council for nat'l pol CNP2 bak
619
see main total of 4 722
goes back to reagan
bak, hub?ginni tony perkins, furies?
trump: conway, fara wnd, bannon
stop the steal ali alex
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/05/17/council-national-policy-behind-curtain
6 22
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ali-alexander-and-stop-the-steal-were-central-to-jan-6-heres-what-you-need-to-know/
no lnx twt pix
"I was the person that came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and then Congressman Andy Biggs,” GOP operative Ali Alexander said in a Dec. 28, 2020, Periscope video. “We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting, so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”
The video, which was captured by investigative reporter Jason Paladino before it was deleted, highlights the role played by Alexander, his so-called “Stop the Steal” campaign, and far-right members of Congress in the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack launches its first public hearings June 9, and Alexander and “Stop the Steal” are likely to figure prominently in its findings. Alexander sat for eight hours of testimony in front of the committee on Dec. 9, and in April, a lawyer for Alexander said he would cooperate with the Department of Justice’s Jan. 6 investigation—a claim on which Alexander promptly threw cold water.
Right Wing Watch extensively covered Ali Alexander and the so-called Stop the Steal movement ahead of Jan. 6. Here’s what you need to know.
Who is Ali Alexander? What is “Stop the Steal”?
On Nov. 4, 2020, as mail-in ballots began to be counted and shifted the election in favor of Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump falsely declared that the ongoing efforts to count millions of outstanding ballots were an indication of fraud and that he had in fact won.
Hours later, Alexander publicly launched “Stop the Steal,” a campaign to get right-wing activists to discredit mail-in voting, disrupt vote-counting, and falsely accuse Democrats of stealing the presidential election. The campaign held its first rally outside Arizona’s state capitol building in Phoenix that evening, featuring Rep. Paul Gosar, who with a bullhorn in hand, addressed the crowd before introducing “Pizzagate” booster Mike Cernovich, who threatened imaginary anti-fascist activists.
And so began months of “Stop the Steal” rallies featuring far-right members of Congress, QAnon and election conspiracy theorists, Christian nationalists, and far-right anti-government groups, all under the MAGA banner.
Ali Alexander and Roger Stone (Image Source: Twitter)]
Alexander, née Ali Akbar, has long worked in Republican politics, coming up under the tutelage of “dirty trickster” Roger Stone. He has connections to deep pockets, too: a PAC advised byAlexander received a $60,000 donation in 2016 from pro-Trump billionaire Robert Mercer. These Republican connections have persisted despite his habit of noting when members of the media he criticizes are Jewish and despite associating with far-right figures like Unite the Right white supremacist attendee Matt Colligan and members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys.
Alexander’s “Stop the Steal” campaign wasn’t the first to go by that name. Longtime GOP operative and Trump confidant Roger Stone first popularized the phrase “Stop the Steal” during the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, Alexander, Stone, and far-right commentator Jack Posobiec launched a “Stop the Steal” campaign during a ballot recount for Florida’s Senate race between Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Bill Nelson. Pro-Trump activists from around the country descended on Florida to protest and spread misinformation, insisting that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election from Scott. It served as a dry run for the 2020 presidential election. Sure enough, in September 2020, Posobiec and Alexander discussed rebooting the campaign.
What was their role in the lead up to Jan. 6?
Alexander served as the lead organizer for “Stop the Steal.” The campaign targeted Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia—battleground states won by Joe Biden and whose cities are home to predominantly Black and brown voters—holding rallies and spreading election disinformation on social media.
He called on figures he knew from his time as a member of the highly secretiveCouncil for National Policy and through his years in Republican politics to join the effort, including activistsAmy and Kylie Kremer, Jack Posobiec, Brandon Straka, Scott Presler, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, Ed Martin of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. He brought into the fold Trump’s short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump team attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood—who have since been disciplined for bringing false lawsuits alleging election fraud. Most joined the so-called “Stop the Steal” movement in a public capacity; others promoted the same messaging through their own organizations and organized behind the scenes.
Ali Alexander and other “Stop the Steal” activists at Dec. 15, 2020 press conference (Image from NTD livestream posted on Epoch Times YouTube channel.)]
Alexander welcomed extremists into the campaign’s ranks. Male supremacist Mike Cernovich, white nationalist Nick Fuentes, and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones were among the first to answer Alexander’s call. Alongside white nationalist Patrick Casey, Vincent James, and Baked Alaska, Fuentes galvanized crowds of white men to attend “Stop the Steal” rallies across the county, while Jones spread disinformation through his Infowars network, raised funds for the Jan. 6 rally, and brought a caravan of supporters to rallies.
On Nov. 14, “Stop the Steal” came to the nation’s capital. Thousands of Trump loyalists, conspiracy theorists, and members of far-right groups took to the streets. Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, and Madison Cawthorn—all recently elected to Congress—addressed the crowd alongside organizers. Radical conspiracy theorist Alex Jones yelled unintelligibly into a bullhorn. Members of the Proud Boys hate group roamed the streets looking for fights and found them late in the evening.Fuentes’ America First group, a youth-focused white-nationalist outfit, commanded the crowd’s attention with chants of “America First.”
A second Dec. 12 rally was deeply steeped in Christian nationalist and violent rhetoric. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and declare martial law, threatening a “much more bloody war”should he fail to do so.
While rallies brought the whole of the MAGA movement together, Alexander held regular Periscopes to spread disinformation and provide action items to Trump supporters.
:{
}:
Alexander called on “Stop the Steal” activists to lobby the state legislatures of battleground states won by Joe Biden to ignore the election results andsend Republican electors to the electoral collegeto give Trump enough electoral votes.He called on state Republican legislators to declare the election fraudulent and threatened them with a primary challenger should they not.
By mid-December, right-wing activists and lawyers were focused on Jan. 6, the day Congress would certify the electoral votes. More than 100 House members and a dozen Senators committed to voting against certifying the election. Trump and the apparatus around him began to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to use his ceremonial duty to block or delay Biden’s certification. “Stop the Steal” fed into that pressure, with “Stop the Steal” friend Lin Wood going as far as to call for the vice president’s execution.
On Dec. 19, Trump declared it “[s]tatistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election.” [~ his own # guy 1/6 hearing] He encouraged his followers to come to D.C.: “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Alexander had already planned a Jan. 6 D.C. protest, but he began fighting his one-time fellow activists Kylie and Amy Kremer for control of the big Jan. 6 rally. The Kremers had used the “Stop the Steal” banner for their cross country bus tour and a competing December rally, much to Alexander’s chagrin. ProPublica reported that Katrina Pierson, whom the White House put in charge of the rally planning, “helped arrange a deal where those organizers deemed too extreme to speak at the Ellipse could do so on the night of Jan. 5.” That meant Alexander and his cohort were relegated to speaking on the evening of Jan. 5, while the Kremers took the lead on the Jan. 6 event held at the Ellipse.Alexander held that Jan. 5 rally and planned his own separate “wild” Jan. 6 protest on the east side of the Capitolbuilding to follow the main “Save America” rally.
Alexander spent weeks in the lead up to the Capitol insurrection calling for “rebellion,” starting chants of “victory or death,” and using rhetoric of the American Revolution and spiritual warfare to call for action should Congress certify the election of President Joe Biden. He engaged in violent rhetoric, appearing to even advocate for physical attacks against members of Congress who he said stole the election.
The Jan. 5 rally served as the penultimate event of those calls. Speakers delivered Christian nationalist messages and veiled threats of violenceif Congress failed to reject Biden electors. Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox told rally-goers that the United States was on the brink of a revolution and that he would “take the first bullet.” Right Wing Watch reported at the time:
Standing in front of a sign declaring “MARTIAL LAW NOW,” so-called Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander led the crowd in chants of “Victory or death!” Alexander told activists, “Our government is only our government if it is legitimate” and declared, “1776 is always an option.” [new boogaloo? less racist?] He said Stop the Steal activists were starting “a rebellion against the Deep State.”
What was Ali Alexander and the campaign’s role on Jan. 6?
On the day of the insurrection, Alexander took to Twitter early in the morning to declare it the “First official day of the rebellion.” Alexander was supposed to hold his “wild” protest by the Capitol, but it would never materialize.
Trump loyalists packed into the Ellipse, eager to stop what they saw as a fraudulent election. Speaking from the stage and wearing a bulletproof vest, Rep. Mo Brooks, whom Alexander had recently called a friend, told attendees that Jan. 6 is “the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. … Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?”
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump told the crowd. He urged activists to march to the Capitol to make their voices heard. They did as they were told.
Leaving the rally at the Ellipse after Trump’s speech, where he was a VIP guest with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Alexander followed Jones through the Capitol grounds, past barricades, and up the Capitol steps. At that point—around 2 p.m.—the Capitol had already been breached.
“Democrats and Media ended the Republic and the people responded. Welcome to ‘duhhh’,” he tweeted an hour later.
Alexander emerged on One America News Network’s terrace overlooking the Capitol to record a video, posted on the “Stop the Steal” Twitter account by his associate Michael Coudrey at 4:26 p.m.—well after the violence had begun.
“I don’t disavow this. I do not denounce this,” Alexander said, gesturing to the scene behind him. Trump loyalists were descending on the Capitol and up the Capitol steps. “This is completely peaceful, looks like, so far. And there are a couple of agitators that I obviously don’t endorse,” he claimed despite having seen what took place on the steps not long before. By the end of the video, Alexander was back to encouraging rebellion. “StoptheSteal.us is going to be the home of the rebellion against an illegitimate government.”
Right Wing Watch captured the video, which was later deleted.
Where is Ali Alexander now?
Ali Alexander went into hiding following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.In February, he briefly reappeared and said he had been plotting to restart rallies in March,abolish the media, and build a separate society for Trump supporters. He declared that “civil war” was the only outcome available to those who opposed Biden’s presidency.
But Alexander was kicked off Twitter and most mainstream social media platforms. He lost access to his Venmo, Cashapp, and Paypal. He turned to alternative social media platforms and briefly became a Bitcoin influencer.
In October 2021, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued three subpoenas to Alexander, the Stop the Steal organization, and Nathan Martin, who worked with Alexander and reserved the Jan. 6 rally space. Alexander accused the government of “gaslighting” and blamed the violence on “agitators dressed in militant outfits.” Jan. 6, he said, was a government “psyop.”
In December 2021, Alexander testified for eight hours in a closed-door hearing andasked the House select committee to suspend reality. In a draft of his opening statement, which was leaked to the New York Times, he denied wrongdoing and passed the buck, placing blame for the violence on Katrina Pierson, Kylie Kremer, and Amy Kremer.
In a lawsuit seeking to prevent the select committee from obtaining his phone records, Alexander confirmed to congressional investigators that ahead of Jan. 6, he had communicated with several GOP congressmen—Reps. Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, and Andy Biggs—as well as with Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend and member of Trump’s inner circle.
In April, a lawyer for Alexander said he would cooperate with the Department of Justice’s Jan. 6 investigation. The following day, Alexander joined Alex Jones’ show to suggest he wouldn’t cooperate.He went on to call the effort to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol a conspiracy to “stop Trump from running in 2024” and “usher in a New World Order.”
A few days later, Alexander joined Alex Jones’ show again. He mused that “there is a time for legitimate violence when there is legitimate tyranny.”
Tags: Alex Jones Ali Alexander Jack Posobiec
no lnx twt
as ballot counting to determine the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election continues in swing states, right-wing operatives with ties to the influential Christian Right group Council for National Policy (CNP) are organizing daily #StoptheSteal protests. #StoptheSteal, a “coalition/team effort” that The Washington Post reported yesterday was shut down on Facebook, and FreedomWorks are promoting and hosting rallies across the country based on the false claim that Joe Biden’s growing lead is based on election fraud.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone announced in a statement that its banning of the #StoptheSteal group page with 360,000 members was due to it being “organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.”
The new #StoptheSteal site was registered on November 4 by viceandvictory.com in Fort Worth, Texas. Vice and Victory is nothing but a landing page for Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts. An examination of the three, leads to one individual: Ali Akbar AKA Ali Alexander.
Akbar, who has a book written on him titled “Vice and Victory,” has taken on the name Ali Alexander to distance himself from his past legal troubles. In 2007, he pled guilty to felony property theft in Fort Worth, and in 2008 he pled guilty to a felony charge of credit card abuse, reported the daily dot.
Alexander’s homepage, which links to his blog for subscribers and offers a “Persuasion Masterclass” for $199, links to StoptheSteal.us, as does his Twitter profile.
Alexander calls himself an “interpreter of energy for this period,” and is Pro-Trump influencer on Twitter with over 140,000 followers. It is unclear who funds Alexander’s activities, but Politico noted in 2018 that Robert Mercer, one of the “blow-it-all-up billionaires” behind the rise of Trump, gave a PAC Alexander advises $60,000.
Alexander, a former member of CNP, announced the StoptheSteal.us site with a video and a tweet, “Proud to be working with these patriots to Save the Election,” and listed 15 Twitter handles.
Proud to be working with these patriots to Save the Election@ScottPresler @alexbruesewitz @Cernovich @EagleEdMartin @KylieJaneKremer @AmyKremer @thecjpearson @JackPosobiec @debostic @MichaelCoudrey @hollandcourtney @stclairashley @BrandonStraka @DrPaulGosar @ReaganBabe pic.twitter.com/9otKQA7tWv
— Ali stopthesteal.us (@ali) November 5, 2020
Many of the individuals listed are organizers of individual states protests. Jack Posobiec, a correspondent for the far-Right One America News Network, and pro-Trump activistScott Preslerare leading a protest at the capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Georgia protests held yesterday at in Atlanta and Savannah were led by Kylie Kremer, executive director of the Women for Trump PAC; right-wing activist CJ Pearson; former congressional staffer Daniel Bostic; and Amy Kremer, chair of Women for America First and co-founder of Women for Trump. Women for Trump’s co-founder Caroline Wetherington is a member of the CNP.
Trumpist Courtney Holland and right-wing social media operative Mike Coudrey are listed as organizers of a protest scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight at the Nevada Clark County Elections Department in Las Vegas.
Right-wing social media influencer Brandon Straka and Amy Kremer led a Detroit, Michigan protest this morning at the TCF Center, where ballots were being counted. Protesters blocked a bridge, and at least one arrest was reported.
Protests at the capitol in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday, today, and tomorrow are being led by Alex Bruesewitz, co-founder and CEO of the PR firm X Strategies.
Although not listed in Alexander’s tweet, Turning Point USA‘s founder and president Charlie Kirk is listed as leading an Arizona protest at the Maricopa Tabulation Center in Phoenix at 6 p.m. this evening. Kirk is also a CNP member.
Ed Martin, president of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, listed by Alexander as a partner in the tweet above, is also a member of the CNP.
Early today, Alexander announced protests for every state capital tomorrow at noon.
We want everyone at their state capitols on Saturday at noon. #StopTheSteal @BrandonStraka @ScottPresler @AmyKremer @tracybeanz @alexbruesewitz @stclairashley @EagleEdMartin @JackPosobiec @Cernovich @hollandcourtney @RyanAFournier @thecjpearson
Peaceful Protest
— Ali stopthesteal.us (@ali) November 6, 2020
FreedomWorks, led by president Adam Brandon, who also serves on the advisory council for Turning Point USA and the CNP Action Board of Directors, is also organizing “Protect the Vote” protests in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Oklahoma today. The times of the events do not match the #StoptheSteal events.
FreedomWorks, a group that grew out of a Charles Koch-founded organization and that helped launch the Tea Party in 2009, was also behind many of the protests to reopen the economy amidst the pandemic this year, as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reported.
A number of CNP members are major donors to FreedomWorks.Lawson Bader, president of DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund is a CNP member. DonorsTrust has given $3.4 million (2006-2018) and Donors Capital Fund another $667,000 (2008-2016) to FreedomWorks.
Bradley Foundation president and CEO Richard Graber is a CNP member.Bradley has given FreedomWorks $1.2 million (2007-2017) and disclosed another $100,000 this year to fund FreedomWorks “Save Our Country initiative,” as CMD first reported.
Heather Higgins is a CNP Gold Circle member, and her Randolph Foundation gave FreedomWorks $10,000 in 2017.
The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation gave FreedomWorks $600,000 (2009-2011). Richard DeVos is a former CNP member.
Tea Party Patriots Action (TPPA) announced this morning that it is “working with FreedomWorks, Turning Points, Heritage, and countless social media influencers” to promote and hold “Protect the Vote” rallies in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. TPPA’s honorary chairman Jenny Beth Martin serves on the CNP Executive Committee and a number of those working at the Heritage Foundation are also members.
CNP is deeply tied to the Trump administration. In August, Trump himself spoke to CNP on the last day of the meeting, where he repeatedly thanked the Christian Right group for its leadership.
Trump’s vice president Mike Pence went further in thanking CNP in November 2019, for “standing by him” and for giving him counsel “every single day.” Pence later followed up in March of this year in a letter made public by investigative researcher Brent Allpress, in which he “thanked the Council for National Policy for your support and for consistently amplifying the agenda of President Trump and our Administration.”
Brent Allpress contributed research on #StoptheSteal and Vice and Victory for this report.
About David Armiak
==
1220 alec watch
Until CMD obtained secret audio and blew the whistle, the far-Right Council for National Policy was working with the Trump campaign and White House on a plan to parade pro-Trump doctors on TV to paper over Trump’s incompetent handling of the pandemic and push for a fast reopening.
Additionally, documents obtained by CMD showed how the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate lobby front group, played a leading role in the right-wing campaign to force a rapid reopening of the economy last summer against the advice of public health experts—with disastrous consequences. CMD even unearthed an ALEC sign-on letter praising Florida Gov. Ron Desantis for reopening Florida early—but they pulled it when Florida became the worst pandemic hot spot in the country as a result of the early reopening.
pseudo event, tobacco playbook 3rd party bs: NOTE RWI NICHE SLEEPER CELLS]
NOTE CORP CNP ALEC KOCH TPBASTARDS USE HYDROXY IN CYNICAL? FURY? MOVE TO RE-OPEN ECONOMY
9/20
https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/
On July 27, a dozen physicians posed in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., dressed in white lab coats with “America’s Frontline Doctors” stitched over the pocket. The group’s chief spokesperson was Dr. Simone Gold, an emergency physician from Los Angeles. They were introduced by Jenny Beth Martin, the founding CEO of Tea Party Patriots, as participants in the “White Coat Summit.” The doctors made spirited arguments for the use of hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for Covid-19 and against wearing masks and imposing lockdowns—all running counter to the recommendations of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[[1]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn1)
Although the event was billed as a “press conference,” few journalists attended. A video posted by a bystander showed only a handful of attendees, most of them dressed in tourists’ shorts and T-shirts. But the event was livestreamed by Breitbart News and quickly went (so to speak) viral.
There was a rapid backlash. Much of the media attention focused onDr. Stella Immanuel, one of Gold’s cohort. Following the press conference, the Daily Beast posted a video of Immanuel, who is also a Pentecostal preacher, delivering a sermon claiming that various female ailments were caused by sexual visitations from “demons.”
Immanuel has since disappeared from the America’s Frontline Doctors online roster, but the group has continued to get traction. On August 10, Pat Robertson’s show on the Christian Broadcasting Network carried an interview with Simone Gold and an endorsement of her hydroxychloroquine cure.On August 21, Alex Jones’s NewsWars carried an interview with another member of America’s Frontline Doctors, Mark McDonald. McDonald—a child psychiatrist—maintained, “If all Americans had access to hydroxychloroquine, the pandemic would essentially end in about 30 days.”
Science has shown otherwise. Despite early hopes last spring, there is mounting evidence that hydroxychloroquine is a problematic—and even dangerous—treatment for Covid-19. One expert with firsthand knowledge is Nick Sawyer, an academic emergency physician in Sacramento, Calif. In July he wrote an article for Lifeline, the publication of the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, describing his harrowing two weeks of service in the Covid wards of Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. Sawyer was part of a team of California doctors dispatched by Governor Gavin Newsome to offer emergency assistance at the epicenter of the epidemic, at the height of the New York City outbreak.
Sawyer is now dealing with the spike in cases in California, this time with the benefit of four months of additional Covid research. “The science on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating Covid-19 is settled—multiple high-quality studies have shown that it shows no benefit,” he notes. Far more concerning, Sawyer says, is its potential harm: “Hydroxychloroquine can cause unstable cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.” Over recent months, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, and other organizations have issued warnings that the drug should be withdrawn as a Covid-19 treatment. “It’s irresponsible for America’s Frontline Doctors to continue to push this medication on the unwitting American population,” Sawyer states.
Why, then, would Gold’s band of physicians continue its campaign to pitch the treatment to the public? Simone Gold has repeatedly described her group as a “grassroots organization” acting in the service of its patients.[[2]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn2) In fact, it has been a highly orchestrated effort, months in the making, assembled by conservative Washington insiders in direct consultation with the White House, with the goal of reopening the economy in time to benefit Trump’s reelection prospects—regardless of the toll in human lives.
The first public mention of the initiative may have been a Washington Post story on April 13, as the virus raged across New York City and Covid-19 deaths passed the 20,000 mark.[[3]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn3) The Post reported the creation of a new conservative coalition “pushing for the White House and GOP lawmakers to push back against health professionals who have urged more caution.” The leadership was listed as Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, and Lisa Nelson of the American Legislative Exchange Council. A fourth individual, Jenny Beth Martin, is the founding director of the Tea Party Patriots. She would play a key role in organizing the events to come, including the doctors’ Washington “summit” in July.
Brandon, Nelson, and Martin are all prominent members of a secretive organization called the Council for National Policy,a shadowy coalition that coordinates initiatives among conservative megadonors, political operatives, and media owners, many of them Christian fundamentalists (see “Holding Democracy Hostage”).
The Post story quoted an interview with Richard Viguerie, a co-founder of the CNP, on the mission of the initiative: “The sooner we get the economy going and back up, the better it’s going to be for conservatives and Republicans in this election year. . . . Conservatives feel the government has overreacted, and it’s got to end.”[[4]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn4)
The new coalition, called Save Our Country, officially debuted on April 27, as U.S. Covid deaths approached 55,000.[[5]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn5) Headed by economist Art Laffer, its maiden press release featured quotes from Brandon, Nelson, and Martin. “The long-term consequences of a prolonged societal shutdown outweigh the damage done by the virus itself,” Martin stated. “We must immediately reopen the economy.”[[6]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn6) Earlier that week, The New York Times reported that the Save Our Country coalition’s members were mobilizing their networks for state-level rallies, filing lawsuits, and commissioning polls, all to counter the lockdowns: “Nonprofit groups including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots have used their social media accounts and text and email lists to spread the word about protests across the country.”[[7]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn7)
But the state-level protests turned out to be of limited utility, and the group began to look for new avenues. In April, CNP Action, the lobbying arm of the CNP, began a series of weekly conference calls to discuss Covid strategy. On May 11—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 74,270[[8]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn8)—one of the calls was intercepted and published by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Associated Press.
Among the participants were CNP President William Walton, CNP member Nancy Schulze,[[9]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn9) and Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. Schulze, the wife of former nine-term Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Dick Schulze, opened the call with a warning that two-thirds of the American people were wary of reopening the economy. But, she added, “Doctors are seen by the American people—they have a 92 percent trust rate with the American people according to polling. . . . There is a coalition of doctors, doctors’ coalition, who are extremely pro-Trump, that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care, andthese doctors could be activated for this conversation now for reopening. NOTE RWI NICHE SLEEPER CELLS]
“The one thing the left does give credence to, in that they tend to be motivated by a secular worldview, the one thing that they do appreciate and listen to is science, and we have doctors that have the facts, that lived this themselves, that are in the trenches, that are saying it’s time to reopen,” Schulze continued. “I’ve been working with them for three years. There’s a coalition of doctors . . . including the most respected doctors in this country, that are ready to speak if somebody will just call on them.”
Walton told her, “We need to not just make the economic argument,we need to make the health argument, and we need doctors to make that argument, not us. THIRD PARTY TOBACCO PR BS And so that would be great if you, if we could tee that up.”
Schulze said she’d be happy to put him in touch “with any and all of these doctors, and I have submitted 27 of these doctors’ names to the campaign for the doctors’ coalition that they’re in the process of building.”
Mercedes Schlapp asked Schulze if she had spoken with Hannah Castillo, director of coalitions for the Trump campaign.“I know they’ve been working on building that coalition. I know they’re going through the vetting process right now. As long as you have the names, that would be helpful. . . . Those are the type of guys we want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message.”
Schulze replied, “I’ve been working with Hannah for over six weeks now, so they already have been vetted. But they need to be put on the screen.”[[10]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn10)
Dr. Simone Gold, a 54-year-old emergency physician from Los Angeles, was ready for her close-up. On April 22, Gold had tweeted a stand-up of herself wearing a white “Emergency Dept.” coat, in front of Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai hospital emergency room, suggesting that concerns over the virus were inflated. She pointed out that the hospital “parking lots are empty, the emergency department volume is down, the patient census is down, and that’s really in most of the areas I’ve been to.”[[11]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn11)
On May 7, she brought a more explicit anti-lockdown message to a program on the Whiskey Politics show on Salem Radio, part of the massive Salem Media conglomerate owned by two leading members of the Council for National Policy.[[12]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn12) It was headlined “DR. SIMONE GOLD GOES PUBLIC! What the Government WON’T Tell Us About COVID-19.”
“It’s not at all clear that overall, that social distancing is going to make a huge impact,” Gold said.[[13]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn13) “We’re all acting like as though there’s a huge medical crisis. There’s a medical issue, we should handle it responsibly, but what’s going on in our country now is a terrible legal crisis. Our constitutional rights are being trampled on right and left.”[[14]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn14) Gold later added, “There’s always viruses . . . but I’m not sure that it’s front-page news.”[[15]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn15)
The Guardian reported that over the same period, the Save Our Country coalition spent $50,000 on videos on social media platforms “targeting independents and Republicans with the message that Covid-19 mostly hits the elderly to minimize risks for others.”[16] GUK
On May 19—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 84,640[[17]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn17)—the CNP’s doctors coalition (billed as “A Doctor A Day”) made its debut with an open letter to Donald Trump signed by “500+ doctors” (a number that was later revised to over 800). “In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident,” it stated. “It is impossible to overstate the short, medium, and long-term harm to people’s health with a continued shutdown.” The lead signatory was Dr. Simone Gold.
On June 16—with U.S. Covid deaths approaching 110,000[[18]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn18) and the U.S. economy in freefall—the Save Our Country coalition published an open letter to President Trump and Leader McConnell, urging “that the multi-trillions of dollars of federal government debt spending in the wake of the Coronavirus come to a stop.”[[19]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn19) Twelve of the 20 signatories (among them Brandon, Nelson, and Martin) were members of the CNP, including CNP President William Walton and Executive Director Bob McEwen.
The push to reopen the schools became a full-court press. On July 7, Trump assembled a White House meeting on the subject. Jenny Beth Martin spoke as both the CEO of Tea Party Patriots and “as a mom.”
“Mr. President, you were right, and I hope you will trust your instincts,” she told Trump. “America is not meant to be shut down. And we have to reopen schools this fall. I’ve been in touch with almost a thousand doctors from around the country. I helped Dr. Simone Gold spearhead a letter to you signed by 800 physicians and surgeons who talked about the side effects of the lockdowns. I’ve done a second letter with over 150 doctors, 240 nurses, 330 educators, 70 national groups, and thousands of parents and concerned Americans who want to see schools reopened.”
A video of Martin’s statement appeared, billed as “Mom Gives Unexpected Speech Directly to Trump” without naming her or her affiliation. It was posted on various social media platforms, including Glenn Beck’s YouTube channel, The Blaze (where it clocked over 400,000 views as of August 4).[[20]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn20)
Dr. Simone Gold was now preparing to join Jenny Beth Martin on center stage. On July 22, Gold warmed up for her appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, with over 157,000 YouTube subscribers. Kirk, a member of the Council for National Policy, heads a group called Turning Point USA, which recruits right-wing campus activists. (Donald Trump addressed its Youth Action Summit last December, and Donald Trump Jr. is quoted on its website stating, “I’m convinced that the work by Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk will win back the future of America.”)[[21]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn21)
The introduction for Kirk’s show summed up the case Gold and her colleagues would make over the coming weeks: “Charlie is joined in studio by board-certified emergency physician Dr. Simon [sic] Gold, who says nearly everything we’ve been told about the Chinese Coronavirus is a lie.She and Charlie take a deep dive into the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and why the U.S. government is barring physicians from prescribing the drug—endangering potentially 100,000 lives, at least. Charlie also takes on Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, asking if Dr. Gold challenges the effectiveness of wearing masks. Dr. Gold makes a stunning and factual assertion about the death rates and who exactly is to blame for what she believes is one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated against the American people.” [[22]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn22)
Gold’s “stunning assertion” was the often-repeated claim that doctors were falsifying death certificates, speculating without foundation that they were inflating Covid-19 cases by “20 to 30 percent.”[[23]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn23) Gold also asserted, “Masks are really foolish, they don’t do anything. . . . There’s zero scientific justification for the mask.”[[24]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn24)
Jenny Beth Martin emphasized a social media campaign from the start. Her Tea Party Patriots website posted the program of the White Coat Summit, offering the participating doctors a two-hour session devoted to expanding their social media reach: “YouTube and other social media vastly exceed television news as the information source for most Americans. Interviews and Q/A with social media personalities with large followers is the best way to talk to Americans. Doctors who want to answer questions from these modern journalists will have the opportunity.”
By the time Jenny Beth Martin hosted Gold’s White Coat Summit on July 27, U.S. Covid-19 deaths had skyrocketed to over 136,000.[[25]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn25) The physicians’ presentation carried a lethal stew of misinformation. Dr. Bob Hamilton, a pediatrician from Santa Monica, assured viewers, “Children are not passing [the virus] on to their parents or their teachers.” (A few days later, the CDC released a report on a massive transmission event in June at a Georgia summer camp, with a median age of 12.[[26]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn26))
Dr. Richard Urso—an ophthalmologist—praised hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for the virus,but it was not clear that Urso had ever had any significant experience treating Covid-19 patients. Another speaker was Dr. Daniel Erickson, a Bakersfield physician who co-owns an urgent care facility. In April he had been censured by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine for his “reckless and untested musings” opposing stay-at-home orders and promoting the conspiracy theory about doctors misattributing deaths to Covid-19.[[27]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn27)
The social media strategy paid off. Gold and her colleagues’ video, livestreamed on Breitbart News, reportedly reached 185,000 concurrent users.[[28]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn28) The New York Times’ Kevin Roose reported that over its six hours on Facebook, it was the second-most-engaged post on the platform, with 14 million views.[[29]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn29) (The audiences for network news broadcasts, by comparison, range from 9 to 12 million.) A few hours after the presentation, President Trump tweeted the video to his 84.5 million followers.Donald Trump Jr. told his 5.3 million Twitter followers, “This video is a much [sic] watch!!! So different from the narrative everyone is running with.”[[30]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn30) Trump redoubled his support at his press conference the following day, stating “I think they’re very respected doctors.”[[31]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn31)
But major social media platforms reacted with relative speed. Facebook took the group’s video down a few hours after it was posted, and Twitter and YouTube followed suit, all three on the grounds that the video violated their Covid-19 misinformation policies.[[32]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn32) Twitter took the unusual step of suspending Trump Jr.’s account for 12 hours.
Gold had built the original America’s Frontline Doctors website on a SquareSpace platform, but SquareSpace took it down. Gold rebuilt the website (omitting Stella Immanuel of “demon sperm” renown) and started raising money through PayPal and fundly.com. The doctors’ program also remained on the Tea Party Patriots site.
There was an additional reaction to the doctors’ “frontline” Covid credentials. MedPageToday, a peer-reviewed medical news site, was unable to find evidence that any of America’s Frontline Doctors in Washington had served in “frontline” emergency rooms during the Covid epidemic.[[33]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn33) Simone Gold came under additional scrutiny. Her initial Whiskey Politics introduction described her as a “frontline doctor” in an “inner-city emergency room” that treated “150 patients a day,” but neither her LinkedIn profile nor other available sources listed the emergency room in question. Her personal website (taken down amid the controversy but archived) described her as a “Concierge Immediate Needs Physician” working in “C-Suite Medicine.”[[34]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn34)
On July 29, Cedars-Sinai, the backdrop for Gold’s Twitter video, issued a disavowal stating, “Simone Gold, MD, has not worked with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center or any of its offices or affiliates since 2015. For three weeks in late 2015, Dr. Gold was employed on a per diem basis by Cedars-Sinai Medical Network, a component of Cedars-Sinai. She worked during this brief time in a network urgent care clinic. Dr. Gold is not authorized to represent or speak about any information on behalf of Cedars-Sinai.”
The sharecare.com “Find a Doctor” site stated that “Dr. Simone Gold, MD, is a[n] emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles, CA. and is affiliated with Centinela Hospital Medical Center.” But on July 31, Centinela Hospital posted a statement reading: “Simone Gold, MD, is not credentialed as part of the Centinela Medical Staff, as she resigned her position here a number of years ago. Dr. Gold was never employed here as we don’t employ our physicians.”[[35]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn35)
Also troubling was American Frontline Doctors’ repeated suggestion that patients should demand hydroxychloroquine from their doctors for Covid-19. The medication has been an important treatment for lupus and other autoimmune diseases, but the publicity around its application to Covid has created an ongoing shortage with devastating consequences.
Much of the mainstream coverage of America’s Frontline Doctors was devoted to Stella Immanuel’s “demon sperm” sermon, but alternative platforms were another story.
Simone Gold was reaching a vast new public and was now celebrated as a victim. On July 30, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson interviewed her on his nightly program. The crawl stated, “Doctor Censored by Big Tech Has Now Lost Her Job” (though that job was never specified)—echoing Trump’s executive order on Big Tech censorship released the previous day.[[36]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn36) (Carlson’s show is currently the highest-rated program on cable television, with an audience of over 4.3 million.[[37]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn37))
Glenn Beck’s multi-platform media operation, The Blaze, covered the story on his radio program and posted the Tucker Carlson video on its website on July 31, with a companion piece repeating her case for hydroxychloroquine.[[38]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn38) A similar report was posted the same day on CNS News, founded by Council for National Policy Executive Committee member L. Brent Bozell III.[[39]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn39) (MediaPost recently named CNS News as the country’s fastest-growing conservative website, with more than 8.3 million unique visitors in June and over 1,000 percent gain in year-over-year unique visitors.[[40]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn40))
Pat Robertson’s CBN.com averages over four million unique visitors each month. Add these to Alex Jones’s August 21 coverage—as well as legions of subsidiary platforms—and you have a deadly misinformation campaign that’s reaching tens of millions of voters, most of them off the radar of the national news media.
Emergency physician Nick Sawyer is disturbed by the implications for medical practitioners. The America’s Frontline Doctors campaign, he says, “violates two of the primary principles of medical ethics. Medical ethics has four major principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. As hydroxychloroquine offers no clinical benefit and may be harmful, it violates the first two tenets. Further, their statements place actual frontline physicians treating patients with Covid-19 in conflict with patients’ right to autonomy.
“Patients have the right to make decisions regarding their medical care, but as more and more patients are asking—if not outright demanding—that physicians prescribe hydroxychloroquine to them, it places these physicians in a position where they are faced with an ethical dilemma. We respect patients’ right to autonomy, but we are not willing to allow them to demand a treatment that is not helpful and may be harmful. In sum, America’s Frontline Doctors are introducing additional havoc into the already complex Covid-19 pandemic.”
As of the publication deadline for this article, neither Jenny Beth Martin or Simone Gold had responded to requests for comment.
The day after Gold’s Washington presentation, U.S. Covid-19 deaths stood at 140,309; they swelled to 147,653 only a week later.[[41]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn41) Less than a month later, on August 21, Donald Trump addressed the Council for National Policy at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, his last major address before the Republican convention. In his opening remarks, he thanked several figures from the CNP, including Jenny Beth Martin, “for your tremendous leadership of the CNP. You’ve done a fantastic job.”
As of that Friday, over 174,000 Americans had died of Covid-19. That number continues to climb.[[42]](https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#_ftn42)
Anne Nelson is the author of Shadow Network: Money, Media, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right. She is the recipient of the Livingston Award for journalism and a Guggenheim Fellowship for historical research.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pence-to-speak-to-secretive-council-for-national-policy-friday-cnp-members-involved-in-saturdays-stop-the-steal-rally/
no twt
As the results of the 2020 presidential election came rolling in, Vice President Mike Pence was notably out of sight and had even planned a Florida vacation for this week. But with the ratcheting up of Trump’s campaign to contest the outcome of the election, CNN reported that Pence canceled his getaway, remaining inside the Beltway to address the Council for National Policy, a highly secretive organization that includes some of the most powerful conservatives in the country.
As Pence stands at the podium before marquee names in conservative politics Friday, pro-Trump, far-right activists are making their way to Washington, D.C., for a rally organized and supported by some of the very right-wing leaders likely sitting in that room.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars network are leading a caravan of Trump supporters to D.C.,Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers militia has promised to station his armed men outside of the District borders should Trump call on them, and the Proud Boys hate group has encouraged its members to to the nation’s capital, with leader Enrique Tarrio declaring Trump’s “Standby order has been rescinded.”
They, along with other conspiracy theorists, far-right groups and other Trump loyalists, have all promised to go to the Saturday event that goes by three names: Million MAGA March, March for Trump, and Stop the Steal—to push a false narrative that voter fraud cost Trump the election. The event has been promoted by Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
GOP operative Ali Alexander,who organized the gathering, was clear on the rally’s demands in a Nov. 10 Periscopepost. “We’re going down to the Supreme Court,” he said, “and we’re telling our government that this election and the counting will be transparent, or we’ll get a new election. One or another.”
And they wouldn’t be on their way without the leadership and support of current and past Council for National Policy members for the Stop the Steal campaign. The CNP, which has been around since the Reagan administration, holds closed-door meetings, tells members not to speak to the press about the council, and has tried to keep membership rolls private, but its members’ names have leaked over the years.
Notable CNP members include Ginni Thomas, the influential wife of Clarence Thomas, and Tony Perkins, a former president of the organization and the current president of the Family Research Council, according to a 2020 membership directory published by Documented. CNP has also welcomed far-right figures like neo-Confederate Christian Reconstructionist Michael Peroutka, a major funder of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s advocacy and political career.
CNP also counts among its members Ed Martin of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles,Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who has allied himself with dominionists and Christian nationalists in the past year—all of whom have pushed Stop the Steal messaging since Alexander launched the campaign and called on them to join it.
Martin has led sparsely attended D.C. rallies and blasted Phyllis Schlafly Eagles’ email list with Stop the Steal talking points, while Kirk attended a rally in Phoenix and took to conservative media to promote it. Though it does not appear Fitton has used the #StoptheSteal hashtag, he has echoed the campaign’s language, alleged an “electoral coup,” accusedstates of voter fraud, and called for votes to stop being counted in others.
Amy Kremer, who was listed as a member in a 2014 membership directory obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is organizing in the state of Georgia for Stop the Steal events.Even Ali Alexander, who formerly went by Ali Akbar, is listed twice by both names as a signee on a 2017 letter from CNP to Donald Trump obtained by the Christian Post. David Armiak of the Center for Media and Democracy has also reported on some of these connections.
On Nov. 4, as Americans awoke to see Trump’s election night lead overtaken by the counting of mail-in ballots, which came in record numbers for Joe Biden, Alexander was expressed dismay. On Twitter, he suggested that the Republican Party should have adopted his 2018 Stop the Steal operation, which he had launched with the help of Trump confidant and since convicted felon Roger Stone during the recount of Florida’s 2018 U.S. Senate race.
On the day after the 2020 election, Alexander said he had no intention of rebooting it, but about an hour later, he suggested the only way he would restart the operation would be if a few key players were on board—among them, Tom Fitton, Amy Kremer, and Ed Martin. By around 2 p.m. that day, he’d added Charlie Kirk and others to the list.
"he’s decided only to do it under certain conditions and those conditions seem to be CNP support,” said Stephanie Lamy, a French information warfare researcher with Danaides who flagged the series of tweets. “That’s very clear from this tweet by the people he mentions.”
And there’s good reason to seek CNP support given its power and its expertise in advancing unsubstantiated voter fraud narratives.
Last month, The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow got his hands on videos from an Aug. 21 CNP conference held at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City. Fitton, who Alexander called on to be in charge of the legal aspect of the Stop the Steal campaign, zeroed in on mail-in voting.“We need to stop those ballots from going out, and I want the lawyers here to tell us what to do,” Fitton said. “But this is a crisis that we’re not prepared for. I mean, our side is not prepared for.”
J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, also attacked mail-in voting at that meeting, telling activists, “Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor, you’re a racist and so forth.” Adams, a known voter suppressor, was also part of Trump administration’s short-lived “Commission on Election Integrity,” which folded after findingno evidence to support claims of widespread voter fraud. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Adams’ legal organization has issued two lawsuits since Nov. 4 claimingvoter fraud.
Current CNP Treasurer Kenneth Blackwell has promoted Stop the Steal on Twitterand Facebook and, as Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery reported, baselessly charged Monday that “the Democrat-run Pennsylvania executive government only wants votes counted that support their agenda and their candidates.”
Trump himself has addressed CNP members—as recently as the Aug. 21 meeting and in the beginning of his campaign in 2015. According to The National Review, of the six Republican presidential candidates who addressed CNP in 2015, Trump was the “star attraction.”
Tags: Ali AkbarAli Alexander Amy Kremer Charlie Kirk Donald Trump Ed Martin Ginni Thomas J Christian Adams Ken Blackwell Michael Peroutka Mike Pence Tom Fitton Tony Perkins Disinformation Stop the Steal Voter Fraud Council for National Policy
https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/council-for-national-policy/
Welcome to Moyers on Democracy. What is the shadow network behind the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court? Who selected and groomed her for this moment? Who's financing the campaign to get her confirmed? Who's counting on her to side with President Trump if he's losing the election and wants the Supreme Court to declare him the winner? For the answers, Bill Moyers talks to journalist and investigator Anne Nelson about her book: SHADOW NETWORK: MEDIA, MONEY, AND THE SECRET HUB OF THE RADICAL RIGHT. In it, she exposes the powerful and little-known Council for National Policy, the organization behind the conservative movement of the past 40 years – from Ronald Reagan's secret war in Central America to their success in turning the Supreme Court into the Trump Court. Ms. Nelson has received the Livingston Award for her journalism and a Guggenheim Fellowship for historical research. Here to talk with her is Bill Moyers[vid]
MOYERS: Let me begin with the most current part of the story, which comes just a little bit after your book is published when the conservative movement is facing a very decisive encounter with the very forces it's been trying to defeat now for 40 years. How do you think the shadow network reads the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court? What are they making of it?
ANNE NELSON: Well, I think that they consider it a great triumph and a kind of culmination of 40 years of effort. And I demure a bit at the term conservative because this is, for me, the radical right. It is so far to the right of mainstream American public opinion that I feel that it's in a different category both in terms of its ideology and its tactics. But they decided way back in the day of Paul Weyrich, one of the architects of the movement that they–
BILL MOYERS: In the early 1970s, right?
Read an excerpt]
ANNE NELSON: We're going back to the '70s and even earlier, because he was active on the Barry Goldwater campaign. And he was frustrated time and again by moderates in the Republican Party and people who were willing to work with Democrats to advance policy and solutions to public problems. And he created organizations and tactics that he openly declared should destroy the regime, as he called it, which would be the U.S. government as we've known it for the last century.
BILL MOYERS: Paul Weyrich is the man I remember saying–
PAUL WEYRICH: I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populous goes down.
BILL MOYERS: He was essentially saying, as a newly anointed leader of the religious right, what their philosophy was. The fewer people vote, the better their chance.
ANNE NELSON: That's right. And from the beginning, in terms of their electoral tactics, it has been a matter of weaponizing certain churches and pastors and really exerting tremendous pressure on them to use churches as instruments of a radical right ideology. And then using similar tactics to suppress votes for Democrats, especially in key battleground states.
BILL MOYERS: So that's why you conclude in your book they were to the right of the Republican Party. They were not just an offshoot of the Republican Party. They were not just fundraisers for the Republican Party, but they were ideologically and organizationally taking the Republican Party far to the right.
ANNE NELSON: Absolutely, and somewhat to my surprise, I found that their prototype was the Southern Baptist Convention, where they decided that in order to move it to the right, they had to use questionable tactics to elevate their supporters to key positions of influence and purge the Southern Baptist Convention of moderates in the seminaries and in the colleges and among the pastors. And it was a fairly ruthless process, and once these tactics were developed, they applied it to the Republican Party. And you had the same kind of tactics going on of purging moderates, some of whom had been in office for years.
BILL MOYERS: I should point out to some of our younger listeners and readers that the Southern Baptist Convention at the time and still today was the largest Protestant denomination in America. You know, something like it eventually reached 16 and a half million members scattered throughout the South and the West.We'll come back to them in a moment. What do you think about the NEW YORK TIMES' assessment that Amy Coney Barrett represents a new conservativism rooted in faith. That's how their headline described a three-page portrait of her life and career. Does that make sense to you?
ANNE NELSON: Not entirely, because as a conservative Catholic, she follows in the footsteps of others such as Brett Kavanaugh and Antonin Scalia. So that's not very new. And what I look at in my book SHADOW NETWORK is how these interlocking organizations support each other. The book is about the Council for National Policy– a radical right-wing organization that is very secretive, and it brings together big donors like the DeVos family and oil interests from Texas and Oklahoma and political operatives. And, for example, members include the leadership of the Federalist Society. Well, Amy Coney Barrett was a member of the Federalist Society for a number of years and is still a speaker at their events. It includes the head of Hillsdale College, which is one of their campus partners. Amy Coney Barrett was commencement speaker for Hillsdale College this year.So, there are all of these organizations that have been turning their wheels to promote her really for several years going back. She appeared on previous lists of potential nominees for the Supreme Court, and I don't believe she would have been included in those lists had she not confirmed to their traditional idea of an activist judge.
BILL MOYERS: They knew what they were looking for.
ANNE NELSON: And I should add thatone of the most powerful components in the Council for National Policy is the anti-abortion movement.Organizations such as the Susan B. Anthony List and Concerned Women for America and other interests, which are anti-environmentalist interests from the fossil fuels industry. So, I think that we've seen a roadmap of what to expect moving forward.
BILL MOYERS: Tell me, who does make up the Council for National Policy?
ANNE NELSON: So, the Council for National Policy has traditionally been around 400 members. From the beginning, it's included people with big money, a lot of them from the Texas and Oklahoma oil industries, but also the DeVos family of Michigan from the Amway fortune, and Betsy DeVos, of course. So, it has the big money to pay for things. It's got the leaders of so-called grassroots organizations. Now, I say so-called, because they do not spring from the grassroots the way that you would expect from the name. They are organized with a great deal of money from the top down. So, for example, the National Rifle Association– their leadership is part of the CNP. They get money from the donors, they organize their millions of members, and you combine these with the strategists and the media owners. And I spend a lot of time in my book talking about thepower of fundamentalist and conservative radio in swing states. Things that people on the East Coast overlook to a terrible degree. And the same thing with fundamentalist broadcasting, which has really several of these broadcasters — the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Trinity Broadcasting Network have really turned into outlets replicating the messaging from this organization. So, you have them interlocking and interacting and each supporting each other's function. And I should explain something here, which is that they represent historically a white, Protestant, I'm sorry, but male-dominated patriarchy–
BILL MOYERS: No, that's okay.
ANNE NELSON: And I have to say that demographically its time has passed. The United States has become more diverse religiously, ethnically, and racially. And they recognize that their core positions are not supported by the majority of Americans. So, they went to the limit, pulled out all the stops to get Trump elected by a tiny margin, but they doubt that they can do that again. The signs are not good. What they can do is make their hold on the federal courts concrete through the Supreme Court, and therefore, get majorities in cases like gerrymandering, voter suppression, and their political activation of the churches with tax-exempt status. And further their hold on power through the courts.
BILL MOYERS: So which part of the shadow network do you think chose, mentored, and groomed Amy Coney Barrett for this moment?
ANNE NELSON: Well, I have to speculate here. But I would see a fairly straight line from her position toLeonard Leo's. Now, Leonard Leo is a very conservative Catholic. He was the operational figure of the Federalist Society for a number of years, and recently he shifted from that position to an even more activist position. Amy Coney Barrett was already a member of the Federalist Society. The Federalist Society has a pipeline through the lower federal courts, which she benefited from. So, in terms of this Catholic interaction they would be quite close to each other. Another key figure is Carrie Severino, who is from the Judicial Crisis Network, which was co-founded by Leonard Leo. And again, very right-wing Catholics who have tended to be overlooked while people focus on the fundamentalist Protestants.But Ralph Reed, who has been somebody who's been active with the fundamentalist politicization for decades declared openly years ago that the next step to their campaign was to enlist the Catholic vote. And they've been aggressively doing that in recent years.
BILL MOYERS: And then there's Don McGahn who was for three years Donald Trump's chief White House counsel, graduate of Notre Dame, admirer of Amy Coney Barrett, who was scouting himself for recruits to bring up, train, groom, and put into the mix for potential Supreme Court justices. And I read that he was highly enthusiastic about her, had talked to Leo and that they had you had both these White House and legal forces behind her, knowing that she was one of them.
ANNE NELSON: Yes. And I would guess that they suffered enough embarrassment over the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the discussion of possible sexual harassment that was involved, that it was a convenient moment to bring a female to the top of the list to avoid that. So, there were a number of elements in her favor. I should add that in the process of these nominationsTrump cut a deal in 2016 with this movement, and it was publicly reported that he was going to accept lists of nominees from three organizations run by Council for National Policy members: the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, and the National Rifle Association, believe it or not. And he has actually followed suit with that. The Federalist Society has taken the leadon this, but you will find the Heritage Foundation in the background of all of these proceedings, as well as the NRA.
BILL MOYERS: Did you see anybody from the shadow network at the White House when President Trump announced her nomination? Could you identify any there as members of the Council for National Policy?
ANNE NELSON: Why, as a matter of fact, I could. I've got the September 2020 membership list. So, I went through U.S.A. Today's publication of who was present at that event, which has been called the COVID superspreader event on September 29th. And what I found was that they had six members of the White House staff, nine members of congress, and 14 current members of the Council for National Policy.
BILL MOYERS: Fourteen?
The moment of truth in those hearings came when she [Amy Coney Barrett] was asked if it was against the law to interfere with the vote in a federal election. And she couldn't answer that. Which to me demonstrated either an ignorance of the law or a disregard for the law that is truly alarming on the eve of an election.
ANNE NELSON: Fourteen, and 12 of them were from the leadership bodies, the board of governors, and the gold circle elite members.So, they were there in force. They were having a victory dance this was a culmination of plans that had been in the works for decades.
BILL MOYERS: But if she is willing to put people at risk that way, to go along with the president in ignoring guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, are we okay in asking questions about her judgment? I mean, could she not have said, “Mr. President, I'm honored by this nomination, but can you wait until there's better days for us to do this?"
ANNE NELSON: I think that statement would have required someone who could restrain their ambition. And for me, the moment of truth in those hearings came when she was asked if it was against the law to interfere with the vote in a federal election. And she couldn't answer that either. Which to me demonstrated either an ignorance of the law or a disregard for the law that is truly alarming on the eve of an election.
BILL MOYERS: I was noticing in a story in THE WASHINGTON POST that the Council for National Policy had a three-day meeting in Southern California. And one member — a woman named Rachel Bovard —described Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Thomas as a crucial link to the White House. “She is one of the most powerful and fierce women in Washington. She is really the tip of the spear in these efforts."Did you come across Ginni Thomas in your book?
ANNE NELSON: I came across her repeatedly, and she has risen to the rank of the executive committee of CNP Action, which is their lobbying arm. She also is very active with another CNP member named Charlie Kirk who runs something called Turning Point U.S.A. She's also a so-called correspondent for a right-wing media platform called The Daily Caller, which is owned by members of the Council for National Policy. So, Ginni Thomas, who is from Omaha is married to a Supreme Court justice and is both a public and behind-the-scenes radical right-wing activist across the country. I don't know what the protocol is for spouses of Supreme Court justices, but I find it difficult to believe that people think this is appropriate.
BILL MOYERS: But what struck me about that is that so many of the characters that are now on stage in the third and fourth year of Trump's administration are clearly linked by the Council for National Policy, something few Americans have heard of. How did you come upon it?
ANNE NELSON: In my early 20s, I was a reporter in El Salvador. And from there, I joined the staff of Human Rights Watch. And so, I knew a lot about death squads in El Salvador, and learned in writing this book that the Council for National Policy and its partners had hosted death squad leader, Roberto d'Aubuisson, in Washington. An idea that was just shocking to me. They were heavily involved in the Contras during the Reagan administration. The support for the extreme right wing in El Salvador. I didn't know that at the time. I circled back to them decades later. I was in my hometown of Stillwater, Oklahoma, driving to Walmart and had the radio on. And started hearing some radio accusations against John Kerry who was running for president at the time, that shocked me, because the local preacher was claiming thatJohn Kerry would make heterosexual marriages unsanctified by promoting marriage equality. And it was a very strange statement. So later I started tracking who owned that radio station, and then I found out it belonged to a group of radio stations owned by members of the Council for National Policy. And then I said, “Well, what's that?" And, as you know, an investigative reporter just keeps pulling at the thread until something emerges.They were incredibly secretive, and I think it's only thanks to the internet and things that they've inadvertently published online that's made this research even possible.
BILL MOYERS: Let me summarize what I take away from your book the SHADOW NETWORK. You say that, for thesepast four decades, it's been a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes out of sight, correct?
ANNE NELSON: Yeah.
BILL MOYERS: How did they get away with that?
ANNE NELSON: Well, I say a few times in the book that I think the Democrats have been asleep at the wheel. But part of the problem is rooted in our crisis in journalism. Because when I was growing up, you had lots of vibrant local newspapers that published AP and New York Times syndicate stories on international and national news, as well as the local news and the basketball scores. And you had a population across the country that was working from the same page, as it were. These newspapers have been dying off. They have lost their business model due to the digital revolution and the economic crises. And nature abhors a vacuum. In their place, these fundamentalist radio stations and this engine for misinformation has taken their place. And it makes me angry. When you lose the local professional news organizations, the substitutes can lead people down a terribly damaging path.TIMPONE LOVAL LABS
BILL MOYERS: How do you connect that to the growth of the Council for National Policy.
ANNE NELSON: They use a lot of stalking horses in terms of their organizations. So, I think most people wouldn't think of the National Rifle Association as primarily a political organization. Certainly, they didn't in the 1970s. It was kind of a shooting club. It's been converted into a political organization. And that has happened with tens of thousands of churches. And I grew up in those communities. I don't think my friends and neighbors and family members went to church thinking, “We're going to go get told how to vote." That's not what they went for. But now that's what they get. And they are given voting guides in the sanctuaries inserted into the church bulletin, right? You turn the page from thehymn, and there you get the voting guide basically telling you to vote for a Republican. But it doesn't have the signature of the Council for National Policy. It just says, iVoterGuide produced by the Family Research Council,whose president has been the president of the Council for National Policy. So, you've got t0 connect the dots, but the dots are all there and highly connectable. You have people who are identifying with organizations, and they're looking at news media such as The Daily Caller, such as the Christian Broadcasting Network, such as Salem Media, which are tied into this system.And it's not about journalism. It's about messaging: we're going to tell you what to think.
BILL MOYERS: But this organization started, with a handful of people. How did they multiply their effect so thoroughly throughout our political system that they now dominate. How did that happen?
ANNE NELSON: Well, I think that what you had is this odd element of our electoral system where theelectoral collegecarries this weight. And a lot of candidates for national office focus on the popular vote, but the strategists like Paul Weyrich and others realize that the popular vote is actually irrelevant. The electoral college is what elects our president. So, what they figured out how to do was identify critical bands of voters who were corresponding to these mostly religious organizations in critical states. If you could reach these millions of voters, many of whom were not engaged, and convince them that it was a sin to vote for a Democrat, then you could win the state. And if you won the right states, you'd win the electoral college. And they worked on this approach over various decades. And they kept going to various Republican candidates and bringing their voters to them and trying to cut a deal where they would deliver the response in terms of power.
And I have to say that, a number of presidents including Reagan and the first President Bush had those conversations and reneged on the deal, right? They did not deliver the cabinet appointments. They did not deliver the reactionary social policies. And what they found with Trump was a transactional president who didn't really care about abortion or gay marriage or any of the rest of it. He just wanted the office. So, he cut a deal and he honored it. And he gave the former president of the Council for National Policy, Tony Perkins, carte blanche to write elements of the Republican Party platform in 2016, which have been just renewed for 2020 without amendment. So, they worked behind the scenes. It's been influence peddling, and it's been big, big money. The book traces hundreds of millions of dollars that have sloshed around in this circular way where the DeVoses fund the Koch brothers' operations. And the Koch brothers fund the DeVoses and Foster Friess funds The Daily Caller. And when you have the Democrats not paying sufficient attention to the swing states, when you have the local media in a state of collapse, that is the window of opportunity.
Strategists like Paul Weyrich and others realize that the popular vote is actually irrelevant. The electoral college is what elects our president. So, what they figured out how to do was identify critical bands of voters.]
BILL MOYERS: So, we have the pastors on one side and the plutocrats on the other side. You have this alliance between very dogmatic, religious zealots and men of huge wealth whose interest is not in piety. What joins them?
ANNE NELSON: Well, I think that, in religious terms, it's all about mammon.
BILL MOYERS: Mammon being the biblical term for money.
ANNE NELSON: That's right.
BILL MOYERS: The biblical metaphor for money.
ANNE NELSON: Yes. I keep looking at their so-called positions of principle. And, you know, you scratch at them and they don't go very deep. But what you do have with the Kochs' and the DeVoses and the various fossil fuel interests are people who've made immense fortunes and are terrified of losing their economic power. But also, these people don't want to pay taxes, and so pushing through a tax bill that favored the fraction of a 1% was a priority. And Donald Trump and the Republican Senate delivered it.
BILL MOYERS: The Washington Post last week released some video of the August meeting of the Council for National Policy. Let me just read a few things that were said at that meeting. Videos provided to the Post covering dozens of hours of CNP meetings over three days in February and three in August offer an inside view of participants' obsessions. Here are some of the things that were said:
BILL WALTON: This is a spiritual battle we're in. This is good versus evil. We have to do everything we can to win.
BILL MOYERS: –said the Council for National Policy's executive committee president, Bill Walton.Ralph Reed, chairman of the nonprofit, Faith and Freedom Coalition told the CNP audience that conservatives are going to be harvesting ballots in churches. “We're going to be specifically going in, not only to white evangelical churches, but into Hispanic and Asian churches and collecting those ballots.'"And then, here's the one that really stands out. At that meeting, J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department official and the president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a charity, described mail-in voting as the number one left-wing agenda. He urged the activists not to worry about the criticism that might come their way. Quote, “Be not afraid of the accusations that you're a voter suppressor." Any of that surprise you?
ANNE NELSON: Not in the least. On the contrary, you'll find the footprints of those statements in my book. One of the techniques that this movement has used is using data profiles and directing information to voters to either get them to vote for Republicans or to suppress the vote if they're not likely to. The Koch brothers brought state-of-the-art political data operations to the table with an organization called i360. And that was harnessed to organizations that were run by CNP members.
So, for example, one of them was the Susan B. Anthony List, which is anti-abortion. One of them was the NRA. They also combined data from churches and from political data and consumer data. So that allowed canvassers for these organizations to do their door-to-door canvassing having a huge amount of information about each individual voter, and a tailored individual script for them. So, for example, if you are canvassing in Springfield, Missouri, and you're working for the Susan B. Anthony List, you know that at such-and-such an address, there's a Catholic housewife with six kids there who watched an anti-abortion film on Netflix and ordered LIVES OF THE SAINTS from Amazon. You have all of that in your cell phone, and you also have a script that's been prepared and tailored for that voter, right? But you're going to have a totally different script based on the data for the next-door neighbor who's a gun owner who's all about the second amendment.
And the Democrats have lagged behind, not in terms of the data they have, but the way they've networked data across state lines and to organizations that are doing their political groundwork. So that's been a factor.The use of data has been very important in the last few campaigns, and not always well-understood. But there's also a really important matter of how data is used to suppress votes. And that's where I would direct people to a news story done by Channel Four in Britain. The Council for National Policy partners and the Koch brothers' data platform i360 used data from Cambridge Analyticawith several hundred million voters, with some 2,000 data points for every voter. So that includes you and me, Bill, okay? They know a lot about us, and so what they did in this story documenting what happened with African Americans in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was find that if voters were not likely to vote for Republicans. If they leaned Democratic, they would target them with misinformation that would disincline them to vote at all. And in other cases, such as what's been documented in Michigan, some 90,000 African American voters were persuaded not to vote for the top of the ticket for Hillary Clinton by these methods. So, in these states, they always go by very, very narrow margins. So, I would argue that a lot of these data operations, some of them of questionable legality, have actually changed the course of electoral history.
BILL MOYERS: What do you think they're doing for this election in two weeks?
ANNE NELSON: Well, we know that the Trump 2020 app has highly questionable practices, in terms of its privacy and the way it accesses people's cell phone directories, all of their contacts, friends and family, and then sends messages out to them, often without the user knowing that they're doing it. They also combine that with consumer data. So, for example, if you downloaded their app on one phone that was a different account, they could trace your credit card records back to your own account. They also use geolocation, so once you download the app, they figure out where you are and what kind of messaging would appeal to you and leverage you to attract other voters. And they use this through beacons that are placed around areas like political rallies and churches, right, to locate the people with the apps and then engage them for political purpose. It has been recently revealed that thesebeacons had even been implanted in Trump yard signs. So, they're really, I would say, on the cutting edge of political technology. And it's in this very murky area of law where there are abusive practices involving privacy, but there's no clear legal framework to govern it.
BILL MOYERS: And what stuns me is their ability to connect this very sophisticated information gained by very up-to-date, modern technology to a lot of poor pastors in East Texas and Southern Alabama who are concerned about the state of the world. And here, they've been led into, one of the most sophisticated political campaigns that really has not their interest at heart. And they become soldiers in the crusade–
ANNE NELSON: Absolutely. And again, these are the people I grew up with, and I see a lot of cases where the pastors have been bullied into it. And they say, “Wait a minute, I want people to come to church and reflect on spirituality. We're not here to run a political campaign."
BILL MOYERS: Yet the fact remains, as you make clear in the book, that they have a very acute grasp of electoral college politics. How do you win the 270 votes of the electoral college, even if you lost the popular vote? How did they get there?
ANNE NELSON: Well, they work harder at it. I think they worked harder at it than the Democrats have. They've got a pollster named George Barna.
BILL MOYERS: Yeah.
ANNE NELSON: And he has paid a lot of attention to these voters. He has identified characteristics to them, and one of them is that older white evangelicals from largely rural areas have a 91% turnout at the polling places. That is powerful. And that's something where it's not exactly fashionable in Democratic circles to talk about that. And why we should have a dialogue with these voters. So, when you get that information, and when you work over and over again to refine messaging that will touch a nerve with these groups, some of it's misinformation, and some of it's just hard work and smart strategy.
BILL MOYERS: And they have enlisted these fundamentalist white churches to serve as their political proxies by doing smart things, like inviting them on junkets that the CNP pays for, writing sermons for them to download, producing their church bulletins for them, and delivering voter guidesto them for distribution to their congregations. That's down at the very grassroots. And they do it.
ANNE NELSON: They've even constructed a multi-million-dollar Museum of the Bible, steps from Capitol Hill. And it's really a kind of monument to conservative fundamentalist political ideology.
BILL MOYERS: It's really a remarkable turn of American politics in the last 40 years, and you have written a very smart, detailed, informative, and narratively-driven book on it. You say, in your epilogue, in the beginning, there were the Southern Baptists, and there were two of them in particular, Pastor Paige Patterson — who became president of the Baptist seminary I had attended long before him — and a state judge named Paul Pressler. In effect, you say, they started it all. The Southern Baptists were the core.
ANNE NELSON: They were kind of the godfathers, I would say, yeah.
BILL MOYERS: Southern Baptists had long believed in the inerrancy of the Bible, that the Bible is literally God's word. But my generation of Baptists were discovering historical criticism of the Bible and began to change the denomination. And what Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler did was to alarm the Baptists who still believed in the literal meaning of the Bible and said, “They're going to take it away from you if you're not careful." And so they were able to drive the moderate leaders out of the Southern Baptist Convention and replace them with literalist, fundamentalist pastors from churches around the country, including some very large churches. And before we knew it, the Southern Baptist Convention had become a radically conservative Republican denomination.
ANNE NELSON: Yeah, and I see that as tragic, because it divides families, it divides communities. It changes the nature of spirituality in these communities. But then you see those tactics, which are all about power, right? And they're replicated in the Republican Party. Same thing happens. You drive out the moderates, you defeat the moderates, and you replace them with ideologues or card-carrying members of the movement. And I think we can look at Amy Coney Barrett as another iteration of the same thing. What you're doing is weeding out the moderate and liberal judges and replacing them with people who will march to this beat. And traditionally, that's not been the principle for our court. People could say, “The courts need to have some kind of standard that's open to all Americans," not something that's driving a particular minority ideology. So, for me, that's the glaring danger that's facing our democracy.
BILL MOYERS: And you sum up the Council for National Policy as, “An elite club of high-powered fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, deploying a media empire to flood the country with propaganda, bankrolling handpicked colleges to promote extremist Libertarian ideas, and to groom up and coming politicians," and I would say judges, “to advance its cause." And you say this is all aimed at the very heart of democracy.
ANNE NELSON: Well, democracy is the blind man and the elephant, because my democracy is an America where people from diverse religions and national backgrounds came together and chose to live together under the rule of law. It aspired to give everyone equal opportunity and rights as citizens. And I don't want another religion imposing its practice on me, that's not my idea of being an American or respecting my fellow Americans. If their idea of the American ideal is so different, I would think they'd have to show some evidence that the majority of Americans saw it their way. And the evidence is all to the contrary and moving in the opposite direction. So that's why we're seeing so many manifestations of questionable maneuvers for securing power, as opposed to winning it through the ballot box. We've got two weeks before the elections. Then we've got another period which is the interregnum until the inauguration. But then we're going to have this entire cohort in the judiciary which is going to be defining our public life for years, perhaps decades to come. So I'm afraid it's going to be no rest for the weary. The cliche is, “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." And I think that eternal vigilance is going to be very important for everyone who wants to defend other people's rights.
BILL MOYERS: Anne Nelson, thank you so much for SHADOW NETWORK: MEDIA, MONEY, AND THE SECRET HUB OF THE RADICAL RIGHT. And thank you for your time today.
ANNE NELSON: Thank you so much, Bill.
ANNOUNCER:Thanks for listening to Moyers on Democracy. On our website, you can read an excerpt from Anne Nelson's book. Until next time, you'll find all this and more at Billmoyers.com.
FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES
- Expert: New books make it clear -- Trump is a threat to every human ... ›
- Driven by fear: Trump has sealed himself in the Fox News bunker ... ›
- Palin Chosen to Please the Super Conservative (Ultra-Secret ... ›
- Will impeachment stymie this powerful group's plans for Mike Pence ... ›
- Secretive Council for National Policy Pushing Trump to Sign ... ›
RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB
- Remarks by President Trump at the 2020 Council for National Policy ... ›
- Inside the Council for National Policy - ABC News ›
- Council for National Policy: CNP ›
NEW
https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/will-impeachment-stymie-this-powerful-groups-plans-for-mike-pence
no lnx
Will impeachment stymie this powerful group’s plans for Mike Pence?
Written by Anne Nelson / Salon October 25, 2019
With the prospect of an impeachment looming over Washington this month, the conversation has naturally turned to Vice President Mike Pence — both as a possible successor to the presidency and as a possible candidate for impeachment himself. Standing in the eye of the storm, on October 5 Pence chose to tweet a photo of himself at the podium of an organization that is unknown to most Americans.
@VP
The Council for National Policy is one of the oldest & most effective organizations in the history of the conservative movement. Thank you Congressman McEwen & the more than 400 fellow conservatives for coming out & fighting for the principles that have made this country great!
“The Council for National Policy is one of the oldest and most effective organizations in the history of the conservative movement,” he wrote. He thanked former Ohio congressman (and CNP executive director) Bob McEwen “and the more than 400 fellow conservatives for coming out & fighting for the principles that have made this country great!”
Pence’s anodyne statement can be viewed as both life insurance for his career and the ongoing repayment of an old debt. The reasons have less to do with Trump than with the inner workings of the Republican Party.
Over the past few decades the traditional GOP has been overtaken by partisans of the Radical Right, now entrenched in the party’s infrastructure. This shadow network of hardline organizations, activists and donors stands ready to outlast the Trump presidency.The story of the CNP, a hub in this network, is a case study in how the durability and strategic capacity of right-wing institutions has shaped the American political landscape.
The Council for National Policy had its origins in the Southwest, where the social agenda of Christian fundamentalists and the economic interests of the oil industry converged. They founded the CNP in 1981 to capitalize on the election of Ronald Reagan; Reagan’s former attorney general, Edwin Meese III, would serve as the CNP’s president from 1993-1997.
The organization meets several times a year, maintaining secrecy for its membership and its proceedings. But a 2014 membership roster was leaked and published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, illustrating the span of the political network: major donors such as the DeVos family; evangelical powerhouses such as Southern Baptist leader Richard Land; and heads of influential media interests, including the Salem Media conglomerate. Kellyanne Conway has belonged to the CNP’s executive committee, and Jay Sekulow, lead attorney on Trump’s personal legal team, has served on the board of governors. The organization also, critically, includes the heads of membership organizations such as the National Rifle Association and the Susan B. Anthony List (a group that funds anti-choice candidates), whose ground troops can be deployed in coordinated political canvassing. In the words of former CNP president Richard DeVos (father-in-law to Education Secretary Betsy), the CNP convenes the “donors and the doers.”
The CNP has played the long game in Washington, using its ability to activate evangelical voting blocs as its political capital, building up influence in the statehouses and pushing the GOP ever farther to the right. Over time, the CNP partnerships evolved into a well-oiled machine, in which big money, regional broadcasters and ground troops advanced its interests in ways that were often neglected by the national news media. Mike Pence appeared at various stages of his career. One co-founder, Morton Blackwell, claims to have trained some 200,000 conservative candidates and political activists through his Leadership Institute — among them Mike Pence. Another co-founder, ideological architect Paul Weyrich, instituted a celebrated weekly lunch not far from the Capitol to talk strategy. Congressman Mike Pence briefed the group on a weekly basis. In 2006 the New York Times quoted Weyrich’s verdict on Pence: “He is what I’ve been waiting for in terms of leadership.”
After Barack Obama’s election in 2008, the donor networks of the CNP, fueled by the DeVos family’s Amway fortune, converged with those of the Koch brothers. Their digital campaigns and grassroots activism converged as well. The heads of Koch-backed organizations — including Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party Patriots — joined the Council for National Policy, and CNP donors funded Koch initiatives. In 2012 Democrats celebrated Obama’s reelection, but Republican efforts to cultivate state-level politics were paying off. Despite the Democrats gaining a national plurality of over 1.4 million votes in the House elections, Republicans won back the House with a margin of 17 seats, giving them power over the budgetary process.
The CNP partners’ long-term strategy identified some 17 million politically unengaged evangelicals, many concentrated in swing states, and sought ways to drive them to the polls. Focus groups found that this demographic could be motivated by scare tactics involving abortion and LGBT rights. These voters have been bombarded with falsehoods: Democrats conspire to “execute babies on the day of their birth”; schoolchildren face a mortal danger of sexual assault by transgender people using public restrooms. Swing state voters encountered these campaigns on radio broadcasts from CNP partner networks, in church sanctuaries from partner “ministries” and on social media, fueled by partner memes. They were complemented by grassroots canvassing run by CNP members, including the NRA, the Susan B. Anthony List and Americans for Prosperity.
In 2016, CNP members played a critical role in bridging the chasm between the evangelical base and Trump, overcoming objections to Trump’s character flaws and spiritual deficits.
CNP members Marjorie Dannenfelser and Penny Nance had signed an “anyone but Trump” letter to Iowa voters; Southern Baptist Richard Land and his fellow editors at the Christian Post described him as “exceptionally bad.”But CNP president Tony Perkins and strategist Ralph Reed kept their options open. Trump rode the wave of the primaries on the strength of his celebrity, but he lacked campaign funds, strategy and ground troops. The CNP partners could offer him all three — under certain conditions.
On June 21, 2016, Perkins hosted some 1,000 fundamentalist leaders at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square to allow Trump to make his case, sharing the stage with a panoply of CNP all-stars. Trump emerged with their full support. In return, CNP members received an Evangelical Advisory Board stacked with CNP members, a leading role in writing the social planks of the Republican platform, and, crucially, a decisive say in federal judicial nominations — their most powerful lever for reshaping the national landscape. By mid-July Trump also replaced his previous choices for running mate with Mike Pence.
Pence’s career now hangs in the balance, and much will depend on how closely he’s tied to Trump’s actions — even if Trump is only impeached and not convicted. But the Council for National Policy has looked ahead. Operating on the principle of “an heir and a spare,” it conspicuously auditioned Nicky Haley at its 2018 meeting.
The strategists of the CNP are keenly aware of the formula that won them the White House in 2016: Hillary Clinton’s campaign, focused on the national media, won the popular election by three million votes, but lost the Electoral College by some 80,000 votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The CNP may be hoping for a repeat: wagering that the impeachment furor in Washington will play out in the national media without moving the swing states — and that the Democrats will be too distracted by the drama to notice.
Anne Nelson (@anelsona) is the author of “Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right,” out this month from Bloomsbury.
==
==
no lnx
GINNI THOMAS PLANS NEW CONSERVATIVE SUPERGROUP TO “PROTECT PRESIDENT TRUMP”
Lee Fang, Nick Surgey
June 4 2019, 6:55 a.m.
In partnership with
CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST VIRGINIA “Ginni” Thomas is launching yet another project to wage war on multiple fronts of America’s most heated cultural and political debates. This time, however, her plan will include a project to “protect President Trump” using at least two new campaign-related political entities, according to a presentation obtained by The Intercept and Documented.
Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, unveiled the new venture in a closed meeting of GOP lawmakers, donors, and Christian-right leaders last month, seeming to make reference to the movement disarray and electoral losses suffered by conservatives in the Trump era — and the gains made by left-wing groups and politicians.
“Our house is on fire and we are stomping ants in the driveway.”
“Our house is on fire and we are stomping ants in the driveway. We’re not really focused on the arsonists who are right around us,” Ginni Thomas said.
Some of the most controversial icons in conservative circles will be involved with other branches of Thomas’s new project, which is dubbed “Crowdsourcers.” One such project is titled “Protect Our Heroes,” led by conservative filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe.
The node of the project focused on political campaigns — slated to do business under the name “American D-Day” — will be set up by Cleta Mitchell, a well-known Republican campaign finance lawyer and partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner. D-Day will include a 501(c)(4) arm that can solicit undisclosed donations and a separate PAC registered with the Federal Elections Commission.
O’Keefe and Thomas did not respond to requests for comment. Mitchell, in response to an inquiry from The Intercept, wrote that it was not her “role to answer any questions on this. Sorry.” Asked who to contact about the new venture, Mitchell wrote, “No one. None of your business.”
THOMAS AND MITCHELL announced the suite of projects at an invite-only gathering hosted by the Council for National Policy in McLean, Virginia, in mid-May. The CNP meetings are influential and secretive gatherings designed to advance a hard-edged view of social and political causes.
At the CNP event, Thomas issued a dark warning about a “cultural revolution,” a confrontation conservatives might lose unless they “help explain to America the fight against America.”
Thomas issued a dark warning about a “cultural revolution” — a confrontation conservatives might lose unless they “help explain to America the fight against America.”
The sweeping presentation covered a range of topics, including the “mob tactics” used by leftists against those wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and how the “hard left” has co-opted “the corporate community” to support a ban on housing and employment discrimination against LGBTQ people.
The campaign entities and O’Keefe project are among several initiatives to be “incubated” by Thomas’s Crowdsourcers initiative. The presentation lists efforts to “Build Robust Infrastructure,” led by Bill Meierling, chief marketing officer of the American Legislative Exchange Council, and “Brand the Left: You’ve Been Lied To!” led by direct-mail consultant Richard Viguerie.
Most of all, Thomas said, conservatives must study successful left-wing groups and emulate their tactics. To drive home this point, Thomas pointed to Chinese military general Sun Tzu, presenting the crowd with a slide featuring a quote that began: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
The colorful presentation provided a snapshot into the latest of a series of right-leaning movement ventures by Thomas, who has worked in GOP advocacy since the late 1980s. She has served as an aide to a Republican lawmaker and then as a lobbyist with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
slide-1559748572 A slide from a presentation given by Ginni Thomas explaining Crowdsourcers. Image: Council for National Policy. Screenshot: The Intercept
In 2009, Thomas founded a grassroots organization called Liberty Central, which she proclaimed would “be bigger than the tea party.” The group raised $1.5 million from anonymous donors and paid Thomas a $120,000 salary, but only lasted a few years before disbanding.
In 2011, Clarence Thomas acknowledged that he had failed to disclose in his judicial ethics forms his wife’s additional income, relating to her work for the Heritage Foundation and Hillsdale College.
More recently, Ginni Thomas has been involved in an ad-hoc coalition known as “Groundswell,” touted as a plan to wage a “30-front war” on left-wing activists and the GOP establishment.
In January, Thomas met with Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, according to a report in the New York Times. The story claimed that Thomas used the hourlong meeting to sharply criticize the president for not doing more to place Trump supporters in administration positions.
IN THE PAST, critics have raised issues with Thomas, arguing that her political activity represents a conflict of interest for her husband on issues ranging from health care to campaign finance. There is no law barring spouses of judges from engaging in politics at any level, and there is no suggestion that — beyond the justice’s previous failure to report his wife’s outside income — any formal rules of the court have been broken.
Still, the increasingly combative and partisan nature of Thomas’s activism will reflect on public perception of the Supreme Court and her husband’s archconservative rulings.
The Washington Post noted that, in recent years, Thomas has made her Facebook page a forum for increasingly conspiratorial and inflammatory content. She has linked to memes alleging that Democrats stole the 2018 midterm elections and shared an image post, now deleted, claiming that Parkland, Florida, students advocating for gun control were “dangerous to the survival of our nation.”
Earlier this month, Thomas posted a meme demanding that Congress should turn away from undermining Trump and focus on “real problems” such as a the “rise of infanticide.”
Her private presentations to conservatives take a similar tone.
Last October, the Council on National Policy held another gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, at which Thomas gave a presentation on the state of the election and her views of the challenges ahead.
“The hard left,” Thomas said at the time, “is in control of the Democrat Party.” She continued, “They’re pushing and pulling at the party. And they’re also controlling the media and corporations and Hollywood and education. And we’re in the minority in our country.”
Thomas warned that the “fascist left” had encouraged violence over the hearings to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and would continue waging a cultural war against conservatives.
That war included, she said, a push to use “rainbow flags” to send “powerful, subtle messages” against conservatives. She also cited the left-wing shooter who arrived at the congressional baseball game in 2017 to target GOP lawmakers. The members of Congress targeted were lucky that Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., had security with him, Thomas said.
“We all have guns and concealed carry,” Thomas said, “to handle what’s coming.”
==
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/07/brett-kavanaugh-evangelicals-council-for-national-policy/
lee fang
as THE SENATE prepared to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon, evangelical Christian leaders were gathered at a secretive retreat in North Carolina to plan the conservative movement’s path forward.
The Council for National Policy, which operates covertly and brings together faith-based conservatives to discuss political strategy, was holding a planning meeting in a second-floor ballroom at the Westin hotel in Charlotte when the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court pick by a 50-48 vote.
After a tumultuous few weeks in which Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault, the group had remained cautious until the final moments, several participants told The Intercept. Following the Senate’s procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday, the CNP attendees gathered that evening during dinner to pray that victory was near.
Their prayers, it seems, were answered. Kavanaugh’s confirmation cemented a decadeslong push to cement a conservative majority on the high court, an objective long desired by the CNP.
The agenda for the event featured a veritable who’s who of Christian conservatives, including Ginni Thomas, the spouse of Justice Clarence Thomas; U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley; former Sen. Jim DeMint, the former president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank; pollster Frank Luntz; and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is seeking a leadership role in the House after Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., retires this year.
The three-day event, which started on Friday, was held largely under the radar. It was closed to the media, attendees were forbidden from recording its proceedings, and even its location was a strictly guarded secret. The Intercept was barred from approaching the areas of the hotel at which the conference was being held, but we were able to interview some attendees in the lobby outside.
To CNP founding member and Texas oil fortune heir T. Cullen Davis, Kavanaugh’s vote on the Supreme Court will help protect the religious liberties that the CNP perceives to be under attack at schools. “On the particular issue of prayer of school, they’re teaching the Muslim religion in school now, but they can’t say the name Jesus,” Davis said. “It’s a tragedy. I would like to see prayer back in school.”
Davis said he was pleased so far with Trump’s leadership but that he remains unsure of Trump’s commitment to the faith. “I really don’t know his relationship to Jesus Christ, but he is not hostile to Christianity like Hillary [Clinton] and [Barack] Obama,” he added.
“He will hold to the Constitution, of course we are happy. It was God’s will,” said another participant who declined to be named. The final vote and the accusations against Kavanaugh were “a test of the faithful,” the participant added.
Others expressed anger at the treatment of Kavanaugh, who was confirmed with the closest Senate vote for a Supreme Court nominee in more than a century.
“It was a liberal media mob,” said radio host Herman Cain, a longtime CNP participant, noting that critics had raised similar allegations about sexual harassment when he ran for the Republican nomination for president. When allegations emerged in 2011 that women had received settlements regarding harassment from Cain during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association, Cain dismissed the reports as a “witch hunt.” He later confirmed the settlements were paid out but denied the nature of the allegations.
Referring to the past controversy, Cain said the media did not want an “articulate black Republican” to win the GOP nomination, so it manufactured a scandal.
The allegations against Kavanaugh, Cain argued, were part of a Democratic plot to spin the media. He said every allegation “couldn’t be corroborated,” and he agreed with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s unfounded contention that liberal billionaire George Soros was likely paying protesters on Capitol Hill.
“Every time I had to watch a report about what they were doing to Kavanaugh, it was like a dagger in my stomach,” said Cain.
Many participants, including CNP executive director Bob McEwen, a former Republican lawmaker from Ohio, were unwilling to speak to The Intercept, citing CNP’s strict rules around media.
The Judicial Crisis Network, a dark money organization that aired at least $12 million in television advertisements in support of Kavanaugh, has sent representatives to recent CPN retreats. At the retreat this weekend, a representative from CRC Public Relations, the public relations firm tapped by Judicial Crisis Network to build support for Kavanaugh’s nomination, was listed on the event program on panels discussing messaging and social media strategies.
Ed Whelan, a conservative legal operative who vets and builds support for Republican nominees, gave a presentation to CNP at the organization’s February 2017 retreat in Orlando on Trump’s strategy for rapidly appointing judges. Last month, Whelan, under guidance from CRC Public Relations, tweeted a false allegation against Christine Blasey Ford, who had accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when the two were in high school, attempting to undermine her credibility.
The event this weekend also showcased evangelical groups that helped champion Kavanuagh’s nomination. The Family Research Council, a group that sharply opposes LGBT and abortion rights, mobilized evangelical churches to support Kavanaugh. The group sent several representatives, including leader Tony Perkins, to the CNP retreat.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition, another group that presented at the CNP conference, said in an email after the confirmation vote that it had produced more than 800,000 pieces of direct mail, 400,000 peer-to-peer text messages, and 1 million emails to Christian conservative voters in support of Kavanuagh’s confirmation.
A sign in the lobby of the Westin Hotel in Charlotte, N.C., where the Council for National Policy retreat was held on Oct. 7, 2018.
Photo: Lee Fang/The Intercept
CNP HAS FAMOUSLY focused on challenging the perceived liberal dominance of the judiciary. The 37-year-old organization does not publicize its meetings, but over the years, reporters have gained limited access to learn about its advocacy, including the involvement of prominent Christian right pressure groups that lobby on judicial issues and frequently litigate before the Supreme Court.
In 1999, when George W. Bush addressed the group, rumors swirled that the then-presidential candidate gained evangelical support by promising to support anti-abortion judges to the bench. CNP also reportedly blessed the choice of Sarah Palin as the late Sen. John McCain’s running mate in 2008.
Over the last year, CNP has been involved in efforts to pressure Senate Republicans to rapidly confirm Trump’s judicial nominees. “In delaying the confirmation of President Trump’s appointees, the Senate is directly limiting the President’s effectiveness,” wrote CNP leaders, through an affiliate group, in a widely circulated letter last year.
The organization was formerly led by Christian minister Tim LaHaye, the author of a popular series of books depicting an apocalyptic destruction of the world prophesied in the Bible. LaHaye and his wife also founded Concerned Women for America, the anti-abortion activist group now led by Penny Nance. CWA is a longtime participant in CNP meetings and currently sponsors the ad-hoc group Women for Kavanaugh, which mobilized rallies across the country in support of Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Trump tweeted his praise for the group hours before the confirmation vote.
In the lobby of the Westin hotel on Saturday, conservative activists huddled after a day of meetings. Mathew Staver, the chair of Liberty Counsel, a litigation group that represented Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, was in attendance. Frank Gaffney, the former Reagan official and anti-Muslim activist, was also present.
In an interview, Cain described the presentation he gave to the group on Saturday morning.
During his remarks, he described the biblical battle between Gideon and the Midianites, Cain told The Intercept. God, Cain said, told Gideon not to overwhelm his enemy, and instructed him to pare down his army to only 300 soldiers to face an army of thousands of Midianites.
“Totally outnumbered. God said, this way when you win, and you defeat the Midianites, you know it was because of me,” said Cain. “He defeated the Midianites with 300 men up against thousands and thousands.”
“That’s what this organization is like,” continued Cain, describing CNP. “It’s like Gideon’s army. We’re outnumbered, but we still win. Kavanaugh, the voices against him outnumbered the voices for him, but looks like he’s going to win.”
Why Has The Religious Right Embraced Neo-Confederate Michael Peroutka?
ByMiranda Blue | May 18, 2016 11:55 am
Our friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center have obtained a copy of the 2014 membership list of the Council for National Policy, a secretive group [led by the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins](https://www.nationaljournal.com/twentysixteen/2015/04/15/conservative-leaders-plan-two-secret-meetings-aimed-picking-2016-candidate "https://www.nationaljournal.com/twentysixteen/2015/04/15/conservative-leaders-plan-two-secret-meetings-aimed-picking-2016-candidate
Ctrl+Click or tap to follow the link") that includes a who’s who of leaders of the Religious Right and the wider conservative movement who work together to influence national politics. (In 2014, Perkins was the group’s vice president.) We’ve known from news reports that CNP’s membership includes a wide range of Religious Right leaders, but one name on the list obtained by SPLC stood out: Michael Peroutka.
Peroutka, who made his fortune with a family debt-collection business, has become a minor benefactor to the Religious Right, including funding anti-choice groups, bankrolling some of the campaigns and advocacy work of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (who is currently suspended for attempting to defy the federal courts on marriage equality), and, maybe most notably, donating a million-dollar dinosaur skeleton to a creationist group.
Peroutka runs the Institute on the Constitution, a Christian Reconstructionist groupthat argues for the enforcement of a particular interpretation of biblical law. For instance, Peroutka has suggested that all laws passed by the Maryland legislature are invalidbecause the legislature became an invalid body when it violated “God’s law” and passed marriage equality legislation.
Most troubling, Peroutka has a history as a neo-Confederate activist, including spending time on the board of the secessionist League of the South. In a 2004 speech to the group, Peroutkasaid that he was “still angry” that Maryland failed to secede from the Union during the Civil War. At the group’s 2012 convention, Peroutka led attendeesin a spirited rendition of “Dixie,” which he referred to as “the national anthem”: [vid]
Peroutka was appointed to the board of the League of the Southin 2013, the year before the CNP membership list obtained by SPLC was published. He quit the group in late 2014 as he ran for a local government seat in his home state of Maryland, unconvincingly claiming that he hadn’t been aware of the group’s racism.
Peroutka ended up winning a seat on the county council of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, after his openly gay Democratic opponent was hit with nasty anti-LGBT robocalls that were later tied to Peroutka’s advisers.
CNP’s membership list is closely guarded and new members can join only by invitation. This means that Peroutka didn’t just show up unannounced: He was invited to join a group that includes Perkins, the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, Alliance Defending Freedom’s Alan Sears and many other high-profile conservative activists.
We don’t know if Peroutka is still a member of the group. But even by the time CNP’s 2014 membership directory was published, there was already plenty of public information available about his troubling ideology. Why was the leadership of the Religious Right willing to invite Peroutka into their fold?
Tags: Alan SearsBrian BrownMat StaverMichael PeroutkaTony PerkinsAlliance Defending FreedomCouncil for National PolicyFamily Research CouncilInstitute on the ConstitutionLiberty CounselNational Organization for Marriage
===
===
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ginni-thomas-teams-up-with-james-okeefe-in-dark-money-operation-to-protect-trump/
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a right-wing political activist, has launched a new set of organizations meant to “protect President Trump” and attack Democrats and left-leaning organizations, according to an article published by The Intercept this week.
The well-connected Thomas, a former Heritage Foundation staffer, presented her plans to build a “robust infrastructure” to a meeting of the secretiveCouncil for National Policy last month. The CNP is a strategy-development-and-sharing network that includes leaders across the U.S. religious and political Right, including people like neo-Confederate Christian Reconstrucionist Michael Peroutka. CNP members pushed Trump to sign an executive order on religious liberty.
Thomas is planning to build a “robust infrastructure” of affiliated organizations.Among her partners in the new project are longtime right-wing operative Richard Viguerie; undercover videographer and political tricksterJames O’Keefe;Republican campaign lawyer Cleta Mitchell;and Bill Meierling, chief marketing officer for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a matchmaker for corporate lobbyists and conservative legislators willing to do their bidding.
A slide from Thomas’s presentation at Council for National Policy notes, “Long Term teams taking shape will focus on Education, Media, Entertainment/Arts, Faith, Corporate/Economic, Government, Science, and more”—nearly identical to the list of spheres of cultural influence targeted by Religious Right proponents of Seven Mountains Dominionism.
The Intercept also reported that Thomas had spoken at another CNP event last October, at which she declared, “The hard left is in control of the Democrat Party … And they’re controlling the media and corporations and Hollywood and education.”
This January, Thomas organized a White House meeting where she was joined by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney and others where, among other things, they complained that White House aides were blocking right-wing Trump supporters from getting administration jobs.
Thomas and many of her partners were among conservative activists who mobilized a year ago to try to replace then-House Speaker Paul Ryan with right-wing favorite Rep. Jim Jordan.
Thomas presented United in Purpose “Impact” awards to O’Keefe, Gaffney, and Sean Hannity in 2017. In 2016, TPM reported that Thomas “wanted to ‘target’ the ‘most questionable’ precincts in Virginia with an anti-voter fraud campaign.”
Thomas also interviewed right-wing radio host Jesse Lee Peterson for the Daily Caller in 2016. The two talked about what Thomas called “race hustlers” who she said are “in the business of keeping blacks angry” and about Black Lives Matter, which Peterson called “evil,” “wicked,” and “worse than the KKK.” Last year, Thomas reportedly hired a former Turning Point USA staffer who had resigned after The New Yorker published screenshots of text messages that included a text that said “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE.”
Tags: Bill MeierlingCleta MitchellGinni ThomasJames O'KeefeRichard ViguerieElection 2020Seven MountainsALECAmerican Legislative Exchange CouncilCouncil for National Policy
===
==
The two political operatives chosen earlier this month to lead Donald Trump’s presidential campaign after two former managers departed have been members of the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP), Hatewatch has learned
Longtime Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of the far-right Breitbart News operation, were named on Aug. 17 as, respectively, the Trump campaign’s manager and its chief executive officer. The appointment of Bannon was by far the more controversial choice, given his role at a “news” outlet known for bashing immigrants, Muslims, women and others.
The CNP is an intensely secretive and shadowy group of what The New York Times once described as “the most powerful conservatives in the country.” It is so tight-lipped that it tells people not to admit their membership or even name the group. Revealing when or where the group meets, or what it discusses, is also forbidden. The organization, which can only be joined by invitation and at a cost of thousands of dollars, strives mightily to keep its membership rolls secret.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which publishes Hatewatch, obtained a copy this spring of the CNP’s 2014 membership directory, a closely held document. It shows that Conway was a member of the CNP’s executive committee that year, and that Bannon was a regular member. It is not known if they remain.
The CNP is not controversial so much for the conservatives who dominate it — activists of the religious right and the so-called “culture wars,” along with a smattering of wealthy financiers, Congressional operatives, right-wing consultants and Tea Party operatives — as for the many real extremists who are included.
They include people like Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate who for years was on the board of the white supremacist League of the South; Jerome Corsi, a strident Obama “birther” and the propagandist hit man responsible for the “Swift boating” of John Kerry; Joseph Farah, who runs the wildly conspiracist “news” operation known as WorldNetDaily; Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel leader who has worked to re-criminalize gay sex; Philip Zodhaites, another anti-gay activist who is charged with helping a self-described former lesbian who kidnapped her daughter from her former partner and fled the country; and a large number of other similar characters.
As the SPLC noted when it published the 2014 directory in May of this year, the CNP has every right to keep its membership secret. But, as the SPLC wrote then, “it also provides an important venue in which relatively mainstream conservatives meet and very possibly are influenced by real extremists, people who regularly defame LGBT people with utter falsehoods, describe Latino immigrants as a dangerous group of rapists and disease-carriers, engage in the kind of wild-eyed conspiracy theorizing for which the John Birch Society is famous, and even suggest that certain people should be stoned to death in line with Old Testament law.”
Bannon was already controversial. His Breitbart news operation has specialized in extreme-right propaganda that is summed up in some of the headlines it ran while under his stewardship: “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew,” “There’s No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck at Interviews,” “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,” “Lesbian Bridezillas Bully Bridal Shop Owner Over Religious Beliefs” and so on. Breitbart also recently published a defense of the “Alternative Right” that included defending well-known white supremacist ideologues Jared Taylor and Richard Spencer.
It’s not known how their contacts within the CNP may have affected Conway and Bannon. But as the SPLC concluded in its May report on the CNP: “At a time of extreme political polarization in our society, in the middle of an ugly presidential contest which has featured an almost unsurpassed record of ethnic, racial and sexual insults and lies, Americans deserve to know who their ostensible leaders are mixing with as we collectively decide our country’s future.”
That is as true of campaign leaders as it is of political candidates.
no link
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/08/31/revealed-conway-bannon-members-secretive-group
Why is the man who stole Ohio campaigning with a white supremacist?
by Bob Fitrakis
by Harvey Wasserman
OCTOBER 9, 2006
J. Kenneth Blackwell, the man who stole Ohio’s 2004 presidential election, was out campaigning October 4, 2006 with a man widely viewed as one of America’s leading white supremacists. Blackwell is an African-American.
He is also the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio. As Secretary of State, he was the GOP point man for stealing the 2004 presidential vote that gave George W. Bush a second term. As co-chair of the state’s Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, Blackwell engineered a complex strategy of confusion, disenfranchisement and theft that mirrored what was done by Katherine Harris in Florida 2000. Harris was rewarded with a safe Congressional seat, and is now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Polls show Blackwell trailing between 12-20 points in his gubernatorial race, but few Ohio insiders doubt his ability to steal the necessary votes, if he can get away with it. Currently, Blackwell operatives are stressing that he’s “only 12 points down” and that they believe the race will tighten significantly by Election Day.
Blackwell toured the state with Larry Pratt, author of ARMED PEOPLE VICTORIOUS, which advocates the creation of militant right-wing militias. Pratt has spoken and shared platforms in the past with Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi Aryan Nation members. He was forced to take a leave of absence from Pat Buchanan’s 1996 presidential campaign over charges of white supremacist and anti-semitic views. Pratt’s 150,000-member Gun Owners of America is proudly to the right of the National Rifle Association.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Pratt says he couldn’t be a racist because he is campaigning with Blackwell, an African-American. Blackwell is “our kind of guy,” says Pratt, in reference to Blackwell’s support of gun owners’ rights.
Blackwell campaign spokesperson attorney Eric Seabrook, conceded on Sunday, October 8 to the Khari Enaharo show listeners on 98.9FM radio that Pratt was a white supremacist but, he stressed “it was all about the gun rights issue.”
But this is not the first time Blackwell has lined up with extreme right-wing backers boasting racist and anti-semitic roots. Earlier this year Blackwell posted on his website a picture of himself addressing the Council for National Policy. The CNP has deep “neo-fascist” and Ku Klux Klan ties according to Chip Berlet of the Boston-based Political Research Associates. In addition to right wing extremists such as Jerry Falwell, Phyllis Schlafly and Pat Robertson, the CNP embraces a broad spectrum of powerful, reactionary bigots.
Among them are members of the Ahmanson family, major funders of extremist publications and electronic voting machines. The Ahmanson’s financial and political ties are thoroughly intertwined with both ES&S and Diebold, mainstays of the electronic hardware used to steal the Ohio vote. Among their associates are Bob and Todd Urosevich, whose executive and programming work has helped shape the two voting machine companies.
Others associated with the CNP include:
Richard Shoff, a former Ku Klux Klan leader in Indiana.
John McGoff, an ardent supporter of the former apartheid South African regime.
R.J. Rushdoony, the theological leader of America's "Christian Reconstruction" movement, which advocates that Christian fundamentalists take "dominion" over America by abolishing democracy and instituting Old Testament Law. Rushdoony's Reconstructionalists believe that "homosexuals . . . adulterers , blasphemers, astrologers and others will be executed," along with disobedient children.
Reed Larson, head of anti-union National Right to Work Committee.
Don Wildmon, TV censorship activist and accused anti-Semite.
Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North, Major General John K. Singlaub and other principals from the Iran-Contra Scandal.
After a public uproar, Blackwell pulled his CNP photo off his website. But he has thus far made no similar backtrack on Larry Pratt. “We’re happy to have his support,” says a campaign spokesman, reported the Dispatch.
Blackwell supporters continue to predict he will make a “last-minute surge” to win the governor’s race. Making no visible moves toward the mainstream, Blackwell may well be banking on two bottom lines in Bush-era electoral politics: loaded guns and rigged voting machines.
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors, with Steve Rosenfeld, of WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO?, just published by the New Press. Fitrakis is an independent candidate for governor of Ohio, endorsed by the Green Party.
==
==
BW bk:
erik p sold co 1.3b$; wife cnp (fdr lehaye, turn am rt; CFR too liberal) , frc
cnp: fallwell, schasfly, robertson, perkins dobson baur, r reed; norquust, north, gaffney, NRA lapierre; visits by DC, bolton, rumy, ashcroft, senor, delay, frist
10. Council for National Policy
Revenue: $1,976,747
The Council for National Policy exists to do just one thing: organize meetings of right-wing operatives, Religious Right leaders and wealthy business interests at posh hotels around the country to share ideas, plot strategy and vet GOP presidential candidates. Membership is by invitation only, and the group seeks no media attention. Despite its small size and shadowy operations, the CNP – founded by Religious Right godfather Tim LaHaye – wields a great deal of influence, showing that even organizations with modest budgets can have a significant impact. U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), after his now-infamous “legitimate rape" comment, showed up at the next CNP meeting to ensure ongoing financial support as he runs for the U.S. Senate. Heritage Foundation Vice President Becky Norton Dunlopcurrently serves as CNP president, with Phyllis Schlafly and FRC’s Tony Perkins also taking leadership roles.
The CNP: manipulating religion to political ends
Many of the religious evangelical groups in America are coordinated top-down by a secretive organization called the Committee on National Policy. Former close Bush adviser, Rev. Ted Haggard, was a member of the Committee on National Policy until a sex and drugs scandal forced him out in late 2006.
Haggard was Pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs described as the âevangelical Vatican,â and was head of the National Association of Evangelicals. Ted Haggard was also a member of a highly significant and little-understood sect known as Joelâ��s Army or the Manifest Sons of God, the same circles which spawned Sarah Palin.
Another noteworthy member of the CNP as was Grover Norquist, the man once described as the âField Marshall of the Bush Plan.â
The CNP, created in the early 1980âs during the Reagan era, is the nexus for several odd and quite powerful organizations. It was described by ABC's Marc J. Ambinder as â��the conservative version of the Council on Foreign Relations.â CNP Members include names such as General John Singlaub, shipping magnate J. Peter Grace, Texas billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt, Edwin J. Feulner Jr of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, Rev. Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye and most of the prominent names in the Christian Right around Bush. It has included prominent politicians including Senator Trent Lott, Senator Don Nickles, former Attorney General Ed Meese, Col. Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame, and Right-wing philanthropist Else Prince, mother of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater the controversial private security firm.1
CNP members have also included not only the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Unification Church, definitely a bizarre formation whose founder openly states that he is superior to Christ. The CNP as well reportedly includes the Church of Scientology.2
CNP member and GOP strategist, Gary Bauer, links both. Bauerâs Family Research Council was a signatory of the Scientology Pledge to remove psychology from California schools and replace it with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics. Bauer was also a speaker at Sun Myung Moon's Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Conference in 1996.
Religious researchers Paul and Phillip Collins describe the CNP as follows: âThe CNP appears to be a creation of factions of the power elite designed to mobilize well-meaning Christians to unwittingly support elite initiatives. The CNP could also be considered a project in religious engineering that empties Christianity of its metaphysical substance and re-conceptualizes many of its principles and concepts according to the socially and politically expedient designs of the elite. These contentions are supported by the fact that many CNP members are also members of other organizations and/or criminal enterprises that are tied directly to the power elite.â3
In order to shape public debate over the course of national military and foreign as well as domestic policy, the US establishment had to create mass-based organizations to manipulate public opinion in ways contrary to the self-interest of the majority of the American people. The Committee on National Policy was formed to be a central part of this mass manipulation.
The Committee on National Policy is a vital link between multi-billion dollar defense contractors, Washington lobbyists like the convicted felon and Republican fundraiser, Jack Abramoff, and the Christian Right. Itâs at the heart of a new axis between right-wing military politics, support for the Pentagon war agenda globally and the neo-conservative political control of much of US foreign and defense policy.
The CNP has been at the center of Karl Roveâs carefully-constructed Bush political machine. Tom Delay and dozens of top Bush Administration Republicans are or had been members of the CNP. Few details about the organization are leaked to the public. As secretive as the Bilderberg Group if not more so, the CNP releases no press statements, meets in secret and never reveals names of its members willingly.
The elite circles behind the Bush Presidency have crafted an extremely powerful political machine using the forces and energies of the Christian Right and millions of American Christians unaware of the darker manipulations. Is Sarah Palin a part of such darker manipulations?
==
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy
[updated intro 7/13:
The Council for National Policy (CNP) is a shadowy, secretive group dubbed "Sith Lords of the Ultra-Right"by the liberal blog DailyKos.[1] Mark Crispin Millercalled CNP a "highly secretive... theocratic organization -- what they want is basically religious rule" (A Patriot Act). Their membership (see below) is a Who's Who list of the biggest names of the Radical Right.
"The CNP describes itself as a counterweight against liberal domination of the American agenda," reported ABC News.[2]
CNP's membership is comprised of leaders in the family values, national defense and decency movements woven by members of theDead Billionaires Club like the Adolph Coors Foundation, the Koch brothers, Richard DeVos, Richard Scaife and other billionaires and foundations who have invested heavily in developing a complex web of far-Right groups, think-tanks and politicians over the last forty years to return the United States to its pre Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 19th century capitalist roots.[3]
Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the New York Times about the CNP meeting ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention, "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week."[4]
"Utah Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland said that the Council for National Policy meeting gives [the public] 'a rare opportunity to see - or more accurately not see - what Republicans are all about. And that is how policy is influenced in this country by what amounts to a secret society of far-right-wing conservatives and religious extremists.'" [5]
]]
- 1 Foundation
- 2 Executive Director
- 3 Secretive Membership
- 4 Membership Roster
- 5 Other Attendees Not Confirmed as Members
- 6 People Who Have Addressed CNP
- 7 Meetings
- 8 Funding
- 9 Books mentioning CNP
- 10 Contact details
- 11 Resources
The Council for National Policy is a secretive forum that was formed in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a networking tool for leading US conservative political leaders, financiers and religious right activist leaders. The group, which meets three times a year, promotes "Educational conferences for national leaders in the fields of business, government, religion and academia to explore national policy alternatives. Weekly newsletters are distributed to all members to keep them apprised of member activities and public policy issues. A semi-annual journal is produced from membership meeting speeches."[1]
In 2001, ABC News reported: "The CNP describes itself as a counterweight against liberaldomination of the American agenda."[2]
Others are not so kind to the organization and its motives. Mark Crispin Miller states that the CNP is a "highly secretive... theocratic organization -- what they want is basically religious rule" (*A Patriot Act*). Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the New York Times about the CNP meeting ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention, "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week."[3^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-Kirk-2)
--
- Council for National Policy
Revenue: $1,976,747
The Council for National Policy exists to do just one thing: organize meetings of right-wing operatives, Religious Right leaders and wealthy business interests at posh hotels around the country to share ideas, plot strategy and vet GOP presidential candidates. Membership is by invitation only, and the group seeks no media attention. Despite its small size and shadowy operations, the CNP – founded by Religious Right godfather Tim LaHaye – wields a great deal of influence, showing that even organizations with modest budgets can have a significant impact. U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), after his now-infamous “legitimate rape” comment, showed up at the next CNP meeting to ensure ongoing financial support as he runs for the U.S. Senate. Heritage Foundation Vice President Becky Norton Dunlop currently serves as CNP president, with Phyllis Schlafly and FRC’s Tony Perkins also taking leadership roles.
--
^...2006 Meeting
An example of the group’s far-reaching influence on the conservative movement in the United States is their May 9, 2006, meeting where speakers included NRA President Sandra Froman, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Heritage Foundation president Edwin Fuelner Jr., Phyllis Schlafly, Grover Norquist, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, Oliver North and Robert Bork.[4]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-3)
Membership
"The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting," the New York Times reported in August 2004.[3]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-Kirk-2)
Board of directors
The 2002 calendar year Form 990 return filed with the IRS lists the board of Directors as:
- Donald Paul Hodel President (former Secretary of Energy and former president of the Christian Coalition)
- T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Vice President
- James C. Miller, III, Chairman
- John Seribante, Secretary/Treasurer
- Robert Fischer, Director,
- Dr. Dal Shealy, Director
- Howard Phillips, Director
- Ken Raasch, Director
- Mary Reilly Hunt, Director
- Stuart W. Epperson, Director
- Ann Drexel, Director (also a Red Cross board member)
- Becky Norton Dunlop, Director
- Jerome Ledzinski, Director
- Grover Norquist, Director
- E. Peb Jackson, Director
Staff members of the Board of Directors are:
- Steve Baldwin, Executive Director (paid $157,391 in 2002)
- David Fenner, Director of MIS & Programs (paid $89,088 in 2002)
- Jennifer Rutledge, Director of Finance & Administration (paid $57,504 in 2002)
Other Members
- Several groups have listings of CNP members on websites. However, the primary source documents for these lists are not included. Some listsings are at:
- Council for National Policy membership roster, last updated July 2001:
- Member Directory.
- CNP Members Database.
A copy of the membership roster obtained by Institute for First Amendment Studies, listed current and former members as including:
- Attorney General John Ashcroft (former member)
- Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services Secretary (former member)
- Holland Coors and Jeffrey Coors of the Coors brewing company
- Richard DeVos, founder of Amway and Orlando Magic owner
- John Ankerberg, who believes that biblical prophecies were literal promises and are coming true;
- Dave Breese hosts The King Is Coming, a show devoted entirely to Christian eschatology
- Chuck Missler, an Idaho radio host who has predicted an imminent invasion of Jerusalem by forces guided by the Antichrist
- Pat Robertson, former presidential candidate and Christian Coalition founder
- Steve Stockman, former Texas Republican Representative
- Rev. Don Wildmon of the American Family Association
- Rev. Rousas J. Rushdoony, founder of Chalcedon Foundation (deceased)
- Williams, the founder of BAMPAC, a political action committee that promotes black conservatism
- Sam Moore, president of Thomas Nelson, the country's most successful Christian book publishing company
- Henry Morris, prominent creationist
- Dora Kingsley, political scientist
- John W. Whitehead founder of the Rutherford Institute
- Bob Jones III, President, Bob Jones University
- Phyllis Schlafly
- Oliver North
Other members who list their membership in their biographical profiles include:
- John Taylor, the chairman and president of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy[5]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-4)
- Brent Bozell[6]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-5)
- Charles W. Jarvis, chairman and chief executive of USANext and United Seniors Association
Mark Crispin Miller adds the following members:
- Gov. Sarah Palin
- Tom DeLay
- Trent Lott
- Lauch Faircloth
- Ed Meese
- Howard Ahmanson
- Jerry Falwell
- Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind Series,
- James Robison
- Lou Sheldon, traditional values coalition
- Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Addressed the CNP:
- John Ashcroft
- George W. Bush, 2000
Funding
CNP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For the year ending December 31, 2002, CNP income was $1,240,377.[1]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-Guidestar-0)
According to Media Transparency, between 1995 and 2002 the CNP received $125,000 (unadjusted for inflation) from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation and the Castle Rock Foundation. In 2000 the Castle Rock Foundation paid a membership fee of $10,000.[7]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-6)
The CNP also has a related 501(c)(4) organisation CNP Action Inc.. CNP Action re-imbursed CNP $16,563 for the use of its facilities with and $39,457 of staff time.
Joseph Coors gave start-up funding, according to Washington Babylon (p. 11).
Books mentioning CNP
- Russ Bellant, The Coors Connection, How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism, South End Press, 2nd edition October 1991. ISBN 0896084167 ISBN 13 978-0896084162
wiki
Meetings and membership
Marc J. Ambinder of ABC News said about the Council: "The group wants to be the conservative version of the Council on Foreign Relations." The CNP was founded in 1981. Among its founding members were: Tim LaHaye, then the head of the Moral Majority, Nelson Baker Hunt, T. Cullen Davis, William Cies, and Paul Weyrich.[^^4]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-3)
Members of the CNP have included: General John Singlaub, shipping magnate J. Peter Grace, Edwin J. Feulner Jr of the Heritage Foundation, Rev. Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jerry Falwell, Senator Trent Lott, Senator Don Nickles, former United States Attornies General Ed Meese and John Ashcroft, gun-rights activist Larry Pratt, Col. Oliver North, and philanthropist Else Prince, mother of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater the private security firm.[^^5]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-opednews.com-4)[^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-ReferenceA-5)6]
Membership is by invitation only.The membership list, previously made public, is now "strictly confidential." Guests may attend "only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee." Members are instructed not to refer to the organization by name, to protect against leaks.[^^1]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-8-28-04-0) New York Times political writer David D. Kirkpatrick suggested that the secrecy since its founding was intended to insulate the Council from the "liberal bias of the news media".[^^3]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-2-25-07-2)
CNP's meetings are closed to the general public, reportedly to allow for a free-flowing exchange of ideas. The group meets three times per year.[^^7]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-6) This policy is said to be similar to the long-held policy of the Council on Foreign Relations, to which the CNP has at times been compared. CNP's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was revoked by the IRS in 1992 on grounds that it was not an organization run for the public benefit. The group successfully challenged this ruling in federal court. A quarterly journal aimed at educating the public, promised in the wake of this incident, has not substantially materialized. The group has launched a website (www.policycounsel.org), which contains selected speeches from past gatherings. A controversial 1997 address by the current Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper,[^^8]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-7) is not among them.
While those involved are almost entirely from the United States, their organizations and influence cover the globe, both religiously and politically. Members include corporate executives,[^^9]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-5-20-1981-8)legislators[^^9]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-5-20-1981-8) former high ranking government officers,[^^9]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-5-20-1981-8) leaders of 'think tanks'[^^9]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-5-20-1981-8) dedicated to molding society and those whom many view as "Christian leadership".[^^9]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-NYT-5-20-1981-8)
[edit] Conferences and political plans
Leading members of the CNP voted in a meeting at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, on September 29, 2007, to consider launching a third party candidate if the 2008 Republican nominee is a pro-choice candidate. (This was an implicit reference to Rudy Giuliani, whose liberal opinions on several social issues, such as abortion, gay rights and gun ownership have disturbed the Christian right.) The CNP's statement read, "If the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate, we will consider running a third-party candidate." Attending the meeting were notable social conservatives, including James Dobson, Richard Viguerie, Tony Perkins and Morton Blackwell.[^^10]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-kxmb.com-9)[^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-10)11]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-10)
CNP members have taken millions of dollars from Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church and the conservative *Washington Times* newspaper, and are aligned with various other groups supported by him such as CAUSA International.[^^12]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-11) Moon's religious message places him as superior to Jesus Christ. Moon was crowned "King of Peace" in a ceremony in the United States Senate Office Building, (not before the actual United States Senate).[^^13]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-12) CNP members have also supported legislation proposed by the Church of Scientology.[^^5]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-opednews.com-4)
CNP also has membership links to the World Anti-Communist League, whose many other members included,among others, the Unification Church and backers of rightist paramilitary death squads in Latin America, particularly during the 1980s.[^^14]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-13)
In 1999, a speech given to the CNP by Republican candidate George W. Bush is credited with helping him gain the support of conservatives in his successful bid for the United States Presidencyin 2000. The content of the speech has never been released by the CNP or by Bush.[^^6]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-ReferenceA-5)
As of February 2007, the organization was planning involvement in the 2008 presidential election campaign, and actively looking for a candidate to represent their views. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney[^^15]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-14) and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney[^^16]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-15) spoke at a four day conference they held in Salt Lake City, Utah during the last week of September 2007. The Council for National Policy scheduled a conference in late October 2007. Most Republican presidential candidates pledged to appear, with the exception of Rudy Giuliani.[^^10]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-kxmb.com-9)
[edit] Leadership
CNP was founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye, author of the *Left Behind* series of books. Other early participants included Cleon Skousen, a prominent theologian and law enforcement expert; Paul Weyrich; Phyllis Schlafly; Robert Grant; Howard Phillips, a former Republican affiliated with the Constitution Party; Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail specialist; and Morton Blackwell, a Louisianaand Virginia activist who is considered a specialist on the rules of the Republican Party.[^^17]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-16)[^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-17)18]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-17)[^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-thefreelibrary.com-18)19]
The council employs about eight people. Its first executive director was Woody Jenkins; later, Morton Blackwell served in this role, which is currently held by Steve Baldwin (b. 1957), not to be confused with actor Stephen Baldwin. Presidents have included Nelson Bunker Hunt of Dallas, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos of Michigan, Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach, Paul Pressler of Houston, and former Reagan Cabinet secretaries Ed Meese and Donald Hodel, as well as current president Kenneth Cribb.[^^19]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-thefreelibrary.com-18)[^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-19)20]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-19)[^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-20)21]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-20) Former Texas state Republican chairman George Strake, Jr., was a member during the 1990s.[^^22]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-21)
[edit] Criticisms
The Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University considers the Council for National Policy a leading force in the Dominionist movement. TheocracyWatch, a CRESP project, describes it as "an umbrella organization of right-wing leaders who gather regularly to plot strategy, share ideas and fund causes and candidates to advance the theocratic agenda."[^^23]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-TheocracyWatchTakingOver-22)
[edit] Limited media access
The media were barred from late September 2007 meetings of the organization. However, *Deseret News* (which is associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) was afforded access to the meeting. The *Salt Lake Tribune* (its competitor) criticized the journalistic ethics of the Deseret News.[^^24]^(https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/E212D5AA-EEF5-535C-9D0D-27920B094E45#cite_note-23)
=
==
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/08/30/membership-list-powerful-secretive-christian-right-america/
donald Trump previewed his RNC acceptance address before the influential Council for National Policy. The membership list of this Christian Right cabal was a carefully guarded secret – until now.
President Donald Trump’s appearance in Arlington, Virginia on August 21 before the Council for National Policy (CNP), a hyper-secretive Christian Right powerhouse that helps set the movement’s agenda, offered an hour-long preview of the stem-winding speech he would deliver several nights later on a balcony in front of the White House to the Republican National Convention.
Joined by his acting and still-unconfirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, the longtime corporate lobbyist who guided federal troops against anti-racism protesters, the president proclaimed, “China very much wants Joe Biden to win.”
Next, Trump inspired gales of applause by boasting, “I could run in Israel, and I think they set up probably a 98 percent approval rating in Israel… And you know who appreciates it the most are the evangelical Christians.”
The president earned more cheers when he previewed a line he deployed a few nights later at the RNC: “Nobody has done more for the black community or the Hispanic community than we have. Nobody. Nobody. I guess, maybe Lincoln. Questionable.”
Trump’s recent event with the CNP was his second appearance before the group. The first encounter came during an October 2015 CNP forum, as candidate Trump was surging ahead of his Republican primary rivals and emerging as the Christian Right’s foul-mouthed Chosen One.
Several CNP members went on to serve in Trump’s White House, including Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. But this appearance was different.
This time, in contrast to other Republican presidential hopefuls who had addressed the CNP, the White House videotaped Trump’s speech and
online. Conspicuously missing from the footage, however, were any clear images of the audibly enthused crowd.
That is because the CNP’s membership is a carefully guarded secret; its meetings are private – off limits to the public and the press – and even the location of the gatherings is carefully protected.
Literature distributed to members at the entrance of meetings instructed attendees not to disclose the names of fellow members and forbade them from distributing the membership list to outsiders in order “to maintain the quality of membership communications.”
The Grayzone obtained the Council for National Policy’s October 2018 membership list and has published it in full at the end of this article. Pages 1-72 show the names and bios of members; 72-87 contain CNP literature, including official policies and guidelines, as well as details about future meetings.
The release of the CNP’s membership list represents the first time in the Trump era that the Christian Right powerhouse has been exposed, and the most recent disclosure since a copy of its 2014 member roll was published.
The CNP’s personnel comprise a blend of conservative movement leaders, industry moneymen, foreign policy hardliners, and culture war activists enforcing right-wing unity at the base of a Republican Party that has cohered around the doctrine of ultra-nationalist Trumpism.
As I documented in my 2009 book, Republican Gomorrah, the Council for National Policy was founded in 1981 with seed money from T. Cullen Davis,a Texas oil billionaire who found his way to Jesus and the Christian Right after a high-priced lawyer secured his acquittal on charges that he hired a hit man to kill his ex-wife and her family, then attempted the job himself, murdering his step-daughter and his ex-wife’s boyfriend while paralyzing an innocent bystander and wounding his ex-wife in the process, according to prosecutors.
When the CNP was first established, one of its founding fathers, the Louisiana ultra-conservative politician Woody Jenkins, vowed to a Newsweek reporter, “One day before the end of this century, the Council will be so influential that no president, regardless of party or philosophy, will be able to ignore us or our concerns or shut us out of the highest levels of government.”
Under the watch of his protege, Tony Perkins, who also directs the Christian Right policy factory known as the Family Research Council, Jenkins’ pledge was fulfilled. The CNP secured promises from both George W. Bush and Trump to appoint exclusively anti-abortion judges to high courts, and recently helped Trump allies coordinate their response to the Covid-19 pandemic while astroturfing a series of anti-lockdown protests.
The secrecy maintained by the Council for National Policy throughout its decades-long history has been strictly enforced by Perkins, who demanded my ejection from an October 4-6, 2018 conference after learning I was in attendance. I had secured an invitation to the gathering from an anti-war member who no longer belongs to the Council, enabling me to report on a speech that former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave to the group, in a feature for Harper’s Magazine.
Perkins recognized me because I had published an article in 2005 reporting his signing of a check for $82,500 to David Duke — the former Ku Klux Klan leader and failed Republican gubernatorial candidate — to purchase Duke’s mailing list on behalf of the senate campaign of his mentor, Woody Jenkins. I had also noted Perkins’ 2001 speech before the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist and neo-Confederate organization that racist mass murderer Dylan Roof partially credited with his radicalization.
Infuriated by my presence in the inner sanctum of Christian Right networking, Perkins and his lieutenants ordered me to immediately exit the Charlotte, North Carolina hotel where the conference took place.
On my way out, I passed by Herman Cain, the former Godfather Pizza CEO and Republican presidential candidate, holding court in the hotel lobby. Cain died this July 30 after contracting Covid-19 at a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Within hours, I was on a flight out of Charlotte with a thick CNP members’ list and a pile of official Council literature in hand – materials that were forbidden for outsiders to view and off-limits to the public until now.
A few notable Council for National Policy members are described below. The full membership list follows.
Shawn Akers – Akers is the vice provost of Liberty University, which is currently reeling from the exposure of the bizarre sexual peccadilloes of its chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., and his wife, Becky. Akers’ colleague at the CNP, journalist Warren Cole Smith, recently hammered the board of Liberty University, where his daughter is enrolled, for its failure to hold Falwell accountable over the years. The “trustees failed the school’s students, faculty, administration, and parents,” Smith wrote. “They failed donors and alumni. They failed to hold the one member of the Liberty staff that reports to them to the Biblical standards of leadership, or even to the standards that every member of the Liberty community must live up to.”
Jerry Boykin – Boykin is best known as the US Delta Force general who led the disastrous peacekeeping mission to Somalia depicted in the book and blockbuster film “Black Hawk Down.” During the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he declared that his god “was bigger” than that of the Muslim warlords he battled in Somalia, and that Muslims hated America because they worshiped Satan. Boykin current serves as executive vice president for Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council in Washington.
Elsa Prince Broekhuizen – The Michigan-based mother of Blackwater mercenary corporation founder and Trump Inc. consigliere Erik Prince and his sister, Trump secretary of education and school privatization advocate Betsy Devos. Prince Broekhuizen has plowed her family’s auto parts fortune into various anti-gay initiatives over the years.
Stuart Epperson – The co-founder and president of the right-wing evangelical broadcaster Salem Media, which is tied with CBS News as the fifth-largest radio broadcaster in the US. Epperson’s stations play host to right-wing personalities like Michele Malkin, Sebastian Gorka, Hugh Hewitt, and Dennis Prager.
Mike Farris – A lawyer and homeschooling advocate, Farris founded Patrick Henry College as a training ground for Christian Right cadres seeking jobs in Washington’s halls of power. Vice President Mike Pence addressed Farris’s Alliance Defending Freedom in 2019, praising the group for guiding the Trump administration’s agenda.
Tom Fitton – The president of the right-wing legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has battled Covid-19 lockdown policies, sued climate scientists, and helped guide Trump’s messaging against the Democrats’ Russiagate onslaught.
Frank Gaffney – The Center for Security Policy founder is a foreign policy militarist who emerged from neoconservative circles to become a leading voice of anti-Muslim conspiracism while clamoring for US military action against Iran and Syria. Gaffney has claimed that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was a Muslim Brotherhood agent, warned that that American Muslims were engaged in a “stealth jihad” to place the country under the control of Sharia, and helped influence Trump’s so-called Muslim ban.
Donna Rice-Hughes – Famous for bringing down former Democratic Senator Gary Hart’s presidential campaign after a possible set-up, when tabloids published photographs of her perched on the candidate’s lap while carousing on his yacht, Rice-Hughes (formerly known only by her birth name, Rice) came to Jesus and founded the anti-pornography group, Enough is Enough! Today, she markets herself as a “progressive leader” and expert on “preventing the exploitation of children online.”
Jon Lenczowski – Founder of the Institute for World Politics, a Washington-based training institute for hardline interventionists, Lenczowski takes a leading role in setting the CNP’s foreign policy agenda. In recent months, he has been particularly focused on reinforcing the Trump administration’s new cold war narrative against China.
Herman Pirchner – The founding President of the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), Pichner served on Trump’s foreign policy transition team in 2016. The Grayzone reported Pirchner’s role in hosting Andriy Parubiy, a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist politician who co-founded the far-right Social National Party, for a series of Capitol Hill meetings. Researcher Moss Robeson has documented Pirchner’s activity as a key liaison between the Washington foreign policy establishment and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists.
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas – The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Ginni Thomas was part of the Groundswell network that compiled lists of “disloyal” Trump administration officials to be fired. Her involvement with the CNP is an extension of a long history of ethical entanglements that prompted 74 House Democrats to issue a letter demanding Clarence Thomas recuse himself from ruling on the national healthcare overhaul, which she lobbied against
[doc]pdf
Nonsense beck Cleon Skousen member p 226
invited back to relig convergence period (lds, mormon, southern). Renamed freeman inst praised by RR. orin hatch eulogized
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Viguerie funding fr, direct mail
map mccain to palin shows lots of overlap
http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?map=2568
Gary Aldrich hunt 283
also hmmn
Group Watch: Council for National Policy
See also: Public Eye Website Search
See also: Directory of Right-Wing Groups
GroupWatch: Profiles of U. S. Private Organizations and Churches, was compiled by the Interhemispheric Resource Center, Box 4506, Albuquerque, NM 87196. < http://www.irc-online.org/ > Their work focused on issues related to U. S. foreign policy in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Note that this collection includes a wide range of groups with a variety of political viewpoints. Some, like the Heifer Project, appear to be what they seem-engaged in charitable humanitarian efforts. Check when each article was last updated as much material is no longer current. This material is provided as a source for historic research.
Jump directly to these subsections:
Council for National Policy
Acronym/Code: CNP
Updated: 9/89
Principals:
The 1982-1983 officers of the Council for National Policy (CNP) were: Thomas F. Ellis, pres; Nelson Bunker Hunt, vice pres, Bob J. Perry sec-tres; Rep. Louis (Woody) Jenkins, exec dir; and Dr. Tim LaHaye, immediate past pres. (1) According to Nelson Bunker Hunt in his deposition in the Iran-Contra hearings, the presidency of the CNP rotates. He has been president, Pat Robertson has been president, and the president at the time of the hearings was Richard DeVos. (2) Hunt also noted that right-wing stalwarts Joseph Coors, Paul Weyrich, and Howard Phillips had served on the executive committee. (2)
Woody Jenkins was the original executive director who resigned when the CNP moved from Louisiana to Washington DC. (2) According to the Hunt deposition, Jenkins was succeeded by Margo Carlisle and then Jack Nelson. (2)
The CNP has no members who are not principals. It is a gathering of millionaires that covers a full spectrum of the political right: the New Right, neoconservatives, members of former President Reagan's "kitchen cabinet," and fundamentalist preachers and televangelists. (3) Following is a list of key members of the 1984 board of governors of the NSC along with their principal identifications.
Representing state and national government were: William L. Armstrong, U. S. Senate; Rep. William G. Batchelder III, Ohio House of Representatives; Hon. Bob Billings, White House Liaison Office; Margo Carlisle, staff director of the Senate Republican Conference; Hon. David Copeland, TN House of Representatives; Hon. Braswell D. Deen, Jr. , presiding judge--Court of Appeals of Georgia; Hon. Jeremiah A. Denton, former U. S. Senator; Richard A. Derham, acting asst administrator of the Agency for Intl Development; Hon. Robert K. Dornan, former U. S. Representative; Ambassador H. Eugene Douglas, U. S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs; Hon. John P. East, U. S. Senate (deceased); Hon. Jesse Helms, U. S. Senate; Rep. Louis (Woody) Jenkins, former U. S. Congressman; Hon. Hal Jones, Hawaii House of Representatives; Hon. Jack Kemp, former Senator, current director of Housing and Urban Development; Hon. James A. McClure, U. S. Senate; Hon. Don Nickles, U. S. Senate; Col. Oliver North, deputy director for Political-Military Affairs--Natl Security Council; Hon. B. F. O'Neal, Louisiana House of Representatives; Hon. Paul Pressler, justice of the Texas Court of Appeals; Hon. H. L. Richardson, California Senate; Gary Richardson, U. S. Attorney, Eastern District of Oklahoma; Hon. Don Sebastiani, California Assembly; Hon. Arthur W. Sour, Jr. , Louisiana House of Representatives; Hon. Charles Stenholm, U. S. Congress; Hon. John H. Sununu, former Governor of New Hampshire and current chief adviser to President Bush; Hon. Lewis Arthur Tambs, former ambassador to Costa Rica; and last, but not least in this category, Hon. James G. Watt, former Sec. of the Interior. (4)
From the religious arena the CNP had: Howard Ball, founder and pres of Churches Alive Intl!; William Billings, pres of the Natl Christian Action Coalition; Dr. William R. Bright, founder and chancellor of the Intl Christian Graduate University; Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family; Robert P. Dugan, Natl Assoc. of Evangelicals; Dr. Jerry Falwell, pres of the Moral Majority; Fr. Charles C. Fiore, chairman of the Natl Pro-Life PAC; Peter B. Gemma, Jr. , exec dir of the Natl Pro-Life PAC; Dr. Ronald S. Godwin, exec vice pres of the Moral Majority; Dr. Robert Grant, Christian Voice; Mr. E. Peb Jackson, vice pres of Focus on the Family; Mr. Gary Jarmin, legis dir of the Christian Voice;
Russell Dawmmerling, editor of the Southern Baptist Advocate; Ed McAteer, pres of the Religious Roundtable; Dr. "Pat" Robertson, pres of the Christian Broadcasting Network; James Robison, the James Robison Evangelistic Assoc; and Robert T. Weiner, pres of the Maranatha Campus Ministries. (4)
Representing the New Right and neoconservatives are: Hon. Ben Blackburn, pres of the Southeastern Legal Fdn; Hon. Morton Blackwell, Leadership Insitute; Neal B. Blair, pres of Free the Eagle; L. Francis Bouchey, pres of the Council for InterAmerican Security; Bill Ceverha, natl chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council; Dr. Joseph Churba, pres of the Center for Intl Security; Mrs. Holly Coors, chair of the Colorado State Reagan-Bush Campaign '84; Cullen Davis, vice pres of Kendavis Industries Intl; Richard DeVos, pres of Amway Corp; John T. (Terry) Dolan (deceased), natl chairman of the Natl Conservative Political Action Committee; Dr. Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. , pres of the Heritage Fdn; Ellen Garwood; Alan Gottlieb, chair of Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms; Edith D. Hakola, vice pres and gen counsel for the Natl Right to Work Legal Defense Fdn; Smith Hempston, exec editor of The Washington Times; Robert P. Holding III, natl media dir for the Coalition for Freedom Fdn; Herbert Hunt, pres of Hunt Energy Corp; Nelson Bunker Hunt, chair of the Hunt Energy Corp; Charles L. Irby, vice pres of Irby Construction Co; Reed Irvine, chair of Accuracy in Media; Dr. Mildred Faye Jefferson, pres of Right to Life Crusade; Michael Joyce, exec dir of the John M. Olin Fdn; Dr. Ernest Lefever, pres of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Lewis E. Lehrman, chair of Citizens for America; Connie Marchner, chair of the Natl Pro-Family Coalition; Mrs. Larry McDonald, Western Goals; F. Andy Messing, exec dir of The Natl Defense Council; E. A. Morris; Phil Nicolaides, asst natl editor of The Washington Times; Edward E. Noble, chair of the U. S. Synthetic Fuels Corp; John Norton III, pres of J. R. Norton Co; Ted Pantaleo, exec dir of The Freedom Council; J. A. Parker, pres of The Lincoln Institute for Research and Education; Howard Phillips, chair of The Conservative Caucus; Burton Yale Pines, vice pres of The Heritage Fdn; Lawrence Pratt, exec dir of Gun Owners of America; Raymond V. Raehn, U. S. Global Strategy Council; Carlyle Reed, assoc publisher of The Washington Times Natl Edition; Thomas F. Roeser, vice pres, The Quaker Oats Co; Howard Ruff, publisher of Ruff Times; William A. Rusher, publisher of the National Review; Wiliam E. Saracino, exec dir of Gun Owners of America; Phyllis Schlafly, pres of Eagle Forum; Prof. Hans Sennholz; Frank Shakespeare, vice chair of RKO General, Inc; Mark Skousen, editor of Forecasts & Strategies; Jeffrey St. John, editor of the United States Times; Robert Stoddard; Kathleen Teague, exec dir of the American Legislative Exchange Council; Richard A. Viguerie, pres of The Viguerie Company; Henry (Huck) Walther, exec vice pres of the United States Defense Committee; Paul Weyrich, pres of the Free Congress Fdn; Carter Wrenn, tres of The Natl Congressional Club; and Ronald A. Zumbrun, pres of the Pacific Legal Fdn. (4) J. Peter Grace of W. R. Grace Co was on the board of governors as of 1986. (7)
Finally, representing the retired military on the CNP are the well-known figures of Lt. Gen. Daniel O. Graham (ret. ); Brig. Gen. Albion W. Knight (ret); Maj. Gen. George S. Patton (ret. ); and Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub (ret. ). (4)
Categories:
Political
Background:
According to one source, the CNP was formed in 1981 by Texas millionaires Nelson Bunker Hunt, Herbert Hunt, and T. Cullen Davis. (5) A second source reports that it was formed by Richard Viguerie to rival the Council on Foreign Relations. (8,26) The council is composed of politically powerful, wealthy individuals. It intentionally maintains a very low profile. (3,5) One of the conditions of membership is not to reveal the names of other members or the substance of the group's meetings. (9)
The CNP bills itself as being the Council on Foreign Policy for the Right. (9) But, its importance does not lie in producing and promoting an ultra-conservative foreign policy agenda, many of its affiliates already do that. It is considered by its members as a network that encompasses the entire spectrum of right-wing politics. (3) It provides a "safe" place for representatives of a wide range of ultra-conservative, anticommunist, pro-military organizations--including the executive branch of the White House--to discuss and promote their programs. (3)
Countries:
U. S.
Funding:
Each member of the board of governors must pay a $5,000 entry fee. (3) It is unclear whether this is a one-time entry fee or an annual fee.
The CNP is non-taxable under the IRS 501(c)(3) code. (6) In 1986, it claimed to operate on a budget of $450,000, used for operational and educational purposes. (6)
Activities:
The CNP's only activity is to have meetings. (9)
At the meetings, talks are given by government officials or key figures in current U. S. foreign policy endeavors. (2) Adolfo Calero attended several meetings and spoke to the group about the Nicaraguan contra situation in 1984. (2,3) Col. Oliver North, adviser to the National Security Council and key figure in the Iran-Contra affair, spoke to the group several times before joining it as a member. (2,3)
Those who spoke at the meetings became de facto principal sources of what is known as "inside information. " An example of this was the influence of Oliver North on the CNP. Sidney Blumenthal in an article in the Washington Post National Weekly Edition wrote, "The conservatives' perceptions of the worldwide struggle with communism in general and the Sandinistas in particular were heavily influenced by North who was a favorite speaker. . . "(3)
The meetings are closed and attendees rarely speak publicly about the proceedings. The agenda of a meeting at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs in 1982 was filled with CNP members talking to the "already committed" about their favorite topics--Phyllis Schlafly on traditional values, Maj. Gen. John Singlaub on special operations in El Salvador, Gen. Albion Knight on national defense, and so on. (35) The list of speakers includes most of the major figures of the Right including: Philip Truluck of the Heritage Fdn; Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus; beer baron Joseph Coors; conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan; Frank Shakespeare, chairman of Heritage Fdn; direct mail wizard Richard Viguerie; Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority; the president of Amway Corp, Richard DeVos; Neal Blair, president of Free the Eagle; John (Terry) Dolan, chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, Jeane Kirkpatrick, U. S. delegate to the United Nations; and from the Christian Broadcasting Network, evangelist Pat Robertson. (35)
Government Connections:
Lt. Col. Oliver North was the key figure of the Iran-Contra affair. He was found guilty on three of eight counts brought against him by special prosecuter Lawrence Walsh. His case is now on appeal.
Lewis Tambs has been a consultant to the Natl Security Council. (10) He was first ambassador to Colombia and then Costa Rica in the Reagan administration. (5,10)
In the Kennedy administration, J. Peter Grace was head of the Commerce Department Committee on the Alliance for Progress.
He chaired the Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (the Grace Commission) for the Reagan administration. (5)
John Sununu was the governor of New Hampshire and currently serves as chief adviser to President Bush.
Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub served with the office of Strategic Services in World War II, oversaw the CIA operations in Korea during the Korean War, and in Viet Nam commanded the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force. (30,33) He was heavily involved in the Iran-Contra affair and in 1984 was selected by the White House to be the chief private fundraiser for the contras. Singlaub's testimony in the Iran-Contra hearings reveals that he had numerous contacts with Col. Oliver North. (34)
Robert J. Billings was religious adviser to President Reagan. (39)
Margo Carlisle was President Reagan's Asst. Secretary of Defense for legislative affairs. (42)
Frank Shakespeare was a U. S. Information Agency director and a director of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. (13) During the Reagan administration he served as ambassador to Portugal from 1985 to 1987, and then as ambassador to the Vatican. (13)
Private Connections:
Due to space limitations, the list of private connections is abbreviated. The Resource Center has information available on many of the individuals involved with the CNP. Please contact us if you want further information.
J. Peter Graceis a powerful and wealthy international businessman. He heads the W. R. Grace conglomerate. He was a cofounder of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), an affiliate group of the AFL-CIO. (12) AIFLD operates overseas and is funded by the U. S. government. It is considered by many to be a "government operative," and has been linked with the CIA. (5,12) Grace was the chair of AmeriCares, a private organization that works in third world countries, often coordinating its efforts with the Knights of Malta, another group which Grace has chaired. (5,13) The Knights of Malta is an elite, conservative, lay-Catholic organization active in carring out U. S. policy in third world countries. (13) Grace was also on the board of directors of the Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America (PRODEMCA). (14) PRODEMCA was formed to support incipient democratic processes in Central America. It has a controversial history because of its advocacy of the Nicaraguan contras and its involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. (15,16)
Lewis Lehrman was the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America, a lobby group supporting anticommunist resistance groups around the world. (17,36) Lehrman was also a trustee of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that developed foreign and domestic policy strategies that were influential in the early years of the Reagan administration. (37) Lehrman is also a member of the Knights of Malta. (13)
"Joseph Coors," wrote Al Weinrub in the Labor Report on Central America, "has used the power of the Coors financial dynasty not only to provide support to the contras, but to set a right-wing political agenda in the U. S. . . "(18) Coors was the chair of the Rocky Mountain region Reagan/Bush campaign in 1984. (19) He provided financial backing for Accuracy in Media, a right-wing media watchdog group. (19) He also supported various groups organized by New Right tactician Paul Weyrich including the Catholic Center, a religious group that sent conservative "truth squads" to counteract the activites of liberal bishops, and the Free Congress Fdn, a group dedicated to electing conservatives to Congress. (20,5) Coors and Weyrich combined efforts again in founding the Heritage Fdn. (5) Coors money has supported right-wing religious groups including the Church
League of America, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Moral Majority, and the Campus Crusade for Christ. (5) Coors supported Lt. Gen. John Singlaub's U. S. Council for World Freedom (USCWF), the U. S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). USCWF and the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund (another Coor's cause) played major roles in funding the Nicaraguan contras. (5) Coors is on the board of trustees of the Heritage Fdn. (22) He was on the advisory council of the National Strategy Information Center, a right-wing think tank for military strategy. (23)
Evangelist Jerry Falwell is the cofounder and head of the recently dissolved Moral Majority. (39) The Moral Majority was a lobbying organization for the right. (39)
Tim LaHaye was head of the American Coalition for Traditional Values and is active in another conservative Christian group, the Christian Voice. LeHaye was also active in the Moral Majority. (21)
Margo Carlisle, when she was an aide to Sen. James McClure (R-ID), was involved in WACL activities and attended the 1980 conference. (29) She is currently a vice pres at the Heritage Fdn. (42)
Howard Phillips is the founder and chair of the Conservative Caucus, a leading right-wing lobby group. (24) He began his political career as an aide to Richard Nixon. (39) He served on the 1988 board of directors of the Citizens for America. (11) Phillips was on the board of the U. S. Council for World Freedom, and on the WACL advisory board. (28,38) Phillips helped Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell establish the religious right organization, the Moral Majority, and was involved in organizing the Religious Roundtable, a coalition of important figures in the religious Right. (39) Phillips is a member of the RAMBO (Restore a More Benevolent Order) coalition, a prointervention, anticommunist coalition whose members include Young Americans for Freedom, College Republicans, Students for America, Freedom's Friends, The Conservative Caucus, Alpha 66, the American Coalition for Traditional Values, Alive and Free, the Natl Young Vietnamese for Freedom, and Nemesis. (43)
Jack Abramoffwas chairman of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) in 1985. (38) He went on to chair the USA Fdn, the CRNC's tax-exempt group which had offices at the Heritage Fdn. Abramoff was the executive director of Citizens for America and a close collaborator of Col. Oliver North in the Iran-Contra network. (38) He was the founder and chair of the International Freedom Fdn and currently serves on its board of directors. (38)
Richard Viguerie was the "money-by-mail" king of the New Right.He ran the direct mail campaigns of the Conservative Caucus, the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, and the National Conservative Political Action Committee. (25) He was on the board of Citizens for America and handled their direct mail campaigns. (27) Viguerie fell into debt and was bailed out by the $10 million sale of his building to the Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. (27) Viguerie has joined the board of the American Freedom Coalition (AFC), a Moon-affiliated group that works against anything that threatens "traditional" values. (27) He does the mailings for the AFC as well the UCowned Washington Times newspaper. (42)
Nelson Bunker Hunt is a billionaire patron of the right. He was a member of the John Birch Society Council and part owner of two of their magazines. He was a financial backer of the campaigns of such conservative stalwarts as George Wallace, Gen. Curtis LeMay, Strom Thurmond, and Pat Robertson. Hunt has participated in a number of groups seeking to have the agenda of the Right become the policy of the U. S. , among them the Religious Roundtable, the National Conservative Political Action Committee, the National Conservative Policy Advisory Council, and the Institute of American Relations. (40) Hunt was a major funder of Lew Lehrman's Citizens for America. (41)
Frank Shakespeare is chairman of the Heritage Fdn. (13) He was a director of the National Strategy Information Center, a military strategy think tank. (23) He was a member of the SimonNovak commission of the American Catholic Committee that tried to undercut the U. S. bishops' pastoral on the economy. (13)
L. Francis Bouchey is exec vice pres of the Council for Inter-American Security (CIS). (5) CIS is the policymaking group that produced the influential Santa Fe Document, a report used by the Reagan administration in the development of its Central American policies in the early 1980s. (5) Bouchey and CNP members Lewis Tambs and Roger Fontaine were involved in the development of the Santa Fe Document. (5) Bouchey has organized conferences in Latin America for the Unification Church's political arm, CAUSA. (10) He was also commissioned by Moon's World Media Conference in 1981 to prepare and present a "content analysis" of the media coverage of U. S. policy in El Salvador. (10)
Lt. Gen. Daniel O. Graham was vice chair of the U. S. Council for World Freedom. The USCWF was a major private fundraiser for the Nicaraguan contras. (28,29) Graham is the founder and chairman of the pro-SDI group High Frontier and is a member of the American Freedom Coalition. (29) He also has been heavily involved with the Unification Church's, CAUSA USA. (29) Graham was a member of Team B, a group organized by then-CIA chief, George Bush to develop an independent judgment of Soviet military capabilities and intentions. (30) Graham also headed the ad hoc Emergency Coalition Against Unilateral Disarmament, a promilitary lobby group. (30)
Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub was the founder and chairman of the USCWF. He has served on the boards of Refugee Relief Intl, a subsidiary of Soldier of Fortune; Western Goals, a private information gathering service working to uncover communist sympathizers; the Committee for a Free Afghanistan, and Western Goals in the United Kingdom, a group with the specific task of undermining the radical left. (30,31,32) Singlaub is a member of RAMBO. (43)
Misc:
Although Bunker Hunt in his deposition at the Iran-Contra hearing claimed that the CNP did not ask for donations, Gen. John Singlaub reported that he received commitments for $100,000 from fellow members of the CNP for his funding network for the Nicaraguan contras. (44)
Comments:
The right wing rode the crest of glory and power in the early years of the Reagan administration. The Iran-Contra scandal, coupled with the moral fall of the religious right, have had a devastating effect on its wellbeing. According to investigative reporter, Sidney Blumenthal, the right is bankrupt. (9)
U. S. Address:
Sources:
- List of the board of CNP, 1982-1983.
- Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Apprendix B, Vol 14, 1987.
- Sidney Blumenthal, "Oliver North: Mr. Inside for the Contras--and Conservatives," Washington Post National Weekly Edition, Dec 29, 1986.
- Mailing list for board of governors of CNP, used until
Jan 1, 1985.
- New Right Humanitarians (Albuquerque, NM: The Resource Center, 1986).
- Alfonso Chardy, "Contras Get Increasing Private Aid," Miami Herald, Jan 21, 1985.
- Letter from Paul M. Weyrich, tres of the CNP, Jan 28, 1986.
- Letter from Karen Branan, Mar 4, 1986.
- Phone interview with Sidney Blumenthal, author and investigative reporter for the Washington Post, Sep 1989. 10. Fred Clarkson, "`Privatizing' the War," Covert Action
Information Bulletin, No. 22, Fall 1984.
- Letterhead from Citizens for America, 1988.
- Colleen Lowe Morna, "Alleged U. S. Labor Link with CIA and State Dept. Worries Southern Africa's Trade Unions," The
City Sun, May 1-7, 1985.
- Penny Lernoux, "Who Knows? The Knights of Malta Know," The National Catholic Reporter, May 5, 1989.
- Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America, Annual Report, 1986.
- Michael Massing, "Contra Aides," Mother Jones, Oct 1987.
- Common Cause Magazine, Mar/Apr 1988.
- Washington Post, Dec 29, 1986.
- Al Weinrub, "Coors Brews More Than Beer," Labor Report on Central America, Sep/Oct 1985.
- Michael Massing, "The Rise and Decline of Accuracy,"
The Nation, Sep 13, 1986.
- Penny Lernoux, "A Reverence for Fundamentalism," The Nation, Apr 17, 1989.
- Group Research Report, Vol 26, No 10, Dec 1987.
- Heritage Foundation, Annual Report 1988.
- Special Operations in U. S. Strategy, National Strategy Information Center, 1984.
- "Ten Years of Progress, The History of the Conservative Caucus," The Conservative Caucus, 1984.
- Nick Kotz, "King Midas of 'The New Right'," The Atlantic, Vol 242, No 5, 1978.
- Washington Report on the Hemisphere, COHA, Dec 24, 1986.
- Walter Hatch, "Jail Time Was Start of Try for Legitimacy," Seattle Times, Feb 13, 1989.
- Listing of officers and board members of the U. S. Council for World Freedom, received Feb 1987.
- Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, Inside the League: The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American Death Squads Have Infiltrated The World Anti-Communist
League (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1986).
- Jerry Sanders, Peddlers of Crisis: The Committee on the Present Danger and the Politics of Containment (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1983).
- Fred Clarkson, "Behind the Supply Lines," Covert Action Information Bulletin, Winter 1986.
- Derrick Knight, "Profile of Western Goals--U. K. ," British Council of Churches, Christian Aid, Nov 1988.
- Village Voice, Oct 22, 1985.
- Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, Vol 25, 1988.
- Meeting Agenda, CNP, Colorado Springs, Oct 10-11, 1982.
- "All the President's Men," Washington Report on the Hemisphere, Dec 10, 1986.
- Jim Luther, "Heritage Foundation Has New U. S. Economic Plan,"
Washington Post, Feb 14, 1985.
- David Ivons, "International Freedom Foundation," Covert Action Information Bulletin, Winter 1989.
- Dr. Peggy Shriver, "The Religious Right: Its Agenda, Influence and Relations with the New Right," CALC Report,
Dec 1986.
- Group Research Report, Vol 25, No 7, July/Aug 1986.
- Konrad Ege, "The Anticomunist International," The Guardian June 2, 1985.
- Group Research Report, Vol 28, No 2, Summer 1989.
- Sara Diamond, "Shepherding," Covert Action Information Bulletin, Spring 1987.
- Peter Stone, "Private Groups Step Up Aid," Washington Post, May 3, 1985.
The underlying cites for this profile are now kept at Political Research Associates, (617) 666-5300begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (617) 666-5300 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. http://www.publiceye.org.
GroupWatch: Profiles of U. S. Private Organizations and Churches was compiled by the Interhemispheric Resource Center, Box 4506, Albuquerque, NM 87196. < http://www.irc-online.org/ > See note at top of page.
hmmnn
Pat Matrisciana -CNP 1998; Owner and president, Jeremiah Films 22 which has produced over 60 documentaries including Pagan Invasion and No Second Chance; chairman, Citizens for Honest Government which produced The Clinton Chronicles, The Death of Vince Foster: What Really Happened? and Obstruction of Justice; Academy Award nominee.
Citizens for Honest Government Board Member, Carol Steinke, also sits on the board of a Scientology front, Citizens Commission for Human Rights (CCHR). Pat Matrisciana produced a video against 60 Minutes after the latter's expose of Scientology.
Citizens for Honest Government publishes a newsletter, Citizens' Intelligence Digest . It is edited by John Wheeler, Jr., a former editor of The Christian American published by Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. Contributors to Citizens Intelligence Digest include CNP's William Dannemeyer, Joseph Farah , Tim LaHaye, Dr. Stanley Monteith M.D., Brad Phillips, (CNP Youth Council), Chuck Missler, Larry Pratt and Carolyn Steinke. For More on Scientology See: Topic Cults
Found on the Mad Cow website: Inside Richard Mellon Scaife's Conspiracy 23;
Daniel Hopsiker interview of Pat Matrisciana, December, 1998.
......I shot it at him [Matrisciana]: "Are you Agency?"
I meant, of course, was he from the Company. The good Ool bad Ool CIA. But this is, apparently, not considered a polite question, though god knows why not because before he answered he coughed, and looked surprised. Maybe he¹s just not all that used to direct address. But at the end of the meal he said to me that for some reason he¹d told me a lot more than he was planning to, so I guess it was a successful tactic.
"I¹ve been to Berkeley, too," his reply began.
"I was 'detailed' to Berkeley in 1965, to establish a countervailing force to Mario Savio's Free Speech Movement. While there I founded the Campus Crusade for Christ."
And then it was his turn to grin: "I invented," he told me proudly, "Jesus freaks.".....
"I was detailed to Berkeley"
For anyone who has ever suspected, in a dark paranoid moment, that our culture--especially in the 60's--was somehow psycho-managed by the CIA, Matriciana' s offhand admission is enlightening, because it was clear he was in earnest, and I had no reason to doubt that he was telling me the truth. To me, its implications for the current scandal are staggering. Because Matrisciana, when he made the Clinton Chronicles, wasn¹t an independent producer toiling in anonymity. He was an intelligence operative for Richard Mellon Scaife , himself an intelligence operative, with longstanding ties to the Central Intelligence Agency."
from http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.m.htm#matrisciana
oops pol friendster?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121170&page=4
THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: THE CONSERVATIVES
THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: THE CONSERVATIVES; Club of the Most Powerful Gathers in Strictest Privacy
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: August 28, 2004
Three times a year for 23 years, a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country have met behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference, the Council for National Policy, to strategize about how to turn the country to the right.
Details are closely guarded.
''The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting,'' a list of rules obtained by The New York Times advises the attendees.
The membership list is ''strictly confidential.'' Guests may attend ''only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee.'' In e-mail messages to one another, members are instructed not to refer to the organization by name, to protect against leaks.
This week, before the Republican convention, the members quietly convened in New York, holding their latest meeting almost in plain sight, at the Plaza Hotel, for what a participant called ''a pep rally'' to re-elect President Bush.
Mr. Bush addressed the group in fall 1999 to solicit support for his campaign, stirring a dispute when news of his speech leaked and Democrats demanded he release a tape recording. He did not.
Not long after the Iraq invasion, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld attended a council meeting.
This week, as the Bush campaign seeks to rally Christian conservative leaders to send Republican voters to the polls, several Bush administration and campaign officials were on hand, according to an agenda obtained by The New York Times.
''The destiny of our nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement,'' the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, told the gathering as he accepted its Thomas Jefferson award on Thursday, according to an attendee's notes.
The secrecy that surrounds the meeting and attendees like the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Phyllis Schlafly and the head of the National Rifle Association, among others, makes it a subject of suspicion, at least in the minds of the few liberals aware of it.
''The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week,'' Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said.
Mr. Lynn was referring to the list of moderate speakers like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York who are scheduled to speak at the convention.
''The C.N.P. members are not going to be visible next week,'' he said. ''But they are very much on the minds of George W. Bush and Karl Rove every week of the year, because these are the real powers in the party.''
A spokesman for the White House, Trent Duffy, said: ''The American people are quite clear and know what the president's agenda is. He talks about it every day in public forums, not to any secret group of conservatives or liberals. And he will be talking about his agenda on national television in less than a week.''
The administration and re-election effort were major focuses of the group's meeting on Thursday and yesterday. Under Secretary of State John Bolton spoke about plans for Iran, a spokesman for the State Department said.
Likewise, a spokesman for Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta confirmed that Mr. Acosta had addressed efforts to stop ''human trafficking,'' a major issue among Christian conservatives.
Dr. Frist spoke about supporting Mr. Bush and limiting embryonic stem cell research, two attendees said. Dan Senor, who recently returned from Iraq after working as a spokesman for L. Paul Bremer III, the top American civilian administrator, was scheduled to provide an update on the situation there.
Among presentations on the elections, an adviser to Mr. Bush's campaign, Ralph Reed, spoke on ''The 2004 Elections: Who Will Win in November?,'' attendees said.
The council was founded in 1981, just as the modern conservative movement began its ascendance. The Rev. Tim LaHaye, an early Christian conservative organizer and the best-selling author of the ''Left Behind'' novels about an apocalyptic Second Coming, was a founder. His partners included Paul Weyrich, another Christian conservative political organizer who also helped found the Heritage Foundation.
They said at the time that they were seeking to create a Christian conservative alternative to what they believed was the liberalism of the Council on Foreign Relations.
A statement of its mission distributed this week said the council's purposes included ''to acquaint our membership with those in positions of leadership in our nation in order that mutual respect be fostered'' and ''to encourage the exchange of information concerning the methodology of working within the system to promote the values and ends sought by individual members.''
Membership costs several thousand dollars a year, a participant said. Its executive director, Steve Baldwin, did not return a phone call.
Over the years, the council has become a staging ground for conservative efforts to make the Republican Party more socially conservative. Ms. Schlafly, who helped build a grass-roots network to fight for socially conservative positions in the party, is a longstanding member.
At times, the council has also seen the party as part of the problem. In 1998, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family spoke at the council to argue that Republicans were taking conservatives for granted. He said he voted for a third-party candidate in 1996.
Opposition to same-sex marriage was a major conference theme. Although conservatives and Bush campaign officials have denied seeking to use state ballot initiatives that oppose same-sex marriage as a tool to bring out conservative voters, the agenda includes a speech on ''Using Conservative Issues in Swing States,'' said Phil Burress, leader of an initiative drive in Ohio, a battleground state.
The membership list this year was a who's who of evangelical Protestant conservatives and their allies, including Dr. Dobson, Mr. Weyrich, Holland H. Coors of the beer dynasty; Wayne LaPierre of the National Riffle Association, Richard A. Viguerie of American Target Advertising, Mark Mix of the National Right to Work Committee and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.
Not everyone present was a Bush supporter, however. This year, the council included speeches by Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party and Michael A. Peroutka of the ultraconservative Constitution Party. About a quarter of the members attended their speeches, an attendee said.
Nor was the gathering all business. On Wednesday, members had a dinner in the Rainbow Room, where William F. Buckley Jr. of the National Review was a special guest. At 10 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, members had ''prayer sessions'' in the Rose Room at the hotel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/us/2004-campaign-conservatives-club-most-powerful-gathers-strictest-privacy.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
 | Introduction to The Council for National Policy (CNP) -What It Is | Jun 27, 2001 | |
|---|---|---|---|
 July 5/2001 | Jul 5, 2001 | ||
| Updated | Feb 7, 2006 | ||
 Revised & Updated  | Mar 14, 2008 | ||
 Stephen Harper's Speech at the CNP's June 1997 Montreal Meeting | Mar 14, 2008 | ||
 | | | |
 | Council for National Policy Update > October 15, 2004 | Oct 15, 2004 | |
 | | | |
 | CNP's Gary North ~ On the CNP | Apr 11, 2002 | |
 | | | |
 | Selected CNP Members Biographies : Name Index | Jun 1, 2001 | |
 | | | |
 | Council for National Policy 1982-1983 Members  | Mar 14, 2008 | |
 | Council for National Policy 1984-1985 Members  | Mar 14, 2008 | |
 | Council for National Policy 1988 Members  | Mar 14, 2008 | |
 | Council for National Policy 1996 Members revised/updated | Mar 14, 2008 | |
 | Council for National Policy 1998 Members updated | Mar 14, 2008 | |
 | Council for National Policy 1998 - Tyson's Corner Meeting | Mar 14, 2008 | |
 | | | |
| CNP Executives | Mar 14, 2008 | ||
 | | | |
 | Selected CNP Joint Organization/Media/Projects Index | Jun 1, 2001 | |
 A - D | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 E - J | |||
 K - Z | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 | Jack Abramoff Updated | Feb 8, 2006 | |
 | Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay CNP Connections | Feb 14, 2006 | |
 | Thomas D. DeLay | Feb 14, 2006 | |
 | | | |
 | CNP Name List By Alphabetical Listing(By Page-click Letter) | Jun 1, 2001 | |
 | | | |
 **A** --Ambassador S. L. Abbott , Larry Abraham, Jack Abramoff , M. Douglas Adkins, Howard Ahmanson, Jr., Dr. Frank Aker, Honorable Barbara Alby , John Alderson, Gary Aldrich, Richard V. Allen, Daniel B. Allison II, Thomas R. Anderson, Senator John K. Andrews, Jr., Dr. John F. Ankerberg, Philip F. Anschutz,, Hon. Richard K. Armey, Ben Armstrong, Thomas K. Armstrong, Sen. William L. Armstrong, Dr. Larry P. Arnn, John M. Ashbrook, Edward G. Atsinger III FootnotesA | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 B-- Dr. Theodore Baehr, Cy Bahakel, Sr, Carole Baker , Dick Baker, Terry C. Balderson, Howard A. Ball, William H. Ball Jr., Dr. David Balsiger, A. Clifford Barker, Herbert Barness, Tommy Barnett, David H. Barron, Rep. William G. Batchelder III, Hon. Gary Bauer FootnotesB | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Be--Patricia Beck, John D. Beckett, Melvin Behnke, Jeffrey Bell,Carlos Benitez, Mark A. Benson, Ray Berryman, Paul Bigham, Dr. Robert J Billings, William Billings, Morton Blackwell, Neal B. Blair, James K. Blinn, Thomas A. Bolan, John R. Bolton, Pat Boone, T. J. Bosgra , Richard Bott, Rich Bott, Dr. James C. Bowers, Lynn Francis Bouchey, L. Brent Bozell, III FootnotesBe | |||
 | | | |
 Br Dr. David W. Breese, Dr. William "Bill" R. Bright, Floyd Brown, Robert K. Brown, Samuel A. Brunelli, Charles H. Brunie, Anita Bryant, Allen Burkett, Larry Burkett, Honorable Dan Burton, Sandra Butler FootnotesBr | |||
 | | | |
 C --Hon. Howard "Bo" Callaway, Jameson Campaigne, Jr., Ken Campbell, Jim Carden, Charles S. Carriker, Margo Carlisle, Alan Carlson, John W. Chalfant, ,Margaret "Peggy" Cies Michael S. Coffman, Ph.D John Commuta Guy M. Condon Robert L. Cone Peter C. Cook Holland (Holly) Coors Jeffrey Coors Joseph Coors Mrs. Judy M. Cresanta T. Kenneth Cribb Jr. Mary C. Crowley Les Csorba James C. Czirr FootnotesC | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 D --Beverly Danielson Sen. William Dannemeyer Rt. Rev. Dr. C. Truman Davis Cullen Davis Karen Davis Arnaud de Borchgrave Don DeFore Thomas D. DeLay Rich DeVos Richard M. DeVos Jr. James E. DeYoung, Jr. Richard B. Dingham Dr. James Dobson John Dodd John Doggett John T. (Terry) Dolan Elaine Donnelly Ann Drexel Arthur M. Dula Robert P. Dugan Pierre S. du Pont Richard Dunham W. Clark Durant III Alan P. Dye FootnotesD | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 E --John P. East Jack Eckerd Thomas F. Ellis Stuart Epperson Michael Etchison M. Stanton Evans FootnotesE | |||
 | | | |
 F --Dr. Jerry Falwell, Joseph F. Farah Michael P. Farris Dr. Edwin J. Feulner, Jr William A. Fields Father Charles Fiore Robert Fischer Peter T. Flaherty Donald Lambert Folkers Richard A. Ford Clarke D. Forsythe Peter C. Foy Ann Frazier Tracy Freeny Foster S. Friess Corinne S. Fuller FootnotesF | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 G --Willard Garvey Peter B. Gemma Jr. Kevin Gentry George F. Gilder Dr. Duane Gish Thomas Glessner Ronald P. Godwin Stephen Goodrick Alan Gottlieb Robbie Gowdey FootnotesG | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Gr --J. Peter Grace Lt. General Daniel O. Graham Anthony Grampsas Robert Grant Jim Groen Dr. Haldeman 'Hal" W. Guffey Darryl E. Gustafson FootnotesGr | |||
 | | | |
 H --Rev. Ben Haden Billy Hale Colin A. Hanna Samuel A. Hardage Sara Divito Hardman Benjamin Hart Anthony Harrigan Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson H. Preston Hawkins Richard Headrick Donna Hearne Charles C. Heath Randall Hekman Jesse Helms Harry V. Helton Carl Herbster Thomas D. Hess Rev. E.V. Hill James "Jimmy" Martin Hill Jr. Joseph K. Hilyard Roland Hinz FootnotesH | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Ho --Hon. Donald Paul Hodel Rev. Melvin Hodges William J. "Bill" Hofer Douglas F. Hofmeister Gary Hofmeister Neal Hogan Lou Holbrook Robert P. Holding III George Holland John Holt Donald R. Howard Dr. John A. Howard Ernest B. Hueter Joan Hueter Max Hugel Robbie Hughes Herbert William Hunt Mary Reilly Hunt Nelson Bunker Hunt FootnotesHo | |||
 | | | |
 I-J-K --Reed Irvine Hon. Ernest J. Istook, Jr. Lorena Jaeb E. Peb Jackson Kay Cole James Gary Jarmin Terry J. Jeffers Dr. Mildred Faye Jefferson James M. Jenkins Rep. Louis (Woody) Jenkins Margaret Jenkins Willa A. Johnson Bob Jones III Rep. Hal Jones W. Daniel Jordan Michael Joyce James F. Justiss Howard Kaloogian William Kanaga Dr. C. L. "Casey" Kay Barbara Keating -Edh David Keene Rep. Jack Kemp FootnotesIJK | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Ken --Dr. D. James Kennedy William R. Kennedy Alan Keyes William A. Keyes Paul A. Kienel Cliff Kincaid Jerry Kirk Larry Klayman Brig. General Albion W. Knight Dr. Robert H. Krieble FootnotesKen | |||
 | | | |
 L --Beverly LaHaye Lee LaHaye Dr. Timothy LaHaye Reed Larson Jerome M. Ledzinski Dr. Ernest W. Lefever Lewis E. "Lew" Lehrman John Lenczowski Andrew W. Lester Mark R. Levin Dr. Earl Little John Lofton Hon. Trent Lott Edward Lozick FootnotesL | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 M~Mca --Mark R. Maddoux Marlin Maddoux Marion (Mac) Magruder Carolyn Malenick Peter Marshall, Jr. Connaught (Connie) Marshner James L. Martin Christopher "Kit" Mason Richard Mason James Mather Pat Matrisciana Paul Maurer Donald S. McAlvany Ed McAteer FootnotesM | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Mc --Thomas E. McCabe Bryan McCanless Richard F. McCarthy, Jr Norman P. McClelland James A. McClure Timothy McConville James D. McCotter Tidal W. McCoy Larry P. McDonald Roy McKasson Emanuel McLittle Hon. Edwin Meese III Major F. Andy Messing, Jr. Eugene Meyer Rev. Austin Miles James C. Miller III Tom Minnery Charles W. Missler FootnotesMc | |||
 | | | |
 Mo --Terry E. Moffitt Barbara Monteith Dr. Stanley Monteith Charles Moore Dr. Raymond Moore Sam Moore Thomas Slick Moorman Dr. Henry M. Morris Rev. Duane R. Motley William D. Mounger FootnotesMo | |||
 | | | |
 N~Pa --Senator Don Nickles David A. Noebel Grover Norquist Dr. Gary North Lt. Col. Oliver North George D. O'Neill, Jr. J. Stanley Oakes Jr. Phillip Olsen William J. Olson Ted Pantaleo J. A. "Jay" Parker Thomas G. Parker Colleen G. Parro G.N. Parrot Carmen Pate Dr. Paige Patterson Maj. General George S. Patton III FootnotesN-Pa | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Pe~Q --Tony Perkins Robert J. Perry Howard Phillips Thomas L. Phillips Burton Yale Pines Robert M. Pittenger Theda Oates Plimpton Larry W. Poland William M. Polk Robert Poole Jim Powers Lawrence D. "Larry" Pratt Judge Paul Pressler Paul Pressler IV James S. Price Edgar Prince Elsa Prince Coy C. Privette Penny Pullen FootnotesPe-Q | |||
 | | | |
 R --Raymond V. Raehn Ralph E. Reed, Jr. Gerald P. Regier Thomas L. Rhodes Dr. Charles E. Rice H.L. "Bill" Richardson Richard A. Riddle Elizabeth Ridenour Lawson Ridgeway Stephen D. Ridley Isom J. Rigell Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Dr. "M.G." Pat Robertson Ronald E. Robinson James Robison George C. Roche III Thomas A. Roe Kathleen Teague [Rothschild] Howard J. Ruff Rev. R. J. Rushdoony William A. Rusher FootnotesR | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 S --Guy Sanders, Jr. William E. Saracino Richard M. Scaife Terence Scanlon Rich Scarborough Frederic (Rich) Schatz Blaine Scheideman Phyllis Schlafly Otto Scott John Scribante Lynda H. Scribante Alan Sears Ronald L. Seeley Harry G. A. Seggerman Jay A. Sekulow Duncan Sellars Hans F. Sennholz Beurt SerVaas FootnotesS | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 Sh --Frank Shakespeare Dal Shealy Richard Shoff Terry Siemans William E. Simon Major General John K. Singlaub "Father" Rev. Robert Sirico Dr. W. Cleon Skousen Mark Skousen Baker Armstrong Smith E. Roy Smith Henry J. "Bud" Smith Jim R. Smith Dr. Lowell Smith Malcolm E. Smith Jr. Victor P. Smith FootnotesSh | |||
 | | | |
 Sn --Geraldine (Gerry) Snyder Thomas R. Spencer, Jr. LaNeil Wright Spivy Ted Squires Scott Stanley, Jr. Darla St. Martin Mathew D. Staver, Esq. Allen Stevens Donald R. Stewart Steve Stockman Robert Stoddard John Stoos John A. Stormer W. Robert Stover Jay Strack George W. Strake, Jr Kathleen Sullivan Lt. General Gordon Sumner Jr. John H. Sununu Gaylord K. Swim FootnotesSn | |||
 | | | |
 T~V --John G. Talcott Jr. Dr. Lewis Tambs Hon. Helen Marie Taylor James "Jim" B. Taylor Stacy Taylor Dr. Edward Teller Robert L. Thoburn Bill Tierney Robert G. Tilton Herbert W. Titus Steven A.F. Trevino Patrick A. Trueman Timothy E. Twardowski Sherman E. Unkefer III Rev. Nathaniel A. Urshan Jon Basil Utley Harry Valentine Mike Valerio Guy Vander Jagt Balint Vazsonyi Richard Viguerie Christine Vollmer Barbara Vucanovich FootnotesT-v | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
 W --Gray Wakefield Peter E. Waldron Robert Walker Henry L. Walther James G. Watt Anthony Wauterlek Winston O. Weaver Robert T. Weiner P. Craig Welch Jr. Judi Westberg -Warren Diana Weyrich Paul Weyrich Dr. Jack Wheeler James Whelan Somers H. White John W. Whitehead Faith Ryan Whittlesey Footnotes W | Jun 1, 2001 | ||
 | | | |
another important CNP member was Baptist deacon and former Senator Jesse Helms(R-NC), who also championed right-wing fascist Latin American leaders favored and supported by the Fellowship. These included El Salvadorean death squad leaders Roberto d’Aubisson and General Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova (now living in South Florida under the protection of Jeb Bush and the right-wing Cuban community), El Salvador’s right-wing President Alfredo Cristiani (in 1990, President George H. W. Bush reportedly held a special prayer with Cristiani and death squad leader d’Aubisson in a side room at the National Prayer Breakfast with Coe officiating), Honduran evangelical Christian death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez,Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet,Brazilian dictator Artur da Costa e Silva,:{ Guatemalan dictator and evangelist Efrain Rios Montt}: (:{in 2004, Montt’s daughter, Guatemalan Senator Zury Rios Sosa married Fellowship adherent Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL}:), Guatemala’s evangelist President Jorge Serrano Elias (his George W. Bush-like quote upon election in 1991: “We have won the election with the support of the people and God. I have no commitment to any political power base; my only commitment is to God, to whom I've committed myself to govern the best I can`. . .”); and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (also one of Coe’s friends). The Fellowship had been on very good terms with Panamanian dictator and drug runner Manuel Noriega who the first Bush ousted in a 1989 military invasion. Other CNP initiatives included supporting apartheid in South Africa (Jerry Falwell called South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club provided a convenient propaganda outlet for South Africa’s apartheid regime) and opposing Corazon Aquino’s attempt to depose Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. http://www.exminister.org/Madsen-Christian-mafia-second.html hmn: Another important CNP member was Baptist deacon and former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), who also championed right-wing fascist Latin American leaders favored and supported by the Fellowship. These included El Salvadorean death squad leaders Roberto d’Aubisson and General Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova (now living in South Florida under the protection of Jeb Bush and the right-wing Cuban community), El Salvador’s right-wing President Alfredo Cristiani (in 1990, President George H. W. Bush reportedly held a special prayer with Cristiani and death squad leader d’Aubisson in a side room at the National Prayer Breakfast with Coe officiating), Honduran evangelical Christian death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, Brazilian dictator Artur da Costa e Silva, Guatemalan dictator and evangelist Efrain Rios Montt (in 2004, Montt’s daughter, Guatemalan Senator Zury Rios Sosa married Fellowship adherent Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL), Guatemala’s evangelist President Jorge Serrano Elias (his George W. Bush-like quote upon election in 1991: “We have won the election with the support of the people and God. I have no commitment to any political power base; my only commitment is to God, to whom I've committed myself to govern the best I can`. . .”); and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (also one of Coe’s friends). The Fellowship had been on very good terms with Panamanian dictator and drug runner Manuel Noriega who the first Bush ousted in a 1989 military invasion. Other CNP initiatives included supporting apartheid in South Africa (Jerry Falwell called South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club provided a convenient propaganda outlet for South Africa’s apartheid regime) and opposing Corazon Aquino’s attempt to depose Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. http://www.exminister.org/Madsen-Christian-mafia-second.html |
another important CNP member was Baptist deacon and former Senator Jesse Helms(R-NC), who also championed right-wing fascist Latin American leaders favored and supported by the Fellowship. These included El Salvadorean death squad leaders Roberto d’Aubisson and General Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova (now living in South Florida under the protection of Jeb Bush and the right-wing Cuban community), El Salvador’s right-wing President Alfredo Cristiani (in 1990, President George H. W. Bush reportedly held a special prayer with Cristiani and death squad leader d’Aubisson in a side room at the National Prayer Breakfast with Coe officiating), Honduran evangelical Christian death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez,Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet,Brazilian dictator Artur da Costa e Silva,:{ Guatemalan dictator and evangelist Efrain Rios Montt}: (:{in 2004, Montt’s daughter, Guatemalan Senator Zury Rios Sosa married Fellowship adherent Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL}:), Guatemala’s evangelist President Jorge Serrano Elias (his George W. Bush-like quote upon election in 1991: “We have won the election with the support of the people and God. I have no commitment to any political power base; my only commitment is to God, to whom I've committed myself to govern the best I can`. . .”); and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (also one of Coe’s friends). The Fellowship had been on very good terms with Panamanian dictator and drug runner Manuel Noriega who the first Bush ousted in a 1989 military invasion. Other CNP initiatives included supporting apartheid in South Africa (Jerry Falwell called South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club provided a convenient propaganda outlet for South Africa’s apartheid regime) and opposing Corazon Aquino’s attempt to depose Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. http://www.exminister.org/Madsen-Christian-mafia-second.html hmn: Another important CNP member was Baptist deacon and former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), who also championed right-wing fascist Latin American leaders favored and supported by the Fellowship. These included El Salvadorean death squad leaders Roberto d’Aubisson and General Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova (now living in South Florida under the protection of Jeb Bush and the right-wing Cuban community), El Salvador’s right-wing President Alfredo Cristiani (in 1990, President George H. W. Bush reportedly held a special prayer with Cristiani and death squad leader d’Aubisson in a side room at the National Prayer Breakfast with Coe officiating), Honduran evangelical Christian death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, Brazilian dictator Artur da Costa e Silva, Guatemalan dictator and evangelist Efrain Rios Montt (in 2004, Montt’s daughter, Guatemalan Senator Zury Rios Sosa married Fellowship adherent Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL), Guatemala’s evangelist President Jorge Serrano Elias (his George W. Bush-like quote upon election in 1991: “We have won the election with the support of the people and God. I have no commitment to any political power base; my only commitment is to God, to whom I've committed myself to govern the best I can`. . .”); and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (also one of Coe’s friends). The Fellowship had been on very good terms with Panamanian dictator and drug runner Manuel Noriega who the first Bush ousted in a 1989 military invasion. Other CNP initiatives included supporting apartheid in South Africa (Jerry Falwell called South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club provided a convenient propaganda outlet for South Africa’s apartheid regime) and opposing Corazon Aquino’s attempt to depose Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. http://www.exminister.org/Madsen-Christian-mafia-second.html |
another important CNP member was Baptist deacon and former Senator Jesse Helms(R-NC), who also championed right-wing fascist Latin American leaders favored and supported by the Fellowship. These included El Salvadorean death squad leaders Roberto d’Aubisson and General Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova (now living in South Florida under the protection of Jeb Bush and the right-wing Cuban community), El Salvador’s right-wing President Alfredo Cristiani (in 1990, President George H. W. Bush reportedly held a special prayer with Cristiani and death squad leader d’Aubisson in a side room at the National Prayer Breakfast with Coe officiating), Honduran evangelical Christian death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez,Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet,Brazilian dictator Artur da Costa e Silva,:{ Guatemalan dictator and evangelist Efrain Rios Montt}: (:{in 2004, Montt’s daughter, Guatemalan Senator Zury Rios Sosa married Fellowship adherent Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL}:), Guatemala’s evangelist President Jorge Serrano Elias (his George W. Bush-like quote upon election in 1991: “We have won the election with the support of the people and God. I have no commitment to any political power base; my only commitment is to God, to whom I've committed myself to govern the best I can`. . .”); and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (also one of Coe’s friends). The Fellowship had been on very good terms with Panamanian dictator and drug runner Manuel Noriega who the first Bush ousted in a 1989 military invasion. Other CNP initiatives included supporting apartheid in South Africa (Jerry Falwell called South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club provided a convenient propaganda outlet for South Africa’s apartheid regime) and opposing Corazon Aquino’s attempt to depose Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. http://www.exminister.org/Madsen-Christian-mafia-second.html hmn: Another important CNP member was Baptist deacon and former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), who also championed right-wing fascist Latin American leaders favored and supported by the Fellowship. These included El Salvadorean death squad leaders Roberto d’Aubisson and General Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova (now living in South Florida under the protection of Jeb Bush and the right-wing Cuban community), El Salvador’s right-wing President Alfredo Cristiani (in 1990, President George H. W. Bush reportedly held a special prayer with Cristiani and death squad leader d’Aubisson in a side room at the National Prayer Breakfast with Coe officiating), Honduran evangelical Christian death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, Brazilian dictator Artur da Costa e Silva, Guatemalan dictator and evangelist Efrain Rios Montt (in 2004, Montt’s daughter, Guatemalan Senator Zury Rios Sosa married Fellowship adherent Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL), Guatemala’s evangelist President Jorge Serrano Elias (his George W. Bush-like quote upon election in 1991: “We have won the election with the support of the people and God. I have no commitment to any political power base; my only commitment is to God, to whom I've committed myself to govern the best I can`. . .”); and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (also one of Coe’s friends). The Fellowship had been on very good terms with Panamanian dictator and drug runner Manuel Noriega who the first Bush ousted in a 1989 military invasion. Other CNP initiatives included supporting apartheid in South Africa (Jerry Falwell called South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club provided a convenient propaganda outlet for South Africa’s apartheid regime) and opposing Corazon Aquino’s attempt to depose Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. http://www.exminister.org/Madsen-Christian-mafia-second.html |
