New documents reveal a covert British military-intelligence smear machine meddling in American politics
The
Integrity Initiative has mobilized an international disinformation
campaign across Europe. Now, with government and right-wing
foundation money, this massive “political smear unit” is
infiltrating the US.
by
Max Blumenthal and Mark Ames
Part
6 - Grants from the neocons’ favorite foundation
An
Integrity Initiative memo states that the right-wing Smith
Richardson Foundation has also committed to ponying up funding
for its US network as soon as the group receives 501 c-3 non-profit
status. The foundation has already provided it with about $56,000 for
covert propaganda activities across Europe.
The
Smith Richardson Foundation has old ties to the US
intelligence community and controversial cold war influence
operations.
According
to reporter Russ Bellant, the foundation was secretly bankrolling
radical right-wing “indoctrination campaigns for the American
public on cold war and foreign policy issues”— programs that
got the attention of Senator William Fulbright, who warned
then-President Kennedy of their dangers. At one of these
indoctrination seminars, a Smith Richardson Foundation
director “told attendees that ‘it is within the capacity of
the people in this room to literally turn the State of Georgia into a
civil war college,’ in order to overcome their opponents.”
Smith
Richardson has funded a who’s who of the neoconservative
movement, from hyper-militaristic think tanks like the American
Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War.
“To say the [Smith Richardson] foundation was involved at every
level in the lobbying for and crafting of the so-called global war on
terror after 9/11 would be an understatement,” wrote journalist
Kelley Vlahos.
Besides
Smith Richardson, the Integrity Initiative has stated
its intention to apply for grants from the State Department “to
expand the Integrity Initiative activities both within and outside of
the USA.” This is yet another indicator that the US government
is paying for propaganda targeting its own citizens.
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