1/28/19, “Vice-president Mike Pence saluted Guaido’s self-appointment, observing that although Trump disliked intervening elsewhere, he “has always had a very different view of our hemisphere”.” …“What has happened in Venezuela is a coup. Trump’s denial is dangerous,” “US and rightwing regimes may seek an excuse to intervene,” UK Guardian, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
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Comment: Since Trump will never be allowed to protect the US, it's in the best interest of everyone that he resign immediately.
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“A senior White House official familiar with Kushner’s thinking said it’s too early to tell what he’s going to do, but confirmed he held the planning meeting last week.” Wow! Let’s all wonder what Kushner is “thinking!” ….“Politicians of both parties have no interest in a strong national border or scrutinizing who enters and stays in our country. The open borders elites [like Kushner and Trump] don’t have to live with the consequences of their lax immigration enforcement. Illegal immigrants don’t live in their neighborhoods or attend their children’s fancy private schools. It’s everyone else who lives with the crime and disease.”
1/29/19, “Inside Kushner’s immigration plans,” Axios, Alayna Treene, Jonathan Swan
“Jared Kushner ran a white board planning session last week at the White House with the Koch network and other people who worked with him on criminal justice reform. The purpose: to see if the administration can replicate the approach they took to pass criminal justice reform to overhaul America’s immigration system. ["The administration" ignores that it already did the "overhaul" in Nov. 2016 when 63 million Americans voted for an unconditional promise of a wall.]
“They would like to try and replicate at some level a bipartisan coalition on immigration issues, [A “bipartisan coalition” has existed for decades: wide open borders] something paired with border security [“border security?” The 2016 election was about a wall. The US gov. is fine with inviting contagious diseases across the border] as well,” said Koch Industries senior vice president Mark Holden, who attended the meeting.
*A senior White House official familiar with Kushner’s thinking said it’s too early to tell what he’s going to do, but confirmed he held the planning meeting last week.
Behind the scenes: The meeting lasted a few hours, according to Holden. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Josh Trevino and Brooke Rollins, who works in the Office of American Innovation and was a key player in criminal justice reform talks [a “key player” to sell people something they already wanted?] also attended.
*The white board session was one of several immigration-related meetings the White House hosted over the past week. Kushner and his team met with faith leaders, Hispanic leaders and prominent conservatives. Some have expressed skepticism that Kushner — a New York liberal [whose company has a $250 million line of credit with convicted felon George Soros] with no background in immigration policy or politics — could succeed where so many of his predecessors have failed.
*Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin, who met with the president and other conservative leaders [Jenny Beth Martin is not a “conservative leader,” she’s a Beltway crony sellout] last Wednesday, told Axios: “Border security and immigration reform are much more complex issues than criminal justice reform. … It would be wise [for the White House] to be in touch with the president’s base as any such legislative deal is being created. Many of the strongest parts of the president’s base do not want amnesty, and the president’s promise to secure the border [no, his promise was a wall] is what drew those voters to him from early in his campaign.”
*(The White House has, however, been meeting with conservative movement leaders — including Martin — who regard themselves as representatives of the base. [Ms. Martin is not a "conservative movement leader," nor do any such "leaders" exist. There is no "conservative movement." If such a movement existed and had "leaders," we wouldn't have needed Trump. From paragraph above, Ms. Martin doesn't say she's representative of Trump's base. She merely suggests Trump be "in touch" with his base. She wasn't an early Trump supporter, I believe she favored Cruz, which is fine. There are 63 million better representatives of Trump's base than Ms. Martin.] Vice President Pence attended the meeting with Martin last week.
Daniel Garza, president of the Koch network’s LIBRE Initiative and a supporter of Kushner’s approach, attended a separate White House meeting with Hispanic leaders. Garza said Kushner used a quote he presumably gathered from his ongoing efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. [Kushner is so wonderful! He’s even bringing “peace to the Middle East” and can quote famous people!] “At one point during the meeting, Jared quoted [former Israeli President] Shimon Peres and said something along the lines of ‘You don’t arrive at peace by meeting with just friends,’” Garza said.
Between the lines: Two senior White House officials told Axios they are stunned that that Kushner thinks
[who cares what “Kushner thinks?”] he could be the mediator who solves
one of the most intractable problems in American politics [it’s not a “problem” of “politics” since the entire political class agrees on wide open borders] the wall for the past 20 years: immigration reform. [the wall was “immigration reform.”] One senior White House official told Axios that Kushner’s success in criminal justice reform has no bearing whatsoever on his ability to succeed on immigration. [Isn’t that obvious?]
*“He convinced Democrats to support something [criminal justice reform] they already agreed with,” the senior official told Axios.
*Supporters of Kushner point out that if he didn’t persuade Trump to move from a harsh law-and-order candidate [“Harsh?” Trump is weak on law and order for lawbreakers and “harsh” on law abiding Americans because he allows tens of thousands of illegals to cross the border every month bringing a resurgence of contagious diseases to innocent Americans including a new strain of a polio-like virus that’s crippling American children. The US government has declined to announce its origins.] to being open to–and ultimately supportive of–criminal justice reform, then the effort would have died.
The other side: Two other senior White House officials familiar with Kushner’s plans told Axios that the president [I guess meaning Trump] asked Kushner to join with Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to negotiate immigration on behalf of the White House. [“To negotiate immigration?” The wall “negotiates immigration."]
One of those officials said Kushner has almost exclusively been talking to Republicans to figure out what they want out of a reform package. [A “reform package?”] His planning sessions are “about defining what we’re for, not what we’re against.” [“Planning sessions?” Wow. How great for “Republicans” to get to sit in a Jared “planning session.”]
*“Right now [Kushner is] just trying to understand the Republican position so that we can take all those views to the president and he can make an informed decision,” the same official said on Tuesday.
*“This is more of a long-term policy process, [the “long-term policy,” the wall, was decided in Nov. 2016] not a resolution for the shutdown,” the official added. “And amnesty was not discussed at any of these meetings. This is really about how do we reform our broken immigration system.” [False. What's “broken” is the US itself which is now an oligarchy. Law and order are gone. Those who benefit have no incentive whatever to return any of their power to the taxpayers they despise. Today the entire political class considers its constituents to be anyone living outside the US. It cares nothing about American children being crippled by a new strain of polio or a resurgence of other contagious diseases from third world invaders including refugees and asylees.]
*As Axios has reported, Kushner relayed to White House officials an idea from [Establishment] Republican Sen. James Lankford: Give a path to green cards
for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and who are
currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) program
[Update]: Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Axios: “The President asked us to take a team approach, with the VP taking the lead. That team has done fantastic work and we are all pulling the same direction to carry out the President’s strong border agenda. ["Agenda" means no wall.] The negotiation is far from over, and at this stage, there’s no way to know what that legislation will ultimately look like. [“Legislation?” Please]. Whatever the outcome, though, you can be sure the President will protect the American people.“” [No, we can't. We've found over two years that the President has no intention of "protecting" us. He won't build the wall and he won't line the border with tanks and shoot anyone who comes near.]
“Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a quote from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.”
…………………………….
Added: A new polio-like virus in the US is crippling American children. “One-third of migrants in caravan are being treated for health issues” including HIV/AIDS, TB, chickenpox, and lice.“…In addition to these diseases “making a resurgence in the U.S., a new one called acute flaccid myelitis, thought to be caused by a virus, is currently in the news. This is a polio-like illness causing permanent arm and leg weakness in children. Polio has been largely eradicated, but now American children are becoming infected. Could it be related to the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants entering the U.S.?” [They haven't cited the origin.] Ellis Island would’ve prevented this.
“Medical
screening served a purpose. Not only did it keep contagious diseases
out of America, but it also prevented the medical burden of caring for
immigrants who required hospitalization or treatment.…If the immigrant was too sick and too weak to manage to work, they were not allowed to enter to the US….Children under 12 years old that were not allowed to stay in the US were forced to go back with one parent.”
12/6/2018, “Time for an Ellis Island Approach to Immigration,” American Thinker, By Brian C. Joondeph, “Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician”
“As migrants stream from Central America, through Mexico, toward the southern U.S. border, media coverage focuses only on plight of poor refugees seeking a better life in America. The
health of the refugees is never discussed [other than that some are
about to give birth]. Are any of them carrying contagious diseases? If
so, how many of them and what are they bringing to the U.S.?
The Centers for Disease Control provides the answer.
“Studies have identified the importance of cross-border movement in the transmission of various diseases, including HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis,
shigellosis, syphilis, Mycobacterium bovis infection, brucellosis, and
foodborne diseases, such as infections associated with raw cheese and
produce.”
These are all contagious diseases and relatively uncommon in the U.S. Fox News reports, “One-third of migrants in caravan are being treated for health issues” including HIV/AIDS, TB, chickenpox, and lice.
Apart from the diseases above making a resurgence in the U.S., a new one called acute flaccid myelitis, thought to be caused by a virus, is currently in the news. This is a polio-like illness causing permanent arm and leg weakness in children. Polio has been largely eradicated, but now American children are becoming infected. Could it be related to the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants entering the U.S.?
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons suggests a solution, seemingly obvious except to politicians more interested in scoring political points and damaging President Trump than actually protecting their constituents, the American people. The remedy is simple.
“In the past, waves of immigrants from Europe were stopped at Ellis Island, medically examined, and quarantined long enough to be sure they were not incubating a contagious disease. Procedures are less rigorous today, and of course those who enter illegally are not screened at all.”
America, once upon a time, was adept at admitting and
processing immigrants with potential contagious diseases. Why not look
to our experience a century ago at Ellis Island? One website chronicled this process from the Swedish perspective.
Unlike our current porous border where immigrants are welcomed with a red carpet of social welfare benefits, Ellis Island immigration was quite strict.
“To arrive to New York and Ellis Island didn’t mean that you knew if
you could stay or not in the new country. In front of them waited strenuous and time-consuming controls.”
Inspectors boarded the arriving ships checking for, “Any contagious diseases such as cholera, plague, typhoid, measles and diphtheria.” Those infected wouldn’t be allowed off the ship.
Next came the medical examination where, “The doctors viewed them from above to watch after weakness, heavy breathing (indication of heart problems) and other signs of mental disturbances.”
Then they went to the eye doctor. “They searched for a disease in the eyes called trachoma. This eye disease causes blindness and it can also lead to death.” If they had trachoma, “The immigrant was sent back home again.”
Medical screening served
a purpose. Not only did it keep contagious diseases out of America, but
it also prevented the medical burden of caring for immigrants who
required hospitalization or treatment.
Put simply, “If they had other diseases and these were confirmed or if the immigrant was too sick and too weak to manage to work, they were not allowed to enter to the US.”
What a novel idea. How many other countries allow sick people to immigrate? From one country’s immigration website,
“People coming to Australia have health checks before entering the
country as another way to prevent further infectious diseases.”
Children didn’t get special treatment or consideration as they do now.
“Sick
children from 12 years old or older were sent back by themselves to
their home harbor. Children under 12 years old that were not allowed to
stay in the US were forced to go back with one parent. Many
tears were dropped when the parents should decide which parent that
should stay and which parent that should go back with the sick child.”
So much for the media chorus that Trump is the only president to separate immigrant children from their parents.
Those who passed their medical evaluations were not yet home free. Another inspector awaited them who made a determination whether, “That the person could take care of himself and fulfill the demands to be able to stay in the US.”
Another concept that most countries use in evaluating potential immigrants — self-sufficiency rather than a burden on taxpayers. As one country states on their website, “We all expect each other to contribute to and share in Australia’s wealth.”
This is particularly relevant with the recent report that that 63 percent of non-citizens in the U.S. are on welfare, 4.6 million households. Ellis Island scrutiny aimed to prevent this.
In addition, inspectors had to weed out the bad apples, “They should also determine if the person was a danger to the society.”
Each inspector had only a few minutes to make their assessment.
“If
there were any hesitations the immigrant had to stay at Ellis Island for
further investigation.”
Another novel concept — not admitting known criminals or troublemakers. How many other countries have similar restrictions? From the New Zealand immigration website, “To show you are of good character, you may need to provide us with police certificates.”
After passing the multipoint inspection, they were given a “landing card”. Then they were free to enter America. “After approval it was time to leave the island and continue to the final destination.”
What a simple and logical approach. Despite the technological advances over the past century, sometimes the tried and true ways of the past are still best.
Unfortunately, politicians of both parties have no interest in a strong national border or scrutinizing who enters and stays in our country. The open borders elites don’t have to live with the consequences of their lax immigration enforcement. Illegal immigrants don’t live in their neighborhoods or attend their children’s fancy private schools. It’s everyone else who lives with the crime and disease.
Ellis Island was from a simpler time but effectively handled immigrants arriving in America. Some say the future proves the past. Why not bring back a successful past process, proven to work, leading to a safer future for America? Time to resurrect some Ellis Island common sense.
“Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.”
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Above, 1/29/19, “President
Kushner holds meetings with Koch Industries (who have vowed not to
support Trump in 2020) on how to craft an immigration deal w/ amnesty," Ryan Girdusky twitter
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Comment: Since Trump isn’t going to remove Kushner, Trump will have
to be impeached. Let’s go democrats, hurry up and get Trump impeached.
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“By
1998, Soros’ strong influence in the State Department was complete,
with the appointment of Harold Koh as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In a glaring conflict of interest, Koh was also a member of the HRW board of directors.(12)”…In 2017, "[US Republican] senators cited several Soros-funded projects, including one in Colombia in which USAID funds support a Soros-owned media portal that has criticized Trump, capitalism, and “patriarchal society.”” 11/29/2017…“The Troubling Relationship Between Soros and US’ Biggest Foreign Aid Agency,” Mike Gonzalez, Daily Signal, 4/13/2017
Jan. 13, 2017, “AFTER DECADES OF COVERT SUPPORT FOR TERRORISTS, SOROS REVEALS HIMSELF IN COLOMBIA,” periodisimosinfronteras.org, Lia Fowler
“Under the guise of promoting Human Rights, in 1978 Soros co-founded Human Rights Watch (originally Helsinki Watch). Corporacion Nuevo Arcoiris lists Open Society as one of its benefactors. Created by amnestied ELN terrorist Leon Valencia, the “think tank” produces propaganda for the Santos-FARC deal. Could it be that Colombia’s 2018 election is shaping up to be a repeat of 2010 — a win-win contest between two Soros-groomed candidates? [Duque won, has agreed with Soros’ philosophy in past. “[Former Columbian Pres. Uribe] was Duque’s earliest champion for president, having persuaded his protege to leave a job at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC to fill a party senate seat in 2014..]
On January 9 [2017], Colombian daily El Espectador, published a column by New York hedge fund manager George Soros titled “The Abnormal Times of Trump” (Los Tiempos Anormales de Trump), in which the Hungarian-American billionaire opened with, “I must tell you who I am and what I believe in.”
It would seem through this piece, written “especially for El
Espectador”, that the founder of the Open Society Foundations was attempting to introduce himself to Colombians. He’s a few decades too late.
In fact, Soros has been a key player in shaping both U.S. policy toward Colombia and the country’s internal politics since at least the 1990s. Through his own network of NGOs and those he sponsors, Soros has waged a decades-long assault on the country’s institutions designed to legitimize Colombia’s narco-terrorist groups – a goal he is very close to achieving. (1)
Last December [2016], the Colombian Congress ratified a “peace deal” between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the narco-terrorist group known as the FARC– despite the deal having been rejected by a national plebiscite on October 2. As such, the world’s leading drug-trafficking Cartel has guaranteed unelected seats in Congress, Santos has rule-by-decree powers, and Colombia is quickly devolving into a narco-failed State. The road to this end was paved and funded by George Soros, and achieved through a three-pronged approach: weakening of the State and its institutions, blocking drug eradication efforts, and promoting drug legalization and decriminalization.
Under the guise of promoting Human Rights, in 1978 Soros co-founded Human Rights Watch (originally Helsinki Watch). Not
only did he pour hundreds of millions of dollars into it, through the
Open Society Foundation (3), he also sits on its Advisory Council for the Americas. In the 1990s, HRW,
along with Amnesty International (4), the Washington Office on Latin
America (WOLA) (5), and the International Peace Brigades (6)– all sponsored by Open Society — began characterizing the Colombian military as a systematic violator of human rights.
Indeed, during the presidency of Ernesto Samper (1994-98), accused by
the U.S. of financing his presidential campaign with drug Cartel money,
and Andres Pastrana (1998-2002) the combined efforts of Soros-sponsored NGOs managed to defund the Army, hinder its operations, and remove its top leaders through fabricated human rights abuse accusations.
In the mid and late 90s, there was a battle within the U.S. government between the State Department and the Pentagon regarding the nature of the terrorist groups FARC and ELN. Myles Frechette, former U.S. Ambassador to Colombia,
insisted that there was no evidence of any link between these terrorist
organizations and drug trafficking – a claim repeated by the FARC in
various communications, including a 1998 “Open Letter to the American
People.”(7) Frechette currently serves with Soros on the HRW Advisory Council.
U.S. Drug Policy Adviser Gen. Barry McCaffrey stated in 1996 that the FARC and ELN were a narco-guerrilla force.” The Pentagon’s view proved true, as the FARC is now recognized as the world’s leading cocaine Cartel.
HRW and other Soros-funded NGOs, led a relentless campaign against the Colombian Armed Forces
and its members. In a 1996 report titled “Colombia’s Assassin Networks:
the military-paramilitary alliance and the United States,” (8) HRW
wrote “With the objective of declaring a war on drugs, the United
States has armed, trained and advised the Colombian Armed Forces,
despite their disastrous record on human rights issues.” The
report went on to accuse retired General Farouk Yanine Diaz and General
Harold Bedoya, among others, of colluding with paramilitary groups to
commit or cover up atrocities.
These constant allegations were amplified by Soros-linked U.S. media outlets. Chief among them was the Washington Post.
It is no surprise that Len Downie, Washington Post Executive Editor
between 1991-2008, and current Vice-President, is also a member of the
board at The Center for Investigative Reporting, which has received more
than $1 million from Soros’ Open Society.
In a 1997 Washington Post article titled “As its civil war intensifies, Colombia emerges as the Bosnia of South America”
by Ana Carrigan and Robert O. Weiner, the authors called the alleged
collusion between the military and drug-traffickers a “dirty war” and compared it to Bosnia’s ethnic cleansing. “The paramilitaries massacre [civilians],
fulfilling the military’s desire for high body counts and enabling
their sponsors to consolidate and expand their land holdings,” they
added, providing no basis for these statements.
Ana Carrigan, who co-authored the 1997 article, is a writer with OpenDemocracy, an organization funded primarily by Open Society and the Open Society Initiative for Europe. (9) Soros himself is a columnist at OpenDemocracy. Her ongoing coverage of the Colombian conflict has remained pro-terrorist through the years. She is also the author of “The Palace of Justice: A Colombian Tragedy,” in which she falsely claimed that it was the military, and not M-19 terrorists, who murdered most
of the victims during the M-19 terrorist attack of the Palace of
Justice in 1985. A critique of her book by Rex A. Hudson, pointed out
the many fallacies of her work, including her reliance on anonymous
sources and disregarding the testimony of credible survivors. The book
remains one of the few accounts of the M-19 massacre in the English
language. (10)
In a May 1998 column in the Washington Post, Bernard Aronson, a former Secretary of State official, promoted HRW’s false military-paramilitary narrative, writing that by
aiding the Colombian military, the U.S. risked “allying ourselves with
paramilitary forces that recently massacred 21 civilians, including a
4-year-old child, in a remote village in guerrilla-controlled territory.” Aronson proposed instead that the FARC and ELN could help eradicate coca fields in return for U.S. Aid and a share of power in Colombia. (11)
Aronson was and still is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, which is indirectly funded by Soros, via the Avina Foundation.
The latter is listed by the Dialogue’s as one of its top donors and it
is funded by Open Society. Furthermore, Dialogue Director Michael
Schifter serves on the HRW Advisory Council with Soros. With the recent ratification of the Santos-FARC deal, Aronson not only saw his 1998 proposal realized, he helped craft it, as President Obama’s U.S. Envoy to the Santos-FARC peace talks since 2015.
By 1998, Soros’ strong influence in the State Department was complete, with the appointment of Harold Koh as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In a glaring conflict of interest, Koh was also a member of the HRW board of directors.(12)
“The principal mechanism for the defamation campaign against the Colombian military is the Human Rights Report that the State Department presents to the U.S. Congress every year,”
wrote Miguel Posada, founder of the Center for Analytical Studies and
Verdad Colombia – and my father – in a March 2000 article for the
Inter-American Economic Press Association. (13) For many years, the State Department report was almost an exact copy of Soros’ HRW report.
Soros’ achievements through his influence in the State Department included the following:
The dismantling of the 20th Intelligence Brigade (14) in 1998 (accused by the State Department – according to the Washington Post – “of promoting death squad activities”); the blocking of millions of dollars in U.S. assistance, as described in HRW reports for all the pertinent years; and the dismissal of hundreds of officers. (15)
The result of the Soros-funded U.S. policy toward Colombia was disastrous for Colombia. According to statistics from the Nueva Granada Military University, between 1990 and 2000, the number of FARC
terrorists rose from some 8,000 to more than 20,000; ELN terrorists rose
from 2,000 to 4,500 terrorists, and paramilitaries quintupled in force, from 1,800 terrorists to more than 10,000. In that time, about 7,000 child soldiers were recruited into these terrorist groups.
Among the officers removed due to HRW and State Department pressure was Gen. Bedoya, Commander of the Armed Forces, who was forced to retire in 1997. A 1998 HRW report, titled “All-Out War: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law”
(Guerra Sin Cuartel: Colombia y el derecho internacional humanitario)
(16) states: “In 1997, the government of Colombia forced the retirement
of General Harold Bedoya, whose hostility toward human rights and whose
association throughout his entire career with the dramatic increase in
joint operations between the Army and the paramilitaries are
well-known.”
In fact, there was never any credible evidence that Gen. Bedoya had any links to paramilitaries at all. As a great majority of the information alleged by HRW and spread through its media partners, the accusations were unsubstantiated.
According to NGO Monitor, HRW’s publications “reflect the absence of
professional standards, research methodologies, and military and legal
expertise.” (17)
So where did they get this information? While HRW reports do not identify the organizations that provide the information in their acknowledgements, claiming security reasons, a review of the content of their reports suggests who they might be,
among them: the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ), The
Inter-Eclesial Commission on Justice and Peace (CIJP), Center of Popular
Investigation and Education (CINEP), and Corporacion Colectivo de
Abogados Jose Alvear Restrepo (CCAJAR). Interestingly, these are all NGOs supported by International Peace Brigades, which receives funding directly from Soros’ Open Society.
After Gen. Bedoya’s forced retirement, he launched a presidential campaign for the 1998 elections. His platforms consisted of opposing the appeasement policies of the Samper government, and combating narco-terrorism directly. In the months leading up to the election, three of Bedoya’s campaign offices were bombed, and in May, Bedoya’s campaign advisor, former minister Fernando Landazabal, was murdered. Despite being defeated in the election, Gen. Bedoya continued his efforts to combat Soros-sponsored pro-FARC propaganda in the U.S., including speaking engagements at the Schiller Institute, and the National Press Club.
He was met, at every turn, with intense defamation campaigns both in the U.S. and in Colombia.
In the U.S., pro-FARC groups pounced on his use of the word “patria” in
Spanish, which they translated as “fatherland” (instead of the more
appropriate “country”) in order to make comparisons to Hitler. From there, U.S. outlets and NGOs began to refer to Gen. Bedoya as a fascist. In 1999, for example, an email from the Colombian Labor Monitor, an NGO whose funding is not known, stated, “Colombian fascist General Bedoya will be speaking at the National Press Club.” (18) The Equipo Nizcor and Derechos Human Rights, members of Soros-funded GILC, (19) included
Gen. Bedoya in a list of “Notorious Colombian Graduates of the School
of the Americas,” and accused him of organizing death squads, (20) allegations lifted directly from HRW reports and FARC communiqués. (21)
The allegations were echoed in Colombia. Referring
to Gen. Bedoya in a February 1998 article in El Tiempo, Ivan Duque, now a
Senator for the Democratic Center (CD) party, wrote: “It is lacking in
seriousness and disagreeable to hear that fascist narrative at the end
of the 20th century.” It isn’t surprising. In an April 2010 column in Portafolio titled “Soros’ Lessons,” Duque wrote about Soros’ “intellectual richness” and promoted his ideas. (22) Whether through ignorance or by design, Duque did not make any mention to the role Soros had played in Colombia’s politics in the previous 15 years.
Let’s skip to the present. The “peace deal” ratified last year [2016], was initiated by Santos – whose links to Soros are well-documented – and helped along by an intense Soros-sponsored propaganda campaign at home and abroad.
Specifically,
the lobbying for Santos in the United States was primarily done through
the Inter-American Dialogue, whose ties to Soros are detailed above, and the Atlantic Council, which includes Open Society in its list of contributors. (23) The negotiations were thoroughly
endorsed by the Obama Administration, which brought back the
Soros-linked key players from the 1990s era to help cement the deal:
Harold Koh, one-time member of the HRW board of directors, was appointed Legal Adviser of the Department of State in 2009;
and Bernard Aronson was tapped to be the Special Envoy to the
negotiations in 2015. Aronson’s dubious role in the negotiations was the
subject of my April 2016 column: “Bernard Aronson: The Conflicting
Interests of ‘Our Man in Havana’. (24)
The
coverage of the peace negotiations in the U.S. was predominantly
pro-Santos-FARC, which implicitly meant pro-Cuba, as the FARC has long been sponsored and trained by Cuba, and Cuba was a sponsor and the host of the deal. Leading the U.S. coverage was, again, the Soros-linked Washington Post, through the many columns by reporter Nick Miroff. (25) His bias was encapsulated in an appalling Jan. 6 [2017] tweet. In response to photographs of U.N Peace verifiers dancing with FARC girls – whose very presence among the FARC ranks constitutes a War Crime – he wrote: “For the sake of peace in Colombia, someone should prob take away all the cellphone cameras in El Conejo.” The problem, for Miroff, was not that UN observers were dancing with victims of Child Soldiering, but rather that they got caught.
The fact is, Miroff is not unbiased at all. Miroff’s wife is
Camila Pineiro, the daughter of the notorious Cuban intelligence officer
Manuel Pineiro. Pineiro served as the Castro regime’s head of the DGLN,
in charge of organizing and supporting guerrillas in the Americas, among them, the FARC. Camila Pineiro works for the Cuban State-sponsored Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana.
In Colombia, many of the NGOs that promoted and helped orchestrate the Santos-FARC deal – and those that led defamation campaigns against its opponents — were funded by Open Society. Among them:
Corporacion Nuevo Arcoiris (26) lists Open Society as one of its benefactors. Created by amnestied ELN terrorist Leon Valencia, the “think tank” produces propaganda for the Santos-FARC deal. Additionally, Soros is linked to Valencia and promotes him through diverse projects. In 2015, for example, Alerta Democratica – an organization founded by Open Society Foundation, the Soros-sponsored Avina Foundation and the Ford Foundation – held a an eight-month exercise
to “Map the Future of Democracy in Latin America.” The representative
from Colombia was Leon Valencia, listed as the Executive Director of his
other NGO, La Fundacion Paz y Reconciliacion. (27)
Funded by Open Society Foundations, DeJusticia is headed by Rodrigo Uprimny. (28) Uprimny has been a key player in crafting the peace deal and silencing any opposition within the government. As one of the “architects” of the Santos-FARC deal’s Transitional Justice System, Uprimny helped design the system that will offer no jail time for FARC terrorists. He was also the sponsor of a complaint before a high court that challenged then-Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez’ post. Ordoñez headed the only government agency that opposed the Santos-FARC deal.
As a result of Uprimny’s suit, Ordoñez was deposed. (29) Uprimny also has a running blog in another Soros-sponsored organization, La Silla Vacia, a so-called “independent” web news portal created by Open Society Foundation Fellow Juanita Leon. (30) Dejusticia’s Catalina Botero has been a speaker at Open Society-sponsored events.
DeJusticia also lobbies for the decriminalization and
legalization of drugs, which is a key Soros initiative, carried out by
many Soros-funded NGOs, including The Drug Policy Alliance,
where Soros himself serves on the Board of Directors. In April 2016,
State-funded El Tiempo published an article titled “Various NGO’s
announce support for the Government’s position on drugs.” The groups argue drugs should be addressed as a public health problem, rather than a criminal matter. Some entities listed were Dejusticia, and Cesed, both funded by Soros, and the Open Society Foundation itself.
Shaping the narrative of the narco-terrorist history in Colombia, now referred to by all the above organizations and others as “the conflict,” is the Open Society project Verdad Abierta.
The editor-in-chief of this web-based news magazine is Maria Teresa
Ronderos, Director of the Open Society Foundation’s Program on
Independent Journalism. Prior to that, she worked at Semana magazine, a
Colombian state-funded magazine that promotes the Santos-FARC agenda and is a partner in the Verdad Abierta venture. (31)
Helping to ensure that opposition to the peace deal is silenced, Open Society also funded Colombia Check, a web-based portal that purports to expose “fake news.”(32)
The site attempts to “debunk” negative news about the Santos
administration and the peace deal and often attacks its opponents,
including ex-President Alvaro Uribe, deposed Inspector General Alejandro
Ordoñez, and even – full disclosure – this writer, specifically an
article I authored in 2016 titled “Peace for Oil?” (33)
With Soros-sponsored U.S. and Colombian think tanks, news organizations, and NGOs, and with U.S. State Department officials all aligned with the Santos-FARC peace peddlers, it seemed a miracle that the underfunded promoters of the vote against the deal achieved a victory on Oct. 2. Not that it mattered. The plebiscite result was set aside without a word from Soros’ “democracy-building” organizations and affiliates.
The most visible entity promoting the No vote, was ex-President Uribe’s Center Democratic Party (CD). As such, it is troubling that Ivan Duque, who in 1998 helped promote the defamation campaign against Gen. Bedoya, and a believer in Soros’ philosophy, should be one of the front-runners for the CD’s presidential nomination for 2018. Certainly, Sen. Duque has some ties to Soros and his philosophy. According to his biography, he was, at some point, the recipient of a scholarship from the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a Soros-funded organization. As a member of the Inter-American Development Bank, he drafted, along with Felipe Buitrago, a document called “The Orange Economy.” In 2013, Buitrago promoted the “Orange Economy” in the Salzburg Global Seminar, an organization sponsored by Open Society. (34) (35)
It is possible, of course, that the Senator’s views have changed. I wrote to the Senator and to the head of the CD, giving Duque an opportunity to clarify
the context of his 1998 and 2010 articles and describe the nature of
the NDI scholarship. I also requested a copy of his University thesis,
which he explained in an interview (36) with the Sergio Arboleda
University was on the subject of “human rights.” Given the timing of
when he might have written his thesis, it would be interesting for the
public to know how much of his information relied on Soros-funded
organizations and whether he echoed their propaganda. But the Senator
never responded. In fact, Duque himself has not responded directly to any of the recent criticism of his positions and any possible links to Soros, other than to complain about a “dirty war” being waged against him.
His supporters, however, have not remained quiet, publishing numerous columns on the matter. Curiously, aside from his campaign organizers, the most fervent defense
has not come from his fellow party members, but from the above named
Leon Valencia, Rodrigo Uprimny, La Silla Vacia, and Semana magazine – all of Soros’ main propagandists in Colombia.
It is important that Senator Duque address these concerns. Soros’ self-promoting piece in El Espectador suggests that all his chips are in place, and he is ready to come out of the shadows – from which he has caused so much damage to Colombia for more than 20 years. Such a bold move suggests he is confident that the 2018 presidential election results will be favorable to his agenda. With the CD winning the latest popular vote – the plebiscite – and with about 80 percent of the population opposed to the main points of the deal with the FARC, one wonders how he can be so certain. Could it be that Colombia’s 2018 election is shaping up to be a repeat of 2010 — a win-win contest between two Soros-groomed candidates?”
“*Lia Fowler is an American journalist and former FBI Special Agent.”
____________________________________________________
(1) http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/elmundo/los-tiempos-anormales-de-trump-articulo-673754
(2) http://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos/human_rights_watch_hrw_/
(3) http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1237
(4) https://www.wola.org/finances/
(5) https://www.peacebrigades.org
(6) http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1998/eirv25n24-19980612/eirv25n24-19980612_054-the_bush_factor_in_us_colombia_p.pdf
(7) https://www.hrw.org/legacy/spanish/informes/1996/colombia6.html
(8) https://www.opendemocracy.net/about/supporters
(9) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09546559508427301?journalCode=ftpv20
(10) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/05/21/colombias-chance-for-peace/855fd330-f8f9-413f-a645-9babbd6167b1/?utm_term=.85f7b4ec922c
(11) https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/police/uspo03.htm
(12) http://www.analitica.com/opinion/opinion-internacional/la-otra-guerra-en-colombia-el-departamento-de-estado-vs-el-pentagono/
(13) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/05/21/colombia-disbands-controversial-army-brigade/65bb408f-0df6-43b5-8533-688818b94346/?utm_term=.4c67694eb4d4
(14) http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-1281981
(15) https://www.hrw.org/legacy/spanish/informes/1998/guerra3A.html#estado
(16) http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peace_Brigades_International
(17) http://www.lyndonlarouche.org/larouche-bedoya-press-club.htm
(18) http://gilc.org/about/members.html
(19) http://www.derechos.org/soa/colom-not.html
(20) http://www.nodo50.org/garibaldi/contenido/colombia/articulos/PARAMILITARISMO.htm
(21) http://www.portafolio.co/opinion/ivan-duque-marquez/lecciones-soros-117928
(22) http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/support/supporters
(23) http://www.periodismosinfronteras.org/bernard-aronson-the-conflicting-interests-of-our-man-in-havana.html
(24) https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/nick-miroff/?utm_term=.2b2b8c190557
(25) https://www.arcoiris.com.co/¿quienes-somos/
(26) https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/press_release_-_alerta_democratica.pdf
(27) http://lasillavacia.com/historia/los-super-poderosos-de-las-ong-45724
(28) http://www.eltiempo.com/politica/justicia/rodrigo-uprimny-autor-de-la-demanda-que-saco-al-procurador/16694805
(29) https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/programs/open-society-fellowship/grantees/juanita-leon
(30) https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/people/maria-teresa-ronderos
(31) http://colombiacheck.com/
(32) http://www.periodismosinfronteras.org/peace-for-oil.html
(33) http://www.salzburgglobal.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/2010-2019/2013/503/503_FINAL_Report.pdf
(34) http://www.salzburgglobal.org/who-we-work-with/institutional-support/donors.html
(35) http://www.usergioarboleda.edu.co/consejero-principal-ante-el-bid-es-sergista-ivan-duque-marquez/
……………………………………
Comment: Trump adores Soros, refuses to say one bad word about him. Soros loaned Trump $160 million in 2004. In 2015 Soros invested in Jared Kushner's (Ivanka's husband) business and extended his company a $250 million credit line, per Wall St. Journal. Occasional Trump bashing by Soros is probably just for show. In any case, Soros could behead Trump and leave his dead body on Fifth Avenue and Trump, from the grave, still wouldn't say a bad word about Soros.
.....................
1/28/19, “Washington Post ABC News Poll, Jan. 21-24, 2019”
Poll dates: Mon.-Thurs., Jan. 21-24, random national sample of 1,001 adults. No filter for Likely Voters. 65% cell phone, 3.4 error margin.
……………….
32% Democrat
From page 10: Sample size: Adults: 1001 unweighted sample size, error margin 3.5. Registered voters: 893, error margin 4.0. It’s
not stated how “registered voter” status was determined, for example
was it self described. They don’t include a filter for Likely Voters.
Following are 3 questions from page 7: support for a border wall, political party preferred for border security, and is US doing enough to prevent illegal immigration (54% say no, US is doing too little):
Page 7, question 10: Support for border wall remains at highest level over past two years: 42 favor, 54 oppose. As
shown below, 42/54 is unchanged from two weeks ago, and is still a
high-water mark for support over the past two-plus years along with the
lowest level of opposition:
……………………………….
Page 7, question 11, part two: Republicans are favored over Democrats for handling border security, 49-39:
……………………………….
Page 7, question 12: Majority of Americans, 54%, believe US is doing too little to prevent illegal immigration to the US. Only 24% say the right amount is being done:
………………………….
...................
Poll dates: Jan. 22-23, 2019. 42% of Likely Voters say it’s easier to enter the US (61R, 22D, 46 Ind). 46% say it’s easier to stay once you’ve gotten in illegally (66R, 28D, 47 Ind.).
Sample: Democrats +4 vs Republicans: 33R, 37D, 30 Ind.
1/28/19, “[Likely] Voters Say It’s Easier for Illegal Immigrants to Get In, Stay In the U.S.,” Rasmussen Reports
“[Likely] Voters still think it’s easier to enter and stay in the United States illegally than it is in most other countries.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 42% of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is easier to enter the United States illegally compared to most other nations in the world.
Just 19% say it’s harder, while 26% think the level of difficulty is
about the same. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. (To see survey
question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 22-23, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.”
Wording of two questions:
“1* Is it harder or easier to enter the United States illegally compared to most other nations in the world? Or is the level of difficulty about the same?”
“2* Compared to most other nations in the world, is it harder or easier to stay in the United States once you’ve entered the country illegally? Or is the level of difficulty about the same?”
...................
“Mr. Soros’s family office said it had invested [in Kushner’s business] in early 2015 before Mr. Trump declared his presidential candidacy.” Kushner’s business “Cadre also secured a $250 million line of credit from the family office of Mr. Soros, a top Democratic donor.”
…………………………..
“Immigration”
was solved in Nov. 2016 election with unconditional promise of a wall,
so why is White House holding meetings about it in 2019? If Trump wants to ignore the Nov. 2016 election then that’s what The Hill should be writing about:
1/25/19, “Head of Koch-affiliated group praises Kushner after immigration reform talks,” The Hill, Julia Manchester
“The president of the Libre Initiative, on Friday, praised his meeting with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on immigration and President Trump’s proposed southern border wall as “constructive” and “productive.”
“It was very constructive, productive. We felt Jared was an honest broker,” Daniel Garza told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
The Libre Initiative is a conservative, Latino non-profit that is affiliated with the Koch Network.
The White House hosted the Libre Initiative, along with other Latino organizations including the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, to discuss immigration reform, in hopes a broader deal could help end the partial government shutdown which is now in its second month.
“We’re trying to get to a space where we can all find agreement,” Garza said. “Where the left gets to a win by getting their priority. Presumably, that’s their priority, the DACA kids.”
“And the right gets their priority, which is what the president is
asking for, $5.7 billion which includes infrastructure along the
border,” he said.
President Trump has demanded $5.7 billion for his long-promised
border wall, but Democratic lawmakers have refused the funding request.
Trump on Saturday proposed a deal that would have provided three years of legislative relief for about 700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients in exchange for funding for a steel barrier at the border. Democrats, though, rejected that proposal. ”
……………………………
Added: National Review article about wonderful Jared and Koch Brothers:
Sat., 1/26/19, “Can the Koch Network and Jared Kushner Come Up with a Big Immigration Reform Deal?” National Review, Jim Geraghty, Indian Wells, California
“This morning, the Koch Seminar Network – more often referred to as “the Koch network” or “the shadowy Koch brothers” by gravely-voiced attack ad announcers – kick off their three-day winter meeting with the government at least temporarily reopened but the landscape in Washington deeply unsettled.
Thursday, Daniel Garza, the president of one of the Koch network’s affiliate groups called the Libre Initiative, met at the White House with officials in the administration to discuss a larger deal on immigration reform. Libre Institute president Daniel Garza told HillTv hosts the meeting, which included leaders of other Latino groups, was “very constructive, productive. We felt Jared [Kushner] was an honest broker.”
Kushner has proven the network’s most valuable negotiating partner in the White House,
playing a key role in the criminal justice reform legislation passed
late last year. Ideas in that legislation, particularly anti-recidivism
programs in federal prisoners, were the centerpiece of last year’s
winter meeting.
But two of the open questions as the Koch donors gather at the luxury resort outside Palm Springs are just how much can get done in Washington with divided government [not so– entire government agrees on open borders] and the jockeying for position in 2020 starting already, and just what kind of a deal President Trump is willing to accept. [“Deal?” The deal was made in the Nov. 2016 election.] Last year Brian Hooks, president of the Charles Koch Foundation and Charles Koch Institute, applauded the administration’s proposal of “legal certainty” for Dreamers, and indicated the network hoped the administration could go a step further for the Dreamers: “A path to citizenship
is enormous incentive to continue to contribute to this country.” This
year, the network is expected to push for a permanent solution to the
Dreamers’s current legal status.
Politics makes strange bedfellows; this will put the Koch network on the same side as many Democratic lawmakers
who have decried their allegedly sinister influence for many years.
[Which was just for show. Everyone in the Beltway is on the same “side”-open
borders]. Earlier this month, Congressional Democrats rejected the
administration’s offer of three years of legislative relief for about
700,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients
in exchange for $5.7 billion in steel barriers. Democrats appear
unwilling to accept a temporary reprieve for the Dreamers in exchange
for a permanent structure on the border.
Immigration is certain to come up at some point during the winter meeting, but the main focus in the coming days
will be the theme “unleash the potential in everyone,” with an emphasis
on programs, organizations and legislative proposals that address
problems such as chronic unemployment, drugs and addiction, and poverty.
The Koch network boasts, with some strong evidence, that it
has become one of the most consequential forces in American politics, with what it calls a “permanent grassroots infrastructure in 36 states.” Besides the Libre Initiative, the network includes the most visible arm, Americans for Prosperity; Generation Opportunity, which focuses on Millennials; Concerned Veterans for America, which addresses veterans’ issues; and Stand Together, which endeavors to build social capital.
But 2018 was a rough year for some of the network’s favorite political allies. Governor Scott Walker lost in Wisconsin, and Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt failed in his bid for governor. Five of Americans for Prosperity’s eight “policy champions” in the U.S. House of Representatives lost in 2018. But the Koch Industries Political Action Committee donated to most of the winning 2018 GOP candidates —
Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida, Doug Ducey of Arizona, Kim Reynolds
of Iowa, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Greg Abbott of Texas, as well as
senators Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Braun of Indiana, Josh Hawley of
Missouri, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota (despite the network saying they
would not support his heavily-favored Senate bid because he was backing the administration’s tariffs) and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Another lawmaker who has addressed the winter meeting in past years, Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, is up for reelection this year and he appears to be in for a tough fight.”
………………………………
Added: Jared’s chosen connections:
Jared Kushner’s interests “include loans totaling at least $1 billion from more than 20 lenders, to properties and companies part-owned by Mr. Kushner…. He has also provided personal guarantees on more than $300 million of the debt….Deutsche Bank and RBS are among entities to whom he’s given personal guarantees.…Cadre also secured a $250 million line of credit from the family office of Mr. Soros, a top Democratic donor.….Mr. Soros’s family office said it had invested [in Kushner’s business] in early 2015 before Mr. Trump declared his presidential candidacy.”…Kushner has business “ties to a broad swath of U.S. and foreign banks, private-equity firms, real-estate companies and government-owned lenders.”…
May 3, 2017, “Trump Adviser Kushner’s Undisclosed Partners Include Goldman and Soros,” Wall St. Journal, Jean Eaglesham, Juliet Chung, Lisa Schwartz
“Investments show ties to major finance and technology names.”
“Jared Kushner, the
president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is currently in business
with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and billionaires George Soros and Peter Thiel, according to people familiar with the matter and securities filings.
The previously undisclosed business relationships with titans of the financial and technology worlds are through a real-estate tech startup called Cadre that Mr. Kushner cofounded and currently partly owns.
Goldman and Messrs. Soros and Thiel, as
well as other billionaires’ firms, also have stakes in the company,
which is based in a Manhattan building owned by the Kushner family’s
company, according to people close to Cadre.
The Cadre stake is one of many interests—and ties to large financial institutions—that
Mr. Kushner didn’t identify on his government financial-disclosure
form, according to a Wall Street Journal review of securities and other
filings. Others include loans totaling at least $1 billion, from more
than 20 lenders, to properties and companies part-owned by Mr. Kushner, the Journal found. He has also provided personal guarantees on more than $300 million of the debt, according to the analysis.
In his disclosure form filed earlier this year, Mr. Kushner didn’t identify Cadre as among his hundreds of assets.
The Journal identified his Cadre stake through a review of securities
and other filings as well as interviews with people familiar with the
company and Mr. Kushner’s finances.
Jamie Gorelick, a lawyer representing Mr. Kushner, said in a
statement that his stake in Cadre is housed in a company he owns, BFPS
Ventures LLC. His ownership of BFPS is reported on his disclosure form, although it doesn’t mention Cadre.
Ms. Gorelick said the Cadre stake is described in a revised
version of his disclosure form that will be made public after it has
been certified by ethics officials. She said Mr. Kushner has
previously discussed his Cadre ownership with the Office of Government
Ethics and that Mr. Kushner has “resigned from Cadre’s board, assigned
his voting rights and reduced his ownership share.”
A spokesman for the Office of Government Ethics didn’t respond to a request to comment.
Ms. Gorelick said it is “very normal” for a
financial-disclosure form to be revised and that the form was prepared
by Mr. Kushner’s lawyers on his behalf. A White House spokeswoman
referred questions to Mr. Kushner’s lawyer.
Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and other ethics experts said investments such as Mr. Kushner’s ownership of Cadre typically need to be disclosed.
They said Mr. Kushner didn’t appear to violate disclosure rules by not
publicly reporting his business-related debts and guarantees. But they
said such arrangements ideally should be disclosed, in part because they
could force Mr. Kushner to recuse himself from certain issues involving
the lenders.
“Anything that presents a potential for the conflict of interest
should be disclosed so that the public and the press can monitor this,”
Mr. Potter said.
Ethics experts’ concern is that Mr. Kushner’s business connections
could jeopardize his impartiality in certain areas and that, absent
disclosures, the public is in the dark about potential conflicts.
Mr. Kushner’s rapidly expanding responsibilities range from
working on a Middle East peace deal to making the federal government
operate more efficiently. As a senior federal official, he is bound by
ethics laws that require him to recuse himself from matters that would
directly affect his financial interests.
Ms. Gorelick, who was deputy attorney general in former President Bill Clinton’s administration, said Mr. Kushner will “recuse consistent with government ethics rules.”
Mr. Kushner, the 36-year-old scion of a real-estate family, agreed with federal ethics officials to divest himself of more than 80 assets
after he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, were hired by her father,
President Donald Trump, as senior aides. White House officials have said
some of the sales were needed to avoid potential conflicts between Mr.
Kushner’s far-reaching job duties and his personal financial interests.
Mr. Kushner is retaining
more than 200 other assets, worth a total of at least $116 million,
according to his disclosures. These are mostly apartments and office
blocks around the U.S. Like his father-in-law, he has declined to put
these assets in a blind trust, which ethics experts regard as
the cleanest way to avoid conflicts of interest. Someone close to Mr.
Kushner said there are practical problems that made a blind trust not a
realistic option.
Mr. Kushner co-founded
Cadre in 2014 with his brother, Joshua Kushner, and Ryan Williams, a
29-year-old friend and former employee of Kushner Cos., the
family-controlled business that Mr. Kushner ran until recently. Cadre
markets properties to prospective investors, who can put their money
into specific buildings or into an investment fund run by Cadre, which
collects fees on each deal.
To get off the ground, Cadre turned to a Goldman Sachs fund
and a number of high-profile investors. Among them were the
venture-capital firms of Mr. Thiel, Silicon Valley’s most prominent
supporter of the GOP president, and Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc., according to Cadre’s website. Personal backers include Chinese entrepreneur David Yu, co-founder with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Jack Ma of
a Shanghai-based private-equity firm, hedge-fund manager Daniel Och and
real-estate magnate Barry Sternlicht, people close to Cadre said.
Cadre also secured a $250 million line of credit from the family office of Mr. Soros, a top Democratic donor who Mr. Trump criticized during his presidential campaign, the people close to the company said. Mr. Soros’s family office is also an investor in Cadre.
The investors declined or didn’t respond to requests for public comment on their backing of Cadre, but a
person familiar with Mr. Soros’s family office said it had invested [in
Kushner’s business] in early 2015 before Mr. Trump declared his
presidential candidacy.
Cadre has solicited money from investors for several Kushner Cos.
real-estate projects, according to information sent to prospective
investors and reviewed by the Journal. Jared Kushner personally has stakes in some of the real-estate projects for which Cadre has raised money, according to Cadre documents and his disclosure form.
While Mr. Williams acts as the public face of Cadre, Mr. Kushner remains one of the owners, with the power to “influence the [firm’s] management or policies,” according to the latest public information on file with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Mr. Kushner’s company JCK Cadre LLC is shown as owning 25% to 50% of Quadro Partners Inc., which owns at least 75% of RealCadre LLC, which does business as Cadre. Mr. Kushner has reduced his ownership stake to less than 25%, his lawyer Ms. Gorelick said. [“Common stock and 35 investments had been sold to a trust overseen by Kushner’s mother, Seryl, with other assets going to his brother, Josh, and some more to third parties.]
Mr. Williams, chief executive of Cadre, said the company has been working with regulators to update its public filings to “reflect Jared’s nonoperational, nonmanagement relationship with the company, which has been in place since the inauguration.”
BFPS Ventures, the company that Mr. Kushner’s lawyer said holds his Cadre stake,
is shown on his financial-disclosure form as owning unspecified New
York real estate valued at more than $50 million. The form adds that “the conflicting assets of this interest have been divested.”
Beyond Cadre, some of the assets Mr. Kushner is holding on to are hard to pinpoint, partly because they are housed in entities with generic names such as “KC Dumbo Office,” according to the disclosure form.
The Journal matched many of the assets to specific real-estate
investments. An analysis of the debts on those properties, using
real-estate data services PropertyShark and Trepp LLC as well as
property records, found ties to a broad swath of U.S. and foreign banks, private-equity firms, real-estate companies and government-owned lenders.
Lenders to Mr. Kushner, either directly or via properties he co-owns, include
Bank of America Corp. , Blackstone Group LP, Citigroup Inc., UBS Group
AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Royal Bank of Scotland didn’t respond to requests for comment; representatives of the other firms declined to comment.
Mr. Kushner will recuse himself
from matters to which Deutsche Bank or RBS are parties because he has
provided personal guarantees on their loans, said a person familiar with
his ethics arrangement.”
………………………
Added: “His [Jared’s] common stock and 35 investments had been sold to a trust overseen by Kushner’s mother, Seryl, with other assets going to his brother, Josh, and some more to third parties….Jared remains the beneficiary of family trusts worth $600 million to him and his wife, Ivanka.”
May 9, 2017, “Are Kushner family real estate assets a conflict for Jared?“ CBSNews.com, Larry Light
“It remains murky just how much Kushner has rid himself of family-related assets. In a White House briefing on March 31, officials said Kushner had resigned from more than 266 entities and “divested from most of those that may have created a conflict of interest.“ A report in Politico said his common
stock and 35 investments had been sold to a trust overseen by Kushner’s
mother, Seryl, with other assets going to his brother, Josh, and some more to third parties.
Nevertheless, The New York Times reported on Monday that Jared remains the beneficiary of family trusts worth $600 million to him and his wife, Ivanka, the president’s daughter.
What’s to stop Kushner later, after he leaves the White House, from becoming a beneficiary again and rejoining Kushner Cos.? Apparently nothing,
according to Richard Painter, the White House ethics lawyer under
President George W. Bush.
Painter, now a professor at the University of
Minnesota Law School, said the assets Kushner shipped to the trust “belong to the family,” and so he can reclaim them in the future.” …
...................
