Who's Paying for It All? [re: anti=war demostrations]

INSIGHT magazine ^ | February 18, 2003 | J. Michael Waller

[Stand Watch Listen]

"That's a good question," Wallace H. Spaulding, who analyzed international communist affairs for the CIA for nearly 40 years, tells Insight.


[Go back to J. Michael Waller's cover story, "Marching for Saddam." see FR link below...]

"Running demonstrations like the Jan. 18 antiwar protest in Washington requires organizational skill," noted the National Catholic Reporter. "Crowds must be generated, buses chartered, permits secured and Port-A-Johns put in place. It's a large undertaking."

Herbert Romerstein, a veteran investigator for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and former head of the Office to Counter Soviet Active Measures at the U.S. Information Agency, agrees. Romerstein says, "It's a reality in politics -- there's no such thing as a spontaneous demonstration. Somebody has to pay for them. Somebody has to have organization. Workers World [Party] has that. Workers World is totally subservient to the government of North Korea. What we don't know is if there's money coming in."

For a party of such small numerical size, it does a lot. "It's just a couple of hundred people," Romerstein tells Insight. "They maintain a weekly newspaper. They have headquarters in New York and offices around the country. They put on demonstrations. How do you pay for all that?"

It's a question the FBI is much freer to investigate thanks to the new USA PATRIOT Act. If the Workers World Party is receiving money from North Korea to run political agitprop here, it has violated federal law and is a legitimate target for investigation and sanction, proponents argue.

"Here is a group closely associated with one of the governments that the president says is part of the Axis of Evil," Romerstein says.

Thanks to the USA PATRIOT Act, which Congress overwhelmingly passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to help law-enforcement monitor potential terrorist support groups and foreign agents, federal authorities are better positioned to monitor the Workers World Party.

Romerstein's recommendation to the FBI: Follow the money. "No very radical group in the U.S. has been able to exist for very long without direct foreign support," he says.

[Stand Watch Listen]

Related Article

MARCHING FOR SADDAM
Source: INSIGHT magazine; Published: February 17, 2003; Author: J. Michael Waller

[dagnabbit]

The author's probably right, but I don't know how enthusiastic we at FR, of all places, should be about the government investigating people who put on public protests.

[Republic of Texas]

I don't think anyone would challenge their right to stage a demonstration, but if they are recieving money from a foriegn government, hostile to the US, for the purposes of undermining our government, well that is a different matter.

[glock rocks]

bonk!

[T'wit]

> Herbert Romerstein, a veteran investigator

A real pro from way back!

Hey, Herb, if you're listening in, warmest regards from RALLY and Panamint 13!

[PoisedWoman]

Probably the most important posting to FR this year! Thanks!

[dware]

THanks for the ping. Bookmarked for reference!

[witnesstothefall]

You miss the point. Foreign agents are required to register with the Feds.

[virgil]

The author's probably right, but I don't know how enthusiastic we at FR, of all places, should be about the government investigating people who put on public protests

Its nothing new. George Washingtion had Edmond Genet recalled back to France for his agitation. Investigating agitator groups went on all through the cold war.