Free Republic

The ACLU's decision to reject $1 million from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations was the right thing to do -- but for the wrong reason. At issue is the foundations' caveat that grant recipients not "promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state." "Bigotry"? That's not even speech; it's thought. Protecting bigotry is how the ACLU made its name. Remember the Nazis in Skokie? But the current ACLU leadership, bowing to political correctness, barely raises an eyebrow at the restriction against bigotry. Instead, they point to the prohibition against terrorism, which it characterized as "vague"...

The American Civil Liberties Union has rejected $1.15 million from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, saying their effort to ensure that none of their money inadvertently underwrites terrorism or other unacceptable activities is a threat to civil liberties. The organization has also returned to Ford $68,000 that it accepted in April and that was governed by the same restrictions as those on the two grants the board decided to decline at a contentious meeting on Sunday. Anthony D. Romero, the A.C.L.U.'s executive director, said the language of the contracts governing the Ford and Rockefeller grants was broad and ambiguous, leaving...

"Charitable" Foundations: ATMs for the Left "Charitable" Foundations: ATMs for the Left By Ben Johnson FrontPageMagazine.com | March 2, 2004 One of the unlamented developments of this election year is the Democratic Party’s retreat to the Left. Although the media claim the party's voters have learned their lesson by settling for the “electable” John F. Kerry, a cursory examination of the Democrats shows they remain animated by anti-Bush furor. The party rank-and-file may have decided they prefer the sing-song cadences of John Kerry or the charming drawl of John Edwards to the red-faced shrieks of Howard Dean, but the message...

Click HERE to see a flyer with more information on David's new book.  In January 2004, President Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address. He reviewed the victories of the past two years in Afghanistan and Iraq, and assessed the war tasks ahead. Homeland security was prominent on the president’s agenda and its cornerstone was the Patriot Act, which Congress had passed in 2001 just after the World Trade Center attack. When the president came to the point in his address where he intended to ask legislators to renew the Act, there was an unscripted moment in...

The American Civil Liberties Union protested the Ford Foundation's new anti-terrorism rules. JA Breaking News www.jta.org/brknews.asp?id=115560 The rules, designed to prevent grants from being used to assist terrorist groups, were put into place after a JTA investigative series last fall found that the Ford Foundation had funded virulently anti-Israel groups with links to terrorist organizations. Earlier this month, the ACLU sent the Ford Foundation a letter saying the foundation's new grant provisions - which require recipients not to promote bigotry, terrorism, violence or any nation's destruction stifle debate and threaten academic freedom, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported. In May, nine...

Long before John Forbes Kerry was cashing in on his JFK initials for a run at the U.S. presidency, his future wife was beating a path to the front door of the United Nations. In fact, through her Tides Foundation, Teresa Heinz-Kerry gave the United Nations an up-and-running, massive, transnational electronic communications network, the Institute for Global Communications, IGC for short. IGC is one of the Tides Foundation’s largest ongoing projects. IGC and its offshoot, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) are divisions of the 501©, non-profit, charitable institution, funded by Heinz-Kerry, currency speculator George Soros, journalist Bill Moyers and...

In promoting its political agenda, one of the world’s largest philanthropic agencies has made itself the biggest single financial contributor to a self-described Roman Catholic group dedicated to vigorously fighting the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and birth control. For more than 20 years, the Ford Foundation and Catholics For A Free Choice (CFFC) have forged a strong political and financial alliance that sacrifices the lives of the unborn to a discredited view of international economic development.[1] Founded in 1973, CFFC has been led since 1982 by Frances Kissling, a feminist who has actively promoted abortion for more than...

What would you call Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinal football player killed in Afghanistan? A hero? An inspiring example of American military men and women? A model of principled strength? How about a "dumb jock"? A "baby killer"? A "dumb-a--"? A victim of "brainwashing"? If you were a regular reader of Indymedia.org, odds are that you'd put him in the latter group. You'd think that Pat Tillman was a boob, a complete dimwit at best -- you might even believe that Pat Tillman was an evil person and deserved what he got. Indymedia.org has 50 local chapters in the...

E-mail Author Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version March 31, 2004, 8:36 a.m. Strange BedfellowsLeft and right on immigration. The high-immigration Right is on the warpath, trying to delegitimize all conservatives who stand between them and the illegal-alien amnesties they crave. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal ran an outrageous piece — slamming National Review, Fox News, various Republican congressmen, and my own organization as being part of a restrictionist cabal of baby-killing, white-supremacist, Chi-Com lovers. Of my Center for Immigration Studies, the Journal's Jason Reilly wrote, among other things, that despite the fact...

U.S. Foundations Support Environmental Activists on the World Stageby Ivan Osorio Summary:Nongovernmental organizations (NGO), especially environmental, play an increasingly important role in international politics. With the financial backing of major U.S. philanthropies, such as the Ford Foundation, environmental activists use United Nations forums and other international meetings to influence global trade and environmental policy. View the full version in PDF Format Organization(s) featured in this itemEarthJustice Legal Defense FundFriends of the EarthGreenpeace FundGreenpeace InternationalGreenpeace, Inc.Ford FoundationRockefeller Brothers FundPew Charitable TrustsCharles Stewart Mott FoundationJohn D. & Catherine T. MacArthur FoundationTurner Foundation

One of the unlamented developments of this election year is the Democratic Party’s retreat to the Left. Although the media claim the party's voters have learned their lesson by settling for the “electable” John F. Kerry, a cursory examination of the Democrats shows they remain animated by anti-Bush furor. The party rank-and-file may have decided they prefer the sing-song cadences of John Kerry or the charming drawl of John Edwards to the red-faced shrieks of Howard Dean, but the message spread by the party faithful will remain the same: George W. Bush is a “liar,” a “betrayer,” a “war criminal”...

One of the unlamented developments of this election year is the Democratic Party’s retreat to the Left. Although the media claim the party's voters have learned their lesson by settling for the “electable” John F. Kerry, a cursory examination of the Democrats shows they remain animated by anti-Bush furor. The party rank-and-file may have decided they prefer the sing-song cadences of John Kerry or the charming drawl of John Edwards to the red-faced shrieks of Howard Dean, but the message spread by the party faithful will remain the same: George W. Bush is a “liar,” a “betrayer,” a “war criminal” and...

The Ford Foundation’s financial support of liberal groups and causes has been well documented on this site and by others, such as the Capital Research Center. A 1994 analysis by Althea K. Nagai, Robert Lerner and Stanley Rothman reported that during 1986 and 1987, the Ford Foundation awarded 262 grants to projects of the Left, resulting in a final dollar ratio of $28 to $1 between liberal and conservative projects.  Women’s Studies professor and feminist author Susan M. Hartmann credits the Ford Foundation with being a substantive force that created the feminist movement. In fact, Ford’s support of women’s studies...

The top agenda item for the Palestinian "peace" groups today is dismantling Israel by the Right of Return, flooding the country with Arab terrorists after running Israelis out of the West Bank and Gaza. And the Ford Foundation foots the bill to advance these groups' goals.

Is the Ford Foundation one of the world’s premier sponsors of terrorism? US Senator Charles Grassely (D) Iowa, Chair of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, thinks the question is a fair one. That is precisely why he has called for congressional hearings into Ford funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that use the funds to support terrorism. He is not alone in this concern about such NGOs. The US State Department requires umbrella groups of Palestinian NGOs to sign agreements stating that US foreign aid will not be used to fund terrorism. This requirement seems to have served its purpose, as...

The Open-Borders ConspiracyBy Robert Locke FrontPageMagazine.com | July 15, 2002 If I could choose to have my readers learn one and only one thing from what I write, it would be that America's problems are not the result of blind, much less inevitable, forces, but are the consequences of deliberate political action by motivated individuals and groups. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of our ongoing immigration crisis. Let's trace the lines of influence in the open-borders conspiracy, a word I use despite its connotations of grassy knollology because in this case it is factually appropriate. Given...

This is Part Two of a longer article describing how the Ford Foundation is funding organizations that advocate an "Open Borders" immigration policy. In Part One, the authors had just begun describing Ford Foundation grantees and their political agendas; we join this list "in progress." Click Here to read Part One of this article. American Bar Association Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice and Pro Bono Once a bulwark of social conservatism and the rule of law, the American Bar Association has been lurching leftward for many years. It currently supports a moratorium on the death penalty, gun control measures, the...

Forward – by David Horowitz There are few issues so important to the life of a nation as the integrity of its borders and the nature of its citizenship. These are issues that define its identity and shape its future. When a nation is at war, moreover, its ability to regulate and control its borders is a security matter of paramount importance. The following text by William Hawkins and Erin Anderson describes how America’s borders have been under assault for forty years with consequences that are measurable and disturbing. The assault has been led by an open borders lobby that...

We have all seen the photos of cute, fuzzy creatures and flower-speckled hills adorning the Websites and promotional literature of America’s leading environmentalist groups. These groups portray themselves as grassroots organizations of ordinary nature-lovers motivated purely by a desire to preserve, for the welfare of future generations, those pristine areas of our nation’s landscape not yet spoiled by the smoky breath of industrial pollution. But in truth, environmentalism’s major objective has little to do with clean air, pure water, or cuddly wildlife. Rather, it is a vast network of radical leftist organizations dedicated to nothing less than the overthrow...

MUMBAI: Coming down heavily on US military campaign in Iraq and globalisation, the World Social Forum (WSF) began here on Friday night with a pledge to launch campaign for a new international order ensuring social justice at all levels. Speakers from different countries urged the US and its allies to stop their show of power in various parts of the world and hand over Iraq to Iraqis while Indian anti-globalisation leaders criticised growing fundamentalism in the country in the context of post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. Captain Laxmi Sehgal, the INA veteran, said globalisation was a danger and should be fought...

Wherever there's a pernicious development in America's intellectual climate, Ford is "present at the creation." Editor’s Note: One of the largest and most dangerous concentrations of unchecked power in the United States is the Ford Foundation with discretionary spending power that rivals that of government. It is spending power moreover, for the political left and often the hard left. As a public service Frontpage Magazine is devoting a series of articles to the malign influence of Ford. The story posted below, which originally appeared in Heterodoxy magazine, reveals Ford’s crucial role in creating the ideological movement called “multiculturalism” in our...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (JTA) — The Ford Foundation has hired a former Clinton administration official with strong ties to the Jewish community to help promote a new policy forbidding grant recipients from supporting terrorism or bigotry. The appointment of Stuart Eizenstat comes as key leaders in the U.S. Congress say they will move forward to investigate the use of Ford funds and the accountability of such tax-exempt groups. Recent editorials, from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Jewish Week, have called on Congress to move forward with such hearings. It also comes as Palestinian groups in the West...

This is the first in a series of articles FrontPage Magazine will present on the misdeeds of the Ford Foundation. A recent, disturbing editorial in the Wall Street Journal has scratched the surface of this heavily funded, tax-exempt, politically leftist organization. We hope to continue to expose Ford's sponsorship of far-Left causes in the days to come. -- The Editors. To most Americans, it may seem unlikely that the U.S. Constitution could -- or should -- ever be revised to conform to strict Islamic law. But an educational program funded by the Ford Foundation has explored that very possibility, challenging...

The leftwing foundation finances a "blasphemy amendment" to prevent Americans from cursing Allah's name Ford Has a Better Idea: One Nation Under AllahBy Alyssa A. LappenFrontPageMagazine.com | December 30, 2003 This is the first in a series of articles FrontPage Magazine will present on the misdeeds of the Ford Foundation. A recent, disturbing editorial in the Wall Street Journal has scratched the surface of this heavily funded, tax-exempt, politically leftist organization. We hope to continue to expose Ford's sponsorship of far-Left causes in the days to come. -- The Editors. To most Americans, it may seem unlikely that the U.S. Constitution could --...

Heavy viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold demonstrably untrue positions about the war in Iraq as media consumers who rely on National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting System, according to a study released this week by a research center affiliated with the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. "When evidence surfaces that a significant portion of the public has just got a hole in the picture ... this is a potential problem in the way democracy functions," says Clay Ramsay, research director for the Washington-based Program on International Policy Attitudes,...

Noting that Anti-Defamation League has announced it has persuaded Ford Foundation to stop funding anti-Semitic organizations, Catholic League president William Donahue wants the foundation to end its financing of blatant anti-Catholicism. Donahue explained that Ford Foundation had sponsored many of the most vile anti-Jewish groups that had assembled at the racist so-called World Conference Against Racism in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. Now Ford Foundation President Susan V. Berresford has agreed to develop "a series of measures to ensure that no future grants would go to organizations that in any way support terrorism, bigotry, or the delegitimization of Israel." Said...

Ford announces new funding guidelines as it admits to aiding anti-Israel groups By Edwin Black WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (JTA) — In a stunning reversal, the Ford Foundation has admitted it erred in funding anti-Israeli Palestinian groups and has vowed to establish tough new guidelines to stop its funds from being used for anti-Semitic activities anywhere in the world. The group said it was "disgusted" by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic agitation action taken at the 2001 U.N. Conference Against Racism at Durban, South Africa, which the foundation helped finance. "We now recognize that we did not have a clear picture of the...

The Ford Foundation: Funding International Terror?By Steven BernsteinFrontPageMagazine.com | November 12, 2003 American philanthropic organizations have given substantial amounts of money to Palestinian charities over the years, but their dollars may have funded a great deal more than charity. There is reason to believe that some of this money may have gone from philanthropic foundations, through Palestinian NGO's, into the hands of terrorist organizations. The Ford Foundation is one philanthropic group whose money has made its way, through various twists and turns, into terrorists' hands.    With assets of approximately $10 billion, the Ford Foundation is headquartered in New York City, with 13 offices worldwide. The Ford...

The EU head office said Monday it is funding 40 percent of three versions of a 26-part Sesame Street show in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. The Ford Foundation and other organizations will make up the rest of the total US$ 8.3 million cost. "Working with children today will help build peace tomorrow," Michael Leigh, the deputy director for the Mideast at the EU's external relations department, told reporters. The shows blend cartoons and puppetry with mini-documentaries that stress such familiar Sesame Street themes as cooperation, respect for others and self-esteem. American Sesame Street characters have been shown in...

In August 2001, thousands of human rights activists from around the globe gathered in Durban, South Africa, for a United Nations conference that many participants hoped would address racial injustices plaguing humanity, from Rwanda to Sri Lanka to the United States. Instead, anti-Israel agitation, anti-Zionist propaganda and blatant antisemitism permeated the eight-day U.N. World Conference Against Racism. The event featured posters displaying Nazi icons and Jewish caricatures, anti-Israel protest marches, organized jeering, incendiary leaflets and anti-Jewish cartoons, in addition to anti-American agitation. A resolution drafted by nongovernmental organizations at the conference labeled Israel a "racist apartheid state" guilty of "genocide...

The Biggest Funder of the LeftBy William HawkinsFrontPageMagazine.com | July 23, 2003 The Ford Foundation was quick to claim credit for helping win the recent Supreme Court rulings on "affirmative action" (upholding the University of Michigan Law School's race-based admissions system) and "gay rights" (striking down a Texas law criminalizing homosexual activity). On its website, the multibillion organization proclaimed, "These landmark decisions reaffirm the Ford Foundation's values of social justice and bolster continuing work for racial, sexual and economic equality....foundation grantees played significant roles, from litigation to research to educating policy makers and the public." The Ford supported litigants included...

The Biggest Funder of the Left By William Hawkins FrontPageMagazine.com | July 23, 2003 The Ford Foundation was quick to claim credit for helping win the recent Supreme Court rulings on "affirmative action" (upholding the University of Michigan Law School's race-based admissions system) and "gay rights" (striking down a Texas law criminalizing homosexual activity). On its website, the multibillion organization proclaimed, "These landmark decisions reaffirm the Ford Foundation's values of social justice and bolster continuing work for racial, sexual and economic equality....foundation grantees played significant roles, from litigation to research to educating policy makers and the public." The Ford supported...

The Ford Foundation was quick to claim credit for helping win the recent Supreme Court rulings on "affirmative action" (upholding the University of Michigan Law School's race-based admissions system) and "gay rights" (striking down a Texas law criminalizing homosexual activity). On its website, the multibillion organization proclaimed, "These landmark decisions reaffirm the Ford Foundation's values of social justice and bolster continuing work for racial, sexual and economic equality....foundation grantees played significant roles, from litigation to research to educating policy makers and the public." The Ford supported litigants included the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Mexican American Legal...

Fifth Column FinancierBy William BaconFrontPageMagazine.com | May 7, 2003 Most of the public attention to those who have opposed our (now, successful) drive to oust Saddam Hussein has been devoted to organizations like ANSWER and the Not in Our Name movement.  Far more important to the anti-war effort, however, has been the quieter, behind-the-scenes work of academics and leftist groups, such as the Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Ploughshares Fund, the American Friends Services Committee and journals such as The American Prospect. These organizations have worked to undermine support of the United States’ efforts...

Interview With Author Bill Hawkins, Immigration Reform Proponent Dan Stein 02/24/2003 Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly. In THE FACTOR "Follow-Up" Segment tonight, last week, we told you that the Ford Foundation has donated almost $60 million to immigration groups that want to keep American borders open. Two footnotes: The Ford Foundation has nothing to do with the Ford Motor Company. And THE FACTOR factor wants all Americans, no matter where they come from, to have freedom and a happy life. But we also want to be protected from illegal immigration. Joining...

<p>The National Sexuality Resource Center threw open its doors Thursday, with the goal of replacing myths about sex with evidence-based research on sexual health, education and rights.</p> <p>"We see this as a major effort to try to depoliticize sexuality. To make an attempt to try and break through the fear, the shame and the silence surrounding sexuality," said Dr. Gilbert Herdt, the center's director and co-founder.</p>

  The Campaign to Control America's VoteLiberal Group Leads Fight Against Bush Judicial Nominees and School ChoiceBy Patrick J. ReillySummary: Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen is the latest victim of People for the American Way's campaign against President Bush's judicial nominees. On September 5, the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 10-9 party-line vote rejected her nomination to the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. When the electronic voting machines introduced in last month's Florida primary elections failed to correct the voting irregularities that appeared during the state's 2000 presidential election, People for the American Way (PFAW)...