It appears the George Soros’s charitable giving goes a little
beyond trying to defeat President Bush. Last week, Byron York of
National Review revealed that in September 2002 the Soros-funded Open
Society Institute (OSI) gave $20,000 to the Lynne Stewart Defense
Committee.
Lynne Stewart, you will recall, is the radical lawyer who was
recently convicted of aiding one of her clients, Sheik Omar Abdel
Rahman. Also known as the “Blind Sheik,” Rahman was sentenced in
1996 to life imprisonment for his role in the 1993 bombing of the
World Trade Center. After Rahman’s conviction, his terrorist
organization, Islamic Group, threatened to attack targets in the
United States unless he was released. In response, the U.S.
Government forbad Rahman from communicating with his Islamic Group
henchmen. He was allowed to communicate only with his spouse and
attorneys, who also were forbidden to communicate Rahman’s dictates
to Islamic Group. Lynne Stewart ignored the prohibition.
You can almost hear Stewart’s supporters now: “But everyone,
including Stewart, has the right to a defense,” they would say.
That is true — and irrelevant. Just because Stewart has a right to
a defense does not require Soros to fund it. By contributing to her
defense barely a year after September 11, Soros and the OSI sent a
message: Funding terrorist enablers is more important than fighting
a War on Terror.
The OSI funds hundreds of organizations and individuals. Many
belong on the Who’s Who of left-liberal advocacy groups
and think tanks. Here’s a partial list of those that received OSI
grants of $100,000 or more:
* Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (1999—$350,000;
2002—$275,000 and $100,000)
* People for the American Way (1999—$100,000;
2002—$100,000)
* Economic Policy Institute (1999—$184,350)
* Planned Parenthood Federation of America (1999—$200,000;
2002—$500,000)
* American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education
* Human Rights Watch, Inc. (2002—$1,000,000 and $150,000;
2000—$1,000,000 and $179,350; 1999—$1,000,000)
* National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (2000—$100,000)
* Tides Foundation (1999—$700,000 and $200,000; 2002—$595,000,
$350,000, $300,000 and $175,000; 2000—$500,000, $212,000 and
$100,000)
* National Abortion Rights Action League Foundation
(2002—$150,000)
* Sundance Institute for Film and Television
(2002—$1,500,000)
(For a complete list of OSI $100,000+ grant recipients since
1999, visit the Capital Research Center
website.)
Now that Stewart is convicted, we might ask the groups that took
Soros money the following questions:
Are you embarrassed that one of your major donors contributed to
the defense of someone accused — and now convicted — of helping a
convicted terrorist communicate with his followers?
Will you consider returning the money you received from the Open
Society Institute?
Finally, will you accept grants in the future from donors that
assist accused terrorists?
I won’t hold my breath waiting for the answers. But these
Soros-funded groups should not just take the money and run.
Instead, they should think seriously about their moral
responsibility as grant recipients, and they should look to the
example of some of their ideological brethren.
Both the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations recently instituted
policies requiring their grantees to sign a statement saying that
its grantees do not support terrorist groups or activities. At the
very least, the morally responsible action for OSI grant recipients
is to refuse any further OSI money until OSI adopts a similar
policy.
