Follow the money
From 2008 to 2020, the major Christian conservative associations in the United States spent more than $280 million abroad. At least 90 million of that went to Europe, while the rest went to Africa and Asia. This is according to an analysis by the US investigative website OpenDemocracy, in which authors Claire Provost and Nandini Archer analysed thousands of financial records from 28 mostly Christian extremist and ultra-pro-free market US groups with strong links to the conservative, sometimes far right.
In recent years, thanks in part to these investments, these groups have become increasingly influential in American and international politics. Indeed, the funds have the explicit purpose of supporting both initiatives and other satellite organisations around the world, which in turn work to influence public opinion, laws and national policies to prevent the enforcement of sexual and reproductive rights. But that's not all. Among the aims of all these organisations, the protection of “religious freedom” is of great importance
The list of 28 groups under consideration includes the Acton Institute, the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Federalist Society, the American Center for Law and Justice, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property. The latter is nothing other than the American branch of the Brazilian organisation for the defence of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), which was founded by Plinio Correa de Oliveira and to which the Italian traditionalist Catholic associations Alleanza Cattolica and Fondazione Lepanto refer, as we have seen (see Fascists, spies and gurus. 4. The black network). From the first part of this report, we know that the main objective of this organisation since the mid-1980s has been to defend religious freedom and thus promote an anti-secular vision of society. It is therefore likely that the funds of this society - 3,123,131 dollars between 2008 and 2020 - will flow to European organisations pursuing the same goal. In Italy, the most important organisation of this kind is the Centro Studi Nuove Religioni (CESNUR), which has emerged from a rib of Alleanza Cattolica, with which it has long shared a top figure. On the other hand, De Mattei, the head of the Lepanto Foundation, is a member of the expert panel of the Heritage Foundation and the Acton Institute, both of which are included in the list analysed by Open Democracy.
The Acton Institute calls itself an “Institute for Religion and Liberty” and was founded in 1990 by Robert Sirico and Betsy DeVos. Sirico is an original personality. He is a Catholic priest, former member of David Berg's “Children of God” (notorious for sexual promiscuity and paedophilia scandals), former evangelical Pentecostal pastor, and an advocate of conservative anarcho-capitalism. he is now well established in the Vatican and in 2004, he was even one of the editors of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the very doctrine that Sirico, a rampant anarcho-cpitalist, has fought against all his life. He was arrested in 1976 for auctioning young naked male slaves. The charge of reduction to involuntary servitude fell a few days later, when it was discovered that the slaves were all consenting adults who were members of a sadomasochistic organization called Leather Fraternity.
Betsy DeVos is part of the family that owns Amway. Amway is a multinational multi-level marketing (MLM) company that distributes various soaps and detergents and whose executives are militant evangelicals closely aligned with the American economic, political and military right who claim to speak directly with God.
The Acton Institute is headquartered in the same city as Amway, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Institute is a member of the Atlas Network, a large network of Christian pro-free market organisations. The organisation has been described as a “self-replicating think tank that creates think tanks” Major US think tanks that belong to the network include the Cato Institute, the Heartland Institute (which is dedicated to refuting climate change), the Heritage Foundation (which is particularly opposed to abortion and LGBT rights) and the American Legislative Exchange Council.
This flow of money to Europe is driven primarily by two groups that focus their battles on the courts. One is the organisation American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), led by Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The latter boasts Betsy DeVos's family among its founders.
“Although both the ACLJ and the ADF” ”present themselves as simple human rights organisations," says IRPI Media, " their aim is actually much more political: they protect conservative positions similar to the ultra-Catholic world. The ability to intervene in European and international courts is in reality a tool for lobbying and influencing national regulations.”
Both groups are part of Agenda Europe, an informal network of associations that came together in January 2013 with the aim of building a Christian-inspired European think tank and supporting the “pro-life” movement in Europe. This was reported by the EPF in a report summarising documents from this network, which were kept secret until 2017 and published following a leak from a still anonymous source.
It is interesting to note that while the foundations listed are an expression of the neo-conservative world of the USA, Agenda Europe's donors include Alexey Komov, a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is supported by the far-right Russian multimillionaire and oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who was also officially responsible for the foundation's international projects. Malofeev is the chairman of the board of directors of Tsargrad (Imperial City), a platform used by such people as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and far-right political analyst Aleksandr Dugin. Since 2014, Malofeev and his companies are designated to the lists of individuals sanctioned during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine maintained by the European Union, United States, and Canada. In September 2019, the Bulgarian government banned him from entering the country for ten years over an alleged spying conspiracy aimed at turning the country away from its pro-Western orientation and further toward Moscow.
On the visible level, there is currently probably a rift between CESNUR and other groups, that nonetheless come from the same root of TFP, about Russia. CESNUR director Introvigne told the Catholic magazine 'La bussola quotidiana' the following:
The fact that Russia behaves well towards the LGBT lobby and fundamentalist Islam does not justify its aggressive and expansionist policies in the West, and at the same time condemning these expansionist policies does not diminish the appreciation for the fight against the gay lobby and fundamentalist Islam that Russia is waging.
The closeness to the US government repeatedly professed by Introvigne places CESNUR in an undeniable Atlanticism. It is surely to be found in this that the well-known study centre, which always presents itself as the defender of whatever cult is the subject of public disrepute, has not said a word about the pro-Russian cult AlltRa: At the level of deep dynamics, however, the situation is far less clear.
The close links between this world and Russia are obvious. It seems that some American freedom foundations serve as a clearing house for interests that converge despite the diversity of ideologies. It has been said that TFP has taken a strong Atlanticist position, followed by its Italian sisters, such as AC and its offshoot CESNUR. From this position, its representatives allow themselves to accuse the FECRIS of collaborating with Russia simply because a Russian, Alexander Dvorkin, was its vice president for a long time (and there is photographic evidence of my acquaintance with him!). Yet, it seems quite certain that the Polish branch of TFP, the Ordo Iuris Association, has regular dealings with and is funded by the Kremlin.
The World Congress of Families (WCF), in which the Polish section of TFP has participated so often, is a cyclical event that brings together an international group of ultra-conservative organisations opposed to women's rights and LGBT rights. It was initiated in 1995 by a Russian and an American, Anatoly Anatov and Allan Carlson. The World Congress of Families acts as a platform for far-right religious and social groups. On its website, Ordo Iuris presents a list of “partner organisations” including, for example, the 'Catholic Institute for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam)'. C-Fam is headed by Austin Ruse. Thanks to a hacker group called Shaltai Boltai, which hacked the inbox of Alexey Komov and his boss, the oligarch Malofeev, we know that Ruse was on the guest list for the Kremlin congress known as the "Black International”. The following scan comes from the list of 357 guests invited by Russians to the Kremlin congress:
According to the BuzzFeed News portal, the list shows that “Russian nationalists and social conservatives appear to be working together to use connections with ‘pro-family’ organizations in the United States and around the world to promote Russia's geopolitical agenda.
The Guardian writes that Austin Ruse has praised Malofeev for “working to bring Russian Orthodox and US Christianity closer together”. Despite the stance of some organizations close to parts of the US government, the positions in the culture war become more nuanced when the goals coincide.
Religious right and the defense of cults
This whole world of Christian fundamentalists and enemies of sexual freedoms and self-determination is strangely interested in the defence of cults that are furthest removed from Christian orthodoxy. To give an example, the Conservative Summit 2024 held in Bratislava, Slovakia, featured OndřejDostàl among the speakers. He is a a Czech politician but also a representative of the Creative Society, a project of the AllatRa cult. Ján Figeľ is a Slovakian politician with links to CitizenGo, a Spanish fundamentalist association, which is particularly committed to the defence of religious freedom and is close to both Scientology and the Unification Church. He is a key figure of Agenda Europe.
In 2022, he participated in the symposium "Religious Freedom: A Human Right Under Attack," co-organized by Figeľ's Tunega, Púčik and Tesár Foundation with the Universasl Peace federation (Unification Church). Aaron Rhodes (Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe) was among the speakers. Aaron Rhodes served as Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) that is said to be infiltrated by Scientology. Rhodes is also a member of the Common Sense Society, an organisation full of pro-Russians.
In 2023, Ján Figeľ together with Willy Fautré (HRWF), Massimo Introvigne (CESNUR) and Aaron Rhodes (Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe), signed a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Kishida in defence of the Unification Church. A month earlier, together with Massimo Introvigne, he had already spoken out in favour of this issue at the International Summit for Religious Freedom (as stated on the church's own website).
The Citizens Commission for Human Rights (CCHR), a well-known Scientology front organisation, funded Paul Weyrich's American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), according to a letter from CCHR board member Carol Steinke.
A branch of Paul Weyrich's American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) also honoured the wife of Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church, Hak Ja Han Moon. The award was presented by Robin Brunelli, president of the National Foundation for Women Legislators and wife of Sam Brunelli, ALEC director and long-time CNP member. In an AFN radio interview by Kelleigh Nelson with Chey Simonton, the far-reaching connections between the Council for National Policy (CNP) and the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church were discussed at length.
As we have seen in part four of this report, Moon's Unification Church helped the Reagan administration fund the Nicaraguan Contras as part of the secret plan for which former USCIRF Chairman Abrams was convicted.
In 2020, Figel' founded the Clementy Group LTD. It is based in London and its sole purpose is to fund the Clementy Foundation. Their mission? "Youth mindset enhancement", "Forstering a sustainable peace in Europe" and "Nature preservation". Here are the members of the board besides Figel':
Pierre Louvrier. Belgian. Investigations by journalists revealed that he was involved in business with the Russian oligarch Malofeev.
Sigmar Gabriel. German. Former Vice-Chancellor of Germany, former SPD Minister for Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs. He is considered a Gazprom lobby.
Mick Mulvaney. US Citizen. Former director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump administration, then Trump's Chief of Staff. He was involved in the Trump-Ukranian scandal, cospirationist reguarding COVID.
Domenico Giani. Italian. Ex Vatican's longtime security chief and Pope Francis' with a past for the Italian secret services. He resigned in 2019 over leaks related to an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing in the Vatican.
Nothing is known about the LTD's economic activities, nor how they intend to implement the "youth mindset"and "nature preservation".
At the 2014 summit of Agenda Europe, Gudrun Kugler and Paul Coleman of Alliance Defending Freedom International emphasised the need for network organisations to accredit themselves with all relevant institutions and to keep each other informed about what is happening at the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OECD) and the European Court of Human Rights.
All of this sounds very familiar to those involved in the fight against totalitarian cults. Those who, like the author, are involved in combating organisations that defend totalitarian cults on the international stage, observe the coordinated lobbying of associations “in defence of religious freedom” at the OSCE and the Council of Europe. This coordination “strangely” includes “study centres", which should be theoretically avalutative and scientifically aseptic, and even the Church of Scientology.
The photo below (Fig. 72) was taken in October 2023 at a meeting of the OSCE Human Rights Office in Warsaw and shows a briefing attended by high-ranking representatives of Scientology and the directors of two of the best-known European associations for the defence of religious freedom, namely the Belgian organisation Human Rights Without Frontiesr (HRWF) and the French Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience (CAP LC). This is roughly the same line-up that took part in a meeting on religious freedom at the European Parliament in Brussels about a month later (see Fig. 22).
Lee Fang writes that the “libertarian” network that funds European organisations is itself subsidised by the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy. The latter is an essential arm of American soft power. It is therefore “a silent extension of US foreign policy”
The prototype of all these associations is the John Birch Society, which was already mentioned in the fourth part of this dossier. It was the channel that made it possible to avoid the direct financing of “dirty” operations by the secret service to the Aginter press. It is likely that the organisations linked to Atlas and the DeVos family perform the same functions in relation to spiritual groups, study centres and non-governmental organisations involved in the defence of “religious freedom", aimed at reorienting public opinion by creating a benevolent view of minority cults and lobbying powerfully in supranational contexts to prevent the law of modern secular states from interfering with the actions of these cults.
The Vicar Regent of Alleanza Cattolica himself, Introvigne, wrote in his book “Una battaglia nella notte” (2008) about the TFP that the American TFP maintains close relations with the world of conservative foundations in the USA (page 210).
To understand that there is more than just mutual appreciation between conservative foundations and think tanks and organizations of cults and their apologists, one only has to think of the network at the centre of which was the late Paul Weyrich. The latter, an Austrian-born traditionalist Catholic, founded both the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation, of which he was president, the International Policy Forum (IPF) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), described as “the largest bipartisan organization of legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism”. Above all, however, Weyrich was one of the founders and one of the most important members of the Council for National Policy (CNP). This is a secret organisation described by the New York Times as “a little-known club of a few hundred of the country's most influential conservatives” who meet three times a year behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference. Weyrich and other CNP members actively collaborated with Plinio de Oliveira's Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). It was at the suggestion of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and inspired by the example of the TFP, that Paul Weyrich founded the International Policy Forum (IPF). This alliance of conservative associations was conceived by Paul Weyrich and chaired by Morton Blackwell. “The construction of a transnational New Right,” writes Bemjamin A. Cowan, "took place through organizations specifically created for this purpose. [...] The International Policy Forum (IPF) was one such organization, perhaps the paradigmatic example. [...)].
Representatives of TFP were pioneers in networking with similar organisations in Northern America, a collaboration that laid the foundations for the establishment of a transnational New Right.
To summarise, there is an intricate international network, including US government commissions, controversial cults and conservative think tanks, which appears to work in synergy and whose members appear to support each other, albeit discreetly and behind the useful fig leaf of “religious freedom.
Geopolitics consists of three forms of action: a) a hard and visible action, which consists of political or economic antagonism up to and including war; b) a hard but less visible action, because it is carried out in secret or clandestinely, and finally c) a ‘soft’ and invisible action, which consists of disinformation and the orientation of public opinion. The first is carried out by politicians, the second by the intelligence services and the third by ‘agents of influence’, i.e. people who produce cultural products to disseminate ideas that are in line with a particular geopolitical project. This is a form of unconventional warfare known as soft power, which also includes the issue of religion. Organisations defending "religious freedom" play an important role in this.
Fascists, spies and gurus. 2. Mind Games
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