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George Soros and America's Coming Election Crisis (A Three-Part Series) Part 1: Velvet |
IF YOU ENJOYED the election crisis of 2000, you’re going to love what Democrat leaders are cooking up for November.
"George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party," charges Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson. (2) Some might dismiss Miss Iverson's comment as hyberbole. However, Soros' massive soft-money contributions have indisputably given him power over Democrat strategy.
The billionaire currency trader now busies himself instructing Democrats in a new and dangerous style of political brinkmanship -- new to Americans, at least. Soros' relish for Byzantine intrigue and reckless power grabs may strike some Americans as novel. However, it follows a long -- if not exactly honored -- tradition endemic to the blood-drenched soil of Central Europe whence Mr. Soros springs.
 Otpor ("Resistance"), a network of some 70,000 militant youth whom Soros paid to oust Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic |
Consider, for example, a recent proposal by Congressional Democrats to bring in UN monitors to police our upcoming election.
"We are deeply concerned that the right of U.S. citizens to vote in free and fair elections is again in jeopardy," wrote Democrat Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas in a July 1 letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Indiana Republican Steve Buyer barely managed to short-circuit Johnson's proposal last Thursday by cutting off her cash flow. Buyer added an amendment to a pending foreign aid bill, blocking any U.S. official from using the designated funds for UN election monitors.
Buyer's move infuriated Rep. Corinne Brown (D-Fla.). She charged that Republicans "stole the election" in 2000, telling Buyer, "I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure it doesn't happen again." (3)
When the Buyer Amendment came up for a vote, House Democrats voted overwhelmingly -- by a ratio of 5 to 1 -- to keep the door open for UN election monitors. An astonishing 161 representatives -- all Democrats -- voted against Buyer's proposal. The measure passed by a slim 243-161. Only 33 Democrats broke with their party to support Buyer's amendment. (4)
Never before have U.S. lawmakers sought so openly, and in such great numbers, to allow foreign intervention in a U.S. election.
Equally exotic, from an American standpoint, are the antics of a group called "National People's Action" (NPA) -- whom syndicated pundit Michelle Malkin describes as a taxpayer-funded "left-wing goon squad."
NPA provides muscle for Democrat dirty work. In exchange, it receives public funding from a host of government agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Of this multiracial, Chicago-based "neighborhood advocacy" network, Malkin writes:
"The group engages in what it calls `direct action' -- publicizing the home addresses of business and government leaders it wants to shake down and then busing in protesters and schoolchildren (using public school buses) to invade the private property of their victims and intimidate their families." (5)
In March, about 800 NPA thugs surrounded the Washington home of Bush strategist Karl Rove, demanding rights for illegal aliens. They knocked on Rove's door, pounded on his windows and chanted angrily in Spanish and English, driving Rove's children to tears. The mob dispersed only after Rove agreed to parley with its leaders. (6)
In the age of Soros, mainstream Democrats have embraced NPA's thuggish tactics. The group's sudden emergence as a force in U.S. politics calls to mind the elevation of similar groups overseas, where Soros often bankrolls street radicals with a zest for physical confrontation. Readers should note that NPA receives funding from the Tides Foundation -- an institution to which Soros contributes generously (more than $13 million between 1997 and 2003). (7)
The Human Rights Racket
Born in Hungary in 1930, Soros came of age under Nazi and Soviet occupation. He built his fortune wheeling and dealing in lawless nations, where money buys pliant rulers and topples disobedient ones with equal facility. In his writings and interviews, Soros boasts openly of subverting governments in Croatia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia and the Republic of Georgia. (8) Now, like a big-game hunter facing retirement, the 73-year-old Soros seeks the ultimate trophy to crown his mantel – the head of George W. Bush on a pike.
"America under Bush is a danger to the world," Soros told the Washington Post in a November 11, 2003 interview. Ousting Bush, said Soros, "is the central focus of my life... a matter of life and death." (9)
Soros had earlier told the Post, "I believe deeply in the values of an open society. For the past 15 years I have focused my energies on fighting for these values abroad. Now I am doing it in the United States." (10)
Experienced Soros watchers have learned to greet such sermons with a cynical yawn. As British journalist Neil Clark notes in the leftwing journal New Statesman:
"[S]oros deems a society `open' not if it respects human rights and basic freedoms, but if it is `open' for him and his associates to make money. And, indeed, Soros has made money in every country he has helped to prise `open.' In Kosovo, for example, he has invested $50m in an attempt to gain control of the Trepca mine complex, where there are vast reserves of gold, silver, lead and other minerals estimated to be worth in the region of $5bn. He thus copied a pattern he has deployed to great effect over the whole of eastern Europe: of advocating `shock therapy' and `economic reform,' then swooping in with his associates to buy valuable state assets at knockdown prices." (11)
In my article, "George Soros' Coup" in the May 2004 issue of NewsMax Magazine, I noted that Soros has good reason, at this time, to believe that a Democrat regime might prove more "open" to his way of doing business than would George W. Bush. But that is another issue. Whatever Soros really means by the term "open society," Americans would be well-advised to familiarize themselves with the dangerous lengths to which he has often gone to establish it.
Velvet Revolution
Everyone knows that Soros has poured millions into Democrat coffers this election season. Yet there is more to Soros' strategy than mere largesse.
Soros helped bankroll the 1989 coup d'etat that catapulted dissident playwright Vaclav Havel to the presidency of the Czech Republic. The relatively bloodless uprising acquired the nickname "Velvet Revolution." To this day, people throughout the former Soviet bloc use the term "velvet revolution" to denote Soros-sponsored coups. (12)
Defenders of Soros paint his velvet putsches as benevolent, arguing that Soros has freed millions from tin-pot despots such as Slobodan Milosevic. Maybe so. But President Bush is no Milosevic, and the USA no Yugoslavia. Mr. Soros’ brand of help is neither welcome nor appropriate here.
How exactly does one perpetrate a velvet revolution anyway? The seven-step strategy Soros used against Milosevic provides an instructive blueprint.
Step 1: Form a Shadow Government
Since 1991, Soros contributed over $100 million to Yugoslavia’s anti-Milosevic movement, including to the militant youth group Otpor ("Resistance"). (13) Otpor grew quickly to 70,000 members, assuming leadership of the Serbian resistance. (14)Step 2: Control the Air Waves
Soros bankrolled opposition media in Serbia, such as the ANEM radio network and its flagship station Radio B92. (15)Step 3: Bleed the State Dry
Economic sanctions and civil war destroyed the Yugoslav state. Soros helped exacerbate both.The Soros-funded Human Rights Watch demonized Milosevic through wildly exaggerated reports of Serb atrocities. These charges led to economic sanctions and NATO intervention on behalf of separatist rebels. (16)
A prominent hawk on Yugoslavia, Soros pressured Bill Clinton, as early as 1993, to escalate the war by lifting an arms embargo against Bosnian separatists. (17)
Emboldened by U.S. support, separatist rebels launched "ethnic cleansing" campaigns against Serb civilians living in the territories they claimed. The bloodiest such action was Operation Storm, an August 1995 offensive by Croatian forces, in which as many as 300,000 Serbs were driven from Krajina, and an unknown number of Serb civilians slaughtered. (18)
The blood was not dry in Krajina before Soros and his fellow hawks confronted Congress in December 1995 with a petition, signed by 40 prominent policy makers, urging massive U.S. intervention in the Balkans -- not to protect Serbs from further atrocities, but to escalate the war by intensifying support for separatist rebels.
During this period, Bill Clinton allowed Osama bin Laden to bring in mujahedeen volunteers from Islamic countries to terrorize the Serbs. These mujahedeen tortured and slaughtered Christian captives with appalling savagery. Many stayed in the Balkans, building a network of terror cells which remain active to this day. (19)
Step 4: Sow Unrest
By September 2000, Yugoslavia lay in ruins, its people disheartened by ten years of war, economic sanctions and NATO bombing. Soros-sponsored media blamed every new catastrophe on Milosevic.
Step 5: Provoke an Election Crisis
Yugoslavia’s velvet revolution began on election day, September 26, 2000. Candidate Vojislav Kostunovic won 48.9 percent of the vote to Milosevic’s 38.6 percent. However, Yugoslav law requires a 50-percent plurality to win. A run-off election was duly scheduled for October 8, but Kostunovic refused to participate, citing exit polls that contradicted the official results. (20)
In fact, both sides had engaged in ballot-stuffing, according to the respected British intelligence bulletin Jane’s Sentinel. (21) Nevertheless, Soros-sponsored media noticed only Milosevic’s vote-rigging and screamed for his resignation. Kostunovic demanded that Milosevic step down. (22)
Step 6: Take the Streets
Otpor activists give lip service to a Gandhi-esque code of non-violence. Yet, when they staged their coup on October 5, 2000, many relied not on Kumbaya sing-alongs, but on fists, boots, guns and Molotov cocktails. (23)
On October 5, velvet revolutionaries rioted in Belgrade, setting fire to the Federal Parliament Building and the headquarters of the state television network RTS. (24) Janes’ Sentinel reports that Otpor units armed with AK-47s, mortars and shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons set up road-blocks around Belgrade. (25)
Step 7: Outlast Your Opponent
Otpor’s aggressive tactics and unshakable persistence convinced Milosevic that a long and bloody struggle lay ahead. Rather than risk civil war or NATO intervention, Milosevic stepped down.
The deposed president was arrested and packed off to Holland for trial. Many readers will be surprised to learn that, after three years of deliberations, the International Criminal Court in The Hague has yet to produce conclusive evidence that Milosevic committed war crimes. (26)
Neil Clark notes that the case against Milosevic relies largely on dubious allegations ginned up by the Soros-funded Human Rights Watch. (27) Scandalously, the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia (ICTY) is itself awash in Soros money. Writing in the leftwing journal The New Statesman, Clark reports that the Tribunal – which complained in 1994 that it lacked sufficient funds to prosecute Balkan war crimes – now thrives on contributions from George Soros, Time-Warner and Disney, among others. (28)
That’s right. Time-Warner and Disney. Who’d have thought it?
October Surprise
In view of the catastrophes Mr. Soros has inflicted on so many foreign lands, his sudden rise to prominence in U.S. politics deserves closer inspection. Bellicose charges of vote-rigging and calls for UN intervention such as we have heard lately from high-ranking Democrats fall strangely on American ears. Yet, for George Soros, such overheated rhetoric constitutes business as usual.
The Democrat strategy taking shape in America this year strongly resembles a "velvet revolution" in the making. Every piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. Only the exact time and nature of the final provocation -- the signal for action -- remains unknown.
Curiously, Hillary Clinton told the New York Post’s Cindy Adams on March 30 that an October Surprise would likely decide the 2004 election. "It will be outside forces – something unforeseen that suddenly happens – that tilts the election one way or the other," she predicted, with an odd note of certainty. (29)
Was Hillary just guessing? Or does she know something we don’t?
In the remaining installments of this three-part series, we will examine further evidence that Velvet Revolution may be brewing among the Party of the Left.
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The Democrats' Digital Brownshirts PART 2 (July 17, 2004) Will the real digital brownshirts please stand up? More... Freeper Comments Here (Part 2) The Lies of George Soros PART 3 (July 18, 2004) How George Soros singlehandedly gutted the First Amendment. More... Freeper Comments Here (Part 3) |
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1. Amy Westfeldt, "Billionaire Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is - Toward Ousting Bush," Associated Press, New York, 10 June 2004
2. Laura Blumenfeld, "Soros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush: Financier Contributes $5 Million More in Effort to Oust President," Washington Post, 11 November 2003, A03
3. "House Members Will Discuss Request to United Nations to Monitor Election: Rep. Johnson Spearheads Effort to Invite International Body," Office of Congresswoman Bernice Johnson, Press Release, 6 July 2004
4. Alan Fram, "Fla. Lawmaker Says 2000 Election 'Stolen,' " Associated Press, 1:14 AM, 16 July 2004
5. Michelle Malkin, "A Closer Look at Left-Wing Thuggery," Townhall.com, 31 March 2004
6. Steven Ginsberg, "Demonstrators Swarm Around Rove's Home," The Washington Post, 29 March 2004, B01
7. Ben Johnson, " `Charitable' Foundations: ATM's for the Left," FrontPageMagazine.com, 2 March 2004
8. George Soros, The Bubble of American Supremacy, (New York, PublicAffairs 2004), 132, 143
9. Washington Post, 11 November 2003, A03
10. Thomas B. Edsall, "Liberals Form Fund to Defeat President: Aim is to Spend $75 Million for 2004," Washington Post, 8 August 2003, A03
11. Neil Clark, "Profile – George Soros: The billionaire trader has become eastern Europe's uncrowned king and the prophet of `the open society.' But open to what?" New Statesman, 2 June 2003
12. Matt Welch, "Velvet President: Why Vaclav Havel is Our Era’s George Orwell and More," Reason Online, May 2003
George Soros, Underwriting Democracy: Encouraging Enterprise and Democratic Reform Among the Soviets and in Eastern Europe (New York, PublicAffairs 1991) 26-27
Ambassador Richard Carlson, "Georgia on His Mind - George Soros's Potemkin Revolution," The Weekly Standard, 24 May 2004
Yaroslav Rodin, "Soros Preparing Revolution in Ukraine," Pravda, 31 March 2004
Mark MacKinnon, "Georgia Revolt Carried Mark of Soros," Globe and Mail, 26 November 2003
13. Neil Clark, New Statesman, 2 June 2003
David Holley, "The Seed Money for Democracy: George Soros Has Put Out $2.8 Billion Since 1990 To Promote a Global Open Society. His Efforts Include Funding the Student Movement That Helped Oust Milosevic in Yugoslavia," Los Angeles Times, 26 January 2001, 1
14. Roger Cohen, "Who Really Brought Down Milosevic?" , The New York Times, 26 November 2000, 43
15. Aaron Barnhart, "Serbia’s Silenced Radio Rebels," Electronic Media, 26 April 1999, 12
16. Aryeh Neier, "Judgment in Sarajevo? ; For the Serbs’ Victims, a War Crimes Tribunal is the Last Hope," The Washington Post, 18 April 1993, C3
Alexander Cockburn, "The U.S. Can’t Blame Serbia for Everything; The West Helped Kill Yugoslavia, and Now Crazily Edges Toward Intervention," Los Angeles Times, 14 February 1993, M5
"The U.N.’s Duty in Bosnia," The New York Times, 14 August 1992, A24
17. Terence Hunt, "International News," Associated Press Worldstream, 5 December 1995
"Soros Humanitarian Fund for Bosnia-Hercegovina Asks President Clinton to Life Arms Embargo to Bosnia, Declare Civilian Enclaves as Safe Havens," PR Newswire, 19 April 1993
18. "The Conflict in Croatia: Overview (1991 - 1999)," Global IDP Project, Norwegian Refugee Council, idpproject.org
Alexander Cockburn, "If Slobo, Why Not Bill?", The Nation, 3 June 1999
Gregory Elich, "The Invasion of Serbian Krajina," NATO in the Balkans: Voices of Opposition (New York, International Action Center 1998), 131-140
19. Richard Poe, "Bill Clinton's Secret Trip to Greece," RichardPoe.com, 26 July 2002
20. "The Balkans," Jane’s Sentinel Security Assessments, 30 November 2000
21. Jane’s Sentinel, 30 November 2000
22. "Yugoslav Election Commission Sets Second Round, Says Opposition," CNN.com, 6:53 PM EDT (2253 GMT), 27 September 2000
23. Bob Graham, Sue Masterman, "The Storming of Belgrade; Parliament and HQ Burn as Mobs Tell Milosevic to Go," The Evening Standard (London), 5 October 2000
24. Steven Erlanger and Roger Cohen, "From a Summons to a Slap: How the Fight in Yugoslavia Was Won," The New York Times, 15 October 2000, 16
25. Jane’s Sentinel, 30 November 2000
26. Nebojsa Malic, "Srebenica Revisited: Reports, Confessions and the Elusive Truth," Antiwar.com, 24 June 2004
Nebojsa Malic, "Mr. Clark Goes to the Hague: Show Trials and Politics," Antiwar.com, 18 December 2003
John Laughland, "If This Man is a War Criminal, Where is All the Evidence?" , The Mail on Sunday, 27 August 2002
27. Neil Clark, New Statesman, 2 June 2003
28. Neil Clark, New Statesman, 2 June 2003
David Holley, Los Angeles Times, 26 January 2001, 1
29. Carl Limbacher, "Hillary Predicts October Surprise," NewsMax.com, 30 March 2004
Cindy Adams, "It Seems Camilla’s Not in Best of Health," New York Post, 30 March 2004, 16
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Richard Poe is a New York Times-bestselling author and cyberjournalist. He is a contributing editor for NewsMax Magazine and NewsMax.com, and runs his own blog at RichardPoe.com. Poe's new book is Hillary's Secret War. His previous book, The Seven Myths of Gun Control, is now available in paperback.
