|
New IRmep book now available!
on Twitter!
Audio
|
 The
Fulbright Endeavor
What is the
Fulbright Endeavor? Arkansas Senator
James William Fulbright was an internationalist thought leader in the United
States Senate. Fulbright's record encompassed staunch
multilateralist support for the creation of the United Nations,
opposition to the disastrous war in Vietnam and
Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunt.
Like
George Washington, Fulbright fought to expose and regulate the foreign
financed and influenced grassroots groups and lobbies seeking unconditional
"passionate attachments" to foreign nations. His
insistence that US lobbying groups adhere to established US
statutes was grounded
in his commitment to the rule of law. Fulbright's belief in
foreign agent registration requirements were anchored in his legal studies
and US Department of Justice experience; he
earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1934. In
the same year, he was admitted to the Washington, DC bar and became an
attorney in the DOJ anti-trust division. This
legal expertise would serve Fulbright well as he fought
to expose
one of the most complex and opaque chains of
interlinked nonprofit corporations ever to be assembled in the United States:
the nascent Israel lobby.
IRmep's
Fulbright endeavor taps the senator's legacy of fearless confrontation of
foreign operatives who continue to insist that they
operate in a legal realm separate and above established US law and the national interest.
 3/5/2008
AIPAC case: DC grapevine or espionage? |
It is difficult to believe that a
trial, which is fair to the defendants, and thorough on the part of
the prosecution team, will actually move forward next month.
1. AIPAC and founder Si Kenen came under extreme scrutiny by the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee for operating as unregistered
foreign agents in the 1960s, but nothing happened.
2. AIPAC was found by the FBI to have negotiated the first ever US
free trade agreement with purloined International Trade Organization
documents; the agreement was signed anyway. FBI did not move
forward.
3. AIPAC was found to be coordinating political action committees in
violation of its tax exempt status. AIPAC was found to be acting as
a PAC, without disclosing donors, the case made it to the Supreme
Court, but no action was taken and even that decades old case is
still in limbo.
4. Co-prosecutor Kevin DiGregory has just abandoned the case to take
a job in the private sector (reminiscent of the golden parachute of
Carol Lam in the US attorney firing scandal).
5. AG Mukasey has been lobbied publicly by the Wall Street Journal
to toss this prosecution, and likely privately from many different
sides. The case may already be hobbled and �damaged goods� in the
DOJ, which, like the administration, would probably rather see this
all go away.
History would indicate that this is the type of subject that doesn't
get a fair hearing in America. (data cited from the book �Foreign
Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963
Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal� |
 |
 1/15/2008
Did the AIPAC Espionage Incident Harm America? |
Rosen and Weissman may have
trafficked the classified information to the press, but that was a
subordinate function of trying to influence the US posture toward
Iran, on behalf of Israel.
If they had suceeded, along with AIPAC and other foreign agents, the
US might be in a ground war in Iran, right now, NIE be damned.
This has little to do with "freedom of the press", and none of the
journalists involved (Glenn Kessler, reporters at Reuters, etc) have
been indicted.
See the book: "Foreign Agents: the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage
Scandal" for details.
|
|
|
| 1/15/2008
Did
AIPAC ever tap Funds from Israel? |
|
There are a few factual errors in this AIPAC
story, but this is the most important:
Contention: "Other detractors contend that
because it lobbies for aid and policies that benefit Israel, AIPAC ought
to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. But unlike
organizations and firms that represent foreign interests and
governments, AIPAC doesn't get money from and is not contractually
linked to Israel."
That's not really true. The 1963
Fulbright hearings found that over $5 million had been laundered from
the Jewish Agency in Israel to the US in order to indirectly fund think
tanks, PR efforts, and start up AIPAC. Isaiah L. Kenen, the founder of
AIPAC, and a former registered agent for the American Section of the
Jewish Agency in New York, dropped his registration and paycheck when he
formed AIPAC. However, the Jewish Agency was still funneling tens of
thousands to him through the American Zionist Council as a "service
provider" for writing his propaganda newsletter, the "Near East Report".
The year AIPAC was started up, The AZC's Department of Information
budget went down from $750,000 to $175,500 for AIPAC's startup costs.
So yes, AIPAC did get originally money
from Israel to commence operations, carefully laundered into the US in a
way that infuriated Senator Fulbright. However, then, as now, there are
prominent individuals who will step forward to question and smear anyone
taking too much interest in the opaque operations of this particular
foreign agent. No charges were filed.
I don't find this article to be very
"even handed". If Rosen and Weissman caused American deaths indirectly
by tipping off the Iranians that their codes were broken (via Chalabi),
is that okay? That would be more relevant than whether they walk their
dogs and love their kids. |
|
|
|
|
 1/12/2008
The Israel Lobby and Congress |
|
The Price of Willful Ignorance |
| Artur
Davis and Eric Cantor |
Grant Smith |
 "John
J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt are at it again, attempting
to poison the well of American politics with their misleading
depiction of an Israeli stranglehold on presidential candidates
and elected officials like us....It is uncertain if
Mearsheimer and Walt understand that their attack on the
'Israel lobby'
sounds an ugly tone. One wonders if their outrage over what they
patronizingly call the 'lobby'
extends to American corporations, or unions, or to the
evangelical community, or the black community, all of whom
vigorously engage the political process in pursuit of their
values. If their disdain is as selective as we suspect, what a
shameful aspersion on a faith and a nation. " |
 "Congress
used to house leaders of sufficient stature to question and
investigate foreign lobbying. Senator Fulbright
investigated the Israel lobby in 1963 discovering $5 million
dollars laundered in from the Jewish Agency in Israel to fund
startup lobbying, public relations, and think tanks to target
Americans advocating policies perceived to be 'against Israeli
interests'. This seed has grown into a juggernaut that few
now dare cross. US corporations, unions, and religious
organizations have a right to lobby, however the Foreign Agents
Registration Act requires all foreign lobbyists to register.
The Israel lobby refuses. Eric Cantor has taken $112,230 in
Israel PAC donations over his career; Arthur Davis has taken
$80,067. Congress is very well paid not to understand this
problem. However average Americans are beginning to perceive the
foreign agency that Fulbright uncovered forty years ago." |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
Sign
up for IRmep's periodic email bulletins!