Kerry, the Sandinistas, and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)

"Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies" | 1987 | S. Steven Powell

[Fedora]

Hi, all--long-time lurker trying to post my first thread here, so please bear with me if I screw up the formatting or post this in the wrong place :) I've seen threads discussing Kerry's pro-Sandinista stance during the Reagan administration, but didn't notice this particular piece of information, which I thought worth passing on. This is from S. Stephen Powell's "Covert Cadre", an expose of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a pro-Soviet/pro-Cuban think tank founded in the 1960s which was funded by the KGB and linked to the Black Panthers, the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, the Church Committee, etc. Here is something Powell mentions about John Kerry's role in promoting the IPS' pro-Sandinista lobbying efforts during the Reagan administration:

From Chapter 14 of S. Steven Powell, "Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies", with introduction by David Horowitz, Ottawa, Illinois: Green Hill Publishers, Inc., 1987, ISBN 0-915463-39-3:

Pages 226-227:

When the $14 million aid package for the contras came up in spring 1985, Congress initially voted it down. Many congressmen said that, besides the PACCA report, reports of human rights violations had influenced them. . .Just forty-eight hours before the vote, Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) traveled to Nicaragua. Their celebrated meetings with Sandinista junta leaders, which captured the headlines and helped sway Congress, were arranged by Peter Kornbluh, a fellow at IPS. Within a week the Sandinista president, Daniel Ortega, flew to Moscow and secured $200 million in Soviet aid. Shocked and embarrassed, Congress reversed gears and granted $27 million in humanitarian aid to the contras.

Page 243:

IPS often acts as the ideological center and hub of activism of the autonomous groups in the [pro-Sandinista "CISPES"] Latin network. For instance. . .in early 1985 IPS brought together various players in the Latin network to compile "the Reagan record of deceit and illegality on Central America." "In Contempt of Congress" was a mishmash of contradictory data and not particularly persuasive. But then it was not intended to persuade, but to confuse and sow distrust of the Reagan administration. As with the PACCA report, it got wide circulation in Congress. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) offered his praise for it and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) called it "essential reading for every American who remembers Vietnam or Watergate." [Footnote cites: "In Contempt of Congress" (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Policy Studies, 1985), p. 70.]

Might be interesting if someone could dig up a copy of "In Contempt of Congress" and see if Kerry's mentioned or quoted there.

While I'm on this subject I'll mention two possibly-related pieces of info I've been looking into but haven't had a chance to write into a good summary for posting yet. One is Kerry's relationship at Yale with Harvey H. Bundy III. Bundy was a relative of an earlier Harvey Bundy, a close associate of Chief Justice Felix Frankfurter, who played a key role during the FDR/Truman years in setting up the Communist Party apparatus in Washington and in advancing the career of Soviet agent Alger Hiss. Harvey's son William--apparently Harvey H.'s uncle, from what I've gathered--contributed to Hiss' defense fund (and recently wrote a book attacking Nixon's foreign policy, "A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency"). William's brother McGeorge, who worked on the NSC under Kennedy and Johnson, had an aide named Marcus Raskin who co-founded the IPS at about the same time Harvey H. was rooming with Kerry at Yale. Kerry's website describes how he met Harvey H. and mentions, "One summer, Kerry and Bundy went to Europe, one trying hard to keep up with the irrepressible other. They drove all night to visit an acquaintance in Switzerland, arriving at dawn with hours to kill." (http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/clips/news_2003_1009e.html) Other sites describe how the Bundy family influenced Kerry's descision to go to Vietnam. It might prove enlightening to explore what role the Bundys and IPS may have played in this early stage of Kerry's career before he went to Vietnam. I'm particularly curious who Kerry and Bundy went to visit in Switzerland--their trip reminds me of Bill Clinton's college visit to Europe. . .

Also in relation to IPS, Kerry is quoted prominently in an old left-wing book attacking the Contras, Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, "Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central Ameria" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, ISBN 0-520-07312-6 (alk. paper) /0-520-07781-4 (ppb.), which has some passages implying a close link between Kerry and the Christic Institute, a Cuban intelligence front linked to IPS. I'm in the process of reviewing this; if I find anything noteworthy I'll post it.

[Fedora]

I remember that, too :) Speaking of which, your reference to CISPES just jogged my memory. Kerry is also mentioned in an old pro-CISPES book, Ross Gelbspan, "Break-Ins, Death Threats and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central America Movement", Boston: South End Press, 1991, ISBN 0-89608-413-2. The book is of course left-wing propaganda, but taking that FWIW, it has some important info on Kerry on pages 191-193, in a section called "Ollie's Enemies". The bottom of p. 191, while discussing the association of Jack Terrell with a group called the International Center for Development Policy, mentions, "Staff members of the Center, including Terrell, were also working with the staff of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), which was investigating the involvement of narcotics traffickers in the contra supply network." Pp. 192-193 adds, "It is important to note that Terrell has been a principal witness against supporters of the Nicaraguan resistance. . .Terrell's accusations have formed the basis of a civil suit in the U.S. District Court in Miami and his charges are at the center of Senator Kerry's investigation in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." Farther down on 193 it says, "Simultaneous with the Bureau's surveillance of McMichael and Terrell, according to documents released by the Iran-Contra Committee, the FBI also conducted brief investigations of three Congressional opponents of Reagan Central America policies. The Bureau conducted probes in May and June of 1986 of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Sen. David Durenberger (R-Minn.), and Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) to determine whether their opposition to Administration policies in the region was being assisted by intelligence agents of the Nicaraguan government." [Footnote for last quote cites "Boston Globe", March 24, 1988.]

[Fedora]

Soros was who I was thinking, too :) I don't know what happened with Christic Institute, either, but I have some stuff on them I archived a couple years ago and my best (hazy) recollection was that some of their members were still active with Liberation Theology types (I believe I found an antiwar/pro-Sandinista Jesuit priest with the last name Sheehan, who I suspected might be a relative of Daniel) opposing US foreign policy during the first Gulf War, lobbying for the lifting of sanctions against Iraq during the 1990s, and--I'd infer--participating in the more recent ANSWER antiwar protests. I figure whatever they're doing now can't be too many degrees moved from ANSWER--and Soros.

[Fedora]

Good find! I had overlooked it, but there is a reference to a Gary Porter on page 22 of the book by Powell I was quoting:

"Sen. John Kerry hired a former IPS fellow, Gary Porter, to be his legislative aide. IPS staffer Peter Kornbluh helped arrange an April 1984 trip to Nicaragua for Senators Kerry and Harkin on the eve of the vote on the contra-aid bill."

Page 35 adds, "Key people at IPS also collaborated in establishing Dispatch News Service, a wire service to feed antiwar stories to the mainstream media. . .Gary Porter, a Dispatch Bureau chief, then became a fellow at IPS and then the director of the Indochina Project under the auspices of the Center for International Policy, a Fund for Peace affiliate."

[jungleboy]

Contra bump

[livius]

Very interesting. Ping to CW and Tailgunner for a LatAm blast from the past.

[Abcdefg]

I bought a copy of Covert Cadre after hearing Powell interviewed on the Marlin Maddoux show. I still have it.

[edwin hubble]

Kerry with Daniel Ortega (and Sen. Harkin) "Heroes of Iran - Contra" (from a leftist site:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/01/279420.shtml

Senator John Kerry as featured on Democracy Now:

Kerry's audacity cost him. Within weeks of taking office in 1985, he was off to Nicaragua, accompanied by reporters on a 36-hour, self-appointed fact-finding mission with another freshman, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.

Congressional Democrats had accused the White House of exaggerating the communist threat posed by the Sandinista regime. So the two senators were publicly castigated when -- just days after meeting with Daniel Ortega and other leaders of the regime -- the Sandinistas climbed aboard a plane to Moscow to cement their Soviet ties.

Secretary of State George Shultz declared that Kerry and Harkin had been "used" by the Nicaraguans, and he ridiculed them for their naivete in "dealing with the communists." Kerry was called "silly" in the Boston press.

[Fedora]

Haven't seen that pic before--nice find.

[Uncle Miltie]

Kerry Meets Ortega.

Source: http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/062003.shtml

[Brilliant]

Good research. The key is to document his positions. BTW, what was his position on Castro? I wonder how popular it would be in Miami.

[KC Burke]

please continue to sand bag

the full recollection of that era will be so much more fun to read this summer, say...the week before the Republican convention

[Fedora]

I haven't seen anything mentioning his position on Castro per se, but I think documenting that would be a good idea. I'd guess some places to look for quotes might be his old antiwar speeches, his Iran-Contra/BCCI testimony, and the debate during the Clinton administration over sanctions against Cuba. Wasn't Sen. Chris Dodd a key figure there?--wonder if Kerry has co-sponsored anything with Dodd that might shed light on this? Here's one item a quick search on Kerry and Dodd turned up:

http://www.theunionleader.com/doclib/archive/327page3.html

Keefe joins Kerry team
JOE KEEFE said a few weeks ago he wished Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd would run for President. Dodd didn’t.
So the former state party chairman looked elsewhere and, the Status has learned, his choice is John Kerry — adding to the cavalcade of stars the Massachusetts senator has on his New Hampshire bandwagon.
In Keefe, Kerry gains a top-notch strategist and communicator.
“When I first met with Sen. Kerry, I told him that I wanted to wait and see what decision Chris Dodd made,” Keefe said yesterday. “When Chris decided about three weeks ago not to run, I began to think earnestly about it.” Full Story

The link says the story is in their archives:

http://www.theunionleader.com/granite_show.html?article=19476

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=UL&p_theme=ul&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=allfields(Keefe%20joins%20Kerry%20team)%20AND%20date(2003)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2003&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=("Keefe%20joins%20Kerry%20team")&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

Published on March 27, 2003, Article 1 of 1 found.
Keefe joins Kerry team
Author: JOHN DiSTASO
Publication: Union Leader, The (Manchester, NH)
Page Number: B3


JOE KEEFE said a few weeks ago he wished Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd would run for President. Dodd didn't.



So the former state party chairman looked elsewhere and, the Status has learned, his choice is John Kerry -- adding to the cavalcade of stars the Massachusetts senator has on his New Hampshire bandwagon.


In Keefe, Kerry gains a top-notch strategist and communicator.


"When I first met with Sen. Kerry, I told him that I wanted to wait and see what

Click for Full Story (1855 words), $2.50

[piasa]

fyi - if you are the real thing

[piasa]

Hmmm. Would Gary Porter be this Gareth Porter?

* Professor George McTurnin Kahin : Leftist and supporter of the Khmer Rouge who taught at the South-East Asia Program's (SEAP) at Cornell University, hotbed of revolutionary communist activity in the 1960s and 1970s. Director of the Southeast Asia program at Cornell from 1961 to 1970, and professor of international relations at the University since 1951, became an expert on the Vietnam conflict. One of his students was Gareth Porter, soon to become a leading "scholar" on both Cambodia and Vietnam. Kahin's foreword to Gareth Porter's and George C. Hildebrand's book, Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution (1976), praises it for "what is undoubtedly the best informed and clearest picture yet to emerge of the desperate economic problems brought about in Cambodia largely as a consequence of American intervention, and of the ways in which that country's new leadership has undertaken to meet them."
Porter, who was probably a classmate of Laura Summers, co-authored the most famous book of all Khmer Rouge defenses published.
'Nowhere was the war so brutal, so devoid of concern for human life, or so shattering in its impact on a society as in Cambodia. But while the U.S. government and news media commentary have contrived to avoid the subject of the death and devastation caused by the U.S. intervention in Cambodia, they have gone to great lengths to paint a picture of a country ruled by irrational revolutionaries, without human feelings, determined to reduce their country to barbarism. In shifting the issue from U.S. crimes in Cambodia to the alleged crimes of the Cambodian revolutionary government, the United States has offered its own version of the end of the Cambodian war and the beginning of the new government." --Porter and Hildebrand, 1976

[piasa]

Now CISPES is ringing a bell, thanks.

Snip

* Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) : Affiliated with the Communist guerrilla movement in El Salvador. Members include : Angela Sanbrano . Guest speaker at a public forum sponsored by the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) in February 1996 at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

[AmericanVictory]

The Christic Institute declared bankruptcy after losing its frivolous law suit against General Jack Singlaub and others when the Court awarded very large expenses against them for General Singlaub under Rule 11 for, among other things, the legal fees which he incurred. They did not want him to recover and thus went out of business rather than pay what they had been ordered to pay.

[AmericanVictory]

The reason for the name was to establish 501(c) credentials by being a "research" group. Thus the donations of the KGB and others could be effectively shifted in part to the U.S. taxpayer. Wonder why the IRS never challenged this? I wonder?

[Fedora]

> Hmmm. Would Gary Porter be this Gareth Porter?

Sounds like it, when combined with the other reference to Gareth Porter. So Kerry hired the Khmer Rouge's leading apologist to work on his staff *after* Pol Pot's massacres became public knowledge? Wow.

[Fedora]

Interesting--thanks for the info. I know they lost that lawsuit, didn't know it bankrupted them.

[backhoe]

Welcome- I will cross-link your post to this:

-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--

See my tagline for my opinion of all this...