A Hidden Agenda: John McCain and the International Republican Institute

The senator's ties to the infamous quasi-governmental organization require far greater scrutiny.

Presidential hopeful John McCain is hiding a skeleton in his closet. Not your typical political scandal, Senator McCain's dirty little secret is his longtime involvement with the International Republican Institute (IRI), an organization that operates in 60 countries and is budgeted by millions of US taxpayer dollars each year. The IRI is "officially" a politically independent entity, though in reality it is aligned in most respects with the Republican Party and its ideals. Senator McCain has been chairman of the IRI since 1993 and Lorne Craner, president of the organization, is one of the presumptive Republican candidate's informal foreign policy advisors. If McCain's involvement with the IRI does not worry Latin America yet, it certainly will if the policies that have had such a destructive influence in the past are backed by the power of the presidency. His connection to the IRI could endanger already stressed US-Latin American relations in the event of a McCain victory.

(This is a long article, but worth reading. Here are some snippets....)

***The IRI: A History
In 1982, Ronald Reagan delivered a spirited speech that would lead to the founding of the controversial "research group." In that speech, Reagan said, "Let us now begin a major effort to secure the best — a crusade for freedom that will engage the faith and fortitude of the next generation. For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny." The IRI nostalgically identifies Reagan's words as the "historic speech" in which the vision of the IRI first took shape. Not coincidentally, the years that followed became known as the "lost decade" in Latin America, something many have attributed in part to the Reagan Administration's misguided policies toward the region. During this period, structural adjustment loans plunged regional economies and living standards into a downward spiral from which many countries have yet to recover. The 1980s were plagued by violence; US funded government security forces in Guatemala and El Salvador prosecuted dirty wars which resulted in the disappearance, torture, and massacre of thousands of the countries' own citizens. In 1984, US became embroiled in one of the region's most public and profound political scandals. The Iran Contra Affair, an attempt by the Reagan administration to overthrow Nicaragua's democratically elected Sandinista government by providing funds to the "Contras," a group of anti-communist rebels notorious for their appalling human rights record. These are the dubious auspices under which the International Republican Institute was founded, fitting when considering what the organization was to become - a covert operation to advance right-wing policy under the guise of promoting freedom......

***The IRI: Breaking the Bank
The IRI currently operates with a robust budget of $79 million. Though one of John McCain's goals as chairman of the organization has been to increase private funding for the IRI, the overwhelming majority of funds for the organization comes from two public sources, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Founded in 1983, the NED is an organization that has come under significant scrutiny, much like the IRI. Critics claim that it illegally privatizes US foreign affairs that are supposed to be overseen exclusively by the legislative and executive branches of the government. Additionally, the NED is publicly funded but lacks the transparency of a public organization. The organization allegedly has funded far right parties in Eastern Europe, even working with convicted Nazi collaborators such as Lazslo Pasztor of the Free Congress Foundation. In Nicaragua, the NED spent what equated to more than $20 on each voter, considerably more than the combined expenditures of the candidates in the 1988 US Presidential election. Not only does the NED represent a misuse of taxpayers' dollars, but its interference in the affairs of supposedly sovereign nations is illegal and its lack of transparency should disqualify it from receiving public funds. However, the opposite has happened and NED funding has risen from $59 million in 2005 to $74 million in 2006, in addition to $10 to $15 million in operation-specific funds mandated by Congress......

Big business, lobbyist groups and foundations annually donate $1.4 million to the IRI, a small fraction of the organization's $79 million budget. Such donors to the IRI include UPS, AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Bell-South, Lockheed Martin, Blackwater, Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP. It is worth noting that several of these donors regularly lobby regarding issues under the jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where McCain is the second-highest ranked Republican. Private donations account for only $200,000, significantly less than 1 percent of the IRI's total income......

***The IRI in Haiti
Founded in 1983, the IRI's website reminisces about how it "planted seeds of democracy in Latin America." Several of these so-called "seeds" were sown during John McCain's tenure as the IRI's Chairman. The main IRI project in Haiti involved the overthrow of the country's democratically-elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. A former Roman Catholic priest, Aristide rose to power in the wake of the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship and was immensely popular with the poverty-stricken and oppressed masses of Haiti. Aristide was overthrown in 1991 (supposedly with the financial support from the outgoing elder Bush administration) but returned to power in 1994 with the help of the Clinton administration. Aristide was re-elected by a land-slide vote in 2000 but once again ousted in a 2004 coup.

In the years immediately preceding the most recent overthrow of President Aristide, the IRI sponsored several "political training" clinics for Haitian leaders in the Dominican Republic and Miami. Though the IRI claims to be an unbiased group that provides funding across the political spectrum, recent research has exposed the fact that the IRI leaders specifically chose virulently anti-Aristide Haitians, including members of the business elite and former military and paramilitary personnel to attend these clinics. The IRI also generously funded the anti-Aristide resistance efforts, the main benefactor of its practices being the Haitian opposition group known as the Democratic Convergence, a unified collection of the previously splintered anti-Aristide factions.....

In a 2005 speech, President George W. Bush congratulated the IRI on its accomplishments, saying, "The world is safer and freer and more peaceful because of the International Republican Institute." This statement is far from the truth in the case of the IRI's activities in Haiti. The year following Aristide's overthrow--notably by IRI-supported opposition groups--was one of the most politically tumultuous times in recent Haitian history....

***The IRI in Venezuela
After a failed coup attempt against Venezuela's democratically elected but left-leaning President Hugo Chávez in 2002, the Bush Administration faced accusations of being involved in the attempted overthrow. Despite Washington's energetic denials, it became apparent that the Bush administration had tentatively interfered in Venezuela by providing opposition groups with considerable donations through the IRI. The US government has encouraged sensationalizing the negative aspects of the Venezuelan government and demonized its President more aggressively than might be warranted. Though Chávez has become more confrontational and his popularity has fluctuated since coming to power in 1999, he took office with and maintains considerable public support. Since 1998, the poverty rate has dropped from 54 percent to 38.5 percent (30 percent if food and health subsidies are considered). The people of Venezuela gained free health care and more than half the population was enrolled in free, public education. Yet, on April 11, 2002 Venezuelan military leaders briefly removed Chávez from power and replaced him with a pro-US businessman named Pedro Carmona. Despite the objections of almost all Latin American nations, the US hailed the overthrow of Chávez as a victory for democracy and the Venezuelan people. Before the coup had even been completed, the IRI president at the time, George Folsom, claimed, "The Venezuelan people rose up to defend democracy." However, Chávez was reinstalled just two days later after his supporters took to the streets and Carmona was deposed. Upon his return to power, Chávez condemned the United States for its quick recognition of the new and illegitimate government.

Between 2000 and 2001, the National Endowment for Democracy (one of the main sponsors of the IRI) tripled its funding in Venezuela from $257,831 to $877,435. This allocation was granted to anti-Chávez groups,....

***The IRI and John McCain
The aforementioned events in Haiti and Venezuela are significant, not only because they reflect gross abuses of power and the misuse of taxpayers' dollars, but also because they received McCain's stamp of approval during his tenure as chairman. McCain held that position for nearly a decade, so he cannot claim to have inherited these policies, nor can he argue that he did not know they were taking place. In fact, McCain has boasted that he has been a very involved chairman, informing the press, "All board members are involved in determining where IRI will work and in overseeing those activities." Further evidence of the overlap in IRI policy and McCain's foreign policy is his "rogue state rollback" plan, first mentioned during his 2000 presidential campaign. When questioned about his policy plans regarding "rogue states," McCain responded that he would "arm, train, equip, both from without and from within, forces that would eventually overthrow the governments..." Though McCain goes on to say that he would then install democratically-elected governments, the IRI's tactics have, in the past, been directed towards governments that could already claim that mark of legitimacy. The prospect of IRI-influenced policies like "rogue state rollback" applied by the White House is a frightening one that shows a disregard for true democracy, which can not be achieved by outside intervention as McCain proposes, but only through the desire and efforts of a country's own citizens.....

The IRI is undoubtedly an example of such a "necessary" institution in McCain's mind, but the organization has undermined democracy, setting an example that favors government subversion and illegal interference in the affairs of sovereign nations rather than true promotion of democracy. McCain's IRI does not set a model for democracy, it is a model for bureaucracy and an abuse of power that has no place in the White House....

McCain's IRI and the Presidential Campaign
The most disturbing problem with the credibility of McCain's foreign policy background is that much of his experience in international relations has come from his time with a very compromised IRI. The policies the IRI has pursued, if reinforced by the full might of the White House, could have a devastating impact on an already deeply fractured relationship between the US and Latin America....

***Big Business and Big Bucks for the IRI Chairman
McCain and his presidential campaign have benefited financially from the Arizona senator's connection with the IRI. During his time in the Senate, McCain became a champion of big oil, proposing a tax plan that will give the top five oil companies $3.8 billion a year in tax breaks. One oil company that has benefited from a friendship with McCain is Chevron, which also happens to be a contributor to the IRI. Chevron has its own murky past in Latin America and is currently being sued by Ecuador as part of a $16 billion lawsuit for allegedly exposing tens of thousands of native peoples living in the rainforest to fatal levels of pollution. The IRI's connection to Chevron is almost as suspicious as the one it has to Blackwater, the private security firm that has played a controversial role in the Iraq War, or to Lockheed Martin, the world's number one military contractor.

The overlap in funding between the IRI and the John McCain's political career is worrisome: McCain received $392,000 in donations from IRI donor companies and their employees since January 2005 and his presidential campaign has received $670,000 from institute donors. Senator McCain has over 100 lobbyists working for his campaign and his connection to big business through the IRI contradicts his promise that if elected, "the United States will not bow to special interests seeking to block progress."


***McCain's Future in Latin America
McCain will continue to support policy much like that which he has advocated during his time as the IRI's chairman, a prospect for US-Latin American relations that is about as "safe" as the IRI is "legitimate."

Edited to add link.... http://www.alternet.org/audits/89431/?page=4