A Short History of Reported CIA Fronts

A Short History of Reported CIA Fronts
By Sherman H. Skolnick

I used to teach a course on how to investigate and research Foundation Tax Returns, originally called IRS form 990-A, and then form 990-AR, the only tax return, by the way, that is available as a public document. Donors Forum, with office/libraries in many big cities, have on hand for copying, copies of Foundation Tax Returns in that district of the office, sometimes other districts, of their public tax returns as a tax-exempt entity. In a scandal that was started by Bobby Kennedy in the Spring, of 1967, various foundations around the U.S. were identified as part of a complicated three-level device for disguising CIA funding of domestic operations: [1] conduits [2] pass-throughs and [3] fronts [a technical term]. A summary of the scandal can be seen in the numerous pages of the New York Times "Index" for 1967, a summary of stories in that newspaper, under the heading, Central Intelligence Agency. Before they could accomplish a cover up, I and my associates quickly looked up the 990-A tax returns of the CIA foundations on the three technical levels mentioned. We developed expertise in showing over and above the mass media published reports, where the money came from and was distributed. Among our disclosures, which did not endear us to fellow peaceniks who heckled me as a trouble-maker: 1. Most liberal groups with an office and some funds for a regular staff, got their funding through the three levels, from CIA, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which went out of business in 1967 and was completely taken over by espionage groups, since then called the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, and such. If you carefully examine the board of overseers of what amateurs continue wrongly call the "American Civil Liberties Union", you will see the espionage types that run the operations throughout the U.S. They are an early-warning system, for example, of flare-ups against the government in the ghettos of big cities.

2. The Nation Magazine, which according to some, does some good, fails and neglects to mention DOMESTIC operations of CIA. A simple answer: their funding comes from, among others, a CIA-front, called the J.M. Kaplan Fund of New York, and a group of CIA foundations grouped under the umbrella of the CIA-funded Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU and similar names. Moreover, the Nation Magazine published commentaries making vile statements against Oliver Stone, that JFK was, in fact, the Nation says, killed by a lone assassin and that the movie "JFK" is a phantasy and a "fraud". Thus whitewashing the Dallas murder for what some claim was a CIA-instigated plot against JFK.

3. The Nation Magazine did finally admit several years ago that what they erroneously persist in calling the "AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION" [which actually was taken over by the CIA-foundations in 1967] was very close to FBI dictator/boss J. Edgar Hoover by way of investigating and combatting so-called "Reds" in America.

THIS NEXT ITEM IS SURELY GOING TO OUTRAGE SOME WHO ARE NAIVE AND POORLY INFORMED:

4. Pacifica Radio, which like the Nation Magazine, has done SOME good, has been reportedly a CIA-Foundation operation, New York, Houston, and the Bay area, California. During the anti-war period, some rednecks, believing that Pacifica-Houston, was a genuine "liberal" group, purportedly bombed the station there. A simple, though certainly not complete answer, is that the stations were used as provocateur operations, to lure out more independent-minded political activists who are and were naive. For example, however, Pacifica, Berkeley, went almost into orbit when Dennis Bernstein of that station, without realizing I am an independent, was unable to stop me from blurting out condemnation of the oil industry and George Bush. Some of his confidants informed me he almost got run over by the station management for letting a "loud mouth" like me on the air. By the way, I call National Public Radio, NPR, as NATIONAL PETROLEUM RADIO, since they try to keep oil scandals OFF the air. A simple, though certainly not complete answer: for some years Sharon Percy ROCKEFELLER, WIFE OF U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller 4th, headed NPR. [She now heads a PBS operation in D.C. instrumental in the Jim Lehrer News Hour on so-called Public TV.] No one in NPR, PBS, or for that matter, in the commercial oil-soaked mass media, would dare mention that the family of Sharon Percy Rockefeller is reportedly in business withthe CIA-created purported "terrorist" Osama bin Laden. Their joint funds are reportedly kept in the Harris Bank in Chicago, under many concealed accounts. Harris Bank is a unit of the whiskey-soaked Bronfman family, owners jointly with U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Ill., [R., Ill.] of the Bank of Montreal [Canada]. Bill Clinton said he would like to "freeze" bin Laden's huge funds but cannot "find" them. Really?

Sidebar note: son of Pacific Foundation founder was one of three activists murdered and buried in Mississippi in an outrageous situation about 1963. [I believe the name was Schwerner.]

Recently, Pacifica Radio in California has fought their part-time staff who apparently wanted a union contract arrangement. Pacifica's New York operation, WBAI, years ago allowed me occasionally on the air until I begin mentioning the CIA-paid and funded provocateurs. It was too close to home for them.

BOTTOM LINE: the CIA-linked foundations seem to know who the real independents are in the U.S. In years past, when I and associates of mine showed up at public meetings of the Chicago office of the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, when I asked a specific question mentioning their funding, guess what happened? Their then district director abruptly adjourned the meeting which never resumed. They knew we were CIA-foundation experts, I having taught courses on the same at a radio broadcast school, at student seminars at some Universities, such as at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus.

What would surely floor some simple-minded folks, is that many of the better-funded so-called "liberal" publications, such as IN THESE TIMES [headquartered in Chicago] reportedly receive heavy funding from foundations that they would have to be awfully stupid not to know were either conduits or pass-throughs[technical foundation terms] for the American CIA. Because of such funding that publication some years ago made a complete U-turn regarding the October Surprise matter, that George Herbert Walker Bush helped work a treasonous deal in 1980, to get the Iranians to delay the release of the 52 U.S. hostages, enabling the Reagan/Bush ticket to wreck Jimmy Carter's hope for re-election. Not being able to solve the mess, Carter was perceived as a wimp. First supporting the idea that something bad happened, IN THESE TIMES reportedly because of their funders, reversed themselves and apparently condemned some of the more independent-minded whistle blowers. Just another story suppressed by the liars and whores of the press.

I have been a court reformer since 1958. Since 1963, founder/chairman, Citizen's Committee to Clean Up ther Courts. Since 1991, producer, now moderator/producer of the weekly public access Cable TV Program "Broadsides" in Chicago, reaching some 400,000 viewers each Monday evening, 9 p.m., Channel 21 Cable in Chicago. Office, 8 a.m. to midnight, 7 days, (773) 375-5741. Recorded phone message: (773) 731-1100.  Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts, Sherman H. Skolnick, chairman, 9800 So. Oglesby Ave., Chicago IL 60617-4870. E-MAIL: skolnick@ameritech.net website: www.skolnicksreport.com NOTICE THAT THERE IS AN s AFTER skolnick.