diff --git a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md index c35f26e8..395cee90 100644 --- a/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md +++ b/00 - META/CHANGELOG.md @@ -1,9 +1,65 @@ +- 2026-09-23T0020 · [[_manifest]] +- 2026-09-23T0019 · [[Cari Tuna]] +- 2026-09-23T0019 · [[Dustin Moskovitz]] +- 2026-09-23T0014 · [[key_figures_candidates]] +- 2026-09-23T0014 · [[KEY INDIVIDUALS]] +- 2026-09-23T0014 · [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Foreign Terrorist Organization]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Center for AI Safety]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Asana]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Combating Terrorism Center at West Point]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Helen Toner]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Mochtar Riady]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Luke Muehlhauser]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Jason Matheny]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[David Maland]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Frederick Lacey]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Paul Christiano]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Dick Cheney]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Jorge Alessandri]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[North Fox Island]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Queen's Accident]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[The Bell Curve]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Russian Imperial Movement]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Project FUBELT]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Troop 137]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[The Zizians]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[PayPal]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[The Church of New Revelation]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Open Philanthropy]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Ocean Living Institute]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Good Ventures]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Anthropic]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Atomwaffen Division]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Michelle Zajko]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[James R. Schlesinger]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Webster Hubbell]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Salvador Allende]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Kaleb Cole]] +- 2026-09-23T0013 · [[Eugene Giaquinto]] +- 2026-09-23T0004 · [[_NOTES_EA11_cari_tuna]] +- 2026-09-23T0003 · [[_NOTES_EA9_moskovitz_politics]] +- 2026-09-22T2356 · [[_NOTES_EA8_moskovitz_money]] +- 2026-09-22T2355 · [[_NOTES_EA10_moskovitz_network]] +- 2026-09-22T2351 · [[_NOTES_EA5_cais_hendrycks]] +- 2026-09-22T2349 · [[_NOTES_EA6_political_money]] +- 2026-09-22T2347 · [[_NOTES_EA7_zizian_people]] +- 2026-09-22T2328 · [[_NOTES_EA4_policy_pipeline]] +- 2026-09-22T2326 · [[_NOTES_EA1_moskovitz]] +- 2026-09-22T2326 · [[_NOTES_EA2_anthropic]] +- 2026-09-22T2326 · [[_NOTES_EA3_zizians]] - 2026-09-22T2321 · [[_NOTES_R5c_extremism_media]] - 2026-09-22T2320 · [[_NOTES_R5a_intel]] - 2026-09-22T2319 · [[Combat 18]] - 2026-09-22T2319 · [[David Myatt]] - 2026-09-22T2319 · [[Order of Nine Angles]] -- 2026-09-22T2318 · [[_manifest]] - 2026-09-22T2318 · [[Andreessen Horowitz]] - 2026-09-22T2317 · [[Max Levchin]] - 2026-09-22T2317 · [[Alameda Research]] @@ -42,59 +98,3 @@ - 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Blake Masters]] - 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Bill Hamilton]] - 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Sheikh Mussa Sadr]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Muammar Qaddafi]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Abdul Salam Jalloud]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Robert Bigelow]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Richard D'Amato]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Robert Altman]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Richard Babayan]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Rafael Eitan]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Prince Andrew]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Orlando Bosch]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Michel Caignet]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Michael Aquino]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Ihsan Barbouti]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Gokal brothers]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[George Blake]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Dyer Grossman]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Crossan Andersen]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Tommy Marson]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Daniel Magano]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Vincent Caci Bologna]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Anthony Fratianno]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Allan H. Frey]] -- 2026-09-22T2312 · [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] -- 2026-09-22T2311 · [[_NOTES_R5b_tech]] -- 2026-09-22T2311 · [[_passive_worksheet]] -- 2026-09-22T2310 · [[ASCO]] -- 2026-09-22T2310 · [[Count Maurice Auguste Lippens]] -- 2026-09-22T2310 · [[Count Leopold Lippens]] -- 2026-09-22T2308 · [[Daily Mirror]] -- 2026-09-22T2307 · [[MI6]] -- 2026-09-22T2307 · [[Internal Revenue Service]] -- 2026-09-22T2305 · [[Rockefeller Commission 1975]] -- 2026-09-22T2305 · [[NSC Special Group]] -- 2026-09-22T2304 · [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] -- 2026-09-22T2304 · [[U.S. Navy]] -- 2026-09-22T2304 · [[Bay of Pigs]] -- 2026-09-22T2304 · [[Washington Post]] -- 2026-09-22T2304 · [[Robert Kennedy]] -- 2026-09-22T2302 · [[Eugene Horsch]] -- 2026-09-22T2302 · [[R.C. Horsch]] -- 2026-09-22T2300 · [[X-Dossier]] -- 2026-09-22T2300 · [[Ocean Living Institute]] -- 2026-09-22T2300 · [[Adam Starchild]] -- 2026-09-22T2300 · [[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International]] -- 2026-09-22T2300 · [[Peter Zokosky]] -- 2026-09-22T2300 · [[_NOTES_Horsch_2009]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Queen's Accident]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Roderick Sinclair]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Dr. John Philip Nichols]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Melchior Wathelet]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[John David Norman]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Operation Yewtree]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Operation Midland]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Operation Othello]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Joseph Douce]] -- 2026-09-22T2259 · [[Annie Bouty]] -- 2026-09-22T2258 · [[Elm Guest House]] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dick Cheney.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dick Cheney.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6ff0c9dc --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Dick Cheney.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +aliases: + - "Richard Cheney" + - "Richard B. Cheney" +tags: + - Person + - WhiteHouse + - RockefellerCommission + - IranContra + - Halliburton +summary: "Ford's chief of staff who edited the Rockefeller Commission report in 1975, co-author of the Iran-Contra minority report, Secretary of Defense, Halliburton chief executive and Vice President from 2001 to 2009." +born: 1941-01-30 +location: "Casper, Wyoming" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[White House]]" + role: "deputy assistant to the president, then chief of staff" + start: 1974 + end: 1977 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Defense]]" + role: "Secretary of Defense" + start: 1989 + end: 1993 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Halliburton]]" + role: "chief executive" + end: 2000 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Richard Bruce Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 30, 1941, and grew up in Casper, Wyoming. He was a congressional fellow in 1968, worked at the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Cost of Living Council, was deputy assistant to President [[Gerald R. Ford]] in 1974 and 1975 and his chief of staff from 1975 to 1977, represented Wyoming in the House from 1979 until March 17, 1989, was Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993, and was Vice President under [[George W. Bush]] from 2001 to 2009.[^1] + +### The Rockefeller Commission Report + +In June 1975, as deputy to the chief of staff, [[Donald Rumsfeld]], Cheney led the editing of the draft report of the [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|Rockefeller Commission]] on [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] activities in the [[United States]]. His handwritten comments survive. The section "Alleged Plans to Assassinate Certain Foreign Leaders," 86 pages long, was removed and replaced with a note that the commission had lacked time to finish the subject; language calling CIA activities "unlawful" was softened to "improper," except for the drug experiments, which were labeled "illegal"; and a recommendation that CIA employees be able to report improper activities was narrowed to orders "outside of established channels."[^2] + +### Iran-Contra + +As a House Republican on the Iran-Contra investigating committees, Cheney signed the minority report of November 1987, drafted principally by the committee staffer Michael Malbin. It held that "energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government" and that "to whatever extent the [[Boland Amendment|Boland Amendments]] tried to prohibit such activity they were clearly unconstitutional."[^3] + +### Halliburton + +Cheney was chief executive of [[Halliburton]] in the late 1990s. [[Ray Hunt]] of [[Hunt Oil Company|Hunt Oil]] joined its board in 1998 and went at once onto its compensation committee, which that year gave Cheney a bonus of 1.1 million dollars and restricted stock worth 1.5 million on a salary of 1.18 million.[^4] As Vice President, he said on August 26, 2002, that the case of the Iraqi defector [[Hussein Kamel]] "should serve as a reminder to all that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned from the inspection regime itself"; Kamel had told UN inspectors in August 1995 that Iraq's chemical, biological and missile stocks had been destroyed.[^5] + +### Allegations + +[[Cathy O'Brien]], who describes herself as a survivor of [[Project Monarch]] mind control, named Cheney among officials she said abused her, in *Trance Formation of America* (1995, with Mark Phillips). Her claims about named officials are uncorroborated.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives, "CHENEY, Richard Bruce." https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10884 +[^2]: Prados, John, 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, document 15. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2016-02-29/gerald-ford-white-house-altered-rockefeller-commission-report +[^3]: *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair,* H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216, November 1987, minority report. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/18221 +[^4]: Halliburton Company, Schedule 14A proxy statement, 2004, Securities and Exchange Commission. +[^5]: Rangwala, Glen. "The interview with Hussein Kamel," February 2003, quoting the UNSCOM and IAEA note of the meeting of August 22, 1995; Barry, John. *Newsweek,* March 3, 2003. +[^6]: O'Brien, Cathy, and Mark Phillips. *Trance Formation of America.* 1995. Sole source for the passage so cited. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eugene Giaquinto.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eugene Giaquinto.md index f43f7e6b..9110906d 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eugene Giaquinto.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Eugene Giaquinto.md @@ -9,22 +9,17 @@ relations: - type: employed_by with: "[[Music Corporation of America]]" role: "president, Home Entertainment division" - fn: 2 - - type: investigated - with: "[[Richard Stavin]]" - reverse: true - role: "strike force labor racketeering investigation" - fn: 2 + fn: 1 created: 2025-08-05 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Eugene F. Giaquinto was the president of the home entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]. He was a subject of a two-year investigation by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s [[Los Angeles]] Organized Crime Strike Force into suspected labor racketeering in the film industry, overseen by the strike force attorney [[Richard Stavin]]. In September 1987 MCA security officers discovered an attempt by agents to tap Giaquinto's office telephone and wrongly blamed it on the prosecutor [[Marvin Rudnick]]. The investigators did tap the telephone of Giaquinto's confidant Marty Bacow, a labor negotiator with ties to the Teamsters president Jackie Presser, and Giaquinto was one of the people Bacow talked to most.[^2] +Eugene F. Giaquinto was the president of the home entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]. He was a subject of a two-year investigation by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s [[Los Angeles]] Organized Crime Strike Force into suspected labor racketeering in the film industry, overseen by the strike force attorney [[Richard Stavin]]. In September 1987 MCA security officers discovered an attempt by agents to tap Giaquinto's office telephone and wrongly blamed it on the prosecutor [[Marvin Rudnick]]. The investigators did tap the telephone of Giaquinto's confidant Marty Bacow, a labor negotiator with ties to the Teamsters president Jackie Presser, and Giaquinto was one of the people Bacow talked to most.[^1] -A newspaper report said the FBI believed Giaquinto had passed MCA funds annually to [[Edward Sciandra]], underboss of the [[Bufalino Crime Family]], and had a longstanding relationship with [[John Gotti]] of the [[Gambino Crime Family]]. Stavin resigned from the strike force in May 1989 with the case unresolved. Giaquinto was never prosecuted, and as of 1993 the wiretaps of his conversations with Bacow remained sealed; he then ran a video production and duplication firm in the San Fernando Valley.[^2] +A newspaper report said the FBI believed Giaquinto had passed MCA funds annually to [[Edward Sciandra]], underboss of the [[Bufalino Crime Family]], and had a longstanding relationship with [[John Gotti]] of the [[Gambino Crime Family]]. Stavin resigned from the strike force in May 1989 with the case unresolved. Giaquinto was never prosecuted, and as of 1993 the wiretaps of his conversations with Bacow remained sealed; he then ran a video production and duplication firm in the San Fernando Valley.[^1] -According to [[Cheri Seymour]], Giaquinto sat on the board of [[Robert Booth Nichols]]'s holding company, [[Meridian International Logistics]], which was under investigation as a source of funding for narcotics trafficking; FBI wiretaps recorded communications between the two men, and both were described in the intercepts as having a close working relationship with the Justice Department.[^1] +According to [[Cheri Seymour]], Giaquinto sat on the board of [[Robert Booth Nichols]]'s holding company, [[Meridian International Logistics]], which was under investigation as a source of funding for narcotics trafficking; FBI wiretaps recorded communications between the two men, and both were described in the intercepts as having a close working relationship with the Justice Department.[^2] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the Meridian board seat, the narcotics-funding investigation, the Nichols intercepts and the Justice Department relationship. -[^2]: Knoedelseder, William. *Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia.* HarperCollins, 1993, pp. xvii, 434-448, 464. Read through the archive.org BookReader search, item stiffedtruestory00knoe. +[^1]: Knoedelseder, William. *Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia.* HarperCollins, 1993, pp. xvii, 434-448, 464. Read through the archive.org BookReader search, item stiffedtruestory00knoe. +[^2]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the Meridian board seat, the narcotics-funding investigation, the Nichols intercepts and the Justice Department relationship. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jorge Alessandri.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jorge Alessandri.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..52a1c158 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Jorge Alessandri.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +category: "Political Figure" +tags: + - Person + - Chile + - ColdWar + - CIA + - ITT +summary: "Conservative president of Chile from 1958 and runner-up to Salvador Allende in 1970, whose campaign took 350,000 dollars of ITT money and whose post-election resignation pledge the U.S. ambassador helped draft." +location: "Santiago, Chile" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[ITT Corporation]]" + reverse: true + start: 1970 + role: "250,000 dollars to the campaign and 100,000 to the National Party" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Project FUBELT]]" + role: "the Frei re-election gambit" + start: 1970-09 + end: 1970-10 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Jorge Alessandri, a conservative, won the Chilean presidential election of 1958, finishing less than three percentage points ahead of [[Salvador Allende]]; neither had a majority, and the Congress chose Alessandri. Had Allende received the 3.3 percent that went to a leftist priest, he would have won. Alessandri's government lost popularity during its term.[^1] + +### The 1970 Election + +Alessandri ran again in 1970 against Allende and the Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic. On March 25, 1970, the [[40 Committee]] approved a joint embassy and [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] "spoiling" operation against Allende; "direct support was not furnished to either of his opponents." In July a CIA representative in [[Santiago]] told representatives of [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] that Alessandri could use financial assistance and suggested an individual who could serve as a secure channel. ITT's chairman, [[Harold Geneen]], offered to make 1 million dollars available to the agency; the CIA refused to transmit ITT money but advised the company on how to pass it. Some 350,000 dollars of ITT money reached Alessandri during the campaign, 250,000 to the campaign and 100,000 to the National Party, and other American businesses gave about 350,000 more. In the CIA's propaganda campaign, sign-painting teams were instructed to paint "su paredón," your wall, on 2,000 walls, evoking communist firing squads.[^1] At the election of September 4, Allende took 36.3 percent to Alessandri's 35.3, a margin of about 39,000 votes in three million.[^1] + +### The Frei Gambit + +With no majority, the Congress was to choose between the two leaders. The plan pursued by the ambassador, [[Edward Korry]], and the CIA's "Track I" was that the Congress would elect Alessandri, who would resign at once, allowing a new election in which the outgoing president, [[Eduardo Frei Montalva|Eduardo Frei]], could stand. On September 9, 1970, Alessandri announced that he would resign if elected. Korry cabled the [[State Department]] the next day that "Alessandri's statement on which I have worked since before the elections" had "set off a political storm," that it "was cleared with Frei beforehand," and that it carried the support of Senators Bulnes of the National Party and Durán of the Democratic Radicals; he called the scheme "a Rube Goldberg contraption," and reported that Deputy Silvia Alessandri had come to him that night to beg for visas for her family.[^2] On September 14 the 40 Committee authorized a contingency fund of 250,000 dollars, to be handled by Korry, to swing congressional votes to Alessandri; the only proposal discussed, bribery of congressmen, was judged unworkable and the money was never spent. Frei refused to interfere, and on September 29 the committee agreed the gambit was dead.[^1] The Congress confirmed Allende on October 24, 1970.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. *Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973,* staff report, 94th Congress, 1st session, 1975. +[^2]: Korry to Department of State, telegram, September 10, 1970, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976,* vol. XXI, *Chile, 1969-1973,* document 75. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d75 diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kaleb Cole.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kaleb Cole.md index 0fc8a515..4aaa2cf4 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kaleb Cole.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Kaleb Cole.md @@ -11,12 +11,12 @@ tags: - RussianImperialMovement - USA created: 2026-05-21 -updated: 2026-05-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 summary: "Kaleb Cole was a Washington state-based Atomwaffen Division leader who received paramilitary training from the Russian Imperial Movement in St. Petersburg in 2018, ran a coordinated intimidation campaign against journalists and activists, and was convicted of civil rights conspiracy and sentenced to 84 months in federal prison." location: "Washington State" --- -[[Kaleb Cole]] was a Washington state-based [[Atomwaffen Division]] leader who rose to prominence within the organization following [[Brandon Russell]]'s 2018 imprisonment and ran a sustained intimidation campaign targeting journalists, civil rights workers, and others who reported on or monitored AWD's activities. In 2018 he traveled to [[Russia]] for paramilitary training with the [[Russian Imperial Movement]] at their [[Partizan]] camp in [[St. Petersburg]]. He was convicted in federal court of civil rights conspiracy charges and sentenced to 84 months (seven years) in federal prison.[^1] +Kaleb Cole was a Washington state-based [[Atomwaffen Division]] leader who rose to prominence within the organization following [[Brandon Russell]]'s 2018 imprisonment and ran a sustained intimidation campaign targeting journalists, civil rights workers, and others who reported on or monitored AWD's activities. In 2018 he traveled to [[Russia]] for paramilitary training with the [[Russian Imperial Movement]] at their [[Partizan]] camp in [[St. Petersburg]]. He was convicted in federal court of civil rights conspiracy charges and sentenced to 84 months (seven years) in federal prison.[^1] ### Rise Within AWD @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ In 2018, Cole traveled to Europe with fellow AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]] After completing Partizan training, Cole and Bruce-Umbaugh traveled back through Ukraine into Poland and documented the trip with a photograph at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp. The Russia trip is referenced in federal prosecution materials from both Cole's case (2:20-cr-00032, [[Western District of Washington]]) and Bruce-Umbaugh's case (5:19-cr-00130, [[Northern District of Texas]]), and is documented in investigative reporting on AWD's transnational connections.[^3] -The RIM training represents the most documented instance of a senior AWD leader receiving in-person foreign paramilitary training from an organization later designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. government. The [[CTC West Point]] analysis of the skull-mask neo-fascist network notes that RIM also trained additional U.S. nationals affiliated with AWD at Partizan in approximately 2020, beyond the 2018 Cole/Bruce-Umbaugh trip.[^4] +The RIM training represents the most documented instance of a senior AWD leader receiving in-person foreign paramilitary training from an organization later designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. government. ### Intimidation Campaign @@ -45,4 +45,3 @@ Cole was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Washington on al [^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Member of Violent Extremist Group Sentenced to 84 Months for Civil Rights Conspiracy." https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/member-violent-extremist-group-sentenced-84-months-civil-rights-conspiracy [^2]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages [^3]: GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0 -[^4]: CTC West Point. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Paul Christiano.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Paul Christiano.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e8f4e415 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Paul Christiano.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - OpenAI + - Anthropic + - OpenPhilanthropy + - AISafety + - NIST +summary: "OpenAI alignment lead and Open Philanthropy adviser who founded the Alignment Research Center, sat on Anthropic's trust, ran AI safety at NIST's AI Safety Institute and joined the OpenAI Foundation board in 2026." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[OpenAI]]" + role: "head of alignment research" + start: 2017 + end: 2021 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Alignment Research Center]]" + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Long-Term Benefit Trust]]" + role: "trustee" + start: 2023-09 + end: 2024-04 + fn: 3 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[National Institute of Standards and Technology]]" + role: "head of AI safety, U.S. AI Safety Institute; later senior technical advisor, Center for AI Standards and Innovation" + start: 2024-04 + fn: 4 + - type: member_of + with: "[[OpenAI Foundation]]" + role: "director and Safety and Security Committee member; non-voting observer on the OpenAI Group PBC board" + start: 2026-09-09 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Paul Christiano led alignment research at [[OpenAI]] from 2017 to 2021 and contributed foundational work on reinforcement learning from human feedback; he then founded the [[Alignment Research Center]].[^1] In March 2017, when [[Open Philanthropy]] recommended 30 million dollars to OpenAI and a seat on its board for [[Holden Karnofsky]], the grant page disclosed that "OpenAI researchers [[Dario Amodei]] and Paul Christiano are both technical advisors to Open Philanthropy and live in the same house as Holden," and that Karnofsky was engaged to Amodei's sister [[Daniela Amodei|Daniela]].[^2] + +In September 2023 Christiano became one of the five original trustees of [[Anthropic]]'s [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]], the body empowered to elect a growing share of the board of the company founded by Dario and Daniela Amodei. He left in April 2024 to become head of AI safety at the [[U.S. AI Safety Institute]].[^3] Commerce Secretary [[Gina Raimondo]] announced the appointment on April 16, 2024.[^4] The Action Fund of the [[Center for AI Safety]], an Open Philanthropy grantee, stated that it had led a bipartisan congressional effort that "secured $10 million to establish" the institute.[^5] + +### The OpenAI Foundation + +On September 9, 2026, the [[OpenAI Foundation]], the nonprofit that controls OpenAI Group PBC, appointed Christiano to its board and its Safety and Security Committee, chaired by [[Zico Kolter]], and made him a non-voting observer on the board of the for-profit company. The announcement described him as a senior technical advisor at the [[Center for AI Standards and Innovation]] within the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]], where he had "worked on evaluating frontier AI models, including capabilities with national security implications," and stated: "As a Senior Technical Advisor, Paul will recuse himself from all OpenAI-related matters as well as all model evaluations." The board chair, [[Bret Taylor]], said his "experience working on frontier AI safety and standards in government" would strengthen the board's oversight.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: OpenAI Foundation, "Paul Christiano joins OpenAI Foundation Board," September 9, 2026. https://openaifoundation.org/news/paul-christiano-joins-openai-foundation-board +[^2]: Open Philanthropy, "OpenAI, General Support," grant of March 2017, archived January 1, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250101012608/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/ +[^3]: Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023, with later updates. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust +[^4]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team," April 16, 2024. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/04/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-expansion-us-ai-safety +[^5]: Center for AI Safety Action Fund, "2024 Annual Impact Report." https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66438c042d15b14b53b83006/68012dcfec6880aba24f528a_CAIS-ActionFund-ImpactReport_05.pdf diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Salvador Allende.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Salvador Allende.md index d1818852..25fa2a71 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Salvador Allende.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Salvador Allende.md @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ summary: "Socialist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973, the object of fourteen died: 1973-09-11 location: "Santiago, Chile" created: 2026-09-21 -updated: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-22 --- Salvador Allende Gossens, a physician and Socialist senator, was elected president of [[Chile]] in 1970 on his fourth attempt, at the head of the [[Popular Unity]] coalition of Socialists, Communists, and Radicals. He died in the [[La Moneda]] palace in [[Santiago]] on September 11, 1973, during the coup led by General [[Augusto Pinochet]].[^1] @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] spent three million dollars to influence ### 1970 -On September 4, 1970, Allende won 36.3 percent to 35.3 for [[Jorge Alessandri]], a margin of 39,000 votes in three million. CIA polls had predicted that Alessandri would win with 40 percent. Korry said that the fund-raisers of all three candidates approached the embassy, that Allende's asked for a million dollars, and that none was given. [[ITT Corporation|ITT]], whose chairman [[Harold Geneen]] offered the agency a fund for Alessandri in July, passed at least 350,000 dollars to his campaign. On September 15 President [[Richard Nixon]] ordered the agency to prevent Allende's accession, and the attempts that followed, described at [[Project FUBELT]], ended in the killing of General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]]. Congress confirmed Allende on October 24.[^1][^3] +On September 4, 1970, Allende won 36.3 percent to 35.3 for [[Jorge Alessandri]], a margin of 39,000 votes in three million. CIA polls had predicted that Alessandri would win with 40 percent. Korry said that the fund-raisers of all three candidates approached the embassy, that Allende's asked for a million dollars, and that none was given. [[ITT Corporation|ITT]], whose chairman [[Harold Geneen]] offered the agency a fund for Alessandri in July, passed some 350,000 dollars to him, 250,000 to his campaign and 100,000 to the National Party, on the agency's advice about how to pass it, and other American businesses gave about 350,000 more. On September 15 President [[Richard Nixon]] ordered the agency to prevent Allende's accession, and the attempts that followed, described at [[Project FUBELT]], ended in the killing of General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]]. Congress confirmed Allende on October 24.[^1][^3] Korry wrote to Senator [[Frank Church]] in 1975 that the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Cuba]] had given "very substantial sums for covert political action to the Communist party, to the [[Socialist Party of Chile|Socialist Party]] and to Allende himself."[^4] diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/David Maland.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/David Maland.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..97db6312 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/David Maland.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +aliases: + - "David Christopher Maland" + - "Chris Maland" +tags: + - Person + - BorderPatrol + - Zizians + - StateDepartment + - Vermont +summary: "Air Force security specialist, State Department K9 handler and Border Patrol agent at Newport, Vermont, killed on January 20, 2025 at a traffic stop of two people linked to the Zizians." +born: 1980-02-19 +died: 2025-01-20 +location: "Newport, Vermont" +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[U.S. Air Force]]" + role: "Security Forces journeyman" + start: 1999-06 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[U.S. Department of State]]" + role: "K9 handler" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[U.S. Border Patrol]]" + role: "agent, Texas, then Newport, Vermont, from 2019" + end: 2025-01-20 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +David Christopher Maland was born in [[Blue Earth]], Minnesota, on February 19, 1980, graduated from [[Fairmont High School]] in 1999 and enlisted in the [[U.S. Air Force]] that June, serving six years as a Security Forces journeyman; his decorations included the Air Force Achievement Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Medal. According to his family's obituary, he was at the [[Pentagon]] "as active security on 9/11." He then worked for the [[U.S. Department of State]] as a K9 handler "serving executives in the U.S. Government," took a B.A. from [[Metropolitan State University]] in 2012, and after the [[Border Patrol Academy]] served two years as an agent in Texas. In 2019 he transferred to [[Newport, Vermont]], as a Border Patrol agent, K9 agent and member of the Mobile Response Team.[^1] + +### Death + +Maland was killed on January 20, 2025, in a shootout at a traffic stop on [[Interstate 91]] in [[Coventry, Vermont]], of a car driven by [[Teresa Youngblut]] with [[Felix Bauckholt]] as passenger; Bauckholt was killed and Youngblut wounded. Law enforcement linked both to [[The Zizians]]. Youngblut was charged in federal court with his murder, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail, and prosecutors filed notice that they would seek the death penalty. In August 2026 her lawyers argued that the authorities had determined before the stop that Bauckholt held a valid visa, contrary to the stop's stated immigration basis; the prosecutor, [[Matthew Lasher]], wrote that their source "indicated only" that a visa had been issued.[^2] He was buried on February 22, 2025 at [[Fort Snelling National Cemetery]] with military honors.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Morris Nilsen Funeral Chapel, "David Christopher Maland," obituary, February 2025. https://www.morrisnilsen.com/obituary/david-christopher-maland/ +[^2]: "Cell phone data fight in federal murder case." *Valley News,* August 4, 2026. https://vnews.com/2026/08/04/border-patrol-agent-murder-trial/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Dustin Moskovitz.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Dustin Moskovitz.md index e242b0f0..a3e03b8b 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Dustin Moskovitz.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Dustin Moskovitz.md @@ -6,40 +6,75 @@ tags: - Facebook - EffectiveAltruism - OpenPhilanthropy + - Anthropic - DemocraticDonor -summary: "Dustin Moskovitz is a cofounder of Facebook and the software firm Asana who, with his wife Cari Tuna, became the largest sustained funder of effective altruism through Open Philanthropy and one of the largest Democratic political donors, a political mirror image of his fellow Facebook beneficiary Peter Thiel." +summary: "Facebook and Asana cofounder whose Good Ventures foundation funds Open Philanthropy, the chief backer of AI-safety policy, research and journalism; an early Anthropic investor and a leading Democratic donor." born: 1984-05-22 location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Future Forward]]" + start: 2020 + role: "46.89 million dollars in 2019-2020, 3.3 million in 2021-2022, 50 million in 2023-2024" + fn: 16 + - type: funded + with: "[[LCV Victory Fund]]" + start: 2016 + role: "5 million dollars, with Cari Tuna" + fn: 15 + - type: funded + with: "[[For Our Future PAC]]" + start: 2016 + role: "5 million dollars, with Cari Tuna" + fn: 15 created: 2026-06-19 -updated: 2026-06-19 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Dustin Moskovitz (born May 22, 1984) is an American technology entrepreneur who cofounded [[Facebook]] with [[Mark Zuckerberg]] in 2004 and later cofounded the workplace-software company [[Asana]]. With his wife [[Cari Tuna]] he became the largest sustained funder of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement through [[Open Philanthropy]] and one of the largest Democratic political donors in the United States. His career traces the same Facebook fortune that made [[Peter Thiel]], the company's first outside investor, a billionaire, and his philanthropy and politics run in the opposite direction from Thiel's.[^1][^2] +Dustin Moskovitz (born May 22, 1984) cofounded [[Facebook]] with [[Mark Zuckerberg]], his roommate at [[Harvard University]], where he studied economics. From February 2004 to November 2008 he held senior roles at Facebook, including chief technology officer and vice president of engineering. He then cofounded [[Asana]] with [[Justin Rosenstein]], and with his wife [[Cari Tuna]] established [[Good Ventures]], the foundation that supplies nearly all of the grant money of [[Open Philanthropy]], renamed Coefficient Giving in 2025.[^1][^2] *[[Semafor]]* wrote that its founders and many early employees "were sympathetic to the utilitarian philosophical movement known as [[Effective Altruism|effective altruism]]."[^3] [[Peter Thiel]] was Facebook's first outside investor.[^4] -### Facebook and Asana +### Asana -Moskovitz was Zuckerberg's roommate at [[Harvard University]] and one of Facebook's founding team, serving as its first chief technology officer and head of engineering. He left in 2008 to cofound Asana with [[Justin Rosenstein]], took the company public in 2020, and built a second fortune; his net worth, derived chiefly from his early Facebook stake, exceeds sixteen billion dollars. He stepped down as Asana chief executive in March 2025 while remaining chairman.[^1][^3] +Moskovitz has been an Asana director since December 2008 and its chairman since December 2019. He was chief executive from October 2010 to July 2025, and also chief financial officer from 2009 to 2017. Asana went public by direct listing on the [[New York Stock Exchange]] in September 2020.[^4] In 2026 he held 74.2 percent of the company's voting power through his own shares, the Dustin A. Moskovitz Trust, a Roth IRA and shares held by Good Ventures; he bought 19,273,127 shares in a private placement on September 7, 2022.[^1] In 2016 [[Sam Altman]] led a 50-million-dollar investment in Asana.[^5] [[Adam D'Angelo]], Facebook's chief technology officer from 2006 to 2008 and founder of [[Quora]], sat on Asana's board from December 2008 to 2026 while also a director of [[OpenAI]]; [[Matthew Cohler]] of [[Benchmark Capital]], another Facebook alumnus, was an Asana director from 2009 to 2026. Asana's 2026 proxy statement reported, as related-person transactions, 1.1 million dollars in AI services bought from [[Anthropic]], noting that Moskovitz "has a minority ownership interest in Anthropic," and 300,000 dollars bought from OpenAI, noting D'Angelo's seat on its board.[^1] -Moskovitz retained roughly two percent of Facebook at its 2012 initial public offering, a stake worth several billion dollars that became the foundation of his wealth and his giving. Asana took its name from a yoga term and went public by direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020. His March 2025 retirement announcement, in which he said he would transition out of the chief-executive role, was followed by a sharp drop in Asana's share price; he stayed on as board chair and remained the company's largest shareholder.[^1][^3] +### Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy -### Open Philanthropy and Effective Altruism +Good Ventures, whose directors are Moskovitz, Tuna and [[Divesh Makan]], the controlling partner of [[ICONIQ Capital]], held 10.1 billion dollars in assets in mid-2025 and received 1.4 billion dollars in contributions that year.[^2][^6] Open Philanthropy had given away about 7 billion dollars by September 2026, most of it from the couple's fortune.[^3] Its grants include 30 million dollars to OpenAI in 2017, with a board seat for [[Holden Karnofsky]], whose grant page disclosed that the OpenAI researchers [[Dario Amodei]] and [[Paul Christiano]] were Open Philanthropy advisers who lived in Karnofsky's house;[^7] 55 million dollars in 2019 to launch the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] at [[Georgetown University]] under the former IARPA director [[Jason Matheny]]; 16 million dollars in 2023 to the [[RAND Corporation]] after Matheny became its chief executive, "to be spent at the discretion of" Matheny; 5.16 million dollars in 2022 to the [[Center for AI Safety]]; and 36 million dollars in 2025 to [[Redwood Research]].[^8] -In 2011 Moskovitz and Tuna founded Good Ventures, and they later joined with the charity evaluator [[GiveWell]] to create Open Philanthropy, which became the principal sustained financier of effective altruism, longtermism, and AI-safety work, directing more than four billion dollars in grants. The funding flowed to the same AI-risk research community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] and the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] that [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] and [[Nick Bostrom]] built, and Open Philanthropy was an early backer of the AI company [[Anthropic]]. Moskovitz signed the Giving Pledge, committing the majority of his wealth.[^2][^4] +### Anthropic -Good Ventures supplies nearly all of Open Philanthropy's grantmaking, making the foundation's reach a direct function of Moskovitz and Tuna's fortune; the organization's own analysis acknowledged that the movement's funding base rests heavily on the couple. Open Philanthropy's 2017 grant of 30 million dollars to [[OpenAI]] came with a board seat for co-chief-executive [[Holden Karnofsky]], an early instance of the foundation embedding itself inside an AI lab, and it later invested in Anthropic. Operating from November 2025 as Coefficient Giving, the organization began pooling money from outside donors so that other philanthropists could fund its cause areas alongside Good Ventures.[^2][^4] +Moskovitz took part in Anthropic's first funding round of 124 million dollars in 2021, and in 2023 told *[[Politico]]* that "my goal in investing [in Anthropic] stems from the exact same place as our non-profit work" and that any returns "will be entirely redirected back into our philanthropic work." The Open Philanthropy grantmaker [[Luke Muehlhauser]] was then one of Anthropic's four directors, and Karnofsky had married Anthropic's president, [[Daniela Amodei]].[^5] Muehlhauser resigned from the board in May 2024, writing that it had become complicated to be both an AI governance grantmaker at Open Philanthropy and a director of a frontier AI company.[^9] In April 2026 the *[[Washington Examiner]]* reported that in 2025 Moskovitz had transferred his Anthropic stake, "which had reportedly grown to roughly $500 million, to his charity to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interests."[^10] Asana's proxy statement of April 20, 2026 described Moskovitz as having "a minority ownership interest in Anthropic."[^1] *Semafor* called Coefficient Giving "a favorite of Anthropic executives"; its chief executive, [[Alexander Berger]], said in 2026: "We're definitely not the Anthropic Foundation."[^3] + +### Washington + +Open Philanthropy set aside nearly 3 million dollars in 2022 for the first fellows of the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], which pays technology fellows placed in congressional offices, federal agencies and think tanks, among them the offices of Senators [[Martin Heinrich]], [[Mike Rounds]] and [[Todd Young]], whom [[Chuck Schumer]] had put in charge of AI legislation; *Politico* wrote that Open Philanthropy had "effectively created" Horizon.[^5] Matheny served in the Biden [[White House]] from March 2021 to June 2022. According to documents the *Washington Examiner* obtained under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], he hired [[Ben Buchanan]], director of CSET's CyberAI project, under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, with Georgetown continuing to pay Buchanan's salary and the government reimbursing it; the paper noted that CSET had received 97 million dollars from Open Philanthropy between 2019 and 2021, and that Buchanan became an architect of the Biden export controls on advanced chips that Anthropic later urged the Trump administration to keep. Buchanan said he "scrupulously complied with all legal and ethics rules." Senator [[Ted Cruz]], who named Moskovitz in a 2024 letter, wrote that "large AI technology companies are influencing the Biden administration's AI policy from the inside."[^10] + +The lobbying arm of the Center for AI Safety stated that it secured 10 million dollars from Congress in 2024 to establish the [[U.S. AI Safety Institute]], where Christiano became head of AI safety.[^11] The 501(c)(4) [[Americans for Responsible Innovation]], founded in late 2023 by the former congressman [[Brad Carson]], lists Coefficient Giving among its funders with the [[Omidyar Network]], and reported in-house lobbying expenses of 1.51 million dollars in 2025. The [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]] has paid outside lobbyists every year since 2021, the [[Kyle House Group]] since 2023.[^12] + +### The Press + +By 2025 Coefficient Giving supplied most of the funding of the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], which pays journalists placed at *[[Time (magazine)|Time]]*, [[Bloomberg]], *[[The Verge]]* and other newsrooms and publishes the newsletter *Transformer*; Coefficient's director of communications, [[Naina Bajekal]], was a former executive editor of *Time*.[^13] In September 2026 the publication *Effort*, founded by [[Brian Chau]], wrote that "Coefficient pays the salaries of two dozen journalists at major news outlets," that Open Philanthropy had pursued a "placement" strategy "to put their hand-picked employees in US and UK government offices," and that Moskovitz was the third-largest Democratic donor in 2020 and the second-largest in 2024.[^14] ### Political Giving -Moskovitz became one of the largest individual donors to Democratic causes, an explicit counterweight to right-wing megadonors. He and Tuna pledged roughly twenty million dollars to defeat [[Donald Trump]] and elect [[Hillary Clinton]] in 2016, and in 2020 he gave approximately ninety-two million dollars to the Democratic super PAC [[Future Forward]], among the largest single contributions of the cycle, followed by further giving to the same vehicle in 2024. The pattern is the inverse of Thiel's funding of Trump, [[JD Vance]], and the tech-right: two beneficiaries of the same company financing opposed political projects, while both poured money into the competing wings of the AI-risk debate.[^5][^6] - -In the 2024 cycle Moskovitz gave 38 million dollars to Future Forward, the main super PAC backing [[Kamala Harris]], plus 929,600 dollars to the Biden Victory Fund, ranking among Harris's largest billionaire donors. The 2016 effort was bipartisan in intent: Moskovitz wrote that his roughly twenty-million-dollar commitment was meant to counter what he saw as the danger of a Trump presidency, the first time he and Tuna had given at that scale to electoral politics. He has framed his political spending in the same expected-value terms as his philanthropy, treating elections as high-stakes interventions on the same metric of marginal impact that governs Open Philanthropy's grants.[^5][^7] +On September 8, 2016, Moskovitz and Tuna announced 20 million dollars in contributions to defeat [[Donald Trump]] and elect [[Hillary Clinton]], calling Trump's promises to voters who felt left behind "quite possibly a deliberate con." They named 5 million dollars each to the [[LCV Victory Fund]] and [[For Our Future PAC]], and wrote that "we have reservations about anyone using large amounts of money to influence elections."[^15] [[Federal Election Commission]] records itemize contributions from Moskovitz of about 18.0 million dollars in the 2015-2016 cycle, led by 6 million to [[Priorities USA Action]], 4.5 million to the LCV Victory Fund, 2.5 million to For Our Future and 1.65 million to [[Color of Change PAC]]; 5.7 million in 2017-2018, including 3 million to [[MoveOn]] and 2 million to the [[Senate Majority PAC]]; 51.8 million in 2019-2020, including 46.89 million to the Democratic super PAC [[Future Forward]] and 830,600 dollars to the [[Biden Victory Fund]]; 5.9 million in 2021-2022, including 3.3 million to Future Forward and 1.9 million to its affiliate FFPA; and 50.9 million in 2023-2024, of which 50 million went to Future Forward in eight payments between August 28 and October 22, 2024, 30 million of it in October, and 929,600 dollars to the [[Harris Victory Fund]]. None had been itemized for the 2025-2026 cycle by September 2026.[^16] In March 2024 *[[Puck]]*'s [[Theodore Schleifer]] wrote that Moskovitz had spent "up to $100 million to defeat Donald Trump last cycle" and was "leaning into his power... and his checkbook" to beat back "the Andreessens and Musks of the world."[^17] ### Footnotes -[^1]: "Facebook Co-Founder Moskovitz Builds a Second Fortune With Asana," *Bloomberg,* October 1, 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-01/facebook-co-founder-moskovitz-builds-a-second-fortune-with-asana -[^2]: "How Dependent is the Effective Altruism Movement on Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna?" EA Forum, on Open Philanthropy and Good Ventures funding. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4BJSXH9ho4eYNT73P/how-dependent-is-the-effective-altruism-movement-on-dustin -[^3]: "Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz announces retirement," *CNBC,* March 10, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/10/asana-ceo-dustin-moskovitz-announces-retirement-stock-price-drops-25percent.html -[^4]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on Open Philanthropy as an early Anthropic funder. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6 -[^5]: "Clinton campaign and Dems get $20M from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz," *TechCrunch,* September 8, 2016. https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/08/a-friend-of-hillary -[^6]: "Future Forward PAC," InfluenceWatch, on the approximately ninety-two million dollar 2020 contribution and the 2024 giving. https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/future-forward-pac/ -[^7]: "Trump, Harris' Top Billionaire Donors in 2024 Election," *Bloomberg,* and "Billionaires poured millions of dollars into presidential super PACs," *NBC News,* 2024, on the 38-million-dollar Future Forward gift and the 929,600-dollar Biden Victory Fund contribution. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-billionaire-donors-us-election/ +[^1]: Asana, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 20, 2026, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000162828026025998/asan-20260420.htm +[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Good Ventures Foundation," EIN 46-1008520, Form 990-PF data through fiscal year ending June 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461008520 +[^3]: Smith, Ben. "Coefficient Giving's CEO on Silicon Valley's $40 billion philanthropy boom." *Semafor,* September 3, 2026. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2026/coefficient-givings-ceo-on-silicon-valley-40-billion-philanthropy-boom +[^4]: "Facebook Co-Founder Moskovitz Builds a Second Fortune With Asana," *Bloomberg,* October 1, 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-01/facebook-co-founder-moskovitz-builds-a-second-fortune-with-asana +[^5]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^6]: ICONIQ Capital, LLC, and others, Schedule 13G regarding Diameter Credit Co, November 13, 2024. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1916099/000101143824000605/form_sc13g-diameter.htm +[^7]: Open Philanthropy, "OpenAI, General Support," March 2017, archived January 1, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250101012608/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/ +[^8]: Open Philanthropy grant pages, archived 2025: "Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology" (January 2019), http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035307/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/ ; "RAND Corporation, Emerging Technology Initiatives" (October 2023), http://web.archive.org/web/20250122041729/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-initiatives/ ; "Center for AI Safety, General Support (2022)," http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035329/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support/ ; Smith, "Coefficient Giving's CEO," on Redwood. +[^9]: Muehlhauser, Luke. "Why I resigned from the Anthropic Board." June 12, 2024. https://lukemuehlhauser.com/why-i-resigned-from-the-anthropic-board/ +[^10]: Schmad, Robert. "Documents show how a tech-connected nonprofit shaped Biden-era AI policy." *Washington Examiner,* April 17, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4532389/ +[^11]: Center for AI Safety Action Fund, "2024 Annual Impact Report." https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66438c042d15b14b53b83006/68012dcfec6880aba24f528a_CAIS-ActionFund-ImpactReport_05.pdf +[^12]: Americans for Responsible Innovation, "About Us," https://ari.us/about-us/ ; U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings for clients "Americans for Responsible Innovation" and "Open Philanthropy Action Fund," 2021 to 2026, retrieved September 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Americans+for+Responsible+Innovation +[^13]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026, https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards ; Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms +[^14]: Effort. "How Effective Altruism Bought the Media," September 2, 2026, https://www.effort.news/tarbell ; Effort. "Effective Altruism is Buying Political Staff," September 19, 2026. https://www.effort.news/aisi +[^15]: Moskovitz, Dustin, and Cari Tuna. "Compelled to Act." *Medium,* September 8, 2016, archived December 31, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161231130245/https://medium.com/@moskov/compelled-to-act-1413930041ee +[^16]: Federal Election Commission, itemized receipts (Schedule A, memo entries excluded) for contributor "Moskovitz, Dustin," two-year periods 2016 through 2026, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=Moskovitz%2C+Dustin +[^17]: Schleifer, Theodore. "DustinBucks." *Puck,* March 20, 2024, archived January 10, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250110050826/https://puck.news/dustinbucks/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Frederick Lacey.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Frederick Lacey.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..31802a7a --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Frederick Lacey.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +category: "Law Enforcement & Legal" +aliases: + - "Frederick B. Lacey" + - "Frederick Bernard Lacey" +tags: + - Person + - Judge + - FISACourt + - BNL + - Iraqgate +summary: "New Jersey prosecutor and federal judge, one of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's first judges, whom William Barr named in 1992 to review the BNL-Iraq case and who cleared the Justice Department." +born: 1920-09-09 +died: 2017-04-01 +location: "Newark, New Jersey" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]]" + role: "judge" + start: 1979 + end: 1985 + fn: 1 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Brent Scowcroft]]" + start: 1992 + fn: 3 + - type: investigated + with: "[[Lawrence Eagleburger]]" + start: 1992 + fn: 3 + - type: prosecuted + with: "[[Albert Anastasia]]" + start: 1954 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Frederick Bernard Lacey was born in Newark, [[New Jersey]], on September 9, 1920, the son of the city's police chief, and studied at Rutgers and Cornell Law School; he served in the Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. As an assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey he led the case that sent [[Albert Anastasia]] to prison for income-tax evasion in 1954. [[Richard Nixon]] made him U.S. attorney for New Jersey in 1969; he prosecuted Newark's mayor, Hugh Addonizio, Jersey City's mayor, Thomas Whalen, the Hudson County boss John V. Kenny and Mafia figures, and with his successor, Herbert Stern, convicted three dozen officials within four years. Nixon appointed him a district judge in 1970; he served until 1986 and sat on the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals from 1978 and on the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]] from 1979 to 1985. After retiring he joined LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby and MacRae, served as special master over the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and in 2006 was federal monitor of Bristol-Myers Squibb over the drug Plavix. He died in Naples, Florida, on April 1, 2017.[^1][^2] + +### The BNL Investigation + +Attorney General [[William Barr]] declined to seek an independent counsel in the [[BNL Scandal|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] affair and on October 16, 1992, appointed Lacey special counsel; he reported 54 days later. He wrote: "I find Judge Shoob's specific charges against the USAO to be inaccurate," rejecting the criticisms of Judge [[Marvin Shoob]]. Of [[Brent Scowcroft]] and [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], he wrote: "It is clear that, while at [[Kissinger Associates]], Scowcroft and Eagleburger came into contact with [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro|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." The second part of the report was classified.[^3] According to *The Village Voice,* the report dismissed the allegations as "arrogant nonsense," while Lacey acknowledged that he could not determine "who at Justice saw what and when" and was "unable to penetrate with any precision where responsibility lay."[^4] Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Banking Committee]], told the House on January 21, 1993, that "from the start it was apparent that Judge Lacey was nothing more than a lackey," called the report "the Lacey Job," and said that "at best" it was a whitewash.[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, "Lacey, Frederick Bernard," Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/lacey-frederick-bernard +[^2]: Historical Society of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, "Frederick Bernard Lacey." https://www.historynjdc.org/judges/judicial-biographies/frederick-bernard-lacey ; "'French Connection' Judge Dies at 96," Associated Press, via *Governing,* April 2017. +[^3]: Lacey, Frederick B. "The Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Investigation: Report of the Independent Counsel," reproduced in House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Serial No. 103-95, 1993, pp. 514-15. https://archive.org/details/testimonyofforme1994unit +[^4]: "Will We Ever Learn the Truth About Iraqgate?" *The Village Voice,* reprinted November 2, 2020. +[^5]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Update on BNL Investigation," *Congressional Record,* House, January 21, 1993. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1993_cr/h930121-bnl.htm diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jason Matheny.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jason Matheny.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8250cd4e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Jason Matheny.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - IntelligenceCommunity + - IARPA + - RAND + - CSET + - OpenPhilanthropy + - EffectiveAltruism +summary: "IARPA director who founded Georgetown's Open Philanthropy-funded CSET, ran technology policy at Biden's National Security Council, became RAND's chief executive in 2022 and was an original Anthropic trustee." +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity]]" + role: "director" + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]]" + role: "founding director" + start: 2019 + end: 2021-03 + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence]]" + role: "commissioner, appointed by Congress" + start: 2018 + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[National Security Council]]" + role: "coordinator for technology and national security; also deputy director for national security at OSTP" + start: 2021-03 + fn: 3 + - type: head_of + with: "[[RAND Corporation]]" + role: "president and chief executive" + start: 2022-07 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Jason Matheny holds a Ph.D. in applied economics and an M.P.H. from [[Johns Hopkins University]], an M.B.A. from [[Duke University]] and a B.A. in art history from the [[University of Chicago]]. He worked for [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] and the [[World Bank]] before joining the intelligence community, where he became director of the [[Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity]] (IARPA), responsible for developing advanced technologies for the U.S. intelligence community. He received the intelligence community's Award for Individual Achievement in Science and Technology and the [[National Intelligence Superior Service Medal]].[^1] [[Open Philanthropy]]'s 2019 grant page described him as having co-founded [[New Harvest]], the cultured-meat nonprofit, and as someone who "broadly shares our interest in cost-effective ways of doing as much good as possible."[^2] + +### CSET and the White House + +In January 2019 Open Philanthropy gave 55 million dollars over five years to [[Georgetown University]] to launch the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] with Matheny as its director; the grant investigator was [[Luke Muehlhauser]]. The grant page cited "multiple conversations with leaders in the defense, intelligence, and policymaking communities" and noted his seat on the [[National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence]], created by Congress in 2018.[^2] In March 2021 he left CSET for the [[White House]] with three titles: deputy assistant to the president for technology and national security, deputy director for national security in the [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]], and coordinator for technology and national security at the [[National Security Council]]. The NSCAI report he had helped write had recommended changes to national AI policy that he would now help oversee. [[Dewey Murdick]] took over CSET as interim director.[^3] + +### RAND + +Matheny became president and chief executive of the [[RAND Corporation]] in July 2022.[^1] Open Philanthropy gave RAND 5.5 million dollars in April 2023 and 10.5 million in October 2023, in each case "to be spent at the discretion of RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny"; he allocated the October gift to a technology policy training program, the [[Pardee RAND Graduate School]], a new China studies center and a research fund on emerging technology and security.[^4] In September 2023 he became one of the five original trustees of [[Anthropic]]'s [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]], and he stepped down in December 2023, according to Anthropic, "to preempt any potential conflicts of interest that might arise with RAND Corporation's policy-related initiatives."[^5] + +In October 2023 the *[[Politico]]* reporter [[Brendan Bordelon]] called Matheny "a luminary in the effective altruist community." He reported that Matheny had recommended licensing of advanced AI to the [[House Science Committee]], and that the RAND information scientist [[Jeff Alstott]], who had worked in the White House alongside Matheny, had in an April 19, 2023 email to members of the [[Omidyar Network]] circulated an AI licensing proposal he said he had shared with about "40 Hill staffers of both parties," asking recipients to "keep this document and attribution off the public internet." A RAND spokesperson, Jeffrey Hiday, confirmed the email, said Open Philanthropy's money had no bearing on RAND's recommendations, and called Matheny "a financially disinterested trustee."[^6] + +### The AI Executive Order + +In December 2023 *Politico* reported that RAND personnel, including Alstott, had helped draft the reporting requirements in Section 4 of President Biden's executive order on AI of October 30, 2023, which set the reporting threshold for advanced models at more than 10^26 operations, the figure Alstott had proposed; all six of the policy recommendations Alstott made at a September Senate hearing appeared in Section 4 "in some fashion." At a RAND all-hands meeting on October 25, 2023, a recording of which *Politico* obtained, Matheny said that the "National Security Council, [the Department of Defense] and [the Department of Homeland Security] have been deeply worried about catastrophic risk from future AI systems and asked RAND to produce several analyses," which "informed new export controls and a key executive action expected from the White House next week." An employee at the meeting asked whether the "push for the effective altruism agenda, with testimony and policy memos under RAND's brand, is appropriate"; Matheny answered that it would be "irresponsible" not to address catastrophic AI risk and that "if anything, [he's] seen Open Philanthropy be more hands-off." On October 30, hours before the order was released, Alstott emailed RAND colleagues what he called "a version [of the order] from a week ago." Hiday confirmed the recording and the email and said funders "have no influence on the results of our work." Two Horizon fellows worked at RAND.[^7] + +In April 2026 the *[[Washington Examiner]]* reported, from documents obtained under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], that while at the White House Matheny had hired [[Ben Buchanan]], director of CSET's CyberAI project, under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, with Georgetown continuing to pay Buchanan's salary and the government reimbursing it, and tasked him with helping craft the administration's AI policies; Buchanan became an architect of the Biden export controls on advanced chips. Buchanan said he "scrupulously complied with all legal and ethics rules and answered only to President Biden and the senior White House staff." RAND did not provide comment from Matheny.[^8] + +In a letter to Matheny of September 2024, Senator [[Ted Cruz]], ranking member of the [[Senate Commerce Committee]], wrote that "RAND apparently had an outsized role in drafting the AI Executive Order," that the order "captures all six of the policy recommendations a senior RAND official provided in congressional testimony last year," and that "you are one of five members on Anthropic's 'Long-Term Benefit Trust.'" He wrote that [[Tasha McCauley]], "an adjunct senior management scientist at RAND and effective altruism advocate," had left [[OpenAI]]'s board, and that "Last year, Open Philanthropy gave RAND $16 million."[^9] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: RAND Corporation, "Jason Matheny," staff biography. https://www.rand.org/about/people/m/matheny_jason.html +[^2]: Open Philanthropy, "Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology," grant of January 2019, archived January 2, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035307/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/ +[^3]: "Jason Matheny to serve Biden White House in national security and tech roles." *FedScoop,* March 9, 2021. https://fedscoop.com/white-house-announces-top-tech-adviser-jason-matheny-national-security/ +[^4]: Open Philanthropy, "RAND Corporation, Emerging Technology Initiatives," gift of October 2023, with the related April 2023 gift, archived January 22, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250122041729/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-initiatives/ +[^5]: Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023, with later updates. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust +[^6]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^7]: Bordelon, Brendan. "Think tank tied to tech billionaires played key role in Biden's AI order." *Politico,* December 15, 2023, archived February 11, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260211112614/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/15/billionaire-backed-think-tank-played-key-role-in-bidens-ai-order-00132128 +[^8]: Schmad, Robert. "Documents show how a tech-connected nonprofit shaped Biden-era AI policy." *Washington Examiner,* April 17, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4532389/ +[^9]: U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, "Sen. Cruz Sounds Alarm Over Industry Role in AI Czar Harris's Censorship Agenda," September 16, 2024, quoting Cruz's letter to Matheny. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/press/rep/release/sen-cruz-sounds-alarm-over-industry-role-in-ai-czar-harriss-censorship-agenda/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Luke Muehlhauser.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Luke Muehlhauser.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c7ca452e --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Luke Muehlhauser.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - OpenPhilanthropy + - Anthropic + - AIGovernance + - EffectiveAltruism +summary: "Open Philanthropy's head of AI governance grantmaking, investigator on its grants launching CSET and funding RAND at Jason Matheny's discretion, and an Anthropic director until May 2024." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + role: "AI governance grantmaker" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Anthropic]]" + role: "board of directors" + end: 2024-05-28 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Luke Muehlhauser was the grant investigator for [[Open Philanthropy]]'s 55-million-dollar grant of January 2019 to [[Georgetown University]] that launched the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] under the former IARPA director [[Jason Matheny]], with [[Helen Toner]], formerly of Open Philanthropy, on its founding team.[^1] After Matheny became chief executive of the [[RAND Corporation]], Muehlhauser, described by Open Philanthropy as the person "who leads our grantmaking on AI governance," recommended its gift of 10.5 million dollars in October 2023, which followed an April 2023 gift, "to be spent at the discretion of RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny."[^2] + +In October 2023 *[[Politico]]* reported that Muehlhauser, "Open Philanthropy's senior program officer for AI governance and policy," was one of the four members of the board of [[Anthropic]], in which Open Philanthropy's funder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] had invested.[^3] He resigned from the board on May 28, 2024. In a post of June 12, 2024, he wrote that "it became increasingly complicated over time for me to simultaneously be (a) an AI governance grantmaker at Open Philanthropy (my day job), where we support a wide variety of organizations including some who work on US AI policy, and (b) a Board member at a US-based frontier AI company (though I've never held any Anthropic equity)," and that the resignation was not safety-related.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Open Philanthropy, "Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology," grant of January 2019, archived January 2, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035307/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/ +[^2]: Open Philanthropy, "RAND Corporation, Emerging Technology Initiatives," gift of October 2023, archived January 22, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250122041729/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-initiatives/ +[^3]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^4]: Muehlhauser, Luke. "Why I resigned from the Anthropic Board." June 12, 2024. https://lukemuehlhauser.com/why-i-resigned-from-the-anthropic-board/ diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md index cd031357..508cecff 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Webster Hubbell.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ summary: "Rose Law Firm partner and associate attorney general who resigned in 1 location: "Little Rock, Arkansas" born: 1948-01-18 created: 2026-09-21 -updated: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-22 --- Webster L. Hubbell was a partner of [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]] and [[Vince Foster]] in the [[Rose Law Firm]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] and became associate attorney general of the [[United States]] in the [[Department of Justice]] in January 1993.[^1] @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ He resigned that March. What resulted from the Casolaro investigation, or even w McLarty and his staff director, William Burton, "telephoned Hubbell about once a week, telling him he still had friends in the White House." McLarty, [[Erskine Bowles]] of the [[Small Business Administration]], [[Truman Arnold]], and [[Vernon Jordan]] "made calls on Hubbell's behalf." "As a result, seventeen people and companies who were supporters of the President hired Hubbell to do consulting work, paying him in excess of $500,000 over a period of less than a year." He reported 376,075 dollars of it on his tax return for 1994 and paid no tax on it.[^1] -One of the seventeen was the [[Lippo Group]]. On June 23, 1994, [[James Riady]] had breakfast with Hubbell at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]], met President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] at ten with [[John Huang]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. Before the committee Hubbell invoked the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. He wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money."[^3] +One of the seventeen was the [[Lippo Group]]. On June 23, 1994, [[James Riady]] had breakfast with Hubbell at the [[Hay-Adams Hotel]], met President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] at ten with [[John Huang]], and had lunch with Hubbell. On June 27 Hubbell wrote to a director of [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, offering his services for 100,000 dollars a year, and the money was in his account by that day. "Both Riady and Hubbell refuse to describe what services, if any, Hubbell performed," a House committee reported. Lippo also paid for a trip to [[Jakarta]] and [[Bali]] for Hubbell and his wife. Before the committee Hubbell invoked the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. He wrote in his memoir: "it wasn't hush money."[^3] In September 1994, after meetings in a Hong Kong office building bearing the Lippo name, Hubbell traveled to Jakarta, where he met the family's patriarch, [[Mochtar Riady]], and the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia; James Riady introduced him there as a close friend of the president and told him to get Clinton to play golf in Bali during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.[^1] ### Plea diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/James R. Schlesinger.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/James R. Schlesinger.md index b9c8ea6e..2305f7ba 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/James R. Schlesinger.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/James R. Schlesinger.md @@ -1,17 +1,62 @@ --- -category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs" +category: "Intelligence & Government" +aliases: + - "James Schlesinger" tags: - Person + - CIA - Nuclear - - Israel -summary: "Secretary of Defense under Nixon and Ford who observed Kissinger's strategy during the 1973 Yom Kippur War of wanting Israel to succeed but bleed." + - DepartmentOfDefense + - FamilyJewels +summary: "Economist who chaired the Atomic Energy Commission, directed the CIA in 1973 and ordered the Family Jewels compilation, and served as Secretary of Defense and the first Secretary of Energy." born: 1929-02-15 died: 2014-03-27 location: "New York City, New York" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Atomic Energy Commission]]" + role: "chairman" + start: 1971 + end: 1973 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]" + role: "Director of Central Intelligence" + start: 1973-02-02 + end: 1973-07-02 + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Defense]]" + role: "Secretary of Defense" + start: 1973-07 + end: 1975-11 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Department of Energy]]" + role: "first Secretary of Energy" + start: 1977-08-06 + end: 1979-08-23 + fn: 1 +created: 2025-08-05 +updated: 2026-09-22 --- -James R. Schlesinger served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[Richard Nixon]] and later President [[Gerald R. Ford]]. During the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], [[Henry A. Kissinger]] told Schlesinger that his goal was to "let [[Israel]] come out ahead, but bleed." Schlesinger noted that [[Israel]]'s ammunition consumption rate was gauged for a seven-day war, reflecting [[Washington, D.C.]]'s confidence in the Israeli military. However, Kissinger's sudden and massive push for resupply led Schlesinger to conclude that Israeli use of a nuclear weapon was not out of the question, and that there was an assumption that [[Israel]] had a few nukes and might use them if there was a collapse.[^1] +James R. Schlesinger was born in New York City on February 15, 1929, and took a doctorate at Harvard in 1956. He chaired the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] from 1971 to 1973, directed the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in 1973, was Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1975, and after serving as an assistant to President [[Jimmy Carter]] was confirmed on August 4, 1977, as the first Secretary of Energy, holding the office from August 6, 1977, to August 23, 1979.[^1] + +### Director of Central Intelligence + +Schlesinger was Director of Central Intelligence from February 2 to July 2, 1973. On May 9, 1973, he signed a memorandum, drafted by [[William Colby]], ordering senior officers to report any current or past activities "which might be construed to be outside the legislative charter of this Agency"; the replies became the 693-page compilation known as the [[CIA Family Jewels|Family Jewels]], which passed to Colby when he succeeded Schlesinger.[^2][^3] In the same weeks the question of the agency's parapsychology research at [[SRI International|SRI]] reached him; [[Kenneth A. Kress]] wrote that he "was soon told not to increase the scope of the project. The project was too sensitive and potentially embarrassing. It should be tabled."[^4] Testifying about [[Watergate]], [[James McCord]] said his lawyer, Gerald Alch, had proposed a defense under which the agency would supply a recall-to-duty record and that "the new Director, Dr. Schlesinger, 'would go along with it'"; Alch denied it.[^5] + +### Secretary of Defense + +During the [[Yom Kippur War]] of 1973, [[Henry A. Kissinger]] told Schlesinger that his goal was to "let [[Israel]] come out ahead, but bleed." Schlesinger noted that Israel's ammunition consumption had been gauged for a seven-day war, and concluded from Kissinger's sudden push for resupply that Israeli use of a nuclear weapon was not out of the question.[^6] After the *[[Glomar Explorer]]* operation leaked in March 1975, Schlesinger recommended at the [[White House]] acknowledging the "bare facts"; President [[Gerald R. Ford]] took Colby's advice instead.[^7] In November 1975 Ford removed both Colby and Schlesinger in the same announcement.[^3] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. \ No newline at end of file +[^1]: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management, "Secretaries of Energy." https://www.energy.gov/lm/secretaries-energy +[^2]: Blanton, Thomas, ed. "The CIA's Family Jewels," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 222, June 21, 2007, with Schlesinger's memorandum of May 9, 1973 (scanned image, text not examined). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/index.htm +[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Family Jewels," CIA FOIA Reading Room, released 2007; Weiner, Tim. *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.* Doubleday, 2007, pp. 316-327. +[^4]: Kress, Kenneth A. "Parapsychology in Intelligence: A Personal Review and Conclusions." *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 21, no. 4, winter 1977, declassified. +[^5]: House Committee on Armed Services, Special Subcommittee on Intelligence, report on the inquiry into the alleged involvement of the CIA in the Watergate and Ellsberg matters, October 23, 1973. +[^6]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991, ch. 17. +[^7]: Burr, William, ed. "Project Azorian: The CIA's Declassified History of the Glomar Explorer." National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 305, February 12, 2010. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Mochtar Riady.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Mochtar Riady.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f2110d58 --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Mochtar Riady.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +category: "Business & Finance" +aliases: + - "Li Mo Tie" +tags: + - Person + - Indonesia + - LippoGroup + - Arkansas + - ClintonFundraising +summary: "Indonesian founder of the Lippo Group, partner of the Stephens family of Little Rock from 1976, whom a 1998 Senate report said, with his son James, had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." +location: "Jakarta, Indonesia" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Lippo Group]]" + role: "founder and patriarch" + fn: 1 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Jackson Stephens]]" + start: 1976 + role: "Stephens Finance Ltd. (1978); Worthen Bank" + fn: 1 + - type: relative_of + with: "[[James Riady]]" + role: "father" + fn: 1 + - type: subject_of + with: "[[Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs]]" + start: 1998 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Mochtar Riady is an Indonesian of Chinese descent who built the [[Lippo Group]]; according to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, citing *Forbes,* he found it necessary to "Indonesianize" his name, which had been Li Mo Tie. He first met [[Jackson Stephens]] and [[Witt Stephens]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] in 1976, when he was looking into buying [[Bert Lance]]'s share of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]; that purchase fell through, and in 1978 the two families formed Stephens Finance Ltd. in [[Hong Kong]].[^1] The Riady and Stephens families later controlled [[Worthen Bank]] in Little Rock together.[^1][^2] + +### Clinton + +The Riadys gave more than 450,000 dollars to the [[Democratic National Committee]] and state Democratic parties in the 1992 election cycle.[^3] Shortly after [[Bill Clinton]] took office, Mochtar Riady wrote to him advocating, among other things, most-favored-nation trade status for China, and thanked him "for the personal time he spent with the Riady family on Inauguration day 1993." He and [[John Huang]] asked Commerce Secretary [[Ron Brown]] to meet Shen Jueren, chairman of China Resources.[^1] In June 1994 [[Hong Kong China Limited]], a Lippo company, engaged the former associate attorney general [[Webster Hubbell]] as a consultant "for a fee of $100,000.00 per year," and in September 1994, after meetings in a Hong Kong office building bearing the Lippo name, Hubbell traveled to Jakarta, where he "met Mochtar Riady, head of the Riady family business, and the [[United States]] Ambassador to Indonesia." James Riady introduced Hubbell there as a close friend of the president and told him to get Clinton to play golf in Bali during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.[^3] + +In 1998 the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, in its report on the 1996 campaign-finance investigation, stated: "James and Mochtar Riady have had a long-term relationship with a Chinese intelligence agency." It also noted that they had known Clinton since the mid-1980s, when they held a controlling interest in Worthen Bank.[^4] His son [[James Riady]] pleaded guilty in January 2001 to violating federal election law.[^5] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law,* H. Rept. 105-829, vol. 2, 1998. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm +[^2]: Rankin, Robert A. "Cash Scandal May Haunt President." Knight-Ridder, *The Spokesman-Review,* October 30, 1996. +[^3]: Office of the Independent Counsel. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association,* vol. 3, part C, on Webster Hubbell. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON/pdf/GPO-ICREPORT-MADISON-3-2.pdf +[^4]: Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. *Investigation of Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection with 1996 Federal Election Campaigns,* S. Rept. 105-167, 1998, "The China Connection." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1998_rpt/sgo-sir/2-18.htm +[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. "James Riady Pleads Guilty, Will Pay Largest Fine in Campaign Finance History for Violating Federal Election Law." Press release 01-17, January 11, 2001. diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Cari Tuna.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Cari Tuna.md index bde8a948..90defa2e 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Cari Tuna.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Cari Tuna.md @@ -6,29 +6,60 @@ tags: - OpenPhilanthropy - EffectiveAltruism - Philanthropy -summary: "Cari Tuna is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who, with her husband Dustin Moskovitz, leads Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy, making her a principal director of the largest sustained funding source for the effective-altruism movement." + - DemocraticDonor +summary: "Former Wall Street Journal reporter, wife of Dustin Moskovitz, president of Good Ventures and chair of Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy, and a director or major donor in its web of linked entities." location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[GiveWell]]" + role: "board of directors" + start: 2011-04 + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Real Justice PAC]]" + start: 2017-03 + end: 2019-04 + role: "1.9 million dollars" + fn: 12 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + role: "chair" + fn: 6 created: 2026-06-19 -updated: 2026-06-19 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Cari Tuna is an American former journalist who, with her husband [[Dustin Moskovitz]], directs the philanthropic apparatus that became the largest sustained funder of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement. She is the president of Good Ventures, the foundation she and Moskovitz established in 2011, and a leader of [[Open Philanthropy]], the grantmaking organization that channels their [[Facebook]]-derived fortune toward global health, longtermism, and AI-safety work.[^1][^2] +Cari Tuna graduated from Yale and reported for *[[The Wall Street Journal]]*, writing, in the words of the *[[Stanford Social Innovation Review]]*, "about the California economy, gay marriage, and Turkish food in [[San Francisco]]." In December 2010, aged 25, she and [[Dustin Moskovitz]], then 26, became the youngest billionaires to sign the [[Giving Pledge]]; their pledge letter, written in Moskovitz's voice, thanked "a partner in Cari who shares my priorities" and promised to "donate and invest with both urgency and mindfulness." With Moskovitz occupied with [[Asana]], it fell to Tuna to manage their giving, and she quit reporting to study philanthropy.[^1][^2] -### From Journalism to Philanthropy +### GiveWell and Good Ventures -Tuna worked as a reporter for the *Wall Street Journal* before leaving to manage the couple's giving full time. She and Moskovitz, among the youngest signatories of the Giving Pledge, committed to donating the majority of their wealth, and they built Good Ventures and Open Philanthropy as the vehicles for doing so according to the evidence-and-reasoning methodology of effective altruism. Tuna became the public face of the operation, articulating its "give where it does the most good" framework.[^1][^3] +Tuna read about [[GiveWell]] in [[Peter Singer]]'s *The Life You Can Save* and met its co-founder [[Holden Karnofsky]] through a mutual friend; she joined its board in April 2011. In December 2011, as president of [[Good Ventures]], "a foundation in the San Francisco Bay Area which she created with her partner Dustin Moskovitz earlier this year," she announced grants of 500,000 dollars to the [[Against Malaria Foundation]] and 250,000 dollars to the [[Schistosomiasis Control Initiative]], and planned grants to [[GiveDirectly]], [[Innovations for Poverty Action]], [[KIPP Houston]], [[Nyaya Health]], [[Pratham]] and the [[Small Enterprise Foundation]].[^3] In 2012 GiveWell moved its office from New York to San Francisco "to be closer to Tuna and other technology-industry donors," and the joint project GiveWell Labs became the Open Philanthropy Project, led by Tuna, Karnofsky and [[Alexander Berger]]. Asked in 2018 whether she identified as an effective altruist, she answered, "Yes. Do you?"[^1] -Tuna and Moskovitz married in 2013 and signed the Giving Pledge in 2014 in their late twenties and early thirties, among the youngest people to do so. Tuna serves as president of Good Ventures and chairs the board of the grantmaking organization, the legal and governance counterpart to the staff research that [[Holden Karnofsky]] and [[Alexander Berger]] ran. She has described the couple's decision to delegate cause selection to a professional staff applying cost-effectiveness analysis rather than directing the money toward causes of personal sentiment, the organizing principle that distinguished their approach from conventional billionaire philanthropy.[^1][^3] +Tuna has been president of the Good Ventures Foundation on every return since 2015, and its board chair by 2025, with Moskovitz as secretary and treasurer and [[Divesh Makan]] of [[ICONIQ Capital]] as director; none is paid. The foundation's assets reached 10.1 billion dollars in 2025.[^4] Open Philanthropy, which draws nearly all of its grant money from Good Ventures, had given away about 7 billion dollars by September 2026.[^5] In 2026 Coefficient Giving, as [[Open Philanthropy]] was renamed in November 2025, listed her as chair, with Berger as chief executive, [[Emily Oehlsen]] as president, [[Naina Bajekal]] as managing director for communications and [[Luke Muehlhauser]] as managing director for AI governance and international policy.[^6] -### Open Philanthropy +### Seven Entities -As a leader of Open Philanthropy, Tuna helped direct more than four billion dollars in grants across global health, scientific research, pandemic preparedness, farm-animal welfare, and the prevention of catastrophic risks from advanced artificial intelligence. The longtermist and AI-risk portion of that giving made Open Philanthropy the principal institutional patron of the AI-safety community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]], the [[Future of Humanity Institute]], and the AI company [[Anthropic]], the durable counterpart to the short-lived [[FTX Future Fund]] of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]].[^2][^4] +In 2018 the *Stanford Social Innovation Review* writer [[Marc Gunther]] wrote that Tuna played "a key role in no fewer than seven entities, as a director or major donor": the Open Philanthropy Project LLC; the [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]], a 501(c)(4); the Open Philanthropy Project fund, a donor-advised fund at the [[Silicon Valley Community Foundation]]; the Good Ventures Foundation; Good Ventures, a supporting organization at the same community foundation; Good Ventures LLC, "a for-profit impact investment firm"; and GiveWell. He wrote that grants through the donor-advised funds "can't be traced back to the original donors." Tuna and Moskovitz were also investors in [[Breakthrough Energy Ventures]].[^1] The Open Philanthropy Action Fund has paid outside lobbyists every year from 2021 through 2026.[^7] Asana's 2026 proxy statement noted that Moskovitz and "his spouse" were directors of Good Ventures, which held Asana shares.[^8] -The grantmaking arm rebranded as Coefficient Giving in November 2025, shifting toward multi-donor funds that other philanthropists could join, while Good Ventures remained the dominant source of its money. Tuna chairs the Good Ventures board that supplies that capital, leaving her with formal control over the largest single pool of effective-altruism funding even as professional staff make the grant decisions. The structure concentrated a substantial share of global AI-safety funding under one foundation, drawing criticism that the field examining the AI labs depended financially on a single donor couple who were also early investors in one of those labs.[^2][^4] +### Causes + +Gunther reported that the cause-selection process Tuna led with Karnofsky and Berger settled on criminal justice reform, farm animal welfare, macroeconomic stabilization, immigration policy and land-use reform, and on two catastrophic-risk areas, biosecurity and advanced artificial intelligence, and that Tuna had concluded that "a lot of philanthropy's biggest claimed successes have come from improving policy."[^1] The criminal justice program, led by the former [[American Civil Liberties Union]] advocate [[Chloe Cockburn]], became an independent organization, [[Just Impact]], in November 2021, with a 50-million-dollar grant over three and a half years.[^9] Its AI grantmaking included 30 million dollars to [[OpenAI]] in 2017, with a board seat for Karnofsky, who later married [[Daniela Amodei]], president of [[Anthropic]].[^1][^10] + +### Politics + +On September 8, 2016, Tuna and Moskovitz jointly announced 20 million dollars in contributions to elect [[Hillary Clinton]], writing that Trump's promises were "quite possibly a deliberate con" and that "we have reservations about anyone using large amounts of money to influence elections."[^11] Federal Election Commission records itemize about 7.04 million dollars in contributions from Tuna in the 2015-2016 cycle, including 2.5 million each to the [[LCV Victory Fund]] and [[For Our Future PAC]], 1.25 million to [[MoveOn]] and 416,119 dollars to the [[Hillary Victory Fund]]. Between March 2017 and April 2019 she gave 1.9 million dollars to [[Real Justice PAC]], in payments of 653,480 dollars, 350,000, 850,000 and 50,000, and 200,000 dollars to [[Color of Change PAC]]. No contributions from her were itemized after April 2019.[^12] ### Footnotes -[^1]: "Giving in the Light of Reason," *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* on Cari Tuna, Good Ventures, and the Open Philanthropy methodology. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason -[^2]: "How Dependent is the Effective Altruism Movement on Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna?" EA Forum. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4BJSXH9ho4eYNT73P/how-dependent-is-the-effective-altruism-movement-on-dustin -[^3]: "Cari Tuna," EA Forum topic entry on Good Ventures and the Giving Pledge. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/topics/cari-tuna -[^4]: "How Effective is Effective Altruism?" *Inside Philanthropy,* March 16, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023-3-16-how-effective-is-effective-altruism-a-deep-dive-into-two-of-open-philanthropys-ea-inspired-programs +[^1]: Gunther, Marc. "Giving in the Light of Reason." *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* Summer 2018. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason +[^2]: The Giving Pledge, "Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna," pledge letter; Giving Pledge announcement of December 8, 2010. https://www.givingpledge.org/pledger/dustin-moskovitz-and-cari-tuna/ +[^3]: Tuna, Cari. "Guest post from Cari Tuna." The GiveWell Blog, December 23, 2011, archived February 7, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260207082111/https://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/23/guest-post-from-cari-tuna/ +[^4]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Good Ventures Foundation," EIN 46-1008520, Form 990-PF data through fiscal year ending June 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461008520 +[^5]: Smith, Ben. "Coefficient Giving's CEO on Silicon Valley's $40 billion philanthropy boom." *Semafor,* September 3, 2026. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2026/coefficient-givings-ceo-on-silicon-valley-40-billion-philanthropy-boom +[^6]: Coefficient Giving, "Team," accessed September 2026. https://coefficientgiving.org/about-us/team/ +[^7]: U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings for client "Open Philanthropy Action Fund," 2021 to 2026, retrieved September 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Open+Philanthropy+Action+Fund +[^8]: Asana, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 20, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000162828026025998/asan-20260420.htm +[^9]: Open Philanthropy, "Criminal Justice Reform (Closed)," archived November 13, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20251113222726/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/criminal-justice-reform/ +[^10]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^11]: Moskovitz, Dustin, and Cari Tuna. "Compelled to Act." *Medium,* September 8, 2016, archived December 31, 2016. http://web.archive.org/web/20161231130245/https://medium.com/@moskov/compelled-to-act-1413930041ee +[^12]: Federal Election Commission, itemized receipts (Schedule A, memo entries excluded) for contributor "Tuna, Cari," two-year periods 2016 through 2026, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=Tuna%2C+Cari diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Helen Toner.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Helen Toner.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ed51ae7d --- /dev/null +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Helen Toner.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +tags: + - Person + - OpenAI + - OpenPhilanthropy + - EffectiveAltruism + - CSET +summary: "Open Philanthropy analyst who became director of strategy at the Open Philanthropy-funded Georgetown CSET and, as an OpenAI director, voted in November 2023 to remove Sam Altman." +relations: + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + role: "senior research analyst" + fn: 1 + - type: employed_by + with: "[[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]]" + role: "director of strategy and plans; later director of strategy and foundational research grants" + start: 2019 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[OpenAI]]" + role: "director of the nonprofit board" + end: 2023-11 + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Helen Toner worked as a senior research analyst at [[Open Philanthropy]], advising policymakers and grantmakers on AI policy and strategy, and then lived in Beijing studying the Chinese AI industry as a research affiliate of the [[Center for the Governance of AI]] at [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]]. When Open Philanthropy made its grant of 55 million dollars to [[Georgetown University]] in January 2019 to launch the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] under [[Jason Matheny]], the grant page listed Toner on the founding team as CSET's director of strategy and plans, alongside the former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] China analyst [[William Hannas]]. The grant was investigated by [[Luke Muehlhauser]] of Open Philanthropy.[^1] She later held the title of director of strategy and foundational research grants at CSET.[^2] + +### The OpenAI Board + +Toner sat on the nonprofit board of [[OpenAI]], the body that on November 17, 2023, removed [[Sam Altman]] as chief executive, saying that he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." Within a week Altman was reinstated, and Toner and [[Tasha McCauley]], who had voted for his removal, left the board; [[Ilya Sutskever]] gave up his seat, and [[Adam D'Angelo]], who had also voted to remove Altman, stayed. In March 2024 OpenAI announced that a review by the law firm [[WilmerHale]] had concluded "there was a significant breakdown of trust between the prior board and Sam and Greg," in the words of board chair [[Bret Taylor]], and that the board "acted in good faith."[^2] + +On *[[The TED AI Show]]* in May 2024, Toner said that "for years, Sam had made it really difficult for the board to actually do that job by withholding information, misrepresenting things that were happening at the company, in some cases outright lying to the board." She said the board learned of the release of [[ChatGPT]] in November 2022 on Twitter, that Altman had not told the board he owned the OpenAI startup fund, and that in October 2023 two executives had given the board screenshots and documentation and "used the phrase 'psychological abuse.'" OpenAI did not respond to CNBC at the time.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Open Philanthropy, "Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology," grant of January 2019, archived January 2, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035307/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/ +[^2]: "Former OpenAI board member explains why CEO Sam Altman got fired before he was rehired." *CNBC,* May 29, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/29/former-openai-board-member-explains-why-ceo-sam-altman-was-fired.html diff --git a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michelle Zajko.md b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michelle Zajko.md index 978e86ad..1f58c500 100644 --- a/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michelle Zajko.md +++ b/10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Michelle Zajko.md @@ -7,33 +7,34 @@ tags: - Firearms alias: - Michelle Jacqueline Zajko -summary: "Michelle Zajko is a member of the Zizian group whose parents were shot to death in their Pennsylvania home on New Year's Eve 2022, who federal prosecutors charged with illegally buying the firearms later used in the Vermont killing of a Border Patrol agent, and who has publicly denied killing her parents." +summary: "Member of the Zizian group charged in June 2026 with the December 2022 murder of her parents in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, which she denies, and charged federally over firearms used in the Vermont shooting." location: "Chester Heights, Pennsylvania; Coventry, Vermont" created: 2026-06-19 -updated: 2026-06-19 +updated: 2026-09-22 --- -Michelle Zajko is a member of the [[The Zizians|Zizian]] group whose parents, [[Richard Zajko]] (72) and [[Rita Zajko]] (69), were found shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, [[Pennsylvania]], on the night of December 31, 2022. She was questioned and named a person of interest in their deaths but was not charged in the killings, and she has publicly denied involvement. Federal prosecutors separately charged her over the firearms tied to the January 2025 Zizian killing of a Border Patrol agent in [[Vermont]].[^1][^2] +Michelle Zajko is a member of the [[The Zizians|Zizian]] group whose parents, [[Richard Zajko]] (72) and [[Rita Zajko]] (69), were found shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, [[Pennsylvania]], on the night of December 31, 2022. She was long a person of interest in their deaths. On June 24, 2026, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse charged her with first-degree murder, alleging that she shot both parents in the head on her 30th birthday; he cited ballistics evidence and data from her phone, said she likely did not act alone, and said the investigation was continuing. Anonymous sources told *The Philadelphia Inquirer* that she may have expected to inherit an estate worth several million dollars. In a handwritten letter from a Maryland jail she wrote: "The papers are lying. … I did not murder my parents."[^1] Federal prosecutors separately charged her over the firearms tied to the January 2025 Zizian killing of a Border Patrol agent in [[Vermont]].[^2][^3] ### The Firearms Charge -Federal authorities in Vermont charged Zajko, a former resident of Coventry, with making false statements to buy firearms. Investigators alleged that in February 2024 she provided a false address to purchase three firearms from a Vermont gun store, and that one of those weapons was used in the January 20, 2025 shootout on Interstate 91 in which Agent [[David Maland]] and the group member [[Felix Bauckholt]] were killed. Authorities have said Zajko provided the gun used in the Vermont shooting.[^2][^3] +Federal authorities in Vermont charged Zajko, a former resident of Coventry, with making false statements to buy firearms. Investigators alleged that in February 2024 she provided a false address to purchase three firearms from a Vermont gun store, and that one of those weapons was used in the January 20, 2025 shootout on Interstate 91 in which Agent [[David Maland]] and the group member [[Felix Bauckholt]] were killed. Authorities have said Zajko provided the gun used in the Vermont shooting.[^3][^4] -Investigators also drew a forensic line back to her parents' deaths. Rita Zajko had been shot in the back of the head and Richard Zajko in the temple by a round that first passed through his hand, with two 9mm shell casings left at the scene and no weapon recovered; a neighbor's doorbell camera captured audio of a voice shouting "Mom!" Pennsylvania authorities determined that the bullet recovered from Richard Zajko's body matched ammunition Michelle Zajko had purchased in Vermont, and she acknowledged owning a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Prosecutors in the Vermont border case said she had been in frequent contact with [[Teresa Youngblut]] in the period around the shooting.[^4][^6] +Investigators also drew a forensic line back to her parents' deaths. Rita Zajko had been shot in the back of the head and Richard Zajko in the temple by a round that first passed through his hand, with two 9mm shell casings left at the scene and no weapon recovered; a neighbor's doorbell camera captured audio of a voice shouting "Mom!" Pennsylvania authorities determined that the bullet recovered from Richard Zajko's body matched ammunition Michelle Zajko had purchased in Vermont, and she acknowledged owning a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Prosecutors in the Vermont border case said she had been in frequent contact with [[Teresa Youngblut]] in the period around the shooting.[^5][^6] ### Arrest and the Open Letter -On February 16, 2025, Zajko was arrested in Allegany County, [[Maryland]], alongside [[Jack LaSota]] and [[Daniel Blank]] after a property owner near [[Frostburg]] reported that the three were living in two white box trucks on his land and refused to leave; they were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement, and illegal firearm possession, and all three were ordered held without bail on February 18. The arrest delivered LaSota, a fugitive who had staged her own death in 2022, into custody alongside Zajko in a single stop.[^4][^7] +On February 16, 2025, Zajko was arrested in Allegany County, [[Maryland]], alongside [[Jack LaSota]] and [[Daniel Blank]] after a property owner near [[Frostburg]] reported that the three were living in two white box trucks on his land and refused to leave; they were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement, and illegal firearm possession, and all three were ordered held without bail on February 18. The arrest delivered LaSota, a fugitive who had staged her own death in 2022, into custody alongside Zajko in a single stop.[^5][^7] -Through her attorney she released a twenty-page handwritten "Open Letter to the World," provided to the [[Associated Press]], in which she wrote, "You, the public, are being lied to," and denied killing her parents, stating that "the truth about my friends and I will make a lot more sense than what you've been reading about in the papers." She remained a person of interest in the Pennsylvania killings without being charged in them, while the federal firearms case proceeded separately in Vermont. By early 2026 she was among at least seven people associated with the group facing charges across California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.[^5][^8] +Through her attorney she released a twenty-page handwritten "Open Letter to the World," provided to the [[Associated Press]], in which she wrote, "You, the public, are being lied to," and denied killing her parents, stating that "the truth about my friends and I will make a lot more sense than what you've been reading about in the papers." Before the 2026 charges she remained a person of interest in the Pennsylvania killings without being charged in them, while the federal firearms case proceeded separately in Vermont. By early 2026 she was among at least seven people associated with the group facing charges across California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.[^8][^9] ### Footnotes -[^1]: "Michelle Zajko sought for questioning in connection with multiple slayings," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 31, 2025. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/michelle-zajko-vermont-killings-rita-richard-20250131.html -[^2]: "Former Vermont resident faces federal firearm charge related to killing of border patrol agent," *VTDigger,* February 18, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/02/18/former-vermont-resident-faces-federal-firearm-charge-related-to-killing-of-border-patrol-agent/ -[^3]: "A timeline of activities of a cultlike group tied to the killing of a Border Patrol agent," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont -[^4]: "Member of Zizians, cultlike group of AI-obsessed vegans, says she didn't kill her parents," *NBC News,* 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/member-zizians-cultlike-group-ai-obsessed-vegans-says-didnt-kill-paren-rcna201537 -[^5]: "Daughter of Pennsylvania couple who died says in new 'open letter' she didn't kill her parents," CBS News Philadelphia, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/michelle-zajko-zizian-pennsylvania-murder/ +[^1]: Vella, Vinny. "A former Delco woman tied to the Zizians extremist group has been charged with her parents' killing." *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 24, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/michelle-zajko-zizians-group-parents-murder-charges-chester-heights-20260624.html +[^2]: "Michelle Zajko sought for questioning in connection with multiple slayings," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 31, 2025. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/michelle-zajko-vermont-killings-rita-richard-20250131.html +[^3]: "Former Vermont resident faces federal firearm charge related to killing of border patrol agent," *VTDigger,* February 18, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/02/18/former-vermont-resident-faces-federal-firearm-charge-related-to-killing-of-border-patrol-agent/ +[^4]: "A timeline of activities of a cultlike group tied to the killing of a Border Patrol agent," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont +[^5]: "Member of Zizians, cultlike group of AI-obsessed vegans, says she didn't kill her parents," *NBC News,* 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/member-zizians-cultlike-group-ai-obsessed-vegans-says-didnt-kill-paren-rcna201537 [^6]: "Woman charged in killing of Border Patrol agent was in contact with Pennsylvania homicide suspect: prosecutors," CBS News Philadelphia, 2025, on the contact between Zajko and Youngblut. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/teresa-youngblut-david-maland-pennsylvania-suspect/ [^7]: "A timeline of cultlike 'Zizian' group tied to killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025, on the Frostburg arrest and the February 18 detention order. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont -[^8]: "A year after border agent's killing, 7 Zizians fight charges in 3 states," WHYY, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/border-agent-killing-zizian-criminal-charges-california-pennsylvania-vermont/ +[^8]: "Daughter of Pennsylvania couple who died says in new 'open letter' she didn't kill her parents," CBS News Philadelphia, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/michelle-zajko-zizian-pennsylvania-murder/ +[^9]: "A year after border agent's killing, 7 Zizians fight charges in 3 states," WHYY, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/border-agent-killing-zizian-criminal-charges-california-pennsylvania-vermont/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md index c4b8ae0d..4da07d95 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Atomwaffen Division.md @@ -14,18 +14,18 @@ tags: - RussianImperialMovement - USA created: 2026-05-21 -updated: 2026-05-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 summary: "Atomwaffen Division was an American neo-Nazi paramilitary network founded by Brandon Russell in 2015, linked to multiple murders and terrorism plots, that received paramilitary training from the Russian Imperial Movement in St. Petersburg, and dissolved through federal prosecutions after 2020." start: 2015 end: 2020 location: "United States" --- -[[Atomwaffen Division]] (AWD, German for "atomic weapons division") was an American neo-Nazi paramilitary organization founded in 2015 by [[Brandon Russell]] and initially announced on the neo-fascist web forum [[Iron March]]. Before it effectively dissolved through a series of federal prosecutions between 2020 and 2022, AWD was linked by law enforcement and journalists to at least five murders and numerous terrorism plots, and it underwent a major ideological transformation beginning in 2017 when the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) American nexion [[Tempel ov Blood]] infiltrated its leadership and converted it into an occultist accelerationist organization drawing heavily on the [[Insight Roles]] doctrine and the texts of [[Martinet Press]]. +Atomwaffen Division (AWD, German for "atomic weapons division") was an American neo-Nazi paramilitary organization founded in 2015 by [[Brandon Russell]] and initially announced on the neo-fascist web forum [[Iron March]]. Before it effectively dissolved through a series of federal prosecutions between 2020 and 2022, AWD was linked by law enforcement and journalists to at least five murders and numerous terrorism plots, and it underwent a major ideological transformation beginning in 2017 when the [[Order of Nine Angles]] (O9A) American nexion [[Tempel ov Blood]] infiltrated its leadership and converted it into an occultist accelerationist organization drawing heavily on the [[Insight Roles]] doctrine and the texts of [[Martinet Press]]. ### Founding on Iron March -AWD was officially announced to the Iron March community on October 12, 2015, by Brandon Russell. [[Iron March]] was a neo-fascist web forum founded in 2011 by Russian nationalist [[Alisher Mukhitdinov]] (alias "Alexander Slavros") and active until its closure in 2017. It served as the incubator for several neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations in the United States and Europe during that period. Russell had been organizing AWD for years before the Iron March announcement, claiming later that he had been recruiting since at least 2012. +AWD was officially announced to the Iron March community on October 12, 2015, by Brandon Russell. Iron March was a neo-fascist web forum founded in 2011 by Russian nationalist [[Alisher Mukhitdinov]] (alias "Alexander Slavros") and active until its closure in 2017. It served as the incubator for several neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations in the United States and Europe during that period. Russell had been organizing AWD for years before the Iron March announcement, claiming later that he had been recruiting since at least 2012. AWD's founding ideology drew heavily on [[James Mason]]'s *[[Siege]]*, a collection of essays from Mason's 1980-1986 newsletter for the [[National Socialist Liberation Front]], compiled and published as a book in 1992 by Storm Books. *Siege* explicitly advocates lone-wolf terrorism and accelerationist violence, arguing that the collapse of liberal democratic society can be hastened through cascading terrorist attacks. Iron March had rediscovered and popularized *Siege* in 2015, and it became the ideological lodestar for AWD and the broader network of groups that emerged from the Iron March milieu.[^1] @@ -43,37 +43,37 @@ In September 2017, Russell pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing an unre #### Nicholas Giampa (December 2017) -[[Nicholas Giampa]], a 17-year-old from [[Lorton, Virginia]] who was an AWD follower (though not a formal member), shot and killed Scott Fricker and Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, the parents of his girlfriend, in their [[Reston, Virginia]] home on December 22, 2017. Giampa maintained a Twitter account under the handle @RyanAtomwaffen that shared AWD propaganda. After the shootings he turned the gun on himself, surviving with severe brain damage. He was indicted in Fairfax County Circuit Court on two counts of first-degree murder. The case never reached trial: Giampa was found incompetent in August 2018, had competency restored briefly, was found incompetent again in 2023, and died in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on August 22-23, 2024.[^8] +[[Nicholas Giampa]], a 17-year-old from [[Lorton, Virginia]] who was an AWD follower (though not a formal member), shot and killed Scott Fricker and Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, the parents of his girlfriend, in their [[Reston, Virginia]] home on December 22, 2017. Giampa maintained a Twitter account under the handle @RyanAtomwaffen that shared AWD propaganda. After the shootings he turned the gun on himself, surviving with severe brain damage. He was indicted in Fairfax County Circuit Court on two counts of first-degree murder. The case never reached trial: Giampa was found incompetent in August 2018, had competency restored briefly, was found incompetent again in 2023, and died in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on August 22-23, 2024.[^3] #### Samuel Woodward (January 2018) -[[Samuel Woodward]], a [[Newport Beach, California]] resident and AWD member documented through photographs at Texas training camps and encrypted chat logs, murdered [[Blaze Bernstein]], a 19-year-old gay Jewish [[University of Pennsylvania]] student, in Borrego Park in [[Lake Forest, California]] on January 2, 2018, stabbing Bernstein 28 times and burying him in a shallow grave. Bernstein's body was not discovered until January 10. AWD members celebrated the killing in encrypted communications. Woodward was tried in Orange County Superior Court before Judge [[Kimberly Menninger]]; a jury found him guilty with a hate crime enhancement on July 3, 2024. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on November 15, 2024.[^9] +[[Samuel Woodward]], a [[Newport Beach, California]] resident and AWD member documented through photographs at Texas training camps and encrypted chat logs, murdered [[Blaze Bernstein]], a 19-year-old gay Jewish [[University of Pennsylvania]] student, in Borrego Park in [[Lake Forest, California]] on January 2, 2018, stabbing Bernstein 28 times and burying him in a shallow grave. Bernstein's body was not discovered until January 10. AWD members celebrated the killing in encrypted communications. Woodward was tried in Orange County Superior Court before Judge [[Kimberly Menninger]]; a jury found him guilty with a hate crime enhancement on July 3, 2024. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on November 15, 2024.[^4] ### Tempel ov Blood Infiltration (2017) -Shortly before the Tampa murders, AWD's Texas leader [[John Cameron Denton]] had begun cultivating a relationship with [[Tempel ov Blood]], the American nexion of the [[Order of Nine Angles]], and its leader [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]]. Denton was attracted to ToB's synthesis of National Socialism and Satanic occultism. He invited ToB members into AWD in the spring of 2017, and Sutter joined under the alias "swissdiscipline." +Shortly before the Tampa murders, AWD's Texas leader [[John Cameron Denton]] had begun cultivating a relationship with Tempel ov Blood, the American nexion of the Order of Nine Angles, and its leader [[Joshua Caleb Sutter]]. Denton was attracted to ToB's synthesis of National Socialism and Satanic occultism. He invited ToB members into AWD in the spring of 2017, and Sutter joined under the alias "swissdiscipline." -Sutter attended AWD's Hate Camps in 2017 and 2018 and organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]] in September 2019, using FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. [[James Mason]], author of *Siege* and the ideological godfather of the AWD milieu, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks against the government. At least nine O9A/ToB members came to hold key positions within AWD. Denton made the Martinet Press publications (*[[Iron Gates]]*, *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members, and AWD's online presence began promoting O9A aesthetics and texts alongside the existing *Siege* culture.[^3] +Sutter attended AWD's Hate Camps in 2017 and 2018 and organized the [[2019 AWD Nuclear Congress]] in [[Las Vegas]] in September 2019, using FBI-provided funds to cover member travel and lodging. James Mason, author of *Siege* and the ideological godfather of the AWD milieu, made his first documented in-person appearance with AWD at the Nuclear Congress, delivering speeches calling for murder and lone-wolf attacks against the government. At least nine O9A/ToB members came to hold key positions within AWD. Denton made the Martinet Press publications (*[[Iron Gates]]*, *Liber 333*, *Bluebird*) required or approved reading for AWD members, and AWD's online presence began promoting O9A aesthetics and texts alongside the existing *Siege* culture.[^5] The merger was controversial within AWD. Members who had joined as straightforward National Socialists objected to Satanism as ideological contamination. Several left. Those who remained were exposed to a framework that construed murder as spiritual practice and the group's violence as evidence of O9A-style initiatory transgression. -Sutter was, throughout his entire time in AWD, a paid FBI informant. His informant status and the specific financial details of his arrangement were revealed in 2021 through court documents in the prosecution of Kaleb Cole. The government acknowledged that Sutter's work was "instrumental in the prosecutions" against AWD members.[^4] +Sutter was, throughout his entire time in AWD, a paid FBI informant. His informant status and the specific financial details of his arrangement were revealed in 2021 through court documents in the prosecution of Kaleb Cole. The government acknowledged that Sutter's work was "instrumental in the prosecutions" against AWD members.[^6] ### Swatting Campaign and Denton's Arrest In October 2018 and continuing through at least April 2019, Denton and other AWD members organized a coordinated "swatting" campaign (calling emergency services with false reports of imminent violence to send armed police to an unwitting target's address). The targets included a Virginia university, an unnamed former U.S. Cabinet member, a historic Black church outside [[Washington, D.C.]], an Islamic Center in [[Arlington, Texas]], and members of various minority communities across the United States, in what prosecutors called "the most widespread swatting conspiracy in the country" known to federal law enforcement. -Denton was arrested in a raid on his home in Conroe, Texas, on February 26, 2020. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia in May 2021 to 41 months in prison, with a hate crime enhancement applied. Denton expressed no remorse at sentencing.[^5] +Denton was arrested in a raid on his home in Conroe, Texas, on February 26, 2020. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia in May 2021 to 41 months in prison, with a hate crime enhancement applied. Denton expressed no remorse at sentencing.[^7] ### Cole's Intimidation Campaign and Conviction -[[Kaleb Cole]], the senior AWD figure in [[Washington state]], organized a separate parallel campaign: in January 2020, Cole and associates mailed threatening posters to the homes of Jewish activists and journalists of color. The posters, which included swastikas, skulls, and phrases such as "We know where you live" and "Death to Pigs," were also affixed to victims' homes. Cole was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Washington on all five counts, including conspiracy to commit hate crimes, mailing threatening communications, and cyberstalking, and was sentenced in 2022 to 84 months (seven years) in prison.[^6] +[[Kaleb Cole]], the senior AWD figure in [[Washington state]], organized a separate parallel campaign: in January 2020, Cole and associates mailed threatening posters to the homes of Jewish activists and journalists of color. The posters, which included swastikas, skulls, and phrases such as "We know where you live" and "Death to Pigs," were also affixed to victims' homes. Cole was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Washington on all five counts, including conspiracy to commit hate crimes, mailing threatening communications, and cyberstalking, and was sentenced in 2022 to 84 months (seven years) in prison.[^8] -It was the Cole prosecution that, through motion-to-suppress filings, revealed Sutter's status as an FBI informant. The filings described the confidential informant without naming him, but the details made identification apparent.[^4] +It was the Cole prosecution that, through motion-to-suppress filings, revealed Sutter's status as an FBI informant. The filings described the confidential informant without naming him, but the details made identification apparent.[^6] ### The Melzer Plot -[[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], a Private in the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, was arrested in May 2020 after he transmitted classified intelligence about his unit's planned deployment to Turkey to O9A members on [[Telegram]], operating under the alias "Etil Reggad." The classified material included base locations, personnel numbers, defensive capabilities, and satellite imagery, with the stated intention of enabling a mass-casualty attack on American soldiers by a combination of Al-Qaeda-affiliated forces and O9A members. Melzer was convicted in the Southern District of New York, where he described himself as "a traitor against the United States whose conduct was tantamount to treason," and was sentenced in March 2023 to 45 years in prison.[^7] +[[Ethan Phelan Melzer]], a Private in the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, was arrested in May 2020 after he transmitted classified intelligence about his unit's planned deployment to Turkey to O9A members on [[Telegram]], operating under the alias "Etil Reggad." The classified material included base locations, personnel numbers, defensive capabilities, and satellite imagery, with the stated intention of enabling a mass-casualty attack on American soldiers by a combination of Al-Qaeda-affiliated forces and O9A members. Melzer was convicted in the Southern District of New York, where he described himself as "a traitor against the United States whose conduct was tantamount to treason," and was sentenced in March 2023 to 45 years in prison.[^9] The Melzer case demonstrated that AWD/O9A influence had penetrated the U.S. military, consistent with earlier reports about [[Jarrett William Smith]], an Army specialist at Fort Riley, Kansas, arrested in 2019 for distributing explosives manuals and discussing attacks on anti-fascist groups and media organizations. @@ -101,11 +101,9 @@ The Florida Guard's two-page summary investigation of Russell following Arthurs' AWD's transnational connections included a documented training relationship with the [[Russian Imperial Movement]] (RIM), a [[St. Petersburg]]-based white supremacist paramilitary organization designated a [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] entity by the [[U.S. Department of State]] on April 7, 2020. -In 2018, AWD leader [[Kaleb Cole]] and AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]], both from Olympia, [[Washington state]], traveled to Europe. According to investigative reporting drawing on federal prosecution materials, they crossed into [[Russia]] via the Donbas green corridor in [[Ukraine]] and attended RIM's [[Partizan]] training camp in St. Petersburg. The training covered firearms, explosives, squad movement, and small-unit tactics, conducted by former Russian military personnel. After completing training, Cole and Bruce-Umbaugh passed through Poland and photographed themselves at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp before returning to the United States. Cole continued directing AWD's national leadership until his February 2020 federal arrest. Bruce-Umbaugh was charged in the Northern District of Texas (5:19-cr-00130) and sentenced to 30 months on a firearms count on April 28, 2020.[^15] +In 2018, AWD leader Kaleb Cole and AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]], both from Olympia, Washington state, traveled to Europe. According to investigative reporting drawing on federal prosecution materials, they crossed into [[Russia]] via the Donbas green corridor in [[Ukraine]] and attended RIM's [[Partizan]] training camp in St. Petersburg. The training covered firearms, explosives, squad movement, and small-unit tactics, conducted by former Russian military personnel. After completing training, Cole and Bruce-Umbaugh passed through Poland and photographed themselves at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp before returning to the United States. Cole continued directing AWD's national leadership until his February 2020 federal arrest. Bruce-Umbaugh was charged in the Northern District of Texas (5:19-cr-00130) and sentenced to 30 months on a firearms count on April 28, 2020.[^15] -In approximately 2020, RIM provided additional training at Partizan to other American nationals affiliated with AWD, in a separate arrangement from the 2018 Cole/Bruce-Umbaugh trip. The [[CTC West Point]] analysis of the skull-mask neo-fascist network documented this second training cohort.[^16] - -The RIM connection places AWD within a documented infrastructure of Russian-based paramilitary training for Western neo-Nazis. RIM's Partizan facility was the same camp that trained two members of the [[Nordic Resistance Movement]] from Sweden before they carried out bombings in Gothenburg in January 2017, the case that ultimately prompted the U.S. SDGT designation. RIM's paramilitary wing, the [[Imperial Legion]], also sent volunteers to fight alongside Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014. The co-location of AWD's leadership training with this infrastructure in St. Petersburg, in the same city where [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] (founder of [[The Base]]) relocated in 2017-2018, describes a pattern of Western accelerationist organization access to Russian-based paramilitary resources in a single geographic node.[^17] +The RIM connection places AWD within a documented infrastructure of Russian-based paramilitary training for Western neo-Nazis. RIM's Partizan facility was the same camp that trained two members of the [[Nordic Resistance Movement]] from Sweden before they carried out bombings in Gothenburg in January 2017, the case that ultimately prompted the U.S. SDGT designation. RIM's paramilitary wing, the [[Imperial Legion]], also sent volunteers to fight alongside Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014. The co-location of AWD's leadership training with this infrastructure in St. Petersburg, in the same city where [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] (founder of The Base) relocated in 2017-2018, describes a pattern of Western accelerationist organization access to Russian-based paramilitary resources in a single geographic node.[^16] ### Russell's Second Arrest and Grid Attack Conviction @@ -119,18 +117,17 @@ AWD effectively ceased to exist as a functioning organization through the combin [^1]: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/ [^2]: CNN. "Brandon Russell: Neo-Nazi group leader convicted of plotting Maryland power grid attack." February 4, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/us/neo-nazi-maryland-grid-attack -[^3]: Rolling Stone. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers." 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/ -[^4]: Vice. "FBI Bankrolled Publisher of Occult Neo-Nazi Books, Feds Claim." 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/fbi-bankrolled-publisher-of-occult-neo-nazi-books-feds-claim/ -[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-EDVA. "Former Atomwaffen Division Leader Sentenced for Swatting Conspiracy." Press Release, May 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-atomwaffen-division-leader-sentenced-swatting-conspiracy -[^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Leader of Neo-Nazi Group Sentenced for Plot to Target Journalists and Advocates." https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/leader-neo-nazi-group-sentenced-plot-target-journalists-and-advocates -[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-SDNY. "Former U.S. Army Soldier Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Attempting To Murder Fellow Service Members In Deadly Ambush." Press Release, March 2023. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-us-army-soldier-sentenced-45-years-prison-attempting-murder-fellow-service -[^8]: Washington Post. "A teenager who followed neo-Nazi propaganda online killed his girlfriend's parents. He never stood trial." https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/nicholas-giampa-atomwaffen-death/; Courthouse News Service. "Atomwaffen Follower Nicholas Giampa Dies in Jail Without Trial." August 2024. -[^9]: Los Angeles Times. "Jury finds Newport Beach man guilty of hate crime murder of gay, Jewish college student." July 3, 2024. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-03/samuel-woodward-hate-crime-murder-verdict; Orange County District Attorney. "Samuel Lincoln Woodward Sentenced to Life Without Possibility of Parole." Press Release, November 2024. +[^3]: Washington Post. "A teenager who followed neo-Nazi propaganda online killed his girlfriend's parents. He never stood trial." https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/nicholas-giampa-atomwaffen-death/; Courthouse News Service. "Atomwaffen Follower Nicholas Giampa Dies in Jail Without Trial." August 2024. +[^4]: Los Angeles Times. "Jury finds Newport Beach man guilty of hate crime murder of gay, Jewish college student." July 3, 2024. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-03/samuel-woodward-hate-crime-murder-verdict; Orange County District Attorney. "Samuel Lincoln Woodward Sentenced to Life Without Possibility of Parole." Press Release, November 2024. +[^5]: Rolling Stone. "The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers." 2021. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/ +[^6]: Vice. "FBI Bankrolled Publisher of Occult Neo-Nazi Books, Feds Claim." 2021. https://www.vice.com/en/article/fbi-bankrolled-publisher-of-occult-neo-nazi-books-feds-claim/ +[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-EDVA. "Former Atomwaffen Division Leader Sentenced for Swatting Conspiracy." Press Release, May 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-atomwaffen-division-leader-sentenced-swatting-conspiracy +[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Leader of Neo-Nazi Group Sentenced for Plot to Target Journalists and Advocates." https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/leader-neo-nazi-group-sentenced-plot-target-journalists-and-advocates +[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-SDNY. "Former U.S. Army Soldier Sentenced To 45 Years In Prison For Attempting To Murder Fellow Service Members In Deadly Ambush." Press Release, March 2023. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-us-army-soldier-sentenced-45-years-prison-attempting-murder-fellow-service [^10]: Roll Call. "Pentagon Report Reveals Inroads White Supremacists Have Made in Military." February 2021. https://rollcall.com/2021/02/16/pentagon-report-reveals-inroads-white-supremacists-have-made-in-military/; ProPublica / PBS Frontline. "An Atomwaffen Member Sketched a Map to Take the Neo-Nazis Down. What Path Officials Took Is a Mystery." 2018. https://www.propublica.org/article/an-atomwaffen-member-sketched-a-map-to-take-the-neo-nazis-down-what-path-officials-took-is-a-mystery; Tampa Bay Times. "How Did Florida National Guard Miss Soldier's Neo-Nazi Leanings?" 2017. https://www.tampabay.com/news/military/how-did-florida-national-guard-miss-soldiers-neo-nazi-leanings/2324930/ [^11]: ProPublica. "U.S. Marine to Be Imprisoned Over Involvement With Hate Groups." 2018. https://www.propublica.org/article/vasilios-pistolis-imprisoned-marine-hate-groups; Marine Corps Times. "Neo-Nazi Marine Found Guilty at Summary Court-Martial." June 19, 2018. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/06/19/neo-nazi-marine-found-guilty-at-summary-court-martial/ [^12]: Gizmodo. "Leak Exposes U.S. Navy Sailor as Once-Prolific Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group." March 12, 2020. https://gizmodo.com/leak-exposes-u-s-navy-sailor-as-once-prolific-recruite-1841149776; Newsweek. "Navy Kicks Out Alleged Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group Atomwaffen Division After Investigation." April 2020. https://www.newsweek.com/navy-kicks-out-alleged-recruiter-neo-nazi-group-atomwaffen-division-after-investigation-1498704 [^13]: CBC News. "U.S. Judge Sentences Manitoban Ex-Reservist Patrik Mathews to 9 Years in Prison for Role in Neo-Nazi Plot." October 28, 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/patrik-mathews-sentencing-1.6226116 [^14]: U.S. Department of Justice, USAO-EDNC. "Defendants with Ties to White Supremacy Sentenced in Connection with Plot to Destroy Energy Facilities." 2024. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/defendants-ties-white-supremacy-sentenced-connection-plot-destroy-energy-facilities [^15]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages; GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0 -[^16]: CTC West Point. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/ -[^17]: U.S. Department of State. "Designation of Russian Imperial Movement and its Leaders as Global Terrorists." April 7, 2020. https://2017-2021.state.gov/the-u-s-department-of-states-designation-of-the-russian-imperial-movement-and-its-leaders-as-global-terrorists/index.html; Soufan Center. "Russia's Links to Neo-Nazi Terrorist Groups Demonstrates its Hybrid Warfare Toolkit." May 8, 2025. https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2025-may-8/ +[^16]: U.S. Department of State. "Designation of Russian Imperial Movement and its Leaders as Global Terrorists." April 7, 2020. https://2017-2021.state.gov/the-u-s-department-of-states-designation-of-the-russian-imperial-movement-and-its-leaders-as-global-terrorists/index.html; Soufan Center. "Russia's Links to Neo-Nazi Terrorist Groups Demonstrates its Hybrid Warfare Toolkit." May 8, 2025. https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2025-may-8/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..36d241ae --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +category: "Foreign Government" +aliases: + - "MIMI" + - "Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization" +tags: + - Organization + - Iraq + - WeaponsProcurement + - BNL + - Iraqgate +summary: "Iraqi ministry under Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Hussein Kamel, from 1988 in charge of weapons industrialization, which bought Western technology through the Al-Arabi front network with BNL-Atlanta loans." +location: "Baghdad, Iraq" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Hussein Kamel]]" + reverse: true + start: 1988 + fn: 1 + - type: owned + with: "[[Matrix Churchill]]" + start: 1987 + role: "through the Al-Arabi and TDG front network" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[BNL Scandal|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]" + reverse: true + role: "2.155 billion dollars in loans" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization, "commonly referred to as MIMI," was the organization assigned primary responsibility for [[Iraq]]'s military industrialization. Representative [[Henry B. Gonzalez]], chairman of the [[House Banking Committee]], described it in 1992 as "a dual structure holding company divided between civilian and defense components": about 40 civilian agencies building projects such as the Badush Dam, petrochemical complex two and fertilizer and truck plants, and some 25 military organizations. [[Saddam Hussein]] "entrusted the achievement of Iraq's ambitious military industrialization program to his son-in-law, Hussein Kamil," who was "placed in charge of MIMI in 1988"; the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] believed Kamel "was probably the second most powerful man in Iraq." His roots lay in the Special Security Organization, responsible for protecting Saddam and keeping track of Iraq's other intelligence services, which he controlled from the 1980s and kept after moving to MIMI.[^1] + +### The Procurement Network + +Gonzalez described how factories under MIMI drew up lists of needed equipment, which passed by diplomatic pouch to Ali Mutalib Ali, commercial attaché at the Iraqi embassy in Germany, whom "German and [[United States]] intelligence agencies identify" as an Iraqi intelligence agent, and on to front companies. The Al-Arabi Trading Company network was controlled by a subordinate of MIMI, the Technical Corps for Special Projects, "in charge of Iraq's highest priority weapons projects like the Condor II ballistic missile, the Big Gun and Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program," and was run day to day by [[Safa al-Habobi]], who in 1988 and 1989 visited the United States on extended trips, bringing his family to Disneyland. Through the Technology Development Group in London the network bought the machine-tool maker [[Matrix Churchill]] in 1987. A Swiss firm at least 30 percent Iraqi-owned set up an affiliate in [[North Carolina]] that supplied the United States military with components for 155mm artillery shells: "Iraq is helping to supply the United States military with artillery shell components."[^1] Much of the 2.155 billion dollars in loans that the Atlanta branch of [[BNL Scandal|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]] provided to MIMI went to buy militarily useful technology in the United States and Europe.[^2] In 1992 three directors of Matrix Churchill were tried at the [[Old Bailey]]; the trial collapsed and produced the [[Scott Inquiry]].[^3] + +### Kamel's Defection + +Kamel defected to Jordan in August 1995. Interviewed in Amman on August 22, 1995, by the UN Special Commission's chairman, Rolf Ekéus, with officials of the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]], he said: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons, biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed," and that no missiles were left, though blueprints and molds remained. He returned to Baghdad in February 1996 and was killed on February 23.[^4] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network." *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm +[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Oil Sales to Iraq and More Details on Matrix-Churchill Corp." *Congressional Record,* House, September 25, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920925g.htm +[^3]: "Britain's 'Iraqgate': Major Woes." *The Christian Science Monitor,* November 12, 1992. +[^4]: United Nations Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency, note for the file on the interview of General Hussein Kamel, Amman, August 22, 1995, https://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf (scanned image; quotations as transcribed in Rangwala, Glen, "The interview with Hussein Kamel," February 2003); Barry, John. "Exclusive: The Defector's Secrets." *Newsweek,* March 3, 2003. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2e3964ec --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +category: "Government Agency" +aliases: + - "CTC West Point" + - "Combating Terrorism Center" + - "CTC Sentinel" +tags: + - Organization + - WestPoint + - Counterterrorism + - ThinkTank + - Military +summary: "Privately funded counterterrorism research center at the U.S. Military Academy, founded in February 2003 with backing from Vincent Viola, which publishes the CTC Sentinel and releases captured al-Qaida documents." +start: 2003-02 +location: "West Point, New York" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Vincent Viola]]" + reverse: true + start: 2003-02 + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Morgan Stanley]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Combating Terrorism Center was created at the [[West Point|United States Military Academy]] in February 2003 "thanks to the vision and generous support of Mr. [[Vincent Viola]], former Chairman of the [[New York Mercantile Exchange]] and a 1977 graduate of West Point," with General (ret.) [[Wayne Downing]] and Brigadier Generals [[Russ Howard]] and [[Cindy Jebb]]. It is housed in the academy's Department of Social Sciences and describes itself as "privately funded," supported by named endowments from [[George Gilmore]] and several graduating classes and by the [[Audia Group]], [[Morgan Stanley]] and the [[Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation]]. It has provided counterterrorism education to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the [[Department of Homeland Security]], the [[New York City]] fire department, the [[Army War College]] and "specialized [[Department of Defense]] units."[^1] + +### Harmony Program + +The center launched the [[Harmony Program]] in 2005 to release and analyze documents from the Defense Department's Harmony database, captured "in the course of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan" and elsewhere, among them letters from [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] and `Atiyah `Abd al-Rahman to [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]] and a letter by [[Osama bin Laden]]. The center cautions that the documents "were collected on the battlefield unscientifically."[^2] + +### CTC Sentinel + +The center's monthly *CTC Sentinel* published [[H.E. Upchurch]]'s "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network" in December 2021, on the history of [[Iron March]] and the groups that formed around it, including [[National Action]] and [[Atomwaffen Division]].[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "History." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/history/ +[^2]: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "Harmony Program." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/harmony-program/ +[^3]: Upchurch, H.E. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." *CTC Sentinel* 14, no. 10, December 22, 2021. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c642080a --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +aliases: + - "National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council" +tags: + - Organization + - Anthropic + - NationalSecurity + - IntelligenceCommunity +summary: "Advisory council formed by Anthropic in August 2025 of former senators and defense, intelligence, nuclear and Justice Department officials, including a former deputy CIA director and NSA cybersecurity director." +start: 2025-08-27 +relations: + - type: member_of + with: "[[David S. Cohen]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-27 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Patrick Shanahan]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-27 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Roy Blunt]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-27 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Jon Tester]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-27 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Richard Fontaine]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-08-27 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +[[Anthropic]] announced the council on August 27, 2025, as "a group of leading bipartisan national security and public policy practitioners who will help Anthropic support the [[U.S. government]] and closely allied democracies in building and maintaining enduring technological advantages in an era of strategic competition," with the task of identifying "high-impact applications" in areas "ranging from cybersecurity to intelligence analysis to scientific research." Its inaugural members were:[^1] + +- [[Roy Blunt]], former senator from Missouri and member of the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], director of Tenet Healthcare and of the cyber company Nightwing, and former chairman of the advisory board of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. +- [[David S. Cohen]], former deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. +- [[Richard Fontaine]], chief executive of the [[Center for a New American Security]], executive director of the [[Trilateral Commission]], former foreign-policy adviser to Senator John McCain, and a member of Anthropic's own [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]]. +- [[Christopher Fonzone]], former head of the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]'s Office of Legal Counsel and general counsel of the [[Office of the Director of National Intelligence]] under Biden. +- [[Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty]], administrator of the [[National Nuclear Security Administration]] in Trump's first term. +- [[Josh Hodges]], former national security adviser to Speaker [[Mike Johnson]] and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the [[National Security Council]], then an executive at VEON Ltd. +- [[Jill M. Hruby]], administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration under Biden and former director of [[Sandia National Laboratories]]. +- [[Mike Kuiken]], former national security adviser to Senate Majority Leader [[Chuck Schumer]] and an adviser to the [[Special Competitive Studies Project]]. +- [[Dave Luber]], former director of cybersecurity at the [[National Security Agency]] and executive director of [[United States Cyber Command|U.S. Cyber Command]]. +- [[Patrick Shanahan]], former acting Secretary of Defense, chief executive of Spirit AeroSystems and director of [[Leidos]]. +- [[Jon Tester]], former senator from Montana and chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, "where he oversaw $800 billion in defense and intelligence spending." + +Six months later Anthropic refused the [[Pentagon]]'s demand to drop its exclusions for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, and was designated a supply-chain risk.[^2] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Anthropic, "Introducing the Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council," August 27, 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-the-anthropic-national-security-and-public-sector-advisory-council +[^2]: Amodei, Dario. "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War." Anthropic, February 26, 2026, https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war ; "Amazon says Anthropic's Claude still OK for AWS customers to use outside defense work." *CNBC,* March 6, 2026. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic.md index 600c108d..cdb60723 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Anthropic.md @@ -7,52 +7,119 @@ tags: - EffectiveAltruism - FTX - AISafety -summary: "Anthropic is an artificial-intelligence company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers from the effective-altruism milieu around the goal of safe AI development, whose 2022 Series B was led by a 500 million dollar investment from Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX before its fraud collapse." +summary: "AI company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers from the effective-altruism milieu, funded early by Tallinn, Moskovitz and Bankman-Fried, deployed on classified networks, then blacklisted by the Pentagon in 2026." location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Dario Amodei]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-05 + fn: 3 + - type: founded + with: "[[Daniela Amodei]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-05 + fn: 3 + - type: funded + with: "[[Jaan Tallinn]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-05 + role: "led the 124-million-dollar Series A" + fn: 12 + - type: funded + with: "[[Dustin Moskovitz]]" + reverse: true + start: 2021-05 + role: "Series A" + fn: 12 + - type: funded + with: "[[Amazon (company)|Amazon]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-09 + role: "up to 8 billion dollars" + fn: 15 + - type: partner_of + with: "[[Palantir Technologies]]" + start: 2024-11 + role: "Claude on classified networks with AWS" + fn: 18 + - type: contractor_to + with: "[[Department of Defense]]" + start: 2025-07-14 + end: 2026-03-05 + role: "CDAO prototype agreement up to 200 million dollars; designated a supply-chain risk" + fn: 20 created: 2026-06-19 -updated: 2026-06-19 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- Anthropic is an artificial-intelligence company founded in May 2021 by seven former [[OpenAI]] researchers, led by the siblings [[Dario Amodei]] (chief executive) and [[Daniela Amodei]] (president), who left OpenAI over disagreements about its direction and its balance between commercialization and safety. The founders came out of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement and built the company explicitly around the thesis that advanced AI should be developed with extreme caution, the same existential-risk concern that runs through the [[Rationalist Community]] and the institutions [[Peter Thiel]] funded through the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]]. Its 2022 funding round was led by a 500 million dollar investment from [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] months before his [[FTX]] exchange collapsed in fraud.[^1][^2] ### Founding and Governance -The Amodeis and their cofounders, including [[Tom Brown]], [[Jack Clark]], [[Jared Kaplan]], [[Sam McCandlish]], and [[Chris Olah]], incorporated Anthropic as a public-benefit corporation and built an unusual governance structure, the Long-Term Benefit Trust, intended to give a body insulated from shareholders the power to appoint directors and to weight safety over profit. The arrangement mirrored the nonprofit-control structure that produced OpenAI's 2023 board crisis. Daniela Amodei is married to [[Holden Karnofsky]], cofounder of the effective-altruism organizations [[GiveWell]] and [[Open Philanthropy]], which was an early Anthropic funder; Karnofsky later joined the company.[^2][^3] +The Amodeis and their cofounders, including [[Tom Brown]], [[Jack Clark]], [[Jared Kaplan]], [[Sam McCandlish]], and [[Chris Olah]], incorporated Anthropic as a public-benefit corporation and built an unusual governance structure, the [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]], intended to give a body insulated from shareholders the power to appoint directors and to weight safety over profit. The arrangement mirrored the nonprofit-control structure that produced OpenAI's 2023 board crisis. Daniela Amodei is married to [[Holden Karnofsky]], cofounder of the effective-altruism organizations [[GiveWell]] and [[Open Philanthropy]], which was an early Anthropic funder; Karnofsky later joined the company.[^2][^3] -The Long-Term Benefit Trust was formally established in September 2023, holding a special class of stock (Class T shares) that gives it authority to elect and remove Anthropic directors on time- and funding-based milestones, phasing up to a majority of the board within four years. Its five founding trustees were [[Neil Buddy Shah]] of the [[Clinton Health Access Initiative]] as chair, [[Jason Matheny]] of the [[RAND Corporation]], [[Kanika Bahl]] of [[Evidence Action]], the alignment researcher [[Paul Christiano]] of the [[Alignment Research Center]], and [[Zach Robinson]] of [[Effective Ventures US]], several of them figures from the effective-altruism and AI-safety world. Matheny stepped down in December 2023 to avoid conflicts with RAND's policy work, and Christiano left in April 2024 to lead AI safety at the U.S. AI Safety Institute, with the trust later adding [[Richard Fontaine]] of the Center for a New American Security and the former California Supreme Court justice [[Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar]].[^6][^7] +The Long-Term Benefit Trust was formally established in September 2023, holding a special class of stock (Class T shares) that gives it authority to elect and remove Anthropic directors on time- and funding-based milestones, phasing up to a majority of the board within four years. Its five founding trustees were [[Neil Buddy Shah]] of the [[Clinton Health Access Initiative]] as chair, [[Jason Matheny]] of the [[RAND Corporation]], [[Kanika Bahl]] of [[Evidence Action]], the alignment researcher [[Paul Christiano]] of the [[Alignment Research Center]], and [[Zach Robinson]] of [[Effective Ventures US]], several of them figures from the effective-altruism and AI-safety world. Matheny stepped down in December 2023 to avoid conflicts with RAND's policy work, and Christiano left in April 2024 to lead AI safety at the U.S. AI Safety Institute, with the trust adding [[Richard Fontaine]], chief executive of the [[Center for a New American Security]] and executive director of the [[Trilateral Commission]], in May 2025, and [[Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar]], president of the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]], in January 2026. Bahl and Robinson left in January 2026, and the former [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] chairman [[Ben Bernanke]] joined in July 2026. With the trust's appointment of Novartis's chief executive, [[Vas Narasimhan]], in April 2026, trust-appointed directors became a majority of the board, which also included Yasmin Razavi, Jay Kreps, [[Reed Hastings]] and, from February 2026, [[Chris Liddell]], a former chief financial officer of Microsoft and General Motors and deputy [[White House]] chief of staff in [[Donald Trump]]'s first term.[^4][^5][^6][^7] ### FTX Funding and the Effective-Altruism Tie -In 2022 Sam Bankman-Fried invested approximately 500 million dollars in Anthropic's Series B through his trading firm [[Alameda Research]], taking about 86 percent of the round and roughly 8 percent of the company; the money came from FTX customer deposits. Dario Amodei has said he kept Bankman-Fried off the board and limited him to non-voting shares because of "red flags." After the FTX fraud was exposed and Bankman-Fried convicted, the FTX bankruptcy estate sold the stake, and Amodei moved to distance himself and the company from the effective-altruism label even as the founders remained products of that milieu. Later funding rounds drew on [[Google]] and [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], carrying the company's valuation into the tens of billions of dollars.[^1][^4][^5] +In 2022 Sam Bankman-Fried invested approximately 500 million dollars in Anthropic's Series B through his trading firm [[Alameda Research]], taking about 86 percent of the round and roughly 8 percent of the company; the money came from FTX customer deposits. Dario Amodei has said he kept Bankman-Fried off the board and limited him to non-voting shares because of "red flags." After the FTX fraud was exposed and Bankman-Fried convicted, the FTX bankruptcy estate sold the stake, and Amodei moved to distance himself and the company from the effective-altruism label even as the founders remained products of that milieu. Later funding rounds drew on [[Google]] and [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], carrying the company's valuation into the tens of billions of dollars.[^1][^8][^9] -The April 2022 Series B that Bankman-Fried led raised 580 million dollars at a 4-billion-dollar valuation, with FTX cofounder [[Caroline Ellison]] also named in the round. The FTX estate disposed of the 8 percent stake in 2024 as Anthropic's value climbed: a March 2024 agreement sold about two-thirds of the shares (29.5 million shares to 24 buyers) for 884 million dollars, with ATIC Third International Investment Company, tied to the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund [[Mubadala]], buying roughly 500 million dollars of it and [[Jane Street Capital]], Fidelity-managed funds, and HOF Capital among the rest; a June 2024 sale of the remaining shares brought in over 450 million dollars. Anthropic's May 2023 Series C, led by [[Spark Capital]] with Google, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, had raised 450 million dollars, and the stake FTX paid 500 million dollars for would have been worth several billion at later valuations.[^8][^9] +The April 2022 Series B that Bankman-Fried led raised 580 million dollars at a 4-billion-dollar valuation, with FTX cofounder [[Caroline Ellison]] also named in the round. The FTX estate disposed of the 8 percent stake in 2024 as Anthropic's value climbed: a March 2024 agreement sold about two-thirds of the shares (29.5 million shares to 24 buyers) for 884 million dollars, with ATIC Third International Investment Company, tied to the [[Abu Dhabi]] sovereign fund [[Mubadala]], buying roughly 500 million dollars of it and [[Jane Street Capital]], Fidelity-managed funds, and HOF Capital among the rest; a June 2024 sale of the remaining shares brought in over 450 million dollars. Anthropic's May 2023 Series C, led by [[Spark Capital]] with Google, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, had raised 450 million dollars, and the stake FTX paid 500 million dollars for would have been worth several billion at later valuations.[^10][^11] ### The Funding Rounds -Anthropic's first outside capital was a 124-million-dollar Series A in May 2021 led by [[Jaan Tallinn]], the Estonian programmer who had made his fortune as a founding engineer of [[Skype]], with participation from the investor [[James McClave]], [[Dustin Moskovitz]], [[Eric Schmidt]], and the [[Center for Emerging Risk Research]]. The lead and several of the backers came from the same effective-altruism and existential-risk donor world as the founders. The 580-million-dollar Series B that Bankman-Fried led the following year was followed in May 2023 by a 450-million-dollar Series C led by Spark Capital.[^10] +Anthropic's first outside capital was a 124-million-dollar Series A in May 2021 led by [[Jaan Tallinn]], the Estonian programmer who had made his fortune as a founding engineer of [[Skype]], with participation from the investor [[James McClave]], [[Dustin Moskovitz]], [[Eric Schmidt]], and the [[Center for Emerging Risk Research]]. The lead and several of the backers came from the same effective-altruism and existential-risk donor world as the founders. The 580-million-dollar Series B that Bankman-Fried led the following year was followed in May 2023 by a 450-million-dollar Series C led by Spark Capital.[^12] -From 2023 the valuation climbed through a rapid sequence of rounds funded increasingly by the largest technology firms and the late-stage growth funds. A March 2025 round of 3.5 billion dollars, led by [[Lightspeed Venture Partners]], valued the company at 61.5 billion dollars. In May 2026 it closed a 65-billion-dollar round, the largest in its history, at a 965-billion-dollar post-money valuation, co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, [[Sequoia Capital]], Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital, briefly making it the most valuable private company in the artificial-intelligence industry, ahead of OpenAI. Anthropic reported an annualized revenue run rate of about 47 billion dollars and confidentially filed for an initial public offering in mid-2026.[^11][^12] +From 2023 the valuation climbed through a rapid sequence of rounds funded increasingly by the largest technology firms and the late-stage growth funds. A March 2025 round of 3.5 billion dollars, led by [[Lightspeed Venture Partners]], valued the company at 61.5 billion dollars. In May 2026 it closed a 65-billion-dollar round, the largest in its history, at a 965-billion-dollar post-money valuation, co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, [[Sequoia Capital]], Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital, briefly making it the most valuable private company in the artificial-intelligence industry, ahead of OpenAI. Anthropic reported an annualized revenue run rate of about 47 billion dollars and confidentially filed for an initial public offering in mid-2026.[^13][^14] ### The Amazon and Google Stakes -The two largest strategic investors are Amazon and Google, which are also Anthropic's principal cloud and chip suppliers. Amazon committed up to 4 billion dollars in September 2023, beginning with 1.25 billion, and added a further 4 billion in November 2024 to reach 8 billion dollars in total, becoming Anthropic's primary training partner through [[Amazon Web Services]] and its Trainium chips. Google, which had put roughly 300 million dollars into the company for about a 10 percent stake in early 2023, committed up to 2 billion dollars later that year and more than 1 billion again in January 2025, holding a stake reported at around 14 percent and contractually capped near 15 percent.[^13][^14] +The two largest strategic investors are Amazon and Google, which are also Anthropic's principal cloud and chip suppliers. Amazon committed up to 4 billion dollars in September 2023, beginning with 1.25 billion, and added a further 4 billion in November 2024 to reach 8 billion dollars in total, becoming Anthropic's primary training partner through [[Amazon Web Services]] and its Trainium chips. Google, which had put roughly 300 million dollars into the company for about a 10 percent stake in early 2023, committed up to 2 billion dollars later that year and more than 1 billion again in January 2025, holding a stake reported at around 14 percent and contractually capped near 15 percent.[^15][^16] -The arrangement is partly circular: much of the money the two companies invest returns to them as payment for the computing capacity Anthropic rents to train and run its models. By 2026 the appreciation of the two stakes was large enough that the financial press reported the Anthropic holdings accounted for roughly half of the AI-related investment gains Google and Amazon booked in some quarters, gains the companies had not realized because they had not sold the shares.[^14][^15] +The arrangement is partly circular: much of the money the two companies invest returns to them as payment for the computing capacity Anthropic rents to train and run its models. By 2026 the appreciation of the two stakes was large enough that the financial press reported the Anthropic holdings accounted for roughly half of the AI-related investment gains Google and Amazon booked in some quarters, gains the companies had not realized because they had not sold the shares.[^16][^17] + +### National Security Work + +In November 2024 Anthropic, [[Palantir Technologies]] and Amazon Web Services announced a partnership to bring Claude to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies on classified networks at Impact Level 6; Palantir's chief technology officer, [[Shyam Sankar]], said it gave them "the tool chain they need to harness and deploy AI models securely."[^18] In June 2025 the company introduced "Claude Gov" models "built exclusively for U.S. national security customers," already deployed "by agencies at the highest level of U.S. national security," which "refuse less when engaging with classified information."[^19] On July 14, 2025, the Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office awarded Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI prototype agreements worth up to 200 million dollars each.[^20] In August 2025 Anthropic formed a [[Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council|National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council]] whose inaugural members included the former deputy [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] director [[David S. Cohen]], the former [[NSA]] cybersecurity director Dave Luber, the former acting Secretary of Defense [[Patrick Shanahan]], the former senators [[Roy Blunt]] and [[Jon Tester]], the former ODNI general counsel Christopher Fonzone, two former administrators of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the trust member Richard Fontaine.[^21] + +### The Pentagon Dispute + +On February 26, 2026, Dario Amodei published a statement that Claude was "extensively deployed across the Department of War and other national security agencies" for "intelligence analysis, modeling and simulation, operational planning, cyber operations, and more," and that Anthropic had been "the first frontier AI company to deploy our models in the US government's classified networks." The department, he wrote, would contract only with companies that accepted "any lawful use," and had threatened to remove Anthropic from its systems, to designate it a "supply chain risk" and to invoke the Defense Production Act unless it dropped two exclusions, mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons: "we cannot in good conscience accede to their request."[^22] President Trump then ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's technology, and on March 5 the department told the company it would be labeled a supply-chain risk; Amazon said its cloud customers could keep using Claude for all work not associated with the department.[^23] According to *The Intercept,* which obtained more than 400 pages of the contract documents through a [[Freedom of Information Act]] lawsuit, the break came over amendments that would have allowed deployment on classified networks without prohibitions on domestic spying and autonomous weapons; Secretary of Defense [[Pete Hegseth]]'s designation was overturned by a federal judge in August 2026, and the department quickly reached classified-network agreements with Google, OpenAI and xAI.[^24] + +### Political Spending and Lobbying + +On February 12, 2026, Anthropic announced a 20-million-dollar contribution to [[Public First Action]], "a new bipartisan 501(c)(4)" founded by Republican and Democratic strategists, noting that "vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose these efforts."[^25] Eight days later *TechCrunch* reported, citing *Bloomberg,* that Public First Action was "spending $450,000 to boost" New York Assembly member [[Alex Bores]], sponsor of the state's RAISE Act, in the Democratic primary for the 12th congressional district, where the super PAC [[Leading the Future]], backed by [[Andreessen Horowitz]], [[Greg Brockman]] of OpenAI, [[Perplexity]] and [[Joe Lonsdale]], had spent 1.1 million dollars on ads attacking him.[^26] On July 21, 2026, Anthropic gave another 20 million dollars, "bringing our total support to $40 million," and stated that both donations "cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office."[^27] + +Anthropic's own lobbying disclosures reported expenses of 720,000 dollars in 2024, 4.04 million in 2025 and 3.53 million in the first half of 2026; the number of outside firms registered to lobby for it grew from two in 2023 to nine in 2026.[^28] ### Footnotes [^1]: "From 500 million to 30 billion: SBF, in prison, has invested in the most valuable company in the AI era," on the FTX/Alameda investment in Anthropic. https://www.panewslab.com/en/articles/019d08f7-792c-70db-a0d3-5654dd2b2eaf [^2]: "Anthropic, OpenAI's biggest rival, has a weird structure too," *Slate,* December 2023, on Anthropic's effective-altruism origins and the Long-Term Benefit Trust. https://slate.com/technology/2023/12/anthropic-openai-board-trust-effective-altruism.html [^3]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on the founding and the Karnofsky and Open Philanthropy ties. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6 -[^4]: "Dario Amodei's Ideological Reckoning: How Anthropic's CEO Is Distancing Himself From the Movement That Made Him," *WebProNews,* on the post-FTX distancing from effective altruism. https://www.webpronews.com/dario-amodeis-ideological-reckoning-how-anthropics-ceo-is-distancing-himself-from-the-movement-that-made-him/ -[^5]: *United States v. Samuel Bankman-Fried,* S.D.N.Y., conviction November 2, 2023; FTX estate disposition of the Anthropic stake reported in subsequent bankruptcy filings. -[^6]: "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," Anthropic, September 2023, on the Class T shares, the four-year board-majority phase-in, and the founding trustees. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust -[^7]: "Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust," Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, October 28, 2023, on the trustee roster and the Matheny and Christiano departures. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2023/10/28/anthropic-long-term-benefit-trust/ -[^8]: "FTX estate selling majority stake in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million, with bulk going to UAE," *CNBC,* March 25, 2024, on the 29.5 million shares, 24 buyers, ATIC/Mubadala, Jane Street, Fidelity, and HOF Capital. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/ftx-estate-sells-majority-stake-in-startup-anthropic-for-884-million.html -[^9]: "Anthropic raises $3.5 billion with new funding round," Techzine, on the April 2022 Series B (580 million dollars, 4-billion valuation, Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison) and the May 2023 Spark Capital Series C. https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/129278/anthropic-raises-3-5-billion-with-new-funding-round/ -[^10]: "Anthropic raises $124 million to build more reliable, general AI systems," Anthropic, May 2021, on the Series A led by Jaan Tallinn with James McClave, Dustin Moskovitz, Eric Schmidt, and the Center for Emerging Risk Research. https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-124-million-to-build-more-reliable-general-ai-systems -[^11]: "Anthropic reaches $61.5B valuation after latest funding round," Seeking Alpha, March 2025, on the 3.5-billion-dollar round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a 61.5-billion-dollar valuation. https://seekingalpha.com/news/4416449-anthropic-reaches-61_5b-valuation-after-latest-funding-round -[^12]: "Anthropic raises $65 billion, nears $1T valuation ahead of IPO," TechCrunch, May 28, 2026, on the 65-billion-dollar round at a 965-billion-dollar valuation co-led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1, the 47-billion-dollar revenue run rate, and the value surpassing OpenAI; and "Anthropic confidentially files for IPO after raising $65 billion," Fortune, June 1, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-raises-65-billion-nears-1t-valuation-ahead-of-ipo/ -[^13]: "Amazon doubles down on Anthropic: $8B bet to power the future of AI," Tech Funding News, on Amazon's September 2023 commitment of up to 4 billion dollars and the additional 4 billion in November 2024 for 8 billion total through Amazon Web Services and Trainium. https://techfundingnews.com/amazon-anthropic-ai-investment-strategy/ -[^14]: "Google agrees to new $1 billion investment in Anthropic," CNBC, January 22, 2025, on Google's roughly 300 million dollars for about 10 percent in early 2023, the up-to-2-billion-dollar commitment, the further more-than-1-billion in January 2025, and the stake reported near 14 percent capped at 15 percent. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/22/google-agrees-to-new-1-billion-investment-in-anthropic.html -[^15]: "Half of Google's and Amazon's 'blowout AI profits' came from a stake in Anthropic, not from their actual business," Fortune, April 30, 2026, on the unrealized gains from the Anthropic stakes and the cloud-payment arrangement. https://fortune.com/2026/04/30/google-amazon-ai-profits-anthropic-stake-bubble-earnings-2026/ +[^4]: "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," Anthropic, September 2023, on the Class T shares, the four-year board-majority phase-in, and the founding trustees. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust +[^5]: "Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust," Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, October 28, 2023, on the trustee roster and the Matheny and Christiano departures. https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2023/10/28/anthropic-long-term-benefit-trust/ +[^6]: Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023, with later updates on trustee changes. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust +[^7]: Anthropic, "Chris Liddell appointed to Anthropic's board of directors," February 13, 2026, https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-liddell-appointed-anthropic-board ; "Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust appoints Vas Narasimhan to Board of Directors," April 14, 2026, https://www.anthropic.com/news/narasimhan-board +[^8]: "Dario Amodei's Ideological Reckoning: How Anthropic's CEO Is Distancing Himself From the Movement That Made Him," *WebProNews,* on the post-FTX distancing from effective altruism. https://www.webpronews.com/dario-amodeis-ideological-reckoning-how-anthropics-ceo-is-distancing-himself-from-the-movement-that-made-him/ +[^9]: *United States v. Samuel Bankman-Fried,* S.D.N.Y., conviction November 2, 2023; FTX estate disposition of the Anthropic stake reported in subsequent bankruptcy filings. +[^10]: "FTX estate selling majority stake in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million, with bulk going to UAE," *CNBC,* March 25, 2024, on the 29.5 million shares, 24 buyers, ATIC/Mubadala, Jane Street, Fidelity, and HOF Capital. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/ftx-estate-sells-majority-stake-in-startup-anthropic-for-884-million.html +[^11]: "Anthropic raises $3.5 billion with new funding round," Techzine, on the April 2022 Series B (580 million dollars, 4-billion valuation, Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison) and the May 2023 Spark Capital Series C. https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/129278/anthropic-raises-3-5-billion-with-new-funding-round/ +[^12]: "Anthropic raises $124 million to build more reliable, general AI systems," Anthropic, May 2021, on the Series A led by Jaan Tallinn with James McClave, Dustin Moskovitz, Eric Schmidt, and the Center for Emerging Risk Research. https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-124-million-to-build-more-reliable-general-ai-systems +[^13]: "Anthropic reaches $61.5B valuation after latest funding round," Seeking Alpha, March 2025, on the 3.5-billion-dollar round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a 61.5-billion-dollar valuation. https://seekingalpha.com/news/4416449-anthropic-reaches-61_5b-valuation-after-latest-funding-round +[^14]: "Anthropic raises $65 billion, nears $1T valuation ahead of IPO," TechCrunch, May 28, 2026, on the 65-billion-dollar round at a 965-billion-dollar valuation co-led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1, the 47-billion-dollar revenue run rate, and the value surpassing OpenAI; and "Anthropic confidentially files for IPO after raising $65 billion," Fortune, June 1, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-raises-65-billion-nears-1t-valuation-ahead-of-ipo/ +[^15]: "Amazon doubles down on Anthropic: $8B bet to power the future of AI," Tech Funding News, on Amazon's September 2023 commitment of up to 4 billion dollars and the additional 4 billion in November 2024 for 8 billion total through Amazon Web Services and Trainium. https://techfundingnews.com/amazon-anthropic-ai-investment-strategy/ +[^16]: "Google agrees to new $1 billion investment in Anthropic," CNBC, January 22, 2025, on Google's roughly 300 million dollars for about 10 percent in early 2023, the up-to-2-billion-dollar commitment, the further more-than-1-billion in January 2025, and the stake reported near 14 percent capped at 15 percent. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/22/google-agrees-to-new-1-billion-investment-in-anthropic.html +[^17]: "Half of Google's and Amazon's 'blowout AI profits' came from a stake in Anthropic, not from their actual business," Fortune, April 30, 2026, on the unrealized gains from the Anthropic stakes and the cloud-payment arrangement. https://fortune.com/2026/04/30/google-amazon-ai-profits-anthropic-stake-bubble-earnings-2026/ +[^18]: "Anthropic partners with AWS and Palantir to provide AI models to defense agencies." *SiliconANGLE,* November 7, 2024. https://siliconangle.com/2024/11/07/anthropic-partners-aws-palantir-provide-ai-models-defense-agencies/ +[^19]: Anthropic, "Claude Gov models for U.S. national security customers," June 6, 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-gov-models-for-u-s-national-security-customers +[^20]: "Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI granted up to $200 million for AI work from Defense Department." *CNBC,* July 14, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/14/anthropic-google-openai-xai-granted-up-to-200-million-from-dod.html +[^21]: Anthropic, "Introducing the Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council," August 27, 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-the-anthropic-national-security-and-public-sector-advisory-council +[^22]: Amodei, Dario. "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War." Anthropic, February 26, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war +[^23]: "Amazon says Anthropic's Claude still OK for AWS customers to use outside defense work." *CNBC,* March 6, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/06/amazon-aws-anthropic-claude-pentagon-blacklist.html +[^24]: "AI Giants Work Hand-in-Hand With the Pentagon, Contracts Reveal." *The Intercept,* September 8, 2026. https://theintercept.com/2026/09/08/military-ai-weapons-contracts-openai-anthropic-google/ +[^25]: Anthropic, "Anthropic is donating $20 million to Public First Action," February 12, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/donate-public-first-action +[^26]: Bellan, Rebecca. "Anthropic-funded group backs candidate attacked by rival AI super PAC." *TechCrunch,* February 20, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/anthropic-funded-group-backs-candidate-attacked-by-rival-ai-super-pac/ +[^27]: Anthropic, "Anthropic is donating another $20 million to Public First Action," July 21, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/donation-public-first-action +[^28]: U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings with client "Anthropic," 2023 to second quarter 2026, retrieved September 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Anthropic diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Asana.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Asana.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d0d03510 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Asana.md @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +--- +category: "Private Organization" +aliases: + - "Asana, Inc." +tags: + - Organization + - Technology + - DustinMoskovitz + - OpenAI + - Anthropic +summary: "Work-management software company founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, controlled by Moskovitz, whose board long included OpenAI director Adam D'Angelo and which buys AI services from OpenAI and Anthropic." +start: 2008 +location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Dustin Moskovitz]]" + reverse: true + start: 2008 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Justin Rosenstein]]" + reverse: true + start: 2008 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Adam D'Angelo]]" + reverse: true + role: "director" + start: 2008-12 + end: 2026 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Matthew Cohler]]" + reverse: true + role: "director" + start: 2009-11 + end: 2026 + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Sam Altman]]" + reverse: true + start: 2016 + role: "led a 50-million-dollar investment" + fn: 2 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +Asana was co-founded by [[Dustin Moskovitz]], who had been chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at [[Facebook]], and [[Justin Rosenstein]], a former Facebook engineering manager and [[Google]] product manager. Moskovitz has been a director since December 2008 and chairman since December 2019, and was chief executive from October 2010 to July 2025, chief financial officer from 2009 to 2017 and secretary from 2009 to 2017. [[Dan Rogers]], formerly chief executive of LaunchDarkly, succeeded him as chief executive in July 2025.[^1] In 2016 [[Sam Altman]] led a 50-million-dollar investment in the company.[^2] + +### Control + +According to the company's 2026 proxy statement, Moskovitz held 38.6 percent of the Class A and 87.0 percent of the Class B common stock, 74.2 percent of the total voting power, through direct holdings, the Dustin A. Moskovitz Trust of December 27, 2005, a Roth IRA and 1,720,916 Class A shares held by the [[Good Ventures|Good Ventures Foundation]], on whose board "Mr. Moskovitz and his spouse serve as directors." On September 7, 2022, he acquired 19,273,127 Class A shares in a private placement, granting Asana an irrevocable proxy over them.[^1] + +### The Board + +[[Adam D'Angelo]], founder and chief executive of [[Quora]] and Facebook's chief technology officer from 2006 to 2008, was a director of Asana from December 2008 and did not stand for re-election in 2026. [[Matthew Cohler]], a partner at [[Benchmark Capital]] since 2008, a former Facebook vice president of product management and a director of [[KKR]], was a director from November 2009 and resigned in 2026. [[Andrew Lindsay]], a director since 2021, is a corporate vice president at [[Microsoft]].[^1] D'Angelo was also a director of [[OpenAI]]; in October 2023 *[[Politico]]* noted that Asana and OpenAI shared him as a board member.[^2] + +### Related-Party Transactions + +The 2026 proxy statement listed among related-person transactions for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2026: 300,000 dollars of AI services bought from OpenAI, noting that "Adam D'Angelo, a member of our Board, is a member of OpenAI's Board of Directors," and 300,000 dollars of Asana subscriptions sold to OpenAI; 1.1 million dollars of AI services bought from [[Anthropic]], noting that "Dustin Moskovitz, Chairman of our Board of Directors and our former Chief Executive Officer, has a minority ownership interest in Anthropic," and 600,000 dollars of subscriptions sold to it; subscriptions sold to Quora, the [[Environmental Defense Fund]], of which Cohler is a trustee, and [[Gusto]]; and advertising bought from Microsoft and rent paid to [[HubSpot]], on whose board the lead independent director, [[Lorrie Norrington]], sits.[^1] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Asana, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 20, 2026, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000162828026025998/asan-20260420.htm +[^2]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Center for AI Safety.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Center for AI Safety.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..318a2b8e --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Center for AI Safety.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +aliases: + - "CAIS" + - "Center for AI Safety Action Fund" + - "CAIS Action Fund" +tags: + - Organization + - AISafety + - OpenPhilanthropy + - EffectiveAltruism + - Lobbying + - SB1047 +summary: "San Francisco AI-safety nonprofit directed by Dan Hendrycks, funded by Open Philanthropy, which organized the 2023 extinction-risk statement; its 501(c)(4) arm co-sponsored SB 1047 and lobbied for the AI Safety Institute." +location: "San Francisco, California" +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Dan Hendrycks]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive and research director" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Center for AI Safety describes its mission as "to reduce societal-scale risks from artificial intelligence" through research, field-building and advocacy, and runs a compute cluster that it says supports about 20 research labs.[^1] [[Open Philanthropy]] recommended grants to it of 5,160,000 dollars for general support in November 2022, 4,025,729 dollars for general support, 1,433,000 dollars for the CAIS Philosophy Fellowship, and a final "Exit Grant" of 1,866,559 dollars in October 2023.[^2] + +### The Extinction Statement + +On May 30, 2023, CAIS published a one-sentence "Statement on AI Risk": "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." Its signatories included [[Geoffrey Hinton]], [[Yoshua Bengio]], [[Demis Hassabis]] of [[Google DeepMind]], [[Sam Altman]] of [[OpenAI]] and [[Dario Amodei]] of [[Anthropic]].[^1] The *[[Politico]]* reporter [[Brendan Bordelon]] noted in October 2023 that the letter had been organized by a group that "received a $5.2 million grant from Open Philanthropy late last year."[^3] + +### The Action Fund + +The Center for AI Safety Action Fund is a 501(c)(4), so contributions to it are not tax-deductible, and it describes itself as "dedicated to advancing public policies that maintain U.S. leadership in AI and protect against AI-related national security threats."[^4] Its report on 2024, its first year, stated that it "led a bipartisan congressional effort" with Representatives [[Haley Stevens]] and [[Jay Obernolte]] and Senators [[Martin Heinrich]] and [[Mike Rounds]] that "secured $10 million to establish" the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]]'s [[U.S. AI Safety Institute]]; that it "co-sponsored California Senate Bill 1047," which the legislature passed and Governor [[Gavin Newsom]] vetoed; that it advised the [[White House]] and the Commerce Department on the "AI Diffusion" export-control rule; and that it worked with the office of Senate Majority Leader [[Chuck Schumer]] on the SAFE Innovation Framework. A photograph of its Capitol Hill launch event in the report shows [[Jaan Tallinn]], co-founder of [[Skype]].[^5] Heinrich and Rounds each had an AI fellow paid through the Open Philanthropy-funded [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]].[^3] In April 2024 [[Gina Raimondo]] named [[Paul Christiano]], a former technical adviser to Open Philanthropy and an original trustee of Anthropic's [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]], head of AI safety at the institute.[^6] + +### Dan Hendrycks + +Hendrycks, the center's executive and research director, with [[Oliver Zhang]] as managing director,[^1] advises [[Elon Musk]]'s [[xAI]], which he joined in 2023 for a salary of one dollar a year, and [[Scale AI]], which he began advising in 2024 for twelve dollars a year. He told an audience at [[TechCrunch]] Disrupt in October 2025 that he had helped craft SB 1047 and that Musk was the only AI company head to support it: "No other A.I. companies officially supported that bill, and that's because he takes this much more seriously."[^7] In July 2024, as SB 1047 moved through the legislature, the AI security company [[Gray Swan AI]] announced that Hendrycks, one of its advisers, had "decided to divest his entire financial stake in Gray Swan" "to avoid even the appearance of a financial conflict," and would remain an unpaid adviser without equity.[^8] In March 2025 Hendrycks published "Superintelligence Strategy" with the former Google chief executive [[Eric Schmidt]] and Scale AI's founder [[Alexandr Wang]], proposing "Mutual Assured AI Malfunction (MAIM): a deterrence regime resembling nuclear mutual assured destruction (MAD) where any state's aggressive bid for unilateral AI dominance is met with preventive sabotage by rivals," through means "ranging from covert cyberattacks to potential kinetic strikes on datacenters."[^9] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Center for AI Safety, "Statement on AI Risk," May 30, 2023, https://www.safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk ; "About Us," https://www.safe.ai/about +[^2]: Open Philanthropy, "Center for AI Safety, General Support (2022)," with related grants listed, archived October 23, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20251023205051/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support/ +[^3]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^4]: Center for AI Safety Action Fund, home page. https://action.safe.ai/ +[^5]: Center for AI Safety Action Fund, "2024 Annual Impact Report." https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66438c042d15b14b53b83006/68012dcfec6880aba24f528a_CAIS-ActionFund-ImpactReport_05.pdf +[^6]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team," April 16, 2024, https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/04/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-expansion-us-ai-safety ; Open Philanthropy, "OpenAI, General Support," March 2017, archived January 1, 2025, http://web.archive.org/web/20250101012608/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/ ; Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust +[^7]: "Meet the Researcher Elon Musk Pays $1 a Year to Safeguard A.I." *Observer,* October 28, 2025. https://observer.com/2025/10/dan-hendrycks-ai-safety-advisory-xai/ +[^8]: Gray Swan AI, "Statement on SB-1047 and Founders," July 25, 2024. https://www.grayswan.ai/news/sb1047 +[^9]: Hendrycks, Dan, Eric Schmidt, and Alexandr Wang. "Superintelligence Strategy: Expert Version." arXiv:2503.05628, March 7, 2025. https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.05628 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Center for Security and Emerging Technology.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Center for Security and Emerging Technology.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f51c8b20 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Center for Security and Emerging Technology.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +aliases: + - "CSET" + - "Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology" +tags: + - Organization + - ThinkTank + - Georgetown + - OpenPhilanthropy + - ArtificialIntelligence + - NationalSecurity +summary: "Georgetown think tank on emerging technology and national security, launched in 2019 under former IARPA director Jason Matheny with 55 million dollars from Open Philanthropy, its main funder." +start: 2019-01 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2019-01 + role: "55 million dollars over five years, raised by 42 million in 2021 to more than 100 million through 2025" + fn: 1 + - type: part_of + with: "[[Georgetown University]]" + role: "Walsh School of Foreign Service" + fn: 2 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Dewey Murdick]]" + reverse: true + role: "director of data science, then director" + start: 2021-03 + fn: 4 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Center for Security and Emerging Technology is a policy research center in [[Georgetown University]]'s [[Walsh School of Foreign Service]]. [[Open Philanthropy]] recommended a grant of 55 million dollars over five years in January 2019 to launch it as "a new think tank dedicated to policy analysis at the intersection of national and international security and emerging technologies," led by [[Jason Matheny]], former director of the [[Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity]]. The grant investigator was [[Luke Muehlhauser]]. The founding team named on the grant page included [[Dewey Murdick]], director of data science, formerly chief analytics officer and deputy chief scientist at the [[Department of Homeland Security]] and an IARPA program manager; [[William Hannas]], lead analyst, formerly a member of the Senior Intelligence Service at the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and "the [[Open Source Enterprise]]'s primary China science and technology analyst," who had also served with the [[Foreign Broadcast Information Service]]; and [[Helen Toner]], director of strategy and plans, previously a senior research analyst at Open Philanthropy.[^1] + +### Funding + +In August 2021 CSET announced that "its main funder," Open Philanthropy, had increased its grant by 42 million dollars, bringing total funding to more than 100 million dollars through 2025; Murdick also credited the [[William and Flora Hewlett Foundation]], the P[[ublic Interest Technology University Network]] and [[Georgetown]].[^2] In October 2023 the *[[Politico]]* reporter [[Brendan Bordelon]] described CSET as "funded almost entirely by Open Philanthropy," and reported that Open Philanthropy also paid the salaries of fellows at CSET through the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], a nonprofit he wrote that Open Philanthropy had "effectively created in 2022."[^3] + +### Staff + +Matheny left in March 2021 for the [[White House]], where he took technology and national security posts at the [[National Security Council]] and the [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]]; Murdick became interim director.[^4] Toner, later CSET's director of strategy and foundational research grants, was a director of [[OpenAI]] when its board removed [[Sam Altman]] in November 2023.[^5] Murdick testified alongside the RAND researcher [[Jeff Alstott]] on long-term AI risks.[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Open Philanthropy, "Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology," grant of January 2019, archived January 2, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035307/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/ +[^2]: Center for Security and Emerging Technology, "New Grant Agreement Boosts CSET Funding to More than $100 Million Through 2025," August 25, 2021. https://cset.georgetown.edu/article/new-grant-agreement-boosts-cset-funding-to-more-than-100-million-over-five-years/ +[^3]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^4]: "Jason Matheny to serve Biden White House in national security and tech roles." *FedScoop,* March 9, 2021. https://fedscoop.com/white-house-announces-top-tech-adviser-jason-matheny-national-security/ +[^5]: "Former OpenAI board member explains why CEO Sam Altman got fired before he was rehired." *CNBC,* May 29, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/29/former-openai-board-member-explains-why-ceo-sam-altman-was-fired.html diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Father Bud's Boys Farm.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Father Bud's Boys Farm.md index 07acc77c..7c3e6bd4 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Father Bud's Boys Farm.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Father Bud's Boys Farm.md @@ -15,27 +15,22 @@ location: "Roarks Cove, near Alto, Tennessee" start: 1971 end: 1976 relations: - - type: founded - with: "[[Claudius Vermilye]]" - reverse: true - start: 1971 - fn: 2 created: 2026-04-28 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Boys Farm, Inc., known as Father Bud's Boys Farm, was founded in 1971 by the Rev. [[Claudius Vermilye]], formerly rector of the Episcopal church at Alto, Tennessee, as a rehabilitation center for wayward boys in the Roarks Cove community near Alto; national wire reports placed it at Winchester and the investigator [[Kenneth Wooden]] at Monteagle. The boys were sent there by the state correction department, juvenile authorities and welfare agencies, and the farm was partly financed with state and county funds.[^2][^3][^4][^5] +Boys Farm, Inc., known as Father Bud's Boys Farm, was founded in 1971 by the Rev. [[Claudius Vermilye]], formerly rector of the Episcopal church at Alto, Tennessee, as a rehabilitation center for wayward boys in the Roarks Cove community near Alto; national wire reports placed it at Winchester and the investigator [[Kenneth Wooden]] at Monteagle. The boys were sent there by the state correction department, juvenile authorities and welfare agencies, and the farm was partly financed with state and county funds.[^1][^2][^3][^4] -Films found on the Michigan photographer [[Gerald Richards]] at his arrest in July 1976 and films seized in the [[New Orleans]] raid on [[Troop 137]] led Tennessee authorities to raid the farm after they recognized some of the "actors"; Vermilye's name had also turned up in the files of the New Orleans scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]]. The raid produced films of sexual acts between boys at the farm and a list of more than 270 "active sponsors," among them [[Francis Shelden]], owner of [[North Fox Island]]. District Attorney General [[J. William Pope]] said the boys were shown obscene films and given liquor before orgies filmed with a hidden camera, that films were sold to sponsors to raise money for the farm, and that some sponsors came to the farm to have sex with the boys. Half a dozen Illinois men had bought films from Vermilye, one for more than 4,000 dollars. Richards testified that the farm "sold raw film to other men. They would bring it to me to process." An investigator for the district attorney general, Pete Bouldin, described the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], one of the network's fronts, as a "referral agency which distributes pornography around the country"; Boys Farm, Inc., was listed as a separate organization from the church. Vermilye was convicted on June 3, 1977.[^2][^3][^4][^6] +Films found on the Michigan photographer [[Gerald Richards]] at his arrest in July 1976 and films seized in the [[New Orleans]] raid on [[Troop 137]] led Tennessee authorities to raid the farm after they recognized some of the "actors"; Vermilye's name had also turned up in the files of the New Orleans scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]]. The raid produced films of sexual acts between boys at the farm and a list of more than 270 "active sponsors," among them [[Francis Shelden]], owner of [[North Fox Island]]. District Attorney General [[J. William Pope]] said the boys were shown obscene films and given liquor before orgies filmed with a hidden camera, that films were sold to sponsors to raise money for the farm, and that some sponsors came to the farm to have sex with the boys. Half a dozen Illinois men had bought films from Vermilye, one for more than 4,000 dollars. Richards testified that the farm "sold raw film to other men. They would bring it to me to process." An investigator for the district attorney general, Pete Bouldin, described the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], one of the network's fronts, as a "referral agency which distributes pornography around the country"; Boys Farm, Inc., was listed as a separate organization from the church. Vermilye was convicted on June 3, 1977.[^1][^2][^3][^5] ### The Distribution Network -The writer S. Dovey wrote that film was mailed from the farm to Richards for development and distribution through MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California. Dovey also wrote that the farm was raided on November 10, 1976, and reported the next day by the *Detroit Free Press* as a national pornography hub, and that it was incorporated under the Church of the New Revelation, through which it was linked to [[Dyer Grossman]] and [[Adam Starchild]], and connected through a letter from Vermilye to Halvorsen with Troop 137 and with the Chicago network of [[John David Norman]], the [[Delta Project]] and the [[Odyssey Network]].[^1] +The writer S. Dovey wrote that film was mailed from the farm to Richards for development and distribution through MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California. Dovey also wrote that the farm was raided on November 10, 1976, and reported the next day by the *Detroit Free Press* as a national pornography hub, and that it was incorporated under the Church of the New Revelation, through which it was linked to [[Dyer Grossman]] and [[Adam Starchild]], and connected through a letter from Vermilye to Halvorsen with Troop 137 and with the Chicago network of [[John David Norman]], the [[Delta Project]] and the [[Odyssey Network]].[^6] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. The incorporation under the Church of the New Revelation and the letter to Halvorsen are not borne out by the hearing record, which lists Boys Farm, Inc., separately and records only Vermilye's name in Halvorsen's files. -[^2]: "Former Clergyman Is Convicted of Acts Against His Wards." United Press International, *The New York Times,* June 4, 1977, p. 33. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/04/archives/former-clergyman-is-convicted-of-acts-against-his-wards.html -[^3]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 -[^4]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit -[^5]: Testimony of Kenneth Wooden, in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977. -[^6]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, May 27, 1977, in *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* 1977, p. 41. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^1]: "Former Clergyman Is Convicted of Acts Against His Wards." United Press International, *The New York Times,* June 4, 1977, p. 33. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/04/archives/former-clergyman-is-convicted-of-acts-against-his-wards.html +[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 +[^3]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^4]: Testimony of Kenneth Wooden, in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977. +[^5]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, May 27, 1977, in *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* 1977, p. 41. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^6]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. The incorporation under the Church of the New Revelation and the letter to Halvorsen are not borne out by the hearing record, which lists Boys Farm, Inc., separately and records only Vermilye's name in Halvorsen's files. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Good Ventures.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Good Ventures.md index ad7f88e6..5e1d25a7 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Good Ventures.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Good Ventures.md @@ -1,5 +1,8 @@ --- category: "Private Organization" +aliases: + - "Good Ventures Foundation" + - "Good Ventures LLC" tags: - Organization - GoodVentures @@ -8,40 +11,72 @@ tags: - EffectiveAltruism - OpenPhilanthropy - Philanthropy -alias: - - Good Ventures Foundation -summary: "Good Ventures is the foundation founded in 2011 by Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and the journalist Cari Tuna that, through its partnership with GiveWell and Open Philanthropy, became the dominant funder of the effective-altruism, global-health, and AI-safety grant ecosystem." -location: "San Francisco, California" +summary: "Private foundation of Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, founded in 2011 within a web of LLCs and donor-advised funds, which built GiveWell Labs into Open Philanthropy and held about 10 billion dollars in 2025." +start: 2011 +location: "Palo Alto, California" +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Dustin Moskovitz]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Cari Tuna]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Cari Tuna]]" + reverse: true + role: "president, later also board chair" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Divesh Makan]]" + reverse: true + role: "director" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[GiveWell]]" + start: 2011 + role: "first grant, 50,000 dollars; about 60 percent of the money GiveWell had moved by 2018" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + role: "nearly all of its grant money" + fn: 6 created: 2026-06-20 -updated: 2026-06-20 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Good Ventures is a private philanthropic foundation established in 2011 by [[Facebook]] and [[Asana]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife, the former journalist [[Cari Tuna]]. Its partnership with the charity evaluator [[GiveWell]] produced [[Open Philanthropy]] (renamed Coefficient Giving in November 2025), and the foundation supplies nearly all of that organization's grant money, making the Moskovitz and Tuna fortune the dominant and most durable financial source behind the [[Effective Altruism]] movement, evidence-based global health and development, and AI-safety research.[^1][^2] +Good Ventures is the private foundation of [[Facebook]] and [[Asana]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife [[Cari Tuna]]. When the couple became the youngest billionaires to sign the [[Giving Pledge]], in 2010, he was a 26-year-old Harvard dropout who had made his fortune in four years at Facebook as its first chief technology officer, and she was a 25-year-old Yale graduate reporting for *[[The Wall Street Journal]]* on the California economy. With Moskovitz occupied with Asana, Tuna quit journalism to manage their giving, and they founded Good Ventures in 2011. Moskovitz's net worth was estimated at about 14.3 billion dollars at the end of 2017, and the couple said they intended to give away nearly all of it in their lifetimes; he said, "Cari and I are stewards of this capital. It's pooled up around us right now, but it belongs to the world."[^1] -### The 2011 Founding +### Filings and Officers -Moskovitz, who retained roughly two percent of Facebook at its 2012 public offering and built a second fortune at the workplace-software company Asana, and Tuna, who had been a reporter at the *Wall Street Journal*, created Good Ventures in 2011 as the vehicle for giving away the bulk of their wealth. They were among the youngest signatories of the [[Giving Pledge]], the Bill Gates and [[Warren Buffett]] commitment to donate the majority of one's fortune, signing in 2014 in their late twenties and early thirties. Tuna served as president of the foundation and became the public face of the operation, articulating a "give where it does the most good" framework that delegated cause selection to a professional research staff applying cost-effectiveness analysis rather than to the donors' personal sentiment.[^1][^3] +The Good Ventures Foundation, EIN 46-1008520, received its tax exemption in March 2013 and files its returns in care of [[Apercen Partners]] LLC at 314 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto. The officers on every return since 2015 have been Tuna, president and later also board chair; Moskovitz, secretary and treasurer; and [[Divesh Makan]], director, none of them paid; the 2025 return also lists [[Tom Van Loben Sels]] as assistant secretary.[^2] Makan is the sole member of the general partner of [[ICONIQ Capital]], the [[San Francisco]] investment firm.[^3] -Almost immediately the new foundation oriented itself around GiveWell, the charity evaluator that [[Holden Karnofsky]] and [[Elie Hassenfeld]] had founded in 2007 after working as investment analysts at [[Bridgewater Associates]], the world's largest hedge fund. Good Ventures made its first grant, of 50,000 dollars, to GiveWell itself in 2011, and in the same year directed a further 1.1 million dollars to GiveWell-recommended charities. Tuna joined GiveWell's board in 2011, formalizing the relationship. In 2012 GiveWell relocated its office and five-person staff from New York to San Francisco to be closer to Tuna and other technology donors, and Good Ventures and GiveWell announced a close partnership that June.[^1][^4] +### The Structure -### GiveWell Labs and Open Philanthropy +In 2018 the *[[Stanford Social Innovation Review]]* writer [[Marc Gunther]] counted seven entities in which Tuna served as a director or major donor: the Open Philanthropy Project LLC, which recommended grants; the [[Open Philanthropy Action Fund]], a 501(c)(4) "that supports nonpartisan advocacy"; the Open Philanthropy Project fund, a donor-advised fund at the [[Silicon Valley Community Foundation]]; the Good Ventures Foundation, which made grants and investments; Good Ventures, a supporting organization also at the community foundation; Good Ventures LLC, "a for-profit impact investment firm"; and [[GiveWell]]. [[Alexander Berger]] of Open Philanthropy told him that "each has a reason for being" and that "tax considerations are key." Gunther wrote that grants made through the donor-advised funds "can't be traced back to the original donors," that the entities disclosed some but not all of their investments, and that Open Philanthropy did not disclose its operating costs or the pay of its highest-paid staff. Outside these structures, Moskovitz and Tuna were investors in [[Bill Gates]]'s [[Breakthrough Energy Ventures]].[^1] The Open Philanthropy Action Fund has reported paying outside lobbyists every year from 2021 through 2026, [[Tarplin, Downs & Young]] and [[Arnold & Porter]] in 2021 and the [[Kyle House Group]] from 2023, on foreign relations, health and appropriations.[^4] -The partnership produced a joint research project called GiveWell Labs, launched in 2012 to look for giving opportunities beyond the direct-aid global-health charities that GiveWell already recommended. GiveWell Labs was renamed the Open Philanthropy Project in August 2014 and was spun off from GiveWell as a separate organization in June 2017, though the two retained overlapping boards and staff and shared office space in downtown San Francisco. The split divided two functions: GiveWell continued recommending a short list of proven, measurable charities for ordinary donors, while Open Philanthropy took on the larger, riskier, and harder-to-measure giving that Good Ventures' scale made possible, including pandemic preparedness, farm-animal welfare, scientific research, and the prevention of catastrophic risks from advanced artificial intelligence.[^1][^4] +### GiveWell and Open Philanthropy -Good Ventures supplies nearly all of Open Philanthropy's grant money, a dependence both organizations have acknowledged. The longtermist and AI-risk portion of that giving flowed to the research community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] and the [[Future of Humanity Institute]], and Open Philanthropy made a 30-million-dollar grant to [[OpenAI]] in 2017 that came with a board seat for Karnofsky, and later became an early investor in the AI company [[Anthropic]]. Karnofsky, who served as co-chief executive of Open Philanthropy, is married to Anthropic president [[Daniela Amodei]]. The [[FTX Future Fund]] of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] briefly funded the same longtermist and AI-safety field in 2022 before evaporating when FTX collapsed that November.[^2][^5] +A friend introduced Tuna to [[Holden Karnofsky]], who with [[Elie Hassenfeld]] had founded the charity evaluator GiveWell in 2007 after working at the hedge fund [[Bridgewater Associates]]. Tuna joined GiveWell's board in 2011. Good Ventures' first grant, of 50,000 dollars, went to GiveWell that year, with another 1.1 million dollars to GiveWell-recommended charities, chiefly the [[Against Malaria Foundation]] and the [[Schistosomiasis Control Initiative]]. By 2018 Good Ventures accounted for about 60 percent of the estimated 375 million dollars GiveWell had moved to its recommended charities. In 2012 GiveWell moved its office and staff of five from New York to San Francisco "to be closer to Tuna and other technology-industry donors."[^1] The joint project [[Open Philanthropy|GiveWell Labs]], launched in 2012, was renamed the Open Philanthropy Project in August 2014 and spun off from GiveWell in June 2017, keeping overlapping boards and staff and shared offices.[^1][^5] Good Ventures gave 70.4 million dollars through GiveWell in 2015, 50.4 million in 2016 and 75.1 million in 2017.[^5] -### The Dominant Funder +Open Philanthropy, renamed Coefficient Giving in November 2025, draws nearly all of its grant money from Good Ventures.[^6] Its grantees include [[OpenAI]], which received 30 million dollars in 2017 with a board seat for Karnofsky; the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]]; the [[RAND Corporation]]; the [[Center for AI Safety]]; [[Redwood Research]]; the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], which pays technology fellows placed in Congress and federal agencies; and the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], which pays journalists placed in newsrooms.[^7] It had given away about 7 billion dollars by September 2026.[^8] -By the mid-2010s Good Ventures had become by far the largest single donor channeling money through GiveWell, accounting for roughly 60 percent of the estimated 375 million dollars GiveWell had moved to its favored organizations, with annual Good Ventures grants of 70.4 million dollars in 2015, 50.4 million in 2016, and 75.1 million in 2017. As of August 2022 the foundation reported having granted more than 1.7 billion dollars across global health and development, farmed-animal welfare, global catastrophic risks, and other cause areas. By 2025 Moskovitz and Tuna had directed more than 4 billion dollars in cumulative giving since 2011, including more than 600 million dollars in 2025 alone, with Good Ventures making 493 grants in 2024 at a median grant size of about 115,000 dollars.[^1][^2][^6] +### Assets -The concentration of so much AI-safety and effective-altruism funding under a single foundation drew sustained criticism. Because Good Ventures funds much of the research community that examines the AI labs, and because Open Philanthropy was an early investor in Anthropic, observers argued that the field scrutinizing the AI companies depended financially on one donor couple who were also early backers of one of those companies. When Open Philanthropy rebranded as Coefficient Giving in November 2025 and began running multi-donor funds that other philanthropists could join, Good Ventures remained its founding and most significant ongoing partner and the source of the bulk of its capital.[^2][^7] +The foundation's assets were 27 million dollars in the fiscal year ending June 2013, 1.02 billion in 2017, 3.34 billion in 2020, 5.86 billion in 2023 and 10.11 billion in 2025. Contributions received were 1.02 billion dollars in fiscal 2020, 1.91 billion in 2023, 801 million in 2024 and 1.40 billion in 2025, when it also reported 847 million dollars from sales of assets and paid 338 million dollars in charitable disbursements.[^2] In 2026 it held 1,720,916 Class A shares of Asana, the company Moskovitz controls; Asana's proxy statement said that Moskovitz and "his spouse serve as directors on the board of Good Ventures Foundation and may be deemed to have shared voting and dispositive power" over them. The same proxy disclosed that Asana bought 1.1 million dollars of AI services from [[Anthropic]], in which Moskovitz "has a minority ownership interest."[^9] In April 2026 the *[[Washington Examiner]]* reported that in 2025 Moskovitz had transferred his Anthropic stake, "which had reportedly grown to roughly $500 million, to his charity to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interests," without naming the entity.[^10] ### Footnotes -[^1]: "Giving in the Light of Reason," *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* on the 2011 founding of Good Ventures, the first 50,000-dollar grant to GiveWell, the additional 1.1 million dollars to GiveWell-recommended charities in 2011, Tuna joining the GiveWell board, the 2012 San Francisco relocation, GiveWell Labs, and the 60-percent share of GiveWell's 375 million dollars moved. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason -[^2]: "How Dependent is the Effective Altruism Movement on Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna?" EA Forum, on Good Ventures as the primary funder of Open Philanthropy. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4BJSXH9ho4eYNT73P/how-dependent-is-the-effective-altruism-movement-on-dustin -[^3]: "Cari Tuna," EA Forum topic entry on Good Ventures and the Giving Pledge. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/topics/cari-tuna -[^4]: "Our Progress," GiveWell, on GiveWell Labs launching in 2012, its August 2014 rename to the Open Philanthropy Project, and the June 2017 spin-off; annual Good Ventures grant totals of 70.4 million dollars (2015), 50.4 million (2016), and 75.1 million (2017). https://www.givewell.org/about/progress -[^5]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on Open Philanthropy as an early Anthropic funder, the 2017 OpenAI grant and board seat, and the Karnofsky-Amodei marriage. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6 -[^6]: "Moskovitz & Tuna: $600M Donated in 2025, Over $4B Total Since 2011," IndexBox, on the 4-billion-dollar cumulative total, the 600 million in 2025, and the 493 grants in 2024 at a 115,000-dollar median. https://www.indexbox.io/blog/dustin-moskovitz-cari-tunas-4b-philanthropy-journey/ -[^7]: "Open Philanthropy Becomes Coefficient Giving, Expanding Work With Multiple Donors," Coefficient Giving, November 2025, on the rename and the multi-donor expansion with Good Ventures as the founding partner. https://coefficientgiving.org/research/press-release-open-philanthropy-becomes-coefficient-giving-expanding-work-with-multiple-donors/ +[^1]: Gunther, Marc. "Giving in the Light of Reason." *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* Summer 2018. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason +[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Good Ventures Foundation," EIN 46-1008520, Form 990-PF data for fiscal years ending June 2013 to June 2025, updated August 20, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/461008520 +[^3]: ICONIQ Capital, LLC, and others, Schedule 13G regarding Diameter Credit Co, November 13, 2024, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1916099/000101143824000605/form_sc13g-diameter.htm +[^4]: U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings for client "Open Philanthropy Action Fund," 2021 to 2026, retrieved September 2026. https://lda.senate.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=Open+Philanthropy+Action+Fund +[^5]: GiveWell, "Our Progress," on GiveWell Labs, the 2014 rename, the 2017 spin-off and annual Good Ventures totals. https://www.givewell.org/about/progress +[^6]: "Open Philanthropy Becomes Coefficient Giving, Expanding Work With Multiple Donors," Coefficient Giving, November 2025. https://coefficientgiving.org/research/press-release-open-philanthropy-becomes-coefficient-giving-expanding-work-with-multiple-donors/ +[^7]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023, http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 ; Open Philanthropy, "OpenAI, General Support," March 2017, archived January 1, 2025, http://web.archive.org/web/20250101012608/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/ ; Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026. https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards +[^8]: Smith, Ben. "Coefficient Giving's CEO on Silicon Valley's $40 billion philanthropy boom." *Semafor,* September 3, 2026. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2026/coefficient-givings-ceo-on-silicon-valley-40-billion-philanthropy-boom +[^9]: Asana, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 20, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000162828026025998/asan-20260420.htm +[^10]: Schmad, Robert. "Documents show how a tech-connected nonprofit shaped Biden-era AI policy." *Washington Examiner,* April 17, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4532389/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Horizon Institute for Public Service.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Horizon Institute for Public Service.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a2effc2d --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Horizon Institute for Public Service.md @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +aliases: + - "Horizon Institute" + - "Horizon Fellowship" +tags: + - Organization + - OpenPhilanthropy + - EffectiveAltruism + - ArtificialIntelligence + - Congress + - Biosecurity +summary: "Nonprofit founded in 2022 that pays technology fellows placed in congressional offices, federal agencies and think tanks; Politico reported Open Philanthropy had effectively created it." +start: 2022 +location: "Washington, D.C." +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Remco Zwetsloot]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022 + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + reverse: true + start: 2022 + role: "initial operations; nearly 3 million dollars set aside for the first cohort" + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[Joe Lonsdale]]" + reverse: true + role: "Lonsdale Family Philanthropic Fund" + fn: 2 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Jason Matheny]]" + reverse: true + role: "advisory board" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Horizon Institute for Public Service was founded as a 501(c)(3) public charity in 2022 by [[Remco Zwetsloot]] and [[Joan Gass]]. In its words, its "founding was inspired by the initial success of [[Open Philanthropy]]'s [[Technology Policy Fellowship]]," and it was "grateful to Open Philanthropy for supporting Horizon's initial operations." Its flagship program, the Horizon Fellowship, "places fully-funded fellows at federal agencies, congressional offices, and think tanks." In March 2023 its first cohort was serving at the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, the Senate Commerce and House Science committees, member offices, and the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]], the [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]] [[Center for Health Security]] and the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]].[^1] Zwetsloot had been on the founding team of what he called "DC's first AI policy-focused think tank."[^2] + +### Advisers and Funders + +Horizon's advisory board in 2023 comprised [[Kari Bingen]], former deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence and security; [[Beth Cameron]], former senior director for global health security and biodefense at the [[National Security Council]]; [[Richard Danzig]], former Secretary of the Navy; [[Michael Kratsios]], then managing director at [[Scale AI]] and former chief technology officer of the [[United States]]; [[Jason Matheny]], chief executive of the [[RAND Corporation]] and former director of IARPA; [[Nadia Schadlow]], former deputy national security adviser for strategy; Lieutenant General (ret.) [[Jack Shanahan]], inaugural director of the [[Pentagon]]'s [[Joint Artificial Intelligence Center]]; and [[Andrew Weber]], former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.[^1] Its later adviser list described Shanahan as "former inaugural Director of [[Project Maven]] and the Joint AI Center."[^2] + +Horizon says it takes no government or corporate money and that "no foundation or donor provides a majority of our funding." It lists as funders [[Helena]], [[Renaissance Philanthropy]], the [[Maurice Amado Foundation]], the [[Policy Entrepreneurs Network]], the [[Lonsdale Family Philanthropic Fund]] of the [[Palantir Technologies|Palantir]] co-founder [[Joe Lonsdale]], [[Coefficient Giving]] (the renamed Open Philanthropy), the [[Navigation Fund]], the[[ David and Lucile Packard Foundation]], [[Fulcrum Science]], the [[John Quincy Adams Society]] and [[Sentinel Bio]].[^2] + +### The Politico Report + +On October 13, 2023, the *[[Politico]]* reporter [[Brendan Bordelon]] reported that Horizon was "a nonprofit that Open Philanthropy effectively created in 2022," that "in 2022, Open Philanthropy set aside nearly $3 million to pay for what ultimately became the initial cohort of Horizon fellows," and that Horizon fellows worked in the offices of Senators [[Martin Heinrich]], [[Mike Rounds]] and [[Todd Young]], the three senators [[Chuck Schumer]] had put in charge of AI legislation, and of Senator [[Richard Blumenthal]], whose AI fellow had worked at [[OpenAI]] immediately before coming to Congress. Photographs from the closed-door [[Senate AI Insight Forum]] of September 2023 showed at least two Horizon fellows, from the Rounds and Heinrich offices, in attendance. The [[Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970]] allows nonprofits to pay the salaries of fellows working in Congress and the executive branch.[^3] + +An Open Philanthropy spokesperson, [[Mike Levine]], told Bordelon that Horizon "originally started the fellowship as consultants to Open Phil until they could launch their own legal entity and pay fellows' salaries directly," but that Open Philanthropy "did not play an active role in screening, training, or placement of fellows." Bordelon reported that an Open Philanthropy Google document last updated in August 2022 said the fellowship would consider candidates "who share Open Philanthropy's interests in global catastrophic risks and technology's long-term impacts." Zwetsloot said the program was "not for the pursuit of particular policy goals" and did not screen applicants for their views on AI risk. [[Tim Stretton]] of the [[Project On Government Oversight]] called it "a conflict of interest," and [[David Skaggs]], former chairman of the [[Office of Congressional Ethics]], compared it to "a parallel situation in which [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] had some ostensibly arm's-length foundation funding foreign policy experts for Hill offices." Spokespeople for Blumenthal, Heinrich and Young said the senators made their own policy decisions.[^3] + +In December 2025 *[[Semafor]]* reported that Open Philanthropy had "been bothered by media coverage of it, in particular a series of critical stories from Politico," had hired experienced political communications staff, and had renamed itself Coefficient Giving.[^4] + +### Export Controls + +In November 2025 the *[[Washington Examiner]]* reporter Robert Schmad wrote that two of Horizon's own fellow profiles mentioned export controls: a fellow at the [[House Foreign Affairs Committee]] had done work "supporting export controls," and a fellow at the [[Bureau of Industry and Security]] had researched "export controls and their ability to mitigate converged AI and bio risks"; both received offers to stay in government. Senator [[Jim Banks]], who hosted a Horizon fellow, introduced the GAIN AI Act in August 2025 to give American buyers priority for advanced chips, and his office had drafted letters with that of Senator [[Elizabeth Warren]] on [[Nvidia]]'s dealings with China; Banks's office did not answer whether the fellow played a role. Horizon told the paper: "Horizon helps policymakers access deeply needed technical talent, and we do not take or advance particular policy positions."[^5] + +In September 2026 the publication *Effort*, founded by [[Brian Chau]], wrote that Horizon had "received over $12M from Open Philanthropy/Coefficient Giving," that "EA fellowships have placed over 50 staffers in Congress and the administrative branch," and that Horizon's standard base offer had risen from 105,000 dollars for the 2023 cohort to 130,000 dollars for 2027. It quoted an unnamed senior staffer in a Republican senator's office: "He went to Democrat policy meetings, and tried to hand Democrat policies to [the Senator he worked for]." It wrote, citing a former employee of the [[Foundation for American Innovation]], that Horizon's former strategy and partnerships director, [[Sophia Brown]], had been hired into the Trump administration's [[Center for AI Standards and Innovation]] under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act through that foundation.[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Horizon Institute for Public Service, "Update on the Horizon Institute for Public Service," March 8, 2023. https://horizonpublicservice.org/update-on-the-horizon-institute-for-public-service/ +[^2]: Horizon Institute for Public Service, "About Us," accessed September 2026. https://horizonpublicservice.org/about-us/ +[^3]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^4]: Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms +[^5]: Schmad, Robert. "Effective Altruism-linked nonprofit placed fellows in key government offices, secured influence." *Washington Examiner,* November 6, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3874805/effective-altruism-linked-nonprofit-placed-fellows-in-key-government-offices-secured-influence/ +[^6]: Effort. "Effective Altruism is Buying Political Staff." September 19, 2026. https://www.effort.news/aisi diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Long-Term Benefit Trust.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Long-Term Benefit Trust.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..19b4b18d --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Long-Term Benefit Trust.md @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +aliases: + - "Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust" + - "LTBT" +tags: + - Organization + - Anthropic + - Governance + - EffectiveAltruism +summary: "Body of financially disinterested trustees empowered to elect a growing share of Anthropic's board, founded in 2023 with trustees from RAND, Effective Ventures and the AI-safety world; a board majority from 2026." +start: 2023-09-19 +relations: + - type: head_of + with: "[[Neil Buddy Shah]]" + reverse: true + role: "chair" + start: 2023-09 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Jason Matheny]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-09 + end: 2023-12 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Zach Robinson]]" + reverse: true + start: 2023-09 + end: 2026-01 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Richard Fontaine]]" + reverse: true + start: 2025-05 + fn: 1 + - type: member_of + with: "[[Ben Bernanke]]" + reverse: true + start: 2026-07 + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 +--- + +The Long-Term Benefit Trust is the governance body of [[Anthropic]], announced on September 19, 2023, as "an independent body of five financially disinterested members with an authority to select and remove a portion of our Board that will grow over time (ultimately, a majority of our Board)." An earlier version, the "Long-Term Benefit Committee," had been written into the Series A investment documents of 2021. The structure was designed with [[John Morley]] of [[Yale Law School]], lawyers from [[Wilson Sonsini]], and [[Noah Feldman]] and [[Seth Berman]] of [[Harvard Law School]] and [[Ethical Compass Advisors]].[^1] + +### Trustees + +The initial trustees were [[Jason Matheny]], chief executive of the [[RAND Corporation]]; [[Kanika Bahl]], chief executive of [[Evidence Action]]; [[Neil Buddy Shah]], chief executive of the [[Clinton Health Access Initiative]], as chair; [[Paul Christiano]], founder of the [[Alignment Research Center]]; and [[Zach Robinson]], interim chief executive of [[Effective Ventures]] US. Matheny stepped down in December 2023 "to preempt any potential conflicts of interest that might arise with RAND Corporation's policy-related initiatives," and Christiano in April 2024 to become head of AI safety at the U.S. [[AI Safety Institute]]. [[Richard Fontaine]], chief executive of the [[Center for a New American Security]], joined in May 2025; [[Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar]], president of the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]], in January 2026, when Bahl and Robinson left; and [[Ben Bernanke]], former chairman of the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]], in July 2026.[^1] Fontaine also sat on Anthropic's [[Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council|National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council]].[^2] + +### The Board + +In April 2026 the trust appointed [[Vas Narasimhan]], chief executive of [[Novartis]], to Anthropic's board, and with his appointment "Trust-appointed directors now make up a majority of the Board."[^3] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023, with later updates on changes in the trust's composition. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust +[^2]: Anthropic, "Introducing the Anthropic National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council," August 27, 2025. https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-the-anthropic-national-security-and-public-sector-advisory-council +[^3]: Anthropic, "Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust appoints Vas Narasimhan to Board of Directors," April 14, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/narasimhan-board diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ocean Living Institute.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ocean Living Institute.md index 85114ed1..02abc1f0 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ocean Living Institute.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ocean Living Institute.md @@ -12,28 +12,18 @@ summary: "Tax-exempt corporation formed in Delaware in 1974, ostensibly for ocea location: "New Jersey, USA" start: 1974 relations: - - type: head_of - with: "[[Adam Starchild]]" - reverse: true - role: "president" - fn: 2 - - type: employed_by - with: "[[Dyer Grossman]]" - reverse: true - role: "executive director" - fn: 2 created: 2026-04-28 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -The Ocean Living Institute was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, with its principal place of business in [[New Jersey]], ostensibly to promote education and research in oceanography. [[Adam Starchild]] was listed as its president and [[Dyer Grossman]] as its executive director. The Internal Revenue Service granted it an "automatic" tax exemption, as it did the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], without challenging or investigating its claim to be a charitable organization. [[Gerald Richards]], organizer of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]], told police that the institute, the church and the Educational Foundation for Youth of Illinois had been set up as tax dodges and used as fronts for the production of child pornography; Starchild said they might have been "used" for that purpose by Grossman.[^2] +The Ocean Living Institute was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, with its principal place of business in [[New Jersey]], ostensibly to promote education and research in oceanography. [[Adam Starchild]] was listed as its president and [[Dyer Grossman]] as its executive director. The Internal Revenue Service granted it an "automatic" tax exemption, as it did the [[The Church of New Revelation|Church of the New Revelation]], without challenging or investigating its claim to be a charitable organization. [[Gerald Richards]], organizer of [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]] on [[North Fox Island]], told police that the institute, the church and the Educational Foundation for Youth of Illinois had been set up as tax dodges and used as fronts for the production of child pornography; Starchild said they might have been "used" for that purpose by Grossman.[^1] -At Richards's arrest in July 1976 police found a letter from Grossman proposing "child care" sites in Michigan, New Jersey, California, Arizona, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and the District of Columbia, observing that counties would pay up to 150 dollars a month per boy, state agencies up to 400 and federal agencies up to 700, and that profits would be greatest if each site were set up under the church or the Educational Foundation for Youth because of their tax exemptions.[^2] +At Richards's arrest in July 1976 police found a letter from Grossman proposing "child care" sites in Michigan, New Jersey, California, Arizona, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and the District of Columbia, observing that counties would pay up to 150 dollars a month per boy, state agencies up to 400 and federal agencies up to 700, and that profits would be greatest if each site were set up under the church or the Educational Foundation for Youth because of their tax exemptions.[^1] ### The Grossman Letter -The writer S. Dovey wrote that Richards handed over the letter in August 1976, postmarked July 19, 1976, with the institute's return address, and that it mentioned a twelve-year-old boy Grossman had obtained through a Big Brother program. The writer S. Dovey described the institute as a sea-steading project. Dovey also wrote that Starchild was Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, and a scoutmaster in Minneapolis expelled in 1965.[^1] +The writer S. Dovey wrote that Richards handed over the letter in August 1976, postmarked July 19, 1976, with the institute's return address, and that it mentioned a twelve-year-old boy Grossman had obtained through a Big Brother program. The writer S. Dovey described the institute as a sea-steading project. Dovey also wrote that Starchild was Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, and a scoutmaster in Minneapolis expelled in 1965.[^2] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives New Jersey as the state of incorporation; Starchild's continued activity under that name in 1976 to 1985 is documented in the federal trust litigation. -[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 +[^1]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 +[^2]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives New Jersey as the state of incorporation; Starchild's continued activity under that name in 1976 to 1985 is documented in the federal trust litigation. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Open Philanthropy.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Open Philanthropy.md index 6e9156d6..b56bce3d 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Open Philanthropy.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Open Philanthropy.md @@ -1,5 +1,9 @@ --- category: "Private Organization" +aliases: + - "Coefficient Giving" + - "Open Philanthropy Project" + - "GiveWell Labs" tags: - Organization - OpenPhilanthropy @@ -7,30 +11,82 @@ tags: - Longtermism - ArtificialIntelligence - DustinMoskovitz -summary: "Open Philanthropy is the grantmaking organization funded by Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna that became the durable financial backbone of effective altruism and AI-safety work, directing more than four billion dollars and serving as an early funder of Anthropic." +summary: "Grantmaker of Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, renamed Coefficient Giving in 2025, which has given away about 7 billion dollars and funded CSET, RAND's AI work, Horizon fellows and Tarbell journalists." location: "San Francisco, California" +start: 2011 +relations: + - type: founded + with: "[[Dustin Moskovitz]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + fn: 1 + - type: founded + with: "[[Cari Tuna]]" + reverse: true + start: 2011 + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Holden Karnofsky]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief executive" + fn: 6 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Alexander Berger]]" + reverse: true + role: "chief executive" + start: 2023 + fn: 1 + - type: funded + with: "[[OpenAI]]" + start: 2017-03 + role: "30 million dollars, with a board seat for Karnofsky" + fn: 5 + - type: funded + with: "[[RAND Corporation]]" + start: 2023-04 + role: "5.5 million and 10.5 million dollars at Matheny's discretion" + fn: 8 + - type: funded + with: "[[Center for AI Safety]]" + start: 2022-11 + role: "5.16 million dollars in 2022, then 4.03 million and 1.43 million, and a 1.87-million-dollar exit grant in October 2023" + end: 2023-10 + fn: 9 + - type: funded + with: "[[Redwood Research]]" + start: 2025-11 + role: "36 million dollars" + fn: 1 created: 2026-06-19 -updated: 2026-06-19 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Open Philanthropy is a grantmaking organization, funded chiefly by [[Facebook]] and [[Asana]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife [[Cari Tuna]], that became the durable financial backbone of the [[Effective Altruism]] movement and of [[Longtermism|longtermist]] and AI-safety work. Where the [[FTX Future Fund]] of [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] was the movement's flashiest and most short-lived funder, Open Philanthropy is its largest sustained one, directing more than four billion dollars in grants by 2025. It was an early backer of the AI company [[Anthropic]], and its longtime co-chief executive [[Holden Karnofsky]] later moved into AI-safety work and is married to Anthropic president [[Daniela Amodei]].[^1][^2] +Open Philanthropy is a grantmaking organization funded chiefly by [[Facebook]] and [[Asana]] cofounder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and his wife [[Cari Tuna]], whose founders and many early employees, according to *[[Semafor]]*, "were sympathetic to the utilitarian philosophical movement known as [[Effective Altruism|effective altruism]]." Known earlier as GiveWell Labs, it was launched in 2011, and the couple's fortune has contributed most of the roughly 7 billion dollars it had given away by September 2026. It renamed itself Coefficient Giving in November 2025. Its chief executive since 2023, [[Alexander Berger]], said in 2026 that it had spent about a tenth of the [[Gates Foundation]]'s budget in 2025 and more than twice that so far in 2026; *Semafor* reported it was on track to give away 2 billion dollars in the year and called it "a favorite of Anthropic executives."[^1][^2] ### Origins -The organization grew out of [[GiveWell]], the charity evaluator Karnofsky cofounded with [[Elie Hassenfeld]], and Good Ventures, the foundation Moskovitz and Tuna established in 2011. The two joined to form the Open Philanthropy Project in 2014, which began independent operations in 2017. Tuna, a former *Wall Street Journal* reporter, and Moskovitz, who made his fortune as one of the earliest Facebook employees and the cofounder of the software firm Asana, committed the bulk of their wealth to the effort.[^1][^3] +The organization grew out of [[GiveWell]], the charity evaluator [[Holden Karnofsky]] cofounded with [[Elie Hassenfeld]], and [[Good Ventures]], the foundation Moskovitz and Tuna established in 2011. The two joined to form the Open Philanthropy Project in 2014, which began independent operations in 2017. Tuna is a former *[[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]]* reporter.[^3][^4] Good Ventures supplies nearly all of its grant money; as Coefficient Giving it began advising outside donors, and it directed more than 100 million dollars of other donors' money in 2024.[^2] -The split from GiveWell separated two functions: GiveWell kept recommending a short list of proven global-health charities for ordinary donors, while Open Philanthropy took on the larger, riskier, harder-to-measure giving that Good Ventures' scale allowed. [[Alexander Berger]] rose to co-chief executive alongside Karnofsky and became sole chief executive when Karnofsky stepped back in 2023. Good Ventures supplies nearly all of Open Philanthropy's grant money, a dependence the organization acknowledged when, operating as Coefficient Giving, it began advising outside donors and directed more than 100 million dollars of non-Good-Ventures money in 2024.[^2][^5] +### AI Grantmaking -### Funding Priorities and the AI Turn +In March 2017 Open Philanthropy recommended 30 million dollars over three years to [[OpenAI]], under which Karnofsky joined OpenAI's board to oversee, "jointly with one other Board member," its safety and governance work. The grant page disclosed that the OpenAI researchers [[Dario Amodei]] and [[Paul Christiano]] were technical advisers to Open Philanthropy and lived in the same house as Karnofsky, who was engaged to Amodei's sister [[Daniela Amodei|Daniela]].[^5] In 2016 [[Sam Altman]] had led a 50-million-dollar investment in Asana, and [[Adam D'Angelo]] sat on the boards of both Asana and OpenAI.[^6] Moskovitz personally took part in the 124-million-dollar 2021 investment round of [[Anthropic]]. The Open Philanthropy program officer [[Luke Muehlhauser]] was one of Anthropic's four board members in 2023, and Karnofsky, Open Philanthropy's former chief executive and in 2023 its director of AI strategy, is married to Anthropic's president, Daniela Amodei. Moskovitz told *[[Politico]]* that any returns from his Anthropic investment "will be entirely redirected back into our philanthropic work."[^6] In 2026 Berger said: "We're definitely not the Anthropic Foundation."[^1] -Open Philanthropy makes grants in two broad areas: global health and wellbeing, and longtermism, the latter encompassing potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence, pandemic preparedness, and the far future. Its AI-risk funding flowed to the same research community around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] and the [[Future of Humanity Institute]] that the [[Rationalist Community]] built, making Open Philanthropy the principal institutional patron of AI-safety work outside the technology companies themselves. Karnofsky took a leave from his co-chief-executive role in 2023 and moved into a role focused on AI strategy. The organization renamed itself Coefficient Giving in 2025.[^2][^4] +Muehlhauser was the grant investigator on the 55-million-dollar grant of January 2019 that launched the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]] at [[Georgetown University]] under the former IARPA director [[Jason Matheny]]; Open Philanthropy was CSET's "main funder" and raised its commitment to more than 100 million dollars through 2025.[^7] After Matheny became chief executive of the [[RAND Corporation]], Open Philanthropy gave RAND 5.5 million dollars in April 2023 and 10.5 million in October 2023 "to be spent at the discretion of RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny."[^8] It gave 5.16 million dollars to the [[Center for AI Safety]] in November 2022; the center organized the May 2023 statement that "mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority."[^6][^9] In November 2025 it gave 36 million dollars to [[Redwood Research]], which OpenAI brought in to analyze an AI-agent attack on [[Hugging Face]] in July 2026.[^1] -In 2017 Open Philanthropy made a 30-million-dollar grant to OpenAI that came with a board seat for Karnofsky, an early and unusual instance of a funder embedding itself inside an AI lab; it later became an early investor in Anthropic, where Karnofsky's wife Daniela Amodei is president. By June 2025 the organization had directed more than 4 billion dollars in cumulative grants. The November 2025 rename to Coefficient Giving, under chief executive Alexander Berger, marked a shift toward running multi-donor funds so other philanthropists could pool money into its cause areas, with the name chosen to signal a "coefficient" that multiplies the impact of partner giving. Its concentration of AI-safety money has drawn criticism that a single foundation funds much of the field that scrutinizes the AI labs to which it is financially tied.[^2][^4][^5] +### Congress and the Press + +In 2022 Open Philanthropy set aside nearly 3 million dollars for what became the first cohort of the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], which pays technology fellows placed in congressional offices, federal agencies and think tanks; the *Politico* reporter [[Brendan Bordelon]] wrote in October 2023 that Open Philanthropy had "effectively created" Horizon. A spokesperson, [[Mike Levine]], said Open Philanthropy "did not play an active role in screening, training, or placement of fellows" and that "the idea that we, our funders, or our grantees are motivated by pecuniary interests is misguided."[^6] By 2025 Coefficient Giving supplied the majority of the funding of the [[Tarbell Center for AI Journalism]], which places paid fellows in newsrooms and publishes the newsletter *Transformer*.[^10] In December 2025 *Semafor* reported that Open Philanthropy had been "bothered by media coverage of it, in particular a series of critical stories from Politico," and had hired political communications staff; its director of communications, [[Naina Bajekal]], was a former executive editor of *Time*, which had hosted four Tarbell fellows.[^11] ### Footnotes -[^1]: "How Effective is Effective Altruism? A Deep Dive Into Two of Open Philanthropy's EA-Inspired Programs," *Inside Philanthropy,* March 16, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023-3-16-how-effective-is-effective-altruism-a-deep-dive-into-two-of-open-philanthropys-ea-inspired-programs -[^2]: "How Dependent is the Effective Altruism Movement on Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna?" EA Forum. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4BJSXH9ho4eYNT73P/how-dependent-is-the-effective-altruism-movement-on-dustin -[^3]: "Giving in the Light of Reason," *Stanford Social Innovation Review,* on Good Ventures, GiveWell, and the Open Philanthropy partnership. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason -[^4]: "The Making of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei," Alex Kantrowitz, on Open Philanthropy as an early Anthropic funder and the Karnofsky tie. https://kantrowitz.medium.com/the-making-of-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-449777529dd6 -[^5]: "Open Philanthropy Becomes Coefficient Giving, Expanding Work With Multiple Donors," Coefficient Giving, November 2025, on the rename, Alexander Berger, the 4-billion-dollar grant total, and the multi-donor expansion; "OpenAI General Support," Good Ventures, on the March 2017 30-million-dollar grant and Karnofsky board seat. https://coefficientgiving.org/research/press-release-open-philanthropy-becomes-coefficient-giving-expanding-work-with-multiple-donors/ +[^1]: Smith, Ben. "Coefficient Giving's CEO on Silicon Valley's $40 billion philanthropy boom." *Semafor,* September 3, 2026. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2026/coefficient-givings-ceo-on-silicon-valley-40-billion-philanthropy-boom +[^2]: "Open Philanthropy Becomes Coefficient Giving, Expanding Work With Multiple Donors," Coefficient Giving, November 2025. https://coefficientgiving.org/research/press-release-open-philanthropy-becomes-coefficient-giving-expanding-work-with-multiple-donors/ +[^3]: "How Effective is Effective Altruism? A Deep Dive Into Two of Open Philanthropy's EA-Inspired Programs," *Inside Philanthropy,* March 16, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023-3-16-how-effective-is-effective-altruism-a-deep-dive-into-two-of-open-philanthropys-ea-inspired-programs +[^4]: "Giving in the Light of Reason," *Stanford Social Innovation Review.* https://ssir.org/articles/entry/giving_in_the_light_of_reason +[^5]: Open Philanthropy, "OpenAI, General Support," grant of March 2017, archived January 1, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250101012608/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/openai-general-support/ +[^6]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362 +[^7]: Open Philanthropy, "Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology," grant of January 2019, archived January 2, 2025, http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035307/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/georgetown-university-center-for-security-and-emerging-technology/ ; Center for Security and Emerging Technology, "New Grant Agreement Boosts CSET Funding to More than $100 Million Through 2025," August 25, 2021. https://cset.georgetown.edu/article/new-grant-agreement-boosts-cset-funding-to-more-than-100-million-over-five-years/ +[^8]: Open Philanthropy, "RAND Corporation, Emerging Technology Initiatives," gift of October 2023, with the related April 2023 gift, archived January 22, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250122041729/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/rand-corporation-emerging-technology-initiatives/ +[^9]: Open Philanthropy, "Center for AI Safety, General Support (2022)," grant of November 2022, archived January 2, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20250102035329/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/center-for-ai-safety-general-support/ +[^10]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026. https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards +[^11]: Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/PayPal.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/PayPal.md index 4039dc9b..6f7c6336 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/PayPal.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/PayPal.md @@ -42,19 +42,13 @@ relations: start: 2000-05 end: 2000-09 fn: 1 - - type: employed_by - with: "[[Max Levchin]]" - reverse: true - role: "chief technology officer" - start: 2000-03 - fn: 1 - type: owned with: "[[eBay]]" reverse: true start: 2002-10-03 fn: 4 created: 2026-09-22 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- PayPal, Inc. "resulted from a merger between Confinity, Inc., incorporated in December 1998, and X.com Corporation, incorporated in March 1999." [[Peter Thiel]] and [[Max Levchin]] co-founded Confinity; [[Elon Musk]], earlier a co-founder of Zip2, founded X.com, which "intended to provide Internet banking services." On March 30, 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, X.com surviving; by October 2000 the company had abandoned internet banking for the PayPal product, and it took the name PayPal, Inc. in February 2001. Musk was chief executive of X.com from March to December 1999 and of PayPal from May to September 2000, when Thiel, a former [[Sullivan & Cromwell]] lawyer and derivatives trader, replaced him; Levchin was chief technology officer. In September 2001 Musk was the largest shareholder, with 14.2 percent, ahead of entities affiliated with [[Sequoia Capital]] (10.7 percent), whose partner [[Michael Moritz]] sat on the board, and Nokia Ventures (9.6 percent); Thiel held 5.6 percent and [[Reid Hoffman]] under one percent.[^1] diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rockefeller Brothers Fund.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rockefeller Brothers Fund.md index 5082d281..4e4867b5 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rockefeller Brothers Fund.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Rockefeller Brothers Fund.md @@ -8,14 +8,8 @@ tags: - Policy summary: "Foundation established in 1940 by the five Rockefeller brothers whose Special Studies Project of 1956-61, directed by Henry Kissinger until 1958, produced the Rockefeller Panel Reports on security, economy and foreign policy." created: 2026-06-05 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 relations: - - type: employed_by - with: "[[Henry A. Kissinger]]" - reverse: true - role: "director, Special Studies Project" - end: 1958-06-30 - fn: 5 --- The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) was established in 1940 by the five sons of [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] as a vehicle for coordinating the brothers' charitable giving, and became in the 1950s the primary instrument through which [[Nelson Rockefeller]] channeled Cold War policy development. Its Special Studies Project (1956-1961), convened by Nelson and staffed by figures from the national security establishment, produced six classified panel reports shaping Eisenhower and Kennedy administration defense and foreign policy. Panel IV on national security, chaired by [[Henry Kissinger]], launched Kissinger's career as a foreign policy adviser and cemented his relationship with Nelson Rockefeller. @@ -34,9 +28,9 @@ The panels produced a series of influential reports between 1958 and 1961, colle ### Panel II: International Security (Kissinger) -[[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] of Harvard's Center for International Affairs was director of the Special Studies Project until his resignation on June 30, 1958, and thereafter a consultant; the report of Panel II, *International Security: The Military Aspect,* was prepared under his direction. Panel IV dealt with the American economy.[^5] The panel's work on nuclear strategy and limited war doctrine reflected the [[Rockefeller family]]'s long-standing interest in "flexible response" military capabilities as an alternative to massive nuclear retaliation. +[[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] of Harvard's Center for International Affairs was director of the Special Studies Project until his resignation on June 30, 1958, and thereafter a consultant; the report of Panel II, *International Security: The Military Aspect,* was prepared under his direction. Panel IV dealt with the American economy.[^3] The panel's work on nuclear strategy and limited war doctrine reflected the [[Rockefeller family]]'s long-standing interest in "flexible response" military capabilities as an alternative to massive nuclear retaliation. -Kissinger's panel work through the RBF gave him the intellectual platform and Rockefeller family connections that launched his career as a foreign policy adviser. After the Special Studies Project, Kissinger continued to serve as Nelson Rockefeller's foreign policy consultant through the 1960s.[^3] +Kissinger's panel work through the RBF gave him the intellectual platform and Rockefeller family connections that launched his career as a foreign policy adviser. After the Special Studies Project, Kissinger continued to serve as Nelson Rockefeller's foreign policy consultant through the 1960s.[^4] ### Other Notable Panelists @@ -44,10 +38,12 @@ The Special Studies Project brought together a cross-section of the Cold War est ### Bomb Shelters and Civil Defense -Nelson Rockefeller used the RBF's national security framework to promote bomb shelter programs aggressively in New York State. His commitment to civil defense infrastructure, which [[John F. Kennedy]] found politically inconvenient, was an expression of the RBF's panel work on the survivability of nuclear conflict. This policy position created a public profile that Kennedy's advisers viewed as a challenge to Kennedy's own national security credibility.[^4] +Nelson Rockefeller used the RBF's national security framework to promote bomb shelter programs aggressively in New York State. His commitment to civil defense infrastructure, which [[John F. Kennedy]] found politically inconvenient, was an expression of the RBF's panel work on the survivability of nuclear conflict. This policy position created a public profile that Kennedy's advisers viewed as a challenge to Kennedy's own national security credibility.[^5] + +### Footnotes [^1]: Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, *Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon*. HarperCollins, 1995. Ch. 25, Appendix A. [^2]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25, 27. -[^3]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25, 27. -[^4]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25. -[^5]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund. *Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.* Doubleday, 1961, list of project staff and introduction to the report of Panel II. https://archive.org/details/prospect-for-america-the-rockefeller-panel-reports-rockefeller-brothers-fund-1961 +[^3]: Rockefeller Brothers Fund. *Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports.* Doubleday, 1961, list of project staff and introduction to the report of Panel II. https://archive.org/details/prospect-for-america-the-rockefeller-panel-reports-rockefeller-brothers-fund-1961 +[^4]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25, 27. +[^5]: Colby and Dennett, Ch. 25. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..507d2e11 --- /dev/null +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +category: "AI & Effective Altruism" +aliases: + - "Tarbell Fellowship" + - "Tarbell Center" + - "Tarbell" +tags: + - Organization + - Journalism + - Media + - OpenPhilanthropy + - EffectiveAltruism + - ArtificialIntelligence +summary: "Nonprofit launched in 2022 that pays early-career journalists placed in newsrooms to cover AI and publishes the newsletter Transformer; most of its funding comes from Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy." +start: 2022 +relations: + - type: funded + with: "[[Open Philanthropy]]" + reverse: true + role: "majority funder as Coefficient Giving, as of 2025" + fn: 2 + - type: funded + with: "[[Future of Life Institute]]" + reverse: true + fn: 1 + - type: head_of + with: "[[Cillian Crosson]]" + reverse: true + role: "executive director" + fn: 1 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism was launched in 2022 and funds work by early-career technology journalists, in its words to help society "navigate the emergence of increasingly advanced AI."[^1] Its ethics policy of 2026 covers "all Tarbell staff, fellows, and grantees, including our in-house publication [[Transformer]]," and states: "As of 2025, the majority of our funding originates with a single funder, [[Coefficient Giving]] (formerly known as Open Philanthropy)." Donors, it says, "have no role in reviewing, vetting, or approving our staff, fellows, or grantees," and fellows must disclose their Tarbell association on their author pages. Tarbell staff may not own individual shares of companies that develop or deploy advanced AI.[^2] + +### Placements + +In December 2025 the *[[Semafor]]* media reporter [[Max Tani]] wrote that *[[Time]]* had had four Tarbell fellows on staff, that fellows had worked at [[Bloomberg]], *[[The Verge]]*, the *[[Los Angeles Times]]* and *[[The Information]]*, and that *Semafor* itself had briefly had a fellow before ending the arrangement "after several weeks without publishing any of their work." Coefficient Giving's director of communications, [[Naina Bajekal]], was a former executive editor of *Time*.[^1] + +### The NBC Disclosure + +In late 2025 [[NBC News]] reported that [[OpenAI]] had issued legal threats against nonprofits that had criticized it. According to *Semafor*, OpenAI privately complained to NBC that the author had been paid by Tarbell and that Tarbell was funded in part by the [[Future of Life Institute]], one of the groups in the story; NBC appended a disclosure. OpenAI declined to comment to *Semafor*. Tarbell's executive director, [[Cillian Crosson]], said: "It's telling that OpenAI is attempting to discredit independent reporting instead of addressing the factual findings of that reporting." Bajekal said Coefficient Giving had "no involvement in coverage decisions." Tani also noted a critical piece on the fellowship in the *[[Washington Examiner]]*.[^1] + +### Transformer and Brian Chau + +On May 23, 2024, *Transformer*, edited by [[Shakeel Hashim]], published an article stating that [[Brian Chau]], founder of the AI think tank [[Alliance for the Future]], "has a history of expressing racist and sexist remarks," quoting his posts about [[George Floyd]] and about Harvard's president, and his praise of the podcast guests [[Curtis Yarvin]] and [[Richard Hanania]]. Chau did not respond to the article's request for comment. Alliance for the Future was then campaigning against California's AI bill [[SB 1047]].[^3] + +On September 2, 2026, *Effort*, a publication founded by Chau, published an unsigned investigation titled "How [[Effective Altruism]] Bought the Media." It stated that all six participants in a *Guardian* article on the forecast "[[AI 2027]]," including the journalist and the publisher, were paid by three donors: Coefficient Giving, [[Jaan Tallinn]]'s [[Survival and Flourishing Fund]] and [[Effective Ventures]]. It wrote that Coefficient paid the journalist's salary through the Tarbell Fellowship and had given the *Guardian* more than 3 million dollars, that "Coefficient pays the salaries of two dozen journalists at major news outlets," and that "58/100" of the *Time 100* profiles were written by Tarbell-paid journalists. It also tabulated grants from Open Philanthropy, [[EA Funds]], the Future of Life Institute, the [[Long-Term Future Fund]] and the [[Center for AI Safety]] to YouTube channels, among them [[Rational Animations]] and [[Robert Miles AI Safety]].[^4][^5] Chau promoted it the same day on X: "BREAKING: AI Doomers Are Buying Potemkin Articles."[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms +[^2]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Ethics and Standards policies," February 20, 2026. https://www.tarbellcenter.org/ethics-and-standards +[^3]: Hashim, Shakeel. "Alliance for the Future director Brian Chau has history of racist, sexist remarks." *Transformer,* May 23, 2024. https://www.transformernews.ai/p/alliance-for-the-future-director +[^4]: Effort Investigations Desk. "How Effective Altruism Bought the Media." *Effort,* September 2, 2026. https://www.effort.news/tarbell +[^5]: Effort News, "About." https://www.effort.news/about +[^6]: Chau, Brian (@brianchau57). Post on X, September 2, 2026. https://x.com/brianchau57/status/2095128785955987698 diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Church of New Revelation.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Church of New Revelation.md index a5ab4d75..3002a5b1 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Church of New Revelation.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Church of New Revelation.md @@ -13,29 +13,19 @@ summary: "Tax-exempt church incorporated in Delaware in 1974 with a Kearny, New location: "Kearny, New Jersey" start: 1974 relations: - - type: head_of - with: "[[Adam Starchild]]" - reverse: true - role: "president" - fn: 2 - - type: employed_by - with: "[[Dyer Grossman]]" - reverse: true - role: "youth director" - fn: 2 created: 2026-04-28 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -The Church of the New Revelation was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, listing its principal place of business in [[New Jersey]]; its articles of incorporation stated that it was formed to train and indoctrinate ministers, brothers and sisters in its teachings and ordain them to carry out its work. [[Adam Starchild]], listed in the Kearny telephone book, was its president and [[Dyer Grossman]] its youth director. The Internal Revenue Service declared it exempt from taxes without challenging or investigating its claim to be a charitable organization. [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], the camp on [[North Fox Island]] organized by [[Gerald Richards]], was created and operated under its auspices; Richards named the church, the [[Ocean Living Institute]] and the Educational Foundation for Youth as fronts for the production of child pornography. A letter from Grossman found on Richards recommended setting up "child care" sites under the church or the foundation because of their tax exemptions.[^2] +The Church of the New Revelation was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, listing its principal place of business in [[New Jersey]]; its articles of incorporation stated that it was formed to train and indoctrinate ministers, brothers and sisters in its teachings and ordain them to carry out its work. [[Adam Starchild]], listed in the Kearny telephone book, was its president and [[Dyer Grossman]] its youth director. The Internal Revenue Service declared it exempt from taxes without challenging or investigating its claim to be a charitable organization. [[Brother Paul's Children's Mission]], the camp on [[North Fox Island]] organized by [[Gerald Richards]], was created and operated under its auspices; Richards named the church, the [[Ocean Living Institute]] and the Educational Foundation for Youth as fronts for the production of child pornography. A letter from Grossman found on Richards recommended setting up "child care" sites under the church or the foundation because of their tax exemptions.[^1] -"There is no church," said Pete Bouldin of the Tennessee district attorney general's office. "It's just a referral agency which distributes pornography around the country."[^3] +"There is no church," said Pete Bouldin of the Tennessee district attorney general's office. "It's just a referral agency which distributes pornography around the country."[^2] ### Father Bud's Boys Farm -The writer S. Dovey wrote that [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee was incorporated under the church and that Grossman created the church on paper; [[Francis Shelden]] and Starchild were connected to it through the incorporation of the North Fox Island mission.[^1] +The writer S. Dovey wrote that [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee was incorporated under the church and that Grossman created the church on paper; [[Francis Shelden]] and Starchild were connected to it through the incorporation of the North Fox Island mission.[^3] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives New Jersey as the state of incorporation. The contemporaneous reporting lists Boys Farm, Inc., of Alto, Tennessee, as a separate organization and names Starchild, not Grossman, as the church's president. -[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 -[^3]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^1]: Wright, Marilyn. "Porno Ring Uses Church, Tax Laws." *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 86-87. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 +[^2]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^3]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives New Jersey as the state of incorporation. The contemporaneous reporting lists Boys Farm, Inc., of Alto, Tennessee, as a separate organization and names Starchild, not Grossman, as the church's president. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Zizians.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Zizians.md index 8acbf7e8..1444d147 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Zizians.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/The Zizians.md @@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ tags: - ArtificialIntelligence - Veganism - Transhumanism -summary: "The Zizians are a small group led by the computer programmer Jack LaSota that splintered from the Bay Area rationalist movement around an idiosyncratic theory of brain hemispheres, militant veganism, and AI-apocalypse decision theory, and that has been tied to six deaths across California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont between 2022 and 2025, including the killing of a Border Patrol agent that produced a federal death-penalty prosecution." +summary: "Small group around Jack LaSota that split from the Bay Area rationalist movement, tied to six deaths in California, Pennsylvania and Vermont between 2022 and 2025, including a Border Patrol agent's." location: "Vallejo, California; San Francisco Bay Area" created: 2026-06-19 -updated: 2026-06-19 +updated: 2026-09-22 --- The Zizians are a small ideological group that formed around the computer programmer [[Jack LaSota]], who wrote under the persona "Ziz," as a splinter of the Bay Area [[Rationalist Community]] in the late 2010s. The group fused a borrowed rationalist decision theory with an original theory of brain hemispheres, militant veganism, anarchism, and transhumanism, and several of its members acted on the doctrine with lethal violence. Between 2022 and 2025 the group was tied to six deaths across [[California]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[Vermont]], including the January 2025 killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent [[David Maland]], which produced the first federal death-penalty prosecution brought under the second [[Donald Trump|Trump]] administration. The members were recruited almost entirely from the rationalist and [[Effective Altruism]] milieu around the [[Machine Intelligence Research Institute]] (MIRI) and the [[Center for Applied Rationality]] (CFAR), most of them young, highly educated, transgender, and preoccupied with the danger of artificial intelligence.[^1][^2][^3] @@ -21,61 +21,63 @@ The Zizians are a small ideological group that formed around the computer progra LaSota, born and raised in [[Fairbanks]], [[Alaska]], studied computer science at the [[University of Alaska Fairbanks]], briefly pursued postgraduate work at the [[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]], and interned at [[NASA]] before relocating to the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] around 2013 to involve herself with MIRI and CFAR. She had been an avid reader of [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]]'s writing and entered the community as an acolyte before turning into one of its sharpest critics, accusing MIRI and CFAR of "ethical hypocrisy" and of failing to live up to the moral demands of their own rationalist doctrine. By the mid-2010s she had begun publishing dense blog posts that extended rationalist decision theory into claims about gender, cognition, and morality.[^1][^2][^4] -LaSota began blogging under the persona "Ziz" around 2016, debating AI safety and logical paradoxes on [[LessWrong]] before moving to her own site with longer posts on technology, gender identity, and cognition. CFAR co-founder [[Anna Salamon]] later characterized LaSota as someone who "wanted to feel special" but felt outshone in a Bay Area scene crowded with technical talent, and described the circle's turn toward extremity as an attempt to become "main characters" by other means. The formal split came in 2018, when rationalist organizations rejected the hemisphere theory and LaSota broke with the community that had drawn her west.[^2][^17][^18] +LaSota began blogging under the persona "Ziz" around 2016, debating AI safety and logical paradoxes on [[LessWrong]] before moving to her own site with longer posts on technology, gender identity, and cognition. CFAR co-founder [[Anna Salamon]] later characterized LaSota as someone who "wanted to feel special" but felt outshone in a Bay Area scene crowded with technical talent, and described the circle's turn toward extremity as an attempt to become "main characters" by other means. The formal split came in 2018, when rationalist organizations rejected the hemisphere theory and LaSota broke with the community that had drawn her west.[^2][^5][^6] ### The Rationalist Fleet -By 2017 LaSota had gathered a small circle of followers, largely transgender and gender-nonconforming rationalists, to establish what they called the "Rationalist Fleet," a floating intentional community organized around anarchic self-sufficiency, cognitive liberation, and total veganism. The group acquired a repurposed World War II tugboat, the Caleb (formerly the Panameta), and sailed it from Alaska to California. When the vessel's upkeep collapsed, members moved into trailers and converted box trucks along the California coast, the living arrangement that later brought them to the [[Vallejo]] property of [[Curtis Lind]].[^2][^5] +By 2017 LaSota had gathered a small circle of followers, largely transgender and gender-nonconforming rationalists, to establish what they called the "Rationalist Fleet," a floating intentional community organized around anarchic self-sufficiency, cognitive liberation, and total veganism. The group acquired a repurposed [[World War II]] tugboat, the Caleb (formerly the Panameta), and sailed it from Alaska to California. When the vessel's upkeep collapsed, members moved into trailers and converted box trucks along the California coast, the living arrangement that later brought them to the [[Vallejo]] property of [[Curtis Lind]].[^2][^7] -The fleet was conceived as a way to live outside the conventional economy while devoting full attention to averting an AI catastrophe, and members pooled funds to keep the boats running. The scheme placed a cluster of people with no maritime experience aboard aging vessels that demanded constant maintenance, and the financial and physical strain pushed the group ashore within a few years. The truck-and-trailer encampments that followed kept the community mobile and off conventional leases, a pattern that recurred through the Vallejo lot in 2022 and the box trucks parked near [[Frostburg]], Maryland, where members were arrested in 2025.[^2][^5] +The fleet was conceived as a way to live outside the conventional economy while devoting full attention to averting an AI catastrophe, and members pooled funds to keep the boats running. The scheme placed a cluster of people with no maritime experience aboard aging vessels that demanded constant maintenance, and the financial and physical strain pushed the group ashore within a few years. The truck-and-trailer encampments that followed kept the community mobile and off conventional leases, a pattern that recurred through the Vallejo lot in 2022 and the box trucks parked near [[Frostburg]], Maryland, where members were arrested in 2025.[^2][^7] ### Ideology -LaSota's central theory held that the brain's two hemispheres house separate personalities with their own genders and moral alignments, a "domineering, analytic" masculine left and an "empathetic, intuitive" feminine right, and that each hemisphere could be independently good or evil. She sorted people's mental "cores" into categories of "nongood," "single good," and "double good" according to how completely they aligned with her moral system. She counted very few people, herself among them, as "double good"; the associate [[Gwen Danielson]] was rated only "single good," which in the group's terms meant she could not be fully trusted and had to be watched.[^1][^6] +LaSota's central theory held that the brain's two hemispheres house separate personalities with their own genders and moral alignments, a "domineering, analytic" masculine left and an "empathetic, intuitive" feminine right, and that each hemisphere could be independently good or evil. She sorted people's mental "cores" into categories of "nongood," "single good," and "double good" according to how completely they aligned with her moral system. She counted very few people, herself among them, as "double good"; the associate [[Gwen Danielson]] was rated only "single good," which in the group's terms meant she could not be fully trusted and had to be watched.[^1][^8] -The group practiced "unihemispheric sleep," an attempt to rest one brain hemisphere while keeping the other awake, which LaSota described as a way to "jailbreak" the mind and deepen a member's commitment to the cause. Members also practiced "debucketing," the deliberate unlearning of inherited social categories in order to reach what LaSota framed as unmediated moral insight. The moral framework took the concept of "heroic responsibility" from Yudkowsky's fiction and combined it with the timeless-decision-theory argument that one should act on universal principles rather than causal pragmatism, so that ordinary ethical compromises became, in the group's account, existential betrayals. LaSota wore black robes and described herself as "Sith," after the malevolent order in the [[Star Wars]] films, framing a self-consciously adversarial morality against a world the group held to be irredeemably complicit in animal killing and on the verge of collapse through artificial-intelligence misalignment.[^1][^2][^6] +The group practiced "unihemispheric sleep," an attempt to rest one brain hemisphere while keeping the other awake, which LaSota described as a way to "jailbreak" the mind and deepen a member's commitment to the cause. Members also practiced "debucketing," the deliberate unlearning of inherited social categories in order to reach what LaSota framed as unmediated moral insight. The moral framework took the concept of "heroic responsibility" from Yudkowsky's fiction and combined it with the timeless-decision-theory argument that one should act on universal principles rather than causal pragmatism, so that ordinary ethical compromises became, in the group's account, existential betrayals. LaSota wore black robes and described herself as "Sith," after the malevolent order in the [[Star Wars]] films, framing a self-consciously adversarial morality against a world the group held to be irredeemably complicit in animal killing and on the verge of collapse through artificial-intelligence misalignment.[^1][^2][^8] In February 2018 a follower, [[Maia Pasek]], who used the name "Squirrel," died by suicide after intense involvement with LaSota and the group's psychological practices. Outside observers attributed the death to the sleep-deprivation experiments; LaSota instead presented it as evidence of the transformative power of the method.[^2] -LaSota's account folded the death into the hemisphere doctrine, holding that Pasek's two hemispheres had reached opposing moral verdicts and that one had killed the other, a framing that recast a suicide as a logical outcome of the practice rather than a casualty of it. The group treated the experiments as a kind of moral and cognitive boot camp, and the willingness to read a member's death as confirmation rather than refutation became a feature of how the circle processed later violence and casualties among its own.[^2][^6] +LaSota's account folded the death into the hemisphere doctrine, holding that Pasek's two hemispheres had reached opposing moral verdicts and that one had killed the other, a framing that recast a suicide as a logical outcome of the practice rather than a casualty of it. The group treated the experiments as a kind of moral and cognitive boot camp, and the willingness to read a member's death as confirmation rather than refutation became a feature of how the circle processed later violence and casualties among its own.[^2][^8] ### The 2019 CFAR Break and the Name -In November 2019 LaSota, [[Emma Borhanian]], [[Alexander Leatham]] (who used the name "Somni"), and Danielson, among others, appeared in [[Guy Fawkes mask|Guy Fawkes masks]] and black robes to protest a CFAR alumni retreat at [[Occidental]] in [[Sonoma County]], blocking the entrances and accusing the organization of covering up misconduct. Four people were arrested. CFAR had already barred LaSota and Danielson from its events that year, and the wider rationalist movement publicly distanced itself from the circle. The label "Zizians" was coined by online commentators warning the rationalist scene about LaSota; the group never adopted the name itself. One participant in the standoff was still being sentenced for it as late as April 2026.[^1][^3][^7] +In November 2019 LaSota, [[Emma Borhanian]], [[Alexander Leatham]] (who used the name "Somni"), and Danielson, among others, appeared in [[Guy Fawkes mask|Guy Fawkes masks]] and black robes to protest a CFAR alumni retreat at [[Occidental]] in [[Sonoma County]], blocking the entrances and accusing the organization of covering up misconduct. Four people were arrested. CFAR had already barred LaSota and Danielson from its events that year, and the wider rationalist movement publicly distanced itself from the circle. The label "Zizians" was coined by online commentators warning the rationalist scene about LaSota; the group never adopted the name itself. One participant in the standoff was still being sentenced for it as late as April 2026.[^1][^3][^9] -The protest framed CFAR as having concealed sexual misconduct within rationalist organizations, the same grievance of institutional hypocrisy that had driven LaSota's earlier break, now escalated into a masked physical blockade. The arrests gave the group its first criminal exposure and tied several of the people later central to the killings, Borhanian, Leatham, and Danielson, into a single documented incident years before the violence. The slow pace of the prosecution, with a defendant still facing sentencing in 2026 for conduct in 2019, kept the standoff procedurally alive across the entire arc of the later cases.[^1][^7] +The protest framed CFAR as having concealed sexual misconduct within rationalist organizations, the same grievance of institutional hypocrisy that had driven LaSota's earlier break, now escalated into a masked physical blockade. The arrests gave the group its first criminal exposure and tied several of the people later central to the killings, Borhanian, Leatham, and Danielson, into a single documented incident years before the violence. The slow pace of the prosecution, with a defendant still facing sentencing in 2026 for conduct in 2019, kept the standoff procedurally alive across the entire arc of the later cases.[^1][^9] ### The Faked Deaths -Disappearance and feigned death recur in the group's history. Danielson stopped appearing for court hearings in April 2019, and a lawyer later suggested she might be dead. In August 2022 LaSota staged her own death, leaving the impression that she had drowned after going off a boat in the San Francisco Bay, and remained at large under that cover before resurfacing in [[Philadelphia]] in 2023. She was wanted in two states by the time she was arrested in 2025.[^5][^8] +Disappearance and feigned death recur in the group's history. Danielson stopped appearing for court hearings in April 2019, and a lawyer later suggested she might be dead. In August 2022 LaSota staged her own death, leaving the impression that she had drowned after going off a boat in the [[San Francisco]] Bay, and remained at large under that cover before resurfacing in [[Philadelphia]] in 2023. She was wanted in two states by the time she was arrested in 2025.[^7][^10] -The 2022 disappearance followed a specific script: the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a report that LaSota had fallen from a boat in the bay, no body was recovered, and an obituary was published, leaving an official record of a drowning that let her drop out of pending Vallejo proceedings. The recruitment pattern that fed the group depended on similar severances on the members' side. Several younger recruits cut contact with their families before joining, sending final messages and changing phone numbers, so that the group absorbed people who had already vanished from their previous lives, a dynamic that surfaced again in the 2024 disappearance of [[Teresa Youngblut]].[^3][^8] +The 2022 disappearance followed a specific script: the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a report that LaSota had fallen from a boat in the bay, no body was recovered, and an obituary was published, leaving an official record of a drowning that let her drop out of pending Vallejo proceedings. The recruitment pattern that fed the group depended on similar severances on the members' side. Several younger recruits cut contact with their families before joining, sending final messages and changing phone numbers, so that the group absorbed people who had already vanished from their previous lives, a dynamic that surfaced again in the 2024 disappearance of [[Teresa Youngblut]].[^3][^10] ### The Vallejo Killings -By autumn 2022 LaSota and several followers were living in vehicles on a Vallejo lot owned by Curtis Lind, an octogenarian landlord who rented them space. On November 15, 2022, a dispute over unpaid rent escalated when members attacked Lind with a sword, impaling him and costing him an eye; Lind drew a handgun and shot and killed Emma Borhanian, a longtime LaSota collaborator. Leatham and [[Suri Dao]] were charged with Borhanian's murder and the attempted murder of Lind; Leatham later attempted to escape custody twice.[^2][^9] +By autumn 2022 LaSota and several followers were living in vehicles on a Vallejo lot owned by Curtis Lind, an octogenarian landlord who rented them space. On November 15, 2022, a dispute over unpaid rent escalated when members attacked Lind with a sword, impaling him and costing him an eye; Lind drew a handgun and shot and killed Emma Borhanian, a longtime LaSota collaborator. Leatham and [[Suri Dao]] were charged with Borhanian's murder and the attempted murder of Lind; Leatham later attempted to escape custody twice.[^2][^11] -On January 17, 2025, Lind was killed near the site of the 2022 attack, stabbed with his throat cut, shortly before he was due to testify against the members charged in that case. [[Maximilian Snyder]], a former [[University of Oxford]] student connected to the group, was charged by [[Solano County]] prosecutors with Lind's murder, which prosecutors alleged was meant to prevent his testimony.[^9][^10] +On January 17, 2025, Lind was killed near the site of the 2022 attack, stabbed with his throat cut, shortly before he was due to testify against the members charged in that case. [[Maximilian Snyder]], a former [[University of Oxford]] student connected to the group, was charged by [[Solano County]] prosecutors with Lind's murder, which prosecutors alleged was meant to prevent his testimony.[^11][^12] ### The Pennsylvania Killings -On December 31, 2022, [[Richard Zajko]] and [[Rita Zajko]] were shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of [[Michelle Zajko]], a member of the group; Michelle was questioned and treated as a person of interest but was not charged in the killings, and she has publicly denied involvement. Investigators have linked a firearm tied to Michelle Zajko to subsequent incidents involving the group.[^3][^11] +On December 31, 2022, [[Richard Zajko]] and [[Rita Zajko]] were shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of [[Michelle Zajko]], a member of the group; Michelle, long a person of interest, was charged with first-degree murder by the Delaware County district attorney, Tanner Rouse, on June 24, 2026; he said she likely did not act alone. She has denied killing them.[^13] Investigators have linked a firearm tied to Michelle Zajko to subsequent incidents involving the group.[^3][^14] -The couple, ages 72 and 69, were not found until a January 2, 2023 welfare check; Rita Zajko had been shot in the back of the head and Richard in the temple by a round that first passed through his hand, and two 9mm shell casings were left at the scene with no weapon recovered. A neighbor's doorbell camera captured audio of a voice shouting "Mom!" Pennsylvania investigators determined that ammunition matching the scene had been purchased by Michelle Zajko, who acknowledged owning a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, and in early 2023 LaSota was charged with obstructing the homicide investigation and disorderly conduct. The case remained unsolved into 2026, with the WHYY and AP timelines noting that no one had been charged in the deaths themselves.[^11][^16][^19] +The couple, ages 72 and 69, were not found until a January 2, 2023 welfare check; Rita Zajko had been shot in the back of the head and Richard in the temple by a round that first passed through his hand, and two 9mm shell casings were left at the scene with no weapon recovered. A neighbor's doorbell camera captured audio of a voice shouting "Mom!" Pennsylvania investigators determined that ammunition matching the scene had been purchased by Michelle Zajko, who acknowledged owning a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, and in early 2023 LaSota was charged with obstructing the homicide investigation and disorderly conduct. The case remained unsolved into 2026, with the WHYY and AP timelines noting that no one had been charged in the deaths themselves.[^14][^15][^16] ### The Vermont Killing -On January 20, 2025, Border Patrol agents stopped a vehicle on Interstate 91 in Coventry, Vermont, near the Canadian border, carrying Teresa Youngblut and [[Felix Bauckholt]], a German national and quantitative trader who used the name "Ophelia." A shootout followed in which Agent David Maland was killed and Bauckholt was shot dead; Youngblut was wounded. Federal prosecutors allege Youngblut fired the shot that killed Maland. The killing drew national attention to the group and set off the arrests that followed.[^3][^12] +On January 20, 2025, Border Patrol agents stopped a vehicle on [[Interstate 91]] in [[Coventry, Vermont]], near the Canadian border, carrying Teresa Youngblut and [[Felix Bauckholt]], a German national and quantitative trader who used the name "Ophelia." A shootout followed in which Agent David Maland was killed and Bauckholt was shot dead; Youngblut was wounded. Federal prosecutors allege Youngblut fired the shot that killed Maland. The killing drew national attention to the group and set off the arrests that followed.[^3][^17] -The pair had drawn law enforcement attention days earlier: a hotel employee in Lyndonville reported that they had checked in around January 14 wearing all-black tactical clothing and protective gear, including a holstered firearm, which prompted periodic surveillance, and investigators observed them in tactical dress in downtown Newport on January 19. According to the FBI affidavit, Youngblut got out of the vehicle during the stop and fired at agents without warning, using a .40-caliber Glock 23, while Bauckholt attempted to draw a weapon before being shot. A search of the vehicle turned up multiple firearms, .380-caliber jacketed hollow-point rounds, a ballistic helmet, night-vision goggles, a tactical belt with holster, handheld radios, and roughly a dozen electronic devices, several wrapped in aluminum foil. Maland died at North Country Hospital and Youngblut was treated at Dartmouth Hitchcock.[^12][^20] +The pair had drawn law enforcement attention days earlier: a hotel employee in Lyndonville reported that they had checked in around January 14 wearing all-black tactical clothing and protective gear, including a holstered firearm, which prompted periodic surveillance, and investigators observed them in tactical dress in downtown Newport on January 19. According to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] affidavit, Youngblut got out of the vehicle during the stop and fired at agents without warning, using a .40-caliber Glock 23, while Bauckholt attempted to draw a weapon before being shot. A search of the vehicle turned up multiple firearms, .380-caliber jacketed hollow-point rounds, a ballistic helmet, night-vision goggles, a tactical belt with holster, handheld radios, and roughly a dozen electronic devices, several wrapped in aluminum foil. Maland died at North Country Hospital and Youngblut was treated at Dartmouth Hitchcock.[^17][^18] ### Arrests and Prosecutions -On February 16, 2025, LaSota was arrested with Michelle Zajko and [[Daniel Blank]] in Allegany County, [[Maryland]], after a property owner near Frostburg reported that the three were living in two white box trucks on his land and refused to leave; investigators found LaSota in possession of a GM6 Lynx .50-caliber rifle, an HS Produkt Hellcat 9mm handgun, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and the three were ordered held without bail. A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted LaSota on June 20, 2025 as a fugitive in possession of firearms and ammunition, a charge carrying up to fifteen years.[^13][^21] +On February 16, 2025, LaSota was arrested with Michelle Zajko and [[Daniel Blank]] in [[Allegany County]], [[Maryland]], after a property owner near Frostburg reported that the three were living in two white box trucks on his land and refused to leave; investigators found LaSota in possession of a GM6 Lynx .50-caliber rifle, an HS Produkt Hellcat 9mm handgun, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and the three were ordered held without bail. A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted LaSota on June 20, 2025 as a fugitive in possession of firearms and ammunition, a charge carrying up to fifteen years.[^19][^20] -On March 12, 2026, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar granted a competency evaluation for LaSota after defense attorney Gary Proctor reported that she had refused to speak with a doctor brought to the jail and had told a prior hearing that the judge led an "organized crime ring," answering a question about her age with "Timeless." LaSota's lawyers separately rejected the "Zizian" and "cult" labels in court filings and accused the Department of Justice of misgendering their client by using her former name and male pronouns. She remained held at the Allegany County Detention Center pending the evaluation.[^14][^22] +On March 12, 2026, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar granted a competency evaluation for LaSota after defense attorney Gary Proctor reported that she had refused to speak with a doctor brought to the jail and had told a prior hearing that the judge led an "organized crime ring," answering a question about her age with "Timeless." LaSota's lawyers separately rejected the "Zizian" and "cult" labels in court filings and accused the [[Department of Justice]] of misgendering their client by using her former name and male pronouns. She remained held at the Allegany County Detention Center pending the evaluation.[^21][^22] -Youngblut was charged in federal court in Vermont; a superseding indictment in August 2025 added the murder of Maland and the assault of two other agents, and the Department of Justice filed notice that it would seek the death penalty, the first such pursuit of the second Trump administration. She pleaded not guilty in September 2025, and proceedings continued into 2026. Snyder was charged by Solano County with Lind's murder, and Leatham and Dao with the 2022 killing of Borhanian and the attempted murder of Lind. By early 2026 at least seven people associated with the group were fighting charges across California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The six deaths attributed to the group are Borhanian and Lind in California, Richard and Rita Zajko in Pennsylvania, and Maland and Bauckholt in Vermont.[^3][^15][^16] +Youngblut was charged in federal court in Vermont; a superseding indictment in August 2025 added the murder of Maland and the assault of two other agents, and the Department of Justice filed notice that it would seek the death penalty, the first such pursuit of the second Trump administration. She pleaded not guilty in September 2025, and proceedings continued into 2026. Snyder was charged by Solano County with Lind's murder, and Leatham and Dao with the 2022 killing of Borhanian and the attempted murder of Lind. By early 2026 at least seven people associated with the group were fighting charges across California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The six deaths attributed to the group are Borhanian and Lind in California, Richard and Rita Zajko in Pennsylvania, and Maland and Bauckholt in Vermont.[^3][^15][^23] + +In September 2025 Leatham, in court in Solano County, read a statement saying, "I am an innocent woman! I have done nothing wrong! This is a show trial to coordinate the genocide of transgender people!" and filed a motion to replace her lawyer; the Leatham and Dao trial was then set for October 21.[^24] In Vermont, Youngblut's lawyers sought in August 2026 an order preserving the phones of every officer and agent involved in the surveillance and stop, and argued that the authorities had determined before the stop that Bauckholt held a valid visa, undercutting its stated immigration basis; Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Matthew Lasher]] called the request "impractical, invasive, and unsupported by law" and wrote that the defense's source "indicated only" that a visa had been issued. No trial date had been set.[^25] In February 2026 Blank was allowed to post an unsecured bond of 15,000 dollars, and he was released from custody in August 2026; LaSota and Zajko were held in Allegany County pending extradition.[^26] ### Footnotes @@ -83,21 +85,25 @@ Youngblut was charged in federal court in Vermont; a superseding indictment in A [^2]: "Zizians," World Religions and Spirituality Project, Virginia Commonwealth University, November 7, 2025; scholarly profile of the group's origins, the Rationalist Fleet, ideology, and timeline. https://wrldrels.org/2025/11/07/zizians/ [^3]: "A timeline of activities of a cultlike group tied to the killing of a Border Patrol agent," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont [^4]: "How a California math genius spiraled into Zizian ideology and violence," *Open Vallejo,* March 12, 2025. https://openvallejo.org/2025/03/12/how-a-california-math-genius-spiraled-into-zizian-ideology-and-violence/ -[^5]: "'Zizian' namesake who faked death in 2022 is wanted in two states," *Open Vallejo,* January 31, 2025. https://openvallejo.org/2025/01/31/zizian-namesake-who-faked-death-in-2022-is-wanted-in-two-states/ -[^6]: "How did a German math genius get drawn into a 'cult' accused in coast-to-coast killings?" *NBC News,* 2025, on the hemisphere theory, the "single good" and "double good" classifications, and the group's composition. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/german-math-genius-get-drawn-cult-accused-coast-coast-killings-rcna189309 -[^7]: "Woman sentenced for 2019 Sonoma County standoff involving cultlike Zizians group linked to killings," *The Press Democrat,* April 23, 2026. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/04/23/sonoma-county-woman-sentenced-for-2019-standoff-zizians/ -[^8]: "Key figure in 'Zizian' group tied to Vermont border patrol shooting faked death in 2022 and is wanted in 2 states," *VTDigger,* February 2, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/02/02/key-figure-in-zizian-group-tied-to-vermont-border-patrol-shooting-faked-death-in-2022-and-is-wanted-in-2-states/ -[^9]: "How a Vermont border agent's death exposed violence linked to the cultlike Zizian group," *CBS News,* 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vermont-border-agent-death-exposed-violence-linked-cultlike-zizian-group/ -[^10]: "Federal grand jury indicts Zizian namesake with Vallejo ties," *Open Vallejo,* June 20, 2025, on the Snyder charge and the Lind killing. https://openvallejo.org/2025/06/20/federal-grand-jury-indicts-zizian-namesake-with-vallejo-ties/ -[^11]: "Michelle Zajko case: Member of cultlike Zizian group says she did not kill her parents in Delaware County," 6abc Philadelphia, 2025. https://6abc.com/post/michelle-zajko-case-member-zizian-group-says-she-did-not-kill-parents-delaware-county/16181890/ -[^12]: "Prosecutors file notice they will seek the death penalty against Teresa Youngblut in border agent killing," *VTDigger,* August 14, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/08/14/grand-jury-returns-new-indictment-against-teresa-youngblut-for-allegedly-killing-border-agent/ -[^13]: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Maryland, "Alaskan Individual Charged with Possessing Firearms and Ammunition as a Fugitive from Justice," June 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/alaskan-individual-charged-possessing-firearms-and-ammunition-fugitive-justice -[^14]: "Judge orders competency evaluation for alleged 'Zizian' cult leader Ziz LaSota," *The Baltimore Banner,* November 2025. https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/zizian-cult-leader-competency-evaluation-PXYELJW3NBB5HOUWG6MA4U4E3I/ -[^15]: "Prosecutors seek death penalty against Zizians member charged with murdering Vermont border agent," Associated Press, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-fatal-shooting-border-patrol-agent/ -[^16]: "A year after border agent's killing, 7 Zizians fight charges in 3 states," WHYY, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/border-agent-killing-zizian-criminal-charges-california-pennsylvania-vermont/ -[^17]: "A timeline of cultlike 'Zizian' group tied to killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025, on the 2016 start of the "Ziz" blog and the 2018 split from the rationalist movement. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont -[^18]: "Rationalist Cults of Silicon Valley," Ian Leslie, 2025, on Anna Salamon's account of LaSota wanting to "feel special" and the group's pursuit of being "main characters." https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/rationalist-cults-of-silicon-valley -[^19]: "Member of Zizians, cultlike group of AI-obsessed vegans, says she didn't kill her parents," *NBC News,* 2025, on the gunshot wounds, 9mm casings, and ammunition purchase. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/member-zizians-cultlike-group-ai-obsessed-vegans-says-didnt-kill-paren-rcna201537 -[^20]: "Court Docs Provide New Details on Border Patrol Shooting," *Seven Days,* January 2025, on the Lyndonville hotel, the surveillance, the Glock 23, and the gear recovered. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/court-docs-provide-new-details-on-border-patrol-shooting-42735984/ -[^21]: "Federal authorities bring firearms charge against alleged leader of Zizians," *VTDigger,* June 20, 2025, on the Frostburg arrest and the federal indictment. https://vtdigger.org/2025/06/20/federal-authorities-bring-firearms-charge-against-alleged-leader-of-zizians/ +[^5]: "A timeline of cultlike 'Zizian' group tied to killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, 2025, on the 2016 start of the "Ziz" blog and the 2018 split from the rationalist movement. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-timeline-of-cultlike-zizian-group-tied-to-killing-of-a-border-patrol-agent-in-vermont +[^6]: "Rationalist Cults of Silicon Valley," Ian Leslie, 2025, on Anna Salamon's account of LaSota wanting to "feel special" and the group's pursuit of being "main characters." https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/rationalist-cults-of-silicon-valley +[^7]: "'Zizian' namesake who faked death in 2022 is wanted in two states," *Open Vallejo,* January 31, 2025. https://openvallejo.org/2025/01/31/zizian-namesake-who-faked-death-in-2022-is-wanted-in-two-states/ +[^8]: "How did a German math genius get drawn into a 'cult' accused in coast-to-coast killings?" *NBC News,* 2025, on the hemisphere theory, the "single good" and "double good" classifications, and the group's composition. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/german-math-genius-get-drawn-cult-accused-coast-coast-killings-rcna189309 +[^9]: "Woman sentenced for 2019 Sonoma County standoff involving cultlike Zizians group linked to killings," *The Press Democrat,* April 23, 2026. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/04/23/sonoma-county-woman-sentenced-for-2019-standoff-zizians/ +[^10]: "Key figure in 'Zizian' group tied to Vermont border patrol shooting faked death in 2022 and is wanted in 2 states," *VTDigger,* February 2, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/02/02/key-figure-in-zizian-group-tied-to-vermont-border-patrol-shooting-faked-death-in-2022-and-is-wanted-in-2-states/ +[^11]: "How a Vermont border agent's death exposed violence linked to the cultlike Zizian group," *CBS News,* 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vermont-border-agent-death-exposed-violence-linked-cultlike-zizian-group/ +[^12]: "Federal grand jury indicts Zizian namesake with Vallejo ties," *Open Vallejo,* June 20, 2025, on the Snyder charge and the Lind killing. https://openvallejo.org/2025/06/20/federal-grand-jury-indicts-zizian-namesake-with-vallejo-ties/ +[^13]: Vella, Vinny. "A former Delco woman tied to the Zizians extremist group has been charged with her parents' killing." *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* June 24, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/michelle-zajko-zizians-group-parents-murder-charges-chester-heights-20260624.html +[^14]: "Michelle Zajko case: Member of cultlike Zizian group says she did not kill her parents in Delaware County," 6abc Philadelphia, 2025. https://6abc.com/post/michelle-zajko-case-member-zizian-group-says-she-did-not-kill-parents-delaware-county/16181890/ +[^15]: "A year after border agent's killing, 7 Zizians fight charges in 3 states," WHYY, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/border-agent-killing-zizian-criminal-charges-california-pennsylvania-vermont/ +[^16]: "Member of Zizians, cultlike group of AI-obsessed vegans, says she didn't kill her parents," *NBC News,* 2025, on the gunshot wounds, 9mm casings, and ammunition purchase. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/member-zizians-cultlike-group-ai-obsessed-vegans-says-didnt-kill-paren-rcna201537 +[^17]: "Prosecutors file notice they will seek the death penalty against Teresa Youngblut in border agent killing," *VTDigger,* August 14, 2025. https://vtdigger.org/2025/08/14/grand-jury-returns-new-indictment-against-teresa-youngblut-for-allegedly-killing-border-agent/ +[^18]: "Court Docs Provide New Details on Border Patrol Shooting," *Seven Days,* January 2025, on the Lyndonville hotel, the surveillance, the Glock 23, and the gear recovered. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/court-docs-provide-new-details-on-border-patrol-shooting-42735984/ +[^19]: U.S. Department of Justice, District of Maryland, "Alaskan Individual Charged with Possessing Firearms and Ammunition as a Fugitive from Justice," June 2025. https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/alaskan-individual-charged-possessing-firearms-and-ammunition-fugitive-justice +[^20]: "Federal authorities bring firearms charge against alleged leader of Zizians," *VTDigger,* June 20, 2025, on the Frostburg arrest and the federal indictment. https://vtdigger.org/2025/06/20/federal-authorities-bring-firearms-charge-against-alleged-leader-of-zizians/ +[^21]: "Judge orders competency evaluation for alleged 'Zizian' cult leader Ziz LaSota," *The Baltimore Banner,* November 2025. https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/zizian-cult-leader-competency-evaluation-PXYELJW3NBB5HOUWG6MA4U4E3I/ [^22]: "Competency review ordered for Jack 'Ziz' LaSota, who rejects 'Zizian' and 'cult' labels," Associated Press via *The Boston Globe,* March 12, 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/12/nation/jack-lasota-zizan-leader-mental-competency/ +[^23]: "Prosecutors seek death penalty against Zizians member charged with murdering Vermont border agent," Associated Press, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/prosecutors-seek-death-penalty-fatal-shooting-border-patrol-agent/ +[^24]: "Two Zizian Defendants Back In Solano County Court, One Seeking New Attorney." *SFist,* September 12, 2025, citing the *Vacaville Reporter* and Courthouse News Service. https://sfist.com/2025/09/12/two-zizian-defendants-back-in-solano-county-court-one-seeking-new-attorney/ +[^25]: "Cell phone data fight in federal murder case." *Valley News,* August 4, 2026. https://vnews.com/2026/08/04/border-patrol-agent-murder-trial/ +[^26]: "Local cases against 'Zizians' closed; extradition plans underway." *Forever Cumberland,* August 21, 2026. https://www.forevercumberland.com/2026/08/21/10983/ diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Troop 137.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Troop 137.md index 361a3c78..871e7a38 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Troop 137.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Troop 137.md @@ -14,37 +14,27 @@ start: 1974 end: 1976 location: "New Orleans, Louisiana" relations: - - type: founded - with: "[[Richard Halvorsen]]" - reverse: true - start: 1974 - fn: 2 - - type: founded - with: "[[Raymond Woodall]]" - reverse: true - start: 1974 - fn: 2 created: 2026-04-28 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop organized in [[New Orleans]] in 1974 by [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Raymond Woodall]], with about 40 boys as members. From them the two men selected about ten to go on Scout trips, during which sexual acts took place; one boy was injured and hospitalized. The victims in New Orleans were eight to twelve years old, and documents seized in the raid led police to believe the ring may have involved as many as 30 boys, including wards of the Louisiana Welfare Department. Halvorsen was a volunteer probation officer, and many of the suspects had worked with volunteer agencies dealing with runaways and boys from broken homes; Halvorsen and Richard A. Pass gave boys guitars and a motorcycle as inducements. District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] said the Scout leaders had drawn up applications for state and federal money to establish homes for boys.[^2][^3] +Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop organized in [[New Orleans]] in 1974 by [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Raymond Woodall]], with about 40 boys as members. From them the two men selected about ten to go on Scout trips, during which sexual acts took place; one boy was injured and hospitalized. The victims in New Orleans were eight to twelve years old, and documents seized in the raid led police to believe the ring may have involved as many as 30 boys, including wards of the Louisiana Welfare Department. Halvorsen was a volunteer probation officer, and many of the suspects had worked with volunteer agencies dealing with runaways and boys from broken homes; Halvorsen and Richard A. Pass gave boys guitars and a motorcycle as inducements. District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] said the Scout leaders had drawn up applications for state and federal money to establish homes for boys.[^1][^2] -Acting on a tip, New Orleans police raided the troop's headquarters in September 1976 and arrested Halvorsen and Woodall. Halvorsen, 51, and twelve other men were first charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated rape and aggravated crimes against nature; four, including the assistant scoutmaster Harry O. Cramer, 23, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were then at large. A search of Halvorsen's home produced card files with the names and addresses of boys in other states. "It seems to be like spider webs strung out all over the nation," said the juvenile detective Mason Spong, who said the investigation extended into 34 states; nineteen men were eventually charged.[^2][^3] +Acting on a tip, New Orleans police raided the troop's headquarters in September 1976 and arrested Halvorsen and Woodall. Halvorsen, 51, and twelve other men were first charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated rape and aggravated crimes against nature; four, including the assistant scoutmaster Harry O. Cramer, 23, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were then at large. A search of Halvorsen's home produced card files with the names and addresses of boys in other states. "It seems to be like spider webs strung out all over the nation," said the juvenile detective Mason Spong, who said the investigation extended into 34 states; nineteen men were eventually charged.[^1][^2] ### Adelphi Academies -Halvorsen and Woodall had come to New Orleans from [[Coral Gables, Florida]], where they worked as maintenance men for the [[Adelphi Academies]], identified by Florida police as a former male prostitution front. Halvorsen recruited six New Orleans boys for the academies by telling their mothers he could obtain free scholarships; the co-owner, [[Peter Bradford]], flew to New Orleans, had sex with one of the boys and met the parents, and the six boys enrolled. Bradford was charged in New Orleans with two counts of aggravated crimes against nature, forfeited bond and stayed in Florida, where no charges were filed.[^3] +Halvorsen and Woodall had come to New Orleans from [[Coral Gables, Florida]], where they worked as maintenance men for the [[Adelphi Academies]], identified by Florida police as a former male prostitution front. Halvorsen recruited six New Orleans boys for the academies by telling their mothers he could obtain free scholarships; the co-owner, [[Peter Bradford]], flew to New Orleans, had sex with one of the boys and met the parents, and the six boys enrolled. Bradford was charged in New Orleans with two counts of aggravated crimes against nature, forfeited bond and stayed in Florida, where no charges were filed.[^2] ### The Clients -Among those charged were [[Richard C. Jacobs]], millionaire president of the Jet Spray Corporation and a former part owner of the New England Patriots, who forfeited a 50,000-dollar bond to avoid trial in Louisiana; [[Robert B. Mallers]], a California millionaire; and [[Hugh Mellor|Hugh Scott Mellor]] of Brighton, Massachusetts, president of a real estate holding company.[^2][^3] Woodall's address book contained the name of [[John David Norman]], whose ring, according to the Chicago police, sent boys around the country to a network of clients. Halvorsen's files contained the name of [[Claudius Vermilye]] of [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, and the films seized in New Orleans helped Tennessee authorities identify boys filmed at the farm. By May 1977 Woodall and Halvorsen had been convicted and were awaiting sentence.[^2][^3] +Among those charged were [[Richard C. Jacobs]], millionaire president of the Jet Spray Corporation and a former part owner of the New England Patriots, who forfeited a 50,000-dollar bond to avoid trial in Louisiana; [[Robert B. Mallers]], a California millionaire; and [[Hugh Mellor|Hugh Scott Mellor]] of Brighton, Massachusetts, president of a real estate holding company.[^1][^2] Woodall's address book contained the name of [[John David Norman]], whose ring, according to the Chicago police, sent boys around the country to a network of clients. Halvorsen's files contained the name of [[Claudius Vermilye]] of [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, and the films seized in New Orleans helped Tennessee authorities identify boys filmed at the farm. By May 1977 Woodall and Halvorsen had been convicted and were awaiting sentence.[^1][^2] ### The Sialle Testimony -The writer S. Dovey wrote that the case broke when film found in a broken-down commercial processing machine in Dallas was traced to Cramer, and that [[Robert Lang]] was a third founder, arrested with the others, and the only principal to avoid prison, after the state Department of Corrections recommended probation for his "minimal involvement" and "high moral character." Dovey wrote that Halvorsen and Woodall used their positions as juvenile probation officers to reactivate case files and leverage families. An associate of Woodall, [[Lewis Sialle]], given immunity to testify, said that District Attorney Connick had been the lover of the boy pornographer [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive in the case, and that "there was a cover-up"; victims said they had met the troop leaders at Campbell's home after posing for his "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits. Sialle testified that Woodall ran an escort service that turned to the boys of the troop: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." According to Dovey, Halvorsen, Woodall and Cramer received long prison terms. Dovey also wrote that an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo of February 1977 confirmed the link to Norman's [[Delta Project]], then run by [[Phillip Paske]], and that Vermilye wrote to Halvorsen inviting him to the farm; and [[Don Berlage]], a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was connected to the case.[^1] +The writer S. Dovey wrote that the case broke when film found in a broken-down commercial processing machine in Dallas was traced to Cramer, and that [[Robert Lang]] was a third founder, arrested with the others, and the only principal to avoid prison, after the state Department of Corrections recommended probation for his "minimal involvement" and "high moral character." Dovey wrote that Halvorsen and Woodall used their positions as juvenile probation officers to reactivate case files and leverage families. An associate of Woodall, [[Lewis Sialle]], given immunity to testify, said that District Attorney Connick had been the lover of the boy pornographer [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive in the case, and that "there was a cover-up"; victims said they had met the troop leaders at Campbell's home after posing for his "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits. Sialle testified that Woodall ran an escort service that turned to the boys of the troop: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." According to Dovey, Halvorsen, Woodall and Cramer received long prison terms. Dovey also wrote that an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo of February 1977 confirmed the link to Norman's [[Delta Project]], then run by [[Phillip Paske]], and that Vermilye wrote to Halvorsen inviting him to the farm; and [[Don Berlage]], a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was connected to the case.[^3] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It spells the assistant scoutmaster "Harry O'Cramer"; the hearing record and Louisiana Supreme Court captions (*State v. Cramer,* 362 So.2d 581, La. 1978) give Harry O. Cramer. Neither Lang, Sialle, Campbell nor Berlage appears in the 1977 hearing record. -[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 -[^3]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 439-443, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^1]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041 +[^2]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 439-443, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit +[^3]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It spells the assistant scoutmaster "Harry O'Cramer"; the hearing record and Louisiana Supreme Court captions (*State v. Cramer,* 362 So.2d 581, La. 1978) give Harry O. Cramer. Neither Lang, Sialle, Campbell nor Berlage appears in the 1977 hearing record. diff --git a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Russian Imperial Movement.md b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Russian Imperial Movement.md index f18f5cac..2166f153 100644 --- a/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Russian Imperial Movement.md +++ b/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Russian Imperial Movement.md @@ -11,57 +11,55 @@ tags: - WhiteSupremacy - TrainingCamp created: 2026-05-22 -updated: 2026-05-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 start: 2002 location: "St. Petersburg, Russia" summary: "Russian Imperial Movement is a St. Petersburg-based ultranationalist paramilitary organization, designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity by the U.S. State Department in April 2020, that operated the Partizan training camp and provided weapons and explosives training to Western neo-Nazis including members of Atomwaffen Division." --- -[[Russian Imperial Movement]] (RIM, in Russian: Ruskoye Imperatorskoe Dvizhenie) is a [[Russia|Russian]] ultranationalist and white supremacist paramilitary organization headquartered in [[St. Petersburg]]. It was founded in approximately 2002 and operates an ideology combining Orthodox Christian monarchism, Russian imperial nationalism, and white supremacist pan-Europeanism. Its paramilitary wing, the [[Imperial Legion]], runs a training program called [[Partizan]] that has provided weapons handling, explosives, and tactical instruction to neo-Nazis from Sweden, Germany, the United States, and Finland. On April 7, 2020, the [[U.S. Department of State]] designated RIM and three of its leaders as [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] (SDGT) entities under [[Executive Order 13224]], the first time the United States had ever applied a terrorist designation to a white supremacist organization.[^1] +Russian Imperial Movement (RIM, in Russian: Ruskoye Imperatorskoe Dvizhenie) is a [[Russia|Russian]] ultranationalist and white supremacist paramilitary organization headquartered in [[St. Petersburg]]. It was founded in approximately 2002 and operates an ideology combining Orthodox Christian monarchism, Russian imperial nationalism, and white supremacist pan-Europeanism. Its paramilitary wing, the [[Imperial Legion]], runs a training program called [[Partizan]] that has provided weapons handling, explosives, and tactical instruction to neo-Nazis from Sweden, Germany, the United States, and Finland. On April 7, 2020, the [[U.S. Department of State]] designated RIM and three of its leaders as [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] (SDGT) entities under [[Executive Order 13224]], the first time the United States had ever applied a terrorist designation to a white supremacist organization.[^1] ### Organization and Leadership -RIM was founded by [[Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev]], who serves as its overall leader. The organization's paramilitary infrastructure was built by [[Denis Valiullovich Gariev]] (also transliterated as "Gariyev"), who created the [[Imperial Legion]] in 2008 and directs it as its head. [[Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov]] serves as RIM's coordinator for external relations, managing recruitment of and networking with foreign white supremacist organizations. All three were designated SDGTs in the April 2020 State Department action alongside the organization itself.[^1] +RIM was founded by [[Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev]], who serves as its overall leader. The organization's paramilitary infrastructure was built by [[Denis Valiullovich Gariev]] (also transliterated as "Gariyev"), who created the Imperial Legion in 2008 and directs it as its head. [[Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov]] serves as RIM's coordinator for external relations, managing recruitment of and networking with foreign white supremacist organizations. All three were designated SDGTs in the April 2020 State Department action alongside the organization itself.[^1] -The organization describes its aims as re-establishing Russia as a "mono-ethnic state" and restoring the Russian empire, preferably under a restored Romanov dynasty. Although RIM thus formally opposes Putin's government as insufficiently monarchist, the organization has been allowed to operate freely in Russia, to maintain paramilitary training facilities, and to recruit internationally, without Russian government interference. This tolerance is what a 2026 peer-reviewed case study (published in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, drawing on eleven expert interviews and three years of open-source collection) describes as "tacit home-state toleration" that allowed paramilitary infrastructure to function as an international training hub.[^8] +The organization describes its aims as re-establishing Russia as a "mono-ethnic state" and restoring the Russian empire, preferably under a restored Romanov dynasty. Although RIM thus formally opposes Putin's government as insufficiently monarchist, the organization has been allowed to operate freely in Russia, to maintain paramilitary training facilities, and to recruit internationally, without Russian government interference. This tolerance is what a 2026 peer-reviewed case study (published in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, drawing on eleven expert interviews and three years of open-source collection) describes as "tacit home-state toleration" that allowed paramilitary infrastructure to function as an international training hub.[^2] ### Partizan Training Camp -The Imperial Legion operates a training facility known as Partizan, located south of Heinäsenmaa island on the outskirts of [[St. Petersburg]]. Partizan was created by Denis Gariev and has offered courses in firearms handling, explosives manufacture and use, close-quarters combat, military medicine, military topography, urban warfare, and small-unit assault-and-clearing tactics. Former Russian military personnel serve as instructors. The [[UK Home Office]] has assessed that the Partizan program "aims to increase the capacity of attendees to conduct terrorist attacks."[^4] +The Imperial Legion operates a training facility known as Partizan, located south of Heinäsenmaa island on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Partizan was created by Denis Gariev and has offered courses in firearms handling, explosives manufacture and use, close-quarters combat, military medicine, military topography, urban warfare, and small-unit assault-and-clearing tactics. Former Russian military personnel serve as instructors. The [[UK Home Office]] has assessed that the Partizan program "aims to increase the capacity of attendees to conduct terrorist attacks."[^3] -Attendance at Partizan was not restricted to Russian nationals. Foreign recruits from Western Europe, Scandinavia, and North America attended the camp during the period it operated freely, typically arranged through RIM's external relations coordinator Trushchalov. RIM did not charge fees for training; instead it positioned Partizan as a solidarity offering to like-minded organizations abroad, in exchange for networking relationships and the propagandistic value of demonstrating global white supremacist cooperation.[^2] +Attendance at Partizan was not restricted to Russian nationals. Foreign recruits from Western Europe, Scandinavia, and North America attended the camp during the period it operated freely, typically arranged through RIM's external relations coordinator Trushchalov. RIM did not charge fees for training; instead it positioned Partizan as a solidarity offering to like-minded organizations abroad, in exchange for networking relationships and the propagandistic value of demonstrating global white supremacist cooperation.[^4] ### Swedish Gothenburg Bombings (2017) The designated use case for the State Department's SDGT action was the participation of two members of the [[Nordic Resistance Movement]] in Partizan training before they carried out a series of bombings in Gothenburg, Sweden. -In August 2016, [[Viktor Melin]] (age approximately 23) and [[Anton Thulin]] (age approximately 20), both members of the Nordic Resistance Movement's Gothenburg cell, traveled to [[St. Petersburg]] and attended the Partizan training course. The training included explosives instruction. Upon returning to Sweden, Melin and Thulin, along with a third defendant [[Jimmy Jonasson]], carried out three bombings in early 2017: a car bomb at a refugee shelter in Torslanda on January 17; a bomb at a shelter for asylum seekers in January; and a bomb at a cafe frequented by left-wing activists. +In August 2016, [[Viktor Melin]] (age approximately 23) and [[Anton Thulin]] (age approximately 20), both members of the Nordic Resistance Movement's Gothenburg cell, traveled to St. Petersburg and attended the Partizan training course. The training included explosives instruction. Upon returning to Sweden, Melin and Thulin, along with a third defendant [[Jimmy Jonasson]], carried out three bombings in early 2017: a car bomb at a refugee shelter in Torslanda on January 17; a bomb at a shelter for asylum seekers in January; and a bomb at a cafe frequented by left-wing activists. -Swedish prosecutor [[Mats Ljungqvist]] stated in court: "Attending this paramilitary camp in St. Petersburg was a key step in Melin and Thulin's radicalization. We also believe it may be the place where they learned to manufacture the bombs that they used in Gothenburg." On July 7, 2017, Gothenburg District Court convicted all three; sentences ranged from 18 months to eight and a half years. DNA from bomb fragments matched Melin. The Swedish prosecutor's explicit attribution of the Gothenburg bombings to Partizan training provided the primary factual basis for the U.S. State Department's April 2020 SDGT designation.[^3][^4] +Swedish prosecutor [[Mats Ljungqvist]] stated in court: "Attending this paramilitary camp in St. Petersburg was a key step in Melin and Thulin's radicalization. We also believe it may be the place where they learned to manufacture the bombs that they used in Gothenburg." On July 7, 2017, Gothenburg District Court convicted all three; sentences ranged from 18 months to eight and a half years. DNA from bomb fragments matched Melin. The Swedish prosecutor's explicit attribution of the Gothenburg bombings to Partizan training provided the primary factual basis for the U.S. State Department's April 2020 SDGT designation.[^3][^5] ### Atomwaffen Division Training -RIM's most directly documented American nexus involves members of [[Atomwaffen Division]]. In 2018, AWD leader [[Kaleb Cole]] of Olympia, [[Washington state]], and AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]], also of Olympia, traveled to Europe on a trip that included, according to multiple investigative accounts, passage through [[Ukraine]] via the Donbas green corridor into [[Russia]], followed by attendance at Partizan training in St. Petersburg. The two subsequently traveled through Ukraine, entered Poland, and photographed themselves at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp. Cole later returned to the United States and continued directing AWD's operational activities until his February 2020 federal arrest.[^5] +RIM's most directly documented American nexus involves members of [[Atomwaffen Division]]. In 2018, AWD leader [[Kaleb Cole]] of Olympia, [[Washington state]], and AWD member [[Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh]], also of Olympia, traveled to Europe on a trip that included, according to multiple investigative accounts, passage through [[Ukraine]] via the Donbas green corridor into Russia, followed by attendance at Partizan training in St. Petersburg. The two subsequently traveled through Ukraine, entered Poland, and photographed themselves at [[Auschwitz]] concentration camp. Cole later returned to the United States and continued directing AWD's operational activities until his February 2020 federal arrest.[^6] -Bruce-Umbaugh was arrested and charged in the Northern District of Texas. He pleaded guilty on February 3, 2020, to possessing firearms and ammunition as a prohibited person, and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on April 28, 2020, before U.S. District Judge Terry Means in Fort Worth. The federal court record (5:19-cr-00130, N.D. Tex.) is the documentary basis for the Russia trip detail appearing in the government's prosecution materials.[^6] +Bruce-Umbaugh was arrested and charged in the Northern District of Texas. He pleaded guilty on February 3, 2020, to possessing firearms and ammunition as a prohibited person, and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on April 28, 2020, before U.S. District Judge Terry Means in Fort Worth. The federal court record (5:19-cr-00130, N.D. Tex.) is the documentary basis for the Russia trip detail appearing in the government's prosecution materials.[^7] -Cole was separately prosecuted in the [[Western District of Washington]] (case 2:20-cr-00032) for the [[Operation Erste Saule]] harassment campaign. He was convicted on five counts including civil rights conspiracy and sentenced to 84 months. The Russia trip appeared in government submissions in his case as background on AWD's transnational connections.[^5] - -In approximately 2020, RIM provided additional training to other American nationals affiliated with AWD at its St. Petersburg facilities, in a separate arrangement from the 2018 Cole/Bruce-Umbaugh trip. This is documented in [[CTC West Point]] reporting on the skull-mask neo-fascist network's transnational structure.[^7] +Cole was separately prosecuted in the [[Western District of Washington]] (case 2:20-cr-00032) for the [[Operation Erste Saule]] harassment campaign. He was convicted on five counts including civil rights conspiracy and sentenced to 84 months. The Russia trip appeared in government submissions in his case as background on AWD's transnational connections.[^6] ### German Training Operations -In 2020, RIM provided training at Partizan to members of the youth wings of two German far-right political parties: the [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] (NPD) and [[Der dritte Weg]] (The Third Path). Participants received instruction in firearms, explosives, and close combat. The training was documented by German investigative reporting and confirmed by [[Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty]]. Several graduates of the Partizan training, including German and Finnish participants, subsequently joined [[Russian-backed separatist militias]] fighting in eastern Ukraine.[^4] +In 2020, RIM provided training at Partizan to members of the youth wings of two German far-right political parties: the [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] (NPD) and [[Der dritte Weg]] (The Third Path). Participants received instruction in firearms, explosives, and close combat. The training was documented by German investigative reporting and confirmed by [[Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty]]. Several graduates of the Partizan training, including German and Finnish participants, subsequently joined [[Russian-backed separatist militias]] fighting in eastern Ukraine.[^3] ### U.S. Government Designations -On April 7, 2020, the State Department designated RIM, Vorobyev, Gariev, and Trushchalov as SDGTs under [[Executive Order 13224]]. This was the first white supremacist terrorist designation in U.S. history. Counterterrorism Coordinator [[Ambassador Nathan Sales]] explained at a press briefing that the designation was grounded in RIM providing training "for acts of terrorism" specifically through Partizan, citing the Gothenburg bombings as the documented case. The designation triggers asset-blocking and transactional prohibitions under U.S. law for anyone who deals with these individuals or the organization.[^1] +On April 7, 2020, the State Department designated RIM, Vorobyev, Gariev, and Trushchalov as SDGTs under Executive Order 13224. This was the first white supremacist terrorist designation in U.S. history. Counterterrorism Coordinator [[Ambassador Nathan Sales]] explained at a press briefing that the designation was grounded in RIM providing training "for acts of terrorism" specifically through Partizan, citing the Gothenburg bombings as the documented case. The designation triggers asset-blocking and transactional prohibitions under U.S. law for anyone who deals with these individuals or the organization.[^1] -On June 15, 2022, the [[U.S. Treasury Department]]'s [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] (OFAC) designated two additional supporters of RIM as SDGTs, pursuant to [[Executive Order 13224]]. Treasury's press release (jy0817) documented this supplemental designation. The identity of the two individuals named in the June 2022 action was not reproduced in available open-source summaries consulted for this entry; the OFAC SDN list entry and Treasury press release contain the authoritative names.[^9] +On June 15, 2022, the [[U.S. Treasury Department]]'s [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] (OFAC) designated two additional supporters of RIM as SDGTs, pursuant to Executive Order 13224. Treasury's press release (jy0817) documented this supplemental designation. The identity of the two individuals named in the June 2022 action was not reproduced in available open-source summaries consulted for this entry; the OFAC SDN list entry and Treasury press release contain the authoritative names.[^8] ### UK Proscription -The [[United Kingdom]] proscribed RIM as a terrorist organization in 2025, following a multi-year debate in which parliamentary questions in the Commons had raised the matter. [[Searchlight Magazine]] reported on the UK Home Office proscription order, which extended to RIM the same legal framework applied to other proscribed organizations under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]]. The exact Statutory Instrument number and date of the UK proscription are not confirmed in materials reviewed for this entry; see open thread in _NOTES.md.[^10] +The [[United Kingdom]] proscribed RIM as a terrorist organization in 2025, following a multi-year debate in which parliamentary questions in the Commons had raised the matter. [[Searchlight Magazine]] reported on the UK Home Office proscription order, which extended to RIM the same legal framework applied to other proscribed organizations under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]]. The exact Statutory Instrument number and date of the UK proscription are not confirmed in materials reviewed for this entry; see open thread in _NOTES.md.[^9] ### Russian State Tolerance and the Non-Prosecution Pattern @@ -69,21 +67,20 @@ RIM formally opposes Putin's government on monarchist grounds, and this has been First, RIM operated Partizan as an international training hub for years while Russian security services took no action, despite Russia's explicit designation of multiple of RIM's Western trainees' organizations as extremist. -Second, RIM participated in the conflict in the Donbas by sending its [[Imperial Legion]] volunteer fighters to eastern Ukraine in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists. This participation was not prosecuted. +Second, RIM participated in the conflict in the Donbas by sending its Imperial Legion volunteer fighters to eastern Ukraine in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists. This participation was not prosecuted. Third, RIM is based in St. Petersburg, where [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] (The Base founder) also relocated in 2017-2018. The co-location of two designated terrorist organizations with Western recruitment mandates in the same city, with neither facing Russian prosecution, describes an environment of consistent state tolerance. -The 2026 peer-reviewed article in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism concludes that RIM's transnational expansion was enabled by the convergence of permissive conflict arenas, shared ideology as a substitute for ethnic kinship in recruiting, and "tacit home-state toleration" enabling Partizan to function as an international terrorism-training hub. The article stops short of asserting direct state direction.[^8] +The 2026 peer-reviewed article in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism concludes that RIM's transnational expansion was enabled by the convergence of permissive conflict arenas, shared ideology as a substitute for ethnic kinship in recruiting, and "tacit home-state toleration" enabling Partizan to function as an international terrorism-training hub. The article stops short of asserting direct state direction.[^2] ### Footnotes [^1]: U.S. Department of State. "The U.S. Department of State's Designation of the Russian Imperial Movement and its Leaders as Global Terrorists." April 7, 2020. https://2017-2021.state.gov/the-u-s-department-of-states-designation-of-the-russian-imperial-movement-and-its-leaders-as-global-terrorists/index.html; U.S. Embassy in Georgia, "Briefing With Coordinator for Counterterrorism Amb. Sales." April 7, 2020. https://ge.usembassy.gov/briefing-with-coordinator-for-counterterrorism-amb-sales-on-the-u-s-designation-of-russian-imperial-movement-and-its-leaders-as-global-terrorists/ -[^2]: Counter Extremism Project. "Russian Imperial Movement (RIM)." https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/russian-imperial-movement-rim -[^3]: BuzzFeed News (Lester Feder). "These Swedish Nazis Trained In Russia Before Bombing A Center For Asylum Seekers." https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/these-swedish-nazis-trained-in-russia; The Daily Beast. "Russian Extremists Are Training Right-Wing Terrorists From Western Europe." https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-extremists-are-training-right-wing-terrorists-from-western-europe/ -[^4]: VICE News. "German Neo Nazis Are Getting Explosives Training at a White Supremacist Camp in Russia." https://www.vice.com/en/article/german-neo-nazis-are-getting-explosives-training-at-a-white-supremacist-camp-in-russia/; RFE/RL. "Report: German Neo-Nazis Training At Russian Terrorist Camp." https://www.rferl.org/a/german-neo-nazi-training-in-russia/30655860.html -[^5]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages -[^6]: GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, Case 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0 -[^7]: CTC West Point. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/ -[^8]: Journal of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. "Ideological affinity, state toleration and the transnational expansion of the far-right Russian imperial movement." Published online January 22, 2026. doi:10.1080/17440572.2026.2618779. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17440572.2026.2618779 -[^9]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC. "U.S. Sanctions Members of Russian Violent Extremist Group." Press release jy0817. June 15, 2022. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0817; OFAC Counter Terrorism Designations, April 6, 2020 action: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20200406 -[^10]: Searchlight Magazine. "UK bans far-right Russian terror group." July 2025. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/07/uk-bans-far-right-russian-terror-group/ +[^2]: Journal of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. "Ideological affinity, state toleration and the transnational expansion of the far-right Russian imperial movement." Published online January 22, 2026. doi:10.1080/17440572.2026.2618779. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17440572.2026.2618779 +[^3]: VICE News. "German Neo Nazis Are Getting Explosives Training at a White Supremacist Camp in Russia." https://www.vice.com/en/article/german-neo-nazis-are-getting-explosives-training-at-a-white-supremacist-camp-in-russia/; RFE/RL. "Report: German Neo-Nazis Training At Russian Terrorist Camp." https://www.rferl.org/a/german-neo-nazi-training-in-russia/30655860.html +[^4]: Counter Extremism Project. "Russian Imperial Movement (RIM)." https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/russian-imperial-movement-rim +[^5]: BuzzFeed News (Lester Feder). "These Swedish Nazis Trained In Russia Before Bombing A Center For Asylum Seekers." https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/these-swedish-nazis-trained-in-russia; The Daily Beast. "Russian Extremists Are Training Right-Wing Terrorists From Western Europe." https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-extremists-are-training-right-wing-terrorists-from-western-europe/ +[^6]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages +[^7]: GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, Case 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0 +[^8]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC. "U.S. Sanctions Members of Russian Violent Extremist Group." Press release jy0817. June 15, 2022. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0817; OFAC Counter Terrorism Designations, April 6, 2020 action: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20200406 +[^9]: Searchlight Magazine. "UK bans far-right Russian terror group." July 2025. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/07/uk-bans-far-right-russian-terror-group/ diff --git a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project FUBELT.md b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project FUBELT.md index ed932990..394a9027 100644 --- a/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project FUBELT.md +++ b/30 - PROGRAMS & PROJECTS/INTELLIGENCE_OPERATIONS/Project FUBELT.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ start: 1970-09-15 end: 1970-10-24 location: "Santiago, Chile" created: 2026-09-21 -updated: 2026-09-21 +updated: 2026-09-22 --- Project FUBELT, known within the government as Track II, was the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s attempt between September 15 and October 24, 1970, to instigate a military coup in [[Chile]] to keep [[Salvador Allende]] from the presidency. President [[Richard Nixon]] ordered it to be run without the knowledge of the [[State Department]], the [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]], the ambassador in [[Santiago]], or the [[40 Committee]], which was simultaneously supervising a separate program of bribery and propaganda called Track I. The agency's contacts centered on officers who planned to abduct the army commander, General [[Rene Schneider]], who opposed a coup. Schneider was shot on October 22 and died on October 25. The [[Church Committee]] published the cable traffic in 1975.[^1] @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Project FUBELT, known within the government as Track II, was the [[Central Intel The CIA spent three million dollars on the 1964 Chilean election in support of [[Eduardo Frei Montalva|Eduardo Frei]], and the [[303 Committee]] and its successor approved 125,000 dollars and then 300,000 dollars for a "spoiling operation" against Allende's coalition in 1970. That July [[John McCone]], a former director of central intelligence who was a director of [[ITT Corporation|ITT]] and, by his own testimony, still "a consultant to the Agency," telephoned Director [[Richard Helms]]. A meeting followed between ITT's chairman, [[Harold Geneen]], and [[William Broe]], chief of the agency's [[CIA Western Hemisphere Division|Western Hemisphere Division]]. Geneen offered up to one million dollars. The agency declined the money and advised the company on secure channels, through which ITT passed at least 350,000 dollars to the campaign of [[Jorge Alessandri]]. Other American companies gave about as much.[^2][^3] -On September 4, 1970, Allende won 36.3 percent of the vote to Alessandri's 35.3 percent, a margin of 39,000 votes in three million, which sent the choice to the [[National Congress of Chile|Chilean Congress]] on October 24. On September 9 the 40 Committee gave Ambassador [[Edward Korry]] 250,000 dollars to influence that vote.[^2] +On September 4, 1970, Allende won 36.3 percent of the vote to Alessandri's 35.3 percent, a margin of 39,000 votes in three million, which sent the choice to the [[National Congress of Chile|Chilean Congress]] on October 24. On September 14 the 40 Committee authorized a contingency fund of 250,000 dollars, to be handled by Ambassador [[Edward Korry]], to swing congressional votes to Alessandri; the only proposal discussed, to bribe Chilean congressmen, was soon judged unworkable, and the money was never spent.[^2] ### September 15 diff --git a/40 - EVENTS/HISTORICAL_PHENOMENA/Queen's Accident.md b/40 - EVENTS/HISTORICAL_PHENOMENA/Queen's Accident.md index 156e5343..6299f5d6 100644 --- a/40 - EVENTS/HISTORICAL_PHENOMENA/Queen's Accident.md +++ b/40 - EVENTS/HISTORICAL_PHENOMENA/Queen's Accident.md @@ -10,29 +10,24 @@ summary: "Collision on Route 132 in Mariposa County on March 5, 1983, between a date: 1983-03-05 location: "Route 132, Mariposa County, California" relations: - - type: participant_in - with: "[[Roderick Sinclair]]" - reverse: true - role: "driver of the patrol car" - fn: 2 created: 2025-08-05 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- -On March 5, 1983, a Mariposa County sheriff's patrol car driven by Sgt. [[Roderick Sinclair]], with Deputy [[Rod McKean]], collided on a winding stretch of Route 132 with the middle car of a three-car convoy of off-duty Secret Service agents in California to protect Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Yosemite National Park. Agents [[George P. LaBarge]], [[Donald Robinson|Donald W. Robinson]] and [[Donald A. Bejcek]] were killed; they were not wearing seat belts. Sinclair and McKean were injured. The convoy was preceding the royal motorcade, which passed the site a short time later; the Queen and Prince Philip detoured around it and saw the wreckage.[^2][^3] President [[Ronald Reagan]] issued a statement on the deaths.[^4] +On March 5, 1983, a Mariposa County sheriff's patrol car driven by Sgt. [[Roderick Sinclair]], with Deputy [[Rod McKean]], collided on a winding stretch of Route 132 with the middle car of a three-car convoy of off-duty Secret Service agents in California to protect Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Yosemite National Park. Agents [[George P. LaBarge]], [[Donald Robinson|Donald W. Robinson]] and [[Donald A. Bejcek]] were killed; they were not wearing seat belts. Sinclair and McKean were injured. The convoy was preceding the royal motorcade, which passed the site a short time later; the Queen and Prince Philip detoured around it and saw the wreckage.[^1][^2] President [[Ronald Reagan]] issued a statement on the deaths.[^3] ### The Investigations -A 178-page report of the Central Division of the [[California Highway Patrol]], issued March 29, 1983, blamed Sinclair's speed, estimated at 76 to 80 miles an hour and later revised to 72, and recommended that he be prosecuted. The Mariposa County District Attorney, J. [[Bruce Eckerson]], resisted CHP pressure to file charges for six months and engaged a retired CHP lieutenant, Bob Kovach, whose review disputed the skid-mark evidence; Sinclair's lawyer, David Linn, said the CHP had reached "a predetermined conclusion." The CHP stood by its report.[^3] +A 178-page report of the Central Division of the [[California Highway Patrol]], issued March 29, 1983, blamed Sinclair's speed, estimated at 76 to 80 miles an hour and later revised to 72, and recommended that he be prosecuted. The Mariposa County District Attorney, J. [[Bruce Eckerson]], resisted CHP pressure to file charges for six months and engaged a retired CHP lieutenant, Bob Kovach, whose review disputed the skid-mark evidence; Sinclair's lawyer, David Linn, said the CHP had reached "a predetermined conclusion." The CHP stood by its report.[^2] -The survivors of the three agents sued Mariposa County and Sinclair and settled for a total of 4 million dollars. The county then sued the [[United States]] for contribution, arguing that the federal drivers, Agent LaBarge and Agent Max Phillips in the car ahead, had driven negligently. The district court found that the collision occurred on a blind curve, that Sinclair was driving at 64 miles an hour in a 35-mile zone, 6 miles an hour below the critical speed for the curve, that both federal cars were halfway across the center line into his lane, and that their presence caused him to brake and skid; it found Sinclair 70 percent at fault and ordered the United States to pay 30 percent of the settlement, 1.2 million dollars. On August 26, 1986, the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that the United States, as an employer covered by workers' compensation, could not be sued for contribution.[^2] +The survivors of the three agents sued Mariposa County and Sinclair and settled for a total of 4 million dollars. The county then sued the [[United States]] for contribution, arguing that the federal drivers, Agent LaBarge and Agent Max Phillips in the car ahead, had driven negligently. The district court found that the collision occurred on a blind curve, that Sinclair was driving at 64 miles an hour in a 35-mile zone, 6 miles an hour below the critical speed for the curve, that both federal cars were halfway across the center line into his lane, and that their presence caused him to brake and skid; it found Sinclair 70 percent at fault and ordered the United States to pay 30 percent of the settlement, 1.2 million dollars. On August 26, 1986, the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that the United States, as an employer covered by workers' compensation, could not be sued for contribution.[^1] ### Drug and Cover-up Allegations -The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Sinclair had been receiving large daily doses of Demerol prescribed by [[Dr. Arthur Dahlem]], as nurses at Fremont Hospital and former deputies confirmed; that Assistant U.S. Attorney [[James White]] in Fresno ordered Dahlem's files seized and Judge [[Robert E. Coyle]] ordered him to drop the criminal investigation on the ground that no blood tests had been taken, although tests had been taken and later disappeared; that the CHP report went to the office of Attorney General [[John Van de Kamp]], who told an assistant to "discard" it; that Eckerson held stock in [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]; and that the CHP officers on the original investigation and White himself resigned or were transferred or fired. Deputy [[Rod Cusic]] told the Fresno office of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] that Sinclair had told him "to lie to a Grand Jury," and said he had seen a booby-trapped incendiary device explode at Sinclair's home; Seymour wrote that a 1984 civil trial heard that Sinclair's car carried automatic weapons and a booby-trapped bomb. Sinclair was later promoted to commander. A Secret Service agent, [[Ron Williams]], whose friend was killed, and a CBS executive asked Seymour to investigate, and [[Don Thrasher]] of ABC's *20/20* examined Sinclair's background. The case figured in the reporting of [[Jerry Goldberg]] for *Capitol News Service* and the work of [[D.I.G. (Decency in Government)|D.I.G.]][^1] +The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Sinclair had been receiving large daily doses of Demerol prescribed by [[Dr. Arthur Dahlem]], as nurses at Fremont Hospital and former deputies confirmed; that Assistant U.S. Attorney [[James White]] in Fresno ordered Dahlem's files seized and Judge [[Robert E. Coyle]] ordered him to drop the criminal investigation on the ground that no blood tests had been taken, although tests had been taken and later disappeared; that the CHP report went to the office of Attorney General [[John Van de Kamp]], who told an assistant to "discard" it; that Eckerson held stock in [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]; and that the CHP officers on the original investigation and White himself resigned or were transferred or fired. Deputy [[Rod Cusic]] told the Fresno office of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] that Sinclair had told him "to lie to a Grand Jury," and said he had seen a booby-trapped incendiary device explode at Sinclair's home; Seymour wrote that a 1984 civil trial heard that Sinclair's car carried automatic weapons and a booby-trapped bomb. Sinclair was later promoted to commander. A Secret Service agent, [[Ron Williams]], whose friend was killed, and a CBS executive asked Seymour to investigate, and [[Don Thrasher]] of ABC's *20/20* examined Sinclair's background. The case figured in the reporting of [[Jerry Goldberg]] for *Capitol News Service* and the work of [[D.I.G. (Decency in Government)|D.I.G.]][^4] ### Footnotes -[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited. It describes Judge Coyle as ordering Mariposa County to pay 70 percent of the claim and Eckerson as appointed to write a replacement report; the court record places the 70 percent finding in the county's contribution suit against the United States, which was reversed, and contemporaneous reporting shows Eckerson as the elected district attorney resisting the CHP's call for prosecution. -[^2]: *LaBarge v. County of Mariposa,* 798 F.2d 364 (9th Cir. 1986). The caption spells the sergeant's name Roderic B. Sinclair; the opinion, Roderick. -[^3]: "Highway Patrol's Crash investigation questioned." United Press International, September 25, 1983. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/25/Highway-Patrols-Crash-investigation-questioned/7300433310400/ -[^4]: Reagan, Ronald. "Statement on the Death of Three Secret Service Agents in California," March 5, 1983. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-death-three-secret-service-agents-california +[^1]: *LaBarge v. County of Mariposa,* 798 F.2d 364 (9th Cir. 1986). The caption spells the sergeant's name Roderic B. Sinclair; the opinion, Roderick. +[^2]: "Highway Patrol's Crash investigation questioned." United Press International, September 25, 1983. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/25/Highway-Patrols-Crash-investigation-questioned/7300433310400/ +[^3]: Reagan, Ronald. "Statement on the Death of Three Secret Service Agents in California," March 5, 1983. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-death-three-secret-service-agents-california +[^4]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited. It describes Judge Coyle as ordering Mariposa County to pay 70 percent of the claim and Eckerson as appointed to write a replacement report; the court record places the 70 percent finding in the county's contribution suit against the United States, which was reversed, and contemporaneous reporting shows Eckerson as the elected district attorney resisting the CHP's call for prosecution. diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Foreign Terrorist Organization.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Foreign Terrorist Organization.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4b3273d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/Foreign Terrorist Organization.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +category: "Legal Concept" +aliases: + - "FTO" + - "Foreign Terrorist Organization designation" + - "8 U.S.C. § 1189" +tags: + - Law + - Terrorism + - StateDepartment + - MaterialSupport + - Designation +summary: "U.S. designation made by the Secretary of State under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, added in 1996, which makes material support to the listed foreign organization a federal crime." +start: 1996-04-24 +created: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-22 +--- + +Section 219 of the [[Immigration and Nationality Act]], codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1189, was added by the [[Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act]] of April 24, 1996. It authorizes the Secretary of State to designate an organization as a foreign terrorist organization on finding that "(A) the organization is a foreign organization; (B) the organization engages in terrorist activity... or retains the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism; and (C) the terrorist activity or terrorism of the organization threatens the security of [[United States]] nationals or the national security of the United States." Seven days before a designation the Secretary must notify congressional leaders "by classified communication," and the designation takes effect on publication in the Federal Register. On notification the Secretary of the Treasury may order financial institutions to block the organization's assets. Designations originally lapsed after two years unless renewed; the [[Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004]] made them effective until revoked. A designated organization may seek review in the [[Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] within 30 days.[^1] + +### Material Support + +The same 1996 act added 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, under which "whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so," faces up to 20 years in prison, or any term up to life if a death results.[^2] Because the designation is limited to foreign organizations, the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] has charged members of domestic networks such as the [[Terrorgram Collective]] and [[764 Network|764]] under [[18 U.S.C. § 2339A]], which requires no designation.[^3] In August 2025 [[Luke Baumgartner]] argued in *[[Just Security]]* that it was time to designate [[The Base]], founded by [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]], as a foreign terrorist organization.[^4] A separate civil designation, [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] under [[Executive Order 13224]], was applied to the [[Russian Imperial Movement]] in April 2020 and to the Terrorgram Collective in January 2025.[^5] + +### Cartels + +On January 20, 2025, President [[Donald Trump]] signed [[Executive Order 14157]], "Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists." It named [[Tren de Aragua]] and [[MS-13]] as "other transnational organizations," declared a policy of "the total elimination of these organizations' presence in the United States," directed the Secretary of State to recommend designations under 8 U.S.C. 1189 within 14 days, and directed the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to make "operational preparations" for any invocation of the [[Alien Enemies Act]].[^6] + +### Footnotes + +[^1]: 8 U.S.C. § 1189, with statutory notes. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1189 +[^2]: 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339B +[^3]: Baumgartner, Luke, 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/ +[^4]: Baumgartner, Luke. "It's Time to Designate The Base as an FTO." *Just Security,* August 5, 2025. https://www.justsecurity.org/118427/designate-base-fto/ +[^5]: U.S. Department of State, "The U.S. Department of State's Designation of the Russian Imperial Movement and its Leaders as Global Terrorists," April 7, 2020; U.S. Department of State, "Terrorist Designations of The Terrorgram Collective and Three Leaders," January 13, 2025. https://2021-2025.state.gov/office-of-the-spokesperson/releases/2025/01/terrorist-designations-of-the-terrorgram-collective-and-three-leaders/ +[^6]: Executive Order 14157, "Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists," January 20, 2025. *Federal Register* 90, 8439, January 29, 2025. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/29/2025-02004/designating-cartels-and-other-organizations-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations-and-specially-designated-global-terrorists diff --git a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/The Bell Curve.md b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/The Bell Curve.md index a6845e1f..7d059361 100644 --- a/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/The Bell Curve.md +++ b/50 - CONCEPTS & TECHNOLOGY/The Bell Curve.md @@ -17,14 +17,8 @@ relations: role: "co-author" start: 1994 fn: 1 - - type: participant_in - with: "[[Richard Herrnstein]]" - reverse: true - role: "co-author" - start: 1994 - fn: 1 created: 2026-09-22 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 --- *The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life* was published by the Free Press in 1994. Its authors, the Harvard psychologist [[Richard Herrnstein]], who died of cancer in September 1994 shortly before publication, and [[Charles Murray]] of the [[American Enterprise Institute]], argued that intelligence is substantially heritable, that it predicts life outcomes better than socioeconomic background, that a "cognitive elite" sorted by intelligence was stratifying American society, and that measured IQ differences between racial groups have a partly genetic basis.[^1][^2] The [[Manhattan Institute]], where Murray had been a senior fellow from 1982 to 1990, parted ways with him after he began the work; the [[Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation|Bradley Foundation]] underwrote his research at both institutions.[^3] diff --git a/60 - PLACES/LANDMARKS/North Fox Island.md b/60 - PLACES/LANDMARKS/North Fox Island.md index c9d6a2d8..d8f018c5 100644 --- a/60 - PLACES/LANDMARKS/North Fox Island.md +++ b/60 - PLACES/LANDMARKS/North Fox Island.md @@ -7,14 +7,9 @@ tags: - OaklandCountyChildKiller summary: "Island in Lake Michigan bought by Francis Shelden in 1960 and assessed at 312,000 dollars, site of the Brother Paul's Children's Mission camp exposed after the arrest of Gerald Richards in July 1976." created: 2026-05-14 -updated: 2026-09-22 +updated: 2026-09-23 location: "Leelanau County, Michigan, USA" relations: - - type: owned - with: "[[Francis Shelden]]" - reverse: true - start: 1960 - fn: 1 --- North Fox Island is a small island, about three miles long and a mile wide, in Lake Michigan roughly seventeen miles off the Leelanau Peninsula and fifty miles north of Traverse City, in Leelanau County.[^1] [[Francis Shelden]], a graduate of Yale and Wayne State and a descendant of Governor and Secretary of War Russell A. Alger, bought it in 1960 for 20,000 dollars and built a landing strip, cabins and trails.[^1] By 1977 it was assessed at 312,000 dollars.[^2]