The Hidden Soros Agenda: Drugs, Money, the Media, and

Political Power

Special Report | By Cliff Kincaid | October 27, 2004

Soros may be the biggest political fat cat of all time.

How many times have we heard or read stories about Vice President Dick Cheney's old firm,
Halliburton, and its alleged influence over the government? A public company with more than
100,000 employees, Halliburton had revenues of $13 billion in 2001. However, George Soros is
a human Halliburton who will be in a position if John Kerry is elected president to pull the
strings. He is reportedly worth $7.2 billion. But his role in buying the White House for John
Kerry has received generally positive coverage. Soros, we're told, is a "philanthropist"
committed to "democracy." The Republican Party, by contrast, is supposed to be run by fat cats
and Big Business, such as those at Halliburton.

Soros may be the biggest political fat cat of all time. Convicted in France of insider trading,
Soros specializes in weakening or collapsing the currencies of entire nations for his own selfish
interests. He is known as the man who broke the Bank of England. His power is such that his
statements alone can cause currencies to go up or down. Other people suffer so he can get rich.
But journalists don't want to examine the questionable means by which he achieved his wealth
because they share his goal of electing Kerry and the Democrats. Curiously, once he made his
fortune he became a global socialist, endorsing global taxes on the very means he employed to
get rich – international currency speculation and manipulation.

The media consistently ignore the fact that this so-called "philanthropist" has had several brushes
with the law as he has laid siege to national economies and currencies. Hard-working U.S.
businessmen understand how Soros has made his money. In protesting a Soros appearance
hosted by the University of Toledo, Edwin J. Nagle III, president and CEO of the Nagle
Companies, highlighted "the immoral and unethical means by which he achieved his wealth." He
added, "I certainly didn't see included in his bio the stories on how he collapsed whole country's
currencies for his own self interests so that many may suffer."

Here, Soros signed a consent decree in United States District Court, in a Securities and Exchange
Commission case involving stock manipulation, and was fined $75,000 by the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission for holding positions "in excess of speculative limits." Stories
about Soros rarely, if ever, mention any of his legal problems.

Despite his vision of an "open society," he operates an unregulated "hedge fund," open only to
the super-rich, and is currently fighting a proposal from the Bush-appointed chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate and monitor these offshore entities. House
Speaker Dennis Hastert said on national television that no one really knows where the Soros
money comes from.

Soros has categorically denied receiving money from drug cartels or any form of criminal
activity. The fact remains, however, that at least some of his financial operations have been
based offshore, in banking and financial centers that are widely reported to be considered
conducive to money-laundering. The Soros fund is based in the Netherlands Antilles, a self-
governing federation of five Caribbean islands. A CIA factbook describes the region as "a
transshipment point for South American drugs bound for the US and Europe; money-laundering
center."

Soros reportedly purchased a major stake in one of Colombia's biggest banks, at a time when the
Drug Enforcement Administration, in its study, "Colombian Economic Reform: The Impact on
Drug Money Laundering within the Colombian Economy," was documenting how major drug
kingpins were taking advantage of the liberalization of the economy to put illicit drug revenue
into legitimate businesses. The report stated: "U.S. and Colombian Government authorities have
evidence of drug proceeds being deposited in every major bank in Colombia... A Colombian
source indicated that many banks and businesses are owned covertly by principal members of the
Cali cartel."

His complex web of financial interests, companies and foundations makes Halliburton look like a
Mom & Pop operation.

The charge we read in the press is that Halliburton gets government contracts and makes money
from the Iraq war. Far less attention has been paid to the fact that the company has lost 54
employees as a result of that war. Nobody in the press mentions that Soros profits from the
Kosovo war, which he supported as a preemptive strike against Yugoslavia, because he runs an
investment fund that now does business there. Even though he pays big bucks to advertise his
opposition to the Bush policy of democracy-building in Iraq, reporters still describe him as
someone with a reputation for building democracy abroad.

However, his position on Iraq may be a diversion from the real reason he wants to get rid of
Bush – his longstanding desire to adopt a national "retreat and defeat" approach to the drug
problem.

Soros' long-time goal has been to subvert the national anti-drug policy of the U.S. Government,
to move away from the use of national and global law enforcement resources against the drug
trade. He calls this "harm reduction," meaning that criminal activity associated with the use of
drugs will supposedly be reduced if the government takes over the drug trade and provides drugs
and drug paraphernalia, including needles, to addicts. But law enforcement would still be
required to keep drugs out of the hands of children. If this is not the case, then Soros intends to
allow substances such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin to be distributed to children.

If Soros is able to capture the White House and implement his drug policy nationally, millions
more people could be led to experiment with dangerous psychoactive substances and damage
themselves, their families, and society. Even marijuana, depicted by the media as a "soft" drug,
has extremely negative consequences. In the new book, "Marijuana and Madness," one of the
editors, Prof. Robin Murray of Britain's Institute of Psychiatry, cites studies and evidence from
around the world, some of it going back 40 years, linking the use of marijuana to mental
illnesses, including schizophrenia and psychosis.

In a recent article about his growing financial and political clout, the Washington Post sanitized
Soros by claiming that he "funded efforts to reform campaign laws, decriminalize marijuana and
change [the] criminal justice system." All of that is misleading, if not false. His "reform" of
campaign laws left a loophole that will enable him to set a record "for the most money donated
by an individual in an election cycle," to quote the Post itself. So where are the investigative
stories into Soros and his agenda?

A key part of the Soros agenda -- his proposed surrender in the war on drugs -- has been
carefully concealed from the American people during this campaign. The war on Islamic
terrorism is front and center, to be sure, but the war on drugs is still of major concern to millions
of Americans, especially parents fearful of the influence of Hollywood and the drug culture.

A Soros role in formulating national drug policy is worthy of special press attention because his
pro-drug legalization campaign has been considered at odds with the vast majority of
Republicans and Democrats who share the view that legalization would make the drug problem
far worse.

In the current campaign, however, a major transformation has taken place. Soros is said to have
"privatized" or replaced the Democratic Party by subsidizing many different liberal-left
organizations that comprise its political base and creating new ones, the "527" organizations.

Among the candidates who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, Soros financially
supported John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Senator Bob Graham, and Howard Dean. He has been
praised by Senator Hillary Clinton and contributed to her Senate campaign and political action
committee. He has also contributed to the political campaigns of Democratic Senators Tom
Daschle, Carl Levin, John Corzine, Mary Landrieu, Debbie Stabenow, Charles Schumer, Joseph
Biden, Patrick Leahy, Paul Sarbanes, Thomas Harkin, and Barbara Boxer. In 2002, Soros funded
Al Gore for president and contributed $153,000 in "soft money" to the Democratic National
Committee. Soros, who is also very close to Bill Clinton, was described by Clinton's Deputy
Secretary of State Strobe Talbott as a "national treasure."

It is significant that Soros and two of his sons have contributed $2000 each to Brad Carson, the
Democratic Senate candidate in Oklahoma. His Republican opponent, Dr. Tom Coburn, was a
member of the U.S. House for six years, where he developed a reputation as a leading opponent
of efforts to legalize marijuana and fund needle exchange programs that facilitate illicit drug
use. Coburn exposed Soros-style "harm reduction" as a backdoor approach to legalization of
illicit drugs. Coburn was also a strong supporter of drug testing and even fought to require drug
testing of members of Congress. Coburn and his staff voluntarily underwent drug testing. If
elected to the Senate, say his supporters, Coburn would be the chamber's leading voice for
protecting children from the dangers of drug abuse and a scientific voice of reason against the
Soros-supported movement that seeks to legalize drugs. It's no wonder that Soros and his sons
have targeted Coburn for defeat.

Soros has also contributed to Barack Obama, running for the Senate as a Democrat from Illinois.
CNSNews.com reports that, "Not only did Soros donate to Obama's campaign, but four other
family members - Jennifer, sons Jonathan and Robert and wife Susan - did as well. Because of a
special provision campaign finance laws, the Soros’ were able to give a collective $60,000 to
Obama during his primary challenge."

Soros was described by the New Yorker as close to Harold Ickes, a former Clinton deputy chief
of staff who runs the Media Fund, one of many Soros-supported "527" groups. Soros described
him as a "real pro."

Away from the scrutiny or even the notice of the establishment press, Soros has emerged as a
counter-culture hero.

The drug culture magazine, Heads, calls him "Daddy Weedbucks," ran an excerpt from his book,
Soros on Soros, and declared that "he drops the bucks exactly where they're needed." The
September-October issue of the drug culture magazine High Times recognizes the stakes, noting
that there are "ten reasons to get rid of Bush" and that one is that there will be "No legalization of
pot" under Bush. The implication of the article was that the situation would change under Kerry.

None of this is being reported, however, by the major media.

His partner, Peter Lewis, whitewashed by the Post as "one of the country's 10 most generous
philanthropists," was actually arrested in New Zealand for "importing" drugs, including hashish
and marijuana.

The Human Halliburton

The media call him a billionaire "philanthropist" who "promotes democracy" and "democratic
institutions" abroad. He has been invited to address the National Press Club on October 28,
2004, just before the election. But admitted marijuana user George Soros, who says he tried
marijuana "and enjoyed it," doesn't just "give" money away. He spends money for a purpose
because he wants to remake America and the world. He is depicted in a recent lengthy New
Yorker article by Jane Mayer as well-intentioned, not that concerned about money, the victim of
scurrilous attacks, and someone who simply wants his "ideas" to "be heard." This is typical of
the fawning coverage of Soros. Mayer made a brief reference to his collaborator, Peter B. Lewis,
and his funding of "efforts to decriminalize marijuana," but she failed to explore how Soros is
himself committed to legalizing dangerous drugs. Mayer did disclose that a meeting was held in
August, after the Democratic Party convention, of what critics call a "billionaire conspiracy" to
defeat Bush. Soros and Lewis were among the participants in the meeting, which was supposed
to be kept private.

Soros' strong opposition to President Bush's effort to create democratic institutions in Iraq
contradicts his alleged support for democracy. But the media don't point this out because they
oppose Bush's Iraq policy. Mayer, who interviewed the billionaire at length, suggests that Soros
may be "looking for influence [in a Kerry Administration] to get out of Iraq" but that to pursue
such an objective in exchange for his financial support to the candidate might be deemed "not
appropriate" by some observers.

It would be unwise for the public to dismiss the idea that he would not demand implementation
of his other "ideas," including drug legalization.

Sometimes described as an atheist or agnostic, Soros has announced a vision of a secular "open
society." However, his agenda of drug legalization has remained largely hidden from public view
during the current campaign.

While Soros may not want to openly talk about what he would expect out of a Kerry
Administration, his allies have obviously been giving it much thought.

At the 2004 conference of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(NORML), Ethan Nadelmann of the Soros-funded Drug Policy Alliance was asked about his
association with Soros and the billionaire's attempt to put John Kerry in the White House. The
questioner asked, "Are we going to get some Supreme Court justices out this?" Nadelmann
modestly answered, "We will see," and cautioned that it may be difficult to deliver "all the
goods."

This is critical because the U.S. Supreme Court is already considering the matter of the several
U.S. states that have laws on the books permitting some form of "medical marijuana" use, a
violation of federal law, and could return to the subject in the future. The Court is expected to
rule by June 2005 on a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, challenged by the Bush
administration, that bars federal agents from interfering with the growing and use of marijuana
by two women in California.

Hollywood has already been captured by the illegal drug lobby.

At the 2004 NORML conference, Allen St. Pierre of the NORML Foundation described how
various U.S. television programs "have previewed marijuana in a way ultimately positive." He
named them as ER, Chicago Hope, the Practice, Sybil, Murphy Brown, Sports Night, Becker,
West Wing, Roseanne, Sex in the City, Six Feet Under, Whoopi, Montel, That 70s Show, and
the Larry David Show. "These shows are seen by tens of millions of people," he said. "So that's
what it's so crucial that we're able to capture—and to demonstrate the change in—culture."

The challenge for the drug culture is now to capture the U.S. Government. Soros is their front
man.

Bloomberg.com quoted Strobe Talbott, U.S. deputy secretary of state from 1994 to 2001, as
saying, "Whenever George Soros called and asked to meet, I would move heaven and earth to do
so. I treated him like the foreign minister of another country because of all that he had done."
Even under the Bush Administration, Soros has been considered an important and influential
figure. He gave a September 16, 2003, speech at the State Department on "America in the Global
Community: Building Long-Term Security."

So think about the clout he would have if he almost single-handedly buys the White House for
John Kerry and plays a role in the election of several new Senators.

Rather than investigate the source of the Soros money, Washington Post columnist Harold
Meyerson has praised Soros for engineering the "privatization" of the Democratic Party through
funding of the "527" political groups and bypassing what he calls an incompetent Democratic
Party apparatus. At the far-left "Take Back America" forum in June, Soros was photographed
greeting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who introduced him to the group. She told the crowd
that, "we need people like George Soros, who is fearless and willing to step up when it counts."
He stepped up with his money.

However, Meyerson and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have attacked House
Speaker Dennis Hastert for raising questions about where Soros gets his money.

A professed believer in democracy, Soros has used the "527" loophole in a campaign finance law
that he promoted to restrict the political activities of "special interests." He has set a record "for
the most money donated by an individual in an election cycle." Those "special interests" turned
out to be other people — not him. He has since poured millions of dollars into anti-Bush groups
and voter registration drives, some marked by alleged fraud, for the Democratic Party.

His commitment to democracy is never questioned. Typical of the pro-Soros media coverage was
a USA Today story on June 1 that gave Soros credit for freeing millions of people from
communism and "supporting democracy." The story ignored his insider trading conviction.
While Soros provided some funding to anti-communist groups during the Cold War, his career
has been designed to make money and extend his influence over nations and people.
Communism was a threat because it was not hospitable to his investments.

An excellent example of how he operates is Kosovo. As indicated earlier, it is relevant to note

that, after the Soros-supported war on Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia, a Soros fund
announced in 2000 that it was investing $150 million -- with loan guarantees from the U.S.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation -- in the Balkans. It was called the "Southeast Europe
Equity Fund." By 2002, the OPIC-supported size of the investment had risen to $200 million and
OPIC announced that Soros Investment Capital, Ltd. Fund Yugoslavia had acquired a controlling
stake in Eksimbanka, a private commercial bank in Serbia, and had financed the start-up of
Serbia Broadband Networks, the leading cable television and broadband services company in
Serbia.

What's more, his "open society" doesn't extend to himself. He unregulated "hedge funds," open
only to the super rich, are beyond public scrutiny or the interest of the press. In a curious chapter
of his career, he reportedly invested in an energy company run by George W. Bush, in an
unsuccessful attempt to buy influence with the Bush family.
As noted, in another curious development, the global capitalist has become a global socialist
advocating a global tax, known as the Tobin Tax, on the means by which he exploited the global
capitalist system and became rich – international currency speculation and manipulation. Soros
has declared that the Tobin Tax is a "valid suggestion" for raising international revenue and that
opposition to implementing the tax can be overcome. What has not been reported is that Thomas
Palley, the director of the Globalization Reform Project at Soros' Open Society Institute, was a
featured speaker at a January 2003 event in Washington, D.C. to discuss how to implement the
tax.

"He made his money the old-fashioned way, on Wall Street," wrote Post columnist Harold
Meyerson. In fact, he made his money through investment techniques that are not available to
ordinary investors, and his financial interventions can affect nations and their economies.

Soros claims that the "527" organizations he funds "file detailed and frequent reports with
government regulators." On the January 9 NOW With Bill Moyers program on PBS, Charles
Lewis of the Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity argued that while Soros was funding 527
groups, Soros was disclosing these contributions and that the money could be tracked.

Again, that begs the question of where he gets his money.

His use of that loophole -- in a law that he promoted to restrict the influence of outside "special
interests" on political campaigns -- is suspicious and curious on its face. Equally curious, Soros
claims that the Bush Administration's reaction to 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq caused him to
spend millions of dollars through these "527" organizations to defeat Bush. However, Soros
favored the Clinton Administration's preemptive attack on Yugoslavia, in the absence of any
threat to the U.S. and without U.S. Congressional authorization.

While Soros runs around the country talking about defeating Bush, mostly because of his Iraq
policy, he is using his money to target other candidates who have prosecuted the war on drugs.

The pro-Soros national media have refused to examine the implications of a ruling by New York
State Supreme Court Justice Bernard Malone. He ruled that it was improper for the Soros-backed
Working Families Party to get involvement in a Democratic primary for District Attorney and he
referred the case to local prosecutors and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for a possible
criminal investigation. Thanks to the money provided by Soros, David Soares defeated
incumbent District Attorney Paul Clyne in the Democratic primary. At the time of Clyne's
defeat, Ethan Nadelmann of the Soros-funded Drug Policy Alliance Network said he was proud
that his group had "contributed to this race" and that "what happened in Albany" has "national
resonance." That suggested to some that Soros, if he is successful in putting John Kerry in the
White House, would change the nation's anti-drug policy.

The Criminals Lobby

Soros, who lives in New York, has also contributed $150,000 to a California ballot measure,
proposition 66, to overturn the three-strikes law, which mandates prison terms of 25-years-to-life
for defendants convicted of a third felony. The ballot measure is opposed by the state's district
attorneys and law enforcement agencies.

In other unsavory connections, a Soros grant was given to Linda Evans, who was pardoned by
Bill Clinton for her involvement in the Weather Underground terrorist group. The Weather
Underground was involved in the 1981 Brinks robbery, in which three murders were committed,
and a series of bombings, including the bombing of the U.S. Capitol in November 1983.

The Baltimore, Maryland, branch of the OSI on May 12 hosted Bernardine Dohrn, another
former member of the Weather Underground who once expressed solidarity with mass murderer
Charles Manson, at a forum on criminal justice issues. Speaking to a Weather Underground
"war council" in Michigan in 1969, Dohrn gave a three-fingered "fork salute" to Manson. As
noted by Ami Naramor of The Claremont Institute, "Calling Manson's victims the 'Tate Eight,'
Dohrn gloated over the fact that actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant at the time, had been
stabbed with a fork in her womb. 'Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the
same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach! Wild!'" Dohrn, now an
associate professor and director at Northwestern University's Children and Justice Center, was a
member of the advisory committee of the "children's rights watch" project of Human Rights
Watch, funded by Soros.

Not coincidentally, the drug culture has embraced the Weather Underground. High Times
magazine has called David Gilbert, a Weather Underground member now in prison, an "anti-
imperialist political prisoner" and has hailed his book, No Surrender. High Times says Gilbert
works behind bars for "prisoners' rights" – a favorite cause of Soros.

The latest development is creation of "Cannabis Consumers," a bizarre organization of out-of-

the-closet illegal pot smokers, formed to celebrate and glorify the drug. Director Mikki Norris,
who says her group received a grant from the Soros-funded Drug Policy Alliance, says, "we
honor George Soros."

The Soros-supported Drug Policy Alliance supports "marijuana clubs" currently dispensing the
drug, supposedly on "medical" grounds. The federal government has tried to close down these
clubs—a policy that could change if Soros gains access to and influence over the White House.
Several states have passed "medical marijuana" initiatives, funded by Soros, attempting to
provide the drug under the cover of treating illnesses. But the American people have been kept in
the dark about whether the Soros campaign to weaken drug laws would be embraced and
implemented on a national basis by a Kerry Administration.

One of the few reporters to question the Soros agenda is John Berlau of Insight magazine, who
asked whether Soros would benefit financially from his huge expenditures on political activity.
Michael Vachon, the spokesman for Soros Fund Management in New York City, said, "I have
no faith in the ability or desire of Insight magazine to portray George Soros' activities in an
unbiased manner." Pressed, he said, "There's no relationship between the policy prescriptions
George Soros recommends and his own financial holdings. He doesn't make policy
recommendations to increase his own personal wealth. That's not what motivates him."
There can be no doubt, however, that if the Soros plan for drug legalization goes forward, there
would have to be an official infrastructure in place to finance drug production and distribution
and handle the enormous profits that will be made from legalization. Legalization will not
eliminate drug profits, it will only transfer some of them to government and "legitimate"
industries. Soros could be poised to invest in those industries and companies.

He is laying the groundwork for the creation of a system under which government and
corporations would legalize, dispense and advertise hard drugs, much like tobacco or alcohol,
and supply addicts with needles and drug paraphernalia. In effect, Soros appears to be financing
drug legalization for the purpose of creating a new market for federal payments to underwrite
drug purchases for addicts. Soros appears to favor an indoor version of "Needle Park," where
addicts come to government offices to inject or smoke their drugs at taxpayer expense.

His position is also reflected in his funding of the ACLU, which itself favors the legalization of
all drugs—even heroin and crack cocaine—and opposes virtually all measures taken to curtail
drug use. In another example of its extremist approach, the group has rejected funds from the
Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and participation in the Combined Federal Campaign,
because acceptance of the money would require adopting measures to make sure it does not
employ terrorists or support terrorist activity.

Soros hired Aryeh Neier as president of his Open Society Institute (OSI) in 1993. Neier worked
for the ACLU for 15 years, including eight as national director.

Typically, Soros and his cronies present the current "war on drugs" as draconian, a huge waste of
money and a threat to civil liberties. Legalization is then presented, usually couched in terms of
reducing the harm associated with illegal use and procurement of drugs. The audience is never
presented with a third option—eradication of drug crops at home and abroad, an intensified
military/intelligence effort against drug lords abroad, tougher sentences for users and dealers,
and more drug testing.

In 1995, Soros made a major contribution to the Council on Foreign Relations, which two years
later, under the leadership of Mathea Falco, released a comprehensive report on U.S.
international drug control strategy, entitled, Rethinking International Drug Control. However,
A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times, who participated in the task force that drafted the
report, declined to endorse it, saying that it "is so negative in substance and tone about United
States efforts to stem drug use, production and distribution that it amounts to an invitation to
drop those efforts…"

Soros clearly has his sights set on global policy on drugs. Soros was a signer of a 1998 letter to
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging a radical revamping of global anti-drug policies.
Another signer was Morton H. Halperin, a former Department of Defense and National Security
Council Official.

In a typical laudatory article about Soros, USA Today author Rick Hampson made a brief
reference to his belief in "liberalized drug laws." Nothing was said, however, about how Soros
has managed to liberalize or weaken those laws across the country, and how he has his sights set
on national anti-drug policy. The National District Attorneys Association says that since 1996
"incremental changes in state drug laws have continued at an alarming rate across our nation"
and they are designed to "ultimately legalize drugs." Soros was identified in this report as one of
the wealthy individuals behind this "very well financed" drug legalization movement that is
"highly adept at manipulating the media."

In an October 18 Newsweek story, "Can a Billionaire Beat Bush?" writer Marcus Mabry said
that Soros will "be there" even if Bush wins, ready to "build a new left…" Soros and other "
wealthy progressives," he says, "will set about assembling the infrastructure," including think
tanks, foundations, and civic groups, of this "new left."

But Soros has already done this. The late left-wing writer, Walt Contreras Sheasby, noted that
the Soros influence "is one of those hushed secrets inside the left…" and that he has subsidized
"many of the activist groups, luminaries and publications of the American left…"

Mabry completely ignored his pro-drug legalization agenda and erroneously claimed that his
involvement in this year's presidential campaign is "his first significant involvement in American
electoral politics." Mabry ignored Soros's funding of at least 19 initiatives to weaken drug laws.

Journalists carefully conceal their own conflicts of interest. On the Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS) NOW With Bill Moyers program on January 9 of this year, Moyers interviewed Charles
Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity about the big money supporting the presidential
candidates. But little time and attention was paid to how Soros was trying to buy the White
House and pouring millions of dollars into groups such as MoveOn.org to bring this about.
Moyers, former press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson, failed to tell his viewers that he is
on the board of Soros' Open Society Institute and that it has funneled $1.7 million into Lewis and
his Center for Public Integrity. Moyers had conducted and aired an interview with Soros on
September 12, 2003, where he declared, "The Republican Party has been captured by a bunch of
extremists…" Soros was presented as an opponent of unchecked capitalism and a supporter of
democracy and nation-building abroad.

The power of the Soros-supported media network was demonstrated in mid-October when a
controversy emerged over Sinclair Broadcasting airing parts of Stolen Honor, a film raising
questions about the detrimental impact of John Kerry's 1971 anti-war testimony on U.S. Vietnam
POWs being held by the communists. Kerry had branded U.S. soldiers as war criminals, and
POWs interviewed in Stolen Honor said this resulted in more torture to them. The Democratic
Party, the Kerry campaign, and various groups denounced Sinclair for planning to air Stolen
Honor. MediaChannel.org, Common Cause, the Alliance for Better Campaigns, Media Access
Project, Media for Democracy, and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ
held an anti-Sinclair news conference. They denounced Sinclair for allegedly abusing the public
airwaves by planning to air "propaganda." All of these organizations -- except for the possible
exception of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ -- are funded by Soros.

Media Matters, a left-wing media watchdog group that was also pressuring Sinclair to abandon
plans to air the testimony of the former POWs, was "developed" with help from the Center for
American Progress, funded by Soros.
The attack on Sinclair had the effect of diverting attention away from the extensive and
controversial media connections of Soros, his foundations, and the organizations they subsidize,
and legitimate questions about the Soros-supported candidate John Kerry. These groups – and
the many prominent journalists who serve on their boards – make Sinclair look penny ante.

Pro-Soros media coverage dates back many years and continues to the present day, as detailed in
this report. In 1996, Dan Rather's CBS Evening News highlighted him as a philanthropist and
humanitarian, someone who had made a fortune but was now making a difference. The story by
correspondent Anthony Mason ignored his commitment to legalization of drugs.

That same year, Judith Miller of the New York Times wrote that he was "bringing his
philanthropy home." While she made a brief reference to his drug legalization agenda, the
headline over the piece said he was committed to "social justice." His close adviser, Aryeh Neier,
a longtime ACLU official, was described merely as a "human rights advocate."

On the far left, The Nation magazine and its Nation Institute have been supported by OSI. The
magazine published a generally flattering piece about the Soros-funded Center for American
Progress.

In 1994 Soros received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award at an International Press Freedom
Awards dinner, sponsored by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Five years earlier, OSI gave 4
grants, totaling $220,000, to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Benjamin was senior
executive producer at CBS News and served briefly as chair of the Committee to Protect
Journalists before his death in 1988.

The Soros media connections include:

 An investor in the Times Mirror Company, Soros funded the Project on Media
Ownership, headed by Professor Mark Crispin Miller at New York University. Whose
purpose was expose "media concentration." A total of $300,000 over several years came
from George Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI). In 1999, a survey commissioned by the
Project on Media Ownership and the Benton Foundation and paid for by OSI found that
seventy-nine percent of adults would favor a law requiring commercial broadcasters to
pay 5 percent of their revenues into a fund for public broadcasting.
 Eric Alterman of The Nation has hailed Soros for spending millions on "education
campaigns with America Coming Together, voter mobilization drives with MoveOn.org
and research activities with the Center for American Progress (CAP)--where I am a
senior fellow…" Alterman says his own magazine, The Nation, is viewed as out of the
mainstream in part because of "the continued appearance in its pages of a long-time
Stalinist communist, Alexander Cockburn, whose unabashed hatred for both America and
Israel ... tarnish the reputation of its otherwise serious contributors." Alterman's mentor,
I.F. Stone, was a paid agent of the KGB and a Stalinist.
 In the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Orville Schell said that Soros had written
a "succinct and well-reasoned book," The Bubble of American Supremacy, which ought
"to provide a welcome template for how the candidates might begin to think their way
through to a more coherent view of America's place in the world." Soros had spoken on
 March 3 at the Goldman Forum on the Press and Foreign Affairs, sponsored by UC
Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. The event was a conversation between Soros
and Journalism Dean Orville Schell.
 OSI gave $60,000 to the Independent Media Institute , whose executive director, Don
Hazen, is a former publisher of Mother Jones. Hazen has called Soros a "progressive
philanthropist." A story carried by the Independent Media Institute on its AlterNet project
says Soros "believes in democracy, positive international relations and effective strategies
to reduce poverty, among other things."
 OSI gave a $75,000 grant to the Center for Investigative Reporting. The group's board of
advisers includes prominent journalists.
 OSI gave $246,528 to the Center for Public Integrity, headed by former CBS News
producer Charles Lewis, "to support the continuing expansion of the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists." A total of $1 million went for "the Global
Access Project." In total, it is estimated that the group has received $1.7 from Soros.
 OSI gave $200,000 to the Fund for Investigative Journalism. This group, too, features
prominent journalists on its board.
 OSI's "Network Media Program" gave $22,157 to Investigative Reporters & Editors.
 Soros Foundations have provided $160,000 to MediaChannel.org, a so-called "media
issues supersite, featuring criticism, breaking news, and investigative reporting from
hundreds of organizations worldwide." The executive editor is Danny Schecter, a former
news program producer and investigative reporter at CNN and ABC. It was created by
Globalvision News Network, whose board includes "Senior executives from the world's
leading media firms."
 OSI has contributed $70,000 toward the far-left Independent Media Center, or
Indymedia, known as an "independent newsgathering collective," whose servers were
seized by a federal law enforcement agency on October 7. The action was apparently
related to an investigation into international terrorism, kidnapping or money laundering.
 OSI provided $600,000 to the Media Access Project, a so-called telecommunications
public interest law firm critical of conservative influence in the major media.
 OSI provide $30,000 to the Media Awareness Project, a "worldwide network dedicated to
drug policy reform" and promoting "balanced media coverage" of the drug issue.
 OSI provided $200,000 to the Association for Progressive Communications, "an
international network…working for peace, human rights, development and protection of
the environment…"

Considering all of the money that Soros or his organizations have provided to news
organizations, it should be no surprise to learn that journalists love him. His web site advises
visitors to "read about George Soros from The New York Times, USA Today, Time Magazine,
et al.," all of which are reprinted on the site and highly favorable. His new web site features
several complimentary statements about Soros from articles in the press and media figures.

Either the media fear his wealth and power, they favor his positions on the issues, or they want
access to his money. The people have a right to know.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at