "In my ideal neocameralist state, there is no political freedom because there is no politics." It adds that there might be a comment box, customer surveys and polls, but "no organization and no reason to organize, because no combination of residents can influence government policy by coercion." It describes Singapore and Dubai as "vaguely quasi-neocameralist states" and not "neocameralist paradises."[^2] + +### The Autumn 2007 Posts + +In part 4 of the series "How Dawkins Got Pwned" (October 2007) Moldbug wrote that he had "described this theory before under the name of neocameralism," and set it out in eight numbered propositions. These include "a good government is a well-managed sovereign corporation," that "the shareholders elect a board, which selects a CEO," that the closest historical equivalents are "the 18th-century tradition of enlightened absolutism as represented by Frederick the Great" and the "lost fragments of the British Empire such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai," and that "productive political efforts should focus on peacefully terminating, restructuring and decentralizing the 20th-century civil-service state along neocameralist lines." The eighth proposition ends: "The ideal result is a planet of thousands, even tens of thousands, of independent city-states, each managed for profit by its shareholders."[^4] + +On December 13, 2007, in "Why I am not a libertarian," he defined the term: "Neocameralism is the idea that a sovereign state or primary corporation is not organizationally distinct from a secondary or private corporation." He described it as a refinement of royalism: "Under neocameralism, the biological quirks of royalism are eliminated and the State 'goes public,' hiring the best executives regardless of their bloodline or even nationality." Closing the post, he compared the two doctrines: "The advantage of libertarianism, from a practical political perspective, is that it has deep roots in the American value system." He wrote that "The disadvantage of neocameralism is that it is completely alien to American voters, that it has no connection at all to any American value system, that no one has even heard of it at all, that it represents a complete rejection of the sacred American principle of democracy, and that it could be described, not utterly without a grain of truth, as 'corporate fascism' or some such similar epithet."[^5] + +On December 20, 2007, "Neocameralism and the escalator of massarchy" set out the vocabulary and the cryptographic-weapons mechanism that reappear in the Patchwork posts of 2008. It uses the phrase "neocameralist patchwork planet," calls the owning organizations "sovcorps," names their owners "subscribers," their employees "agents" and the inhabitants of the territory "residents," and names the secondary corporations and nonprofit organizations they permit "subcorps" and "suborgs." It proposes two governance devices for a sovcorp: cross-listing on one another's secondary exchanges and "cryptogovernance," under which subscribers "use private keys to sign their contributions to its governance." The post adds that "anything even remotely resembling anonymous cryptogovernance is known as 'money laundering' by our friends in Washington," and advises readers not to try it with real money.[^6] + +The same post connects cryptogovernance to the control of weapons. It describes extending the cryptographic "permissive action links" already used for "the world's most powerful weapons" to small arms, so that "Military formations loyal to the CEO will find that their weapons work. Rebel formations will find that theirs don't." To prevent the armed formations from arresting the keyholders, it proposes: "keep the sovcorp's directors, or whoever has ultimate control of the highest grade of military keys, outside the sovcorp's neostate." It warns that if the patchwork consolidates into "a few giant megasovcorps," stability is at risk, and that subscribers "can sell every share in the sovcorp to [[Google]] if they like."[^6] + +### The Open Letter, May to July 2008 + +In chapter 6 of "An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives" ("The lost theory of government," May 22, 2008), Moldbug used a hypothetical corporate California ("Stevifornia," ruled by a figure called Steve) as the example, and in the passage on security wrote "this is [[Arnold Kling]]'s objection to the above design, which I've given the cute name of neocameralism." He wrote there that "Secure neocameralism depends on a cryptographic decision and command chain (CDCC)" and that "The neocameralist state never existed before the 21st century. It never could have existed. The technology wasn't there." The chapter adds that once 21st-century technology is recognized as necessary to the design, "good old cameralism, Frederick the Great style, was the best that previous centuries could do."[^7] + +In chapter 7 (May 29, 2008), in a passage on corruption in China and the [[United States]], he wrote: "Government serves as a profit center, but (unlike in neocameralism) the distribution of profits is informal."[^8] + +In chapter 12 (July 2, 2008) he wrote: "Ergo: responsible and effective government is best achieved by sovereign capitalism, ie, neocameralism."[^9] + +Chapter 13 (July 10, 2008) describes a transition for a state he calls Plainland, whose government ("Plaingov") would become a corporation ("Plaincorp"). He wrote that "any plan in which Plaingov relinquishes its sovereign power must involve a transfer of that power to an agency which is intrinsically trustworthy," called "the Trust"; that the chief executive, the "Receiver," is an employee of the Trust; and that "Sovereignty is an attribute of the Trust, not of the Receiver." He added that if the assumption that good government maximizes the value of the territory to the corporation "appears mistaken, the Trust should not complete the transition to neocameralism."[^10] + +### Patchwork, November and December 2008 + +The four-part series "Patchwork: A Political System for the 21st Century" appeared on November 13, November 20, November 27 and December 3, 2008. Chapter 1 states: "The basic idea of Patchwork is that, as the crappy governments we inherited from history are smashed, they should be replaced by a global spiderweb of tens, even hundreds, of thousands of sovereign and independent mini-countries, each governed by its own joint-stock corporation without regard to the residents' opinions. If residents don't like their government, they can and should move. The design is all 'exit,' no 'voice.'"[^11] + +Chapter 2 (November 20, 2008) argues that a neocameralist structure creates "the profitable should," and states: "We can construct a political structure that will enforce financial responsibility. Thus neocameralism. We might say that financial responsibility is the raw material of moral responsibility." An editorial note in the archive edition of that chapter glosses the term: "Neocameralism, a Moldbuggian neologism for the State as profitable corporation, is a reference to the cameralism of Frederick the Great."[^12] + +Chapter 3 introduces neocameralism as "a synthetic organ of government" and states that governments should be "administered as sovereign joint-stock corporations, controlled absolutely by their shareholders, who hold the master encryption keys for the government's invincible robot armies." It calls the result "private government" and describes a joint-stock sovereign as "a clean, lean and mean revenue-extracting machine. Its goal: loot."[^13] + +### Land's Gloss + +Part 1 of Land's *The Dark Enlightenment* reproduces the 2007 definition and comments: "The point of neo-cameralism is to buy out the real stakeholders in sovereign power, not to perpetuate sentimental lies about mass enfranchisement," and "Unless ownership of the state is formally transferred into the hands of its actual rulers, the neo-cameral transition will simply not take place." Land sets out three numbered stages: the conversion of a democratic state's actual power holders into shareholders, the identification of that ruling class by mapping lobbying and its returns, and the appointment of a chief executive whose interest is "the maximization of long-term shareholder value." Land describes the dark enlightenment as asking, "From [[Thomas Hobbes]] to [[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]] and beyond," how the sovereign power can be prevented from devouring society. In the same part Land writes of the state-corporation: "If gov-corp doesn't deliver acceptable value for its taxes (sovereign rent), they can notify its customer service function, and if necessary take their custom elsewhere," and "Gov-corp would concentrate upon running an efficient, attractive, vital, clean, and secure country, of a kind that is able to draw customers."[^14] + +*[[The New Yorker]]*'s [[Ava Kofman]] wrote that Yarvin read Hoppe's *[[Democracy: The God That Failed]]* (2001) as a programmer in his late twenties and "soon adopted Hoppe's imago of a benevolent strongman," and quoted the authoritarianism scholar [[Julian Waller]]: "It's not copy-and-pasted, but it is such a direct influence that it's kind of obscene." Kofman added that Hoppe, by email, recalled meeting Yarvin once at a gathering at Peter Thiel's home where Hoppe had been invited to speak, acknowledged his influence on Yarvin, and wrote that "For my taste his writing has always been a bit too flowery and rambling."[^15] + +### Urbit and the Sale of Address Space + +[[Tlon]], the company Yarvin co-founded in 2013 to develop [[Urbit]], filed [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] notices in 2018 for the sale of a security it named a "Simple Agreement for Future Address Space (S.A.F.A.S.)": $17,806,131 sold to 24 investors in an offering that opened on February 16, 2018, and $20,232,601 sold to 29 investors as amended on March 29, 2018. A further notice in June 2018 reported an equity offering of $2,529,649 with $1,263,516 sold to 17 investors. Yarvin was listed as an executive officer and director and signed the June notice as President.[^16] + +Kofman described the Urbit network as designed "around a hierarchical model of virtual real estate, with users owning 'planets,' 'stars,' or 'galaxies,'" and wrote that in an early sketch of the system Yarvin "named himself its 'prince.'" She reported an estimated thirty million dollars of investment, that Yarvin left the company in 2019 and returned in 2024 as a "wartime C.E.O."[^15] + +### Exit Without the Word + +[[Balaji Srinivasan]]'s *The Network State* (2022) describes a network state as "a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states." Its text cites Yarvin's *Unqualified Reservations* in a reading list and "How Dawkins Got Pwned" in a passage on Wokeness, and uses the term "the Cathedral" among its names for the "left-authoritarian network." The book does not contain the words "neocameralism" or "Patchwork." Its discussion of seasteading describes the idea as "Conceived by [[Patri Friedman]] and backed by [[Peter Thiel]]."[^17] + +Thiel's 2009 essay at [[Cato Unbound]], "The Education of a Libertarian," listed seasteading, with cyberspace and outer space, as a place to escape politics and wished Patri Friedman "the very best in his extraordinary experiment." Klint Finley wrote in 2013 that Friedman co-founded the [[Seasteading Institute]] with Thiel.[^18] + +### Próspera + +*[[WIRED]]* reported that the [[Honduras]] Congress enacted a law in 2013 under which private investors could create "largely self-governing zones" (ZEDEs, from the Spanish acronym) empowered "to write their own civil laws, enact their own regulations and building codes and create their own courts," with businesses paying taxes to the zone rather than to municipal or national governments. The zones were overseen by a committee appointed by the president whose initial members included "the son of former US President [[Ronald Reagan]] and the anti-tax crusader" [[Grover Norquist]]. [[Próspera]], the first ZEDE, was established in December 2017 on the island of [[Roatán]], funded by [[Pronomos Capital]], a venture capital firm "founded to help launch charter cities around the world," which WIRED wrote was backed by billionaires including Peter Thiel and [[Marc Andreessen]]. The ZEDE law was repealed in April 2022, and in September 2024 the Honduran Supreme Court ruled the law and related constitutional amendments unconstitutional.[^19] + +On December 19, 2022 the Delaware-based Honduras Próspera Inc., together with St. John's Bay Development Company LLC and Próspera Arbitration Center LLC, filed a request for arbitration against the Republic of Honduras at the [[International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes]] under a Legal Stability Agreement and the [[CAFTA-DR]] free trade agreement. The case, ICSID Case No. ARB/23/2, was registered on February 3, 2023, and the tribunal was constituted on January 29, 2024 ([[Juan Fernandez-Armesto]], president; [[David W. Rivkin]], appointed by the claimants; [[Raul E. Vinuesa]]). [[White & Case]] acts for the claimants and [[Foley Hoag]] for Honduras. *WIRED* reported that the claim sought up to $10.775 billion and was one of fifteen similar claims against Honduras. Honduras filed a proposal on February 19, 2024 to disqualify Rivkin, a United States national appointed by the three United States claimants, citing Article 39 of the ICSID Convention and Arbitration Rule 13(3); the Chairman of the ICSID Administrative Council, [[Ajay Banga]], rejected the proposal on August 7, 2024 after receiving a recommendation from [[Pierre-Marie Dupuy]] on July 29, 2024. On September 9, 2026 the tribunal issued a procedural order inviting amicus curiae submissions; the case was listed as pending.[^19][^20] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Small, Albion W. *The Cameralists: The Pioneers of German Social Polity.* Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1909, Introduction (chapter I) and table of contents. https://archive.org/details/cameralistspione00smaliala +[^2]: Moldbug, Mencius [Curtis Yarvin]. "Against political freedom." *Unqualified Reservations,* August 16, 2007. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/08/against-political-freedom/ +[^3]: Moldbug, Mencius. "A formalist manifesto." *Unqualified Reservations,* April 23, 2007 (date from the blog's Blogspot feed, https://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default). https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/04/formalist-manifesto-originally-posted/ +[^4]: Moldbug, Mencius. "How Dawkins Got Pwned, part 4." *Unqualified Reservations,* October 2007. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/10/how-dawkins-got-pwned-part-4/ +[^5]: Moldbug, Mencius. "Why I am not a libertarian." *Unqualified Reservations,* December 13, 2007. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/12/why-i-am-not-libertarian/ +[^6]: Moldbug, Mencius. "Neocameralism and the escalator of massarchy." *Unqualified Reservations,* December 20, 2007. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2007/12/neocameralism-and-escalator-of/ +[^7]: Moldbug, Mencius. "OL6: The lost theory of government." *Unqualified Reservations,* May 22, 2008. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/05/ol6-lost-theory-of-government/ +[^8]: Moldbug, Mencius. "OL7: The ugly truth about government." *Unqualified Reservations,* May 29, 2008. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/05/ol7-ugly-truth-about-government/ +[^9]: Moldbug, Mencius. "OLXII: what is to be done?" *Unqualified Reservations,* July 2, 2008 (date from the blog's Blogspot feed). https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/07/olxii-what-is-to-be-done/ +[^10]: Moldbug, Mencius. "OLXIII: Tactics and structures of any prospective restoration." *Unqualified Reservations,* July 10, 2008. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/07/olxiii-tactics-and-structures-of-any/ +[^11]: Moldbug, Mencius. "Patchwork: a positive vision (part 1)." *Unqualified Reservations,* November 13, 2008; "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords," November 20, 2008; "Patchwork 3: what we have and what's so bad about it," November 27, 2008; "Patchwork 4: a reactionary theory of world peace," December 3, 2008. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/11/patchwork-positive-vision-part-1/ +[^12]: Moldbug, Mencius. "Patchwork 2: Profit strategies for our new corporate overlords." *Unqualified Reservations,* November 20, 2008. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/11/patchwork-2-profit-strategies-for-our/ +[^13]: Moldbug, Mencius. "Patchwork 3: what we have and what's so bad about it." *Unqualified Reservations,* November 27, 2008. https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/11/patchwork-3-what-we-have-and-whats-so/ +[^14]: Land, Nick. "The Dark Enlightenment," Part 1, "Neo-reactionaries head for the exit." thedarkenlightenment.com, page metadata published 2012-12-25. http://www.thedarkenlightenment.com/the-dark-enlightenment-by-nick-land/ +[^15]: Kofman, Ava. "Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America." *The New Yorker,* June 2, 2025 (print issue of June 9, 2025). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/curtis-yarvin-profile +[^16]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR. Tlon Corp, CIK 1727669, Form D 0001727669-18-000002 (filed 2018-02-27), Form D/A 0001727669-18-000003 and 0001727669-18-000004 (filed 2018-03-29), Form D 0001727669-18-000005 (filed 2018-06-05). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000002/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000003/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000004/primary_doc.xml ; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1727669/000172766918000005/primary_doc.xml +[^17]: Srinivasan, Balaji S. *The Network State: How to Start a New Country.* 2022: definition (chapter 1, p. 9), chapter 2 "History as Trajectory" (PDF pp. 65 to 67), reading list (PDF p. 92), seasteading passage (PDF p. 15). https://thenetworkstate.com/book/tns.pdf +[^18]: Thiel, Peter. "The Education of a Libertarian." Cato Unbound, April 13, 2009. https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ ; for the founding of the Seasteading Institute with Thiel: Finley, Klint. "Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries," TechCrunch, November 22, 2013. https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/geeks-for-monarchy/ +[^19]: Kusnetz, Nicholas, and Katie Surma. "A Lawsuit From Backers of a 'Startup City' Could Bankrupt Honduras." *WIRED* (with Inside Climate News), September 28, 2024. https://www.wired.com/story/a-lawsuit-from-backers-of-a-startup-city-could-bankrupt-honduras/ +[^20]: International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. *Honduras Próspera Inc., St. John's Bay Development Company LLC, and Próspera Arbitration Center LLC v. Republic of Honduras* (ICSID Case No. ARB/23/2), case detail page (consulted October 1, 2026) Procedural Order No. 1 (September 19, 2024), and letter of the Chairman of the ICSID Administrative Council of August 7, 2024 rejecting the proposal to disqualify Mr. Rivkin, with the recommendation of Professor Dupuy. https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database/case-detail?CaseNo=ARB/23/2 ; https://icsidfiles.worldbank.org/icsid/ICSIDBLOBS/OnlineAwards/C11037/DS20135_En.pdf ; https://icsidfiles.worldbank.org/icsid/ICSIDBLOBS/OnlineAwards/C11037/DS20134_En.pdf