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Finding the Foreign Agents
By Philip Giraldi
January 30, 2015
[Summary: In monitoring the activities of foreign organizations, the
DOJ often gives powerful political lobbies a pass.]
[Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the
Council for the National Interest.]
In high school civics classes, Americans are brought up to believe
that in their nation a rule of law prevails. Justice is depicted as
blind and the rules apply to everyone. All Americans will receive the
same fair hearing in court or at the hands of the government. Of
course the reality is that experience tells us that those who trust in
impartial justice are somewhat delusional as the criminal justice and
regulatory systems do not operate in a reliably mechanical fashion.
Many factors determine whether a suspect actually goes to trial or
whether an organization is regulated or investigated and there are a
number of roadblocks along the way that influence the outcome.
One of the federal government regulatory bodies that few have heard
about is the board at the United States Department of Justice's
Counterespionage Section that administers the Foreign Agents
Registration Act [1] (FARA). The original FARA was passed in 1938 just
before the outbreak of war in Europe and was intended to monitor the
activities of front organizations being directed by the German and
Italian governments. From its inception FARA was politicized and
selective. Rome and Berlin were potential enemies while the extremely
active British government efforts to draw the United States into what
eventually became a European and then a world war were largely
ignored.
The original act was loosely worded to include anyone propagandizing
for a foreign power but an amended version in 1966 narrowed the
definition of whom would be covered to include only actual `agents of
a foreign principal' working directly for a foreign government in an
attempt to influence U.S. economic or political decision making. Since
1966 there have been no successful criminal prosecutions under FARA
and nearly all compliance has been more-or-less voluntary. There have,
however, been a number of civil cases and administrative resolutions
in which the government asserted the viability of the act. In 2004,
for example, Susan Lindauer, a former congressional staffer, was
charged with [2] taking payments from an Iraqi government source. Her
case was finally dropped in 2009.
There are somewhat less than 2,000 foreign agents registered under the
act [3] representing more than 100 countries. Their names and their
periodic financial and activities filings are accessible by the public
[4] at the FARA Unit office in Washington. Most are associated with
law or lobbying firms that represent foreign governments as part of
their business. Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was, for a
time, a registered agent [5] for Turkey when he held that account
while working for the Dickstein Shapiro law firm, which he joined
after leaving congress. Former Congressman Dick Gephardt also headed a
company engaged in lobbying for Turkey. Both Gephardt and Hastert were
involved in lobbying Congress to oppose pending legislation calling
the First World War massacre of Turkish Armenians a `genocide.'
The disadvantage of registering under FARA is that you have to
disclose your sources of income and you also have to detail what you
are doing on behalf of the foreign government. Organizations that do
not consider that they are actually directed by a foreign government
or who assess their relationship to be borderline are consequently
reluctant to comply.
FARA inevitably is selective in its targeting. Agents of nations
hostile to the United States are pursued with some vigor while
organizations linked to powerful domestic political lobbies tend to
get a pass. This has been historically true of Irish republican groups
as well as of the predecessor of the powerful American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which was founded in 1949 as the American
Zionist Council [6]. The American Zionist Council was funded directly
by the Jewish Agency for Israel. Attorney General Robert Kennedy
ordered the group to register in 1962 [3] but the death of his brother
led to an intense lobbying campaign to influence his strongly
pro-Israel successor Lyndon B. Johnson who obligingly instructed the
Justice Department to stand down.
Since that time repeated efforts [7] to compel AIPAC to register [8]
have failed due to White House and Justice Department unwillingness to
confront the issue but a new initiative by the Israeli government
might well be construed as having crossed the line in violation of
FARA. In early January the Prime Minister's Office of the Israeli
government funded a joint project to be run by the government's
National Information Directorate and StandWithUS, which has been
described [9] as an `American hasbara organization.' In Hebrew the
name, hasbara, means literally `public explanation' but the expression
is generally applied to anyone involved in generating pro-Israeli
propaganda. It is also sometimes more politely described as a program
of `perception management,' a euphemism made popular [10] by the
Donald Rumsfeld Pentagon in 2004.
Israel has long been paying students [11] as part-time bloggers or
exploiting diaspora Jews as volunteers to get its message out. In 2009
the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote to a number of pro-Israel
organizations emphasizing the `importance of the internet as the new
battleground for Israel's image.' Haaretz reported [12] in 2013 how
Prime Minister Netanyahu's office collaborated with the National Union
of Israeli Students to create `semi-military covert units' at the
seven national universities organized to work in situation rooms.
Students use different names and IP addresses, which enable them to
make multiple posts, and are paid [13] as much as $2,000 monthly to
work the online targets.
The hasbara program [14] includes recruitment, training, Foreign
Ministry-prepared information sheets, and internet alerts to potential
targets. It is essentially an internet-focused `information war.' It
is supported by a desktop tool called Megaphone that provided daily
updates on articles appearing on the internet that are singled out for
confrontation or attack. The hasbara commenters flood websites where
commentary critical of Israel is observed in the belief that if
something is repeated often enough in many different places it will
gain credibility and create doubts regarding contrary points of view.
They also can hound critics and even destroy careers in journalism.
Veteran CNN reporter Jim Clancy was forced to resign [15] last week
after an exchange of tweets with hasbara over the Paris terror
attacks.
The joint enterprise between the American foundation and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office is more of the same. It
reportedly [9] is intended to strengthen `Israeli hasbara on social
media platforms,' with StandWithUs running `interactive media war
rooms.' The National Information Directorate's role will be to draft
the talking points and monitor the progress of the `war.'
StandWithUs, which was founded [16] to `educate others about Israel,'
originated in Los Angeles. It now has 18 chapters in the U.S., Canada,
Britain, and also in Israel. Incorporated as the Israel Emergency
Alliance, StandWithUs is a 501(c)(3) organization, which means it has
successfully claimed to be a tax exempt educational foundation. It is
reportedly largely funded [17] by Las Vegas multi billionaire casino
magnate Sheldon Adelson, who also has been active in supporting
Republican candidates perceived as particularly friendly to Israel.
StandWithUs is aggressive in its defense of Israel, to include a
secret program [18] to compile critical dossiers on pro-Palestinian
speakers as part of an effort to help `Israel advocates respond to and
counter anti-Israel speakers who come to your campus.'
The project is ostensibly being run through the StandWithUs chapter in
Israel, but it will include the training of British and American
students, and the parent organization is itself American in both
funding and its incorporation. As it has no other function than
promoting the Israeli government point of view so as to influence
decision making in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It
would be a clear case where registry with FARA would be mandatory as
the political direction and half the funding for the project are
coming directly from the Israeli government. If StandWithUS is
compelled to register under FARA it will have to reveal all its
funding and its tax exempt status will presumably be revoked by the
Internal Revenue Service.
And StandWithUs is far from alone. Israel is certainly entitled to
make its case to the American and international audience and one might
observe that it has done so extremely tenaciously and very
effectively. But a number of organizations in the Israel Lobby are
little more than fronts for promoting the Israeli right wing
government talking points in an attempt to shape American policy,
which indisputably makes them foreign agents as defined by FARA. As
foreign agents, they should be subject to some supervision of and
restraints on their activities and there would also be a certain
transparency in terms of who they are and what they represent which
just might make the media less inclined to go to them for commentary.
One suspects that the Barack Obama/Eric Holder Justice department has
little stomach for going after any organization linked to Israel and
that reticence is regrettable, particularly as Israel will undoubtedly
be using the upcoming Netanyahu visit to ratchet up the intensity of
its own campaign to convince the American public that war with Iran
should be a compelling U.S. national interest. If the American public
were made aware that much of the war fever is being drummed up by
organizations that are actually acting as agents of a foreign
government it just might make a difference in how that sales pitch is
perceived. But even if that were not the case, it would not be a bad
thing to observe that the United States government does indeed, at
least occasionally, play by its own rules.
URLs in this post:
[1] Foreign Agents Registration Act: http://www.fara.gov/
[2] was charged with:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/911/9-11_whistleblower_susan_lindauer
[3] registered under the act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Act
[4] accessible by the public: http://www.fara.gov/contact.html
[5] registered agent:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20090410/NEWS02/200033649/hastert-to-lobby-for-turkey
[6] American Zionist Council:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Zionist_Council
[7] repeated efforts:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/aipac-on-trial/
[8] to register: http://www.irmep.org/ila/azcdoj/
[9] described: http://972mag.com/standwithus-to-take-cash-messaging-from-israeli-govt/101314/
[10] euphemism made popular:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/politics/13info.html?pagewanted=all&position&_r=0
[11] paying students: http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/
[12] reported: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.541142
[13] are paid: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/14/israel-pay-students-propaganda_n_3755782.html
[14] program: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-setting-covert-units-tweet-facebook-government-propaganda
[15] forced to resign: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/hasbara-brought-israel
[16] founded: http://www.standwithus.com/news/article.asp?id=3720
[17] largely funded:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/10/28/adelson-backed-group-surveys-israeli-americans-on-level-of-loyalty-to-israel/
[18] secret program: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/compiles-palestinian-speakers
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/finding-the-foreign-agents/
From: A. Papazian
By Philip Giraldi
January 30, 2015
[Summary: In monitoring the activities of foreign organizations, the
DOJ often gives powerful political lobbies a pass.]
[Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the
Council for the National Interest.]
In high school civics classes, Americans are brought up to believe
that in their nation a rule of law prevails. Justice is depicted as
blind and the rules apply to everyone. All Americans will receive the
same fair hearing in court or at the hands of the government. Of
course the reality is that experience tells us that those who trust in
impartial justice are somewhat delusional as the criminal justice and
regulatory systems do not operate in a reliably mechanical fashion.
Many factors determine whether a suspect actually goes to trial or
whether an organization is regulated or investigated and there are a
number of roadblocks along the way that influence the outcome.
One of the federal government regulatory bodies that few have heard
about is the board at the United States Department of Justice's
Counterespionage Section that administers the Foreign Agents
Registration Act [1] (FARA). The original FARA was passed in 1938 just
before the outbreak of war in Europe and was intended to monitor the
activities of front organizations being directed by the German and
Italian governments. From its inception FARA was politicized and
selective. Rome and Berlin were potential enemies while the extremely
active British government efforts to draw the United States into what
eventually became a European and then a world war were largely
ignored.
The original act was loosely worded to include anyone propagandizing
for a foreign power but an amended version in 1966 narrowed the
definition of whom would be covered to include only actual `agents of
a foreign principal' working directly for a foreign government in an
attempt to influence U.S. economic or political decision making. Since
1966 there have been no successful criminal prosecutions under FARA
and nearly all compliance has been more-or-less voluntary. There have,
however, been a number of civil cases and administrative resolutions
in which the government asserted the viability of the act. In 2004,
for example, Susan Lindauer, a former congressional staffer, was
charged with [2] taking payments from an Iraqi government source. Her
case was finally dropped in 2009.
There are somewhat less than 2,000 foreign agents registered under the
act [3] representing more than 100 countries. Their names and their
periodic financial and activities filings are accessible by the public
[4] at the FARA Unit office in Washington. Most are associated with
law or lobbying firms that represent foreign governments as part of
their business. Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was, for a
time, a registered agent [5] for Turkey when he held that account
while working for the Dickstein Shapiro law firm, which he joined
after leaving congress. Former Congressman Dick Gephardt also headed a
company engaged in lobbying for Turkey. Both Gephardt and Hastert were
involved in lobbying Congress to oppose pending legislation calling
the First World War massacre of Turkish Armenians a `genocide.'
The disadvantage of registering under FARA is that you have to
disclose your sources of income and you also have to detail what you
are doing on behalf of the foreign government. Organizations that do
not consider that they are actually directed by a foreign government
or who assess their relationship to be borderline are consequently
reluctant to comply.
FARA inevitably is selective in its targeting. Agents of nations
hostile to the United States are pursued with some vigor while
organizations linked to powerful domestic political lobbies tend to
get a pass. This has been historically true of Irish republican groups
as well as of the predecessor of the powerful American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which was founded in 1949 as the American
Zionist Council [6]. The American Zionist Council was funded directly
by the Jewish Agency for Israel. Attorney General Robert Kennedy
ordered the group to register in 1962 [3] but the death of his brother
led to an intense lobbying campaign to influence his strongly
pro-Israel successor Lyndon B. Johnson who obligingly instructed the
Justice Department to stand down.
Since that time repeated efforts [7] to compel AIPAC to register [8]
have failed due to White House and Justice Department unwillingness to
confront the issue but a new initiative by the Israeli government
might well be construed as having crossed the line in violation of
FARA. In early January the Prime Minister's Office of the Israeli
government funded a joint project to be run by the government's
National Information Directorate and StandWithUS, which has been
described [9] as an `American hasbara organization.' In Hebrew the
name, hasbara, means literally `public explanation' but the expression
is generally applied to anyone involved in generating pro-Israeli
propaganda. It is also sometimes more politely described as a program
of `perception management,' a euphemism made popular [10] by the
Donald Rumsfeld Pentagon in 2004.
Israel has long been paying students [11] as part-time bloggers or
exploiting diaspora Jews as volunteers to get its message out. In 2009
the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote to a number of pro-Israel
organizations emphasizing the `importance of the internet as the new
battleground for Israel's image.' Haaretz reported [12] in 2013 how
Prime Minister Netanyahu's office collaborated with the National Union
of Israeli Students to create `semi-military covert units' at the
seven national universities organized to work in situation rooms.
Students use different names and IP addresses, which enable them to
make multiple posts, and are paid [13] as much as $2,000 monthly to
work the online targets.
The hasbara program [14] includes recruitment, training, Foreign
Ministry-prepared information sheets, and internet alerts to potential
targets. It is essentially an internet-focused `information war.' It
is supported by a desktop tool called Megaphone that provided daily
updates on articles appearing on the internet that are singled out for
confrontation or attack. The hasbara commenters flood websites where
commentary critical of Israel is observed in the belief that if
something is repeated often enough in many different places it will
gain credibility and create doubts regarding contrary points of view.
They also can hound critics and even destroy careers in journalism.
Veteran CNN reporter Jim Clancy was forced to resign [15] last week
after an exchange of tweets with hasbara over the Paris terror
attacks.
The joint enterprise between the American foundation and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office is more of the same. It
reportedly [9] is intended to strengthen `Israeli hasbara on social
media platforms,' with StandWithUs running `interactive media war
rooms.' The National Information Directorate's role will be to draft
the talking points and monitor the progress of the `war.'
StandWithUs, which was founded [16] to `educate others about Israel,'
originated in Los Angeles. It now has 18 chapters in the U.S., Canada,
Britain, and also in Israel. Incorporated as the Israel Emergency
Alliance, StandWithUs is a 501(c)(3) organization, which means it has
successfully claimed to be a tax exempt educational foundation. It is
reportedly largely funded [17] by Las Vegas multi billionaire casino
magnate Sheldon Adelson, who also has been active in supporting
Republican candidates perceived as particularly friendly to Israel.
StandWithUs is aggressive in its defense of Israel, to include a
secret program [18] to compile critical dossiers on pro-Palestinian
speakers as part of an effort to help `Israel advocates respond to and
counter anti-Israel speakers who come to your campus.'
The project is ostensibly being run through the StandWithUs chapter in
Israel, but it will include the training of British and American
students, and the parent organization is itself American in both
funding and its incorporation. As it has no other function than
promoting the Israeli government point of view so as to influence
decision making in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It
would be a clear case where registry with FARA would be mandatory as
the political direction and half the funding for the project are
coming directly from the Israeli government. If StandWithUS is
compelled to register under FARA it will have to reveal all its
funding and its tax exempt status will presumably be revoked by the
Internal Revenue Service.
And StandWithUs is far from alone. Israel is certainly entitled to
make its case to the American and international audience and one might
observe that it has done so extremely tenaciously and very
effectively. But a number of organizations in the Israel Lobby are
little more than fronts for promoting the Israeli right wing
government talking points in an attempt to shape American policy,
which indisputably makes them foreign agents as defined by FARA. As
foreign agents, they should be subject to some supervision of and
restraints on their activities and there would also be a certain
transparency in terms of who they are and what they represent which
just might make the media less inclined to go to them for commentary.
One suspects that the Barack Obama/Eric Holder Justice department has
little stomach for going after any organization linked to Israel and
that reticence is regrettable, particularly as Israel will undoubtedly
be using the upcoming Netanyahu visit to ratchet up the intensity of
its own campaign to convince the American public that war with Iran
should be a compelling U.S. national interest. If the American public
were made aware that much of the war fever is being drummed up by
organizations that are actually acting as agents of a foreign
government it just might make a difference in how that sales pitch is
perceived. But even if that were not the case, it would not be a bad
thing to observe that the United States government does indeed, at
least occasionally, play by its own rules.
URLs in this post:
[1] Foreign Agents Registration Act: http://www.fara.gov/
[2] was charged with:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/911/9-11_whistleblower_susan_lindauer
[3] registered under the act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Act
[4] accessible by the public: http://www.fara.gov/contact.html
[5] registered agent:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20090410/NEWS02/200033649/hastert-to-lobby-for-turkey
[6] American Zionist Council:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Zionist_Council
[7] repeated efforts:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/aipac-on-trial/
[8] to register: http://www.irmep.org/ila/azcdoj/
[9] described: http://972mag.com/standwithus-to-take-cash-messaging-from-israeli-govt/101314/
[10] euphemism made popular:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/politics/13info.html?pagewanted=all&position&_r=0
[11] paying students: http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/
[12] reported: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.541142
[13] are paid: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/14/israel-pay-students-propaganda_n_3755782.html
[14] program: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-setting-covert-units-tweet-facebook-government-propaganda
[15] forced to resign: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/hasbara-brought-israel
[16] founded: http://www.standwithus.com/news/article.asp?id=3720
[17] largely funded:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/10/28/adelson-backed-group-surveys-israeli-americans-on-level-of-loyalty-to-israel/
[18] secret program: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/compiles-palestinian-speakers
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/finding-the-foreign-agents/
From: A. Papazian